Triathlon Tuesday - Ironman Florida: The Final Report

You're probably pretty done with hearing me talk about Ironman Florida 2014 (Pre-race report: here; Race report: here), but I wanted to do one last wrap-up to address the question that gets posed to me most often:

Do I feel like I have unfinished business with Ironman since the swim was cancelled and I didn't get to do the "whole" thing?

I can answer that with at a resounding: NO.

I mean, yes.

No.

But kinda, yes.

I think you get the picture.

Would I do another Ironman? Yes. If the opportunity arose and it worked with my family's schedule and it was what I wanted to put a couple hundred of my unspoken-for hours towards? Yes. I would do the race again just so I could get the swim in with it.

But do I feel like I need to do another Ironman race in order to "really" call myself an Ironman? No. I am an Ironman. I would like to perhaps do a full 140.6 someday (hopefully with my friend Megan who started this adventure with me, but was able to race due to injury), but doing that would not make me any more of an Ironman.

The way I see it, I have completed an Ironman, but not 140.6. And for me, honestly, that's enough.

And just FYI, God forbid you try to tell someone who raced IMFL 2014 that they are not a "full" Ironman. We will cut you. True story. Coming up with witty/snarky responses to those who would dare say we are not Ironman has become a favorite past time for some racers.

For me? Whatever. There's validity to both arguments. I still desperately wish I could've done the swim. But honestly, right now there are other things more important in my life than to even consider training for another IM. Like, getting my family relocated to Germany in January (Woot!) or concentrating on my writing feats (Primal Instinct was nominated for a huge award!).

So here it is, my final random collection of thoughts about Ironman in hopes it will help someone else who is considering/training for one:

1. I felt really crappy when I made it back to our rental house after the race. Dizzy, nauseous, exhausted yet not tired... It was ugly -- like having the flu. I tried to eat something (a piece of bread? I can't even remember), took a shower and got in bed. Three hours later I was wide awake, starving. I ate some rice and felt better.  I woke up at 6am (on my own) and made my way to IM Village to buy a finisher's shirt.
 
2.  I trained WAY TOO HARD for someone whose goal was to just finish. I started specific tri-training 36 weeks before the race. Too much, people! If I was doing it again with the same goals in mind, I would find a 12-16 week plan (but please note, this is NOT a couch-to-Ironman plan. You already need to have base fitness)

3. Yes you can do 95% of your bike training on an indoor trainer. I did, and would do it again. I don't like riding where cars may hit me, so I did most of my training in my living room (but also please note, I also did some specific bike-handling rides where I practiced: turns, opening stuff one-handed, grabbing water bottles from volunteers, etc. Things I would need to do in the race)

4. Doing it over, I would choose a race that was in the spring, not the fall. That would allow me to do most of my bulk training over the winter. I am a cold-weather gal, not hot, when it comes to training. So doing long runs over the summer, near about killed me. Something, ahem... say, around June 28th in Austria would be perfect. (2016... who's in?)

5. I am not one prone towards depression, but I got pretty hard-core depressed for a few days after IM (like sit-in-my-PJs-all-day-and-read-Sherlock-fanfiction depressed). Part of that was because this big event was over, part of it was because we didn't get to do the swim and part of it was because I sold my bike and all my triathlon gear coming home from IMFL.

True story. I posted my "triathlon starter kit" (bike, trainer, garmin, all of it) on a Tri website and some really nice lady (who was training for her first ever Half in Augusta!) bought it. She drove out from Charleston to meet us on I-95, on our way home from Florida. So there I was all sore and mentally exhausted from the race and halfway home I look over in our minivan and MY BIKE IS GONE. I needed to sell it because of our move overseas, and I'm happy that someone was so excited to get it all, but it was pretty jarring for it to be there one minute and gone the next. I think that contributed to my depression.

6. My body was in pretty poor shape for a while after the race -- more than I expected. From that damn bike section, I tell you! IT-band issue that manifested itself on the outside of my knee. Truly painful and lasted so long I thought I was going to have to see a doctor. It finally eased up about three weeks after the race.

So that's it. All my thoughts. If anyone has any questions, I'd be glad to answer them as best I can (post below or go to my full website's contact page to email me). Most of all, I want to encourage the people who are on the fence: Yes, YOU can do this. It's not easy, and for huge chunks of the training it's not even fun. But you can do it.

And so, yeah, I suspect some day I will cross a 140.6 finish line and be like: Okay, now I'm done. But if I don't, I'm fine with that too.

Triathlon Tuesday: Closing Thoughts and Mantras

(It's Triathlon Tuesday, my chronicles of training for Ironman Florida Triathlon: a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run. Follow along by clicking on the "Journey to Ironman" Series link to the right.)

So this is it: the week before the race. I leave tomorrow to drive down to Panama City Beach. Capt Awesome will be joining me on Friday night (after, much to his delight, I've already gone to sleep so he doesn't have to deal with my night-before-a-race insanity).

IRONMAN FLORIDA IS SATURDAY.

Right now I'm doing okay. I can feel the hysteria bubbling up, but am still capable of tamping it down. I've done all my hard training, all my nutrition is figured out, most of my bags are packed.

I'm ready.

Or, if I'm not ready, there's nothing I can do about it now. Unless I can pick it up at a Walmart while driving down I-95.

There's been a lot of talk about mantras on the various Ironman groups over the last couple of weeks. After all, it's a 15 hour race with no music or headphones allowed at any time. That gives a person lots of time to think, or as you get towards the end, mutter the same thing over and over.

This is the mantra I'd like to have going through my mind as I race:

But seriously, it'll probably be more like this:

Some people put pictures of their children on the handle bars of their bike to remind them of their
precious angels waiting for them at the finish line. Well, 3/4 of my "precious angels" decided not to come to Florida because they'd have to travel on October 31 and would miss out on Halloween. Love them.

Mantras on the handle bars of my bike

Plus, considering exercise has always been my time to get AWAY from my kids, putting a picture of them on my handle bars doesn't really work for me. My eldest daughter suggested I find a way of hanging a picture of them over my shoulder: I'd ride faster if they were "chasing" me. Hmmm...


I do have three simple mantra's on my tri-bars:
1. Fight for it. (my overall motto for the whole race)
2. Till I collapse (after the Eminem song; because the only way I'm stopping is because I cross the finish line or I collapse)
3. One. Time. (I don't have to do 140 miles forever. Just once. I can do anything once.)

I'm also wearing some my mantras. My bike jersey:

 The front and back of my running shirt:

And a final RANDOM collection of thoughts:
1. When the going gets tough during the race, I want to remember to be thankful. Yes, this has all been hard. And it has consumed way too much of my time (and money). But I am able to do this because I have a husband and family who have accepted that I’m crazy support me and have worked beside me to make this happen.

2. Maybe after Saturday I’ll stop crying every time I see EVERY. SINGLE. IRONMAN. VIDEO. Really, the tears are out of control.  (This one, for example)

3. IRONMAN is 10% luck, 20% skill, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain and 100% reason to remember the name. Oh wait. No sorry, that’s a song. Not Ironman. Whatever.

4. If I vomit because of nervousness Saturday morning, it’s going to totally mess up my ridiculously planned out nutrition for the race (check out that madness here).

5. 16:59:59 is still an Ironman. All I have to do is keep moving forward.

6. At least part of the reason I do endurance races is to justify listening to Ke$ha, Ludacris and Flo Rida for hours at a time. Yeah, that's probably a sickness.

7. At some point Saturday this is really going to suck. It may be at hour one, it may be at hour fifteen. It may be hours 1-15. Learn to embrace the suck.

But most importantly: 

I will be the same person I am after this race as I am before this race, just with 140 more miles under my belt. A race does not change who I am. And ultimately, it’s infinitely less important than who I am as a mother, wife, friend, and human being.

Triathlon (almost) Tuesday: My IM Nutrition Plan

A no-frills post today. This will probably only be interesting to someone training for an Ironman. Ironman nutrition is just as important (if not more so) than your physical fitness. I’m pretty much a control freak/obsessive planner, so I’ve spent a lot of time working out my nutrition.

Bike – I try to get between 350-400 calories in an hour

Run – I try to get in 200-250 calories an hour

BIKE:

I prefer to drink most of my calories on the bike (just easier for me). I’ve found two products that let me do that:

1) A combo of EFS Liquid Shot and EFS Drink, OR

2) Hammer Perpetuem

Basically I make a super strong concentrated bottle. With the Hammer Perpetuem I was able to use 6 scoops (800 calories). With the EFS combo I used 2.5 Liquid Shot bottles (1000 calories) and 2 scoops EFS drink (200 calories) for a total of 1200 calories per bottle. All are mixed with water to the top of my bottle.

4-hour bottle

My bottle is marked and I make sure I am at the end of each line by the end of each hour. That way I know I am getting the 200 calories per hour with Perpetuem or 300 calories per hour with EFS.

Perpeteum has protein and EFS has amino acids (what the protein breaks down into) which is needed for longer (3+ hour) workouts. But EFS also includes electrolytes, so I don’t have to worry about any salt pills or electrolyte pills when using EFS.

Honestly, I’ve liked both. I like the taste of the Perpetuem more. But like the electrolytes in EFS, so I will using EFS in IMFL (EFS costs more than Hammer’s Perpetuem, if that’s a factor for you). And just so you know, you are filling these bottles about 2/3 full with powder/gooey stuff, then just adding whatever room is left for water. It is very strong tasting, and gives you no hydration value whatsoever.

I know exactly how many calories are in each bag

The liquid nutrition bottles get me either 200 (Perpetuem) or 300 (EFS) calories/hour. To get the other calories I need, I bring along food broken up into portions. I’ve used: Stinger Waffles, pretzels, Combos pretzels, BBQ chips and pieces of a Payday bar. I have four snack baggies with the items that give me the exact calories I’m looking for each hour. I carry them in my back jersey pockets. (Btw, those baggies are snack size, cut in half and then taped down the open side. Zipper part still works great)

So if my EFS bottle gives me 300 calories per hour, I want to get another 50-100 calories. In one baggie I would have: ¼ Payday bar (60 calories), and 3 Combos Pretzels (36 calories). So if I eat all that, I know I am getting nearly another 100 calories.  For the Perpetuem bottle, I need 150-200 calories worth of food per baggie. 

My Garmin alarm is set for every 15 minutes. I don’t always take a sip or eat something that exact moment, but it just keeps me from zoning out and missing an hour of nutrition.

For IMFL I've decided to use EFS. It gets me the electrolytes and seems to be gentler on my stomach.  But I also think I would be fine on the Perpetuem

At Bike Special Needs I have:

1) Another pre-mixed nutrition bottle (in a gallon zip lock bag between two frozen water bottles to help keep it cold)

2) Half a ham sandwich (in my practices I’ve only taken a bite or two of it)

3) Red Bull (took a few sips for caffeine)

4) Four more baggies of my food supplements

RUN:

I used to eat Shot Bloks on my runs. That has worked well for me for a number of years. They give me gas a little, but no big deal. I can do gels too, especially the salted caramel flavor (YUM!!) or any Hammer gels.

But the last few long runs I’ve carried an EFS Liquid Shot flask rather than gels or chews. It’s done well for me so far: no GI issues.  I’ll be using that in IMFL. One sip every 15 minutes or at the top of each mile (every 11-12 minutes) if needed. I’ll also take other nutrition from the course. Basically, anything that looks good.

OTHER ADVICE I’VE BEEN GIVEN:

1) I’m cutting out all caffeine 10-14 days before the race. That way, when I have caffeine on the race (and oh, I plan to have COPIOUS amounts of caffeine on the race) it will do its job better: help me absorb nutrients, plus help me feel less like death.

2) From former IMer: “The race really doesn't start until mile 70 of the bike. If you haven't done nutrition properly to that point you are in trouble.....so practice exactly what you're going to do on the bike in your training and force yourself to eat and hydrate even if you don't feel like it. Once you get to the run (especially the 2nd half) do what your body tells you. I was eating everything in my sight after mile 15 and it made my body feel good (cookies, pretzels, chicken broth, coke)”

3) Goes with what is said above: You can’t make good, logical decisions after a certain number of hours of constant physical exertion. For me, that’s about 6 hours. Therefore I’m trying to have a plan, so I don’t have to make decisions when my logic is failing me. I just need to hear my alarm and know it’s time to take in more nutrition and/or hydration or whatever.

4) If I’m feeling really low (“OMG there’s no way I can finish this race”) that is a low blood sugar issue. I need to get calories in my body, and those feelings will go away.

5) Concentrate on the mile you’re in.

Nutrition update after Ironman Florida 2014:
I ended up with too much nutrition for both the bike and run (although I'd much rather have too much than not enough). For the first half of the bike, I pretty much followed EFS/baggies plan above (so about 400 calories an hour). I traded everything out at special needs (new bottle, new baggies -- remember there is no water at Special Needs, so pre-mix ahead of time). For the last three hours of the bike, I couldn't be bothered to open my baggies (also more difficult because I was wearing gloves), so just used the EFS drink mix. I never felt hungry, but I never felt slushy either.  I didn't use any of the nutrition from the course on the bike, just water.

For the run, I had a EFS Liquid Shot (400 calories) in my run belt and another one in Special Needs. I did totally finish one, and grabbed the one from SN, but didn't finish that one. On the course I took in whatever looked good at the time, but was careful never to eat more than a bite or two at each aid station. (At any given time I partook in: grapes, pretzels, chips, chicken broth, coke). Neither had any digestion problems or emergency trips to the porta-potty. I would definitely use EFS again in an Ironman.

I wished I had more Advil and/or Tylenol throughout the race. I had two (alternating) of each waiting at SN needs/transition, but I wish I'd had double that. At least. An aid station at mile 18 had ibuprofen. Saved me from a very painful last six miles.

Full race report is here.

Triathlon Tuesday: The Last Big Week

So I’m little less than three weeks out from Ironman Florida.

Shane West

I have to admit, I’ve been working most on my biking for the past few weeks. That’s my biggest weakness/fear/challenge/pain-inducer.  I named my bike Shane West (although he’s not allowed to be discussed at our house), because if you’re going to spend that much time riding something, you might as well throw a fantasy in there.

And Shane West

But yeah, the bike leg in the race is 112 miles. I do my last long ride this  Friday and I’m aiming for 110 miles.  Just so we’re clear, that will take me about 7 ½ hours. And actually, the most important thing for me now is not so much fitness as it is making sure I've got my nutrition/hydration plan down to a science on the bike. Not getting fuel will kill your race long before exhaustion overtakes you.

But before I even get to the bike, I have to survive the 2.4 mile swim. It's in the Gulf with a couple thousand of my closest strangers. 

Here's what the 2012 IMFL swim start looked like:

Now see, that picture actually gets me a little excited. I KNOW I can swim 2.5+ miles. I've done it before, multiple times, even with no wetsuit to help with buoyancy/speed. In a pool it takes me about 1hour and 22 minutes to swim the full IM distance. I'm also pretty comfortable in open water and ocean water (I was raised in South Florida, after all).

But here's what the 2013 IMFL swim start looked like (the whole video is here if you would like to revel in that madness for a bit):

Of course, I have no doubt that's what the swim start will be for me on November 1. And even without the waves, a mass start at IM is pretty much a full-contact sport. Who needs tackle football?

But, there are ways to train for taking the blows in such swimming. Such as:

Believe me, at this point in my training, Captain Awesome would be happy to hire people to beat me with sticks as I do anything ("You mean you haven't cooked/cleaned/gone grocery shopping/done laundry again because of IM training?"). That video kills me. I love it.

But this is my last week of big training before I start my 2-week taper. A lot of athletes hate the taper, but not me. I'm like: THANK GOODNESS. No more 6-8 hour workouts. No more exercising more in one week than most fit people do in a month. Or to put it a little less delicately:

(I'm sure that baby has been on a bike too and said the exact same thing. I know I have.) Fortunately, we're close enough to the race that the I can keep focused on why I'm doing this. 

But it's not easy. None of it is easy. But it's almost done.

The last big week.

Triathlon Tuesday: Ironman - There and Back (and There) Again

Me trying to get into IMFL

Eleven months ago, November 2013, I was one of the lucky (although that word should probably be in quotation marks) people who got a spot for the 2014 Ironman Florida race.  It’s one of the most popular Ironman Races and is held in Panama City Beach, Florida. The race sold out in about an hour.

I signed up because I wanted to do something HARD in 2014. Something challenging. Something I wasn’t sure I was even capable of doing and would push me outside my comfort zone.

If I had known how hard 2014 would be all on its own, how far out of my comfort zone I would be living on a daily basis, I would’ve given my lucky spot to someone else. 

Seriously, not five days after I signed up for the race that would take 10-15 hours of training each week, I got a call from Harlequin. They wanted to buy four more books from me. GREAT! But, I would need to write all four books in nine months to get them in on time.  

And then a couple of months after that, my eldest kid decided she was going to become a teenager and go bat-crazy and require 2-3 hours of my undivided attention a day for a couple of months (heaven save me from middle school girls). Thankfully that eased up after a while – she’s a good kid and just needed to find her footing – but it pretty much dominated much of my winter.

And THEN we got life-changing (the good kind) news this summer dealing with my husband’s job, about a transfer that would probably take place in late 2014. (We’re not quite ready to make an official public announcement yet, but let’s just call it “Take 2” if that gives you any hints, for those of you who know me)

So doing a race –not just a race but a 2.4 mile swim, 140 mile bike, 26.2 mile run race that takes a person like me about 15-17 hours— just because it would provide a challenge? By August, the idea was pretty absurd to me. Honestly, I’m surprised it took that long.

So I was ready to quit. It was only that I was doing the race with one of my best friends that I continued training at all. I didn’t want to let her down and quit.

M's broken arm gave me my excuse

Then she broke her arm.

I don’t want to say I was happy when I got that news and found out she wouldn’t be able to do Ironman Florida …

But I’d be lying. It was the out I needed and I was pretty quick to take it. 

I was tired. Ironman was hard. Insert Janie pitiful sad-face here.

I kept training because I had the Augusta Half Ironman coming up at the end of September. But by mid-September I pretty much told whoever cared (not many) that I had decided not to do the full Ironman. Most were relieved. Nobody tried to talk me back into doing it. 

Of course you heard all my sad story, right? My hardships and stressors. How could anyone dare try to talk me back into doing it? Insert Janie pitiful sad-face #2 here.

I was a quitter and I was okay with that. Seriously. 

Kinda.

Regardless, there was no way I was going to be able to pack my family of six up and move us to Germany in the middle of November get ready for our life-changing event and still train for the full Ironman. There just weren’t enough hours in the day.

Everybody knows where I’m going with this story by now, so I don’t know why I’m even telling it.

But anyway, I wrote last week about my quite positive experience at the Augusta Half Ironman 70.3 race on September 28. I did the whole thing in just under 7 hours. And honestly, felt pretty good afterwards. Or at least not like I was going to die.

I was pretty thankful the race was over, the training was over, that I didn’t have to worry about it anymore.

Ironman, you little taunting bee-yatch.

Except that in the back of my mind I could still hear the Full Ironman taunting me. 

But what could I do? There weren’t enough hours to get everything done. Except then we got word that the big top-secret life-changing move had been pushed back to December or possibly even later.

It was the perfect storm of Full-On-Stupid temptation: I was coming off the Augusta Half-Ironman and felt like the Full Ironman was within my grasp, the real-life events that had been crowding out my training time had been removed, and there was a little over one month left (the perfect amount of time to buckle down and work hard to prepare).

Once Capt Awesome gave me his blessing (my mom was not so understanding, calling me “a bovine, clodpated, citified moron”), it was a done deal.

So I’m back in, baby! Ironman Florida – Panama City Beach, FL – November 1. 

2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run.

Full-on Stupid. The most challenging thing I've ever done.  Really, really hard.

Awesome.

Triathlon Tuesday: What Doesn't Kill You...

At the end of 2012, I was finishing Primal Instinct so I could send it to the editor who had requested it. I was also training for the Disney Marathon (that was coming in January 2013).

I remember saying to myself: I can train for a marathon or I can write a book, but I can't really do both. Not with everything else I have going on in my life.

Awwww... I look back on the girl I was eighteen months ago and cannot help but want to smile and pat her on the head. Bless her little heart.

I registered for the 2014 Ironman Florida (IMFL) race on November 3, 2013. At the time I was looking for a challenge and felt like this was a good time in my life to do something as difficult as an Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run). And I'd sold my first book, but hadn't heard anything about writing any more for Harlequin, so I would have time to train.

True story: three days after I signed up for IMFL, I got a call from Harlequin. They wanted me to write four books in nine months.

So now, instead of just writing ONE book and training for JUST a marathon, I would be writing FOUR books and training for one of the  THE HARDEST EVENTS ON THE PLANET.

Please excuse my yelling. And hang on while I wipe the spittle off my screen.

I've been doing my best to keep my cool, keep my head on straight, keep my eye on the prize (really, any number of "keep my..." adages apply) during the last few months.

I have four school-aged kids (each with their requisite activities; and a teenager who I'm discovering needs more one-on-one attention than a toddler), a full-time job teaching college (although, admittedly that is not a 9-5 job), am training for an Ironman Triathlon (which currently takes 8-10 hours/week, but will eventually take 18-20 hours/week in August & September), and am writing four novels.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

People ask me a lot how I manage to get everything done. 

I usually reply jokingly that sleep is overrated. (But the truth is, I love sleep and rarely get less than eight hours a night. I'm very protective of my sleep. Seriously.)

Here's the truth about how I get everything done:
1. I pretty much completely eliminated television from my schedule this spring. I watched one show: The Blacklist because I just couldn't help myself. In 2014 I have sadly said goodbye to: The Walking Dead, Almost Human, The Vampire Diaries, New Girl, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (although dang it, it looks like it finally got good), Nashville, Modern Family, and How I Met Your Mother.

Television is a time-sucker and does very little good in terms of stimulating creativity for me. Once I stopped watching it, I found I didn't really miss it.

2. I said no. No, I cannot be the chair of that committee at work. No, I cannot play sixteen different games of Words-With-Friends. No, I cannot be responsible for the entire bookfair at my kids' elementary school. No, I won't write that bi-weekly newsletter. Please contact me again after November 1 (once the Ironman is done, and my Omega Sector books are completed).


3. I get up earlier and go to bed earlier. This was hard for me. I liked my I'm-a-night-owl-artistic-type-so-I-will-regularly-stay-up-until-3am mentality. No. Now I'm getting up each morning usually before 6am and getting two hours of either writing or workouts done in the morning. I'm exhausted by 9pm every night, but that's okay, because I'm not trying to have my creative or physical juices flowing then. I'm just hanging out and chillin' with the fam. And I'm asleep by 10:00.

And the schedule doesn't end just because it's the weekend. Same thing. Although maybe starting at 7am.

4. My family is starting to work together as a team. I can't do everything, and my family is awesome, so everyone helps out. Kid #1 can do laundry. Kid #3 is an excellent cook. Kid #4, God bless her, wants to help as much as she can and often does stuff without me asking. Kid #2... well, he pretty much stays outside playing as much as possible. He's figured out if I can't see him, I don't ask him to do stuff.

Hubby helps out as much as possible too. And most of all, almost never complains about the fact that I constantly talk about stuff like chafing, blisters, core strength, and different flavors of Gatorade.

Would I do it all again this way if I had the option to go back? No. For the love of all that is chocolate... no, no, no. I would not sign up for IMFL for 2014 or would spread out my book deadlines further or not have so many kids. Or something.

But it is this way, and I've got to get it done. So I am. One day at a time.

Triathlon Tuesday: Ironman Triathlon Training Updates

Time for my monthly(-ish) link to my other blog: Full-On Stupid: A Journey to Ironman. Training for Ironman Florida on November 1, 2014: 2.6-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run.

We're officially (EXACTLY, as of today, May 1st) six months out from the race. That's a little scary. I know how fast six months go, so actually that's a lot scary.

I am now ten weeks into my official training. I have either a bike, swim or run workout (sometimes more than one) six days a week. Right now my training plan calls for an average of 8-10 hours a week. That eases on up to 12-16 hours/week for this summer and crests at 18-20 hours week in September and the first of October. Then the blessed taper for the last couple of weeks in October before the race on November 1.

The YouTube video "Welcome to the Grind (Rise & Shine)" pretty much sums it up. I am pretty sure any athlete training for an endurance event has watched and/or memorized this:

Here are some training highlights from the past couple of month on my Ironman Training Blog if you're interested:

You Might Want to Unclip That Foot Before Getting Off Your Bike  (There are a lot of rites-of-passage in Ironman training. Unfortunately, falling off your bike is one of them)

Training In My Wetsuit for the First Time (Claustrophobia is not my friend)

Race Report for the Smithfield Sprint Tri (I officially become a triathlete!)

Race Report for the Richmond Tri Club Sprint Triathlon (Sometimes my brain just doesn't work properly)

There's lots more on that blog if you're interested in weekly training and nutrition issues concerning Ironman, but I won't bore you with that here.

Yes, IM training is a lot of work. Yes, there are definitely days I wonder what the heck I'm doing. But like the video says: Sweat is for those who know that winning is a choice, not an accident. 

For me, "winning" will be just completing the Ironman race in under the 17 allotted hours. I plan to win. And winning comes from putting in the hours now.

Triathlon Tuesday: Richmond Tri Club Sprint - Race Report

A training workshop originally scheduled for earlier in April got rescheduled to April 26, the same day as the Richmond Tri Club Sprint Triathlon, so I decided to go ahead and sign up for the race. It was a spring: 400m swim, 13-mile bike, 5k run

This isn't a race I'd normally do since Richmond is a couple hours away, but since I was already going to be there... Plus, the race started at 7:00, which would give me time to race, shower, change and still make my workshop by 10:00am.

But it did mean I had to leave my house by 3:30am in order to make it there, pick up my packet, and get everything situated in transition. Since I knew I would be leaving my house in something akin to a coma, I laid everything out the night before, then packed it up and had it ready in the car.

Sigh. Remember the good ol' days of footraces where all I had to remember was my bib number and to throw some clothes on? Those days are long past.

I arrived (it was cold!!) and set everything out in transition, determined to remember to face the right way on the bucket when I sat down this time so I wouldn't have to keep stretching behind me to reach stuff.  Yeah, I still didn't do very well in transition.

The Swim (400 meters)

This is a very unique swim in that it is an "open water style pool swim." It was a 50-meter pool (twice the length of the normal size pool), seven foot deep everywhere, that had buoys. They had us start in groups of 10 (based on estimated swim time). Nobody was allowed to kick off the walls as we started or as you zig-zagged up and down the pool around the buoy.

It gave me a nice taste of an open water swim without the dark cold water.  It was choppy and we were all swimming all over each other.

I loved it.

Admittedly, I couldn't go as fast as I wanted because I couldn't figure out how to get around the couple of guys in front of me for a long while. But compared to my sprint tri a couple of weeks ago, I felt so much better in the water.

For one thing, I didn't wear my heart monitor and (sorry guys, overshare) I loosened the hook on my running bra before the swim. This way I had nothing that felt like it was constricting my chest. I also was able to warm up for about 10 minutes in the smaller (25 yd) warm-up pool about 45 minutes before the race started. I'm not sure that actually did any good, but I felt like it did.

I was glad I have been working on breathing out of both sides, because I got next to someone for at least 25 yards who was splashing like a maniac on my right side, forcing me to breathe to my left. It wasn't my preference, but I was able to handle it no problem.

Everything got a little jammed up at the end trying to get out of the pool. I should've just jumped up on the wall rather than waiting to use the ladder.

Total Time: 9:04 

T1

Evidently transitions are just not my thing. It took me even longer in this transition than in my race a couple of weeks ago! Unbelievable.

I am proud to say I faced the correct way on the bucket this time, so I wasn't reaching around behind me trying to find my stuff. My fingers weren't working too well because of the cold (low 50s, and I was soaking wet) and I ended up hardly getting my feet dried off at all. But -- helmet and sunglasses on, socks and bike shoes on and I was ready to go.

My real problem began when I noticed my HR monitor belt laying over my handle bars as I was running (in my bike shoes -- not fun) through transition. I had made it about 100 yards when I saw the HR monitor (which I had decided earlier not to use in this race because it gave me fits last time; plus, it's a sprint -- who cares about HR?). I knew I had to do something with it; I couldn't just keep it laying over my handle bars.

Sitting here at my computer, all nice and dry and warm with no pressure, I can clearly and easily figure out multiple things I could've done with the HR belt:

• Put it around my waist as a belt
• Looped it around my arm multiple times -- annoying, but not problematic
• Handed it to a volunteer and asked them to stash it at the transition tent
• Put it in the small pouch I have attached to Shane West designed to carry nutrition or, say, a HR monitor belt that is in my way

But instead of doing any of these things, I ran (with Shane West in tow of course) ALL THE WAY BACK TO MY BUCKET, threw the HR monitor in with my stuff than ran all the way back out of transition.

Sigh.

A friend suggested leaving my helmet upside down on the bike with my sunglasses inside to shave a few seconds off my transition time. I will definitely do that next time, although I'm thinking a post-swim lobotomy might actually do me more good.

Total time: 2:59

Bike (13 miles)
Course was just over 20k at 13 miles. Although I couldn't feel my feet because of my cold/wet socks, I had a pretty good time on the bike except for the hills. I need more hill training, not necessarily for IMFL but for my half-iron in Augusta in September. I just don't know how to get the training around here in super flat Virginia Beach.

I knew I needed more hill work when I got to a big hill, kept shifting to an easier and easier gear until I ran out of gears. Then what was I supposed to do? Fortunately I was at the top of that hill by the time the time I bottomed out of gears, because what was my next step?  (Btw, this is a real question, if anybody had suggestions I would love to hear them. I'll take anything)

Besides the hills, felt pretty good. What goes up, usually comes down after all.

Total time: 44:27

T2
A little bit better (not that it could be worse than T1). It was a big transition area and I had a while to run in my bike shoes, which seems so slow to me. But once I got my bike racked, I calmly put on my shoes and running hat. No problems.

Total time: 1:58

Run (3.1 miles)
Run felt pretty great for me once I made it through the first mile. My Garmin was all screwed up (had been all day) so I had no idea how fast I was going or how far I had gone. I just kept running.

Once again, I ran with my iPhone in my hand listening to music through its stereo. I had the volume pretty low so I don't think anyone could've heard it without being right next to me (although who wouldn't want to hear some FloRida while in a triathlon??)

No issues or problems in the run. It was a great pace for me. Shaved nearly 2 minutes off my race a couple weeks ago.

Total time: 28:44

Overall Race Time: 1:27:10

Overall Thoughts:
My ranking was much lower in this race than the last (89/162 women compared to last race's 101/203) which discouraged me a bit. But really my bike and run times were a little faster so I shouldn't feel that way.

Nutrition was pretty basic: drank an Ensure in the morning during the drive, along with a couple cups of coffee. Also ate a banana and peanut butter as well as some crackers. Had a Hammer gel on the bike and a couple of shot bloks on the run.

I'm glad I did this race, if only for the swim part. It was a confidence builder I needed. The rest of my Tri's will be in open water (although my next race is not scheduled until July, this was my "May" tri and June is just crazy for me with travel). Looking forward to that next challenge.

Triathlon Tuesday: Ironman Triathlon Updates

Time for my every-once-in-a-while link to my other blog: Full-On Stupid: A Journey to Ironman. Training for Ironman Florida on November 1, 2014: 2.6-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run.

We're officially 9 months out from the race. That's a little scary. Up until now I've just been focusing on general fitness, but as of February 23 -- a little over two weeks from now -- I will officially be on a training schedule. Swims, rides, and/or runs (sometimes more than one per day) six days a week.

To quote my most recent favorite Ke$ha song: It's. About. To. Go. Down.

Here are some training highlights from the past couple of weeks on my Ironman Training Blog if you're interested:

The Post Where I Do One of the Things I Swore I Wouldn't Do (Yeah, I was also one of those people who swore I would never put my kid on a toddler leash at Disney World)

The Post With My Hardest Feat Yet (The hardest effort I put in for the Ironman yet, but it didn't involve a swim, bike or run)

Triathlon Tuesday: Ironman Triathlon Updates

 Time for my every-once-in-a-while link to my other blog: Full-On Stupid: A Journey to Ironman. Training for Ironman Florida on November 1, 2014: 2.6-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run.


My Ironman Triathlon training, although not in full speed yet (that begins mid-February), has begun. I'm taking this adventure with two of my best friends Princess Megan & Hippie Shelby. The race is in Panama City FL on November 1, 2014.

Here are some training highlights from the past couple of weeks on my Ironman Training Blog if you're interested:

The Post Where Janie Becomes Intimately Acquainted with Shane West  (Something is going to have to get me through all those miles on the bike!)

The Post With the Ironman Christmas Presents (It's amazing how I'm incapable of surviving for one minute without music while training -- even in the pool. Plus cool other stuff, like not being able to count) 

And, just so you can really call me stupid, here's a picture my friend Princess Megan shared earlier this week of an Ironman Florida Swim start from a few years ago:

Praying the Gulf will not be like this in 2014.

Yeah, nothing to be afraid of there.

Ironman Triathlon Updates

So my Ironman Triathlon training, although not in full speed yet (that begins mid-February), has begun. I'm taking this adventure with two of my best friends Princess & Hippie. The race is in Panama City FL on November 1, 2014.

Here are some training highlights from the past couple of weeks if you're interested:

The Post Where Everything Completely Changes (we actually sign up for the race!)

The Post Where We're All Learning to Swim Without Dying (Unlearn all you have learned, young Skywalker)

The Post Where I Almost Had to Swim Naked (The moral to the story is: don't ever have kids)

Oh wait, this isn't... You mean?... My bad.