The Journey Begins!

It's finally here! And it's a rest day! Pretty anti-climactic, but having all this down-time today gave me some time to think about how all this came about. I won't go all the way back to how I went from a heavy-smoking, Rolling Rock-drinking club-goer to a (mostly) health-conscious, (now-lapsed) vegetarian runner. That's a story for another post.

My triathlon addiction began shortly after I ran the Boston Marathon in 2000. And when I say "ran",  I mean I ran it as a bandit: no number. And even though I managed to fulfill my goal of not walking, I was barely keeping it together by the end. I was in so much pain, people were walking faster than I was staggering those last few miles. And the aftermath....oh,  how I hurt! My body felt broken for months afterwards and I had pretty much abandoned all hopes of ever doing another marathon.

But then I went to the Salem Y one day in early 2002 and saw a brochure for a triathlon training program that ended with the first annual Witch City Triathlon. I loved to bike, but all I had was my mountain bike that I barely rode. I was new to Salem, and had no idea where to even ride. I couldn't even remember the last time I had swam. But something about it interested me, and I needed a new challenge. My body wasn't up to the pounding of running exclusively anymore. I wanted to cross-train, and this promised coaching for all 3 events, a training and nutrition plan, and also the potential of making some friends in my new city. Even though I was really nervous about it, I signed up, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made.

I made such a great group of friends, a group of women who, almost 10 years later, I still run, bike and swim with every week. We trained for that sprint tri like we were training for the Olympics. That was the only triathlon that I ever placed. I came in 3rd in my age-group while riding my mountain bike! It was great fun, and I continued to do that sprint for several years after doing the first. The following summer I signed up for the Cranberry Country Olympic Distance tri in Lakeville, MA. I did ok -- I had bought a road bike by then, although I didn't use a wetsuit (big mistake #1!), and wore running shorts instead of tri-shorts for the bike (big mistake #2!). But I was happy with my results and because it was in my hometown, my whole family and lots of high-school friends were there. It was great to have a cheering squad throughout the route! That is such a well-run race. I've done it once since then, and would have done it a third time this summer had it not been cancelled due to a hurricane.

I hadn't thought much about doing any longer events until I was at the Y that fall of 2003 running on the treadmill. My friend Patty came in and asked if I'd be interested in doing a half-ironman with her. My response was, "No way! You're crazy!" I couldn't even comprehend racing for 70.3 miles. But then, since there is nothing else to do while running on a treadmill, I started thinking, and thinking, and before Patty even left the building I told her I was in. We signed up for the Timberman in NH for 2004. We trained as a group, even though it was just the two of us doing the race. We didn't follow any plan, just trained by the seat of our pants. There were a lot of really long rides followed by really long runs, which I now know was not the best way to train. I'd heard the ride was hilly so we did what we thought were hilly rides, which by no means prepared us for the mountainous climbs and descents of that race. Mistakes were made, muscle-cramps were had, but I finished in my goal time. However, I was so miserable on the run: GI distress, muscle-spasms and just plain exhaustion, that I knew I had messed up somewhere. I vowed to correct my nutrition mistakes for the next time. Next time? Really?? I was totally hooked.

But then I had two babies (not at once), and time constraints were such that long-course events were put on the back burner. I still managed some sprints and olympic distances, and even a marathon, but it wasn't until my youngest was almost three that I decided to take on another 70.3. I had had it in the back of my head for years that I wanted to do an ironman when I was forty. Now that I was 39, I needed to seriously think about whether this was at all possible. I wanted it so badly, and after training for and finishing the Patriot Half in Freetown, MA, I knew I was ready. My training friends and I had already planned to volunteer at Lake Placid in July with the hopes that my friend Deanne and I would sign up the next day, which is exactly what we did. And now, five months later, we're embarking on what some would say is a journey of insanity. I'm SO excited, and nervous, and hopeful, and scared. The next thirty weeks will be one wild ride!

Tick-tock

I am now two weeks out from the official start of my Ironman training. My good friend and Ironman partner Deanne and I were joking about how we should go on a week-long bender before the training starts -- nothing but pizza, beer and cupcakes. In reality, it feels like the better part of the last year has been one long dress-rehearsal.

I registered for the Patriot 1/2 last winter and used that race as a deciding factor: if I could manage the 4am wake-up times and stick to an aggressive training plan, then I felt like I could register for Lake Placid. I trained hard for that race and felt even stronger than when I did the Timberman 70.3 in 2004. I hadn't done a 1/2 IM since before I had kids, when I had the luxury of time. Now I feel like my training is so much more streamlined. No more junk miles, every workout has to matter. It's made me so much more efficient and disciplined.

It's still not pleasant when the alarm goes off at 4am, but once I'm out there, I have no regrets. There's something satisfying about feeling like you've accomplished something before most people are even out of bed. My husband says it's like I have this secret life while he and the kids are sleeping, and I like that because it makes me feel like I'm some sort of double-agent. Not to mention that I feel less guilty about taking so much time to train if the rest of the family is unconscious while I'm doing it.

Swim progress!

I went to a lecture last night on racing long-course events at my local bike store. One thing the speaker said that surprised me, was that unless you are a totally pathetic swimmer, putting extra time into swimming is all but useless. He said for the majority of people who have average to above average swimming ability, adding extra swim workouts will have a negligible effect on overall swim time. I know that I'm not a pathetic swimmer, I'm pretty much a middle-of-the-packer, but I have to think that the extra time I'm spending on the Masters swim team doing drills and working on my technique, while maybe won't shave a ton of time off of my swim, it will hopefully economize my swimming so that I'm conserving all of the energy I can for the bike and the run. I really feel like this coach has helped me immensely with my form and I can definitely feel a difference in the way I'm swimming.

And, while this won't help me at ALL in an ironman, I did my first fairly competent butterfly today! I've always been so intimidated by the butterfly, but I've been working on it, and today I put it all together and actually made it 200 yards. Yippee! I was so excited I asked the coach to help me with flip turns. For the first one, I didn't even touch the wall. For the second, I pushed off! For the third, I pushed off, went sideways and smacked my head into the side of the pool. Time to call it a day! And I did all of this with the added challenge of wearing my 3 yr-old's hot-pink swimming goggles.

Mastering Masters

So, I swallowed my pride and joined a Masters swim team. I figured it was the best way to work on my swimming technique and have someone critique me week after week. So far, it's been great. The coach has been very conscientious of the fact that I'm an open-water swimmer and she's giving me lots of freestyle drills. She is, however, having me spend some time learning the butterfly which has been humbling. I'm shocked that the lifeguard hasn't jumped in to save me since I'm pretty sure I look like I'm in major distress. I just don't get the dolphin kick. With short fins, I feel slightly more graceful, but take them off, and I'm just bucking up and down in place choking on pool water and flailing my arms. It's just so unnatural. Maybe someday, post-Ironman, I'll master the butterfly and the dreaded flip-turn and transform into a real pool-swimmer, but right now it's on the back-burner. I've also set up a date for a video-analysis of my swimming, which should be enlightening. I know how I think I look is probably nothing like what will be on that video. But better to start working on this now, before the real training starts.

Hitting the reset button

Quite a bit has happened since the last post! I turned 40. The century ride we had planned for my birthday didn't quite pan out. My friend and Iron partner Deanne suffered a terrible crash around the 40-mile mark that landed her in Boston with a serious head injury. She is recovering amazingly well but I think we've all been a little shell-shocked for the last 2 months. Today Deanne and I ran our first race since the century. We did a 10-miler in Harvard, MA. We weren't sure if either of us were really up for it. We haven't run that far since the 1/2 Ironman in June, she is still not 100% recovered, and I'm just recovering from having bronchitis for 2 weeks. But I have to say it went really well. The weather was cold and drizzly, the run was far hillier than we expected, and it was so foggy we could barely see, but we both finished strong and were relieved that we still had it in us. So, moving forward....

Why??

I was filling out the Ironman registration forms online and got stuck on this question: "Why do I want to do this race?"  I've been wanting to do this for years, but I've never really thought about why. I love challenging myself, and having a goal that seems so unattainable at first, and breaking it down into manageable blocks until the impossible becomes possible. And of course I love to swim, bike and run (swimming slightly less than biking and running). I have a great group of like-minded friends who think it's normal to do things like: get up at 4am and run on a track in complete darkness in subzero temps, drive out to the middle of the woods at the crack of dawn and swim in a pond with snapping turtles, or find a big hill and run up and down it until our lungs feel like they'll explode. So having this camaraderie certainly makes it more enjoyable. But then there are other reasons, too. I grew up with two parents with disabilities, so being able to do these things at all is something I don't take for granted. And while I played sports as a kid, I was definitely not super-athletic. Finding my inner-athlete as an adult gave me a chance to reinvent myself. And, last but not least, it keeps me sane! Being home with two small children can raise the blood-pressure of even the most zen-like parent. The physical activity and subsequent "me-time" I get from get from this keeps me, for the most part, on an even keel. I definitely notice my fuse gets much shorter after a few days off! I didn't get this detailed on the registration form, but it got me thinking more about the "why". And of course it's possible that I'm also a little deranged.

One year out...

I'm officially registered for Ironman Lake Placid. Every time I think about it my stomach turns itself into a little knot. So much to think about, worry about, spend money on....but there's no real training until January. The next 6 months are going to be spent getting stronger and hopefully getting rid of the nagging aches and pains that have been plaguing me for too long. I've already put a down payment on a condo in Lake Placid. I can't even believe how much people are charging for Ironman week, but it will be a great place for Dan and the kids to stay since we're going to be there for a whole week. Deanne and I are going to talk to a coach soon. I'm planning to do the majority of the training on my own, but I'm at least going to do a swim clinic, bike maintenance class, and a training camp up in Lake Placid. I have to admit I find the bike course slightly terrifying, and I'll feel much better if I can get up there and ride it at least once. 

So this will be my little space to vent, be neurotic, and record all of the mind-numbing minutiae of my training. Fun reading!