Running in the Moment

Racine 70.3: The Swim

Once I passed the mount line, I hopped on my bike and chugged up the short little hill before we headed out onto the bike course.  The first thing I noticed was the roads.  They were AWFUL.  I had read that the first 5 miles out and 5 miles back into town were terrible, so I just tried to focus on avoiding any bad cracks or bumps and told myself that soon it would get better.  And better it did get!  For like five miles and then it was back to crappy roads.  I am from the mid-west, I get what the weather can do to roads, but holy cow, these really were some terrible roads.

I tried to focus on heart rate and nutrition to distract myself from the bumpy roads, but it was hard.  I also passed a toooon of people which was pretty darn fun.  When I looked at the results after the race I saw that I had passed around 70 people and 27 people in my age group moving me up to 19th place. 🙂

I did feel like I was pushing the pace, similar to how I felt at Effingham but with a little lower heart rate, but also didn’t feel like I was killing my legs for the run, so on I went with the current pace.  I was at around mile 35 when I pulled up to the second aid station to grab a bottle of water from a volunteer, however I missed the hand off and when I looked ahead I saw two cyclists had just stopped right in front of me next to the volunteers handing off water.  DO NOT STOP IN FRONT OF A HANDOFF AREA…Pull to the side of the road beyond the volunteers.  I panicked and to avoid hitting them, I tried to make a sharp left turn but (since tri bikes are twitchy and I’m not the world’s best cyclist) I ended up going down on my left side.  I looked up and feared getting run over by other cyclists coming into the aid station, however a volunteer grabbed my bike and pulled me to the side (where the two cyclists should have been too!).

I did a quick body check to make sure there weren’t any broken bones, then I checked Lola.  Check and check.  Both were good to go.  Well I did scrape my knee, but that wasn’t a big deal.  I refilled my aero bottle and then was on my way to get the bike done!  Unfortunately when I hopped back on my bike I accidentally hit my watch with my aero bottle and I was now in transition 2 according to my watch.  So no mileage and no heart rate to use for the rest of the ride.  Grr. 😦

I also was annoyed that when I ‘crashed’ a ton of the people I had passed had re-passed me so I wasted some energy riding angry and trying to get back in line where I was before!  Probably not the smartest idea.  Soon I was approaching the extra crappy 5 mile stretch back into town and I just felt like I had run out of steam.  I was tired of the bumps, cracks and lack of speed from the bumps/cracks and wanted to get off of my bike.  Well, I wasn’t sick of my bike, but I was sick of the road.

Soon I could see the little hill we would ride down and the dismount line, hooray!  I had no idea what my riding time was, but I was secretly hoping to break three hours.  However, I knew my time was slower than Effingham, plus the bike crash, so I guessed it was closer to 3:05.

Off the bike I went and ran into transition!  I quickly racked my bike (hooray, I saw lots of empty spots around my rack, so I must have had a good ride), switched into my running shoes, threw on my hat, grabbed my gels and I was off.  Here we go!  My favorite part, the run!

Bike: 3:00:56

T2: 2:34

Racine 70.3: The Run

Ironman Racine 70.3: Pre-Race

Brr!! The water was cold and for some reason I started to freak out.  I had done a wave swim before with a large group, but there just wasn’t any open water, everyone was swimming on top of each other.  In retrospect (and I did think about this right before the gun went off), I picked a pretty stupid place in the wave to start- in the middle and about four people back.  Right in the middle of the chaos.  Eventually things did start to thin out and I was able to have a little bit of room to start attempting to actually swim.  I tried to breathe to my right every four strokes, but I just couldn’t sight well, so I kept pulling my head up to breathe instead.  As soon as I made the first right turn I could already feel my neck burning from my wetsuit rubbing, a combination of pulling my head up and probably the velcro being closed too high so the rough side was touching my neck.  Well, that’s going to hurt later!

I finally was able to get into somewhat of a rhythm but every few breaths I still pulled up my head.  It was also so weird to be able to see through the water and see everyone’s arms and legs, and it definitely helped with avoiding getting kicked in the face!  The rest of the siwm was pretty uneventful…just lots of pulling up my head rather than breathing to the right as well as several gulps of lake water (yuck).

Eventually I made the last right turn to head to the finish…which seemed to take forever.  Soon I was nearing the shore and was able to stand up and waddled my way out of the water.  I looked down at my watch and saw I swam 37:xx…hooray!  A PR!  I unzipped my wetsuit as I ran through the looong chute to transition (JMR had heard it was close to half a mile…I’m not sure if it was that long, but it was quite the hike).

Once I found my bike (I got turned around and got lost), I sat down, put on my socks, shoes, sunglasses and helmet.  I also grabbed my bottle of spray sunscreen and sprayed my neck and back the best I could and then was finally headed out.  Time to bike!

Swim: 37:44

T1: 5:52

Racine 70.3: The Bike

I am deep in training and therefore very behind on my training updates!  I’m still finishing up my Racine race reports and should be done soon!  Now, on to the training updates!

Week 20:

Monday – Rest day.

Tuesday – 40 min easy run at lunch followed by a 2500 yard swim after work.

Wednesday – 1:30 trainer ride on Peaches (my road bike) since Lola was in the shop. I feel bad for having ignored Peaches for several years (!), but Lola is just more comfy!  It was also JMR’s birthday, so we went to Annie Gunn’s to celebrate with my parents.  The food was soooo good.

Thursday – I overslept and missed my 3000 yard swim (I had big plans to get it in Sunday afternoon, which did not happen), but did get in my 1 hr aerobic run, 6.2 miles, after work.

Friday – I was heading to the lake for a family weekend, so I took Friday off to get in my long ride, 70 miles.  Even though there weren’t any hills on this route (and I do need them), I rode the MCT trail because I was riding solo and I felt safety trumped hills.  After the ride, I did a one hour run… and it was HOT and I didn’t have any water, but I did it!  I have been slacking on my runs off the bike during my long rides and after how my run at Racine went, I vowed to no longer slack!

After the run I hopped in my car and drove down the street to a Culver’s and ordered a large water, a large soda (coke :)) and a chocolate milk.  The lady kind of looked at me like I was crazy.  I forgot I had my earbuds still in and well, I was drenched in sweat.  I’m sure I looked nasty.  And probably smelled just as bad. 🙂

Saturday – 15 mile long run at the lake!  My last 16 mile long run I did there was, well, just awful.  I know that hills are good and build up strength, but seriously?  No run course I will ever do will ever have hills like these!  So this time around I stuck to a 3.3ish mile loop with small hills…which I did 4 times and then did a little more to make it 15 miles.  Phew.  I was glad to have that run in that location finally done.  No more runs at the lake this year 🙂

Sunday – 1 hr easy spin on the trainer on Lola 🙂

Total Training Hours: 12:53

Week 21:

Monday – Rest day.

Tuesday – 30 minute run at lunch (was supposed to be 45 but my stomach wasn’t a fan), followed by 2650 yard swim in the evening.  Which I think was my slowest swim ever this season. I just did NOT want to be in the pool, I kept running into gross clumps of hair, and the water had a funky smell.  In two weeks they were closing the pool down for an annual cleaning, and heck yeah, it needed it.  Every lap I thought about getting out of the pool and going home, but somehow I managed the full swim and was very happy to be done.  No more hair clumps for the day.  Ick.

Wednesday – 2 hour trainer ride followed by a 2 mile run.  This was tough, I haven’t done 2 hours on the trainer consecutively in a long time.  I don’t want to do many more of those!

Thursday – I overslept and missed my swim (maybe it was on purpose), but did get in my 1 hour run after work.

Friday – 3450 yard swim in the morning (the one I missed on Thursday), which was a very different experience from Tuesday.

I think early in the morning the water is less churned up and whatever gross things I ran into on Tuesday were still hanging out at the bottom of the pool.  From now on that is motivation to do the rest of my swims in the morning.  After the swim I did a short 1 hour ride on the trainer.  Then I was busy packing up all things triathlon to head to Verona, WI for the WIBA (Wisconsin Iron Brick Adventure) weekend!

WIBA is an organized IMWI training weekend for athletes to swim in the lake, ride the bike course and run the run course.  I was pretty nervous but also pretty excited.  I finally hit the road around 12p, hoping to arrive at the hotel by 5:30 to make the 6p group dinner.  Since this post is long enough, I’m making WIBA weekend its own separate post 🙂

Saturday – WIBA weekend

Sunday – WIBA weekend

Total Training Hours: 16:28 Longest training volume so far!

Just got back from Racine, race report to follow soon!  But first a quick recap of training week 19.

Monday- Swam 2200 yards.  Mentally I just didn’t want to be swimming, but I pushed through.  Not my fastest swim.

Tuesday- 1 hr tempo run, 6.67 miles (ok, it ended at 6.66 after an hour and I refused to leave it at that number).

Wednesday- 1:15 trainer ride, followed by 15 min run.  Well, I’m not sure what the deal was but a few minutes after riding I felt really dizzy.  I kept thinking it would pass, but after 30 minutes I called it quits.  After I hopped off the bike, the rest of the night I felt like I was on a boat, almost like vertigo?  Very strange.

Thursday- Easy 30 min run around the neighborhood.  No dizziness.  Weird, but glad it’s gone!

Friday- Travel day – headed to Racine 🙂

Saturday- Pre-race brick, 30 min ride followed by 15 minute run.  I also managed a quick swim before the brick to get used to the water.  It was cold! But it was also so clear!  Being able to actually see through the water during the swim should be a new experience 🙂

Sunday – Racine 70.3!

Not a very eventful week since it was a taper/easy week. Ok, off to write my race report.

I’m actually already in Racine but finally had time to finish my post!

This was a busy week, by Sunday night I was exhausted!  I was happy to know that the next week would be a recovery/taper week.

Monday- Rest Day.

Tuesday-45 min run, and I was supposed to swim in the evening but I got my hair cut after work (finally!) and then had to go pick up Lola from the bike shop (she got a tune up), so by the time I was done it was 7p and I was huuuungry.

Wednesday-  Woke up early and made up my missed swim, 2600y.  After work I rode 1:20 on the trainer followed by a 2 mile run.  The trainer workout was once again tough and I was drenched after, which worked out well because it was raining outside, one less excuse to skip my run.

Thursday- 1 hr run in hilllls.  So, basically running around my neighborhood. 🙂

Friday- 2950y swim, longest swim so far this year!  I am so proud of getting in both swims again this week!  Last year I might have bragged a little after IMLOU that I mostly only swam 1x a week and still swam a decent swim, but with IMWI not having a current, well, I really need the pool time if I want to even come close to my swim time last year.  Also knowing I’m working on having good-looking arms motivates me as well. 🙂

Saturday- The plan for the day was for me to start riding at 6a to get in 30 miles, and then my friend Bob was meeting me at 8:15a to ride a 53 mile loop with me (he had zero interest in riding 5 hours, I do not blame him).  Well….. I fell asleep and forgot to set my alarm, and when I woke up, it was 6a.  After debating if I should just get up and try to get in at least an hour before we met up or sleep in, I decided to just sleep in.  We were also both running late, so we didn’t meet up until 8:30 and didn’t even get started until 8:45, which was a very late start time, especially with the hot temps we were supposed to have that day!!

Within 30 minutes sweat was dripping from my helmet, the heat was bearable but the humidity was awful.  After riding an hour we stopped at a gas station to refill water.  I was already feeling crappy…four more hours sounded awful.  Even though I’m pretty strict with my bike nutrition, I knew my current plan wasn’t going to cut it to get through this ride.  So…when in doubt, drink coke!  After drinking several gulps I was already feeling a little better, I might just have to drink coke at every stop on this ride!

An hour later we stopped in a little town to get water from a coffee shop, sadly they didn’t have coke 😦 Off we went and made it 100 yards, when Bob pulled over at a little tent that was set up on the side of the road.  Several local fire-stations were selling bratwursts and drinks to raise money for the a local charity. They were selling pepsi, so Bob decided to stop, hooray for sugar and donating to a good cause.

Off we went, 26 more miles until I dropped Bob off at his car, we really lucked out as there wasn’t any headwind but instead, tailwind!  The miles flew by pretty quickly, but the heat was really getting to us both.  Water, I wanted all of the water!  When we were back at the parking lot, I refilled my water and also mixed my 2hrs of Infinit and I was headed back out for two hours.

The headwind going back out was no fun at all.  Especially because I was pretty wiped from the heat and I was trying to add a little more speed during the last 2 hours to bring up my average speed to around 16mph.  Push, push, push and I was finally ready to turn around.  Bring on the tailwind!  I was flying during most of the last hour and when I pulled into the parking lot I saw on my watch I finished 82 miles in just a little more than 5 hrs.  My coach had me doing a 4 mile run after the ride…but considering it was 2:45p and the temp was 93 degrees and felt like 98, that sounded awful.  I tried to rally, and changed into my running shoes and hat and off I went.  It. Was. So. Hot.  After .5 miles I started to feel dizzy, and decided I would just get in one mile and call it a day.

I got home around 3:30, showered, washed my bottles, put Lola back in the basement and I was retired to the couch.  JMR and I did manage to go out to grab dinner around 6p, but when we got home, I watched a movie and ended up heading to go to bed around 9:30p.

Sunday- I was up earrrrlly, no oversleeping today!  However, this time it wasn’t for a workout, instead I was volunteering at a local triathlon.  I got there around 7, grabbed a small bagel and headed to the swim start to find my friends that were racing.  After chatting with them for a while, another club member and I watched the faster people head out for the bike, and then headed to our volunteer spots on the run course.

Once again, just like the day before, it was getting HOT out! By the time the race was over and I headed back home, around noon, it was already 95 degrees out. The thought of doing my planned 15 mile run made me sad. After rallying once I got home I decided to just start at one and deal with the heat. Waiting until the evening would definitely be a bit cooler but I’d also have the run hanging over my head all day.

Oh boy. It was hot. I made it 2.5 miles and had to duck into a restroom along the route because my stomach wasn’t thrilled to be doing this run either. At mile 7.5 my friend Ricky, who offered to run 6 miles with me, appeared and we headed out. This time slower than my earlier miles, and honestly I didn’t care. So hot. We even took walking breaks! Finally we were back at the Forest Park visitors center after 13ish miles and I threw in the towel and decided I was done. Technically I ran the length of time my coach had on my schedule, however at a much slower pace than planned. Although 1.7 miles missed didn’t make me feel too bad though, especially with the heat. Once again I was greeted with this iPhone message when I got back to my car:

When I got home I showered, ate and pretty much spent the rest of the day, well evening since I got home around 4, on the couch in my compression tights.

It’s a little scary to think this still isn’t the volume of my peak weeks, how did I survive last year?!? I must have blocked those memories out and replaced them with the ones of crossing the IMLOU finish line :).

Total training hours: 12:51

This summer is flying, I can’t believe that it’s already July!  This past week had more volume, but nothing too crazy.  Although I did my long run while at the lake which was crazy and provided waaay more hills than I ever wanted to run!

Monday – Rest Day

Tuesday – 45 min aerobic run at lunch, 4.5 miles.  After work I headed to the pool to swim 2500 yards.  Afterwards I stopped by Which wich on my way home to get dinner (I love their unwiches).  It has become our Tuesday night routine since we both get home late on Tuesday, I swim and JMR has speedwork at a local track, so it’s just easier than cooking. PLUS, Tuesdays are double punch card days, so every few weeks we have enough punches for a free sandwich 🙂

Wednesday – 1:20 trainer ride. Holy moly this workout was TOUGH: 8 x 5:30 tempo @ 170 watts, recover 2 min and then :30 all out @ 230 watts.  I was dripping by the end.  After the ride I dragged myself outside to do a 2 mile run.  I slept very well that night!

Thursday – 1800 yard swim in the morning, followed by a 45 min run after work.  Which was supposed to be an hour progressive run (run faster every 2 miles), but my stomach was angry from the raw red onions in my salad at lunch.  A hard run wasn’t in the cards that day.  Lessoned learned!

Friday- I had Friday off (for the 4th of July since it falls on a Saturday this year), so I got up suuuuper early to get in my long ride before we headed to the lake that afternoon.  I had a four hour ride, and most of my friends were wanting to ride three at most, so I met up with my friend Ricky (he’s always up for an adventure, no matter how early) at 6:30a to ride an hour before meeting up with the rest of the group at 7:30.  So early.  We got in 67 miles total, followed by a 30 min run.  Then I headed home to shower and pack and we were finally on the road by 2:30p.

Saturday – 16 mile long run.  My coach had listed 2:15-2:30 hours, which would have me run an average of 8:26-9:22 pace.  Wow, sub 9 seemed fast to me anyways (I wasn’t even going to attempt an 8:26 pace), but I knew it would be extra tough to do with all of the hills along the route I was running that morning.  I had JMR drive me to the top of the neighborhood since there are several huuuuge hills that are even tough to walk up and off I went.  The first few miles I was able to hold right around a 9 min pace but as they went on, it got tougher.  Finally at mile 10, mentally I started to throw in the towel.  I was wondering if my coach really meant for me to run 16 miles, since the most I’ve run so far was 13…maybe she meant 14?  The way I was running my loops, I would hit 13 miles at the entrance to my neighborhood and then I was planning on adding another 1.5 mile short out and back to make it 16.  At this point, I thought 13 miles was. good. enough.  My pace went up to the high 10’s and I was struggling.

I ran into a gas station along the route and refilled up my handheld (really cold water too!), walked up a very huge hill while taking sips and finally when I got to the top I felt a second wave of energy.  I kept pushing and when I finally made it to my neighborhood entrance, I decided I wasn’t going to stop at 13 miles, the plan for today was 16 and that’s what I would run.  Plus I knew I’d be mad at myself later for cutting the run short.  So on I went, breaking it down into .5 mile chunks and finally I was done.  I hobbled down our long windy street and after thinking of my training last year, I realized that I had done an 18 mile run over the 4th of July weekend.  IMLOU was only a few weeks earlier than IMWI so 16 miles actually did sound reasonable (plus, I trust my coach, but my mind was going into a dark place during the run).  Boy was I glad I pushed through and got it all done!

When I got home, I drank my Infinit Recovery shake and hobbled around.  My legs ached!  I also was rubbed raw where my heart rate monitor was.  I’ve been tucking part of it under my sport bra so that it’s a snugger fit, but that just isn’t going to work.  Ouch.

The rest of the day JMR and I hung out on the dock with the rest of the family, ate a lot, had a few beers and just relaxed 🙂

Sunday – JMR and I left the lake around 2, but hit terrible traffic on the highway so it took an hour longer.  Bummer, other than that, it was a really fun weekend!  I did an easy 45 min trainer ride after we unpacked the car and was in bed by 8:45 🙂

Total Training Hours: 12:33

Well this past week was interesting!  It started off with a left hip flexor issue and uncertainty that I would even be able to run, to 100% back to normal and a long run yesterday, so that was a good way to end the week.  Although, it was the calm before the storm because the volume is really picking up!  I looked at training this week and almost cried (just a little) out of fear 🙂

I’ve also been trying to clean up my diet a bit more, and managed to successfully not have one diet coke this past week 🙂  I have been replacing it with La Croix and love it!

Monday – Rest day.  Saw my chiro and after  adjusting my SI joint and my back I felt good as new, hooray!

Tuesday – 2500y swim in the am, followed by an easy 40 min run in the afternoon.  I wanted to make sure my left hip flexor was really ok before pushing the pace!

Wednesday  – 1 hr trainer ride, followed by celebrating our six five month anniversary.  Whoops, my math was wrong and when I woke up that morning I told JMR ‘Happy Six Month Anniversary’.  So after work he went to get flowers and cake bites (because he’s sweet like that), and when he was checking out he realized it was only five months.  That’s what I get for doing math first thing in the morning.

Side note: we don’t celebrate each month, but for some reason six months seemed sort of monumental.  After one year we will just celebrate it annually 🙂

Thursday – 2600y swim in the am, followed by a 45 min run in the afternoon.  Yep, leg’s back to normal!

Friday – 1 hr *tough* trainer ride.  I hopped off the trainer sweaty and tired, and hoped my legs weren’t going to be dead for my long ride the next day!

Saturday – 3.5 hr (54 miles) ride in Columbia, followed by a 20 min run…followed by BBQ of course 🙂  After lunch, I headed home to unload the car, shower and then head to a friends 4th of July party.  Yes, the 4th wasn’t this past weekend, but because everyone is usually busy or out-of-town, they decided to have a party the week before.  After eating waaaay too much, we headed home around 9:30 and I crashed in bed shortly after.

Sunday – Long run, 2 hrs around Forest Park.  I managed a 9:12 pace and finished up with almost exactly 13 miles.  After my run I headed home to shower and then went to REI to stock up on more gels and honeystinger waffles as my supply was running low!  Patrick apparently was also very busy, JMR texted me a picture of how he looked after he found him frolicking under our deck….

I also made my weekly trip to the grocery store.  I decided I would be in charge of groceries/meals (JMR can do the yard work :)) so I’ve been trying to plan out dinner menus for the week to buy as much as I can on Sunday.  BTW the mexican casserole I made for dinner that night was delicious.  Whenever JMR goes back for seconds I know it was good 🙂

Today is a rest day, although I was up early for an appointment with a sports therapist that my friend recommended.  Seeing the chiro has been helpful, but it seems to be more of a quick fix and I am am wanting to get down to the actual cause to help resolve the issue.  More on that later, but I did walk away from my appointment feeling confident that he might have found the culprit! 🙂

Total Training Hours: 10:47

Happy Monday!

I am behind on my weekly training updates, but am catching up now that I finally posted my Effingham race report.  I had a light training week the week after the race and then it was back to usual business the following week (well..kind of, more on that later)!

Week 14

Monday – rest day, and I really needed it!

Tuesday  – 2500 yd swim.

Wednesday – 1:30 trainer ride, followed by 2 mile run.

Thursday – 45 min recovery run, it was slow, managed 4.6 miles.  Had an early birthday dinner with my tri-club ladies, followed by delicious cupcakes

  
Friday – 2350 yd swim.

Saturday – 3 hour Birthday Ride with friends at the crack of dawn, 7a.  Perfect way to start my Birthday 🙂  After I got home and showered, JMR and I headed to Forest Park for a Beer Festival.  We met up with a couple of friends and had a great time tasting different local beers.  The sample cups were so small I think I only had three beers in total, which was probably a good thing!  After hanging out at home for a bit, JMR and I went to my favorite Italian restaurant for dinner.  It was a prefect low-key kind of birthday.  Oh!  And JMR got me an iPad mini, so now I can read my kindle books on something a bit larger than my iPhone at night 🙂

Sunday – 1:30 run at Forest Park, 9.56 miles @ 9:25 pace.

Total Training Hours: 9:05

Week 15

Monday – rest day 🙂

Tuesday – 2500 yd swim, Overslept and missed my swim, I did do my 45 min run in the afternoon.  Legs left heavy.

Wednesday – 1 hr trainer ride, followed by 15 min run.  This was a tough trainer ride with a 10 min tempo, followed by 8x 2min on 1 min off.  My legs were jello on the run!

Thursday – 1 hr run with 3 miles @ Half Marathon pace (8:12, 8:12, 8:08), that was a challenging run as just like Tuesday, my legs felt like logs.  After I thought about it, I realized it was the week before ‘the time of the month’ and I always am soooo tired the week before it arrives.  It made me feel better knowing that was why and I wasn’t just losing speed, but then I realized BOTH of my races are the week before it’s supposed to arrive.  Lovely.  Hopefully adrenaline takes over on race day and my legs wake up!

Friday – 2100 yd swim.  Also, my Infinit products I ordered arrived, hooray!!  I am running low on my custom Infinit Go Far powder I use for my rides, as well as my Infinite Repair recovery drink, so I ordered enough of both to last me the rest of the season.  I also decided to try Infinite Nocturnal, which you take at night after a hard / long workout.  Per their website, “After a long day, enjoy the creamy natural chocolate flavor,ultra-pure whey protein isolate and flax designed to soothe tired muscles and help you repair overnight. Tryptophan, a natural essential amino acid (long been known to increase the levels of melatonin and serotonin) will actually help lull you to a restful night of deep sleep after a long day of workouts”.  I can’t wait to try out after long workout days (mostly weekends)! 

Saturday – Well, the plan was to run 2 miles, ride 2 hours and then run 30 minutes.  However, when I hopped out of bed, my hip flexor had other plans.  My left hip flexor was so tight that it was painful to even walk!  At first I thought I just needed to pop my hip, but I could not get it to pop.  So after becoming more frantic, I woke up JMR and had him try to pull on my leg to make it pop.  Nope.  I foam rolled and stretched and it did seem somewhat better but still really tight.  I decided to try to run, and thought maybe it would even help loosen it.  Well, running felt awkward because I didn’t have much range of motion in my left hip, and after 15 minutes I called it quits. Then I foam rolled/stretched and got ready to ride.

My friend Bob was riding from his house and meeting me just down the street to ride on Clayton road, a road the a lot of cyclists ride on.  Honestly if he wasn’t meeting me, I would have totally bailed on the ride, but I figured I would just see how things went and could always turn around if my hip was angry with riding too.  So I set out, made it to our meeting spot and the realized that it didn’t hurt to ride, well hooray!  Maybe cycling will help and it will feel better after the ride.  We rode a hilly route Bob has rode in the past, which was around 35 miles.  We stopped 20 miles in at a gas station to refill water, and once I hopped off my bike, bam.  The pain was back.  Sonofa…grrr.  I tried to stretch but it didn’t seem to help.  I was so baffled at how and why my hip flexor was so angry?  I was fine all day Friday, did I do something in my sleep that night?

Off we went to finish the route, at mile 30 I turned to head back to my house, while Bob took a different route to get back to his.  Once I was home I stretched, rolled… googled local chiropractors to see if ANY were open on Saturday (no luck), and then thought I’d try to run, maybe it wasn’t as bad as it was this morning?  I made it one minute and was in so much pain I had to stop.  As soon as I got back inside, I called my dad to get his input.  He agreed it was my hip flexor and that it was probably strained.  He thought since it came on so suddenly that it would probably already start feeling better the next day.  I was skeptical.  I spent most of the day icing my hip flexor and laying on the couch.  JMR and I did go out to dinner, so I wasn’t on the couch allll day 🙂

Sunday – 2500 yd swim that I missed on Tuesday and that was it 😦  I was supposed to run 8 miles but walking still didn’t feel great, so running was out.

Total Training Hours: 6:57

I have an appointment with my chiro after work today, so hopefully he can figure out what caused the strain and also fix it!

The Bike

As soon as I ran out of transition I saw JMR and quickly gave him a thumbs down.  I really had to pee (which is a good sign that I was hydrated, I guess?) so I headed into a porta-potty and then I was officially on the run.  JMR took a picture of me as I was headed out and I don’t think I even tried to fake smile.  The first mile was awful.  I looked at my watch and ran around 10min/mile which isn’t terrible for the first mile, since I usually want to start out conservatively, BUT, I wasn’t running that slow to hold back, that was all I had in the tank.

I passed the first aid station and grabbed water and Gatorade, hoping the Gatorade would give me much-needed sodium and energy.  It did not.  Mile 2 was worse.  After more Gatorade and water I set out to run mile 3 and then felt the nausea increase with a new fun side of dizziness.  I had felt the same way around mile 7 of the run at IMLOU and it was a combination of needing salt and calories, but based on how I felt coming off the bike and having fueled correctly, I knew it was mostly from lack of salt.  Then the walking started.  Every time I started to run I thought I was either going to pass out or throw up.  Maybe thinking I would pass out was extreme but I would start to feel woozy and didn’t really think this was the race to push myself to run through that feeling.  It wasn’t even my B race!

I passed my coach and was embarrassed for her to see me walking, but I didn’t really know what else to do.  I shouted out ‘you’re kicking butt’ (she was doing awesome), and I just kept walking.  I finally reached the turn around at 3.25 (the run is 2 loops), took ice, water and Gatorade and set out to do 3.25 miles to get to the turnaround for loop 2. Miles 3 & 4 consisted of a lot of walking, maybe some quiet tears of frustration and then the thought of a DNF.  I told myself this wasn’t my A or even B race, I was in a hole and could not get out (damn you salt tabs!!!) and honestly I did NOT want to do this anymore.  I had really wanted to break 6 hours and at this point, finishing in even 6:30 didn’t seem possible (I remembered that with a 2 hr run at KS I finished in 6hrs… so if I was moving at my current pace the rest of the race I would be pushing 6:45+).  I understand that it takes determination to finish despite how your day was going, but this wasn’t my first half, I didn’t have anything to prove and I really just didn’t want to be walking in the 90+ degree heat with practically no shade, feeling nauseous and dizzy for another 9 miles.

I shuffled on, managing a little running but more walking.  It was painful to see my watch beep with mile splits in the 14-15 min/mile range.  I reached the mile 5 aid station and after grabbing water and Gatorade I saw a bottle of Enduralytes (the brand of salt tabs that I take).  OMG.  I asked if they had salt tabs and the volunteer looked confused, and then I pointed to the bottle and she said, ‘Oh is that what those are?  Someone else asked for salt tabs, whoops!’, she handed me four tabs, I took two and saved the other two for later.  I came into mile six, the turn around, and saw JMR and pretty much wanted to cry.  I told him that I was dizzy and nauseous and was doing a lot of walking.  He told me that everyone was struggling and to take my time and just be careful, it wasn’t worth pushing myself and risking something bad happening.  It was reassuring to hear him say that, because it sounds like on top of the salt tab incident it was a tough day for most people regardless.

I headed out to do loop 2, started to run and decided I would once again try to run to each aid station and then walk though the aid station.  Once I reached the same aid station with the Enduralytes, I took 2 more with water, Gatorade and ice, and set out to head to the next aid station.  I managed to mostly run, with a few walks, but was definitely feeling better.  I was no longer nauseous, but now the heat was getting to me so I could run, but it was tough.  Once I got to the next aid station I noticed that they had Enduralytes too, hidden behind the water jug, and asked for 2 more. Darn!  I wish I had noticed they had these when I first started the run….that *might* have turned my run around, but who knows, maybe not.

I made it to the next aid station, which was the turnaround, thank goodness. Just a little over 3 more miles to go I took the 2 salt tabs I had saved from earlier, drank water, Gatorade and took a cup of ice to carry while I ran.  There was more walking…and then I decided to flip my watch over to see what the total race time was.  I was surprised that it was just a little under 5:40…huh?  I was expecting it to be 6+hrs?  Then I realized that, yes, with a 2hr run at Kansas I did finish in 6 hours, BUT I also biked 15 minutes slower that I had today.  Oh!  Wow, maybe my finishing time won’t be 7 hrs.  More like 6:10ish if I could keep up my pace!  That gave me a small boost of energy and I had more pep in my walk/run to the next aid station.

Once I got to the next aid station, once again I took 2 salt tabs, water, Gatorade and ice (I was probably overdoing it on the salt tabs, but with 2 miles to go, whatever.), and headed to the final aid station before I would head towards the finish line.  I managed to actually run the entire time, so happy that I was almost done.  I hit the final aid station, took water, Gatorade and ice and after doing a little walking, I saw I had .8 left to go, so I picked it up and ran to the finish line.  6:11:xx

I was so happy to be finished, but also so sad that I completely died on the run.  I was on my way to a 20 minute PR which obviously did not happen.  This was my slowest half-distance tri, but I did learn a valuable nutrition lesson with salt tabs.  I will never forget them again!!

I hung out at the finish area with a few other friends in the tri club that had also raced and then we headed to the awards ceremony.  I went because my coach had placed in her age group as well as a few other people in the tri club, but surprisingly I came in third in my age group and also got a trophy.  I did have to laugh when I saw that there were only four people in my age group.  Oh well 🙂

After the awards ceremony I went back to transition to get my gear, packed up in the car, took a wetwipe bath and changed, and we were finally on the road headed back home.  It was a long but fun weekend. 🙂  Next up, Ironman Racine 70.3!  Only six weeks away…and I’m determined to have a good run!

Run Time: 2:31:03 😦

Race Time: 6:11:57