Holy Moly, what a tough race!!!
I finished, though, and that's all that matters to me. But I suspect there may be a LOT of DNFs when the final results are posted :-(
Full report to come soon. Must get some sleep!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Next Saturday: The BIG Dance
How in the world could 9 months have flown by so fast? Or, for that matter, 3 years?It seems like just yesterday I was dabbling in tris, learning how to swim and trying to stay upright on my bike. Yet, here I am less than a week away from the Great Floridian (GF), an iron distance triathlon that I would never have considered doing not long ago. Heat plus hills? NO THANKS!!
But GF has a rich and storied history. This year marks its
Two words: Ironman Florida (IMFL).
Two weeks later, usually cooler and a whole lot flatter, IMFL now attracts most triathletes in the area who are seeking their first ironman finish, ironman PRs or a Kona slot. A large part of it is also probably the brand name marketing, i.e., getting called an "Ironman" when you cross the finish line of an Ironman brand race.
Me? I'm actually the type of person who would do an iron distance triathlon when no one is looking. What I wanted this year was a new challenge, not a new name. I already knew how to swim and could swim long (though not as fast as I'd like). I'd ridden 80-100+ miles several times and had run over 50 marathons. So just doing any ol' race with a 2.4 mi swim, 112 mi bike and a 26.2 mi run didn't stir those butterflies like it did back in 2006 when I was brand new to the sport. I needed more!
With the help of Coach Bill, we devised a plan so that I could tackle one of the toughest iron distance tris around and another one two weeks later that was similar to IMFL. This year I'd learn how to ride hills and handle extreme heat like my tri heroes, and I'd also have a shot at finding out what I could do on an flatter, cooler course. Both within the same training cycle and for about the same price as one Ironman brand race. Now we're talking!
And the excitement has seemingly made time fly. I never got really burned out from training this year. I was never more dedicated in getting myself to the pool or getting outside to deal with the horrible FL summer heat. Embrace the heat my @ss, it was more like try not to let it kill you! I never lifted weights and stretched more diligently. I never watched my diet and weight so closely. Critical when training long in serious heat!
So very different than back in 2006 when I trained myself for IMFL. Then, I basically got so that I could swim 2.4 miles, but only in the best water conditions, and I could get by on the bike and run. Unfortunately, Mother Nature would produce the worst water conditions making it a short race day for me -- Oh well!
Thus, it's ironic that the big question this Saturday is also what will Mother Nature throw at us? Namely, will the water temp be wetsuit legal (78 degs or less)?
Well, in its
Ahh, the uncertainty of ironmans.
Wish me luck. There's no athlete tracking available so I'll update you all after the race either late Saturday or on Sunday. Hope you all have a great week!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Epic Weekend!
First of all, CONGRATS to everyone who raced last weekend! I know it was a big weekend for many and look forward to catching up with everyone soon. The last few days I have only been on my computer to do 3 things: work, answer email & deal with my Iron Dilemma. And thanks to all your great input, I was able to come up with a way to ride some flats with Dave, then ride some hills on my own *and* still have him close by and comfortable while he waited 3-4 hours for me to finish.
How could that be possible when flats/home and hills are located about an hour apart and it's 90+ freaking degrees outside?
Tadda, enter our favorite home away from home: Hampton Inn.
In fact, one is located only a few miles from the Great Floridian course and we've stayed there the night before other past events in Clermont, FL (like the Assault from Sugarloaf Ride and FL Challenge half iron). For training, however, we've always gotten up early and just driven out there in the morning and driven back home. Why not stay there after the big Saturday brick workout and drive home after my long Sunday run?
The night's stay would be FREE anyway using Dave's Hilton hotel points and he'd been home all week so surely he would not mind spending one measly night in a hotel this week. Worst case, I'm sure he could be easily bribed ;-)
He'll get to control the thermostat the whole weekend. (I usually set ours at home to 82.)
He'll get to watch History Channel shows, Myth Busters, Dirty Jobs and other stuff he likes on cable TV. (We don't have cable at home.)
We'll eat dinner at the restaurant next door after my long brick workout. (We rarely eat out together unless we're on travel or it's a special occasion.)
Free breakfast Sunday morning. (Need I say more?)
Lunch at Panera, which is also next door, after my long Sunday run.
Plus, lots of attention and cuddling all weekend when I'm not working out. (Partly because I'll be ffffreezing in a 65 deg room!)
So the plan was to ride a 45 mi flat-ish route together and then I'd do another 60 on my own for a total of 105. My favorite route mapping tool these days is Bike Route Toaster. It provides a nice elevation map and you can also download the course directions to your Garmin, something that Dave likes (I prefer knowing the course in my head). I had let go of the notion of riding the actual GF course (the first half is definitely not flat!), but there are plenty of hills I could ride on my own to make for that.
(Side note: Coach said I could ride flats when I told him that I didn't think I could get Dave to ride in Clermont again after the fire ant and heat exhaustion episode. He did not direct me to ride flats specifically and probably would have preferred that I ride some hills.)
But Mother Nature (MN) had other plans ...
That B*tch produced record high temps this past weekend. And, of course, I had the "brilliant" idea to start our ride about the same time I'd be riding on race day after my swim, 9 am, and by then temps already felt like 86 degs. Bleah!
Dave fared well in the heat this week on the flatter course even with temps soaring to 102 with the humidity factored in. YAY, Dave! Unfortunately, I had 60 more to do by myself :-( and I gotta say that heading out on my own for the rest in that heat was beyond tough. To make it a bit easier for me mentally, I decided to do 2 laps, as some of you suggested. That way I could also get more water from a park with restrooms and never be more than ~15 miles from Dave who was heading to the hotel after his ride.
MN was having none of it, however. She was determined to break me down and decided to see if some rain might dampen my iron spirits. Ha, I'll take rain over heat any day!
But did I bring my little blinky light so I could be more easily spotted on the road by cars in limited visibility conditions? Doh!
So I rode on a nearby bike path instead of the narrow, shoulder-less roads for a bit. Now I am not a big fan of riding on bike paths but in this heat and rain, there was NO ONE to dodge on the path and it was much safer than tempting fate on a narrow road with a fair amount of traffic in the rain. A few miles later, the rain stopped and the heat index skyrocketed up around 100 again. I was back riding on the roads again now that I was further out, which was nice so I didn't have to slow down at every intersection, but somewhere along the way I lost my desire to hit all the steepest hills on the GF course. I settled on riding only the nasty ones at the end of the GF course at the end of my ride. The rest of the ride would be only rollers, which in this heat was going to be plenty for me.
Lap one was done with little fanfare. Not sure what my average speed was but I know I was going faster than only 13-14mph last time I was riding on what was supposed to be the easier part of route. WTF??? Is it the heat? Am I dehydrated? Did I eat enough? Did I push too hard early on? Another slow leak in a tire?
It was hard to tell at first riding in a fairly barren area, but then it became obvious when I turned and got to an area that had some trees.
WHOOOSH! Yes, leaves were blowing off trees and coming toward me. Not a good sign. The skies had clouded up again and then huge water drops began thudding on my helmet. I knew what was coming ...
CRRRAACK!!! Crap, thunder.
Yep, MN was royally pissed now. She brought in a full-blown thunderstorm with 23-25 mph winds and driving rain to try to stop me. There was really no shelter out there and it'd take Dave 15-20 minutes to come get me (and by then the storm would most likely be gone) so I just kept pedaling. I struggled to keep my speed above 10 mph heading into the wind and rain but the more important thing I was doing was counting the number of seconds between the time I saw the lightening and heard the thunder. Fortunately, that time did not seem to be getting less so traversing those nasty hills late in the course, which are also some of the highest points in the area and where some tall power towers are located, should be OK. I hope!
The funny thing was that I think I climbed those hills the best I ever have. For one thing, the storm had dropped temps down into the 80's so it was considerably cooler than the other times I'd ridden them. But also, my adrenaline levels were red-lining. There was no way in heck I wanted to spend any extra time on those hills with all the thunder and lightening in the area (a lot of people who get hit by lightening are not in the midst of a storm but rather on the outward edges). All the rain, however, created rivers of water in the low areas of the road where I knew some cracks and wheel grabbing potholes were lying in wait so I could not coast downhills as fast as I normally would in dry conditions. And the fact that there were very few cars out on this road in the storm was both a good and bad thing. Good because I didn't have to worry much about them not seeing me or hitting me. Bad because if I got hit by lightening or crashed and couldn't call for help, there was no one around. (Dave would eventually see that I'm not moving on the GPS locator service we have with my cell phone, though, and find me as long as my phone was OK).
So, basically, I could not crash, that's all there was to it. Nothing I could do about lightening except try to stay away from tall stuff. Just don't crash. Don't crash. Don't crash.
I went up the hills and down them almost as slow. I gave myself ample time to brake and made sure to round corners carefully. I finally made it to the hotel with a total of 105.3 miles completed in 6:44:27 (15.6 mph avg). Whew!
By then it'd stopped raining but was still cloudy which was nice for my 5-mile brick run. Towards the end of the run, however, the sun came out again and it felt like 95 degs even at 5:30pm. Ugh ... 5 miles done in 49:25, a 9:53 pace. Better than I thought, actually, and Dave got 3 huge bags of ice for my ice bath to reward me. Thanks Dave 8-O
The next day Mother Nature came out fighting again with temps already feeling like low 80s at 7:45 am. Probably would have been better to run 18 miles in the evening when I'd be running during the race (and when things would hopefully be getting cooler rather than hotter late in the run) but I wanted to get the run over with early. My legs felt sluggish the first 3 miles but got better and I ran fine until around mile 10. Then the heat index was well over 90 again and even running largely in the shade felt so hot with the little wind there was. I envied all the cyclists I saw knowing they were creating their own breeze.
By mile 14, I went into survival mode taking regular walk breaks every mile to keep my HR down and to try to get as much fluids into me as possible. It was not pretty and I definitely did NOT finish as strong as I would have liked but I got 18 miles done in ~3:15 (10:50 pace, including walk breaks). I'll take it! Dave picked me up from where I finished, got another 3 huge bags of ice from the ice machine for my ice bath and today I'm feeling surprisingly good considering all I did this weekend.
I made it to my taper -- HOORAY!!!
----------------------
Weekend workout summary:
Fri 4500 yd swim: 4x1000s with five 100's thrown in the middle.
Sat 105.3 bike (15.6 mph) + 5 mi run (9:53 pace), 80-102 deg HI, 3700' climbing.
Sun 18 mi run (10:50 pace), 81-98 deg HI.
How could that be possible when flats/home and hills are located about an hour apart and it's 90+ freaking degrees outside?
Tadda, enter our favorite home away from home: Hampton Inn.
In fact, one is located only a few miles from the Great Floridian course and we've stayed there the night before other past events in Clermont, FL (like the Assault from Sugarloaf Ride and FL Challenge half iron). For training, however, we've always gotten up early and just driven out there in the morning and driven back home. Why not stay there after the big Saturday brick workout and drive home after my long Sunday run?
The night's stay would be FREE anyway using Dave's Hilton hotel points and he'd been home all week so surely he would not mind spending one measly night in a hotel this week. Worst case, I'm sure he could be easily bribed ;-)
He'll get to control the thermostat the whole weekend. (I usually set ours at home to 82.)
He'll get to watch History Channel shows, Myth Busters, Dirty Jobs and other stuff he likes on cable TV. (We don't have cable at home.)
We'll eat dinner at the restaurant next door after my long brick workout. (We rarely eat out together unless we're on travel or it's a special occasion.)
Free breakfast Sunday morning. (Need I say more?)
Lunch at Panera, which is also next door, after my long Sunday run.
Plus, lots of attention and cuddling all weekend when I'm not working out. (Partly because I'll be ffffreezing in a 65 deg room!)
So the plan was to ride a 45 mi flat-ish route together and then I'd do another 60 on my own for a total of 105. My favorite route mapping tool these days is Bike Route Toaster. It provides a nice elevation map and you can also download the course directions to your Garmin, something that Dave likes (I prefer knowing the course in my head). I had let go of the notion of riding the actual GF course (the first half is definitely not flat!), but there are plenty of hills I could ride on my own to make for that.
(Side note: Coach said I could ride flats when I told him that I didn't think I could get Dave to ride in Clermont again after the fire ant and heat exhaustion episode. He did not direct me to ride flats specifically and probably would have preferred that I ride some hills.)
But Mother Nature (MN) had other plans ...
That B*tch produced record high temps this past weekend. And, of course, I had the "brilliant" idea to start our ride about the same time I'd be riding on race day after my swim, 9 am, and by then temps already felt like 86 degs. Bleah!
Dave fared well in the heat this week on the flatter course even with temps soaring to 102 with the humidity factored in. YAY, Dave! Unfortunately, I had 60 more to do by myself :-( and I gotta say that heading out on my own for the rest in that heat was beyond tough. To make it a bit easier for me mentally, I decided to do 2 laps, as some of you suggested. That way I could also get more water from a park with restrooms and never be more than ~15 miles from Dave who was heading to the hotel after his ride.
MN was having none of it, however. She was determined to break me down and decided to see if some rain might dampen my iron spirits. Ha, I'll take rain over heat any day!
But did I bring my little blinky light so I could be more easily spotted on the road by cars in limited visibility conditions? Doh!
So I rode on a nearby bike path instead of the narrow, shoulder-less roads for a bit. Now I am not a big fan of riding on bike paths but in this heat and rain, there was NO ONE to dodge on the path and it was much safer than tempting fate on a narrow road with a fair amount of traffic in the rain. A few miles later, the rain stopped and the heat index skyrocketed up around 100 again. I was back riding on the roads again now that I was further out, which was nice so I didn't have to slow down at every intersection, but somewhere along the way I lost my desire to hit all the steepest hills on the GF course. I settled on riding only the nasty ones at the end of the GF course at the end of my ride. The rest of the ride would be only rollers, which in this heat was going to be plenty for me.
Lap one was done with little fanfare. Not sure what my average speed was but I know I was going faster than only 13-14mph last time I was riding on what was supposed to be the easier part of route. WTF??? Is it the heat? Am I dehydrated? Did I eat enough? Did I push too hard early on? Another slow leak in a tire?
It was hard to tell at first riding in a fairly barren area, but then it became obvious when I turned and got to an area that had some trees.
WHOOOSH! Yes, leaves were blowing off trees and coming toward me. Not a good sign. The skies had clouded up again and then huge water drops began thudding on my helmet. I knew what was coming ...
CRRRAACK!!! Crap, thunder.
Yep, MN was royally pissed now. She brought in a full-blown thunderstorm with 23-25 mph winds and driving rain to try to stop me. There was really no shelter out there and it'd take Dave 15-20 minutes to come get me (and by then the storm would most likely be gone) so I just kept pedaling. I struggled to keep my speed above 10 mph heading into the wind and rain but the more important thing I was doing was counting the number of seconds between the time I saw the lightening and heard the thunder. Fortunately, that time did not seem to be getting less so traversing those nasty hills late in the course, which are also some of the highest points in the area and where some tall power towers are located, should be OK. I hope!
The funny thing was that I think I climbed those hills the best I ever have. For one thing, the storm had dropped temps down into the 80's so it was considerably cooler than the other times I'd ridden them. But also, my adrenaline levels were red-lining. There was no way in heck I wanted to spend any extra time on those hills with all the thunder and lightening in the area (a lot of people who get hit by lightening are not in the midst of a storm but rather on the outward edges). All the rain, however, created rivers of water in the low areas of the road where I knew some cracks and wheel grabbing potholes were lying in wait so I could not coast downhills as fast as I normally would in dry conditions. And the fact that there were very few cars out on this road in the storm was both a good and bad thing. Good because I didn't have to worry much about them not seeing me or hitting me. Bad because if I got hit by lightening or crashed and couldn't call for help, there was no one around. (Dave would eventually see that I'm not moving on the GPS locator service we have with my cell phone, though, and find me as long as my phone was OK).
So, basically, I could not crash, that's all there was to it. Nothing I could do about lightening except try to stay away from tall stuff. Just don't crash. Don't crash. Don't crash.
I went up the hills and down them almost as slow. I gave myself ample time to brake and made sure to round corners carefully. I finally made it to the hotel with a total of 105.3 miles completed in 6:44:27 (15.6 mph avg). Whew!
By then it'd stopped raining but was still cloudy which was nice for my 5-mile brick run. Towards the end of the run, however, the sun came out again and it felt like 95 degs even at 5:30pm. Ugh ... 5 miles done in 49:25, a 9:53 pace. Better than I thought, actually, and Dave got 3 huge bags of ice for my ice bath to reward me. Thanks Dave 8-O
The next day Mother Nature came out fighting again with temps already feeling like low 80s at 7:45 am. Probably would have been better to run 18 miles in the evening when I'd be running during the race (and when things would hopefully be getting cooler rather than hotter late in the run) but I wanted to get the run over with early. My legs felt sluggish the first 3 miles but got better and I ran fine until around mile 10. Then the heat index was well over 90 again and even running largely in the shade felt so hot with the little wind there was. I envied all the cyclists I saw knowing they were creating their own breeze.
By mile 14, I went into survival mode taking regular walk breaks every mile to keep my HR down and to try to get as much fluids into me as possible. It was not pretty and I definitely did NOT finish as strong as I would have liked but I got 18 miles done in ~3:15 (10:50 pace, including walk breaks). I'll take it! Dave picked me up from where I finished, got another 3 huge bags of ice from the ice machine for my ice bath and today I'm feeling surprisingly good considering all I did this weekend.
I made it to my taper -- HOORAY!!!
----------------------
Weekend workout summary:
Fri 4500 yd swim: 4x1000s with five 100's thrown in the middle.
Sat 105.3 bike (15.6 mph) + 5 mi run (9:53 pace), 80-102 deg HI, 3700' climbing.
Sun 18 mi run (10:50 pace), 81-98 deg HI.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Iron Dilemma
Thanks everyone for your thoughts on Dave. Luckily, he's home this week so I can "monitor" the fire ant damage and help ward off infection. One time he got several bites on his foot and it swelled into a big wiener so he couldn't put a shoe on it for days! Of course, that hasn't stopped him from walking around outside barefoot or sitting on the ground where those buggers may be ...
Anyhoo, I have a BIG dilemma and I need some input from you again.
As I mentioned in my previous post, this coming weekend will be my biggest week in training volume and then I get to taper. To date, most of my long runs have been done a day or so *before* my long rides. This was mainly because of Dave's travel schedule (he usually got home after midnight on Fridays and could not ride long on Saturdays). In an iron tri, however, you ride long and then run long and many iron training programs have you ride long on Saturdays and then run long on Sundays. This weekend will be the first and only time I will do that: Saturday - 105 mile bike plus a 5-mile run, Sunday - 18 mile run.
Now Coach has said I can actually do this last long ride on flats to spare Dave more agony (he really should not be riding hills in heat without a solid nutrition plan). But a big part of me actually wants to head back out to the hills again knowing that a few weeks ago I couldn't even imagine running after riding the new Great Floridian (GF) course and nearly bailed on doing the full distance. Last weekend, I rode 74 miles, the toughest parts of the course, and then ran 7 miles off the bike without too much difficulty, which makes me feel better but I'm still worried, esp. since the swim may very well turn out to be not wetsuit legal. This week's highs are still over 90 degs (~100 deg heat index) -- WAH!
So, here's my dilemma:
If I leave my loving, supportive (and itchy) husband at home and ride the GF course by myself this weekend, I'll get a much better sense of what to expect on race day. However, Dave will feel left out (cycling is the one activity we try to do together every week) and he'll worry about me being out there by myself, although it's fine by me (the riding alone part, not his worrying). More than likely, he'll force himself to come with me and do as much as he can again and, similarly, if he gets into trouble, it'll be hard to modify the route and there aren't many places to rest/refuel along the way. Plus, this weekend's weather looks to be even hotter than last weekend and so even if he does only half of the ride with me, he'll still have to wait 3-4 hours for me in the heat to finish my ride and run (even in the shade, it's plenty hot).
Alternatively, I could ride flats nearby our home with Dave and just hope the training I've done will carry me through the race. Riding flats is much easier for Dave in the heat. We can also do multiple loops passing by multiple places to rest/refuel as needed. He can head home and get out of the heat whenever he feels he's done and still be fairly close by while I'm out riding. However, riding flats is nothing like riding hills to me and doing so will not help my confidence much for GF, although it will help for B2B.
Please let me know what you think I should do!
Monday, October 05, 2009
Active Rest & Recovery
This is a term I used to hear and say a lot when taking/teaching fitness classes a while back. Between intervals of high intensity stuff, we'd do intervals of low intensity stuff, such as jogging or jump rope. We never got to completely rest until we were done and one of the things that I remember thinking when I was first exposed to this type of training was that the instructor must be smoking crack. How on earth could jogging or jump roping be considered rest?
But after several weeks, it did get easier and I became a lot stronger both physically and mentally. And so it seems with my iron training. While it used to be that a half iron would pretty much wipe me out, now it's just a step-back or rest week for me. Coach gave me my usual one day off (Monday) after the FL Challenge and I was right back into training -- I mean, recovering -- so that it was business as usual by the weekend:
Fri - 15 mi run @ 8:51 pace, AHR 159, 83-86 deg HI. Last bit of the cold front!
Sat - 2x2000m open water swim, 1:35 w/ my wetsuit. It still feels like it's choking me but it doesn't bother me much after a while. I pray that GF will be wetsuit legal!!
Sun - 74 mi bike on the GF course minus flatter parts, 15.5 mph, AHR 141, 77-88 degs HI.
7 mi brick run @ 9:41 pace, AHR 158, 87-90 deg HI. Back to hot :-(
But no doubt the hardest thing about last weekend was seeing Dave suffer during the ride yesterday. Although he's not training for an ironman and has done very few rides over 50 miles in the heat, he wanted to go the whole way with me and I could not talk him out of it. He did fine until mile 60, but after that, the sun poured out through the clouds and we'd just begun the hilliest part of the course where there was virtually no shade. His HR skyrocketed and he had to dismount his bike and walk up one of the steepest hills. After making it to the top, he then had to go sit under a tree for a while to cool off. Not a good idea in FL!
Yep, a bunch of fire ants found him but he was too exhausted to move. Finally, he got up and we brushed off as many as we could from his shorts. He decided to take a different, flatter route back to the car but insisted that I go the original route to hit all the hills late in the GF course. I worried about him the whole way but found him back at the car waiting for me. Poor guy had gotten chills, probably from heat exhaustion, and also a severe rash from all the fire ant bites on his butt (he's somewhat allergic to them -- not a pretty sight). Even after my 7-mile run, he was still out of it so I drove us home. And wouldn't you know it, he has an appointment with a colonscopy doc today ...
Anyway, this coming weekend will be my biggest to date in terms of volume. Hopefully Dave will know his limits better (you try telling a former Marine that ;-). After that, I've got a 2 week taper going into GF and then 2 weeks to recover for B2B. Yikes, it's getting close!
But after several weeks, it did get easier and I became a lot stronger both physically and mentally. And so it seems with my iron training. While it used to be that a half iron would pretty much wipe me out, now it's just a step-back or rest week for me. Coach gave me my usual one day off (Monday) after the FL Challenge and I was right back into training -- I mean, recovering -- so that it was business as usual by the weekend:
Fri - 15 mi run @ 8:51 pace, AHR 159, 83-86 deg HI. Last bit of the cold front!
Sat - 2x2000m open water swim, 1:35 w/ my wetsuit. It still feels like it's choking me but it doesn't bother me much after a while. I pray that GF will be wetsuit legal!!
Sun - 74 mi bike on the GF course minus flatter parts, 15.5 mph, AHR 141, 77-88 degs HI.
7 mi brick run @ 9:41 pace, AHR 158, 87-90 deg HI. Back to hot :-(
But no doubt the hardest thing about last weekend was seeing Dave suffer during the ride yesterday. Although he's not training for an ironman and has done very few rides over 50 miles in the heat, he wanted to go the whole way with me and I could not talk him out of it. He did fine until mile 60, but after that, the sun poured out through the clouds and we'd just begun the hilliest part of the course where there was virtually no shade. His HR skyrocketed and he had to dismount his bike and walk up one of the steepest hills. After making it to the top, he then had to go sit under a tree for a while to cool off. Not a good idea in FL!
Yep, a bunch of fire ants found him but he was too exhausted to move. Finally, he got up and we brushed off as many as we could from his shorts. He decided to take a different, flatter route back to the car but insisted that I go the original route to hit all the hills late in the GF course. I worried about him the whole way but found him back at the car waiting for me. Poor guy had gotten chills, probably from heat exhaustion, and also a severe rash from all the fire ant bites on his butt (he's somewhat allergic to them -- not a pretty sight). Even after my 7-mile run, he was still out of it so I drove us home. And wouldn't you know it, he has an appointment with a colonscopy doc today ...
Anyway, this coming weekend will be my biggest to date in terms of volume. Hopefully Dave will know his limits better (you try telling a former Marine that ;-). After that, I've got a 2 week taper going into GF and then 2 weeks to recover for B2B. Yikes, it's getting close!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Don't Blink!!
Cuz it's not gonna last long.This cold front, that is. Morning temps are below 70 for the first time since like April. There's a cool, crisp feeling to the air and NO wind. We're only going to get up to maybe 83 degs today. Incredible!!
Too bad my legs are not quite ready to run the 15-miler I have on tap for later this week. It's the perfect day for it. No, instead I have a swim to do. The lifeguards will probably be all bundled up in sweats shivering. Hell, I might have to wait until lunch time so I won't freeeeeze my patooey getting out. Do I even have any sweats?
Thanks for all the nice comments on my FL Challenge post. It was the most difficult half iron tri course I've done to date, even w/o the nutrition SNAFU, but I wouldn't want all races to be easy or go well, would I?
No, then it'd be boring and I'd have to move on to something more challenging :-)
Hope everyone has a great day!
Monday, September 28, 2009
2009 Florida Challenge
Well, they don't call it The Intimidator for nothing. The Florida Challenge was already the toughest half iron tri in Florida with its hills, heat and humidity. There was really no need to move it up a month and change the bike course to make things even tougher. Good grief.
Still, it was a good opportunity for me to practice racing my own race as Coach would say, get more training on the Great Floridian (GF) course, work on my ironman pacing, nutrition, etc. Dave, however, put as much work into it as if it were a real race so I'll show off some of his photo handiwork :-)
As expected, the water temp was too warm to be wetsuit legal so, sorry, no funny pictures of me dancing or wriggling to put the rubber suit on.
But, does this swim cap make my head look FAT?
Out of the water in 53:38, not fast but a new non-wetsuit 1.2 mi swim PR for me and many pink caps still behind me. 8/10 F45-49, 38/53 Female.
T1 - a leisurely 3:58 with too much time spent trying to pull on my tri top (not easy when wet) and then running my bike all the way to the end and around the transition area as required to avoid colliding with folks coming in from the swim. So much for being close to the Bike Out. It meant you had further to run with your bike -- ARGH!
My HR was 171(!) by the time I got to riding and took several miles to settle down. Climbing hills out of the saddle didn't help. I know it's hard to tell with my short legs so just work with me here ...
But that was just for show. I sat back down as soon as I passed the camera ;-)
Halfway on the bike course and being a good girl now staying seated spinning up hills, coasting down them and letting everyone and their grandmother pass me.
Not a very aggressive aero riding position at all but I can ride forever and back.
56(?) miles done in 3:25:38 (16.3 mph). My Garmin and others I spoke to said 58+ miles but it is what it is. 6/10 F45-49, 20/53 Female.
T2 - another leisurely 3:50 thanks to a pit stop. Probably the only time I'll ever pee on my bike is when I'm desperate. On to the run!
Whoa, who put a brick in my Camelbak?! Man, it felt like it weighed 20# (really only 6-7).
What's worse, though, I just realized I've somehow lost all the gels I had in a pocket. $#?@%!!! Surely there'll be some gels or food on the course, right?
Nope, just fluids. And extra from Mother Nature too. But the rain made the 98 deg heat index plummet down into the 80's for a while --Ahh!
Finishing lap 1 of the 2-lap course, keeping things slow and easy. A kind volunteer had given me a small bag of chips her friend had (the friend wasn't too happy about that, I might add) and I had one emergency gel in a separate pocket. All was not lost.
Ate the gel at the 6.55 mile turnaround and decided to walk through all aid stations and drink as much Gatorade as possible for extra calories. Now it was solely about survival.
Ended up doing a lot more walking when the sun came back out but, fortunately, it rained again and my final mile ended up being my fastest -- Yippee! 13.1 miles done in 2:18:34 (10:34 pace), 4/10 F45-49, 20/53 Female. Not the run I'd hoped for but far from my worst.
Me and my beautiful racing buddy Erica. We leapfrogged and encouraged each other on the bike and run segments.
Final race time: 6:45:23, 5/10 F45-49, 20/53 Female. Funny, it does not feel like a half iron PW (Personal Worst) at all.
Maybe it's because of the awesome medal I got.
Or perhaps it's because I know now I'll be happy with any finishing time at GF, which, BTW, is only FOUR weeks away - OMG!!!
Still, it was a good opportunity for me to practice racing my own race as Coach would say, get more training on the Great Floridian (GF) course, work on my ironman pacing, nutrition, etc. Dave, however, put as much work into it as if it were a real race so I'll show off some of his photo handiwork :-)
As expected, the water temp was too warm to be wetsuit legal so, sorry, no funny pictures of me dancing or wriggling to put the rubber suit on.
But, does this swim cap make my head look FAT?
Out of the water in 53:38, not fast but a new non-wetsuit 1.2 mi swim PR for me and many pink caps still behind me. 8/10 F45-49, 38/53 Female.
T1 - a leisurely 3:58 with too much time spent trying to pull on my tri top (not easy when wet) and then running my bike all the way to the end and around the transition area as required to avoid colliding with folks coming in from the swim. So much for being close to the Bike Out. It meant you had further to run with your bike -- ARGH!
My HR was 171(!) by the time I got to riding and took several miles to settle down. Climbing hills out of the saddle didn't help. I know it's hard to tell with my short legs so just work with me here ...
But that was just for show. I sat back down as soon as I passed the camera ;-)
Halfway on the bike course and being a good girl now staying seated spinning up hills, coasting down them and letting everyone and their grandmother pass me.
Not a very aggressive aero riding position at all but I can ride forever and back.
56(?) miles done in 3:25:38 (16.3 mph). My Garmin and others I spoke to said 58+ miles but it is what it is. 6/10 F45-49, 20/53 Female.
T2 - another leisurely 3:50 thanks to a pit stop. Probably the only time I'll ever pee on my bike is when I'm desperate. On to the run!
Whoa, who put a brick in my Camelbak?! Man, it felt like it weighed 20# (really only 6-7).
What's worse, though, I just realized I've somehow lost all the gels I had in a pocket. $#?@%!!! Surely there'll be some gels or food on the course, right?
Nope, just fluids. And extra from Mother Nature too. But the rain made the 98 deg heat index plummet down into the 80's for a while --Ahh!
Finishing lap 1 of the 2-lap course, keeping things slow and easy. A kind volunteer had given me a small bag of chips her friend had (the friend wasn't too happy about that, I might add) and I had one emergency gel in a separate pocket. All was not lost.
Ate the gel at the 6.55 mile turnaround and decided to walk through all aid stations and drink as much Gatorade as possible for extra calories. Now it was solely about survival.
Ended up doing a lot more walking when the sun came back out but, fortunately, it rained again and my final mile ended up being my fastest -- Yippee! 13.1 miles done in 2:18:34 (10:34 pace), 4/10 F45-49, 20/53 Female. Not the run I'd hoped for but far from my worst.
Me and my beautiful racing buddy Erica. We leapfrogged and encouraged each other on the bike and run segments.
Final race time: 6:45:23, 5/10 F45-49, 20/53 Female. Funny, it does not feel like a half iron PW (Personal Worst) at all.
Maybe it's because of the awesome medal I got.
Or perhaps it's because I know now I'll be happy with any finishing time at GF, which, BTW, is only FOUR weeks away - OMG!!!
Monday, September 21, 2009
Keep Your Eye on the Prize
No, not that one!Poor Coach has been sounding like a broken record player lately getting me to focus on my original iron goals instead of the tantalizing one (sub-13) that came along later and preoccupied me.
It's hard for me to let go of time goals but it must be done. This weekend I did a carefree 50-mile ride with Dave that helped. We hit those nasty hills late in the Great Floridian iron course again and I didn't even look at my Garmin (obviously, as it had turned itself off when I hit a bump and didn't even record anything for miles!). Though those hills were still far from easy, knowing what to expect was HUGE. In hindsight, I really let those buggers get to me last weekend. I just couldn't believe the course would end that way. Plus, I pushed too hard on some flats shortly before them thinking they wouldn't/couldn't be as bad as the ones in the first half of the course. Wrong!
I should know better than to assume, especially with the GF race motto being "Are You Tough Enough?"
After that 50-mile ride, I ran mainly by feel and pounded out 5 mi @ 8:34 pace, a new best run off the bike in 95-96 deg heat index. And the night before I'd run 13 miles @ 9:07 pace in 91-88 degs HI (got cooler after sunset). Un-freaking-believable. Was it not me who was cursing and struggling to run in 90 degs just a few short months ago?Next weekend I'm doing the Florida Challenge half iron tri. It's held at the same venue as the Great Floridian but with GF only 4 weeks later, it'll not be a hard racing effort for me. Just an opportunity to train on more hills and practice my pacing, nutrition and transitions in a race situation. Maybe I'll also practice some of the hill training "tips" I saw on the GF race forum:
- Remember it's also 1/2 down hill!
- Train by getting a single speed fat tire bike and do a couple centurys
- Lock your front brake for training rides.
- Switch your front and back rings
- Remember that you won't have to worry about drafting.
- Move to Switzerland for the month of September.
- Get Lite! Buy one of those balloon kits & replace one of your water bottles with the helium for you to suck on before each hill.
- Find an overpass and tie bricks to the back of your bike.
- Before it's to late send money to the FL. state officials in exchange for two loops of the flats.
- Start practicing running hills in your bike shoes?
- Go for rides wearing your full wetsuit.
- Keep tires inflated to 40 psi.
- Stuff bottom bracket with 1/4" aggregate rocks.
- Train riding 15-18% grade hills with standard (non-clipless) pedals.
- Put on a set of Power Cranks for those 15-18% grade hills.
OK, perhaps just the first one, but I think it's good to have a sense of humor about doing GF.
Much congrats to Petra on running a hard-fought Boston Marathon qualifying race time last weekend in Berlin!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Oops, I Did It Again
Got WAY ahead of myself and lost sight of my original goal this year, which was "simply" to do 2 irons tris 2 weeks apart. No cares about finishing times, just make the cut-offs and have fun. After all, I am still an iron virgin!I know this back-to-back iron nonsense may sound CRAZY to most of you, but I am someone who is motivated by the unusual. I'd much rather run marathons in all 50 states than shoot for a marathon PR (current PR 3:27:59). Only after running 21 marathons in 9 months did I dare try running my first-ever 5K. Ouch! To learn how to swim, I had to sign up for an Ironman (could not commit for anything less).
Some people have called me "hardcore" but I don't consider myself that, actually. WACKY would be a better description, I think.
But I am having fun, that's for sure. Perhaps too much at times as I have been accused of looking too smiley in my race photos. My apologies to anyone who may think I'm doing a disservice by making things look easy but I truly do feel fortunate to be alive and out there. In my younger days, I was a highly stressed out, malnourished workaholic who never thought (or cared if) she'd see her 40th birthday. Now approaching 50, I'm celebrating good health and making an effort to enjoy life whenever I can. And doing 2 irons this year, well, that just looked to me like a ticket to do more of that. (Plus, the training time and costs of doing both were not much different from doing one Ironman brand event anyway so it was like getting 2 for 1. And I am most definitely a bargain hunter :-)
But I must be reasonable with myself and Coach has put my head back on straight, again. My primary goal will be to start and finish both races healthy. If a certain desired race time (sub-13) comes with doing so, that's a bonus. If not, that's OK too. There'll be many opportunities for me to shoot for faster race times if I stay healthy and keep having fun.
So thank you to everyone who posted comments in my previous post. I'll be hitting the hills on the new GF bike course a few more times before race day (10/24) and by then should have one of only two thoughts:
A) Ready Freddy, all systems go.
or B) Still tougher than I'd like, but I got it.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Monday, September 14, 2009
I Didn't Sign Up For This!
OK, last week was rough. I missed 3(!) workouts due to time constraints while working on a special project. I only managed to swim 3 out of 4 planned crossings at Lucky's Lake (got a bad headache during the first crossing, had problems sighting and focusing, then by the 4th crossing it began to rain making visibility even more limited, plus I'd be the only one out there swimming, so I wimped out). But those things happen ...
The big surprise happened on Sunday. I discovered that the Great Floridian (GF) 112-mile bike course has been changed!!
And NOT for the better, IMO. In the past, it's been a hilly first third with a fairly FLAT second third and some gentle rollers the last third. Here is what the elevation map looks like for this year's race (created using Bike Route Toaster):
ARGHHH!!!
So now the second half is quite hilly too with the last 12 miles being the worst. WTF???
And, of course, I did NOT know this when I signed up for the race last year or when I signed up for Beach to Battleship (B2B), another full iron tri, two weeks later. Looking at the race forum discussions, it appears that the race director began a thread talking about a bike course change just last July. Crap ...
Well, yesterday Dave and I did an organized bike ride called the Assault on Sugarloaf, which is the GF bike course, and found out the hard way. We didn't have time to study the course map or turn-by-turn instructions they gave us that morning so we just followed the orange arrows, like everyone else. But at ~mile 40, I knew something was up when we rolled past the turn-off for the flat section of the previous GF bike course and started heading back to the start. Then I realized that sign we saw earlier painted on the road (something about a 2nd lap) meant we'd be hitting the hills again. YIKES!
But the course is nice and flat for a bit early on. We resisted temptations to latch onto pace lines.
An aid station at ~mile 50. Thus far, we've ridden on hills, through rain and now the sun is coming out to bake us. What a welcome sight in the middle of nowhere.
Never let someone take a picture of you eating a banana.
At the halfway point, Dave is done. It began raining again as I headed out for the rest.
It was a lonely ride but I did see a few folks later at the aid stations. I'd be surprised if 50 people did the whole 112 miles.
But I was one of them. 112.4 miles in 6:54, a 16.3mph avg. Not a bad ride for me considering my Garmin said the course had ~5200 ft climbing (nearly double what I had anticipated!), we had rainy/wet conditions at times and there was no traffic control (so we had to obey all traffic laws). After I got done, Dave also discovered that my rear tire was not fully inflated (must have rolled over something and had a slow leak). Possibly it wasn't just the hills that turned me into a slug late in the ride?
Still, my legs were beat. Here are my thoughts about the new course:
Mi 1-60 - What I expected from the orig GF course so all is good.
Mi 60-100 - More hills than I'd like but manageable.
Mi 100-112 - Brutal, esp. in 90+ deg heat. I think I'm going to be sick.
So with that, I am rethinking my game plan knowing that this new GF bike course is going to wreak havoc on my race goals and the quick recovery I need to do B2B two weeks later. I need some input from you guys. What would you do or suggest?
A) Bail on GF and make B2B my "A" race.
B) Change to do the GF olympic distance race offered the same day and make B2B my "A" race.
C) Change to do the GF aquabike event (2.4 swim, 112 bike) offered the same day and make B2B my "A" race.
D) Do GF as planned but with modified race goals and hope to recover fast enough for a better finish at B2B.
(There is no bailing on B2B as my step-daughter and son-in-law are coming to cheer for me at that race, plus it's my birthday weekend)
OK, so please let me hear your thoughts. Hope none of your races have major course changes that would make them much harder either.
PS - Still way behind in my blog reading but trying to catch up before my Google Reader explodes!
The big surprise happened on Sunday. I discovered that the Great Floridian (GF) 112-mile bike course has been changed!!
And NOT for the better, IMO. In the past, it's been a hilly first third with a fairly FLAT second third and some gentle rollers the last third. Here is what the elevation map looks like for this year's race (created using Bike Route Toaster):
ARGHHH!!!
So now the second half is quite hilly too with the last 12 miles being the worst. WTF???
And, of course, I did NOT know this when I signed up for the race last year or when I signed up for Beach to Battleship (B2B), another full iron tri, two weeks later. Looking at the race forum discussions, it appears that the race director began a thread talking about a bike course change just last July. Crap ...
Well, yesterday Dave and I did an organized bike ride called the Assault on Sugarloaf, which is the GF bike course, and found out the hard way. We didn't have time to study the course map or turn-by-turn instructions they gave us that morning so we just followed the orange arrows, like everyone else. But at ~mile 40, I knew something was up when we rolled past the turn-off for the flat section of the previous GF bike course and started heading back to the start. Then I realized that sign we saw earlier painted on the road (something about a 2nd lap) meant we'd be hitting the hills again. YIKES!
But the course is nice and flat for a bit early on. We resisted temptations to latch onto pace lines.
An aid station at ~mile 50. Thus far, we've ridden on hills, through rain and now the sun is coming out to bake us. What a welcome sight in the middle of nowhere.
Never let someone take a picture of you eating a banana.
At the halfway point, Dave is done. It began raining again as I headed out for the rest.
It was a lonely ride but I did see a few folks later at the aid stations. I'd be surprised if 50 people did the whole 112 miles.
But I was one of them. 112.4 miles in 6:54, a 16.3mph avg. Not a bad ride for me considering my Garmin said the course had ~5200 ft climbing (nearly double what I had anticipated!), we had rainy/wet conditions at times and there was no traffic control (so we had to obey all traffic laws). After I got done, Dave also discovered that my rear tire was not fully inflated (must have rolled over something and had a slow leak). Possibly it wasn't just the hills that turned me into a slug late in the ride?
Still, my legs were beat. Here are my thoughts about the new course:
Mi 1-60 - What I expected from the orig GF course so all is good.
Mi 60-100 - More hills than I'd like but manageable.
Mi 100-112 - Brutal, esp. in 90+ deg heat. I think I'm going to be sick.
So with that, I am rethinking my game plan knowing that this new GF bike course is going to wreak havoc on my race goals and the quick recovery I need to do B2B two weeks later. I need some input from you guys. What would you do or suggest?
A) Bail on GF and make B2B my "A" race.
B) Change to do the GF olympic distance race offered the same day and make B2B my "A" race.
C) Change to do the GF aquabike event (2.4 swim, 112 bike) offered the same day and make B2B my "A" race.
D) Do GF as planned but with modified race goals and hope to recover fast enough for a better finish at B2B.
(There is no bailing on B2B as my step-daughter and son-in-law are coming to cheer for me at that race, plus it's my birthday weekend)
OK, so please let me hear your thoughts. Hope none of your races have major course changes that would make them much harder either.
PS - Still way behind in my blog reading but trying to catch up before my Google Reader explodes!
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