Riding in the Rain

So I had another 1:30 bike ride on the schedule today. I wanted to play golf with friends at 8am so I was on the road from my house by 6am to get my ride started. Yucky day today. It had rained overnight so the roads were wet. Temps were cool at around 50 degrees and wind was off of lake superior so chilly.

I tried to check the radar before I left but it was down for maintenance. So I had no idea if I was going to get wet or not. The long range views from the other radars seemed to indicate that it would be dry for the morning.

I was planning to do the same route as a couple of weeks ago which starts with about 5 miles straight north from my house. As I turned to the east it started to rain. Cold rain too, definitely made it hard to see.  I really didn't need this, and it certainly wasn't fun, so I cut my ride short by a couple of miles by turning south a couple of roads early.

I must have been just on the edge of the rain because once I turned back to the south it stopped again. It was really dark out. The clouds were thick and not letting the early morning sun through. I only have tinted glasses on my bike so it was dark and hard to see.

So it was an interesting ride. Not as strong as previous rides, but I did experience some new conditions with the rain and the dark. I think I need to get me some clear glasses for riding.

Confidence Building

I have been doing a lot of reading and I had a panic attack in the water. This is apparently common in open water swimming and I just need to do a few things differently next time and get more exposure to open water.

But because of that I guess I will just say that I lost a lot of confidence last weekend in that race. I posted at the end of the race report that I am considering dropping down to the sprint rather than the Oly for my next race. My coach disagreed and wants me to do the Oly but I have some serious doubts.

So this week has been pretty standard. With pool swims Monday and today, a bike on Tuesday and a run on Wednesday.

Monday's swim went ok. I CAN still swim, I did prove that to myself. My breathing was still not quite right and the intervals that I would normally have no issues hitting I struggled with today.

Tuesday's bike ride went GREAT! I did a core workout first along with some stretching before heading out into the nice crisp fall air (oh wait, it is June). I was well rested and felt pretty good. I last did this loop ride in October and I took 7 minutes off my time. I didn't go into my small ring at all on the hills either which was a first.

My HR was right where I like it, and my breathing wasn't labored. It is amazing how much better I perform when my HR isn't pegged like it was on Sunday. So it was a great confidence building ride.

My run yesterday started with a 5 mile bike ride to loosen up. Nothing hard, just an easy spin since that worked well in my shakedown ride last week. It turned out to be my longest run to date. First time for 5+ miles, and set a 5k PR! The 5th mile was brutal, it is just a long slow climb. Nothing steep, just always uphill.

I did 2:45/0:45 for the first 3 miles, then about halfway through mile 4 I switched to 2:30/1:00 and used that to the end. But overall I felt great during this run.

Today Coach was out sick for our swim class so I ended up "leading" the class (there were 3 of us regulars). I pulled out a previous workout I had written down and was in my bag. I got the whiteboard and marker, wrote it out and off we went. It was a workout that didn't require anyone to send us off, we were able to do it ourselves.

I had zero motivation this morning to swim. Just one of those morning where I would rather have stayed in bed. But I had a good swim, fast sprints and felt much better than Monday.

So overall this week has been very positive for me.

1. I have proven to myself that I can swim, even if it is in a pool
2. People were impressed that I actually finished the race despite what I went through. I hadn't really given that any thought, but in reality I never felt like quitting.
3. My fitness has improved in the past 8 months quite a bit and I keep proving it to myself.
4. I did a bunch of research and I think I know what set off my panic attack and how I am going to fix it

I am looking forward to trying open water swimming again and proving to myself that I CAN do that too!

NewBriTri Race Report

Preamble

The whole family drove to Minneapolis the day before. Ran a couple of errands. Dinner at Olive Garden and in the hotel room early.

Pre-Race

Arrived at the park about 640am and picked up my bag then found a spot in transition and got my stuff set up. It was then that I realized that I left my body glide back at the hotel. I met up with Austin who was the guy who gave me my first swim lesson 3 years ago and my daughters former coach. We chatted for a bit. We also ran into Elaine who has been swimming with me in the mornings.

Then it was time to get the wetsuit on. That’s almost as exhausting as the race itself. I borrowed some spray on body glide from the women next to me and put that on my wrists and ankles. Then I walked over to where my family was. It was super windy out and kinda chilly standing around, but not too bad with the wetsuit on.

After the pre-race meeting we were set to go.

Swim

The swim was set up time trial style with people entering the water every 3s or so and had a triangular shape, so just 2 turns. I put myself in the middle of the pack with a bunch of other people shooting for a 15 minute swim. It wasn’t very long and I was off and into the water. It was fairly shallow for a while so some running/wading for a bit and then I dove in. First stroke my hand touched the ground but after that nothing, so I think I timed it about right.

I swam about 100 yards or so, not crowded at all, but suddenly I just felt like I couldn’t breathe. My normal rhythmic breathing that I do in the pool all the time was suddenly not enough air. Not even close. So I switched to a safety stroke for a bit (mix of breast/side stroke) to see if I could catch my breath and calm down. Then back into freestyle. I could only manage maybe 5 rhythmic breaths and then I was back upright in the water.

This continued to the first turn buoy where I found a lifeguard on a paddleboard. I stopped there for a while, just stupefied that this was happening at all. I didn’t understand it, I didn’t know what to do about it either. My HR was through the roof, and I was essentially hyperventilating. I was with that lifeguard for over a minute for sure, I don’t know exactly. I wasn’t really getting any better but I decided to continue on.

But first I had to start my watch! (Doh!)

The leg to the next buoy was the longest on the course. Same thing was happening. Go for a few strokes stop, go for a few strokes and stop. I made it to the next paddleboarding lifeguard at the midway point of the leg and stayed there for a while. Frustration growing.

On from him to the next corner doing the same thing again. I make it around the corner and stop at a kayak for a while. The funny thing is there was a guy who was basically doing sidestroke the whole way and he stopped at every lifeguard too. Apparently he thought my stopping looked like a good idea.

Now a straight shot to shore and I managed to make it to walkable area and slowly make my way to shore. I am totally gassed, HR high, and totally out of breath.

The wind didn’t seem to affect me at all on the swim. There were really no waves at all to deal with, I never got any water in my mouth. Just no idea what set this off.

Completed the swim in 19:32 which was 40/42 in my age group

T1

I walk into transition, I am trying to get my breathing and HR under control here before the bike. I get to my spot and try to take my wetsuit off, the arms came off easy, but I could NOT get my feet out. ARRGG! So finally I manage to get my wetsuit off, my socks and bike shoes on, throw on my helmet and then walk to the bike exit. 3:57 for my T1 time.

Bike

I get on my bike and start pedaling out. I am still breathing really hard and I glance down at my bike computer and it shows 173 for my HR! No wonder I feel like crap. The first mile or so is within the park so nice road and no cars. I get into a rhythm and I work to get my cadence up to where I want it not really paying attention to anything else.

I pass a few people along the way and then about a couple miles in, my bike computer tells me that my fitness performance score is -12. No kidding! I feel like crap, my HR is still well over 170 (it should be in the 150’s). So everything about the bike is about trying to get my HR down some.

I don’t take in much fluid, too hard to do with as hard as I am breathing it seems. We take a turn to the west and then the north, directly into the teeth of the wind. I am not cold, but I am working pretty hard. I am noticing that I am not really putting a ton of power in the bike today and my speeds are down, but it is all I can do with my HR as high as it is.

I finally get my HR consistently down under 170 about halfway through the bike, but this was not going to be a legs and power kind of day, this was going to be whatever my body will aerobically allow me to do.

I do pass a bunch of people on the bike, I only got passed by 1 person which I found odd. We finally turn to the east and a tailwind, but man is that road ROUGH. Thankfully it wasn’t very long and we were back in the park. I pass a few more people on the last mile and see my family just before I head to T2.

Time was 41:57 for 12.6 miles, and 28/42 in my age group. That was surprisingly good for as bad as I felt and KNOWING I can ride much harder than that.

T2

Again I walk through transition, rack my bike and throw on my running shoes and I am heading out. 2:14 was my time though, so not setting any records there.

Run

Still slow, but I am now on the run portion. I knew right away that my 2:45/:45 run walk was going to be abandoned, I had given up on doing “well” in this race a long time ago, I am just in it to finish it now.

So I ran as much as I could, walked as quickly as I could. The STEEP hill at mile 0.4 was cruel. I got passed by a lot of people along the way, but I knew I wasn’t going to be last, and I just wanted to finish. I was really having more trouble than normal breathing. At the pace I was going it shouldn’t have been an issue, but there was a lot about this day that I don’t understand.

I finally rounded the final corner to the finish line. My family was there cheering me on as well as my friend Austin who had finished a LONG time before me.

Run time was 35:14 and 41/42 for my age group.

Total time 1:42:52, good for 39/42 in my age group, 124/144 in my gender, and 169/208 overall.

Final Thoughts

Whether it was just a natural reaction to wearing the tight wetsuit with all the other stressors going on like never having done an open water swim, or something else I don’t know. I will plan to do a bunch of open water swims in the coming weeks if I can find people that are going out. Maybe that will help some.

With this reaction, I am definitely rethinking whether I should do the Olympic distance tri that I have next on my calendar. There is no way I would finish the swim if this happened again much less a 2x longer bike and run.

Rule Breaking....Again

So we remember from my last race, that I broke the rule of not doing something new in a race by wearing only my tri kit in the water. It didn't go well as it was quite draggy in the water and it slowed me down.

Today we drove down to the twin cities and I stopped by the bike shop where I bought my bike and got fitted. I wanted to discuss saddle options. I haven't been real happy with the stock saddle, I was looking for a bit more cushion than it provides. So I discussed it with their master fitter and I ended up getting a new saddle installed on the bike. We did check over the fit and everything seems good there.

So now I am doing a race with a new saddle on my bike. I am not too worried about this change.

However....I am worried about the other rule. Tomorrow I am doing my very first open water swim, and it is part of a race. I am more than confident I can swim the distance of 800 yards, and I have swam with my wetsuit in the pool, but due to the late spring, and lack of training opportunities, I have not had a chance to swim in open water yet.

This race is using a time trial start for the swim. We will be started every 3-5 seconds. So that should take some of the pressure of the mass start out of the equation.

So it will be interesting!

Pre-Race Bike/Run

So I have been having issues with my bike for a while now. I can't get into some of the gears and it hops out of others. So I was finally able to get my bike into the local bike shop by my house and they got it all fixed up in a day or so.

With the race on Sunday, my training plan called for a 20 minute bike and 10 minute run on Saturday, Since the weather was pretty terrible today (46 and windy) but the forecast for tomorrow was worse (46, windy and rainy) and coupled with wanting to make sure my bike was all set to go prior leaving for the race, I decided to just go ahead and get it out of the way today.

Everything worked great so I am super happy with it right now.

Then after that quick bike ride it was time for a 10 minute run. I just run for 5 minutes and then turn around and come back. I don't really pay attention to the pace or anything like that, I am just running for 10 minutes.

So as I am running I am thinking, "I don't remember running this far in 5 minutes." I had run almost all the way to the school before my 5 minutes were up. I thought it was odd, but maybe I just didn't remember it right from before.

I finish my 10 minute run back at the house and download my data and I just ran the fastest mile to date for me! What?!?! Maybe I just need to ride my bike a bit to loosen up before a run.

Race Week

Well with Memorial Day behind us, it is now time for race week. Nothing too rigorous scheduled for me this week with my race on Sunday down in New Brighton MN. I know 2 other people doing this race with me so that should be fun.

I put locklaces on my shoes today and gave those a try on my run. Much easier to get into and I don't have to tie them. Seems like it will work out well.

The family is all heading down with me this weekend to the race. We will be heading down on Saturday and staying in a hotel. So it should be fun.

Biking with my Daughter

So my daughter was the one that got me into swimming 2.5 years ago as I would take her to the pool on weekends for some extra swimming and swim with her. Now it seems I am getting her into biking. She is using my wife's old bike and has been riding it around the neighborhood and she started taking it to school.

My wife and I both remember riding our bikes all over our towns when we were her age so we are encouraging this new activity. I think she likes the freedom it gives her too.

So today she wanted to go out for a bike ride, and I asked if I could come with. I suggested that we go across the highway and ride a different road than she normally does. So we did a 5 mile ride today (she led, I drafted 😂). 

In case you were wondering, neither of us like running.