A Broken WHA?????

June 8, 2010

Team Business Socks has been pretty much injury-free (except for Ron's cankles) during this whole season. We have escaped some scary bike crashes with nothing more than a broken tooth and some bike damage. All until Memorial Day Weekend. I was coming in from my second of two loops on a 120 mile ride when I had a slow motion fall in a crosswalk and landed on my right arm. I knew "it wasn't right" as soon as I landed so I called up to Eric and off we went to the Stanford ER. My forearm looked fine so I could't really tell what part of the arm actually was injured. I was still very calm at the moment and no thoughts of "uh oh, I have an IM in 4 weeks" crossed my mind. For a holiday weekend, the ER was not too busy and I was in radiology before I knew it and then speaking with the attending. Good news, he said, NO BROKEN BONES! Wow - relief. I was still in a good amount of pain, but I was told to rest (free pass to not workout for the weekend he said!) and in 3 to 4 days I should be back at it. That calls for an Oreo Cookie Milkshake!!! Eric and I went to lunch and let our friends know the good news. Sunday morning I literally was on the way out the door to meet friends for brunch when the ER called to say that ACTUALLY they had found a fracture! I had a radial head fracture. A WHA???? This was not good. The doc told me I would need a cast for 4 weeks and he couldn't comment on my ability to do the IM. Cue the tears. My whole world pretty much crashed down and I was a wreck. I canceled my plans and crawled into my bed for the rest of the day. I was so sad and disappointed I could hardly contain myself. I had to also wait two more days to get in to see a sports medicine guy (holiday weekend and all). I got out to see some friends which always helps lift my sprits and started speaking with medical types about the possible treatment. I was optimistic that I might still be able to race. I went to see a sports med doc and he confirmed the fracture (also said Stanford should have diagnosed it initially!) but said no cast for me. My instructions were to use my arm and keep using it. He drained some blood from the elbow joint which made an immediate impact and sent me home with some strong anti-inflammatory drugs. "See how how it goes. Stretch your arm and use your arm. Race if you can manage the pain." Wow. I felt like I won the lottery! I was on cloud 9! I was gonna do this Ironman even if my elbow fell off!

At the posting of this entry, I am 10 days post-fracture and my arm really does get better each day. I have been back to masters and swimming is ok. I would say I am 75% speed and I can't pull as hard with the arm, but really no pain. I have been running our normal schedule and that is not a problem at all. I have biked on the trainer to keep up my cardio fitness and that feels good. I tried biking on the road a bit and still felt a little pain/weakness. I am hoping to try again this week and see how it goes. I am doing PT exercises twice a day and we are 18 days away from race day! I am 90% sure I will be able to race.

Cheers to my husband for letting me sulk and feel sorry for myself and helping me do my hair....and to all my friends who called, emailed, texted, etc.....to check on me and give me positive encourgagement. I want nothing more than to see them all cross the finish line and BE AN IRONMAN!

Go Team!
Ally

Wildflower Long Course - Race Report

Wildflower Long Course Race Report
May 1, 2010

This was my third year going down to Wildflower – 2008 we cheered for Gareth as he tackled the Olympic course and 2009 I anchored the long course relay for Team Boilermaker. We put WFLC on our Ironman training schedule and knew it would be a gut check before we head for the home stretch into Coeur d’Alene and a time to get any kinks out of our race plan. The weather was perfect and was forecasted to be 70s all day for us. Friday evening was pretty chilly which made Saturday morning a bit on the cool side, but we knew the sun would find us at some point!

I was #2183 and had a nice, big “35” on my calf  My wave wore black swim caps and our start time was 9:20am. I am pretty comfortable setting up my transition and don’t get too rattled. I saw Eric and wished him luck before his wave and snapped a few pix of friends and to mark the start of our day. The water felt cool and smooth during the short warm-up. I immediately felt rested and strong when I warmed up and was happy to get going! I felt like I had a good swim ahead of me. I seeded myself in the front 1/3 of the wave and we were off. I felt like I was pulling ahead of a lot of folks, but still had a crowd to deal with until we turned at the first buoy. Buoys on the right at this race? Oh, gosh….I was hoping I wouldn’t screw that up somewhere along the way. I was surprised how soon I caught up to some of the wave in front of us – that is always a confidence booster. My focus was to stay long, start my catch in “clean” water, and pull hard. The course is a rectangle shape and when I turned the corner to make up the short part of the rectangle and get to the home stretch, some sort of boat passed by and churned up the water and all sorts of waves were coming our way. I gulped in a few good mouthfuls of water, but just kept on going. The sun was hitting the water on the way in and though I felt I was swimming straight, perhaps that was not the case. As we neared the end I was with all sorts of other swim cap colors and we got pretty jammed up trying to funnel into the swim exit. I stood up checked my watch – 41 minutes. “Humph”. I was sure based on how strong I felt that I turned in a sub-40 minute swim. That is how it goes sometimes. I still felt like I had a good swim and was feeling strong.

The swim exit is up a boat ramp and my legs take a minute to get under me so I took my time getting into transition. I got my wet suit off, sat down to dry my feet and put my socks on and eat something before heading out on my bike. I felt like I was a mile away from the “bike out” and running in my new bike shoes was tricky. I had mntn bike shoes previously which allow you to run much better, so I was tentative and didn’t want to turn an ankle. I was surprisingly happy to be on the bike. I had been riding a lot and wanted to get out there and have a good day. Beach Hill comes at mile 1 and is a bit of a climb especially when your legs are just loosening up and you are settling into the bike. Some fellow racers were already feeling WFs wrath and decided to walk up this hill. I tried to encourage everyone I saw (“Way to work, Team in Training” or “You got this, LA Tri”) b/c I know that always lifts my spirits in a race. These are usually the folks you will see out there all day and you might need them to help you along as well. I had to stop and pee (a first for me; never had to stop on the bike before) at mile 12 or so, but other than that the first 40 miles flew by and I felt like I was sticking to my plan to a tee: high cadence, 1 water bottle an hour and some bits of food every 15 minutes or so. The course is beautiful – all the wildflowers and hills are stunning. The mix of hills keeps you thinking and makes it better than riding on all flat I think. I knew the climbing really would hit at mile 40 so I ate some bigger food items at mile 32 to be sure I was good and ready to climb. I took a bottle of water at each aid station and coupled that with the bottle of perpeteum and Gatorade/carbo pro that I started with. Little did I know, but I didn’t balance the water and the Gatorade/electrolyte very well at all and was depleting myself of salt out there. I did take 3 endurolytes as well. Nasty Grade is named that for a reason – it is nothing to slouch at and by that time it was pretty hot, so it does take some work to get up. The race volunteers and Cal Poly kids make it interesting and have various antics they perform to keep your mind off climbing. I vaguely recall a dude in an orange speedo with a blow-up doll cheering us on at the top of the hill. After Nasty, there are still 10 miles to go and some other hills to get up and by this time I was still feeling OK, but getting hot and looking forward to getting back into the park where the fans were cheering. I was *actually* looking forward to running. I got back to transition in 4:20ish from the bike and saw a few friends which always helps make me smile and pick up my spirits. My T2 was average – nothing eventful – just get running shoes on, visor on, take garmin off bike and put on wrist, get fuel belt and race belt….time to run. I did forget to re-apply sunscreen, though. The first mile is always slow going until my legs loosen up from biking so I just stuck to my run:walk intervals figuring I would get into my grove soon. Well, that never happened unfortunately. By mile 3 of the run I was not able to tolerate ingesting any food or hydration and I experienced a very new form of the “bonk”. When the dry heaves came halfway through the run, that was another added bonus of fun! I made the best of it and talked to everyone out there and just plowed forward. There was no way I wasn’t finishing even if it meant walking a lot of the run. So, the run took me about 3 hrs and 15 minutes and that pretty much shot my time goal to hell, but I can still say it was a great weekend and I took away an important lesson about my hydration. I was not entirely sure what was wrong with me on the run, but looking back I drank 1.5 bottles of electrolyte drink to 4+ bottles of just water on the bike and that coupled with not being able to drink anything on the run…..made for trouble. I was covered in salt by the end and clearly was depleted of electrolytes. I have made some notes on this and will take the next few weeks to refocus my hydration so I am sure to pay attention to what I am drinking.

Team Business Socks represented very well as we had several sub-7 and sub-8 hour performances. We had a few friends complete their first 70.3 distance race and did it in stellar fashion I must say! If I had to score I would say: Wildflower 1: Ally 2! 54 days til the Ironman! Its’ Business Time for sure now!

Ally
5/4/10

A "Sprint" Race Report

Sunday February 28 - Stanford TREEathalon - Sprint Distance Triathlon

Since a sprint tri is over before you know it, so will this race report! We added this race to our calendar as a way to brush off the dust and get into the grove of racing. The race started at 9am so it was actually a morning we could sleep in relative what we have been doing on our full training weekends. It is always such a good vibe at races and in transition meeting the athletes and thinking about your day. This was the first race where I had to have "35" as my age on my calf....so sad :( Not much else to report here - we got set up - saw lots of friends and cheerleaders - and headed to the swim start. Walking to swim, a friend told me that at the end there are no steps and no shore/beach to exit the water from so the race volunteers PULL you out of the water like "a sac of potatoes and make you feel like an old man" (his words, not mine!)! These are NOT the kind of surprises I like to be faced with minutes before the race. "They are gonna lift me out of the water? Sure they are!" The collegiate waves went first and it is awesome to see them power thru the water so fast. This was the first race for me where the swim was a deep-water start. So, you get to warm up by swimming out to the start line. The water was 57 I think that day and yes, that is pretty damn cold on your face and hands. I swam straight to the starting line (other women took their time either to warm up or swim around which wasn't the best plan as it turned out) and was pretty numb by the time I reached the buoys. I looked up and was only at the line with like 10 swimmers at the most and the gun went off! More than half of the wave wasn't even at the line yet! That would have been stressful to know the race was starting and you weren't ever there yet. Anyhow, off we went. Swim was fine for me though it did take me an extra minute or two to slow my breathing b/c it was so cold. 500m feels like a warm-up so we were approaching the end of the swim before I really got into a grove. I sighted the docks (we were swimming between boats in a marina area) and saw swimmers being lifted out of the water just like my friend had warned me about. Well, here goes.....I swam to the dock and lifted my arms up and two dudes picked me up under the armpits (I slipped out a little at first) and tossed me onto the dock. Another guy said, "Hurry up, get to your feet". Seriously? I was kinda dazed then so didn't pay him much mind. It still takes me a second to shake the dizzies out when I get out of the water so I walked up the ramp and slowly started getting my wetsuit off and to my waist. Some racers are able to run fast to transition, but I need a few minutes to adjust. Transition was 1/4 mile away from the "swim out" so it is hard to judge what my actual swim time was. My whole time including running to transition was 12+ minutes or so, so I guess 10+ minutes or so was the swim part. I was 7 out of 25 in my age group out of the water.

The bike course was 3 loops for 12 miles and though it was nice to have such a short bike, I felt it hard to really get going with all the turns and other bikes in the narrow lanes out there. I wouldn't say the bike was "bad", but it for sure didn't feel awesome. I avg only 17mph or so and I should have been able to be a bit faster than that over just 12 miles. It is fun to see friends out there as you do the 3 bike loops. I saw one crash and one flat tire, but other than that seemed everyone was having a good day. I slipped to 8 out of 25 in my group after the bike.

Onto the run - my least favorite part of these things, but an area I have been trying to improve lately. It was only 3 miles so I knew I should be able to push it a bit (pushing it for me really doesn't mean much!) and I felt pretty good actually. My legs were loose and I kept it under a 9:30 pace the whole time and finished feeling pretty good. My race time was 1 hour 26 min. I ended up 10th out of 25 in my age group for the day. I guess I can say this is my first "top 10 finish"!!

120 Days to Go!

Yes, I know.....it has been a while. Time just gets away from me and I forget to update my blog. Between work and work-travel (have been to China, San Diego, and Boston since my last post) it requires lots of advanced planning to get all the workouts in each week. I am always shuffling......"I can swim here, but will be traveling here so I better save the run for that day...." - I guess that comes with the territory. Overall, I would say the training is going very well and Team Business Socks is rocking the Ironman training plan. It is really great to train with friends b/c there is always someone to swim, bike, and run with. I cannot imgaine doing this solo.

No major injuries to report - I did have a sore neck and back last week, but this weekend it has been better. Thankfully nothing else hurts (well, lots hurts after 80 miles on the bike, but nothing serious).

Some of the group had scheduling conflicts today, so Eric and I rode together. We haven't had a ride just he and I in forever, so it was nice to ride and chat. It was an easy loop so he rode my pace :) We cut the ride short when we saw these (see pix) black clouds roll in overhead. We did a good 30 min run in off the bike, though. I ran between a 8:20 and a 9:30 pace so I was happy to be able to push it some after a light bike ride. I still do run/walk, so every 4 min I walk for 1 minute. This strategy works for me and I think will be key in Idaho when I am really tired. Even with the added walk breaks, I kept my overall pace under a 10 min/mile. Lately I have been slacking and averaging 11-12 min overall so I needed to pick it up.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we will be doing the Stanford TREEathlon - a sprint distance tri in the area. 500m swim, 12 mile bike, and 3 mile run. Should be a good training exercise.

I tallied up my miles and here is where I am at now: 50 miles in the pool; 800 miles on the bike; 150 miles running. 120 days to go! Yikes! We are feeling good and still excited about the adventure.

Cheers!
Ally

A Tally

For a quick post today I thought I would tally what I have logged since the start of training - which for me was November 8, 2009. I took two full weeks off after Big Kahuna and then started training for the Ironman.

Swimming = 27 miles in the pool
Biking = 400 miles
Running = 60 miles
Off days = 16
Total hours spent working out = 73 hours

There are 161 days til the Ironman! Yikes! But we all seem to be feeling good and getting into the grove. This was the end of week 2 with TRIbe and the schedule for next week just came out. For me, I have been swimming, biking, etc.....at least 6 days a week for the most part since 11/8/09 so right now the # or duration of the workouts during the week is not a problem for me. What I am struggling with is making sure I stay balanced with sleep, nutrition, and life! Work has been very busy for me and I am about to start traveling a lot. I am pretty good about re-arranging my schedule on the road to get all my workouts in, but it is even more critical now so I don't fall behind.

Saturday's ride was 43 miles with about 25% hills. A pretty tough ride and my legs were feeling it by the end. We ran only 10' off the bike and then went for lunch. Today was an 80' easy run and then a short nap which was much-needed.

Thinking about dinner right now!

More next week.
Ally

Time Management and The Ironman

Happy New Year to everyone! I know I have been slacking on my posts. I have had lots going on (besides training for an IM), but I will make more time to keep this blog up to date.

Today was a long day and prompted me to blog. I am tired. It is officially week 1 of our triathlon club IM program and it is not the working out part that is making me tired (frankly, this week was very light) it is the all the OTHER stuff in life I have to do! I knew it would be challenging at times to manage our lives and train, but I didn't expect to have trouble in week 1. I am glad I have been working out regularly since Big Kahuna in October so I am not also having to deal with being out of shape as we get down to business.

Monday was a regular morning with masters; Tuesday was a 40 min easy run at lunch and my regular 90 min spin class in the evening; Wednesday was a swim; Thursday was a swim; Friday was a 30 minute run at 8 o'clock at night after flying back from a sales meeting. I had to shuffle some workouts around this week due to work and travel, so I am already behind by 30 minutes of running! Tomorrow is Saturday and we have a 40 to 50 mile bike and I will have to tack on a 30 min run to catch up. Sunday the schedule calls for a 70 min easy run. 100 sit ups per day is now part of the routine. Oh shit, that reminds me......I am behind on those today, too!

Team Business Socks seems well-prepared to get down to business and we have had some good laughs together for sure. I think Ron mis-read the schedule one day and swam 40 MILES instead of 40 MINUTES! LOL - kidding, but we all have fun. We have taken a few pix of us out on rides, etc....that I will get and post. The photo I chose for this posting has zero to do with the ironman rather it was taken when we were home in MA for the holidays and I think Ben is cute :)

It is getting late and I need to eat dinner, get my gear ready to ride tomororw and get to bed. Workout, eat, sleep, repeat......I bet this will be a theme in this blog!!

Cheers!
Ally

A Lot of Swimming

Yes, sometimes CA does get crappy weather and this weekend was stormy and wet. Not the best weather to cycle outside, but even in bad weather we still have to get our workouts in. TRIbe, the tri team we have joined, has a winter challenge where we all log our miles swimming, biking, and running and compete as a team with other tri teams in the US. December's focus is swimming and the goal is to swim 750 miles as a team. I just submitted my totals for the this past week:

Swim = 6 miles
Bike = 40 miles
Run = 3 miles

To put the swimming in perspective, most pools are 25 yard pools, meaning it is 25 yards from wall to wall (this is called a "length") and 50 yards from wall to wall and back again (called a "lap"). 1 mile is 1750 yards or 70 lengths/35 laps. 6 miles is 420 lengths/210 laps. This week I swam 4x with the masters group and a long (3000y) swim on Saturday with Eric. It is amazing to see how the distance really adds up. Yesterday evening I could feel the fatigue in my shoulders from a long week in the pool. It was good to NOT swim today.

We had a great bike loop planned for today, but the roads were wet and had puddles so some of us opted to hit an indoor spin class instead (Eric and some other more hearty types hit the road for the outdoor ride). Indoor spin classes offer a good chance to get some speed intervals in and work on keeping your cadence up and fine tune your cycling form. I sweat my ass off in those classes! I did get scolded twice for riding with straight elbows today! I ride with this this spin class every Tuesday night and this was an added bonus to get some more interval work in on a Sunday.

As the holidays approach, I will be planning out my workouts so when we are traveling we have a clear idea of what we need to be doing so we don't end up skipping workouts. It will be tough to stay motivated while on vacation with family, but these are the weeks that will pay off this spring so better we have a plan for it now.

For the rest of this chilly Sunday, I plan to do some core strengthening and the rest by the Christmas tree before starting again tomorrow!

Cheers!
Ally