Big Training Block (Part 3) My First Century Ride

A couple of days after I got back from Blowing Rock, my A/C unit was dead. I checked the electrical box, the furnace circuit breaker was tripped and I couldn't reset it. I called an electrician and found out that it was tripped because of the A/C unit. I scheduled another appointment with a heating and cooling company. The verdict was I needed a new one. The compressor was broken. For an 11 year old unit, it wasn't worth it to replace the compressor, may as well get a new one. The timing for a broken A/C was never right. The temperature was creeping up and it was impossible to stay in the house, so I stayed in Rebecca's house in the mean time. Work was busy, scheduling different companies to come to give an estimate, keeping up with mid week training were hard. Oh yeah! Forgot to mention that I had a century ride on Saturday and an 18 mile run on Sunday.

The only good news this week was the weather on the weekend was super awesome. High 60's and mid 80's. Couldn't ask for a better forecast. The century ride that we were going to do was Jackson County Brevet. I heard about this ride from a couple of co-workers, Doug and Carlos. They loved the course. Susan, Sarah and Eric were doing it too, they also did this ride last year. Riding 100 miles wasn't too terrifying especially after riding 84 miles in the mountain. It would took me the same amount of time for that distance. I knew what it was like sitting on the bike for 6+ hours.

I drove up to the ride by myself. I left a little too early from home and got to the start a little before 6AM. The ride started at 7AM. Even though I had 8 hours of sleep, I was a little tired when I got there. I went to a nearby gas station and bought a 5 hour energy drink. A dose of caffeine was perfect. It seemed taking a long time but finally we wheeled down. One thing that I didn't like about an organized ride was the start. Imagine hundreds of cyclists rode 1-2 feet apart for the first 10 miles or so. It drove me crazy. I had to go around people and couldn't keep my eyes off from the people in front of me, just in case they were slowing or stopping.

Finally after the first water stop, I had a little more room. We wanted to stop no more than twice. The first stop we made was at Mile 38. The theme of the water stop was Hula. A couple of male volunteers wore  hula skirts and coconut bras. The rest of the volunteers had a lei around their neck. After a bathroom break and refilling the bottles, we were off again. The terrain was rolling with just a few steep hills. One time I looked at my Garmin, it was 67 miles. I thought to myself, my ride was done, had we signed up for a metric century. We made another stop at Mile 70. They had watermelon. It was perfect for a warm day.

The last 10 miles of the ride, we were heading back to town. The traffic picked up a little bit. I got stopped behind a red light. Susan, Sarah and Eric were ahead. A few miles before the finish, I saw Susan on the side of the street. She was waiting for me. How nice! Eric and Sarah were ahead but they stopped and we all finished together. They said since it was my first century ride, they wanted to finish with me. They were so sweet.

The last few miles

Final Turn

The next day I ran 18 miles. Honestly I didn't know how I got through it. I was putting a foot in front of the other. The last mile I picked up my pace and ran sub 9 min pace. I guess I was sandbagging a bit. After the run, I met up with Eric, Sarah and Susan at Sarah's neighborhood pool. They ran at the park. We went to to Moxie, a burger joint that was pretty hip. I had an Angus burger with fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese. Dessert was King Pop's chocolate sea salt. Well deserved meal!

Big Training Block (Part 2) Blowing Rock Tri Camp

The view during the ride

Before I knew it, it was time to leave for the triathlon camp in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Mary first mentioned about the camp back in January. I was looking forward to it. Karen always talked about the epic weekend. She thought it was awesome. She went with the Iron team last year. The camp started on Thursday. Katie and I drove up on Wednesday. Leaving at 10AM from here was a great idea. It gave us time to eat lunch, relax a bit and get ready for 4 days of multiple workouts. We arrived at Zap Fitness around 3PM. The drive was pretty easy. Blue Ridge Mountain was pretty. The weather was pretty cool, around 60F. I wasn't going to bring a jacket but I was glad I did. We were the first ones to arrive. A couple of hours later, Karen, Lauren, Mary and Mike came. I had no idea how long we were going to ride tomorrow. Mary wouldn't tell me. I was begging a bit since I messed up on nutrition last week, so I needed to know exactly how many bottles, gel and solid I had to prepare. The goal for tomorrow's ride was to nail the nutrition. It wasn't a great feeling when the only thing that you could think of was, when this ride was going to end, while you still had 30 miles to go. Katie told me they rode 6 hours last year, so I was mixing my bottles with 6 hours in mind. That meant I had to consume at least 1200-1300 calories.

We met up with Susan and Sarah at an Italian restaurant for dinner. The food was great. I was so hungry and ate a big plate of pasta and meatballs. Right after dinner, they hurried back to the cabin. They talked about Mary's brand new bike. I knew they were going to do something evil because they were giggling and looked so excited.

Marking Mary's brand new custom bike

On Thursday morning, I got up at 5AM. We had to be ride-ready by 6.30AM. From the cabin to the start of the ride was less than 5 miles away but the climb was steep and long. We decided to drive to the start. The plan for the day was to ride for 6 hours. From the start, all of us would ride to the south for 45 minutes, turn around and go back to the start, then ride to the north for 45 minutes, turn around and ride back to the start. Repeat. That summed up to 6 hours.

  

I enjoyed the ride. Pretty much I rode by myself almost the entire time. I rode with Susan the last loop.  Look at the view on the background. Gorgeous! Climbing the last hill after riding 80 plus miles was a torture. As I was climbing, there was a hiker that oddly stroke a conversation with us. He asked if I've done this ride before. I said no. He told me that I would be sore tomorrow. Thanks, bud! Had he known what Mary planned for us the next day

After the ride, we went back to Zap fitness and ate lunch. I tried to take a nap after that but didn't have enough time because it was time to swim. I brought Mio Energy with me, so I was drinking that the whole time. I needed an extra dose of caffeine. Mary and Mike took turn taking a video of us swimming. They would review them and gave us feedback the next day. We ended the day by going to dinner separately. I just wanted to go to bed. I didn't care about dinner. Since I was carpooling with 4 other people, I couldn't do that. We went to Mellow Mushrooms. It was good but their service was not fast. I finally went to bed around 10PM.

Day 2 was a long run. It was 3 hours long. The great thing was, after the run, we didn't have any other workout. Awesome. We drove to Cone Manor. It had a bunch of trails. Everybody was going separate ways. Some went up and some went down to Bass Lake. I was with the latter group. Again, I ran by myself the entire time. Running alone didn't bother me. I've been doing that since January. I had a bottle with me and left another one at the beginning of trail. The trail was quite, serene but it was rocky. I hate running on an uneven surface. Plus, there was a lot of horse manure on the trail. Apparently there was a horse barn and people would ride their horses on the running trail. Bass Lake was beautiful. I think that was the only area that was flat. Too bad the trail around the lake was only a mile or so. I wish it was longer. I ran on the maze and circled the lake a couple of times, then decided to run up. Even though I was very careful to watch where I was stepping, I mildly twisted both ankles. It wasn't bad but I was nervous. I got back to the top, went to bathroom and refilled my drink. Crap! I still had an hour. I had no choice besides running back to the Bass Lake to kill time. Running back to the top was awful. At this time, every incline was more painful than before. I had to walk several times. Finally I made it back to the parking lot. Half of the group were already there.

Cone Manor Park

After the run, I went to the creek by the place we stayed and soaked my legs in icy water. It was cold. I accompanied by Lauren, Scott and fish, that tried to eat our toes. We also had a stretching session that was led by Mary.

My hamstring... my poor hamstring...

In the afternoon, we had a one on one swim video review. Everybody had homework to do. Swimming was the biggest challenge for most of us. It didn't matter how good you were or how long you had been swimming. There was always room for improvement. Dinner at Zap Fitness was awesome. We had salmon with mustard sauce, green beans, red quinoa and rice and caramel raisin oatmeal cookies. Yum!

Day 3 schedule was 3 hour ride and 1 hour run in the morning and followed by 1 hour swim in the afternoon. Honestly it was like a ground hog day from day 1. The view was gorgeous. I rode by myself the whole time. You were either up or down. After the turn around, I decided to get off the bike and took some pictures.

At the via duct

After finished the run, I took a different trail to run. I ran to Flat Top mountain. It wasn't flat at all but the view was amazing. I could see the city of Boone or maybe Blowing Rock from the top.

I took less than an hour nap after I was done. It was so hard to get up but it was swim time. Instead of swimming for an hour, we did some dry land exercise for a good 15-20 minutes. Some planks, crunches, Superman, basically abs and back strengthening.

That night we went to dinner at a local restaurant. The food was good. Then, we got back to Zap Fitness and had wine and ice cream (these were left over from the previous night). To replace the amount of calories that we burnt, we did eat a lot.

Day 4 agenda was a one hour ride, packed up, drove to a lake in Tennessee and head home to Atlanta. The open water swim was my least favorite part because there was really no safe area to swim, too many boats and jet skis around. There were too many geese. You could tell from their poop on the beach. We still managed to swim continuously for 50 minutes. We said our goodbyes to other teammates and coaches. It's been a great training up in the mountains of North Carolina.

Driving home

Training Day Motivation

Today I found this race day motivation on Linsey Corbin's blog (She's an American pro triathlete that just won IM 70.3 Honu)... It's really cute. This is what I need to listen to when I bike or run.

What I Am by Will.i.am
If what I am is what’s in me
Then I’ll stay strong - that’s who I’ll be
and I will always be the best
“me” that I can be.
There’s only one me, I am it
have a dream I’ll follow it
It’s up to me to try.
Oh! I’m a keep my head up high
Keep on reaching high
Never gonna quit
I’ll be getting stronger.
And nothing’s gonna bring me down (no!)
Never gonna stop, gotta go.
Because I know
I’ll keep getting stronger.
And what I am is thoughtful
what I am is musical
what I am is smart
and what I am is brave
what I am is helpful
what I am is special
There’s nothing I can’t achieve.
Because in myself I believe in oh…
Gonna keep our heads up high
Keep on reaching high
Never gonna quit
Just keep getting stronger.
And nothing’s gonna bring us down (no!)
Never give it up, gotta go.
Because I know
I’ll keep getting stronger.
What I am is super
what I am is proud
what I am is friendly
what I am is grouchy
what you are is magical
what you are is special
There’s nothing I can’t achieve.
Because in myself I believe in oh…
Gonna hold my head up high
Keep on reaching high
Never gonna stop
I’ll be getting stronger.
Nothing’s gonna bring me down (no!)
Never give it up gotta go, oh… yeah…
I’ll keep getting stronger.

Big training block (Part 1)

The way I get my workout schedule from my coach is through Training Peaks. It's a great tool. As an athlete, I see my schedule for the week. I enter the completion time and post activity comments to keep my coach in the loop. After last week's recovery week, the next training block is getting tougher. This weekend's long ride was 80 miles and long run was 17 miles. The following week we are going to the tri camp in Blowing Rock, NC. The following weekend is a century ride. My first one ever!

I was dreading the 80/17 workout, more so on the bike than the run. Biking is always a challenge for me because I'm not fast but I work hard at it. I did get better each year and especially this year since I started taking Will's Ultimate cycling class in Jan-March. We rode at Silk Sheets. There were quite a few people that joined us. Susan, Kevin and I were the only ones that rode 80. The rest were 50-60 miles. Ellen was so kind to SAG for us. I would say the first 40 miles were fine. I would like to stop less often but since we were in the group, we regroup 3 times in the first 40. That's a mistake for me. I don't like stopping that many times. I should have gone by myself. The second 40 were painful. The wind picked up. At times, I was scared to be on aero but the wind was gusty. Mentally it was so hard to talk myself into riding faster and picking up the cadence. I was so glad when it was finally over. It took almost 5 hours to ride 80. After I got home, I poured the excess fluid from my aero bottle. It turned out, after I counted, I only took 180 calories per hour. Way too low. I put my comment in Training Peaks. I looked at my notes from 2 weekends ago when I rode 70 and I felt much better and faster. It was 230 calories per hour. No wonder why the day went badly. Lesson learned. Mary caught on that too. She emailed me and asked to get the calorie intake to at least 200. I couldn't agree more.

First SAG stop

At Mile 60

I went home, took a shower and ate. I have not been taking an ice bath after a ride. I think rolling, stretching and drinking a lot fluid after a long ride help me more than ice bath. I was following IM 70.3 Honu. I was rooting for Linsey Corbin, an American pro, and she won. I didn't nap after the ride, I felt tired at 6PM. I decided to go to bed at 6.30PM. I didn't feel like eating dinner because I was still full from lunch.

I got up a couple of times and went back to sleep. I was finally up at 5.45AM. I went to Riverside Park around 7AM. The plan was to run the 8.5 mile loop twice. That way I could refill halfway. I turned on my Garmin and the battery was low. Crap! I thought I would have enough power from yesterday's ride. It was weird to run without a watch. I had no idea what my pace or HR were. I ran based on how I felt. My legs were fine. I just felt scared about how I would feel 10 miles from now. It was easy to talk myself down. Running by yourself for 17 miles. I started a little pity party, then I kicked myself in the butt. Stop it. You're healthy and can run. Today would be another great run. After 3 flat miles, I started running on Eves Rd which was hilly. It was up, up and up. Martins Landing was hilly too and the downhill part wasn't a pleasant downhill. It was the one that you had to keep your torso up and brake using your hamstring so you won't fall forward. The first loop was good. The second loop was hard on hills, which was expected. I walked a couple of minutes on the steepest hills. I wouldn't run this loop twice ever again. It hurt. The last few miles I found a second wind and picked up my pace.... or I think I picked up my pace.... The greatest moment was I saw my car. That's my finish line!

Memorial Day weekend

This week is a recovery week. Ride 55 on Saturday and run 9 on Sunday. Seems a light task compared to the previous week (70 and 16) or the following week (80 and 17). Recovery... ahhh! I protested Mary when she put the average speed for the ride, 17 MPH, plus I should enjoy the scenery at the same time. I could ride 15 MPH and enjoy the scenery, but not at 17. Mary said I could take it as easy as I could. The high temperature for Saturday was 91F. Thanks to Tropical Storm Beryl! but I'm thankful there was no rain in the forecast.

I coordinated the group ride. After a few emails back and forth between groups,  there were around 12 people who were going. We met at the Sossebee bike park. The plan was to wheel down at 8AM. At 8AM, Karen's and Katie's groups wheeled down. I was anxious to go. Susan was behind me. Sarah, Eric and Scott were still in the parking lot. I told Susan, I was rolling. I rode pretty slow. After 3.5 miles, at the Busch Drive intersection, I stopped and didn't see anybody behind me. I waited a few minutes, and then I decided to ride back to the park thinking I was going to run into them. One mile... two miles... still didn't see anybody. It was odd. They shouldn't be this late to start. I got to the park, there was nobody there. I don't know what route they took but apparently not the same one that I took. I was annoyed. I should have waited. I was a little nervous riding 52 miles by myself. At that time, it was going to be 59 miles total since I went back to the park. I thought maybe I should just ride the 31 mile loop and made up the difference by adding some stretches. But I hate doing that. I preferred riding a big loop, so when I was back to the parking lot, I was done.

I decided to wait until I got to the church to decide what I was going to do. I was praying for safety. When I got to the church, I saw TNT cycling team. Cindy asked me where everybody else was. I told her what happened. I felt a little better because I saw somebody that I knew. Her group rode pretty slow, so after a couple of miles I took off. Right before one major intersection, I saw a big dog running towards a house. He was backing me, so I was riding silently and hoping he didn't turn around and see me.

I got to the convenient store and didn't see anybody. I was hoping I saw Karen's group but they were at least 10 miles ahead of me. Even though they were slower than me, there was no way I would be able to catch up. From the store, I had only 20 miles to go. I felt better and at this point, it didn't bother me anymore that I was riding alone.

Lonely Ride (minus an awesome view)

I got back to the park safely. My speed was 16.4 MPH. I didn't push hard except the last few miles when the temperature was getting hotter and I was ready to be done. I saw Susan. Apparently they were worried when they didn't see me at the store. Sarah called my cell but I left it in the car. Oh well... lesson learned. Next time, just be patient and wait for your riding buddies.

Since I had to run only 9 miles on Sunday, I decided to try a different running course. Leita Thompson Memorial Park was across the street from me. It had a few options for running trails. The longest one was 2.25 miles. I was planning to run it 4 times. I thought I could handle that. I knew from the reviews, the trail was hilly but I thought how hilly could it be? I'm used to run on hilly courses. Little did I know....
It started off okay. After a mile, I ran on downhill and uphill that were pretty steep. A half mile later, the hills were a bit much. A quarter mile later, they were ridiculous. Running downhill was scary too since the surface was loose gravel, so it was a recipe for sliding down with my butt if I wasn't careful. At the end of the run, I was done. I drove off to Riverside Park and finished the run there.

On Monday, we swam at a quarry in Carterville. I never heard of a quarry before, so I googled the word. It was a body of water where divers normally practice. Eric found this place. It was just a couple of miles away from our bike course. Who knew? I carpooled with Katie. Since the owners wanted us to promote this place to other triathletes, we got to swim for free, otherwise it was $5 per person. The lake was blue, not brown like Lake Lanier or Allatoona. We decided to swim counter clock wise. The first loop I swam by myself. I was a little nervous of sea monsters... seriously! I like swimming in open water as long as I could see somebody by me. The second loop I waited for Katie. It was a good idea. I had somebody to keep up with and I wasn't scared anymore. We swam 5 loops. It was probably around 500-550 meters a loop. I had a great swim. I felt better about breathing every three strokes. I didn't have a problem in the pool but sometimes in open water, I felt the need to breathe every two. We definitely would be back again!

At the dock. Eric is odd ball with a long sleeve wetsuit.

Random updates

I'm 14 weeks away from IM Canada. 3.5 months are going to fly fast. We started training officially since Jan 30. People asked me all the time how my training has been. I always said it's going fine. I like the training schedule. Every 3 weeks I do get a break. One recovery weekend made a big difference. It's recovery but we still ride 40-45 and run 8 on Sat and Sun. But it's a lot less compared to 65-70 bike ride and 14-16 run. I don't have big stories to tell but here are some updates on my training:

Tumble
I rode Up the Creek without a Pedal last weekend. It was a 60 mile ride but we added a 5 mile loop that  equates to Baby Wolfpen gap. Steep climb and technical decent. One mile from the finish, I looked on the ground and when I looked up, the guy in front of me, seemed so close and I panicked. I tried to unclip my left foot and break at the same time. Next second I felt a bump on my head and shoulder, and then I found myself on the ground laying on my right side. I went over the handle bar. This was the first time for me. I heard a guy asked me 3 times if I were okay. I couldn't respond since I was still in shock. Finally I said okay and got up and rode to the finish. I asked somebody if I really flipped over, and yes I did. It happened so fast. When I got up, I remembered checking my Garmin and water bottle, and they were still there. I had a headache but not nauseous. I scraped the top of my left shoulder a bit. I had two big bruises on my left thigh from the elbow pad and handle bar. I'm so thankful that I was okay. No broken bones or sprained muscle/ ligament. God protected me from getting injured.

Not sure why the bike is missing the front wheel, but you got the idea.

Nutrition
I have been trying different shots and solid. I'm down with EFS drink but not sure if I wanted gel or EFS liquid shot. I tried Nutter Butter but felt not 100% sure about it. Yesteday we rode 70 miles and I tried something different. I bought Kona Mocha EFS Liquid Shot. I wasn't sure if I like the flavor so I bought a single serve bottle. All EFS Liquid Shot is super sweet. I tried the wild berry and vanilla flavors. So, I mixed half of the small bottle (200 cals) with 20 oz of water. It tastes like Mocha Cappuccino. Awesome.

For the solid food, I bought Apple Pie Bonk Breaker. I heard about this product and saw this I went to All 3 Sports. When they rang it, holy cow one bar was almost $3. But the guy said Apple Pie tasted really good and it was his fave. I still bought it because it would make my 70 mile ride a little bit more exciting. Believe me, when you train that long, sometimes trying one new thing can put you in a better mood.

I tried it and it tasted so good. The texture was great. It wasn't too gooey like Lara bar and not dry like cookies or crackers. It was in between. They have PB and Jelly flavor. I'm going to get a box of 12, which was cheaper than buying a single bar.

Big Run
Up until Rev3, the longest mileage I ran was 14. Today was 16. Mary said to run at 10 minute pace. That was pretty slow. At first I thought it was really slow. But when I started running this morning, I was so glad that she didn't ask me to run 9:20 pace. Because apparently after yesterday's 70 mile ride, my legs were tirrrredddd. Enough said. I went to Riverside Park to Eves to Martins Landing and back to the park. That loop was 9.75 mile. I was back on Riverside again and ran the remaining miles. My pace was 9:45. Not bad considering it was pretty hilly.

Yoga
On Wednesday, I went to the yoga class at the office's gym. I was so glad I went. My hamstrings and back needed a lot of love and stretching. I'm going to do this every week. I think once a week will make a big difference. It's not on the training schedule but it was so worth it. And the best of all, it's free.

I can also bend over at my waist and put my entire palm underneath my feet

Sleep
I think I'm worse than a grandma. I try to sleep 8-8.5 hours a night. Since I'm usually up by 4.30-4.45AM, that means I go to bed at 8PM. I know that's early but I feel great in the morning after an 8 hour sleep. Chloe, my dog, is a little confused why I'm in my bed when it's still light outside. Just wait, Chlo.... it's going to get worse from here.

Sleep like a baby after a long workout

Racing season
I love following pro's, my friends or people that I don't really know but they're friends of a friend, when they race. Thanks for Ironman Live. It's exciting to see their progress. Sometimes, I wondered if they suffered at the time or held on their race pace. Everybody that toed on the start lines had a story to tell, a lot of sacrifices had been made. They all came with expectation to race well. So inspiring.

I hope this is not the swim start in IM Canada

Rev 3 Knoxville

 After reading some reviews on the race's packet pickup and talking to Katie who did the race last year, I decided to leave here at 7AM. My concern was the line for the packet pickup would be super long like Augusta. I didn't want to stand in the line for 1.5 hours. Apparently Rev3 did a much better job and the line was supposedly not bad at all. Sarah came at 6.45AM. We packed the bike and bags and took off 5 minutes earlier than planned. The drive to the K town was 3 hours. It really flew by. We talked about our family. For some reasons I was talking about my dad when he was sick in 2010. My mom took care of him and was by his side 24/7. One morning she called me before work and said she dreamed of me. I came home to visit and she was so happy. She and I were just balling over the phone. I felt so helpless. Sarah told me when his dad was sick and finally passed away. She had to be away for her brother's wedding one weekend and she told her dad to hang on until she came back. When she saw her dad again, he told her he was so happy to see her beautiful face and that he kept his promise to wait for her. I was tearing up while driving.

We got to Knoxville at 10AM. The hotel had our room ready so we checked in early. We went to the expo which was literally at the back of the hotel. We didn't know the shortcut and took the long way to get there. The expo was very family friendly. They had a bounce house for kids. I saw Darren, Heather and their 2 year daughter, Holland. I gave Holland a penguin bath toy for her first birthday. Every time I saw her, Darren or Heather always told Holland that I was the one that gave her that toy. Funny! That kid was a chunky monkey, so cute with her curly reddish brown hair. Heather looked great, she lost 15 pounds getting ready for her first half. I also saw a bunch of other TNT friends. It was nice to see them all.

Nice swag from Rev3. We looked like frogs with those goggles.

There was no line for the packet pickup. We also had to get our timing chip and our picture taken. The line was a little longer but was moving. I asked what the picture was for and they said it would be on the jumbotron when we crossed the finish. Nice! I didn't have my best look (no make-up, pony tail) but who cares. I spotted a BBQ vendor at the expo. I loved a BBQ sandwich for lunch, plus we were in TN, their BBQ was one of the best. After picking up the packet, we went back to the hotel. Susan and Ellen was an hour away at the time. We decided to wait for Susan for the practice swim which was from noon to 2PM. We met up with Susan at the expo. While waiting for Susan, Sarah and I bought a pork BBQ sandwich for lunch. We saved them for after the swim. The plan was to drop off the bikes at the transition and went for a practice swim. The transition was about 0.5 mile from the expo. It was weird that the transition was actually in a parking garage. There was no bike racks, instead we had bike boxes. The rear wheel rested in a slot. I memorized the bike in/out, swim in and run out. Last year I had a brain fart in Augusta. I ran to the bike out at T2 which was the opposite side of the run out. We headed out the swim finish where the swim practice was. We saw more TNTers. Most of them did Olympic distance. The water was nice and not too cold. Perfect for a long sleeve wetsuit. I swam for 15 minutes. I had a good practice swim.

After swim practice. We crossed this track in T1.

We walked back to the hotel. I took a cat nap. Sarah woke me up for the 4PM mandatory athlete meeting at the expo. The race director did a quick overview of the course. As expected, T1 would be long since we had to cross the street and half circle the parking garage. The way they served water on the run course was not on cups but in plastic pouches. At first, I thought it was a bad idea because it would just splash all over as we tried to drink, but I took one to practice, it was actually easier to drink than cups.

Discussing race strategy while hydrating

That night we went to eat dinner at Cafe Four. There was a pork tenderloin sandwich on the menu. Immediately Sarah and I thought of Iowa State Fair's giant pork tenderloin. I had grilled turkey burger. It was delicious. I practically inhaled my dinner. I went to bed early that night. Every hour or so, we heard loud fire truck siren. So annoying. We got up around 4.30AM. Before heading to transition, we checked out from the hotel and put our stuff in the car. We saw Renee at the hotel lobby and we walked over to the transition. I set up my transition area. I thought I had everything but I forgot to lay out my gloves and Garmin wrist strap. I didn't realize about this until T1/T2. I started to get nervous walking to the swim start. This was when you asked yourself why I did what I did. Signing up for a race sounded great 4 months ago, but not that morning. I was still a little uncertain of the turn around for the half. I guess I would find out soon.

Swim start. I was in the front left.

I was in the front of the pack, not that I was a super fast swimmer but for some reason, I felt I would not be passed by too many people. As soon as they blew the horn, I swam hard to get away. The swim wasn't brutal and I didn't get hit. The turn around wasn't a struggle either. By the time, I swam with a lot of red caps, they were Half's men that started before my wave. After the turn, I swam a little bit away from the buoys. I had more space to myself but I decided to get closer to the buoys since I didn't want to be off course too much. Pretty soon, I saw a bunch green caps joining the swim course. They were Olympic's men. I chuckled a bit since we looked like Skittles. A bunch of red, green and yellow dots floating around.

Colorful swim caps floating around

As soon as I swam around the green caps, I started swimming defensively. Their limbs were all over the place. Not good swimmers but aggressive. Not long after that, I passed the last bridge. There was no ramp at the swim finish. We had to swim to the dock and either pulled ourselves up or had one of the volunteers to help us. I extended my hand and a volunteer pulled me out of the water. Great!

After a long run to T1, I got on the bike. My stomach felt great at that point. No bloating, thanks to Beano. I even burped in the water, which rarely happened. I don't remember much the first 20 miles. It was hilly but not too bad. At some point, one guy passed me on my right. It wasn't his day because the race official was right behind us. I saw a motorcycle passed me, wrote his number down, and caught up to him.

On top of one of the hills

Around mile 30, I started getting tired and to make matter worse, somebody's helmet sticker got stuck on my front wheel. It made noise every time it hit the ground. Imagine that my cadence averaged 80 per minute. I heard that stupid noise 80 times in a minute. I could've got off the bike and yanked it out but I didn't want to stop. Honestly, the last 26 miles were quite painful. The hills were getting worse. I felt I was riding in the Gaps at times. There was a short stretch where you rode out and back. I saw Susan. She was just 2 miles behind me. She sounded great as she screamed my name.

Susan: "Monikaaaaa!!!"

The last 9 miles were quite lonely and scary because I didn't see anybody around me. I was afraid I took the wrong turn and went off the course. I was happy every time I saw the pink arrows on the ground. It seemed like an eternity but finally I made it back to the transition. The last 10-15 miles my stomach started to bother me. It was acid party in my tummy!!! I didn't have my med with me but I remembered I had it in my transition bag.

I racked my bike, changed to running shoes and couldn't find my wrist strap. I ended up holding it on my hand. The first two miles of the run was excruciating. My stomach was killing me. It was burning hot running with no shade on the street. I felt like a turtle. We entered the park and I saw a TNTer 50 yards in front of me. It was Heather. When I caught up to her, she told me her quads were cramping. I had extra salt pills but she just took some. After I passed her and the Olympic turnaround, I was either up the hill or down, hardly any flat. I saw Scott, he was having a tough time. He had a flat that took him 20 minutes to fix and now his GPS/ HR watch quit working. I thought I could run with him but his pace was actually slower. I took off. After the half turnaround, I saw Susan again. We chatted a bit over the island. She was in great spirit. Not long after, Sarah came. She looked great too. We all did fairly well in this tough race.

Around Mile 10. Pretty good running posture although felt like crap.

I didn't have a run strategy, except hydrate, keep a steady pace and pick my battle, decide which hill I should walk a bit to save energy. The last 3 miles were painful. I was back on the street and there was no shade. It was hot. I passed one guy that was cramping. I gave him some salt pills. After I passed the swim finish, I knew I had to be really close, maybe a mile away from finish. Then, I saw Ellen sitting on the grass. She said this was the first time she saw me the whole day. I wasn't sure how we missed each other at the swim finish.

Home stretch

As I got closer, I could hear the announcer. I sprinted to the finish. Overall, it was a good race.
Swim time 35:35 (I had a great swim, but not this great, the course had to be a little shorter)
T1 6:01 (a quarter mile distance between swim finish and transition)
Bike 3:20 (16.8MPH, not too bad, considering it was super hilly)
T2 3:34 (It was worth to spend 30 secs to dig up some Antacid med)
Run 2:13 (pretty good on this course, especially after 56 mile ride)
Total Time 6:17:59. My first goal was 6:15, my second goal was 6:30. 

Going home. Post race.

I talked to Coach Mary post race. I asked for some kind of feedback. I realized that I always have to keep acid indigestion med with me all times. If I didn't have stomach issues, my run would have felt so much better. I need to take in more calories on the run. Half a cup of Coke and a bite of banana every mile or two was not enough. Again, if my stomach feels good, I wouldn't have a problem taking in more calories. Hammer's raspberry gel always works for me and I'll stick with that.