Devil's Night Ride

Our local mountain bike/cyclocross group called Bike Sabbath held a Devil's Night ride Saturday night.  The plan was to cycle the Greenaway path 25 km to a bar in the county, have a couple of drinks, then ride back.  "Explosives" and libations were promised.  A group of about 40 riders (last year there were 10) started out at 4:30 and headed down the path straight into the winds.  The trail is packed gravel so I pulled out the old mountain bike.  My mountain bike is a 16 year old Kona Hahanna that I used to do a lot of off trail riding on.  I haven't though, spent alot of time on it in the last 10 years or so. 

What a fun ride that ended up being!  The group stopped every 5km or so to have a drink from the beer keg that was on the ride (some of these guys are resourceful with their bikes!) and those stops really helped me to recover.  It was windy and my legs and lungs were burning from the effort.  What a difference from the road bike!  I was missing being clipped in as well (who would have ever thought) as every once in a while I could feel my foot come off the pedal on the upstroke and all I could thing of was "What a waste of energy!". 

It took a little over an hour with all the drink detours to get to the bar where we stopped in for even more drinks!  I should have ordered some food but did manage to scoop a couple of french fries from David's plate.  It was after dark when we started back and I didn't have a light on my bike.  Paul and I stuck with Pete and Dave, who had lights and were fine.  The ride back, in the dark with the lights, and the fall leaves, was amazing.  I was having so much fun!   Instead of drinks on the way back (most on the ride had already had too much) the stops involved fireworks. 

A tailwind helped me with the effort but I was really starting to get chilled by the time we got back.  A group of us headed out to a local restaurant and indulged in some fabulous stone oven pizzas, red wine, and dessert.  So good and just what I needed!  The evening ended late and I drank more than I should have.  This came back to bite me in the ass on Sunday during our ride but at the time I was having too much fun to worry about the next day!

Ugh

I ran tonight.  Our little Thursday evening running group headed out to do 10k.  250m into it and I was already wheezing like I smoked a pack a day.  What is up with me?  Is it because I donated blood yesterday and am still wiped out from it?  Fortunately Sydney was nice enough to offer to cut the route short a little bit with me and get 5k in.  I suffered the whole way.  The hardest part is that I thought I had turned a bit of a corner with my running but I guess sometimes it just gives you a kick in the ass.  Sydney compared it parenting.  Just when you think that you've got the kids figured out, they throw you a curve ball and you're back to square one.

So for tonight it's running - 1, tri like mary - 0

Back In The Pool

Today marked my first time back in the pool since July (!).  Other than one or two masters swims sessions the only swimming I did after the middle of July was open water.  We are blessed with a few options for open water swimming where I live and I so prefer it to swimming in the pool.  I know that I need to find a balance since the pool offers better options for drills that will help me with my stroke.  And believe me, I need help with my stroke!

Paul and I were at the pool and ready to go by 6:45.  I brought a workout with me that I printed off of swimplan.com.  I discovered that website last year.  You can sign up for a free account, let them know what your goals are, the length of workout you want, and the tools you have (pull buoy, kickboard, etc) and it designs a plan for you.  As you progress you can update with time trials and other information and it will update the plans. 

Today's workout plan was for 1000m and included drills like one arms and catch ups.  I felt really heavy and slow for the first 300m.  Between that and having to stop every 50m to adjust leaking goggles (grrrr) I was worried that I wouldn't get through 1000m.  Things started to loosen up though and although the goggles haunted me the whole time I finished the workout.  I was finished by 7:25 and other than some soreness in my lower back (note to self -strengthen my core this off season) I felt pretty good. 

I know I have alot of work to do in the pool this winter.  Of the three sports I'm least confident in my swim and I'm sooo slow!  I'm committed to it though.  I put a swimp3 player on my Christmas list this year to help me get through the workouts.  I enjoy how the pool workouts make me feel but I have to be honest that the repetetiveness of it gets to me sometimes.  Maybe some music will help me through it?

The ride I had planned with my friend Nicole for after work was foiled because of high winds.  We were under a tornado watch this afternoon and had off and on rain.  We opted instead to do the "cardio ripper" workout from P90x.  Stay tuned for a post about that craziness.

Syd's out for our usual run tomorrow mornning because she's sick so I'm planning to go with Paul.  I hope it's better than Monday's run.  Ugh.  One week after the half marathon and I feel like I've lost all running fitness.  At one point on Monday I looked at my watch and couldn't believe we were only running 6:30/km.  How did I average 5:50/km over a half marathon distance while feeling awesome the whole time?  What happened to my legs over this last week? Running with Paul will kick my butt tomorrow since he slows for noone.  Maybe that's what I need to get back to where I was.

It Was Windy Today

And I rode.  And I suffered.  I have to admit that I almost stayed in bed since I've been feeling a little under the weather since Friday and woke up with a massive headache this morning.  Instead, I dragged my behind out of bed and met up with Sydney to ride out to the spot where we were meeting the rest of the group.  I was a little unsure of how to dress since it had been raining in the morning and was still pretty cool.  I went with a short sleeve cycling jersey with arm warmers and cycling shorts.  I also wore my pink Zensah compression (calf) sleeves because I wasn't sure how my legs would feel.  It turned out to be the perfect choice of outfit as I was comfortable temperature-wise.

Unfortunately, we had a pretty substantial head wind almost the entire ride.  Where I live it's famous for crazy cross winds that change direction on a whim (or so it seems).  Luckily for me I ride with some pretty strong riders who provide great wind protection for me and who are always looking out to make sure everyone on the ride is okay.  After 25 kms riding straight into the headwind we stopped at a convenience store to refuel since the rest of the group had been out for almost 60k (Sydney and I had joined them an hour into their ride).  What sweet relief that stop was.  I split a Snickers bar with Sydney and massaged the cramps out of my quads.

I felt substantially better on the way home due to the Snickers goodness and some tailwind relief.  Once we got back to our meeting spot I considered finishing the ride with the rest of the group.  My head was still pounding though and I was worried that I would be holding them back.  So, I packed it in and Sydney and I rode home.  At the end of it all I had ridden 60km at an average pace of 28.8 km/h.  Not bad for such windy conditions.

The rest of the day entailed sitting on the couch and watching stuff on the DVR.  For dinner I cooked an awesome chick pea curry that was served over basmati rice with a side of sauteed broccoli. Tonight will be a relatively early bedtime since the plan is to run in the morning.  This will be the first run since the half marathon and we're planning about 6k.  Cross your fingers that my legs hold up! 

Week in Review - Looking Forward

I decided to take the week off from any training this week so it's been pretty uneventful.  The half marathon on sunday was my last scheduled race this year so I thought a rest week was in order.  It wasn't 100% activity free though since I play volleyball twice a week from October to April.  Monday nights it's women's leaugue and Wednesday nights it's coed and I play with Paul, Sydney, and Andy.

Three of my good friends, who are doing Ironman in Cozumel at the end of November, have a 6 hour ride scheduled on Sunday.  I'm planning to join them for maybe half of it as long as the predicted rain holds off.  Truthfully, I'm feeling a little lost right now with respect to training and what I should be doing on a regular basis.

November's shaping up to be pretty busy.  I have two work trips planned and Paul and I are going to Cozumel for a week with our friends to watch them race the Ironman (and get some sun/sand/drinks!). 

I'm excited for December because I start my new plan!  With my new coach!  I'm really excited to start working with Mary at TriMoxie Coaching.  I've been following her personal blog for a while and really like her style.  When I decided to do the Half Ironman I decided that I wanted to get to the starting line fully prepared and as confident in my training as I could be.  I looked at a lot of options and debated the benefits of going with a local coach versus someone online that I just felt would be really cool and "get" me (yes - I got this feeling just from reading her blog!).  Exchanging emails with her sealed the deal.  I got's me a coach!  I'm her first Canadian athlete too which I think is really cool.

Stay tuned for lots of excitement to come!

Detroit Free Press Half Marathon 2010

The Detroit Free Press Half Marathon was yesterday.  The alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. because we had to make our way over the border into Detroit.  Luckily, I had gone to bed at a decent hour the night before and had slept like a baby.  We packed up a couple of peanut butter and banana sandwiches and hit the road at 5 when Sydney and Andy picked us up.

The border crossing went pretty smoothly and we were able to get a spot in the parking garage that we had lucked into last year.  $5 to park in a garage that overlooked the starting line is pretty sweet.  There was also a line up of port-a-potties on the side street beside the garage that never had a line last year.  We were there by 5:45 so had alot of time to hang out and use the port-a-potties (more than once) and, for me anyway, start getting nervous.  I was a little vexed about to wear for this race.  Last year it was COLD but yesterday morning it was already 52 degrees at 4:30 a.m.  I had my New Balance compression tights and the long sleeve race shirt they had given us at the expo.  I also had my pink and black stretchy gloves that I had bought at the dollar store and could toss when/if it got too warm.  My main worry was about headwear.  I had brought my lululemon run brisk toque but I was worried that would be too warm.  When my head gets too hot it's game over for me.  I made the decision to go with my run cap and it worked out perfectly for me.

Once we heard the national anthems playing we made our way into our start corrals.  Sydney and Andy were in a different corral from me as they had signed up later than I had.  I was supposed to meet my friend Sharon who was running her first half and we were going to run together.  Paul and I get into the corral and looked all over for her.  i couldn't find her!  I started to panic a little because I've never run even near that distance by myself and I hadn't brought my iPod because I was expecting to run with Sharon.  I knew I couldn't run with Paul because he had a goal of finishing in two hours and that wasn't happening for me.  After a couple of minutes a got a hold of myself and told myself that it would be good mental training for the half ironman for me do it alone. 

The atmosphere was pretty fun with music blaring.  At 7 a.m. the gun went off and we started moving towards the start line.  There were 19,000 people running this race and it took almost 20 minutes for us to get to the start line.  I felt great from the start and hoped that it was a sign of things to come.  My goal for this race was to improve on my time of 2:20 from last year so I decided to run by feel, only checking my watch rarely to see where my pace is at.  From the start line we headed out towards the Ambassador Bridge.  We ran around the bridge plaza and then started the long climb up toward the peak of the bridge.  Unfortunately this year there is construction on the bridge that closed one lane and the runners were limited to one lane as the traffic going in both directions had the remaining two lanes.  This caused a major jam up of people on the climb and we actually had to walk alot of it.  Despite the slow down I still enjoyed the experience.  The sun was just starting to come up and the views from the top of the bridge is pretty cool.  I still can't get over that I got to run over an international border crossing that I've crossed hundreds of times in my lifetime going back and forth to the U.S. 

Once off the bridge we ran towards Riverside Drive that runs along the Detroit river between Windsor and Detroit.  The run along the river was awesome with so many people out cheering on the runners, local school marching bands, and announcers over loud speakers getting the crowds riled up.  I was feeling really good at this point as we made our way towards the Windsor-Detroit tunnel to head back to the U.S.  The entrance to the tunnel is mile 7 and the world's only underwater mile.  The first half of the tunnel is downhill but it instantly got really, really hot.  There were alot of people stopping to get their pictures taken between the Canadian and U.S. flags where it becomes the U.S. again.  The incline towards the exit of the tunnel was tough and the heat didn't help things.  I concentrated on keeping my legs turning over at a good pace and keeping my breathing even.    Coming out of the tunnel we were greeted by U.S. Border Patrol making sure that everyone's numbers were visible.  This international race requires that everyone is pre-cleared to enter both countries so they're pretty diligent about making sure that everyone coming back in has been through the proper procedures.  Running out of the customs plaza and toward Jefferson Avenue is the best part of the race.  There are hunders of people lined up at the wall overlooking customs and along that curve going to Jefferson and they are just going CRAZY!  It makes you feel like a total rockstar.  I was still feeling realy good (we at 8 miles by this point) and the crowd helped put a little spring in my step.  There were alot of signs and some of my favorites were:

"Pain is temporary.  Pride is forever."
"Your feel hurt because you're kicking so much ass!" and
"In our heads we're all Kenyans"

Once I hit mile 10 things got a little more difficult.  In looking at the stats from my Garmin I actually  managed to complete the final 3 miles faster than the first three (by a little - but still).  When I reached the point where the full marathon participants went one way and the half runners went the other I couldn't help but wonder whether I'd ever be able to do a full.  I was so done by then.  My legs felt like they were ready to give out.  I had in fact skipped the last water station because I wasn't sure I'd be able to start walking again (I only walked the water stations because I haven't managed to learn how to drink and run at the same time).  I couldn't even drum up a sprint to the finish line because I was convinced that I would fall down.

I remembered to keep my head up and smile as I crossed the line so that I might be able to get a good photo.  I collected my medal and took a mylar blanket before setting off to look for Paul.  I was so proud of my race and excited to find Paul.  He was surprised to see me as he wasn't expecting me for another 5 minutes!

My stats-
Total time - 2:08:31
Overall place - 3363/8816
Division place - 208/844
6.2 mi - 1:01:24
7 mi - 1:09:27
8 mi - 1:18:53
12.2 mi - 1:59:24
Tunnel - 9:26
Pace - 9:49

That's a 12 minute improvement over last year!  I also managed to keep a really consistent pace throughout the whole race.  I'll take it!  Paul was also able to make his goal of finishing under 2 hours with a time of 1:57!   Here I we are with Sydney and Andy at the finish.  I'm the short one. :-)

I was in bed early last night and surprisingly my legs feel better than expected today.  Quads are a little sore and I'd love to spend the evening with my feet up and relaxing.  Unfortunately I'm playing volleyball tonight -  that should be interesting!

Chicago Sprint Triathlon 2009 Race Report

The Chicago triathlon in late August was my "A" race in 2009.  My first sprint distance triathlon.  The only triathlon I was signed up for in 2009.  What I had "trained" for all year.  All my triathlon eggs in this one basket.  I will end the suspense now but getting it out there that this race was a DNF for me.  A big, fat, DNF.  In retrospect I could call this race "The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Race".  I was not prepared for this race mentally and was out of it before I even got my wetsuit on that frigid morning.

The Day Before
We drove into Chicago the day before the triathlon and had lucked out with an awesome rate at a Hilton hotel that was walking distance to the host hotel, the transition area, and the swim start.  Once we settled into our hotel we took a walk down to the swim start to have a look at the preparations.  The swim is a point to point, 750m swim in the Monroe Street Harbour.  We walked from the swim exit to the start and all I kept repeating is "I can't swim this far.  Oh my God, I can't swim this far".  I was a fairly new swimmer.  I had taken a learn to swim class in March and had not spent a huge amount of time in the pool after that.  I had been out doing open water swims but spent alot of time with my feet down (the lakes where we swim have alot of water that is only about shoulder deep).  I was not confident in my swimming abilities but had been convinced that I could do the distance on my back if I needed to.  I was starting to panic but felt like there was no turning back.

We met up with Sydney and Andy at the expo where we picked up our race kits.  The Chicaco triathlon is the largest triathlon in the world (their claim, not mine) and the expo certainly reflected this.  Miles of triathlon porn everywhere.  I have to say that this is by far the best expo I have ever been to.  This topped even the expo at the Half Ironman World Championships in Clearwater.  After picking up our packets and race shirts (one of the ugliest and worst fitting I own by the way) we did some shopping.  Sydney bought a wetsuit and some triathlon shoes.  I picked up a cool t-shirt from Athlete3 but otherwise was a little too overwhelmed. 

After shopping we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant that was packed with people with black marker numbers on their arms eating pasta.  We had a lovely dinner and parted ways for the night after making plans to meet up at the swim start in the morning. 

Race Day
My alarm was went off at 4:30 in the morning.  I had packed a peanut butter and banada sandwich that I had planned to eat while walking to the transition area with my bike.  Paul and I headed over in the dark and were quickly swallowed up but the swarms of people making their way to transition.  The swim waves started at 6 a.m. and I was scheduled to go around 6:15.  I racked my bike and set up transition as best as I could in the dark and met up with Paul to make my way to the swim start.  The nice thing about the swim course is that since it is along the harbour wall it was very spectator friendly.  The not so nice thing is that being in the harbour, between the boats and wall meant that the boat fumes were really strong.  I was feeling sick from fear and anxiety as I got my wetsuit on (borrowed from a friend) and was worried because Sydney was running later than expected.  She finally got there right before we needed to start lining up and the next thing I new we were lining up in our age group waves.

Each wave had to jump into the water and had about two minutes before the gun went off.  When it was my turn to get into the water I positioned myself at the back and to the right of the pack.  The water was 61 degrees and took my breath away when I jumped in.  As soon as I hit that cold water my hands and feet went numb and my heartrate skyrocketed.  The gun went off and I tried to put my face in the water only to get a swift kick to the side of the head.  Between that and the cold water I started to freak out.  I couldn't catch my breath and my heartrate was out of control.  I tried to flip onto my back and backstroke but my calf started to cramp.  This had never happened to me before and I didn't know what to do.  The scariest part was the feeling of my heartrate being so out of control.  I had never felt that before and honestly thought that something was seriously wrong with me.  I was freaking out on my front, I couldn't doggie paddle, and was I was freaking out on my back.  To add to the anxiety I heard the gun go off for the next wave and could see a wave of swimmers coming straight for me.  At that point I looked over and spotted the police boat.  I waved my arms and they came right over.  As soon as I set foot in that boat I started to cry.  Why had I given up?  My whole race over in two minutes.  I was so disappointed in myself.  The carted me over to the wall and I got off where all of the athletes were still lined up waiting their turn.  These two really nice ladies put their arms around me and were trying to comfort me.  They encouraged me to turn in my chip but finish the bike and run legs, assuring me that it would make me feel better to not have it be a total waste.

I started walking towards the transition area looking for Paul and looking to find a volunteer where I could drop of my chip.  I found Paul along the wall scanning the swimmers looking for me.  When he saw me I started crying again (I'm such a baby).  I told him what had happened and what the ladies had suggested.  He encouraged me to do it so I made the decision to go ahead and finish the rest of the race.  I found a tent with volunteers and explained what happened and turned in my chip.  I ran into transition and hopped on my bike to do the bike course.

The bike course runs along Lake Shore Drive.  Lake Shore is still open to traffic but reduced by one lane for the bikers.  We were instructed both during the pre race meeting and in the race information to ride on left side and pass on the right.  Of course there is to be no drafting and no riding alongside one another.  I have to say that this bike course was extremely frustrating with people who did not know what the heck they were supposed to be doing.  I passed alot of city cruisers and mountain bikes with people either riding on the right side or in some cases riding next to their friends and chatting.  I don't have an official time and had not bothered to turn on my Garming but I felt like I had a pretty good ride for me.

The run beginning of the run is just the biggest mess.  You come out of transition and run through the park area on a path.  The problem is that this path is not marked off and runs straight through the area where spectators are milling around.  You had to dodge people walking across the path and not paying attention to the fact that the racers were coming at them.  After my race was done I saw a pro run into a guy with a dog on a leash that had wondered across the path right in front of him.  Once you got out of the park area it was a nice course.  I was feeling good running wise but this just caused me to beat myself up even more mentally.  Why had I given up?  I had waited for this race all year! 

I came across the finish line and the volunteers put a medal around my neck despite my trying to tell them that I didn't deserve it.  I found Paul and Sydney and started crying (AGAIN!).  Sydney had had a great race though and I was so proud of how she did.

We had to walk a couple of kilometers back to the transition area to get our bikes.  When we got there we learned that because there were still waves of athletes going off and through transition we would have to wait to get our bikes.  We sat around for more than an hour before being able to get back in again.  I was happy that I had left my warm pants and jacket with Paul before the swim.

I beat myself up about this race for a long time.  I did learn alot from it though.  I know now that when my heartrate skyrockets like that in the swim it's anxiety and adrenaline.  I've learned how to talk myself down from that freaking out and just remembering what it felt like to step onto that boat helps with that.  I'm now torn about what to do about this race though.  Part of me feels like I need to go there again and kick it's ass.  Another part of me doesn't want to go back because there was so much about this race that I thought sucked (apart from my performance I mean) and had I not DNF'd I wouldn't even think about going back again.  What would you do?