Slow and Steady Finishes the Race

I know you all have eagerly been sitting at the edge of your seat waiting to hear all about the race.   And pretty much one word sums it up... “Amazing”     It definitely was one of my favorite race experiences I have had so far.   

We will start with 4 crazy ladies meeting up in Napa Valley to share in this experience together.   Jerusha and Renee did this race together last year and had so much fun that they each decided to bring a friend.   Renee and Jerusha were the calm ones knowing what to expect, while me and Elizabeth were high anxiety imagining the worse.  Overall the chemistry of nerves and calmness helped balanced the group out well.    

Friday we went to the expo.  This included dropping of our T2 (bike to run) transition gear, which we left sitting by the empty bike racks overnight.   Once we were done with registration and setting up our gear.   We drove part of the bike course in reverse direction to the river.  I was getting a little nervous about the bike because the roads all seemed to go downhill (which meant uphill when going the correct direction).   Jerusha and Renee continued to assure me it wasn’t as bad as it seems.  Once we got to the river, we jumped in for a quick swim.   I was very happy to discover that the current seemed non-existent.  After the swim we went back to the house we were staying at and cooked a high carb dinner.  Then it was off early to bed.

Setting up my Transition Area

We all awoke bright and early Saturday morning and left the house by 6:30 am.  Our swim wave/Race start time was at 8:36 am.  So we had a comfortable amount of time to get our bikes racked, T1 transition set up, and even a quick photo op prior to the race start.   A little before 8:36 our wave was corralled into the river, where we bobbed there until the start of the race.  

Pre-Race Photo Op - Me, Elizabeth, Renee, Jerusha

The swim felt great.  I think it was my favorite part of the course.   It was in a narrow river, which made it hard to veer too far off the beaten path (which I tend to do in lakes).      Plus the deepest part of the river was only about 7 ft deep, but there were several stretches where you had to stand and walk because you are scraping the rocks with your hands.  For the most part I preferred to stay swimming as long as possible because the rocky bottom of the river hurt my feet when walking.  I don’t think anyone, including myself ever thought I would swim 1.2 miles.  I could have stopped right there and been happy with what I accomplished.   But that wasn’t what I signed up for.  

Finished the swim in 47:58

As I got out of the water, there were wet suit strippers waiting to help me take off my wet suit.  I wish they were at all the races.   I didn’t even have to think.   Quickly ran to the bathroom and then prepared for the next part of the journey...   

Quick Smile before I head out for the ride

The bike ride was 56 miles of rolling hills through Napa Valley.  The scenery was gorgeous.  And those hills I was worried about the day before... Piece of cake.   For most of my ride, I had the Daft Punk song “Get Lucky”, which then somewhere transitioned to Selena Gomez’s song “Come and Get it” stuck in my head.  Just think of the chorus of both those songs on repeat for 4 hours.   Yep I was going crazy by the end of the ride.    At around mile 30 I started to get slightly emotional, thinking to myself, I’m really doing this, and I’m really gonna finish this.   I quickly reminded myself that I still had 26 miles to go on my bike ride and anything could happen.    But I was definitely smiling inside, knowing I was in the process of accomplishing one of my goals.   

At mile 44 came the dreaded Chalk Hill.  I was warned by several people, who have done the race before about this hill.  It was definitely a tough hill, but I like to think I rocked it.   

Bike: 3:58:55

Now for the home stretch, a 13.1 mile run, or in my case walk/run.  This was a 2 loop out and back course with several challenging rolling hills.  There was an aid station around every mile to fuel up.  At several of the aid stations, there were locals willing to spray us down with their hoses.  I did not turn down an opportunity to quickly cool off.  The loop course helped keep me motivated because I got to see and exchange words of encouragement with my buddies (who were all ahead of me at this point).  

Running Slowly, but smiling

Walking and still smiling
Total Time 3:01:14

We got a bracelet to wear after the first loop to signify we had completed 1 loop.  Since I was on the slower side, there were several ladies with a bracelet while I was on the first loop. However, no one was willing to sell/trade me their bracelet.   I had to earn it on my own.   At mile 12, I tried a new energy drink called Coke.  It gave me an extra burst of energy to run the last mile and cross the finish line.   

 At the finish line I had my race buddies cheering me on.  And after 8 hrs and 5 minutes and 2 seconds of exercise, I can now claim I have completed a 70.3 half ironman race. 

Crossing the Finish Line in Style

Made it!  8:05:02

  

Super Stars: Jerusha, Elizabeth Renee, Melissa

The next day, woke up a little sore (lower back and quads) but overall not too bad.  We had a low key morning and then enjoyed a relaxing day of wine tasting.   We deserved it :)

Day After relaxing at a Vineyard

Overall the whole experience was a blast.  If you want a good challenge, I highly recommend doing a half ironman.  In fact, I am hoping my work schedule will allow me to participate in this race again next year!  

Final Thoughts before the Race

Okay its T-6 days until the big race, so here are my final thoughts...  Do I feel ready for it?  Nope!   Will I ever feel ready for it?  Nope!   Am I scared to death?  Yup!    Am I excited to see what this challenge has in store for me?  Yup!

So my ultimate goal is to finish the race, preferably smiling :)   I’m still nervous about not making the course cut-off times.   As long as everything goes well, I should be okay. 

So the race is this Saturday.  We will go to the expo and drop of our run stuff on Friday.   On Saturday my Swim wave starts at 8:36am.   The swim course cut-off time is 9:57 AM.  The swim is in a river where we swim .6 miles upstream and then .6 miles downstream.   Assuming the current isn’t super strong and I can make it up stream I hope to finish the swim in about 50 minutes.    

Next comes the bike portion.  This will be a 56 mile bike ride starting in the town of Guerneville and finishing in Windsor.  I’m told to expect a bumpy ride with lots of rolling hills.  I’ve also been warned of chalk hill at mile 45 which is a 385 ft climb. The total elevation change for the bike course is approximately 1897 ft and the bike cut-off time is 3:00pm.  I’m assuming it will take me about 4hr to do the bike ride, thats equivalent to a 14mph pace.   (I did a 42 mile ride last weekend with similar terrain at a 14.5 mph pace).    

Then comes the dreaded run.  It includes several rolling hills that will prove challenging especially after 5+ hours of exercise.   I’m capable of running a half marathon in 2 hrs 20 mins.  However, I’m going to be realistic in knowing that I’m going to be running on fumes at that time, and hope to do the run in 3 hrs.  

So, the cut-off time for entire race is 5:06 pm. If I combine my expected course times, with the assumption of 20 minutes total of transition time, bathroom breaks and fuel stops, I expect to finish around 4:47pm.  That gives me about 20 minutes of padding to the official course cut off time. 

Everything is definitely do-able, I just have to be mentally ready for this challenge.   I have put in the hours of training and now I just have to get out there and do it :)

I’m looking forward to the weekend and the experience.  Hopefully in my next post I can say I have successfully completed a Half Iron Man.  Stay tuned!

2 Weeks and Counting!

So I started freaking out a little on Friday when I got my first “good luck” from someone who was going to be on vacation for the next two weeks. Isn’t it a little early for good lucks??? I mean the race is still... oh wait 2 WEEKS AWAY!!!  EEK!   

Do I feel ready?  That's an easy answer, NOPE!   I would love to have another 4 weeks of training, but I’m not that lucky.   Looking back to the training plan,  I feel I stuck to about 75% of it.  I think thats pretty good considering I was juggling work, training, husband, friends, and vacations.   

My training has included 4 various distance triathlons to get me use to the entire race environment.  For the swimming part of my training I participated 2+ hours a week in a masters swim program at my gym.  The bike training consisted of riding to and from work once a week,  and then several longer rides (3+ hours) with Jerusha (another crazy person who signed up for this race with me) on the weekend. The longest ride was 54 miles (Note: I would have loved to get 1 more 50+ ride in to feel more prepared for the ride).  I feel like the area of training I slacked off the most on was running.   If my schedule only allowed for one activity, running was usually the one I skipped.  But now its the one I'm scared of the most in the race.  My running training consisted of several shorter runs during the week, and then a long run on sunday post the long saturday rides.   Most of my long runs were at a slower pace than I would have liked but I keep telling myself the slowness is due to the legs being tired and sore from the ride the day before.    

But there is good news with being so close to the race, it means I get to start tapering :) My training for the next two weeks is going to be about resting my muscles and not going overboard.   The last weekend work outs is a basic bike-run brick (2hrs at the most) followed by a quick Sunday ride.  I can definitely handle that :)

Even though I’m backing off on the workouts, I have a feeling these next two weeks are going to go by fast and race day is going to be here before I know it.  

5 Weeks to go!!! EEK!!!

Breath deeply and count to 10 slowly.  As of today, my work schedule is slowing down and not so hectic...   Which means... I can officially stop freaking out about work, and start freaking out about this little race I’ve signed up for.   

Yup thats right.   I’m officially getting nervous about the race.  I’ve started reviewing the race website and course details.   The website states that there are cut-off times at the various stages of the race.    If my calculations are correct, I’m going to be pushing those cut-off times to the nearest second.  I reviewed the results from the previous year and looks like the cut-off times were not enforced.  Fingers crossed, that it will be the same this year.   If they are enforcing the times, I better hope not to get a flat tire :)

I am hoping to use these nerves to help motivate me with the final month of training.  I have some long bike rides and long runs scheduled these next few weekends and am going to need every ounce of energy to keep focused.  

Off the topic a little,  I was talking to my mom about my nerves for the upcoming race  and she mentioned something about me being “athletic”.   I corrected her and stated I prefer to use the word “sporty”.    Why?  Because I’m definitely not the naturally talented athlete.  I have to work hard to be in the middle of the pack.   But I do enjoy getting out there and challenging myself.   And those who know me, know that I'm very competitive with me, myself, and I.    So I think “sporty” best describes me.  

Half Way Point/Final Stepping Stone

So I have passed the half way point of my training plan and I’m starting to feel a lack of motivation. I think the main factor for this motivation issue has been work related.  For the past couple weeks, work has been stressful, including long work days and non-normal hours.  To help balance out work and training, I have backed off a lot of the hours from my training plan in order to not add additional stress of having to keep 100% to the training plan.   I’m hoping to get back onto the training in a week or so once work calms down a bit.   

In addition to the long, crazy work days, I have completed my Final Training Race Stepping Stone.   This was the final installment of the LA Tri Series, which was an Olympic Distance Race (1500 m swim, 40 km bike, 10k run).  I was hoping to complete the race in 3 hrs 45 mins, which is definitely with in my capability.   The swim went okay, with one minor issue.   The swimit, which I purchased to allow me to feel safe in the water, kept sliding down my leg and trying to fall off.  I had to stop my forward motion of swimming several times in order to try and adjust it to keep it from falling off.   I think this probably added on about 4+ minutes to my time.  

Side Note from the swim:  As I was exiting the lake, there was an older gentleman in the water.  I couldn’t figure out if he was okay or not so I asked him, and he responded he couldn’t stand up.    So I went back to help him with another lady who was finishing up the swim with me.    He told us not to worry about him and to keep going.  We both looked at each other and said, does it look like we care about our time?  (Note, there weren’t many people left in the water at this time).   Anyways we helped him get up out of the water.  I’m not sure what happened to him after we left his side, but it felt good to help someone in need out.

Next came the bike ride.  As soon as I got on the bike, I could tell this was going to be slow ride.  I just felt as if I was riding through sand.   I was over 1 mph slower than I was in the last race.  The bike consisted of 3 loops and before finishing the first loop I was already dreading the run.   Prior to starting the race, I was hoping to run the 10k with a nice and easy 11 min pace.   Definitely doable.   I was on track for the first mile, but it was all uphill after that.    My legs felt like they were tied down to bricks.   I just couldn’t get them moving.   I also thought I would do a 3 min run 1 min walk.   It seemed to work out okay for the first few miles.  But it seemed like every uphill, was blacktop in direct sunlight.    So I wimped out and decided to walk the hills as well.    Which then brought my pace to a 13 min mile.  2 minutes off my goal pace.   

In the end, the race took me a total of 4 hrs and 8 minutes.   Almost a half hour slower than what I had hoped for.   I’m guessing my work week helped play a key part to why I was so much slower than I had expected (10 hr days, bouncing between second and first shift makes for tired melissa).   However, it does not give me a warm and fuzzy for Barb’s race.    I am hoping to finish Barb’s race between 7 and 8 hours, however with this weekends race time, it would be over 8 hrs.    So I think the path forward is to start focusing on my biking and running.   I have focused a lot on swimming because that is what I’m most uncomfortable with.  However, I definitely need to pick up my focus on the other two events.   Hopefully I will be able to find the time to stick to the training plan for these next 6 weeks. 

Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate / Cyclo Femme

This past weekend I have completed my second stepping stone race to Barb’s race.   This was a mid sprint Tri course... involving a 1000 meter swim, 16.4 mile bike ride, and a 5 mile run to finish off.

This was a slightly different experience then the last one.  After the last race, I decided to go out a purchase a SwimIt.   (Its a small pack with an inflatable life jacket that you can wear on your leg.  If I start to panic, I can pull the cord and inflate the jacket.  Of course that means I would be disqualified from the race.  But I’m okay with that if it means I don’t drown).  I got several questions and comments on it.  It seems there are a lot of other triathletes who are nervous and panic in the water as well.   Overall, in the swim I felt slow, but good.   When I reached the shore, I was happy to be back on dry land, but felt I could have done another lap if needed.   Still haven’t seen the SwimIt in action, but thats a good thing :)

As for the bike... There was a good amount of elevation gain.  Per my GPS it looks like it was over 2000 ft of elevation gain in just 16 miles.  The best part of being a circle course, is what goes up, must go down. WHEEEE!!! I love the downhills!!!  Overall, my legs felt pretty good.   However, I missed an important step during the ride, which is to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate for the run.   Finished the bike ride with no major issues.  

Then the run came... Sun was starting to shine brightly and it was starting to get super hot.  (Note: I don’t enjoy running in weather hotter than about 72, and this was close to 80 by the time I started my run.   I’m definitely a beach city runner and not an inland empire runner.)  I was happy to find that the first mile of the run course was in the shade.  Only to realize miles 1-4 were in directly in the sun and uphill.   Lets just say, I hit a mental block and bonked on my run, which has became more of a walk/run.  I like to think if I had stayed hydrated better on the ride, I would have been much better prepared for the run.   

Anyways,  thats another race in the books.  I will learn from it, and continue on with my training.

Cyclo Femme Woman Global Cycling Day 

The following day, I participated in Cyclo Femme.  

From cyclofemme.com:

CycloFemme is a socially-driven grass-roots celebration of women on bikes. We are of a growing community, for a growing community, and 100% volunteer-based. Our annual Mother’s Day ride unites riders, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or bicycle preference to share in the joy of cycling. In our first year, 163 rides were registered in 14 countries with many others joining in to celebrate in their own special way. Ride with us this May 12, 2013 as we Honor the Past, Celebrate the Present, Empower the Future of Women in Cycling.

I met with a great group of ladies, Beach Cities Women Cyclist and rode a flat 36 mile ride through huntington Beach, Newport Beach and the Back Bay.   There were about 11 of us on a mission to get out and ride.   It was a beautiful day with wonderful weather.   I was a little nervous, because my legs were already exhausted from the day before, and I hadn’t put on more than 30 miles on a bike ride since last summer.   The first 20 miles were fast and speedy,  the last 10 miles not so much. I was impressed with the ladies who were able to go all out for the entire ride.  Maybe next time I will be one of those ladies...however,  for a day after a race, I was happy just to survive :) 

Beach Cities Women Cyclists - Participating in Cyclo-Femme

Quick Update: 1 Official Week down of training 13 more weeks to go.

First off,  I just want to thank everyone who has donated.  I have officially met the minimum race requirement for fundraising. I'm amazed and blessed by all the support I have received in this short period of time.   I can now focus 100% of my attention to the training. If you didn't donate, but still want to, here's the link:  http://www.active.com/donate/vineman13/MelissaErwin     

As for the training side... I have been very busy.  This was the first official week of my training plan.   For the most part I have stayed on par with the plan.  This consisted of 2.5 hrs of swimming, 2 hrs of running, and 4.25 hrs of cycling/spinning.   The only exception to the plan was Friday's swim.  It was suppose to be an hour swim, but it turns out the beautiful weather caused the outdoor pool to be super popular so I was only able to fit in a half hour swim.   

Also, I have joined a master’s swim program at my gym.   I think it will probably be the best decision in my training plan.  In this program, I have learned that I have a horrible kick, an incorrect stroke, and loose core.   All causing a lack of efficiency.  Hopefully with some instruction, I can break all my bad habits and become a stronger swimmer.  

After one week of training, I’m exhausted and looking forward to tomorrows rest day :)    

Some Races are Better than Others

This weekend involved my first open water triathlon of the season.   It was a sprint Tri, which means it is some distance shorter than an olympic distance tri.  For this race, I had a 500m swim in a lake, followed by 14 mile bike ride, with a 5k run to finish it off.   

Each race I do is a stepping stone the the half ironman in July.   This one had some great lessons learned.

Lesson 1:  Need to be more comfortable in open water

I’m a novice swimmer.  I have grown up spending all my summers in a pool, but mainly playing on a diving board.  I have never been part of a swim team or had a reason to swim long distances.   So I have acknowledged this as my weakness in my training and have made it a priority to swim the required distances with some instruction.   However, thats all in a pool with a pretty black lane line to follow and the knowledge of the pool edge is only 25 yards away.   Open water swimming is a completely different experience.   First, the water is a lot colder than a pool.  65 degrees vs 80 degrees. Second, the water can be murky and hard to see.  Third its up to me to remember to look where the buoys are to swim around.  Fourth, wearing a wetsuit for a swim is a completely different feeling than a bathing suit.  Take all that, while being kicked by a herd of swimmers equals a very stressed out swimmer.    I must make it a point to swim in open water more often other than race day.

Lesson 2:  Sometimes a Flat Tire Happens

The bike course was a hilly 14 mile course.  I definitely wasn’t crushing it, but I think I was holding my own (passed several ladies on the second loop).   I had just climbed the last hill of the bike loop and ready for a down hill rush only to feel my bike wanting to slow down.  Looked down and “crap” my back tire was flat.   (Note: prior to this flat, the total number of flats I have changed on my bike is 1 and I watched a youtube video the entire time).   Luckily I had a spare tire and a CO2 cartridge to fix the issue.   The whole ordeal was about 20 minutes.   But during that 20 minutes I got to watch everyone I worked so hard to pass, pass me.   Very frustrating.   All I wanted to do was quit and call it a day.   Which leads me to my next lesson...

Lesson 3:  No matter what happens don’t give up

Coming into the transition area after my bike ride was a little disheartening.  A lot of people had already completed the race and were packing up.   Me, I still had a 5k ahead of me.   I was pretty much guessing I was dead last, can’t confirm this though, and frustrated over the previous two sections of the race.   It took every ounce of energy to force myself to continue with the run portion of the course.  But I didn’t sign up for a duathlon, i signed up for I triathlon and I was going to finish it with my head held high.    I headed out of the transition area on my run all by myself with the course volunteers cheering me on.  Around mile one I slowly started to pass a few of the competitors, which definitely helped motivate me.  At mile 3, I was able to help out a kid who seemed ready to quit (dad was doing anything he could to motivate this kid) and challenged him to a race to the finish.  We both sprinted .15 miles to the finish line and crossed together.   No matter how hard it seems, we can always surprise ourselves and do the unthinkable.  I just have to remember, the unthinkable won’t happen if I don’t try.  

Now time to get back to training :)

Developing a Training Strategy

Okay so I have signed up for this race...  but where do I begin???

After talking to people and researching training plans, I have settled on a training plan laid out in the Training Plans for Multisport Athletes book.   "Multisport Athlete" ... I like the sound of that.   

I came across this training plan due to a recommendation from a co-worker who does full iron-man triathlons, but I choose this plan because it seems doable with my work schedule.   Most weeks average about 8 hrs of training with the max hours of training for any given week is 10 hours.   A bulk of the heavy work outs are on the weekends, with a long bike ride on one day, and a long run on the other day.  

This is a 13 week plan which means it officially starts the last week of April.  But there's nothing wrong with starting it earlier and repeating weeks as needed.   

For the past couple weeks, I have just been doing my own thing just trying to build a base in the individual sports.  Swimming is going to be the leg of the race where I will just want to survive.   I have swam the race distance in a pool, but I'm slower than molasses.   Cycling has consisted of spin classes for the most part, but now that its spring I hope to start riding my bike to work again at least one day a week.   Running has been going strong.  I have gotten my speed from slow to acceptable.  Overall I still have my work cut out for me.   Its not going to be a walk in the park, but just have to keep thinking of how awesome I will feel when I cross that finish line.   

Time to Race on the Base - Reverse Tri

Today I participated in a Reverse Triathlon.   It starts with a 5k run, followed by a 13 mile bike ride ending in the pool for a 200 m swim.   Now I know this is no where as tough or as long as July's big race.   But it allows me to see where my base is at.

Overall, I really enjoyed the race.  It was so nice to start with the run. It allowed me to have some pep in my step.  It also let me know I can run at a decent pace with out any music.   (I'm dreading the 13.1 mile run with no music... there's a no headphone rule for safety reasons).  I ended up having my best 5k race time which was 29:54.  

The bike portion was 3 loops around the runway.   This was the first race I have done with a loop.  It was encouraging because I was on loop 1 or 2 at the same time as the faster riders (they were probably on loop 3).   They helped push me to ride harder and stronger.   Ended up finishing the bike portion in 46 minutes.   

The final 200m zig and zag through the swimming pool was a great way to cool down after the bike and run.   Plus I didn't feel all stinky and sweaty on my ride home after the race... always a plus :)

I definitely enjoyed this event and would do it again.   It was great way to start the day.   Can't wait for the first normal direction triathlon of the season in April.   

And so the journey begins....

Never in my right mind would have I thought this to be a good idea.  However, for some reason I feel the need to push myself to the limit.   So come this July I will be swimming 1.2 miles, followed by a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run.   That's right I've just signed up for a half iron man.  Barb's Race to be exact.   This will be a good 7+ hour work out for me.   So I have my work cut out for me.

I have completed many half marathons since 2010 and have recently completed a sprint triathlon and an Olympic distance triathlon.    So I'm not starting from scratch, but definitely not a walk in the park. I do have a lot of stepping stones planned leading up to the race with several  shorter races.

I hope to maintain this blog through out my training to keep me motivated on the event and keep anyone who is interested updated on my progress.   

Who would have thought I would have such a crazy goal as this?