T-90 days

That's what Richard posted on my Wall today.  Followed by a sinister mwah-hahahaha.  :)  (this will be his 3rd, so he knows what's coming, the good and the bad).  Man.  90 days!!!  How did that happen?  It's funny how our perception of time can be such a dichotomy.  On one hand it takes so long to get things done...on the other it goes by so quickly.  I think back to last September, and it seemed I had all the time in the world to get ready...and now we are a mere 14 weeks away.  Which means 12 more weeks of training.  Doesn't seem like much!  Can I get everything done that I need to get done?  I'm feeling good.  I know the toughest stuff is yet to come.  And I am feeling ready to take it on.  I do wonder if I can get where I want to be with such a small amount of training time left...but then I know Z will get me where I need to be; as long as I stick to my training plan, I'll get there.  Twelve more opportunities to get the nutrition right and find the speed I want on the hills.  Twelve more opportunities to make the long runs longer, and the bricks bigger.  Twelve more opportunities to push as hard as I can and see where my limits are.

After the race last weekend, I was pretty sore.  Probably the most I've ever hurt after a race.  My recovery ride on Monday was pretty damn funny.  I couldn't believe how slow I was!  David rode with me, and seems we switched roles - he was actually waiting for me!  Took me almost twice as long to do a Shiloh loop.  I did three, and that was my ride!  lol.  I thanked him for riding slow with me, and he laughed and said "probably the only time I'll get to ride with you!"  :)  Tuesday was an off day, which was nice.  Wednesday, after Masters, I had a massage with the uber-talented Jen Vogel, and let me just say, it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch - I was practically jumping off the table - but after she was done, I could actually walk down the stairs again!!  I didn't do my run Wednesday, and it sounds like it was the SF athlete strike day - turns out there were quite a few of us that didn't run in that heat!!  A bike on Thursday, a skipped workout on Friday, and a long run yesterday, brings to to today's ride which took me through the back roads of Georgia, and across the Buford Dam.  Man, that road is a trip!  Crazy hills, speed got up to about 44 mph on one particular downhill, (and yes the associated uphills were something) and I even felt some speed shakes on the bike.  Insane.  Riding along the top of the dam was gorgeous though.  

I think I'm still holding back in the long workouts.  I need to figure out why that is, and just go for it.  I have to know where that line is before the race.  I think in part it is a fear of not being able to finish something...so I have to find a way to let go of that and just do it.  The truth is, to find out where my limit is, it probably does mean not finishing something...having to call David to come pick me up off some country road because I just can't do anymore.  Maybe I will just look at that as just finishing something different - the need to push myself to the limit.  I remember a long time ago, growing up, and my best friends' dad used to ride, and he'd get out and start riding, and then not be able to make it back so her mom had to go pick him up from the nearest town (and there were no cell phones back then!).  The way I heard it, as you can imagine, was that he was crazy!  Now I think, crazy maybe, but I totally get it!

I spent a lot of the week saying to myself "If you want to be an ironman...you need to do <insert workout>".   Getting up at 5am...or pushing those last 3 miles of yesterday's long run in zone 4-5 (man that hurt).  I know that's going to be even more important through the next couple of blocks.  So with another big 17 hour week in front of me, I'm ready to do what I need to do to get stronger and faster, and keep ticking off the days.

Happy Training!
Kat

Right On The Money!!

Okay.  So it was a small race.  I won't deny that.  Don't know the final tally, but let's just say it's less than half the size of my age group for IMC (280 btw, the largest female AG in the race).  Somewhere between 100-150.  Maybe less showed up, not sure.  Having said that, you can see from looking at prior year's results that the top 2-3 women are competitive, and the rest are just there to do it (and good for them!).  Not a lot different for the men, although with more of them, a few more are competitive.   Of course, you never know who is going to show up on race day, but if the past is any indication of the future, I knew that if I didn't place in the top three, I probably wouldn't be happy.  (and note of caution as I have just finished this and previewed it...it is ridiculously long...)

So we get there on Saturday, and go for a practice swim.  We never did end up doing a bike/run like I usually do the day before the race.  Time just got away from us.  Went out to see if we could check out "the beast" on the bike course...and man oh man...you know I get motion sickness, and these roads...prime conditions for it.  By the time we got back - and we actually took a wrong turn and didn't even see the beast - I was feeling so ill, all I could think was "this is not good the day before a race".  But, by the time I got some salad down at dinner, I was feeling back to normal.  At any rate, when we all realized JUST how small this race was going to be...seriously worried about getting lost on the course!  Turned out to be a few more than  we thought, but not by much.

After dinner, went back to the hotel, and we agreed we'd meet at the race site around 6:45.  Ya, seriously.  I mean, how weird - I'm used to more like a 4am wakeup call on race day!  So I set my alarm(s) for 5:30 and beyond.  Slept pretty well, which is not always the case the night before the race, waking up only a few times.  When I woke at 5am (there's that damn SFMasters effect at work again!) I shot out of bed, running into the bathroom saying "OMG the alarms didn't go off!!".  It took a good few minutes to realize...oh, that's because it's not the right time yet!  Pretty funny really.  I laid down for another 30 minutes, and then started to get ready.

The race meeting was pretty funny - he kept going on about "there will be Sheriffs out there, but it is still your obligation to check first...sharp turns...safety...crossing two lanes..." which honestly was starting to make me nervous, so I just stopped listening.  Honestly, I was more worried about making a wrong turn with so few racers...  And then the on-and-on description of the swim course - I mean, seriously - there's only ever one instruction you need on the swim course - keep the buoys on the right (or left as the case may be) - again, just stopped listening!

It was a time trial start surprisingly.  We all stood together for a few minutes waiting, and then Rod, of course, true to form, ran up to the front and went before the rest of us.  First leg was pretty good for sighting, I was pretty much bang on.  Second leg, not so much.  Must have been some small wind/current, enough that I was drifting to the left.  Plus, I couldn't see any buoys, but thankfully all the swim caps were yellow, so I just followed them.  With such a small race, you wouldn't think you'd get the typical man-handling of the big races, but it still happened!  Not as rough or as bad...but still a triathlon swim!!  Tried to compensate a little with a stronger right pull.  Got behind the island, and finally saw the buoy, and of course lost whatever wind it was pushing me left and now I was practically running into the shore.  In fact this might have been a bonus as I may have had a straighter line to swim than others.  There really was no life in the lake to speak of - no fish, no plants...at one point I suddenly saw these big long tentacles reaching out of the water towards me and had a mini heart attack, until the brain kicked in and realized it was a tree underwater...lol.  I felt reasonably strong in the water.  Heard Tracy a few times saying "you're swimming flat again Katrina".  Did a reasonably good job I think of maintaining my form.  Wetsuit was a struggle for me as always - tires me out.  But I got done, and was pretty surprised to see 33 minutes on the watch.  I'm sure the course had to be a little short, because while I've improved, it's not by that much.

Two odd things happened coming out of the swim - my calves hurt, which I've never experienced before either racing or in training; and, I was so off balance once I got to my bike, I could barely stand, again, never experienced this in racing before.  Now clearly, the transition was VERY close to the swim exit...but I've had at least one transition that was the same.  So not sure if I was just expending more energy this time in the swim, or what.  At any rate, my transition was longer than it should've been (this is my specialty after all!!) but I got on my way.

So I had left my aero bottle in the sink at home...bad...leaving me a bottle short on the bike.  I decided to obviously bring the three nutrition bottles and pick up water on the course.  Unfortunately, 1 bottle ejected on the speed bumps before I'd even left the park...I knew I'd be in potential trouble...but nothing I could do.  Thankfully I'd snagged an extra gel from Z in transition that morning.  So off I went.  I passed two girls at around mile 2 or 3, one shortly after the other.  I found myself in a small pack of guys for the next 8 miles or so.  Some guys are funny in races - they just can't stand to be passed by a woman.  "Chicked" as Jen says.  There were about 3 of "those guys" in this particular pack.  So whatever, I'm not going to let them slow me down.  One was the worst of all in a red and white Hammer kit.  I passed him a couple of times, neither time did I have to actually try hard to pass, I just was faster.  Each time he had to pass me back.  But each time he would pass, he'd slow down again as soon as he passed me.  ARGH !!!!  On my 4th pass by him, I just looked at him and said "Hey dude, I don't care if you pass me because you're faster, but stop passing me and slowing down as soon as you get in front".  For the non-triathletes out there, wondering why this is such a big deal - we are not allowed to draft in races.  This means that you need to leave a certain distance (usually 3-4 bike lengths) between bikes, and as soon as someone passes you (they have a limited time to do this), you are required to drop back that distance prior to trying to overtake them again, or face a drafting penalty.

Once we got to the "Beast", that group lost me.  I'm not a fast climber (yet).  At the top of the Beast was the first aid station, and I asked the guy how many girls had already passed.  He said something I didn't hear completely (keep in mind I am not actually stopping, I'm riding and grabbing), but something about you're the first one, but the way he said it, I thought he was bs'ing me.  Besides, I guess I couldn't really believe I was the lead female.  Small race or not.

This was a tough course with a lot of climbing.  The downhills were also fast, and several had sharp turns at the bottom, some with gravel.  A lot of the course I was on my own.  I am pretty sure I saw more cows than racers.  I caught up to Rod about mile 37.  Shortly after that, there was a guy standing at the bottom of his drive, cheering us on.  He shouted to me "looking strong!" and I asked him how many girls so far, and he said - you are the first one I've seen, I've been here about 15 minutes.  So I was like, seriously?  Well, I think I can be pretty sure no-one is more than 15 minutes ahead of me, so maybe I am the lead female...!!??  There was one turn on the course that was not manned (at least not when I was there).  I seriously didn't know if I'd gone the right way or not.  The road markings had been there, and a car was in the small church parking lot, but no-one was there.  The ziploc bag in the middle of the road just after the turn seemed promising, but then I saw a rider coming the opposite way.  For a minute I thought maybe there was an out and back section, and I kept waiting to see Chris pass me since I knew he'd be out somewhere in the front...but he never did, and neither did anyone else...I probably lost a minute or two on that road with my hesitation and lost focus...and there was a hell of a downhill on the back end that I thought, damn if I've gone the wrong way that is gonna be a hike to get back up...finally a stop sign loomed ahead, and thankfully a state trooper.  Round about mile 44, who do I come across but red and white Hammer dude.  By this time, I was thinking to myself that I have not been pushing hard enough.  So I think, okay, this is it then, I am passing this dude, and he will not pass me again.  So I went, and I left him in my dust.  That's what you get for being a jackrabbit - steady even power will get you a lot further, so to all the men with egos - go ahead and keep doing what you are doing, us chicks will always win in the end.  From that point forward, I pretty much laid into it.  I probably should have been going harder sooner - but I'm still figuring all that out.  Total time for the bike was 2:57, which is certainly not my best bike split ever by a long shot, but this was definitely the toughest bike I've done in a race.   18.1 mph avg, which I'd like to see a little higher by the time I get to IMC.  Other 70.3's have been 20-21 avg.  For IMC I'd be quite happy with around 19.

I get into transition, and it's a quick in and out, and I'm off on the run.  I'm feeling good at this point.  With my two bottles of Infinit and two gels on the bike, I've probably had enough calories, but not sure I've had enough water.  And I know I haven't had enough salt, but there isn't anything I can do about it, and I just hope I can hold out for 13 miles.  I passed Z coming in off the bike as I was making the first turn on the run.  I was like 'what?' and all he said was 'I crashed'.  I shouted was he okay, and he said yes.  So I went back to my run.  It was an out and back double loop.  The first mile was nice and shady, and I was thinking ok, this won't be too bad.  That didn't last long.  Most of it ended up being in the full sun, and it was WAY hillier than the profile showed.  My first out leg on the dam, and I pass Kevin - in 2nd place!!! - and he tells me you are first.  Amazing, those guys out there were right - I really am in first.  OK.  So this is mine to lose.  My plan was to run about an 8:40 pace, and then pick it up in the last 30 minutes to an 8:00-8:15.  This is how I've been training, and training well.  Now, it was hot - very hot - hotter than I've been running in.  High 80's and by the end it was 90.  First leg was very good. Was running an 8:20 pace.  I knew this would come down slightly when I did the biggest uphill on the way back.  Every aid station, I just took the water and dumped it to cool myself.  All the way back to the start, and then start the second loop.  Passed Z at that same first turn, at which point I was at an 8:40 overall pace, and feeling okay.  A little tired, and I knew I needed salt.  Z didn't have any.  Nor did any of my teammates.  I had done one gel on the first loop at 30 minutes in, and at 1:15 tried a second.  I got it half done, and just couldn't take anymore in.  Had a massive cramp under my right ribs on the way down the run's "beast", to the point where it was actually bringing tears to my eyes.  Thankfully I was able to breathe it out.  The course layout had its advantages, as I was able to pass by my teammates several times.  Always nice to cheer on your mates, and be cheered by them.  Thanks guys for all the awesome encouragement!!  I was definitely slowing down, but determined to keep the lead.  The next woman was about 4-5 minutes behind me, and the gap was staying pretty consistent.  On the last time I passed her, she waved at me and said "you've got this! I'm relay!".  A relief on one hand, but maybe would've been better for my competitive nature not to know that.  The last three miles really hurt.  Hurt bad.  I had to walk a few times, and my plan of a faster final 30 was not to be.  It took everything just to keep going.  I definitely needed salt, and with it, I believe I would have gone about 3-5 minutes faster.  I even resorted to throwing water on my face and licking the salty water off my lips!  At any rate, I finished, and in my fastest 70.3 run to date.  1:57.  Should've had the salt, it's my own fault.  But it is a good lesson learned.

And so yes, small race, but nevertheless, as Mo said a victory is a Victory!  First Overall Female.  Very exciting for me.  And in a time - 5:27 - that is respectable enough to feel it is legitimate.  And also makes me feel really great that it was Z's first OA placement for one of his athletes!  Woohoo!  And Team Sport Factory did well overall - Kevin with a 2nd overall placement, James with first AG.  And Rod and Jim also finishing well.  Not so great about the weekend - Chris was leading the race at 50 miles into the bike when he was hit by a car.  Thank GOD he is okay, though the bike is not.  Amazingly, he finished the race, and absolutely deserves Coach Tracy's newly formed HTFU award.








After I called to tell him of my win, David asked me if I was therefore now the "beast of the east".  LOL.  And funnily so did Marc on Monday.  He has now resorted to calling me The Beast every time I walk into PMO Row.  Ah well, it is great to have support, and I wouldn't want it any other way!  Thanks guys.

So great race, with yet more lessons.  Salt salt salt.  (sound familiar Richard?) and I still have to find that point where I am giving everything I can give on the bike.  I'm sure I am still holding back too much, afraid I won't have enough left on the run.  The bright side is - looks like I was able to put out a good performance following last weekend's ride and the last training block.  Seems my training is right on the money!

Long post, I know, so I will let it go at that, and write more later.  Thanks for reading...those of you that finished!  Hopefully you've had a glass of wine to go with it.

Happy Training!
Kat

Getting Ready for the Beast of the East

As I reflect on the preparation for tomorrow's race, I realize something odd.  There really hasn't been any, per se.  Don't get me wrong - I've been training my ASS off.  As you know.  :)  But for the first time, I am racing in a half iron distance tomorrow and it has not been the key focus of my training.  Feels pretty weird.  In fact, I've barely thought about this race specifically until this last week.  I guess that is one of the good things about training for Ironman - 56 miles of biking is gonna seem short!!  lol.  I'm thinking the 13.1 miles of running will still feel long, but man that bike is gonna fly by ;)

I've had my doubts about being rested enough for tomorrow, after this last training block, and especially the ride last weekend (as does Matt - have his doubts that is).  Chris of course is confident as always.  I hope I don't let him down.  :)  But I have to say that I am feeling good.  I feel rested.  For the most part, I have slept well this week.  My body is a little sore, and I need a massage - but that will have to wait till next week.  Stress at work has been pretty high this week - yet another boss (that's 10 in less than 4 years) - so that has not been good, but yesterday I was able to just let it go.  This has been a taper week, short, but still a taper. Monday's swim was hilarious, Wednesday's was still slow but better.  Wednesday's hill repeats weren't too bad (thankfully there were only 3!).  Thursday's ride was actually great, felt strong.  Yesterday was off, as was Tuesday.  Today there is the standard mini-tri to get the legs moving, heart pumping, test the water, and generally just remind the body what it is expected to do tomorrow.

The race is hilly - hence the name.  There is a beast on the bike and a beast on the run.  I'm sure if they could they'd put a beast on the swim, but without an up-current river, that's kinda tricky ;)  But seriously, after last week, a 700' climb doesn't seem too bad. The run on the other hand...profile makes it look like you are dropping into the pits of hell...and we have to do it twice.  I'm definitely in better shape to run hills for this race than for any other, thanks to the Shiloh hills (my standard long run hilly route).

I do think it is funny on the run/swim map, that they felt it necessary to indicate that the BLUE was the RUN and RED was the SWIM...LOL.  Interestingly, I'm not feeling as prepared for the swim as I did in San Juan, despite having considerably more swimming under my belt.  Swimming at the venue for 3 days before the race made me more confident than I've ever been for the swim.  I haven't been in open water since.  :(  This will not be true for IMC of course - I will spend many hours in the OW between now and then...but it is also good that I will be up in Penticton early enough that I can swim 3-4 times in the lake before the race. Anyway, for tomorrow, I just have to remember to relax, keep my form, long strokes - and remember that I can do it!  Of course it's a wetsuit race, which for many people is an exciting bonus, but for me carries more anxiety - the thing just chokes the hell out of me.  I'll get in the water today with it on, and just make the best of it tomorrow.


So, tomorrow we'll see if I really am as rested as I feel.  It's a small race, and with my current level of fitness it is fair to say I should do well.  I hope I deliver.  There are 4 other SF athletes racing with me too - so who knows, could be a good day for TSF.  Chris, James, Rod, Kevin - let's get ready to rumble!!!

Happy Racing!
Kat

14000' of climbing - You've Come a Long Way Baby!

Wow.  What an epic day.

5:30 am Z picked me up, and then James, and we headed up to Helen, GA to ride in one of the toughest centuries in the US.  The Brasstown Bald Buster Century.  100 miles, with 14000' of climbing, the majority of which is in the last 20 miles.  80 miles of rolling hills (about 6000') and then Hogpen Gap, Jack's Gap, and finally the piece de resistance - Brasstown Bald - the highest point in Georgia.

So you're thinking - uh, didn't you just finish your first century last weekend?  Ya.  And I've never ridden the Gaps before.  First, in my defense, I was only following Coach's orders.  ;)  Having said that, ya'll know me well enough to know that when I do something, I tend to do it all in.

My goal today was to finish.  I didn't need to be fast today, I just needed to climb, and finish.  I've got 15 weeks to get faster at it.  I honestly did not think I could do that much climbing, and especially not at the grades I was going to face - 10-25% grades on the tough ones.  I mean seriously, 14000 feet?  I am not a climber.  But, I was gonna go out there and give it the ol' college try, and just honestly take it as it came.  My plan was to ride my own ride, and not try to keep up with James or Z.  Hell, even if I tried I couldn't, and if I tried I'd blow myself up.


There was a nasty crash about 11 minutes in, when everyone was still in a big group.  I was very lucky, and managed to scoot around it - all I could think was Man! my bike handling skills have gotten a lot better!  Unfortunately, James got caught in it, and has a little road rash and a cracked helmet to show for it.  Thankfully nothing worse than that.  Kids - this is why you wear a helmet!!



I got through the first 80.  I stopped at the rest stops only long enough to grab supplemental calories, and pee.  Yes!  I had to pee.  Good sign -- well hydrated.  I was trying Infinit as my calorie source today for the first time.  I had 4 bottles with me.  I added a half a banana at the first two stops, and by the third, needed something more, so tried the peanut butter on white bread - 1 pc banana, 1/2 sandwich.  It went down well, and at 4th and 5th stops did 3/4 sandwich.  (next test - see if I can run off the bike with that).  Aside from that I took on only water, and added Nuun.  At the split-off for the 80mile option vs the 100 with the crazy climbs, I knew I was going all the way.  I had a lot more in me.  The first 80 weren't easy by any stretch - some long grinders with climbs hard enough that I was doing under 10 mph.  At some points I was as slow as 3.4.  Apparently I could go that slow and still stay up.  Who knew??!

So I get to the bottom of Hogpen.  I really don't know what's in store for me - I've never been up there, all I know is this is the hardest of the Six Gaps.  Almost 8 miles of nothing but uphill - and almost 2 miles of uphill.  I started out, and it took me just over an hour to climb.  I didn't stop, didn't get off, didn't walk.  I literally just turned those pedals over again and again for over an hour.  I'd say it is 95% climbing.  A few flat spots, and a few minor downhills - which honestly were just cruel! - and the rest is climbing.  10-15+% grade on much of it.  I was in my smallest gear almost the whole way, most between 4-7 mph.  Crazy!!  But I did it.  Once at the top, there was a mere 13 miles to go.  HA!  Nothing "mere" about it!!

Parental Warning - Mum do not read this paragraph.  :)  So just over an hour to get up, about 10-12 minutes to get down!!  LOL.  Interestingly, this did not scare me at all, which did surprise me.  37 mph with both brakes on.  Good Lord.  Had there not been so many twisties on this one, I'd have been going faster.

Jack's Gap was easier, but it had it's share of climbs too - only shorter.  Just can't compare to Hogpen though, and I got through that, so this was doable.  Chris was waiting for me at the bottom of Brasstown Bald.  What a great coach - waited for me at every rest stop!   So he took off, I followed a few minutes later.  With less than 5 miles to go, you'd think it would be over soon.  HA!!  I'll have to check but I think it took about 40 minutes to climb.  It was shorter than Hogpen, but steeper, with spots reaching 25% grade.  (YES, seriously.  If you don't know what 25% grade looks like - it is F'G Stupid Steep).

As soon as I started up, it started to pour.  With a 50% chance of rain all day I'd been very lucky, and had only a few drops, though a lot of wet pavement.  I wasn't too upset that it was raining here.  It was lowest gear all the way.  Whereas on Hogpen I was able to stay seated almost the whole time, here on BB it was so steep in spots I had to stand just to get enough force on the pedals to make them go around.  Probably half or more of the climb was standing.  I passed several guys who were walking up.  I managed to stay on.  :)  I skidded on one of the wet reflectors in the middle of the road at one point forcing me to unclip.  Fortunately it was in a "flatter" section, so I was able to get back up.  Once I hit The Wall - 25% grade - just un-freaking-believable how steep this thing was - I got about halfway up, maybe a little less, and finally was just unable to get the pedal to turn over so had to unclip.  I mean, my cadence was 30-35 - unbelievable that I could stay up with that!  So that was it for this section - there was no getting back on.  Walked up a bit - and believe me, even walking was tough it was so steep.  Got to a slightly lower grade, and hopped back on.  Turned out to be the only place I had to walk.  And, in complete shocked enthrallment I crossed the finish line at the top!!!  I had made it!!!


So took about 4:30 to do the first 80, and 2:40 to do the last 20!!  I was definitely not pushing the first part, since I wanted to make sure I had enough to get through, but it wasn't crazy slow either.  I stuck with keeping my power on the hills around the 200W mark or lower.  This was key for me - and something I only learned last weekend (Thanks Coach).  I've always just powered up hills, and now I know I don't have to do that.  I also think I nailed my nutrition, which is probably the biggest factor for how I feel.  I honestly feel great.  I thought I would be completely trashed if I managed to finish.  And I don't.  A SEVEN HOUR workout and I'm feeling good.  How awesome is that!! And after three very tough training weeks to boot.

So, I am pretty damn happy right now.  Completed another century.  Completed the toughest ride in Georgia.  Completed a 7 hr workout and feel good.  Nailed my nutrition.

Of course, I have to run 2 hours in the morning.  I'm sure that will be a little tougher than last week.  But it's all good.  My confidence for IMC just went up a notch.  The second half of that will be to see if I can hammer out a good race next weekend at Beast of the East, after this workout, on top of the last three very tough weeks.

Thanks to Chris - as always, I am very grateful that we are training for the same race, and I get to spend so much time actually training with my Coach.  You Rock!

Oh.  And as I was climbing up Hogpen, I started thinking about the fact that I can actually stay up at just over 3 miles an hour.  I recalled trying to bike up Rocky Ridge Road back in Calgary and how I could barely stay upright making my way up that towards home.  And how I thought that hill was SO FREAKING HARD.  Granted, it is a big hill.  :)  But in comparison to what I did today - it just is so far removed, I can't even say.  And all I could think was - You've come a long way baby!!

Happy Training!!
Kat

my god that's it - it IS groundhog day!!

Well the alarm went off.  I lay there.  It went off again.  I lay there again.  :(  oh good god do i really have to get up and run another hour, and not only an hour but at a 10k pace?  shit.  as Matt would say...I'm not "making" you do anything, you choose to come here!  very true.  still.  I pulled up my email on my phone. Truth be told I was hoping for an out - an email from Z saying, skip today's run.  It wasn't there.  But what I did see were comments from Marc and Richard on my blog post last night.  Thanks you guys!!  Seriously.  Means a LOT.  It was enough to get my a$$ out of bed and go.  Literally, I jumped right up and went out.  I admit I didn't do the full hour, but I did almost 6 miles, and I did manage my 10k+10 pace.  Ugh.  It hurt, but I did it.  And another truth - I gotta run when I am tired like this, train my body to do it.  That's what this is all about.  It really is true - the Ironman is just the cherry on top - it's the training that's hard.  And I know I've only scratched the surface of the "tough stuff".

Okay, another long day ahead of me...and another day late to the office...oh well.  It's not like I don't work my butt off when I'm there.

later...happy training or something like that

Kat

Finding that Ironman Stamina...??

Damn.  I    amm     sooooo     tired. 

Where the hell did my legs go, and whose are these attached to my torso?

When did a mid-week run become 9 miles?????

My runs have been going so well lately.  And then I got to tonight.  It was an ugly run.  The first loop was rough, and the second loop was rougher.  I was supposed to run 1:15.  I didn't want to run 1 loop, never mind 3.  For the first time in a while, I had side cramps during my run.  I kinda had hoped those were behind me.  And these definitely weren't due to pace - that much I know for sure.  Good lord.  I swear my heart rate felt like the high 160's, which for me is the top of zone 3, but dammit if every time I looked at the garmin the effin thing said 130's, even 120's at times.  My body was saying the thing is wrong, but my darn brain had to agree with the garmin - at the pace I was running, aka ridiculously slow, that would be about my heart rate. During the first loop I convinced myself that I had to do the second loop - work on my mental toughness.  So I did.  The first half was as bad or worse.  I was ready to throw in the towel, and just call it.  Then for some reason I started to feel a little better, and noticed that I was actually powering up the hills.  To be honest, I didn't really think too much about it - the legs kinda took over - and before I knew it I was headed out for the third loop.  I did my best to pick up the pace, and although I was nowhere near the pace I've been running lately, it was faster than the first two.  Ended up actually doing more than the time, although that is really more an indicator of how slow I was running, since three loops should've brought me right to 1:15.

About 2/3 of the way into the last lap, I started to sob.  lol.  Alligator tears as my Mum would say, since I wasn't actually shedding any tears - or if I was I couldn't tell since I was sweating so much.  But, for the first time, I ran through the breakdown.  Getting tougher, or just getting more crazy?  I guess it's all your perspective.  I'm sure the perspective of anyone watching me along that last stretch was "cerrrr-aaazy!!"  Along with the crying was a few "You're not stopping dammit" and "HTFU Katrina!!".   For me, I'm gonna go with getting tougher - Gotta get there if I wanna be an Ironman.

Swim session was long but good this morning.  Had a bit more energy than Monday's at least.  I did the Ironman workout, along with James and Mark, so we were in one lane.  God bless them for swimming around me, since I was the slowest of the lot.  After warmup, we did a 500 pull followed by 2 1000's.  Probably the slowest 1000's I've done.  Another sign of how tired I am right now. 

At this point, I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do the ride on Saturday, never mind 2hr run on Sunday and oh ya, a half ironman the following weekend.  But, I'll get out there and see what I can do.  I guess if I can do even close to the 14000 feet of climbing on this century, the 6700 in IMC is gonna seem easy.  (it's all relative).  I'll let ya'll know on Saturday night. 

....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

happy training
Kat

Major Milestone for Mother's Day

I DID IT!!!!  How many smiley faces can I put here???  I'm pretty much over the moon today with my workout.  Was starting to wonder if I was ever gonna get there...today was the day - I finally did 100 miles on the bike.  Yes, I know, I'm doing Ironman in 16 weeks, and until today I hadn't done more than 78 miles on the bike - totally crazy.  But today I did it.

First can I just say, it's a beautiful 80 degrees out and I am sitting in the warmest room in the house with a fleece and wool socks on, and I'm still cold...just got out of the ice bath, which I really didn't want to do today, but I know my body will thank me tomorrow.  (and Chris won't yell at me...okay "yell" ... since of course he doesn't REALLY yell).  I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm eating a Jamocha Shake (Arby's)  ...YUMMMM...  but I'm not giving it up.  I feel like the alpha lion sitting in front of the fresh kill - god help anyone who gets in the way of my food right now.  LOL.  Instant calories now...good calories in about an hour.  (sorry Ilana).

So, back to the point of this blog.  :)  Good lord, I'm looking at the title and even in my training blog I still sound like a project manager.  HA!  But, truth is that this is a HUGE milestone for me.  And it was a GREAT RIDE!!!  I'm super stoked about it.  Chris rode over to my neighbourhood from his house - about 15 miles away...I did loops around Shiloh before he got here so we'd start together at about the same mileage.  Then he showed me a great little 15 mile loop, and then we headed out into the country.  My main goal today was to a) get the time in the saddle and b) get my nutrition right.  I also did dope up on ibuprofen so that my damn neck would not get in the way again this weekend.  Halfway point and I was feeling great.  We kept going.  It's amazing how far and wide you go when you are covering 100 miles.  We headed out from Cherokee County back to Roswell, and down to the River.  Passed Katie June on the way, training for her first half in 4 weeks.  My nutrition and fluid intake seemed to be about right.  Neck was giving me a little bit of grief by about the 4 hour mark, but nothing too bad really.  We stopped briefly at Jason's at mile 87 (thanks for the nuun!) and then hopped onto the Greenway for 6 miles at a recovery-like pace - man it was crowded.  I was feeling very good, and then the last little bit started to feel a little shaky.  Big hill climb out of the greenway with only about 7 miles to go.  Got to the top of that hill, and knew I'd dropped the ball on nutrition just at the very end.  I had one more goodie in my pocket, of course could not get the damn thing open (didn't help that my hands were a little shaky)!!  Had to pull off to the side, managed to open it, and ate that pack of Gu Chomps in about 15 seconds flat.  Yes the whole thing.  (shut up).    Guess I should've taken the gel that Jason offered... Anyway, caught up to Chris, and seriously within about 1 minute I was feeling good again.  Chris went his way and I went mine.  And yay Chris, the route was PERFECT, I rolled up to my door with 100.7 on the garmin!!!  :) :) :) :) :)  And yes, I did give a big whoop out loud on the road when I passed the ACTUAL 100 mile mark!!  And to top it off, I ran 3.2 miles, at a respectable 8:27 pace.  Couldn't be happier with myself right now!

What's even better, is I really do feel great!  This is definitely the best I've felt after ANY long workout, never mind my longest ever.  This was not only my longest workout in distance ever, but also my longest in time - including all my 70.3 races.   Calories on the ride:  2 gels, 2 clif blocks, 1 gu chomps, ~16 oz gatorade, 1 banana, 1 wheat cheese crackers, 1 rice krispie square, and 5 bottles of water (4 with nuun).  Totaling about 1400 calories.  A little more water intake needed...pee was a little too yellow after the ride.  :)

The rest of this week was pretty great too.  Yesterday's long run - very happy.  Five full loops for 14.2 miles in 2 hours, with the last 30 minutes at 7:57 pace.   Nutrition was good here too - skipped the gatorade altogether, and ran with nuun water only and 2 gels.    No GI issues, worked very well.  Made it to all 3 swim workouts, which is the first time in a while, and it felt really good!  Got a good mix of long distance swimming (Wed) and painful but very important speed sets (Fri).  I already forget what we did Monday ;)

Wednesday's hill repeats on the run went very well too.  I have suddenly found that I am able to effectively recover while still running.  I used to have to walk for the recovery to get my heart rate down, but this week I ran up the hill for the 3 minute interval, and then was able to run down for recovery (vs just walking or stopping altogether) and actually get the proper drop in heart rate.  This is huge for me.  I've noticed all around that my run efficiency is getting better.  Guess it was about time I tackled my hill avoidance head on; thanks to the new neighbourhood I've not had a choice about it.  Six weeks of running these hills regularly - it's amazing the improvement.

So, total of 15:50 this week.  I'm feeling pretty good.  Today was a great day, and I feel like maybe it's not so crazy that I can actually do this after all.  I'm still a long way from running a marathon after a ride like that, but I've got 16 weeks to get there.  The way I feel today after this workout, I'll get there.

Huge thanks to Chris for riding with me today.  (and to Suzanne for letting him ride all day on Mother's Day).  I know I slowed you down a bit, but I really appreciate you being out there with me.

Happy Mother's Day to all the great Moms I know, but most especially to my Mum.  I'm very grateful for you and everything you have done for me, and all that you continue to do.  Miss you a lot, and love you very much.  I'm sorry your gift is late - it's all this damn training!  ;)   - hope you like it when you get it.

Happy Training everyone!
Kat

if ur doing an ironman ur not old

LOL.  So says Meg, the sweet daughter of one of dearest friends, back in Calgary.  I consider her part of my extended family, and even though I haven't seen her for a few years now, she and her mom and sister are close to my heart (ok and Julian too).  I found her online on FB on Friday night, and got to chat with her, which was a nice treat.  I've known her since she was born, and still think of her as an adorable 5 yr old.  Now she's an amazing dancing machine, very very talented.  I asked her what grade she was in now, and when she replied "grade 8 - jr high!!" all I could say was, god I feel old.  Today's blog title was her quick response, god love her.  I guess if a 13 yr old says anyone over the age of 25 isn't old, then that's saying something!

So this week was a TOUGH week.  Lots of training hours, and the weekend especially had a couple of doozies.  We headed out for our 100 miles yesterday on the Silver Comet.  We started quite a bit later than originally planned, since James wasn't flying in to ATL until 9am.  While I like to get these big workouts started early, I didn't mind too much since a got a lovely lie-in, which is pretty darn rare these days.  Woke up at 530 anyway, but I made myself go back to sleep!!  And, not a bad thing to be riding later in the day since that is what the race is gonna be.  So 11:00 we set out.  James was up front, and I probably shouldn't have followed him.  He is fast.  But honestly, I felt good, and it wasn't all that much faster than I'd done two weeks ago when I was on my own, plus I was drafting some, which I obviously wasn't doing last time.  We were to do 5 hours, 100 miles, but Z had to get out early, so we turned at 2 hrs, and then the rest of us were gonna do an extra loop in the middle once we hit Floyd Rd to get in the additional 20 miles.  First couple hours went by amazingly fast - thinking back to this ride on my own, I can't say the same thing.  When we turned around I was feeling pretty good.  I had gone flying by more than one male rider out there, and at this point I did not see any reason to not complete the full 100.  By the time we hit Cooper Lake Beach on the way back my neck had really started to hurt.  And it just continued to get worse, literally by the minute.  The pain reached right up the back of my neck and blossomed into a glorious headache.  It hurt so damn much, it became the only thing I could think about, even more than staying upright.  Fortunately I did stay upright, but nothing I did made my neck feel better.  I was at the point where I was riding with my head down and only looked up every 10-15 seconds - fortunately the trail was clear enough to accommodate that.  I told Z that my day to hit 100 was not gonna be today.  At Floyd Rd, I said no way can I do another 30 - my legs felt fine, but my neck couldn't take it.  Kevin was in the same place as me.  So we headed back, and I did fly back to the start.  I wanted 80, so went past and did a few more.  Unfortunately there is a very big hill the way I went, and at the top of it, I looked back at James (Kevin had dropped already) and just said "Screw 80.  I'm done."  He laughed and said sounds good to me.  We got back to the car, and I did manage to get a 2+ mile run in - as James put it "gotta make sure those legs know they aren't done after the bike".  It HURT, but we did get a pretty good pace.

So sad to say, we didn't get 5 hours in, nor 100 miles.  And it didn't really make sense - I did more time 2 weeks ago (albeit for slightly less distance).  I admit we went out too hard - and that's okay, I have to learn what that feels like...but I didn't go out that much harder, and still I felt WAY WAY worse.  I am certain the biggest factor was my nutrition.  I didn't drink enough in the first half.  And once you get behind, there's no catching up.  And I also don't think I took in enough calories, or salt.  So all good things to learn, and I still have 4 months to get it right.  So next weekend I will go out with a very precise nutrition plan, set some alarms to make sure I drink and eat when I need to, and see how that goes.  I did still end up with my longest ride ever, so that's a silver lining.  As for the neck, even Z said his neck hurt as bad or worse than mine.  I guess it is just time in the saddle to get those muscles used to it.  So next weekend I'll just try again.

Didn't think the run today was gonna go so well, after yesterday, but I guess that is the miracle of ice baths - it actually was very good.  Almost 13 miles, with the last 30 minutes even faster than what Zimmer wanted me to hit - about an 8:00 pace for the last 4 miles.  And that is on the hilly neighbourhood route.  So pretty happy with that.

So tough week, but lots of good lessons learned - and that's really what this is about.  Don't yet know exactly what next week looks like yet, but I'm not expecting anything less than this week.  Thanks to David who has been wonderfully supportive this week, I really appreciate it.

Happy Training!
Kat