Left on Sunday morning at 6:00am with my friend Audra. We had a nice day planned up in Boulder to get ourselves ready for the 5430 Half Ironman triathlon on August 9th. I have been surviving this week on very little sleep with late night dinners with Andy's family along with early morning workouts.
Our plan was to ride for about an hour from Boulder Reservoir and then do an organized "2 mile open water swim" which started at 8:30 am. They did have a 1 mile swim as well but we both agreed that the 2 mile would do us good considering it would be one of the few that we can get in before our Ironman race in May. There just aren't many opportunities to get in a 2 mile timed swim. After the swim we would ride the bike course for the race and finish with a short run afterwards.
We got to the Res. just before 7:00am, signed ourselves up for the swim and then took off for a nice easy 18 mile, 1 hour ride. We got back about 8:15 and in just enough time to squeeze into our wetsuits and get over to the start of the swim race. I think it was a race considering we had race numbers written on us but not sure there were really any awards....however, they did have food! There were a good number of swimmers who showed up, if I had to guess it was probably about 150. Some with wetsuits and many without. It was a little crazy at first, I lined up right in front and had a number of "feet" to follow/draft for the first lap. My only issue was that is was quite crowded at the start and I jammed my fingers into some guys feet with in the first 10 min. of the swim. I am sure the guy's feet were just fine, however, my finger is still pretty swollen but I am not thinking it is broken.
I finished the swim with a big pack of swimmers, I was the last in the group hanging on for dear life. I was hoping my legs wouldn't start to cramp. Even though I was wearing a wetsuit I realized once I started the swim that I had forgotten to take my nutrition gel so I tried to be a little conservative. I also knew that I didn't drink or eat anything on the bike ride before the swim so I knew I was some what depleted in nutrition. I was hoping for about a :50-:52 min. swim and ended up with a :54. I always wonder how accurate the course is. I felt good though so I was happy with the results. I opted for the long sleeve wetsuit which worked out great. I was hoping I wouldn't overheat as I want to wear the long sleeve for the race.
After the swim we grabbed a little food that was being served and then we got ready for our ride. We were meeting up with Audra's teammates from D3 Sports. There were about 15 there for the ride and we thought this would be great to ride as a group. Well, we couldn't hang with the fast guys and there were a few slower riders so it ended up in between and it being just Audra and I for the two loops of the 56 mile course. My legs were so heavy and tired that I knew that I wasn't going to be able to ride like I wanted to. We were suppose to work on "Big Ring" riding where we ride as hard of a gear as possible at different times during the ride. I love riding in a big gear but my quads were screaming today. If I put it in a lower gear and spun really fast then my legs would just burn as I crept along at a slow pace.
Audra was great, she kept me motivated when I was feeling like total crap. We rode for 3 hours, hilly, extremely windy and low on fluids. I had 2 water bottles and 1 feed bottle and Audra had 1 water/1 electrolyte bottle. There was no place on the course to get fluid and with it being in the 80's we were suffering just a little. We made it thru the course and then whole time I was thinking how miserable I was feeling and how in the world would I do this come race day! We rode the course in 2:54 so I was pretty happy with that considering how I was feeling.
After the ride we packed up the bikes and tossed on our running shoes and headed out for an easy 20-45 min. run....2o for me, :45 for Audra. My foot was killing me the first 5 min. I stopped and did some stretching and things finally loosened up a bit. The tightness in the heel was much better and I was able to comfortably (not pain free) run for about 2.5 miles. I am still dealing with the planatar Faciitis so I am a little nervous for the 13.1 miles I have to run in 3 weeks.. After this next race I will be taking some time off from running and cycling in hopes that I can get the foot to settle down so I can get back to my running.
A total of an hour swim/4 hours biking and a :20 min. run....not too bad. I took Monday off to sleep in and just get caught up with everyday things.
No comments:
Post a Comment