November Round Up

 Ah, November. Where the off-season mental break continued and it was glorious. Let's read on, shall we?

Swimming: 2200m (1.37 mi)
Cycling: 10 mi
Running: 13.31 mi
Lifting: 8 sessions (2:29)
Other: one walk (2:00), three sessions yoga (:40)

My brain and my body were very clear in that I needed to continue my break, so I did. About halfway through the month I finally decided I wanted to move at least a little bit every day, so I have. Which meant I started running again - just a little bit (clearly, given the numbers), got on the bike, and got back in the pool a little. 

As I'm getting old and stiff in the morning, I've been doing yoga a touch more and it's felt good.

I'm still planning on more structured training starting up in January, but I'm hoping to continue the movement into December. I may also try to do the Stomp the Trainer 500 (or the smaller 250 version) between Christmas and New Year's again, but we'll see.

October Round Up

October was an interesting month. Much like this whole year has been interesting. Read on ...

Swimming: 3500m (2.17 mi)
Cycling: 87 mi
Running: 41.22 mi
Lifting: 8 sessions (2:31)
Other: one session elliptical (:10), one session erg (:05), two walks (1:05)

I had Memphis, which went pretty well, all things considered (see previous post) and then I decided to take the next week completely off because of travel and, well, off-season.

Then, right as I was maybe starting to get back into things, I came down with what I thought was a cold or allergies (and probably still was allergies as well, given the sneezing) - actually, I/we got the 'rona. I never fully lost taste, but I did lose smell. B lost both. We did exercise through it, but it was definitely at a lower intensity (and only from the house).

Coming back from that has been interesting ... and I decided to not fight it anymore. I'll keep moving throughout the rest of the year, but I won't start officially OFFICIALLY training for Placid until January. I think my brain needs the time to reset, so I'll give it that.

In other good news, I've actually changed up my lifting and I think it's going well. I also, as you see, have started adding in a bit of random cardio which I think is also going to be good for the system.

Race #4 of the Season: Ironman Memphis 70.3

I knew after Boulder what I needed to work on. Mainly, riding my damn bike and getting in bike miles.

Did I do those things? Well ... not so much, if you saw my September recap post. Mostly because of my body but also because, well, I'm kind of ready for this year to be done. I released that what will be, will be, and whatever was going to happen was going to happen.

*****

Since apparently every 70.3 this year is on a Saturday (so ... weird ...), we left CO on Wednesday. We left later than we perhaps normally would have for a long drive, but that's because I had a gastro appointment that morning that I really didn't want to cancel. The butt had basically calmed down, but better safe than sorry, right? 

(really, I just need to watch the amount of fat in my diet and keep an eye on things and I probably just had some really annoying parasite that didn't want to leave my colon/stomach. probably nice in there. i dunno.)

Day one was to Tulsa and then on to Memphis. We both somehow messed up our check-in times, but we got checked in no problem and then to a very disappointing merch tent. APPARENTLY there were coffee mugs, but I had no idea about those until someone posted about them post-race. Guess they were all sold out by the end of the first day of check-in. Name tees were also not showing up until sometime the next day. I get supply-chain issues, but geez.

We did a nice little shakeout run along a bit of the run course and I almost died from the humidity. Greeeeat. Although, there are buffalo in Shelby Farms Park, which is cool ... and also why the race shirt has a buffalo on it. Because otherwise I would NOT associate "Memphis" with "buffalo."

Saturday morning we headed over for a pre-race swim in the lake thing ... but I misread stuff and apparently we needed to wear our timing chips for it. Dang it. I knew we had to check-in on Thursday in order to swim on Friday, but that was in order to get a timing chip. Ugh. So no swim for us. Instead of swimming, I left B at the park to wait for the store (and shirts) while I went back over to the hotel to get our bikes and bike stuff to get in a quick ride to make sure everything there was functional before bike check-in.

Ride done ... bikes checked in.

B staring at his bike, knowing this might be the last time he races it in a triathlon ... or at least a long-distance one.

Hopefully see you tomorrow, finish line!

Grabbed lunch after, picked up race food on the way back to the hotel (pickle chicken), and then just chilled out the rest of the day until it was time to walk to Waffle House for pre-race breakfast-for-dinner.

*****

Race Day

While we're smart enough to not check forecasts TOO obsessively, the one fact that we couldn't ignore was that it looked like rain was going to be a thing. It rained the evening before and was raining as we sat outside Waffle House at 4a waiting for the employees to get off break so we could get some breakfast.

(funny note about Waffle House here: we were chatting with some of the others waiting outside with us and one of the guys was race support for another athlete. he then became known as "Waffle House guy" and we actually saw him quite a bit over the course of the day - coming out of the swim and a few times on the run. "Waffle House guy" does have a name - Brian - and he found B on Facebook a few days later.)

Food eventually gotten, we made our way over to Shelby Farms Park. Trans opened at 5a and that's about the time that we pulled into the long train of cars waiting to park. The line was very slowly moving and we considered heading off into the field like a few others were doing ... but then we saw a pickup truck spinning its wheels, seemingly stuck in the mud. Um, we'll wait right here, thanks. In what ended up being a happy stroke of luck, we were guided to park just off the main road (still in the mud) as opposed to the GIANT FIELD OF MUD.

All parked, it was time to walk the mile or so to transition. In the rain.

Rainy walk.

Given the rain, we knew our transition set up would be a bit different - no main trans towel, shoes in plastic bags to attempt to keep stuff marginally dry - and tire pressure would be a bit lower than normal. We also learned that the water temp, despite the rain, went up a degree from the day prior so the swim would not be wetsuit legal (unless you wanted to start at the back, which neither of us really did).

One tiny COVID perk - non-pre-assigned race numbers meant we were right near each other in transition.

We did get word that the race start was delayed, but were unsure as to *why*. Later word is probably because of the parking shitshow and to ensure athletes could actually get into transition and set up.

We did eventually make our way down to the swim start and hang out (in the cold rain) until things got going.

The Swim:

We both seeded ourselves in the 46-50 minute group - me because that's where I live (and it worked out for Boulder) and B because he hadn't swum much. 

Getting in the water took an extra few seconds since we were funneled into small little chutes and released every three seconds. Well, the woman in front of me was still edging her way in when it was my turn and I didn't have a lot of space to hop in. 

Made my way in and started swimming. I think I didn't have my aero top zipped up enough or something because it felt like it ballooned some ... not ideal. Probably created a lot of drag.

Sighting went okay, not great. Part of that was the buoy placement (in talking with other athletes post-race).

Other general swim notes:
- I got beat up the most in that swim than any other IM swim I've done. I discovered bruises on me a few days later that I was like, yep, that's from where I got kicked.
- Amusingly enough, I didn't notice it stopped raining briefly during the swim until I actually noticed raindrops. Which obviously the brain processed as, "oh, it must have stopped raining for a second."
- Buoys were all, on your right until randomly NO LEFT LEFT LEFT and then they were on the left for like the last few?
- Also about those last few buoys - rounding them felt like swimming backwards or being in a giant suction vent trying to suck me back toward the buoy (also not the only person to feel this way)

Other swim note: it was a SLOW HORRIBLE SWIM and not just for me. I saw my watch and was not a happy athlete.

Ugh, FFS ...

Well, time to move on ...

Time: 1:00:04 (61st division, 476th gender, 1502nd overall)

T1:

Run to T1 was long. Actually, for everyone doing this race, transitions were long. AND OMG MUDDY. Okay, the mud was because of the weather, but still.

I do want to pat myself on the back for a quick second as I acknowledged my absolute shit swim and then decided to NOT DWELL ON IT. Or worry about time cuts since "oh shit that was slow and now I have a rainy bike and oh shit it's gonna be slower and oh shit ..." ... because I didn't. At all.

I ran almost all the way into T1 slowing only at the super muddy tight turn into transition since I didn't want to eat it on the grass. I considered wiping a lot of the mud and grass off my feet, but realized it would probably be pointless, so I didn't bother. 

Some volunteers were saying if you have a jacket, put it on ... but the only one I had would have turned me into a sail so I just didn't bother.

I am thankful my cleats didn't pick up too much mud as I was able to clip in at the mount line. Thankfully.

I also, should note, that B did beat me out of the swim (as he does), so I was hoping I'd maybe see him on the bike.

Time: 6:26

The Bike:

So, in all my years of racing, I've never officially had the bike section in the rain. A minor exception to this could be the Big Sky Duathlon from back in ... 2014? ... since it did precipitate on me, but that was mostly hail and snow, NOT rain. Although I did have wet roads. It also misted or ... whatever ... on me at IMoo, but it didn't really truly start raining until deep into the run that day.

So this was a new one for me. I took it easy leaving Shelby Farms Park as was advised, but was able to get up to decent speed fairly early on. I did, however, take corners a lot easier than normal (mostly to start braking sooner). Yay for reading an article about bike racing in the rain the day before!

This picture gives you a good sense of the weather we had for the bike. It wasn't always super pouring rain, but I don't think the rain ever truly stopped while I was out there.

Slow cornering. Trademark wonky helmet. I also know these two photos were from early on in the bike due to my right shoe - hard to tell, but the strap wasn't done and I noticed that early and had to fix it.

Realized early on that I was going to be eating slightly soggy chicken - great. I also didn't eat any of my Bobo's bar until later than I normally would have since I was having issues opening the package in the rain. I didn't open it prior to the bike since I wanted the oatmeal bar to have a chance of NOT completely disintegrating into mush, but the trade-off was attempting to open it with wet hands while riding. My teeth eventually did the job.

In terms of nutrition, I did probably the best I have for a half. We kept being advised to hydrate more than we think we'd need to given the rain, so I drank probably the equivalent of two full bottles of Skratch and 2-3 bottles of straight water (I never drink this much in a half). I ate a full Bobo's bar and almost all of the 1.5 chicken patties I had. 

This might be why I had a really good bike.

I noticed fairly early on that I was having a pretty decent ride. All my five mile beeps were well ahead of where I like them to be (a 20:00 5 mile split means I'm averaging 15mph - I like being under that) and the legs felt pretty good.

The universe maybe tried to mess with that with the wasp sting I got around 20 miles in (maybe sooner - before the first aid station) - I turned some corner and felt a sharp sting in my knee - look down and there was a wasp/yellow jacket (definitely NOT a bee) - brushed it aside, complained ow, but could do nothing but pedal on. Asshole.

Went back and forth with a few people, as you do.

The open course made it a bit interesting at times - I definitely ended up having to pass a car on their left at one point which I was NOT a fan of - and it also meant that I cruised at a lower speed than I maybe normally would have during a few sections to also not pass cars. 

(this also meant that I tried to wave to as many cars as possible as a "hi thanks for not killing me" and "hi thanks for letting me/us use your roads today")

One nice perk about riding in the rain is that all the mud that was on my legs from running into transition? Yeah, it all got washed off.

Other than that, most people were pretty awesome. There were a few idiots - as always - but most of my fellow athletes were nice. Huge shoutout to the guy who warned me about the giant branch in the middle of the road that I wouldn't have seen until it was too late to avoid it. That would have been ugly.

As a race nitpick, I did not see ANY race support/officials on the bike course. No cars with the "IRONMAN SUPPORT" signs in the windshields and no officials on motorcycles. I'm sure they were probably out there, but it was weird to not see a one as I always do. I also do hope that they were ACTUALLY out there as, with the weather, there were a LOT of athletes on the side of the road with flats and other issues.

One of the drier moments.

Sticking my tongue out. As I do.

The thing that most astounded me was how well I was riding. I also never saw B, so I figured he was also having an amazing bike.

I rode so well, as it was, that I ended up getting a 70.3 bike PR by like two minutes.

Time: 3:19:47 (36th, 241st, 1040th)

T2:

Then I got into transition ... and I didn't see B's bike. And I never passed him. Oh ... shit.

I actually dug into my trans bag to check my phone to see if there were any missed notifications from anyone about him. A missed spam call and texts from his mom who was tracking us, but nothing major. Okay, chill out.

I got ready to run somewhat slowly - I didn't bother body gliding my feet as I usually do since there was no way I could get them dry enough for it to matter - and I definitely went to the bathroom as I had been needing to do that for a little while. 

Thankfully, about the time I was attempting to figure my way out of the mud pit that was transition without totally soaking my feet in mud puddles was when B rolled in. Apparently he took a two minute pee break at one of the aid stations and in that two minutes is when I passed him on course. 

We decided to do the run together at that point, so I just hung out until he was ready to go.

Which is why I have the slowest ever (for me) T2.

Time: 11:28

The Run:

It actually did dry out some for us on the run. It rained a little, but for the most part, it was the driest part of the day.

Except for my feet. So many puddles. My feet were so soggy that it actually hurt running on my pruny feet.

The run was two loops and wound its way around Shelby Farms Park. We got to see the buffalo (which was super happy). We had a vague run buddy for a little while - he apparently liked our "run as much as possible and then walk for a count of 20" system - but he wasn't super talkative and we weren't 100% sure why he was sticking with us. He ended up getting slightly ahead of us (and therefore missed when we took a walk break) and then left us for good which both B and I were actually kind of happy with.

I got chips at a vast majority of the aid stations, trying to keep consuming calories. I also did what I forgot to do at Boulder and brought a Skratch packet with me so I could refill my handheld with not just water and ice, but electrolytes too.

B ended up bumming (cold) coffee off one of the aid station volunteers which was somewhat hilarious for all involved.

The back half of the run course wasn't actually three miles - it was like 18 (also corroborated with other athletes). The actual best part of the back half was the St. Jude stretch with pictures of kids when at St. Jude and then later (presumably) in remission.

Loop two was a bit rougher - particularly for B - but we kept together and kept fighting.

I think we saw the photog on the back half of loop one. Obviously there's mature me with the tongue out and I love that B looks like he's dead here.

I might actually like this photo the best for the stoic face of the dude on the left.

While B implored me to leave much earlier (as he often does), I only left him on the final downhill (down and left to the finish), beating him by about the same margin from when I left him at the Saguaro half - 40 seconds.

Beat that woman in the chute running to the finish.

 

Kinda sad I didn't do anything cool - even arms raised - at the finish. Oops.

Time: 2:55:12 (55th, 429th, 1396th)

Overall Stats:

Time: 7:32:55

50/63 division (F35-39)

388/509 gender

1338/1585 overall

In terms of 70.3s, this finished right in the middle. Horrible swim, bike PR, meh run. If I hadn't run the whole thing with B, I definitely would have gone sub-7:30 (if only due to a shortened T2 time), but could I have managed what I did in Boulder? That's a big question and one I don't care to answer. Since I'm thankful I was able to do that run with B, as it might be the last triathlon race run I have the chance to do with him. 

DONE.

Might be the last of these you see from us for quite some time.

The official post-race photo that got sent to the MIL and put on the instas.

*****

Glad I could pull off both my 70.3s this year in decent times and hopefully can get my shit together for IM attempt number 5 next year ...

September Round Up

 I was hoping September would be a lot better than August. Was it? Let's go to the tape, shall we?

Swimming: 9700m (6.02 mi)
Cycling: 136.19 mi
Running: 37.55 mi
Lifting: 13 sessions (2:40)
Other: four hikes (9:29), two walks (2:40)

I did do a bit more of everything this month - more swimming, more cycling, and more running. It wasn't MUCH more, but it was more.

Some of the swims were of decent length. Rides were mostly meh and the runs ... well ... running clearly went to poop for me this month.

Lifting as it is (the daily) has really become me just more going through the motions. 

I was, however, happy with the hiking I got in. One walk was planned and the other one should have been a run but at least got turned into SOMETHING.

IM Memphis 70.3 is tomorrow, and it will be. The humidity may try to kill me, so keep this Colorado (dry climate desert) girl in your thoughts and prayers.

As for what I hope for October ... a respite in structured training. I need to plan what my Placid training cycle will be - and if I want to start that at the first of the year or in November - and how it will look. I may just pull an early- to mid-2010s me and just take the rest of the year "off" (although "off" only in terms of structured, planned workouts). I still want to swim, and bike, and run - and I am actually kind of itching to actually lift in a gym again, surprisingly enough - so we'll see.

August Round Up

 Another month down, and it was kind of crappy. Literally, for half the month. I'll explain ...

Swimming: 7556.87m (4.7 mi)
Cycling: 100.51 mi
Running: 27.08 mi
Lifting: 17 sessions (4:24)
Other: one hike (2:20), one walk (:20), one day whitewater rafting (4:00)

So. Let's chat. Pre-Boulder 70.3, I had a decent-ish training week. Got in a bit of everything and a day of whitewater rafting (clearly I'm a serious type-A triathlete if I'm going to do that four days pre-70.3). 

Let's actually talk about that rafting - so the first time I went whitewater rafting was in college the first time I went to hockey camp. Rafted up near Buena Vista/Salida (Brown's Canyon if you're familiar with that section of the Arkansas) and I LOVED IT. OMG it was great. Did the same section each time I did hockey camp (so like three or four times). All the guides told me that if I loved that, I should raft the Royal Gorge. Half a lifetime later (no, literally), I finally did. I booked us a full-day excursion so we could have some warmup rapids before the full Gorge and it was a blast. Got up to some good Class-IV rapids since the river was actually flowing quite nicely for that time of year. SO MUCH FUN. Even though my shoulder kind of hated me after. It came around for race day and that was all that mattered.

Anyway, so I raced Boulder 70.3. Then I took a few days off after thanks to being dead from being under-trained and from the absolute garbage air quality during the race. Ran a tiny bit and did try to go to the pool (but of course it was closed the day we tried to go pre-B's birthday trip).

Mid-month we went on vacation for B's birthday. We hit up Tucson first (where we hiked and walked - the desert was so green!) and then on to Vegas. Well, I ate some super sketchy salmon at a Cheesecake Factory in Tucson and it came back to haunt me. I was out of commission for a day. A whole bunch of Imodium later and I thought I was okay. I made it through the rest of the trip and got home ...

... and then it came back WITH A VENGEANCE. After four days (in which I'm pretty sure I slightly messed up my hamstrings from being on the toilet so much), I finally called my doctor and got on antibiotics. Clearly I wasn't really working out during this stretch. Then I didn't do much once I got on antibiotics since one of the potential side effects was loose tendons in the knees/ankles and both my doctor and the pharmacist were like, "don't run much kthx."

I've finally gotten back on track this week - five weeks until Memphis! - and so hopefully, September will be a lot better. Hopefully.

Race #3 of the Season: Ironman Boulder 70.3

This race was going to be interesting. I knew that going in.

I won a free entry for it thanks to volunteering for an IRONMAN swim safety video - because we all know I probably would have never chosen to race Boulder again because it's terrible - and it's also nice and "cheap" since I can drive to it and don't have travel costs.

Training, as you well know if you follow this here blog, has been sporadic at best. I think I was mentally always waiting for the other shoe to drop and that it was going to be cancelled. Alas, 'twas not to be.

Though I knew I hadn't trained as much as I would have liked (longest ride was 45 miles), I kept reminding myself that I was already ahead of where I was, mileage-wise, for the entirety of 2011 ... a.k.a. the first year I raced a 70.3. That, combined with 10 years of doing long course triathlon, I knew as long as I had the right mindset going in, I'd be able to finish. It might hurt like hell, but I'd finish.

It was also interesting to note that race day (on a Saturday ... what's with all my 70.3s being on Saturdays this year?) was exactly 10 years to the date of my first 70.3 (Boulder) and 5 years to the date of my second full (Boulder). Clearly I like racing on August 7 in Boulder, Colorado. Or something.

Race Day

Breakfast at the house was hard to choke down for whatever reason. I like my usual egg because it doesn't involve a lot of chewing, but my body was just rejecting it. I forced down one of the two that I made. 

Although transition opened at 4:30, B and I didn't leave the house in order to get there at 4:30. It closed at 7 and I didn't want to sit there for 3.5 hours just stressing. That being said, we probably rolled into Boulder Res around 5:15am. We got parked and walked over to transition.

I left B just outside and went in to set up my stuff near my bike and pump up my tires. And go to the bathroom.

Sun rising outside of transition.

Then, it was mostly just hanging out outside of transition just waiting. I did see a couple tri friends - George and Sarah - which was nice. I knew a handful of people racing as well as volunteering. I was debating on whether to wear my wetsuit - I had swam without it the day before at check-in - but since the swim *was* wetsuit legal and I know I am faster with it, I decided to go for it.

Eventually, it was time to line up for the swim. I seeded myself in the 46-50 minute group. Like in CdA, I thought it might be optimistic - especially given my lack of swim training, but meh. It's where I wanted to be.

Since I had B, I wore flip-flops up until we were on the grass and then handed them over the fence as soon as I saw him. This and all subsequent photos are courtesy of him, btw.

The Swim:

I danced in the swim corral to stay loose (and ended up making the race recap video as a result ... d'oh) and did a great job of just splashing in and swimming - no bobbing needed. 

Swim was mostly uneventful ... except around the second buoy where a few of us got held up thanks to a jet ski in our way that was extracting an athlete. The carbon monoxide fumes from that were delightful.

Other than that, I actually sighted really well, swimming only about an extra 100m than I should have in theory done. I did feel the wetsuit chafe some (le sigh) and I swallowed a crap ton of water, but eh.

There was a huge clog at the exit, but I guess that's to be expected with the way they do the swims now. I saw right around 50 minutes as I got out and was so dang happy.

One funny thing to note - at some point, my Garmin strap came loose - like the band came out of the little thing that holds it from flapping. Well, I noticed it flapping at some point, but since I wasn't going to try to stop and fix it, I just let it be and kept swimming. Well, somehow magically it worked its way back into the thing and stopped flapping. So weird.

Time: 50:17 (64th division, 438th gender, 1247th overall)

T1:

While in these COVID times we didn't have official wetsuit strippers, there was one volunteer (who actually always volunteers up at Boulder and is usually the wetsuit stripper captain) who was offering, so I 100% took him up on his offer. Are you kidding me? I don't want to spend a minute or two fighting with the dang thing; yes please strip it off.

George was actually racked a few bikes down and while he beat me out of the swim, he was still in transition when I got there, so we said hi and exchanged a few words while getting ready to ride.

I took an extra 10 seconds to slather Aquaphor on my neck to hopefully mitigate the chafing disaster later on (and I should have taken a few more to get more of the tiny rocks and sand off my feet but alas), but otherwise, it was nice and efficient as per usual.

Time: 2:58

The Bike:

I saw B as I ran to the mount line and then again after our tiny little out-and-back in the Reservoir, which is how he got this photo:

It me.

And then, it was out the backside of the Res and onto the Diagonal.

I did well eating and drinking on my beeps - drinking my Skratch every five minutes and eating either pickle chicken or Bobo's bar every 10 (rotating in between) - but given how I felt on the run, I probably could have eaten more on the bike. 

I also probably should have eaten a lot more in the week leading up to the race, but alas, I failed in that. Even though I really do know better by now.

I was cruising fairly well even on the shitty Diagonal up on to 63rd (with the two best volunteers directing us either straight to the finish or right onto 63rd - those two kids were freaking awesome). Neva/Niwot was crappier than the last time I rode it, but I told myself to just stay within myself and race my own race and just pedal it on out. I did think I saw teeny tiny little turtles on this stretch, so that was awesome.

For most of the first half of the bike, I was going back and forth with two people. After the third or fourth time passing each other, we started joking about it. I'd pass on the climbs and then get passed on the false flat sections.

The Nelson descent was great as usual ... and the St. Vrain climb, while normally shitty, was made shittier by a headwind rolling in (and with that wind, a lot of smoke from California).

I was so happy to get off St. Vrain so I could speed on 36 ... totally forgetting that we had an out-and-back on Hygiene. Had to slow waaaaaay down for that turn ... and then Hygiene happened.

At one point on Hygiene, the road has a crest where you really can't see below it. Right as I came to this crest, I saw a bike bounce. I slammed on my brakes and there was a rider down. Thankfully, there was some sort of volunteer/race staff on the other side of the road that was running over and got there as I stopped. A male rider right behind me was a nurse and ran to assist. I helped yell at people to slow down coming down Hygiene. Another female nurse was there probably within another 30 seconds. The poor athlete down was twitching and making sounds - I guess they hit their head directly (despite the helmet). Once there was another volunteer/cop going up to slow people down, I left and continued on, knowing that there was nothing else I could do to help. I rode the rest of the Hygiene out-and-back with a heavy heart, trying not to cry, and also swearing that this was the last race I'd ever do up in Boulder since the LAST time we raced up in Boulder in 2016, we saw an athlete die as well.

He was gone as I rode back up, but there was blood on the pavement. THANKFULLY, in an update later on in the IM Boulder 70.3 Facebook group, he's going to make a full recovery, mostly in part due to nurses being on the scene right away to help stabilize him.

The rest of the bike was a focus in discipline, with the wind doing its best to make it super demoralizing (and, in typical Colorado fashion, seemingly always as a headwind). Still, I pushed it as much as I could, knowing I could get sub-3:30 which I really kind of wanted. I was getting out of aero to stretch some (oh lack of bike miles, you came to bite me), but mostly just stuck my head down and pedaled.

Time: 3:25:44 (60th, 371st, 1203rd)

T2:

Oh that was the longest walk with my bike back to my spot. And the guy directly in front of me wasn't moving that quickly and there was no space to pass him which made it feel even more interminable. Regardless, I eventually got back to my space, changed out of my cycling stuff, tossed BodyGlide on the feet, changed into running stuff, and headed out of transition, spotting a friend volunteering on the way out.

Time: 3:18

The Run:

I saw B right as I left transition so I jogged over to the fence to say hi and also about the crash since I think I needed to get it out of my system. We talked a bit and he said he'd try to see me on loop two (spoiler: this did not happen).

The run ... oh, I wasn't running much. The smoke by this point was really pretty terrible and the wind was just relentless. I also think I might have blown a few too many matches on the bike since the first few miles of the run were painful. I saw Zach and Sarah on the run early which was nice (Sarah I think finishing and then Zach was done with loop one). I did stop at a porta potty in mile two to change out my tampon (since yes, that had to be a thing again this race). The stretch on 63rd and the left turn onto Monarch were just horribly brutal thanks to the wind.

When we turned around on Monarch, things were a little better. I chatted with a female triathlete as we walked/ran together for a little bit, but I left her after about maybe a half mile? I was able to pick it up a bit before we got back on the dam, but at that point, the wind became demoralizing again. 

Zach had passed me again sometime on Monarch, but I caught up with him on the final aid station before the turn/split to the finish. 

I also saw tri buddy Aaron at one point - who I didn't know was racing - so that was awesome.

Loop two was also pretty terrible and was mostly about survival. I started taking in chips at most of the aid stations since I was wondering if my problem was lack of food (I did bring my leftover pickle chicken with me and ate that over the course of loop one). My head was hurting and I felt like I could have taken a nap on the side of the course. It might have also been the smoke messing with me - who knows.

With about 3-4 miles to go, I finally decided that okay, you can't run much, but you can run some. So, I counted 20 seconds and then ran for as much as I could - whether it was for a couple steps or a lot more - and that's how I finished out the run. It also helped me focus on something other than how horrible it was out there.

FINALLY almost done.

Finish in sight. Also, no body marking due to COVID, but I did bring a Sharpie with since I wasn't NOT doing my calf smiley. Which everyone loved on the bike.

Time: 3:01:33 (69th, 456th, 1331st)

Overall Stats:
Time: 7:23:49
64/76 F35-39
414/512 gender
1258/1459 overall

Third fastest (second fastest if you take out swim-shortened Santa Cruz) 70.3 I've ever done. Fastest up in Boulder by like 17 minutes (though with a different course each time). 

For not really having trained? I will 100% take it.

It also teaches me that I need to get my ass on the bike a lot more between now and Memphis ...

July Round Up

I'm still not where I'd like to be - on the year, for the month, leading up to a race - but all in all, I think it's getting better.

Swimming: 10013.06m
Cycling: 188.5 mi
Running: 51.32 mi
Lifting: 14 sessions (4:18)
Other: one hike (2:40)

Swimming ticked back up to the 10K minimum I like to get in a month ... partially because I was finally a grown-up about things and found a different pool to swim at. I had to make lane reservations (which, yay lane to myself, but boo the obvious), but I made it work. My regular pool finally opened up by the end of the month as well, so that was nice. B thought it might never reopen since the five days it was originally shut down for turned into well over a month.

Bike got upped a tiny bit from June, but my rides were probably more efficient. I got in some nice climbing up in Boulder as well as a bit of course recon. I haven't gotten nearly the distance I'd like - gotta do that before Memphis for sure - but I'm feeling okay there.

The run ... is. Skipped a few, but it's seriously the one thing I'm not really worried about right now.

I may be getting a little bored with the daily workout - that's clearly gone by the wayside - and I may need to seriously reconsider that moving forward. The format has changed a little which might help ... or I might just need to go to a few specific lifting days again. Who knows.

Not much extra, unfortunately, but the one hike I did get in was really freaking awesome up in Crested Butte. I really do need to take the time to hike more.

We'll see what August has in store - a 70.3, for one, the recovery that will be inevitable, a trip for B's birthday - and hopefully I can just maintain where I'm at right now.

... oh, and I may have signed up for IM Lake Placid next July. Maybe not the wisest decision given how things are going for me currently, but what's done is done ...

Race #2 of the Season: MLB All-Star 5K

I'm not 100% sure why I decided to run this race. Maybe because I missed the Rockies race. Maybe because I've missed racing. Maybe because I wanted to do something part of the All-Star Weekend festivities since we opted to not purchase game (and entire weekend) tickets and this also got me into PlayBall Park. 

Who knows.

In any case, I decided to run this. Timing looked horrible - 9am race in July? - but whatever.

As you've known from my update blogs, running has been okay this year. Probably the only sport that has. Nothing has really been speedy in training, but I have a decent amount of miles on the legs, all things considered. This was also going to be a completely new downtown course so I had literally no expectations going in.

I woke up that morning and drove downtown, finding a spot like half a block from the start line (and about 2, 2.5 from the finish). I did, however, realize that I forgot my race belt and would actually have to use safety pins for my bib for the first time in a good five years. At least. D'oh.

I also got downtown at like 7a. Oops. That's when they said packet pick-up started ...?

Regardless, got my stuff and then sat in the car and hung out until it got close to race time. I thought that the nervous colon may make an appearance, but thankfully, it did not. So already a win over the Saguaro Half.

Finish line getting all set up. This was near the City and County Building on the other side of Civic Center Park.

Waiting to start. Uphill. Next to the Capitol.

Race started and off I went. I really had no expectations (and I was running with my Rockies jersey on, because why not?), but I wanted to at least try to run well.

I didn't see the first mile sign, but my Garmin beeped at like a 9:28, despite the walking I had already been having to do. Um, okay, cool. Let's try to keep that up, shall we?

Off through the neighborhoods and we got to run on Speer some, too, which was kind of neat. A bit more downhill, but mile two (with a banner sign this time) was at the top of a hill, which is just cruel. Still, the Garmin beeped in the 9:30s, which was great.

However, it was getting warm. A race starting at 9am in early July is not nice. I started having to walk more and more. I still tried to run as much and as hard as I could though. I distracted myself with some of the great street art I saw (and walked back to get pictures of post-race). Finally, we came up to the final bit. I knew if I pushed it, I could possibly get sub-30, which I was in no way expecting to do.

DONE. And there was a Dinger to get a selfie with. (and see? ran in a jersey)

Seriously no clue how I pulled this out of my ass.

Final Stats:

Time: 29:50

19/197 AG (F35-39)

116/780 gender

444/1616 overall

Walked through Civic Center Park to the very sad water and banana table ... but then saw the greatest thing ... the best sign that racing in Colorado truly IS back ...

That's right, Flippin' Flapjacks. Good lord have I missed this. Best post-race food.

I'm also glad I finished *relatively* quick, because the line after I got mine and wandered around a bit? Like three times as long.

Glad I ran it, glad it was only like two seconds slower than the last 5K I ran pre-COVID, glad I could still drag my butt sub-30.

June Round Up

 June was good in some respects and absolutely terrible in others. You'll see which soon enough. Read on ...

Swimming: 3382.88m (2.1 mi)
Cycling: 173.9 mi
Running: 52.27 mi
Lifting: 26 sessions (5:33)
Other: 3 hikes (3:15), one walk (1:00), one session yoga (:15)

As you can probably tell, the swim was absolutely abysmal. Part of that is travel at the beginning of the month and then the gym closed for painting on the 10th ... was supposed to reopen the 14th, actually reopened the 16th ... and the pool is still closed from that. Yes, I absolutely should have found another gym to go to, but clearly ... I didn't. That's a fail on my part and I own that.

I actually did try to swim at our hotel in Utah at the end of the month, but the water was so warm that it was uncomfortable and made me nauseous to do so.

Cycling is a nice improvement over May. I still have a lot of miles to put in this month for Boulder 70.3 panic training, but the rides I've been doing up in Boulder have involved a lot of climbing and have been going fairly well, all things considered. There might be some bike memory still in these legs.

I skipped a few more runs than I'd like this month, but 50 miles is still really decent for me and it's the one sport I feel like I'm still on track with.

I kept up with the consistency of the daily strength until the end of the month, but I'm officially caught back up there, so let's hope that sticks again. It's obvious that hiking season has returned and I am all for it in every way.

Now ... to ramp it all up (especially swimming and biking) so I don't die in my 70.3 in August. Although ... I have already gotten in more of everything than I did the entire year of 2011 which, if you recall, is the year of my first ever 70.3. So I've got that going for me.

The other thing in July ... I actually put a 5K on the schedule. Woo!

May Round Up

 May ... ended up being pretty good, all things considered. In some ways. It was back to the "standard numbers" I'd hoped for in the April recap post ...

Swimming: 12200m (7.58 mi)
Cycling: 114.32 mi
Running: 70.83 mi
Lifting: 31 sessions (6:06)
Other: one day skiing (1:00), two walks (5:30)

Still not swimming as much as I'd like to be (or should be), but back up over 10K for the month makes me happy.

The bike ... it's a stop and start thing. I'm getting there. I think.

Running ... well damn. I essentially tripled my run mileage from last month. I guess that's what I do when I'm actually consistent with something. 

I went back to a daily lift and I think it did me a lot of good. I also mostly quit half-assing it (and am adding a few extra things that I'm doing each day).

The other maybe wasn't as much as I'd like, but it was nice to actually get in a day of skiing in May (even if it was just a few runs) and all that walking was done over two days in Boston at the end of the month.

For June, I really would like both the swimming and cycling numbers to go up. Which might be a touch interesting as my gym (and therefore my pool) is closed for five days for repainting and my bike is making weird sounds and may need to go into the shop. But we'll see what I can do regardless. I also hope to get hiking again soon. And maybe throw myself into a random race. We'll see.

April Round Up

April started off like the rest of the year, but by the last few weeks, I was finally able to pull my head out of my ass and get sorted again.

Swimming: 5500m (3.42 mi)
Cycling: 52.7 mi
Running: 23.13 mi
Lifting: 21 sessions (4:38)
Other: one day skiing (2:30)

The numbers might seem kind of crappy, but consider that they were all in the last week, week and a half of the month? Then it's not so bad. I'm slowly starting to feel like myself again, too. Maybe I needed to feel like a triathlete again. Maybe it's more in my blood than I ever thought.

That last day (so I thought ... *spoiler*) of skiing was also a nice bonus for a late April day.

Hopefully May is back to "standard"-ish numbers (around 10k swimming, at least 100 mi on the bike, and 30-40 run miles).

Race #1 of the Season: Saguaro Half-Marathon

Almost 13 months later, we finally got to race an actual, in-person race again.

(Okay, to be perfectly honest we probably could have before, but this is the one we signed up for that worked out. Wasn't just going to pick something to race for the sake of racing especially since, as you know if you've been following this here blog, my training has been CRAP.)

When Vacation Races came out with the Saguaro Half-Marathon, both of us automatically wanted to be in on it. We thought that, given Arizona, there'd be a high likelihood of it taking place. It was in Tucson, which duh, we both love, and bigger bonus, a late March date meant a shot at seeing a Rockies Spring Training game if those were a thing.

The possibility of the race got dicey for a while and we ended up getting shuffled to a Sunday race day as opposed to a Saturday race day (they split us up over two days). However, it did go on. And we got to go to Spring Training which meant our first live sporting event since sometime in 2019 which was also amazing.

Bib pick up was Friday and drive-thru style, but we were able to park and get out for the small expo, where we got this picture.

We're so happy.

Then, nothing until Sunday morning. We ended up chatting with one of Saturday's pacers in Waffle House while getting breakfast and got a lot of good info from him - mainly the course was a lot of uphill. Great. We didn't have time goals, though, so whatever.

We drove out to park at Old Tucson (RIP) and hung out in the car until it was time to queue up in our wave. And poop like four times, since pre-race nervous colon was on overdrive. 

Hanging out.

Gorgeous full moon spotted while walking to the queue area/"corrals."

Hanging out pre-race.

Photo-op sign.

7:25 or whatever rolled around and it was time to run. The first half mile or so was on the roads and then we popped into the trails (around Gates Pass in Tucson Mountain Park). The trails were hard-packed dirt (unless you were kinda in a wash in which case it was more sand) with rocks. Sometimes just straight rocks.

But we were RACING.

We were in a train of people that was pretty close together for probably the first mile, mile and a half, but we started naturally spreading out ... particularly as the trail started to climb. And climb. We had a couple miles, according to the ol' Garmin, that were only straight elevation gain with no loss. One also in the later miles. Greeeeeeat.

I think this was heading up to the mile 4 marker. As Paula Abdul would say, straight up.

Despite the climbing (and oh was it fairly brutal), we were still enjoying ourselves. In typical desert fashion, it got warm and it got warm quickly. I had my handheld that I was topping off/refilling at every aid station. I probably drank more in that half-marathon than I have in any other half I've run outside of a 70.3 (and even then ...). And I probably could have stood to ingest more salt (knew I should have brought an extra Skratch packet - started off with Skratch but I was drinking straight water by the end) given how poofy my hands got by the end.

Image credit Lucid Images. Still managed a jump mid-race! This was probably sometime before mile 6 since we were still on trail.

Sometime around the above photo we started chatting with one of the pacers who was hilarious and we were off and on with her over the next probably four miles. I think it was sometime around mile 6 (mile 6.5 maybe? I don't remember ...) that we popped off the trails and back on Kinney Road ... straight uphill toward the Desert Museum. So. Much. Climbing.

We finally got a little bit of a downhill reprieve when we made the left onto the McCain Loop (which I'd last been on in 2017 at SMASH camp when we time trialed it on our bikes ...). The downhill bits were nice, but as the road wound its way back toward the finish ... we also went into the wind. There was a nice good stretch at like mile 10 that we were literally running uphill into the wind. Go figure. Silly Tucson and its wind ...

I will say that it was really easy to go into my brain to focus on the race. I was actually surprised at how easy it was given how long I had exercised that part of my brain. Unintended COVID/social distancing/lockdown/whatever consequence? Guess I've been beefing up the mental toughness muscle over the last year without even realizing it. Hooray?

We had heard from multiple Saturday finishers that the course was long, and indeed, the ol' Garmin registered around 13.3. It was nice knowing that going in so I wasn't looking at the watch wondering why the hell I wasn't done yet.

Final Stats:
Time: 2:54:54.92
68/116 AG (F35-39)
450/857 gender
773/1291 overall

DONE. Plus bomb-ass medal.

Photo op sign got moved.

B and I ran together for most of the race - probably until the last mile or so when I finally pulled away. I crossed the line only around 20 seconds prior.

All things considered, for racing in the post-COVID (or is it just COVID?) era, it was a well-run race. I'd be willing to try another event by Vacation Races in the future, too, particularly if/when things ever go back to "normal".

I may actually consider this race again, too, but I may want to actually put in a good training cycle for it. And run rocky trails.

March Round Up

 Okay, here's already the tl;dr version of March - it was pretty shitty. Read on if you want a few more details.

Swimming: 2200m (1.37 mi)
Cycling: 27.38 mi
Running: 32.61 mi
Lifting: 16 sessions (4:03)
Other: one hike (1:50), two days skiing (4:45), one stint snow shoveling (:45)

I swam twice. I got on my bike three times. Run numbers look marginally decent, but over a third of those came in one race (yes, the Saguaro Half did take place. Yes, I meant to blog about it Wednesday. Yes, you'll actually get to read about it next week).

I'm still attempting to keep up with a strength program, even if it's not daily. It's basically me catching up on three days' worth of stuff in one day. And then that's all I do.

The hike came in Tucson. Skiing was a bit rougher to get out for since B is actually back on a normal schedule again. The snow shoveling ... well, we got like two feet mid-month so shoveling that was a hell of a workout so I counted it. And my old, late-30s self definitely felt it for a few days afterward, so there's that.

I'm hoping (like always) that April will be better, but currently, that seems to not be the case. We'll see.

February Round Up

At the end of January's post, I said that I hoped February would be a bit better.

It wasn't. At all. Read on ...

Swimming: 2700m (1.68 mi)
Cycling: 35.67 mi
Running: 15.7 mi
Lifting: 17 sessions (4:19)
Other: three days skiing (5:30)

If I'm being completely honest with myself, I've felt off for a few months now. Definitely for this whole year, but potentially even as far back as November. I have no idea what it is or why it is, but, well, it is.

It could be the uncertainty that still exists in terms of racing and everything.

It could be the fact that we're nearing a year of all this bullshit (I regret nothing on that term, btw).

It could be that I just lost any and all reasons to do this stuff.

I'd say it's depression, but if it is, it's not like any depression I've ever dealt with before. A workout depression, for sure. The Saguaro Half still looks like it's going to take place at the end of March and while I know I can still probably finish it, right now it's looking like it'll be pretty fucking ugly.

And yet ... caring enough to get out the door is extremely difficult. To even try. It feels like 2018, but I don't feel like I have a legitimate reason for it to feel like 2018. And I'm really fucking sick of blaming everything on this stupid pandemic, even though that's probably the logical reason behind it. Collective group trauma or something. And that some people can get through it due to their more Type-A nature (that I definitely do not have).

I don't know. Maybe I'm just bitching. Maybe I should continue to take it as it comes and quit stressing over it.

Maybe ... maybe I just don't know anymore.

January Round Up

I'm going to be flat out honest - in terms of Januarys, this one sucked.

Read on ...

Swimming: 12000m (7.46 mi)
Cycling: 52.55 mi
Running: 37.73 mi
Lifting: 20 sessions (4:11)
Other: three hikes (2:50), three days skiing (8:00), one walk (1:00), two sessions yoga (:22)

Swimming, though I definitely missed some sessions, wasn't too bad. I got over my 10k. Some days I feel like I'm doing well in the pool; some days I don't. Fairly standard.

The bike was a huge disappointment. I am having issues getting on my bike right now and I am not exactly sure why. Something to figure out for sure.

Running wasn't bad, but definitely not where it probably should have been. Of course.

While strength seems low in terms of sessions, I actually did do each of the daily workouts ... I just doubled (or tripled ...) them up on some days.

I did get in some other stuff too which was nice, and I'm not going to discount that.

*****

Usually, January is a great month of starting new and fresh and motivated and it just wasn't for me. It was for the first few days, but it fell off and it fell of quickly. I'm not sure if it's just a lot of residual stress and fatigue from gestures broadly ~*everything*~ or maybe a little bit of "what's the point" when there's seemingly no end in sight to our current situation or what, but that's what it was. Hopefully February can be a little better.

2021 Goals

 It might be a bit presumptuous to do goals for this year given how last year went, but eh, screw it. Let's be optimistic.

Swim:
- bare minimum 150k in the pool (preferably 200k)(so depends on pools)
- back to my 10k/mo
    - this averages out to be about 2500-3k/week
- in the summer, get out for an OWS every three weeks (minimum)
- back up to 5k in the water (... pool time dependent, obvi.)

Bike:
- bare minimum 2k (mileage)
    - means 150-175/mo on average
        - minimum 125/mo
        - 30-40 mi/week
- to complete:
    - Lemmon climb IF FEASIBLE
    - Peak-to-Peak loop
    - Carter Lake ride

Run:
- bare minimum 500 mi
    - means 40 mi/mo
    - 10 mi/week
- do a track workout every three weeks in the summer
- aim for:
    - sub-29:00 5K
    - sub-2:20 half

Other:
- schedule the daily, but can do other strength (not gonna lie, getting a bit bored)
- yoga once a week
- stretch more on the regular
- add in more non-SBR still

Always:
- stay healthy and happy

70.3:
- swim
    - keep it sub-:50
    - sub-:48 if possible
- bike
    - sub-3:20
    - sub-3:17 if possible
- run
    - sub-2:45
    - sub-2:40 if possible
- ultimate hope: sub-7:00

Some of the run-only goals aren't super ambitious, but it's getting back to what I could do once upon a time. I want goals this year that are manageable and not too scary ... just in case it ends up being a shitshow again. I know the swim ones could tank hard, but even with not a lot of swimming last year, I managed over 100k ... and I know I could have done more than that even when pools re-opened.

Here's to 2021. May it be more athlete-friendly than last year.

December and 2020 Round Up

December ended up being a bit rougher than I originally planned. Hearing that the half we were sort of training for was cancelled threw a wrench in things and affected us more than I think we expected. After a week or two of not a lot of movement, things got better. Read on ...

Swimming: 9000m (5.59 mi)
Cycling: 120.28 mi
Running: 37.52 mi
Lifting: 31 sessions (5:14)
Other: one hike (1:20), one day skiing (2:00)

I probably could have done better in trying to hit 10k for the month in swimming, but eh.

My goal for the month was to hit 100 miles on the bike and I DID THAT. I do have the Stomp the Trainer 500 to thank for that - Tarsh of Stomp the Pedal took the Rapha Festive 500 and brought it indoors and while I knew there was no way I could hit 500km in 8 days (12.24-31), I could try to get in as much as I could. I ended up with just over 140km which tbh I'm really happy with. Plus it got me back on my bike, so that was a very good thing.

The run ... ended up getting better, even though it was way lower than it should have been. Oops.

What about 2020 goals?

Embrace the hill.
Ha, nope. I can blame COVID on this one. And the horrible wildfire season. I don't even think I rode up in Boulder this year due to circumstances and there aren't that many serious hills down by me. So really, I'm chalking this one up to the year being the year that it was. And I'm okay with this.

Drop my swim times.
... you know, I actually did start doing this a tiny bit near the end of the year. If I really focus on form and push myself, it does work. Who'd've thunk it? I mean, I still need to put in a lot more work, but given the fact that I wasn't able to swim for a good chunk of this year? I'm happy things didn't regress.

Keep working on my run.
My run is actually sort of starting to come around, so I think the consistency that I've been putting in with my run training (I've pretty much stuck with the running every other day thing for over two years now) is slowly starting to pay off. 

Lean out.
A little. Weight's stayed stable (which is a win as far as I'm concerned), but I am starting to see more muscle definition, particularly in places I haven't seen it before. So hooray to that.

Stay healthy and happy.
Done. Especially given everything that was thrown at us this year, the fact that I managed these two things is a MASSIVE win.

2020, you weren't my favorite year, but I've definitely had shittier in terms of working out. You made me appreciate swimming like never before by taking it away from me. You made me thankful for the trail system near my house. You made me thankful to live in Colorado, a state that didn't prevent me from working out outside during the worst of it in the spring. You helped me focus a bit more on strength.

I'm still glad to see you gone, though.