Running in the Moment

The Swim

I hopped on my bike, clipped into my pedals and was off!  After a mile or two I felt like I was moving pretty slow, I looked down to see if my front brake pads were rubbing but it didn’t look like they were, and soon I realized I was just riding in headwind.  I quickly passed a few people and then tried to settle in.  I have really been working on my biking, especially during the off-season on the kickr and trying to get stronger.  When I rode with my tri-girls a month ago they said they were both impressed with how much my cycling had improved, so I hoped it would translate into races as well 🙂

I had my garmin set to show time, heart race, distance and average mph so as I passed the miles, the avg mph went up too.  Soon it was over 18mph and I was pretty happy, my legs felt good, my heart rate was in a good zone for a half (155-59) and I was doing well with nutrition.  Around 17 miles we hit the first turn-around, ok, I didn’t mention this before, but the week leading up to the race I was FREAKING out about the sharp 180 turn-arounds.  I know it sounds silly, but I am terrible at making technical turns on my tri bike.  The geometry of a tri bike does make it more challenging than a road bike, but on top of that, I just don’t have natural riding skills. I have to actually remember to put the outside pedal down and then lean into the turn 🙂  Yes, I need to practice more.  So all week I had visions of tumbling over at the turns and people crashing into me.  I know, I’m dramatic.

I was watching the riders in front of me, and one girl unclipped, tried to make the turn, and just put her foot down and shouted ‘I’m really bad at making turns in this thing’ and then started riding again.  Ok, so I am not the only person that was a tad intimidated by these turns!  I prepared to turn, unclipped my left foot in case I needed to put it down and freaked out and just put it down and stopped, and then started up again.  Silly, yes, but if that was the less-stressful way for me to ride that day, then that’s what I would do.  I could practice more, again, after the race.  After making the turn around, I grabbed a water bottle from a volunteer, filled up my aero bottle and was on my way.  At least I can do that task without running over a volunteer or crashing my bike 🙂

After passing a few more people, I made a right turn onto the next leg of the course (the bike course was in the shape of a T, which we did twice).  Headwind.  I knew we were going to hit it at some point with the 20mph gust predictions.  It wasn’t terrible, and I was used to headwind from riding in Columbia, IL.  I pushed on and passed a couple more people and then once again, hit the turnaround.  I unclipped my left foot just to be safe, and then safely made the turn and was on my way, hooray!  Now we had some lovely tailwind.  Since I didn’t have my watch showing mph and just avg I wasn’t sure how fast I was going, but my watch showed 19.1, so it had to be over 20mph. 🙂

I grabbed a bottle of water from the next aid station and soon was making another right turn to ride 8ish miles and then get to the turn around for loop #2.  I was feeling pretty good, passed another cyclist, and made it to the turn around to head out for round 2!  I was about 1:30 into the ride and my back and neck were definitely aching.  I had wished I had spent more than two rides in my new fit, but I would just have to deal with it.  I also seemed to be lacking energy and was feeling like I was going into a low point.  Then I realized it was probably time for half of a honeystinger waffle. I quickly ate it and five minutes later I could already feel a difference in my mood and energy 🙂

The rest of the second loop was pretty uneventful, the cross winds were tough on the top of the T, but when I made the right turn into the ‘bottom’ of the T, holy moly headwinds.  They were MUCH worse than the first loop and it was awful.  I haven’t checked my garmin but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t going faster than 12mph and I was really pushing.  Every time a cyclist passed me heading the opposite direction, I felt jealous.  This stunk.  I pushed and pushed and finally made it to the turn around.  Hooray!  Once I turned it was wonderful, push, push, push (I was pretty angry that my avg mph dropped to 18.2) and I was flying.  When I made the last right turn to the bike finish, I saw I was back up to 18.8.  Yay!

With only 8 miles to go I was ready to get off the bike, I hadn’t done very many long rides and combined with the new fit, my back and neck felt pretty achy and fatigued.  I also noticed I was started to feel pretty nauseous.  Uh-oh.  I knew it wasn’t from pushing too hard as my legs felt fine and I hadn’t been spiking my heart rate doing anything crazy.  Then it hit me, it had been in the back on my mind the whole morning, salt tabs.  Whenever I was low on sodium during my rides last year I felt really nauseous and once I took salt tabs, the issue was resolved.  Oh boy, how was the run going to go?  I was relieved to see the dismount line, but also really worried about the half-marathon that I still had to run.

Once I got off the bike, changed into running shoes, put on my race belt and hat and grabbed my gel, I was off.  Ugh.  I felt terrible.  This wasn’t going to be pretty.

Bike time: 2:58:29 (9 min PR!! almost 19mph!!)

T2: 1:33

The Run

Pre-Race

They weren’t joking about the seaweed/seaplants, ohmygoodness!!  It was wrapping around my arms and legs and covering my face!  I did very shallow strokes and NO kicking the entire time until finally I was clear of that area.  It took me a while to get into a rhythm as I usually freak out a little at the beginning of an open water swim and have trouble putting my face in the water.

Soon I got into a groove and was breathing to my right (clockwise course, so no need to breathe bilaterally) every three strokes.  Before I knew it, I was almost done with the first loop.  I waded near the shore where the enter/exit point was, called out my number (they didn’t have timing mats) and was back in the water again.  I checked my watch before heading out and saw it was around 18:40ish…woo-hoo!  If I keep the same pace I could PR!

The second loop was uneventful, just the battle with the seaweed/seaplants during the swim near the shore (I definitely yelped a few times under water when I really felt it tugging on my limbs), and soon I was out of the water and running up to transition.  I checked the clock and it read 38:xx, yay!  I will take a one minute PR 🙂

Once I got into transition I quickly pulled off my wetsuit, put my socks, bike shoes, glasses and helmet on and I was off!  Speedy transition for me (at KS I think I walked to my bike row, went to the wrong row, walked around…well in short, it was slooow).

Swim time: 38:51.03

T1: 1:59.52

The Bike

Week 13, the weekend especially, was very busy!  We had our ‘Epic Race Weekend’ this past weekend – I gave it that name because JMR was running a marathon that Saturday in South Bend, IN and I was racing a half-ironman on Sunday in Effingham, IL,  so it was busy but fun!

Well, I am a bit behind on my weekly training updates and since there is so much to update, I’ll spit up Week 12 & Week 13 training updates 🙂

Week 12 – light week

Monday – rest day 🙂

Tuesday – 2300 yard swim, back in the pool!

Wednesday – 1 hr spin on the trainer.

Thursday – 45 min aerobic run, definitely followed the recommended ‘easy’ pace @ 9:46a pace.

Friday – Overslept…missed 2400y swim.

I had a bike fitting appointment after work with Tim at Maplewood Bicycles and we made some big-ish changes to my fit!  I was originally fitted by the bike shop where I bought my Lola, but after a couple of rides I absolutely hated it, the bars were set really low and seat very high in a very aggressive position – not ideal for a newer cyclist and someone who had never ridden a tri bike before.  So I headed over to see Tim and he lowered the seat and raised the aero bars  so it was in a less aggressive position.  Such a difference, and I felt much more comfortable riding Lola.  Well that was two years ago and I have gained confidence riding Lola and am wanting to get more aero/power so I thought it was time to get re-fitted.  He dropped the bars around 3cm which should help give me more power and be more aerodynamic, but he also noticed my pedal strokes were pretty wobbly.  After more troubleshooting (he had all kinds of fancy gadgets), he figured out that I needed a shoe insert as well as shuts in my cleats to help stabilize my foot so I would have a more even pedal stroke.  Well, after that adjustment we then had to raise my seat!  So new insert/shunts, lower bars and a higher seat, ohmy!  Was this an awful decision one week from my first race??

(will add a picture of the new bike fit when I get home!)

Saturday – 2 hour ride outside, followed by 2o min run.  Well, the forecast called for rain throughout the morning, but I HAD to ride my bike outside to get used to the new fit.  No way Jose was I going to race without getting used to the new fit!  I drove to my usual spot in Columbia, IL and set off.  Oh man, I was nervous!  Deep breaths!  Finally I got into aero and was riding, but sloooowww.  After just a mile or two my neck and back were burning.  Oh great!  I kept pedaling on and finally after a half hour I was able to get into a groove and the burning went away.

I turned around after an hour and the wind was at my back and I saw 19 and 20mph on my watch.  Hooray!  I didn’t feel 100% comfortable but I was getting more used to it.  My feet felt weird with the inserts, but they did feel more supported.  30 min left to go and the skies open up and it starts raining.  Of course, I was doing my long ride, so it makes sense for it to rain!  The last 3 out of my 4 long training rides included rain.

I made it back to my car and really debated running, it was raining, I was wet, I just wanted to go home.  But I knew I should see how my legs felt running after riding in the new fit, so I changed my shirt and shoes, put on my hat and off I went.  My legs felt pretty good!  And after 5 minutes the rain stopped, and the rest of the run was dry.  Once I got back to my car I was happy I ran. 🙂

Sunday – 1 hr aerobic run @ 9:28 pace.

Total Training Hours: 5:43

Well this was a rough week, Vino Fondo really took it out of my legs so I suffered during most of my training this week.  I was also reeaalllyy tired.  Getting up in the mornings was a struggle, hence the missed swim.  I’ll keep this post short and sweet.

Monday – Rest day.

Tuesday – Overslept and missed my swim but did get in my 45 min run after work.  Legs were dead.

Wednesday – 1hr trainer ride, I skipped the 15 min run after because it was freezing cold and rainy outside.  I thought it was almost June?  What’s with this weather? Although I’m sure in July I’ll be complaining about the heat so I should be happy with the cooler weather.

Thursday – 2400 y swim in the am followed by a 1hr tempo run in the pm.  I managed an 8:39 pace, it felt good to be getting some speed back!

Friday – Easy 45 min trainer ride, and thank goodness for ‘easy’, my legs were still pretty worn out from the run the day before.

Saturday – 3 hr ride followed by 20 min run.  Woof.  This ride was tough from the beginning to end, my legs just really felt worn out within the first 15 minutes of riding.  Lots of burning and fatigue.  Frustrating.  The first part of the ride (13 miles or so) is pretty hilly and the past few times I have ridden it, I’ve averaged 13ish mph (slow, I know, but it’s hilly!), but this time I averaged 15mph, and was pretty pumped.  Then we rode 20ish more miles back to the parking lot and then did an out-and-back on the hilly section again.  Overall average of 16.5 mph.  Not speedy, but speedy for me on that route.  After the ride, I did a 20 min run followed by BBQ at a restaurant nearby.  I’m not going to lie, the last hour of the ride all I could think of was BBQ!

Sunday – 10 mile run @ an 8:50pace.  It wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t too bad either and my legs surprisingly had some pep in them after getting warmed up.    Last long run before the half in two weeks!  Oh man, I do NOT feel ready.  At. all.

Total Training Hours: 9:01

Hooray for this week being a recovery week 🙂

This was another big week, and I got in both of my swim workouts. I think my coach gave up on having me swim 3x a week, just getting in 2x is a victory for me.  Although maybe if I actually keep it up and don’t skip them, she might start adding in a third. 😉

Monday – Rest Day.  It’s starting to feel weird having a day where I don’t do anything…maybe I should make it a ‘cleaning day’. Eh, I think ‘couch day’ sounds better for now. 🙂

Tuesday – 2,500y swim in the morning (it took forever, soo many kicksets), followed by a 45 min run in the afternoon @ 9:34 pace.

Wednesday – 1hr spin on the trainer followed by a 30 min run.

Thursday – swam 2,100y in the am at a VERY SPEEDY (for me) pace, 1:49 sec/100y.  I don’t know if I have ever swam that pace before during an entire workout.  I will say that having zero kicksets did help speed up the average pace.  Now I’m very interested in seeing how the swim goes during my first race in June.

Not really training related, but at lunch I went to both the social security office AND the DMV in less than an hour (driving time included) and finally changed my last name!  I’m making my maiden name my middle name, so it’s not entirely gone 🙂  Also I cannot believe how easy and fast it was.  I figured I would just go to the social security office on Thursday and the DMV on Friday because it would take so long.  Impressive.

Friday – 1hr tempo run with 3 miles at Half Marathon pace.  I was dreading this run since the last time I did it, it was tough.  I managed to get it done with the 3 miles at 8:13, 8:15, 8:04 (I was happy for it to be the last mile), and an overall average pace of 8:43.

JMR drove to Quincy Friday night for a half-marathon he was running there on Saturday, so after my run I took advantage of a night solo and rented a redbox and may or may not have had a few chicken fingers for dinner.  Hey, I had a salad too, I was somewhat healthy!

Saturday – Vino Fondo.  I came into the race knowing it had some tough parts on the route since this is the third year I have done this ride (year 1, apparently I didn’t care writing about year 2).  But every year they change the course and mileage options so there are always some surprise hill(s) and challenges.  This year I was riding the 75 mile route, they offered 45 miles and 105 miles as well, but 75 seemed the most doable for me right now and worth the price.

The ride started off at 8:30a  Sugar Creek Winery where we descended the hill from the winery, rode along the katy trail for a mile and then the real ride began.  Within just a couple of miles there were several really steep hills.  Talk about getting warmed up quickly!  After being only five miles in I felt like I wanted to die.  Oh boy.  I’ve been training hills in Columbia, IL but not hills like this.  The route gradually calmed down to small rolling hills and I finally got settled in.

At the 25 mile mark we hit the first aid station and boy was I happy for a break!  Restroom stop, refilled on water and we were on our way.  The next 8 miles were flat, which was a nice break to just get into aero and push the pace, although it was very bumpy.  So bumpy that at the next rest stop we had to stop because my buddy who I was riding with realized his seat was about to fall off!!  All of the bumps loosened the main screw under his seat making it very wobbily.  Fortunately he had his bike tool set with him (note to self, I need to get one), and 15 minutes later we were ready to roll.

The next 25ish miles were pretty uneventful with a few heart-spiking climbs.  We made one more stop at the aid station at mile 64 for water and we were off to do the last BIG climb, Schleursberg, and finally head back to the winery.  The Schleursberg hill isn’t as steep as some of the earlier hills, but it is looong, and it is also a timed segment on the route for riders to compete for the fastest split of the day.  I however, just wanted to get up that darn hill!  It felt slow but I was :30 seconds faster than last year.  Not that huge of a difference but I’ll take it!

Finally it was time to hop on the katy trail for a little less than a mile and head back up the winery hill.  I was dreading this hill throughout the whole ride.  I remembered how steep it was when leaving and with every additional hill we kept climbing I felt more and more tired and worried about this hill.  Well, I turned right off the katy trail to immediately start climbing and realized I stink at sharp turns and made a very awkward wide turn in the other lane (there were cars, thank goodness they were stopped and didn’t run me over) and once I was back over to the right side, I realized I wasn’t in a low enough gear and pretty much toppled over.  Thank goodness I was able to unclip fast enough and my left foot stopped me from hitting the pavement (and embarrassing myself in front of cars and other cyclists).  So, I walked my bike up that dumb hill, and then continued to walk it through the finishers chute.  I was done.  I wanted my pint glass (finishers received a ‘Vino Fondo’ pint glass), bbq and a post-ride beer!

I met up with my buddy and we headed back to the cars to put up our bikes, put away our gear and change out of our smelly, wet cycling clothes and shoes.  Once changed I felt much better!  We went to get food, a drink and hung out for a bit with fellow club members and finally around 4p I hit the road to head back home, ready for a nap.  Yes, you are reading that right, 4p!  We didn’t even get finished until 3p.  I figured the ride would take close to 5 hours, which it did 5:10, but I didn’t account for stopping as well….so we were out there for 6.5 hours!  I couldn’t believe it was 3p when I finally rode walked through the finishers chute.   What a long day.

Once I took a short nap I got a second wind and met up with my tri ladies for dinner.  I am certain that the burger and fries I ate definitely outweighed my calorie deficit from the ride, but oh well, it was a rough ride and deserved it 🙂  Back to healthy eating on Sunday!

Sunday – 1hr 15min run.  Boy was that rough.  My legs were angry and pretty beaten up from all of the hills the day before.  I think around mile 4 they felt a little less sluggish, but they managed to still feel pretty bad throughout the whole run.  Averaged a slow 9:37 pace, but I was glad to just get it done.

Total Training Hours: 11:10

Patrick says hello!  This is his new favorite spot.

Yesterday ended up being pretty busy for a Monday, so I’m giving my weekly training update today 🙂

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: I hit snooze too many times, that when I finally paid attention to the time, it was too late to head to the pool, so no swim.  I really need to come up with a better game plan so I don’t miss my morning swims!  In the afternoon I did a 45 min aerobic run @ 9:17 pace.

Wednesday: 1hr trainer ride + 15 min run.

Thursday: 1 hr hill run @ 9:08 pace.

Friday: 2,400 y swim (yes, finally made it to the pool).

Saturday: 3-3.5 hr ride (50 miles) followed by 30 minute run.  Well, that was the plan.  I met a friend in Columbia, IL to ride and within 45  minutes we were greeted with light rain.  After stopping at a gas station for water/food, we headed out again and this time the rain wasn’t exactly light.

Finally after riding for 2 hours, we were back at our cars.  My friend was going to head home and I was planning on riding another hour to get in around 50 miles, but as soon I turned around I saw lightning followed by thunder.  No dice.  So I packed up Lola (thank goodness I had a towel in the car as I was soaking wet), and headed home.  30 minutes later I was on the trainer riding away 🙂  I rode another hour and then ran 30 minutes in the rain.  By the end I just wanted a hot shower and food!  At least I got it done!

Sunday: Another attempt at 12 miles, (failure #1) but this time I actually finished. 🙂  I decided to run from our house since we had mother’s day plans in the afternoon and it would be the most efficient way to get the miles in.  Efficient, but NOT easy.  Oh boy…it was sooo hilly.  I swore after I walked through the door at the end that I would NEVER do a long run again from our house!

Total Training Hours: 9:25

Well that’s about it – this week the volume is even bigger, and my main goal is to get ALL my swims in! 🙂

This will be a quick recap as I didn’t take any pictures this week and it was a pretty light week training-wise!

Monday – Rest day.

Tuesday – 2000y swim with a 1000 time trial (17:30) in the middle.  Not my speediest but not bad either for it being this early in the season.  In the afternoon I did an easy 45 min run, 5 miles @ 9min pace.

Wednesday – 45 minute trainer ride.

Thursday – 1 hr run, very hilly, 6.6 miles @ 9:05 pace.

Friday – Fail.  Overslept and did not get my swim in.

Saturday – 1 hr Ride/ 2 mile Run/ 1 hr Ride/ 2 mile Run… I figured it would be easier to ride my trainer than attempt to do this elsewhere and have to lock up my bike each time.  Plus, doing the second hour ride at a time trial effort, I could push hard and not have to worry about cars, pedestrians or dogs 🙂  This was a tough workout!

Sunday – 1 hr tempo run, with 3 miles @ Half Marathon pace, ended just shy of 7 miles, 6.93 with an overall average 8:40 pace.  This was a short run, even with the HM effort I didn’t think it was going to be tough.  Boy was I wrong.  I was beat after this run!

Total Training Hours: 6:41

Next week the volume is back up and if I get all of my workouts in, will be closer to 10-11 hrs.  Yipes!

A little mid-week update 🙂 Ironman Wisconsin is my A race of the season and was going to be my last big race for 2015.  I wasn’t planning on turning into a couch potato after, but was going to cut back on the long-distance focused training. Well…until this happened:

Ok, I’ll back up a little.  JMR had entered the Chicago Marathon lottery the day it opened, as I told him he HAD to run this race because it was so much fun (he’s never run a big marathon before that has crazy crowds of course support like Chicago).  As the weeks went by I thought about entering as well.  I ran it in 2006 as my first marathon, finishing in 4:39.  I signed up the following year hoping to PR, but it was the year that they ‘cancelled it’ due to the heat and finished, walking the last six miles, in just under 6 hours.  I returned in 2011, but didn’t end up starting due to a hip issue.  This race and I definitely have a history, and I wanted to go back and finally beat that first marathon time!  So on a whim, a couple of days before the lottery closed, I entered (I still cannot believe it was free to enter the lottery?!).

Well, luck was on our side and we both got in 🙂 (if JMR hadn’t gotten in, and I did, we weren’t going to go because the whole reason I registered was because he did!), and after getting that exciting email, I registered.  I mentioned that I wanted to PR, but IMWI is one month (I know…I know…) before the Chicago Marathon, so I’m not exactly sure how my body will feel or if it even will want to run the whole thing.  So that’s up in the air, but I am just so excited to be going back to run this awesome race!!  It does make me feel old… 9 years ago I first ran this race….that sounds so long ago!

So a slight change of plans, the Chicago Marathon will be my last big race of 2015 🙂