Parlez-vous français?

Bonjour everyone! Just wanted to check in for a quick update. Tomorrow I leave for an ITU draft-legal race in Coteau-du-Lac, Canada (near Montreal). I'm guessing I will be headed to French Canada... the website for the race is mostly in French, the people at the motel I'm staying at speak French... I think I need to learn some French!

This is a big weekend for triathlon in North America as the third leg of the Dextro Energy Triathlon World Championship will be held on Sunday in Washington D.C. If there's nothing good on tv, you're bored, or you're interested in seeing what ITU-style racing (most of my races) is all about, you should tune in for the live internet broadcast of this race which can be found at: www.triathlon.org/tv.

Speaking of Sunday, since I'll be traveling most of the day and probably won't make it to a computer in time, I'd like to wish an early Happy Father's Day to two of my biggest supporters - my dad and grandpa. I love you guys! :)

Update to come later!

Cap Tex Tri - Austin ITU Continental Cup Race Report

Mellow Johnny's -Lance Armstrong's bike shop in Austin!






This past Monday (Memorial Day) I competed in the Cap Tex Tri in Austin, Texas (which I’m going to coin as the “Boulder of the south” – so many active people there). I’ve never raced on a Monday before and I usually don’t train that much on Monday either because it’s always my recovery day, so I was very interested to see how this race would go…

Swim: We started the race with a deep water swim start, not one that I get to do too often. Basically what happens is that you get to pick a spot in the water based on your starting number, a rope is held in front of you as you tread water and you duck under it and take off when the horn sounds. For the first part of the swim I just hammered to try to get into a group. This worked well and for the first half of the swim as I had a draft to swim into. Eventually, I wasn’t able to hold the pace of the girls in front of me, but I still managed a low 19 swim, a huge improvement for me from last year! I ended up exiting the water right behind Kate Mcllroy from New Zealand, the eventual winner of the race.

Bike: Just like last week, the larger pack was in front of me. I traded off pulls with Lauren Goldstein-Kral (right behind me in the swim) for the first 2 laps and we were able to bridge up to Taylor Cooke who was a little ways up the road. By the start of the third lap, Annie Warner and Jocelyn Petrella had caught our group of 3 so we were now up to a pack of 5. Once Annie and Jocelyn caught us, the pace of our pack quickened and our group worked well together for the remaining two laps of the bike.

Run: The best way for me to describe the run course to you would be that it was a 1/4 mile steeplechase and 6 mile run. The run out of transition included hopping up 3 large stairs and I was quickly reminded why I’d avoided hurdles my entire life/track career and just stuck to running… once I got out to the road, I was able to push the pace for the first mile and put a gap in between myself and the other girls who had been in the bike pack. The heat and humidity were definitely factors on the run and I felt like mentally I was trying to sprint as fast as I could to each aid station where I would be able to grab a towel that had been soaked in ice water (total lifesavers!) and some sports drink as well to get some relief from the heat. As I got to the final lap of the run, I did a time check and saw that the girl in front of me had about a minute gap on me and I was at least 2 minutes ahead of my next competitor so I just focused on good form for the final section of the run. I finished up with a 36:19, 3rd fastest run of the day and a 9th overall finish!!

Right at the finish, I was greeted by a USADA (US Anti Doping Agency) rep. Turns out that the 9th place finisher had been selected for drug testing. At that point, I had an hour to provide a sample for them and I used every last minute of it drinking 3 bottles of water and 2 bottles of Gatorade. Unfortunately in this day and age, random drug testing is a necessary evil of sport but I was more than happy to comply – anything to keep our sport clean! :)

Many thanks to my Austin homestay, Mike and Lindsay Rosenthal and kids (even though they'll probably never read this)! Thanks for drawing me maps to everywhere in Austin, feeding me, and making me feel at home! :)

I’ve traveled and raced quite a bit this past month and now I get a little bit of a break to get a good block of training in and rehab a couple minor injuries. Next up for me is the Coteau du Lac, Canada ITU race in a couple of weeks.

Happy summer everyone!
AHahn

OK in OK - The Oklahoma "Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plains" Race Report

Heading out on the bike

Last lap of the run - notice all the dirt on my face from the river! Yuck!


Pre-race: It was a 1pm start for the pro women so I was able to sleep in until 9am the day of the race. Those of you who have ever seen me before 9am know that later in the day race starts are definitely a good thing for me!

Swim: We had a pontoon dive start into the crystal clear waters *sarcasm* of the Oklahoma River. I was able to get off to a pretty good start and after jockeying around for position for the first 75 meters or so was able to find some open space to swim in before I rounded the first buoy. As the swim progressed, I pretty much ended up in no man’s land with a group directly in front of me and a group a little bit behind me. I entered the first transition out of the swim with the closest women 22 seconds in front of me and a minute and a half behind me.

Bike: Seeing that I was completely by myself and knowing that a large group was behind me, I decided not to push the pace on the first lap and hydrate as much as possible while I waited for the pack to catch me. They caught me right after the turn to start the second lap and I picked up the pace a little bit to hop on the back of the pack. Because of the intense winds, there was really no set rotation within the pack and a lot of the girls (myself included) sat near the back for a lot of the ride, took pulls for a couple seconds, settled back in the middle of the group and sprinted up to the front for every turn around (which came about every 3 miles). Unfortunately for me, I got caught in the middle of the pack at the turn around with 1.5 laps to go and the girl in front of me overshot the turn and braked (a big no no in draft legal racing). I was forced to brake as well not to crash into her and lost all momentum as the rest of the group surged out of the turn. I tried to sprint to catch back up, but wasn’t able to do so. From that point, I decided I could either push it and have my legs blow up on the run or go as fast as I possibly could while keeping a high cadence. I went for plan b and came into transition about a minute and a half down on the pack that I rode with for most of the bike.

Run: From the time I stepped off the bike, my plan was to hammer, hammer, hammer! I was basically sprinting the first lap, just to see how close I could come to the girls that had over a minute lead on me and then I settled in once I had perspective on who I would be able to chase down. The run was an out-and-back course, similar to the bike, which was very helpful from a mental perspective in that I was able to see my competitors about every 6 minutes or so and kind of gauge how much time I’d gained/lost per ½ lap. I was able to chase down about 12 girls, and ended up with the 5th fastest run of the day and a 14th overall finish.

I'd like to send a huge THANK YOU out to Amanda Jordan, my former teammate and friend from FSU for being my homestay for the weekend! Amanda devoted much of her weekend to showing me around Oklahoma City, driving me to the pre-race meeting, grocery store, ice cream shop, and being cheerleader/photographer for the race. Thanks so much Amanda - you and Pete were great hosts! :)

But although I had a big race this weekend, what I'll probably look back and remember about this weekend for years to come is how I was able to pull off flying to Oklahoma City and back without a photo I.D. to show in security.... whoops! Good thing I was able to locate it when I returned back home to Boulder because I fly out for another race on Saturday! I race again on Memorial Day in Austin, Texas so another update will be coming soon-ish!

-AHahn

St. Anthony's

Swim – The water was so choppy that the pros were the only division of athletes allowed to complete the swim portion of the race. For everyone else, the race was turned into a time-trial start duathlon (bike/run only). I got off to a great start in the swim and was working well with a handful of ladies about halfway through when I turned to breathe and ended up basically drinking a wave. I tried to continue swimming but was choking so I had to stop, tread water, and clear my airways before I could continue on with the remainder of the swim. I’m not sure exactly how much time I lost when I stopped, but my swim ended up being about 3 minutes slower than usual. Yikes!

Bike – For the first part of the bike I felt drained (most likely from all the coughing) and struggled to find my racing legs. However, at about mile 15 I suddenly caught a second wind and was able to increase both my cadence and speed for the remaining 10 miles or so and do some damage control on my bike split.

Run – For the run, my aim was to stay as relaxed as possible, build the first 5k, and negative split the last 2 miles. While I feel I was a little bit too conservative for the first half, I was happy with my overall effort for the 10k and excited that I was able to run my last mile in 5:42 after over 2 hours of racing. If nothing else, I have that one positive to take away from this race.

Although this is not the result I’d hoped for after so many hours of training, I am excited just to be racing again and to be injury-free. In 2 weeks time I will be competing at the PATCO PanAm Champs in Oklahoma City so be on the lookout for me there.

Countdown to Florida!

This is what I'm seeing right now...I have a feeling the scenery will be a bit different when I hop off the plane in Florida in a couple of days. The start to my 2009 racing season can't come soon enough!

The Ace of Base

If you read my last post, most of you probably realize that I definitely jinxed myself by commenting on the weather. 15 inches of snow and a week full of treadmill runs/trainer rides later, I am happy to report that I am still alive and well. Although at first I was not a happy camper, I always try to look for the positive in everything and here's what I came up with. Snow means: a free car wash, pretty scenery, an opportunity for me to make snow angels after my long run in the snow plowed roads, and a chance to get in an extra strength workout while scraping snow off my car and shoveling a path out my doorway. Yea!

This past week marked the end of my 3 month long base training phase (hence the title of this post) which means that the high-intensity workouts will slowly start to creep into my training and increase throughout the season. In a month from now, I will be in Florida recovering from my first race of the year - time is flying!

Until then,
AHahn

March Madness: The Final Four!

Wendy, Angelina, Max the dog, and I after a long run

Wendy and I at Garden of the Gods





Don’t be fooled by the title of this post... I’m not going to waste your time by telling you how poorly my basketball bracket is doing right now or lament over the fact that the team I picked to win it all barely escaped in the first round of the tourney. Rather, I intend to give you an update on recent happenings in the life of Amanda Hahn.

1) Following an off-season from racing that has spanned approximately half a year, I will finally toe the starting line next month for my first race of the season: St. Anthony’s! St. Anthony’s is an Olympic distance race (non-drafting) that takes place in St. Pete, Florida at the end of April. Besides a sprint triathlon that takes place each year in Gainesville, this is about as close as it gets to me having a “hometown race.” I have competed in St. Anthony’s 5 times to date (it was my 1st pro race) and the atmosphere, fast course, and great competition make it one of my favorites!

2) It has only snowed two days this entire winter since I’ve returned to Boulder! I am in complete amazement and it seems I am not alone. Everyone I talk to says we’re due for a blizzard sometime before the end of April, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this amazing weather continues because we all know my tolerance of trainers/treadmills... somewhere around zero.


3) It had been three months since I’d seen my best friend from high school, Wendy, and she decided to spend the first part of her spring break to come visit me in Boulder. Luckily, she was a good sport about being left for three to four hours at a time while I did my longer bike/run workouts. On my recovery days, I had a little more time to show her around the area, and we even had the opportunity to drive down to Colorado Springs for the day. She was able to see The Garden of the Gods (I showed her the route for my bike/run bricks from this summer), Downtown Manitou Springs, and a somewhat close view of Pikes Peak (we missed the last train that headed up to the top of the peak). It’s always good to see a familiar face and catch up with friends I rarely get to see anymore.



4) Four months! After countless years of track workouts, I took a four month hiatus from the track following the end of my racing season last year. Of course I wasn’t exempt from all running workouts in general, just ones that involved running in circles. I must confess that when I finally stepped back on the track last week, I was a bit nervous/excited. The workout went better than expected and I am happy to say I am back on track! There's something about that oval that brings a curve to my face... :)

There you have it: the final four. Consider yourself in the loop!