I survived peak weekend

It wasn't exactly fun or pretty, but I got it done and that's what counts.  I always need to remind myself that the training needs to be very hard so race day, by comparison, is "easy".  Soul crushing is kinda required for training.  And yet, I keep signing up for these things...  Last week was my biggest volume ever, at 21:15.  Fri-Sat-Sun was huge, with nearly 16 hours of exercising.  (and yes, I know that's ridiculous)

so here's a rundown on the weekend:

Friday

4,000 m pool swim.  I was nice to myself and "slept in" to 5:30 AM and was in the pool by 6:10.

3.5 hr bike ride.  Coach said hilly, I asked if my neighborhood was good enough and she said Deer Creek. Against my better judgement, I loaded up my crap and drove to DC to ride.  I did a warmup loop around Chatfield and felt pretty good.  I started up DC and immediately felt blah.  My heart rate was soaring (165+) and I wasn't anywhere close to the hard stuff.  Finally after stopping twice, I pulled the plug 30 min into the climb (usually 1:40) and drove back home to finish my ride.  2 hours of riding around my neighborhood (with a few big hills) and I was feeling fine.  No idea.  It was hot and I wasn't in a happy headspace.  I was also cranky because if I would have just ridden from home, I would have been done with my workouts ~2 hours earlier in the day.  But I had to give DC a try.  I pulled the plug because my HR was just too high and I didn't want to put myself in a hole on day 1 of a really hard 3 day training weekend.

This day was capped off my a 45 min run.  Fortunately it had started to sprinkle and the temps went down.  My run was actually ok and I saw a tiny baby deer.  Very cool.

Will was really awesome and went to the store for dinner supplies while I was out training.  He made dinner (grilled elk/beef burgers, sweet potatoes, zucchini) and never once said anything about how I killed his 4th of July.  He is amazing and I will keep him.  I started getting ready for bed around 9:30 and was greeted with the local firework show outside my bedroom window.  So I got to see some fireworks, all while sitting on the arm of a couch.  Not too shabby.

Saturday

1:15 swim at the Gravel Pond.  I got up at 6:30 (pretty late for a weekend anymore... sigh), made sure I was out there at 7:15 to wrestle into my wetsuit and be one of the first swimmers in the water at 7:30.  I started out at a good pace but got tired 45 min in.  And I kept getting lost.  I know, its a POND.  But sighting is really hard,  They have a few buoys to the halfway point and then you're on your own.  I try to use rock formations up on the foothills as a reference point, but that only works until the trees block them out of sight.  And using trees is challenging, since most trees look the same when you're glancing at them through foggy goggles for a half a second every 10 strokes or so.  Still, I got it done and the pace was ok.  Practice OWS are always slower than race day anyways, mainly because of the poor sighting conditions and because I have to swim by myself.

Immediately after the swim I had a 2:30 run.  I originally wanted to run early to avoid the heat, but I was specifically told to run after to run in the heat.  Great.  Also: blech.  A few days prior, out of the blue a friend sent me a text offering to run with me.  I immediately took her up on that offer and I am so thankful to her.  I tired brain couldn't properly calculate the time I was supposed to arrive at the Waterton parking lot to meet her (I told her 9 AM when it should have been 9:30).  She's so nice that this wasn't a problem, she just did an out and back and found me in the canyon.  And no surprise, it was hot.  I think I did about as much running as I did walking.  I didn't let my HR get above 155-160 and took a ton of walking breaks to get it down to 140-145.  I kept apologizing the whole time because this wasn't really running, and Amy was just so nice and was happy to get out of the house and have some adult time (she's got a 1.5 yr old).  I was just thankful because she talked my ear off and distracted me from my cranky thoughts.  If I was by myself, I know I would have been beating myself the whole time about all the walking and thinking about how Boulder was going to be a shit show with the heat.  Instead, we had a nice conversation and ran across 3 groups of bighorn sheep:

On the negative side, I ran farther last weekend in ~20 min less time (I also started 3 hours earlier and it was probably 20 deg cooler).  On the plus side, my hydration was just right and my legs felt good.  It took me 2:38 to go 11.7 miles, which is SLOW.  But in all honestly, if I could hold that pace in Boulder in 85 degree temps, I would be ecstatic.  That would be a 6 hr marathon, which isn't super fast, but I would take it in hot conditions.

I got home, got cleaned up, and Will took me for pie milkshakes.  Yes.  There's a place by our house that will take a slice of pie (you pick the kind of pie) and blend it with vanilla ice cream to make a milkshake.  I'd been wanting to go there for a year but couldn't justify the calorie-bomb.  This was my weekend.  It was delicious.

cherry for me, pecan for Will.  I don't know what Will did to justify the calories (or his 2 naps that day) but I wasn't going
to question it.

Sunday

This was my 6 hr bike ride.  The forecast was a high of 95.  Yay?  Torture is always better with friends, and I had a nice little group with me.  Thank goodness.  We did 2 loops of Harvest Moon, which is a local 70.3 course.  Its all exposed, which means sun, heat, and wind.  With hills!  This ride isn't exactly fun, but the nice part is that you come back to your car after 45 miles and can re-stock supplies.  And you can take a dip in the Res afterwards if you need a cool down.

We started at 7 AM and it was already windy.  The first 20 miles are a nice, gradual downhill which makes for a nice warmup.  My legs didn't really want to play, my adductor kept getting tight and I had to stretch it 3 times in the first 50 miles.  It was also pretty windy on the first loop, with a headwind on the way back to the cars, which also has all the hill climbing.  I didn't want to blow my legs out on the first loop of a long day so I took the hills super easy.  Like e-a-s-y easy.  I never do that.  But I also didn't want to make my adductor worse.  For another fun feature, at mile 25 I started to literally dry heave on my nutrition (Bonk Breakers peanut butter chocolate chip).  Not cool, especially 1/4 of the way through a long day and when most of your ride nutrition is Bonk Breakers.  I really don't know what the deal was.  I made myself nibble on the bar for the way back (a little over an hour).  Back at my truck I ate some Tums (randomly in my gear bag) and swapped out my nutrition to other stuff.  I barely had enough honey stinger chews and SunRype bars to get me through the 2nd half of the ride.  I tried to eat more of the pb-cc flavor bars and each time resulted in gagging.  I think they're too sweet when its hot out.  The PB&J ones were a bit easier to get down.  This was my planned race nutrition, so I really don't know if this was a fluke or if this will keep happening.  What I do know is that I have Tums in my special needs bag (or in a pocket), as that saved my ass.  And I need to have back-up nutrition if things go south.  I get tired of eating HS chews all day, but they don't take much effort to get down and my stomach seems to like them.

The first loop was a big MEH (wind, nutrition, legs) but you just have to let go of that and keep moving.  The second loop, fortunately, was much better.  It was hotter (way hotter) but there's something nice about knowing its your last loop.  But holy crap, it was hot.  Thoughts on the last 25 miles of the 2nd loop were something like this:

ok its hot, but I'm drinking ok, and I'm still on my bike.  I've got this.
why am I riding in front of the other 2 people I'm with? (they were way ahead of me on loop 1)
really guys, you can pass me if you want
response: I couldn't pass you if I tried
hills are starting, legs actually feel decent.  Sweet!
and here's the heat.  Wow its hot.
whyyyyy do I keep signing up for hot races?  didn't I learn my lesson during IMTX?
I never want to do Kona, ever
I really don't want to do Boulder, either.  This is horrible
eat, drink, eat drink, pedal.
wow, its hot
I just want to go sit in the Res when this ride is done.
ok, last big hill, now its 5 miles to my truck.  I can do this
wow, I'm actually out of water.  I went through 4 hrs worth in less than 3 hours time.  crap its hot
oh yay, my truck.
oh crap, I've got another 45 min or at least 12 miles.  I guess I need to suck it up and just get it done.  It won't be easier on race day....

We finished the 2nd loop and got back to our cars.  Brian was totally out of water.  I had one bottle left.  Melanie had 2 ice cold cans of Coke and gave one to me and Brian to split.  It was magic.  I don't drink Coke anymore, but this was amazing.  And it made me think of coke slurpees for the rest of the ride.  I had another 12 miles, Brian had 9 miles (he did some looping to keep track of us earlier in the ride).  Both Brian and Melanie were out of water, so we rode into the Res to get more water.  At that point, Melanie started overheating and was having issues completing sentences, so she went to go sit in the Res and didn't finish the ride.  Brian and I decided to suck it up and get 100 miles done.  We rode to the traditional left turn at Watkins Road, and that easily got us to 100 miles.  We had some clouds on those last miles, and I swear, the temps dropped at least 10 degrees in the shadow.  It felt so good.

Then we were done for the day.  It was Brian's first century ride, it was my 2nd hottest century ride ever.  Overall time wasn't too bad, considering the heat.  I drank 8 bottles in 6 hours - normally I'd drink 5-6.  No slurpee on the way home, either.  I got Jamba Juice - I figured it had a bit more nutrition.

Random lessons from the ride:

• I need back-up nutrition available.  I want to use real food but I just don't know if I can actually eat it.  I do know that I can get HS chews down and I have a bazillion SunRype fruit snacks that I can also eat.  (I actually raided my truck stash for loop 2 to ensure I had enough calories).  I'll have to be smart with Special Needs and maybe have extra nutrition stashed on my bike.
• We all drank WAY more than we had planned.  Holy crap it was hot.
• Osmo seemed to work.  I only had a slight heat headache.
• Calories, while low, seemed to be ok.  I was a bit wobbly, but I think that was from the heat, not lack of calories.  I ended up eating 3-5 chews every 30 minutes (or maybe ever 15) and I tried to nibble on the PB&J Bonk Breakers in between to get some more "food" in.  The PB&J ones went down a bit better than the choc ones.  I may just have to play with flavors on the course during the race (they have 4 flavors) and see what works.
• Legs actually felt pretty good.  We got done and it was hot, but my legs felt like they could do more.
• Bike comfort was actually good on the 2nd lap.  Maybe I was distracted by the heat, but I really didn't have any "get me off my bike" thoughts.  I do love my bike.

Closing Thoughts

• I am really thankful for my friends, who kept me company for most of this crazy weekend.  It really helped to keep the negative thoughts out of my head.
• That pie milkshake was awesome.  I may have one again this coming weekend.
• I may need to let go of any time goals for Boulder.  If its hot, I really can't have pace expectations. It becomes more of a "lets keep moving" situation.  I'd like to go under 14 hours but it all depends on the heat.  And I need to be ok with that.
• On Monday, I slept in until 9 AM and took a 1 hour nap.  I wasn't sore, which is weird, but I was TUCKERED.
• I have the most awesome husband ever.  Not once did he complain about how I ruined his holiday weekend.  Instead, he took care of me.  I don't know what I did to deserve someone so awesome but I am incredibly thankful for him.
• I think I'm ready for one more hard week and then taper.  I can do this. :)

Ramblings - IM Peak Training Edition

Here I am 33 days out from IM Boulder - here's what rattling around in my little brain.

The training this year doesn't seem nearly as scary/hard as the past two IM builds.  Really, it seems like I've just been s/b/r'ing along at a "normal" volume.  Things didn't really start to feel too crazy until last week when I hit 16+ hours.  I know I've been training a bunch, it just hasn't felt like it.  Probably because this volume has become my new normal.

I officially went into food lockdown mode last week.  No bread, no sweets (except my nightly dose of dark chocolate), no fruit.  Just lots of meat, veg, sweet potatoes, avocado, and nuts.  I dropped weight successfully last year and am hoping to do the same this year.  For whatever reason, I think I'll be a bit heavier than last year, but I do think I've gained more muscle since then.

My motto is now "just survive the next 3 weeks".  I figure I have 2 really hard 20+ hour week, a medium-hard week, and then sweet, sweet taper.  One of my friends actually asked me if I was starting my taper soon and I just laughed.  I'm a month out.  Its too early to think of taper.

I need to stop comparing myself to my friend's training schedules.  I have several friends who already have several 100 mile rides under them.  My longest ride (yesterday) was 87 miles.  I was so wrapped up in this that last week, I went and printed off my TrainingPeaks schedule from 2013 IMCDA and compared it to where I am now.  Turns out, I'm the same to even slightly ahead of last year.  I will be fine.  Deep breaths. Chill the f out.

As usual, I'm still dinking around with my nutrition.  I'm trying to eat real food.  Do you know how much crap you have to carry with you for a 7 hour bike ride, fueled by real food?!?!  Its a ton of food.  I quickly learned that the FeedZone rice cakes, while tasty, are not at all practical for IM bike rides.  I've been trying to use Salty Balls, but they get really sticky and are hard to swallow (insert joke here....).  They're enough of a pain where I find that I'm not eating enough of them.  And I have to carry them around (bento box, special needs).  So this past weekend I tried Bonk Breakers.  They're at the aid stations for Boulder (so I don't need to carry 7 hours worth) and are gluten free.  Each one is 220-270 calories, so I'd need to eat ~1 1/3 per hour. They're also less sticky and go down a bit easier.  For this weekend's ride, I packed 6 bars and 2 packs of Honey Stinger Chews and did ok.  The main issue is that real food takes freaking forever to chew and swallow.  I even timed myself - 3 minutes.  And when you're eating something every 15 minutes, I'm spending 12 minutes PER HOUR chewing.  Blech.  My stomach was happy though, so I think I just need to get over the chewing thing and consider it race entertainment.

My shoulder is finally happy.  I did something gnarly to my left rotator cuff, causing it to snap like a rubber band.  I finally found a chiro/ART guy who is pretty aggressive with my treatment.  I've had 4 pain-free swims.  No time like a month before your IM to get your shoulders back and happy, right?

My 20 year high school reunion was this past weekend.  They had a Friday night happy hour and a Saturday afternoon BBQ.  The Friday thing was downtown and cost $40/per person and from what I could tell only covered the cost of a private room and some appetizers.  Doesn't that seem excessive?  I mean, if I was travelling to town for this, I'd probably go with it and call it a "vacation expense".  But to spend $80 for both of us and only get appetizers?  Not to mention the fact that it was going to be a lot of "on my feet time", I'd likely have to go and eat dinner somewhere else before the event, and I'd probably have to leave early since I had to get up at 5:20 and run/swim before the BBQ.  I dunno, maybe I was being cheap, but it was hard for me to see many pluses.  I went to the BBQ, only got 2 plates in me.  Will continued to be a great sherpa, telling me to quit talking and get more food.  I saw some people I really enjoyed catching up with, but again, I don't know.  With facebook, it seems that you can find people you want to re-connect with and develop relationships.  Talking to someone for 5 minutes every 10 years doesn't seem all that meaningful.  Maybe I was just tired and cranky, who knows.

The long training stuff is starting to build up.  I'm trying to find pretty places so it isn't so awful.  Saturday I had a 2:15 run and a 0:45 OWS.  So I parked my truck at Chatfield (where I swim) and decided to run up Waterton Canyon.  This run is a bit deceiving, as it is a pretty steady uphill as you go up the canyon (and then downhill on the way back).  But I think the IM Boulder run course has shallow uphill grades, so this type of terrain should be good for me.  Plus, its pretty:

I'm not really working much right now (long story that I don't want to get into here).  On the bright side, this gives me plenty of time for training and napping.  On the not-so-good side I don't have much money and with me being home more, I have access to more food.  So I'm eating more.  But I kinda don't like being at work when I'm not being paid, so....

I'm more than a little worried about the heat for Boulder.  I'm pretty heat sensitive (IMTX didn't go well for me - it has h.o.t !!)  The good thing about not being trapped in an office for 9 hours day means I can do my shorter rides/runs at the hottest time of the day.  That way I get some heat training in but I can also recover.  (My long runs are early in the morning - I have no desire to run for 2+ hours in the heat).

We did a ride in Boulder yesterday where I tried to hit the "highlights": St Vrain out and back, the eastern portion of the course (not really a highlight, but we needed to see it), and the "3 Sisters" (3-ish hills at mile 99 of the Boulder bike course).  The forecast was 95 degrees and this would be a great test to see how Osmo would treat me.  Normally I get heat headaches and afterwards, I feel like I have a hangover.  After 5:15 of riding (87 miles) no heat headaches, no stomach issues, and today I don't have that familiar "I've been run over by a bus" feeling.  Awesome!  Also, the course isn't so bad.  While St Vrain is a mean trick on the part of race organizers (you zoom down the hill at 40+ mph only to turn around and ride back up the hill), there's really only one steep bit where you have to work.  AND its early in the ride, like mile 15 so you're fresh.  The "3 Sisters" at mile 99 are doable.  The first hill is the steepest, so you just need to turn the corner and immediately gear down and you'll be fine.  Remember to not be a hero and things will be ok.  (but they'll still suck - any hill at mile 99 on a ride sucks).  The true trick to the Boulder course is the 10+ miles of false flat, into the wind portion east of I-25 on CR-19.  Its not hard, but there's nothing to look at but farms and oil fields.  You feel like you should be going a whole lot faster than you are.  And if you're not smart, you'll cook yourself.  Definitely a good place to ride by power/HR to avoid killing yourself.

Miller Farms, along the Boulder bike course.  Aka Radiator Springs from Cars.

There's my brain dump!  Happy training!

I finally remembered how to swim!

My swimming this winter has been really, really, REALLY sucky.  Like "frustratingly what the hell happened?" sucky.

I think part of it was that I had a REALLY long tri season last year.  I was pretty focused from February to November, with the exception of a break in July after CDA.  Lots of yards, lots of fast sets, lots of swimming.  Probably the most swimming I've ever done in a year.

And then after my race in November I kept swimming but it was VERY lackluster.  The month after my race I just was putting time in the pool and not really trying to go fast.  December - February was spent trying to swim at my old pace but I was having issues with speed and more importantly, consistency.  I was hitting 1:50/100 meters swimming HARD and no matter what I did, my pace kept slipping slower and slower through sets.  Last year 1:50 was my cruise pace.  WTF?!?!

I've been trying to be very zen about this.  Just keep putting in the yards knowing that sooner or later, I'll remember how to swim.  Just play along, get the yard done and everything will be ok.  These are the things I'd tell myself when I would see a 1:55 on the clock.  I really was pretty good about not beating myself up over this, which is amazing, because a 1:55 is stupid slow for the efforts I was putting in.

I think in the beginning a good deal of this had to do with the fact that I was deeply fatigued from a long season of hard training.  It took me probably a good 2.5 months to get past that.  What's weird is that my run and bike were cruising along really well - I was improving.  But my swimming was going terribly.  Again, I was determined to be zen and just let things be.  (who am I?)  In all honestly, I probably checked out a bit mentally on swimming because I've been doing it for so long (10 years on a masters team) and I was maybe just a tiny bit burned out.

On Friday while I was in the pool, I finally had a bit of an epiphany.  I think that during my down time in November I quit kicking, probably because I was really tired and I just didn't feel like kicking.  Then that became a (very bad) habit and I simply forgot that I needed to kick.  Or I'd kick and get tired.  I was literally wearing my arms out with every 100.  No wonder I was getting slower with every 100 repeat!  I have strong legs - I should use them for swimming.  Duh!

Today was a really good test to see if I've solved my swimming issues.

500 warm up
25 x 100 free pace, broken up into 5 x 100 with 1 minute rest between each 5.
#1 and 2 were on a 2:05
#3 was on a 2:00
#4 was on a 1:55
#5 had the first 2 on a 2:10 (so a bit of a recovery swim) and then 3x100 at the fastest interval you can make

I'm really happy to report that I swam sets 1-4 on a very consistent 1:47/8 pace.  I kinda crashed and burned on the last one, hitting 1:50 on the 3 fast ones.  But I was really tired and had zero recovery time between each 100.  The super cool part is that I'm on week 3 of pretty hard (early season) workouts and yesterday's workouts (weights and a really hard bike) were killer.  And yet I killed this swim.  I nailed it to the wall and finally swam like my usual self.

What did I do differently?

• KICK.  A nice, strong, steady 6 beat kick.  No just dragging my feet behind me, a real kick.
• PAY ATTENTION.  I noticed that I'd forget what I was doing once in a while and almost frantically wave my arms trying to take strokes.  Those kind of strokes are worthless because you're just moving your arms and not actually grabbing any water.  I'd catch myself doing that (usually off the wall) and remind myself to chill out, stretch each stroke and grab the water.
• ROTATE.  I knew I was swimming flat and my coach confirmed it.  I think I have a harder time rotating on my non-breathing side (who doesn't?) and I really focused on driving from my hips, reaching with my arm, and feeling the water/air on each side as I rotated.

New Swim Coach

Things at my masters team have been a bit disorganized lately.  Normally that would irritate the crap out of me and cause me to switch teams, but for whatever reason, I've been ok with it.  Probably because I've only been swimming for IMCDA recovery and some general fitness without any real goals.  And I do like the group and one of the coaches.  So the fact that the other coach would fail to show up or when she did show up, she would sit on a lounge chair and play on her phone the entire practice didn't really bother me.

They hired a new coach, who apparently gave up a "normal" job to be a full time swim coach and is straight out of college.  He's been in town literally 7 days.  He showed up to watch Monday's practice while the usual coach lead the workout.  I felt this was a bit of a test, as the last part of the main set was a ladder of IM (ie all 4 strokes).  We (the swimmers) were being tested (on the sly) on 1) who could swim all 4 strokes and 2) who was a whiner.  I think I passed both tests.

Wednesday was Scott's first workout.  It went like this:

• Warm up: 4x250 swim/kick/pull/swim 
• 10x50 golf (I was one of the few people who knew what this was - go me!) 
• 5x100 build 75% to 85% by 50 
• 6x50 golf 
• 3x100 build 85% to 95% by 50 

Then he suggested that we do a ONE MILE SWIM for time and we all laughed. That would have put our yardage at 4,000+ m.  And most of us had to be at work at 8 AM and doing a mile would have kept us in the water until a bit after 7 AM.  Still, I expect to see that one mile appear sometime in the very near future.

Today he was late and I know we were all wondering if he was going to be like our prior no-show coach.  Turns out his alarm didn't go off and he showed up after we all did a 500 warmup.  Today's workout was a bit of a doozy.  But I liked it.  A lot.

• 10 x 100 on 2:00 (remember, this is a meter pool).  1-5 build 75% to 85% by 50, 6-10 build 85% to 95% by 50 
• 8 x 50 descend 1-8 on 1:05
• 6 x 50 95% - rest consisted of enough time to touch the wall and turn around.  yay?
• and the "surprise": 4x50s all out on 2:00 to build lactic acid tolerance.

After that, people still wanted more and he was doling out tempo 500's.  I heard that and decided to do a 400 cool down and call it a day.

He did promise to up our distance to 3,200 m, which would consist of 30x100.  I told him that he and my tri coach would get along well.  (Michelle agreed with me).

Overall I'm a bit scared but I am excited.  He's a true swimmer and he's giving us collegiate level workouts.  The two that I've seen have required that you stay present and focused on your swimming, which I like.  I enjoy swimming smart and learning things.  I feel like that's been missing lately, as I've just been swimming to get distance and workouts done.

We'll see what this does to my overall speed - who knows, IMBoulder could be done on a 1:10.  That'd be pretty sweet.

June and July 2013 - Training Totals

Completely forgot to do my June training totals, so here's June and July.

June:

Swim: 9h 28m - 28,870 Yd
Bike: 29h 6m 36s - 416.9 Mi
Run: 17h 2m 24s - 88.93 Mi

Of course, June includes IMCDA, a century ride, and some other long stuff.  My numbers look pretty solid, but something to keep in mind is that I pretty much took a week+ off.  

July:

Swim: 12h 40m - 35870.52 Yd
Bike: 15h 30m 52s - 212.08 Mi
Run: 5h 14m 27s - 22.73 Mi

Not too bad, considering I was still wiped out for weeks after IMCDA and with my broken toe, I couldn't run until last week.  So really, the run total was done in a week and day (with maybe some walking in there too).

For grins, I ran my training chart for April - July.

What's interesting is that June had my highest run volume, and that June and April bike distances were pretty much equal.  And I'm swimming a bunch, even in "recovery".

Recovery is going ok-ish.  I was sore for 2 days after my race, then I was ok.  But the fatigue was crushing at times - I was needing a daily nap for a week.  Two weeks post-race I tried swim practice and that was a HUGE mistake which made me feel even more tired that during my peak weeks of training.  Four weeks out I was swimming and doing some easy bike rides.  I tried to do my usual local hill route with my club and my heart rate was easily 10-15 bpm than it was during taper and I was dying.  Not a good impression to make on my club "I've never done a triathlon" newbies.  They kicked my ass and here I am with the Mdot tattoo on my leg and a 2-time IM finisher.  Fatigue and recovery are strange things.  I don't remember being this deeply fatigued after IMTX, but I pushed much harder for IMCDA and so it makes sense that the recovery is longer and deeper than before.

My toe is ok-ish too.  I started running a full month post race and fracture.  It feels ok when I run and is a bit sore afterwards.  I think/hope it is just tendons and ligaments getting used to movement.  This week is better than last week in terms of it being sore, so I think that's a good sign.

This month is about getting used to moving again.  I've had 2-a-day workouts twice this week, and my body and mind are like ugh, this again?  Well, yes, this again.  Because I've got a 70.3 in approximately 13 weeks.  And Ragnar in a little over a month.  

I realized that with IM Boulder next month (what's the official abbreviation for this?  I've seen BIM), my entire race season is the Boulder Tri Series.  I won't have time during May-June-July for any other races.  And if this year's recovery is any indication, I won't be up for racing in August or Sept.  That kinda sucks.  So I may be planning a fun vacation for late August as a distraction.  Perhaps coastal Alaska - we shall see.

Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2013 Race Report: The Swim

Pre-Race

As part of the swim-smart initiative, they grouped us in corrals, in groups from sub-60, 1:00-1:15, 1:15-1:30 etc.  I was shooting for somewhere sub-1:15 so I put myself in the 1:00-1:15 group and then put myself somewhere in the center of that pack.  I have no idea if this was a smart idea, but it's what I did.

I was only able to find myself in this picture because I was standing next to
my friend Dimity.  And Dimity is crazy-tall. Just trust me, we're both in there.

They were anticipating that 100 swimmers per minute would enter the water.  And we'd have 17 hrs from the time we stepped over the timing mat to complete the 140.6 miles.  The problem with this (as opposed to traditional mass starts) is that you have NO IDEA when your 17 hrs starts.  I know the first swimmers started at 6:35 AM, but I don't know exactly when my 17 hrs starts.  My work-around was that I would wear my timex digital watch the entire race (so I'd have my Garmin 910 AND my timex for the run - fun!) and I'd hit start on the timer when I crossed over the mat.  *Fingers crossed that no one hit a button on the watch during the swim*

Compared to the IMTX mass start in 2011, this was very anti-climatic.  The cannon went off and people started moving forward, like cattle.  I think I crossed the timing mat somewhere around 6:37(?), I hit my watch and then went into the water, which was a balmy (for CDA) 62 degrees.

The good thing (and I was doubtful this swim start would have anything good about it) was that everyone in my vicinity was roughly the same swim speed.  There wasn't much wrestling.  Sure, a few people (*cough* men *cough*) were assholes and just HAD to swim on top of me or through me or whatever.  But for the most part, it was pretty smooth.  I just focused on keeping my head down and finding feet.  swim, feet, swim, feet, swim.  Do not look up, just swim. 

At the athlete meeting, they said that the yellow and orange buoys were numbered 1 through 9.  Not so much for us as for rescue operations ("rescue at yellow buoy 8").  I thought I would manage to look at the buoys and see the numbers, to tell where I was, but I didn't really manage to do that.  Instead I just kept looking for feet and swimming.


swim start, ala "swim safe initiative"

I've heard horror stories about the turn buoys, how the water gets really choppy (I guess its a windy point with some waves) and how it is just a mass of people.  Maybe I've just swam in worse stuff, but I didn't have any issues and the turn was pretty clean.  I even took the turn pretty narrow and close to the buoys. 

On the way back, I found some feet and just kept looking down and swimming.  Then I realized I was inside the orange buoys.  Oops.  Well, I decided to keep my feet and hang just inside them.  Besides, the water was cleaner here with less people.  And I had good feet! 

We were nearing the shore and things were getting more crowded, but still ok.  My hand hit sand and I stood up, got out of the water, and ran over the timing mat.  I glanced at my watch.  Loop #1 (1.2 miles) was ~35 minutes.  A potental PR.  Sweet!  And on target for a fast swim.

People were taking their sweet time on the beach, rounding the curve and getting back in the water.  I decided to jog (it was a race) and my left foot decided to smack right into some guy's heel.  Or that's what I'm assuming happened.

I got back into the water, knee-deep and I dolphin dove in and went to work finding feet again.  I had a bit of a harder time finding good feet this time around.  They kept disappearing on me (too fast) or people would cut me off and I'd loose the feet.  And my left foot was a bit sore.  I remember thinking "hmm, I think I did something back there on the beach... good thing this water is cold....  oh hey, my foot is numb, sweet!". 

The sun also decided to come out (it was foggy and cloudy at the start), so I had to be selective with what side I breathed on so I didn't get too blinded.  Again, the second loop was no big deal.  I found feet, I lost feet, I sped up to try and keep feet, and I just swam.  I don't think my effort was high - I was on cruise - but I did play with speed a bit out of boredom or to keep my feet.  The turn was again a breeze for me, and then it was time to head home.  

not very crowded at all at the start

The last leg back was a bit more congested.  I kept to the inside of the orange buoys again.  I figured it worked well the first time, why not do it again.  The bad part about this plan is that I was pretty much by myself, so I had no feet.  I eventually worked my way back outside the buoys and near people.  It wasn't until the end of that last stretch that I got any sort of true abuse that resembled an Ironman swim.

I could hear announcers and music, I could see the big red Swim Exit arch and I just focused on heading that way.  Pretty soon, my hand hit sand, and I was on my feet.  I looked at my watch and saw 1:13.  Holy wow, I just cut 7 min off my Ironman swim time.  And I was really close to my "awesome" time goal of 1:12.  This whole thing of finding feet and swimming must really work for me, I swim much faster when I do that.

Then it was a quick run up the beach, where I saw my friend Cristin and crew, where I think I suprised them with my speed.  I yelled I was happy with my time as I passed her.  Funny sidenote, Will and Jose (my sherpas) were really confused over my fast swim time and were trying hard to figure out how I did that.  I'm not sure to be upset in their lack of faith in my swimming or happy that I gave them something to ponder.

After the beach, I grabbed my blue bike bag from the long rows of transitions and trotted to the change tent (again, people were walking.  ugh).  I was lucky and I got a whole human to myself in the change tent.  She emptied my bag and offered me my options.  Sort of like a buffet, but with my stuff.  I opted to wear only my Cool Wings (which SUCK to put on when you're wet).  And I wanted sunscreen on my face.  My human was so awesome, she dried my face with a towel before I applied the sunscreen, to ensure that the sunscreen would stick.  How awesome is that?  Then I was ready to go.  She had me leave my stuff for her to pack and stow away.  I love the change tent volunteers.  So. Much.

Then it was time to find Merlin and go on a little 112 hilly ride.

Stats

Swim
1.2 mi - 35:41, 1:50/100 m pace
2.4 mi - 37:53, 1:57/100 m pace

Swim overall time - 1:13:34, 1:54/100 m pace
AG: 25 / 112 (SWEET)
OA: 1605 / 2318
T1: 6:42

Apparently I get 2 peak weeks

My coach (whom I love, really) doesn't seem to have a routine for me.  This is at times confusing/challenging and but it's also good. 

Last time around (with a different coach), I had a pretty set pattern.  Mondays off, 2 weeks heavy, 1 week recovery.  Wednesday was always a track workout, Tuesday was always a brick.

With Michelle, I have yet to find a true pattern.  I don't have a set recovery day.  I don't have a set build/recovery phase.  I don't seem to have days where I consistantly do X workout, except for my Fridays off where it is swimbikerun day, typically involving a 3+ hour ride up Deer Creek and High Grade.  Honestly, those Fridays are the only predictable part of my training.

Weirdly enough, I'm ok with it.  I just put my head down and get work done.  I don't really think about things, I just "do".  And generally, I've been doing really well.

I knew I'd have at least one 20-hour week, somewhere about 4 weeks out from CDA.  I didn't know that I'd have 2 consecutive 20 hour weeks and zero rest days.

My week last week was a 20 hour week, where 15 of those hours were on Fri-Sat-Sun.  I was promised a recovery day on Monday (Memorial Day).  I just had to survive Fri-Sat-Sun and I could get a day on the couch Monday.

Friday was hard but do-able.  I had a 3700 m swim with my swim team in the morning.  Then I headed over to Chatfield for trip up Deer Creek and High Grade on my bike.  I made it up - it wasn't pretty.  I had a headwind for pretty much the entire climb (1 hr 40 min) and it was hot.  I was supposed to do additional climbing, but after 3 miles and a really high heart rate, I said screw it and did easy riding around the Reservoir.  And then I ran 35 min (it was hot).  Apparently I didn't drink enough on the ride, which contributed to my high heart rate on the bonus hill climb.  Still, I made it up High Grade and I felt like I'd gotten the bulk of the work done.

Saturday was a relatively easy day.  1.5 hr OWS at Chatfield and a 1 hr run.  This might be crazy, but I think I prefer pool swimming to OWS.  There's just *nothing* to focus on in a lake.  The previous week, I had 1 hour, and I was so bored I just swam the perimeter of the lake, exploring away.  My notes this week were a bit more specific (work on sighting and pace).  Boo.  I ended up doing 2 full out and backs of the lake and then a bit of a smaller bonus out and back for a total of 2.77 miles.  Ok.  The run was fine (hot) and nothing crazy.  Then I went home and drank water and Nuun for the rest of the day.

Sunday was my big 7 hour "easy" ride.  I went with a friend and we did the Carter Lake loop, with some bonus miles through Gunbarrel and Niwot.  That got me to 4:40 and 76 miles, so I did the old Boulder 70.3 loop to bring me to 7 hours total.  Around 3 hrs into the ride it got sunny and hot, then around 4 hrs I got a heat headache so I started hitting the salt pills.  Around 5 hrs my head still hurt so I had a bit more.  Finally by 5:30 into the ride my head felt better.  Nutrition felt pretty solid, I had good energy the whole time.  The final hour of riding was pretty much solid headwind, which wasn't fun but it wasn't awful either.  I just put my head down and pedalled.  My new bike is solid.  Usually, around 5 hours I have to negotiate things with myself, simply because things hurt.  My arms/shoulders would hurt from being in aero, my lower back would need a stretch, my feet would develop hot spots, and my saddle area would become sore.  I'd have to negotiate time, like "ride 15 min aero and then you can sit up and stretch for 5 min" to get me through the last few hours of the ride.  With the new bike, I didn't have to negotiate anything, I just rode along for 7 hours.  Sweet!

After the ride, I got an email from my coach, asking how I was feeling and what my plans were for Monday.  I decided to give her a call.  No suprise, she was taking away my day off and replacing it with a 1 hour easy spin on the bike, to give me more training time.

That means my last true rest day was May 15th.  Boo.

So I spun on the bike for 1 hour yesterday.  It was ok.  Suprisingly enough, I didn't feel like I rode 113 miles the day before.  (again, new bike is awesome!).

And then I got my plan last night and its just going to be another week of not thinking and just doing.  20 more hours.  And a pretty big day on Saturday (2:45 run, 1:30 bike, 1 hr OWS) and then a organized century ride on Sunday with a 40 min run at the end.

Then - finally - I get a rest day on Monday, June 3.

So, for this "training block" (18 days)I will have done approximately the following:

• Swim 11.5 hours / 35,000 yards.
• Bike 21.7 hours / 431 miles
• Run 9.75 hours / 57 miles

Wow.

And then I get to taper.  :)

Ironman St George 70.3 Race Report

aka - that wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.  And it was FUN.

(and good grief this is a long one.  Its like I haven't raced in 2 years or something!)

Thursday
So, we left Denver at 6 AM on Thursday for what should have been a 9.5 hour drive at 6 AM on roads that looked like this:

Taken in Silverthorne, wishing we had skis instead of bikes.  Will winter ever end?

Let me just say that this was the slowest road trip ever.  From having to deal with crappy ice-covered roads until Vail Pass (seriously, WTF CDOT?  Do you put the plows away after May 1st?) and having three very hydrated triathletes in the car who needed to stop and pee every two hours, we were s.l.o.w.  slow.  I will also say that this was a gorgeous drive, so it wasn't all that bad.  But it was nearly 11 hrs of slow.  Damn.

We rolled into St G at 5 PM and decided to head straight to race check-in and get our stuff.  We happened upon the pro introductions. This race was the US Pro Championships and most of the big names were out there.  We literally walked right past Crowie and the Wurtles and Leanda Cave and countless other pros.  Way cool.


Pretty much all of the pros said the course was "brutal".  Awesome! :/

And on the way out, I managed to get this photo of me and my new boyfriend.  I am certain that he got 3rd overall because of this moment.  Or maybe I PR'd the swim because he touched me? 


Me and Andy Potts!

I rented a condo for myself and 4 other Denver-based triathletes and it worked out great.  Plenty of room for our bikes and gear, a decent kitchen and a huge countertop, and a patio with a grill.  Perfect!

Thurs night, one of my condo-mates was invited to a Training Peaks - WTC VIP party and she asked me to be her plus one.  I think the event was more fun for her than it was for me, as she got to meet some of her Newton teammates face to face for the first time.  I didn't really know anyone and just talked to random people and ate free food.  I did get to meet Fireman Rob, who really isn't all that big in person, and who was also super nice.  I also got to meet some guy from Sugarland (Thad Beaty), which other people were really impressed with, but I had no idea who he was.  To me, he was just some guy that people were fawning over.  To his credit, he seemed really nice and down to earth.  I also got to talk to Crowie, but I didn't get a photo.  Considering I got a photo with him last summer, I'm ok with that.  Also: they were serving the largest and most amazing shrimp ever.  Maybe that's why I didn't talk to too many people, I smelled of an 11 hr car ride and was stuffing myself with shrimp.  It was a late night - we didn't leave until 10:15 and I got to bed at 11 PM.  Pre-race prep fail.

Friday
The day before the race is always crazy busy with so many things to do.  I tried to plan it so we had some time mid-day to sit and chill.  We did ok with this and I didn't feel like I spent too much time on my feet.

My coach and her best friend had a "team" breakfast at 8:30, so myself and 2 condo-mates headed over to meet the crew.  I had a tasty omlette with potatoes.  Mmmmm

Then it was back to the Race Expo to pick up a friend's bike.  And then a trip to the grocery store for lunch/dinner supplies.  And then back to the condo.  By that point it was already 11 AM.  Damn, that took a while.

Ryan and I took a quick 30 min spin on our bikes to make sure everything survived the road trip.  And then he had a quick run while I tried out these things:

I know they are expensive and should have loved them, but they were weird.  It felt like a boa constrictor was eating my legs.  And they squished the hell out of my right foot and now (5 days later) my metatarsals hurt.  They felt fine during the race and right after, but they're a tiny bit achy.  And that makes me cranky.

Around 2 PM we loaded up and went to Sand Hollow Reservoir to drop off our bikes and to get a swim in.  Bike drop off was pretty simple.  Just rack your bike, let some air out of the tires so they don't pop in the heat and then wish your bike a good sleep.

Then we headed over to the lake to get in a 15 min swim.  I haven't done an open water wetsuit swim in 2 years.  The water was ~60 degrees and clear.  And beautiful.  Seriously.  We swam out to this baby rock and climbed onto it then dove back in and swam back to shore.

 

Who actually looks good in these things?

After that, we were running short on time and booked it back to town for the 4 PM athlete meeting.  We got there at 4:15 and missed the meeting.  Oh well.  We hung out and got some free stuff and then went off to drive the bike and run course.  My coach had already driven the run course and said it was "no joke".  Yay (?).

We drove the run course first because it started from the race expo. Hills and lots of them.  At mile ~2, you go up this 8% grade for ~1/3 of a mile.  Driving up that thing, I was just laughing hilariously.  People expect me to run up that?  HA!  So yeah, my expectations of doing much running were set pretty low.

We didn't drive the full bike course, just the part from where it crosses over the highway and into Snow Canyon.  The canyon was the big climb, so we felt if we saw that, we'd have a good idea of what we were up against.  Again, I have to say, this is the most beautiful course.  Wow.

petrified sand dunes in Snow Canyon State Park

We drove through and looked it over.  Ryan and I both agreed that it wasn't easy but it was definitely do-able.  Actually, the canyon profile looked similar to Palmer Lake with stair-stepping uphills.  There was a steep part at the top, but in all honesty, it didn't look any steeper than the steep bit in Palmer Lake and maybe twice as long.  For once, I was looking at a hard bike course and I wasn't petrified.

blurry, but you get the idea.  See that flat green-ish bit up on the right?  We were riding our bikes to the top of that.

After that, we went back to the condo and made dinner and got all of our race crap put together.  I was a dummy and didn't think to make sure I had enough Liquid Shot for the race.  I barely had enough.  :shakes head: 

Race Day!
I planned on waking up at 4 AM (ugh) but my condo-mates were up earlier so I got up at 3:45 (double ugh).  We had to check our run gear in at T2 and then hop a bus to Sand Hollow by 5:30, so that made everything much earlier than normal.  We got a sweet parking spot a block away from the finish pavilion, dropped our run gear, and hopped on the bus.  Which was free.  (I'm looking right at you Boise, charging racers $8 to ride the bus to the swim start).

We got to Transition and I was feeling ok.  Not really nervous or anxious, just neutral and ready to get the show on the road.  I immediately got in line to air up my tires - it was ridiculously long and took probably 15 minutes.  Then I got to work getting everything set up just so, talking to my rack-mates, and talking to some other friends.  With 15 min left before transition closing I hit the port-o-can line.  They had a bazillion out there and each line was only 4 people deep, which meant very little waiting.  They closed transition down and I somehow found my club-mates and we all hung out.  I was in an earlier wave with Daria, and we were the first ones of our group to swim.

Random sidenote: it was so awesome to race with friends.  We had 7 people from my club and I knew probably 5 more other racers.  I saw friends (mostly passing me) the whole race, which was great.

Daria and I made our way down to the swim start.  I had taken a hit of my inhaler and some Liquid Shot with Pre-Race and was READY to roll.

Swim
They had a deep water start, which meant you swam out a few hundred (?) yards and hung out at the start buoys.  Everyone in my wave was super cool, no jostling or aggression.  I was maybe 2 rows back, which is unusual because I like being in the front normally. The horn went off and away we went.  Nearly immediately I found some good feet and did my best to stay with them.  The water was so clear that it was really easy to just follow bubbles.  I managed to hang onto those feet for the first leg of the swim.  We rounded the buoy and I lost the feet.  I just focused on swimming close to the buoys and staying stretched out and relaxed.  The back stretch seemed to take forever, so I'd play games.  Switch to breathing on my left, take ~10 fast strokes and then cruise for a bit, switch to my right and repeat.  It seemed to make things move a bit faster. I was moving through earlier waves and encountered quite a few people swimming backstroke.  Ugh.  I made the final turn buoy and almost immediately found feet and focused on just following them.  This was the first time in a race that I did a good job in finding feet.  I looked at their kick and decided that given their pace and form, they should be decent swimmers and hoped that they were swimming straight.  I think I looked up maybe once that whole way back.  About half way through the final stretch of the swim the fast guys started coming through on the left side, hugging the buoys.  It reminded me of the water pipeline with the sea turtles in Finding Nemo.  I put myself as close as I could to them and tried to stay with them.  I got dropped a bunch but I think the net effect was helpful.  I just channeled my Inner Dory and just kept swimming.  I swam until my hands touched and stood up and went up the boat ramp into transition.

I felt that my pace was pretty comfortable.  I wasn't working super hard but I wasn't exactly cruising.  This felt like my IM pace.  I think.

I saw 0:44 on the clock and I had to idea what that meant for swim time.  It felt solid but it also felt like a 40 min swim.  I tried to do the math on the bike but my brain just wouldn't compute.

Swim time: 36:52
Swim Pace: 1:53
Swim Rank: 18/118 AG, 656/2685 OA

Holy shit, a swim PR by ~3.5 minutes.  And this was the first time I was in the top 10% in my age group for a 70.3 distance race.  I guess I need to find feet and keep my head down more often.  My coach commented to me about my swim times and how I should be getting better times.  This time, my time reflected my ability.  Go me!

T1
Something about not having raced in a wetsuit for 2 years made for a really crappy time getting my wetsuit off.  I couldn't find the zipper cord.  And then I got it unzipped but I couldn't get the damn thing off my upper body.  I actually had to have a stripper peel the whole thing off me from shoulder to feet.  I don't know if my hands were cold or if I was out of practice, but I know I can do better.

not a swamp-monster photo but it still isn't flattering.

I got to my bike and was happy to see there was only 1 bike missing from the rack.  It felt like I was taking my time, putting on gloves and my helmet, making sure I got nutrition in my pockets.  La la la, I'm racing but taking forever.

T1 time: 3:19

A near-2 min PR for my 70.3 distance T1.  I guess I wasn't that slow after all.
Bike
I got on the bike and started rolling along.  Here was my plan:

• Spin up the hills to save legs for Snow Canyon and the run.
• Push the downhills
• Medium pace (145 HR and cadence of 85-90) for the flats or shallow hills.
• Nutrition: on bike - 40 oz of EFS (400 cal), 1.5 bottles of Liquid Shot (600 cals), 2 packs of Honey Stinger Chews (400 cals), 1 SunRype Fruit Source Bar (120 cals), and some salt stick pills.  Idea was to drink EFS for the first hour or two and dilute it with water at each aid station so it was mostly water by the time I hit the mile 40 aid station.  Supplement with Liquid Shot for add'l calories and take in chews as I felt I needed to.  After Snow Canyon, start gobbling up calories for the long 10 mile downhill to allow time to digest prior to the run.

My stomach felt a little iffy right off the bike, probably because I had swallowed some lake water.  I gave it 5 minutes before drinking and it felt much better.  The air temp was fairly cold and I had my DeSoto Cool wings on (I wore them under my wetsuit) and I was actually pretty damn cold.  Those sleeves work. 

At about 4 miles in, there was a nasty little climb.  Not cool.  I must have pushed it a bit too hard going up because my right adductor decided to get cranky on me.  (This used to happen on hilly or hard effort 2-3 years ago.  It hasn't happened in over a year.  I was not a happy camper that it decided to act up).  It was also on this hill that Daria passed me on her sweet new Specialized Shiv.

Things weren't that exciting.  We were on chipseal for a good long time and I felt slow.  I didn't know if I had a flat tire or a brake rub or what.  But it felt SLOW compared to what I was used to doing.  In talking to others after the race, I think my legs were just cold from the swim and it took a while to get them warm and moving.


somehow, I managed to have my helmet on straight in all of my photos this time!

The bike was pretty uneventful.  I rode, I talked to people as I passed them up the hills, I enjoyed the scenery, I took in calories per my plan.  I hit the harder calories (chews and Liquid Shot) when I felt like I had some good downhills ahead of me.  This didn't work all that well because I didn't really know the early part of course and somehow managed to have some climbs with a belly full of chews.  It was only slightly uncomfortable and really not that big of a deal. 

Ryan passed me right around mile 35, most everyone else passed me much earlier.  It was also at mile 35 that I decided to really get in some calories to prep for Snow Canyon.  I jammed my front Liquid Shot into the velcro holder thingy too well earlier on and it was now stuck.  That meant I got to practice reaching around to my rear cage and getting my back-up container and then putting it back in.  I'm actually glad I had the back-up and it was a good thing to identify for CDA.


Merlin likes to fly

At mile 40 I stopped to pee, get my front Liquid Shot unstuck, stretch my adductor, re-filled my 40-oz bottle (it was 75% water at that point), took a few hits of my inhaler (preventative) and soaked my sleeves with water.  I also made the aid station workers admire the sparkly clear coat on my bike.  Because I'm a dork.

Then was the test - Snow Canyon.  Which was actually my favorite part of the course.  For starters, it is BEAUTIFUL.  The canyon was ~4 miles long and had ~800 feet of climbing.  Merlin (my new Alchemy bike, in its triathlon debut) felt super light and nimble.  I just rode up the canyon, giving myself gentle pep talks on the steeper parts.  The stair stepping helped, because it gave me a chance to spin my legs out a bit on the flatter bits.  The other cool thing about this part of the course if that you can see the road all the way through the canyon, with cyclists winding their way to the top.  It was a bit intimidating but also really cool.


This part of the ride was going to hurt but at least the scenery was beautiful

I wasn't quite to the hard part and there were people having issues.  Having to stand and pedal or worse, having to get off and walk.  I was concerned about the really steep push at the top but I just told myself to try it.  Just try it and see what happens.  My HR was in the 170's but I told myself to hold on and keep moving forward.  In my head, I kept thinking about the Boulder Epic Century ride from last September and how that, right now, Snow Canyon was not the hardest thing I had ever done.  I just kept focused and pedaled my way up the hill.  And I actually passed people.  That never happens.  It was awesome.  Merlin kicks ass. 

I got to the top of the canyon and got ready for some fun.  I had conquered the hard part of the race and felt awesome.  I was having fun and was riding along with a huge grin on my face.  So happy.

Per my plan, I got to work stuffing my face with calories.  I also decided to take 2 salt pills, as a preventative measure for the run.  I'm happy I did the pills first, because when  I took out my 2nd bag of chews from my bento box, I lost my container of pills.  Lame.  I got down a few handfulls of chews and a few gulps of Liquid Shot, chased that with some water and I got ready to fly.

My front brakes got gunked up with Liquid Shot from when I got my front container unstuck.  I acutally had to unscrew the lid, which resulted in some goop leaking onto the front of my bike.  I tapped the brakes for the first time and my front one make this awful squealing noise.  Tried it again, same noise.  Ok, I'm using my back brake only for the end of the ride. 

From this point on, I just focused on staying tucked and flying.  The road was smooth and had wide sweeping turns.  I took one downhill in aero at 44 mph and later hit 44 mph on my hoods.

Then we had one nasty little weird out and back (with a detour on a bike path with several 90 degree turns) and a return uphill.  I wasn't very happy with that last, tiny uphill (maybe 120 ft in a half mile), mainly because I was on cruise mode.  And also because I had a full stomach and it didn't feel that great going uphill with all those calories bouncing around.

After that bit, it was all smooth sailing to T2, where there were crowds of people cheering for us.

Bike time: 3:37:49  (6 min off my PR from Galveston... which was flat)
Bike Pace: 15.43 mph
Bike Rank: 70 /115 AG, 1584/2685 OA

T2
Got my bike racked pretty easily, gloves/helmet off, shoes on.  Grabbed my race belt, hat, and handheld bottle and put those on as I headed out of transition.

T2 time: 3:38

Run
So let me just say that I had ZERO expectations going into the run, given the hills and the heat.  And I also didn't really have expectations for the race as a whole, other than "survive". 

My plan was to run/walk based on HR intervals.  I set my Garmin to beep when I hit a HR of 165 (high limit) and 135 (low limit) and would run until I hit the high limit and walk until I hit the low.  For nutrition, I had 400 cals of Liquid Shot and a full scoop of Pre-Race, mixed with water.  The idea was to take a good sized sip at every aid station.  I still had on my Cool Wings and discovered that I could cram ice down the sleeves to stay cool.  Way, way awesome and I will be wearing these things for every warm race from now on.

So the run starts with you going out the chute, up a small hill, around a roundabout, and onto Diagonal which is a gradual long hill.  Right out of the chute, I came across Fireman Rob.  Since I felt like we were buddies (I talked to him for a whole 30 seconds 2 nights prior), I decided to joke around with him.  With two transitions, we had to keep all of our run gear in our red run bags.  I jogged past Rob and joked "I'm sure all that gear didn't fit into one red bag!"  That got a big laugh out of him and he commented that it took many red bags to store his fireman get-up.

So yeah, the run.  I don't think I ever hit a HR of 165.  I'd get to 158 or 160 and start to walk.  But, I think I only hit a low HR of 135 once, and that was during an aid station.  Typically I'd start running again when I saw 148 or so on the Garmin for my HR.  I just plugged along doing that run/walk up hills, chatting with people and making friends.

This was a really strange run course because so many people were walking.  The aid stations were pretty laid back, people taking their time to get things, acting like it was a buffet.  Very few people (by the time I went through) were hustling.  We were just trying to get it done.

I made the turn from Bluffs to Red Hills Blvd and I heard "Erin, is that you?"  It was the wife of the guy I was supposed to relay with in Boise last year.  I stopped, made jokes, and posed for pictures.  During a race.  (yes, I know.  :facepalm:  also see: low expectations).  Then I started to make my way up the 8% grade, running and walking per my plan.

I don't remember that first uphill being awful.  I was pretty fresh off the bike, feeling cool thanks to the ice in my sleeves, and generally happy.  I got to the top of the hill at mile 3 and I cruised the downhill parts.  When I was running, I was running around a mid- to lower- 9 minute pace.  When I was walking, I was sticking around a 15 min pace.  Pretty good.

The course took you up a big hill for almost 3 miles then you had a saddle and up to the top at 4.5 miles, then a dowhill for a bit, then through a park with rollers, then more downhill to a turn around, where you got to do the course in reverse.  Yay (?)

First time through the park, feeling good, singing to myself

I saw Michelle (my coach) on a uphill portion maybe around mile 4.  I told her I was ok and I killed the bike and wished her luck. I also saw all of my club-mates on the opposite side of the road (ahead of me) and we high fived eachother.

I'd say I was pretty happy for the first half of the race.  After my broken heel last year, I was just happy to be out there.  Anytime I didn't feel like running, I'd remind myself that last year I couldn't run, and then I'd get going.  And the ice in my sleeves were brilliant.  I wasn't hot.  I just sang a dumb little song in my head, like a kid: "I've got ice in my sleeves, I'm not hot, everyone else looks hot, this is awesome".  I'm a dork.  But at least I'm a happy dork.

After going back through the park again (mile 8?) my stomach got hungry, and I said uh-oh.  I was supposed to drink from my hand held every mile but I put too much Pre-Race in it and it tasted disgusting (bitter) so I was only taking baby-sips, if that.  I took a few bites of my SunRype Fruit Source bar (still in my tri shorts pocket from the bike) to take care of the hunger pains and started hitting the Coke at the next aid station.  The next few miles weren't pretty - the damage was done in terms of calorie deficit.  Dummy.  I got to the top of the hill, still doing my run/walk thing, but I was only running until I hit a HR of ~155 or so and I was letting my HR drop into the low 140's before I started to run again.  I forgot how to properly drink water and decided to inhale it.  I can breathe while swimming - surrounded with water - and be fine.  Apparently I can't drink while running.  So that kicked off my asthma.  Super.  And let me tell you, running downhill with an asthma attack going on sucks.

You get to the top of the last hill and say to yourself, "sweet, its 3 miles to the finish and its all downhill".  Only the race director is evil and put this mean little out and back up and down leg into the end of the run.  That part really sucked.  And there was a photographer there to document how happy we all were.  

focused

Once I finished that point, I had about 2 miles left.  I had no idea where I was on the clock and I flipped my Garmin display to show time of day.  I saw that I had the potential to PR if I ran the whole way back.  Holy crap.  Unfortunately, due to my asthma and idiotic lack of nutrition, and also developing blisters, I just couldn't make myself run downhill those 2 miles.  Boo.  I managed to run 0.2 to 0.3 miles then walk 0.1 mile, repeat.  Until the last bit, where I'm pretty sure I ran at least the last 1/2 mile.  It helped that the crowds got denser and I could hear the finish line by that point.

I went down the hill, back around the roundabout, and I could see the finish - and it was all downhill.  Finally.

I had the chute pretty much to myself, which was really fun.  In the past, I was so focused, I just zoomed down the chute, not really taking things in.  This time, I was still running, but I was also high fiving kids and absorbing the atmosphere.

I heard them say my name and my town.  Then I crossed the finish line.  And then I was done.  Awesome.

If you look closely, you can see the ice that's still in my sleeves :)

Run Time: 2:45:29  (5 min faster than my worst 70.3 run split, only 8 min slower than my best)
Run Pace: 12:37 min/mile
Run Rank: 78/115 AG, 1639/2685 OA

Overall Time: 7:06:52, 78th in my AG.  This was 8 min slower than my PR (Galveston) and my highest placement to date.

Closing Thoughts
My race experience in St George was beyond expectations and fantastic.  It was one of those truly perfect days.  The entire town is genuinely proud to host this race - they're so friendly and helpful.  The couse is BEAUTIFUL.  It is hard, but not impossible.  I'm so glad I followed our tri-club head lemming and took the leap.  Other races wouldn't have been as hard and I certainly would have had a huge PR, but I wouldn't have learned anything either.

This race was a huge confidence boost for IMCDA.  I know that my training is solid, based on my bike performance.  This makes me really excited to put my head down and get to work for the final stretch to CDA.