Six days until Ironman France

Six days. That's not very many. Let's all hope I'm actually ready for this thing :-0

I feel pretty calm. I mean I did just get a massage but even before that I felt pretty calm.

Last week was a week for getting myself out of my comfort zone. I was out of town. In Orlando for my daughter's national gymnastics competition. She did very well thank you for asking. She had a great time performed well and enjoyed the whole thing. Plus she got a new sparkly leotard that she just absolutely loves.

gold ... and sparkly. She loves this leotard it is totally her style. She would wear it every day. Isn't she the cutest!

Before we went to Orlando I was stressed. I mean I had these workouts to do and I wasn't going to be where I could do them like I normally do. It's an Ironman ... even in taper I didn't want to skip any workouts.

I did some looking and I found Lucky's Lake. This is the best and craziest thing I've ever found. It's a guy (Lucky) who lives on a lake who opens his house and his lake up to lots of total strangers every day ... for free ... to swim in his lake. It turns out it was almost exactly a 3 minute drive from my hotel. Seriously could this get any better? I pull up and there are about 20 other people arriving everyone was very nice. This is not some just willy nilly thing he's put buoys to guide you accrosst the lake. And he's conned one of his neighbors into putting a large light on their dock across the way for us to aim for and that person also lets all these strangers hang out near their dock if they want to rest before heading back across. I've paid for masters swim groups in Miami that aren't this organized.

But wait, there's more! If you can even believe it I met somebody else doing Ironman France on the dock. I know ... crazy, right.

proof - this is me (the shorter one) and that's Andy who is also doing Ironman France. Totally bizarre to meet him 2 weeks before the race in Orlando. Ca-razy.

So, going to a swim thing by myself always makes me edgy. I get shy and nervous and stuff. It really is great. There is a bunch of stuff on his website about alligators and event though I've lived here a long time and generally do not worry about alligators I will admit I let it get in my head. Turns out he's a bit of a joker - he has 3 plastic/rock decorative gators submerged by his dock. There could be gators who are there occasionally but I didn't see any - thank goodness.

This is after my second swim. I was the last one out which is why the dock was empty. This guy lucky is seriously probably one of the most generous guys I've ever met to do this. Apparently on the weekends there can be as many as 100 people who show up.

So,  I did it not only once but twice. Wednesday and Friday mornings. The second time I swam 3 times out and back for about 3000 meters. I would have gone 4 times for the full 4000 meters but I was the only one still swimming and I just don't do well swimming in open water by myself. I start to think about the things out there with me in the water ... and well it doesn't go well at all. So I stopped. I'll admit that even with all the swimming I've done in the last several months the swim still stresses me out. But whatever. The training is done. Could I have swum more ... maybe but not really a lot more to be honest so I'm good with what I've done and I'm pretty sure it's enough. I won't be the fastest out there but I will get it done and I probably won't be the last one out of the water either. I will come out of the water with a smile I mean how many times will I be doing an Ironman Swim in France? How cool is that?

This is maybe 10 seconds after the last picture. I think it's maybe one of the best self-portraits I've ever taken ... Where am I looking with my eyes? Plus the goggle marks. It's just all good - you're welcome.

If you're ever in Orlando I cannot recommend Lucky's Lake swim enough.

Oh and I made my family drag the bike to Orlando. When I told my husband I wanted to take the bike he just shrugged and said, "I expected that."  I rode in Clermont for about an hour Thursday morning. Again out of my comfort zone - riding to a place I've never been solo and riding alone for an hour. That last part isn't such a big deal because I don't actually mind riding alone.

So, of course I'm nervous about the bike. It's a long ride. A lot can go wrong including me just not making it. But I've worked really really hard on my biking. I've put in hours of training and if it wasn't enough it wasn't enough. But I think it probably was. So here's hoping the bike doesn't get squished under the airplane (fingers crossed) I will just pedal my little heart out from start to finish.

And then after that I'll run my marathon. Are you kidding me. Nope. So I feel like I'm undertrained for the run but what do I know. I'm healthy and uninjured going to the start. I've enjoyed the journey a lot. I've enjoyed the training and making really good friends. I've learned a lot about the sport and also about myself along the way (but luckily no big surprises). I'm in better shape than I've been ... maybe ever but at least since the beerfest that was my 20s. No matter what happens on Sunday it's been worth it. 

That's about it. It's the end of the road for the training. Starting now it will be radio-silence on the blog for a few weeks since I'll first be racing and then I'll be vacationing and I don't thing I'll be updating this until I get back. I could probably figure out how to but honestly my family deserves my uninterrupted attention for a while.

But should you be curious how I do in the race here's what you can do. This is of course after you include me in your nightly prayers on Saturday June 22nd ( and please help Amy through her Ironman attempt ).  You can track my progress online at ironman dot com on Sunday. I'm racing in France - not Idaho. France is 6 hours ahead of East Coast Time. I'm bib #199. Lucky #199. I will either be wearing a blue hammerhead tri top or a pink sugoi tri top I'm pretty sure the hammerhead blue or maybe the pink ... tune in to find out. If you really have nothing to do you can watch the live video for me to finish hopefully somewhere between 14 and 16 hours. Certainly not after 16 hours because that's the cutoff.

Wish me luck! Even with all the training I'm going to need it.

t-two weeks until Ironman France

So bascially I'm a nervous wreck. I actually don't feel that bad ... uncertain, yes but my husband has termed this time period - PT for pre-triathlon.  He says I'm pretty edgy.

I've asked a bunch of people if they felt ready before their first Ironman. Some say yes, some say no ... it's actually not that helpful so I should stop asking.

I have entered into the taper phase which is super stressful because I'm nervous so I want to train more but I have less on my schedule. It's time to just trust the training. And avoid germs. I don't want to get sick.

And so I'm going to talk about something else entirely and that is how I kept my family afloat and my marriage healthy during this training project.

History lesson
First the history. Because everyone's story is different here's mine. I'm 39 I've been married to the same guy for 11 years. We have 2 kiddos (9 and almost 7) and also he has 2 adult kiddos (in college) from his first marriage. We have a very busy house. Really. I know yours is busy too but trust me we are on like fast forward all the time.

Next peace of back information to know is that I was training for my first marathon when I started dating my husband. I think this is important to us making this whole thing work because it wasn't like I woke up 5 years into the marriage and said ... hey I'm going to stop going out to dinner Friday nights and instead get up at 4:30 am and run on Saturdays. That was always part of the package of being with me.

But that's not to say that triathlon training hasn't been a shift. It has. But luckily it works for us.

Ironman training did become a big time sucking part of my life this year. So how did we make it work?

First things first - spousal buy-in
A few years ago when my brother (I blame him for this whole thing but that's another story) mentioned that we could do an Ironman (you do notice he's not coming to France ... right) my husband said that he didn't want me to do it. So as I stepped up to longer race distances and we both met a lot of "normal" people who had done Ironman it became more acceptible to him. But when I was ready to register I said to him when he and I were alone and sober and the tv was off.

"I want to do a full Ironman but I won't go forward if you don't support it." I was being truthful if he had said, "no" I would have just stopped because a race isn't worth my marriage. But he said yes. Then we both picked this race ... mostly. That part was a mess. I have been honest about that before selecting France was not the most well thought out thing I've ever done.  But involving the spouse is important. He has to want to go to where the races are and bring the kids so I always let him choose ... mostly :-)

Next up - the schedule
Ironman training takes up a lot of time. in peak weeks I was at 17-18 hours a week not counting travel time and stuff. In the beginning it was causing some conflict - not actually the weekends because it was assumed that I was busy those mornings but during the week so I made a schedule.

This is the actual schedule. It hangs on the fridge where all important family documents must go. Some things have changed and I haven't updated it but it still worked. My stepson wrote some funny stuff for him and his dad. Swimming now starts for me at 5:30 not 6 am that change affected nobody but me. But basically this was it.

  The schedule was sooooooooooo helpful. Because it let my husband and kids know where I was when and where they were and so on. We did have some hiccups but not big ones.

Food
I cook in our house. So getting dinner on the table is my job. I also go to the grocery store although my husband has gone a lot in the last few months (the other option was starving). But when I saw that I was having a hard time getting dinner on the table I signed up at Dream Dinners which I had used before but stopped. This was helpful because at any given time I had meals ready to go in the freezer. It was a big help.

Training Friends
I train almost entirely with guys. This could definitely create some friction but my husband knows everybody that I train with - and their wives. He is invited to every social event whether it's dinner after a track practice, birthday parties, happy hour - whatever. He is included. He declines a lot because he says we (triathletes) are really boring. But the point is he knows who I'm with so he's hopefully not jealous.

Funny.
I have a  bike mechanic named Calvin. My bike was in for something or other. So there was a ticket in the kitchen that said Calvin and the phone number. I didn't think twice about it. We were cleaning up after dinner and my hubby says, "Amy, who is Calvin?" I reply .. "bike mechanic ... why?" and he held up the ticket. He thought I was having a secret romance I guess. Anyway - I took him to meet Calvin and we all had a good laugh.

Lastly, there are the rules. These are my rules or guidelines that I use to keep everything good.

1. I try never to use training as an excuse why I can't do something with the family. Full-disclosure - I have missed several early soccer games and lots of piano practices. But for the most part I reschedule my training to accommodate family life and not the other way around. I do a lot of early training and training while the kids are in school. 
2. If my husband asks me to do something like go out to dinner. I go. I get dressed up, I smile, I have fun I reschedule whatever training is in the way. He doesn't do this often but when he does I make it work. To be honest he does his best to check that there isn't a 20 mile run the next day. 
3. If I'm tired from training early on a weekend ... it doesn't matter. I still have birthday party duty and whatever else that day.  No napping the day away or complaining that I'm too tired to play soccer or whatever the kids ask for.
4. Try not to take myself or the training too seriously.
5. If my husband is doing something with the kids I have to let him do it and not judge or get involved. My husband thinks our kids can survive on approximately one goldfish per day to eat. It's the strangest thing. He also assumes that if he offers them food that they eat all of it (which is never true). So when I get home from a morning of training my kids are starving. This is always the case. I could be upset about it and I could bicker at him but that does nobody any good. So instead I just am ready to feed them when I come home. I also remind my kids to be self-sufficient and to tell daddy if they are hungry. 
6. Say what I want and don't expect the impossible. My husband HATES coming to races. HATES it. If I want him to be there I have to tell him exactly that without any gentle or code words. I have to say , "it is important that you come ... you need to come because I have no way to get home" things like that. Also, I can't expect him to be an uber-cheerleader because he isn't. My sister in law is the best support crew ever. I wish she was at every race I ever did - she makes signs she knows where we are and everything. My husband is clueless. So I need to not be upset about that or else I'll be miserable. Seriously, if my happiness depended on my husband making a cheering sign for me I would be one miserable chick because that's not ever gonna happen. For the Ironman I have asked him to come with me to the start and watch me swim and then I'll see them while I'm on the run. I have stressed to them that it will be really important for their encouragement on my 4 loops of the run. I also hope they will see me finish. Sometimes things go wrong with that and that's okay because I do this for me not to be seen doing it. Jack had a breakdown while watching for me finish the NY marathon so he was inside with my husband ... it happens. I hope it doesn't happen at the Ironman but if it does I know it won't be because he didn't want to be there. Also I already bought the video of the finish. (shh don't tell him) It's hard work being the kid-wrangler at these things and he knows I'll need help afterwards so eventually he'll be there. 

I think that's it. That's how I've made it work. We are all ready for some together time so luckily the training is almost over :-)

Anything is possible ...

I am lately filling my head with positive motivation and encouragement about this upcoming race. Make no mistake it still seems crazy.

This is actually from my race course but last year.

I got my bib number. #199. Seems like a good number to me.

What I learned today

Alternate title ... continued bike maintenance for those of us of the girlie persuasion.

Since I got a trainer I've had a trainer tire. I ride on the trainer twice a week. Once in my garage and once at a local store where I borrow / ride on a computrainer to get ready for Ironman France.

I have never really had any issues with my trainer at home. But I have had issues with the Computrainer set up. These are not due to the Computrainer in fact I think that they are due to my inexperience and the ineptitude of the guy who lets me use his Computrainer.

The Computrainer uses a computer to increase the pressure related to the course you're riding. Because of this it's great. I am a beleiver I really am. But if you are using a computrainer I think you have to really understand it and also be a little bit of a technician.

When I started training for France I looked all over for a place to ride a Computrainer. Now that I'm done a center has opened on Key Biscayne. I can't believe my luck :-)

But I was very lucky that I found right next to my house a trainer who trains me on his Computrainer. He's nice and I think he's a good trainer. But he isn't a mechanic and he's not terribly technical. We've had a few issues over these 15 weeks. A few times he wasn't sure how the software was malfunctioning which is annoying. Last week he overfilled my trainer tire and it flatted on the computrainer. It took us 10 minutes to figure it out and to be honest it was me who said - could my tire be flat?

Anywhoo. I pay him through the nose. I mean it is ridiculously expensive because he charges like a personal trainer. I don't actually recommend it but I didn't have a choice and it has the benefit that I've gotten private training which is great.

Today was a new adventure and this one is my fault although I think that a more experienced Computrainer person would have figured out something was wrong way before all this happened. But I caused it.

I changed my tire before I went and actually I changed the skewer to a metal skewer which is best on the trainers. My trainer tire skewer bizarrely has one end that is plastic and it's gotten fairly chewed up. As long as I've been doing this I've always wondered if it mattered the direction of these little springs that are on the skewer. Today I learned oh boy does it matter it matters a lot.

turns out it's important that the spring has the big part pointing out on each end.

Right from the get go I was saying. This feels off. The resistance seems too much. But the trainer was saying maybe I was tired or whatever. And he also mentioned that maybe he had tightened the wheel too much. I'll admit this bugs me. He is supposed to calibrate at the start of each of our sessions but he's too lazy to do it. But whatever. I figured that if the workout was harder it was to my benefit.

Then we started to get a squeaking noise. So I spoke up. I said, "listen that's not normal, can we check the tire?'

So we did. It was a little low and so he put in more air. I actually felt the tire and it was hot to the touch. I told him something is wrong the tire shouldn't get this hot I don't think. He guessed it was too tight on the back so he loosened it. (Can you say calibration?)

We were almost done with the session now. Maybe 10 minutes left. Then when I started back up. He saw dust coming off the tire. He said ... wow there is a problem with the tire. So we went on a few minutes and he said let's stop. He thought it was that the tire was old which could have been but I thought ... something else is going on too. So I went and asked the mechanic to help me figure it out.

all that black stuff on the ground is parts of my tire just shredded into rubber dust. It was everywhere. Not good.

The mechanic saw the issue immediately. When I had changed the tire I had put the skewer together with one of the springs going the wrong way. That let the tire rub on directly on the bike and the result was this. I'm really hoping I didn't damage the bike. I am a little concerned with all the rubbing and the heat from the hot tire - although the mechanic didn't see any damage. Replacing the trainer tire I can live with.

The mechanic thought the tire would still be good but it popped on the way home. It's hard to see but there is a massive hole in the side of the tire.

I'm not much of a ranter but I will admit this does annoy me that the trainer guy didn't figure out what the problem was earlier in the trainer session. I will admit that on my trip to DogHouse I did notice that the did check my tire and skewer before starting. The didn't remove the skewer just checked that it was metal.

The tire actually popped on the way home which is good because I might have had a heart attack from the noise if it had happened while I was on top of the bike.

In the end - lesson learned. I have one more session maybe two with this guy. I might not do them - I'm not sure. I'll swing by the place on Key Biscayne if I have time because that might be a better fit. On the other hand I'm sort of in deep with this guy. So we'll see.

On the upside it's more practice changing tires for me which can't hurt.

20 days until Ironman France ... TWENTY DAYS OMG TWENTY ... EEK

I am actually not totally freaking out like I made it sound in the title.

I mean a little bit but not hugely.

Basically, I've done what I've done to get ready and soon we'll see if it was enough. I am ... which is par for the course for me ... freaked for the swim. For me I find it very hard to beleive that endless repeats in the pool translates into distance swimming. But this weekend I'll swim a solid distance and that should make me feel better.

4 weeks from yesterday to Ironman France

The countdown is on.

I should be counting in days actually at this point. Kind of like how we age babies but in reverse.

26 days.

Intuitively, you'd think now would be time for the last big push but with long races ... not so much really. Soon, I'll start to wind down. I think I have one or two big runs left and also I'm going to push the swim volume up for confidence. And then ... the taper.

This past week was a recovery week. It was glorious. Recovery is glorious. Resting is glorious. Sleep is glorious.

My long run this week was 13ish miles. I forgot to turn my watch off at the end so I don't have a correct distance. oops. But what was important about this run is that I started with Jim who runs quickly and I finished with Ben who also is a speedster. What's important about this is that I need to remember that I can go faster and not feel like crap. Really I can. So I should because then I'll be finished faster.

Moon before the start of the run.

After the long run I swam like 2 minutes. My heart was in my throat the whole time. I made light of it last week but I wasn't actually joking. The bird thing did get into my head. So I need to do a lot of ows to get my groove back there. It'll happen I just have to stick to it. 

My long ride this week was in the hills of Clermont. In central Florida there are lakes and hills and that's where we flatlanders go to train.

I will admit that when I committed to racing in France I thought I would train in Clermont probably once a month. That didn't happen. I've been there twice in the last 6 months and one of those times it was so cold the ride was cancelled. This is to say that training does not ever go as expected.

Notice the puffy eyes. That's from lots of hydration. Lots including pedialyte the night before. I didn't sleep really well but that's to be expected. I have to remember to ask for a room away from the elevator. 

But I did want to do at least one 100 mile ride in the hills. I was nervous but it went better than I expected. Much better. That's a good feeling. I climbed somewhere over 3000 ft which is about half what I'll do on race day. In an ideal world I'd do more than I would on race day but that isn't happening so I'll just have to live with it.

This is the map route.

I was so happy on my road bike. I definitely have the right bike for this race. I have been to Clermont on 3 different bikes. This bike was perfect. Descending was a dream - it was so much fun. Okay well the first descent I was scared but after that it was awesome. No braking :-) Me ... no braking. Woot Woot! Going up was fine. Really. And interestingly I was able to tell the grade by feel which was a good feeling. I would say this is 6%? And Frank would confirm with his watch. That's good because I have speed, cadence and hr targets depending on the grade. I was ready to stop when we got to 100 but I could have kept going. I wasn't dying at all.

My nutrition was good. I drank Infinit 2 sips every 7 minutes. I was easily able to do this while climbing. I had one GU, one bag of sport beans, one salt pill every hour and one snickers bar at 70 miles. Close to great actually. Having the timer beep was key. The only thing that didn't work was the sport beans. They were a pain to get out of their little bag. so I need something else. But I have a plan. I'll try it next week.

It was just me and the coach. I feel really lucky about that. He did a lot of talking to me about the mental challenges of the race. Which is definitely going to be the trick to this whole thing. He suggested thinking about the kids growing up, getting married things like that. Macca talks about it in his book very simply by saying have a plan for what you're going to think about in the dark spots. That's what I'll be thinking about this week. He also said the key is committing to finishing. "Commit to Finish" I think that's probably true about this and also about every big project in life. I definitely thought it was true with nursing my kids (a totally different kind of project but still). So I'm focused on that. I am actually committed to finishing - not if it means being stupid (broken bones - hospitalization) but yes when it means to getting it done.

I talked to him about the foot cramps. He suggested bigger socks which sounds like a good idea so I'll try it. Apparently just like we move up in running shoes to account for swelling cycling socks it helps too. I also took off my shoes at the 2nd stop and I had no real issues. My plan is to take my shoes off at special needs halfway in the race for this reason.

This is the 100 mile smile.

The race is very close. And luckily I'm feeling like I'm as close to ready as I'm gonna get and that's all I can do.

30 day jitters

My  first Ironman is less than a month away. I will confess I am a little nervous.

Jitters
I think it's normal and natural to be nervous for a first iron-distance race or even half-iron distance but still I'm writing about it anyway. If you're reading this and you're beginning to train for your first full then file it away as things to expect about 30 days out.

Why 30 days. Well I think it's because the training is almost done now. What's done is done and there isn't room for a lot of "improvement" between now and the race. So how do I feel about that?

I feel okay. Nervous but okay. I haven't skipped workouts (except for when I had the flu) and that gives me some confidence but not enough to fully shake the jitters.

What is causing the jitters? Mostly uncertainty.

With a race this long I won't have completed the entire distance in one day until race day. That's just the way it goes.

I already shared my dream about looking for goggles so that's one example. (note to my brother ... I should sign you up for IM Frankfurt just so you have to try to remember how to say goggles in German).

I'm also afraid I'll get sick before the race. I'm nervous that my bike will break in shipping. I'm nervous my nutrition will be confiscated by customs. I worry that I won't find my special needs bag on the bike. I'm nervous about the stress of the travel. I have had both good and bad experiences traveling for races. I'm worried about the swim being really rough in terms of contact between the swimmers. I'm worried about being alone on the course surrounded by strangers. I'm worried about getting dehydrated like I did at St. Anthony's.

I know these are all silly small things. That's the way I get nervous. I worry about little details that can go wrong. It usually works for me - I make contingency plans and then I'm not nervous on race day about those things.

So, what am I doing about it?

Well, I'm putting it out there for the world to see. Ironman training is a pretty solo venture but also you can't do it alone. So, I told my husband I was nervous and he gave me his nod.That's what he does nods. He's busy with work at the moment and I know that once he starts prepping for the trip I'll feel better.

And last night I wore my I'm training for Ironman France shirt to a meeting and when people asked how I was doing I admitted I was nervous. That was helpful because it gave me a chance to hear how others were nervous.

And now I'm telling you guys. I'm a girl ... talking helps.

Oh, and I'm going to stop reading online forums. Today I was reading a race report and somebody told a person who DNF'd at IM Texas that the problem may have been that he only swam 7k a week in training. My heart pounded because I usually swim 7k a week. But then I turned it off. I have to trust the plan or else I'm lost. 

The dark voice in my head says maybe you aren't ready
Yesterday wasn't a great workout. In fact I've had 2 bad swims in a row. The first was the bird attack. I have to just let that one go because there won't be cormorants in France. Plus seriously that was just odd.

Then yesterday was supposed to be a 2 mile open water swim but we were having stormy weather. So, I couldn't even do masters practice instead I ended up at LA Fitness in the pool in the basement which I hate. I really do hate this pool. I admit I went in with a bad attitude.

I planned to do 5x100 warmup then 2x1600. It didn't go as planned. I started feeling woozy and icky and I was swimming really slowly. It took me almost 15 minutes for those first 5 100s which should have been closer to 10 minutes. I started to get really down on myself and question my swim fitness.

In fact at about 600 yards into the second 1600 I was so frustrated I took off my cap and threw it on the deck. And then I felt like steam was escaping from my head. I was hot - really hot. This pool is very warm I don't know how warm but easily 80. There's no chill when you step into the water. And the room is warm too from the jacuzzi that's in the same space.

So then I started swimming again and I began to think that my slowness and ickiness might be in fact from being too warm. After taking my cap off the pool water felt really cool on my head and I felt much better. So I went on and finished and I gave myself some wiggle room in that I stopped after each 100 or 200 not to rest but to let my body cool off some. I stood up, raised my hands over my head to let heat escape and counted to 10 before going again.

Still in the last 25 I thought I would puke. I did actually stand up and gag mid length. And then I had to get out and sit on the deck till I could stand up from the nausea. I do get this feeling from strong swim efforts to I sat there and I thought ... is this because I'm swimming beyond my effort? I owe it to myself to give this honest thought because nothing is dumber than walking into a 2.4 mile swim without the swim fitness to get it done confidently.

But, I wasn't breathing hard, my heart rate was practically resting, I wasn't fatigued. So I really do think this was from the heat. Then when I walked into the locker room which is air conditioned it was such a relief. If I wasn't overheated I would have been chilled from the cool air - this was a very pleasant feeling. I could feel the heat coming off my skin. So, I really do think that this was because the pool was hot.

But I want to be honest with myself about this because most people I know can swim in this pool without incident. They don't love it but a strong swimmer can basically swim wherever and be okay. So I don't want to give myself excuses. So, I am of course also questioning my swim fitness. While this week is almost done I think I'll be putting in lots of time swimming in the next 4 weeks to quiet these voices. That's really all I can do I think.

Now to make myself feel better since I signed up for this race I have logged:

101,140 yds swimming, 441 miles running and 124 hours on the bike (my trainer miles don't log miles so I use time there). While it may not be enough it is for sure a lot.