Winning Makes Me Happy!

I don't care what anyone thinks--winning my AG in a race makes me happy!

Yesterday was my first race of 2015--a supersprint indoor triathlon, where you swim 10', bike 20' and run 15' on indoor track. In years past, I have won my AG for the series (at one time there were 4 races all 2 weeks apart; now there are only 3) 4 times. This year, I couldn't make the first race because I was starting the Tour of Sufferlandria, but I registered for the 2nd and 3rd races.

I have never done any semblance of a taper for these things because why would I? But I can recall that in prior years, I wasn't training as much this soon in the year. Why am I training so much now? Because I have a 1/2 Ironman in 6 weeks, and I don't want to suck!

Let me back up to the beginning of last week. I had just finished Tour of Sufferlandria, and on Monday I was completely and thoroughly shagged. One of the data points I keep in my massive training spreadsheet is a rolling 7-day training total. As of last Monday, I was at 19 hours. All I did on Monday was shovel snow for an hour (recall Chicago had its 5th biggest snowstorm the day before--I got 19.1" at my house!).

Since I didn't know if I'd even be able to finish Tour of Sufferlandria, the training I planned for last week was, shall we say, a "tad" aggressive. When it came time for me to ride on Tuesday, I was like FUCK THIS WORKOUT and I shortened it and had to go much easier than planned. Which was fine. I always need to respect the recovery process despite what training I've planned, and my bike legs just weren't recovered. Plus I had run 30' and swum 3000 in the morning before I biked, so that added to the fatigue. At the end of Tuesday, my rolling 7-day total was back up to 20 hours.

On Wednesday, I shoveled over an hour (we got another 2-3" overnight), then went and swam 3000 and ran for an hour, including some track intervals just for fun. I was surprised that my run legs weren't kaput. Rolling 7-day total still at 20 hours.

On Thursday, I figured I should get back on my strength training, so I got in about an hour of that, then hit the bike, and again felt like my bike legs weren't back yet, so I held down the time and intensity a bit, but my rolling 7-day total stayed at 20 hours.

On Friday, I finished my strength training for the week, about 45', then swam 3200 (that before work), and later I ran 40', pretty easy. Yay--rolling 7-day total finally dropped to 19.4!

On Saturday, I was thinking how should I adjust things if I expect to race decently, then I decided I didn't really care since eye on the prize--I'm training for a 1/2 Ironman. But in the back of my mind I'm thinking I still want to win the stupid race. In the end, I cut back my scheduled 2:45 ride to 2:40, and my scheduled :30 brick run to :25. Some reduction, huh? And my bike intensity was still not there, but I didn't really expect it to be. Rolling 7-day total now down to 19.1. Yay! After I finished working out, I ate lunch, stretched, bought groceries, and then gave myself the gift of laying around the rest of the day in the hopes I would gain some recovery for a race the next day.

When I woke up yesterday, I immediately felt nervous. When I am nervous, my stomach does flip-flips. This goes all the way back to childhood. I had slept well, and my legs didn't feel bad. Then I had to decide how much warmup for the race to do. In retrospect, I should have done more biking, but I'll fix that in 2 weeks.

At home, I ran 5', biked 5', ran 5', biked 5' and ran 5'. Most of that was fairly easy, with a few accelerations in the last 10'. I started in on a Coke, that I would finish on my drive to the club. After I put my crap into a locker, I went and scoped out the bikes. They were different than the ones I'd used the last time I did this series, which was 3 years ago (and I won my AG for the series that year). So I got on the one spare, which really wasn't a spare--someone had been a no show. Thank God I was able to try out one of the bikes, because stationary bikes are all geared differently, and the key to winning these races is ALL ABOUT THE BIKE! And I am ALL ABOUT THE BIKE! So I gauged what I should shoot for in the race. Then I went upstairs to the indoor track and ran an easy 1/4 mile, then another 1/3 mile. I could tell my run legs weren't going to be great, but whatever, right?

Then I just hung out until it was time for me to start. My massage therapist has students from his school at these races, so I availed myself of one of them to just work on my upper back, since it was gnarly from Friday's swim with paddles. She was like we're not supposed to work on anyone until after they race, but Mike came over and told her it was OK that I know what I'm doing. That felt so good!

My start time was 10:05. A guy I know who was the announcer while I biked was on deck and numbered me up and drew a shark fin on my calf. He said he wanted to do some art on me, so I asked for the shark fin. I got in the water, and it was pleasantly cool--I'm guessing 82 or 83. My home pool is always too warm--usually 85. So I was grateful for the cool water. I swam an easy 200, and again, I could tell I was still pretty well fatigued from the past weeks of training, but whatever, right? At least I got my own swim lane!

My volunteer dude (who follows you around and tallies your laps and mileage) was Walt. A nice man, who plays tennis as his primary sport. He was a pretty quiet man, but smiley, and I appreciated that. I tend to joke a lot when I am racing--it helps me to calm my nerves. With my cumulative fatigue, I decided I would just swim steady and not try and punch it. I felt great, felt like my stroke was the best ever, and didn't feel like my heart was going to jump out of my chest as I exited the water.

In years past, I'd wear a 2-piece bikini to swim in and keep the top on and just change into bike shorts, but this year I've been feeling flabby and that I wouldn't look good enough in a bikini, so I wore a one-piece suit, my lucky suit:

The ladies in the locker room were all commenting on my cute suit. Until I stripped it off and then warned everyone I was going to start swearing pretty fast while I put on my bike shorts. Some of the ladies were watching me strip or something, and someone commented on how great my abs look. I shrugged it off, saying that I was a little fat, and one of them said she hadn't been as small as me since she was 13, and someone else said NEVER. It's all relative, right?

I managed to get my CwX tri shorts over my fat ass, got my socks and shoes on (I put talcum powder into my socks just like in longer races because it dries up the excess water in a flash), and headed out to the bike. I had Lane 1 in the swim, but Bike 2. WTF, right?

I was ready to suffer on the bike. I figured this couldn't be as hard as the shit I'd done the prior week, and I felt VERY well prepared. There was a guy in my wave that had his name on his tri suit, so I figured he was a player, and I was right. There was another young man that also looked to be quite fast, and I was right about him, too. But I was the fastest female biker in my wave, and also the oldest. I tested out my "system" for achieving maximal bike distance, and I know I can go faster in the next race. I just love crushing people on the bike! Especially people younger than me! After I finished, I threw my towel on the floor and laid on it for a few seconds. I figured my run was going to suck, but them's the breaks sometimes, right?

I went upstairs to the track and jogged around once. I decided I wasn't going to look at my watch, and I was just going to try and run steady, which is what I did. There was a girl in front of me for about 4 laps that I figured was going to crap out, and I did pass her. The speedy young dudes were just flying. Since it's been a long time since I've gone so totally anaerobic like I did on the bike, I was pretty sure I was going to puke my guts out when I finished. It was all I could do to not slow down on the run. I'm not happy with my run, but I've learned that for me to run effectively, I DO actually need a taper--swimming and biking not so much!

I managed to hang on and not slow down, and I did puke (it was all water) in a bucket, and it felt good! At least I knew that I had gone as hard as I could on the day! First order of post-race business was to go and get a massage. They had pizza, fruit, water, Gatorade, sandwiches and energy bars for us. I longingly looked at the pizza, which I couldn't have, because I still had to run another hour. But I ate 1/2 banana and grabbed some water, then went and got an awesome leg massage.

I had forgotten that at this club they don't let you use the treadmills because they are inside the track and don't want people in there. So I decided that since I was going to run real easy anyway, that I'd do some of it on elliptical. I did 15' on there while one of the waves was going. It was way more motivating to do that than just on my own. I hate elliptical. The other people on the machines were giving me weird looks because they could see I'd already raced because of my sweat and the numbers on me. I was still working harder than they were!

After that wave finished, I went and ran 1/2 mile on the track real easy, and could tell I was thoroughly shagged, but I still had more running to do. I saw another racer on a treadmill, and I figured if he could do it, then I should be able to. I asked someone who works at the club, told him I promised I wouldn't die, and he said it was OK. It was really cool to be on the treadmill with the music blaring (they have awesome DJs at these events) and people literally running circles around me! It made the suckage of running 40' on the treadmill not so bad.

But then I was FUCKING DONE! I went back downstairs with one thing in mind: PIZZA! I don't eat pizza very often, but this was well deserved. I think I inhaled the first piece of sausage, then they laid out some fresh ones that were pepperoni, and I ate 2 slices of that. I drank another bottle of water, then went and got my 3rd massage of the day! My legs were a bit more gnarly than immediately post-race because I'd run more, so it really helped to get another massage.

Then, of course, I had to go and check results. While there was at least 1 more woman in my AG that wasn't yet posted, I'm pretty sure I won. I actually placed pretty well in the overall rankings, too, for an old lady.

For the next race in 2 weeks, I am going to shuffle my bike training so I don't do 3:30 the day before! Even though I might still win my AG after that, I want to have a good run, and so I will limit my biking to 2 hours the day before, and we'll see how it goes.

I was so shagged yesterday after I got home that I immediately changed into pajamas (2:30!), and alternated laying in bed watching TV and/or reading with eating and drinking beer. This morning, as soon as I woke up, I thought, "I fucking won that race yesterday!" and got the biggest grin on my face. I know it's not much of a race, but still, it felt good to do that on top of all the training I've been doing, and it was a great way to kick off the 2015 racing season. I did do a happy dance in my living room. Now I have to keep up the momentum and not burn myself out, as my A-race, Ironman Louisville, is still 8 months out.

Oh--I had my lungs checked out and they are FINE! The tech at the hospital agreed with me that because I'd had my house all sealed up that my allergies had flared, and possibly I had an infection that the steroids helped clear up. I told him that usually after a really hard effort I have a coughing fit, and since I've been regularly using the albuterol before workouts that doesn't happen so much. I just realized that even though I puked after the race yesterday that I didn't have a coughing fit!

I also had my yearly mammogram, and this time it was 100% normal without a follow-on diagnostic, so that made me happy, too. Now I am just waiting to see the higher dose of Synthroid kick in (I don't think it's quite there yet), and then I will see if I feel even better. I decided to stop taking the CoQ10, because I think it's contributing to my lessened sleep and/or weight gain, so we'll see how that experiment goes.

So all in all, the physical systems are in good shape, I'm training like a maniac and WINNING! I couldn't be happier today, even though I am so tired it's crazy! But today is a rest day, unless I decide to try a short swim (which I think would be helpful). And I am HUNGRY!

LIFE IS OUTSTANDING!

Twin Lakes Sprint Triathlon Race Report

Get ready---this will be long for a sprint report!

First the important stuff. Pics are here.

So if you go back a few days you see that on Friday, I pretty well cooked myself (figuratively and literally) that day. I was oh so tired Friday night, but stretched pretty well, and didn't need to do too much after that--I had Infinit mixed up that was leftover from my bottle-making tragedy prior to Horribly Hilly, and so all I needed to do was load and set the coffee pot timer.

The plan for Saturday was a 1/2 hour recovery swim and 2:30 ride "at any intensity that feels right." Uh-huh. Yeah. OK. That's what the piece of paper said.

I had wanted to be swimming at 7AM, but I was a little late getting started, due to the fact that I let myself "sleep in" until 5:30 and wanted to have my breakfast somewhat digested before I started swimming (unlike on Friday).

I'd thought I'd swim easy for 1/2 hour, but as soon as I jumped in, I was like, fuck, I have a sprint race tomorrow I should do some short speedy stuff. So first I just swam 500 all out (what is "all out" for me that is), then I did 300 easy, then 4x100 hard 20"RI and 4x50 hard 10" RI, with a 100 easy cooldown. OK, FAIL on easy swim, hey but it was short, so no worries, right?

I got lucky in that the Farmer's Market was staged at the Y yesterday because of the annual summer festival in Downers Grove called Heritage Fest (I may yet walk down there today OR NOT), so I picked up some tomatoes (Florida--Illinois' fruit won't be here for a few weeks yet, but it is the best, I SWEAR), some focaccia (which substituted for the pizza I should have eaten on Thursday but didn't, and the pizza I should have eaten Friday night but didn't because I was too tired), and this olive muffaletta stuff that I absolutely adore--it's like giardinera on tasty steroids--mostly olives, some onions, some peppers.

I had wanted to leave home by 8:30 to ride, but slacked and didn't get going until almost 9:30. No worries--it wasn't as hot as Friday. I went riding in panties again, but with a tank top on so I wouldn't burn my back up. I was plenty comfortable, and while I started out sort of easy, I just sort of got a mileage number in my head (50) that I wanted to knock out. I rode east in my "hood" ride area through Westmont, Hinsdale, Western Springs into LaGrange, and then joined up with the Salt Creek bike path. It is nice and shady in there, and I was laughing while going 20MPH on it. I made a wrong turn at one point, but it was good because I still ended up with 47 miles of riding at a pretty good clip.

Oh my fucking God were my legs toasted after that. Needless to say, it was NOT a recovery ride by any stretch of the imagination, but I had things to do. I made a quick lunch, mowed the lawn and then headed to the bike shop to pick up LGL--she'd been tuned up and zebrafied:



Look at her! Is she a thing of beauty or what? While at the LBS, I started thinking I want a new tri bike, and would love the Pinarello Montello. Sadly, though, we looked up the frame sizing parameters and they don't make one small enough for me. I am going to look at Colnago next. I don't want Joe average's tri bike--but I would like something as light or lighter than LGL.

After bike shopping, I did some dishes, stretched, got Bitchie all set up to race, including cleaning off the shit left over from her tuneup and my rides on Friday and Saturday, got my race gear together, loaded the coffee pot, and tried to get to sleep early at 8:30.

No such luck. I just laid there and tossed and turned. I swear I sleep better before an Ironman than I do before a stupid sprint! I remember scrolling through all the crap that has happened to me in the past 3 years, thought about all these things I should be doing or could be doing, but then just gave over to the fact that I didn't really need a whole lot of sleep. I heard maybe one thunderclap (I guess it rained a little), finally got to sleep and was having "the dreams" of being late for a race, etc.

I woke up just before the alarm went off thinking I maybe had another hour to sleep, BUT NO! So I got up and thought, yikes my legs are fried, this is going to suck today. I had 2 cups of coffee, grabbed a can of Ultra Violence for the road, and an hour after waking was on the road. It looked to be a beautiful day--no clouds, and temperatures in the 70's for racing. My PERFECT race weather!

I got to Twin Lakes a few minutes later than planned, but was still one of the first 25 or so cars there, so I had plenty of time to set up, take a few dumps (a pre-race tradition!) and mill around and find people I know. I had several women say to me, "You look fast!" I don't know why they say that--sure Bitch looks fast, but I don't think that I look particularly fast. Anyway, my response was, "I don't know about today." And I didn't. I had reconciled myself to just going out and having fun, and I was looking forward to it.

OK, on to the actual race. For my swim wave, I started far left and then angled into everyone. I had no idea if I was doing a good pace or not, but I did seem to pass a lot of people. I guess I did my usual MOP effort there, but it was still fast for me. Like 12:30 for 700 or 750 meters, not sure what the actual distance was.

I got out of the water and had 1/2 my wetsuit off, got to my bike, lots and lots of bikes still on racks (!), got the suit off quickly and got ready to bike. I wasn't going particularly fast, but not slow either. I headed out to bike and thought, "Fuck, this is going to hurt."

Because you know why? No matter how I feel, it's a sprint, biking is my thing, and I will make myself hurt just because I feel it's my obligation. I must not have had that great of a swim, because I immediately started passing all sorts of people, in my wave, and earlier waves, lots of guys, and never found a pack to draft off of. No worries--several guys tried to suck my wheel, but I dropped most of them once we hit some wind around Harper College. I am tiny and my CdA is quite low (and I was wearing the aero helmet to boot), and so I can cut through wind pretty well for a yard gnome.

I remember after about 5 minutes into the bike I'm like FUCK THIS FUCKING, FUCKING HURTS! And yet I couldn't make myself ride easier. Why bother? It's only 14 something miles, I can handle it. The only times I slowed down a little was when I thought I needed like 3 seconds to recover or swig some Coke out of my pink pirate bottle. And I just kept cranking, and since I kept passing people (yelling at those who were in my way), I thought I must be having a decent ride.

When I got back to transition, I was methodical about taking stuff off and getting into my running shoes. This was the first time I wore my black racing flats in a race, because this is the first sprint I've had in them. They felt great! I feel like I am barely moving, but not really feeling the pain of the bike ride. Earlier in the day, I thought I'd be happy running 9mpm, and here comes Mile 1 I wonder what I'm doing? 8:38. Huh? I don't do that. Oh well, just keep the pace and don't look at the watch.

Well, I kept going, taking short walk breaks at the aid stations, and when I got near the finish line, a friend of mine, Kevin, was there to run me in. And he's yelling at me and now I am hurting like a sonofabitch, but hey I did this at Rockman, I can do it again, and then I'm across the finish line and done!

And I have no clue how many miles I'd run. I thought each mile was short because I just kept running a little faster each mile that was marked, and the website had said it might be 4.9 miles, someone else said it was 4.3, but I guess they measured it at 4.5. Whatever, I felt like I had had fun, and I even passed like 8 people on the run, so I was OK with however I'd done.

When they posted results up on this van, I walked over, and I was like WTF??? 20th overall??? And I just didn't believe it. OK, so maybe this isn't a big race, and maybe there wasn't a lot of competition, and maybe blah, blah, blah, but WHAT??? So of course, I thought maybe I should hang out and see if anyone comes ahead of me, but I doubted it because of the elapsed time since I had finished and people in later waves probably being overall slower.

But even though I checked at least 5 times, the results never changed, I was 20th overall and 1st in my AG, and this was after all the shit I had done before this in the week!

And sweetest of all, that was the fastest I have ever run 4.5 miles or whatever it was, if it was measured accurately, and I am very happy, as you can see from the last pic in the set of me in my car.

I don't really care what this means as far as IMLP or anything else. I am just taking it for what it is. I did OK today. I guess I have won my AG in all 6 races (aside from Triple T) that I have done this year, including a 1/2 IM. I'll take it.

Now I just wonder what I could do with a proper taper...

Triple T Quickie Race Report

I'll get on that magnum opus in a day or so...

I stayed in a cabin with 5 other athletes that I had never met before. We had a ton of fun.

Course Summary:

• Swim: It was fucking cold (never made it over 60F)
• Bike: They were fucking hilly
• Run: It was fucking hilly
• Weather: It was fucking awesome
• Cabin mates: Fucking awesome

How did we do? In our cabin we had:

• 3rd place overall male--Ian
• 1st place overall coed team--Rob and Julie
• 1st place overall Grand Master Woman--ME THE CRACKHEAD!!

But more importantly (for Karl Rove's benefit) here are the drinking totals for the cabin:

• Friday--10 beers and 9 glasses of wine
• Saturday--11 beers
• Sunday--8 beers (I had to personally bring up the rear on this one since I was the only one who stayed the night)

Thus proving that triathlon really consists of three events: DRINK, HAVE FUN and WIN RACES!!