IMAZ: Race and Aftermath

Aside from the "minor" glitch of me forgetting my goggles and cap in my hotel room, my race went almost perfectly. I was prepared in all facets, and except perhaps for not taking enough salt on the run, all my preparation worked, from athletics to nutrition, and I had a very relaxed and pretty strong race.

10:09:05.

Under the ceiling goal of 10:15, short of the reach goal of 10:00, but good. I'm happy with it, which is saying a lot for me.

Swim: very relaxed, felt good, could have gone perhaps a bit faster and harder, but it was fine. Didn't feel cold or tired at all until perhaps 55 minutes in, but still finished strong. Was frozen on the way out, though, and onto the bike. T1 was a long 8:30 as I struggled to put on socks while frozen. 1:09:53

Bike: also relaxed and strong. Pushed a bit harder than planned because I thought my swim was actually slower than it was. Decent headwind on the way out, strong tailwind on the way back. Each of the three laps was pretty even. I didn't feel my legs until roughly 99 miles, though I did hit a bit of a mental rough patch around 60-70 and had to push through 100-110, but felt very good coming in to T2. T2 was a much better and easy 3:30. Took about 5 minutes in a porta potty 30 minutes into the bike that I wish I had back. 5:16

Run: told myself to go out slow, went out fast: 6:18, 19:30 for 3, 33:10 for 5, 77:12 for 11 and then it began to hurt. Halfway (13) was 1:34, and my thighs/quads started to cramp at about mile 15. By mile 18, however, I knew I'd finish. The 2nd lap was toughest, but after taking coke with other drinks, Gu and electrolytes (could have taken more salt as mentioned, though), I felt a bit better through the end. Getting to 22 was important and 25 was super; I picked it up a bit and finished the last 200M running hard. 3:30:20 for the run.

Finishing was great. I rolled as well. All in all, I was thrilled that my training plan got me through pretty much as expected and that I was able to come through the line in a bit of pain but feeling no pain as well.

IMAZ Days 89 and 90: GAME ON

Day 89: Test swim in Tempe Town Lake. Water temp of 64 degrees, we're told. I decided to go without the thermal cap and it turned out to be fine. The water wasn't too cold at all, at least not after the first 30 seconds, and I had a good swim. I'm psyched about the straight line swim and my optical goggles - woohoo! Except for really cold toes, the 15 minute swim was great.

A little later (early afternoon), I went for a short ride and run. The ride once again felt great; the run, after 5 minutes warming up, also was great! Ran at pace after that and felt strong and loose.

Eat, relax...and wait.

Day 90: Saturday, one day to go. Easy 14 minute run this morning, again good after a few minutes getting loose. Will check in bike and prepare all my nutrition a bit later. Ready to rock and roll...it's time.

IMAZ Day 88: It's nearly here

I'm in Arizona!

After a few days of feeling like a fat slug, a morning with no workout, 2 plane flights and great (not) airline food didn't help. Got to Arizona, though, easily and with all my gear intact! Took a while to get to the expo and build the bike, but it's done! I'm also checked in.

After all that, it was 4:45 and just enough time to get in a ride before dark. 31 minutes and I felt GREAT!!! Then a 10 minute swim and 5 minute jog just to keep (or get) everything loose.

This is starting to get exciting!

IMAZ Day 87: Winding down...and up

Day 87: 30 minute run. That's it. Ran it after a good, pre-race massage so didn't go too hard (wouldn't have anyway). Felt much better than the other day; felt rested.

Picked up bike, all packed away nicely in its travel box. Using disc wheel. Still need to pack EVERYTHING else, but have lists galore, have stuff piled up and will get jiggy with that later. Car coming at 5:15am tomorrow for 6:55 flight - first class, thank you AA miles - to Arizona.

Ready to go; raring to go.

IMAZ Days 85 and 86: Tapering the taper

Day 85: A swim day, that's all. After the sluggish feeling, I thought giving the bike/run legs a rest would be a good idea and so I just swam, 45 minutes, and felt quite good. I swam in a 50M pool the following: 2x(200 and 8x100) with 30 seconds after the 200s and 15 seconds after each 100. This was designed more for rhythm than anything else, and all the times were similar (1:35-1:36 avg. for the 100s).

Day 86: 40 minutes.

That was it for today. 30 minutes on an exercycle and 10 on a treadmill. Good news was, it all felt pretty good. Bad news is that I now have this anxiety about eating since I'm not working out 3 hours or more per day. I'm trying to not OVEReat, though I'm pretty sure it's not an issue. Eating RIGHT? That's something else all together.

From here on in, the focus is on feeling good, fresh and getting the game face on. I'm beginning to spend more time visualizing the race and its elements, telling myself that 21mph will be easy and that 7+ minute pace will also be easy...and that the swim will be relaxing and not as cold as the 63 degree water temp might suggest.

But I believe I'm ready, and that's all there is to it.

Less than 5 days to go.

IMAZ Day 84: One week to go for the slug

In slightly warmer (than they had been) temperatures this morning, I decided to run 45-60 minutes that would include at least 3x1 mile on the track at race pace or just under, just to keep it fresh in my mind and muscles. Immediately upon running, my legs felt leaden. Humidity? Overdressed? Who knows. Ran easily to the track and proceeded with the workout. Looking at the 800M mark in each mile (with an easy one-minute jog), they went as follows: 7:02 VERY easy; 6:47 also easy, a bit more sweat; and 6:37, which I felt a bit but had no trouble with, a lot more sweat. I decided to do one more without pushing and without checking the watch at all until the end just to see if I could come up with race pace -- 6:57. So THAT was OK, but I could feel it in my quads and felt it later as well even after the w/d. Hmmmm. I didn't push the brick hard yesterday. Will chalk it up to lack of overuse or something and move on to the REAL tapering that starts...tonight.

One week -- well, actually less given the late hour -- to go. Yesterday and today were organization day and, excitedly, time to get the bike tuned, disassembled and packed for the trip (while on another trip). I'm going to use the disc wheel for this race given the lack of technical riding. Started packing and assembling the tons of gear needed.

One week.

IMAZ Days 82 and 83: Those were the days...

IMAZ Day 82: A swim, run and (yes, but easy) bike day. The focus was on the swim as I tend to taper for the swim much less than the run or the bike (since I don't swim as hard or as often as the other two). Total of about 3000 yds. consisting of 4 sets of 100-100-200-100 at faster than race pace and short rest and ending with a realtively fast 500. Felt very good throughout the swim. Ran 10 minutes very easy after and spun a very easy 20 minutes yesterday evening.

IMAZ Day 83: It's starting to feel like I never really trained...the memory of the 3-6 hour days is just that already. Trust the training...anyway, the day started indoors with a steady but fairly easy 80 minute spin (watched "Milk" -- not the easiest thing to watch while spinning) and followed (as a brick) with a 20 minute run at faster-than-race pace -- also felt very good, ran negative easily.

8 days to go. Stay healthy and uninjured. Do NOT believe my mind telling me I'm getting as big as a house.