Wburg Half Build 5

I did it! I biked Mountains of Misery conservatively, and ended up with a total time of 9:15, 6 hours of which, I was in Z1! I'll have to go back again some day to try a bit harder and see how much faster the day could have been.

So many hills!

After MoM, I was both elated and a little wistful that I'd potentially been too conservative. The next weekend, I turned that around with a hard brick, where I tried out riding at my HIM goal power, and then running how I'd like to run the last hour of the race. I hope that the flatter WBurg course helps me see the speed outcomes that I'd like to see, but at least I know I can put out effort, and as long as I'm not making myself into a non-aero wind-block while working hard, it should be a great day.

Mini-goal assessment

• Build strength - Get to all scheduled bootcamps, and two SolidCore classes - Almost -- I only made it to one SolidCore class, and missed bootcamp the day after MoM. 
• Do MoM in a 2016-brave-flexible frame of mind - Success! Even at the end, when the penultimate hills shoed up, I was ready to see what they held for me.
• Maintain health - Do PT exercises for hip and shoulder 4x per week - Success! I have some tune-up appointments scheduled for this next build, but overall, I've at least been slowing the rate of injury on my own
• Look forward - The "A" race is Williamsburg - start race-specific work with a focused brick - Success! After Mountains I am a little worried that I haven't spend enough time biking and running at a harder effort level, so I dialed it up with a challenging brick

Review of last three weeks

• 8 Yoga
• 4 Strength
• Swam
• 5 practices
• 1 open water half mile at Rock Hall Sprint Relay
• Ran
• 3 Run Lead
• 3 track practices
• 0 midweek easy runs
• 12 mi long run
• 6 mi hard run as part of brick
• Biked
• 3 outdoor bike rides
• 100 mi long ride - Mountains of Misery
• 30 mi long ride
• 24 mi bike commuting

Mini-goals for next build cycle

• Maintain health - Do PT exercises for hip and shoulder 4x per week
• Focus on "A" race - Make a race plan and get a hotel already!

Wburg Half Build 4

The last 3 weeks have flown by. I've definitely been pushing some limits for how much exercise my body can absorb, and did end up choosing sleep over exercise a few times in this build cycle.

I still feel strong, but the tired-ness has made it hard to consistently make rational food choices, so I think I'll be climbing up all the hills of Mountains of Misery with a few more pounds than I'd wanted.

So many hills!

Mini-goal assessment

• Build strength - Get to all scheduled bootcamps, and two SolidCore classes - Success! The strength is showing itself mostly in yoga, but I know my leg muscles are excited for this weekend
• Respect the event - Prep for Mountains with Culpeper ride and two weekday Alexandria-hills-toodles - Partial success. I rode well at Culpeper, enjoying my new 11-32 cassette, but didn't try my new hills-route out at all.
• Maintain health - Make PT appointments for hip and shoulder - Success! My hip is doing ok, and I have new exercises for thoracic mobility for my shoulder. It's exciting to think that after all these years of having a slightly angry right shoulder I could get it to feel better by doing some work on my own.

Review of last three weeks

• 8 Yoga
• 8 Strength
• Swam
• 5 practices
• 1 open water mile at Kinetic
• Ran
• 3 Run Lead
• 3 track practices
• 0 midweek easy runs
• 12 mi long run
• Biked
• 5 outdoor bike rides
• 90 mi long ride - Culpeper
• 50 mile long ride - Kinetic cheering

Mini-goals for next build cycle

• Build strength - Get to all scheduled bootcamps, and two SolidCore classes
• Do MoM in a 2016-brave-flexible frame of mind
• Maintain health - Do PT exercises for hip and shoulder 4x per week
• Look forward - The "A" race is Williamsburg - start race-specific work with a focused brick

Wburg Half Build 3

Tulips!

I can hardly believe I'm halfway through the builds for Williamsburg already! I still feel like I'm shaking off some of the running sluggishness from the winter and might have missed some of the glorious spring track practices when you are winter-run-focus-strong and the weather hasn't yet turned hot. I am pleased that my hip pain hasn't returned, and hope that yoga and strength will keep the imbalances at bay.

I'm feeling very strong on the bike, which is nice. In the last build cycle, we ended up with three long-hilly bike rides and I think that has translated nicely to extra strength. The rides aren't clocking in with a brisk speed, but I certainly feel good for early spring.

Speaking of biking, I just got some new bits for my bike, including an 11-32 cassette. I'd thought I had an 11-28 and wasn't strong enough to aerobically get up big hills, but once I took my bike into the store and took a close look at the rear wheel, I realized I had an 11-25, and am now super excited to take the strength I have an use physics to help me toodle lightly up steep inclines.

I also smushed in a few free trial CorePower yoga classes during this build cycle, but the classes I would've liked more didn't fit well with my schedule and I'm loving the yoga instructors I already have access to, so I didn't continue after the free trial.

I am feeling pretty tired, and if that doesn't turn around in the next few days, I might scale back a bit, but I'm hopeful that it is a transient thing related to regular training, not a symptom of looming over-training

Mini-goal assessment

• Build Strength - Get to all scheduled bootcamps, and two SolidCore classes - Success-ish! I made it to 4 TeamZ bootcamps, 2 CorePower "Yoga Sculpt" classes and 1 SolidCore class.
• Respect the event - Prep for Mountains with optional Culpeper ride - Success! This ride ended up being changed to a route that I believe was even harder, so I certainly did that!
• Celebrate spring - Get out to Cherry Blossom Parade or National Arboretum to see azaleas - Success! A rainy morning tried to derail my azalea trip, but a leisurely lunch at Union Market gave the skies time to clear up. It was beautiful!

Review of last three weeks

• 10 Yoga
• 7 Strength
• Swam
• 6 practices
• Ran
• 3 Run Lead
• 2 track practices
• 1 midweek easy runs
• 14 mi long run
• 12 mi long run
• Biked
• 4 outdoor bike rides
• 50 mi long ride - Harp Hill!
• 60 mi long ride - Ice Cream Social!
• 70 mi long ride - Hamburg!

Mid-ride break, with icecream and sunshine

Mini-goals for next build cycle

• Build strength - Get to all scheduled bootcamps, and two SolidCore classes
• Respect the event - Prep for Mountains with Culpeper ride and two weekday Alexandria-hills-toodles
• Maintain health - Make PT appointments for hip and shoulder

Swim notes

I sort of quit swimming after IMChoo for a few months, and it's been  interesting trying to get back up to last spring's strong numbers. Interesting might not be quite the right word :)

I was not 2016-brave-flexible enough to sign up for the 1000yd race at Colony Zones this year to see how my racing self compared to last year's racing self, but have some glimmers that triathlon racing might work out ok. Yesterday we had a main set of 200y, 400y, 800y, 400y, 200y with the goal of even pacing. We ran out of time for the last 200, but the times were 3:22, 6:46, 13:25, 6:45, which are a 1:40 to 1:41 pace, so I'll take it! I was leading the lane, and using the clock to help, so it wasn't intuitive swim pacing like I did last year when I did a similar set around the equivalent pace in a 25m pool, but it's a good sign.

Other positive swim things:

1. I am stronger in many ways than I was last year at this time, and am working on increasing physical flexibility, thanks to the 2016-yoga-thon. I think this will help if I start to increase the volume of my swimming
   
2. I am working on correcting my hip drop in running, and am working on translating that awareness to fixing the very similar hip-rise that I'm doing on the opposite side for swimming
   
3. I have new toys coming to try to fix this! Yay toys! First off is a snorkle so I can work on just swimming with symmetric rotation and remove all the weird things I do while breathing. Second is also something that should help with symmetry, and hopefully also timing. This thing (called the "Tech Toc") looks a little ridiculous, but I'm curious to try it out, and we had a half-price discount code through the masters swimming team, and half price toys are twice as good as full-price toys, right?

Hopefully I'll get to add some more noteworthy progress results to my swim log, moving forward.

Brave Flexibility as applied to 2016

If it were easy for me to be brave or flexible, I probably wouldn't have started this year with those as my focus words. Attempting to use these words in my life is a work in progress, and sometimes a non-work in non-progress when I just give up on it all together and cautiously choose a prescribed plan that has worked before.

The idea of having a focus word for the year came from a meeting with the dietitian I've worked with. We started with flexible, since I had few goals for the year at that point except trying to get to yoga more often. I can't recall what motivated me to add brave to the list, but it's been with me for a few months now and I like the challenge the two present.

Brave

Things that have been brave

• Attempting, repeatedly, crow pose in yoga, especially after having my first crow flop where it all fell apart. While I magically recovered to end up on all 4s after that, it was still pretty scary, and going back to crow after that flop was even harder than trying it the first time
• Attempting headstand in yoga. This is requiring a lot of trust in myself when I do it without help, and trust in the instructor when she helps me get into it. It feels brave to challenge my body to support me in such a strange way.
• Signing up for Mountains of Misery! This wasn't a purely brave choice; I had some FOMO and peer pressure to help it happen, but in the training already, I am trying to tackle climbs with an open heart instead of with unbridled fear, and at least it's decreasing the pre-worry, even if it isn't making my legs stronger :)
• Trying something new at work. This wasn't exactly my choice, but starting a new position last November has put me in a much less confident state at work. I am trying to bravely ask for help when I need it and confidently ask for clarification

Flexible

Things that have been flexible

• Showing up with an open mind to workouts, and then if something different happens, I am trying to go with it. This is hard!!
• Working on physical flexibility with a lot of yoga classes. 
• Going on new bike rides! Until starting to try some new routes, I hadn't realized how comforting it had gotten over the last few years that I have ridden enough that my "regular" routes are  known to me. 

Wburg Half Build 2

Spring with all of it's transient beauty and temperamental nature has been in full force this build cycle, with a cold blustery weekend morning that was rough enough that the bike ride was postponed, and then snow during a run the next weekend.

Back in the day (2 weeks earlier), we rode in anything, including snow flurries. That was both a wonderful and terrible ride -- wonderful because it revisited a route I'd done in December, and I felt much stronger, and terrible because it snowed a bit towards the end and I was in shorts since I'd been solidly denying the winter-y forecast for the day.

But it hasn't been all terrible weather surprises. There have been a number of clear days and bright, post-DST evenings that are designed for evening playtime. I found some great tulips on my runs, and also found an epic hill near work that will be with me long after the daffodils and tulips have gone for the year :)

Mini-goal assessment

• Do work - Increase swim practice participation - Success! I made it to 5 swim practices which is a lot more than I had been doing.
• Respect the event - Prep for Mountains with 60 mile bike ride on Easter - Success! I was planning to do this on my own, but was surprised to find friends out riding the same loop, so I got some great company and got the work done
• Celebrate spring - Get out to kite festival, rugby game or stay up to see fireworks - Success (barely!) I tried to sabotague getting to the kite festival by locking myself out of the house and having to wait for a locksmith. 

Review of last three weeks

• 9 Yoga
• 2 Strength
• Swam
• 5 practices
• Ran
• 3 Run Lead
• 3 midweek easy runs
• 10 mi long run
• 10 mi long run
• Biked
• 5 outdoor bike rides
• 60 mi long ride
• 50 mi long ride
• 10 assorted commute miles

Mini-goals for next build cycle

• Build strength - Get to all scheduled bootcamps, and two SolidCore classes
• Respect the event - Prep for Mountains with optional Culpeper ride
• Celebrate spring - Get out to Cherry Blossom Parade or National Arboretum to see azaleas.

2016 Goals

Like years past, I have quantifiable goals for 2016. Early in the year, someone asked me to pick some focus words for the year, and I started with "flexible" and have since added "brave"

With this as a focus, and with some new opportunities available to me since switching work locations last November, I have made yoga my biggest "stretch" (haha) goal for the year. Besides that I'm sticking with my regular goals of getting work done

• Run - 150 hours
• Bike - 200 hours
• Swim - 200 miles
• Strength - 36 times
• Yoga - 100 times

I felt like some of the mileage goals that I had used historically for running and biking were making me run harder than I should on easy days, so changed those to hours this year. Swimming is less variable, so I left that as a distance measure.

Last year's yoga goal was to attend 30 classes, but I only had 2 opportunities every three weeks. Now, with 3-4 opportunities per week, and a year of brave flexibility, I am really increasing that.

So far, I'm on track with the yoga and strength goals, ahead in running, and catching up on biking. I had a bit of a hissy fit at swimming after Ironman, and haven't been putting in the time I should, so am already feeling that goal will be un-achievable, but am looking forward to the summer when the outdoor 50m pool opens to try to get some easy distance in the sunshine.

Like last year, I'm reviving my mini-goals which give some focus to the build cycle.

My outcomes I hope to achieve with the work represented by these goals are to be competitive in my age group at races. In the marathon last year, I was in the top third of my age group, and in Ironman I was in the 40th percentile. I believe that some stronger biking and solid running will get me a top third outcome, and am eager to see how it can play out.

Springtime!!

My springing back into the swing of exercise-things coincided remarkably well with spring-forward and spring itself. As a non-morning person, I am loving the light evenings (when I can appreciate the sun vs chilly winter mornings when I'd rather stay in bed) and as a devoted daffodil-ophile, I am loving the return of these transient perennials, as well as other spring flowers.

There were a lot of flowers out near my work on a midday run, which almost made the giant hill I slogged up worth it.
I had a great run the other night reprising the Right-Hand-Run rules. I ended up having to go up a big hill I wouldn't've otherwise, but that meant I got to fly back down it, and I saw a nice daffodil + mini combo on the way

And, of course, for spring time flowers, there are always the cherry blossoms. My favorite cherry blossom viewing is just before peak bloom, when they are still pink tinted, but I missed that this year and instead got to view the fluffy clouds of white, and some downed blossoms drifting across the road, which is much nicer than the winter white drifts of eddying snow.

Next up on my annual flower watch is the tulips near the Merchant Marine Memorial and the tulip library on the National Mall.

Shamrock Shenanigans

I had a fun night the other day planning a non-run for my regular running group. Many people had finished a winter "A" running race and/or were just starting to think forward to the summer tri season, so it was a good time for a break, plus it was almost St Patricks Day!

With some searching of elementary school PE blogs (did you know there was such a thing?), I put together some games that would get us moving, without being like picked last for a sport team or being pelted with a dodgeball. Perhaps I am revealing some of my own middle-school-PE-anxieties here

1. Shamrock Scramble
1. Prep: Printed out shamrocks, some with three leaves, some with 4. For the three leaf ones, I had an exercise like run, skip, backwards run. For the four leaf ones, I had exercises for two or more people, like group-circle-run, which meant everyone had to run together holding hands, or partner-skip, which was skipping holding hands. I set out a cord part way down the field to be our turn-around point, since this wasn't supposed to be a series of 200m sprints
2. Execution: I split the group into two teams. Each team had a stack of shamrocks in front of them. The person at the front of the team turned one over and then someone would do the activity.
3. Review: It was awesome! The bunny hops and bear crawls were hard, so I should change those to be hop or crawl one way, then run back. The "Monkees walk" was hilariously fun. We did not stay lined up, or take strict turns, but I think everyone got to do a few things and no one felt pressured to do something too hard or that they were letting the teams down.
2. Follow the leader
   1. Plan: We would make one long line and then the person at the front would do something for a while and we would imitate it. Then they would peel off to the back, and a new leader would take over. The twist was that it was "slow motion" so no running, but pretty much everything else was ok
   2. Execution: Lining up was too hard, so we did it in sort of an amorphous circle. I also had the "velvet revolution bell" which I rang after I felt like we'd done something long enough, otherwise, especially in a circle, how do  you know when you are no longer leading?
   3. Review: It was pretty good. I'd do it again, but maybe with split groups. It turned into a neat kind of informal bootcamp with squats and balance, and somersaults, and planks. I think this game also achieved the goal of not making people feel too pressured because no one was really paying attention to how someone else was doing the exercise.
3. Leprechaun Treasure Hunt
   1. Plan: We would split into 4 groups. 1 group would have the treasure (a small gold thing I had in my car) and the other groups would be leprechauns looking for the treasure. 
   2. Execution: We split up to different sides of the field, and the treasure team had some moments to huddle and decide who would hold the treasure. Then on "go" we all ran around and tried to tag someone. If you were tagged you had to show your hands to say whether you had it or not.
   3. Review: I think this went really well. I kept the game to half the field, and with a 4:1 ratio of taggers to runners, even really fast runners couldn't get away too far and make it tedious.
4. Clock Relay
   1. I need a better name for this game
   2. Plan: Split into groups of 3, 4 or 6. Lay out 12 marks on the ground, like the lines used for suicides (but relatively close together). The team had to get to line 1 using 1 limb (ie. hopping), to line 2 using 2 limbs (ie. running or two people hopping), etc. Small groups would mean to get to line 12, all 3 people would have to bear crawl together.
   3. Execution: It worked out that there were 15 people, which was one of the few awkward numbers, so we split into groups of 5 and I only laid out 10 lines.
   4. Review: This went ok. Team hopping is way easier than solo hopping. I think it would be better if the teams made some bear crawls mandatory, just to mix it up, but that would also make it a lot harder.

Generally, I was super happy with my games day, and all the feedback I got was positive as well. I'm going to try to remember to do this again next year after the time change and after winter "A" races!

Wburg Half Build 1

Whew, back at it! I've signed up for "A" races for the year, and am ready to work on improving some stuff! According to my calculations, there will be 6 build cycles to get me from my post-IM/post-Disney "fully recovered" state back to trying to compete in a Half-Iron, and also build up my biking to be ready for Mountains of Misery (Mountains and Misery? in the same event? and I paid for that??)

I've been starting to get ready for MoM with more bike rides and am super pleased with how much better the 50 miler felt than the 40 miler after a winter of very little biking, and also pleased with how much stronger the 50 felt than when I'd last ridden the same route in December. I have to keep the momentum going, but at least I have some now!

This year, my annual goals include a big stretch goal of stretching, with a goal to attend 100 yoga classes. I have lots of chances to do yoga, and so far am on track for the goal, so I really want to keep that going as well, even when the rest of the workouts ramp  up.

Review of last three weeks

• 9 Yoga
• 3 Strength
• Swam
• 3 practices
• Ran
• 1 Run Lead
• 1 Shamrock Shenanigans Games Day
• 0 track practices
• 8 mi long run
• 8 mi long run
• Biked
• 3 trainer workouts
• 2 outdoor bike rides
• 40 mi long ride
• 50 mi long ride
• 40 assorted commute miles
• 20 mi cheering for RNR racers

Mini-goals for next build cycle

• Do work - Increase swim practice participation
• Respect the event - Prep for Mountains with 60 mile bike ride on Easter
• Celebrate spring - Get out to kite festival, rugby game or stay up to see fireworks

2016 Disney Half Race Report

As should be painfully obvious from the training logs leading up to this race, I was barely trained at all. My left hip had been aching and I'd barely started PT for it, so a big goal for the weekend was to get through the race (and the parks!!) and still be comfortable walking around.

My training runs leading up to this were mostly in November and December and maxed out at 11 miles, mostly around 11:30 min/mile pace, which was my Ironman pace, so I was hoping that I could slip back into that default for the race day, even though I'd been giving up a lot of fitness since Ironman (see figure below)

All red dots on the bottom are days where I did nothing. The blue line is a measure of fitness

So, without PR goals, I guess I'd just run this thing "for fun"? It was a strange concept for me after years of trying to consciously improve in so many different things. I think I'd decided that it was a non-PR race almost as soon as I'd signed up, and that was probably a lot of the background reason for all the skipped workouts. No regrets or recriminations -- I think I needed the break, but it's hard to see the slide out of fitness knowing that I'll have to build it back up again to realistically expect to improve over past years performances in my A races later this year.

Leading up to the race, I spent A LOT of time at the parks. Landing on Thursday morning, I headed straight to the Magic Kingdom and through the scheduling magic of FastPass covered most of FrontierLand and AdventureLand, and stayed out late for the Electric Parade and fireworks. Friday morning, I was up early to cheer for teammates doing the 10K, and then immediately after the race, off to Epcot. At Epcot, I managed to see almost everything I wanted to, but am embarrassed to admit that the late night and early morning caught up to me in a long slow ride, and I actually dozed off while Ellen DeGeneres was telling me stuff about science. After the nap, I was good through dinner and through the Epcot fireworks, then back to the hotel to lay out my race outfit and get out the door.

Race morning, I planned to catch the shuttle a bit earlier than I had for the 10K, but unfortunately, that put me in the security line with the peak of other racers and cheerers, so I missed meeting up with teammates before the start :(

I headed up to my very fast corral (earned with a super fast half marathon last spring), and enjoyed cheering for the thousands of people who passed me throughout the race. I felt a little bad about using a pace I wasn't aiming for for the corral assignment, but I was running reasonably, and on my own, so hopefully dodging around me didn't delay anyone too much.

Overall, I ran the half marathon in 2:30:16. I got excited towards the end that I might be able to break 2:30, and did speed up consciously in the last mile or so, but didn't worry about it too much.

Some previous best half marathons were

1. 2014 Shamrock - 2:35
2. 2014 Watermans Half-iron - 2:17
3. 2015 First half RNR marathon - 2:13
4. 2015 Second half RNR marathon - 2:11
5. 2015 Rumspringa - 2:03

So this won't rank with them, but I am pleased that my "average" run has gotten so strong.

Also, I did have some other successes during the race

1. I made a plan for a walk break every mile to help my undertrained legs survive the day
2. I negative split the run
3. I really enjoyed getting to run around the parks, and loved seeing the Magic Kingdom castle lit up in the pre-dawn darkness. 

The rest of the day was a success as well as I was able to cavort around Animal Kingdom until it got too rainy and cold, and I was able to follow it up with a full day at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios on Sunday, staying up to see the Fantasmic show. I'm not sure I could have packed any more activity into the 4 days I was there, and to be able to mix in a half marathon with a good performance in there is amazing.

Post race, I spent January and February doing more than I had been, rebuilding some fitness, continuing PT, and looking forward to some great progress before A races this summer

Positive slope on the fitness line is a positive sign!

Disney Half Build 4 recap

Fatso helps with baby quilt #2 construction

I went home during this break and did nothing active, just a lot of baby quilt making. I welcomed the new year back with an easy 6 mile run, but otherwise was inactive from Dec 16 - Jan 2. While my hip stopped hurting with the inactivity, the ache came back once I started running again, so I got a PT assessment and started trying to fix the problem.

Looking back at this three weeks, especially with the perspective from a few months later, I'm thankful that my body let me run the Disney Half Marathon at all

Mini-goal assessment 

• No goals last time, so no assessment

Review of last three weeks

• 0 bootcamps
• 0 Yoga
• No Swimming
• Ran
• 6 mi long run
• Biked
• 28 miles long bike

Disney Half Build 3 recap

The slide into un-exercising continued through this build.

I did manage to follow through on my plan to finish up some belated baby quilts and got one completed, and started the second.

Jaxby wants to help with the quilt making

Mini-goal assessment 

• Clean & organize linen closet - Nope.
• Have Cookiefest! - Success! Marshmallows, fudge, and cookies galor
• Do PT/Hip stretches 10 times - Success! The ache continues, but stretching is better than not stretching

Review of last three weeks

• 1 bootcamps
• 5 Yoga
• No Swimming
• Ran
• 2 run leads
• 1 track practices
• 8 mi long run
• 10 mi long run
• Biked
• 0 spin practices
• 50 miles long bike
• 17 assorted commute miles

Mini-goals for the next build cycle (Dec 19-Jan 12) 

• ...

Disney Half Build 2 recap

I'm having a hard time being committed to working out. It's easier to sleep in in the morning or just go straight home after work. When it's a group workout, except for swimming, I can still make it out, but the winter self-motivation of the last two years is sort of lacking.

However, I'm not just sitting around idle! I cleaned my house enough that I was able to have people over and have kept it up! I've also tried some new recipes, and am most pleased with the deliciousness of pickled red onions. My cranberry sauce recipes were good this year as well, one with slices of ginger and the other with walnuts and crushed pineapple.

Finally, in non-workout news, with the clean table, I've been able to start working on the backlog of baby quilts I feel like I owe my friends. That consumed most of Thanksgiving weekend, but if I hadn't been crafting, I probably would have just watched TV, so that's not an excuse for not exercising.

Mini-goal assessment 

• Bike commute 30 miles - nope! I let laziness win and also this was a really high number to pick!
• Get to 4 yoga sessions - Almost! There were 4 available, but I made it to 3.
• Do PT/Hip stretches 10 times - Success! This was going really well during the build weeks, but I slacked off during recovery

Review of last three weeks

• 1 bootcamps
• 3 Yoga
• Swam
• 3 times
• Ran
• 2 run leads
• 1 track practices
• 1 weeknight bonus short run
• 10 mi long run
• 11 mi long run
• Biked
• 2 spin practices
• 2.5 hours long spin
• 30 miles long bike
• 0 assorted commute miles

Mini-goals for the next build cycle (Nov 28-Dec 19) 

• Clean & organize linen closet
• Have Cookiefest!
• Do PT/Hip stretches 10 times

Post-run brunching, and all the prerequisites

While marathon and Ironman training last year, I had a feeling I was giving up "other" stuff, like keeping my house tidy, other hobbies, having people over for food. Probably in 2014, I didn't actually keep my house any nicer than I did in 2015, but now that I don't have those training excuses, I want to try to make my house a place I'd like to live, instead of just the place I sleep in between exercising and work.

Step 1! Plan to invite people over for brunch.

This led to what should have been Step 0, clean frantically!

I started on Wednesday, and started with trying to resolve the deal-breaker question. With some carpet products, can I erase the evidence of my cats angry tummy and other spills and stuff that had gotten on the carpet over the last few years. Thankfully, the answer was yes, and after spraying some who-knows-what chemicals on the floor and vacuuming it up, I had a much nicer carpet.

Then, I tackled some of the main placed I'd been storing piles of paper and found some clean surfaces underneath a lot of accumulated junk. What isn't shown in the picture below is all the stuff I piled up on the couch as an intermediate step

After the carpet success, I was ready for Step 2! Actually invite people over.

Thursday evening was Step 0.1, continuing the cleaning. I focused on the kitchen, organizing some cupboards to fit things that had flowed out to the counters, cleaning the stovetop and microwave, and moving and wiping down everything. I need to remember that this took like less than 10 minutes and then I had a clean and functional kitchen instead of one where there's no room left to actually cook anything. I wish I had a before & after photo, but before was too embarrassing, and after just looks like a kitchen.

Friday was Step 3, plan the menu and make a shopping list. I knew I wanted to make an eggy breakfast casserole but also wanted to make some vegan food and a hearty soup sounded good.

1. Breakfast casserole: I used a red pepper, instead of green, didn't add sausage, and put in apples, onion and garlic (didn't think that through very carefully, but wanted to use up an apple), and while it wasn't my best breakfast casserole, it also wasn't awful
2. Oatmeal casserole: This was a new thing that came up while I was searching for an eggy dish, and it worked really well. The leftovers this morning were sort of too soggy, so it's best as a 1 day thing, or maybe I made it too moist. I didn't put in the chocolate chips, but it was plenty sweet without.
3. Cauliflower soup: This was very tasty. I added two chopped & sauteed leeks, and then didn't blenderize it,  but did mash it up so the chunks of cauliflower were small. I also added two cubes of veggie bouillon, and it had really great flavor and texture. Since I didn't blend it, it wasn't creamy.
4. Salad + vegan dressing: I was excited to try out nutritional yeast and had had this great dressing which was basically nutritional yeast, dijon mustard, and oil at a friend's party, so I got notes from them and imitated it. It was super tasty, and a great find. I can't find a recipe online that is a simple as hers, so for my records it was: 1/2 C olive oil, 2T dijon mustard, 2T nutritional yeast, salt & pepper as needed, and water if it is too thick. Mix well. 

Saturday was Step 4, shopping, and Step 0.2, clean off the couch. I was amazed that I was able to get the heaping piles of everything condensed into 2 boxes: (1) homeless crafty supplies and (2) things that should get filed in my desk. Those boxes got moved into the bedroom, and ta-da! My house was clean and ready for brunching.

Finally, Step 5! Cook & eat. When Sunday rolled around, it was almost anti-climactic to actually have people over :) The gaps in my planning were filled in when guests brought fruit salad, muffins, cranberry bread, rosemary bread, and a brunching essential, mimosa-makings.

For next time, I would prep the French Press for coffee beforehand, and I might have more pre-eating nibbles or activities. Or, I'll have a smaller group over for a winter dinner and actually use my nice plates and serving dishes. I could have accommodated more (we had 9 people eating), but it would have had to have been with some people sitting on the couch & chairs and eating with plates balanced on their lap.

So the goal of doing something that isn't training in this non-marathon, non-ironman season, has been met! Hopefully I'll not go as long before the next time I host people again :)

IMChoo: Let's go running!

First, a brief recap. When we last left our intrepid athlete (me), I'd left T2 with appropriate gear. Success! I was on top of my nutrition for the day and ready to run a focused, well-paced marathon.

I'd talked with my track coach and asked the internet what a reasonable Ironman-marathon goal would be, and set my best-day goal based on that -- so I was dreaming of a run that would be about 30 minutes slower than my stand-alone marathon.

I had plans that went out to a 13:00 min/mile pace and had told my parents that as long as I am making the cut-offs it is still a good day. Since my starting position, bike and swim had gone so well, I had loads of time before cutoffs became a problem, so I was feeling quite good.

Run

Run Visualization from Race Plan (Part 1)

I started off the run like I had most of the brick-workouts this year with what I've called a run-pyramid. It eases me into the running and gives me lots of things to think about and pretty soon 3-4 miles are done, and you are fully in run mode!

It starts with a 30 second run, 30 second walk, to get yourself going, and then goes to
1 minute run, 30 second walk
2 minute run, 30 second walk
3 minute run, 30 second walk
...

Until you are finishing the run intervals comfortably and feel like you have left your weird biking legs behind you. Usually for me that would happen around the 6 or 7 minutes step.

On race day, I worked up to the 4 minute ladder and then changed strategy to a half mile run, 30 second walk, so I would be more likely to be walking at the aid stations, which were pretty close to the mile markers.

My best 5 miles of the day was miles 0-5 where I was running a little too briskly, but it wasn't so fast that I regretted it later. I'd made a list of things to look for in the first part of the run, and also wanted to add some new stuff to keep an eye out for for the second loop. So I got to say hello to the back-side of a marsh, hello to the Subway, hello to the swim start, etc.

I put some savings in my karma bank when I came across a cheerer who had scraped her knee. I had some (Ironman) bandaids in my run belt and gave them to her, and thanked her for cheering. It felt good to take that micro-break to do something for someone else.

There were 4 bridge crossings for the day and I love counting things down, so crossing bridge #1 was a great marker for the day. I was happy and strong and moving well. The post-it of my dreams, with the 11:30 pace run was fore-front in my mind for a lot of the run, and I tried very hard to stay around that, or a little ahead, so I could have some buffer for later in the day.

Run Visualization from Race Plan (Part 2)

 The TeamZ cheer station for the run was around mile 9, 11, 22 and 24, and I was super excited to see everyone as I came down the hill for mile 9 (fastest mile of the day included that glorious downhill). I had successfully dran my bottles of Skratch that I left T2 with and was refilling the bottles with coke from the aid stations (which then would fizz out all over my hand) and was on top of my calories. This was after one of the big-hill crests of the day where I kept my head up and walked with purpose.

The loop to get back to the TeamZ tent had the rest of the hills of the course and for that, I used a phrase "Roll through the hills". In my Monday night runs, I'd found a nice up&down section that I called a roller-coaster and treated it as if it was a fun and exciting adventure to run down & up, and I brought that mentality with me to race day.

I was feeling good, and ran from the TeamZ tent to bridge crossing #2. I did that first half marathon in 2:29 and was completely on pace for my perfect day

Run Visualization from Race Plan (Part 3)

Right after that was special needs where I picked up some cookies, and some new bottles with Skratch, which was a nice change from the coke I'd been drinking. I saw my parents near there which was neat -- I was so proud of them for finding me somewhere on the course that was off of my basic-cheer-guide-script and also I was happy to have them there to hand off my arm-warmers to, since I was on track to not need them at all!

Shortly after special needs I saw a training friend who is a biking-machine and started working to reel her in. We were both having great runs, so that took a long time, which was a good thing! Watching her kept my head up and gave me something to aim for and since she was having a good day, the target stayed in front of me for quite some time.

All day long, I had been working to keep my focus small and to "stay in the box," and around mile 15 while passing her, "stay in the box" got a little crazy in my head. I started visualizing boxes of Christmas presents, with like wrapping paper and a bow and everything. At mile 15, I got to unwrap the mile 15 box, and I had to enjoy that present (ie. observe my surroundings, celebrate strength, work on my cadence, look for things I'd noticed on the first loop) for that whole mile. Like watching little kids unwrap things, I "played" with each new toy as I got it, instead of rushing on to the others. It was a pretty vivid mental image and it worked really well for a number of miles that could have felt desolate or isolated otherwise.

During this presents-part of the run and into the side-stitch part of the run, I got to enjoy an amazing sunset. We were running west on a river-front path with scenic bridges in front of us. The sky turned a beautiful pink and we were out playing outdoors and being strong and successful.

For the run, I started with that run-pyramid plan, and I also had a "get back on plan" plan, and I also had a "fall back" plan. I started getting some side stitches around mile 20, and was walking more than I had wanted to. While running back down the river, saying goodbye to Marsh1, goodbye to Marsh2, goodbye to the swim start, I had to fall back to a run/walk and forced myself into 2 minutes of running, 30 seconds of walking. "2 minutes of running is just 100 seconds plus a bit, so of course you can do that" I told myself, over and over. That worked until bridge crossing #3, which was probably the lowest point of the day. (It was not a very low point in the overall scheme of things)

At bridge crossing 3, I was having some serious side pain and was trying deep alligator breaths where I pushed the air down to the bottom of my lungs, big exhale lion/dragon breathing, and 4 step inhale 4 step exhale circular breathing, and nothing was really solving it. Everyone around me could totally hear me coming though as "quiet" was not one of my breathing goals. Finally, I tried bending over to see if I could/needed to throw up, and that twist relieved most of the pain, and it stayed better when I stood up again! Working through that and then cresting the big hill took about a mile and a half, and added about 4 minutes to my finish time.

At the time, this was hardly a negative thing. I had passed on the run two teammates who had had their dream-race derailed by angry-tummies so having a side-stitch that made me walk, this late in the race, was not a big deal. Now, with some perspective, I can even see it as a positive. I've finally had a side-stitch come on me in a race, and overcome it to some degree!

Run Visualization from Race Plan (Part 4)

Throughout the run, I tried really hard not to say anything negative out loud, or especially to join in any negative conversations. There were a lot of people groaning about the steep hill on the second loop, but instead of thinking about that, I cheered for the downhill runners saying things like "I want to be like you someday... maybe in like 20 minutes" and totally cracked myself up.

Cresting the big hill for the second time, I was excited for many things

1. I was running downhill again
2. I was running after the drama of the side-stitch
3. My legs were still able to go downhill from all the practice I'd been putting in since the half on the relaxed-downhill-fall
4. I was going to get to see the TeamZ cheer station again and pass off my fuel belt and sunglasses so they wouldn't be in my finish picture.
5. I was starting to think about finish pictures!!

Running past the TeamZ cheer tent for the third time

The neighborhood hill loop after passing TeamZ was harder than the first time through (of course, since I'd run 13 miles since then!), and like on the bridge, I did a lot of loud and purposeful breathing during my walk breaks, but I was joking about it and passing people who weren't running as much or weren't walking as purposefully. I tried to start my present-visualization back up again, but was spending too much focus on managing the side-stitch, so just remember a few things, like seeing the beautiful big moon shining down on us, and trying to call out fun and positive things to people who were having block-parties cheering for us.

My slowest mile of the day was coming up past the TeamZ tent for the last time and cresting the big hill, but from then on, the excitement started building.

My abs had decided they had done enough for me, so I had a new kind of downhill pain. My legs felt ok, but I had to hold my stomach in place otherwise it hurt as I jostled down the hill.

I also remember some fake smiling through pain, using the study I'd heard about that even fake smiles relieve stress.

Bridge crossing #4 meant I was really actually close and it was time to start having epic thoughts and perhaps a transcendental life revelation. That didn't really happen, but I did take a pause where I could see the finish line, but the crowds weren't too dense to walk a bit and think about the day. I tossed away my glow necklace and started running down the hill.

I heard the announcer say "Debbie, a first timer from Alexandria, VA, You Are An Ironman!" and I waved my arms in the air a bit, apparently at different angles, and not in a triumphant fist-pump kind of way, so there's some room for improvement there, but having two teammates dive for me to get to give me a medal was pretty exciting

I was shuffled through the finisher area and passed off to my sherpa and family easily. Again, I was super proud of my family for being there together at the right time and making it easy for me to meet up with them. This is the sweaty smile of a very self-satisfied person, but I hadn't yet realized that I'd finished the marathon in 5:04 overall, which meant my second half-marathon was only 6 minutes slower than the first, and that my overall day was basically a complete realization of the post-it of my dreams.

Disney Half Build 1 recap

Post-Ironman, I wanted to recover while not forgetting how good it feels to be strong. This last month was mostly focused on that. I can feel the difference between my strongest self and my current self, but overall am pleased with the amount of fun I was able to pack in while not focusing on exercise, and hope that the differences I am seeing in performance will help motivate me when I'm ready to chase

Mini-goal assessment

• Keep TSB score positive while starting to move again - Success! I was able to overcome the "all exercise all the time" mentality for a few weeks. I could have used a bit more balance, but it worked out well with life
• Go out to weeknight events! (Movie, book reading, theater) - Success! I went to see The Martian and enjoyed the full movie theater experience with popcorn and also went to see a show at Woolly Mammoth. The book reading was superseded with other events, but that's ok.
• Cheer for friends! (IMMD and Tussey) - Success! IMMD was great fun cheering and volunteering, and at Tussey, I ended up relaying in a team of 4, so it was mobile cheering!

Review of the weeks since Ironman

• No bootcamps
• 2 Yoga
• Swam
• at only 3 practices
• Ran
• 4 run leads
• 0 track practices
• 1 weeknight bonus short run
• 6 mi at long run - should have been 9
• 13 miles at Tussey
• Biked
• Tough 10 miles the week after IM
• Recovery 2 hours at PWF
• 67 delicious miles at Great Pumpkin Ride
• 30 mi long ride
• Night out at 80's concert
• Night out for Halloween

Mini-goals for the next build cycle (Nov 7-27)

• Bike commute 30 miles
• Get to 4 yoga sessions
• Do PT/Hip stretches 10 times

Great Pumpkin Epic Tussey Weekend

The Great Pumpkin Ride was great, as advertised. I met up with some friends (who had just done IMMD the week before!!) and we rode the 67 mile route together. I had a little ego battle riding from the first to second aid stations and really paid for it at the end of the ride by completely running out of energy.

There were three aid stations, so 4 segments of the ride, and for the third and fourth segments I was dropped by my teammates pretty terribly. 2 lessons learned - 1. Don't ride too hard if you don't want to pay for it later, 2. Don't expect much from your biking power if you take almost a month off.

From there, I drove up to Tussey to meet up with my teammates to relay 50 miles through the woods. It was amazingly beautiful, and cheering for our friends who were racing the 50 miler as individuals was also amazing. Autumn woods are almost my favorite scenery, right after spring daffodils, and this course definitely came through in that respect

With three legs each for us relayers, it was easy to run too hard, which made Monday after this epic weekend pretty tough. My legs were screaming almost as much as they do after an A-race, but I'd done it to myself by scheduling too much fun in two days. I hope to talk people into this relay again next year, and just have to remember not to assign myself the role of the second person in the rotation. I think that was definitely the hardest position of the day.
Besides that, I've also transitioned to a new job within my company, which is adding a lot of non-workout stress to my life. It's very hard to go from being really good at your daily job to being a novice, but hopefully this will continue to get better week by week.

IMChoo: Let's go biking!

T1

My main goals for T1 were to remember to put on face sunscreen before chamois cream and to eat my first Gu of the day. I did that successfully, changed into my other tritop that is more comfortable to wear for the rest of the day and headed out!

Without running, I got through transition in 7 minutes, when I had allocated 10, so that was perfect.

Bike 

I had some power numbers from a free trial of Best Bike Split that I was hoping to use as guidance, but also wanted to make sure my heart rate didn't get too high and that I stayed on top of my nutrition.

The course was a lollipop with 11 miles to ease into the idea of biking. This included some railroad crossings, which given my recent bike-fall-down, I was super cautious around. I even went so far as to unclip one foot to be ready to catch myself if my wheel slipped. I called out my intentions loudly to all the people whizzing past me, so hopefully didn't disrupt anyone's day.

From the 70.3, I had observed "Get bottles that fit well in cages. Noteworthy bumps in first few miles left nutrition on the side of the road." Apparently a lot of racers didn't read my note because there were bottles all over the place, which made the crossings even more treacherous. I didn't lose anything myself, so still had 3 Gu's, two bars, and two bottles of Skratch keeping me company as we headed out of town and into Georgia.

For the next few hours, I biked and ate, and biked and drank. Everything was marvelously uneventful and I kept my focus small. Like the swim, I stayed "in the box", which I implemented by pretending it was a training ride, and using my fake cue sheet to look for the next road, and not thinking about how many more miles there were in the day.

Heading out, I read down the left side of the road names, and on the return half of the loop, I read up the right side. I needed a compact view to be able to fit this all onto my handlebars. Some year, when I get a tri bike, I expect to plaster the front handlebars with information, since there is so much more real-estate to work with, but until then, I have to keep it compact.

The best part of the loop was on the way back after passing Halls Mill, I could start looking forward to seeing family and friends at the cheer station at Pigeon Mountain Grill.

Soon after that was bike special needs, where I took my ziploc of tube + CO2 and put it in my back pocket, reloaded my bento box with Gus and bars, and took 2 more bottles of Skratch. Then I headed off down the road, and used the next few miles of mostly uphill riding as a chance to eat Cheetos, holding the open bag with my left hand, since I wasn't shifting into the big ring any time soon, and wiping cheese dust on my right thigh. That was pretty delicious and thankfully sat well in my stomach.

Loop two was lonelier, and I no longer had people passing me decisively, so I had to work a little harder to avoid drafting, but I kept my power up, and my heart rate only drifted up a little. The perfect weather continued, so I wasn't overheating at all, and after making the turn to come back on the loop, I was able to start making up time towards meeting my biking goal -- while also reminding myself that this is not a bike race and to be smart about this.

One of my goals for the day was to "Experience the day," which sounds a little cheesy now outside of context, but I wanted to stay aware of what was going on around me. On the first loop, I saw some goats and sheep, and signs for bulls, pigs and chickens for sale. It was great countryside and I enjoyed seeing it. The next loop, the animals had moved on to other pastures, but the bulls, pigs and chickens remained for sale.

I looked just as happy passing the cheer station a second time, and am pleased to see from the photo that I hadn't developed any weird posture quirks

"Only" a marathon's worth of biking to go and still on pace and smiling!

My bike held up really well to all the shifting, even with getting rained on the night before. For the half, I had noticed a lot of people dropping chains on the hills, so I worked on being aware of upcoming conditions, so I wouldn't get surprised and need an unexpected front-ring shift. I hope to spend more time in the big ring next season as I continue to get stronger on the bike.

Thankfully, I did not consciously think of the distance I had left to bike, or left to go in the day, and just kept on pedaling, eating, and drinking.

For the return stick, I changed my bike computer's display to show me cadence. I wanted to avoid the tendency to coast that had been happening at the end of my long rides, and I wanted to finish appropriately strong. With cadence, power and HR showing, I tried to keep my effort at an appropriate level and succeeded quite well.

I was super pleased that I had eaten all of my food by that point, and kept sipping at the Gatorade bottle I'd picked up to try to catch up on hydration. My plan had been to get through about a bottle per hour, with 3 calorie bottles per loop and the rest of the drinking as water, but I didn't manage to finish that up. Thankfully it didn't come back to haunt me later, but I should either accept it takes 5 drinks to finish a bottle and plan calories appropriately, or work on taking larger drinks so it only takes 4.

With 3 miles or so left, I increased my cadence which was nice for my running legs, but bad for my speed and power, so I might have to add some high-cadence drills to my biking next year to get a better handle on how to do that without compromise.

I finished the bike in 7:15, which was perfect.

T2

This was also uneventful. I remembered to take my Garmin off my bike, changed socks and shoes, ate a Gu, used the restroom and left to go running.

Somehow this took 5 minutes, but that was what I'd budgeted, so again, perfect!

IMChoo: First IM means incredibly long race report

Visualization FTW

I thought a LOT about this race beforehand. Some of my thoughts were calculations and helped me figure out time goals, and others were trying to imagine how different parts of the day would feel. I wrote out some of my best-case visualizations and read them to myself in the weeks leading to the race. This helped me to not invent worries and to feel good about my decisions.

Once I reached step 3.c of the morning "Start time uncertainty has been resolved, because you have a place in line." I was ready to try to stay relaxed and wait, but first I had to get there.

Pre-Race - Race day

Check, check, check!

Visualization 1.a "With two alarms, this will be easy. Your race day outfit is laid out and you put on timing chip, tri shorts, sports bra, HRM, tri top, and Garmin. Put on a layer of sunscreen. Over that add warmer clothes, old sneakers"

The checklists continued on race day. I made a ziploc of my race-day race clothes, and velcro'd my timing chip to my tri-top. This meant that I didn't wear it around with me all day on Friday and Saturday while also not worrying about losing it.

My race day breakfast was a fairly significant variation from my regular long-workout-breakfast, but it was hotel-compatible, while my regular breakfast (of egg&cheese burrito) was not. The toaster waffle + salted caramel peanut butter sat really well for the pre-race brick; it had slightly less fat & protein than my regular breakfast, so I wasn't expecting any surprise stomach behavior. I also loaded up on warm liquid calories with instant coffee + instant hot chocolate for a "camping mocha" and two scoops of apple-cinnamon Skratch, which was a great treat while sitting in line. Finally, while in line, I enjoyed one of the free Little Debbie snacks around 6am, so I had 90 minutes of digesting before race start.

But, rewinding a bit, before getting into line and finishing eating, I dropped off special needs bags, and made Katie go stand somewhere obvious wearing blinking green bunny ears. I'd wanted to eliminate the potential stress of not being able to find my wetsuit or chair (or sherpa) and the light up ears were a great solution.

In transition, I said good morning to my bike, put on my bottles and stashed my Gu's, and then taped my nutrition cheat sheet and my pseudo-cue sheet to my handlebars so I would be able to treat this like a training ride. I also set my checklists in a puddle, but thankfully was still able to check things off. Whew!

As it turned out, they had already announced that the race was not wetsuit legal while I was setting up transition, but letting Katie carry my bag of wetsuits back to the room was not acceptable, so, exhibiting excellent sherpa behavior, she continued to carry that bag, the chair, and my drinks around for me.

My paranoid schedule that had us waking up at 4A and at transition when it opened at 4:30A, worked out super well and we were on an early shuttle, and were able to join up with Jen in the swim line.

Getting in line resolved one of the major controllable uncertainties in the day and as I settled into the chair to wait, it was easy to continue working on eating my breakfast and drinking my calories.

From the half, I had these notes to myself:

  ·        Get on shuttle early and get in line for swim. Getting into the water early, and hence onto the bike course early was perfect for me – avoid passing people on the bike.
  ·        Bring something to sit on while in line. Send it back with your sherpa
  ·        Gu or other small snacky before swim start

Success! on all counts, except that my snackys were more like 300 calories :)


My family came out to the swim start line at a much more rational time, good wishes were shared all around, and loads of photos were taken.

Happy it is almost time to go

Swim

From the half, these were my swim notes:

  ·        Flow controlled by upstream dam. 8000 cu ft/whatever for 70.3 race day. 24000 cu ft/whatever last year on IM day. Calibrate expectations
  ·        Remember to start watch on the dock
  ·        Practice jumping in and starting swimming at swim practice. If I feel breathless at practice, the next day, jump in and swim slower.
  ·        70 degree water was ok with long sleeve wetsuit. For race day, last year, it was too warm for wetsuit. Research swim skins

For race day, we were looking at 6000 whatevers, so while it was a nice current, it wasn't the raging torrent that last year's swimmers had. I kept my planned swim goal the same, twice the half time, rounded up to the nearest 5 minutes, but was willing to accept whatever it showed when I came out of the water, since it was non-wetsuit :(

My visualization paragraphs for swimming included the great sentence "Your wetsuit is eager to give you a cozy hug" but unfortunately my wetsuit will have to wait for another day to embrace me.

I had researched swim skins, and decided that since I couldn't rent one and since they were expensive, I would just wear my tightest tritop and move on with my life.

I had some anxiety jumping from the dock at the half in May and had been practicing jumping in at all swim practices since then. While jumping in still doesn't feel easy, knowing I had done all that practice helped on race day. When we were being rushed down to the dock, I knew I had done everything I could have to get ready to jump off that dock, so I did it!

No excuses, no regrets.

My next visualization sentences were
"5.a. Stay relaxed & steady – start time uncertainty has been resolved!
5.b. How many buoys are there? Count them down."

This led to the first, and probably biggest, mental hurdle I had in the day (which should tell you how perfect the rest of the day was). 10 minutes into the swim, my watch buzzed, and I was just at the third buoy!! Since the announcer had said they were going to be about 100m apart, that would have meant a record slowest swim. I worried about that for a breath or two, decided the swim felt good, so probably the buoys are farther apart, and calmed myself down.

Starting to worry 10-20 minutes into my day also almost kicked off a spiral of crazy, but I worked on focusing on where I was, not on the big picture, or in other words, I stayed "in the box". I used that box All Day Long! and it never let me down.

The announcer had also said the buoys would switch color half way through. When that happened around 30 minutes into the swim, and after 10 buoys of the first color, I extrapolated that there would probably be 10 of the other color, and stopped worrying I was going unnaturally slowly.

The rest of the swim went well. I dunked someone, but he bobbed up OK, and I apologized. Otherwise, it was a very spacious swim. Every once in a while, I jumped on someone's hip to draft as they passed me, but generally kept it super relaxed -- even to the extent that I consciously noticed I was sliding my hand through the back of my stroke instead of pushing the water. Oh well! I decided not to try too hard to fix it, but it is an area for improvement and something I wouldn't've gotten away with if we hadn't had the current assist.

In a glaring oversight of prep, I had thought we would only swim under two bridges, until I was sighting and realized there were actually three. I'd only been driving/walking across these bridges for the last 3 days, and somehow didn't put that together.

I finished the swim in 1:02, which was perfect.