A race day "plan" for Folsom International Tri/AquaBike

Posted by Katie

Friday night Matt and I decided to do the Folsom Lake International Triathalon (Aqua-Bike division for me). So Saturday morning (today) at 4am we piled our gear in the car and dove up to Folsom, CA. In the car (with very little caffeine consumed) I read an article about how to plan your race morning and I found it hilarrrrious because we were so comically unplanned and botching it at every turn.

Here is the sample race morning outline given in the article:

Sample race morning plan
Read more at http://triathlon.competitor.com/2015/05/training/why-a-pre-race-plan-is-a-must_115992#QV8TfCiJTrdDZQ20.99

4:45–5:00 a.m. Wake up and have breakfast 

5:00–5:30 a.m. Travel to race site

5:30–5:45 a.m. Foam rolling/stretching

5:45–6:00 a.m. Set up transition area

6:15–6:30 a.m. Visit Porta-Potty, put on wetsuit

6:30 a.m. Get in water and begin warm-up

6:45–6:50 a.m. Finish warm-up, stand by beach, stretching

7:00 a.m. Race start!

Sounds easy enough right? Here is Matt and I's actual race morning/night before:

Fri night plan: decide if we are doing the tri, sign up if yes and go to bed at 830pm
Fri night actual: Try to sign up online for race but get rejected, spend time trying to figure out if race-day reg is possible, figure out that it is, actually get to bed at 10pm.

4am. Wake up
4:15am Matt takes dog for a walk/jog, Katie makes bagels/coffee
4:35am Feed dog (who is confused that the humans are up so early but rolls with it)
4:40am Scramble to get all of our bike gear downstairs in less than 25 trips
4:45am Matt puts bikes on top of car, Katie continues to work on bagel shmearing
4:50am Run back upstairs for wallet
4:55am Leave the house!
4:55am-6:55am long drive to race
5:30am Realize how F-ing early it is and we have already been up for 1.5hrs.. drown sorrows in premade iced coffee

At 5:17am it seemed like a really great idea to take
this photo to prove to you how early and dark it was.

5:45am Realize we are about to run out of gas, find gas station which requires minimal stop time
5:50am Stop at gas station and accidentally activate fraud alert on our credit card (maybe their algorithm knows we don't get up this early on weekends....)
6:15am Browse facebook for entertainment (passenger, not the driver!) and find this hilarious article about having a race morning plan... ha! plan! what is that?
6:20am Realize that a cash parking fee is required at the start location and we have no cash... and I lost my debit card... luckily Matt has his
6:40am Stop at ATM where the door nearly does not work and get said cash
6:55am Arrive at race location, LET'S DO THIS!

7:10am Waltz over to registration table with bike and giant Ikea bag of race gear and attempt to register while balancing both
7:15am Confuse registration staff by writing 3 different checks for USAT, USAT and Reg combined

Have ikea bags... will travel. 

 7:20am Throw crap down in nearest open transition area rack, seek out bathroom
7:30am Hastily "set up" transition gear and find body markers
7:40am Matt borrows bike pump from other athlete but guy is in a rush and Matt doesn't get to pump up Katie's tires
7:42am Katie runs off to bike support tent in search of pump
7:45am In a hilariously awkward exchange... Matt picks up baby sunscreen from what looks like a support table, minutes later another athlete silently reclaims her sunscreen and puts it in her bag, leaving Katie... without sunscreen
7:47am Katie finds sunscreen at the Tshirt tent and applies (and will later get a ridiculous sunburn anyway)
7:55am Squish body parts into wetsuit and attempt to zip up fully without suffocation
7:57am Brisk walk down to start area which felt like 2 mi (actual distance 0.3mi)

I am standing ~30ft from T1, that tiny white dot
 is a lifegaurd chair by the waters edge...

7:58am Matt splashes water on his face in lieu of a warmup
7:59am Announcement of a 10 second countdown which proceeds in approximately 2 seconds
8:00am Matt's wave starts
8:02am Katie is confused why there are SO many aqua biker caps then realizes women 35+ for the tri also have orange... and their wave starts right ahead of us.... huh? not. enough. coffee.
8:05am Katie wades in deep enough to take a few strokes, feels suffiently cold, and gets out to wait for the start
8:12am aqua bike start goes off (early?)

So there you have it, an overly honest account of a real life race morning "plan". I hope you found our struggles comical. Stay tuned for Matt's race report and my return to regularly scheduled blogging.

Katie's IM Canada Training Week 5 (ie time to start eating everything)

Posted by Katie

This week was focus on the bike week and the highlight was trying to figure out how to fuel properly. Matt turned to google, clicked the very first link and we ran the numbers from there. According to our *extensive* research, during the bike portion on an Ironman, you should eat about 1 gu sized serving per 20 minutes plus only drink sports drink in order to get even close to enough carbs/calories/electrolytes to maintain yourself for the bike and run. I would say currently on the bike I eat about 1 gu sized thing (normally in the form of chews) per hour, or per two hours depending on the day. Clearly more calorie consumption on the bike is something I need to practice and something fellow bloggers Rachel and Chen have mentioned. We eventually settled on attempting to gu every 30 minutes on the long ride. Based on our calculations, even with sports drink we will still be far in the negative for electrolytes... I guess this is where those crazy salt tabs come into play?

Matt's solution: Carry a salt shaker (salt WAS accidentally ingested in the making of this photo.)

Hourly requirements (based on gu/15min)

Monday
Swim Speed Day (400, 4x100, 300,3x100, 200, 2x100)

Tuesday
Trainer intervals, 60min using this awesome YouTube video by CTXC

Wednesday
Elliptical, 45min

Thursday
Biked to work! (30mi, 2hr 15min)

Friday
Swim (Main set 10x100)

Saturday
Group ride: Fairfax to Pt. Reyes Lighthouse (lots of rolling hills and wind 75mi, 4,700ft gain)

Sunday
Pool running (aka treading water trying not to look ridiculous) 30min
Swim (500,1100)

I have to say that step up the bike week was actually successful, the commute to work was pretty awesome (though it including lots of route finding) and I plan to write a separate post about that. Saturday's long ride was a huge step up in distance... 75mi compared to a previous 45. I fully expected to feel awful, but surprisingly felt pretty good and was happy with my endurance. I think the fueling every 30 minutes was helpful. There is something to be said about choosing fuel wisely I had: 1 gel, 1 waffle, and 4 chew packages. I think in the future, I will incorporate more waffle-like things, and keep the gel/chew ratio the same.

The view at the turnaround... navigating 20,000 steps in bike shoes was skipped

Who needs a selfie stick when you have long appendages? #kidsthesedays

Scone the size of my face at mile 60... heavenly.

Post ride refuel with health food... naturally.

On the injury front my knee is steadily feeling better and better. I am hoping to get the green light to attempt running soon. Running in the pool with a flotation belt certainly felt like a tough workout, especially on tired legs... but to me it felt more like simulating a pedal stroke than a running workout... maybe I am doing it wrong.

Readers, what is your favorite thing to eat on the bike?

Katie's IM Canada Training: Week 4 (Close but not quite)

Posted by Katie

This week was a step back week! In the plan that Matt and I are following that means that you repeat week 1. It was nice to have some familiarity in the workouts, especially the swims.

Monday
Elliptical, 45min

Tuesday
Trainer easy 45min
Swim 1600 (Main set 3x400)

Wednesday
Trainer easy 45min

Thursday
Rest day!

Friday
Swim (Main set 8x100)
Elliptical 30min (was NOT feeling it)

Saturday
Group ride: Novato to Pt. Reyes Station, 45mi, 1900ft elevation, plus crazy headwind.

Sunday
Planned: Swim and "Run" in the pool
Actual: Grouchy 45min trainer ride (apparently all pools on the SF penninsula close for Easter.. Oops)

The long ride saturday was actually a set up instead of back because we are all signed up for the Primavera Century hosted by the Fremont Freewheelers Bicycle Club on April 26th. We even got a team shout out (Team triing for the win(e) on their page, link here.  Some of us (Matt and I) are woefully under prepared for this 100 mile ride and are trying to catch up.

Chen and Paige organized a great group ride in the north bay starting in Novato, going over to Pt. Reyes Station and back. There was also promise of amazing baked goods in Pt. Reyes Station, so of course we were in. This was a challenging ride for me, starting off I knew it was going to be tough because I was pushing hard to keep up on the flat/false flat and my HR was at or over 160, certainly not sustainable. Then there was a wicked headwind to contend with, which made it feel like you were going uphill all the time. I fell way behind and was really frustrated with my lack of fitness. Thankfully Chen and Paige waited at the turns for me to make sure I didn't get totally lost! (Thanks guys!!)

At the halfway mark we stopped in Pt. Reyes Station, for some delicious baked goods, water refills, and bathroom breaks. The town was taken over by cyclists. There were two huge bike racks all completely full with fancy road bikes. It was cool to see so many fellow riders out, and it was a very nice day for riding (minus that head wind). The way back was MUCH MUCH easier with a tailwind and a more gradual climb.

At the top of the Big Rock climb on the way back.

After biking Matt and I continued up to Sonoma to pick up some wine club shipments and do a tasting. Friends... I have found the secret to post ride recovery and it does not include a weird protein shake. It only requires three things, sun, Adirondack chairs, and wine.

#Recovery

Sunday I had planned to do a "brick" of sorts, with a run in the pool (with my new super nerdy aqua belt which I have yet to use) and then a long swim. Sunday morning Matt got up and took Kona for a trail run while I lazed around until the pool opened. Unfortunately both local pools were closed for the day, which I only found out by showing up two separate times ready to swim only to encounter a CLOSED sign on the door. #Fail

This little guy ran 9 miles on trails and is officially a better runner than me.

A new Easter tradition...bacon and egg ramen... all things good in one bowl.

Next week it is time to get serious!

Katie's IM Canada Training: Weeks 1-3 (ie Hanging in there)

Posted by Katie

As I mentioned, Matt and I are trying this new plan, found on the interwebs at BeginnerTriathlete.com (seems innocuous enough right?). Training has been challenging both in terms of fitting it all in with full time jobs and long commutes, and also with injuries not allowing me to run.

On the injury front, I have a diagnosis of partially torn MCL and meniscus from my lovely skiing pretzel fall a few weeks back. The good news is this is nothing major, and my knee joint, though swollen and painful, is not unstable in any way. The bad news is there is sort of a murky recovery schedule for these types of things and by ironman training I am most certainly pushing the boundaries of the "recommended" recovery exercises. My lower back is also still sort of an issue, probably because I stopped all exercises for my back when I injured my knee. So in summary it is still a little bit day-by-day, but in general both my knee and back and getting better (at a frustrating slow pace), but hey at least I am moving in the right direction!

Week 1:
Monday
Stationary Bike-45min

Tuesday
Swim, 1900y (Main set 1x1500)

Wednesday
Elliptical-45min

Thursday
Swim, 1400 (Main Set 8x100)
Stationary Bike-30min intervals

Friday
Elliptical-30min
*Threw back out while picking up dog... seriously!? how old am I? 100?

Saturday
RICE

Sunday
Swim, 1700 (Main set 3x400)

In week 1 I skipped the long run and long ride, but was pleasantly surprised that I was able to do the elliptical without too much knee pain. Friday I picked up Kona (50lbs) without bending my knees.. because you know... they hurt... and boom my entire lower back seized up. Immediately after we drove up to Tahoe, so of course sitting in the car for 4 hours only made things worse and I spent all of Saturday on the couch in pain watching documentaries. In other news, I am thisclose to becoming a vegetarian after watching Food Inc.

Pie for Pi Day!

Week 2:
Monday
REST

Tuesday 
Swim, (Main set 10x100, descend 1-5, 6-10)

Wednesday
Stationary Bike, 55min intervals

Thursday
Elliptical 45min
Swim, 2300 (Main Set 2x1000)

Friday
Elliptical, 45min

Saturday
Swim, 2900 (Main set 4x500) with Chen and Matt
Trainer, 60min

Sunday
Bike ride in Oakland, flat 32mi with Matt and Mark

In week 2, I again skipped the long run but was able to complete everything else and felt like I had finally started to hit my stride a little. The 10x100 workout I really liked, descends are the best! The Saturday swim was also fun because Chen joined us, and we realized we are all somewhat close in pace. I also learned that stationary bike does NOT equal road bike as far as you bum is concerned. I foolishly did my first trainer ride and then outdoor ride back to back, and wooooo did my bum hurt on sunday. Not to self, Ironman is all about training your bum to sit uncomfortably for long stretches of time.  

Trainer essentials: Coffee and dog treats (for the dog, not me)

Week 3: aka Swim week
Monday
Rest

Tuesday
Masters Swim, 3000m (random amount of 100s while trying not to get lapped)

Wednesday
Masters Swim, 3000m (less frantic, 200s)

Thursday
Elliptical 45min

Friday
Masters Swim, 3000m (Main Set 16x50 every 4th fast, 12x50 every 3rd fast, 8x50 every other fast)

Saturday
Route 1 cycling, 34mi, 2000ft gain

Sunday
Open water swim, 1.17mi
Trainer 60min

In week 3 I was traveling for work and naively thought that since I didn't have 2 hours of commuting, a dog to walk, or other chores that I would have lots of time to sleep and exercise (boy was I wrong). The training class went from 8am-6pm and then there was a group dinner afterwards usually lasting until 9pm. I was able to wake up super early and get a workout in every morning but 2-a-days were out.

Work training class essentials: So many liquids (H2O, Coffee, OJ) + best muffins ever (Daily Grind, Santa Barbara)

I decided to try the local masters swim while traveling, as they had the best hours for my schedule 6am-7:15am.  The first day I showed up and the very nice coach informed me that it was IM day (ie all the strokes), and the lane times are 1:45, 1:50, etc. First, I warned him that I was new to swimming and only really felt comfortable with freestyle, no problem he says. Then I say "I am usually about 1:45 for a 100y so that seems like a good lane". Cool he says, go for it. My first indication that this was a huge mistake should have been that this lane that I picked was 4 over from the wall (in my only other Masters swim experience, Matt and I were put in the "bucket lane" ie the wall). Secondly, what I didn't realize was that 1:45 meant 100 ON the 1:45 not 100 IN 1:45. Therefore everyone else in the lane was completing the 100 in 1:30ish, resting, and then starting the next... I was swimming has hard as I could with a second or two break in order to not get lapped. Lastly, this was a 50m pool and I have only ever swam in 25y pools so that was um... interesting. After the workout the coach asked how it went and I said "I got my butt kicked" and his response was "well you hung in there, good work". On day 2, I switched over 3 lanes (one away from the wall) and had a much more pleasant experience! I also learned that Weds and Fri would be freestyle only, so no need to worry about trying to do the butterfly (which I can do for about 12 yards before drowning).

Another great discovery of week 3 was Higgins Canyon Road. An off shoot of the 1, Higgins canyon climbs up a reasonable hill and then eventually descends back to Rte 1. There were very few cars, in fact I think we saw more cyclists than cars and the views were stunning! Originally this ride was going to be a 50 miler, but we had a late start and the call of Tacos and Beer was just too strong. Actually I was game for another round on Higgins Canyon but Matt smartly talked me out of it.

Scenes from the ride, pictured bottom left is the hill that Matt wanted to go up and Danielle and I were like um NOPE

34 mi ride + rockfish tacos + hoppy IPA + sunshine > 50mi ride ending in the dark

Hop Dogma in El Grenada (Half Moon Bay area) is my new favorite place to start and end rides on Route 1.

They even serve water in an Erlenmeyer flask!  #nerdlove

We have now arrived to a step back week!

Run 2 and back on the D.L.

Posted by Katie

Just as I was about to take myself off the injury list... I am now firmly back on it.

Let me start this post by saying I have never been injured while skiing...I think you can see where this is going.

Saturday morning we woke up in Tahoe to ~1ft of the coldest, lightest powder I have ever felt. Excitement was running HIGH because this season has been so dismal in terms of snowfall.

The first run was incredible... riding up lift 6 at Kirkwood, we went skiiers left to Sentinel and found untouched beautiful snow under the cliff band in the trees. I hadn't been on my powder skiis in a while and was impressed with how well the float and ease into turns in deep powder. The snow was what I like to call "hero snow" it is so easy to ski, anyone can look like a professional.

Glorious pow!

And then, run 2.

Run 2 to the same area was equally great, although slightly tracked (ie I had to avoid my own tracks from the previous run, so rough.. I know). I came down onto the connector trail, a stupid, flat, tiny little trail that gets you back to the lift and that is where disaster struck. I was thinking to myself just before I fell "I really like these skiis in powder, but they are a little awkward on groomers". My right ski caught an edge and slipped under my left. At this point had I just sat down everything would have been fine and I wouldn't be sitting here writing a blog post about it... but no... I tried to save it. I thought, oh I got this no problem, and swiftly untangled my skiis but somehow wayyy over corrected and assumed a wideleg frog position before twisting and falling. Here again, had my binding released on my left ski, I wouldn't have anything to blog about... but it didn't... the din is set too high (and I probably wasn't going fast enough?).

I knew immediately something was wrong, the pain in my left knee was throbbing (but not horrendous). After a few minutes of panic (kudos to Michelle for taking off my skiis and keeping me calm) I was able to stand up and bear weight on it. So I skiied down and went to the urgent care clinic at the lodge. Perhaps skiing down was not an incredibly good idea but I was not about to ride down in the sled for a silly knee injury.

The good news is 1) I had an xray in about 5 orientations of my knee and all my bones look good 2) my knee joint is not unstable in any gross way (so that rules out full tears) 3) it is mainly the interior so that points to MCL not ACL (I'm not actually sure if this is good news... but I am going to go with it... ACL's sound scary) 4) if it is truly just a strain and not a tear then the recovery might just be 1-2 weeks 5) I can walk around.. kinda.

The bad news is 1) it is probably a partial tear or strain of at least the MCL and possibly other ligaments 2) running is once again out and 3) worst of all I missed two epic powder days.

Right now as I write this I am sitting at the ski house watching the flakes spill down while everyone else is out skiing the powder...

At least I have happy snow loving pups to pass the day with.

So for now I am going to RICE for a few days and see what happens. Day 2 the pain was definitely greater, but the doctor said to expect that. One of these days I will have a happy/injury free post for you... Ironman's are supposed to involve adversity right? That will make the finish all the more sweet? Let's hope :)

Had to end this post on a happier note, Colt and Kona cuteness!

The struggle

Posted by Katie

This week my goal was to get at least 8-9 hours of workouts (3 of each sport) in as a sad attempt at one week of base building. Tuesday I did a swim morning, track at night day… easy peasy. Wednesday I had a good interval session on the stationary bike. Today (Thursday) I was attempting to repeat that swim/run combo and it was just… a struggle.

The downhill turn really started wednesday night, getting to bed at 11:15 instead of the goal time of 930? 10? 9pm…?! (a girl can dream). I have realized lately that I am so much better off physically and mentally with 8 hours of sleep. I used to assume that I was one of those 7 hour per night people, but I was just kidding myself… 8, I need 8 (#thisis30).

So onto the morning, waking up at goal time was too much to ask, so by the time I was dipping into the water I only had 45min to workout. I also failed to bring my goggles. I was about to resign to a 1500 of kicking when I decided it might not hurt to ask if they have spares in lost and found. Turns out they did! And turns out I really need to buy new (clear) goggles, my borrowed pair was far superior to the pair that I own.

Full credit goes to Matt for turning this swim into an actual workout, the inner monologue in my head on the way to the pool was something like “hmm maybe I will just swim easy the whole time, maybe some 500s, maybe I will just pull forever” and his was something like “hard 100s! Surprise sprint 50s*!”.   

        *Let the record show that I beat him by 1 sec in the first sprint 50 and we tied in the second 50. He kicked my butt in the 6x100 but no need to count that… :P

I also need to thank Chen and her post about swimming technique from the Total Immersion workshop. I am totally an arm crosser… not too surprising since my arms cross my body when I run as well. The coach at the masters group we used to attend always mentioned this but I didn’t really understand how to correct it (or why you need to). I always assumed that to take a breath I needed to cross wayyyyy over my midpoint to push myself up to the surface. Of course swimmers everywhere are cringing while reading this because the exact opposite is true. Enacting the 10 and 2 strategy I actually felt much better breathing (and not sinking like a stone).

On my way to work I stopped to pickup something to have for lunch later which is when I had the sinking feeling that I had forgotten something (my work computer) at home. Long story short I had to turn around to get it and ended up having a busy day and not fitting the in the run I thought I had time for. So I still have to figure out this whole two-a-day ironman training thing and how to make training no such a struggle.

In other news I have been thinking about food and nutrition a lot lately. So in that spirit I got this new cookbook:

So far I like it a lot, the book has three sections for people who 1-do not cook, 2-cook a little, and 3-love to cook. As far as I can tell those sections also loosely translate to how long a recipe takes to make. So far I've made one dish from the "love to cook" dinner section and it was a big hit. My general goal is not so much to acheive "race weight" whatever that is... but more to eat and fuel better (ie less starbust jelly beans.. more avocado).

Chicken with Peanut Sauce, Broccoli Slaw, and Rice

*Apologies for the weird grey and font changes... apparently today blogging is also a struggle