Deuces Wild Olympic Triathlon

My first "training" race of the season in prep for AZ Ironman in November.  I did Deuces Wild Olympic Triathlon in Show Low, AZ. It was one for the books, and I've learned a lot from this race for Ironman. Here is a recap of the day.

Swim- 1500 meters. It was in Fools Hollow Lake, which is beautiful. It was a water start at the boat ramp. The water was a cool 62 degrees. I was only really cold before we started moving, after that it was ok. It was a triangle swim and the out part was against waves, that I was able to handle. But my slight panic attack of not being able to get my head down in the water, led me to once again to do backstroke most of the race. In addition to this, I got my first experience with vertigo while swimming, that was an interesting experience as I would rotate to flip on my back to swim, then back on my front to see the buoy.And along with that, I was nauseated because, I am pretty sure I swallowed at least half the lake, as near the last 1/3 of the race, the wind picked up and white caps appeared on the water, right before the wave crashed into my face and caused some bouts of choking.  I swam into one guy, who was obviously having a tough time, since all the women were passing him, ironically he yells out at me (out of panic I'm sure), "you know there is a whole lake to swim in here!"   I think I manged to get in at least 100 meters swimming freestyle. Lessons from the Swim:  1. Need to do more open water swims, LOTS OF OPEN WATER SWIMS. 2.  Share the lake...don't hog the space where one guy is doggy paddling   3.  Own your swim, and put your damm head in the water a swim...Jaws isn't going to get you! ( although that thought did not cross my mind, as I was in the "Holy crap these waves are going to drown my ass"  mode). I exited the lake...happy to be out, and enjoyed having the wetsuit strippers yank off my suit, sit me down, pull it off my feet, and help me up!  then it was off to the bike.


BIKE- 24.8 miles. So...I drove the course the day before, losing count of all the hills after the 15th one.

  As you can see by the photos, there were alot.  I had a good smooth transition. I ran my bike to the mount line, and had a bit of trouble getting into my bike, I clipped in my right okay, but the left was not so nice, thankfully the mesh chutes  and fence pole held me up as I ran into it, and then held on while I clipped in! Hey, I was going up hill and I still had not gotton all the blood back in my legs, not to mention all the lake water I was burping up!   So I took the first few miles pretty easy and finally got into a good pace. Then wind was pretty wild and just a nasty, as I turned out on 260, and ambulance when flying by. Only to see it about 2 miles later, picking up a rider who had crashed.  I then slowed down just a bit for the safety factor, as images of my previous crash on the mtn bike floated in my head. The ride overall was nice, very scenic, except for the wind. I'm guessing it was upwards of 20 mph? I will say that I am grateful for my training rides with Stacy every Sunday, as those were even more windy, and it helped make the ride not so hard. The hills were more the issue for me. I did mention that there were over 15? Well, luckily I was good with my gears, and most weren't to bad. I was about 45 min in when I turned onto 77 and had to make a pit stop and pee out the lake that I swallowed. Here I got help from a nice police officer, who came over to help me stand my bike back up. It took me a good 20 times before I was able to get my stinkin shoe clipped into the pedal. All I could do was laugh.  On the way up 77, we had several major hills to climb. On one, I almost became a witness to a major accident. A racer (We will call him idiot 1) was passing another biker and went out over the white line. There were a good 10 riders at that area.  Now this is a two lane highway mind you and they go 65 mph. And at the same time, in the far left lane was a semi and a car who were keeping over cause of the riders, then a truck (I'm gonna call him idiot 2) decided to pass the semi on the right. In the lane where the idiot 1 was passing. As the trunk was up next to the semi, he finally realized that idiot 1 was over the white line. He slammed on his brakes, fishtailed, and smoke was flying. he barely missed the guy by a foot. I can only imagine if he would of swearved right into the line of riders, or left into the semi, It wouldn't have been pretty.  So, I'm going 50/50 on who's fault it is, cause you don't pass on the right, especially with that many riders on the road, and you don't cross over the white line with that much traffic. I'm just glad the driver did some quick thinkin and managed to stop in time.    The wind made it pretty challanging to ride in aerobars too, spent alot of time in the drops.  Overall, I felt good on the bike. My body felt like I could go more, so I felt like I had some "left in the tank" for the run.  Except my heartrate was high in the 150s-160s  So...lessons learned on the bike:  1.  Keep training in PV wind. Embrace it!  now matter how much it sucks...it helped.  2. Clipless pedals...got to get some that aren't so hard to manipulate for easier access. 3.  Ride in the BIKE LANE...oh wait, I do that already, nevermind.  4.  Heart rate training...do more. 5. Cadence..it was avg. 89 rpm.

Run: 6.2 miles of trail and pavement running around beautiful Fools Hollow Lake and Park. I had a nice quick transtition of 1:08 seconds. I started my run around the lake, and knew I was going out to fast as my pace was in the 9:30s which I knew I couldn't hold for the entire time, I slowed down to a manageable 10:30 for the first three miles. Then several things happen. My guts started to revolt,  my back was talking to me, the heat took it's toll, and I got a "stitch". LOL, now I knew it was a stitch this time, cause there is no more gallbladder, so I was able to run through that. The heat? I dumped water on me every aid station, front, back, arms (of course, I'm paying for it with my burn today). By mile 4, the back said no more, I walked up the hills, and was able to stretch out some and get back to running the downhills and straightaways. I managed to get back into a slower pace by mile 5 and 6 and only walked one more hill. Then I came around the corner and down through the finishline shoot.  What a great feeling!! It was a hard race!!!  My time wasn't what I expected, but then neither were most peoples, as through many conversations with other triathletes, I heared that this race was pretty nasty and worse then most years. People on the 1/2 were crashing all over the place with the wind.  Some even DNFed. Who had raced here before and it just wasn't their day. Lessons from the Run:  1. Sunscreen...put more on, you can never have enough.  2.  Nutrition..keep working on it cause it wasn't your friend today! 3. Keep smiling!!

So my gut? Yeah nutrition was the name of the game for this race, I still need to work on it. I was feeling so crappy with my gut that I wasn't able to get anything into my stomach until 8 pm that night. and even now, the next day, a bowl of ckn soup is giving me trouble. I need to re assess: I took a Gu at the start of the swim, then another at the start of the ride, with two chews, two more chews near the middle of the ride, small sips of gatorade. On the run I took one more gu with some water, then when my gut shut down after this, I swished with gatorade and water.   I couldn't eat my lunch when I was done, managed to get down some more water and a fruit ice pop they handed out. But i still had trouble figuring out what my body needed.     I finally rode back to my Escape, slowly in the wind.  Got to the campsite, took a hot shower, and headed over to the raffle.  I ended up winning a grab bag full of 70$ worth of tri books. And ironically, it's what I need to work on, my swim workouts, and recovery! 

So Overall results:

Swim    48:19 min
T1         5:01  min
Bike   1:47:54 hr/min
T2         1:08 min
Run    1:16:09 hr/min

Total  3:57:24


Can't complain, I've got just want I wanted, some good training info for my next race.  Aug. 14th. Mountain Man Half Ironman. 70.3 miles.  Here we go!

Recovery Naps

Recovery naps are very important for Ironman training. Even the table at the doctors office is fair game. Today, I got in a good 45 min nap before the doctor decided to come into the room. At least when he woke me up..I didn't come up swinging.  :)

Wind: EMBRACE IT!

So.. It's been a while!  I have be busy...training..so I have been to tired to post on  my blog. It's a pretty amazing journey so far...learning about what I can do and how far I'm willing to push myself..and not. I had my first "Brick workout" yesterday. A 2500yd swim, 17 mile bike ride and 30 min run. So basically, I did a triathlon. I did good. My nutrition was better then planned to. I had a gu before the swim, then several chews at the start of my ride. A gu 1/2 way in to my ride, and then several more gu's on the run, while sipping gatorage every 5 min for a "swish".  I felt good at the end. That is the important thing! Trainig coming along!   

WIND:  I have learned that here in AZ. I will ALWAYS have to train with wind. Sometimes I can leave my house at 7 am and it's forcasted to be 12 mph...and expect that by the time I hit the turn around ( less then 60 min later) . It will be 25-30 mph wind with gusts up to 45 mph. Yep...I'd say that's good training for Kona. At least I'm starting to feel more comfortable in my aero bars with the wind. well at least a headwind. I'm still a bit iffy on the side winds that try to knock me off my bike!   My new mantra for wind?  Embrace it. Is that all you got? I'm gonna kill it! Bring it on!  Among other words that I'm not sure I should post on here! 

Finished 29 mile ride today that was a good 20 mph headwind, sidewind, swirly all over wind by the time I was done.

Turkey Cran Sand!!!

WOW!!!  New Sandwich I tried out tonigh in my attempts to start eating more healthy. Talk about the best sandwich I've had in a long time. Turkey Cranberry on Toasted Bread, with Greek Yogurt, Avocado and Spinach.  My new favorite quick meal. From my Clean Eating Magazine!

"Some Bulging Discs and a Torn Ligament"

Hmmm...so that was a voicemail I got the other day regarding my MRI on my back. I was just a bit disturbed. But it finished with "no change in treatment, and we'll see you on a follow up on the 29th"  So I headed off to swim class and had a good swim. I have had two docs look at my MRI since I got it (I asked for a copy of the disc) since I couldn't read it or know what the heck I was looking for. I have "two" bulging discs that I know of, so that explains the "some",  and saw where my torn ligament is. I've also been told that I'm okay to cont training for my Ironman, I have a better chance of hurting my back on another transfer, then training for an Ironman. I do feel better when I ride my bike in aero position, must open up my spaces in my bulging discs. I must admit that I've been going strong and steady, and "safely" with my training so far, I'm careful that when I start to get pain or sore, I slow things down and take more rest days than I'd like, but I'm learning. I also notice that since I got my dx I am more acutely aware of my injury. More psychologically I think, so the chronic pain that I've been having since Decemeber, I am more aware of lately.  I have had to pick up some more heavy pts at work and have been having a tech work with me to protect my back. Safety first! But that seems to be working well and I will continue to do so,I don't feel bad getting a tech to help, as the PT needs two people as well for transfering those pts as well. So, today I came home and instead of doing my lifting program for strength training, I took a 4 hour nap cause I was sore. I felt better when I woke up, and happy to say I avoided any narcotics. Wish I had my TENS unit that I had to return. I'm sure when I get my followup, the doc will re order it for me, so I don't have to rely on Vicodin to control my pain.
I notice I have the most trouble with running out side. I  seem to be okay on the treadmill, the bike and swimming, but the pounding outside gets me a bit. I tend to hit my limit around 45-60 min. Good thing training is more about the bike, and I get strenght off of that for running. I'm working on changing my training around so I swap one of my runs for a bike ride. Will have to do some rearranging. Now I wait....the 29th, just seem so far away. I am ready to see what else needs to be done now....

CEP Compression Socks.

Compression Hose after a one hour hard swim, and 30 min run. I'm just sayin...recovery is feeling good!  :)

Swim Practice

So I finally started back to swim on March 1st.  In my first session I could feel that practice tweaked my back. Movements I hadn't done in a while. Yesterday on Day 2. I spent most of it doing Form and Drills with a easy 500 mixed in.  There was one drill that I did last year that always made me feel like I was going to drown. The "fist"drill.  Last night when I decided to try it. I ROCKED IT!  I have been doing my lifting and the Bent Arm Row Pull-Down?  that made me "feel the water" and I was cruising right along, no drowning feeling required! It felt AWESOME!   And my kicking felt good to, focusing more on mechanics. I then came home and did  45 min on the treadmill in Zone 2. Didn't get home til 9 pm.But oh..it felt good!!  Used my amp endurance mix before and during workouts, then protein powder and turkey burger for dinner.  I had to bribe my poor dogs with bones and lots of belly rubs for being in the cage all day.  Tried my compression hose all night sleeping. My legs feel GREAT!!!  Don't want to take them off!