Back in business!

Scottish Rite 5k! Wicked hilly course. 2nd female overall!!!!

Yay! DNF no more! 

Friends who raced with me: Rose, Jeanette, Amanda.

In exactly 365 days to the hour I plan to be past the finish line in the Olympic oval, ironman lake placid 2012. To that end, swim lessons continue, awaiting my bike, run training in high gear, adding in a strength routine next week, and signed up to have a coach review my training logs at beginner triathlete.  

Game on!


Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Bouncing Back

Well a year ago, someone at work told me that I would not find out how right away, but that my life was going to change somehow because of my Ironman Lake Placid finish.  I can't say much changed in my life over the 2011-2012 training season.  I began to think of myself as a real bad ass iron distance triathlete but that's about it.

Fast forward one year and a DNF later, and strangely I think I am a better person for the DNF than for the medal.  Odd I know.  I need a little more time to process this all before I go public with the news that I am a 2013 entrant. 

The few people that do know however have commented that it is more inspiring to see me bounce right back than to finish last year.  I also feel more humble, and am striving for a more balanced approach to all of this.  I think I feel and look more at peace depsite another year's enormous task ahead. 

As above, I need a little more time to process this all for myself.  I am still not sleeping at night.  I am OK till the lights go out, but when they do my mind is wide awake with the vision of my chain getting stuck in the crank out in Wilmington and three little letters: D...N....F....

Is it a great idea to enter another race a mere 6 days out from an Ironman start???  Probably not, but I entered a the Scottish Rite Freemason 5K on Saturday. I am hoping a halfway decent race helps erase my insomnia.

Two other things I have done- I set up my bike trainer on the absolutely highest resistance. For the next 1 year and 1 day I will grind out those intervals until I am in tears, going at 4 mph and feeling exactly as if I am in Wilmington. Next year I will own that stretch of road and I will be on a bike that will not break down. The other thing is that I have reviewed my second swim video.  I see what the coach is talking about-  I am like a windmill, constantly churning up the water and wasting a lot of energy pushing down.  My stroke is not fluid and efficient like Mr. Phelps.I'm working on straightening this out. Next year, I am going 1:30 or better in Mirror Lake. 

Here's the link to me churning away in the pool. It's mad exercise, but not not very fast or efficient in this manner.

www.http://youtu.be/lxT7tqGe86l

Also note that although I did not finish the race, I still got to take home the nice Ironman Tan!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Redo

Ok. Up all night with thoughts of my DNF. But time to move on. I had a good day. I met Mom @ Starbucks, she gave me a beautiful bracelet which is inscribed with the words Believe in Yourself. We went over to he bike shop to check out mg bike which is still being built. I dropped off my DNF bike there, they will take off some of my better upgraded components and put them on the new bike. Then I met with Cathy, a swim coach in Long Meadow, Ma. Who gave me some insight as to the chain of events that ultimately ended in my chain failure and ended my race. On a more personal note, I used some of my time today to clean, get organized, and talk to my husband about straightening out the issues between us. So now I'm going for a run (zone 1 only) because I guess Project Redo is on!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

DNF @ Lake Placid

Well not even 48 hours have gone by. The short version of my IMLO 2012 race report is DNF.

It seems so surreal. I trained harder than last year and I don't know what happened.

In actuality, over the off season last year I did a lot of things right like maintaining a solid base, getting a real bike fit, swim clinic and video analyisis, and added a lot of hill training to my bike workouts.

Race morning started out OK. So I'll first mention the things that went right out there, and then wherein I think the problems were as race reports can be so tedious to read.

The Good:

Zero pre-race nerves

No panic in the mass swim start

No penalty on the bike course

Nailed the descent x 2

Grabbed water ect on the go

Without stopping-- better bike handling skills

The Bad:

Slow first swim lap, I think I tried to make up time and ended up doing more thrashing than anything

For some reason felt like my bell got rung in the swim

I will never do this again, but took a 5 HR energy shot supplement in T1 which shot my heart rate through the roof

I think the bike seat was too low, and I lost major power and time

When the winds kicked up, I could not handle it

The Ugly

So dehydrated after 12-14 bottles if water I still was producing zero urine

By the time I hit the notch in Wilmington, I was done. I wanted out, and then dropped my chain which got mangled into the crank. That was pretty much curtain call for me as time was evaporating

The Upshot

I learned so much.

I really really know my weaknesses better than before.

I did actually get the chain back on and completed the 112 miles

I can run free this fall and not worry about the extensive recovery time ironman takes.

I have a plan. One that may work with my life.

When I got home, unpacked, picked up the dogs from the kennel, ect I checked the website. I don't know how this could be possible but I picked up a spot for next year @ 4:33 pm. Just minutes later the website was stating the 2013 race had sold out.

Get ready for another trip around the oval.

My sign- for the Wilmington Climb

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Had to be first at something!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Rack and roll time!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Checking in!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

2 weeks

Today is 14 days out from the race. I reviewed my training log from last year. I see I reported a moderate, regular amount of fatigue as well as being mentally tired of the workouts.
With an additional year of high volume training, I think both my body and mind have become stronger. After yesterday's 5k, I nailed the 2.4 mile swim and afternoon brick. Unfortunately I had some worries on my mind, and only slept about 2 hours. Still got out for my long ride this am. I followed the MS 50 bike route which conveniently runs past my house. I had my best training ride EVER. This is in stark contrast to last year's light entry for this workout which said, " felt lousy" , so lousy that I did not even save any metrics. But I do remember the.misery!
Next weekend, it will be time to start packing.
The following weekend, it's show time!
Aside from race preparations, I am also preparing myself for that post ironman cliff, which I hope not to fall off again this year. Signed up for some fall races, including the Newington Bike Olympic tri, the Women's trial, Hogssback half, Wineglass, and Philly. Thinking about the Lake Taramungus open water swim well.
Uploading the map of today's ride.

Red Dress 5k Photo- Amanda and Me!

Red Dress 5k

It was a super hot morning for a race, but as always the Hartford Marathon Foundation put on a great show.

Personally, I had a great race. I weighed in at exactly the same weight as last year for this race morning, and am in the same place with my ironman training (read wicked tired!).  So those variables are controlled, but I am one year older...

My mental focus is much better now I think, I often feel like I don't match up to the faster looking runners. But I realized, for all I have been through, looks aside I know how to suffer. More. More than many others. So on this confident note, I arrived before 7 am, checked in and ran the course. Compared to my ironman training routes, the "hills" on this course seemed inclines.  I tried to relax with heart rate monitor biofeedback before the race, it worked - I almost fell asleep under a tree.

When the start time came, I lined up in the front-page not saying I am fast mind you, but I know how to suffer and gut out a 5k.  Unfortunately,  I went out with the lead pack and stayed with them through mile 2ish. This wound up being 6:36 pace, at least for mile one. I know that I am not trained to hold that kind of pace right now, ironman is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. But I decided to hang on and work the hills the bast I could. Finished in 22:01, 22 seconds faster than last year, kicking it home for the old folks and vegetarians out there! Yes, it can be done.

So now I have to dial it in a bit, I still have a 4200 yard (2.4 mile swim), then a bike ride/ run combo workout (aka brick) today, and then a long bike ride tomorrow.

Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a taper...this does not sound very restful to me!  Oh well, I guess they don't call it ironman for nothing!

Timex run gps

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Taper

This week marked the second to last phase of ironman training - the taper.  In my limited experience, getting this part right is an art. I am loosely following the program's recommended taper, but making adjustments based on very careful self monitoring and comparing workouts, comments ect. From last year during the same time.  My focus right now is rest, race prep, and a slight increase in intensity while keeping the frequency the same and dropping the volume.

The other major focus is mental-keeping a sharp focus on what I need to do,  not allowing interference from the type of craziness generated by competition, forums, ect.  Trying to learn to relax deeply and channel my mental energy.

Another change is the 4 am alarm, every day even if no am workout planned. By the end of the month,  this will feel completely natural to be up and around pretty early.

In other news, I have acquired a Timex GPS watch/ heart rate monitor.  It works well, I don't think that it can be beaten for the price. Having fun looking at my results on a map when I get home.

Well in the theme of increased intensity, going to a local 5k today. Looks like it is going to be hot today, I would like to run around 7:10 pace but we'll see what happens with the temps, it might just turn into a race if attrition.

Pic of the Timex GPS run trainer to follow.

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.