This summer I decided to take the plunge and just do all the
races that have been on my bucket list.
These included:
Century Ride (100 mile bike)
Spartan (Obstacles and running)
70.3 Ironman (1.2 swim, 56 bike, 13.1 run = 70.3 aka half
ironman)
I figured if I were going to be training for difficult
events, it won’t be hard to add a little different training in to do the other
events too. So I just went for it. I told myself that if my knee survived the
Century ride, I would sign up for the half iron. Well, my knee was fine but my shoulder was
so, so sad. I think it’s a pinched
nerve, because it’s more than just muscle soreness. So then I decided to wait to see if I
recovered from that before I signed up.
Then I decided to wait and see how I did at the Olympic triathlons I was
signed up for. And I would start
training. In the meantime I talked a few
friends in to doing a Spartan with me so I decided to do that this year. I decided to just call it my Bucket List
Summer.
I posted about the Century
Ride in my June post, so I’ll just throw these pictures in. This race was challenging, but not as much as
other races I’ve done. It felt awesome
to finish for sure. Other than my messed
up shoulder. Those last 20 miles were
brutal.
Somehow my treadmill running over the winter was faster than
any previous year. I was able to
maintain a much faster pace for much longer.
And when I started running on the roads, it showed. I’m not sure why I was faster, and at the end
of the summer I was not as fast as I was in May or June. But I was doing pretty well. So I decided why not try for my fastest 5K time? The problem is that I don’t want to spend a
Saturday morning doing a 5K. I need
Saturdays for my longer training runs or rides, or the occasional family
stuff. So I decided on the FireKracker
5K because it is on July 4th, which is not a Saturday. Last minute I decided to bring Kylee along
but I told her I would not be running with her.
She didn’t mind. She ended up
finding a friend and running with her the whole time. I kind of wish she would’ve ran her best
instead of walking with her friend half the time (her mom had a stroller, and a
sore knee or something so she was walking a lot). But I’m glad she enjoyed herself. She was tired and got a side ache.
Anyway, my previous PR 5K was 24:40. I knew I could beat that if I tried
hard. I had already beaten that on my
runs earlier that week. So I started
thinking it would be amazing to beat 24:00.
I didn’t think much about that as I was running. The last half mile I was wearing out. Then I saw the clock and it was ticking at
23:55. I picked it up, but knew I
wouldn’t make it. I think the clock said
24:02 when I crossed. Oh well. But then I realized that I didn’t cross the
start line right at the gunshot, so maybe I had a chance. I forgot to stop my watch right away so that
was not helpful, other than it did show my 5K time record as 23:55 so I was
willing to take that even if the official results didn’t give it to me. But they did!
I got 23:59. What?! Boom.
Check off the bucket list.
That happened three days after my dad passed. I spent a lot of time reflecting and
internalizing things. So perhaps that
helped. A few days later was the Rigby
Lake Triathlon.
I showed up to Rigby Lake alone on a beautiful morning. It was the day after my dad’s funeral, and I
felt like I had a bit of a weight off my shoulders, and I was still
internalizing a lot of things. Going out
at this tri, I felt peaceful and happy, though still mourning. I didn’t mind doing it alone. I felt like it was something for me.
I felt strong at the race.
I did my best. I knew I did
better than the previous year. And I
thought I must’ve done pretty well as far as women went because there were only
four in front of me, and I passed one on the run. It’s an out-and-back course so you can see
who is leading as you are behind. I
figured I was going to place in my age group, but when I thought about it I
realized I may get a first place medal since there were only three women in
front of me and those three would get the overall medals. I was right.
Takara beat me easily, but she took 2nd overall. I took 2 out of 4 in my age group, but got
the 1st place medal
because of Takara. I took 4th
out of 14 total female. I was quite
thrilled! I’ve never gotten a first
place medal. Technically I placed first
years ago at the Rush but never got a medal because I had forgotten my timing
chip and they hooked me up with a new one last minute, but accidentally put me
in as male. But I beat the other two
females my age that day. Anyway, I got a
medal and I felt on top of the world.
After this race, and the previous week I had gone through,
my body crashed. I was wiped out. My lungs felt tight, I was weak. Fortunately, it was a “rest” week for my
ironman training, thank goodness. I
still had to do workouts, but they were shorter and light. After that rest week, I was much better.
A few weeks after that was Spudman. I was excited about Spudman, but I got really
nervous! Because I wanted to do
well. And I was going with Tammy and
Hidee and they are both really fast. And
Tammy seemed to think I was fast this year, I guess because I medaled at Rigby
Lake. So I knew I didn’t want to let
them down. My wave was the last wave so
they were already going to have to wait for me, and I didn’t want them to wait
too long. Tammy said “I bet you will get
2:30”. I was like, I got 2:42 last year. That’s a big jump! So yes, I was nervous. A lot.
I had a good day, and my time was actually 2:31. 11 minutes off my time from last year! I couldn’t ask for better than that. I still didn’t even make top 10 in my age
group, but that’s okay. It’s a big
race! Tammy took second, and Hidee took
4th. Tammy and Hidee got 2:21
and 2:22.
It was a great race, I had a great time. And a week later, I had the Spartan.
I was a bit nervous for the Spartan Super, but more excited than
anything. I had been training since June
with the Spartan group training Wednesday mornings. I knew my grip strength and my upper body had
gotten stronger. I wasn’t completely
confident that I would be able to conquer the monkey bars and rope climb. But I had done as much as I could.
The Spartan was really, really fun! I loved it.
I had originally invited four girls to do it with me. One backed out before signing up because she
didn’t feel like she could get there physically. Another friend signed up but decided she had
some things going on and didn’t want to add this. So I asked my brother Kevin to do it with
us. He’s a runner and he lifts so I knew
it wouldn’t be hard for him. I just
didn’t know if he would come back down to Utah since he was just there for the
funeral. But he did. My trail running buddy Jill did it and she
trained and did well. Karlee agreed to
do it with me, but she didn’t bother trying to train her upper body. She just did burpees. It worked out for her, but she wishes she
would’ve done it a little differently.
I failed four obstacles.
Not bad, but I was so close on two of them so I was pretty upset. But I nailed the monkey bars! And the rope climb was hard, and my feet were
cramping, and I tore up my leg, but I did it!
I failed the Multi-rig and the Olympus wall. Without pictures, those don’t mean much, but
I wanted to document anyway. I also
failed Twister and Spear Throw (along with like 90% of racers).
There was an accident on the course, an elite runner twisted
her ankle and they sent a medic up to help her off the mountain. Well, the medic rolled his rover (or
4-wheeler?) down a ravine. They had to
close part of the course and life-flight the guy out. So it took some mileage off our race. I can’t say that I’m sad. It was a steep climb and my quads started
pinching. My watch wasn’t working up
there so I have no idea how far we actually went. Could’ve been 5.5 or 7. It was supposed to be 8.3 miles.
Up to this point, I had not taken the plunge and registered
for the 70.3. I kept worrying that I
would get an injury or something. After
I came out of the Spartan unscathed (other than the huge gash on my ankle that
left a big scar), I finally committed. I
registered for the Bear Lake Brawl 70.3. And
then I had my hardest weeks of training for the next month.
It was interesting how this training worked out. There were two “rest” weeks during the
training. The first one was right after
the funeral when my body crashed, so the rest week was very much needed. The second one was the week we went to Utah
for Lagoon and Cherry Hill, which meant I didn’t have time to train those two
days. But the kicker is that I got sick. I had thought it was allergies, but I had
headaches and sinus problems and I was wiped out! I think it was a sinus infection. But I got over it by the time I had to start
training hard again. So those two rest
weeks saved me! I guess following the
schedule pays off. They’re pretty good
at knowing when you push your body hard, that you will need the rest.
The long trainings were hard. I had some asthma-type stuff going on just
from pure exhaustion after riding my bike for three hours and then running for
an hour or more. The hardest trainings
were probably the ones where they wanted me to ride 15-20 miles, then run 3-4,
then repeat that one or two more times.
Mentally, that was really hard! I
only ever repeated once. And the run was
always really hard. The other problem
was that school started a few weeks before my race, so two of the weeks I was
doing my longest training, I had to get the kids to school early and find a
babysitter to cover for me so I could still get my trainings in. I woke up at 5 and ran 10+ miles before I had
to get the kids off to school. I would
ride my bike in the dark at 6, then come home and get the kids off, and push
Kaden in the jogging stroller for 3-4 miles.
And a couple times I found a babysitter so I could go to the lake to
swim and then bike or run. Clearly, my
day revolved around my training schedule and my kids’ needs. But I got through it and I was excited!
Then the weather forecast suddenly changed and it showed
cold/freezing temperatures and rain! So
crappy! Luckily the rain stayed away,
but the low was 28 degrees that morning and I was supposed to swim in that, and
then get on a bike while wet in 34 degrees.
It worked out okay, though.
The water was warm enough with a wetsuit, about the same as Rigby Lake
most mornings. I was mostly just worried
about the bike. But while I was
swimming, the sun peeked out through the clouds and everything suddenly seemed
like it was going to be just fine!
The Swim- I was never
nervous about the swim. I swim a mile a
couple times a week. Swimming 1.2 didn’t
seem like a stretch. Plus, I had swam
1.2-1.6 a few different times during training.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the waves. People had warned me, but there was not real
way to prepare yourself. It didn’t make
it that hard to swim, they weren’t crashing hard. But the movement up and down started making
me sick to my stomach. When I get that
way, it takes awhile to recover. I beat
it by pretending like I was in control of the movement. I would try and breathe/stroke in sync with the
up and down. Anyway, it was only going
one direction that it was a problem.
They kept the course in close to shore to avoid the larger waves. But that meant that you could walk quite a
bit of one section. Walking in
thigh-deep water uses muscles that I hadn’t trained to use, so it made me
nervous. I tried to swim most of the
time, but the waves would throw me off so I would walk. Plus, it’s annoying when you’re swimming and
someone is walking/jogging and keeping up with you or passing you. I did the swim in 42 minutes.
After the swim, I felt plenty warm. My feet were numb from walking on the cold
ground, but that was it. I was very
thankful that the lake was so full this year because otherwise it would’ve been
a really long walk up the beach to get to transition. As I was drying myself off, I really did not
feel cold and I started wondering if I really needed to wear all the layers I
had planned on wearing. The sun makes
such a huge difference even if the air temperature is only 35 or so. I decided I had better not risk it so I put
on wool socks, toe warmers over my shoes, leggings over my wet tri suit, long
sleeve shirt (both shirt and leggings are fancy magic material that keeps you
somewhat warm without getting too hot), a wind jacket meant for riding, full
gloves, and a scarf thing over head and ears.
The Bike- I really
enjoy biking! You get to enjoy the same
things as running- nature, fresh air, scenery, working your body- but you get
to go fast! The view was
breathtaking. I had to be careful to not
stare at the lake and the view for too long because there were quite a few
hazards in the road (pot holes, etc.) I
had never been on the road on the East side of Bear Lake before. It’s really pretty! It’s also rolling hills, which I didn’t
realize. But I usually train on a few
hills so I wasn’t worried. I was happy I
had all my gear on. It was comfortable
in the sun, but when I was in the shade it did get pretty chilly. I never felt too hot, never regretted having
any of it on, and never thought about removing any of it.
I was looking forward to the aid station because I like to
get off my bike and let the blood flow back to my shoulders every 15 miles or
so. But I didn’t need to use the
bathroom, and the only thing at the station was water, which I didn’t need (and
I didn’t have a place on my bike for another water bottle) and I didn’t want to
stop by all the volunteers since there were no other bikers there. It was a pretty small race. I passed maybe five bikers the first 20
miles. Then got passed by a few others
on the last half, and also passed a few more.
So I didn’t stop at the station and mentally that was hard. I needed to stop, but didn’t have any real
excuse.
When I turned the corner to head west on the south side of
the lake, I was surprised by the wind.
It wasn’t super strong, but it was enough to slow me down quite a
bit. Between the wind and the hills, I
think I worked a little harder than I had expected.
I ended up stopping three times between mile 30-50. Just pulled
off the road, stretched, ate a bit of food and took a drink. Probably stopped for less than two minutes
total. While training, I ate Salted Nut
Rolls on the bike and they always tasted so good! This time it was not sitting that well in my
stomach. I also drink a mix of recovery
bcaa drink, electrolyte drink, and energy drink, and that wasn’t sitting well
either. Weird. It wasn’t that bad though.
The last few miles were hard! There was a point where we had to turn around
and backtrack two miles because otherwise the distance around the lake is only
52 miles and we needed 56. But that is
mentally really hard at that point!
Especially because we finally got the wind at our backs heading east and
then we had to turn around and ride against it for two more miles. And we were riding the road that the runners
were on. So we were passing
runners. And I SO wanted to be running
instead of on my bike at that point! I
was aching in my hips and shoulders (hips was a new thing). I was running out of water. I was on my bike for 3:39 minutes and I was
ready to be done!
The Run- I got to
strip all my gear off (it was in the mid 40’s but sunny), throw on my hat and
shoes, and grab a drink and a chia squeeze and headed out. I needed to use the bathroom but decided to
find a place on the course instead of going out of my way in the transition
area. During my most recent training, I was
able to run about 5 miles at my regular pace of 9:30 before I got too worn out
and had to take some walk breaks and such.
So I had high hopes of getting to the turn-around point at 6.55 miles
without being too slow. Unfortunately,
that’s not how it happened. My lungs
felt okay, but my inner quads did not cooperate. I realized I was going too fast and tried to
slow down, but still, after half a mile my legs were on the verge of cramping
terribly. I stopped and stretched. I tried walking, but that wasn’t any
better. So I just jogged as best I could
to the first aid station. I had a chunk
of banana and some electrolyte drink, and it helped! I was able to run again. But I couldn’t go very fast. I stopped and ate and drank at every aid
station. I had oranges or banana, and
drank. They had vasoline, which was a
life saver after my nose dripping the whole bike (happens all the time, but
worse in chilly weather) and my wiping at my nose/mouth with my rough
gloves. So I smeared vasoline all over
my nose and lips. I probably looked
ridiculous, but it helped so much!
I stopped at mile 3.5 aid station and one of the girls
working there told me I looked beautiful and made it look effortless. I laughed and said “that’s funny”. But I appreciated the compliment
nonetheless. It always feels like I’m
falling apart, and that my outward appearance should show that. I should have red, angry marks all over my
body, dirt and sweat and blood and snot smeared everywhere, hair plastered down
and disheveled. But somehow I still look
like a human during all this.
I got passed by a couple steady runners, who didn’t stop to
walk like I did. And I passed a lot of
walkers or slower runners. I felt like I
was in the middle. I’m often right in
the middle at races. The strong racers
were way ahead of me. And the struggling
racers were pretty far behind me. I felt
all alone in the middle of the pack. The
walkers would compliment me on how strong I looked. The stronger runners, well they were too far
ahead of me to talk with. I really
wanted to go a little faster. But I
stopped at each aid station and stretched and drank. My muscles were not happy. Once I hit 9.5 miles I was ready to be done. I thought, that was fun, I’ve had enough
now. Obviously I never thought about
quitting. I’m not a quitter. But it was a long few lonely miles to the
finish. If only I could’ve had my
headphones, but the rules said no. So I
obeyed. The last couple miles my shin
started trying to cramp up too. My quads
were still very sensitive, and now my foot was plopping down because I didn’t
have the shin strength to hold it up.
The run took me 2:12 to finish. And boy was I happy to be done! I had one friend Layla who raced too. Someone I had met through other friends
during training. But she did the
aquabike because she doesn’t like to run.
So she stopped after the bike and then waited like an hour and a half
for me to finish so I would have someone there at the finish line.
Minutes after I finished they said they were handing out
some awards. I had read that they would
hand out awards throughout the day as people came in instead of doing a ceremony
at the end. Since some people would
finish hours before others. So he handed
out a few awards and then called both Layla and me! I ended up with 1st place in my
age group! My official time was
7:03. There were no other girls in my
group finished yet so I’m alone on the podium.
I think Layla was the only aquabike person. When I looked at first, I saw five women in
my age group, but two of them hadn’t started.
Perhaps they chickened out with the cold weather? One started but didn’t finish the bike I
think? And another was way behind
me. That’s how it looked the first time
I looked it up. But then they adjusted
it and removed the ones that didn’t start or didn’t finish. So now it looks like it was just me and one
other girl. Oh well, I still have a 1st
place medal. Not that I cared about
being fast, or planned on placing. But
it is a nice added bonus to the day.
All in all, it was hard.
I was slightly worried that I would finish and feel like it wasn’t that
hard and I would be tempted to sign up for a full ironman just for the
challenge. Simply because I had trained
so much and felt pretty confident. But I
did NOT feel like it was not challenging enough. It was very challenging! I think my legs behaved that way either from
jogging in the water, or a harder/longer bike than I had trained for. Who knows.
But I’m glad I did it and I’m glad it’s over! I was so worried something like an illness or
an injury would get in the way. So I was
happy the only obstacle was cold weather.
My bucket-list summer included:
Century Ride
Fastest 5K PR
First 1st place medal (two)
Spartan
70.3 Ironman
Now that I’ve accomplished all that, I’m not sure what to do
with myself! I have no real reason to
keep my endurance up right now. So I
will be working on strength and nutrition for awhile. Bring on winter! (So it can hurry and get
over with quickly and get me back to warm weather and a few more Spartans!)
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