Ironman Wisconsin 2012 Race Report

(race photos from Finisherpix)

Night Before

The night before the race I was feeling really great. After hearing Ryan’s (the coach) soothing words “You can do this, the hard part was all of the training, this is a celebration, we are here for you, you are never alone” and Mike Reilly’s (the Iconic Ironman announcer) soothing words “this is just a well-supported training day, you WILL be an Ironman,” I felt a sense of confidence. They were right - this IS just a well-supported training day, the hard work IS behind me, this IS the celebration, and the team IS here for me.

I headed to bed at 8pm and that is when trouble hit. I could not fall asleep! No matter how I turned I started to feel sick. I think that I had overhydrated during the week and was paying the price the night before the race. I will admit, there were probably some nerves, but I actually wasn’t feeling all that nervous. I finally fell asleep around midnight – only 3 hours, 45 minutes before I had set my alarm. Luckily, I had completed my 120 training ride on less than four hours of sleep (thanks Reetika!) so I knew it wasn’t the end of the world.

Pre-Race

I woke up at 3:45am and got ready to head out. My hotel had breakfast at 4am! Despite not having much of an appetite, I forced myself to eat oatmeal, a banana, and yogurt. I thought my lack of appetite was nerves and didn’t think to take any medicine. I would regret this decision later.

I headed over to the race. Luckily, my parents found a great parking space so they could walk to the transition with me. Despite making a list of things to do/bring, I realized I left my fuel belt bottles for the run back at the hotel (8 miles out of town). My dad came to the rescue by bringing me some G2 from the car so I would at least have something in my run transition bag.

My dad likes to pretend he is the one racing

Once everything was set, we headed up to meet Team Z for the team wetsuit photo. Then it was time for hugs before heading off to the swim start. I was feeling pretty pumped and enjoyed dancing to the music. When they finally started letting people into the water, I waded in and hung by the side (to the displeasure of Mike Reilly). It was great having my teammates with me to calm the nerves and the sunrise was beautiful.

This is my game face (stolen from Lisa F)

Swim (1:50.19)

At 7am the cannon sounded and we were off! Swimming is my least favorite activity by far. I tried to avoid the fray by swimming to the outside. Unfortunately, I think I avoided the buoys as well because I realized after several minutes I was all alone. A kayaker at one point pointed be back on course (thanks!). I was surprised that I was quite comfortable in the swim (thanks SOS swim clinic!) and just focused on trying to have good form and swim from one buoy to the next. I finally reached the Orange buoys that signaled the half way point and checked my watch (52 minutes! Eeek!). I realized I needed to pick it up if I wanted to have more wiggle room for the bike cutoff. Despite having what I thought was a better second half of the swim, it turned out to be slower and I came out of the water after a much slower than expected hour and 50 minutes.

Hello dazed

T1 (10:30)

I knew I had to get a move on! Since I signed up for the race, I have worried about the bike cutoff. Wisconsin is one of the hardest bike courses, and I knew even at full health I would be cutting it really close if I came out of transition any later than 9am.

I walked up the helix (cruel) and booked it to transition. I grabbed my bag and an AMAZING volunteer and together we got me ready for the bike. My one regret is I didn’t take the time to put on my own sunscreen because the volunteers who did it forgot my forehead because of my helmet! OUCH!

Bike (8:14.48)

You mean I have to bike 112 miles?!

I made it out of T1 at pretty much exactly 9am and I knew I had to GO if I wanted to make the bike cutoff at 5:30mph. To be safe, I would need to cover about 14mph which is slightly above the average I have been doing on my long training rides. I mentally had broken up the ride into the 16 mile stick, 25 miles to the Team Z cheering station, 16 more miles to the special needs bags/halfway point, 25 miles to the Team Z cheering station, and 30 miles home.

About a mile into the ride, I dropped my salt tabs, turned around to get them, and caused a crash. I felt AWFUL! I will blame the lack of sleep and disorientation from the swim. The person was able to keep going though so hopefully I didn’t ruin her day. Right after I got my salt tabs one of my water bottles fell off my bike. I just let that one go! Lesson learned.

About 30 minutes into the ride, I went to go eat the ritz crackers I brought and I realized I was in trouble. My stomach issues had NOT gone away and I really didn’t want any of the food I brought. My nutrition strategy took a big hit. As much as I could throughout the day, I forced myself to eat, but I did not eat nearly as much as I should have. It would get even worse as my focus turned from nutrition to making sure I made the cutoff.

After the (non)great start to the bike and the slow swim, I started to get pretty nervous. The Wisconsin hills will kill you if you try to take them too hard early. Prior to the race though, I had debated making my race strategy to go hard on the bike and make sure I make the cutoff, whatever the consequences on the run, rather than the customary “stay in zone 2” and take it easy to save energy for the run.  It looked like I had no choice but to go with this strategy. I knew if I could make it to the run, I could finish the marathon in the 6 ½ hours allotted before midnight. Running is my bread and butter in triathlon. While I don’t consider a marathon easy by any stretch, I typically run pretty well and have proven to myself I am capable of fighting to the finish of a marathon. For the whole ride, when I hit the hills I switched to my easiest gear and eased my way up them, but when I hit a flat or downhill, it was FULL ON GO.

I covered ~15 miles in the first hours and was happy to have a little wiggle room in the bank. I would need it! The Wisconsin course is shaped like a lollipop – 16 miles out, two 40 mile loops, and 16 miles back. About 10 miles into the loop, we turned onto a part of the course that had been under construction when I was out there in June. This part of the course was a LONG uphill into a pretty strong headwind, for about 10-15 miles. Everyone slowed down in this section, and I definitely didn’t hit my goal of 14 miles that hour. In fact, I probably did closer to 10-12mph this section.

After this pretty rough section (in which any support from the crowd/volunteers was not returned with my characteristic “Thanks!” but rather a cold blank stare ahead as I was in the pain cave), I finally reached the Team Z cheering station. It was great to see everyone and helped lift the spirits. However, at this point I was definitely behind schedule and needed to pick it up. Right after the cheer station, we hit the three big hills on the course. These were lined with spectators who helped cheer us up them like at the Tour de France but they were still tough. Luckily, the remainder of the back half of the course provides plenty of opportunity for speed and I managed to pick up some of my lost time. When I hit the 56 mile mark, it was about 4 hours into the bike, giving me a little under 4 ½ hours to do the remaining 56 miles.

I got to the special needs point (the point at which I could pick up a bag of stuff I dropped off in the morning – i.e. coke, gels, tubes, etc) and realized I was not in good shape. I felt pretty lightheaded and out of it. Despite giving up soda over two years ago, I had put Coke in my bag because I have heard it works wonders. Thank goodness I did! I drank about 4 oz of it, grabbed the snickers and other things I thought I might be able to eat later (wrong), and got back on my bike. About 5 miles later, the Coke worked it’s magic and I started to feel better. I enjoyed the rough section of the course this time, and was even able to pass some people and thank volunteers/spectators. I also managed to eat the snickers.

Feeling much better after coke/snickers

When I got to the Team Z station around 3, I knew I could cover the last 32 miles or so in the 2 ½ hours I had until the cutoff thanks to the fact that the second half of the loop was much quicker. I knew I would have to MOVE though in order to do it. The team had been doing the math for my parents and everyone was getting pretty nervous for me. Apparently my dad and Ryan both told me I had to move it when I passed them, but I didn’t hear them because I was too busy moving it, yelling “MARATHON OR BUST” as I sped by. I told Sherri the same thing as I came across an impromptu cheering station about 5 miles later. You guys rocked!

I struggled the last little bit, especially with shifting into my big chain ring because my hand had no strength left (in fact, I still don’t have full feeling in my pinky fingertips). Somehow, I made it up the hills (which had much fewer spectators this late in the day) and to the transition area after 8 hours and 15 minutes on the bike. 15 minutes! was the difference between me continuing and ending my day.

T2 (8:18)

The relief I felt coming into T2 cannot be put into words. With the help of another awesome volunteer, I somehow managed to transition to the run. She asked about my nutrition (hahaha, what nutrition?)  and warned me to be careful on the run to avoid stomach issues (too late!).

Run (5:47:41) 

I started running immediately and felt pretty good. It was great to be surrounded by people and to see other Zers on the course. I made it to the Team Z cheer station at mile 1 (snickers in hand) and my parents were very relieved to see I made it out on the course because the tracker hadn’t updated yet.

The first half of the course was great! The course went around the capital, up state street (where all the shops/restaurants are), around the football field for the university, down by the lake, and back. There were plenty of people around as people were on both their first and second loops.

Despite thinking I might blow up early due to the energy I had to use on the bike, I ran (slowly) in between aid stations (other than a couple big hills), running off of the energy I could muster from the coke/chicken broth/bananas at the aid stations. I only ate one gel the entire run. I had several people remark to me how they were really impressed with my running consistency which felt great. Thanks Sherri and Kate for running with me to check in when I passed you! Your words of encouragement meant a lot. I finished the first half in 2 hours 45 minutes, giving me four hours to do the second half.

At this point I knew I had it in the bag. I would finish one way or the other. I really just tried to enjoy the rest of the race, thanking spectators/volunteers along the way. I started walking more at the aid stations in order to ensure I got some calories in, but still managed to run the majority of the second half of the course. As I passed people, I offered them encouragement (we have plenty of time to get there, no matter how you have to do it). I also gave away my second glow stick, and used the one that remained to help guide me and another racer through the dark portion of the course by the lake. 

With a mile and a half to go until the finish, I started to run and kept it up the entire way. The feeling of running up State Street and around the capital as people told me “You are about to be an Ironman” is indescribable. A random spectator put his arm around me (in a non-creepy way) and ran up State Street with me, telling me how awesome I was for doing this. “Is this your first one?! Yeaaaah Buudddy!”

Stolen from Lisa P

I got to the finishing chute and put my hand out for high fives as I ran all the way down it. Team Z was in the stands and lit up when I came by! I crossed the finish line and somehow missed Mike Reilly saying “Hilary Heincer, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN” but that didn’t matter. My joy was overwhelming. Two Team Z members caught me at the finish line, handed me my medal/shirt/jacket, made me pretty for my finisher’s photo, and brought me to my parents. I was too out of it to really thank you at the time, but THANKS!

The only unpleasant part about the finish was the fact they ran out of Chocolate milk!! Mark and Mary can tell you how much this devastated me, considering I had filmed an ad a mere 36 earlier to confess my love for the liquid gold in order to win the endorsement deal I have been seeking. I don’t know what disappointed me more – the lack of chocolate milk or the lack of cowprint apparel (the reason I signed up for the race in the first place).

All told, I crossed the finish line in 16 hours 11 minutes. I met up with my teammates, stayed until midnight to see the final finisher (awesome energy!), and then headed back to the hotel. I was up early to stand in line for my finisher’s jacket (which I have worn daily). Paul and I chatted with three new people (to me at least) about the race/our love of triathlon. I turned to my dad (whom I had made drive me) and said “these are my people,” relishing in how I have found such a home amongst triathletes.  He replied “you should have come alone.” Poor dad!

Happy Hot Mess

Overall thoughts

If there is one thing I have learned through this Ironman process, it’s patience. My personal mantras that got me through this race were to “just keep moving” and “keep calm and carry on.” This has impacted all areas of my life, especially my job. When you sign up for an Ironman you sign up for a long journey. It can be easy to lose the big picture in the midst of the daily workouts/aches/pains. But if you commit to them, you will get the results. Our team’s 100% success rate this weekend is proof of that! Despite roadblocks you hit during training/racing, things have a tendency to work out if you just stay calm and use your head/teammates. Let’s hope this new perspective lasts!

I am now going to take some time to decide what my goals are for next season. I am so excited to have this race complete because there are several other things I want to do (hot yoga, strength training, hiking, etc). I have been signing up for one event after the other the last several years. I feel such a relief to have accomplished my goal and completed this Ironman. I feel like for the time at least, I can stop chasing the "next big thing" and just revel in whatever activity I choose to do each day. That is such a freeing feeling!

The final countdown...

In approximately 12 hours I will be beginning the Ironman, the celebration of the last 9 months of hard work I have been put in. Confession: I am horrible at planning. Several people have their race mapped out minute by minute - what they are going to eat to get the exact carb/calorie/protein combination, the turns of the course they plan to go harder and ease off, etc etc etc. I have no such plan. I have a general idea of what I am going to eat - salt tabs on the 30/00s, gels on the 15s, and solids on the 45s. However, I completely am expecting to throw that out the window at some point in the day. My "special needs" bags (the ones you get halfway through the bike and through the run) are filled with a random assortment of things I might want: pickles (snack packs!), goldfish, snickers, V8 (never had before), flat coke (despite giving soda up 2+ years ago), and then the standard gels. Despite this total lack of a real "plan" in place, I am actually feeling pretty good right now. I am not as nervous as I would expect - I am completely confident I have the right fitness level. I am just going to take the day as it comes and enjoy it (while hating it desperately at some points).

This last 72 hours has been great. Thursday started off with me arriving at work to find a BEAUTIFUL bouqet of flowers on my desk and a sweet card from all my coworkers. They have had to listen to me talk NON-STOP about this adventure so I really appreciated the gesture. I left work at 3:30ish, with my coworkers gathering around staring awkwardly as they bid me farewell. I headed to the airport and found out my flight was delayed. I passed the time by talking to a random passenger (who was a little too quick to divulge his life story) and a fellow team member who I was driving from Milwaukee to Madison.

I finally arrived at the hotel Thursday night and found out they would have breakfast out starting at 4am tomorrow! SUCH a relief. Friday morning, I met up with the team early to go register. We signed a giant liability waiver, got our chip/etc, and a kick-ass transistion bag to carry our stuff in. Then we walked around the expo, grabbed lunch, and I had a few hours to relax, which I used to watch tennis and go to the grocery store. A fun fact I learned is that stores prefer when you have your wallet to pay for things. Upon learning this I rushed to the hotel and back to prevent my frozen foods from becoming unfrozen.

As I am committed to soaking up the full Ironman experience, I went to the athlete's banquet and briefing. It was a little short on inspirational stories, but it was still a fun event to see. The pasta was delicious!

When I got back to the hotel, my parents had arrived with my gear and bike and I started organizing. This morning, I met up with the team to do one final pre-Ironman workout - a 10/10/10 swim/bike/run workout. Short and sweet. The water is awesome - perfect temperature and calm. But man, am I TIRED! After a lazy afternoon, I checked in my transition bags (after racking the bike after the workout), where I got tape a 30 second "ad" for chocolate milk (as a wonderful recovery beverage) which will hopefully result in the endorsement deal I have dreaming about. Then we went to the Team Z dinner where my parents got their first taste of what the team is all about. As soon as I finish this, I am doing some last minute prep and heading to bed. 3:45am wake up tomorrow!

Overall, I am just feeling overwhelmed by all the love and support that has come my way from friends/family/coworkers. It has been an awesome journey and I am excited for tomorrow.

Ironman training recap & goals post

So far most of my blogs have been recaps of training weekends. As I stated when I started this thing, my memory is HORRIFIC so this blog is my way of making sure I remember what happened. But now that we are two weeks from the race, I feel it's a good time to give my overall thoughts/lessons learned from training and my goals for the race itself.

This last 9 months has been an incredibly fulfilling experience. I have poured my heart and soul into this training. Despite a few lapses in motivation, I have made all but one of the big training rides/runs and in doing so have built some great friendships. I rode farther than I ever have before and have shifted my viewpoint on what constitutes an "easy" ride or run. No matter what happens September 9th, I am declaring this Ironman journey a success. Yes, something could go wrong and I may not finish the race. But I am confident that the "something wrong" will not be me not being fit enough, or in shape enough, or dedicated enough. It will be a mechanical issue that I am incapable of fixing, an unexpected illness, or something else outside of my control. At this point I have put in the work and I believe it will pay off in two weeks. But if it doesn't, I will just try again.

Overall random thoughts:

1) After a summer of eating honey stinger gels (which is basically shots of honey with added electrolytes), I think I have lost any desire to ever taste honey again (or for a very long time). This saddens me more than words can express.

2) After a summer of eating peanut butter in a variety of forms (mmmmm, uncrustables!), I could still eat peanut butter every day.

3) I have succesfully learned how to ride back on a dropped chain (a chain that fell off the gears) and now only have to stop about 25% of the times I drop my chain (which happens a lot). Success!

4) My next Ironman (yes, I do plan on doing more just not right away), I really want to focus on nutrition outside of exercise.

5) Team Z is an incredibly supportive community with so many amazing people - I can't imagine this journey without them. I am so grateful to Sherri for letting me talk myself into signing up for the race (despite me disappearing for a year) and cheering me on even when injury delayed her Ironman journey. And I am thankful for my favorite Kiwi's, Mary and Mark, who never fail to offer me encouragement/good advice that have increased my knowledge and confidence. The last time I was on the team, I met people, but I did not throw myself into the team like I did this year and it was easier for me to walk away for awhile. As with anything, the more you put into something, the more you get out of  it. I can't imagine NOT being on the team now.

6) Before this year, I wasn't comfortable riding a bike without being clipped in (wearing bike shoes that clip into the pedals). The fact that I rode 50 miles this weekend in sneakers  (and the fact that I consider the 50 miles to be an "easy" ride, even in sneakers) is a true testament to how much stronger of a biker I have become.

7) I cannot wait to sleep in! and watch the first two seasons of Downtown Abbey! and do some hot yoga! and get back into strength training! and go hiking! and see all my friends I have neglected! and sleep in! and just completely veg all day! after sleeping in!

8) Did I mention I can't wait to sleep in? And perhaps being physically capable of staying up after 9pm?

9) After the race, my plan is to do nothing for two weeks, do hot yoga before work for two weeks, then slowly ease back into running/biking. After that I will pick my next adventure...perhaps a spring marathon? perhaps not?

10) Swimming and I are more at peace then we used to be, but I cannot wait to not swim for a solid month or two or three or four or even five. Any more than five give me a stern lecture.

Bonus: I have a 90 minutes massage scheduled two weeks after the race! Yes!!!

Goals
Now for goals. My main goal is to just finish. Ideally, I would like to finish in 15 hours feeling awesome. My biggest concern is the bike cutoff (5:30pm) because with my pace I will be cutting it close. I should be able to do it though. After that, I have 6 1/2 hours to do the marathon. When I have blown up at miles 18 or 21 of two of the marathons I have done, I still managed to finish in under five hours. My new favorite motto "keep calm and carry on" will be my mantra for this race.I think my time splits will be as follows:

Swim: 1:40
Bike: 8 1/2 hours
Run: 5+ hours

No matter how I feel, I want to make sure I take time to really enjoy the experience. I want to moo at the first swim turn buoy (an Ironman MOO tradition). I want to enjoy the scenery on the bike (I think my choice of this race is in part because I am a farm girl at heart despite growing up in the suburbs). And most importantly, I want to get as many high fives as I can on the run course. I might even stop and walk the finisher's chute to soak in the energy and enthusiasm of the crowd. No matter what happens in the future, you   only complete your first Ironman once. I want to cherish this moment, as I have the 9 months of moments leading up to it.

Most of all, I want to thank everyone for your support on this journey! I could not have done it without everyone's encouragement along the way. I promise to come up with a new conversation topic in October (because September will be spent recapping the race...sorry in advance).

Luray Race Weekend - Best Weekend of the Summer!

As I stated in my last post, I definitely hit burnout pretty bad after the 20/120 weekend. The Luray race weekend definitely helped me find my love for triathlon again. I drove down to Luray Friday night, picked up my packet for the olympic tri saturday morning and chatted with some other random participants, and then went to the Luray race site where Team Z was grilling/camping all weekend. I set up my tent (one amongst 50 or so) then met several new people while enjoying a delicious pasta dinner.

Saturday morning I woke up early, walked over to the transition area (about 100 yards from my tent and 50 yards from my car), and set up for the race. Then as I tend to do, I realized over the next hour I had forgotten about 500 things so had to keep going back.

The race itself was great. It's a hilly course, but it is BEAUTIFUL. Luckily, the lake was cool enough that we could wear wetsuits (a real rarity for Luray). The course is pretty hilly, but the slowest parts are also the most scenic. I was happy to not get passed by many women on the bike, and then enjoyed saying hi to people on the run. To be honest, I don't remember too much about the actual race itself, just that overall I enjoyed it. The best part was meeting up with my friends Graham and Parisi at the end (I didn't realize they'd be there)! My time was pretty consistent with two years ago when I did it, but the splits varied. I love this race and hope to do it again next year.

With the hard work for the weekend done, the rest of the day was spent hanging out in the lake (NOT swimming in it), going into town to get ice cream (Yum!), eating dinner at the tents (fajitas and cobbler!), and just hanging out with the Team Z folks, some old friends and some new to me. It was nice and relaxing, just what the doctor ordered.

I volunteered to man a water station for the sprint race on Sunday with some other people on Team Z. My aid station all dressed up as Superheros and it was so much fun seeing all the racers pass and chatting with the other people (and dogs) at the station. The best part of the sprint is it is a lot of people completing their first triathlon and it is awesome to be able to offer them encouragement/aid. One of my favorite moments was when a woman (towards the back) spotted one of our two dogs, stopped, said "you know I don't care about my time," and came over to pet the dog. The other highlight was having my aid station burst into laughter (me included) after a 50+ racer told me in addition to water, he would "take my home number as well." Sadly, we were only authorized to give out water. Unfortunately, it POURED on us at the end and I had to walk 1 1/2 back to the race site in order to avoid hypothermia before a shuttle could come get us. After some more food and chatting (and trying to get warm), I packed up my tent and headed home, refreshed and happy.

This was probably my favorite weekend of all summer. The triathlon was beautiful and just plain fun. But more importantly, I really enjoyed just hanging out at the campsite and relaxing. It was a great weekend to remember why I got into triathlons in the first place and what an incredible community it is.

This weekend was a 50 mile ride and a 12 mile run. I apparently have forgotten how to prepare for a long ride because while I remembered to go back to my house to get sunscreen (and apparently the GPS watch and salt tabs I forgot), I failed to realize I didn't have my bike shoes. Luckily, a woman on the team (Tamara) had a spare pair of running shoes so I rode 50 miles in sneakers which is a lot more difficult than with normal bike shoes (which clip into the pedal, allowing you to "pull up" through the stroke in addition to just pushing down on the pedals). It wasn't that  But it was also another great ride with some more great people (again, some old friends, some new). I also scored some "badass" points by the rest of the riders. I love this life :)

Now for some pictures:

Team Z campsite

Picnic Tables aka Bike Racks

Team Z tents, professional massage therapists included

Swim Start! - Sadly the weather for the sprint was much gloomier than for the olympic

The most important member of Team Z - Iwan kept the grill going ALL WEEKEND

They kept spilling the water so we stopped letting them try to hand it out

the other aid station was 80s

I think he actually owned most of this outfit?

Why yes, Wonder Woman was at our aid station

First racers! We dubbed them serious guy (red) and fun guy (blue). Not sure if either won. This is when the pictures ended because it was time to work.

And we finally have burnout

About a week and a half ago, I finally reached burnout. And oh boy am I feeling burned out. Similar to the month leading up to the marine corps marathon, I am obsessively checking out the bikram yoga facilities in the area because after the race, rather than swimming/biking/and running, I just want to do hot yoga and stretch out my sore, tired muscles for a couple of weeks (after resting, of course). My tentative plan for after the race is 2 weeks off completely, 2 weeks of hot yoga, and then slowly picking up running/biking again.

Two weekends ago was the last major build week in our training cycle (3 hour run, 120 mile bike ride), which also happened to correspond with one of my best friend’s all day Indian wedding (2 ceremonies plus a reception). Looking at this weekend on my calendar, I realized I needed to take Friday off of work to fit it all in.

Friday I woke up early and headed out for my run around a local lake. It went pretty well, although I slowed down a lot at the end. I then used the day to complete some errands I hadn’t been able to get around to, like going to the post office to get my mailbox lock replaced and the hardware store to get new house keys made (I may or may not have recycled my keys…a result of how tired/out of it I have been lately). I also put together the hammock I bought over a month ago and let me say, it is the best purchase I have made this year! I have never really been a hammock person but I saw it on groupon goods and had a weak moment. I think that the hammock will be my key to rest/relaxation for the rest of the taper and recovery.

Saturday I went to my friend’s wedding. It was so fantastic to see her happy and to see that she met a guy who is worthy of her (which I can assure you is hard to do). It was also great to spend the day with some of my best friends from high school (and life in general). But to be perfectly honest, I felt pretty sick most of the day and was thankful for a couple of breaks we had so I could go home and take a nap. It also was a really long day with her first ceremony starting at 9am. After 2 ceremonies and about 20 rounds of delicious Indian food, her reception got started around 9pm. I stayed until around 11:15 (had to fit in dancing!) before heading home, freaking out about how little sleep I would get. It didn’t help I had a lot of trouble falling asleep (see freaking out and 20 rounds of Indian food).

Sunday I woke up at 5am (after 4 hours of sleep) and headed off for the ride. I was lucky enough to join a large riding group that made the day pretty fun. The first couple of hours were pretty shaky (including when I crashed into Janet at an intersection because my reflexes were not up to par), but once I got into the swing of it the lack of sleep didn’t impact me much. We got back to the parking lot after 75 miles and headed back out again, into the wind and up a false flat. The first 12 miles after the parking lot were extremely demoralizing but then our group had a well-timed flat that allowed us to stop and regroup. The rest of the ride was much better and I am so excited to have completed it!

After that weekend, though, I definitely reached the full-on burnout I had managed to avoid up to this point. I missed both my mid-week bike rides in favor of increased time in the pool, and couldn’t get myself to work out after work to make them up. I also spent the entire week dreading my long ride over the weekend (40 miles in the mountains of skyline drive).

I went for a massage on Saturday (shoutout to www.fitpromassage.com) and expressed my dread over the upcoming bike ride. The massage therapist is on my tri team and is also an Ironman and basically said to me 1) she missed half her long rides and was fine for the race, 2) this is supposed to be fun but people forget that, 3) if I am dreading it so much, I should probably not do it, and 4) the training program is just a piece of paper and isn’t fit for everyone so I should listen to my body. This is exactly what I needed to hear. I can get so focused on the goal sometimes that I need the outside perspective.

After hearing that, I decided to skip the bike ride (intending to go on a more local one). I went to a minor league baseball game Saturday night (go p-nats!), and went to bed late. When I woke up, I realized I had no desire to ride my bike. Instead, I spent the morning in my pajamas, started (and finished) a new book, walked my brother’s dog, cleaned my house (SORELY needed), and volunteered at the animal shelter (aka cuddled with cute dogs). It was EXACTLY what the doctor ordered.

These last few weeks before the race are going to be pretty difficult. I am so ready to be done with the Ironman but my body needs to rest/recover. This weekend I am heading to Luray for an Olympic triathlon and will camp out Friday/Saturday. Then it is 3 weeks til the race! 

Musselman Half-Iron Race Report and the rest of the last three weeks

Man, it has been awhile since my last post. I will blame the fact that the last three weeks have been pretty crazy. After the Wisconsin trip, I had a recover week/weekend, then two builds weeks with a Half Ironman July 15th and a 106 mile bike ride last weekend. This weekend is another recovery weekend so I took the time to go see my family in Philadelphia whom I have sorely neglected this last several months. Basically my coach summed up the last three weeks best when he said "you should feel like dog meat right now." Now for the recap:

Musselman - Half Ironman

When I joined the team in 2010, they were all training for Musselman in upstate New York. The weekend consists of a fun "micro-mussel" on friday night, with incredibly short legs, with the "biking" portion performed on tricycles in costume, a "mini-mussel" (or Sprint) on Saturday, and then the "mussel" (half ironman) on Sunday. Because of the timing of my busy season at my old job, I had never been able to do it. I was pretty excited for it this year.

The crazy thing is that in 2010 when I trained for my first half-ironman, the distance scared the heck out of me. This year, it wasn't an "A race" and wasn't even the second week of a build week (typically the harder workout before recovery). For me, this was just another training weekend (an incredibly well supported one). The only thing that made me nervous was the swim since I have only had one open water swim in the last year and a half, and that was in a contained quarry compared to a huge lake. I love this new mindset, but I also recognize how absolutely insane it is. Ironman training changes your perspective but the bottom line is a half ironman is HARD.

The weekend started off pretty badly. I ended up getting a flat tire on my way up to NY. Luckily, I was carpooling/caravan with a great group that helped me get it resolved. Unfortunately, the first place I went to didn't really fix anything and I had to stop 5 miles down the road. That place was AWESOME though, put on my spare (my tire couldn't be fixed), and called ahead to Geneva to find me a good place with the tires I needed. Despite leaving my house at 5am, I didn't get to Geneva (7ish hours away) til 5pm.

Patty and Katie waiting at the first tire place with me

It was a classy establishment...

that unfortunately didn't fix my tire (I don't have pics of the great places but they lacked the same character)

The little nail that caused all the trouble

That night I got to witness the micro-mussel which was hilarious. After that and dinner at the team tents, I headed to bed. Saturday I woke up, got my new tires, and then spent the day hanging out with the team and watching the sprint race. It was nice to have a day between the travel and the actual race.

Caroline, one of my Wisconsin carpool buddies

an unusual triathlon transition area (there was a "regular" bike division as well...much less fun)

Sunday morning called for storms. I have been lucky so far in my training to have avoided riding or running through a bad storm. I said all weekend if I was going to have a bad/stormy race, I would rather it be this race rather than the Ironman. Boy did I get my wish.

First though, I got to transition and saw "Be Cal Ripken's hero" beneath my number on the transition rack. I was pretty confused and thought he had sponsored the race oddly. I later discovered that apparently when I signed up for the race you had to put who you most admired, and I put him (I cannot tell you why though and wouldn't say it now, not that I don't like him). Anyways, I thought it was pretty hilarious and was looking forward to inspiring him.

Right before the race, they declared it not wetsuit legal due to the temperature. What that means is that you can still wear a wetsuit (up to a certain temperature) but you can't qualify for an award. Since I had no intention of doing that I put on my wetsuit and got ready to get into the water. That is when the nerves hit. Up until that point, I had been treating it as just another weekend. No matter what though, races are always nerve racking.

The swim was incredibly rough. It had been calm when we started, but as the swim progressed the storm started to roll in, kicking up the waves pretty badly. I struggled with sighting and my calves/hands started to cramp but I just kept moving. After almost 50 minutes, I made it to the end and was so thankful to be done.

The rains held off until about 10-20 miles into the bike ride and then it POURED. The rain was painful and I had incredibly hard time seeing. Luckily, the storm passed before I had to pull over but it would continue to rain on and off. The rains brought in some interesting winds and for a portion of the course I had a beautiful tailwind. I focused on just having fun, chatting with random people passing me, and working on making sure I was eating/drinking properly. About 20 miles into the race, I saw Mennonite families in their horse and buggies on the way to church and as I told one person passing me, my race was complete. I was passed by several people older than 50 and I used that to inspire me for the future. I hope I am that awesome in 30 years! Overall I was happy with my time and enjoyed the bike.

When I got to the transition to the run, I barely felt like I could walk (I had trouble holding back on the bike). However, after about 3 miles on the run I settled into a rhythm and just loved the rest of the race. I felt strong and passed a significant number of people on the run. Afterwards, the results would show I was something like 37th in my age group on the bike, but 29th on the run. There were aid stations every mile with cold sponges and awesome food/volunteers, and people were out on their lawns with hoses, spraying us (after asking) as we ran along. It was fun and I really enjoyed myself. When I finally saw the home stretch, I felt great and I was able to sprint to the finishing line, giving my awesome Team Z teammates high fives as I passed the tents.

Overall, I am pleased with how the race went. My time was slower than my last half-ironman, but the conditions were worse and I felt better and finished stronger. All in all, it was a good confidence boost.

106 mile weekend

Last weekend was our second to last "big" training weekend. I struggled during the week with the workouts and for the first time, was unable to complete some of them. My gym is pretty humid and I was having a lot of trouble breathing. Back in high school, I had exercised induced asthma but it only really ever bothered me for a few  months and never has since. In fear it had come back and recognizing that breathing is important, I headed to the doctor on Friday (which rarely happens) and got an inhaler. Of course I forgot it for Saturday's run.

The run Saturday was a 2 hour and 40 minute run (we run until we hit a certain mileage or time, whichever is first) in a light drizzle. I definitely struggled the last fourty minutes but it felt good to get it done. After relaxing the rest of the afternoon, I met up with Sam and Jen for an early dinner, and was in bed by 9:30.

Sunday morning I woke up at 4am (15 minutes ahead of my alarm, again) and headed to Culpeper for one of my least favorite team rides. It is far and it is never ending hills. I did 90 there before the Wisconsin training trip and I knew if I could do the 106 here, then Wisconsin would go fine. The first 40 miles did not go well at all. I was feeling tired and this was the "easy" portion of the ride. Around mile 40, I thought I would end up crying by the end of the day. Luckily, we stopped at a rest stop and I had an Uncrustable for the first time (a frozen PB&J) and it was like magic! By far, it is my new favorite ride treat as even now I can't really handle the thought of more gels (though they are necessary). The rest of the ride did not feel nearly as hard. I stayed with Aileen the rest of the day, and while the hills were relentless I was a) more prepared mentally than the first time I did the ride and b) better with my nutrition. It was a long day in the saddle (8 1/2 hours in total, 8 of which were biking), but overall I was pleased and finished feeling much better than I did after the 90 mile day. It also helped it wasn't 100 degrees.


The ride gave me much more confidence because my biggest fear for Wisconsin is not making the bike cutoff (5:30pm, 10:30 hours after the race starts and probably about 8 1/2 hours after I finish the swim/transition). However, I did well this ride and September 9th I will be much more well rested and won't have done a 1/2 Ironman the weekend before and a 16 mile run the day before.


Recovery week and a look into the future..


This week, I was grateful for the recovery, and I loved seeing my family. Next week is the final "build" week before we begin tapering (decreasing volume) for the race. It is going to be incredibly difficult. My body is tired, and I have my friend's wedding all day Saturday. After trying to think about how I am going to fit it all in, I decided to take Friday off of work. I will run Friday, CELEBRATE Saturday, and bike 120 miles Sunday. Wish me luck. Chances are, the crying will come this week but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

72 hour Wisconsin Training Trip - Ironman Course Preview

This past weekend is a whirlwind. I took Friday off work and left my house at 5am to head to Reston where I met up with three other people to drive to Wisconsin. Why you ask? To preview the Ironman course so that we will be familiar with it come race day. We left Reston at 6:30am and 15 hours later (after stopping at several rest stops and cracker barrel, of course) we were in Madison, WI. It was a long road trip, but I realized after spending 8 hours on the weekend biking all day, 15 hours in a car isn't so bad. By the time we got there, it was time to head for bed.

I was staying with two other people away from the rest of the team who stayed in downtown madison at the race hotel. Thanks to my job, I got a discount at the same hotel I will be staying at for the race so it was a good opportunity to figure out where that was in relation to the race (~20 minutes away) and to become familiar with its amenities (kitchen!) for race day. We got up at 5:30am, prepped for a LONG day in the heat, and headed over to the hotel to meet the team at 7am for a 100 mile bike ride.

The Ironman Course is called a "lollipop." It is 16 miles out (the stick), two 40 mile loops, and 16 miles back. There is some construction which prevented us from previewing the full loop, but for the most part we got to see a significant portion of the course. From the team hotel, we drove along the stick until we got to the start of the loop. Our plan was to do the loop twice (adjusted for a detour around the construction), and then a portion of the stick until we got to 100 miles. We finally got started around 8:30am and it was already HOT.

I started off a bit too fast and after 5 miles, I decided to stop and wait for the next group behind me (~8 or so people). Once they caught up, we completed the first loop in about a total of 3 hours, chatting and enjoying ourselves. For the most part, I think the consensus was that the loop wasn't as bad as we imagined. It was gorgeous, and rather than non-stop hills, there were a few rollers (probably 5-10) and then 3-5 "big" climbs (which compared to last week's gran fondo were pretty small). In between, there were several somewhat flat stretches that we could have fun on. Overall, I think most of us enjoyed the loop and after the first loop, we were ready to head off again in good spirits.

The second loop is where we ran into trouble. First off, it was starting to get HOT and it only got worse as the day went on. Then around mile 5 of the second loop, our group passed a woman walking her bike on the side of the road and one of the riders, Janet, bumped wheels (i think) with the person in front of her and went down hard. She had a pretty nasty bump/cut on her arm but said she felt fine. However, when she saw the cut/bump, she freaked out thinking her bone was broken and almost feinted. Luckily, we had a first aid person with us and she got all patched up. After about 10 minutes we were ready to ride again.

The next bit of trouble happened about 5 miles later (around mile 50). Chris and I were in front of the rest of the group and had started to distance ourselves a little bit on the hills. All of a sudden we heard the rest of the group stop behind us and heard "keep going" shouted at us, so we did. Both of us assumed that Janet had started not feeling well and the rest of the group was stopping with her until she could get picked up by our coach (Alexis). About 20 minutes later, we saw the Alexis drive by with Janet in the car and somebody else's bike on his rack. We met up with them at the local bike shop that served as our rest stop and found out that Janet was feeling fine, but some ASSHOLEs had dropped a whole bunch of TACS in the road because they were pissed off at the cyclists in the area (we assume) so several of our riders got flats. Poor Janet got flats in BOTH of her tires and had to go to the bike shop in order to fix them. Being a total rockstar, she finished the rest of the ride.

This really pisses me off. I realize that people get annoyed with cyclists, but to do something that could really harm someone seems like an incredible overreaction (especially in Wisconsin where the roads are pretty open and it is easy to get around a cyclist). It turns out I got a tac in my tire (and was riding with it the last half of my ride as a slow leak rather than a full on flat). If the tac had shifted, causing me to get a flat on a downhill, I could have  crashed and been seriously injured. I don't know what these assholes were thinking (they probably weren't with their imbecile brains), but I don't see how one minute of inconvenience a cyclist caused them was worth potentially taking someone's life.

Anyways, the last 50 miles of the bike ride is basically a blur, fighting the heat (it was about as hot as DC was this weekend), and just trying to survive. I was just focusing on getting to the next rest stop(s) and the second loop definitely felt harder in the heat. The last 22 miles of the ride (the stick) was rough with a few huge rollers and some wind. After almost 8 hours of riding, I finished the longest bike ride I have ever done (100.1 miles!), longer than any bike and build ride I did. I immediately headed inside the bar we were parked at and ordered fries and a beer. While I definitely was struggling in the heat, I think the addition of salt tablets to my nutrition really helped. Typically the last thing I want after a ride is a beer so the fact that my stomach was willing to have one is a good sign. Overall, I enjoyed the course. It's beautiful and not too boring. I think it will be manageable for race day. I am a little concerned about the time cutoff (5:30pm), but I think I will make it (especially without taking breaks with a big group).

That night, we met up at the hotel, walked through the transistion area, and went to dinner. It was then back to bed because Sunday morning we met at 7am to run the run course. Unfortunately, there was some construction that took us off course somewhat, but we had some random people join us who had done the course before so they were able to help us find our way. There are a few bad hills, but other than that I think I will enjoy the course. It goes through downtown and the University of Wisconsin campus and is very pretty.

I finished the run around 10, grabbed a frappucino and chocolate milk from Starbucks as well as some salted caramel ice cream from a street vendor (oh my goodness so good!) to recover, showered, and was on the road by 12 to head home. Three of the four of us in the car were decked out in compression socks to aid in the recovery so we looked super cool at the rest stops. We stopped in Chicago for some deep dish pizza with another car (leaving me full til 3pm the next day), and arrived home at 3am Monday morning. I finally got back to my house around 4am, exhausted. This was the longest 72 hours of my life, but it was definitely worth it. I feel much better about the course and feel prepared for race day. I also enjoyed getting to know other people on the team. In order to recover from my "vacation," I took Monday and Tuesday off of work and have barely left my couch.

Overall lessons learned from this weekend (both personal observations & tips from others):
1) Salt tabs are a lifesaver, a tic tac box makes a great container for them
2) If I take the bike course slow initially, I should be more than okay with the course
3) Don't try to eat something during the transition from the swim to the bike
4) Take off the glow-stick they give you to run in the dark before crossing the finish line as it messes with photos
5) Walk up the big hill in the run
6) Take my time through the finishing chute (potentially even walk) to soak up the fantastic atmosphere
7) Some people are assholes, but luckily there are a ton of other good people in the world to make up for it
8) September 9th is going to be awesome

And now some pictures -

Lake Monona - This is where the swim is

Meeting up for the ride

Pre-race briefing

I am doing this for that jersey right there

Off we go!

Beautiful scenery (and riding group)

Farmland!

100.1 miles!

RECOVERY! I was dreaming of the fries all day long

Beautiful view from the run course

Water stop!

Sally and Lisa - these two are awesome as they are not doing Wisconsin but just came to cheer us on!

John and Caroline - 1/2 of my car trip crew

Aileen! Got me through the last hour of the run

The state capital where we finish

Bob and Sherri

Kym (the last part of the carpool) and Chris who helped me get through the last 50 miles

Poor coach! He tried to find us on the run course but since everyone went off-course he didn't stand a chance

Race hotel!