The REAL Deal

Folsom Xterra REAL :

was my first "REAL" triathlon race of the season for me.  I was super excited to jump back in and have a refresher for my half ironman next weekend (i'm sooo not ready for, oh well good training right?)  We have been going up to folsom the last three years and i can't tell you how beautiful it is there this time of the year!  It was such a nice weekend to head out of town and enjoy some time with my hubby.  Between racing, training, work, etc.. life gets busy and its nice to step away from the norm every once in awhile (eventhough it was for a race : )  I was also super excited to ride my new 29 on some fast singletrack...

Swim time:

Ok, so 58 degrees was pretty cold, i got in the water about 20 minutes before the race to really warm up ....  the gun went off and the mass of people went flopping in the water.... i tried to swim along someone about the same speed, so i could watch them instead of spotting the buoy in the sun... people were either too fast or too slow... so i picked out a tree in the water and aimed for that... i found myself in a mist of really tall guys, i got kicked in the stomach by a zig zagging man and then another guy came across and slapped me in the face and hit my goggles off...  i guess you have to expect that when there is one mass start of 200+ racers...

After swimming i was ready to get on my new rocket...  having a new bike with the 29 wheels was awesome... floating through the singletrack and enjoying the beautiful scenery was my type of race : ) my thumbs were still frozen so i had to shift with the palm of my hand, i had some practice from last years folsom xterra so i was expecting it to happen again.....  on the first lap i was behind a couple of racers that were not comfortable with the technical sections so it slowed me down a little..  also my back skewer opened so i had to stop and fix it...  i jumped back on my bike and was instantly enjoying the speed again.

When transitioning to the run i heard slater yelling "good job monique" and all i was thinking was dang he is already done, and i was curious to see how he did!  i grabbed my race belt, gu and visor and took off on the run... i enjoyed the awesome run, i was hopping back and forth with the same guy as on the bike, it always nice to have someone to suffer with...  i just kept thinking fast turnover...  i made it up the hills i walked last year so i was super stoked!  Towards the end of the run slater was stretching in the grass waiting to catch some snaps of me...

Results:

The race was over and i was almost sad how fast it went by... i finished 5th in my AG and was stoked to collect some series points!  

I was super excited to see Jamie Whitmore passing out the awards, she is a fighter and i pray that she can race again soon!  slater had an awesome race and finished 7th overall!  i'm so proud...we had a wonderful weekend and i can't wait till next year to experience folsom all over again!

My Quest for the Vision

Ok, so I was all excited to have this vision but all i saw was some red dots on the way up west horse thief ! HA

I decided not to use my music the first half of the race so i had to entertain myself, to keep me moving forward..

song's/moto's that stuck from blackstar to motorway:

"keep on keep on keep on moving and dancing all through the night"

to the rock, to the rock, to the rock

to the bush, to the bush, to the bush, anything that i could pick out ....  

remembered slaters encouraging words while pushing the climbs:

i have done key training sessions for this

i know how to keep up on my nutrition

i knew how hard he was pushing, so i could push hard also

Falls:

fell a couple of times in the snow, more like ice

rolled down a boulder on a sharp left turn on lower holy jim...

fell in the stream also at the bottom of holy jim, left glove and shorts drenched!

15 bruises mostly on right calf (mainly from the hike o'bike section) 

5 bruises on left leg/hip

Started music beginning of Maple Springs, had new GOOD music from "bro in' law"!

Nutrition:

2 amino vitals

Apple (20 minutes from race start)

4 Gu's

1 bottle virtargo

2 bottles virtargo & perpetum mixed

3 bottles water

1 bottle creamy chicken broth HIT the SPOT

1 bag on honey stinger fruit punch chews

1 bag powerbar lemon chews

1 very large homemade rice krispie treat YUM

2 banana halves

Half a bag of ritz crackers with cheese

2 bites of orange

6 electrolite pills

9 advils

Pocket Placement:  

Left - virtargo/perpetum mix (enough for two water bottles), sun glasses

Middle - water bottle

Right - rice krispie treat, ipod

Bento Box for the rest of my fuel!

made cutoff by 15 minutes, super stoked, smiled the whole way down upper/lower holy jim!

right knee killed the whole day, hopefully i didn't do any permanent damage

the walker family and jeff smith cheering section on maple was instant energy boost...

mandy near the top of maple (thanks for the broth, yummy)

marius and mandy waiting for me at bottom of trabucco and we all rode together to the finish!

saw dave ruby at top of west horse thief with arm in a sling

took heather's advice and did NOT eat a cheeseburger : )

gave out advice.... lots of "good jobs" and "keep on moving" super stoked to motivate others along the way!

ended up with poison oak: neck, wrist, and both legs

I had such a fun time at the VQ, can't wait to get on my bike again.. well maybe i can wait a little while (not sure if i can sit on my seat)

6 hr Dirty Duathlon, bootleg

6 Hours of Bootleg was my first attempt at a solo race!  The course consisted of trail running and mountain biking on two different run courses, and two different bike courses.  There was a total of 4 loops, all were super fun!  This was a test to see if i can last for six hours and a good build for time in VQ!  

The first bike loop i ate it really hard on the worst spot of the course.. my bar ends hit the side of the rock and i flipped so fast head over heels that i didn't realize what happened till a couple seconds after slamming on the rock.... i new i had to just keep moving so the pain wouldn't set in... the other loops were very uneventful.. except i got a group of us off course on part of the run loop, don't follow me : )

slater was spectating and i think this was the second race ever that i did and he did not.. so he was good company on some of the bike loops!  

mandy and tiffany did a team and they rocked it doing more laps then anybody which totaled out to be 17 loops... right arm girls!!

marius also joined in on the fun and had a great time!

the weather was perfect and afterwards we were all pumped to ride Blue Diamond the next day!

it was a great weekend and i can't wait to venture out there again soon!

Training Totals

Below is my training log for the last 32 days...  Getting ready for VQ and looking to do a couple more rides along the course the next two weeks...  Also going to try to get a lot more swimming in for my Half Ironman April 4th.... ocean swims are key for me when training for a triathlon...

Goals ....

Swim at least three times a week

Keep up on my running for Half Ironman ~ at least 13 miles per week

At least one bike ride a week over 50miles

Half Marathon

Results: 

Half Marathon

Runner Details	Race Results	Split Times
Bib: 1117 Name: Monique Fletcher Gender: F Age: 30 Hometown: Huntington Beach, CA	Overall: 3949 out of 10788 Women: 1684 out of 6532 F 30-34: 293 out of 1006 Age/Grade: 51.99% Place: 4085 Finish: 2:06:40 Pace: 9:40 Tag Time: 2:06:04	3 Mile: 29:32 Pace: 9:51 : Pace: 8.2 Mile: 1:19:31 Pace: 9:42

12 Hours of Temecula

The 12 Hour race course could not have been any better!!!

Racing: The Good!

It consisted of lots of single track that swooped, twisted and turned for the pleasure of every racer!  I was on a team that consisted of four girls... Melissa, Bernice, Tiffany and Me.  What a fun and tough group of gals!

Racing: The Bad!

Our teammate Melissa had a bad crash on her first lap : ( 

She was about thirty minutes into her lap and she flew over her handle bars on a technical decent with her bike fly off the side of the hill....  We were all worried when we heard from a friend that they were bringing in Melissa on the quad.  

RACING: The Results!

We were all very glad to find out that Melissa was Ok... after complaining of arm/shoulder/back pain she was let out of the hospital with nothing more than some scrapes and bruises!  And our team received a medal for third place!  Good job ladies!

Looking forward to the next race with this awesome group of girls.

Rio Bravo

Rio Bravo Rumble consists of a 10k trail run and a 16 mile mountain bike ride..... the course is always super fun and i was ready to race...

(loading up on goods before the race)

Usually i feel like crap during the run, but this year i felt strong the whole way!  Super stoked!

But i did walk some of the killer hills.  i was proud to finish my run with a time of 56:34...

next was the bike and i was ready to roll...  being able to actually pass people on the bike was super exciting for me this year... usually i'm being passed like i'm standing still... but this year was different...  my music was pumping and i just kept saying to myself "suck it up buttercup" (my motto for this year) and i was just trying my hardest to push through the super steep quick hills and not get off my bike...  before i knew it i was done pushing through the last hill, and i was super stoked that i did not walk any..... : )  bike lap time 1:40... total time 2:36 with a second place finish in the 21 to 34 womens age group...

(2nd lap on the bike)

during the race slate got lost on the course and ended finishing in 2nd overall... (time penalty because he was the only that confessed that he got lost) sucks to be honest : )  hehehe

but he did receive a letter from the race director stating that 20 other people also got lost so hopefully next year the course will be marked better... damn cows (reason for not being able to post stakes in the ground)....

after the ride we headed out to our local hills where we use to ride.... super fun day in bako...!