Rhoto Ironman Boulder 70.3 Recap

Holy crap. That was One. Long. Race. That’s all I need to say about that. The End.

Okay, okay, here’s the play-by-play…

Preparation

It was a tough training season for me:

• I shopped for a house (using Wes Hobson, a world-renowned triathlete, as a realtor – he is also an actual realtor)
• I bought a house
• I moved into the house
• I had about a hundred job interviews
• I switched jobs
• I went to Mexico for 4 days to lay on a beach, drink cocktails with umbrellas in them, and eat some very yummy food between jobs
• I had a cyst on my knee drained
• I had knee surgery to remove the remaining scar tissue from the cyst
• I had a weird pain in my shoulder that lasted for almost a week

In short, I could have trained with a little more… focus… and discipline.

Sleep and Waking

Of course, I got absolutely no sleep the night before the race. First of all, I had to get up at about 4:45 in order to get to the course and have everything set up by 6:20. I went to bed about 10pm and woke up every hour from 12am to 4am wondering if it was time to get up and start moving. Second, I was very well hydrated so I got up to use the restroom every hour, on the hour, all night. It was ridiculous.

4:45am came way to fast. I stumbled down the stairs in the dark, pulled on my tri suit picked up my bag and headed out into the cool pre-dawn air. I rode my bike to the triathlon course, you know, because it felt weird to have only a 56 mile ride planned later and I figured it only made sense to make it an even 60-mile day.

On my way to the course a cab and another car both pulled over and offered to give me a ride, but I actually felt like being on the bike was a good warm up. I also noticed, just as I rounded the next corner, that cars were backed up about a mile and a half to get into the reservoir parking lot. I cruised right by them, pausing just outside of transition to let someone write my number on my arms with a big Sharpie: 1448, and my age on my calf: 30.

There is some strategy around choosing your space in the transition area. You can set up your bike, shoes, food, and other supplies by someone who looks nervous, someone who looks friendly, or someone who looks like this is not their first triathlon. I opted for a veteran and racked my bike next to a guy who obviously knew what he was doing. I asked him questions and organized my space just like his. Towel on the ground, gear sorted by discipline. Running stuff together, biking stuff together, swimming stuff in plastic bag to take to the beach, food and liquid everywhere.

Swim

Once my transition area was set up I headed down to the shore to find someone to talk to. Chatting with other athletes and spectators helped me get my mind off of the 70.3 miles that stood between me, a shower, a nap, and a decent breakfast… or dinner… actually. I tried to eat a cliff bar but gave up a little over half way through. I was so nervous and excited I could barely choke it down.

I was sitting on the ground, with one foot in a plastic bag and pushed through the first leg of the wetsuit (see my guide for putting on a wetsuit) when someone started singing the national anthem. I paused in my struggling to listen and contemplated the ridiculousness of the whole event. I couldn’t help but smile. I was a little surprised that, despite the fact that 4 months ago, I struggled to swim 10 laps in a pool, I was at the start line of a half Ironman.

Once the wetsuit was on I went down to the water to watch the pros start, get water inside my suit and check out the course. The buoys looked really far away. Seriously, very far. I asked a girl next to me if it looked far. “Yeah, it looks really far.” She agreed. Here’s the map of the swim. That little triangle is much bigger in person.

My wave (women 30-34) started at 7:30. I wadded into the water with the other athletes. We wished each other luck and I heard several, “oh no, you go first, I’m slow,” and “please, don’t kick me in the face or swim on top of me”s. So polite!

Finally, the gun went off and I wadded out until I couldn’t touch the bottom anymore. My wetsuit helped me stay on the top of the water and I started my stroke on the outside of the group. It was about the time I reached the first buoy (going clockwise) that I realized that I was kind of tired. I took stock of my body and found out that I wasn’t actually physically tired, I just realized that all my training in a pool prepared me to get a break every 50 yards when you turn around and go the other direction. I started trying to get into a rhythm where I would take 20 strokes and then take a few side-strokes or flip onto my back and count to 10 before flipping back over for another 20 strokes. This gave me a rhythm to get into and worked until the second buoy where the wave of men who started behind us began to catch me.

I was keeping up with them while I was doing the crawl, but would drop behind when I started side-stroking. The water got super choppy, which made it hard to breathe without also inhaling reservoir water. I decided to let the front row of them past me and tried to ignore the headache that was developing due to the fact that my goggles were on so tight to prevent getting water in my eyes or being kicked off.

There were smaller buoys in between the big buoys which kept us on track and gave me little milestones to go between. There were about seven from the last turn buoy to shore. About three buoys away from shore was the low point of the swim for me. I felt like I was so close to being done but I didn’t feel like I was making any progress. I started to swim in little zigzags and tried to focus on just making forward progress.

About that time, I saw Jason standing on the beach and could tell he was looking for me. He waved when he recognized me – still not sure how he did that – about one buoy away from shore. I finally felt my feet touch the ground and stumbled up onto the beach. Jason was able to get right up next the the chute into transition, “That was so fast!” he called, “53 minutes! You are doing great!” I had hoped to finish the swim in less than an hour so I was pretty happy. I meant to thank him for coming. I meant to be excited at this positive news. Instead, I’m pretty sure all I said was, “That swim was really $%&*@ long!” and headed through a little shower and into the transition area.

Bike

It took me a good 5 miles before I realized that I was on a bike. My stomach was a little upset and I had a headache. I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. I tried to force myself to eat a granola bar that I taped to the top tub of my bike and tried not to tip over. “This is the fun part,” I told myself. It took 10 miles before I believed it. I finally started to relax.

One of the many downsides to starting in such a late wave was the pros and early waves had an hour head start on me so they were on their second lap of the bike course as I was just starting out. It made me grumpy to think that they were so far along and I had so far to go, but I tried to keep a good attitude and eventually found it kind of fun to watch them whiz by me. On the second loop, I was all by myself on the course and was kind of lonely.

The volunteers were fantastic. Not only had they mastered the art of handing open bottles of Gatorade and water to moving cyclists, but as the day continued to get warmer, they would spray us with Super Soakers and other misting bottles as we passed through their aid stations. I focused on hydrating, staying relaxed and getting some more food in me. Here is a map of the course and the elevation changes:

When I was about 5 miles away from the finish of the bike leg, the wind started picking up. I was going directly into it and up a false flat. This means that the ground looks flat, but you have to work a lot harder because it’s really a slow ascent. I was tired and wanted to cry just thinking about the fact that I still had to do a half marathon. I considered crying but I felt like I was getting a little dehydrated and didn’t want to waste water – or salt – on tears so I told myself to suck it up, take it one pedal stroke at a time and finish this ride out.

Run

I started the run a little before 12pm. The wind had continued to pick up and the air was hot and dry. I focused on going slow and steady, taking small steps to shake out my bike muscles, and tried to get into a running grove. “Restart.” I told myself. “Forget that you have already been moving about 4.5 hours.”

I saw Jason and my friends Wylie and Mike leaving transition. Jason jogged up to the road and said that they missed me on the bike. They arrived at the course long after I had passed and they had been looking for me ever since. Jason announced that I was, “killing it.” I had forecasted about 4 hours for the bike and I finished in about 3.5. At this point in the race, I was about 30 minutes ahead of my self-projected finishing time. I wanted to pick up the pace, but I knew it was going to be a long, hot run so I kept it nice and steady.

There were aid stations every mile on the run stocked with water, ice water, flat Coke, GU shots, energy bars, and sponges soaking in ice water. Oh, the sponges. I will smile at every sponge I see for years. They saved my life!

My sweat was just evaporating off of me, leaving my skin hot, dry, and salty. I couldn’t keep myself cool. The first time a volunteer handed me a sponge I almost hugged her, but that would have been very, very gross for her so I restrained myself. How you carried your sponge became a funny form of self expression that kept me amused for a mile or two. Some people had their sponges tucked in the back of their hats. Others used them to wipe their sweat off.

For several miles I just shoved one right down my top. The water would run out and soak my shirt and the top of my shorts. Unfortunately, the water warmed up and I couldn’t feel it so I found it worked best to grab two sponges and shove them under the straps of my top near my shoulders.

My stomach started cramping near mile 7 so I started walking once in a while and jogging when I got fresh sponges. I tried to eat my Honey Stingers, but I couldn’t stomach any more gooey sugars and carbs. At mile 11 I spotted something that made me happy. Pretzels. I wanted solid food. And salt. I wanted salt so much that I picked up a handful, shoved it in my mouth grabbed another handful to go and a cup of water. This did not leave me a hand to get my sponges out so I stopped at the end of the aid station, where a volunteer (God bless her) took my sponges out from my top, dunked them in ice water and bravely put them back in my top. She then removed my visor, dunked it in the ice water and put it back on my head. As I started trotting away, she followed me, running a sponge over my back. This woman was a saint.

About the same time, I started feeling blisters on my pinky toes. I wasn’t able to get all the sand off my feet after the swim and still had some in my socks. My toes hurt when I ran, but my hamstrings hurt when I walked so I switched awkwardly from one gait to another before finally settling back on running. “I would get there faster,” I figured. But not by much.

The last mile was miserable. The wind was blowing 25-30mph and it was about 97 degrees. I jogged it in, but I felt like I had to steal every breath I took from the wind that was trying to pull it out of my lungs before I could use it for fuel. Finally, the finish line, and my friends, were in sight. I don’t know how I picked up the pace through the chute, but I finished. 7 hours and 33 minutes after I started. (The clock in the picture says 8:33, but I started an hour after the first gun went off)

It was the slowest half marathon I ever ran, but I had never swam and biked that far before starting a half marathon. I’m usually done with half marathons when restaurants are still serving breakfasts.

My friends, M.E., Seth, Wylie, Mike, and of course, Jason were there at the finish, supportive and amazing. I didn’t really know what to say to them except for, “wow, that was a really long race, thank you for being at the end of it.”

And now, I am half an Ironman.

Recipe for putting on a wetsuit

Ingredients:

• A wetsuit that is the right size for you
• At least one plastic bag
• Rash guard or skin suit
• Body Glide
• Very short finger nails
• Arm muscles and flexibility

Instructions:

1. Start with a wetsuit that fits. If your wetsuit is too big, it will create drag and cause you to have to work a lot harder to swim. It will also not keep you warm. If your suit is too small it will try to strangle you.
2. Put on your swim suit, rash guard, or skin suit. Your wetsuit will slide over this suit much better then it will over your skin.
3. Cover your exposed skin with Body Glide. Pay extra attention to your joints: ankles, wrists, knees, elbows, hips, shoulders, arm pits, neck opening. This will keep the wetsuit from chaffing as you are churning through the water and will make it much easier to pull the suit off after the swim.
4. Sit down or you will fall down later.
5. Make sure the zipper on the wetsuit is all the way down. The zipper goes on your back.
6. Put your foot in a plastic bag and push your bagged foot through the first leg of the wetsuit. Pull the bag off once the ankle of the suit is in the right place. Repeat with the second leg.
7. Work both legs of the suit up to your knees, then stand up and continue working the suit up over your hips.
8. At this point, reach down and take all the wrinkles out of the suit from the bottom up. Be sure to use the pads of your fingers because your nails can tear the top layer of the suit. Holes in your suit look unfashionable and will not make you go faster.
9. Once your suit fits around your hips work it up over your torso, wait as long as possible to put your arms in. You may want to do a little stretching before the next step. My suit is really tight around my arms (probably because I have such huge muscles from swimming) that this next part is pretty difficult for me.
10. Use the bag again to push your arms though the arm holes on the suit.
11. Arms are the same as legs, work the suit up from your wrists over elbows and make sure it fits snugly in your arm pits. If it does not fit snugly in your arm pits then you won’t have your full range of motion in your swim.
12. I always need someone else to zip me up but you might be able to zip yourself with the string that should be attached to your zipper.
13. If you need some more room around your shoulders and neck, you weren’t aggressive enough pulling the suit up at the beginning. You can probably still get some extra room by starting at your waist and working the suit up. If you still need extra space get to work starting on your ankles and working up again.

Congratulations, you are in your wetsuit. This is probably as difficult as the swim (at least I’m hoping it is) and it’s all downstream from here. I seriously should have trained for getting into the wetsuit. I was exhausted after I figured this out. Best of luck.

By Lindsay Brust

What to Wear for a Half Ironman?

It seems simple, but it’s a complicated question. What can you wear under your wetsuit that will stand up to the wear and tear of a bike seat and not get in your way on the run? I posed the question to the BeginnerTriathlete.com forum and here’s what they had to say:

• It really just comes down to personal preference. I see most athletes in two pieces, tri shorts + tri top. I like that combination personally for a few reasons. First I don’t think anyone looks remotely good in a one-piece tri suit  and second it’s much easier to use the bathroom with the 2-piece ensemble.
• I second the two piece, I had GI issues my first HIM which put me in the porta potty each mile of the run, a one piece would have annoyed the heck out of me!
• I’m a two piece guy. Also, it needs to be tight(er).  I bought my first outfit too big and ended up rarely using it.
• I like to rock the onesie.
• I just started wearing a one-piece this year, and really like it.  I agree they don’t look as good as the two-piece, but I’m getting over that.  I have worn it at a few sprints and an olympic and am likely to try it for my upcoming HIM.  For a full IM though, I really think I would go with the two-piece for two reasons: 1.  The porta potty thing 2.  At T2, depending on conditions, it might really be nice to quickly trade in that tri-top for a clean, dry, and perhaps loose-fitting top.  Wearing a 2 piece, and keeping that spare top in your T2 bag, you have that option.

I decided to try out the two piece ensemble. I splurged and ordered Pearl iZumi’s Pro Tri Singlet and Shorts:

If you are near the Boulder Reservoir on Sunday, August 7th and you see an exhausted girl with short brown hair wearing this, start cheering, because it’s me!

by Lindsay Brust

Swimming Drills

A big thanks to my friend Mary, a swimming instructor at the Colorado Athletic Club in Boulder, for these amazing drills that helped me transform from being scared of drowning to a slow and slightly more confident swimmer. They also keep me from getting to bored spending hours in the pool.

All joking aside, these drills are gold. Enjoy!

Here are Mary’s Notes: 

*Perform drills slowly at first and then with varying speeds. The goal is to work on technique, going faster and ultimately holding the same technique while going faster!

*No matter what drill you are doing, follow it with at least a length of full stroke swimming!

• kick on side w/ one arm extended – maintain high, long body position and keep head down (except to breathe). Switch sides by 25.
• 4 count – building on the last drill… start on one side with your arm extended, hold for a count of 4 then take one full arm stroke to rotate to the opposite side. Hold there for 4 counts and repeat. Execute quick switches, work on rotating shoulders and hips and maintain proper body positioning.
• gallop – building on last drill… instead of one arm stroke for each switch, do 3. Focus on long strokes, quick hips and full rotation.
• single arm breath – stroke with the extended arm while keeping the other arm by your side. Remember to keep rotating your body fully to both sides and drive with your head.
• sculling – sweeping your hands through the water. The goal here is to feel the water and learn to “hang” onto it at every stage of the pull. Try front scull, mid scull and back scull while using a pull buoy to minimize the kick.
• head up, underwater recovery/tarzan drill – advanced doggie paddle! Focus on your catch.
• tennis ball/closed fist drill – Tennis balls are preferred if you can use them, but tightly closed fists will work too. This will teach you to use your entire forearm when pulling underwater and will help you feel the water better when swimming with open hands.
• fingertip drill – swim normally but graze the top of the water with your fingertips as your take each stroke. Make sure to do this for the entire length of the stroke!  The goal here is to practice high elbows.
• sighting – essential for open water swimmers trying to maintain a straight line. Try raising your head every couple of strokes to mimic searching for an object and resume swimming normally with minimal interruption to your rhythm, balance and speed.
• long-axis combo – freestyle and backstroke are both long-axis strokes (head-to-toe rotation). Alternate 3 strokes of freestyle and 3 strokes of backstroke. Drive the rotation of strokes with your hips instead of “muscling” through the water with your kick.
• hypoxic training – works the lungs. Try swimming a 100 (4 lengths of the pool) breathing every 3-5-7-9 by 25.

Lindsay Brust

Attention Swimmers: I’m mad at you.

Three words for you. Waterproof. MP3. Players.

WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THESE EXISTED?! I’ve been swimming my laps in bored silence for MONTHS! How I have wished and hoped and dreamt that I could be groovin’ along to some funky tunes while trashing around in a pool. Shame on you all. You should know better then to keep gems like this from your land-loving friends. I bet you all have been getting together and chuckling to yourselves that I didn’t know about this magical invention.

Just read these reviews and tell me how happy you know I would have been:

• “This little microscopic MP3 player is the best purchase I’ve ever made.”
• “I LOVE IT! It works great and really is waterproof. I just load it up and it makes my workout more fun and zip by.”
• “It is small enough to fit under my cap and I now swim longer.  The music comes out clear.  Swimming with music is great!”

Shame on you.

Half Ironman is One Month Away

Holy Crap. How times does fly. I looked at the calendar yesterday morning to find that the Boulder 70.3 Half Ironman is exactly one month (31 days) from yesterday. Here’s where I currently stand:

• Currently 23.5% body fat. I started at 24% with a goal of 18%, so I have made almost no progress. I even suspect that that .5% was actually the scar tissue surgically removed from my knee.
• 2.75 miles run in the past week. Give me a break, I had surgery.
• Approximately 645 glasses of champagne consumed. I attended a wedding with an open bar and celebrated the birth of our fine country the best way I know how.
• 20 hours spent laying on the couch under the influence of anesthesia and the after effects of that champagne.
• Watched the Tour de France. Does it count when you watch people ride a bike?

Not feeling great about my progress over the past week. I’m going to have to be a lot more disciplined. Here are my goals for the next 31 days:

• Eat whole foods as much as possible and cut back on sugar and alcohol.
• Be disciplined about my training. Focus on strength building and good form to avoid injury.
• Get more sleep to help with recovery and motivation.
• Do a few strength training exercises to balance out these huge muscles I’m developing.
• Get used to my wetsuit and do a couple of open water swims.
• Pick out race day outfit and wear it a few times to make sure it fits in all the right places.

Am I missing anything? Should we start a “Will Lindsay Survive” pool? Which way would you bet? Would you bet differently if I told you I was considering going to Mexico for 5 days?

Lindsay Brust

Losing My Swimming Training Wheels

I woke up this morning at about 7am. My motivation hit the snooze button so I hauled myself to a masters swim class so someone else could talk me into doing “just a few more laps.”

We started with a warm up of swimming, kicking, then pulling before getting into a few drills and strength training exercises. One exercise I found really interesting was swimming the length of the pool (50 meters) with your eyes closed. The purpose of the exercise is to help you get the feel for the water. You are suppose to concentrate on feeling the pressure of the water over your whole arm, not just in your hands.

I ran into the rope that separates the lanes after about 5 strokes. I made a note to myself to practice sighting so that I don’t get entirely off course in the triathlon. I think it did help though.

I’ve also started to use the pull buoy for most of my swims – especially the long ones. The purpose of the pull buoy is to lift your hips and legs so that you don’t have to kick to keep your body floating. It allows you to focus on the first quadrant of your body where the power should be when you are swimming.

To use it a pull buoy, you place it high between your thighs and keep your legs still when you are swimming. This has pros and cons.

Pro: I get out of the pool after most of my swims with my triceps completely fried.

Con: I’m not used to kicking.

Pro: When I use the pull buoy, I can breath every three strokes or even less.

Con: When you finally steal the pull buoy away from me, and I will fight you for it, I have to breathe every two strokes, I feel less balanced in the water and I panic more easily if someone kicks water in my face when I try to inhale.

Today, I attempted to use the buoy less. I’ll miss my training wheels, but I think, 6 weeks out from the half Ironman, it’s time to phase out my little blue friend. Lindsay Brust

Freestyle Hand Entry

After my fantastic bike ride on the Boulder half Ironman bike course yesterday morning, I met the equally (if not more) fantastic Mary Miller for a stoke analysis and swimming lesson at the Colorado Athletic Club. If you don’t know Mary, you are missing out. Not only is she a fabulous athlete but she’s also a really cool person. Mary had good news for me. I’m probably going to survive the swim. She seemed pleasantly surprised by my stroke, though I have to admit, I do set people up to assume the worst when it comes to my swimming ability.

We “warmed up” by doing a couple of laps sharing a lane. This alone was an extremely eye opening experience. The first thing I noticed was how much water she moves while swimming. I was approaching the wall at the same time she was leaving it during one lap and I think the force of her push and first couple of strokes after that almost pushed me into the next lane. I realized how different her mental approach to swimming must be compared to my approach of “conserve energy and survive.”

Her main piece of advice was that I be much more aggressive with my hand entry. I had been allowing gravity to drop my arm from a recovery position into the water then down so that my body went up and I could breathe. I thought that this must conserve energy when really, it probably just caused me to bob up and down a lot, making me pretty inefficient.

Mary suggested that a more aggressive hand entry would give me forward motion and set up my pull to be much more powerful. It would also cause my shoulders to rotate more naturally and allow me to breathe without turning my head as far.

Here’s how to do it:

1. During recovery, be sure to keep your elbows high
2. Think about leading the entry into the water with your thumbs (slightly, don’t over exaggerate this) about the height of your goggles or swim cap
3. Push your hand and arm forward in an aggressive motion about 2 inches under the surface of the water
4. If you do it right, this aggressive motion will turn your body onto the side so your tummy and back faces the sides of the pool (I had been trying to get this turn to come from my hips with very limited success)
5. If you move your upper body with this kind of purpose your legs will, almost automatically, do what they need to in order to stabilize your motion so you don’t need to think about them anymore

She suggested I do 5 sets of 100 meters thinking about that – about 10 laps – resting for about 10 seconds every two laps. While it sounded counter intuitive to me at first, this also regulated my breathing and allowed me to go much further without needing to stop and gasp for breath as much. Thanks Mary.

Lindsay Brust

Swimming Efficiency

I’m extremely lucky to have some very athletic friends to help me out, keep me company, and encourage me on my quest to become half an Ironman.

A couple of days ago, I had my second swimming lesson with my friend Mary the endurance swimmer.  She started out by saying that my stroke was night and day better then it was the last time we swam together. (Yea progress!) She also sent me these helpful tips. I wanted to pass them on to you.

The 4 most important aspects of freestyle are:  rotation, pull, breathing and kick.

• ROTATION:  the body should rotate fully from side to side to give you the most distance per stroke possible. The shoulders and body (hips) will roll but the head should always remain still and aligned with the spine and the chin should be aligned with the sternum. Looking straight down when swimming will help maintain this body position.
• PULL:  the arms should be extended both in front and behind the body to allow you to get as much distance from each stroke as you can and allowing for the lowest stroke count possible. The hands should enter at the goggle line and glide the rest of the way underwater. The hands should also pull past the hips and accelerate behind you. To get a sense of how far back your hands should be pulling – standing up on dry land, measure the spot where your thumbs graze your legs when the arms are relaxed at your side.
• BREATHING:  bilateral breathing is key to maintain your rhythm and reduce the risk of cramping on one side. Only breathing when you really need a breath will save you time and make you more efficient overall. But don’t wait so long that you are panting and lingering when you do take a breath! It’s important to fully exhale underwater first and to move the head as little as possible by simply rotating to one side while keeping the opposite cheek and ear in the water.
• KICK:  the kick should be minimized during long distance swimming. Slow and steady is the key to maintaining a balanced body and keeping an even pace. Remember to have “floppy feet” and loose ankles. You can practice swimming with fins (the shorter the better) to work on “runner’s kick” and increases ankle flexibility. Just remember to wean yourself of them as you get closer to your event. Lindsay Brust

Did You Know it’s Light Out at 5:30am?

Now that I’m actually on a schedule, I feel like I have harder training days because I can’t just think, “oh, I’ll finish this workout tomorrow” or “maybe I need to work in some more rest time.” The schedule has other plans. I’m suppose to do something else tomorrow. I can’t put this workout off.

Yesterday was one of my harder days so far. First of all, it was Monday. That’s hard in itself. Secondly, I needed to ride for 75 minutes and swim for about, oh, a million laps or something. In order to do both, I got up at 5:20am to get to a 5:45 cycling class. (Did you know it’s actually light out at that hour? I had no idea.) Then, when everyone else headed to the showers at 6:30, I stayed in the cycling studio and rode another half hour. Insanity.

I worked a full day and headed back to the gym for some swimming. I made it about 27 laps. My shoulder started aching a little bit so I stopped at that point. I usually try not to strain myself, but Monday the H.IM had other plans.

The good news is all the swimming workouts I’m not quite finishing must be paying off. My friend who has been giving drills and tips said that my stroke is looking much better these days. Progress is good. Lindsay Brust