I am racing naked...

Naked is a strange athlete term...racing with no electronic devices..GPS's. I've decided, after speaking to Coach Michael that perhaps all the worry and stress I conjure up if I am not riding fast enough on the bike in my mind, would be counter productive. So no swim Garmin, no bike Garmin. I may wear my run watch, haven't decided yet. It helps me "do the plan" of run/slow run every 4 minutes. I think I ran without any time keepers the last IM I did and ended up one minute off my PR. So maybe wouldn't be a bad thing...hmmm..decisions..decisions..leaving the bike Garmin home takes a huge weight off my shoulders..it is a very expensive piece of equipment to put in others' hands to transport to the finish line..

2 days to go...the training is done, the outfits decided on (comfort over beauty won). I feel a bit of fleeting nervousness but mostly anxious about my body being sore in different spots.. Which is typical Taper symptoms. The goal now is to eat healthy, rest a lot and try and stay calm..

I didn't sleep well last night but did the night before. So good sleep every other night will have to do. The respiratory infection symptoms are mostly gone, except for the occasional annoying cough. Yes, I will be that person hacking on the bike/run...it's really not that bad and I am so much better today, it's amazing. 

This past week hasn't been big in the training department. "Just enough to keep your body from going into shutdown mode" Coach Michael says....A few times this week I felt like how the hell am I going to do an Ironman on Sunday? I feel weak, heavy, bloated...Again these are normal thoughts in the week prior to the race. I just had to go back and figure out how many miles we have trained in the last 4 months. The hours and hours of preparation have to have been doing something, right? 

Since December 1st we have:

Swam: 72,768 yards 

Biked: 1850 miles

Ran: 290 miles

These are estimates, I am sure we have laid down more yardage/miles, I don't always have my GPS on, especially in the many, many bricks we have done (run off the bike). This we have been doing almost every time we biked since here in Australia. I feel ready for the garranteed feeling of heavy legs as I embark upon the marathon. If all goes well, all these bricks will help minimize the pain of shifting gears from bike to run on Sunday. 

Monday night we swam with the Jelly Fish of Elwood Beach. We got to the practice site and met our coach. There were 5 of us plus Michael, the coach. He gave us the plan "swim out to that bouy, then stop and wait for the rest." OK, the water was rough, not as rough as some swims but I was diving into swells much of the 300 or so yards to the bouy. I started to notice what I thought to be pieces of trash, plastic bags below me. Wow, a lot of trash in this bay today. It was only an occasional "bag" so I didn't think much of it, or I was in denial.. I noticed people were stopped halfway out and talking. Maybe someone was having trouble? Anyway got to the bouy and H said to me "Did you see all the Jelly Fish?" All of a sudden, those trash bags had new meaning. Wtf?? OK, I can swim with an occasional. Jelly Fish, I'm a big girl. Gotta be prepared for anything race day, right? Toughen up Debi! Michael gave us our next set wihich was to swim horizontal to the shore, (we were pretty far out there) about 250 yards to the next bouy. Then I saw them, dozens and dozens of Jelly Fish swimming quite near the surface. I tried not to freak out. I closed my eyes but then looked up and I was not headed for the bouy but out to sea. So had to keep my eyes open at least a bit. It was discussed at the stop that these Jelly Fish stings were not that bad, maybe a little zing for a bit. Still, that was not so reassuring as I made my way to the next bouy. The waves were now rolling in from my right side, I was trying to breathe on my left to avoid swallowing sea water, trying to stay calm because of all the JF and in my mind say F#%*k this! We turned around and swam back to the 1st bouy, where Coach tells us we are doing this loop 2 more times. My rational mind overcame my toughness and I said "I'm out!" Hartley wanted to stay, I said that was fine, have fun with these fishies! I started to swim with the current back to the beach and the Jelly Fish multiplied. It seemed like they were in schools, like dozens bunched together. I shortened my stroke to try and avoid them. All of a sudden I batted something hard. It felt like very strong rubber that I was catching with my stroke. "Holy F#%*k-I just smacked a Jelly Fish!" To say I was creeped out, is an understatement. My heart was racing and I have never swam a few hundred yards so fast in my life! As I got very close to shore the Jellies were gone, just like that. I guess they are deeper water JF. I took a huge sigh of relief and coasted into shore. If this had been a race, I would have sucked it up but since it wasn't and I didn't have to, I opted out early. H and one other guy stayed out with the Coach for another 30 minutes. Wow, my husband is tough! He ended up with 2 stings, that really weren't that bad, he said. 

You decide, would you swim with hundreds of these suckers? I think most people would say "Hell no!"

I digress..we checked in at the Registration at Ironman Village yesterday. H and I had a plan-to buy Ironman Melbourne bike race shorts and tops. We found those and much, much more. Sticker shock was abundant! Now I have to finish the race you see, because of all the IMM stuff I bought and well, it will be incentive since I wouldn't wear the stuff if I don't do the race...it's a rule...well, my personal rule anyway..when I am out on the run course, tempted to walk, I'll remember the mucho bucks I spent on. Ironman gear at the Expo. "Keep going, I bought all that stuff to wear so go!" Financial incentive is always a plus..

After said shopping experience we took our many bags of race paraphernalia, shopping goodies and new mid size backpacks they gave to registrants of the race and took a bus home. We rested a bit and them met with Coach Michael to discuss "The Plan" for race day. Michael is so awesome. He answered every question, gave us suggestions for race effort and encouragement. We really got lucky finding him as a young mentor here in Australia. Now I have a plan, if only I can remember it! In the blurrriness and excitement of race day, it is really hard to remember these things especially since my aging memory isn't so great to begin with. Good thing they have people of the course telling us where to go! The run is from point to point-Frankston to St. Kilda:

Not much elevation there and the run is along the beautiful shore of Port Phillip. Not a bad place to get it done! Last night we did our last 40 minute run. It felt pretty easy, backache still there. Last night I wasn't feeling so great so went to bed early. This morning I feel much better, the aches seem to be resolving, as expected.

We are spending the night Saturday in Frankston, where the swim and bike will be plus both transitions. The Finish Line in St. Kilda is in a huge park area, which will apparently be swarmed with spectators to cheer us in. Here is us at the Finish Line (well, not really yet but this is our goal):

No cameras waiting for us on Sunday! There is however, a webcam on the Ironman.com website that shows each and everyone who crosses this Finish Line. Right down to Midnight, the cutoff time for the race. Hopefully, I will be in way before that! Unfortunately for our kids, when I want to finish (around 13:30 hours) it's about 9:00 PM local time, which is 4:00 AM New Mexico time and maybe 6:00 AM for my friends in the East? At any rate, I am really planning on doing well and getting a PR. I will race the plan, implement the nutrition schedule and see how it all falls into place. Anything can happen race day but I have had 2 of my slowest hardest races in Australia (IMWA '09 &. Geelong 70.3 last month).Third time is a charm, right? 

Today we are relaxing, then going to turn our bikes in to be transfered to Franskton and meeting some of our Aussie T.E.A.M. members for dinner. We head to Frankston tomorrow for final gear check in. Will survey the transition area and that's it. Sunday AM we will jump into the ocean and have a fun day! The Race Day weather forecast (there are many different forecasts depending on what weather site I go to) I am choosing to look at says:

Cloudy. Highs in the mid 60s and lows in the low 50s.

But I know better..anything is possible weather wise here on the ocean so bring it!

Tapering is fun, tapering is fun....

I keep trying to say these things to myself. You would think after all these months of training I would welcome the extra days off 2 weeks before a big race like IM Melbourne. However, preferably on my terms, not the damn sickness fairy's one!

The head cold of Monday turned into paranoia on Tuesday as I felt sicker and the cough started sounded like the familial seal bark that only a true "Stites Clan" member can relate to. Even my sister Linda had it last week, in sympathy for her poor little sis Down Under I suppose.:) Tuesday I set out to find a local doctor, which made me nervous. I finally looked on my BCBS Plan from home and they actually have an Internet list of Docs on the "International Referral page". I had found about about this before we left the US, thank goodness my paranoia follows me everywhere, because I needed a doctor here after all..OK, random Dr. found in clinic in the middle of the city and all we had to to was get there. Given my not so stellar history of Tram riding to the CBD, H went with me, bless his Hart (pun intended) because by now, he too had succumbed to the dreaded Taper Germ. He was about as sick as I was. I was being too cautious I suppose, hitting the medical field so quickly. However, after my encounter with Pneumonia in the middle of training for a bike ride last year, I was not messing around this time. The Dr.'s office was friendly, efficient, doctor professional and I walked out with an prescription for antibiotics. It was painless. I had to pay out of pocket for the drug and it was far cheaper than the US. Go figure!  I am on day 4 of the Aussie version on the "Z-pack" so hopefully it's doing it's job..Today I feel much better energy wise, the hacky cough still present, but tolerable.

The most challenging part about being sick, away from home two weeks out from Ironman is well quite honestly, the depression.  My mind has been playing tricks on me, mostly because of being in shut down mode and feeling couped up and not in control of my destiny momentarily. I miss my own bed, I miss my family, home, and well honestly when I am sick, I still miss my Momma. So I can just talk to her anytime really, as she is always close to my heart. :) I am feeling much more positive today, not quite IronReady but as good as it can be when tapering off of heavy duty training starts happening. "Taper Blues" is actually a real name for something that really happens to athletes as they slow down the couple of weeks before an athletic event. I am in that way normal, as normal can be when we are preparing for such a big day! Anyone who says "Ironman is just a long training day" is wrong. I have said it myself, I think it helps to put it in perspective but when you have been training for months and months for One Big Day, where many variables can affect the outcome, when you have sacrificed time, money and energy to do this One Big Day, it is a big deal! Anyone who arrives at the starting line healthy, is able to face the elements, equipment variables, potential GI issues, other athletes, large supportive crowds and the satisfaction of completing something so long and laboriously challenging...well they are amazing!! I fully expect to be absolutely positive and ready to go come race day..as I have in the previous 5 times I have stood in the water listening to the "Star-Spangled Banner" or the Australian anthem (I should know this by now, right?!) before that gun goes off on race morning. Past behavior is the best predictor of how we will react in any given situation. That's what Dr. Phil says anyways..:)

I have been doing nothing but rest for 3 days, per Coaches instructions. We have our main coach Michael and the head Coach Xavier looking out after us. I have never had such interactive pre-race coaching race before. I check in everyday with the Coach how I am feeling and he gives me instructions on the training to do. It's really amazing-I feel so taken care of and calmed by this hands-
on approach coming down the stretch. Thank you coaches!!! I ran into Coach X today at the massage therapists office and he reminded me this is so normal, this whole Taper Bug thing which I knew intellectually but when you hear it coming from a Kona athlete, it just sounds so much more reassuring! Better to take it slowly now, better to go into the race at 95% than at zero %..Right on Coach! I am following instructions to a T which is difficult now that I am feeling almost human again and the temptation to go "just a little longer" today was strong. But I didn't. Better 95% than zero...period..

We rode to our 3rd bike store today, which we found late in the game here, to have our bikes tuned up for the big day. This is a "Specialized dealer". Who better than to tune up Mr. And Mrs. Venge? I feel assured they seem to know what they are doing. I had my last aero bars fitting there and my sense is wow wish we found these guys sooner! It only took us many bucks later and stressful moments of bike mechanical issues to discover this..live and learn I guess.

I took a little field trip to the local triathlon store yesterday per cab ride to save energy for shopping. I managed to score some discount Ironman Tri shorts and some arm warmers, just in case it is cool on race day. I lost one arm warmer one of our first rides here..never to be seen again..I asked for the "American discount" and I'll be darned if they didn't give it to me! Maybe the dude felt sorry
 for me, the hacky cough, hoarse voice and all. Hmmm, will have to remember that strategy! Ha!

Been eating as healthy as ever and still managed to gain 2 lbs. My wetsuit still fits, which is my only real concern at this point. Eating no dessert for a week has been rough when chocolate is my comfort food when sick. I wasn't even hungry for a couple of days there at all but now, I want to eat mainly out of boredom and well, comfort! Starting late March 23rd, all bets are off. I will be eating mucho
chocolates and carrot cake and anything decadent I can get my hands on...being it.

Soon the Ironman athletes will be descending on the area and it will be a bling fest around port Melbourne. I have met several folks online that I have or will meet that are here to race. How small our world has become..I can meet people across the globe either here or in the US and just like that, we are bonded! I never would have imagined such a thing even 10 years ago when I started all this
Ironman triathlon craziness!

I hear in the distance the buzzing of loud car engines as they are warming up for the Formula One Grand Prix this weekend, a mere week before IMM. The race track is around our Melbourne pool Club a couple of miles away so we will be hearing lots of "buzzing" in the next couple of days!

The weather on race day is predicted to be perfect (10 in advance). High in the 70s, no wind, nice cool evening temps..this is a joke right? I shouldn't even look. The weather forecast this far out is about as accurate as if I would be predicting the weather right now! As my Aussie friends remind me, this forecast could change many times before March 23rd! The weather since we have been mostly home bound the last few says has been, as if the cruel joke has already begun perfect-seas calm, no wind, temps in the 70-80. If only only I could capture this in a bottle for race day!!

So Team Wess is on the mend. The Taper Sick house will be the Ironhouse once again very soon!!

The Home Stretch..Time to weed all our potential problems out of the way..

2 weeks from today, I will be at the starting line of the biggest race of my year. Ironman Melbourne was but a dream last April when we signed up and now here it is almost behind us. We have put in so many swim and run miles. Did literally hundreds of bike miles, many of which we "ran off the bike" for 20-40 minutes. This has become quite easy for me to do (we call them "bricks", learning to run right after bike ride to get our legs use to doing so in the race). It is all part of the great design to get us to the starting line in the best shape possible for the big day on March 23rd.

Last weekend we rode down the coast on Beach Road. We were suppose to do 6.5 hours but thought it would be "fun" (as blessed by our coach) to do the whole ride down to the tip of Phillip bay:

,

Yes folks, that is what 112 miles looks like (round trip). We almost made it to the end (Sorrento) but I pulled the plug at 66 miles for the turnaround. We did some pretty hefty short hills in there, something my legs are not quite use to after riding flat at sea level for over 5 weeks. The views, however were absolutely stunning on the narrow road up and down along the Coast. I was afraid to look too much at the scenery as I thought keeping my eyes on the road was more important at the time. Launching off a cliff with my bike was not in my riding plan that day! I was quite proud of Team Wess that day. We enjoyed much food after the epic bike adventure. For the last 2 weekends, I have been trying to perfect the art of taking proper calories and electrolytes during the bike where in IM, most of my calories will be consumed. Once on the run, well history shows it is impossible for me to eat solid food, only gels. I am working on getting the right amount of gels down to make up the over 200 calories an hour I should be ingesting in order to keep my energy up. This doesn't sound so hard, but in my hazy racing mind, I forget to eat, especially since I do not feel hungry most of the race. Once my tank runs dry, I can no longer play catch up on calories during the race. This will reflect on how I feel/perform. It is hard to force down all those calories and fluids, even in training rides so I am glad I am practicing! 

This past Saturday was our last "long ride". We met the Team in Williamstown, probably our last trip in a "maxi taxi" at dark o'clock to the other side of the bay to meet our young, energetic teammates. We took off in lovely weather, no wind per say (hey-there is always some wind on the coast), the temps cool but not cold with a cloudy sky. A perfect day for a long ride!  We kept up with the big kids for an hour or so, then as instructed by coaches set out to do loops of "strong effort" sets by ourselves. After a couple of those, we were at somewhat of loss where to go from there when one of our Team mates, whom we met several weeks ago found us. A sight for sore eyes! Tim escorted us into Geelong, then pointed us back in the direction of Melbourne. On the way into Port Melbourne,we got lost, yet again trying to find our way back. Google maps suck! by the way (I left my real map at home to conserve crap in my pockets) when it comes to bike directions. We landed on many a busy street, some without bike lanes before we started to recognize a familiar area. After trying to flag down a few "maxi Taxis" to no avail, we managed to make our way to a dock-and the "Punt" a small boat which takes people and bikes across the bay back to port Melbourne. We opted for this as we just didn't have the energy to fight with traffic any longer. I yelled at more than one driver, got yelled at because of my judgement errors at turns, it was enough for me to cry Uncle! Then we finally for the first time found a bike trail which took us along the Port (we have been trying to find this trail for weeks now) and at last we were home! 

I really looks so much easier on paper than it was!  We definitely slowed way down the last 2 hours but that's ok. We hit the first couple of hours hard, which what was mattered..

Other news, we passed our first "Melbourne Asia Pacific Championships" sign on what of our easier short rides this week:

This was pretty exciting and made it very real to me that yes indeed, we are really doing this thing!!

On the swim front, I think I mentioned I ripped my wetsuit a couple of weeks ago so after trying on a couple of suits, decided on buying the same model (Blue Seventy helix), only different newer model. The sizing seems different and my racing weight lower this time around-must be the sea level/ocean air/healthy Aussie food...I don't complain, know it will all come back after I am not training all hours of the day. But this put me in a wetsuit dilemma; should I buy the medium wetsuit, which may fill with water in places during Ironman swim? Or the size small, which is like stuffing a sausage to get on but more comfortable in the water? I know I wouldn't fit into the small if I was my normal weight...decisions, decisions! The Aqua Shop folks have been really nice in letting me try out the 2 wetsuits in the ocean, I took the small out for a real test run over the weekend. I decided to keep the size small, although difficult to put on, I think it will be a better option for the race in 2 weeks. I will keep my older, bigger wetsuit and get it repaired so I can wear when not at my "fighting weight". This means these last 2 weeks, I have to eat healthy or new wetsuit will not fit and I will be screwed!

I read about the poor people who lost their lives on the Malaysian jet that most likely went down in the ocean yesterday. How horrifying for the families of these people. In many cases more than one member of a family was affected, including a few children. It makes me sad and fearful. The Boeing 777-200 ER is not far off from the Boeing 777-300 ER we are flying home in a few weeks. I know this is not rational to worry, probably safety standard checks will be up now that a plane has gone down. I even had looked at Malaysia Air as a possibility for our flight to Australia. We opted for Virgin Australia, although they use similar jets as to the one that went down. Malaysia Airlines was ranked one of the top 5 best airlines in the world last year. It greatly saddens me that so many people were probably lost yesterday..I wonder what happened? Did those poor souls suffer before the crash? Lots of questions that no one apparently can answer yet. 

Speaking of travel, I booked our tickets home from LAX-ABQ this week. We were hesitating, thinking that extending our trip may be a possibility as we can't even imagine leaving this awesome place. Alas though, we do miss the kids, grand kids, friends and home. I think I am getting use to apartment living in our rather dated abode now, although lack of a "real bath" is still bugging me. The first thing I do on April 1st is take a bath in our large lovely bathtub!! I suppose I will be ready to come home once the race is over and we are settled down here to rest for 9 days before our return. We have met so many nice people/friends since we came to Melbourne. We met another man this week that we had been in contact with on Facebook before our trip. He had given us many tips on apartments, areas to stay while we are here. His name is Tristan. Oh and he just happened to have run 52 marathons in 52 weeks in 2010, including the Running with the Bulls and even wrote a book Run Like Crazy, about his adventure. We went for coffee with him one afternoon this week. He is an amazing guy, as fascinating and friendly as we imagined. He has offered to lend us his extra car for weeks now, who does that? I am not sure I would trust 2 "older" Americans with my car over here!  It was so generous of him though, I know he is sincere in the offer. I think H and I are just too nervous about the traffic here. The whole riding on the left side of the road in a large city freaks us out a bit. We may take him up on it at some point, who knows? We will have dinner with he and his wife next weeks hopefully. What a nice guy!

After deciding I'd like to venture out of our 5 mile square comfort zone, I took my first field trip on public transportation this week. What an adventure! It was a trip to Kmart..yes that's right...Kmart..I managed to use my "Miki" card to get on the wrong Tram, going to the wrong location. After departing the bus, walking around like a confused American, I finally got back on the tram and figured out where I really needed to go. As the tram pulled up to the Kmart (and Ikea I must add-not just any old Kmart mall), the driver announced anyone who wants to get off, push the button..huh. What button? The guy next to me at the door and I pushed every conceivable button we could see, only it was apparently the wrong button. The tram continued on..After some words with the Tram driver, who should've seen a stupid American a mile away (ha!), I got off at the next stop and took the tram going the other way! This time I had help from a tram worker. Had to push the red button...really hard! 90 minutes into my adventure, I arrived at the Kmart mall. It was actually quite nice and I got some good steals at K-town of "knock around" warmer clothing, as it has been cooler than I thought at times here. Oh, however yesterday it was in the 90s during our training run..of course!

Saturday I started to have a sore throat..oh crap no! is the battle cry for anyone 2 weeks out from an Ironman. People tend to get sick or injured during this training time period, probably as a result of letting our bodies start to slow down. I liken it to getting sick when someone goes on vacation from work. Everything just lets go, I suppose. This past week I "caught a Tram track" on my bike (much like a railroad track which I know to ride perpendicular across). I went down, my bike chain got stuck behind the gears and I had to walk my bike to the shop, 1.5 miles away. This is the 3rd time (the bike chain thing) it's happened. I was NOT a happy camper! Hopefully this is the final "fix". I obtained a couple of scrapes, a bruised ego but hey, I got the injury part of tapering done now! 

It started turning into a full on head cold sometime during my last long run yesterday. I shuffled along, not pushing it at all. With the high temps and said cold, I finished the run feeling pretty crappy. That's ok, get all that crappiness over before race day! 

Before the run yesterday, we did a 30 minute morning swim in the ocean and I managed to brush up against a creature with my hand. It stung a little, not even worth mentioning really but I did very clearly see what looked like something that had a "pink round head" attached to it. I really didn't hang around to get a better look at it. I did scream under water and got H's attention..this is the last thing I expected in the smooth, glassy ocean conditions. Good thing I didn't see the whole thing or I think I would have panicked and sprinted back to shore.. I knew there were jelly fish in the bay, just didn't know there were extra terrestrial ones!:

It certainly looked like this "Lion's Mane jellyfish" I found online after searching "Port Phillip Bay jelly fish". During the Ironman swim,  I am hoping all the faster swimmers will clear out those suckers before I am swimming around the pier!

I spoke to my coach last night and we talked about keeping training despite the head cold (taper mode now). It is important to keep my body focused on I am still training here mode so on race day, I am not totally in "la-la-la, it's my vacation now"-land. So today will take it easy if I have to, go for a brief spin on the bike,take it day by day. This AM I feel the head cold, nothing too much to handle. I am hoping it does not go into "Stites cough" mode. Anyone who has known me or the two daughters, knows the "Stites cough" is this deep, barking cough that apparently is passed on with genes. I have had this potential since childhood...the Cough sounds kind of like a crazy seal barking. So I am warding off this by taking Airborne, using Neti Pot (best invention ever) and lots of rest. And staying away from my Ironman friends cause H is starting to get the bug too..Arggghhh!

Let the taper begin!!

Glass Empty, Glass Full..I Choose my Future..

I vaguely remember my Dad explaining that if you fill a glass half full of water, you have a choice whether to see the glass half empty or half full. Oh, how I struggle with this! Especially athletically, when I know I work hard and am fortunate to have the good health to race, especially at "my age". I still have to constantly choose the glass "half full"..

It's Friday-time to blog again! I have been in a whirlwind of training, eating, sleeping, train, eat, sleep. I am really, really tired. Today is my day off and it is well needed! I find myself thinking so many brilliant thoughts to share during the week while biking, running and swimming but alas...the week is a blur so will have to stick to my less than brilliant recap.

Last weekend was a big one of training. We met the team, in the dark last Saturday after a trip in our Maxi taxi down to Williamstown to meet the group at 6:00 AM, decked with bike lights on and full of coffee. It was cold, rainy and windy. Not a great combination as we took off with the group, barely hanging on. Their "warmup pace" is our balls to the wall pace in some stretches. I fell off the group a few times as we road along the beach. The wind, cold and intermittent rain was relentless. Finally H and I said our goodbyes after a great suggestion of one of the coaches to do loops around a rather secluded section inland. Thank goodness! As we made our way several times around the loop, we encountered a quirky looking older man who would pass us, slow down in front of us, we passed, then he passed us, slowed down, etc. I was getting rather pissed off-was he doing this on purpose?  Finishing our faster paced race pace efforts,we left the wierd guy to make our way home. We finally found the beach Esplanade way home along the boardwalk. It was a beautiful 2 hour adventure home. The wind and cold was still present but we were getting use to it and distracted by our surroundings by now, I suppose. After getting lost only once, we finally made it home. Over 80 mile a of character building was quite enough for me that day! Off the bike to run for a bit, my legs felt fine...this was a huge relief as the ride seemed to literally taken the wind out of my sails. I fell into bed after much food consumed on Saturday night!

Sunday was a whole different story..we woke up to sunshine, calm and temp in the 70s. Wow, a perfect day to run! We ran down the beach for 2 hours, 10 minutes in total bliss. I had awakened Saturday night to go to the bathroom and on the way back to bed Bam! My big toe hit the end of the bed, sending some searing pain through my foot.  I felt quite a bit of pain in the toe and foot the first hour of the run. I just hoped I had not broken anything. After the endorphins kicked in on the run, the toe settled down a bit. I had throbbing pain in my toe Sunday night and Monday, which really worried me. I felt so stoopid doing such a lame thing to my foot! Finally midweek, the pain stopped. Whew! Anyway, Sunday's run was great, I felt strong and fast (well my fast). My walking has decreased to a short 30 second walk/jog very 4 minutes and it feels great! We did a second 40 minute run Sunday late in the day as prescribed by our coach and all was well, minus the stoopid toe pain..Also a 30 minute swim in the ocean in between runs to round out the day. I felt seasick as we swam along the shore right outside our apartment. Blah! Something new to deal with as the waves were roling me back and forth in the shallow surf. I did my best but felt terribly slow and awkward. 

Over the weekend, I was able to practice my new nutrition plan with Shotz nutrition gels, Electrolytes and bars. I was quite pleased as my stomach felt fine on both days and alas-only one trip to the porta potty on Sunday-yee haw! Now I just need to tweak some things nutrition wise and I am good to go on race day, I think..

Weekend training done!

 

Sunday afternoon, we got to watch the Geelong 70.3 TV. special that we were made part of before and on race day. I had no idea how much of our interview before, during and after the race would be shown. Actually I was quite surprised at the 10 minutes or so total coverage we did have. H and I sounded somewhat intelligent the day before the race on the beach. Post race at the finish line, I blathered on about the course conditions, how I felt, etc. A far cry from Emma Moffit's (the female Pro who won) calm post race comments but that was my reality! I must admit, it was quite fun to see ourselves on TV. This is, of course our 15 minutes of fame, as they say. Part of me was horrified that I was DFL and posted such a horrific time for the race, which they showed boldy on the time clock as we finished..I know the conditions sucked, even winner Pro Craig Alexander said so-if he said so it must be true! But this finish doesn't exactly fill me with confidence for the big one in a little over 3 weeks from now. It's a glass full, glass empty situation. I finished Geelong, something hundreds of people apparently didn't. However, I was so slow in that wind on the bike. This scares me as I know the weather will be unpredictable on IM race day. Some things I can control, but the weather I can't. So I will need to mentally prepare for the worst and the rest will be cake..Maybe we will get a good day out there, maybe not, but I will definitely have my best training done for such an event. There is time to work on what I can control! 

I did like when the interviewer said at the Finish Line Did you ever feel like quitting?, to which I responded No, never-I do not quit! For this, I can definitely thank my Mom..who never quit in her life.

Monday I was tired! After a brief ride and a trip to go shopping cart in tow, I did my best to rest before our open water swim with the TEAM and coach Monday at 6:00 PM. I am a morning person by nature and although I know the value of getting in the water or training later in the day (after all Ironman is a really long day and well...I will be out much past dark on race day presumably), it is still hard for me to muster up the energy to walk out the door to swim at that hour. I was grumpy and tired. We got to the water and of course the wind had picked up and ocean quite choppy by then. It is important H and I get use to these conditions, I know but in the moment it was all I could do to muster up the energy to get my wetsuit on to jump in the wavy water. When I went to pull up my wetsuit rip! My wetsuit tore at a seam. It wasn't just a little tear but a big tear..I was almost in tears at this point. H was having trouble with his wetsuit zipper and we were late getting in the water already. We were ready to call it a day but after some encouragement from Coach Michael, I finally got in the water. I swam as fast as I could against the current out to a bouy some 200-300 yards away. Then back to shore with the tide, which although I never feel like I am really swimming in these conditions, somehow I make it back to shore. We repeated this a couple of times, ran down the beach and did a U shaped swim around 2 bouys. I and my busted wetsuit were doing fine by now. I actually felt great once I exited the water. I took my frustration out by swimming-a novel idea!

The rest of the week was filled with bikes, swims and runs. It all feels like a blur now. Wednesday, we were supposed to bike 3 hours, followed by a short run. We got out there on the gloomy looking morning. About 30 minutes into the ride it was pouring rain. I was torn between Hey, we need to learn to ride in this in case of race day weather possibilities and Screw this-let's go have breakfast!. Well, we landed somewhere in between as we both started shivering in the rain (**note to self, bring actual rain jacket on race day and warm clothes for special needs bag**). We turned around after deciding to switch training days since Thurdsay had scheduled an hour long bike and run. We would do this today and do the longer ride on Thursday. Brilliant! Off we went to the gym, after drying off and cleaning our dirty wet bikes. We both had a swim lesson with Craig, our new best swim friend. He took one look at my wetsuit and confirmed what I already knew. It could be repaired but the rest of the suit had seen its day in the last 5 years..decision made. Time for a new wetsuit, which I will be heading out to purchase today. I will probably stick to the same Blue Seventy brand, just a newer model. Craig can hook me up at his swim shop.

Yesterday we had a beautiful but windy ride down the coast for 3 hours. We experienced a headwind going and tailwind returning. The best kind of wind to have! We stopped briefly at a bike store on the way down to see what was clicking on H's bike and I saw a mirage: a very large piece of carrot cake staring me in the face at the adjacent cafe in the bike shop. Really??? How am I to pass this up? Well, we did, however briefly because on the way back we succumbed to temptation and stopped to enjoy splitting a piece of heaven! It tasted so good, not too rich and gooey. I felt a fleeting emotion of guilt stopping that long and consuming a much non training friendly sugar fix, but man it was good! I am still on my quest to eat a lot of healthy foods but this was too good to pass up, even if it was not on my bike nutrition plan..oh yea! Quick run off the bike and I fell into a stupor of watching stoopid TV on my IPad after consuming large amounts of healthy foods for dinner. I felt like a Zombie..

Which leads me to today. I slept in until 7:00 AM. Yippee!! My world is getting smaller by the day. Sleeping, eating and training is an all consuming practice..lol. After waking up at 4-5:00 -AM most mornings since I have been in Melbourne, a sleep for 9 hours felt like heaven! We did stay up late until 10:30 to watch American Idol, which for some reason is on same day Australian TV.  I kind of wish they showed The Voice also but beggars can't be choosers, right? I can watch The Voice online the day after so am not too deprived.

I am doing laundry everyday, I mean almost every day! This is the joy of not having much stuff to wear and the way we go through bike, run and more bike wear these days is well, ridiculous! It does have a simplicity to it I suppose. I have given up actually folding clothes. Why bother? It gets thrown on the bed, in drawers, wherever it can have a home for one day and not care too much..

I have a real treat coming on Monday-we hired someone to do a thorough cleaning of the apartment..OMG it really needs it. I have tried to do my best wifely duties up until now (*snort*), but can't keep up daily cleaning enough as my energy is well, limited these days. Not to mention I hate cleaning toilets, mopping floors, especially hard wood ones, which I haven't seen since the 70s. So one deep cleaning following my few feeble attempts after 6 weeks is a luxury I can afford. We still have apartment issues but finally, now that the weather has cooled down significantly, the air conditioner has been fixed and screens will be in our windows to keep bugs out about the time we leave-haha...the joke is on us!

I am starting to have nightmares about the Ironman race in 3 weeks. Dreams of not making the cutoff, getting lost, not starting on time. The all too familiar pre race stress nightmares! Then I see there are 5 women in my age group after they posted the bib list online. I would be excited about this except I found out at the Ironman Asia Pacific Championships, they only go 3 deep for age group awards. Wtf? In the US, they go 5 deep. So in order to get an AG award, I will have to work for my reward. Oh well, just need to get psyched up to have a good day out there, goodness knows I am training for it!! And let the cards fall where they may...I am having a difficult time thinking positive in my Iron tired state. I guess one advantage to doing 5 of these already is that these stress related exhaustion thoughts pre-race are totally normal. In 2 weeks, as I am tapering, I expect to feel like a horse at the starting gate-lemme at 'em!! I have done some research on my competition on Athlinks (website that has nearly every athlete's previous races and times) and I see no real reason I can't do well out there on March 23rd. Patience is my friend! I have worked so hard training the last few months, the work is pretty much done at this point. We do have another week of hours out there but in reality, I am pretty well trained at this point. Then we taper....

Well, off to buy a new wetsuit and get myself psyched up for another long training weekend. I can't even bring myself to look at the weather forecast yet. It is often not right anyway, we are on the ocean and no one tells Mother Ocean how to create weather I have found! Today being my day off it is beautiful out there of course- time to try out a new wetsuit?

Total Immersion Ironman Camp..Melbourne style..

"Team Wess" is in the "Iron Tired" phase of training now. I feel like all I do is train, eat, train, sleep, eat train...that's the sign I am on the home stretch before the big day March 23rd. Funny, I do not remember how tiring training for this kind of endurance event is. Kind of like pregnancy, until I am right up against it the last month of training my memories are blocked from the previous race buildup. A very familiar sense of fatigue that only the daily grind of the run, bike, swim is in play, as I build my endurance muscles for the big day. The hunger is unreal. I will eat a meal, be hungry an hour later..wtf? The words insatiable appetite come to mind!

The weather seems to have mostly cooperated so far. We took a "Maxi taxi" to Williamstown (a community across the bay) last Saturday at 6:00 AM, bike lights and all to meet up with the "TEAM". The plan was to go biking on a stretch of road that had virtually no traffic lights for a couple of hours. We kept up with the fast kids' pace for a good hour and a half, after which boom! H had a flat tire, which one of the coaches helped us fix. Then they were off to a higher pace and we headed out on our pace (this was the plan). Heading back to Melbourne we were on a pretty busy highway with a huge shoulder but somewhat scary at times with cars/trucks whizzing by. We had a map which my coach had given us but after we made the turnaround back to port Melbourne, we couldn't quite find the point at which we get off the highway and head back from Williamstown (a good 8 miles from home). We met a very nice guy (shocker), who told us how to get back to the city via a bike trail, which at the time seemed like a good idea. There were some twists and turns to this trail and all the maps in the world including google maps (which doesn't seem to recognize bike trails at all) could not save us from the slow and go trip back. I am so sick of maps!! So the return was a bit frustrating, I am the "map person" in Team Wess and more than once I wanted to call in a Maxi Taxi to get us back home. Finally, we made it to some familiar territory in Docklands, north of Port Melbourne. A few days before we had been there looking like 2 lost Amercian puppies, when a fellow on a bike came up and asked us if we were lost..is it that obvious? I thought, map in hand with a thoroughly frustrated look on my face. We said yes and he guided us to the trail back home. He was a local but we chatted a bit and found out he had just gone to America. Not only that, he had visited New Mexico.Which is really wierd because most Australians, heck don't even know where NM is in the US! This guy went there because of Breaking Bad, which apparently has been popular even over here. I told him about our daughter and son-in-law's Biking Bad tour at their bike rental and tours shop in ABQ . We wished he knew about them on his recent trip..

After this short conversation last week, we found our way home and said goodbye to the lovely stranger who had helped us get out of the fray of the city and on our way. Again on Saturday we were in the same exact place, having the same exact bewildered look on our face when we saw the same guy again! He said are these the folks from Albuquerque. Are you lost again? I was somewhat embarrassed that we were but so grateful we had found our guardian angel of Melbourne to point us in the right direction again.. We conversed again for a couple of minutes..said our thanks and finally made it home after a long day on the bike. An almost perfect day minus the getting lost part, which seems to be a regular occurrence these days but it is all part of the adventure. Almost 80 miles on the bike..done..After a short run off the bike, we were off to our favorite sport these days-eating!!

Imagine our surprise when we got an email from our daughter from their bike rental store in ABQ. She had received an email from Adrian, our guardian angel, who remembered the story of their business and wanted to get together to show us around the city on our bikes. Wow! Can these Australians be any more friendly and gracious? Long story short, we did hook up with Adrian and yesterday he took us on a lovely ride around the city perimeter mostly on bike trails. It was so amazing and beautiful and the best part? There were no maps involved! On the way, Adrian took us to his charming house in north Melbourne,which was built in the 1800s, an amazing piece of Victorian architecture. We enjoyed his homemade fruitcake, which was delicious! In spite of 2 flat tires (this seems to be our curse this week) and an unplanned trip to a bike store, it was another great adventure in the land of Oz!

After our Melbourne tour ride, I headed to the pool and had a swim lesson yesterday from "Craig" a recommended swim instructor who also owns a local swim shop. He was awesome! He gave me some positive feedback (at last I feel like I am not the slowest kid in the neighborhood!), some great tips on Ironman swimming and staying efficient in the water. I actually worked my ass off in the pool, walked away tired and happy. I googled "Craig Percival" when I got home and damn! This guy actually competed in Ultraman Canada (think double the distances of an Ironman only more) in August and was in first place after the first 2 legs of the race. Craig set a record in the 10k swim. He was so down to earth, who knew I was learning swim tips from such a(nother) amazing athlete! Another brush with greatness, I feel so lucky to meet such knowledgeable athletes here.

We also talked to a nutrition expert this week, who gave suggestions on how I could prevent the nagging "runner's trots", which is exactly like it sounds in the experience. It happens mostly on long runs, but can attack me on even shorter runs when I am training this much. Several trips to the porta potties or bushes while running down Beach road trail is NOT my idea of a good training day at all!! So I will be trying a new nutrition plan for Ironman. More direct electrolytes (no Gator Aid) and a different gel for calories. Take that..you G.I. Distress!! Shotz Nutrition is my new plan..Darryl, who invented the product is yet another fountain of knowledge we were privileged to tap into before the big race.

I am exhausted today. Our 2nd run to the gym was more like a death March for me today. For the first time in weeks, I begged off strength training and laid on the gym couch watching the Winter Olympics, women's figure skating. Up until then I was like what Olympics? I have been WAY out of that loop this year. I hope to at least catch the figure skating. TV here is a bit limited but they are showing the new American Idol-a real treat when I manage to stay up to watch it!

Another big weekend of biking and running after a much needed day off tomorrow, is approaching. Today, the wind was so strong I was almost blown off the bike. Monday we did an open water swim in the choppy seas-this is all "character building" preparation for Ironman Melbourne.

That's OK-bring it!!

PS We are going to be on Australian TV this Sunday! The notorious "Geelong 70.3" race 2 weeks ago In which they did several interviews of us, is apparently part of a one hour " triathlon special" on local TV. The show is at 2:30 on 7Mate TV. Only our Aussie friends will be able to watch but I will try and obtain a copy of the program for our friends and family at home. It may be only a 2 minute spot for us but we will count it as our 15 minutes of fame!

 

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