Swimming Just Got Way Funner!

Why, you ask? My new Splishie suits, of course!! I just got my first order of suits from Splish. Boy, was it hard to just pick a few! I even custom-made one (more on that below).

My first workout bikini! The first thing it made me think of when I tried it on was how badly I need a tan :)


It has monsters on it





This one to me is THE Splish suit. It's the first one I always think of when I think of Splish.


And it reminds me of Rainbow Brite a little. Can I be Skydancer?? (He was way cooler than Starlite)



And my Splish Custom suit!




Yeah that's right, I said it!!

[For those who may not know, HTFU is a saying in the tri community that you use when someone complains too much. It stands for Harden the (F) Up!]

Can't wait to wear that one to masters swim!


Had a nice brick workout Tuesday. I don't think it was intended to be a brick, but I didn't get a chance to do the run earlier in the day so I ended up having to do it right off the bike. For the 2nd time in a week, I got to watch the sun set over the lake while running. You couldn't really see the sun this time because it was cloudy, but the reflections off the clouds made the most amazingly beautiful colors. I sort of wished I had my camera but those kind of pictures never quite capture how awesome it really looks anyway.

Also Tuesday, a coworker who I hadn't talked to since before the 70.3 was asking me about my race. I told him it was great, I had fun, etc etc and that I'm continuing to build for Ironman. He asked me, "so do you have any injuries?" and really, the answer is no. I have the occasional aches and pains and soreness, but there's really nothing wrong with me. I thought about that for a second- comparing the volume I'm doing now, at 15+ hours per week, with what I was doing just a year ago (hardly anything, just coming off of injury). And my body is healthy and pain-free. I've read and heard that an easy, gradual buildup toughens up your bones and tissues so they get adapted to the workload; so in my brain I know it happens. But it's a different thing to actually experience it. I am the same *me* that I was before I started training for Ironman, but there's no way that that *me* could've gone out and done half of the workouts that I do regularly now. It's a pretty cool feeling, and a little strange at the same time.

In related news, for the first time I saw all the numbers for my big weekend workouts from now until CDA. I'm half excited, to think that my body is/will be capable of doing all that, and half friggin terrified, to think that very soon my body WILL be doing all that! Here's a taste: remember my training totals for last week, from my last post? Well on one weekend late in May, I will be doing about that much in 3 DAYS. Yikes!! There's one thing I know though. If Coach Jen says I can do it, then I can do it. I might have to make her remind me of that a few times though!

I guess I need to take some of my own advice... HTFU and get out there!!

Weekap, Post-70.3 Recovery

Having just finished the longest run of my life, preceded by the 2nd-longest bike of my life the day before, the phrase "recovery week" seems a bit of a stretch. But hey, I'll go with it.

I'm still pretty thrilled with my race experience from last week. I'm so happy that everything went well- the lake was calm, the weather was great, my nutrition plan and pace plan worked just like it should, I had no cramping problems. I did find out when I looked at the results from my AG that my bike was really slow. I knew it wasn't going to be fast, but damn- I was about 15 minutes slower than most of the women in my AG who beat me. And also a bunch slower than a lot of the women behind me! I did want to ride faster during a lot of the bike and had to consciously keep slowing myself down in order to stick with the plan. I do know that I probably wouldn't have had as good of a run if I had ridden faster. So, I just gotta get better at this bike thing. I hear that it takes a long time to fully develop your bike legs, so maybe there's hope for me yet.

The rest of this week was pretty relaxed. The first run after the race was on Wednesday. I was surprised how good my legs felt. A little tired, but no soreness anywhere. A couple of "hill simulation" bike rides (my memories of the WF course must be fading, because I actually thought for a second that "maybe I CAN handle the hills at CDA...?"), long aerobic swims, a fun run with a friend and then... the weekend. Long ride Saturday, long run Sunday. The long ride was by myself since most of my teammates were racing the Crescent City Classic 10K here in town on Saturday. I would've liked to, but time in the saddle is way too important to miss right now. So Stella and I headed out on the levee all by our lonesomes. Other than getting hit by a dog with ONE MILE left to go, the ride was fine. Just long. And fortunately neither Stella, the dog, nor I were injured in the incident. I was just ticked off that the people had their dog off the leash in a leash-required area that is very highly traveled by bikers. And yes, the dog ran into me, not the other way around.

Easter Sunday I was going out to brunch. I also had a long run scheduled. Now anyone who knows me knows that I do NOT like to get up early in the morning. But I also hate having long workouts looming over my head all day and then having to do them late in the day when it's getting dark. I think I decided that I hate that more than I hate early mornings, so when 6am rolled around I was waking up to get out there and hit the pavement. I must say, having 16 miles done before 9:30 in the morning was a pretty sweet feeling. Pretty sweet other than that my legs were totally DEAD from the day before. I rode later in the day than normal on Saturday, so there only ended up being about 14 hours between the ride and the run. I realized this right after I started, when I found myself saying, "Wait, I have to run on THESE for 2.5 more hours??"

A few hours (and a few mimosas) later, I was feeling much better.


We caught part of the French Quarter Easter parade on our way out. Any occasion is a good excuse for a parade in this town (there's a float coming but you can't see it too well):


Back at home, I had just finished my easy trainer spin and was watching the 70.3 World Championships on TV when I started hearing more and more noise outside my front door. Turns out it was another parade, going right by my house! It was actually more of a "walking club" than a full-blown parade but it was very cool. Kai and I watched from the front porch.

The banner says "Original Pigeon Town Steppers".


Some of the costumed Steppers themselves, though not a great view:


Then, after the walking club itself, comes anyone else who feels like going along:




My next door neighbors were out watching too (pardon my garbage cans)


My next door neighbor Gus knows EVERYBODY


Kai watched too, and wondered what all the fuss was about





Phew. I think I'm going to go sleep for three days. Happy Easter everyone!


Training totals for the week-
Swim: 5650 yards
Bike: ~138 miles (Long bike: 85 miles)
Run: 26 miles (Long run: 16 miles)
Total hours: 15:22

Race Report- IMNOLA 70.3 2009

Pre-Race:
First of all, the night before the race, on my final pre-race mini run, my Garmin decided to crash. I think there must be some sort of gremlins involved, because the last time it acted up was the night before my last race. I eventually got it fixed, but I had to do a master reset which meant I had to reload all my HR zones, profile, training screens, etc. It also meant it didn't recognize my cadence sensor but it was late at night at that point and I decided I didn't want to mess with it further. So I just went without cadence.

Back to the morning of the race- ate a banana and peanut butter around 5am. Got to transition, said good morning to Stella, dropped off my stuff, got body marked and headed back to the car. The body marking volunteer was a little uneasy about marking my left calf instead of the right:

"Can you put my age on my left calf? I wear a calf sleeve on the right."

"Umm... we're supposed to do the right..." (goes to mark right anyway)

"Well OK, but it's going to be covered up."

"Ahh, um, OK..." (reluctantly marks left, looking over his shoulder to see if he'll be yelled at)

"Don't worry, I won't tell them it was you."

Drove over to swim start. I started getting really excited at this point. Seeing all the athletes walk around, the starting chute, all the commotion- it was great. Watched the pro men and pro women's waves go off. My wave wasn't until almost an hour later. Went to go stand in the porta potty line before getting my wetsuit on. Little did I know that I would be in line for at least a half an hour! I finally got through with only minutes to spare before my wave start. As I headed to the start corral I heard the announcement, "Women 29 and under is the next wave to start", and I didn't even have my wetsuit on! That was the fastest wetsuit-donning I've ever done. Threw the cap on, grabbed the goggles, "Women 29 and under, one minute to go", elbowed my way through the next group waiting in the corral, scampered down the seawall steps, got into the water, put my goggles on, and about ten seconds later, we're off!

Swim:
We got really lucky with the weather for the swim. The water was so calm, it was almost like a pool. I found swimming room fairly quickly and aimed for the outside of the swim course. It was a point to point swim where we swam in a wide lane created by the seawall on one side and the buoys on the other. I headed wide, for the buoys, since it was a more direct route (the seawall curves a little). Just about everyone else swam close to the seawall, which was not only longer but also choppier because of the water hitting the sides. Oh well, more room for me! The swim was smooth and mainly drama-free. I got into a good rhythm of stroke-stroke-breathe and actually did a pretty good job with sighting and swimming straight, which I'm normally not good at. I had been saying for the last few days that since my only other time swimming the course was in rough water with a hangover, I knew my race would at least be better than that. And it was- I exited the water feeling good and relaxed.


T1:
I availed myself of one of the strippers to get my wetsuit off, which was nice. Had to run pretty far to get to my bike. A lot of people were walking their bikes out of transition, but I always like to run mine. It's a good warmup and it always makes me feel like a badass :)


Bike:
My instructions for the bike were to ride strong but conservative, making sure I still had some legs to run on at the end. It was tough getting passed by so many people, especially when I felt like I could be riding so much faster. I reminded myself of what Jen said- that if I rode at too high of a HR, I'd be walking the run. I definitely didn't want to do that. So I held it pretty steady at high Z2/low Z3. There was a bit of a headwind heading out to Chef Highway, which I thought was nice since we'd have a tailwind heading back. Usually it's the other way around. Unfortunately, the winds switched while we were out there and we ended up riding back into a headwind that just got stronger as we went. I kept telling myself, "This isn't so bad. It's breezy but you've ridden out here in way worse." Eventually though, it got to be about as bad as I've seen it out there. Trying to keep my HR down while fighting a headwind like that was tough. I saw several GNOTri teammates at various points- Coach Rick, Mitch, Marcos, Ken, Rick M., and a few others. Also some coworkers.

I stuck very close to my nutrition plan. I ended up going through my concentrate a lot sooner than I thought I would though. I need to practice with that. I was taking one Endurolyte every 20 minutes, with instructions to double up if my legs started to feel crampy. Early on in the bike ride, I felt like my legs were almost on the verge of cramping. I started doing one Endurolyte every 10 minutes. The almost-crampy feeling never really went away, but it never got worse either. There were two things I kept repeating to myself. I asked, "Can I run a half marathon on these legs?" The answer kept being yes, so I figured I was doing OK. The other was the self-check list that Jen gave me in our final pre-race talk- "Strong, relaxed, focused & fueled". That helped a ton. Heading up the last two bridges on the last part of the ride, even though there was a wicked headwind pushing us back as we climbed, I felt pretty good. A little tired, but ready to run. I couldn't help but smile at the spectators cheering us in to transition. And I saw Beverly! That was awesome. I also saw Erik right before I got off the bike.


T2:
Had to call out to the people in front of me walking their bikes to get out of the way as I was running mine down the aisle. I thought it was pretty funny that I could be saying "On your left!" in transition. Stopped at the porta potty on the way out to the run (no, I did not pee on the bike).


Run:
I always feel like I'm running so s-l-o-w off the bike, when usually I'm actually running pretty well. A few minutes in, I checked my watch and saw I was running about a minute per mile faster than I should be. Even though I felt fine, I dialed it back a little. There was still a long way to go.

The first stretch was an out-and-back on Lakeshore Drive, where there's pretty much no shade. By that time of day, it was at least 85 degrees and full sun. It was hot. Luckily the heat doesn't bother me too much and I had plenty of gel and Endurolytes. I passed Rick M. early on, he was walking. I asked him if he wanted to run with me and he told me he couldn't, his legs had cramped up badly. A minute later I realized I should have given him some of my Endurolytes and I felt bad, but I didn't want to go back. Just before the turnaround I saw Coach Rick coming back, already around the turn. He said to come over there and run with him, so I laughed and said I'd be right there. Waved and smiled at the spectators at the turn. I kept hearing "Yeah, GNOTri!" from people who didn't even know me but saw my race top. That was cool. I came around the turnaround and started grinning. I was feeling GOOD. It didn't even feel like I had biked at all.

After the turnaround, I was coming back down Lakeshore Drive and I saw Rick M. again, still walking. This time I remembered and asked him if he wanted some Endurolytes. He said yeah, he lost his on the bike. Bummer. I grabbed a few out of my baggie and handed them to him as I ran by. I haven't seen him since- I hope they helped. Then I saw Mitch heading towards me and slapped him a high-five as we passed. Then Coach Kevin. Go GNOTri! A mile or so later, I finally came up on Coach Rick. We talked for a minute and then I went on. Right after that was the first time I saw Erik on the run. He had his bike, so I hoped that meant he'd ride down the course and cheer for me again later- I knew the support would help. He asked me how I felt and I said, "Awesome!" And I meant it. The sun was shining, a little breeze was blowing, I was feeling strong, I was racing in my first half-Ironman in my hometown along with my teammates, I had my own cheering section- what could be better?? He shouted out that my swim time was great and asked me if I wanted to know the numbers. I didn't really care about it at that point, I was just enjoying my run, so I said no thanks.

I noticed I was passing a LOT of people walking. The headwind on the bike combined with the heat of the day must have gotten to a lot of people. I kept sipping my gels, drinking my water, popping my Endurolytes, and cruising. I felt like I was on just another Sunday long run. Easy peasy. The bagpiper in City Park was cool. I thought about my mom and how much she likes bagpipes, and made a note to tell her about it. I passed two guys who were saying to each other, "This is a respectable pace, right?" Then I passed and the second guy said, "Well that's a little more respectable" and I laughed. They shouted after me, "Just don't drink all the beer before we get there!" About mile 7.5 I started to feel it a little bit. About a mile later, I definitely started to get tired. The last 3-4 miles were very tough, but I knew I had come way too far to slow down now. I managed to keep my pace up down that loooong stretch of Esplanade Ave. When we finally hit the I-10 overpass I knew we were close. When we crossed Rampart and entered the Quarter, I started to realize that I really was about to make it- I was about to be a half Ironman! I managed to pick it up a little at that point. Less than a mile to go. I passed a guy who said, "Oh great, I'm going to get beat by another girl". I said, "Get over it" and kept going. At the turn, people were saying, "800 meters to go!" Part of me was excited, but part of me was thinking, 800 meters? Damn that's a long way! Started counting the blocks heading down Decatur. Is it that traffic light, or the next one? Passed a spectator who said, "Four blocks away!" Saw Erik on the sidewalk holding a big poster with my name on it. Ha! That was a surprise. Now there were people on both sides, clapping and cheering, and for a second it felt like a Mardi Gras parade. The finish line up ahead looked SO GOOD. Another spectator- "Less than a minute left!" Then I was on the mats, then my arms were in the air, then I was across the line and I was DONE!


Post-Race:
When the volunteer took my chip off, I looked down and saw blood on the back of my ankle. So that's what I was feeling for the first half of the run. Walked around, saw some friends, looked for Erik who had my post-race bag. Finally had to borrow a lady's cell phone to track him down. Found him, got the bag, mixed up my Recoverite. Wish it didn't taste so nasty. I looked at my watch- 5:11. That didn't include my swim time or T1, but unless those were really slow then I'd probably made my (secret) goal of finishing under 6 hours. Sweet! I didn't find out until I talked to my coach a little while later that I'd also made my (secret) goal of doing the run under 2 hours. Double sweet! Picked up the bike from transition, got a much-needed shower, stopped by the post-race party but it was pretty much over, got my customary Domino's pizza, and called it a day.

The goal for this race was to get some baseline data to help focus the last few months of my Ironman training. I'd never done this much at once, so there were several unknowns. How much fluid would I need? What HR can I sustain? How many calories can I take in? What will my stomach tolerate? How much sodium do I need? What kind of pace can I run off the bike? And so on. I knew it was important to do exactly what the plan said so that my coach would get the data she needed. The other point of this race was to finish feeling strong and excited for Ironman, not dying and thinking that I never want to do this again. I don't know if I'm exactly "excited" yet for Ironman, I'm still a little terrified, but I did feel strong and I do want to do this again. Coach said to enjoy it, since you only get one first time, and I really really did. I never could have done it without her preparing me so well these last weeks and months, or without her excellent instructions and nutrition plan. I had the easy part- all I had to do was follow directions. And now I can proudly say that I'm a half-Ironman.

A light recovery week this week, then it's time to get started on my first Build phase for CDA! I'm ready, let's go!

Pictures:

Bike drop-off on Saturday. There's Stella's spot on the rack!



Settled in for the night



Lookit all those Zipps!



Coach Kevin, directing traffic at bike drop-off. "No number, no entry. Sorry!"



Coach Rick (in green), also directing traffic, and George the swim coach (in blue), who helped me plan my route from swim exit to my bike rack



There's Stella on the rack all the way to the right, and swim exit was back between the porta potties and that white tent:



I never saw these kids with the Super Soakers, but this looks like it was probably a win-win for most people involved:



A few miles into the run, feeling great!



Rockin' the awesome GNOTri jersey



Done!! (I think I wore that medal for all of about 2.5 seconds)



Ouch!



Team Shell, The Next Generation

Strong, Relaxed, Focused & Fueled

Stella is dropped off, my gear is packed, nutrition is mixed. The Garmin decided to freak out and stop working (why does it feel like this is becoming a pattern right before races??) but thankfully it's fixed now. Bike drop-off was awesome- sooo many bikes and people. Had the final talk with Coach and got some great last-minute pointers. I'm ready to go. She says if I can just remember "strong, relaxed, focused & fueled" I'll have a good day.

Bring it on!!

Expo Day

So I was a dork and went to the very first race briefing, right when the expo opened. Hey, may as well get it out of the way, right? It turned out to be a good idea because by the time I left, there was a line out the door.

I also wanted to make sure I got there in time to get my GNOTri race top! I was so glad the coaches got them in time so I could race with the team colors. I know on race day there will be a lot of family members and friends who will be looking for the GNOTri tops to cheer for us, and that will be so cool! One girl's family all volunteered to work the same water stop together so they would be sure to have a good place to watch- now that's thinking.

I had to try it on in the little changing tent (another brilliant idea) to make sure I got the right size. When it made me feel a little bit like a sausage, I knew it was right :)




Walked around the expo a little, bought some logo gear:




Then headed home to follow Coach's instructions and REST. I kept looking at the wristband they gave us, which we have to wear in order to get the shuttle buses and get into transition. I kept thinking- It's ON now, and by the time it comes off, I will be a half-Ironman. Wow! This is really happening! I'm still staring at it now. For some reason it's this wristband that's suddenly making it feel real.




Well I managed to rest for about 30 minutes, then brought Stella to the bike shop for one final check. After they told me I was neurotic, and that nothing on my bike was different from when they checked it a week ago, Todd adjusted my derailleur a little bit to make me feel better and then I left.

Then it was time to go back to the expo for Macca's talk. I'd been trying to spot him all week but he probably just got into town from Hawaii a day or so ago. Saw Marcos and Lenny (teammates) at the talk. Macca signed autographs and took pictures with people both before and after the talk. People were nice and respectful, but man he was mobbed. Poor guy couldn't even walk anywhere. But he was so nice about it. I never saw him say no to anyone's request for a picture or autograph, even when his people were telling him he needed to go somewhere. Someone asked him if he was going to swim the course before the race. He said he wanted to, but he'd heard the lake was dirty. I had to set him straight so I told him no the lake is actually in really good shape right now, and if he wanted he could come swim with GNOTri in the morning, they're doing the course. He asked what time, so who knows, maybe he'll show up. Thank you to my new friend John the Photographist for snapping a photo:




And Molly, I didn't manage to grab any of him for you, but I didn't forget about you!




Back home again. I'm really going to rest now, I promise. Talked to Coach, she gave me my customary pre-race "Calm the F Down" talk, for which I am always grateful. Now, to keep my brain calm, I will make my Swim/Bike/Run/Misc gear lists and start packing. Tomorrow- bike drop-off. Get ready Stella!

Final Tune-Ups

3 workouts today. All short and sweet, with a little bit of speed thrown in there, to put the finishing touches on my race prep. Coach says I'm ready, so I must be.

A lot of people say they get tons of energy during taper because of the reduced training volume. Well I just realized something- I hate tapers! I've been feeling sluggish, slow, and out of breath all week in my workouts. I thought back to the pre-race week for my last few races and realized I'd felt the same way then too. Apparently this is a common reaction- who knew? Coach Kevin says, "Tapering is tricky because of what happens when the athlete starts to give themselves rest, the system in the body that responds to stress starts to shut down. You will start to feel like you are out of energy, sluggish, and getting out of shape. THIS IS NORMAL." Phew! I guess that makes me feel a little better.

The "Taper Twinges" are in full effect as well. TWICE this week my shin felt funny during runs. By now though I've gotten pretty good at telling the difference between bad pain and pain I can ignore. I think this is the latter, fortunately.

For a bit of good news, today I set a new PR for 100 yards! I've been in the 1:30s for a looong time now. The last two workouts that had hard sets of 100s I was able to hit 1:30, but I'd never broken it. I decided today I was going to go for it. I had a quick set of 3x100 descend. I don't know what the time of my first 100 was because swim practice ended so the coach took the clock away in the middle of it. Oh well. The 2nd was 1:33. The last one, I went all out from the beginning and just tried to not let up. Usually when I swim "fast" and it gets hard, I let up a little because I think I won't be able to make it to the end if I don't. This time I wanted to see what would happen so I kept going. I figured, 100 is short so just suck it up and go! The last 25 I was trying to decide if I'd gone fast enough to hit 1:29. I thought maybe, then no, then maybe. Hit the wall, look at the watch- 1:27! Woo HOO! Yes I know that's still not considered "fast" by swimmer standards, but I'll take it!

Tomorrow (Friday): No training. No work either, woohoo! Go to expo. Get packet. Get GNOTri race top. Go to bike shop and have cadence sensor fixed, tires checked. Drive new portion of bike course. Make gear lists and start putting stuff together. Go to Macca's talk. Grab his ass for Molly :) GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP.

Saturday: Rehearse transitions. Check and recheck that everything is packed. Quick spin and run. Drop off Stella at transition. Mix up concentrate. Get more sleep.

For all you who wish you could be in NOLA for the inaugural IMNOLA 70.3, here are some pictures to help you feel like you're here:

Jackson Square, where we'll be finishing:


Satellite view of Lake Pontchartrain and the NO area, with the course highlighted (swim = red, bike = blue, run = yellow)


And one from Al, trying to scare the out-of-towners: