IMLP Race Report (Official)

The following is an executive summary of this blog and my race report. 
If you've been reading my blog throughout the year, thanks for the support. 
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
I don’t quite remember how or when the IRONMAN seed was planted in my head but last year I found myself at IRONMAN Lake Placid as a spectator. After spending the day watching roughly 2400 athletes swim, bike and run for the majority of a sweltering, hot day, I was infected by their passion, determination and perseverance and decided to sign up for IMLP 2013 the next day. 

It sounds so easy,: “just sign up”. But it was probably one of the hardest parts of my IM journey. Signing up meant standing in line for 2-3 hours. And standing in line for 2-3 hours meant listening to others around me talk about their various tri experiences to-date. And listening to other people’s tri experiences made me think of my lack of tri experience (read: an expired NLS certification from 1998, one RLCT completed two years ago, and a couple of half marathons). And thinking of my lack of tri experience made me want to walk out of that line. And I almost did – about five times. But I didn’t. I stayed in the line. And I signed up. 

The month of August was spent coming to terms with the enormity of the task in front of me. In September I started to train. It went something like this:

Train, train, train. Feelin’ good. Train, train, train. Feelin’ bleh. Train, train, train. “I’m going to rock this thang!"  Train, train, train.  “Holy crap, I’m going to get rocked!”  Train, train, train.

And all of a sudden it was July 28, 2013. 
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RACE REPORT:

THE SWIM
I woke up at 4:30 am having gotten a decent night’s rest. The weather was overcast but the thundershowers they had been predicting all week were holding out. I had breakfast (2 hard boiled eggs, 2 pieces of toast with PB). Put on my swimsuit, my timing chip and my sweats. Grabbed my morning bag - currently with wetsuit, goggles and swim cap (this would be swapped out with my sweats when I got to the beach). Double checked I had all my nutrition, and my special needs bags, then headed to town. 

Bodymarked and getting
ready to warm up.

Got to transition, checked my gear bags and added my nutrition. Left transition, got body marked, then headed to drop off my special needs bags. Special needs bags are available to athletes at the half way mark of the bike and the run. You can put anything in them. Spare tubes, food, clothes. In my bike special needs I had some extra energy bars, shammy cream, extra tyre tubes and C02 canisters. That's about it. In my run special needs I had some candy, a bag of chips, a long sleeve shirt, an extra pair of socks, and another gel belt full of gels. At about 6:15 I slipped on the wet suit, took a gel, and got in the water for a quick warm up swim. I was back on the beach and packed in with the masses by 6:30 when the shot went off for the PROs to start. I then proceeded to wait. 

IMLP swim start.
That's me. Near the back. In the pink swim cap.

With IMLP being one of the races trying out the new SWIMSMART initiative this year, once the PROs started, instead of all the age group swimmers entering the water at the same time, we entered the water in a rolling fashion based on expected swim time. I was expecting to finish somewhere around 1h50 so I was near the back of the pack. I entered the water around 6:50. 

Given the new swim start and the fact that I was closer to the back of the pack, I thought I’d have a pretty uneventful swim but not so. In the first loop, there was a lot of contact with other swimmers and I felt really swum over. I'm guessing this was because we entered the water just before that first swimmers started their second loop. But I won’t complain too much because during the second loop, it cleared up quite a bit. I was able to swim the cable, never had to sight and came out of the water at around 1h30 – a whole 20 minutes faster than my average beach-to-beach time. Bam! Added bonus: Mike Reilly called my name as I came out of the water. Double fist pump! Got peeled (it took two people to get my suit off it was so tight) and headed for transition.

TI:
15 minute transition time. Boo :( 
I did a full change so I was expecting something high, but not that high. I had hoped to at least improve on my 70.3 transition time but instead I up'd it by 5 min. I blame it on getting stuck in my sports bra (not an easy thing to put on while wet) and having to take a 5 min. pee before getting on my bike. Definite room for improvement.

THE BIKE
Key thoughts heading into the bike: 
(1) Stay ahead of my nutrition: Check. 
(2) Negative split: Not so much.

Having bonked on a training ride a week prior, nutrition was top of mind for me, more so than ever before. I had a gel in transition and then ate half a LARABAR about 15 min. into the course and then another half bar every half hour. I took a piece of banana at every aid station and went through three bottles of PERFORM, each with a NUUN tablet. 

I am so thankful for my earlier trips to LP and familiarizing myself with the course. I split it into five parts in my head (climb out of town & descent; Jay & Upper Jay; Ausable Forks; Wilmington; Bears & Cherries) and just started checking them off. First loop was done before I knew it. Took a peak at my watch and freaked myself out a bit when I saw my time (15 min. faster than any of my training rides … with others pulling me.) Thought I may have over done it and would surely blow up on the second loop or the run so toned it down a bit on the second loop. Five parts: check, check, check – potty break (I tried SO HARD to pee on the bike but it just wouldn’t happen) – check, check. 

One of several signs my support crew had set up along
the bike course.  Seeing and reading all the different signs
is such a great distraction at one of the toughest parts of the course.

T2
7 minutes. Meh. Not much to say. More room for improvement.
Seems like a long time just to change my shirt, shoes, put on a gel belt and a hat.  Mind you I had to take another epic pee. Otherwise, the volunteers are amazing. I had just dumped my bag when a volunteer asked if I needed help and not really thinking I just said “no thanks, I’m good”. But bless her heart she ignored me and just started taking things and handing them to me or putting them on me.

Part of my loyal support crew. Passed out.
Being a spectator is tiring. Seriously!

THE RUN
Grr … this is the part that bugs me the most looking back on it now. I ran about the first 6-7 km and then started a cycle of run/walk. I can't help but think it was only mental fatigue vs. true physical fatigue because it was never a struggle to start running again and I still managed to run the hills each time so I obviously had it in the tank. 

Getting some words of encouragement from my hubby
as I head into my second loop of the run course.

Regardless, I was pretty happy during the whole run. My nutrition was still on track and no stomach problems (a gel every half hour, a cup of water and a cup of Gatorade at each aid station and some chicken broth on the second loop) and it looked like I was actually going to finish around 14 hrs when at the beginning of the day, I was questioning whether 15 hrs was possible. If I ever had a down moment, it was at the start of the second loop. I could taste the finish but still had about 2.5 hrs to go. That seemed like a really long time, despite already having completed about 12hrs. But I started talking to a fellow athlete and quickly forgot about it. 

IRONMAN: Complete!
Official chip time: 14:08

The final turnaround on Mirror Lake was a beautiful sight. I conjured all the energy I had left and decided I’m running the rest of the way – no if/buts about it. Not too difficult given all the cheering fans. They're energy literally carries you to the finish. 

Running into the stadium was CRAZAY! Music is blarring, everyone - and I mean everyone - is screaming your name as you pass by. I remember coming around the final corner looking towards the arch, and a kid literally slides horizontally out of the crowd like on some kind of conveyor belt. (It was a family friend sticking out one of their kids. My support crew didn’t want me to miss that they were there.) I gave Erica (friend’s daughter) a high five and then ran through the arches. Funny, now that I think about it, I remember Mike Reilly saying my name but I don’t remember the ‘YOU. ARE. AN. IRONMAN!’ part. Doesn’t matter I suppose. I've got the medal to prove it :)

ONE week to go ...

(Summary of July 21 - July 27)

I sometimes loose myself in my work and when that happens, I typically don't sleep enough, eat particularly well, etc, etc. To prevent this from happening before my race, I took the week off before my race and headed to Lake Placid. I figured it would be the perfect place to relax (my hubby and I go there regularly for short vacations) and do the last bits of my training. So Sunday we packed up my father-in-law's trailer and headed out.

Our home-away-from-home the last week before IMLP.

Monday
I had an hour-long run scheduled. During it, I had to go to the bathroom something fierce. While scoping out some bushes to duck behind, I rolled my ankle off the shoulder of the road. I stopped immediately and dropped a few choice curse words. I took a few tentative steps. Seemed ok. Took a few tentative running strides. Phew. It still seemed ok so, I finished my run.

Ready for my first swim in Mirror Lake.
Gah! Look at those huge flipper feet!

Tuesday 
Today was my last full distance swim. I was to do two full loops of the swim course (essentially what I would be doing on race day). This was my first time in Mirror Lake and my first time checking out this "cable" everyone talks about.

The "cable" is just that, a cable that runs about 3 feet under the water and holds all the buoys along the course. Everyone talks about "swimming the cable" meaning swimming close enough to see the cable to whole time so you never have to sight, you just follow the cable. This saves time. That day, when I swam the cable, I shaved 15 minutes off my average 3.8km time. I was blown away.

Wednesday 
I had an hour-long ride scheduled. I headed for the flat section of the course for some intervals and then ended by doing the Wilmington hill just to remind myself what it would feel like. There was quite a strong head wind on the flats but I powered through and going up Wilmington felt the same as it had before (just dropped to my low gears and spun it out), so some of my pent up worry over loosing those earlier three weeks of training started to ebb. Somewhere on the ride though I lost my bike computer. Grrr!

Thursday
Worst day ever. In a nut shell, my hubby had an allergic reaction to something (we still don't know what) and swelled up like a balloon. I was in town, having just completed my Athlete Check-in (getting my swag bag, athlete bracelet, signing waivers, getting weighed) when I got a call from my husband asking if I could please pick up some Benadryl and head back to the campsite because he's swelling up and having a little trouble breathing. WHAT?! I wasn't scheduled for a workout that day but I definitely got my heart rate up x1000. Turned out the nice people at the KOA took care of him and he was looking (and breathing) normal again by the time I skidded into the parking lot.

Friday 
I headed back into town to attend some seminars arranged for the athletes. The most significant one was about the new swim start.

In previous years, the swim at LP was a mass start (i.e. the gun goes off, everyone's time starts and, unless you're cool with waiting five minutes for the masses to clear, you have to fight for a line of swim). I had heard more than a few horror stories of people getting kicked or hit in the face, swum over, etc. etc. You can imagine this caused a lot of athletes some anxiety. So the good people at IRONMAN had thought up a new way of starting the swim and were testing it out at a few specific races this year. IMLP was one of those races.

The new swim start would be a rolling start based on expected swim time. Athletes that expected to finish under an hour would enter the water first, then those that expected to finish between 1h and 1h10 would enter next, etc, etc. Three key benefits are (1) you enter the water with less people (2) you enter the water with people that are similar in pace so you shouldn't really be swum over (3) your timing chip is only activated when you pass a timing mat at the entrance to the water.

For the whole thing to work out though, athletes really needed to seed themselves honestly. And that's what the race directors were trying to stress the whole time. There were a few IM vets that didn't like the change though. Something about not knowing where your competition is. But meh, it didn't bother me. I wasn't vying for a spot at KONA.

Saturday
After checking my bike and gear bags into transition, I went back to the site to relax and spend some time with friends who had come up to watch the race. I got a pleasant surprise in the afternoon when everyone showed up wearing custom t-shirts. So sweet!!!

My support crew,
minus three crucial members
(Brenda, Joan & Vickie)

TWO weeks to go ....

(Summary of July 13 - July 21)

I had been having some issues with my coaching in late June and had briefly mentioned this to my tri-mom when I did my first beach-to-beach swim in early July. Whether she mentioned this to her coach (who had swam with us that morning) I don't know but, ever since then her coach totally took me under her wing and did everything she could to make me feel 100% prepared for my race: she gave me a second opinion on my July training schedule (i was scheduled to do too much), invited me to her group training sessions, answered numerous questions (based on her experience of doing 8 IMs!), and even included me in a send off she organized for her other athletes that were doing IMLP). I am eternally grateful.

Sweet Swag Bag from Bring on the Bay!

At the reco of my tri-mom and her coach, on Saturday I did Bring on the Bay - a local 3K open water swim event. Great event, very well organized, and it provided me with a taste of what the IMLP swim might be like (i.e. lots of bodies around me, getting jostled about, and having to navigate through/around other swimmers). I did it in 1h15. About 24 min. a kilometer. If I managed that pace in the IM, I’d be out of the water in 1h40. Sweet.

I followed the swim with a 70km ride. It should have been 120km but I ran out of time. I made up for it the next day with a 2h30 run followed by a 2h ride. I won’t lie. It felt like crap. I had a good cry - again, thinking I wasn't ready. My husband tried to placate me, saying it was likely because of the sweltering weather and the fact that I was still getting over my earlier bug but ... I could not be consoled. I was convinced that my chances of completing the IM were very low. I didn’t really speak of this to anyone though as I was horrified that someone might agree with me. Anyway, I sucked it up and continued that week ...

Monday - off
Tuesday - run
Wednesday - ride
Thursday - off
Friday - beach to beach
Saturday - long ride + short run.

Saturday was to be my last long ride (90km) and I figured I would do it myself somewhere around my house, but early Saturday morning I got an email about a group ride starting at 7:30 that morning. Knowing that the group ride would be waaaaaay more enjoyable than a solo, i bolted out the door to make it on time.The plan was to ride from Andrew Hayden Park to Pakenham and back (about 100km). I found myself struggling within the first 20km. Again, the doubts started to creep in ... "You can't even handle 20km of flats,  how do you expect to handle the hilly 180km LP course?" For the next 10 minutes I dropped further down into my pit of despair until it donned on me. In my rush to make it on time for the ride, all I really had to eat was a piece of toast with some peanut butter. So although I may not have felt hungry, my body was likely in need of food. So I scarfed down and energy bar and my PERFORM and within 15 minutes I was doing ALOT better. Made a mental note that I never want to feel that way again.

The (early) Taper

(Summary of June 24 - July 13)

So I kind of started my taper for IMLP a little early. About three weeks too early. 

The short of the long is that during the bike portion of Syracuse, I experienced quite a bit of back pain -- and quite a bit the days following. After seeing my physio and telling her about some symptoms that arose during the race, the hypothesis was that I had aggravated a disc. This was causing some swelling, which was pressing up against some nerves, which was radiating pain throughout my lower back. So I decided to take the week off in the hopes of fixing the problem and getting rid of the pain completely.

The following week I continued to take it easy ... finding it hard to get back into training and feeling a little gun shy about getting back on my bike. Near the end of the week though, I started to come out of my funk thanks to an invite from my tri-mom. (a term of affection I use for a woman who I have trained with here and there over the past few months and - although not actually old enough to be my mom - has provided me with a lot of tips, advice, and reassuring words along the way. I’m very appreciative of her support). Anywho, my tri-mom invited me to join her and some of her friends for a beach-to-beach swim Friday morning. 

Beach to beach is pretty much that - a swim from one beach (Blanchette) to another (O’Brien) at a local lake (Meech). It’s perfect training for IM triathletes because it’s the exact distance of the IM swim component : 3.8km. 

I was a little nervous as I had never done the distance yet, even in the pool but, I figured I would just take it one stroke at a time. And I did. And I finished. I ended up doing it in 1h53. A little slow to be honest. I had expected something more like 1h40 but given it was still within the 2h20 limit, I was happy. This happy feeling stayed with me through Saturday when I completely my longest run to date: 2h45, and in the sweltering heat no less. I was back in it. Or so I thought. 

Monday rolled around and I was sneezing all day. For me, that typically means I’m getting sick but I chalked it up to ghost symptoms as a result of my taper. Tuesday though I started getting congested and coughing so I figured my body was actually fighting some sort of bug. Gah! Wednesday: still congested, sounding worse but was supposed to do another beach to beach swim so hoping I would burn out whatever bug I was fighting instead of making it worse, I went for it. It didn’t feel that bad. My time was still about the same. And come Thursday, I didn’t feel worse, but I also didn’t feel much better either. So I took Thursday/Friday off. 

And there you go. Three weeks gone, with not much training, when they likely should have been my peak training weeks. If truth be told, I was freaking out, thinking that this would result in a premature end to my IM experience. 

COUNTDOWN IS ON ... 6 weeks to go.

(Summary of June 17 - 23)

This week was pretty much spent in recovery. I did very little, which was ok because I was supposed to be tapering anyway for my Syracuse 70.3 (Half Ironman) on the weekend.

I took a lesson from the week prior and got to bed early most nights and ate plenty. Given I had no "drag-my-ass-out-of-bed" mornings, I think it did a lot for my overall recovery. However I did have a specific issue with my back.

Monday morning I woke up and it was SOOORE. Felt like I had a huge knot in my lower back. I sucked it up for most of the day knowing that I had a physio appt. in the evening and she always fixes me up good with some dry needling. This time it didn't do the trick. Come Tuesday and Wednesday though, my back was still sore.

Despite the sore back I did manage a swim Wednesday morning. I really needed to get some kinda of gauge as to where I was at with my swimming (since I hadn't swam since the Sprint Tri two weeks ago) so Wednesday morning I headed out to Blanchette beach with a friend from work. She kayaked beside me while I swam out a kilometer and back in. Verdict : 2km in about 53 minutes. I'll take it!

With that load off my mind, I went back to physio on Thursday with the hopes of getting my back sorted out. She needled me again with a specific focus on my right lower back. I left feeling hopeful given I had felt some really good twinges (releases) aaaaaaand ...  Friday morning I woke up and things felt a lot better.

Syracuse 70.3

I wanted to make sure I got a good night's sleep Friday night so I took off for Syracuse early Friday afternoon. I rolled into Syracuse around 5:30. I had hoped to do my Athlete Check-In that night to get it out of the way (and ideally get some outlet shopping in on Saturday :) but didn't make the cut-off time so I just hunkered down in my hotel room, unpacked and arranged all my gear meticulously, had a huge dinner and hit the lights at 9:00.

Saturday I headed to the venue for 10am. I checked-in (essentially got my bib, timing chip, swim cap),  then attended an Athlete's briefing (race director goes over the swim/bike/run courses, rules, answers questions, etc.) Surprise #1: Some roads would be open during the race so we'd have to watch out for cars. Surprise #2: no change tents. Grrr ... all this time I had assumed a Half IM event would be just like a Full IM event. Anywho, more about that later.

Had to get this T-shirt.
Back logo is made up of
the names of all participants!

Next:
- Checked my bike into transition.
- Checked out the swim course and went for a quick swim (surprise #3: Swim course is weedy!)
- Checked out the merchandise tent and got a t-shirt.
- Drove the run course (Hilly!)
- Drove the bike course (Hilly!)
- Returned to hotel.
- Dinner
- Packed my gear for next day.
- Repack my gear for the next day.
- Repack my gear for the next day.
- Hit the lights at 10:30

My name!

Race Day

4:45 AM - Breakfast
5:00 AM - Double check my gear bag again.
5:30 AM - Leave hotel
6:00 AM - Get to race venue, get body marked, set up my transition station.
6:30 AM - Get my wetsuit on. Head down to the water to warm up.
7:00 AM - Stand on the beach nervously and watch as the first wave of swimmers takes off.
7:20 AM - MY SWIM START!

I stayed to the back of the coral and walked into the water so I started swimming pretty easily - not much jostling amongst others. I felt like I got into a good rhythm pretty quickly and then just kind of went into auto-pilot ... left stroke, right stroke, left stroke, right stroke. About half way through the course there was a point where I felt a bit swum over (hands on feet, jostled on the side), but again, nothing like the nightmares I'd heard of. Anyway, the swim was over before I knew it and I came out of the water, stripped out of my wetsuit and headed to transition.

*Best piece of advice I got from someone about getting out of the water: Remember to breath deeply. I credit that for not having the same dizzy/queazy feeling I had coming out of the water when I did the Riverkeeper Tri.

Transitions were the part I had been stressing over since I found out they'd have no change tents. I don't have a fancy tri-suit so somehow, I would have to change out of my bathing suit and into my bra/shirt/bike shorts without flashing anyone. I ended up doing it half in the open (stealthily) and half in a near-by porta-potty.

8:25 AM : On to the bike course.

I had been warned about the bike course:

"It's hilly. Don't worry about dropping your speed if you have to, or walking."

Says I: "Phhhtt - I'm not walking?!?... "

And I didn't, but there were two pretty killer hills and plenty of people walking their bikes up. I just made sure to get some good speed going before both and get my gears changed in time. The 5 and 10 mile markers came and went pretty fast. Seemed to take a lot longer to get to 15 and 20. I don't remember 25 and 30 but when I saw 35 and new I was past halfway, I said a little "F*CK YEAH!" to myself.

Some random memorable moments on the bike :
- At one point I finally hit an actual flat and, despite feeling a little worn down, I figured I'd make the best of it, hunkered down into aero and pushed a little harder. Passed a lone spectator and, god bless her, she gave me an encouraging "You look STRONG! Keep it up!"
- Came up on an aid station. Slowed down, grabbed a banana from a volunteer at the start of the aid station. Peeled it open with one hand-mouth, shoved it in my mouth and chucked the peel (expertly luckily) into the last garbage can at the end of the aid station. Volunteer said (no joke) "Like a BOSS!" That totally cracked me up.
- Hit a series of rollers and was chugging along. Veteran triathlete passes me saying, "You're doing great. Keep it up."

11:55 AM : Rolled back into transition.

Again, stressed about changing. Was going to change into my run shorts but stayed in my bike shorts (chammy didn't feel like too much of a diaper) so just changed my top, put on a hat, runners, bib and fuel belt (with gels) and was off.

By this time, the weather was a HOT, 31 degrees with wall to wall sunshine. The run course offered some shade but not enough. I was thirsty within five minutes of being on the run course. Didn't have anything with me though as I didn't want to carry the extra weight and I was expecting aid stations every mile. Turned out to be about every 2 - 3 miles. Not horrible. I survived, but not ideal.

Run course was tough. It's pretty much down one side of an old river bed then up the other side and back. Two loops of this. Because of the heat, my strategy quickly went from running all of it to running the downhills and flats, walking the up hills.

- First three miles felt like forever.
- Next three miles felt like I finally got my legs back. Finishing my first loop I could hear the announcer calling out the names of finishers. I couldn't wait to hear my name being called.
- Heading back out for my second loop I could see some seriously dark clouds headed our way.
- At the turn around point of the second loop it started to rain.
- At about mile 11 it really started to thunder. I could hear the announcer urging people to take shelter.  I ran faster, worried that they would stop the race before I finished.
- At about mile 13 there were two really big claps of lighting that made me jump... and run even faster.

My new piece of
BLING!

2:31 PM - I cross the finish line. 7 hours, 11 minutes.

When I crossed the finish line, it was pretty anti-climactic. The announcer was gone. The mass of cheering spectators had dispersed and the volunteers were huddled under a tent. One ran out to take the timing chip off my ankle and scoot me over to another tent where I got my finisher medal and hat. Ducking from one tent to another, I loaded up on food, collected my morning bag, then went back to transition to collect my (soaked) gear. I trudged back to my car, loaded everything up and then waited for an hour for the parking lot to clear.

The rest is a blur until Monday after noon sometime when I got an email from a woman that I had gotten to know from my swim program and had trained with on and off. She congratulated me and a few others on finishing the 70.3. She'd heard about the crazy weather conditions (stinking hot combined with a thunderstorm) and quipped "it's races like these that get you hooked." And you know what? She's absolutely right :)

COUNTDOWN IS ON - 7 weeks to go.

(Summary of June 9 - 15)

A number of people had told me it takes a while to recover from a 150+ km ride so I was preparing for the worst Monday morning after doing 165km from Kingston to Ottawa as part of the RLTC. But, actually come Monday morning, I was great?! No soreness, no stiffness ... I was like "BAM!" 

But then Tuesday and Wednesday morning rolled along and it took everything in me to get out of bed in the morning. Still no soreness or stiffness, just overall fatigue. (In hindsight though, I probably could have avoided this if I ate more and went to sleep earlier). I didn't end up doing much that week except a long run (26km) on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were spent resting up for my training weekend in Lake Placid. 

My plan was :

•  Saturday: two loops of the bike course (second loop without the "out and backs" = 150km),
  then a short run (5km). 
•  Sunday: do a loop of the swim course (2km) and a loop of the run course (21km). 

The short of the long is, I didn't get it all done. And the weekend was more mental toughness training than physical training.  

Saturday started off with a bit of disappointment. When I got to where I was supposed to be (meeting up with some people from Ottawa to ride the bike course) I found out that I had missed the group that was riding 150km (mix up was not my fault this time!) So I ended up riding with the group that was doing 90km (one loop) and figured I would do a second loop myself afterwards. 

Right off the bat, the course felt different. I was tired after the first climb and after about 40km, I was laggin' behind the rest of the group. I mean, not by much but I couldn't help but think ... WTF? I've been training for an IM for the past 10 months and these guys haven't so why are they out-riding me? Am I really ready for the IM??? It also felt like I was pushing a lot harder than the last time I did the course but my ride time didn't reflect that at all. Maybe only a 2-3 minute difference. The only explanation I could come up with was that these guys were going all out for the 90km, where as I was conserving, knowing that I would be doing another loop. Also, it was a lot hotter this time around and ... maybe I still was recovering from the previous weekend. 

Anyway, we finished the first loop, I thanked them for their company and I started my second loop. Again that first hill seemed killer and mentally I took a real nose dive over the next little while. I kept wavering, trying to decide whether I should just turn back or not. I was worried about riding by myself (some of the LP drivers had proven to be real jerks); I was worried about descending the Keene hill by myself; and I was worried about not having enough in the tank and being stranded in the middle of the course somewhere. At some point though, I just went into autopilot and time just seemed to fly by. Second loop was done. I then went for a 5 km run. It felt ok but my Garmin had cacked-out on me at the end of my ride so I had no idea if I was running at my usual pace. Taking a lesson from the weekend before, I had a big dinner (almost ate a whole large pizza by myself) and went to bed early with the plan of waking up at 7am to swim.

Turns out I still didn't eat enough because Sunday morning the alarm went off and I felt like shit. Went back to bed, woke up, still felt like crap. Remembered something my physio told me ... "try to eat, even when you're feeling nauseous", had some leftover pizza and went back to bed. Woke up feeling better. By this time it was about 10am. I packed up all my stuff, checked out of my cabin 

and went into town, not sure what I'd do. 

I drove by Mirror Lake and it was deserted. I didn't want to swim by myself (safety reasons) and swimming is probably my least favourite discipline so I convinced myself not to swim but to run instead. Then it started raining. 

I sat in my car for literally 10 minutes, struggling with whether to run or not. I had almost convinced myself to just go home - that I could run when I get home - but then I snapped out of it, changed into my run clothes and took off. To make things a little harder for myself (after having decided not to swim), instead of doing a loop of the course I did two loops of the hilly part of the course. Still 21 km but, more difficult. Or so I told myself.

When I got back to my gym locker (aka: my car), I thought about going swimming again but canned that idea quickly. It was still raining and already about 3pm. Instead, I just started the 3-hour drive home and the most exhausting mental struggle of my life. It involved a few fits of tears, and about 5 times I decided NOT to do the IM. But then I'd start to think about all the friends I have coming to watch and cheer me on ... and how crappy it would feel to tell them I'm backing out. So, I'm still in it.
That's all I can say for now.

COUNTDOWN IS ON - 8 weeks to go.

(Summary of June 3 - 8)

Monday - Another run test.
Result: My Zone 1 finally budged! After 7 months it was about f'n time.
Interestingly enough, during my test (with my trainer already privy to early results), she asked if running was feeling easier lately. I said no. But since the test, I have noticed a difference. Real or mental? Not sure.

Thursday - Another bike test
Result: Another 10 Watt improvement in my Zone 1. Booyah!
I love biking. It's my favourite discipline right now. I especially love hills. My quads are pretty strong so I can get up out of my saddle and grind them out but with my new bike and its compact crank I can also stay seated and just spin them out. Love it!

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday I took off because I was expecting to go to Lake Placid that weekend to take another shot at the bike course (two loops this time). I was really stoked too as I had found some people to bike with as well. Thursday night though I realized I had got my dates mixed up (eeeediot!) and Lake Placid was the following week. Arrrg!

This turned out being a blessing in disguise though because in Ottawa that weekend there were two really great events (1) first Somersault Du/Tri series of the season, (2) the Rideau Lakes Cycling Tour (RLCT). The RLCT is a weekend bike tour from Ottawa to Kingston (Saturday), then Kingston to Ottawa (Sunday). The question was how could I do both ...

Riverkeeper Triathlon : That's the
happy face of a FINISHER!

I really wanted to do one of the Somersault races to get some more experience in open water (Swim was at Britannia Beach) and transitions. I had the choice of doing a Sprint (500m swim, 23.3km bike, 5 km run) or the Olympic (1.5km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run). I wanted to do the Olympic since it had the longer distances but I had let my swimming go lately and hadn't been in the water for about two weeks so wasn't sure how I'd feel doing 1.5km. Also it would only be my second time in a wetsuit and my first time with A LOT of bodies around me in the water.

RLCT: 40km left and feeling great!

I also really wanted to do the RLCT because (a) it's a super fun time and (b) it would be a great way to get in a 100+ km ride -- so far i'd only done a few 90kms. Thing is, RLCT is two days, 180 km each day (so couldn't really fit in the Somersault event on Saturday). Also, registration was full. Spots sold out a looong time ago.

End result?

I had a pretty stressful Thursday night scouring a local tri-site for RLCT bibs for sale (a number of people usually sell there bib shortly before the event because they either get injured training or haven't trained enough and don't think they can do it.) but I found one (including an overnight stay at Queen's University with dinner and breakfast), and bought it. I decided I would do the Sprint Tri Saturday morning. Then get to Kingston somehow and do the Kingston to Ottawa ride on Sunday.

My hubby : Have I mentioned how
awesome this guy is??? He took four
hours out of his day to get me to Kingston
(two to get me there and then
two driving back, by himself). 

Soooo ... hat was supposed to be a jam-packed training weekend in Lake Placid turned into a jam-packed training weekend in Ottawa. The Saturday morning triathlon was a great, great first time experience and RLCT didn't disappoint. Ended up riding with some speed demons the whole way and we flew! At the end I even felt like I had some still left in the tank. Overall it left me feeling great about the IM 8 weeks down the road.

First open water swim-ish ...

This past weekend I had my first OPEN WATER SWIM ... kinda.

It was part of a one-day triathlon clinic I went to over the weekend. Held by the Ottawa Triathlon Club, the clinic covered key skills in each of the three disciplines, transitions and program planning. There was no intense work out involved so I didn't have to worry about my injury.

The day started with open water swim skills - the first of which was how to put on your wetsuit. You wouldn't think it would be that hard but it takes some real finesse, and man those things are tight! Once we all had our wetsuits on we headed into the cold Ottawa River from a local beach.

I was super surprised at how quickly I got in the water given the temperature. In the summer at the cottage it takes me about 1/2 hr to get fully submerged in the water. This past weekend, it took me 5 minutes. The feet and head were the worst as they were completely exposed but, I did a few bobs and I was good to go.

The instructor then set up a little swim course with two buoys and we proceeded to swim around them a few times, practicing sighting and practicing keeping our cool with so many bodies around us, splashing all around, etc.

Good first time experience. I will (obviously) have to do some more open water swims to get used to the wetsuit. I really liked it at first because it gives you additional buoyancy so I felt like swimming was easier, but eventually it did start to feel a little constricting, especially around the neck.

First injury ...

After 9 months of training I finally have my first "injury". Not that I've been looking forward to it but, I just figured it was inevitable with the training hours I've been putting in. I'm actually lucky at how non-serious it really is (on the mend now), but it put me out for a few days, including a weekend -- which is usually when I get my long swim, bike and runs completely -- so it ticked me off.

You may ask, "How did you get injured?" Well, essentially I fell off my bike ... while standing still.

Middle of last week I went to the Gatineaus to do hill repeats and I had a friend join me for some motivation. I had just finished my 5th repeat when we ran into people he knows so we stopped to say "Hi". I unclipped, came to a full stop and was taking a drink while my friend chit chatted. A few seconds later he gave me a soft warning that a group was coming up the hill. I was slightly left of the shoulder line so I thought I would move in. Mistake.

New (SpeedPlay) clipless pedal.
Root cause of my injury :)

Turns out one of my feet was still clipped in and when I went to move to the side, it totally threw me off kilter and I fell over. It all looked pretty harmless at first. Just a little knee scrape and a bruised ego, but I managed another two repeats and a full climb to Champlain. The next day was a completely different story. 

The next day I had a huge welt on my butt and my left shoulder/trap/neck was a mess. All knotted up from when I put my hand out to break my fall. Shoulder and neck mobility was considerably limited for a few days and I didn't swim/bike or run at the fear of exacerbating it. 

Thankfully I had an appt. with my physio already lined up for tonite so she took care of it with some dry needling. Still sore right now after having the knots released but tomorrow it will likely be good to go again. 

Side note: I recently got new clip-less pedals (speedplay). I blame that for my fall. They have a lot more float (aka : wiggle room) than I'm used to so that's why I thought I was unclipped when I really wasn't. Anywho, all this to say the new pedals are awesome. The shoe that accompanies them is a lot stiffer than my old shoes so power transfer from leg-pedal-bike is a lot more efficient. I'm a whole two gears lower on my hill climbs. Booyah!

Test run in Lake Placid

I went to Lake Placid May long weekend to actually get a proper look at the bike and run course.

Saturday I biked a loop of the bike course (90km) and I gotta say -- it definitely wasn't easy -- but nothing blew my mind. Nothing made me think "holy shit, this is going to kill me". And I didn't pee my pants going down the Keene hill so, that made me feel good too.

I finished the loop in 3h40min and felt like I could keep going so I think my pace was ok. I averaged about 25 km/h. Also I didn't feel hungry or super thirsty so I think my fueling plan is on mark so far. I'm trying to take in between 200 - 300 cal/hour. I had one honeystinger (160 cal),  two LARABARS (250 cal/each) and about 1.5 bottles of IRONMAN PERFORM drink (240 cal). The LARABARS are great. Natural ingredients, moist and easy to chew/swallow/digest. I didn't feel like i had to go to the washroom 15 minutes later like with some of the other fuels i've tried. The honeystinger is a bit dry. I had to drink water with that but otherwise the taste was fine and again, no digestive problems. Come summer I'll be sweating more so I still have to test out some salt pills or electrolyte tablets.

Sunday I ran a loop of the run course (21.3 km). I was good until I turned on to River side road and then
it was so deserted (of cars and runners) that mentally I took a nose dive. I didn't stop running but it felt like a real struggle to stay on pace. Once I came back out on to more populated roads I was fine. Fuel for the run consisted for another honeystinger, a LARABAR and two 8oz containers of IRONMAN PERFORM and one 8 oz container of plain water.

Overall I was happy with the weekend. Hoping to make it down to Lake Placid one more time before the race.

Positive reinforcement

11 weeks to go. Holy F*ck. Where did the time go?

Two weeks ago I had my first ride outdoors after seven long months on the indoor trainer. 

Did a 60km loop from Kanata to the Gatineaus (Pink Lake) and back. It felt reeeeally good. Managed to stay in my seat on all the hills and when we were done, felt like I could do more. So I then proceeded to run an hour and forty minutes. Again, felt pretty good the whole way. 

I've been feeling a little anxious about my training lately (i.e. have i been doing the right things, have I been doing enough ... ) so this was a good little positive reinforcement. 

For something more concrete, I've signed up for the Syracuse Half  IM at the end of June. It's got similar terrain to IMLP (read: Super Hilly) so I figure, if I feel ok after that ... I've been doing something right. 

 

This one goes out to the one I love ...

This is a post of thanks and appreciation - to my hubby.

To state the obvious, training for an IM takes a lot of time. My daily schedule is something like: sleep, train, work, train, repeat. It doesn't leave much time for much else, namely: laundry, dishes, cooking, taking care of the pets, etc, etc, etc. So my hubby has taken up a lot of the slack. A LOT.

Not only has he taken on the extra workload around the house (and more), but he has also taken on the role of massage therapist, mental coach and cheerleader. Not once has he ever questioned this crazy goal of mine (and its arguably negative effects on him) but rather taken it on in tandem and done whatever he can to help me achieve it.

I am so immensely lucky to have this guy in my corner.

Still alive ...

Shameful. Not a post since February 25th.

I'll catch you up in a bit. Just know that I'm still alive, and still training.

Sicky sick ...

This was me last week :

SICK

This happened after I managed to kick my lethargy and got onto a bit of a roll, completing all my training for seven days straight. Then it hit me - some nasty combination of runny nose, cough, headache, stomach ache-ness - whatever it was, it wasn't pretty. I missed five days of training. Grrr ...

In all honesty though, I should have seen it coming. The same week my training got on a roll, my diet kinda went to shit and I rarely got my 8 hours sleep. Now that that's happened once, I should hope I don't let it happen again. I'm going to keep a food journal to make sure I'm eating right/enough and keep track of my energy levels to see if anything stands out.

Anywho, finally felt better last Friday so Saturday I was back in the pool. It was pretty much an all pull practice for 1.5 hours. Greeeeeat. What a way to get back into the swing of things. Lats, pecs and tris are hurting right now. Later in the day I completed my 2.5 hr training ride no problem.

Sunday called for a short bike and then a long run. I was feeling kind of warm the whole day and started to feel a bit of a tickle in the back of my throat. I didn't want to chance it that my the sick would come back so ... I just cut it down to the long run. I've been running indoors mostly so I decided to take it outdoors to see how I'd do on the pavement. Wasn't sure how my body would take to the harder surface but, it held up nicely.

Hello, my name is Lethargic ...

Felt pretty lethargic this past week.

Skipped my Monday/Wednesday swim on account of feeling like a tonne of bricks when the alarm went off in the morning. Managed to complete my run on Monday and make it to a CrossFit class but was plagued with some serious soreness for the next three days so skipped my bike and run on Wednesday/Thursday as well. Blah.

This is not the way I envisioned starting off my six month countdown to IMLP.

Started to come out of my funk on Saturday and made it to my swim. Coach had me swim up a lane and gave me the objective of keeping up with a specific swimmer. The motivation did wonders, as did swimming right behind someone. I managed to keep up with her and finished 2500m in 75 min. Yay.

Saturday continued well and I got my 140 min. ride done. (I should mention I did have two, two-hour naps prior to my ride - I guess the swim took more out of me than I thought).

Today called for a 50 min bike and 90 min. run. After a late start (read: procrastinating), I only completed 35/75.

Silly Veronica, you should know by now that you need to get your training done in the morning, otherwise it's a race against the clock in the evenings.

Two steps forward, one step back ...

One step forward : 

A few days ago I found out that my training zones on the bike had improved meaning my base speed has improved.

Second step forward :

My swim pace actually isn't horrible.

Embarrassingly, I freaked out a bit infront of my swim coach last week. Based on the fact that I was only completing 1600 - 1800m in my 1hr sessions, I concluded my pace is nowhere near where it needs to be to finish the 3.8km IM swim in the 2h20min time limit. He gave me a reality check though:

Just what I needed:
A swift kick in the pants

(a) i've only been swimming 3 x week for 3 weeks so ... CHILL. IT'S STILL EARLY DAYS.

(b) my 100m time is about 2min10sec. If I maintain that pace, I will finish 3.8km in roughly 1h20 (leaving an extra hour to account for the open water and swimming in a pack). Thanks Will. I needed that.

One step back: 

My running is not where I thought it was and needs work.

Today I found out that my run zones haven't budged.
Grrr ... So the plan is to add in some more Zone 1 running after some of my rides, and bring the speed down a bit to force quicker adaptation. Grrr ... Zone 1 already felt uber slow and now I have to go slower? Boo.

New plan:

February Bike/Run Program

In addition to my immovable run zones, I got a video analysis done of my running the other day to see if I'm forefoot running correctly. Conclusion : Not really.

PROS: I've increased my cadence, I've shortened my stride, I'm landing on my forefoot.
CONS: I'm wasting a lot of energy in up/down movement, I'm still landing with a mostly straight leg, my heel is not dropping.

I left the session with some specific exercises and drills and am to come back in a month to see if I've improved.

Two weeks in pictures ...

In an effort to (quickly) catch you up on my progress over the past few weeks, this blog post is mostly made up of pictures (each one is worth 1000 words, no?) So here we go ...

Plantar Fasciitis is on the mend ... or at least being held at bay. Almost every other night I wear "the boot" over night after stretching the crap out of my calves and rolling my foot on "the ball" for a good five minutes. Seems to be working as I'm having little foot soreness and it doesn't hurt much anymore when standing/walking in bare feet.

The Boot

The Ball

The Book

My runs have been going well. I'm still fore-foot running and am ever-reading and researching to ensure I'm doing it properly. THE best description I've come across to date has come from a book my CrossFit coach told me about. Given the great content on running, I can't wait to get to the parts on biking and swimming.

The Shoes
Left - Inov8s / Right - Mizunos

I recently dumped my Mizunos and am running in my CrossFit shoes (Inov8 F-lite 195s) Because of the height of the heel and the heel-toe differential of the Mizunos, I realized that my heel probably hasn't been dropping like it should and that essentially, I've been running on my toes for the past while. Since switching to my Inov8s, my calves feel better and (surprisingly) so do the balls of my feet.

The Training Video

Biking is going really good - probably my favourite discipline right now. My trainer rides are up to about 2.5 hrs now. TV episodes don't cut it anymore so I've turned to movies to keep my mind occupied. In a few weeks time I will try out the training DVD my hubby got me for Christmas - a 56 mile virtual training ride of the Lake Placid course.


Lastly, I got my bike zones re-tested the other day and I've made progress! My new Zone 1 is my old Zone 2 meaning my body has become more efficient at clearing lactate and my base speed has gotten faster by about 4 km/h.

F*#% YEAH!

Tough weekend slog ...

This weekend was tough. Thursday was my rest day and I'm usually good to go for whatever my training calls for the next day but not this week. My legs still felt pretty fatigued. 

I blame the added weekly training (3.5 hrs of swimming). When I started my run/bike program it took my body a while to get used to the added activity so I figure this is the same thing. I also didn't get to bed on time later in the week and that's becoming more and more crucial to having a fully functional body/brain the next day. 

Friday's training called for a 130 min. bike (Zone 1). Typically I complete my long rides at the top end of my Zone 1 but this week it took all I had to stay within the bottom end. I also got antsy in my seat after an hour, couldn't stay in aero position and was up and out of my seat constantly. My left hip flexor was also bothering me during the last 45 min. Always seems to be the left side that goes first ...  

Saturday's training consisted of a 1.5 hr. swim, 50 min. bike and a 70 min. run. I managed to do them back to back with only about a 30 min. rest (read: drive home from the pool and get on the bike) between swim/bike and then about 10 min between bike/run. 

The swim went ok although I did feel slow. I tried breathing every 4 strokes again but couldn't maintain it after 4 lengths so switched to breathing every 3. It will take some time to get used to breathing on the other side but I'll figure it out. Coach says it will help me go faster. Here's hoping.

The bike, again, was at the lower end of my Zone 1. Hip flexor seemed ok though. The run was fine and at the upper end of my Zone 1. Left calf was bothering me in the last 20 min. and I had to stop once or twice to stretch it out. The rest of the day I was just zonked. Had a wicked headache and felt mildly nauseous. I think I need to eat and drink more ... but that's a topic for a whole other post. 

No backing out now ...

As my training intensifies, I try to do various things to make it harder and harder for me to feel like I can back out of doing the Ironman (as if losing a $600 registration fee wasn't enough :)



Appropriate motivational
poster for this post.

Two things I've done lately is:

(a) asked family and friends to come to Lake Placid and watch the race.

My thinking is that if people are going to spend money to come and stay in Lake Placid to support me, I've got to follow through and show up on race day.

(b) started to talk about the race more openly with friends and colleagues.

I realize this might not seem like a big deal given I've had this blog for a while now but, to me, writing about it is different than talking about it. Talking about it makes it more real somehow.

In the past, if someone asked me about the race, I'd be pretty tight-lipped or try to shut down the conversation pretty quickly. Now though, I'm (trying) to be more open, talking about the race, my training, my diet, etc. The benefit has actually been two fold on this one as there's a number of athletes at my office and talking to them has yielded a wealth of information, from tips on technique to ideas on nutrition and training. 

If anyone has any other ideas to help keep the motivation up, send them my way. I might need them in the months to come.

Small mental victories ...

Today was Day 2 of my swim program. Despite some lingering inner thigh soreness from Saturday's swim I felt pretty good when I woke up this morning. It was a different story 30 minutes later.

I don't know what I did but, when coming back into the house after brushing off the car (I live in a place where there is LOTS of snow right now), I bent a certain way and *ping* ... I felt a big knot form in my back. I tried to do a few stretches over the next 10 minutes as I was collecting my gear to see if I could loosen things up but, no luck. The knot was in tight.

These knots aren't new to me. I get them from time to time. Typically they take a few days to work themselves out so I usually take a day or two off so as not to further exacerbate the situation. But this morning, I kinda felt like it was a defining moment. If I passed on today's swim, it would be easy to pass on future swims when I'm sore and achy (which I'm sure I'll be feeling alot of in the near future) so despite the knot, I headed for the pool thinking 'I'm up, I might as well try it. If the pain is really bad, I'll just get out of the pool.'

MENTAL VICTORY #1

Hooray! I'm glad I went because I managed to complete the full hour swim. The knot is still in my back but it didn't seem to bother me during my swim and I think the swim may have actually helped to loosen it up a bit. (Note to self: Really need to remember to stretch after swimming. I didn't stretch at all after Saturday and I'm thinking that's s a big reason behind the knot.)

This morning's swim:

- 400m warm up
- 100m legs only
- 100m pull (arms only)
- 2 x 200m (swim + pull)
- 4 x 100m front crawl (rest 15s in between)
- 4 x 100m front crawl (rest 10s in between)

MENTAL VICTORY #2 : I did my crawl breathing every 4 strokes instead of every 2.

I guffawed at the coach before the holidays when he suggested I try it because there are times when I can't even seem to get comfortable breathing every 2 strokes. But this morning I finally gave it a go and IT WAS AWESOME! I'm thinking it's because breathing every four strokes gives me more time to (naturally) get all the air out of my lungs, where as when I was breathing every two, I was rushing to get all the air out before my next breath. Hmm ... I'll see if I can keep this up in future swims.

My first threesome!

Ok, ok, that's a sensationalized title, but it is kinda related to today's post. Yesterday was my first triple discipline training day! I swam, biked and ran.

The day started off with an early morning 1.5 hr. swim (first day of new swim program!), then after a few short errands and a refuel, I did a 2 hr. brick (bike/run).

Swim workout consisted of the following (2 km in total):
- 200m warmup
- 3 x 100m IM (Individual Medley = 1 length fly, 1 length breast, 1 length backstroke, 1 length free)
- 10 lengths x legs only (w/ a flutter board)
- 3 lengths butterfly
- 5 lengths breaststroke
- 5 lengths dolphin kick (w/ fins)
- 5 lengths front stroke (10 kicks per stroke w/ fins)
- 5 x 200m front crawl (20s rest in between)

My butterfly was ridiculous. Dolphin kick practice was fun -- with the fins you just flew through the water -- and after all the drills the final 5 x 200m went pretty smoothly. Later in the day my bike went by pretty quickly without any issues, as did the run. I thought my first triple was a great success until this morning when I woke up with uber sore inner thighs. I honestly didn't see that one coming.

I'm planning for this to be my standard Saturday workout from here on in and in time, doing all three one right after the other (so my body has experience doing the three disciplines continuously).

Now that I'll be swimming Monday/Wednesday/Saturdays I've had to shift my run/bike program a little to make sure I still have two full rest days so here's what my weekly training schedule now looks like:

Monday - AM Swim + PM Run (Z2 + Z1) + Strength
Tuesday - AM Bike (Z3 + Z1)
Wednesday - AM Swim + PM Run (Z5 intervals + Z1)
Thursday - REST
Friday - PM Bike (Z1)
Saturday - AM Swim + Bike (Z1) + Run (Z1)
Sunday - REST

Aches and pains ...

For some time now I've been worried about getting planter fasciitis. Wikipedia defines it as inflammation of the thick tissue on the bottom of the foot -- the symptoms of which are pain and stiffness in the bottom of the heel. Uhg.

I've been worried about getting it because of my increasing mileage and the fact that I'm forefoot running now (which puts more stress on my arch/planter fascia). Well low and behold, PF reared it's ugly head just before the holidays. Granted I haven't gotten an official diagnosis but all signs point to it : first few steps in the morning are uncomfortable, as is walking around barefoot in the house (when previously it was no problem), etc.  It's not really painful at this point, but I don't want it to get worse. What to do?

Over the holidays I took a few extra "rest" days and that seemed to help but I can't really do that on a regular basis so I'm going to start a strict regiment of foot exercises and ice in the evenings and first thing in the mornings and see if that helps. Wish me luck.

Jan.5 addition: Wow. Seems like alot of readers have suffered a similar fate. Thanks to all of you that responded with suggestions on how to treat my PF!!