HALF IRON MAN!

I still can't believe I did a half ironman..

Race day Report:
Kyle and I both woke up at 4am before our alarms went off. I nervously moved around the room hoping my packing the night before included everything I needed. I ate a piece of toast with peanut butter, and some banana, and got dressed. We piled into the bus at 5am to head over to the race.
I love the energy on race day as everyone is milling around the transition area, full of excitement for the day and anxious for it to get going. I set up my transition area pretty fast, then walked around saying hi to team mates, and taking a few pictures. Bex, Kyle and his parents showed up around 6am with a great poster made for us. We waited in the super long line for the bathroom, then found ourselves rushing to put on wet suits, with just 30 minutes to race time.
I finally made it down to the water with just 5 minutes to Go time - it sure flies by fast in the morning. Suddenly I'm standing in the lake, beside Leila, and they announce 10 seconds! And boom the cannon (yeah, a real cannon) booms, and we're off. Leila and I had joked about swimming together for the race - and then we did, the entire time. I found it really comforting that every breath I took I saw her right there - cause often the swim is really lonely. We went pretty off course for the first half (next time Leila- maybe you should sight as well :) ), but I guided us back towards the bouys and crowd of swimmers. We finished the swim in 50 minutes, and I came out feeling pretty strong.
Leila freaked out that we were the last people to get out of the water (not true) and took off... I took my time in the transition - no need to dive into a 54 mile bike ride with my socks messeed up or something like that. Even with so many practice transitions - I still sat down to try and take off my wet suit, then quickly remembered WAdes instructions on how to do it right and stood back up.
I headed out on the bike shivering - cold and wet! A few miles into the ride suddenly all these super speedy bikers started flying by me, and I figured out they were the sprinters. I was relieved when they turned off at mile 8, Having someone fly by you every minute is sorta disheartening.
But then I had 5 miles or so where I felt so alone - and saw almost noone else! I spent the first 15 miles just dreading the humongous hill they'd added to the race 5 days out. As I saw the airport I knew I was getting close to it... I caught up with Jonelle around this point - Its really exciting finding team mates out on the course!
We turned the corner and suddenly saw the hill - and even after all my worrying, it was even worse then I had imagined!
First a slight uphill that is on a bumpy surface and is way harder than it looks. Then a short medium grade hill, and then a pretty steep not as short hill, that I stood for most of so I'd keep going, and THEN a stuper steep (short) part of the hill. My first time through I powered up it, standing the whole way, and was heaving at the top. The worst part is knowing that if I wanted to stop on the steep part, I would probably fall over, cause I'm not sure I could unclip in time. We had a downhill after that, and I took the whole time just to catch my breath. And then reminded myself I had to do that one more time...
my "support crew" where standing on the hill, playing music and cheering and it did make it so much better!
It was at this point in the course (about 20 miles in) I started feeling sick. My chest and stomach sorta ached, and for about 10 miles I only drank water and didn't eat anything - which made me nervous about having energy for the rest of the race. I was super excited to finish the first loop - something about crossing half way marks gives me energy, but those last few miles on that first loop seemed to drag on, and kept including hills. I just kept pedaling, and kept reminding myself that I was doing a half ironman (eek!) and thinking about the 8 month journey that got us to this point.
A few miles into the 2nd loop I started feeling good enough to eat again, and that was relieving. I was excited to hit the 30 mile mark, only 24 to go! Around this point April passed me - and again, exciting to find teammates! I knew once I made it through the giant hill the 2nd time, I was in the clear. While my 2nd loop was much slower than my first - I was still on target to make the bike cut off, which was a big relief.
The 2nd time I was happily surprised that we still had supporters on the hill cheering for us - thanks guys! Helen walked up a bit of the hill with me (she walked around the same pace I biked... sigh). I decided it was better use of my effort to walk up the last steep part of the hill and save some energy for the run. I made it to the top, and then just 7ish miles to finish off the bike!
I ate and drank as much as I could and was so relieved that I was going to make it. Finally made it off the bike, dashed for the porta potty (had to go most of the bike ride) and started off into the run feeling great! (or as great as you can feel mid half ironman). I was running behind someone for the first 2k, pacing myself on him. As he passed the first water stop, he started walking. I caught up and told him I was pacing myself off him, and he had to keep running please. Then we ran the whole first loop together (but it was his 2nd loop). It was a slightly faster pace than I would have done alone, but I was happy to have the motivation of keeping up with him, and company on the course. He veered off and finished strong in under 6 hours (go Dan!), and I looked for my next victim to cling to :). My mom ran the first 2 k of the 2nd loop with me - it was really nice having her to distract me, cause it was at this point running started getting a lot harder. After she left me, I finally caught up to Rachel on our team - and we dragged each other for the rest of the loop.
We both felt like we were slowing down the other person. We allowed ourselves to walk at each water stop while we drank, and the keep moving. The last 5k was one of the hardest things I've ever done. All I wanted to do was stop and walk, slowly... maybe crawl. My feet hurt, legs hurt, I didn't know if I was hungry or full. But Rachel made me keep going. I knew we were on target to make it in under 7 hours, but even that was barely motivation to keep going. The last 2k really dragged and dragged - only 1.2 miles, but man it felt like it took forever. Rachel kept me going - thank you!
Finally I could hear and see the finish line. As I finally got there, what felt like hours later, I mustered up the energy to sprint to the finish... and then collapse with relief. It was nice to see everyone at the end (half my team mates already cleaned up and relaxing). I rushed over and ate a cookie and drank some chocolate milk. I tried to sit down right after I crossed the finish line, but Leila dragged me up, and said I'd regret that...

I walked back on the course to cheer people on for the last 1k cause I knew how hard that was - I tried to run with a few people - but my muscles where not happy with that.
It was fun seeing people cross the finish line - Our team did great.
I couldn't have done it without all the support from the team and all my friends and family - especially everyone out there on race day. Thank you!

Taper week

We are in the taper period of training. These 8 months have gone by so fast, throughout them I kept thinking I always had so much time left to catch up on training, but that point has definitely passed.
I guess at this point I'm as ready as I'll ever be (this year). I'm still nervous about the bike - the longest ride I've done is 54 miles, and I'm scared the course will be too hilly.
Wade said during our bikes we should think to ourselves - how do I feel about running a half marathon right now. And if the answer is not positive, then slow down. However - even at this point, I don't think I eve thing running a half sounds easy, even before a bike or swim... But I'm sure I'll survive.
I just need to make it to the bike cut off in time- and then force myself to just keep running, just keep running. No walking! At least it will be flat!

So, Go team!

Swimming in Greenlake

Wednesday we went swimming in Greenlake. Apparently we went into the water right near where the dead guy was found a day or two ago.. which is great. Leila and I stayed together the whole way, which was nice. We took our time, taking a while to get in (I know its way warmer than Lake washington, but that is still cold to me!!). Then we stopped frequently to chat etc...
Overall the swim went well, but it was hard not having any landmarks as you swim - you loop up every few strokes and the shore just still looks far away, and never seems closer until your suddenly there. We did about .9 miles.
The wetsuit is nice in that it makes your legs/body float. But I find I need to focus harder on my swimming technique, its easy to just swim and forget everything we've been working on these last few months.
Race day in 10 days!

Practice Tri

We are officially into the taper period (I think) so now our workouts apparently are shorter, but still as intense. Today we did a practice tri on mercer Island. We did a .5 mile swim in lake washington, a 26 mile bike ride (twice around Mercer Island) and then a 6 mile run.

The swim went well - freezing of course, but once I got numb I didn't notice it as much :). Though my arms still felt gold (damn sleeveless wetsuit). The first few miles on the bike ride my legs felt tired... apparently it takes me quite a while to warm up. At some point in loop one I caught up with Frank, and we rode for a while together, which made the time pass much faster. I later caught up with Katie and we rode together ... I hope in the race I find someone to ride with :).

I finished the bike ride still feeling pretty strong - and we'd averaged about 15 mph which I'd be happy with if I could do for all 54 miles of race day.

I jumped into the run - feeling slow as usual during bricks, but not bad. It was slightly hilly which made it less fun, but on the flat parts I felt good. Wade told us to do 2 3 mile loops, but as I was finishing the 2nd loop, I saw a bunch of people heading out on a third! Apparently the loops where only 2 miles, so we had to do a 3rd to hit a 6 mile run...
So much of this sport is mental - so thinking you're done then having to do another loop sucks! But I did it! (thanks frank for the guilt trip...).

I keep being reminded how relative everything is - we did a Olympic distance tri (basically) as part of our tapering!! Until this year an Olympic Tri was a big deal - it was our goal during the season. And now its a shorter Saturday workout... I think that makes us hard core :).

Its all relative

Today our scheduled workout was a 20 mile bike ride, 3 mile run, 20 mile bike ride, 3 mile run, 20 mile bike ride. So a 60 miler and a 6 mile run. I was excited to get in 60 miles on the bike - as I still haven't really done too many long bike rides, or any over our race distance.
However the weather gods did not look fondly upon our plans. We woke up to rain... And it kept raining all morning. We decided to split the workout into just two rounds, so we started off with a long bike ride.
At one point about 10 miles in, I was standing up going up a short hill when I started hearing a weird noise. I thought I had a flat, till I realized it was just the water in my shoe sloshing as I pushed down. Yuck!
We did hollywood hill as part of our ride. Through my first 3 seasons of team in training, hollywood hill was this big giant thing that only the strong fast people would do - the people who finished 30 minutes ahead of us would add it in for a challenge. This was the first time I actually tried it - and its not so bad! It was funny finally riding up it, after hearing so much about it. I'd say it was easier than winery (whine-ry) hill. We finished the bike ride - it was about 25 miles long.
We were soaking wet, every part of us, and covered in mud.
Luckily I had clean/dry socks in my car. We headed out on a run, and ended up doing almost 8 miles. We got back and all wimped out on going biking again - everyone but Crazy Karen. I was considering doing one more bike ride, but it started raining hard again, and I decided to just go out the next day.
When I got home my socks and bike shoes where still SOAKING wet, even though I'd taken them off two hours ago. Booo weather!

What I found most amusing about the day - was that we all went home feeling like wimps. Because we'd done so much shorter than was planned, and where scared off by the weather. But I mean... Since when is a 25 mile bike ride and an 8 mile run wimpy?? Last year I would never have thought that was wimpy...

Eating, and Cadence

Time to focus on nutrition. This morning I went out for a nice flat 1.5 hour bike ride. I tried filling up a gatorade bottle with 2 scoops carbo pro - for a nice 350 ish calories. It tasted mostly like gatorade, though I could tell it had something in it. Focused on trying to finish the bottle, and trying to go fast. I averaged over 15 mph on the bike ride, which felt good (even though it was flat) and finished most of the gatorade. I may try a few more powders just to see, and now i need to try to find hte gatorade endurance for more electrolytes.
On my way back, 3 miles from home I stopped in at Speedy Reedy to try and make my bike computer read my cadence. As soon as they looked at it it started working (I felt stupid). And I learned I pedal way too slow. I was averaging about 70 rpm, and I should be at least 80. So my few miles home I kept it above 80, and wow it feels fast and not good. Wish I'd discovered this sooner in the training, but I guess I now have like 5 weeks to get comfortable pedaling faster. Hope there is time... sigh.

bike run x 4

Today we biked around Mercer Island 4 times (~13 miles) with a 1.5 mile run between each loop. So far this season I haven't focused that much on nutrition, so this morning I just grabbed a big variety of foods/snacks, a bottle of gatorade, and headed to training. Wade points out we should eat about 200 calories per hour (100-300 I've heard)...
So I start doing the math: 6 shot blocks = 200 calories. 1/2 pb sandwich. 1 fun size snickers. 1 bottle gatorade - only 150 calories! I actually read a label and wished it had more calories... (how often in your life does that happen?).

Wadism of the day: "Don't shoot your wad on the first loop" (our 3rd should be the fastest).

Well, I figured I had borderline enough food, and took off on the bike. First loop - felt good, tried to keep up with some people, went faster than average. First run - not too bad, didn't like the big hill, made my mom run the whole way with me. 2nd loop - well my legs where very aware of the fact we'd just run. And we started w/ some sorta yucky hills. Mid way of 2nd loop, feeling great, suddenly get to a giant super steep hill (in my head), struggled up it... kept eating.
3rd loop - not terrible, a little slower than previous ones... Ate my pb sandwich. sorta dried my mouth out, not sure i like it. But gatorade tasted yummy.

Finally last loop - still goin with Katie and My mom - made it way easier to not be alone. At this point i had one shot block left, and some gatorade. I ate the shot block 20 min in, and then was out of food. I didn't feel hungry, but my legs ached on every hill. On the flats they felt fine...Glanced down at my bike computer and it says I've burned 3600 calories so far. WHOA.
Finally finished, and it felt so nice to be done. We went to bagels after, and I eat a bagel egg and cheese, scarfed it down, and didn't even feel full after. It tasted delicious.

Decided its time to play around w/ more nutrition, I need to try some more things out, and actually sit down and calculate what and how much I need to eat. Eek. this race is starting to feel pretty real now.

(clocked in at 52 mile bike ride, 4.5 mile run).