5/12/2008

Primal Quest "Srpint" Adventure Race was Saturday and BlakeE and I ran (and walked, my fault) rode and paddled around 30 miles or so. When I signed up for the race some months ago, it did occur to me that racing back-to-back weekends may not be a great idea, but little did I realize it was going to be another 7 hour day. So, my tired legs, sore back, and bruised arms, are sitting here thinking that I really will be taking time off now. Until June. When the real training begins.

First, however, there is a race summary to convey. It began at the boat launch area of Pocahontas State Park, which was kind of wet from the rain the night before, but no big deal. The race started with a 10 mile trail run, first a loop around the Old Mill Bicycle trail, then another loop that followed the BB&T fall race course. It ain't flat, and I quickly realized I was not up to par. BlakeE is a great teammate, he was very patient with me during the run part in particular. I did learn more about my nutrition issues and now know that I need to eat BEFORE I crash and burn. Duh on my part. During the second leg of the run part, there were 3 optional orienteering points that we went for, and we did get 2 of them. The third one ended up being in the swamp, and we couldn't take a good bearing to find it, so we thrashed around the underbrush for 20 minutes without any benefit. Finally, we were done with the run part and back to the transition area for some food and a change to biking. MyKaren was there at this point to cheer us on and help out with transition! Yeah for that!

The mountain biking was 15 miles or so, which on the road isn't much, but on the trail....well let's just say it was one of the longest 15 miles of my life. So as we were leaving for the bike portion, the race organizers reminded us that there was a creek crossing about 1/4 mile into the bike, and that the creek was about chest high. I did remember that when the creek crossing came up, so I got off my bike, lifted it over my head and stepped into the creek. There was no bottom. At least no bottom until I, and my bike, which was over my head, were completely submerged. I sputtered to the surface, cursing something to the effect of "well that was much deeper than I expected..." BlakeE and the photographer were openly laughing at me as I struggled to get to a point where I could actually stand. The photographer was clicking away but he lamented the fact that he didn't have a video camera. I cannot wait to see the photos. So, I was soaking wet, all my open food (shot blocks and cliff bar) pretty much disintegrated in my camelback...gross stuff. We biked and biked and biked and biked the single track, I thought for real it was never going to end. I had periods where I was riding pretty well, and periods where I was barely moving. My bike decided to mess with me so it began phantom shifting, just to make this the best bike ever. Poor BlakeE, he was cruising, even though he hadn't been on a mountain bike in years, and I was just trying to crank along, gears shifting and crunching, waaaah for me. We FINALLY got through with single track and cranked the fire roads pretty fast to get the paddling leg.

The paddle was in 2-person inflatable kayaks, which if you do not know, are an invention of the devil. They are sooo freakin hard to steer and neither BlakeE or I ever steer. We decided to have him in the back as he weighs more, and off we go...in circles, backwards, zig-zagging our way sort of downstream to the one and only checkpoint for the paddling section. It was not a pretty paddle, but we just kept going and eventually, kind of got the hang of it. Props to BlakeE who did as good a job steering as possible under the circumstances. We got back to the transition area with about 20 minutes to spare for an "official" finish.

Final tasks were the log PT and then a couple of ropes obstacles. We were told after the race that we picked one of the heaviest logs in the pile for our PT, but hey, we were race stupid at this point. The log PT was overhead press, bicep curls, chest press, situps all to a 4 count, with 10 reps required. The chest press was the hardest because we had to balance it on our hands and I thought it was going to fall on my face and that would be very bad. After all that, we had to hoist it on our shoulders and go around some vollyeball nets. Then the ropes. The first obstacle was ropes with footholds spaced apart and at different heights that we had to cross. That wasn't too bad, and we both did that fairly quickly. The final ropes thing was a cargo net crawl up and over about 20 feet, and we also did that pretty fast, so we now had 2 minutes to cross the finish line. The final task was a 15 foot or so mud crawl and BlakeE and I decided to run and slide it. So we did. The word we got was that it was the best finish of the day...and finishing is what it was all about. Whew. I was very tired and cold and hungry afterwards and some parts were not too fun, but the on the whole it was fun and I am glad I got to do it with BlakeE! He was great!

Looking forward to some rest and Brazil.

5/5/08

White Lake 1/2 Iron Man is in the books. First, I want to give a shout out to each and every TriGirl and TriBoy who raced this past weekend, it was hot, and everyone gave it their best. So, my race was good, ok and ugly. The good was my swim, which was 8 minutes faster than my last 1.2 mile race swim. I panicked for about 200 yards, and then pulled it together and had a great swim! Happy about that!

The bike was flat with more wind than expected, but I did ok on the bike. I purposely did not push the bike too hard, because I have a habit of crashing and burning on the run...more on that later. I felt good on the bike, except for the dual knives in the base of my neck and of course, my girly parts after about mile 40. I had a really hard time keeping aero after that but just kept moving my legs and getting it done. I think I may have to make some adjustments, maybe try a new seat, because the thought of going 56 more miles with that pain makes me feel like crying.

Oh, the run. To call it a run is kind of not true, but I covered the 13.1 mile distance. It was hot, but that wasn't my issue. I thought when I got off the bike I felt pretty good, and that feeling lasted about a quarter mile. I need to re-evaluate my nutrition, big time, because my stomach was all knotted up and bloated and I just couldn't run. That was disappointing. But that's why I did this race, to identify things I need to adjust before November, so in that sense, it was good.

I really didn't feel too hot because I fashioned my patented "curtain of cool" by draping a cold, wet towel over my head with my hat on top. As stupid as I know I looked, I will do this from now on in hot races because it was like my own little cool cave and I did not get burned on my neck, nor face. I did remove it before the finish line, for the final finish photo, but the rest of the race I was living cooly large! I also did not wear my fuel belt, relying on the water stops. I won't do that again either. I really think I need to know that I can drink whenever I want and I also want to take my own drink stuff so that, too was a good lesson for me to learn. Finally, I really did not have an issue with thinking I wasn't going to finish. I just sucked it up and finished the race and tried to have as much fun as I could. While the end result was 2 minutes slower than my last 1/2 Iron, I did have more fun.

Recap of things I learned:
1. Swimming is fun when I settle down.
2. I should not slack on the bike, because the run is always a crap shoot.
3. Curtain of cool rocks!
4. I need to change my nutrition...this will be the hardest thing I think.
5. I will wear my fuel belt in races.
6. Being happy to be there will get me through even when I am feeling bad.
7. For IMFL training, I need to run after every bike, no matter the distance.
8. A done race is as good as a done run.

4/28/2008

Eastern Shore weekend #2 is in the books. The 100+ milers all finished with minimal confusion and no flats! There was some sunburns, MyKaren decided to put on her own sunscreen and ended up with a strange (but painful) sunburn on her shoulder blades, complete with finger marks where she slapped on what she could reach. I obviously failed her as her Brazil sherpa, since I didn't make sure sunscreen was properly applied. Ouch. I rode 50 with some non-Brazillians and it was a fine, beautiful day for a 50 mile ride! Clear blue skies, bit of a head wind coming back to the lodge, but not too bad. After the ride, I actually did run for an hour, through the trails at Kiptopeke. I must say I was proud of myself, since the trails were grassy-sandy and there was no shade--it was a revisit to the worse race of my short tri career (Florida 70.3). And I conquered the ghosts of that race, so I was very happy with my hour shuffle.

The after ride party was fun, as usual! Much beer, wine and licquor was consumed, along with huge amount of meat and carbs. Alas, we did not get in a swim, Sunday dawned cold, windy and overcast, but I am sure I'll be getting in plenty of open water swims, starting with this weekend!

4/21/2008

Whew! That's for getting the long ride in on Saturday when the weather was perfect! I am pleased and relieved at riding 78 miles for my 2nd time riding outside this year, with no issues. I am a big fan of painful indoor cycling now, because I felt strong and, while not fast, faster than last year! My first few outdoor rides last year were very dissapointing, so this year I am happy! We managed to ride without a flat or any other mechanical issues. I did get us slightly lost (about 8 miles worth of lost), and we decided to change the last part of the route so that it wasn't 80+ miles, but I know where I went awry and next time I won't do that error. MyKaren was "riding" with us (which means she would try to come back periodically to us) for her 90 mile ride, and she did not get lost where we did, so she basically rode 70 miles alone. What a trooper! Oh, and then she ran 8 miles in the heat. My time will come for that, but not yet! Best part of the day...drinking beer and eating nachos and burgers at Legends afterwards. That's what I call training!

Yesterday in the middle of the thunder, some of us managed to get in a little swim. I swam a mile, which wasn't as far as I hoped to swim, but the weather was kind of stormy so we decided to cut it a bit short. Looking forward to White Lake, so I can relax afterwards for the remainder of May before the real training starts!

4/15/2008

Ahh, back from the land o' rain, hail, and cold fronts...otherwise known as the UK (London to be specific). Weather changes there more frequently than even here, which is hard to do! Trip was lots of fun, MyKaren had a personal best marathon, even though she was not running hard since it was only a long, slow training run. Plus, she even stopped to take pictures along her run by all the famous places in London. It only rained 2 times during her race, of course both were preceded by a precipitous drop in temperature, along with gusty winds, and in one case, serious hail. I missed the second rain, but did get drenched in the first (which occurred around mile 9). Lots of crazy people ran, including, but not limited to: many Supermen and Superwomen, lots of Spidermen, otehr strange superhero types whose purpose I could not guess, several gorillas and bananas, a Paddington Bear or two, some Gladiators, more fruit (hard to tell by the end what fruit they meant to be) and a few mostly naked runners. Amongst the celebreties: Hell's Kitchen's own Gordon Ramsey (3:45), and, of course the entire elite field of tiny men and women. There were a bunch of famous people, but only to Britons, I did not know any of them but Ramsey. There were also 6 tribesmen (can't remember from where, sorry) who ran (well they bounced and sang) the course all decked out with their spears, sheilds and home-made shoes of tire tread. They were interesting. the whole route had bunches of people, so sherpaing was difficult, plus I was a solo sherpa, which was kind of hard. I talked to people around me, but it wasn't the same as having some sherpa buds to hang with. The tube was CRAZY, but better than the NYC subway during that marathon. People were packed in like sardines, but more polite than NYC. All in all, it was a fun race to watch.

I did manage to get in a 14 or so mile run on Friday, running around Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and St James Park. I haven't done anything since, and I feel like a big fat lug. Uugggghh. Oh well, tonight the reset button gets pushed and off I go on the next phase of training!

4/7/2008

Earth shattering news...I was a bandit at the Monument Avenue 10K on Saturday. I've never done that before and it was fun! I got talked into it by my training peeps, and they pretty much kicked my butt doing a negative split on the actual 10K, but it was fun to run it. I have no plans on making bandit racing a career, but I figured that many people would bag it becuase of the rain, and I wouldn't be taking water from anyone who may need it and of course, I did not cross the finish line. Even though it was super crowded, I still felt like people were staring at me and my lack of a number. I went ahead and decided that my race number was 9866, so if I was asked, I would have a number handy. Anyway, the race was fun, I'm glad I got talked into it.

At Master's last week, there was a shaft of sunlight shining into our lane which was really cool, so I was completely distracted by that as I swam back and forth. I got new goggles because I forgot my other ones at the Y on Monday (along with my swim cap) and they are not fogging up yet, so I could see everything as I swam. I was looking at other swimmers and the sunlight, and it was really neat. Yesterday, I swam about a quarter mile in my wet suit (in the pool), and boy, does that make you fly! I loved it! It was like I was super fast! Of course, once I struggled out of it and continued my swim, I felt like a rock in the water. But, its all good, because for now, I do not hate swimming.

3/31/2008

Quick recap of workouts: HARD. I "negotiated" with MarcoDiablo Saturday to ride 4 1/2 hours and then only do a 4 mile run, to avoid doing the 6 half-mile repeats. I am still not sure if it was a good deal....but I hate repeats so I think I did fine. Brazil group got a better deal than I, guess it was the collective bargaining; they rode 1/2 hour more and then did a 4 mile negative split instead of the half repeats. Oh well, I felt pretty good after the run so it all worked out.

MarcoDiablo had an aerobar contest, and 4 hours later there were still 4 Brazillians in it: TriShelley, MyKaren, Jeff and BeB. The boys were hurting, both had to pee, but they would be darned if they were going to lose to girls. It was funny to watch them squirm. BeB didn't really drink so he cramped up afterwards. Silly boy.

Friday was a spa day with MyKaren. We went to breakfast, got some shots for Brazil, had massages (yumminess), shopped at Nordstroms (yes, I do like nice clothes, just not to work out in!), saw a movie (Mrs. Pettrigrew Lives for a Day-pretty good), etc. It was nice, even the shot I got wasn't as bad as when I was a kid, maybe the needles have gotten smaller or something. Good stuff!