Week 1 summary and race report

Week 1 summary: 11hr.

Had to take today off for the silliest of reasons. Yesterday was a perfect day in every particular but one. I guess I haven't worn my wetsuit for several years (warm races, not a ton of triathlons). Struggling into it was as horrible as I imagined it would be. L.'s boyfriend C. very kindly helped wrangle me into it (JMD: "Do you feel like a nineteenth-century ladies' maid?" CL: "Stays might be easier to manage!"). By this point it was about ten minutes before my wave left, and it probably had taken ten minutes or more to squeeze in the arms and legs, etc. I was pondering what to do with the long cord attached to the zipper when a pair of spectators gave me a pitying look and said, "The zipper goes at the back!"

I HAD PUT MY WETSUIT ON BACKWARDS...

They suggested that I should take it off and put it back on again the right way - "40 minutes is a long swim. It's going to chafe" - but I truly couldn't face it, and time was running out anyway. Shoulder mobility seemed fine, or at least as fine as it ever is in a wetsuit, and I figured I'd just have to live with the neck chafing.

WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE THE WORST NECK CHAFING IN THE HISTORY OF TRIATHLON!

Even running seems contraindicated today (better just to let it heal up a bit more first), and swimming would be a grotesque affront to the hygiene of other swimmers (I don't care if it stings, but I don't want to be the pariah in the pool!). Will run and spin tomorrow as I have now had today as a very nice rest day (caught up on some bits and bobs of work stuff that I've rather been putting off).

Noticeable in yesterday's race: I felt very strong on the bike, which is not surprising as it's what I've made a priority in my training! I always enjoy swimming, and I always find a triathlon run rather hot and tiring compared to normal running; really all three legs were joyful. Great atmosphere on the course, with a lot of very pleasant and positive minor exchanges with other athletes on the run.

Two weeks of high volume coming up. Very much looking forward to it! I am sorry that I haven't been training consistently over the last two months, but travel obligations and that week of respiratory ailment really made it unavoidable, and I suppose it is much better to begin formal Ironman training feeling hungry for hours rather than feeling already overloaded. Last week's Montauk ride really made me confident that I can do this thing.

Race!

Just a quick update. Such a nice race - details to follow when I'm home later on.

Long ride #1

Ended up doing it indoors at Chelsea Piers, for various reasons - next week I will do a proper one outside. The long rides for the first training block are "only" 3 hours. (I am loosely following Gale Bernhart's 13-week Ironman plan, but past experience has taught me that I do better just to make a template for the week and write the long bike and long run into my appointment book - if I have it all written out, I find it very hard to skip a workout, even if I really should skip based on pending injury or illness or just having generally overdone things. I didn't get home from theater and late dinner last night till nearly midnight, so it is not surprising I didn't bounce out of bed early to get on a bus with my bike!)

First hour: 5 x 8:00 (3:00 seated z2, 2:00 standing z3, 3:00 seated z3), 2:00 recovery
Second hour: very good spin class
Third hour: zone 2 (punctuated by emergency trip downstairs to cafe for a Clif Bar - I had clearly suddenly reached the absolute bottom of my energy reserves!)

plus 10mi round-trip bike to Chelsea Piers

3hr spin
10mi bike

Bike laps!

I still pretty much hate the ride over to the park (a horrible obstacle course of buses, trucks, taxis, roadwork, etc.), but it was absolutely lovely once I was there. Ridiculously perfect weather - high 60s, low humidity, sunny and clear. In general I find running has far more entries in the credit column than cycling does, but it must be chalked up to cycling that you don't get nearly as hot and sweaty doing it.

Determined to ride as much as possible this summer - these are just easy miles, but all miles are good. Will go to NJ tomorrow to do a hard 3-hour ride - I'm shooting to get out there twice a week when possible (one long ride, one hill workout), but this week it will just be once.

18.09mi, 1:12:12 (15.0mph)
avg HR 127 (that's too low, but there are a lot of downhills and places where you need to slow for pedestrians!), max HR 148

Run!

Felt much better this morning, in spite of bad sleep - also, the weather got miraculously beautiful, it's 70F and clear, amazing after these awful days of heat and humidity! I just did an 'easy' hour (upper zone 1) - it felt slow and rather arduous, and I think I still have some residual fatigue and dehydration.

1:03, 5.65mi. (11:18/mi., avg HR 139, max HR 147)

Spin!

I was trying to maintain a skeptical view of whether exercise today would be wise, but I hadn't had any gastric distress since midday yesterday, and I passed my self-imposed test of consuming real food this morning with no ill effects, so I cleared myself for midday spin. It was torrentially raining overnight and this morning, but cleared up by late morning, though still very humid; and by the time I left the gym after class, it had actually turned into a quite nice day, sunny and not as damp.

10mi round trip bike
:50 spin (zone 2, recovery ride)

Week zero IMWI summary

Alas, if it's not one thing it's another: I seem to have picked up a touch of food poisoning or similar! I was woefully ill from 4 to 6 this morning; much better when I got up properly in late morning, have retrieved bike and not having any more gastrointestinal woes, but feel quite tired and dehydrated. May need to take another day off tomorrow, or just do something really easy. Will go out shortly to pick up some Gatorade and crackers - fact that I have no appetite is definitely a sign that things are off, it's rare for me!

Week totals: 10:15 (2 bike, incl. one longest ever; 1 run; 1 day of bike-spin-swim). Slightly unbalanced way to get to that numbers (exercised only on three days, due to travel and recovery issues), but I feel a lot more optimistic about this whole training thing than I did mid-week.

Postscript

Too tired and contented to write more, but the only truly bad five minutes of the day involved riding over this! I was on the verge of hyperventilating and kept on muttering to myself, "I hate bridges! I hate bridges!" But it is a much shorter one than the GWB, fortunately, though the steepness makes it worse in other respects. The strength of my physical reaction even to this much more manageable bridge (you're not riding right next to the edge, there's a shoulder on the road inside of a raised sidewalk) tells me that I shouldn't plan any time soon to ride even in the "good" direction over the GW - it is time-consuming, but I will just have to take the bus back from Lamont as well as to Lamont in the first place.
Photo borrowed from here.

(Editorial disclaimer: I am 98% sure that this is the bridge I rode over, but due to limitations concerning images of places, I can't swear to it! The only other glitch today was that somehow I managed to miss the first aid station completely, which meant I rode from mile 25 to 55 with no fluids - in retrospect, I should have just stopped at a convenience store, but usual anxieties re: getting lost, getting left behind, etc. warred with sensible knowledge that I should make my own arrangements. Of course I also thought it might be that I was about to come up on the real aid station! Still not sure how I missed it, but it is very much the sort of thing that happens to me - key cluster of stuff re: not really recognizing places, not having good intuitive feel for routes, etc.)

Done!

A glorious day of riding. More later when I'm home, but I'm very happy with how it went. Nice sense of accomplishment, but it never felt epic - just as it should be.

110mi.
7:14 (15.2mph)
8hr total elapsed time including rest stops

Spin/swim!

I was really discouraged on Wednesday and Thursday; I got up early both days in order to exercise and then just couldn't get myself out of the house, and was too tired (and hot!) by later in the day to make it happen then either. Really this means that I am too tired and should take the day off, but I felt very glum, both due to lacking beneficial effects of exercise and to thinking that I am an idiot to think I should train for an Ironman when I don't even want to get out of the house for a short run!

However I had a Long Sleep last night, didn't set the alarm and let myself sleep as long as I needed (11 hours), and I felt glorious when I got up - full of energy and keen on the idea of triathlon again. Rode my bike down to Chelsea Piers for Joanna's midday spin - super-glad to be back in there, I love that class - and then had a very nice swim afterwards too.

Dropping my bike near Penn Station for tomorrow's ride was a pain in the ass, partly because they were disorganized (tell cyclists they can drop off their bikes from 3 to 7, then don't even set up the registration table until 3:30, and you will have many very grumpy riders) but also because it was SO BLOODY HOT! Standing in blazing sun on an exposed midtown sidewalk with the heat radiating up off of it is not enjoyable - I downed a 20-oz. bottle of water once I'd finally got to the front of the line (it was more than an hour's wait) and another 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade before I got on the subway, now on my second can of seltzer.

Tomorrow's ride is going to be warm but very flat, I will bail if I really and truly overheat or have mental cycling breakdown but I'm optimistic that it will be OK. Early start tomorrow - 4:30am rendezvous at Penn Station....

My swim set was lovely - in this weather swimming is the best, the feeling of cool water on skin is very calming. I did a little set that I saw here (I am keen to do the 4 x 600 main set also, but today was not the day).

Warmup: 100 swim, 100 pull, 100 kick

5 x 100 (1) 100 free (2) 25 fly 75 free (3) 50 back 50 free (4) 75 breast 25 free (5) 100 free
5 x 100 (1) 100 free (2) 25 breast 75 free (3) 50 back 50 free (4) 75 fly (!) 25 free (5) 100 free
200 flutter kick with every fourth length whip

Lovely!

:55 spin (2 x 10min climb)
1500 yards swim

Home run

Very happy to be back at home. Keen to be TRAINING properly, but my lungs are not quite right, I think they never quite got 100% after that thing early in the month & then travel, missed sleep, allergies, etc. kept 'em vulnerable. Weather forecast for this week is truly dreadful - it is supposed to be 90 and humid for entire second half of the week. I will consider this week 0 of triathlon training....

1hr, 6mi

Belated brief run report

Rewarding but tiring day attending wedding things. Did get out for brief run in the morning, and the weather has totally turned (more imp for wedding than for running!): brisk but sunny earlier, and then turned into absolutely lovely day. Just did 30 min. out and back, I would say 3mi. (I was running with B., which makes me keep my pace and cadence up - my huffing and puffing system is clearly not quite as it should be, need to make it a priority to see that lung doctor when I am back in NYC).

.5hr, c. 3mi.

Run!

Just a short one - the weather is dreadful, freezing cold and pouring rain (hands and arms so cold as I write this that I can hardly type properly). We didn't get out this morning (stayed out too late last night having drinks with friends and family!) but it seemed to me worthwhile at least to have a short slow one - pavement very slippery and covered with huge puddles...

35 min., c. 3+mi.

Spin/swim!

That was lovely: exercise v. beneficial. We are staying at a nice but no-frills hotel, no fitness center, but there is an expensive but absolutely beautiful one next door. Not cheap for a day pass, but worth every penny!

1hr spin
1000m swim (a beautiful 25m lane pool that I had entirely to myself - not quite as elegant as the one at the Hyatt in Buenos Aires, which really was the pinnacle of hotel pools, but absolutely fully 100% amazing for a workout (300 warmup with free every third length back, 100 fly drill, 100 breast drill-swim by 25; 5 x 100 as odds free evens IM)

Short run

Nice but scant - we were shooting for an hour, found a good path along the south side of the Thames from our hotel at London County Hall - but I had mild digestive woes and had to find a bathroom around the half-hour mark, and by the time I had located one and used it, it seemed counterintuitive to fire things back up again. Jet lag and general discombobulation has made it difficult to exercise, but it is a priority to get in at least some short bits over the next couple days....

.5hr, c. 3mi