Halfway Training Weekend

This upcoming weekend is our "Halfway to Ironman" training weekend.  We will be spending the weekend in Lake San Antonio and training on the Wildflower Long Distance course.  One of many things that makes Wildflower so unique is that you have to camp!  So not only will we be training on one of the most difficult triathlon courses in the country, we will also be sleeping in tents, on the cold and hard ground, the night before and the night after having swam 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles, and running 13.1 miles.  We will have to prepare our food out of ice chests and gas stoves or BBQs.  I'm already at a loss for how the heck I am going to eat a sufficient breakfast to start 9 hours of training at 5am in the dark.  Oh, and have I mentioned the weather is just awful these past few days?  I think this weekend will be more about testing my mental abilities than my physical abilities.

This course terrifies me.  One of the hills is called Nasty Grade.  And, I have already been told to go into the run expecting to "hike" rather than run for the first 6 miles of it (mind you, I've never even ran more than 6 miles to date and now I have to do 13)!  Last year, I went down with Nick to help volunteer for the training weekend.  I never imagined that I would actually be doing the same course a year later.  I brought my bike with me and did my volunteer bit in the morning and attempted to ride the Olympic distance bike course that afternoon.  I did not make it.  I think I went about 9 miles out, gave up, and turned around.  It was so difficult for me and I had to walk my bike in a couple places.  Granted, I was an extremely novice rider then and I didn't learn to properly change my gears until about a month later.  I'm hoping that was half my battle.

Yesterday, I was thinking about how when I went there last year, I just assumed how much these people had been training to get where they were and how they all finished.  And, here I am thinking about how I am nowhere near close to their level at the same time last year.  Yet, yesterday, Sedonia commented that we have biked more and swam in the open water more than they did last year before Wildflower weekend.

A few weeks ago, our coach was talking to us about instituting cut-off times for our training weekend.  Since I am officially an "Aquabiker" for Vineman, they asked if I would rather be allowed to finish the bike and they just SAG me forward to the run or if they should cut me off at the bike.  Since Vineman comes first, I want to be allowed to finish the bike.  But, I was laughing at the concept that we were already discussing the plan for me knowing that I will have a difficult time meeting the cutoffs.  My silver lining is that even though this is our team's "Halfway" weekend, IMAZ is three months after the other events we are training for, so it's truly more like "Quarterway" weekend for me.

You Will Do This

I need to do my track workout tonight.  I don't want to go.  It's raining, which isn't really a bad thing when you're running.  However, it still makes me not want to go.  It's 7pm and I'm not in workout clothes yet.  I was looking for some sort of motivation to get me out of this chair.  I remember a guy that made a professional poster of his partner at IMAZ that says, "You Will Do This" and I recalled one of the main IM videos that says the same.  Of course, the video mainly features the pros and not the every day people and slow pokes like me. :) But, I will do this.  And, I will go change now.  I'll even wear an ASU workout shirt to make me smile.

Panic Attack

Yesterday was my first open water swim in salt water.  We were at Aquatic Park in San Francisco.  I really have no idea how or why or what caused it, but I had some sort of panic attack as soon as I got in the water.  I'm not afraid of swimming and I'm not afraid of open water.  But for whatever reason, I simply freaked out.  I was cold when we swam in the snow, but something was different this time.  It was painful.  My feet were ok.  My face was ok.  But my hands were shooting with pain.  Sedonia came to the rescue and coached me through the pain and getting my hands moving.  After several minutes of what felt like a 7 year old (me) being given swimming lessons (by Sedonia), I was able to calm down and attempt the swim.  I kept stopping every hundred feet or so for reasons unknown.  But, once I finally got more comfortable, I was able to get in a rhythm and practice my sighting.  I'm a bilateral breather, but found it much easier to sight when I did same-side breathing so that will be one of many adjustments I need to make.  I hope that any future panic attacks that come my way will happen during training so there will be no meltdowns when it really counts!

Very happy to be done!

After the swim, we had a 100 minute run to the bridge.  Unfortunately, I was having some knee pain so I never made it to the bridge.  Besides the knee pain I was having yesterday, it's frustrating being so slow.  While most of my team got 10 miles in, I only logged 6!  I just have to remind myself that I'm getting stronger every day and not to compare to everyone else.  

Picture break at the Warming Hut

The Gift

Yesterday's training was a 60 mile bike ride in Napa Valley.  When we arrived, I pumped my tires and headed to the restroom.  On the way there, I heard a gigantic boom, which sounded like a shotgun, but I knew it was a tire busting and I thought, "Wow that sucks."  So I come out of the bathroom and see my bike lying on the ground.  It was MY bike that made that awful noise!  Either I had an old tube or I just pumped it with too much air and it burst.  By the time I ran over there, Nick was already in the process of changing it for me (thank you!).  

My surprise that I have now blown through 2 tubes in
 a row that were never even ridden on the road!

After the tire was fixed, we rode over to the group and started to roll.  But, silly me, I forgot my bottles in the car.  Once those were recovered, I realized I needed to make an adjustment in my new shoes that required scissors so I had to fix those.  Then I had some trouble with my new cleats, but we start riding.  Except that my cadence and my speed are not working.  So I stop (again) and get the cadence fixed.  And, about 8 miles later I finally get the odometer working.   


After that very slow start, I'm finally feeling good (and I'm by myself, which means I ride better).  I ride for about 20 miles with some healthy climbing.  The descent is a terrible road full of patched potholes making it extremely bumpy and painful.  I make it to a little general store (in the teeny tiny town of Pope Valley) for a potty break.  There are a bunch of cyclists there and they ask me where I'm going.  I tell them Ink Grade and they give me the lay of the land, which turned out to be good mental preparation for me.  It was a 4.1 mile climb and I figured with that kind of incline, I would only be averaging 4 mph, which means it would take me an hour to get up that hill!  Holy crap!  I find the road and make a note of my mileage and time.  I'm surprisingly doing ok.  I stop at the halfway mark to refuel and continue on.  Around the 3/4 mark, Captain Les rides by and informs me that he's the sweep.  What?!?!  Again, I'm last?!?!  There were three people behind me, but due to some bike issues, they had to stay back.  So as I'm continuing to struggle up the hill, Les tells me I'm doing great because the first three or four times he climbed this hill, he said he walked his bike (ok, so I feel a little better).  He then informs me the downhill is a "gift" and said he would climb this hill six times if only to have that downhill gift every time.  When I reach the top (I made it in 50! yay!), I'm really looking forward to this "gift" as he so called it.  And, it was exactly that.  A gift.  A smooth, clean, straight road, with only a few turns, and it was absolutely amazing!  

There's a SAG stop at mile 43.  From there we have the option to do a 7 mile loop and head back or just head back.  I'm interested in the loop, and know I'm capable of the extra miles, but I'm already at 4 hours and it's going to take another hour to complete the last 15 miles to the finish.  So we skip the loop and just head back.




We have a nice wide bike lane on the Silverado Trail so three of us are riding together.  As we are passing by winery after winery, I mention that we should at least hit up one since we are there.  Les, being the Assistant Winemaker at Korbel, offers to take us somewhere since he has industry privileges.

Vineyards on the Silverado Trail

After we get back and head to lunch, I get another unexpected gift -- a beautiful winery and free flight.  Les took us to Darioush for the architecture, which was Persian.  It had a little more of the the Vegas feel to it rather than quaint Napa, which means I definitely felt out of place in my sweaty bike gear!  But, I really didn't mind because I was still enjoying my gift.  

Oh I'm Just A Girl

Last year, I was enrolled in a program where we had to identify our values.  The objective of that exercise was to review those values on a daily basis and rate them on a scale from 1-10 with how well we "lived" those values that day.  What I would quickly discover is that on days where I had lots of 7s, 8s, 9s, and 10s, then I had a great day.  And when I had lots of 5s and 6s, it was no wonder why I felt in a funk that day.  

Much to my surprise (or maybe not to my surprise), I have an awful lot of high numbers since joining Ironteam.  It allows me to connect and network.  It helps me relate to people.  It supports health and well being.  It provides another outlet for accomplishment and achievement.  My good friends know I have this strange fascination/obsession with Princess Diana (I still have no idea where it came from other than she died on my 21st birthday).  I couldn't articulate the name of one of my values, so I called it Lady Di.  It's about femininity and dignity and beauty. 

Each day when I review my list, "Lady Di" is the one line item that makes me cringe.  Since I am only in the office 8 days a month, I am living the remaining 22 days of the month in workout clothes, pajamas, or clothes that could easily pass for pajamas.  My hair is either in a ponytail, or wet from the shower (and, what's the point in doing it, when it's just going to get sweaty again in 10 hours?).  Makeup?  Oh, how I miss thee!  Because putting on a full-face just means I have to remove the makeup in a few hours.  And, then there is my prized possession....those cute feet!  However, my poor feet are battered and bruised and have one angry toenail from all the running they have been subjected to as of late.  Not to mention that because I seem to be short on time these days, I have succumbed to giving myself pedicures rather than having someone else do it.       

So today I had enough!  I saw an opening at work and shut down my computer at 1pm.  I did my hair, I put on makeup, and I got a pedicure!  Today, Lady Di will be a 10.

Ride N Tie

I had been looking forward to this past weekend's training for a couple of weeks now because we had a Ride N Tie on the schedule.  Not only did we have to find a partner (preferably one of the same height because we had to share a bike), but we were highly encouraged to wear costumes!  Right up my alley!  I pretty much knew the only person I could be partners with that would a) be just as excited as I was to get a costume; and b) be the same height was going to be Sedonia.  After throwing all kinds of ideas around for costumes, we narrowed down on being some sort of play on words.  And, due to all sorts of reasons I won't go into here, we picked Two Peas In a Pod.  

The morning started out with an open water swim.  One of my many many "issues" I am trying to battle with this training is to keep reminding myself that this is my own event and I can't care what anyone else is doing or even remotely feel bad about my own abilities because I'm comparing myself to others.  I must constantly reiterate to myself that I am only racing against myself and no one else.  So during the first round of swimming, I start to freak out that a) I'm out of breath; and b) feeling like I'm last.  In my head I am trying to rationalize why I am so out of breath.  Is it because it is so friggin' cold?  Is this a shock to my system?  After I get out of the water, I realize it is because I am one of the early ones out so my "out of breathness" is my own idiocy of thinking that I was last!  

Each time we finished a swim and ended up on the beach, we had to wait for our partner to get out of the water and do things like lunges while holding hands, wheelbarrow races, 3 legged races, and carrying an egg on a spoon.  BTW, do you know how hard it is to walk wheelbarrows in the sand????

After the swim, it was time to get in to our costumes.  Since we were running on trails, we were on mountain bikes this weekend instead of road bikes.  The goal was that one person had to ride the bike and another had to run.  There was a strategy on when to ditch the bike and when to run, but basically, we both had to arrive at a specific location and wait for the other person to get there.  Once we got there, we had to spin a wheel and do whatever the arrow landed on like burpees, squats, pushups, etc.  We were leapfrogging the same people for most of the time, but at some point we took a wrong turn because all the sudden no one was around us anymore.  Despite running and riding longer than we should have due to our detour and being hot as hell from running in a silly pea costume, we still had so much fun anyway!  

A Different Kind of Training

I missed my workout on Wednesday due to a special work event, so last night I was planning to get my spin workout in.  “Planning” being the key word here.

As mentioned in my previous post, I got a new bike a few weeks ago.  I logged just under 1000 miles on an aluminum frame entry level bike with "chubby" road bike tires.  And, those chubby tires never failed me (which is a good thing because I have an irrational reaction to with getting my hands dirty)!  I knew that as soon as I upgraded my bike, I would start getting flats because the tires would be a lot thinner.  Lo and behold, with less than 50 miles on my new bike I got my first flat.  Of course, the irony in all this is that I got the flat because during bootcamp weekend, while we were out on a run, one of the captains deliberately deflated our tires so we could practice changing flats.  And, I am pretty sure that my flat came from that exercise because my idiotic self pinched the tube when re-inflating it, resulting in a perfect slit.  Being out of town for work last week and being gone last weekend, I didn’t realize until a few days ago that my tire was flat….like really flat….the tube had to be toast.  So last night, I actually changed the tube and even managed to get the rear wheel back on the bike.  Woo hoo!  Of course, it helped that I was sitting in my house and not on the side of the road.  Plus, I had a sink nearby to wash my hands.

However, between changing the flat, taking the bike in for a tune-up, getting new pedals, installing new cleats, and all the subsequent playing around of clipping in and out (switching from SPDs to Speedplays) to get it just right (which I'm still a little weary of), I never actually did my spin workout!  Oh well.  At least I can say I changed the tire by myself.  But, I'm still on the hunt for a bike pouch I like that will hold wet wipes. :)