Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Page 63 of 218

The obvious response.

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On November 15, 2016

In Uncategorized

Last week was one that just felt so OFF.  Different.  Weird.  I mean, there was this election thing that kind of rocked our world, but on a more localized (aka – me) scale, it was still a weird week.

nov15-1

This is how weird it is y’all, I wore makeup.  And used a straightener.  Gasp!

The weirdest thing (locally) that happened?  I was out playing bikes yesterday afternoon on my cruiser, and I passed a dude with a bunch of stuff on a bike.  I’m in this GREAT mood because sun + endorphins + bike = happiness, so I say “isn’t it a beautiful day to be biking?” as I passed him.

Your normal response might be “hello” or “sure is!” or maybe a “meh” or just ignore them if you’re in a bad mood, right?  This gentleman’s normal response was to throw the contents of his drink (beer, I think) at me.  He missed, which I’m sure made him angry, so he started cussing at the world.  Realizing my presence angered a drunk guy and I was solo, I figured I should probably hightail it out of there in case he started throwing other stuff since he had a lot of ammo.  Normally it’s cars chucking things at cyclists, not other cyclists, heh.  Nevertheless, I’ll add this to my list of cycling achievements.

nov15-2

How adorable is this collage our club captain put together? <3

One of last week’s goals was to start tracking my food and making healthier choices and start considering maintaining a deficit again, and I did pretty good on Monday.  However, Tuesday through Sunday?  Not so great.  We celebrated all the triathlon things with our club and then our series finishers, and triathletes are a group of people that generally like to indulge. So there were fried foods and beer and tacos and chips and cake and brownies and wine and it was wonderful.

I also found my appetite is STILL not back to normal when Zliten and I ate the entire giant fajita-for-two plate and a whole bowl of chips on Friday night without feeling overly full.  My stomach has moments of feeling normal, and then I’ll go and have two full servings of dinner.  It’s frustrating, because I am OBVIOUSLY not maintaining enough activity for it, but the last thing I want to do is stunt my recovery by starving myself.  Baby steps.

The good news is that activity is coming back into my life fairly effortlessly.  The weather last week was amazing and I felt and continue to feel that good kind of antsy where I just want to get out and do stuff.  No surprise, my activity is skewing towards running as it tends to do in the fall.

I ran 3 times last week, because I wanted to – 4, 6,  and 7 miles.  No mileage or pace plan, just ran until I felt like I was done or I had to be somewhere.  My average easy pace seems to have come down to about 10:50-ish now that it’s not a million degrees outside and I imagine that will just get better with even lower temps and more running.  Maybe this week I’ll put something spicy in there to test out my legs, but if I’m not ready, I’ll just run.

nov15-3

Fall running makes me feel like dis.

Everything else was less than expected and that’s totally fine.  I rode my cruiser bike for about an hour but neither of my other serious business bikes.  We planned to do the 25 mile Tour De Donut, but the 6am Sunday wakeup call made us roll over in bed, look at each other, say “NOPE” and then go back to sleep. I did a weights session at the gym on Monday that had me sore until Friday, so I skipped the second session of the week.  I intended to swim at some point, but Zliten’s evil rib has earned him a no-swim mandate for another week, and it’s really hard to motivate to get to the gym myself.

Does that sounds like a lot of excuses and wankery?  Absolutely.  And that’s TOOOOOTALLY fine at this stage.  Pushing a rigid schedule year round is a recipe for burnout for me and while sometimes I want to be there, I am not yet.  I’ve got that little voice in the back of my head telling me my bike and swim endurance is going to shit on my break, but I’m successfully telling it to shut the hell up.  I’ve got plenty of time and I also have a few big rides and swims planned in the next two months, plus I can’t imagine I’ll lose my run base when it’s all I’m really motivated to do.  So there, stupid voices!

This week’s goal is to continue the baby steps.

Workouts:

Two weights session, stressing bodyweight/lighter weights.  Oddly enough, when you take a month off lifting, you can just go resume what you were doing.  I did one Oiselle Dozen last night, and I’m much more reasonably sore than last week, so I’ll follow up with another strength session of some sort later in the week.  Once I’m not a member of the walking dead after doing that regularly, I’ll resume throwing around heavier things.

Running, obviously.  I plan to run Saturday morning and I’d like to see double digits but only if my body wants to go there.  I’ll go out for some other jaunts as I can, probably in the mornings because we’re a little warmer this week (in the 80s).  It was nice to have fall for a few days!

Jul5-2

Don’t worry, there won’t be a shortage of bike commuting selfies ’round here.  I’ll just probably be wearing a little more. 🙂

I bike commuted yesterday and it’s the best.  I think I’d like to do that at least one more time this week.  I’d also like to get out and ride Evilbike, but that might be beyond the babysteps for this week.

Swimming…. eh… if I can make it there.  Once Zliten is off rib-rest, we’ll get back to it.  It sounds nice on my body and maybe one of those lunches where it’s 80 degrees I’ll get motivated.  But maybe not.

Food/Drink

I had really been indulging the last two weeks, and I can see the effects.  Last week, I barely slept through the night – I would wake up around 4am and have to read for somewhere between 30 mins and a few hours before I could fall asleep.  My weight is up from about 180-182 to 183-185.  I can’t see any way that I legit took in over 10k calories more than I burned in 2 weeks, especially with an enhanced metabolism for some of that, but my jiggly water retaining belly says regardless, my system is out of whack.

nov15-4

Steeeeeeamy.  Get in my belly (and make it jiggle, apparently).

This week, I’m taking a pass on alcohol, mostly.  I’m giving myself the option to have a few Saturday, but I’d like to have a good majority-of-the-week of detox before that.  My liver has been a trooper, and it needs a rest.  My tolerance is pretty wicked right now, so it takes a lot (and a lot of calories) to catch a buzz.  I took a mental recovery break for the last two weeks and indulged.  Now it’s actually time to let my body recover and treat it nicer so it doesn’t break down.

While I’m not going to go nuclear on my diet (eliminating alcohol for a week is enough of a shock to the system, heh), I am trying to push for more fruits and veggies and less junk, and for fucks sake, track my food.  I got through half of lunch yesterday and failed at the rest.  It’s all about making things a habit and this one has fallen off.

Life Stuff:

The motivation to start cranking on the to do list is still not there.  That’s alright.  I’m kind of enjoying being social, I’m kind of enjoying my lazy weekend mornings and early evenings curled in bed voraciously devouring this new book series, Metal Boxes. Besides work, I don’t have a lot of the have-tos right now, and I’m trying to calm my shit about the “shoulds”.

nov7-2

I *should* relax in my hammock is appropriate though.  Maybe chill on the beer though and drink some tart cherry juice to CALM the inflammation instead of encourage it.

Eventually I need to start being a responsible adult.  I need to find another doctor for a check up since mine left my network.  I need to make an appointment with a financial planner.  I need to clean my car.  I need to get going on my social media strategies and triathlon coaching.  But, I need to be READY to do that shit and I’m not mentally there yet.

This week, I’d simply like to get my new passport photo.  It’s expired, and I need to get it dealt with soon because I’ll be out of the country in May.  It will be really refreshing to get a new picture, as my old one was at my highest weight of 265 lbs and doesn’t even look like me.

Otherwise, I have plans to see two movies, we gamed with friends last night, and we have plans to introduce some of the family to virtual reality.

And that’s plenty.  Off to one of those movies (Arrival), I’ll let you know how it is!

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Understanding.

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On November 10, 2016

In Uncategorized

Ow, my head.  Ow, my country.

nov9

Let’s start off with the fact that I’m not terribly political.  Maybe that’s part of the problem, but it is what it is.  I vote (in every election, not just the big ones) and I do my best to get a least general grasp of whom or what I’m voting for.  However, I’m a big believer in freedom and choice, so I’m not terribly evangelical about turning people to my side, I want them to inform themselves and make their own decisions.

I went home on Tuesday expecting the election to be called fairly early and get a good night’s sleep.  Instead, I watched, with decreasing sobriety, into the wee hours of the morning, as small margins gave way to electoral votes which gave way to our senate, house, and president turning  red.  For someone who believes in personal freedoms, choice, and equality, this felt like a disaster scenario.  Previously considering the possibilities, I figured if somehow the white house skewed republican, a democratic house or senate (or both) would at least keep things in check.  This is not the case.

I said that I didn’t know who we were anymore.  I still don’t.  I mean, your world really is who you surround yourself with.  Besides a few spots of red, my social circles are deep dark blue through and through.  It’s a huge wakeup call to me that apparently, this does not represent approximately half of the country I live in.  I’ve been searching for the answer, and the eternal optimist I am, I feel like the only answer is understanding and perseverance.

My hope is that while there obviously are some people who were fired up by a candidate who was overtly racist, sexist, and just plain crude, this is not the majority of that population.  I will continue to believe that in general, people weighed the platforms they both stood on and chose the one that aligned with their beliefs, and in some cases, that happened to be Trump.   I was not in love with Hillary, but at the end of the day, the things she supports (and the Democratic party support) are more important to me than who she is as a person.  I can’t fault someone on the other side for feeling the same way even if I really really want to, because that would be hypocritical.

I think we are all fighting for a lot of the same basic things, but somewhere along the way, we’ve become the Montagues and the Capulets.  I played along, and felt very US vs THEM during the eletion.  However, faced with this reality in the light of day, America has not dramatically changed overnight.  Just like there is no version of modern America that would tolerate Obama taking their guns away, there is also no version of modern America that’s going to tolerate Trump rounding up everyone with different skin or that likes to bump uglies with someone unconventional and putting them in a prison camp.  We are many, many, many steps from any of that.  Not that we COULDN’T get there, but it’s not going to happen all of a sudden next January and it won’t EVER unless we let it.

We’ve spent two years with the message “vote for your party’s candidate or the world will explode” shoved down our throats, and after being fed the line for so long, we start to believe it.  And with it comes the sentiment that the opposition just wants to watch the world burn.  Instead, we need to realize that roughly half the country holds some different opinions and has different priorities that may seem crazy to us, but I can’t imagine 48% of our country is legit crazy.  The best way we all win is to compromise.  The way we lose is continuing to shout “racists!” and “babykillers!” at each other over the proverbial wall we’ve built between us.

To really turn a nation upside down, you need the VAST majority of the people to believe in it.  While the electoral collage worked out for Trump this time, it looks like the popular vote went to Hillary.  That’s the majority of the population who are not going to stand for regression of anyone’s rights.  That’s the majority of the population who are on the side of equality. That’s a whole shit ton of people. We will stand together.  We will not go quietly in to the good night because of one decision.

My hope is that it’s much more and the numbers actually confirm it.  I can’t believe voting Trump and being a decent human being are mutually exclusive.  To do my part, I’m trying to understand the facts of what Trump really actually stands for and not let fear or emotion get in the way.  Some of it will obviously be bullshit I don’t agree with.  The stupid Mexico wall is just stupid and amassing a giant military sounds like a boy being eager to win at having the most toys, and he wants to pay for them both by getting rid of inefficiencies?  Yeah, why didn’t we all think of that!  We could all be have insurance and college tuition at a reasonable cost if we had gotten rid of unneeded inefficiencies!*facepalm*

However, his health care platform doesn’t actually creep me out on paper.  I tried to read the words without bias, and I realized it made some sense.  Health care costs are really insane.  I mean, really INSANE.  Like, second rent on a small apartment insane for two healthy adults to get basic coverage.  What we have right now is not the answer.  While 6 weeks paid leave only for mothers isn’t nearly as much as Hillary was fighting for, it’s better than what we have now, which is JACK and SHIT, which is crazy for a country that considers itself a leader of the free world.  In the decision whether or not to have kids – cutting our income in half or less was ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY a major concern and I’m not alone.  Maybe if we can get SOMETHING in place, we can improve it in the future.

My hope is that this spectacle is now, for the most part, over.  The candidates have to put on a show to get elected, and Trump got the highest ratings.  Now, the makeup and the costumes come off, and it’s time to see who Trump as a president really is.  I have all the hope that it’s going to be different than Sideshow Trump.  We fell in love with Barack Obama on the left because he preached hope and change and then after a while, complained that it wasn’t ENOUGH change.  This is the exact reason the right embraced Trump – they want to stir shit up like we did 8 years ago.  Anything but the status quo.  Let’s elect the wildcard and send him at the government to take down the man!

Funny thing is… once you BECOME the man, you find out there’s usually really good reasons why we do a lot of the things the way we do them.  Not to say constantly evaluating the process isn’t important, but I remember as I climbed up the ranks of the game industry, I was going to do things WAY DIFFERENT when I was in charge.  I definitely try to BOSS in a way that employee me would like to work for most of the time, but I also know that sometimes you have compromise to get the sausage made even if it makes idealistic you feel a little icky about it.  He really comes off as being naive and thinking that he’ll have a lot more power to mandate a bunch of shit once he sits in the chair.  Not quite, buddy.  That’s called dictatorship.

So my goal today, and going forward, is to understand.  For my sanity, I have to believe there is a legitimate Republican viewpoint that is rooted in something besides racism, fear, and greed, even if I can’t really see that right now, and I’m going to continue to do research.  I reserve the right to back away at any point and say “nope, y’all are bat shit crazy” and start continue to look into buying a place in Bonaire, but I have to try.

However, at this point, I’m here for a while, unless things start really going the way of Afghanistan, and I can’t believe that would happen.  And if I going to fight against that, and not flee, I believe the first step is to be a little kinder and more patient with each other.  If you need to be the change you want in the world, this is where I start.  I see people who are lashing out incoherently and I feel all their feels.  I really do.  But, I have to approach this rationally and realize that there indeed are at least two reasonable positions on most arguments, even if you can only agree with one.  I will stand up for what I believe in, but I also will do my best to form opinions based on facts, not fear.  If someone opposing me has done that as well, I have to respect that.

I’m no revolutionary, no activist, no political leader.  In fact, I’m probably only this riled up because I’m on a break from serious running, biking, and swimming.  However, I feel like my soapbox wouldn’t be an accurate reflection of my brain if I didn’t spend some time sorting through these strong feelings we all are having right now, and figuring out my path forward.  And my path will include logic, reason, kindness, and compassion.

EDIT: And of course, no thought is original.  This blog probably summed it up more coherently than I could.

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Recovery

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On November 7, 2016

In Uncategorized

Last week was all about recovery and doing all those things you don’t get to do on busy training weeks.  I read and napped in my hammock for an afternoon.  We spent almost the entire weekend playing video games.  I ate and drank some things I generally wouldn’t touch.  It was glorious!

nov7-2

Day after the race?  Tons of hammock and beer repeats.  I still may have been caffeinated at that point.

Physical recovery:

I’m going to give props to both my new boots and all the weight training I did this cycle.  While I was not ready to go out and do it all again the next day or anything, I had very little muscular issues in the days following the race.  I wasn’t toilet sore, I didn’t have issues with stairs, I would say if I *had* to, I was ready to go for an easy jog by Tuesday, or definitely Wednesday.

However, as it’s been manifesting lately after races, I was this weird unreasonable amount of the *tireds* for days.  It took me three days to finish the laundry because it was a herculean effort to do that.  The rest of the stinky triathlon crap stayed all around the house until SATURDAY.  I expended my last ounces of *give a shit* at the race and was fresh out for the week, and that’s TOTALLY fine.

We rode bikes with the BSS crew on Wednesday, and while I started the ride wondering why I was taking precious time away from sitting on my couch and eating food, the ride itself was great.  My legs certainly did not feel snappy, but it was nothing unlike how things felt during peak weeks.  I felt better after and I continue to feel pretty good since.

nov7-1

Vidja games.  All weekend.  Looking like VR dorks.

Mental recovery:

Having a good (but not perfect) race is interesting.  Mentally, I am READY TO GO but I know if I jump back in 100% right now, I’m going to arrive at Ironman in April weak and burnt out. I need some of that time to lift heavy things without caring how sore it makes me, and time to play bikes, running, and swimming.

Y’know, those kind of workouts where you plan a 6 hour trainer movie marathon on a shitty weather day where you order delivery pizza in the middle or do the Tour De Donut instead of a serious long ride.  Or you head out the door with your shoes on and run somewhere between 3 and 17 miles without a planned route at whatever pace your feet carry you and maybe there’s a stop at the swing set in the park in the middle.  Or you see how many laps you can do in the lake before your arms fall off while it’s the perfect wetsuit weather for a little while longer.  And also, sometimes these plans will fuck right off for laying in my hammock reading or the right happy hour invitation.

Adventures and activity, rather than checking boxes.  That’s the goal for a while.

My plan was to take the next 2 months and allow myself to train according to feel.  I’m sticking to it.  At this point, I expect I’ll do enough long stuff to keep myself in enough shape to kick off a for-real training plan in the new year.  12 weeks + taper is a REALLY long time for me to follow anything strict, and I need to go in hungry for it.

So, basically, I’m really excited about the next cycle, and I need to make sure I save my eager self from myself by sticking to the plan.  I’ve done that gung ho thing before and it doesn’t end well.

nov7-3

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo.  The LIGHT version is 800+ calories.  I made up for that fact with housing two bread baskets.

Gustatory Recovery:

I haven’t been going hungry.  Let’s just state the obvious.  I know the FIRST rule of recovery… and actually most things triathlon… is to shove food in my mouth when I’m hungry.  I have not failed to do that (and have probably succeeded a little too well, but that’s ok).  If I was a better person, it would have been all the veggies, fruits, whole grains, lean protein, etc.  However, the words second dessert, alcoholic, and fried have definitely been in my vocabulary.

I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten the bulk of it out of my system, and by Friday, I was already at odds – I was totally ready mentally to start eating less food after a few days, but my appetite was like “nope, we’re going to eat this ENTIRE giant veggie sandwich and chili in the matter of 3 minutes and then we’re going to rumble a few hours later”.  Well then.

I operate on a normal ratio of about 80% healthy, 20% splurge.  The ratio was reversed last week.  Back to the norm this week.  There is NO possible way that I’ve actually gained the 4 lbs the scale says in one week, so it’s time to shift the balance of what I’m made of from bourbon and french fries to salads and coconut water.

nov7-4

After riding my bike for 90 minutes at 12 mph, I made sure to eat enough fried food to outweigh the health benefits.  Whew!  Almost did something crazy on rest week.

What’s next?

This week is a gentle emergence from hedonism.  The dish of leftover Halloween candy isn’t getting thrown out or anything, but knowing that it has to be tracked and balanced with the rest of my intake should keep me from raiding it excessively.

Mid Season Break Week 1:

  • Two heavy lifting sessions.  These are the most important sessions of the week.
  • Two bike rides, two runs, one swim if it works out.  Nothing with any effort besides the runs, and that’s if I feel up to it.
  • Tracking the food again.  No judgies on the amount because my appetite will still be coming down, but we need to quantify it again.
  • 10k steps per day.  I don’t care if I hit any training, but I need a baseline of activity.
  • Five fruits and veggies servings per day.  This tends to keep the rest of my day on track.
  • Absolutely no writing up training plans for next year even though I’m super excited to do it.
  • Check some stuff off the big “do this stuff once season’s over” list.

It’s Monday.  Let’s do this thing (and today, that thing is weights and a nice long walk)!

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Austin 70.3 Part 2 – Seeing sounds and hearing colors.

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On November 4, 2016

In Uncategorized

When last we left the story, I was very, very, happy to be done with the bike and have Death Star in one piece… but I honestly had no idea how I was going to run a half marathon.  It was really hot – time was closing in on 1:45pm and that meant the entirety of the run was going to be at the max temps (88, feels like 94 according to the weather).  I was kind of traumatized from all the energy spent on not-biking-stuff during the bike.  I was pretty happy I was able to hit my 17 mph goal but it took a lot out of me.  Physically I felt good, mentally, I felt a bit shell shocked.

nov4-1

Also, as I dismounted, I heard “holy crap, are you kidding” and saw THIS guy right next to me.  Dislocated rib, plan for riding 15 mph, whatever.  He had biked 3 hours flat to a HUGE PR.

nov4-5

That made me happy and a little demoralized and also a little motivated at the same time.  I thought I was finally going to win one race this year, and now I was going to have to really work for it, and I was pretty cooked just from the heat.  However, this is what we do.  Transition gravity got me a bit in T2.  I walked my bike in instead of running.  I sat on the ground to deal with my shoes and crap.  However, that extra few minutes helped center me, and I took off out of T2 running at a decent clip.

T2: 6:15.

Mile 1 ticked by at 10-something, according to plan, but then we hit this really daunting hill (the elevation chart I studied lied… 100 feet of ascent total my ass) and it hit me that we had to do that 6 times (3 out and backs).  I got through #1, but after the aid station around mile 1.5, I had to stop to fill my bottle and I just started walking.  Great.

Then, my husband comes back from behind again and says “we’re running for another tenth of a mile and then walking”. Ok, I think, I can do that.  So we did, and chatted about the race so far and his run plan and stuff and things.  With the crazy heat and lateness of the day and the hills I did not expect, there was not enough middle fingers to adhere to my own race plan.  Instead, I decided to adopt a run buddy for the first part of the race.

He was really happy that I was around to stick with him and I was happy to have some motivation through the first loop or two.  I told him that if I felt better on loop 2 or 3 I was going to take off, but for now, I was in.  It was really cute how a lot of people commented on us running together.  Awww, how sweet, they said.  Honestly, while it was REALLY nice to stick together, it was because we just at that same level of cooked but still moving forward point. 🙂

The aid stations were my lifeline.  My garmin shows SIX MINUTES of aid station stops, not because I was fucking around, but because it was necessary.  Find the ice table and 2 cups in bottle, 1 down the shirt, and every other station, one in the hat.  Find the gatorade and fill the rest of the bottle if there was room.  Find the water and dump over my body.  Then go.  Somewhere in the first loop, I got offered coca cola and tried some… and I was fully on the brown pony train from then on.  It was magical.  Every aid station I could get to it (some were swarmed with bees), I had a cup.  For the rest of the day, I was hearing colors and seeing sounds but it was worth it.

Starting on the second lap, I was trying to lengthen our run intervals between walks because I was feeling a little better.  At first Zliten was in, but then around mile 7, he told me my running segments were too fast and he needed more breaks, so we hugged and I kept trotting ahead as he took a break.  I was ready to start digging into the lead I needed to accumulate over the last half to beat him.

I had no illusions that I was going to be able to run the rest of the way, but my walk pace was pretty quick and I tried to keep my running pace a quick clip.  I attempted to only walk aid stations and the second halfs of uphills.  While a 12-something pace for most of the miles is not terribly impressive in and of itself, it’s not shabby considering how much of that was walking and stopping to take care of myself at aid stations.  If I could ever get a temperate day for one of these… watch out world!

nov4-3

I spent the last lap chanting stuff to myself, various mantras like “this pace is not giving up” and focusing on the fact that I was on track to beat 2:40 if I stayed with it and that seemed like something I could be proud of that day.  I also listened to Katy Perry’s Rise like, 6 times on repeat Friday evening, so that went through my head.  I followed some dude that had his coach on the course pacing him for a while (annoying) and then ran in the middle of some other tri team, both simply because they were going my pace.

I walked the last aid station and dumped ONE more load of ice down my top and said, “ok, this is it… finish strong”.  13 was my fastest mile at 10:25 and I was just so excited and pumped to make my way down the stretch of spectators one last time, and take the turn towards the finish.  I figured somehow they would lead us up one more hill for an extra quarter mile, but thankfully they didn’t.  The transition from outside to inside was very abrupt, but I was just so excited I pumped my arms in the air down the chute like I was winning this thing and crossed the line super happy!

Run Time: 2:40:06  51/93 AG <- holy crap, finished higher in my AG on the run… that is a testament to my fight.  I always fall off at the end.

Official Time: 6:04:51 51/93 AG

I finished hopped up on caffeine, shit eating grin, feeling like a fucking superhero.  My husband rolls in almost exactly 15 minutes later looking like THIS.

nov4-4

Best race finish picture ever. 

We did the normal things, which typically involve taking Zliten to medical but not actually needing medical (that face usually gets him sent there but he recovers quickly).  The inside finish helped us cool down quickly.  We took a post race photo.  We got food (some chicken baked ziti thing) and liquid.  We began the long process of getting all the race bags and bike all the way from T1 to the other side of the universe where we parked and watched people still streaming in.  It was a far cry from the last IM branded race we did, where we were almost the last two finishers and everything had already been taken down (no food, liquid, store, nothing).

The more time I’ve had to reflect on this, the more excited I’ve gotten about this run.  Of course there’s room for improvement, but I stuck with it mentally, and I didn’t give up.  I walked/stopped at aid stations, and a few hills as metered breaks, but that was it.  Zliten and I really helped each other out on the first half, and we parted ways when it didn’t make sense to stick together.  Sadly (for me), with the stops on the bike, I actually needed about 18 minutes on him, so he won this one by kicking some major ass on the bike.

I know I can run a 2:15 at one of the races someday, but not at this weight at that temperature on that course.  My second best time with all those challenges thrown my way is a perfectly good cause for celebration.

nov4-2

I’m not sure at what point my mind changed from “I’m never doing this course again” to “when I do this course again”, but I keep thinking about how to better train to conquer it.  The weather COULD POSSIBLY not suck.  The bike was wayyyy less annoying than expected.  Knowing the run course, I can actually train for the hills.  It does put a damper on celebrating one of my favorite holidays because of the weekend it falls on, but I’d consider doing this one again in the future.

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Austin 70.3 Part 1, or when only one wheel falls off, it’s still a good race.

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On November 2, 2016

In Uncategorized

On Sunday, I got the opportunity to race most of my sixth half ironman (their choice on the most-of-it part, not mine).  While I’ll try to keep the true nerdery and nitty gritty to a minimum, this is first and foremost MY soapbox and diary, so there will be some, to the tune of 2000 words from pre-race to T2.  Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine or some leftover halloween candy (ugh, it’s STILL not sounding good after all the gatorade and gels, it’s so sad) and let’s go on a journey together, shall we?

noc2-2

Pre-race dinking around.  I think we both walked over 12k steps just doing this…

On the other side looking back, I’m going to give my race prep an A.  I’m thoroughly pleased with the way I ate, the way I handled things.  Just a few drinks on Wednesday but I stayed dry the rest of the week.  I spent so much time in bed I was actually finding it hard to sleep more than 7-8 hours the few nights before.  Since I was rested and refreshed, I did short sessions (15-40 mins) each day besides Tuesday to keep the legs snappy.  The day before I rode around the block a few times on my TT bike to make sure I had tire pressure and swam 1000m.  Work could have been a little less hectic, otherwise, I had the perfect lead up.

The two things I put in the “con” category:  1) not getting a second longer race pace swim in my wetsuit, and 2) having to spend SO much time on my feet Saturday dealing with the treachery of checking in and dealing with multiple transitions in a giant size Ironman branded race.  One of these things didn’t end up mattering at all, though!

I wasn’t able to sleep that well Saturday night (big race, nerves, feeling rested otherwise), but I was up and at em at 4:45am on Sunday.  We did the normal stuff and enjoyed being on the home turf – 18 mins from bed to parking line at the race site.  I had some sports drink, 2 caff chews, a PB filled cliff bar, and we made our way from parking to shuttles to T1 with about 30 minutes to spare.

They had already delayed the race 30 minutes (from 7am to 7:30 start – which made sense with the later sunrise) a few weeks ago, and they tacked on ANOTHER 15 minute delay as we were arriving.  I told Zliten he would be starting around noon.  I shouldn’t have opened my mouth and jinxed him, it wasn’t too far off.  We did the normal setup and potty and finding friends and teammates and put on our wetsuits halfway and went and sat by the lake in this spookiness.

nov2-1

Borrowed from High Five Events Instagram… it looks almost post-apocalyptic, doesn’t it?

The race had been delayed indefinitely – they said they would start it as soon the fog lifted and it would go quickly.  However, the day had other plans.  By 8:30, the fog was not showing any signs of going away, so they made the call to cancel the swim and get on with the rest of the race.  I wasn’t sure how it was safe to bike in the fog either, but off the pros went at 9am as I ate my english muffin with cream cheese and bacon I had planned to fuel the first 1/3 of the bike.

For some reason, I was skewing WAY more towards the nervousness than excitement this race.  It’s a trend I really would like to reverse.  It manifests on the surface as just being over it, and it’s come up lately at my bigger races.  However, once the swim was dropped, for some reason, it made me feel better.  It made absolutely no sense.  The swim is one of my better events.  I’ve actually been swimming GREAT the last week or so.  I should have been really excited to show myself where I was at with my first wetsuit swim in a race in over a year, but instead I just felt relief.

I know exactly why.  I now had an asterisk.  Whatever I did at the race couldn’t be measured alongside other races.  It was it’s own thing.  I need to work on that crap, but since my last 3 A races have been UTTER shit shows, I’ll give myself a mulligan this time.

Back to transition – I’ve been in this situation before at a big race, and it takes forever to launch 2500+ athletes on bikes, so I wasn’t surprised when it was 9:30, then 10, and then I was lining up with the Death Star at almost 10:30 am.  Going back to the original race plan weeks ago, I would have been in the water at 7:45 and hopefully on the bike by about 8:30 (thus off the bike around 11:30-ish).  Also, the average temps on this day top out in the upper 70s – we were already closing in on that by the time I clipped in. Conditions: absolutely not ideal.

nov2-3

My bike was 3 away from this big pole.  I was super excited because T1 was going to be easy. Sigh…

Bike:

We got out and it was like a TdF situation.  Spectators were crowding the street and it kind of freaked me out (remember, we still had some decent fog going on and visibility was better but still sucked).  Other than that, the first few miles were pretty uneventful.  I was super excited to see that riding the Death Star on this course netted me some major free speed in comparison to Evil Bike.  The hills weren’t as hard.  My pace was much quicker without any extra effort.  This was good.

I wasn’t super great about staying in aero but the bike course was SO FUCKING CROWDED because of the way we started.  People were passing four or five deep out of necessity.  I saw later in the results that tons of people were DQ’d for various reasons, but I can’t imagine that they would have been able ding anyone in the thick of the AG race for drafting because there was simply NO WAY to be legal.

I need to sort out my rear bike bag with my co2s and tubes.  It won’t stay hooked on the seat.  By mile 5 it was hanging on just by the main strap.  People were kind enough to tell me about it, which was really nice in a race, but after a while, I wanted to just put a sign on my back that said “yes, I know, it’s fine (I hope)”.  At the first aide station, I stopped and tried to put it back on and it was flopping around again within a mile.  I shifted it over to one side, so my leg hit it while I was pedaling, so I could keep track of it somehow.  These tires being touchy and the roads being as rough as they were, I figured I had a 50/50 chance of flatting this race and without that bag, 100% chance of being out of the race.

The part I was least looking forward to actually ended up being one of the best stretches – 7 miles of long straight road which has a terrible shoulder, but a pretty decent middle when it’s blocked off.  I was holding about 19 mph early in the race, I had slipped a bit back into the 18s on some of the earlier hills, and on this road I made it back there just pushing the relatively flat road mostly in aero.

As I pulled up to the turn around mile 28, on a slight uphill, I heard a *KATHUNK*.  I’ve spent the entire race being paranoid about my bike bag and flats and everything, so a weird sound made me stop and hop off immediately.  I figured a puncture was happening and I was very happy to see my bag still there.  I felt both tires and oddly enough, they were fine.

Then… I noticed my back wheel was off.  Yeah, you heard me right.  My back wheel’s skewer (which was still on tight) had somehow come out of it’s hole.  Your guess is as good as mine on how that happened because that shouldn’t really be a possibility.  I think I just stared at it for at least 30 seconds with a puzzled WTF look on my face, thinking my race was over and my new expensive bike was broke.

Instinct kicked in and I took off my skewer, making sure to save the little springy thing like Zliten told me last week, reseeded my wheel, and then put it back in and tightened it.  It seemed like the problem was fixed, but I spent a little extra time looking at other people’s bikes, and they looked reasonably similar to mine, I wasn’t missing any pieces.  I got back on my bike, thought, “here goes nothing”, and started to pedal, expecting to hear the same sound again.  It was fine.  I rode a little more gingerly than my even my normal bike weenie self for the next 5-10 miles.

nov2-4

It happened, so it’s on Strava (this seems to be WITH the autopause).

Between the stupid bike bag and the wheel and the flat paranoia, I had spent a lot of mental energy on this bike having nothing to do with making my bike go forward fast.  I lost motivation here in the middle and the speed came down with it.  All I wanted out of life was to be done.  Mile 35 was IMPOSSIBLY far from 56 and it was getting hot and I hated everything.  Then somewhere in there, I shoved a few date rolls and some gatorade down the hatch, the caff gel I had earlier actually kicked in, and I got to a part of the course I liked better and my mood improved.  42-ish on wasn’t even that bad even though the end of the course is not kind.

I am so thankful I’ve ridden this route twice, because the end is seriously demoralizing if you don’t know it’s coming.  It’s a short steep hill right into a long steep hill, and you figure “that was rough, I’m at mile 50, the rest of this course has to be just pedaling it in, right?”.  Nope.   Pretty much the rest of the way there is one long false flat that undulates with some moderate uphills.  And thankfully it’s wayyyy less soul crushing on a carbon fiber TT bike than an aluminum roadie.  There was one last FUCK YOU when you pass the transition area and have to go around the block, making the course almost a whole mile long, but then we finally hit T2.

oct6-2

Death Star and I were BOTH excited to not be cycling at that point, I’m sure…

While I’ve had a lot of bitchy things to say about the ride and the course, let me sum it up with some positives:

  • I caught an issue that could have actually wrecked my bike super quick and fixed it within about 3 minutes.  I am really, really proud of myself for problem solving.
  • Also, I’m really happy that my head didn’t go anywhere near “shit, not again this year” with my bike issue.  It didn’t even pop into my head until I started to write this up.
  • I fueled decently – 1 gel, 2 date rolls, and a metric ass ton of gatorade (2 full bottles to start, 3 stops where I got down at least 2/3 of a big endurance formula each time).
  • For as complain-y as I sound about this course, I had my second best bike split on a 70.3 (would have been a PR without the two stops) with everything that happened and also more climbing than I’ve ever done in a race.  My goal was to hold at least 17 mph and I did that even with a few wrenches thrown my way.

Bike time: 3:18:27 – 54/93 AG (of those who actually finished the whole race, DNS and DNFs like craaaaaazy here).

It was not my dream bike, but I did just about as well as I reasonably expected (my goal was 17-something mph, I hit that even with the stops) and my day could have ended up a LOT worse.  I’m still conquering this bike, and I’m excited to see how things progress over the next six months of riding before IM Texas!

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About Me

I'm a video game producer and a lover of anything game related by trade.  I'm a triathlete by hobby.  I live for being on or in the water as much as I can - scuba diving, snorkeling, paddleboarding, water slides... you name it.  The dichotomy between my outdoor and indoor realities are interesting, but they're all mine!  Longer version here...

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