Saddle Sores

In the interest of being true to my journal...the reason I am keeping this blog is to document fully my year of training for Ironman including the good, bad and the ugly...I must write about this cycling rite of passage. Well I am not digging this particular cycling issue, saddle sores.

It started way back at White Lake with some serious chafing and has slowly progressed despite my best efforts. So a trip to the doc for me, she will no doubt assume I have some horrible disease as she isn't much into sports.

I am looking for some new shorts and hope to keep riding. Hopefully, I'll get some help today and get rid of these little f^ckers once and for all!

White Lake RR

This race was to be a test of the results of my base building going into the 2008 season. However, with my recent diagnosis of two stress fractures I found a runner, Annn and switched my registration to a relay. I felt little pressure about the race as I had decided to do it as a training event to practice nutrition and see where I was in terms of my bike fitness. So instead of fussing over the weather and other pre race planning I just decided I would take whatever came my way and give it 100%. Well I did give it 100% but the weather proved to be a beotch. At 89 degrees with a warm southerly wind, the day was going to take a toll on everyone.

The Swim: The water was beautiful but I just could not get my groove going. Normally I prefer open water swims but I just had a hard time with my stroke. I kept plugging away until I could see the finish and then put my head down and went all out. I think my wetsuit is definitely too tight, I could barely get a good deep breath in and felt winded for the entire swim.

T1: Uneventful, I took my time as I wasn’t “racing” and I walked T1 so as not to stress my foot. I am often very dizzy after the swim anyway so the walking gives me time to readjust to being upright.

Bike: The bike course is pancake flat which is one of the reasons I chose this race. I wanted to use it to assess what I need to work on in preparation for IMFL. Going into the race, I was optimistic for a decent bike split after a solid winter of trainer work. My plan was to leave it out on the course as I didn’t have to run. It took me about 10 miles to stop feeling wobbly, but then I was able to drop into aero and really push it. I was averaging 19 mph and even hit 22 for a short while. I began to think the bike was going to be awesome until… we made a right turn into a solid wall of wind. From miles 15-50 we had a 15-20 mph head wind. It was brutal; my speed dropped from 19 to 13 while I was pushing the big gear in 17. I also started having stomach cramps and chafing which forced me to sit upright to relieve the pain. 50 miles later I was cursing the wind and desperate to get off the bike. I was disappointed in my bike time but I gave it everything I had, I just could not have done any better that day.

T2: I rolled into T2 where Annn was waiting. A quick minute to exchange the timing chip and she was off.

Run: This is Ann's story to tell so I will let her do that.

I have never seen so many people cross a finish line in tears of relief and pain. I learned a lot from this race.

• I need to re-evaluate my nutrition plan; my stomach was bloated and cramping about half way into the bike.
• The wind and heat was tough for me.
• I need to ride a lot more flat windy rides to prepare for IMFL.
• I need someone to put on my sunscreen.
• TRIgirls are awesome to race with, the day was lot of fun.

Relay Baby, Relay

During swim practice on Sunday, it was suggested I try to find a runner for White Lake rather than DNF'ing the event. This was a revelation. The thought had honestly never crossed my mind. Lucky for me TRIgirl Annn was ready and available to be my team partner as the runner.

White Lake had better be prepared for Team Ann & Kate... team Pink Trigirl Menace!

Back to Business

After 2 days of feeling very sorry for myself and being mad at the world I am ready to move on. I am going to DNF at White Lake, it really hurts to say that. But I have put in long hours of training and the ultimate goal is still IMFL. The race will be a good training session for me and it will be fun to cheer on all the TRIgirls.

I also need to figure out what is going on with my body. So my mission is to find someone who can help me track down the problem.

Stress fractures are such a pain.

Training Panic

I have a training schedule. I try to keep up with every workout, but so far I have managed maybe one or two weeks of completing it 100%. Most weeks I am between 90-95% completion rate for my workouts. I'll admit publicly some weeks I may be at only 80% for one of the sports.

Seriously, does anyone do every workout exactly as written?

So now I feel like I should be working harder. It is 6 weeks until White Lake and I don't feel like I have done enough. This is why I being coached scares me. This is when I bite my lip and trust in my coaching. Why this blind trust you ask?

Because I know I have the tendency to over train.

Because this week's 13 mile run felt...easy.

And because I trust my coach.

Recovery Sucks

Today I did my first brick since my running injury, about 4 months. It Hurt!!! Of course I expected it to hurt as I am still rehabbing my foot and I have lost a lot of running fitness.

So in the spirit of my commitment to being positive; it felt really good to do this brick. It reminded me that I am registered for White Lake HIM along with 33, yes 33 of my TRIgirl teammates just 4 short months away. I am so going to be ready for this race even if my running is a bit below par.

It's a Wrap

The university closes down for the holidays so I am off from 12/20-1/3. How fantastic is that! Not that it feels like time off right now. Because it's Christmas I am consumed with taking care of the shopping, cooking, shopping, cleaning and so on. You get the picture.

On a brighter note, running has gone well so far. I haven't had any problems with my foot and I don't feel as out of shape as I thought I would after 14 weeks. I still have a way to go but I am encouraged enough to consider registering for the White Lake HIM in May. I am following the training plan and I think my run might not be where I would want it ideally but good enough.

There now. I feel much better having a race goal, just what I need to keep me training focused through the Holidays.