Mind (and Body) of Iron

Saturday, January 21, 2006

How Fast Can I Go in an Ironman?

This is the dirty little secret that nobody wants to write about, much less talk about.

Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike and then a marathon (yes, Virginia, ALL marathons are 26.2 miles).

We can, without hurting ourselves (but still needing recovery), complete one or more 2.4 mile swims, and one or more 112-mile rides in training. We could, but IMHO, should not, run an open marathon during Ironman training. Why? The recovery cost is too high. To fully recover from a marathon that was run at your best marathon pace requires at least 2 weeks of recovery, meaning little to no running, reduced swimming and biking. Plus, the way you run in that open marathon, while it is technically the same distance that happens at the end of an Ironman, is much different than that Ironman thing. So really, what have you accomplished by racing a marathon during Ironman training? Well, you found out how fast you could go running 26.2 miles by itself, you just cost yourself at least 2 weeks of solid training time that probably could be better spent working on your cycling endurance, and you might have even picked up a URI or musculoskeletal injury in the process. Like it or not, your immune system takes quite a hit in the post-marathon weeks, and you sustain well-documented muscular damage.

OK, now, back to figuring out how fast I can go. I can swim that 2.4 mile open water swim in practice, I can even "race" it. Should I go as fast in the Ironman swim as I did in the swim race? Only to the extent you are able to hold good form and stay aerobic (in terms of heart rate). Believe it or not, even those really fast Ironman swimmers (less than 1 hour) are holding something back during the Ironman swim. Why? Think about it this way. Based on your fitness going into the race, each of us has so many heartbeats or "matches" that we can use up. If we blow too many during the swim, we are left with less to work with for the bike and the run.

In my personal experience, when I do a 2.4 mile swim time trial in training, I am pretty much dead-on for what I can expect in the Ironman race, plus or minus 2-5 minutes for jostling, gaining position, getting hit, congestion, etc. Why? Because when I swim 2.4 miles during training, I have a pretty hefty level of fatigue I'm working on, and if I am going to ride or run long the very next day, this is a good simulation of the speed I should swim during the Ironman.

When you get to that start line on race day, you are all rested and rarin' to go. So it's not unusual for someone to think, "Hey, I'm rested, I should be able to go faster than during that practice swim." WRONG! You are going to ride 112 miles and then run 26.2 after this, dumbass! This is a general statement about Ironman racing. You will not be going faster than you did in training sessions. Ironman is an aerobic day of 140.6 miles, not a fun, fast 100-mile ride at 21MPH (I've done those, btw--lots of fun, but no indication of how fast I ride in an Ironman race), where all you've got to do afterwards is go get something to eat and probably a few beers (if you are like me), and then get home and lay around.

What does it mean if I go a lot slower on race day than in my race rehearsal swim? You could be too nervous, you went out too hard (and slowed significantly), you picked the wrong place to seed yourself and had to fight through more athletes to find your pace, you didn't relax enough, you weren't rested enough. Use the result as an opportunity to think about what happened, and consider if it requires adjustments to your training for the next time.

What does it mean if I go faster on race day than in my race rehearsal swim? Good on you! Please check your heart rate, though, because if you punched it too hard you might want to ease back a little more than normal for part of the bike ride. Remember those matches! It's also possible you were just motivated to swim up to your training/fitness level by the race than during training.

OK, so that takes care of the swim. How fast can I go on the bike? Again, you can and should do some practice rides, that include some running afterwards, of 100+ miles. Ideally, you ride 112 miles on an actual Ironman course. If you live anywhere within 5 hours of Madison, Wisconsin, use that Ironman course for your race rehearsal ride. Same for other Ironman courses, provided they are safe enough. Can I just ride and forget the run afterwards? Not really. See if you know you don't have to run, you ride faster, right? Come on, just admit it. Plus, riding fast at times is what helps you to build your cycling endurance. How do I know how fast to ride these "test" rides? There are 2 options: by heart rate, or by power (watts). Hopefully, you've been training the bike with one or the other and know where your heart rate or watts should be based on your fitness and other tests done along the way. Suffice it to say that you will be riding very aerobically. Again, consider all those heart beats or matches you have to spend over your 140.6 miles. If you spend too many on the bike, guess what happens when you get to the run? Out of gas, bonking, tremendous fatigue, lots of walking.

How much should I run afterwards? Well, you don't have to run as much as you think. 40-60 minutes is all. When in doubt, err on the lesser side. The point is to understand how your legs feel after riding 112 miles; not push into territory where you are risking injury or significant recovery time. The ride itself is plenty taxing and will require some recovery, so if you stack on too much running afterwards, you are asking for trouble. Besides, it takes most people only 20-30 minutes to resume their "normal" running stride. You will know right away that it sucks to run after riding 112-miles--how long do you need to keep running to get that through your thick skull? By the way, you can expect that when you get off the bike, your hip flexors will feel very tired, and your stride will automatically shorten. Here is where it pays off to have practiced that shorter, quicker stride in training.

What does it mean if my race time is slower than what I practiced during training? You might have brought the wrong cassette to the race (always select your cassette based on the course profile and your climbing ability), you might have swum too fast, your stomach might have decided not to cooperate, weather could be affecting you (in which case most athletes will experience the same thing), or you could have executed your race rehearsal improperly. Whatever the reason, you have burned less matches, and instead of fretting over it, consider now you might be able to go faster on the run.

What does it mean if my race time is faster than what I practiced during training? Again, you should be checking your heart rate/powermeter here to see what's gone on. If you were able to maintain your practiced heart rate or power and go faster, EXCELLENT! But if these things are out of whack, assess your condition and use that as a basis to set up your run expectations.

How fast am I going to be able to run that marathon? Here is where it gets dicey. IF you paced your swim correctly for your fitness, AND you paced your bike correctly and stayed aerobic/controlled your watts appropriately, THEN you will be able to run as fast as your current overall endurance, and particularly your cycling endurance, permits you to go. The one true statement you can make is that you won't go as fast as your open marathon time! Other things that will limit your speed on the run include, but are not limited to:

how well you executed your nutrition and hydration on the bike.
your mental state--you need to have a pretty good reason to keep going for 26.2 miles when you are already tired to begin with.
starting the run too fast. You can always get the time back, but like those matches, once they are burned, they are gone.
humility. If you convince yourself that you are not going to walk, and run let's say the first 9-13 miles, you might be surprised to find out that you need to walk and that perhaps you should have eased into things.

There are other things, too, but if you've paced your swim and bike properly, and executed your nutrition and hydration properly, and you have superior cycling endurance, then with some mental toughness you should be able to get within 20% of your open marathon time. Ironman marathon times are not "fast" by running standards (2:45???). So once you start running, you will be doing the best you can based on your fitness, mental and race execution skills.

What if your run performance was significantly slower than you thought you could do? It could be weather, you biked too fast, your nutrition was off, you lost mental focus, or you just plain don't have the cycling endurance yet to go as fast as you think.

What if your run performance was faster than you thought you could do? I don't need to tell YOU anything--you are probably ecstatic!

For guidance on race rehearsal weekends, which include a swim TT and 112-mile ride followed by a run, go here: http://cruciblefitness.com/etips/rehearsal-week.htm

One more thing--many people want to know how indicative a 1/2 Ironman race performance is to one's Ironman time. Things to consider:

there is far less time during a HIM for big problems to express themselves. You might get away with some nutrition and pacing mistakes in a HIM, but not a full.
you can go harder during all 3 sports, if you are a highly-trained athlete, in a HIM. The speed factor is much different.
the cumulative fatigue you have as you begin the next sport in the progression is significantly less in a HIM than a full.
if you "blow up" partway through a HIM, you can recover from it and still finish in a decent time. If you blow up in an Ironman, though, most likely it's game over and a death shuffle, if that's even possible, to the finish.

A rule of thumb is take your HIM time, double it and add 2 hours for a first Ironman. Another rule of thumb is that predicting your first Ironman finish time is a crap shoot. I think that if you can do one or two race rehearsals you have a much better shot at predicting a finish time than someone who doesn't do these simulations. Ultimately, it will come down to your overall fitness level, execution skills and mental toughness. As you will see if you read the Crucible Fitness guidance, when you finish the ride in an Ironman, that's the first time during the day when you will really have some idea of what you might be able to do on the run and have a good chance of meeting your goal.

How do you train so that you can swim at an "all day pace" at a decent speed and then bike strongly for 112 miles followed by running a marathon? That is something I defer to coaches and such (even though I know quite a bit about this--and I have coached a few athletes). If you are doing an Ironman for the first time or are looking to improve your time in another Ironman, I highly recommend you get a coach. And then while you are coached, ask questions, pay attention, and learn something about how it's done.

The other thing I suggest for first-timers is to get an Iron Mentor. No, it's not good enough to cruise around on the blogs reading and commenting. I mean latch onto someone that you know is successful at this game (and can even train with, if possible), and ask them to help you along. In addition to the training, there are lots of little details that can make your day more fun and rewarding. I am in the process of compiling a list of tips (everything that I can think of shy of how to train), and when it's finished, I will post it here, but in the meantime, get thee an Iron Mentor. Formally ask that person to mentor you. Be nice to them. Ask them stupid questions. Tell them how you're doing. Tell your coach you have one (trust me, they will be HAPPY you are doing it).

Have a great day and great training!

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Iron Camp

If you are an Iron Virgin, these camps, sponsored by my coach, are for you. Check it out:

Iron Camp Midwest
Iron Camp West
Iron Camp East

While you can get a lot of good information about tips for this and that from the Internet, there is no substitute for several days of expert discussion and advice. Plus, you may get to meet me if you attend Iron Camp Midwest! And if you're really lucky, you might get to ride and/or run with me! I'll be up in Madison that weekend biking my brains out in preparation for my next Ironman race.

I originally met my coach at one of these camps in 2003. At the time, I was self-coached, and I was so impressed by Rich and his solid training and execution knowledge that I decided that the next time I was considering utilizing a coach that he would be "the man." And that time came the following spring when I found out (from Rich, actually) that I had secured a lottery entry into Ironman Hawaii.

I would recommend this camp even for those of you who have an internet-based coach, i.e., you do not meet with this person regularly and the bulk of your exchange is conducted via email. I have mentored several other athletes who had such coaches, and while they had solid training plans, there is a lot more to successfully completing an Iron-distance event than the training itself. And even though I have mentored other Iron Virgins, I still send them to camp so that they know what I am telling them is the real deal!

Now you might be thinking, "isn't this too close to the race to be of benefit to me?" The answer is NO. Again, one of the key takeaways I got from that camp I attended was execution techniques. And I was able to utilize them in my very next Ironman race with success!

Sure there's more money involved in attending this camp, but if you look at what you are getting, it's actually a great deal. If you think you might do more than one Ironman race in your lifetime, it's money well spent.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

1/17-1/18/2006 Workouts, Blast from the Past and Some Ruminations

The photo at left is the blast from the past. That's me running in August, 2004 in a sprint triathlon where I won my age group and had the fastest overall women's bike split. That was one week before Ironman Canada, where I did my fastest Ironman to date. And followed it up by my 2nd fastest Ironman in Hawaii. Man, I wish I was tan now. I am pasty white right about now (but just as lean if not leaner than in the photo).

1/17 Workout
3:35PM Bike 1:00, 445 kcal, average HR 111, average watts 119. The objective of this workout was just to be on the bike, easy spinning. Well, I did 2 HOURS of that on Saturday, and it was boring as hell (even though I watched Running on the Sun and the first 15' of A Clockwork Orange), but it was necessary I try to not go too hard my first ride back. So yesterday, I thought I would just run through my cogs in the SCR (Small Chain Ring) and then move into the BCR and see how it felt. I only really upped the intensity for the last 20', and it felt good! I didn't feel like I was ready to crank out FT watts yet, but considering I averaged 119 watts for the entire ride (which is in my "steady" or Ironman watts range), I did well. And I just noticed that I was hitting my Ironman watts at a lower than normal HR. YEAH, BABY!

1/18 Workouts:
7:15AM Swim 2700 yards in 57:47. This workout included 4x400 negative split with 20" rest as the main set. I had no endurance issues; the pool was FLIPPIN' HOT--85 degrees! It was SO hard to push myself at all, and when I started the workout I felt like I was in a bad mood (more on that later), so the temperature of the water wasn't helping. But, at some point I decided to focus on one thing during the swim, which was my head position. My head position isn't bad, but I do notice that it isn't neutral enough when I'm breathing to my left side. So when I spent time to focus on it today, I noticed that my position isn't all that neutral to the RIGHT, either. So I worked on that, and even though my speed was non-existent, a good thing came out of the workout. All right! This is a technique anyone can use. There is always SOMETHING you can manage to do of value during a workout even if you feel like crap, are in a bad mood, are tired, anything (except bonking!).

1:20PM Run :45, 373 kcal, average heart rate 116. Can I say how good it felt to run again? IT FELT FUCKING GOOD, THAT'S HOW IT FELT! I felt light as a feather on my feet, nothing untoward in the way of pain (the top of my right foot is still a little sensitive, and it let me know that today), didn't lose any speed, and my HR didn't go nuts! I had an ostensibly easy workout to do, and it went like this: 25' warmup from easy to steady, 10' of strides on the track, and then 10' on the track. The strides felt great, and when I started the last 10', I was curious as to how fast I could go. I wasn't going to look at my HR; just run. I tried not to go out too fast, and when all was said and done, I ended up running 7:52/mile! That is unheard of for me! Actually after I finished 1 mile I looked at my watch and saw 7:55, and I just wanted to hold that, but I guess I picked it up just a tad! It felt GOOD to run fast, and even though I was at (maybe over?) my 5K pace, what the hell, welcome back to running, Crackhead!

Now on to some ruminations. This morning while swimming and feeling in a bad mood, I had this sense of restlessness, because I am not sure what I want to do in 2007. Reality check--it just turned 2006, OK? But still, up until this year, I could pretty much tell you what might be on tap the following year. Not so much right now. Sure, I entered that Western States 100 raffle, and if I win, I guess that's what I'll be doing--but today I was thinking what if I just did one 1/2 Ironman per month from May through September? That would be pretty cool. My training would be something like the following 4-week cycle:
Week 1: Bike and run like hell
Week 2: Bike and run like hell
Week 3: Taper down just a little bit (2 days)
Week 4: Taper up just a little bit with full return to biking by the weekend

How much fucking fun would THAT be? Plus I'm sure I'd come out of it a speed demon. But then back to trying to swim. I realized I was focusing so much on the future, I had better stop and do what I needed to do RIGHT NOW. And as soon as I got my head back to swimming, despite the pool temperature, I felt at peace and all was good with the world.

It IS possible to plan too much, but what I was trying to do today was not so much plan, but force myself to make a decision before I'm ready. I have plenty of time to think about next year, and what it is is somewhat dependent on this year. But I think the point of todays thoughts were that I AM becoming a little burned out with Ironman--other than going to new places and spending lots more money, what is left for me to do there? This is how it gets when I feel I've mastered something--I need some time away for it so that it can become just part of my repetoire to draw on for future free time. Again, I'm not saying I've reached the pinnacle of my fitness or speed by any means, but at some point this old lady is going to hit that final PR and then it is all downhill from there. So I guess I'd rather go out on a high note and switch the engines to the pursuit of something different. Or maybe not. It's too soon to tell.

I think a little of what I'm experiencing, too, is post-big event letdown. I don't feel let down so much as well, my life is still messed up because I'm still not in my regular training pattern/volume. Which is why TWO WORKOUTS today felt better. I may kick myself in the pants in a few weeks if I come back and read this post, but so be it. Part of why I do this stuff is it helps me to feel sane by not giving my overly-active mind too much time to be idle. Not that my mind is ever really "idle," just that I've developed this ability to calm it through training, and while I've gotten MUCH better at doing that outside of training, hey, I'm still human and far from perfect and I haven't achieved nirvana, and so I still get thrown out of whack.

In summary, I am coming to a crossroads in my life. Oh, my fucking craziness! Writing this just now I realize that this happens to me about every 5 years LIKE CLOCKWORK! I've done Ironmans for 5 years, DUH! The 5 years before that I basically got my post-divorce crazy on (if you know what I mean). The 5 years before that I spent figuring out why my marriage was not working for me. It's time for me to do some serious thinking, so I guess it's good that I am working on getting my mental house in order. These watershed events require careful and deep thought, and whereas in the past, I sort of just "rolled" or "defaulted" into the next phase, this time I have complete and utter power to decide where I want to be. What a wonderful problem to have!

Monday, January 16, 2006

1/16/2006 Workouts: Transition Time and Reality Check

7:17AM Swim 2750 yards in 1:02. Easy technique workout. I was surprised that after not having spent too much time in the water in the past few weeks that my swim golf score was way low. Part of the reason is that sometimes I have a tendency to "think too much" when I swim, and that takes away from the natural flow and gracefulness that I've cultivated. But as the workout wore on, I could feel a little upper body fatigue, but not too much. I am actually looking forward to Wednesday's swim workout, so I can see where I stand on speed.

3PM Strength, 3x20 in 1:40. This is the longest strength workout I will do all season! I wasn't sure if I was up to 3 sets of 20 (for the last 2 weeks I did 2 sets of 20 reps), but I figured since I didn't have to run today, I might as well go for it. I can tell you I will be tired from this later on today and tomorrow, but I'm glad I got right back on the strength wagon, as it will help me tolerate higher intensity workouts to come.

Mentally today I felt rather blah--coming down from the high of Goofy Challenge and not working out much last week can do that. So I'm in a transitional period, where I can still feel good inside about what I just accomplished, but it's time to switch the beacon to point at the next objective. I am really looking forward to my first run back on Wednesday, and I even feel like I'll be able to knock out 9 miles this weekend! Wouldn't that be something? Well, not really, I think I've done that before, but I have short-term memory. My biggest concern is how will my legs feel during my first bike interval workout? That may not be until next week. I dabbled a little bit at 1/2 Ironman watts on Saturday, and it felt fine. I have to say, though, those bike FT sessions are NEVER easy, but I know how strong they make me. Shit, I felt like I had almost tireless legs at Disney!

Ralph's is going to be fun. My swim volume is already there (1/2 IM swim is nothing to me), and my run volume is way over where it needs to be, so my guess is it will be time to pick up some more biking. Maybe just add 30-60' onto the long ride with some more quality work. I just can't stand "just spinning" anymore. How boring! I would rather be focusing on something really hard than just going la-di-da.

I think this feeling of "ease" about 1/2 and full Ironman distance racing is what is driving me to begin thinking about my next big challenge. Don't get me wrong--going fast at these distances takes a lot of discipline, training and execution skills--it's just that I have most of it down, at least for the level where I'm competing now.

We will have to see just how well I do at Ironman Brazil. I think that is going to be a real telling event for me. Whether or not I qualify for Kona there, it will be important for me to have a good run off the bike. 4:30 would be a good run off the bike! If I can pull that off, I'll have accomplished my next "phase" of Ironman ability.

I think I pointed to this in a previous post, but for reference sake, here is my coach's take on the development of a triathlete: http://www.cruciblefitness.com/etips/athletetable.htm Yikes I just looked at this again and believe I've reached "expert" level. What does that mean? It doesn't mean I'm the fastest person out there, but it means I am very cognizant of my limits, know that they are mostly mental, have confidence in my fitness level and ability to execute based on it, and am not afraid to bite off interesting challenges.

But I still think that 4:30 Ironman run needs to be done! And logically, I have wanted to qualify for Kona, but I know that isn't doable without that run! Or else suffering through Ironman New Zealand. Someone a little younger than me got a Kona slot there by going like 15:30!!! Sheesh, that would be loafing for me--of course I'm happy for anyone who earns a slot, but I am looking at 12-something to do it in.

If I can hit 12:15 in Brazil, then whether or not it gets me a Kona slot, I will have to think about what's next. Obviously, if I get the Kona slot, I go and race in Kona, and then I think it's time for a year away from Ironman (but not long distance!). If I don't get the Kona slot, but I still make my time goal, well, then I need to decide if getting that Kona slot is really what I want to continue to pursue. I can't answer that question right now.

I've known for several years now that my path has been to find out if I have what it takes to qualify for Kona, and knowing that if I can achieve that goal, Ultraman becomes a reality. I think I just about have it, but we need to do a test! If I fail the test this year, then I will need to look deep inside and figure out my next move.

I realize there are plenty of people (most of them, actually!) who do Ironman without any notion of every qualifying for Kona, yet they keep doing it. I don't know if I'm that sort of person. I have a feeling I would rather try something different, accomplish something new. That's why the idea of a 100-mile foot race is already actually sounding appealing to me. Again, it's one of those things I NEVER thought I would do, or really would WANT to do, but here I am begging people to enter the Western States 100 raffle for me!

I still think I'm on the path to Ultraman, though. One way or the other, I am going to do another BIG race in Kona. It's my destiny. Always has been. Hell, if I actually qualify for Kona, I may just have to finally pull off something I've been toying with for over 5 years--MOVING to Kona! I absolutely love it there, and up until 2005, had been there at least once a year since 1994. So I've figured the way for me to get back there is to qualify for Ironman Hawaii, and then I may finally take stock of my life and get my ass on the island permanently. At any rate, if I do qualify, it is going to make me think about a lot of things, and that is a problem I would DEARLY love to have!

Weekly Workout Totals 1/9/2006-1/15/2006

Swim: 6,100 yards in 2.17 hours
Bike: 2.00 hours
Run: 0 hours
Strength: .85 hours
Total Hours: 5.02
Average Sleep: 9.43 hours/night
Stretching: .75 hours (oops! should have done more, but better than nothing)
Accomplishments:

Listened to my coach and did not run a single step
Got lots of sleep to aid recovery from Goofy Challenge
Did not go harder during my single bike workout than I was supposed to
Did not do any leg work during my strength session to aid recovery from Goofy Challenge
Stopped eating (cravings stopped) junk food by mid-week
Got a mammogram
Went out with friends on several evenings!
Entered the Western States 100 Raffle (remember: you can enter and then if you win give me the entry, and the donation is tax-deductible!)

This is the least amount of training I've done during a week with the exception of the week after each Ironman race. I could tell my body needed some serious rest and recovery. It only took 3 days post-Goofy for my quads to come around and enable me to walk down stairs almost normally. I had a rew random aches and pains throughout the rest of the week as muscles, tendons, ligaments and cartilage rejuvenated and readjusted themselves. The top of my right foot is still not right--I am hoping it's just the fascia band that's upset. My right knee is still not right, either--it feels like PFS, but I'm hoping that since I'm not running until Wednesday that it will come around. It doesn't hurt at all going up or down stairs, and it doesn't hurt on the bike or if I jog. I don't have that much training to do this week, so I'm hoping everything will come right by the weekend.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

All the Disney Photos

Friday, January 13, 2006

Weekly Training Totals 1/2/2006-1/8/2006

Swim: 5,350 yards in 1.87 hours
Bike: 1.25 hours
Run: 8.94 hours, about 55.5 miles
Strength: .47 hours
Total Hours: 12.53
Average Sleep: 8.04 hours/night
Stretching: 1.3 hours (oops! should have done more, but better than nothing)
Accomplishments:

Goofy Challenge.
Most running ever in a week by a Crackhead.
2nd fastest marathon ever by a Crackhead.
Pinkest running outfit ever worn by a Crackhead.
Most amount of pink clothing ever packed for a trip by a Crackhead.
First time wearing a crown for an entire marathon by a Crackhead.
Most fun ever experienced in Disney World by a Crackhead.
First-ever sighting of Joe Bator by a Crackhead.
First time ever usage of a Fuelt Belt in a race by a Crackhead.
First taste of Mango Clif Shot ever by a Crackhead.
Earliest time arisen for a race ever by a Crackhead.
Coldtest temperatures experienced while in Orlando/Kissimmee ever by a Crackhead.

Not a big week, based on hours, and I am still recovering from it! But the good news is I lifted weights (no legs!) yesterday, and swam NORMALLY today and I'm not dead tired! My coach has an easy week planned for me next week. I think he's really convinced I won't rest like I should, but I know that my legs are truly beat up, and it's been years since I've rested like I am now, so I'm good with it. My next race is a "C" race, but I've got plenty of time to increase my biking volume and get back to running. After that the big push to Brazil begins.

I still have this crazy, happy feeling from Goofy. Not working out too much helps that. But soon enough it will be time to get back on that horse, and I want to be ready for it mentally and physically.

Rest is good. Even for a Crackhead.

The Next Step?

One of my long-term goals is to do Ultraman in Kona. What I've been doing the past 5 years has been training and testing to understand if I'm capable of doing it. I've always known that if I want something badly enough, then I will go after it. But I also believe in setting reasonable goals, and I always like to have checkpoints along the way towards anything significant. So I've got some Ironman goals for 2006. I had been starting to think it was time to try a 50K and then 50-mile race.

Developing the bike endurance for Ultraman doesn't concern me so much--it's just a matter of training time.

Developing the swim endurance and speed for a 10K swim concerns me; mostly due to the amount of time I would need to spend training; but having significant training time will be a matter of choice.

What has concerned me the most, though, has been the double marathon on Day 3. I'm not that fast of a runner, but I do seem to have quite a bit of endurance for it. But getting through 39.3 miles of running this weekend (mostly on pavement) convinced me that 56.4 miles is very doable.

So I think it was an omen that the night before I left for Disney that I watched a program about Western States 100. Granted, I don't *need* to have 100-mile endurance for Ultraman, but it couldn't hurt, could it?

So yesterday, for some reason, I went and looked at the WS100 website, and I came upon something interesting--they have a lottery to get in for 2007. All you have to do is send in some money (which if you don't get a spot, goes to a worthy place), and then they draw some names, and if you get in--bingo! All you need to do is run a qualifying 50-miler and then away you go. I'm not big on lack-of-sleep events, but I think I can manage a day and a half without sleep.

So here I am writing a check for the WS100 lottery, and God help me if I get in! I already have a couple of pacers lined up, and I'll need more and I'll need a crew, but those are details right now.

I figure I could still get in an Ironman race later in 2007, and then I suppose it would be time to work on that 10K swim!

I find it fascinating how life presents you with the things you need to do just at the right times! When I first registered for Goofy Challenge, I didn't really consider it a stepping stone towards Ultraman, but now I recognize that the universe was telling me something. And then having completed Goofy, I'm being prepared for the next step.

Life is good!

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Goofy Finish Photo

Joe B. send this to me. I don't remember him taking it, but as you can see, I now am sporting the Goofy Medal in addition to Mickey Mouse. That is a lot of weight around my neck there! I was VERY happy, and still am! A friend dared me to wear this outfit at Ironman Brazil. I don't think so! Perhaps a thong would be more appropriate...

Disney Marathon Finish

They haven't posted a general search on the site yet; I know there were MANY photos taken of me; they probably couldn't read my number as I was running by. So hopefully, they will post a "lost and found," which I will judiciously browse and find the rest of them. But you get the idea about my outfit. Notice the sparkly crown on TOP of my Timex hat!

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Now DATs What I Call BLING!!!

The Duck, the Mouse, and Goofy. SWEET!!!! No race photos until the official race photographers post, and then I'm sure there will be many to share! They were snapping my pinkness both days!

Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge 1/7-1/8/2006 Race Report

Settle in, this is 12 pages in Word.

Executive Summary
Race Weight: 112 pounds, 11% body fat<--this is my new “fighting weight”
Half Marathon 1/7/2006: 2:07.17, 9:43/mile, 86 out of 789 F45-49, burned 1,206 calories, average heart rate 128
Full Marathon 1/8/2006: 4:27.07, 10:12/mile, 68 out of 586 F45-49, burned 2,398 calories, average heart rate 124
Combined Time: 6:34.24, overall average 10:02/mile; haven’t yet been able to combine results to see where I stand overall in the “Goofy” rankings, but my guess is I did pretty well for my age group.

Long-ass Preamble
This “race” is really two races—a half marathon on Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday—in Disney World. Prior to this year, Disney ran the half and full races simultaneously. 2006 is the first year where they split them apart across 2 days, and set aside a special Goofy medal for those crazy folks, like me, who decided to do BOTH races (the medal for the half is Donald Duck, and the medal for the full is Mickey Mouse).

I don’t remember when I registered for this, but it was a LONG time ago. I also don’t remember what finish times I predicted for myself when I signed up—those times were, in fact, used to determine the corral we would be placed into on race days.

When I first registered for this, it was mostly as another fun, challenging thing to do, and never having run more than 2 miles the day before a marathon, it would be uncharted territory. So initially I thought I would walk the half marathon and then run the full. In mid-October, 2005, after I ran a marathon (on 10/2) by myself (in 4:10, a PR) on a local running path, I remember having a discussion with my coach, wherein he said, “It would suck to walk 13.1 miles.” He had a point. Walking might actually be worse than a slow jog. So it was around then that I decided I would try and run both races, and as I slowly developed confidence and a strategy, I was thinking I would run maybe 10:30/mile in the half and then just see what happened in the full. Worst case scenario would be that I would end up walking quite a bit of the marathon. No worries—7 hours are plenty of time to finish a marathon!

Goofy (and Ironman Brazil) Training
Since I’m training for Ironman Brazil, which is on May 28, 2006, I couldn’t just totally ignore biking and swimming while training for Goofy. I had also scheduled a ½ Ironman for 11/19/2005 (done by myself, indoors in the pool, on a Precor stationary bike and on a treadmill) just as a good, long endurance workout, and the run build for that would be sufficient for Goofy.

Starting the week of 10/24/2005, my coach really got my run-focused training going. On Mondays, I did an easy strides session (although some days, I must admit, I ended up doing track repeats after the strides portion) of up to 55’. On Wednesday, I would run 20-25’ of tempo towards the end of about a 1 hour run. On Friday, I would do a steady endurance run of about 1 hour. On Saturday, I ran 30’ off the bike (typically I’d run these at a ½ Ironman run pace). On Sunday, I did my long run, which would finish up with 20-30’ of tempo work. When I first started this training, I was both excited and anxious, as I had never done double tempo workouts. But, as always, Rich must have known that I would be able to do this. As this training began, I was doing most of my running on the treadmill.

I must add that on top of the 5 weekly runs, I did 2 tough FT interval sessions (by wattage) on the bike on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and one long ride with ½ Ironman wattage intervals on Saturdays. I swam Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and sometimes a little recovery swim on Sundays.

In addition to the triathlon training, I had independently decided to up my strength training this fall. As I keep getting older, I find that strength training helps me stay injury free, as well as keeping up my lean mass. While doing the intense training of the past 3 months, I could see where the strength training was paying off on the bike. Although science says that the impact of strength training on running is negligible, my experience is that I was just building tough, bullet-proof legs by hitting the weights hard, running a lot and biking hard. My swimming typically suffers when I am in a heavy strength phase, but I know from past years that once I go into my maintenance phase that my swimming speed comes right around. I have had no endurance problems in the pool, though.

In late October, I made another change to my training program. I committed to stretching daily. At first, my objective was 5’ a day, but I have been reaching 10-15’ daily. I figured that in order for me to come out on the other side of Goofy with my body intact, and also to have a good run, that it would behoove me to try and get back some of the ROM (range of motion) that I used to have in my back, hamstrings and calves. I have seen significant improvement, and I still have a ways to go, but I think the stretching has been instrumental in staying injury free.

As my training progressed, I was pleased to see my run speed and toughness improving, and also my FT watts on the bike moving up little by little. I have never done this overall intensity of training, and I was thoroughly enjoying it, and feeling up to the challenge each and every week, as my strength workouts got harder and longer, the bike interval sessions got harder and longer, the swim sessions got a little longer and harder, and the run sessions got longer and harder. There were some weeks when everything moved up synchronously, and I remember feeling really excited those weeks as I nailed each and every workout according to specifications! Each time I would be in the midst of a harder-than-the-previous-week workout, I would have flash thoughts of “I wonder if I can do this” that I would then replace with “I am fucking strong and I’m prepared for this.”

Which leads me to the final component of my training that I now consider to be one of the most important things I do—mental training. Since my disappointing experience at Ironman Wisconsin in September and some other emotionally-jarring events, I seized an opportunity to get my mental house in order, and while it will always be a work-in-progress, I am very happy with how far I’ve come in a little over 3 months. If you go and read previous posts in my blog, you will get some idea of what’s gone on, but the short story is that I’ve practiced being totally in as many of my “moments” as I can and have learned to observe myself and my reactions to people and events to become more aware of who I am and am continually seeking to become at peace. This effort has not just been directed towards athletics; but for me, athletics has been the platform upon which I’ve been able to concentrate my mind and energy, and I’ve found that I can meditate while running and biking (only on the trainer!), so until further notice, I’m going to stick with this methodology.

I remember a few months ago another conversation with my coach, when I was surprised at the level of running I was achieving, and he chuckled and said to me, “Well, you’re really fit.” I do know that I’ve worked extremely hard at getting where I am, as I am no natural athlete, and only began doing the triathlon sports in 1999. At the same time, though, I think there’s been a steady improvement at my mental skills, so it has been truly amazing to experience the confluence of the mental, physical and spiritual.

Back to Goofy training—as time marched on after I did my ½ Ironman in November--I began thinking I would be able to run both Goofy races. I figured I should hold back on the half, and then do whatever I could in the full. And then that changed to trying to run 10:00 miles both days. See that’s the slowest pace I do in training runs. And when I begin my training warm-ups, 10:00 usually feels slow and gangly to me, so I figure this is my “all day” pace. I figure if I’m running 30-40 miles per week at that pace or faster (I probably average 9:20/mile for all my weekly training), then I should be able to do 39.3 miles across 2 days at that pace and not feel “too” badly. So that was my going in strategy for Goofy. Funny how my average pace for both days ended up at 10:02!!!

My longest run ended up being 14 miles, done on the treadmill, wearing my race tutu and tiara. This was the week before Christmas, and a few people asked me if I was practicing for the Nutcracker Ballet. To which I sweetly smiled and said, “No, they don’t make you run to be in that!” I did need to tell people why I was dressed that way, though. It was a fun run!

Race Week Lead-Up
If you read some recent posts to my blog, you will see that I do not enjoy tapers very much. My body gets truly messed up. But it’s an adjustment process, and eventually things come right as I get close to a race and my excitement builds. Last Tuesday was when I started knowing this was going to go well. I did my last bike workout that day, and then on Wednesday I did my last swim workout.

My run training last week consisted of short, 40’ sessions including strides and race repeats. When doing the race repeats, I thought I should probably do them at half marathon pace, but that would feel way too slow when I’m all tapered, so I ended up doing most of them at sub-5K pace. Imagine, ME, Crackhead, doing 3 track workouts the week of Goofy Challenge! Well, my friends, I DID do them, and they were FUN, and my confidence grew.

I was supposed to run Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I did the Monday and Wednesday workouts (Wednesday’s race repeats were faster than Monday’s), and when I got to Thursday, I decided I didn’t want to run on Friday, as I would be traveling that day, and I figured it would be best to be off my feet as much as possible that day. So I did what any self-respecting Crackhead would do—when I was 10’ into the Thursday workout, I decided to extend it! I ended up doubling the strides portion (no big deal; it’s easy running), and then instead of 4 race pace repeats, I did 7. I was actually tired by the end of the workout, and as much as I tried to hold back on the race repeats, once again I ended up doing them at sub-5K pace. But it was a FUN last workout before Goofy, and then I could get down to the business of the final packing.

I had everything all packed by about 7PM on Thursday, and then I settled in for a little mindless TV watching. I was ready to go to sleep at 9PM, but as I flipped channels before turning off the TV, I came upon a show about the Western States 100 (http://www.ws100.com/). I thought this was an omen—I had been rereading sections of the book Running Through the Wall for inspiration, and I thought how cool, I can put some faces to some of the names of the legendary (soon to include Steve Noone, fellow endurance athlete and friend) ultrarunners. I settled into bed and just watched, and sucked up all the joy, toughness and mental tenacity of the people who do these races, and that was the beginning of my mantra for Goofy: RUN TOUGH. I kept thinking these people are running 100 freaking miles CONTINUOUSLY; I should be able to run 39.3 across 2 days. And then I remembered, hey, I’m a fucking Ironman, it’s not like I’ll be doing a 12-hour workout in one day! I totally enjoyed seeing Dean Karnazes, Ann Trason, Tim Twietmeyer and others looking so joyous and yet digging deep to get the job done. Granted, the program did not show too many folks at the inevitable low points, but I knew they were there, and my confidence swelled knowing I would be doing something much less than these people. BRING IT ON!!!

Race Day Eve
Friday morning I awoke at 5AM. Earlier in the week I had thought about trying to reset my body clock to EST, but then I changed my mind and figured the best thing for me would be to get as much sleep as I could while still at home. I got 7 hours Thursday night, which would have to do. I knew I could rest on the plane, but truthfully I felt pretty amped from the time the limo picked me up. When I got to the gate area at O’Hare, all I could do was look around and try and pick out who else was going to Orlando to run. My first victims turned out to be a poor guess, but then a woman sat down next to me and she picked me accurately for going to run. For her, it would be her first half marathon. Her longest run had been 10 miles, and I told her beyond that it would be all mental anyway, and that she’d be able to do it.

When they started boarding the plane, I started overhearing other conversations of runners, so of course I chatted with them. There were probably 8 first-time marathoners, all women, on the flight. They were all mostly cheerful, yet with that “deer in the headlights” look about them. I told them to just sleep as well as they could, start out conservatively, and to just have fun! It is always good to be able to suck up energy from others about to embark on something new. I was the only one on the plane, as far as I know, that was doing Goofy Challenge. The other women seemed to be in awe of me, but I told them this was uncharted territory for me, and that I just wanted to evenly pace both days and not come home injured.

While on the plane, this one girl (and I say girl, as she appeared to be in her 20’s) was by herself, since her husband and kids were arriving later. I noticed she wasn’t drinking water, but I decided not to say anything. I had been very thirsty starting last Wednesday, and especially being on a plane, had been drinking water and Gatorade pretty much constantly.

I had brought a ½ Subway club sub, a 24-oz. bottle of Gatorade, some string cheese, and a bag of Twizzler Cherry Bites to eat on the plane. One thing I’ve learned is to eat opportunistically when flying, because you never know when you might be delayed and unable to eat for an hour! I also managed to snag almost a full, giant bottle of water from the flight attendant, so I was in good hydration mode.

When I got to the Orlando airport, I thought, “Well, here I am again.” I had been there in 2004 and 2003. It’s comforting to be going back to a place you’ve already been, knowing what to expect. I picked up my one checked bag, and the first thing I did was check that the bottles of Ultra Violence hadn’t opened. Nope! My happy juice was good. I also had 2 more 24-oz. bottles of Gatorade in the checked bag. I didn’t want to have to fuss with finding this stuff in the short time I was going to be in Orlando.

I got my rental car pretty quickly and then headed out for the drive to Kissimmee, where I would be staying, just outside of Disney. As it turns out, I took the wrong turn out of the airport, but as we all know, ALL ROADS LEAD TO DISNEY, so it was pretty easy to get to my destination. But I overshot my hotel, and decided to proceed directly to the expo. On the way, I crossed John Young Parkway, and thought about a friend and fellow athlete named John Young and it made me smile.

I don’t get too excited about expos anymore—I pretty much have all the equipment I need, and when I need something new I typically buy it online—but we had to go there for packet pickup, so what the heck. They gave us a nice technical shirt for each race, bib numbers, pins, the usual. I went to the Track Shack booth to visit a friend of Shelley McKee’s (someone that I will be doing some serious Ironman training with in late March), and we yakked continuously for about 15 minutes. I opted (stupidly) not to buy any of the “Goofy” imprinted stuff. I have this thing about not buying merchandise like that until I’m finished, but unfortunately, there was no chance to buy the stuff on Sunday. Oh well, maybe next year!

I contacted someone I knew was doing the races from trifuel.com, and we decided to get dinner together. I drove to my hotel, the Ramada Inn Maingate in Kissimmee, Room 2007, and in typical Disney-area fashion, it was a little worn around the edges. Boy, do tourists do a number on the hotels in that area! Oh well, it would be fine for me. And for once I wasn’t worried about not having a fridge in the room, since the forecast called for cold temperatures for the races anyway, and so my fluids would be just fine after waiting in the cold for an hour.

I met Scott, and we went to a dive Italian place for the typical spaghetti dinner. I had meatballs, too, and everything went down just fine, and we had great conversation. Scott has done one Ironman race—actually he had done Ironman Florida just about 8 weeks earlier, so this was going to be something else for him, too.

I went back to my hotel and laid out all my stuff. I decided I was wearing tights, as the morning temps would be low 40’s, and we were starting at 6AM, so how much would it warm up in 2 hours? I filled my Fuel Belt bottles with the Ultra Violence, set my alarm clock for 2:30AM (oh, the HORROR) so I would have an hour to stretch and eat before leaving on Saturday morning.

I attempted to go to sleep at 8:00, but I think I actually fell asleep at 9:30PM. As had been the case with other Disney-area hotels I had stayed in, there was much too much light in the room, but as always, I had packed my “eye shades” to achieve total darkness. I awoke several times during the night, and probably 1 hour before the alarm went off, woke up after the typical pre-race dream—I had woken up late, the roads were closed, and I couldn’t get to the race start. I just laughed when I woke up from that, but fell back asleep easily.

Half Marathon Race Day!
2:30AM EST WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!!! At least I didn’t order a wake-up call that had Mickey Mouse saying, “Wake up sleepy head!” I had had one of those in 1995 when the company I then worked for had a User Conference in Orlando, and me and my good friend, Susan, were staying on the Disney property. I remember Susan picking up the wake-up phone and handing it to me, saying, “Listen to this.” It was fucking Mickey Mouse telling us to wake up! We were laughing hysterically, as we were both plenty hung over. We immediately began parodying Mickey—I won’t even say what we said!

Now, when was the last time I got up at 1:30AM CST? Hmm…let me think…NEVER. Why would I do that? When was the last time I went to sleep at 1:30AM? I think it was last September sometime. I am not really sure, but let’s just way it doesn’t happen very often for me. And I am going to start running at 6AM EST today? When was the last time I was running at 5AM CST? Hmm…let me think…NEVER. So in addition to the newness of the Goofy Challenge itself, here I am waking up at a never-been-done-before time to run at a never-run-at-this-time-before time. What the hell, it’s all good!

I got 5 hours of sleep, which in the big scheme of things, is plenty for the night before a race. So I didn’t feel particularly bad—just strange. I had brought my own Kona coffee with me so that I wouldn’t have to go out and buy coffee or drink hotel crap. Luckily there was a normal coffeemaker in the room, and I had loaded it the night before, so all I had to do was hit the ON switch.

I had 2 small cups of coffee with a Power Bar Triple Threat (232 calories). At 3:00AM I stretched for about 10’, and things felt good. I took a 24-oz. bottle of Gatorade and about 8 oz. of Ultra Violence to drink while waiting for the race to begin. I put on all my pinkness (with sufficient Body Glide lube, of course), and finally, pair #1 of running shoes. I had broken in 2 pairs of my training/racing shoes, New Balance 833, the previous 2 weeks. Today I would be wearing the pair with the RED laces, and RED is my “go fast” color. I took my radio (no, I don’t yet have a pink iPOD; that may be my reward for this effort), packed a garbage bag for when I was standing around, and stepped outside.

I had already looked at The Weather Channel and knew it was going to be a chilly morning. 41! And I didn’t think it would warm up too much, so I had on running tights (pretty thin ones—hot pink with black zig zags), panties (a last minute thought that turned out to be a great one, as my butt might have frozen off without them), anklet socks, a light bra top, a cotton, long-sleeve shirt, my Kona Timex running hat, and gloves that I got for $1.

When I stepped out my hotel door, oh my! COLD!!! But, I knew I was dressed appropriately; all that would be bothersome would be the waiting around. I left the hotel about 3:20AM and arrived at Epcot by 3:30. I got a primo parking spot, but stupidly I didn’t stay in my car. I donned the garbage bag and got out and stood in the cold temperatures until they called us to move to the start area, which was about 4:35AM. I was pretty chilled by this time, and had managed 3 potty stops. Unfortunately, none of them included what I wanted, and this was one of the issues with the oddball wake-up time and race start time. Oh well, I’d have to deal!

I think we had to walk at least 1 mile to the start area. I was in Corral B, race number 18735. My corral was right behind the fastest corral, A, and when I got there, I wondered what I had said on my race registration as far as my predicted time. When I looked around at who else was in the corral, it didn’t look like a bunch of speedy people, so I figured I’d be fine. I was happy to be so far up, so I wouldn’t have to battle through much slower people (again, not knowing where I stood respectively).

We got to wait about 1 hour in the corral, and at least we were all huddled together, so the cold wasn’t so bad. Many people had on full throwaway clothing, towels, blankets, you name it, and nobody was removing it until a few minutes before the starting gun. I had decided I would run as a bag lady until I had warmed up enough, and then I could just pull a Houdini to get out of the bag.

As we neared the start time, they had a big Jumbotron thing running crowd and music videos, so it was quite entertaining, and the time passed quickly. At the start, fireworks were shot up, and it was quite beautiful! I was ready to go, here we go, and people in my corral began running before we got to the start line. Not me! I have plenty of time to run, so I just shuffled my way up, and then we were off!

The Half Marathon
We began running, and I felt like I was just easily shuffling along, but when I saw my first mile split of 10:30, I thought to myself, “That’s a little slower than I want to run.” But it was really crowded, and I knew I could pick up the pace, so I just went with the flow again for mile 2, and split 10:26. I also had to stop and pee during mile 2, and my garbage bag acted like a built-in porta-potty! Of course, I just peed off-road (I’m not big on actual bathrooms when running), and got right back into things. Shortly after this, I decided enough with the fucking bag and poked my way out.

Here we go. Mile 3 split 9:29. That’s more like it. Although, wait—didn’t I say I was going to run even 10’s? Oh well, this felt good, and my HR was great. The song, “Shake Your Groove Thang” was playing and that got me totally fired up. The crowd was thinning out now, and there appeared to be fairly clear sailing ahead.

I began ticking off 9 somethings, until mile 6, where I now HAD to use a porta-potty. I think we were in Magic Kingdom, and I had decided I wasn’t going to wait in line, so I just kept an eye out for an open porta-potty, and when I saw my chance, I made my move, did my thing, and came out running. I lost maybe 2 minutes for that stop, but then mile 6 and 7 were each about 9:19.

I followed up with another 9:19, a 9:16, 9:20, and then we hit the ramps. It wasn’t so much the grade, but the ramps were so cambered, that I had to consciously find the flattest part of the road to run on, since I’m susceptible to hip/glute problems when running on cambers. So I did a 9:53, then a 9:21, and my last 1.1 miles were 10:29. I remember during Mile 11 my legs still felt cold! I sensed stiffness, but not from hard running effort (this wasn’t that hard of running for me for a half—I could have gone 2 hours or less under ideal conditions), it was more from the cold and the early wake-up call. I remember feeling a little sleepy-tired, too. Just like my body clock was really being messed with.

But, in the end, I was happy with my finish time, and I only used 3 of the 4 Fuel Belt bottles (but they were GOOD!). Once I stopped, boy was I freezing to death, even with the Mylar blanket! Now my job was to get my medal, check in at the special Goofy Challenge tent to get my next wrist band (we were banded orange for the half; when you successfully completed the half in the allotted time, you then got a blue band), get back to the hotel, and get to recovering as best I could for the next day.

I immediately drank a 32-oz. bottle of water, ate a banana, a banana cake thing, and some Powerade. By the way, they served Powerade on the course—I don’t really like it—it seems “syrupy” in comparison to Gatorade, but it did the trick. I only ate one Gu, and that was before the race start, so I figure I subsisted on about 20 oz. of Powerade or Ultra Violence per hour, which is about 150 calories per hour. This is a little low for me, but sufficient for a half marathon effort, especially since I already had about 500 calories in me before the start.

When I got back to the hotel, I was freezing, and I took a hot shower and got back into my pajamas and into bed. My feet were freezing, so after about ½ hour I put socks on, and then I started to feel normal again. I waited until about 1:30PM to go and get lunch. I had lunch with Scott, and I downed 3 eggs, 3 pancakes, hash browns and about 6 oz. of sirloin steak at IHOP. YUM!

After that I went back to the hotel and got in bed, and I did stretch a little more, and my legs felt fairly stiff. Around 3PM I managed to fall asleep for about an hour, and I was awakened by the maid, who I told to skip it, I was trying to sleep. But I couldn’t fall back asleep, and I remembered that a dip in the pool might help my recovery, so I put on shorts and headed down.

The pool was heated, but it still felt good on my legs. I only kept my legs in there for about 10 minutes, as I needed to lay down some more. I didn’t feel like venturing out for more food for dinner, and felt I had garbaged up plenty for lunch, so I settled for a Clif Bar, some Swedish Fish Aqua Life and Powerade as my dinner. I had planned on fueling up well on marathon morning. I felt a headache come on, and thankfully, one of the race sponsors was Tylenol, and they had given out sample packs at the expo, and smartly I had taken two. I would not take an NSAID the night before a race, but Tylenol seemed like a safe bet, and this was Tylenol 8-hour, and I was in some pain, so down it went. It helped pretty quickly with the headache, and a little with the lingering muscle soreness. The tops of my feet hurt, too, as I had my laces too tight. I wondered if this would come back to haunt me the next day.

My quads felt pretty tight as I got close to bedtime. I wondered how they would feel when I woke up. As I cruised the TV looking for something to watch, I settled onto the Discovery Channel, where they were building a “chicken cannon,” to test the myth about how flying chickens would impact airplane windshields. I found this quite amusing, and enough to hold my attention and keep my mind off tomorrow’s task temporarily.

I grew pretty tired and decided lights out at 7:30PM and was pretty sure I’d fall right asleep, and I did.

The Full Marathon
2:30AM EST WAKE THE FUCK UP!!! Only this time, I had a solid 7 hours of sleep in me. I noticed a headache again, so it was time for Tylenol pack #2. I was SO happy Tylenol was a sponsor, as I had forgotten to pack it on my own. Now I remember why I have both Naproxen Sodium AND Tylenol on my race packing list.

Since I’d be running a full marathon today, I knew I better dump in more calories, so in addition to the Power Bar Triple Threat, I downed about 300 calories of Glycoload (a 100% carb powder), and planned to top that off with about 8 oz. of Ultra Violence and 12 oz. of Gatorade, for about 725 calories down the hatch before the gun. The Glycoload went down well after my first cup of coffee. I managed to stretch about 11’, and then I began donning my race outfit.

The morning temperature was only about 38, and I didn’t count on it warming up that much while I’d be out there, as there were frost warnings through 9AM. So, again, I wore tights (pure hot pink this time), pink running shorts over the tights, my hot pink tulle tutu, a lightweight pink bra top, anklet socks, pair #2 of running shoes with purple laces and pink tightening toggles, and my brand new lightweight Nike technical long-sleeve top. I figured I could roll up the sleeves on the Nike shirt if it really warmed up. I wasn’t concerned about overheating. I decided I better go with the Timex hat again, too, to keep my noggin warm, and the tiara would have to sit on top of it. I had another pair of $1 gloves to wear, and over them I put these cheap dime-store rings—one a pink heart—the other a purple rectangle, in keeping with my overall sparkly and pink theme. Actually, I didn’t put the tutu on before I left the hotel, because it would be too much to sit on. I packed another garbage bag, and this time I left around 3:30AM for Epcot.

Again, I got a premium parking spot, but this time I was going to be smart and stay in the car until at least 4:30AM, and stay warm. But, today was different than yesterday, and before I had left the hotel, I was able to, uh, “fully” utilize the bathroom, which made me feel better than on Saturday. And as luck would have it, as soon as I got to Epcot, it was time for bathroom visit #2 (pun intended!). No doubt this was helped along by Glycoload, which has a tendency to push whatever was in your intestines out within an hour, which is why you typically want to drink it 2 hours or more before a race or workout. Smartly, I had brought toilet paper with me, because on Saturday some of the porta-potties didn’t have any, and I didn’t want to take that chance.

I left my cozy car, but I had on a thick fleece jacket, and went and did my business and then returned to the car. I restarted the engine and fired up some radio tunes loud. Whatever they were playing, I was digging it! While my legs were a little stiff, they weren’t that bad, and I didn’t feel any worse than I do before I start the marathon in an Ironman. So I was optimistic about the day. The tops of my feet were still sore, but no problem, I just eased up on the laces. Thank goodness for EZ laces, the best invention ever! I sipped my Gatorade, and about a half hour later I needed to pee, but no way I was walking all the way to the porta-potties, so I got out and was going to do a car door thing, but then I saw peeps in cars around me so I just looked to make sure nobody was coming down my parking row, and squatted. It was so cold I had steam around me the entire time! NOW I felt ready to go.

I waited until about 4:40, and then I could hear the announcer telling us it was time to head to the corrals. For the marathon, I was in Corral F, race number 6714. The marathon had 2 start areas—“red” and “blue.” I was in the “red” area. Joe Bator (another stud runner I know) had told me my corral was right behind the elites, so again I got lucky and wouldn’t have to shuffle so far up to the start line. The walk to the corral didn’t seem as long as for the half marathon, and the volunteers were careful to make sure you went into your assigned corral. On the way there, I encountered a nicely outfitted Tinkerbell, and she and I got to talking (and I wish there was a picture of the two of us—we must have been quite the sight—me in all pink and her in all yellow/green complete with glittery face and wings!). She had done Ironman Florida in November, and she had run on Saturday, and it was her who remarked that her legs felt like the beginning of an Ironman run. That, combined with my RUN TOUGH mantra was the finally convincing I needed that I was going to be able to run just fine today.

When I got to the corral and I looked around, I thought, most of these people look like solid runners, but who the hell knows? Runners come in all shapes and forms. There was one woman who looked slightly out of place—rather heavy set, and I noticed her bib said Corral H. I politely asked how she got into this corral—it was because her son, who was going to run with her, was in F, and they said she could go on in. I told them both that was great, and asked what time they planned to run, and it was at least 5 hours, and I wished them both well. Hell, I had no idea if I could manage 5 hours today!

Now I had on my pink tutu, and I could see people smiling at me as I walked by. At one point, a videographer came and wanted to film me, but I don’t know what happened with the footage. I do remember that I pulled my garbage bag up so he could see the full pink effect, flashed my cheap bling, and babbled something about Goofy Challenge and that I felt good and ready to go.

Once again, time in the corral passed quickly, and there was tons of energy in the cold air as we waited for the final countdown, which we all did together, backwards from 10. And then more fireworks, and then we are off!!!

For the half marathon, it took me about 2 minutes to reach the starting line, but today it took only about 1 minute, and then we were off. Right away, I saw I could establish my own pace if I ran off-road, and so I did, and I noticed it felt fine on my legs, so I stayed there as much as I could. In retrospect, I think this is what enabled me to run a decent marathon. I figure I ran at least ¼ of it off-road. It wasn’t really dirt—it was more like sand. Plus, very few people were doing it, so it allowed me to establish my own pace. Also, the challenge of not tripping or falling into potholes kept me mentally engaged which helped the miles tick by quickly.

Mile 1 split 10:11. PERFECT!!! My first thought was, hey this doesn’t feel so bad, and maybe I can do this all day? I knew my quads would be “feelin’ it” all day, as that’s how the day started, but I started in right away on my mantra of RUN TOUGH. Hey, there are people who run much farther than me in a single day; I can do this, right? And my heart rate was a perfect 116 average for the first mile. That is like my “all day” heart rate, about what I average in an Ironman race. So I felt like things were on target. That plus the opportunity to run off-road had me feeling great.

Mile 2 split 9:56. PERFECT!!! Feeling great. Still cold though, gotta leave the bag on.

Mile 3 split 10:18. I think it was here that I decided I could lose the garbage bag. Mile 4 9:58, Mile 5 10:04, Miles 6 and 7 22:21 combined (I guess I forgot to hit my watch), but that included a road stop to pee, and it took some time between pulling down shorts AND tights, and moving aside my tutu. The things we go through to look good!

Miles 8-13 went by in 10:01, 10:27, 9:36, 9:58, 9:41 and 9:45. I think it was around Mile 10 when Offspring was on the radio and I was singing along loudly and having a great time. Some guy heard me and asked who the band was that sings that song. I told him Offspring, and he said, “You sound just like them. You sing really well!” All right, at least I don’t sound like a dying moose or something. Somewhere in this stretch, someone I know from home was on the side of the road yelling, “Hey, Sheila!” I looked, and it was my friend, Mary Jo, and her husband! I had no idea they would be there, and you know, those few seconds of recognition really made me feel extra great!

Now, I knew when it got to Mile 13, that here’s something I’ve never done—run 13 miles one day and then 13 the next. So every mile from here on out would be uncharted territory. I assessed my condition at the halfway point, and I felt pretty fucking amazingly good! Sure, my quads were sore, and sure I had to loosen my shoe laces several times, but nothing else appeared to be breaking down—no tight back, no tight hamstrings, calves were fine, everything GREAT! And I was staying on a sub-4:30 pace, which was truly about what I thought I COULD do, but didn’t know if it was what I SHOULD do, and whether I could hold it. But, there was no turning back now.

So I just kept keeping on—10:22, 9:46, 20:11 (16 and 17, again I forgot to hit my watch and this is where I finally discarded my gloves), 12:24 (my last potty stop and I took my sweet time knowing I was on pace for sub-4:30), 9:40, 9:53, 9:54, 10:14, 10:04, 9:19 (huh??? Was this mile short?), 10:37, 10:09, and the last .2 in 2:12 (which I think was long—no WAY I was running >10:00 at that point—one guy later told me his GPS read out 26.65 miles total, ha ha!!!).

During the last 6 miles as I was now in 100% focus mode, I had several instances where my tiara fell off, and then I had to bend over and pick it up, which was not fun, and cost me a few seconds here and there. But no matter. About Mile 24 there were 2 other girls all in pink (but not as flashy as me) and I remember some spectators yelling, “GO PINK GIRLS.” Well, I was NOT going to have any of that—so of course I had to pass them! It was so cool that I had gas whenever I wanted it, and in retrospect, of course, I think I could have run faster. If you take out my potty stops and costume adjustments, I was dead-on for a 10:00 pace, which was what I had predicted, and I think I could have run even faster.

Somewhere around Mile 22, there were signs put up on the side of the roads by Sharpie (another race sponsor). They had cute sayings or puns on them, I suppose to help take your mind off the pain you were experiencing. I just smiled at most of them, but I think it was on a rise towards Mile 24 that I remember one that said, “How can someone draw a blank?” THIS one made me think hard, and I started mumbling out loud, “Wait, I know this one, it’s….” and it was hard for me to get my mouth working with my brain as I was pushing towards the finish. Finally, it came to me—the answer was IN A SCRABBLE GAME. I yelled this out loud and pumped my fists in the air in intellectual victory! I’m not sure if anyone else had read the sign or thought about it, but at that moment I was very proud of myself for my mental acuity.

As I neared the finish line, I thought I had better look good for my photo. So I didn’t want to be behind someone else or part of someone else’s party, you know? I think I managed a good finish photo.

The joy of going sub-4:30 after running a half marathon the day before started to sink in. I don’t think I’ve ever smiled more broadly or felt more proud of myself, even after Ironman races! For once, I almost felt like a “real” runner.

I consumed only 2 GU during the race. I also had 2 Succeed tablets (it wasn’t that hot, but I still felt I could use them), and plenty of stinking Powerade through Mile 17. After that it was all Ultra Violence for the home stretch.

It had warmed up nicely, but still not uncomfortable for how I was dressed, so I didn’t really need the Mylar right away, but took it anyway. I gladly bent over slightly to get my Mickey Mouse medal, and then of course, my main concern was where do I collect Goofy? A volunteer directed me to the Goofy area, and it was small—just 2 long tables with a rack of medals. I felt like such a stud walking in there, flashing my blue wristband, and the volunteers were so nice! They looped the medal around my neck, and for a few minutes, I felt “above” the people who “just” did the marathon, but you know—it’s all relative.

As I walked out of the Goofy tent, someone yelled, “Hey Sheila,” and I figured it had to be Joe Bator, and it was. Finally, I get to meet this guy from the tri-drs LISTSERV who is a stud runner and who had fueled my confidence for Goofy Challenge the last few months. I wound my way around the barriers, and we had a big hug, I met Joe’s wonderful parents, and then all the babbling began. Joe was waiting for his wife, Julia, to finish. In theory, Julia should have been able to run with me the entire time, and I know she couldn’t have missed me in my costume, so I had wondered what happened that she hadn’t finished yet. But we chatted, and eventually Julia came in, and then we waited for her to compose herself and then I got to hug her, and then it was time to go. I asked Joe’s mom to take a picture of me and Joe, because I said I needed to prove that I had actually met him in person! It should be a good one. Joe said something about how he couldn’t call me Crackhead anymore, and I don’t know what he means. I feel more Crackheaded every day now!

I made my way back to my car, which was nice and warm in the bright sunshine. I removed my tutu and tiara, and put on a different hat and headed back to the hotel. On the way, after spending about 1 hour post-race not eating, I realized I was pretty damn hungry. So I thought about what did I want to eat? I decided on a burger and fries. I didn’t know where I wanted to go, but then the thought hit me, duh, McDonald’s. I never eat there unless it’s after a major race of at least 2 hours’ duration, so it was time. I didn’t even want to shower first, I was so hungry. So I got there, ordered a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, medium fries and a large lemonade. I started in on the fries on the 1-mile drive back to the hotel, and when I got back there, I decided I needed to shower first.

Luckily, no chafing had occurred, and I only had a medium-sized blister on the side of my big left toe. VERY stiff legs, but the shower felt AWESOME!!! Then I dried off and proceeded to inhale the McDonald’s food. I briefly thought about Endurox R4, but then decided I didn’t really want it—what I wanted was to lay down. Which I did. I tried to go to sleep, but that wasn’t working, so I got up and put on a swimsuit and headed down to the pool. This time I was going in. The water was nice, the air was nice, and I was walking like Frankenstein (only in a leopard print bikini). But in I went, and I did about 10’ of gentle stretching in there, probably moaning the entire time. I really wanted a beer, but kept drinking water. I had gone to the hotel lobby to see if the bar was open, but it wasn’t. Just as well, better I keep hydrating for awhile.

After the pool, I decided I HAD to have a beer (after having gone 2 weeks without), so I got dressed and drove to Downtown Disney, where the awards would be and where I would meet up with Steve Noone, but biggest stud runner that *I* personally know on the planet—his combined half and full marathon times were faster than my marathon time alone. When I crossed into Pleasure Island, I saw a tiki hut with drinks, and that’s when I extended my arms out in front of me in true Frankenstein mode and went to get a beer. Oh, man, did that first sip taste GOOD!!! I then went to look at the posted race results just for confirmation that I really had done this thing!

In the process of walking around, it was great fun to watch others who had at least done the marathon trying to negotiate stairs and general walking—it was easy for us to spot one another, and several times I would call out, “Good job” as someone tried to go down stairs or a ramp. It wasn’t long before it was time for beer #2 and a pretzel, and then I called Steve to see where he was. 10 seconds later he’s behind me yelling, “MARCO.” I hadn’t seen him since Ironman Hawaii 2004, and we had a big hug, and briefly went over things. Steve was with lots of family, so I left him to be with them, congratulated him, fetched one more beer and tried to decide what I wanted to do.

I felt pretty damn tired, so I figured I’d drive back to my hotel (I was probably just about drunk; at least I wasn’t feeling much pain now) and grab some food and then pass out. I decided on Red Lobster, a safe bet, and I ended up eating a dozen raw oysters, a good piece of tilapia with veggies and a baked potato (loaded up with butter and sour cream, of course), one more beer, and just mainly the cheese off of a salad with bleu cheese dressing. I got a slice of Key Lime pie to go, and went back to my hotel. I was pleasingly full, a little tipsy and very tired, but I snarfed down the pie, and then lasted maybe ½ hour and passed out.

Day After
That was some of the most restful sleep ever! 10 solid hours. Luckily, I didn’t wake up too many times during the night, as it was a trick getting out of bed and to the bathroom. But I was very hungry when I awoke, so I made some coffee and ate a Power Bar, just to get things rolling. After about 2 hours of packing and stuff, I thought it might be nice to take a walk in the Florida sunshine (and it was warming up nicely) before heading home to gray, dreary Chicago. So I head out, and I’m thinking, “Hey, I could walk to McDonald’s.” And I notice I’m hungry, but I spy the IHOP which is closer and decide on it.

2 hours after I wake up and I’m starving and as soon as I get inside the door, someone is asking me whether I heard that someone died right at the finish line yesterday. I hadn’t heard or read, but my first response was, “Well, at least he went doing something he loved.” What else could I say? It wasn’t the running that killed him. I checked the web and found the real story here: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-mcfbriefs10_506jan10,0,2164079.story. The poor guy died after finishing the half marathon. I hope they buried him with his medal!

I sat down and polished off 3 eggs, 3 pancakes, 4 slices of bacon and some more coffee. YUM! Even after I finished, though, I knew I’d be hungry again in a few hours. I walked back to my hotel, and about 1 block away, I had just crossed an entryway to some other place, and behind me I hear, “HEY SEXY” being yelled out of a car. I turn around, and it had to be a mini-van with 5 or 6 runners in it, and it was the driver who had called out to me. Either they spotted my race shirt that I was wearing or noticed my lack of walking ability or both. I waved at them, and gosh, that just gave me a good feeling all over. Not that I looked sexy or anything! It was just the thought hey they know I ran the marathon yesterday, and for THAT I am sexy! Pretty cool.

I got back to the hotel and did my last minute packing and called my parents to let them know I had survived and actually did quite well. My dad, in his usual sageness, said that he knew that sometime this past summer I had reached a turning point and that he knew that I was going to be able to push myself to progressively bigger, better and faster things in my athletics. I don’t know if he really sensed that or if he was just feeding off of me telling him things like that, but it’s always nice to get confirmation from someone of where you are mentally and physically, in addition to the coach!

And speaking of my coach, gosh, I have to say he has had me working just perfectly! I am truly amazed at what I’ve accomplished these past 2 years with him. While it may seem that he just gives me “workouts,” he has had to be an observer of my overall drive, madness and ridiculous goal-setting along the way and he has pushed me just far enough beyond my comfort zones and I think secretly he thinks I am capable of a lot.

I managed to get on an earlier flight—originally I was scheduled for 6PM, but I tried for stand-by on a 2:00PM flight, and got on. I was so happy. I found some other guy on the plane wearing a Goofy medal and so we jabbered for a bit and probably drove everyone nuts around us (I was standing in the aisle over some guy’s head—while co-runner was in the middle seat). I was so tired on the plane ride, but drank a beer anyway—what the hell, I deserved it!

When I arrived home, I was so happy. I am so happy now. I can’t explain why I think this was such a big deal to me—it just was. And looking at my placings, I think I did pretty well. And I received an email that registration is open for next year, and I think I might sign up. So I had to figure out how far from Ironman Florida it is—9 weeks! I can do that! It will make it an even bigger challenge, right? And I think I may try to qualify for Boston during the marathon. We shall see.

But right now I have my next big challenge—to recover from this and get ready for Ironman Brazil, just 21 weeks from now. Although I get another fun getaway in just 11 weeks to do Ralph’s ½ Ironman in Oceanside, California. What am I doing? I’m having fun, that’s what. Training hard, racing hard, improving mentally and physically and feeling fan-fucking-tastic. That’s what.