Weeks 25 and 26: I'm over this

Here's a truly brief run down of my workouts last week and so far this week.  It's followed by some more details on how my first century ride went and some musings on how training for an Ironman f's with your head.

Week 25 (16:45 total)
Monday: Rest, yay!
Tuesday: 1:00 run, 1:15 swim, weights and core
Wednesday: 45 minute ride with transition to 15 minute run
Thursday: 1:30 swim (2.3 miles!), 1:00 trainer ride
Friday: 1:05 swim, 0:30 run in morning, another 0:30 in the evening. 
Saturday: 6:45 ride (first century ride! ended up doing 110 miles...) followed by a 0:35 run (all I could handle, more on all this later)
Sunday: 1:35 run

Week 26 (projected 14:30 total)
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 1:15 swim, 1:05 run
Wednesday: 1:00 bike
Thursday: 13 hour sleep
Friday: 0:50 swim, 0:30? bike ride (I didn't wear a watch, which felt weird)
Saturday: 2:30 run
Sunday: 1:30 bike (got caught in a rainstorm and then was too cold and chafed to continue.  Should probably invest in a jacket...)
Monday: 5:15 bike followed by 1:00 run (4000 ft of climbing over 72.5 miles, and running afterwards was easier than Week 24's 5 hr bike/1hr run brick. Victory!!!)

So, first century ride: before that day my longest ride had been 77 miles, but I felt okay tackling 100 because the ride was fully supported and the course was really flat.  It was pretty easy to miss the course markings, so I took a lot of wrong turns and ended up riding 110 miles total, I considered doing an extra 2 but by the end I didn't want to spend another second on my bike.  There were aid stations with water, Gatorade and a good selection of food about every 20 miles. I tried to spend as little time stopped as possible to mimic the race, but around 67 miles I was really hungry for something other than gels (and for some reason I only brought one Bonk Breaker bar with me) so I hung out on the grass for a while and had a huge PB&J.  About 1:30 into the ride my right shoulder started to really hurt, like someone was stabbing my shoulder blade, and it was even worse when I was on my aero bars.  When I got home I saw an irritated bump and figured I'd been stung by a wasp.  Since I didn't know this during the ride, I thought there was something wrong with my bike fit or that I'd swam too much or something. By the end of the ride I was really mad at my body for hurting so much when I didn't think it deserved to.  Well, by the end of the ride I was just mad in general.  Mad at my body for being sore, at other riders that I'd decided were annoying, at the course for so many wrong turns, at the course for not being over yet and at myself for taking longer than I'd wanted to.  I hadn't brought enough chamois cream with me either, which certainly didn't help my mood.  When I finally got done riding I had a one hour run scheduled; I had to call Sarah and ask her to tell me to go for a run (I could muster the motivation to call her and have her tell me, but I didn't have the motivation to tell myself, not sure why the two were any different).  I got myself out for 35 minutes, but my shoulder was still hurting and I was feeling pretty dehydrated, so I stopped when I got back to my car.  I was also only supposed to ride for 5:30 that day, so I think the extra hour of riding partially makes up for 25 minutes less of running.

Alright, now for the fun stuff: how training for an Ironman f's with your head and makes you constantly feel inadequate.  Now, I could be the only person that feels this way, but I doubt it.  From reading other people's blogs and stories, I'm guessing that most people who are attracted to Ironmen are exactly the kind of people who are prone to self-imposed pressure and guilt over minor transgressions in their diet or training plans.  As I mentioned above, I was pretty mad at myself at the end of that long ride for my perceived "weaknesses" (right, cause everyone should be happy and comfortable at the end of 110 miles...).  I had been enjoying the idea of burning 4000 calories that day, but since the course was so flat, I only burned 2400 on the ride, and since I cut my run short I only burned another 300.  And yes, I mean only for all those numbers; I've been burning around 3000 calories in one workout for long enough that it no longer seems special.  4000 would have been worth some sort of "reward" to me, and since that was the expectation I had going into it, I was disappointed in myself for not actually doing it (even though I couldn't have realistically raised my heart rate enough during that ride to make it happen).  Whenever I have a plan for a workout that doesn't end up happening (i.e. doing an hour on my trainer rather than riding up Emigration Canyon) I feel lazy and inadequate.  If I sleep in much past 4:30, I feel like there's no point in going to the gym, because I won't have time for the full swim workout AND lifting weights.  Even if I make the workout up later in the day, in my head I'm a failure for not sticking to the original plan. 

The above paragraph was mostly written last Friday, when I had been feeling like a failure of a triathlete for a couple weeks.  Today, after enjoying the long workouts this weekend, I'm feeling a lot more positive.  I'm trying to avoid thinking about the evening's workouts during the day, this way I can evaluate how I feel when I get home and not stress about doing my ride on the trainer because I don't want to deal with traffic or route planning.  I've also stopped keeping track of my calorie intake/output; I started doing this a couple weeks ago to make sure I was getting enough to eat, but I became a little obsessed with staying on the negative side of the equation.  Peak weeks are exhausting enough without restricting how much I eat (especially because when I indulge these days, its on something like unsweetened applesauce with homemade, no-oil-added granola).  So yeah, that's my plan to avoid burnout over the next few weeks.  Only one week of long workouts left (century ride+1 hr run on Saturday and then just a 3 hour run on Sunday, no big deal...) and then tapering for race day!

Volunteering at Ironman St. George

Overall, this was an awesome day and I’m really glad I did it.  That being said, it was one of the most emotionally exhausting things I’ve done in a really long time.  I get choked up sometimes just watching Ironman videos on Youtube; being there for the whole day, and especially a race day as challenging as this one, was incredibly intense.  

So calm and peaceful...

I had driven down the night before and arrived at the state park where the swim start was at 10 PM.  I had a volunteer parking pass so they let me in for free and I slept in the back of my car (yay Subarus!). I woke up at 4 AM, walked 20 yards to T1 and waited for the bus loads of athletes to arrive so I could start body marking.  This was a great volunteer position, you not only get to talk to the athletes, you also get to ask them how old they are, and then have them show you their calves and biceps.  Not a bad way to start the day.  The water was perfectly calm for the first 5 or 10 minutes of the age group swim (the pros had started 15 minutes earlier so they had more calm water).  However, the sunrise brought strong winds with it and soon the athletes were battling white-capped waves for the longest side of the swim course.   

The splashes in the middle are people, hard to tell though.

Longest part = Against the Wind (cue Bob Seger)

Soon they started bringing athletes in by the boatload.  I’m not sure how many of them asked to come in and how many were forced to stop because they weren’t going to make the 2:20 time cutoff; I heard stories of both talking to athletes later.  Since so many people didn’t finish the swim, the race organizers made an exception and allowed them to continue as unofficial finishers.  Even though those athletes didn’t experience the entire hell that was the swim, I still have a huge amount of  admiration for them.  They willingly put themselves through 138.2 more ridiculously challenging miles, knowing that there was already a DNF next to their name, and they would be forced to explain “well yes I finished an Ironman, but not really” every time someone asked them about it.  They put in the months of training and the most of the hours out on that course, but they won’t be able to wear a finisher’s t-shirt or proudly display a medal from what many called the hardest Ironman ever.

At least I was just watching the swim from a distance; I wasn’t as emotionally involved in the stories of the athletes getting pulled from the water.  It was hard watching the spectators around me who were clearly worried about their friends and family members still in the water, but I was still removed from it.  My next volunteer position was the women’s T2 change tent.  We helped the women with whatever they needed as they got off their bikes, grabbed their gear bags and headed out to run a marathon.  I hadn’t volunteered in this spot before, but listening to the volunteers around me it was clear that there were far fewer women coming through than normal.  Suddenly a lot of athletes started coming through, but they were all walking through the transition area and looking dejected.  After such an exhausting swim, a lot of them weren’t making the time cutoff on the bike course, and were being sent back by the bus load.  The first few athletes were still allowed to run as unofficial finishers, although the race organizers soon stopped saying this.  Most of the athletes that had been disqualified didn’t want our help, or didn’t think they deserved it since they were done.  But we helped them anyway. 

A few of the girls really stuck with me.  One of the women (that I had actually body marked in the morning) did make the bike cutoff but still burst into tears in the change tent.  She hadn’t made the cutoff the year before and was overcome by what she had accomplished so far.  I saw her at the finish line later, crossing hand in hand with her husband – one of several “Ironman couples” finishing the race together that day.  Another woman barely made the 5:30 cutoff to finish the entire bike course.  She was racing as part Team Autism and carried a picture of her autistic son with her the entire race.  She had been pulled out of the swim; she hadn’t wanted to stop but the man in the boat insisted that it was getting dangerous.  She was also overcome by the prospect of finishing her first Ironman and doing so for her son.  She was one of the last few people to cross the finish line, holding the laminated picture high.   
The hardest part of my day was helping a girl that reminded me a lot of myself; her name was also Elizabeth, it was her first Ironman, she was right around my age and had the same bike helmet as me.  She had finished the swim but had missed the 66-mile bike cut off by minutes.  She was from New York state and starting her medical residency in the fall, so this was her last chance to do an Ironman for a while.  It was heartbreaking seeing how disappointed she was in herself.  I didn’t really know what to say; that could happen to me in CdA and there won’t be anything that anyone could say to make me feel like I wasn’t a failure.  We talked about training for a while though and how Ironman makes you feel special in general; she was one of the few allowed to continue running and by the time she headed out she seemed to be feeling better.  Elizabeth, if you happen to stumble across this blog looking for St. George race reports, know that I admire you and think you’re a total badass, hopefully I’ll see you at the finish line of another Ironman someday.     

After a two hour break I headed to the finish line to catch people until midnight.  This was probably the best part of the day.  I got to see the successes of the day, including people I’d body marked or helped in T2.  Most of the athletes seemed pretty dazed as they crossed the finish line.  A couple of the men had to lean on me as I walked them to the food or medical tents.  A lot of the first-time finishers said that it was their last Ironman, but I’d be interested to see what they’re saying now.  There were a lot of little cool moments at the finish line.  Ben Hoffman and Meredith Kessler (the men’s and women’s winners) came down and handed out finishers medals for the last couple of hours.  One of the finishers changed into a tux for the final 100 yards and proposed to his girlfriend right before the finish line (she said yes).  For the last hour Mike Reilly (the announcer for all Ironmen races) was down in the finisher’s chute getting everyone pumped up.  It was a pretty great atmosphere, one I’m excited to be a part of (hopefully!) in 5 weeks. 

Fireman Rob from Madison, WI. He's doing Ironmen across the country this year for the Code 3 for a Cure Foundation.  He did the entire marathon in full fire fighting gear.

Women's winner Meredith Kessler handing out medals at the finish line.

Training update! Weeks 22-24

Alright, I am finally sitting down and forcing myself to write a training update so I can continue with all crazy peak week training that will be coming up.  So, as briefly as possible, here’s what I’ve been doing the last few weeks. 

Week 22: 4/23-4/29 (the week right after RAGE):

 I really didn’t do any training this week, I fit in a 20 minute swim Wednesday morning, but I was so stressed about school that I wasn’t getting anything out of the workout and headed home.  There, I proceeded to have a mini-breakdown before finally asking for help with my grant proposal (I have a hard time asking for help with pretty much anything…).  I was up all Friday night finishing the proposal, so I only ran 3 miles on Saturday (on my way to a BBQ), biked for 1.5 hours on Sunday (I intended to do more but my tire ripped as I was getting back to my car at the end of my first loop) and ran for 45 minutes. 

After eating way too many cookies and gummy bears this week I decided to really focus on a healthy diet until Ironman; without the stress of school this should be a lot easier.  Quick note for those of you not in Salt Lake and therefore aren't all too familiar with my dietary changes: I essentially became vegan January first. I prefer to say “whole-foods, plant based” diet, because “vegan” makes me sound like an animal activist (I’m not – I work in a mouse lab).  There’s a good article on what that entails here.  Even though I cut out meat, dairy and eggs, I’d been allowing myself non-vegan cookies and cakes to make the transition easier (no cheesecake or ice cream though, my rule was: if I can't see it, it doesn’t count). However, now, no more cookie exception!  I’m going to make healthy bars and cookies at home and bring them to lab meetings or other times when I know there will be tempting, non-vegan, not-healthy desserts.

Week 23: 4/30-5/6 (slowly reintroducing myself – 9 hours total)

- Monday: normally a rest day, but since I got plenty of that last week I did a ten mile trail run (1.5 hrs). I also got an iPhone over the weekend, so now I can take sweet pictures during my workouts to post on my blog!

Pipeline Trail in Millcreek Canyon

At the end of the trail, the other direction overlooks the city, but this was way prettier.

- Tuesday: Swam for just over an hour, no weight lifting this week.

- Wednesday: Met Holly in Draper for a 6 mile run (50 minutes), which was a lot of fun.  I’d been in a bad mood all day and probably wouldn’t have had the motivation to get out for a run on my own, so I’m really glad we had planned that.  As usual, I felt much better at the end.

- Thursday: 1 hr bike on trainer

- Friday: 1:20 run in morning

- Saturday: Volunteering for IM St George! (more on that later) I went for a 2 hour run around Sand Hollow Reservoir in between shifts.  It was so windy; my legs were getting sandblasted and there were drifts of red sand up to a foot deep on the road in some places.

- Sunday: I was too emotionally and physically exhausted to do much (also more on that later); I managed a 1.5 hr bike ride before I got too cold and sad.  I went home and watched The Help with Sarah (great movie, I highly recommend it) and worked on post-Ironman tattoo ideas.    

Week 24: 5/7-5/13 (only 7 weeks til the race! 17 hours total)

- Monday: rest (didn’t feel like I deserved it, but figured I’d need it for the week ahead)

- Tuesday:1:15 swim and weight lifting/core in morning and 1 hour run in evening, I did some intervals in a cemetery, which was kind of fun and made me appreciate the burning in my legs and lungs. 

- Wednesday: 45 bike on trainer to 30 run

- Thursday: 1:05 swim and weight lifting/core in morning and 1:30 bike up Emigration Canyon in evening (10 miles/1 hour up then 30 minutes descending)

- Friday: 40 min swim (cut short because of Saturday) in morning and 1 hr run in afternoon with Chase (made me run fast!).

- Saturday:

I got up at 5:30 to start my long run and met up with the lab at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure after 1:30, did another 22 minutes of running during the race, ran home (10 minutes), took off my shirt (yay!) and did another 17 minutes (yes, those 17 minutes were important).  I met up with lab for breakfast, bought new bike tire finally (it had been patched, but not very well for the previous outdoor rides) and headed to do an open water swim with some women from work. We did a few laps across a nice calm bay (probably around 1.5 miles).  One of the women had done St. George the week before, and even though she finished the swim and has completed lots of Ironmen, she had a hard time getting back in the water.  By the end she was fine but seeing this  made me a little apprehensive; CdA could be as windy as St. George was, I need to swim in something a little rougher than a pool before then.

- Sunday:

I drove over Big Mountain to East Canyon reservoir, rode to Henefer and back, put on sunscreen, then to Morgan and back for 5 hours total. I sunscreened up and ran for an hour, which was really challenging; my legs didn’t have much left by then.  It was the hardest and longest workout I’ve done so far; there was lots of chafing, more hills than I really expected, and despite all the sunscreen my back still got burnt.  My shoulders and neck were really tight by the end; I could barely shoulder-check getting on the freeway to come home.  I had been planning on including Big Mountain in the ride but talked myself out of it after driving up it.  I’m sure it’s doable, but I might wait until after the race when my legs aren’t perpetually sore. 

Not a bad way to spend the afternoon...

Catch up Part 1: RAGE race report and am I still a grad student...

Well, the last month or so has been rough, but I'm finally feeling back on track and ready to post some updates.  I'll try to keep it brief since there's a lot of ground to cover...

First, RAGE race report:  This race was a surprising amount of fun; I think I was happy/smiling for about 95% of it.  My goal was 6:30 (:45 swim, 3:30 bike and 2:00 run) and I finished in 6:43 (:43 swim, 3:43 bike and 2:07 run), which I'm pretty happy with, considering that it was my first one and I didn't really know what to expect. 

Swim:
This went fairly well, I did panic about 5 minutes in (too many people grabbing my legs) but after treading water for a few seconds my heart rate dropped and I was able to continue doing freestyle without any more problems.  When I panicked during my Olympic race last fall I ended up doggy paddling/backstroking the rest of the swim, which really tired my legs out for the bike ride, so I was really motivated not to do that this time.  The water was pretty clear and I saw a few fish, I was imagining a sort of Finding Nemo scene down there with Dori singing "just keep swimming, just keep swimming."  My neck got pretty chafed from my wetsuit (I'll Body Glide it next time) and my calves cramped up as soon as I hit shore, but otherwise the swim was great!  I am a little worried about the cramping, in CdA you exit the water in between the two swim laps and cramping throughout the second lap would not be fun.

Bike:
The bike wasn't as bad as I was expecting, yes it was hilly and yes it was hot, but not as bad as some past race reports made it out to be.  The course had fairly rolling hills with a net gain on the way out; at the end I certainly didn't want to be sitting on my bike anymore, but my legs weren't really tired.  So I either should have gone faster or I just paced myself really well.   After about mile 20 I started passing people and didn't get passed by anyone for the rest of the race.  This was partially because most of the people around me were on road bikes, so I had a huge advantage in any headwind and on the descents.  Its fun passing people :-) The only negative moment on the bike course came around the halfway point; there had been a miscommunication at the 18 mile aid station, so I hadn't picked up any water or Gatorade.  I started drinking less and hoped there would be some at the turn around (even though it wasn't mentioned in any of the race information); I might have burst into tears when the volunteer there told me there wasn't any water (I'm not sure if there wasn't any or if she just wasn't allowed to give it to me).  I completely ran out soon after and stayed out for about 20 minutes; since it was in the high 80's (at 9 AM) and I hadn't seen any shade since the sun had risen, this worried me somewhat.  My nutrition plan went out the window but I made it back to the 38 mile aid station without any more tears and finished the bike leg just fine.

Bike Elevation: up on the way out

 Run:
The first few miles of the run were pretty rough, so I ended up walking a little, which I had hoped wouldn't happen.  I usually feel pretty strong running off the bike so I think running out of water was effecting me during this part.  The first two miles were pretty flat, but they were on a dirt trail with fairly large rocks and then extra hot black asphalt.  I was chugging Gatorade (which I never drink when I run because it usually hurts my stomach) and pouring ice cold water over my head at every aid station to cool down.  By mile 4 I started feeling pretty good and was able to run consistently; I think the hill got less steep.  The run course was really cool, it started off on a bike path along Lake Mead, then headed up a gravel trail that used to be a railroad bed.  It was all up hill on the way out, which made for a really nice run back.  There were 5 tunnels towards the top that were a welcome relief from the sun; I think that was the only shade I saw all day.  Towards the top I started feeling cold even though I was in the sun and my vision went a little fuzzy in my right eye for awhile, but I didn't pass out or feel weird after the race, so I guess I was fine.  The rock and asphalt portion was just as hard on the way down, but I finished feeling strong and still happy. 

Run Elevation: also up on the way out

Post race:
After all the half marathons I've done my stomach has hurt so badly that I've barely been able to eat or even move for the rest of the day, but after the race I headed straight for the food, so I guess I did something right.  I had several platefuls of food at the buffet at Harrah's that evening (thanks Annie and Rene!) and several helpings of dessert.  It was great, I don't think I've eaten that much since I was 12 (I challenged a 15 year old boy to a taco eating contest then - I won).  That night and the next day my calves were really knotted up, but the rest of my body felt like it had been a normal weekend workout.  There's a lot of work left before Coeur d'Alene but overall I think I'm on the right track.

Lake Mead at sunrise, not a bad way to start your first half ironman

Being in Vegas for a triathlon and wheeling your bike through the casino is weird.

I had to focus on school for the next week and couldn't get any training in.  Even without training I was up until 5:30 AM on Friday (well, Saturday morning) writing a grant proposal that had probably been due at midnight.  If you consider that the entire thing was written in 72 hours and powered by cookies and caffeine, I did a fairly good job.  If you consider that I'd known about the assignment for 6 weeks and had been confused and lost about how to start it, but hadn't asked for help until 3 days before it was due, I did a terrible job.  I don't think it was training that played the biggest role in this; I had been spending about 40 hours per week in my lab rotation (~20 is expected, since "classes come first"...), and when you get home at 9 PM after working on failed experiments all day (and training), the last thing you want to do is think about something due in 6 weeks.  In the end I think it was worth it; I got in to my favorite lab, which saved me the stress of finding a 5th rotation and the possibility of getting kicked out at the end of the month if I couldn't find one.  However, lesson learned.  Next spring, when I have to do essentially the same assignment for my prelims, I'll start earlier and ask for lots of help.  By the way, I joined Alana Welm's lab in the Oncological Sciences department and I'll be studying the mechanisms behind breast cancer metastasis (specifically the epigenetic changes that contribute to metastasis, I'll be learning to do computer programming and looking at lots of spreadsheets, how exciting!).

Next up: my full day of volunteering at the last Ironman St George and a catch up on training (only 6 weeks left to CdA!!!)