solar squirrel

I’ve been meaning to give a more detailed recap of the greater cleveland half ironman that I did last week. First of all - the day started EARLY - I had to wake up at 4 am. in order to get there in time to get all of my stuff ready in transition (transition area closed at 6:45). Well, no sooner do I get my bike out of my car then some guy walks by and tells me that they canceled the swim. What? Ugh…darn it. That means it’s not going to be a triathlon! Oh well, can’t blame them that the lake was choppy and they didn’t want us to drown. So I find out that we’re going to do a 1.2 mile run instead, which means that I want to warm up before the start. Scheduled start for the 1/2 iron was moved up to 7:30, so Janet and I decided to do a warmup beforehand. On our way back to the start all of these people start running towards us - but it wasn’t 7:30 yet - so I thought did they just start the guys first? Nope. They started the race early. So Janet and I sprint back to the start and then turn around and run after everyone else. I would guess we were about 3 min. behind at this point. So I get to my bike stuff and there is Steve right next to my stuff - I thought I only had girls next to me, but maybe he squeezed in after I had already had my stuff setup - nope - he just went to the wrong row. Although it sure was funny seeing his giant running shoes sitting there with my stuff. So I get on my bike and Janet flies out of transition ahead of me. I’m thinking - I’ll just try to keep her in site on the bike, because there is no way I’m in as good of biking shape as she is. Then not even 500 ft. out of the transition area there she is off of her bike. I thought she had fallen or something - but no, she got a flat tire already!!! I felt SO bad for her. What a way to start the bike. So I just go off by myself, trying to get into a rhythm. It never happened. The bike was VERY tough for me for some reason. After 30 miles I was just done. I knew exactly how many miles I had to go because I had on my garmin (actually had it on run mode so I was getting an alert every mile…) so I was fully aware of how many more miles I had to go. I was SO tired and not only did my shoulders hurt which always happens on the bike, but my hamstrings were not happy AT ALL. Finally the bike was over at pretty much exactly 56 miles according to Garmin, and I headed back to transition area. I stood there for a few min trying to stretch out my neck and then I switched shoes and headed out for 13.1 miles of bliss!

Why do I look like I’m scared?!?!

Wouldn’t you know it - there was Elizabeth and Melissa out cheering us on. Those girls ROCK. I was pretty tired when I first saw Elizabeth, but I tried to look like I wasn’t. She was cheering and screaming like crazy and I was super happy that she was out there. She ran with me for about 1/2 a mile and then said she would see me later because she was afraid that she would get in trouble for running with me. I said ok, and just tried to keep a pace that didn’t feel like it would kill me. The majority of the race was me trying not to think about the fact that I had to run 13.1 miles. Going from bike to run is NOT EASY. It’s definitely a feeling that you have to get used to, and since I had done a total of 0 brick workouts in preparation for this race, I was NOT used to it. I just kept on trotting along - and then Elizabeth caught up with me and ran with me, which helped me A LOT because she was talking. I can’t really remember all of what she was talking about, but it was nice to have her running with me. It made it easier for sure. I got a side stitch and she walked with me, and was very encouraging the whole time telling me she was impressed that I wasn’t complaining. (I just learned to keep it inside - trust me I was in pain.) We saw Janet and I only had about 3 miles left, so Elizabeth went out with her and I finished up the rest on my own. I think final finish time was 5:04 - OMG - I just checked online and they have posted splits - and how completely AWFUL - because of the early start that Janet and I missed, my first 1.2 miles took me 10:43!!!!! That is absolutely hilarious!!! Janet and I had our garmins on and I think the first mile was ~6:40 for us. Oh well. So I’m going to say that my time was exactly 5 hours for this triathlon.

I look like I’m sleeping - that’s how tired I was…

Looking at my splits - I’m pretty happy with my performance, and no wonder I was in so much pain on the bike - my speed was 18.7 mph! That’s pretty fast for me. I’m also happy with my transition times, which aren’t that great in general, but for me they are good compared to what they usually are (I think at Steelhead one of my transition times was like 7 min…tee hee). So here are my splits (GCT - sorry I complained that you didn’t have splits - I guess it just took you a little longer to post them to your website):

Greater Cleveland Half Iron Triathlon 2008

Run 1.2 miles (swim replacement): 10:43 (really it was probably ~7 min)
T1: 1:39
Bike 56 miles: 2:59:37 / 18.7 mph
T2: 2:17
Run 13.1 miles: 1:50:19 / 8:25 pace

Finish Time: 5:04:35

Here’s a link to the online results.

Now onto some more fun stuff - the Twilight Trail Run! Elizabeth, Melissa, Janet and I all did this one last year and had a complete blast, so of course we decided to do it again. This year Elizabeth and I returned as team Two Trail Freaks confident we would take first.

Two Trail Freaks took FIRST PLACE again, baby!!!! (Yes - that IS sweat.)

Actually, Elizabeth was confident for 1st place, I was a little worried since, oh, you know, she’s WAY faster than me!!! So I was nervous that I would cause us to loose - but not too nervous since Elizabeth was sore from an upper-body workout so if she tried to beat me up I could easily take her. Hahahaha.

We did about 15 min. of warming up and then headed over to the start to watch all the old people go first. (This race is unique in that they do staggered start based on gender and age.) Our team started with the 18-39 women group. I could have started earlier since they had me down as 46 years old - but I decided that would be cheating and started with my real age group. They started us and immediately Elizabeth was out in front - I stayed with her for about 1/4 mile and then settled into a pace that I was able to keep relatively comfortably. The first mile has a nice big hill and Janet caught me on it and passed me (I’m just not good on hills). Once we got to the top I caught her and we stayed with each other the whole time. I was sure she was going to pass me at any moment but I just tried to keep a consistent pace so that I could have my final kick at the end. This race is so awesome because it’s all on the bridal trails at N. Chagrin Reservation. There is one really steep up-hill and several rolling hills with one steep down-hill. The big down-hill is near Squire’s Castle and my toe was killing me as I flew down it - I kept thinking of how lovely my black toe was going to look after this! Janet stayed right on my back the whole time! I was sure I would loose her on the downs because I have gotten pretty good at them, but she was right next to me the entire time pushing me to keep my pace and not slack even though I was getting tired. I knew we were close after Squire’s Castle, because it’s where we warmed up, so I picked it up a little bit - not realizing they were going to make us do a big loop in the grass at the end! I am VERY disappointed that this dumb guy flew past me at the end and I didn’t have anything left to race him. Darn it! If there is one thing that I will not stand for is some guy beating me with only a few hundred feet left in the race and I just didn’t have anything left at that point. Blah. I think my finish time was 37:00 exactly based on garmin, which is a 7:26 pace. I wish I would have been a little faster than that, but at least it’s faster than last year’s time. Janet finished right behind me, maybe one or two seconds behind. It was great that we pushed each other, because I really think I would have slowed down if she wouldn’t have been running with me. Elizabeth is screaming to us from the finish something about ‘I already chugged a beer!!’ So I finish and the guy hands me a beer and I’m like - man do I love this race! In came Melissa and Laura and Bridget and all the rest of our buds. I think Janet even cheered for peanut as Laura was finishing! (Laura is a super fast hard-core runner who is pregnant and she calls the baby ‘peanut’). Todd of course did great and finished in 33 min. probably not even trying to run hard and stopping to gather spiders and walking half of it. (I’m exaggerating here, but it sure seems like he barely tries and still runs super fast!!)

Don’t I look glamorous?! Elizabeth said to take a ‘funny’ pic. too bad I was the only one who posed like a FREAK!

So they did the awards and Two Trail Freaks took FIRST female team! Sweet! We each got a certificate for any pair of Saucony running shoes that we want! How cool is that? This race is awesome. They have a cheap entry ($20); great stuff (headlamp and do-rag); great prizes; great food and beer; great well-marked course; and a great cause. Anyone reading this MUST do this race next year!

Todd took the last brownie but was so kind as to share it with me… OINK - OINK!!

Ok - that wraps up the last two races I have done.  Now it’s time to get serious with my Towpath marathon training.  I want to qualify for Boston!

I know I’ve been kind of slacking when it comes to updating about my training. Towpath training is going pretty well. I have managed (with the help of Bridget) to knock out ALL of my track workouts on schedule and exactly as I am supposed to. I have also managed to get in the pool at least once a week. I guess you could say I have been sort of slacking with my biking, and that may be why the half iron today was so painful (more on that later). But for the most part I have been doing pretty well with my training - running; biking; or swimming every day. Here’s a quick recap of this past week:

Monday: Swim at lunch 40 min.
Tuesday: Track workout -6 x 800 with 200 - 400 Rest interval.
Wednesday: Bike at lunch - ~15 miles.
Thursday: Run at lunch ~7.5 miles
Friday: SLACKED
Saturday: SLACKED - went to Blues and Brews and got a little tipsy w/ Toddykins.

Yea, yesterday was fun…Todd and I went to the annual Blues and Brews at Stan Hywet to taste a whole bunch of beers from all over. Todd did a bit too much tasting (I was tipsy myself - luckily we walked so we didn’t have to worry about driving). He was making me laugh so hard because he was mad at himself for drinking too much and feeling crappy so he just laid on his back on the floor and used his flip-flop as a pillow. It was hilarious!

Today was the Greater Cleveland Triathlon, and sort-of last minute I decided to do it because if you are a member of CTC you got $20 off, so I figured that made up for the dumb $10 USAT fee and the online registration fee. It was still like $170 dollars!!!! For what??!!?? I don’t know what I was thinking because I have only done one half iron distance and that was in 2006 at Steelhead. I didn’t train for this, but I figured what the heck - how hard can it be? WRONG! I’ll explain in more detail later, but the bike was HARD. I guess I’m not in as great of biking shape as I thought I was! Plus, since the water was so choppy, we didn’t even get to swim - instead doing a 1.2 mile run to replace it. (Which Janet and I started late because the freaks who were running the race started it early!!!) All in all it was good, though. I was a little sad because Todd wasn’t there to cheer me on - but Bridget, Melissa, Elizabeth, and Beth were all there which was AWESOME and I didn’t know Janet was doing it either - so I had tons of friends there, which was GREAT! Brian was even there - though when I saw him the first time I was delusional from just getting off the bike and had to ask him which way the run went!! He was there cheering at the 1/2 way point for the run and hopefully I looked a little better. I’ll post details about the race tomorrow - for now you’ll just have to wait!

I’m training for the Towpath Marathon. I want to finish fast enough to qualify for Boston. That means that I have to have a mile pace no slower than 8:24 min-miles. I’m using the FIRST marathon training program and tweaking it a bit based on my triathlon training. (So if I ride 100 miles, I’m not going to do my long run the day before, etc.) I was also informed that I should be running more than 3 days a week, so I decided to tack on another easy day, generally running about 4 miles at a relaxed pace. My off-days are either swimming or cycling; sometimes aerobics class or rollerblading, etc. (or nothing if I’m really being lazy.)

Generally the longer runs (18+ miles) are supposed to be done slower than your planned marathon pace (PMP). This is great, right? You can relax, chit-chat with your running pal about nonesense, look around, say hi to other runners… WRONG. I have found that running 45 seconds slower (and some of the runs even allow for 60 seconds slower!!!) than my ‘planned marathon pace’ is outright excruciating.  My legs can’t take it - it’s like torture for them for some reason!  Is that the point????  Am I supposed to be in so much pain from running slower?  Today, as an experiment for my 20-miler I decided to just run whatever pace felt comfortable.  Wouldn’t you know it it was 8:22.  Very consistently 8:22.  My slowest mile was 8:50 and my fastest was 8:11, but overall I was at a pretty consistent pace.  I felt comfortable pretty much the whole time with the exception of when I ran out of Heed (yep - I am drinking Heed now - I think you actually acquire a taste for the stuff after a while!!!) 3 miles away from my jug that I had hidden behind a rock off of the towpath.  Now - is this bad?  Am I going to negate my training because I am not going slow enough?  I just can’t imagine running over a 9-min mile for 20 miles.  I get into this nice rhythm around 8:30 pace.  I feel like I can keep that pace very easily.  Can I use that as my long run pace since it’s comfortable for me? (Going slower if I need to.)  Or is the point of the added time to make you suffer and have bad leg pain to make you used to being on your feet longer…PLEASE my running friends - I need advice!!!

For the time being I’m just going to stick to the training schedule but modify my long runs to be at a pace that is comfortable for me, and if that pace is way faster than 45 seconds over my planned pace then I don’t care.

In other news - yesterday was the 2nd Annual 100 mile Burning River ultra race.  I volunteered at E-Speed’s incredibly well organized aid station that the runners went through at miles 56 and 60.6 at Boston Store.  Huge congratulations to ALL of the runners - especially Melissa T., Dawn M., and Steve Hawthorn.  Steve - I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!!  YOU ARE SO HARD CORE!!!!!!