May 17, 2009
Fort Wilderness Lodge
Training: Practically none. Due to plantar fascitis which I had just managed to get under control with graston technique, and the chemo induced neuropathy which is now getting aggravated with Femara and my neuroma I had not run for 5 months exceptthe Danskin shuffle I did last week. I had only been in the pool 2-3 times, and had done some longer bike rides.. so this race the plan was to just do the swim, try to finish the bike.
But I learned that I could not even get a t-shirt unless I passed the finish line. So I thought that if I can finish the bike/swim I would just go 1 loop and get my medal t-shirt.. probably not the right thing to do but I really wanted a new medal in my rearview mirror.. Danskin mirror is ok but I;'d rather had an IM one.
Wake up : 3:45 (without alarm)
I had a short but peaceful sleep as I had made a point to completely relax one night before and not even go out to dinner since I had been out on the sun for the Masters Regatta that we participated in as the Women Playing for T.I.M.E team. I got a 30 minute massage the night before and ate stupid amounts of food to replenish glycogen stores. I had gone on a very low carb nutrition until 2 days ago to make sure that the stores were depleted so I could really top them off when I start eating.
Although my friend Z had generously offered to come with me this morning (or night) I wanted to go by myself and drive with my favorite music blasting this was my past race ritual, where I also added a yoga vinyasa, which did not happen this time because the transition area was a zoo, and my place was right beside a speaker which was blasting some un-cool music. Had a mishap with the tire valve and could not inflate it, luckily the bike mechanic handled it along with a stuck brake pad. I saw Rosie at transition she was still nursing a call and had quit the antibiotics for the race she looked nervous but I know she is strong as an ox.. ready to take on the field. Portalet line was not acceptable and the hygiene was questionable.. now come on .. it is a huge hole how on earth could you miss it while doing #2 !!!!!! Luckily I was warned before I went into that portalet otherwise my race would not have started on a good tone for sure.
Pre race nutrition:
Breakfast: 1 Plain toasted bagel with 2 Tbsp Almond Butter, Coffee
On the road/transition: another coffee
Transition : chocolate boost shake + 2 antifatigue caps
waiting for swim : Gatorade
Bike nutrition:
1.5 hammer bars
2 anti fatigue caps
2 succeeds (electrolyte tabs)
2 servings of accelerade
About 2 aerobottles full of water
Swim: we started as the 5th wave out of 22 waves and the waves were 2 minutes apart I braced myself for hearing the churning of water behind me and getting passed, hopefully without being smacked in the face.. chest.
I had 2 options either seek for clear water and go out, or stay close to the course/buoys and risk getting trampled on. I chose the latter since I had not done a proper swim in quiet a long time and I was counting on my weight training and rowing to get me through the swim. I could not afford any extra distance.
I think I got passed by total of 3 waves, it was not too bad only got kicked in my right hand little finger - which already had been injured by a basketball thrown by Ferit when we were teenagers-. Overall it was a pleasant swim like past weekend Danskin which was held at the same venue. I got a couple of foot cramp flareups, but was able to swim/breathe through them.
As soon as I exited the swim the left foot plantar fascitis started talking which totally baffled me. I had not even walked on it.. guess keeping the foot in kick position in cold water froze it in that position and when I flexed and stood on it the injury reared. It took me forever to get to the bike, great I thought will I even be able to finish the bike with this foot ?
Bike:
So many thoughts crossed my mind on the bike that I decided to have some kind of a voice recorder in my next long event. One of them was getting the boat from our neighbor and putting a scull on top of the boat.. guess there would be no rules for stacking boats up right ? lol... that way I could scull out of the club. hmmm...
The plan was to go embarrasingly slow and focus on staying fresh and fueling for the run(walk) so I was eating the hammer bars(1/2 at a time) making sure that I finished 1 bottle of Accelerade which had 1.5 servings in it, and taking anti-fatigue caps and succeed tabs every hour. I saw 2 crashes one happened right in front of me where 2 cyclists collided while trying to grab bottle at the water stop, the other one was a guy who fell on his face.. urgghhhh at one of the U turns that looked really painful and nasty. As expected I was having the doormat feel all these cool bikes and ultra fit people pass me (these were the latter waves) I saw Hector a couple of times, he was trying to give me some encouraging words. The bike was going really good and I almost averaged around 17 until we started heading south on 535
Just at that time started having cramps on my right side, first felt like stitches then I worried whether I was having an appendicitis attack.
On 535 after hitting pretty bad headwind and by that time with my feet aching, tummy aching I almost went home from there (the course passed dangerously close to my house almost 5-6 miles). By that time I also had to stop my nutrition to see whether the cramps would ease.
I had to take my feet out of the pedals every 15 minutes and help them recover the balls were aching, especially the neuroma on the right foot which I had acquired when I rode with the bike computer in my cycling shoe at the Big Kahuna half ironman couple of years ago.
It definitely took a lot of mental determination to finish the ride, I really was done with pedaling and did not want to see my bike for a while.
Run nutrition:
handful of cheese combos at beginning, 4th and 8th miles everytime I passed the loop to finish
4 accelerade gels (2 with caffeine)
Lots of Water and gatorade at each mile stop.
2 anti fatigue caps
2 succeeds (electrolyte tabs)
Run water stop ritual:
Fill up cap, jersey and shorts with ice.
Wet 3 sponges with ice water 2 on shoulders one on back of the neck
Wet the froggie washcloth in ice water, wipe face, arms, legs.
Drink water, gatorade.
Run plan:
Jog 50 steps at 2:30 and 5:00 minutes. So that kind of came to a 1 minute jog 5 minute walk. I probably spent at least 2 minutes extra at each water stop but there was no other way that I could have finished that distance without having run for 4 months.
Run: Due to my plantar fascitis and the pain that I had during the bike I really was not sure whether I would be able to make even a single loop which was the initial plan. Although there are timing chips at the turnarounds I did not care about the result listed as DNF I basically wanted a cool medal for my rearview mirror.
So I took my time in transition to assess status/damage. As soon as I was off the bike and out of the bike shoes my feet felt good. After putting on my running shoes they even felt better. I also was pleasantly surprised to see that there were still some bikes not in from the bike in my wave ! indicating that I did have some time on others. So decided to start walking.After eating a couple of my cheese combos and downing the antifatigue caps,succeed I was able to do my 50 step jog that I had tested in last weeks Danskin and the feet still felt ok. At tri's I never plan on the run beforehand because I never know how I am going to feel after the bike. After assessing myself came up with the following which seemed doable for 4 miles (1 loop)
I saw a lot of Central Florida Triathlon Club members racing and also cheering at the finish exit loop. Having a cheering squad is a double edged sword. It gets you motivated going, they give you energy on the other hand one really does not want to do bad in front of others. So I went on the 1st loop, it was nice since almost everyone was still on the course doing their 2nd or final loop. I was only able to find 1 person who was on their first loop. During the second loop the field started to get thinner but still I had people that I hung out with to chat or pace from. Now the third loop looked very pathetic I only saw a handful of people battling the heat and trying to crawl, I actually felt and looked a lot better than most of them to my surprise. Guess the nutrition preparation and extreme !!! taper did its job. I was able to do the pathetic 50 step jog 2 minute walk and jog to the finish line upright ! Life is good. I am back ! Now I can kick back and relax for a while.
Now let me see what else is out there that I can tackle ;o)
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