Woodsy

Oh, and then there was a race

I've taken my time with this report, trying to make it more interesting.  But nothing really catastrophic or entertaining happened on race day.  I know that's good, but makes for a boring race report.  Wardrobe malfunctions, falling over, puking- all good blog material but sorry, you'll just have to suffer on through what really happened.

Swim

I showed up bright and early for at 6 am for the practice swim on Friday morning, and was the only one there.  Hmmm.  Where are all the other type-A triathletes?  The race director was there setting up the swim start and advised me to wait until a few more people showed up, which finally happened about 6:30ish.  Interesting. 

I did 2 practice swims before the race and felt a LOT better going in than I did at CDA 2 years ago.  The water was comfortable in a wetsuit, and since the swim was actually in a river instead of the ocean it was calm without chop or swell.  There was a current, noticeable only in that my "back" time was significantly shorter than my "out" in practice.  The course was a "lollipop" - deep water start, swim out, loop around twice, and come back to shore.  My only worry was missing the loop turnaround point- which was silly as I knew there would be a FEW people in front of me to follow.  In fact, my plan was to stay behind someone/anyone as much as possible for the drafting benefit.  

Mass start.  Hurry up dude, you're behind already!

I started somewhere in the middle which was new for me, usually I move to the back so not to get clobbered and swum over.  Although I did get clocked more times than I can remember, it paid off in my swim time.  Along with several 4k+ pool workouts and ocean swims in Kona!  Swimming outside made those long workouts SO much more enjoyable.  I might even go so far as to say I liked swimming.  Went to masters practice a couple times a week too, that was a lot of fun (seriously).  There were 10 people in my lane one time!

Swimmers streaming in

My goal for the swim was to PR (anything under 1:26) and I ended up with a 1:15- super excited!!!

 
Bike

The bike course was 2 loops.  I pre-rode some of the course including "Heartbreak hill" which was a doozie but not super long.  You could see the top anyhow.  But even in the granny gear it was sure to lay down some hurt on the second lap, since it's near the end.  Overall the course was pretty hilly, comparable to CDA.  Some long flat sections but a decent amount of climbing.  The weather on race day was pretty close to perfect with the exception of some wind; headwind on the way out and tailwind on the way back which is the better scenario.  After a couple of nasty windy rides on the Queen K, I was prepared for that.  Launched a bottle almost immediately after I started riding...damn, tires are probably overinflated.  Oops.  I had the bike shop pump them up and didn't really think to check the pressure other than noticing they were "full" and figured that would be fine.  Not so fine after mile upon mile of chipseal- ouch. 

Coming into town after the first loop

Overall the bike was slower than I expected, after seeing 3:08 near the end of the first loop I was a little discouraged, but stuck to the plan and was able to hold almost the same pace on the second loop.  The week after, I compared average wattage to CDA (where I biked 6 hours) and Aus was only 2 W less, so then I felt better about it.  Had a much more consistent effort this time around.  I didn't have aero-anything at this race either, unlike CDA where I was lucky enough to have a friend loan me some sweeet aero wheels and dorky helmet :)

Bike time 6:20- I had hoped for something closer to 6 hrs but without knowing the course or conditions, hard to predict.

Run

My run mileage was pretty conservative for this race, since I was coming back from injury.  The goal was really just to make it to the start line.  I started running again last October, which seems like plenty of time except that I was starting with a half mile run/walk.  I kept telling myself in training that I didn't have to run fast, I just had to keep running.  That's really what an Ironman marathon is all about!  Did a few split runs where I ran once in the morning and then again later in the afternoon.  My longest "day" was 18 miles, split 5/13.  My longest single run was 17 miles, which I did once.  Did quite a few in the 13-14 mile range.  I didn't have any injury problems, with the exception of a slight twinge during my biggest training week 3 weeks before the race.  Think I tweaked something during big ring intervals on the bike, and one knee bothered me a bit while running.  Pushed and rearranged some runs, took extra days off, and all was fine.  But it did freak me out.  Glad to know that I have a healthy sense of paranoia about such things, now!

 

Early in the run, apparently.

As for the race, I was targeting an 8:45 pace and basically hit it, although the first miles were closer to 8:30 and I fell off pace a little in the last few miles.  I walked through a couple of the last aid stations and up a ridiculously steep but short hill, but was never forced to walk due to the stomach issues I've had in past IMs.  A very good thing!  I noticed a couple times near the end that my pace was slowing- actually didn't feel like I was slowing down, it was just happening.  Eventually it got even slower due to congestion on the course (disadvantage of a 4-loop run) and getting dark.  After each loop you got a wristband to put on- your last wristband was a different color indicating you could veer off to the finish line shortly.  The hardest point in the race for me was finishing the second loop, as my legs were starting to feel fatigued and I was only half done!  My brother was race photographer extraordinaire and I saw him on every lap, though I never knew exactly where that would be.

Run time was 3:53, PR for an IM marathon.

Finished!  8 min faster than CDA and 20 min slower than IMC.  Three very different races.

 

I got to hang out in the med tent for a while, again.  I'm always really nauseous after finishing, but that's about it.  Really, REALLY sore the next few days- had forgotten about that part!  The next several days were also spent eating and walking our way through Australia, so much fun!

Rugby game- the Waratahs

Waterfront dining by the Harbor Bridge.  We also climbed the bridge as part of a tour.

Took a ferry out to Watsons Bay

Saw the Opera house inside and out.  An engineer's dream, or nightmare?

Wine country with Hello Kitty

The Blue Mountains

More silliness

Got the nerve up to take a dip in the Newcastle ccean baths on my last morning.  Holy crap it was cold!  Was a VERY short swim.

Haven't decided on the next Ironman, but it will probably be late next summer or fall.  Considering IMC again, IMAZ or Cozumel.  As for this year, I'm deciding between the Soma 1/2 or Austin 70.3 on Oct. 23rd.  Any opinions on either?

Ironman Australia, an introduction

Wow.  I realize this blog has pretty much been decommissioned but I'm still going to use it for this race report.  Maybe I'll be inspired to write more once I am settled back into reality.  Maybe a blog-worthy change will be coming up soon.  Maybe I'll change my blog picture. 

I had 8 weeks of sabbatical time to burn so what better way to spend it than training for an Ironman?  I can't think of any other way!  Wanted to escape at the rainiest/crappiest/most depressing time of year in the Pac NW.  Also wanted to use the extra time to travel internationally.  So my choices were

1.  Ironman New Zealand - Pretty but tends to be a little cool-ish as I understand it.  It is also inland, and I wanted to be on the ocean.  Not necessarily to swim in the ocean, but to look at it.

2.  Ironman China - Seriously considered this one, as it would be pretty adventurous and almost assuredly hot.  But I decided I was not adventurous enough to swim in a river in China (won't even swim in the Willamette)!  As it turns out they cancelled the swim this year, so at that time I instantly regretted my decision.  Totally should have done it.  But then they cancelled the whole thing.  That would have been kind of a let down! 

3.  Ironman Australia - Yes!  I've never been to Australia, Port Macquarie is on the ocean, and Hawaii is "on the way".

So from Hawaii I was off to the Land Down Under.  My time in Hawaii might be a separate blog post, or a pictorial essay at least.  I posted a lot on Facebook while I was there so I'm sure my FB friends got pretty sick of hearing about how wonderful it was.  Transporting a bike Down Under turned out to be more of an ordeal than I expected.  Since I had 2 different tickets on 3 different airlines, I had to claim my bike in Honolulu and again in Sydney to take it through customs, then finally in Port Mac.  That means I got to pay twice too.  Just glad it wasn't three times.   When I landed in Port Mac on Wednesday night it was raining- arrgggghhh.  This is what I was running away from!  Luckily the rain diminished each day and race day was totally clear.

 

Race kit, courtesy of Christine.  Note the band-aids are open for use!

 

Race monkey, courtesy of Chris

 

Hello Kitty came from Hawaii, in the bike box.  The wine?  From Australia of course.

 

And my brother came from LA!

A Grape Race

Settling back in after the Vineman 70.3 down in Cali last weekend.  Since I'm still run/walking and only about 2 miles at a time, this was going to be an "aquabike" event.  The race has two different transition areas which makes the logistics a bit complicated.  Seven of us had a rental house near the coast, no cell or internet but we did have Versus for tour coverage.  Went out for a "rolling" bike ride along the coast when we arrived on Thursday afternoon.  Since I wasn't concerned about tapering, I hit the hills harder than I normally would.  The week was more of a reverse taper, I didn't ride Sunday through Wednesday and then rode TWO whole days in a row Thursday and Friday.  We did a couple of swims in the river too, sans wetsuit (with swimsuit).  The water was probably 10 degrees warmer than at any open water swim I've done so far this year.  I may never do a cold water race again, it was so nice.

Friday night we went to the athlete's pasta dinner.  During the pro panel, Tyler Stewart said that she hasn't run in 7 months but was doing the whole race tomorrow.  Everyone at our table looked at me.  She's been bike racing instead.  Christine punches me in the shoulder.  And then she said although she races in the pro division, she works a full time job.  She decided years ago not to dedicate her life to the sport and trains about 8-12 hours per week.  So basically she nixed ALL my excuses.  The only one I have left is that I don't have her physiology; on that training program she busted out a course record on the bike and a 1:23 half marathon on race day.  If only! 

We had dinner at the house on race eve.  I had a nice big glass of wine that I thought was appropriate in the spirit of the race.  The finish line of the swim had an arch made of wine barrels that I thought was pretty cool.

 
Running out past the barrels of wine.

As I made my final preparations in T1, I was talking to a gal next to me doing her first tri.  Suddenly I noticed we were the only 35-39 AG women still standing at the bike racks.  I asked her where the swim start was and said uh, it might be time to head over there.  Ended up being a bit of a scramble through the crowd but made it into the water with about 3 minutes to spare.  That's plenty of warm-up time for me.  The water was warm, did I mention that?  72 degrees according to the announcer. The swim is an out-and-back on the Russian river, going against the current at first and then turning around into the current.  Generally I felt pretty good during the swim, harder on the way back just due to muscle fatigue in my shoulders and lats.  Not the "I just want to roll over on my back and float" kind of fatigue that I usually get in open water.  The strangest thing about the swim was that the water was shallow enough in places to stand up.  So you'd be swimming along and see a couple people in their caps just standing around mid-swim.  And no, I didn't PR in the swim because I ran it!  When I got out of the water I noticed there were a lot of bikes still in my transition area, which is unusual.   I haven't done a lot of half iron races but this was a PR swim and I finally cracked the top 50% of my age group.  Hooray for mid-pack results!  Next time, I want to break the 40-minute barrier- only 21 seconds to go.

The woman next to me in T2 asked "are you allergic to sunscreen"?  I said no and she proceded to spray another coat of sunscreen on my back which was much appreciated.  She said she's been burned during this race before, and probably noticed that I am one who likely needs all the sun protection she can get.  After a leisurely 6 minute transition, I was on the bike.  We had ridden part of the course on Friday so were familiar with Chalk Hill that came about mile 45 *I think*; that is to say, it wasn't really a huge hill.  But the road was pretty rough in places and kind of winding.  Other than that I was pretty oblivious to the course details, other than we rode by a lot of vineyards and wineries.  There was one short super-steep hill near the beginning and some hard turns.  The rest was pretty rolling.  I didn't pay any attention to my power and decided just to ride by feel.  I did TT the last 5 miles into town which was fun, blowing by people like I didn't have to run afterward.  Because I didn't.  Crushed the guy wearing a pink tutu and bunny ears (on his aerohelmet) as we were rolling in the final stretch to T2.  Once I got into T2 however I was a little bewildered.  What do I do?  I didn't have any gear stationed there because my plan was to roll right over to the car.  I found a volunteer near the run exit who was able to take my chip.  I stood there for a minute looking around, thinking about how my chip was going to show infinite time in T2.  Then asked her how to get out of there!  They lifted up a banner so I could roll out into the finishers area.  But there was no food out yet, so nothing for me there.  I watched Mirinda Carfrae win the women's race with a 1:16 and change half marathon- the announcer noted that her run split was only 8 seconds slower than Chris Lieto :)  Finally realizing I was stumped on how to get out of the finishers area too, not being a finisher, I asked another volunteer how to get out of THAT area.  Thinking about it later, this was my first DNF ever.  I've been DFL and DNS, but never DNF.  No wonder it felt strange.  Not bad though, considering how long I've been racing; triathlon, running and biking.  And I had a good excuse.  My bike was also a PR but again, I haven't done that many half iron races.  And you can't really compare times across different courses. I feel pretty good though considering my bike training over the past 3 months has been lacking in both intensity and volume.

Post-race refueling consisted of chips, salsa, guacamole and Corona, among other things.  My travel partners had some PR performances and one finished her very first half iron.  We started talk of training camp in Kona next spring break ;)

A Real Vacation

I'm back from Tucson and the numbers are in- 26 hours of training in 9 days (about 25 hours in the full seven days, excluding travel days).  Most of my training weeks so far this year have fallen into the 11-14 hour range so this was quite a push!  We didn't have any single epic 7-8 hour BT days as I'd done for Ironman training, but between 3.5-4 hours most days.  Every day.  We had a house in Tucson where we started almost all of the riding and running, which made things convenient.  There were only 3 of us plus the coach so we had a lot of space too, and personalized attention!  And a pool in the backyard to ice down the legs after workouts.  All we had to do was swim, bike, run, eat and sleep.  Seriously, that's it.  No cooking even.  There was wine and dessert.  There's all this, and then there's family-time vacations.   Sometimes the two overlap (as I'm hoping to do with my sabbatical next year).  All the best ways to spend vacation time, for me. 

The highlight for me was the ride up Mt Lemmon- 6000ft of climbing in 26 miles.  Some pics courtesy of our coach:

Happy before the start.  We're all "Pac NorthWesterners" and haven't seen this much sun in months! 

We struggled with the wind during the first part, but it's still warm.

 
And now...snow!

8000 ft and more snow!

8600 ft and DONE!   In more ways than one.  Time for a ride to the bottom and In-N-Out :)

Thankfully we didn't have any killer swim sessions, although some were more difficult than others since they were in the evening after a bike and/or run.  But in a nice outdoor pool.  I was able to do some running, still doing the run/walk routine although I'm up to 9 minutes of running at a time for a total of 50 minutes.   I think I'll stay at 40-50 minutes until I'm actually in some kind of running shape- ugh.  Still hard.

I swam in the morning before leaving Tucson on Thursday, then was easily coerced into driving out to the Dalles for a team ride on Friday.  TOTALLY worth it.

This picture tells a thousand words.  Not a cloud in the sky, and a view of Mt Hood.

My longest ride of the year so far, 70 miles.  Including "Rowena Crest" and "7 Mile Hill".  Doesn't quite sound like an "easy" ride does it?

After the 7-Mile descent.  We take our rest stops very seriously!  

Today I was planning to meet Ashley and A.J. for a ride at 9:15a and totally overslept!  I slept 11.5 hours :P  Maybe the body is trying to tell me something.  Rest day it is.
 
  

 

February Fitness

Well, we are nearing the end of February Fitness.  If I make it to the pool each of the next three days, I will have achieved my goal of swimming 20 days in February.  All but 3 of those will have been at masters.  I may publish my yardage here or maybe not.  I guess you all know I'm a slow swimmer so it won't be a real shocker.  I <3 fins and paddles- I can get in more yards with them than with out :)  I will definitely post a picture of any February Fitness swag I get for reaching my goal.

March will bring more vertical kicking, or as the coach calls it "fat guy's revenge".  LOVE vertical kicking.  I got better at it though.  My head was under water when I started in December, and I was able keep it above water by the end of January.  This makes breathing much easier!  On that note, one of many bad habits I'm trying to break is to stop kicking when I breathe.  How dumb is that?  Makes no sense, but I know I do it.  And now for the most part, I'm kicking continuously through my stoke.  Just keep kicking.

Also, March calls for a new swimsuit.

  
I loved my white/pink polka dot suit but learned not to wear a mostly white swimsuit in Hagg Lake :(  It's now more brown/pink.

The original plan for tonight's trainer workout was a 20 min TT, but I got a slightly easier rendition since I'm racing BB on Sunday.  Was it easier though?  I'm not sure.  4 minute threshold intervals, as many as I could do.  I did 3.  Max was noted as 5- whew, glad I didn't get close to max'ing out!  I think those were more painful than my VO2 intervals.  The last 10-30 second of those hurt, but I was up to about a minute of "just hanging on" tonight. 

Sunny day

Sweeping the clouds away...

I spent last weekend in Phoenix enjoying the sun, it was a nice little escape.  Fit in a couple rides on the rental bike, swims in an outdoor pool, glasses of wine (maybe more than a couple!) all with good company!  Even waited 'til afternoon for my Saturday ride so I could go without leg and arm warmers.  Just to say that I did.  Started to get anxious to run outside again, but must have continue to have patience.  Still bustin' out my 2 min run/1 min walk intervals on the 'mill.  At least 10 of these are not as draining as they once were.  I think my next run with have longer running blocks- still waiting to hear from the PT but I'm guessing 4 minutes.  4 minutes, 4 minutes...do I hear 5? 

Hopefully I will be running outside by March 10th, the day I leave for camp in Tucson.  I'm irrationally excited about this camp and getting my butt kicked for 10 days in a row.  I've done shorter camps and love the simplicity of eating, working out, eating, foam/trigger point rolling, sleeping, eating and various combinations of the above EVERY single day.  Reminiscent of Cycle Oregon when the only thing I had to worry about was getting from point A to point B in time for dinner.  That's what I like to call "vacation".  When I first did that ride I was a novice cyclist and didn't have a whole lot of time to spare.  On my second Cycle Oregon years later, I made it in time for the beer garden AND dinner.  Now we're really talking vacation.

All this talk of sun has me thinking about sabbatical next year.  I have a plan forming in my mind that involves escaping the rain around January/February.

Fly away and train in warm weather, ~8 weeks.
Race
China, ~1-2 weeks.

Some details need to be filled in. 

Sabbatical is earned every 7 years at my company: eight weeks of paid time off.  You can add vacation time to make it longer, thus increasing your desire to never ever EVER go back to work.  The point of sabbatical is to refresh yourself and come back with renewed drive and motivation.  This post-sabbatical "glow" lasts approximately one week, until reality sets in. 

I took my first sabbatical in the spring.  Went to Italy with my mom and drove to New Mexico throwing in a Colorado bike ride (Iron Horse) and a run (Bolder Boulder) along the way.  I spent time with friends in Albuquerque, my former stomping grounds.  I also visited family in Montana and Minnesota, and rode around Crater Lake on my last weekend before returning to work.  It was awesome.  This time I'm going to make people come to me, but I don't think it will be a hard sell. 

Back to the grind

More or less.  Fall in Portland has been fairly mild so far, which makes the transition from summer a bit easier.  Finally finding time to blog!  I was basically away from work and the computer for about 2 1/2 weeks in October.  It was much needed.  Though I have missed blogging, there is just too much else to do with my time.

After Grand Columbian I took 3 weeks off running and 2 1/2 weeks off workouts completely.  Nice in a way, but not totally sure it did me much good.  After basically going 3 years without injury, I came back into action with patellar tendonitis in both knees.  Actually this has been an issue since my break after Ironman Coeur d'Alene.  It was my right achilles that hurt on the bike first, then the tendonitis in both knees during running.  I'm not sure what it was about my time off or coming back into workouts that caused these issues, but I'll definitely be thinking about that during future "recovery" periods.  I spent most of that time on vacation in Montana, being lazy and reading books.  That is one thing I miss when my training hours get longer- I don't have time to read.  During this time I made it through 3 books, my 4th is in progress but going much slower due to actually having to work.  Stupid work.  Five days a week no less!  I'm training on day shift for a few weeks but will go back to my shift 8 schedule after Thanksgiving.

Returned from Montana and unpacked/repacked for Hawaii!  A few of my triathlon friends and I took a trip to the Big Island to train and watch the World Championships.  The training was hot.  Oh my was it hot.  My reintoduction to training was a 2 hour ride out-and-back up a long-ass hill followed a 20 minute run that about killed me.  I was so excited to run again; that lasted about 5 minutes and then I was sucking wind with my heart rate climbing to astronomical levels.  That reminds me, we took a drive up Mauna Kea to the observatory one night.  Had to wait out the rain but it was pretty cool to see some stars and planets through their telescopes. 

Swimming in the ocean was unexpectedly fun!  We went to the pier where the Ironman begins since they had the buoys out AND a floating coffee bar.  Ha!  We didn't get there until about 8:45 and they were closing at 9:00.  Sue asked me if I could swim that far in 15 minutes, for coffee.  Heck yeah!  Unfortunately they were out of coffee by the time we got there and handing out GU2O instead.  Probably a better choice and hey, I was there to see the mythical coffee bar in the sea that I've read about.  I took a swim lesson in the endless pool from Eric Neilsen, Aquatic Edge.  He and Karlyn were in Portland for a clinic years ago so I knew their technique was similar to the one my coach teaches.  The lesson was fun- I had been assured by Charlie and Eileen that I wouldn't end up pinned to the back wall of the pool.  They adjust the flow based on your speed, or lack of.  The coolest thing was that improvements I made were immediately apparent because I would start bumping into the front.  There are also mirrors on the front and bottom, which made it easy to see that I was fishtailing like crazy.  He also took a video so I could see this action from the top.  Yikes!  No wonder swimming takes so much effort.  By widening my arm entry I was able to get reduce the wiggle quite a bit.  Anyway, definitely worth the time and money for this lesson.

Here are some more pictures from the trip.  We rode the Ironman course, not all at once.  Got some snorkeling and coffee tasting in as well.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Two weeks after the Hawaii trip, I took off for the mountain.  This was the sixth annual Escape, aka Stamping Retreat, aka Girl's Weekend on Mt Hood!

 
Our mountain hideaway

 
Hard at work!  Not me, but some other escapees.

 
Check out our backdrop!  It was absolutely gorgeous up there.

There may have been some alcohol consumption as well.  As Lisa told me every time I screwed up a card, "drink more, care less".  It worked!

There is already talk of reviving our spring retreat, hope that works out.  I may have my Christmas cards done by then! 

And now, I have to decide on some races for next year.  I'm really not ready to decide this early!  I am really just planning to get back to pain-free running and go from there.  I think it's coming around based on my run this morning, limited to 20 minutes at a time which is just fine with me right now.  But there are a couple races opening for registration this weekend that I was considering: the Vancouver Lake 1/2 marathon in January and Vineman 70.3 in July. 

My only definites for next year:
Cascade Lakes Relay in late July as part of the Sick Sisters ultra team :) 
Ironman Arizona in November

Looking for a spring triathlon since Ralph's is full.  Recommendations?

 
 

The Grand Finale

Last weekend Bob, Karon, Coach and I made the trek to Eastern Washington for the Grand Columbian triathlon.  Since my running has been slow to come back around since Ironman Coeur d'Alene, and I mean really really slow, I decided not to do the half ironman race that I'd registered for.  Instead, I did this silly event called the "Aquabike" where I get to swim just as far, bike 56 miles and then not run at all.  I don't get it- why leave out the best part?!  More on that later.

Since I had done this race two years ago, I was familiar with the location.  The swim is flat :o) and yes, flat is a good for swimming.  In fact that is where I PR'd my swim two years ago and haven't beat it since.  The bike is hilly, again :o).  Two years ago the course was changed due to fires and smoke in the area but this year I would get to experience the original course in it's 3800 ft of climbing glory.  We camped at the race site thanks to Karon and Bob and their connection with the Geckos Tri club.  Since the race didn't start until 9:00 we could sleep in and mosey on down to transition at the last minute, which I took full advantage of.  Unfortunately, this is when I had a wardrobe malfunction and the race start became a little more stressful than it should have been.  The zipper on my tri suit broke- seriously?!  After failed attempts to repair I *zipped* back down to the campsite for some safety pins and my bike jersey. So with that and my wetsuit I was reassured that I would not be flashing everyone on the course.  Whew!  Jumping into the water at the last minute, I found myself pink in a sea of bright yellow as the aquabikers were starting with the men.  Here comes another pink cap swimming back to me; Ashley asked if we were starting with the boys and I noticed she was race number 1- sweet!  As she told me later, there is a lot of pressure (and harassment) that goes along with being numero uno.

The swim felt just normal, though I haven't done a wetsuit swim in a while.  The crowd spread out pretty quickly and I got into a rhythm.  Believe I managed to swim pretty straight this time.  The water is really great- calm and perfect temperature.  As we're exiting the water, a guy running next to me out toward transition says "thanks for pulling me in from that last buoy!". I said "sure" but kind of laughing to myself as that's something I've never heard before!  I was hoping for a PR time but since I didn't have my watch on, I didn't know.  Later I found out that I PR'd by about a minute.  Good enough!

Then I'm off on the bike after a somewhat leisurely transition, later confirmed by my T1 time.  The course starts out with a climb up Almira grade and I kind of like it.  The legs are aching but it's a good chance to spin and get warmed up.  I see Mark as I round the corner for the out-and-back at about 12 miles in.  A.J., Ashley...missed Bob somehow.  I really like this course- it's not fast but the hills keep you occupied although they are not a lot to look at.  I passed A.J. and knew that something was wrong there, later find out he's been sick. Since the last 10 miles is pretty much all downhill, with about 15 to go I decide to punch it a bit.  Ah, the luxury of knowing you don't have to run 13 miles afterward!  I continue to hit it after the downhill into T1 and...we are done!  That was a pretty good feeling!  Ashley is still in the transition area so we just hang out there for a bit, pitying the triathletes that are heading out to run.  Thought I would be disappointed that I couldn't go out and catch more people but as it turns out I was not disappointed in the slightest.  I was just looking forward to margaritas and mexican food.  After a dip in the lake and some coffee I claimed my 3rd place finisher's plaque and beer mug.   Ashley was second.  Yay for podium finishes, regardless of how many people are in the race!  I will tell you there was more than 3.

Right now I can not run nearly as fast as I want to and my legs have convinced me that it's time to take a break.  My VO2 test results 2 weeks ago also confirmed this.  So in am in the midst of a 3 week break without running, 2.5 weeks off workouts altogether.  I've made it a week and a half and now I'm in Montana for 9 days.  My running shoes didn't accidentally find my way into my suitcase , so it looks like I'll make it my prescribed 3 weeks.  I took 3 months off running a few years ago due to plantar fasciitis, but never this much time off workouts, period.  My to do list:

1.  Reading.  I'm almost through book #2 on my list.
2.  Packing and unpacking for MT and then packing for Hawaii.
3.  Retail therapy.  Need a new tri suit at least!
4.  Sign up for a bike maintenance class.
5.  Sleeping around 9 hours a night.
6.  Daily ice/heat and torture with the TP roller and ball.
6.  Eating normal amounts of food.  I'm not hungry less than 2 hours after every meal, it's crazy!
7.  Picking out Christmas cards to make on the upcoming stamping retreat.
8 . Worked a bit longer last week to finish some things before my extended vacation.  I'm not working on vacation though.

As you can see I'm quite busy, but the nice fall weather is making the sedentary life difficult.  I might have to go for a walk!

IMCDA Race Report, part 4

Off and running!  Considering how poorly the second half of the bike went my legs felt pretty good.  I've experienced this phenomena before, it's called "thank God we are doing something different"!  I was cruising along at the pace coach had recommended until I talked him down 10-15/sec per mile.  I knew this but figured since my race was less-than-stellar thus far I had nothing to lose.  Suspected my legs would give up before anything else. 

I'm not sure if going with that pace was the right decision or not; 10-15 seconds per mile may have delayed the stomach upset that occurred at mile 10 but I think it would have happened eventually anyhow.  In hindsight, I'm wondering if that is just how I'm going to feel in an Ironman marathon and should I just HTFU and keep running.  On a hurl scale of 1-10 I was probably about a 6-7, i.e. not in imminent danger of hurling.  Of course that's easy to say now.  I walked through the aid station at mile 10 and took pretzels and coke.  That seemed to help and I ran a couple more miles, then became nauseous again.  More pretzels and coke, probably too much in the stomach at this point.  Now some more running, then walking.  Here's another armchair quarterback observation: I probably could have increased the run-to-walk ratio in the second half but mentally I was pretty much defeated.  In the end I came in under 4 hours for the marathon and with a little more perseverance I probably could have managed a 3:50 or better.  So this is another lesson learned- don't give up.  Around mile 17 I suddenly got ravenously hungry despite all the pretzels and coke and had more pretzels, coke and a cookie.  No way I was touching gel or anything resembling that- my nutrition plan was officially out the window.  Then I saw coach walking up ahead and stopped to walk with him for some real-time coaching advice, something to the effect of "lay off the cookies and finish this thing".  WIth him I probably walked about 4 minutes or so, and that was enough stomach settling to run out-and-back to the turnaround, past mile 20.  Held on reasonably well running with Johan until mile 23, then more tummy disagreement.  

The IMCDA finish is awesome, much more exciting than IMC.  The last ~0.5 mile is a gradual downhill through downtown with people lined up on both sides and standing in the rain at this point, mind you.  Although it started raining about halfway through the marathon, I was fairly comfortable temperature wise.  I would have been more comfortable RUNNING the second half and generating more heat but that's the way it goes.

   
I'm now 2/2 on finishing Ironman in the rain.  Next time- IM Arizona.

 
So excited to have a real finishers photo this time!  

  
Last year's finisher's shot at IMC. 

Tomorrow, post-mortem with coach.  Hoping to learn something.

IMCDA Race Report, part 3

I lived through the swim and was ready to start reeling people in on the bike.  T1 was slow as my stomach was upset and I tried to take some extra time to get it calmed down.  Didn't work.  As I started out riding, I held back on my nutrition to let it settle down.  That really didn't work either.  I didn't hurl, but I didn't feel much better until around mile 50.  I'm not sure if the calorie deficit caught up to me or if it was something else, but the second half of the bike ride was a downward spiral.  It was fairly windy too.  With a constant perceived effort, I watched my watts drop lower and lower until I was ~30 watts lower than goal in the last 12 miles.  My legs were just dead.  Throughout the second half, I kept thinking about the marathon coming up and how that was going to work out.  I also thought about Ironman Canada last year, where my legs felt AWESOME from start to finish on the bike.  I had no idea how much I had slowed down but knew it was significant, and disappointment set in.  I thought about all the hours spent on the trainer this winter.  I thought about riding down Mt Bachelor in a hailstorm.  But I also thought about how I broke my PR in the marathon last winter and in a bike time trial two weeks ago.  How awesome it will be to have Ironman fitness through the summer in Oregon and becoming even faster for next year.  Friends who I spend long hours training with, and everyone who supported me up to race day.  And then, I was over it.  Over having one bad day.  I realized that if knew the outcome of this race, I would not have changed anything about my preparation.  It's the reason I bailed out of moving to China- can't imagine life without training and racing. 

 
Pigtails are super-aero, proven by wind-
tunnel testing.

Oh and as you can see, I sold out and wore a bowl on my head for this race.  On the dorkiness scale of 1-10 it's about a 9.  Actually, considering I'm wearing a tri top with arm warmers could it be any worse?  Only if I was wearing compression socks.  It's a 9.

Finished the bike in 5:59:09, 10th AG.  Not what I was hoping for; my normalized wattage ended up 15 watts lower than what I'd trained for.  Still not positive what the reason was, my suspicions are around energy drain from the swim and calorie intake.  I ended up with 180 cal/hr vs 240 cal/hr as planned.  Coach's first comment on my power file was that my cadence was low so I might have been mashing for whatever reason.  That might also explain why my heart rate hardly ever came up out of zone 1.  hmm.  We shall figure it out.

IMCDA Race Report, part 2

Back to the beach in Coeur d'Alene, ready to jump in for the longest 1.5 hour of the day- the swim.  Ran into the pdx boys and we lined up near the buoy line, figuring why swim any farther than necessary?  I understand the water will be clearer further away from the buoys but I'm not afraid of some full body contact.  a) back of the pack swimmers usually don't hit that hard and b) the more draft the better.  I positioned myself about 3/4 of the way back so as not to get swum over by too many people. 

Go!

Sarah's video of the swim start, pretty cool.  No cannon firing like at Canada though, kind of disappointing. 

The water was comparable to Friday's conditions, a decent amount of chop but no whitecaps.  Still a lot of motion.  Just tried to relax and avoid getting seasick.  The swim is 2 loops.  First trip out was not horrible, the trip back was even borderline fun as you can kind of ride the waves in due to wind direction.  On the second trip out I was definitely feeling tired.  The turnaround buoy was nuts with everyone cramming into that apex.  I went to sight and all I could see was the sun and spray.  All of a sudden I felt like a real bad ass.  That never happens in the water.  After that turnaround it became clear that I was going to make it without incident, so regardless of time I was relieved.  Came out in 1:35, 91/126 AG.  The time was not a surprise and in talking to others, most came in 5-10 minutes slower than planned due to conditions. 

Obviously the swim is the least important event time-wise, and that is lucky for me.  Still, if I'm looking to take 10 minutes off here and there for my next IM, the swim provides plenty of opportunity.  Plus, I need to get to a point where swimming doesn't tap me out for the bike/run.  The rough water definitely took more out of me than desired.  So now I have 14 months to get my swim up to par for the next IM.  I have already been in the pool this week AND even went back to masters this morning.  I'm on a mission!

Food groups update: currently blogging from Krispy Kreme.

 
Getting the hell out of the water and down
to business!

IMCDA Race Report, part 1

Finally getting around to my race report, after having to work for two whole days when I got back.  But they were long 12 hour days.  And of course, I've been busy covering the food groups that have been missing over the past few months.  Beer and pizza were covered within hours of finishing the race.  The next day, cookies.  To be honest, a cookie was consumed during the race too.  Yesterday I bought a bag of chips for the first time in as long as I can remember.  Ok, two bags.

Ashley and I hit the road for CDA on Wednesday with two bikes on top of my car/bike launcher: my Fuji and her brand new P2C.  Not gonna lie, I was feeling a bit of deja vu here (for those who know the story).  We arrived in CDA seven hours later without incident and checked into the Budget Saver Motel.  Not to be confused with the Coeur d'Alene Resort down the street.  Actually our room was huge- plenty of room for bikes, groceries, wetsuits, shoes, wheels, bags, blah blah blah.  After a couple days of getting acquainted with our fellow racers, Ashley noted that our motel was an Ironman dorm.  On our first day of school, we walked around and asked where people were from, is this their first Ironman, who are they training with, etc.  The motel is shaped like a U so looking out our window we could see the frat boys sitting on the balcony across the way, ordering pizza the night before the race.  Not sure if there was beer.  Most of the people staying there were from Portland, including Coach Mark and Jerry.

On Thursday we hit the lake for a swim.  Whitecaps at 8 am- not a good sign.  Although we kept the swim really short, it still felt like a struggle to me.  I knew this was a possibility, but was hoping that race-day conditions would turn out like last year and we'd have calm waters.  Needless to say this was quite a confidence-buster, but what can you do.  Hit the expo and shop.

I picked up a mean new swim accessory.  Can't wait to wear it to the pool.

 
Modeling the pink camo shark swim cap.  You can't see here but it has a fin.  It's a jr
size- hope it doesn't limit circulation to my head.

Ashley and I with my shark cap and her "I Don't Horse Around" night shirt- ha!  That's
right- there's no horsing around at Ironman!

Remainder of the day on Thursday was filled with packet pick-up, an easy bike ride and team dinner.  Friday my parents showed up from Montana.  My dad's Father's Day would be spent waiting around for his daughter to swim, bike and run 140.6 miles- yipee!

On Friday afternoon we did a 4-mile easy run when the rain let up.  Oh yeah, it rained.  After obsessing over the forecast for days, we decided to ignore it until Saturday night.

Sporting white hot compression socks for a sushi dinner with Tom, Ashley and Sarah.  We saw Michael Lovato there, so figured it was good enough for us.

Race Day!

Crammed in breakfast and headed downtown with a quick stop for coffee, toting 3 separate bags.  This becomes important later.  We dropped off our bike special needs bags, I didn't have any run special needs (or so I thought at the time).  Back over to the bike to drop off my water bottles etc.

The Fuji, raring to go in T1.  I swear that's not my coffee cup.

On to T1/T2 with backpack and dry clothes bag, that also contained my wetsuit.  Met Ashley by our bags to don wetsuits.  Then I realize I don't have my dry clothes bag- you know, the one that has my wetsuit.  WTH happened to my dry clothes bag?  Panic ensues.  I tell Ashley I'm headed back to my bike, since I must have left it over there.  It's not there.  Panic becomes shock.  Ummm, I'm not doing this race.  My bag, with wetsuit, has disappeared.  So I'm standing there like a deer in headlights, kind of unsure what to do at this point.  My phone rings.  Ashley found my bag where I set it down among the thousands of other white plastic bags in T2.  It became the Where's Waldo of transition bags, since the dry clothes bag has a different color front panel and Ashley found it.  Damn, I'm going to have to get in the water after all.

Original plan was to meet our supporters by this moose pre-race, but that didn't happen after my race day blonde moment. 

Happy camper

Happy to be alive, but tired and sore.  Slept 11 hours last night and started the coffee IV this morning.  I survived 4 days of triathlon base camp in Bend, 4 weeks out from race day at Ironman Coeur d'Alene.  This year Ashley and I were the only campers racing Coeur d'Alene so we were lucky enough to get extended distance or extra repeats with each workout.  Yes!!  Sue and Bob joined in some of that fun too.  Unfortunately Ashley is still healing a sprained ankle and can't run yet so I got the extra running miles, and she substituted with bike miles.

In short, every minute of the weekend was spent:

Working out
Getting ready to work out
Eating
Recovering in the ice bath or on the roller
Sleeping

Day 1 started with an "endurance swim" (two words I do not like together) at Juniper pool in Bend.  My only consolation was that Juniper is a sweet 50-meter outdoor pool.  And we didn't turn to popsicles walking out on the deck like last year.  The sun was out and lucky for me, the cover above the pool was still set up.  Besides just making it through the workouts, my second goal for the weekend was not to get sunburned.  The first 50m across the pool seemed very, very long- where is the wall, hello!?  The swim got better and then it got worse as my arms felt ready to fall off.  Ugh.  An hour and 45 minutes later, I didn't even have anyone to complain to on the way home because I was in a car full of swimmers!  They added up the yards as I'm thinking yeah I did about 1/2-3/4 of that, and talked about next weekend's 4k open water swim with the word "fun" thrown in.  *Sigh*.  Well, surely the day would get better as we had a bike ride coming up in the afternoon.  Made a supposedly quick stop for groceries that is always dangerous after a long workout.  Ashley encouraged me to pick up some Kona blend coffee for the weekend. 

Our afternoon ride featured "mountain repeats" from Sun River toward Mt Bachelor.  When you can ride uphill for more than 30 minutes, it should no longer be called a hill.  It is a damn mountain.  We did 3 of those, for me about 35 minutes each, with the last one extended another 5 minutes up to Mt Bachelor.  Gorgeous views up there.  When all was said and done, our 3-hr ride turned into 4 hours and 68 miles.  Luckily Don had an extra bottle of calories that saved me.  To continue the punishment, Bob and I had a 5-mile run after the ride.  That sucked.  Literally sucked wind.  After a ice bath, dinner and one glass of wine I was done for.  That was the only drink I had all weekend- yay.

Saturday started at the pool again, can you sense my excitement?  Unfortunately they had swim team practice going on and all lap swimmers were forced into sharing one lane.  Really too bad for the non-camp swimmers, and those of us who are slow or faster than most.  That lasted about an hour, and didn't go quite as badly as I expected after yesterday's flogging in the pool. 

Then it was time for the looong ride.  Sue, Ashley, Coach and I got in a quick hour on the flats before picking up the rest of the group for a ride up toward Mt Bachelor (as for mountain repeats), down into Bend and then back up and over.  Just a little out-and-back for a total of 80 miles.  The ride went pretty well, I hung out behind Bob for the ride back up the mountain as thunder started to roll in the distance.  Uh-oh.  We were looking at a repeat of last year when we got soaked rolling back into town.  At the top of the hill, we paused for gummy bears and twizzlers at the sag wagon.  Don once again gave me a bottle of calories as I had already burned through 6 hours worth in 5 hours, probably due to the deficit from yesterday's workouts.  Sue and Ashley arrived shortly after and we were off down the hill for the final 15-20 miles.  Then the rain started.  Then the hail.  Then harder rain and bigger hail.  Ashley's yelling "everyone all right?" as we kept rolling and I'm yelling "ow ow ow" getting pummeled with hail.  It was pretty scary, especially when my glasses started to fog up and I couldn't see a thing.  Pulling them down did no good as the rain was flying directly into my eyes.  We rolled by Bob who said he was fine and when the rain let up a bit, decided to hammer the rest of the way into town to warm up.  That was a good call but we were still pretty cold by the time we got home.  Couldn't feel my legs below the knees so Sue and I agreed that bagging our 2-mile transition run was acceptable in exchange for a hot shower!  And we skipped the ice baths too; getting hit with ice for 10 minutes was about as much ice as we could handle in one day.  Except for the ice CREAM later in the evening of course.

Next blog:

Bricking for 5 hours

Getting Lost on the Deschutes River Trail (2nd annual) 

 

BT day 3. Rocked it like a Hurricane

Or, BT day 3.  Why are we doing this again?  No really, why?  The forces of nature were against us last Saturday on Big Training day.  We rode 100 miles through showers, sun, clouds, and torrential downpour.  And some of us (one to be exact) got caught in a freak hurricane halfway through the 6-mile transition run.  Awesome.

Since we were going to get wet anyway, kicked off the day with a swim at Marshall center across the street from Clark College.  We totally dominated one end of the pool.  If you can use the word "dominate" in reference to me and a swim workout.  I heard the water aerobics ladies on the other end of the pool murmuring that we must be athletes, because we all looked very fit.  Yeah that's right!  The workout was something like 200 with 150 aerobic and 50 tempo and various combinations there of.  I really just have one pace for swimming so that keeps things simple (KISS).  I really felt pretty good on the swim, even managed to stay on people's feet for 25y at a time.  Only issue was that I got pretty warm, and I'm never too warm when swimming so that confirms it was more like bathtub-temperature water.  All the better to build up heat for the next few hours.

After about 45 minutes of transition we were rolling out on the RACC (Ride around Clark County).  The more intelligent of our group, or those training for a spring half ironman, took the 65-mile option.  The others, who think 4-hour trainer rides and riding in the rain are not so bad, tackled the full 100 in preparation for IM Coeur d'Alene.  Sarah also rode the 100 since she is training for her sabbatical, which involves riding many miles across the country.  That and she's never one to turn down a challenge :)  We did the best we could hanging on to Jerry (my bike twin) and John over hill and dale.  Took off from the first aid station at a barely manageable pace, but thankfully that settled down after regrouping at the 65-mile turnoff.  Bid the smarter people farewell and we were on our way again.  We saw some Sorella sisters *you go girls* and met a somewhat odd roadie who played cat and mouse with us up and down the hills, while throwing out attempts at conversation.  Doesn't he know that triathletes are anti-social by nature?  This is all business!

The cataclysmic weather event held off until about mile 80, when the sky opened up and dumped buckets of rain.  At least it was warm- keeping the right temperature was a challenge all day because it was reasonably warm, 60's I think.  Booties, arm warmers on.  Raincoat on.  Raincoat off and vest on.  Gloves off.  Vest off.  Repeat for 5 hours. 

There are a few parts of the RACC that I remember from riding it years prior, one of those being the nasty hills thrown in at the end.  I was feeling reasonably good about my fitness until that point- ugh.  Legs thoroughly toasted.  But wait, there's more.  When I got back to the car, the weather had turned back to showers.  All right, here I go, out for a 6 mile out-and-back transition run.  Found my way down to the waterfront, and with 2.5 miles on the Garmin the hurricane hit.  It was raining sideways, branches coming off the trees, 6-ft swells crashing into shore on the Columbia.  OK maybe not the last part, but the water did look kind of crazy.  Ran by Who Song and Larry's and considered ducking in for a margarita and calling it a day, except that I looked like a drowned rat and would probably be turned away at the door.  Incredibly I saw a couple of other runners out there, although they were probably not as hard-core (dumb) to ride 100 miles before their run.  On the way back I got a little turned around and ended up among the army barracks at Ft Vancouver.  Here we have some army guys in formation doing a drill of some sort.  Oops, wrong turn!  All I wanted was the shortest way back, so I high-tailed it cross-country across a field to get the heck out of there.  The shoes and socks were hopelessly soaked by that point anyhow.

Ashley and Sarah were patiently waiting back at the cars and ready for food.  Since everyone else had skipped the run and headed home, I was actually pretty relieved to see them.  Thank you!  Hope it was worth the wait for enormous burritos at Laughing Planet...mmm....can't believe I ate the whole thing.

In summary

Approx 1 hr swim, 2k.  Wasn't counting laps.
99.28 mile bike(dammit!),  5hrs 46min.
6.36 mile run, 47min
1000+ calorie burrito

Back to Cali

Still dumping sand from my shoes and suitcase.  I toted 100lbs of luggage on a 3-day trip to Oceanside for Ironman California 70.3 last weekend.  This was a "training race" and fitness check for IMCDA that is coming up in June, way too fast.  I flew into San Diego and did my shakedown run/ride there on Friday morning.  Thought I would get the initial cold water/wetsuit/open water swim shock out of the way too before the race, so I asked teammates Karon and Bob about places to swim.  Karon recommended La Jolla cove where they went out the day prior.  I asked if there were a lot of people out swimming.  "Oh yeah, it's famous.  That's where the guy got attacked by a shark.  There's a lifeguard there too".  Not sure if I feel better or worse about this now.  Approached near-panic mode upon arrival at La Jolla.

  Waves crashing into large rocks

Worst possible scenarios abound.  I will get tired and swept out to sea.  I will get cold and my arms will become paralyzed, forcing me to float on my back until waves beat me into the giant rocks.  What was I thinking signing up for an early season race, in the ocean, when I can't really swim yet?  Thursday afternoon I'm on the phone with Coach who was explaining how to swim/breathe in ocean swells, while I instead listened to the voice in my head repeating "what were you thinking" over and over.  I thought this swim was in a harbor?!

This is where I actually did my practice swim, from the beach in the middle. 

There were other lunatics out swimming, so I wasn't alone.  And there was the lifeguard of course.  Wasn't bad at all when I actually got in, but still I didn't go far.  Wasn't freezing, but I wore the hood just in case.  I will survive!

On to RACE DAY!  Goals for this race:

1.  Finish the swim, my first open water swim of the year and first time swimming in the ocean, ever.  Walking on the beach and running screaming from the waves when I was 4 doesn't count.  Live to see the bike and run. 

2. Get a feel for the new Powertap and keep wattage in check.  Hopefully this will lead to...

3.  Nutrition success!  In both of my previous half IMs and also IMC, I ended up having stomach issues on the run that slowed me down.  Both?  I've really only done two, seems like more.  Grand Columbian, which I'll do again this year, and Lake Stevens.

4. Target my PR marathon pace on the run. 

5. Have fun!

4.6667 goals were achieved.   The swim was not fun. 

Since I went into the swim without any expectations, I should have been OK with the result.  My muscles just totally fatigued about 10 minutes in, and the rest of the swim was just a mental battle to finish and stay calm.  Fling arms forward, keep moving.  I was actually suprised my time wasn't closer to an hour, that's how hard it was.  47:27, 72/95 in my AG.  Ouch.  So I've got a lot of work to do in the pool over the next couple of months.  The goal I had in mind for IMCDA seems unrealistic at this point, but I do know I felt a heck of a lot better, swimming faster, for 2.4 miles in Canada last year.  There is an open water swim out at Hagg Lake in May and I hope to be ready for it.

Oh, my transitions were slow but that was intentional.  I figured since this was a training race I was going to relax and enjoy.  Take a breath, have a drink, chase that salt water down.  I do feel like a dumb-ass for having sunburned shoulders after this race, because obviously I had more than enough time in transition to re-apply sunscreen!  Usually sunscreen applied pre-swim is enough for me, but the California sun is unforgiving to the Oregon girl who has not seen sun in months.

The bike went fairly well.  Starting out my legs were pretty dead and that had my worried.  Could have been lingering fatugue from the previous week of training or maybe just being cold from the swim.  Luckily they felt better as the ride progressed and I was able to keep a pretty constant effort, although average wattage ended up ~20W shy of goal.  Coach says I need to start expending effort on the downhills- rats!  The powertap revealed my laziness :)  Yeah, I like to coast after working my butt off getting to the the top.  The course was hilly in the back stretch and scenic.  Some of the marines from Camp Pendleton were out monitoring the course, which did not hurt the scenery either.  A few sections were kind of annoying: veering on and off a bike trail and a "no passing zone" uphill that really sucks for the slow swimmer who is constantly trying to pass people.  There was also a "no passing zone" going downhill where I ended up behind a girl braking like mad, and that also sucked even though I was just coasting of course.  2:54:31, 11th AG.  Ended up being closer to my IM pace rather than 1/2 IM, but since this was my first race on the powertap it was a learning experience more than anything.   

After nearly 7 minutes in T2, it was time to rock out on the run!  Goals 3 and 4 were achieved, and it really felt good.  The course takes you out on the beach for a short stretch which was fun, except for the running up and down hill through the sand part.  Two loops out-and-back with long, very gradual hills.  It was a little on the warm side but the ocean breeze made it tolerable.  1:33:28, 1st AG. 

Ended up 5:27:59, 9th AG.  Satisfied with this as a good training race, though can I just say "damn the swim" once again.  What have I been doing in the pool all winter?  Drills.  I'm like Tiger Woods, rebuilding my stroke...ahahaha.   

Almost forgot, I went grocery shopping Thursday night at where else but Ralph's: The Official Grocery Store of Ironman California 70.3.

Where you been?

I miss blogging!  Almost daily I am spinning up some very interesting (?) blogs in my head, since working out 15 hours per week gives you some time to do that.  It's just that my computer time is actually spent working, for the most part.  Hate it when that happens.

So where have I been besides work?

MOAB!  Ashley, Karly, Sarah and I flew south for the Canyonlands Half Marathon.  And some sun and margaritas.

   
Arches national park.  I'm sure the white legs identified us as Oregonians from miles away. 

We did a little hiking the day before the race, some of us more than others.  Ashley and I have been getting our butts kicked with IMCDA workouts so legs were a bit tired.  We sent Karly and Sarah off ahead and asked them to take pictures :)

 
Wandering aimlessly in the sandbox

Moab is a very cool place.  But our hotel had the worst coffee EVER (seriously, could not handle it) so first order of business was scoping out a coffee shop.  We found a bookstore/coffee shop that we returned to each of the 3 days we were in town.  The race itself was awesome, beautiful course through a canyon along the Colorado river.  And a PR for me, on a training day- yipee!  Also good for 2nd in my age group.  I was walking around stuffing my face after the race when I remembered I was supposed to run 3 more miles for IMCDA training- oops.  So I did that, slowly.  Joined Ashley for a mile of her extra distance.  Karly and Sarah had good runs too, and we all met up after to refuel.  Where else but the coffee shop.

Runners assemble before the start

I spent my April drinking pass on maragaritas that evening.  Yeah!!  Although maybe if you race and meet your goals, you should get a free drink.  We'll go with that, since I'm racing this weekend too!  Heading to SoCal for the Half Ironman in Oceanside, or "Ralph's" if you are in the know.  Although I don't know Ralph or his connection to this race.  All I know is that there is more sun in my future!

   

Building...

building, building up to "unload" next week.  IMCDA training officially kicked off in January and so far it's going quite well.  Ramping up the bike intensity/volume and I am not hating the trainer (yet).  It's just so darn convenient and warm.  No need to bundle up in 3 layers, drive to the ride start, freeze on the ride, drive home, and clean the bike afterward.  And since I got the Computrainer and my power zones, I'm kind of digging just the iPod and my intervals.  Stepped back on running after the marathon in December, but now I'm back into it and able to do my aerobic runs at CIM marathon pace fairly comfortably ("cruise" effort) so that's nice.  Swimming?  Well, yes.  It's there.  Still doing only technique-focused workouts at this point.  I had a swim lesson last weekend and found out why I was fishtailing across the pool - that was driving me crazy!  So that's the current task at hand: stop doing that.  I think I'm doing better at engaging the lats.  Tomorrow I have another vasa trainer session so that should help.  Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be ready to go back to masters swim.

I have mostly gave up alcohol for my IM training.  I know.  But it's only 6 months and seems a small sacrifice to make, just to take that variable out of the equation.  It's not like I'm giving up coffee!  Or ice cream!  Honestly I don't think a single glass of wine or beer affects me too much but who knows.  Sometimes it's hard to stop at one.  I am allowing one drinking occasion per month.  January's event was, ironically, IM training kick-off at the Lucky Lab.  February will be my trip to MT, as my mom and I must have a few glasses of wine.  That's just something we do.  March, maybe a drink after the Moab half-marathon.  There's the Shamrock run too but in my opinion, it's usually too friggin' cold to drink a beer outside in March, in Portland.  Even festive green beer.  April I will celebrate moving into a new age group.  May, I'm not sure.

Tomorrow I have a resting metabolic test which might be blog-worthy.  This will tell me how many calories I burn just lying on the couch all day long.  If only I could.  Actually the goal is to determine how many calories I need to be taking in during IM training.  And how much I need to add some *mass* so I have reserves for the big days.  I really think that adding cheeseburgers to my nutrition plan is the best approach, because as it turns out my ferritin level is barely normal.  I've started taking iron supplements but diet-wise, heme iron is the way to go (cheeseburgers).  I already eat spinach pretty much every day.  I'm telling you- cheeseburgers.

Ergo, you are slow

Imagine...motion without momentum.

    
An eggbeater.  Good. 

By the way, pictured above is a "Progressive International Egg Beater".  wtf?  Order yours at amazon.com.

 
A windmill.  Excellent.  This one pumps water- interesting.

So today I had my first experience on a Vasa Ergometer, the "swimming treadmill".  Not an Endless Pool mind you, because THAT would be silly.  For this one you lie down on your stomach and move your arms in a swim-like fashion.  Ideally, the flywheel spins up and you move forward.  Some people move backward.  Some people don't move at all. 

 
Why am I not going anywhere coach?

After a lesson and some more practice engaging the right muscles I started to do a little bit better.  There was some whirring and "bursts" forward, using the term "bursts" very loosely.  I started to feel the right hurt in the lats.  It's a good thing those muscles are not used for anything else because I'm telling you, they are going to be totally worthless tomorrow.  Nope, I'm not shoveling snow tomorrow.  Oh that's right, I don't do that.  Ever.

 
Here we have the Vasa Ergometer.  This is the best picture I could find on the web.  Of the Vasa Ergometer.  Why are you laughing?  :)

Thank God this is not like a running treadmill that will launch you off the back if you don't keep up.  Although that would entertain my coach for a while, it would eventually become tiresome.  And I found it plenty tiresome anyhow.  At least tomorrow at the pool I will know once again if I'm using the right muscles because those would be the ones that are ON FIRE.

Interesting note: the Vasa is also a Swedish warship that, and I quote Wikipedia, "floundered and sank" after sailing less than one nautical mile into her maiden voyage on Aug 10th, 1628.  But we'll try not to focus on that.  The only reason I know this fascinating fact is that I visited the Vasa museum in Stockholm about a year ago.  It was truly amazing, no kidding, and I'm really not into old stuff.

2009 race schedule

Now that CIM is over, I'm pretty excited to get in gear for IMCDA trainng.  Starting with a LOT of work in the pool until Jan 1st, so yes here comes the complaining about swimming.  But in this post, my race schedule. 

Feb
Jack Frost TT

Mar
Banana Belt #2
Shamrock run
Moab 1/2 marathon (if picked by lottery)

Apr
Ironman CA 70.3
Deschutes TT

May
Napa Half Iron, maybe

Jun
Hagg Lake open water swim
IM Coeur d'Alene

July- whatever the hell I want.  No Lake Stevens or Hulaman as I have a big wedding that weekend- woohoo! 

Aug- travel to IMC, perhaps

Sep
Grand Columbian 1/2 Iron

Oct
Kona if IMCDA goes well.  If not...

Nov
Silverman 1/2 or Halfmax 1/2

Kind of a long but with a break in the middle, should be good.

Swimming with Barracudas

Right here in Portland at the Tualatin Hills Park and Rec center.  The Barracudas masters swim team, that is.  I figure it will help get my ass to the pool when I really don't feel like going.  Like tonight for example.  And yesterday.  And last Thursday.  When do I ever feel like swimming, really?  Just kidding of course.  They have 4 workouts every day Mon-Thurs, 2 on Fri and 1 on Sat so lots of options and no (well maybe a few) excuses.

Like this week will be especially tough since I'm working 5 DAYS in a row 7-5.  The horror!  When can I go back to the Ocho?  Tonight will be my third practice, although I haven't really done any of the planned group workouts yet because a. my first day happened to be time trial day, and the coach said I didn't have to do time trials on my first day :)  b. I just happened to show up on Thursday which is an IM day, but of course I have zero interest in learning strokes other than freestyle.  One stroke is difficult enough, thank you.  No need to confuse myself (further).  and c. I think I'm in the "special" lane.  That is, the lane reserved for triathletes and others with issues.  haha.  Of course I do wear my LAKE STEVENS IRONMAN 70.3 swim cap just to intimidate the others.  Hey now, I may not be fast but I can swim really far!  Might have to break out the full IRONMAN cap here shortly, but didn't want to scare everyone off right away.

This week I am preparing to get LEAN at work.  Not through viruses in the cafeteria food either.  The goal is to optimize PMA and PME through the application of HPM methodology using RTPM.  Maybe throw in a SCANDO here and there.  But perhaps I've said too much. 

IMC photos

Click here for the photoset on Flickr, then click "slideshow" and "info on" to enrich your viewing experience through captions.  Photo credits go to Joe and Sarah!

Back in the saddle again

Beautiful day yesterday for another 20-mile ride, my second since IMC.  Have to say I'm enjoying the lack of stucture. Like maybe I'll ride today, or maybe not.  Maybe I'll run.  Swim?  Nah don't think so.  Not yet.   I think this is as much a mental break as it is physical.  If you check my Motionbased you will see that I smoked my first post-IM ride at 14.9 mph :)  Awesome!  It was on a pedestrian/bike trail, and there was a strong wind.  But I was also dog-slow.  Speaking of, this Sunday is the Tour de Lab which should be a great recovery ride.  I'll be doing the "Big Dog" 30-mile route- at each aid station you get "dogged up" with tail, ears, nose and then there is beer at the finish :)   

I'm working on stealing all my favorite IMC pics from other people and will post a link when done.  My official race photos suck, but thankfully Joe got a few that are better.

Nice bike eh?

        
Note color coordination of tri suit and bike

This is on the way out, obviously!

And the finish. Yikes.  Let me tell you, I feel even worse than I look!

Anyone want to do the Sacramento marathon on Dec 7th?  I think that's next for me.

Ironman Canada race report

It's been tough not to make this an Ironman-length report, proportional to the length of the race itself.  It's also tough to follow the excellent reports of my fellow Ironmen Charlie and Bert.

I'll start with the facts and move on to the fiction...

Total time 11:16:28, 13/115 finishers in W30-34 age group

Swim, 2.4 miles
1:26
88/115

Bike, 112 miles
5:41:31
8/115

Run, 26.2 miles
3:59:13
8/115

8 was apparently my number of the day, a lucky number in Chinese (sounds like "prosperity").  I do feel pretty prosperous!  But also very tired.  Bored yet?  Grab a drink and it may get better.

Swim
I started about 3/4 of the way back from the front, whch I felt was appropriate for my "speed".  I was hoping not to to get swum over though I should have been more concerned about getting kicked, grabbed, elbowed, and swallowing half the lake.  IM swimming is a contact sport for sure- I've never experienced anything like that before in triathlon.  This advice may sound obvious but one would be wise to steer clear of "breaststrokers" during the swim, or in any situation for that matter. They kick out to the side, which can be a tad annoying!  About 5 minutes after the cannon start, I rolled onto my back for about 15 sec to calm down and catch my breath before jumping back into the fray.  After reaching the first buoy I felt like I was getting into a rhythm and cozy with my fellow athletes, shamelessly drafting one person after another.  Thanks Tim for showing me the wonders of drafting out at Hagg lake.  It must've worked because I honestly felt no fatigue coming into the home stretch.  I gave a victory shout-out in my head when I saw the peach :)  Gittin' er done!

In late spring we started to lengthen our swims out at Hagg and I still came out of the water totally exhausted at Lake Stevens in July (half the distance).  At that time my goals for the swim changed from anything time-related to just getting through with energy to spare for the bike and run.   After some ass-kicking pool workouts in July and August courtesy of Coach, Thursday night swims at Hagg with Chris, Tim, Bert, Sarah, Charlie, Anne and Christy, plus weekend swims with Lindsay, Mike, Jay and Fritz- I estimated 1:30 and beat that by a few minutes.  I owe you all for that!  But something tells me I'm in for more ass-kicking at the pool this winter.

T1, my specialty- 4:41.  Reasonably close to my estimate of 4:00.  I should have visited Tim's sunscreen woman here.  Were there sunscreen men too?  That might have been worth it.  Instead I ended up with a lower back tatoo of red racing stripes.  Nice!  Time to grab another drink (you, not me).

Bike
This ride was a dream!  Didn't look at my speed- well, I did check at the halfway point to see how things were looking for finish time.  Multiplying by 2 gives me...under 6.  So I'm on track for the "secret goal" of 6 but depends on how much I slow down later.  Only paying attention to heart rate and was very strict about staying in the zone.  I've found that being a slow swimmer turns you into a rock star on the bike since you end up passing people all day long and Ironman was no exception.  Couldn't believe how good I felt, no fatigue even on the last climb to Yellow Lake.  My left glute got a little sore but that's between me and my chiro, a "normal" discomfort that didn't bother me on the run.  That was the least of my worries on the run!  Climbing Richter and Yellow Lake was awesome, just kept on spinning all the way up between spectators on both sides TDF-style.  I saw Bert who was keeping it in check according to plan, Sarah, and Speedshot teammates Don, Jeff and Ted.  I also saw some dude on a mountain bike.  He pulled up next to me on a couple separate occasions and said "good job" or something to that effect.  He didn't appear to be a race official or offically associated with the race in any way, so was kind of odd but more to come on that.  And then I saw Don Moote, fellow Speedshot teammate and Linnea, triathlete extraordinaire out at Osoyoos which was a nice boost.  I had been dreading the final descent into town after being whipped around on Friday's shakedown ride (literally a shakedown), but the winds were not quite as strong and I ended up with a max of 42 mph which is dang high for this chicken!  Loved the ride.  LOVED it.  Came in ~30 min earlier than I expected.

T2- 4:22.  Turned the wrong way after the catchers took my bike but the volunteers quickly steered me back on track! 

Run
I remember talking with an Ironman during a training ride and telling him that the swim was my biggest concern.  He told me I shouldn't worry about the swim- worry about the run.  Fear the run.  He was right.  No you don't understand, I'm a runner!!  Key learning is that an IM marathon is not comparable to a regular marathon because you've already been moving for 7+ HOURS.  I expected as much but still estimated 3:50 thinking I could beat that time fairly easily.  Uh-huh. 

Mile 0- I started at a slightly faster pace than planned but felt totally easy and relaxed.   Saw coach and lots of PDX Ironfans on the way up Main street.

Mile 4- Made a bathroom stop and lost about 3 pounds of water weight :) well worth 2 minutes.  To answer your question, I couldn't go on the bike.  I tried, but it didn't happen!  Maybe I should practice in training next time!  Still cruising along easily, feeling a lot lighter.

Mile 5- I believe this is about where we hit the headwind off the lake.  Wow- talk about an energy drain.  I didn't fight it and let my pace slow down, but still felt I was "burning some matches". 

Mile 7- Here come the hills.   Mile 13.1-  still keeping a pretty decent pace, 1:51 at the half.  

Mile 16- Someone heard my watch beep and asked how we were doing pace-wise.  "9:23" I told him.  "Oh no, we need to run sub-9 to make it in under 11 hours".  Next mile was 8:23 with the downhill, so I told him we were still doing OK.  Chatted and ran together for a couple miles, good to keep the mind off the fatigue, but then he dropped off telling me to "go for sub-11 at all costs!"  OOO-K.  This is my first Ironman, no need to set the bar too high. 

Mile 18- Saw Charlie on his way out and exchanged high-fives.  The gel I took at mile 6 is not sitting well with the Gatorade I'm taking now.  Legs feel like...Iron.  IRON I tell you.

Mile 20- Started to feel a little lightheaded and legs wobbly...dehydrated, over-hydrated, or bonking?  I chose door #3 and crammed down a gel apparently on top of the first one.  Not sure what I was thinking- a mile later I was doubled over trying to cough it back up, unsuccessfully. 

Mile 21-24- Rough going here, alternating walk/run.  Robert cruised by looking good and said "come on Alanna".  That was a nice boost that prompted me to run a stretch.  And...I'm walking again.  Lo and behold here comes that guy on the mountain bike.  "Come on 1941.  I've been watching you in this race and you're stronger than that!".  Do I know you?  "Take some Pepsi at the next aid station" he told me.  Well, I took some at the next two stations and then I was running again.  He came by again around mile 24 and said "there you go!".  The stalker was a lifesaver!  Maybe a hallucination?! 

Mile 24-26.2- Would guess I was running sub 8's for the last two miles.  My Garmin battery died about the same time I did, mile 21, so I'm not sure exactly.  Came in barely under 4 hours which was a small victory, especially since I had no idea it was that close during the race.  Missed my 3:50 goal (coming to a dead stop on the side of the road does not help your time as it turns out) and also the goal of not walking, but that's Ironman.  If everything went perfectly there would be nothing to analyze! 

I was lucky enough to have Chris as one of my catchers at the finish line.  Nauseous, dazed and confused (me not Chris, although several hours of catching could have that effect).  I was escorted through the finish chute to the med tent where I got water, chicken broth, a heating pad, a makeshift tent of mylar race blankets to change clothes in, and got to visit with Mike a few seats away.  He tossed his cookies, or gel or whatever, after coming across the line for the privilege of coming to the med tent.  It was like a post-race bar scene.  People on the floor, throwing up, slurring words- after about a half hour looking around there I felt like I was in pretty good shape.

First of all I'd like to thank the Academy...oops I mean our Ironfans Joe, Sandra, Chris, Eileen, Bonnie, Pam, Barb, Lori, Mark B, Lisa, Jerry, Tom, Francisco, Mom and Dad.   I can't express how much it meant to have you all up there.  Hope I can help out in your moment of temporary insanity, if you should decide to embark on your own quest for Iron-hood.  Or something like back-to-back half and full marathons, or an ultramarathon, or a 200-mile-in-one-day bike ride, or De Ronde Van Oeste Portlandia or running from Hood to Coast.  But I don't know anyone who would do such things.  Speaking of insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, I will be renewing my Ironman status in Coeur d'Alene next June.  Yes, I believe having a life is overrated!  So thanks to my awesome friends in Portland who tolerated my "no-life-having" for months on end: Beth, Bobbi Jo and Gary in particular.  Now is the time to party!  My fellow Ironmen and training partners Charlie, Tim, Sarah, Bert, Robert, Jay and Mike (the 11k climbing ride paid off) and Ashley for getting me pumped up after CDA!  Ironpeople-to-be Chris (IMC 2009), Fritz (IMF 2008), and Lindsay (IM-Moo!  2010?).  Superb athletes and training partners with too much sense to sign up for an Ironman (yet): Jerry and Tom.  And finally, mad props and thanks to my coach Mark Kendall, aka Magic Mark.  I'm jumping on Bert's kickback wagon here.  The last 9 months of training have been "fun" (that's not the f-word I use during actual training but this blog is clean) and now I get to start it all over again ;)

Basking

in Ironman glory.  I might also be seen eating, drinking, sleeping and doing next to nothing here in Montana.  Haven't had the time or energy to put together my full race report but probably by tomorrow.  The short story is that I finished and it was AWESOME!!  Thanks so much for all the well wishes and congratualations, can't wait to tell you all about it.

Just for fun, I'll throw this out there now.  My official finisher photo.  Check out my leg :P   I was a little anxious to cross the line and be DONE, not stand there waiting for the tape again.  Easy to wonder "why didn't she wait?" but after 140.6 miles, you would understand!

Can you stand it / me?

Update on key decisions for IMC

Ironman toenail color- Hot pink
Liquid nutrition
- Flavor- Strawberry banana
- Color- pink
Hat or Visor?  Hat if it's hot because it will hold ice, visor if it's not so hot.  Not pink. Both are white (but visor does have pink lettering).
Two or One piece tri suit?  Two.  Not pink though, black.
How to carry electrolytes  
- Bike, electrical tape on the top tube
- Run- pink canister
Special needs bag- see previous post.  SPK is the only thing going in there right now.
POST-RACE FOOD/DRINK
- Beer? Probably not a good idea right away.
- Recoverite? What do I need to recover for? Would be pink though, new Strawberry flavour (note European spelling).
- Ice cream, perhaps. Not pink, chocolate.

Sorry people- the posts are really going to go downhill from here until Sunday.