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Saturday, February 6, 2010
Sunday, June 22, 2008
LT: Week 23
It feels like the race was a long time ago already, but it's only a week. I feel for Miss Midwesterly. To come across the Atlantic like that, and have such a build-up only for things to go horribly wrong. She's taken it very well and is already looking to the next race to prove herself. Not being a stranger to race adversity, I sympathise.
The race for me was very cool. I was so pleased to have been able to manage the entire thing in the light of my back injury which was still hurting on the run. It was the second run I'd managed to do in 6 weeks and was therefore pretty damn horrible and had me aching for 3 days afterwards, but simply to have finished the run was - in my mind at least - a big achievement.
The swim was great. I had none of my anxiety from the Ellesmere triathlon 2 weeks beforehand, and I even managed to enjoy the experience, as I had done with all my open water swims the year before. Clearly it served me very well to get in the Serpentine 3 times the week before. The water was tasteless and clear too, which helps with the psychology a lot. Still ... I'd like to learn how to push it on the swim because I wasn't even out of breath. I just go at a leisurely pace as if I'm out for a gentle swim in the sea. I think I could shave off several minutes if I learnt how hard I could push myself. Never as quick as Emily mind you ... who was something like 15th out of the water and had all the pros turning their heads!
The bike was amazing. I absolutely loved the course. It was hilly enough to be interesting but not so much that I couldn't spend a good deal of time on the tribars. I felt really strong for pretty much the whole section and enjoyed the psychology of going past people. Although the course is billed as a hilly one, I found the hills to be very short and totally achievable. I think having a compact crankset helped, but also that I was expecting far worse. I managed to refuel a bit on the bike; eating two bananas and about a litre of carbo drink. Obviously this isn't enough on a course of this length (luckily it was a cold morning so hydration wasn't too much of an issue), but it's a start. I need to work on techniques for refuelling while I train.
The run was a killer. Because of my lack of adequate training I went into it feeling pretty tired. It was 3 loops of a very undulating course but I only managed to completely run one loop, having to walk on the uphills of the final 2 laps. I stopped 3 or 4 times at feed stations too, to drink Gatorade and eat my final banana. I think they got me round in the end. I just had to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and ignoring the pain in my back and my body's desire to stop. I'd love to get to a place where I could be strong in the run too. Most of the people around me were also walking when I was, so it would be great to be able to run the full course.
In all it was a very inspiring race. Great that I could finish the distance, and good that I felt strong in 2 disciplines. I think I can improve substantially on my time, and there are already plans hatching for a repeat performance in 2009. I was originally looking for a full Ironman for next year, but currently it makes sense for me to do another year of half distance races before raising my game.
Great race, great company, great experience.
T: 45 mins open water swim
30 mins spin
W: 45 mins open water swim
T: 40 mins open water swim
F: 30 mins bike
S: Rest day
S: UK Half Ironman 70.3
501st out of 799 finishers
46th of 107 women (77th on swim, 36th on bike, 62nd on run)
11th of 26 F35-39 (16th on swim, 7th on bike, 15th on run)
Swim: 41:58, Bike: 3:38:18, Run: 2.09.41, Total: 6:40:27
Total: 9h 50m
The race for me was very cool. I was so pleased to have been able to manage the entire thing in the light of my back injury which was still hurting on the run. It was the second run I'd managed to do in 6 weeks and was therefore pretty damn horrible and had me aching for 3 days afterwards, but simply to have finished the run was - in my mind at least - a big achievement.
The swim was great. I had none of my anxiety from the Ellesmere triathlon 2 weeks beforehand, and I even managed to enjoy the experience, as I had done with all my open water swims the year before. Clearly it served me very well to get in the Serpentine 3 times the week before. The water was tasteless and clear too, which helps with the psychology a lot. Still ... I'd like to learn how to push it on the swim because I wasn't even out of breath. I just go at a leisurely pace as if I'm out for a gentle swim in the sea. I think I could shave off several minutes if I learnt how hard I could push myself. Never as quick as Emily mind you ... who was something like 15th out of the water and had all the pros turning their heads!
The bike was amazing. I absolutely loved the course. It was hilly enough to be interesting but not so much that I couldn't spend a good deal of time on the tribars. I felt really strong for pretty much the whole section and enjoyed the psychology of going past people. Although the course is billed as a hilly one, I found the hills to be very short and totally achievable. I think having a compact crankset helped, but also that I was expecting far worse. I managed to refuel a bit on the bike; eating two bananas and about a litre of carbo drink. Obviously this isn't enough on a course of this length (luckily it was a cold morning so hydration wasn't too much of an issue), but it's a start. I need to work on techniques for refuelling while I train.
The run was a killer. Because of my lack of adequate training I went into it feeling pretty tired. It was 3 loops of a very undulating course but I only managed to completely run one loop, having to walk on the uphills of the final 2 laps. I stopped 3 or 4 times at feed stations too, to drink Gatorade and eat my final banana. I think they got me round in the end. I just had to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and ignoring the pain in my back and my body's desire to stop. I'd love to get to a place where I could be strong in the run too. Most of the people around me were also walking when I was, so it would be great to be able to run the full course.
In all it was a very inspiring race. Great that I could finish the distance, and good that I felt strong in 2 disciplines. I think I can improve substantially on my time, and there are already plans hatching for a repeat performance in 2009. I was originally looking for a full Ironman for next year, but currently it makes sense for me to do another year of half distance races before raising my game.
Great race, great company, great experience.
T: 45 mins open water swim
30 mins spin
W: 45 mins open water swim
T: 40 mins open water swim
F: 30 mins bike
S: Rest day
S: UK Half Ironman 70.3
501st out of 799 finishers
46th of 107 women (77th on swim, 36th on bike, 62nd on run)
11th of 26 F35-39 (16th on swim, 7th on bike, 15th on run)
Swim: 41:58, Bike: 3:38:18, Run: 2.09.41, Total: 6:40:27
Total: 9h 50m
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
argh
i've been thinking a lot about my performance lately.
i know that part of me is quite aware that triathlon, and, indeed, sport, in general, comes second to many things in my life: work and friends coming in numbers two and one.
but i don't think that i ever predicted i'd be so damned broken up over not finishing a race.
i had a mechanical problem. a horrible, stupid mechanical problem that was just par for the course as far as this bike goes.
i mean, let's look at the track history, shall we?
thursday, 5 june: yi shun gets bike stolen
thursday, 5 june: yi shun phones trusty shop guy to build new bike
saturday, 7 june: yi shun gets bike and realizes it's lacking a triple chain ring.
saturdya, 7 june: yi shun looks at bike and realizes she's borrowing someone else's race wheels.
tuesday, 10 june: yi shun flies to london.
thursday, 12 june: lara spends precious time faffing about with potentially lousy build on bike.
friday, 13 june: lara and yi shun go for spin 'round regents' park, where yi shun realizes that gearing is a little bit off.
saturday, 14 june: yi shun and lara and em check in; yi shun has gearing fine-tuned.
sunday, 15 june: yi shun races. yi shun does OK in swim; has lousy transition--and has to drop from race due to a bike problem completely unrelated to anything she and lara have been faffing with. no, the problem is with the borrowed race wheels.
sunday, 15 june: yi shun floods phone booth with crocodile tears. stoic brits who've never met her lend kind words and pats on back.
am sad but recovering with lots of help from good friends and good conversation. need to find another half soon to complete and be happy over. poo.
i know that part of me is quite aware that triathlon, and, indeed, sport, in general, comes second to many things in my life: work and friends coming in numbers two and one.
but i don't think that i ever predicted i'd be so damned broken up over not finishing a race.
i had a mechanical problem. a horrible, stupid mechanical problem that was just par for the course as far as this bike goes.
i mean, let's look at the track history, shall we?
thursday, 5 june: yi shun gets bike stolen
thursday, 5 june: yi shun phones trusty shop guy to build new bike
saturday, 7 june: yi shun gets bike and realizes it's lacking a triple chain ring.
saturdya, 7 june: yi shun looks at bike and realizes she's borrowing someone else's race wheels.
tuesday, 10 june: yi shun flies to london.
thursday, 12 june: lara spends precious time faffing about with potentially lousy build on bike.
friday, 13 june: lara and yi shun go for spin 'round regents' park, where yi shun realizes that gearing is a little bit off.
saturday, 14 june: yi shun and lara and em check in; yi shun has gearing fine-tuned.
sunday, 15 june: yi shun races. yi shun does OK in swim; has lousy transition--and has to drop from race due to a bike problem completely unrelated to anything she and lara have been faffing with. no, the problem is with the borrowed race wheels.
sunday, 15 june: yi shun floods phone booth with crocodile tears. stoic brits who've never met her lend kind words and pats on back.
am sad but recovering with lots of help from good friends and good conversation. need to find another half soon to complete and be happy over. poo.
Friday, June 13, 2008
here we are now
literally T minus 1 day to the triathlon.
i haven't said much about these past few days and weeks because there honestly hasn't been much worth saying.
i've continued the slow slide towards less and less diligent training, and i pretty much have proof that i'll finish last in my group of friends. this isn't a bad thing; i've always known that i'm a slower than many of my more talented friends, even if they were always too polite to say anything.
i do feel pretty shocked at just how aware i finally am that this is the end of a long road. maybe i wasn't aware that i was giving up as much of my life as really was to training; or maybe i just plain didn't think about it at all. either way, the corollary to there being an end to all this is that there must be the beginning to something else. i do feel at this moment that i'm not quite ready to move on from this period of athletic "achievements," even if the achievements are crawling across the finish line in something other than last place.
i'm annoyed at the IM organization. they don't let us set up our own TAs; they make us sign waivers that say they are not responsible for any loss of equipment and the inform us after we've signed the waivers that we're to hand over our bikes to attendants and that we're to pack our TA stuff in designated-color bags...it's ridiculous.
if something happens to my bike, i'm going to be pissed.
the bike is a whole nother story. it's entirely possible that i'll have to pick a bone with the guys who built it, because it's more than likely they did a slap-dash job on it, which caused lara to have to fiddle with it endlessly, which is something she, in her limited time, did most certainly not have to do. ugh.
we went out on a very short five mile spin today just to run the thing through its gearing, and it's still not 100%. i didn't have all of my gears for the first one, either--why should this be any different? :P
while i don't feel i'm going to crush this race, or even do what i was really looking to do, i can only try.
i suppose you could insert some other platitude there and it might actually ring true. perhaps after this race, i'll have a better handle on my racing menatlity. i'm not promising anything.
cheers! and good luck to emily and lara!
i haven't said much about these past few days and weeks because there honestly hasn't been much worth saying.
i've continued the slow slide towards less and less diligent training, and i pretty much have proof that i'll finish last in my group of friends. this isn't a bad thing; i've always known that i'm a slower than many of my more talented friends, even if they were always too polite to say anything.
i do feel pretty shocked at just how aware i finally am that this is the end of a long road. maybe i wasn't aware that i was giving up as much of my life as really was to training; or maybe i just plain didn't think about it at all. either way, the corollary to there being an end to all this is that there must be the beginning to something else. i do feel at this moment that i'm not quite ready to move on from this period of athletic "achievements," even if the achievements are crawling across the finish line in something other than last place.
i'm annoyed at the IM organization. they don't let us set up our own TAs; they make us sign waivers that say they are not responsible for any loss of equipment and the inform us after we've signed the waivers that we're to hand over our bikes to attendants and that we're to pack our TA stuff in designated-color bags...it's ridiculous.
if something happens to my bike, i'm going to be pissed.
the bike is a whole nother story. it's entirely possible that i'll have to pick a bone with the guys who built it, because it's more than likely they did a slap-dash job on it, which caused lara to have to fiddle with it endlessly, which is something she, in her limited time, did most certainly not have to do. ugh.
we went out on a very short five mile spin today just to run the thing through its gearing, and it's still not 100%. i didn't have all of my gears for the first one, either--why should this be any different? :P
while i don't feel i'm going to crush this race, or even do what i was really looking to do, i can only try.
i suppose you could insert some other platitude there and it might actually ring true. perhaps after this race, i'll have a better handle on my racing menatlity. i'm not promising anything.
cheers! and good luck to emily and lara!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
LT: Week 22
M: Hilly bike ride 1h 10m
Total: 1h 10m
Back pain prevalent. Maximising injury recovery now, before the 70.3.
Total: 1h 10m
Back pain prevalent. Maximising injury recovery now, before the 70.3.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
argh
The trip to London looms. Ordinarily, I'd be really looking forward to it, except these past few days have been a whirlwind of shite.
You already know I had my bike stolen. We had to drive up to Wisconsin to drop off der hund, and on the way up our air conditioning blew out, so it was 95 degrees on the highway in horrible traffic with no air conditioning and a nervous hound, who panted his way through the three and a half hour trip and slobbered liberally on me (not something he usually does).
We took Jim's parents out for their anniversary to a restaurant that I truly believe is great for its wine list and some items on its menu, but loses many points for its terrifically bad service and horrible placement of us by a window overlooking a dumpster; then the next day it was off to bang-off start with a really bad, very hilly run that had me gasping and crawling within the hour. I walked the last hill home, and now I'm feeling the ache in my calves that tells me I was badly dehydrated when I did the run and probably could have prepared better.
we rushed to the Barnes and Noble and Apple stores in Milwaukee to pick up some things and take advantage of the lower sales tax (Chicago will go up to 10.5% this November); then we dashed home in fairly good time, sans hound and having exchanged Jim's needy car for one of his parents' three working Honda civics. Grabbed some cupcake mix and frosting for the birthday party that night, baked the things, made the birthday gift, and then it was off to get
My
New
Bike.
Which is wonderful an fast on the flats, but which has
No
Triple
Chain
Ring
I am screwed, folks, do you hear me? SCREWED. Lara, you just be sure to not wait for me at the finish line. There are plenty of fish for me to eat in the lake, and lots of fresh water: At this rate I'll be in the lake until July and on the bike course until August.
And. You are not allowed to call a 53-minute 10K a "jog." In my book that's moving pretty fast.
You already know I had my bike stolen. We had to drive up to Wisconsin to drop off der hund, and on the way up our air conditioning blew out, so it was 95 degrees on the highway in horrible traffic with no air conditioning and a nervous hound, who panted his way through the three and a half hour trip and slobbered liberally on me (not something he usually does).
We took Jim's parents out for their anniversary to a restaurant that I truly believe is great for its wine list and some items on its menu, but loses many points for its terrifically bad service and horrible placement of us by a window overlooking a dumpster; then the next day it was off to bang-off start with a really bad, very hilly run that had me gasping and crawling within the hour. I walked the last hill home, and now I'm feeling the ache in my calves that tells me I was badly dehydrated when I did the run and probably could have prepared better.
we rushed to the Barnes and Noble and Apple stores in Milwaukee to pick up some things and take advantage of the lower sales tax (Chicago will go up to 10.5% this November); then we dashed home in fairly good time, sans hound and having exchanged Jim's needy car for one of his parents' three working Honda civics. Grabbed some cupcake mix and frosting for the birthday party that night, baked the things, made the birthday gift, and then it was off to get
My
New
Bike.
Which is wonderful an fast on the flats, but which has
No
Triple
Chain
Ring
I am screwed, folks, do you hear me? SCREWED. Lara, you just be sure to not wait for me at the finish line. There are plenty of fish for me to eat in the lake, and lots of fresh water: At this rate I'll be in the lake until July and on the bike course until August.
And. You are not allowed to call a 53-minute 10K a "jog." In my book that's moving pretty fast.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
LT: Week 21
M-F: Virus + injury + child holiday = no training
S: 20 min run. Back painful.
S: Shropshire Triathlon (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run).
Swim: This was my first open water experience since last September and it shows. Still had crackly chest, wetsuit neck too tight and in general was fighting panic for the first 1000m, so couldn't apply myself at all. Pathetic. Was about 3rd from the back getting out of the water; 15 mins slower than fastest woman.
Bike was better; a lovely course of mostly flat aerobar work, with a few undulations to keep the interest up. Still felt off-form though, and knew I had to save something for the run. 8 mins slower than fastest woman.
Run: Took double dose of ibuprofen going into the run, and resolved to get around at the pace I could manage which was a pretty slow jog. Run was hilly but that saved the repeat impact on my back. Really wanted to be able to push it, but couldn't. Was still glad to manage the 10k though, because when I got up in the morning I thought I'd have to skip the run altogether. 15 mins slower than fastest woman.
Result: Sooooo slow. 16th out of 23 women. Swim: 36:10!, Bike: 1:16:23, Run: 53:25. Total: 2:46:06.
Still have a bit of lingering virus, but the biggest issue right now is my back. I'm going to stick to swimming for preparation for the half, and hope that my back can make some leaps between now and then. If the race was this weekend, I would have pulled out by now, so I'm still looking at it as borderline.
S: 20 min run. Back painful.
S: Shropshire Triathlon (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run).
Swim: This was my first open water experience since last September and it shows. Still had crackly chest, wetsuit neck too tight and in general was fighting panic for the first 1000m, so couldn't apply myself at all. Pathetic. Was about 3rd from the back getting out of the water; 15 mins slower than fastest woman.
Bike was better; a lovely course of mostly flat aerobar work, with a few undulations to keep the interest up. Still felt off-form though, and knew I had to save something for the run. 8 mins slower than fastest woman.
Run: Took double dose of ibuprofen going into the run, and resolved to get around at the pace I could manage which was a pretty slow jog. Run was hilly but that saved the repeat impact on my back. Really wanted to be able to push it, but couldn't. Was still glad to manage the 10k though, because when I got up in the morning I thought I'd have to skip the run altogether. 15 mins slower than fastest woman.
Result: Sooooo slow. 16th out of 23 women. Swim: 36:10!, Bike: 1:16:23, Run: 53:25. Total: 2:46:06.
Still have a bit of lingering virus, but the biggest issue right now is my back. I'm going to stick to swimming for preparation for the half, and hope that my back can make some leaps between now and then. If the race was this weekend, I would have pulled out by now, so I'm still looking at it as borderline.
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