Big Breakthrough!

So training has not been going all that well since the race. The week after the race was just bad, and last week I just couldn't find the time to fit it in without losing the few marbles I have left.

I did manage to squeak in an unanticipated 2 mile run on Monday, and either Tuesday or Wednesday (is it bad I can't remember?) I went for a swim. I was pleased with that swim because I was able to get 2 laps of freestyle and one length backstroke for 20 laps. Then I went out of town on Thursday-Sunday and got no training in at all! Plenty of eating though. Nom nom nom.

I thought I might not get a chance for much training in this week either, but on Tuesday I was able to go to the gym and do some interval training on the treadmill. I don't have any particular information on interval training for running, but I used the pyramid from my spinning video - warm up several 30 seconds 6 mph, 30 seconds 4 mph for 3 sets, and then 30 seconds run, 30 seconds walk; 60 seconds run, 30 seconds walk; 90 seconds run, 30 seconds walk; 60 seconds run, 30 seconds walk; 30 seconds run, 30 seconds walk. I took a couple minute break in between and then repeated the pyramid. I was feeling a little pooped after that and my heart rate was a little higher than it should be so I took some time to cool down a little before attempting to jog again, only then my knees were acting funning so I mostly just walked for a bit.

The biggest breakthrough for me, however, was my swim session in the pool yesterday. I got in the water and was feeling pretty relaxed and groovy. I did 3 or 4 laps to warm up and then I started to swim. I was on lap 2 or 3 when I decided I would try to kick turn. Which totally didn't work. After I came up for air and tried to stop coughing, I backstroked my way to the starting point to catch my breath and decided I would start over again. My goal was to swim 5 laps in a row freestyle before needing to backstroke. Imagine my surprise when I got through the 5th one and felt like I could keep going! It did get a little tougher to breathe at lap 6, but I pushed through and was able to complete 10 laps in a row without stopping or backstroking! I did have to rest for a couple of seconds at the turn around points, but no more than 5 seconds before heading back into the swim. I briefly debated about doing more than 10 laps, but I was pretty out of breath and also keep reading about not pushing too hard so the body can catch up. I swam a "recovery" backstroke lap and then I did it all over again - another 10 laps freestyle! I almost pushed for a 3rd set of 10, but I was pretty tired and also wanted to still get in a spinning session so I called it quits in the pool.

I neglected to bring any food with me (again with the sports nutrition problem!) but I was hoping I could take it slow enough not to be too crippled. Yes, I am sure there are people who can do 1.5 hours straight through with no food but not me. I hooked up my ipod and started to do the Spinervals video I've been doing, opting not to skip to the super hard one. I forgot to bring in 2 water bottles, which was very dumb, but I just got off the bike when I needed to refill my bottle. I did fine with the warm up but was having a hard time with the pyramid, although I did complete that portion. I skipped on past the spin your legs out portion and just did some gently spinning for at least 15 minutes, and then I finished with the last segment, very glad to be finished. I had a Pro Bar because it has lots of protein (need to get more of them!) and also had hummus and carrots. Tasty!

I'm back to worrying about making it through Nation's, but I do still have 6 more weeks. I bagged running today, but might do some time on the elliptical machine after my swim, which I am determined will be awesome again!

Know When To Hold 'Em, Know When To Fold 'Em

Not just good advice for poker!

This week was less than stellar for training. I got my hour-long swim in two times, which was according to plan. My run and bike though have not followed the plan. Wednesday I went to go for my run and it was very hot, I got to the park too late, and my shoe was biting into my heel so I gave up after 2 miles. Yesterday I did nothing due to the heat.

Today I put my new saddle on, which was interesting. Then I went for my long bike ride, except 2 miles into it I felt like hurling. I sat in the shade for a bit and talked to S, then I went back towards the car. I did about 8 miles total. So not what I was planning to do. I have to tinker with the saddle because it wasn't working as well as I thought it might. If it still isn't great with the next ride I'll return it and go for the butterfly seat. I went to Home Depot afterwards to get more screws. I got some longer ones to put my frame pump on the frame, and then I had to get more Philips (because I couldn't find the appropriate hex ones although I might try at Lowe's next) for my SPD shoes because I found I was missing another screw from the cleat before my ride. I don't know what's going on there, but note for all you clipless-pedal peeps - make sure you check your screws before you ride!

Tomorrow is the next day, and I think I'm going to attempt to swim and get a treadmill run in. I'll use that as an opportunity to try out the Mizuno shoes I got in exchange for the Nike Plus ones I hated.

New Saddle!

I needed a new saddle for my bike, because the one that came with it is hurting the nerves. My friend L suggested I get a saddle from Terry Bicycles because they have a generous trial period. I can try it out for 30 days, and if it doesn't work for me in that time I can return it and get another one. So I ordered the Damselfly saddle. Partly because dragonflies are part of my new work logo, and partly because the description sounded good. Also partly because it's pretty. I should have it in 3 - 5 days! I'm very excited!

Today I got an hour in at the pool. I took my time and wasn't concentrating on freestyling, just wanted to get some solid pool time. My arms are pleasantly sore. I was supposed to have a long enough break this afternoon to get a run in, but now I have work interrupting so I might just try to go after work. If it's too dark by the time I get out I'll have to aim for tomorrow instead. Plus I'm going to see if S can walk me through changing the flat on my tire tonight so I can get a good bike ride in tomorrow. Think I'll stop by Barnes & Noble this evening to check out triathlon books.

Philadelphia Women's Triathlon Race Report

Whew!

Saturday I woke up and had to do a bunch of errands. I needed to get my race food and I also needed to get another screw for my SPD cleats. I'd been having a really hard time clipping in and couldn't figure out why until I went to adjust the pedals and figured I'd clip the shoes in and then adjust. Surprise! I packed my stuff, including ALL my race nutrition supplies, and also packed my cereal which I put into a salad container I got from Wawa. Went to Genuardi's, got my cashew butter, bagels, jelly, and some lunch then headed to Home Depot where the confused staff member took forever to figure out what I needed (and still gave me the wrong thing!). Finally I was able to head off to town to pick up S and go to packet pickup.

Traffic was horrendous, and I have to admit I did not have the best attitude. Finally get to the hotel and pick up S then we manage to get to the race site, although by this time we've completely missed the "mandatory" pre-race meeting. Pick up our swag, including a T-shirt, Tyr bag, water bottle and other stuff, as well as our race stuff - stickers for the helmet and bike, race cap, and timing chip. We wander around the few booths there. We both get new tri-shirts that were 50% off, decide the Hammer stuff is pretty nasty, and Sarah gets a new race belt. Then we're ready to go back to the hotel. We lug all my stuff in (and I took WAY too much stuff in), start to get a little organized and then decide it's time for dinner! Although I didn't take the opportunity to shower, I did take the opportunity to change into less sweaty clothes. I also discover that my body has taken this opportunity to let the communists invade*. Yippee! Fortunately I purchased some supplies for this while at Genuardi's too.






We walk over to the Italian restaurant we dined at last year for the traditional carbo-load pasta dinner. Last year we joined another group of triathletes for a big group dinner, which was a lot of fun. This year we decided we'd rather have something a little less fun, so we snagged a table for two. She ordered a pasta dish with a cream sauce and sundried tomatoes, and I ordered whole wheat pasta with veggies. I opted not to eat the broccoli for fear of Stink Bomb issues, and the snow pea didn't hit the spot so I opted not to have more of those, but I ate the cauliflower, squash, zucchini, and peas. The sauce was an olive oil chicken broth and it was quite good. Since I was feeling a little crampy still I had a glass of red wine in addition to the water.

After dinner we head over to a CVS to pick up some regular milk for my cereal and chocolate milk for a recovery drink. Then we headed back to the hotel to rest. I also took this time to replace the missing screw on my cleats. Opened the package of screws and my new hex key handy tool, only to discover he'd given me a Philip's head screw! Fortunately S had a multi-tool with a screw attachment. After that we watched 2 Seconds, a pretty quirky French Canadian bicycle movie. I enjoyed it, although the French Canadian french really hurt my ears. S decides it's time to sleep, but I want to take a shower and clean my bottles before tomorrow. I wash the bottles first, then shower. I feel nice and clean! However, I'm not quite sleepy at this point. I turn my ipod to Wonderfalls, put my earphones in, and attempt to fall asleep. I think it takes me about 60 minutes but then I fall asleep until it's time to get up. S says she was awoken by rowdy hotel guests at 3 am, but I missed that completely.

Sunday Morning - Race Day!
I wake up and try to decide what I'm going to do first. I get out of bed but it's kind of cold so I get my milk, cereal, and a banana and hop back under the covers. I eat almost all of the cereal when I decide I've eaten enough. Put on my race clothes and try to get everything organized. Manage to get the cars and drive to the race site parking. Then while going from the parking down Black Road to the race site I catch my pedals in my leg and end up with some beautiful scratches.




Get our bodies marked and set up our transition area. I'm supposed to eat my cashew butter and jelly sandwich around this time but I'm still full from my cereal and not feeling like eating it. I've brought an extra bottle of cytomax so I drink that instead. Then it's time to head over to the swim practice. I'm still having a hard time controlling my breathing, so I still end up doing a lot of breast-strokes. Hope to do more freestyle in actual race. The water is a fabulous temperature, although pretty murky. Then we have to get out and go to the swim start entrance. The music is playing, and we're kind of dancing to Abba's Dancing Queen until one of the race directors changes the music to something I don't actually care for. Oh well. We listen to some guy (a triathlete who is also helping out?) sing the National Anthem and then cheer the duathlon racers as they start. Then we cheer for each swim wave. I'm jumping up an down both as a way to keep my muscles warm and a way to psych me up. I keep repeating my mantra for this race, "I'm having fun, dammit!" I do a little stretching here and there as well. Finally it's our turn, and into the water we go!

I start out pretty strong with freestyle, but quickly find I'm going too fast and breathing too hard. I come up to catch some air and immediately inhale some water. Cough cough cough. The first kayak asks if I need to hold on. Nope, I'll be fine. Cough cough cough. Do a little backstroke while I try to slow my heartbeat and actually get some air in. Flip over and try to freestyle, but I'm still really struggling. I figure it's really not worth freaking me out so early in the race so I commit to mostly backstrokes. I get to the first turn. Woohoo! As I'm going along the top of the rectangle path, I look up at the sky and find a cloud shaped at first like a jousting horse and then it sort of morphs into a carousel horse. It made me happy. Get to the next turn. I'm making it! Pretty sure I'm the only orange cap left in the water, but I come across some red caps (the wave before mine) while moving along. It helps boost me a little, especially as I'm being passed by the swim waves behind mine. I can still hear them calling the waves into the water. Get to the last turn and almost go to the inside of the buoy. Oops! Quickly scoot around the buoy and now I'm in the home stretch! I do get some more freestyle strokes in and then I fizzle. Manage to finally get to the end where the volunteers help propel me out of the water. Then I attempt to run on the sand to get to my bike. It's really difficult to brick, and the transition area is much longer than what I've practiced. I get to the rack and mine is the only bike left. However, I've completed the swim in 21 minutes when I'd allocated 30. Yay me! Yay only 700 yard instead of 750 meter swim!l

I eat some protein cookie, put my shoes and helmet on and "run" out to the mounting area. I'm feeling a little icky from the cookie, but I only at a small part and it quickly eases. I hadn't gone very far on my first lap when I spot some friends of mine who'd come to cheer us on. Yay! That was a nice boost. I complete the first lap, and boy does it seem to take forever! I remember to drink some of my nuun water and cytomax, although not as frequently as I was probably supposed to. I kept spinning as much and as consistently as I could, although I did not have a lot of power in my legs. There are people already on the run by the time I pass them on the first loop. I was a little disoriented for the second loop so wasn't exactly sure when I'd make it to the dismount area. I passed a few people, although by and large I was being smoked by other stronger riders. I'm a little disappointed in the spectators - seems like they were only waiting to cheer for their athletes and not all athletes so it was largely quiet. However there were a few who were cheering everyone and that made me smile. I'm also very disappointed in the race organization. Last year there was a lot of music playing really loudly and it was good peppy music that I and my friend who was racing could sing along to. I was waiting to have that give me a little extra boost but nada. I got to the dismount area and getting off my bike was a little challenging. But as I was "running" into the transition area I saw my friends again. They'd made a sign to cheer me on too!






Got to my spot and all the other bikes are there so everyone's on the run. I decide not to take my fuel belt and just rely on the water stops on the run, but I do grab my gel blasts for a boost of energy. I glop some sunblock on my cheek to avoid sun-induced shingles and then I try to run out of transition but my legs are leaden. I really haven't been practicing bricks as much as I should have. I stop for a while and walk. I'm surprised that the leg with the scratches doesn't hurt, but the other heel is rubbing. I try to run every now and then but I just can't do it for very long. Get to the water stop and pick up a cold towel and some water. That was nice! Tried to wring the water out on my head and cool me down. I'm sweating like crazy. Try to run. Legs rebel. Go back to walking. Try to stay out the way of those who are running. Encourage people as I can. Cheer for all the women wearing tiaras. If I could stand running with anything on my head I totally would have worn one. Pass S as she's running toward the finish line and cheer her on. Continue to walk with a few seconds of jogging here and there. Pass the water stop on the return. Getting closer! Finally get in the chute and by golly I am going to run until the end! Pass some friends and S - sideways high five them. The announcer calls my name! Woot! I pump my hands in the air and smile as much as I possibly can. I really hope that turns out to be a nice picture. Get my medal and a bottle of water, let them take my timing chip off, and go meet my friends.

Finally get in line for some food. I eat some fruit and a muffin top and a cookie and drink 2 more bottles of water. We deconstruct the race a little. My friends think about whether they could do a triathlon as part of a relay, as they don't think they could do the whole thing. S goes over and sees the time printouts and comes back to tell me how I did. I did a little under all my estimates for each segment, although my transition times are longer than I expected. I'm thrilled to pieces.

S and I leave those two friends and head back to the car so we can go over to the other friends' (of the sign) house. We cut across the grass and I do something which makes the rear tire go flat. At least it happened at the end! I needed to take a quick potty break which I did en plein air since there were no port-a-potties up top. S tells me I'll get used to the no modesty thing if I continue with endurance sports; the marathon was how she got used to it.

We get to Chestnut Hill. The 3 year old greets us and tells us about her watching the race. We get a shower, discover I have a little sunburn, have some really good food, and watch a movie. With copious fluid intake and copious fluid outtake too since I'd broken the seal, as it were.

Now I'm home and have no idea how to take the tire off the wheel to fix it. It's a continuing adventure! Next I need to think about how I'm best going to train for Nation's, since it's a lot longer.

But for today... I had fun, dammit!

My Race Results
Place 667 out of 724 finishers
Rank 658
Swim 21:29
T1 2:24
Rank 631
Bike 1:09:29
Rate 14.7 (avg per mile?)
T2 2:21
Rank 678
Run 42:24
Pace 13:41/mile
Final 2:18:06
Division Stats 76 of 80 in our division


S Race Results
Place 531 out of 724 finishers
Rank 484
Swim 17:04
T1 2:22
Rank 357
Bike 58:34
Rate 17.4 (avg per mile?)
T2 2:18
Rank 669
Run 41:21
Pace 13:21/mile
Final 2:01:38
Division Stats 63 of 80 in our division





*I've tagged my blog with adventures in triathlon, and having PMS/actually menstruating while doing triathlon certainly was an adventure! I tried to couch it in different terms for the sensitive.

The Last Hurrah Before T-Day.

I very carefully followed the nutrition advice this time, and I didn't bonk on the bike! Hurray!

I woke up this morning and had a pretty big bowl of shredded wheat 'n bran. Four hours later I had a bagel with cashew butter and cherry preserves. I think for the tri itself I'll do it on regular bread so my yummy goodness doesn't fall through the hole. I didn't quite make it out the door and onto my ride until 2 hours later, but I figured I had enough stuff with me that it would be ok.

I kept one of the gels taped to my frame from Friday, but it fell off on the trail. Oops! I stopped to pick it up but didn't consume it. I had one bottle filled with water/nuun, and one bottle filled with cytomax. I cycled for 22 miles. I was mildly contemplating making it a 30 mile ride, but stopped myself because the goal was to do a brick workout. I didn't quite calculate the time because I forgot to set my timer. I did 20 miles in an hour and a half, and didn't count the first 2 miles (probably add on 10-12 minutes). I finished both bottles before I got back to the car.

Hopped off the bike and put the bike on the rack, put the lock on the bike, and put on my running shoes in 2.29 minutes.

And then came the run. Oh man have I not practiced bricking enough! My legs did not love me. Also, I got bodywork from my friend Andrew on Saturday so my legs were still a little sore. He found a little tear in my gastroc, so every time my right foot landed I could feel that spot ache. I gave up on trying to run 6.5 minutes with a .5 minute rest like I've been doing for my 5 mile runs. I ended up with about 3 minutes with a .5 minute rest and every now and then a few minutes rest when I needed a break. I had three 7 oz flasks - two water and one cytomax. I consumed all the fluids plus one clif shot block either cranraz flavor or strawberry. (I need to pick up more of the margarita ones - they're yummy and have extra salt!) It took me 40 minutes to run/walk 3 miles. Not my best effort ever.

I was pretty hungry afterwards so I headed over to Panera to refuel my carbs/protein. I had half a chicken sandwich of some sort, potato chips, and a bowl of turkey chili. Delish! I did think it was funny when the cashier asked me if I'd just done a triathlon. Her cousin does them so she recognized the gear, I guess.

Then I came home and hopped in the tub for about 20-30 minute soak, mostly my legs, in cold water to help reduce inflammation. Brr! Ended my shower with a cold water bout too.

After Philly I am definitely going to practice bricking more. I just have to make sure I eat enough day of and get bodywork when I need it so I won't be injured or exhausted.

Practicing Transition

Finding a good space to practice transition is hard. I ended up just doing from home in order to not have to worry about locking up my bike. It's not ideal because we have a gravel driveway, but oh well.

I followed the advice of several people for setting up transition and had my socks rolled into donuts for easy slip on action, and I rubbed bodyglide on the inside of the bike shoes to aid with slipping in. I propped my helmet with sunglasses inside on my running shoes, had an extra bottle of water nearby, and had my race belt and fuel belt under my running shoes. I also taped a few gels to the bike frame.



I put some towels down to protect my feet. I started inside with my swim goggles and a latex cap I'd received at a Rookie training group meeting. By the way, I dislike latex and have a strong appreciation for my silicone cap. I ran out to my transition area that I set up on my swim boogie board to help with figuring out limited space.



I put my socks and bike shoes on first, noting that the bodyglide really does help! Then I grabbed my sunglasses and put my helmet on. I ran down to the end of the street to simulate running out of transition to the bike mount area. I went around the block, dismounted at the end of the driveway, ran up to my gear and switched to my running stuff in very little time.



I practiced this a couple of times. The last time I even tore off one of my gels. It really is easy when they're taped to the frame!

Now I'm off to hang with friends for the Fourth of July celebration.

Race Day Nutrition

So my roomie from college, who is also a triathlete, is studying to be a nutritionist. She gave me very helpful information for Race Day Nutrition Strategies.


The Day Before

Eat mostly carbs, plus salty foods if it's really hot/humid/you sweat a lot. These should be neutral, not fibrous, not spicy, not acidic, etc. Eat plenty to top off glycogen stores in the muscle.


Race Day

• 3-4 hours before race start consume 200-350 grams of carbohydrates (and whatever fats/proteins included). This will top off carb stores in the muscle if needed, plus carb stores in the liver from your overnight fast. The liver glycogen stores help keep blood glucose levels steady, thus maintaining good mental/emotional/psychological control.

• 1 hour before race start consume 40 grams of carbohydrates (like a nut butter & jelly sandwich which is easy to make and store and carry around and eat in transition or on the beach or wherever you're standing 1 hour before you get in the water). Again this should be neutral food, not spicy or acidic or anything that will upset the stomach.

• Every 15-30 minutes, or whenever you need to, consume Gatorade or your beverage of choice. Something with carbs and electrolytes will supply carbs for use in the muscle, preserving stores so you can go farther, and electrolytes for whatever you've sweated out.

• 30-45 minutes after you finish the race you should consume 1-2 grams of carbohydrates/kg bodyweight (1 kilo = 2.2 lbs, so for me it's somewhere in the 60-130g carb range), plus .05g/kg protein (for me somewhere in around 30-35g). There's a window of opportunity to replenish carb stores in the muscle that closes at around 2 hours, and the max time is 30-45 minutes after stopping. If you really work hard (like maybe for my Olympic distance in September) you can keep eating another small carb meal every 2-3 hours just so the body keeps stuffing in carbs even though the optimum window is closed. If you work really hard and you think you need to rebuild muscle, you can move more to a bodybuilding system, and eat more protein starting with the 2nd meal after the race. This will supply amino acids to stimulate protein synthesis. In short, if you work really hard and your legs are rubberized after the race, just eat a lot that's low in fat.

An email message I could have done without.

Course Change
Okay Ladies I have good news and bad news...and before you panic about this course change let me just tell you 1) we had no choice and 2) you'll be fine~ I promise.

The bad news is that due to factors beyond our control the Parks Commission has deemed our swim entrance (which allows for the point to point swim) unuseable. We found this out in our meeting with them last week. So we researched and swam many other options and determined there is no other way but to have the swim course start at transition and swim about 150 yards upstream then over and back down stream to the original swim exit. I will tell you that I swam a similar course (but more like 400 meters upstream) recently and it was fine. I never even noticed if there was or wasn't a current. Our swim in the first year of the race also included a portion going upriver (much farther than this years) and it was fine.

So now you ask ...GOOD NEWS? We shortened the swim. You will now be swimming closer to about 700 yards as opposed to 750 meters (825 yards).

Ugh.

Whee! Training.

So Sunday's ride was horrible. Again. I am frustrated that I can't quite get my act together nutrition-wise. I decided to go the other way on the bike path. I started at Betzwood and biked towards Green Lane, going from the Schuylkill River Trail to the Perkiomen Trail. What I didn't know was that the Perkiomen Trail is mostly gravel, and not paved. Some people might have no issues with that, but I don't like gravel and I'm still not completely comfortable on my new bike so it was a very unnerving ride. I ran out of water and forgot my gels in the car so it was a bad time. I actually stopped and took a 30-minute rest/nap on the way back.

Monday I took a day off. I love rest days!

Tuesday I went for an hour long swim. I found it took me 45 minutes to warm up enough to do several freestyle laps in a row. I decided this week is going to be a much better week than last week, training-wise, so I redirected my attitude when I started feeling down about needing to do backstroke laps.

Wednesday I went for my 5-mile run. I did really well for the first 2.5 miles, but the last 2.5 were tough. I'm so looking forward to getting bodywork from my buddy this Saturday for my legs are in sore shape. At any rate, I finished so yay me! Even though it did take me 63 minutes this time.

Today I went for another long swim. It only took me about 30 minutes to warm up, in a way. I was feeling really proud and strong at the end. Although I think I need a new swimsuit - rinsing mine in the shower I noticed the lycra is really thin in the rear!

Tomorrow I am going to practice transitions, instead of worrying about the run or bike. I can't practice the swim-bike transition all that well, although I am going to try running barefoot to my towel to practice putting socks and shoes on. Wish me luck!