On the road to IM LOU

One of the Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG) of my life this year is to complete the Iron Man Lousiville.  If you had told me at any time since I became a mother at 33 that I would attempt this dream I had when I was in my 20s (1980s) I would have laughed it off.  More than that I would have just thought you were nuts and moved on.

But this year I signed up for this race.  In 2010, I was 52 and did my first triathlon; Olympic distance race at the Chicago Triathlon.  What I did not know was that this was one of the largest triathlons in the country, and looking back from my now six years of triathlon experience and now USAT Level 1 coaching certification, it was one of the more challenging races of that distance in this country.

Why?
1. You have a deep water start and a long deep water swim, with a turn.  At no point in this race can you touch bottom.   In 2010, I had been a scuba diver for many years but could not swim a length in free style without gasping and was prone to panic attacks without flotation devices of some sort.
2. I had never been a runner and you have a .25 mile run to transition from the swim and the heat in Chicago during that race typically has heat indexes of 100 or more and very little shade.  This makes running quite challenging.  Even for the pros and good athletes, who sometimes resort to walking and I was going to run with about 20 extra pounds on me and about 10 years of financial, career and divorce stress in my life.  Not a great beginning.
3. I had a 30 year old bike.  Truly, I bought my Suteki in 1980 and rode it often.  I had been a bike rider in my high school years and had ridden that bike for many miles but not in the last 10 years.  True I had gotten it out and ridden 8 miles RT to work and back in the summers in Indianapolis.  It was a heavy bike with many good features for the time, but it was very far from the bikes of today.  It still had gear shifters that you had to play with to find the gear and the pedals had no clips.  I planned to use this bike on the Lake Shore course with wind, sun and hills which was quite a challenge.

So despite all those setbacks, I was encouraged by my coaches to do the Olympic distance, not the sprint.  I wanted to do a triathlon and if I had it to do over again I might choose the sprint or even the super sprint to start.  I don't know how that might have changed my course in triathlons but perhaps it did.  I trained all summer and got better at everything but that race still took me 4:52 to complete.  Looking back I still cannot believe I did that.  So maybe starting there and knowing I am able to keep moving for five hours and not die was a good testament to my discipline and perseverance that I might not have gotten had I done a shorter race.  I only know that after that race I was barely able to move myself home and spent the next day recovering by laying around mostly.  I was not only stiff but I was extremely fatigued.

I had thought that one race would be sufficient.  However, I had also signed up to raise money for a charity: AIDS Foundation of Chicago and worked hard to raise the cash and to honor my brother who died of AIDS in 1986.  He was my only brother and we were very close.  I had not felt his nearness for many years and thought my connection to his spirit was now gone.  My daughter has a great deal of his personality and spirit so I had felt that he was with her and therefore still with me.  However, I talked to him on this race when I felt I could not more further and heard his encouragement in my mind.  All this made me want to do the race again.  To be close to him, to give him a voice he never had and to help others with this disease.  So I signed up for the same race the following year.  4:42 was that race time, I had a panic attack in the swim and heard him tell me "you'll never be a lifeguard" convincing me that not only was he still with me but that his sense of humor was intact.  When I laughed, I relaxed and finished the swim quite well.  It still makes me smile to think of that episode.  At the end of that race I told my coach that I was finished with Tris.  I had thought I was going to die that day.

So in year three, I wanted to do that race again and get past that 4:30 barrier.  That same year a bunch of my AFC training buddies were signed up for Steelhead, a 70.3 Half Ironman race.  I watched them train and was jealous but still felt I couldn't do it.  I signed up to spectate their race and watching them complete that race inspired me to consider it myself, next year.  I did the OLY that year in under 4:30 but was still unsatisfied with my fitness and decided to train through the fall and attempt HONU 70.3 in April in Hawaii.  What better way to combine vacation and racing?  As it turned out, I missed the bike cut off by 3 minutes and was DNFd.  I cried.  I had worked so hard and was very disappointed and embarrased because I knew my friends back home were watching my progress.  I spent my vacation licking my wounds and nursing my pride and decided to try again at Steelhead.

This time I finished it.  8:15 was my time.  By luck and circumstance I ended up being called up for the world championship race at that event.  "say what?"  Yep, I signed up for the Las Vegas 70.3 World championship race and when I finished that in 9:12, I was astonished.  It was one of the hardest things I had experienced in my life.  I was alone at that race, no friends and few people to talk to.  The race was actually in Henderson and if you think it's flat you'd be very wrong.  It was also raining a huge amount that day and many bike wipeouts occurred all around me.  I just kept pushing.  When I got to the transition area, I was sure I had missed the cut off but was told I had an hour yet!  I cried at that transition too.  What a long way I had come from April to September in one year!  The run was a hard hard walk with wet shoes, hot sun and high humidity.  I was encouraged by so many strangers along the way who were really hoping I'd make it to the end.  They believed in me when I was so sure I was just not going to make it.  I bless all those people again and again because they drowned out the naysayer in my head with their positive words of encouragement and cheering.

The following year I did another set of half distance races and found that I was doing better but still learning.  I did NOLA, Racine and Grand Rapids that year along with the Chicago OLY and other races.  That year my Oly was 3:40.  Yes, I had improved that much.

So this year is my IM year.  I've done Haines City and was disappointed in my performance but I did finish.  July will be Muncie and I have hopes for my finish time to improve.  In August I'll do the full Aqua Bike at Titanium for practice of the full distance of swim and bike.  And October 11, I'll be on the course in Louisville.

So why have I continued to do these races and challenge myself?  A triathlon is where you have no choice but to live in the moment.  No Ipods or other listening devices are allowed.  In this day and age, the opportunity to put down the phone, ipod and focus only on your own progress as you move forward toward a goal is a rare and beautiful experience.  It is one that helps you to learn who you really are and what you are really made of. It's also a way to be outside, enjoy nature and to breathe in the life all around you.  I find it's also a way to keep my Type A personality in check and to keep a goal in front of me.  Finally, my training is a constant in my life.

No matter what is happening, the training goes on and builds.  I like how I feel and how I look but mostly I love the feeling of moving forward, even when other parts of my life might feel stalled.

Tour De Cure Log

June 14, 2015

I signed up for Tour De Cure for a training ride planning to do 65 miles.  The good news is I did it.

It began on a very rainy Sunday morning.  I had packed dry clothes for after, had a rain coat and a poncho and long pants as well as a jacket because it was also cool.  The rain began pouring down as I got at the parking lot and it did not appear to abate at all.  For an hour it just came down in buckets.  I had planned to ride starting at 7:30 and figured I'd be alone most of the day since I had not tried to organized meeting up with anyone.

I got to the registration and had to pay the balance since I had also not done any fundraising beyond about $50.  I was okay with that.  I didn't want to ask my AIDS supporters for their help with this race due to fears about donor fatigue.  My AFC fundraising would start after this ride.

Pretty soggy already, I walked away from registration and heard my name called.  There stood Amanda Moswin, Art Moswin, and Amy Flowers under a tent.  I joined them and decided I'd start the ride with them, knowing that Amanda was a pretty fast young rider with whom I would probably not keep up.  For the first five miles we followed Art and I kept up pretty well.  I had put a bunch of stuff in my back pack like my rain coat and long pants thinking I'd likely need a warm up along the way.

However, the warm up was not required.  In fact that backpack became heavier the longer I rode and I really regretted carrying it at all. In addition, I had a new water bottle system in between my aero bars and that thing would rattle over every bump and eventually popped off.  Fortunately it was when Amanda had to stop so I got the chance to reattach it.

After that stop, Amy and Amanda decided Art and I were too slow so they took off.  We lost them pretty rapidly but at the next rest stop ran into them.  That's where Chris found us after Amanda and Amy had taken off again and we kept up with him for a short while but he's also a stronger bicyclist and eventually he left us behind.  It began to warm up and turned into a nice day, but I confess I did not focus on that.  I was under this dang heavy back pack and the wind had kicked up so I was focusing on just keeping moving for much of the ride.

Everyone had talked about how great the food was along the ride.  Apparently the best food was on the last leg between 65 and 100 which I did not do.  Much of the food was also not gluten free so I couldn't eat a lot.  I ate a hamburger with no bun and some other stuff but don't think I got nearly enough nutrition on the ride so it became a survival ride rather than a fun ride.  The hills and the wind really got to me over time.  By the time I go to the last rest stop, Amy had stopped there while Amanda and Chris went on to do 100 miles.  Amy was in some distress and eventually called it quits very regretfully.  I hated for her to do that too, but she did the right thing for herself.  I admired her for knowing what she needed and calling it though.  That last 8 miles was more enjoyable.  It was through the city and shielded from the winds and was more interesting to look at.

I felt good that I had done the ride. It wasn't as much fun as I had hoped it might be because of the heat, wind, rain, hills and fatigue due to lack of nutrition.  I was pretty tired the next day so I didn't swim, but wished I had gone ahead and done an easy recovery swim because the cold water and movement tends to help with the stiffness.  I did make it to my HIIT class and the brick afterwards for a two hour session that wore me out so I got back on my schedule with a Wednesday rest day.  By Thursday I was pretty good to go for my double workout day of computrainer in the morning and track in the evening where I did a 5K time trial in 37 minutes on still tired legs.  Friday was a pretty intense swim class followed by a 24 mile ride Saturday morning with a 1.5 mile run after.  I had tried to keep up with Amanda on the Saturday ride and actually did pace with her pretty well so I was not only surprised but pleased that I could do that.  However, the run after was really ugly.  My legs were totally shot by the end of that week.  Yesterday I went out to do a long run of 8 miles.  I had to do a lot of walking and used a 4 min run, 2 min walk which worked well on the Soldier Field 10 mile run for a 2:08 finish.  I felt pretty good on the run and listened to NPR the whole way.  I also ran north along the trail for a pretty lively level of activity and enjoyed people watching and looking at the lake along the run.  I ran into a couple of friends on the trail as well which made it a great pleasure to be there.

I'm pleased that my recovery from a very long ride: the longest ride I've ever done, was pretty fast and I'm still doing well.  Today is Monday and I did 1000 yds focusing on technique this morning and managed to do 1:24 100s twice, which is 3 sec faster than my fastest time.  I also did it with less energy output than in the past, HR = 144, not 168 which was required for those past times.   So I'm seeing improvements in recovery and HR management which is a good sign.  I'm also having trouble with my jeans being really loose these days.  No weight loss, but definitely smaller size.  I'll admit that at one point that was the focus of my efforts but these days, my weight is not an issue.  In fact I tend to eat what I want and am enjoying the pleasure of good food more.

My life is complicated these days with career issues that can have me up at night at times, but even sleep is improved.  I pretty much begin crashing by 9:30. I can't sleep that early but I do let myself do some catnapping  and rest.

One major thing I do when I'm resting and watching tv or reading is sit on my Infrared Heating pad.  It's from Therasage and I find it helps my recovery from sore muscles very much.  Yesterday I was very sore and used my heating pad and today I'm not stiff at all.  It works by reducing inflammation which is what happens when you exercise.  Reducing inflammation does not happen with Ice.  Ice simply masks the problem.  Infrared eliminates it.  I highly recommend it for anyone, but in particular, older athletes.

Happy trails!

Leon's or awash in triathlon fever

Today's was Leons Tri, "worlds fastest triathlon" although it should now be renamed to "worlds wettest triathlon."  To be fair, before I begin, the race officials did a great job handling a less than perfect situation.  Kudos to Lifetime Fitness, Hootie and the rest of the crew.  I cannot imagine how tough it was to handle everything the weather threw at them today.

We all had seen the weather reports so we expected some issues for the day.  Most of us came prepared for rain.  I had a whole box of large garbage bags to wrap up everything from my backpack to my shoes and helmet.  Good thing too.  I handed out about half dozen to others to wrap their backpacks as things got wetter.

We had set the tents up the day before so Chris banded them together to keep them stable when the winds picked up.
We all settled in about the same area for a Trimonster transition area, but the official came and took down our Trimonster sign saying it was against USAT rules.  Ok.  We were all together anyway.  I pumped up my tires with a pump borrowed from Pierre (thanks Pierre!) and wrapped up my bike gear in one bag and running gear in another, placed them one behind the other in the box, put my bike computer into my new waterproof bento box and put a bag over my gears and seat and strapped my helmet to the seat to keep it in place.  I should have gone back into transition when they let us in briefly before the race started after the rainstorm and opened stuff up but I didn't.  That cost me a few minutes but I'm not complaining.

The race was to begin later than normal because Leon's has a focus on the armed forces.  This year they had the national armed forces championship and those athletes had a 7 am start.  They got out just fine and did their whole race but as they returned from the run, the rains began.  Then the winds and lightening on the water stopped all waves of the race from entering for about an hour as we waited for the rain to dissipate.  The storm cell on radar looked extremely bad.  Had it hit, we might've been much worse off.  However, we appeared to have gotten the edge of the storm and about an hour later the weather appeared to be clearing.  The race officials were working to decide how to handle all the racers who stuck it out.  I saw a few people give up and just leave.  It was very cold and wet waiting, even if you had a jacket or rain poncho etc.  We all put our wetsuits on for warmth and that helped a lot. I had chastised myself for wearing an extra pair of tennis shoes this morning, thinking I was wasting space, but I was very glad I had them instead of flip flops today.  My feet would have been far colder.  I also had a rain coat but I really wished I had brought my squall coat instead, it has a nice soft lining.  Anyway, we all survived.

The announcer was making announcements to let us know what was going on in the officials minds.  They gave us about the right amount of information for the morning.  Not enough to upset us but enough to keep us abreast of the possibility that the race might go on.

Finally they announced that the race would be a mandatory Sprint tri and that the distances would be .23 mile swim, 9 mi bike and 5K run.  The officials did a good job of reordering the cones and getting volunteers out on the new course.  They had to shorten the bike due to water covering the roads making them impassable.  They also had the timing for road closures in Hammond to deal with.  I was impressed with the organization and how well it was changed and the signage clarity for such a quick change.  It wasn't even a full sprint so changes to the sprint course must've been made.  It was fine.

We all hopped in the water in our various waves.  The hard part of the swim wasn't the temperature or even the condition.  Surprisingly the water condition was pretty good after high winds and rains, it was pretty smooth.  Better than yesterday!  My problem was I didn't know what the course was.  Of course a short one like that doesn't have many ways to go wrong but small mistakes affect that time more than for a long course.  I swam into a boat at one point, not hitting it but the guys were yelling at me to go to the buoy, which was behind the boat so I lost a few seconds hunting for it.  I did the swim in 9:47 so that's okay.

I got out and ran to my bike.  It's a pretty long haul to the transition area but I managed to run it.  I was feeling pretty good.  I got to my new Scott bike, never been ridden outside yet, and got my shoes and helmet on.  Forgot my clear sunglasses to I was looking into the rain and doing a lot of blinking today.  Not terrible but another issue.  Oh yes, I didn't start my Garmin multisport timer right so I was just hitting the lap button for each phase for time but it didn't track speed or time for me.  I was irritated at myself about that.  I do have my bike computer though so I could see my speed.
We did three 3 mile loops today.  I tried to use the tailwind and the downhill to my advantage and revved up my speed faster on each successive loop.  The last one I got it up to 24 mph.  I was happy about that.  The returns got harder as the winds and rain returned.  I was doing like 12 mph at times battling heavy cross winds and head winds, they kept shifting, and rain.  Finally got off the bike and to my amazement my legs were still fresh.  The new bike is 2 inches larger so I think I'm using my legs differently and much better.  I could run off the bike today.  That is very new for me.
I did 38 min on the bike for an average speed of 14 mph total if it was 9 miles.  At 10 miles it's more like 16 mph which I think is more accurate.

I headed out on the run and struck a speed I thought I could maintain.  I carried my water so didn't stop at any aid station today.  The wind and rain was an effect at the last 1.5 mi as it became a heavy head wind and cross wind over the lake.  It was actually a very pleasant run though, cool and not too rainy, making it a very comfortable run.  Not hot and humid like it got a bit later.  I hustled myself around the course and came around the pavilion where a bunch of folks said, it's almost done so I started to sprint more...only to find out that I had yet another loop of about .25 mile to do so I slowed down to keep my HR under control.  When I did see the finish I picked up my speed and hurried across the finish.  I walked for about 2 mins on the run thinking  I might do better with a run/walk plan but several people passed me and I never caught up to them again, although they remained in my sights.  I wish I had not walked at all.  I didn't need to today.  I'll only walk/run for 10 mile or longer races in the future.  I finished the run in 36 mins, which is a 12 min pace.  That's pretty good for me.  I can go faster but I wanted to keep my HR lower and be able to sprint to the finish.

I accomplished my goal today I think.  It was a good training race, although half the distance I had planned.  If I had done a full Sprint, the time would have been 1:36 with a consistent pace from this race.  That was completely doable.  I was not over exerting myself at any point and had a good HR throughout.  Had I done my Olympic at that pace, I would have done a 3:12.  Both these times would be huge PR times for me.  My best Sprint has been a consistent 1:47 for two years and my Olympic best time was 3:42 last summer.  I believe I would have been able to maintain the pace I set for this race through the Olympic without a problem.  I'm very encouraged at the level of improvement this race indicates.  My last half indicated I was doing better, but the run was awful.  Probably because the bike was my old bike.

LEONS RACE REPORTI had been using a bike that was 2inches too small for me so this one has my legs in much better position apparently.  I'm feeling a great deal more energetic off the bike these days and looking forward to some new better times with Ruthless.  Oh yes I also got to wear my new wetsuit, never been worn; Vendetta sleeveless which picked up my legs and did make me feel I was swimming faster.  I guess I'm on a road to vindication this year...proving I'm a better athlete than I ever was in Triathlon and building myself up in preparation for the IMLOU full iron man.  I am thinking that I can do this more and more now.  So glad I got my new ride.  She's an amazing filly!