Dress Rehearsal

So, I had my dress rehearsal for Louisville this weekend. I did the Ironman Muncie 70.3. So it was really a dress rehearsal at half the length. There were a lot of positives and negatives to this race so we'll start with the results then get into particulars of what I learned. First of all, I finished in 7:05:21. I did the swim in 35:49, the bike in 3:14.22 with a 17.3 MPH average, and the run in 3:06:28 at a 14:14 pace. Out of 1530 finishers, I was 1369. I was 202nd in the swim overall though so that is good. So to get into the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly.

The Good:
1) I felt great in the water and had a good rhythm.

2) Despite some intense headwinds, I had a strong bike leg. There were times when it was a struggle but overall, I am happy with the ride.

3) My nutrition/hydration plan seemed to work pretty well (with the exception of the last part of the run but more on that later). I have a standard race day breakfast of a bagel with Canadian bacon and cheese with a small glass of chocolate milk when I wake up. Then I have a Clif Bar when I get to the race followed by a decent amount of water. When I get on the bike, I have a good combination of Gatorade and water and I snack on some Gu Chomps. On the run, I switch over to mainly water and I do just the straight Gu. I tried out the Coke thing too. At about mile 8 on the run, I had some Coke. Pretty good pick me up when you need it.

4) I felt pretty good coming off the bike and starting the run.

5) I made a friend on the run that kept me sane from about mile 3 or 4 until the finish.

6) I avoided all stinging insects this time around :-)

The Bad:

1) It was f-ing HOT!!!!!

2) There were HILLS. I'm not a very strong runner to begin with but throw in hills and I'm toast. That was not fun.

3) The headwinds on the bike were pretty horrific and lasted for more than half of the ride.

4) There was not a cloud in the sky so the sun just beat down on us and baked me to a crisp.

The Ugly:

1) I got sun poisoning on my legs during the bike. They hurt. A lot.

2) About mile 8 on the run, I started to feel like I was going to vomit. Perhaps I drank too much water.

3) I have some sweet ass tan (read: BURN) lines on my back.

4) I have some seriously sub-par snot rockets.

5) I have horrible ass chafing.

But one excellent thing was that I made a friend on the run. About mile 3 or 4 I met Symantha. We ended up running the entire thing together and it made it so much more bearable. We were able to talk and not think about the fact that it was so hot and there were no clouds and your feet hurt like hell and you wanted to puke. So a big shout out to her for getting me through the run!!!! She's doing the Steelhead 70.3 in a few weeks so I'm wishing her the best of luck.

After yesterday's race, I am now back in Chicago curled up in my bed relaxing. I think I will stay here for a while :-)

My Inspiration Lately

I've been getting in some really good training sessions lately. And my attitude has been pretty fantastic. I've been reading the book "I'm Here to Win" by Chris McCormack.

Macca is a Kona Ironman champion and the book is just inspirational. He tells about his entry into the sport and the fights he has put up to get where he is. While I am not (nor will ever be) a professional triathlete, there is a lot that I can learn from this guy. In the past week, I've found two passages that really speak to me:

"Embrace the suck. Because no matter how much you love being a triathlete, at some point a race is going to really, really suck."

"You become a better person when you manage to do something as insane as swimming, biking, and running 140.6 miles in the same day."

I get more and more excited the more I think about it. True, I also am getting more and more nervous but it's a good nervous. If I weren't nervous about 140.6 miles of hell, something would be seriously wrong with me. But I'm looking forward to the challenge. I am looking forward to crossing that finish line and finally becoming an IronWOman!

After the Naperville sprint tri a couple weeks ago, I have tried to focus some more on the bike knowing that it is my weakest link. I rode with a group out of Urban Tri Gear in Burr Ridge last week for some extra training. They ride every Wednesday night and they have a couple different pace groups. There are some really strong cyclists that push me to train harder. I went out with the fastest group. We were told that we would be averaging about 19.5 mph for a 25 mile ride. Well, apparently my 19.5 and their 19.5 is completely different. When we reached the 6 mile mark, I checked out my CatEye and it said our average was 24 mph. RIDICULOUS! I couldn't maintain that pace so I slowed down and another man and I stayed at 19 for the remainder of the ride. There were some decent hills on the route and I felt really good about the ride when we finished. I'm also hoping to get in about a 70 mile ride on Monday morning since we're off work for the holiday. A woman I swim with is also training for Louisville and she suggested we go ride. He daughter is my age and the three of us are going to hear out to Nowheresville, IL to get in a long ride.

I have an opportunity next weekend to see how I perform in a longer event. I am signed up for the Muncie 70.3 Half-Ironman race in Muncie, IN on July 9. My goal is to drop about 15 minutes from last year's half time. So I would like to finish in 6 hours and 15 minutes. It's going to be a hot one but so will Louisville so it's good practice.

I'm about 8 weeks out now so it's time to really focus. After the 4th, I'm going sober till September. OK, not really till September...just until I cross that finish line at approximately 10 pm on August 28. And by sober, I mean that I'm just not drinking in excess. I will still have a glass of wine every once in a while with dinner or I may get one beer on Thursdays at BW's. But I am seriously cutting back. I'm also changing up the diet and making sure I get GOOD food into my system instead of eating the shit I have been eating lately. We're down to two months and things are getting real now. This is going to ROCK!