USMS 5K and 10K e-postal swims. - July 17th and August 6th 2016

I found out about the USMS National Championship e-postal swims in May, shortly after Spring Nationals. By that time I had already missed out on the first one (1 hour swim).  You get a special patch if you do all 5, so that was out then and there. No worries, I'll get it next year. The other cool awards you can get by swimming the long distance national championship races are the All-Star and All-American honors. The All-American honor goes to the first place finisher in each division for each race. The All-Star honor is given to the top point getter in each division at the end of the year. The requirement though, is that you must have done at least 3 long distance nationals races, one of which has to be a postal and one has to be open water. My plan, to go after the All-Star honor. I intended to do all 4 remaining postal swims and in June I signed up for the two Lake Lure open water swims (1 mile and 5K on August 12th and 13th, respectively) that were designated USMS National Championships this year. Unfortunately the Lake Lure swims were cancelled due to the water temperature being too high. Big time bummer but out of my control. I'll try again for the All-Star next year!

The second and third postal swims were the 5K and 10K, which had to be done between May 15th and September 15th in a long course (50 meter) pool. Thankfully, I have an awesome RAM coach who enjoys getting splashed and timing me as I swim length after length (200 of them for the 10K). Thanks Harry!

I decided to do the 10K first, knowing that if I did the 5K first I probably wouldn't want to do the 10K after. Now, the longest swims I had done straight up to that point were 2-3 miles in open water and a 4K swim non-stop on July 3rd as a pre-postal test swim. I did it in 1:03:12. That gave me a bit of an idea how long it would take me, but I had not idea how I would feel during and after the 10K. I took guesses as to how often to stop for water. I did the 10K on July 17th. I approached it just swimming comfortably so I could finish, which I think I executed pretty well. My splits were really consistent and I was able to finish without much trouble (small watch issue in the beginning resulted in an impromptu 200 meter warm up). I finished in 2:44:01. That's 100 100's, long course meters in under 3 hours. My body was spent, arms were tired, and I was really hungry afterward, which was taken care of in short order, but otherwise I was no worse for the ware. I ended up taking 4 water breaks, which seemed to work out well. I do know that for races much longer than 10K I will need some food too. My 5K split during the 10K was 1:19:59, so I have a goal for the 5K.

The 5K I did on August 6th. It was a much tougher swim for a couple reasons. First, my shoulders were really really tight that day and I wasn't super pumped to do the swim. The other reason is that I actually tried to put some speed into my swim, which made my body pay a lot more after. My finish time was 1:17:43. I did beat my 5K split from the 10K, so the plan worked I guess, but I still think I could have done it faster. My walls weren't quite as good as they normally are and I was way more fatigued. I only took one water break for this postal, so that helped. Harry was able to time me again, so thankful for him! When I finished the 5K I went home and entered in my splits and other necessary information onto the online registration and submitted it. Then I had to wait until late September to find out how I did compared to all the other women in my division. I ended up in second place for both races, which means I should get two silver medals in the mail sometime in the coming months! 

I still haven't gotten my medals from these races yet, so I may update this post when I do.

Triangle Open Water Series 2016

I had a big goal this year. After finishing 4th overall female for the Triangle Open Water Series in 2015, I was going to try to get in the top 3. Last year I did the 2.4 mile swim on Mother's Day, the 2 mile (Big Deuce) in July, and the 1.2 mile series championship (since it was right after IMCHOO). This year I signed up to do all the 1.2/1 mile races. The Mother's Day race was so much better weather-wise than last year. I finished 2nd overall female in a time of  29:21.91. Topped it off with a 45 mile bike ride from Jordan Lake to my house. Fred and DeGaulle kept me company on the ride.

 

The second race of the series was the Lil Uno. I swam hard for this one and really pushed. It paid off. Finished 3rd overall female in a time of 26:25. So far I am executing my plan well, but there are a few other women doing just as well or better because both long and short distances are factored in for the overall series awards. I need to have a really good race for the series championship race.

 Well, as fate would have it, Hurricane Matthew put a damper on things and the third race of the series got cancelled. Overall series point standings, 4th again. Outside looking in. More motivation to come back next year with the same goal and hope that mother nature doesn't get in the way.

USMS Short Course Nationals 2016 - April 28 - May 1

I trained really hard for nationals. I was putting in 5 practices a week and working hard on the distance freestyle pacing. I didn't do as much butterfly or any other stroke for that matter. My goals for the meet were in the distance free events. I set my goals to go under 6:00 in the 500 free, under 12:30 in the 1000, and under 21:00 in the 1650. I've only raced these three events one other time in the past decade and that was last year. I knew I was training harder, focusing on swimming and not triathlon. I remember thinking "I wish I could train 2.5 hrs a day, 6 days a week like I did in college." It's hard knowing what you were once capable of and that you could get back to that if time and responsibilities didn't get in the way. So, I did the best I could.

Nationals was a 4 day event. Day 1 I had the 1000 and the 1650. Day 2 was the 500 free and 200 fly, Day 3 was a day off and Day was the 400 IM and the 200 Free.

Day 1: I decided to get a room at the Holiday Inn Wednesday night since the meet started early the next morning and I was volunteering in Greensboro that day anyway. Good move. I checked into the 3 distance races while I was volunteering, so that was taken care of. Both the events on Thursday were deck seeded, so I made sure I got up early, had breakfast, and got to the pool. The check in closed at 7, and they had the 1000 seeded by 730. I was seeded in the even pool, but I didn't get in early enough to warm up in that pool, so I warmed up in the diving well. I wanted my food to settle a bit before getting in, and since there were several heats before mine, I knew I had time. I had a teammate count for me, and coach Harry relayed to her whether I needed to speed up or not, and she would move the counter up and down accordingly. The race went really well, and I felt good swimming it. The only issue was that my counter miscounted on the last 100 and I thought I was done a 50 too early. Thankfully I realized soon enough that I was able to finish and not get DQ'd, but my finish time was "officially" a 12:41, would have been closer to 12:25. It was still about 15 seconds faster than my seed time, so I can't really complain. I knew my counter felt bad, and it really wasn't that big of a deal, definitely not worth getting upset about. So, 4th place finish in the 1000. I had a few hours to wait to swim the 1650, which I was also in the even pool for. The 1650 was tough, but you kind of settle in after a while. my 1000 split in the 1650 was faster than my finish time in the open 1000, so for my PR I will use that (12:35.40). My finish time for the 1650 was 20:47.81, which was pretty close to what I was shooting for, I can't remember exactly what my goal was, but I think I just wanted to be under 21 minutes, which I did. Overall, a 4th place finish in my AG.

Day 2: This was the big day for me. I had a goal of going under 6 minutes in the 500. Of all my races that's the one I really wanted to go after. I didn't anticipate that the depth perception in the pool would be so off. It made my walls horrible. I usually have really good walls, but to be honest, they stunk in this race. I swam as hard as I could, but in the end my time was 6:00.47. So close. Really annoying that I didn't achieve my goal, but I did PR by a good bit, so I couldn't be too disappointed in myself. It was good enough for a 7th place finish in my AG. Once the 500 was over and I cooled down a bit, the rest of the meet was not stressful at all. I just wanted to finish the 200 fly, which I did. It was slow and smooth and I can't really ask for much better not having trained a bunch for it. Ended up finishing 6th in my AG, another medal!

Day 4: I volunteered on Day 3, which was a nice break from swimming. I got to cheer on my teammates and friends for a change. Day 4 I had the 400 IM and 200 Free. Neither of which I was excited to do because I knew I wouldn't PR, but still did them anyway. The 400 IM was smooth and slow again, like the 200 fly. Had a brief DQ scare, but it was the girl in the lane next to me, phew! 5:29.13 for a final time. Not bad! Good enough for a 5th place finish in my AG. Medal #5. The 200 Free, well, lets just say I knew I wouldn't do great considering all I had done before that. I was hoping to do a 2:12, did a 2:14. It was the only one of my events I didn't medal in (14th overall in my AG) and I'm okay with that!

WDW Dark Side Challenge - April 16-17 2016

The Inaugural Star Wars Dark Side Challenge in Disney World was a good time! The Challenge consisted of doing a 10K on Saturday, followed by a Half Marathon on Sunday. I was able to get in a good bit of training before hand, and felt good about going for a time in the 10K. I wasn't quite trained up to a half marathon yet, so I took that race as a fun photo opportunity. The plan worked pretty well. I PR'd in my 10K and had a lot of fun in the half marathon. Even though my overall half time and pace was pretty slow, the moving time and pace was very quick for me. See the images below. The only "bad" thing about the races was just that they were at a bad time in my training for swim nationals and I had to try to fit in swim workouts in odd-distance pools while trying to do all the race activities. It was a lot, but it was pretty fun.

WDW Marathon - 1/10/16

Well, training for the Disney World marathon didn't go exactly as planned. I had laid out a training plan for post Ironman to Marathon, but it all fell apart after I hurt my back. I lost all motivation to run. I didn't run as much or as often as I should have in the weeks leading up to the marathon, and I was really dreading doing it. I had originally thought maybe I could beat my Ironman marathon time, since it's a fairly flat course and I wouldn't have done all the swimming and biking before hand, but once my training fell apart, it was apparent that I wouldn't be setting any PR's (although technically it will be because it'll be my first "marathon." 

I was able to get up to 13 miles before going home for Christmas, but running 2 days a week is less than ideal. I had been swimming when I could, more because I like it more and am better at it than anything else. Getting ready for swim nationals will take a front seat now that the marathon is behind me, but back to that now.

I knew it would hurt, I was just hoping I wouldn't injure myself. Since I had a stress "reaction" last January, I didn't want that to happen again. The first half of the marathon wasn't terrible, but it was uncomfortable. The second half was progressively painful and I couldn't wait to finish. I took Base Salt every water station, walking through the station. After mile 15 I stopped at every mile marker to take a picture in front of it, an excuse to walk a little extra. ESPN was where I really started to feel the pain in my knee. That damn tightness in the back of my knee that just plain sucks. Going up the little bridge before entering the Boardwalk, I almost fell over when the back of my knee buckled. I thought for sure I'd have to walk the last 2.5 miles of the race. Somehow I was able to walk/run the rest of the race, finishing in just under 5:30, though my Garmin said I went almost .5 miles over the 26.2, so I'm going with a few minutes faster than that. I'm glad I did it, but I really don't think I want to do another, at least not unless I'm able to train sufficiently for it. The exception will be if I do another Ironman, because I didn't hurt as bad or for as long after that race as I did after this one. Let that sink in for a minute. I'll probably end up doing another marathon at some point, knowing me, but at this time I really have no desire, whatsoever, to do that. I have the Dark Side Challenge in April, so I'll have to start running again soon, but not this week and not until I'm pain-free.

 

Post-Ironman Blues - 11/16/15

So, I finally hit the post-Ironman period of non-motivation to do anything, especially running. I had been doing well even though the running was not all that fun, then my back went out after an evening shift two weeks ago and I've run twice, swam twice, and biked once, since then. I did my first hot yoga class the day after, and I'm sure I'd have really enjoyed it otherwise. It didn't make my back feel any better, but it also didn't make it any worse. It took 4-5 days for my back to feel normal again. I went for a 40 mile bike ride with Andrea that Sunday, and aside from my lower body being extremely crampy, I had fun. It's always nice riding with Andrea because she motivates me to get better. She's my carrot. That and she's one of those people who are just fun to be around so the ride went by pretty quick. It was after my last of 4 midnight shifts, so I'd been up for about 16 hours by the end of the ride. It's sad how quickly a 40 mile ride can be too long for me to go do on a whim when a little over a month ago I did 116 miles. I didn't do a long run last weekend. I did 10 miles the weekend before. I was suppose to do 12 miles, but hadn't run all week. I proceeded to then do nothing all this past week until Thursday. I did a 2 mile run before work because my Garmin was being a dick. I took that as a sign that I should upgrade to the 920xt, which just so happened to be going on sale at REI on Friday. Needless to say, I went and bought it. I love it! Swam with it at Saturday morning RAM practice and it worked great, although at practice I realized that in order to track the yardage during kick sets it needs to be in "drill" mode. I've only had to charge it once and I've been wearing it continuously since Friday evening, through 2 swim practices and a 3 mile run, and it still has about 75% battery charge. It tracks steps and sleep, which is great. It's super light so even though it's a bit big on my wrist, it doesn't feel heavy or bulky. I went to an IOS get together at Clouds Brewing Company downtown before work on Saturday. It was nice to hang out and chat with people I've become close to over the past year. So, here's the depressing part, I was suppose to do 10-14 miles on Sunday. It didn't happen. I ran 3 miles. I told myself I'd probably do more harm than good to try to fit that in after so much time off. So, I'm gonna do a slow build back to 10. I'd rather be under trained for the marathon than injured and unable to do it. The problem is my lack of motivation to do anything athletic aside from swimming when the weather starts getting cold, and swimming stroke is killing my back. I also missed a ride that I really wanted to go on on Sunday because I felt like I had to run. That and I slept in because I worked until midnight. That meant I couldn't fit my run in before the ride. Ugh. I went to swim practice today as I mentioned before. I was lat because of traffic and had to leave early because of work. I'm really looking forward to my 3 days off without any major plans or trips. I haven't had that in a very long time. I did go to Asheville the last stretch of days off, which was a lot of fun, but it was still a trip. I will be getting a lot of cleaning done. Much needed and long overdue.

Triangle Open Water Series Championship - 10/11/15

This morning was the rescheduled Triangle Open Water Series Championship at Jordan Lake. As of Friday, the water temperature was 73 degrees.

So, lets go back to Saturday (yesterday). I went to RAM practice because I wanted to get some kind of workout in. Practice went okay. I'm still technically recovering from IMCHOO, so I can't feel too bad about being slow and not wanting to push all that hard. But, lets face it, not being able to make an interval is still discouraging. Swam about an hour, 3000 yards, and got out. I had a quick breakfast with some teammates then went home so Chris could start working on my car. Yes, my car has another problem, sigh. Anyway, at this point I decide to look for my wetsuit. I couldn't remember unpacking it when I got back from Chattanooga, but I know I didn't bring it down to the race in my morning clothes bag because the swim was wetsuit optional and I didn't feel like carrying it for no reason. I looked everywhere. Nothing! I check my car again, nada. Fan-fricking-tastic. I called DeGaulle to see if maybe he grabbed it from the room. Nope. I do a quick Facebook post tagging all my teammates that went with us asking if they had seen it. No luck. On the way to meet up with John for lunch, I called the Courtyard and ask if they found one in either of the rooms. They returned my call while we were eating and left a message. They have it!! Relief! Unfortunately for me, I won't have it for the race in the morning. Luckily though, Fred was in Chattanooga for Swim the Suck and he was able to stop by the hotel and pick it up for me. He's awesome!

Now, back to the swim. no wetsuit. Air temp is in the mid 50's, water temperature at the surface is around 70 degrees (give or take a few). It's breezy. I'm in a sweatshirt and pants and I'm freezing. Stupid me thinks the water will feel warm compared to the air, HA! Not warm enough. Damnit! Preston had come out to cheer me and a few friends on, and Chris had to get up to take m out to the Lake since my car still wasn't done, so right there I'm accountable for doing this race. I also know I'm close to and overall series award (top 3), right now I'm fourth. I'm probably the most annoying person with all the whining I was doing while getting in the water, but I got in. It's so cold. Start the damn race already! "30 seconds" can't go by fast enough. The first 5 minutes or so were the worst from a temperature standpoint. From the start to the first buoy was into the chop and I mistakenly started sighting a kayaker instead of a buoy. Oh well, I fix that easy enough, but prob added a min or two to my time in the meantime. Not having a wetsuit when everyone (almost) else is wearing one is a bit of a disadvantage. Oh well. Just getting through it at that point. Halfway to the turn buoy I start getting stomach cramps. Awesome. I just breathe and focus on my stroke. Eventually it subsides sometime after I make the turn. The race seems to take forever. Ugh. Sighting into the sun for the next turn sucks, but eventually I make it and start the home stretch. I don't remember much about the final leg except that I tried to pick up the pace. Finally, I run through the timing mat. Time is somewhere around 32.5 and 33 minutes. Not great but not bad. Air doesn't feel quite so cold now, but I got my towel and changed into dry clothes right away anyway. Both robes I brought are so warm, really glad I packed them. Eventually as my body temp comes down I start getting cold again. At least I don't have to go back into the water. Check the results...Third overall female  for this 1.2 mile race. It still wasn't enough to get me a top 3 overall series finish, but 4th place isn't bad. In the end, aside from swallowing lake water, being cold, and having a headache, I'm glad I did it and that it's over. In other news, I'm considering doing Swim the Suck with Tom and some others next year. A 10 mile swim in the river, no wetsuit. We'll see. Pictures below courtesy of Tom Beck.