I'm still coughing them up. I got in a good short ride yesterday, 20 miles, but I think I'm going to take another day off. I'll wait until I have at least one night's sleep where I don't wake up four or five times to get the jellyfish out of my lungs.
Maybe tomorrow. . . .
On another topic, what do you fellow bloggers think about "essay blogs" versus "diary blogs"? Mine is more of the latter, definitely. I think my life is too mundane right now to have Great Ideas to write compelling essays about. Dealing with poopy diapers and driving kids to school and cleaning house and going for bike rides when I'm able, in between bouts of coughing up jellyfish, doesn't make for dramatic, powerful essays. Sorry. That's all she wrote.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Ironman Bike Leg Nutrition
I'm working with the information that I've gained over my summer long rides and the Chesapeakeman Aqua Velo experience to fine-tune the foods that I take with me on the bike at Ironman Florida. I know I'll need somewhere in the range of 300 calories or more per hour for 7 hours, which equals 2100+ total calories. I have a short time-tested list of solid foods that agree with my stomach, that are easy to pack along, and that I can nibble on while riding fairly readily. Fortunately my stomach seems able to tolerate solid food reasonably well unless it's taken by surprise, or it's a record-breaking heat wave (over 85*F) on the bike course.
I think it was Linae that gave me the idea of plugging it all into Fitday to make sure the amounts and calories and nutrient ratios came out right. It's been interesting to tweak the amounts a little to fine-tune exactly what to bring on board.
I wish the process was this exact out on the bike course, but there are always some foods that just look too dry or too gross to eat once you start getting tired or overheated. I think I'm down to a few that have proven to work well for me, though.
I think it was Linae that gave me the idea of plugging it all into Fitday to make sure the amounts and calories and nutrient ratios came out right. It's been interesting to tweak the amounts a little to fine-tune exactly what to bring on board.
I wish the process was this exact out on the bike course, but there are always some foods that just look too dry or too gross to eat once you start getting tired or overheated. I think I'm down to a few that have proven to work well for me, though.
PSA: Flu shots
Don't forget to schedule a flu shot this fall, folks! It's already time to start getting them! A few minutes getting a shot could save you a couple weeks of training down the road - that's a pretty good payoff, right?
I just scheduled mine (and the girls') the same day that I need to drive over to Virginia to drop off my bike for shipment to Ironman Florida - Tuesday, October 24th. I've got a lot of riding to do between now and then!
Last night I was still kept awake coughing up jellyfish. Yuck. I didn't know I swallowed that many in the Choptank River last Saturday. Still, I hope to take the bike out for a few miles this afternoon.
I just scheduled mine (and the girls') the same day that I need to drive over to Virginia to drop off my bike for shipment to Ironman Florida - Tuesday, October 24th. I've got a lot of riding to do between now and then!
Last night I was still kept awake coughing up jellyfish. Yuck. I didn't know I swallowed that many in the Choptank River last Saturday. Still, I hope to take the bike out for a few miles this afternoon.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Four Days of Slackdom
Otherwise known as, "This Ain't No Way To Train For An Ironman". I've been sick since, oh, Friday. I didn't want to dwell on it in my race reports because it would sound like I was making excuses for my performance or something, but. . . .
This was a gift from my daughter Elisabeth, from her schoolmates. The night before the race I had a bad sore throat, but I felt okay when I got up in the morning so didn't consider skipping the race. The night after the race I felt pretty lousy indeed. The sore throat continued for two more consecutive nights, sore enough to wake me up when I swallowed in my sleep.
They sent letters home from my daughter's school on Tuesday about strep throat going around there. Great. But now the sore throat stuff has mostly cleared up and it's settled in my chest for a yucky "productive" cough. Plus I've had some fluid in my ears which makes me a little dizzy and unsteady, which makes attempting to cycle or run not a great option.
So I'm on my 4th consecutive day now of doing nothing. No workouts, no exercise, no anything. I'm not ready to taper yet!!!! Somebody call the waaaaahmbulance!!
Even the babysitter was sick, so I didn't have my Tuesday afternoon workout relief anyway.
Oh well, extra rest right now is better than a half-hearted workout that won't do my fitness much good, right? Just let me get back to tip-top form for the weekend and then I can do some long ones again.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Chesapeakeman Aqua Velo: The Bike
I rode out on the roads with Buttercup, heading out of the town of Cambridge, Maryland. It felt good to be in motion and getting dry.
This was familiar territory to us both: The exit from the transition area was just the same as Eagleman Half Ironman. We zoomed around the few corners in town monitored by policemen as if we'd been doing it every day. Then it was out onto the open highway, with nice wide shoulders and plenty of room.
Then about Mile 4 or 5 it went past a turnoff that the Eagleman course takes, and we had a 20-mile out-and-back. This was still very familiar to me, since I knew the turnaround was the very same as the little practice triathlon the good folks in Cambridge set up for us last May.
Temperatures were comfortable, I was pedaling well, keeping my heart rate way down in the "easy" zone. I felt very good about completing that swim, and though I knew it was a long day, I was feeling happy and optimistic about finishing.
Ellie zoomed past me at about 10K into the bike leg, as I expected. She's got iron legs from all those mountains she rides! Go, granny, go! I knew that aside from seeing her on the return leg of the out-and-back, I probably wouldn't see her again until after the finish line.
This was just about the time that I made my Big Tactical Error of the Day. This was yet another example of Nancy Has To Learn Things The Hard Way. All the pro triathletes and coaches say not to eat anything solid for the first 20-40 minutes of the bike leg. Stick to water and liquid nutrition. I knew that. I had read it in twenty different places, probably. But hey! I was feeling good, my legs felt great, the bike was sailing along, the sun was shining - why don't we just start our nutrition plan NOW!?
I was drinking some water from the aerobottle, of course. I recalled that 2 glasses of water that I had drunk with a gel in transition. I thought, hey, I'd better balance that out and not get short on sodium! So I took a salt capsule and kept riding.
I had eaten a lot before the race in the morning. It felt like a ton of food. A couple of hard-boiled eggs, a bagel, some peanut butter cookies, a lot of whole milk and coffee. I chugged a bottle of Ensure before the swim start to top everything off and give me some last-minute calories.
The only problem was that was over two hours in the past now. Somehow I had forgotten about all that time that passed. My stomach was completely, totally empty now except for some water. And a whole lot of salt. Which is sometimes the approach people use to induce vomiting.
Which I did.
I had that yucky watering-mouth feeling and stopped the bike just in time. I leaned over the aerobars and spewed on the edge of the pavement. I don't think it was more than a couple of minutes, but it felt like I was standing there heaving forever. Some race officials pulled up alongside in a truck and asked me if I'm okay. "Um, yeah, I'm, uh, fine, I'm just throwing up."
Funny, I haven't barfed in years. Yeah, that'll larn me. Fortunately, after I got all that salt out of my stomach, and finished kicking myself for being dumb, I felt fine and was able to start up again and keep riding. I never quite regained that happy-go-lucky confidence I felt at the start of the ride, however.
After the out-and-back the course headed out into isolated country backroads with very little traffic. Again, most of the course was familiar from Eagleman. We had a little 4-mile connector road, and then two enormous 45-mile loops to complete.
The loops were like a huge triangle - the first leg roughly southwest, the next leg roughly southeast, and then the longest leg more or less straight north, with the Cambridge-Dorchester high school and transition area at the northernmost corner.
The first two legs of the triangle headed into the wind, which was coming mostly from the south. They were slow, and fairly uneventful. I could usually keep one or two riders in sight in front of me, but that was all. The aid stations came regularly every ten miles. I usually picked up a water bottle from a volunteer at each stop (thanking them, of course!), took a big swig, squirted the rest into the aerobottle to fill it up, then squirted some on my head and tossed out the rest of the water.
I had made up a super-concentrated bottle of Gatorade and Carbo-pro to mix with water on the fly, but that didn't work so well. Mainly I ended up getting sick of the sickly-sour taste of Gatorade and ended up jettisoning most of it before the end of the day. I think I can do something similar in a smaller gel flask without the Gatorade next time.
I also carried along apricots, cashews, and Craisins in sort of my own trail mix, and ate a bit of that every 10 minutes, or else had a 1-inch piece of a Nature Valley nut bar. Sometimes I took a swig of homemade gel. I had also brought some Powerbars cut in half in ziplocks, but I only managed to get one of them down on the bike. They're just too gritty and dry.
The last leg of the triangle was awesome. It was a road I hadn't ridden before, and the first 5 miles or so were completely washboard, just as Ellie described. Something went badly wrong in that batch of asphalt, and I thought my fillings were going to come loose from my teeth. At the same time, with a strong tailwind, I was able to pick up the speed quite a bit and did most of this road in the big chainring. I wasn't using my speedometer at all during the ride, only looking at my cadence and heart rate readings to keep myself in a comfortable zone on the first bike loop.
I hit my watch timer at the end of 56 miles, or halfway. 3:36. Hmm, that's a little too slow. Maybe I've been taking it TOO easy. That's only 15.6 mph. I can do better. Keep cranking on that big old chainring like Jan Ullrich, and take it home to the transition area. And this was not feeling like very much fun. My back hurt, my crotch hurt a LOT, my shorts were chafing, I was tired and cranky. One fast rider with a noisy disc wheel in the front of the pack lapped me toward the end of the ride and was on his way to starting his run.
We then passed through a lovely desolate section of swampy wildlife refuge (although the only wildlife that I remember were some egrets and ospreys and one live snake that I did NOT run over, thankfully) and then past a "city limits" sign. Immediately I found myself at the back of the high school. Here we are, Special Needs! Yeah, I was needy.
I stopped and rifled through the huge amount of stuff that I had packed in the bag, dropping things that the volunteer kindly picked up for me. I never dismounted from the bike once during the whole 112 miles, by the way. No flats! So thankfully I didn't need the spare inner tube and cartridge. Some of the other food I'd packed looked yucky. I took off my armwarmers and put them in the bag I would retrieve later. I pulled out a bag of Goldfish crackers and some more trail mix and an Uncrustable PB&J and headed on my way.
Out past the finish line and back on the roads with the other back-of-the pack cyclists, away from the music and excitement and back to the solitude of riding my bike as fast as I could down isolated country roads. I ate some Goldfish just because I thought they would settle my stomach, and because they remind me of my daughter Elisabeth who loves them. That made me smile. But after a while I ended up sprinkling the roadside with little Goldfish for the birds, they were just too dry to eat more than a handful.
The BEST thing by far on the bike was the Uncrustable PB&J. Soft and moist and easy to eat and it even tasted okay. I think that's going to be my mainstay for these long distance rides. They're only 75 cents apiece, with 210 calories and 6 grams of protein. Go nuts.
I had really been dreading the second loop. I expected it to be awful. But it really, truly wasn't! The little break at the special needs perked me up and got me going again. I was ready to go harder on the second lap, and I did. While it's true, every time I looked at my odometer and did the math to calculate the miles to the finish line, it seemed like an impossible number. Nobody could actually ride that far, especially not after the long day I'd had already. But I could keep going to the next aid station, so I did.
I worked hard to pass one woman with a 49 written on her calf, same as me, but she was actually in a different event. I continued to work to pick off other riders. I don't think anyone passed me on the second loop, and I passed perhaps 10 people. So I was pleased with that!
The final home stretch with the tailwind was great, despite the washboard road. I was cranking and knew I'd finish the day. I wasn't exactly looking forward to the same exertion on Ironman Florida day, but I knew that the distances were now within the realm of reality and weren't totally ludicrous.
Finally, after many, many miles, the high school came back within view. I rode around the last few corners and headed toward the finish line. I dimly heard Ellie cheering me on. I had to stop my bike and hold onto the shoulders of a volunteer as I dismounted, because my legs were not at all steady, but I ran a couple steps to make it over the timing mats as fast as I could.
I finished an iron-distance swim and bike. In one day. I can do this. Who would have thought it?
Total bike leg time: 6:58:50. 16.0 mph average. 112 miles on a bicycle, without dismounting once. After a 2.4-mile swim. And I rode strong negative splits on the bike leg. My dream goal for the bike leg was under 7 hours. I DID IT!! I DID IT!! I DID IT!!
My total time in the Aqua Velo event was 9:02:51, including the swim and transition. I think in 5 weeks at Ironman Florida (as long as I don't have any crashes or flats) I can do about the same with a similar or faster swim and transition, and about the same or slower bike leg. That will allow me a nice long 7:57 to finish the marathon! That would be 40 minutes longer than even my slowest and hottest of nine standalone marathons (in Maui, 2001). It's great to know that I should have time to walk it to the finish line if I have to! If it comes to that, I will!
This was familiar territory to us both: The exit from the transition area was just the same as Eagleman Half Ironman. We zoomed around the few corners in town monitored by policemen as if we'd been doing it every day. Then it was out onto the open highway, with nice wide shoulders and plenty of room.
Then about Mile 4 or 5 it went past a turnoff that the Eagleman course takes, and we had a 20-mile out-and-back. This was still very familiar to me, since I knew the turnaround was the very same as the little practice triathlon the good folks in Cambridge set up for us last May.
Temperatures were comfortable, I was pedaling well, keeping my heart rate way down in the "easy" zone. I felt very good about completing that swim, and though I knew it was a long day, I was feeling happy and optimistic about finishing.
Ellie zoomed past me at about 10K into the bike leg, as I expected. She's got iron legs from all those mountains she rides! Go, granny, go! I knew that aside from seeing her on the return leg of the out-and-back, I probably wouldn't see her again until after the finish line.
This was just about the time that I made my Big Tactical Error of the Day. This was yet another example of Nancy Has To Learn Things The Hard Way. All the pro triathletes and coaches say not to eat anything solid for the first 20-40 minutes of the bike leg. Stick to water and liquid nutrition. I knew that. I had read it in twenty different places, probably. But hey! I was feeling good, my legs felt great, the bike was sailing along, the sun was shining - why don't we just start our nutrition plan NOW!?
I was drinking some water from the aerobottle, of course. I recalled that 2 glasses of water that I had drunk with a gel in transition. I thought, hey, I'd better balance that out and not get short on sodium! So I took a salt capsule and kept riding.
I had eaten a lot before the race in the morning. It felt like a ton of food. A couple of hard-boiled eggs, a bagel, some peanut butter cookies, a lot of whole milk and coffee. I chugged a bottle of Ensure before the swim start to top everything off and give me some last-minute calories.
The only problem was that was over two hours in the past now. Somehow I had forgotten about all that time that passed. My stomach was completely, totally empty now except for some water. And a whole lot of salt. Which is sometimes the approach people use to induce vomiting.
Which I did.
I had that yucky watering-mouth feeling and stopped the bike just in time. I leaned over the aerobars and spewed on the edge of the pavement. I don't think it was more than a couple of minutes, but it felt like I was standing there heaving forever. Some race officials pulled up alongside in a truck and asked me if I'm okay. "Um, yeah, I'm, uh, fine, I'm just throwing up."
Funny, I haven't barfed in years. Yeah, that'll larn me. Fortunately, after I got all that salt out of my stomach, and finished kicking myself for being dumb, I felt fine and was able to start up again and keep riding. I never quite regained that happy-go-lucky confidence I felt at the start of the ride, however.
After the out-and-back the course headed out into isolated country backroads with very little traffic. Again, most of the course was familiar from Eagleman. We had a little 4-mile connector road, and then two enormous 45-mile loops to complete.
The loops were like a huge triangle - the first leg roughly southwest, the next leg roughly southeast, and then the longest leg more or less straight north, with the Cambridge-Dorchester high school and transition area at the northernmost corner.
The first two legs of the triangle headed into the wind, which was coming mostly from the south. They were slow, and fairly uneventful. I could usually keep one or two riders in sight in front of me, but that was all. The aid stations came regularly every ten miles. I usually picked up a water bottle from a volunteer at each stop (thanking them, of course!), took a big swig, squirted the rest into the aerobottle to fill it up, then squirted some on my head and tossed out the rest of the water.
I had made up a super-concentrated bottle of Gatorade and Carbo-pro to mix with water on the fly, but that didn't work so well. Mainly I ended up getting sick of the sickly-sour taste of Gatorade and ended up jettisoning most of it before the end of the day. I think I can do something similar in a smaller gel flask without the Gatorade next time.
I also carried along apricots, cashews, and Craisins in sort of my own trail mix, and ate a bit of that every 10 minutes, or else had a 1-inch piece of a Nature Valley nut bar. Sometimes I took a swig of homemade gel. I had also brought some Powerbars cut in half in ziplocks, but I only managed to get one of them down on the bike. They're just too gritty and dry.
The last leg of the triangle was awesome. It was a road I hadn't ridden before, and the first 5 miles or so were completely washboard, just as Ellie described. Something went badly wrong in that batch of asphalt, and I thought my fillings were going to come loose from my teeth. At the same time, with a strong tailwind, I was able to pick up the speed quite a bit and did most of this road in the big chainring. I wasn't using my speedometer at all during the ride, only looking at my cadence and heart rate readings to keep myself in a comfortable zone on the first bike loop.
I hit my watch timer at the end of 56 miles, or halfway. 3:36. Hmm, that's a little too slow. Maybe I've been taking it TOO easy. That's only 15.6 mph. I can do better. Keep cranking on that big old chainring like Jan Ullrich, and take it home to the transition area. And this was not feeling like very much fun. My back hurt, my crotch hurt a LOT, my shorts were chafing, I was tired and cranky. One fast rider with a noisy disc wheel in the front of the pack lapped me toward the end of the ride and was on his way to starting his run.
We then passed through a lovely desolate section of swampy wildlife refuge (although the only wildlife that I remember were some egrets and ospreys and one live snake that I did NOT run over, thankfully) and then past a "city limits" sign. Immediately I found myself at the back of the high school. Here we are, Special Needs! Yeah, I was needy.
I stopped and rifled through the huge amount of stuff that I had packed in the bag, dropping things that the volunteer kindly picked up for me. I never dismounted from the bike once during the whole 112 miles, by the way. No flats! So thankfully I didn't need the spare inner tube and cartridge. Some of the other food I'd packed looked yucky. I took off my armwarmers and put them in the bag I would retrieve later. I pulled out a bag of Goldfish crackers and some more trail mix and an Uncrustable PB&J and headed on my way.Out past the finish line and back on the roads with the other back-of-the pack cyclists, away from the music and excitement and back to the solitude of riding my bike as fast as I could down isolated country roads. I ate some Goldfish just because I thought they would settle my stomach, and because they remind me of my daughter Elisabeth who loves them. That made me smile. But after a while I ended up sprinkling the roadside with little Goldfish for the birds, they were just too dry to eat more than a handful.
The BEST thing by far on the bike was the Uncrustable PB&J. Soft and moist and easy to eat and it even tasted okay. I think that's going to be my mainstay for these long distance rides. They're only 75 cents apiece, with 210 calories and 6 grams of protein. Go nuts.I had really been dreading the second loop. I expected it to be awful. But it really, truly wasn't! The little break at the special needs perked me up and got me going again. I was ready to go harder on the second lap, and I did. While it's true, every time I looked at my odometer and did the math to calculate the miles to the finish line, it seemed like an impossible number. Nobody could actually ride that far, especially not after the long day I'd had already. But I could keep going to the next aid station, so I did.
I worked hard to pass one woman with a 49 written on her calf, same as me, but she was actually in a different event. I continued to work to pick off other riders. I don't think anyone passed me on the second loop, and I passed perhaps 10 people. So I was pleased with that!
The final home stretch with the tailwind was great, despite the washboard road. I was cranking and knew I'd finish the day. I wasn't exactly looking forward to the same exertion on Ironman Florida day, but I knew that the distances were now within the realm of reality and weren't totally ludicrous.
Finally, after many, many miles, the high school came back within view. I rode around the last few corners and headed toward the finish line. I dimly heard Ellie cheering me on. I had to stop my bike and hold onto the shoulders of a volunteer as I dismounted, because my legs were not at all steady, but I ran a couple steps to make it over the timing mats as fast as I could.
I finished an iron-distance swim and bike. In one day. I can do this. Who would have thought it?
Total bike leg time: 6:58:50. 16.0 mph average. 112 miles on a bicycle, without dismounting once. After a 2.4-mile swim. And I rode strong negative splits on the bike leg. My dream goal for the bike leg was under 7 hours. I DID IT!! I DID IT!! I DID IT!!
My total time in the Aqua Velo event was 9:02:51, including the swim and transition. I think in 5 weeks at Ironman Florida (as long as I don't have any crashes or flats) I can do about the same with a similar or faster swim and transition, and about the same or slower bike leg. That will allow me a nice long 7:57 to finish the marathon! That would be 40 minutes longer than even my slowest and hottest of nine standalone marathons (in Maui, 2001). It's great to know that I should have time to walk it to the finish line if I have to! If it comes to that, I will!
Monday, October 02, 2006
Chesapeakeman Aqua Velo: Transition
Normally I wouldn't devote a whole blog post to the single transition in an event, but since I took nearly 12 minutes to complete it, it was like a separate event unto itself!After my happy dance for completing the swim, I nearly ran into a volunteer standing directly in my path, but it turned out he was trying to hand me my correctly-numbered bike gear bag. Then I took my bag with me into the women's side of the changing tent. I hadn't ever been to a triathlon with a changing tent before. Neither had I been to one with a little semi-circle of chairs set up inside (as if they were about to hold a little encounter group meeting) with a head table set up with water and two flavors of sports gels arrayed on it.
And HELPERS! I never imagined that there would be helpers in the tent! I didn't know how to act! One kind woman took charge of me and helped me take things out of my gear bag, asked me what I needed, and gave me two cups of water and a gel upon my request. The gel was much-needed since I was a little shaky after emerging from the long swim effort!
The helper woman also helped pack up my things again, which isn't so simple when it's a bulky dripping wetsuit. I asked her her name and she said that it was Tracy, but that I wouldn't remember. Oh yes I did! Thank you, Tracy, you were an angel!
I started blabbering about how I thought I was last out there in the swim and was so glad to be done with that leg. She looked outside and said there were still men finishing, and that if I beat any men in the swim I must have done pretty well! That was nice to hear, since I really had no idea that there were actually at least 17 swimmers that arrived after me.
I asked her the temperature outside - I couldn't really judge, in between wearing my hot wetsuit and being soaking wet from the swim and warm from the exertion. She said it was about 60 degrees, so I was happy to put on my cycling armwarmers and full-fingered throwaway gloves over my fingerless cycling gloves. I also pulled on a cycling jersey and dry cycling shorts.
Just as I was finishing up with putting on my cycling shoes Ellie came in the door! I was truly surprised! I really thought that she would be long gone by the time I got to transition. We had a cheerful little encounter group session after all, and then I ducked out the opposite door, headed for the porta-potty, and peed like a racehorse, which probably took at least 3 or 4 minutes right there.
Then it was time to get my bike Buttercup! I checked the tires before I unracked her (after my bad experience riding out of Eagleman transition in that very location with a flat), but all was well this day. I trotted out of the teensy transition area, which amazingly still held a dozen bikes, mounted up and we were on our way.
"Hurrah! I get to ride my bike now!"
Unsportsmanlike conduct
This is a side story from Chesapeakeman last Saturday - it didn't really affect my race, so I'm just posting it separately as a side note.
I was riding along a very quiet backroad about 90 miles into the bike leg, so I wasn't exactly at the top of my game right then. There were perhaps 200 competitors spread over 45 miles of road, so race officials were rarely seen.
I was coming up behind a guy (30-ish male rider who looked in decent shape) riding next to his wife or girlfriend driving a van next to him, slowly, with the windows open and the flashers on, apparently talking with him. The van was driving in the middle of the 2-lane road with no shoulder and he was riding the bike on the right edge, so effectively 3/4 of a 2-lane roadway was blocked.
I could see them continue this way for about a mile - from when they first came into view on a very flat straight road until I finally got up right behind him.
I wasn't able to figure out how to go around safely, so I had to slow down, and yelled out, "You're blocking the road!"
The cyclist yells back at me, "Hey, relax!" which I found annoying. The woman pulled the van out to the left lane (fortunately there was no oncoming traffic) and I rode my bike between the cyclist and the van.
I yelled, loud enough so both could hear, "That is *SO* against the rules! You're blocking other riders!"
He yelled something else back at me, I think, but I rode away. I didn't get his race number. The good part of the encounter was that it gave me an adrenalin boost which allowed me to pick up the pace a bit for a few miles. But I still was a bit put out by the situation.
What would you have done?
I was riding along a very quiet backroad about 90 miles into the bike leg, so I wasn't exactly at the top of my game right then. There were perhaps 200 competitors spread over 45 miles of road, so race officials were rarely seen.
I was coming up behind a guy (30-ish male rider who looked in decent shape) riding next to his wife or girlfriend driving a van next to him, slowly, with the windows open and the flashers on, apparently talking with him. The van was driving in the middle of the 2-lane road with no shoulder and he was riding the bike on the right edge, so effectively 3/4 of a 2-lane roadway was blocked.
I could see them continue this way for about a mile - from when they first came into view on a very flat straight road until I finally got up right behind him.
I wasn't able to figure out how to go around safely, so I had to slow down, and yelled out, "You're blocking the road!"
The cyclist yells back at me, "Hey, relax!" which I found annoying. The woman pulled the van out to the left lane (fortunately there was no oncoming traffic) and I rode my bike between the cyclist and the van.
I yelled, loud enough so both could hear, "That is *SO* against the rules! You're blocking other riders!"
He yelled something else back at me, I think, but I rode away. I didn't get his race number. The good part of the encounter was that it gave me an adrenalin boost which allowed me to pick up the pace a bit for a few miles. But I still was a bit put out by the situation.
What would you have done?
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Chesapeakeman Aqua Velo: The Swim
This is going to be a long report, so I'm breaking it up into pieces.The day started out perfectly! Well, aside from that 3:45AM alarm, and broken sleep the night before, but that's typical for race day. My friend Ellie and I had racked our bikes and turned over our bike gear bag already the previous night, so all we had to do in the morning was caffeinate intensely, drive 45 minutes to the bike-run transition area at Cambridge-Dorchester High School, pick up a shuttle bus over to the swim start at the Hyatt resort, drop off a bike special needs bag, put everything else with us into a post-race warmups bag, get body marked, squeeze into our wetsuits, and go!
It was my first attempt at swimming the 2.4-mile distance in any setting - pool or open water. It was also my first attempt at riding 112 miles on the bike continuously. The day was planned as one of learning and discovery. Having worked up to it over the last year or two, I was fairly certain I could do one or the other distance on a good day. Putting them both together on one day would be a huge challenge.
SWIM.
The swim was a point-to-point, 2.4 miles down the tidal Choptank River, which is filled with stinging sea nettles (jellyfish) this time of year. I was concerned about the distance, I was concerned about my endurance, but especially I was concerned about the sea nettles. I had planned to slather on Vaseline on any exposed skin.Fortunately Ellie found a couple of women who offered to share their "Safe-Sea Sting Lotion". It has the consistency of Elmer's Glue. We slathered it on our faces, hands, and feet. It turned our faces white as mimes for a few minutes, then seemed to sink in to the skin and disappear.
Winds were blessedly nearly calm, and water temperature was favorable - 69*F, which is very comfortable in a wetsuit. At 7AM sharp the gun went off and we set off into the Choptank.
The first leg was a couple hundred yards to get out of the beach area enclosure formed by a couple of jetties. Just that segment seemed to take a long time, and I knew this would be a long swim. Only 200 swimmers or so - I had a couple leg and arm bumps with other swimmers on the way out, but everyone was civilized about it and just spread out and kept swimming. It's a very wide river. There was plenty of room for all of us.
Okay, try to settle into a rhythm, 6 or 7 strokes and sight, repeat about a thousand times. The mid-point of the swim was going under the center of the 1.6-mile-long Choptank River Bridge. It was far off in the distance when we began, but after we emerged from the harbor area and rounded the first orange buoy I started to be able to sight the yellow buoy nearer the bridge, still far off in the distance.
Swim, swim, swim, for about an eternity. Concentrate on your form. Keep your rhythm. Sing songs to yourself. I started on "American Pie" just because it's a long song, but when I came to the part, "This will be the day that I die" - uhhhh, no, that won't do at all. I decided to try to think of something else, but never really did.
Finally I look up and the bridge seems to be about 3 pool lengths away. Okay, do 25 strokes 3 times and you're there.
Stroke, stroke, stroke. Count them out in my head. I get those done and look up again. It's the SAME distance away. Damn! I haven't gotten any closer at all. Do it again, 75 strokes. Same distance. It kept receding into the distance. I repeated that about ten times before I finally actually got anywhere near the bridge.
Finally I'm there. First I go past the open end of the old bridge, now used for fishing, and see a few people watching us way down in the water beneath them. We must look like seals out here. Keep swimming under the main bridge. Somehow I seem to be stuck underneath it. It should only take 20 or 30 strokes to cover that distance, but I seem to be swimming underneath the bridge span for nearly forever. Oh, great, I'm caught in the current. No solution but to swim harder. I'm already swimming pretty darned hard. This is starting to be not so much fun. The bridge is the halfway point where I was hoping to crank it up a notch, but there are no notches left to crank.
Finally I make it under the bridge span under clear skies again. My "reward" is to sneak a peek at my watch. 53 minutes. Ugh! Nearly an hour already. 5 to 10 minutes longer than I had been hoping. I kept swimming and started doing the math in my head. If that's halfway, the best I can do right now is double that which is 106 minutes which is . . . it took me a while longer to work out the advanced math in my befuddled mind, but I finally figure out it's at least 1:46. Oh well, there goes my dream goal for the swim, it's not happening today.
Ouch! That's a sting beside my right goggle! Not too bad. Then I realize that I haven't had any stings anywhere else. That lotion must really be working! Every so often my hand hits a sea nettle and goes through the tentacles like strands of soggy spaghetti suspended in the water. It's a little unnerving, but I never get any other stings. I go through a few thicker patches of sea nettles, where I see their ghostly white round bodies flow past my face underwater. Creepy evil ectoplasm things. With some mental effort I ignore them, except now and then when I feel my fingers combing through slimy ribbons of tentacles.
Around this time I stop seeing other swimmers around me, except a few caps in the water in the far distance ahead. I start thinking that I'm probably last in the water. The buoys are very far apart and difficult to sight, also. There are lifeguards in escort boats and jetskis, but they're all at quite a long ways away, too. The nearest shore is at least 8/10ths of a mile away. My mind starts to go to wondering if I had trouble, would anyone even see me? Shudder. I can't think things like that.
Let's think about something else. Be positive. OK, I'm over halfway done. If I were doing the Chesapeake Bay crossing swim, I'd be less than one-third done. It could be worse, right? The waves are increasing a bit. Oh, please stay calm. Think positive. It's much, much less rough than the Eagleman swim that went along this same stretch. Hmm, I remember that swim seemed to go on forever too, but you finished it, eventually.
My biggest problem in this stretch was lapsing into negative thinking. I struggled to pull myself out of it. I'm starting to feel tired and not having fun. I'm not liking this, not at all. I try to divert myself - what could be nicer than a leisurely long swim in a nice open river on a beautiful day? The sun is shining, the temperatures are perfect, a gorgeous skein of Canada geese flies overhead in an immense V against the sky . . . ack! I'm being pulled off course again! Am I sighting that badly? I've been pushed through the buoy line again by the current. Correct my direction, swim to the right again.
This is never going to end. I've been immersed in some kind of jellyfish purgatory. I'll be swimming here forever. No, there's a buoy ahead. Just swim to the buoy. You can make it just that far. Go to the buoy.
Hooray! I have a little personal celebration each time I go past a buoy. There's a lovely neon yellow milestone. Take a good long look at it, because it's going to be a long time before you see another one. The next buoy is a faint yellow dot on the watery horizon. And there's several more dim yellow specks of them in a line after that. An eternity to go.
I'm bored. I'm tired. I'm not liking this much. I'm thinking that I'm WAY last, no one else is still in the water, everyone else is already ten miles down the bike course, the volunteers have pulled up the timing mats and forgotten about me way out here. Get a grip. Shut it out and keep swimming. I'm trying to find diversions for myself, to occupy my mind, but there aren't many out in the middle of a huge river with nobody around. That's why they call it endurance. Just keep swimming. Get it over with.
Eventually after several interminable eons I finally get to the orange buoy which marks the final turn toward the landing. Nirvana! I swim in toward the beckoning markers and finally stumble up the concrete ramp. There's a fireman spraying emerging swimmers with a hose so I do a little twirl then to get rinsed off. I catch a glimpse of the clock: 1:52.
I go over the timing mats and past some applauding spectators. I do a little happy dance. "Longest swim ev-ah! Longest swim ev-ah!" I'm amazed that I'm finally here. It felt like I'd never see dry land again.
Official Aqua Velo results are up!
SWIM 2.4 miles: 1:52:11 (2:39/100 yards) (8/11 women)
SWIM TO BIKE TRANSITION: 11:51 (10/11 women)
BIKE 112 miles: 6:58:50 (16.0 mph average) (8/11 women)
FINISH: 9:02:51 (10/11 women)
Yes, a lot of the swim times were on the slow side! What is especially encouraging to me is that there were at least 17 swimmers that came out of the water after me, over 8% of the 212+ starters in an iron-distance swim. (I know at least one woman was pulled from the water after the cutoff.) When I was in the water I couldn't really tell if I was last or not, because I could rarely see any other swimmers except in the far distance ahead of me. I guess I'm not such a weak swimmer any more!! That's highly encouraging progress!
Doing a little math, I also figured out that if I was swimming yesterday at the same speed as I did in the pool last Wednesday - and I think that's not too unlikely, aided by the wetsuit - I effectively covered an extra half mile in the waters of the Choptank by veering off course repeatedly. Or being pushed off course by the current. Or that much extra water passed by me during the swim from the current. Or a combination of the three.
Sheesh, how could I be 8th in both disciplines, yet drop to 10th overall? Oh, yeah, the women with slower swims had sizzling bike legs, and the women with slower bike times had unreal fast swim times. Figures. Me, I muddle through the whole thing at a steady-eddie pace to make it to the finish line. Of course, it doesn't help to spend several minutes of transition time chit-chatting with volunteers and competitors, does it?
Aqua Velo results
Swim Fest results
Full Chesapeakeman results
Recovery day
I was hoping to do a long run today, but as it turns out, I'm SICK! Sore throat the night before the race and the night after. Last night I felt pretty yucky. I'm hoping it was only the cold Elisabeth decided to bring home from school, rather than race-day nutrition problems.
Yesterday's weather for the Aqua Velo race was a little different from predictions.
Temperature 44*F to 68*F - check. Excellent.
Water temperature 69*F. Excellent.
Average humidity 71%. Excellent for that area, surrounded by water.
Winds - increasing throughout the day to 12 mph with gusts to 16 mph? That was not part of the plan!! Fortunately it was from the south, which gave us a strong tailwind on the final twenty miles of the course. Big chainring all the way home, baby!! That was a great help!
I'll work on a report when I regain some energy, which is not yet. Ellie, however, is out doing her long run. . . .
Yesterday's weather for the Aqua Velo race was a little different from predictions.
Temperature 44*F to 68*F - check. Excellent.
Water temperature 69*F. Excellent.
Average humidity 71%. Excellent for that area, surrounded by water.
Winds - increasing throughout the day to 12 mph with gusts to 16 mph? That was not part of the plan!! Fortunately it was from the south, which gave us a strong tailwind on the final twenty miles of the course. Big chainring all the way home, baby!! That was a great help!
I'll work on a report when I regain some energy, which is not yet. Ellie, however, is out doing her long run. . . .
Saturday, September 30, 2006
We finished Chesapeakeman Aqua Velo!
Weather was beautiful and we finished the course, completing the first two legs of an Ironman; the inaugural edition of the only iron-distance aqua-bike in existence!*
As always, Ellie rocked the course - I won't steal her thunder, though, I'll let her tell her own story.
Too tired for a report right now, and no official times or placements yet, but my watch times were:
Swim (2.4 miles): 1:52 (some currents slowed us all down in a point-to-point swim in a tidal river)
Transition: Long - about 12 minutes
First half bike (56 miles): 3:36
Second half bike (56 miles): 3:22
Total bike (112 miles): ~6:58
Finish: 9:02
So I finished everything well under the cutoffs! Yay! But I'm just as glad I didn't have to follow it up with a marathon - at least not today!!
*Update: I've been corrected on this! Vineman has had a full aqua bike for a couple of years now.
As always, Ellie rocked the course - I won't steal her thunder, though, I'll let her tell her own story.
Too tired for a report right now, and no official times or placements yet, but my watch times were:
Swim (2.4 miles): 1:52 (some currents slowed us all down in a point-to-point swim in a tidal river)
Transition: Long - about 12 minutes
First half bike (56 miles): 3:36
Second half bike (56 miles): 3:22
Total bike (112 miles): ~6:58
Finish: 9:02
So I finished everything well under the cutoffs! Yay! But I'm just as glad I didn't have to follow it up with a marathon - at least not today!!
*Update: I've been corrected on this! Vineman has had a full aqua bike for a couple of years now.
It's showtime!
Ellie and I are just about to leave for Chesapeakeman!
Current weather outside:
ZERO WIND!
46*F, 100% humidity.
Wind is supposed to stay under 6 mph through 8PM tonight.
THIS IS GREAT!!!!
I caught myself actually thinking (and saying) yesterday that I wished I was doing the full distance - with that little 26.2-mile run tacked on afterwards. Does that mean I might actually be ready for this monster?
No live updates today - this is a wonderful small event and the RD (Vigo) says he hopes to keep it that way. We're taking all your kind good wishes with us and will report back this evening on how the day went, 114.4 miles from now. (Actually 114.8, the bike course is 0.4 long).
LET'S ROCK AND ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Current weather outside:
ZERO WIND!
46*F, 100% humidity.
Wind is supposed to stay under 6 mph through 8PM tonight.
THIS IS GREAT!!!!
I caught myself actually thinking (and saying) yesterday that I wished I was doing the full distance - with that little 26.2-mile run tacked on afterwards. Does that mean I might actually be ready for this monster?
No live updates today - this is a wonderful small event and the RD (Vigo) says he hopes to keep it that way. We're taking all your kind good wishes with us and will report back this evening on how the day went, 114.4 miles from now. (Actually 114.8, the bike course is 0.4 long).
LET'S ROCK AND ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Finger length
Quick, which is longer - your ring finger or index finger?
If your ring finger is longer, you're more athletic.
Mine, of course, is the wrong way around. Actually, they're about even in length.
BUT! My daughter Catherine (who LOVES to run) has a ring finger a whole nail longer than her index finger. However, her less-athletic twin sister Elisabeth has a longer index finger.
OK, so it might be interesting for chitchat in a bar some time. . . .
If your ring finger is longer, you're more athletic.
Mine, of course, is the wrong way around. Actually, they're about even in length.
BUT! My daughter Catherine (who LOVES to run) has a ring finger a whole nail longer than her index finger. However, her less-athletic twin sister Elisabeth has a longer index finger.
OK, so it might be interesting for chitchat in a bar some time. . . .
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
The C-Man Aqua Velo plan
Plan the race, race the plan!
In my way of thinking, the race begins a week or two before the actual race. People say that they "forget" to taper, "forget" to sleep, "forget" to fuel right - which are simply acute symptoms of lack of pre-planning. It's like forgetting to train and forgetting to put air in your tires. Kinda mucks up the race, doesn't it?
Part of my plan is to use the day, especially the bike leg, as a dress rehearsal for Ironman Florida. With that in mind, I'll be taking on board a lot more calories during the bike leg than I would if I were riding like my race were actually over at the end of the bike (which it will be on September 30th - I guess I won't need much supper!). I'm also using a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in mostly "real" foods - I know from experience that works well for me on the bike as long as I'm not too overheated. Having only gels and sports drinks for 5 or 6 hours leaves me feeling shaky and irritable and with a nasty burn in my stomach, as if I had been eating candy for that entire period of time.
Here are my thoughts about the next 3 days:
Thursday: Finish packing my race bags so I don't fret about them and lose time and sleep at the last minute. I'll have four bags: 1) Swim start, 2) Bike start gear, 3) Bike special needs (mile 70), and 4) post-race. (Which will be reviewed with my packing list in hand, of course). I'll be certain to plan and get an extra-extra long night's sleep, because I usually sleep poorly the night before a race, and I don't want any accumulated sleep deprivation affecting me. Eat well and ignore the scale for a few days.
Friday: Rack the bike, attend the pre-race meeting, fuel extraordinarily well all day, and get in bed by 9PM.
Race day Saturday, pre-race nutrition: Breakfast on the 45-minute drive to the race site, probably to include a bagel, a hard-boiled egg, some V8 juice, and lots of coffee with whole milk and Gatorade. (OK, OK, I meant coffee and Gatorade separately!)
Swim: Go out at a comfortable pace, settle in for the duration, and stay relaxed. If you have extra zip, crank it up a notch after the bridge (halfway). If you get too bored, try alternating 25 strokes hard, 25 strokes moderate. Plan a few long songs for mental amusement in your mind in advance. If you hit sea nettles, pretend they're other swimmers at Ironman Florida. Enjoy the practice and the beautiful day.
Transition: Calm but brisk. Don't waste time, but don't hurry and forget anything. Smile and thank the volunteers. If you have sea nettle stings, take the extra time to treat them.
Bike, first out-and-back (to Mile 21): Settle in and maintain 145-150 bpm heart rate. Rehydrate. Start watch beeper and begin feeding plan at the 10 mile turnaround: Every 10 minutes drink and stretch and nibble some trail mix (craisins, apricots, cashews). Every 30 minutes take some gel or eat a portion of real food (half a Powerbar, half an Uncrustable PB&J, or half a Nature Valley Sweet 'n' Salty nut bar; or a piece of string cheese). This sounds like a lot, but I'm sure I'll choose to skip eating several times during the ride, too. Every 60 minutes or full water bottle (whichever comes first - it's probably going to be under 70*F and low humidity most of the ride) take 1 Succeed salt capsule. Stay on bike throughout without dismounting unless it's a dire emergency.
Bike, first loop (Mile 21 to Mile 67): Continue hydration, stretching, and feeding plan. Alternate water and Gatorade. Bring effort up slightly to 150-155 bpm heart rate. Pick up special needs bag and replenish as needed. Note downwind stretches where you might profit from going harder on the 2nd loop.
Bike, second loop (Mile 67 to Mile 112): Anticipate having a low point on this loop. Continue hydration, stretching, and feeding plan. Bring effort up very slightly to maintain 155-160 bpm heart rate through mile 95 (Maple Dam Road turn), then turn off HRM and go for broke for miles 95 through mile 112. (Note: based on weather reports, I expect that we may be picking up a tailwind at the 95-mile turn and riding it all the way to the finish. I hope.)
Finish: With nothing left. No run after the bike leg - try not to think about that long run you're doing tomorrow! Thank the volunteers and cheer on the other finishers.
Any thoughts on my plan? Recommendations?
In my way of thinking, the race begins a week or two before the actual race. People say that they "forget" to taper, "forget" to sleep, "forget" to fuel right - which are simply acute symptoms of lack of pre-planning. It's like forgetting to train and forgetting to put air in your tires. Kinda mucks up the race, doesn't it?
Part of my plan is to use the day, especially the bike leg, as a dress rehearsal for Ironman Florida. With that in mind, I'll be taking on board a lot more calories during the bike leg than I would if I were riding like my race were actually over at the end of the bike (which it will be on September 30th - I guess I won't need much supper!). I'm also using a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in mostly "real" foods - I know from experience that works well for me on the bike as long as I'm not too overheated. Having only gels and sports drinks for 5 or 6 hours leaves me feeling shaky and irritable and with a nasty burn in my stomach, as if I had been eating candy for that entire period of time.
Here are my thoughts about the next 3 days:
Thursday: Finish packing my race bags so I don't fret about them and lose time and sleep at the last minute. I'll have four bags: 1) Swim start, 2) Bike start gear, 3) Bike special needs (mile 70), and 4) post-race. (Which will be reviewed with my packing list in hand, of course). I'll be certain to plan and get an extra-extra long night's sleep, because I usually sleep poorly the night before a race, and I don't want any accumulated sleep deprivation affecting me. Eat well and ignore the scale for a few days.
Friday: Rack the bike, attend the pre-race meeting, fuel extraordinarily well all day, and get in bed by 9PM.
Race day Saturday, pre-race nutrition: Breakfast on the 45-minute drive to the race site, probably to include a bagel, a hard-boiled egg, some V8 juice, and lots of coffee with whole milk and Gatorade. (OK, OK, I meant coffee and Gatorade separately!)
Swim: Go out at a comfortable pace, settle in for the duration, and stay relaxed. If you have extra zip, crank it up a notch after the bridge (halfway). If you get too bored, try alternating 25 strokes hard, 25 strokes moderate. Plan a few long songs for mental amusement in your mind in advance. If you hit sea nettles, pretend they're other swimmers at Ironman Florida. Enjoy the practice and the beautiful day.
Transition: Calm but brisk. Don't waste time, but don't hurry and forget anything. Smile and thank the volunteers. If you have sea nettle stings, take the extra time to treat them.
Bike, first out-and-back (to Mile 21): Settle in and maintain 145-150 bpm heart rate. Rehydrate. Start watch beeper and begin feeding plan at the 10 mile turnaround: Every 10 minutes drink and stretch and nibble some trail mix (craisins, apricots, cashews). Every 30 minutes take some gel or eat a portion of real food (half a Powerbar, half an Uncrustable PB&J, or half a Nature Valley Sweet 'n' Salty nut bar; or a piece of string cheese). This sounds like a lot, but I'm sure I'll choose to skip eating several times during the ride, too. Every 60 minutes or full water bottle (whichever comes first - it's probably going to be under 70*F and low humidity most of the ride) take 1 Succeed salt capsule. Stay on bike throughout without dismounting unless it's a dire emergency.
Bike, first loop (Mile 21 to Mile 67): Continue hydration, stretching, and feeding plan. Alternate water and Gatorade. Bring effort up slightly to 150-155 bpm heart rate. Pick up special needs bag and replenish as needed. Note downwind stretches where you might profit from going harder on the 2nd loop.
Bike, second loop (Mile 67 to Mile 112): Anticipate having a low point on this loop. Continue hydration, stretching, and feeding plan. Bring effort up very slightly to maintain 155-160 bpm heart rate through mile 95 (Maple Dam Road turn), then turn off HRM and go for broke for miles 95 through mile 112. (Note: based on weather reports, I expect that we may be picking up a tailwind at the 95-mile turn and riding it all the way to the finish. I hope.)
Finish: With nothing left. No run after the bike leg - try not to think about that long run you're doing tomorrow! Thank the volunteers and cheer on the other finishers.
Any thoughts on my plan? Recommendations?
Great final swim!
I was able to run over to the YMCA today and get in one last prep swim before Chesapeakeman Aqua Velo on Saturday.
I put on my new race goggles, all ready for Saturday, and just started swimming hard. I always have a difficult time in the first 200-300 yards of a swim, and I wanted to simulate that breathless feeling in practice before the race.
Open turns, hit my watch split button with every lap, like always. First lap felt like I was swimming in place for part of the time, but whoops! 1:01 for 50 yards. Hmm, that might be a PR for me! Let's keep swimming hard and see what happens! Stroke, stroke, pull, pull.
500 yards: 10:54, or 2:10/100 yards.
Hooray! That's a new PR! Woo hoo!
If I could keep that up (and I can't, yet) that would give me a 1:32 Ironman swim. Some day, perhaps!
I got out after 1200 yards today, just enough to stay loose. Yeah, I remember when it used to be a very long swim for me, but now it's just a quick dip in the pool. I didn't want to tire out my arm muscles before race day. I quit while the quitting was good, and hopefully ensured that I didn't leave my race in the training pool.
I put on my new race goggles, all ready for Saturday, and just started swimming hard. I always have a difficult time in the first 200-300 yards of a swim, and I wanted to simulate that breathless feeling in practice before the race.
Open turns, hit my watch split button with every lap, like always. First lap felt like I was swimming in place for part of the time, but whoops! 1:01 for 50 yards. Hmm, that might be a PR for me! Let's keep swimming hard and see what happens! Stroke, stroke, pull, pull.
500 yards: 10:54, or 2:10/100 yards.
Hooray! That's a new PR! Woo hoo!
If I could keep that up (and I can't, yet) that would give me a 1:32 Ironman swim. Some day, perhaps!
I got out after 1200 yards today, just enough to stay loose. Yeah, I remember when it used to be a very long swim for me, but now it's just a quick dip in the pool. I didn't want to tire out my arm muscles before race day. I quit while the quitting was good, and hopefully ensured that I didn't leave my race in the training pool.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Declaring my intentions
This Saturday is a little prelimary exam for me prior to Ironman Florida - Chesapeakeman Aqua Velo. All the swim, all the bike, none of the run, none of the crowds, none of the travel, none of the hype. Should be a great day! Weather forecast right now looks near-perfect: Low of 57*F, high of 67*F. Hopefully calm winds (knock on wood).Bolder likes to talk about declaring one's intentions prior to race day. "Okay, Nancinator, what's it going to be?" I can almost hear him asking now. All right, I'll put it down in black and white here and make it real.
Let's go step by step. The best predictor of future performance is past performance, so I'm going to base my predictions on some of my recent race performances, and hope that I can put it all together on race day.
SWIM 2.4 miles. This is highly dependent upon winds and waves and currents in the Choptank River. They had a calm day and a tail-current last year, gifts from the tri-gods, and the slowest swim of the day was 1:29. This year the currents won't be nearly as favorable. My dream goal would be to swim happy and relaxed and come out of the water at double my watch time from Steelhead, or under 1:38:10. My baseline goal is to finish the swim within the 2:20 time limit and gain a PR for distance in open water.
Transition. I've gone through this transition area twice before, at two Eagleman half Ironman races. Once in 4:31, but I had a near-perfect bike spot at the exit gate. The previous time I came out of the water very tired and had a transition time of 7:34. I'm also planning on changing into dry bike shorts and cycling jersey in transition, which may add a bit of time. I'll call it closer to the latter time and set a transition goal of under 6:50.
BIKE 112 miles. This is a pancake-flat course, but the winds can wreak havoc on your time. Doubling my time on the Eagleman course in June, minus the time I spent filling the flat, would give me a time of 7:04:30. With about 1100 miles on the bike deposited in the Bank of Ironman since that day, I think I can do better - and my pace on a hilly 56-mile course in August (until I flatted) was better than that too. I'm going to call my dream goal a sub-7:00 bike leg, which works out very neatly to a 16.0 mph average pace. My baseline goal is to finish the bike within the 10:00 combined time limit, and gain a PR for race distance on the bike. Assuming I'm out of transition in 2 hours, this will allow me about 8 hours on the bike leg or a minimum pace of 14.0 mph.
Total finishing time:
- Dream goal: under 8:45 (before 3:45 PM).
- Baseline goal: finish under the 10:00 cutoff (before 5:00 PM).
In the next day or two I'll write up and post my race plan, the method to my madness that is going to make the dream goal a few notches closer to reality.
Monday, September 25, 2006
My big girl
For those who have asked about Elisabeth's progress in school - thanks for being interested! She's gradually getting used to the idea, I think.Today began her second week of preschool. When we were dropping her off she whimpered for a little while when we arrived, which I think is really just her way of expressing a bit of anxiety. When Teacher came to get her, Elisabeth stopped whimpering and took her hand and marched off into the school without a backwards glance!
Later, a conversation that I had with Catherine in the car:
Me: "We're going to go pick up Elisabeth, and then go home."
Catherine, repeating back to me as if to confirm: "Go get Wizbit, then go playground."
Me: "Nice try, but uh, no, that is NOT what I said."
Then when we picked up Elisabeth, she always looks a little tired and dazed (see photo), but she did manage to wave goodbye at her teacher today. That's a first!
I think she'll do fine. It still cracks me up to see my big girl walking around underneath her oversized backpack, all 33 inches of her.
We did the same homework all 5 days last week. Today she made a coloring book and we'll review the new vocabulary words in it tonight. Nose to the grindstone, burning the midnight oil, and all that.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Mommy radar
Usually my Mommy Radar works pretty well to detect disruptions in the ionosphere around the house, but today I think it was broken or something. After Catherine "helped" me work on my bike (I cleaned the bike for my next race and took an extra link out of the chain which is always a messy job, "GET YOUR HANDS OFF THAT RIGHT NOW CATHERINE!"), she decided to amuse herself by taking everything out of the medicine cabinet.
Fortunately I had already recently relocated all the dangerous stuff out of reach in the other newly installed cabinets. (Yes, she picked out that outfit herself. Her mother doesn't dress her THAT funny.)
Fortunately I had already recently relocated all the dangerous stuff out of reach in the other newly installed cabinets. (Yes, she picked out that outfit herself. Her mother doesn't dress her THAT funny.)
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Weekend chores
I may not be getting much training done this weekend, but I'm getting a few things done around the house. First job was re-painting the trim around the back door. The wood was starting to rot around the door, because there's no overhang and the rain tends to get driven against the door frame. I did some temporary filling with plastic wood and then painted it. The framing really should be replaced, but we'll do that next year after the winter damage is finished.
Then I finished up installing some much-needed storage in the bathroom. I bought these at Home Decorators online and assembled them today. Pretty exciting, eh? In a house as small as ours, we need to use every nook and cranny we can find for storage.
Then the babysitter cancelled for tomorrow. Bah! Not sure what I'll do then, tomorrow, but it may involve setting up the bike on the trainer while I cheer on Ironman Sarah Reinertsen in Amazing Race.
Then I finished up installing some much-needed storage in the bathroom. I bought these at Home Decorators online and assembled them today. Pretty exciting, eh? In a house as small as ours, we need to use every nook and cranny we can find for storage.
Then the babysitter cancelled for tomorrow. Bah! Not sure what I'll do then, tomorrow, but it may involve setting up the bike on the trainer while I cheer on Ironman Sarah Reinertsen in Amazing Race.
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