On the road to Ironman Lake Placid (IMLP)

LAKE PLACID RACE REPORT

2010-08-06T08:23:00.001-04:00

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks that I did Ironman Lake Placid. What an experience this has been! I want to thank Andrew Johnston for giving me the tools & encouragement in making me an Ironman. He's been an inspiration throughout my season and especially on race day. I am extremely grateful my family made the trek from Colorado, Las Vegas, Atlanta & Connecticut to see me finish my 1st Ironman. It wouldn't have been the same without you there. It was also amazing seeing so many friends on the course racing & spectating. Oh and thank you weather for being so beautiful and cooperative! Wow, I feel like I just wrote my Oscar speech.

I was so consumed with packing & worrying about the logistics of my trip that I didn't really have a chance to get nervous about the race itself. I was shocked @ how calm I had been. My flight left Wednesday morning, but I had to get in a ride & run before I left. We arrived in Syracuse at 1pm and then had to drive 3.5 hours to Placid. Of course my dumb GPS lady's route was just ridiculous, but it made for a good laugh between my mom and I. When we finally got into town, we made a pit stop @ the grocery store because I didn't want to eat any meals out before the race. I'm not typically the best eater, but I made sure I was careful with my food intake to take precautions for any possible GI issues. I cut out dairy for the week and didn't have any processed foods. I mainly ate chicken, steak, sweet potatoes, fruits and veggies. Between waking up @ 4:45, flying to Syracuse then driving for 3.5 hours, being exhausted was an understatement.

I got a great night's sleep, which was exactly what I needed. I woke up Thursday with a list of things I needed to get done. Do a 30 minute swim, check in to get my number, chip & various other goodies, pick up my bike from bike transport & then get in a 30 minute ride. It seemed like a lot to do when I was supposed to be off my feet relaxing. I got to the lake, put my wetsuit on & that's when the 1st "oh shit" moment happened. But really, what's a Pam Wiener race without a couple of oh shit moments? The zipper on my wetsuit came off the track and wouldn't go back on. I allowed myself to freak out for about a minute & thought about what my options were. At that moment it was swim sans wetsuit & figure out what I could do later. Andrew gave me a great pointer multiple times, don't worry about the things you can't control. I really only wanted positive energy leading up to the race and this was out of my control, so there was no reason to sweat it. This wasn't the worst thing that could happen to me. It sucks, but there are so many other things that really could've killed my race & this wasn't one of them. The water temperature was about 74, so it was fine to go without. I had a great swim. I felt confident, calm, relaxed and swam on the line (Lake Placid actually has a line in the lake below the buoys that mimics the black line on the bottom of a pool). I was interested to see how far away I could get & still see it. Of course forgetting it will be a lot more difficult with the rest of the athletes in the water. While I was swimming I thought of my options for the wetsuit dilemma. I had 2 friends coming up that have wetsuits, so I asked them to bring theirs or I just wouldn't wear one. Either option would be fine for me. Luckily my friend Karen's fit perfectly (possibly even better then my own). Great, mission wetsuit solved!

Later in the day I picked up my bike & as I was pumping the tire I snapped off the pressure release button in my back tire. "Oh shit" moment number 2 (only a few hours after number 1). My tires had enough air in them for a 30 minute ride so I figured I would just go to the bike shop when my ride was done. Luckily the the bike shop was right across from our condo. Although I ride a bike, I am not known for certain mechanical things, such as changing a tire. I know, awful, but my version of changing a tire is hoping I don't get one. I rode the 1st part of the bike and run course. It wasn't too bad, but I knew the most difficult parts were during the 2nd 1/2 of each lap. After my short ride I went to the shop, got help from the cute 22 year old dude, only to have my oh shit moments 3 & 4. It ended up both my spare tubes had slits in them. Better to happen pre race then during. I have midget size tires, so my tubes are smaller then most people's & need to make sure I have more then enough extras. I ended up buying 3 tubes, in addition to the 3 I had @ the condo. The little tutorial from baby hottie made feel slightly more comfortable about changing a tire. I made my way back to the condo, hung out with the fam & had a great dinner of pasta with turkey meat sauce.

I had another great night's sleep on Thursday. Go me! It was pretty crucial to get my sleep in since Saturday I probably wouldn't get much sleep. Friday was my day off & the only thing I wanted to do was drive the course. I rode it last year, but I really don't remember it. When we started driving it was the 1st time I really got nervous for the race. I knew the course was going to be difficult, but it was definitely confirmed when we drove it. When we got to the last hill it would definitely be tough, but it would be manageable. Through my training I've done hill repeats, difficult courses & a good amount of long distances so I knew I would be ok. After we got home I took a well deserved nap and then just sat on our deck over looking Lake Placid. The fam made a fantastic dinner of flank steak and sweet potatoes.

Friday night was necessary for a good night's sleep, but unfortunately it was awful. I couldn't fall asleep, woke up during the night for a few hours & woke up super early. My goal was not to take a nap Saturday so I would be completely spent that I would just pass out. I still didn't have any nerves, which was completely surprising. I'm not sure if I did and I was in denial, but either way it was refreshing to not be freaking out. I had to get in a 30 minute ride, 5 minute run and drop my bike off before 2pm. I was up pretty early and started getting antsy, so I went out for my ride. The section that I rode on Saturday wasn't on the course, which is good because I was having technical difficulties with my legs. They just didn't want to move. It wasn't that encouraging, but once again, oh well, I'll just be slow. During this ride I had another "oh shit" moment. I heard this crazy noise on my bike. I had no idea what it was so I pulled over to see if I could figure out what was going on, which was probably a long shot considering my lack of bike mechanic knowledge. Bingo, figured out the problem.I didn't secure the new tube on the back of my bike securely so it fell off into the tire. Ok good, no bike issue that needed to get fixed. When I looked on the back of my bike, the other tube fell off during my ride. Pam 0, tubes 4! I just went straight to the condo and had my mom pick up more tubes for me later to put in my special needs bag. My friends Linda, Karen and Wes from NYC came to visit. It was great seeing familiar faces. We chatted for a bit and then I went to drop my bike off. It was really hot that day, so I went back to the condo while the fam stayed in town. I vegged out by myself, which was nice and managed not to take a nap. My friend Steve from NYC, who just finished Ironman Coeur d'Alene (Go Stevie!!!), stopped by as well. We sat on the deck, chatted it up and just took in the scenery. We ate an early dinner of chicken with artichokes and some rice. I wanted to make sure I was done eating by 6:45ish, so I could get to bed early. I went downstairs around 8 and was asleep by 9:45. Then @ 1:30 I must've been having a dream about Ironman because I shot up in bed, scared out of my mind and realized I was doing an Ironman in 5 1/2 hours. That was the most nervous I had been. Thankfully I fell back asleep pretty quickly and didn't wake up until my alarm went off @ 4:00.

WOW!!! Race morning was finally here! It was a year ago (plus a day) that I really should've had my head examined when I signed up to do an Ironman. I ate the 1st part of my breakfast which was peanut butter and low sugar jelly on an english muffin. I made sure I was drinking water and a sports drink with electrolytes. I didn't want to start thinking about the race so I read a Cooking Light magazine. I then ate the 2nd part of my breakfast which was an Organic Food Bar. I managed to get most of it down. I was supposed to consume about 600 calories for breakfast. I took my water bottles out of the freezer, grabbed my stuff and had my mom drive me into town. We were staying about 1.5 miles from the start and this princess didn't want to walk if someone could drive me. Luckily my grandfather made all sorts of crazy sleep noises that woke my mom up, so I didn't have to feel guilty about her 5:00 wake up call. Shocking, but I still wasn't feeling the nerves. I wanted to write something on the inside of my arms so if I got into a funk, had doubts or just wanted to smile, I could look down and get some encouragement. I ended up writing YOU'RE DOING IT on my left arm and PERSEVERE on my right. I went to transition to put fluids on my bike, pump my tires and drop off my special needs bags. I ran into some friends along the way to special needs, so I got some good morning hugs. I was waiting for my family to arrive before I headed over to the water. I clearly didn't have my thinking cap on because I put Pam (not me, the cooking spray) on the outside of my wetsuit (which makes it easier to take off) before I put my wetsuit on instead of after. GENIUS I tell you! Some guy next to me said, "You're having a really tough time getting your wetsuit on." Thanks captain obvious because I was unaware of that little fact! Finally I got it on. My mom came over and gave me a big good luck hug and kiss. Of course I was bothered by something, so I got a little sassy with her (I'm blaming it on the nerves that must've been there that I was unaware of). My goal going into this race was cross the finish line within 16:59:59 and do it while wearing a smile more then showing misery. I really just wanted to enjoy myself and appreciate the fact that I'm healthy enough and dumb enough to do this. Plus I was in place that absolutely gorgeous and picturesque. I've heard so many awful stories from people that I didn't want to have that experience. I trained hard to become an Ironman and I wanted to be a smiling Ironman! I had my mental and physical game plan and I was going to do everything in my power to stick to it.

SWIM
I took a GU about 10 minutes before I headed into the water. It had been 2 hours since I finished my breakfast, so I needed something in me. I got in the water and was feeling pretty calm. There were about 875 1st time athletes, so I knew I wasn't alone. I think this was the biggest field in Placid to date, of close to 2,700 people. I had 2 pairs of goggles, but I wasn't sure which one I was going to wear. I ended up trying them both on and went with the darker tint. I set the other pair on a dock to be forever lost in Placid. I took some practice strokes and felt really good. This might not be so bad, but only time will tell. I stood on the side while the National Anthem was sang and just focused on the day ahead of me. I then made my way over to the front of the mass swim start. My positioning was a big debate for me. I didn't have any anxiety this season, but I also didn't start with 2,700 people either. I was about 4 rows deep and in the middle towards the right of the buoys. This was a bit ballsy, but I thought it was a good place for me to go & if it wasn't I was soon going to find out. I don't think we even got a countdown, but between the bitching around me of how hard this was going to be, I heard someone say we had about a minute, then BOOM the cannon went off. My 1st 5 strokes were ok and then I got kicked and had so much water splashing at me, that my heart rate sky rocketed and I freaked out a bit. Shit, this cannot be happening to me now! I stopped a few times and tried gaining my composure. I tried counting my strokes to calm down, layed on my back, doggy paddled and nothing worked for the 1st 5 minutes or so. I looked around and there were a few people in the same boat as me which was somewhat refreshing. I finally calmed down enough and started my swim again. The counting helped this time and I was able to get in a good groove. I wasn't sighting and to be honest, I was pretty scared to. If I picked up my head I had no idea what body part of someone else I was going to come in contact with so leaving it in the water was the best option. I knew where I started and that I wanted to make my way over to the left, so I headed that way. I tried gauging where I was based on other people. I know that's not the right way to sight, but it was my way for the day. I felt like I was picking up some speed and was passing a lot of people. I had no idea what my time was and until I got out of the water for the 2nd lap, I wasn't going to look. I made my way around the turn buoy and wow did that suck. I got kicked, pulled, hit on pretty much every portion of my body. Imagine your clothing in a washing machine. The socks are fighting your shirts, your shirts are fighting your jeans, etc. Well, that's what this swim felt like. Somehow I managed to get directly on the line when I made the turn. Sweet or maybe not since that's where most people were fighting to get. Probably 100 yards after we made the turn, I got nailed in the face. It knocked my goggles a little bit, which let a little water in. It would've been a lot worse if I was in chlorine or salt water. I pressed the lens in and went on about my way. I tried sighting a little to see where we were in relation to the shore. I remember seeing buildings to my right so I knew I wasn't too far away. As we approached I heard Mike Reilly on the loud speaker, so I started swimming faster. I got out of the water, put my goggles on the top of my head, looked at my watch and couldn't believe the time, 35:something. No freaken way, I might be able to break 1:10 even with that awful start. I got back in the water and booked it. I was directly on the line again. I was feeling good and confident. By this time I learned how to swallow water that gets splashed in your face and still managing to breathe without choking. I wonder if this is a skill I can use in every day life. The draft wasn't as strong this go round because there were a lot less people in the water. I felt like I was swimming very strong and then a ding ding went off in my head and I realized I still had about a mile to swim so I should slow down a bit. I tried drafting off of people, but they were going to slow for me. I was pulled down a few times by the same person. I definitely hit, pulled and kicked some people during this swim. The difference between me and this a-hole on my leg was that I realized what I was doing, so I swam away from the person I was touching. I ended up doing a big karate type kick and have no clue where I nailed them. Not my problem, moving onto the next victim. This happened multiple times. I thought I made the turn around the buoy already, but I hadn't reached it yet. This was now starting to feel like a longer swim then the 1st lap. I finally got there and about 500 yards later, I think I managed to bite someone's foot. I tend to swim with my mouth open, so as I was putting my head in the water this individual kicked and my teeth went into his foot. I could've sworn I was going to have a fat lip. Once again, I was just waiting to hear Mike Reilly's voice. Once I did, I knew it was time to get my head in bike mode. I got out of the water and although it was a great time, was kind of bummed I didn't go under 1:10.

Aggressive Goal 1:10
Realistic Goal 1:12
Actual 1:12:08
Division Place 35/119
Overall Place 1648/2611 (I think this was the final number, but not 100% sure)

T1
I ran on the nice carpet, made the turn and saw my family just screaming and smiling, which made me happy. I also heard a couple of Go Wiener's thrown out there. This was the 1st T1 where I actually ran the whole time to transition. I got my bag, found a volunteer and asked her to help me. She dumped out my bag and I just called out what I needed. Now that's service people. I decided to wear my tri shorts the whole time and not change. It's not necessary for certain body parts of mine to be in bike shorts for long rides, so I figured why take extra time to change into bike shorts. Plus changing wet spandex kind of blows. I got all of my stuff and made my way out to get my bike.
Goal 8:00
Actual 8:26

BIKE
I hopped on my bike & told myself to take it easy. I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to use for my nutrition, so it was really a guessing game to see how I felt and what I was going to use. I had 1 concentrated bottle of Infinit, 1 regular bottle of Infinit, 7 plain GUs & 1 package of Honey Stinger Fruit Chews on me. In my special needs bag I had more Infinit, 2 more packages of Honey Stingers & 2 packages of plain Pringles in case I needed solids. Based on my biking this season, if I went faster then 7:00 I knew I was pushing it too hard. Believe me, I wanted to go under, but it just wasn't smart for me to even attempt it. It didn't matter how many people passed me (of course without even an on your left or in some cases on your right from these other bikers), I needed to stick to my plan. Just pedal up the hills, use the downhills to make up lost time, use the flats as recovery & pick up speed once I recovered. I also was aiming to negative split if possible on the 2nd loop. I needed to focus on me, not those around me. I wanted to break my bike up into 4, 28 mile portions. Thinking of riding 112 miles when you're only @ mile 40 could really mess with your mind. It started raining a little when I was in the water, so the ground was a slightly wet. I didn't use a jacket or arm warmers because I knew it wouldn't take long for my body to warm up. Of course with the light rain, it was slightly colder then I anticipated. Right when you get out of transition there are a couple of turns and downhills, which aren't my favorite, especially with wet ground and a lot of people around me (most of them aggressive). I just took it easy & made sure I yelled that I would be slow on the turns & curves. I guess it was defensive riding. Around mile 5 or so there were a couple of hills that were pretty difficult in the beginning. By no means are they challenging hills, but it typically takes me about 15-25 miles to get into a groove on the bike, especially after a swim. I took a GU after about 25 minutes on the bike which was the 1st thing I had eaten since my GU right before the swim. I actually think I got hungry in the swim although I shouldn't have considering the amount of water I consumed. I reached the 8 mile downhill & wasn't sure how I felt about it. Anyone who has ridden with me knows my fear of downhills. I picture myself on the ground, not on my bike. The rain fell harder & the roads got wetter. Crap, just stay on your bike & be careful for everyone around you was all I could tell myself. I wasn't worried about speed, I just wanted to stay on my bike. I had 1 scare with a guy who was braking on wet ground, in the middle of the road while we're all traveling @ 30+ mph. I was able to avoid him, but had a brief thought of crashing. The next 15 miles were relatively flat. I looked @ my average speed & realized I was doing pretty well with an 18+mph, but knew the hardest part was yet to come. I just pedaled @ a comfortable speed. The wind was in our favor, which meant it soon would be against us when we hit the turnaround. I just had to remember not to attempt to pick up my speed when I saw my speed drop because of the wind. Of course I had to lose something on my bike, which is typical for me. My salt pills fell out of my back pocket around mile 30. Luckily it wasn't hot, so I wasn't sweating as much. Plus my liquid nutrition has sodium in it. I hit mile 40 & my legs felt extremely fresh. I was doing a good job drinking, which tends to be difficult when the weather is cooler. We hit the horrendous 6 mile hill around mile 45 & I just remembered my hill repeats up Kennesaw mountain. I was able to do 6 repeats there, albeit pretty slow, which meant I could do this climb. There was some relief after that bad boy. I was trying not to think ahead, but I still had some big hills @ the very end of the loop. We hit the hills that everyone talks about & I was shocked @ how "easy" they were to climb. I do much better when a hill isn't steep, so this was right up my alley. I opted not to go to special needs. My stomach felt fine, so I was going to stick with the Gu's on my bike & just use the Powerade drink on the course. I was in a good rhythm & didn't want to ruin that by stopping. We made our way back to the Olympic Oval to start our 2nd loop. I was completely warmed up, there was no more rain & I was ready to go to town again. Bring it Placid, I'm ready for you!!! The initial hills were much easier this go round. I also felt so much more comfortable on the huge downhill that I was passing people. In fact, I was extremely aggressive on them and wanted to fly down that hill. I of course came across some Alpha Males that didn't think it was acceptable for a girl to pass them, so I was getting blocked. Normally I am super aggressive in my everyday life, however I didn't feel it was wise to get in a pissing match here. I managed to play cat & mouse with a couple of them. Things were pretty uneventful for the rest of the 1st 1/2 of the 2nd loop. After the fact I found out that I negative split this part. Once I made my way up the 6 mile climb I knew I was going slow when other riders were encouraging me & giving me a lot of inspirational words. I seriously think I maybe went 4mph up the hill. I hit a funk @ mile 90 where I wondered how I was going to run a marathon. As soon as I realized the negativity, I looked down @ my arms & said, because you're going to do it, YOU'RE DOING IT!!!! Ok, simple enough. The remainder of the ride wasn't as enjoyable as the 1st time around, but I was seriously almost done with the bike. I utilized the downhills & straight aways even when my legs were tired. I couldn't believe it after I made it up the last set of hills. I'm 2/3 of the way done with an Ironman!!! That adrenaline took me back to transition with a huge smile. I made a conscious effort to appreciate the scenery while I rode. Each time I saw the beautiful water and mountains, I just stared @ it and had a great conversation with myself. Seriously, this course might be challenging, but it is absolutely stunning. This was something I told myself going into this race. Make sure to take in everything around you, even on the hills. There aren't many opportunities to ride in such an amazing atmosphere, so I took advantage of admiring it. Even though there were parts of this bike that were difficult and kind of sucked, I always had a smile on my face, especially if someone was cheering for me. There was absolutely no reason I shouldn't be smiling.

Aggressive Goal 7:00
Realistic Goal 7:15
Actual 7:07:31
Division Place 68/119
Overall Place 1952/2611

T2
My T2 was a lot faster then I thought it would be. I didn't have to change anything except my shoes & socks. When I spoke to my family after the race I came to the realization that T2 & the start of my run was a complete blur. Seriously I have no recollection of which way I ran out of the changing tent or how I even got on the main road. I know that I saw my family, but I couldn't tell you where I was or how I got there. This is the 1st time that's ever happened to me. I don't know if it was because I was super focused or Will Smith waved a wand in front of my eyes & made me forget T2.

Goal 8:00
Actual 5:13

RUN
I've done 1 marathon before and I did it in 5:01:01. I had no idea what I was actually capable of, but I wanted to have a plan whether I stuck to it or not. My goal for the run was to break it up into 4, 10ks and run the 1st 6 miles @ an 11:00 pace. Nothing over, nothing under. What I didn't factor in was the 1st couple of miles are completely downhill. I was running a 9:25ish & every time I tried to slow down it was only for a moment. I ended up walking a little initially, which looking back I wish I didn't, but I was trying to stick to the 11:00 pace rule. During my previous marathon I hit my wall @ mile 13, so the rest of the race was miserable. That was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. I was having such a fantastic time enjoying myself thus far, I didn't want anything to ruin that. I made a deal with myself that as long as I ran the flats and downhills, I could walk the uphills and aid stations if I needed to. I carried a bottle of water with me so I could drink and take a GU at any time. I figured I would get some Powerade drink along the way if I needed it. What I didn't account for was how disgusting the orange/mango flavor was. Needless to say, I didn't drink much Powerade. My foot started bothering me within the 1st few miles. I couldn't believe this could happen to me again during a race like it did at Rev 3. I felt a little numbness starting, so I went off to the side of the road and stretched my Achilles. When this started, my plan was to ignore it and it will go away. It didn't last too long this go round. I guess I had my auto pause on because my watch stopped a couple of times when I walked through aid stations and when I hit the potty around mile 4ish. I wasn't really keeping track of time, but I did look at my overall pace a few times. I noticed that I was fairly close to 11:00 miles for much of the race (I was closer to 11:20s because I didn't figure out the auto pause time). I did walk more times then I wanted to, but I did this because I knew I wouldn't be able to run the whole marathon. I told myself that unless I was going up a hill, I couldn't go above a 15:30 walk. I also realized that I was able to run longer and faster if I walked. I think my run pace was anywhere from 8:45-10:30. I guess you can say I walked so I could run. The 1st 1/2 of the marathon was really uneventful. I saw so many friends, former coaches and family out there which was so awesome. It was great because there were groups of people spread out all over the course. I didn't know where most of them would be, but I was looking everywhere I could. I'm thinking that helped take my mind off of the marathon I was running. I talked to some people around me, got a lot of cheers for wearing TNT gear and just smiled. I was told by someone around mile 21 that I was the happiest person she saw out there. I got a lot of keep on smiling through the day on the bike and run. When you hear that, how can you not smile more? My legs felt really good and it didn't feel like I had just ridden 112 miles. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't speedy Gonzales, but I felt good enough to run a marathon. I ran into my friend Jenny around mile 14. She asked if I had any salt pills because I had a lot of salt on my shoulders. As a matter of fact, that would be a big fat no because my salt pills once again fell out of my tri top. Luckily she spared a couple for me. I tried taking in some chicken broth for the sodium since I didn't have salt pills. It tasted amazing, but I wasn't able to keep it down. I think because the Powerade drink was so sugary that it wasn't allowing me to absorb certain things I put in me. I ate a bunch of pretzels throughout the run hoping that would give me salt as well. I ended up playing cat and mouse with Jenny a few times, so I was able to talk to her. I also talked to a guy that was a TNT coach in Ohio. It was nice that people out there were enjoying their time on the course. The faster people I saw were so serious and could barely crack a smile if I said hi. That's just not how I race. The balls of my feet and toes started hurting around mile 17. I didn't see the sign for mile 18, but asked a volunteer and he said I just passed it. AWESOME!!! Then around mile 19 my left hamstring started tightening up. I didn't care what was happening to my body. I was a little more then a 10k away from being an Ironman. The hurting would have to be put on the back burner until I was done! I couldn't believe it when I saw mile 22. This is getting more real by the second. I saw a group of people I knew with my former NYC TNT coach on IGA hill, which is around mile 22 or 23. He told me that I looked way to fresh and I needed to be running since I was walking. I told him I was walking the hills and that I wanted to make sure I had a pretty finish line photo, so I didn't want to push it to hard. He laughed and told me that was ok as long as I ran when I got to Mirror Lake. After that hill, there's another one. I decided to run up that hill and saw my family cheering away. They looked so happy and I couldn't tell they had been spectating for 13.5 hours. I made the final turnaround and knew I had a mile or so to go. Then the unthinkable happened. I got a cramp in my left calf. Yeah I told that cramp to F off. I changed my stride a bit to accommodate it. I was in the final stretch and nothing was stopping me from getting to that finish line. I saw the Olympic Oval with all of the lights and couldn't believe my eyes. I heard Mike Reilly's voice and I booked it like I never have before! I guess all of those 1/4 mile sprints paid off because I was probably running a 7:30 for the home stretch. I made my way into the Oval and got super choked up, but had the biggest smile on my face. I made the final turn and heard the most amazing words, "PAMELA WIENER, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!!!"

Aggressive Goal 5:00
Realistic Goal 5:30
Actual 4:59:12 (PR by 2 minutes)
Division Place 68/119
Overall Place 1556

TOTAL
Aggressive Goal 13:26:00
Realistic Goal 14:13:00
Actual 13:32:27
Division Place 62/119
Overall Place 1648

My family came over to me when I crossed the finish line and I thought I would ball immediately. My mom gave me the hugest hug and cried, which I thought would make me cry. Surprisingly it didn't. I think I was just so elated and on a natural high, the cry wouldn't flow. Or maybe I was just so dehydrated that's why it wouldn't come out. It honestly wasn't until I just wrote the words "PAMELA WIENER, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN" that I had tears come out. I did make my way into the medical tent. Personally I wanted an IV because I was told that it would help me recover better the next day. They weren't too keen on just giving them out. They took my vitals and everything was ok. My body started cooling off and I started shivering. They gave me some chicken broth to warm me up, but I couldn't keep it down so I ended up getting an IV of anti nausea medicine. Once I got the anti nausea, I started shivering like a crazy person. I had taken off all my wet clothing, but that didn't seem to help. They put warm fluids in an IV bag, gave me 2 blankets and aimed a heater on me, but nothing seemed to warm me up. I must've been in there for at least 40 minutes before I finally warmed up. The good news is I looked WAY better then anyone else in that room.

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day then what I was given on July 25, 2010. Not only did I become and Ironman, but I was happy and appreciated everything the entire day. I wish more people could feel what I did since I don't think I can actually put it into words.

If you've made it to the end of this without falling asleep, I give you a lot of credit. I've been writing this thing since the Thursday before Placid. Next up on my agenda is Augusta 70.3 with Team in Training in honor of an amazing coach, man, father, husband and Leukemia survivor, Andrew Johnston. If it wasn't for him, I don't know if I could've been an Ironman. This is the least I can do for him. If you would like to donate, please visit my link,
http://pages.teamintraining.org/ga/Augusta10/pwiener. Thanks again for your support throughout the past 7 months!

Best,
PW

1 WEEK TO GO FOR NUMBER 2557, PAMELA WIENER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-07-18T23:13:00.004-04:00

I am absolutely amazed that 1 week from today I will be completing an Ironman. This day creeped up out of nowhere. How did this happen? Is this what a parent feels like when their kid is 16 and getting their driver's license. I have been so consumed with thinking about everything that needs to be done prior to Wednesday morning when I leave, that it's really left me no time time to actually think about the race. I guess that's a good thing. I am really getting excited to see what I'm made of. People ask me all the time if I'm nervous or if I feel ready. The nervous part, in a way because I just really don't know what to expect. The ready part, I'm not sure if you ever feel truly ready for an Ironman, but I know I put in the time and effort. So yeah, I'm ready. Andrew sent me my last schedule of Ironman training and damn, it still seems like a lot! This week my legs felt so much better then last week. I still had some intense workouts, but for the most part I felt ok.

My swim on Monday I probably pushed slightly harder then I should've. I swam with other people, which I tend not to do, so I was going faster then if I was by myself. I made sure on Wednesday's 2000 yard swim to hold back a little and see if this was a pace I could sustain for 400 yards. I had some sprints thrown in there, but I was pretty pleased with how I felt.

Lucy Roo has been on a break since last Saturday. I got a new back tire and didn't want to abuse her before Placid on the trainer. She also is now on her way to Placid and we will meet again on Thursday when she's delivered. I had a couple of trainer rides and a 3 hour ride today. I was trying to hold back a little on the bike for my long ride. I was riding with a friend and there were times I looked down at my speed and thought, I feel good, but damn we're going faster then I wanted to. I would occasionally throw out that we needed to slow down. Our 2nd 1/2 was much slower, which was fine for both of us. I had 2 5 minute sprints that were tough on me. I was booking it and trying to get my HR up. Once the intervals were done, so were my legs. When I got off the bike though my legs felt pretty good. I have to make note that I've been riding my road bike and wow what a difference. I think after riding that I will be happy to be on Lucy Roo again. Lucy is so much more comfortable now. Kind of crazy after all the bitching I initially did.

I was not pleased with my long run this week. It was so hot and humid out that it sucked any energy that I might've had out of me. I tried taking it slow, but that wasn't working out too well for me. I ended up walking a bunch whenever I felt like crap. I'm not sure if it was the right decision, but I wanted to preserve any energy I had for next weekend. I didn't think it was necessary for me to push it too hard because I would receive no benefits from it. My other runs though were good.

If you want to track me go to http://www.ironmanusa.com/. There should be an athlete tracker on Sunday. You can track me by my name or bib number which is 2557. Fingers crossed that all goes according to plan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 WEEK COUNTDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-07-12T22:20:00.003-04:00

So I've been quite a slack ass on the blog front lately. Luckily I can't say the same thing for my training. I still have been doing my workouts, but every time I think about writing, something comes up & I put it off. I have been sleeping like shit, so insomnia would be the perfect time to write, but I choose to watch shitty reality shows @ that time. Unfortunately for me, not sleeping is a side affect when I get stressed out. So I've put off writing for over 3 weeks and after getting an email about my blog from Andrew, it pushed me to finally write again. My mind is going in a million different directions. The weird part is, it hasn't really hit me my race is almost here. The nerves for the actual race hasn't even hit yet. I'm more nervous about packing and getting everything together without forgetting anything. The NE was hit with an awful heatwave, which also hit Placid. Even though this is something completely out of my control, it is still playing games with my head. I've been checking the weather & luckily things are looking a lot better. Things are going well with my training & I've finally hit the taper stage. In my mind taper means a couple miles here, some miles there, relax & rest your body. Yeah, that's not exactly what it really means. I was told that I do shorter, but more intense workouts. Really? That's how my body is supposed to say hello to an Ironman? I guess so.

My swims have been good lately. I am officially shedding the $500 long sleeve wetsuit & am going with my free TNT sleeveless suit. I am so much more comfortable in that suit and I'm all about comfort on July 25. I've been swimming once a week in it. The problem is it's so hot in the pool that I tend to slow down when wearing it. I don't really see me getting too warm in the lake @ Placid, so I'm probably good on that front. I met with Andrew and came up with some strategies for my swim @ Placid. Even though I haven't had open water anxiety this season, I've never started with over 2000 people in the water fighting over a line on the bottom of the lake. My plan is to start pretty far over to the right & then make my way to the left. Fingers crossed that it works. I will end up swimming more then 2.4 miles, but if it helps me get past the people, I'll take it.

I'm satisfied with how I'm doing on the bike. I still think I'm slower then last year, but that's ok. I'm also riding 56 miles more and running a marathon after. I did 6 Kennesaw hill repeats 3 weeks ago. That workout knocked me on my ass. I definitely started a lot faster then I should've because my last one was 2 minutes slower then the 1st. It was also crazy hot out. I was supposed to do 2 repeats standing. I wasn't able to get up the whole thing standing. As a matter of fact, I think I probably was only able to make it a 1/4 of the way. In the same week my long ride was a Century. The 1st 40 miles were pretty slow. I couldn't climb, my legs felt tight & tired (I had an 18 mile run 2 days before). We hit a rest stop @ mile 50ish & somehow I got some major energy & power. I felt phenomenal until the last few miles. The sun & heat just got the best of me. This past weekend I had a 3.5 hour ride. I was supposed to take it easier then I did. My legs felt really good so I went harder and faster then I normally did. I paid for it @ mile 50. I just completely bonked. I took a GU which helped. I also was working out some things with my nutrition. I tried the potatoes, but realized I need to do them in the middle of the ride & not as a substitute for GU. I need it really to absorb the liquids in my stomach.

Oh man my runs are not exactly what I'd like them to be leading into a big race. My body rejects the heat like the plague. Seriously, it is beyond awful. I'm pretty sure I walk more then I run, even on 6 mile runs. I don't know why I haven't learned my lesson that I need to take it slow in the beginning & see how my body will do. Nope, not this genius. I end up paying for it in the long run. I had an 18 mile run a few weeks ago that went better then I expected. It was definitely tough, but I didn't feel like death was upon me until mile 15.5ish. I drank a ton, took salt pills & GU, but the heat took over my body. I made a deal with myself towards the end that I had to run on the flats or downhills, but I was allowed to walk on the uphills. Then last night I had one of my better runs since summer hit. I slept in, so I had to do my run @ night, which was still 90 out. I made sure that no matter what I did, I didn't go faster then a 10:15 minute mile & if my HR went above 160 I started to walk. It helped so much doing my run that way. This is exactly how I want to run my marathon @ Placid (although it will be 11:00 miles for the 1st part of the race). I was able to negative split with this strategy & felt like I could've done more. I needed this run because I was starting to get a little worried.

I can't believe IMLP is less then 2 weeks away. It's amazing how far I've come since January. There were so many times that I doubted myself & my ability. That doubt is what held me back. I know I can do it! Even though it will be crazy tough & push me to levels I never thought I could achieve, I will do it!!! I will be an Ironman!!!

Revived

2010-06-21T18:56:00.003-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 1:20 (3 days)
BIKING 4:30 (3 days)
RUNNING 2:05 (2 days with 3 bricks)

I seriously feel like a new woman after a forced recovery week. My body and mind were screaming at me to take a break. I felt guilty last weekend for only doing 96 miles instead of the scheduled 112. Believe me, if my body could've done it, I would've. This was the 1st time in training that I actually questioned whether I was capable of doing another workout. I was drained and hurting. Luckily Andrew listened to my body because I feel so much better now. At this point I am confident enough in my athletic ability to be able to cross the finish line in 16:59:59. Time shouldn't really matter to me, even though it does. I want to do the best that I can do. Who knows what my best will be on race day, but I know not finishing isn't an option.

I had a 2000 yard swim in my wetsuit again. My swim was slightly better this time, but not what I was hoping for. I had a difficult time breathing every 3rd stroke, so I just went with breathing to the right. I felt pretty uncomfortable. My arms just felt unbelievably heavy with each stroke. It's almost like they were super sore. I tried a few different things and ended up switching to my left side to breathe & I felt a lot better. I can't figure out what the problem is. It's not like I have a cheap wetsuit. I want it to work, but I don't think it is and it's quite frustrating. I have a 4000 yard swim on Wednesday which I'm going to use my sleeveless wetsuit. Hopefully this feels a lot better. If anyone wants to buy a Blue Seventy Helix size medium, I have one for sale!!!!!

It's amazing how short a 3 hour ride feels now. The 1st 2 hours were in a pretty shaded park, which was seriously like being in heaven. It was fairly hilly, but so is Placid...but worse! I then switched for the last hour to a new location to ride with some TNT Tri peeps. I wasn't going for time or distance on this ride. I really just wanted to ride with ease. I didn't want to work to hard, I wanted to enjoy it. Andrew mixed in a 10 minute interval that kicked by butt. I'm not used to pushing that hard for 10 minutes. I guess that could be part of my problem of not being a faster cyclist. I was amazed at how much of my day was left after 3 hours as opposed to a 6+ hour ride and 2 hours driving time.

I didn't have a long run this week, but the run I did have was pretty intense. Hot and humid is an understatement to the weather we've been having. I'm not sure if it's possible to hydrate enough in this. Luckily the 1st 20 minutes of my run were in a shaded neighborhood. After 30 minutes I then included 4, 10-12 second intervals. I think I reached 7:08-7:15 on all of them. Not bad for my 10:00 pace. Pushing myself in that heat was not fun. I stopped a couple of times under a tree to drink some water and try to cool down. It didn't seem like anything helped. This weather just drains you and makes every workout harder. I hope that one day before Placid the weather drops by 10 degrees to see what I'm actually capable of doing.

OOOOUUUUCCCHHHH!!!!

2010-06-14T20:32:00.002-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 2:00 (2 days)
BIKING 7:55 (3 days)
RUNNING 4:15 (3 days)
WEIGHTS 1:15 (2 days)

This past week was probably my most challenging so far. I am beat up!!!!!! Seriously, I don't think my body was meant for this type of torture! After doing a 1/2 Ironman and 112 mile bike ride my body surprisingly felt good. And by good, I mean I didn't think I was going to die. Andrew kind of took it easy on me by only having me do 1 set of leg weights 2x this week instead of the 3 sets. I thought I was off to a good start. Mentally I was prepared for what the weekend had in store for me. A 112 mile bike on Saturday and a 2.5 hour run on Sunday (should've been about a 15 mile run). I knew I could do it because dammit this is what I've been training for. In my mind I'm capable and although I might be slow, my body can do it too. Or so I thought...

Friday's swim was a 4000 yard, but in my wetsuit. I've only worn my $500 wetsuit 2x in races. The 1st time was @ St A's and I couldn't tell if it was the wetsuit I didn't like or the waves. Then I wore it in Knoxville and felt pretty good, despite not having a great swim time. Then I swam Macon and had an awesome swim, sans wetsuit. I got into it at the gym Friday night while sweating my ass off. Note to self, don't put on wetsuit while sweating. I'm not really sure what my options are in Atlanta considering this heat and humidity we're dealing with right now. So I somehow manage to get in this wetsuit even though it's not on fitting exactly the way it should. I seriously felt like a stuffed sausage cooking on a hot grill. I get into the water and do a warm up. Hmmm, the body is not feeling right. Maybe after I warm up for a bit I'll feel slightly better. Yeah, not so much. My arms felt sore and tight, even though I stretched. The water felt heavy with every stroke. I couldn't figure out what the issue was. Could it maybe be my wetsuit? CRAP!!! I also start burning up by the time I got to my 1st 1000 yards. I decided to stick it out and just take the wetsuit off after 2000. AHHHH, relief! I felt so much better with that thing off of me. If you talk to anyone that does an Ironman, they'll tell you that a wetsuit is essential (unless of course you're doing one where the water temp is too high to be wetsuit legal). Ok, this might cause a problem for me considering I'm planning to wear this wetsuit in a little over a month. Now I'm not even thinking about my stroke or how I'm swimming. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do to feel more comfortable in this wetsuit. I have a sleeveless one that I might end up resorting to if I don't feel better. I now need to do a swim workout every week in my wetsuit to start getting used to it. At least I better get used to it!

I was kind of psyched to take on a 112 miles again on the bike. I know I can do it, so why not do it 2 weekends in a row? I started off the morning eating a Cliff Bar. Unfortunately I was only able to get 1/2 of it down because I felt a little nauseas. I met a couple of friends (thanks Tim and Patti) for them to do the 1st 48 miles with me. As soon as I got on the bike I started to sweat because the humidity was so high. Luckily I had extra fluids on ice in my car and knew I would need all of that and more. It wasn't too hot 1st thing in the morning, but the humidity plus the prior weekend's activities got to my legs. Around mile 25 I started feeling it and not in a good way. I don't know what was wrong, but my legs had trouble moving. They seriously did not want to go. I was taking in salt pills, liquid nutrition and gel, but it didn't seem like anything was helping. The other issue was every time I burped (and believe me, I burp a lot), I burped up liquid. This means that the nutrition I was taking in, probably wasn't staying in me. Then the heat came out. We finished our 1st loop and I knew it was going to be a long day, especially since my last 64 miles would be by myself. I put more liquids on my bike, drank some more in the parking lot and Tim was nice enough to go to the store and get me some more liquids so I could refill my bottles while I was on the course. I debated whether to do the 66 route or another 48. This played out in my head for quite some time and it wasn't until I got to the turnoff for the 48 that I decided to cut this ride short. My legs weren't getting better. It wasn't getting any cooler out. And I definitely wasn't keeping my nutrition down. No joke, I was whimpering while riding. I felt like a granny, but to be honest, it didn't matter how slow I was going because I was out there doing it. It was a long, hot day for and I could've given up a number of times but I didn't. I was definitely tempted to hitch a ride back to my car. I was scheduled to do a 5 minute run after my bike. I managed to run for 2.5 minutes, walk for 1 minute and run for another 1.5 minutes. I stretched, but I didn't really feel any relief. I made sure I got some chocolate milk in me right away for recovery and bought some ice for an ice bath. The ice bath felt fantastic and I stretched some more. I was completely dehydrated and had a massive headache which lasted into the morning. I tried drinking as much water as I could, but it didn't do the trick.

I woke up the next morning and wanted to get an early start to my 2.5 hour run. The problem with starting earlier is the humidity is worse. The problem with starting later is the temperature is hotter. No matter what decision I made, it was going to suck. I chose earlier. I decided that I would run a mile, walk a minute. That's my plan B for Ironman. Plan A is to run longer then that. By the time I got to my 2nd mile I was already hurting and saw a long morning ahead of me. The humidity and I were in a battle with each other and the humidity won. I stopped to refill my water bottle at Caribou, which was mile 4ish. Luckily it was ice cold, which felt amazing. I wore one of my race belts that has pouches, so I put salt pills and gel in it. What I didn't do was put the salt tabs in a plastic baggie. Big mistake when you're sweating bullets. Luckily a few of them were in decent enough shape that I was able to take them. I should've just gotten salt packets and taken that instead, but I didn't think of that until I just typed it. I was diligent with drinking and taking my nutrition, but I probably needed some Gatorade for the electrolytes. Even with everything I took, I was hurting. My legs didn't want to move. My mind was battling the positive and negative thoughts. I stopped more times then I can count. To add insult to injury, my lower back started killing. Serious pain. I stopped to stretch so many times and it just hurt. It hurt when I walked. It hurt when I ran. No matter what, I was getting my workout in, no matter how bad it sucked. I got to mile 6.92 and turned around, which was 1:18 into my run. I figured I could go a couple minutes over the 1:15 turnaround point and get in close to 14 miles. I thought that I would feel better because the humidity had come down and most of the way back would be downhill. Ok, so positive thinking doesn't always help. It got so much worse. I ended up walking probably 6 of the final miles. Let me tell you, not so much fun walking and I would've rather run more, but my body said no (I think maybe my mind said no a couple of times too). I finally got Gatorade with a couple of miles to go. I pushed myself to run as much of the final stretch as possible. There's a hill at the very end that I allowed myself to walk to, but I the deal was I had to run up it. I don't know where the energy came from, but I ran up it and @ a 9:50 pace.

I got home to find my weekly workouts which included 6 hill repeats @ Mt. Kennesaw. Uh, yeah, no clue how that will happen with the way this body is feeling. I sent Andrew a note about my weekend workouts. He said my body was telling me I needed a break and he adjusted my schedule to be more of a recovery week. I kind of feel like a wimp, but if I was really a wimp, I wouldn't have done a 96 mile ride on Saturday followed by an almost 14 mile run on Sunday. Maybe this was a good thing to happen to me. Sometimes you need some shitty workouts to remind you of the good ones. I've had them and channeling those this week.

Macon 1/2 Ironman Race Report

2010-06-08T00:47:00.003-04:00

I'm beginning to think my whole purpose of doing triathlons is to 1 up the previous race report. I'm also beginning to realize you don't necessarily need a brain to do triathlons however, a memory goes a long way (even with a checklist). I decided to do Macon after the Rev 3 Knoxville HIM. I was pretty disappointed in my performance there so I asked if I could do another one with some crazy training the day before because I didn't want to lose out on long training just to get in another race. Macon fell on a Saturday, so I was granted my wish of a tough workout, but the day after. Saturday a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike with a 13.1 mile run. Sunday a 112 mile bike ride. HOLY SH*T! I'm either a dumbass or a badass asking for punishment like this. After Sunday I'm going with a little bit of both. I really wasn't even thinking about this race as a race. It really was just a long training day. In my mind I kept thinking about the 112 miles I had to ride on Sunday. It just kept playing in my head and I needed to be smart.

I traveled down to Macon on Friday around 3pm. I packed pretty much right before leaving. I had my checklist and was ready to check things off. Bike shoes, check. Running shoes, check. Goggles, check. Tri shorts and shirt, check. Race belt (in the car), check. Nutrition, check. Helmet, (in the car), check. Sunglasses, check. Socks, check. On my way down I realize I might be making a stop for a sports bra because I know I didn't pack one. I'm pretty sure I had one in my trunk since I basically live out of my car. I get down to Macon after sitting in unbelievably annoying rush hour traffic and pull into the race site, only to remember as I parked that my helmet in the car wasn't actually in the car, but at my brother's house. F**K!!!!!!! You've got to be kidding me this is the thing I forget? And here I was worrying about a sports bra, which I could easily pick one up anywhere. A good helmet, not so much. I run into friends as they're coming out of transition hoping they might have a spare helmet. No such luck. I call another friend who is down there and no luck again. I figured I would be making a stop at a sporting good store to get a new helmet. Funny thing is I was actually in the market for a new helmet, I just didn't think I would be purchasing one in a situation like this. I check in and get my number. I've had a thing with race numbers and they have to have meaning or just have a good ring to it. One time it was the area code of my cell phone number. Last race it was 420. This race I was assigned the perfect race number...411!!! Information for the chick that should use it regularly. Luckily Macon has a small race expo and Roswell bikes was there with helmets. Now here is where I expect to get the most amount of jokes and comments. Don't worry, I'm prepared. Plus growing up with the last name Wiener, I've been abused for many years. I tell the guy that I have a really small head (insert joke) and that I have a hard time finding hats and helmets to fit me. He said that he's never had a helmet not fit someone. Well now he has! That bad boy was big on me. One of the helpers in the tent told me that he is a vendor for Roswell Bikes and he actually has some helmets in the back of his trunk. Great, now I'm back in NYC on Canal Street buying a "designer" purse from some sketchy dude! He of course was telling me how great this brand is, blah, blah, blah. It's some German company which is probably not USAT approved, but it fit and for the moment, that's what I needed. He said it was a $100 helmet which he'd sell to me for $50. I'll take it dude. I'm the girl who forgets to put on a race belt or bring tri shorts for a triathlon or manages to get lost on a race course and cuts it short by 2 miles so this really shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone who knows me. No joke, I'm pretty close to start laying things out for IMLP.

Race morning comes and I have no nerves whatsoever. I like this feeling especially since it's so not normal for me. The announcer tells us that the water is 81 degrees and not wetsuit legal. That's a good thing because I didn't even bring mine. I get in the water for a warm up swim and of course the ritual of peeing before every race. I go to about the 1st buoy and felt really good. I was in the 4th wave and was trying to figure out exactly where to start. I decided to position myself to the far right. This way if I wanted to I could just swim on the inside of the buoy in case any anxiety came out. The horn went off and I was in the water. I got into a groove pretty early and was able to sustain it for the entire course. Honestly, this was the best I've ever felt in an open water swim. My stroke felt fantastic, I felt like I was moving at a pretty decent pace and I had 0 anxiety. WOO HOO! The only issue I had was breathing every 3rd stroke. That's really the only way I swim now in the pool, but for some reason when I get to a race I revert back to breathing just to the right. I tried it a few times, but wasn't comfortable with it. I got out of the water, looked at my watch and was really psyched. My swim time was 32:49, which is almost 6 minutes off of my last HIM. It was about a 1/4 mile to the transition area. I started to jog and then there was a hill so I decided to walk up it. I wasn't sure exactly how much energy I exerted in the swim, so I wanted to save my legs. Our swim times didn't end until we hit the mat before transition, so my recorded swim time was 34:49. I looked at the race results and I am happy and proud to say that I was the 28th female of 111 out of the water. That puts me in the top 25%. What an amazing feeling that is after being 5-10 minutes slower in every race because of my anxiety. HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!! Huge accomplishment for me.

Moving onto the bike. I was hoping to do this in 3:30 or less, but if I didn't meet it I wasn't going to be upset. It took me about 15 miles for my legs to get going. 10-15 seems like the magic number (or not so magic number depending on how you look at it) for me to get acclimated to biking legs. It's also a good test for me not to push it too hard in the beginning and train holding back for Placid. I don't want to blow everything on the bike. I felt ok at mile 15, but man was it hot out there. It had to be in the 90s with a heat index of 100 (@ least that's what it was around 3). I was trying to get my nutrition in and drink as much as I could because I know how my body reacts to the heat and that's not well. By mile 25 I had already gone through 2 bottles of water, 3/4 of a bottle of Infinite (my liquid nutrition) and I took a few sips of my concentrated bottle of Infinite. This was the 1st time I was using a concentrated nutrition bottle. It's beneficial because you're carrying less on your bike, with more calories. All you need is water to chase down a sip of the concentrated liquid. Well when I got to mile 30 they were out of water and only had warm Gatorade. This did not make me happy. I really wanted and needed water especially since it was so hot out. Not only would I put the water in my aero bottle, but I would pour some on myself to try and stay cool. Uh oh onto plan B, which I didn't have. I decided at this point to take it much slower and try to drink the 1/4 bottle of extremely warm Infinite and not even touch the concentrated stuff. I also made sure that I was taking my salt pills. I tried conserving the Gatorade but that only last for so long. I couldn't wait to get to mile 45 so I could hopefully get more water. Luckily they had some so I took 2 bottles. I kept 1 on my bike so I could have it for the run and then another went into my aero bottle and the rest on my head and neck. I felt much better and more confident with these liquids. The course wasn't the easiest, but wasn't the most difficult I've done either. I was expecting it to be slightly flatter based on feedback I've heard from others that have done the race before. I don't think there were any abnormally huge hills, but some were definitely challenging. I got passed left and right and very seldom passed others. I was surprisingly ok with that. In my mind I kept thinking 13.1 and 112. Those were the numbers that stood out the most for me. With about 10 miles or so left I saw a couple of girls behind me. My only goal was for them not to pass me. They weren't too close to me, but if I saw them creeping up, I was going to gun it. I figured I had to get competitive at some point during this race. When I was heading into the final 6 or so miles I saw a guy who seemed like he was struggling. I asked if he was ok and he said that he was really cramping. Luckily I had some extra salt pills, so I gave him a few. Hopefully it helped him a little bit. During the salt pill exchange one of the girls got in front of me. Oh hell no that wasn't happening! So I got in front of her and never saw her again. I ended up at 3:30:07. Not bad.

I took my water bottle and went on my merry way for the run. Luckily there was a water stop right out of transition so I topped off my bottle with cold water. I finished that bottle before I even got to mile 1. I was thirsty and felt like I was in a desert which had humidity. I looked at my watch and made sure I kept no less then a 10:30 pace. For some reason when I see people walking it makes me feel like I should walk too. I passed a girl walking, so I decided to walk. Mind you, we weren't even at mile 1. Crap, this could make for a long day. Then she passed me when I was walking. Then I passed her when she was walking. It was definitely a game of cat and mouse. I turned around to her and asked if she was planning to do a run walk. I figured we could at least keep each other company. I didn't have a plan of how much I was going to run and how much I was going to walk. I basically wanted to run until I felt I needed to walk. When we got to the 1st water stop I saw a friend of mine who told me he cramped up pretty bad at the end of the bike and wasn't feeling great. I welcomed him to join us. I'd say we probably did a 1.5 minute run and then a 2 minute walk for the 1st 3.5 miles or so. We made sure to stop at every aid station to get more fluids We probably stopped for much longer then we should've. At this point fluids were the most essential thing for us because of the heat and humidity. When we got to the mile 4 aid station I was feeling much better. My legs seemed like they had improved substantially and I could run more. I decided though to stay with my crew. The wiser thing would've been to go on my own, but I chose this option instead. I wasn't racing for time, so I might as well enjoy it while I'm out there. The thing that I did decide on, which I will probably get a scolding for from Andrew, is instead of running at a slow pace during my run portions, I went for all out sprints. I basically did about 8-10 1/4 mile sprints (7:00-8:30 min mile pace). Yeah, I was feeling those sprints by the end. I wanted to make the most of this "workout" and I knew short sprints would probably do the trick. The one thing I will say about being at the back of the pack, we are fun freaken people. There were a few different packs of us that kept passing each other during the run. We laughed and joked and had as much fun as we could have out there. My run time was 3:12:18 and finish time was 7:23:01. I think the one thing I really need to work on are my transition times. Seriously, they are pretty bad. I'm just never in a rush to start the next discipline. I guess I should be. Maybe that will be my next goal since I might've overcome this whole open water anxiety BS! So my times definitely weren't something to write home about, but I had a good, fun day!

Moving onto my short 112 mile ride after a 1/2 freaken Ironman! I can say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was tough, but luckily the weather was pretty cooperative until mile 80ish. It was completely overcast and much cooler. My friend Mike rode with me for the 1st 50 and man was it great having company. My legs were definitely feeling it initially, but they felt pretty good considering the day before. I was climbing the hills pretty well, maybe a little too hard aggressive. I worked on something new this ride. Hell, I had enough miles to do so. When I climb hills, I hate getting out of the seat. My legs hurt more and I just don't like it. It can be more beneficial to stand because you're using your entire body instead of just your legs to generate power and speed. Mike highly recommended it, so I tried it out a bunch of times. He told me that it would take time to feel better and compared it to the same thing as doing sprints. It sucks in the beginning, but you have to train your body to get used to them. I'm trying! I dropped Mike off at mile 50 and got more nutrition and hydration. I struggled a little to get back into the groove for a few miles and then was going at a very good, comfortable pace. I planned to do the 66 loop and missed a turn. CRAP!!! I ended up on the 100 mi route and knew there was no way I was doing 150. I stopped at a convenient store to get more hydration and asked for directions. He gave me directions (which at mile 89 would've added on at least 20-30 miles). I would've done it, but not with a smile. Then I ended up seeing markings in the opposite direction for the route I was initially on. I wasn't sure what to do because I couldn't quite figure out what mile I was at in the route. I stopped a car and asked how far I was from a landmark I knew. They said it was about 5 miles away, so I decided to backtrack that way. Luckily I did because it only added 4 miles to my route, which was what I planned on doing with the 66. I was definitely tired at the end of the ride and the hills were killing me. The skies opened and it was hot. I needed to be conservative on my liquids because I knew I wouldn't be able to stop for at least 20 miles. 7:23 in riding time for race distance. Man it was tough, but I did it!!! Lucky me gets to do 112 next week too!

Positive Reinforcement

2010-05-23T17:23:00.005-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 3:20 (3 days)
BIKING 7:25 (2 days)
RUNNING 3:55 (2 days)
WEIGHTS :45 (1 day)

There really is something to be said about positive reinforcement. We've had some encounter of it since childhood and it really does work. Whether it's telling a child good job for something new they've done, or getting a job well done email from a boss, or a you're doing great out there during an athletic endeavor, it helps. I had 2 experiences this week that really made me feel good and helped out so much with my confidence. Funny enough they were both on the bike, something I've struggled with until recently. I had to do 6 hill repeats @ Kennesaw mountain. I knew I could do it, but it would just be on the slower side. There were a couple of people I saw multiple times on my way up and down the mountain. One asked if it was my 2nd time up. Actually, it was my 4th and I had 2 more times to go. She gave me a big "Awesome!" and made a positive comment the other few times she saw me after that. Another woman was pushing her child up the hill in a stroller. To me, that's more impressive then what I did. She asked if I wanted to pull her up the hill and then told me what I'm doing is harder because I can't stop. When I came down the mountain she screamed "You go girl!" It's funny because I went a lot slower then I did last time, which is ok, but it made those slow hill repeats so much better when I heard these women encouraging me. It was such a fantastic feeling. Then yesterday I rode with a couple of people I know and one of the women told me I was really strong after going up a hill. Now I don't particularly think this is the case. In fact I just feel like a slow, fat ass, but hearing that actually made me think, "Hey, just maybe I am strong." This is why it's so important to have people cheering for you at a race. Especially when it's coming down to the end and you feel like shit. Hearing someone shout for you or say something positive really does something for the psyche.

I had a 4000 yard swim on Wednesday that really kicked my ass. I didn't have sprints to do like I normally have in my workouts. I just never felt like I got into a great rhythm and my arms were killing. I think part of it was from my hill repeats the day before. I tend to brake a lot with a death grip on them, so it works my triceps a lot. Even though I didn't feel great, I got the workout in without stopping. I've been trying to incorporate a flip turn into my workouts recently to alleviate any assistance from the wall and taking extra breaths. I'm not entirely comfortable with it, but I'm trying. I want a better feel for what race day will be like. I'm hoping I can get in an 1:20 open water swim soon. The problem is I would want a kayak there for safety. I'll have to look into this.

My bikes this week were really good. The hill repeats at Kennesaw were difficult, but I didn't feel like I was going to die. I remember my 1st time up there and I couldn't even complete 4 of them. I actually turned around 1/2 way up there because I didn't think I had the physical strength, which was actually a mental thing because I definitely did. I'm sure saying that I was ok with the 6 means 8 or 10 is in my near future. Then yesterday's ride ended up being an almost 88 mile ride. My schedule was between 5-6 hours. I wanted to do 6, but by the time I was done with 5.5 hours it was already 3:00 and I was spent. I felt great with the exception of miles 70-80. My legs started getting tired and I was getting hot spots in my toes. I just felt kind of shitty. Luckily I snapped out of it and was able to finish the ride with no problem. I had great company for the 1st 55 miles or so and then did the last bit on my own. I wonder if I had others around me if I would've hit the funk @ 70. Either way I felt great afterwards and gave myself a big pat on the back.

My interval run on Wednesday was fine. Nothing too eventful. I ran with a jogging stroller so it was harder then if it was just me. This really made me think that there's no way I can get heavier then I am because the thought of lugging around extra weight during runs was so unappealing. It was my birthday weekend so I kind of went a little nutso on the food, but after today, I need to get back on track. I should carry around a picture of me dragging ass with a kid in a stroller. The best part of my run today is that it was over. Wow was it brutal. I felt great for the 1st :50 and then it went downhill from there. I was scheduled to do a 2:30 run, but ended up only doing 2:15 (I was in a time crunch to get to a wedding). I stopped and walked so many times. I seriously felt like my feet weren't even moving and if you touched me lightly I would fall over. It was unbelievably hot and humid out and I must've drank at least 3 bottles of water on this run, but never felt fully hydrated. It also probably didn't help that I woke up still in a food coma from last night's dinner. My belly definitely hurt, but I forced myself to get down 1/2 of a cliff bar. My only thought today was please let it rain in Placid if it gets this hot. I tried going anywhere that there was shade, but it only helped so much. Hopefully my next long run is a little better then today's.

Thankfully I have a recovery week starting tomorrow and after that the craziness begins. June 5th I'm doing another 1/2 Ironman and then on the 6th I have a 112 mile bike ride. Then the following week I have a 4000 yard swim on Friday, 112 mile ride on Saturday and a 2.5 hour run on Sunday. Yeah that's basically an Ironman (minus 13 miles or so on the run) in 3 days.

The Wheels Are Turning

2010-05-16T08:29:00.006-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 2:45
BIKING 7:30
RUNNING 1:25
WEIGHTS :75

I'm giving the heads up this will be a pretty long post. I have a lot on my mind after last week & some things that went on this week. I've said this before, but there's really something to be said about training for an Ironman that's so much more then just the physical. Every time I feel like I'm getting to a good place in my training, something happens & knocks me off that positive pedestal. I try & appreciate the good things, but it's really difficult in the moment. After the fact though I'm able to reflect & not be so down on myself. It's not easy, but I'm trying.

After I crossed the finish line last week, I had to go back to my hotel, grab some things & then I made my way over to transition. @ this point it was probably a good 7.5 hours after the race started. There was a photographer close to the transition area waiting for people who were still on the course to take their photos. I asked him a quite obvious question, "Are there still runners on the course?" His response, somewhat snide & obnoxious, "Um, yeah, that's why I'm still out here." I felt such empathy for these athletes that in the end, they would be racing for 8 hours or so. My response to him was, "Well @ least they're out there getting it done". Seriously, these people deserve more credit then the athletes that finish in faster times. They are the ones that deserve a medal & to be on the podium. Maybe they're just not gifted athletes or they had issues on the bike or with nutrition. Whatever the case is, these athletes are out there doing what most people in the world couldn't even imagine. Most people probably don't even have a clue what a triathlon is (I know I didn't until about 5 years ago). This interaction really got me thinking about myself. Sometimes you have a shitty workout or race, but does it really matter if you're out there doing it? My legs are supposed to hurt. They're not always supposed to move at top speed. Who cares if they're not? What matters is that I'm getting the necessary training for IMLP. Like I said before, this is somewhat hard to do in the moment, but this is a place for me to keep track of not only my workouts, but my thoughts too.

Saturday I rode with the TNT cycling team. Usually before a ride Neil, the coach, will read a mission statement. This weekend there was a special guest, an AML survivor. She was on her second round of treatments after her AML came back. This is a woman who is a successful OB/GYN, who has a young son and has to battle this awful disease...AGAIN! One of the doctors at her practice is on the cycling team and he asked her to come speak. He told her about the group and she was expecting maybe 10 people. There were about 40-50 people riding. She was so moved by the amount of people who are out there training for something that will help save her life. She was so grateful for what TNT has done for her. This woman brought tears to my eyes and made me thankful for the organization that I've been a part of since 2006. This is the 1st year I haven't fundraised for TNT. I just didn't think it would work with Ironman training. With that being said, I love riding with the team because it makes me appreciate my life and what I can do, what I'm physically able to do because I'm a healthy 35 year old. I didn't have the most pleasant ride yesterday. My legs hurt, my body ached, I was hot, my stomach didn't feel right. There I was earlier appreciating the fact that I'm healthy and here I am thinking of how much my life was sucking during the ride. I gave myself a reality check and started thinking about this woman and what she's going through. I'm pretty sure chemo, radiation, stem cell transplants and any other aggressive treatments out there are worse then my legs feeling like crap on a ride. It kind of puts things into perspective, especially since I choose to do this to my body. Cancer patients have no choice. If they're not giving up, why should I because my body feels like shit?

I also thought about my coach Andrew a lot on my long ride this weekend. I have such an appreciation for this man. Not only of his talent as a coach and athlete, but as an individual too. He is always so positive and truly believes the glass is 1/2 full. I really wish I had it in me to be more like him. He is such an inspiration to me and I'm proud to say I know him. I think about how he had to drop out of IMLP with 10 miles to go because of something he thought was a leg injury. Oh and he was in 10th place coming off of the bike. This leg injury was way worse then he could've imagined, he was later diagnosed with Leukemia. A year after oral chemo put him in remission, Andrew began his journey as an elite athlete and conquered the same course that he pulled out of years earlier and qualified for Kona. Talk about never giving up!!!! Once again, how could I feel pity on myself for feeling crappy because my body is just tired? "Suck it up and just get it done Wiener!" is going to be by new phrase to myself.

My workouts this week didn't go exactly as planned. I unfortunately got the stomach flu on Tuesday and it kind of wiped me out for the remainder of the week. I only took Wednesday off, which was a run and weights, but since I really didn't eat for a couple of days it affected my energy level. I also think I might've pushed it too hard on Thursday because Friday night I started feeling sick again, which lasted through my ride on Saturday. I was scheduled to do a 4 hour ride and before I got sick I asked if I could do a 70 miler, which would add probably another hour to my schedule. Andrew was ok with that. It turns out, my body wasn't ready for 70. Between doing a 1/2 Ironman on Sunday and then getting the stomach flu on Tuesday, my body felt like a truck ran over it. It didn't help that it was beyond hot and humid out. I drank a ton on the bike, but didn't eat much throughout the ride.

There was also a slight encounter with a dog on our ride. My friend Heather and I dropped back slightly from the group we were riding with. We saw a dog about 100 feet ahead of us. It's always a scary thing when you're on the bike and you see a dog. Most of the places we do our long rides at are in the country so people leave their animals off a leash. Heather was a bike length or 2 in front of me, so she was the 1st one the dog saw. The 2 of us kind of swerved, but that crazy little shit, grabbed her by the leg and sunk his sharp teeth into her. He had her leg for 3-5 seconds (which seemed like 2 hours). Somehow Heather kicked her leg a few times and somehow managed to stay on the bike without falling. Needless to say, Heather was slightly hysterical moments after this happened. I wanted to get us as far away as possible, but we needed to stop so I could call for help and we could take a look at her leg. Luckily a group of bikers that weren't with us stopped and helped out while I was on the phone directing someone to where we were. 2 people that were a few minutes behind us are doctors, so they were able to help out with cleaning the wound, wrapping it up, etc. We called the police and they sent a fire truck, might I add with a couple of hottie firefighters. Heather ended up having to get 6 stitches, antibiotics and a round of rabies shots (8 of them to be exact). We weren't sure if the dog had tags and the police couldn't find him either. This all happened around mile 10. Needless to say, this round of excitement, put a damper on the rest of the ride. Plus I was stopped for more then 30 minutes, which didn't help my cause of my legs being fatigued.

This past week should be considered a wash for me and I'm looking forward to the big week of training I have ahead of me. I have about 1.5 months of real training before IMLP. I can't believe how soon it is. People keep asking me if I'm ready and my answer is FUCK NO!!!! I think even after I finish the race, I still won't think I'm ready. I am confident in myself completing all of the distances independent of each other, it's the putting it all together part that makes me nervous. I know that I will cross the finish line. It might not be pretty, but with the dedication I've put into this little adventure, there's no way I'm not going to finish!

Race Report - Rev 3 1/2 Ironman

2010-05-09T23:26:00.004-04:00

If I were to name my race reports, which I might start doing, this one would be called OYE!!! St A's would be called ROUGH SEAS. Knoxville was an interesting race for me. To me, this was just another long training weekend. I tried setting my expectations as low as possible. I didn't want to go too hard on the bike and have nothing left on the run. I wanted to make sure my nutrition was dialed in. I honestly had zero nerves until we walked to the swim start,. Normally I get major anxiety and nerves days leading up to my "A race". Since Placid is really the only race I truly care about this season, I think I've put the other races out of mind. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. As usual, this will be a novel. Feel free to read or pretend like you did with a "nice job" reply.

I made the drive up to Knox Friday after work. Luckily I got out a little early to beat rush hour traffic. I wanted to get a swim in as well on my way up there. My plan was for there to be no traffic and I would do a quick, 30 minute swim and be on my merry way. Yeah, not so much. I hit traffic on 285 and then once again on 75. So much for that swim idea. I thought about maybe going to the YMCA right across from my hotel once I got to Knox and picked up my race packet. Then my GPS, I'm referring to her as stupid B*TCH until I come up with another name for her, took me off the highway to go on some back roads. I should've just been smart enough to stay on the highway and not get off, but I listened to "TBA GPS name". So much for that swim. There were 2 scheduled swims @ the race site Saturday morning, so I figured I would get it in then. I got to the hotel, checked in and immediately went to pick up my number. I got there just in time because they were about to pack up and leave. I picked up my packet and then I had to go over to another booth to make sure my timing chip worked and take a picture. I glimpsed at my packet and walked over to the booth. I stopped before I got there to make sure I knew what number I was for the booth people. And there it was. It was like this bright, beaming light saying "AHHHHHHHH". I am all about race numbers. Somehow in my mind I think a race number can make or break a race. Is that being superstitious or just downright silly? I'm going with superstitious. I, Pamela Robyn Wiener, was given the number 420. If you know what it means and you know me well enough, you'll understand the significance of this number. If you're still confused, go ask a stoner friend. So here I am psyched that this is my number and ready to wear it with pride. It was also a great conversation piece with the cute guys @ the booth. So I picked up my fantastic number and went to Outback so I could get a steak and sweet potato. I tend to have problems getting my protein in before a long ride or race, so I made sure from Friday's dinner through Sunday's breakfast, protein was a component in it. I went back to the hotel and got at least 9 hours of sleep. Not bad.

I woke up @ 8 for the swim. Luckily I ran into a friend from NY in the lobby of my hotel and he told me it was cancelled and there would only be and 11:30n swim. I totally thought he was messing with me, but he wasn't. So I decided to go for a ride and then I would head over to a mandatory race meeting (which really wasn't mandatory and I could've skipped), get Lucy to put her in transition and then swim. Well, this didn't exactly go according to plan. On my wonderful 30 minute ride, I managed to take a minor spill. I attempted to ride up a pretty steep hill and instead of shifting to a lower gear, my dumbass went into a higher gear and I realized this a little too late...PLOP! Poor Lucy Roo got a little banged up and she started making some crazy noises in addition to not shifting properly. Luckily I was fine. Really? Right before a race I had to do this! After the fall I decided to grab some breakfast because I needed to make sure I was getting my calories in. Funny to think I might have problems getting calories in. I do usually have a problem eating the day before a race. I then headed over to the expo area for the mechanic to look at Lucy. Unfortunately the mechanics were late, so I went to the All 3 tent for Alex to look at it. He said there was something bent on my gears, but he didn't have the tools to fix it. I honestly have no idea what the proper bike term is for what was wrong. Like I always say, I just get on the thing and ride it. Finally the mechanics got there and said there was something blocking the chain, blah, blah, blah, but they fixed it. I tested it and she was all good. I was only 45 minutes off schedule. I took a nice dip in the water. I felt a little tense on the way out in the swim, but much better on the way back (I think it was the current). Once again, no anxiety. Cool, I like that! I headed back to my hotel, got a burger and mashed potatoes then took a 2 hour nap. After the nap I met some friends for dinner (chicken, pasta and veggies in an olive oil and garlic). I came back to my hotel and was asleep by 1030. I got a pretty decent night's sleep. I think I woke up once, maybe twice, but only for a couple of minutes. My alarm was set for 5:30, but the people next to me decided gently closing the door at 5:10 wasn't necessary. This was the 1st race I've been to where transition closed when it's light out. It opened at 5:30 and closed at 7:40. I got there around 6:15 and set up my stuff. Amazingly, still no nerves. It was a little chilly out so I put my wetsuit on earlier then I normally would to warm up. My friend Carmen was right across from me in transition so I had someone to talk to. The girls around us were really nice too.

My times aren't actuals because the results haven't posted and who knows if I actually know how to use my Garmin properly.

Swim ~40:00 (was hoping for 35:00)
We made our way over to the swim start and that's when the nerves kicked in, but nothing too bad. Because this was an in the water start we wouldn't get the opportunity to really warm up. I wasn't too pleased with this, but luckily we got 5 minutes between the men and women's 1/2 wave. There were only 80 women racing, which is super small. I started somewhere in the middle and was ok with that decision. I felt pretty good during the swim. Actually, this was the best I've felt in open water. My stroke seemed like it was on point, my breathing was good and all in all, felt like this was the start to a good race. I went off course a little. I was usually a little too far left from the buoys, so I made my way over to the right a few times. I don't think that added a lot of extra distance, but I'm not 100% sure. This was the 1st race EVER that I didn't have to stop in the middle of a swim because I was freaking out, nervous, tired or whatever. I also normally don't draft in races. It's highly recommended, but I just don't feel comfortable with it. I noticed that the next wave was creeping up on me so I decided to draft on one of the guys. Yeah, big mistake. I didn't get kicked, but man did I get a mouth full of water. Damn that sucked. For that, I stopped just long enough to stop choking. I decided to do the rest of the swim on my own. I was actually very disappointed in my time. I expected it to be at least 5 or 6 minutes faster based on how I felt and how I swim in the pool. I really need to think about this race and see figure out what I did wrong. All of the signs were pointing to a good swim, but that didn't exactly happen.

Bike ~3:40 (wanted to do no more then 3:30)
It took me about 15 miles in order to fully warm my legs up on the bike. I knew going into the bike I wanted to save as much energy as I possibly could in my legs for the run. I didn't want to push it too hard, but I still wanted to ride at a decent pace. While I was on the bike figuring out my pacing I realized there are at least a dozen excuses on why my time wasn't great, but I decided there's no need for excuses. I just didn't perform to the best of my ability and I was slow. It's as simple as that, I was ssslllllllooooowwww and that's ok. While I was on my Tour De Slowville I made sure to take note of a couple of things for my race report.
The scenery was absolutely beautiful. There were peaceful streams and beautiful green trees and pretty land. It was really a gorgeous ride and I appreciated every second of it.
I almost took out a volunteer while she was trying to give me a bottle of water. I didn't slow down enough and knocked the bottle out of her hand with a lot of force.
I made sure I thanked every policeman and volunteer at all of the spots where they were giving us directions.
I also thanked the people who said on your left to me. That would be probably 3 people out of the large number that passed me. I just don't get it. How difficult is it to say LEFT?!?!? A**holes!!!
I realized that I don't drink enough on the bike when it's cooler weather out. I maybe had about 1.25 of my Infinite drink (that's supposed to be my main source of calories/nutrition) and 2 aero bottles of water. I did supplement my liquid nutrition with a couple of gels.
I also told myself that it really doesn't matter if I'm slow. At least I have the opportunity and am healthy enough to do this. And as much as I ask why I put myself through this, I really enjoy it.
Oh and I realized that through Ironman training, 56 miles seems like a super short ride.
And that is the end of today's segment of Tour De Slowville.

Run ~ 2:02 (that is such a fake number which you will understand if you read the rest of this report)
I missed the run out because the volunteer was flirtng with some chick. I wasn't too happy about that when the dude at the front told me I was going the wrong way. I probably shouldn't have, but I made sure Mr. Flirty Pants knew he screwed up. Once I got going, my legs were feeling A OK. I realized I was going way too fast for me, so I dialed it back a bit. I wanted to keep the 1st 6 miles at no less then a 10:15 pace and then I could go nutso after that. At about mile 1.5 my achilles felt a little tight, which really was to be expected after a hilly, 56 mile ride. I stopped for a second to stretch them. Then I started getting a bad pain in my arch. This hasn't happened in such a long time and I forgot how excruciating it is. I couldn't figure out what was causing this. I didn't wear flip flops for the days leading up to the race so I could avoid a problem like this. I thought maybe my racing laces were too tight or maybe my calves were just tight. I decided to loosen my laces, stretch some more and walk it off for a bit to see if maybe the pain went away. Yeah, not so much. I stretched again. I even took off my sneaker to massage the arch. None of that was really helping. At that point I thought if I have to walk this whole thing I will, but I'm not turning back. At about mile 3 the arch pain turned into hot spots. If you've never experienced this, I don't wish it on you. Your feet start to burn. Like crazy, painful, ouch, holy shit why is this happening type of burn. The burning then turned to numbness. Throughout all of this I would try and run, but it never lasted long. I remember seeing a girl at St A's running with her sneakers in her hand so I decided to do that. Why not? I started off with walking sneakerless. Then when I started feeling some relief I ran. This all lasted for about a mile or so. I put my shoes back on and ran some more. Wow, that really helped. The frustrating thing at this point was that my legs felt ok, it was my feet that weren't allowing me to run. Oh well, at least I'm capable of walking unlike a lot of people in this world. I had to make a pit stop around mile 4ish. There were no port o potties on this course so I made my way into the bushes. I think this is the 1st race I've ever peed in. I guess maybe I did drink enough on the bike. Then I got to the mile 7 water station and realized that I was only at mile 4.75 according to my watch. Crap, what happened? Did I miss a turn somewhere and had no clue??? Yes, that is exactly what I did, hence my 2:02 or whatever it was run time. I was so baffled by this and not happy. I guess that's what happens when you have number 420, you start acting like a burn out. The funniest thing is normally I forget or lose something during a race. It's been a race number, nutrition, etc. I guess this go round it was 2 miles of my run. I saw a Rev 3 person not too long after this realization and I told her that I missed a turn and I was off by about 2 miles and wasn't sure what to do. She told me to just keep going and finish. I could've gone back and run another 2 miles since I have a Garmin, but I decided against that. I'm not sure if at this point I was feeling defeated or my body was giving out on me, but I ended up walking a lot more. I would tell myself no more walking, just keep going. Every time I said this, I walked within seconds. Kind of a bummer, but it happens.

After this race it makes me want to do another 1/2 before Placid. There is one in Macon at the beginning of June and I am highly considering it.. There were definitely times during the race where I second guessed my decision for Placid. Really, why should I though? So I'm having a couple of crappy races. Does it really matter I'm not super fast? Honestly, none of it matters as long as I finish Placid. I still have a little over 2 months to go and I will get the job done. I will continue moving right along like I have been. Hopefully with a good taper and more training I will be successful during this journey.

Thanks for all of your support during this. It means a lot that you're interested or at least pretend to be.

Mini Goals, The Small Picture

2010-05-02T21:08:00.005-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 1:15 (2 days)
BIKING 3:55 (2 days)
RUNNING 2:30 (4 days with 1 brick)
WEIGHTS 1:00

Obviously the major goal through my training is for IMLP, but I've decided that I should make smaller, weekly goals. With all of the training I'm doing, there's no reason I won't cross the finish line. I think making weekly goals will make me stronger mentally and physically. I've been told by a few friends who have done multiple Ironman races that they break up the races into smaller pieces. I have one friend who made a deal with herself that if she makes it to the next water stop without walking she gets a gummy chew as a treat. Last week my goal was not to have open water anxiety. This week I tried not to brake on curvy downhills when riding. Straights I'm fine with, but I am petrified of going on downhills with a curve. Seriously my heart races and I can think about is crashing. A lot of people get a high from it and can't wait for them. I however am not one of those people. I picked the absolute wrong time to set this goal since I had an 8 mile downhill with curves galore on a rainy day. I did let go of the brakes a couple of times for a brief second. Other times I braked before the curve to slow down and prayed for the best. It's more then I've done before.

There's not much to report on my swim. The good news is my dreadful St Anthony"s swim didn't make me hate swimming. I still don't love the open water, but I wasn't afraid to get into the water. It was a recovery week, so my swims weren't too difficult.

I did my toughest ride to date this weekend called the GAPS. WOW! It sucked the life out of me, but it was awesome! There was an 8 mile climb and a 6 mile climb, with a lot of smaller, gradual climbs in between. I'm amazed at how well I did on the 2 climbs. I just focused and kept pedaling. I managed to keep my cadence up and surprisingly averaged 8 mph on the 1st climb (1,632 feet climb) and 9.5 mph on the 2nd (1,235 feet climb). Go me! The downhills were another story as I stated before. I'm working on it, but baby steps for now. I actually think I did something to my groin during this ride. I'm pretty sure it's because I had the huge climbs and then I held on for dear life on the brakes and not pedaling that I think my groin just stiffened up. I was in a decent amount of pain right after the ride and most of the night. Luckily today It wasn't too bad and I was even able to get a run in without any pain. My confidence is gaining on the bike and it's such a great feeling. I want to do the GAPS again, but next time do the harder, steeper ones. It's such an OH YEAH! feeling when you accomplish something like this.

My runs were ok this week. 2 of them were with a jogger stroller and man did they kick my ass. I couldn't wake up in the morning before work so I had to do it during the day with a kid. I guess that's my punishment for not getting up. My 30 minute run consisted of 4 10-12 second accels. How I managed to get to a 7:45 pace with that jogger is beyond my comprehension. It was tough, but I did it. Today I was supposed to have a speed workout, but after yesterday's ride I just did it at recovery pace. My legs were beat and I also wanted to be careful of my groin since I didn't know how it was going to react.

Next weekend is my 1/2 Ironman. I have 2 goals, only walk for 30 steps during the water stations and no open water anxiety. Hopefully I have a decent time, but I have to try not to think about that.

RACE REPORT ST ANTHONY'S

2010-04-27T08:41:00.005-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 2:00 (4 swims, 3 open water)
BIKING 4:15 (3 days)
RUNNING 2:35 (1 day with 3 bricks)

The days leading up to St Anthony's wasn't a typical race week. Normally there's a taper period where you minimize your activities, but you still do something to keep your body from going stiff. Since I wasn't doing this race for time and was really just practice for me, it didn't make a difference what I did to my body the days leading up. Tuesday I had an interval bike workout and Wednesday was an interval run workout. When I woke up Thursday morning my body said, "OUCH." My legs were super tight and kind of sore. I had an easy spin on the bike to do which was a good thing because it really loosened my legs up. I also got an amazing massage to loosen me up as well.

Friday when we got to St. Pete I went for a nice swim in the bay. I was amazed at how calm the water was. It was clear as glass. I felt great in the water. I wore my new wetsuit for the 1st 1/2 of my swim. I was pretty bummed because I didn't love it so much. I took it off for the remainder of my swim and was amazed at how much better I felt. Most people like a wetsuit because you're much more buoyant and usually you can swim faster. I felt too constrained in it and claustrophobic. This put me in a bit of a dilemma. I will wear this wetsuit at IMLP, so I really should wear it every opportunity I get. However if I'm super uncomfortable did I really want to wear it for St A's? Andrew told me to try it out the following day and if it's still not comfortable to go without.

There were a couple of things that I needed to focus on the days leading up to the race. Getting enough sleep and eating enough protein were my most important things to focus on. 2 nights before any race the sleep you get is very important. Usually people have a difficult time sleeping the night before the race, so it's best to be well rested the night before. I made sure I was in bed at a reasonable hour and didn't set my alarm for the morning so I can sleep in if necessary. I was able to get 9 hours of sleep which is way more then I normally get. I also made sure that I had protein at every meal. I'm not the biggest chicken fan, but now I have to force myself to eat it. I was able to get a burger and a steak sammy which was definitely a good source of protein.

Moving onto Saturday, which unlike Friday did not have smooth waters. Ugh, the water was super choppy. I'm known for a couple of things when it comes to swimming. I'm a great pool swimmer, but my time in the open water is typically 10 minutes slower then it should be because I suffer from open water anxiety. It usually takes me a little while to recover and get into my rhythm. The other thing is I am prone to becoming sea sick if the waters are rough. It's such an odd thing to happen, but it does. I've took Dramamine once before and open water swim and it didn't really help with me being sea sick. Plus it knocked me on my ass for the remainder of the day. I literally slept for 6.5 hours after taking it. I decided against taking it this weekend. During my practice swim I didn't feel sick and my wetsuit felt so much better. I still wasn't a fan of the rough waters, but I felt ok about it.

I had a 45 minute ride and a 15 minute run to do as well, both with a couple of accels. I went out later in the day and it was pretty hot. My run was slightly difficult because of the heat, but it was only 15 minutes. I then went back to my room and took an amazing 2 hour nap. I rode my bike to transition to drop it off and then went to the TNT Inspirational dinner. This was a pretty big dinner, about 500 people I think. There were 15 TNT chapters from across the country. Dave Scott, 6 time world champion Ironman, spoke at the dinner. It was pretty cool to see someone who shaped the sport speak. Even bigger then that, my friend Mike Stashak who is a cancer survivor spoke as well. There is always an honored hero to speak at the inspirational dinners and we were lucky enough to have Mike speak. He did such an amazing job adding humor, seriousness, gratitude and inspiration in his speech.

After the dinner I went back to my hotel. I went through all of my stuff for the morning and tried winding down. I didn't want to think too much about the race because I really didn't want to start getting anxious. I knew if anxiety started creeping in I wouldn't be able to get to sleep. I was somewhat successful. I got into bed, double checked both of my alarms for a 4:30am wake up and relaxed. I think I fell asleep at 11, but then was up from 2-3:45ish. That did not make me a happy camper.

My alarm went off and I immediately started drinking fluids. I wanted to make sure I was hydrated enough for the race. I had my peanut butter and bagel, got dressed, double checked my tri bag and was off. I had about a 10 minute walk to transition. I set up my transition area and then went to the swim start. I got to the water and let out a big sigh of relief because the water was calm. Hallelujah!!! My only goal for this race was no open water anxiety. I didn't care what else happened, that was the most important thing to me. Looking at the waters, I felt like this was an achievable goal. I went in for my warm up and felt fantastic. My stroke felt good. The wetsuit felt comfortable. I had no anxiety. Awesome! Let's get this race started!!!

I got into my corral and stood there with a couple of girls I know. I started in the middle of the pack, but to the right because there was some current pushing the swimmers to the left. This was a big deal for me to start in the middle. I slowly made my way into the water and didn't rush it. So the good news is I had NO open water anxiety, but that's pretty much where it ends for good news on the swim. On the way out I was fine & it was pretty calm, but like I said with the current pushing to the left. We made the 1st left & that's when it started going downhill. I was having a hard time sighting & definitely went off course slightly. I was also starting to get a little nauseous, but nothing really bad. Just enough to let me know I didn't feel 100%. I noticed my stroke was a bit off, but at that point I didn't care, I just wanted the swim to be over with. I only stopped once or twice to make sure I was on course. Then we made the last turn & it was not a pretty sight. The waves were pretty bad. No matter what I did, breathe left, breathe right, breathe every other stroke, every 4th stroke, nothing helped with me being sea sick. It was awful! I ended up breathing to the right since that was most comfortable. I was getting light headed too, I couldn't see straight & didn't feel right. I stopped a lot to try & gain my composure. I did my fair share of cursing too. It just sucked!!! Once again, the good news is I had no anxiety & that was my goal for this race. I'm pretty psyched with that. My time was 38:22. I'm pretty embarrassed by that, but no open water anxiety! (staying positive)

I took my time in T-1. There was no rushing coming from this girl. I was really just trying not to pass out at this point. My T-1 time was 4:33.

I think it took me @ least 10 miles to fully recover from the swim. I tried drinking some of my sports drink and forced myself to eat a couple of chews. It wasn't easy. The head wind was pretty strong. It gets pretty frustrating with headwinds because no matter what you try and do, you're going to be slower then you should be. @ 1 point on the beginning of the bike I was like screw this, I'm not pushing it. I even saw someone walking and thought, I don't care why they're walking, I wish that was me and then I don't have to finish the race. I eventually snapped out of that mentality and pushed myself. I felt really good the last 12 miles, which was a nice feeling. My time was 1:26:56. Initially I was disappointed in my time. I was hoping to be under 1:20. The more I thought about it I was actually kind of psyched by my time. It took me awhile to recover from the swim, there were heavy headwinds and a month ago I was struggling on the bike to maintain a 15mph average and here I finished with a 17.1 average.

I took my time getting off the bike in T-2. Once again, there was no rushing this girl. As soon as I got off my bike I felt light headed again. I slowly walked to my rack and then slowly took my time getting all of my bike gear off and running gear on. My T-2 time was 4:03. I had no idea I was that slow. I thought I was under 3:30 at least.

My run was ok. Actually, I'm disappointed in my run. I know I could've done better and I didn't push myself as hard as I'm capable of. I walked through all of the aid stations and probably walked longer then I should've. I poured water over my head every other station. It was actually overcast and not too hot, but I don't do well in any heat. My sneakers got wet from pouring water over my head and my shoe laces kept coming untied. I could've double knotted them the 1st time it happened, but I didn't. I'm wondering if I subconsciously didn't do that because if they came untied that meant I could stop to tie them. Of course once I started going again, my legs really didn't want to move too much. Towards the end of the run I ran into a friend who was cramping up big time in his legs. Since I wasn't going for time I hung out & walked with him a couple of times. With less then a .5 mile I saw my old TNT coach from NY who told me I had a lot more left in my tank so run it in & move faster (he was right). My run time was 1:03:52, which is a 10:19 pace. Yeah, I could've done so much better then that. I'm definitely capable of it. I guess when it comes to the run I would rather feel comfortable and talk to people along the way then to feel like shit.

Total time was just under 3:17:44. This is definitely not the number I'm capable of. I'm not going to lie, this was a tough race for me. It does make me wonder how the hell will I be able to do an Ironman if an Olympic was tough? I know I have 3 months of training to go and I will have a proper taper period. I have a 1/2 Ironman in 2 weeks and that race I will be trying to prove something to myself. I think I've gotten past my open water anxiety so my new goal is to push myself on the run.

On My Own

2010-04-18T18:29:00.010-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 2:30 (3 days)
BIKING 12:45 (4 days)
RUNNING 1:55 (1 day with 3 bricks)
WEIGHTS :45 (1 Day)

It seems like I've been having a lot of AHA! moments recently. I think it's because I'm spending so much time by myself training that not only am I exercising my body, but my brain too. I've always wanted to train with a group for an Ironman because I thought I would benefit greatly from it like I've had with TNT in the past. I do ride with people usually for long rides, but for the most part, every other training session is by myself. There's something about training with a group that is comforting. Plus, when you're having a crappy day training, you have other people to push you along the way. When you're by yourself it's you and only you to depend on during the ups and downs. With that being said, I actually like training on my own. Come race day, I'm on my own when I'm out there. Andrew can give me all the training plans he wants, but it's up to ME to get the job done. He is always in my head when I'm training, but I'm the one out there swimming, biking and running. I only have myself to depend on to train the hardest I can. Sure there are times when I could probably push it a little more and maybe if I was running with someone, I would go :30 faster a mile. I've been told I have multiple personalities, so I guess I'll just bring 2 of them out there when I'm running and I'll have 1 lead the way and push. This was my biggest training weekend so far. I was scheduled to do a century ride (100 miles) on Saturday and 56 miles on Sunday. I knew a couple of people doing the ride, but we never talked about meeting up. I got myself mentally prepared to do it on my own. It was at this point I realized that no matter what this is my race and I'll be doing by myself, so why not train alone? I was extremely fortunate on Saturday to meet some people around mile 30 who I rode with for the remainder of that ride and Sunday's ride. Even though I caught up with people, I was out there with the intentions of doing it by myself. That's now how I'm going to approach all of my training sessions. During IMLP I'm sure I'll end up having conversations with people that I'm similar in pace to. It happened to me last season @ Augusta on the run and the bike. The bottom line is it really doesn't matter if I'm solo or I have a group when I'm training. If I have people to swim, bike or run with, great. If not, I know I am capable of doing it by myself too.

I had an easy swim on Monday and a kick ass swim on Friday. I did 1 arm drills and sprints on Friday that were tough, but awesome. I felt pretty sluggish on Wednesday. I just felt like my body didn't really want to move. It was one of the few swim workouts that I didn't feel 100%, but that's fine. You can't always be on top of your game.

Biking, oh the week of biking. I think Lucy Roo and I finally see eye to eye now. This was the 1st week of Ironman training that I felt like a decent cyclist. Even if I wasn't going fast, not once did I get frustrated. There have been several adjustments made to my bike and boy were they obviously necessary. It has been a huge improvement from the past few months. AHHH!!! Last Tuesday I was supposed to do 4 hill repeats and I only got 3 1/4 done. I was kind of psyched that I did as many as I did considering the trouble I've had on the bike thus far, but I was also disappointed in myself that I couldn't push myself a little harder. In my training plan this week it was written FOUR hill repeats. Before I got out there I made a pact with myself that no matter what I was getting up that mountain 4 times even if it killed me. Guess what???? I'm still here and not only did I get up that thing 4 times, I did it 1.5 minutes faster per climb. Now onto the century. WOO freaken HOO!!!! I actually felt fine out there. The weather ended up getting pretty hot and there was a ridiculous amount of wind going against us, but when I was done, I felt pretty damn good. I did hit a wall around mile 75 and wow was it not pretty. I just didn't want to be out there anymore and I wanted the wind to go away. I quickly got out of that frame of mind and finished strong. My 100 mile ride turned into 106 miles after a short detour of getting lost. I came home and took and ice bath which I think really helped my recovery. Our plan for the 56 was to just take it easy. There were times my legs were tired, but for the most part my legs had no idea I rode 100 miles the day before. Once again WOO freaken HOO!!! This was exactly what I needed!

I didn't have much running to do this week. My big run was a 45 minute interval run that knocked me on my ass. I was pretty dead by the end of the run. I wish my legs felt fresher, but they didn't. As Andrew said last week, it was my legs reminding me of Kennesaw mountain. Thanks legs, I don't think I really needed that reminder. I also had a 10 minute run after my ride yesterday and a 30 minute run after today's ride. The 1st mile today was tough. My legs were moving super slow. After that though I felt kind really good. The last portion of my run was surprisingly fast. I'm guessing it's because I knew it was coming to an end.

One of the things I really need to focus on is my nutrition while training. It wasn't until I trained for my marathon in 2007 that I found out my stomach doesn't really love this stuff. I might be giving TMI, so stop reading here if you aren't curious. I tend to burp A LOT and LOUD when I bike and run. On occasion when I burp, I regurgitate liquid. Most of the time I have no idea this is going to happen, but I'm guessing it can't be a good sign. I'm pretty sure my stomach didn't love the liquids I put in it this weekend so now I need to come up with something different. I was going to try and stick with a strictly liquid plan on the bike, but I think I might need solids. I tried Infinite, which a few people I know use. If this hadn't happened before, I would think it was the Infinite. The flavor was slightly strong, so I'm not sure if there was too much sugar in it for my stomach. It's hard for the body to digest any of this for that long of a period working out. I just need to come up with the right equation where I don't get sick.

Ok so fun story, well @ least from my perspective. In October of last year my longest ride ever was 78 miles and was done @ Hard Labor Creek with the TNT cycling team. The century ride yesterday was around the same area as HLC. Well when I hit mile 77 yesterday, it was almost in the same exact spot that I finished my 78 mile ride last year. It didn't really hit me until a few miles later when we stopped. This isn't a normal place I ride. In fact, I had no idea we were even in the same area. I just thought this was kind of cool and it made me smile when I did realize it.

A week from today I'll be racing St. Anthony's Triathlon in St. Pete. My only goal for the race has nothing to do with time. I would like to get through the entire swim without any open water anxiety. No matter what else happens, that's the only thing I care about.

Bye Bye Times

2010-04-12T09:39:00.006-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 3:30 (3 days)
BIKING 7 (3 days)
RUNNING 3:35 (2 days with 2 bricks)
WEIGHTS 1:15 (2 days)

This week I had an epiphany. Normally I'm so worried about my times & how fast or slow I am. I was in the pool and there was some crazy fast dude, with the best flip turns I've ever seen. By no means could I or would I try to keep up with him. It was @ that moment I realized it doesn't matter how fast I am, as long as I get the job done. Some people just have the gift of speed and I am not one of those people. Yes I want to do the best I can, but the only time that matters to me this year is 16:59:59 since the cutoff for Ironman is 17:00. Obviously I would like to finish my Ironman in less time then that, but as long as I hear "Pamela Wiener, you are an IRONMAN!" that's really all that matters. With that being said, not worrying about my times during training and even races I'm doing prior will be difficult for me. I'm a competitive person by nature, so this is going to be a difficult task, but I'm going to try my hardest not to. I was at an event this weekend where Rich Strauss, founder of Endurance Nation http://www.endurancenation.us/, spoke about Ironman racing. The one thing he kept coming back to is how people blow it on the bike and are so concerned about their splits, then get to the run and walk most of it. He told us that we should race the bike we should, not could. It totally makes sense. There's a marathon to run after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike. You need to have as much gas in the tank as possible.

I had some great swims this week. I did race distance on Wednesday. I definitely felt tired when I was done, especially since I had 7x25 sprints thrown in there. It was good to know I got it done and I still had a lot left in me afterwards. Friday I did 10x50 sprints. Now that kicked my ass, but in a good way. The swim is the least of my worries when I'm training. I just need to keep a positive outlook and convince myself that I don't have open water anxiety.

All I can say is holy hills for my bikes this week. Andrew had me do Kennesaw Mountain hill repeats. It's a 1.2 mile, 16% grade hill. I was supposed to do 4 of them, but only managed to do 3 1/4. It took me about 15 minutes to get up each time. I didn't care how long it took me, I was just happy when I reached the top. I ended up switching my ride and run this weekend. I had a 5 hour ride to do. I was hoping to get in 70 miles, but only managed a little over 65. I went out with my friend Mark and man did we do a hilly course. It was pretty challenging, but a great ride.

My runs were tough this week. Andrew said that it was my legs reminding me of Mt. Kennesaw. I had 6x.5 mile intervals on Thursday and by the end, I was walking after the intervals, which weren't super fast to begin with. Then Saturday I did a 12 mile run, with some decent hills and 6x10-12 second intervals as well. My legs were definitely feeling everything on Sunday. Nothing a good ice bath couldn't cure!

Reflecting

2010-04-04T17:11:00.008-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING
BIKING
RUNNING
WEIGHTS

This week I did a lot of thinking about when I 1st decided to do a triathlon to where I am now. I'm embarrassed to say this, but about 5.5 years ago I had no idea what a triathlon was. I met a girl who told me she was doing a swim, bike, run thingy with a group that raised money for cancer. My response, "Are you kidding me? That's insane. No way I could ever do that, nor would I want to." Pretty amusing considering I've done 7 events with the organization that raises money for cancer and now I'm doing the ultimate triathlon, an Ironman. I remember when I decided to do a tri, I told anyone and everyone I came in contact with that me, Pamela Robyn Wiener, was going to train and race in an Olympic Distance Triathlon. My how time flies when you're having fun. I don't even really enjoy racing. In fact, I do this mainly because I enjoy training and the friendships I make. Luckily I found some great training partners every time I've done an event. My 1st season was great because most of my training partners were people who had never done an event so we went through everything together from the beginning. Man was I such a novice. I didn't drink on the bike for probably the 1st 4 months when I rode. Dehydration was a better option then taking 1 hand off my bike to drink. My friend Richard actually became my water bottle catcher once I finally decided drinking was a necessity. The amount of bottles I dropped was kind humorous. He would be so proud of me now if he saw that I now reach behind my seat to grab a bottle. It's pretty cool to see how I've grown over the years.

Once again it was a recovery week. This every 4th week break is fantastic. I ended up missing a swim workout on Friday. The day got away from me and I wasn't able to make it to the pool. I was kind of bummed, but it happens. Saturday my workout was an Olympic distance training day. I was supposed to do a 45 minute swim, with a 1x1500 1st and then bike and run. Unfortunately, the kind folks of swim aerobics took over the pool when I went for my swim. I ended up doing the bike and run 1st. When I did the swim, my time for a 1500 was 24:03. Not bad.

We lucked out with weather this week. It was a little too hot for me considering it was just 30, but I managed. My body will need to adjust a little more when training though. My bike for the Olympic was 25 miles, with 6-10 and 20-25 riding as fast as I could. There were portions that were pretty windy. I rode on an extremely flat course, which has been different then every other ride this season. I did it in 1:23:48. I was hoping for something a little faster, but honestly, I can't be too upset with that time. Other then that, my bikes were just an ILT and 30 minute spin this week. Next week will be a killer of hill repeats and a long ride. I'm nervous, but excited for the challenge.

My 1st run of the week was for :45. I ended up doing it with a jogger and a 1 year old. Holy crap was that brutal! I seriously thought I was going to die. My pace was extremely slow and I was beyond winded. Good news is it was a damn good workout. When I did my run with the Olympic, it was pretty brutal. I ran it in 58:12. That doesn't include the times that I stopped to stand under shade or to drink. I also had 3, 1 mile as fast as I can sprints. Those sprints didn't last too long or get too fast either. I'm not sure whether it was the weather, dehydration or hammering it on the bike, but my legs were dead. The TNT marathon team was out there with jugs of Powerade so I was able to get a couple of glasses from them. Plus, I ran into my friend Stashak who was riding his bike and luckily he gave me some fluids also. Lately I've been running with a bottle of water, but today my water was too hot from sitting in the car while I biked. I wish this run wasn't as tough considering I have an Olympic Tri in 3 weeks, but I was out there getting this workout done. It doesn't matter how long it takes me as long as I do it.

Time To Make The Donuts

2010-03-28T19:22:00.005-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 3:15 (3 days)
BIKING 6:45 (3 days)
RUNNING 1:55 (2 days, with 2 bricks)
WEIGHTS :45 (1 day)

I was at a bachelorette party last night and a few of the girls asked about my training and what it's like. I've thought this so many times, but I feel like Fred the baker in Dunkin Donuts' Time to make the donuts campaign. This training thing has become routine for me. There are some days I dread the workout, but I am seldom unhappy once I'm out there (with the exception of my shitty bikes). This is now life for me and I kind of like it. There are days I have no idea what I'm thinking when I tell people I'm doing an Ironman. In fact I'm almost embarrassed by it. It's just an insane, crazy, out of your mind thing to do. I guess also because I don't feel like someone would look at me and say, wow, that chick is going to be an Ironman. There are times when I tell people about it and the distances and my jaw drops. The other side of all this is it is F-EN awesome!!! 4 months from this past Thursday, I WILL be an Ironman!

Swimming tends to be my most relaxing discipline. When I get in the pool it's thinking time for me. This week I might've lost count on my 1x3500. I know it usually takes me less then 9 minutes to complete a 500, so when I lost track, I just went until 9 minutes for the set and then started my next abc's. That was a long time to be in the pool. I better get used to it because I'll be in the lake longer when doing Placid. I'm not a big fan of swimming next to someone and starting when we start at the same time if we're around the same pace. One of us is bound to get competitive and try and beat out the other one. I'll admit it's typically me, but not this week. Friday I was swimming next to a guy that I was probably faster then since I passed him when we didn't start at the same time. However the times we did, homeboy tried beating my ass. He was successful a few times...but only because I let him.

Some good news on the Lucy Roo front. I got a new compact crank, which I think definitely allows me to climb hills easier. Although I think the main thing that's going to make a difference in my biking is that I raised the seat. Saturday I rode with the TNT Cycling team. We did an extremely hilly course. The cycling team is doing Tahoe, which is really hilly. Instead of increasing the mileage like they've done in previous season, they're increasing the altitude. This was actually perfect for me. I didn't necessarily get in a lot of mileage during this ride because of the hills, but I got in saddle time which is what I need. I didn't get frustrated or pissed off once at Lucy. Man what a difference that made. It was such a refreshing change for me. I look forward to more bonding with Lucy.

This was a pretty light running week because of last weekend's 1/2 marathon. Today's run was a 60 minute with 10x10-12 second accels. Holy ouch! Once again, more hills for me. Doing accels up a hill is not easy. There were a couple I did longer then 10-12s (ssshhh, don't tell Andrew). I just wanted to make it up the hill, so it was more like 20-30s. I tend to be a decent hill runner. I think when I 1st started running I wanted to get up the hills as fast as I could, so that's how I "learned" to run hills. I'm guessing my thunder thighs and man calves also assist in the process. My legs are definitely feeling the weekend hills. The good news is it's actually a nice feeling.

My scapula has been feeling much better. There's still some pain and knots, but it's nowhere near as severe. I stopped the icing, but probably should continue. Massaging with a tennis ball has been extremely helpful. My neck and shoulders are super tight from yesterday's ride. I'm trying to stretch and self massage, which is helping a little. I need to relax my shoulders more when I ride. It was kind of difficult with all of the hills, but I know I'll benefit from it.

Changed Woman

2010-03-21T13:37:00.010-04:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 2:45 (3 days)
BIKING 2:45 (3 days)
RUNNING 3:30 (2 days with 2 bricks)
WEIGHTS :45 (1 day)

Before this whole triathlon thing got started, I was LAZY, LAZY, LAZY! Seriously, I would workout maybe 4 days a week for 3 weeks and then take at least 2 or 3 months off. I was an athlete growing up, but for some reason the thought of working out just never seemed like it was in the cards for me. When I started doing tris about 4 years ago, it was to achieve a personal goal and maybe get in shape. I also decided if I was going to do something like this, I might as well do it to raise money for a great cause, which was The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Funny enough over the years the getting in shape/losing weight part has kind of gone out the window. I train because I have a race, not to be healthy. Maybe that's the wrong attitude to take because if I'm not training I go back to Lazy McLazy. In the past, even during race season, I haven't always stuck to the workouts. If I missed a couple it never really bothered me. Well I am a completely different person now. I still don't necessarily care about the fitness part, but since I've started Ironman training I get those workouts in. This week I became completely proud of myself. Tuesday night I finished work later then I anticipated. On my way home I called my sister-in-law and she told me they made chicken and steak for dinner. I am not one to turn down steak. There was a problem though. It was already 715, I was still in the car and I had a 30 minute bike to do with a 20 minute run. Oh and I also had to fix something on my bike, so it was basically going to be 9 by the time I made it to their house. UGH! What does one do? The old me would've probably just gone straight for the steak. The new me decided to just do the trainer ride and maybe a 10 minute run, if that. Well while I was on the trainer I thought about it and said, "Self, are you going to just walk away in the middle of a race because you have somewhere better to be?" The answer is absolutely not, so I got on that trainer, did a 30 minute ride and a 20 minute run. Oh and I still got steak. I really like this athlete I've become.

This week I had a 1x3000 swim. Man was that a long swim and I still have another 1000 to reach race distance. It took me a little less then an hour, but I still did another 25 minutes of swimming. I felt more sluggish then I had in previous swims, but I still had a pretty good workout. I also have been really getting into one arm swim drills. It's amazing how much stronger my right side is then my left. I really need to work on the strength on my left side, especially since now I'm trying to breathe on both sides.

Luckily I didn't have any long bike rides this week. I'm not sure if Andrew was being Mr. Nice guy or he really was just trying to take it easy on my legs for the 1/2 marathon. Either way, I appreciated it. I actually took my bike into the shop to get a compact crank on it. I'm hoping this gives me some room to be able to climb hills. I have such an issue with hills, but I'm willing to do anything to help me...just short of performance enhancement drugs of course. Talking to friends who are also training for an Ironman this season has kind of helped put things into perspective for me. One girl I know is a very strong biker and she said she's struggling to keep a 15mph, which is super slow for her. That's good to know because I'm struggling to keep a 13mph pace. Another girl got the same bike as me and came from a road bike with 3 gears in the front and she said that she can't climb hills either. Not that I'm happy for other people's misery, but it's comforting knowing I'm not the only one who feels this. We're doing a lot of training on our legs and it's only natural that at some point we'll struggle. I just wish that it wasn't every weekend.

I had my 1st 1/2 marathon in 1.5 years today (not including the one attached to the Augusta 1/2 Ironman). I actually had a pretty decent race. I heard this was a really hard course and super hilly. It definitely wasn't an easy course, but I expected it to be harder. Luckily most of the hills weren't super steep. I had a pretty good race (2:04:48). I was hoping to be under 2 hours, but I'm definitely ok with what I did. I kept a fairly consistent pace each mile. I fatigued with a mile to go, but still kept a decent pace. I was so happy to see some familiar faces out there. Erika brought Zack (one of my kids). The poor kid hates loud noises. As I ran up to them he was hysterically crying. It absolutely broke my heart. I stopped for a couple of minutes to hold him and try to calm him down. Unfortunately it didn't work. It was still awesome seeing them. I also got to see Team Destin out there. All in all it was a good day and the mileage will only increase from here, but I'm ready for it.

Food Is My Frenemy!

2010-03-11T14:40:00.012-05:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 3:15 (3 days)
BIKING 5:35(2 days)
RUNNING 3:45 (3 days with 2 bricks)
WEIGHTS 1:00 (2 days)

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a foodie. I can literally spend hours talking about food. Yes I can be a food snob, but I really just love food. I love good for me food. I love bad for me food. I love to eat food. I love to smell food. I love to talk about food...plain and simple I love food. Unfortunately this love for food has gotten me into trouble. Nope not with the police, but the 20 pairs of designer jeans in my closet. Seriously NOTHING fits. I go to work in sweats and a T-shirt and seldom go out in anything other then that since for the most part I'm training or grabbing a casual bite to eat. Needless to say, on the occasion that I do go out, I'm in a bind. It's amazing with the amount that I work out that I am not losing weight. Well, it's really not that amazing considering the food I consume. I won't even go into detail because it will either make your jaw drop, throw out some explatives or possibly laugh at because of how bad it is. About a month ago I had a nutrition and lifestyle consultation with Andrew. He "scolded" me for my food diary. Funny thing is, that's when I was being good. I attempted a gluten free, organic, which didn't last too long. Well, starting this week I'm attempting it again. I will try to knock out the processed foods, which will be the hardest thing for me to do. I am however allowing myself 1 cheat day. Normally a cheat day means an entire grocery store, so I will limit that as well. I know me and if I cut it out entirely to begin with, I will go insane and likely binge later. So on top of my training, I am incorporating a healthy lifestyle as well. This won't be easy for me, but it's something I need to do.

I had my longest continuous swim to date, which was a 1x2500. I've swam more then that in a workout, but not continuous. I was going at a moderate pace and had some sprints mixed in there. The sprints are making me faster, but honestly the best part of them is how much they break up the workout. I did have to stop for a split second a couple of times because my goggles were giving me a massive headache over my left eye. It's been happening a decent amount lately, which means it's time to find some new goggles. Finding goggles is a horrible task for me. I have a small face, so the goggles tend to be rather big on me. They make women's specific and I've even bought kids in the past. Hopefully I find some that don't hurt after a 2.4 mile swim. Friday I had an amazing swim workout that incorporated sprints and drills. Such a good feeling when you have an awesome workout.

We had some good weather this week and I was able to take Lucy out for some hill repeats on Tuesday. They honestly weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be. Normally when I do them I try to sprint up the entire hill, but Andrew just had me doing 15-20 seconds, standing up, doing a full sprint. I was supposed to have a 5 minute recovery spin between each sprint (there was a total of 6), but there were a few sprints that ended up having more recovery. It wasn't because I needed them, but it was a little farther then I thought to circle back around. My 30 minute run after that was good until the last 5 minutes when my legs literally just became dead. There are 2 hills at the end of the route that just killed me. My neck, shoulders and scapula were pretty tender after that workout. I had an extremely crappy and miserable 4:20 minute ride on Saturday. I've decided not to go into detail and complain about it because I want to focus on the positive this week. It seems like I'm always bitching about the bike and I just can't do that anymore. We all have shitty workouts occasionally. As Andrew said to me, "you're training for an ironman not a leisurely weekend bike ride." You know what, he's absolutely right. It's supposed to hurt, it's supposed to make me uncomfortable and I always have room to improve. If that wasn't the case, more people would be training for an Ironman. I have a bike fit on Tuesday, so I hope that will help me with the issues I'm having on the bike.

My Wednesday run was tough. I didn't do my normal route and some of the hills were pretty challenging. I'm not a big fan of running on the sidewalks, especially when it's wet out. I had 6 sprints and I felt like I was sliding a little bit when I did them. Today I had a great, long run. I had an 1:45 run, with the goal of doing a negative split. I had a negative split of 2.5 minutes, which was good. I remember a 1/2 marathon I did after coming off of an injury. I was running with a friend that was injured as well, so we decided to run it together at a slow pace. I felt so good with about 3.5 miles to go, so I went ahead of my friend and ended up with a pretty decent time. I guess sometimes it pays to go out slower. That's how I plan to run the 1/2 marathon on Sunday.

My shoulder is getting a little better. I've been icing a lot and had a good massage to it on Saturday. I also realized that I need to lay off picking kids up with my ride arm. I'm now focusing on carrying them in my left. I think it added a lot of stress to my problem areas. This week I was doing well mentally until Saturday, which turned into a mini meltdown. Luckily my friend Stevie and Andrew helped me get through it big time. Sometimes you need to be talked off the ledge and I'm glad they were there to do it for me. I have a lot of people that I can go to in my network, but I'm glad I went to both of them. Thanks boys! Here's to another week of training.

Recovery Week=Lazy Feelings

2010-03-07T21:46:00.006-05:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 1:45 (3 days)
BIKING 3:45 (2 days)
RUNNING (1:55 2 days with 2 bricks)
WEIGHTS (:45 1 day)

AHHHH, once again another recovery week. I worked out every day and I probably did more then most do, but I felt like I did nothing. I'm ok with that because the workouts I did have, my body felt good and recovered. Today was probably my laziest day in a long time. I had no plans and didn't have to be anywhere until 5, so I spent most of the day in bed. My initial plan was to swim in the morning and run in the late afternoon. Yeah, the day didn't exactly turn out that way. I ended up doing both late in the day. The good news is I did them and I no longer feel guilty for just laying around all day. I think I needed it mentally and physically.

My swims were pretty low key this week. I had a timed 500 today and I did it in 7:52. Im pretty sure I knocked off ~12 seconds. I'm still doing a lot of drill work, which is fine by me because it really breaks up the monotony of a straight swim. I'm always looking for new drills to do and I found one that I love (thanks Natalie Conte from TNT). It's a breathing drill, which is good because I tend top breathe every other stroke. It's 6-10 sets of a 50 breathing every 3rd stroke (20 second rest) and then a 25 breathing every 5th stroke (15 second rest). By the last set I am wiped. I like it because it's such a challenge for me.

Saturday was an unbelievably gorgeous day for a ride. I don't know if it was the weather or me, but I felt really good on the bike. By no means was I speedy Gonzalez, but I didn't feel too challenged by the hills. Such a nice change for me. I was however ready for the ride to be over. For some reason it just felt really long even though it was only a little over a 3:00 ride. After seeing my sked for next week, 3 hours will feel like nothing since I'm scheduled for 4.5-5 hour ride.

My running seems to be getting better. I'm not necessarily getting fast, but I feel more fit when running. I think I could probably go faster, but I'm not supposed to and I don't really want to wear myself out too much. I wish I was naturally a faster athlete, but I'm not, so I'll just live with the fact that I'm a decent endurance athlete. I had a 3.1 run assessment on Wednesday and I knocked off some time. I did it in 24:23 which is a 7:52 pace and my average HR was 156 and high HR was 170. I guess the 21st will be a true test for my ability when I run the ING 1/2. Apparently it's a pretty hilly course, so we'll see. I'm definitely not expecting a PR, but like I said before, I just want to be comfortable and not sore the next day.

The shoulder is not really getting better, but I've been getting massages and am trying to be diligent with the icing. If you want to ask how the icing is going to make sure I'm doing it, feel free to nag away!

Triathlons Do Require Thinking

2010-02-28T20:42:00.006-05:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS

SWIMMING 2:45 (3 Days)

BIKING 5:15 (3 Days, 1 Outdoor)

RUNNING 3:35 (3 Days with 2 bricks)

WEIGHTS :45 (1 Day)

Counting laps in a pool can be one of the hardest things during training. The physical isn't a problem in the pool for me, it's counting. When I realized this was a major issue and I had no one else to rely on to count for me, I had to come up with another solution. There's this little game I play when I can't fall asleep, so I decided to try it out in the pool. Curious, huh? Well I go through the alphabet and either think of a food (usually junk of course), city, country, boy's name, etc and it somehow relaxes my mind. I usually count my laps in 10s - that's A-F for those who can't count, and then assign a letter to the appropriate number. I'll either think of that letter or words that begin with the letter I'm on. For some reason when my mind wonders, I can always bring it back to a letter, unlike a number. If you have problems counting, try the letter game.

I'm up to a 1x2000 for my long set, which is 1/2 Ironman distance. I was fine during this workout and it wasn't challenging for me. Plus I've swam 3 HIM races, so I wasn't worried about the distance. I'm actually not even worried about the Ironman distance. I'm sure once I get into longer swims I'll change that thought. I can see how it might get boring in a pool, but I don't think that will be the case come race day. I am of course worried about the open water. Luckily I have 2 races scheduled as of now, before IMLP.

I'm always amazed at the athletes who are super speedy. To me it just makes no sense whatsoever that someone can be crazy fast. Let's put it this way, I will hopefully finish my race between 13-14 hours (luckily I have 17 hours to do it). Those crazy fast pros finish in about 9 hours. Well I managed to amaze myself on Saturday in a completely different way. I think I biked as slow as humanly possible. Seriously at one point when I was going up a hill I thought my bike was going to start moving backwards. I wanted to laugh, but I didn't have the energy. I did however have the energy to throw out some major F bombs. I will say this is one of the hillier courses I've ridden, but still! I told Andrew my theme is becoming I SUCK on the bike. It's very discouraging and upsetting because 4.5 months ago, I was a hell of a lot faster. I don't know if it's the bike, the fact that I'm working out so much my legs are dead or I honestly just suck that bad. Whatever the case is, I just need to go fast enough to finish the race. Enough self pity...onto my interval workout which was pretty tough this week too. I had 6 minutes on and 2 minutes off for 5 sets. By the end my legs were definitely fatigued, which was to be expected. I feel good when I'm riding my trainer, so that's a positive, right?

Oh and another thing about my Saturday ride. I f-ed up big time with my nutrition. As hard as it was at the time, it was probably the best thing for me. I was on the bike for 3:45 and I didn't even finish 2 bottles and only consumed about 260 calories (according to my watch I burned about 1700). At one point I bonked so hard I got nauseas and had to pull over to get fluids and some calories in. Stupid, stupid mistake, but I think I learned from it. No matter what, I will force myself to eat and drink. It's going to be a long day of racing and I need to make sure I have enough energy to finish.

My runs this week actually felt really good. Even though my legs were tired and fatigued, I was still able to do my runs with some ease. I'm up to 1.5 hours on my long runs and still finding the bricks manageable. Saturday wasn't so easy, but luckily it was only 15 minutes. I'm feeling confident about ING in 3 weeks. I know I won't win and luckily that's not what I'm trying to do anyway. Sure it would be great to get a PR (personal record), but I'm totally cool just doing the race and feeling good afterwards with as little soreness as possible.

Unfortunately my shoulder has been really acting up lately. With all of the therapy I'm getting done, it should be getting better and it's not. We're really trying to focus on it and I will probably be getting weekly massages, if not more to loosen it. Next to and under the shoulder blade is so tight that it's causing a strain on the muscle and I'm getting a painful burn. It's not fun. I had this last season and I thought it went away, but it's back and much worse. I'm trying to push through the pain, but that's not the right approach to have right now. The key is to stay as healthy as possible and taking care of any issues that come up. I know Dr. LaScala is doing everything he can, but my shoulder is being as stubborn as the rest of me!

Getting It Done!!!

2010-02-21T20:47:00.012-05:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS

Swimming 2:45 (3 days)

Biking 4:30 (3 days, all on the trainer)

Running 3:05 (2 days plus 3 bricks)

Weights :45 (1 day)

I had a lot going on this week but managed to get my training in, with the exception of weights today. I had probably one of my funniest triathlon related experiences this week...and believe me, I've had my share of them. It involved me, my bike, my trainer and my couch. I had intervals to do Tuesday morning. I had my water on my bike, my bike in the trainer, my heart rate monitor on and ready to get this ride going. I was about 3 minutes into my warm up when I felt wobble, wobble, boom!!! Yeah, I fell out of my trainer and the next thing I knew I was clipped out and on my couch. WHAT THE F?!? Apparently when you put your bike on your trainer it should be secure enough that you don't fall out. I guess I didn't get that memo. It was absolutely hilarious. I only wish someone was there to document this experience. I think even if I tried I couldn't duplicate it.

Monday was supposed to be an easy swim, but I made it harder then I was supposed to. I did a ladder of fingertip drag (50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 250, 200, 150, 100, 50) and some other drills. My arms were pretty tired when I was done with this set. I didn't have a burn in my arms, but I was definitely more fatigued then I should've been. Wednesday I did my 1x1500 and didn't feel tired at all. Friday I had 5x50 sprints incorporated into my workout. I just read a great article ( Http://ctap295.ctaponline.org/~ptrujill/strokes.doc) about counting your strokes and how much more efficient you'll be if the stroke count is lower per length of the pool. I focused on this concept while I did my sprints rather then the speed. Whenever I do sprints I tend to take shorter strokes and eventually lose a bit of technique. I was maybe a second slower but had great technique (or at least it felt like it). Looks like this could be the key to better, more efficient swimming for me.

We finally had a nice weekend of weather and I was stuck indoors packing for the big move on Sunday. UGH!!! So not a happy camper. It was mentally tough because I kept looking outside at the sun and lack of clouds knowing I would much rather be out there. Unfortunately life comes 1st and I wasn't able to do it. I eventually became pretty tired on the trainer, but got in my 3 hours and then a 15 minute run afterwards. I tried mixing it up a bunch so it was as if I was outdoors with some hills mixed in. The TV this time didn't help the time pass. Hopefully next weekend we have great weather again for my 4.5 hour ride.

When I 1st started training I had a tough time keeping my pace slower on my runs then my body wanted to go. I don't think I have a problem with that anymore. My legs are now tired from the training and want to go slower. I don't feel like crap on my runs, but my body just wants to go slower. I'm ok with that. I didn't think I would get my run in today. I moved and then was having dinner at my brother's tonight. After a little well deserved nap I sent Andrew and email and asked if I could do my run in the morning and then swim at night. He preferred for me to get it done today. With that little push I went outside and got my run in. I had an awesome run! I am so thankful I did it even though I missed eating dinner with the fam. Luckily I still went over there and got to hang out with my gorgeous niece and adorable nephews. The weather was unreal (please weather G-ds make Placid be the way today was on July 25th). I did just under 8 miles with some accels and went slightly faster then my training pace (sorry Andrew, but I couldn't help it today). I think I needed this little confidence booster, so I'm glad I did it that way.

Even though I had somewhat of a recovery week last week when I was sick, I have one more week until recovery week. YAY!

Sick Week=Limited Training

2010-02-14T18:15:00.004-05:00

WEEKLY TRAINING
Swimming 2:30 (3 days)
Biking 1:30 (2 days)
Running 0:00 (0 days)
Weights :45 (1 day)

Finally a post not complaining about the Atlanta weather. I was given strict instructions from Mr. Man (aka Andrew), that I needed to take it easy this week because I was suffering from a chest cold. If it was just congestion in my nose and a cough I would've been ok to workout as planned. However because it was in my chest he wanted me to do just enough exercise to get the blood flowing. I didn't feel awful or immobile, but my breathing was definitely off and had constant coughing when I worked out. Luckily a new training week starts tomorrow and I'm feeling much better (with just a little congestion). I'm kind of glad that this was my easy week due to the snow on Friday and the chill in the air every other day. I can't believe it actually really snowed here.

Swimming was probably the only thing this week when my breathing felt normal. Andrew had me do a 1x1500 on Wednesday. I had to stop 1 time for a coughing break, but other then that I was good to go.

I decided not to run at all this week. It was pretty cold, so outside wasn't an option. I also realized when I just did weights I was coughing a ton, so I didn't see running in the cards. I am getting slightly nervous about my 1/2 marathon next month. The most I'm running is 1:25. Now if I was a superstar, I could do a 1/2 marathon close to this time, but my 10:00 minute pace only puts me @ about 7.5 miles. I'm not sure if I'll be racing ING or just running it. For those who are confused by that statement let me explain. Racing means I'm going all out and trying to PR (personal record). Running it means I treat it like an normal training run. Rule of thumb when training is you should do an effort of about 80%. I know I'll be fine, but I just want to make sure no injuries creep up on me.

Biking this week was strictly on the trainer and @ an extremely easy resistance. I wanted the intensity enough to get my legs moving, but that was the extent of it. I was able to get in 2 trainer rides & that felt sufficient. Andrew knows better then me, so I was listening to him. This upcoming week I have a 4 hour ride on Saturday. I hope the weather holds up and I can ride outdoors. Of course today it was in the 50s and sunny. My consolation prize was I got to spend time with one of my nephews and niece.

Huuricane Asshole Hits Atlanta

2010-02-07T12:59:00.006-05:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
Swimming 2:20
Biking 5:15
Running 2:35 (2 days of running and 3 bricks)
Weights 1:30

Pretty soon I think this road to IMLP blog is going to be strictly a bitchfest of the Atlanta weather. Honestly it just sucks!!! Saturday I rode in 35 degree, rainy, windy mixed with some sleet weather for 3 hours. Needless to say I was miserable. Honestly at one point the wind was so strong it almost knocked me off my bike (or that could just be my shitty biking skills). I could've sworn the winds were going at 175 MPH. Another day I ran in cold rainy weather. I know I've done some crappy things to people, but man it sucks that the rest of Atlanta is paying for it. Luckily today for my 60 minute run it was sunny and not too cold. If only my legs appreciated it like the rest of my body did.

I had 2.5 good swims this week. Andrew had me do 5x50 sprints on long rest Friday. I did them directly after my warm up. By the 5th one my arms were pretty dead and sore. I think I moved at a snail's pace when I did my drills. It felt good to do the sprints because I knew I was working my ass off. With each 50 I tried to do it faster then the one before. I wasn't successful with that, but I actually managed to do the same pace for the 1st 4. I'm mainly just doing drill work now, with the exception of my 2nd swim of the week. This week I had to do a 1x1000 with a sprint every 10th length. I never enjoyed drill work, but I actually kind of like it now. 1 day a week I do a combo of pull buoy, kick and paddles. If I can find my flippers I'll start using those as well. Another day I typically do a combo of finger tip drag, fist, catch up, 1 arm strokes, and side kicks. I try to do a ladder (250, 150, 50, 50, 150, 250), but I usually only do the down portion of it. I honestly think the drills are helping my stroke a decent amount. I tend to have a very sharp movement in my right arm when it goes into the water. The finger tip drill has helped me change that. I think I'm going to do a private lesson with a swim coach to analyze my technique and help become a more efficient swimmer.

I'm still doing 1 day each of intervals, ILTs and a long ride. Andrew has switched up the times of each of these a bit so hopefully that will make me a stronger, faster cyclist in the future. The intervals kicked my ass. Like kicked it & then laughed as I had a tear in my eye. I did 5 sets of 4 min on and 2 off. I did a good job at keeping my cadence at 90, which is very good for me. The ILTs were tougher this week for me. I'm now doing 1 min on my dominant leg and 2 on the weaker leg. As you read before, my long ride sucked. I was slow, uncomfortable, winded and not happy with my performance. Seriously my legs just wouldn't go. I'm starting to get extremely frustrated. I know the weather conditions didn't help matters, but it still sucks. I just want to feel good again. I'm also not loving Lucy Roo. She looks pretty, but we are so far from being one. Most people that have a tri bike LOVE it. I however am not one of those people. I feel completely unstable on it. For those who know me, know how anti drinking and driving I am. Well unfortunately when I ride Lucy I look just like one of those people. I'm all over the road, swerving. I'm thinking that's not really a good thing. I wonder if I'll get a penalty for riding while looking drunk at IMLP. Let's hope not. Either that or let's hope I can somehow control this issue. I also feel like I have no power whatsoever in my legs. I'm not used to the shifting yet either. It's a lot different then a road bike. It can only get better from here I keep telling myself. Well it better get better soon!

Not much to report on my runs this week. I'm feeling good on the bricks. After Saturday's ride I was supposed to run for 15 minutes. At about 7:45 I ended up walking for 30 seconds. I know that at Placid there will definitely be walking. I just wanted to see how my legs would recover from a brief walk. Good news, they recovered very well. I felt much better after I did that. I'm going to check with Andrew and his thoughts on doing this during my runs. It sounds good to me, but I have no idea. I've also been instructed to incorporate 10-12s sprints into my runs. It's kind of cool seeing how fast I can in that brief moment. Funny thing is I can get to about 6:30 which kind of comes close to what the pros do for an entire marathon. I'm guessing turning pro isn't in my near future. My :60 minute run was just ok today. My legs were pretty sore from yesterday's workout. I also am fighting some kind of chest cold, which didn't help with my breathing.

What's a season for me without injury? That would be called a miracle. I've had issues with my shoulder blade & neck since last season. Unfortunately it's acting up again and if anything getting worse. There's a lot of built up scar tissue, tightness and knots that's happened over a number of years. I've been getting a lot of headaches recently, which is most likely caused by those issues. Andrew recommended a great PT/chiropractor that is an athlete as well. I think he might be my new miracle worker. Miracle workers are those who "fix" me enough to be healthy to race. He did shockwave, ART and Graston on it. He was going to do some acupuncture, but didn't want to kill me just yet. Thankfully I have a very high tolerance to pain because his techniques hurt, but that good kind of hurt. He's pretty hopeful that I'll feel at least 75% better within 4 treatments. That will not only be a miracle, but amazing. I highly recommend him for anyone that's in Atlanta (http://www.drlascala.com/). I did figure out that part of the problem why this keeps happening is because I ride with my shoulders up which puts a lot of tension on my shoulders and neck. Now I just need to make this change and maybe this won't keep happening.

Fingers crossed for a few weekends of good weather in the ATL.

And the Crap Weather Continues

2010-01-31T11:34:00.006-05:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS

Swimming 1:45 (3 days)

Biking 2:00 (2 days)

Running 1:05 (2 days, with 2 bricks)

Weights :50 (1 day)

Dear Person Who Controls the Weather,

Hi, my name is Pam Wiener and I'm training for my 1st Ironman. As if training isn't hard enough, why is it that you give us the gift of nice weather during the week and crap on the weekends? In case you're wondering, the weekends are when we have our longest workouts & we would like to do them outside instead of on a trainer or treadmill. The sun Monday through Thursday is ok, as long as Friday through Sunday is nice too.

Sincerely,

An upset customer

Ok, I feel better now that I've discussed my disappointment in the weather. Sunday was a beautiful day, but I wanted to voice a complaint based on the past 2 months of weather. This week was a recovery week for me which means pure happiness. As Andrew said, "You cannot do too little on a rest week." Thank you for that advice Andrew, I followed directions.

I did a 500 timed swim this week. I was surprised that my time was as fast as it was because I didn't feel like I was moving. I did notice towards the end that I was losing a bit of the technique in my stroke, which isn't a good thing. I did it in 8:04 which is about 35 seconds faster then in my 2nd week. I did my Friday swim in the morning and not at my normal gym. Man what a mistake that was. For some reason they must feel people enjoy swimming laps in a hot tub. Holy shit was it hot. I had to stop a number of times because I started feeling fatigued from the heat.

Andrew had me do a 3.1 mile run assessment to reevaluate my paces (train, long and recovery). I started out way too fast and paid for it later. My average pace was 8:10 and average heart rate was 164. My legs didn't hurt too bad afterwards, but I was definitely panting because I was out of breath. I'm waiting for my new paces from Andrew. Now let's see if I can actually sustain them. I got my 1st bit of chafing for the season. I actually was over dressed and got pretty hot during my run so I took off my long sleeve shirt and ran in a short sleeve one. @ about mile 2.25 I felt a burn underneath my arm. Yeah it hurt a little, but I'm a future Ironman so I'm tough.

Nothing too exciting on the bike this week. I only had to do ILTs and a 2 hour ride. Once again the weather on Saturday was rainy and cold, which made my outdoor ride a trainer ride. Andrew still wanted my legs to recover a bit more, so I couldn't switch my weekend days. I ended up doing a 1.5 hour ride with a 10 minute run afterwards. The trainer ride was good, but my cadence was dropping a lot. I'm having a difficult time keeping my cadence @ 90 if it's not in an easy gear. This is something that will hopefully get better with more time on the bike. It better or else Placid will be a lot more painful then it already will be.

I'm a big advocate of ice baths...in the summer. I took my 1st and 2nd winter ice bath this week and oh my was it painful. As usual, I have some weird thoughts that need explaining from others. Is it possible that the cold water that comes out of the faucet in the winter is colder then the cold water that comes out in the summer? You might say no, but I completely disagree. I just put my feet in the tub as it was filling up with cold water, pre ice and I thought death was upon me. I had one of my funnier phone conversations with my mom during my bath on Thursday night (it's a close 2nd to the gas pump story, which if you don't know it, ask me. It's pretty hilarious). I was screaming, cursing, crying, laughing and doing anything else to get my mind of the coldness. My mom actually checked in on me a little later to make sure I didn't have hypothermia. Bath number 2 sucked, but wasn't as bad.

To get into the Ironman mindset, I taped IMLP 2009 months ago and have yet to watch it until this morning. I was actually in Placid for this one and had an amazing time. I volunteered at the swim start which was good for me considering my open water anxiety. We rented a house with an amazing viewing spot on the bike & run course. There were 2 things I was able to watch again on TV that were to say the least, incredible. The 1st was Caitlin Snow coming off the bike in 5th or 6th and making up so much time on the run (2:57 marathon) to come in 2nd place. Her smile on the run was unbelievable. I wish I could have that smile for a 3 mile run. Then the most amazing thing which you typically see in the coverage of Kona was a story about Matt Long, a former Ironman who was in an unfortunate bike crash that nearly took his life. He decided to give this Ironman thing another shot, with all of his injuries and all. Below is a link to his foundation's website because my little synopsis did nothing for his story and his 2009 IMLP finish. Needless to say, tears were falling down my face this morning. I will watch this over and over again when I'm having a bad training week.

http://www.iwillfoundation.com/mattstory.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJstUoxVJuw

Just Breathe, Even When You're Pissy

2010-01-22T21:57:00.014-05:00

Weekly Workout
Swimming: 2:15 (3 days)
Biking: 4:55 (3 days)
Running: 1:40 (2 days, plus 2 bricks)
Weights: 2:25 (3 days)

WARNING: The following paragraph will be me bitching and complaining. This week was a tough week for me physically. I went from about 2 or 3 days of physical activity over the last few months, to now 21 straight days of working out. I do feel stronger, but my legs were sore and body was achy and tired. Mentally I was ok until Saturday. During my long ride on Saturday, I just kept thinking about race day and wondering how it's going to be possible for me to complete a 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112 mile hilly ride and finally a 26.2 mile run. I know I'm only at the beginning of my training and I'm just building the mileage, but if I feel bad after 3 weeks, how am I going to continue over the next 6 months? It sucks when you have a rough week and doubt yourself. I know I'll get to where I need to be, but this is my blog and it's meant for me to get out my feelings and reflect on it, hence the bitching. At this point the mental game is more important to have in check then the physical. The physical will eventually come with my training. My legs were the sorest they've been thus far. My legs hurt to walk up the stairs, which was confusing since I am getting stronger and I'm putting in all of my workouts. I believe next week is a recovery week, so it will give my body time to, well, recover. Yay for recovery! Andrew told me that the shitty feeling is one of the side effects of doing weights while training for a triathlon. I had to switch up some workouts this week, which I think might have contributed to the soreness. Oh and the weather...the stupid freaking Atlanta weather!!! Seriously every weekend there's rain, cold and wind. I'm over it!!! Enough with this crap!!! Now that we've gotten all of that out of the way, onto this week's workouts.

My swimming continues to get stronger. I'm really concentrating on taking efficient strokes. The more efficient I am in the water, the easier my swim will be. My breathing has always been an issue for me. It's something I need to work on since I have a difficult time breathing every 3rd or 4th stroke. I tend to work a lot harder and end up gasping for air. If anyone has some tips, feel free to offer them. This is what I'm going to work on in my swims this week since it's a recovery week.

My biking frustrated me on my long ride. I've put in a lot of time on the trainer and Saturday I was able to take Lucy out for a ride on the road. Shocker I had bike issues. My cadence isn't working, my chain got stuck in the derailer and I had some funky squeaky noise going on somewhere on my bike (consensus was it was my shoe and clips). Those were the least of my worries though. I felt really good on the 1st 20 miles of our 50 mile ride. I'm much more comfortable on Lucy now. It only took about 8 miles for my legs to really warm up. I was in aero a decent amount and initially didn't have a hard time with the hills. Then my quads, outer hips/thighs and back just hurt. I was uncomfortable and was kind of in pain. I tried to push myself, but I literally was going 10 miles and hour @ points and my cadence was extremely well below what it should be and I was in the lowest gears. I just wanted to be off my bike and be pissy. The good news is I was much faster and stronger today then I was on my previous 2 rides outside. I guess that means I really sucked before since today I just kind of sucked.

My runs on my bricks have been surprisingly good. So far they've only been 10 or 15 minutes, but I've felt pretty strong. After Saturday's ride I had a 10 minute run, which was supposed to be at a 10:14-11:14 pace. I ended up averaging 10:08 (it would've been lower if it wasn't for the hill with 2 minutes left to go). I felt like I was going slow, but every time I looked at my pace it was below 9:50. Somehow my body just wasn't slowing down. This is beginning to be a theme with me. I have to force myself at this point to just go ssslllloooowww. I had some pick ups on my runs this week and averaged ~7:10, albeit only for 12 seconds. Andrew has me doing a timed 3.1 mile run next week to assess whether we should change the pace of my runs.

I got a long massage today, took and epsom salt bath yesterday and I start recovery tomorrow. I'm starting next week on the right foot with a positive attitude. If the next post isn't positive, I give you permission to bash me and I can't say anything about it.

Fitness Guru

2010-01-17T21:00:00.006-05:00

Weekly Workouts
Swimming - 2.25 hours (3 days)
Biking - 4 hours (3 days)
Running - 1.28 hour (2 days, plus 2 bricks)
Weights - 2.25 hours (3 days)

I feel like I've gotten into my groove with training. I know it's only week 3 and there's a lot more training to be had, but I'm enjoying myself and look forward to seeing if and where I've improved. When I thought about this week, Richard Simmons popped into my head for some reason. Could be that my fro is getting out of control due to the humidity or maybe I feel like I've channeled my inner Richard Simmons and have become a workout guru. Some good news on the gear front, I finally got my heart rate monitor working and bought a new trainer for Lucy. Unfortunately I had issues with the trainer for my ride this morning.

On Wednesday, Andrew had me swim a continuous 500. I did it in 8:41. It's not my fastest, but I'm surprised it was that fast with the time I've taken off. There's still room for improvement and speed, but physically I feel so much better. I need to give a shout out to the fine people of TNT for letting me swim with them on Monday nights. Being an alumni has its perks. It's really nice to have a group to swim with weekly (especially a group I like so much).

I was stuck on the trainer yet once again for my long ride. The weather wasn't cold, but it was rainy. Because I'm still getting used to Lucy, I didn't want to risk being outside in the rain. Life also got in the way this weekend and I had to adjust my training schedule because of it. I was supposed to do a 3 hour ride outdoors, but because I was indoors I could scale it back to 2 hours. For some reason I couldn't get my cadence to where it was supposed to be on the bike and I just felt like I was kind of sucky, so I decided to go for 2:45 to make up for it. Hopefully next week the weather g-ds decide to be nice to Atlantans and we'll get at least 1 nice weekend day of weather.

I never thought I would say this, but I'm really having a hard time slowing down my pace during my runs. Whenever I run, I always try and go as fast as my body will allow (mind you, it's not that fast, but it's fast for me). Training for this race, it will be better for me in the long run to focus on my form and build frequency. Running is by far my weakest discipline. It's my slowest and I have a hard time pushing myself on the run during a race. I will say that on my runs during a brick this week I really felt awesome, albeit it was only 10 minutes. I'm sure when I get to 16 milers, I'll be thankful for that slow pace.

All in all, a good week for me training.

Long Road Ahead

2010-01-08T17:55:00.014-05:00

WEEKLY WORKOUTS

Swimming: 1.5 hours (3 days)

Biking: 3.25 hours (on the trainer because apparently the south is now the northeast) (3 days)

Running: 1 hour (2 days)

Weights: 2.25 hours (3 days)

This was my 1st week of training and also a time for revelations. Physically I'm not where I want to be, but I know eventually I will be. I also took the whole going out a fat girl in 2009 too seriously, so I started Weight Watchers. Hopefully this will get me back on track and aware of the amount of food I consume. Thankfully this was a pretty easy training week (thank you Andrew). For me it was more about getting back into a routine then anything else.

When I swam on Monday I just felt completely out of shape. We probably did about 2500 yards. My arms were killing me and I just felt spent. By my 3rd swim session of the week, I felt really good. My breathing was normal and my arms didn't hurt. I'm looking forward to longer swims and getting back my speed and endurance. Did I actually just write that I want longer swims?

I had 3 types of bike sessions this week. The 1st was a 45 minute interval workout, which went by a lot quicker then I thought. Normally when I do my own interval training I just make it up as I go. Having a workout in front of me made the time go by quicker for some reason. Could be just psychological. The 2nd workout was 5 sets of Isolated Leg Training (peddling with one leg while the other is clipped out, doing nothing) for 25 minutes, which kicked my ass. Initially my legs had no desire to spin 1 @ a time. I would be lucky if a dude using a walker moved faster then me. Finally by the 4th interval I got the hang of it. My 3rd workout was a 2 hour trainer ride, followed by a 10 minute run. I wasn't looking forward to this workout because 2 hours on a trainer is BOOORRRIINNNGG!!!

As usual with me, I had a comedy of errors before my trainer ride. My heart rate monitor hasn't been working, but I was determined to get it to work today. Yeah, kind of hard to do when my watch is almost out of juice. Mental note, always check your watch the night before to make sure it's charged. I figured I would charge it for 20 minutes and then use it. Well when I went to charge it I somehow locked the keys and couldn't figure out how to unlock them and didn't have time to research online how to unlock it. I ended up just using my handy dandy Timex. Onto the next issue. I've been riding Betty (my road bike) this week on the trainer instead of Lucy Roo (my Tri bike). I decided I was going to ride Lucy today. As I set her on the trainer, I realized that she doesn't exactly fit. I know this is going to come as a surprise to most people because of how unbelievably tall I am, but she was too small for the trainer. Seriously she didn't fit so I had to go back to Betty. I have no idea how Lucy didn't fit since I assumed all bikes fit on a trainer, but I think it might be because the wheels are a smaller size. Needless to say I will get this issue resolved.

Initially I was going to watch the Hangover because I knew I would be entertained and I needed every last bit of distraction that I could get. I ended up watching The Express with Dennis Quaid instead, which was actually better for me. I'm going to digress for a moment. If you haven't watched this movie, please do. I didn't know the whole Ernie Davis story. I knew he was the 1st Black Heisman winner, but that was the extent of my knowledge. Wow, what a story!!! I don't want to give anything away, but this movie meant a lot to me for a couple of reasons and I highly recommend it. While watching the movie, I noticed a theme...if you want something, go after it. Pretty encouraging for someone who wants to be an Ironman.

Ok, back to the trainer ride. It really wasn't that bad today, although the last 20 minutes did feel like an eternity. I switched up the tension throughout my ride to give me some variety. I wanted to feel like I was riding on flat roads and hills. When I finished my ride, I had to switch clothing because I was soaked and still had a 10 minute run outside. I got my running shoes on and went on my merry little way. Uh yeah, I forgot why what I was doing was called a brick. When you do a bike ride and then a run it's called a brick because that's exactly what your legs feel like. It took about a minute for my legs to feel normal again. I felt good until I hit a hill. I kept telling myself, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. There's a strong possibility I was running at a negative pace during this hill. Once that hill was done it was smooth sailing back to my apartment.

I'm sure this is common knowledge, but running on a treadmill sucks...even if it is only for 3o minutes. I made the mistake of doing my 1st run of the week @ the gym so I could do weights afterwards. It seriously sucked. Actually, I think the word sucked is an understatement. For some reason I can barely run a 10 minute mile for 30 minutes on a treadmill, yet can run a 9:30 pace outside for 6 miles. I don't care how cold it is, I'm running outside from now on. Note to self, do not bitch about the weather in the next posting if I choose to run outside...even if it is in the teens. My 2nd run of the week was good. The heart rate monitor still didn't work, but the watch was charged and my legs felt good. I had to be careful when I was running because there's still a lot of ice on the ground. Anyone who knows me knows how injury prone I am. Luckily I didn't fall. Andrew had my pace of 9:46-10:46. I averaged a 9:58. I found myself going much faster then 9:46 so I had to scale it back a lot. This is a good thing for me because I don't always pace myself properly and that's something I'll need to do for IMLP.

All in all, great 1st week. I no longer feel lazy, well at least when it comes to working out I don't feel lazy. My legs were pretty sore by Friday, but somehow loosened up over the weekend. Between biking, running and weights, my legs probably weren't so happy with me. If they weren't happy with me in week 1, I can't imagine what they'll say to me on July 25th.

Getting Motivated

2009-12-31T10:28:00.009-05:00

In 2006 after doing my 1st triathlon, I swore I would never do an Ironman. Why would someone want to subject their body and mind to a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run...all in one day...consecutively? Seriously, what crazy person would want to do that? Well 5 months ago I became one of the crazies and signed up to race Ironman Lake Placid on July 25, 2010. I guess when I told myself I would never do one, it was my way of saying, I'm going be an Ironman.

In the past 5 months I've done the Augusta 1/2 Ironman (1.2 mile swim. 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run) and the Claxton Century Ride (100 mile bike ride). Unfortunately in the past 45 days I've taken a break from being a triathlete and focused on the finer things in life like partying, food and laziness. The good news is all of that is about to change on January 4, 2010 when I refocus my energy to training and eating healthy. I'm excited, nervous and ready to start this venture.

I've hired an amazing coach, Andrew Johnston (http://triumphtraining.com/). Hopefully one day Andrew's speed and endurance will rub off on me and I can become 1/2 the athlete he is. I really see good things in my future because of Andrew and can't wait to start training with him. I know there's only so much he can do for me, but being accountable to someone like Andrew is enough to push me to where I want to be.

This is going to be a long journey for me so I've decided to write a blog as a place for me to document the physical and mental aspect of training for an Ironman. I know that I will need a lot of encouragement throughout this process, so I hope that you will visit this blog frequently.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!