Just out for a Sunday swim

SWIM: 4100m (2.54 miles) in 1:55
BIKE: 58 miles in 3:30

Today's goal was the swim--I had been meaning to get some 4Km swims in before the race and this is only the 3rd time or so, and only the 1st time since I set the goal of doing so. Unfortunately it wasn't an open water swim. But fortunately is wasn't a 25y pool. Instead it was an outdoor 50m pool, so 40 laps!

The first 10 laps went smoothly. I worked to find a pace at which I was comfortable. Not fast, but comfortable. All the books and coaches suggest speeding up my "cadence" and increasing the number of strokes I take. But since my breathing is tired to stroke rate, the faster I turn the arms over the fast I breath. I end up feeling hyperventilated! You'd think that with the aerobic engine I've build this summer I'd be able to skip a stroke and breath every other time, but that doesn't work for me yet. So it's a balance: if I have a low stroke rate I sink; if I have a fast one I breath too fast. Luckily I quickly found this pace and hung on to it.

The next 10 laps went smoothly too. By this time I was warmed up and doing about 2:20/lap. Certainly not a fast pace, it's further proof that I'm not a speedster in the water. But if I can settle into an easy pace--Look Out!! Cuz I can go forever!! By the time lap 17 came up, the mental battle started. I convinced myself to forget the numbers. Just swim, and blindly click away of the lap counter I wear on my hand. Just swim. And swim more. Then more.

It wasn't until lap 22 that I finally needed a break. In the actual race, I won't be hanging on a wall, instead it'll be a kayak or canoe. So I hung on the "kayak" and gave myself 30 seconds. It had taken me just under 1hr to get to 22 laps, or about 1.37 miles. I was going slow, but I was steady. After the brief break, I found good form again and stayed with it until lap 29.

During lap 29 my right ankle popped again. I wonder if I'll have to tape this foot for the race? Probably not, since it only pops when I push of the wall. When will I learn to not push off the wall with this foot? I tried to pop it back with no luck, so I kept swimming and tried to avoid kicking too much, since it was starting to hurt. In lap 33, it popped back. But by this time I was pretty tired and mentally pushing myself: 7 laps to go! 6.5 laps to go! 6 laps to go! I was resting more and my technique was suffering. 5 laps to go! 4.75 laps to go!

Once I reached 3 more laps, I peaked at the lap counter. It said 4 laps more?!? Did I miss hitting the button on one lap? The only way to find out was to clear the counter and have it review the longest lap finished. If it said 5 mins, then I'd know that I missed the button once. I wasn't ready to clear the counter, I wanted to see "40" as a reward for all this work. But what if I didn't miss the button? Then I'd have to log only 39 laps today. Nuts. So I pushed on to 41 laps just to be sure. And sure enough, the longest laps of the day was a 5:51. So 41 laps it is.

Then the bike. This is my first real swim-to-bike transition since I raced Kansas in June. But that was a 45 min swim, this was 1.5hr+, how would I feel on the bike? Motion sick, still a bit dizzy, tired? One way to find out, and today was the day. I encouraged the other riders to go on without me so I could focus on my pace and my nutrition without the pull of a pack. No need to get competitive on a hill today, and the riding all around the pool was hilly. I needed to focus on me.

Shortly after leaving the pool, I hit a hill. And the reality of today's ride dawned on me: I was freaking TIRED!! I trumbled up the hill in Frea's Granny Gear, which isn't much of a granny gear, by the way. I thought about turning around, but instead stuck to my rule of going at least 20 mins before quitting.

About 3 miles in, I saw one of fellow IMWI races go by, we were going to ride together today, but she also wanted to focus on her plan and her pace. I've heard of the ironman solitude syndrome, seems I'm not the only one suffering from it.

At 16 mins in, I hit another hill. A big one this time, and it just kills me to have to say that I stopped part way up. My heart race was 166bpm, I was sweating buckets, and I just didn't have the mental focus. I stopped, ate some food and debated my options. My goal was a 4.5 hr ride. Here I was at 0.25hrs and I was thinking about quitting? Nope, uh uh, no can do. Get moving cowgirl.

So I clip back in and take off, the brief break having done wonders for me. It didn't last long though and soon enough my HR was high again. One of the goals of racing an ironman is to keep the effort and heart rate in a confortable, reasonable range. If this were The Big Day, I'd be in trouble right now. But it's not The Big Day, it's just a training day. With this somewhat comforting thought, I made plans to find the flat area near the C-field valley and take advantage of that for a rest. I kept winding through the Babler area, loving the shade, curvy roads, and lack of traffic. Aside from my fatigue, a perfect day and place to ride.

I found my flat roads, but the problem was that they were at the bottom of a very big hill on Eatherton. Huge. Long. Hill. One G*D d^mned Big Hill. But let's worry about that later. Flats first. The flats on Centaur to Wild Horse were perfect. I could keep a steady pace yet stay shaded and relatively cool. I couldn't believe how tired I was, and it was eating at my confidence. Negative thoughts started creeping in, setting up a battle in my head. At the other end of the flat stretch I turned around, telling myself I didn't have the bike or legs to climb it. More negativity. I turned around. Once back at the start of the flats, I realized it was a 40 min loop. Why not do it again? All I'm looking for is a good aerobic ride, and if I could hold an 18mph pace on the flats why wear out on hills?

Once at the turn around again, I decided to see if I could climb the hill. Nope, a no go. Back to start, and I decided to go it a 3rd time. I was so chicken about climbing the Eatherton hill that I was going to ride the flats all day long?? This was starting to bother me, so once at the turn around I took another road to get back to the truck. I was enjoying this road, with its slow hills and curves, but at one intersection I pulled out the phone to map the most efficient way home. There wasn't one. I had to go all the way back on the flats. Nuts.

There was another option to Eatheron, I could take the Centaur hill. This hill had a lower grade and wasn't as steep and was the better option. I surprised myself by having a good climb, maybe I wasn't as tired as I thought? No, I found out in the next few miles of hills, I was still tired.

It occurred to me somewhere around 3hrs of riding that my goal for today was 5.5 hrs of training--4.5hr bike, .5hr run, .5hr swim. But if you count the swim I already did, then I'm at 5hrs already! I didn't need to do another couple of hours! Good think, cuz I don't think I had it in me. I headed for home.

To say the least, this was an eye opening day. It left me wondering if I was going to feel this tired on the bike at IMWI? Usually I get on the bike fresh at the start of the day. Here I had 2hrs of swimming beforehand. Was today's fatigue due to that 2hrs or due to last weekend still? How would I handle this in IM? Keep it steady, stay relaxed, and know you can do it. Not much else I can do!

NUMERICS: 10hrs 55 mins. The goal was 15hrs 30 mins, but reality won out here.
SWIM: 5799y in 2.75 hrs. (I couldn't swim just one more yard?!?)
BIKE: 103 miles in 6.25hrs
RUN: 12.2 miles in 1.92 hours

My running took the biggest hit during this recovery week. My knees felt week and sore, I didn't see a need to push them to injury. Hopefully they feel better next week!