Georgia Games Open Water Swim

This week was the last recovery week before we did two other long 100/ 110 mile rides and 17/19 mile runs again in the next two weeks. The word recovery was a little deceiving, we still had 65 mile ride and 10 mile run on the weekend. I did have one weight session instead of two. I got a day off, instead of another swim. Woohoo! The timing was perfect too since I was in training at work, so the busy week at the office made up for the hours spent less in the gym. I took a day off on Friday to ride 65 miles. The weather wasn't as hot as the prior two weeks but it was very humid. After the ride, I was planning to check my work emails, but I was so tired. I took a shower, ate and slept. Funny that I felt I was more tired during recovery week when I worked out less.

The next morning was the Georgia Games open water swim at Lake Acworth. I signed up for the 3K distance, 1.9 miles. I was debating whether I should sign up for the 1K also. I heard that the distance was actually much longer than 1.9 miles last year. I believe that after I checked last year's swim results for some of the people that I knew. I emailed the race director if the markers were going to be placed in the same places as last year. In another word, was the 3K really 1.9 miles? She said the buoys were going to be at the same place at last year. I was game for the 3K swim only.

I carpooled with Karen and Regina. We met up at Cracker Barrel at I75 North. Once we were in Acworth, I recognized the streets, I ran there for my first sprint triathlon in 2008. The swim wasn't at the same place, but I bet it was really close. We registered around 9:15AM. Mike, Karen's coach, just got done swimming the 5K. I heard that the 5K distance was a little short. At the race briefing, I found out that there were only 4 yellow buoys on the course. I could see all of them from the start. It didn't look too bad. I did a really quick warm up for a couple of minutes.

We started at 10AM. The start was pretty peaceful. I touched somebody's feet once or twice and that was it. No body contact after that. Even though the first buoy was far but it was easy to sight. I breathed bilaterally and sighted every 10 strokes or so. The second buoy was a little hard to see after the first turn. Actually I didn't see it at all. I was just sighting at the kayak. After a while, I could see not only the second but also the third buoys. Going to the second buoy, I saw a few people in front of me and around me, but it felt very lonely. I swam by myself. It didn't bother me even though it was better if I saw people. The water was pretty warm, low to mid 80's. I wore my speed skin. I liked it being more covered.

When I got to the third buoy, I was pretty close to the bridge. I could see cars when I was breathing on my left. The sun came out and suddenly, it was too bright and I didn't wear tinted goggles. After a while, I was bored, I wasn't tired but just bored. I started thinking about the distance. 1.9 miles. It took less than 10 minutes to ride it and less than 20 minutes to run it. Why did it take so long to swim it? It was ridiculous. As I swimming to the last buoy, I noticed every time I lifted up my head to sight, I felt unpleasant feeling on the back of my neck, by the hairline. Shoot! I didn't put body glide there.

I was happy to circle the last buoy but swimming back to the start (or finish) was a little tricky because there was no big buoy or finish chute. Plus I was swimming along the land and I couldn't see the start. There were some orange buoys at the start, so those were what I used to sight. I breast stroked several times because I felt I was closer to the finish but still I couldn't see it. Finally I saw the finish and swam until my hand touched the bottom. I looked at my watch, 1:02. It was a good time, I thought.

Overall it was a good swim. I didn't feel tired. I could really go the full IM distance which was 2.4 miles. I accomplished my goal, which was to know how it felt swimming continuously. It felt strong. I'm ready!

Another long training weekend

We have another big training this weekend. Century ride on Saturday and 19 mile run on Sunday. The weekday stuff was pretty much the same. The only different was the swim, it was longer. Monday was 4000 yards and Friday was 4200 yards. Friday's mainset was 6 X 500 with 30 second rest. That's a lot of swimming, plus I had to time myself. I didn't normally wear a watch but since I had to time it, I started looking for my watch. I couldn't find it. It drove me crazy when I misplaced something. Finally I found it in the bathroom's drawer that I already looked twice before. I didn't understand why I didn't see it there the first two times.

This IM training started to get to me. I was tired not all the time but almost all the time. I went to bed at 8PM like a 7 year old in order to get up at 4:30AM and start working out at 5:30AM. Weekdays were relatively easy. I worked out for 1.5 to 2 hours. Piece of cake. Weekends were a different story. After I got home on Friday, I started getting the biking stuff ready, made sure I had everything packed. I mixed my bottles and put them in the fridge. I laid out my bike jersey, shorts, arm sleeves, calf compression and socks. I put shorts and shirt to change after the ride in another bag and packed post ride recovery food and drink. This Saturday I had to get up at 4AM because I was meeting with Karen, Lauren and Beth for 6:30AM start time. They are training for IM Louisville which is on the same day as IM Canada. I don't envy their race because it could be hot and humid, plus no offense, it's Louisville, not as pretty as Penticton, British Columbia. But I was jealous of one thing. Mike Reilley, the voice of Ironman, will be in Louisville. I wanted to hear him say "Monika Nelwan, you're an Ironman..." when I crossed the finish, but he probably butchered my name anyway, so did it really matter? I decided to join them because my usual training partners were going to start at 7:15AM. When the temp was going to climb to 96F, I opted to start as early as possible. The two groups were riding at Silk Sheets, so I was pretty sure I was going to see them.

I got to the park at 6AM. It was still dark and I saw a deer crossing the street a few miles from the park. I got my stuff ready and it started raining... really raining? It wasn't in the forecast, well just 30% chance. Anything less than 50% didn't count but this one did. It rained for 15-20 minutes and stopped. We all had to ride 100 miles. The plan was to ride the 31 mile loop 3 times. The second one, just to add some excitement, was going to ride the loop in reverse, and also since we were still short 7 miles, we needed to add a short stretch on the second loop. The goal for me was to ride steady and stop as little as possible, that was why we hid a cooler for our bottles by the park. That way we could stop really quick and got refilled after each loop.

I started riding slow, maybe a little too slow. After 10 miles, I picked up my pace a bit. I carefully planned my calories, so I wouldn't bonk like the last 80 mile ride at Silk Sheets. I had to finish 2 bottles each loop, plus eat an Apple Pie bonk breaker. If I couldn't finish two bottles, I had to add gels. I saw a deer again crossing a field. That made me nervous. I always remembered about Matt Lauer, the Today's show host, that got into a biking accident because he was trying to avoid a deer. I pretty much rode by myself the whole ride. I rode with Beth and Jim a little bit but that was it. I finished the first loop and saw Katie and Beth a few minutes later. Katie and her husband, Carlos, were kind enough to SAG for us. I didn't think I would need anything but it was nice to see people that I knew. It was for safety reason also.

Deer in Georgia need to be trained like this one

I rode the second loop backward. It was funny that the back to back hills on the second part of the course were now easier. Some stretches that looked flat were harder. I saw a Bambie on the side of the street. It got hit by a car. Sad. When I was riding the 7 mile stretch, I saw Sarah, Eric and Susan. They rode the upper loop twice. I saw Karen on the side of the street stretching. She said she was fine when I asked her if she was okay. I got back to the park at mile 69. It was perfect to ride the third loop to round up the century distance. The temperature was getting hotter. I chatted a bit with Ellen, who was sagging also, Katie and Carlos. I wish I could've stayed with them and forgot about the last loop. In mind, I broke out the last 31 miles by turns. From the park, the first goal was to ride to the Cedar Grove intersection, Rico store, Jim Starr, the Fire house, and the green roof top farm house. It helped mentally. With 15 miles left to go, I felt so excited. My legs were fine. I felt pretty good. Nothing was hurting. I started doing the countdown with 10 miles to go. I got back safely to the park. I was so thankful for a safe and not so painful ride. I felt great, maybe because it was the adrenaline too, that thought I could really ride 12 more miles to get to the race distance. I racked my bike and got a water bottle to take for the 20 minute transition run. I froze the bottle the night before and it was really nice to sip iced water during the run. I poured half of it on my head.

After I was done with the run, I stayed with Katie and Ellen while stretching, hydrating and eating. It was a little cloudy so it wasn't as hot as before. I found out that Karen had a problem with her back and leg. It sounded like a pinched nerve. Susan later came in and just wiped out. Her HR was high and she felt no power on her legs. Richard, who joined us on the second loop, couldn't control his HR. It was a rough day for these guys. I hung around a bit and drove home. I had to get ready for tomorrow's run.

I woke up around 5AM and got ready. I left the house an hour later. I drove to Riverside Park, my usual place to start the run. The GA 400 ride was also on the same day. I would have some companies as I was running on Riverside and Eves. The first 5 miles were pretty easy. Around mile 10, after running on the hills on Eves, suddenly I felt no power on my left leg. It was weird. No cramps or pain. The power just went out. I kept running but I knew I changed my gait since I was dragging my leg a little bit. I stopped and stretched my calf. I didn't know what was wrong. It was so weird. I tried to run again and still had the same problem. I went to an empty parking lot. I laid on my back and stretched my hips and glutes. My logic was the hips and glutes power the legs to run. If there was something that caused this, it would have been this area. It didn't feel extremely tight or painful. Nothing was alarming. I decided to run again. This time it felt much better. After a mile or so, it felt normal again. Whew.

The last 3 miles of the run were hard. I just wanted to be over so bad. The schedule said 3 hours or 19 miles. I couldn't finish 19 miles within 3 hours. I thought I may end up with a quarter mile short by the time I got to my car. Normally I would circle the parking lot a few times to make up the difference but I wasn't planning to do that today. I didn't care. I was over it. Miraculously my Garmin showed exactly 19.0 miles two feet away from my car. I couldn't be more than happier. So ready for the last recovery week next week!

What? Still 3 miles to go?

Hotlanta

I moved to Atlanta in 2006. I had hot humid summer for several years now but nothing was like this weekend. It was a record breaking week for Atlanta and other parts of the country. The high of the day would be 105, with heat index 108 on Saturday. I had 95 mile ride on Saturday and 18 mile run on Sunday. Nice! I started planning my nutrition since Thursday. Mary sent an email to all her coached athletes on Friday. The summary of the email was listen to your body, don't do anything stupid (as far as focusing on the distance and ignoring what your body was telling you), hydrate and hydrate.

Real pic from the zoo. Even the polar bears felt the heat.

I met up with Eric and Sarah at the Sosebee bike park at 7AM. The plan was to ride the 66 mile route and 31 mile route. We were going to take a little shortcut in the beginning so at the end, the total miles were close to 95. My plan for the first loop was to stay conservative and stick with Sarah and Eric. I've been riding with them long enough to know what they were steady cyclists. It may feel a little slow in the beginning but that was fine, especially for a day like this. The first few miles were great. The temperature was perfect. I felt a little breeze. It was crazy to know that it would be 30F warmer 4 hours later. I felt great throughout the ride, didn't push hard, took it easy on hills and drank a lot. The last 5 miles of the ride, Eric dropped his bottle and I continued riding. I got to the park and they weren't behind me. I rode back and found them on the side of the road. Eric had a slow leak. He was changing his rear tire. I sat underneath a tree and felt comfortable. at one point, I thought I could nap there. The tire changing took much longer than anticipated. We decided to put some air in it and rode back to the park, which was just a couple miles away.

After a couple times of trial and error, we found out that the problem was on the tire itself, not the tube. Using a dollar bill or a Powerbar wrapper was his best bet, hoping it was going to be good enough for 31 miles. At this point, it had been over one hour since I stopped. By the time he was done fixing the tire, we would start riding again at 1PM. I checked the temp on my iPhone, 105F by 3PM. I didn't know what to do. Should I call it a day? go home and ride 1.5 hours on the the trainer? It would be stupid to wait and ride 31 miles in this kind of condition. That was assuming we wouldn't have more tire issues.

I called Mary and explained the situation. She said, just call it a day. 65 miles were good enough for today's ride. Go home, hydrate, and get ready for tomorrow's run. Even though it was hard not to finish and felt like a failure a little bit, I knew that was absolutely the right thing to do. I told Eric and Sarah that I was leaving. I didn't ask them what they were going to do. It was their own decision.

I got home and slept for 9+ hours that night. I was shooting for 6AM start time. I got to the Riverside park at 6:15AM. My plan was to run 6 miles on the trail toward Willeo and back to the car, and then run 12 miles on the loop that I created. I had never done it so it was a little bit exciting. From the park, ran to Eves, Scott passing the Centenial High School, then to Nesbit Ferry, turn to Old Alabama, back to the park. For sure it was hilly, but I felt good, just came out of recovery week last week and had a shorter ride yesterday. Canada course was hilly anyway, so I had to get out there and tackle the hills on the training.

I hit Mile 12 at the Shell station on Holcomb Bridge. I refilled my bottle with Coke. I love Coke on the run course. The sugar and caffeine helped. The last few miles were hot and I was the sidewalk with hardly any shades. When I was on the trail again, my Garmin said 17.4 miles. I finished strong for the last .6 mile. I stopped exactly at 18 miles even though I was a half a mile from the car. I did my cool down and walked back to the car. It was a solid run. 18 miles at 9:41 pace.

Tri for the Shelter, Rome

This week was a recovery week but it wasn't totally relaxing because I had Olympic distance tri on Saturday. Our group was split. Susan was going to do Eleven Lake Oconnee tri. The rest of us signed up for Tri for the Shelter in Rome. I would have done Lake Oconnee but it was so expensive. $60 more expensive than the Rome tri. Plus it was half an hour further than Rome. The race started at 7:30AM but the transition opened at 6AM. I went to Eric's house to carpool at 4:15AM. Super early. Funny when I got there, I saw Eric and Sarah wore the Up the Creek without a Pedal shirts. I did too. Great minds think a like.

We left the house around 4:30AM, made a quick stop at a Carterville's gas station to go potty. We were the first few cars that got there at 6AM. The road was smooth. The lake was owned by Georgia Powers. They just resurfaced the roads around the area. Nicely done. This race was the smallest race that I ever participated in. Roughly 50 athletes. It didn't surprise me to see that the bike racks were assigned by age group. It was so cute. After I set up my stuff, I went to see the swim course. The water was so warm. On the beach, I noticed there was a lot of geese poops. Yuck. But I didn't see a single goose. I came to find out that they lit fireworks before the race, so the geese weren't near the swim course. I swam a little bit to warm up. The water was pretty nasty. One of the race organizers said that they tested the water for e coli and something else. Obviously they passed. I brought my speed skin with me but I wasn't going to wear it until I got done with the warm up. My tri top, even though it was tight, swayed a little bit in the water. There were quite a few athletes also wore their speed skins. Serious athletes. I bought it because it was on sale on Bonktown. I paid $40 but the original price was close to $300. 

The swim start was time trial. We lined up according to our race number. I was number 25, right in the middle. I felt pretty good throughout the swim. I felt better in sighting. I went buoy to buoy, just focused on that. It was a mile swim, a little longer than an Olympic distance, I finished around 32 minutes. The run to the transition was a little long. At the end, my swim time was 33 minutes. It was not bad but I would like to be faster. I guess I just needed to work harder in the pool. The feedback from the tri camp was really helpful. Seeing myself swimming made me realize the mistakes I made and learned to fix them.

I got on the bike and saw my HR was 163. That was zone 4. It was way too high. The first 10 miles of the ride weren't easy for me. I felt uncomfortable and even skittish on the bike. I got on aero a couple of times and felt I was going to fall over. It was a weird feeling. My legs didn't have the same power even though I was riding only 15-16 MPH. After 10 miles, I felt more comfortable and things were getting better from that point on. My average speed was 18.1. I started my run feeling fresh. Started with 8:30 pace. It was a little too fast. After a couple of miles, my pace was around 8:45. The run wasn't hard but it was hot. We were on the road. Out and back. 30% shaded, 70% baked. Towards the end, my HR was 164. I felt great and pushed the pace a little bit at the end. My overall run pace was 8:41.

After the race, I had a buyer's remorse. I felt I wasn't performing well. I didn't have certain expectation but felt I should have been faster on the swim and bike. I talked to Mary after that. this was her reply to me.
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From: "tricoachmary@comcast.net" <tricoachmary@comcast.net>
To: Monika Nelwan <monikanelwan@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: Race

Monika, your race was a VERY strong effort.  I looked at the competition.  Not sure if you know who was in front of you, but they were some studs.
Your swim was solid.  All of the swim times were slower than the average Oly time, so you are right to think you can go faster.  I would anticipate a 1:14-1:18 swim at Canada.  Some of that will depend on the crowd you get stuck with.
If your heart rate spikes after the swim, it can save you time to spin easy for a few minutes to bring it into zone.  Keep some pressure on the pedals, but stay out of hard gears.
It seems that you are learning how to put it all together and you are getting very good at it.  You had a very good race.  If you look back at your training calendar you will realize that your legs and body should have been shot.  Two very hard weekend preceded your race. Despite that you came out with a good result.  There is no telling what you will do when you are well rested!

Mary Doyle Smith, PT, OCS
Velocity Spine and Sports PT 770-792-7522
Doyle/Smith Tri and Cycle LLC 404-379-6191
USA Triathlon Level I Certified Coach

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Sometimes this was what I needed. A confirmation that I was on the right track and I was putting my best effort.