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Chronicles of a fish: the days of surf and turf
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I often thought that myself that I would have saved a tonne of time if I had limited my stops to every 2nd aid station, to say nothing about the 8 cold showers I also took on the marathon. However I didn't walk anywhere else on the course and it sounds like you didn't either so perhaps it helped.
I am going to try every 2nd stop the next time and see how that goes!
No, I did not walk anywhere else on the course either - only at the aid stations to grab all their offerings in such greedy style. I loaded myself down with so much free stuff that there were times I had the volunteers asking if they could hold something for me! IronMan hoarding!!!
And one byproduct of all that liquid intake that I did not mention in my report is I had to make 3 or 4 loo stops. More. Time. Wasted.
And I, too, had decided upon reflection that I'll try the every 2nd stop approach next time to see if that helps. (great minds, and all that
)Take a nice few weeks rest and then its back to the grind, Challenge Galway will have less competitor numbers than Maryland or Louisville so perhaps that's where you will bag your first age grade podium!
Oh, I'm resting alright! I came down with a nasty cold before I even got out of Kentucky. I spent most of last week coughing, hacking, sputtering, blowing my nose, fearing my head would explode, watching Kleenex stock go up, and doing nothing that resembled training of any sort. I managed to run slowly 7 miles in my field on Saturday, and then went for a 2+ hour hike in Shenandoah National Park yesterday. The foliage here is stunning at the moment!Question 1:As a matter of interest how would you rate Louisville as opposed to Maryland as an overall race experience.
Question 2: 1st and 2nd - did they both qualify for Kona?
Question 3: What happened to Della?
1) Louisville vs Maryland - Louisville was really well done - more polished than Maryland. I also liked the course better - loved the point to point swim (I ran into insane congestion both times around the swim loop at Maryland) and I could actually sight well....I think the hills on the bike course played to my strengths...and I really "enjoyed" the out and back flat run of Louisville, ending in a fun bundle of finish line frenzy in the heart of a major city. I also preferred Louisville to Cambridge (Maryland) in general venue terms - location, food, sights, people, accessibility to activities and to the race (I walked or rode my bike everywhere - loved it!). I preferred Louisville - and I'm actually (just this morning) thinking about signing up for it again in 2016...after I had sort of decided to take a year off from full iron distance.
But, what the hell. I think it suits me. And now I am familiar with the course, and there is value in that!
2) Yep, both those gals got slots to Kona. My age group had two slots, and they snatched them up like they were the last two slots on earth. Interesting tidbit - out of the 50 Kona slots for Louisville, 29 went to men while 21 went to women. By the reaction of the crowd, I'm guessing the women may have improved their presence on the IM stage this year with more participation in Louisville. ???
3) Della probably saw the start list and knew she couldn't hang with the big girls. Maybe 2016 will finally be the Della vs. Dory duel. 0 -
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fair play DD for getting back to a bit of structure so quickly, you set a great example for commitment and consistency, i cant get going at all, i have managed 2 bikes and 3 runs since IM 5 weeks ago, i have no mojo for the training at all, if it wasn't for bennymul i wouldn't have gone on the 2 cycles!!
Thank you! But I'm just going to e-a-s-e into this very s-l-o-w-l-y, keeping the intensity down for a bit, and not worrying about pace, speed or power in anything I do for the moment. My body is still pretty tired from the last 5 months, and it needs a break and time to recover. As far as you not having any mojo for the training - try and keep things fun right now. Put away your Garmin, sign up for a Color Run or a Beer Mile or a Turkey Trot, and go in fancy dress. Find a charity bike ride to do...go hiking with family and/or friends...find some hay bales to jump. Do things that don't resemble training at all, but might jumpstart the desire. Just. Have. Fun.
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Wednesday, October 21st, 2015
Bike
30 min warmup, with 5 min single leg drills
5 x (2 min @ 100 rpm, 2 min @ 90 rpm, 1 min @ 80 rpm)
5 min cool down
I am impressed with how tired the body still is. :eek: But it felt pretty good to spin the legs out with this session. I was instructed to just listen to the body and let it dictate the gears...and the body said low resistance!!! So low resistance it was. It was nice to be back on the Cat in my living room with Green Day wafting through the air.
Actual bike: 60 minutes of low resistance work on the Black Cat0 -
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Thursday, October 22nd, 2015
Run
This was 30 minutes any way I wanted, so I did this sneaky lunchtime style in the field on a glorious sunshiny day!!! Good god why can't we bottle up days like today?? Absolutely spectacular here right now. !!!
Sans Garmin or any other method of watching my pace, I went around the field 5 times in shorts and a lightweight top with the Amy Lee's smooth and emotive voice to keep it all in perspective. Very enjoyable run. !!!
Actual run: 3.5 easy miles in my field of dreams
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Swim
This was 30 minutes in the tank any way I wanted, so I just kept it simple and swam continuously at a fake pace of 1:30. The water felt great tonight.
Actual swim: 30 minutes in the fish tank0 -
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I often thought that myself that I would have saved a tonne of time if I had limited my stops to every 2nd aid station, to say nothing about the 8 cold showers I also took on the marathon. However I didn't walk anywhere else on the course and it sounds like you didn't either so perhaps it helped.Great report Dory and well done again the race.
Just on the subject of walking through the aid stations; I went through some of them quicker than others in Mallorca, but for all bar one of them I slowed to a walk. I'd never consider doing this in a standalone marathon, but it's very hard to plan for the run in an Ironman. You've got to do what you've got to do. If it means slowing down to grab sponges or ice, or to get energy or fluids on board, then that's what you have to do. I think if you feel like you should do something to cool down, then you probably should. Likewise if you feel like a gel, a cup of coke, or anything else on offer, then it's worth slowing down for. Did my walk/run strategy cost me in the end? Maybe, but if you'd offered me a 3:04 marathon before the race, I'd have happily taken it. Whatever approach I adopted on the day, I don't think I would have gone any quicker.
This is just how it worked for me and I'm not offering it as advice. If you asked me should you run with a Camelbak, I'd say 'God no!', but then it didn't seem to do Malte Bruns any harm.Walking all the aid stations was good enough for this man
Wow, I'd say I'm in some pretty good company with catweazle, zico and Frodeno all admitted aid-station walkers!
Seriously, I assumed I was the only one in this forum who walked them - this is really good to know, and gives me a bit of a different perspective on it. Some really good points raised by zico and in pgibbo's article - real food for thought. Thanks all!!!0 -
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I also meant to comment on your choice of a sleeveless wetsuit. I don't have one, nor have I ever swam in one, so feel free to contradict me. When I was looking for a wetsuit earlier this year, I was considering buying a sleeveless one. This would have been exclusively for the warm water in Mallorca. PK told me not to as they invariably allow water in. The size of the openings around the shoulders combined with the mechanics of swimming, made me think he had a valid point, and I opted for a long sleeved suit in the end.
Yep, I, too, was told by three credible individuals - interested, the gal who is helping me train, and the wetsuit expert at ROKA - that generally speaking, a long sleeved wetsuit is faster (and the weapon of choice) for a wetsuit legal swim. I say generally speaking because the ROKA person shared with me that a long sleeved number could be counterproductive in water temps in the 70s (~22 celsius) over the course of 3.8k due to overheating.
As to why a long sleeved wetsuit is faster than a sleeveless - my rather uneducated guess would be that the primary reason might have to do with the amount of surface area on your body that this smooth and compressing material covers more so than water seeping into the suit. Sure, some water seeps into the sleeveless wetsuit, but isn't that how wetsuits work to keep you warm? Isn't that part of their mechanics? In my limited experience with the long sleeved ones, water creeps into them as well. Obviously, whichever suit you go with, the fit is crucial....and that good fit, I suppose, would limit the amount of water that's even allowed into the suit.
Personally, I am just more comfortable swimming in a sleeveless wetsuit at this time. I admit I may have given some time away on the swim because nearly everyone else around me had on sleeved suits (including the gal who came out of the water ahead of me in my age), but on that day, I made the best choice for me. I purchased a long sleeve wetsuit about a month prior to the race just to give me that edge, but it wasn't enough time for me to acclimate to it and break it in. But I'll work on that for next year. 0 -
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Don't forget the forearm grooves for extra pull in a full suit. You'd be a while waiting for homemade wrist scars to heal in a short-sleeve
FWIW I see exactly where you're coming from preferring the shorty, so much more shoulder freedom and closer to a natural stroke. Anyone fast-ish I've seen wearing them in races has said beforehand the arm freedom trumped any water ingress/drag. My next suit will hopefully be a sleeveless- didn't seem to do you any harm at all on your 3.8k!0 -
All valid points.
I bet the guy from ROKA was trying to sell you a sleeveless wetsuit though.:)
Actually, she was lobbying for the long sleeve since I already have a sleeveless and the water temp at Louisville was predicted to be in the mid 60s. (water temp was 68 (20 celsius) on race day) I bought their best long sleeve from her...the one with pretty pink trim. It's looking real good laying across the tub in my bathroom at the moment.Kurt_Godel wrote: »Don't forget the forearm grooves for extra pull in a full suit. You'd be a while waiting for homemade wrist scars to heal in a short-sleeve
FWIW I see exactly where you're coming from preferring the shorty, so much more shoulder freedom and closer to a natural stroke. Anyone fast-ish I've seen wearing them in races has said beforehand the arm freedom trumped any water ingress/drag. My next suit will hopefully be a sleeveless- didn't seem to do you any harm at all on your 3.8k!
Oh, it's got the forearm grooves alright! And you've hit the nail on the head - it's the shoulder freedom I love! I'm not 100% convinced I'll ever love that long sleeve suit - but I ended up getting it for 50% off, so I figure it's worth giving it an honest try. And if I do come to Galway next year, it sounds like I'm really, really going to need a suit with sleeves!!! :eek:0 -
Saturday, October 24th, 2015
Run
This was to be an hour of easy running, any way I wanted. (I love these "any way I want" sessions!!) Highlights of this little trot: 10 times around the field....sunshine....shorts and a tee...no watch....plenty of music....legs not as tired as last Saturday's 7 mile jog....but I slowed way down on the last few laps....thus, indicating I am still recovering!
Actual run: ~ 7 miles easy in my field on a Saturday afternoon0 -
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Sunday, October 25th, 2015
Bike
This was one super duper slow bike ride!!! I'm still in recovery - and feels like I will be for a good bit longer (3 weeks minimum, I was told) - so I took this gently and just enjoyed the fall day and my colorful surroundings. I stuck to the route I love the most and did the 2 hills three times each. One of the reasons I love this little route is because it is so quiet - very little traffic, no dogs chasing me...only woods, a stream, cattle and wildlife to keep me company. And speaking of wildlife, good god the squirrels were active today!!! Well, all but one squirrel, that is.
I'll be honest and admit that the first 45 minutes or so were sort of a slog. The body is still a bit beat up, and I'm still coughing and sputtering some from the cold I caught. I'm also eating very, very, very poorly at the moment - my diet has been in the toilet since I returned from Kentucky - so I'm sure that's not helping me any. I stopped just before my Garmin indicated an hour had transpired to snap a few pics of my day, and while I was off my bike I took the opportunity to drink and eat some...and after that break, I seemed to have a little more joy in my legs and body.
Oh, and I tried a new product I got as a free sample at IM Louisville - Quick Disc, Simply Carbs. They are like big SweetTarts, only slightly crumbly when you put them in your mouth. Best I can tell, they are a gel alternative, and they are supposed to work well for peeps who have tummy troubles. I chatted with a gal at IM Louisville while in the hotel elevator and she swears by them. Indicated she could get thru the entire IM only using them. ??? I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to try that, but I wonder if they would do a good job for me on the IM run since I have such an aversion to taking anything solid in at that point in the race? Bottom line, I'm curious enough about this product that I'm ordering myself a variety pack to test in training.
And, since my day was filled with some beautiful scenery - here's one pic I took along my route today - typical of the area I cycle in.
image.jpg
Actual bike: 31.25 miles in 2:17:02 for a slow-poke speed of 13.7 mph and an elevation gain of 2,204 feet0 -
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Quick Disc, Simply Carbs. Interesting. What is the texture like ... do they dissolve easily ? I'm wondering how they would do on the run. If you have a package could you throw up a photo of the contents. The only practical mention of them takes about taking one each mile which suggests that they need to be used much more frequently than a gel.
Great photo. I have another few pending so we can have a fall folliage smack down !
They dissolve SUPER easy!! In fact, yesterday I popped two of them in my mouth by accident - only intended one - and they broke down in no time....and, if you have a sweet tooth like me (I lived off of sweet tarts and such as a kid!), they taste pretty yummy.
Here's a pic. As you can see, the discs are slightly larger than a quarter. And yes, from what I've read you do need to take them more frequently than gels - but you also do not need to take them with water. I've ordered the variety pack, plus the grape and wild berry. I'd be more than happy to ship a few tubes your way if you want to see what the fuss is about. I know the company has been giving them away at all the big marathons and IronMan events, so it's more than likely that you'll be given some to try at the NY City Marathon expo this weekend.
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Oh, and fall foliage smack down, you say??? Take this!!!
image.jpg
(however, you do have some pretty stunning photos posted!)0 -
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Friday, October 30th, 2015
Bike
30 minute warmup, including 5 minutes of single leg drills
5 x (4 min BG @ 55 rpm, 2 min easy)
10 minute cool down
I'm still trying to wrap my head around any sort of quality training. This period post-IronMan is a very strange time...and quite honestly, it's not all that great. But I'm telling myself that come Monday I draw a line under the old and look forward to the new, whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.
Anyway...still in some of my witch's makeup, I did this after a full day of Halloween craziness at work. I eased into the big gear work, progressively increased effort, and finished by pushing as hard as I've pushed since Louisville. This session was another nudge for me....and the good news is, my legs are buzzing happily as I type this.
"Average cadence...average power" was as follows:
56...114
58...127
60...136
up one gear
56...143
57...154
Actual bike: 70 witchy minutes on the Black Cat (who needs a broom when you've got a cat??!!!) 0 -
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SaTuRdAy, OcToBeR 31sT, 2015
Run
This was to be a 60 minute run of my choice, so I tossed on my witch's hat and black feathered boa...slipped into my fishnets...and grabbed my broom. (Eat your heart out, Hermoine Granger!) Tunes du jour were a fantastically festive mix of holiday classics like Monster Mash, Thriller, I Put A Spell On You, Spooky, the theme from Psycho, and This Is Halloween from Tim Burton's classic "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Good god life just doesn't get any better than this.
With my broom set to a ghoulish gait, I hovered and floated around the field 10 times, casting spells on various and assorted people who, let's face it, needed various and assorted spells cast on them. (You know who you are!) Balancing newts and toads and herbs and oils, a tiny little bubbling cauldron and a book of potions - all on a speeding stick - took a little hocus pocus to pull off, but I got it done. The trick was not sputtering or backfiring, and the treat was successfully going 7 miles without flying off the handle in the autumn sunshine with magic in the air. (Sorry, it's a curse.)
HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!!!!
Actual run: 7 miles done bats-in-my-belfry style 0
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