I'm giving it a go to pack "a week in review," a race report, the trials and tribulations of the week, and adjusting to life with Andrew...into one post; wish me luck. If you are reading this, that means I accomplished the feat, but also means you may need to devote a few more minutes to this one, so if you have to pee, pee; hear your stomach growling, grab some cookies; have hot water almost to a boil, pour your cup of tea; or have chocolate chip cookies in the oven, get em out while they are still just slightly undercooked and gooey. Simply, "take care of business";-} So much to fit into a blog post that has no limits in word count, so beware!
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| Can you tell which one is my daughter? She melts me with looks like that... |
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| Nicest couple, the reason ONE is what it is...the DEANS! |
As I start writing this, the countdown says 12 days, 11 hours, and 58 minutes to the canon...yikes it is coming fast...I still feel calm, ready, prepared, focused, but not fresh. If I can just wake up from this stupor like I did for Ironman Arizona, I think I am in for one heck of a fun day...that is a big "if," and if I had to guess, Chris will pull it out of me on October 7th and I'll wake up Saturday, October 8 feeling like I did on November 21st, 2010.
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| Me, Anthony Admire, and Dan Cadriel post Nathans Olympic in front of the Team Trailer |
With the "hard" work behind me, all in all I thought last week would be a breeze...throw in Andrew's birth last Sunday morning, and I couldn't have been more wrong. Sleep has been stolen from my and especially Jenny's life! Andrew is the mellowest little guy, giving little "peeps" when he is hungry or wants something, and Jenny has been the "all world" mother that I have always seen her as, scooping him up and calming every need of his--all 7 pounds of him. Yesterday he passed one week old---it's soo amazing how fast they develop...he's looking around, moving his hands, hearing your voice....ugh, gonna miss 10 days of his early life, and I hope I don't come back and he's saying "mama" already. Not to mention Sophia, who is really blossoming into this little girl--I notice changes every other day, and it will be hard to not be able to kiss them all every morning, read stories every night, and genuinely enjoy each others company no matter how short I make it due to all this training. If you are reading this and "thinking" about getting serious about Ironman, make sure the decision is a family one---I got lucky and have an extremely understanding family, otherwise, I would be fed to the dogs or not be racing, it is that simple. I've even thought about being an IM consultant (jokingly)...helping people in the ways that coaches don't...like communicating with your non-racing spouse, getting family time in, how to do your laundry before it stinks up your closet..you get the idea. While I still have IMAZ in November, I feel like this journey is coming somewhat to an end---today I actually had the day off from training, and had a sit down dinner with the fam for the first time in forever, did some yard cleanup, searched for my travel bags...it was nice, and of course the entire time I was still thinking about "why am I not training??" Well, I didn't think that during dinner, because it was just ultra relaxing to just sit with Jenny, Sophia, and Andrew and enjoy a meal, sitting down no less. Jenny said I look sexy doing yard work, and she never says that when I am training or racing, so I can take a hint. I'm sure many people I know look at me and think I'm a decent athlete---the REAL reason is I work harder than most, and Jenny supports my drive to "see what I can be." Without her, I would be single and fast, but with her, I am happily married, loved, have a feeling of completeness, the happiest I have ever been, and fast ;-} Love you babe, and I'll miss you while I'm gone...the race will be hard, but being away from you guys will be the toughest challenge.
So, of course, back to training (only because that is why you are reading this!). This past week the hours logged dropped, but the effort/intensity made up for the decrease...every workout was tough and required more than just a "get through it" mentality. There was "race effort" or harder everywhere in there. The swims were long, and all free--no more drills, kick sets. I had a 5200 yd swim, two hour run, a solid trainer session with Z3/Z4 work on tuesday with a run @ faster than aerobic pace, a 4 hour 20 minute ride with 20 minutes of every hour in Z3, and finished the week off with Nathan's Olympic (basically a sprint for 2 hours and a few minutes) ...I'm smiling knowing I survived the week, but some things happened that are going to stick with me through race day (I'll get back to that in a few...). While I've approached the training as I would a "job," I have to say that this job has been the toughest I have ever had...no joke. I don't miss days at work, and all the same, no missed workouts. I'm in that Ironman haze, and I am ready to "wake up" race day and feel good for once already! I have last weeks workouts on the bottom of the post...if interested!
So, getting back to what is going to stick with me----please pray for Sue Meno. I can't help but feel like I had something to do with her crash this past saturday as I was on the other side of the road, Carlos was slowing, and it was just a freak accident---both went to the ground, and somehow Sues arm took it the hardest. Both are dong Kona (hopefully), have been working as hard as I have been. Sue's wound on her right forearm makes war wounds look like slight abrasions---she needs every minute of every day to heal, so please send her your healing vibes. Carlos was a little banged up as well, hip issues from what it sounds like, and I am hoping the "3 days" required after anything traumatic treats him well and he starts feeling better today. Ugh, I grab my forearm hourly just wishing to take the pain away from Sue, and, more importantly, heal that wound so she is great to go on the 8th...so traithlon Gods, if you are reading...MAKE THEM WELL! If she makes it into the water at 7am, October 8th, she will be the definition of an Ironman.
With that happening on Saturday, I lost the joy to ride on my way home from New River. I had a few intervals to get in, but I was simply in shock and unable to push past a moderate effort. I remember almost feeling like I wanted to quit riding a bike after that...Carlos and I were in shock riding back to his car, and I couldn't get what that crash could potentially mean for Sue...add a sore pelvis for Carlos, and my heart sank, and is still there. Going into the weekend, I had plans to do Nathan's Olympic Triathlon on Sunday, but I basically decided on the ride home to abandon that plan...the Pre-Ironman Injury Ghost was haunting me. After gathering myself post ride though, I decided I wasn't going to let the Ghost win, and wanted to race to work some of the anger out of me...but I was dead tired. At 3 pm on Saturday, the race became a "GO" again, and lead to me ingesting "a hippos" amount of food for a late lunch. My legs were achy sore...but I was determined to race...so here comes the race report (I warned you this was going to be long...pee break time!).
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| Super Sue and I before Rio Salado Olympic Tri in the Spring |
Nathan's Race Report!
2:06:47 (winning time 2:02:08)
1st in 35-39 by 1 Minute
7th Overall
Up at 4am on Sunday, the legs were actually feeling decent...it must have been the 5,000+ calories, that I actually stretched the night before, or simply, that I wanted to get a good feeling going....either way, I was mostly feeling okay about racing, although I was tired! I slept well, and treated the day as any other "normal" Sunday. I stepped on the scale, and new I was in good shape...167...I have found that by checking my weight daily and comparing that with how I feel in my workouts gives me great feedback on what weight I feel strong at, and 167 has been that number over the past month. Any lower, and I run out of steam, and anything higher, well, I have a hard time keeping that weight on right now. Normal breakfast of 2 servings of steel cut oats, scoop of Ultragen, ground flax seed, almond milk was put down, drove to Tempe, and was in transition decently early tending to my analness revolving around my bike. I tried (and it worked like a charm) the rubber band technique for the cycling shoes on the bike---I will never sway from that technique. Minimalistic everywhere else...helmet/Liquid Shot for the bike...shoes with Speedlaces (new orange Nike Lunarracers ;-)/race belt with 2 Powergels pinned to it/sunglasses/watch...that's it. Probably didn't need the Powergels, but I wanted to get used to them as they are on the IM run courses coming up...ugh.
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| Mrs Swet in action and happy to be out of water I think! |
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| Dan and John obviously having some fun |
Swim: 23:28
1st in 35-39 by 2 minutes
10th overall...fastest was 21:05 (Cam Hill of course)
Non-wetsuit swim, used the Torque Pro (courtesy of Chris' connetction with TYR---thanks Chris!). The eventfulness of the swim was the Wave in front of us---I've been lucky since getting back into the sport to not having had to deal with it with the waves have been set up, but today was not the case. No pre-race jitters, and actually feeling a bit tired even though I was on the start line--I wondered if I had the energy for this one. I started on Chris McClurg's heals (great swimmer!), and after hitting his feet 8 times, I knew a hand-breaking kick was going to be deserved, so I separated from him and took a more "inward" line (and not the line I wanted)....mistake number one. I was doing a slalom course through the yellow caps, every so often peaking over at Chris who was wide right and in the clear on the dowhill course. The "weave" continued till I hit the steps, gashed my shin, and exited the water feeling good about it, but the "all out" swim I wanted to do was not in play with this one---too scared to wasted what energy I did have I guess.
T1: 0:56.9
Speed suit off, helmet on (those LG helmets with built-in visors are SAWEET! I have the SL, but that Vorttice---I have my eye on one of those...). Flying mount onto the bike, feet right into the shoes, and I was on my way...probably my best planned T1 in a while...finally getting those kinks worked out.
Bike: 1:02:18
6th in 35-39
24th Overall (I gave up almost 6 minutes to the eventual winner and fastest bike split owner..oh well)
I actually felt good on the bike, and may have gone out a little too fast considering my "feeling" of being tired. About half way through I got the feeling (again!) that running was going to be a total chore and felt I would be lucky to hold anything close to 7 min/mile pace. I made sure I got my 500 cals of Liquid Shot in, along with a full bottle of water (needed more, but no on course aid on the bike....). My mouth was bone dry probably from Saturdays long workout and not being able to rehydrate completely--shoulda carried 2 bottles on the bike (minor mistake, #2, and the last one of the day at least). Otherwise uneventful, taking the corners and passing "gently" to avoid the Ghost. All in all I was feeling good at this point, and after checking my splits from Rio Salado Olympic, which was the same exact course, and wetsuits were allowed, I was faster on the swim by 15 seconds, and 19 seconds faster here as well---untapered, generally in the dumps energy wise, but 34 seconds faster (Bad-Bad-Good!).
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| Off the bike and into T2 |
T2: 0:43.8
I don't try to have the fastest transitions, but this effort was second fastest of the day---keeping it simple has its benefits! Flying dismount, shoes were left on the pedals, helmet was off while running to my spot, shoes on, grab number belt, glasses, and watch, and let's see what kind of energy I have left for running...and it doesn't take long to see what that means.
Run: 39:19
1st in 35-39
8th Overall (fastest was 35:14, who came in 2nd overall)
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| Kevin, Lewis, and Josef on the PRO Podium |
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| This works better if we had a corkscrew |
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| Skinny Guy in Middle ;-) |
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| ONE Podium-ers!!! |
To my ONE teammates...you make this Individual sport into a team sport, and I love that about our Team...I had to stop saying hi to all of you because there were so many of us out there! It was so easy to get distracted looking at everyone on the other side of the road. Because of the innate competitive nature, you all push me to be the fastest I can be through our training together and our camaraderie...I hope I help you to strive to be the fastest and "most fit" that you can be as well. This sport is all about seeing what I can do with what I was given, and triathlons is one of those rare ways that we can challenge ourselves. Keep pushing even through the off-season, build off of this year, and break those limits and set new PR's in 2012! SOMA's next for y'all, and I plan to come armed with a video camera---you've been warned---it will be a ONE Multisport youtube video...bring your smiles, but don't slow down! Go fast, have a blast!
I'm leaving on a jet plane this thursday---my excitement is there, but really not feeling nervous. I'm sure once I ride out onto the Queen K, swim in the ocean, and run in the humidity I will be feeling a bit apprehensive and start to doubt myself, but all systems are GO and I will conquer that beast. The training is on target, and I am looking forward to this day of breaking the barriers on what I can do with the body I have been given...tons of posts will roll out once I get to Kona...I'll have a GoPro Camera with me, so the video and photo collections will be aplenty for everyone back home to get to enjoy "the experience" I am about to go through---wish me luck!
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Bike
Swim
Run
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