Ironman Lessons Come in Handy..

Now this is where IM training/racing comes in handy..this morning..running...We embarked on a 1:40 min run, at altitude near Heron Lake, near the cabin...

They told us the trail was 3 miles total..I tend to believe people who work at these State Parks that they probably know from the map how far the trail is. Silly me! So anyway,we took off thinking OK we will run the 3 miles then run along the lake to make up the rest...

I had felt a little shaky since our workout yesterday on the track. We did Speed Work w/Coach Eric...My leg started hurting about 3/4 of the way into a "pyramid" (it just sucked and was hard, etc)..I opted to stop before said soreness became an injury..So I was tired to begin with then we hightailed it up here last night..I was grumpy, tired and went to bed fairly early.

4:30 AM-I hear our beloved 14 year old geriatric dog coughing and stumbling about downstairs.Now she can't go outside without us carrying her down the stairs..40 lbs of dead weight down 2 flights of stairs..it is hard on a good day..At 4:30 AM I went down to find one thirsty dog and who obviously needed to go outside. So there I was, well not exactly "dressed" for the outside, carrying my old dog down the stairs in the dark, who by now seemed confused as to which way was the door..not a good sign. I let her out and she did her business only to take off down the road instead of back to the house. I am calling her, in my "nightwear" to no avail. I had to take off barefoot..and you get the picture.. It wasn't pretty as I chased after my senile dog to get her back inside. We finally made it. After many more trips downstairs, I finally just lifted her up to the couch and said "Go night, night!" Like a child..

I could not go back to sleep for anything. Then I got hungry..Damn! So up I was at 5:00 getting oatmeal and coffee and pissed! After an hour of this, I got so sleepy, I went back to bed...did manage an hour more of sleep or so..

Fast forward to our run by the lake: We start out and I just do not feel good. I start to get light headed, hungry (not a good sign at the beginning of a run)..I ate a Power Gel, to no avail..Walked a bit and the ground started spinning. I am not doing so good, I think I may need to stop I tell H. He slows down. We are in the middle of basically nowhere on a trail that is unfamiliar. I do not want him to get too far ahead...I eat another Power Gel, more water..Still feeling like crap,I am walking. As we continue to walk, H says hey let's just walk the rest of the 3 miles then call it a day. I obviously agreed, since by then I was barely able to walk...Time ticked by..1.5 miles...halfway there I think..I eat a THIRD gel and more water...I am starting to feel a little better. By now we are jogging down the hills, walking up....We get to some kind of turnaround at 2.7 miles. Hmmm. me thinks these folks so not know how far 3 miles are..Slowly we picked it up to a run and soon we were at almost 6 miles and back to the ranger station. We decided after my 4th gel, that my tank was full and we could keep going. So we did..The whole 1:45 minutes, slowly mind you, but done..

It just proves my point of Ironman: You can be feeling like dog doo-doo one minute, ready to quit...fix the problem and feel great in an hour! Honestly you can!!

America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride..

It was...I think..true...

Now I have not been everywhere and as someone mentioned, Jackson Hole is pretty spectacular and then there is Alaska of course-but do they have century rides like this? I do not know.

We left on Thursday after a swim lesson with Coach Eric, where we learned to reach and pull. Wow-talk about sore arms! It is hard work getting faster....better pay off! We drove the long 9.5 hour drive to Barstow, CA, where my head hit the ever so fluffy pillow at the Hampton Inn there. I love the Hampton. The fluffy beds, the big "free" breakfast in the morning, all of it..H & I are in the habit of just getting places..so we eat in the car on the fly. H is in charge of "car meals", well all meals for that fact. We managed to fit both bikes in the car, without both wheels, with plenty of room in the Pre-Ass for all our other sporty stuff and suitcases..This makes for better gas mileage. We found that dragging the bikes behind the car affects the gas mileage like by about 10 MPG. Got a good night's sleep in Barstow and woke up to a sunny California day to make the last 7 hour drive to South Lake Tahoe. It took us longer than we thought but the drive was beautiful through several mountain ranges. Of course I forgot my camera..grr..so was going to take flip videos, which I had with me, but that seemed too much trouble so alas I have no real documentation. Except my cheesy Blackberry pictures, which after seeing IPhone pics-mine look like they were taken with one of those brownie cameras I use to have as a kid..

Got to Tahoe around dinner time and it was raining. Apparently had been raining and cloudy for about 7 days. We read that it only rains a few days a year and we happen to hit right in those few days I guess. We could not really see Lake Tahoe or the mountains and did I mention it was cold? Around 38 in the morning and 50s in the day. Waking up Saturday to more rain, we managed to squeak out a run for about an hour before the rain started up again and it rained..and rained.. and rained..well you get the picture..I spent alot of time cleaning our bikes and at the local grocery store, gathering food for the morning and beyond..We ate dinner at one very busy Italian restaurant, where the food was, meh...ok..

3,000+ people descended upon South Lake Tahoe, populations 23,000 for this ride. So it was a very busy little place all day Saturday as folks were going stir crazy in the rain. I must admit I was a bit grumpy thinking about riding 100 miles anyway and in the rain? I don't think so. The weather forecast was somewhat encouraging for Sunday. Rain in the afternoon-OK so we have to be done by the afternoon, that is all.

6:15 AM-that is the time we started AMBBR, as it is called. We rode the 1.5 miles from the Best Western, where we stayed there (OK place, GREAT pancakes for breakfast made up for the crappy cell service and no wireless Internet-certainly not the luxury hotel it was cracked up to be)..There were the 3000 plus cyclists at the start, staggering to begin but still a clusterf&*#k for much of the first 50 miles or so...H and I wore our Outlaw jerseys but who could see them under the 5 layers of clothes we had on? It was friggin' cold in the 30s but we are Outlaws and we train in the winter here so we can take it, right? Really was not so bad and hallelujah, it was cloudy but no rain! We were so happy about this. I would not have gone in that pouring down stuff, which would have made for one long trip for no reason..

This ride was so well supported, I do not think we will ever be treated any better on a century ride. About every 15 miles or so there was a rest stop which had bars, fruit, cookies, pretzels, Cytomax, etc, etc...There were drop bags at each stop so you could lose the layers and layers of clothes you had one, which we did...Bike pumps, bike techs, everything you could imagine were at these stops and tons of porta potties..I can't say enough about those support areas...We stopped at the second one and hung out for probably 30 minutes just to hang out! This was after the first "hill" out of two hills on the ride. My antiquated Garmin only held a charge for part of the ride so here is the first bit of elevation:

So the hill was right at the beginning, which was good because it warmed me up enough to peel clothes...

The views from the top of this pass were...well I can't even describe it except to say mountains behind a beautiful clear blue Lake Tahoe, with the sun peaking out from the clouds finally was well, breath taking..

After around mile 33, we did an out and back on the most beautiful bike trail I have ever been on. It went right past a river/creek that was as clear water as I have ever seen. I kept say Why this really IS the most beautiful bike ride! Oohs and ahhhs abound here. It was a bit technical trying to keep from running into the person in front of you. Well imagine hundreds of cyclists trying to fit on one little bike path for 5 miles or so and well, you get the picture. People were polite and all and no run-ins which could have easily happened.

Around mile 70 was lunch. Now this was no ordinary lunch. As you came into the lunch area, there were about 200 folks cheering you in just for lunch! Out of the 3000+ cyclists, 1800 were Team-in-Training peeps. These folks are really organized!! Spectators abounds for these motivated people, many of whom I assume were doing their first century ride..We saw people from all over the country as the jerseys had TNT, with where they were from..I finally got to sport my Outlaw jersey and of course had some great compliments about that!

Lunch..well what can I say? What wasn't there to eat? Now I am not one who can eat alot on the bike, or my stomach rebels but I had to have the vege sub and chocolate brownie and chips..just had to...I have never seen so much food in my life! We stayed another 30 minutes at this beautiful rest/picnic area right on the lake, sun shining at this point, full on sunshine...wow!

Now by this time I was getting a bit tired. My legs felt fine, I was just tired..So we stopped at one of the many quaint little coffee shops along the lake and I had an espresso, which seemed to kick me into another gear for the rest of the ride. H & I were pinching ourselves asking ourselves if the happy police were going to come and take us away now!

Miles 80-86 were a bit tough as we had another long, long, slow climb. I was getting grumpy by now-at one point when there was about 2 miles to the summit, some (I am sure well meaning yet out of shape looking) volunteer told me it was 7 miles to the top. I had no Garmin by now and well, I was not a happy camper!! I was very happy he was wrong!

Finally at mile 86 wheeeee!!! We flew downhill the next 12 miles or so..It was exhilarating! As we sailed back into S. Lake Tahoe town, there were alot of those "grate" thingies on the side of the rode. So heard and yelled alot of "Grate!" warnings... Just as I thought wow I wonder if these things are really all that dangerous?, I watch as a lady gets caught in one, right in front of us and goes flying over her handle bars and face plants..Holy chit! We stopped..I went back and told her not to move her neck, as I remembered one of our Outlaws, who recently broke her neck and neck immobility when it happened probably saved her from being paralyzed. Well, this woman was having none of that as she tried to get up. I told her You snapped your neck, I saw you..please do not move! But she was insisting she wanted to finish the 100 miles. One guy told her..I think it counts you are at mile 98 or something. The sag people arrived immediately..I told them it looked like she snapped her neck as she face-planted to me (her face was bleeding too)..so figured they would take it from there, as there were also tons of people there to help here up..Oh well, I tried! I hope she is OK. We did see the medical helicopter take off soon after we finished so maybe she got airlifted out..Will never know I guess...

That kind of dampened my finish to the 100 miles. I was getting tired by now anyways. My legs were beginning to feel the distance although surprisingly not so bad. I was so glad since the longest ride I had done recently was 72 miles and that was in April. H & I rounded the corner at the finish line and there were all the roaring crowd again-you would think we just finished the Tour' de France, the way they were cheering. It was awesome!! I think it took us about 7 hours bike time but who knows..H accidentally zeroed his bike computer and then there is my whole Garmin issue! Anyhow, I deem it a 7 hour century!

Just to make sure we got enough to eat..they had quite a spread at the end, by the pool at the hotel/casino host hotel. There was pasta galore, salad, marinara sauce, more pasta, bread sticks, etc...Seriously, you really got your money's worth of food and support at this beautiful ride!! We ate, then rode back to the hotel, where I collapsed after a bath and Kentucky Fried Chicken's new grilled chicken dinner. It was fabulous!!! We ate on the beach, a bit cold and windy but at least we can say we were on the beach at Lake Tahoe!

I slept like a rock...

Conclusion: The America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride was spectacular. Would do it again in a heartbeat. Great support, food, roads, very organized..the views-well it was ridiculous!

To top it off we stopped off south of Las Vegas on the way home and spent the night. The next morning we did a 1.4 mile open water swim in Lake Mead, equipped with our own Formulaic as a tour guide. He is going to to IMCDA in 2 weeks so just happened to know all the buoy inside swim info and took us through a great swim in a stupendous lake. I am jealous they have this in their back yard! Johnny Tri was there too. Was so great to see these friends as the last time we were all there was the horrible Rage in the Sage half IM last year, in which I was totally traumatized but met great people! The swim yesterday was so much more pleasant. After the swim, we met up with Formulaic's wife and brand new baby son-11 days old! Very very cute and little and Kelly looked better than I did and she just had a baby! We had a great lunch and said goodbye-see you JT at BLST in 3 weeks!

So I have a new found confidence in the swim and bike. Now I just need to get that same energy on the run and I am there-watch out Lubbock!

And then there was hell week..

This does not look as hard as it was last week:

Mon 5/25
B: 16.00 Miles
R: 1.80 Miles

Tue 5/26
S: 2000.00 Yd
(with Coach)

Wed 5/27
B: 32.25 Miles
R: 3.40 Miles

Thu 5/28
B: 14.00 Miles (hill work with Coach)
S: 2800.00 Yd

Fri 5/29
R: 3.00 Miles
(Speed work on the track w/Coach)

Sat 5/30
B: 40.50 Miles

Sun. 5/31
B: 15 miles
Run: 7.5 miles

I call it "triathlon boot camp, with Coach in town". The three sessions we had with Coach Eric were after we returned from Denver to see Hadley et. all..

Lessons I learned:

My left hand does not cooperate in swimming with my right. 

On the bike: I get to AT much quicker than I thought..

Run: Well, I suck..that is all there is to it!

We took off to Chama after our track workout on Friday. Feedback from Coach on the run: I run "cute" but that does not cut it when racing..Need to pump arms more aggressively, lean forward, longer strides.  Wow alot to remember!..We biked on Saturday to north of the town of Chama, up the pass a bit, high altitude cycling. We wanted to bike 4 hours but alas, Mother nature had other plans! It looked like we were going to get caught in a flash storm, which you do not want to be stuck in out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains so we cut it short. Only 40 miles instead of planned 60+. I sure hope next weekend when we are trying to do a century around Lake Tahoe (America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride supposedly-don't think they have biked around Chama though), I can make it! I feel very under trained for this ride and almost wish we hadn't signed up. It is smack dab in the middle of peak training for Buffalo Springs Lake half IM, which according to the "Beginner Triathlete" training program, we are already under trained by hours and hours, especially in the swim, for this race..I am trusting that the 3 races we did made up for this because it certainly cut out alot of workouts!

We had every intention to swim in a lake near the cabin, either Heron or El Vado. Water temperature hovered around 50 degrees and I am sorry but after IMCDA last year I swore I would never purposely swim in that cold of water again! So another swim workout missed-damn! We did an unusual brick yesterday. I have always done the long ride/short run brick..This one was one hour easy bike, 1 hr, 45 minute run (at 8000 feet). Was a challenging couple of hours. All in all I feel like I am light years stronger on the bike this year and  a little faster on the run. The swim? Yet to be determined..

This is our 12th day of training today. We met with Eric again to do hills on the bike and gosh darn if my Garmin was not dead, AGAIN because I did not charge it all night. I wish I had the profile for this ride-holy shit! There were some kick ass hills, at the end of which I did yell out Uncle!! I think we were suppose to go up that last 15% grade hill but H and I just stopped!  Hey I have my limits! No cursing the young agile athlete though-he is trying to help us and we are paying him for this torture!

I am pooped and we still have a 2600 yd swim today. Then tomorrow-a day off!! I am going to a workshop on ethics just to keep my brain alive and my counseling license current, just in case I need to counsel someone for money I guess. No real logic to it..I just like feeling all professional and all, even if I do not work in the field at all..

Random post Memorial Day thoughts..

Random thoughts and experiences:

We just got back from Denver visiting Becca, Dan and baby Hadley. Hadley is starting to get the happiest disposition on earth. I have never seen a child so happy..well maybe not this year. She brought us more joy in 4 days than anyone can imagine..honestly..I know they eventually outgrow the baby phase and get into the "terrible twos" someday but until that happens, I am happy Grandma Debi . Even the older, more challenging phases are "cute" to Grandma and Grandpa most days!

It rained alot there this weekend but Becca and I managed to obtain and plant some awesome flowers! Seems to be a family tradition between her and I now that we have become "flower gardeners"in the last couple of years. Something I never really saw myself as doing but I do have vague memories of my maternal Grandmother and her "Rose gardens". She would get up everyday in the summer at 5:00 AM to weed and tend to the flowers. A genetic trait part of gardening I did not inherit..

Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 triathlon is a mere 4 and 1/2 half weeks away. We are meeting with our Coach, Eric for the next 4 weeks for some fast and furious training sessions before the big race for the summer. Eric is an amazing young man, who is the kind that you wish you had if you had a son. He is very motivating, young- yet wise for his years. I leave our workouts feeling like I really could do well despite my age or other limiting factors..

We swam today and I learned that the damn left hand does not cooperate 90% of the time so need to work on that really hard! Also practicing the sprinting at the beginning of the swim so I can get in front of the fray and not have a panic situation that I just experienced at Buffman and Squeaky. This is just something I need to teach myself to do and master. A new skill. The goal is to swim like hell for 300 yards or so, then settle back into an endurance rate. Can I do this? Well, after today I think I can.

I love to travel. I love to see my kids, go to races, be in the thick of a new and exciting world of adventure. But MAN I love being home, sleeping in my own bed. I guess I am a creature of habit that way...getting more like this as I grow older...

We are doing this in 2 weeks. just to say we did it:

Buffman and Squeaky Olympic distance Triathlon Report..

I reached 2 out of my three goals. That is not bad for this middle-aged 3rd week in a row race woman..

We traveled to Lubbock on Sat. AM in the wind and rain. It was disheartening to see the weather. I am thinking it  may not be so fun to race in this 50 degrees rain/wind. Michi and MG rode with us and we laughed and really had the best time all weekend.  We stopped in Clovis, NM on the way, where we met Muffinman for lunch. He told us all the highlights of training there, which took about 5 minutes (just kidding Carl). It was a fun lunch and we were to see Carl again in Lubbock for the race (he rocked it by the way, sailing by his competition for first place). Which made the more "challenging moments" way more fun. We arrived at the Homestead Inn in Lubbock late in the afternoon but decided to hightail it out to the lake to check out H's new wetsuit.We were definitely the only crazy ones out there swimming in the cold/rain/wind! We were literally in there (with 2 ducks) for about 5 minutes. OK, wetsuit works. The water temp was cold, but not too bad actually! I decided the hood was not necessary-I would overheat for sure.

Pre Race night- 

We went to Orlando's, a great Italian place in Lubbock for dinner. I pigged out, of course against my better judgement. I knew without a shadow of a doubt, this would come back to haunt me on the run the next day...it did....

I could not sleep for the life of me that night.  I wasn't really nervous..We had lost an hour in Texas so there I was trying to go to sleep at 9:00 NM time..and getting more frustrated by the quarter hour. I finally managed to fall asleep, where I dreamed I was going back to work. Just as I was trying to explain that I needed ALOT of time off to travel, the alarm woke up-whew! That was a relief!

Race Morning:

Off to the lake early. The weather was perfect.  A little cool-in the 40s but clear, no wind..I repeat no wind! Ever..all day!  This is so bizarre for us! I met 5:38 half IM woman, who looked fast..of course..there goes my first place..I sausaged into my wetsuit which well, to be frank after gaining 10 lbs since I got it, was tight, to say the least. I thought it would loosen up in the water. The water felt cool, but not the 61 degrees the RD said it was...8:05 and boom! We were off! 

Swim: The plan was to stay with MG, who wanted to break the 30 minute mark on the swim too. I started swimming and was getting shoved and kicked and beat up and started to panic a little..MG drifted off..I couldn't catch my breath so I just stopped for a second to re-orient. This seemed to go on forever. I finally swam over to a kayak and just hung on. I kept saying my wetsuit felt like it was choking me but really I am a good swimmer! I felt like quitting then and there! Somehow kept going. I was way behind everyone it seemed by now. I kept swimming, feeling like I was choking..got about 2/3 way there and again felt that panicky feeling. I hung onto another kayak, again telling the guy I really could swim, no really...Like he really cared..probably thinking Yea if you are such a good swimmer-why are you hanging on to this kayak?..He was very reassuring though. I asked him to loosen the back of my wetsuit and that felt alot better so off I went. I was just thinking this was the longest mile swim ever and it was probably taking me an hour. I saw H somewhere in here so knew I could not be that far back. I got kicked  hard in the face at one point, thought I probably had a black eye (but didn't). Oh well, there goes my PR, just finish the race. The goal is to have a training day so just do it! I kept telling myself. Finally for goodness sake, it was over and they were hauling me out of the water at the end (It is steep). I saw Michi so again, knew I wasn't that far back. After a painfully long transition I was off on the bike.

Bike: It was a bit cold at first. The sun was out so I knew I would warm up quickly and I did. The first thing out of transition is a short, steep hill. It was tough but doable. Actually felt so good to get out of that lake, I was just happy to be on the bike. There was another hill or two on the bike but nothing bad. I raced without a watch, had no idea how I was doing but I passed a couple of folks. Saw H out there-he passed me. So did Michi. Just got it done...kept my HR in aerobic zone by feel. The weather was perfect...no wind...around 70 degrees...the most perfect weather you will ever see in Lubbock! I passed a dead snake on the side of the road as big as Texas. That was scary! The last hill came-it is very steep,. I thought I had another hill and what a pleasant surprise when boom I was in transition again. I managed to get my shoes off on the bike and cruise in and hopped off the bike. My feet were numb..

Run: My feet were numb the first 3 miles on the run. This happens to me just about every time I race. I saw a guy with compressions socks and thought Wow should have brought mine with me-that would have helped! Note to self: remember the socks for Buffalo Springs half.. I went to the porta potty at T-2 of course then I was off. I planned to take the first half of the run slow, then pick it up a bit on the second half. Other than the 5 times I stopped to the bathroom, I did do that. At some point some other damn woman passed me in my AG, probably as I potty stopped. H was about 5 minutes ahead of me and she finished just in front of him-damn swim came back to haunt me! I felt so good running, I held back for the most part. It was such a great day at that point! The best part was when a young woman ran up behind me and said You are 55? Man you look so good. I have been trying to run you down thinking you were in my age group! I looked at her leg-it said 33! OK, after my dreadful swim, that made me feel better. I saw MG around mile 2 bringing it home and knew he was having a great race..H was doing really well too. I rounded the corner at the end, saw my 3 teammates and knew it was over! I crossed the finish line in 3:20, a PR by 5 minutes for an Oly! If I just would have had the swim I wanted, it would have even been better. And I held back on the run...This made it all OK..

Post Race: There were disgusting Texas style hamburgers at the end...yuk! We did stay for the awards, which were scrambled because of no chip timing. Everything got messed up but after some confusion, I did end up with 3rd place, behind Kona woman and that other woman that passed me on the run. The other woman took a first place award with the confusion, even though Kona woman beat her-what a beeyotch!! She knew she was second and took the first place! H knew she had not finished first. I hope I kick her ass at BSLT! Just for that reason.. yep they will both be there!!! Kona woman is very nice and she had a stellar race-she will get that Kona slot for sure!

H got first in his AG and PRd by about 15 minutes! 

Not sure of my splits yet as the whole no chip thing is not showing that but the PR is correct overall as I look this AM on the website. First and second in my AG is corrected and I still got third.  Michi said she did a 36 minute swim and we came in at the same time so I guess that is what I did. Which shocks me!! I thought for sure my swim was 45 minutes or more! I must have made up some time on the bike and run..

Coach Eric is getting a call this AM. I need help on that open water swim thing!!! 

Post Race:  We got back to the hotel for a late checkout. Despite a very scary moment when H slipped and fell in the shower because there was no bathmat in the shower and it was so slippery (he is OK), we all fared the race well. Some very tired 4 people drove home from Lubbock in the afternoon after pizza again at Orlandos, ice cream on the way home and much laughter in the car. We had the best time with our friends! This is always my priority at these things-to have fun with friends!!!

Today, I am sore and TIRED!! No more racing until Buffalo Springs Lake half IM on June 28th!