I Want to Be an Ironman….Am I nuts?

Last weekend was one of our first big weekend of workouts. The rest of the team traveled to Green Bay to run the half marathon and I stayed home since I had already done a half marathon in New Orleans in February.

The Saturday workout consisted of a one hour swim at Ironman pace and a 4.5 hour bike. My friend, Kelly, agreed to join me for as much of the bike ride as her hinder would take – most people don’t have a 4-hour bike butt this early in the season in Wisconsin! So I was thrilled to have someone willing to ride with me. My swim at the Y went really well! I felt strong, comfortable and was moving right along at the pace I hope to swim in the Ironman. I did a 15 minute warmup and then 2250 yards in 45 minutes with no breaks and most importantly a calm and happy brain! Upon exiting the Y for my bike ride, I noticed the weather had not improved much – cool (in the 40’s), rainy and wind out of the north. Ick!! This was not going to be a fun bike ride.  I got to River Trail Cycles where I was meeting Kelly and we proceeded to bundle up in our wet, cold weather gear and off we went. The first loop was about 40 miles north of Holmen. The first 10 miles were straight into the 15-20 mph wind. The rain was mostly an aggravating mist so you didn’t realize how wet you were getting and there were dry periods so the roads were not too bad. We made the first loop in just under 3 hours. Kelly decided her hinder was done (I don’t blame her! I probably wouldn’t have come out for a ride in that weather at all! I was sooo thankful to have company for so much of the workout.) After a potty break at River Trail Cycles and a discussion on my route and time frame, I set off for a second 20 mile loop. Again, I met a stiff wind out of the north for the first 10 miles coupled with a light rain – not pleasant cycling but heck I was already wet so who cares! Well that was true until I felt the cold wet rain start to run down my hinder! ARGH this was not going to be fun! Luckily, the rain let up about halfway through the loop and all-in-all the second loop went very well. I got back to Holmen in about an hour so I still had 30 more minutes on my bike. I called River Trail Cycles to let them know I was adding on and would not be back at the store by my designated time. I gave them a new “be back by” time and off I went back into the wind and of course, the rain. This time I knew I would get the advantage of the wind at my back on my way home so I went 20 minutes out and was back at the bike shop with 4:36 on my bike computer! YEAH!!! Time for food.

Sunday’s workout was a 1 hour bike followed by a 2 hour run. Well the weather forecast was cold and rain again on Sunday. I decided if in fact it was raining Sunday morning, I would bag the ride and just run. When I got up Sunday morning, it was not raining so I started to get ready for my bike ride. All was going well until I started to pick up my cold/wet weather gear and it was still damp from Saturday’s workout including my bike shoes, insoles and toe warmers! Since the thought of putting cold, wet stuff on to go out and bike in the windy, cold weather did not sound appealing – I bagged the bike! I pulled on my running clothes and started off. Wow! I was working hard and not going any where very fast! Icould tell my legs were fried from the bike ride Saturday and I hoped they would loosen up and my pace would pick up. Luckily at 25 minutes into my run, I joined the River City Running Club for their regular Sunday morning route. I was glad to find a few club members who had run 20 miles on Saturday and very willing to run my slower pace for the 6 mile loop. As we completed the loop, I still had 35 minutes of my 2 hours remaining. A few of my supportive friends suggested I “round up” my time and join them for coffee, but even with my generous rounding rules, I could not turn 1:25 into 2:00! I did take their second suggestion of running to Grounded Coffee and see where my time was at that point. I ran down to Grounded and still had 20 minutes left. I joined them for a glass of water and then took off to run home which was about 22 minutes. While the pace was very slow, my legs were very heavy and I had lots of stops, I was pleased that I stuck to it and got most of the weekend workout logged in.

One week later I think I am still feeling the effects of last weekend’s workout. My legs have been heavy and sore all week during my runs. Today on the bike ride, my quads were screaming on every little uphill and every time I had to accelerate from a standstill or a slowdown! Wow I hope this is just a little glitch in my body’s ability to recover and it starts recovering faster as next weekend is another Big Workout Weekend!

Feet up and fingers crossed!

Wow how time flies when you are having fun… or is it when you are so busy life seems like a blur? Angie and I were commenting this morning while we were biking in the basement. “Can you believe it is already Thursday???? The days of the week just fly by.”

Unfortunately not all of the workouts do! No that is not really true, so far so good. Biking in the basement is getting a little old, but sadly is sooo convenient. It will be hard to work in the outside bike rides during the week. We typically bike 1.5 hours during the week and it is so much easier to get that done at 4:30am than to try and get outside at 5:30 or 6pm for that same amount of time. Plus April and May in Wisconsin have been a little more like March – cold and rainy. The basement is ALWAYS warm and dry!

I had a few confidence boosting runs in the last week. I have been doing most of my runs alone lately and they have been slow. I think I am going at a good clip and I look at my Garmin and I am doing about a 10 min/mile pace. When I run with the team, we are always around 9:30 or faster. So Sunday when I had to run 1.5 hours with Angie, I was pretty nervous about how bad this was going to hurt IF I could keep up! We took off about 6am in order to avoid interfering with the La Crosse Marathon and Half as we were using some of the same roads (La Crosse is a small town squished between bluffs and the Mississippi River). My strategy was to just relax and try to stay with Angie and NOT look at my Garmin. We were running along chatting and pretty soon Ang commented we were doing a pretty good pace. I thought to myself, “YEAH!! I feel okay!” We ended up back at my house with 10 miles in 1.5 hours! and best of all – I didn’t feel like I was going to die at any time. The last 10 minutes was tough but doable.

Tuesday, we had a 45 minute Z3, Z4 run (Z3 is 80% of max heart rate and Z4 is 90%) I typically do my weekday runs on one of two routes depending on the focus and distance needed. My “Ebner, Bump, UWL” route or my “Visiting Earl” route. My “Visiting Earl” route takes me to a park and then through the cemetery where my friend Earl is buried, I always stop and chat with Earl before heading back home. Since it was a Z3, Z4 run, I needed to do hills and no chatting with Earl (sorry Earl maybe next week!). I did my Ebner, Bump, UWL route and even after a 10:15+ pace up Ebner and the Bump, I still pulled out a 9:32 average pace for the 45 min run. That means I was sub 9 for about the last 15-20 minutes of no hills and it wasn’t a bad Z3! The hills were definitely Z4. Probably need to do more Ebner Bump runs to get that 10:15 pace faster!

Hoping for good weather this weekend so we can bike outside on Saturday as we have a 3.5 hr ride – not sure I can watch Man vs. Food for 3.5 hours and still be civil!

Wow I can’t believe how fast the week has gone by! Last Saturday, the Team had a 1.5 hour swim and 3.5 hour bike on the agenda for the day. Saturday weather was overcast, a little windy and in the 40’s temperature-wise so we planned on biking outside. This would be my first outside ride of 2011. Being more organized than normal, I packed my bag Friday night – swim stuff and then biking because we were leaving from the Y after our swim. I packed almost every piece of warm biking clothing I own! Lots of options from my beanie to my crab claw gloves, my leg warmers, arm warmers, toe covers, etc. I had my biking shoes, helmet, nutrition, water bottles, etc. I even had my post-workout clothes for our weekly trip to Blue Moon for post long workout refueling. I was all set!!!!

I got the Y and we did our swim. Had a great swim got in just under 5,000 yards and was very proud of myself. Angie and I were in the locker room changing and Uh Oh!!! I don’t think I have a sports bra!!!! How could I forget the most basic item of a woman athlete’s workout clothing!!!!! OMG what am I going to do??? Angie suggested I wear my regular bra – OK that is not ideal but better than nothing. I dig through my bag -Uh Oh – I DUMP my bag on the floor in the locker room! NO BRA – none, nada, nein!!! No bra of any kind (FYI I wore my swimsuit under my clothes to get to the Y at 6:45am so I had NO BRA!!!) OMG again!!! How am I going to ride my bike for 3.5 hours without any “support”? Angie offered me her regular bra – well for those of you who don’t know both of us, there is a slight difference in bra size, not huge but enough that Angie’s bra would provide some support but not much. So I am in the process of putting her bra on when the locker room door opens and a friend walks in. I look up and say “Do you happen to have an extra sports bra???” She stops and says “I think I do!” “Can I wear it?” Cami digs through her bag and produces a sports bra that she was not planning on wearing that day! I just about kissed her I was so happy to see a sports bra that was even my size!!!! I quickly put it on before she changed her mind! She went off to swim, I went off to my bike ride!

And guess what I loved her bra, never had tried that brand before but now I am going to buy one! And yes I laundered and returned her beautiful, comfy sports bra with chocolate!!! Thanks Cami!!!!

Cami will forever be my “Boob Saver” and “Supportive Friend”! You know you have good friends when they are willing to give you a sports bra and not think twice about it. And even offer to give you their regular bra for your workout!

Special Thanks to my Supportive Friends – Cami and Angie! I will forever pack an extra sports bra in my bag just in case you need it!!!