Training and Coaching and Gadgets....Oh my!!!!

Weeks 3 and 4 of training consisted of a total of 7 hrs swimming, 6.5 hrs biking, 5.5 hrs running and 2.5 hrs strength training. As relatively easy as Week 3 was, week 4 was gnarly.  My bike workouts contained descriptions such as Angel of Mercy, Sufferfest and 4x10 mins at Functional Threshold Power.  Where do these workouts come from you ask?  That would be from my coach Jeff.  You absolutely do NOT need a coach to train for an IM (Ironman).  There are plenty of very good training programs available online or in books.  I decided to hire a coach for a few reasons. 1. I really plan on only doing this once and I want to do it the right way. 2. I have a well-known tendency to overtrain.  I need to get over the more is better mindset. 3. Long training programs burn me out so a coach will keep me acccountable and challenged throughout.  My coach came highly recommended and has a very impressive IM background.  In fact he has qualified for the World Championship IM in Hawaii a few times. That means he's blistering fast. Even more importantly he has done the Lake Placid IM every year since 2005 so he knows the course inside and out.  He is not cheap however.  In fact between registering for the race, hiring Jeff and getting housing for race week I have had to cash in a CD, take money out of my retirement account and cash in a week of vacation time!!!!!  On that note....if you are an owner of some athletic-based company and want to sponser a middle-aged female slow triathlete PICK ME!!!  I will glady plaster your logo anywhere you want in exchange for some cash.  But I digress.  Jeff sends me my workouts a week at a time and then depending on what type of workout it is I upload the results into my training program.  There are two devices I am currently using.  The first is my Garmin GPS watch which allows Jeff to see where, how far, how fast and how long I ran.  It will also tell him what my heart rate was and the elevation gain/loss of the route.  The second is my Powertap Powermeter for the bike.  This allows him to see how long, how fast and with what power I was biking in addition to how fast I was pedaling, my heart rate and the temperature.  See.....you can't lie with this stuff.  If he tells me to ride four 10 min intervals at my functional threshold power and I don't he'll know.  This keeps me motivated and honest.  By the way functional threshold power is the power I can sustain for 1 hr before lactic acid builds up in my muscles so much that I can't clear it and my legs fall off.  Ok maybe they don't fall off but that is what they feel like.  One other very important thing I use in training is my Road ID.  When biking and running it is attached to my ankle so that God forbid anything happens to me someone knows who to call and that I am allergic to penicillin.  Came in handy big time when I crashed the bike!!!  Just for the record I do not wear my Road ID when biking inside on the trainer because if I fall off my trainer I am pretty sure Quinn will hear me and when she comes in the room she would be laughing hystericallly and unable to call 911 anyhow!!!

Garmin, power meter, heart rate stap and Road ID.  Tools of the trade.

PART I: THE SWIM

Since this whole triathlon nonsense is all about three sports I guess it is time to talk about each and what they have in store for me on race day.  It is well-known throughout most of the family how I feel about swimming.  I can't even really express my feelings here out of deference to all that is right and proper in the world because it would involve oh so many profanities.  Surprisingly enough all those years of hanging out at Aunt Lorrie's pool did nothing for my swim ability.  Perhaps because we were too busy sitting pool side waiting to actually go in the water because we just ate and our half hour wasn't up yet and we were going to get cramps and drown if we went in.  Really parents!!!!!!!  You would think they would have been pushing us in just to get us out of their hair. When we weren't waiting out the half-hour we were busy trying to see how many of us could go down the slide at one time.  Then we were busy watching Uncle Jim dive off the top of the slide in his snowmobile suit.  No wonder I swim like crap.  I never learned how to swim as much as I learned how not to drown.  That has been my downfall.....but anyhow.  Race day I will be swimming here.

Beautiful serene Mirror Lake....until race day

It looks beautiful and it really is.  I have actually swum one loop of the race course before. Mirror Lake is unique in that it has an underwater cable that runs the length of the rectangle swim course so technically you don't have to try to sight the course at all.  I say technically because everyone wants to be near that cable and if you are not a strong swimmer and not looking to get kicked, punched, smacked, pushed under or swam over you stay away from the cable.  You see when you add 3000+ swimmers to Mirror Lake it looks a little something like this


Not so serene anymore

So let's talk numbers...2.4 miles, 4224yds, 84.5 laps if you were to do it in a pool, 2 hrs and 20 mins. On race day I will have to swim 2.4 miles in 2:20.  What happens if you don't finish in 2:20 you ask.  You're done...out...your race is over...hand in your timing chip and go home. The seven months of training you did were all for nothing.  Based on my prior half-ironman swims I should be able to comfortably finish the swim with plenty of time to spare.  Do I have a goal?  Yep.  Finish before 2 hrs and 20 min.  There are a lot of variables in a race like this.  When you cram 3000+ athletes in that space there are plenty of opportunities to get kicked or smacked in the face or head or hand or any other body part for that matter.  There have been instances of people getting concussions from a blow to the head during the swim or having a finger dislocated or nose broken.  Think of it like crawling into your washing machine with a few of your closest friends...someone is gonna get hurt.  On race day I will start way in back and off to the right of the pack.  Hopefully this will keep me out of harm's way until it thins out a bit.  It is a two loop swim so you have to get out of the water after your first lap, run across a timing mat and get back in to do it all over again.  I will be wearing a wetsuit which will help. A wetsuit makes you more buoyant. Trying to wedge my arse in that thing is a workout in and of itself.  It is like putting on a pair of pantyhose 4 sizes too small.  Swim cap and goggles come next.

As a matter fact my arse does fit in that thing!!!

Speaking of goggles....I have worn the same type of goggles for years and have never had problems with them leaking.  Ever since I bashed my head in I have not been able to find a pair that doesn't leak.  I have tried 4 different types with little to no success.  Apparently I deformed my face a bit and now nothing fits right.  Hopefully I will find a good pair long before race day.  One part of the swim I am looking forward to....WETSUIT STRIPPERS.  It is almost as difficult to get out of a wetsuit as it is to get in.  In an Ironman you unzip your wetsuit, pull it down to your waist and then lay down so a stripper can whip it off you in a flash.  Speaking of flash....you really need to make sure your shorts under your wetsuit are tied tightly.  There is a penalty for public nudity!!!  Hopefully I will make peace with my lack of ability in the swim soon and as Quinn said "Embrace the suck".  If I have to suck at something I am glad it is the shortest part of the race.  One redeeming quality about being one of the last swimmers out of the water............It will be very easy to find my bike in transition.  What is transition you ask.   Stay tuned.

5 MONTHS HAVE PASSED

Five months ago today started out as any other summer day.  I was joining my friends for a Century Ride (100 miles).  I was really looking forward to this ride as my previous longest ride had been around 77 miles and it would be a good introduction into how I would be training for the 112 mile Ironman ride.  We were off at 8am.  I remember taking a wrong turn around mile 6 but we quickly realized it and got back on track.  That was the last thing I remember.  Two hours later around Mile 42 I crashed.  I have no idea why and no one else really does either.  There was speculation that a car swerved in my lane and I may have locked up my brakes trying to avoid it but regardless I apparently went sailing over my handlebars and crashed head first onto the pavement.  They say I was unconscious for 4 mins and I can only imagine how traumatized my friends were as they came up upon the scene and realized it was me on the ground.  After an ambulance ride to one hospital I got another ride in an ambulance when they discovered my brain was bleeding and I needed to be transferred to a Boston hospital. Intraventricular bleed and subarachnoid hemorrage are two terms I never want mentioned in conjunction with my name EVER AGAIN.

I have no memory whatsoever of being here

I have had to ask everyone around me the details of that day. I was shocked to hear from Quinn that I said the same four things over and over again for hours.  I am sure she will never forget the following  lines.."How was that phone call?  Thank God for my Road ID.  How's my bike?  Did you call Tracie?"  It is more than a little disturbing that I have no memory of that at all.  My first vague memory was around 8pm that night after I had been admitted to the hospital.  I completely lost 10 hrs of my life.  I also have very little to no memory of the two weeks following that day either.  My mom was scheduled to come for a 2 week visit a few days after my crash and I don't remember much at all about that time.  She stayed at my house and took care of me and I got nothing...can't remember. Can you imagine how terrified she was when we went to the airport to pick her up and I looked like this?

The next three months were filled with daily headaches and unrelenting dizziness.  The first week after the accident I was surviving in 4 hr increments until I could take more pain medication for my head.  Of course we had to keep a piece of paper on the table to record what time I took the last dose since I couldn't remember and would have overdosed!!!  I also developed vertigo courtesy of dislodging crystals in my inner ear from the blow to the head.  This prevented me from attempting to get back to swimming and made driving, laying down or turning my head difficult as all of these movements sent my world spinning.  Once I figured out what the problem was a trip to the ENT doc and a quick procedure in the office cured me.  Unfortunately this was after a month and a half of dealing with it.  Going back to work after two weeks was humbling.  I was cognitively impaired without a doubt.  What came to me easily before was a struggle and the memory problems didn't help.  I called the Help Desk at work at least every other day that first week because I kept forgetting my password.    I think this was the scariest, most frustrating part of this injury.  I can deal with the pain and I knew it would eventually go away.  What I didn't know was how long it would be to get back to being me.  While some of you may disagree I consider myself to be an intelligent person and that was taken away from me for a while.  That is the part of the injury that brought me to tears on several occasions.  As bad as the whole experience was it taught me a few lessons that will stay with me forever.  First, you really never know what can happen so don't take anything for granted or keep putting off something you want to do.  Simply put..there may be NO tomorrow!!!  Second, when you are frustrated about what you can't do or can't have, take a step back and be thankful for what you can do and do have.  Finally, nothing else matter but family and friends.  Every single one of my friends came to the house to see me after the accident and brought cards, meals and food.  Many family members called to check up on me during my healing process (I honestly don't remember any of them but weeks later I saw your numbers on my phone!!!).  Mom, Tracie, Quinn and Ariel all babysat me at various times when I couldn't be left alone and made sure I had what I needed.  You are all truly awesome.  I am all better now and as normal as I have ever been.  This experience will never leave me however and that isn't a bad thing.  My biggest shout-out of all needs to go to my Mom.  Not having nor EVER wanting kids I can't imagine what it is like to see them hurt.  But I do know that you were supportive of me when I climbed back on the bike or went for a run just 12 days after this accident.  I also know all you really wanted to do was wrap me in bubble wrap and tell me to sit down on the damn couch.  You knew how important it was for me to get back out there and you supported me 100% and for that I thank you and love you.

It is only by this helmet and the grace of God that I am here and able to write this blog today.  Stay safe out there peeps.

2 WEEKS DOWN 27 TO GO

The past two weeks have been weird for me.  I am actually training less than I do on a normal basis.  I know that a few months from now I will be begging to go back to this point but right now it is just weird.  Over the past two weeks I have logged 7 hours on the bike, 5 hours running, 4.5 hours swimming and 2.5 hrs strength training.  Although the volume is low the workouts are by no means are easy.  The bike has been a bit brutal.  The whole concept of riding inside is just mind-numbing(not to mention butt-numbing!) to begin with and every minute feels like 10. It doesn't help that I haven't had a chance to pimp out my workout room yet so I can't even watch TV.  This leaves me with music and my own rambling thoughts to pass the time. Running is good because I don't really mind running by myself but I enjoy running with friends even more.  Lucky for me I have two training partners who are more than happy to join me at 4:30 am for a run.  Cindy and I have been running at 4:30 since July of 2010 when we began training for the Chicago marathon. Kerry joined us last summer and the three of us have run in the heat, humidity, rain, snow, wind and bitter cold.  Might I add we all look mighty fine sporting our headlamps and reflective vests!!!!  As far as swimming goes there isn't much I can say.  Well actually there is a lot I could say but it would contain quite a few f-bombs and have my Mom picking up her St. Anthony's hotline to ask the friars to put me on the prayer circle.  Stay tuned for upcoming posts where I will talk about each aspect of the race and what I will be up against.  Oh yeah....by the way....as I said this blog is for my family so it is written as if I am having a conversation with them.  Therefore I do not give a crap about proper grammer, punctuation or spelling for that matter.  So if you are reading it and think you are the sheriff of grammertown spare me (you know who you are).  I have better things to do than spell check and I know my family gets it. Onward and upward peeps.

MEEMA

I really had no intentions of posting today but as I was on my bike trainer trying to survive through 90 mins of 65-75 % of my functional power threshold while pedaling at 90 RPM's I thought "I absolutely need to post today".  Don't worry,  I will explain that training nonsense at a later time.  Today is all about Meema.  Eight years ago today we lost the matriarch of this family.  I think Meema was one of the most powerful influences in my life and most likely everyone else's in the family.  She was simply awesome in so many ways.  Her most everlasting gift to us is undoubtably her sense of sarcasm.  God knows I certainly inherited it!!!  Jacki, Tracie and I were so lucky to grow up right next door to Meema's.  It was like having two houses.  If we didn't like what was going on in our house we just went next door.  Usually it was to eat or get out of trouble.  Well as far as trouble goes only Jacki would know about that because I was perfect and Tracie was a spoiled brat who never did anything wrong (love you sissys).  My fondest memory of Meema when I was young was when I found a baby bird on the road that had fallen from the nest and she came outside with me to get it.  We put it in a shoebox with some old clothes for warmth and fed it.  Just for the record the damn thing died the next day but that wasn't the point. I am sure everyone has their favorite Meema memories but some things will stick with all of us.  She was a phenomenal cook....best homemade pizza, pasta and cookies EVER.  She was our protector...she always stood up for us when we were unjustly getting in trouble from our parents!!!!  She had a super sense of humor..you just never knew what was going to come out of her mouth. She was an amazingly strong woman both physically and mentally...aside from raising 7 awesome kids she overcame some amazing hardships.  She was a softie.....as soon as you sat down next to Meema on the couch she would take your hand and ask you how you were and what was going on in your life.  Wow....I miss her so much.  I can pretty much bet you right now the tissues are flying out of the boxes in quite a few places.  Today I salute you Anita Concetta Dell'Arciprete DiGiulio. You were a rock star!!!!!  I will leave my Mom, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins with some of the best things to ever come out of Meema's mouth. " Who's Paul Berris?  Have you met David?  Too bad you can't see! But they allow you 5". You were on this earth for almost 94 years but it still wasn't enough.

The Village People

In the words of Hillary Clinton "It takes a village".......to do an Ironman. OK..I added that last part. Maybe not for everyone but I seem to have created one.  Come race day it is all on me.  No one but me will be covering those 140.6 miles BUT I will need help to get to the starting line and that is where The Village People come in.  Not to be confused with these Village People by the way

Holy 80's flashback Batman

My village people consist of, in no particular order, a coach, a personal trainer, an Ironbuddy (Kerry), training partners, a sherpa (Quinn) and cheerleaders (all youns!!!).  I will talk about all my people eventually but today it is about my personal trainer.  I have been working out with Jeremee for a few years now and his workouts to correct muscle imbalances, strengthen my core, and improve my strength will all play an important role come race day and have made a huge difference in races I have already done.  I do believe however on certain occasions he is trying to kill me.  There have been quite a few workouts over the years where I have walked out of his torture chamber thinking "Ugh..that's gonna leave a mark" and have subsequently had difficulty walking, standing, sitting, breathing etc the next few days but he outdid himself yesterday.  It didn't hurt so much as just wiped out every muscle fiber I possessed in my legs for a few hours afterwards.  My legs were supporting me as well as two pieces of spaghetti when I left there last night.  While I won't bore you with the details suffice it to say there was plenty of sprinting, squatting, lunging and jumping (the bane of my existence..hate hate hate it)  to be had.  There was also plenty of hyperventilating, sweating, grunting, and invoking of God's name.

Jeremee's torture chamber

Aside from the pain to come what I will be left most with about this workout is that it is amazing just how much your body can endure.  It really is more of a mental game.  When your mind is telling your body it simply can't do anymore you must learn to tell it to shut up because your body can take it.  And Jeremee if you are reading this be careful not to pull your shoulder out of joint while you are patting yourself on the back!!!! :)  Now I must go find some ibuprofen.

The How AKA $656.25

So can anyone crazy enough to inflict that much pain on themselves sign up for an Ironman?  In theory sure. For the small fee of $656.25 you too can register.  Well not really.  Believe it or not lots of people want to do these races SO to get in you need to volunteer the year before, sit in front of your computer as soon as online registration opens up or register for an Ironman Foundation slot which costs twice as much money with the difference going to charity.  I chose the volunteer route.  I had been to Lake Placid in 2007 to watch two friends do the race and fell in love with the place. The swim start and the finish line were magical.  I cried for people I didn't even know as they crossed the finish line.  Shocking I know coming from a member of the "blubbering idiots who cry over commercials" family. I was very much looking forward to returning.  My friend Kerry and I signed up to volunteer at Special Needs bike. This is basically a point half way during the bike where you can leave a bag with anything you may need...food, bike parts, inspirational notes, socks etc.

Lake Placid 2011 Special Needs Bike Stop

We worked the 8-2 shift and were responsible for about 100 bags.  This adrenaline filled shift gave us the right to camp out in line the day after the race for the privilege of handing over our credit cards to register.  We got in line at approximately 5:30 AM with blankets, chairs and coffee in hand.  There were already about 100 people in front of us.  Registration was to open at 9 but the computers were up and running early so we were registered and were on the way home by 9.  Yep...Kerry and I just took out first steps in becoming Ironmen.

Kerry and I in our totally unplanned matching shirts looking like drown rats at the end of a race in Oct.

By the way don't be to impressed with this two posts in two days nonsense.  That won't be the norm but I feel like there are some background posts I need to get out there.

The what and why of it all.

You are doing what they say. They being my awesome family.  An Ironman I reply.  Umm iron what???  You know that race where you swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 and run 26.2.  Seriously they say.  Seriously I say.  What the hell is wrong with you they say.  I have no answer to that one.  But why they say.  Simply because I can.  Because I was overweight my entire life and finally at the ripe old age of 33 I smartened up and spent the next two years losing 125 lbs through diet and exercise.  Once I did that I needed a new goal so I joined a triathlon training group because why not.  I hadn't ridden a bike in years, couldn't swim well (still can't!!!!) but I could run a little.  1 out of three ain't bad right?!  And so I did it.  I completed a sprint triathlon.  The girl whose only involvement in sports in high school was as a score keeper was now an athlete.  I was hooked and have since done several tris and other races.  So now the big goal..the granddaddy of them all..Ironman Lake Placid.  This blog is mostly for my family who with one exception all live way too far away from me so that they may understand what I do and why I do it and just what it will take to reach this goal.