Catch Me If You Can

Sat, Aug 28, 2010

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Just completed my first Half Iron!!! :D

First off I have to say I'm extremely happy with how I pulled through and actually finished. I was figuring there was a 50-75% of having DNF (been pretty sick.) So going into this race, my goal was not racing, but getting through, and completing the entire thing. Finishing will be important for my mindset going into Ironman training November 1st.

In my racing, my coaches like to go over race strategy and pacing with me..but for this race, it was..."just listen to your body and get the experience." I actually enjoyed doing a race like this, no expectations, really quite relaxing. :D

I woke at 4a.m. with only 4 hours sleep..Never get much sleep race night. I arrived at Utah Lake State Park about 5:15 and head over to transition to set up. I took the rack that was right at the bike exit so that I wouldn't have to run far in my cycling shoes (They don't flex.) I had some fun socializing with the other triathletes as I was really relaxed, not nervous like I have been at previous races. The set up was very much like every other race I have done, except I brought along some mosquito spray which a whole crowd of people borrowed...(The mosquitos were eating me even with the spray on!)

I head over to the swim with Megan, a girl I met at my first tri, Icebreaker, in the spring. We helped eachother zip up our suits, and swam into position.

I got some new Sables for this race, since someone stole mine at Scofield in July, expensive ($50) but the most comfortable goggles.

The Swim: Our swim wave took off just after 7a.m. It was all the women. I just love open water, so I really had a blast swimming the 2 loop 1.2mile swim. The only thing is my rhythm was off for the first few minutes and I kept inhaling a bit of water and having to stop and hack it out. I was very calm and collected and just kept swimming. For this race I got a new wetsuit, as my other is pretty warm. You really don't want to be hot swimming. This one is slightly less insulated, and sleeveless..I was totally comfortable, and love the feel of my arms free in the water. My official time was 47:30. I got out of the water somewhere around 45:00 and then took off my wetsuit before getting into transition because when I started running the tightness on my calves made them want to cramp. (Womens wetsuits are not made for my build.) I may end up cutting the suit just below my knees for my next season.

T1: Normally my lollygagging in transition would make my coaches squirm but I didn't care and I don't think they did either. I just needed to be comfortable for this race. During the swim I noticed the volunteer earlier had wrote the wrong # on my arm so I had James (Who was waiting for his wife to finish her swim) change 232 to 238 on my arms and leg, which ended up sweating off anyhow. OH, and I applied chap stick. :D 2:25

The Bike: Just a few minutes into the bike it started to rain. I was excited, seemed adventurous, but it only lasted 5 minutes or so and it cleared up. About mile 5 I noticed my Speedfill watertank was loose and getting more loose every second, it started banging on my right calf and did so until mile 15 aid station where I stopped and asked for tape. No tape. But I did have my tool kit, and my friend Joe who happened to be volunteering ran over to help. The tank had to be unscrewed and taken off to fix the mount.This really probably only took about 3 minutes but it was wasted time. Because of construction there was a stoplight on the way out and back that would not be stopped by police. The police were there to observe and keep it save, but if we got a red light we had to stop. I got the red light both ways! :P At mile 32 or so, my chain fell off so I had to stop and fix that..Lol. All my stopping made me have to pass the same people 3 times. 2:51:43/56 miles

Nutrition wise, I had planned on 250 calories an hour but I found this was not enough. I did have a few spare items to eat in case. I ended up eating those as well. I noticed a trend in my energy...at first I thought, "wow..I really hit the wall, I'm going to tank bad on this race faster than projected." But what I decided to do was eat some more and see if it helped. It did. My timing was a bit off tho, What I need to do is eat Before I start tanking. If you are wondering, this type of race runs me about 4000calories burned.

T2: This was like the spa version of Transition. On the bike, I Had spit early on and it landed on my shoulder and dripped into my pit. This made for a nice rash growing under my arm..so I walked to the bathroom which was close to the transition bike entrance/exit where I was on the front line. I didn't run because my legs were starting to cramp. I went to the sink and splashed all over my body and rinsed my face. Since I wasn't worried about race finish time, I was going to be comfortable. I peed and blew my nose and walked back to get my running shoes, hat, and bib# on, I also took an SCap salt tablet..was starting to wish I had more to take on the run. 5:11

The Run: Just around the corner from Transition I saw coach Mahogani on the sidelines, I went over to her and yelled out.."Salt. I need salt. Do you have any?" It was just about basic like that. I am not a conversationalist during a race. :) She said she would have some by lap two. There was an aid station early on and I got tempted by a pretzel..I thought I can just suck the salt and spit the rest out, come to find out it wasn't super salty and I thought maybe I can eat it, I won't get too sick till later..I chewed it two times and spit it out. (Allergy) My senses came back, and I thought I can duke it out till mile 6.5. I also have recently had allergic reactions to watermelon (Throat closing up, rashing, itching, pins and needles in face, and swelling, nauseated stomach) and bananas so I wasn't able to eat those on the run either. I ended up eating a few orange wedges, and the rest of my calories came from Coke. I was not able to run fast at all, any time I sped up I would start to cramp. So I kept it a slow steady easy pace pretty even throughout. Mahogani did come through with the Thermolyte tablets, and I ended up taking 9 of them over the next 4 miles. I think these may have kept me in the race. 1:52:21/13.1miles

100 meters or so from the finish:

Normally I think a person would be really sad and ashamed not racing up to athletic ability but I was so pleased to just finish. Having a tough race grants you great experience. Knowing what can go wrong is probably more important for Ironman than having perfect races, and perfect health leading up to it.

I'm So Proud of Myself!!! :D

Fri, Aug 27, 2010

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Hi :D

Tomorrow is Utah Half! I did a little of each of the 3 disciplines to got the kinks out:

Bike 6.07 mi.

Run 1.37 mi.

Swim 850 yd.

This will be quite the experience..my first Half Iron. 1.2 mile Swim, 56 mile bike.

These past few weeks I have been under the weather so wish me luck tomorrow. All I want is to finish in one piece! :P

Sat, Aug 14, 2010

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Almost didn't make this group workout. Same as yesterday I ate breakfast and felt like throwing up, weak, and shakey. Decided to go anyhow. Drove the 30min to Saratoga Springs where another athlete in our group let us use his lakeside home as our Transition area.

We swam in Utah lake, it was pretty chilly actually. I brought my wetsuit anyhow since I still need practice swimming in one, Glad I had it. We swam about 20minutes, not sure how far. Around 1000meters I'd say. It wasn't a hard pace.

The Bike was 52miles at 19.6mph. By about mile 40 my crotch hurt so bad, and I was numb at the same time. I wanted to throw up and felt like it was hard to breath. So we stopped for a sec and Heath adjusted my seat. I need to get re fit on my bike, the seat may have slid back over time. I feel pretty stretched out between the saddle and bars.

Lastly, the Run. By this point I was fatigued, a bit low on calories. And it was hot. Good practice tho for Utah Half in two weeks. I didn't run super hard, but a good pace, more so just to get it over and done with. 7.89mi/1:04:12/8:08pace

Nutrition wise, I did get some good calories in, 900 over the 4 hours of endurance. Plus I took in a lot of sodium. 1200mg. I also took in quite a bit of sodium in before and after (another 1600mg.) Seems to help with the mass water retention after long workouts/races. My goal is 250mg sodium and 200-250cal an hour or so for race day. I will keep playing around with what I take in. The tricky part is the ratio with water..it really depends on conditions. I found it helpful that when I knew I was hungry and the Heed/Water mixture was too thin, I Had a Hammer gel handy I could eat, in the instance I Had too much liquid in my stomach already.

BOY, planning nutrition around endurance is like Babysitting.

Fri, Aug 13, 2010

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Supposed to have done quite the workout today but felt sick. I started a ride at 7:30am (SO COLD!) but turned around at mile 2.5. Was feeling really fatigued and nauseated. You know how when you are about to throw up your mouth starts watering? Yeah. Went back to bed and slept/laid around till 3:15. I see the doc on Tuesday, hopefully we can get some things sorted out.

Oh, I guess I should put on here. 5 mile Bike.

Thu, Aug 12, 2010

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Got up @ 5:45 for coaches group track workout. Mighty early for me. I only get up that early for a race. Well, in the instance of a race, it's more like 4:30a.m.

We did 20x200meters on the track with 1min recoveries..just walked 100meters. The first 17 were hit on 40seconds, the last 3 on 35seconds (was supposed to be all out but I didn't want to go faster, was worried about getting too sore.)

Total miles with 1.25mile walking would have been 5.88 but lets not count walking!

4.63/34:13/7:23pace with wu and wd. Didn't feel too bad, I did get more sore than I thought I would tho. Haven't done 200's in quite a while.

Later I went for a swim. Seriously feel out of shape in the water. I really have only been swimming 1x weekly average instead of 2-3x. 3500yd.

Wed, Aug 11, 2010

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Today was just a trying day. I get up at 6am to avoid the heat for a long ride..2.5 hours with hillwork. by 7am I was all ready to go and as usual went to top my tires to 120psi. My back tire was totally flat with an inch long gash in it. The tire had to be totally replaced so we decided to replace the other as well since it is 5 months old. I kept that one for a spare.

In the mean time, I make a cake for Thomas' birthday from scratch. A sponge cake sounded good. It collapsed in the oven. Never in my life has any cake failed on me! So I make a new cake. This time a Pound cake since it is slightly faster to make (served with berries and icecream.)

At 4pm I go to pick up my bike. Went home and ate, got my gear on, filled my speedfill waterbottle with Head, Prolytes, and water. 6:30pm, ready to get that ride in in just enough time before it's pitch black outside. I even had my helm and cleats on....and what on earth??? A FLAT!

Two Cakes. Two Flats. In one day.

At that point, I called it a day.

Took the tire in Thurs Morning because, I figured they pinched the tube when putting it in. They should fix it. Sure enough that is what happened. The tech at Fezzari pulled the tube out and tried to inflate it. Nothing. There was a 5 inch long gash in the tube. He asked if I had heard an exploding sound. And I thought, OMG yes I did. But I didn't know what it was. I was in my house and heard a loud bang, and thought maybe it was a transformer popping. I even checked for broken windows, and a blown out computer. It was that loud. Come to find out, a tube inflated to 120psi will make quite a bang when popped.

So there you have it. My long long Day. :P

Tue, Aug 10, 2010

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Ez Run up Provo Canyon. 11.09/1:44:35

Ez Swim 2500yd.

Mon, Aug 09, 2010

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Ez Recovery Bike 36.41mi

Sun, Aug 08, 2010

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Recovery, Rest :)

Sat, Aug 07, 2010

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Race Details To come

Fri, Aug 06, 2010

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Easy Bike 4.68mi & Easy Run 1.45 (Pre Race)

Thu, Aug 05, 2010

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Today I went and swam some. My left shoulder (my retarded side) was already sore from lifting on Tuesday, and then I made it worse by trying to correct my left side form too much. I have hardly swam much this month. I used to swim 10,000yd a week at least and I really have only swam 3000yd max a week, so I really have slowed down. You lose swim fitness 3x faster than run fitness my coach says...1800yd

I called my massage therapist for an emergency massage to work my shoulder, and also my right calf which is acting up again. I'm going to make it a tradition to get a massage the Thursday prior to any race I do. :D

Wed, Aug 04, 2010

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Went with Sarah J. and Coach Heath. We previewed part of the BAM course. We talked about pacing on the bike relative to the terrain. I wasn't a fan of the course when I rode it a few weeks ago, and was still undecided as to whether I wanted to race or not. I kind of like the quirky winding bike course. One of my gel packets (Accelerade Keylime Pie, YUM) fell out of my Bento Box...I was bummed, but didn't want to go searching for it. I still had another to eat. 18.06 miles

After we ran through the trails where the run will be. Without signs we kind of made up our own path. It is at Soldier Hollow on the cross country ski trails. Funny thing...We all had to pee at the same time...be we found our own bushes. :D 2.77miles

So anyhow. Race is Saturday. I registered Wed Eve for it, $85 and that is with a $20 discount. TRI races are so freaking expensive. :P

Tue, Aug 03, 2010

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Brick

Bike 36.23 miles

Run 3.04 miles

Was hot and I took it relatively easy.

I've been alternating in my asics racing flats on some shorter runs just to give my feet a different feel. I usually just use these on the track. I really like the minimalist feel.

Mon, Aug 02, 2010

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Rest

Sun, Aug 01, 2010

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 06:00:00

Ran with Hubby in the eve. It was pouring rain the half hour before we left. We got lucky and it was clear our whole run, yet really humid. Got home after sunset. Very nice run with hubby at 10pace.

Sat, Jul 31, 2010

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:00:00

Surprise! I rested today too. :P Not feeling well again. Will spare you the long story. I did wake at 4:30am to join a club in a swim/bike/run excursion but was just not well enough. Then Plan two was to run with hubby at 5:30am. We got a half mile into it and he was sick..so we walked home and I Fretted till about 7:30 and went back to bed.

VERY happy news is my 7th grade son Jordan barely made weight to be in the middle weight division of tackle football, and his preferred coaches team! We helped him drop 5 pounds by restricting carbs and sodium. He made it by a Half Pound! :D

My family went camping so I could have some time to myself..I went to Barnes and Noble and looked at cook books and Nutrition books, for 5 hours!

Then I went home and made Amaranth Carrot Cookies, and had 3 of them with Almond Milk.

6Tbsp Veg Oil

1/2 c.Raw Agave Syrup

6 Tbsp Water

2 c. Amaranth Flour

2/3 c. Arrowroot Starch

1 tsp Baking soda

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. Cinnamon

2 tsp. Vanilla

2/3 c. grated Carrot

2/3 c. Raisins

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Lightly oil cookie sheet. Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix wet with dry, and add carrots and raisins. Use a medium size spring scoop or..what I did was roll the dough between my lightly oiled hands. U may want to press them a little flat or you will get a little round cookie. Cook till lightly brown. I made my cookies really small, which would yield 24 cookies. Baked for 12 minutes.

Oooh Just had a 4th. Those are filling. O.o

I love you so here is a pix. :D

Fri, Jul 30, 2010

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:00:00

Rest.

Thu, Jul 29, 2010

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:00:00

South Fork Repeats Brick

Started just after noon in the 48% humidity. It ended up being an amazing fun workout. Rode from my home to Vivian, then rode to the top of South Fork 3x hard. Total 42.26miles (2300elevation gain)

Right when I got home I ran 4 miles/7:50pace off the bike and by then it was scorching hot..glad I drank tons on the bike..56 oz to be exact. :) The last bit of my run I was so tired it was funny to me...usually I never find that funny. I must have been delirious.

Went with coaches group at 6 and swam a little over a mile in Deer Creek Reservior. I don't know what it is but I love love love open water swim.

Wed, Jul 28, 2010

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:00:00

Had a 10miler planned for this a.m. @ 8pace. Hit it in 77:42/7:45pace. This I did in two loops. Stopped for 2 sec at home to grab some Hammer Gel and water. I Have been trying to fuel during workouts to get my body used to race day situations. By Ironman next May I need to have the nutrition down pat. I have just barely started fueling during workouts and I hope to have some good experience before my Half Iron at the end of August.

Swam 3350yd this afternoon. I haven't been swimming much lately so this was kind of hard. I felt really distracted and not focused..Noticed people staring at me swimming and really haven't ever noticed that before. Weird. I must have been splashing alot.

Foamroller, golf and Tennis ball fun 22min

Started taking a low dose Iron supplement today. I have managed to get 150-200% of my Daily iron just in food, well for a week and a half now. It takes forever to restore Iron come to find out. Can take 2-6 months. Wish me Speed on that. :( Anyhow if you aren't up to date, I had my blood tested and my ferritin is pretty low.