Not So Epic Weekend

Turns out breakfast probably is the most important meal of the day. Saturday I woke up late and decided to eat in the car. As usual, I forgot. I was the first rider off for the time trial and then all the fast men. I felt like I was passed standing still. I might as well have been since I was about 3 minutes slower than the other women. My legs were tired and my hamstring was bothering me. Pedaling up hill with one leg is not fast. I finished and jumped in my car to head to the North Shore.

I stopped at McDonald's on the way to the swim. I ordered a fruit and walnut salad and large orange juice. I ended up with two hashbrowns and a large orange juice. I ate the hashbrowns. They were the greasiest, saltiest, most yummiest things ever. The swim sucked too. I couldn't kick for fear of my hamstring locking up. Kicking would have helped duck dive the waves. I exited the water to see that errosion made the run out of the water steeper than last year. My hamstring said no running on steep sandy hills, so I walked across the mat.

Right after I finished the swim, Troy let me know my crit race had been combined with the grand master men and moved up an hour. I jumped in my truck, stopped a the grocery and headed back to Wahiawa. As I was finally eating some real food, Troy called to say they moved the race up another hour and I was racing in 20 minutes. My heart rate spiked, I sprinted to the start to find out both Troy and the race director were confused, and I still had over an hour. I never did go back to eating. The crit was awful and after 5 laps I cried uncle and pedaled back with mostly my right leg. I iced the hamstring and pulled out of the road race on Sunday. I think the next time I pack four of the instant cold ice packs in my gear bag, I should just accept that I'm injured and not race.

I wasn't sure what I would do about the tri. I wanted to race it, but I wanted my leg to get better. As the afternoon went on, I convinced myself my leg was okay, and the pain was tolerable and I just quit because I was getting my butt kicked. I iced, stretched, massaged, and rolled all afternoon and night. I set the alarm and went to bed. I woke up before the alarm and decided I wasn't going to race and turned the alarm off. I wanted more sleep, but10 minutes later I got out of bed and even though I wasn't hungry, I ate breakfast and headed to the race.

This was a between sets. Which were pretty consistent and full of at least 2 footers(4 footers for you mainland wave measuring types). Thanks to Rebekah for the pics.

Everyone was talking about how big the waves were. This race usually has rough seas. But this year the waves were actually pretty big, pretty consistent, and pretty much breaking everywhere from the shore to the buoy. I warmed up and found a few other Boca girls and we lined up way to the left.

Pre race with Michele and Terrish.

The current runs strong left to right at this beach. The girl right next to me talked like a swimmer. So I figured I'd have some feet to hang on. The cannon went off and we ran into the water, dove through the waves and took forever to get to the buoy. The whole swim I kept wondering where the pink caps were that should be in front of me. Around the last buoy I knew I had to swim way right because of the placement of the chute and the current. I was body surfing every wave and swimming a little. I thought I was doing okay, since nobody was on my right side. Then I looked ahead and saw a long line of men running down the beach. I knew I needed to minimize my sand running time so I angled further right and came out right at the chute. Chris told me I was 1st woman.

I hopped on the bike and rode with the goal of passing everyone I could and not letting anyone pass me. Number 37 and I went back and forth for a while. I didn't want to get too close to him and be in the draft zone, so I decided to just pass him and be done with it. I came into transition and headed out on somewhat shaky legs.

Leaving T2 and wondering how my hamstring will do.

My hamstring was really starting to hurt so I decided I'd run hard until it was unbearable. The pain stepped up a notch at the turn off the main road. I decided I'd run hard until I got to the turn around and looped back to where I would pass the second place woman. I could feel the sharp pain in my glute and the dull ache of the hamstring, but put my head down and ran. I was four minutes or so up on the woman with about a mile left. But then there was #37 again. He just passed me so I hung with him for the next 1/2 mile. The last 1/2 mile my achilles and calf started to really hurt, a nice stabbing pain, so I slowed to where I could run sort of lop sided on in.


I headed back out on the course to find Terrish, who was the 3rd woman off the bike with the second fastest bike female bike split of the day. She went on to win the W30-34 AG and the female military category. I also found Michele, who at 50 years wears the same tri shorts I do, but in a much better way. She won her age group too. It was a pretty good day for Boca. Tim Marr took first overall (of course). I learned I really am injured, but I can suffer through pain a lot more when I'm winning than when I'm getting my ass kicked.

I asked around for someone to massage my sweaty hamstring and glute, but couldn't find any takers.

I'm not very convincing at faking a smile while sitting on the roller.

So I rolled it out myself. Then I stretched. Then I iced. Then I wrapped tightly in an ace bandage. It still hurts. A lot. And I'm back to limping. So I'm taking most of this week off from running and cycling and I'm seriously consdering the Kerri extended taper plan for Lake Placid.

The Boca girls podium.

Kiddie Pools and Seal Poop

We had a bit of a work emergency this morning. It involved about 500 gallons of sand, water and seal poop we had just vacuumed out of one of the Waikiki Aquarium's 2200 pound filters. The one driver who is licensed to drive the F-650 and certified to dump at the landfill was unavailable.

The crisis call came in right as I was finishing up my swim at Ala Moana. I headed to KMart and bought $300 worth of kiddie pools. I bought the pop up kind, the blow up kind and a couple of the hard plastic kind I remember from the Farrah Fawcet hair years. I had no idea what it would take to contain 500 gallons of water, sand and seal poop.

Turns out three of the 8 ft round by 18" deep pools is all it took. I'd really like to find the aquarium volunteer who suggested we just dump it in the ocean, at one of the nearby beaches, because "Waikiki needs more sand." She was talking about a beach I swim at a lot. The stanky smell of day old water, sand and seal poop was strong enough to reach the upstairs of our warehouse. I didn't want that shit anywhere near where I was swimming.

Of course the smell in the shallow water of Ala Moana this morning was similar to what the kiddie pools smell like. From now on I'm going to tell myself that it's seal poop, because somehow that is better than human poop. And I saw a huge turtle this morning in Ala Moana. I thought I was seeing things, and I didn't stop, because I was hanging on Billy's feet for the last 100 of the 500 repeat. My sighting was confirmed by Bill the lifeguard who said "Yep, there's a big turtle that lives out there." So, if there's a huge turtle that lives in Ala Moana, the water can't be that bad.

And to go back to the Farrah hair. A few weeks ago a friend from high school posted this on Facebook. Thankfully they tagged me, because I tried to find myself for 5 minutes before giving up and clicking over my name to see me hightlighted by the square. While I didn't untag myself, I did delete the post from my page. But today, I'm rather proud of my fabulous Farrah hair. At least I wasn't wearing parachute pants and a single white glove to school in the 80s.

See if you can pick me out of the crowd.
And then see if you can guess what boy I had the biggest crush on in the 5th grade.

Did I Mention I Like To Race?

This is what happens when you sit down to write a blog post after a 50 mile ride, chasing a fast guy around the island, then a 40 oz of beer and a little Thai food. I was sort of hoping someone out there would talk some sense into me and tell me not to sign up for the stage race. But, no, I was egged on. I've registered. Five races in two days. Let's hope I survive. And when Raul finds out, he doesn't kill me. What's that they say about asking for forgiveness rather than permission?

Tour of Wahiawa: Sat AM: A time trial up Kolekole Pass, Sat PM: crit (my first ever), and Sunday AM: 28 mile road race, 2 laps of Pineapple Hill (the women's race is only 2 laps...I guess I can do another few after if I want, but entering the women's race gives me the most time between triathlon and bike race).

Sat AM: A one mile ocean swim race from Sunset Beach to Pipeline.

Sun AM: 400 M swim, 10 mile bike, 5K run.

Of course before I get to the weekend I have to make it through 20 x 100s at the pool tonight. A trainer/run brick workout tomorrow morning at the beach. Another swim at lunch tomorrow. A hard 4K ocean swim on Friday AM. And a nice easy recovery run on Friday night. And after the weekend, a long hilly 2 1/2 hour run on Monday afternoon. If I survive this weekend I know I'll be fine in Lake Placid.

Decisions, decisions

Every time I read about someone who only races bikes I think they are crazy. Every year I go through the I hate my bike phase (sometimes more than once). And then I start to ride it a lot, I make peace with it and start to enjoy it. Then I do a bike race and do okay, for a triathlete who ran 18-20 miles two days before the race. And this year I think about how biking has been my strength in my triathlons. And I think maybe I'll just race bikes next year.

Of course that won't happen, because I love to run. Even though running is causing me all sorts of pains right now, and I'm not nearly as strong or fast as I wanted to be 4-5 weeks out from an Ironman. I've already written off having a great run at IMLP. I know what I would be capable of and I know where I stand right now. It's gonna be a tough marathon. And then I hear about a stage race on Oahu this weekend. But I've already signed up for a swim race on Saturday and a fun little sprint triathlon on Sunday. And I passed up on a trip to the Big Island for their half marathon to do the sprint tri.

But then I look at the times of the three races. The time trial starts at 7 AM. It's under five miles. Up hill, but still short. I could request an early start time and still make it to the swim at 9AM. It's only a mile swim. Then the crit is that afternoon. I could chill on the beach and then make it to the crit in the afternoon. 45 minutes and one lap. I could hang with the gals for the 45 minutes, until it got super fast, and I could probably hang with them after it got super fast too.

Then the tri starts at 6AM. I'll be done by 7AM. The road race is 40-70 miles. And the first start is 8 AM. I think I could be there by 8AM. Or I could do a shorter one and start at 8:20 or 8:40. All the races are hilly. And so is Lake Placid.

Then I could recover all day and do my long run on Monday evening. I love to race. I don't like to train. This could be racing, but would also be training. The mileages for the bike are just about right for what I would be doing anyway. And my coach is out of town. Not that he'd say no anyway. But maybe I'll just bail on the bike races and the sprint tri and go do the half marathon anyway. That's what I really want to do.

40K Time Trial

Friday afternoon I squeezed in my long run between work and a movie. Somehow forgetting the dinner. It turned out okay because Saturday was a 'rest/easy' day. And rest I did. The only things I had to do were walk the dogs, pick up my rear race wheel, and call the hot cyclist. I got the race wheel and did an easy swim at Ala Moana. Then washed my truck, vacuumed the inside of my truck, mopped my floors, did laundry and went to the beach. I checked in on Ironman Japan and the next thing I knew, if I wanted to get eight hours of sleep, I had to be in bed ten minutes ago. Oops. Forgot to make that phone call.

Sunday morning I woke up at 4 AM. I checked Ironman.com to see how Coeur d'Alene was going and realized it hadn't even started yet. I loaded my gear in the truck and headed to Kahuku for the 40K time trial. The weather forecast had been for rain storms and gusting wind. But it all seemed calm.

I wasn't exactly sure where I was headed, so I just drove north and west on the only road out there and eventually found a pop up shelter on the side of the road with some cones along side it.

I should have been eating, but I spent the warm up checking in on the IM updates.

I checked in and set up the trainer. 50 minutes later I realized I forgot to eat anything during that trainer ride, or the drive up there. So I pounded a few gels, added some perpetuem to my gatorade on my bike, switched out wheels and made a quick lap to the high school and back. That was my first time actually riding the 808s. They were fast. And caught a LOT of cross wind. I made it back to the start line and was off.

My goal for the race was to not think about the 80 miles I had to ride after it. Or the loops up Pupukea or Pineapple Hill included in the ride. My new 808s have a powertap in them, so I was checking my power and trying not to go out too hard. After a couple miles I settled into a good pace and felt good. I was slowly gaining on the woman ahead of me and figured I was pacing it to catch her at the turn around. The way back should be with the wind at my back so I'd just hammer the 12 miles out. Right before I caught the woman ahead of me, the woman behind me caught me. I questioned my pacing. I decided I'd put the effort on the second half and at least catch her again. But I ended up catching her at the turn around.

I overshot the turnaround. There were about eight cones and four people and I picked the wrong cone to go around. By the time I turned around she was a head of me. I passed her and was putting in a good effort but couldn't get away. I was on the right side of the road and she was just behind me off towards the middle. I have no idea where the wind was coming from, but it was blowing me and my wheels every which way EXCEPT forward. Every once in a while I'd think, okay, I'll let her go for a bit, so she'd pull ahead. Then I'd think, no, this is a bike race, go hard and I'd pull back in front. We passed a few more people and a gust of wind came along and I over corrected and jumped into the shoulder. I swerved back out and hit one of those reflector thingies on the side of the road. My bike rattled and somehow knocked the rear brakes off center. When I was in the gear I wanted to be in, my brakes rubbed the wheel. That's not my only excuse, because I tried to drink some of my Gatorade perpetuem concoction and it tasted AWFUL. And it was too late anyway. I was feeling light headed from not really eating anything in the morning.

I think I was also mentally defeated because I started to think who cares, she's got me beat anyway since she started behind me. She pulled away and I struggled to maintain any decent effort. Even when I rounded the bend and could see the finish shoot I tried to push, but just couldn't. I crossed the line in 1:05 something. Not outstanding, but good enough for 2nd place overall. I downed another couple Gus, drank some plain gatorade and went for a run.

My bling for 2nd place. Anyone need a 16 tooth cog?

After the awards, part of me was stalling, not wanting to face the windy hills I had to ride and part of me was flirty. I hung around and talked to the hot cyclist, who's also a fast cyclist that's probably gonna kick my ass on a ride on Tuesday afternoon.

I finally headed out. I hit the Fire Station and turned up Pupukea. Going well so far. Then I made it to Pineapple Hill and hit a wall of wind. I think at one point I almost toppled over I was going so slow. At the top of the hill I reached to my jersey pocket for a fresh bottle of Gatorade and took a drink. ICK! I somehow grabbed the wrong bottle and now I had nasty Gatorade Perpetuem concoction that's been in my back jersey pocket in the hot sun for about 90 minutes. But I forced it down and headed out to Mokuleia. Then I headed back up Pineapple Hill. And after I struggled to make it up the little teeny hill by Waimea I decided to bypass Pupukea the second time.

It was so windy on the way back I could smell the Shrimp Shacks near Sunset Beach. At Sunset Beach I checked the odometer and it said 100. Great. I would be right at 105-110. Then I realized I reset it right before the race and cleared out the warm up 45-50 minutes on the trainer. I hit Turtle Bay and could really smell the garlic shrimp. I could see the lights of Kahuku High, but they didn't seem to get any closer no matter how hard I peddled. I passed the windsock and noticed it was standing straight out towards me. At least a 20 MPH headwind. I finally reached the shrimp shacks and stopped for lunch. I ordered a plate of garlic shrimp white sticky rice, and then went back for a second.