Be The Turtle

Kinetic Half Ironman
May 9, 2009

As you read in my last post, this was to be a training day for me, so I didn't worry so much about not drinking alcohol or caffeine the night before or obsessive over every little turn or rise of the course. Instead, I just wanted to put it all together and see how I did in Zone 2.

A bunch of us stayed in a house on the lake with the most amazing deck we've ever seen. However, as you can see, Lara preferred to play with her new helmet.

The race started at 7 am which is kinda early, but considering the weather forecast (temps in the 70s/80s - 21-26 C), I was glad to be starting early. The day was humid thanks to recent rain overnight and everything started steaming as the day warmed up.

SWIM: This was a two loop course which I've never done before, so I just walked down the beach in between loops to prevent my HR from going sky high. The swim went uneventfully until the motor boats also known as Master Clydesdales (the Big Old Guys) passed me by. I did make one discovery: If you don't get in the water initially to "inflate" your wetsuit, then there isn't a nice layer of water in between your skin and wetsuit. So, when you pee while horizontal, the warm pee pools in the small of your back. LOVELY! But actually, it's a major triumph for me to pee horizontally. BTW - if this is grossing you out, stop reading right now. It just gets worse from here on in. 39:39 6/13 in my age group - pretty good for me, though the time isn't much faster than other races.

T1 - WALKED, kept the HR down. 3:08

BIKE: Sigh. I love biking. But I wasn't allowed to go fast. And since I ALWAYS do EVERYTHING I'm told, I doddled along, not worrying about the seemingly hundreds of people who passed me. Actually, I found it easier to stay slow than I thought. My competitive nature never kicked in - I must have internalized that "this is a training day" message pretty well. I did however channel my competitive urges into drinking. Knowing that the temps were going to be hot hot hot for the run, I wanted to front load the liquid on the bike. I also take all my fuel on the bike in liquid form, so in 3.5 hours, I drank about 4-4.5 bottles of liquid - not all that much more than normal, but evidently my bladder panicked and thought that I was practicing some form of internal waterboarding. I lost count of how many times I had to pee. But the good news is that I learned how to do it while on the bike!

Shall I describe it? As a Public Service Announcement, I shall share my secret. Standing up helps ... er ... relax things. And hanging out over the back of the saddle. Thank goodness for the water exchanges so I could rinse things off! I do want everyone to know that I made SURE there was no-one behind me. For the Team Zers that I played leapfrog with, it's because I was slowing down to get some privacy. I hope you appreciate it. You can pay me later. Zone 2 the whole way, although my HR started to drift into Z3 in the last hour. 3:33:12 with a negative split - 15.8 mph (significantly slower than Mooseman last year) 10/13 in my AG.

T2: WALKED to keep HR down. 2:42

RUN: If there is ONE thing I am stoked about with this race is that for the first time in over a year, I didn't say "I can't do an Ironman" in the first mile of the run. I kept it slow and steady on that damn first uphill mile, trying to keep the HR down into Z2. And before I knew it. I was heading downhill and realised that I hadn't had that moment of despair yet. Huh. Waddayaknow.

Boy was it hot though. Since this race was to be as much of a simulation of Placid as possible, I stuck to a ten minute run, one minute walk and carried all my water and fuel with me. I took water and ice at the aid stations to throw over me and carry down my bra (clink clink clink the ice cubes went against my HR monitor strap). Having my water with me really helped and I didn't notice whether the aid stations were well placed or not. They were certainly welcome though, as were the two misting stations we ran through several times. The volunteers were awesome and always hustled to get whatever I called out for.

The run was a three loop course which I thought I'd hate, but it really energized me to run past the cheering masses and the loud heart thumping music pumped me up to go out for the second and third loops. Blow me down, if I didn't feel better on the second loop. And then the third came and I discovered that I actually had energy left! I was comfortable with the rhythm of the run/walk, able to steadily climb the hills (there were long, but gradual - something that really suits me) and let gravity take me down the other side. Seeing all the Team Zers was great - they all had a word of encouragement and with three loops, I saw a heck of a lot of them!

I came pretty jolly close to negative splitting and never really slowed down on my run portions. And, you'll be pleased to know that I DIDN'T need to pee. Not once. Nope. Nada. Bupkiss. So, the lesson was that I over hydrated for the bike, but perfectly hydrated for the run. I stayed mostly in Z2/low Z3 and only hit Z4/5 in the last mile. The last mile was downhill, including a beautiful steep portion through the forest where I was able to put all my Potomac River Running hill training to good use and pass loads of people. 2:17:08 (nearly 20 minutes faster than my best half IM half marathon and only 8 mins slower than my best standalone half marathon). 5/13 in my AG - a position I could never have imagined I'd ever see.

Final time: 6:35:48 - a PR by 3 minutes. 6/13 in my AG. Check out the video to see how excited Mark was!

So ... maybe there is something to this staying in Z2 on the bike and you'll feel better on the run thang. It was a good lesson to learn and I'm glad I learned it ten weeks out from the race. Now I won't worry about hammering the Placid bike course, or feel like a failure if I do less than 15 mph. Nope - my mantra now is Be The Turtle.

Perhaps all the coaches actually know a thing of two. Thanks Ed and Margie!