ironcheryl2018

Today was a super fun long ride. 53 miles at Carl Barton to celebrate a friend’s 53rd birthday. Big ride with lots of friends I’ve met along the way from many teams. Good times.

Managed to get my 3rd highest all time 90 minute power ride today to boot. Pretty remarkable after a fairly grueling week of IM training. Should have gone out a little easier and picked it up 10% second and third hour; but I always do it backwards. Gotta exercise some self-control and resolve this as I know it will help me at IMFL if I do.

No brick today and feeling really really good. All good signs. Hopefully can squeeze out a good 10 mile run tomorrow. Then a 4th swim and pilates to put the cherry on top this week of IM training.

Did my longest swim since coming back from the COVID “shut down” today: 3600 yards. By myself. Talk about mental training. Stayed pretty much on pace with what I was supposed to do. Proud of myself for just getting it done and then running 3 miles right afterwards. I’m really feeling in a good groove with my training. Hoping and praying IMFL is a go.

Oh what a journey it has been with my bike trainer. Just this year have I really started doing trainer rides “right.” I used to sit on my trainer for the full duration, but I would read, or look at my phone, or do anything except for think about riding the trainer. And my power typically never got over 90 or 100 watts.

But no more. Now I do exactly what my coach gives me and just pay attention to the workout. It’s a huge challenge. And the technology to make sure I have everything set up properly is a story that there isn’t enough time to tell. But now, I have my “old” bike Valencia permanently on the KICKR trainer, powertap pedals feeding into my Wahoo Element. It’s perfect. No more dragging the bike off and on the trainer.

And it’s so weird – I LOVE THE CHALLENGE of these super hard trainer rides. And it’s helping me get stronger and my power go up. I absolutely love it.

I write them out and track if I hit each segment and give myself a grade of how I did. Today was an A. I hit all the hard intervals and controlled them better than last week. Instead of starting out super hard and fading on the 2 minute intervals, I started with power a little lower and built up to the max power. And so my overall power was better this week than last.

I can assure you, the site of sweat on the floor is not something I had been seeing on trainer rides. So fun to see that I am getting better and stronger every week. It’s a journey……….

So this morning got up at 4:20 so I could be at Villa by 5 am to do my 3000 swim. To my surprise, it was a CSS workout. I had been doing endurance swims on Wednesdays and CSS on Fridays, but coach switched it up on me. For whatever reason, I always feel like I swim slower at Villa, not sure if the pool isn’t exactly the same length as Forestgate where I had been swimming or maybe because I’m swimming alone and no “draft”. But anyway, I was determined to do this. I stayed right on pace for the 8 100s. Then came the two 500s at CSS. Was a little off on the first one, but not bad. I used pull and paddles for the second and crushed it. Love toys. Anyway, really happy with that effort for day 2 of swimming with no squad.

Yesterday, my AG award from the Omaha Triathlon came in the mail. Because of COVID, there was no award ceremony at the Omaha Triathlon in July, so they mailed it. Coincidentally, USAT published a small write-up I did on Return to Safe Racing having raced in Omaha on their website: https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Triathlon/News/Blogs/2020/August/17/Triathletes-share-their-experiences-racing-at-events-with-new-safety-protocols

So feeling good about things even as Hurricane Laura is barreling toward SE Texas in the Gulf. Hopefully no power outages so I can do tomorrow’s epic interval trainer ride. Stay tuned………..

Completed a good week of training for IMFL last week; including a 67 mile ride and 4 mile brick on Saturday. That’s the longest I’ve ridden since IMAZ in November. Had a good long run Sunday morning, and then I headed into town for my first in-studio pilates session with Jacquelyne. So encouraged about this pilates training helping me with my hip and overall flexibility.

Today I switched up my swimming schedule and trained at Villa. The water was COLD; unlike the 90 something degree water I’ve been swimming in at Forestgate. So refreshing. I had the lane to myself. I was able to control my own pace and workout which was great. I was able to focus on my stroke instead of worrying about what everyone else in the lane was doing. Positive change.

So, put a couple of what I believe to be key changes in place in the past few days. Change can be good.

Comparison kills joy. Period. I know this, yet over the past several months, i have fallen into this cycle of constantly comparing my performance to other athletes around me. I’m not sure if it’s because there are no races to evaluate my own performance or improvement or exactly why I am doing something i know is so ridiculous. Why in the world would I compare myself to a 30 year old guy in the pool? Or a guy who is a foot and a half taller then me and can run an 8 minute mile? OK – any guy…… Or women who are naturally-gifted athletes, much younger than me, who have been doing this their whole lives?

My story is different. So there is no comparing what I do to what anyone else does. My end game is my goal, my journey. It’s very personal and I will achieve it. And it doesn’t matter if other people look at me and think she’s too short, she’s too old, she’s not a natural athlete, she’s not strong enough, she’s not thin enough. Not one thing anyone else thinks about me matters one bit. The only thing that matters is I keep focused on my goal and I work my ass off to get there. Because the one thing I know for a FACT (because I am old) is that HARD WORK trumps natural ability every.single.time.

While I rarely miss a workout, one thing I have fallen into is not giving 100% to each one. So going to focus on challenging myself to do give each workout my full attention.

I am going to ditch posting my workouts on social media and stop looking at other people’s data online. I am going to worry about my data, my goals and my dreams. Don’t get me wrong, I wish everyone else the very best. I just don’t want to feel bad about myself because I am not doing what they are doing. This realization has also made me think that I may have made some people feel bad with my posts. And that makes me feel awful and terrible. So from now on, I am going to blog about my journey, but leave social media for puppy posts.

I have five years to reach my ultimate goal. Seems like a long time but I know it really isn’t. I am going to take advantage of every day I have on this journey. If there is anything that is not bringing me joy on this journey or is making me feel bad about myself or forcing me to compare myself to other people, I am going to eliminate it. So I have some changes to make. And that’s OK. Sometimes you just have to say “this doesn’t work for me” and move on.

Time for some real change. And I’m ready. I can. I will. End of Story.

Haven’t posted since May. Coronavirus has turned 2020 upside down. I was supposed to race once or twice a month this year. I was supposed to go to the Legacy Tri and meet up with my USAT Foundation Ambassador teammates. I was supposed to go to Hawaii 70.3. I was supposed to race at the USAT Age Group Nationals. I was supposed to do super fun local races like the Sylvan Beach Tri and River Cities. But, everything has been postponed or cancelled.

There is no complaining because every person on the face of the earth is dealing with tremendous loss and grief. The death and sickness are heart-wrenching. But I believe the loss humans are feeling from losing touch with the people they love and the loss of doing the things they love is equally devastating and sad. Doing everything I can to hang on and keep training so those endorphins keep flowing through my veins.

The most devastating incident this season was on June 25th. I went to sleep that Wednesday night with the car all packed to drive to Lubbock for the 70.3, one of three IRONMAN races this summer that were “supposed to happen.” That week, COVID numbers in Texas started to rise rather abruptly after what had appeared to be a “recovery” period. Mike Reilly was going to call the race. He drove two days from California to Lubbock. I woke up Thursday morning. I had already decided I wouldn’t be looking at Facebook because there was so much controversy even among the athletes on whether this race should happen or not. I woke up to a text from my coach telling me she didn’t want to see me get in the car and drive when the race had been cancelled. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. Cancelled. Wow. I was so mad. I couldn’t talk to anyone. Or post on Facebook. I was just mad. So I unpacked. And pouted. And then I decided I was going to do a 56 mile ride on Saturday and get a PR. So I went out to Carl Barton Jr. Park and did a 56 mile ride in 3:01; an all time PR for me. My husband met me at the “finish line” and brought me a pink iced doughnut.

Happy with the PR but still disappointed, I decided to find a race. USAT had sent out an email with a list of all sanctioned races. So that next Tuesday, I laid in bed and clicked through to race after race, looking for one that wasn’t “virtual” or “canceled” or “postponed”. After dozens, I came across the Omaha Triathlon. The website said it was a go, but I didn’t believe it. So I emailed the race director. A few minutes later at 8 pm, he emailed me back “Yes, it’s on.” So I replied, “I will be there.”

I grew up in Omaha. Lived there for 20 years. Went to grade school, high school and college there. Gave birth to my first two children there. My sister and her family still live there. Hell, I was Miss Omaha 1984. So, seemed like this was meant to be.

Standing Bear Lake where the race is held is just 3 miles from where I graduated from high school. I don’t really remember this lake or ever going there oddly enough.

Now to tell my husband that I want to drive 14.5 hours each way in 3 weeks for an Olympic race. I reminded him he knew I was crazy when he married me.

So I signed up for the race. I didn’t tell anyone because I was afraid it would be cancelled. Every day, I started my morning by checking the race Facebook page and website to make sure it was still on. Even the day we left, I kept looking. The news showed that Nebraska was one of the only states in the country where COVID numbers were not rising.

The drive to the race was revealing. Every time we stopped, the “mask” situation was different. First stop, everyone had on a mask. By the time we were in Kansas, we where the only people in the gas station with masks on.

I knew this race experience was going to be a far cry from something like IRONMAN TEXAS. But I didn’t care. It was a very small race; about 150 participants. They asked us to check our bike the day before; not typical for a short race, but was part of Return to Safe Racing. Packet pick-up was literally picking up an envelope off the ground. Three bikes to a rack. All checked in.

Got a little freaked out when I saw the race course. It had been defined as flat. The course  was the four streets around Standing Bear Lake. But the total elevation was 1800. That’s quite a lot for a girl from SE Texas. I brought my “new” QR bike without even thinking about it. This bike has synchro shifting which I really hadn’t mastered yet. The one time I had ridden hills with it in Texas was a bit of a mess. But nothing to do now but race.

Race morning, the weather was amazing. July 19th in Houston is a miserable mixture of humidity and heat. The air here felt so cool and fresh. We parked about a mile from the race site and walked. The path along the way was filled with fireflies; it was so cool.

When I got to transition, I had to put on my mask. There was a line as they were taking our temperatures to be allowed in. There was a lady 3 athletes in front of me without a mask. When they told her she couldn’t enter without one, she turned around and screamed “does anyone have a mask I can have.”  There was no parking close to the race site, so going back to the car to get a mask was a big problem.

It was weird to have on the mask in transition but got everything set up and left transition to wait for the swim start. The start was a single file line. We had to stand 6 feet part and they put us in the water 15 seconds apart. The girl in front of me said “I’m slow, you will pass me.” I remember thinking, how do you know my pace? But she was right, I jumped in and passed her. I never saw another athlete. About 100 of the athletes were doing the sprint. So only 50 of us doing the olympic. We went in first. So very different from TriWaco where I got in and was pummeled by 100 of my competitors. So peaceful. And the water was cool. I had to keep reminding myself I was racing. Got out and ran to my bike to start this ride.

Two of the roads on this 4 street loop where serious hills. I mean serious. So I was either going 9 mph or 32 mph. I was struggling to figure out this synchro shifting, but by the end of the race, I had completely mastered it. I was riding up the worst hill with a father pulling his disabled son. That kind of inspirational sight is really one of the things I miss most about racing. On my fifth loop, it started to rain. Not hard, but I don’t ever ride in the rain. Much less ride in the rain going 32 mph downhill into a sharp turn where I could fly into the police car blocking the street or the cornfield. But I did it and conquered some fear.

When I got off the bike, I thought I had done terrible because I was comparing the bike split time to the one other Olympic race I have done. That was TriWaco, which is a very flat and fast course. But I kind of knew “no PR today” so I went into the run with the attitude “I am going to just enjoy this.”

The trail around the lake was beautiful. The sky was overcast and the air still felt pretty cool. I was going by other athletes and they were greeting me and I was encouraging them. Had a conversation with a guy doing his first triathlon ever. I knew it would not be his last because he was clearly having a ball. I miss that a lot about racing. The aid stations had bottled water but there were still volunteers there to encourage us. As I got to the last mile of the race, I slowed way down. I didn’t want the race to end. My coach even commented once she saw my data that I was “jogging.”

I crossed the finish line. A volunteer told me to pick up a bottle of water and one of the brown paper bags on the table. Inside was a banana and my race medal. No cheering crowds. No high fives. No spectators. But I still felt like a very lucky girl.

Turns out, I won my Age Group. My bike time wasn’t really that bad. Swim was pretty good. OK on the run, I shouldn’t have jogged. But I GOT TO RACE!!!!! It just felt great.

It was fun to be in Omaha. I got to see some of my family and it’s always fun to go back to the place where you grew up. We drove through Kansas on the way home and stopped and had dinner with David’s mom for her birthday.

Not sure when/if I will be able to race again in 2020 or when I will race again. I know I will someday but for now, I am going to keep training and trying to find small races that are happening. I can say for sure, I felt safer doing the Omaha Triathlon then I do going to the grocery store. The race team that put on this race followed the guidelines USAT set forth for return to safe racing and triathlon is a contactless sport and it was safe for sure.

My coach is encouraging me to take this time to get stronger and work on things that we don’t always have time to work on. That seems to be very sound advice. In the rear view mirror, maybe what is happening in 2020 will seem more clear. Because it’s very difficult to understand right now.

So this should be day 6 of my 31 day | 200 mile challenge. Instead, I just need to say that I was wrong. So when my coach told me this was a terrible idea, she was mainly concerned that I would get hurt doing this crazy challenge. Ramping up from the amount of running I had been doing to running this much and every day would just be too much on my ecoskeleton. And it turns out she is pretty dang smart. I promised her if anything started to feel weird, I would stop.

I woke up Monday and I really felt the 12 miles from Sunday. I did yoga and a tether swim; thought that would shake everything lose and I’d be OK. Went out to run about 5 pm and was starting to feel some weird things in my hip and legs. So I did what I very rarely ever do, I stopped my watch and walked home. Sent my coach a text saying “you were right.”

Now, I am super sad about this. I know it was crazy, but I blame the ‘Rona. Doing this and then getting hurt and not being able to do anything, well that would just make me absolutely insane, so as much as it pains me, I’m pulling the plug on this one.

It’s the way I was built – I will need to come up with something else crazy to do to entertain my endlessly ever moving self. But this week I think I’m just going to do a hard reset and try to come to terms with the fact that I am indeed training for nothing except myself right now. And admit that this challenge wasn’t very smart and I was wrong.

 

Fun Fact: I live exactly 6 miles from the IRONMAN TEXAS swim start. So today’s 12 miles was there and back. Another glorious day : nice cool breeze and the trail I was on has a canopy of trees to provide shade. No land speed records going down; super slow pace keeping my heart rate around 130.

 

Feel grateful today for my good health that is allowing me to do this challenge. I run every Sunday and I love seeing so many more people out on the pathways walking, running and riding bikes; exercising and enjoying the beautiful day.

12% of the way there: 4 weeks from now I’ll be crossing the 200 mile finish line!!! WHOOP!

Since I rode 34 miles this morning, day 2’s 6 miles was technically a brick run. BEAUTIFUL day here in The Woodlands; 70 something degrees with a nice cool wind. Since I rode, didn’t start this run until about 10:30, but it was still very nice outside.

Did this run in the neighborhood and ran past the lots where we are going to be breaking ground on our new house in a few weeks. It’s just 0.5 mile from where we are living now.

Pace was actually a little faster then yesterday, I’m thinking because of my bike cadence, but that sounds too technical for me to really claim that analysis – LOL.

Happy to be healthy and outside on this amazing day. Day 2 – CHECK.