Ironman Canada!!!

August 27, 2006
Swim 2.4 miles, Bike 112 miles, Run 26.2 miles

Each member of Ironteam proudly helped to raise over $750,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This money will make a difference in the lives of many other individuals both now and in the future. Thank you everyone for your support.



View My Race Report

Watch Me Finish

As you can see, I successfully finished the race while meeting my personal race goals and having a wonderful day. As you may have noticed, my blogging sort of fell off the face of the earth. But, this final post concludes my online journal of the Ironteam experience. One month post-Ironman, I completed an official race report, which reflects on the memories from the day. Click the photo or above link to download the 2.9 MB PDF file and read it in-depth or just browse through the photographs.

This experience ranks highly in my mind as an opportunity for self-growth and understanding. I would recommend it to anyone with the interest and desire to push themselves both physically and mentally while raising money for a great cause. Thank you all again!

Michelle

Week 38 Ride to Pt Reyes 95 miles!

June 26-July 2
Swim up to 10,800 yards, Bike up to 165 miles, Run up to 30 miles



Above is the Marin County Bicycle Coalition Map showing the area of my longest bike ride ever. The destination of the ride was Pt Reyes Lighthouse starting from Sausalito. It's an "out and back" route with a slightly more challenging out (climbing out of Marin through Muir Woods to the coast) than back (spinning along the mostly flat Sir Francis Drake blvd back inland). Having never been on the bike before for this distance, I didn't know what it would feel like, but the day turned out great and made me realize the training is paying off. Plus, it was fun to ride many of the routes I had previously done in sections, but now to join them together into one monster ride...okay for the serious cyclist this probably doesn't seem too intimidating, but for the novice Ironman trainee, it did. ; )

I was happy to be able to do the ride on a Thursday with MJ who also had plans for the weekend that conflicted with the long ride. Again, the benefits of a flexible work schedule that accomodates Ironman training! Turns out, David and I will be in a photo shoot on Saturday for our friend Jeremy from Peace Corps. If you're wondering about why we're in a photo shoot, here's the story: Jeremy designs T-shirts that were initially mainly political, but now are more random with themes like yellow lawn mowers on green shirts. Not sure what inspired him to switch over from "Massive Tool" anti-Bush shirts to "John Deere style lawn mowers", but hey sales must be going well since he needs us to model his shirts. Here they are:



If you want to buy one or see more of these gems, go to www.ethro.net

Okay so back to the ride. It was a perfect day in the 70's with slight fog in the morning for the climb out of Marin. There wasn't much traffic along Hwy 1 since it was mid-week and made it safe and more enjoyable. I wouldn't want to be on that curvy Hwy if there were a lot of cars speeding by since there isn't much of a shoulder.

Most of the ride was very scenic with many cute towns along the way like Olema and Inverness. With the slower beginning, we decided to turn around at Historic B ranch in Pt Reyes rather than at the lighthouse since time was a concern. We didn't want to ride much longer than 7 hours. I wish I brought a camera on the ride, but I forgot it so I posted the map. The ride back from Pt Reyes was focused on keeping a good pace and just getting it done...along with thoughts of eating and a cold beer afterwards. It's always nice to have a motivational factor like food at the end of a long training day. To celebrate the accomplishment, we grabbed a few tacos from the local restaurant near where I used to work for Ideum. Overall it was a great day and a good confidence builder, but my muscles are feeling it today!

Week 37 Mt Diablo Climb

June 19-25
Swim up to 8400 yards, Bike up to 130 miles, Run 19 miles...and this is a Recovery Week!

Okay so it's a bad sign when you can't remember how to log into your blog to update it. After some searching, I managed to find my username and password to get onto blogger to add a new posting. I guess this ironman training has taken over and interfered with my blogging activities!

Sigh...well somehow with the Ironman event less than 8 weeks away, I feel this need to document the final days of the experience. I'm actually considering going back to add some key memories and photos from the previous months. I know exactly where my blogging ended. It was that trip during the rainy months to Kona where I was so fortunate to train and work from afar while staying in a condo my parents had rented for their vacation. That sure was lucky. Anyway, back to the present and this past weekend's workout.

The Ironteam met in Danville for a coached workout where those of us doing Ironman Canada were slated to do the "easy" workout which consisted of a 76 mile ride touring the "East Bay Alps" and climbing up into Mt Diablo State Park. Those doing Ironman USA which is a month earlier had the "hard" workout or infamous triple brick...I'll give details on this when I am fortunate enough to experience it.

So, the day started out with a blueberry pancake and fried egg sandwich while driving to the workout in the morning. I mention this because I'm not a morning person and learned that this is not a good race day strategy to start a ride full of pancakes. Let's just say I was a little overstuffed and it made for a tiny stomach ache later in the ride. Luckily it wasn't anything to prevent pushing through and seemed to go away with a halt in additional liquids.

Here's a group photo from the ride where I am on the left sporting my new Escape from Alcatraz bike jersey (had to point that out) with Steve, MJ, Scott, Debbie, Megan, and Maritza. We mainly rode together at the same pace. This is at the first ranger station on the top of Mt Diablo at mile 60...we're smiling because it's all downhill and flat from here. Although it was nearly 100 degrees that day with some climbing, I managed to feel great the whole ride and kept a steady pace slightly over 13 mph. The wonders of endurolytes and regular training I suppose!



Oh yeah, did I mention that we passed a 1000 feet sign, then a 2000 feet sign, and kept going until about 2500 feet, but this was nothing compared to our weekend ride at Lake Berryessa a few weeks ago. I'm definitely going to have to share a little about that day...to summarize the ride consisted of 10,000+ feet of climbing. I've realized now there must be a reason the coaches tucked this workout into the training schedule...now anything else just seems easy ; ) It's all relative! I think back about that day of riding and now this ride which might have seemed hard no longer did. The coaches must know a little something about getting us mentally prepared.

So here's a view from Mt Diablo to give some perspective on the location. Our web captain took this one since I forgot my camera. Well, I better get going since I'm off to my evening workout consisting of a 1hr 15min spin class followed by a 5 mile run. No wonder I don't have time to blog!

Week 37 Recovery! Tine Visits

June 19-25
I love recovery weeks!

A couple weeks ago, my sister called to check in for a good date to visit where I might be able to spend time with her rather than spending all my time training, so I pulled out the old training schedule to look for an easier week. Turned out my "recovery week" coincided with her last week of teaching at school and the date was set. We both needed those few days of recovery: her from a year of teaching 2nd graders and me from the routine of training.

Fortunately for both of us, the week turned out to have the best weather forecast yet for San Francisco with no clouds or fog and temperatures in the high 70's to low 80's. It was probably one of the only weeks where we could lie out at Ocean Beach in our swimsuits and be comfortable. So, thanks to my sister, I was able to take some time away from my computer where I would have been and instead walked in Sausalito, toured around San Francisco, and visited Angel Island. She accompanied me to some evening training sessions and walked at the Coyote Reservoir along the trail along on Saturday morning while I ran with the Ironteam. It was great to have her around and be able to talk and catch up...very rejuvenating!

Here are some pics from her visit:

We spent the evening of her arrival toasting to her summer vacation.


Another day, we walked around Sea Cliff, Cow Hollow, and visited both China and Ocean Beach. You can tell she's a serious beach walker.



Near Ocean Beach, we encountered some wildlife and figured out this ground hog liked clovers. Notice the full cheeks? We picked patches of clovers and deposited them by this hole where he gathered them up.



For a visit to Angel Island, I cut my training short on Friday, but it was worth it. This is the view from the road around the island.



We spent the day there by taking a leisurely bike ride, having a picnic, and strolling around the island. To get there and back from San Francisco, we had to take a ferry ride from Pier 41. Life is tough, huh?!

Week 36 Ironman Nutrition

June 12-18
Marker Sets to Check our Progress

One of the biggest aspects of having a successful Ironman race is figuring out your nutrition, so I've been trying to do this on my training rides. This week for my long ride, I rode from San Mateo through the Peninsula along Crystal Springs Reservoir to Woodside and further South along Junipero Serra then returned the same route. There was a small group of us from Ironteam who rode including Kristen, her friend Libby, MJ, Andrea, and myself.

Kristen on our team had knee surgery during the season and has kept with her goal to finish the Ironman and has made amazing progress so that's always inspiring. She mentioned this was the first ride where her doctor approved some hill climbing, but we didn't want to overdo it, so we altered the route a little. If you want to check out her blog or others on my team, feel free to go to our Ironteam site and visit the links on the right under blogroll for more Iron Adventures.

To get back to the theme of this posting, Ironman Nutrition, I finally think I have figured out what I need to take in to feel good and energetic on long rides.

Here's the breakdown if you're wondering for an 80 mile ride:

I drink 2 bottles of "Sustained Energy" mixed with chocolate and vanilla flavored "Hammer gel". For more info, check out: Hammer Nutrition. Each bottle has about 500 calories in it. Then, I drink water from my camelback and take an "Endurolyte" tablet every 15-20 min or roughly 3-4/hour. It seems like I'm always having to take one of these so time actually flies by rather quickly. These "Endurolytes" are required when it is hot or for long rides because we need to replace lost salt from sweat and it also helps with water uptake. In addition to the calories from liquid energy drinks, I also usually eat "Cliff bloks" which are chewy calorie bombs that are a bit like gum drops (only with 200 calories for 6 bloks) and sometimes fig newtons and goldfish crackers for some variety and solid food. The key is being able to get off the bike feeling hydrated and energized without an upset stomach for the run.

For the super curious, here's the nutritional breakdown of 3 scoops of "Sustained Energy":



And the nutritional breakdown of 2T of chocolate "Hammer Gel":

Week 35 Lake Berryessa

June 5-11
Swim at least 8700 yards, Bike at least 130 miles, Run at least 27 miles

The Lake Berryessa week was one of the most tiring of the season because I was sick with a cold. Fortunately for most of the training season, I have managed to avoid being sick, but somehow I came down with an illness. I had to miss a swim and run that week trying to rest before Saturday because the coaches had planned for us to do a 2 mile swim followed by a 96 mile bike ride with over 10,000 feet of climbing. Our whole season, the Ironteam had been told that this was a milestone event, not to be missed, so regardless, cold or not, I knew I had to do it. Luckily, this cold did not last too long and I almost felt back to normal by the weekend.

David came with me to volunteer for the weekend as a kayaker for the swim, water stop guy, and also as a famous pancake maker : ) We stayed together in a cabin with Laura, her friend Rick (not pictured), and Ranger John, an Ironteammate from Riverside, CA, and Palmira. We slept in this loft where David is hanging out. These cute cabins had a small bathroom and kitchenette.



Despite feeling run down, I went through the motions on Saturday and actually had a nice swim. The water in Lake Berryessa felt comfortable and refreshing. This is a photo of where we jumped in to start the swim which was 2 loops of a big square that was slightly less than a mile.



After the swim, we prepped for the killer bike ride and then headed out.



Look at us all...we were a combined North and South Bay group.



Normally I ride with my training buddy MJ below who is my pace, but being under the weather, this was the last time I saw him that day.



I felt really slow. I took off on the bike and kept going and going and going...just trying to get through it. Or, at least that's what it felt like. Sometimes it seemed like I was in a fog or that time had stopped because my speedometer wasn't working so I never knew how fast I was going or what mile I was at on the route until reaching a water stop. Needless to say, it wasn't the best experience to ride that way. During the ride, my energy was low from the residual cold and therefore I think I ate too much trying to compensate for this lack of energy which didn't help either.

Luckily, everyone was so supportive at the waterstops and along the way that I finished the ride feeling content with the accomplishment and didn't worry too much about my pace. I also finally caught up with some others that rode at roughly my pace so I could finish the final 30 miles with that "group energy."

After the ride, Coach Wayne here gave us all a pep talk telling us not to worry about our pace and encouraged everyone in our performances and learning experiences which I needed to hear.



That evening while the Ironteamers couldn't move off the ground or their chairs, David entertained us and played by himself with his new ball. It was a gift he had received after the Alcatraz race from our friend Alexander. Having spent the day at a bike water stop, his legs were restless. He was doing pretty well until he kicked the ball into the water...must've been the beer. ; )



Our weekend ended with a 12 mile run which fortunately felt better to me than the previous day's bike. While we were running, a great group of volunteers, including David, cooked a brunch that we all enjoyed to finish out the weekend. It was an amazing experience and very well organized. Ironteam definitely has it together.

Week 18 North Star Cafe Fundraiser

February 6–12
Swim 6800+ yards, Bike 65+ miles, Run 17+ miles

Our fundraiser was a great success thanks to all the supportive friends who turned out to the North Star Café for the Sunday evening affair. The bar gave us the whole back area with a pool table where we could set up our appetizers and snacks, along with a birthday cake for Mo. MJ greeted guests at the door and sold raffle tickets with Renee so that Laura and I could wander around as hosts which was super kind of them. The bar generously donated 40% of all the proceeds for the evening to the cause which will help us both to reach those fundraising deadlines. Renee also helped raffle off the prizes with her voice being much louder than most. All went off without a hitch and we heard it was a great party. Not too many pics were taken, but here's a few to share from the event: