Ironman Lake Placid, Part 1

My intention last year was to blog my training for IMLP. It just didn't happen. Training for an Ironman, working full-time, taking care of family obligations (not always in that order, I hope), just ate up all of my time. If I did have a few free hours, I tried to sleep. No kidding, I barely remember last year. I'm making a promise to myself that I will blog my next Ironman. For now, I will just do my best to recall my training and the race.
When I signed up for IMLP, I knew of one regular training partner who was also doing the race. My friend, Bob, who is 20 years older than me (I'll let you do the math), and who had been a regular training partner for a couple of years, was giving the race another shot. He had raced it three times prior to last year. Turns out, much to my happy surprise, at least seven other people I knew had also signed up. This meant it was possible to have a few people to train with, commiserate with, and just generally support each other on this journey. We started out riding together quite a bit through the fall of 2014. We also ran together a lot through the winter, and occasionally met for swim workouts. We had a pretty mild winter during '14-'15, and I recall that I only did four runs on the treadmill, which is amazing for this part of the country (upstate NY, just 45 miles from Lake Placid). I truly believe that not spending a lot of time on the treadmill really helped me break out of the never-ending running injury cycle. A bunch of us did the Octoberfest Half Marathon in Peru, NY in the fall of 2014 as part of our base-building. A couple of guys from the group, Dan and Jeff are both faster runners than me, but were both battling injuries and de-training. They heard me mention that I'd like to PR at this race, so they ran with me and paced me to a 1:48:01 finish. I knew nothing about the NYC Marathon, so when they told me I could qualify with my time, I thought they were kidding. Dan had a deferral from the previous year, so we decided to sign up for 2015 when it opened. Dan and I also signed up to do the Naples Half Marathon in January--Dan has a condo in the area, and my step-son lives nearby. It was a fun, quick trip during MLK weekend in January 2015. About 2000 people do this race every year. There are cash prizes for pros, masters and five-deep in age groups. The chip-timing system crashed, and it was an incredibly humid day. But, it was fun to race on the course with the Kenyans, and it was Florida in January! No complaints. I finished sixth in my age group, and only missed my PR by two minutes.
Official Ironman training started about the third week of January. As always, I used a Joe Friel training plan. I purchased and uploaded his 140.6 Base, and then Build, Peak and Taper plans to my Training Peaks account. Outdoor riding ended by late October, and it was indoors on the trainer with Spinervals and TrainerRoad. I had read about a new web-based riding app built on a gaming platform, called Zwift. Zwift was in beta during the winter and spring of 2015, and I used it a few times to break up the boredom of indoor riding. As the slowest swimmer in the group, I only joined them occasionally for group swims at the pool. I was about a 2:17/100m swimmer heading into Ironman training. I was getting a lot of advice as to how to fix my stroke and gain speed, and while it was all well-intentioned, it had the opposite effect. Swimming 2.4 miles in open water with 2500 others athletes was basically my scariest nightmare, and one I had voluntarily signed up for. I desperately wanted to improve my swim, but trying to incorporate all the advice had the opposite effect, and this was a huge source of frustration for me. I eventually just focused on being sure I could do the distance and have a reasonable estimate of what my swim time would be. My plan was to swim two loops in Mirror Lake in the summer of 2014 to set a baseline and to Just. Do. It. and get it out of my head. It didn't happen, but I did swim 13 or 14 3500m plus swims in the pool, and I did one 2-loop swim in Mirror Lake a couple of weeks before the race.

Bob, Dan and me about to do our first open water swim in Mirror Lake. I look less than excited.

We vacationed in Florida in April that year. My friend, Dan and his wife were there for the first few days of our stay, and I rented a bicycle from Naples Cyclery. Dan and I rode a few times in Naples together, then I did a couple of rides there and in my step-son's neighborhood on my own. I also got a lot of running in, of course. Flat, beautiful weather, and my step-son's gated community is huge, with lots of wide streets to run in. The swimming didn't go as well. FGCU is only about 10 minutes away, and for a few bucks you can swim in their pools. They have a 25-yard practice/warmup pool, and a 50-meter competition pool, which is sometimes set up crossways with short course lanes. That year, they had some maintenance issues and the pool was closed. I had to make do with the small pool at the local L A Fitness gym (I think it was 20 yards), and my step-son's 10-yard backyard pool. I did 100 laps in that pool one day.
Once I was back from Florida, training was in full swing. I did several bike rides in the 70-80 mile range. I only did one 100 mile ride. It was one I will always remember. It was a Saturday morning early in June. I was meeting Bob and Dan at a park about 10 minutes away. We were riding to Lake Placid and back, so some of the ride would be on the race course. I was almost at the park and was stopped by a sheriff's deputy. She had a pump shotgun at the ready. I was clearly going for a bike ride, dressed in a tri kit, with my bike strapped to the rack on back of my Outback. She took a quick look through my windows and waved me on. When I got to the park, the guys, who came from the opposite direction, commented that they had been stopped by New York State Troopers. Same experience, quick look in the car and waved on. We agreed they were looking for someONE, not someTHING. As close as we are to the Canadian border, drug smuggling is not unheard of. But there were no dogs, and no detailed search for hidden contraband in our vehicles. I jokingly said, "You don't think someone escaped from Dannemora, do you?" Dannemora prison was about eight miles away, and no convict had ever escaped from inside the prison. Until that day. Now, wouldn't you think since we were clearly going to be riding our bikes nearby (on some pretty isolated back roads) they might have mentioned that we should be careful, or alert, or something? Nope. Not a word. We geared up and off we went. As we made our way over the isolated back roads to Lake Placid, we noted NYS Police choppers flying overhead. When we got to Wilmington, Bob (who knows and/or talks to everyone) asked a state trooper at the store we stopped at what was going on. The trooper told us that two convicts had escaped from Dannemora and were at large. I suppose we weren't really in any danger. A tri bike wouldn't make a very good escape vehicle. Still, we had money and cell phones, and Dannemora is a maximum security facility. There aren't any "good" inmates there. We made it home safely, but the next three weeks were spent finding partners for every ride and run, going through checkpoints every time I left home, having law enforcement guarding my school, and even having school cancelled a couple of days because the buses couldn't get through the road blocks. Hard to sleep with the choppers with infrared sensors crisis-crossing over my house all night. The third weekend of June I went to Syracuse to do the 70.3 again. It was a relief to sleep without hearing choppers all night, but on the way home, we got into a convoy of cars leaving Malone and headed to Plattsburgh pretty late at night. Of course, our luck, we were in the middle of law enforcement leaving Owl's Head after the convicts were spotted in the area (one was shot and killed; the other was shot and wounded and taken into custody). Did I mention they were both murderers? Yeah.

It was comforting having a Trooper outside my classroom, not knowing where the escaped convicts were.

 The only other item of note was that I tweaked my left calf on a run in Lake Placid on River Road sometime in April. We had gone up to get the bikes tuned up at Placid Planet. Dan and I were running, with my husband trailing along somewhere in the car. I was running in the dirt off the side of the road, which was still very soft from the spring thaw. Sharp snap and I couldn't even walk. We were almost at the end of River Road, so it was a good thing my husband was nearby, because I had to call him to come and get me. There was no way I was running, or even walking back to town. Of course, that messed with my head in a major way. I wasn't able to run for a few weeks, and by the time the race came, I had only done one long run of 16 miles. As I said many times that year, if you ever want time to fly by, sign up for a race you're convinced you'll never be ready for. Before I knew it, it was July. Stay tuned...

Try, Tri Again

Wow, my last post was almost two years ago. I will say that it means I had an incredibly busy two years...almost all good, some not so good, all time-consuming to the point that my blog wasn't even in the car, much less taking a back seat. Here are the highlights, and I'll try to write separate posts about some of them:
In July, 2014, I volunteered for IMLP again, and this time I signed up for the race. I actually went for the race-ready package, Syracuse 70.3/IMLP 2015, on the Friday before IMLP. Then, I started training. I found a group of about six local friends who had also signed up. We often trained together; we always supported each other.
I ran a few local running races through the fall/spring 2014/2015 as part of my training. I ran the Octoberfest Half in Peru, NY and PRed. It was also a qualifying time for my age group for the NYC Marathon, and so I signed up in January 2015. I did a half marathon in Naples, FL in January 2015. Actually had a decent finishing time, considering how hot and humid the day was. The chip timing system failed, and I unofficially finished sixth AG, just out of the money. Literally. Huge race with pros from Kenya, and there are cash prizes for the first five places in each age group. I highly recommend this race if you get the chance. Planned to run the local Plattsburgh Half in the spring, but got the flu and was running a fever race day, so I had to bail.

My friend, Dan, and me before the sweltering humidty of Naples Half Marathon.

Meanwhile, I started Ironman training in January 2015. I planned to do Syracuse 70.3 as part of my training. I also signed up to do the Lake George Olympic again in early September. NYC was November 1st, and I foolishly signed up to do the Mohawk Hudson Marathon in mid-October. A training partner had signed up to try to qualify for Boston, and I thought it would be "fun" to go and give it a shot. Less than two months after IMLP. Three weeks before NYC. Clearly, I was delusional, but more on that later.
I have mostly used Joe Friel's training plans, and Ironman would be no exception. IMLP was the "A" race. Any other race would be folded into the training plan with maybe a few taper days before, and a rest day or two after. Syracuse 70.3 was five weeks before IMLP, and I did want to do well. My first attempt there the year before netted me a surprising 4th place spot on the podium, with a time of 6:07. For 2015, I really wanted to break six hours if I could. Race day started cloudy and muggy, if I remember correctly. I had a late wave start, around 8:00 a.m. The swim went ok, no horrible calf cramps this time, and a four minute PR over last year. I did catch my second toe of my right foot on something as I was running to transition and rolled the toe. I remember thinking that that was not good, but promptly forgot about it. Bike was similar to 2014, a two minute PR, I believe. The run is freaking hilly, and I'd had to have a cortisone shot in my hip just days before the race the year before, so 2015 definitely should've been better. And it was. The toe did hurt a little, but I'd forgotten what I'd done, and just dismissed it until after the race. Six minute PR on the run, and I finished in 5:55! Very happy with that result, and I felt like I was legit, that 2014 wasn't a fluke. Good enough for 5th place. A bad thunderstorm rolled in about an hour after I finished, and they pulled people from the course (2nd time this has happened, that race is cursed). If you were on your second run loop, they gave you a finishing time; if you weren't, you got a DNF. 2015 Worlds were in Austria, and because of the storm, there was no slot sign-up or awards ceremony. We were mailed our awards, and the slot roll-down was done via email. It came to me, but I turned it down. Wasn't going to happen for a variety of reasons (money, work, other races, etc).

 

 IMLP will be a separate post, as will NYC Marathon. They deserve it. In 2014, I had signed up to do the Lake George Olympic again, went down the night before, everything going really well. Race morning, on the beach in my wetsuit, and I have an episode of SVT (supra ventricular tachycardia). I've had it pretty much my whole life, always inconvenient, but this was the worst timing. No way was I going into the water that way, so my swim wave went off without me and I walked to the ambulance. Long story short, I had to get an adenosine push to be cardioverted, and I spent a good chunk of the day in the Glens Falls Hospital. I had purchased the insurance, so I did get my race fee back. In 2015, I was back, and this time had an uneventful race all around (Other than badly spraining my ankle six days before the race on a trail run.). I missed my PR by just a few seconds, but it was good enough for 2nd place AG.

Lake George. I'm starting to handle the swim much better.

My son's girlfriend, Sam, and me after Lake George. Sam has become a regular training partner.

October was the Mohawk Hudson marathon, and that's where the summer of fun came to a screeching halt. I had continued to run train through September and October, but had no idea what I was getting into. I had never run 26.2 miles before IMLP. My run time was 4:37, not too bad. The BQ time for my age group is 4:10, so I thought, what the hell? Bad mistake. If I remember correctly, there wasn't a 4:10 pace group. A pacer at the expo the day before advised that I go out with the next slowest group, and try to negatively split (MH is a net downhill race, and most of the elevation loss is in the second half). I didn't listen, and instead, went out with the next fastest group. The pacer for that group had a wild hair; I think we should've been doing around 9:15 miles, and he was doing sub-9's and just over 9 for the first 7-8 miles. My gut started griping, and I used a port-a-pot stop as an excuse to drop off the group, and try to get my own pace going. That worked ok for a few miles, then the gut started in again, and I had to dash into the woods. Around mile 17-18 there is a crazy long downhill. I want to say, for the record, downhill running needs to be practiced in training. I had done six months of training to run up the hills of Jamesville Park and Lake Placid, and it did not translate. Flat and downhill running takes a toll on the legs, and by mile 20, I knew I was in big trouble. By mile 21, my IT bands were seizing up, and slower pace groups were passing me. By mile 24, I was walking. The finish line photos, which I did not buy, show me running/limping sideways, about to tip over. I believe my time was 4:29, a PR, but it was ugly. Fortunately, NYC was a bit of a redemption, but that is a later post.




Ironman 70.3 Syracuse, Part II

Who sleeps the night before a big race? I think I managed an hour here and there. We were told at the athlete's meeting to arrive early, and I set my alarm for 3:45 a.m. My brother lives about 10 minutes away from the Syracuse race venue, but we had been warned about traffic jams and difficulty parking, so we planned to be there by 4:30. We needn't have worried. Light traffic and plenty of parking. I quietly made some coffee and a toasted English muffin with peanut butter at my brother's, and managed to choke it down. My nephews made posters that they left out for me on the kitchen bar. That really started my day out on a nice note. Before my hip flared up, I really thought I could finish this race in about six hours, but I didn't tell anyone that. Officially, I just wanted to finish, since it was my first half-iron distance race. I was hoping to finish the swim in under 50 minutes, thought I could do about 3:10 on the bike and around two hours for the half marathon. If I could cut a few minutes off of a couple of those splits to allow for transitions, I thought it was doable. After the hip issue, even with the injection, I knew the run would take me longer. It's a very hilly course. Of course, I also had to get the nutrition right and not have any mechanicals on the bike.

My posters from Sam and Gabe.

Once we arrived at the race venue and parked, we sat in the car for a bit and I dozed. I headed to transition around 5:45. Getting my transition area set up and talking to people (in the port-a-pot line, usually), helps to settle my nerves and get me focused on the race. I had a gel, got my wetsuit on and headed to the beach. I did a quick warm-up swim, then chatted with a couple of friends from home who were also racing. Interestingly, there were some serious looking suits with earpieces and sunglasses hanging around the swim start. Turns out, the Prince of Bahrain was also racing. The pro men started at 7:00 a.m., followed by the pro women, followed by the 18-25 and over 55 women. I was in the third swim wave. Jamesville Reservoir is somewhat similar to Mirror Lake in size and depth. The water is a little murkier and there are some weeds in the shallow water at the start (which don't bother me). The water was 69 degrees, but felt warmer. I was so nervous at the start, I was almost in tears, but when we got our start, I did a few Tarzan strokes to find some clear water, then started swimming. I was fine for the first few minutes, but had a moment of panic out of nowhere and for no good reason. I rolled over on my back and took a few deep breaths, then started swimming again, and was okay. I love the big, bright, numbered buoys that Ironman uses. My goggles fogged up almost immediately, but I was still able to sight the first few buoys. They were getting worse, and I noticed a kayak to my left, so I stopped to clear my goggles. The girl offered me a drink of water, which was nice. I asked her where the turn buoy was, and she pointed to a spot about 20 feet behind me! Yes! I just made the turn before I was overtaken by women and men from the waves after me. Got kicked once and got my arm tangled up with some guy who dragged me underwater. I managed to disentangle myself and swam off to the left to find clear water. I ticked the return buoys off and picked my head up to sight the swim exit at the last buoy, and both of my calves cramped up. I shouted for help, and a kayaker started to make her way to me. I tread water for a few seconds while I flexed my feet, and the cramps eased before she got to me. I waved her off and swam in. My watch showed exactly 50 minutes. I had said before the race that if I wasn't out of the water in 50 minutes, I was having a bad swim. Not a great swim, but just about what I expected. Wetsuit strippers are awesome, just want to say. I wish every triathlon had them. Two women stripped my suit off and handed it to me, and I made the long run to transition. 

Mother and daughter tri-duo, Sandy and Erin Rasco.

I made a fairly quick transition, just over five minutes. I was close to the bike-out, which was nice, but a long way from the run in from the beach. I had my Garmin 910XT on my wrist for the whole race (which I managed to not screw up, for once), and I also had my Garmin 500 on my bike, so I would be able to watch my power numbers. The bike leg seemed to go quickly. I followed my plan of attacking the early hills. I kept a close eye on my power and tried not to let it go much over 200 watts (my 20 min time trial power was 185). I was passing a lot of people on those hills, and just tried to make those passes quickly. The officials on the motos were active and visible the whole race, and I didn't see any egregious drafting. I had cut up two Bonk Breakers bars into 40-60 calorie chunks, and I made sure to eat a chunk every 20-30 minutes. I also had three bottles of Heed and drained a bottle every hour. Once I was through the first 25 miles, the last 30 did not disappoint. They were fast and fun. I switched to a gel when I hit the 2:30 mark. About mile 54, there is a no-pass zone where the bike and run courses share one lane of the road. Of course, one guy passed me. There's always one. The zone lasted about a mile, and once out of it, I shifted to an easier gear and spun out the last mile to loosen up my legs. I turned towards transition and checked my Garmin, 2:58! I was stunned and thrilled! Under three hours, I executed my plan perfectly, and I felt good. T2 was much quicker, 2+ minutes. I did a quick stop for sunscreen, and headed out.

 Beautiful backdrop. I have no recollection of this body of water.

The run is two loops, the first and last mile on grass within the park. A good climb going out to the road, but the serious climb is about half-way into the loop. It's a very steep and long hill that flattens out at the top, then goes back up again to the turn around. I was feeling good and determined not to walk, so I held back a little on the first loop. I brought my small handheld bottle with me. I walked every aid station and grabbed two cups--one to drink and one to dump. It was starting to get warm. It was a sunny day, but thankfully, most of the run course is in the shade. I also grabbed a gel about every half hour or so. I completed the first loop in 1:07, and now I knew what to expect. I was still feeling good, so I decided to pick up the pace. My hip started to tighten up about mile 8, but it never got any worse. I ran the big hill again, if you could call it running. I passed a lot of walkers, but one of them caught me as soon as the road flattened. He and I played tag like this the rest of the race, and we'd laugh as we'd pass each other. I think he had a better strategy than I did. We got to the last hill before the park and he was now running. He told me to jump on his heels, which I did, but I couldn't hold his pace. It was okay, because I was pushing about as hard as I could, and we still had about a mile to go. I was starting to suffer, but I didn't want to ease off. Now, I wanted it over with. I saw the finish chute, and some guy had his hand out, so I ran over and high-fived him, then crossed the line. Someone handed me my finisher's medal, and I went from ear-to-ear grinning to bent over and crying. The finish line clock said 6:12. When I stopped my watch, I had 6:06 and change. I was ecstatic! Bad hip and all, and I had finished my first 70.3 in just over six hours. I found out later when I saw my splits that I had negatively split the run, clocking 1:03 for the second loop. I grabbed some water (I can never eat right after a race), and found my husband. He had followed me on IronTrac, but wasn't sure what all the numbers meant. I looked at my stats, and that's when I learned that I had finished 4th in my age group. Ironman awards the top five spots in each age group, which meant I was staying for the awards ceremony. Without a doubt, this was one of the best days of my life. The rest of the day consisted of watching friends finish and checking the times of those who finished ahead of me, trading stories and doing the debrief with fellow competitors, collecting my award, buying a couple of cool finishers shirts (bad luck to buy anything before the race), and having pizza and ice cream with my brother and his family before heading home. I couldn't have scripted a better day. I'm now halfway to being able to call myself an Ironman.

 The third place winner and I were the only ones in our age group who stayed for the awards. I hope I'm lucky enough to stand on the stage again.

Ironman 70.3 Syracuse, Part I

Ironman 70.3 Syracuse was my goal race for the 2014 season. Ironman Lake Placid has been a dream goal for a few years, and I really felt it was important to have a successful half-iron distance race before I would commit to a full Ironman. After a good summer of confidence-building racing in 2013, I decided to sign up for Syracuse last fall. Three of my brothers live there, so I knew I could stay with family for the race. It's only a four hour drive, one we do often, and I'm familiar with the area. It's also considered an ideal tune-up race for Lake Placid, and in fact, there would be many friends and acquaintances from the local tri scene doing the race, and it's always nice to suffer and celebrate with friendly faces.

I outlined my training and lead-up to Syracuse in my last post. I chose Joe Friel's half-iron training plan for athletes over 50. I have a couple of his books, so I'm familiar with his training philosophy, and I like the way this plan has two weeks of heavier training and one rest and test week, versus the three weeks heavy/one week light for younger athletes. As I said in the last post, I swam three times a week and tried to follow the plan as best I could. The shorter speed and form workouts weren't a problem. The longer swims were a challenge; a 3400m swim in an hour is not possible for me. I did my best to do the distance whenever possible. I was doing my long rides on Saturday, and my long runs and long swims on Sundays, and sometimes I'd just run out of time. Once spring came and the water was warm enough, I swam in Mirror Lake for my open water swims. I think I swam the cable four times before Syracuse. For the bike, I first used my Kurt Kinetic inRide computer and iPhone app, and then TrainerRoad, so that I could train with power, albeit simulated power. Joe Friel's plan had the option of using heart rate or power targets for most workouts. Even though the power was simulated for both the inRide and TrainerRoad, it was consistent and repeatable, making it a reliable data point to use. And training with power is just more accurate than heart rate. There's no fooling the power meter. I bought a PowerTap and had it installed on my Zipps, so once I was outside and had an FTP for the PowerTap, I was able to adjust my zones and continue using power as the target for my workouts. Keeping my legs healthy continues to be problematic for me. I battled shin splints earlier in the season, and by the Plattsbugh half marathon in April, my right hip was feeling tender and inflamed. I had surgery for a labral tear and impingement in 2011, and I was worried that I maybe had another small tear. An MRI in early June showed no tears, but some fluid in the hip joint. I tried a therapeutic dose of anti-inflammatories for a couple of weeks, then opted for a cortisone injection on the Wednesday before the race. In the two months between the half marathon and the half ironman, I had reduced my run volume considerably. I managed a 6.6 mile run a couple of weeks before the race, my longest since the half marathon, and I knew I was going to have to reassess my race goals. My main goal, always, is to finish and feel good about my performance. I knew if I was healthy and had a good day, I could finish in about six hours. Now, I would like to just be able to run the entire 13.1 miles. The Syracuse run course is no joke; four hills--one of which is very steep--with 1000' of total gain, about the same as the 26.2 mile course in Lake Placid. The bike course has 3000' of gain, about the same as one loop of Lake Placid, but it's a very different profile. The first 12 miles are straight up, followed by another 12 to 13 miles of overall elevation gain, followed by 30 miles of mostly downhill, flat and mild rollers. Not knowing whether I'd be able to run, I secretly considered going out hard for the first 25 miles of the bike and recovering for the last 30, with the goal of going for the fastest bike split possible. Generally speaking, completely against conventional wisdom, but what did I have to lose?

As a backdrop to all of this, I have been training with my friend, Bob Heins, since last fall. Bob and I had done some runs together in the past. He was looking to improve his bike split in order to qualify for Kona, and started riding with me. (I should note that Bob has gone to Kona before.) Bob turned 75 this summer, and signed up for Couer D'Alene, a race with no one else entered in his age group. He just had to finish to qualify, but Couer D'Alene is a tough course (hence, no competition in his age group), and he wanted a decent bike split. We were swimming together in Lake Placid leading up to our races, and for my last swim before Syracuse, Bob invited his nephew to join us. His nephew is an Ironman finisher and a coach, had done and was doing Syracuse this year, as were some of the athletes he was coaching. His advice for Syracuse? Ride the first 25 miles like I'm doing an Olympic, and recover the last 30, since I couldn't push big wattage on the downhills, anyway. Exactly what I wanted to hear! He also warned me to do the first run loop conservatively if I didn't want to be walking the big hill on the second loop. Since I wasn't sure how the hip was going to hold up, I thought this would be a good strategy for me, either way. 

I was able to take a half-day off from work on the Friday afternoon before the race. We got to Syracuse in time for me to do the athlete check-in and the mandatory athlete meeting. On Saturday, I did a quick bike and run--enough to get a feel for the first part of each course, a hill in both cases. I checked my bike in and did a swim. There was a short course set up for the athletes. I debated whether I should do it or not. Some of my friends chose not to for fear of having some funky thing happen that would damage their confidence for the next day. I got in the water with the idea that I'd just go for five minutes or so, but I ended up doing the course that was set up. I was feeling good and the water temperature was perfect. We headed back to my brother's for a graduation barbecue and a long night...

 My nephews are a good distraction from pre-race nerves.