Mentally Challenged

So the big day is some 44 days away. This week I took another big step. I signed up for Ironman Lake Placid. This race is held in Lake Placid, New York. It will be my 3rd Ironman race. It is 2 months and 25 days after my 2nd Ironman. This is really going to require a huge base to be built up prior to my 2nd Ironman. So much of a base that I can quickly recover from Ironman Utah, and get right back to training. It's a good thing that Todd will be able to help me with this. The course is pretty challenging with some good climbs on the bike and run. Check out the website Ironman Lake Placid. After signing up for this race, I began to think back to my first few triathlons, and I realized that my first season of triathlons was very similar to my first season of Ironman races. Back in the spring of 2007, I signed up for some 5 triathlon races in one night before ever having raced in one. I just gotten a new bike and I wanted to make a commitment to training and jump head first into the triathlon world. Well here I am doing the same exact thing with the Ironman distance race. Signing up for 3 Ironman races before ever completing a single one. I think this speaks a great deal about who I am and can in few words explain how I tick. When I put my mind towards a goal, I go all out to see it thru. Well I am here to say that this is the plan. I have a few other goals in my future, but haven't really committed to any of the fully yet except the Ironman. Those are in no order:

1. Cross Country bike ride
2. 50 mile Ultramarathon
3. 100 mile Ultramarathon
4. Racing in every Ironman in the USA and Canada....... (I'm closer to this one than any, and probably will achieve this in the next few years)

So back to the point and title of this article.

I haven't been posting much lately, but seeing as my race is so close, I really wanted to reflect back on what I have learned from my training and share this with others. Making the decision to train for an Ironman is a big commitment. Not only a commitment of time, but money, and even a psychological commitment. I have gotten to a point in my physical training where, I just expect to go out and train everyday, day after day. There are many days where the easy thing to do would be just sleep in or just take a day off. There are days when you wake up sore and don't wanna run. You have to push yourself out the door and work hard. Racing an Ironman is something you can't fake. You have to put in the time and effort, otherwise you will fail. Before my training really began, I didn't know what to expect, week after week, day after day. I just would get my schedule from Todd, and work the plan. As Todd says, plan the work, work the plan. Now, I kind of know what to expect from him. The biggest challenges so far in training for this distance race have not really been logging the miles, but something else. The two biggest challenges are as listed below. So anyone thinking about an Ironman, start planning on how to figure out these mysteries.

1. Ironman Race Nutrition
2. The psychological aspect of training

The hardest thing so far, that I haven't figured out 100% is my nutrition on the bike. Each weekend is another experience, and to be honest, the only thing that I can control is what I put into my body and how far I ride or run. Everything else is just sit back and see what happens. I would say that I have about 65 - 75% plan for nutrition on the bike. But I have 45 days, to keep experimenting. I don't suspect that I will have figured out my nutrition strategy 100% even on race day. If it is like my Half Iron distance races, I will have to do a few before I perfect it. No harm about this and I'm really not that worried about it either. What ever happens, happens.

The other very difficult thing is purely psychological in 2 different aspects. The first aspect is how you have to push yourself to new limits almost every day. For your first Ironman what do you expect? You are going to be training more than you ever have in your life. So you just have to accept this and know that you got to put in the time to achieve your goal. It can be challenging of course, but don't you think the race will be challenging too? Whenever I get down about my training, feel frustrated, or feel like quitting during a long day, I just suck it up and think to myself, that I KNOW I will feel the same way in Wisconsin too. By continuing to overcome, those days when you feel like quitting, I am building a library of memories that I can draw upon during that fateful day in Madison. While racing in Madison, I am going to want to stop, walk and probably quit, but every time that happens, I'll just stop and think about the long days I spent all summer training and remind myself that the pain will pass just keep moving, and the faster you move the sooner you'll be done. This is very important for me, and I feel I have truly grown in my ability to push thru pain and go to new levels.

The second psychological aspect is POSITIVE VISUALIZATION. I never really realized it until I read some articles in this months Triathlete magazine, but I have been relying on this for so long. Ever since my first race. Many people ask me what I think about when I got out and ride for 5 hours or run for 2+ hours. Well to be completely honest the below items are really what goes thru my head in no particular order:

1. overall body feel / pain. etc.
2. reminding myself to eat and drink
3. singing lyrics to songs I'm listening
4. thinking about the lyrics to songs and what they mean
5. visualizing myself at all the points during the Ironman and how I am going to feel.
6. The feeling I am going to be feeling at the finish line of IM Wisconsin

Items number 5 and 6 are what I mean by positive visualization. I visualize my self racing Ironman Wisconsin. I put myself in Madison mentally every day. I am thinking about the 2 laps on the swim in the lake, while I am in the pool. I concentrating on relaxing and finding a groove in the lake. While on the bike or doing hill repeats, I am thinking about climbing those rolling hills in the farm lands of Madison. Thinking about what I am going to feel like after loop #1 heading into loop #2. Trying to relax and be positive. Thinking about relaxing riding out in the first 20 - 30 minutes of IM Wisconsin bike leg. Thinking about mile 18 on the run in Wisconsin and knowing that the only thing that is going to be running thru my head is how bad I feel, how much I just wanna stop sit down and quit and how I am going to overcome this feeling and keep moving forward for those last 8.2 miles. I think about this all the time. I think about all the lows that I am going to feel on the run and how I can over come them. All of these thoughts are truly a huge part of my training. I really feel that by thinking these thoughts, I am preparing myself psychologically for everything that may happen during the race. Without this mental preparation, I feel I would not be ready for the race. This positive visualization is something I highly recommend to all athletes, because it will really pay dividends. I have done it for every race, I have ever competed in and sometimes during the actual race, I sometimes get a deja vu feeling wash across me. This can be a bit eery, but that disappears, and it soon it is an advantage that I have over other competitors, and my own self.

So think about it, and see if you can apply that your life.

Buffalo Springs Ironman 70.3

Buffalo Springs Ironman 70.3 Race Report

So it wasn’t but a year ago that I raced at the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon (BSLT). This race is a 70.3 race. It is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run. Last year I blew up. It was one of the most difficult races I had ever done. I had to resort to walking on the run. My legs were cramping, it was rough. Follow this LINK for a recap of that race. This year would be a different story. My only goal for this year was to cross the finish line feeling fresh, and have a solid run. No walking. Well this year I did that and more.

In the days preceding this race temperatures across Texas were almost setting records. It had been over 100 degrees for the whole week. In triathlons as in life you can’t control the weather so you take what you get. I was ready to race in the heat. I train in the heat all summer. There is no way around in Texas. It’s something you learn to live with and actually, if you are like me kind of like. People always say how do you go exercise in this heat, it’s so hot out. All they do is complain. Well, I have a simple way of making myself adapt to it. I constantly tell myself all day long, all year long, “It’s not that hot out” By repeating this year round, I have adapted to the temperatures and it really doesn’t feel that bad to me. I routinely train at some of the hottest times of the days. I run after work and ride after work anywhere from 4pm to 9pm. So I like many others were expecting to see 100 degree temperatures on race day. Since there was a great deal of potential for extreme heat, I planned out all week to be really cognizant of my hydration. I was eating lots of fruit, apples, grapes, taking salt pills all week, and drinking lots of water and Gatorade. I would say each day I easily drank close to 7 liters of water. On Friday alone I drank / ate the following things:

1. 1 Liter of water with breakfast
2. 8 oz of skim milk (.25L)
3. 32 oz Gatorade (approx 1 liter)
4. 32 oz Gatorade (approx 1 liter)
5. 1 gallon of spring water ( 3.78L)
6. 1 gallon of spring water with NUUN (3.78L)
7. .75 lbs of grapes
8. 2 apples
9. Plus a few glasses of water with dinner (approx 1L)

Total for the day: 12.75 liters of fluids

I awoke on Saturday morning and was so hydrated that my urine was completely clear. This actually made me really happy. This meant my hydration plan was working. It just so happened that the God’s were happy with us on race day and gave us an almost perfect day. Upon waking race morning it was a mere 70 something degrees. The forecast called for 70’s till after 12pm. This was a bonus. They also called for rain, not so good, but not bad either. Recall last year it rained the entire time too. So I had experience with this. I had a good pre-race dinner of pizza, salad, glass of wine and lots of water. I was in bed and asleep by 10pm. We had our alarm set for 3:30AM. Super early.

Woke up and did my normal routine, ate my same breakfast and was ready to pack up the car. I wheeled my bike out and notice I had a flat front tire. Not good. So Prepared to change it quickly, I stripped the tire and pulled the inner tube and inflated it to see where the leak was. It was at the valve stem. This meant I had to change the tube. I pulled off my valve extender only to find out the spare I had was no good with the valve extender. I was glad this happended not during a race. The local bike shop was able to fix me up once we got to the race. I have since bought the right tubes. I got to the race set up transition and started waiting in line for the toilets, the line was too long for me to keep waiting, so went to the swim start. This would prove to be an issue later. Swim went fine as usual. My splits were as follows:

Swim 1.2 Miles – 34:15 = 1:46 / 100m

On to the bike, my plan was to hold back a bit on the bike so that I would be able to have a solid run. I feel that I could have ridden the course much faster, but didn’t want my run ruined either. Keep in mind the elevation profiles for this course are shown below. It is a tough course. Luckily there was no heat. On the bike I felt great on every climb and was able to keep my heart rate very low. I had a 17 minute timer on my watch to remind to eat, drink, and take a salt pill. I wanted to try to get almost 400 calories in per hour. T his would include Gatorade too. Here was my nutirition plan in order of what I ate.

My total bike split was : 56 miles --2:44:58 -- 20.4 mph Average

1. Chocolate Cliff Bar – I ate this right out of transition – 240 calories
2. Gel – 110 calories
3. Gel – 110 calories
4. Gel – 110 calories
5. Peanut Butter Powerbar – 240 calories
6. Vanilla Powerbar – 240 calories
7. Gel – 110 calories
8. Cliff Shot Blocks – 190 calories

Total food calories on the bike: 1460 calories – total ride time less than 3 hours, so I met my plan of 400 calories an hour.

As far fluids went, I started with my aero bottle filled with NUUN, 2 shorty bottles with Gatorade and 1 bottle with water. I did 2 gatorade bottle hand ups and 2 water hand ups. So total fluids drank was about:

Gatorade / NUUN – 88 oz
Water – 48 oz
I took 2 – 3 salt pills every other 17 minutes.

I have come to the conclusion that the more I eat on the bike, the better I can run. Plain and simple. I have repeated this time and time again in my training on the weekends. The plan for Ironman Wisconsin is to eat on a similar time pattern. I also plan on having some sort of solid food / sandwich / wrap / or something in my special needs bag and eating that prior to completing the first of the 2 two 47 mile loops.
I was very positive about my ride. I have decided that for any races or long rides going forward, I will not use my speedometer. I will simply ride with cadence and heart rate. This is much better for me as I don’t get frustrated with average speed and or mph.

Off the bike and into T2. I had a decent transition. I had accumulated all kinds of rocks and debris in my bike shoes during the ride. Since the last 16 miles it rained somewhat hard on me. Upon arriving in T2, my shoes and socks were soaked with water. Luckily I race in my ZOOT shoes which have holes in the soles and allow water to drain very efficiently. I plan on purchasing a pair of the newer versions for IM Wisconsin. The newer versions have more padding and will help on a marathon distance run.

Out of T2, I started clicking off the miles and just wanted to get in a groove. It is funny for me now, that unless I really push myself hard on the bike, I don’t even feel like I have ridden when I go to run. Or the fact that I have been doing at least 1 or 2 bricks per week, I got into a groove very quickly. My heart rate was extremely low and I was still running a sub 8-minute mile pace. Then I got this feeling, that wasn’t good. I had to go shit. So I stopped at mile 3 and took 4 minutes to run to the shit house and go. I knew I would be able to run better if I did this. This was upsetting because I wanted to go again before the race but couldn’t because of the line. I also didn’t have enough time because of the flat tire shit that happened. Lesson learned. I need to allow even more time to get to the race venue than expected. This poses a problem when carpooling with others. I generally always like to error on the side of caution and would get to the race venue as soon as it opens, but when others are with you this is always not an option. So with that episode behind me, I kept running. I met up with a good mate from Austin, TX who had formerly lived in Australia for the past 6 years. We ran together from mile 5 to 13.1. We were running strong and great. As you can see from the below splits. I took 2 gels on the run, Gatorade, water, and coca cola at almost every aid station. I also took 4 salt pills. Check out my splits and HR’s below.

Mile Splits:

Pace / Mile -- HR
1. 7:52 – 143
2. 7:50 – 144
3. 10:21 – 140
4. 8:52 – 147 (I forgot to hit my watch included a hill)
5. 7:47 – 150 (this was short from previous mile)
6. 7:42 – 151
7. 8:06 – 150
8. 7:31 – 152
9. 7:28 – 150
10. 8:05 –153
11. 7:44 – 150
12. 7:41 – 154
13. 7:32 – 157
14. :26 – 161

TOTAL HALF MARATHON SPLIT: 13.1 miles -- 1:45:06 -- 8:01/mile

So all in all this was an awesome run. My time would have been 3:45 seconds less had I not go to use the bathroom. This would have put my overall time for the half down around almost 1:41. This is excellent. I am extremely pleased with this and how fresh I felt during the run. No cramping at all on the run. I have never ran like this before in a race. I feel very confident that on an easier course I can probably run a 1:35 – 1:40 half marathon after riding 56 miles.
With all that being said, I am now toying with racing Longhorn 70.3 on October 25th, in Austin, TX. I did it last year and I think I can own the race. I think I can break 5 hours by a larger margin than I did in Galveston earlier in the season. Who knows, if I do well enough and people don’t show for the awards, I may get a roll down slot to the Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Clearwater, Florida. This is the worlds champion and you have to qualify to race it. At BSLT, the slots rolled down to 13th. I got 17th in my age group. I plan on racing BSLT again next year and hope to break 5 hours there as well. The way I see it a 22 minute improvement in only one year is astronomical. If I can continue that pace for the next 5 years, I very well may be able to qualify for Kona or Clearwater at some point in the future.