Rev3 Knoxville 70.3 (a couple months late)

**I kind of started this months ago and completely forgot to post it, oops**

I could also name this post "So much biking I wanted to break up with Triathlon", or "Ever Changing Terrain, Tennessee must hate its roads because they're terrible".  With the road conditions aside, this course was rough.  There was a lot of climbing, which was fine, but there were a lot more flats and twisty-turny shenanigans than I remembered driving when we checked out the course.  So let's get this started:

Packet Pick-up/Expo:

Rev3 has a lot of cool things to look at, but they are way over priced and not that spectacular in the long run.  I did almost buy a pair of bike shoes but they only had 4 pairs there and they were all too big for me, sooo no bike shoes.  The goodie bag left much to be desired, and it's kind of disappointing since they're trying to compete with the Ironman brand and cost the same.  They are a lot more efficient in getting you your items and making the pick up process nice and smooth.  The volunteers are all really awesome and nice as well, that's a big bonus.

Race Day:

Nice pre race photo

Swim:

Hopping like penguins into the river.

We had to swim upstream in the Tennessee River for about a quarter to a third of a mile, I didn't really notice a current so it wasn't that bad.  Then we turned down stream for the rest of our swim and had to jump like penguins onto a low dock and attempt to run up the ramp.  The swim was uneventful outside of I thought a guy died about 500 yards into the race.  I saw him floating as I was swimming past and I actually stopped to check on him because his face was barely above water, but when I checked on him he was fine just a really bad swimmer and decided to float/swim on his back the whole way.  Awkward.  It was kind of hard to sight since there were no real landmarks to go off of, but the water wasn't freezing and my new full wetsuit kept me nice and toasty!  The whole jumping onto the low dock was mildly entertaining.  I fell back into the water twice before the volunteers realized they needed to help push us forward after we jumped up.  Oh!  And our swim time didn't stop until we were off the dock and almost all the way back to transition, so I was grumpy my swim time said 39 minutes, which is stupid slow, considering I forever trying to get out of the water and head up the transition ramp.  Meh.

Post penguin hop onto the dock

Bike:

Finally over the "mount here" line

The temperature was quite chilly, I think mid 50s, by the time we got onto our bikes.  I brought arm warmers and debated about putting them on, but I wasn't so cold that I was going to miserable without them.  I decided to save time and just go without them and after the first 5 miles of the bike I was plenty warm and didn't need them.  My hands were really cold, but the rest of me was fine.  Now, holy climbing.  I can climb really well, I like climbing, and I kind of wish the entire thing was climbing because I would win :P.  There were a lot of rough roads getting us to the first climb, and those were less than stellar to navigate when you're still getting feeling in your body.  There was one unfortunate soul who decided to start walking her bike up the hills about a quarter mile up the first hill.  I was joking with a guy who was also riding a Felt B16 (my bike), about how if we combined our powers we would be completely unstoppable.  I zoomed past him going up hills, but he decimated me going down hill and on flats.  That's pretty much how the entire race went for all 56 miles.  People would fly past me on downhills and flats, then come to almost a complete stop on hills which is where I would catch them and pass them again.  Rinse and repeat the whole bike portion of the race.  There was one hill at the very end of the bike (incredibly rude) that was more like a wall than a hill.  It was only about 20-30 yards long but it felt as if it was straight up.  The Police officer who was directing traffic for us was doing her best to coax and cheer us up this hill because we were all dying.  There were a lot of weird sounds coming from people as we grunted and groaned heading back into T2.

Showing Red my timing chip because he couldn't find me on the course at all, so he thought I lost it.

Run:

Coming into the finish!

Umm...death.  That's pretty much how I felt for the first 4 miles of the run.  I knew I was mildly dehydrated from the bike because even though I drank 2 bottles of my water/skratch mix, the roads were hard to navigate and drink properly so I was in a mini-hole.  I was also in a nutritional hole because the hills required a lot more energy than I originally planned for, so I ate all of my nutrition, including my back up, and was still out.  But it was ok.  I plodded along the first few miles and as the water, ice, gels, and coke migrated into my system to cool me down and fuel me I started to feel much better.  My shins still did this weird crampy thing where they didn't want to cooperate and my feet were slapping the pavement something fierce, but after walking the first aid station they started to get better.  My legs felt a lot better when I would walk each aid station instead of try to push through each one.  The run course was really pretty, we ran through their green way system of bike paths and into a neighborhood for Sequoyah park (sp) where there are some very fancy houses and beautiful cottage looking houses.  The volunteers were all really nice in the run, but they were a little confused.  They had loads of ice bags just hanging out at their stations, so I assumed I could ask for some ice and they would be like "oh sure! We already have a few cups of ice waiting", that wasn't the case but they were quick to fill a cup for me so it worked out in the end.  One poor guy didn't realize that I didn't want to eat the ice and about had a heart attack when I started pouring it down my shirt and down my shorts.  That is the fastest and most effective way to cool off when you're over heating.  I've done it for nearly every tri I've raced in the last 2 years and I am positive it is why my runs are stronger as I go instead of getting worse as I go.  By mile 5/6 I was feeling MUCH better and was more worried about getting the guy in front of me who CLEARLY didn't want to be chicked than I was in the beginning of the race.  In the beginning of the run I sincerely debated about stopping and go "nope, I quit", but my body was on autopilot and I'm stubborn, so I kept going.  I started chasing this guy who didn't mind if other guys passed him, but whenever I would catch up to him he would start going faster only to have to walk after a little ways.  Fortunately for me I was feeling better as the run went on and I eventually passed him and he couldn't keep up.

I ended up 4th in my age group with a 6:31 for a 70.3.  To put this into perspective, in Muncie last year I ended up 17th with a 5:45 for the same distance but a flat course.  I need to work on my flat speed and cornering, but I'm getting there.  It was quite annoying to look down and see that I was going 23mph on a flat road and not gain on ANYONE.  It's only May and my main half is in July (Muncie) and my BIG race is in September.  We'll see how everything goes!

Back to my rest day then I get going again tomorrow! :D

Post Pig/Pre Rev3 Knoxville

My first tri of the season is coming up in less than ten days.  That is slightly frightening but mostly exciting!  Ohio is not known for its fantastic weather, and is certainly not conducive to training for an early May triathlon.  But for some reason I decided that May was a good time to go out and start my race season.

I got my new wetsuit last week and already tried it out.  The really good part is that every part of me that was covered by cap, goggles, or wetsuit was perfectly warm and happy.  It was the other 3% of my body that was uncovered that was FREEZING.  Caesar Creek isn't exactly warm in the summer, but early to late spring meant absolutely frigid water.  The air temp was decent, but that water made my feet hurt since it was so cold.  I ended up swimming about a half mile in an attempt to get used to my new suit.  I decided that yep, it works just like my sleeveless but covers my arms, it didn't seem to kill my neck, and my feet were super cold, therefore I'm getting out.  That was good enough for me!  I'm hoping to get back up to Caesars this weekend and make another attempt to swim on Sunday.  I think the weatherman is tired of being wrong by attempting to guess correctly anymore, so he's just saying it's supposed to storm from now until July.  The 10-Day forecast shows storms every day from today until next Saturday, but if you look at the percentages, some of them are as low as 10% chance of rain/storms.  Whatever floats his boat.  I'm just hoping to get some more open water swim practice because I sincerely miss having my lane lines, black line on the bottom, walls for flip turns, and big plus signs at the ends to keep myself going straight and not have to worry about wandering around like a snake.

My Zo pup waiting for me to throw her ball.

Wandering into the effing cold water to start my swim.  

I wanted to make the table festive, so I decided to buy flowers for the table :)

Outside of that I've just been working and training.  Ali and I finished in 1:55:18 for the Half Marathon this past weekend.  Our half way point pace was 9:09/mile, we finished with an 8:49/mile pace overall.  The weather was quite nice, not too hot, not too cold, and the sun wasn't trying to bake us this year like it has in years before.  

Training this week: 

Sunday: Flying Pig Half Marathon, Caesar Creek swim

Monday: 43 mile bike ride

Tuesday: Lifting, 6 mile run (really only ran 5 miles and I walked the 6th mile)

Wednesday: 2000m swim

Thursday: heading out for a 5.5 mile run

Planned for Friday: 75 min bike and a 2200 swim

Planned for Saturday: Rest

Planned for Sunday: 1 hr run + open water swim (weather permitting)  Happy Mother's Day!  Mom is coming down to visit that afternoon, so I'll be up early getting everything else in :)

Update with pictures and some words

So I just realized that I haven't blogged in over a month.  I've been pretty preoccupied and also haven't had that much to actually blog about.  I've been training, working, training, working, and oh yeah...training.  I did get to hang out with my cousins for their birthdays.

Dave let it "slip" that it was Kiley's birthday when we went to the Dayton Dragon's game, so all the entertaining people and Gem gathered around Kiley and sang to her!

The birthday girl!

It's FINALLY getting nice enough to sit outside and relax, whenever I have time.

My new wetsuit came yesterday, so I'll be able to get some open water swimming in since it's all been inside lap swimming.

My beautiful puppy dog hanging out after playing some frisbee.

Red bought a Wahoo Fitness Trainer with his tax return.  It's quite useful.  This was my ride a while back, so I kind of wonder what I can do now :)

I used to love Asics shoes, but the last couple of years they have been changing their designs and they just aren't comfy any more.  I ran in Mizuno all last season and did great.  I changed back to Asics for a little while this year (you can see my Asic Noosa Tris in the bottom left of the pic) and ended up with foot pain and I couldn't get it to go away.  I switched back to Mizuno and my problems have gone away.  The pink ones are the Sayonaras and will be my race shoes, the green ones are the riders and will be my distance shoes.  

That's pretty much all I've been up to!  I have the Flying Pig Half Marathon tomorrow morning, high of 70, 40% chance of rain, and a morning low of 48 for the start.  It's kind of chilly but not terrible.  Two weeks after that I'll be down in Knoxville, TN for the first tri of the season.  Rev 3 Knoxville 70.3 is May 18th.  

Outside of that I've been dealing with not having my Grandma to talk to on a regular basis, seeing constant reminders of how much she cared about us, and loving that the hostas she gave me are growing just fine.  I had a bad day at work the other day and really wanted to talk to her.  I was less than happy but I could hear her clear as day say "I'm so proud of you sweetie, you're doing great and I'm glad you've found this job.  I'm very proud of you, I'm proud of all my grandkids, but you're doing great and it's all going to be ok".  That's it!  It's all going to be ok.  Tomorrow I'll run with a good friend, get to try out my new wetsuit after the race, and just enjoy some sunshine in general.

Go train happy!

Beulah M. Davie

Beulah M. Davie: Grandmother, Mother, Daughter, Aunt, Sister, Wife, care giver, warm lap, caring arms, soft words, encourager, strength, inspiration, supporter, believer, gathering point, fun creator, and confidant.  She will be gone in body, but will be with us forever watching over us.

As many of you now know, Grandma passed away last Tuesday evening.  She was surrounded by family nonstop for the previous few days before her passing.  I am upset that she is gone, but I am grateful that she did not have to suffer many of the things she hated in the last little bit.  The previous weekend I went up to visit Grandma and she was doing really well!  She was able to walk wherever she wanted to in the house, cheer for OSU Basketball, and carry on full conversations.  The next weekend my sister was up with her and said there was a noticeable decline.  Sam went home Sunday evening.  My mom called Monday morning because the decline was very severe.  Mom called and asked how quickly I could get up there, so I packed my bags and flew home to Bellefontaine.  I text Sam and she quickly packed and came back to Grandma's.  We had cousins helping, mom, each other, and neighbors helping out.

Monday morning Grandma was able to stand up and sort of walk.  Monday afternoon she could barely stand.  Monday night, standing wasn't a thing and sitting up was barely a thing.  Tuesday, no sitting up on her own.  It sounds terrible, and it was terrible, but I feel that being there with her the whole time has helped me understand that her being gone is a "good" thing.  It's not a good thing in the traditional sense, but it is a good thing in the face that she was completely miserable and never wanted to live like that for an extended period of time.  We all knew Grandma was an active person, a strong willed person, and a phenomenal person.  As much as we didn't want Grandma to go, we didn't want her to suffer either.  So she's gone, and we're all left with a gaping hole in our lives.  Mom pointed it out best as to how Grandma really was our guide for everything.  I would call Grandma if I was lost in a different city, I would even call her if I lost my keys.  I would call Grandma for everything.  Now I can't call.

This was a very hard realization to come to, but it has been made easier because I'm surrounded by people who care.  I am blessed to have family, friends, co-workers, a very understanding husband, and extended family who will all take care of each other.  I have some relief in knowing that if I needed to call and talk to someone that I have a long list of people that I can reach out to who would be willing to listen.  I am aware that not everyone has this luxury, and that is very unfortunate.  I am also comforted by something I read the day/morning after Grandma passed.

I get emails from Proverbs 31 Ministries, and the one I received on Wednesday morning was incredibly fitting.  It was "Jesus Mourns with You".   It was from John 11:35 talking about how Jesus wept and knows the pain that we're feeling.  I had argued with God the night of Grandma's passing, talking about how if He is such a God of compassion, why would He allow someone who has done no wrong to suffer so much.  Why would He have someone who has taken care of anyone who came to her, went to church her whole life, and gave no matter how much or little she had at the moment go through cancer/treatments/pain.  It was probably a discussion that most people wouldn't associate with "praying", but it was how I honestly felt.  That night when Grandma was feeling so miserable, couldn't talk, and was in incredible pain (she asked for morphine, which she didn't even like Tylenol before, so morphine was a HUGE deal) I was praying/arguing about her not making it through the night because she was so miserable.  We had probably 30 people in the house throughout Tuesday, after all the kids left, Phil left, and the house quieted down, she passed in peace.  She passed with Sam, Shawn, my mom, and myself by her side (Dave was on his way back).  We were all able to tell her how much we loved her, that she was our inspiration, and that we would all be ok, because she raised us to take care of each other.  That next morning I was reminded that Jesus wept and feels our pain.  I needed that reassurance, because everything leading up to that point was making it seem very much like we were fighting a battle that we would never win, all on our own.

Beulah M. Davie: Grandmother, Mother, Daughter, Aunt, Sister, Wife, care giver, warm lap, caring arms, soft words, encourager, strength, inspiration, supporter, believer, gathering point, fun creator, and confidant.  She will be gone in body, but will be with us forever watching over us.

Cells can be jerks

Sometimes you have to realize that there are things going on in your life that you simply just cannot fix. I've known this for a while but this really became true after talking to Grandma tonight.  I'm still processing a lot of things, like how she sounds so different sometimes on the phone, how she is almost always out of breath anymore, and how she has ever increasing difficulty just doing simple things that never used to phase her.  The voice I'm used to hearing on the phone and the voice actually on the other end of the line don't match up anymore. There were more days than not that she would sound more like herself, but those days are becoming increasingly fewer.  

How do I deal with it? Well, apparently I'm a great impersonator for grandma.  I can say things just like her and it cracks up my mom.  I run a lot. I am in the middle of Ironman training which helps keep me sane.  I work with a lot of really good people who know what's going on and have already told me that regardless of short notice or anything they can help me cover whatever I need with my clients.  I don't have to worry about gaining and "occurrence" like I have at other jobs for family emergencies.  If something happens I just have to say I need to go and it's all taken care of.  That is a huge stress relief.  Outside of that I pretty much just realize there are few things that I can control, so I control them the best I can. I can't control much else from that.  When I get to see my grandma I just appreciate the time I have, reminisce with her, and make new memories.  She loves making over my Zoey puppy, and Zoey loves grandma, so that's fun to watch.  There are a lot of times that I juts take in that weekend, dinner, moment, whatever and enjoy it.  That's about all that you can do.  All because one cell decided to be a little pain in the ass and get his receptors all out of joint and not recognize cell growth inhibitors.  Then he squished other cells, multiplied with a vengeance, and decided to not be receptive to any of the treatments that should have killed him and his million and one friends dead.  Humph. Little jerk.  (I realize this is a gross over simplification of cancer, but it gets the point across)

And We're Off!

The 2014 Race season is about to officially begin!  Felix (my bike) has been spending more time in the living room, enjoying some good quality TV time, a little more sweat than he's used to, and A LOT of post-it-notes stuck to him.  I feel a lot better when I can organize my training and racing life, and post-its certainly help on that end.  I have colors for different training days, my races are signed up for and posted, and my rest days are left noticeably blank.  Yesterday I officially registered for my two Half Marathons coming up this spring, I have a Half Ironman figured out, and IRONMAN WISCONSIN training is a full go.   I realize it's only March, but seriously, I'm going to go 140.6 miles in September, non-stop, as fast as I can...training now sounds really good.

My Calendar for March:

Blues are swims, Pinks are speed/track work, greens are bikes, red numbers are runs.  Wednesdays are blank but there is an "optional" 1000m swim each Wednesday just to get another swim on the board, but nothing ridiculous since it's supposed to be an active recovery day.

Half Marathon Xenia - April 6th

Flying Pig Half Marathon - May 4th

Rev3 Knoxville 70.3 - May 18th

Ironman Muncie 70.3 - July 12

Ironman Wisconsin 140.6 - September 7th

I'm looking to add a couple of either sprint or olympic distances in here because they'll help with building speed, plus they're fun!

Ok, off to swim again! :D

Eating Disorders, Athletes, and Gyms

So I guess that I missed the boat a tiny bit as last week was "Eating Disorder Awareness Week."  It's still important, and some how eating disorders became the topic of the day with my clients, completely unprovoked, they just all had something to say.  Some people think that eating disorders are things that only affects those who are trying to lose weight, look a certain way, or have an incredible urge to be "skinny".  There is truth behind this thought process, but at the same time this is a strong misconception.  Someone who is very overweight can have an eating disorder, just like someone who is severely underweight.  Athletes can even have an eating disorder.

I've noticed that some athletes become almost obsessed with how much they eat between workouts, on the bike, before lifting, on off days, after swims, the list goes on and on.  I was able to study a little bit about eating disorders in school, but it didn't hit home until I get to encounter it every day.  The worst part is that some "fitness professionals" encourage this behavior thinking that the athlete is being diligent.  There is a fine line between being well informed and keeping track of your food to take the best care of your body possible, and then there's obsessive and being dangerous.  I have discovered that a lot of women, and a surprising amount of men, will count their calories to oblivion and still wonder why they aren't making progress.  Your body requires good calories.  Strong calories.  Being "vegan" and only eating lettuce and berries will not give you the look of:

Now, you most certainly can be "Vegan" and still obtain this image, but you're going to have to be creative with your protein sources, calorie dense foods, and getting enough calories in the day on top of your working out.  I fortunately? unfortunately? get to talk to a lot of people every day, and they all want to talk about food at one point or another.  I had a very sweet gal talk to me about getting in shape.  She wanted to know how much she would need to work out, eat, lift, run, etc.  Her goal was to lose another 5lbs so that she could "look like me", I weighed her in and she was 100lbs, 5' 2", 17% Body Fat.  She was tiny.

The big misconception here was that she thought the way to get the lean and defined look was to keep losing weight.  She was well on her way to looking like a short runway model with absolutely no body fat or muscle tone.  I asked how many calories she ate per day and how often she worked out and we both about fell over with each others responses.  She worked out, doing cardio of form, for a minimum of 2 hours per day, she only ate between 1000-1200 calories per day.  This is the reason she's so tiny and has no muscle.  Strength training isn't in her repertoire and she's not eating enough for her body to repair itself even if she was lifting weights.  She would end up injured.

The biggest problem with Eating Disorders is that there isn't a lot of reasoning you can do with them because they are a mental disorder of form.  In her head she still had a mental image of someone who was overweight and wanted to get smaller.  The body image that she wanted to obtain, mentally, meant that she was going to have to lose weight.  Athletes do the same thing, they want to look a certain way, perform a certain way, and have a certain body image.  There is some truth in getting to "Race weight", but it's still a healthy weight.

When you're talking about getting to race weight, you want to be as light as you can be while still being as strong as you can be, you want a good power to weight ratio.  It does no good to be stick thin and look like an Ethiopian as a triathlete because then you don't have the arms to swim, or the legs to bike, you just have the tiny body to run.  That won't work out too well with anything longer than a sprint distance.

Just think about this, if you're not fueling your body correctly, or with enough calories, then your body is going to suffer.  Your mental health is going to suffer.  Your friends/family/supporters are going to suffer because you'll be miserable to be around.  There isn't a magic number that we can slap on someone and say "yes, this is exactly how much of x, y, and z that you need to eat and you'll be perfect", it doesn't work that way.  Very few people believe that in early training right now, I'm eating about 2200 calories a day.  That may not sound like a lot, but  I'm also 4' 11" and 103# training about 10 hours a week (give or take a couple of hours).  When Ironman season is in full swing later this summer, I bet I'll double that number and still weigh the same just because of the demand I'll put on my body.  If you're training hard and getting injured, not healing, and feel like you hate the world.  Look at how much you're putting your body through and how you're feeding it.  If you're dropping weight like crazy and are miserable, then it's time to reevaluate your nutrition and get on track to a stronger, healthier body.