Ironman Lake Placid

The title of this post should really be "Stuck in T1", because that's as much progress as I've made in my race report...

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Pre-Race

My extreme lower back had been bothering me on the bike for a few months, but I had learned to deal with it. A few weeks before IMLP it started bothering me when I ran, too. Not sure if it was just my hypersensitivity or if the injury had in fact worsened, but either way it was unacceptable. Went in for a cortisone shot on Tuesday. My doctor pulled out my MRI and confirmed that not only did I have a protrusion in the disc between L5 & S1 (as he had originally diagnosed), but I also had a tear in the disc between L4 & L5. Fabulous! Just what I wanted to hear 5 days before race day. Give me the juice! The shot wasn’t so much in my back as it was deep in my crack. The whole prepping-of-the-area was an experience I won’t soon forget. The pain relief was instantaneous, but replaced with soreness and stiffness. I’ll take it.
Got up to LP on Wednesday, went for a quick dip in the lake to test the water. It was warm. Definitely made me glad to have switched to a sleeveless wetsuit. Spent the rest of the week doing minimal activity, icing my back, avoiding the nervous energy that had taken over my condo. Skipped the group run on Thursday, biked the run course and finished up over the bears back into town on Friday. I had never felt so sparkly spinning up those hills on fresh legs. Splashed around in the water some more on Saturday. Overall, it was an extremely low-key few days, and I was cool as a cucumber. Spent a lot of money at the expo. Suddenly everything seemed to be a necessity, especially the $25 bike tent to keep my bike dry on Saturday night (nevermind that I will be wet myself when I get on it).

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Race Day

Woke up at 4:00am, started loading up with calories – pb&j, pb & banana, gatorade, coffee. Got my stuff together and got out of the condo ASAP. Someone suggested we have a little prayer circle of sorts before we left, I opted out claiming it was not quite up my spiritual alley. Walked to transition by myself, jamming to the iPod. I still wasn’t nervous, until I encountered a large puddle of vomit on Main Street. Yep, that’s about how I felt. I started shaking. Got body-marked, unwrapped my bike, checked out my transition bags, all the while avoiding teammates. I was finally nervous and didn’t want to put myself over the edge. Found my parents at the Mobile station. I wish I had a camera. They looked like the accidental tourists, and had fashioned rain gear out of garbage bags to wear under their clothes. I loved it! It meant so much to me that they were there. Ross tried to get me to hug them, but we opted for a firm Conlan handshake instead. He also commented on my mom’s great legs. Dropped the bags at special needs and hooked up with Felicia, et al. The nerves were gone as quickly as they’d appeared.
Head over to the lake and it finally dawns on my how huge this thing really is. Somewhere along in my training I lost sight of the fact that finishing an IM is a big deal. I think it was about the time when I stopped worrying about completing and started thinking about competing. I knew that I was going to be an Ironman by the end of the day, and that was very cool! Hung out in the water with Felicia, Larry and Wade, found our fans on shore and posed for pictures. So happy to be with friends.

Swim
Goal: 1:20:00
Actual: 1:23:26

I started about halfway off the dock, a third of the way back. They weren’t kidding about that draft – as soon as people started moving, I was sucked right along. There were a lot of feet and elbows all over the place, but no as bad as I’d expected. The first loop was uneventful, though I never saw the line. I was back on the beach before I knew it, in just over 38:00. That’s my fastest 1.2 time. The crowd had definitely thinned on loop two, but it was still too crowded to find the line. I stayed wide right, which was a bad idea. I should have just fought a better position. This is supposed to be one of the easiest open water swim courses, yet somehow I managed to get lost. I was all over the place. After the turn I forced my way onto the line and sat there for the rest of the way. Minimal contact, no sighting, I should have done this from the start.

T1
Goal: 0:10:00
Actual: 0:06:29

Found myself a stripper and ran through the crowd. I was focused. Didn’t see anyone I knew until I was entering transition, when I tripped and nearly fell flat on my face right in front of my parents. Grabbed my bag and headed to the tent. Saw Felicia changing outside – such an exhibitionist. I went in and realized why she was outside. It was dark and humid. I found a volunteer at the exit and she became my personal assistant (helped me with my arm warmers, lubed my feet – you know, the usual). Grabbed my bike and I was on my way.

Two Months Later

Clearly there are some gaps to fill in this training blog of mine. With time, my friends.

Anyway, IM is in 11 short days. Strangely enough I'm not nervous. At all. I'm more excited that anything. Oh wait, I am nervous. I'm getting a cortisone injection in my back on Tuesday morning. Yikes!

My training is pretty much in the bank. We ran 5 miles last night with 2 x 800m pick-ups. This morning I swam a mile. I'm supposed to bike tomorrow morning but may be playing it safe in bed instead. With my luck I'll take a bird to the helmet. Oh no! I didn't even blog about my run-in with the renegade pigeon.

In other news, I registered for Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2007. Yes, that's right, I now have two Ironmans (Ironmen?) on the schedule having never completed one.

Still Running

I ran for 2 hours on Sunday. I was only supposed to run for 1:30, but I ran into some of my teammates after an hour and got caught up with them. We ran a 5k somewhere in the middle which was kind of funny. It's weird to cross the finish line and keep right on going. I felt fine for the entire run, but definitely a little sore at the finish. I'm going to Denver this weekend and need to get in 2:00 - 2:30 on Friday. I'm hoping the altitude is nice to me.

80 Miles & Beav On The Loose!

I think my training is finally catching up with me, in a good way. I biked 80 miles today and it took nothing out of me. Literally. Nothing. What a great ride! Everything was just in synch -- my nutrition was right on, my head was in the game, and I pushed it at all the right times. My coaches are always telling us to spin up the hills and attack the downhills, and it totally worked for me today. And to top it all off, I saw a beaver! Just waddling along on the sidewalk, not a care in the world. (Obviously this was not in Manhattan -- I rode across the GWB and up to Bear Mountain.) And no, I was not hallucinating.

For (my own) future reference, the rolling buffet consisted of:
4 bottles gatorade endurance + carbopro (1150)
2 bottles water
12 clif blocks w/ caffeine (400)
27 combos (390)

Total: 1940 calories

Devilman 1/2 Ironman

Swim
Goal: 0:40:00
Actual: 0:41:11
I psyched myself out of the swim. Saturday night I dreamed that I got out of the water and transition was empty. Sunday morning I spent too much time looking behind me to make sure there were still other pink caps in the water. The first loop was somewhat of a disaster, but I finally settled in sometime during the second loop. I was pleasantly surprised by my time, but dissatisfied with the effort. Also, I think I need more open water swimming experience. I'm too comfortable in the pool. I may take my training to the Hudson.

T1: 2:24
I was pretty efficient here, but there was a bit of a bottleneck getting out of transition.

Bike
Goal: 3:00:00
Actual: 2:59:04
My plan was to bike as hard as I could and hope for the best on the run. I worked hard on the first loop, mostly in the aero bars, spinning into the wind. I concentrated on picking people ahead of me and slowly sucking them in. After about 15 miles my lower back was bothering me so I started alternating between aero bars and drops, occasionally sitting up to stretch. First loop was 1:25:xx. Shortly into the second loop, my back hurt so much I couldn't spend more than 5 minutes aero. I fought through it for awhile, then decided it was probably smarter to just sit up. I continued working hard until about mile 45, then the self-pity set in. Felicia passed me with a few miles to go and kindly asked why I was going so slowly (in so many words). I whined and watched her go. Then I decided I was not going to let her pass me on a bike nicknamed "Pokey", so I took off and finished strong.

Nutrition -- the plan was to work through 1 bottle of water and 2 bottles of cytomax + carbopro, eat something (clif blocks / gel / clif bar) every 30 minutes and take a salt pill every 30 minutes. I lost focus after my back started hurting and definitely did not eat enough in the end. I think I put down 500 calories when I should have had around 900. Also, I got my tongue stuck in the nozzle of my gel flask. That hurt.

T2: 2:06
With my limited race experience I try to avoid doing anything stupid. Next time I'll be sure to check out where the exit is so I don't start out running the wrong way.

Run
Goal: 2:00:00
Actual: 2:01:22
I felt great when I got off the bike -- legs were loose, feet had feeling, no pain in back. I trotted along for the first 6 or 7 miles, not paying much attention to splits, feeling good. I tried to pick it up shortly after I started the second out-and-back, and my body was so offended by the suggestion that it actually slowed down. The nerve! I concentrated on my form, staying out of the gutter, and moving my feet quickly. I appreciated seeing teammates if for no other reason than it kept me honest. I picked it up with just over 2 miles to go and clocked my last mile in 7:49. Clearly I had a little too much left.

Nutrition -- I alternated between water and gatorade at every station and had gels at (what I assumed were) miles 3, 6, and 9.

Overall
Goal: 5:45:00
Actual: 5:46:05
I have mixed feelings. I came close to my goal times but, considering the race I had, they were soft. I was a total head case for most of the race. I lost focus too easily on all three legs. In retrospect, I suspect my back didn't hurt as much as I thought it did on the bike. I think I was looking for excuses to let up. My transitions were respectable, so I've got that going for me.

Tornados and Hair Loss

A lot has happened in the past week.

I went home to Iowa City for Easter and there was a tornado on Thursday night! Seriously. Look:

That's frighteningly close to my parents' house. Not close like down the street, but close like we walked there the next day. We rode it out in the wine cellar. The good news is that the pool was open on Friday so I was able to get my 1.5-mile time trial in (47:19). I'm not sure how I feel about the time. I'd like it to be faster, but that pace will get me in well before the cut-off at Lake Placid. We have a 1.5-mile open water simulation swim (they pack 40 people into 2 lanes) on Saturday so we'll see how that time stacks up.

On Saturday I rode 70 miles on a borrowed bike. It was heavy! I'm not sure how I ever rode 56 miles on my old mountain bike. Actually, I rode across the state of Iowa on that beast! It was a nice ride, through the rolling hills of the Iowa countryside. It made me think seriously about doing RAGBRAI next year. Now I just need to convince my city slicker friends that it's worth their vacation time.

I did an 8-mile recovery run around the reservoir on Tuesday. It was awful. I seriously considered hiding in a bush for one loop. I even had the blessing of my training partner, C. Oddly, I felt a lot better when we picked up the pace.

I was going to swim last night but I had a seriously disturbing experience on my way home from work. I saw old man Jim on the subway. And talked to him. I'm not sure why I was so surprised to run into him. I figured it would happen sooner or later. Ahhhh....I was literally shaking afterwards and opted to drink instead of swim. For those of you who don't know of old man Jim, the take-home message is: old bald men are soooooo 2005. I need to get out of this town.

I biked this morning. First, I fell down the stairs leaving my apartment, slid down 6 stairs on my back with my head and elbow banging each one (good thing I was wearing a helmet!) and my bike on top of me. I was so shaken when I got to the bottom that my only thought was to get on my bike and ride. And I did. 24 miles. I had limited feeling in my right hand/arm for most of the ride, pretty mush unable to grip the handlebars. I kept thinking I should just tell my coach but I knew he would have me out of training for weeks, and we certainly don't want that! I'm pretty sure I just bruised it. It's still very sore, but I can feel my hand again. My back isn't very happy either, but that's nothing a few (or 5) aleves can't solve.

I'm off to buy a new wetsuit after work. I'm not sure what one wears when trying on wetsuits. I'm also not sure if it's appropriate to ask for help getting the thing off.

15 Weeks To Go

I’m going to start biking three mornings a week, just to get more time in the saddle. That means I need to go to bed earlier so I don’t go back to sleep after my ride and end up late for work. Also, I’d like to do one of those rides on my own, but I have a lot of co-dependent teammates who want to ride with me. Such a burden. Tuesday morning I biked 12 miles – just 2 easy loops of the park. Wednesday morning I biked 18 miles, and our group ride this morning was cancelled because of rain.

I went to our group run on Tuesday night but wasn’t allowed to do the workout because I’m still recovering. Really I’m fine, but my coaches are very cautious. Their conservatism is very nice in some cases, but right now I just really want to train. And this super secret training regimen is getting a little old. In the future, I think I’ll keep minor injuries and illnesses to myself. I know when I need to take it easy.

Some people have asked how I’m holding up with this high level of training (clearly they don’t read my blog, or they’d know what a slacker I am). My training plan is pretty intimidating, but I could handle it if I did 100% and at some point I intend to. I’m a lot younger than most of my teammates, and most Ironman triathletes actually, and I think my body is a lot more resilient. I’m not the fastest person in the workouts, but I win at recovery. Also, I’m smart. I know that missing a workout here and there is not going to ruin my race. And as my coach has complained, I like myself too much. I feel no need to make myself miserable to please my coaches (I pay THEM) so if I don’t want to push myself, I don’t. And since I’m so incredibly smart, I see right through their attempts at manipulation. On a personal level, my coach says this is all very nice to see. But apparently I’m a pain in the ass to coach. Ha.