After all the fun in Hawaii (2 glorious weeks!) at the beginning of October, I realized it was time to get down to some business to get ready for my last race of the season, Ironman Cozumel. I love racing, so of course I had to plan some epic training around some races to get motivated!
THE PLAN: Wisconsin is cold...so I thought it might be nice to get a bit more outdoor training. I volunteered to drive my grandma down to her winter home in Naples, FL...IF we could detour for a couple days for me to do part of Ironman FL :) She agreed. After Panama City Beach, it was a day drive to Naples, a week of training, then Rev3 Florida Half Ironman (just over an hour from grandma's) and I fly home Tuesday. Sounds good, right??
IRONMAN FL: I executed my plan of trying to swim hard and just survive the ocean swim (more on this coming), bike hard and try to 'stay in the mix' and run a couple miles. WELL....I did get dropped from the pack I wanted to swim with, but it was still an ok swim. I was happy with my starting position and did get out well...I only got dropped really when we had to get out at the end of the first loop, run around a table, and get back in. This just zapped my energy! FL Ironman was my first bike under 5 hrs (4:49) and I am happy to report it was competitive w/the other women pro's, which were also fast due to the great conditions! Another plus is that I felt just fine getting off the bike (maybe a little light on nutrition, but ok). Props to my friends that raced and fought for some awesome PR's and finished strong!!
Side note on the Ocean Swim: I get motion sickness and often puke in salt water swims. I have notoriously had horrible ocean swims (3xKona and Cozumel last year) and really want to fix this! The only way I can figure is just to do more of them, since I don't actually live by an ocean to train in.
MORE DRIVING: After Ironman FL, we booked it (9 hr drive the day after the race) to Naples, FL. I was SPENT and immediately zonked out for 12 hrs when we finally got there! Anyhow, it was a nice week of some volume, sunshine, swimming outdoors, and flat bike rides.
REV3 Half Ironman Venice, FL: This was today. Solid training day and made some monies. I did have a horrible swim, which sucks. It just was not going well right from the start....no good explanation, but I think when I got dropped and was swimming solo I was probably swimming just a little crooked here and there :) Anyhow, it was a solo mission on the bike...really, I only passed a couple people and only got passed by a couple. TONS of turns and 180 degree turn-arounds which I really don't think are good for me, but I tried to be technical :) I got off in 9th I think and just wanted to finish the thing. It was getting hot and I forgot my hand-held bottle so I was really noticing the distance between aid stations! I was using all my normal cues, but I just couldn't muster the normal 1/2 speed that usually comes pretty easy. Oh well, hung on and even passed a girl in the last mile to take 8th. Maybe I can just run that speed twice for a full!!
swim: 29min :/ bike: 2:28 run: 1:30 :/ overall 4:34 (I think)
GOING HOME and MORE! I am excited to get home for a little bit of normal life :) I've got 2 days then Mark and I are off to my girl Christine's wedding in Colorado next weekend. Then it's 10 days home before Ironman Cozumel where I get to celebrate a Mexican Thanksgiving for the seconds year in a row.
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