100 Miles of Harvest Moon

After I killed myself (in a good way, really!) last weekend I was instructed to do "6 hours of easy riding (because 6 hrs on a bike isn't easy)" by my coach.  Let me tell you, my "easy" barometer is whacked.  I have no idea if "easy" means something "not hard" or if it means "ride on the flattest bike trails in the city".  I have lost my sense of easy! 

I figured 6 hours = 2 loops of a local half iron course called Harvest Moon.  It wasn't the textbook definition of "easy" but it wasn't "hard" either.  In years past, it was challenging but very doable.  I emailed my coach my plan, and she said go for it.

This course is practically in Kansas with lots of exposed rollers.  It can be windy (and usually is).  But the good thing about it is that I could easily get in two loops and it wasn't far from my house.  One of my CDA training buddies (Jackie) was nice enough to join me and I roped in another friend (Dee) from my tri club to ride with us for the 2nd loop.  Hooray for no longer doing long rides by myself!

* random sidenote:  seriously, I ride with people for nearly all of my rides.  Huge contrast from my IMTX training, where nearly every ride was solo.  I am so much happier this time around.

Loop 1 was to start at 9 AM, Loop 2 at 12:15, giving us 15 min of padding for stops.  I brought half my nutrition with me, knowing we'd be back after 3 hrs to refuel.  It was slightly chilly (and I was worried about rain), so I wore my running tights and a jacket over my cycling outfit.  We took off for our 6 hour adventure.

Immediately, my friend could tell that my hill climbing has been paying off.  Normally, we'd be equal or she'd be a bit ahead of me.  This time I was ahead of her, and early on in the ride, I was doing hills in my big ring.  I was so happy riding that I completely missed our first turn.  Rather than turn around, I just decided that we would do the first loop counter-clockwise.  Hills are hills, it doesn't matter which direction you do them in. 

We're riding along, doing just fine.  Stopped once at mile 15 to adjust our layers (I took my jacket off).  More riding.  I'm going along and I hear a weird noise, look back, and my friend is now horizontal on the road.  Bad.  I flip around and she had a pretty decent wreck.  She had her spare tubes crammed in the back of her rear bottle cage. One of the tubes popped out and got jammed in her rear wheel, effectively acting like a full-stop break at 18 mph.  She was lucky - some road rash, a bit of carbon damage to her bike but not in a critical spot, and some pride.  But nothing was broken.  Lucky.  So after that fun, I sent a text to our friend Dee asking for 1st aid supplies, and we were back on the road. 

We got to our trucks at 2:40 into our ride, so I opted to ride into the park to use the bathroom (and get some extra distance) while Dee bandaged Jackie up.  I came back and my stomach was growling, so I inhaled a bunch of chews.  It was cool so I wasn't drinking much, but I wasn't exactly eating much either.  I took down ~200 calories and promised to eat every 30 min on the next loop.  I had drank ~30 oz of my 40 oz of EFS (300 calories), so I refilled that as well.  

Eastern plains.... please don't rain on me!

We left about 12:25 and decided to head back doing the "proper" clockwise loop.  That meant we were saving the big rollers for the end, but it also meant that we didn't have to do a steady climb back either.  Things were going pretty well until about an hour into the 2nd loop where my bike started making this really loud banging noise.  Over the next few hours, I figured that it is somehow related to my crank, as it would make the noise semi-regularly when my right foot was at the bottom of my pedal stroke.  It would make the noise pretty consistently for a while immediately following a quick stop, and the noise seemed to happen with hard pedalling or soft pedalling.  I dunno.  It will be looked at this week.

Smiling and happy at mile 77

We stopped at every turn, just to make sure we didn't lose Jackie.  She really worried me.  Normally she's very peppy and chatty.  During the 2nd loop, well, meek is the best way to describe her demeanor.  Or quiet determination because she was likely hurting and was channeling all of her energy into finishing the ride.  

We made the final turn and had ~15 miles of rollers.  I was curious to see where my legs were, as I was 77 miles into the ride.  Suprisingly, my legs felt good.  I didn't push it up the hills, I still spun, but my heart rate wasn't too high and my effort felt good.  My nutrition was good as well.  I didn't quite manage to eat every 30 min, but it was close enough.


We got back to our trucks, having completed the two loops, and I went back out on the main road to play catchup.  We kicked ass on the second loop, 43 miles in 2:35 (5 min faster than the 1st loop).  I decided I needed to finish up my ride to 6 hrs total and headed back out on the road with rollers.  To my suprise, I still felt *really* good and decided to push things a bit.  A few mental calculations, I realized I would be at 98.5 miles for 6 hrs and I needed to ride a tiny bit more for an even 100.

Boom.  First century ride since 2011.

Stats:

100 miles, 6:06, 16.4 mph

Loop 1: 16.0 mpm

Loop 2: 16.7 mph

3922 ft climbing

This was the fastest century ride (with the most climbing) I've ever done.  I was curious to see how I'd do, since I've been doing harder/shorter rides instead of distance.  Apparently I can do distance just fine.  I even felt like I could do quite a bit more riding.  Merlin felt comfy, I didn't have any significant comfort issues.  I even forgot to bring chamois butter and had to use tri slide, but my saddle area was just fine.  I also got new cycling shoes (and hey, I went up a 1/2 size) and my feet felt GREAT all day.  Now if I can get that clanking noise worked out, life will be good :)

Head down for hard work ahead

Since St George went so splendidly, I am SUPER motivated to get to work for IMCDA.  I mean, if I can have a race experience where I finished the bike feeling really good and minimally tired - and pass people on the hills - then I am more than happy to work really hard in my last month leading up to CDA. 

I mean, I only have a month left, and I intend to make it count.  It will hurt, but I'd rather hurt now than during the race.

With my focused motivation, I decided to climb hills this weekend.  Big ones.

Friday - Deer Creek Canyon and Highgrade - 12.5 miles to the top and ~3100 ft elevation gain.

First time to the tippy top on Merlin



Photograpic evidence that we made it to top.  Also: snow.  :/



Saturday wasn't too bad - just a 3700 m swim and an hour run.  Then I planted flowers and veggies with my remaining free time.  I figured if I didn't get it done that afternoon, it wouldn't get done until July.

Sunday was going to be an interesting test.  I had a friend in Boulder who needed to ride some big hills for her Ride the Rockies prep.  After some hand-wringing and talking it over with a few friends, I decided that I could do the big hill climb.  I had 5.5 hrs and we decided we'd ride the classic route of Lefthand Canyon to Ward to Peak to Peak to Lyons.  Two years ago, the 8 miles to Jamestown nearly killed me.  But that was on Buzz (*sniff*  also: 11:23 cassette) and I hadn't done any real hill training.  I was curious to see how it compared to Deer Creek and if I'd see improvement. 



Tour of Boulder Foothills.  4000+ ft of climbing in ~16 miles.  And I was the only one on a TT bike

We rode from her house, did a warmup of about an hour before we got to Lefthand Canyon and we got to work.  I was very happy (and relieved) to discover that Lefthand wasn't that bad.  I could even talk while I rode along.  The whole way up was actually pretty good, until we got to the last little kicker into Ward, where that last mile became ridiculously steep.  People that I passed on the lower part of the canyon were now passing me.  Mainly because I was walking.  My lungs are still angry with me and my legs were tired from Friday's adventure.  I had to stop and catch my breath on the lower part of the big hill and I just could not get back on my bike safely.  So I walked quite a bit of that last section.  And I really didn't care, either.

I got to Ward and I was pretty cranky.  My friend (and her friends) urged me to eat something. Oh yeah.  2:45 of riding and I had maybe 300 calories.  Duh.  Part of the problem was that I forgot my 40 oz sippy bottle (or Speedfill) so I had to rely on my rear cages for hydration/nutrition.  And with harder efforts (climbing) I tend to not eat very much because my stomach tends to revolt at higher efforts.  That meant low calorie consumption for me.  I was sitting at the picnic table in Ward (the place with the cookies) seriously hating life.  I had some Honey Stinger cherry cola chews (pretty good, more cherry than cola) that had some caffiene.  More urgings to get some calories and I pouted b/c my flask of Liquid Shot was allllll the way on the other side of the building on my bike.  Then I remembered my backup flask and chugged that.  Pretty soon, I perked up and was much happier.

Lesson learned.  And apparently its a lesson I keep learning, especially in this area of Boulder. 

The rest of the ride was uneventful.  We rode downhill through Raymond and St Vrain Canyon.  That canyon is so pretty but it really isn't safe to take pictures while you're flying down at 30+ mph and I never feel like stopping either.  We stopped in Lyons for some snacks and water and then we wrapped up our ride.  My legs were hating me in Ward but after nearly 1 hour descending, they were back and ready to pedal.  I was able to hold 90+ rpm on flats, mild hills, false flats for nearly 1.5 hours after we hit Lyons.

So, between the two days, I had ridden 115 miles and climbed 8,100+ feet.  I boosted my confidence a bit and I was also humbled a bit.  A good mix, I suppose.  And as my coach said, this weekend was a good deposit in the Ironman Bank.  :)

Funny enough, my notes for next weekend's big ride is "6 hours easy (6 hours on a bike is NOT easy)".  But I need to figure out what exactly "easy" means.  Does it mean flat or does it mean "do not climb a mountain".  Funny, the Erin from 2 years ago would have never thought 90 miles of easy would involve hills.

Ironman St George 70.3 Race Report

aka - that wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.  And it was FUN.

(and good grief this is a long one.  Its like I haven't raced in 2 years or something!)

Thursday
So, we left Denver at 6 AM on Thursday for what should have been a 9.5 hour drive at 6 AM on roads that looked like this:

Taken in Silverthorne, wishing we had skis instead of bikes.  Will winter ever end?

Let me just say that this was the slowest road trip ever.  From having to deal with crappy ice-covered roads until Vail Pass (seriously, WTF CDOT?  Do you put the plows away after May 1st?) and having three very hydrated triathletes in the car who needed to stop and pee every two hours, we were s.l.o.w.  slow.  I will also say that this was a gorgeous drive, so it wasn't all that bad.  But it was nearly 11 hrs of slow.  Damn.

We rolled into St G at 5 PM and decided to head straight to race check-in and get our stuff.  We happened upon the pro introductions. This race was the US Pro Championships and most of the big names were out there.  We literally walked right past Crowie and the Wurtles and Leanda Cave and countless other pros.  Way cool.


Pretty much all of the pros said the course was "brutal".  Awesome! :/

And on the way out, I managed to get this photo of me and my new boyfriend.  I am certain that he got 3rd overall because of this moment.  Or maybe I PR'd the swim because he touched me? 


Me and Andy Potts!

I rented a condo for myself and 4 other Denver-based triathletes and it worked out great.  Plenty of room for our bikes and gear, a decent kitchen and a huge countertop, and a patio with a grill.  Perfect!

Thurs night, one of my condo-mates was invited to a Training Peaks - WTC VIP party and she asked me to be her plus one.  I think the event was more fun for her than it was for me, as she got to meet some of her Newton teammates face to face for the first time.  I didn't really know anyone and just talked to random people and ate free food.  I did get to meet Fireman Rob, who really isn't all that big in person, and who was also super nice.  I also got to meet some guy from Sugarland (Thad Beaty), which other people were really impressed with, but I had no idea who he was.  To me, he was just some guy that people were fawning over.  To his credit, he seemed really nice and down to earth.  I also got to talk to Crowie, but I didn't get a photo.  Considering I got a photo with him last summer, I'm ok with that.  Also: they were serving the largest and most amazing shrimp ever.  Maybe that's why I didn't talk to too many people, I smelled of an 11 hr car ride and was stuffing myself with shrimp.  It was a late night - we didn't leave until 10:15 and I got to bed at 11 PM.  Pre-race prep fail.

Friday
The day before the race is always crazy busy with so many things to do.  I tried to plan it so we had some time mid-day to sit and chill.  We did ok with this and I didn't feel like I spent too much time on my feet.

My coach and her best friend had a "team" breakfast at 8:30, so myself and 2 condo-mates headed over to meet the crew.  I had a tasty omlette with potatoes.  Mmmmm

Then it was back to the Race Expo to pick up a friend's bike.  And then a trip to the grocery store for lunch/dinner supplies.  And then back to the condo.  By that point it was already 11 AM.  Damn, that took a while.

Ryan and I took a quick 30 min spin on our bikes to make sure everything survived the road trip.  And then he had a quick run while I tried out these things:

I know they are expensive and should have loved them, but they were weird.  It felt like a boa constrictor was eating my legs.  And they squished the hell out of my right foot and now (5 days later) my metatarsals hurt.  They felt fine during the race and right after, but they're a tiny bit achy.  And that makes me cranky.

Around 2 PM we loaded up and went to Sand Hollow Reservoir to drop off our bikes and to get a swim in.  Bike drop off was pretty simple.  Just rack your bike, let some air out of the tires so they don't pop in the heat and then wish your bike a good sleep.

Then we headed over to the lake to get in a 15 min swim.  I haven't done an open water wetsuit swim in 2 years.  The water was ~60 degrees and clear.  And beautiful.  Seriously.  We swam out to this baby rock and climbed onto it then dove back in and swam back to shore.

 

Who actually looks good in these things?

After that, we were running short on time and booked it back to town for the 4 PM athlete meeting.  We got there at 4:15 and missed the meeting.  Oh well.  We hung out and got some free stuff and then went off to drive the bike and run course.  My coach had already driven the run course and said it was "no joke".  Yay (?).

We drove the run course first because it started from the race expo. Hills and lots of them.  At mile ~2, you go up this 8% grade for ~1/3 of a mile.  Driving up that thing, I was just laughing hilariously.  People expect me to run up that?  HA!  So yeah, my expectations of doing much running were set pretty low.

We didn't drive the full bike course, just the part from where it crosses over the highway and into Snow Canyon.  The canyon was the big climb, so we felt if we saw that, we'd have a good idea of what we were up against.  Again, I have to say, this is the most beautiful course.  Wow.

petrified sand dunes in Snow Canyon State Park

We drove through and looked it over.  Ryan and I both agreed that it wasn't easy but it was definitely do-able.  Actually, the canyon profile looked similar to Palmer Lake with stair-stepping uphills.  There was a steep part at the top, but in all honesty, it didn't look any steeper than the steep bit in Palmer Lake and maybe twice as long.  For once, I was looking at a hard bike course and I wasn't petrified.

blurry, but you get the idea.  See that flat green-ish bit up on the right?  We were riding our bikes to the top of that.

After that, we went back to the condo and made dinner and got all of our race crap put together.  I was a dummy and didn't think to make sure I had enough Liquid Shot for the race.  I barely had enough.  :shakes head: 

Race Day!
I planned on waking up at 4 AM (ugh) but my condo-mates were up earlier so I got up at 3:45 (double ugh).  We had to check our run gear in at T2 and then hop a bus to Sand Hollow by 5:30, so that made everything much earlier than normal.  We got a sweet parking spot a block away from the finish pavilion, dropped our run gear, and hopped on the bus.  Which was free.  (I'm looking right at you Boise, charging racers $8 to ride the bus to the swim start).

We got to Transition and I was feeling ok.  Not really nervous or anxious, just neutral and ready to get the show on the road.  I immediately got in line to air up my tires - it was ridiculously long and took probably 15 minutes.  Then I got to work getting everything set up just so, talking to my rack-mates, and talking to some other friends.  With 15 min left before transition closing I hit the port-o-can line.  They had a bazillion out there and each line was only 4 people deep, which meant very little waiting.  They closed transition down and I somehow found my club-mates and we all hung out.  I was in an earlier wave with Daria, and we were the first ones of our group to swim.

Random sidenote: it was so awesome to race with friends.  We had 7 people from my club and I knew probably 5 more other racers.  I saw friends (mostly passing me) the whole race, which was great.

Daria and I made our way down to the swim start.  I had taken a hit of my inhaler and some Liquid Shot with Pre-Race and was READY to roll.

Swim
They had a deep water start, which meant you swam out a few hundred (?) yards and hung out at the start buoys.  Everyone in my wave was super cool, no jostling or aggression.  I was maybe 2 rows back, which is unusual because I like being in the front normally. The horn went off and away we went.  Nearly immediately I found some good feet and did my best to stay with them.  The water was so clear that it was really easy to just follow bubbles.  I managed to hang onto those feet for the first leg of the swim.  We rounded the buoy and I lost the feet.  I just focused on swimming close to the buoys and staying stretched out and relaxed.  The back stretch seemed to take forever, so I'd play games.  Switch to breathing on my left, take ~10 fast strokes and then cruise for a bit, switch to my right and repeat.  It seemed to make things move a bit faster. I was moving through earlier waves and encountered quite a few people swimming backstroke.  Ugh.  I made the final turn buoy and almost immediately found feet and focused on just following them.  This was the first time in a race that I did a good job in finding feet.  I looked at their kick and decided that given their pace and form, they should be decent swimmers and hoped that they were swimming straight.  I think I looked up maybe once that whole way back.  About half way through the final stretch of the swim the fast guys started coming through on the left side, hugging the buoys.  It reminded me of the water pipeline with the sea turtles in Finding Nemo.  I put myself as close as I could to them and tried to stay with them.  I got dropped a bunch but I think the net effect was helpful.  I just channeled my Inner Dory and just kept swimming.  I swam until my hands touched and stood up and went up the boat ramp into transition.

I felt that my pace was pretty comfortable.  I wasn't working super hard but I wasn't exactly cruising.  This felt like my IM pace.  I think.

I saw 0:44 on the clock and I had to idea what that meant for swim time.  It felt solid but it also felt like a 40 min swim.  I tried to do the math on the bike but my brain just wouldn't compute.

Swim time: 36:52
Swim Pace: 1:53
Swim Rank: 18/118 AG, 656/2685 OA

Holy shit, a swim PR by ~3.5 minutes.  And this was the first time I was in the top 10% in my age group for a 70.3 distance race.  I guess I need to find feet and keep my head down more often.  My coach commented to me about my swim times and how I should be getting better times.  This time, my time reflected my ability.  Go me!

T1
Something about not having raced in a wetsuit for 2 years made for a really crappy time getting my wetsuit off.  I couldn't find the zipper cord.  And then I got it unzipped but I couldn't get the damn thing off my upper body.  I actually had to have a stripper peel the whole thing off me from shoulder to feet.  I don't know if my hands were cold or if I was out of practice, but I know I can do better.

not a swamp-monster photo but it still isn't flattering.

I got to my bike and was happy to see there was only 1 bike missing from the rack.  It felt like I was taking my time, putting on gloves and my helmet, making sure I got nutrition in my pockets.  La la la, I'm racing but taking forever.

T1 time: 3:19

A near-2 min PR for my 70.3 distance T1.  I guess I wasn't that slow after all.
Bike
I got on the bike and started rolling along.  Here was my plan:

• Spin up the hills to save legs for Snow Canyon and the run.
• Push the downhills
• Medium pace (145 HR and cadence of 85-90) for the flats or shallow hills.
• Nutrition: on bike - 40 oz of EFS (400 cal), 1.5 bottles of Liquid Shot (600 cals), 2 packs of Honey Stinger Chews (400 cals), 1 SunRype Fruit Source Bar (120 cals), and some salt stick pills.  Idea was to drink EFS for the first hour or two and dilute it with water at each aid station so it was mostly water by the time I hit the mile 40 aid station.  Supplement with Liquid Shot for add'l calories and take in chews as I felt I needed to.  After Snow Canyon, start gobbling up calories for the long 10 mile downhill to allow time to digest prior to the run.

My stomach felt a little iffy right off the bike, probably because I had swallowed some lake water.  I gave it 5 minutes before drinking and it felt much better.  The air temp was fairly cold and I had my DeSoto Cool wings on (I wore them under my wetsuit) and I was actually pretty damn cold.  Those sleeves work. 

At about 4 miles in, there was a nasty little climb.  Not cool.  I must have pushed it a bit too hard going up because my right adductor decided to get cranky on me.  (This used to happen on hilly or hard effort 2-3 years ago.  It hasn't happened in over a year.  I was not a happy camper that it decided to act up).  It was also on this hill that Daria passed me on her sweet new Specialized Shiv.

Things weren't that exciting.  We were on chipseal for a good long time and I felt slow.  I didn't know if I had a flat tire or a brake rub or what.  But it felt SLOW compared to what I was used to doing.  In talking to others after the race, I think my legs were just cold from the swim and it took a while to get them warm and moving.


somehow, I managed to have my helmet on straight in all of my photos this time!

The bike was pretty uneventful.  I rode, I talked to people as I passed them up the hills, I enjoyed the scenery, I took in calories per my plan.  I hit the harder calories (chews and Liquid Shot) when I felt like I had some good downhills ahead of me.  This didn't work all that well because I didn't really know the early part of course and somehow managed to have some climbs with a belly full of chews.  It was only slightly uncomfortable and really not that big of a deal. 

Ryan passed me right around mile 35, most everyone else passed me much earlier.  It was also at mile 35 that I decided to really get in some calories to prep for Snow Canyon.  I jammed my front Liquid Shot into the velcro holder thingy too well earlier on and it was now stuck.  That meant I got to practice reaching around to my rear cage and getting my back-up container and then putting it back in.  I'm actually glad I had the back-up and it was a good thing to identify for CDA.


Merlin likes to fly

At mile 40 I stopped to pee, get my front Liquid Shot unstuck, stretch my adductor, re-filled my 40-oz bottle (it was 75% water at that point), took a few hits of my inhaler (preventative) and soaked my sleeves with water.  I also made the aid station workers admire the sparkly clear coat on my bike.  Because I'm a dork.

Then was the test - Snow Canyon.  Which was actually my favorite part of the course.  For starters, it is BEAUTIFUL.  The canyon was ~4 miles long and had ~800 feet of climbing.  Merlin (my new Alchemy bike, in its triathlon debut) felt super light and nimble.  I just rode up the canyon, giving myself gentle pep talks on the steeper parts.  The stair stepping helped, because it gave me a chance to spin my legs out a bit on the flatter bits.  The other cool thing about this part of the course if that you can see the road all the way through the canyon, with cyclists winding their way to the top.  It was a bit intimidating but also really cool.


This part of the ride was going to hurt but at least the scenery was beautiful

I wasn't quite to the hard part and there were people having issues.  Having to stand and pedal or worse, having to get off and walk.  I was concerned about the really steep push at the top but I just told myself to try it.  Just try it and see what happens.  My HR was in the 170's but I told myself to hold on and keep moving forward.  In my head, I kept thinking about the Boulder Epic Century ride from last September and how that, right now, Snow Canyon was not the hardest thing I had ever done.  I just kept focused and pedaled my way up the hill.  And I actually passed people.  That never happens.  It was awesome.  Merlin kicks ass. 

I got to the top of the canyon and got ready for some fun.  I had conquered the hard part of the race and felt awesome.  I was having fun and was riding along with a huge grin on my face.  So happy.

Per my plan, I got to work stuffing my face with calories.  I also decided to take 2 salt pills, as a preventative measure for the run.  I'm happy I did the pills first, because when  I took out my 2nd bag of chews from my bento box, I lost my container of pills.  Lame.  I got down a few handfulls of chews and a few gulps of Liquid Shot, chased that with some water and I got ready to fly.

My front brakes got gunked up with Liquid Shot from when I got my front container unstuck.  I acutally had to unscrew the lid, which resulted in some goop leaking onto the front of my bike.  I tapped the brakes for the first time and my front one make this awful squealing noise.  Tried it again, same noise.  Ok, I'm using my back brake only for the end of the ride. 

From this point on, I just focused on staying tucked and flying.  The road was smooth and had wide sweeping turns.  I took one downhill in aero at 44 mph and later hit 44 mph on my hoods.

Then we had one nasty little weird out and back (with a detour on a bike path with several 90 degree turns) and a return uphill.  I wasn't very happy with that last, tiny uphill (maybe 120 ft in a half mile), mainly because I was on cruise mode.  And also because I had a full stomach and it didn't feel that great going uphill with all those calories bouncing around.

After that bit, it was all smooth sailing to T2, where there were crowds of people cheering for us.

Bike time: 3:37:49  (6 min off my PR from Galveston... which was flat)
Bike Pace: 15.43 mph
Bike Rank: 70 /115 AG, 1584/2685 OA

T2
Got my bike racked pretty easily, gloves/helmet off, shoes on.  Grabbed my race belt, hat, and handheld bottle and put those on as I headed out of transition.

T2 time: 3:38

Run
So let me just say that I had ZERO expectations going into the run, given the hills and the heat.  And I also didn't really have expectations for the race as a whole, other than "survive". 

My plan was to run/walk based on HR intervals.  I set my Garmin to beep when I hit a HR of 165 (high limit) and 135 (low limit) and would run until I hit the high limit and walk until I hit the low.  For nutrition, I had 400 cals of Liquid Shot and a full scoop of Pre-Race, mixed with water.  The idea was to take a good sized sip at every aid station.  I still had on my Cool Wings and discovered that I could cram ice down the sleeves to stay cool.  Way, way awesome and I will be wearing these things for every warm race from now on.

So the run starts with you going out the chute, up a small hill, around a roundabout, and onto Diagonal which is a gradual long hill.  Right out of the chute, I came across Fireman Rob.  Since I felt like we were buddies (I talked to him for a whole 30 seconds 2 nights prior), I decided to joke around with him.  With two transitions, we had to keep all of our run gear in our red run bags.  I jogged past Rob and joked "I'm sure all that gear didn't fit into one red bag!"  That got a big laugh out of him and he commented that it took many red bags to store his fireman get-up.

So yeah, the run.  I don't think I ever hit a HR of 165.  I'd get to 158 or 160 and start to walk.  But, I think I only hit a low HR of 135 once, and that was during an aid station.  Typically I'd start running again when I saw 148 or so on the Garmin for my HR.  I just plugged along doing that run/walk up hills, chatting with people and making friends.

This was a really strange run course because so many people were walking.  The aid stations were pretty laid back, people taking their time to get things, acting like it was a buffet.  Very few people (by the time I went through) were hustling.  We were just trying to get it done.

I made the turn from Bluffs to Red Hills Blvd and I heard "Erin, is that you?"  It was the wife of the guy I was supposed to relay with in Boise last year.  I stopped, made jokes, and posed for pictures.  During a race.  (yes, I know.  :facepalm:  also see: low expectations).  Then I started to make my way up the 8% grade, running and walking per my plan.

I don't remember that first uphill being awful.  I was pretty fresh off the bike, feeling cool thanks to the ice in my sleeves, and generally happy.  I got to the top of the hill at mile 3 and I cruised the downhill parts.  When I was running, I was running around a mid- to lower- 9 minute pace.  When I was walking, I was sticking around a 15 min pace.  Pretty good.

The course took you up a big hill for almost 3 miles then you had a saddle and up to the top at 4.5 miles, then a dowhill for a bit, then through a park with rollers, then more downhill to a turn around, where you got to do the course in reverse.  Yay (?)

First time through the park, feeling good, singing to myself

I saw Michelle (my coach) on a uphill portion maybe around mile 4.  I told her I was ok and I killed the bike and wished her luck. I also saw all of my club-mates on the opposite side of the road (ahead of me) and we high fived eachother.

I'd say I was pretty happy for the first half of the race.  After my broken heel last year, I was just happy to be out there.  Anytime I didn't feel like running, I'd remind myself that last year I couldn't run, and then I'd get going.  And the ice in my sleeves were brilliant.  I wasn't hot.  I just sang a dumb little song in my head, like a kid: "I've got ice in my sleeves, I'm not hot, everyone else looks hot, this is awesome".  I'm a dork.  But at least I'm a happy dork.

After going back through the park again (mile 8?) my stomach got hungry, and I said uh-oh.  I was supposed to drink from my hand held every mile but I put too much Pre-Race in it and it tasted disgusting (bitter) so I was only taking baby-sips, if that.  I took a few bites of my SunRype Fruit Source bar (still in my tri shorts pocket from the bike) to take care of the hunger pains and started hitting the Coke at the next aid station.  The next few miles weren't pretty - the damage was done in terms of calorie deficit.  Dummy.  I got to the top of the hill, still doing my run/walk thing, but I was only running until I hit a HR of ~155 or so and I was letting my HR drop into the low 140's before I started to run again.  I forgot how to properly drink water and decided to inhale it.  I can breathe while swimming - surrounded with water - and be fine.  Apparently I can't drink while running.  So that kicked off my asthma.  Super.  And let me tell you, running downhill with an asthma attack going on sucks.

You get to the top of the last hill and say to yourself, "sweet, its 3 miles to the finish and its all downhill".  Only the race director is evil and put this mean little out and back up and down leg into the end of the run.  That part really sucked.  And there was a photographer there to document how happy we all were.  

focused

Once I finished that point, I had about 2 miles left.  I had no idea where I was on the clock and I flipped my Garmin display to show time of day.  I saw that I had the potential to PR if I ran the whole way back.  Holy crap.  Unfortunately, due to my asthma and idiotic lack of nutrition, and also developing blisters, I just couldn't make myself run downhill those 2 miles.  Boo.  I managed to run 0.2 to 0.3 miles then walk 0.1 mile, repeat.  Until the last bit, where I'm pretty sure I ran at least the last 1/2 mile.  It helped that the crowds got denser and I could hear the finish line by that point.

I went down the hill, back around the roundabout, and I could see the finish - and it was all downhill.  Finally.

I had the chute pretty much to myself, which was really fun.  In the past, I was so focused, I just zoomed down the chute, not really taking things in.  This time, I was still running, but I was also high fiving kids and absorbing the atmosphere.

I heard them say my name and my town.  Then I crossed the finish line.  And then I was done.  Awesome.

If you look closely, you can see the ice that's still in my sleeves :)

Run Time: 2:45:29  (5 min faster than my worst 70.3 run split, only 8 min slower than my best)
Run Pace: 12:37 min/mile
Run Rank: 78/115 AG, 1639/2685 OA

Overall Time: 7:06:52, 78th in my AG.  This was 8 min slower than my PR (Galveston) and my highest placement to date.

Closing Thoughts
My race experience in St George was beyond expectations and fantastic.  It was one of those truly perfect days.  The entire town is genuinely proud to host this race - they're so friendly and helpful.  The couse is BEAUTIFUL.  It is hard, but not impossible.  I'm so glad I followed our tri-club head lemming and took the leap.  Other races wouldn't have been as hard and I certainly would have had a huge PR, but I wouldn't have learned anything either.

This race was a huge confidence boost for IMCDA.  I know that my training is solid, based on my bike performance.  This makes me really excited to put my head down and get to work for the final stretch to CDA.

April 2013 - Training Totals

Pretty decent build month with progress on all swim/bike/run fronts.

Of note, I climbed Deer Creek Canyon 3 times this month.  And I had a hilly 10 mile run with 1,000 ft of elevation gain.  Maybe I should start to track vertical feet in addition to horizontal miles?

Overall, things feel pretty good.  Training feels solid.  I don't feel like I'm doing enough though.  I suspect that May is going to be tough, with all my big work happening then.

April's totals:


Bike: 31h 06m 38s - 416.64 Mi (really more like 447 miles if you include the spin class distance)

Run: 13h 59m 27s - 74.46 Mi

Swim: 14h 17m - 40112.43 Yd

Spinning Class: 2h 35m


March's totals:


Bike: 29h 13m 20s - 361.32 Mi

Run: 9h 37m 53s - 47.55 Mi

Swim: 13h 05m - 37510.94 Yd

Skiing: 5h 00m

T-minus 5 days .... crazy insane race

This whole training for your second Ironman thing is really weird.  The first time around, every single week was a repeat of "omg, my coach is trying to kill me!" to "well, maybe I can do all that" to "I killed that workout!".  Everything was new.  I was doing distances I hadn't done before, riding in places that were new, and the idea of doing an Ironman was a big scary thing.

And then I did one.  and I lived.

So now I'm training for my second one and it's really not so bad.  I keep waiting for the "I'm going to die" part, but really, it's not so awful.  Sure I'm a bit more tired than normal and a bit more hungry than normal, but I'm not constantly freaking out about my workouts.  Its more like "ok, I got it".  I don't think about it - I just DO it.  Probably the biggest difference, other than experience, is that I have people to train with and I know I'm riding the proper terrain for my races. 

As part of my training, my coach wanted me to do a 70.3.  I really wasn't interested in Galveston.  As fun as it would be to race with friends, I really, really, really hate that run course.  Blech.  HITS Marble Falls was an option (hills) but the travel element was a bit of a pain.  I thought hard about NOLA, mainly b/c I have a free place to stay, but honestly, what will I gain from doing a flat 70.3 as a test for CDA?  So like a lemming, I signed up for St George with several of my Denver tri buddies.

I think the logic was that maybe St G would be so hard that CDA would seem easy?  I really don't know.  I'm not even sure someone like me has any business doing that race.  Really. 

And then I obsessed about the bike course. 

Specifically, that big ol' hill at mile 40 up Snow Canyon.  Apparently its a Cat 3, ~3 miles long and 800 ft of climbing.  Yay (?)

I was so wrapped up about the bike that I totally forgot that the run is actually worse:

What is that, 2 x 2 mile long hills?  I hate running up hills. fml.

Oh and it might be 90 degrees.  It is forecast to snow here, the day before we leave for the race.  And the winds could be wicked.

Normally I'd be freaked out, but really, I'm just hanging out.  I figure it will hurt.  I'm expecting the worst.  Who knows, I may suprise myself.  I have been riding a ton of huge hills.  Deer Creek is 14 miles and 3,000 ft of climbing.  And I've done that 3 times in the past month.  And I ran 10 miles and 1,000 ft climbing a few weeks back and actually felt good doing it.

My coach is doing the race also.  In fact, I'm driving her home from the race.  She asked me to develop my own race plan.  I replied back with "I plan to survive the race".  Somehow I don't think that's what she meant.  So I sat down, looked at my old race times, looked at what I've been doing, and came up with a plan and some times.  I have some "worse case" some "I'm ok with that" and "super happy" times written down.  I'm curious to see what she thinks I can do.

I'm so laid back about the dang race that I don't even have my nutrition worked out.  Its been too damn cold here to worry about that.  I'll go ride for 4 hours and consume 300-400 calories.  That is no where near what I'll be consuming in a race.  So I've hobbled a plan together with some back-up options, in case my main plan fails mid-race.  We'll see.

Oh, and this is my first race in nearly 2 years.  And its my hardest (from an elevation perspective) race ever.  WTF was I thinking?

Hopefully I learn a lot and suprise myself along the way :)

oh, hi there

Seems that I got sucked into the Ironman Training blackhole.  Things are going pretty good, I'm just busy and hungry and tired.  Here's some random updates:

I GOT MY NEW BIKE!!



look at that sweet carbon work

I got full custody of it at 9 PM on Friday, April 12th.  Little irritated I got it so late that night, but hey, at least I got it.  Took it for a ride around Palmer Lake on Saturday.  Needed 70 miles.  Probably not the smartest idea to have my maiden voyage be that long, but I had training to do.  It was ridiculously windy, so we cut it short at 50 miles and then I initiated the new bike to 20 miles on the trainer.

My random impressions/thoughts:

• the bike is PURTY!  They did this irridescent pearl coat and this bike is blingy in the sun.  Seriously.
• Bike weighed 17 lbs 5 oz without pedals.  LIGHT
• leg geometry seems to be spot on.  I've done 2 long rides and my legs really don't feel wiped out afterwards. 
• I'm still not sold on the bar tape.  Its a bit too neon green and kinda clashes.  However, its comfy and I will notice it in transition.  And I don't have the energy to swap it out right now.
• Carbon frames are soooo awesome on cracks and chip seal.  There's this stretch just south of Palmer Lake that's pretty rough, and I'm usually going along muttering "ouch, ooof, ouch" on my aluminum frame.  The carbon really absorbs nearly everything.  Amazing!
• The bike isn't the "magic bullet" for climbing.  I was hoping it would be, but I knew that in reality, it wouldn't.  Palmer Lake felt pretty hard, but my friend (on her TT bike) thought that day felt harder than it should have.  I attempted Deer Creek and Highgrade this past weekend.  The canyon part wasn't bad but I was doubtful I'd make it past the first switchback.  I had to stop too much (3x) to catch my breath.  I gave myself a pep talk after the first switchback and made it through the second one and to the guardrail, where Highgrade really gets steep.  I just didn't have it in me to continue so I bailed and turned around.  Legs felt ok, but my breathing and HR would not cooperate.  Maybe due to training fatigue, maybe due to my lungs being angry at me all week.  I'll keep trying and we'll make it up on the new bike eventually.
• I have got to - NEED TO - spend more time in aero to get my forearms used to things.  Last Saturday, I was trying to make myself stay 15 min in aero in the last hour of my ride and I just couldn't do it.  My neck hurt, my arms hurt at the contact point with my pads.  And my index finger went numb and stayed numb for hours after the ride.  The only solution to this is more time on the bike.  I need to get used to this or 112 miles will be ugly.

I've been running up hills, which is new to me.  I've been instructed to do "easy runs on rolling hills", which is an oxymoron if I've ever heard of one.  I did a 10 mile run that had 1,000 feet gain and it actually felt good.  Weird!

We invested in a brewery and they had their first event the night after my maiden 70 mile voyage on the bike.  I had to make it awkward when they asked for volunteers, by explaining my training and asking for the option to sit down while volunteering.  Way to make an impression, Erin.....  The event was really good.  They rented out the Presidential Suite of a historic hotel and had ~30 people in for a tasting.  They had 4 beers.  a wild-yeast Saison, a british IPA, a chocolate stout, and a salted porter.  I think the salted porter would be BRILLIANT after a long bike ride in the summer.  They promised us dinner but all that they had was pretzels.  FAIL.  So we ate dinner at 10:30 PM.  Not awesome.

My nutition isn't all that great, I really haven't found a groove.  I've been travelling to Phoenix, and they keep getting bread-heavy food for working lunches.  And I'm starving, so I eat it.  And then I feel crappy because I ate bread.  I've also been relying on take-out too much.  Q'doba, cupcakes, Jamba Juice.  I need to spend some time getting good food and prepping it, so I can eat better. 

I'm also still fiddling around with my traning nutrition.  I've been going back and forth between Skratch Labs and First Endurance EFS for my drink mix.  I like Skratch but it doesn't have much in the way of calories, so I have to carry around a ton of food.  EFS has more calories, so less food is needed.  But the new bike only has room for 2 bike bottles or my 40 oz Profile bottle.  So I need to figure out how I'm going to store more drink mix and/or just do water and then have some Liquid Shot for calories/electolytes.  I really don't know what my plan is.  I'll probably just try something at St George and see if it works.  And I'll probably NEED to stop at special needs in CDA to re-up my nutrition.  Its probably a good thing I can't carry a ton of fluids anymore, because it is HEAVY.  And I really can't be carrying around extra pounds of water while climbing hills in a race.

And oh, I have a 70.3 in less than 2 weeks.  How the hell did that happen?  Why am I not more freaked out about this?

Climbing Hills

One of my reasons for signing up for IMCDA is that I knew that I would have to get better at climbing hills to be successfull in finishing the race.  See, I have had a hard time with hills.  A little over 2 years ago, I lived in the flatlands of Houston, where the largest "hills" were the highway overpasses.  Then I signed up for the Boise 70.3 (June 2010).  I would drive up to Chappell Hill to train, where these little 300 (?) ft hills would kill me.  Seriously, I'd get to the top and wonder how I was supposed to race the hills of Boise which were ~double or triple the size of what I was training on.  I was having nightmares about walking my bike up the hills during the race.

Then I moved out here and learned what real hills were like.  I'd purposely avoid the challenging ones, assuming that they were too hard.  After IMTX, I did a "classic" ride from Boulder to Jamestown, up Lefthand Canyon.  If a) my friend wasn't way ahead of me and b) there wasn't a promise of pancakes and bacon at the top, I would have turned around.  That 8 mile climb kicked my ass.  (stats: 8 miles, 1300 ft elev gain, ~3% slope). 

Then last year, on very little training, I had the brilliant idea to do the Boulder Epic Century ride.  That proved to be a funny (now, much later) lesson on getting my ass handed to me.  Lets just say that the bar for "hard" has been set pretty low.  A ride isn't "hard" as long as my Garmin doesn't auto-pause on me (because I'm going so slow) and/or a spider isn't spinning a web on my handlebars as I'm riding.  Yeah, that ride sure was epic.

Also: I sure can be a moron at times. 

So yeah, with my awesome history on hills, I decided to sign up for a ridiculously hilly 70.3 (St George - what am I thinking?!?!) and IMCDA, which has 5,500 ft of climbing.  That is more climbing than I've done on a single ride. 

I figured there was no way I would make myself climb hills on my own (they're scary!) so I'd sign up for scary races and force myself to climb hills.

I hired a local coach who won her age group at CDA last year.  I figured she'd know the course and would know the area well enough to get me trained up for the race.  Last week, she informed me that I would be riding Deer Creek Canyon and High Grade for my Saturday ride.  *gulp*  I know that Michelle and her training buddy ride on this road regularly.  I also have several (really good) cycling friends who mentioned riding up Deer Creek to train for St. George.  I was afraid but I knew that I didn't have any other choice than to just do it.

I decided that I would do the ride by myself.  That way I wouldn't have any extra pressure put on me.  If I needed to rest, I could rest.  If I needed to walk (or worse, turn around) I could do so and not feel like I was holding someone up.  Basically, I was giving myself permission to do the ride on my own terms, without time limits.  I would just ride and see how I went and not worry about the clock.  The goal was to make it up, not to make it up in record time.


*gulp*

Since I don't have my Alchemy bike yet, I took my road bike.  I started at South Platte Park, so I could get in a good 5 miles as a warm-up before entering the canyon.  At the turn-off into the canyon, I ran into two women who were riding into the canyon.  One woman (older) said she rides the canyon once a week.  The other woman looked scared out of her wits.  When I told them I was riding up to High Grade and Conifer, the both looked scared and mentioned something about a 13% grade.  Oof.  Just keep an open mind and keep pedalling.  That was my mission.

So the ride up the canyon was suprisingly decent.  I had on too many clothes, so I stopped at at turn-out and stripped off my tights and jacket.  It was shorts and a short-sleeved top for me!  And no sunscreen.  I need to remember to put some on.  I got to the top of what I think was the canyon and made the left hand turn onto Deer Creek Road, which eventually turns into High Grade and then eventually turns into Pleasant Park Road.  The signs weren't very prominent and I really didn't know where I was.  As an added feature, I had zero cell signal, so my GPS map wouldn't load.  Fun!  I just keep going up the hill - it didn't matter what road I was on.

Then I hit some switchbacks.  Ok, done.  Then I came to a section that had steep rock faces and a guardrail.  I still didn't know where I was, but I was really hoping that I was on High Grade, as I was afraid for my near future if I hadn't yet made it to that section of road. 

not my photo, but you get the idea. 

definitely not in town (or flat)!

As I'm riding, I'm noticing that I'm getting closer to the top of the foothills that are surrounding me.  And there's snow on the ground.  But its all good, because I wasn't dying!  I finally saw a sign confirming that I was on Pleasant Park Road, which meant that the switchbacks and guard rails was High Grade.  I survived!


one of my stops on Pleasant Park.  Look at the snow on the left side of the road!

I did stop on High Grade once to use my inhaler.  And I stopped two more times on Pleasant Park to catch my breath.  Both stops were quick, just enough to calm my breathing down.  Considering that I was too sick to ride outside 2 weeks ago, I think I was doing really well!  Legs were a bit tired, but not dead.  And I was actually not hating life. 


View from the top!  Look, you can see big snow-capped mountains from here!

I made it to the Old School House, which is made up into a little cycling rest-stop with picnic tables and a portable toilet.  There were a bunch of cyclists there but I had mapped my ride to Conifer, so I just kept going.  It was a bit of uphill, a bit of downhill, and a bit of flats.  And it was COLD.  I went until the road made a downhill switchback into Conifer, where I decided that I was done climbling switchbacks.  I had cell signal again, so I texted Will to let him know I was alive, and then I put on all of my layers for the descent.

Stats for the climb:  time- 2:18, 21.28 miles, 3608 feet.

And yes, I may have done a little happy dance.  I was damn proud of myself.

I rode back down the the Old School House and decided that since I'd only had 1 hrs worth of drink mix in 2+ hours that I should stop and have a bite to eat (SunRype Strawberry Fruit Source bar) and some drink mix (First Endurance EFS).  I hung out for 5-10 minutes, eavesdropping on a conversation.  Then I decided it was time to head down.

Damn, it was cold.  I was roasting on the way up and freezing on the way down.  And since I took off my clothes and tied them across my waist during the climb, they were now damp... making things colder.  And I only had my fingerless cycling gloves.  Brrr.  I normally love to bomb downhills, but given that my fingers were frozen, there was some sand/gravel on the road, and I really didn't know the road that well, I took my time.  I actually road my brakes most of the way down.  I was just so afraid of my fingers being too numb to operate the brakes that I just took it easy.  Honestly, the way down was much worse than the way up.  That's something I didn't think was possible. 

Deer Creek Canyon - how pretty is this?!?

Victory smile!

Even though it was freezing, I road down with a HUGE grin on my face.  Not only did I make it to the top, I
actually think I did the climb pretty well.

After I got out of the canyon, I had ~18 miles to do around Chatfield.  That wasn't so much fun, but I think its just because I'm not used to riding my road bike.  And I hate the saddle that's on the road bike.  At 60 miles, I made it back to the truck and called it a day.  Total climbing for the ride was 4,260 ft.  Phew!

And then I got a hard earned chocolate cupcake.  I devoured it in about 30 seconds flat.  I was hungry!

When I got home, I send my coach a victory text.  To which she replied: good - you'll be doing that ride weekly!

*gulp*

I definitely think I'll get good at climbing hills after this race.  Wow.