Half Iron #2: Pre-Race Recap
So I’m something like 35 hours out from my second half iron distance triathlon, Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa. Having chosen to race an early season half, to clear some calendar space for an (abbreviated) off-season before starting to train for the New York City Marathon (which will be my first – as well as my last chance for guaranteed entry), I really dove into this training with the new year and the new administration. (For inauguration weekend, I escaped DC for Mexico City, which was my “end of freedom festival”; my training plan had me beginning the following Tuesday). Figured I’d divide the work and do a race “pre-cap,” before the actual tri even goes down.
As some might recall (I certainly do!), last year’s training cycle, culminating in August’s Ironman 70.3 Timberman, was somewhat tumultuous. About 2.5 months in, I began feeling pain in the interior of my left knee, which prevented me from exerting any real effort while cycling. This killed my speed at both the 2016 NYC Triathlon, and ultimately at Timberman, which was my first half. I completed the bike in 4:04:56, which was just…a really long time to be on that bike, having spent half the time either enduring or anticipating inevitable sharp pain. No fun. I was fine with my total time of 6:57, as it was my first, but the bike was pretty disappointing and unpleasant.
My goals:
I looked to 2017 for a few things. First, I knew running the NYC Marathon would be important, so I wanted to craft my year around that, rather than around triathlon. Second, I knew I needed a proper off-season – I was registered for the marathon last year, but after Timberman in late August I was just too tired to keep it up. Third, I wanted to see big gains on the bike, and ironically a slower run, since my run time (1:56) was only possible because I was unable to burn my legs during my ride.
Underlying all this was my new job, which is far, far more forgiving in terms of time, allowing me to actually train properly, so long as I was dedicated to the training.
My plan:
Once again, I adapted Matt Fitzgerald’s Super Simple 70.3 plan, but this time, dropped just one swim per week, and added a gym day instead. (For several weeks, I got to work with a trainer at my gym, which was hard, and great, but financially unsustainable.) The plan peaks at several weekends of a 60-mile ride + a transition run & a 14-mile run the following day, and unlike last year, I didn’t skip any. Swims peak at 2400m, which, if being honest, I did in yards all but one time, but I did all but one of the longer efforts. Including bike commutes (which, given how much I sweat during them, I count!!!), I peaked at around 13.5 hours a week.
So what does all this mean? As compared to last year, I more than doubled my time spent in the pool. As compared to last year, I completed an additional 5-6 long effort rides, in allllll sorts of conditions. And as compared to last year, I controlled my run mileage and truly kept it to what my plan demanded.
Things that didn’t go perfectly:
Knee. Despite these changes – a better-balanced training routine, increased strength work, and more sleep – when my rides started topping 40 miles, I started to get some threatening pain right where I had it last year – interior of my left knee. Instead of internalizing anxiety over it (OK, I had one anxious afternoon), I immediately got physical therapy recommendations from friends and started seeing Sydney over at Rose PT every single week. Through a combination of butt-strengthening exercises and trigger point release during our sessions, a couple of weeks later that pain stopped threatening, and has not since resurfaced. Could it, during a hilly 56-mile ride on Saturday? Totally! But at least I got my training in. So the fact that the pain came up isn’t good, but this is a current win, actually.
Burnt Legs. For at least 4 scattered weeks during this cycle, my legs felt absolutely toasted every morning when I tried to make them work. Fighting through that wasn’t particularly easy, but on a stepdown recovery week (i.e., “Oh my god guys I only have to ride 45 miles Saturday and run 10 miles Sunday I’m in heaven”), the legs started to come back to life so I had faith that a taper would get me to race day feeling strong and less spent. (Note: this has played out so far. I’ve felt great this week.)
Weather. Oh god, training through winter was truly as irritating as I expected. At first, I looked forward to two hours on my trainer, catching up on all the Netflix I had gotten behind on. But by the fourth week of this, I started to get really, really bored, and was dying to get outside. My toes go numb very quickly, so it’s extremely unpleasant for me to ride in anything under about 45 degrees, and I stuck to this, but as spring approached, teasing us with days of good weather and happy weekend forecasts that turned into 40s and rain, or 30s and wind, I started to get a little more stir crazy and just…went out anyway. This got me some good experience in the rain, and in the cold, and in the wind, but it wasn’t fun or my best riding. And I haven’t put on my wetsuit since last year, and haven’t gotten into any open water either. A seasonal inevitability, but seriously not ideal.
A Lengthy Vacation. Look, life happened, and I had plans to take a 2.5-week trip to Japan and Philippines in February/early March. It was early enough in my plan that I wasn’t missing any crazy volume weeks, and I put in increased run mileage during my vacation (if you’re training for something, I recommend vacationing with running friends!). I returned and didn’t feel like a complete whale…just a little set back on the bike, which I was willing to swallow.
No Proximate Training Partners. This I didn’t feel so much, because I pretty much trained alone last year, too. Callie and Abby signed onto the race, but they’re in NYC and there were a number of envious moments, seeing as they got to put in all their long efforts together. This said, our text message thread helped me get through some harder moments (e.g., the Sunday we all kept texting each other every other mile of our 14-mile run, since we were all apart and feeling warm and rough). And we got to run the NYC Half Marathon all together in March which was super fun. And not having my squad around meant I made new biking friends, like my neighbor, with whom I did virtually all of my long rides. I was lucky to have found her!
What I did (more) right:
Weight/Nutrition. I don’t own a scale and I don’t use the ones at the gym, but based on photographic evidence and, you know, mirrors, I am not as skinny as last year. This is obviously a far-from-scientific assessment, but keeping up my protein and caloric intake probably helped sustain me through the multiple peak volume weeks. While my legs might have felt exhausted, overall I didn’t grapple with any chronic fatigue preventing me from getting a workout in. (This does NOT mean that I was psyched to do every workout. I certainly texted friends multiple times saying something like, “I really don’t want to go to the pool,” asking for verbal support to get me there. This really worked.) Part of this was having an extremely supportive personal chef who was cooking multiple meals each week, since he knew that my training + work schedule was tight. Anyway, this all helped.
Not Skipping Workouts. Three or so weeks ago, my dad asked me to dinner with him last minute on a weekday, and I had planned to get my ride in after work. I had a baby conniption about skipping a workout, because it was the first one I was skipping (other than my Japan trip). Once I realized how impressive and absurd this was – and, of course, getting my head on straight about prioritizing time with my parents over one stupid 12-mile ride – I happily dined with him. But that was the first! I really (and frankly, incredibly) got the rest of them done, somehow. I swam at lunch with a triathlete newbie colleague. I sometimes went to a spin class at lunch. I would ride in to work, but take a 10-mile detour where I’d do loops of Hains Point. I would do a track workout and then run into work and get the rest of my miles in that way. I got creative and made it work.
Probably Many Other Things I’m Not Giving Myself Credit For. Since, you know, that’s a thing. Like getting myself to PT early and consistently. Like going to the gym and doing strength work even when I was soggy from a rainy run. Like having a buddy for the middle sections of most of my long runs (thanks, Julia!). I’ll take those.
So, here we are.
I’m flying now to San Francisco, staying on the couch of a generous runfriend who’s also racing Saturday (but a mere stop on the way to her second Ironman!), doing all the pre-race tasks tomorrow like picking up my bib (#1196) and dipping into likely-frigid Lake Sonoma and checking into our cute rental house situated on a vineyard. We have plans for wine tasting the day after; a day that’s hard to visualize because I’ve got a pretty big item to tick off my agenda before that happens. Here’s what I’m hoping for on Saturday, other than good race photos.
Swim. This race is seemingly unique with its self-seeded swim start. I’m going to seed according to last year’s time (43:21), but I’m hoping for and somewhat expecting a faster time given my doubled training, pending water conditions and all that (obviously). There may be some chop, as compared to the pristine, crystal-clear, calm waters of Lake Winnepesaukee, and it’ll be cold, as compared to last year’s ideal. So I can’t be surprised or disappointed if this doesn’t come through, but I’m definitely looking forward at least to a swim where I don’t have a ton of people swimming past/over me.
Bike. T1 and the bike are going to be cold. I’ve packed accordingly, and am planning to wear my winter run jacket on the ride, which to many will appear to be overkill but I get really cold on my bike. I’m nervous about this, but being prepared with the right gear is helping. I’m hoping for at least (pleeeeease) a sub-4-hour time, but honestly, I’m not sure what to expect. Picking up 20+ minutes as compared to last year would feel great, but it’s really hard to know what I’m capable of; I only started hitting my stride on my rides late in my training cycle, and even then, I was riding on a trail that had frequent momentum-killing stops. Ultimately? I’d love not to feel that knee pain, and have the freedom to burn out my legs more and feel like I got to give it a lot more of my energy. The clock can say what it wants.
Run. I’d love another sub-2-hour run. But if that doesn’t happen, I’ll be counting it as a win, since it means I worked harder on the bike. The course is a lot flatter than Timberman, which should help, as should the weather, which is forecast to be about 15 degrees cooler, but my real goal is to run the whole thing other than aid stations, and remain positive like last time. (Maybe less positive, though. I think my butterflies-rainbows-unicorns attitude on the Timberman course weirded people out.)
So there we have it. I’m not shortsighted enough to set time goals on my second half on a different course in an effectively different season. What I want is to have a great day, and not freeze, and have fun, and high five people, and cross the finish line feeling like I left everything on the 70.3-mile course. And then enjoy my victory week out West. This training cycle has already been the success I was seeking, so really, no matter what happens on Saturday, #IM703SantaRosa is a win.
Onward to the start line.
