Bikes & Arizona Riding

As I recover from my first ride of the day before heading out for another ride, it seems like a good time to talk about BIKES! As I said yesterday, I went to Arizona to not only swim but also do other training. For the first time I flew with my bike and after it deciding to take a different flight from me, it arrived in Phoenix hours later and was delivered to the house in one piece. Trying to not let that make me worried about flying to New Zealand with it.

The first two days of riding were easier rides or supposed to be but it takes a lot more work for me to keep up with Katie. But the return ride on a slight downhill on Scottsdale drafting off of her made for a nice ride home at 30W and 30mph. And most important, no cars hit us.

The third day of riding was labeled on my schedule as "so fucking dropped ride" with a side comment of "you'll probably get dropped". There's a nice stretch of road where people like to hammer hard and my only goal was to hold on for dear life and not get dropped. I glued myself to her wheel so I could take advantage of ever drafting watt possible and managed to hang on the whole time. After chatting with some golfers and soft pedaling for awhile we did a steady climb. I felt strong the whole ride and the challenge of keeping up was a good distraction from the fatigue.

The last day of riding was the ride I was looking forward to the most. Climbing Mount Lemmon in Tuscon. Of course at this point my legs were exhausted so I loaded my bottles with caffeine and told Katie I'd see her at the top because there was no way I was staying with her. She gave me a power range to stay in and I was determined to stay in the top half of that range. I spent the first hour fighting to roll down my arm warmers and pulling the zipper down on my jersey while dripping in sweat. Then I rounded some magical corner and the wind picked up and I was yanking all the layers back on.

We knew there wasn't enough time to ride all the way up and back down so I kept praying that I was close to the point of having to turn around. Then I saw Katie pulled over to pee and she told me she was going to have her friend pick us up at the top. Shit. So I shoveled down more calories and counted down how many miles I had left as the very slowly ticked by. It took everything I had to hold onto my power number but I was determined. By the last 30 minutes I was cold, there was snow on the ground and I was seriously lacking in oxygen around 8,000ft elevation. I was cranky and wanted to be done. By the time I reached the end and the Cookie Cabin I was thrilled to be done and enjoy a well deserved cookie and hot chocolate.

That rounded out the week for riding and my legs were happy to be done. I think we were especially all happy to be done packing and repacking and repacking 6 more times the car with 3 people, 3 bikes and a weeks worth of our crap. I left Arizona happy with the work I did, more knowledge stuffed in my brain and ready to keep tackling Ironman training back at home.

Of all the progress I've made this year, riding is by far where I've seen the most improvements. I've been able to consistently ride all year which is a huge part of it. I've pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and learned how to become a better rider. It's about more than how many watts your body can pump out. I've learned how to handle my bike, to become one with it. Maybe one day I'll even learn to ride with no hands #2017goals.

 

When I first got into triathlons I liked riding the least and now not only is it my strongest discipline, it's become a try love for me. I love my bike! Right now my legs might not love my bike because they struggle to push the pedals from feeling so dead but it still makes my soul happy to be free on two wheels. Time to go ride again! Please send more coffee...

Swimming & Swim Camp

Well I've done a terrible job keeping up with this blog since my Ironman almost 3 months ago. I figured as a good way to #1 catch up and #2 wrap up the year, I'd "try" to do a post a day for the last three days of the year. Naturally a post about swim, bike and run. Today is SWIM!

At the beginning of the month I went to Arizona for swim camp and extra Ironman training. Swim camp schedule was officially Friday-Sunday and I stayed until Wednesday. I've talked several times here about how I constantly feel like I'm banging my head against the wall when it comes to swimming. For many many months (probably since the spring) I haven't been very happy with where I've been with my swim and as a result I've had a negative outlook on swimming. I asked Katie before I left Arizona what I did as an athlete that drove her crazy. Her only response was that when I have a bad swim it's like it's the end of the world. Ok I don't think I'm that bad but yes I've gotten pretty down on myself when I have a series of bad swims and my times have gotten worse since the spring.

I knew I had lots of room for improvement in swimming and I needed to change my outlook. On top of that, going to Arizona to train with Katie for almost a week was a great opportunity. I'll admit the pool I swim in at home is very blah so I was happy to swim in some awesome outdoor huge pools despite it not being very warm outside. I thought Phoenix and Tuscon were supposed to be warm, not the same temperature as Greenville. While in AZ I swam 5 days in a row for over 22,000 yards. That's way more than I normally swim in a week.... or at least up until that point. That has certainly changed recently. Swimming was a variety of things... sprinting, descending breaths (ug the worst!), threshold, long recovery, and so on. I spent the first day sharing a lane with Katie and a former competitive swimming and killing myself with paddles trying to not get lapped and I survived. I spent most of the other swims either splitting a lane or having my own lane because my pace was slower than those two but faster than the others at camp. It was a fun challenge while I had feet to chase though.

I also got a swim analysis but another coach/pro that came along for the trip. She even had me try a snorkel which felt awkward af while doing laps and not having a mask that covers my nose. Very different than the snorkeling I do in the ocean. She gave me several thing to work on and I immediately saw an improvement in my pace. Ever swim I do I'm still trying to reinforce the changes. Always working on improving. That's the way it should be.

I was happy with the work I did at camp however I didn't have a good idea of how much that week had improved my swim until I got home. Those were all yard pools and I swim meters at home. I was so happy to get back into my pool and see all of my times drop. Not just time trials but simple things like sets I do during warm up and my "critical swim speed". I'm no longer afraid when I see the harder send offs. Before there would be a sense of panic because I'd convince myself I wouldn't make them. Now I take on the challenge every swim with an open mind. I've also learned the power of coffee before my morning swim and wheeeeee does that light a fire under my ass. I've had fun trying to keep up with the boys in my pool during my hard sets. Some even gave me a look like where the hell did this come from and made comments. I've had lots and lots of good swims since I've been home. Many swims that were tough but I did well because I kept my head in the game. I've also had a handful of bad swims where my body felt dead tired and everything was slow and I missed send offs. And you know what? I was totally ok with it. I'm in Ironman training and my body is exhausted and sometimes that means I can't swim my best. It's ok.

It's been an interesting year from swimming as it certainly hasn't been linear progress. I got better in first few months when I was swimming a lot. Then I got worse. Then I got worse again while training for my first Ironman when I was exhausted all the time. And now, finally, I'm getting better again. I know I can't always get better but damn it feels good right now.

Life’s little adventures

Well it has certainly been a while since I’ve blogged. I could see that happening if I wasn’t training anymore and there wasn’t anything to talk about but that certainly hasn’t been the case. I’ve been busy, been thinking through things and taking a bit of space from this space. But it feels like a good time to get back into it as I’m about to finally jump back into what feels like a normal routine to me. This is a good time to look back on what life has been like these last many weeks.

I’ve spent extra time focusing on my non-training life such as family and friends. My friend and I threw our annual murder mystery party. This year’s theme was 80s high school reunion complete with lots of neon and bad hair. I was going for the 80s aerobics instructor look to go with my character. I somehow accidently bought a thong leotard and did my best to make it give me less of a whedgie. As my husband said, it looked like someone just used body paint on me. I gave a lot of people a good laugh though with my initial panic pictures while trying to figure out how to fix it.  

From a training perspective, I happily got back into climbing mountains on my bike. Have I mentioned I love climbing?! I did a climbing ride up north into NC and did a loop that once scared the shit out of me and forced me to walk my bike a mile uphill. For the second time, I had complete confidence going into it and I once again was no issues doing it. I got the added bonus of enjoying the fall leaves and inhaling smoke from the wildfires not that far away.

 

Then I went up to VA for Thanksgiving. I wanted to try tackling Skyline Drive again since last time it was snowing, I was under dressed and shaking so badly I cut the ride short. Unfortunately, it was about the same temperature this time but not snowing and I was a little better dressed so I was able to get a nice long rides in. I love the challenge of climbing and knowing you HAVE to fight through the fatigue or you will go nowhere. Or maybe backwards. I also love descending but not when it’s 30 degrees at 30 watts and 30mph. That sucks if it’s for more than 3 minutes. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the ride. Maybe one day I’ll do it when there are leaves on the trees, I’m not freezing and blowing snot all of the road.

I also got in some good swimming. I hated the pool down the street from my parents’ house so I found a new pool which is waaaay better. It’s also a SCY pool and I normally swim SCM so it made me feel extra speedy. Seeing those faster times gave me a mental boost which I needed as I mentally struggle in the pool a lot.

I enjoyed the nice change of scenery for running and even got in some family running! I dragged my husband and dog for a Thanksgiving run in between cooking half of the Thanksgiving meal. My dad even joined me for part of a run which I think I’ve only done a handful of times. I’m pretty sure he felt the need to prove something to me because he was running faster than I wanted to but I’ll be damned if I was going to tell him to slow down. Thanksgiving was lots of quality family time and some good downtime away from work and everyday busy life. Nikita especially enjoyed the week of extra running, playing with her new furry cousins and chasing little kids around the house. The cooler weather also means she gets to run further with me since she struggles in the summer heat.

After I got home from VA, I was back for less than a week and then it was off for more traveling. First Arizona for training and then Kiawah Island for a girl’s race weekend. That’s way too much to talk about right now though. The important thing is right now I’m in a happy place and things are going well. I have little body niggles but nothing alarming or holding me back. Training is progressing and building up again. It’s the holiday season. Only two weeks left of work for the year. All is good and I honestly have nothing to complain about which is impressive because I can normally find something. I could complain about the weight I’m gaining but the food is simply too good to care right now. Happy holidays indeed!