Final thoughts

6/18/14

As I write this is am laying on my heating pad.  I have been trying to workout the knots accumulating on my right upper shoulder blade for over a week… no dice.  A bit over a week ago my neighbor Renee and I rode 110 miles on the Silverado Trail between Napa and Calestoga.  I wanted to simulate the Ironman distance as well as try to stay on the time and the ride was pretty successful.  Not only did we make the time but we climbed over 2,000 ft more than Coeur d' Alene does (we climbed 8,400 ft).  However, since that ride I have been down for the count.

For the past month I have had one bodily issue after another from a cold, to what I thought was fever blisters…happened to be a Vitamin B deficiency…who'd a thunk it, another lost toenail and then a medial procedure that kept me out of the water for a week.  It was also tough the past month or so as I finished up with my Thesis which was around 100 pages, graduated from graduate school and finished up with teaching.  The huge undertaking of working FT, being a student FT and training as a weekend warrior defiantly took its toll on me.  Luckily, we're in taper territory now as IMCDA is 11 days away.  The next few days will be very important to keep health up as I am flying to Baltimore tonight for a weekend of music with my buds Cassie and Craig.  This means: liquids (not beer), vitamins, eating well.  After my 3.5 hour ride yesterday I felt strong.  I had a swim planned today but yoga and the heating pad/ice maybe the workout…and chill time.  I have found that chill time is super important to this whole training bit.

Let's talk about "chill time".  I started training in October/November and have gone the whole way through.  I read and found out for times when you're really run-down and crabby, time for a respite day.  For real crabby pants just makes you and everyone around you miserable.  Also, there are days where your body says, "nope" and you got to listen.  I learned that the hard way with a knee injury last year.  Then well there are days were you are just being lazy and you have to make yourself do workouts.  For the most part the other days training went well and I made it through.

There were a few things that I wanted to get comfortable with before I did IMCDA and that was distance biking and open water swimming with the latter being more of a mental challenge to overcome and the biking more of a physical feat.  As for biking, I biked…a lot.  On the average week I would spend between 8-12 hours just on the bike.  Instead of running miles upon miles…I biked.  This was good for two things it kept up my bike stamina as well as running stamina and was not so hard on my joints as running is.  Oh and a third point, I rode a lot on the trainer so got to catch up on Netflix seasons.  As for open water, that took a hot second and I am still not completely okay.  Swimming in Berkeley pier with Odyssey Open Water Swim was good because I had to swim with the water very rough…conditions much more challenging than I hear IMCDA is. I then started swimming in a lake close to my house.  My neighbor Renee and I started swimming the length of the lake once the lifeguards left.  The water is great, and I am actually comfortable swimming in there.  So comfortable that it got boring which for me was good.  For IMCDA I am probably going to check out the lake on Friday so I can get a feel for temperature and layout.

Fears…cut off.  Cut off my friends is real and when you're slow and steady…slow being the key word here that causes me most fear.  I have everything in my head timed out to mere ten minutes for the bike cut off.  Let me tell you…I should take 90-100 minutes for the swim… the swim cut off is 140 minutes or 2 hours 20 minutes.  I expect to be out of the water and through transition in 110-120 minutes, leaving me an excess of 20-30 minutes.  I can bike 112 miles in roughly 7hours and 45 minutes excluding breaks…for this to happen breaks in total can be no longer than between 15-25 minutes.  The cut off is 8 hours and 10 minutes for the bike.  I should have about 20-30 minted extra from the swim to add to the bike so I should be off the bike in 8 hours to 8 hours and 15 minutes.  You see my predicament…I have very little time for flats, bonks you get my drift.  Also, transitions are strictly enforced..all of them. You cannot continue if you get cut off.  There are two transitions on the bike.  If/When I get to bike to run transition I can breathe a bit easier as I expect my marathon time to be around 5:30-6 hours (though at IMNOLA 70.3 I ran around a 2:20 half) though could def run faster if those endorphins want to get me a boost.  The first cut of on run is 3 hours 30 min… I could walk some to do that.  I suppose the strategy is to drink and eat enough…and not get gut funk.  Though as suggested by Ben Greenfield…Tums in special needs bag (special needs bags are bags you pack that are handed out half way through bike and half way through run) is the way to go.

Ok so bit of random tangents…but wish me luck…think thoughts of party cloudy weather, upper 70s, and Little WIND…=)

Jean9