Ironman Canada Race Report - 8/28/11

It's been just over a week since Ironman Canada. The race is still sitting sourly for both Justin and I. It was a hard, hot (95 degrees) day and things didn't roll out exactly how we had hoped. Having done Lake Placid, we (secretly) had grand goals of sub 12 hours as we did 12:30 and 12:35 in 2009 - we both felt like we saved enough during Lake Placid that sub 12 was absolutely attainable, and we still hold this true. However, with each race is it's own conditions and complications and it can either be the best day of racing or the worst. With that said, here is my Ironman Canada race report:

One side note: Justin sent me this article today from RunTri. And I quote, "It was a tough race, 11% did not start, 9% did not finish, and the average finish time was 13:12, ranking among the most difficult of our Top 25 Toughest Ironman event ranking.... The average splits and finish times illustrate just how tough the course was, especially the marathon, in 2011.... Not a single age group averaged less than 12:30 for the event. Very rare."

Pre-race:
Please read the previous post for this... there was sightseeing in Seattle, a road trip to Penticton, a pasta dinner and a couple freak out moments thrown in the day before the race as my bike seat broke. The town was oddly calm for hosting the Ironman - very different from previous races...  kind of nice and a bit relaxing though you didn't get the adrenaline rushes like you usually do just by walking around town.

Joey's bike rack, but no Joey.

Race Morning:
We went to bed around 8:30pm, woke up at 3am to eat a bagel croissant (grocery store was all out of bagels, not a surprise and all they had were bagels shaped like croissants... interesting) with PB, honey and nutella with sliced banana on top. We hopped back in bed for another hour and half. At 4:30am it was shower time and prepping last minute things. We were in the car at 5:15am for the 20 minute drive into town. Parking was easy to find. At check in, they made you walk about a half mile around gates and the town to get to body marking and transition when they very easily could have saved us the energy and created an entrance closer to transition. I walked right up to get marked, headed into transition to my bike, checked the tires, added my bottles and nutrition and left my bike for good... I don't think it's smart to fuse with your bike the morning of the race, I do that all the day before. As long as everything passes the very quick checks, I leave that thing alone! Justin and I got coffee and used the restroom (found one that no one was using so didn't have to wait in line!) and made our way to the swim.

Swim: [Liz - 1:22:39, Jus - 1:32:36]
The water was shallow so everyone started out standing. At 7am the gun went off and we were off. I had read in other race reports that this was an awful swim as you never get your own space - SO TRUE! It wasn't until 8 buoys in (which I think there were 12 buoys until the first turn point) that I finally stopped getting kicked, smacked and swam over. That doesn't mean I had room to myself, there were still people all around me but at least I had enough room to relax a little and not be on edge ready to fight someone who punched me as they swam by. It was such a hectic start to the swim. I kept getting irritated with the men because they would come up behind me on both sides and corner me in so I had no option but to slow down so that I could free myself from their trap. It kept happening and I was getting so frustrated! Once I passed the first turn point, I seemed to have found my groove and just tried to focus on staying relaxed and getting through the swim, after all I hadn't trained but twice for the swim (I know, very stupid) so I wasn't in the best shape to try hard. The water was warm and very clear and clean. I made it to the exit a 1:22:39, a minute faster than Lake Placid... impressive as I truly trained very hard for Lake Placid.

T1: [Liz - 4:45, Jus - 4:39]

Bike: [Liz - 6:48:11, Jus - 6:46:46]
This is where the race fell apart for me. I felt great coming out of the swim and took the first couple miles very easy to take in some fluid and gather myself for the 112 miles ahead. Within just a short time, I was holding a solid pace and was feeling fantastic.  I was passing a lot of people on the side fixing flats which made me nervous. Then, come mile 30 I hear my back tire making a funky sound. I turn my head, look down and see what I had dreaded... FLAT TIRE! Ugh. I pulled over and took probably 10 minutes to change the flat. Not sure why it took so long but I didn't want to rush anything and screw up so I just kept telling myself to take the time to breath and rest a bit. The cause of my flat? A itty bitty tack... turns out all those people I kept seeing on the side fixing flats had run into the same problem... a volunteer said someone had thrown tacks on the course the night before - awesome, really. I hope those people got enjoyment out of that.

Once my flat was fixed I was really deflated, so many people passed me while I was on the side. I kept trying to keep myself in a good mood. I gave myself the goal to pass as many people as possible and try to catch someone I had been riding with before my flat. I gave great effort to try to regain some time but was freaking out most of the time checking on my tire to make sure it wasn't flat... paranoia. Around mile 50 I was riding a downhill. I looked down at my bike computer and it said 39mph.... I look back up to spot myself and looked back at the computer and it was reading 0mph. WHAT?! When I hit the next flat I glanced down at my wheel to find that the cat eye chip had fallen off... again, awesome. From that point on I didn't know my speed and my timing for nutrition was all screwed up because I had been basing it off my bike computer, not my watch. Whatever, I am perfectly fine riding without knowing my pace. I had gotten through Richter Pass, a 10 mile gradual climb and seemed to be surviving the constant sun rays and heat - it was starting to get really hot out there and I was taking salt tabs every hour. At one point on the course, around miles 70-80 you come to two out and backs, one right after the other. The race started to really feel very difficult for me at this time. My neck hurt, being in aero position was very painful and I could start to feel my sunburn on my back. Soon after I came across the second out and back which is where you pick up your special needs bag. I pull over to grab my bag and yell my number "2367"... 20 seconds later the volunteer yells back "2367? I don't see a 2367!" .......................A-W-E-S-O-M-E! After checking again it was official that they had lost my special needs bag which had a PB & honey sandwich and the remaining gu's I needed for the bike. I didn't have any nutrition from there on until I started the run. I was taught a lesson to pack for the race not needing my special needs bag - you can never rely on anyone else on race day. At that point, I started crying. I was so fed up with the day - nothing was working for me and I wanted to just give up. Crying while biking does not really work. I wound up having a very hard time breathing and snapped myself back into it. Ironman is not just physical, it is mental as well, and I let the race get me for a moment. I decided to take the remainder of the bike easy, very rarely getting into the aerobars, afterall I had no nutrition and I was really hurting and was super hot. The last few miles are all downhill which was a relief. I rode back into transition at 6:48:11, very happy to be off the bike. I was 14 minutes slower at Canada than Lake Placid... but don't forget I had my flat which I took a significant amount of time to fix!

T2: [Liz - 5:35, Jus - 9:36]

I don't have any pictures from the bike... so you get us racking our bikes the day before :)

Run: [Liz - 4:53:49, Jus - 5:03:43]
Heading out of transition I ran to the sunblock stand and had a volunteer slather block on me. "OUNCH!" she says, "you are burnt!" Thank you for that... now please let me continue on to my way in the sun, with no shade, as I complete this 26.2 mile run. Grr.

I started my run off nice and easy. To my surprise, my feet weren't numb and I didn't physically hurt as much as I did in Lake Placid. The start of the run is a bit brutal because you run right by the finishing shoot...not cool. I was heading out right as the first place pro male was finishing - ugh, I have such a long run ahead of me! The run course actually didn't seem too difficult to me. Had it not been so freakin' hot and I hadn't mentally fallen apart on the bike, I think I would have been able to kill this run course. However, that was not the case and I took this one real easy. I walked each and every water station, grabbing 2 waters, 2 sponges and 2 cups of ice at each. I drank the water, ate a peice of ice and dumped the rest down my shirt and in my hat and cool myself down by squeezes the sponges over my head - the heat was getting the best of everyone. This was my routine. At the end of the water stations I would begin to run again. Everyone was walking the hills but I would run them, keeping my eyes on the ground so that I wouldn't see everyone walking ahead - way to easy to influence me to walk as well. At one point, while I passed a guy walking a hill, he says "there are two people running this hill, you and the man up there, everyone else is walking! What is wrong with you two?" The run was entirely along the side of Skaha Lake. There were boats out playing music and a sad sounding steamboat that I couldn't seem to get away from. One of the boats was playing a really good song and I tried to remember the lyrics as I was running but now I have forgotten them - I think it was Ludacris but all my searches for the song are coming up empty :( Anyways, I was pacing an easy pace throughout until mile 16 when I felt the awful side cramp that I had suffered from before in my long training runs coming on - NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! All I could think was that it figures, this is obviously how my days was meant to play out. Now when I say cramp, I am talking serious pinching to the point where it hurts to stand straight. I started taking in double the liquids, cola and pretzels as soon as it started at the aid station and was running VERY slowly as I leaned to my left side. It came to the point where I had to walk it out so I took 5 minutes to walk and stretch at the same time. Still in pain I began running again and just hoped for the best. Maybe 4 miles later it had disappeared and I was running smoothly again. I warned myself not to run too fast now as I know the cramp could very easily come back. So it goes for the next several miles and with 3 miles to go the cramp of course came back and I slowed down. I stopped to walk several more times after this point. With 2 miles to go I told myself to suck it up and run the rest of the way, which is what I did. In pain, of course, I made a bee-line to the finish line, finishing in 13:14:57, running my slowest marathon ever, placing overall 36/80 in my age group (Justin's finish was a 13:37:19).

Finish:
I wanted to see Justin in at the finish as I knew he was also having a bad day out there but as I stood there, I felt like I was going to throw up. A volunteer walked me to the medical tent where I stayed for a hour and drank broth and sports drink. I was freezing cold and wanted to go home. We check out bikes into BikeTransport (awesome company, highly recommend them!) and went home. We wanted to stick around for the last finisher but the thought of a warm shower, dinner and bed sounded much better.

And so that was my Ironman Canada. I would like to head out there again one day to do the race again and see what I can really make of it, but for now it's so long! Happy to have raced another 140.6 and proud of my accomplishment, overcoming the bad times and finishing what I came to do... and that is to do another Ironman!

On a final note, let's go back to the article... I quote "If you beat one or more of the split times in your age group, consider your race a big success." Let's take a look...

W25-29
Average Overall Time: 13:29:48
Swim: 1:18:40 (4 minutes over)
Bike: 6:45:17 (3 minutes over)
Run: 5:13:50 (20 minutes under) <-- This qualifies my race as a BIG success!!!!!!

The night before...

Here we are just hours away from the start of Ironman Canada! We'll give it one word from what we've seen: brutal. Tomorrow is going to be a really difficult day - not only because it's a tough course but also because it's going to be 91+ degrees and sunny. Who would have thunk that in Canada, eh?

We flew into Seattle on late Wednesday, well, more like early Thursday since we didn't land until about 12:30am. We were at our hotel and in bed by 2am only to wake up nice and early the next day since we were still stuck on Eastern time. We spent the day having fun playing tourist around Seattle. We love that city!

Friday morning we hoped in the car and drove 6 hours over the border and into Penticton. We went straight to race registration, ate lunch and headed to the condo we rented to relax for a bit and then back into town for the pasta dinner. It was ok. Lake Placid was way better and much more motivational. We called it an early night and fell asleep almost immediately once getting back to the condo. I was ticked off immediately at Ironman at registration as I was going through the stops in the tent and arrived at the chip activation stand and the woman says to me "and do you have your chip strap?" (to hold the chip on your ankle). My reply was "No, I didn't know I was suppose to bring my own" and she says "oh, well, that's ok, you can purchase one here for $5 - this is something new that we will be doing at our races" OH MY GOD IRONMAN - SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?!?!? I said no thanks, I'll get one somewhere else. I would rather give my money to a local bike shop than give it to Ironman. I just don't understand how it's ok for them to charge you for a chip strap when we are required to wear a chip. Thanks for the forewarning on that one!

Today we spent the day prepping for checking in. I had a mishap while on my bike ride... my seat bolt broke. Eek!!! We brought that guy straight into the bike shop (Bike Barn, who also received my money for a chip strap) and the crew there was AWESOME! It was fixed AND tuned up in no time. Luckily, I only had to pay $50 for the bolt piece and not $300 for the entire stem, phew! Justin's bike got a nice surprise tune up as well and both bikes were looking good for racing! We dropped the bikes, bike bag and run bag off, drove the run route home and are now sitting on the couch about to eat dinner and go to sleep nice and early. I had a nice volunteer give my VIP treatment at check in who gave me step by step instructions on where and how everything is going to go down tomorrow. Ha, loved it - he was awesome!

Well, this is it! My number is 2367 and Justin's is 331. You can track us on Ironman (http://live.ironmanlive.com/Event/Subaru_Ironman_Canada).

WISH US LUCK!!!! Oh and Joey, screw you for not being here!!!!! hahahahhaha.....

Taper has begun!

Just a quick update... I completed my final long workout on Monday with a 20 mile run! Paced a 9 min/mile, so I'm happy! I tried Sports Legs for the first time, just out of curiosity and have concluded that they suck. It's suppose to prevent/delay lactic acid build up in your legs during endurance workouts. While my calves were fine, my thighs started burning with about 5 miles to go which never happens. When I say burning, I mean with every step I wanted to cry. To top it off, my legs have never felt worse the day after a long run than they did after this one - I threw out the rest of the sample pack and will not be taking those ever again. Now, time for some tapering... ahhhhhhhh. It's good to not feel guilty for not working out crazy amounts :) While our bikes have already begun their journey to Canada, Justin and I hop on a plane Wednesday night - I'll write a post on final thoughts and what not before I leave... now kick up your legs and relax a lil!

Bike riding

On Saturday, Justin and I went out for another long ride. With an 82  mile route mapped and added to the Garmin, we made our way to Potomic to start our ride. Again, we started late at 11:50am and the humidity was up and temps hot, already above 90 degrees. Before starting we decided to make this a race pace ride. Properly fueled and prepared for the efforts, we headed on out. Within 5 minutes of the ride, I was glistening (more like dripping) with sweat from the humidity. It was crazy, I hadn't even given any serious effort yet and I was soaked. At mile 20ish, we made too early of a left turn onto the wrong road and instead of the Garmin redirecting us or telling us to turn down the NEXT road when we made a U-turn, it instead decided to redirect us immediately back to the start. Not being completely familiar with the roads, we had no idea at the time. Then at mile 30 we saw a familiar road and thought "this isn't right, we shouldn't be here", and discovered we were 3 miles from the start of our ride - DANG, we're going to have to do the route over again plus add some miles at the end to get in the distance we want! I got frustrated because I hate doing loops but Justin was successful at getting me to chill out and realize doing another loop wouldn't be so bad. After all, it was a great route with some challenging hills. So, off on loop two we went. We stopped shortly into the second loop to get some shaved iced at a rickety stand at an intersection. They were delicious and perfect for a bike ride snack! After completing almost all of the second loop we noticed how lucky we were to have missed all the rain storms that seemed to have rolled through our route as the roads were wet the second time around... that is until we had 4 miles left in the loop and downpours just opened up above us. It was not so awesome. If forced us to take the last of the ride very slowly and when we got back to the start we agreed to call it quits and not add on the extra miles to make it an 80 mile ride... so in the end it was a 66 mile route with 5,056 elevation gain. We paced 16.3 mph which is not race pace but the day presented several challenging factors that slowly ate away at us such as the humidity, temps and rain.

This weekend we're planning on doing 100+ miles for our last heavy effort on the bike. Let's hope we are able to get ourselves up nice and early so that we aren't biking in the smack middle of the day. We're dropping our race bikes off either after our ride or early next week at Bike Transport to send them on their way to Canada. This is crazy how close we are to Ironman!!! I should probably start swimming...

Summer heat

Today I had plans to do a 20 mile run - I cut that one short by 1 mile and did 19 due to heat. I was stupid and left at 11:45am so it was already above 90 degrees at the start and the day wasn't cooling down (it hasn't for about 3 weeks now).
I mapped out a run where majority was on the Rock Creek Park Trails which is mostly shaded so figured it wouldn't be too bad. However, I started and ended my route along the mall making the Washington Monument my turnaround point - putting the first and last 4.5 miles in dead sunlight. I held strong for the majority of it but lately, again, due to heat, I've been needing to stop in the shade and rest for a couple minutes to cool down - but I made it until mile 15 before needing my first break in the shade. That was followed with three more rests in the last 4 miles. When I hit the street before my loop around the monument, I decided to cut it short and head straight home instead- after all, I looked like a salt stick, had gone through 5 water bottles and had heat radiating off my body. It wasn't pretty.

When I got home, I quickly downed some recovery mix with ice cold water. I weighed myself (I'm now keeping track of my weight until Ironman to make sure I don't get too out of control with the food, hehe) and had dropped 4lbs of water weight from that morning! Holy cow... my lunch never tasted so good and I treated myself to a bottle of Coke - it was delicious!

I've worn my yurbuds for two runs now (including today's) and so far I kinda like them. Yes, they definitely stay in my ears unlike other ear buds so big plus for that but they're designed for you to hear the noise around you (i.e. if you were biking you can hear cars coming) and because of this, any wind overtakes the music and when you're running along a road with lots of cars, you really have to turn the volume up. It's a bit annoying. Still would like to do some more runs with them before I give my definitive recommendation on them :)

That's it for now! Until my next post...

What's that? Things are better?!

Well, training has been.... BETTER! Yup! After my last post, I tried my best to turn the switch and make a positive out of a negative, and I did. While I still can't seem to get myself motivated for the pool (let's admit, no one is EVER motivated to go swim), running and biking has been successful. Whenever I can get the chance, I'll go for a run or hop on the trainer. The trick to getting on the bike more? Leaving the trainers set up and sitting right next to the couch. That way, 1) it never takes more than 2 minutes to get everything ready for a ride and 2) when I'm sitting on the couch watching TV, the bike is sitting there taunting me and making me feel bad. It's working (it helps that the Tour was on, too). I've done several 2+ hour rides on the trainer and many 1+ hour rides in the last two weeks. Last weekend, Justin and I headed out for a 75 mile ride in MD (though the Garmin says it was only 70 miles). It was in the 90's and no cloud coverage but we enjoyed every minute of it! You can see the ride here. This was our first official long ride so while we went slow, we were feeling great at the end and happy to have gotten out there for the day.

On the running front, I try to get a run in whenever I can... like yesterday morning, I had to be at work at 10 which means I have to be in the shower by 9 in order to leave by 9:30 for my half hour walk to work. So, I woke up at 7 as usual, had breakfast with Justin, walked out the door with him at 8 and got an hour run in - perfect. I am sacrificing my appearance by showing up to the store with wet hair as I don't have time to do anything with it - oh well. The same weekend as the bike ride, Jus and I got out for a 15 mile run bright and early Saturday morning - I headed off to work immediately after as Jus went to play kickball (jealous). Tonight is calling for a 10 mile run and I plan to hop on the trainer for a bit in just a little while. With the heat wave of last week, the runs have been HOT but they only make you feel that much stronger. I've been loving it. Today is no different... 92* but you gotta do what you gotta do!

I am thinking I need to set some goals in order to get in the pool more... brainstorming ideas now.

Last note of the post, I got some new earphones from the store this week - yurbuds. I have been hearing great things about these things and I can't wait to try them out myself; they were created by a triathlete who had gotten fed up with his earphones slipping out and hurting while on long training rides and run. I wear over the head earphones because ear buds *ALWAYS* fall out during workouts. These guarantee that they will not with their patented ear-lock technology. They are comfortable but I have yet to test them, perhaps that will happen tonight. I'll let you know what I think. Seems as though each package comes with a card with an inspirational quote. Mine was: You think I'm chasing you? You think you've got me beat? Well, you've got me all wrong. Pace is my trick. My focus is my inner strength, my iron will. Triumph is upon me. It can't be had without the struggle. I move up on you. I push past you. I cross the line focused and my doubts overcome.

Unprepared and unhappy

Here we are just 64 days out from Canada and I feel totally unprepared. I need to do some serious jam sessions in the coming weeks if I'll have any chance of completing Canada successfully. I am totally bummed out and angry about my training. Since starting to work in retail, all I want to do outside of work is sleep. I walk a mile to and from work, I stand 8+ hrs everyday (no joke... the only time I sit is at lunch), I constantly have to be on point and happy for customers (which can get very tiring when you're not cheerful or happy), I work awful hours where I'm at the store until 9:45pm at night (and I've had to close I think every Friday night for the last 2 months unless I've requested it off), and I work weekends... everything piled on top of each other makes for a very tiring work schedule that leaves very little for training. Any chance I can get, I'd rather be laying down and sleeping. The worst part, is that I don't even get to train with Justin anymore which is something we really enjoyed getting to do while training for Lake Placid - 8 hour bike rides of us time was actually very enjoyable! Now, I never have that time because my days off are on weekdays when he is working. This past week I have been a zombie... trying to squeeze in workout sessions when I can on tired legs and body. Everything takes 10x more effort than it has ever taken before. It's awful. It's an awful awful feeling.

Yesterday, while half asleep during lunch, I told myself I would allow myself to take the day off today, Friday, my day off from work. My body needs to catch up and refresh, I thought. However, the day comes and I think about Ironman and how freakin' hard it's going to be with the training I've done - scratch the day off... time to workout! I got in a run in the 90 degree heat and bike ride on the trainer... both short sessions but difficult... it helped to make me feel like I am doing SOMETHING to prepare myself for race day. (Pic from my run today... can you spy the plane in route to landing at Reagan?) Now, I just need to get myself to the pool again... I don't remember the last time I've been to the pool. Ugh, this totally sucks.

Anyways... I am not trying to ramble on. I guess it just makes me feel better to express it in someway, even if no one reads this. I am at this moment a very frustrated athlete : ( I have not enjoyed this go around of training for an Ironman... not in the slightest bit.

When I ran the Boston Marathon, my mom had gotten me two swarvoski figurines (I collect them) of a tortoise and a hare with a note:

Elizabeth - Swarovski doesn't make a roadrunner - my first choice. So I got a tortoise + a hare - after the fable - forgetting that the tortoise won. Not so good an example if you're going for a personal best!

So here's the new moral of the fable: after all the marathons, triathlons + Ironman you've been in, it's very obvious that conditioning is only part of the answer (the hare). The courage + tenacity to push through the pain (the tortoise) makes the finish possible! Good luck - I know what an achievement being in the Boston Marathon is - I'll be thinking of you.

I was thinking of this note on my run today comparing myself to the tortoise and hare... I'm all tortoise for Canada. I need to prepare for that pain in order to make the finish possible while remembering that slow and steady wins the race - my way of integrating both versions of the fable together. I guess in the end of both the tortoise wins so I guess that's good news for me. Unfortunately, I do not at this moment have the conditioning and arrogance that the hare possesses which I think you also kind of need.

Another picture from my run... would you ever think of seeing this in the middle of a city? Pretty.
                                               

Kinetic Half Race Report (Justin)

Last weekend we competed in our 1st race of the year- the Kinetic Half in Lake Anna, VA. Both of us were a little more nervous than usual...for me it was b/c the distance for 1st race of the year, new race wheels on the bike, unknown course/bad weather. And the biggest reason is that my training has been very inconsistent this year. My workouts have been more focused and purposeful but I'm missing a lot of them.

To spare an extra 20 minutes of sleep, we stayed at Courtney & Kyle's apartment on Friday night. When the alarm went off at 3:45am, I was happy to have had the extra rest. We dressed, ate and were in the car by 4:30am. The ride down was pretty uneventful but unfortunately we didn't get through parking and packet pick up until 6:40am...my swim wave went off at 7am...better hurry!!!


Swim (41:42)
I decided- being the 1st race of the year- to just swim on my own and not try to draft. I've worked on my swim a lot this off-season with the Masters program and was hoping to see some big improvements. The good: I was pretty confident throughout and swam a half-iron distance personal best. The bad: my time still stunk, I was weaving throughout, and I expended way too much energy. Coming out of the lake, my HR was 180 (even sprinting its hard for me to go above 165 while running/biking).

Bike (2:49:42)
The weather decided to stay overcast and drizzling- which is much better than the predicted rain storms. It felt good to get out on the bike course. The course is lollipop-shaped with 2 loops around and was pretty flat throughout. I decided to forgo the bike computer and decided to pace off heart rate alone. I stayed within my target HR for the 1st loop and then just went all out for the 2nd. Around mile 45 I started to blow up a little so I settled into a comfortable but slower pace and cruised through the last 11 miles. Good: another 70.3 personal best and I was really comfortable. Bad: Didn't take in enough calories and struggled through the last few miles.


Run (2:02:53)
Happy to be off the bike and into transition I quickly realized I left my socks in the car and only had recovery compression socks. I love my running shoes but they're pretty bad when sockless so I put on the compression socks and off I went. The run course is 3 loops with a big hill out of transition. The rest is a lot of up-and-down. My goal was to take loop 1 easy and progressively get faster. Instead, my body let me go faster Loop 2 and blew up on lap 3. All of the up and downs had taken their toll and I was spent. Good: my second fastest 70.3 run time. Bad: My body felt like poo.

Overall
Set Up events puts on really good races- Liz and I have really enjoyed the 2 we've competed in. The weather was ideal throughout being around 65 degs and overcast. It was great having Courtney at the race to cheer us on- THANKS!!! Randomly, my assigned transition spot was right next to Brian Cook (I'm good friends w/ his brother Dan and Courtney/Kyle are friends w/ Brian from high school). Unintentionally we stayed together throughout each leg of the race- I pulled away at the end of the bike and kept a 3 minute lead going into lap 3 of the run. I couldn't believe it when he passed me right as we were entering the finishing chute...so I was kinda bummed but still extremely happy to have PR'ed.

Next up is TriRidgefield...

Pics from our Ride

Since we haven't posted them yet, here are the pics from the weekend ride. Notice anything new on the bikes?







This ride was our first time out with the new wheels and as mentioned in the last post, the entire 2nd half of the ride was a steep downhill. We both had death grips on the brakes every...we'll give our wheel reviews after this weekend's race.

Weekend Ride

Liz and I spent this last week finishing our prep for our first 70.3 race (Kinetic Half) of the year next weekend at Lake Anna in VA. Between both of our schedules, we haven't had the chance to do a lot of workouts together but Saturday was free so we were determined to get out for a long ride. We decided on Friday night - over pizza and wine :) - that we'd head out to Shenandoah Valley and bike Skyline Drive...gorgeous scenery and supposedly a fairly hilly ride. We definitely didn't realize how hilly it would be. I've included the Garmin date from our ride so you can see the stats but we did a 40 mile out-and-back that was pretty much uphill for the entire first half (it made getting back to the car really quick). Hopefully this will make the race course feel like a breeze.
Skyline Drive

We have a few pictures from the ride but I'll hold off and let Liz post 'em. We got some new gear that we tried out for the first time so she should be posting soon...

Ramblings of the Boston Marathon (4/18/11)

It's been about 2 weeks since I ran the Boston Marathon and here I am just now getting around to writing my race report. I'm sure some memories and details have slipped by now but I will try my very best to recall the weekend and race.

Me and Justin and his parents flew into Boston on Saturday, 4/16. As we landed, Justin and I got a bit nostalgic - we miss Boston! We saw our old apartment building as we taxied to the gate and it was weird to think that we were going to stay at a hotel - so weird! We met Jen and Roger at the hotel (they were ring shopping!) and it was time to relax, hang out and take in our old stomping grounds. The wind was a killer and reminded us how much we don't miss that! We ate at Jacob's Wirth (a favorite of ours) and called it a night.

Sunday morning I headed out early to treat myself to a facial and manicure! Jen met me for a manicure and when we were done, we made our way to the expo. The Hynes Convention Center was a mob scene. I don't do well in crowds so the second I stepped in the door I started getting irritated. I bee-lined it to bib and shirt pick up which is where Justin met Jen, Roger and myself. We took a quick stroll through the expo, taste tested just about everything, consumed so many calories from taste testing we were scared to do the math :) We were out of there pretty quickly and grabbed lunch at another favorite, Paradise Cafe (delicious salads AND even better cookies). After lunch we flew by the finish line to snap some pics which is probably the most difficult thing to do! Everyone wants a picture of the finish so there is always someone walking through your picture, posing behind you in your picture or just all together covering the finish line because they want to do some ridiculous pose of laying across it and what not. Luckily, Jen got a good one as we were walking to the expo with a newscaster in the background and all! Nice Jen!

We headed back to the hotel, hung out, walked around the area, did some wedding shopping, Justin got me my most favorite sugary, creamy, delicious thai iced tea from Flour, went to dinner where we ate a eggplant wrapped cheese dessert with chocolate, oranges and some other things on top - I don't think anyone was a fan ;) I was in bed around 8pm but didn't fall asleep until much later.

I woke up at 5:45am Monday AM, got ready, headed to Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and had so much time left over before having to catch my bus (7am) I hung out in the lobby and just relaxed. At 6:50 I headed out to the buses (which were right outside our hotel door) and hopped a bus in 10 minutes. As we left, there was a MASSIVE line of runners waiting to get on a bus... if only they knew they could head into the loading area on the other side of the park, things would go a lot faster for them. The bus ride was about 45 minutes long... I didn't mind. It was chilly and windy outside, which made it feel a lot colder than it really was so sitting on a bus was a lot nicer than sitting outside on the grass. Once we got to athletes village, they unloaded us and I had about 2 hours to do nothing - I picked a sunny spot on pavement and took a seat for some time.

As the announcer called Wave 2 runners, I made one last stop to the bathroom and then followed the crowd on a walk to the start. It was still windy but the sun was out and it was getting warm. I took all my sweats off and started the race in my tank and shorts which was nice. My gloves were gone within the first 5 minutes of running.

Boston is an easy course - proof because there is a net decline. Not to say it's not challenging, because it is. Here is what gets you... miles 16-21... some consistent gradual hills, including heartbreak hill (which I still don't know where it was - but found out it was over when I reached a huge sign that said "Heartbreak Hill is over!"). This is where I started hurting and slowing down considerably. If you don't pace and hydrate yourself accordingly before this stretch of the course, you're doomed. However, if you do, you'll make it through strong and finish well!

I totally got caught up with everything and went out fast! My 10km pace was 7:47min/mile. My half marathon was a 8:06min/mile. I told myself to slow down but it's really hard to do when you're in the moment. My 30km was 8:26min/mile and I finished with a total time of 3:50:30, an overall pace of 8:47min/mile. So clearly I crashed, haha. Here is where it happened: mile 17. I saw Justin and told him "I'm REALLY tired" I even stopped for a quick chat and pic. From this point on it was mind games. I slowed down and finally, at mile 20 I let myself walk the water station. Once you walk, you ALWAYS let yourself walk again... and I did... every water station after that point. You hit Brookline at mile 22 and it killed me because I know how easy the course was from there on out and how close I was to the finish but I still had  a rough time getting through the last miles. Once I hit the Citgo sign I got a rush of adrenaline and ran fast for the last of the course. I spotted Justin and his mom at a corner, stopped to say hi then sprinted on to the finish. Somewhere in the final stretch I heard Jenny screaming for me but couldn't spot her or Roger- the crowd was huge and noise level high - but I did wave and look to acknowledge that I heard her!! haha. To the finish I went!!!

Two notes on the overall race course: crowds were awesome the entire way - you never had a dull moment. Second, there were huge New Balance signs marking the start of every town along the course with phrases like "NB runs fast through Newton"... etc. You cross something like 8 towns throughout the course so it was a fun way to countdown to the finish.  

I was so happy to be done and was so proud of my accomplishment for making it to Boston. Now I'm addicted and will try to requalify in the future (not this fall but next year for sure). I want to come back and beat my time. I want to come back with experience and do the race right that time around!!

YAY for finishing Boston : )

Thank you Justin, his parents and Jen and Roger for making it out to cheer me on! Thanks for my family for tracking me and sending me encouraging messages the days before and after the race. Knowing I'm in your thoughts while running does great things for me mentally! Thank you mom for the Swarvoski figurines and note - I think I'll do a post on this gift alone on another day!

Gettin' my tan on...

Just a quick update to let you know that my long run went really well! I was able to pace an 8:18min/mile - a total run of 2:46. That's good enough for me to feel good about Boston. Once again, the compression socks were a savior. Unfortunately, I got caught up with the nice weather that day and didn't think the sun would be strong enough yet to do any burn damage... clearly, I was wrong. Ouch! It hurts :(

Cutting this close

I hate to admit it but I am doing my last long run of 20 miles today (heading out in about a 15 minutes). I left this one way to close to the marathon but I really feel like I need to do it to feel good for Boston. Last weekend was my sister's bachlorette party so obviously I was not going to cut time out of that to do it! Today is my day off so I'm going to go get the run done now. I'll be rocking the compression socks, music, gu & gu brew, and a tank and shorts (cause it's going to hit 68 during my run and the sun is shining!). Ideally I wouldn't listen to music but I kind of want to so I'm just gonna. From the moment I get home until next Monday I'll be in recovery and will really stress easy runs so that my legs are ready to run their best come next Monday! EEK!

A picture from my 13 mile run this past week (cause I think post are 100x more interesting w/ pictures!!!):

Official Boston Marathon Jacket is in!

This past Tuesday I got my Official Boston Marathon Jacket! My store sent it down from Boston and as I walked in to work on Tuesday my manager says "guess what's here?!" This year's colors are black and green, which is very fitting for Boston - I like it. It's a lot heavier than I imagined them to be but it has a nice mesh lining inside and is going to be an ideal jacket for when the temps drop. This jacket is pretty sweet. When I was looking at them online, I learned that this year, they actually screwed up and did a screen print of the logo in the front where it's usually embroidered. To remedy the mistake, they knocked $5 off the jacket's price. Even with this mess up, the jacket is still awesome and something I am super excited to have finally gotten. Now to ask the question... is it bad luck to wear it before running the race? I haven't even tried it on... I think I need to wait until I cross the finish line.

Cherry blossoms & a long run

Yesterday I ran *almost* 21 miles (20.95 to be exact). It went pretty well too! It was cold out (46 degrees) but it was my day off and I had to get one of my last two long runs in - rain or shine, warm or cold. I decided to wear my CEP compression socks during the run as well because my calf's were screaming at me all day on Wednesday with pain and I wanted to avoid all possibilities of hurting even more yesterday. I also gave myself the day off from workouts Wednesday to rest and prepare for the run (even though I worked and was standing straight from 8am-5pm). I gotta say, the CEP socks worked wonders! They are my new best friend on long runs - and I am seriously considering running Boston in them after yesterday. My legs felt amazing the entire time and when I was done I didn't feel completely spent like I have in my previous longer runs. I'm a believer - even if I look goofy running in knee high socks. I finished in 2:55:47 which put me at a pace of 8:23min/mile.

My route took me around the mall, down hanes point, around the Jefferson Memorial and Tidal Basin, over the bridge to Mt. Vernon Trail, back over the bridge and another loop around the mall. The cherry blossoms are just days away from their peak so I got to see a bunch of them starting to bloom - so pretty!! AND, I don't know if I was just really sad on my run or I have really bad allergies (which I didn't discover I had until I moved to DC last summer) because my eyes were tearing the entire run which was super annoying. Anyways, here are two pictures from my run:

Same Ride, Different Day

(On our way to lunch after our bike ride. Spring is here!)

Liz had today off from work so we wanted to get a good training day in but also had some other errands to run. Our compromise...we quickly headed out for the same 45 mile ride I did yesterday. I've added the Garmin link below in case you care to compare the stats.

3/20 Ride to Potomac

A Little Catch-up on Training

Today's supposed 60 degree, rainy day turned out being 65 and sunny...so instead of the trainer, I took advantage and went for a ride from our apartment to Potomac, MD. This was pretty much a variation of the ride we always do (just a bit shorter) since its the only safe ride out of the city and into some 'country-ish' roads. I followed up the ride (garmin data below) with a 30 minute brick run around the National Mall.

As for training as a whole, it's been going really well but fairly inconsistent. I'll be good about the diet, then splurge for 2 days. I'll do hard workouts 4 days in a row then miss 2 days. I now have a good base in my run/bike so lately its been adding more distance. My long runs are in the 12-14 mile range and my longest bike rides this year have been 56 miles. In another month I'll start adding some speed. In the meantime, I need to keep my momentum going and quit skipping workouts.

You probably noticed I left out swimming above. Every year I promise to focus on my swim and every year I procrastinate. This is the one leg of races that kills me time-wise...especially in shorter races. I've been averaging 1-2 swims per week but my effort has varied. To fix the problem, I signed up for a Masters swim course. I'll write another post on this later since I've only been through 2 practices but my first impressions are positive. I've gotten some advice on form and being forced to keep up with a group of swimmers prevents me from slacking off. I'm hoping to have a competitive (or at least average) swim time for my age group by TriRidgefield. I'll keep ya posted on how that's going...

3/19 Ride to Maryland
2/18 Ride to Maryland

Signs of spring

Daylight savings was this past weekend and Justin and I walked around around DC on Sunday to explore new areas we haven't really been to. During that time, we 1) bought a box of girl scout cookies at a local farmers market, ha... who would expect that? 2) tried horchata for the first time at a street vendor - it was good, 3) saw a lot of fancy schmancy embassies, 4) picked up a new running hat for Justin, 5) tried cupcakes from the new cupcake store in Georgetown called Sprinkles - $3.75 for a cupcake... prob the first and only time I'll eat one of those, and 6) snapped a picture in front of a blooming tree - the true signs of SPRING!!! It was nice to take the day off from training since we BOTH weren't working and get to spend some quality time with Justin : )

Today I ran 20.5 miles, the first of three 20 mile runs. It was ok - the course I routed out ended with a lot of hills which was prob a really bad idea (even though I got through them) but I could feel it. Downhills hurt bad, I was just wishing for flats for the last couple miles. When I got home, I felt like I was going to throw up. I laid down on the floor for awhile and drank my recovery mix and then showered. I then headed to the grocery store across the street to pick up food for dinner and rewarded myself with Cadbury Mini Eggs - YUM. Easter is the only time of the year I can get these candies and i LOVE them. I am snacking on them right now as I type :) Now I think I am stuck on the couch for the rest of the night - I have no desire to get up anytime soon. Here's to what I expect will be a restful nights sleep tonight :)

What is cornhole?

For those of you wondering (and who have asked), here is a quick explanation of cornhole... I have also provided a drawing for you :)

The game consist of two slanted boards, each with a hole carved out near the top, the boards are laid something like 28ft across from each other. There are two teams, two players on each team. One team member stands at each board. Each team has 4 bean bags. The two players standing at the same board take turns throwing their colored bean bags to the board across from them. After they have tossed all their bags, the other two players at the other board collect the bean bags and toss them back over to the other board. If your bag lands on the board you get 1 point, if you get the bag in the hole you get 3 points. The goal of the game is to be the first team to reach 21 points (or how we play in the league, the team who scores the most points out of 8 rounds). However, if each team gets a bean bag on the board, they cancel each other out. Same goes for getting the bean bag in the hole. It's pretty fun but can also be extremely frustrating when you aren't playing well. My team is 50/50 right now and the league championships are next weekend. It was a fun thing to do every Thursday night throughout the winter...

I ain't complaining, cause I love the rain

You know the chevy commercial? It's raining, it's pouring, but I ain't complaining, cause I love the rain!

It's a rainy day and unfortunately it's my day off :( I'd prefer the sun. BUT, since that isn't going to be happening, I trying to pump myself up so I can get outside and run the 7.5 miles I have scheduled for today. Boston is just over a month away so I can't be missing runs! When I get home I'll hop on the bike for a hard spin. At least the 60 degrees makes up for the weather just a little bit.

This morning I cuddled up under a blanket and finally watched The Social Network (I've tried watching it twice before and fell asleep within 10 minutes both times). I wish I could watch movies all day on the couch but than I'd feel guilty at the end of the day. Perhaps when I am done with my run and bike and before I have to leave for corn hole tonight (yup, Jus and I are totally in a corn hole league) :) Out I go!!

A short run for fun

Last night, Justin and I went for a short run and stopped by the Lincoln Memorial for a pic. Justin ran in his new Saucany Kinvara's for the first time. I'm sure he'll be giving you the low down on those eventually. They are bright orange, like blindingly bright orange. Bright shoes mean you have to run fast ...run FAST Justin!

Calling it a night

2 hours on the bike, 4 mile run, 10x100 strides and a 30 minute swim is where I call it quits for the day! Today was my Saturday which means heavy workouts and I am feeling really good about everything I've done today. I felt strong throughout my workouts but I gotta say that I am feeling it now in tiredness. I am exhausted and ready for bed and it's only 7:30pm. I'm going to be fighting this one so that Justin doesn't give me a hard time for going to sleep early! :)

Once again the little girl that lives upstairs was running around early (she has feet of an elephant) and was throwing her toys all over the floor so I set the bike up in front of the laptop and turned on an instant movie on Netflix - Sunshine Cleaning - and put on noise cancellation earphones... ahh, the sound of muting someone out. It passed the time and my ride was over in no time.

my bike set up today

Next I headed out for a 4 mile run with the gym as my endpoint. At the gym I ran strides seriously for the first time ever. The track at the gym is teeny tiny so I had to run 1.5 laps to make it equivilent to to 100 meters. It went surprisingly well and look forward to doing these again next week. I used a swim as a cool down since I haven't been in awhile and thought it was necessary to get in the pool today.

Now here I sit as Justin has gone to the pool to swim fighting to keep my eyes open. He better get home quick or he might find me tucked into bed fast asleep ;)

Goodnight!

Like Old Times

Nothing like a little winter weather to make training more interesting. While the news wass busy with its weather-related doom and gloom, I figured I'd head out for 30+ min run and then head to the Y for a swim...luckily, ours was the only Y that didn't close early for snow.

As discussed in earlier posts, this year was really strange for me in terms of training. I never found a good rhythm and then basically shut down everything but running after August. As a result, heavy training has been a nice slap in the face...I've spent the past few weeks (and will continue for another 1.5 months) of nothing but base building. Plus I've added in consistent weight training for the first time which may or may not last b/c my muscles are completely spent by the time I get to swim/bike/run.

The biggest hurdle so far has been swimming. Always my weakness, coupled with hiding from the pool for months, I was a little nervous to do my T-test. This is used as a base 100m time for training: to determine we swim 3x300m w/ 30 sec rests and then average the times. While training for IMLP in 2008, my t-time was 1:53. This time around I'm untrained, sore from lifting, and swam the 1st 300m too hard and posted a t-time of 2:07...not good.

The good news is its early. But I have a long ways to go and think a private swim lesson may be needed to help me improve since this is the only leg of triathlete that I haven't significantly improved in since 2008. I guess its good that my swim focus started this week!

Welcome to my weekends

Working retail is tricky when it comes to planning out my workouts for the week. Take this week for example. I had put together my training plan with the habit of doing big workouts on the weekends - two days off to do lots and wear myself out tired. However, my weekend this week was yesterday and today - two straight days off. This meant I had to rearrange the schedule and motivate myself to get the big workouts in early in the week versus later in the week which can be hard to do! Fortunately, I got a good day in yesterday of biking and running and I plan to do a 13 mile run today, whenever the weather decides to let up before the snow, followed by a 30 minute swim (which I didn't get to fit into yesterday). It's been tricky but hopefully I will start to get use to the change up and the lack of consistency in my weekly schedule.

This week was the official start to my Boston Marathon training! WooHoo! There are twelve weeks until the race and I am already super excited. I've decided to add something new into my marathon training this time around - tempo runs and strides. I figured this would be a good idea since I PR'd at my last marathon and I would like to see if I am capable of anything more. Adding these into my training will build the speed I need, hopefully. I'll keep you posted on how it's going since this kind of training is new to me.

                       

Yesterday it was 45 degrees out and I could not pass up the opportunity to enjoy a run in the warmer weather while it was around. Note to self: Craft baselayer and Mizuno thermal tights are not good running gear for 45 degrees.... I was sweating! (but not complaining). I got to watch the sun set during the run along with lots of other runners. Picture was from yesterday: sunset behind the Lincoln Memorial - pretty, even though you can't really tell in the picture.

Exciting Friday night at the Y

2 week prep training is officially done. After a recovery week, the serious training begins.

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Hi again!

It's been awhile! Sorry!

To start things off, here's an update on the IM Canada debacle. They ended up sending an email out taking responsibility for their administrative error. Apparently $69 was the correct amount (which I still don't understand the calculations fully) but they gave athletes the option to reject the fee while honoring the original registration, which was the option I chose. I did not choose this because I am trying to be cheap, I chose it for a couple reasons: 1) the way they handled this whole thing was disrespectful, 2) I 100% would not have signed up for the race had the total cost come to nearly $700 at the point of registration (instead I would have closed the page and looked into doing another race somewhere else), 3) they never clarified the issue of EAS having access to our credit card information, which still concerns me, 4) they did not give us the option for a full refund, which I strongly believe, to practice excellent customer service, they should have offered. Anyways, it's over and done with and (somewhat) forgotten. I'll still be at the starting line on August 28 with intentions to race my heart out and have a great time.

Moving on, I started the new year off by signing up for my third race for the season, which will be TriRidgefield! I love this race and am looking forward to competing in it once again. Now it's time to decide on the remainder of my races so that I can sign up and have my race schedule set.

On another note, I took a position at City Sports in Georgetown. City Sports was my go-to store when we were living up in Boston (where it was established) and when I found out they were opening a new store in the area, I applied immediatley. Now I get to spend my days in a store I love, with awesome people, all while getting to talk to customers about things I love most. I'm excited about the job and actually look forward to going to work :) The store is awesome and unlike any other City Sports out there. Here are some pics:

Annnnd, now back to training. Justin and I have officially switched back to our (QT2) training diet. BOO! Now it's back to protein smoothies for breakfast, veggies for lunch and non-carb meals for dinner. It's always difficult getting back on this diet and you get some serious hunger pains during the transition but we both know that we feel 100x better and more energized while on it so we are pulling through and making that change. Now I just need to find some new, healthy recipes for meals so that we don't default to our regular stuff and get sick of it too quickly.

That's all for now! More updates to come soon...

Jus and I were out in California (Palm Desert) for Christmas vacation. We got to do some fun runs up steep mountains, here are some pics: