Running in the Moment

I can’t believe it’s already Sunday afternoon, boy did this weekend fly by!  Friday night was pretty uneventful, I ended up going to bed at 8p due to a migraine I had been battling with all day.  Bummer.  I even missed a charity jewelry and handbag show my cousins were having 😦  Fortunately I know what caused it – the 2 hours of sleep Thursday night (insomnia, argh!), and lack of sleep always usually triggers a migraine the next day.   Hoping to try some new ways to get better sleep because my insomnia (or whatever it is) is reappearing more often than not lately.

Saturday I woke up bright and early and ran a quick 3 miles before heading to a new yoga class.  My legs felt great which was a relief from Thursday’s run, when they were not happy campers.  On to the yoga class, ohmy.  I think it was titled ‘Power Vinyasa’, but most yoga classes I’ve been to are pretty much the same, some in a heated a room, some not, and almost always offer several variations of a pose, so as a rusty yogi, I wasn’t too worried.  I just wanted to get in some good stretching for the Halloween 10k on Sunday and help my IT bands in general.

I was wrong.  All yoga classes are not equal.  At first we did some basic poses but then we started really doing some tough poses which stretched the hips and hamstrings, which was what I wanted, but ohman.  They *really* stretched the hips and hamstrings.  In retrospect I should have really modified the poses, but at the time I was all ‘Oh awesome!  More stretches!  My hips and hamstrings are really going to benefit from this!’.  As if that wasn’t enough, one of the moves we did was a head stand.  We did several variations against the wall (so we didn’t have everyone toppling over each other when one person lost balance), and even with the wall behind you, the focus was to engage your core and not lean against the wall.  I should have sat this one out, but everyone else was doing it… and I took gymnastics as a child (yeah… I’m cringing while typing this)… I can do this!  And I could!  It was great!  We ended with some more meditative poses, and I left the class feeling refreshed.  Plus, the instructor is just an awesome person in general (I have taken her spinning classes before), so that made the class that much more enjoyable.  More on the yoga after effects in a bit…

After yoga I did some cleaning while watching Kona Ironman World Championships, which was streaming live on Ironman’s website.  I decided hooking up my laptop to my tv was a *much* better way to watch it 🙂 Ignore the HDMI cord dangling under the tv, it was the only way to hook up the laptop.

Then I headed to the new running store by my house to check out the store and pick up some new running socks.  I have socks that wick from Target, but have a couple of ‘fancy’ pairs from Nike that I really like and fit much better.  I ruined one of my pairs from the red clay at Redman, and now they just look dirty, even when clean 😦

After the errands I headed to my parents to wait for their new washer to be delivered while they were out of town.  I busied myself with two very awful-yet-so-good Lifetime movies.  I felt like I was very productive.  After the washer was delivered I rushed home to meet JMR and catch the men and women pro’s finish Kona.  Oh boy it was so awesome to watch.  I think JMR was kind of bored, I mean it pretty much is just people running by themselves at that point during the run, not like the ‘sports’ he’s used to, but to me it’s just so amazing to watch.  How do people have the physical ability to swim, bike and run THAT fast?  Mind blowing.  I’m pretty certain that I don’t have the genetic makeup to ever be that fast, so Kona shall remain a dream for me 🙂  They do have lottery spots for individuals that have finished an Ironman event, but would you really want to compete in an event that you didn’t qualify for?  I would not feel very confident toeing the start with the age groupers that did qualify.

Back to this weekend.  JMR and I went to dinner at Lester’s near my house, and I had a so-so chicken sandwich.  I love their reuben sandwich, but figured with a race the next day, that would probably not be the greatest choice to eat.  After having a couple of beers and staying out a bit too late, I crashed around 11.

I woke up promptly at 5a to get ready for the Halloween 10k, and was…. SORE.  So SORE.  Oh good-lawd-I-hurt-to-walk-there’s-no-way-I-can-run sore.  My arms, back, abs (ha, I’ll still call them abs if they aren’t exactly visible), legs freaking hurt!  Headstands now seemed like a terrible idea, and my hamstrings were on fire.  I used the foam roller for a bit, took some ibuprofen and hoped that by the time I got to the race, things would be looking up.  Don’t mind Patrick’s creepy eyes in the picture, he isn’t possessed, the flash did something wonky.

My two favorite pals, Patrick and my Foam roller (and a couple of Patrick’s toys, he’s a slob)

I plan to write my race report shortly, but to fill you in, things didn’t look up much.  On the positive side, the weather was great,  it was so much fun seeing all of the costumes people had on, and no matter how the race went, this is my favorite month and favorite holiday, so I’m glad I got to celebrate it with a run!

Now I’m sitting on the couch vegging (1 mile warmup + 6.2 mile race is enough exercise to warrant sitting on the couch the rest of the day watching tv and taking naps, right?  :)), and that’s the plan for the rest of the day!  Well, that and sitting on ice packs!

The running horse that is.  After the ride on Sunday, I went back into sloth mode and took Monday and Tuesday off.  I even took a nap after work on Monday, oh man.  However by Wednesday I finally realized if I was going to have a decent 10k this weekend and even moreso, a decent half the following weekend, I needed to put my running shoes on and get back out there.

After doing dishes and two loads of laundry (talk about procrastinating), I finally dragged myself outside for a 3 mile run.  Much less than my planned 5, but mentally it was all I could convince myself to do.  I was able to run at a pretty speedy pace which I was happy about, but I was happier to be back inside, shower and put on warm clothes afterwards.  Running in the evenings has gotten quite chilly and shorts and a t-shirt probably aren’t going to cut it anymore!

Today I had planned to do six after work, but one mile into the run I realized that probably wasn’t going to happen.  My left hamstring was really tight and my right hip was downright angry.  Argh, guess I should have stretched after the run the night before.  Regardless, I ended up only doing four, but was glad that I dragged myself out two nights in a row, which was the most I had done during the weeks since the race.  My weekends somehow have been very busy with riding and running, but weekdays…not so much (I do have the flu to partly blame for that).

I also have new motivation to get fit during the off-season though – I finally have decided on a coach for IMAZ!  I spoke to her today and she said that she had room for me in 2013, and training will start officially in March!  Now I’m really starting to get excited again for IMAZ.  At the beginning of the week I was starting to feel really intimidated by the race itself and the costs along the way – but now that I have a coach secured and a budget in place, I’m feeling much more confident and excited.  I cannot wait to head down to Tempe in a little over a month to volunteer, if that isn’t motivating, I don’t know what is!

Tomorrow am, depending on how my hip/hamstring feels, I plan to do some miles on the treadmill (6? but seeing how tonight went, I won’t push it).   Fingers crossed.  Also, at lunch I am picking up my Halloween 10k race packet during lunch, hooray!!  I look forward to this race every year!!

Off to bed!

Today my dad wanted to celebrate his 62nd birthday by riding 62 miles… and let me tell you, we rode every darn bit of the 62 miles and made it count!  I’m on the couch with grumpy legs typing this.

Before the big birthday ride today, yesterday I decided that enough was enough and it was time to get off the couch!  I ended up sick with the flu late Sunday night (hence the nausea during the race, it wasn’t bad nutrition, I was sick!!) all day Monday and Tuesday and then just took some time off the rest of the week.  By Saturday morning my legs were tired of being lazy, so I decided to do my long run.  I ran twelve miles around a 9:30 pace, which felt a little tough at times, but for the most part felt like a good pace.  After the run I put on my compression socks, ran many errands (one which included getting new, tougher bike tires for the crushed trail we were riding the next day) and finally plopped on the couch at 8p.

Today I got up around 8 and then headed to my parents at 9:30 to drive with my dad and their neighbor to the Katy trail where we were riding.  I was hoping my new, thicker tires would do ok, but was a bit worried about riding the trail on a road bike.  As we took off, my tires felt ok, but it was pretty darn bumpy and I was regretting my decision to ride in tri shorts instead of bike shorts.  Darn, I knew my rump would be complaining to me about it tonight.  At least the weather was perfect, the sun was shining, and with all of the leaves changing colors it was really pretty to see while riding along the trail.

The first 30 miles felt good, around mile 40 I started to get a bit tired, and by mile 45, where we stopped for a late lunch and met my neighbor’s wife, their daughter and my mom, I felt like I was completely out of gas.  Riding on a trail is no joke and a lot tougher than the road.  Even though it was flat, the constant pedaling against the trail was really really wearing, and going 13mph was tough effort!  For a second I secretly thought of asking my mom if I could put my bike in her car and just ride home with her, but knew that wasn’t really an option.  We were going to finish this birthday ride!

I was pretty hungry by the time we got there and had a couple of beers along with my sandwich for ‘added carbs’ 🙂  After an hour, my mom left to head back home and the five of us (my neighbor’s wife and daughter road their bikes from the car to the restaurant) started to head back to the cars, which was about 18 miles away.  I was tired and so was my rump, but the food and break (and beers? ;))gave me some new-found energy so I knew we would finish the last 18 miles strong.  I think my dad felt the same way after resting and getting some fuel because he had really picked up the pace from what we were riding at the end of the first 45.

We finally made it back to the cars and when I stopped my watch, I couldn’t believe how long we had been riding.  Almost six and a half hours.  Good gawd. SIX and a half HOURS.  I’ve never ridden for that long before in my life! (ha, until IMAZ training starts…)  Oh boy, I knew my legs were going to hate me tomorrow.  I was even more proud of my dad finishing, I know he works out and is in shape, but this ride was tough!  And he was in the front leading for most of the ride – impressive!  I made him promise though that when we did 63 next year, we would skip the trail and do it on the roads!!

Happy Birthday Dad!

At mile 15

…is kind of lazy.  At least if you’re me.  Which is why it took me almost two weeks to post my Redman race report.  But I did lie a little in my last post, as the 2012 tri season wasn’t ‘completely’ over after Redman, but I’ll get into that in a little bit.

I woke up Monday morning with my eyes on fire and decided to stay in my glasses since I could hardly tolerate my contacts.  I somehow managed to go to Little Shark to purchase the wetsuit I rented and chit chatted with one of the sales ladies about my race, and her immediate response to my run was ‘Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition’.  I still have a lot to learn about training, and as she said, triathlons at a half distance or longer are really four disciplines: swim, bike, run, nutrition.  Enough said, I learned that the hard way.  I plan on taking enduralytes the next time to help avoid the huge bonk, since my food nutrition was pretty good, but my electrolytes were probably pretty off.

After spending a couple more hours in pain (I drove to and from Little Shark with my sunglasses over my glasses, my eyes were that sensitive), I made an appointment with my eye Dr.  Well, as it turns out, I wasn’t crazy, my eyes were angry, in fact I had managed to scratch my left cornea.  My eyes were mad and no longer can tolerate contacts overnight … AND I might have to be in glasses for a month until my left eye healed.  OMG.  How on earth was I going to maintain my fitness and be ready for the half marathon on the 21st in glasses?  I can’t run in glasses, heck, I have trouble walking down stairs in them.  Ugh.  I guess I would be taking some time off for running for a while.  Perhaps it was for the best since I’m sure my body needed a break.

However, on Tuesday I decided to do my favorite spin class after work since I could do that ok in glasses and not worry about falling on my face.  It was weird to go since I had ‘banned’ myself from spinning since May in order to make sure I got in as many outdoor rides as possible, but I was also excited.  Unfortunately since I wasn’t sure if I’d be up to spin on Tuesday I didn’t sign up ahead of time and was on the wait list.  However I was able to get in!  I was super happy to be back spinning, but after riding outside for so long, I realized that this class really didn’t mock riding outside much at all, it was a great cardio workout, but probably not good for training purposes. I think some of the other instructors classes are more structured to match cycling outdoors, but I love the music in this class.  Boo hiss.  That meant I would be spending most of my rides early next year when the weather wasn’t ideal on the trainer.  Regardless, it was a great workout and I was happy to get my sweat on.

The next day my legs were crabby, my motivation was gone and I decided to take the day off…and the next, and the next.  Finally when I went back to the eye Dr. on Friday I got the good news that the eye drops she prescribed me worked really really well, and my eye was healed!  I got the green light to wear contacts for a few hours each day during the weekend and then I could wear them all day during the week.  That was the kick in the pants that I needed, and I woke up early Saturday to do my long-ish run.  I ran 11 miles around a 9:04 pace which I was pretty happy about since my legs had been pretty lazy during the week.

After the good run, I gave myself the green light to do the last minute tri I had been eyeing all week.  I wanted to get one last tri in, I was physically prepared for it and I also wanted redemption on the run.  Now, granted I had done a long-ish run on Saturday, so perhaps the run might not be awesome, but I still wanted to try.   I also thought perhaps wearing really bright compression socks Saturday afternoon would help freshen up my legs too.

So I got up at 5a on Sunday, packed up my gear, put Peaches on my car bike rack and set out to drive to Rend Lake to race ‘Last Tri’ (that’s really the name of the race).  On the drive I was tired, giddy and excited.  My last tri race of the season, was I really doing this?  Solo, not knowing anyone going and no fans to accompany me.  It all felt very secret.  So secret, in fact I wore my road ID bracelet in case something happened to me since no one there would know who to call!

I arrived at 7:40 and immediately headed to registration.  On the way I ran into two club members I’ve trained with over the summer and who also did Redman, hooray!  I was pretty excited to see them!  I quickly registered, got my bib and headed back to the car to get my gear.  On the way back I ran into another club member – I was starting to feel pretty calm and pumped to see familiar faces.

I took a quick picture of my bib, swim cap and free cereal sample to send to JMR to let him know I had made it safely and was getting ready to race!

Next, I gathered up my gear and hiked back to transition to set up my stuff.  Per the slowness during Redman, I had decided that this would be a no socks race.  Also, I was going to test out taking off my wetsuit by myself.  That kind of freaked me out.  I envisioned a ten minute transition as I wiggled on the ground trying to get it off.

Soon everyone started migrating to the beach and after waiting for EMT to show up, the long course group was off and swimming.  I was doing the sprint distance because riding 42 miles on the longer course did not sound like fun, so I stuck with swimming 750 yards, biking 21 miles and running a 5k.  Short but a good way to end the season.  Soon I was wading in the water ready for the gun.  The water was chilly!  I was so happy I was an official owner of a wetsuit, because I really needed one for this swim!  And then, the gun went off!  There were only 30 or so women in the sprint, so the start wasn’t too chaotic and before I knew it, I got into a really good groove, was breathing bilaterally and felt strong.  I could see a few pink swim caps (the color my wave wore) ahead of me, but not too many, I was in the front end of the group!

The next thing I knew, my hands hit the muddy bottom of the lake and I was up and running out of the water and attempting to pull my wetsuit off.  Not happening.  And the nausea!  Why do I always feel seasick after swimming!  I waddled up the swim to transition area and finally after reaching my bike was able to yank my wetsuit down and step on one of the arms to pull it off.  Phew!  Next I threw my bike shoes on, put on my helmet and sunglasses and was off!

The bike was pretty uneventful, as most of the bike legs of my races are, but there was some nausea thrown in and my legs were anything but fresh.  Foof.  I thought that wearing the compression socks on Saturday after my run would work some magic but apparently not.  I managed to range between 18-19 mph but it didn’t feel effortless.  And what was up with the nausea?  At least I only let one female pass me, so based on where I thought I was after the swim, I was either in 5th or 6th place in the women’s division.

Once I reached transition I hopped off my bike, switched into my running gear and was off running.  Woah.  Ok, just woah.  My legs were pissed.  Like 8:30 minute-mile pissed, and they hurt!  Aww… I was looking to run 7:15’s 😦  I guess it was too much to expect from my legs after the run the day before and maybe they were a bit tired still from the half last weekend.  On top of the sore legs, nausea kept creeping back.  I was puzzled.  How could I have made the same mistake again?  I wasn’t sure, but at that point, there wasn’t much I could do, so I just tried to hold on and move forward.  Fortunately no females passed me on the run, so I managed to hold my place.  Also, I actually managed to figure out my Garmin’s multi-sport mode, so I could see my pace!  At least that was a success!

When I finished I saw my times, swim was great (1:53 pace, which is good for me), bike was ok 18.2 mph, and run was sad.  Very sad.  8:27 min miles.  However, I did manage to finish 6th female and win my age group!!  I’ll take it!!  I had met my super secret goal of winning my age group during this tri season and I was extremely pumped!

I waited for the other club members to finish the long course and they both did great (the other member wasn’t racing, just cheering) and won their age groups as well!!  I stayed for awards, received my medal and finally got back home around 4:30p.  What a long day, but it was worth it!  This time I’m not lying when I say the 2012 tri season IS officially over! 🙂

Age group win medal (on the left) and Finisher medal (on the right).

As soon as I ran out of the chute I saw the tri club tent and club members lined up and cheering me on, it was a great mental boost!  I looked down at my Garmin and it was showing 44/mph instead of my run pace!  Argh!  You’d think I would have figured out the multisport mode by race day, but obviously not.  I tried fiddling with it and in the process accidentally hit the lap button, which to the watch meant I was done with the run.  It played a little song (the ‘you finished the race’ song?  Not sure where Garmin was going with that one) and then displayed 0:00:00.  Great.  I had to reset it, switch to just run mode and then I was able to see my pace.  Ridiculous.  If I can’t figure it out during the next race, I’m skipping multisport mode and just using it as a watch to track total time.

My first couple of miles I went out at around an 8:30 pace, a bit faster than I had planned, but I was feeling good.  Until mile 3.  At that point, I started feeling extremely nauseous and since it was around noon, it had gotten really hot.  93 degrees hot.  Additionally, the two loop run course offers no shade and there wasn’t a breeze to help out either.  I started to really slow down, and then, what I had dreaded to do on the run, I started walking.

Ugh.  I couldn’t believe it, I had trained all summer to WALK the run?  I tried to pull some mental toughness and get myself running again, but when I did, I had huge waves of nausea.  I didn’t want to throw up in fear that I would get really dehydrated and have even more issues, so every time I got nauseous, I went back to walking, and then running…and then nausea.  Ugh.  At this point, I started to get frustrated and began to wonder why  people did these races, why pay money to run in the middle of the day  after already swimming 1.2 miles and biking 56 miles? Real running races start early in the morning when it’s nice and cool.  This is freaking  nuts.  How was I going to finish this if my stomach was grumpy the rest of the race?

I drank water and gatorade at every aid station (there was one every mile) and took the cold sponges volunteers were handing out and stuffed them in my tri top, but nothing seemed to help. At the mile 5 aid station, I head someone yell ‘coke!’ and I remembered a club member saying how they tried coke (a-cola… not the illegal stuff) and how it really helped them during their race.  I figured I didn’t have much to lose at this point, so I shouted ‘Coke!’ and a volunteer handed me a cup.  It was surprisingly refreshing!  I finished the whole dixie cup of it and kept running.  I passed by the club tent before the turn around to start the second loop, so I did my best job to fake a smile and give high fives.

I tried to put on a smile, but I was struggling.

I finally made it to the turn around for the first loop, and a friend in the club ran alongside me to see how I was feeling.  All I could manage to say was that I felt nauseous, and my stomach was full of liquid, but I was still thirsty and couldn’t seem to figure out what was wrong (Perhaps I should have peed before the run?  Too late now, there weren’t any porta potties on the run course…wtf?).  I must have sounded really whiney because he just responded ‘aww, you’ll be ok’ and smiled at me.  Oh well, so much for words of wisdom, I guess I needed to just suck it up.

On my way out from the turn around, I was running alongside a lady and we started chatting about the race, and it turned out this was her first half as well!  Suddenly I was able to pick up my pace and I was feeling good, we wished each other luck and I went ahead.  Next, I passed by the club tent and this time I was feeling good!  This smile was for real this time!

I gave JMR a big smile and wave and in retrospect, I wish I had also given him a kiss, but I was all business at that point.  No time for kisses.  See I was even too focused and missed his highfive:

I looked down at my watch and I was back to running around 9 minute miles!   Woah!!  Hooray!  And it felt good…. the coke!  It had to be the coke, that was the only thing I did differently and things had changed.  Hail to the coke!  Going forward instead of gatorade, at every aid station I would ask for a water and coke and it really seemed to be working.  I ended up passing a few club members racing and gave them high fives along the way.  This was the race I was supposed to be having during the whole run!  As I looked at my watch, I realized that I wouldn’t finish the run in under 2 hours, but at that point I didn’t care too much because I knew I was going to finish, and I was going to finish STRONG!

As I got to the last mile, I tossed the sponges out of my tri top (didn’t want a silly finishers picture with sponges hanging out of my top) and tried to pick up the pace a bit.  Soon I could see the finish chute, this was it!!  I passed the club tent for one last round of high fives and dashed down the chute!  I heard the announcer call out my name, I had officially finished my first 70.3!! (Although he read the person’s information that finished behind me at first, saying this was my third 70.3, boy was I surprised when I heard that!).

I immediately found two other club members I trained with over the summer in the finishers tent and was so happy to see them.  I drank (yet another) coke and basked in the excitement of finishing my first half, and also how great I felt!  After doing some math I knew I hadn’t finished in under 6 hours, but I was pretty close.  We went over to the timing booth where they printed out our race splits/times and I had finished in 6:07!  I was pretty excited but also felt a little twinge of irritation of knowing what it could have been had the first half of the run gone as planned.  But I guess that’s the point, if everything always went as planned, where would the challenge be?

After spending a few more minutes in the tent I headed out where JMR was waiting for me.  I gave him a hug and a kiss, I was so happy to see him!  He took a picture of me next to the finish cute with my medal, and at this point gatorade reappeared as it was no longer my enemy.

I couldn’t believe it, it was over!  Five months of dedication and training and I had finished the race –  and other than the run, better than I had expected to finish!  My swim went well (I was able to keep up with T), I didn’t even know I could maintain 18mph for 56 miles, and even with the hurdle in the run, I still finished strong and felt great.   I also owed my finish to JMR, my family and friends, because without them and their support (and them listening to me whine about bad days and brag about good ones), I couldn’t have done it.  My tri season for 2012 was officially over, but plans for the 2013 season were already in the works 😉

Me and T after the race

Me and JMR, the best Sherpa ever!

Official Race Stats

As I half jogged/waddled up the ramp I stopped at the wetsuit stripper volunteers and gladly layed down while they whipped the rest of my wetsuit off.  I’m really going to have to practice taking it off quickly on my own, because not all races have wetsuit strippers!  Finally by the time I got to my transition area, the nausea was starting to subside.  I plopped down on the ground and washed and wiped off my feet with the extra water bottle and towel I had layed out, knowing that my feet would be quite messy from the clay.  Next I attempted to put my socks on and had some serious issues getting the one on my left foot.  I also realized I had my shoes velcro-ed and clipped so I had to undo those before putting them on.  Rookie mistakes!  I knew I was taking much longer than I should have been in transition, but just kept plugging along.

Eventually I stood up, put on my gloves, glasses and helmet and took peaches off the rack.  I passed T on my way out and gave her a quick cheer and after I passed the dismount line, I hopped on peaches and away we went!  I immediately started eating my honey stinger waffle  to get that nutrition out of the way so I could focus on getting a good speed going.  Once I finished that, I took a swig from my water bottle and set out to get into a good groove for the next 56 miles.

My legs felt great and I was able to hit around 19-20 mph for the first 20 miles or so.  I was also paying attention to my watch so that I would remember to take a gel at the top of the hour and eat my honey stinger chews in between tn the middle of the hour.  Focusing on the nutrition helped the miles tick off fairly quickly and before I knew it, I was at the turn around point – woah!!  The bike portion seemed to really fly by and I’m guessing part of it was because I was enjoying the ride and being in the race atmosphere.  Racers (mostly men) that passed me, also were encouraging me and cheering me on.  I guess it helped that I had put my bib on during the bike so that they shouted my name while cheering me on!

At this point I was also noticing how much I disliked grabbing my water bottle that was positioned under the front of my seat.  Every time I took it out, it hit my top bike bar which closed the nozzle and I would spend extra time trying to pull it open with my teeth.  It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it slowed me down and irritated me every time.  Finally by mile 40, I had had enough and before I approached the next aid station, I decided to toss the bottle and just use the regular water bottles with the squirt lids that they were handing out.  I executed the toss quite nicely as it plopped to the right of me amongst a ton of other bottles but when I approached the volunteers I was handed a water bottle with no top!  Oh no!  I didn’t want to stop or turn around, so I figured I’d try to use it without the top.  No game, it was spilling water everywhere and really annoying.  I quickly tossed that water bottle.  I knew I had enough water in my first water bottle so I would be ok, but I would definitely need to get another one at the next aid station, because it was getting hot!

At mile 46 I passed the next aid station and got a water bottle with a squirt lid.  Phew!  After taking a few swigs I started to get a little emotional… this was really happening, I was going to get off the bike and do the run!  I was going to finish!  The bike leg was the one that I was most worried about, because so many things can go wrong that aren’t in your control.  A flat, mechanical issues, a crash… but so far, things were good!  I also started doing the math and realized if I could keep up the pace I was going, that I would finish in under 3:15 on the bike, and if I could do the run under 2 hours, then I would finish under 6 hours!  Wow, I was hoping for 6:30 but didn’t know what was a realistic goal.  I quickly pushed the calculations out of my head and told myself I needed to save my energy and focus on finishing the bike.

I took my last gel with 8 miles to go and around that point my legs started getting tired and the wind picked up.  Ugh.  So I guess I got excited a bit too early.  10 miles is still quite a bit of distance.  Throughout the ride I was switching from having my hands near the brakes and from riding in my drops.  I felt much more powerful in the drops and was able to cut down on the wind, but after a while my back got tired of the position, so I would switch back up near the breaks.  I was silently cursing myself for not getting aero-bars this summer!  They will be my very next bike purchase if I don’t end up getting a tri bike for next season!  Regardless, at this point no position was feeling good.  I just wanted to be off the bike.

After having some suck-it-up-and-be-tough-talks, and getting over not having aero-bars to avoid the wind, I was finally approaching the lake!  Hooray!!  I was only a couple of miles away!!  I was itching to get off the bike and start running!  I finally made it to the transition area and stopped my bike before the dismount line, and hopped off!

Hooray, I’m off the bike!

Gah!  I tried to run with my bike back into transition but my quads weren’t aware of this plan and I was doing more of a shuffle/waddle instead.  I re-racked peaches, took off my helmet, gloves and sunglasses, switched to my running shoes and grabbed my hat as I ran out of transition.  I had to pee but also had no desire to stop and use the porta-potty either.  Maybe it would go away?  Regardless I kept going and exited the transition to begin the run.

The Run

Race day.  I woke up at 4a, not tired but also not super wired.  I managed to get some decent sleep, and the only thing from keeping me getting good sleep was the fact that I had those stupid temporary tattoos on my arms and every time I moved, I was worried I would rub it off on the sheets.  Grr.

I started hydrating as soon as I woke up and organized/put all of my gear in my bag, and finally at 4:30a I turned all of the lights on so I could get ready in regular light.  I tried to hold off as long as I could so JMR could keep sleeping, but I guess 4:30 was my limit (I think he was awake anyways, but oh well).  After the gear was packed I ate my banana and half of a pb sandwich.  I usually just eat a banana before training but I knew I should eat more with the long day ahead and honestly, half of a sandwich probably wasn’t enough, but my stomach was already fighting solid foods.

At 5a we headed downstairs to meet the rest of the crew and pack into the vans to head to the race site.  It was chilly and dark!  I was glad I purchased a long-sleeved tri-club tech shirt so I could wear it to the race and not only feel warm but feel full of club spirit!  We arrived to the race site pretty quickly and so my training buddy, T, and I headed to the transition area to get everything set up.  Transition didn’t take too long, I got my tires pumped and nutrition set up.   As it got closer to transition closing time I gathered all of my swim items up as well as my wetsuit, so I could put it on in transition and not get all of the clay in it from the beach.  Immediately I realized I was missing my swim cap!  It was most likely in the bag that I gave to JMR during my transition set-up that I thought I didn’t need (It had gloves and arm warmers in it, definitely not needed with a race start temperature in the high 70’s…in the dark).  I hussled out of transition to find JMR, and sure enough they were in the bag.   Phew!!

I ran back into transition to attempt to finish squeezing into my wetsuit as I had already squeezed/pulled it up to my hips.  With some help from T I was able to zip it and was race ready.  Well, physically I was race ready, was I mentally?  Not sure…. everything was flying by so fast.  It was crazy.  I was nervous, but at the same time, really darn calm.   It was like there was so much to worry and think about that I just couldn’t focus on one thing, so I focused on nothing.  Whatever it was, it worked for me and I managed to not hyperventilate (or have stomach issues… thank you pre-prace immodium) before the race.

Here’s a pic T’s husband took of us right outside transition before heading towards the lake:

Next we walked down to the water, and man, they weren’t kidding about why it was called Redman, this red clay was ridiculous!

Check out the red clay!

Shortly after waiting around we realized that our group would be up soon, and we also realized that the waves were pretty small and that it was probably not a good idea being in the safety wave as we were both decent swimmers and not really new at this sport.  Ugh.  Oh well, the wave in front of us was the wave we would have been in anyways, so it didn’t really put us that much further back.

Before I knew it, we were walking into the mushy clay into the water in preparation for our wave to start….and then… the horn went off.  Just like that, I was in the water swimming.  Wait, no, I wasn’t. Oh good grief!  Breaststroke, backstroke, treading water..!!!  Never again, safety wave, never again.  It was a huuuge struggle to try to even find some clear, safe water to swim in without fear of being pummelled by a backstroker or kicked by a breaststroker.  Didn’t these people know how far we had to swim and how gosh darn long it would take them to finish it at that pace??

I finally found some clear swimming space and started getting into a groove.  Mid-stroke I spotted T right in front of me and got really excited!  She is a pretty darn strong swimmer, so I knew if I could keep up with her, I was in good shape!  In the beginning I was mostly sighting/breathing on the right, but as I got more comfortable, I got into a better groove and was breathing bilaterally after every three strokes or so.  I felt good!!  Yes!!  Every now and then I would come upon an arm or some feet and would have to redirect but for the most part, it was smooth sailing!  I was even caught up with some of the swimmers from the wave before mine…and… the wave before that!  Yep, some men two waves ahead!  I felt great!

Then. I got a little tired and hot in my long-sleeved wetsuit.  I needed a mantra and I needed one fast.  Dori from Finding Nemo came in my head, “just keep swimming..” but that wasn’t enough.  Somehow ‘One buoy, two buoy’ (yeah, you can laugh, it’s dumb, but it kept me going), stuck in my head, and I just kept repeating it.  It helped me keep me focus on the buoys as well as keep my breathing strokes on track.

Before I knew it, we were close to shore!  Yes!  ‘One buoy, two buoy’!  I finally finished swimming where I could touch the bottom and started running out of the water.  I looked to my right and who else was there but T!  I tapped her on the shoulder, we smiled and laughed and gave each other a high-five.  This was really happening, and we were doing great!

As I got out of the water I suddenly felt a huge bout of nausea, which I had felt a few times during my longer swims, but nothing to this extreme.  I hoped this was just a fluke and it would go away as I still had the bike and run ahead of me.  I also had huge issues getting my darn arms out of the wetsuit!  The left arm was stuck on my Garmin!  Quite the focused face (it took me all the way up the ramp to the wetsuit strippers to get my freaking arm out of my wetsuit):

Next up….the bike!

Well, after a very very busy trip to OKC, I am finally home, and of course, even though I have the day off to recover, I woke up at 7a and haven’t been able to fall back asleep.

We got in around 11:30p last night, so after picking up my gear back from the truck I didn’t get into bed until 12:30a.  After the lack of sleep over the course of the weekend, I did manage to pretty much fall asleep right away, however I wish I could have slept in longer!

Other than lounging, eating (ok, I think I used up my ‘I can eat whatever’ card yesterday….but I might extend it one more day..) and purchasing my wetsuit (I rented it for the weekend to make sure it fit right, and I liked it, so I’m going to purchase it today), I don’t have too much going on.  I may try to go for a quick run to see how my legs are feeling as they were really suffering yesterday… so sore and stiff, but this morning they feel quite a bit better.

This evening I am picking up my bike from the truck and then having dinner at my parent’s house where the little guy has been staying.  I miss him!!   I can’t wait to show them all of the pictures from the race, my training buddy’s husband did an amazing job and took some great pictures!  Jimmy took some as well, but probably won’t be able to upload them until tonight.  I had a club member take a picture of us after I finished so I’m excited to see that picture since I think over years we’ve been dating, we have only three good pictures of the two of us. 🙂  (we don’t carry around a camera much)

Now to what you’ve probably (or maybe not) been waiting to read about…. the race!  I’m planning on breaking into several parts so that it’s not just one big heckofa blog post, because believe me, there is a lot to post about!!  It was an amazing weekend!!!  Off to run some errands before planting my rump on the couch!

So the countdown has officially begun…. done with work for the day and next on my agenda is officially the race!!!

This morning I woke up at 5a to finish packing as I got home at 8:30 from the tri club meeting the night before and was not in the mood to start packing.  I can’t believe I need ALL of this for the race… quite the change from just a running race:

I also put yankz in place of my shoe laces on my running shoes to help save time in transition so I don’t have to mess with tying my shoes:

After laying everything out, I put it all in my bag ready to be dropped off tonight at the truck.  Then I got ready for work and prepared for the busiest day in clinic so far.  Fortunately things went well and I was able to leave at 4:30….hooray!!  So I rushed home, finished loading up the car and got the little guy in the car after convincing him that a ‘drive’ was the best thing ever.  Of course as soon as he got to my parents he was a bundle of energy and already was having a blast.  I’m sure the exploration of a backyard will keep him busy for the whole weekend 🙂

After dropping him off, I went to go drop off my bike and gear.  Wow.  I wasn’t expecting a full truck!  The club is so darn freaking organized!  I can’t go into details about how they had each bike rigged up, but they had things down to a tee and ready for all of the bikes.  Amazing.  I’m pretty lucky to belong to such a great club with such organized and enthusiastic members, honestly I never would have signed up for this race without their support and organization.  Just to give you a peek, here’s a shot of the van with the bikes:

Later JMR met up with me to grab a quick dinner (yes, I know I’m not working out as much during the taper and carbs are not really needed, but…yeah. whatever).

So, I will head to bed on that note.

I have to get up at 4a so that we can meet everyone at the van at 5a….. I am nervous, excited, ….antsy…. ready to race!!

I’ll fill you in on after the race!! 😉