It's officially in Training Peaks!!

Yep...checked today.  Holy sh!&...there it was...Sept 9th...Ironman Wisconsin.  Something about seeing it written down, as in NEXT WEEK, made me shiver a bit today!  This is really happening I thought!  Never in a million years did I ever think I would be doing an Ironman some day, let alone in less than 2 weeks!

I started thinking about what it was like years ago...before I even knew how to swim.  When I was in real estate, a fellow realtor and I discussed doing the Lake Geneva triathlon...she was going to do the Olympic distance.  I looked up the distances (I knew NOTHING about triathlon at this time)...keep in mind, I didn't know how to swim.  At all.  I saw .9 mile swim.  I thought "that's not far, I can do it".  You see, she was a few years older than me so there was no way I was going to be outdone by an older woman...LOL  We ran together a few times.  She was a swimmer in high school.  I remember buying goggles and a nose plug and getting in the pool one morning at Lifetime.  I lasted all of 6 minutes!!  I literally panicked when my face was in the water.  So I tried swimming without putting my face in the water.  Yeah, that didn't last long either.  I then set out to find a swimmer so I could do a relay.  I actually don't remember what happened, but I never ended up doing it.  Not sure if she did either...

Fast forward a few years and I learned how to swim, did a few tri's and I pretty much think I just got caught up in the whole "Ironman" talk.  I had always had friends from the gym who did triathlon, and Ironman, but I never thought I could do that distance.  Like most people, the swim scared me away.  So here I am...about to do my 1st Ironman in 12 days! 

I have so much going on in my mind...the swim still scares me.  I've swam 2 miles in open water, never 2.4 miles though.  And NEVER with 1800 people starting at the same time as me!  That scares the beegeezus out of me!  Knock on wood, I have never gotten kicked in the face in any race yet, but it just happened to a friend at Steelhead...and I pray, not me, not in Madison!  Then there are the snakes...yes, Jen has told me she's never seen any, and my friend Joe has assured me they won't go anywhere near 1800 swimmers...but I cannot get the thought out of my mind!  Hopefully I will find out exactly how many buoys will be out on the course and I will swim from buoy to buoy, just like at Steelhead.  But 2.4 miles...that's a LONG swim!

Then there's the bike.  I've ridden the distance, more than that.  By mile 96 I was saying "get me the heck off this bike!".  OK, well I didn't say "heck" but you get the point.  That is a LOT of time on the bike!!  And I still have problems pacing on the bike.  I feel good, I go out strong.  I ride with stronger bikers, I try to keep up.  I have to continue to remind myself to take it easy on Sept 9th.  When not climbing, keep the HR in zone 2.  Do NOT override this.  I break it down in 40 min segments - every 40 min I take a gel so I ride from gel to gel...LOL

And finally, the run.  Oh boy.  I have run 3 hours.  Pretty close to the "long run" of marathon training.  I've never run an actual marathon, however, I keep hearing training for the Ironman marathon is totally different than training for a regular marathon.  I'm not going into this thinking I will run 26.2 miles.  Especially since my leg's been acting up on and off for over a month...it held up for Steelhead and now it's on bed rest until Ironman.  Again, break it down...run from aid station to aid station.  Take walk breaks if I need to, or take them BEFORE I need them so I do no hit the wall.  Do what I need to do basically.

So there it is...am I nervous?  Absolutely!  I don't think I'd be normal if I wasn't.  Do I think I can do it?  Absolutely!  Is it going to be pretty?   More than likely...NOT!  So this week I continue to mentally prepare, to get organized with my plans, checklists and any other "must do's" before race week.  As Jen keeps saying...the work is done, I'm ready, trust in my plan, relax.  And let's not forget...trust her!

Steelhead race report...SUCCESS !!!

I finally did it...raced an entire 70.3, Steelhead in Benton Harbor, MI yesterday.  This was long overdue...between the fractured elbow a week before Muncie last year to the high heat index forcing race officials to shorten Muncie's race this year, this was my 3rd attempt at trying to race a 70.3.  I just prayed they would not cancel the swim, as Steelhead's water is Lake Michigan and for the past 2 years, high waves and riptides have caused the swim portion to be cancelled.  Fingers crossed.....

My leg had been bothering me pretty consistently the entire week before Steelhead.  Great, I thought.  I broke one of my runs in half so I could ice my leg 1/2 way through.  Ran on the treadmill for my bricks, not pretty but I got through them.  My mini brick came Saturday morning & I ran 5 of the 10 minutes, then walked.  Ouch!  I was not happy and the thought of potentially having to run/walk or even walk the 1/2 marathon portion was getting to me.  All I could think about was this was my 1st 70.3...I can't walk.  Then I'd think about Madison in 3 weeks and think "I cannot risk hurting the leg even further".  Ugh...this was NOT in my plan for this weekend.

My friend Jamie Van Vuren and I left early Saturday morning.  Arrived at Jean Klock Park and were surprised at how far we had to walk to athlete check-in, bike check-in, etc.  It seemed to be a mile walk and we ended up walking back and forth 3 times.  Checked in, checked in the bikes, hooked up with my friend Pam and then the 3 of us hit the water.  I was told it was 72 degrees on Saturday and it felt great!  I needed to test out the full sleeve wetsuit that I'd be wearing, I had worn it once before a few years ago but needed to get reacquainted :)  Many thanks again to Kim Lind for letting me borrow it, again!!

Jamie, Pam and I then met our friend Chrissy and the 4 of us had a nice dinner at a little Italian place.  Yummy food and I had my traditional beer before race day.  We got everything ready and went to bed early.  Funny how all the "good luck" texts always come in while I'm trying to sleep...LOL.  I loved them all and didn't really care since I don't typically sleep the night before a race anyways.  And we had gone to bed EARLY! 

Got to the race site shortly before 5:30am Sunday morning.  Yes, I'm an early bird at races...it just takes me a while to figure out where to put things, etc.  And I like to allow extra time for "what ifs".  In Muncie this year, I got a flat pumping up my tire race morning.  Plus I was supposed to run 15-20 min to warm up but after jogging slowly to the bike tech guys (this time I was having THEM pump up the tires), I quickly realized I was going to skip the warm up because yes, my leg was still hurting.  We later walked the mile to swim start and again, got in the water.  This time it was 67 degrees but surprisingly, felt good!

7:10am rolled around and it was GO TIME for me!  My wave started with not only the women in my AG but also with the 50-54 year old men so was a bit nervous about that.  Went out mid pack with some of the women.  It's a beach start so everyone was running into the water.  I was finally ready to swim and everyone in front of me was still walking.  UGH  Finally settled into my swim and quickly realized my goggles were fogged.  Left them and swam like that the entire 1.2 miles.  I was still able to see the buoys so didn't want to waste time trying to fix them.  I loved the swim!!  Those who know me will understand how strange it is for me to say that.  But really, it's about 150m out then straight down with the current and about another 150m to the beach.  I was counting buoys and was pleasantly surprised when I looked up expecting to see buoy #6 and it said #7.  SWEET!!  Finally finished and walked up the sand to T1.  Deep sand, by the way.

I had decided I was going to preserve my legs for the run, so walked during both transitions.  I'm not a sand person and my feet were covered in it, so I spent a little extra time trying to brush it off my feet before I put my socks on.  Then walked with the bike down the LONG transition row to bike start.  Of course, first thing I notice on my bike is my cadence isn't working  I look down and yep, the sensor had slipped down the pedal.  I quickly hopped off the bike, fixed it and hopped back on and off I went. The bike had gently rolling hills.  Nothing big but enough so at times, you knew you were climbing. I struggled in the beginning to get to my goal pace but finally got up there.  Those darn rolling hills kept screwing it up though!  And there were 2 stretches of relatively bumpy roads.  I did NOT like that...bump bump bump for what seemed like at least 5 miles.  I seriously kept looking down at my tires to make sure they hadn't gone flat!  Overall the bike felt good.  I had a negative split on the bike and fell just a wee bit short of my goal pace.  But since the bike computer was off a bit, it showed I did nail it, so as far as I'm concerned, goal achieved!!  And I prayed just a bit that my legs would hold up for the run.  Thanks to Lynn, Ted and Tim for cheering me on during the bike.  Always great to see friendly faces while racing, and hearing your name being screamed out!

Coming into T2 I was feeling good and ready to run.  Again, walked in T2 and in what's quickly becoming a habit, stopped at the Porty potty before heading out on the run.  And here we go...run time.  I was shocked.  I started running and felt OK.  Not 100% but NOT the pain I had been feeling all week, and even that morning.  After mile 1 or 2 I was still running slightly faster than I had wanted to.  Normally I would've been OK with it but because I was unsure if my leg was going to cooperate, I wanted to take it easy.  I still had a goal pace but I had room to slow down.  I did walk through the aid stations.  I still have not mastered drinking while running so if I intend on drinking more than the water, I need to walk while doing so.  The weather was great, cool, not very sunny and at times, cloudy.  Lots of turns on the run and 3 big hills (all of which I ran, by the way).  I still say to myself Coach Joe's hill mantra...Hills are my friends, they make me faster and stronger.  That and Jamie's tips on running hills and up I went on all 3 :)  Again, I ran from gel to gel, which was every 3 miles.  Saw a few friends on the run...Jorge, Uncle Phil twice, Dave.  Gave all of them a shout out and one by one, picked off the miles.  We had to cross a timing mat twice on the run and I did notice my "beep" sounded different than the others...little did I know this was a clue to timing trouble ahead!  But my leg was holding up, I had slowed down and for the 2nd half pretty much kept the same pace.  I did tell myself once I hit mile 11 or 12 I can pick it up if I want to.  I think I waited until mile 12 so I could finish strong. Why does the last mile always seem soooooo long?  Finally the finishers chute...and then there was Lynn, Ted & Tim again, cheering me on as I finished.  FINALLY...I practically had tears in my eyes I was so happy!

Overall, I loved this race!  I was most excited (believe it or not) about the swim.  The weather was perfect.  I had a good, steady bike.  My leg held up on the run.  I bettered my run goal.  I am happy with my time!  Now...3 weeks later I get to do it all over again, only twice the distance ;)

PS - the timing omen I mentioned resulted in the finish line mat not recognizing my chip as I crossed the finish line.  So on Ironman.com it appeared at though I got to mile 9.6 on the run and then never finished.  Um yeah, caused a lot of inquiries to me as to what happened.  This has been fixed and my time posted ;)

Taper week :)

Another shortie...taper week, short workouts, short blog ;)

Last weekend I had my shortest workouts in a very long time...woo hoo!  Seriously, it wasn't until Sunday night that it dawned on me...wow, I actually had time to myself, to relax, to do other things.  So taper week continues as I prepare for Steelhead on Sunday.  Steelhead, my 3RD attempt at doing a 1/2 Ironman.  Last year...attempt #1.  Muncie.  A week before, I fractured my elbow.  Bye bye Muncie.  This year...attempt #2.  Muncie again.  It owed me.  Or I owed it.  Day before...heat index is too high, the Ironman folks shorten the race to a 37.2.  Again, no 1/2 Ironman.  So Sunday is my redemption!  It's either "3rd time's a charm" or "3 strikes and I'm out"...whatever happens, happens.  I know Steelhead's track record with the swim, I'm not even going to say it, type it & I'm trying not to think about it.  The forecast is calling for PERFECT race weather...after a summer of 90's for what seemed like every day, this weekend we're looking at low 70's as a high.  Fingers crossed...I'm going with Jamie, have other friends that are going to be there racing and even 2 more 1st timers like me.  I'm excited!  Next blog...Steelhead's race report!

When I was a kid...

My mom would always tell me not to be in such a hurry for things (I think I've said before...no patience...LOL).  I always "couldn't wait" for something or another, always wishing time would go by faster than it was.  She would also tell me to "wait until I grew up" or "wait until you're an adult"...that "time would go by very fast".  Of course, I didn't believe her.  Really, what kid DOES believe anything their parents tell them?  And quite frankly, as an adult, there are many times that time seems like it's sitting still (my thoughts go back to that last job that I hated...man 6.5 hours seemed like an eternity!!).  But in fairness to my mom, every year since I moved out on my own, at some point I stop and think "where did the year go?"...time seems to be flying by!

Fast forward to January 2012 when I started my Ironman WI training with Coach Jen.  I had 8 months until my big race...8 MONTHS!!  That seemed like an eternity!  It was months before my workouts seemed to be anything longer than what I was already doing (yes, I've always been a "longer weekend workout" kind of person).  I still remember thinking, man I still have 6 months before Ironman...PLENTY of time.  I haven't raced much because of my employment status (or lack of I should say) but I've been putting in the time training.  My 1/2 Ironman came and went, an actually went much faster than I thought due to the shortened race :( 

Concerned about doing a full Ironman without ever doing a 1/2, I talked to Jen and we decided I should do Steelhead 70.3 on Aug 19th.  OK, so that's a week from this Sunday.  Here I go again...my 3rd attempt at doing a 1/2 Ironman...THIS IS IT!  If they cancel the swim again, I am done with long distance racing (after Ironman WI, of course)!!  Mark my words!  But that's not really my point, I digress...my point is, 4 weeks from this Sunday is Ironman Wisconsin!!!!  Where the heck did those 8 months go?  This can't be!!  I need more time!!  Or do I??

Last weekend was my big, big & big Ironman training weekend.  I was supposed to swim in the Crystal Lake open water 2 mile race and then bike 115 miles on Saturday then on Sunday run 3 hours.  Well, as luck would have it, the bacteria level in the lake was too high and the beach was closed.  So Saturday I biked my 115 miles (thank you Coach Jen for the extra 3 miles...LOL).  115 hilly miles I might add, well, mostly hilly.  And oh yeah, I stopped only to swap out bottles.  None of this stopping for snacks & to chat & take a break stuff for me...LOL  Then Sunday I went down to Ohio Street Beach and swam my 2 miles.  Again, what's with the choppy water?  It wasn't as bad as the week before but it was still relatively choppy in parts and it still made me nauseous.  So swim done, on to my 3 hour run.  It was nice running at the lakefront, especially with all the water fountains!  But 3 hours...oh my, that was a 1st for me.  My goal - just get it done without further aggravating my shin (yep, been dealing w/ a little shin issue that comes & goes).  I really wasn't focusing on my pace, except that I wanted to negative split the 2nd half.  Run done and I saw some friendly faces at the beach before I left.

I'm still in shock that Ironman is literally right around the corner.  Am I ready?  I don't know.  Is my longest workout now behind me?  Good god, I don't know that either!  Jen if you're reading this, I am assuming yes because of Steelhead :)  Seriously, I keep thinking that OK, I've swam 2 miles so what's another .4, right?  (Right........insert sarcasm here).  I've now biked 115 miles so 112 will seem easy, right?  And I've run 3 hours...hmmm.  Well, I've never run a stand-alone marathon and my longest run ever was that 3 hours.  I know for a fact my Ironman run will last much longer than 3 hours...especially when inserting any walking I will be doing.  So putting this all together in ONE day?  Can I do that?  This race needs to get here so I can see!  It certainly doesn't seem so bad when I break the race into smaller parts...but then again, I've done that over 2 days.  So I'm going with...yes, I can do it.  I WILL do it.  And it will be fun!  Now get here, will ya?

Are we there yet?

I think as kids, we've probably all said that at least once to our parents or some other adult figure in our lives.  I know growing up, I had no patience.  Zero. Nada.  Nilch.  Nothing.  I didn't like going out to dinner because once I ordered my food, I expected it to be delivered right away (no fast food comments here).  I didn't like waiting, nor did I want to.  To an extent, I'm still like that.  I don't eat out much and I am impatient in many facets of my life.

So this is pretty much what I've been feeling this past week.  I truly believe, you can "hear" all about Ironman training from others all you want, but I don't think it really sets in until you're experiencing it.  People told me it's a lot of training, it takes up a lot of your free time, all you will end up doing is eat, sleep, work & train.  I heard the words, but it didn't register until a few weeks ago.  OMG, all I do on weekends is eat, sleep, prepare for the training, train, clean up after it then recover and go back to bed, just to do it all over again the next day.  No time or energy for anything else, for the most part.  Or I want to do things, but the idea of going to bed early & getting extra sleep usually wins :)

So hence my question "are we there yet"?  Sept 9th can't come soon enough.  I have to think this is normal what I'm feeling?  I can't be the only 1st timer who is getting tired of training?  These weekend workouts honestly, are sort of not fun anymore.  Well, the weekday workouts are, but the long weekend workouts...blah!  I don't want to spend all day working out every weekend.  OK, so the runs don't take me all day, but I think I'm using more energy to run, plus I'm running on tired legs from biking the day before, and therefore, the runs are leaving me more exhausted.  And just when I'm feeling recovered...I have to do it all over again!  And to be honest, last weekend I didn't even run as I'm resting my shin and I was still pooped by the end of the weekend!  I did have fun in Madison with the JHC group last Sunday...maybe because there was a group of us, maybe because I was on the Ironman course, maybe cuz I met some new people.  But to be fair, I hated getting up as early as I had to and leaving my house at 5am...anyone who really knows me knows, I'm a morning workout person but on weekends, not that early!  So the drive there & back sucked, but the group workout rocked.

Really, someone tell me come race day, it WILL be fun.  That it will all pay off in the end and I will actually have fun in this thing they call Ironman. Cuz right now, when most people are excited about the weekend, I'm dreading the long workouts :(  I'm doing them and getting them done, but dreading them.  Yep...are we there yet???

What a weekend!!

Wow...what a training weekend this was.  Where I'd love to be able to say that it's been so hot for so long that I'm actually getting used to the heat, I can't.  I've had just about enough of this heat!  But the training must go on...heat or no heat!  So Saturday my training consisted of a 100 mile bike ride then a 40 minute run.  I prepared all of my bottles on Thursday night as I was meeting friends out for drinks Friday night.  (I actually prefer to say I was carb loading in preparation for my long workout the next day...hahaha).  Man, mixing up all those bottles is a job in itself!  For a short time I think I knew how mothers feel making baby bottles...LOL  Water, IM Perform, recovery...you name it, I was bringing it.  Can't forget the gels either!

So Saturday morning out I go...heading to Barrington High School to meet Maxine where we will tackle 100 miles over various routes.  I can only carry 2 hours worth of fluids on my bike so the high school was our home base to refuel.  Beats trying to find gas stations & potentially running out.  I was on a mission to nail my nutrition and knew this would be my best shot.  Plus, I had 3 routes in the area so getting bored would not be an issue.  Now, I've ridden 100 miles or so before, but those were always on "organized rides" where we're stopping every 20 miles or so, getting off the bike, eating, chatting, etc...then heading out again.  Saturday we were only stopping at the 2 hour mark to refuel and heading back out.  What a difference...Maxine is a stronger rider than me so the first 70 miles or so I pushed it a bit to try to stay close.  Thank you Maxine for coming out to ride with me...it was awesome!

We both ran, but separately as she actually finished her ride a bit before me.  40 min run after riding 100 miles, I was very happy with my pace.  It was hot but I actually think it was only in the mid-high 80's?  Funny how that suddenly seems "cool".  Anyways - Saturday workout over and I think it was almost 8pm by the time I was done putting everything away, washing bottles, doing laundry, etc.  Time for bed because I have my longest run ever on Sunday!!  The picture below is all of our empty bottles after our ride and run, minus the aero bottles and all of the empty gel packets.

Sunday morning and I find myself taking the dog for a long walk before my run.  Lucky Erin...I used it as a warm up and resisted the urge to run with her a bit.  I was not about to run one more minute than I actually had to!  Headed out on my run from Lifetime shortly before 8am.  It was humid.  Cloudy, but humid.  I had to run 2:40...prior to this my longest run had been the week before, at 2:20.  I knew how that run had gone and my goal was to have an average pace faster than last weeks run.  But not knowing how I'd do, I decided to take it "easy" the 1st 2 hours and leave the last 40 minutes to push it if I could.

What I realized on this long run was it was very boring.  Sometime after about 90 minutes I started the countdown..."how much longer"?  Sort of the kids version of "are we there yet?"...LOL 

I was running by myself but actually I preferred this so was able to control my heart rate and run "my" run.  The pace for 1st 2 hours or so were all within about 15 seconds of each other...slower than I typically run but again...humid and I wasn't sure how I'd feel.  2 hours gone and as I started out the last 40 minutes it started to rain.  Oh, I was happy for the rain...would cool me off I thought.  Little did I know it would last all of 5 minutes and be gone :(  My pacing the 1st 2 hours worked as I was able to pick up the pace for this last part and ended up averaging 14 seconds per mile faster than last week.  Sweet!!!  I even did some stretching in the pool after...wasn't at home so couldn't do the ice bath but I think the pool helped!  Thanks Donna & Jen for the suggestion :)

So had a few firsts this weekend.  Bike/run went well on Saturday.  Would've like to average a bit faster on the bike Sat but considering we climbed a lot of hills and I pushed it the first 4.5 hours or so, I'm OK with it.  No problems on my long run Sunday...except thinking I have no desire ever to run a marathon.  Maybe it's just the training runs that are boring.  That's what I've been told...Jamie I'm trusting you this is the case :)  Today my legs do feel like I worked the crap out of them this weekend, but you know what?  I did!  Now back to my foam roller....

Time to regroup!!

These last few weeks (again) have been sort of blah blah weeks.  Having trouble focusing.  Life's stresses.  Not feeling well.  Cancelled dinner plans at one of my favorite restaurants this week because I didn't feel well.  The weather.  An "A" race getting shortened due to yes, the weather.  Stress.  Workouts being affected by the weather (can you say Mental Toughness Day?).  My nutrition hasn't been that great lately.  Did I mention stress yet?   Or the weather...?

In fact, I sit here typing this during a time I was supposed to be doing my open water swim & then running a 5k.  Just wasn't feeling it today, spent the day running around all over what felt like the entire state, in the heat, ran out of fluids so think I was a bit dehydrated...put it all together along with not feeling well the past few days & I (yes Jen) skipped my workout tonight.  I know it probably happens to others, but typically, it doesn't happen to me.  I hate missing workouts!

I've spent the last few days reading lots of blogs. This isn't something I typically do...oh, I have my few blogs of my favorite people that I follow, but other than that, I don't usually read them. Mostly because I'm on a computer all day long & then some & in the little free time I have, I just don't want to be sitting on a computer.  But I think there was a reason I ended up reading the ones I did...something led me to them for a reason.

I also spent some time with a few friends I rarely see or talk to.  Sorta used them as a sounding board for what I've been feeling lately...I mean, yes I knew Ironman training was not easy, or so they said.  I now know no matter how many times people tell you, you don't really "get it" until you experience it.  Don't get me wrong, so far it hasn't been that bad (OK, last Sat's workout was a nightmare...due to the weather...) but it's the sacrifices I've had to make in order to get my training in that I've been dealing with.  The invites I've had to turn down...or has it just been coincidences that everything happens on days I have long training, or nights before...LOL.  Even today, had to turn something down because of training.  Been struggling with that a lot lately :(  And it gets in my head & gets stuck...like I'm missing out.  Yep, struggling with that a lot lately.

Anyways - so after reading the blogs, talking to some friends & digging within, I'm ready to regroup...get back on track mentally & physically.  Oh yeah, and Mother Nature...really?  MUST you continue this 90+ degree weather every day?  I know it's summer...but enough is enough!!!  My Ironman is less than 2 months away...take the 90's back, leave us with the 80's........I'm tired of looking like crap :)