Running on Empty

Literally and Figuratively.

Last week should have been a welcome respite from all the hard training I've been doing.  On one hand, it was, with two days off (and a missed workout...).  However, a terribly timed, though seemingly inevitable, emotional upheaval on the other hand, made it a very tough week.

Mid week workouts were good.  Had a helluva rain storm on Thursday's ride, a good half hour in pouring rain.  My helmet got a good cleaning - literally thousands of miles of sweat getting rinsed off - straight down my face - nasty nasty nasty stuff.  Saturday's run was good.  It was shorter, but slightly tougher - the 10 mile stepup.  I felt good though, and was happy to have the full day on Saturday to putter around the house getting things done and tidied that have been left untidied for far too long.

Sunday was another century brick on the books.  Kevin, Z and I were scheduled to do the Hospitality Highway Century.  They actually close down the 400 for a half hour while we all bike up one exit.  I don't know exactly how many riders there were, but it looked like possibly thousands.  Perhaps I exaggerate, but  certainly hundreds, and easily more than one thousand.  We were up at the front, and here is a shot I took of just ONE column of people.  This was an early ride due to the 400 closure - 630 start, and you had to be checked in by 6.  Ya - nice - finally have a ride that is literally up the street, and I still have to be up at 5 am.  WTF.

Anyway, off we went.  It was cool riding the bike along the 400, I will admit.  Only lasted a few miles of course, and then we were into the real ride.  Jim and Rod had both warned me that this was a sick hilly ride.  If nothing else, this ride convinced me that I would rather climb stupid-ass steep mountains, than this crap.  I hate rollers.  The temp was not as bad as it could have been in the am - thanks to overcast skies - though it was pretty thick out there with humidity.  I don't know what the recorded humidity was, but it felt worse than Peachtree where it was 78%.

First three hours, I felt pretty okay, and then it all went downhill from there.  I started to feel weird, just not right.  I tried to figure out what was going on.  I took down some more calories, maybe I hadn't been keeping up too well.  By 3:30 I just wanted to quit.  This is the first time I've really felt this way on a ride, at least to this extent.  Everything kinda hurt, and I was not feelin it in any way.  Of course I pushed through that, and kept going.  I'd sort of hooked up with another rider, guy named Chris in a yellow jersey.  We passed each other a few times, chatted.  Finally he introduced himself, said he felt less like a stalker if I at least knew his name!  lol.  Anyway, I lost him for a while there, and then pulled in at a rest stop.  Was not feeling good.  Took some more salt, and a few more advil.  Definitely one issue was that I didn't take my advil before I started, and my neck was just killing me; I've found that just zaps my energy to an extreme.  Gotta take em before I start so it never gets to this point.  Yellow Jersey was there, and we took off together.  I said to him that I was really flagging, not sure what was up, my nutrition, what.  I tried to down a bunch of calories and see if that would help.  Lost him again on a hill, and was riding by myself for a while again.  Finally at 4:16 into the ride I just lost it.  Had a meltdown.  Pretty sure it was the overwhelming emotional shit I've had going on this week, and finally with my body just so tired, I couldn't hold it back anymore, and it just poured out.  Thankfully I was by myself.  HA, wouldn't that have been a show for Yellow Jersey if he'd been around!  And yes, no doubt this stress contributed to my weariness in the first place.

After these 3-4 minutes of blubbering, (and yes I kept riding through it), I actually started to feel a little better.  And good thing too, since Mountain Park was up next.  Managed to get through that, and pretty well too I might add.  Watched several guys weaving across back and forth to get up some of those hills, but I powered right up them.  Still felt that I was going to pull in around five and a half hours.  That was not to be, and it was 5:55 before I rolled in, still not sure where that 20ish minutes went.  Have to say, this was a really tough ride.  Compared to others we've done this year, it looks like nothing and the elevation profile would shrink to a blip on the screen next to the mountains we've climbed.  But there is no flat here, it's all up and down.

The elevation goes from 900' to 1250', so nothing that looks so bad on paper, especially when I've been doing 900' to 3400' and 5400'...so why is this so tough?????


I pulled around the corner to the finish, and Z was standing there waiting.  I think he was pretty worried I was gonna start crying right there.  Poor guy.  "I really struggled" I said.  "I didn't even get a 'Damn!' so you must be really tired" he said.  And we still had to run.  AND they had no coke.  WTF.  A ride like that and you have NO COKE???  People.  Get your shit together.  And of course I did not bring my own, because this was an organized ride.

So we drove down to the river to do the run.  By this time, it was full sun, and 94 degrees, and like I said, about 127000% humidity.  I had no water, no gels, I just wasn't prepared.  Why you ask?  I have no good answer for that.  Except that everything happens for a reason, and clearly there was a lesson to learn here.  We headed out, and I was able to keep up with Z and Kevin for the first 3 miles.  Not too bad at about an 8:40 pace, but goddamn it hurt like a MF.  I hit that 4th mile, and I had to stop.  And that was a mistake.  I've always heard people say that, but generally speaking, I haven't experienced it.  I did in this 4th mile.  I walked a tenth of a mile, then ran, and made it a third of a mile, and had to walk again, and I watched my pace drop and drop and drop.  When it hit 10:00 pace, I was like goddammit get your ass running.  So I made it back to the car.  No way was I doing more.  HA!  Told Z I was completely out of gas.  Got a coke (thanks Z), downed it.  Z was like "well, it's gonna hurt!" I'm like "I know that but it's gonna hurt like this at mile freaking 3???"  No way can I do that.  He just looked at me and said, I want you to know what it's gonna feel like to be out of gas, and keep running, and then feel the sugar rush, and keep running.  Talk about running on empty.  So we did.  I only made it another 1.2 miles, but I did it without walking, and am so grateful Z was there to keep me going.  The scary thing was that I had stopped sweating.  I realized it as we turned around.  Not good.  Funny, even before I got home, I wished I had run another mile.  Just to prove to myself that I could do it.

I got home, ate, took an ice bath, put on my compression gear, and passed out on the screened porch off the master, with Topaz at my feet.  I don't think I've been this tired after any workout so far this year.  This really took it out of me.  And I was so sore - worst of the year I'd say.  Woke up, put the ice packs in my 110% compression gear (LOVE THESE btw), and lay there for another while.  Went to my metalsmithing class (so tired I almost didn't, which says a lot about how tired I was).  Came home, ate again.  Woke up this am still pretty sore.

As I showered this morning and reflected on the weekend, I realized something.  I've often said: as in triathlon, so in life.  My lessons and epiphanies in training are often a mirror for the things I need to learn in life.  I realized that I have been running on empty for a long time.  Longer than most people would tolerate.  Been filling other people's tanks, but neglecting my own.  Time to change that.

I've got 7 weeks to go.  This was a tough, tough weekend.  But that's good - wouldn't really be prepared for Ironman if I didn't have tough weekends, right?  I clearly need to increase my water intake on the bike.  Calories are okay - though possibly a little low this ride, but the water is a problem.  1300 calories in Infinit, and that's it, not counting the coke.  Although I did start the ride with more calories than ever before - took Jim's suggestion for Odwalla Superfood - so almost 500 calories in before the ride.  I usually can only swallow a banana, so I started out in a better position.  No plain water, and maybe that's one of the mistakes.  I'm still not peeing on the bike at all, and so this is not good.  I lost 5 pounds during this workout, and that's with consuming about 170 oz of fluid.  Now, no doubt it will not be this hot, nor certainly this humid, in Penticton.  This will leave me in an advantaged situation.  That's always good.  And if it does happen to turn out to be one of those "hot years", at least I'll be prepared.  I'm learning a lot about my nutrition needs.  This will be critical to my success in August.

I look at this picture that Kevin snapped of me as we "hurried up and waited" yesterday morning.  I was feeling good and that's quite a smile on my face...not to be seen again that day.  But, that was yesterday, and this is today.  It's still freaking hot, and still freaking humid, but I went out and did my recovery ride with a new smile on my face, because after all - what's 94 degrees when my bud Jen Vogel (http://jenvogel.wordpress.com) is out there in 130 degrees plus running 135 miles through the desert and up mountains to complete the world's toughest footrace.  Damn she is Bad A$$.  My hero.  So HTFU.

So, with another 18.5 hour week in front of me, all I have to say is - I'm ready to tackle it, and please please please let's ride the Gaps on Saturday.  No more stupid little hills...at least for a few weeks.

Happy Training
Kat