Put Your Big Girl Panties On

I'm sitting here in my sweatpants, still sweaty and salty from my bike workout, sipping some tea while Si watches Colbert Report.  My head is kind of spinning with all kinds of crazy thoughts.  I don't know if it's cause I haven't been able to sleep for the 4th time this week or if I'm just driving myself crazy.
...or maybe it was my smashfest on the indoor trainer this afternoon.

I had a 3:30 bike on tap for my long ride today, but mother nature decided to drop the rain bomb on us NYC folks so I knew I was going to be stuck on the trainer for this one.  I wasn't thrilled with that idea but what other choice do I have?  If it was warmer and a bit less of a downpour I would have sucked it up and gone outside cause for all I know it could be pouring on race day.

So I *tried* to sleep in and once I woke myself up, I decided to install my profile design aero drink on my aerobars.  I was slightly confused by the mediocre directions but I finally figured it out all by myself and got the sucker on.  I filled up those 32 oz with 2 scoops of Accelerade and put a regular 16 oz bottle of water on my frame.  I wanted to see how my official Odwalla tri gear would feel on the bike so I had on the tri shorts and the tri top.  I stashed 1 Gu and 1 Odwalla bar in my pockets in case I got hungry.

I popped in Coach Troy's Lake Placid Course DVD and went on my merry way... to nowhere.  I followed Coach Troy's directions and shifted when I needed to for the fast descents and the steep uphills that I'll be facing come July 24th.  My attention spanned ended after one hour.  Only one freakin' hour into three and a half hours!  I don't know what was with me today.  Then, I got a headache.  I figured I needed some calories so I popped the Gu and that normally revives me.  Not so much today.  I ate some of the yummy chocolate peanut butter Odwalla bar and that helped slightly with the headache.

The next hurdle I had to overcome was that I started to get really uncomfortable on my seat.  I have a loaner seat that's a Specialized Road seat so it's thinner and not as much padding as the Adamo.  I thought it was working out well until today.  Every which way I sat something hurt, whether it was my hiney or my lady parts.  Grrr....  So I might have to try another seat now.

The last 40 minutes of the ride was a sufferfest.  Coach Troy already showed my the 56 mile loop of Lake Placid so now I moved on to more enlightening tv - Real Housewives of NY.  Well those classy ladies didn't help my seat issue so I pedaled and wanted to quit so bad at 3 hours but I didn't.  I pedaled and pedaled and finally once my Garmin hut 3:30 I was done.  I never hit stop so fast, or counted down the seconds so meticulously as I did today!

Now, I know this post sounds like a bitchfest.  "What did you expect when you signed up for this?  Easy, breezy, sunny bike rides with no wind, no rain?"  No, I didn't expect this to be easy by any means and today proved more than ever (so far) what I'm willing to do to get this dream to come true.  I'm gonna have to sit on my bike for hour after hour and sometimes I'm not gonna love it like I have been recently.  I guess this is good training for the mental aspect of race day.  An ironman athlete goes through so many ups and downs throughout race day that you have to learn to pull yourself out of the down.   Sitting here, a few hours later, I'm slowly reminding myself that even though I wasn't the happiest today on the bike, that I may not have had a smile on my face, but I still biked 65 miles indoors for three and a half hours.  That's a first in my book.   And that's something to be proud of.

When I looked at my training plan for the upcoming week a range of emotions hit me.  I was scared, excited, petrified, overwhelmed, happy, and most importantly I felt alive.  It's rare to have something stir so many emotions at once and it felt good that I have this in my life right now.  If you couldn't tell, it'll be my biggest training week so far and I truly am looking forward to knocking it out of the park.

I do have a few goals for myself this week.
1. Get the job done. Period.
2. Get enough sleep even if it means being in bed before 10pm.
3. Don't let my work anxiety transfer over to IM.  I can handle both.

It's time to put your big girl panties on now, Jill, you have a lot to look forward too!

Only 21 days til American Zofingen Duathlon!  (5 mile trail run/85 mile bike/15 mile run)
Only 26 days til my first Lake Placid weekend camp!
Only 42 days til Rev3 Quassy half Ironman!
Only 48 days til Steffy gets married!!!!!!!
Only 92 days til Placid!

If that list isn't exciting enough... I can't wait to test out my new running kicks!! Feast your eyes on these puppies!

Asics Noosa Tri Shoes - they glow in the dark too!

Nothin' but a Good Time

"Don't need nothin' but a good time.

How can I resist?

Ain't lookin' for nothin' but a good time

And it don't get better than this"

Thank you Poison for creating a song I can rock out to and relate to!  Despite the gorgeous weather today I was on the trainer listening to my Pandora mix and this song came on.  I started singing out loud (thank goodness no one was home) and I realized that life is good.  Here I am riding my fabulous Roo, watching the city spring madness from the 26th floor of our apartment, listening to great tunes, and looking forward to running right after the bike.  What a good life!!  This song will now be on my official IM playlist.

Today I had my first official brick even though yesterday felt like a brick to me!  I biked for 1:15 on the trainer then ran 5.5 miles in Central Park.  The park was packed with people and that's the reason why I chose to stay indoors for he ride.  It's too dangerous with tourists and not a long enough bike session to head over the GWB.  I could have woken up at 7am to bike in the park, but I was up late after an afternoon/night of my second bachelorette in 2 weeks.

I think running in heels trying to catch a train after a 3 hour ride should count as a brick workout... or at least a strength cause my calves were killing me!  My day started off at 7am where I had to say goodbye to Si.  He was flying down to Orlando to meet his brother and they were gonna do some classic touristy American things like Universal and Epcot.  After he left I got my bike gear together and it was time for my solo 3 hour ride.

I biked up and over the GWB and decided to bike on River Road to get in some hills.  It runs parallel to 9W and right next to the Hudson River.  The great (or terrible) part about it is at the end there is a 1.5 killer climb that links you to 9W.  This was the first time ever that I got up that hill without wanting to die.  I mean, I was still slow, but I wasn't huffing and puffing like I used to on this hill.  After a quick water bottle refill (and more compliments on my bike from a group of biker dudes) I hopped onto 9W and continued north.  I decided to just stay along 9w and not turn off towards Piermont and Nyack.  I biked about 24 miles then turned back from home.  The ride home is always much faster cause even though you have some hills you're losing elevation.

I made it home in 3 hours on the nose and realized I had to catch a train in under 2 hours - EEK.  I made some food, let myself sit on the couch for 20 minutes then I only had 30 minutes to shower and get gussied up for a bachelorette party!  I made the train, we rocked the small town of Cold Spring, NY and I left the party around 9 to catch a train home.  This was the hard part. Everyone else was staying over in a hotel and I showed some restraint by leaving.  I most certainly could have stayed and partied some more but I knew I had a brick workout today.  If I stayed I knew I would talk myself out of training, or suffer through the 2 hour brick.  So it's 2-0 for Jill vs. Bachelorette Parties!  Woop!

Oh the other part about today was that when I went to put my bike on the trainer the back wheel was flat.  I was actually happy cause I really need some flat tire changing practice.  I got the wheel off no problem and easily got the flat tube out.  I put a little air into the tube and heard the dreading hissing noise.  It was coming from a seam close to the valve.  I checked my tire for any debris and sure enough there was a sharp, tiny, little piece of metal poking through my tire.  I had to get it out with tweezers cause it was so tiny.  I put a new tube in, got the tire back on and inflated her up using a CO2 cartridge for practice.  The hardest part was getting the wheel back on the bike.  It's set up a little differently than my road and for some reason I couldn't figure out how to get the chain back on without smashing something else around.  Once I did get it on the brake was rubbing so I had to fix that and by that time I was sweating.  Like really sweaty as if I had just finished my brick!

Overall it was a successful week and weekend of training!

Only 98 days til Lake Placid!!!

Birthelorette + Tex-Mex + Margaritas = Half Marathon PR!

After spending three days in Austin for my college BFF’s 30^th/Bachelorette, eating Tex-Mex at every meal and drinking too-many-to-count margaritas, I was able to PR in my Half Marathon by 2 minutes!  Woop! Woop!  Or should I say, YEEHAW!

 

Three glorious days filled with eating, drinking, shopping, dancing, not sleeping, laughing (I did get my 1 hour 7 mile speed workout in and swam in open water for say, 20 minutes) were just plain fabulous.  And the weather was awesome… 90 degrees each day!  Ah, I kinda forgot what it was like to feel sun against my skin.  So when I flew back to NYC late on Saturday and had to put back on my winter coat, I was bummed and a little nervous about what I had planned for Sunday.

 

The Plan:

Wake up at 5am Sunday

Bike 30 miles up to Rockland Lake State Park (not the easiest of bike rides either – lots of hills!)

Run a hilly Half Marathon

Bike 30 miles (again, not easy) back to the city

Collapse on couch in sweatpants

 

Well, I did execute the plan almost to a T.  I did wake up at 5am.  I did ride my bike those hilly 30 miles to the park.  It was actually not a bad ride considering the lack of sleep.  My legs felt ok but I did feel slower than normal, which I was ok with.  There was zero traffic in the city and the sun was just rising so it wasn’t too sketchy out.  I only saw a few bikers on the road even though I expected to see more triathletes biking up to the park like I was.  It me, my pink Roo, and 9W.  

I looked at it like an adventure.  This whole Ironman thing comes with me pushing myself to do things I’m uncomfortable with or scared of.  First, doing the Ironman itself - that scares the poo out of me.  Then comes the wacky training days like Sunday where I had to tough it out and be uncomfortable biking by myself (even though I told everyone I was a-ok - I really was, I swear) in the wee hours of the morning.  Testing my running legs on a tough half marathon course and sucking it up to ride back when I was thrashed.  My next test with be the Zofingen Duathlon and I think I’m more scared of that than Placid.  So if I can overcome this feeling of uncomfortableness now, I can rock Placid come July!

 

Ok, sorry for the little rant, back to my Sunday Funday.  So I arrived with plenty of time to spare, met up with my Coach and BLT - who wisely drove up there!  We chatted, I changed, and then it was time to line up and tackle the half.  Oh, this was the first race BLT and I were debuting our awesome Odwalla gear!  I didn’t take any photos but trust me, we rocked that Odwalla gear.  I wound up racing in the tri shorts, an Odwalla running singlet and a long sleeve top underneath.

 

My Coach and I decided this would be a training run so my plan was to stick to around an 845 pace then after mile 9, which is this evil thing of a hill, see what I had left and race it to the finish. 

 

The race start was crowded but it thinned out about a mile or two.  Coach ran up ahead (and came in 3^rd place by the way!!), BLT and I stayed together for a little bit but she was running a bit faster so I slowed down and told her I’d see her at the finish. 

 

Here's a short mile by mile breakdown:

Mile 1 - 8:45 On the nose - sweet!

Mile 2 - 8:24 Hmmm... a little fast but I felt good

Mile 3 - 8:31 Legs still feel good

Mile 4 - 8:35 Wow maybe I'll PR???

Mile 5 - 8:52 This is where the rolling hills were - but I felt strong and passed people on the hills.

Mile 6 - 8:29 Back on track and I passed BLT!!  I never, ever pass this Buff Little Thang - she's so speedy! This is also where we had to run a steep downhill which I knew was gonna be a jerkface to run back up.

Mile 7 - 8:23 This was on a flat dirt path along the Hudson River.  Beautiful scenery and I just drafted behind two triathlete girls. At the end of mile 7 and the beginning of mile 8 there was a steep uphill with a turnaround.

Mile 8 - 8:55  I dropped the two tri girls and focused on getting my breathing and HR back to normal after the hill.  I then found another two girls that were running about an 8:30 pace and having a conversation.  This was perfect for me!  I just sat back, ran and sort of eavesdropped on their conversation.  Thank you girls!

Mile 9 - 8:32 The girls noticed I was right behind them and the one said, "oh, let this girl pass us!"  I was like, "thank you - you girls were great following!"

Mile 10 - 9:42 ok this is the super, duper steep hill we had to run back up. I shuffled along until finally it was faster to walk than shuffle.  This killed my mile average but it's what I had to do at the time.  I only walked for about 2 minutes and then I forced myself to run up the last bit of the hill.

Mile 11 - 9:00 I was still suffering a bit from the big hill and there were a couple of rollers left to climb here.

Mile 12 - 8:17 RACE TIME!! ok 2 more miles to go - you can do this!  I powered along and surprisingly felt ok enough to go at a tempo pace.

Mile 13 - 8:15 ONE mile left - do it!!!

Mile .1 or .28 on my watch - 7:43  Not my fastest sprint to the finish but I pushed it hard.  Plus I thought I might crap my pants - my stomach was NOT happy!  My Coach cheered for me from the sidelines and she said I looked like I was about to cry.  I said I was holding my bowels in!! Heh

TOTAL = 1:54:56 8:39/mile  HOORAY!  Official PR!

Official results - 1:55:00

17/87 30-39 Age Group

I was so stocked that I ran that well, especially on that course!  My legs felt pretty great despite being on a flight less than 24 hours earlier and getting maybe about 4 hours of sleep.  Oh yeah, and I biked the 30 hilly miles up there...  This was a huge confidence booster for me!  I feel like my swimming and running are coming along well.  I still think the most work I need to do on the bike so I can't wait to get stronger on the Roo!

I was pretty thrashed at the end of this race.  So I asked my Coach if it was cool if she could drop me and the Roo off past the mountain I had to climb in order to get back home.  She was more than happy to do it and told me not to worry 'cause she originally didn't even want me riding back at all.  So Coach, BLT and I crammed into her car and she dropped me off right at the NY/NJ state line.  All I had to do was ride a measly 19 miles home.

Even though it felt good to spin my legs, I was just SO tired.  I took my time, went painfully slow and finally made my way back down 9W, across the GWB and back to the UES. 

It was about 1pm by the time I got home.  I had been up since 5am biked a total of 49 miles plus ran a speedy & hilly half marathon totaling over 5 hours of working out.  My longest yet!  1pm felt like 830pm for me.  I showered, scarfed down food and sat on the couch in my sweatpants for the rest of the day.  Well deserved I say!

This week is a recovery week for me so I think I only have 7 or 8 hours of training.  Today was an extra race day to let my body recover from the traveling and racing.  It felt great to sleep in til 730 this morning.  


Sunday Funday Indeed!!