Up the Hill, Down the Hill, Around the Hill, and Back Again...

This weekend we rode the 100 mile route at the 12th Annual Harpeth River Ride. To say that it was tough is an understatment. I think the organizers found every hill in the area and made us climb them. The ride started at a church in Thompson Station and made a big loop throughout Williamson and Davidson County. The plan for the day was to do race day simulation so I was going to ride hard and only stop one time to pee and fill up my water bottles. I wanted to see if I could do the ride with only one stop because in Lake Placid I only plan to stop one time at the half way mark to pick up my food for loop number two.

The ride was crazy hilly. Some of the hills were kind of laughable...did they really expect us to ride our bikes up these hills? I made it up every single hill and stuck to my plan of only stopping once. The worst hill was at mile 75 and at the top they had a rest stop and a guy taking your picture as you got to the top. I wanted to give him the finger but I smiled and kept on going. There was a nice section of newly paved road that was awesome. I got up to 43 mph on my bike which is a record for me. After the ride I had to run 2 miles which I was dreading but it felt sooooo good to get off the bike and run. I did those two miles at a 9 minute pace I think because my legs were so happy for the change.

On Sunday Dana, Bert, Lisa, Rolf, Julie, Kathleen, Rob, and I met at Percy Warner Park to knock out a 20 mile run. I had a bad run last weekend so I was determined to make this a great run. We ran from the stone gates, to the back of Radnor Lake, back to the gates, up in the park to do the 5.8 loop, and then finished off the last mile or so on Page Road. I only stopped 3 times to fill up on water and I didn't walk at all...even on 3 mile hill in the park which I was hitting at about mile 15.5. My legs and feet were killing me by the end but I'm glad I had a good run. I averaged about a 10:28 average per mile which is pretty good considering the distance and what I had done the day before. After the run we went for breakfast at Whole Foods and then went to the Maryland Farms YMCA to float in their cold pool. It was awesome.

Sunday night (after a nap) we met at Bert's to watch our Couer D'Alene Ironman friends cross the finish line up in Idaho. It was great to watch everyone on the live feed online and see them finish such a huge race....very inspiring...very motivating! 4 weeks to go until Lake Placid....

Vegas Baby!

I'm going to Vegas!

I found out today that I qualified in Georgia for the Halfmax National Championships which is the national competition for the half ironman distance. Woo hoo!! The race is just outside of Vegas on October 18th...my birthday weekend! I'm not sure how I'm getting there, where I'm staying, and how I'm going to pay for it but I'm going. I'll figure those details out after July 20th.

Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled programming...Ironman training....

Rainy Saturday...Hot Sunday...

This weekend was an "easy" weekend! We only had to ride 60 miles and run 4 on Saturday and then run 18 on Sunday. It was so nice to be done working out by 11:30 on Saturday. We didn't know what to do with ourselves! Julie, Dana, and I ventured out at 6:30am on Saturday and got caught in a couple rain storms but it was a welcomed change from last weekend and the heat. I'd ride all day in the rain before I'd have to ride an hour in 90+ degree weather.

Sunday I volunteered at the Du Run Run duathlon which was a fun morning but after standing in the heat for four hours that morning I was pretty tired and when I went to run my 18 miler I was toast at mile 3. All of my training buddies ran early and were finishing when I was starting which was hard to stay motivated to run by myself when they were all done. I had to stop several times for various reasons most of which was due to not eating properly that morning, not eating properly the night before (mexican food...eek), and overheating. I started from Athlete's House and ran down Music Row, up 21st, through Hillsboro Village and at that point I stopped and layed down in the grass for a couple minutes. I was only about 5 miles into my run...not a good sign. I felt much better after I took a few minutes to rest and made it to the water stop at Kathleen's house ok. I then got to Percy Warner Park and was toast again. I had to lay down in the shade again and at that point I had stomach cramps and a side stitch. I got up to run down Page Rd. and luckily Rolf and Lisa were in the car trying to find me on their way home. I was so happy to see them. I got in the car and called it a day. I only got 11 miles in but I just couldn't do any more than that...not yesterday. I know I can do the mileage so I didn't feel like I had anything to prove out there. I spent the rest of the night taking naps, going to the grocery store, and regretting the mexican food I ate the night before.

Roasted, Toasted, Fried, and Sore...

This weekend was a whirlwind of triathlon activities...

On Saturday morning I woke up at 4:30am to head over to Vanderbilt for the Middle Tennessee Youth Triathlon. It was a complete success and I think everyone involved was very happy! We finished up around 10:30am and I went home for a shower, lunch, and a quick nap before I had to go run 16 miles at 4:00pm. It was about 95+ degrees outside with no clouds in the sky so it made for a pretty miserable run. We didn't need to run hills but Julie and I decided that a flat run in the sun would be worse than a shaded, yet hilly, run in Percy Warner Park. We ran the 11.2 in the park and then ran Belle Meade Blvd to get the rest of our mileage in.

On Sunday morning I woke up at 4:15am and got myself ready for my first 112 mile bike ride. Rolf, Julie, and I started at 6:45am and did a two loop course that I had mapped out earlier in the week. We spread out from each other because we were riding different paces so we all did the ride basically by ourselves which is good mental training but it makes for a tough day. You kind of start getting a little loopy after not talking to someone for a couple hours...sometime I talk to myself which helps a little. The first loop was ok...yes it was hot and hilly but it was bearable. That all went out the window when I got to the start of the second loop where I could turn left to go to the cars or turn right for another 60 miles on my own in the heat, sun, hills, ect. To the right I went and by then it was about 10am and it was getting hotter and hotter by the minute. I was roasting out there. If there ever was a day to test my mental toughness this was it. At some points I was only going about 4 mph which I'm not sure if that even qualifies as moving forward but the heat was just sucking the life out of me. I have never been so happy to see the old guys hanging out at Fly. The men in there thought we were crazy and I think at that point I fully agreed. Rolf was there as well refueling so we rode into Puckett's together. After a fuel stop there we headed back to the cars....those beatiful beautiful cars. Rolf went to pick up Julie who was at a BBQ joint about 12 miles down the road. She called it day after about 95 miles.

On the way home I was going to stop by the YMCA pool to just sit and cool off but I couldn't even muster the energy required to do that. I did stop at Sonic and got my Hot Fudge Peanut Butter Milkshake which really just rocks my world after a hard workout. I can't tell you how good that tasted after the day that I had just survived. I got home around 4pm and stood in a cold shower.

My skin is sunburned, my legs are sore, my body is just all over tired. I really feel that if I can survive a day like yesterday, I can survive a day in Lake Placid. The key is to not give in to the misery...don't let the heat win...don't let the pain win...it will all be over at some point and you'll be stronger because of it. Bring it on Lake Placid...I'm ready for you!

My sunburned forhead...yes those are stripes...from the airvents in my helmet.

A good look huh?

Georgia on My Mind...

This weekend Julie, Coach Kathleen, and I traveled to Macon, GA for the Rock 'N Rollman Georgia Half Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). Dana met us down there and my parents made the trek from Augusta. All I can say is that was by far the hardest race I've done....

We arrived on Friday afternoon to the race site where we picked up our packets and checked our bikes into the transition area. My Mom and Dad arrived just as we were heading down to the lake for a quick swim which ended up being the best thing we did in preparation for the event. The water turned out to be really warm but not so warm that it was gross. Very refreshing...and clean...which is a nice change from Percy Priest Lake! After our swim we headed to the hotel to check in and change for a quick dinner at a restaurant down the road. We had a good meal and then it was early to bed...

I think I woke up every hour during the night afraid that I was going to oversleep. At 5:00am I finally gave up and started getting ready for race day. When we got to the race site they said the water was 77.5 degrees and the cut off for being allowed to wear wetsuits is 78. It was already hot outside so we took the advice of Coach Kathleen and decided to forgoe the wetsuits because we didn't want to bake ourselves during the swim. That turned out to be a great decision because some people didn't even make it past the swim....they were so overheated. After the swim we had to run up a big boat ramp out of the water into the transition area. I should have walked it because my heart rate was so jacked up after running up that boat ramp that I couldn't breath for the first 25 miles of the hilly and windy bike course. My bike split was super slow because of that....lesson learned! The bike course was hilly, windy, hot, and had no shade...other than that it was great...ha. I was so ready to be done with that bike.

The run was pretty bad because by the time I started running it was in the heat of the day. Georgia heat is like no other heat...you feel like you are sizzling or melting. It's not fun. We had to run 3 out and back sections so you could see all of the faster people in front of you...the people who never walk and finish hours in front of you on most days. Not that day. I've never seen so many people humbled to a walk. No one was running. I felt pretty bad for the first half of the run but finished somewhat strong at the end. I had heat exhaustion, a bad sunburn, and was pretty miserable but I got it done. It was great to see mom and dad and Coach Kathleen at each transition and the end cheering me on.

For as bad as I felt I ended up getting 2nd in the Athena Division which I think might qualify me for Nationals in October...I'm waiting on confirmation for that. My mom ended up getting my award for me because I was so tired of waiting around for them to announce the Athena division. I walked away to get my bike from transition and no longer than two minutes later they had announced my name...haha...oh well.

As I was out there doing this race and feeling pretty bad all I could think of was how in the world I was going to survive Lake Placid in July. Luckily some friends of mine that did the race this weekend who have also done Ironman races said that the race in Georgia was so much harder than any Ironman they've ever done. So that at least made me feel better....if I can survive Georgia heat I can survive Lake Placid.

(a little post race treat...cold fresh strawberries...yumm!)