Back to my roots

All this injury recovery has me working out alone, which is what I always did before this year. It's good to get back to it.

I ran for the first time today since the accident. That is, if you don't count the 1-minute run I attempted on Thursday. I did an hour walk, and at 45 minutes, I tried to start running. It did not go well. Lots of pain and stiffness, and no power from that leg.

Talk about demoralizing. A week and a half ago, I ran for three hours. Then Thursday I struggled to run for one minute.

That's what made it so awesome when I ran for 30 minutes Saturday. It felt so good! I ran fast and smooth and it felt almost like nothing was wrong.

I had forgotten how much running is part of who I am. Swimming and cycling both came about later, when I decided to try triathlons. But running has always been with me. Even in elementary school, when I was terrible at most of the sports offered (ball sports) I always could run. In high school, I tried to do basketball, but the only part I was good at was the conditioning before the season started. (The running and weightlifting.)

I finally wised up and figured out the running was my thing, and joined the track team.

In college and as an adult, I didn't always run consistently, but there was never a time when I couldn't just head out the door and finish a three-mile run. Well, maybe when I was nine months pregnant I couldn't. But other than that, I've always been able to run, even after a long break from it.

I don't think I realized how much my identity was wrapped up in it until I couldn't do it for a week. I can't imagine how people cope who are told they can't ever run again after an injury.

Anyway, the great thing about that week off was discovering the sheer joy of running again: that amazing and unlikely ability we humans have to get two legs under our big selves and somehow propel ourselves forward smoothly without falling over.

It really is something.

I feel like me again.

Oh yeah, I also swam

I swam Alum Creek for 1.5 hours this morning. E. coli warnings be darned. It's one of the few options left. The pool is way too boring for me to do laps for 90 minutes, and I was looking to practice in a little bit of chop. The quarry is covered in scum, and some college kids were cliff diving Friday and one didn't come back up. The police/fire dive team pulled his body out around sunrise Friday. It shouldn't effect me swimming there, but it does a little bit, mentally at least.

Anyway, here's Alum Creek Beach when I arrived:









And here's another photo after the sun came up:

Well, that's just about enough feeling sorry for myself

OK, well that was a nice few days of moping around.

That's over now.

I need to do more stretching and moving my knee during the day. It's worst when I am just sitting around for a long time. It stiffens up, even with ice on it regularly. I saw Doc at swimming today and he said to suck it up and bend it, even if it's uncomfortable. I didn't damage it from overuse or pulling a tendon/ligament. It was a blow, just like if I hit my arm on something. I'm not helping myself trying to limit mobility.

So here's my plan:

Hourly: Get up, stretch, bend it as far as I can. Do a few SLOW squats. Go up and down the stairs 2-3 times. Then ice.
Every four hours: Ibuprofen and some gentle massage of knee area.

I figured out what I hit my knee on. When the front wheel and handlebars flipped over as I was skidding, my knee connected with the flat metal piece that the elbow pad is mounted on. See the curved elbow pads in the picture? There's a metal piece underneath the padding that anchors them and follows the same contour - that's what I hit, I'm pretty sure. I think I was skidding and my knee was coming up toward my chest right when the front wheel caught the grass and the whole front end flipped. That must have been when my knee connected with the metal. I have a horizontal mark on my knee, with almost no abrasion, so the shiny metal fits the bill for a suspect.

Nancy Kerrigan had the best performance of her life seven weeks after suffering a severe striking blow to the knee from a metal baton.

I can do it in 3.5 weeks.

Watch me.

Words of encouragement

I remain angry and sullen, so much so that it is coming through in my emails to the training group.

I sent out the following last night:

Subject: RE: anyone for 3 Creeks tomorrow?

So sorry.
As it turns out, I am going to be wallowing in self-pity right at 6:15 a.m. tomorrow, so I can't make it.

In return, I received these kind gems:

its ok...shit happens.....you'll be better and stronger for it in the long run and your training won't get too f'd up in fact it might even do you some good...you've been hitting it pretty hard lately right!?!

And:

Good luck Alice, we'll be around, keep us posted on what you may need.

And:

It wasn't built in a couple weeks and you won't lose it in a couple weeks. You will benefit from the rest, and possibly lose a little speed, but should be able to get it back quickly. Hang tough! It's in you.

And:

No wallowing. Just find the means to get better and stick to it. You will be fine. This is just a sign you needed a little break for your race. Hang tough...eye o the tiger!!!

It's good to have friends.

I did 1:15 on the trainer this morning followed by a 30-minute WALK. Ugh, walking on purpose sucks. I have to do an hour walk later in the week before I'm allowed to try a 20-minute run.

It was very humbling after having a terrific 3-hour run just a little more than a week ago.

It's hard to not feel like it's slipping away.

But I have to turn this around mentally, too. Sulking does not produce healing hormones in the bloodstream.

Meet the new plan

David was kind enough to sit down with me tonight and tear apart the remaining four weeks of my training plan and figure out something that will work.

I have a new plan for this week, which will replace all my usual group workouts that will certainly tempt me to do things I shouldn't do yet with my knee still hurting.

Tuesday: Bike an hour and 15 minutes on the trainer. Walk 30 minutes fast.
Wednesday: Swim an hour and 30 minutes.
Thursday: Bike an hour and 30 minutes on the trainer. Walk one hour fast. (This is going to stink because I need to be at work at 7:45 a.m. this day.)
Friday: Bike two hours on the trainer.
Saturday: Swim an hour and 30 minutes. Attempt to run 20 minutes if my walk experiences have been good.
Sunday: If everything was good so far, bike 6 hours.

This means I am NOT going up to Cedar Point Saturday. Good thing I already went twice.

Adrift

I hate to compare a little bike crash to a major life loss, but since late last week I've been running through the stages of grief.

Thursday I was in denial, telling people I'd be back at it the next day. That was a pipe dream.

Once I realized I wasn't going to be back to normal right away, I was mad. Mad at myself for making such a stupid, preventable mistake right during the most crucial time when I can't afford to do something like that.

I skipped the bargaining stage in favor of drinking at a wedding. Wow, my knee felt great! :-)

Yesterday I was sad. Just plain sad. I was feeling adrift without being able to follow my training plan. My wounds seemed too raw to swim. I rode for an hour Saturday to test things out and felt OK trying for 120 miles on Sunday. But I bailed out at mile 40. My knee was swelling up and my arm was too uncomfortable on the aero bars. I had bandages on and a sock over it, but after a couple hours I realized I was actually not weighting that arm evenly, and it was causing me issues on my right side, too. Mostly it was knee pain, though. I was blessed that four out of five people I was expecting for the bike ride backed out at the last minute. The ride was leaving from my house on my route with me leading, and it would have been harder to end it early with five people counting on me. Instead I just disappointed one person. Well, two if you include me. I've never come back from a ride needing to put away uneaten Clif bars; needing to pour out full water bottles. It was highly unsatisfying.

Today, after hearing from a couple people that I really didn't need to worry too much about my arm getting infected from swimming, I headed to the quarry. There were just three of us, and the swim felt good. I finally felt like I could still make some forward progress, at least in one of the three disciplines.

I'm not going to run until I can walk pain-free. It might be a few more days. I'm going to keep the cycling to 1.5 hours or less. I might do it more frequently to make up for missed running and long rides.

Hopefully I'll be back to 100 percent by the Cedar Point training day this Saturday.

If my knee isn't feeling better by tomorrow, I might cut back on the short cycling, too, and just try total rest for my legs. Saturday will be a key workout that I don't want to miss.

In other news, our best friends were married Saturday! Jeremy and Judith tied the knot under a big white tent in a rainstorm. After they said, "I do," this gorgeous rainbow appeared in the sky behind them. It was magical. I'm not much of a wedding crier. In fact, I'm not much of a crier at all. But I was pretty much a blubbering mess. I'm so happy for them!

Rest day

David talked some sense into me and I didn't do my 3-sport, 4-hour workout today.
Maybe tomorrow.
However, a friend was supposed to meet me this morning for his first quarry swim, and I forgot to tell him I wasn't showing up. Sigh. Now I am the jerk who stands people up at the quarry.

Update:
Arm = gross and a little painful, but nothing too deep.
Leg = more bruising than I thought. Very light scrapes.
Knee = There's almost a puncture or something. I can't really figure out what happened there. But Doc drained some fluid off the knee yesterday afternoon, which made it feel better and bend more. Between that and putting ice on it, it's coming along.

The blog post I hoped I would not have to write. (Crash)

Well darnit, things were going along perfectly well until my peak training phase and guess what? That's when I got cocky and took a turn too hard on the path.

I was heading into a 90 degree turn on the Three Creeks bike path. Going maybe 15mph. Maybe faster.
It was a dumb mistake.

One minute I was going into the corner. The next I could hear the sound of my bike scraping against the asphalt, and the feeling of my upper arm sliding along. My helmet/head never touched the ground.

My knee must have bounced off the pavement or something, because I don't have a ton of abrasion on my knee/leg, but my knee really hurts and I'm limping when I walk.

So it was a real ego check. I have gotten really confident on that path. Too confident.
It had rained over night, and the pavement was wet in spots.
I took the far outside line on the turn. (Another rider took the inside.)
The back wheel just didn't have enough traction. I may have been leaning too far, instead of leaning the bike and keeping my body more upright. Mostly it was a combination of turning and wet pavement and a little gravel at the edge. I was NOT braking and turning at the same time. I know better than that.

The bike is miraculously unscathed. The horrible, horrible scraping sound I heard was just the outside of the pedal. (As far as I have been able to see so far.) Somehow my legs are skinny enough to fit in the space between the pedal and the frame when everything is on the ground. I have only very light abrasions on my calf and thigh. My arm/shoulder has a lot of "road rash," (code for scraped and bloodied) but it's OK.

I jumped right up, but then reality started to set in, as well as adrenaline and all those other chemicals that start flying around your body when you get hurt. I was lucky enough to have an M.D. along on the ride. But I had another 7-8 miles of riding to get back to the one person's house and get cleaned up and bandaged. I think I looked pretty tough, riding along with blood running down my leg, and blood on my arm and shoulder.

I am concerned about how many key, key ironman workouts I may lose during this peak training phase due to my knee. But I'm also feeling lucky it wasn't worse.

Doc says there's fluid on my knee which I can either let dissipate or he can drain it off for me. I know how that procedure is done, and I get weak and lightheaded just thinking about it. However, it might be a good option. I don't want to have to miss my big training day tomorrow and my bike 120-mile ride Sunday.

From my kids:

Nora: "Mom, why didn't you follow the rule about slowing down before you turn?"

Me: "Well, usually I can turn while I'm going that fast. But the bike path was a little wet from the rain."

Michael: "That's too bad, Mom. You should have waited for the rain to dry up first."

(Sigh.)

My bike ride did not suffer

After Saturday's run, I was concerned about my ability to execute my key bike ride today.

My cycling did not suffer.

110 miles.
18 mph average speed.

So there.

PLUS, I can still walk down the stairs at home.

It's all in my head

Two weeks ago, I had a long run of 2.5 hours. I ran it at a pace of 10 minutes and 23 seconds per mile. Anything slower than 10 minutes per mile is fairly slow for me, but long runs are supposed to be nice and slow. You're not supposed to kill yourself and fry your legs. You're definitely not supposed to go so hard that you can't finish the amount of time you are supposed to run, according to your training plan.

Today, I started out for a 3-hour run.
It was 5:30 a.m. and quite dark.
I thought about starting out at my usual, plodding, long-run pace.
Then I thought, "Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I didn't do that?"
There's no time like the present to experiment. I really only have a few more really long workouts left this season during which I can experiment and see what happens.

I was also thinking about my running in general. Over short distances, I can keep up a pretty quick pace. When I know I have a long, long run, I tend to go very slowly. It makes sense. But a couple people over the years have asked why my marathon times are so slow. "You are in great shape. You could go faster than that," they would say. And I would think, "Sure, I can go faster. But not over 26 miles! I'd never finish!"

But when have I ever not finished?
Never.
I've never not finished.
I always hold something back.
Always.

Think about Muncie. I didn't even really run on the run. I was just sort of plodding along, making sure nothing bad happened.

I've thought about this before, of course. I even read a recent article about a study where they had athletes exercise to exhaustion. Then immediately after that, they had them do one more minute as hard as they could, and they were able to go even harder during that minute. Which shows they really could have gone longer before "exhaustion." You can do some amazing stuff if you know you only have to do it for one minute. It's thinking about time stretching out before you with no end in sight that really makes you hedge your bets.

But what really brought it home for me was one of my training buddy's performances in his last half-iron race.
We train at the same speed.
I train probably twice as many hours as he does.
My half-iron time was 5:50. His was 5:30. Our swims and bikes were pretty similar.
So what gives?
He isn't afraid to run on the run. That's what.

So I decided today, I would not be afraid. I would not think about mile 17 while I was still running mile 2. I would just think about mile 2.

So that's what I did. I kept my core tight and my footfalls quick. I thought about the present. I did not think about how I might feel two hours from now.

And guess what? I ran pretty darn quickly, and didn't have any problem continuing at that pace for the whole three hours.

At mile 14, which was the farthest I had gone so far this year, I clocked a 9-minute, 10 second mile. That made me grin. In fact, I even shouted, "Yeah, that's right" out loud to myself on the path.

Instead of the 16-17 miles I would have managed in the three hours at my old pace, I finished 19 miles.
19 miles!
You know, if I had kept going for another hour (which I felt like I could have...) that would be a 4-hour marathon! Are you kidding? My best marathon time is 4:30.

To be fair in comparing this to my run of two weeks ago, it was MUCH cooler this morning than during that run. And I had an excellent night's sleep. But still, it was a great day today.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up for a great Ironman run, but on the other hand....
I AM getting my hopes up for a great Ironman run.

An explanation of how I became obsessed with triathlon

I've been doing local triathlons since about 2000. I never contemplated iron distance, or even made the time to do well enough to finish better than average. I finished my sprint distance races in an hour and 40 minutes or so. I would occasionally reach and do an Olympic distance, and was always slower than three hours for that. That was in 2004.

So what happened in the meantime? I guess it has to do with becoming a mom.

I think women with kids experience something when the children are very young that amounts to the subversion of self. It is expected. It is required. It is ultimately natural that a mother provide the food, comfort and care for her babies to survive and thrive. From pregnancy, through childbirth and breastfeeding, she gives her whole body and mind over to it.

Nothing about raising kids is measurable. There are no goals that you reach for each day, other than trying not to raise your voice, and making it another day without them pulling furniture down on their heads. It can be draining over time for a results-oriented person.

Finding something "selfish" that provides self esteem, time to think, a beautiful body, and clear, measurable progress is really like the opposite of caring for children.

Sometimes the pendulum swings hard.

My kids are now 3 and 5. Fortunately my husband is also a triathlete, so we worked out a plan about three years ago. We each wanted to complete an ironman at some point in our lives. It seemed life was only going to get more complex as the kids entered school and began their own activities. If we waited for that period to end, who knows if we would both be in good enough health, or have the time or resources to do it? A lot can happen in 15 years. So last year David made Ironman his goal, and his workouts took priority over mine, and I basically took the kids every weekend while he did long training rides and runs. He went out of a town a few times to practice on the course.

This year is my year.

I mostly train from sunrise until my workday starts, so the kids are asleep and I'm not missing anything at home. Dinner hour and bedtime are sacred and I don't miss them. My long bike ride day is a big deal. I miss the kids and David. They miss me. We attend triathlon races as a family, but on my training days at Cedar Point I lose a whole day with them.

I'm now in my last three weeks of building up before I start to taper my hours and efforts before the race. My mental focus is acute. All I want to think about and talk about is triathlon. I am not mentally balanced right now, for sure, but my performance is really great and I love the way I feel. Love it. Things will settle down after the race. I'm going back to short course because I feel the long weekend training is not fair to the kids. But I really want to accomplish this dream this year.

I think the important thing is that David and I (and the kids, actually) talked all this out ahead of time. And there is light at the end of the tunnel for him and the kids. For me, it will probably be somewhat of a letdown, and I will start being obsessive about something else. Perhaps Nora's birthday cupcakes for her kindergarten class!

Rain canceled the group ride today, so I set up the trainer in the garage.
I hadn't planned out a trainer workout, so I figured I'd just listen to music and ride.

Here's what I came up with:

Billy Joel Interval Workout

Play only Billy Joel on MP3 player.
Adjust pedal cadence to match the beat of each song or variations in each song (i.e. Ballad of Brenda and Eddie within Scenes From an Italian Restaurant).
Shift gears with each cadence change to keep the speed steady.
(Fast song = high cadence, spin fast; Slower song = grind big gear hard)

It passed the time!

I also was able to watch the garbage truck come, and our neighbor rush out and get his garbage can in place in the nick of time. Everyone has their own ways to get their heart rates up!

Riding hard with no air passing over you is definitely hot, though! (See sweat. See sweat drip. Drip, sweat, drip!)

Circumstances you can't control

I have been reading, highlighting, and re-reading a book called "Going Long" about training for an ironman race.
One of the things they talk about for race day is dealing with setbacks. It says you can't control the weather; you can't control whether you get a flat tire; you can't control the people around you. All you can do is assess the situation, come up with possible solutions, choose one, and do it. Then move on.

I tried to keep that in mind today.

Background: I have my next two weeks of training VERY carefully scheduled. Things are getting really busy. Our best friends are getting married in a couple weeks. I have an out-of-town training conference for work. And we have the usual family commitments, in addition to David's college stuff. So I don't really have any wiggle room. If I have a swim scheduled for 6 a.m. and I can't do it at 6 a.m., I am out of luck. Scratching a workout is really not an option at this point, either. Every one is pretty important to my overall success.

So I arrive at the quarry at 5:46 a.m. The guy I had planned to meet does not. (All the regulars were taking the day off after a big race over the weekend.)
Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
Nothing.
Walked down to the water.
No one.
Contemplated for one second swimming alone.
Thought about my kids.
Walked back up the hill.
Now the sun is up.
Went back to my truck, changed into my running shoes and did my 30 minute run.
Now it's 6:45 and I'm thinking perhaps some people will show up to swim at 7 a.m. (Sometimes there's a later group.)
Nope.
So I drove 15 minutes to the Y, swam 55 minutes, and still made it to work only a couple minutes late.

I owe myself 5 minutes added onto another swim this week, but I should be able to make that up.

Assess the situation, come up with possible solutions, choose one, and do it. Then move on.

And maybe, just maybe, send an email to the absentee person later.

Q & A

The following questions were posted on a triathlon website by someone seeking to learn how their life will change when they start training for a full iron distance race. These are my answers.

Did you prepare meals ahead of time?
No, I am lucky to have a husband who cooks dinner each night. I do pack a good breakfast/lunch each day. Just fruit, cheese, leftovers, hummus and veggies, whatever. I guess I do make a batch of steel-cut oats each week and put them in a Tupperware at work. I heat some up each morning.

Was massage a part of training?
My first one is Sunday. It's a barter type deal. Otherwise it would not be a spending priority.

How much of a life did you have outside of training?
I have a full time job, 2 kids (3 and 5), a husband who is in school and needs me to pick up slack with household chores so he can study. I also do some volunteer work.

How much racing did you mix in that year?
Early-season Half-IronMan.
Mid-season Half-IronMan.
That's it.

How early were you getting up?
5 a.m. every day. This got MUCH easier when it became every day instead of just on swimming days. I used to get up for Masters M-W-F and sleep the other days, and it was SO hard to get up. Getting up every day at the same time is much easier.

How often were you going to the grocery store?
Husband does this, mostly.

Were you able to workout an alternative schedule with work?
No. I get to work at 8:30 a.m. and leave at 5 p.m. I do occasionally run at lunch time with a guy from finance. No one has a stopwatch on me for my work hours. As long as I get my work done and I'm here, it's OK. Once in a great while I will do a long run in the morning and come in just a touch late.

Were you able to get your supervisor at work on board?
Sure, but I don't get much special treatment. I do, however, shower at work A LOT, especially around 8 a.m. before others get here. The shower is a HUGE asset. I also store my bike here on certain days, in my office. I also have a little wooden-peg hatrack type thing that I have hanging on my wall in my office where I dry my workout clothes and towel after my shower.

What is there to look forward to?
I have never felt more strong, powerful or capable in my life. My mental health is amazing. I am confident. I am happy. I feel like I can take on the world. I have to constantly keep reminding myself that it is NOT in my best interest to go to the track and see how quickly I can bust out a mile, or enter a road race (cycling) for the first time ever. It's hard to hold myself back, because I feel so good. I'm thin. I'm muscular. My body looks and feels great. I am eating well. I have FOCUS.

Focus like: screw everything else.
Turn up the rock music.
Let's get to my next workout.

Ferocity.

Just another day in paradise

Notice how there is no one in front of me? That's the view from the FRONT of the pack.


Oops. How did she sneak up there?
















Here's the moon, above that treetop. It's hard to capture on a cell phone camera at 17mph, but it's been awesome seeing the full moon set several days in a row.

Watching friends fall and rise

The obvious benefit of training with a group has been seeing how I stack up against others and being motivated to improve, with role models to do so.
What I didn't expect was becoming entwined in the athletic fates of so many other people.

Recently we have had a spate of bike wrecks, which has me spooked:

• Beth = Bruises from slide on bike path
• David G. = Stitch, bruises, and unplanned training break after pile-up during a sudden turn in a paceline
• Carla = Abrasions and bruises after bumping tires with another person in the group and going down
• Justin = Shattered middle finger after hitting the edge of a sewer cap during a Columbus cycling event and being thrown into the curb
• Ralph = Bruises, pain, and completely destroyed bike after being intentionally hit by a car and having his bike backed over several times by said car driver.

There are less dramatic examples, too, of folks for whom life has gotten in the way, and training has gone by the wayside. For some, they've had to drop out of races or just lower expectations. For some, a bit of the spark is gone, knowing they aren't going to be in the lead group.

And then, in some happy news, one of our group completed his first Ironman yesterday at Lake Placid, which is a very challenging course. He finished in 13-and-a-half hours, a very respectable time for such a hilly course.

Listening to the buzz about his Ironman finish at today's swim had me daydreaming about what they might be saying the day after my big race.
Here's what I think they'll say:
"Wow, she had a really good swim."
"Her bike time was pretty good, but I bet she could have gone faster."
"Geez, that's a good marathon time. What was her fastest stand-alone marathon again?"
"Nice transitions!"

I didn't take this photo, but it's close to what the sky looked like this morning as we dove into the quarry.

I couldn't wait to get in and stretch out my legs.

I took it super easy. My shoulders were aching from doing my run with a Camelbak water backpack Saturday. My legs were still hurting quite a bit from everything. Swimming was just the ticket for me today.

Two guys were running a quick 15-minute loop after the swim. It's not on my schedule. This is a recovery week. I don't need to run today, and my legs hurt. But my discipline failed and I joined them anyway. It sounded fun. It actually turned out for the best, as my legs felt a lot better after that. The stairs at work didn't even hurt when I arrived at the office at 8 a.m.

I'm glad I have an easy week this week. Things were starting to get out of control last week. I was misplacing things frequently, which is a sign of mental distraction for me. I'm getting my mind back together now.

Power Weekend

A 2.5-hour run on Saturday, followed by a 5-hour bike on Sunday, left me a quivering mass of jelly by Sunday night. Throw in some gardening and a couple slow family bike rides, and I was more than ready for bed.

My two big workouts couldn't have been more different.

Saturday's run, despite starting at 5:30 a.m., was hot hot hot. I was also very alone. In the first hour, I didn't see a soul. Not in a car, not walking, not anything. After that, I saw a gradually increasing number of people on the bike path to exchange a nod with.

Sunday's bike was cool and social, by contrast. We had a group of six, thrown together over the course of a week, and it turned out to be a terrific group. No one was high maintenance or in danger of getting left behind. No one was going crazy out in front pushing the pace too hard. It started raining after the first hour, which was a blessing in disguise. Riding in the rain isn't that much fun, but it kept everyone very cool. I didn't need to drink as much, or take salt, and I could stomach a lot more food. Everyone had a similar sensibility about what a long bike workout should look like, even though most people didn't know each other, and it turned out great.

At home, Nora (5) moved up to a bigger sized bicycle (still with training wheels) and Michael (3) left his tricycle behind to ride on the smaller bike with training wheels. Consequently, there were frequent family bike rides over the weekend, proceeding at a pace of about 5mph. It's actually quite challenging to ride that slowly, even in my lowest gear, so the slow-speed work was good for my bike handling skills. Michael needed quite a bit of coaching on cornering and using his coaster brakes, but he's a natural. He even called out "Slowing!" when he was slowing down, just like a real roadie!

This was my hardest training weekend so far, and I made it through easily. I felt like I could have run more, and I felt like I could have biked more. Right up until I tried to walk down a flight of stairs and had to do it sideways because of killer quad fatigue. :-)

Making group training work, with different goals

I'm starting to get into the time when my workouts are longer than everyone else's. I still like the camaraderie, the inspiration to get up in the morning, the challenge of keeping up. But this week, my scheduled swims and bikes are all longer than the group is willing to go.

For swimming, my solution is to get in at 6 a.m. with the 6 a.m. crowd. We are usually finished around 6:50 a.m. If I can convince one person to do another short leg of swimming with me, I can get us to 7 a.m., when some swimmers from another group usually get in, and I can do another half-hour with them.

For the bike, my scheduled weekday workout is 90 minutes. The group usually rides 82 minutes for the Three Creeks ride. No big deal, but that's 16 minutes short over the course of Tuesday + Thursday. So today after we came back from the ride, I did an extra 20 minutes. Then I ran 15 minutes that wasn't on my schedule, just because I felt like it.

The race company has been updating their plans and maps on the website. It looks like they moved the Transition Area from the parking lot by the hotels, on the north end of the Cedar Point peninsula, to the big parking lot at the south end. Sigh. It's OK, but I was so excited because I reserved a spot in Camper Village, which was RIGHT NEXT TO the Transition Area. Now it isn't. That's OK. It will make it a little more challenging for David and the kids, though.

I feel great today. I feel like just stopping in my office and doing pushups for fun.

Grit

Received this email today, from a training buddy, in response to an email about my training plans for the week:

"well - you've got grit going, and nobody's gonna question your dedication."

Thank you for that, Rob. It's the kind of thing that keeps a person going during a week like this. This will be the second-longest training week in my plan. Bring it!

Second time on the Rev3 Course

Had a great day yesterday. Cleveland Tri Club organized a course preview day with Rev3, the race company putting on the triathlon.

I had to get up at 4:30 a.m to make it on time, but it was actually not a problem. I woke up before the alarm.

Here's a photo of the sun coming up on my drive there.

The swim clinic in Lake Erie was terrific. I didn't think there was much to learn about open-water swimming, but there was! We did a lot of things I've never practiced on my own, basically out of fear of looking foolish. We all did running beach starts, with dolphin dives once the water was up to our knees. We practiced our buoy turns. We did a beach exit. We did it again. I was able to FINALLY mix it up with some people, and actually was kicked in the arm pretty good. I was glad, because I keep being pretty worried about how I will react if I am really beaten up on the swim. I also learned that running out of the water, even if the water is only up to my knees, is really tiring and gets my heart rate way up. So, that's something I am noting for the future.

For the bike, we split up into four groups. (Here's a photo of the race director, standing at left, giving instructions for the ride.) My group was supposed to be 17-20mph. The ride leader must have had some sort of ego problem, because as soon as we made it through town, we were going 23. I could keep up, but I learned my lesson on this course in June. When riding with a bunch of people who are only doing one loop, if you hammer the course with them, your second loop will SUCK. So I let myself get dropped before I even got to Milan. I did Milan alone, and was almost to Florence when I saw Adam from BeginnerTriathlete.com up ahead. I caught up with him and we stopped at the gas station together for cold water and bathrooms. We stayed together for the next 10-15 miles, and we ended up riding with the Race Director, Eric, and a friend of his. I couldn't believe it! Here we were, with the Race Director drafting off of us! It was awesome! He was extremely personable and a great listener about what people are looking for in a race. He is clearly committed to doing a great job, and being responsive to customers. Rev3 is definitely setting itself up as a competitor to the Ironman brand. They want to be set apart by being family- and spectator-friendly, and by listening to their customers. The four of us stayed together until Berlin Heights, where there was an aid station. Shortly after that was the turn to head south for another loop. I pulled off there and said goodbye to Adam. (I took a photo of him [at right] before he left.) We saw Eric and Janet(?) ride past, and waved. Then I set out on my second loop alone.

The wind had really picked up, and of course the hill in Milan and the gradual climb into a headwind in Vermillion were much more challenging the second time around. When I came back to Berlin Heights, the aid station was no longer staffed (they had warned of this ahead of time) but they left bottled water there. I went into the gas station for drinks and the bathroom and some Fig Newtons. I was close enough to being done that I was letting my mental guard down, but far enough away that I still had a lot of work to do, into the wind, alone.

When I finally made it back to the resort, I had done 97 miles!! I felt great. The run course was still set up, so I did a couple miles out there, and felt pretty good.

Then I covered my bike in the bed of the truck and grabbed my gym bag. I stuck my head into the Black Bear Saloon, and Eric recognized me right away and congratulated me on making it back. I headed for the shower and washed the bugs and salt and grime off my skin. Then I went back to the pub and ordered this:
Hamburger with cheddar cheese, onion, fried egg, bacon, rosemary mayonnaise, lettuce. Served with a side of fries.

On any other day, I would be completely grossed out by the thought of this burger.

I ate the entire thing.

Drove home and made it in time to read the stories and help get the kids in bed.