Impromptu Half Ironman (HIM) Race Rehearsal Report

There's a 4th of July ride every year in my area that I've done for probably the last 4 years. Typically, I do the 100k plus another loop because I'm training for some stupid Ironman race, but today I figured the 100k would be fine, and I planned to run :40 off the bike. For the riding, I figured on mostly JFR but then it's been awhile since I've ridden with so many tempting targets to motivate me to put in higher effort levels. I wasn't planning on a HIM rehearsal, but as it turns out, I pretty much got one in, which is good timing since I'm doing a HIM on 7/23.

I did a 4-hour ride/:40 run on Saturday, just 3 days ago. My IF for that ride was only .83 (for those of you without power meters, IF=Intensity Factor, which is the % of your Functional Threshold, or FT, watts you held for the ride), because I allowed myself a little extra noodling time although I got in 1 hour at HIM watts and :20 at FT watts, but the run off the bike felt like total crap, even though I was running at a good pace. Oh--I remember why the run felt like total crap--I hadn't run off a "longish" ride since Ironman Brazil. Sunday I ran 1:40 on my hilly trail course at a good clip and swam :30 afterwards. Yesterday I swam 3300 yds., lifted for 1:06 and ran :55 including strides, so I sort of expected to be tired today, but I guess not.

I did not sleep too well last night, as my metabolism felt so jacked up and I was hot no matter where I tried to sleep in my house, even downstairs where it's maybe 70. Nonetheless, I was excited when I woke up because the weather forecast called for low 80's and low humidity. The day started out with like 90% humidity because some crap storms passed through last night, although they failed to rain on my house, but the weather man insisted that the humidity would burn off in the morning.

My stomach was not doing too well. I actually ate some pasta for dinner last night (thanks peanut gallery for admonishing me to do so), and went to bed with a full stomach, and I still felt full when I woke up today! Normally I would shoot extra carbs before a 4-hour workout, but I just didn't feel like I wanted them. But my good sense got the better of me and I drank a can of Ultra Violence on the 23-mile drive to the ride start. 170 calories, just enough to put me at 400 calories in the tank, which I guess is enough what with my hyperefficient metabolism now (I used to down about 700 calories before events such as today, but luckily I can get away with far less now). Bonus, caffeine, which seemed like a good idea since I hadn't slept particularly well.

There were 10-15MPH north/east winds, no big deal, they don't bother me. As I always say from riding in my general area, "We don't have hills so we must have wind." There were 4 sections to the ride. For the first section I just took it out what felt like moderately hard, less than HIM effort. As it turned out, I was pretty much dead on for HIM watts, and they felt EASY! YEAH, BABY! For the 2nd-4th legs I caught up with and rode with roadies. They weren't even all "oh you're a triathlete" or anything (despite how I was dressed: swimsuit top and low-cut DSS bike shorts). I took some good pulls straight into the headwinds for fun. The roadies said I was good. This is the first time I've gone with the roadies (these were pretty good as roadies go) this season, and I just had a blast. I've tried in past years, but couldn't hold their wheels. And there were LEGIONS of roadies out on this ride. It was like it was a race.

Here I have to insert a HUGE PLUG for my coach--his bike training is DA BOMB. Hey, if a 49 (almost 50) year old tiny female triathlete can hang with the roadies, there must be something to it, don't you think? Especially 5 weeks post-Ironman. I'll take it. Maybe today was a fluke, but we'll see in 3 weeks when I do my first 1/2 Ironman of the year. I really enjoy shorter, harder rides. Well actually I just enjoy hard rides. I started out today intending to take it much easier, but I guess I no longer have that in me. That, I know, is part of my coach's objective. Get you used to riding hard so that it's second nature. And then when you need to dial it down in certain race situations (especially Ironman), you are still riding strongly. It's motivating to see the numbers on the SRM telling me how I'm doing, but it's even more motivating testing myself against others and observing them and seeing how hard they must be working. When I was hanging back in the pace line today (and we're going 22-24MPH), I was like "My God, this is EASY." So I would drop back just so I had to work to catch back up. Towards the end of today's ride, the roadies were slacking just a little (or more likely I was getting stronger--since I train every ride building my effort I am used to working progressively harder), so I just went out front and figured OK let's ride at FT or above, so I did, I dropped the roadies for at least 5', passed another huge pack where one guy commented, "Nice work" and after I thought I got in enough FT work, I dialed it down and let the roadies catch back up to me. Fun, fun, fun!

I ended up at NP of 153 for the entire ride which is IF of .86. My coach's HIM chart pegs me at IF of .88 for HIM, and that seems about right--the .86 didn't feel too bad at all (64 miles at 20MPH). Running off the bike didn't feel too bad either, not that I'd want to do a 1/2 mary today, but I felt fine. I was running about 9:00/mile, which is my target 1/2 Ironman pace. The ride started and ended at a high school, and the track was open, so I did my brick run on it. Of course, there were a couple of other triathletes running on the track, I mean, come on we only rode 64 miles!

I had to laugh at the feed bag some peeps were putting on at the rest stops. I am down to existing on 200-250 cal./hour biking or running. I did manage to eat 2 cookies today, though, and they tasted good. On my way home, I was thinking about what did I want to eat, and truthfully, I didn't feel very hungry. I ended up eating my usual Lean Cuisine for lunch, and hope that hunger will come later today and I'll try and eat more pasta. I have a pretty easy training day tomorrow (1 hour swim and :50 run), but I did burn up about 2100 calories today which is like needing to eat another day's worth of food. I did remember that I have Pringles in the house, and I had a few yesterday, but they just weren't that appetizing. I must just be in a food lull, but as long as my training feels good, I'm not going to worry too much about my calorie intake. Besides, a few beers seems to do the trick. I know, I know--empty calories, but they taste so GOOD in the summer time, don't they?

A chic asked me at one rest stop how I got my stomach tan. I looked at her quizzically and said, "Um....I run." I got a most excellent internal chuckle out of that. I suppose I could have said, "I lay out in the sun for hours at a time and just ride a little bit every now and then." Or, "I sit up on the bike as often as possible to let those rays hit my midsection." Or, "I do a lot of backstroke in the outdoor pool." Speaking of sitting up on the bike, it was 100% aero today, and the aero felt good. So what if only the sides of my stomach caught rays.

One summer when I was doing some swimming at an outdoor pool, I remember someone at work commenting on how could my armpits possibly be tan? And I told that woman it was from swimming in an outdoor pool. She didn't believe me. So I had to go all physics on her. Water. Light colored bottom. Full sunlight. Swimming front crawl with armpits towards bottom of pool. Sun reflects off bottom of pool onto armpits, tanning them. Or maybe I should have said, "I lay out in the sun with my arms over my head."

I get really tan in the summer due to my Croatian heritage. I also get women at the Y commenting on my beautiful tan. They ask where did I go to get it? I always reply, "Outside." They ask again, "No, I mean where did you go on vacation?" Again, I say, "Outside. Here. Illinois. On my bike and running." Like the sun is different in other places! Well, there is a different color of tan you end up with in other places--I can distinguish a Hawaiian tan from a southern California tan from a Midwest (aka "dirty") tan.

Tonight I expect to sleep sporadically while listening to the various fireworks (I may just walk on down to watch my town's) and other people blowing up various things in their yards.

As always, I've had a wonderful 4th of July. Hope everyone else in the U.S. did, too!