I'm Officially Half an Ironman!

Saturday was my big debut at the Half Ironman distance during the Redman Triathlon in Oklahoma City!

More details to come as I continue to decompress from the race.  It wasn't nearly as miserable as I thought it would be and the course is a great beginner friendly course.  The volunteers and spectators were awesome!

I finished 4th in the Athena division and approx. 128 out of 168 women. 

50 Miles with the ladies

A few weeks ago on September 11th I had my final big training ride before my half ironman.  I met up with the Team HCWDI crew.  HCWDI stands for Holy Crap We Did It! and is a great group of friends that I sometimes train with. 

On this weekend, we ran into storm chances on Saturday that led to postponing the brick workout until Sunday.  I was travelling on Sunday and had time constraints which meant I could only fit in the bike ride.  The group was made up of Mark and Cord and then for the ladies it was Pauline, Kayle and myself.  Mandy was going to ride with us but she was sick and had to skip out. 

The ladies were ready to go before the guys so we headed out.  Our plan was to do a couple out and backs to hit 3 1/2 hours on the bike.  The route we selected was fairly flat like we would get on our goal race.  The morning was a little chilly but was gorgeous and sunny.  Our turnaround spot was at 16 miles so we headed back and stopped at a gas station for a potty stop.  While we were at the gas station I made a dumb move and walked my bike backwards.  The clips on my pedals swung up and sliced up my leg.  All of a sudden, my leg was bleeding pretty badly.  I went into the gas station and got some gauze and the ever helpful duct tape to craft a makeshift bandage.  We still had 30 miles to go after all!

Impromptu bandage!

Wounded at mile 22 and still bleeding after 30 more miles

The guys caught up to us while we are the gas station tending to my wound.  We were still waiting for the bathroom to free up which had us extremely worried.  No one likes to use a restroom after someone has been in it for a long time! After a few more minutes, we finally were all able to get my leg wrapped in duct tape so that the bandage would stay on for my ride.  I thanked the gas station attendant for the help and made sure to make a purchase on our next stop there an hour later. 

For the remainder of our ride, we picked some out and back additions so that we would hit our time goals.  I ended up with 52 miles in just under 3 1/2 hours and was pretty pleased with the ride.  I didn't have any time to run after and instead had to rush home to get ready for my work trip. 

It's Been A While

Hey blog friends! It's been a few weeks since my last post.  I had a crazy busy week after labor day and then spent most of last week on a trip for work.  I'm slowly catching up on my blog reading and I'm going to try to get back to posting on a regular basis.

This weekend was very rainy which required some changes to my training plan.  I'm one week out from my half Ironman and in the midst of taper down for the race.  I wanted to get a good bike ride in this weekend but the rain got in the way of that.  I instead got my bike on by using the indoor trainer for 2 hours.  I'm so lucky to have won a CycleOps Jet Fluid Pro Trainer from Steve in a Speedo a few months ago.  That trainer makes all the difference in being able to do longer trainer rides. 

I found a movie on the Lifetime Movie Network that was interesting enough but didn't require much thought to follow along.  I took it easy for the majority of the ride but used the commercial breaks to go into a harder gear for seated climbs.  Just before the hour mark on the bike my lawn care guy showed up out of the blue.  I missed the guys the last time they were at the house but mainly he was stopping by to see how fast the grass was growing now that the temps are cooling off.  I was planning a stop at the hour so it was perfect timing.

While I was off the bike, I took the time to fill up a glass with some water since I was thirsty and then I headed back to the bike.  I had stocked a bar stool next to the bike with the TV remote, my cell phone, drinks, and snacks.  I got a little bored and texted a friend of mine who is also doing the same half ironman next week.  I asked her how long she did her trainer ride and had a nice text chat for a few minutes.  She mentioned that she was doing a brick and provided me with the motivation to do a brick too.  I've been slacking in the bricks this training cycle and it was good to get a reminder on how important they are.

I finished up with 2 hours on the bike and then headed out for a short run.  I purposely left my Garmin at home and just ran by feel.  I wasn't planning for the run so I had to throw on a more supportive sports bra on top of my comfy tank with a non-supportive shelf bra.  My run route had some fun hills but luckily I got more downhill than uphill.  I also managed to beat the rain for most of the run but wouldn't you know it really started to come down right when I got to my street and had the 1/3 mile hill from h*ll to finish.  I won't lie I just can't manage this hill so I considered it a cooldown and walked it in!

Sunday was back to the indoor pool for the Sunday Swim Crew! I love my swim crew and today was another fun workout.  I modified the workout slightly so that it wasn't quite as long and was more taper like.  Our main set was supposed to be 6 x 375 which went  like this 100, 25, 100, 25, 100, 25.  Sets 1 and 4 were stroke on the 25s, 2 and 5 were kick, and 3 and 6 were pull.  I did the first 3 sets complete and then switched to 275's for the final 3 with 200 free and 75 stroke, kick, pull.  We finished this off with 2 x 50 sprints.  My goal was to hit 52 sec on the 50's and I surprised myself by hitting right around 40 sec.  Not bad!!! We finished off the workout by hanging out in the hot tub for a few minutes. 

Weekend Recap

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend.  I took a few days to go visit my sister and her family.  My sister and brother-in-law are training for their first sprint triathlon.  They are doing the Tie Dye Tri which I have done the past two years.  Instead of racing that this year, I am doing the Redman Half Iron distance race.  It works out great since my race is on Saturday and their race is on Sunday so we can have a family triathlon race weekend! Only 3 weeks to go and I think we are all feeling a little nervous!

This trip, I took my bike with me so that we could get some training in together.  I had a 50 mile ride on deck for Saturday.  Lindsey investigated local bike routes and she and I headed out at 7AM to do a 23 mile loop.  The route was really pretty with rolling hills.  We saw a couple of small groups but for the most part had the area to ourselves.  When we got back, I refilled my water bottles and changed partners.  Next up was Tim's turn to ride with me.

Tim and I headed out to do the same course in reverse.  We hit our first red light and Tim asked if we could run it...I of course said no (law abiding citizen award for me!) We hit the next major light and out of nowhere we were surrounded by a group of 15-20 cyclists.  It was super funny and we ended up on the same route as the group for the first 8 miles or so.  That ended up as an aggressive and hilly 8 miles that tuckered me out for the next 8.  I paid for those aggressive hills with a couple of lackluster miles until a pit stop for some Gatorade.  I had to teach my brother in law another important lesson...always fill up your bottles if you can at a gas station.  You never know if you'll make a wrong turn...don't worry we didn't make any wrong turns!

Tim and I added on a couple of miles so that I hit 48 miles total. He was able to get me to run a red light on campus that was at a stop walk with no pedestrians anywhere near (law breaking citizen award, boo!)  I thought 48 hilly miles was equal to 50 flat so I called it good for the day.  Sadly, I didn't have any motivation to run off the bike so I called it a day.  Bad triathlete...hopefully I'll make up for that with some shorter bricks over the next few weeks.

Sunday morning I headed out with Lindsey to do a long run.  We met up with her running buddies on campus.  We did about 8 miles together on one of their routes.  One of Lindsey's buddies usually runs the last few miles with her dog Dandy.  Lindsey and I ran Pennie home to pick up Dandy and then they came back to campus with us to hit 12 miles.  We were going to walk the mile home but I got to thinking about chocolate milk during mile 12 and couldn't imagine how long it would take to walk mile 13.  We ended up doing a 2 min run/walk combo over that mile.  This got us to just over a half marathon for the day! It was more than I had planned to run but definitely will help boost my confidence over the next few weeks. 

It's so fun to see Lindsey and Tim train for their first triathlon.  I am so lucky that they have been part of my cheering squad for the last 3 seasons and I can't wait to pay them back by cheering for their first one!

A Little Indoor Rain

This afternoon I experienced a very strange sensation, indoor rain.  Well, it actually wasn't rain it was sweat dripping off me during a Hot Yoga class.  I've been experiencing some tightness in my right hamstring and glute so I decided to head to a yoga class to try to get loosened up. 

Our local yoga studio is a hot yoga studio that offers a variety of classes.  I headed to class and packed a towel to lay over my mat and a Bondi Band to help sop up the sweat that I knew would be coming.  My mat spot was near one of the portable heaters and there were times when it was a little tough.  I also packed a polar bottle of ice water and I had to stop a couple of times for a breather and sip of water.

The class today was a Flow class.

Flow-
Based on the Baron Baptiste Power Vinyasa method.
“Power Vinyasa Yoga is an ultimate experience for people who are ready to tap both their physical and spiritual power.
The practice is a combination of different traditions of yoga that combine for a dynamic mix of sweat and spirit. It will tone your body and electrify your mind. It is a flow that has many different levels which allow for beginners, intermediate and advanced students to be challenged in the same class.
The classes are taught in a heated room to help cleanse the body and warm the muscles. This flow will torch calories, tone your body, and relax your mind.” Baron Baptiste
I really enjoyed the flow between sun salutations and warrior poses.  I got a bit of a chuckle when the instructor had us move into a tripod type pose.  Her comment was that if we waited until the end of the class we would all be too tired and too sweaty for it to work.  At this point I was already dripping sweat and my knees were slipping off my arms. 

The other chuckle I had happened throughout the class.  You see I had a case of a runny nose.  All I could think of was the movie How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days.  There is a scene when Kate Hudson's character is interrupting Matthew McConaughey's guys night and gives him a kleenex because "No one likes a Mr. Sniffles!"  I was dying of the sniffles during the class and trying so hard not to be disruptive.

One of the hard things for me at hot yoga is how much sweat I generate.  I feel very self conscious of it but I know that others are also sweating.  When class finished today I was able to squeeze sweat out of my bondi band (I waited until I was outside to do it!)  The instructor brought cold towels around during Shavasana and it felt great.  Overall, hot yoga is something I should be doing more often. 

Today I Became a Dam Idiot!

The Arkansas Masters Swimming club put on a very unique event today.  Our fearless club president,
Jeff Spencer, came up with the idea to swim a 40 mile relay from the southern edge of our local lake to the dam at the northern edge of the lake.  The event was called The Long Dam Swim and all of the participants got to leave with the moniker of Dam Idiot!

I was assigned mile 38 in the relay.  The event kicked off Friday evening at 5:30 PM and finished around 2:30 PM on Saturday.  Around 62 swimmers participated which meant most of the miles were covered by a group of 2-4 swimmers.  The swimmers were protected by a flotilla of kayaks, jet skis, and ski boats.  This event was a logistical challenge with swimmers being given pick up locations and times for various boat ramps along the 40 mile route.  My pick up spot was just across from the dam where we finished up the swim. 

Our group was picked up by a boat and we met up with the rest of the flotilla and then got under way.  Mile 37 was covered by two of my friends Carie and Kyla.  Mile 38 was myself, AJ, and Jason who was challenged to participate in the event by a friend.  It was Jason's first open water swim ever and he did great.  Our mile was fairly easy except we had some confusion on where we were finishing up so we all ended up doing more zig zagging than we would have liked.  We ended up doing around 1.2 miles which was great for me.  The water was clean and cool and there wasn't a lot of wake. 

The final group headed out to swim across the dam headway and we all drove across the dam to the park site where our post swim party was going to be.  A couple of us went ahead and swam out to meet the final swimmers and enjoy more of the relaxing lake water.  The post race party was a nice potluck with hot dogs and snacks under a pavilion.  Below are some pics from the event that other participants shared on Facebook. 

This is the logo for the event and if you look at the tail of the Beaver you can see a sketch of the lake and the route.  Pretty clever logo!  Below is the full version of the map which shows just how crazy shaped our lake is!

Hot Springs 10 Miler

Recently I travelled to Hot Springs, Arkansas for a work trip.  I was in town for a fishing tournament and managed to sneak away one morning for a long run.  My hotel was in town and close to Bathhouse row.  Hot Springs is actually a National Park site that is really well tended by the National Park Service.  There are a couple restored bath houses still in operation and you can spot the thermal springs around the town. 

I headed out without a plan or route in mind.  I wanted to try and get the 10 miles on my plan done but wasn't sure if I would.  I went ahead an packed my water belt with Gu and a cold bottle of water.  I went from my hotel to Bathhouse Row.  There was a nice shade along the front of the bath houses and all the park service staff were out cleaning and doing yard work. 



I ran for a little while and encountered a Y intersection.  There was a sign nearby that contained a map for one of the tourist bus stops.  I stopped and tried to figure out where I was on the map so that I could figure out a route. Thankfully a cafe worker came by and showed me where we were.  She directed me back the way I had come from to the Arlington Hotel where I could take Fountain Street to a loop road that I could run on.  This road is a 3 mile one-way road that leads to the Hot Springs Mountain Tower.  That was definitely a new experience which included almost 1 1/2 miles of an uphill climb to the top.  I wasn't very fast on the climb but I did make it to the top and the view was worth it. 

This is a view from my hotel to the Mountain Tower. 

I headed back down the mountain and then did some back and forth on the main road of Central Ave.  I ended up back at my hotel doors at the 10 mile mark.  It was a great turnout for an unplanned route. 

After that hill, I enjoyed the flat road along Bathhouse Row

One of the other fun things I discovered during my run were the free water stops.  There are several mineral springs water dispensers throughout the town.  The first one that I stopped at delivered cool water and I was pretty happy about it.  I stopped at a different one a little while later and didn't notice the sign that stated it was a thermal water spring. 

In my defense, this sign did not face the street side so I totally missed it.

Free water stops throughout the town.

Yep, I filled my bottle with hot water.  Not a good thing in mid-80 degree weather.  I headed back to the first water stop and the locals were nice enough to let me skip the line and refill.  It was crazy how much water they were filling up on.  One person had a pickup bed full of different types of jugs that he was filling up.  But hey, free mineral water isn't a bad thing!