Adjusted Reality

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

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Getting ready to dance at my party.

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On October 10, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s amazing the difference a week makes sometimes.

oct10

I’m not a morning person.  You know it’s serious business when the headlamp comes out.

This time last week, I was feeling extremely fatigued.  I had no idea how I was going to get through a week involving a 14 mile run (longest run since March 5), and my long brick (55 miles bike/10k), when I felt absolutely flattened on Monday after a day of rest.  I was feeling pretty much the opposite of confident about this whole half ironman training and racing thing.  I’ll finish because that’s what I do, but I felt like I’m not nearly at the form I am at this point in the cycle.

I skipped some training and added a recovery ride on Sunday to do errands, but somehow still ended up with almost 11 hours.  I’ll take it.  This last week, it was about two things:

  • Going long
  • Gaining confidence/feats of strength

Intentions met.  Besides all the normal supporting workouts, I was able to complete said 14 mile run and long brick within 2 days of each other.  Thursday morning’s long run was an exercise in sheer mental toughness.  I didn’t really enjoy any step of it besides the one I took in the door after finishing.  It was hot, I was tired, I was sore, and the miles went on forever.  And honestly, I’ve had races that felt easier.  However, I finished.  I didn’t walk.  I’ll pull on that one on race day.  If I can do that on a random weekday and then go to work all day, I can do it as the last leg of my race and then sit on my ass for a week.

The brick felt a little less terrible, but still wasn’t a walk in the park.  The bike was actually really pleasant.  We rode with a group of people from our tri team, and I actually kept feeling stronger over the miles, which is normal for me when I’m on bike form, so there’s that.  It was hot when we started running, and silly me picked a really hilly route (there’s more elevation change in one of the miles I ran than the whole 70.3 course), but I was STILL able to maintain race pace for the 10k.  I had no confidence that I was going to be able to keep up the pace at a mile in, but I freaking did it.  It should be much easier on the flat course, with support, *hopefully* on a slightly cooler day.  But even if it isn’t – I’ve conquered it before.

I just need to dig on that stuff during race day.  I need to remember that it will not always be this way if it’s bad (if it’s good, I’ll let myself believe it will).  How I feel at mile 1 of the run, even if it’s bad, doesn’t mean I won’t be able to hold pace at mile 12.  Even if every step is painful, I can still do what I need to do because I’ve done it before.  My brain tends to give up before my body so maybe I’ll be able to tell it “not this time”.   Even if I’m not sure I remember the steps sometimes, I’m ready to dance at my party.

oct10-2

Those steps are at a time signature of under 10:30 per mile after a hilly 56 mile bike ride.  Let’s hope I can master them by race day.

And now, it’s officially taper.  The next three weeks are going to be focused on:

  • Injury prevention.  My knee is a little tweaky and swollen after yesterday’s “rest” activity of shopping for, cleaning out, and helping replace a fridge, and you KNOW I will be babying it until it feels 100% better.  I’m avoiding some of the evening outdoor riding that involves lights on my bike.  Doing my best to be the right amount of paranoid so I show up to the race in one piece.
  • Rest and recovery.  I didn’t do a great job of kicking this off properly because of said fridge replacement at almost midnight last night, but I’ll be making sure that there’s lots of feet up time in the boots and reading in bed to make up for it and I have zero plans to party all night at any point until at least October 31st.
  • Eating better.  I’ve done a pretty good job about treating my body like a dumpster at times over the last few peak weeks because I have the calories available.  It’s actually *really* challenging to eat super clean when you need to take in all the calories and carbs without overloading on fiber, and I believe there is totally room for cake and beer in an athlete’s life.  However, I didn’t meet my fiber requirement 3 of the last 7 days, so I’m a little too far on the “junk food” side of things.  Noted.  I’m eating pretty much the whole produce aisle to make up for it today (and will continue this week).
  • Staying sharp.  This week goes back to medium – length workouts with little bits of speed.  It just gets shorter from there.  Hoping by race week, my legs will rested and begging for more.

This week’s plan, which can change at any point:

  • Runs: 8 mile run w/3 miles below race pace. 10k off the bike, race pace.  2 mile easy.  Intent: settling into race pace.
  • Bike: endurance cycle (indoors, safe, but also ass-kicking), 30 mile TT interval ride (before the 10k run). Intent: bringing down distance, bringing up intensity.
  • Swim: 2250m race pace swim in lake, 1500m pool swim with some speed.  Intent: sharpening the stick, settling into race pace.
  • Weights: 2 sessions.  Intent: stability.  (<- these are the last before I get back to it after the race).

Other than training and work, it was mostly eat and sleep, as a good peak week should be.  And while it was probably a little boring, I actually feel much better mentally, so it works out!  Highlights (and one lowlight) of the week:

oct10-3

  • Celebrating our anniversary with tacos and fancy whiskey on a schoolnight (though I actually found my bed pretty early, so it was still in the spirit of resting up!).
  • I tracked all my food!  I may have done my weekend tracking today, but I did it!
  • KONA!!! While it wasn’t the most exciting Kona ever (repeat champions who were significantly ahead of the second place finishers), it was SUPER inspiring to be watching it 3 weeks out of my race after a long brick instead of after my first long run of marathon season, like every other year.
  • Lowlight: as I’ve sort of alluded to above, our fridge started to slowly die this week, to the point where things weren’t REALLY frozen by Sunday.  Not exactly what I wanted to spend my day off dealing with, but we found a fridge that fit (not easy with our space), was under 1k$, and was available to be brought home immediately.  I sacrificed a little sleep and my knee, as I said, is a little cranky, but we didn’t waste any food because we jumped on it.

oct10-4

Instead of a fridge picture, here’s a giant pretzel and shepard’s pie and salad for lunch after the long run.  Considering some of my options, it was decent carbs and protein (dumpster option: fish and chips – I resisted).

I’ll call it a pretty successful week and we can all move forward with our Mondays, shall we?

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It will not always be this way.

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On October 6, 2016

In Uncategorized

So, I wrote this whole weekly wrap up thing and I just nuked it because if it bores ME, then I can’t imagine anyone else would be interested.

oct6-1

So, instead, a double rainbow. #whatdoesitmean

I think I’d rather talk about how I’m getting nervous for the race coming up.  With 3.5 weeks left to go, the calendar is at that uncomfortable spot where I’m fatigued from training, but it’s starting to close enough to get real.  How is it less than a month away?  How the heck am I ever going to feel rested again?  Can we get this over with so I can go back to base training for a little while?  Can I have a few more weeks to work on my cycling and running speed?  When am I going to get excited for this thing instead of nervous and just kind of tired of it?  Argh.

I’ve been thinking about how I will thrive there and races when I’ve felt the most successful.  I cave under TOO much pressure.  When I place a huge importance on a time goal, and the day pees in my sandbox, sometime I just say “fuck it” instead of just rolling with the punches and still getting close.  If I don’t put ENOUGH pressure on myself, when things get hard and it stops being fun, I’ll let off the steam instead of digging in because… whatever.  It’s just another race.  It’s that special combination of realistic and achievable but also challenging goals (and, ya know, meeting them) and magical unicorn pixie dust that really makes me zing on race day!

Looking over my past races, I’ve had days that I felt meh, even ANGRY about that ended up with some of my best age group placement or times.  But they’re not the ones I remember as my best races as of late.  Kerrville 2014 – I missed my overall time goal by 2 minutes but I stayed strong through the whole thing and didn’t give up and felt joy a lot of the time.  The Woodlands where I ran every step of the marathon, even if it wasn’t my fastest race.  Some of the shorter races where I found the edge and stayed there and held it together chanting three words over and over.

oct6-2

X-wing and Death Star are ready.  Am I?  Errr… I’ll get back to you on that one.

The half ironman usually goes like this for me… I generally have a good swim, a good to great bike (unless I crash), and then sputter and die on the run, except for that once where I didn’t completely (2014).  Here’s where I’m at right now:

  • The swim – I probably won’t have my fastest ever, but I shouldn’t be that far off as long as it’s wetsuit legal.  I know how to set myself up for a good day by not killing myself.  I’m going to do that.
  • The bike – here’s a source of my anxiety.  I’m not good at riding the new bike, but so far, that’s still translating to PRs in the sprints (about 1 mph) and the olympic (.5 mph, with rain).  This course is harder (more climbing, chipseal, etc).  So, I think one thing I need to do is just ride my best and let go of any expectations.  If it rains and I spend 75% of my time out of aero, I won’t berate myself.  If my legs feel off and I can’t manage 17 mph, I won’t sit there and cuss.  I know the *feeling* of the pacing I need to ride and whatever that translates to on the garmin and the power meter will suffice.
  • The run – here’s the other source of unease.  I really, really, really want to nail this run.  I probably have no excuse.  There’s very little elevation change and it’s very unlikely to be hot.  My run fitness is coming around and I ran low 10’s off the bike in a race in similar conditions and felt like I had a little more in me.  I really think this could finally be the race where I finally nail the run, if I don’t get in the way of myself.

Scared of failing, scared of succeeding.  This is my damn head right now.

It’s been an interesting training cycle.  Because I haven’t done the same thing over and over, I haven’t seen the same metered weekly progress.  It’s fits and spurts.  It’s a little more mystical than doing the same long ride every two weeks on the same bike and watching the pace improve.  Some rides are at 13 mph.  Some rides are at 15 mph.  Some are at 18 mph.  Sometimes the 15 mph rides are WAYYYY harder  than then 18 mph ones.  Some days I run 12 minute miles, some days I run 9 minute miles.  I don’t exactly know what to expect will come out on race day and that’s… both scary and exciting!

oct6-3

Some days it’s all smiles.  Some days it’s mental gymnastics to take every next step. 

I feel like training has been more flexible this time around, which has been great.  I am *just* now this week feeling the crush of fatigue and responsibility, like it’s stopped being so fun anymore.  Looking back, I maintained a training load of between 8-11 hours the last two months solid and this week won’t be any different unless a leg falls off somewhere between now and Saturday afternoon.  That feeling of it being a little much is fine.  It’s time to taper.  Just one more long workout and we’re there.

Does this mean I’ve pushed a week too long?  We’ll find out.  I’m embracing the fluidity – besides the two key workouts – a 14 mile long run (done – every soggy, sore, and mentally tough step), and a long brick this weekend, the rest of it is optional.  I bailed on a ride already this week in favor of rest (I read and slept for TWELVE HOURS) and split a run to make sure I wasn’t tearing myself up the day after (felt great and did all the miles, probably thanks to the above).  At this point, I’m nearing the end of training actually building endurance, and anything that doesn’t keep the legs fresh and/or doesn’t build my confidence for race day goes in the trash.

As for the fuel, a few weeks ago, I gave up on maintaining a deficit and giving in to eating my appetite.  Oddly enough, the weight loss I saw stop has slowly started crawling again (I think I’ve lost 1 lb on average over 2-3 weeks).  This is still that weird “wow, I look so bloated I don’t look cute in clothes but I still weigh less” loss that you get when you’re deep in season, but (healthy) loss is loss is loss.  I figured I was done for on the scale when I stopped really caring about the deficit, but the body sometimes knows better than some equation, I suppose.

oct6-4

Hello, lover.  This ramen (Spicy Miso Pork, from Jinya) is one of my current food crushes.  And it lives around the corner from work…

I’m really really (ok, fine) sort of trying to continue to track, simply because I think this would be great data for the push to IM.  It’s just… not my world right now to be all judgey about it so it’s hard to remember.  If I’m hungry, I’m going to eat a thing, no matter what Sparkpeople says.  I know 1200 calories per day is too cold.  2700 calories per day is too hot (at least at half ironman training levels, ~10 hours per week).  Still working on finding the porridge that’s JUST RIGHT.

One of those things I need to remember – it will not always be this way.  It’s hard to keep sight of that once you’re so deep in the extremes.  When you’re injured, it’s hard to envision a time when all the parts will work again.  When you’re dieting in offseason, it’s hard to remember that someday it will be required eating to shove 3-4k calories in your face in a day.  When you start your training program, it boggles the mind to think that you’ll be racing for 6+ hours, when an hour run seems exhausting (but you’re excited to get there).

Then two months pass and the pendulum swings the other way.  When you’re riding for multiple hours the umpteenth weekend in a row, you can’t remember a time when 45 minutes on the bike was enough, thank you very much.  When you’re deep in fatigue from training, you think you’ll never be rested or sleep enough again (but you know you will if you’re not an idiot).  When you’re racing, you will not be in pain forever.  The finish line has beer and chips and medals and most importantly, sitting.  Get to the beer and chips and sitting and how about a smile in the meantime that you’re able to be out here doing this crazy shit today, huh?

Rip Roaring Ride

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On October 3, 2016

In Uncategorized

Before this ride, Zliten said he was really nervous.  For some reason, I wasn’t.  At all.  Yeah, it would be our longest ride outdoors to date.  Yeah, it would set a PR for climbing (beating our mountain ride in Colorado by over 500 feet).  But I was totally calm about it.

oct3-1

I think it was the fact that it was fully supported, and I had 3 outs (turnarounds for the 28, 50, and 65 mile rides) if we really weren’t feeling it.  Frankly, we would also have SAG support in case of the worst.  Do I take those outs?  Rarely to never.  But… it always makes me feel better to have them.

Also, it wasn’t a race.  We had a time where we had to complete the ride by, but there was no timing, no placement, and no stress.  And I was on Evilbike, who’s become my best buddy this year.  Death Star is very sexy, but we are still getting acquainted.  Evilbike is <3.  After about 5 years of constant misunderstandings, we just get each other now.

In the morning, we drove up to Liberty Hill Elementary School, which we thought was an hour away but really was less than 30 minutes – score!  I completely did a stupid and didn’t eat anything pre-ride, just drank some decaf coffee with a little sugar in it, but since it was a supported ride with a buffet at each rest stop, I didn’t think much of it.  There was a chill in the air that morning, but the weather forecast said it should warm up rather quickly, so I decided to leave my sleeves in the car and deal with it.

oct3-3

We started out with the crush of people, and made our way further up to the front over the first few miles.  We couldn’t roll through the first 14 at 10 mph or we might not make it back in time!  The ride was supported really well, we had motorcycle escorts on the main road making sure cars were polite.  I want a motorcycle escort always please!

Then… it started to rain.  Cloudy, chilly, windy… I was really kicking myself for not bringing my sleeves.  It was probably the first 2 to 2.5 hours where I was cold, wet, and kind of miserable.  I don’t ride in the cold much.  This is the weekend my bike usually gets tucked away, except maybe a trainer session here and there, until Spring.  I guess I have some things to learn about riding in different seasons.  Next time, I will bring the sleeves.  I probably would have worn them most of the ride and even if not, they fit easily in my jersey pockets.

I made up for the fact that I didn’t eat by hitting up the buffets as we passed them.  Tally for the day: about 3 bottles of gatorade or gatorade-like substance, two date rolls, one caffeinated gel, one small brownie, a few handfuls of pretzels or chex mix, one pb pretzel bar, and one english muffin bacon and cream cheese sandwich, which I stuck in my shirt and ate from about mile 30 to mile 50.  I’m starting to think about what’s going in my special needs bags mid-bike and mid-run at IM Texas, and I’ll probably bring something like that.

We passed all the turnarounds, and committed to the longest ride.  We took the turn to do the loop that gives you the extra miles, and immediately was glad we did.  It was the prettiest section of the course.  I didn’t paparazzi a whole lot because we were working, but this is a great representation of what it looked like.  Sweet Texas country.

May2-3

We found a lot of downhill, which I just can’t bring myself to fully enjoy, because I know I’m going to pay for it, and pay for it we did.  Thankfully, the climb was gradual (but long), and we hit the over halfway point, the sun started to peek out, and I was like, “Ok, it’s going to be a long day, but I can totally do this”.

At some point in here, Zliten and I were riding together, a car was riding behind us, so he ushered me to get in front and we happened to turn around a blind corner right as a truck came the opposite way.  It wasn’t that close, but my adrenaline was definitely up for a bit after that.  Next time I’ll use my common sense and drop back instead.

For some reason, the last half of long rides are usually my favorite.  The beginning miles, I just start psyching myself out.  When I’ve covered some ground, my legs are usually warmer, and I’m feeling better and more confident.  In fact, I’d say that the ride was split pretty squarely in quarters.  The first, we were kind of miserable and cold and it took FOREVER.  The second, things were getting better.  The third, I was really enjoying myself and I took the lead for a lot of it.  It’s crazy, all my other 5 mile splits are 14 and 15-something mph, and then there’s this one that’s 17.8.  I found some flat (or more flat, we still gained over 100 feet), and I was pushing us.

Then, after about 55, we found those rolling hills that Zliten really likes, and he pulled me until we hit the main road again.  The last 25 miles, we averaged almost 16 mph while still doing a decent amount of climbing.  I may have sent some psychic cuss words at him, but I stayed with it and then all of a sudden we were back on the home stretch (which was a LOT less nice without our motorcycle escorts) and then the ride was done.  It was advertised at 79, we hit about 75, and I totally did not mind.

oct3-2

And then, after a distance and climbing PR, how do you celebrate?  By running, of course.  We changed into running shoes and at first my legs felt like lead, but after a minute or two they loosened up and actually felt really good!  I would have been happy to complete a mile at any pace after 5 hours on the bike, but one at 10:10/mile?  Super stoked.

I really wanted to get a good, over-distance ride in this half training session.  It was nice to ride 75 miles, and then run, and realize that I could definitely have done more on both if I was pushing to exhaustion.  I’d say I’m feeling it not in body soreness, but in a tiredness I can’t seem to sleep away (it’s the last peak week, this is normal for me, as long as I’m not stupid it will go away) and my appetite turned up to 11.  I have eaten ALL THE THINGS.

Two more feats of strength coming up this week, and then it’s time to start tapering!  Wheee!

Tales from last week

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On September 28, 2016

In Uncategorized

Rather than a normal summary, I have a lot of stories.  Let’s just go day by day, shall we?

sept28-1

Before my almost untimely death.

Monday:

  • 30 min office bands/bodyweight workout + stretch
  • 26 mile Taco Deli Ride with the faster people + commute to and from (1h45).

Today’s story is about asshole drivers.  I was having a fairly nice ride, and about 2 miles from the end, I came to a t-shaped intersection.  Stop signs on all sides, but there was nowhere for a car to turn the way I was going.  I’ve seen these at lights as well where signage tells cyclists to roll on through because nothing intersects your bike lane. My group rolled through, and so did I.

However, up ahead was a convenience store, and this jerk of a truck was really in a hurry to get there.  He pulled out in front of me into the bike lane, and stopped right in front of me, and I had to swerve around him.  I said something like “FUCKING HELL, MAN” and he happened to have his windows open and retorted “THERE’S FUCKING STOP SIGN” to which I retorted “NOT FOR BIKES” and we traded more insults like “FAT BITCH” and “ATTEMPTED CYCLIST MURDERER” and then we both rode on.

Things like this make me laugh when Austin is lauded as a great cycling city.  Sure, there’s a lot of us.  Sure, the infrastructure is getting better.  But until it’s not an accepted thing to almost cause accidents because something a cyclist did randomly pissed you off?  Fucking Texas, man.

It took me a bit to shake it off, but I eventually accepted that I earned a cycling achievement of “Get into an altercation with a bitchy driver” and ate pizza and rode bikes home.

Tuesday:

I’ll just refer you to the recap.  I don’t have much else to say besides we came home, drank some whiskey, and stayed up too late.  Oopsies.  At least it happened early in the week and not right before the race.

Wednesday:

I was too tired from being dumb the night before to ride bikes, but I did get in a strength set.

sept28-2

Costco ravoili lasagna, you deserve a special sort of fatty pants.

This day was also the day my appetite officially caught up with me.  I’ve been getting away with the -1000 calories-ish per day, and I wondered when that was going to end.  The answer?  September 21.  I have been eating closer to -500 to flush every day since and I’m ok with this.  My weight is still holding steady, and I’m simply thankful my body has tolerated a deficit for as long as it has.  Time to feed the beast.

Thursday:

  • Hour easy run (5.11 miles)
  • Commute + some – 12 miles (1:07)

After our morning run, we hopped on our cruiser bikes and commuted to work (4 miles).  So thankful for showers at work, I think they’ll be getting more use with our upcoming workout schedules.  At quitting time, we took the long way home (8 miles) and made it home juuuuust as it was getting dark.

sept28-3

You don’t smile like this on a car commute.  Just sayin’.

I think I’ve figured out a creative way to get 3 bike rides (on two different bikes) and two runs in in 3 days and cut out all car commuting on those days, but my office is definitely going to look like I live in it to accomplish that.  I’m sure they’ll deal with it.

Friday:

  • Off.

I ended up going to work and getting out earlier than Zliten.  I came home, and the house was at 87 degrees, but the AC was blowing (or so I thought).  I figured that the thermostat just glitched and it was cooling it down.  I packed up some of my stuff, and then went for a walk.  When I got home, it was still 87 degrees.  No bueno.  We blew out the hose with an air compressor, and thought it was fixed.

sept28-4

A perfect place to procrastinate.  And catch pokemans.

To let the house cool down, we went to dinner and randomly decided on Red Lobster.  I ate WAYYYY too much, though it was the night before the night before a long-ish race, so it was the proper day to feast.  I got a shit ton of shrimp, rice, salad, and ate almost THREE cheddar bay biscuits.  That’s more than a whole day’s worth of calories when I was dieting.

And then we came home… and it was still 87 degrees.  FUCK.  After considering just setting up the tent in the yard, we called an AC repair shop and ate the after hours 120$ fee.  Thankfully, it was fixed in no time, and not something we could have done on our own, but it definitely led to a much more stressful evening than you want on the night before the night before a race.

Saturday:

  • Shorty swim in the lake: 750m in ~15 mins

Lots of stories today!  Because of said AC issue, I decided I wasn’t setting an alarm and whatever time we woke up was fine.  We slept until about 9:30, and then finished getting our stuff together and headed out.  First stop was Quarry Lake to do a little shake out swim in our wetsuits.  It was still iffy whether it would be wetsuit legal.  It wasn’t, but I didn’t want to have my first wetsuit swim in months be the race.

After the swim, we hit up a sandwich shop.  So good.  A little small though, and we figured we’d just need some snacks soon.

We made the two hour drive to Kerrville, indeed stopping for snacks – watermelon, potato chips, and pretzels – at about 1.5 hours in.  We picked up our packets, dropped off the bikes for a night under the stars, dropped off our run bags, and headed to dinner (yes, more food).  I thought I wouldn’t be super hungry, but I tucked into a big plate of chips and salsa, rolls, salad, rice, and a giant chicken breast smothered in bacon and cheddar.  I ate every bite and I just felt satiated.  I was a little horrified to where I was putting all of this, but I trusted my appetite.

sept26-3

Finish line, pool, foods, more foods, goggles and earplugs, and getting bags packed.  My Kerrville Saturday.

We headed back to the hotel to get the rest of our bags together.  Part of the way through the process I realized I was missing things… all the things I used for my swim that morning back in Austin.  After tearing apart the car and the room, I called the gym and sure enough, my little red bag was there.  I could stop looking, but I was without goggles and earplugs and the expo was closed.  These things are kind of necessary for me to triathlon, so the hunt began.

Our first stop was a sporting goods shop.  They ONLY had one pair of goggles, and they were the kind that people that short distance pool swimmers wear.  I bought them just in case I couldn’t find anything else.  We then tried another “sporting goods” shop, but this place was something out of a horror movie.  The lights in there flickered ominously and barely worked.  They had everything from food to toys to (A SHIT TON) of hunting gear to greeting cards in no real discernible order.  We looked through the whole store and sadly, all the summer stuff had been put away.  No goggles.

At this point, I had half the equation, kind of.  We tried CVS, and while they had no goggles, they did have a decent ear plug section.  I grabbed two different waterproof kinds just in case (one regular, one kids size).  We tried one more store but it was the same deal – all the summer stuff had been taken off the shelves already.  Zliten asked if I wanted to drive the hour to San Antonio to get something better.  For this short of a swim, I said I’d make do, so we returned to the hotel.

The goggles came in parts – two eye cups, a band, a piece of string, and a plastic tube.  Zliten and I watched a you tube video on how to build the goggles because at this point, we had no backup, and wanted to get it right.  Once they were good to go, we went down to the pool to test them out.  The earplugs held up like champs, in fact, I like them better than the ones I’m using now.  The goggles… I was SURE on the first lap they were just going to flood, but after a few passes back and forth, and shaking my head vigorously under water, I was sold.  I mean, they were weird and very tight and if I had to do an IM swim with them I might have two black eyes by the end.  But they’d work for 20 minutes.

As we were soaking in the hot tub, we chatted up some ladies that were also doing the race.  After talking over the course, one of them mentioned that she wrecked on the big hill last year after colliding with someone.  I mean, a lot of people do stupid shit on that hill, but I may have run into the gal that took me down last year.  Zliten and I just glanced at each other and just continued the conversation.

Sunday:

I went into much detail above.  The rest of the day involved driving home in a torrential downpour where you could barely see the lights in front of you, getting takeout burgers, watching funny horror-ish movies, eating chicken pasta with extra veggies out of a bag, and vodka.  The end.

sept26-2

As for this week, it’s a pretty simple one.

  • Complete all training:
    • 2 strength sessions
    • 2 swims (1 done, 1 to go)
    • 2 rides: ~20 miles intervals on the TT bike, 79 mile hilly ride (Rip Roarin’ Ride)
    • 2 runs:  4 mile run (DONE!), 12 mile long run
  • Sleeeeeeeep.  There will be times to stay up late like a dumbass.  The next two weeks are NOT those times.  8. hours. or. more.
  • Eat.  If I’m hungry, put something in my face.  At least 5 fruits/veggies per day, more as I can tolerate the fiber.  100g protein.  25g fiber. Less than 60g fat.  Lots of carbs.  Track calories for data, but don’t obsess over the numbers.
  • Continue to weigh as data points.  If it starts trending up, then I’ll probably compromise a little on the point above but for now? It’s just information.
  • Say “fuck it” to all the little things that don’t actually matter and can wait until November.  Or at least later.  Peak week is procrastination week by design.

And with that, I’m off to procrastinate all the things!  Wheee!

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Kerrville Olympic-ish Triathlon – Dollars and Change

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On September 26, 2016

In Uncategorized

I have a whole lot of thoughts on and around this one, but I’ll stick to the race details here.  Kerrville Quarter Distance Triathlon race report GO!

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Sunday morning:

After a few issues including LEAVING MY GOGGLES AND EARPLUGS at the gym in Austin and not noticing until after the expo closed (more of this later), we awoke to rain overnight, and lightning arcing through the sky.  I fully expected the race to get cancelled and was already debating the contingency plans (really long trainer ride? just go home and drink mimosas?), but the lightning part went away so the race went on.

I felt like I had been eating non stop since earlier in the week (more on this later also), which meant I was fueled pretty well.  I also hadn’t, erm, emptied for a bit, so at one point in the porta potty line I told Zliten I was about to poop my pants or puke, I felt so full.  Not the greatest way to come to race morning, but after a few visits to my friend (Porta) John, it was all sorted.  Morning nutrition: cliff peanut butter filled bar, parts of a gatorade and nuun that didn’t fit in other bottles, a caff gel, and two electrolyte pills about 30 mins before the start.

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Random foods, schwag, the pool, the swedish goggles and CVS earplugs, and the Texas pool.

Swim:

Kerrville is a time trial start, which means you’re in a line like cattle, and then all of a sudden you hear your own personal GO.  Which, in this case, means you’re diving into the water and hoping to all that’s good and fishy that your new Swedish style goggles hold tight.  You’re trying not to think about the fact that Zliten just built them last night after an online tutorial, you only tested with about 50m of laps in the hotel pool, and you’re really hoping they do not fall apart or leak or fully burrow into you’re eye sockets or fill your head holes with lake.  This is not the case with every swim, probably never again, but this is the start of your Kerrville swim.

Oddly enough, after the initial 100m, I didn’t think about them much.  Though, I can still feel the bones around my eyes a little sore in some places today.  This lovely, glamorous sport we do, right?

I started out with the pass pass pass pass and then we joined with the half ironman swimmers, which was annoying, but I found some space and mostly avoided trading blows with people.  The very dark goggles + a super grey day + the murky lake = couldn’t see my Garmin for anything.  So it was swim by feel.

My goal was to pace this like the Splash and Dash, but I think I got caught up in the fact that I usually do a half ironman here, and paced it more accordingly.  I also have to remember it was not wetsuit legal, in fact, it was 82 degrees, so that also slows the swim times down.  The quarter (what they called it, half of the half distance race) let the ladies go first, which was nice, until I got beat up by the first two dudes from the guys wave after me about 100m from the shore.  Seriously?  Swim around me.  There’s plenty of space.  Sigh.  Dudes.

That may have harshed my mellow a little, but I got out, saw that I swam ~22 minutes and filed that away under “that could have been a lot worse”.  Whatever the race clock says, my garmin clocked me at 2:00/100m moving time, so I’ll take it.

Swim: 22:40 (2:16/100m), 8/18 AG. 

Transition 1:

T1 has this really steep hill.  Some years, I’ve walked it.  This year, I actually came out of the water feeling great, so I jogged up it and actually passed some people.  Yeah!  I did all the normal things, plus decided on bike gloves for comfort, shoved my shit in the T1 bag and ran off.  I know this is my fastest time, I think by a LOT, though no wetsuit to deal with helped, I was also racked in the back of T1, so I had to deal with my bike for a lot longer.  Hooray for avoiding transition gravity!

T1: 3 minutes flat, tied for 7/18 AG

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Dropping off death star for a an overnight sleepaway camp for bikes.

Bike:

Warning: gross triathlete stuff ahead.  I had to pee the entire swim, but couldn’t.  I figured, no time like the present.  No one was around, and I went ahead and let it go.  Baby’s first pee off the bike.  Major (long distance) triathlete milestone!  I had a brief thought about the shoe stench and then all of a sudden the sky opened up and started pouring, and I was like, “that takes care of that”.

However triumphant I was with peeing, and however thankful I was for the bath, it really wrecked my bike mojo.  I’d never ridden the death star in the rain, so I had no idea how it handled.  I still probably don’t, because I took all the turns at 5 mph and rode so incredibly cautiously I was probably making little old grannies look reckless.  I felt very uncomfortable in aero, so I’d say I spent MAYBE 25% of the race there (and that may be generous).

The course is a generally a gradual downhill on one half, followed by a generally gradual uphill.  The bad is that I took the downhill super conservatively, and I probably rode it slower than I ever have, and lost a LOT of free speed.  The good is that the uphill parts felt a lot less uphill than ever.  Since I’d never taken them before on the Death Star, I got prepared, plopped down into little ring and prepared for the worst… and then all of a sudden I was up them, no muss, no fuss.  My 5 mile splits ranged from 16.5 at the worst and 19.2 at the best, so if nothing else, I was totally consistent.

It wasn’t raining the entire time, but wet roads are slippery, and some parts of the course were not blocked off, and you had to ride a small shoulder.  Fucked if I’m going to be swerving out into traffic in the wetness in aero to pass people.  I did it a few times (not in aero), but I definitely got stuck behind people more often than I should have.  Also, I realized that my aero helmet wasn’t tightened down around mile 20, which made it slip all over so I couldn’t see well.  I thought it was just a tragic hair choice with a higher than normal ponytail I could never figure out how to fix.  Sigh.  I will be reviewing that move in transition practice at least 10 times before the next race.

I was happy on the out and back section I didn’t see Zliten.  I know that sounds mean, but he is just unbeatable this year and I always win Kerrville.  Looking at the times, later we were actually surprised and then did a Strava flyby… I was maybe 100 feet up the road when he got there.  Heh.

I suppose, subconsciously, I was a little fearful of that hill I wrecked on last year, even though I didn’t want to admit it.  But, again, I was prepared for the worst, and then up it like I climb that kind of shit every week (oh wait, I do…).  I rode the last 6 miles so thankful I has stayed rubber side down and had a functioning bike, unlike last year.  I probably spent more time in aero at the end than any other section and then all of a sudden there was the sharp turn into the park and lots of coasting and there I was at T2.

Am I a little disappointed in my bike split?  Sure.  However, I would have been more disappointed with myself if I crashed and spent the night in a hospital or wrecked my new bike or even had a minor injury plaguing me this week due to a low speed crash.  Safety first, kiddos!

Bike: 1:39:25 for 29 miles (17.5 mph).  7/18 AG.

Transition 2:

I ran my bike in and racked and dumped my bag.  I made the conscious decision to use my hokas with regular laces and take a few extra seconds to actually tie them, and with how WET my feet were, I was actually super happy I did.  No blisters!  Since it was cooler, I left my handheld bottle, but I grabbed the gels in it and headed out.

T2: 2:25.  7/18 AG

Run:

This is usually the bane of my triathlon existence, but today I felt weirdly set up for success.  It was cooler, I was not coming off the bike overheated like normal.  I was feeling… rather great, actually.  I got out on the course and let my legs dig in to the pace, and all of a sudden the first mile ticked in at 9:46… and I was like, ok, let’s keep this up!

I also realized that while I had fueled appropriately for the weather, I was only one gatorade and one gel into the day at 2 hours and change.  I felt fine then, but I knew I wouldn’t by the end.  I let the universe decide my fate – caff gel in one pocket, non caff in the other, and I got the non-caff.  Probably for the best because I actually fell asleep before 3am, though the caff gel probably would have helped me finish a little faster.  Tradeoffs.  I also made sure to take in a gatorade and a water at each aide station because cool and wet doesn’t mean I’m impervious to dehydration.

Just before mile 3, I did the calculations.  If I didn’t see Zliten until mile 3.5, I was beating him.  Then I looked up and immediately saw Zliten, running strong.  I felt happy for him but also checked in with myself to see what I had left and see if I could at least give good chase.  Survey says: I was not really to spend all my cash.  I wanted to keep some of the change.  In my head was the training I still have left to do for my A race.  Six days until a long hilly 80 mile ride.  Thirteen out from my long brick on the Austin 70.3 route.  That is the race where I throw all the dollars at the course and say “keep the change”.  Not this one.  Patience.

Also, I was already having a pretty phenomenal run split for me.  I debatably did better at Cap Tex last year (slightly better official time, but this course was long and that one was a little short), but I was in much better run shape then.  This was a pretty great victory.  I kept plugging away, fading to low 10 minute miles in the last half, but still very pleased with what my garmin was telling me.

We had some friends and BSS teammates on the course, and closing in on mile 5, I kept hearing Zliten behind me giving them encouragement as they passed (I give hi 5s, less talking/breathing).  I knew it was only a moment of time until I saw him and then… yep… decisive pass.  I did pick it up a little and kept him in my sights for the rest of the race, but there was no way I wanted to do what needed to be done to my legs right then to go with him.

I know there was some rain at points, but I don’t remember it.  I love rain when running.  I just kept plugging away and telling myself “10 more minutes of running, “5 more minutes of running” “3 more minutes of running” and then there was the finish and I ran across and it was 0 more minutes of running.

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Ganked from teammate Larry’s facebook.  Hopefully he doesn’t mind…  Before the rain and the sweat!

Run: 1:07:26 for 6.4 miles (registered 6.64).  10:32 official pace. 10/18 AG.

Without really meaning to, I kind of paced this race like my ideal half ironman.  I definitely had another loop of the bike course at that speed.  If it was the race where I spent all my dollars (and also, had maybe done more than one 10 miler :P), I think I could have done another loop of the run approaching that pace.  It was just getting cooler and cooler as it started raining harder, but as I said, I love running in the rain so I don’t think it would have bothered me.

I post race fooded pretty well, got a taco and some chips and some fruit, and a beer.  We sat around for a while and chatted, but got really cold and it started to pour.  The first time it let up a bit, we got our stuff, and got the heck out of dodge.  We had planned to stay and cheer and enjoy a few more beers and float in the lake.  Sorry half finishers!

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Only slightly resembling a drowned rat.

Total time: 3:14:57. 6/18th AG.  You’ll notice that I never placed above 7th in any individual discipline, but I ended up top 1/3rd anyway.  Consistency is key!

Immediately after the race, I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or disappointed with it.  There were high points and low points.  I had no mystical “third place” to chase down on the run (5th was wayyyy ahead of me).  I was motivated by Zliten chasing me, but not enough to not get caught.  However, I had a really solid day altogether, pretty good age group placement,  and one of my best longer distance runs off a bike yet.  After 24 hours, I think I’m ready to mark this one down in the WIN column.

What’s next? Two more recovery days, and then we jump back into peak training for a while.  In the next two weeks, I have a lot of running and riding to do, and I’m ready for the final push to Austin 70.3.

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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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