Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2013 Race Report: Pre-Race

So here I am, on the other side of Ironman Coeur d'Alene.  It was amazing.  I want to do it again - soon.  It truly was one of those days where I did (pretty much) everything right and raced to my training and my potential.  Putting this day into words is going to be tough.

So here's the pre-race report

Thursday
I decided to wear my very best, most obnoxious tri-dork wear.  Hot pink compression socks and my clashing pink Brooks PureFlow2s, along with short shorts that highlighted my cycling tan lines.  I was a looker.  Somehow Will didn't mind being seen with me.

We flew from Denver to Boise and then from Boise to Spokane.  We were sitting in the airport in Boise, looking at the hill for the 70.3 that scared the bejezzus out of me 4 years ago and laughed.  "I eat hills like that for breakfast".  Its true.

We got to Spokane at noon, had my friend (and her kids - my "nephews") pick us up and take us to the rental car place downtown (saved us $200), and then we headed to CDA for check in.  I wanted to get this done ASAP so I could chill out for a bit.  It was raining and cold.  The expo - a grassy park - was now a mud pid.  And there were hardly any vendors about.  It made for a lame expo.  I got my packet along with the prized Ironman backpack.  It is pretty cool.

freezing here.  and trying out some pig-tail braids.

I spent too much money on gear.  Seriously.  Its ridiculous.  I got a cycling jersey, a visor, a long-sleeve tech shirt with my name in teensy tiny font on the back, and a mug with a guy doing butterfly for the swim.  I thought about getting a tri jersey as well, but the sizing is crazy and I needed an XL.  I figure they'll go on clearance and I can pick one up then. 

I also got some stuff for my friend Ryan, who wasn't getting to the expo until the next day.  The weather was crap and I was freezing (still in my shorts/socks outfit), so we decided to head back to Spokane for the night.

Friday
Friday I was supposed to do a 20 min swim, 45 min bike, and 10 min run.  Being that I was in Spokane, I decided to skip the swim and just bike/run.  I hit the Centennial Trail, thinking, hey, its along the river so it should be flat.  No, it was the opposite of flat.  In fact, I think that there isn't a spot of flat land in Spokane.  It was misty and cool and BEAUTIFUL.  There's just something about riding through the forest that makes me happy.

I hurt my foot wearing those dumb Normatek compression boots in early May at St George, and recently the pain had gone away.  Well, wearing my compression socks the day prior aggrivated my foot and I was a bit worried.  And I felt a bit sluggish on the bike.  But my run was fast and solid with a very low sub-140 bpm heart rate. 

I got done with that around 1 PM.  I still had to shower and eat lunch, and then we had to drive the run and bike course, check in to our hotel in Hayden (about 15 min north of the race), and then be at a friend's cabin on Lake Hayden at 5 PM for dinner.  Sounded like I had a lot of time, but I was pretty rushed.

We drove the run course.  There's a 6% grade that's a 1/2 mile long at mile 5 and 18 - not super nice.  But otherwise the run is along the lake and it's pretty.  The bike course uses part of the run course and then heads to along the west side of the lake for the big hills.  We drove the bike course and the hills were longish but not overly steep and very doable.  The second loop would be tricky but I have definitely ridden worse.

Hotel was nothing exciting, although we had a fireplace (WTF?) and a jacuzzi tub.  Then we booked it to the cabin for dinner.  And from the cabin, we went to the athlete meeting.  We got there around 6:40 and got a good chunk of the athlete dinner talk, which went over until nearly 7:20.  I'm glad we had dinner on our own, as it looked like they served pasta on paper plates.  Of interest was the swim start protocols, which were totally new and untested.  The were having us group up on the beach by our own self-professed swim time.  That's a little problematic on its own.  But the time groups were HUGE.  Sub 1-hr, 1:00-1:15. 1:15-1:30, etc.  15 minutes is a HUGE gap.  Ugh.

There were 4 of us racing from my club and strangely enough, I was the IM veteran.  We posed for a photo and noted how light it was at nearly 9 PM (which was our projected finish time).  Then it was back to the hotel and off to bed.


me, Mark, Ryan, and Adrian.  This was taken at 8:30 PM - look how light it is!

Saturday
Oh, big day.  This is the day I hate the most.

My coach told me that Friday night and Saturday morning were the critical meals, so I made sure I got a good breakfast of ham, eggs, and potatoes.  Actually 2x the potatoes.  mmmm, carbs.  Then we headed over to Walmart for bright duct-tape and ribbon so I could decorate my gear bags.  It was actally the most pleasant Walmart experience we've ever had - probably because it was 8:30 AM and everyone else was still asleep.

Then it was to the hotel to pack my run and bike bags and to get my bike ready.  Everything had to be dropped off today.  I hate this part.  I took a photo of the contents of my bag, so when the inevitable "I didn't pack X" freak out happened, I had a photo to reference. 

I had rented a GPS tracker thingy and based on IMTX, it was a bit awkward on my race belt (its a bit heavy).  I wanted to pin it on my tri jersey so I was playing around with options.  The best option was on my lower back with 4 pins.  I thought about pinning them on my jersey in T1 or having a volunteer do it for me, but that seemed really stupid from a time standpoint.  I decided to pre-pin the GPS on my jersey and then toss my jersey in my bike bag.  That meant I'd have only a sports bra on under my wetsuit and people would see my gut.  I decided that it was worth it to save a few minutes in T1.  I also decided to not put any jackets in my gear bags and I'd check the weather on race day and make last minute adjustments.  I also had my cool wings and some socks-turned-arm-warmers in my bike bag.  And the usual other things that go in your bike and run bags. (I did forget to pack my sunglasses in my bike bag and my visor/hat in my run bag... because I was wearing them. dummy).


We headed out to the race expo around 10:30 AM.  I wanted to get all this crap done early on so I could spend the afternoon chilling in my hotel room.  I dropped my bike first.  I actually had a pretty sweet bike rack spot - towards the bike out and 4 bikes in from the main aisle.  I'll take it. 


Merlin is ready for action!

Then I dropped of my run and bike bags, again I had pretty good locations.  There was a sign with 600-XXX and I was 608, so that put me pretty close to the signs.  It was looking like rain but I didn't have any add'l plastic bags.  I thought about pulling my running shoes to keep them dry, but ultimately, I decided to leave them in my bag and take my chances.  I then headed over to get an idea of where the heck swim in, bike out, bike in, etc was.  It was confusing and the volunteer had to explain it to me 3 times WITH the map in front of me.

how I figured this out on race day, I have no idea...

Then we attended a little seminar on "secrets of the couse" which of course contained little new info.  But it was an opportunity to sit down and see my friends.  After the seminar was done, they went to lunch and I went in to swim 15 minutes.  I didn't have anything official for the day but I thought it was important to at least touch the water before the race.  The water was cold but not anything colder than St G or what I swim in at home.  I did some out and backs and then I did a few mock beach run outs and run ins so I could remember what to do.  No one else was doing this.  So I felt smug and prepared.

rocking my coach's two piece wetsuit.  I don't look like a whale!

I love, love, love this photo.  Good job, Will!

For lunch, we drove out of the congested downtown area and found a place called Jonsey's.  It looked like other tri-dorks were eating there and I was hoping for something fresh and not full of bread.  They served breakfast all day, so I got a pesto pork chop, 2 eggs, and roasted potatoes.  Perfect.  Will got a bacon cheeseburger and I glared at him. I also wanted pie, but I needed to stay away from gluten so I resisted. Their waffles looked amazing, so I vowed to return there after the race.

Then we headed back to the hotel.  I was planning on watching Netflix but we both were super tired so we took a nap.  I wasn't planning on napping because I wanted to go to bed early, but I figured if I was that tired then I shouldn't fight it.

We met friends for dinner and went to a not-super-appropriate place for me.  It was all sandwiches and pizza and salads.  Ugh.  So I got a salad but picked around most of the lettuce.  We also went for fro-yo, which made me happy because then I got some carbs that didn't involve bread.  Yay! 

Bedtime was somewhere around 9 PM and we had a 4 AM wake-up call.  Yikes.

Sunday
Up and at 'em, and I actually slept really well.  I got up and immediately checked the weather.  The forecast was wonky, changing from nice to rainy to windy in the days leading up to the race.  I was so worried about rain that I made an emergency trip to REI before we left for Spokane for 2 light weight rain jackets.  The weather was looking good so I decided to not bring a jacket. I did have my favorite long-sleeve shirt and my cycling sleeves in my run special needs bag, in case it got cold.  I changed, had Will apply sunscreen (I used Planet Sun this time around), and I ate a breakfast of 1 Honey Stinger protein bar and ~200 cals of EFS.  We hit the road at 4:45 and didn't have too much trouble finding parking.  I think we had to walk maybe 5 blocks.

Super Moon (which sadly I couldn't see because it was cloudy)

I had heard the day prior to drop the Special Needs bags off first thing, as they were a ~10 min walk away from the bikes.  I happily handed my bags over to Elvis, which was amusing.  We walked along the lakefront and the fog was really spooky but pretty.  You could barely see the buoys and we all thought swimming was going to be interesting.

spooky!

I went straight to Merlin and filled up my water bottles and nutrition.  I had 40 oz of 50% diluted EFS in my Speedfill, 2 Honey Stinger chews in my bento box, another 4 packages of chews in an empty water bottle on the back, and 6 "hours" of concentrated EFS in a bottle on the back.  I aired up my tires and made a TON of friends, as the line for compressed air was ridiculously long.

After that, I went to my run bag to put my two hats in there (a visor and a hat, depending on what the weather was doing).  Then I went to my bike bag and put my sunglasses in there.  Then I spent forever in a port-o-pottie line.  Which was actually ok because I ended up standing next to a facebook friend (and friend of a real life friend).  I was putting on my wetsuit and realized that I didn't have an inhaler on my person and transition was closing.  Dummy.  So I booked it through the crowds back to my bike, where my inhaler was located in my bento box. 


Action shot of me taking off to get my inhaler.  Also: I went with pigtails for my hair.

I took 3 puffs, figured it was ~30 min before my swim start, and that would be good enough.  I also decided to drink my ~100 cals of Liquid Shot + 1/2 scoop of Pre-Race.  I then ran back to the swim area, told Will goodbye and stood for the national anthem (we both got teary).  Then it was time to go see what the swim start business was about.  I went to the beach, saw the people with signs, and decided to do a bit of a warm-up in the water.  Really, it consisted of maybe a minute of swimming, but it was nice to get in the water, have the shock of cold hit me, and be done.  I then lined up in my "1:00-1:15" group by myself, trying to make friends.  I ended up finding one of my friends (Dimity), mainly because she's so dang tall, and waited to go.  Just me and 2500 of my closest friends.

Thoughts going into Ironman #2

My first Ironman was all about firsts.  First time running over 15 miles, first time riding 100 miles, etc.  I spent much of my time thinking that my coach was trying to kill me, wondering where I was going to get these long rides done and how I was going to manage to do big back-to-back days.  I spent most of my training by myself (I had just moved back to Denver).  Mostly, my experience was fueled by fear and questions.

This time around has been completely different.  If I had to put it into words, I'd say that my mind and my heart were much more "open".  It wasn't that I wasn't willing to put in the work last time, it was just that I had many other emotions overshadowing the work.  This time, life is calmer, and I know that a) I can finish the race because I've done it before and b) I know what the work feels like.  This takes out a lot of the noise and allows me to focus on getting the work done.

My workouts, especially cycling, have been so much harder than last time.  The first time I saw Deer Creek on my trainig plan, I was pretty freaked out, but I realized that all I needed to do was to try it and see what happens.  I can take my time.  If its hard, I can go as far as I'm able and turn around.  The training isn't the race - its what gets me ready to race.  My muscles didn't care if I had to take 3 breathing breaks on High Grade - it was making it to the top that mattered.  My run paces have been faster than ever as well.  I've approached them with a "just try it" attitude as well.  So what if I do my first repeat too fast?  Try and hit that pace for repeats 2-4 and I may suprise myself.  Essentially, I tried my best to take out the negative talk and be open to hurting and to seeing what I could do.  And I'm pretty damn impressed with what I was able to do.  I've never been able to run mile repeats sub-9:00.  But two weeks ago (on very tired legs), I did that 3 times.

I've moved from saying "I'm terrible climbing hills" to seeking hills out and trying them out.  I'm still not very fast, but I can climb pretty well without feeling like I'm going to die.  And more importantly, I don't look at hills with dread.  Like during Elephant Rock a few weeks back, I just shook my head and laughed, and rode up the hill without drama, no big deal, its just a hill.

Another difference is that I've had people around me this whole time.  I've had training friends for all of my long bike rides.  I have a swim team that understands and supports me.  My tri club is awesome.  My network of friends don't respond to my race as "you're insane", but instead they say "you're awesome".  Mentally, this process has been incredibly positive.

And here I am, race week, and I am calm.  I've had only one set of butterflies - that was last Friday when I set up my race paces.  I can theoretically take 2.5 HOURS off of my IMTX time, and I'm not even proposing crazy fast paces.  1:12 for the swim, 7 hrs for the bike, 5 hrs for the run.  Not unreal or unrealistic paces.  If I was doing these as stand-alone events (and not even really pushing that hard), these times are completely realistic.  I've been doing these paces in training.  Honestly, what scares me is that, to hit that time, I really need to force myself into my pain cave for the run and get it done.  I have to balance hurting against that goal time and wanting it.  How bad do I want it?  I pride myself on being tough, but it is a bit scary to look a time (and a huge race) in the eye and say "do I want it and by how much?" How much am I willing to hurt?  So much of this race is mental and it all depends with how "open" my heart and mind are.

These are questions that will be answered in 6 days.  It should be a good ride.

The people who keep me injury free

I've had a pretty bad history of being injured.  And very randomly injured.  I've broken both feet while running, had shin splints and ITBS for very extended periods of time.  And a bunch of aches and pains.  I'm fortunate, this time, to have settled in with some really great people who help to keep me on track.  I spend probably too much money on this stuff, but I really feel it helps.  And I'm going to toe the IMCDA line injury-free.  Hurray!

Massage
I see Todd with Golden Hands Massage Therapy every two weeks.  I saw him initially in Sept or Oct 2012 because I had a groupon and I immediately knew that he was fantastic.  He really knows his therapies and isn't shy about really getting to the root of all my knots.  His massages aren't fun (in fact, this is a running joke with us) but they work.  Maybe after CDA I'll get a "nice" massage that's relaxing and stuff.  His pricing is also fantastic - $80 for a 90 min massage, but if you buy 4 you get the 5th free, making the price $60 for a 90 min session.  Sweet!

Acupuncture
I started to see Dave Kaplan of Colo Acupuncture Studio based on a recommendation from a friend.  Back in February, my hip started randomly hurting and I thought I'd give this a try.  I'm not sure the acupuncture helped my hip (I think the chiropractor did more to fix this), but Dave is really helping me in other ways.  I really don't quite understand what acupuncture does.  Dave feels my pulse, sometimes looks at my tongue, makes statements like my pulse is sluggish and stagnant, and then sticks a bunch of needles in me.  He strongly feels that my lungs are my biggest limiter (and after really paying attention to my body during hard efforts, I agree with him.  My muscles are rarely the problem, I feel like they could go faster.  Its my lungs and heart rate that are screaming at me to slow down) and we're working to make my lungs heathier.  He prescribes chinese herbs for the lungs and he's also got me on some herbal "tea" to help make my blood flow (which promotes healing) during and after my peak training weeks.  What also interesting, is that Todd will do reflexology on me and identify organs that aren't happy (usually kidneys - dehyradation, duh!, and my liver).  Without even telling Dave any of this, he will confirm Todd's evaluation and stick needles in me to help out these organs.

Its also pretty relaxing.  I know, relaxing with needles in your body is a weird concept.  I'm usually there ~1.5 hrs per session (we do a lot of chatting, he's a cool guy), and most of the time is spent lying on a table letting the needles do their "thing".  I generally fall asleep during this time.  Its awesome.

This was from last week, after weeks of peak training.  This would be a "lot" of needles.

I see Dave usually every two weeks, although we'll increase the frequency if needed.

Chiropractor
I loved, loved, loved my Houston chiropractor.  He was awesome.  I have had a hard time finding someone similar here in Denver.  I saw three different chiros before I found Dr. Jay Fullinwider, based on a recommendation from Dave.   Jay doesn't take insurance (boo) but he has package rates that work out to $40 a session.  He is extremely thorough and effective.  He even found that I had a rib out of place (!!).  As a bonus, he does some muscle manipulation and ART work, in addition to chiropractic adjustments.  I've been seeing Dr Jay every two weeks as well (sense a theme?).

IMCDA Nutrition Plan

When I was riding with my coach last Friday, she said it was time to start developing my race plan.  I, very sarcastically said "I suppose 'survival' won't cut it this time?".  Um, no. 

So, here's my nutrition plan.  I'd say its about 85% proven.  There's always a bit of an unknown factor, but hopefully this will work for me.  One big change: no salt pills.  Coach doesn't like them.  And after my 8 hr ride in Boulder, I don't think my gut likes them much either.  I was using PowerBar Energy Blasts (I love the cola flavor), but I read the ingredients and the glucose is wheat-based (really guys?  really?) and it turns out the Honey Stinger chews have a higher electrolyte amount.  Plus they taste good and they don't stick to your teeth.  And my stomach seems to like them too.  So I'm on board with Honey Stinger.  And the EFS line has electrolytes too, so lets just hope I get enough in for the race.

Race Morning:  Green Tea Extract (for caffeine), EFS, and a Honey Stinger Protein Bar.  The bar needs to be eaten no later than 4:30 AM since my swim start will be ~6:45 AM.

Pre-swim: about 30 min (maybe 20) before the swim, 100 cals of Liquid Shot + Pre-Race.  (seemed to work well at St G)

Bike: ok, this is where it gets complicated.  Goal is 250-300 cals per hour.  I've been doing more like 260 in training, but if I can get more down, I'd like to.  I'm hoping for 7 hrs on the bike but am planning for 8 in case there are issues.  That means 2,100-2,400 cal for the bike.

• diluted EFS + water, 1 scoop per hour (100 cals).  I'll have 200 cals in my Speedfill bottle and I'll have a concentrated 500 cals in a water bottle in my rear bottle cage.  I'll also have a concentrated bottle in Special Needs in case I lose a bottle.  Drink 100 cals per hour, or refill my Speedfill with water + concentrate every other aid station (or so).  I'm doing more of a "eat your calories, drink your hydration" approach.  This will give me some electrolytes but not mess with my stomach too much.
• 2 flasks of Liquid Shot (400 cals each).  One is up front in a handy little flask holder, one will be in the void space in my rear bottle cage.
• 4 packages of Honey Stinger Chews, 2 in pomegranate passion and 2 in lemon lime (for caffeine).  I like the cherry cola ones, but the color is too close to the pom ones, and I'd like to just grab chews and eat based off of color and not have to worry about which little bag I'm digging in.  I'll start with 2 bags of chews in my bento box, and I'll probably have a 2nd (empty) water bottle with another 4 bags crammed in there.  I did that for Elephant Rock.  You have to stop to extract the bags of chews, but I figure I can do that during a bathroom stop.
• Timing:  Drink to thirst but at a minimum, every 15 min.  Honestly, I'm going to try to drink everytime the thought "drink" pops into my little pea brain, because I don't think I drink enough.    Every :15 and :45 take a good swig of Liquid Shot.  I am shooting to use a whole flask in 3:30-4 hrs.  Every :00 and :30 eat 2-3 Honey Stinger chews, alternating btwn pom and caffeine flavors.
• Watch for stomach sloshiness and moderate (reduce) calorie and fluid intake accordingly.

Run:  whooo, boy, this is unproven ground.  Well, not completely.  I've done 2 bricks with the above bike plan and this proposed run plan and I've had 1 long run with this plan.  But I've never actually raced with it.  Yay?  I used to drink a concentrated drink mix or do Liquid Shot (sometimes with caffeine), but I've had issues with it.  My stomach would cramp or it would taste icky so I wouldn't drink it.  I did try Liquid Shot + water + green tea extract on a long run (where I also had chews) and I found that I gravitated more towards the chews and barely touched my hand-held bottle.  So chews it is, because this girl needs to learn how to take in calories while running.

• Handheld with water, so I can drink to thirst between aid stations.
• 2 Honey Stinger Chews (30 cals) per mile.  This works out to be ~800 calories.  Hopefully I'll be "running" for 5-6 hours, so this will be 130-150 calories per hour. I'll have the same flavors as on the bike so I can easily choose between normal and caffeinated ones.  This is a ton of chews - 6 packages.  I don't have a whole lot of room in my tri kit, so I will definitely be making a stop to special needs halfway through the run.
• Supplement with Coke as needed.

Hopefully this works for me.... there's only one way to find out.  :)

Faux-taper week

I mistakenly thought that my 3rd week out would be a taper week.  Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled when I say 19 hrs on my training calendar.  And that was with taking Monday off.  Oof.

But, typical to how I've approached this thing, I just put my head down and did what was asked of me.  Tuesday was a 4 km swim workout, including 30 x 100 free at IM pace.  Ick.  Wed was a 1:30 run.  I am sooo over running.  Thurs was a 1:30 bike and 30 min run.  But I got them done.

Friday was another swimbikerun day with 3.6 km swim and my usual Deer Creek - High Grade bike adventure and a run.  My coach insisted on riding with me, which is intimidating, but also but cool.  I usually do the Deer Creek ride solo because I just need to do it on my own terms.  I don't want added pressure of keeping up with people or feeling guilty about stopping if I can't breathe.  But in the end, it was a good thing Michelle went with me.  Immediately upon leaving my HR was in the 160's.  At the start of the climb, my HR was 175.  It is normally 165 in that section.  I had to stop and bring my HR down.  Lame.  Especially when my coach was with me.  On the easier section, my HR was still way too high so we decided to just make it to the top of the switchbacks.  My HR zoomed to 180, which was really odd because my legs pretty much spun up the hill.  We got to the top and Michelle declared that my ride was done and had me turn around.  Even coasting down the hill, my HR was 125-130 and on the flats I was at 140.  She pulled the plug on my run as well and told me to "go home, eat, nap, and watch a movie."  Ok!  I needed to get my body rested enough so I could hit my targets for Saturday and Sunday.  So I got some food, went home, had a nap (supervised by both kitties) and then hung out on the couch all night.  Really lame for a Friday night, but I needed it. 

As much of a bummer as that was, it was nice having Michelle with me.  If she wasn't, I would have been stubborn and forced my way (very slowly) up the damn hill.  She did tell me that my bike fits me perfectly (it should) and that my legs are really strong (yay!).  And for the first time in my training, I actually cracked.  I've had other times where I was really tired and then somehow ran the fastest mile splits of my life.  This time, I was really, truly too tired to perform.  Michelle was beginning to wonder if I was bomb-proof because I just kept on going.  If there was a good time to crack, I suppose Friday was it.  It shows that my training load has finally caught up to me.

Saturday was a 5 hour ride and a 40 min run.  She had notes in there about riding 80 miles, but I had strict instructions to keep the ride at 5 hrs and to keep my HR around 135 for the whole ride.  Ok.  I met my friend Ryan and he took me on a random 2-wheeled tour of Littleton, Denver, Wheatridge, Golden, Red Rocks, Morrison, and Deer Creek.  I wish I had pics, especially around Red Rocks, but I just didn't feel like messing with my phone.

We were on trails the first 2:15 of the ride, until we got to Golden.  And from Golden to Chatfield Reservoir, we went through random neighborhoods that had a lot of hills.  My HR was much better though.  Average HR was 132 and I think it peaked out at 165.  Good deal.

My MP3 player died 2 hrs into the bike so I had to do the 40 min run without music.  It was also a bit hot out.  But my legs and stomach felt good - I ended up going 0.15 mile farther than last week.  (of course, I had ridden 2 hrs less this week).

I think I finally have my nutrition figured out, which is awesome.  My bricks in April and early May had MAJOR side stitches for the first 20 min of the run.  Like "hurts bad enough I need to walk and stick my fingers in my ribcage every 4 minutes" kind of bad.  We've been working on my bike nutrition and I think I finally have it nailed down, because my past 2 long bricks have been awesome.  It seems that the key is to dilute my drink mix and to eat most of my calories.  This is kind of a pain in the ass to execute but I will do it if it means my stomach is happier.

After the brick, my friend and I went and got wings and beer, and laughed about how a 5 hr ride seems short.  Our waitress thought we were crazy.  Ironman: where insanity is all relative.

Sunday required some pep-talks.  I had a 2:15 run, where the middle :45 needed to be at HIM pace.  And then I had a 1:30 recovery ride.  I decided to get up semi-early (6:15 AM) and drive over to the High Line Canal for my run.  High Line is a nice, even, wide dirt path that goes all over Denver.  You've got green grass, pretty mountain views, and mansions to look at while you run.  And it is fairly flat.  So if your run sucks, it will at least be pretty.

This was another one of those "just get it done" kind of workouts that ended up being pretty great.  The first 30 minutes really sucked, my legs were really heavy and my stride was choppy.  Then around 35 min I realized I was running smooth and kinda fast.  I started my 45 min HIM pace at 40 min into the run and I was really suprised with how well I did.  I was using this run as a test for my nutrition, which is probably the least proven on the run.  At every mile, I'd walk for 0.05 mi where I'd drink and eat 2 chews (30 cals).  This seemed to work, I had good energy and my stomach was fine, even at the harder efforts.  Even better, my peak 5k pace was 10:22 min/mile and my peak 1 mile pace was 10:15 min/mile (which includes the little walk breaks).  Solid!  And the really great part is that for the efforts, my HR was only around 150-155.  I can only hope to do that during my race.  I had 45 min remaining in my run so I chilled out and ran at a slower but comfortable pace.  I then realized why my coach had me run the HIM effort in the middle of this run.  It was so my legs would get tired and I would have to finish my run on tired legs.  Ah hah!  That coach of mine is so smart sometimes.  I finished up the run with 12.34 miles and a pace of 10:58.  A full 30 seconds/mile faster than last week's long 14-mile run, where the last part was awful.  What a difference a week makes.  I sooo needed this run and the confidence boost that came along with it.

Then I did an easy 1:30 ride on the trails by my house and that was the end of the week!

This week looks much more tapery.  12 hrs.  Swim and bike seem pretty easy.  Running is not easy with Tuesday having 4 x 1 mile fast efforts and Saturday's 1 hr run having 3 miles at sub-9:15.  That's a 5k on a 9:15 pace.  I don't run that fast, or at least I didn't 6 months ago.  I think I do now.  We shall see.

Race day is 13 days away and so far so good.  No freaking out, no crazy dreams, just a feeling of good solid training and knowing I'm ready to get it done.  :)

100 Miles of Elephant Rock

alternate titles: holy headwind, the elevation profile on the website was way wrong, and yay - its my last long ride before CDA

Yesterday was the final big day of my final big 18-days-without-a-day-off training block.  This training included two 20 hr weeks, back to back, with no rest.  Fatigue is my friend.  Or at least my companion for the past few weeks.

A friend (who is also doing CDA, Ryan) and I were going to try and ride together, or at least start together and then hang out afterwards.  The plan was to show up at 5:45 (this meant waking up at 4:45, ugh) and starting at 6 AM.  Well, traffic was bad and we didn't get rolling until 6:30.  It was also freezing (or 45 degrees).  We were wearing our tri kits (which have small pockets) and didn't want to dink around with sleeves.  I opted to wear my Cool Wings, thinking that fabric of some sort would be better than bare skin.  I'm not sure I was warmer or colder with them on - I just know that I was cold.

This was my last day to dink around with nutrition.  After last weekend, my coach has issued a strict No Salt Pills policy, because they messed with my digestive system.  She also wanted me to dilute my drink mix some more.  And since I wasn't relying on the aid stations for nutrition, that meant I had to bring everything with me.  I was planning my nutrition out the night prior, freaking out about how the hell I was going to carry 1700 calories with me.  Then I remembered I had 2 flasks for Liquid Shot, which is approx 400 cals per flask.  The rest would be made up by drink mix (100 cal per hour) and Honey Stinger chews.  I was extra crafty and crammed 4 packets of chews in an empty water bottle and put that in my rear bottle cage and I had a second bottle with some concentrated EFS drink mix.  Pockets - who needs pockets?

The main issue for the day was the wind.  When I left my house I immediately noticed that the trees were moving.  Crapola.  We had pretty much non-stop headwind for 2 hours.  And those 2 hours were all uphill.  There was a nasty hill at mile 4 (FOUR!!!) of the ride, which sucked because my legs were not warmed up yet, and with the wind, I was a bit defeated already.  We got to the top of a plateau with rolling upward hills and it was just windy.  I was getting blown around and I was right on the line of whereI didn't feel it was safe to ride.  Other people were really wobbly and there were roadies just blasting past me, too close for comfort.  I was debating my safety - at mile 15 of 100.  I stopped at the first aid station (I saw friends) and I even made some silly comment about "will they call the ride for safety - its so windy?"  Dummy.  I got a reassuring pat on the back from my friends and kept riding.  And in the back of my head I was just thinking that if it was this windy on race day, I was screwed (or in for a loooong day).

I made it to the T in the course at 1.5 hrs into the ride.  Turn right for 62 miles, turn left for 100 miles.  I had overheard someone say that the wind should be better for the 100 because the course goes through the Black Forest (trees!) and the trees would provide a bit of a wind break.  I don't know who that guy was, but I'm so thankful to him for saying that.  

This portion provided a bit of variation, as you headed east or south or west, which meant that you got crosswinds or headwinds.  It was gusty but doable.  The roads were crap and I'm glad the crowd thinned out because you had to be careful about where you were riding.  I had gotten so used to leaning left (while going east) that at some point we did a short jog west and it felt really strange to have to lean right.  I took my planned rest stop at Aid Station #2, where I ran into my two friends again (and got another pat on the back), re-filled my water (with some concentrated EFS) and used the bathroom.  Then it was back on the road.

I remember looking at my Garmin at the 4 hour mark and noting that I'd only gone 48 miles - a whopping 12 mph.  Damn.  I also knew that eventually we'd turn north and get a tailwind.  After the aid station stop, my spirits improved.  It wasn't solid headwinds, I was warming up, and I was just focusing on nutrition and keeping the effort on the hills light.  I was not focusing on miles or time. I was just focusing on getting things done.

Nutrition was a bit sketchy at first, but I got my act together.  With the high winds, I really didn't want to take my hands of my bars to eat.  And I didn't have very many calories in my drink mix.  Doing this for the first ~2 hours of a bike ride is ok.  Doing this in the first hour of an IM is most definitely not ok.  I finally started paying attention to the clock and my food and became regimented after ~3 hrs.  At the :00 amd :30 I'd eat 2-3 Honey Stinger chews (alternating btwn caffeine and non-caffeine) and at :15 and :45 I'd have a good swig of Liquid Shot.  And I was drinking at least every 15 min, although, if I had a thought of drinking enter my head, I would make myself drink. 

At mile 48 we had a pretty good climb that didn't seem to end.  At first I was a bit discouraged but then I realized the hill (and the timing) was pretty much St George.  Once I got that in my head, life was good.

We had BEAUTIFUL views of green grass and Pikes Peak the entire time. 
Unfortunately it was so windy, I didn't take many photos.

Pretty soon, I came upon Aid Station #4, so I stopped to refill my water and use the bathroom.  I ran into Ryan and another club-mate, so yay!  Friends!  Ryan and I left together (where he dropped me pretty quickly) and we got to conquer Roller Coaster Road.  I had friends warn me about this road (which was around mile 60?). Its basically an undulating upward climb with some pretty steep sections.  I had taken all of the hills pretty conservative (as well as the windy sections) because I knew that we had this climb and another one at mile 85, so I had plenty of legs left.  I passed so many people on RC Road.  I felt bad for them, because they were hurting and me (this little girl on a sparkly bike) was spinning past them.  I tried to make a funny joke as I went by, to make them laugh and distract them a bit.

Once you got done with RC Road, it was pretty much smooth sailing west to Palmer Lake.  I was flying along and for whatever reason, something felt off.  I reached back and realized I had lost my bottle with my concentrated EFS.  Really strange because the road wasn't that rough (compared to previous sections).  I'm just glad I was regularly checking my bottles and I knew pretty quickly that I'd dropped it.  I only had to re-trace my path a little ways and there was some nice (and random) guy who dismounted to get my bottle for me.  I had no idea who he was or what his plan was.  Maybe he liked my water bottle.  Either way, I got my bottle back and hit the road. 

I went through Palmer Lake and I knew I was in for a treat.  We had now made the turn north.  This meant tailwind AND I knew we got to go downhill.  It was a bit congested but I just FLEW down the hill - max speed was 46.3 mph.  I really enjoyed the way down from Palmer Lake because it is sort-of my home turf.  I know the road so well and what to expect. 

I ended up stopping at Aid Station #6 at mile 85 to top off on fluids and use the bathroom.  There were some ladies with stuffed elephants affixed to their helmets.  They were also on road bikes with platform pedals.  WHY on earth would you do a 100 mile hilly ride on platform pedals?  (I also saw people on cruisers and mtn bikes.... and they were not the super-fit humble-brag type of people either).  More power to these people, but damn.  These ladies didn't know the area, so I warned them about Tomah Road, which has a bit of a nasty rolling hill.  At mile 85 of 100.  Not very nice.  I had ridden this hill twice (at the end of some 50 mile rides) and I wasn't very fond of it.  I had the aid station workers pour water on my Cool Wings and I hit the road.

*random aside*  people were TERRIBLE with their bike handling.  We had the wobbly slow people (understandable with the wind) and roadies.  When passing, I'd give the wobblies a wide berth - and more than once I had people pass me on the left (while I was passing) and I'd have someone zip past me on the right, between me and the wobbly I was passing.  I also had several instances where we had the ENTIRE lane and someone would zoom past me, 6 inches from my bars.  Really?  And I also saw a poor guy wobbling up a hill with a car behind him.  The car was actually being really nice but the guy swerved in front of the car.  When I passed him, I told him to be careful and that he nearly got hit. And finally, at the last aid station, I gradually slowed to a stop at the side of the road (on the white line) and some chick contacted my back wheel (WTF?).  She continued to ride into the aid station (uphill on dirt) and then wrecked.  This was some of the worst riding ettiquite I have ever seen.

I knew what to expect from Tomah and was curious to see how I'd do, 85 miles into 100 and on very tired legs.  I was very, pleasantly suprised.  I passed a ton of people (several of which were mashing and NOT in their easiest gear - WTF?) and again, tried to make jokes as I passed them.  This climb felt easy, which was so cool.  Normally I'd be huffing and puffing and wanting to die.  This time I had surplus air for conversation.  In looking at my stats, my heart rate max for this hill was 12 bpm LOWER (at 2x the distance under my legs).  So, as much as I hate Deer Creek and High Grade, I also kinda love it, because I can climb hills.

I crested Tomah and gave myself a congratulatory fist pump because I knew the hills were done and my legs still felt good.  The ride planners were really mean, though, and made us turn south for a few more miles along a frontage road, and back into the headwind.  I just made myself stay aero and focused on easy legs since I had to run 40 min after the ride.  We got to the I-25 overpass and made the turnaround to go north back to Castle Rock.  I was so distracted by poor riders that I turned a bit too early and actually went on the I-25 entrance ramp instead of the frontage road.  Ooops!  The cops made a comment about how they'd like to see me go 80 mph on my bike on the highway.  Back on the correct frontage road, I had flat terrain and wind at my back.  That meant a nice easy cruise at 23 mph.  Then it was up and over a few hills through a neighborhood to the finish.  I dropped my chain on the 2nd to last turn (WTF?) and then got a bit disorientated as I had parked by a grocery store close to the running trail and not the County Fairgrounds.  I got my bearings, fought traffic, and got back to my truck in 100.7 miles and a whopping 7:14.  My coach had originally planned 7 hrs for the ride and I thought she was dissing me as I'd done 100 miles two weeks prior in 6:09.  Apparently my coach is wiser than me.  Also, the event website is mega-wrong on the elevation gain.  They had 3900 ft gain.... my Garmin clocked me at 6300 ft.  More than CDA.  And my legs felt awesome.  Go me!

Ryan sent me a text saying he was already running (of course) and he'd meet me at the fairgrounds.  I swapped my bike gear for my run gear and headed off for a 40 min run.  I'm always amazed that I can run after a bike ride, but especially amazed after a 100 mile hill ride.  I ended up doing a 0.9 mi run and a 0.1 mi walk (to replicate aid stations) and that worked out fine.  My coach told me last week that she'd like me to run through the aid stations (and to run for as long as possible before walking) but I think mentally, I need a walk break.  It brings my heart rate down and gives me a chance to re-set.    The run wasn't super exciting, but I got it done.  3.5 miles in 40 min.  And then my friend and I celebrated our last long workout with beer and wings.  Yay!

3 more weeks to IMCDA!

Random pretty iris photo from my yard.

May 2013 - Training Totals

As predicted, May was a big month.  Huge.  I had a really good race in St George and then I've been getting my butt kicked (in a good way) the entire time since.  This is an all-time monthly high for swimming and cycling.  And the cycling mileage would be even higher if I didn't have 3 super hilly bike rides with lower-than-normal paces.  The run is a tad low, but I'm 99% sure that is because we're trying to keep my heel healed.  I've had some mystery pains in that area lately, but I'm thinking that its just phantom "happy anniversary" pains rather than something real.  I've got a few other aches and pains, but they're all manageable.  My right foot is doing better (80%, maybe more) and my right adductor is still a bit tweaky, but if I tape it up before a ride or run, it doesn't get any worse.  I will take "not worse" for now, knowing that things will heal up during taper.

Goals for June is to finish off my final build strong and to taper well.  Rest and get healed.  Don't be a hero and do anything crazy or unusual.  And to not get hurt.

3 weeks to go.....

May's totals:

Swim: 16h 09m 51s - 48144.06 Yd

Bike: 38h 27m 16s - 545.74 Mi

Run: 12h 41m 39s - 67.12 Mi

April's totals:

Swim: 14h 17m - 40112.43 Yd
Bike: 31h 06m 38s - 416.64 Mi (really more like 447 miles if you include the spin class distance)
Run: 13h 59m 27s - 74.46 Mi
Spinning Class: 2h 35m

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.  :)

100 Miles of Harvest Moon

After I killed myself (in a good way, really!) last weekend I was instructed to do "6 hours of easy riding (because 6 hrs on a bike isn't easy)" by my coach.  Let me tell you, my "easy" barometer is whacked.  I have no idea if "easy" means something "not hard" or if it means "ride on the flattest bike trails in the city".  I have lost my sense of easy! 

I figured 6 hours = 2 loops of a local half iron course called Harvest Moon.  It wasn't the textbook definition of "easy" but it wasn't "hard" either.  In years past, it was challenging but very doable.  I emailed my coach my plan, and she said go for it.

This course is practically in Kansas with lots of exposed rollers.  It can be windy (and usually is).  But the good thing about it is that I could easily get in two loops and it wasn't far from my house.  One of my CDA training buddies (Jackie) was nice enough to join me and I roped in another friend (Dee) from my tri club to ride with us for the 2nd loop.  Hooray for no longer doing long rides by myself!

* random sidenote:  seriously, I ride with people for nearly all of my rides.  Huge contrast from my IMTX training, where nearly every ride was solo.  I am so much happier this time around.

Loop 1 was to start at 9 AM, Loop 2 at 12:15, giving us 15 min of padding for stops.  I brought half my nutrition with me, knowing we'd be back after 3 hrs to refuel.  It was slightly chilly (and I was worried about rain), so I wore my running tights and a jacket over my cycling outfit.  We took off for our 6 hour adventure.

Immediately, my friend could tell that my hill climbing has been paying off.  Normally, we'd be equal or she'd be a bit ahead of me.  This time I was ahead of her, and early on in the ride, I was doing hills in my big ring.  I was so happy riding that I completely missed our first turn.  Rather than turn around, I just decided that we would do the first loop counter-clockwise.  Hills are hills, it doesn't matter which direction you do them in. 

We're riding along, doing just fine.  Stopped once at mile 15 to adjust our layers (I took my jacket off).  More riding.  I'm going along and I hear a weird noise, look back, and my friend is now horizontal on the road.  Bad.  I flip around and she had a pretty decent wreck.  She had her spare tubes crammed in the back of her rear bottle cage. One of the tubes popped out and got jammed in her rear wheel, effectively acting like a full-stop break at 18 mph.  She was lucky - some road rash, a bit of carbon damage to her bike but not in a critical spot, and some pride.  But nothing was broken.  Lucky.  So after that fun, I sent a text to our friend Dee asking for 1st aid supplies, and we were back on the road. 

We got to our trucks at 2:40 into our ride, so I opted to ride into the park to use the bathroom (and get some extra distance) while Dee bandaged Jackie up.  I came back and my stomach was growling, so I inhaled a bunch of chews.  It was cool so I wasn't drinking much, but I wasn't exactly eating much either.  I took down ~200 calories and promised to eat every 30 min on the next loop.  I had drank ~30 oz of my 40 oz of EFS (300 calories), so I refilled that as well.  

Eastern plains.... please don't rain on me!

We left about 12:25 and decided to head back doing the "proper" clockwise loop.  That meant we were saving the big rollers for the end, but it also meant that we didn't have to do a steady climb back either.  Things were going pretty well until about an hour into the 2nd loop where my bike started making this really loud banging noise.  Over the next few hours, I figured that it is somehow related to my crank, as it would make the noise semi-regularly when my right foot was at the bottom of my pedal stroke.  It would make the noise pretty consistently for a while immediately following a quick stop, and the noise seemed to happen with hard pedalling or soft pedalling.  I dunno.  It will be looked at this week.

Smiling and happy at mile 77

We stopped at every turn, just to make sure we didn't lose Jackie.  She really worried me.  Normally she's very peppy and chatty.  During the 2nd loop, well, meek is the best way to describe her demeanor.  Or quiet determination because she was likely hurting and was channeling all of her energy into finishing the ride.  

We made the final turn and had ~15 miles of rollers.  I was curious to see where my legs were, as I was 77 miles into the ride.  Suprisingly, my legs felt good.  I didn't push it up the hills, I still spun, but my heart rate wasn't too high and my effort felt good.  My nutrition was good as well.  I didn't quite manage to eat every 30 min, but it was close enough.


We got back to our trucks, having completed the two loops, and I went back out on the main road to play catchup.  We kicked ass on the second loop, 43 miles in 2:35 (5 min faster than the 1st loop).  I decided I needed to finish up my ride to 6 hrs total and headed back out on the road with rollers.  To my suprise, I still felt *really* good and decided to push things a bit.  A few mental calculations, I realized I would be at 98.5 miles for 6 hrs and I needed to ride a tiny bit more for an even 100.

Boom.  First century ride since 2011.

Stats:

100 miles, 6:06, 16.4 mph

Loop 1: 16.0 mpm

Loop 2: 16.7 mph

3922 ft climbing

This was the fastest century ride (with the most climbing) I've ever done.  I was curious to see how I'd do, since I've been doing harder/shorter rides instead of distance.  Apparently I can do distance just fine.  I even felt like I could do quite a bit more riding.  Merlin felt comfy, I didn't have any significant comfort issues.  I even forgot to bring chamois butter and had to use tri slide, but my saddle area was just fine.  I also got new cycling shoes (and hey, I went up a 1/2 size) and my feet felt GREAT all day.  Now if I can get that clanking noise worked out, life will be good :)

Head down for hard work ahead

Since St George went so splendidly, I am SUPER motivated to get to work for IMCDA.  I mean, if I can have a race experience where I finished the bike feeling really good and minimally tired - and pass people on the hills - then I am more than happy to work really hard in my last month leading up to CDA. 

I mean, I only have a month left, and I intend to make it count.  It will hurt, but I'd rather hurt now than during the race.

With my focused motivation, I decided to climb hills this weekend.  Big ones.

Friday - Deer Creek Canyon and Highgrade - 12.5 miles to the top and ~3100 ft elevation gain.

First time to the tippy top on Merlin



Photograpic evidence that we made it to top.  Also: snow.  :/



Saturday wasn't too bad - just a 3700 m swim and an hour run.  Then I planted flowers and veggies with my remaining free time.  I figured if I didn't get it done that afternoon, it wouldn't get done until July.

Sunday was going to be an interesting test.  I had a friend in Boulder who needed to ride some big hills for her Ride the Rockies prep.  After some hand-wringing and talking it over with a few friends, I decided that I could do the big hill climb.  I had 5.5 hrs and we decided we'd ride the classic route of Lefthand Canyon to Ward to Peak to Peak to Lyons.  Two years ago, the 8 miles to Jamestown nearly killed me.  But that was on Buzz (*sniff*  also: 11:23 cassette) and I hadn't done any real hill training.  I was curious to see how it compared to Deer Creek and if I'd see improvement. 



Tour of Boulder Foothills.  4000+ ft of climbing in ~16 miles.  And I was the only one on a TT bike

We rode from her house, did a warmup of about an hour before we got to Lefthand Canyon and we got to work.  I was very happy (and relieved) to discover that Lefthand wasn't that bad.  I could even talk while I rode along.  The whole way up was actually pretty good, until we got to the last little kicker into Ward, where that last mile became ridiculously steep.  People that I passed on the lower part of the canyon were now passing me.  Mainly because I was walking.  My lungs are still angry with me and my legs were tired from Friday's adventure.  I had to stop and catch my breath on the lower part of the big hill and I just could not get back on my bike safely.  So I walked quite a bit of that last section.  And I really didn't care, either.

I got to Ward and I was pretty cranky.  My friend (and her friends) urged me to eat something. Oh yeah.  2:45 of riding and I had maybe 300 calories.  Duh.  Part of the problem was that I forgot my 40 oz sippy bottle (or Speedfill) so I had to rely on my rear cages for hydration/nutrition.  And with harder efforts (climbing) I tend to not eat very much because my stomach tends to revolt at higher efforts.  That meant low calorie consumption for me.  I was sitting at the picnic table in Ward (the place with the cookies) seriously hating life.  I had some Honey Stinger cherry cola chews (pretty good, more cherry than cola) that had some caffiene.  More urgings to get some calories and I pouted b/c my flask of Liquid Shot was allllll the way on the other side of the building on my bike.  Then I remembered my backup flask and chugged that.  Pretty soon, I perked up and was much happier.

Lesson learned.  And apparently its a lesson I keep learning, especially in this area of Boulder. 

The rest of the ride was uneventful.  We rode downhill through Raymond and St Vrain Canyon.  That canyon is so pretty but it really isn't safe to take pictures while you're flying down at 30+ mph and I never feel like stopping either.  We stopped in Lyons for some snacks and water and then we wrapped up our ride.  My legs were hating me in Ward but after nearly 1 hour descending, they were back and ready to pedal.  I was able to hold 90+ rpm on flats, mild hills, false flats for nearly 1.5 hours after we hit Lyons.

So, between the two days, I had ridden 115 miles and climbed 8,100+ feet.  I boosted my confidence a bit and I was also humbled a bit.  A good mix, I suppose.  And as my coach said, this weekend was a good deposit in the Ironman Bank.  :)

Funny enough, my notes for next weekend's big ride is "6 hours easy (6 hours on a bike is NOT easy)".  But I need to figure out what exactly "easy" means.  Does it mean flat or does it mean "do not climb a mountain".  Funny, the Erin from 2 years ago would have never thought 90 miles of easy would involve hills.

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.