Since I believe in full disclosure, I should note that in the women's triathlon age groups, there is a steep drop off in participation in the 55-59 group, at least that's my observation. Why is this? I can speculate--grandchildren, menopause, loss of competitive desires, health issues--I just don't know. But the other thing I've observed is that if you weren't good at this until that age, it is incredibly difficult to get good at it around this time of life. I've witnessed, and I'm a good case study, women who take up aerobic sports in their 40's and become really good at it. I can also attest that menopause does a number on female physiology. Sometimes I feel like I'm just hanging in there, but for the most part, I feel outstanding, and I could not be doing what I'm doing now if I didn't make a concerted effort to retain my underlying strength and just, well, work my ass off. I feel pretty confident that as long as I don't completely annihilate myself, that I will continue to be at the top of my game for at least a few more years. But I don't want to just be at the top of my game--I want to be at the top of the game in many age groups and also among men! Perhaps that sounds asshole-y, but I put in the work with a strong desire to win.
I know I can't win every race I do at every distance--it depends on who shows up, whether or not I tapered, weather, gremlins, etc., but I will always go in knowing I trained to the absolute best of my abilities and gave it my all. I am no good at Olympic distance, for example--I just haven't done enough of them and it's that distance between sprint and 1/2 plus. But I'm racing a few of them this year and we will see how it goes. For another thing, I still don't consider myself a good runner--in a pure footrace, I more or less suck compared to pure runners, and I'm not the fastest swimmer, either. But I can bike like a demon, and I know how to race. Every time I toe the line I am happy to share some little tip (or five) with newer racers that they tell me made a huge difference in their day. That's the other thing--I really love giving back to others in the sport through coaching, mentoring and general spouting off of my mouth. I do have a little experience at this!
The art and skill of racing is developed by careful attention to detail both in training and in the lead up to a race--taper (if you do it!), nutrition, mental preparation, gear selection. Yikes I have all these little things that I do that work for me that make a huge difference in my mental state come race day, and despite the contribution that training makes to one's performance, the mental aspect is huge. For me, I tend to experience an appropriate amount of nervousness. If you lived with me, you'd experience it as me telling you to shut the fuck up, don't whistle, and stay out of my way. Then come race day, I can be pretty talkative with other racers and volunteers. Sometimes I can tell that other racers have that "deer in the headlights" thing going, and I try and help calm them down just a little. It's good to be nervous, but not too nervous. I am a non-stop laugh machine, as really, this is all just one big hoot to me, although the ability to laugh about it, I think, stems from all the hard work I've put in.
I like to sport temporary tattoos (still don't have any real ones!) for races. I have a huge envelope full of them. Some are funny, some are mean looking, some are gifts. For yesterday's race (I forgot to put any on 2 weeks ago), I picked 3: I had one more Iron Man left that I put on my left inner forearm:
I need to back up to what I did in training this past week in the lead up to the race. I didn't think doing a 3:30 ride/:30 brick run the day before was a good idea (although in retrospect maybe it was!), I only wanted to have to run for an hour after the race (that's about all I can tolerate--trust me, it's hard to get out and run after one of these), and I planned on doing a better warmup on race day. To accomplish these objectives, I ended up riding 2:05 on both Tuesday and Thursday, and then only 2:00 on Saturday. I added short runs on Tuesday and Thursday (not bricks) of :20 and :15, and then I planned for a :20 run/:20 bike warmup at home and a :05 run/:10 bike warmup onsite yesterday.
It was challenging doing those longer midweek rides on top of everything else, including that I'd decided I was ready to move my strength training from 2x10 to 3x8! Doesn't sound like a huge change, but trust me, it is! That alone added :15 to my strength training time, a little DOMS here and there, and some nice added fatigue.
Then on Friday, I did a stupid thing (that I will keep doing LOL!)--an ultrarunner friend of mine posted an article on Facebook about doing steep incline walking/running (IF you are able to even run) as part of training for hills and such. I don't usually run with an incline on the treadmill, but figured I could get all over walking--that was something I did to prepare for my first 50-miler. I'm also a big fan of using the Cybex Arc Trainer during the winter to prepare for stair climb races and general cross training, so I wasn't worried about my ability to go balls out walking on my treadmill at a steep incline. But I don't do anything the easy way, do I?
I had a :40 run scheduled for Friday, so I decided to do :35 of steep incline walking, and then :05 strides. I cranked my treadmill up to the maximum incline, 15%, and got to work. I was able to vary my speed from 3.6-4.1MPH walking. I was warned that my calves would take a huge beating, but I figured that my calves were used to having the crap beaten out of them in my bike workouts, and I was right! I got a massage Friday afternoon, and felt "appropriately" tired.
Saturday morning when I woke up, my calves were just fine, but my quads were a bit pissed off at me. I laughed, thinking, well this is what happens when you cram about 12.5 hours of training into your 5-day work week! It made my 2-hour ride interesting, but I was happy I'd moved things around so I could get a bunch of other stuff done on Saturday, since Sunday would be devoted to racing and recovering. I dropped off a package to send to a friend, went grocery shopping, bought some goodies at a specialty market, stretched, did some sewing, and made my final plans for race day.
When I woke up yesterday, I felt pretty good because I'd managed to get 8 hours of sleep. My legs were worked over, but too bad, that's how it goes when you're training for an Ironman to be strong enough to train for an Ultraman. Still, I figured I could do OK at the race, but if I didn't, I was happy knowing I was training well and meeting the higher objective. I'd slacked and hadn't actually picked my tattoos until yesterday morning, but then I had fun in choosing them and putting them on. I know it seems like I'm a bit silly for a 58 year old woman, but I really don't give a fuck what anyone thinks. All I know is that my silliness wears off on other people when I see them smiling, hear them laughing, and lightening the mood, because life can be a downer much of the time.
I picked out my warmup and race clothes, and began my warmup at home at 5:30. My start time was 8:00, and the race venue is only a 10-minute drive from home, and the club opened at 7AM, so all good. I ran for :20 on the treadmill, took a 5-minute break, then got on Skull Kingdom for :22. Things felt good, and I was hydrating and sweating normally. I had a bit of time to kill before I left, and I cracked a Coke at 6:30--I want to be done with the caffeine about an hour before race time. I left my house at 6:50 and finished my Coke on the way there.
I went to registration and asked if they were giving medals to the AG winners. They no longer give medals, which is fine by me--I had so many of those that I tossed over 20 of them from prior years a few years back! I went to the locker room and put my crap in there, then headed to the upstairs track and ran 1/2 mile rather easy, and I remembered to check where the buckets were in case I had to puke when I finished.
I went back downstairs and hopped on a bike for just over 10 minutes. There were a bunch of people warming up on the bikes, and I'd timed things so basically I hopped off, changed into my swimsuit and headed to the pool.
A girl numbered me up and I asked her to put a big "X" on my left calf as a joke (that I won't explain here). She was puzzled why I would want an X, but she did it, and then I told her to make it a "smiley X," and she did.
Before I got in, I chatted with 3 young volunteers and found my guy, Pranav. I asked them if they knew what HTFU means, and they didn't, so I explained it to them. This resulted in a boisterous laugh from everyone. I told Pranav that I wanted him to yell that at me while racing (although he could just use the letters) and also GO FATTY. This made all the kids laugh, too, as while I feel I could stand to lose 3-5 lbs., I'm not really "fat" fat. I explained that this comes from years ago when a group of friends decided we would yell this at one another during races--none of us are fat--but it sure grabs your attention when you hear someone yelling it! Maybe some people think it's mean, but it's really just funny to us.
My swim was predictably slow for me, as I was getting pushed towards the wall and had to look out for my lane mate who ended up smacking me pretty hard on the right hand (not my fault--I have a nice, narrow stroke and body profile--he got a little rambunctious), but I was OK. I got out and headed to the locker room to quickly shower off and change.
I'd told Pranav what height to set my bike seat at, and he'd done it, so when I got there, I reminded him of HTFU and GO FATTY, and we got started. Turns out in my wave (the first of the day) there were a few other AG leaders, so it was cool to have some good competition on the bike! I just looked down and rode as hard as I could for 20 minutes, and I hit the same mileage as I did 2 weeks ago, only on more training this time, so all good! Pranav fanned me with the paddle number (they put the bike numbers on a big stick so your volunteer can raise it and the people monitoring the leader board can move your little bike over another mile).
At this point, you are probably wondering why all the fuss about such a tiny indoor race? Because many competitive people show up--that's why! And it's just such fun, and in many cases, the volunteers are having just as much fun as we are. You will see volunteers jumping up and down, waving on their athlete and others, fanning us on the bike, hooting and hollering, and it's all such an intimate thing, which is why I keep coming back. It is just such a great feeling to be taken care of while doing something inherently silly, and even though I put on my game face, inside I'm smiling and having a great time.
At first, Pranav was trying to have a conversation with me on the bike, but I quickly pointed out that if I could talk, I wasn't working hard enough, so it was time for me to STFU, but I said he could talk at me! Which he did. He would ask me how I felt, and at least once I flipped him double birds, which made him laugh, and he did fan me which was great, and he was really attentive to being ready to hold up my number (I was bike number 8) when I hit another mile.
When I finished, I'd given it all I had and laid down on the floor for a few seconds, then got up and was like, oh fuck, my legs are toast, but hey--that's what happens in these things, right? All I could think was just make it through the run. As we lined up on the track, some people told me to go to the front that I was fast, and I was like, "I don't think so!" Still, there were 3 much younger and faster people on the track that lapped me a few times, then I was the next fastest, lapping everyone else. I was wearing a visor, but after maybe 1/2 mile, it was making my head too hot, so I tossed it into the volunteer area. It was a rather dramatic move, I think!
All in all, I swam a tad slower than 2 weeks ago, but did the same on the bike and run as 2 weeks ago, so I can't complain. I'd hoped to be faster across the board, but a hot pool and stupid Friday training trick conspired to hold me back from that objective.
I knew because of how hard I went on the bike that I was probably going to feel like puking when I was done, and I did, but I was about 1/8 lap from a bucket and I didn't want to backtrack. I thought maybe I could hold it back, so I walked back to where the volunteers were, and asked Pranav if there was a bucket there, and he said NO but pointed to some trash cans, so I bent over, grabbed onto the sides and hurled (just water). It felt so good to do that, I wiped off my mouth, stood up, and there were just so many smiles all around! I felt like I'd put a good effort out for the day, and people were snapping pics, but I didn't have my phone with me, so I asked Pranav to take one of me and his friends to get us together:
The massage was great, and the young man who worked on me was a joy to talk to. We talked about music, math, massage, art--my favorite things! I grabbed some more water, went to the locker room and changed into compression shorts and a fresh bra top, grabbed my bottle of Powerade, and headed to a treadmill. I always get odd stares being on a treadmill all numbered up, because it's obvious I already raced, and why would I be running more? Because I need to keep up my long run, that's why! But despite how much it sucks to run after one of these races (I'd already worked out about 1:45 including my warmups and the race itself), it's not so hard when there is so much energy in the gym while other people are still racing. I toughed it out for :55, then in between waves, ran my last 5 minutes on the track. I was well and thoroughly thagomized. The origin of that term is from this cartoon:
Now I could get another massage and then EAT! The second massage felt great, and my legs reflected the additional running. Earlier, they had sandwiches, but now there was PIZZA! I practically inhaled my first slice, then they brought some hot, fresh ones and I had another one. I chatted with some people I know and some strangers while I ate and talked off the racing energy. I laughed that when I finally got to the locker room that my face was still very rosy!
I took the BEST SHOWER EVER, fixed my crazy hair, packed up and went home. I'd won my AG again and won the series, but more importantly, I'd had an outstanding training week, somehow putting 17.4 hours in against a plan of 17, so all good!
This week, I have an "easy" week, since today is a rest day, Friday is sort of a rest day (just a short swim), and then on Saturday/Sunday, I am doing an Olympic NothingMan both days to prepare for Clermont Challenge, where I will do the 1/2 IM on Saturday and the Olympic on Sunday. Nothing here I haven't done before--I've trained like this for Triple T, Ironman and Ultraman. I'm looking forward to the weekend already, as to me it's as much fun to do a NothingMan (well almost) as an actual race, and now I can start dreaming about my first big race in 4 weeks!
I did just a little happy dance yesterday afternoon, most of which was spent laying around and eating. I knew I'd fall asleep during the Academy Awards, and actually I was asleep before they started, but I was so happy that I woke up to see the Everything is Awesome (from The Lego Movie, which I must see) performance which was like capping off a great day!
