Chronicles of a fish: the days of surf and turf

Friday, August 15th, 2014

Run plan: 2 x 3 miles @ MP, 4 min recovery in between

Because I've the little sprint tri race on Sunday, it was suggested to me to get this out of the way as early as possible today to put as much time between the two - so that meant it was done sneaky lunchtime style.

Gorgeous day, and not all that hot, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky so the noon sun was shining down upon me with its rays making their presence known. In otherwords, it was hotter than the thermometer indicated! My target pace today should've been 7:40-ish min/mile, but in true Dory fashion for a Friday I shot off like a mad woman and happy as a clam only to wonder why the body was sending out smoke signals and white flags about a half a mile into the run. Oh. That's right. I'm not supposed to be going a 6:30 pace. :eek: I immediately slowed it down...but that set the tone for the first 3 miles....too fast, and it ended up biting me in the arse by the end of the session, especially with the legs feeling the 15 miles in them from Wednesday night. In a nutshell, the first 3 miles were too fast but the effort was reasonable....but the second 3 miles were a bit of a stretch and took way too much effort for the pace I was running (which was still faster than it really should have been ). Oh, and there was one slight malfunction - when I went to hit the lap button on the Garmin to start the second set of 3 miles, I accidentally hit the stop button and didn't realize it for a bit. Soooo.....the 4th mile is long (just not recorded). No harm though.

Paces as follows:
7:18, 7:17, 7:19
7:24, 7:30, 7:28

Actual run: 6.44 miles in 48:32:34 for an average pace of 7:32 min/mile

Swim

Because the swim on Sunday is more than likely going to be wetsuit legal, I dug out the wetsuit and did a little trial swim in it. I haven't had it on since January when I did the half iron distance in Key West, but it fit fine...however, I noticed I had a few healthy fingernail gouges in three spots. Not happy. I really hope they don't end up going all the way through, but I suppose I can figure out how to patch them if they do. ??

Actual swim: 1,000 very buoyant yards in a rubber suit

Thanks folks. Tomorrow is more dress rehearsal than race...and to be honest I've been pretty blase about the whole affair due to lack of focus on this event and fatigue from training. But, now that it's here and I've picked up my race packet and chatted with a few of the other athletes and organizers, yeah, I guess I'm getting a little excited about it. I didn't bother to try and change my wave because that's not really what this particular race is about (see note about dress rehearsal above ), so instead I'll focus on smooth sailing and having fun. And good god don't let me get a drafting penalty because I'll never hear the end of it!!!

(By Dory standards, this is going to be brief!)

Pre-race this and that....
I honestly was feeling no love to do this race over the last few weeks. I've been tired and cranky (I'm sure my illness 2 weeks ago didn't help any!)...been feeling like I've been struggling with my swim....and then as luck would have it, this week I perfected the art of how to properly have a mini-meltdown followed by an old fashioned hissy fit. Whoop whoop! I guess this is where you're supposed to be 5 weeks out from your first IM after a summer's worth of training and sacrifice. But, there was a buzz about town this weekend, and after picking up my race packet yesterday I could tell my game face was beginning to shine through, reminding me what a difference a day can make.

Race....
Just the usual morning of a race....showered, shaved legs, ate breakfast, drove down to venue, got body marked....yada yada. Nothing new, but I was without a doubt feeling the love of the hometown crowd.

Swim...
Did I happen to mention that I was in wave 6 out of 8? And did I happen to mention that there was only 2 minutes between waves? :mad: I will not revisit my rant, but suffice it to say that I have never in my life swam through so much congestion, had to navigate around so many rescue boats, tasted and smelled fuel from the motor boats (nauseating!), and had enough time for tea and a conversation while stopped trying to get around the lollygaggers at the buoys. Oh, and maybe it's because I don't wear a wetsuit but once or twice a year, but I hated how constricted my chest felt in it. I like to take deep breaths in and out, and boy could I feel the restriction - and my wetsuit is sleeveless, which I would think might help. ?? Any way...in spite of all that 6th wave nonesense, I managed to have a pretty good swim , and was pleased that my swim time was the 6th fastest female behind 5 elite women, all who started in the first wave. (Came in 17th overall in the swim, behind 7 of the elite, first wave males)
11:44

T1...
2:49. Awful. Needs work. What happened?? I haven't a clue. There are a flight of stairs to climb, but everyone climbs them.

Bike....
Just like the swim, I ran into congestion on the bike course immediately upon parking my derriere on The Mad One. Ugh. So I had to be patient and pick through the line of cyclists over and over again, all the while being mindful of not drafting. And I may have been a bit too conservative on the first half of this ride - I didn't utilize my big ring until the second half, which in retrospect was a mistake as there were a few spots early-ish on I could have made gains by dropping into it. Live and learn.
56:48

T2....
1:46. Just copy and paste my remarks about T1 here. Oh, but add that I fumbled with my shoe laces in addition to just being slow, so I will be looking into conventional shoe lace alternatives.

Run....
Not my best performance here. Things started out okay, kept the body nice and relaxed and minded my form....but shortly after the turnaround point my legs were pretty much dead and the fighting spirit was compromised by the knowledge that I had secured my desired finishing place (the benefit (?) of an out and back run). I have always hated this run course - it's hilly and ugly - and this year I think I may have hated it even more than usual. My run time was over a minute slower than last year's time , but I'm hoping that's more a reflection of where I am in my training cycle rather than lack of run fitness.
24:57

Final result....
Top local athlete of the day, 1st female master, 12th woman overall (9 elite women ahead of me), and 52nd athlete overall (male and female).
1:38:02

This was good....a good dress rehearsal complete with highlights and lowlights to hopefully prepare me better for IM Maryland. Oh god....is it really just 4 weeks and 6 days away? I could seriously make my self sick just thinking about it. :eek: <put it out of your mind...put it out of your mind....put it out of your mind. >

Monday, August 18th, 2014

Run plan: 3 miles recovery, am....7 miles easy, pm

Did the first run sneaky lunchtime field style...and it always amazes me how much better the legs feel after a recovery run.

Did the second run post-work field style....and it started out nice and relaxing, but by mile 4 I was dealing with a stitch in my right side. I never get stitches, but this is now my third run in 4 days that I've dealt with a stitch - I had one on Friday's run (the second half of the run - thought it was just a one-time abberation so did not make mention of it then), one on the first mile of the run at yesterday's triathlon (was able to dispel of that by relaxing), and now one today. ??? And what's worse, by my final mile tonight I had a second stitch appear under my left ribcage. ?? So the double whammy. I remember there seemed to be a correlation between getting stitches and low iron for claralara, and it occurred to me that I have not taken my iron tablets in about a month now, so, I guess I'll start taking them again and see if this doesn't solve the problem. Fingers crossed!!!

Actual runs: 3.5 miles, am......7 miles, pm

Two midday housekeeping notes....

A quick check of my hematocrit (oxygen carrying red blood cells) shows it's only 38% (the beauty of having access to medical equipment ), which is on the low end of things, especially considering I am endurance training. So, this is probably contributing to many things I've been uncharacteristically feeling over the last few weeks - including fatigue, struggling with my swimming, and the recent onset of stitches when I'm running. I went back on my iron pills Monday and have made an appointment with a physician to have complete bloods done. This could actually be a good thing.

I got a response from the triathlon race director about my wave inquiry, but it wasn't quit the warm and fuzzy response I was hoping for. In fact, at times it had sarcastic undertones to it, complete with the snippy suggestion that he could just do away with the masters division all together. I'm not sure how I feel about this.....

Kurt Godel wrote: »

...if there was a seasoned but competitive prize, its only fair that all seasoned but competitive's start in the same wave. It's a pain in the ass if your best disciple is swimming, but you're going to have to suck this up if you agree with AG prizes. The alternative is to rank everyone in a wave by swim ability, and do away with AG prizes (it'd be unfair that an AG'er beat a fellow AG'er who had to deal with different levels of congestion). Much as it pains me to say, Tri isn't just about the swim.

Ahhhh....the "same wave for the same prize" argument. Yesyesyes...I am familiar with that one alright. In fact, let me share you my dialog on that very subject.

Race director: For every athlete like you in your age group, there are 25 who want to start later so they don't get run over by the young men.

If we do waves by swim times, people will lie (I know this from Reston) or they just don't know. Plus, it's not fair to someone in your category who starts in weave 8 when you start in wave 1. What if you only beat them by 15 sec? That could be the wave difference.

Dory: Open water swimming events use a rule that you have to prove your swim time from a qualifying event, otherwise you start at the back of the pack. Solves that problem....of course I see other issues with that too.

And I totally agree that for prize purposes in an ideal world everyone vying for the same prize would start in the same wave, but even the way things were done this weekend, that's not the case as the 40-44 year old females were in an earlier wave than me, but we all were still in contention for the same masters award.

Race Director: You're right. Maybe I should do away with Masters award? Or maybe offer a young person's award? Or pull you out from age group and masters for Luray local? Or... Or... Or...

Most triathletes won't be able to prove swim times plus can you imagine the admin headache to verify? That's a day of work!

Dory: Then maybe just make it easy on yourself.....rotate the waves so everyone gets a shot at wave 2 behind the elite/open every few years.

I just don't see why the concept of rotating waves each year so all ages and genders can periodically have some fun at the front with clearer water and less congestion isn't even up for discussion. That's all. Doesn't seem that hard to me. To both stereotype the participants with assumptions and generalizations, plus to not even give the impression that new ideas will be considered has left a bad taste in my mouth. Besides, how does he know we gals wouldn't enjoy being run over by the young men! If they can catch us, that is. :)