Here I go...

The car's packed to the gills, my checklists are checked, and I'm as ready as I'm ever gonna be to do this...so I guess it's time to head north. I can't believe the sheer quantity of race gear I'm taking--most races, I can cram everything I need (except my bike, of course) into my transition backpack...today, however, I have a jam-packed transition backpack, another transition bag filled only with race clothes options, my bike tools, a bag of water bottles, gel flasks, etc., another bag with Perpetuem, Hammer Gel, bagels, and bananas, a duffel bag with my non-race attire, a cooler with Gatorade, Diet Coke, water, and, of course, post-race chocolate milk, my laptop bag, and another set of wheels plus my bike. I took pictures--when I get back and have time, I'll post them so you all can see how much crap I've acquired in the past year. EDIT: Pictures have been posted--top two are of my very packed car loaded and ready to go, and the bottom picture is just the race clothing options I packed...keep in mind that spandex, jerseys, etc. typically don't take up too much room, so this is a ton of stuff.

The worst part about packing is the great unknown of the weather. At least it doesn't look like it's going to be hot, but it could be windy, rainy, and cold--which makes packing a real treat. I have multiple options for both the bike and run, and will likely pack more options in my run specail needs bag...who knows at this point. Regardless, though, I think I'm prepared for darn near anything except possibly a blizzard, and that's only because I'm not packing my earband.

I took the day off of work today to pack, and I'm very glad I did. It's been fairly relaxing--I spent some time cleaning Tack, swapping out wheels and brake pads, cleaning the chain, etc.--then caught myself as I was giving Tack a little (verbal) pep talk for Sunday. Thank God the garage door was closed--not sure what the neighbors would've thought of the crazy lady in her pajamas talking to her bike...

Well, I need to shower and hit the road--not much else to do at this point other than get there and do this thing. It's been one hell of a ride so far, and I find myself torn between nervousness and excitement, but lately it's been more excitement--which is where I found myself before the Disney marathon, too, and is a good sign, I think. Vardo and I are meeting up tonight--we're crashing at the home of a friend of mine from my hometown, then headed into Madison tomorrow morning to swim the course (well, one lap) and begin the insanity.

Here goes nothing (well, actually, darn near everything)...this will be the last live post before the race, but I've got my laptop so both Vardo and I can capture our thoughts to post later. Take care, all--thanks doesn't cut it to express my gratitude for the support, happy thoughts, laughter, etc., but it's a start...you all rock...

BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overwhelming emotions

Just to be clear, it's 5 days from race day, and my emotions are on hyperdrive right now--I find myself oscillating between tears and nausea as I think about Sunday and all that it entails to me. It isn't helping matters that I sent out a mass email to my friends and family over the weekend and now those replies are coming in--most of which also send me over the edge emotionally as they remind me of the amazing people I'm blessed with in my life. As a non-emotional person and one who is quite happy to be that way, this is driving me insane, but I frankly have no clue how to stop it other than wait patiently (or not so patiently) for Sunday to hurry up and arrive already so I can just do this and then have a major meltdown and then go back to my non-emotional self again.

The other kicker is that today at WW, I, for all intents and purposes, hit my goal weight. Technically, I'm still 0.2 lb short, but good God, that's rounding error in my mind. So, that brings my total weight loss to 111.0 pounds--when I saw the weight that Ed (our leader) wrote down, the only thing I could say was "Holy Shit"--which I then proceeded to say several times in rapid succession. I had a tough time reigning in my tears at the meeting, too--but after a high five from Theresa and a bear hug from Sue at the meeting and then a hug from Theresa right after the meeting, I was OK again. It was pretty cool, though--Ed sat down next to me at the start of the meeting and told me that he was thankful that he had been able to witness some of this part of my journey and that he was able to play a role in it...which of course had me holding back tears again. I'm telling you, I'm a trainwreck...but I guess it's all good under the circumstances.

I did my last pre-IM pool swim this morning and polished off the last interval session on the bike tonight--now it's just a matter of banging out a run and very short bike tomorrow to finish up the training until I head to Madison. Then I just have to pack...yikes...

Week 2 Wrap-up

Holy crap—it’s basically a week away. It’s astounding and frankly, very creepy to think that, in a week, it’s over. This thing, this obsession, this one event that has taken my time, money, and, at times, sanity is almost here…and I CAN’T WAIT!!! I’ve found myself going through some pretty crazy emotional bouts lately—things that used to not make me think twice are now freaking me out a little—like the fact that the post-it I use to mark my place in the binder that holds my training plan is way at the back of the binder and that some friends have emailed with their good wishes—all of which have, at times, sent me into moments of tears and terror.

It became really real on Monday night at the last Ironman Mondays session—we talked about race day logistics, what to pack in what bag, etc., etc., and then, as we were leaving, we started shaking hands and wishing each other luck, etc. Not sure why that sent me over the edge, but it sure did…and then I made the mistake of reading one of the articles we got while I was on the way home, which was all about the experience of doing the race—big mistake as I started crying on the Eisenhower in my car. Tuesday evening, I dropped Sue and Michele’s bikes off at the Bike Shop and ended up talking with Susan, a woman who works there who is also racing Wisconsin—it was great talking with her and getting some advice—she basically said to make sure that I race my race and take it easy and not get caught up in the excitement—all good advice that I hope like hell I can follow. My sister was also in town Tuesday night, so we had dinner and then had a couple of beverages at my place before calling it a night—I’m sure she was thrilled to listen to me babble on about IM the whole time, but, frankly, that’s all I can talk about these days.

One of the tidbits I took away from IM Mondays was the idea to pack some inspirational notes in my run special needs bag—little notes from friends and family that I can pull out and read at each mile to get me through the run. I mentioned that to Theresa and, before I knew it, she had coordinated an email effort to get my friends to write little notes for me. She won’t show me the notes—probably good—but she’s been keeping me in the loop as to who has responded, and that has been amazing! So—if you’re one of the folks who has contributed, a huge preemptive thank you—not only for keeping me going on the run, but for letting me know that you all haven’t forgotten about me, even though I haven’t been in communication for squat in the past year.

From a training perspective, this week has been fine—pretty easy training stuff and way less volume, right down to the 2 ½ hour bike I did Saturday (again, I took my mountain bike out and hit the Great Western Path, Fox River Valley Trail, and Prairie Path for a 43-miler). I also did my “long” run of 7 miles on Sunday, with the added bonus that I got to run with Theresa. We’re doing a half marathon together at the end of October, and this was one of the few weekends we could actually run together, so we took advantage of it and headed out for a nice, easy run on a beautiful September day.

I also tried to continue my return to normal life—we had Friday as a holiday, so Theresa and I met to do some shopping (I actually needed a dress for a December wedding…as shocking as it may be that I actually wear dresses on occasion) and basically just sort of hung out all day. As it turns out, not only did I find a dress (actually 2), but I bought some size 8 pants…something I also never thought I’d do. We rounded out the day back at Doug and Theresa’s house for BLT’s (made with yummy yummy garden tomatoes) and then s’mores around the firepit with the whole family. Saturday, I slept in, did my bike and a short brick run after, and then took care of a bunch of random stuff around the house and crashed. Sunday, I again went to church, then ran with Theresa before we headed back to the mall for some more shopping. All told, an absolutely perfect weekend heading into race week—the shopping and time with Theresa and her family helped me focus on stuff other than IM, which was very much a welcome distraction.

So, here I am—one week away (actually 6 days away at this point) from the longest day (and hopefully the best day) of my life so far. It’s weird—no doubt about it, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Bring it on…

Here’s the roll-up…

Swim: 2:19:00 / 6500 meters
Bike: 4:59:35 / 81.31 miles
Run: 3:33:31 / 22.20 miles
Total: 10:52:06 / 107.58 miles

And, just for grins, here’s my total training since I started my IM-specific training on Jan. 16…you might want to sit down (at least I’m glad I was when I looked at the totals)…

Swim: 82:12:18 / 221225 meters
Bike: 211:01:51 / 3475.82 miles
Run: 126:18:20 / 791.85 miles
Total: 417:04:01 / 4405.71 miles

Week 3 Wrap-Up

The burn-out factor was certainly pretty high for me as I headed into the week—I really had no motivation beyond just getting the crazy race over with and moving on with my life—and believe me, words do NOT express how unmotivated I was. It’s still amazing to me that I managed to get in the workouts that I did—even with the taper, it took every ounce of mental fortitude to get my butt out of bed and to the pool/fitness center each morning, but I did it. My focus, though, became less of getting the workouts in (which I did anyway) and more on how to regain the enjoyment of the workouts to make them less painful mentally. I got off the treadmill for my longer mid-week run, which meant I had a nice early morning jaunt through Harms Woods, and bagged another swim workout in favor of a massage on Thursday night—all well worth it.

Friday night, I had my first “real” summer event—I went to Ravinia with Julie and Theresa. Ravinia is, hands-down, my favorite thing about Chicago in the summer, and it was killing me that I had yet to make an appearance this year—I typically go at least 4-5 times each year. But, Julie had a brilliant idea of going to see the B-52’s, so we grabbed appropriate picnic food and headed out. It was a blast—a little sketchy weather-wise for a while as we sat through a light drizzle, but still, it was a beautiful late summer evening with great music and awesome company—and it made me feel almost normal again. It was a great treat to be able to spend some time with friends just doing normal summertime stuff—plus it helped me a ton mentally.

Continuing on the “fun” theme, I opted to forgo a road ride on Saturday in lieu of a 60-mile mountain bike ride along the Des Plaines River Trail—basically the same ride that Sue, Michele, and I did on the 4th of July. It was a blast—nothing crazy, but there is enough variety along the trail that it kept me entertained the whole time. As an added bonus, I peeled off at about mile 57 to bike to the Libertyville sports complex to watch Emily, Doug and Theresa’s oldest daughter, play a soccer game—even got to see her score a goal, which was very cool. After the game, I biked back to my car, hit Culver’s for a late lunch, and then came home and basically crashed after cooking an awesome stirfry dinner.

Sunday, I went to church for the first time basically all summer, and then hit Starbucks for my traditional post-church latte before coming home and getting ready for my run. I had an 11-miler to do, and the weather was awesome, so I set out along my normal path (the Great Western Trail). I felt great during the run—my HR stayed well under control and things just felt awesome—probably the best run I’ve had all summer, frankly. Mentally, the run was perfect for me, too—after the trainwreck of a 13-miler last week, I needed this one to get my head back in the game.

All in all, this was a great week—I took some time for me that didn’t involve training, and I think it paid off huge! Two weeks to go…pretty crazy…

Here’s the roll-up…

Swim: 0:56:00 / 2400 meters
Bike: 6:45:43 / 110.10 miles
Run: 3:53:46 / 31.40 miles
Total: 11:35:29 / 136.74 miles

Week 4 Wrap-Up (Let the taper begin!!)

After the crazy peak weekend, I was pretty much fired on Monday—so I wisely opted for a complete rest day on Monday as I let my body recover a little. My training program had a slight decrease in volume—which I appreciated immensely—plus I knew I’d be doing a very long swim on Saturday in Madison, so I didn’t sweat things too much during the week. I ended up doing a quick swim in Diamond Lake Tuesday night—not ideal as a replacement for the three swim workouts I was supposed to get in, but such is life. My bike and run workouts went well throughout the week, and I also started making a concerted effort to get enough sleep, which went OK for the most part.

Saturday morning, Erin, Sue, Michele and I trekked back to Madison to do a swim sponsored by the Madison masters swim group—they had the IM course marked out in Lake Monona and had both 1.2 and 2.4 mile swim options. We, of course, opted for the 2.4 mile course and even went without wetsuits, even though we were about the only triathletes that didn’t wear them. I didn’t really push it too hard—I really wasn’t sure of the pacing, but I knew I wanted to end the race with enough left over to do the 70+ mile ride we had planned (the out-and-back and one loop). Things felt fine, except I got very very bored on the second lap—even resorted to singing Jimmy Buffett songs in my head to pass the time as I swam. I also think I drank a fair amount of Lake Monona—not the wisest thing, I’m sure, but it definitely wasn’t on purpose. We were all pretty chilled when we got done—wetsuits might have been a wise option—so we changed into our bike gear and headed to Starbucks to warm up a bit before we took off on our ride.

After we headed out on the ride, I noticed my bike computer crapped out early on, so I had a brief stop in Verona to fix it, and then Michele and I ended up pulling off the side of the road between Verona and Mt. Horeb to let a motorcycle caravan go through—about 5 minutes of solid Harleys, which was pretty wild. Other than a crappy headwind, the ride was uneventful until we hit Verona again and I had my fourth flat tire of the season. Unfortunately, I had my Zipps on my bike to check the braking on some of the downhills, so I ended up completely ruining one of my Tufo tubulars—not a cheap flat tire, but at least I now know how to change my tubulars—turns out it’s very easy to do. Michele helped me out, and then we rode fairly cautiously back into Madison to do our brick run. We took off together for a 4-mile brick—true to form, took off a little too fast and I again got a side stitch that slowed me down to a walk for a little while. I managed to run for the last 1.5 miles solid, so I felt OK about that, but wasn’t overly thrilled with my day at that point.

The four of us ended up at Great Dane for some post-ride food and drink, then Sue, Michele and I again took off for Mundelein—as with last week, Michele and I planned to do our long run together. Sunday morning, the three of us headed to Pleasant Prairie to cheer on the Kraft gang and Nate, Sue and Michele’s neighbor, in the Pleasant Prairie triathlon. It was a blast cheering everyone on and a great reminder that triathlon is a great sport and a lot of fun—just what I needed mentally after a rough day on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was also very tough to get back into the swing of things after the race to get motivated to run…not made any easier by the lunch stop at Culver’s on the way back. Michele and I decided to follow the same route we did the previous week and headed to Old School—neither of us really wanted to run, but it’s what we had to do. After the first 10, I was truly ready to bag it—I was in a crappy place mentally and absolutely exhausted—probably more a factor of the past couple of weeks of intense training than anything else. But, I told myself that I would do another three at least, so Michele and I took off from the car and a brief water break to get it done. Both of us ended up calling it good at a 13-miler…probably not a bad day, but not as good as what either of us wanted to be sure. Sue, Michele and I headed to Starbucks on our way back, then I again met Theresa for another latte before heading back to my house. I was wiped—no doubt about that…and mentally in a pretty rough spot, but I guess that’s what happens when you get about three weeks away from something like Ironman and all you want to do is be done. But such is life…and only three weeks to go…

Here’s the roll-up…

Swim: 2:01:30 / 5140 meters
Bike: 6:51:33 / 120.75 miles
Run: 4:55:22 / 31.40 miles
Total: 13:48:25 / 155.36 miles

Week 5 Wrap-Up

After Steelhead, I figured I’d start with a massage on Monday instead of a workout—a fine idea, but good God Jennifer can be rough. Turns out my piriformis (no clue if I spelled that right at all) is really tight, particularly my left one, so she spent a fair amount of time working on it—none of which was pleasant for me, but turns out I felt great on Tuesday…still took it easy on my swim workout, but was fine by the time I got around to my interval bike workout Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday, though, my left calf started hurting in the middle of my run—to the point where I bagged it early and opted for ice and Advil instead. I couldn’t really tell if it was my Achilles (which acted up about the same time last year) or a muscle issue—either way, it freaked me out more than a little as I knew I had a big weekend with both peak workouts coming up. After I could still feel the soreness during my Thursday morning swim, I completely bagged my Thursday run—again opting for rest, ice, and Advil. My leg felt better Friday during an easy swim, so I was feeling a little bit better about things heading into the weekend.

Theresa came over to hang out Friday night and brought a very cool gift—a gym bag filled with a bunch of little treats—one for each day until IM. It’s been fun opening them each day—some are funny, some more sentimental, but all have given me a little something to look forward to at the end of the day. Bright and early Saturday morning, I headed to Verona to complete my peak bike workout—three loops of the IM course. The weather was beautiful, but I was still a bit skeptical as this was also the first time I’d ridden the course completely on my own—no other Kraft folks were able to join me, so after text messaging some folks to let them know when I took off, I headed out. I was expecting the course to be crowded, but, surprisingly, I didn’t really come across other riders until I hit Cross Plains on the first loop. I ended up riding with a guy named Charles until Mt. Horeb on loop two—turns out I know his neighbor, who used to be the plant manager at one of the pizza plants where I spent a lot of time. Random how small the world can be sometimes…but it was fun riding with him and talking with him. After Charles peeled off to get water at Mt. Horeb, I headed on my way to Cross Plains, where I stopped for water and a quick bio break before heading out again. I made it to Mt. Horeb on loop three before taking another quick water break—I pulled out my phone to find I had a voice mail from Cara, who was calling to wish me a happy 3rd anniversary of WW (August 12, 2003 was my first meeting). Pretty wild to get that voice mail on my third loop of the IM course—and it definitely made for some interesting pondering as I made my way to Cross Plains and then back to Verona. I was flying high as I cruised into Verona for the last time—I almost accosted a guy in the parking lot of Fireman’s Park to have him give me a high five, but I figured that was a bit much…but still, I was psyched for having made it 120+ miles over hills. I grabbed some celebratory Noodles & Company grub and found a Culver’s for some custard, then headed to Mundelein to crash at Sue and Michele’s—we had figured that Michele and I would do our 20-miler together on Sunday and that it just made sense to cut out a little driving time on my end.

Sunday morning found me tired but feeling OK from the ride on Saturday—not exactly in ship-shape for a 20-mile run, but doing OK. After grabbing some breakfast and coffee, Michele and I headed to the Old School parking lot to try a slightly different approach for our long run than what we used in our marathon training. As I knew I’d need to refill my fuel belt at some point, we opted to use the car as the midpoint and head north for 5 miles to Independence Grove, then back to car for a quick break, then south for 5 miles and back to round out the 20 miles. It worked well—except I still ran out of water at about mile 18.5 or so—made it a little rough coming into the car for the last time, but we got it done. The good news, too, is that my left calf stopped hurting at about mile 14—not sure why, but I’m glad it did. Sue made super yummy recovery shakes for us when we got back to their house, then I grabbed a quick cup of Starbucks with Theresa before heading back to my house—both great ways to polish off my peak weekend.

Here’s the weekly roll-up…

Swim: 2:30:00 / 6400 meters
Bike: 10:00:56 / 174.43 miles
Run: 3:57:21 / 24.92 miles
Total: 16:28:17 / 203.35 miles

Week 6 Wrap-Up

It was a little rough getting back into the swing of things after a week off, but Monday morning found me in the pool trying to get back into a routine. For the most part, it was a routine week—with Steelhead coming up on Saturday, I didn’t push things too hard, but I did bag a swim workout on Thursday—figured that was a safe bet. I also took the opportunity to take Tack into the Bike Shop for a pre-race (and pre-IM) tune-up—I knew I needed a new chain and wanted to have them check out the brakes and derailleurs with my Zipp wheels. Friday afternoon, I took off for Benton Harbor, Michigan—the site of the race—to check my bike in and check out the expo. I ended up meeting up with Jeremy at the expo—after waiting way too long to work on lodging, I ended up basically begging Jeremy to let me crash in his hotel room, and he graciously agreed, so it was good that we met up. We listened to the pre-race talk, walked around a bit, and tried to figure out how to manage the swim start, which we found out was literally a jump off the pier into Lake Michigan. The best strategy we could come up with was to wear our goggles under our swim caps and hang onto them as we jumped into the lake to make sure they didn’t come flying off…not much to start with, but it worked. After dropping our bikes in transition, we headed to what I will not-so-affectionately call the roach motel…aka the EconoLodge. The good news was that it had two beds so I didn’t need to crash on the floor…but it was, without a doubt, the nastiest hotel room I’ve ever had to stay in—peeling paint, mold in the bathroom, incredibly poor lighting and general sketchiness. We ditched our stuff and hit Panera for dinner, then found a grocery store so Jeremy could load up on his pre-race morning essentials of yogurt, bananas, cereal, and milk. After a stop by Dairy Queen, we ended up back at the roach motel and attempted to sleep—not an easy task when you’re afraid of whatever might be growing on or crawling under the bed.

Thankfully, we had a very early morning as we both wanted to get to transition early, so we minimized the amount of time at the roach motel. We crammed our stuff into our respective transition areas—with 1600 competitors, we didn’t have much space available, and I had a space hog to my left—my lucky day—and got ready for the race. The weather was awesome—not even remotely as humid as it was at Muncie and quite a bit cooler, but that swim start still had me worried. We met up with Sue, Michele, and Erin and headed down to the swim start via shuttle buses to warm up. Sue, Erin and I were all racing Athena, so we were in the very last wave—plenty of time to ponder the jump from the pier into the lake. It was a pretty wild start—literally a ~6’ jump straight off the pier and into the lake while trying to avoid jumping on the person who jumped off right before me and trying to keep my goggles on. In hindsight, I clearly should have plugged my nose in addition to holding my goggles—I think I ended up with about 10 gallons of Lake Michigan water up my nose as I started to swim. It was a little hectic, though—for the first time in a long time, I had a little bit of a panic attack as I started to swim, but thankfully that faded quickly as I settled down to get the swim done. I remember thinking the buoys would never end, but eventually they did end and I came out of the water with a pretty decent swim time—even beat Michele (who was in the wave right before us) out for a 4-minute lead.

I had a tough time calming down on the bike—I meant to race similarly to Muncie and hold my HR steady, but I got a little fired up and started picking people off right out of the gates. After a while, I came to my senses, backed off, and settled down to enjoy the ride. About 25 miles into the ride, I started playing a game of cat-and-mouse with a woman named Nancy—only to have her draft off of my for most of the remainder of the ride. USAT rules mandate that you keep a 4-length distance between you and the person in front of you and that you pass within 15 seconds—Nancy clearly didn’t care as she would pass me, then decide to sit up on her brake hoods or take a nice long drink of water. Then, when I passed her again, she’d stay on my wheel for several minutes drafting off me, then do the whole thing again. I caught up with Michele (finally) at about mile 54 and she even commented about Nancy’s drafting—then made it her goal to beat her on the run as she was in Michele’s age group.

After a quick port-o-let stop in transition, I headed out on the run…true to form, a bit too fast, but such is life for me, I guess. I caught Nancy (my drafting “buddy”) before mile 1 and didn’t look back. I kept to my Muncie plan of running from aid station to aid station—and it worked out quite well. I even met another Kraft guy (an engineer at the Chicago bakery) as I made my way through one of the stations—random, but cool. Unfortunately, my pace at the beginning ended up catching up with me a bit toward the end via a killer side stitch that slowed me down dramatically at about mile 11.5. Michele caught up to me at about mile 12 and talked me through it—we ended up running the rest of the race together and even did a ridiculously cheesy hand-hold thing as we crossed the finish line. Even with the side stitch, I ended up with a 5:34 race—I was pretty pleased, even though I came in second for the 39 and under Athena division—still 6 for 6 for hardware for the season, but now only 5 for 6 for winning…but I’ll take it. Jeremy had a sub-5 hour race, which is awesome, and Sue, Michele, and Erin all turned in solid races, too. By and large—good day.

After a quick stop at Starbucks, Sue, Michele, and I headed to LaPorte to round out another weekend of IM training. Michele and I sucked it up and got in another 4-mile run Saturday afternoon when we got back—not pretty nor painless, but we got it done. We managed to put a hurting on a super yummy pizza and all fell asleep watching a Rambo movie on TV—such is the life of the IM training crew. Sunday morning we hit Pine Lake for a nice long swim—sans wetsuits as it was balmy. The swim went well and was probably pretty close to race distance—not a bad way to start the day. After a long transition to change and eat, we took off for another flat recovery ride through LaPorte county, following basically the same route we took after Muncie. I clearly didn’t push it too hard—my average HR was a whopping 65%--but it felt good to cap off the week with a solid recovery effort and some good conversations with my training buddies. It was weird to leave, though—after all of the time I’d spent in LaPorte over the summer, this was the last time I’d be there for the year—truly the end to Camp Ironman, and a bit sad…

Here’s the roll-up for the week…

Swim: 4:02:52 / 10600 meters
Bike: 8:55:35 / 168.92 miles
Run: 4:32:12 / 28.61 miles
Total: 17:30:40 / 204.15 miles

Week 7 Wrap-Up (aka Screamer hits the road)

Week 7 was met with a fair amount of apprehension by me—I was nervous about undertaking my first RAGBRAI and didn’t really know what to expect. The riding didn’t scare me—it was more the social aspects of the ride that had me sweating bullets. But, before we started the ride, I took Vardo’s lead and we went for an early morning swim at the Peterson Pits (one of her open-water swim areas) Monday. My mom had graciously offered to drive Vardo and me to western Iowa to meet up with the rest of Team Satisfied (my new RAGBRAI team with Vardo (aka Sugar), Sparkle, Sunshine, and Sid), so we took off mid-morning and trekked west to Arcadia. Monday was pretty windy and the route was really hilly (trust me, forget what you’ve heard—Iowa is NOT flat), so Sparkle ended up ending her ride in Arcadia, and both Sugar and Sunshine opted not to ride at all. I, however, was excited to be on RAGBRAI, so I took off on my own (well, with about 10,000 other riders, actually) and headed to Audobon via a number of small towns. Sparkle wasn’t lying—it was crazy windy and very hilly—a brutal combination—but I had a great time riding and taking everything in. It was weird being on my Giant road bike instead of Tack—it took a while to get used to not having aerobars and to the gearing, but by the time I rolled into Audobon, I had it figured out. The highlight of the day, though, was getting my team name—the original Satisfied members started the tradition of assigning “s” names to the gang—but you can imagine my horror when I discovered that I was to known as Screamer for the week…

In Audobon, I met up with the rest of the team at our host’s house and learned how to set up my tent (well, Vardo’s, but it was mine for the week)—quite the adventure considering I hadn’t even been in a tent for probably 20 years. We showered, grabbed some food, and headed to the local bar/beer garden for the evening. I called it a night fairly early and managed to drag Sparkle along with me—I was wiped and starting to relax a little, so I was very much looking forward to sleep. Sugar and Sunshine, however, had quite the experience on their way back later in the evening…can’t remember if Vardo blogged about it or not, but you’ll have to ask her for the details. Tuesday morning, we started with an awesome breakfast courtesy of our host family, then we headed out for the 71-mile ride to Waukee. We took a slight detour after stopping for lunch and ended up in a bar in Panora for a few hours—after which we wisely stayed off the open roads and took the bike path to Adel, where we again joined the official route after grabbing some much-needed food (and the best-tasting iceberg lettuce salad I’ve ever had—at least that’s how it seemed at the time). It was a little rough finding our host house in Waukee, but we rolled into the driveway about 30 seconds before a killer downpour unleashed. The sons of our hosts had already met up with Sid and had our tents set up—very cool of them—but, as it turns out, we ended up sleeping in the family room due to some killer thunderstorms that night.

Wednesday involved more of the same—more riding, more beverage stops, and more time with Team Emerson (a bunch of rugby guys from Atlanta). Vardo and I took off together in the morning and met up with the rest of the team about mid-way through the ride, at which point we also met up with the Emerson guys. We ended up riding with them for a while—they had a pretty good dual paceline going, and I even pulled for about 7-8 miles of the way. After closing down the beer garden in Colfax, we started the trek to the overnight town of Newton, only to find what seemed like the world’s largest hill coming out of Colfax. It was a pretty cruel trick to have that hill AFTER the beer garden, but we managed to make it up. It was also at this point that I discovered my front derailleur was a piece of crap—I could shift down into the little rings (I have a triple on my Giant), but then couldn’t get back into my big ring without much prayer and, in some instances, actually stopping and manually putting the chain on the big ring myself. But, I made it to Newton along with the rest of the crew, showered, watched Lance Armstrong’s speech to the crowd on TV, and then headed into town with the Satisfied crew. I knew it would be my last night of the adventure as I was headed back to Illinois on Thursday, but we still called it a night fairly early and headed back to get some sleep (after stops at the food stands and Dairy Queen).

Thursday morning we rolled out for my last 22 miles of RAGBRAI 2006. My front derailleur on my Giant completely crapped out, so I rode the whole hilly stretch in my big ring…definitely have to get that @#$%! bike fixed at some point before next year. After a brief breakfast stop in Reasnor, we headed to Sully where I was slated to meet up with my mom and pick up my car. While we were there, Lance rode through—pretty cool to see his entourage ride through, even though it was a very brief glimpse of them. Apparently he stopped for pie (a RAGBRAI tradition) at the local coffee shop, which was pretty cool. I had the unfortunate discovery about that time, though, that I left my keys in my gear bag, which was safely on the Team Satisfied trailer in Lynnville, a town about 4 miles away. Thankfully, my mom was a trooper and drove Sparkle and I over to Lynnville to pick up my keys and all of my gear, then back to Sully to get my car, load bikes, etc. Sparkle was done riding at that point—it was crazy humid and starting to rain, so she called it a day—and I dropped Sparkle back off at the trailer when I met up with Sid again. The drive home was very uneventful, save for a much-needed Starbucks stop in Iowa City…turns out I am an addict after all…

With a RAGBRAI experience under my belt, I turned my attention back to IM training. Friday morning, after a week of crappy sleep, too much beer, and no running at all, I took off in the blazing heat and humidity for an 18-mile run. I think my desire to cram a week’s worth of vegetables into a single meal Thursday night backfired on me, though—about 4 miles into the run I started experiencing the worst GI distress of my training career. Sadly, my running path offers very few outlets for such distress, so I ended up doing a weird combo of running/walking back to my house to take care of things before heading out again. Luckily, due to the heat and my crazy need for water, I had planned my route to involve two 6-mile loops and two 3-mile loops, so at least I didn’t have too long to wait. Eventually, I got the run done—it wasn’t pretty, but it was great training for inclement weather (like last year’s IM WI).

To treat myself, I met up with Theresa for a pedicure and dinner Friday afternoon, which started a two-day period of relative normalcy with minimal training (I figured the RAGBRAI miles counted for my long ride Saturday, at least). I ran a bunch of random errands Saturday, including picking up my race packet for Steelhead in the city, then headed to Wauconda to pick up my packet for the sprint tri I was doing Sunday. I ended up with a brief swim in a VERY warm Diamond Lake—not unlike swimming in bath water—then headed to Theresa’s to crash with her family and avoid having to get up even earlier for the race on Sunday.

At the crack of dawn on Sunday, I headed out (with my fan club—consisting of Theresa—in tow) for Wauconda and the sprint tri. As I rolled my bike into transition, I realized that the head USAT official was none other than Rosalyn, the coordinator for IM Mondays. She gave me some grief about doing a sprint tri instead of doing a long ride, etc., but backed off when I told her I’d done RAGBRAI and already had my long ride in for the week. The race went pretty well—it was tough to sight on the swim and I got a little turned around, but once I hit the bike, I was flying. I had a GREAT bike leg (and it was fun) and the run went reasonably well given the heat. As it turned out, I won the Athena class and would’ve even won my age group (by about 10 minutes), and I had a fantastic time doing so. After the race, Theresa and I headed to Starbucks for a celebratory latte and ended up meeting up with Sue and Michele—after a while Theresa’s husband, Doug, and her kids joined us as well—it was a random little gathering, but a fun way to wind down. With only a sprint tri on my plan for the day, it was very cool to have a day to just chill—not think about training, not worrying about work, not really caring about anything…in short, it was awesome, and I was sorry to see the weekend come to a close. But, life continues as always…

Here’s the roll-up for the week (times are rough as I didn’t have a bike computer for RAGBRAI)…

Swim: 1:15:23 / 4000 meters
Bike: 12:12:43 / 215.05 miles
Run: 3:26:56 / 21.10 miles
Total: 16:55:02 / 238.65 miles

Week 8 Wrap-Up:

After a slightly reduced volume week in week 9, I bumped it right back up for week 8. After looking ahead to the next couple of weeks, I opted to swim Monday instead of taking the off day, but, after deciding I was way too tired for any good, I did bag my run workout on Tuesday—but picked up some slightly longer mileage on Wednesday to make up for it. I did, however, take Friday as an off day and took full advantage of an easy night at home to get some extra sleep.

Saturday morning, I met Erin, Sue, and Michele in Madison for a pretty big milestone—an attempt at biking the entire 112-mile IM course. Michele and I stayed together until about Mt. Horeb on the first loop—before which we had to take a detour with some killer hills in order to avoid a car accident. We met up again briefly on the hills on Old Sauk Pass before Michele took off again (no big shock there), and I managed to make it to Mt. Horeb on the second loop before I had to stop for water and mix more nutrition. It seems like there has been significant road construction going on each time we’ve been up to the course, and this trip was no exception—there was about a mile stretch just after the second hill on Old Sauk Pass that was literally torn down to dirt—not the best to ride with skinny tires, but both Michele and I did it. We found out later that Sue and Erin took a detour to avoid the dirt—not sure who was better off, but at least we all made it safely back to Madison. Even with the construction and detour, I had a great ride and felt good—only one stop, too, which was awesome. I have learned, though, that I really don’t like the stretch of the course between Verona and Mt. Horeb—it’s just tough mentally for reasons of which I’m not really sure. I do, however, really enjoy Witte Road and even the climbs after Cross Plains—they keep me in the game mentally and give me very concrete markers as to my progress.

After a brief brick run along the bike path in Madison, we of course convened at Great Dane for food and drink, then I took off for Racine to meet up with Vardo. After looking at her summer schedule, Vardo opted to race the Spirit of Racine Half Ironman, which happened to be Sunday. And, as I was not only sort of in the area but also in need to meeting up with her to start the RAGBRAI logistical fun (see next post), it worked out great for me to pop over to Racine and support her. It was kind of nice being a spectator—I wasn’t worried at all Saturday night and, while I still woke up early Sunday morning, I only had to worry about helping her—not actually doing a race. She fondly (at least I hope) referred to me as her Sherpa as I ended up carrying her bike pump, mixing her Perpetuem, etc., etc.—but I had a great time cheering her on. I took advantage of the bike portion of the race to get in my long run for the week—I had intended to get in 17 miles, but bagged that idea and settled for 12 miles after I realized my legs (and me in general) were really wiped and tired. I managed to time things pretty well and caught Vardo coming out of the water, coming in from the bike, and on both loops of the run at the turnaround/finish line area. She had a great race and was, I think, pretty pleased with how she did.

After loading up her truck and my CRV, we started heading to the great state of Iowa to begin our week of RAGBRAI (the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, for those of you not familiar with the concept). We made a brief pitstop at Vardo’s parents’ house and then stopped in the metropolis of Sully, IA to drop off my car—I planned to stop riding RAGBRAI in Sully and head back to Illinois. It was, to say the least, a brutally long drive as both of us were wiped, but we made it to Ames and to Vardo’s place eventually, thus ending a crazy but fun week.

Here’s the roll-up for the week…

Swim: 2:10:00 / 5300 meters
Bike: 9:56:35 / 171.00 miles
Run: 4:11:50 / 25.77 miles
Total: 16:18:25 / 200.08 miles

Week 9 Wrap-up (and my first intro to the half-Iron distance)

With the swelling on my leg going down, week 9 started with some concern over the incredible stiffness the tetanus shot caused in my left shoulder, especially in light of the fact that my first half Ironman race, the Muncie Endurathon, was slated for Saturday. I hit the pool Monday morning for an easy workout—more just to make sure my shoulder would hold up OK, which it did. I made some modifications to my training plan to account for the race on Saturday—not even close to a proper taper, but I backed off on the cycling volume and intensity (figured I could do that after the two-ride weekend) and, while I kept the same running volume, I decided to take it easy on pace and not do any tempo work.

On Friday, the Kraft crew (all 13 of us doing the race Saturday) headed south to Muncie and met up at the expo—it was pretty wild to think that we had 10 people doing the whole race and another three competing as a relay. We even had a pre-race team meal at the Olive Garden early Friday evening before we called it a night—not exactly the finest of dining options, but it worked for us. Way too early on Saturday morning, we all convened in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express and headed to the reservoir for the race. As I am still very much not a morning person, the 4 am alarm was brutal…especially considering it was 4 am EDT and I live in the land of CDT. Thank God for Diet Coke which is, of course, the world’s best pre-race beverage—at least for me.

The reservoir water, unfortunately, was a balmy 82°F, so no dice on the wetsuits. That and the fact that the Athenas and Clydesdales (aka the big kids) were in the last wave of individual competitors made me just a tad nervous for the swim. I calmed myself with the knowledge that I was going to stick with my race plan, which was to race to a heart rate of 75% and not to actually go all out and race for the win. The swim actually went OK—I managed to pass some people in the two waves in front of me and, except for inhaling the diesel fumes from the rescue boats, I felt pretty good when I got out of the water. The bike was great—basically pancake flat on closed roads—and I figured out how to slow down enough to do an effective water bottle exchange. Even more exciting, I figured out how to fill my aero water bottle on the go—seemingly minor achievements, but they’ll come in very handy on IM race day. I came into T2 feeling pretty good, but it was again bloody hot (mid-90’s and humid), so I took off pretty slow on the run. I knew I’d be walking some—at the minimum through the water stops—so I wasn’t overly concerned with my initial pace and, again, I raced to my HR instead of to time, which also seemed to help. After taking full advantage of the cold towels and ice at each aid station, I managed to make it through the heat with a pretty solid race of 5:45:50 and a win in the 39-and-under Athena group. The rest of the Kraft gang had good days, too, considering the heat—everyone finished strong and Michele, Erin, Sue, and Joe Pa’s Favorites (the relay team of Penn Staters) came away with hardware, too. In general, I was thrilled with my race—I raced according to my HR plan and executed it very well. Plus, I had fun on the run—it was hot enough that everyone (well, at least those that I encountered) pretty much kicked into survival mode and was encouraging each other, high-fiving, etc. along the way.

After the race, Sue, Michele, and I took off for LaPorte—we had plans for a decent recovery ride on Sunday—but stopped for ice cream, coffee, and Mexican food along the way. Admittedly, I was pretty stiff getting out of my car, but I still felt decent considering the distance I had covered. Sunday morning, we begrudgingly headed out pretty early for a 56-mile ride—the forecast for Sunday was even worse than it was for Saturday, and we wanted to beat the heat as much as possible. Michele picked a flat and easy route for us so we could truly use it as a recovery ride—we took full advantage of LaPorte County’s bike system and meandered through the countryside. The three of us stuck together the whole way, which is fairly unusual, but I think we all just wanted to chill a little. Overall, it was a decent ride, and I have to admit it felt good to get my legs moving a little. But, I was also not sad to get back home and crash early Sunday night…

Here’s the roll-up for the week…

Swim: 3:13:50 / 8620 meters
Bike: 7:41:50 / 140.21 miles
Run: 4:39:51 / 28.90 miles
Total: 15:35:31 / 175.50 miles

Week 10 Wrap-up (Camp Ironman continues…)

We woke up Monday to rain and a pretty dismal forecast, so we had a slight change in plans—instead of the long bike we were going to do, we decided to do a long trail ride on our mountain bikes on Tuesday instead, so we all headed back home from LaPorte. It was actually pretty nice having Monday off, especially since I was anticipating having another punishing ride following a pretty intense weekend—and I think I beat most of the traffic headed back into Chicagoland, which is always a bonus.

After an awesome night’s sleep, I headed to Sue and Michele’s house in Mundelein early on July 4 so we could head over to the start of the Mundelein 5K run. We met up with Theresa and her daughter Emily, who were also both running the race. True to form (at least for me), I took off way too fast and ended up fading midway through the run, but I still turned in another 5K PR with a 21:58 time (that’d be 7:05/mile if you’re keeping track). I was thrilled with my time—and I picked up some more hardware by coming in third in my age group. Michele placed, too—good day for the Ironman crew. After the race, Sue, Michele, and I took off on our mountain bikes and headed toward the Des Plaines River Trail for our long bike. Unfortunately, about a mile after we got on the North Shore Trail, Sue had a flat tire—always unfortunate, but made even more so in this case by the fact that she couldn’t get her bike bag open. The good news, though, is that Michele had a spare tube and I had levers and CO2 cartridges—and once we had that fixed, we kept plugging away. It was a blast riding the trails—I love riding the roads, but it was a great change of pace to hit the trails instead. We even saw two spotted fawns and two incredibly striking sand hill cranes—other than the fact that my left hand sort of went numb due to the completely different hand position on my mountain bike, it was an awesome and fun day. I wound down the holiday at Theresa’s with an all-American picnic with her and her family, then bailed before the fireworks to go home and crash.

Because we had a busy weekend of cycling planned, Michele and I pounded out our long run (13 miles) before work on Thursday—in theory, it sounded great, but I was dragging like a champ by my mid-morning meetings. Thankfully, there is a Caribou Coffee about a block north of my building—and God bless the concept of the extra shot of espresso!! After some good open-water swimming in Diamond Lake both Thursday and Friday nights, I was ready for a weekend of hitting the open road.

Saturday morning, Erin, Sue, Michele and I met up at Fireman’s Park in Verona for the first of two days of cycling and two loops of the IM course. Unfortunately, it was hot and windy—found out after the fact that the winds were ~16-18 mph in Mt. Horeb—which made the ride that much rougher. Plus, the third hill on the back half of the loop was being resurfaced and was basically pea gravel—lots of fun to combine a crappy road surface with a tough hill. Other than the wind and the heat, I also had a fun situation that became very apparent at about mile 12 of the first loop. At some point over the previous weekend, I got an insect bite on my left calf—not a mosquito bite, but something else. It had itched a little throughout the week and had itched again on the way up to Verona (and when things itch, I typically scratch them), but I didn’t think too much of it at any point. However, the area around my bite starting hurting a little on the way to Mt. Horeb on the first loop, and when I looked down, I realized to my horror that the area around the bite had basically turned bright red and swollen. Not exactly a warm, soothing feeling for me as I had visions of flesh-eating bacteria and brown recluse spiders racing through my mind for the rest of the ride. Plus, when I actually made it back to Verona after the second loop and headed out on my brick run, I realized that my leg hurt with every step—not bad enough for me to stop running, but enough to scare me.

Sue and Michele graciously stopped by the Verona Walgreens with me for some over-the-counter relief, but at that point, I was ready to go for medical attention. Of course, we HAD to stop by Great Dane in Madison for food and drink first—I still have my priorities, after all, and I was really hungry—but I called Theresa on the drive to Madison for some online assistance in finding an urgent care center near me. As it turns out, all of the urgent care centers near my house close at 6 pm—bummer for the not-so-critcally ill or wounded in DuPage County, which sadly included me at that point in time. But, thankfully, the urgent care facility near Theresa was open until 10 pm, and she has actually taken her children there before, so I figured I’d head back to Mundelein for a fun-filled Saturday evening at the doctor’s. Let’s be clear—I HATE going to the doctor and avoid it like the plague, so it was actually a pretty big deal for me to go. Thankfully, Theresa offered to go with me (helpful also as she actually knew where it was located)—nothing like being a 32-year-old woman who has to drag her friend along for moral support. As it turns out, I was diagnosed with lower leg cellulitis and came away with a tetanus shot, a prescription for antibiotics, and the outline of the swollen area around my bite marked up with a Sharpie, but at least the doctor didn’t freak out and give me any bad news, and he cleared me to bike the next day, too. And, one very cool thing came out of the visit—when the nurse took my pulse, she made the comment that I must be an athlete…not something I’m used to hearing, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Sunday morning, I trekked back up to Wisconsin (Burlington this time) to meet up with Sue and Michele and do another ride, aptly named the Heatstroke 100 as it was still bloody hot and pretty windy. Having started my dosage of antibiotics and being short on sleep from the late night at the doctor’s, I decided to do the 74-miler instead of the century, which Sue and Michele opted for…but still had a good ride even with a reduced effort. So, after a stop at Dairy Queen for a recovery chocolate malt, the extended Camp Ironman came to a close.

Here’s the roll-up for the week…

Swim: 1:40:00 / 5000 meters
Bike: 14:00:12 / 217.27 miles
Run: 2:58:49 / 22.11 miles
Total: 18:39:01 / 242.51 miles