Just stuff

Well, I have raw spots from my friggin shorts I wore yesterday for that long run. They look like rope burns and I've been walking like a cowboy today. It was just plain hot yesterday and hotter today. Thank goodness today was a little 3600 yd swim. Nothing on the agenda for tomorrow training wise. However, the epic weekend of training is coming up! Gotta get some rest for that.

Is it hot out there or is it me?

Let the games begin! Whew! Ironman training is in full suhwing and temps and humidity are soaring. I think it's safe to say that summer is here and training in this soggy air is going to more than prepare me for Louisville. I've got a 2 hour and 20 minute run on my plan tomorrow and I've got to figure out how I will carry all I need with me without adding 20 pounds to my person. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know!

CATS Iron Mountain (Wo)Man

I was unusually calm about this event. I normally can’t hold a conversation, but I think I wore Chris out on the way to Conway. I was a regular Chatty Cathie. I tried to save some of that energy for the race, but words just kept flowing out of my mouth. I don’t know what came over me! We pulled into the park and got a really good spot. I was standing next to the truck and a woman walked up to me and asked, “Are you the Irons’?”. Well, it turns out that they are Eric and Kayla’s (Chris’ brother and SIL) neighbors. Unbelievably, their names are Rebecca and Chris as well. Too weird. She does tri’s but he doesn’t and this was her first 1/2. They recognized Chris because he looks like Eric with no hair.
We got our body marking and found spots for our bikes. Next was chip pick-up. Time to set-up the transition area. This is getting better and better each time. I had a good feeling about my transitions today. I was very relaxed – also very weird. It was nice to just chat with the ladies in the area. I met Angie who I’ve seen at several tri’s, she has a Guru as well, but she really liked mine a lot. Me too!
The swim was wetsuit legal and a two loop swim – swim a little over 1000 yards, get out and run, get back in and do it over again. It was mentally tough to see the finish and know that you had to re-acclimate yourself to being vertical for a split second. I was a bit dizzy, so running was a little difficult. I got brushed and kicked a few times, but nothing major and I just kept moving forward. I felt like the second loop of the swim went a little faster. I feel pretty good about the swim, but it still needs work and will probably always need work.
I entered the transition area and took a bit of time off of T1. I crossed the mount line and attempted to get on my bike. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the chain. Will and Denise were standing on the sidelines shouting, “Go Rebecca”! Then they would have to say it again a few seconds later. I was starting to doubt that I remembered how to ride. Then I remembered that Chris has to push the gears all the way down in order for the bikes to fit into his vehicle. I finally mounted my steed and took off. I held a steady and easy warm up for about 20 minutes. The bike course was an out and back with about 3500 feet of climbing. I paid no attention to my speed and spun up the hills. I felt good, but my hamstrings were starting to seize up a bit so I backed off a little and tried to stretch them on the downhills. I felt good about the bike over-all.
Time for T2. I got all the bike gear off and started to get my run stuff together. I ended up falling over trying to put on my socks for the run J. I never would have sat down on purpose, thank you, Patrick. The run was also two loops. I took off and used the first three miles as a warm up. But once I passed the three mile mark I just decided that I needed to stay with that pace and call it somewhere around what I would like my Ironman pace to be. I passed Marianne the first time and she looked fresh as a daisy, smiling and talking. She was telling me that Chris was just a little ahead of me and that I could probably catch him. The next time I saw her she told me Chris was walking now and I could definitely catch him and beat him. The third time I saw her she was telling me I could now catch Jo and maybe even Heather! How does she do that talking while running thing? She is truly an amazing person. I told her I wanted to be her when I grow up! I did catch Chris eventually. His low back was killing him. I still saw Jo ahead and she was walking. She started running again and got out of my sight. I got to the turn around for the second time and I was really confused because I didn’t see her going the other way in front of me still. I grabbed some water and continued on. I ended up walking a lot of the second loop after the turn around. My hips were getting sore (muscularly) and my knees has started getting a little cranky. Unfortunately all I had left was just over a 10 min. per mile average. I knew I was well hydrated because I had to stop at the port-a-potty. I saw Chris off in the distance walking with someone that looked like Jo. By golly, it was Jo! Now I was thoroughly confused. They were laughing and she explained that she had to receive oxygen and be iced down. Again, very weird.
I crossed the line with a big smile on my face – I thought “Crissie Wellington”!
I compared my time last year when it was an easier course in Arkadelphia with this year’s harder course in Conway. My time in Arkadelphia was 6:23 and my time in Conway was 6:12. I was going for a sub 6 hour time and if I could’ve avoided walking so much on the run, I think I could’ve done it. Biggest accomplishment I can think of is finishing strong with a smile and not having to see the inside of a med tent! Thank you Gary, Patrick, Michael, Denise, Will, Andy, Carrie for the awesome cheering! Especially at the homestretch.
Tri’s are not easy for ANYONE! I just can’t think of anything else I would like to do for the rest of my life (besides when I’m doing it). It’s a feeling like no other to look back after crossing the finish line and saying, “I just did all of that!” and sincerely want more. Is it self punishment? Do we really like pain that much? It’s about breaking through barriers and limits that we often mentally put on ourselves. Sometimes you really have to question yourself about why you continue to do this to yourself. And you try to recruit others to do it as well. I will do tri’s as long as I am able because, yes, I do like the pain and the suffering. I like trying to constantly improve my time. I like seeing if I can really keep from talking myself out of it for I have yet to quit anything like this! And, no, it will never ever be enough!

MIM recap

Race recap time! We awoke at 5:00, well 4:50 because someone's car alarm started going off about then }:(. It was a brisk 58 degrees with winds gusting between 20 and 25 mph. I almost threw the covers back over my head. When I started getting everything together to take to transition, the nerves really started in. We got our transition areas set-up later than usual which unnerved me even more. Time to put on my wetsuit and TRY to relax a little. We headed down to the start line and I began to feel a bit nauseated, which is pretty normal. Chris had told me that I looked REALLY nervous and flashbacks of Austin rushed in. I sort of felt the same way at the beginning of that race. So I started deep breathing exercises in order not to panic at the thought of a repeat. It was time to make my way down to the swim start. I found my place in line and all I could think about was how fast it was moving. My turn! I ran into the water and tried to stay calm, but as we all know it’s really tough when everyone around you is flying past you. I started the swim and couldn’t catch my breath. I felt like I had forgotten everything. Once I started talking myself down from the ledge and got into somewhat of a rhythm (relative to what it was) a man swam over me and kicked me in the head as he was swimming off like a speed boat. I think he poked me in the eye with his friggin’ toe! Like I wasn’t having a hard enough time with the choppy water! I rolled over onto my back and thought for a split second, “I can’t do this” and almost started flagging down a kayak. Then I thought, “Shut-up and swim you idiot! You’re not going to die”. So I collected myself and just focused on that first turn. After I rounded the first turn I mentally put a big bubble around myself to keep from getting accosted again. It worked and I all the swimming technique I had worked so hard on started coming back to me. Long reach, glide, pull, bilateral breathing, swim downhill, sight. I relaxed and found that rhythm! I rounded the last turn and looked for the big arch for a guide, but it wasn’t there. Just then someone brushed my ankle and I turned and he said, “Oh, I’m sorry”. I was shocked! No one has EVER apologized to me in the swim for touching me. I just said, “That’s okay”, swam off and had a new hope for common courtesy in the water. My goal was to finish the swim in 40 minutes. I finished in less than that!

On to the bike! As I exited the water I had my wetsuit unzipped and had started peeling it off when I got to my transition area. Even a sleeveless wetsuit is tricky to get out of. You tug and pull and pull and tug – it takes just about as long getting one off as it does to get it on yourself, especially trying to acclimate to being back on land! I finally got the damn thing off and gathered my stuff and took off. I had a great start to the bike, I looked down and saw 26.6 on my speedometer! Well, crap! You know what that means? Headwind is coming next. The only thing you can do is put your head down and pedal. So 26.6 mph was now 15 mph. May I just add that the crosswind almost blew my bike from under me because of the trispoke on the back? That will grab your attention! The bike was fairly uneventful besides the ever-changing wind factor.

Time to make a run for it! This is my favorite part because this is the real moment of truth. You also get to find out if you went too hard on the swim or the bike here. I stuck to my plan with the run. Go out super easy to get my legs back under me for the first mile. However, I quickly started cramping because I needed to pee. Just as I was thinking about ducking behind one of the semis on the side of the road, a woman passed me and had the same idea. Rats! I hoped that there would be a port-a-potty at the aid station. I was in luck! Well, sort of. There was a person in it and one waiting. I was just going to have to wait it out or I wouldn’t have finished. I was there for about two minutes! Two minutes! Oh well, it was worth the wait. I got back on the course and hit it. I saw several of our teammates and that’s always a great motivator. I got to the turn around and picked it up a little more. I was amazed at how good I felt. I was really going to finish strong. The last 400 meters of the run was on grass and I dug down deep! I felt like my heart was going to leap out of my throat and my lungs were going to explode – it was AWESOME! Waiting on the sidelines up ahead was Luvbug, Gary, Andy and John. They were jumping up and down and yelling and let me tell you there is nothing quite like that feeling of having people pulling for you. There is also nothing quite like hearing your name announced as you are coming across that finish line. I can’t wait to hear the words “Rebecca Irons, you are an Ironman”! That’s going to be so suhweeeeeeet! Anyway, this was a great race and really it is all about the journey. This part of the journey is on the list for next year.

I gotta be me!

Wow! I think I've been in the twilight zone or on autopilot or perhaps both. I seemed to have been sucked into some sort of time warp because last time I checked I had a little over a month before our first official tri of the season. In the blink of an eye it's a week from this coming Sunday. Whoa! How the heck does that happen? I think when you hit your 30's someone comes in the middle of the night and steals your time and memory space in your brain. I've had to write EVERY-friggin-THING down since my 20's, but it seems worse now. Too much alcohol and extra curricular substances? Probably! I was 'talking' to my best friend from high school on facebook a couple of weeks ago and she brought up wondering how smart she would be if she hadn't done all of that stuff. I've often thought about that, too. Now, when I think about that, I just push it out of my mind because it makes me sort of sad. All of those were choices and I take full responsibility for making those choices. I've run the gamut of who and what I could blame, but it all comes back to me. I just didn't like who I was back then - an extremely introverted, uninteresting and boring girl. All that stuff let me be who I really wanted to be - the outgoing, fun and social little butterfly. Everything I used to put into my body makes me shutter now. In the same respect, though, I am very proud of who and where I am today! All of that was necessary to shape me into the person I've become. I don't want to be ANYBODY else. Who cares if I have a million post-its around my workspace?! Who cares if I read slow?! I'm definitely not the smartest person I know, but I'm not the village idiot either. What really matters is that I love and care intensely about my friends and family, about what I do for a living and that I'm fiercely loyal. I have standards and beliefs and I follow my own path. I follow the Golden Rule and I would never compromise my integrity or ask that of anyone else.
Don't you just love going on a tangent? Me too! I think I just needed to purge. I feel better now.
Now Memphis in May Tri Festival is coming up and I don't believe I've EVER felt so ready. What a difference a structured training plan makes and it's been worth every penny! We will pack our tri bags next week during the taper. I will probably be a little pre-occupied until after the race. I'm serious this year. Up until now I've been winging it and just flying blind with my training. This year the goals are to finish strong, finish feeling good and just enjoy the fruits of my labor. Oh, and stay out of the med tent!

Good Luck

to all our friends doing Joe Martin this weekend!!!

Rest needed...inquire within!

Just checking in to let you know that I haven't forgotten how to blog. It's been non-stop...wel...stuff. I will be back, perhaps tonight, and report on at least a couple of things. So I'll see you soon

Two Faced-booked

I have a confession to make. Bless me Father for I have sinned. It has been...well God knows how long it's been since my last confession (seriously, He's the only one that knows). I have been cheating, or it feels like cheating, on my blog. I've gone and joined Facebook! Serious time sucker, that Facebook is! Do you know how many people are on that site? Well, neither do I, but it seems like it may be in the gazillions. Like I have time for just one more thing. I may have to quit my job to have time to train, blog and 'talk' to people on Facebook. I resisted for so long! I caved when finally on Saturday night Chris created an account and resistance became futile. He just wanted to see what it was all about. Well, it was all about 3 hours of couch time staring at the laptop like a gape-mouthed, drooling invalid. Makes you kind of wonder what happened to talking on the phone or having get-togethers. Oh well, it's easier this way, right? It's about getting more done in less time now days. Multi-tasking and all that jazz. Just as long as the movement is forward, I guess I'll just go with the flow.

Now I'm going to go say my three Hail Marys and five Our Fathers.