Less than 3 weeks until I'm on a plane from CVG to IAH to CUN!!
I think it's a bit early to start having pre-race freakout nightmares, buuuut last night I dreamed that I forgot to go to the expo and get my pre-race packet while we were in Cozumel, so race morning they would not let me race. I was devastated.
That's not likely to happen (but neither is missing the start of a race, and I managed to do that once) but I have a feeling that this is the first of many panic-stricken moments.
The good news is that I'm decently close to a major race, with NO major injuries!! My foot is almost back to 100%. I have a tight calf muscle and I am being very nice to it. Stretch, foam roll, ice, heat, the stick, compression socks, an extra day of biking as opposed to running. It seems responsive. I'm probably a little TOO paranoid about it, but I had a stress fracture that started the same way, and I have an Ironman in 24 days, so paranoia it is. Still going for 18 miles on it this weekend if it keeps on feeling better.
I'm still tired. Taper time is soon. I'm looking at the taper part of my training plan and it still looks hard. Same volume, just shorter long ride and run. First of 3 taper weeks is still a 13 hour week. My plan is to do that week, and if I'm still straight up worn out, Imma slack hardcore for the last two weeks of training. I respond well to rest - some of my best races have been run in the immediate aftermath of healing an injury, where I didn't run or barely ran for a week or two prior. I love me some rest.
Let the pre-race panic begin.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Layers
29 days. Out of the 30's. Eep!!
Lots of things have layers. Lasagna has layers. Fancy shots have layers. (Fun fact about me: I went to bartending school. I learned how to make layered shots.) Onions have layers. So do parfaits. Yes, that is a Shrek reference.
I'm gonna be lazy and not find and post a picture of Shrek and Donkey here.
Workouts also have layers, particularly when you are a triathlete. Brick workouts - one sport followed immediately after by another sport - are a pretty normal part of triathlon. But since triathletes are all about taking the crazy to new levels, there is, apparently, this thing that people do sometimes when training for an Ironman. It's called a triple brick. Bike/run/bike/run/bike/run.
A somewhat standard IM training triple brick is 40k/10k x3. I would love to do that, except the weather has gotten crappy and the amount of daylight and warmth available is shrinking. I did some research and discovered that triple brick lengths can and do vary, and that more non-competitive IMers (like me) decided that distance was not worth the recovery time.
There was not a triple in my training plan, btw, but since I extended the training plan back when I switched to Coz instead of Rev, I've been following this 30 week training plan for about 40 weeks now. I'm bored with it. I hit my longest ride early (because I wanted to get it in while I could still ride the whole thing on the road) and my longest run distance early (because I'm impatient.) So this weekend, I switched it up.
Due to the aforementioned crappy weather, I did all the biking indoors. I decided to stick with the 2.5 hour run on my training plan (ironman training is SO DIFFERENT than standalone marathon training ya'll - you won't find a 20 miler here) and planned the workout around the two spin classes, 1 hour apart, at the local Y. End result: 1 hour spin class/45 min treadmill run/1 hour spin class/1 hour run/2 hours on the bike trainer at home/45 minute run in my 'hood.
It went fantastically well. I'm shocked at how well it went. Oh sure, it was hard. Spin classes are definitely more intense than riding on the road. I did, umm, adjust them to my particular needs. :) And just the sheer volume and the "I have to run AGAIN after this?" and the boredom and the "OMG I NEED FOOD" and etc. was tough. I took a break before the 2 hour ride toeat inhale two english muffins with pb and j because I didn't fuel well enough during the first 4 workouts.
But when I did that last run, I felt like I could've kept going aaaallll day long baby.
The point of said workout? It's not just to practice running with dead legs off the bike; it's to practice working through fatigue and fine-tune nutrition intake. Well, I have gotten slower than I was when I was just focusing on running, but I am getting this working through fatigue thing DOWN. Fatigue ain't got nothing on me. I really and truly am feeling 100% capable of having a good first-time Ironman experience. I am beyond stoked about it.
For the moment, I am basking in the endorphins in comfy clothes, compression socks, and wet hair, happily eating everything in the fridge.
Lots of things have layers. Lasagna has layers. Fancy shots have layers. (Fun fact about me: I went to bartending school. I learned how to make layered shots.) Onions have layers. So do parfaits. Yes, that is a Shrek reference.
I'm gonna be lazy and not find and post a picture of Shrek and Donkey here.
Workouts also have layers, particularly when you are a triathlete. Brick workouts - one sport followed immediately after by another sport - are a pretty normal part of triathlon. But since triathletes are all about taking the crazy to new levels, there is, apparently, this thing that people do sometimes when training for an Ironman. It's called a triple brick. Bike/run/bike/run/bike/run.
A somewhat standard IM training triple brick is 40k/10k x3. I would love to do that, except the weather has gotten crappy and the amount of daylight and warmth available is shrinking. I did some research and discovered that triple brick lengths can and do vary, and that more non-competitive IMers (like me) decided that distance was not worth the recovery time.
There was not a triple in my training plan, btw, but since I extended the training plan back when I switched to Coz instead of Rev, I've been following this 30 week training plan for about 40 weeks now. I'm bored with it. I hit my longest ride early (because I wanted to get it in while I could still ride the whole thing on the road) and my longest run distance early (because I'm impatient.) So this weekend, I switched it up.
Due to the aforementioned crappy weather, I did all the biking indoors. I decided to stick with the 2.5 hour run on my training plan (ironman training is SO DIFFERENT than standalone marathon training ya'll - you won't find a 20 miler here) and planned the workout around the two spin classes, 1 hour apart, at the local Y. End result: 1 hour spin class/45 min treadmill run/1 hour spin class/1 hour run/2 hours on the bike trainer at home/45 minute run in my 'hood.
It went fantastically well. I'm shocked at how well it went. Oh sure, it was hard. Spin classes are definitely more intense than riding on the road. I did, umm, adjust them to my particular needs. :) And just the sheer volume and the "I have to run AGAIN after this?" and the boredom and the "OMG I NEED FOOD" and etc. was tough. I took a break before the 2 hour ride to
The point of said workout? It's not just to practice running with dead legs off the bike; it's to practice working through fatigue and fine-tune nutrition intake. Well, I have gotten slower than I was when I was just focusing on running, but I am getting this working through fatigue thing DOWN. Fatigue ain't got nothing on me. I really and truly am feeling 100% capable of having a good first-time Ironman experience. I am beyond stoked about it.
For the moment, I am basking in the endorphins in comfy clothes, compression socks, and wet hair, happily eating everything in the fridge.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
The Final Countdown
T minus exactly one month.
I feel good. I'm getting used to tired as a default state. I'm too tired to have crazy mood swings anymore.
I did a 100 mile bike ride this past weekend, all by myself. I did 91 the weekend before. I even rode from home, meaning a 300 foot climb in the last few miles of the ride, both times. Both times were a challenge, but surprisingly doable. This past weekend, I had run 16.5 miles the day before.
I stopped and got homemade cherry pie and fountain pepsi in a small river town in the middle of my 100 miler. It was amazing. The only time I drink pop/soda (I'm midwestern, my husband is from the east coast, it's a constant battle in my house) is when I'm training but it has surprising benefits. Just don't fill your water bottle with coke. The pressure from the carbonation will make the nozzle pop open and it will squirt all over you and you will be sticky for the last 6 miles of your run.
This morning, I really didn't want to ride or run, and I did both, an hour of each, and once I was out there, I was loving it. Well, I was loving the bike. I was a bit grumbly during the middle of the run but that's kind of my default setting. Overall, it was good. Really good.
I run more slowly these days and I'm amazed at how much that doesn't matter to me, just as long as I'm running.
I'm continuously amazing myself with what I can do. Not just the swimming, biking, and running, but my ability to juggle my work schedule, keep the house from falling apart, and regularly prepare healthy from-scratch meals and sleep 8 hours a night, because I have to do those things to stay healthy enough to train.
I'm feeling a bit like superwoman, albeit a tired superwoman these days.
One month and counting.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
boost of confidence
In between laps at master swim the other night, the coach came by and tapped me on the head. "What's your name?" he asked. "Because you are NOT the same person I saw swimming here over the summer."
Later on, we were doing breaststroke drills. I would love to learn to do the breaststroke comfortably, since I could see it being a valuable tri stroke (and I already quasi-breaststroke around buoys), but it's my nemesis. He gave me some tweaks and by the end of it, I was getting it down. He said, "Keep learning at this pace and you're going to have to give up that triathlon shit and just be a swimmer."
What's weird about triathlon, at least in my experience, is that at any given time I have one sport I feel great about, one I feel ok about, and one that worries me. As long as I've been training for this race, it's rotated pretty consistently and it's been every combination in the world. Right now I feel most confident about swimming, which rarely happens. (Only other time it was like that was when I was recovering from the flu and swimming was the only sport that did not send me into spasmodic coughing fits.) Running is ok, and I'm a bit nervous about the biking. But that'll change a few more times before the race, too.
36 days to Coz!!!!!
Later on, we were doing breaststroke drills. I would love to learn to do the breaststroke comfortably, since I could see it being a valuable tri stroke (and I already quasi-breaststroke around buoys), but it's my nemesis. He gave me some tweaks and by the end of it, I was getting it down. He said, "Keep learning at this pace and you're going to have to give up that triathlon shit and just be a swimmer."
What's weird about triathlon, at least in my experience, is that at any given time I have one sport I feel great about, one I feel ok about, and one that worries me. As long as I've been training for this race, it's rotated pretty consistently and it's been every combination in the world. Right now I feel most confident about swimming, which rarely happens. (Only other time it was like that was when I was recovering from the flu and swimming was the only sport that did not send me into spasmodic coughing fits.) Running is ok, and I'm a bit nervous about the biking. But that'll change a few more times before the race, too.
36 days to Coz!!!!!
Thursday, October 11, 2012
I'm still here!
I'm just ridiculously busy and tired. Gee, I wonder why??
Work has been insane. I have a LOT going on at work and it's both mentally stressful and time-consuming, but I've made some progress in getting it under control and still carving out time for training. It's getting trickier, what with some very cold mornings and earlier sunsets (BOO!!) but so far, so good.
I surprised the crap out of myself by doing a 75-mile group ride that started at 8:30 AM last Saturday. It wasn't even 40 degrees. 50 is my threshold for comfortable biking, and that's in all-out winter gear. 19 miles in, at the first rest stop, I was THIS CLOSE to quitting. I was cold, and I HATE being cold. I was miserable. I was super slow because my muscles would not loosen up. But either way, I had to ride at least 19 more miles, so I kept going. I warmed up about 40 miles in. The sun came out and the rest of the ride wasn't bad, even though there were some evil hills at the end. It was a slow ride, but I conquered it. I did NOT give up.
Cold on the bike is turning out to be my worst enemy right now, right as I need to be doing my longest rides. This weekend is supposed to be warmer, though. I'm planning to bike my heart out.
Coz is going to feel like a freaking OVEN.
Master swim was on hiatus for a month while they put a dome over the outdoor pool. That month SUCKED for me. I had so much trouble motivating myself to swim that I was lucky to get in the pool once a week and I wanted to die of boredom most of the time that I was in there. 1.5 weeks back into it and I love swimming now. We've been doing mostly drills, but I think that's helping a ton. I have mad endurance now, but my form suffered during that month. A few things have clicked again, and the coach even said I've improved in just a few practices. At this point, I just want my swim to be as efficient and zen-like as possible. I feel more optimistic about the swim than the other two disciplines - how funny is that??
I did a trail half marathon 2 weeks ago. While it was fun and gorgeous, it was NOT smart. I ran it in my Five Fingers, which may also have not been smart. The combination of the hills and uneven terrain and the repeated tripping and snagging of feet (I actually fell three times) resulted in some awful foot pain. I had myself terrified that I had a stress fracture, but it got better, I'm able to run on it now (albeit with some discomfort, but it continues to improve in the aftermath) and I'm pretty sure I'm looking at extensor tendonitis instead. So now I have to run slowly, which I have to do anyway because I'm tired pretty much all the time.
Yeah, this Ironman training isn't easy at all. Go figure. :)
But....there are only 6.5 weeks left until the race. 3 of that is taper. I CAN DO THIS. I CAN. The training gets crazier, but the closer I get to the race, the more motivated I am to stick with it because it's almost over.
I have my bike transport all arranged. I even have my number. #2327. This is real, ya'll.
Work has been insane. I have a LOT going on at work and it's both mentally stressful and time-consuming, but I've made some progress in getting it under control and still carving out time for training. It's getting trickier, what with some very cold mornings and earlier sunsets (BOO!!) but so far, so good.
I surprised the crap out of myself by doing a 75-mile group ride that started at 8:30 AM last Saturday. It wasn't even 40 degrees. 50 is my threshold for comfortable biking, and that's in all-out winter gear. 19 miles in, at the first rest stop, I was THIS CLOSE to quitting. I was cold, and I HATE being cold. I was miserable. I was super slow because my muscles would not loosen up. But either way, I had to ride at least 19 more miles, so I kept going. I warmed up about 40 miles in. The sun came out and the rest of the ride wasn't bad, even though there were some evil hills at the end. It was a slow ride, but I conquered it. I did NOT give up.
Cold on the bike is turning out to be my worst enemy right now, right as I need to be doing my longest rides. This weekend is supposed to be warmer, though. I'm planning to bike my heart out.
Coz is going to feel like a freaking OVEN.
Master swim was on hiatus for a month while they put a dome over the outdoor pool. That month SUCKED for me. I had so much trouble motivating myself to swim that I was lucky to get in the pool once a week and I wanted to die of boredom most of the time that I was in there. 1.5 weeks back into it and I love swimming now. We've been doing mostly drills, but I think that's helping a ton. I have mad endurance now, but my form suffered during that month. A few things have clicked again, and the coach even said I've improved in just a few practices. At this point, I just want my swim to be as efficient and zen-like as possible. I feel more optimistic about the swim than the other two disciplines - how funny is that??
I did a trail half marathon 2 weeks ago. While it was fun and gorgeous, it was NOT smart. I ran it in my Five Fingers, which may also have not been smart. The combination of the hills and uneven terrain and the repeated tripping and snagging of feet (I actually fell three times) resulted in some awful foot pain. I had myself terrified that I had a stress fracture, but it got better, I'm able to run on it now (albeit with some discomfort, but it continues to improve in the aftermath) and I'm pretty sure I'm looking at extensor tendonitis instead. So now I have to run slowly, which I have to do anyway because I'm tired pretty much all the time.
Yeah, this Ironman training isn't easy at all. Go figure. :)
But....there are only 6.5 weeks left until the race. 3 of that is taper. I CAN DO THIS. I CAN. The training gets crazier, but the closer I get to the race, the more motivated I am to stick with it because it's almost over.
I have my bike transport all arranged. I even have my number. #2327. This is real, ya'll.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Whee - 70.3!!!!
One step closer to my goal....I am now a half ironman!!
I was supposed to do the Rev3 full race yesterday as my first IM. With only 2.5 months to rebuild run fitness from 0 to 26.2, of course I ended up nixing that plan and dropped down to the half rev. Even so, I was a bit nervous about having to do a 13.1 so soon post-injury. I had a plan for the race, but wasn't sure how it played out.
It played out well. Really well. The purpose of this race was not only to cover a brand new distance, but to test out everything that I have figured out for the IM so far and see what worked and what didn't. Mostly, everything worked!!
Good things:
Pacing:
I paced it exactly the way I wanted to. Swim was relaxed, bike was relaxed, run was comfy and strong. I got a bit fatigued on the bike and had to slow down, but there were a couple of complicating factors there. (More in a minute.) If I can get them under control, I can hopefully keep the bike strong.
Nutrition:
This I was worried about because I don't quite have it figured out. This was also where there was some glitches. I always have a gel after the swim, because swimming makes me OMG HUNGRY otherwise. I usually try to eat something solid every hour on a long ride and supplement with gatorade or coconut water. I wanted to try to get a bit more calories during the race because I wasn't only fueling the ride, but the run as well.
However, like I said, there were glitches. They had bananas at the first aid station (I THINK - I was busy looking for a porta-potty at that point) but no other "food" besides gels for the whole ride. I had misread the athlete guide and thought they would have bars, too. I did bring one stinger waffle with me for the ride, but eating it while riding didn't go so well. You know on Sesame Street where Cookie Monster is shoving the cookie into his face going NOMNOMNOM and there are cookie pieces flying everywhere? That was me trying to get this thing into my mouth. I made some birds very happy, I think. Sooo I had a gel for each of the other two hours I was on the bike, but it didn't feel substantial enough. One of them was chocolate, since that's all I could grab while moving, and I don't like chocolate gels. I love chocolate any other time, but it always feels too rich while I'm running/biking. I did drink about 40 oz of gatorade, so that probably helped.
They DID have food on the run but my stomach always turned a bit at the sight of it. I never felt SICK really, my stomach never hurt, but my stomach felt queasy. *I* wasn't nauseated but my stomach had that ick feeling, if that makes sense. It was never a big deal, I was just a little worried about bonking, being out there for so long with no solid food. I forced some pretzels down about 7 miles in, and I supplemented with pepsi when I could stomach it. (I was SO OVER Gatorade by that point.) I've never tried soda while training before (I know, I broke a cardinal rule, nothing new on race day!), and I almost never drink it anyway, but it tasted really, really good. They'll have it during Coz, so I'm pretty stoked about that.
Anyway, as off from my ideal as I was, I never felt underfueled. I guess eating well (in other words, being a bit of a pig) the week before was helpful.
Training
Thank God I've replicated some race conditions, namely the swim. I was so glad I had practiced in my wetsuit a few times. I was used to it enough where the things that bothered me when I broke it out a few weeks ago (tired shoulders and trouble breathing with the chest compression) were non-issues. The water was FREEZING. I don't care if it was 74 degrees, it felt FREEZING. No way would I have done that swim with no wetsuit. The other big swim thing was that it was choppy. Way choppy. I was super glad that I've done some practicing in a local lake where the boats come through and create some waves. Rev3 was definitely rougher, but I was used to waves enough to avoid a total freakout.
I was also happy that I've biked some hills. The race was waaay flat, but windy in parts, and wind, to me, feels very similar to a gradual uphill. You have to slow down and adjust accordingly and go by effort, not numbers.
Finally, I was glad I've done some bricks, including after longer rides. Toward the end of the ride, I was wondering how the heck I was going to run 13 miles afterward. As soon as my running shoes were on, though, I felt awesome and I was MOVING.
What didn't go well? Really, the only thing that wasn't as good as I had hoped was the bike. I've been battling this knee thing for a couple of weeks. I did a 70 mile sponsored ride up in Dayton, on unfamiliar roads. It was hillier than I thought it would be, and while I made it over the hills just fine (I even passed four people who had stopped to walk up a hill!), by the end of the ride my left knee felt sore on the muscle just above and to the inside. At the very end, it was giving me some sharp pains. The weird thing about it is that it ONLY hurts while riding. The next day, it'll hurt on stairs, but it never, ever bothers me while waking or running. After a day or so, all traces of pain go away completely until I try to ride again. I adjusted my cleats and I thought that was the culprit. I didn't notice anything for the first few miles of the ride yesterday, but then it kicked in again. It's not bad enough that I have to slow down, but it's annoying. I had my knee taped yesterday and I'm not sure that it did any good (although it left me with some nice funky tan lines!) I'm going to ask about it at the bike store. Anyway, it made the ride a little less pleasant, although it probably helped me keep my gearing easy, which is what needed to happen. There were only a couple of hills, and nothing like the hills I'm used to, so that helped.
The other not good thing on the bike was that I need a new seat. I've struggled with this for a while - if I'm upright the whole time, I'm fine. If I'm in aero too long, I'm hurting in a most unpleasant place, let's just say. I've tried different aero positions and it's not that. It's the seat. I was trying to stay in aero as much as possible yesterday and I was in pain by the end. Especially when I hit a surprise bump 45 miles in, came OFF the seat and slammed back down onto it when I was already hurting. Yeah, I swore a bit. I think the bike fatigue would not have bothered me so much had my crotch and knee not already been complaining.
I was SO GLAD to get off that seat and start running, let me tell you.
The rest of the race was great. The volunteers were awesome. I stopped at a potty break on the bike, and a volunteer caught my bike and held it for me while another one opened the door for me. I felt like a rock star! They were everywhere on the run, holding out various food/drink options and yelling out what they had. There were some awesome spectators who were cheering for EVERYONE. I never, ever hit a wall. I got tired on the bike and the run, but by the time I did, that segment was almost over anyway. I really had a good time.
My new seat is ready for me to pick it up at the bike shop, and I'll relay my knee woes to them as well. I'm hoping I can clear that up very, very soon.
Meanwhile, I feel really, really good about IMCoz. Taking this week kind of easy, then I have 10 weeks of training and I think it'll go well. Apparently the magic formula for converting half time to full time is double, plus 1:20. That would put me at a 15 hour Ironman, which I would be THRILLED with. Thrilled.
Stats:
Swim: 48:21
T1: 4:57 (struggled with the wetsuit and knocked my helmet and glasses off my bike!)
Bike: 3:24:19
T2: 3:03
Run: 2:28:29
Race time: 6:49:09
Planned for 7 hours. Right on.
I was supposed to do the Rev3 full race yesterday as my first IM. With only 2.5 months to rebuild run fitness from 0 to 26.2, of course I ended up nixing that plan and dropped down to the half rev. Even so, I was a bit nervous about having to do a 13.1 so soon post-injury. I had a plan for the race, but wasn't sure how it played out.
It played out well. Really well. The purpose of this race was not only to cover a brand new distance, but to test out everything that I have figured out for the IM so far and see what worked and what didn't. Mostly, everything worked!!
Good things:
Pacing:
I paced it exactly the way I wanted to. Swim was relaxed, bike was relaxed, run was comfy and strong. I got a bit fatigued on the bike and had to slow down, but there were a couple of complicating factors there. (More in a minute.) If I can get them under control, I can hopefully keep the bike strong.
Nutrition:
This I was worried about because I don't quite have it figured out. This was also where there was some glitches. I always have a gel after the swim, because swimming makes me OMG HUNGRY otherwise. I usually try to eat something solid every hour on a long ride and supplement with gatorade or coconut water. I wanted to try to get a bit more calories during the race because I wasn't only fueling the ride, but the run as well.
However, like I said, there were glitches. They had bananas at the first aid station (I THINK - I was busy looking for a porta-potty at that point) but no other "food" besides gels for the whole ride. I had misread the athlete guide and thought they would have bars, too. I did bring one stinger waffle with me for the ride, but eating it while riding didn't go so well. You know on Sesame Street where Cookie Monster is shoving the cookie into his face going NOMNOMNOM and there are cookie pieces flying everywhere? That was me trying to get this thing into my mouth. I made some birds very happy, I think. Sooo I had a gel for each of the other two hours I was on the bike, but it didn't feel substantial enough. One of them was chocolate, since that's all I could grab while moving, and I don't like chocolate gels. I love chocolate any other time, but it always feels too rich while I'm running/biking. I did drink about 40 oz of gatorade, so that probably helped.
They DID have food on the run but my stomach always turned a bit at the sight of it. I never felt SICK really, my stomach never hurt, but my stomach felt queasy. *I* wasn't nauseated but my stomach had that ick feeling, if that makes sense. It was never a big deal, I was just a little worried about bonking, being out there for so long with no solid food. I forced some pretzels down about 7 miles in, and I supplemented with pepsi when I could stomach it. (I was SO OVER Gatorade by that point.) I've never tried soda while training before (I know, I broke a cardinal rule, nothing new on race day!), and I almost never drink it anyway, but it tasted really, really good. They'll have it during Coz, so I'm pretty stoked about that.
Anyway, as off from my ideal as I was, I never felt underfueled. I guess eating well (in other words, being a bit of a pig) the week before was helpful.
Training
Thank God I've replicated some race conditions, namely the swim. I was so glad I had practiced in my wetsuit a few times. I was used to it enough where the things that bothered me when I broke it out a few weeks ago (tired shoulders and trouble breathing with the chest compression) were non-issues. The water was FREEZING. I don't care if it was 74 degrees, it felt FREEZING. No way would I have done that swim with no wetsuit. The other big swim thing was that it was choppy. Way choppy. I was super glad that I've done some practicing in a local lake where the boats come through and create some waves. Rev3 was definitely rougher, but I was used to waves enough to avoid a total freakout.
I was also happy that I've biked some hills. The race was waaay flat, but windy in parts, and wind, to me, feels very similar to a gradual uphill. You have to slow down and adjust accordingly and go by effort, not numbers.
Finally, I was glad I've done some bricks, including after longer rides. Toward the end of the ride, I was wondering how the heck I was going to run 13 miles afterward. As soon as my running shoes were on, though, I felt awesome and I was MOVING.
What didn't go well? Really, the only thing that wasn't as good as I had hoped was the bike. I've been battling this knee thing for a couple of weeks. I did a 70 mile sponsored ride up in Dayton, on unfamiliar roads. It was hillier than I thought it would be, and while I made it over the hills just fine (I even passed four people who had stopped to walk up a hill!), by the end of the ride my left knee felt sore on the muscle just above and to the inside. At the very end, it was giving me some sharp pains. The weird thing about it is that it ONLY hurts while riding. The next day, it'll hurt on stairs, but it never, ever bothers me while waking or running. After a day or so, all traces of pain go away completely until I try to ride again. I adjusted my cleats and I thought that was the culprit. I didn't notice anything for the first few miles of the ride yesterday, but then it kicked in again. It's not bad enough that I have to slow down, but it's annoying. I had my knee taped yesterday and I'm not sure that it did any good (although it left me with some nice funky tan lines!) I'm going to ask about it at the bike store. Anyway, it made the ride a little less pleasant, although it probably helped me keep my gearing easy, which is what needed to happen. There were only a couple of hills, and nothing like the hills I'm used to, so that helped.
The other not good thing on the bike was that I need a new seat. I've struggled with this for a while - if I'm upright the whole time, I'm fine. If I'm in aero too long, I'm hurting in a most unpleasant place, let's just say. I've tried different aero positions and it's not that. It's the seat. I was trying to stay in aero as much as possible yesterday and I was in pain by the end. Especially when I hit a surprise bump 45 miles in, came OFF the seat and slammed back down onto it when I was already hurting. Yeah, I swore a bit. I think the bike fatigue would not have bothered me so much had my crotch and knee not already been complaining.
I was SO GLAD to get off that seat and start running, let me tell you.
The rest of the race was great. The volunteers were awesome. I stopped at a potty break on the bike, and a volunteer caught my bike and held it for me while another one opened the door for me. I felt like a rock star! They were everywhere on the run, holding out various food/drink options and yelling out what they had. There were some awesome spectators who were cheering for EVERYONE. I never, ever hit a wall. I got tired on the bike and the run, but by the time I did, that segment was almost over anyway. I really had a good time.
My new seat is ready for me to pick it up at the bike shop, and I'll relay my knee woes to them as well. I'm hoping I can clear that up very, very soon.
Meanwhile, I feel really, really good about IMCoz. Taking this week kind of easy, then I have 10 weeks of training and I think it'll go well. Apparently the magic formula for converting half time to full time is double, plus 1:20. That would put me at a 15 hour Ironman, which I would be THRILLED with. Thrilled.
Stats:
Swim: 48:21
T1: 4:57 (struggled with the wetsuit and knocked my helmet and glasses off my bike!)
Bike: 3:24:19
T2: 3:03
Run: 2:28:29
Race time: 6:49:09
Planned for 7 hours. Right on.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
The things nobody ever told me about training for an Ironman
The part I knew going into this insanity is that it's a lot of running, biking, and swimming. I'm ok with that. It's a lot of hours and scheduling gets difficult. I'm more or less ok with that. I've learned some crazy awesome time management skills. However, I'm learning some surprising things about Ironman training as I go. Here are some of the latest unexpected surprises:
It makes you crazy. Literally.
I thought I had lost my mind until I found a thread on beginnertriathlete.com titled "Emotions while training for IM." It seems that this is a pretty normal phenomenon. I'm not making this comparison lightly, but I really do think it's akin to a mild case of bipolar disorder. Or a lasting case of PMS. The stress and fatigue of training can really get to a person's brain and sometimes I'm all over the place. Some days every cute animal picture on facebook will make me cry. I'll go from completely energized to a sobbing mess. One day, I just broke down in tears because all I could think was "I AM SO TIRED AND I CAN'T HANDLE ANYTHING ANYMORE!!" Now that I know it's normal, I'm coping with the mood roller coaster much much much better, and I'm recognizing that my mind gives me signals like my body does when I need to SLOW THE EFF DOWN and/or take a rest day. When I start getting weepy, if I can treat that like the niggle in my knee, things go better.
You want to eat ALL THE FOODS.
I'm familiar with crazy levels of training hunger from marathon training. This, though, is a whole other level. I have days where I get tired of eating. Read that again. I GET TIRED OF EATING. I eat a full meal and then it hits me an hour later and I'm like, really? I don't FEEL like making more food. Nothing even sounds good but I'm sooooo hungry! I go out to eat with my husband and I eat all my food and half of his. It can be hard, too, because it's so counter intuitive. I had my portion sizes all figured out and how to balance my diet and I've had to throw a lot out the window and just eat as much as I want to eat when I'm hungry, because what I USED to eat won't cut it and I'll experience it in the form of a major bonk on the bike the next day, or a mental breakdown like I described above. I feel like I eat all the freaking time anymore, and if I don't make SURE I eat all the freaking time, I'll get so hungry that no amount of food will make me feel better. Our grocery bills are getting insane.
You don't lose tons of weight.
Well, some people do. I've maintained and I'm ok with that. I've noticed a couple of differences, though: my upper body got more toned, my delts are insane (I may or may not stroke them when I'm alone) and my thighs, which have always been on the larger side for my size, are redonk now. All my jeans are tight.
You get insane tan lines.
I have a normal shirt line, a trisuit line and a racerback tank top line. On my legs, I have varying colors for varying lengths of shorts. My feet are white. It's awesome.
You turn into a camel.
We have a water filter in our fridge. Husband says "WHY am I always filling this thing???" Whoops. I want water like I want food.
Your bodily functions change.
I've seen this on the bt forums too. I can fart like none other now, particularly after swimming. It's BAAAAAD. I went on a solo run after masters one night and thank GOD nobody else was out. It sounded like I was carrying a duck with me. And I pee more than I used to. I've never had to pee while running, not even during a marathon, until these days. And swimming?? Out of the pool, SPRINT to the locker room. Holy cow.
It's terrifying.
I knew that, but nothing can prepare a person for the fear. Some days I'm so pumped and I think I'm gonna KILL this 140.6 mile beast. Other days I'm pretty much convinced that there is no way in hell I'm going to make the cutoffs. I read other people's race stories and all I can think is, "That's their marathon time? I wonder what their training pace is? How much time am I going to have to finish if I get a flat tire?" There is no way to do a training day that is even close to the volume of an Ironman. There is no way to go in KNOWING that you can swim 2.4 AND bike 112 AND run 26.2 AND do it all within certain limits. It's insanely scary and I know that all I can do is train the best that my body, mind, and life will allow and leave it up to luck, stubbornness, and the gods of triathlon when the day comes.
It's doable.
Some days are a bit of an epic fail, but there are a lot of days where I stick to the training plan, do my job and do it well, and get a hot, healthy meal on the table between 2-3 workouts.
If you're single, you may not want to try dating anyone while training for an Ironman.
I just added this because I re-read the rest of my blog and laughed. So glad my husband's stuck with me. I'm not sure how I'd get any dates with my thunder thighs, tan lines, mood swings, crazy schedule, and propensity for pigouts and farting and nearly peeing on myself. I didn't even mention how often I smell like sweat and/or chlorine. Or how, on the weekend after a long run Saturday and a 4-5 hour bike ride on Sunday, I'm lying around in comfy clothes and my hair is a mess and we need to go somewhere and I groan "does that mean I have to put on a bra???" Yep. I wonder how he can stand my sexiness???
It makes you crazy. Literally.
I thought I had lost my mind until I found a thread on beginnertriathlete.com titled "Emotions while training for IM." It seems that this is a pretty normal phenomenon. I'm not making this comparison lightly, but I really do think it's akin to a mild case of bipolar disorder. Or a lasting case of PMS. The stress and fatigue of training can really get to a person's brain and sometimes I'm all over the place. Some days every cute animal picture on facebook will make me cry. I'll go from completely energized to a sobbing mess. One day, I just broke down in tears because all I could think was "I AM SO TIRED AND I CAN'T HANDLE ANYTHING ANYMORE!!" Now that I know it's normal, I'm coping with the mood roller coaster much much much better, and I'm recognizing that my mind gives me signals like my body does when I need to SLOW THE EFF DOWN and/or take a rest day. When I start getting weepy, if I can treat that like the niggle in my knee, things go better.
You want to eat ALL THE FOODS.
I'm familiar with crazy levels of training hunger from marathon training. This, though, is a whole other level. I have days where I get tired of eating. Read that again. I GET TIRED OF EATING. I eat a full meal and then it hits me an hour later and I'm like, really? I don't FEEL like making more food. Nothing even sounds good but I'm sooooo hungry! I go out to eat with my husband and I eat all my food and half of his. It can be hard, too, because it's so counter intuitive. I had my portion sizes all figured out and how to balance my diet and I've had to throw a lot out the window and just eat as much as I want to eat when I'm hungry, because what I USED to eat won't cut it and I'll experience it in the form of a major bonk on the bike the next day, or a mental breakdown like I described above. I feel like I eat all the freaking time anymore, and if I don't make SURE I eat all the freaking time, I'll get so hungry that no amount of food will make me feel better. Our grocery bills are getting insane.
You don't lose tons of weight.
Well, some people do. I've maintained and I'm ok with that. I've noticed a couple of differences, though: my upper body got more toned, my delts are insane (I may or may not stroke them when I'm alone) and my thighs, which have always been on the larger side for my size, are redonk now. All my jeans are tight.
You get insane tan lines.
I have a normal shirt line, a trisuit line and a racerback tank top line. On my legs, I have varying colors for varying lengths of shorts. My feet are white. It's awesome.
You turn into a camel.
We have a water filter in our fridge. Husband says "WHY am I always filling this thing???" Whoops. I want water like I want food.
Your bodily functions change.
I've seen this on the bt forums too. I can fart like none other now, particularly after swimming. It's BAAAAAD. I went on a solo run after masters one night and thank GOD nobody else was out. It sounded like I was carrying a duck with me. And I pee more than I used to. I've never had to pee while running, not even during a marathon, until these days. And swimming?? Out of the pool, SPRINT to the locker room. Holy cow.
It's terrifying.
I knew that, but nothing can prepare a person for the fear. Some days I'm so pumped and I think I'm gonna KILL this 140.6 mile beast. Other days I'm pretty much convinced that there is no way in hell I'm going to make the cutoffs. I read other people's race stories and all I can think is, "That's their marathon time? I wonder what their training pace is? How much time am I going to have to finish if I get a flat tire?" There is no way to do a training day that is even close to the volume of an Ironman. There is no way to go in KNOWING that you can swim 2.4 AND bike 112 AND run 26.2 AND do it all within certain limits. It's insanely scary and I know that all I can do is train the best that my body, mind, and life will allow and leave it up to luck, stubbornness, and the gods of triathlon when the day comes.
It's doable.
Some days are a bit of an epic fail, but there are a lot of days where I stick to the training plan, do my job and do it well, and get a hot, healthy meal on the table between 2-3 workouts.
If you're single, you may not want to try dating anyone while training for an Ironman.
I just added this because I re-read the rest of my blog and laughed. So glad my husband's stuck with me. I'm not sure how I'd get any dates with my thunder thighs, tan lines, mood swings, crazy schedule, and propensity for pigouts and farting and nearly peeing on myself. I didn't even mention how often I smell like sweat and/or chlorine. Or how, on the weekend after a long run Saturday and a 4-5 hour bike ride on Sunday, I'm lying around in comfy clothes and my hair is a mess and we need to go somewhere and I groan "does that mean I have to put on a bra???" Yep. I wonder how he can stand my sexiness???
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