Get’n right down to it
Here we are, the LAST hard week of training before taper starts. Honestly, I can’t believe it. I feel like I am on the highest point of the roller coaster ride, right before the cart engages and you hear and feel the jarring of that last loud CLICK, right before free fall.
Last weekend was spent in Madison at Ironman Camp. It was a great learning experience and I walked away feeling confident that I will cross the finish line (yes, that is my goal for this race anything above that is just frosting on the cake). Here are the photos from the weekend. You will notice that there is a lot of Surly beer hanging around, thanks Omar!
It became our mascot and training aid, I mean really don’t you think Surly and ironman races go together?
Anyway, here is what this last week looks like:
Mon – Do something. Easy.
Tues – 1) 4-6 mile Clearance Run. 2) Pool interval swim (50s, 100s) and plenty of technique work.
Weds – 1) Track Workout 20 400’s at 1:36 with 1 minute rest in-between. 2) 50-60 Foundation Ride.
Thurs – Open water swim @ 5:45am. 10 beach repeats (1/2 mile swim to the beach, beach repeats are .2 miles each and back to the beach we started from).
Fri – 1) 20 mile Foundation Run at 3pm (which is the time we will be starting our run in the race) 2) Optional easy pool swim to shake the legs out.
Sat – Clover Leaf of Death bike ride, plan on 70-80 miles of hell!
Sun – OFF
Almost there. I’m going to say it again, I can’t believe it.
Filed under Ironman, the body, training | Comment (0)And on to the adults
Seriously, three posts about one weekend. Trust me, it will be short or not.
I just had to throw out the kudos to my amazing friends who also did the race last weekend.
Jon kicked in a 5th place finish. Seriously Jon, I am expecting more from you. SHAME!
Nate, who did not really train for the sprint, took the most Swedish Award at 18th.
Jen, who travels with me each and every year to hang out and cheer me on and then get Chipotle afterward, now calls herself #27! Woot, woot.
Becca, who kicked this bitch Athena style. Ends up #2. Way to take it home Becca!
Those are my homies! Without you guys, it is just not as much fun. Thanks for making triathlons a social event.
Then, then there are the other people in my life that I train with. The people that I have shared large chunks of time, blisters, bitching, saddle sores and all the other stuff that comes along with all of a sudden sharing a life with random strangers that happen to become training partners. These people also…are amazing.
These are the people I work out with MANY times a week. And all this training, paid off for this collective group of 40 somethings. Jackie (far right) took 3rd in her age group. Next in line is Di, who is in my age group and if I didn’t like her so much would HATE her. She makes me a better racer. My one bike goal was to stay ahead of her. She took 2nd in our age group and had the fastest bike split of ALL women, even the pros! Next, Vicki, this was her first half ironman race and she finished with a smile on her face. As for my coach in the back, he realized once he was home and analyzing the results that he took 3rd in his age group.
All that said, I am so lucky to have friends, team mates and a supportive family to make this ironman dream come true.
Thank you to all of you.
Filed under current events, friends, Ironman, races | Comment (1)Ironman update
So, you know how I said I was going to track a few things during this ironman training process like cost and time?
Well, here you go.
Oh sorry, those are my legs RELAXING. I was hoping to show you my black toe nail that is ready to fall off and the enormous blister on my big toe that now has sand in it, but whatevs.
From 3/17-6/17/10 I have logged 119 hours of biking and running (I don’t wear my watch in the pool so I am not really tracking swimming) and have traveled, under my own power, 1320.5 miles. I am guessing there is a way to find total calories..how fun would that be?
I have spent: $3223.47 on coaching, bike fixes, fittings, clothes, shoes, races, race/training nutrition and PT. I am sure a few grand will be added for a psychologist later.
What this information does for me is solidify my goal…I WILL FINISH THIS RACE COME HELL OR HIGH WATER!
Filed under Ironman, training | Comment (1)And they wrote 40 on my calf
Yesterday was the Liberty Triathlon. 70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running.
My season has typically ended with a race of this distance. I train all summer to be able to do this. But this year, it’s just a training on the calendar. A base line of how things are going. We hardly even taper. It’s odd to say the least.
So how did the race go you ask? Well, I had some mighty high expectations of myself…which is almost always a bad way to start.
The 1.2 mile swim: I headed into the water when the gun went off and within about 1 minute my arms and legs felt like logs, I felt like I couldn’t breath and I was having a hard time sighting the buoys. This always happens to me. The big FREAK OUT in the water. I eventually found a good rhythm just in time for the wind to kick up and start bashing waves in my face. I came out of the water and my watch said 37 minutes…a whole 5-7 minutes slower than I was hoping.
Transition 1: I went into transition, ripped off my wet suit, slide my arm warmers on and hopped on my bike. No problems with the exception of some disappointment with the swim.
The 56 mile bike: Well, with all the bike drama I have been having I was not really looking forward to this leg of the race but they were not going to cut it out just for little’ol me, so onward. Biking is hard for me, biking hurts and the little voice in my head just kept saying, you better just man the f*&% up if want to do well on this race.
My body was wet as I was not so quickly speeding down the road. My hands started to become so cold that I couldn’t shift at all with my left hand and ended up doing everything with my right. This causes a little bit of unbalence and almost took me down as my elbow came up and off the aero bars. My legs were burning and it was getting dark in my head.
It continued to get darker as my average pace slowed and the miles clipped along. Then my team mate passed me like I was standing still. If I didn’t like her so much I would have spit at her. It was around that point in time that my mind and I were discussing the possibilities…just stop and not care anymore or bearing down, sucking it up and focusing on the best last leg possible. It was my race I was racing and I had to let go who was passing me and that I might not catch them today.
I could fold or I could fight.
Transition 2: I happily slapped my bike on the rack and decided to sit down to put my shoes on. I could not find my Yankz last night (bungee cords for your shoes) so I had to tie my shoes instead of just slip them on. This proved to be a serious problem, I couldn’t feel my fingers and they were not going to let me do something as nimble as tie my laces. So my shoes were on, but not tight. I couldn’t even unclasp my helmet because my fingers couldn’t pinch hard enough to get the clasp undone, so I wiggled it around my chin and slipped it off. Minuets wasted!
The run 13.1 miles: I decided I would just let the laces go, even though my feet were slipping around in my shoes from not being tight enough. A friend yelled out that my feet and hands would get their feeling back around mile four, so I was determined to run until then, and then I could fix the problem.
Back on the bike, I decided to fight. I decided to pull myself out of the not so happy place I was in and decided to do whatever I could to make the run the best it could be. I took it one mile at a time, watching my pace and working the down hills as much as possible. I was feeling pretty good, which meant the nutrition plan on the bike was good. The miles clipped by as the rain kept coming. I never stopped to tie my shoes again, why waste more time? I finished the run leg in 1:48:30, almost catching my own half marathon PR of 1:47:50. Not bad.
My finishing time 5:26:34. 5th in my age group (yup, they bumped me up to 40 even though I am 39 for two more days) and 11th over all the ladies.
My lesson learned this race, I am tough enough to pull myself out of a mental tail spin. I’m gonna call that a success.
And kudos to all my buddies, my coach and my team mates racing yesterday. You can find Diane 5th over all, Courtney 7th and jMatt 9th on leader board. AND huge props to Cousin Katherine who WON the Olympic Distance race.
It’s super cool to race with such a talented group of people.
Filed under current events, Ironman, races, training | Comments (2)Stillwater 20 mile results
I’m just going to say that the 20 mile distance is great because right around mile 18 is usually where my marathon falls apart.
That said, it was a GREAT race!
Average Pace: 8:31
Overall Place: 38 out of 156
Gender Place: 9 out of 79
Age Group Place: 3rd
Filed under Ironman, races | Comments (3)6 am
This morning was the first lake swim of the season. It is one mile to that beach in the photo and back and it couldn’t have been nicer, with the exception of the weeds we got caught up in around the middle. But that just makes for lively swimming.
Tomorrow, the Stillwater 20 mile run!
Filed under Ironman, training | Comment (0)250 days
Today, I officially start Ironman training.
I will be keeping diligent records so I can let you all know exactly how many hours of training it actually takes for an average girl to become and Ironman. I might just keep track of my expenses too.
So bare with me during these next nine months, there may be more triathlon talk than in the previous years but seriously, I know you want to know what it’s like, even if you don’t ever want to do one.
Day 1-weights…I thought that would be an easy place to start, I was already wrong.
Filed under Ironman | Comments (4)