I am an IRONMAN!!!

Last Sunday, I completed my Ironman! I can't believe this journey has suddenly come to an end! Here is the play-by-play...

Pre-Race
I arrived in Madison on Friday early afternoon, after several late nights at work earlier in the week, what a way to start the big weekend. My emotions ranged from super excited to super anxious – mostly I couldn’t believe that the race was already here! Wasn’t it just yesterday I volunteered and subsequently signed up for this? Once on site, I actually found myself less nervous as I registered, picked up my bags, etc. Friday afternoon, I went for a swim in a WAVY and CHILLY Lake Monona – mostly to wear my sleeveless wetsuit for the third time and confirm that it was, indeed what I wanted to wear on Sunday. Remember…no new equipment on race day!

Saturday I dropped off the transition bags and my bike, and organized my spectator bags for my wonderful friends and family who were coming to support me. I was so excited to see them along the course! Went to dinner with my family, including Rob, his parents, my dad, my brother Jon and his girlfriend Jen, and my cousin Alec who goes to UW Madison. We had a good time, but this is where problem number 1 of the weekend happened. I thought I was ordering an old standby – pasta with arrabiatta sauce. Well, this particular arrabiatta sauce had a CRAZY amount of red pepper in it. It was tasty, but did not agree with my digestive system. Lets just say that I was up most of the night with “digestive issues” the night before the race. Got up for good a bit before 4am to try and eat, and could not even smell food. Well, this is not good. I’m about to embark on a LONG day and I can’t eat breakfast. I’ve had a nervous stomach before races in the past and so I know how it usually feels, but this was different, and I’ve always been able to choke down my pre-race meal. Not this time. Digestive system was not happy with me. I decided Gatorade would have to be my pre-race calories….

Got to the race and dropped off my special needs bags and loaded my (luckily) liquid nutrition on the bike. Got to have one of my training buddies, Becky, body mark me with my number! I saw her throughout the day volunteering and she was so helpful! Tried to eat a PB&J and literally could not choke it down, the smell of food was making me nauseous and my stomach was feeling bloated. Not fun. The fact that I couldn’t eat was also making me more nervous! I was really hoping my stomach would start to feel better once the race started…but really, my stomach was off all day from the start. On with the show!!

Swim - 1:14:27
The 2.4 mile swim takes place in lovely Lake Monona and the time limit is 2 hours and 20 minutes - we started at 7am. The water was 67 degrees (that's cold). The swim is two counterclockwise rectangular loops with the long side along the shore. The starting "line" is about 100 yards across and 50 or so yards deep. For the swim, I positioned myself to the shore side of the ski jump which is about halfway across the starting line, about four rows back. Got super excited when Mike Reilly (the voice of every ironman race) started asking us who was going to be an ironman today. I couldn’t wait and I was grinning from ear to ear! Cannon went off (a cannon always starts the ironman race) and getting beat up started with 2500 people starting to swim all at the same time. I had expected a rough swim so overall the roughness was what I expected. I was focusing so hard on getting around people and avoiding flying elbows, that before I knew it, we were at the first corner buoy! Moo’ed with the rest of the crowd (the first turn buoy is nicknamed "moo" corner) and then continued on. I would say I spent about 50% of the swim with relatively clear water and 50% mixing it up. Never got kicked super hard or the goggles knocked off, but definitely took a couple body blows. And what was with all of the super hard kickers!! We have over 138 miles to go, people! Why are you kicking so hard!???!! I had to stop 3-4 times and take a 20-30 second rest and let my stomach settle. Still feeling the effects of the digestive issues from the night before, but I pushed through. My shoulders/arms started to get really tired the backside of the second loop. Just relaxed and try to keep my form smooth. Saw about 1:15 on the clock when I got out of the water. Just about right – I had been expecting 1:10 or so, but this was fine given the contact and the stops to let my stomach settle. I was just happy to be done swimming without any major issues!

T1 - 10:37
Got my wetsuit stripped by the volunteer wetsuit strippers (I wore my bike shorts and top under my wetsuit which is what most people do) and ran up the helix (the transitions take place in a convention center called Monona Terrace which is right along Lake Monona. To get to inside the building, you run up the parking garage exits, which are the turny kind, and its called the helix). Took my time in transition as I didn’t want to forget anything and really I was just trying to soak up the experience. I had a really helpful volunteer who helped me go through my transition bag methodically. Stopped at the porta potty as expected given my stomach problems and ran to get my bike from Becky. Out the transition and down the helix, 10 minutes was fine with me!

Bike - 6:58:42
I bought a bike after I signed up for the ironman a year ago and basically started from scratch with my bike fitness. I am so excited that biking has become a part of my life over the past year! I rode the course this summer probably about 10 times, as I just fell in love with it. The course is a 14 mile "stick" which goes southwest from Madison to Verona, and then two 42 mile loops from Verona which go through the towns of Mt. Horeb and Cross Plains. Then the 14 mile stick back to Madison. It is almost constant up and down, there really are no flat parts. There are not alot of long climbs, but its just pretty technical. Most of the ironman community will say that its one of the toughest bike courses of the U.S. races. The time cut off for the bike is 5:30 pm, or 10 hours and 30 minutes after the start of the race.

I was pretty excited to be out there one last time for the year and enjoy the beauty of the course. My goal for the 112 miles was to average 16mph including two planned stops. I figured this would leave me enough legs to handle the marathon. It was REALLY hard to hang back on the stick and the first part of the loop. People were flying and clearly on a “high” from feeling fresh early in the race. The rules about drafting are silly hard to follow if you start the bike in the middle of the pack. Seriously, it was end to end bikes the first loop. Luckily, since my swim skills seriously outpace my bike skills, I was spending most of my time being passed, which was fine with me. I’ll see you later, all you men who are going to blow up at mile 85 (and I did see alot of them)!

Second problem of the day – my fully charged garmin watch/gps decided to conk out 20 minutes into the ride. Don’t care that I couldn’t see cadence and speed, but I would have REALLY liked to see my heartrate (especially since I knew it was already elevated due to my stomach issues) and have the beeping for nutrition! Luckily, I had worn a backup timex, and was constantly checking that to stay on top of my nutrition. Every ten minutes I took a swig of regular strength infinit (which is a custom sportsdrink which provided all of my calories and electrolytes) and every 20 minutes I took an extra 4 ounces or so of water. Goal was ~200 calories of infinit per hour and about 36 oz. of liquid. I was going to have a snack size Pay Day (~100 calories) at the end of each loop. I made it to Cross Plains before my stomach said get to a bathroom quick, and that was where I had planned to stop so it worked. Stretched a bit and started on the sisters (three biggest hills of the course) – I LOVE THIS PART OF THE COURSE! Was able to see my family and friends and was so excited to see them out there! High fived my brother at the top of the hill, and almost took my arm off. Finished the first loop in about 3:20, a bit ahead of my plan.

Started out on the second loop and the wind had picked up significantly, it ended up being one of the windiest times I had ridden the course this summer. Going down G and 92 was pretty brutal. And I could tell everyone’s mental state had changed. It was much quieter out there on the course! Again, barely made it to Cross Plains before my stomach gave out and stopped again for bathroom/stretch as planned. The second time to the hills, I felt pretty great. Some were walking up the hills but my legs could handle it. Saw the family and stopped for a minute or two to talk to them and let them know how I was doing. Again, just trying to enjoy the day, and I was!

I think this is about where I stopped paying close attention to my nutrition. By the time I was back on the stick on my way to the terrace, I was feeling pretty thirsty. Being tired, I was not paying as much attention to my watch and stupid broken garmin wasn’t beeping at me. Just tried to drink as much water as I could on the way back, as it was definitely hotter. Up the helix and get me the H off of this bike! Right on target with my time though! And no mechanical issues or flat tires (I’d take a broken garmin any day over a mechanical!).

T2 - 10:37
Again took my time in transition. Super helpful volunteer who I chatted with along the way. Change to running shorts and body glided up my feet – did not want any blisters, and I only ended up with one small one in the end. My mom and running buddy Lee had just arrived in Madison and were standing just outside transition and I stopped to talk to them for a bit. ANOTHER stop at the porty potty. Saw my husband Rob on the way out of transition and said “well, my stomach survived the swim and bike, but now I’m about to start jostling it around with every step and this could get REAL interesting”. Any runner knows that a jostled sensitive digestive system will send you running for the nearest bush and I was honestly worried that I would have to stop at the porta potty every mile. It didn’t get quite that bad, but read on….

Run - 5:55:26
I LOVE to run. Earlier this year I qualified for Boston. I was a runner before I was a triathlete. I was so excited to be out on this course in particular because I would be able to interact with the wonderful crowds. So how in the world did I end up with an almost 6 hour marathon? MY STUPID STOMACH!

The 26.2 mile (marathon distance) run goes through the UW Madison campus. Its a somewhat hilly course with alot of out and backs, which can get kind of old. But running through campus is amazing becuase there are so many people out watching! Started out running probably about 9:30 pace (but really I never had any idea how fast/slow I was going since my garmin had died). Walked through the aid stations (drinking water, having a couple potato chips for salt) and up the hills as planned. 3 miles in, first porta potty stop. Continued running through Camp Randall and saw my fam on state street! Stopped to talk to them, I just loved seeing them out there! I volunteered last year at the turn around on state and Tony who I volunteered with was there again – high fived him round the corner. On my way back to the turn around, I started having serious problems keeping my stomach happy. I couldn’t hold any kind of pace without triggering serious nausea. Tried to run 5 minutes, walk one minute. Around mile 8-9 I started having chicken broth at the aid stations. Shortly after that, for about five miles, I felt amazing! I thought I had pulled myself out of disaster and my stomach had decided to cooperate. I even told my family and friends that I was back! Stopped to talk to John and Natalie, Katie and Greta, Kristin and Jill, all around the halfway point. I really wanted to enjoy the day and interacting with my amazing crew was part of that!

My "good" stretch was short lived though…around mile 16, things came to a screeching halt. I could not run without almost throwing up. I was so nervous that if I started throwing up, I wouldn’t stop. More porta potty stops. I tried to run one minute walk one minute and I could not run for 30 seconds without triggering issues. This was a dark moment. I have ten miles to go and I can’t RUN??? At this point I had no idea what to do – I have been drinking and the chicken broth had seemed to work, but now things had gone to awful so quickly. I was even more frustrated as my legs felt fantastic! They were sore, but no cramping or unusual pain issues and I had energy left to give but I could not get my stomach to agree. At the second time at the state turn around, I was almost in tears when I saw my family and crew. I wasn’t worried about not finishing, but I was so frustrated with the prospect of walking ten miles, especially when my legs felt so good! My husband got my family and friends to spread out, and the rest of the race, someone was at every mile waiting for me. So amazing. They truly got me through this race. I was just chugging water and trying to choke down more broth in the hopes that I could salvage something, but I never felt any better. About mile 22 I found Stephanie, who was also walking the last few miles. We chatted about our days, and before I knew it, it was mile 25. I’ll be darned if I’m going to walk the last mile of my ironman! It was slow, but I ran that last mile! Running the final few hundred yards with all of the people watching and seeing the finish line was emotionally overwhelming! I couldn't believe I was at the finish line already! Overall, I was over an hour slower than my expectations, but I crossed that finish line with a smile! I had done it – I am an ironman!!! My total time was 14 hours, 29 minutes, about two and half hours ahead of the final time cut off of 17 hours/midnight. PLENTY of time to spare!

Post race
Took a few pictures with my amazing support crew, who I can’t thank enough. Went over to the med tent to see if they could do anything. They weighed me and I had only lost ONE POUND during the race. Hmm. Apparently I had been drinking enough! Still was not hungry in the slightest and my stomach still was not right. I will never know if things would have been different if I hadn’t started off the day down for the count.

But that doesn’t really matter and one thing is for sure, I had so much fun out there. I knew I wasn’t going to break any records in any case, so I wasn’t afraid of stopping to chat and interact with my support crew or the volunteers. I hope that made the day more interesting for them too. This race is so full of amazing volunteers and spectators. To the hundreds of random people that cheered my name as I ran or rode by, THANK YOU! To my parents, Ron, Dria, Jon, Jen, Kristin, Jill, Katie, Greta, Aaron, Shalini, John, Natalie, Tracy, Alec, Lee, The Lutes Family, Becky, and of course my wonderful husband, Rob, THANK YOU so much for being out there with me on that day. Thank you to all of the people who emailed, texted, and called to wish me luck and see how things went. Thank you to my training buddies over the course of the season. All of you collectively made the journey and the day I became an IRONMAN amazing!!!

Next day I woke up and wasn’t all that sore – definitely have been more sore in the last few marathons I’ve run. Kind of made me mad since I know I had more fitness left to give. Two days later I was already thinking about when I’m going to take on my next ironman :). I can’t believe how much training and racing this race has changed my life. I am in the best shape of my life, I have discovered my love of biking, and I have been able to reevaluate what is truly important to me (and no, its not JUST triathlon :) ). I can’t wait to take on the next adventure - thank goodness I have the Chicago marathon in three weeks (running with my husband), and training for the Boston Marathon will start in a couple month

I'm sure I will have more reflections and pictures over the next few weeks, and I'm going to get a tattoo to commemorate my ironman :) so stay tuned!

4 years and 16 miles later....

Rob and I celebrated our four year wedding anniversary last Thursday. We actually were able to go out to dinner on our actual anniversary despite my work and training schedule and his two new demanding jobs. We had a DELICIOUS dinner complete with chocolate fondue at a tiny restaurant in Barrington. It was nice to spend a few hours together - it has been a crazy summer!

Rob decided to take on his first marathon this fall, as a complimentary goal to my ironman training. Although Rob hasn't been much of a runner the past few years, he was a REALLY good runner as a teenager. Training for the Chicago marathon has meant he has given up his three mile runs on the treadmill in front of Sportscenter for long runs around the neighborhood.

Although I will say (and he will too) that he hasn't exactly taken a "scientific" approach to his training (i.e. he skips a couple runs a week and doesn't bat an eye, and only recently I got him to the running store to pick up actual running shoes so he would stop running in volleyball shoes), he is doing a great job. Tonight, he ran 16 miles! I can't believe it! I'm so proud of him - he has come so far over the past couple months and I think he appreciates running more than he used to - and I of course love when he comes back from a 5 mile run and says how short it was :)

Four years ago when we got married, I didn't think my husband would ever do a marathon - now he is one long run away from his taper, and October 10th, I'll be running with him as he completes his first! Love it!

I certainly don't FEEL like a (pending) Ironman....

As usual for me during taper, I have come down with a raging cold. I felt it starting to come on Thursday, and by Friday night and Saturday, I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck. Headache, congestion, and dizziness were the perpetrators. None condusive for my last "long" bike ride of the season. But I had to try out my new tires....

I would definitely say its not a smart idea to go out and ride 40 miles when you can't breathe and have some vertigo going on, but I did it anyway. Just an easy 40 miles locally on some hills and rougher roads to get a feel for the new tires and make sure my bike was working properly after it was in for its tune up last week. Mission accomplished. Although I felt like crap, all of the non-living equipment worked perfectly, and eased some of my anxieties heading into the race.

One thing is for sure though. I DEFINITELY would not have been able to complete the distance of an Ironman on saturday of this past weekend (and possibly even Sunday). I was musing to myself while riding that I absolutely was not performing up to my visible potential - i.e. I was completely dogging it with my new leaner physique from training and relatively higher-end set of equipment. I got to thinking how the body is such an interesting thing - often you hear of world champion caliber athletes not starting or dropping out of races due to illness earlier than in the week of the race. Even their YEARS of meticulous training and nutrition can not overcome common viruses. How weird to face the reality that one has built a "machine" ready to perform at a moments notice, but something as minor as a head cold can have you curled up in the fetal position hoping that the next time you open your eyes the world stops spinning!

Thankfully, I feel much better now - and am happy that I will have gotten yet another "unknown" out of the way - how bad it would have been if this had struck Tuesday or Wednesday before the race! Hopefully I will be fully recovered by next Sunday and ready to race at 100%.

August in a Nutshell

August Totals:

Swim - 31,600 yards, 9 hours and 23 minutes

Bike - 487 miles, 29 hours and 42 minutes

Run - 180 miles, 27 hours and 4 minutes

Total - 66 hours and 9 minutes

August was a big month! It included a week or so of taper, and 3 gigantic weeks. Gotta love 105 mile bike rides and 6 mile run bricks on saturday followed by 18-19 miles runs the next day. Anyway, I definitely feel prepared for the distance that is swiftly approaching - I've ridden over 100 miles of the course twice and know it better than I know riding in Barrington. Come race day I'll know every turn and hill.

Taper has been fantastic - it came at the perfect time. I was really ready to be done with the huge weekends and even the long weekday workouts. Its also left me time to make my lists for the race. I have a HUGE excel speadsheet of all of the things I could possibly need on raceday. Its a long day and lots can happen. Plus you never know what the weather will bring, especially in the midwest. Earlier this week it was upper 80s and tonight its supposed to get down to 50!

I also have a bit of taper madness setting in (i.e. I have plenty of time to really mull over my anxieties about the race). This week I have AGONIZED over what tires to use on my bike for race day - worried about getting a flat, having problems changing a new tire, using tires that are too puncture resistant that they actually slow me down...They say you are never supposed to use anything new on race day and I am really cutting it close. But, tonight, I FINALLY chose the tires and put them on my bike - much easier than I expected it to be and even better, I got more practice changing tires, so I feel even more confident should I get a flat on race day. I tried them out and I'm really happy with my decision. Cross your fingers no flats on race day!

EIGHT DAYS....OH MY GOSH IT'S ALMOST HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Less Than 20 Days!!

Officially tapering! After a BIG weekend, I am so excited to be three weeks away from the IM and tapering. Friday kicked off the weekend with 10 miles running and a bit over a mile swim in a WAVY Lake Michigan (i.e. not so fun). Saturday I got up to Madison at 6am for a last brick (ride and run) on the course. 106 miles biking and 6 miles running later, I drove back to Chicago in time to make a concert. I was exhausted. But, we had fun with my sister-in-law and her husband and she made an amazing dinner which I thoroughly appreciated after a long day of liquid nutrition. Sunday morning, I was running by 7am and ran 19 miles in just under 3 hours. Had a friend with me for the last 8 miles which made the end to a tough weekend much more enjoyable. So, over the course of 48 or so hours, I did half of the IM swim, almost all of the IM bike, and well over the miles in the marathon of the IM. Woo hoo! Even better, my body (and specifically my legs) are feeling great today!

Although I’m tapering, this first week really doesn’t have too much of a volume decline. Last week I trained for ~18 hours. This week I’ll probably be only down to 14 or so – that’s still A LOT. But mentally, I’m in a whole new world – I don’t think I’ll have to wake up before 5am until race day, which is fabulous!! Now I will have the time to work myself up by having time to think about actual race day.

Its already started.

I went to my blog page to start this post and really LOOKED at the picture at the top, which is the swim start of the race. Freaked me out a little, not going to lie. Look at how many people there are! I am so nervous to battle 2500 other people in a lake – I really would prefer to keep my goggles intact, and more importantly, my teeth. With my swimming background, I still feel this way. I can’t imagine how people who have recently learned to swim would feel faced with this mass swim start (a lot of triathletes start out as bikers and runners and add swimming only because they have to do in order to participate in a triathlon). Although the whole race is intimidating – will I have a technical issue on the bike? How will my heart rate and digestive system really react to running a marathon after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112? How do I know if I’m drinking and eating enough before its too late? What will the weather be like? – I am most anxious about the first 15 minutes of the swim. It is just going to be awful. Instead of succumbing to the fear right before the race and entering timidly, I think the tactic I’m going to take is just to get pissed and claw my way through the fray - not trying to hurt any of my fellow competitors of course, that sounds like bad karma, and not trying to use excess amounts of energy – but I think being in that mental state with some extra adrenaline will help my overcome my fear and the reality of avoiding 2499 other bodies.

So the swim is what I'm going to focus on this week - both having good workouts and visualizing my swim start. Next week it'll be time to visualize and obsess over the bike leg!

Race Pics

Well one thing is official - I look incredibly dumb in every race picture so far this season. Luckily for you, these are small, so you can't truly appreciate the full ridiculousness of the facial expressions.

These first two are from the Capitol View Olympic Distance Triathlon.

These next four are from the Racine Half Ironman. Unflattering wetsuit picture. Yikes.

Non Training Triathlon Fun

A couple fun things over the past few weeks, non-training, by triathlon related:

I participated in the Wisconsin Brick Adventure weekend (well, really, due to work, I only went for one of the three days). It was a great training opportunity, with the best part being the after brick workout food and festivities. Here is a picture of me using a bike trainer to blend some drinks for the group - so cool! Gotta give props to Cycleops for lending the blender attachment to the group.

Last week, a couple of my training buddies and I went to see Chrissie Wellington, current Ironman World Champion, speak in Naperville. So amazing to hear her story - two weeks prior she had set the new world record at the iron distance in Roth Germany, coming in 7th OVERALL (including men). She literally started triathlon in 2004 and three years later won her first of three Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. Unbelievable talent and determination! I will say though, that after the talk I definitely went to her website to read further and discovered that her first two years of triathlon before she went pro while she was still working full-time and discovering her potential, she was training 25 hours per week - thats some serious hours and some serious drive. No doubt that Chrissie is a great asset to the sport and I will love to see her further success.

July in Numbers

Swim: 18,437 yards, 5 hours and 32 minutes

Bike: 529 miles, 31 hours and 47 minutes

Run: 126 miles, 18 hours and 51 minutes

Total: 56 hours and 10 minutes

July was a big month! My biking and running was right on track - even a little bit of extra biking for good measure. Swimming...hmm...not so much. Swimming is always the first workout I am willing to skip, and unfortunately, it has not gone well the past few weeks and I'm kind of freaking out. I planned to focus on getting in all three workouts every week these last 5 weeks and I have barely managed two per week and one of the two is usually shorter than it should be due to various reasons - lack of time before the pool closes and a couple times I haven't eaten enough before hand and have gotten really light headed and had to stop. Today I went to swim while on vacation and the YMCA by the lake was closed due to a power outage! AGHH! The swim gods are working against me! I've rearranged my work out schedule yet again and I will be swimming both tomorrow and friday morning, getting up extra early to swim before leaving for my cousin's wedding....just have to do it!

My countdown clock says 38 days and I cannot believe it. The race is so soon! Besides needing to swim, I am feeling ready! I know the run is going to hurt, but I don't have any doubts that my endurance will be where it needs to be in order to finish. The rest of the variables - weather, health, nutrition/hydration - we'll see when the day comes! Only three more weekends of tough workouts and a bit more than TWO MORE WEEKS BEFORE TAPER! AGHH!!

Ironman Racine 70.3 Race Report

I would consider today a success! Read on....

Pre-Race: Given my previous posts - recent lack of sleep and training, as well as the issues with my bike, I had cautious expectations of the day. Since it was supposed to be a practice race for the big deal, that took a bit of the pressure off. Weather was 75 in the morning, but overcast. Probably got up to 85 or so with more sun in the late morning and early afternoon (HOT). Had a bagel and peanut butter and a bite of a banana, and me and my iron sherpa (hubby) were off. Saw our friend Tracy at the start - she just signed up for an IM in June 2011.

Swim: WOW WAS LAKE MICHIGAN COLD. Announcer said it was 64 degrees, and it was by far the coldest water I've ever swum in. Try not to panic when you put your face in the water and the water is so cold that your lungs close up....its not easy. After two minutes of head up freestyle and breaststroke, and thinking why the hell am I doing this, I stuck my face in the water and got to it. Swim was a bit slower than I wanted, probably due to the panicking in the beginning as well as not-exactly-flat Lake Michigan. After that hell was over, it was a long run through deep sand to transition. Total time - 37 minutes, 41 seconds, 15/82 in my age group.

Bike: So I figured that I would be no faster than about 17 mph on this course - its very flat compared to what I've been riding, but still, I've never shown any capacity for speed. Crusing out of Racine, I was going about 19-20mph with almost no effort - I figured I was riding a slight downhill or had the wind at my back. I started by drinking water, than Infinit every 10 minutes. It was overcast at this point so not too hot. After the first hour, I was still averaging a bit of 19mph and felt fantastic. I will say my heart rate was a bit high - in the upper 150s to lower 160s, where I would have like it to be in the 140s, but I didn't feel like I was pushing it at all, so kept with it (I will not do this in the IM). Stuck with drinking Infinit every ten minutes and played leapfrog with a few nice people, including Karen from Iowa. Once saw a three-pack of my fellow age groupers go by together, totally drafting and could see them continue to do so for a while. I hate cheaters. Anyway, I absolutely had a blast on this ride - so fun and I loved how good I felt and how fast I was going of course.....I had estimated a 3:20 bike split, so imagine my surprise when I beat that by almost 30 minutes! Total time - 2 hours, 51 minutes, 55 seconds; 16/82 in my age group.

Run: By the time I started with the run, the sun was out 80% of the time. It was HOT. I ironically thought multiple times during the run, how nice it would feel to get in the lake. Started out on the run feeling good and running between 8 min and 8:30 pace - once again, faster than my planned 9 min pace. But, once again, I convinced myself I felt good. The run was two loops of 6.55 miles each. The first loop passed by without too much incident - the run was flat for the most part and I was drinking water every mile, mixed in with some sports drink and cola. At the start of the second loop, I was starting to feel my stomach turning against me. I'm sure this had to do with my higher than appropriate heart rate most of the day, as well as the heat/slight dehydration. By mile 10, I was not feeling good, and my miles were more like 8:45-9:00. About mile 11 I decided that to avoid serious stomach issues, I was going to run for 3 minutes, walk for 30 seconds. When I started doing this, I met Bob, who claimed he had been using me to pace and got me to run with him. Although we took a couple walk breaks, Bob and I made it to the finish in one piece, and I definitely owe my sub 2 hour half marathon to him. With the exception of the last couple miles, once again, I would say I had fun out there! Total Time - 1 hour, 54 minutes, 51 seconds; 13/82 in my age group.

Total Half IM time - 5 hours 31 minutes, and 27 seconds!! 13/82 in my age group!!

Overall, I was really happy with my day. Five years ago, much less prepared, with a bike that didn't fit me, I did this race. It was over 100 degrees and I got a flat tire, and although I finished, it obviously was not my best performance. I definitely feel like I avenged that today! While today will boost my confidence as it relates to my training and the IM, I am trying to be cautious. I definitely would have had a death march full marathon today, given the heat and pushing my heartrate too hard during the bike and run. Also, 2.4 miles of swimming is going to feel ridiculously brutal. So, my lessons are 1) swim more, 2) drink more, and 3) keep my heartrate down in the early part of the race!

Me and my trusty steed post-race.

Extra Long Taper....

First, here are my June totals:

Swim - 25,700 yards, 7 hours and 48 minutes

Bike - 411 miles, 24 hours and 37 minutes

Run - 119 miles, 17 hours and 41 minutes

Total - 50 hours and 6 minutes

June was a big month. I've officially crossed the 10 weeks to go barrier and as of tomorrow, have only 8 weeks to go until the Ironman. Crazy. While June was a great month, the first two weeks of July left something to be desired. For the first time during my training, work really got in the way. Seriously. For the past two weeks, leaving work at midnight has been early. Last Sunday (yes, Sunday) I worked until 2am. I've been sleeping only 4-5 hours a night, even with skipping workouts, so honestly, skipping workouts was the least of my worries (other problems include house is a mess, bills not being paid, cancelling social plans...). I still managed to get in full days of training on the weekends, and even did more than my "plan" prescribed on those days, but I was back down into the 10 hours per week these last two weeks, when I was supposed to be near 14 hours last week.

The good thing is, I have my Half Ironman practice race tomorrow - Ironman Racine 70.3 - so this past week was a taper week. I've decided to call the last two weeks my extra long taper for the race, and just am trying to put it behind me that my training has not been up to par for the past two weeks. Tomorrow is supposed to be ridiculously hot and humid - about 90 degrees and with a possible chance of storms. Yay....its only slightly better weather than the first time I did this race, with a 112 heat index and not a cloud in the sky (I also got a flat five miles into the race). So, I am out to avenge that race. Funny to think that this distance really does not phase me at this point in training....You'll get the full race report tomorrow! I'm off to bed!

The Highs and Lows of Training

Over the past couple of weeks, I've experienced some definite highs and lows of training. Comes with the 30 week long training process I suppose....

First the high - on June 13th I did the Capitol View Olympic Distance triathlon (1500 meter swim, 24.85 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run, about 1/4 of the ironman distance). Being the first race of the season, as well as the first triathlon I've done in three or four years, I was a bit nervous. Plus, this race took place just outside of Madison, so the majority of the racers were people using the race as a tune-up for the ironman - lots of Ironman tattoos out there and serious bikes. The weather was pretty perfect - no wind, overcast, and about 70 (although pretty humid).

The swim - The swim ALWAYS makes me nervous, because I'm afraid I'm going to panic - its kind of a circular reference - you panic once, then you get panicky that you're going to panic next time, which inevitably causes you to panic. Anyway, I just tried to clear my head and settle into the swim and NO PANIC! Yay! Mini victory! Overall, the swim was good - the full wetsuit felt good, and no major contact with other swimmers. The one AWFUL part of the swim was that it was extremely weedy - like every stroke your arms were covered in weeds. Not fun.

Swim Time: 27:54, 7/22 in my age group

The bike - I am so average at biking. My decent swims will always be followed by being completely crushed on the bike. I spent the ~25 miles being passed and not really passing anyone. Course was fairly hilly and pretty difficult for an olympic distance. I could have gone harder, but the point of my race was to simulate the ironman, where I will bike conservatively in order to save my legs for the run.

Bike Time: 1:26:19, 17.3mph, 14/22 in my age group

The run - Ok, this was BY FAR the hardest 10k I've ever done. The run was through grass fields and trails, and was so hilly. The kind of hills that were straight up and straight done, followed by another one. Luckily, I was kind of pissed off about being passed on the bike, and made it my mission to pass lots of people on the run. I was successful, as I probably passed 40 people, and only got passed by one person. Even though it was hilly, I ran really well - my hilly runs in Central Park definitely helped get me ready for this!

Run Time: 51:46, 8:20 pace, 6/22 in my age group

Transitions were uneventful and pretty fast (picture to the right is my transition area), which resulted in my total time of 2:51:34, almost 10 minutes faster than my goal of getting under three hours! Further, much to my surprise, I finished 5th in my age group of 22! Wow! I was pretty excited given the competition!

Total Time: 2:51:34, 5/22 in my age group

Ok, so now for the low.

The following weekend, I was ready to go for the Horribly Hilly Hundreds 100k - ~65 miles through ridiculous hills just west of Madison. I know you are thinking - hills in Wisconsin? Seriously, these hills were crazy. Steep and L-O-N-G. It was brutal. Again, there was great weather - crystal clear blue sky and not too much wind. Yes, I knew I should have used a road bike for this kind of ride, but all I had was Stella, my triathlon bike. Needless to say, maybe 5% of people were using triathlon bikes - I was already at a disadvantage.

So although the course was brutal, I was enjoying myself, relatively speaking. Just after the first aid station, about 25 miles into the ride, I was going up a brutal hill at like 3mph, when I hear a crunching on my bike, lose all ability to pedal forward, and just barely unclip and get my foot down before falling (any cyclist will tell you that unexpectedly having to unclip is scary). Turns out I was experiencing something called "chain suck", where the bike chain falls off the ring and gets stuck in the frame. Yeah, not good. So, I fix the chain and hope it doesn't happen again....

No such luck - over the next 10 minutes, my chain fell off FOUR MORE TIMES in the low gears. This is not good, as I needed those gears to go up the many hills of the course. Standing on the side of the road and near tears that I'm 30 miles into my 65 mile ride and my bike seems to be broken, I decide to just ride and hope that there weren't too many hills before the next aid station. I got lucky - over the next 15 miles, I only had two hills where I would have had to be in my low gears (and therefore in danger of dropping my chain, and potentially falling over and hurting myself, my bike, and/or someone else). I walked up those two hills....

Finally to the aid station and I have a mechanic look at my bike. When I tell him what happened, he did not have a good reaction. Uh oh....so he works on it a bit, and sends me on my way. Not fixed. Two miles later, it happens again, so now I turn around, crying, knowing my day is done, and head back to the aid station to call the SAG wagon (the support vehicle that picks up riders with injuries or mechanical issues). I was beyond disappointed. Although I still think I made the right decision since continuing would have been extremely frustrating and potentially dangerous, I felt like a complete cop-out and failure. Plus, I was so upset that I had only rode 40 miles when I was supposed to do 65!

Took my bike to the bike shop a couple days later, and they decided my chain was stretched and so I had a new chain put on. So far, I have ridden a couple rides on hills without those major issues, although my shifting is off a bit. I am worried that since I have now had this fairly major mechancial issue (at least in my experience), that something else is going to go wrong and I really can't trust my bike. That is really the most concerning. Going to be extra careful with maintenance and bring the bike to the bike shop every couple weeks for a quick tune-up to avoid this happening again!

So - I went from a great weekend to an awful weekend of training. Hoping that the Horribly Hilly ride is as bad as it gets and I have smooth sailing from here on out! :)

Udder Century Ride

This past weekend I rode in the Udder Century ride, an organized and supported bike ride in Union, IL. The course offered 30, 50, 62, 75, and 100 mile options, and I opted for the 75 mile one - time to up the ante! The good news was that this is the first time I've rode a flat course this season - it was SO NICE to just ride and not think about technical gearing to efficiently tackle the up and down of a hilly course. The bad news was that it was incredibly windy on the way out - the kind of wind that blows you off the road in the middle of flat farm land. To add insult to injury, it started pouring the last 5-7 miles. Just have not had great luck with my long-ride weather so far! At least I'm training in all conditions! The 75 miles went pretty well - it was a big jump from my longest ride so far of 56 miles, but great to be in the saddle for that long for the first time in my training.

I've been lucky to find a few girls to train with. One of my colleagues at work is also tackling IM Moo as her first attempt at IM. She has introduced me to some of her other triathlon friends, and they have been nice enough to include me in events like Udder - always nice to see a few friendly faces out there - and it makes 4.5 hour rides pass much faster when you can chat! :)

Here's the group before the ride - we didn't line up in any specific order, but we certainly coordinated our colors well!

Less Than 100 Days!!

May Training

Swim – 21,100 yards; 6 hours 15 minutes

Bike – 367 miles; 23 hours 7 minutes
Run – 104 miles; 15 hours 27 minutes
Total – 44 hours, 49 minutes

The end of May marked the halfway point in my IM training – 15 weeks down, 15 weeks to go. That is crazy! I definitely can’t believe that I’m over halfway through the training program. So far, its been relatively enjoyable – although it has been difficult to fit the workouts in (especially since I’m working a TON and traveling to NY almost every week….), the fact that every day it’s a different sport to work on has so far kept my interest – so much different than marathon training, where I would get burned out thinking that I had to run almost every day. So far, so good on the injury front too.

Since my chilly, awful ride of the IM bike loop, I have ridden the course two more times. Both times it was close to 80 degrees, but still MUCH more enjoyable than the maiden journey. Wow, do I LOVE biking this course! Its tough, but its so beautiful! One of these times I’m going to take some pics to share. So the new goal has been to find my “outfit” for the race. Yes, the outfit is more important than just finding the right colors, I have to be comfortable in this all day (and most importantly, my butt has to be as comfortable as possible while I’m riding for 7 hours). Here is my recent purchase, Orca 226 Tri-gear:

Going to try this out on my next ride and see how it goes. Up next this weekend is an Olympic distance triathlon in Madison – 1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, and 6 mile run. I’m excited to do a race and will post pics.

Because of the pending race, last week I did my first swim in Lake Michigan in my new wetsuit. Even though I have swam all of my life and am a pretty strong swimmer, the open water swim scares the crap out of me. My theory is that because I have spent all of my life swimming in nice clean, chlorinated water staring at a black line, that swimming in murky water without a black line and with a wet suit choking me sends my brain into a tail spin and I panic. So I made my way down to the beach, got the wetsuit on, stood in shallow water for 5 minutes trying to calm myself down, and finally put my face in the water. The swim was a success - tried out my wetsuit and managed to swim about a mile.

This months goals:

1) Not panic in swim this weekend

2) Change out my cassette on my bike so I have an extra easy gear for the IM hills!

2.5) In the same trip to the LBS, have them check my aero positioning

3) Swim 3000 yds every swim workout

4) Stretching and core workout three times a week

5) Hydrate more and eat better! I have been eating like crap since I am never home!

6) Look into a new saddle for my bike

Geese are Mothers Too....

Mothers Day morning, prior to visiting with my mother and mother-in-law, I was out for a run on a beautiful day - sun shining, birds singing, only noise was my feet pounding the pavement. Easy to get in a zone on a run like this. I was less than a mile from home when I heard the hissing...

To digress a bit, if you've ever been chased by a goose, you know that is actually quite a scary experience. Courtesy of growing up across the street from a pond with regular goose habitants, I have had the joy of being chased by a goose. When a large bird starts coming at you and hissing, you turn and run, because who knows what the bird will do. Then you remember this experience forever and aim to avoid it.

At any rate, on this beautiful morning, my run got interrupted by this goose hissing. When I looked up, about 20 yards away was two adult geese with three baby geese. After running immediately into the center of the road and safely past before returning to the sidewalk, avoiding the chasing and re-surpressing the childhood chasing memories, I started thinking about the hissing goose. Here she was, on Mothers Day, doing what she had to do to protect her babies - nature's rawest form of what it means to be a Mother.

The encounter got me thinking about my own mom and moms in general. The day a woman has a child, their whole outlook on life changes. Nothing else really matters besides the safety, health, and happiness of their children, and daily they will task themselves with preserving these basic things that their children will likely take for granted. My encounter with this mama goose reminded me of how much my mom has done for me - a constant source of love and care, a cheerleader, a listening ear, and a friend. Happy Mothers Day, Mom. I love you!

And, to the mama goose, Happy Mothers Day. Sorry I scared you and your babies. :)

April 2010 Totals

Swim - 22,600 yards; 7 hours 20 minutes
Bike - 286.2 miles, 17 hours 14 minutes
Run - 97.6 miles, 14 hours 36 minutes
Total - 39 hours 10 minutes

April has been an interesting month. The first full month of Ironman training - and I'm currently 12 weeks into my 30 week training program - can't believe I'm over a third of the way there! I have managed to do nearly all of my planned workouts, even though I'm dealing with commuting to New York, working a ton, and keeping the house clean while its on the market (amongst the normal day to day life tasks).

Our NY office is smack dab in the middle of Times Square - quite the tourist hotspot. Luckily, I'm staying at a Doubletree Hotel a five minute walk away (chosen mostly for the delicious cookies they freely give out). I've been swimming at a YMCA about a mile away, biking at a NY gym I joined which has spin classes every morning and is a block from my hotel, and running in Central Park, which is about a half mile away. Running in central park is AMAZING. There are tons of people running and biking (they close the streets of the park in the morning and bikers use the park roads to do a 16 mile loop), and of course the park is beautiful (and a bit hilly, good training for Madison). So far, the hardest thing about working/training there is finding food to eat - I'm still getting used to having to go to the store/restaurant to eat any time I'm hungry, and to be honest, there are not alot of "fast casual" chains (Chipotle, Cosi, Corner Bakery, Potbellys, etc) near Times Square (most restaurants are either sit down or whole in the wall type delis) so I haven't figured out an eating routine yet. Snapple and Sbarro's are also extremely ample in NYC! So funny the differences!

I had a surprise my first week in NY - I got a call from Rob on Wednesday on his way to the emergency room with abdominal pain. Turns out he had an emergency appendectomy! I made it home as quickly as I could, but missed his surgery. I was able to work from home for the rest of the week while he recouperated and he is back to his regular routine, but still scary to get a call like that from halfway across the country! So glad he is feeling better!

Today was definitely a milestone day in my IM training. I rode the loop of the IM bike course. I was already nervous since it is considered one of the most difficult IM bike courses. Add to that, the fact that it was 37 degrees, raining/sleeting, with 20 mph headwinds. I was wearing four long sleeved shirts and never was warm. The first five minutes of the ride, all I wanted to do was turn around and drive back home to bed, but once my fingers thawed out (my feet never did), I had the crazy thought that the experience wasnt as bad as I expected....I was also happy to find out that although the course is hilly, it wasn't as hilly as I expected it to be and the outdoor rides I've been doing in Barrington are pretty representative of the terrain. The course is also absolutely gorgeous, yet another surprising observation I had given the terrible conditions. Who knew that beautiful wooded winding roads existed in the midst of the central Wisconsin farmland??!!

IM training observations of this month:

1) Although this is more hours per week of training then I've ever done, the variety of activities means that my muscles haven't been getting as sore as they do when I'm marathon training

2) Hopefully this means that I will be less injury prone....

3) I love biking outside (as long as its not 37 degrees/raining/windy)

4) I haven't lost any weight yet, mostly because I have decided all of thsi training means I eat whatever I want (and I don't have time to go to the grocery store) - Portillos, DQ, pizza - I love it all.

5) Although I haven't lost weight, I can definitely tell I'm getting leaner - which is really my goal through this process - to be more lean and fit.

On to May - hopefully this freezing cold weather will turn into pleasant spring weather for some enjoyable outdoor rides!

Times, They Are A Changin'....

March Totals

Swim – 17,125 yards, 5 hours 50 minutes
Bike – 247.4 miles, 14 hours 13 minutes
Run – 70.8 miles, 10 hours 11 minutes
Total – 30 hours 14 minutes

March brought with it the end of my marathon training and the beginning of serious IM (read: BIKE) training. After the marathon, I took a few glorious days off from working out at all (four in a row! What?!), and since then, I have eased back into running and spent lots of time on my bike (Yes, I recognize that “lots” is a relative term). I’m happy to report that I actually like riding my bike. This is good since I will be spending A LOT of time on it over the next few months. I’ve decided to ride exclusively on the trainer inside during the week – trying to plan around work schedule, weather, daylight, and traffic is just too much stress. My only outdoor ride of each week will be the long ride on Saturdays. Unfortunately, I’ve also discovered that I hate watching DVR’d TV while riding inside – which is what I thought would motivate me. Catch up on a couple shows while getting in a workout, right? No. I stare at my watch wishing the ride to be over and lose motivation very quickly. So, I’ve turned to biking DVDs called Spinervals. Basically they are like any workout video – you watch a bunch of people biking on trainers and a coach tells the group and watcher what to do. They are cheesy, but for whatever reason, I find these a much better aid to get through my hour indoor rides – and I work a lot harder. I guess I’ll have to find other time to catch up on the shows….

To add to the stress of getting in these workouts, we have also had a lot of changes coming up over the last few weeks. First, I’m changing jobs at work – going from a pretty normal 40 hour work week with minimal weekend work back to a schedule of anywhere from 50-70 hours a week and basically expected to be on call at any time (I originally signed up for the IM because I was no longer working long hours and had moved to a much more manageable 40 hour work week…whoops). Further, I’ve been asked to “commute” from Chicago to New York during the week for a few months. I’m super excited to spend time in New York (especially since my company will be paying for most of it), but when the heck am I going to train? The swimming and running will be ok – but I am still trying to figure out how the biking will work…..it will be so hard to be away from Rob and Dirk (dog) during the week, but I’m rationalizing by thinking that a) I would be spending most of my time outside of work training anyway, and b) since I will be away from home and all of the distractions that come with it, I’ll be able to focus on my workouts. We’ll see.

Also, Rob and I have decided to try selling our townhouse (which we purchased at the market peak about four years ago….). We have been working SO HARD over the past few weeks to get it ready to be on the market – cleaning/organizing closets and rooms, getting rid of junk, cleaning, finishing all those projects that were 99% done but didn’t quite get there, cleaning, and don’t forget paint touchup through the whole house (my least favorite and the thing that I keep procrastinating on), and cleaning. There are just not enough hours in the day right now – I can’t wait for the house prep to be over – it is just so time consuming! Hopefully all of this work will result in a sale :). Wait. But then I’d have to pack the house up to move. Crap.

On to April and with it, nice weather. I can’t wait to get outside and ride and run! Its amazing what the change in weather will do for motivation after months of slogging through cold temps, snow, wind, and ice! Bring on the sun!

February and Close Encounters of an Ironman Kind...

So its only three weeks after February ended, but finally, here are the February totals:

Swim – 16,800 yards, 5 hours 45 minutes
Bike – 59.5 miles, 3 hours 30 minutes
Run – 159.2 miles, 23 hours 47 minutes
Total – 33 hours 2 minutes

Definitely down a bit from January, mainly due to two reasons: 1) Two weeks of February included my marathon taper, which meant running time and cutting back on cross-training, and 2) I was on vacation for a week!

After a few days off post-marathon, I have officially started Ironman training, with a huge focus on the bike. Since neglecting the bike more than I should have this winter, I've been adding more bike classes at the bike shop, which is also a good way to find out where all of these bikers ride when the weather is nice (I definitely need motivation and training partners). Last night I went to a class and wound up on a trainer next to Craig, who I found out did IM WI as his first IM last year. Then, tonight, I went to my Master's swimming class (basically swim team for adults) and I shared a lane with Carl, who happened to be wearing an IM WI swim cap, and upon asking, turns out Carl also did the IM last year for the first time.

It turns out that there are alot more Ironmen among us than we realize, leading normal lives by day, training their asses off by night and weekend. Since I signed up for IM WI, I've met so many people that have completed the race - I volunteered at a local 5k in November and wound up working next to a woman who had just done IM WI. Another Masters swim teammate was talking about the traithlons he had planned for the summer and casually mentioned IMMoo. A couple people in my office are actually training for the race too I found out recently (super helpful to have people in my office to talk to about this)!

All of these random encounters of the Ironman kind have been really cool. The Ironman is such a crazy goal, that those who have finished and those who have made it their goal LOVE to talk about it. I try not to talk about the IM too much, but as I'm sure many IM finishers know, the fact that one is attempting an IM seems to make it into many conversations (i.e. innocent question from colleague "what are you doing after work?" Future IMer response "biking for an hour and then running for 30 minutes, ya know, for my IRONMAN TRAINING"). So, I am very happy for these random encounters - I hope I get to meet many more ambitious triathletes and hear their stories! It will be nice to see some friendly faces on the course come September!

FINALLY headed to Boston!!!! Snickers Marathon Race Report...

Saturday, March 6th, I ran the Snickers Marathon Energybar Marathon in Albany , Georgia – one last attempt at the elusive 3:40 time that would qualify me to run the Boston Marathon before really focusing on Ironman training. I have been working on running a 3:40 marathon for almost three years, and I wrote about my marathon history in a previous blog. To summarize that post, the first time I attempted to qualify, I had a decent training cycle and I mentally gave up during the last mile of the race, only to come up one minute short. Since that training cycle, every time I have tried to train again, I’ve ended up with an injury which has resulted either in missing a planned race or starting from zero mileage and trying to build from nothing to “race” in 12-16 weeks. Most marathon veterans will say that while one can definitely FINISH a marathon with that kind of training, RACING a marathon requires steady and consistent mileage buildup.

I FINALLY was able to pull together some steady and consistent mileage buildup this cycle. After two months+ of completely no running last summer trying to recover from injury, I gradually worked up in 12 weeks to run the Chicago marathon in October, and although my time was 3:47 or so, my mini victory was that I recovered from injury and made it to the starting line, and, looking back, I’m pretty proud of that 3:47 on limited training time and minimal mileage (I think my peak weekly mileage was 35 miles….bad). Since Chicago , I managed to keep my mileage up and the injuries at bay and was able to run between 30-50 miles a week for 18 weeks prior to the marathon (for the most part). While my training cycle was not perfect (during the 18 weeks I went on two week-long vacations, Christmas and New Years happened, I got two head colds, and had two separate weeks where I took a couple unexpected days off for nagging pre-injury pains), it apparently was enough to get me to the finish line in my goal time.

And here is the report:

Leading up to race day:
Monday before the race I had a crazy dream about the marathon. In the dream I finished the race in 3:39, but at the finish they told me that the timing chips didn’t work and they were going to re-run the race the next day. The next day I started the race but had to stop to tie my shoe at the beginning and still ended up with a 3:38. When I went to the timing table to check on my time, they said “3:38 nice, that’s even better than the 3:39 from yesterday”, to which I replied, “I thought you said the timing system didn’t work yesterday” and they said “for most people it didn’t, but for you it did”. Crazy weird taper dream, but this comes up later….

I was not really nervous, but I honestly had no idea what to expect. I tried a whole new approach to training this time which meant that I slowed down 75% of my miles each week and I had no idea if I was going to be capable to just suddenly run marathon pace on race day. I’ve also had some nagging hamstring and shin splint pain and wondered if that would affect the race. Add to that the things I couldn’t control: never seeing the course, weather, and illness. I definitely took the approach that I would just go out, take one mile at a time, and see what happened….My dad reminded me in his ‘good luck’ phone call to “Run Happy” – I decided that this was the most important thing!

Race day:
Beautiful forecast for race day – 30 degrees at the start and 45-50 degrees at the finish, sunny, with minimal wind. Only 575 people ran the marathon, so it was a small crowd. My plan was to run 8 min and 20 sec miles which would put me one minute ahead of pace at the halfway point. One of the reasons I had picked this race was because even though it’s a small race, it had pace groups, which I thought could be helpful. Turns out the 3:40 pacer usually paced the 3:20 group and I could tell he was a bit nervous about pacing slower. Well, he took off at the start and took the group at about 8:05-8:10 pace through the first five miles. At mile 3, I decided I would rather run by myself at 8:20 pace than run 10-15 seconds per mile faster only to blow up at mile 20. This meant that for basically the entire race I ran by myself - and by myself I mean the pace group was about 30 seconds ahead of me, I couldn’t really see anyone in front of them, and I couldn’t hear anyone behind me and there was really no passing going on. I was nervous about that at first, especially since it meant I had to deal with the minimal wind myself, but the couple times I passed or was passed, usually the person was making weird breathing noises or grunting or something. I decided it was much less annoying to run by myself.

The course itself was fairly boring the first 8 miles or so – straight and pretty flat industrial type roads, but then the rest of the miles were basically through neighborhoods, and were beautiful – lots of turning but kept my interest. I’m from Chicago and although the course was billed as “flat”, I wouldn’t call it Chicago-flat, more like “VERY gently rolling”, but still definitely a PR course. Aid stations were every couple miles and most of the time included water, Gatorade, Hammer gels, and fruit. Volunteers were very nice and I felt safe from traffic even though I was by myself most of the time. No crowds to speak of, which added to the lonely feeling, but was ok with me, I was doing this for myself.

Anyway, during the first 10 miles, I just focused on running 8:20s and resisted the urge to catch up to the pace group. My homemade pace band fell off at mile 2 so I also spent a lot of time calculating what time I should see at each mile marker to stay on 8:20 pace (this takes A LOT of concentration when you’ve been running for a while….). I crossed the halfway point at 1:49 flat, EXACTLY on 8:20 pace, although I think I ranged from 8:10-8:22 a mile over the first half, so my splits weren’t perfect. My mental assessment at that time went well – breathing and heart rate were good, stomach felt good, and legs didn’t hurt too bad yet. I was drinking water at every aid station and taking a gel (Honey Stinger) every 5 miles.

From 15-20, I just took one mile at a time, and just tried not to slow down. This is sooo the no-mans land of marathon racing. You know that at any point, you could start to feel like crap, and you definitely feel far from fresh. I really tried not to focus on how many miles I had left, just focused on the next mile. At mile 20, I was still on 8:20 pace exactly at 2:46:30 or so. At this point I started to get a bit giddy and emotional, because I felt pretty good and hadn’t ever made it to mile 20 with a minute cushion. I really had to force myself to concentrate at this point and not think about the finish line – 6 miles is still a long way to go. Also at this point, I FINALLY caught the 3:40 pace group, who had slowed down a couple seconds a mile. I ran with them for about a half mile but then realized that I had more in me than the speed they were going – see ya 3:40 pace group! (they ended up finishing about 45 seconds behind me).

Miles 21-24 were pure concentration. JUST. GET. TO. THE. NEXT. MILE. MARKER. I had a couple 8:30s in there, but at that point, I was perfectly fine with that. Quads were screaming, but I could keep them moving, so I took that as a good sign. From mile marker 24 to the finish I was in full out elation and on the verge of tears of joy. Mile 26 was at 8:16 pace (!) and I realized that I had the potential to come in under 3:39, so I “sprinted” the last 0.2 – according to Garmin, the pace was 7:41 for that last 0.2 – I guess I had something left! I crossed the finish line in a glorious 3:38:59!! Second half of the race was run at 1:50, so a 1 min positive split – the perfect race! 4/22 in my age group and 147/574 total runners.

Splits:
1 – 8:15
2 – 8:34
3 – 8:07
4 – 8:19
5 – 8:24
6 – 8:20
7 – 8:15
8 – 8:12
9 – 8:16
10 – 8:20
11 – 8:18
12 – 8:17
13 – 8:20
14 – 8:13
15 – 8:19
16 – 8:18
17 – 8:18
18 – 8:20
19 – 8:22
20 – 8:22
21 – 8:19
22 – 8:31
23 – 8:34
24 – 8:25
25 – 8:21
26 – 8:16
0.2 – 7:41 pace

My great friend and running partner Kristin has said in the past couple marathons we’ve gone to together that she “loves running marathons”. When she has said that, I’ve always given her a seriously crazy look because for me, the marathon has always been excruciatingly painful at the end, and while clearly I enjoy the thought of the journey, I haven’t been able to walk away from a race and say “that was fun!”. At this race, I FINALLY experienced what Kristin has meant and I actually enjoyed the race! Sure, it definitely helps that I made my goal time, but I finally had the training base behind me in order to actually run the whole 26.2 miles at an even pace and without my muscles shutting down and refusing to move the speed I want them to - it was actually fun!

Finally, I couldn’t have done this by myself. I think Rob was as excited as I was when I told him – not just because he was happy that I had achieved my goal, but that I wouldn’t be stressing anymore about trying yet again :). He has been very supportive throughout this long process. My faithful running partners have been a constant support system and sounding board, and I am so honored to have the chance to run with them both at the Boston Marathon next year. My family and friends may think I’m crazy to travel to Georgia by myself to run a marathon in the middle of the winter, but they are so supportive and have been through this long journey. Thank you all!!!!!! I am still on cloud 9 and this has been a great way to kick off "official" Ironman training!

It's Official

So I pulled the trigger and bought the plane ticket for the marathon in three weeks. I'm excited and nervous. I have no idea how the marathon is going to go - I know I can finish, but I want to finish a) in a time that is a PR (personal record) and BQ (Boston Qualifying time) and b) without getting injured and affecting my IM training.

Little background on my marathon history. I ran my first marathon in 2003 at the Chicago marathon in about 4:10 and was happy just to finish. Fast forward to 2007 when my co-worker started talking about qualifying for the Boston marathon (he had to run a lightning fast 3:10). Of course, this gets me thinking this should be something I should try for too, so it becomes my goal - run a 3:40:59 marathon (equal to 8:23 per mile pace) and qualify for Boston. And so it goes:

First Attempt, Oct 2007 - Grand Rapids Marathon, MI: Followed a training plan to the mile, perfect conditions, run a 3:41:59. While I had a great race and was happy with the race at the time, missing the qualifying time by a minute is still haunting me.....

Second Attempt, Oct 2008 - Grand Rapids again: Training was going well until I started having issues with the first of many overuse injuries three weeks before the race, and ended up not even attempting to run.

Third Attempt, May 2009 - Green Bay Marathon: After 8 weeks of completely no running to recover from my injury, I started training in January 2009 for the Green Bay Marathon. Injury struck again about 3 or 4 weeks before the race and I ended up basically not running those last few weeks just so I could make it to the starting line. I finished the race in 3:51 or so with a good deal of pain and could not walk the next day - turns out I had another overuse injury (stress reaction in my tibia) and had to take another 8 weeks off of running for it to heal. I can't even begin to describe how depressed and frustrated I was regarding running at this point.

Fourth Attempt, October 2009 - Chicago Marathon: After my 8 weeks off AGAIN from injury, I somehow convinced myself that started from zero running base, I could train in 12 weeks for the Chicago marathon. Things went ok, but I was nervous about injuring myself again so I was quick to reduce my mileage. I ended up making it to the starting line injury free, but I did not have enough muscular endurance to run the race I needed - looking back on my logs, my average weekly mileage for the 12 weeks was 25 miles and my max was 35 miles. For marathon racing, this is not even CLOSE to enough, however, I did run a 3:46 and my personal victory was that I came back from a year of injuries to run a decent race and not get injured.

2.5 years later, I'm three weeks away from the starting line of my Fifth "Attempt", although I would tend to consider this my second REAL attempt, based upon my issues before the starting line at the last three races. I decided to use a new plan from a book call Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger (Pfitz). Pfitz's thesis is that to run faster, you have to run alot of miles, and to run alot of miles, you have to run most of the slow in order to not get injured. So, I have been running alot slower on my runs that I used to.

Running slower has made me enjoy running again. I can just go out and run and not worry about my pace and just soak up the feeling of hearing my feet hit the ground and watch what's going on in the world around me.

My 18 weeks of Pfitz's plan has not been without issues though. I mean I have been training through the middle of winter and over the holidays, I had two vacations planned during training, and I have managed to catch two head colds - always something to mentally overcome in training. Despite all of this, I have managed to put in 90% of the miles. The last 5 weeks I have run 50 miles a week, and my muscular endurance is so much better than its ever been - at the end of 20 mile runs I actually have energy! However, I feel as though I've forgotten what it feels like to run "fast". Running 8 min/mile pace feels much harder than it used to when I was running all of my miles at that pace. So, my confidence is waning. I have three weeks of taper to think about it.....

January

January totals:

Swim – 10,900 yards, 3 hrs and 50 min
Bike – 134.5 miles, 8 hours
Run – 181.9 miles, 27 hours and 32 min
Total – 39 hours, 22 minutes

My bike and run mileage and time were significantly up in January from December, and I sacrificed time in the pool to get it there. I’m not too concerned at this point about doing more than one swim per week since I have a decent swimming background and my workouts thus far have all been over 3000 yards. Definitely not enough time on the bike yet, but I am LOVING the Computrainer class I am taking (see description a few posts ago). I spend almost two hours on the bike each class, and it goes by super quick and is a great workout. I’m sure it will also improve my cycling technique (which it needs to, have I mentioned how much I suck at biking?)

LOTS of running this month. I am pretty sure I am going to run the Snickers Energybar marathon on March 6th in Southwest Georgia . I was having my doubts on making it there – training through the dead of winter, recovering from some finicky hamstring pain from my last marathon in October, and trying to avoid further injury have all been barriers to me getting to the starting line. I am on week four of the five week peak in mileage and I have been feeling better and better every run (knock on wood). Faster paces have felt easier, and my legs (and hamstring pain) have been improving. So, I am cautiously optimistic about getting to that starting line at this point….Yesterday I did an 18 mile run with the last 14 miles at goal marathon pace – I was nervous about this as it is the hardest and most predictive workout of my training plan so to speak (not to mention the 20 degree temps and 15 mph winds adding to my anxiety). But, I had a successful run and felt like I could have done a couple more miles at marathon pace at the end.

Can’t end this post without talking about my new favorite thing – Active Release Technique. This soft tissue technique is performed by a chiropractor (usually) and the basic concept is to return your muscles, tendons, etc to their normal range of motion by working out the scar tissue that builds up on them and in between them over months and years of (over)use. I had heard fantastic things about ART on online forums – and finally changed my insurance so I could get this covered. OMG, it IS Fantastic (although the actual process hurts like crazy!!!). For such a simple concept, it has amazing results – I have seen an improvement in my hamstring issues and more importantly, my chiro has been able to control a sudden onset of shin splints over the past couple weeks (side benefit is that the chiro can talk me off the proverbial ledge after I present with a new pain and I’m convinced my running “career” is over).

On to February – hoping that the decent winter weather holds up as I finish my last few weeks of marathon training – always makes it easier to run outside if its above zero degrees (that’s Farenheit….) February 15th kicks off the “official” start of Ironman training, which is going to be overruled for the first couple weeks by my marathon taper. Luckily I’ve been doing enough in the offseason to not feel too guilty about this.

If anyone is wondering, the roadside clothing item has been worn post pick-up. Don’t judge :)

Always trust your gut when it comes to underwear in the road....

Had a 20 mile run to do his past Sunday, in preparation for a potential marathon in March. I planned to do this run in three loops - the first two loops identical seven miles each and then mix it up the last six. Given the sub 30 degree temperatures, loops make it easier for me to get water, fuel, kleenex etc, instead of worrying about carrying frozen supplies. My long run buddy and former college roommate Kristin was planning on joining me for the second and third loops.

So, I set off at 7am to do the first seven miles. Pretty uneventful and I felt good. Things picked up when Kristin joined me for loop two and we got engrossed in conversation. Just past halfway through the second loop, we happened to pass a bright pink striped pair of underwear on the side of the road (pretty unique pair of underwear if you ask me). Kristin was in the middle of a story and I thought to myself "thats funny, I have that exact pair, what are the odds". Ten seconds later I thought, "wait a second, could that be MY underwear? Did it get stuck in my dri fit clothes in the dryer and fall off in the first loop?" I stopped Kristin and told her she was going to think I was crazy, but I was pretty sure that underwear in the road we just saw was mine (meanwhile, I thought I was crazy because I was actually considering picking it up). Well, the underwear looked pretty clean (i.e. not run over and not like it had sat out all night) so it corroborated my thoughts that perhaps it had just been sitting in the road for the past hour since it unattached itself from my clothes, and I defintely hadn't seen it on my first loop. I also confirmed it was the size I knew I had in the same pair. So.....I picked it up and put it in my pocket of my running jacket. Seriously. I picked underwear off of the side of the road.

Me to Kristin: I can't believe I just did that!
Kristin: Don't worry, I'm not judging you!

Me: Oh no, you should judge me, I am judging me - I just picked up underwear off the side of the road!

In case you are wondering, the rest of the run went great, one of my best 20 milers ever. Further, I confirmed that I was in fact missing that pair of underwear from the drawer...I still haven't decided if I'm actually going to be brave enough to wear it again....

Bottom line - Always trust your gut when it comes to underwear in the road...

Time for Resolutions....

Ah, January 1st - the time where so many people set fitness resolutions. My resolutions don't really have to do with fitness, they have to do with not letting my fitness goals take over my life. For 2010, my resolution is to balance my training with life - be more flexible with rearranging my schedule so that I don't let the rest of life (time with family, friends) pass me by, and probably more importantly, don't get too stressed out about this - its supposed to be fun! (DH will thank me if I carry through on the latter part especially!)

Now onto the (athletic) goals for 2010 - I'm sure I'll make tons of lists over the course of my ironman preparation, so get ready. I'm going to limit it to big goals for 2010:

1) Finish IMMoo!!

2) Qualify for the Boston Marathon (maybe not too smart to try to do #1 and #2 in the same year?)

3) Stay Injury-free! Incorporate stretching, core training, yoga, massage regularly....whatever I can do to avoid the injuries that have plagued me the last couple of years.

4) Improve my cycling fitness

5) Complete an average at least 90% of my scheduled workouts

6) Go hard on hard days, easy on easy days (see # 3!!!!)

7) Train with DH in his preparation for his first marathon in October!!!

8) Nail down my nutrition plan - I have struggled with nutrition in marathon training in the past and finally need to figure this out.

9) Take planned rest days. Take unplanned rest days if necessary and don't feel guilty about it because its for the better.

10) Blog about the journey!

December Totals

December Training Totals:

Swim - 19,450 yards; 6 hours, 40 minutes

Bike - 103.5 miles; 7 hours, 25 minutes

Run - 127.4 miles; 19 hours, 17 minutes

Total Training Time - 33 hours, 22 minutes

More time in each sport this month....even with the holidays and all of the hectic-ness they bring.

I am starting a Computrainer bike class in January. This is an organized indoor ride at a local bike shop where I use my own bike on a Computrainer, which provides different levels of resistance while you ride "courses". Bikers swear by the Computrainer for bike improvements. I'm hoping this will help my winter riding program as it will guarantee me a 90 minute hard ride once a week in addition to my other trainer sessions.

So, in order to get the most benefits from the Computrainer sessions, one should do a "test" ride to callibrate the trainer to one's fitness level and current power output ability. Let me be clear that before October of 2009, I have rode a total of maybe 10 times in the past two years. I am starting from ground zero. I was not expecting fabulousness from my "test". DH reassured me by saying "don't worry honey, there has to be SOMEONE you can beat"...haha I wasn't so sure. During the test, there were 8 people - 6 men, two women. Everyone looked serious and like they had done this before. Needless to say, I was smoked by everyone but a [70] year old man (barely - I give him serious props). My reassurance is that this is a race against myself for improvement. Opening avg power output: 115 watts [cringe]. (To put this in perspective, the "top" guy at the test had an avg power output of ~260 watts!!!)

Guess I should stop writing and start biking.....

November Totals

I've neglected posting for a while, so time to catch up with training totals. My first full month of "base" training was November. Here are the totals:

Swim - 14,550 yards; 5 hours

Bike - 78.1 miles; 4 hours, 45 minutes

Run - 119 miles; 17 hours, 47 minutes

Total Time - 27 hours, 32 minutes

Not bad for the month considering the last week included an all-inclusive vacation in Mexico....

The less than 20 miles per week biking average needs to seriously improve - I know I am neglecting improving my [weak] bike fitness while training for a March marathon.