Half Ironman (Boulder Long Course Triathlon) - race recap!

Wow, training for this race has been a big part of my life the last 8 months and now it's over! Honestly, I'm a little glad for a break! The race went really well, though. I achieved my main goal of finishing, and my time was 6:15, which is actually right around where I expected (although I was kind of hoping to finish in under 6 hours).

I started at 7 AM but got to the Boulder Res. a little after 5, so I had a lot of time to get ready. Maybe I should have gotten there later, although I ended up spending 20 minutes in line for a portapotty and was glad that I didn't feel rushed! The swim went really well, surprisingly. I finished in about 35 minutes (top 400 out of 1130 racers, my best finish of the day). A 1:45 pace for about 2000 meters - woohoo! I'm not sure how big my wave was, but it was very nice that the waves were 5 minutes apart. I had much more space in this race than previous ones, so I was actually able to get into a good rhythm and really enjoyed the swim.

The bike started out slowly. My plan was to average about 18 mph, but it started out with a discouraging false flat that made me doubt my ability to even average 16 mph. Luckily, some nice rolling hills and beautiful countryside followed so according to my bike I averaged 17.8 mph. I was very conscious of my effort on the bike, and kept my heart rate below 150 bpm (about 77% of my max HR) except for a couple of times on some small hills. This made the bike section into a somewhat leisurely ride for me, and I enjoyed it for the most part (not to say riding 56 miles by yourself is easy! I don't think I've ever done a ride that long at that pace by myself before.). I had a gu at 10 minutes, and then every 45 minutes, while taking a sip of either gatorade or water every 10 minutes. I made sure to take my last gu with about 30 minutes left so that I didn't have too much in my stomach starting the run. The temperatures were very cooperative, I don't think it got above 80 so that was phenomenal. The only bad thing about the bike was that I got a flat with about 7 miles to go. Even this wasn't too bad though, since it gave my legs a break and neutral support (didn't even know there was such a thing) came along, so I got to just stand on the side of the road and catch my breath. So my official bike time was 3:13.

My awesome friends were cheering me on when I finished the bike. I still couldn't believe I was about to run 13 miles after everything else I'd done. But I was feeling confident that I could do it as long as I went at a nice, steady pace. Positive thinking has been my good friend leading up to and during this race (it should be that way all the time). Again, I aimed to keep my HR below 150, but the last half or so I allowed it to get higher and it was around 150-155 for a lot of the run. Even so, my pace was a little slower than I was hoping for. I averaged 10:40 per mile, which shouldn't be too surprising since my pace on my long training runs is always around 10-11 min/mile. One thing my training the last few months has lacked has been faster paced runs. But, then again, at least I had the fitness to finish the thing, which is really what was most important! :) I was pretty happy that I didn't have to walk much, just 30 seconds at every few aid stations. The last couple of miles I ran by several people (men and women) walking. I had two more gus during the run, and 4 clif blocks. No bonking, and no sloshing-stomach either! Yay!

I did feel really bad a few times on the run. I ran with another women for about 4 miles and we talked a bunch, which helped the miles go by. Then I sang to myself for a while, and also kept reminding myself that this was something I've been wanting to do for a while, so I should appreciate it! The other big motivator for me was the funraising for Faith Alive. My math skills during workouts is notoriously awful, but I calculated that I raised about $15 per mile. And that is almost exactly how much it costs for 1 month of life-saving anti-retrovirus drugs for AIDS patients. I'm not sure if that is what the money will go toward, but it was a nice physical thing to think about as I contemplated the viability of finishing those last few miles in the half marathon. :)

Actually the last half mile was the worst. That was the one time I thought it would be nice to just stop and lay down for a while, and maybe a spectator would take pity on me and carry me to the finish line. So I just said over and over again, "You can do it, you can do it ..." Maybe I sounded nuts, but it helped, and I finished! :) Once again, I had a loud little cheering contingency at the end, which brought a big smile to my face.

So, now that it's over, I am very happy that I did it. I enjoyed most of it, even the hard parts, just because I was so excited to be doing something so big! Two things I would do differently are: 1. We spent a lot of the day before out and about. I ended up being very tired and very busy getting things together Saturday night. In hindsight, I should have gotten everything together Friday night and spent less time in the sun and more time with my feet up on Saturday. 2. Something about what I ate. Too much simple sugars maybe (6 gus, lots of gatorade, and the 4 clif blocks), but my stomach felt awful for about 4-5 hours after the race (luckily it was after, though). If I ever do another one of these (which right now does not sound appealing), I will put some more thought into pre-race day and race-day nutrition.

Overall the race was great, the volunteers were all very cheerful and encouraging, the aid stations were great, the course was beautiful, there were portapotties on the bike which I appreciated. I would definitely recommend this race to someone wanting to try out the long distance!

I'm doing a half ironman in 4 days ...

Somewhere in our spare bedroom is a list that I made about 7 years ago. It was one of those "things to do before I die" type lists. Some things I have realized might not come to fruition (when would I have time to through-hike the Pacific Crest Trail?) but on Sunday I'll hopefully be able to check off one thing I've been wanting to do for several years: Do a half ironman!

One thing I will have to work on during the race is my pacing. I found an article about how to be successful in an Ironman, and the authors state that "race day is about execution, not fitness". I can see where they are coming from. Fitness-wise, I am ready to tear through the bike section! But that's not what it's about. Knowing that running is my weakest discipline, I need to save a lot of energy through the bike. I think I should never feel like I am going really hard on the bike. Which is kind of a relief but kind of sucks. :)

The other skill I will have to execute is my mental attitude. The same article says: "As your race day continues, you will eventually hit the Line. It's at this point that your body begins to debate, very loudly, with the mind. Unless you have a very clearly defined goal or compelling reason why you must continue, your body wins and your day will start...to get...very...long."

Do I have a compelling enough reason to keep going? I think having Chris and other friends' support will spur me on. Not that he would think any less of me if I don't finish, but he seems to believe in me and supports me in this crazy ordeal. If you need proof we can start with him getting up at 3:30 AM with me Sunday morning! The other big thing is all the support for Faith Alive. I feel like doing a half ironman is such a small thing compared to the daily struggle of living with AIDS in a third world country. Comparing the two feats makes me feel silly and very spoiled. But if I need strength trying to finish the race I will think of the people Chris met and the stories they shared - all of which remind me that the human spirit is way stronger than 70.3 miles!

I don't know what to expect. I know it will be very hard. I will probably get bored and kicked in the head during the swim, want to go faster during the bike, and want to lay down and cry at some point during the run. So why am I doing this?? Good question.

One strange thing that draws me towards these endurance type events is the whole idea of pushing yourself harder or farther than you thought possible. In those moments of feeling worst, you seem to learn all sorts of things about yourself. And the feeling at the other side is incomparable. Maybe I will have more reasons for why I am doing this a few days afterward (when I can walk again). :)

I will leave with a quote from another article from Bicycling magazine that I've been meaning to share. It is the best way I've found to explain why I like doing hard things. The author is referring to the sign at the top of the Col de Galibier, a famously brutal climb in the Alps.
"I remember that damned sign as if I still stand beneath it, damned now by myself because I want to ride my way back to it again and again. We all do. We seek the sign at the top of the Galibier, at the end of our driveways, at the beginning of the weekend ride. We try to reach it when we've had a bad day at the office, when we have a fight at home, when the traffic sucks and the ATM is down - and when illness or disease or bad luck or the plain act of being alive brings us the kind of suffering that can't be stopped simply by unclipping from a pedal. To be strong we have to truly understand once how weak we are."

Two weeks!?!

Wow, my race is in less than two weeks. I am starting to feel ready for it. Except the fact that my legs are a little tired from backpacking last week in Alaska :). So obviously my biggest priority the next two weeks for training is recovery/taper. I fell knee-first on some rocks on Saturday and I really hope it doesn't cause any problems, although it has been a bit swollen and painful (which reminds me, time for more ibuprofen!).

For fundraising I still have a ways to go but I'm so grateful for all of the donations so far! My last big fundraising effort is this weekend - A COOKOUT! It will be fun! I am providing all of the food (except dessert). Hopefully the weather will be nice because I have some ideas for some games to keep us all entertained. If you have already donated, consider this my way of thanking you. If you haven't, then here is your motivation :). Also, I will need help, I'm sure, with setting stuff up and getting supplies ready. So if you can't afford to donate but want to assist, please let me know!

So life continues to be hectic and crazy and busy. I am looking forward to putting my feet up after the race. I have a new email address: colodawg@gmail.com. Send any questions for me that way. Thanks for stopping by!

Training update ... and priorities

The last month has been so incredibly busy, it's been all I can do to just get in my workouts, so I haven't reported any recently. I am keeping track on active trainer, but at this point I am so far behind it seems like a waste of time to throw a bunch of numbers up here. I do know that this week is shaping up to be probably my biggest training week, at around 14 hours. The scary thing is I am only half-way there, I have almost 7 hours of training to do in the next 2.5 days!

I know I am not the first person to train for a half-ironman and wonder how on earth the time for everything is going to materialize. Training has to be a priority, and hopefully friends and family will understand that this huge time sink is temporary and for something really important to me. But it's also important to me that training is not the first priority in life. My relationship with Chris and my faith are my top priorities (although unfortunately the latter is usually the first thing I lose focus on when I get this busy). Work is next, then training. And other friends and family are up there, too! So that has been important to keep in mind. Yes, I want to be successful and be well-prepared for the races I do, but even more important, I want to be a balanced, happy, healthy individual.

Also, I have to accept that many things that aren't one of those priorities won't get done. While I was taking my prelims, the mess that is my house gradually outpaced Chris' ability to single-handedly keep it clean. Despite this being the wettest year since we've moved to Colorado, I only weeded once and a small jungle is emerging in our backyard. But oh well! Even with training, I have to be forgiving of myself when I miss workouts. During my fastest season of cycling I would take an entire week of at a time, so missing a couple of workouts won't kill me.

A couple of other things. I weighed myself this morning and decided to stop thinking I can get down to what I weighed 3 years ago. I am at a happy weight for my body and age, and there is no doubt I am in good shape (um, I just ran 11 miles last night!). Also, I was feeling kind of bonkish earlier this week, and I'd rather gain a pound or two because I'm getting enough calories than obsess about things and not be able to train properly.

Second, I have tried to limit my coffee consumption this week and at first I felt really good about it (minus the pounding headache on Sunday). But I don't know if it's possible to give it up! How on earth can you make it to 6 AM masters swimming after working until 11:30 PM without it????!!!! Now I am cup #2 of the day ... much better! :)

Lake to Lake 2009

Well I had a great race! Even better than I could have hoped for. Woke up at 4:00, made coffee, had breakfast, packed up and got to the race by a little after 5. I picked up my packet and got transition area situated by 5:30, and wasn't starting until 6:34, so I had a lot of time to kill. I had half a banana around 6:15 and was sipping on water all morning. I have kind of given up on warming up for Olympic distance tri's. I ran for about 10 minutes just to get my legs going. But taking my bike out of the transition area was not an appealing thought with a line stretching through the parking lot by 6 AM. However I wish I had swam more, that could make the start of the swim much more comfortable. I only did about a 4 minute warm-up in the lake.

The swim start was insane, as usual. Legs and arms were flying every where. I couldn't get in a good spot for a while. Last year I got good at drafting but I couldn't find a good pair of feet to follow today. I really felt like I was taking forever and not swimming well. Also my arms felt somewhat lead-like. So I was really surprised to see that I finished the swim in 26:07. I think the longer I do tris, the less I appreciate the swim portion.

I consider my T1 time one of my greatest accomplishments of the day. Thursday night I practiced taking off my wetsuit and just ended up flailing in my backyard for 3 minutes unable to get my legs out. Then I came across this slowtwitch.com post, and it helped tremendously! I used the advice of QRgirl and took off my wetsuit not too long after getting out of the water. I had greased up my ankles, shins, calves, and even behind my knees with some bodyglide, too.

The bike went well. The beginning is pretty slow. I was really out of breath for the first 3-5 minutes from the swim and run to the transition area. Then Glade Road is slightly uphill or a false flat most of the way, and there was a slight headwind. I just tried to keep my cadence up and not be discouraged by the slow speeds. 30 minutes into the ride I had my first gu and not too long after that came the hills! The 1st hill, up to Horsetooth Mtn Park, went fairly quickly. I was able to stay in the aero bars most of the way. The next hill is my least favorite but I tried to go fast up the first part and then carry that momentum. Also Chris, Rachel, and her friend, Erika, were cheering me on near the top and that was AWESOME. It was especially helpful since Chris is often my motivator to go faster up hill, anyway. After that it was smooth sailing back to Loveland. I had a slight tailwind and was going 26-28 mph most of the time on Taft Hill. Fun! A big advantage of all the running I've been doing is I wasn't as concerned as usual about how my legs would fair going into the run. Even if I don't do another half-ironman after this year, I should keep up the long distance running. Anyway, about 1:15 into the bike I had another gu and shifted down one or two gears to get my legs spinning more.

T2 was fairly uneventful, and my cheering squad had made it just in time to send me off in style. :) My legs didn't feel too great, of course, starting the run, but overall I was feeling decent. I had borrowed Christine's HRM again (I need to buy one!!) and used it a little bit. I decided to keep my HR in the 150's for the first 3 miles and then slowly ramp up after that. This plan worked pretty well, since I needed some rest at the start but had enough juice to push myself toward the end. I stopped to walk and drink some water twice, but probably walked less than 30 seconds each time. On the way out I kept my mind occupied by counting the number of women ahead of me. I came up with 25 at the turn-around, although 2 more passed me in the last 3 miles. Oh well. Running is not my strong point! The last mile is annoying because you wind around this park and are frustratingly close to the finish line the whole time. But, I finished faster than my goal at just under 2:51! Woohoo!!

Here are some stats (results from 2008 are in parentheses for comparison).
Swim: 28:15 (28:46)
T1: 1:10 (2:02)
Bike: 1:28:28, 20.2 mph! (1:31:56, 19.5 mph)
T2: 0:54 (1:04)
Run: 51:31, 8:18 pace - PR by almost 45 seconds! (55:07, 9:02 pace)
Total: 2:50:59 (2:58:58)
Place: 4/38! (12/38)

Avg. HR was 156 and peak was 174 (that's about 81% and 90% of my max, respectively).

Time to start obsessing

For those of you who know me, this will not come as a surprise, but the week before a triathlon I usually become pretty obsessive about spending every waking moment anticipating the race. How will I feel? Will my legs be ok in the bike to run transition? How will I pace myself? When should I wake up? When should I eat breakfast? How many gus should I bring? Will my clothes be comfortable? How many people will be in my wave? Are my bike tires ok? Will I be able to get out of my wetsuit quickly? How fast (slow?) will my run splits be? etc etc etc. It is ridiculous.

Luckily over the years I have figured out the answers to some of these questions, and for others, I have learned that I can't spend all week thinking about the race. For example, for Saturday's race (Loveland Lake to Lake) I just started obsessing now, which is an improvement over my first race when I spent almost 2 weeks fretting. Also, I am not nervous but really really excited, so that is a step in the right direction, too.

Well in honor of my tri-related OCD, here are my goals for the race. It is dangerous to set goals though because I don't like being disappointed. So I generally don't make them too high, then I can be happy if I meet them, or really happy if I beat them :)
1. Go faster than last year. I will be really happy with anything under 2:55.
Swim: I think I swam a 1:45/100 meters pace last year. Wow, that is pretty fast for me. I'll be happy just to do that again, even though I feel faster this year because of all the masters swimming. Add a couple of minutes for the run from the beach.
Bike: My goal last year was 20 mph and I did 19.5. So why not go for 20 mph again? I can do it!
Run: Last year I did not run well, and I mostly blame this on sleep deprivation, stress, and general fatigue leading up to the race. So this year I am getting 8 hours of sleep every night this week! In 2006 I ran an 8:25 pace. I should be able to do that, I have been running A LOT more this year than ever before!
So total this would take about 2:54. Last year was 2:59. Whew! :)

2. Qualify for age group nationals. This is totally out of my control because I can only go as fast as I can, and then the rest depends on who else shows up. But it would be nice :)

3. HAVE FUN! Smile.

route for 6/21 group ride

I've changed the ride because of road work and dirt roads on the original routes. Now we'll ride north of Ft Collins. The roads are really nice, I was out there last weekend. The longer loop will look a lot like the one below except we will go north via Terry Lake Road. You can make the ride shorter by cutting off the part of the loop north of highway 1. So two possible lengths are about 26 and 42 miles. Hope to see you there! :)






Both leave from Peloton Cycles at noon.