Me Whining that I had one more loop to do
The Finish...I can’t seem to keep up with my workout blog. I know I’m bad. It’s really hard to find the time to devote to it though. I go to work, and then I go to workout, then come home and eat and the last thing I want to do is spend time on the computer. My poor dog, doesn’t even get to spend time with me. Did I mention that I hired a dog walker? She comes twice a week and spends an hour with Hannah. Sometimes my neighbor will take her too… though, I’m probably going to have to hire the dog walker to come three times a week now instead of two. I usually get to walk her on Friday’s, Saturday’s, and Sunday’s. She spent the past weekend over at Dave and Agnes’s house. Dave and Agnes, are two friends of mine that I met playing soccer. They have a sheltie named Chi, and Chi loves Hannah. I went to pick Hannah up on Monday night and I don’t think she was too happy to leave. My house must be so boring to her. Once my cat Gemini passes away, then I’ll consider getting another dog, although, by that time, Hannah may have passed away. I don’t like to think about that. Hannah is around 9 years old now, and gets arthritis a bit. She’s like a daughter to me. I just can’t imagine loosing her. It was tough enough loosing Pyawacket last year. God I miss Pyawacket! Sometimes I dream about her. I dream she is in my arms. I don’t want another cat. There’s no way they could even come close to Pyawacket. Gemini is sweet, he has his quirks, and a lot of issues. Is it bad that Pyawacket was my favorite? I feel guilty about it. I love Gemini, and I’m sure I’ll miss his personality when he passes. I don’t want to deal with cats anymore though, only if they are outdoor cats. I’m writing this blog post on an airplane. I’m making a business trip to Minneapolis, and am typing this out on my computer to post later. Someone left a People magazine and they had a story about a woman who put a camera on her cat. The camera hangs around the cat’s collar and it automatically takes a picture every two minutes. Of course, it’s an outdoor cat. She had an art show and sold the pictures for $250 a pop. What an amazing idea. You know I always thought it would be cool to know what your cat is doing all day if it’s an outdoor cat, and now they know. There are pictures of the cat birdwatching, there’s a picture of another cat under a car. It’s just kind of fascinating. I would love to do that, but I don’t have an outdoor cat. I’d be too afraid that my cat would get hit by a car or hurt somehow. Anyways, I digress….
So, this past weekend I did the Galveston Lonestar Half Iron Triathlon. This was my first half ironman since doing Longhorn in 2007 and not finishing. Before that, I had done the Conroe half ironman and it took me 8 hours and 9 minutes to do. Well, this weekend I did the half in 6 hours and 44 minutes! Not a great time at all, but a huge improvement for me. I took an hour and 15 minutes off of my time! And, what is really cool, is that I got that time despite walking half of the run. Yep, I walked half of the run. It was just so hot! The weather here in Texas is crazy, it’ll be seering hot one day and then freezing cold the next. I wasn’t expecting it to get as hot as it got. I think the only thing that kept me from overheating was the massive amount of wind. It was windy in general, however, the wind really picked up towards the end of my bike. On the run, it was tough, as we were running into a headwind at least half of the time. I wanted to do 6 and a half hours, and now I know that I can. Had it not been as hot and windy, I definitely would have achieved that. Galveston was a flat course. I’m curious as to how I’ll do on a hillier course. The weekend prior to the half iron, I did a 100 mile bike and a 20 mile run (well actually a 17 mile run, but close enough). This is all part of ironman training. I decided to do the Salado Century ride as it was a ride with aide stations. When given the choice of riding 100 miles without aide stations, or paying the $35 to have aide stations, I’ll choose the latter any day. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the bike can be miserable. I was extremely pleased that I did the bike in 7 hours and 45 minutes. And, it was incredibly windy that day. The weather report stated winds of up to 30mph! Only nine of us finished the 100 mile course. It was tough, especially when having to work on a downhill because it was so windy. The next day we were slated to run 20miles, but I only did 17. I don’t feel too guilty about that though, as once you get above a certain amount of miles, it’s all the same. What amazes me is that in the half ironman I did this past weekend it took me 2 hours and 29 minutes despite walking. I would think it would take longer than that. When I did the half marathon, it took me 2 hours and 10 minutes, and I ran hard. At least hard for me. I kept up with the 9 miinute 40 second a mile pace group for the first 9 miles, and then slowed. The hills were killer after mile 9.
Now to talk about my race nutrition…..
My official Galveston half iron race report:
I got up at 5 am, took a shower and ate 2 bagels with strawberry cream cheese, and a banana. I then went down to set up my transition area. I had racked my bike the night before, so I wasn’t too concerned about setting up. I got there, and was told that I had racked my bike the correct way. Honestly, I don’t see why it matters what side your bike is racked on. They had us assigned by our race number and I had racked my bike by the brakes on the handlebars so that my number on the rack was visible. I didn’t hang it by the seat as my bike is so small that it would be hanging instead of having the wheel touch the ground. Anyways, I set up all my stuff, and then went back to the hotel room to finish eating (as I had only eaten the one bagel at that point) and to put on my sunscreen and wetsuit. I had a lot of time as the race officials decided to start the Olympic distance racers first at 7:30, and the half iron didn’t start until 8:25. My wave was slated to leave at 8:35. I was not happy about that. The later the start, the longer we are out in the sun and heat. It was a hot day. Why on earth would they start the Olympic distance people first when we have farther and longer to go? The later we start, the later in the afternoon we are out there. Not good in my book. Anyways, I got my wetsuit on halfway and checked out of the hotel, and then headed back over to transition. When I got to transition I noticed that somebody had changed the direction of my bike, and I got angry. One of the officials happened to be there and told me that I was racked wrong (even though the volunteer told me I was racked correctly when I first went down there) and that other triathletes moved my bike so that it would be racked correctly, so that I would not be penalized. Ok, that’s cool, not a big deal. I appreciate the fact that other triathletes were willing to help me out. What I did not notice at the time though, was that they had moved my towel with all my stuff on it. This will be important later. Anyways, everything is good to go, I find all my T3 team mates and we hang out waiting for the half to start. Unfortunately, they started us late, as they had to move the triangular turn buoys further out, as they were closer in so that the Olympic distance athletes knew where to turn. I appreciate the fact that they moved them for us so that we wouldn’t get confused and turn early, although, I was not happy that my wave did not start until 9:00 am. I find 9:00 am an unacceptable start time for a half ironman distance triathlon. This meant that I wasn’t going to be starting the run until around 1 pm. Anyways, it was a floating start. They had us descend on ladders off of a dock and swim to the starting buoys. I thought this was inconvenient at the time; however, I’m glad that we had to swim to the start as this gave me time to get used to the cold water. Something about cold water takes my breath away, and it feels difficult to swim when you first dunk your head in it. We floated for about 2 minutes or so before the start and I positioned myself to the far left of the start. I tend to swim to the right, and I was going to make a real effort to stay as close to the buoys as possible, because, I didn’t want to swim any more than I had to. I did pretty good at staying on course and probably sighted about every 5 strokes or so. I accidently had a little bit of acid reflux come up right before the swim start while I was floating there (Here fishy fishy). I wasn’t nervous, so I don’t want to say it was nerves. The swim went smoothly, the difference for me this time is that my swimming has improved so much that I was constantly surrounded by people and I caught up with a lot of people in the group ahead of me. That was cool. I only had to dodge one breast stroaker. Came out of the water tired and walked to my bike, this is when I noticed that nothing was as I had left it on my towel. I was having to search for everything, and almost panicked because I couldn’t find my socks. Luckily I found them, but it added a lot of time to my transition. Apparently, the triathletes that correctly racked my bike, had moved my towel, and that got me all discombobulated, because nothing was where I had set it. So, unfortunately, due to all this, I forgot to put on my white longsleeve sun guard. The bike went well. It was so nice to not be last for once. It was windy, so that slowed me down considerably. I also, had accidently put my Infinit nutrition in my aero bottle instead of my water. I was still feeling the food from breakfast and experiencing a little bit of acid reflux. I went through my aero bottle and one other bottle of nutrition, and only half the bottle of water. I didn’t drink nearly enough water. I felt full and bloated though, so I didn’t want to drink it. I don’t think I was drinking too much nutrition since I only went through two bottles of it. I’m supposed to get 230 calories an hour on the bike and that is only 2 hours worth of nutrition for the 3 hours and 17 minutes that it took me to ride the bike, and I still felt bloated. Got in, from the bike, put on my T3 jersey, that was hard to do as I was all gross and sticky and getting it on was hard. I used a towel to cover myself while I changed into running shorts, and then put on my long sleeve sunguard. That all added to my transition time. Then I started the run. I wanted to throw up, but couldn’t, and I also kinda felt the need to pee, but couldn’t manage that either. I didn’t start to really feel great on the run until about the third loop. There were 4 loops of the course. So, I pretty much walked the first two loops and ran the last two loops. I’m not sure what I did wrong in the nutrition area, but I’m pretty sure this is the source of my issues and not the workout itself. What amazes me is that I did not overheat! It was really hot! It was so windy though, that this could have been why I didn’t overheat. It was tough running into head on winds throughout the run. The wind really picked up on the run, and things were blowing everywhere. People couldn’t keep their tents up, trashcans were blowing all over the place etc… Also, there was no s hade on the run. All in all, a good race experience. I’m so excited that I’ve improved so much and really want to work on getting faster on the bike and swim. Those are the two areas I think I can really affect. I’ll always be a slow runner, and with the hotter weather about to come, my run times will slow. I will likely not do the Galveston race next year, because I don’t like the fact that we start so late in the morning. I also did not like the sand blowing in my face on the bike. I also need to get used to swimming in a wetsuit. I think I could have gone faster. I barely kicked on the swim and wasn’t really focusing on my form. If I can start doing those two things, I think I can shave some time off of my swim.
So, this past weekend I did the Galveston Lonestar Half Iron Triathlon. This was my first half ironman since doing Longhorn in 2007 and not finishing. Before that, I had done the Conroe half ironman and it took me 8 hours and 9 minutes to do. Well, this weekend I did the half in 6 hours and 44 minutes! Not a great time at all, but a huge improvement for me. I took an hour and 15 minutes off of my time! And, what is really cool, is that I got that time despite walking half of the run. Yep, I walked half of the run. It was just so hot! The weather here in Texas is crazy, it’ll be seering hot one day and then freezing cold the next. I wasn’t expecting it to get as hot as it got. I think the only thing that kept me from overheating was the massive amount of wind. It was windy in general, however, the wind really picked up towards the end of my bike. On the run, it was tough, as we were running into a headwind at least half of the time. I wanted to do 6 and a half hours, and now I know that I can. Had it not been as hot and windy, I definitely would have achieved that. Galveston was a flat course. I’m curious as to how I’ll do on a hillier course. The weekend prior to the half iron, I did a 100 mile bike and a 20 mile run (well actually a 17 mile run, but close enough). This is all part of ironman training. I decided to do the Salado Century ride as it was a ride with aide stations. When given the choice of riding 100 miles without aide stations, or paying the $35 to have aide stations, I’ll choose the latter any day. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the bike can be miserable. I was extremely pleased that I did the bike in 7 hours and 45 minutes. And, it was incredibly windy that day. The weather report stated winds of up to 30mph! Only nine of us finished the 100 mile course. It was tough, especially when having to work on a downhill because it was so windy. The next day we were slated to run 20miles, but I only did 17. I don’t feel too guilty about that though, as once you get above a certain amount of miles, it’s all the same. What amazes me is that in the half ironman I did this past weekend it took me 2 hours and 29 minutes despite walking. I would think it would take longer than that. When I did the half marathon, it took me 2 hours and 10 minutes, and I ran hard. At least hard for me. I kept up with the 9 miinute 40 second a mile pace group for the first 9 miles, and then slowed. The hills were killer after mile 9.
Now to talk about my race nutrition…..
My official Galveston half iron race report:
I got up at 5 am, took a shower and ate 2 bagels with strawberry cream cheese, and a banana. I then went down to set up my transition area. I had racked my bike the night before, so I wasn’t too concerned about setting up. I got there, and was told that I had racked my bike the correct way. Honestly, I don’t see why it matters what side your bike is racked on. They had us assigned by our race number and I had racked my bike by the brakes on the handlebars so that my number on the rack was visible. I didn’t hang it by the seat as my bike is so small that it would be hanging instead of having the wheel touch the ground. Anyways, I set up all my stuff, and then went back to the hotel room to finish eating (as I had only eaten the one bagel at that point) and to put on my sunscreen and wetsuit. I had a lot of time as the race officials decided to start the Olympic distance racers first at 7:30, and the half iron didn’t start until 8:25. My wave was slated to leave at 8:35. I was not happy about that. The later the start, the longer we are out in the sun and heat. It was a hot day. Why on earth would they start the Olympic distance people first when we have farther and longer to go? The later we start, the later in the afternoon we are out there. Not good in my book. Anyways, I got my wetsuit on halfway and checked out of the hotel, and then headed back over to transition. When I got to transition I noticed that somebody had changed the direction of my bike, and I got angry. One of the officials happened to be there and told me that I was racked wrong (even though the volunteer told me I was racked correctly when I first went down there) and that other triathletes moved my bike so that it would be racked correctly, so that I would not be penalized. Ok, that’s cool, not a big deal. I appreciate the fact that other triathletes were willing to help me out. What I did not notice at the time though, was that they had moved my towel with all my stuff on it. This will be important later. Anyways, everything is good to go, I find all my T3 team mates and we hang out waiting for the half to start. Unfortunately, they started us late, as they had to move the triangular turn buoys further out, as they were closer in so that the Olympic distance athletes knew where to turn. I appreciate the fact that they moved them for us so that we wouldn’t get confused and turn early, although, I was not happy that my wave did not start until 9:00 am. I find 9:00 am an unacceptable start time for a half ironman distance triathlon. This meant that I wasn’t going to be starting the run until around 1 pm. Anyways, it was a floating start. They had us descend on ladders off of a dock and swim to the starting buoys. I thought this was inconvenient at the time; however, I’m glad that we had to swim to the start as this gave me time to get used to the cold water. Something about cold water takes my breath away, and it feels difficult to swim when you first dunk your head in it. We floated for about 2 minutes or so before the start and I positioned myself to the far left of the start. I tend to swim to the right, and I was going to make a real effort to stay as close to the buoys as possible, because, I didn’t want to swim any more than I had to. I did pretty good at staying on course and probably sighted about every 5 strokes or so. I accidently had a little bit of acid reflux come up right before the swim start while I was floating there (Here fishy fishy). I wasn’t nervous, so I don’t want to say it was nerves. The swim went smoothly, the difference for me this time is that my swimming has improved so much that I was constantly surrounded by people and I caught up with a lot of people in the group ahead of me. That was cool. I only had to dodge one breast stroaker. Came out of the water tired and walked to my bike, this is when I noticed that nothing was as I had left it on my towel. I was having to search for everything, and almost panicked because I couldn’t find my socks. Luckily I found them, but it added a lot of time to my transition. Apparently, the triathletes that correctly racked my bike, had moved my towel, and that got me all discombobulated, because nothing was where I had set it. So, unfortunately, due to all this, I forgot to put on my white longsleeve sun guard. The bike went well. It was so nice to not be last for once. It was windy, so that slowed me down considerably. I also, had accidently put my Infinit nutrition in my aero bottle instead of my water. I was still feeling the food from breakfast and experiencing a little bit of acid reflux. I went through my aero bottle and one other bottle of nutrition, and only half the bottle of water. I didn’t drink nearly enough water. I felt full and bloated though, so I didn’t want to drink it. I don’t think I was drinking too much nutrition since I only went through two bottles of it. I’m supposed to get 230 calories an hour on the bike and that is only 2 hours worth of nutrition for the 3 hours and 17 minutes that it took me to ride the bike, and I still felt bloated. Got in, from the bike, put on my T3 jersey, that was hard to do as I was all gross and sticky and getting it on was hard. I used a towel to cover myself while I changed into running shorts, and then put on my long sleeve sunguard. That all added to my transition time. Then I started the run. I wanted to throw up, but couldn’t, and I also kinda felt the need to pee, but couldn’t manage that either. I didn’t start to really feel great on the run until about the third loop. There were 4 loops of the course. So, I pretty much walked the first two loops and ran the last two loops. I’m not sure what I did wrong in the nutrition area, but I’m pretty sure this is the source of my issues and not the workout itself. What amazes me is that I did not overheat! It was really hot! It was so windy though, that this could have been why I didn’t overheat. It was tough running into head on winds throughout the run. The wind really picked up on the run, and things were blowing everywhere. People couldn’t keep their tents up, trashcans were blowing all over the place etc… Also, there was no s hade on the run. All in all, a good race experience. I’m so excited that I’ve improved so much and really want to work on getting faster on the bike and swim. Those are the two areas I think I can really affect. I’ll always be a slow runner, and with the hotter weather about to come, my run times will slow. I will likely not do the Galveston race next year, because I don’t like the fact that we start so late in the morning. I also did not like the sand blowing in my face on the bike. I also need to get used to swimming in a wetsuit. I think I could have gone faster. I barely kicked on the swim and wasn’t really focusing on my form. If I can start doing those two things, I think I can shave some time off of my swim.
