All you can do is tri

Don’t worry.  They didn’t cart me off from anywhere on the road today.  I’m thanking them, well one particular fire fighter, for giving me accurate directions for my ride today when I was completely lost.  I was attempting to ride around Lake Washington today.  There are signs in various places claiming that there is a Lk. Washington Loop, meaning a trail all the way around the lake.  That would be a loop, no?  Well, I was in the middle of Redmond/Bellevue with no lake in sight.  I had passed said fire station before I had decided to stop and ask for directions.  I was just going to ask to take a look at their map, but this fire fighter had actually ridden around the lake a few times and knew the route.  I was off the mark, but not terribly astray.  Within 2 miles, I was looking at the lake again.  Whew! 

The ride around Lake Washington is somewhere around 60+ miles.  I didn’t actually find out since I cut the ride off at the distance I needed to cover and cut across I-90.  I ended up riding 57 miles today in about 4 hours.  Slow, but I got the distance done and that’s all that matters.  My race next weekend is 58 miles.  Now I’m probably going to just lay off of the bike until the end of next week before the race.  In the past week, I’ve ridden 99 miles and I can feel it.  I could feel it at mile 30 actually.  I was tired.  Hills were no longer manageable.  And even just keeping my speed at 15 mph was a chore.  So I think my legs are a little tired.  I did ride up a lot of hills on my way to mile 30.  Pacific NW = Hilly terrain.  I think I went up a few hills that were a few miles long.  I was able to cruise up those, but apparently I was paying for it later. 

To start my day, I ate a big breakfast.  Went for a 30 min swim.  Had lunch with a friend.  Then around 4pm I left for my ride.  I felt really strong in the beginning, which made the end feel treacherous.  I was comfy and flexible in the aero position off the bat.  Rode there quite a bit in the first 20 miles.  In the beginning of my ride, I was passed by a commuter on a Mt. Bike.  Grrr.  I was feeling a little rediculous on my Cervelo.  But I WAS taking it easy since I had a long ride ahead.  After this, I was greeted by another triathlete who is doing IMC this year.  It was cool to be encountered like that on the bike.  We talked about our upcoming races, etc.  After a few minutes, he said good day and took off on his Softride and his IMC tat on his right calf.  Pretty cool.  Further up the trail I re-encountered the commuter and asked him if I was on the right track for the trail.  He led me to the next trail 5 miles down the road and then we parted ways.  Fast forward to the Redmond Fire Dept.  The next 10 miles were pretty uneventful.  I got back to the Burke-Gilman trail (finally something familiar!).  This is where things got interesting.  I lost a CO2 cartridge (scratching head).  It fell off of my X-lab hydration kit.  I went back and got it, but was a little confused since I had just screwed it on before I left.  Apparently not as tight as it could’ve been.  I screwed it back in nice and tight and went on my way.  Stopped at a park bathroom to refill my water bottles.  I had three of them.  I had gone through two already and was currently working on my third when I stopped.  Shortly afterward, I went over a bunch of bumps in the asphalt where tree roots had begun to make their escape to the other side.  There were a bunch of them in a small area.  This was enough to catapult one of my water bottles in the back cages.  Lost some water, but not much.  This is where I began to really feel tired.  Not good since I had 30 miles or so left.  Was it the lingering effects of the 42 miler from last week?  Was it the swim earlier in the day?  Don’t know. 

Hmm… upon review of my next to last post, I’ve ridden 137 miles in the last week and a half.  Good thing I’m staying off the bike for a week or so for my taper. 

Anyhow, lost another bottle out of the back cages next to the UW medical center.  This is where I learned I can make the “grab”, for lack of better words, tighter by squeezing the cage and making it more narrow.  This is a terrible way to explain this, but it’s all my brain can muster at this point.  Fixed that.  Got myself to the I-90 bridge.  Hallelujah.  BUT, there is a giganto steep hill up to the bridge bike lane.  I made it up part of the hill, but almost fell over when I had to turn and ride up the rest of the adjacent hill.  I decided I would walk up since I didn’t have the energy or the muscle power to get up that hill on my bike.  Lame?  Yes.  But I had to push on.  I absolutely hate walking up hills in bike shoes.  I sometimes have to do it when I’m in the same situation but on other unfortunate steep hills, but not too often.  So I took the shoes off and walked in my socks.  That felt good.  I was a bit embarrassed everytime I was passed by a cyclist going down hill, but I HAD just ridden 45 miles.  One guy asked if I was okay.  I just replied, “Yeah.  Tired, tired legs and 45 miles.”  Got to the top, reapplied shoes and hopped on the bike.  Ah, I-90.  I was almost home.  At least it wasn’t windy on the bridge today like it was the other day.  Didn’t make it nearly as bad.  By this point, my neck was hurting, the aero position was not an option and I was sore.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t muscle soreness.  I can’t figure out if it’s the seat, my bike shorts, or my anatomy.  I apologize if this is TMI, but skin was getting pinched in my groin and it basically hurt for 2/3’s of the ride.  OUCH.  It was pretty much uncomfortable to ride for the last 30 miles.  I’m so glad to be off the bike, but what am I going to do about race day?  Gotta figure something out. 

As for nutrition, I went through 4.5 bottles of water.  One of which had a tablet of Nuun Tri-Berry in it.  I also took in three Accelerade gels.  I learned that this was probably not enough nutrition.  I think I might have been in a better place at the end had I had more calories on board.  Good thing I found this out today.  I think I’m gonna end up filling up one of my bottles with Ensure or Soy milk for more calories on top of the gels.  Hopefully, that plus the rest I’ll get this week will help me out on the bike portion next week. 

Afterwards, I ate a little something and then spent 30 mins in the hot tub at my apartment complex.  When I got back to my apt, I had no energy or creativity to cook anything.  So I hopped in my car and ended up at a mexican restaurant.  I scarfed down the beans and rice in less than a few minutes.  Inhaled is more like it.  By the time the waiter came over to see how everything was, the beans and rice were gone and I was already going on the huevos rancheros.  YUM!!!!  And homemade tortillas!  I was in heaven!  I felt super full afterwards, but it was well worth it.  

During the last 30 miles, I was thinking about how to say thank you to the fire fighter for leading the blind home.  I thought about the brownie mixes I had in the cupboard.  Perfect!  Except that I didn’t have any cooking pans.  I don’t know how I expected to cook them for myself.    I figured they have to stay up all night and they have access to a kitchen at their station, so . . . I took them two boxes of triple fudge brownie mix and one box of blueberry muffins.  When I got to the station, the same fire fighter was in the garage on the phone.  Awesome!  I got to thank him in person and give him his gift to share.  He said it wasn’t necessary, but I thought it was.  His directions were right on and he got me back to the side of Lake Washington that I am familiar with.  

Today was also a good challenge for my mental training.  There were times when I wanted to stop and rest and try to recover for the rest of the ride.  But I kept telling myself - I’m not going to do that in the middle of a race so I just need to keep pushing.  I need to know that I can do the distance without stopping, with the exception of flying CO2 cartridges and water bottles.  I made it with out having to stop which was good mental training.  Hopefully, it will come through next weekend. 

So there it is.  My half great/half treacherous bike report.  I’m hoping it’ll be a bit different next weekend.  Time to drag my weary a$$ to bed now.      

Ran for about 4 miles in 41:52 after work today.  Felt really good for the most part.  I took it slow on the out portion of my out and back route.  Near my turn around point, there was a woman that passed me going the other way.  When I turned around a minute later and crested the hill I had just run down, she was ahead of me.  On a side note, I read Joseph Vinciquera’s Mooseman race report http://trifuel.com/training/endurance-files/race-report-mooseman-half-ironman/ last night at work and he had talked about needing a “carrot” to chase during his race.  Seeing her in front of me reminded me of his report and I made her my carrot.  I think this was her LSD day, because she’s smaller than me and I was catching up to her.  I’m pretty slow as runners go, so I was surprised to be catching up to her.  But I took advantage of her training regimen and worked on my increase of speed on the way back home.  I almost caught up to her and probably would have, but she turned and saw me and sped up a bit.  <shrugs shoulders>  Oh well.  She made me work and it was a good run.  I got what I needed out of it.   

Now I’m off to bed since I work again tonight, 7p-7a.  Tomorrow’s a long training day of swim and bike after work.  I’m officially two weeks out from Pac Crest.  <eek!>

Since I have this rockin’ head cold, I wasn’t sure if I should be exercising or not.  Would it make it worse?  Would it help it out?  You may be thinking, she’s a nurse, wouldn’t she know?  Yes, but the athlete in me kind of wants to take over and just push through it. 

The athlete won today.    I ended up going for a long ride of 42.2 miles in order to visit my favorite tri shop and have them install my Xlab water bottle holder/CO2 cartridge holder because for some reason, I was having an inept moment when I tried to install it myself.  Turned out that as long as I was riding, my head cold didn’t rear its ugly head.  Unfortunately, when I stopped, it came right back.  So midway through my bike ride, I got to the tri shop and then stopped off for some coffee and sushi for a snack.  Yum!  Okay, maybe not together, but separate yums!  Ugly head reared half of that time.

The ride back home was pretty tiring for some reason.  I had to go slow on all hills.  Grrr.  Oh, maybe it’s because I rode 38 miles on Saturday and haven’t really been keeping up with my long rides like I should have?  :)  And I’m sick.  Go figure.

And the cold?  Well, it’s back with zest.  Throat wasn’t hurting this morning.  It is now.  Gonna try an get a lot of sleep tonight to counter act the athlete’s silly decision, as well as pop some vitamin C and Emergen-C.  I might throw some Cold Season tea in there too.  Again, not all at once. 

So that sleep thing hasn’t happen much.  My throat hurt too much and then I started coughing up yellow junk that probably festered while I was biking because it wasn’t flowing.  Fixed the throat eventually, but here I am at 5:30a up typing on my blog and not asleep…  So much for the plan.  Maybe NOW I can get some sleep.  At least it will get me prepped for staying up all night and sleeping all day tomorrow before I go into work.  This could be the bright side of it.  I’m off to find the sandman. 

More specifically, a sinus infection.  My face, teeth, and throat hurts.  I think my pace right now is one tissue per 1-2 minutes.  Thankfully, I have three boxes of tissues.  Hopefully I won’t run out. 

Speaking of running, I had planned on running 5 miles today.  I’m not so sure that’s gonna happen now.  I have a lot of hydrating to catch up on since I’m losing a good amount of water through my snot.  Sorry for the TMI, but it’s the truth.  I’m trying to OD on Vit C and echinacea, all though it may not even help at this point. 

There was a bit of foreshadowing to this cold.  At the team BBQ the other night, we took a little quiz to win prizes and one of the questions was ”What should you do 4-6 hours after your race?”  The answer was to avoid crowds.  This is apparently when your immune system is at it’s most vulnerable.  I was cycling during the 2-3 hours post race.  Showered, fed, and asleep during the 4-6 hours post race.  At a movie theater and restaurant 10-15 hours post race.  So I was definitely not out during the aformentioned vulnerable hours, but yet I still got sick.  The time span must be longer post race.  Oh well.  Lesson learned and more rest to be attained. 

The laughter just keeps growing.  :)  I think I’m fortunate that I am able to laugh at the things that happen to me sometimes.  Today was pretty funny!

Got to my race, met up with my teammates and struggled into my wetsuit.  Did a quick warm up swim and felt good.  Swim start went off without a bang for the first 3 mins.  Then I started to get claustrophobic in my wetsuit and couldn’t get a good breath in.  Got to the first bouy and was starting to panic.  I raised my arm for a kayak and yelled over to them to come get me.  I HAD to get out of that wetsuit!  I grabbed onto the kayak and asked the guy if I could give him my wetsuit.  He obliged and off it went!  Then off I went and finished my swim.  Thank goodness!  It took me a few minutes to catch my breath and get into my swimming, but once I did it was good.     I’m probably the only one in the world to take off a wetsuit during a tri, but it was my only way to finish. 

The bike was great!  Passed quite a few guys which was interesting, fun, AND awesome!    I LOVE my bike!  Such a smooth, fast ride.  And sooooo comfortable!  I felt like I could ride forever.  My average MPH definitely increased compared to my avg on my road bike.  The bike portion was uneventful otherwise.  Sadly, some people had flats and one even rode into a ditch accidentally. 

The run was where my GI system decided to tell me it was unhappy about all of the air and water I swallowed during the swim.  I was bloated, gassy and crampy.  grrr.  I had to stop and walk a few times in order to let the cramps pass.  I definitely need to work on my run though.  That used to be the part I was best at.  The bike has taken over, which is cool, but now that I’m healed it’s time to dedicate more time to the run. 

After the finish, my teammates and I basically walked all over trying to find where my wetsuit had ended up.  I told the guy my name and race number when I gave it to him and he made sure it got to lost and found, which was very cool.  I was soooo grateful.  It definitely made for a funny story and my teammates thought it was hilarious but were also completely understanding, as a few of them had panic moments near the first bouy as well. 

After the gear was retrieved, I joined a couple of my teammates and we rode around Lake Sammamish - 23 miles total.  We rode at a nice pace.  Not too slow, not too fast.  Which was good, because there were a couple hills that I had to struggle up.  Tired legs. 

Last night, my team also had a BBQ to kick off the season and socialize a bit.  There was a raffle for a couple of big races.  I entered the raffle for the Grand Columbian Half Iron and actually won one of the slots.  Granted, only three of us entered it.  Fabulous odds.    That race is Sept 15th.  I was planning on doing it anyway, but hadn’t signed up yet.  I’m pretty excited about it.  It should be a fun race. 

Today was a great assessment of where I am at, physically.  I’m kind of thinking about changing my race distance for Pac Crest from Half Iron to Olympic due to my lack of run prep.  But we’ll see.  I’m gonna try to do some last minute cram sessions and see what happens, all the while being careful not to get injured.  I also learned that I need to soak my wetsuit for 5 mins in the tub and then when I’m actually in the water to fill it up with water so that it’s not so tight.  I also learned I have very supportive, fun and dedicated teammates. 

Yea Emerald City Multisport!  Btw, our team shirts have the Blazeman logo with his date of birth and his date of passing, in memoriam.  It makes our shirts extra special and motivating. 

I’m not sure if those two words are actual words in the dictionary, but they best describe my morning today. 

First off, let it be known, that I was voted most accident prone my senior year of HS.  So the rest of this should not come as a surprise. 

I came off the night shift this morning at 7:30a at the hospital (3rd 12 hour shift in a row) and progressed toward the fitness center at the hosp.  Planned to do a short run and short swim in preparation for my first tri of the season tomorrow morning.  Ran for 15 mins on the treadmill, incline of 1.5.  Hopped off to get a towel before I did my 5 min cool down walk.  I left the treadmill going when I hopped off.  Accident # 1 - stepped onto the moving belt at the end, fell down catching myself with my hand, hurting my wrist and seriously tarnishing my pride and ego.  OMG!  Too bad no one had a video camera to capture it.  Two older men were there and they asked if I was okay and if I needed help.  They were nice enough not to laugh, at least on the outside…  I cut my cool down walk short and headed off to the pool.  Accident # 2 - As I was on my way to the shower to rinse off before going to the pool, I slip on the floor and end up jamming my big toe into a randomly placed tile molding on the floor.  YOWCH!  It still hurts.  Sometimes I can’t believe that some of these things happen when they do.  They definitely make me laugh, which I did a lot of today.  But now my toe hurts to stand on and I may end up having to walk the 5k portion of the tri tomorrow.     I’m icing as I type.  Hopefully that will help. 

Sometimes I wonder if things like this are meant to be a message or sign that I shouldn’t be working out or doing what I’m about to do….  Wish I knew.    I might not be so accident prone then.   Guess I’ll have to look forward to laughing more…. 

Our ALS Warrior Poet has passed on.  Jonathan Blais passed away this past Sunday evening.  He gave ALS a good 2 year fight.  I wouldn’t necessarily say that he lost the battle.  Maybe the physical battle, but not the monumental long term battle.  He got the word out about ALS by doing what he loved - triathlon.  He in turn, inspired many of his fellow triathletes and non-triathletes to get the word out and raise money for a disease that does not get the kind of research attention it deserves. 

Anyone who has read “Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom knows how debilitating ALS is.  It’s amazing that Stephen Hawking is able to live with it to this day.  As a nurse, this is one of the saddest diseases I’ve seen.  Blazeman fought with his heart and soul to get word out and make a difference in this world.  Millions of more people now know about ALS who didn’t before or didn’t understand the disease process itself.  His spirit will be missed, but never forgotten.  He touched many peoples hearts with his speeches, his career as a teacher, and his ability to not let a terrible disease get the best of him.  I will proudly wear your logo on my jersey as part of my triathlon club uniform for Emerald City Multisport. 

We’ll miss you Blazeman/#179.  

www.alswarriorpoet.com

Didn’t do as much as I would’ve liked this weekend, but did get some training in. Didn’t do anything Sat since I got off of work at 7:30a that morning.  I take that back.  I commuted by bike to work the night before and back home that morning.  Almost forgot about that.  

Went to the swim clinic on Mercer Island with a friend yesterday.  Seems I lost some of my technique in the last month from not swimming.  I found out I’m putting my head under water when I swim which makes it harder in several ways - turning to breathe and going forward efficiently - and angling my hand upward after it enters the water, before I bring it down to pull.  Funky swimmin’.  Easy fixes though.

Today, ran 3.67 miles in 40 mins.  Slow, but not bad for not having run much lately.  Followed it up with a 10 mile bike ride over 48 mins.  Not as fast as I thought I was going.    I tried working on the uphills by actively using my calves to crank the pedals and increase my cadence.  Even though I was trying to spin up the hill, I think I ended up mashing up the hill due to the extra effort of the calves.  That was tough.  There were a lot of bugs out today.  Swarms of them.  Thankfully, I wore my sunglasses.  Definitely ate a few, spit one out and collected the rest on my shirt and shorts. 

I’m having to admit to myself that I’m constantly dealing with my inner demons.  I try to trick myself that I’ve dealt with them once and they won’t return ever again and I can move on (hence some of my posts), which is extremely naive of me.  This is not the case in any way, shape or form.  I have to deal with them in everything I do on a daily basis, as I’m sure everyone does.  Waking up.  Getting out to train.  Doing anything all the way rather than half fast.  Etc.  Today, it was getting out of bed.  So tired today.  Got to the bottom of an uphill on the bike and tried to talk myself into turning around and going home.  Why??  Why say no to getting stronger, faster, fitter?  Why say yes to not becoming the athlete you want to become.  This was my inner dialogue during the ride.  Even before I left for my run, I had to tell myself to not think, just do. Just get dressed for the run.  Don’t think about anything else.  Focus on getting dressed and out the door.  It worked, but sheesh.  I’m really amazed and disappointed that it takes this much to get me out of the house.  I’m fine once I get out of the house, but it’s almost as though the house is magnetized and I have a hard time getting away from it’s pull.  I want to get out and train and know that I should, but I get stuck. 

If you’re reading this, sorry about the rant.  I guess I just needed to get all of that out of my head and into some concrete space where they can swim bedsides in my head. 

Well a lot has changed since the last time I blogged.  THAT was a dreary day.  But after a lot of thinking about life, needs and wants, I’ve decided it would be better for me to stay in the PacNW for at least another year.  Long story short, there is no tri community in NM, nor greenery, or my friends.  When I go to NM I never see anyone out running or riding their bikes, etc.  Here, they are everywhere.  Once I changed my mind I felt a big weight come off my shoulders.  Interesting…

Well May is nearly over and my race season is about to begin.  Sprint tri next weekend, June 2nd - B race.  Pac Crest Half Iron at the end of June - A race.  July 8th, 2 days after my 30th b-day (woo hoo!), my first Oly tri, STP the following weekend and then I think I’m going to do the Grand Columbian Half Iron Sept 15th.  Might as well, eh? 

I haven’t even thought about my race plan yet.  Next weeks race is a B race to prep for Pac Crest, guess I should give it some thought.  Especially since it’s my first tri in 4 years.

List o’ stuff to bring:

Bike

Bike shoes

Running shoes

Race belt

Nutrition

Wetsuit

Water bottles

Goggles

Swim cap

Tri outfit

Bike shorts

Socks

Road ID

Helmet

Sunglasses

Watch

Race Number

Extra tube/CO2 cartridge

Towel

Flexibility for any situation

Fun for the whole thing

Courage for the swim

Did I miss anything?

I’ve been feeling quite lethargic lately.  I haven’t been wanting to get out of bed or do my long workouts.  I was feeling good before this.  I can’t quite figure it out.  I’m not sick.  I’m getting sleep.  I’m getting rest from training.  I’m eating properly.  I do know that I haven’t had light therapy in about three weeks.  I got burnt last time, so I’ve avoided it for a while.  I think it’s time to get back to it.  Light therapy (tanning) was really making a difference in my mood, drive, and motivation.  I feel like it’s been sucked out of me this week.  Light therapy will be my first priority today. 

I can’t wait to get out of this gloomy state! 

That said, I haven’t been keeping to my training plan this week.  I couldn’t wake up early enough on Tuesday to get my run in.  Wednesday, I did swim for 40 mins but I got bored and almost cut it short.  Ended up doing sprint reps, 25 m/y x 10 reps.  Made it more interesting.  I also did make it to the Computrainer session only to find out I had another broken spoke.  2nd one in the last 1.5 months.  I guess when one goes the rest start to go thereafter.  So I didn’t get to workout on the Computrainer, but did get to buy a new wheel.  I almost bought a whole new bike, but pulled the reigns in and was a good girl.    Very tempting though.  Carbon is so light compared to my bike made of steel. 

So I guess lethargy only got the best of one day….  I’m taking the reigns back today though, as I can’t let anything get in the way of my training. 

Speaking of, I ran today.  Well, really I ran/walked.  Dissapointing tired run.  But at least I got out there.  30 running, 30 walking.