I really tried to go into this race with no expectations. I've been feeling like crap and haven't really been training. Actually, it's more like I've been feeling like crap and trying to train and as a result have gotten no worthwhile training in. CDA took a lot more out of me that I would have thought. Going into this weekend, it was starting to become obvious that I'm still quite physically and mentally exhausted. Three years ago, this race just happened to be on my birthday and a friend came in from out of town to cheer me on. About 5 minutes before the race, she told me to hand over my watch. I had never raced without a watch and looked at her like she was out of mind. She reminded me that it was my birthday and that I should go out and just enjoy the day. And so I gave her my watch and then went on to do my fastest half-Ironman. I was going for the same sort of thing...no heartrate monitor, no watch, no expectations. Just enjoy the day...
And so, with no expectations, I spent the Saturday before the race doing all the things one shouldn't be doing before a race. I went to the Farmer's Market. I ran a few errands. I went to packet pickup. And then I came home and painted my fence for a few hours. Yep, nothing like being out in the hot sun doing hard labor the day before a race. Painting a fence is not easy, nor is it fun, but I got my warning letter and so it must be done. After last week's lame attempt at brush painting, I broke down and got a sprayer which made such a difference. But it left my arms aching. Like too much swimming. Towards the end it was taking one arm to hold the other one up. Needless to say, I was quite sore by Saturday evening. At about 5:30 I realized that I had none of my race technical food and drink. So off for more errands. Then dinner and an attempted movie. And by around 9:00 I realized that I still hadn't packed or started to get my bike ready. Okay, so I was a little too relaxed. But you know what, I actually slept pretty well. I realized Sunday morning that I had forgotten to map out the course to figure out when I needed to eat and drink. Having no watch meant that I couldn't rely on that to tell me. And fueling is one thing I don't really want to go by feel unless I've eaten too much. Otherwise I know I won't eat enough. And so here it was at the crack of dawn and I'm trying to figure out mile markers. Definitely not my standard pre-race routine.
I got to the Boulder Res and had a lot less time to set up than I thought. I was convinced that I had forgotten something being that I was so lax about everything, but it seemed like I had everything I would need. There was a massive line for the portos. I don't understand the point of putting so many in the transition area where we can't access them. At least it gave me something to do since I had so much time to kill before my start. I headed down to the water and started struggling into my wetsuit. I went to test the water but couldn't bring myself to actually get in until it was time for my wave. I started a bit farther back than usual and didn't try and push my way up front. I was a little hesitant after the CDA near death swim, but the water was so ridiculous calm. I couldn't complain. The swim felt really fast. No waves and no one kicking me in the jaw - quite a relief. I was cruising along (or so I thought) and suddenly I was finished. I usually reach a point where I'm just tired and ready to be done. That didn't happen and so I thought I had rocked the swim (not quite I found out later).
I made my way into transition and had to pee badly. Unfortunately it is not possible for me to pee while swimming and it didn't seem like it was going to go away during the ride. And so I opted for a pit stop after getting out of my wetsuit. The good thing was that I got it out of the way. The bad thing is that it sucks to try and pull up spandex when you're wet. It's a struggle in the same way that putting a wet suit on is. I got reassembled to the best of my ability (seriously, it's like you're suddenly 3 and trying to dress yourself and nothing lines up quite right!) I eventually made it back to my bike and headed out. Certainly not my slowest transition time, but it wasn't quick.
I headed out on the bike and could feel my legs immediately. I was hoping that it would go away once I got going and for the most part it did. I have been feeling a little bit stronger on the bike and though I had no expectations for the day, I was hoping that I would at least have a good bike split. It seemed unlikely, but it I figured I'd rather be optimistic. I can't quite say that I felt fast, because it's hard to feel fast when everyone is flying past you (at least I said hi Kristina even though you didn't know who it was), but I did feel a bit faster and like the swim, I never quite reached the "I'm ready to be done" phase. Maybe I did get something positive out of CDA - after so many hours and hours this, this really was nothing. AND, I made the turnarounds. Both times. This is HUGE for me. I usually have to clip out because I'm not comfortable doing such tight turns. But I had been practicing - we have this ridiculous sharp 100 degree (roughly) turn from the bike path to work and I've consistenly been making this turn and had told myself that I was going to ride through these. The first time I took it really wide and must have been so slow because someone actually passed me on the inside. Show-off. Whatever, I got a smile out of myself both times. The second lap hurt a bit more, especially on the hills. I could feel the ache in my quads everytime I stood up. I ignored it as best I could and just reminded myself to have fun. I was just out for a bike ride, with 1000 other people, that just happened to be timed. No big deal. Before I knew it, I was back at the Res and back in transition.
T2 went much faster though I wasn't exactly sure where my rack was. Another thing I forgot to do with my no expectations race. I hadn't counted racks so I was sort of meandering through. There were no mishaps at the rack this year - 2 years ago was a bit of a mess - and I made my way out to the run.
The run start off really slow. I mean really slow. Like I possibly could have walked faster than my shuffling. I started cramping right away, which has been the norm after my last few rides. I've done 3 bricks since CDA and all 3 have been failures. I would make it about 2 miles at most and then completely fall apart. A lot of it was nutrition related. This "brick" wasn't much different except that I didn't really have the option to fall apart and turn around and walk home. And so I kept pushing through it. I was concerned about the heat and at the first aid station started to trying and cool myself down with water and ice. I think this turned out to be overkill since it never really got all that hot. At least for me. My last run was in about 95 degrees and I could feel my skin burning. So this was nice in comparison. Anyhow, I kept grabbing ice and would carry the cup to the next aid station and then exchange it for more ice. The ice chewing was keeping me occupied but was also probably slowing me down. I kept shuffling along with occassional (long) walking breaks. I still wasn't feeling great, but I wasn't feeling done either. I did remind myself of CDA and what I had gone through and this really was nothing in comparison. I got to Coot Lake where Matt and my sister and the dogs were waiting. I went over to say hi and stopped to pet the dogs. Remember, no expectations. After a few pets, I was off again. At the next stop, I grabbed some more ice, and somewhere over the dams I realized that I really didn't want to be carrying cups with me the whole run (I'm sorry, but I have a problem with just tossing it in between aid stations). After the next garbage can, I told myself that lap 2 would have to be different. It definitely was nicer to run without the cups. As I ran past the finish, I saw my coach, Craig, who having finished in an insane time, asked if I needed anything. Water? Gaterade? I said legs. I needed some new legs. I'm not exactly sure what he said but he rubbed his and said something about seeing what he could do. Well, he must have done something, because I did start picking up the pace. Lap 2 is where everyone starts to slow down and I was gaining speed. I was starting to feel okay. The hills hurt like hell but I kept going, holding a steady pace. When I got to Matt/sister/dogs I waved and told them that I couldn't stop this time because I wouldn't get going again. The last few miles were tough. My legs were on fire. I can't remember my legs ever aching like they were and each step was a struggle. I'd tell myself that the feeling would eventually subside and that I had to just keep going. The feeling didn't really subside and I had a few moments of starting to falter especially out on those damn dams. But once I hit the pavement, that crossing the finish line force took over and got me through.
I knew going into this race that the run would suck. My legs just aren't ready for it. I was expecting a lot of walking. At some point, I started wondering what my time would be. I was the second to last wave so there weren't a ton of people behind me. Being in the last waves does this, so at least I was expecting it, but it gives the feeling of being really slow. I figured I'd have an anti-PR (my slowest race yet). But again, that would be okay because there were no expectations. But somewhere else along the run, I started calculating finishing times. Race math never adds up so I should have known better, but I did it several times and always came up with the same answer. What I came up with was if I crossed before 6:45, I'd have broken 6 hours, which I have never done. So here I was going between PRs and anti-PRs but really having no idea where I was. I purposely didn't look at the clock as I started lap 2. I started picking up the pace on the downhill towards the finish line. I passed another woman in my age group. About 10 seconds later, she kicked in and passed me back. She sprinted ahead a bit and kept looking back. I wanted to tell her that she had it, I had my pace and wasn't about to race her to the line (I mean, what if I were to trip or something?). Anyhow, you can imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner and saw 6:45 and change on the clock. I actually said something out loud - I think I said No Way! in disbelief. I almost started crying and then kicked in the sprint (the risk of tripping was no longer a concern). I crossed the line and immediately normal math kicked in as I remembered that I started at 7:10, not 7:15. I confirmed later that this was my second fastest time, which was quite the surprise. It seems like not wearing a watch really works for me.
And of course, after knowing my time, I have since been trying to figure out where the lost minutes went. There was the minute or so pit stop/clothes wrestling. And Matt reminded me later that I had to stop and pet the dogs. This would have given me my PR. And the extra minutes that would have given my under 6...well, my swim didn't rock and was about 2 minutes slower. Had my first lap of the run been like my second, I would have multiple minutes there. But I did negative split the run, which is a first. And, most importantly, I did have my fastest bike split. Not by a lot, and certainly nothing to write home about compared with those averaging over 20mph, but it was big for me.
So after having no expectations and surpring myself with my time and being overall happy with the results, I do have to admit that there is a little bit of disappointment because I was so close to a PR. Had I had an anti-PR, this wouldn't be an issue since it seemed more realistic. But I really was so close (even closer with race math). And though I keep trying to tell myself that had I been fully recovered, I would have made it, but it's so hard to know that for sure since it always seems like there is something that will come up. I will say that I am already excited for next year, whereas last week I didn't even want to think about next year.
And so ends my 2009 season. It had lots of downs, but a few ups as well. I learned a lot about will-power. And I learned that talking to myself to 15.5 hours is maybe not something I should do very often. Many thanks to my family and friends for their support and for putting up with another difficult year of training. End of summer BBQ at my place...I'll make dessert.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
To Hell and Back Again...CDA Race Report
Before I even get started, I'm going to put a disclaimer that this is likely to be ridiculously wordy...make sure you have some time before reading...
The day started out with a clear sky - something we hadn't really seen since we arrived. A good sign? The forecast still called for 30% chance of rain and based on the previous few days, it seemed likely and so it was something to keep in mind. We got to the start with plenty of time to get things set up. Surprisingly, I wasn't really that nervous. I think at this point, I just wanted to get started. I hate waiting. There was also a slightly somber tone for me personally, which I had sort of prepared for. It's the 5th anniversary of my mom's death and I decided that it was in her memory that I was doing this. I wrote a little "in memory" inscription on my inner arm with the thought that it would be a reminder on the bike as I spend hours looking at my arms. Due to the cold, that turned out to be pointless. I was also slightly worried about my arm, which was still bothering me (I had hurt it throwing a stick for my dog. It was a large stick. A log one might say. I pulled something and I really didn't want to think about what I had done.) Regardless, I tried to pep myself up and get ready to enjoy the day that I've been preparing for. With the sun actually visible, by 7am it was starting to loo like might actually be a nice day. And so I smiled for the camera...
The Swim:
I ran into Kerrie at the entrance to the swim start and we headed out to the water to do a quick warm up. It was very quick. The water was cold and choppy, but bearable. 61 degress is what the lifeguard station had posted. I wanted to start off to the side (same approach as Florida) knowing that it probably wouldn't work out, but at least I wouldn't be in the middle. We were standing around yapping and I thought we had 5 minutes or so left. And the gun goes off. We looked at each other like "Oh s%@#" and headed back into the water with 2500 other people. My first thought in those 3 seconds or so was "Okay, maybe it's good to be in the front. I can just get ahead of everyone and not have to deal with pushing my way through.". What the hell was I thinking?!? Suddenly everyone was on top of each other and the swells were just getting bigger and bigger. I was trying to do breast stroke just to see and kept swallowing mouthfuls of water. The cold sunk in and I was having trouble breathing. There was nowhere to go. I've never really panicked in the water - I know how important it is to just stay calm. But let me tell you, I started to panic. I really thought I was going to die. I kept trying to calm myself down by taking deeper breaths, but this involved opening my mouth and more water just kept coming in. I was talking to someone a few days before who told me that sometimes you can see scuba divers underwater - they're there for our safety. However, I told myself that there's no way that they would even see me since there was so much chaos going on - they wouldn't see anything but lots of bubbles. Even if I had wanted to (and believe me, I wanted to) stop and get rescued, there was no way that I could because I was in ths midst of this mayhem. So I really had nowhere to go except with the flow. And then I got kicked in the jaw. I have a bad jaw to begin with - TMJ. With the added kick and cold water, it was starting to ache. I really thought it was going to lock up on me, so in addition to trying to breathe and swim and not drown, I also had to keep moving my jaw, which generally meant swallowing more water. Finally the madness slowed and I was able to get into somewhat of a rhythm. The swells were so bad at times that when I'd go and sight, all I could see in front of me was a wall of water. I got to the first turn and was prepared for the mass stop that happens. I tried to get more to the outside so I wouldn't be boxed in. It was then that I saw a silver wetsuit and decided that it was my friend Steve. I have no idea if it really was, but I needed something to focus on. And so I drafted for a while. The silver wetsuit makes it a lot easier. I eventually lost him, but found someone else and decided that this was what I needed to do to get throw the swim...just focus on someone else's feet. The first lap was over and Kerrie and I got out of the water at the same time. We looked at each other with a look that seemed to say "I'm not really sure how I survived that and now I have to do it again". The second lap was less crowded, but the swells had gotten bigger. There are parts of the swim that you can see the sand at the bottom. I would see this and feel the swells pulling me backwards and really thought that I was going to end up back on the beach. It really felt like I was making no forward progress. I was scared to turn around and check just in case it was true. The buoys weren't any help because I couldn't really see them over the swells. My arm was starting to hurt but I kept telling myself that it was almost over. Somehow I made it to the turns and let the swells carrying me back in this time. Thank god that was over. Aside: I talked to one of the photographers the day after the race. He had been up in the helicopter taking pictures of the swim. He said the chopper was all over the place because of the wind. He said he was actually scared. Now imagine being in the water...
I made my way up the hill to the wetsuit strippers. My big concern with having them help me was that my shorts were a little too big and the waist and they are definitely overzealous in getting wetsuits off so there was a small fear of losing my pants. Fortunately that didn't happen. I grabbed my bag and made my way into the tent to change. I had so much crap in the bag in case it was cold or raining. It didn't seem to bad but the forecast still called for a chance of rain in the afternoon - it was probably to have extra that I could take off if necessary. I had already decided on arm warmers. And the volunteer helping me (I'm extremely thankful for them, but...), but I had my arm warmers rolled up so that I could get them on my wet arms and not have to struggle. She pulled them out of the bag and shook them out for me. So much for that approach. I did finally manage to get them on. I also decided to go with the rain jacket. It was already windy, and even if it didn't rain, the wind was likely to remain as it had been since I arrived. A quick memory of last year's Harvest Moon popped into my head did the trick. And I was off...
The Bike...
I got on my bike and started on the long 112 mile trek. Around mile 4, just at the start of the first climb on the smaller loop, I went to shift and hear a twing and then nothing. I was still in the same gear. I went to shift again and my shifter didn't have quite the same tension on it and I was still in the same gear. I pulled over and saw that my rear derailleur cable had snapped, leaving me with 2 gears: big and bigger since I managed to get stuck in one of the smaller rings in the back. My first thought was that I could do this in a fixed gear. But who the hell was I kidding. I knew there was no way that I'd make it up the larger hills in a fixed big gear. Maybe if it were an easier gear, I might have a shot (but I would have been so totally wrong). I had just passed a run aid station that they were starting to set up. I asked the woman if she could find tech support for me. She called the run coordinator who was supposed to call tech support and send them over. Meanwhile, the woman trying to help me looks up the hill and sees another rider heading towards us carrying her bike. And she says that this person had to be worse off than me. She was right - the rider had lost her rear derailleur entirely - it just snapped off and was dangling from the chain. A station wagon pulls up. He happens to be sag, but we didn't want sag. He told us that someone called for sag. And we said that we'd at least like to try tech support first in the case that there was a chance we could keep going. So off he went saying that he'd call it in. Meanwhile, I was starting to get really cold. The aid station woman gave me a garbage bag to wear to try and keep me warm. After about 45 minutes, a big guy in all black with a big grey mustache on a motercycle rides up. This was tech support. Fortunately he knew what he was doing and had lots of extra cables. Another aid station worked tried to help out while we were waiting and had unwrapped my grip tape thinking he could fix the cable himself. I have electrical tape at the ends because the grip tape had started to unwind on its own last year. He was not very careful in unwrapping this part. Maybe he thought I'd get new tape? Anyhow, tech support gets the new cable on but because of the stretching that was going to happen had to leave me with friction shifting. I said that wouldn't be a problem - at least I'd have different gears. He started to wrap the grip tape back but the electrical tape had sort of lost its stickiness. He didn't have anything so I would have to make do with having to try and restick it (This turned out to be really annoying on the ride especially when I couldn't ride in aero and hold it in place. The wind was whipping and just kept trying to unravel it more and more and I kept rewrapping and trying to hold it in place. And I'm OCD enough that this sort of thing bothers me and I had to keep trying to make it stick.). So, now that I had lost about 50 minutes, I was finally off. But I think the break had gotten to me mentally. I was now closer to the back of the pack and there are a lot fewer people heading the same direction as me. We start to get into the hills and my shoulder started hurting as I was expecting it to do. When I did a test ride a few days prior, I discovered that standing and pulling on the handlebars to get up a hill was what hurt the most. And there's a lot of that when you get to the hills. I was also having a problem staying in any position for too long. It started straining my neck on my injury side (the injury was in my tricep/deltoid region, but I could feel it pull in the back of my shoulder as well as my neck, so there were a few problem spots). The hills just kept coming. It was getting harder and harder to get up them. In addition, my friction shifting was kind of erratic. It wasn't always the same distance between gears, or a shift wouldn't hold, and I was still having trouble getting into my easier gears. But I kept plugging along. At around mile 50, I see Adam on the other side of the road, well into his second lap at mile 75. I think this is where I started to really lose it. He was clearly in the middle of the pack - most people were heading in his direction and a lot fewer were heading in my direction. It meant that he'd be close to the finish when I finally hit mile 75. The winds started to pick up on the second loop. There weren't a whole lot of people around me - I really could only see one or two riders in front of me at any given time and no one was really passing me, so it definitely felt like I was all alone. As we entered the hills for the second and final time, the winds were getting stronger, with gusts of maybe 20-30 mph. I was all over the road. To make matters worse, they were like CO winds where you never seem to be able to get out of the headwind, no matter which direction you're heading. My arms was really starting to throb and I was clearly slowing down. I started cursing loudly each time I turned a corner into another hill and more headwind. I was starting to get really mad and there were a few times that I was seriously contemplating getting off of my bike and throwing it into the cow fields. I would try and tell myself that this should be fun and I should just try and enjoy myself. But it didn't work. I was alone, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but steep hills surrounding me, very few people remaining to cheer or even direct traffic, and this endless cold wind. To top things off, it started to rain. So honestly, I really can't blame myself for getting mad. Though it was so tempting to stop, I kept going, mainly because I figured I'd have to wait 2 hours to get picked up by sag. I've already done an Ironman, so I didn't have anything to prove. But there was something deep down somewhere that just kept pushing me on even though I knew at this point there was a chance I might not make the bike cutoff. I honestly have no idea where this came from - it was almost like a little nagging feeling saying that I wasn't quite cold enough or wasn't quite furious enough so that I didn't have a good enough reason to quit. There was also a sign on one of the hills that reminded me that pain is temporary and quitting is forever. With about 10 miles to go, I knew I was heading back into town. The rain and wind were picking up and from nowhere I decided that I had to get off the bike soon. And from nowhere, I just took off. From nowhere I started passing people. These were my best miles on the bike but it was too late for me to enjoy it. My mission was getting back to transition, where I eventually arrived.
I was cold at this point and my hands were completely useless. I headed into the changing tent and was completely helpless. My fingers were so numb, that I couldn't grab onto things. I had lost the advantage of opposable thumbs and felt like I was pawing at things. I couldn't even get my shoes on. A volunteer (bless her heart) had to hold my shoe and guide my foot in and then straighten out the heel and tongue. I ripped my HR monitor off - I really didn't need to see more bad news and it wasn't like there was a risk of me accidentally running Z4. I kept my arm warmers and jacket on since it seemed like it was just getting colder. I threw on my water belt (well, the volunteer did most of the work) and I was off again...
The Run:
I really don't think I've ever been more happy to get off the bike. At this point, it almost didn't matter what happened on the run - at least I was off the damn bike. I was about a mile out when I saw Adam starting his second lap and knew that I had a long way to go. The first 8 or so miles went really well and I was just chugging along. But the rain picked up and I started getting colder and my arm started aching again from the pounding. I had to start walking intermittently to give my arm a break. I ran into the real Steve around mile 11 and he was almost done. His knee had started bothering him and he had been walking for a while. And so we walked together in the rain. I entertained him with all of my misfortunes. Since there were so many, it really made the time go by. I asked if he was going to run the finish and he said he was going to try. Before we parted (him to the finish, me to round 2), he handed me his foil blanket (they had started handing these out, but I couldn't seem to find one). So at least now I had something to put over my hands to try and warm them up. But I must have looked pretty bad and really cold because at mile 14, two volunteers jumped in front of me saying that they were going to help me fasten the foil blanket so that I'd be warmer. They fashioned the most beautiful F&GB dress I've ever seen (foil blanket and garbage bag). They turned the foil into a poncho and put that over me. Then they created another poncho from a garbage bag and put that over me. They strapped my race belt around my race and voila! The garbage bags were a light blue and someone translucent so the foil could shine through. The effects were really quite remarkable and I got several compliments on it. They saw me on the way back around and came to check on me again. I mentioned that I was still cold and they gave me more chicken broth. They had already given me some when they dressed me up, but I just tossed it. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I was a vegetarian. But here they were again, shoving some in my hand. I decided to give it a try because maybe it really would help. I took a sip. It was disgusting and I had to spit it out. So much for that...I guess I've been a vegetarian too long. I also must have looked like I was going to cry because they were very positive and kept telling me not to worry and that I was going to make it. So now it was up to the dress. The only problem with the dress was that I no longer had anything to cover my hands. I pulled my wet arm warmers down a bit and tried to use this, but I wouldn't say that it was completely successful. I got to special needs and they opened my bag for me. I told them that all I wanted was my gels but that they would have to get them for me since my hands were useless. They pulled out a long sleeve shirt and asked if I wanted it. I said that there was too much to take off. They said they'd help and it would probably be better if I had a dry shirt. So off went the race belt and then they tried to take the dress off as though it were one piece. The head holes were different sizes and something got stuck. So here I was standing with a bag and foil over my head and they were just struggling and not getting it unstuck. I was a little concerned about breathing at this point, but my hands were useless in helping them. But they finally got it off. We (they) took my wet jacket off but I wanted to keep the arm warmers on even though they were still wet. It was the only thing I had to keep my hands warm. So on went my dry shirt over wet clothes...I didn't see the point either but they were so nice. They got my dress back on and asked what else I needed. I took my water belt off - I wasn't using it and it just felt like it weighed a ton. I just wanted my gels and they asked where they should put them. I told them to put them under the leg of my shorts. They said "but won't it chaffe?". I told them even if it did, I wouldn't feel it since my legs were already numb. Lap 2 was now underway. I ran into Matt on the way out and told him that Adam was just a few miles behind me and that he'd be finishing soon and that they should just take him home since it was going to take me a while to get through the second lap. I also asked for real soup because nothing sounded warmer. Round 2 was a run walk combination. I'd set min goals for myself - run to the corner and then I could walk. Walk through the aid station and then I could run. I realized that despite the pain in my arm and shoulder, if I didn't do any running at all, it was going to take a really long time to finish. It had already been a really long day and the sooner it was over the better. And so I continued with my run walk combo. It was really empty on the roads. The aid stations were starting to shut down and most only had a skeleton crew remaining. Where there had once been large crowds, there was now only a few scattered people still cheering. But for those of us still on the road, there was an unbelievable level of determination and we just kept going. I had a few miles left when they started announcing the last runner to the aid stations. You know you're at the back of the pack when you've seen the last runner. I was determined to run across the finish line and started up running again with about 2 miles to go. Because of my dress material, I was easily heard. At once point, I was coming up on someone and he says "You're still running?" with total disbelief. I told him that I had to finish strong and passed him by. I started thinking that I should probably take off my dress but the thought of stopping seemed like a bad idea since it gets harder and harder to get started again. And so I decided that the dress was crossing the finish line with me. I might as well have one good thing coming out of the day. Similar to my last few miles on the bike, from nowhere, my normal running pace kicked in and I flew towards the finish. Similar to the bike, these were probably my best run miles. It wasn't quite the same atmosphere as Florida probably because it was so late, so I couldn't really get swept away by the crowds of cheering people. I was much more aware of things and actually saw Matt and my sister (one of Matt's first questions: what the hell are you wearing?). As I approached the finishing chute, tears came to my eyes but I forced them away. I had to focus because damn it, I was going to hear Mike Reilly call my name out this time around. Not that I hadn't earned it in Florida, but clearly there was something different about this race that made me feel like I deserved it so much more. This time was so much more than the long hours of physical and mental training. This was about not giving up. This was about of sheer will power and determination that were well beyond what I thought I was capable of. I am an Ironman.
Pictures to come shortly. I know everyone's dying to see the dress...
Also, in case you're wondering about the other woman that broke down with me...She ended up borrowing a bike and made it through one lap. She was then later seen in the transition area volunteering, so things didn't quite work out for her but she made the best of it. I found this out on the run as I started up a conversation with a woman who just so happened to have been friends with her. Small world.
The day started out with a clear sky - something we hadn't really seen since we arrived. A good sign? The forecast still called for 30% chance of rain and based on the previous few days, it seemed likely and so it was something to keep in mind. We got to the start with plenty of time to get things set up. Surprisingly, I wasn't really that nervous. I think at this point, I just wanted to get started. I hate waiting. There was also a slightly somber tone for me personally, which I had sort of prepared for. It's the 5th anniversary of my mom's death and I decided that it was in her memory that I was doing this. I wrote a little "in memory" inscription on my inner arm with the thought that it would be a reminder on the bike as I spend hours looking at my arms. Due to the cold, that turned out to be pointless. I was also slightly worried about my arm, which was still bothering me (I had hurt it throwing a stick for my dog. It was a large stick. A log one might say. I pulled something and I really didn't want to think about what I had done.) Regardless, I tried to pep myself up and get ready to enjoy the day that I've been preparing for. With the sun actually visible, by 7am it was starting to loo like might actually be a nice day. And so I smiled for the camera...
The Swim:
I ran into Kerrie at the entrance to the swim start and we headed out to the water to do a quick warm up. It was very quick. The water was cold and choppy, but bearable. 61 degress is what the lifeguard station had posted. I wanted to start off to the side (same approach as Florida) knowing that it probably wouldn't work out, but at least I wouldn't be in the middle. We were standing around yapping and I thought we had 5 minutes or so left. And the gun goes off. We looked at each other like "Oh s%@#" and headed back into the water with 2500 other people. My first thought in those 3 seconds or so was "Okay, maybe it's good to be in the front. I can just get ahead of everyone and not have to deal with pushing my way through.". What the hell was I thinking?!? Suddenly everyone was on top of each other and the swells were just getting bigger and bigger. I was trying to do breast stroke just to see and kept swallowing mouthfuls of water. The cold sunk in and I was having trouble breathing. There was nowhere to go. I've never really panicked in the water - I know how important it is to just stay calm. But let me tell you, I started to panic. I really thought I was going to die. I kept trying to calm myself down by taking deeper breaths, but this involved opening my mouth and more water just kept coming in. I was talking to someone a few days before who told me that sometimes you can see scuba divers underwater - they're there for our safety. However, I told myself that there's no way that they would even see me since there was so much chaos going on - they wouldn't see anything but lots of bubbles. Even if I had wanted to (and believe me, I wanted to) stop and get rescued, there was no way that I could because I was in ths midst of this mayhem. So I really had nowhere to go except with the flow. And then I got kicked in the jaw. I have a bad jaw to begin with - TMJ. With the added kick and cold water, it was starting to ache. I really thought it was going to lock up on me, so in addition to trying to breathe and swim and not drown, I also had to keep moving my jaw, which generally meant swallowing more water. Finally the madness slowed and I was able to get into somewhat of a rhythm. The swells were so bad at times that when I'd go and sight, all I could see in front of me was a wall of water. I got to the first turn and was prepared for the mass stop that happens. I tried to get more to the outside so I wouldn't be boxed in. It was then that I saw a silver wetsuit and decided that it was my friend Steve. I have no idea if it really was, but I needed something to focus on. And so I drafted for a while. The silver wetsuit makes it a lot easier. I eventually lost him, but found someone else and decided that this was what I needed to do to get throw the swim...just focus on someone else's feet. The first lap was over and Kerrie and I got out of the water at the same time. We looked at each other with a look that seemed to say "I'm not really sure how I survived that and now I have to do it again". The second lap was less crowded, but the swells had gotten bigger. There are parts of the swim that you can see the sand at the bottom. I would see this and feel the swells pulling me backwards and really thought that I was going to end up back on the beach. It really felt like I was making no forward progress. I was scared to turn around and check just in case it was true. The buoys weren't any help because I couldn't really see them over the swells. My arm was starting to hurt but I kept telling myself that it was almost over. Somehow I made it to the turns and let the swells carrying me back in this time. Thank god that was over. Aside: I talked to one of the photographers the day after the race. He had been up in the helicopter taking pictures of the swim. He said the chopper was all over the place because of the wind. He said he was actually scared. Now imagine being in the water...
I made my way up the hill to the wetsuit strippers. My big concern with having them help me was that my shorts were a little too big and the waist and they are definitely overzealous in getting wetsuits off so there was a small fear of losing my pants. Fortunately that didn't happen. I grabbed my bag and made my way into the tent to change. I had so much crap in the bag in case it was cold or raining. It didn't seem to bad but the forecast still called for a chance of rain in the afternoon - it was probably to have extra that I could take off if necessary. I had already decided on arm warmers. And the volunteer helping me (I'm extremely thankful for them, but...), but I had my arm warmers rolled up so that I could get them on my wet arms and not have to struggle. She pulled them out of the bag and shook them out for me. So much for that approach. I did finally manage to get them on. I also decided to go with the rain jacket. It was already windy, and even if it didn't rain, the wind was likely to remain as it had been since I arrived. A quick memory of last year's Harvest Moon popped into my head did the trick. And I was off...
The Bike...
I got on my bike and started on the long 112 mile trek. Around mile 4, just at the start of the first climb on the smaller loop, I went to shift and hear a twing and then nothing. I was still in the same gear. I went to shift again and my shifter didn't have quite the same tension on it and I was still in the same gear. I pulled over and saw that my rear derailleur cable had snapped, leaving me with 2 gears: big and bigger since I managed to get stuck in one of the smaller rings in the back. My first thought was that I could do this in a fixed gear. But who the hell was I kidding. I knew there was no way that I'd make it up the larger hills in a fixed big gear. Maybe if it were an easier gear, I might have a shot (but I would have been so totally wrong). I had just passed a run aid station that they were starting to set up. I asked the woman if she could find tech support for me. She called the run coordinator who was supposed to call tech support and send them over. Meanwhile, the woman trying to help me looks up the hill and sees another rider heading towards us carrying her bike. And she says that this person had to be worse off than me. She was right - the rider had lost her rear derailleur entirely - it just snapped off and was dangling from the chain. A station wagon pulls up. He happens to be sag, but we didn't want sag. He told us that someone called for sag. And we said that we'd at least like to try tech support first in the case that there was a chance we could keep going. So off he went saying that he'd call it in. Meanwhile, I was starting to get really cold. The aid station woman gave me a garbage bag to wear to try and keep me warm. After about 45 minutes, a big guy in all black with a big grey mustache on a motercycle rides up. This was tech support. Fortunately he knew what he was doing and had lots of extra cables. Another aid station worked tried to help out while we were waiting and had unwrapped my grip tape thinking he could fix the cable himself. I have electrical tape at the ends because the grip tape had started to unwind on its own last year. He was not very careful in unwrapping this part. Maybe he thought I'd get new tape? Anyhow, tech support gets the new cable on but because of the stretching that was going to happen had to leave me with friction shifting. I said that wouldn't be a problem - at least I'd have different gears. He started to wrap the grip tape back but the electrical tape had sort of lost its stickiness. He didn't have anything so I would have to make do with having to try and restick it (This turned out to be really annoying on the ride especially when I couldn't ride in aero and hold it in place. The wind was whipping and just kept trying to unravel it more and more and I kept rewrapping and trying to hold it in place. And I'm OCD enough that this sort of thing bothers me and I had to keep trying to make it stick.). So, now that I had lost about 50 minutes, I was finally off. But I think the break had gotten to me mentally. I was now closer to the back of the pack and there are a lot fewer people heading the same direction as me. We start to get into the hills and my shoulder started hurting as I was expecting it to do. When I did a test ride a few days prior, I discovered that standing and pulling on the handlebars to get up a hill was what hurt the most. And there's a lot of that when you get to the hills. I was also having a problem staying in any position for too long. It started straining my neck on my injury side (the injury was in my tricep/deltoid region, but I could feel it pull in the back of my shoulder as well as my neck, so there were a few problem spots). The hills just kept coming. It was getting harder and harder to get up them. In addition, my friction shifting was kind of erratic. It wasn't always the same distance between gears, or a shift wouldn't hold, and I was still having trouble getting into my easier gears. But I kept plugging along. At around mile 50, I see Adam on the other side of the road, well into his second lap at mile 75. I think this is where I started to really lose it. He was clearly in the middle of the pack - most people were heading in his direction and a lot fewer were heading in my direction. It meant that he'd be close to the finish when I finally hit mile 75. The winds started to pick up on the second loop. There weren't a whole lot of people around me - I really could only see one or two riders in front of me at any given time and no one was really passing me, so it definitely felt like I was all alone. As we entered the hills for the second and final time, the winds were getting stronger, with gusts of maybe 20-30 mph. I was all over the road. To make matters worse, they were like CO winds where you never seem to be able to get out of the headwind, no matter which direction you're heading. My arms was really starting to throb and I was clearly slowing down. I started cursing loudly each time I turned a corner into another hill and more headwind. I was starting to get really mad and there were a few times that I was seriously contemplating getting off of my bike and throwing it into the cow fields. I would try and tell myself that this should be fun and I should just try and enjoy myself. But it didn't work. I was alone, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but steep hills surrounding me, very few people remaining to cheer or even direct traffic, and this endless cold wind. To top things off, it started to rain. So honestly, I really can't blame myself for getting mad. Though it was so tempting to stop, I kept going, mainly because I figured I'd have to wait 2 hours to get picked up by sag. I've already done an Ironman, so I didn't have anything to prove. But there was something deep down somewhere that just kept pushing me on even though I knew at this point there was a chance I might not make the bike cutoff. I honestly have no idea where this came from - it was almost like a little nagging feeling saying that I wasn't quite cold enough or wasn't quite furious enough so that I didn't have a good enough reason to quit. There was also a sign on one of the hills that reminded me that pain is temporary and quitting is forever. With about 10 miles to go, I knew I was heading back into town. The rain and wind were picking up and from nowhere I decided that I had to get off the bike soon. And from nowhere, I just took off. From nowhere I started passing people. These were my best miles on the bike but it was too late for me to enjoy it. My mission was getting back to transition, where I eventually arrived.
I was cold at this point and my hands were completely useless. I headed into the changing tent and was completely helpless. My fingers were so numb, that I couldn't grab onto things. I had lost the advantage of opposable thumbs and felt like I was pawing at things. I couldn't even get my shoes on. A volunteer (bless her heart) had to hold my shoe and guide my foot in and then straighten out the heel and tongue. I ripped my HR monitor off - I really didn't need to see more bad news and it wasn't like there was a risk of me accidentally running Z4. I kept my arm warmers and jacket on since it seemed like it was just getting colder. I threw on my water belt (well, the volunteer did most of the work) and I was off again...
The Run:
I really don't think I've ever been more happy to get off the bike. At this point, it almost didn't matter what happened on the run - at least I was off the damn bike. I was about a mile out when I saw Adam starting his second lap and knew that I had a long way to go. The first 8 or so miles went really well and I was just chugging along. But the rain picked up and I started getting colder and my arm started aching again from the pounding. I had to start walking intermittently to give my arm a break. I ran into the real Steve around mile 11 and he was almost done. His knee had started bothering him and he had been walking for a while. And so we walked together in the rain. I entertained him with all of my misfortunes. Since there were so many, it really made the time go by. I asked if he was going to run the finish and he said he was going to try. Before we parted (him to the finish, me to round 2), he handed me his foil blanket (they had started handing these out, but I couldn't seem to find one). So at least now I had something to put over my hands to try and warm them up. But I must have looked pretty bad and really cold because at mile 14, two volunteers jumped in front of me saying that they were going to help me fasten the foil blanket so that I'd be warmer. They fashioned the most beautiful F&GB dress I've ever seen (foil blanket and garbage bag). They turned the foil into a poncho and put that over me. Then they created another poncho from a garbage bag and put that over me. They strapped my race belt around my race and voila! The garbage bags were a light blue and someone translucent so the foil could shine through. The effects were really quite remarkable and I got several compliments on it. They saw me on the way back around and came to check on me again. I mentioned that I was still cold and they gave me more chicken broth. They had already given me some when they dressed me up, but I just tossed it. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I was a vegetarian. But here they were again, shoving some in my hand. I decided to give it a try because maybe it really would help. I took a sip. It was disgusting and I had to spit it out. So much for that...I guess I've been a vegetarian too long. I also must have looked like I was going to cry because they were very positive and kept telling me not to worry and that I was going to make it. So now it was up to the dress. The only problem with the dress was that I no longer had anything to cover my hands. I pulled my wet arm warmers down a bit and tried to use this, but I wouldn't say that it was completely successful. I got to special needs and they opened my bag for me. I told them that all I wanted was my gels but that they would have to get them for me since my hands were useless. They pulled out a long sleeve shirt and asked if I wanted it. I said that there was too much to take off. They said they'd help and it would probably be better if I had a dry shirt. So off went the race belt and then they tried to take the dress off as though it were one piece. The head holes were different sizes and something got stuck. So here I was standing with a bag and foil over my head and they were just struggling and not getting it unstuck. I was a little concerned about breathing at this point, but my hands were useless in helping them. But they finally got it off. We (they) took my wet jacket off but I wanted to keep the arm warmers on even though they were still wet. It was the only thing I had to keep my hands warm. So on went my dry shirt over wet clothes...I didn't see the point either but they were so nice. They got my dress back on and asked what else I needed. I took my water belt off - I wasn't using it and it just felt like it weighed a ton. I just wanted my gels and they asked where they should put them. I told them to put them under the leg of my shorts. They said "but won't it chaffe?". I told them even if it did, I wouldn't feel it since my legs were already numb. Lap 2 was now underway. I ran into Matt on the way out and told him that Adam was just a few miles behind me and that he'd be finishing soon and that they should just take him home since it was going to take me a while to get through the second lap. I also asked for real soup because nothing sounded warmer. Round 2 was a run walk combination. I'd set min goals for myself - run to the corner and then I could walk. Walk through the aid station and then I could run. I realized that despite the pain in my arm and shoulder, if I didn't do any running at all, it was going to take a really long time to finish. It had already been a really long day and the sooner it was over the better. And so I continued with my run walk combo. It was really empty on the roads. The aid stations were starting to shut down and most only had a skeleton crew remaining. Where there had once been large crowds, there was now only a few scattered people still cheering. But for those of us still on the road, there was an unbelievable level of determination and we just kept going. I had a few miles left when they started announcing the last runner to the aid stations. You know you're at the back of the pack when you've seen the last runner. I was determined to run across the finish line and started up running again with about 2 miles to go. Because of my dress material, I was easily heard. At once point, I was coming up on someone and he says "You're still running?" with total disbelief. I told him that I had to finish strong and passed him by. I started thinking that I should probably take off my dress but the thought of stopping seemed like a bad idea since it gets harder and harder to get started again. And so I decided that the dress was crossing the finish line with me. I might as well have one good thing coming out of the day. Similar to my last few miles on the bike, from nowhere, my normal running pace kicked in and I flew towards the finish. Similar to the bike, these were probably my best run miles. It wasn't quite the same atmosphere as Florida probably because it was so late, so I couldn't really get swept away by the crowds of cheering people. I was much more aware of things and actually saw Matt and my sister (one of Matt's first questions: what the hell are you wearing?). As I approached the finishing chute, tears came to my eyes but I forced them away. I had to focus because damn it, I was going to hear Mike Reilly call my name out this time around. Not that I hadn't earned it in Florida, but clearly there was something different about this race that made me feel like I deserved it so much more. This time was so much more than the long hours of physical and mental training. This was about not giving up. This was about of sheer will power and determination that were well beyond what I thought I was capable of. I am an Ironman.
Pictures to come shortly. I know everyone's dying to see the dress...
Also, in case you're wondering about the other woman that broke down with me...She ended up borrowing a bike and made it through one lap. She was then later seen in the transition area volunteering, so things didn't quite work out for her but she made the best of it. I found this out on the run as I started up a conversation with a woman who just so happened to have been friends with her. Small world.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Bolder Bouder Race Report
This will be my shortest race report ever. Refer to my last posting on why. I have about 3 minutes free each day...
Anyhow, I had a 100+ mile ride on Saturday. Because of the weather, I got about 75 in outside and then came back to the trainer. That is dedication. But whatever, the ride sucked. I'm getting slower with each ride. At some point I should go through my recent LT test results, but since it couldn't explain anything, it may not really make much sense.
My legs and butt hurt on Sunday. It's funny, I usually spend the Memorial Day weekend planting and am always sore Monday morning for the BB. But it's arms and back and things I forget can get sore. But no planting this weekend since I was too busy sitting on the bike. So it was just the legs and butt that were sore at the start of the race.
Like Adam, I did a 3 mile warm-up, way more than I usually do, but I guess when you're used to going so long, 3 miles becomes nothing. I really wasn't looking forward to the race. I'm just not into Z4. If it were Z3, I might not have minded. I actually started thinking that it would be nice to be with the M's or the walkers or some other group that would just mosey through the race to do it and have fun. But who am I kidding...there's no way I could go that easy.
The race started, mass amounts of people started moving, and I just went along with them. This year was the first year I wore a watch with the hopes of actually trying to follow my zone plans. It didn't work. I don't think I hit mid Z4 until the end and I should have been approaching it somewhere between 2 and 3. My legs hurt and I didn't go all out (not sure if I can ever go all out). I finished a minute slower than last year, which means back to the C waves. It was disappointing since my running has been getting better and I would have liked additional confirmation. I know I was coming off the long ride, and I got a work call at 11:30 Sunday night, but I was still hoping for something better.
After the race, I still had another 9 or so miles to do, so Adam and I ran home. My knees and IT band started aching partyway through and I'm hoping it's just because of the massive amounts of activity I've done over the last few days. We'll see...I have another race on Saturday and will be doing a bit more resting.
As for the BB, I guess there's always next year.
Anyhow, I had a 100+ mile ride on Saturday. Because of the weather, I got about 75 in outside and then came back to the trainer. That is dedication. But whatever, the ride sucked. I'm getting slower with each ride. At some point I should go through my recent LT test results, but since it couldn't explain anything, it may not really make much sense.
My legs and butt hurt on Sunday. It's funny, I usually spend the Memorial Day weekend planting and am always sore Monday morning for the BB. But it's arms and back and things I forget can get sore. But no planting this weekend since I was too busy sitting on the bike. So it was just the legs and butt that were sore at the start of the race.
Like Adam, I did a 3 mile warm-up, way more than I usually do, but I guess when you're used to going so long, 3 miles becomes nothing. I really wasn't looking forward to the race. I'm just not into Z4. If it were Z3, I might not have minded. I actually started thinking that it would be nice to be with the M's or the walkers or some other group that would just mosey through the race to do it and have fun. But who am I kidding...there's no way I could go that easy.
The race started, mass amounts of people started moving, and I just went along with them. This year was the first year I wore a watch with the hopes of actually trying to follow my zone plans. It didn't work. I don't think I hit mid Z4 until the end and I should have been approaching it somewhere between 2 and 3. My legs hurt and I didn't go all out (not sure if I can ever go all out). I finished a minute slower than last year, which means back to the C waves. It was disappointing since my running has been getting better and I would have liked additional confirmation. I know I was coming off the long ride, and I got a work call at 11:30 Sunday night, but I was still hoping for something better.
After the race, I still had another 9 or so miles to do, so Adam and I ran home. My knees and IT band started aching partyway through and I'm hoping it's just because of the massive amounts of activity I've done over the last few days. We'll see...I have another race on Saturday and will be doing a bit more resting.
As for the BB, I guess there's always next year.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
One of Those Days...And Then Some
It was a day for the records. I hate to say that it can't get worse because there's still time for that to happen. I say this in an effort to not jinx myself. If all goes according to plan, I will be in bed soon.I awoke this morning before the alarm. A good sign because it meant that I was reasonably well rested. After an intense weekend, it was much needed. I got up, took the dogs out, and packed my many bags for the day (it really was an everything but the kitchen sink kind of day). I had a run and a ride to do and the plan was to run at lunch and ride after work. For once, I didn't feel rushed in getting everything ready (I actually got to work at 8!).
Feeling nice and organized, I decided to pump up my tires at home rather than waste time at the end of the day tracking down the pump at work. My thought was that since it would be so hot today, I'd actually store my bike inside the office and therefore avoid the risk of popping a tire with it sitting in the hot car. This happened a few weeks ago and it was an unwelcome surprise at the end of the day when I was dressed and ready to go and then, oh, flat tire. And did I mention that I also got a flat this weekend? That was even more unfortunate as it probably took 5 miles for me to finally figure it out (why is this getting harder and why am I so tired and why to I keep bouncing?). So here I was thinking that I was planning ahead. My rear tire, the one that died over the weekend, seemed to be holding up so I thought I was good to go. I got to the front tire and this thought actually crossed my mind: what is the actual pressure limit for these tires? My pump has a gauge but I just use it as a rough estimate - I have it marked and just go to where it's reasonably close to the arrow. So I pumped it within my designate range and thought, I should just give it one more pump and so I did. It's no surprise that this comes back to haunt me later.
I got to work (at 8!) with 4 bags. I got to my desk and before I even set anything down...shit! I forgot my running shoes. Should I go back and get them? I IM'd a friend to see if she had an extra pair. She didn't, so there should be no lecturing me. I have a really, really old pair at my desk (like several years old). I have them in case I want to go for a walk (we're right on the bike path) and I don't have appropriate shoes for walking (it is kind of silly considering I really only wear podiatry recommended shoes). But this I knew would be stupid. I thought I might be able to run home before lunch and grab them. Ha!
Instead, I ended up doing my first and hopefully only firing. I'm sure if I had a heartrate monitor on, I would have been in Z10. Lunchtime came and went and I had now rearranged things in my mind so that I would run after I rode. I figured I could cut the run a little short since I'd essentially be turning it into a brick. As I mentioned to HR afterwards, I hope I never have to do that again.
Oh, and did I mention another guy on my team gave his two weeks notice on Monday. So now I'm down 2 people.
Around 4:30, it finally felt like the day was finally slowing down. I was starting to get anxious for my ride. I desperately needed to get rid of some very pent up energy. But there were all these emails to deal with as well as some miscellaneous items that I never got to today. So around 5:30 I was finally able to leave. Me and my 4 bags headed off to the bathroom to change and then I went to the bike room to get my bike. I got it off the rack and started to roll it towards the door. It wasn't really moving. It was that broken shopping cart feeling where as much as you push, you just won't budge the cart because the wheel is stuck. So I thought maybe my rear wheel had locked up like maybe the brakes got hit or something. I checked them and everything was fine. I started off again and nothing. I looked down and my front tire was pancake flat. So with all my efforts of moving the bike inside to avoid the heat and the likeliness of popping a tire, I still pop a tire. I now know the answer to my pressue limit question...one pump less than what I had done.
So now it's already getting late and by the time I changed it, it would probably be about 6. I decided that I just needed to go home. I'd go home and just do my run since I needed something. But after taking the dogs out and seeing the weather getting progressively worse, I decided that I really just needed something a little more mellow. So I decided to do an hour on the trainer. I'd at least get part of a movie out of it. I changed the flat - and an impressive one it was. There was probably a 5 inch whole where it exploded. I drag everything down to the basement and started to set up the bike when the phone rang.
Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm on call? Starting today through next Monday. It was work calling about a job that failed. So I had to log on and take a look. It turned out to be nothing - had they just tried to rerun the job, they would have been fine. But for something that was nothing, I had to provide a detailed explanation, just in case it happened again. And since I was logged on, I happened to see my inbox with additional emails that I felt like I had to respond to. At this point it is now 7. If I rode for an hour, I would be eating until after 8 and I've been trying to avoid doing this, partly in an effort to get to bed earlier and partly because I just feel too full and can't sleep.
So here it is, a little past 9 on a hellacious day that I'm ready to end. It's really quite unfortunate that a day in which so much goes wrong is one that I desperately need a work out and can't get one because of all of the things that went wrong.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Open Your F@#king Eyes!!!
This comes after almost being hit by a car twice in two days. Both by people looking someone other than through the front window. The first came on Sunday. You'd think that during a 98 mile ride, chances are higher than you'll have some sort of run-in with car. Especially going through Larimer County where they seem to pay people based on the number of cyclists they can take out. But no, #1 came during my 2 mile run off the ride. Through my golf-course neighborhood. I was running on the road (on the left-hand side) as I always do. The road is wide enough and it's not a high traffic area and in general cars are going slow enough. As I was about to cross a driveway, a car from behind me promptly turned left into the driveway, cutting me off by mere inches. My torso was maybe a foot away from this woman's driver-side window. She never even flinched. And it's not like there was a lot going on near the entrance to her driveway. There were no trees or bushes that I could have somehow blended into. I wasn't wearing bright cycling clothes, but I also wasn't dressed in camoflauge either. I was visible. If you had your eyes open. I started screaming and waving my arms thinking maybe she'd see something through her rear windshield. Nothing. Of course, this morning when I walked by her house, sort of hoping to find her outside so I could yell at her, I noticed a man outside. He was about 4-5 feet in front of the closed garage door, facing the garage door and marching in place. Clearly the entire household is a few cards short of a deck.
Near death experience #2 came yesterday when I was riding home from work. I was at the 4-way stop at Baseline and Cherryvale. I was coming from the bike path. I stopped at the intersection, even when most people do not. After waiting more than my fair share of cars going through, I started to go. I figured I'd wait until the people on my left and right went since they had less of a chance of seeing me, whereas the car facing towards me really couldn't help but to see me. Or so I thought. I started to go. As did he. He was making a left hand turn into me, the entire time looking over his shoulder to the right - the exact opposite direction that you should be looking when making a left hand turn. He had his window open and once again I started screaming. I didn't have many options at this point to get out of his way. He was probably a foot or two away when he finally heard me, looked up, and said, "Oh". Yes, "Oh". That's all. Not "Oh shit! Sorry!". Just a causal "Oh". My bike is bright orange and yellow. It's really hard not to see me. If you'd just open your f@#king eyes and pay attention!
Near death experience #2 came yesterday when I was riding home from work. I was at the 4-way stop at Baseline and Cherryvale. I was coming from the bike path. I stopped at the intersection, even when most people do not. After waiting more than my fair share of cars going through, I started to go. I figured I'd wait until the people on my left and right went since they had less of a chance of seeing me, whereas the car facing towards me really couldn't help but to see me. Or so I thought. I started to go. As did he. He was making a left hand turn into me, the entire time looking over his shoulder to the right - the exact opposite direction that you should be looking when making a left hand turn. He had his window open and once again I started screaming. I didn't have many options at this point to get out of his way. He was probably a foot or two away when he finally heard me, looked up, and said, "Oh". Yes, "Oh". That's all. Not "Oh shit! Sorry!". Just a causal "Oh". My bike is bright orange and yellow. It's really hard not to see me. If you'd just open your f@#king eyes and pay attention!
Friday, May 1, 2009
18 miles
I wouldn't want to go so far as to say it was 18 miles of bliss, but it was 18 miles of really not so bad. I had somewhat been dreading this run, but mainly because of the time commitment with it being scheduled during the week. I've been struggling to get up early, and this would have had to be ridiculously early to squeeze it all in before work (sudden flashback to training for Florida and getting up at 4 to do a 17 mile run before work). I was also considering splitting it up as I did the previous week - half in the AM, half in the PM. But I knew mentally that I needed to do it all at once. I did have the time after work, and it might end up being my last full long run. But it's a lot to do after work.
My plan was to leave work early - 4:30, which is generally when I've been leaving on Thursday's in order to get a longer ride in. This really wouldn't be much different. Except that I work was crazy and it was impossible to leave. I finally managed to escape and was able to start slightly off schedule at 4:55. I feel like I've been kind of pushing it with the dogs...someone comes to let them out at lunch, which means that I don't have to rush home after work. Initially I would try to get home by 6:30, then 7, then 7:30, and then I started getting close to 8. I just have this fear that they'll get so hungry that they'll start barking. I know it's absurd because most likely they are sleeping the entire time. But I know how they act when I'm home and it's dinner time - it's like a mad frenzy. Why would they do this when I'm not there? They wouldn't. But I still think they might. Anyhow, I figured I'd had to cut the run a little short in order to make it home by 8 since I sort of figured it would take 3 hours. But 16 or 17 would also be close enough.
I started out on the bike path by work and headed over to the Bobolink. A few miles into my run, I started thinking about the mile repeats I had to do. I was just going to go out and back, assuming that I didn't run out of road, but then had a great idea to do the mile repeats on the same stretch of road I did them on about a month ago during another long run. So I start recalculating where I would have to turn around. And then I had another great idea - why don't I run home rather than go back to work. If I did that, the time I would have lost heading back to work and then driving home, I could make up for during the run home - meaning I'd be able to get in the entire 18. I started recalculating again to try and figure out now where I'd need to turn around. It's always a bad idea to try and do math in the middle of a workout. It never adds up. I then started wondering if it was a good idea to leave my wallet and keys in the car overnight. Normally it wouldn't have concerned me since I'm no longer in DC, but we did have a break-in last summer and that was during the day. It was probably safer to just go grab them. Recalculating again to factor in running back to work. It essentially meant that I had to turn around as soon as I decided that I was going to do this new plan. It actually turned out to be a good thing because then I was able to refill water. And I was quizzed by a co-worker who turned mom on me ('does Matt know you're doing this?' (no), 'do you have your phone?' (yes),'do you have a headlamp?' (no, this was sort of spur of the moment and I still have probably 90 minutes of daylight.),'I'm calling you at 8. if you're not home, I'm calling the Lafayette police' (give me until 8:15 since the last 5 or so miles are all uphill). And then I was off...
Of the last 5.5 miles, roughly 4 are uphill. A long slow slog up Baseline...and it actually wasn't too bad. Better than riding it. For a Z2 run, I was making pretty good time and only had one final workout math miscalculation. I had just under a mile to go (this part is all downhill), and I checked the time. Just under 2:45. And I thought "OMG, I can do a sub-4 hour marathon". There were only 6 miles left and even at a 10-10.5 min/mi pace, I'd still make it. I was ecstatic. With just under a half a mile to go reality kicked in...Except that I would have 8 miles to go to make it a marathon. And that would put me over 4 hours. I was bummed for a bit. And then I wasn't, having reminded myself that I had just run 18 miles, 14 of which were in Z2, 4ish of which were uphill, and all of which were 1000 times better than my previous long run of 16 miles. And I made it home by 7:50...plenty of time to spare.
My plan was to leave work early - 4:30, which is generally when I've been leaving on Thursday's in order to get a longer ride in. This really wouldn't be much different. Except that I work was crazy and it was impossible to leave. I finally managed to escape and was able to start slightly off schedule at 4:55. I feel like I've been kind of pushing it with the dogs...someone comes to let them out at lunch, which means that I don't have to rush home after work. Initially I would try to get home by 6:30, then 7, then 7:30, and then I started getting close to 8. I just have this fear that they'll get so hungry that they'll start barking. I know it's absurd because most likely they are sleeping the entire time. But I know how they act when I'm home and it's dinner time - it's like a mad frenzy. Why would they do this when I'm not there? They wouldn't. But I still think they might. Anyhow, I figured I'd had to cut the run a little short in order to make it home by 8 since I sort of figured it would take 3 hours. But 16 or 17 would also be close enough.
I started out on the bike path by work and headed over to the Bobolink. A few miles into my run, I started thinking about the mile repeats I had to do. I was just going to go out and back, assuming that I didn't run out of road, but then had a great idea to do the mile repeats on the same stretch of road I did them on about a month ago during another long run. So I start recalculating where I would have to turn around. And then I had another great idea - why don't I run home rather than go back to work. If I did that, the time I would have lost heading back to work and then driving home, I could make up for during the run home - meaning I'd be able to get in the entire 18. I started recalculating again to try and figure out now where I'd need to turn around. It's always a bad idea to try and do math in the middle of a workout. It never adds up. I then started wondering if it was a good idea to leave my wallet and keys in the car overnight. Normally it wouldn't have concerned me since I'm no longer in DC, but we did have a break-in last summer and that was during the day. It was probably safer to just go grab them. Recalculating again to factor in running back to work. It essentially meant that I had to turn around as soon as I decided that I was going to do this new plan. It actually turned out to be a good thing because then I was able to refill water. And I was quizzed by a co-worker who turned mom on me ('does Matt know you're doing this?' (no), 'do you have your phone?' (yes),'do you have a headlamp?' (no, this was sort of spur of the moment and I still have probably 90 minutes of daylight.),'I'm calling you at 8. if you're not home, I'm calling the Lafayette police' (give me until 8:15 since the last 5 or so miles are all uphill). And then I was off...
Of the last 5.5 miles, roughly 4 are uphill. A long slow slog up Baseline...and it actually wasn't too bad. Better than riding it. For a Z2 run, I was making pretty good time and only had one final workout math miscalculation. I had just under a mile to go (this part is all downhill), and I checked the time. Just under 2:45. And I thought "OMG, I can do a sub-4 hour marathon". There were only 6 miles left and even at a 10-10.5 min/mi pace, I'd still make it. I was ecstatic. With just under a half a mile to go reality kicked in...Except that I would have 8 miles to go to make it a marathon. And that would put me over 4 hours. I was bummed for a bit. And then I wasn't, having reminded myself that I had just run 18 miles, 14 of which were in Z2, 4ish of which were uphill, and all of which were 1000 times better than my previous long run of 16 miles. And I made it home by 7:50...plenty of time to spare.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Happy Earth Day
I just wanted to take a moment and recognize Earth Day. I'll admit that I really didn't do much to celebrate, which is unfortunate. But it just didn't fit in my schedule. I had the dogs with me today so I couldn't bike to work. I drove. By myself. Can't get much worse...At least I did get outside to enjoy this beautiful weather and admire the greenery. I know it's not going to stay green for long, so I'll enjoy it while I can. I had a long run to do today and I had to split it up because I just didn't have a big enough time slice today to do it all at once. So, 8.5 miles this morning and another 8.5 after work. Surprisingly I did them both in about the same time. I was expecting the second one to be much worse. I always run better in the morning, even if it's all Z2. I think it's because I'm not fully awake and therefore don't recognize pain or discomfort. I also had some Z4 which I saved for the afternoon and I'm always dead after these sets. I have to slow down to an 11 min. pace to get my HR to come down. So it kind of kills any average.
But they were good runs. Not much to complain about other than the fact that I had to split them up. But I once read somewhere that the overall benefit is the same. I believe the example they gave was that if you did 6 miles in the AM, another 6 in the PM, and another 6 the next morning, it would yield very similar results as running 18 straight. But there is that whole mental aspect that this doesn't account for. And that's a very important aspect when it comes to Ironman. But, in this particular case, I think there is something to be said for doing long runs after work. I know for me that I start out being mentally drained from work and sometimes just physically tired and I think this is great preparation for Ironman. The run comes late in the day when you're mentally and physically exhausted. So I'm sort of simulating it. I think it's a good exercise to do every now and then.
Complete random comment...I learned today that the word "questionnaire" has two n's. I never would have guessed this and I consider myself to be a good speller. I haven't looked up the reasoning or if there's any rule, but it certainly doesn't apply to "millionaire" so I really don't know what the logic is. And this is probably why English is considered to be so hard to learn. We're so inconsistent...
Monday, April 20, 2009
Spring Once Again
27 mile ride (hills)
Hopefully this time it will stay. I'm so over winter. Now if I can only do something about the wind...
I was finally able to ride outdoors. Even better, I had to do hills. There's nothing like doing hills after being indoors for weeks to make me feel so out of shape and so unready for the CDA course. There's not really an opportunity for me to feel fast when doing hills, so it really is quite depressing. I'm not sure that I can really find much appreciate from this workout either. I did the back side of Old Stage twice as well as a small stint up Lefthand. Although they were in Z4, they were all really slow and I wouldn't say I felt great. All it really left me with was the feeling that I still have a long way to go before CDA which unfortunately is no longer a long ways away.
My HR seems to be relatively back to normal. It's a little hard to say with the bike since I recently adjusted my zones and brought everything down about 10bpm. My run on the treadmill was normal and the perceived effort was pretty much in line with the numbers, so I guess I'm back on track. Apparently my stress numbers have come back to a more reasonable number (from -40 something to -30 something to -9). I have been making a concerted effort to drink a lot of water. Even if it means getting up to pee 3 times a night. Most likely I'm already getting up to cover Mobi (yes, my very high maintenance dog requires being tucked in at night and several times during the night he'll get up to stretch and shake thereby losing his blanket. He then has to come stand beside me and whine so that I'll get up and cover him again. What better opportunity to take a pee break. Interestingly enough, he does not exhibit the same behavior if I let him sleep on the bed for the whole night. So when I know that I really need sleep, I'll let them up on the bed. Enough digression. Mobi gets enough attention as it is - he doesn't need blog postings in addition.).
So yeah, hydration. I'm trying to stay on top of it.
Hopefully this time it will stay. I'm so over winter. Now if I can only do something about the wind...
I was finally able to ride outdoors. Even better, I had to do hills. There's nothing like doing hills after being indoors for weeks to make me feel so out of shape and so unready for the CDA course. There's not really an opportunity for me to feel fast when doing hills, so it really is quite depressing. I'm not sure that I can really find much appreciate from this workout either. I did the back side of Old Stage twice as well as a small stint up Lefthand. Although they were in Z4, they were all really slow and I wouldn't say I felt great. All it really left me with was the feeling that I still have a long way to go before CDA which unfortunately is no longer a long ways away.
My HR seems to be relatively back to normal. It's a little hard to say with the bike since I recently adjusted my zones and brought everything down about 10bpm. My run on the treadmill was normal and the perceived effort was pretty much in line with the numbers, so I guess I'm back on track. Apparently my stress numbers have come back to a more reasonable number (from -40 something to -30 something to -9). I have been making a concerted effort to drink a lot of water. Even if it means getting up to pee 3 times a night. Most likely I'm already getting up to cover Mobi (yes, my very high maintenance dog requires being tucked in at night and several times during the night he'll get up to stretch and shake thereby losing his blanket. He then has to come stand beside me and whine so that I'll get up and cover him again. What better opportunity to take a pee break. Interestingly enough, he does not exhibit the same behavior if I let him sleep on the bed for the whole night. So when I know that I really need sleep, I'll let them up on the bed. Enough digression. Mobi gets enough attention as it is - he doesn't need blog postings in addition.).
So yeah, hydration. I'm trying to stay on top of it.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Time Warp?
So, supposedly it's mid-April. You'd never know it by the weather we've had the past few weeks. It seems like we're going backwards in time. Perhaps this is why my training seems to be losing ground.It was a stabilizer week and I certainly took full advantage. I never really got my long run in for the week. I ended up back on the treadmill on Saturday and I always feel like I have to push a little bit harder on the treadmill since it's kind of cheating. Though it is much more mentally challenging. So maybe it evens out. I did a short swim after the run but I was pretty drained, so I cut it short. Very short.
I was hoping that today would be dry enough to ride outside. Perhaps it was and I was just too lazy or just not up for it. Driving around in the morning, some intersections were still pretty messy. I decided that I just really didn't have it in me to face the outdoors so I'll admit that while it was finally sunny and 60 degrees, I headed back downstairs to the trainer. But I did have Return of the King to get through. This might be my only chance. I will say that I was pretty surprised when I went to do my run off of the bike to discover how warm it really was. My excuse about the slushy roads seemed ridiculous. Oh well. Stablizer week. I promise I'll do all my rides outside this week.
Saturday: 8 mile run, 1500m swim
Sunday: 126 min. trainer, 2 mile run
Friday, April 17, 2009
Drowned Rat, but Hard Core
This picture really doesn't do it justice...I was a sopping mess.
I ended up taking another day off yesterday in the hopes it would cure my high HR woes. Besides, it was rainy and crappy yesterday and it's a little hard to motivate oneself to run. So I saved up my run for this morning. I woke up several times during the night and kept looking at the window. Still no snow. Despite the fact that everyone was claiming 10-24 inches. I was thinking that I might luck out after all - the storm wouldn't come and I'd be able to ride outside this weekend.
No such luck. The alarm went off. Still no snow. But I really didn't want to get out of bed. I decided to reschedule for lunchtime. Since there wasn't any snow, it was pretty unlikely that we'd get all 10-24 inches by noon. It was still raining at 11:30 when I started to psych myself into running. I checked the weather. About 2 miles north of me, there were 20 mph winds from the north. About 2 miles south of me, there were 2 mph winds from the west. Why are there 2 weather zones between north and south Boulder?
My team looked at me like I was nuts. They didn't even want to leave for lunch. I put on all my layers and headed outside. My Garmin could not find a signal and I didn't want to stand out in the wind and rain waiting. Besides, 2 Garmins's ago, I ran in the rain and the whole thing steamed up and started to fill with water. I didn't want to take that chance again (they'd replace it, but I just don't want to waste 2 weeks waiting for the new one). So back inside I went and dropped it off with my clothes. I left the heartrate strap on because it was too many layers to get through to take it off. Finally I was off and just as I started, it turned to snow. I appreciated this. Somehow it just doesn't seem as awful - running in the snow versus running in the rain. I headed south and sure enough, the weather changed. The snowflakes were HUGE and the slush was starting to accumulate. I was kicking up water with every step and could feel it seeping through my shoes. I saw my first partner in insanity around mile 3. Another runner sloshing, slipping, and splashing by. By this time, every step had my foot submerged in slush. I could feel the sloshing in my shoes. But there wasn't much I could do about it at that point. It was really so bad. I wasn't cold, so it was almost a little fun. And then I turned around. I had forgotten the winds from the north thing and was promptly reminded as soon as I turned around. Snow whipped my face, painful at times. It was hard to see and I was starting to get cold. It wasn't so fun on the way back. I only saw 2 other crazies out after the first guy.
Had I been home, I would have weighed my clothes to see how much extra weight I had picked up. I probably also would have wrung my clothes out into a bowl just to have that visual comparison. But I was at work, so I had someone take a picture instead. But it really doesn't capture it. My gloves were so wet at the ends, it was like the tips were weighted with lead. I had to kind of hold my hands up or they would have fallen off. The bottoms of my pants were so full of water that I slung water with each step. All 3 layers were soaked through. My cheeks and chin were red from being pelted by the northerly snow.
But I got almost 7 miles in and at a nice pace (all estimated of course). I have no idea how my HR was behaving but I didn't feel like I was working too hard, so I'm hoping it was back to normal. And because I braved the weather, it made it a whole lot easier to blow off swimming tonight. Especially when it looks like this (it's much nicer to stay inside by the fire and just look at it):
I ended up taking another day off yesterday in the hopes it would cure my high HR woes. Besides, it was rainy and crappy yesterday and it's a little hard to motivate oneself to run. So I saved up my run for this morning. I woke up several times during the night and kept looking at the window. Still no snow. Despite the fact that everyone was claiming 10-24 inches. I was thinking that I might luck out after all - the storm wouldn't come and I'd be able to ride outside this weekend.
No such luck. The alarm went off. Still no snow. But I really didn't want to get out of bed. I decided to reschedule for lunchtime. Since there wasn't any snow, it was pretty unlikely that we'd get all 10-24 inches by noon. It was still raining at 11:30 when I started to psych myself into running. I checked the weather. About 2 miles north of me, there were 20 mph winds from the north. About 2 miles south of me, there were 2 mph winds from the west. Why are there 2 weather zones between north and south Boulder?
My team looked at me like I was nuts. They didn't even want to leave for lunch. I put on all my layers and headed outside. My Garmin could not find a signal and I didn't want to stand out in the wind and rain waiting. Besides, 2 Garmins's ago, I ran in the rain and the whole thing steamed up and started to fill with water. I didn't want to take that chance again (they'd replace it, but I just don't want to waste 2 weeks waiting for the new one). So back inside I went and dropped it off with my clothes. I left the heartrate strap on because it was too many layers to get through to take it off. Finally I was off and just as I started, it turned to snow. I appreciated this. Somehow it just doesn't seem as awful - running in the snow versus running in the rain. I headed south and sure enough, the weather changed. The snowflakes were HUGE and the slush was starting to accumulate. I was kicking up water with every step and could feel it seeping through my shoes. I saw my first partner in insanity around mile 3. Another runner sloshing, slipping, and splashing by. By this time, every step had my foot submerged in slush. I could feel the sloshing in my shoes. But there wasn't much I could do about it at that point. It was really so bad. I wasn't cold, so it was almost a little fun. And then I turned around. I had forgotten the winds from the north thing and was promptly reminded as soon as I turned around. Snow whipped my face, painful at times. It was hard to see and I was starting to get cold. It wasn't so fun on the way back. I only saw 2 other crazies out after the first guy.
Had I been home, I would have weighed my clothes to see how much extra weight I had picked up. I probably also would have wrung my clothes out into a bowl just to have that visual comparison. But I was at work, so I had someone take a picture instead. But it really doesn't capture it. My gloves were so wet at the ends, it was like the tips were weighted with lead. I had to kind of hold my hands up or they would have fallen off. The bottoms of my pants were so full of water that I slung water with each step. All 3 layers were soaked through. My cheeks and chin were red from being pelted by the northerly snow.
But I got almost 7 miles in and at a nice pace (all estimated of course). I have no idea how my HR was behaving but I didn't feel like I was working too hard, so I'm hoping it was back to normal. And because I braved the weather, it made it a whole lot easier to blow off swimming tonight. Especially when it looks like this (it's much nicer to stay inside by the fire and just look at it):
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Worries...
6.5 mile run
27 mile ride
Yesterday was a rest day. So I should have been all refreshed today. I felt fine. Not tired. Everything seemed normal. Until I started running at 6am. It was a Z2 run. It starts going up hill after a mile. It's not a huge hill and not all that steep except for one little section. But as soon as I hit the beginning of the hill, bam! I'm in Z3. I thought it was a little weird. It had only been a mile, half of which was Z1, so it's usually pretty hard for me to get to Z3 without a bit more warmup. Oh well, I just kept going and finished the run in record time for a Z2 run. Maybe there was nothing to worry about after all.
And then...
I went for a ride after work. I was supposed to do 4x1min "Z5" sprints (the ones that I never even come close to reaching) and then a 12 mile TT. I wasn't thrilled about the TT - I just wasn't up for the pain of that much Z4. I started on the Z5 and bam! I'm almost immediately in Z5. Z5! I didn't even hit Z5 the last time I rode up Old Stage. Something was wrong. I did 2 more in Z5 and then stopped thinking it might affect my TT which I started shortly after. It didn't take much to get into Z4 and I probably did about half of it in low Z5. It definitely wasn't Z4 perceived effort. I never reached the point where I start saying to myself "when is this going to be done?" or "am I done yet?" or "how about now?" I never got that burning sensation in my legs and lungs. I ended up not doing the full milage, but mainly because I had to pick the dogs up before daycare closed. But I'm not sure if I would have made it another 12 or so miles that I was supposed to do.
Clearly I'm still tired. Or getting sick. But I otherwise feel fine.
27 mile ride
Yesterday was a rest day. So I should have been all refreshed today. I felt fine. Not tired. Everything seemed normal. Until I started running at 6am. It was a Z2 run. It starts going up hill after a mile. It's not a huge hill and not all that steep except for one little section. But as soon as I hit the beginning of the hill, bam! I'm in Z3. I thought it was a little weird. It had only been a mile, half of which was Z1, so it's usually pretty hard for me to get to Z3 without a bit more warmup. Oh well, I just kept going and finished the run in record time for a Z2 run. Maybe there was nothing to worry about after all.
And then...
I went for a ride after work. I was supposed to do 4x1min "Z5" sprints (the ones that I never even come close to reaching) and then a 12 mile TT. I wasn't thrilled about the TT - I just wasn't up for the pain of that much Z4. I started on the Z5 and bam! I'm almost immediately in Z5. Z5! I didn't even hit Z5 the last time I rode up Old Stage. Something was wrong. I did 2 more in Z5 and then stopped thinking it might affect my TT which I started shortly after. It didn't take much to get into Z4 and I probably did about half of it in low Z5. It definitely wasn't Z4 perceived effort. I never reached the point where I start saying to myself "when is this going to be done?" or "am I done yet?" or "how about now?" I never got that burning sensation in my legs and lungs. I ended up not doing the full milage, but mainly because I had to pick the dogs up before daycare closed. But I'm not sure if I would have made it another 12 or so miles that I was supposed to do.
Clearly I'm still tired. Or getting sick. But I otherwise feel fine.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Run-a-cough-atosis
AHEM...
So, back in college, in Rochester, NY, I decided to stay a summer just for the hell of it (that and there was an internship in there). Surprisingly it gets really hot in Rochester in the summer. We paid $750/month for a 5 bedroom/2 bath house (I know, crazy) with all utilities included. Except that it didn't have A/C. And so we set up a line of fans in front of the TV and a small baby pool out front and lived off of those freezer pop tube things (they come in a box of like 200 for $5). For those of you who know what I'm talking about, a strange phenomenon occurs when you eat them. You start coughing. For no aparent reason. The blue ones are the worst - they generate the most coughing. Beware the blue. Anyhow, this phenomenom came to be known as Pop-a-cough-atosis.
It seems that there is a similar phenomenon when you run hard. Hard like lots of Z4 intervals. I forgot how much I hate lots of Z4 intervals. I've decided that shorter Z4 intervals are a lot harder than the longer ones. I've been doing the longer distances (1 to 2 miles) up until today when it was 1000m, 800m, and 600m repeats. I must start out much faster thinking that they are shorter and I don't have to conserve enough. But 1000m is a lot closer to a mile than not. Anyhow, they sucked. And they came after 8x100 uphill "Z5" repeats. Did I mention they sucked? As a result, I ended up with this tickle in my throat that just hasn't gone away leaving me trying to clear my throat every few minutes (I assume) much to the annoyance of those around me.
Today's accomplishments:
7 mile run
2400 meter swim
AHEM...
So, back in college, in Rochester, NY, I decided to stay a summer just for the hell of it (that and there was an internship in there). Surprisingly it gets really hot in Rochester in the summer. We paid $750/month for a 5 bedroom/2 bath house (I know, crazy) with all utilities included. Except that it didn't have A/C. And so we set up a line of fans in front of the TV and a small baby pool out front and lived off of those freezer pop tube things (they come in a box of like 200 for $5). For those of you who know what I'm talking about, a strange phenomenon occurs when you eat them. You start coughing. For no aparent reason. The blue ones are the worst - they generate the most coughing. Beware the blue. Anyhow, this phenomenom came to be known as Pop-a-cough-atosis.
It seems that there is a similar phenomenon when you run hard. Hard like lots of Z4 intervals. I forgot how much I hate lots of Z4 intervals. I've decided that shorter Z4 intervals are a lot harder than the longer ones. I've been doing the longer distances (1 to 2 miles) up until today when it was 1000m, 800m, and 600m repeats. I must start out much faster thinking that they are shorter and I don't have to conserve enough. But 1000m is a lot closer to a mile than not. Anyhow, they sucked. And they came after 8x100 uphill "Z5" repeats. Did I mention they sucked? As a result, I ended up with this tickle in my throat that just hasn't gone away leaving me trying to clear my throat every few minutes (I assume) much to the annoyance of those around me.
Today's accomplishments:
7 mile run
2400 meter swim
AHEM...
Sunday, April 12, 2009
3 Day Weekend
Friday: 16 mile run, 2000m swim
Saturday: 5 mile run, 3900m swim
Sunday: 3.5hr ride (trainer), 2.5 mile run
I took a guess on the weather and I was wrong. As a result, I missed out on my 90 mile ride. I kind of screwed myself. But I blame this winter in April crap weather we've been having as of late.
I ended up taking two days off last week, two days in a row in fact. My stress numbers were getting kind of high (low? they are negative numbers) and the week before was intense, so I figured I could use an extra day. It meant rearranging some things, but I think I got the important stuff in. I couldn't get to my long run until Friday, so maybe it's good that I missed my ride. It would have been tough to do on Saturday with how my legs felt afterwards. I've been running this new route (all of twice) now that I've moved. Teller Farms. It's mostly flat, except for when it's not flat. And when it's not flat, it's really not flat. I FINALLY was able to hit Z5 running. All it takes is running a Z3 set (2.75 miles) starting at mile 7ish and doing it all uphill, including a section with a 7% grade. Yes indeed, that'll get my heart rate up there. I think I hit 165 (my ranges are on the low end of the spectrum). Very exciting indeed. Anyhow, it did take its toll on my legs. I took my second ice bath of the season (ouch!) and then treated myself to a hot bath after that (ahhh!). I love my new tub!
Saturday started out with a visit to the bank for a 2.5 hour discussion with my Financial Advisor. I do not recommend this. Yes it was good to finally get things in order after 10+ years of falling into disarray after a slew of uninvolved FAs. I left our meeting absolutey drained. So what did I do? I headed over to the pool where I felt like I was drowning slowly for 90 minutes. I probably should have just gone home to take a nap. I somehow made it through my swim - it did get better as I got more into it (like after 2000m). I went home, had a quick snack, and then went to bed for that much needed nap. I don't really nap and this was no exception, but I did finally get up feeling more refreshed. But I still struggled to put on running clothes and had to force myself out the door (I kept telling myself that it was the least I could do considering that I was possibly blowing off my long ride). I managed just under 5 miles at my normal pace, which was really surprising considering how much my legs hurt. Downhill was just downright painful. It felt really good to finish.
I awoke Sunday morning to dreariness. Actually, I was awoken Sunday morning by a friend who as going to go ride with me. We discussed the impending rain and decided to reschedule. I made it through 3.5 hours on the trainer before I ran out of movie. I forgot that I had only grabbed the first two LOTR from Adam and had gone through them both over the last two weekends. I gave up - not sure if I could have lasted much longer - and threw on my shoes and headed out in the rain for a small run. I really don't mind running in the rain. But I just can't ride it in. Aside from being absolutely miserable, I also don't feel safe. I finished everything up by 3 and then managed to waste the rest of the day doing who knows what (I did unpack a few boxes...)
I'm beat. And so looking forward to stablizer week.
Saturday: 5 mile run, 3900m swim
Sunday: 3.5hr ride (trainer), 2.5 mile run
I took a guess on the weather and I was wrong. As a result, I missed out on my 90 mile ride. I kind of screwed myself. But I blame this winter in April crap weather we've been having as of late.
I ended up taking two days off last week, two days in a row in fact. My stress numbers were getting kind of high (low? they are negative numbers) and the week before was intense, so I figured I could use an extra day. It meant rearranging some things, but I think I got the important stuff in. I couldn't get to my long run until Friday, so maybe it's good that I missed my ride. It would have been tough to do on Saturday with how my legs felt afterwards. I've been running this new route (all of twice) now that I've moved. Teller Farms. It's mostly flat, except for when it's not flat. And when it's not flat, it's really not flat. I FINALLY was able to hit Z5 running. All it takes is running a Z3 set (2.75 miles) starting at mile 7ish and doing it all uphill, including a section with a 7% grade. Yes indeed, that'll get my heart rate up there. I think I hit 165 (my ranges are on the low end of the spectrum). Very exciting indeed. Anyhow, it did take its toll on my legs. I took my second ice bath of the season (ouch!) and then treated myself to a hot bath after that (ahhh!). I love my new tub!
Saturday started out with a visit to the bank for a 2.5 hour discussion with my Financial Advisor. I do not recommend this. Yes it was good to finally get things in order after 10+ years of falling into disarray after a slew of uninvolved FAs. I left our meeting absolutey drained. So what did I do? I headed over to the pool where I felt like I was drowning slowly for 90 minutes. I probably should have just gone home to take a nap. I somehow made it through my swim - it did get better as I got more into it (like after 2000m). I went home, had a quick snack, and then went to bed for that much needed nap. I don't really nap and this was no exception, but I did finally get up feeling more refreshed. But I still struggled to put on running clothes and had to force myself out the door (I kept telling myself that it was the least I could do considering that I was possibly blowing off my long ride). I managed just under 5 miles at my normal pace, which was really surprising considering how much my legs hurt. Downhill was just downright painful. It felt really good to finish.
I awoke Sunday morning to dreariness. Actually, I was awoken Sunday morning by a friend who as going to go ride with me. We discussed the impending rain and decided to reschedule. I made it through 3.5 hours on the trainer before I ran out of movie. I forgot that I had only grabbed the first two LOTR from Adam and had gone through them both over the last two weekends. I gave up - not sure if I could have lasted much longer - and threw on my shoes and headed out in the rain for a small run. I really don't mind running in the rain. But I just can't ride it in. Aside from being absolutely miserable, I also don't feel safe. I finished everything up by 3 and then managed to waste the rest of the day doing who knows what (I did unpack a few boxes...)
I'm beat. And so looking forward to stablizer week.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Does Training Make You Dumb?
Here's my question of the day... what is the correlation between thinking and training? It seems like as my training increases, my brain activity decreases. I don't want to go so far as to say that it makes me more stupid (because that would be dumb), but it does make me more absent minded.For example, Wednesday's is doggy day care day. We've been doing this for almost 3 years now. It's a pretty standard routine. And it's not like I ever forget this, especially because I use it as an excuse most of the time to be able to sleep in a little longer since we don't have to go for a walk. And I don't forget - I have always left the house with them on Wednesday mornings. The problem occurs after we leave. And it's also not that I forget to pick them up. It's somewhere in between. There have been several cases where I've left work knowing that I was going to pick them up and somewhere in between getting into my car and going to get them, I forget to stop. The thing is that day care is probably a 1/2 mile from where I work, so it's not like I have a lot of time to forget, but somewhere in those 2 minutes, I forget to turn off into the parking lot and continue driving. I usually remember just as I pass by the turn, but once I made it most of the way home before realizing.
But it's getting worse. This morning I made it all the way to work and was about to pull into the parking lot when I heard some leashes jingling in the back and realized that I had forgotten to drop them off. This is the second time I've done this. A few weeks ago, I actually made it into the parking lot and parked before making this discovery. In fact, it was more than a little embarrassing as someone from my team was pulling in right next to me and there I was with two big dogs in the car, backing out of my parking space.
My short-term memory seems to have all but disappeared. I'll think of something on my way to get water only to have it vanish within seconds. I've found myself repeating things on the way back to my desk (ask X about Y, ask X about Y, ask X about Y) praying the whole time that I don't run into someone and be forced into a conversation that will render my RainMan-esque mantra into oblivion (what was I thinking about? what was I thinking about? what was I thinking about?)
The old fashioned approach of tying a string around a finger is starting to seem reasonable. Except that I then remember the Sesame Street episode with Burt and Ernie and Ernie has strings tied around all of his fingers. Burt asks about each one and each one is a reminder of another finger until he gets to the last one and then can no longer remember what he's supposed to remember. And then I start thinking about Burt and his pigeons and why the hell does he love pigeons. I hate birds. And it goes on and on. And it's really no wonder that I forget...
Monday, April 6, 2009
3 Day Marathon
It dawned on me during my 10 mile run today that I've run 27 miles in the last 3 days. And just under 4 hours (does that count?) So I suppose it's no surprise that my legs are toast right about now. They hurt. I sort of wish I had my massage scheduled for this week rather than last. I think I need it a little more right now. I'm about to curl up with the foam roller - I can't wait! But I hit over 300 on my stress numbers this weekend, which apparently is a big deal to do in a day. I'm still not sure what these numbers mean - I looked it up online and it made sense for the duration of the session, but it has since vanished from memory. But that's what coaches are for.My hamstring started bothering me a bit today, not that I can really blame it. I went to Teller Farms today since I keep hearing about it and it is so close. I went straight from work which is always sort of iffy. It's hard to run long after a full day of work. But it's sort of like an Ironman, so it's good training. I did 4x300 in "Z5" (ha!) followed by 4x1 miles in Z4. These sprint intervals are a joke for me. If I really take off in a sprint, I make it about 300 feet and I'm about to die and have to stop or slow down. If I take off slower, I barely get to Z3 by the time the interval is over. Fortunately, Teller Farms had some hills for me just as I was starting my intervals. Unfortunately for me, the hills at Teller Farms are not rolling. They are long and not so gradual. I think I did make it to Z4 on the shorter distances. I didn't time things so well and most of my intervals ended up being uphill. In addition, my first mile repeat was in mud. So, not only am I going uphill, I'm sliding all over the place and have about 20 pounds of mud caked to the bottom of my shoes. I almost went down twice. That would have been a sight. The rest of the repeats were a little smoother, but still a lot of hills and I couldn't quite get into Z4 as my legs were starting to talk back to me. Z3.9 was about as good as I could get.
But the weather was nice for a change. Finally! I know it hasn't been that long, but the past few days have been so bad that it's hard to remember the last nice day. There was a bit of wind, but when isn't there wind these days. At least the gusts were only up to 10mph. It was really nice to get outside having felt so cooped up over the weekend. Overall the run was a bit slower than I would have liked, but considering the conditions and the somewhat technical trail, I suppose it wasn't too bad. It's probably good that I got some hills in since my runs from work are pretty flat.
My rest day has officially begun. I don't need to think of training until about 5am on Wednesday. I am so looking forward to it.
Today's accomplishments:
1300 meter swim
10 mile run
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Sleep...
I'm so looking forward to going to bed. Training is starting to kick my butt. Last week was about 16 hours. I don't know how I got it all in. I vaguely remember something about getting up at 4:45 for a 15.5 mile run. And then of course, it's impossible to forget the 4.5 hours I spend on the trainer and treadmill yesterday to do my brick. It is so much more mentally exhausting than physically. Especially on the treadmill. I think Adam discovered the trick with the trainer...The Lord of The Rings trilogy. It definitely makes the time go by quickly. Unfortunately I had to go to the gym for the treadmill and there wasn't anything that could keep my attention for more than 3 minutes. What I really wanted to do was close my eyes and really be able to listed to music, but it's a bad idea to close your eyes while on the treadmill.
But now I can sleep...And start it all over again tomorrow.
Monday, March 23, 2009
How Is It Monday Already?
Saturday: 83 mile ride, 2 mile runSunday: 18 mile ride, 3200 meter swim
Monday: 5.5 mile run
Well, let's just say that I got no unpacking done this weekend. I'm so ready for this stablizer week. It seems that the intensity has really picked up the last few days. Don't get me wrong, I think it's been great because I finally feel like I'm getting back on track with the training schedule. But I'm tired.
And I really need to water the plants.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Ye Olde Stage...Firsts
Today I finally got in some much needed hill training on the bike. I did Old Stage twice and then continued up towards Jamestown. I sort of ran out of time, so I only got a few miles up the canyon, BUT I actually passed people! On a hill! Craziness, I know. And these were real cyclists (of course, two of them were on mountain bikes, but the other two were not). Still, I think it's a record for me.I was surprised that I felt pretty good considering the long run the day before. I was expecting my legs to give out halfway up Old Stage. But they stayed with me and performed some miracles: 1. I was able to ride the second repeat while seated for the majority of the hill. 2. I was able to restart on the steepest part of the hill from a dead stop.
Yes indeed. I usually have to stand for most of the hill because my legs just haven't been strong enough to propel me in a seated position. I'll usually stand for a bit and then take a quick break to spin a few rotations and then back to standing. But I've always had to throw my whole body into it. But this time, I was able to remain seated for almost the entire hill. There were a few times I had to stand to try and get my cadence up a little bit. And then my CO2 cartridge fell off. I heard a click and saw something fall from the corner of my eye. Having heard some rattling earlier, I naturally assumed that my bike was falling apart (the eternal optimist). I stopped (which is really hard to do when you're going so slowly and are at such a steep angle). I saw that it was my cartridge and went to go get it. I checked the other cartridge and adapter and everything was loose - I must be riding some rough road somewhere. I tightened everything up, then hopped on my bike and prayed for a miracle that I could get started again without falling on my face. I somehow managed to pull it off.
So it was almost like I was destined to pass people going up to Jamestown - after my triumphs on Old Stage,
how could I have a bad ride after that?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Short and Sweet
Exactly the opposite of my day which was, well, I'll just stick with long and sour. It's sort of like a few weeks ago when I was leaving the gym at a time when I'm usually there for masters. On my way out, I ran into a lane buddy who just barely caught himself in time as he whispered "I almost didn't recognize you in your clothes".
Anyhow, it's been a long day. Up at 5 for a 14.5 mile run. Off to work where I was at my desk for a total of about 10 minutes. I actually had to reschedule a meeting just so I could eat lunch. At 2pm! And then off to masters 30 minutes late, which I have to say that after the run, I was okay with missing half the class.
The run went well. My biggest complaint was with how dark it was. I usually run along 30th street when it's dark outside because it's well lit. But now I don't live near 30th anymore. I actually ran from Matt's house because I still don't have a great sense of where to run at my new place, especially for 14 miles. And Boulder I know. I had my headlamp, which was great, but because it was so dark and because the headlamp gives you such a limited area, I was getting pretty dizzy at times. But I got over it and it eventually became light. My other issue with the dark is that I manage to get myself all worked up about what sort of things are lurking out there. Coming from DC, you might think that this is normal, but I'm talking about animals. I'm a little hesitant to run through open space when I can't see what's out there. There could be bears or mountain lions out there. Or even cows, or turkeys, or geese, or other poultry (I'll save this for another time...it's a long and now entertaining story). But I was lucky today and only saw a rabbit this morning. I of course jumped about 10 feet in the air before I realized what it was. But hey, it keeps up the heartrate, right? And in the end, my run was right on pace with where I need to be for a 4 hour marathon.
P.S. The title was actually supposed to represent the size of this posting. I didn't write a dissertation and I didn't analyze. I'm sure it won't last.
Anyhow, it's been a long day. Up at 5 for a 14.5 mile run. Off to work where I was at my desk for a total of about 10 minutes. I actually had to reschedule a meeting just so I could eat lunch. At 2pm! And then off to masters 30 minutes late, which I have to say that after the run, I was okay with missing half the class.
The run went well. My biggest complaint was with how dark it was. I usually run along 30th street when it's dark outside because it's well lit. But now I don't live near 30th anymore. I actually ran from Matt's house because I still don't have a great sense of where to run at my new place, especially for 14 miles. And Boulder I know. I had my headlamp, which was great, but because it was so dark and because the headlamp gives you such a limited area, I was getting pretty dizzy at times. But I got over it and it eventually became light. My other issue with the dark is that I manage to get myself all worked up about what sort of things are lurking out there. Coming from DC, you might think that this is normal, but I'm talking about animals. I'm a little hesitant to run through open space when I can't see what's out there. There could be bears or mountain lions out there. Or even cows, or turkeys, or geese, or other poultry (I'll save this for another time...it's a long and now entertaining story). But I was lucky today and only saw a rabbit this morning. I of course jumped about 10 feet in the air before I realized what it was. But hey, it keeps up the heartrate, right? And in the end, my run was right on pace with where I need to be for a 4 hour marathon.
P.S. The title was actually supposed to represent the size of this posting. I didn't write a dissertation and I didn't analyze. I'm sure it won't last.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
T Minus 3 Months...and Change
What does the T stand for? Takeoff? Time? In my case it stands for Totally Not Ready. Now that I'm no longer in real estate and moving mode, it's time to get back on the training program. No more excuses. No more telling myself when the alarm goes off at 5am that I'll just do it later.It's amazing what the body remembers. I can't tell you what I've been doing for workouts for the past few months - a little swimming here, a bit less of biking there, and a lot of running. But I end up surprising myself often. Last Thursday, after poisoning myself on Monday, I attempted a 14 mile run. After a 2 mile warm-up, I started my intervals. I couldn't get into Z3 let alone Z4. So much for intervals. Since my Garmin is on the fritz again and I really didn't know a good 14 mile loop from memory, I decided to run for 2 hours instead. In Z2 because that was all I could do. Surprisingly I kept a very steady pace and was slightly faster on the way back. I mapped it out later and (accounting for various mapping errors), was somewhere between 13 and 13.5. That was a shocker!
I headed out this weekend for my longest brick to date: 51/11.5. Since I had skipped half of my workouts during the week, I made it up to myself by doing Old Stage - first ascent of the season. I keep waiting for the day where I get to the top and think "Hmm, that really wasn't so bad". Don't worry. I'm not there yet. But it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. It didn't hurt quite so much. It might actually not be so bad one day...The first hour of the Z3 went really well (and fast for this turtle). The last little bit ended up being uphill and into the wind.
ASIDE because I just have to get it out: Damn this wind!!! When will it end??? END ASIDE
But it was better than the previous weekend where I had a headwind or severe crosswind about 90% of the ride. Seriously, every time I turned, so did the wind. But overall, the ride went well. I had done the same loop the prior weekend (minus Old Stage) but it took a bit longer. Go me! I made it home and changed for the run. This was only the second run from my new house and the only route I've found so far is to my brother's house via the trails. 3 miles to his backyard, but uphill the entire way. In case it is not obvious, it does not make for a very good long brick, when you're first 3 miles are uphill (it does make for a great finish though). My legs were aching from Thursday. I was also dealing with some residual knee pain that I've started getting when it's really cold. It's like it shocks my knee joints and it takes them a day or two to recover. The uphill didn't help. So I ended up not really doing my Z3 stuff, but at that point, it was more of a mental workout that I knew I had to do to feel one step closer to being ready. I did get several miles at the Z2/Z3 threshold at a 9 min pace. I was happy with that. I stopped at Adam's on the way back to refill on water. It ended up being about a 15-20 minute break, but when you have 3 miles that are all downhill, it's not like I was going to get a whole lot out of them.
I finished up the weekend with a short ride and long swim yesterday. Neither were spectacular, but they did what they were supposed to in terms of logging the miles.
I was advised to keep these short and sweet so that I can potentially blog daily. So far I've failed. But I'm trying to keep it in mind. I'm just not sure that my mind works that way.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
I'm Back...
Disclaimer: I am a dork. And I am a bit meticulous. I know this already. You do not need to remind me.No more excuses. The move is over and done with. The unpacking isn't, but I have way more time to take care of that. And there's no hurry considering I know where everything is. I have already been made fun of by so many people that I no longer have issue with discussing my packing strategy. For the anal triathletes out there, you may appreciate it. Usually I label (and colorcode) boxes based on where they need to end up in the new place. This year, I went several steps further. I had a spreadsheet. So, not only was each box labeled and colorcoded, but each box was also numbered. The spreadsheet then allowed me to put all sorts of details as to what went into the box. Instead of "Dishes", I would put things like "Plates, bowls, serving bowls" and so on. Since I was reusing boxes with other peoples writing all over it, this just seemed like a better idea (at one point a box may have been for bath for one move and office for the next move, and so on). My goal was to try and avoid boxes labeled Miscellaneous because these drive me crazy. This came in especially handy several times:
1. After "thinking ahead" while packing up dry food items, I left out a few things for dinner to cover a few days. This included a can of black beans for quesadillas. Several nights later when I went to make said quesadillas, I realized I had no can opener. Fear not, said the spreadsheet. It's in Box 49. Okay, you're thinking that's not such a big deal because the whole box was probably utensils, which it pretty much was. But how about this...
2. The first night in the new place, Matt and I collapsed into bed. A few hours later we awoke, having not really been asleep due to the screamingly quietness of the place. The humidifier HAD to come out for background noise if we were going to get some sleep. Box 77. We were back in bed within minutes. Perhaps a little more impressive? It's not like I had a whole box full of humidifiers - this actually turned out to be a miscellaneous box (there was a lampshade and cowboy hat as well and you really can't label that anything but miscellaneous). But again, there wasn't a lot of stuff in it since the humidifier did take up a bit of room. So the grand finale...
3. I went for a ride on Sunday. I had a whole box for workout clothes because they are so important. But inevitably something gets left out. In this case, my leg warmers, which I found on the floor in the back of my closet when I thought I had finished packing the closet. These ended up in another miscellaneous box only because it did not occur to me to just open the workout clothes box and throw them in (moving brain will do that to you). But fear not. I knew they were in Box 78 and wasted all of about a minute in getting ready for my ride.
So I'm not too concerned with holding off on the unpacking. If I need something, chances are that I'll know exactly where to find it. I strive for a box or two a night and have fallen short a box or two the past two nights. But oh well. That's just how it goes.
Oh, and by the way, I LOVE the new house! Training has sort of been on the back burner, but I'll try and get to that soon.
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