Iron Time Warp

Where does the time go?!

Training for an ironman is like being in a time warp. I end my day thinking Gee, I have a lot to talk about, but I'm too tired and I have to work tomorrow. What with the new masters and all, it's important to work extra hard... So every day, I have a thin blog, and plenty to talk about... Like the trip to sherpa at IMCDA. And last weekend's half Ironman (Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3).

Before I get to that, I just want to casually mention that I ran 20 miles today.

OK, so that's not a big deal to lots of people who've run marathons, but for me, it's a seriously big deal. My previous max distance was I think 14 or 15, I forget now. And that hasn't been for awhile. 20 miles took me a little over 4 hours, and my ITB problem didn't stop me. I did take Ibuprofen at mile 12, and my feet were really sore, but I'm still standing. After an ice bath. And a killer nap.

I am a champion napper.

Let me back up. I ran 20 today, but yesterday I did 100 miles on the bike, at a PR pace (a few minutes over 6hrs), and took an ice bath. The day before, I did a 4000 meter swim - in the pool that practically is an ice bath. So today, after the Iron Weekend, I felt every one of those 20 miles.

Woot!

Last weekend, I did the Buffalo Springs Lake half iron triathlon, and it was pretty intense. Last year, BSLT was my first half-iron Race, so I have some numbers to compare so I can see where my training is taking me.

I freaked out less, and I was able to get a full meal and a pretty good sleep before the race - already huge progress for me!

I PR'd my swim (44 minutes, over last year's 50 something), which made me immediately chill out in transition. I added a couple of those PR minutes to my goofy screw-around transition. I put on a lot of gear before I left, and I was glad for it -- I treated BSLT like an Ironman Dress Rehearsal.

I was set to PR the bike, but there were two unexpected variables I encountered: One was the weather - in all 19 years of the BSLT 70.3, never has there been wind AND rain. The race director says he's never seen rain like that in June. The rain - and wind - started early in the course, and didn't let up. I was soaking wet for pretty much the entire bike course. Once I got used to being wet, and not seeing very well, and nearly being run off the road by a tanker truck, and generally just being soaked, I went with it - I was on course for PR, I was feeling good. I'm already wet, what else can go wrong?

The flat. That's what can go wrong. I had a flat at the last turnaround before I was to head back to transition.

Stupid flat.

I had just passed two of my Outlaw teammates, and had been playing cat and mouse with Cindy all over the course when I flatted. I have excellent friends - Cindy stayed with me as moral support while I changed my flat. She also had an extremely helpful frame pump (useful for locating the pesky hole in the tube), and a good sense of humour, and a clean bandana she handed me to wipe the tire dirt off myself when I finally finished. She also had warm hands - which I didn't. When I started to change my flat, I was doing OK - then I discovered that my spare tube still contained the valve (it needed to be out to fit the valve extender on for the race wheels), and I couldn't get it out. Cindy couldn't get it out. Mike Greer (the race director) appeared on the scene - he couldn't get it out. So I was stuck trying to patch the tube - in the rain.

Have you ever patched a tube in the rain? Me neither. It turns out that the glue doesn't work so well when it's wet. I had my doubts.about it working. I used Cindy's frame pump to locate the hole, smeared some wet glue onto the area, then slapped a patch on and hoped for the best. I left the plastic backing on the patch. Mr. Greer gave me a dollar bill to boot the tire, and we stuck it in and filled it. By then, I was shiverring and couldn't really get the tire back on the rim - thank goodness I had help or I might still be out there. I had my doubts that my supercrappy patch job would hold, but I was less than 20 miles from the end. I said thanks to Cindy and hammered it home.

I mean I hammered. I caught a good number of people who passed me while I had changed my flat, but not all. I'm guessing I lost at least 20 minutes to screwing around with the flat.

Stupid flat.

I got back to the ghost-town transition, and headed out for the run - after a looong trip to the porta-jon. And then I PR'd the run (2 hrs 24 minutes, over last year's 2 hrs 30). I didn't expect to do that - I just wanted to do as well as last year, but it was nice and cool so I went with it. I had two goals for this year's race: go under 7 hours, and get a size small t-shirt (they had only mediums when I finished last year).

I met neither of my goals (finish time 7 hrs 20 minutes and something), but I'm still very happy because of my performance over all. I had a good race. Also, Mo traded t-shirts with me and gave me her small. Mo had an outstanding race - she went just a touch over 7 hrs. A lot of people did well last weekend, partly because the weather was unexpectedly cool. Lots of PRs on my team.

The weekend before BSLT I was at Coeur D'Alene with all my iron companions watching them race their awesome races. The weekend was at once exhausting and amazing and inspiring. Also, it left me completely freaked out about my own impending race. I have looked at it all on paper, I have mentally organized and prepared, but the truth is, you just don't know how long an 11 to 17 hour day is until you've been there for every minute of it yourself.

And I was. Holy. Crap. That's a long day.

21CM and I sunscreened about a thousand or so athletes who came throught transition 2 between noon and 4-ish. Then we caught a good number more who came through the finish line between 9 and midnight. By the way - catching? Best. Job. Ever. You've never met so many happy, loopy people in your entire life as you do when you're catching athletes - especially at the end of the night. Each one deeply grateful for the experience, for your help, for your shoulder to lean on. Everyone is energetic, overjoyed. Ecstatic.

Even so, by the end of the night I was completely worn out, freaked out, Ironed out.

I may have thrown an Iron Tantrum.

Then I went for a run with Ironmom Jenny and Stronger and 21CM the next day and got over it.

Sorta.

OK, I'm still processing.

I want to write more about my iron freak out, which I'm still deeply in the throes of, but I really do need to get some more sleep. Training is sucking the life out of me. Sometime after next week I think I get to taper - so I think I'll be able to focus a little more then.

And string words together better.

With editing.