I LOVE SUMMER

Summer always ends too soon for me. It feels like it just got here and now it's already Fall, Back-to-School, and Football season.  AND - just 3 more weeks to IM Washington 70.3!  The race is on September 22.  I have one more week of intensive training and then we will start to taper.

I had a "freak out" moment last week. I have been in denial a bit about time moving forward and in my head it was still the beginning of August - so lots of summer left, and lots of time left to prepare for my race.  Well, imagine my surprise when my coach sent me an email stating he had laid out some workouts for the next few weeks before we start the taper..... ACK!!! TAPER????  It's not time for that yet - IS IT??? Well, my head immediately went into "I'm not ready", "There's not enough time left to get ready", ... basically I was panicking because time moved forward. 😀

I did not immediately recover from that shock/surprise.  I had a breakdown the other night and told Pat I was tired, I didn't want to do my bike ride the next day, and I don't know if I can do this. Pat has ALWAYS been my biggest supporter and cheerleader- he immediately said "Yes you can, I know you can do it"!  💕And then I got on my bike the next day and rode 67 miles! 😀

It has taken me about a week but I am now living in the present and I am telling myself positive things - "I am ready!", "I can do this!".  And if you followed me on my other IM journeys you know I have a thing for all the Rocky movies! So I have been humming the Rocky theme song over and over during workouts, during the day when I start to feel panicked, and just driving in the car.  It is weird - but it motivates me, helps me turn negative thoughts to positive thoughts and decreases my anxiety about the race.  I also keep hearing Rocky's coach - Mickey - "YOU'RE GONNA EAT LIGHTNING AND YOU'RE GONNA CRAP THUNDER!"

What Else

My achilles has not bothered me at all since before the Coeur d'Alene race so I am extremely happy about that. But, it did set me back. We took the running progression slow over the past couple weeks.  We dropped all the way back to just a 3 mile run, then 4 mile run, then 5 mile run, then 6 mile run, then 7 mile run, and an 8 mile run earlier this week. Tomorrow I will do a 9 mile run (which is where I was when the achilles problem started). And then build to 11, 12 and finally a 13 mile run as my longest run before the race. The build is going fine - no achilles problems at all but I can't help think about where I could be with my running if the injury had not occurred. 😟 SIGH!

I feel extremely confident about the swim and bike portions for this race. I have worked hard on the bike this summer with lots of distance rides, and hill workouts! I am strong and ready for the Tri Cities course. 😀  But, the run will be hard and will probably include a lot of walking. So I am trying to stay positive about that but it is hard.  Really hard.... I could use some help/advice here from anyone who has some thoughts on this. I know I need to have positive thoughts but how do I keep the doubt and negativity from seeping in? Or what do I do when it does seep in? This is my biggest stressor right now - I'm stressing about the run, and stressing because I am stressing about the run! It's a vicious circle! HELP!

Ok - Enough of that!

I think I need to have a ROCKY movie marathon over the next few weeks. 😄

 

Coeur d'Alene Triathlon Race Recap

I did my first race in 2 years - CdA Sprint last Saturday. It was so much fun - I have missed racing. If you read "Well Hello There" blog, you know that I had a hip flexor injury that had limited my ability to run these past couple years which also impacted my ability to race. So I am really happy and excited to be racing again!😀

But before I get to the race day recap let me update you on something that happened 2 weekends ago - it has direct bearing on my CdA race and also my big race IM 70.3 in September.

Two weeks ago I was out doing a 9 mile run and about 8.5 miles in my achilles started aching. I thought "oh no, this isn't good" but did I stop??  Of course not! SIGH! Some lessons are never learned. I only had another 1/2 mile to go so I finished out the run with an aching achilles. When I got home I iced it and rested the rest of the day. It was feeling fine by the end of the day so the next day (Sunday) I did my planned workout, which was a 50 mile bike ride with a 10 mile climb up to Hyalite. The ride started out just fine, no sign of anything wrong with my achilles - I was feeling confident and happy to be out on my bike. About half way up Hyalite (~15 miles into my ride), I started to "feel" my achilles - it didn't hurt but I was noticing it. I thought "maybe I should turn around and call it for the day".... Did I do that??? Of course not! SIGH!!! By the time I finished my ride my achilles was really aching and I was so mad at myself. I limped around the house the rest of the day.

So this past week has been full of uncertainty. I talked to my coach and told him if the achilles doesn't get better by race day I won't race. I don't want this to impact my "Big" race in September. I took a couple days off - completely off... no walking, no running, no biking, no swimming... I just sat on the couch and read a book. It started feeling better. On Wednesday I went for a short/easy walk and of course, I also ran for a couple minutes - the achilles did not like the running so I stopped and finished out the walk. It continued to feel better all week and I was hoping I would be able to race on Saturday. On Friday (1 day before the race) I went for an 8 mile bike ride just to loosen the legs and make sure everything on my bike was working right. Following that I went for a 20 minute easy walk. During the walk I decided to test out the achilles and ran about a minute and it started to ache.... 😟  So SAD!! I had been telling myself all week that if it hurt at all I would not race.  I finished the walk and my achilles bothered me the rest of the day. Every time I walked on it, it ached. I kept telling myself "do not race"... I was so uncertain all day. I didn't tell Pat what was going on my head that day.  I needed to figure this out myself and decide for myself what I should do.

I went to bed that night with a sore achilles and had made up my mind to start the race in the morning and see how the achilles felt throughout each event (swim, bike, run). When I got up in the morning, it wasn't hurting to walk on it! YAY!!! Maybe today would be ok!!! 😄

So now with that background - here's the actual race recap.

Ready To Go

 

Swim (600 Yards) 14:28

This race has assigned heats. All men started at 8:00 AM, Women under 40 started at 8:05 AM, and women over 40 started at 8:10 AM. I am telling you this because it becomes significant later in the race... i.e. I started 10 minutes after the men and 5 minutes after the younger women.
When the gun sounded for my heat, I was right toward the front edge of the women. I have NEVER started at the front of the pack for a swim - I usually start toward the back. Being in the back means I get to stay out of the "fray" and find my own line without too much jostling (so I avoid getting kicked and having people swim on top of me).  I have always just been more comfortable with that - but that also means that I am usually one of the last swimmers out of the water. I don't know what made me line up in the front this day... It wasn't really a conscious decision. When I looked around and realized what I had done, I just kind of said "ok" to myself. 

10-9-8-...3-2-1 BANG! We were off.  It was crazy! Arms, legs and bodies all around me (in front, beside, behind, and on top). Every time I looked up to sight on the buoy and to try to find a clear spot to swim (i.e. get out of the fray) there was nowhere to go but straight. I could have stopped and let people pass but it's a race - that wasn't going to happen.  One lady and I kept bumping into each other - she finally got mad, stopped and yelled "Get out of the way!"  HAHA I just chuckled to myself and thought "lady, have you never done a triathlon?  If you don't like the bumping, either find your own empty space, OR swim over me".  I just kept swimming - she disappeared - not sure what happened with her. But the whole swim was like that. Women bumping and kicking me the whole way. I did my fair share of that also - there was one instance where one lady kept swimming up onto my legs - after a couple times of that I had had enough and kicked so hard she had no choice but to move to a different spot.
I finished the swim 2nd in my age group!!! WOW!!!!! 😀😀😀

Transition 1 1:46

I exited the water, ran up the stairs from the beach and then to my bike in transition. I quickly got out of my wetsuit, put on my helmet, shoes and sunglasses, and then ran my bike out of transition. 

Bike (14.7 miles) 51:52

This bike course starts out uphill, flattens out for a couple blocks, then goes uphill/downhill, then uphill/downhill again before the turnaround and returns back to transition. I have been doing lots of hill workouts the past few weeks (I talked about that in this HILLS blog) and I did not have any problems with the hills in this course. They actually felt pretty easy! YAY!! Hill workouts are working. Remember I mentioned that the men, and women under 40 started 10 and 5 minutes before me... I was passing everybody (just a little exaggeration 😀) during my bike ride. I passed men who had started 10 minutes before me and younger women who had started 5 minutes before me. It was so much fun and a great confidence booster. And big YAY - my achilles did not bother me when I went up the hills. FInished the bike and felt awesome!

Transition 2 2:21

This transition was SOOOO SLOW. I racked my bike, took off my helmet, and then sat down on the grass. I needed to put on a calf compression sleeve to protect/support my achilles during the run.  Try to put on compression over sweaty skin... it does not work! I had powder in the compression sleeve which did help a little bit to slide it onto my wet skin but it still took a long time to do this. I only took the time to put the sleeve on the injured calf so it felt kind of weird ot have compression on one leg and not the other.  I finally got the compression on, quickly slipped into my socks and shoes, grabbed my cap and number belt and ran out of transition.  

Run (3.1 miles) 33:16

My heart was racing when I started my run. I worked so hard on the bike, and transition did not go smoothly so I was keyed up. After about a minute of running, my heart still hadn't settled, I could feel it pounding and I decided I should walk to try and calm myself down. I walked for about 1 minute, felt my heartrate settle and then started to run again.  I kept running and paying attention to my achilles but there was no pain, no achiness and no indication that it was going to bother me. So I just kept running. Got to the turnaround, felt ok - but my legs were getting tired. I walked one more time around mile 2.5 - legs just needed a break - for about 30 seconds and then finished out the run. Achilles was just fine! So Happy about that.

Run Start

Finish 1:43:45

I finished 2nd in my age group.

Coeur d'Alene Sprint Finish 2024