St. George 2012: Amazing and Terrible

Pre-Race

On a hot day last summer, I had just finished IM Louisville and was contemplating signing up for a spring IM. I was stressed out about IM FL looming ahead and felt like I needed another ‘shot’ at Kona since I didn’t think I had a good chance for qualifying at Florida.

I really wanted an early season IM and had been mulling over the pros and cons of doing St. George. Coincidentally, I was walking the dogs and ran into Jared Brown, who was picking up food in my neighborhood (or possibly stalking me, it’s really hard to say) We started chatting about race plans and somehow I was able to guess and uncover that he was also thinking about St. George. Before I knew it, I got spousal permission J,  and there were several of us signed up/almost signed up and ready to go!

I ended up qualifying at FL and although the pull of St. George wasn’t quite as strong after that, I was still very excited about it and thought it would be a good time. As the winter progressed, two of  those signed up, unfortunately had to make a tough decision to pull out due to injury. A couple of other people talking about it never ended up actually signing up. So then finally, it was just Ted and I. Our plan was to get up there Wednesday and start getting acclimated and John and Stacey would come up Friday night.

As always, whatever arrival you choose sounds like it will be plenty of time but then time starts moving faster and faster and the preparations always take longer than planned. It’s always preferable to have a big group of friends and family there, but the one advantage was there was nothing to concentrate on except for the race. I was more prepared logistically than I’ve ever been.. went to the banquet and pre-race meeting, checked out the bike course, got a massage, organized bags, did a plethora of race week workouts, etc. 

This is the only pic I have of the first half of the trip... previewing the bike course!

We ran into my coach a few times and it was the first time I had actually met her in person, so that was neat. Also, we did an interview for a local podcast on our goals for the race and why we do Ironman.   The area was beautiful and the course definitely looked tough. I have never been to a race before where the volunteers and locals were so genuinely happy to have the racers there. It was pretty neat and I could tell that folks were sad that this was the last year the Ironman would come to town.

Going in I had two major concerns about St. George. The first was making it through the bike ride. After totally screwing up my bad shoulder at New Orleans, I’d been going to physical therapy, getting massage, etc double time in a desperate effort to get it solid enough to hopefully make it through.  I fully planned to stop and stretch, sit up, resort to taking an NSAID (bad) whatever it took to make it through the bike.  I made a few little changes to hopefully take the pressure off, but I was very nervous about this part .

My other concern has always been the cold water.  I don’t do well in cold and have Reynaud’s and I genuinely wasn’t sure that I could survive a 5x degree water temp. Thank goodness it was pretty warm leading up the race to get the water temp into the 60s.  On Thursday we went out for a practice swim and I had a bit of panic after I didn’t acclimate long enough and my chest started tightening up while swimming.  Since it was only 61 degrees, a tiny little voice in the back of my head wondered if the altitude or some kind of cold etc could have contributed to my reaction but I had to dismiss it since neither of those factors were within my control. I was also waking up feeling a bit congested and scratchy but I managed to convince myself that it was something about the dry desert air.

Friday morning I pulled out all the stops for the swim because I knew I needed a ‘good’ experience before the race.  Silicone cap, neoprene cap (modified so it wouldn’t squeeze my neck) ear plugs, using my inhaler, booties, and super-tight new goggles. Whew! Fortunately this swim went better, but I knew that my swim plan probably needed to entail my going out a little easier than I had planned.

Friday evening,  John and Stacey arrived and we had a super early dinner then I was in bed ready to go by 8 pm. 3:15 arrived quickly, and before I knew it was 6 am and we were about to get in the water. My original plan had been to try really really hard to catch a draft off Ted in the swim, but after my freakout (and the fact that he’s gotten a lot faster) I thought a smarter strategy would be to just do it on my own and try to find someone a little slower to draft. We started up to the left of the first buoy and then we all were off.

The swim 'before'

No worries getting to the first turn. Breathing was under control, lost my shot at drafting  immediately, but I wasn’t worried. Right after we turned I started to notice some waves and I felt really annoyed at what I thought must be boats driving too close to the swimmers. But then the waves didn’t stop and when we turned again (into the wind) all the sudden everything exploded.  Sudden windstorm that John said you could see coming by a dust cloud on the horizon. It went from no wind to 25 mph .. up to 40 mph gusts in one instant.

Swim during. 

I have never ever in my entire life been in conditions like that. I heard whistle blowing everywhere, people were yelling, kayaks turned over, and apparently a boat sank.  That was the good part, because after that I would go long stretches without seeing anyone at all. I was beyond lost and so was the rest of the field, spread out by hundreds of yards.

There were whitecaps that I would let break over my head, and I was just kind of flopping along like a rag doll, riding the waves and trying to breathe whenever there was a trough. Every time I tried to sight I got panicked and really felt better just staying underwater!

 I was so disoriented I only knew one thing about the course, that I had to go around this island off in the distance. It was so. Far. Away.  I was trying so hard not to panic but I honestly felt like there might be no shot at getting there. I hadn’t thought about swim cutoffs, but I began to truly wonder if I had missed it because there was just no one around.

More time passed, and I saw a few others. I would get so excited when I saw another swimmer and try to follow them but the spray coming off people was like a power washer blast to the face. I must have swallowed a gallon of water and I stopped a lot to dry heave and try and get my bearings.  When I finally made it to the island and around the turn buoy, when  I looked towards shore the buoys were no longer in a line but all blown in various directions. I wasn’t even sure if I was going towards the right shore!

I really wasn’t sure if I was still in the race or not either. Later I found out that 161 people got pulled out (some against their will) or didn’t make the cutoff. At the time though, I thought my performance was just terrible and that I must have swum off course by a lot. I wasn’t that mad though because it took a lot of willpower to not panic and just keep swimming.  I figured I needed to keep going because John probably thought I had drowned by this point.  I was happy when I got out because I haven’t feared for my life as much as I did during that swim.

Here is a good account of the swim chaos from a volunteer perspectice:  http://sabrosacycles.blogspot.ca/2012/05/im-on-boat.html

And the swim support crew perspective: 

http://phazesfitness.blogspot.com/2012/05/swim-support-another-story-of-st-george.html

The Bike

I felt like I was in a wind tunnel as I went out on the bike. It was as strong as the New Orleans winds a few weeks ago, but the difference was these winds were all coming from one direction and we had to climb mountains against them.

It was slow going. Extremely slow going and my biggest initial struggle was with the sheer amount of extra time this was going to take.  I was almost 4 hours into the race at mile 50 and it was very hard to swallow. I hadn’t payed attention at all to the various bike cutoffs but I started to wonder if I was in danger of missing them.

My shoulder actually ended up not being my limiter, although it did hurt some. Trying to get up to my target watts, I was having some ‘breathlessness’ and started to hyperventilate even though my legs felt fine. This really fed into my anxiety because I didn’t think it was possible to haul my butt up some of the hills at ‘bare minimum watts’ Of course, I also stupidly didn’t have my inhaler so there was nothing I could do except try to suffer through.

Another thing that happened was I somehow bumped my eye or got something in it so my vision was very blurry. So many people got pulled and the field was so spread out that I didn’t see many people at all after the first 40 miles.

The reality of what was happening versus what was happening in my head was something that really screwed with me. In my head, I was so slow in the swim and doing so poorly on the bike and hyperventilating that I was basically the LAST person out on the course. Due to the wind direction and course profile the first 2/3 of each loop is the hard part and trying to do math in my head put me at an 8 hour bike.  What I didn’t realize is that everyone was having an issue with the wind. In reality, I was doing okay and it was just going to be slow.

Then this really negative lady went by and was griping about everything going wrong, missing cutoffs etc. and I started to get really really low. I had to have some serious and lloonngg conversations with myself about how bad did I really want to finish St George. I ran through endless scenarios of what it would be like to stop versus continue. This all seems kind of silly now, but at the time, I thought I was seriously ill with the breathing issue, either from too much red bull, too much caffeine overall, the altitude, or something else.

Finally, I had to tell myself that I wasn’t going to go out like a little punk,  and if I was sick enough I would pass out and then and only then could I stop. I had to break ties emotionally with my strong desire to do ‘well’ and that entailed turning off the Garmin so I couldn’t lament about the big time and little watts. After that, it truly became a quest for survival. I sat up to rest my shoulder, stopped and took a few stretch breaks and sucked it up for the remaining part of the 7 hours and 18 minutes the course took me.

The Yog

Headed out to 'run' Not a very happy camper at this point. 

Getting off my bike, I have never felt so awful. I saw John and Stacey in transition and I was happy to be off the bike and to get my inhaler. The gallons of water, the extra time, everything caught up with me and I was doing a little puking/stopping at porta potties the first 6 miles. I managed to keep it to a jog and gradually started coming around. For the first time in an Ironman, really needed to walk the aid stations to gradually get some broth and coke in me. Finally I started hearing folks talk about the hundreds who either didn’t make swim or bike cutoff then I finally realized it wasn’t just me not having a good day.

I was looking for Ted the whole time really hoping that at least one of us was having a good day, but when I  finally saw him he said he wasn’t either.  I was bummed for him because I knew he had the fitness to really kill it but the day had taken its toll in various ways on pretty much everyone.  I also saw my coach en route to an amazing and HUGE win!!!

Ted on the run.. also not a super happy camper

Three loops was a blessing and a curse. The good side was that I saw John periodically and he was very encouraging and upbeat and didn’t say ‘What happened’ or ‘ are you okay’ both seemingly innocuous statements that really could have pissed me off at that point! Also have to give a shoutout to Angela Meyer, another GA triathlete (who crushed IMSG last year) who seriously took the cheering to a whole new level. Thanks for the encouragement!  The bad news was that we kept having to pass the finish line over and over.

Finally, I got to the last loop and I was actually feeling better after a steady diet of coke and broth. The sun was getting lower and I thought that I might be able to finish before dark still. A new goal gave me a reason to finally pick it up. I picked it up significantly the last three miles and I have never been happier to hear Mike Reilly’s voice!

Strangely, after that, I didn’t feel all that bad and was able to get around  and go out to eat just fine . I was pretty fried from the sun but otherwise moving along pretty well. Also as soon as I crossed, my full blown scratchy throat and congestion came on and I realized that my respiratory difficulties were probably due to a combo of altitude and simply getting a cold. Sucky timing, but at least I finished.

Happy to be alive!

It wasn’t until the next day that I learned there was a 28 % DNF rate… very high for folks who, at this point, knew what they were getting into when they signed up for St. George. I also heard that less than 50% of the women finished but I haven’t verified it myself yet.

Overall, about two hours slower than I was aiming for.. it was apparent early on that for me it was a day ‘to finish’ From an experience standpoint I really wouldn't trade St. George. The whole thing  could only be described as both  awesome and terrible. From a performance standpoint, the year is kicking off to an inauspicious start. I really need to reevaluate and see what needs to happen next and if I'm on the right course .   

Much thanks to my awesome and understanding husband who supports me beyond what is reasonable and puts up with my crazy, expensive, and time consuming hobby. Afterwards, I was able to rally slightly for a fun trip to Vegas with the four of us. Six cups of coffee helped me keep me going till about 2 am (not very late in Vegas!)

view from our suite in Vegas.. somehow we got upgraded to this massive, amazing suite! 

John and I in Vegas. This was taken right before bedtime... tired!

Another window view

New Orleans 70.3: Feeling a little rusty!

New Orleans 70.3. The first time we went, in 2010,  was not a great experience, mostly due to my work schedule which necessitated me flying Saturday night before the race from New Jersey and flying back to New Jersey literally from finish line to airport as soon as I finished. It was also because I finished the race forty minutes later than expected due to a bike mechanical. With all that happened I was sure that revisiting NO THIS time was sure to be a Great experience.

John and I wanted minimal impact to work and life so didn’t leave until Friday and got there pretty late. Saturday weather was bad, knew it was going to be a duathlon. Honestly, I wasn’t too upset mostly from the standpoint the lake is gross and I really didn’t enjoy swimming in it the first time.  We went to dinner with a few friends and acquaintances and got to bed at a decent hour.

Race day came and I was slightly leaning on the side of apprehension instead of excitement.  My first silly mistake was to basically not have caffeine prior to the race, which was dumb. I was yawning as I got in line with my time trial wave and envying the spectators that looked all cozy and warm on the windy day.

Second was to not put in place ‘the plan’ for the run. According to coach I was to run the first two miles fast, like all out. Sounds good to me.  Instead what I did was get at the back of our wave tt start, literally the last person to start. That seemed like a good plan at the time, but what I was actually doing was pretty much ensuring that I wouldn’t be in the mix from the start. All the contenders started at the front, together, and it goes without saying that I never saw them at all!

 At my time to take off, I started running at what ‘felt’ at the time like a fast pace, but instead was the pace I ran my half marathon at later in the day.  It felt fast because I was tired and sleepy and still passing dozens of people at the back of the wave so I figured it was fine. 

Happy to make it to the bike and we were off. I won’t go into huge detail on this (if you really want to know you can ask), but suffice it to say I had made a few last-minute changes to my normal setup and preparation that were ill-advised. The combination of said choices plus the super windy conditions/bumpy roads had my bad shoulder screaming thirty minutes in. That would have been fine, I’m pretty much used to that since it’s been happening since the first time I got on a bike.  It was disappointing however, because I have been finally making some progress lately after a couple years of physical therapy.

This time though, a conglomeration of factors made it way worse than ever and only 45 minutes in nerve c6 or 7 was absolutely getting strangled to the point I was yelling every time I hit a bump. HOLY CRAP, ouch.  There was nothing I could do to get it to release (except it straight up) and being in aero was agony.

The wind was nuts, too. In fact, I was sitting up and watching a guy next to me and envying him being all aero and low and then a gust came and knocked him right over about one second later. Because of all this I was doing a lot of sitting up and moving around and generally sucking and watching my average watts go down.  I have never been so happy to see the end of a bike ride!

I pretty much knew I was out of the race at this point and thought that I at least had a shot at a good run. THANK goodness I had a Red Bull in T2 and that pepped me up right away.

I didn’t want to be upset with not meeting some arbitrary pace goal after I had already missed all the other ones, so I tucked my Garmin away and just ran by feel.  I started to feel better and better each mile, and finally, for the first time that day, found some people to pace off of. 

I was able to see John a couple times on the loop. John was such a champ and had a great attitude the whole time spectating. I know that spectating can be harder and more tiring than racing a lot of times. Thankfully, Elaine Sipos was there so he had someone to run with and hang out with during the race at least. (She was spectating her husband Jeremy, while he snagged the top 30-34 spot and third overall amateur!) 

I saw Jamal on the run, too. I was bummed that he wasn’t having a good day, especially with as hard as he’s been training. I finally glanced at my Garmin at mile 10 and saw that I actually had a good shot at low 1:30s which was my ‘A’ goal for the run. On paper, it seemed like it was doable, but, as you know, it doesn’t really matter what’s possible in theory until you actually execute.

I picked it up significantly and actually may have achieved a negative split which, in my opinion, means I should have run faster in the beginning and overall. The run was definitely the high point of the day!

This was a nice touch!

Overall, I was disappointed with the bike, especially. I have been working so hard on improving my bike and I am disappointed I didn’t get the chance to prove my progress to myself. Like I said before,  it’s one thing to know you can do something on paper, but it doesn’t matter until you actually do it!

The icing on the cake was that I actually ‘would’ have snagged a rolldown slot to the 70.3 Championships but we left before the awards. Whoops! You know what this has to mean, though. THIRD time to New Orleans will HAVE to be the charm!

You can’t always have a good race, though. Nothing injured permanently either. I am absolutely itching to do another 70.3 before Augusta, but I can't quite figure out how to do it... yet.  Overall, I feel good and am excited for St. George in two weeks!

One step forward and two steps back

I know it’s been a while since I have posted but honestly my brain has been too scrambled.  Instead of going back and trying to summarize the past several weeks I’ll just commence with the highlights.

At the beginning of the season looking ahead it’s so easy to see the forest for the trees. You have weeks and weeks to go and tons of time to do work. In reality there are life things that come into play…

Such as sickness, travel, taxi accidents,injury, sickness again.. etc. When I last left you all I was rejoicing over the purchase of my awesome new bike. The possibilities were limitless…

Step back- March began with a mysterious fever bug that had me sidelined for a few days. (and off my new bike L )  Then I had this weird cascade injury thing that started with a simple blister on my foot. My shoe heel basically broke, causing this huge bruise and blister on my foot. This caused me to start running with a slightly ‘off’ gait, which caused a big bone bruise on the opposite foot. Then running with that foot slightly turned out to alleviate the pressure on the top of the foot caused me to slightly strain my adductors and hamstring. So that is an injury summary for four weeks running and I am just ‘almost’ back to normal with that!

Possible step ahead- Then I traveled to San Francisco for work for an entire week. I was excited actually because my coach and coaching group, Purple patch are based out of SF.

No wonder they like indoor training out there. This was just the road to my hotel.

Back again- I was hoping to make it to a  bunch of workouts but work intervened (plus I was trying not to run on the foot. The adductor part hadn’t yet occurred J ) I did have one really fun track workout with them, though. Then my plan on my last morning there was to make it to a masters swim before our last work event and departure. It was going to be an adventure in transportation trying to coordinate taxis back and forth and leaving early to make it on time for my meeting looking reasonably presentable, etc.  

I ran over the possibilities in my head again and again, calculating the odds that something would go wrong and make me tardy. In the end I couldn’t have predicted that another car would run a red light, causing a huge wreck that completely totaled the taxi I was in. No one spoke English except for me so I was the go between  for the drivers and the police!

My taxi. I actually didn't know how bad it was till I got out of the car. Fortunately, no injuries, and everyone insured as far as I could tell

In the end I actually made my swim, albeit a few minutes late (step forward J ) Bad part is that I was so sore from the accident, it was a bit of a setback for the weekend activities and big training.

Happy to be home and had a few solid days after recovering from the accident. Then I picked up a cold that had me down for a few days. That basically brings me to today, and now it’s almost time to rest up for my races, ackk!!

The good news is that even though all this sounds like a lot of setbacks in four weeks, I actually didn’t miss ‘much’ training. I have had a few breakthrough cycling and swim sessions in particular. I know my running is stronger than it was last year.

The other bad news is the progress that I have made with sadie's cause to help build a shelter to save Fulton County dogs from being euthanized. Thought we have had some marvelous friends donate, (and without you all bring proactive I would still be at $0) overall I have done a very poor job fundraising, and I am ridiculously behind my goal. So if you are reading this blog and haven't donated and want to help directly save dogs, please consider donating any amount. I have decided to extend my self-imposed deadline to October since I am so far behind my goal.

In summary,  I am planning to go ahead with New Orleans and St. George and see where I land! I will leave you with a few pics. See you at the races next weekend or thereafter!

Snake that Bailey and Sadie were messing with on their walk today. Thanks goodness it was non poisonous or this blog topic may have been different!

Bailey 'hiding' from Sadie's wrath .. 

This is where we're headed in May, post St. George. Watching the dogs run on the beach is beautiful...

New Season, New Ride!

So much to catch up on. This blog was in the queue, waiting for the race report to get posted first!

I almost forgot to mention the best part of coming back home this weekend. Arriving to find this:

So awesome! I have the best family. Also, while I was away I got a call about MY BIKE!!!!!!

My bike. I have been talking about getting a new bike for a couple of years now. ‘The Shuttle’ as  my ride is nicknamed has had a good run. As a side note, it is called the shuttle because it is a high tech piece of equipment but I am constantly strapping things on there with ducktape. As someone said to me yesterday “When I met you two years ago, your bar tape was really messed up on one side and you still haven’t fixed it.”

It has been a good bike. Much better than my first bike, which was a used road bike from Play It Again Sports made for a 6’ tall man. Also better than my second bike, also built for someone much taller.  All three have been great DEALS which was the main decision factor. SO, in summary, it is Still a very good bike.  However, truth is I have never felt completely comfortable on it despite the help of several local fitting experts. It was time for a change and I just needed to save up gift credits from several holidays to make it happen!

I have been told that I would be perfectly suited to several different bikes by several different people but one thing that was very important to me for this time is that the process be completely objective. I enlisted the help of Matt from Podium, my favorite multisports store to give me an objective opinion. He gave me something that I wouldn’t even describe as just a ‘fitting’ because it went way beyond that. I  know my body is jacked up and uneven in certain ways but he was able to tell me exactly how certain things were off and quantify it with some tests. Thanks, Matt!

Next, I had a really comprehensive evaluation to help me figure out exactly what bikes I was suited for.  At the end of the process I was given a list that included mostly bikes not sold at Podium. To me, this is huge for credibility. I was happy to see that on the list was one of the bikes I had been most attracted to, the Trek Speed Concept. When it first came out, I kind of felt like the technology was beyond me, but after giving it a test ride (or two) at my fave BIKE shop, Atlanta Cycling, it was already the bike I wanted. After I was satisfied that it was also the one that would work BEST, it was on to the shopping at Atlanta Cycling.

Atlanta Cycling is hands down my favorite bike shop in town and I knew they would help me figure out how best to get the perfect SC and pronto! Mike, their awesome resident fitter, helped me figure out exactly what features I wanted and all the guys there weighed in on different color combos and component options. HUGE thanks to Atlanta Cycling!

Here it is!

Terrible pic, I still don't actually  have it in my possession! 

And now it is here! I will be getting the final fit details figured out in the next couple of days then it’s on to the maiden voyage.

Charles Harris 10k

Things have been busy and I am remiss with my CH10K report. I just returned from a great weekend with the rents in Florida. I am so proud of my little brother, who is now a marine and is due to deploy soon. This was a great chance to see him and also to celebrate my niece's first birthday.

A great and special time catching up with family. Also, I enjoyed doting on Ralph. My parents 17 year old poodle, that basically grew up with my little brother. He is very old and wise and I fear this may be the last time I get to see him. :(  

On to the race!

I was excited and apprehensive about this race because it was my big ‘run test’

I had gotten over the hump of the dead legs that plagued me earlier in the year, so I thought, but this would give me a chance to know for sure. I was pumped because there were several friends running with me who all had the same goal: to break 40 then beat the rest of the crew.

I was excited because I heard that this race was flatter than the Chattahoochee Challenge and featured a lot of very gentle grades, my favorite running terrain for sure. Getting to the start was time consuming due to the point ot point nature so I barely had time to warm up at all.

I lined up with my opponents: John (who I actually don’t like to think of as an opponent, it’s better for a relationship) Rosemary, Zach, and Rich. Rosemary had smoked me, no contest, at Hogpen and I had barely edged her out at Polar Bear. There was no contest between me and the other three last two races, they beat me soundly, but I knew I had my running legs under me more the last several weeks so I was hoping I could hang this time.

Although a part of me wondered if I could go faster, I really wanted to do a nice even pace that guaranteed a sub 40, because why get greedy and risk blowing up. That is about a 6:24-24 pace to account for non perfect tangent running. Even pace to me means an even effort, I’m not going to put on the brakes going downhill because that is just silly. Therefore the first mile was a bit fast with the opening being a big downhill. 6:10. John, Rosemary, and I were basically running in a pack for the first three miles and slowly reeled Rich back in. I didn’t see Zach at all, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and just assumed that he was way ahead.

I used John to block the wind for about a mile and was thinking how cool it was that we were running together even though we weren’t purposely changing our paces to run together. I still wasn’t feeling super confident about the hills so I would run my pace uphill and fall a few feet behind then charge ahead by maintaining the same effort on the downhills. After mile 4 it was just John, Rich, and I changing places and running basically together.  I had average pace showing on my Garmin and it said 6:24. I wasn’t sure it was going to be enough.

I felt like I might have a little more to give so I managed to give it a boost the sixth mile and ran a 6:01. At this point we were getting into neighborhoods and there were some short hills that threatened to derail my race entirely. Fixated on fueling properly,  I had been feeling a bit queasy prior to the race. During the race I had been happy that for once my legs didn’t seem to be holding me back, my RPE lungwise and legwise seemed to be matched. I was just about ready to (hopefully) pick it up and sprint to the finish to see if I could hold off John and Rich for a ‘victory’ (Yes, there were probably about a thousand others running but it was a race within a race!)

Then I felt a bad feeling reminiscint of the finish chute puke at the GA half marathon last year. I knew it was going to happen, it was just a matter of time. Could I hold off the puke till the finish? I could see the finish line ahead, then my stomach started contracting and I was dry heaving. NOOO!!! I was still running but I could only breathe in or out with the timing of the dry heaving. I was still trying to run as fast as I could, but lack of oxygen was making me feel if I was seriously going to black out. I saw the disgusted faces of the spectators like I was going in slow motion.. I must have been  a hilarious and disturbing sight!

The dry heaving didn’t stop so I was bobbing and weaving and jogging the whole way to the line. I watched Rich, then John fly past me and there was nothing I could do to respond. Immediately after I crossed the second timing mat, I finally puked. Good timing on the puke, but the leadup really screwed me up! I was just standing there like that for several minutes until (I thought this was quite funny) a volunteer kindly asked me to move out of the way (instead of asking if I needed help, etc. I may have looked beyond help!)

 I couldn’t be too bummed because I did PR and break 40 still by almost 15 seconds. We stayed and watched for other ATCers finishing before we all went to a great brunch at Lee’s house. A fun time, and hopefully, if I can control my stomach, some low- hanging fruit for next time!

Rosemary and I after the race. I gotta watch out for her next time.. the war isn't over! :)


Here is John's quick report of the race. I thought it was too good to leave out:

My quick report:  This was the 1st time doing this race...signed up because I'm trying to work on 10k speed and I heard it was a fast course.  It, indeed, is a very fast course!  I got a quick (shorter than usual) 1 mile warm up in and lined up with Rich and Zach.  I knew this was going to be an epic battle between the 3 of us and Bethany.  My goal was to get sub 40 minutes for the 1st time and I wanted to start out conservatively, not going too much faster than my goal avg pace (6:26/mile).  The first mile was a lot of downhill and I couldn't help from running faster than planned.  I've even told Rosemary that I should slow down, but it just felt too good running downhill!

Rosemary hung with me like a champ until about mile 4 and I was worried that she might surge and join my personal war with Rich and Zach.  Bethany and I ended up running close for almost the entire race and we finally caught Rich and slowly reeled in Zach.  From mile 4 on it was all about who was going to crack first!  The lead changed hands multiple times with all of us surging then dropping back at one time or another.  It was so much fun to be running a "tactical" race, but unfortunately I didn't know the course well enough to play my cards right.  With about a quarter mile to go, Bethany was in the lead but starting to slow a bit.  Rich put in his usual, ridiculous surge up what I thought was the last hill..I countered but then about died when I saw there was another short hill to crest!  He kept accelerating as I started slowing.  Rich ran past a slowing Bethany, who I later heard had been puking 200 yds from the finish line (what a warrior!).  I also ran past her in the last bit before the finish, looking over my shoulder in fear that Zach was gonna sneak up on me.  Zach crossed the line and proceeded to puke just past the chute!  We ended up Rich, me, Bethany and then Zach...what a fun race!  PRs for all 4 of us, but more importantly, we all left it all on the course today...literally, in Zach and B's case!  Without them pushing me there would have been no way I beat my previous PR by a minute (39:43).

A week in the life....

I was amused to see that one person found my blog by typing in the following search phrase "person holding a book and jogging at the same time." HA! I wonder if they were trying to figure out if that is possible or find a logical explanation for something that they saw.

Not a very popular image. "Person holding a book and jogging at the same time."

Anyways, I am sitting here getting caffeinated and ready to hit Cadence for a four-hour Computrainer ride. It is cool and windy outside, and the thought of riding indoors, with friends, to boot, is much more appealing than braving the elements. 

I thought I would entertain the three readers of this blog with ‘The deep thoughts that go through my head in a week of Ironman training.’ I’ll use this past week, since I can’t remember much before that!

Monday- DAY OFF.

Happy. I need this. Legs actually don’t feel that bad. I’m kind of bummed that I can’t go to swim practice. I actually miss swimming. Huh. What to do after work? I’ve got a million things that I Could/Should do.. how about some laundry for starters. Think I will just take the girls for an extra long play time.

Tuesday-SWIM, WORK, TRAINER RIDE/BRICK

Just a little swim. Keep in mind you were missing swimming yesterday. Why is it so hard to swim after a few days of not swimming? I don’t know how people do it that only swim like twice a month.

 For some reason sorer today than yesterday. Will be glad to get back on the bike tonight.  On the bike…. ..OUCH! Guidelines say not deep, but they all feel hard to me.  Why does this never get easier? I’m going to train myself to watch ‘Dance Moms’  while maintaining a heart rate in the 170s if it kills me! The extra psychological pain of crushing yourself in your basement for 90 minutes – 3 hours regularly has to count for more time on the race course! Okay, just a little T run here, only 15 minutes. Wow, this 15 minutes feels hard. I can’t believe I did it, again!!

Wednesday- SWIM, WORK/TREADMILL HILLS

5:30 AM. Something is wrong! My alarm is broken. Oh yeah, masters swim. How long does it take to get to Mercer again? Surely not Really thirty minutes.  I need to pack an extra swim suit because I’m afraid this strap might break mid-practice. Whatever, here’s a safety pin.. I guess that will work with a swim suit. I need to stop at Starbucks for an grande black coffee.

Workout looks not so bad.  Lots of mixed faster stuff then 15 x 100 on the 2:00. Laughably easy.  OH, I forgot. Auugh… there’s enough lanes for us to each have our own.  Why is a set like the the hardest ever when there’s people there to ‘race’ but you also can’t draft. I’m drowning, drowing, but still falling behind. Dang, Jamal is getting faster at swimming. Ted is way faster than me now.  I’ll drown before I take a breath- through though.  DONE! This pool is a lot faster than the LA Fitness pool. Practice done, only 1000ish additional to make my yards.

Treadmill hill intervals. These are the worst pain of any session I do, I think. 3-4% grade sounds sooo innocuous on paper, but it’s truly evil. No watching Dance Mom’s… I’m too nauseous to even listen to my IPOD. I’m going to fall off the back at this speed and this grade.  I always get whupped running up hills… someone somewhere is doing the same thing though and not giving up.  I’m going to do this even if I literally fall of the back of the TM.

Thursday- 5300 SWIM, WORK/ TRAINER

Can I do this swim? Even though I do 4500-5000 on AT least one swim a week I still always wonder if it’s possible for me to complete it. Secret is to not take any breaks or think too much. Thinking is the enemy. 24 ounce coke is my secret weapon. 6 x 800 YIKES!! Okay, using the snorkel here. How do people actually swim more than 25-50 without having to stop and get the water out.  Man, I look cool with my simultaneous band, buoy, and snorkel use.

Don’t think, just do. Lalalalla. Had my stroke videod Wed and my latest stroke fix causes my to cross over so much I am flopping back and forth like a fish. Don’t flop. Don’t flop.  How are my arms supposed to go anyways?  I need to watch some youtube videos on swimming.

Guy making eye contact when I am at the wall. Try to look focused and out of breath so he won’t strike up a conversation. No, dude, I’m not rude but can we please talk, like, later or never? I swear that looks like Peter from the Real HouseWives of Atlanta. I can’t picture him coming to LA Fitness and kicking aimlessly for an hour with giant fins like this guy, though.  Can’t believe I did it..one of my longest solo swims yet.. maybe!

Trainer ride- Nothing on tv. Have a migraine so can’t listen to my IPOD. There are no thoughts left in my brain, just do. It’s strange how much longer two hours is than 90 minutes.  FTP went down slightly after the break…. Everything is  5 watts easier and it feels like I’m cheating. I Hate it. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I did it… I hit everything on my plan! It never fails to amaze me.

I got a lot of flack for showing this pic as my trainer nutrition. It's usually a lot better than this, but this particular day I must have been running on empty in several ways

Friday- WORK, EASY JOG

Easy jog on the trails with Sadie after work.  Why does this jog feel impossible after all the other stuff I’ve done this week? I have the never ending migraine and I can’t take meds again. Okay, I need to hike some of these steeper grades my quads are shot.  Okay, I need to hike some of the steep downhills my brain is shaking around too much. No worries hopefully will feel better for tomorrow.

Bailey's tired after all this training! 10 psi, the perfect amount of inflation for napping.

Saturday- GROUP RUN

Group run. Nothing too hard. Just 90 minutes of running. Thank goodness for company, finally. John and Jared are fun to run with because I can just listen without having to talk myself. Leg’s feeling surprisingly good, let’s pick it up!  I see Rich running back towards me. Huh, that’s not on plan. Yea, he must be feeling okay, because I can tell by looking at him that he’s running under seven minute miles. Oh there’s a cute dog.  I must be getting back in good run shape, because my brain feels very happy. Wow, almost there already. Great run! 

P.S. Please check out the chipin link and consider donating to Sadie's rescue drive to build an doggie adoption center in Atlanta. We need every bit of help we can get!!

The next big thing

When I was a kid, all I wanted was to be an Olympic gymnast. I would stay up late at night watching tapes of meets. Every day after school I would go to our local gym and stay there for hours. There was a series of books somewhat like the babysitters club, only about gymnasts, and I would read them over and over, literally hundreds of times. Sure I was six inches taller, six years older and many pounds heavier than the successful gymnasts, but that wasn’t stopping me. Surely heart would get me there.

 So how did I end up? Heart didn’t get me .. nothin’. I started as a beginner and ended as a beginner with a fear of flipping backwards. The girls I started with were, by the time I quit, practically elite gymnasts, while the greatest distinction I ever achieved was being the first in our gym to do a cartwheel on the beam. When I was in high school my obsession turned to cheerleading. I decided on a whim to try out for the high school team in eighth grade and holy moly, I made it!

For six years, I spent nearly every day after high school and college practicing chants, dances, and stunts. After that, I would go to practices at night for an All-Star competition team which meant more gymnastics, dancing, and stunting.. But what I really wanted was to be a flyer. You know, the girl that gets thrown up in the air and gets to do the cool stuff… scorpions, heel stretches, basket tosses etc. Unfortunately for me, just as in gymnastics, the most popular choice for flyer is not the 5’7 1xx lb girl. Turns out, when we briefly had a coed squad, I was actually not the Worst flyer in the world, but I was Surely the one that my base and spotters most hated to pick up!

Pic of my Samford cheerleading days!

Of course the most obvious thing to do in this situation was to diet my way down to where people didn’t moan and groan picking me up, but that didn’t work out either, no matter how hard I tried. Stopping every morning for breakfast at Mcdonalds and every afternoon at Taco Bell or similar probably didn’t help either. Again, lots of heart, little success.

The coolest thing I did as a cheerleader was wear the cute outfits and occasionally get to ‘fly’ in a stunt while my support team cursed me from beneath. I could tell similar stories with pole vaulting, pageanting, (Although I DID win the titles of Miss Teen Polk County, and Miss Winter Haven… hello big time!!) and a gazillion other activities.

If only I had spent all that time working on something that could actually help me now, say running, or swimming? I wasn’t smart enough to realize at the time, that you should look for something where the odds aren’t completely stacked against you. I thought running was something one did to avoid getting fat, and I thought swim team was dorky. Well, the swimmers I know now sure are getting the last laugh now!

All that brings me to present day, where, I like triathlon so much that I am writing a public blog where I mostly philosophize about triathlon. I spend a lot of time training (duh), I have a coach, I got certified as a coach, I spend my time reading, thinking, and talking about triathlon.

I’d say I’m pretty entrenched. I’m entrenched yet concerned. How is this time any different from before? You see when I first started all those things, I was truly naïve enough to believe that I might be able to succeed at gymnastics, cheerleading, diving (yes, that one was quite short-lived. Let’s get the tall, tubby girl who’s afraid to flip backwards for the varsity dive team!) despite all the odds that were against me.

In the beginning you see progress, but after a few years, you realize that the progress is a lot harder to come by. Success comes in many forms and there’s plenty of people who never made the cheerleading squad, or could do back tucks, etc. who would look at my foray into those endeavors as successful. And there are many other people who were ten times better than I could ever dream of being who were in turn comparing themselves to the people just ahead of them!

Bailey.. she ain't worried about progress!!

I was thinking about this whole process in the pool. I feel frustrated right now, because as much as I’m swimming, I’m not seeing any progress. To someone a few lanes down, I’m probably ‘fast, ‘ to me, the person leading our lane is ‘fast’ and that person knows that their swim is laughably slow compared to a ‘real’ swimmer.

For where I’m about to go, let’s stay focused on SPORT as I’m close to getting mired in the deep end here. Thinking about this logical progression and where it eventually ends, I was wondering if it’s ever truly possible to be satisfied for a certain personality type to be satisfied with ‘the status quo’. When do you just say ‘ wow, I did good, I am happy with my progress/performance’ and REALLY mean it.. without any caveats or little voices you don’t admit to that say ‘If I could just do x,’ then I would be Exactly where I want to be? Food for thought 