18 Miles is a LOOOOOONG Way to Run . . .

The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed."
- Jacqueline Gareau, 1980 Boston Marathon champ



Yesterday I hit my running PR of 18 miles. Dear God, that's a long way. I've never run a marathon before (I'm saving that yummy joy for the end of the Ironman) and although 18 miles is only 3 miles longer than I ran a few weeks ago or a mere 5 miles longer than the run in a 1/2 IM, it seemed like it took DAYS to complete!!

The heat may have had a little something to do with the sheer crappiness of it. I didn't want to get to WC for the ride/run until 9 a.m. because I wanted one day that Booger could wake up and jump in my bed and snuggle for a bit. So, I actually ended up soaking up my time with her for a little too long and we didn't get started on our 30 mile ride until close to 10:00 a.m. -- which also meant that we were taking off for our run at noon. In 90+ degree heat and wicked humiditiy. But at least there was cloud cover. Until about 1:30. At the hottest part of the day, the skies cleared up and we were blessed with full blazing sunshine for the rest of our run. UGH.

It took everything I had not to call it quits. There was one point that I told Big Dog, "You know, when people refer to cars, they say, 'is your car running' or 'I've left my car running'. So, according to this logic, it seems that we should be able to go 18 miles in the car and still consider it 'running'. Yes? No, I didn't think so either. Dammit."

Anyway, it's over. Thank God. Next week's long workout: 100 miles on the bike. Woohoo! Two weeks from now: 30 mile ride/20 mile trail run. Dear God, what did I get myself into?

Heart of Virginia . . .

Yesterday I did my first official century ride. But, this post really isn't too much about me because I was much more impressed with my riding partner. See, I had been mulling over doing this century ride because I had never officially done one before. And, even more than that, if I was going to ride with the TriGirls that day, I would have had to wake at 4:45 to make it to our rendevous spot which is 45-50 minutes from my house. If I rode the Heart of Virginia Century, I could sleep until 6:45. The only problem was I didn't want to ride alone. So, on Friday evening I almost jokingly asked my awesome husband, Derek aka Big Dog, if he wanted to ride the metric century the next day. I figured this way I would have compnay for at least part of the ride. Derek's only been on the bike once in the last month and the most he's ever ridden has been 72 miles -- given the fact I was only giving him one day's notice, I thought the metric would prove to be the perfect challenge. The Big Dog thought differently. He said, "Hell no I'm not doing the metric. If I'm going out there, I'm riding the whole thing." Well, I questioned whether that would prove to be the best idea, but I believe in him so I said "awesome!".

We planned to stay together the entire ride. I'm a little faster than him, but we really wanted to share the whole experience together and this was supposed to be ridden at an "easy pace" for me. The morning of the race was pretty cool and the skies looked a little dark, but there were no storms overhead so we loaded the car and headed out. About a mile from the house, Derek said he forgot his jacket. But, he didn't think it would be a problem so he opted not to turn back for it. As soon as we got to the race site, the skies opened up and the rain began to fall. Derek was bummed that he hadn't turned back for his jacket.

The race was a "show and go" meaning you could show up within a certain window of time and just take off when you were ready. We were supposed to "show and go" between 7-8 a.m. But, I wasn't too worried about making it through the 100 miles before the 5pm cut off so we started our ride closer to 8:45. About 6 miles into the ride, Derek got a flat tire. I said, "No worries. That's actually kind of good. Let me change it so I can get the experience!" So, I got a hand's on tire changing lesson. While we were there, the SAG vehicle pulled in and they pumped Derek's tire and gave him a spare tube just in case he got another flat on the course. After 25-30 minutes we were back on the road. For all of 1 minute before Derek realized his front tire was also flat. Seriously??? This time Derek took charge of the changing and changed out the tire in about 15 minutes. The SAG vehicle never had time to pull away so again, they pumped Derek's front tire and offered him another tube -- just in case. The SAG crew was great but before the guy left he said, "you know, at this point you probably won't be able to get the full 100 in today." WHAT?!? Okay, I understand that we were the last century riders to take off on the ride and that it was now close to 10:00 a.m. and we had only gone 6 miles, but there was no way we were not doing 100 miles!

Derek and I took off and despite the pressure I felt from the SAG guy to pick up the pace, I tried to hold back so that we could ride together the entire day. Everything was going really well until mile 15 when Derek called out that he had another flat. You've got to flippin' kidding me???? At this point, I started to doubt that Derek's bike was going to carry him through this ride. It seemed that entirely new tires were in order and that was something that we just didn't have. Internally, we were both cursing up a storm, but outwardly we were trying to stay calm so that we didn't worry or take away from the other's experience. Derek thoroughly checked his tire and found a large metal splinter that had punchtured the tire. We patched the holes with some black electrical tape and put his last tube into action. We agreed that if he got one more flat, he would pull out and would drive to every rest stop to check on me and cheer me on. Off we went again.

We blew past the first two rest stops since we figured we had gotten enough rest spending at least an hour changing tires! Everything was going really well despite the fact we had to fight a CRAZY amount of wind!! I couldn't even get in aero position because the cross wind gusts would come on so strong it was difficult to maintain conrol of my bike. And the headwinds!! Dear God, why is it that you always get a headwind on a kickass hill??

We were about 55 miles into the ride and everything seemed to be looking up. Derek's bike was holding up, we were in a section where the wind had died down and there was only 6 miles until we hit the lunch rest stop. But, as we passed over some railroad tracks I lost one of my water bottles. Derek was behind me so he called out that he'd pick it up. As he stopped his bike and unclipped, wouldn't you know, he broke two screws off the cleat in his shoe!!! Now his cleat was just spinning on the bottom of his shoe. Are you flippin' serious???? How much more bad luck could this poor guy get? Totally not fair! The constant obstacles were almost laughable -- except it really wasn't very funn. I tried to pick up Derek's spirits by telling him that he was providing me with the best training for IMFL that I could ever have! The lesson must be that no matter what happens on your bike or with your gear, determination is what will see you through to the end. Derek managed to make it to the next rest point and took one screw out of his right cleat and put it into his left cleat so that he would at least have two screws in each. This at least enabled him to lock down into his pedals.

We took off on the last leg and I said a small prayer. Well, not really a prayer. I thought "Bring it on MF'rs. Do what you've gotta do, but we're finishing this ride even if he has to run his bike in Flintstone style with bare feet and two flat tires." Yeah, I guess that really doesn't qualify as a prayer.

Either way, my mojo must have scared the riding Gremlins because the rest of the ride went off without a hitch. There was one sketchy dog moment -- actually the dog wasn't really scary but a rider had been bitten pretty badly earlier in the day by a loose dog and I was a little freaked out by it. When I saw another dog on the course, I asked Derek to ride ahead and shoo it away. He rode by it and said "Go away, Cujo." Calling the dog Cujo didn't really help ease my nerves.

In the last 10 to 15 miles of the ride, Derek was getting pretty tired -- as he should have been. He said he felt he only had a little more left in him -- but he kept on going. I was absolutely blown away by him. I mean, I've been training for almost a year to ride this distance. By now, I SHOULD be able to ride 100 miles. Derek was doing it out of pure will and determination. I was in complete awe of his perserverence. I don't think I could have done it if I were him. Actually, I don't think I would have even tried. I would have thought, "I could never do that" without even giving it a shot. When we rode into the parking lot -- having finished the entire 100 miles (take that SAG guy!) I was so proud of Derek I almost cried!! Yeah, I'm glad I got my PR and a century under my belt, but even more so, I'm glad I got to do this with my guy. If you didn't know already, he's pretty damn awesome.

Congrats Big Dog! I love you . . .

Patriot Race Report

Well, the "training" Half IM is done and to be quite honest, I'm pretty pleased. Going into this race was very different for me than Eagleman. Prior to Eagleman, I had a countdown going, I was nervous and I obsessed about my plan for each discipline. When it came to race day, I was a nervous wreck, my race plan went out the window, I did everything I shouldn't have done and my extreme GI issues during the run reflected my lack of dedication to my plan.

For Patriot, I was totally calm going into it. I mean, so calm that I kept thinking "what's my training this weekend?" and then I'd remember, "oh yeah, I'm doing that 1/2". I think it had something to do with how busy I've been. I've just been more focused on getting into the swing of things with all 4 kids starting school -- Booger just beginning Kindergarten and my oldest -- we'll call him Mr. Awesome (because that's what he thinks he is!) -- starting his Senior year in High School. In addition to that, coaching our competition cheer squad has started up again and taken up a good deal of my free time and, oh, there's that pesky part-time job that rears its ugly head now and again, too. So, anyway, I've been surviving day-to-day and simply looking at what workout was on the calendar that day and never looking ahead. So, going into Patriot, I was totally relaxed, calm and looking at it as simply another training day.

Another thing about Patriot was that I wasn't "racing". My goal for this race was to finish it feeling like I could do it again. I wanted to pace myself, follow my plan and finish feeling strong. And, suprisingly, I did it! It was difficult at times. For example, during the bike, I usually pedal hard and try to catch whoever is in front of me. My goal is to pass as many people as possible without ever being passed myself. During the run it's a completely different story. I typically go out strong and allow myself no more than 15 seconds at every water stop -- if it's a 10k or shorter, no stops are allowed at all (I adopted this stupid plan because running is my weakest discipline and I'm always getting passed by what seems like thousands of people -- I figured I couldn't afford to lose any time stopping at the water stops). Well, this plan usually means that my legs are very tired when I get off my bike and I usually completely die and need to begin doing A LOT of walking somewhere around mile 8 of the run. I was determined not to let that happen at Patriot. I would let people pass me on the bike and I would run the entire run while allowing myself to fully walk and reassess myself through every water stop.

As far as details,

THE SWIM:

We found out race morning that the race was wetsuit legal. Yay! I got to use my "floatie"! I wasn't particularly worried about the swim. My plan for the swim was simply to imagine that I was swimming in water that could potentially have sharks in it. I know -- kind of dumb since I knew there weren't really sharks but I'm trying to mentally prepare for IMFL! :D Anyway, I was just going to swim from buoy to buoy as comfortably as possible. All was going well until the last turn into the finish. As soon as I turned back toward the shore, I couldn't find the buoys because the sun was shining directly into my eyes. Oh, well, since I was in the last wave, I figured I'd just follow the small cluster of swimmers ahead of me. BIG mistake. A short while later, I stopped and wanted to really get my bearings and locate a buoy to site off of. I took a minute to breaststroke and look around. I spotted the orange buoys about 100 meters to my right. Dammit. I was totally off course. But as I looked around, I realized most everyone else was too! I spotted lots of people cutting a diagnoal path back toward where the swim finish was. I figure it took me about 200 meters off course. I finished in 39:15 so this wasn't bad for a 1.4ish mile swim. After the race, Derek told me almost everyone was off course. The spectators thought it was because of the current until some Elites came out of the water cursing and complaining about how crappy the markers were. I didn't think it was the markings but rather the sunlight but, whatever, I'm not "Elite" so I really didn't care either way.

T1:

Uh, sucky. You have to run about 1/2 a mile before you even get into transition. Over pokey rocks that they tried to mask with 1/8 in think carpeting. Ouch.

BIKE:

The bike was good except for the course. I really didn't enjoy the road conditions on the course. I lost one water bottle before I even made it out of the Jamestown parking lot!! But I anticipated I would lose a bottle (or two!) because of the bumpy course, so I packed 3 bottles and filled my Profile. Good thing because I came back with 1 completely empty water bottle and and empty Profile, too! But, I managed to hold back and pace myself really well on the bike. I wanted to maintain a 19-20 mph pace and I came pretty close. I finished the 58 mile course in 3:01 -- which, if I'm calculating right is about 19.23 mph. The only problem was that I didn't eat as much as I should have on the bike. This usually isn't a problem for me, but for some reason I just couldn't choke down my bagel and fig newtons. I was a little concerned for the run, but I had taken 4 gels during the bike and drank a full bottle of Sustained Energy so I was hoping I could hang on.

T2:

T2 is typically my "vacation" transition. I have no idea why, but I just seem to take FOREVER!! And this time was no exception. I took 3+ minutes and ranked 11th out of 13 finishers in my T2 time. What the hell do I do that takes so long??? I don't know. Maybe it's the massage, nap and mani & pedi that I get while I'm in there. ;D

RUN:

The run was damn HOT! I would guess it was in the low 90's but being on the asphalt with the cars seemed like the radiated heat temp was closer to 100. And for all but 2 miles there was virtually no shade whatsoever. But, despite all of this, my legs felt good -- really, really, good. So good that wanted to pick up the pace quite a bit. But, I reminded myself of my goal: finish this race like you could do it again. This was my one opportunity to really "practice" for IMFL so I took advantage of it. My goal was to run a 6mph pace and then walk through every water stop while I assessed how my body was feeling. The water stops were my time to give myself a "tune up" to prepare for the next mile. This worked really well for me. I managed to keep my pace while running and I spent about a minute walking through each water stop. While I was there I would drink water, drink some of my concentrated Sustained Energy, pack my sports bra full of ice, douse my head with cold water and take an Endurolyte if I felt I needed it. My final run time of 2:23 reflected a perfect balance of 6mph pacing and 45sec-1 min. water stops. I was happy that I felt strong enough to run the entire time between each water stop and when I came into the finish, I honestly felt like I could keep going.

Final race time was 6:14 which was 5th in my age group and only 21 seconds off of of 4th -- but a whole 45 minutes off of Speedy TG Liz's time of 5:32!! Damn, that girl can kick some ass!!! But, I felt GREAT when I was done!! And, I really am starting to believe I might be able to pull off this whole IMFL thing!

Highlights of the race:

**All the TriGirls. I just love being a TriGirl and racing with everyone. We are THE BEST team out there at every, single race!

**GRANDISON being out on the course again! God, it was nice to have her back out there giving encouragement!!!

**Carmen -- she just inspires me in so many ways!

**Liz taking first in our age group. So proud of her! I swear I'm calling sponsors to pick her up. She's amazing!!

********And, Derek, of course, being there as my number one supporter!! I cannot stress enough how much he does for me. There's no way I could do this without him! Love that guy so much!
!!!
All in all, a great race!! Up next, IMFL - AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

There's no place like home . . .

Sometimes, I have to admit, this adventure seems like I'm caught in this whirlwind. I'm just twisting and turning, going along for the ride with my eyes squeezed tightly shut. Before I even have time to process each step I'm taking toward IMFL, I'm taking another giant leap. So why do I still feel like I'm going to come up short???

For example, last weekend my 30 mile ride/15 mile run was the longest I've gone thus far. The almost 90 miles in 110 degree weather while getting "special" 1-on-1 attention from Coach B the week before was the farthest (and hardest!) ride I've ever done. And now, here I am, staring another 1/2 Ironman in the face and I'm thinking "Whatever. It's just another training day." WHAT?!?! That is proof that I've gone mental. IT. IS. A. HALF. FLIPPIN' IRONMAN!! But that's my point. I'm just here for the ride. I go when they say go and I stop when they say stop. It feels almost overwhelming sometimes.

Don't get me wrong. I love this adventure. But, some days, when I'm thinking "am I really doing enough", "will I be ready?", or the worst "what if I can't finish", I think of my former life with lazy Saturdays, no Ironman worries or self doubt and I find myself clicking my heels and saying "there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home . . ."

But, here I am. Still on this ride. And while I love so many parts of it, I feel the need to finally make it down that IM finisher's chute so that I can take a moment -- a minute to breathe and simply think and not "do".

Luckily, one thing this IM training has taught me, is that there are times that you will be in pain, that you will feel like sitting down and giving up, but those times will pass and you will get your second wind. All you need to do is hang in there and believe in yourself.

Let's hope that happens before Saturday's Half-IM.