Louisville Practice Workout

Amy and I headed out to Louisville to participate in the iamtri group's workout session. I don't usually like to preview race courses, but I just felt that it would set my mind a little more at ease if I actually swam in the Ohio River and rode a bit of the course.

It was an fairly easy drive. St. Louis is about halfway, which broke up the trip rather nicely. We arrived in Louisville about 6:00 p.m. to much cooler weather (low 80's!). Amy and I had different training goals. She had a long brick (3 hour ride and 3 hour run). I really wanted to take the opportunity to swim and then ride the course. So, Saturday morning, we went our separate ways.



Swim Start

 I'm so glad that I did the swim there. Jumping into deep water to start the swim was actually a little different than I had expected. My head started doing its thing with whirling thoughts of "it's deep water...there's no place to stand...it's deep water..." so when I finally jumped in, I was sputtering a bit when I surfaced. I started a little of my hyperventilating, so I paddled back to the dock and hung on a few seconds. I got my crap together and started swimming. In no time, I was once again relaxed and doing my thing. The Ohio River was no dirtier than any of the lakes I swim in here. 

I was in a recovery training week, so I only had 60 miles on the plan for my bike ride. I was able to ride the "spur" portion of the course, which everyone had said had the most challenging hills and part of the loop. Overall, the course was a little hillier than I expected, but it wasn't impossible by any means. And, the scenery was beautiful.



The spur was very interesting. It is flat for a little ways when I first turned on the rode. However, it wasn't long before I was flying down a long downhill, then facing a long uphill...and another downhill...and another uphill... only to turn around and go at it from the other direction. Those hills were not terribly steep, but they were long!



Gorgeous sunflower patch at the beginning of the loop.



I didn't conserve on this bike ride since it was shorter and by the time I was done, I was feeling it. The fact that my back started hurting and my right piriformis really, really bothered me didn't help either. Seriously? I have ridden over 1,500 miles so far this year with absolutely no issues. Why now??

Overall, it was a great trip and I'm glad we did it, as I'm feeling a bit more confident to face this race.



Countdown: Six Weeks

The thing that has been an abstract idea in my head for so long is quickly becoming reality. This effing race is in six weeks. Six weeks from this very moment, I will be desperately trying to grab a few hours sleep before I rise before dawn to get a good place in the swim line. Wow.

Another century ride is on the books today. What a difference 10 degrees in the temperature can make! The day started out in the 70's, which felt downright cold. It was will into the mid-90's by the time we finished, but it still felt much cooler than last weekend. I also slowed down my pace today, which I'm sure helped me feel strong at 80, 85, 90 and the finish, unlike my last two rides. I'm still looking for that happy medium pace where I can maximize bike speed without detriment on the run.

My outlook regarding my success on this endeavor is much better. I swam 2,000 meters at Kill Creek last Monday in 49 minutes, making my swim rate 2:16/100 yds. Once I actually calculated how many meters were in 2.4 miles (> 3,900 meters), I felt much better. I had been thinking that it was 4500 meters, which made a total time being much closer to the actual cutoff.

Now, my biggest worry is the heat. If it were to be anything like last weekend, I don't think I could run off the bike. I was looking at intellicast.com for the Louisville forecast for the coming weekend and was surprised and happy to see that it was supposed to be 89-90 degrees. The weatherman was calling for 106 on the weekend here, even though Weatherbug, weather.com and intellicast put it closer to 100. Intellicast.com also had the average temps for Louisville available. In August, the average is 85. On August 26, specifically, the record low was in the 50's and the record high, 100. That made me feel a tad bit better about the possible conditions. It would so suck to be completely prepared physically and even somewhat mentally, only to be done in by the weather.

We finally got some rain here Friday morning, and it caught me while I was out running my recovery 45 minutes. I ended up running 5 miles at a 9:10 pace and still stay in Zone 2 from a heartrate perspective. I felt like I could have run for miles that morning. Oh, what a difference a few degrees make!

My running legs seem to be bouncing back somewhat. My run on Sunday was 18 miles at a 9:40 pace. Not a blistering fast pace, but well under 10 minute miles, which is my goal for the race.

Goals...dare I list them?

OK.


First and foremost: get out of the water in regulation, finish the race without too much agony.


Then, if I can get the first two done, the icing on the cake would be: I would like to do the swim in under 1:50; the bike in under 7.5 hours and the run in under 5 hours. Yikes. I wrote that out loud. My wildest dreams would be to come in around 13 hours. Now...shhhh... no jinxes.

Firecracker Century

Honey Badgers ready to roll

I attempted another century ride today in Ottawa, Kansas. This course was more challenging than the Freedom Ride and the day was hotter. This time, I cried, "uncle!" and stopped after 80 miles. I could have slogged through the last 20 miles, I think, but I just didn't see the point of it. By the time I stopped, it was already 101 degrees, with a heat index of who knows (I was afraid to look at that on the Weatherbug app on my phone).

I rode with a pack of Honey Badgers (Kansas City Triathlon Club) and we were moving right along, averaging just over 18 mph for the first 50 miles. By the time we got to SAG stop #6, the temperatures were really starting to rise. That aid station had some cold popsicles that were the best popsicles I've ever tasted! Yum. Leaving that stop at mile 67 to the SAG at mile 80 was a real struggle. Some of the most challenging hills of the ride thus far were in that stretch. The course ran through the middle of cornfields with very little shade.

Sadly, I do feel that I've acclimated much better this year to the heat than I was last year...but then the bar has been raised on the temperature highs! Just can't win. Again, if Louisville is anywhere near this hot...

Looks like the temps will be in upper 80's, low 90's next week. Sweet relief!

Freedom Ride Century

The Freedom Ride is an organized group ride benefitting a couple of cancer charities. It offers several distances, including a century. Even though my plan had 80 miles on it, I am trying to take advantage of as many organized rides that I can, so I opted for the 100-miler.

The ride was really well done. The route had some decent rollers in the middle of it, but was otherwise, somewhat flattish. There wasn't a ton of traffic, either, which was a plus. The first 75 miles went by relatively quickly. However, once the course split between the 85-mile and 100-mile routes, the nutters doing the century were few. The groups we were able to get free speed in pelotons and pace lines went the shorter route, which left Bea, Julie and I pretty much on our own.

For the first 75 miles, I felt really good. My average was in the upper 16's and the heat wasn't bothering me too much. Julie was getting a bad dehydration headache and decided to SAG back from there. Bea and I soldiered on. Between that SAG and the one at 86 was a long stretch of flat highway that was about 7-8 miles long and was not broken by even a curve one direction or another. The heat radiating from the pavement was such that I could not comfortably ride in aero. By the time I pulled into the SAG, I was so so overheated that I thought I was going to explode. I was nauseous and dizzy and really felt like I wasn't going to be able to make it.


Bea and I at the finish with some
grapes and icy cold Sierra Mist


By the time Bea pulled in after me, I was starting to feel better. There were only 5-6 left on the course and they were dropping like flies. The last 14 miles were brutal. I was having many baby meltdowns in my mind with serious doubts about being able to finish. About 3 miles from the end, a volunteer pulled over to give us cold water bottles and wet paper towels. Even then, I was not feeling very hopeful. The only thing I could do was keep turning the cranks. I was so incredibly happy when we finally turned a corner and saw the entrance to the shopping center that was the finish. The temp was 101 with a 105 heat index.

During those last 20 miles, I had decided that there was NO WAY I could conquer the Louisville heat. The very idea of riding an additional 12 miles, much less running another 26.2 made me want to vomit. Now, that the agony is behind me, I am still very doubtful that I'll be successful at Louisville. Everyone says it isn't nearly this got. Right.

 There's not enough time left! Eight weeks and counting! Agh...!

Summer Roundup Tri

So, I went back to the Summer Roundup  for the third time. This race is put on by Rufus Racing out of Joplin and was my very first triathlon in 2009. I was attracted to it because the swim was in a pool, but unlike the indoor tris, the bike and run legs were outside. As an added bonus was that the swim was only 250 yards, easily doable for this girl afraid of the water.

This year, the race moved to a lake and an Olympic distance was offered. It was held at a beautiful private late near Jasper, Missouri. The swim was two 750 meter loops with a 50 meter run in between loops. Interesting. The plus side was that breaking the 1500 meters into two loops made the distance seem less intimidating, but getting out and having to get back in was not something I was looking forward to.

The lake was like glass, and the water was warm. I didn't have any issues at all, aside from still having a feeling that the buoys were a long way away. I plugged along and eventually I made it to the turn and back to shore. Getting back in for the second loop wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, and I even managed to finish that loop a little stronger. Yay!

A loooong run to transition, and I was on the bike. The bike course had a few rolling hills but was mostly flat. It was great course for me. My bike legs took about 7-8 miles to kick in, but I had a great ride. The Garmin recorded 19.5 mph, but we'll see what the official time was. Nineteen and a half miles per hour over 25 miles! Yes!

Unfortunately, my run, my strongest aspect of this sport, seems to be going downhill. It was hot by the time I strapped on my running shoes, but Louisville will be hot. The course was flat, but it literally went straight out for 3 miles and back again. For whatever reason, that was tough mentally. There was not enough water on the course and not a speck of shade. I walked a bit and would be surprised if I did better than a 9.5 minute pace. (YUK!). My coach tells me that this is typical of IM training, and that my running legs will come back. Though I'm thrilled that my biking has improved, but I hate that it's coming at a bit of cost to my running. I'm waiting for those running legs...

My time came in at 3:01, eleven minutes faster than my only other 5150 time at HyVee last year. I'm happy with the time. I'm ecstatic that I had no issues whatsoever on the swim. And, I won my age group agian (3 for 3). Who cares that no one else was in my age group?  :-)



The Red Ladies cleaned up today. We all won awards!



Ah, Kansas

I heard that nearly 30% of the entrants in the Kansas 70.3 race on Sunday DNFed. I was, unfortunately, one of them.

I hate DNFs. I'm not used to them, and they feel really crappy. My one consolation is that I didn't finish the race, not because I gave up, but because I just ran out of time.

Pre-race posing.

I had spent three fairly sleepless weeks debating about doing that race. My swim performance at the KC Tri was less than desirable and most definitely a confidence bomb. Xanax wasn't helping (and it might have even hindered) and my shiny new Medium-Large wetsuit didn't seem to be doing the trick either. It still seemed to constrictive in the torso, in spite of the larger size. Luckily, one of my friends had an XL and wasn't doing the race, so I thought I'd try hers.That seemed to do the trick! No more struggling to expand my chest! No tendency to hyperventilate. The only drawback was that it was a full sleeve model. I was a little concerned that it would feel suffocating. It didn't!

So, fast forward to last weekend. I had done several 2,000+ yard swims in the borrowed suit and was feeling cautiously optimistic about the race. The weather forecast all along had been promising really hot and typically humid conditions. However, when I checked in my bike on Saturday, the wind was blowing so hard, the lake had whitecaps and literally looked like it had a current. The question of whether it would be wetsuit-legal was still up in the air. On Saturday, the lake was 77 degrees. Would it cool off during the night to drop it .9 degrees? Would the wind die down by morning?

No to both of those questions. The water was 76.8 degrees, .7 degrees hotter than allowed. And while it wasn't as bad as on Saturday, the wind was still significant. I knew from the beginning that I would wear a wetsuit regardless of the temperature. The race officials deemed that the wetsuit racers would start in the last wave. Yes! I don't really like swimmers coming up on me. What I didn't realize was that by being in the last wave, I only had an hour and ten minutes to complete the swim. Whoops. If I'd gone in my regular heat, I would have had an additional 30 minutes, but had I gone with my wave without a suit, I would have been pulled out of the water much, much sooner.

The deep water start was not the issue that I thought it might be.  I floated like a cork in the suit. The horn sounded and we all took off. The water was extremely choppy. I would swim 8-9 strokes and get a snootful of water.  I would then stop and bob while I cleared the water from my nose and wait for the next 2-3 waves pass by. And, so this pattern continued, slowly. The current-like waves kept blowing me away from the course, which was another slight problem as I lost time making course corrections. After 50 minutes, I had not made it quite to first turn buoy and the swim captain deemed it was  time for me to get out of the water. To be totally honest, I was a bit relieved. I would have kept plugging along, but the chop was really getting on my nerves. Stopping and bobbing around in the water certainly eats up a lot of time!

So, my race ended almost before it began. I was disappointed, as I had trained pretty hard for this event. My main goal was to get out of the water in regulation. The heat and the wind were good conditions to test nutrition for Louisville, needless to say the confidence builder it would have also provided. In spite of that minor sting, I was in pretty good spirits. I joined the Reds cheering squad and watched my teammates come into the finish on a record-breaking hot and miserable day.

Sunday wasn't my day. This did and still does to some degree cause me to stop and think about this sport. The swimming aspect has caused me no end of stress as I look back over the past seven triathlons started in the past two seasons. Two resulted in DNFs, and in three more, I've had some kind of problem, all related to the swim. I can look back at one open water race where I had no excuses. It hasn't been for lack of trying as I've never put so much work into a discipline and not reap the benefits of it on race day.

However, I have to say that my coach's fiance did bring it home in a somewhat profound way when he wrote in an email (paraphrased): the victory is so much sweeter, when adversity is overcome to achieve the goal. I haven't had to work that hard at my successes in running. I had some natural ability, seem to be biomechanically built for running and my good peasant stock gives me the general toughness to go long distances. I've come a long way in this whole swimming arena, and I need to remember where I was this time last year. No, the Kansas 70.3 doesn't need to be viewed as a failure, but another opportunity to gain valuable experience. The fact that I was never scared or panicky is a victory in of itself. Kansas 70.3, we just may have a date in 2013.

KC Tri - A Mixed Bag

The weather was absolutely beautiful for this race. The rain that threatened in the early hours passed by leaving the lake fairly calm and sky an azure blue.

The race started off without incident, the Olympic swimmers getting in the water first. My swim wave for the sprint distance was the second one to go, which didn't thrill me as I knew the faster swimmers from the younger age groups would be passing me. The water temp was a purported 72 degrees. Nice!

My swim wave started off uneventfully. I felt pretty good as I went around both the first and second turn buoys. I deliberately made myself go very slow to  not bump up my heart rate and left my wetsuit unzipped but fastened at the neck.

As predicted, both the girls and guys from the following two waves caught up with me in earnest by the time I turned around the last buoy. I'm not really sure happened--I was bumped a lot but that didn't really scare me, but maybe it just threw off my rhythm. I was 100 meters from the shore, and I started to struggle a bit. I wouldn't say I was scared, but seemed to be tired and not making much forward momentum. What the heck? Didn't just do a 2500-yard and a 2000-yard workout the previous week? Didn't I just do my fastest 2000 on Thursday, 4 x 500, with each of those being under 12 minutes? <sigh>

I dog paddled, swam and backstroked my way toward shore. I finally realized that people were standing up around me, so I put my feet down and found that I could indeed, touch the bottom. Where I would have "normally" swam until my hand touched the bottom, I just stood up and waded to shore. 500 meters in 17:02....woo hoo!!! Boo hoo! At least I survived it.

My bike segment went really well. The new course had some decent hills on it, as well as three fairly tight turns. My Garmin measured the course at 12.7 miles with an average of 19.2 mph (yes!) but the official results was 12.4 miles with an average of 18.6 (still not bad). Since it was a short course and I only had to run a 5K, I went as hard as I could. I was able to pass quite a few people, even a couple of guys who passed me. :)

The run felt really hard. By this point I had messed up my Forerunner Garmin and I had no idea of the pace I was running. It seemed like a really long three miles. Unfortunately, I missed the finisher's chute (I was looking for clock) and ended up running all the way past transition to the first water stop. It added almost a half mile to my run, which put my total pace at 9:26. Arg! Of course, I did measure the extra segment that I ran and came up with about four tenths of a mile.

Overall, I left Longview Lake feeling like I had not had a great race. I'm finding that while I'm not starting from scratch on the open water swim, I am have moved a few steps back. At least I did manage to finish the swim this time. However, I keep comparing my time to the WIN race I did last year, which is not rational. That race was the end of July. I had had two months of twice weekly open water swim practice to that point. I keep telling myself that it was the first race of the season and by no means the bell weather of how my season will go.

The swim experience definitely left me feeling down and doubts are creeping in as to whether I will be able to do the KS 70.3 distance, much less Louisville! I  have a lot of work to do. I'm still struggling with the wetsuit. I love the buoyancy and security it gives me, but hate the restrictiveness I feel in it. I've yet to have a successful wetsuit race yet.

The really fast 50-year-old women did the Olympic distance, so I still managed to win my age group.  Ironic. But, I'll take it.