Stress Fracture????

Do I have a stress fracture in my left shin?

Coach/Dr. Rob says that shin pain with 7-10 days of rest and no improvement usually equalls a stress fracture. But the amount of cycling I do clouds that absolute, so it could be just really bad shin splints.

Either way, I'm in pain and I don't like it.

And It's September

I used to count the weeks out till this race by the turns on the pages of my calendar. And now today is on the same page as the race. I don't know why that makes it more real than anything else. But for some reason it does.

I've marked the DAYS to the race now and we're at 13.
13 days till I am an Ironman.
13 days until the finish line is only 140.6 miles away.
13 days until I purchase by Ironman and 140.6 stickers for my car.
13 days till I can wear an Ironman jacket.
13 days until I finish the most daunting and physically draining time of my life.
13 days until I do what no one would have ever expected me to do.
13 days until I have to stop eatting like a horse.
13 days until I can spend time with my friends on the weekend.
13 days till E and I have free time to go camping.
13 days until my friends and family can stop hearing me talk about it.
13 days until I can get the Ironman tattoo.

Wow. I'm tapering for an Ironman.

C-Beyond VS VisionQuest

So E and I went to the Chicago Tri Expo on Friday night. There are always awesome deals at the Expo so we went to pick up some cheap stuff.

I ended up with free compression socks (E stole one pair from my package) and a free visor from Infinit. Pretty sweet. Ran into a slew of folks we know, too. It's always fun to be there, around so many fun fit folks.

So we were there meeting Aaron, a friend of K.R.M. and the organizer of C-Beyond, a group that finds guides for visually-impaired athletes. I found out about the group from KRM and decided it's something that I just have to do next year. E is way on board, too.

This IM training stuff is super-selfish, so doing this for someone else... to give back, is important to both of us.

We ran into some of the VQ crew at the expo and said hello. Then explained the C-Beyond idea.

Literally, no one understood why we would want to do such a thing....
"Ummm... wouldn't that slow you down?"
"Riding a tandem bike is like riding with steel for pedals."
"So if they're too slow and they're pulling you down in the swim, can you just cut the tether?"

I mean, really people? You are so totally self-absorbed that you can't even IMAGINE helping someone cross the finish line at a triathlon or running race? REALLY???

C-Beyond - 1
VQ - 0

We met up with Aaron from C-Beyond (who is awesome by the way). And went to dinner at Jane's. She's also awesome, genuine, and just pain interesting. No one talked about how much training their doing or how fast they went... it was just normal people talking about normal stuff. With a blind joke thrown in here or there.

Real dinner with real people...
C-Beyond - 2
VQ - 0

C-Beyond wins in the "real people" department. Hands down.

17 Days... "Good Run"

17 days to go.

I guess I'm supposed to be really excited. But for some reason I'm really calm about the whole Ironman thing. Kinda funny. I've been freaking out forever about it and now I'm kinda chilling out.

Going to try the left shin out right now. Saying a little prayer the left shin holds up. Rob's been really great this whole time, but I feel like a fat-ass not having run for like 5 days. I just want to get back on the horse! Or running shoes, I guess.

So going to give it another shot. I'm hoping it will be good and will put me in a great mood for the rest of the night! Yippee!

Chanting in my head, "Good Run" "Good Run" "Good Run." Here's hoping.

Worried about putting weight on, too. But that's for another post.

"Good Run" "Good Run" "Good Run" "Good Run" "Good Run" "Good Run"

19 Days

19 Days to go. I can't believe it. It's so surreal.

I feel like I should FEEL more fit. I'm just exhausted really. It's just crazy that it's possible I'm fit enough to do this race. Especially naked, I just don't feel thin or fit enough. I don't know when I'll actually believe it.

Went up to Madison Friday night with M and stayed at a super-nice hotel. We got KFC when we got to Madison and were both hurting the next day from it (gross). We thought the swim started at 7 so we got up early and got to Monona Terrace at 6:30 or so. Turns out the swim didn't start till 8. Oops! But it was nice to get some extra time before the swim started.

The swim start is a bit crazy. As I'm sure it will be on race day. Everyone files through this little shoot and you cross the timing mat before you get in the water. Then they hit the gun and it's so crazy. People were a little nicer b/c it wasn't the race, but it was still a little crazy. Race day is going to be insane. The first loop was boring, but I got in a groove and it was a pretty good swim overall.

The second loop was better b/c I could think, "Ok, just two more turns and this is over." Pretty sweet. I'm going to try to stay closer to the buoys for the race. I started swimming out to sea a little bit on the second loop. I had no idea how well I did in the swim until I got the results Sunday night. 1:24. Not bad. It could be a lot worse. And if I pick up the pace I could get out of the water closer to 1:20 or 1:15. We'll see. No pressure.

Got out to Fireman's Park and everyone but J had bike issues. H had a broken clip, M had rim problems, and I got a flat in the first 5 miles. Kind of a mess of a morning.

Didn't feel good on the first loop. Just tired. For some reason I felt much better on the second loop. Marty always kills me on the ride, and at the end of the second loop I finally caught up to him b/c he had a flat. So we rode in together.

I was supposed to do a 1:30 run, too. But the shin splints have just wrecked me. They were sore all the way home. Just my left shin.

E was in IN for the weekend so I decided to make Sunday a Kara Day. Best decision I've ever made! Slept in till after 9 and it was a BEAUTIFUL day. Got a paper, ate breakfast outside with my paper, went to Target and Jewel, got goodies for the bookclub sundae party... vegged out. It was fantastic. Somehow this Ironman has taught me how to relax, I didn't think that was possible.

Got a massage from MMcCracken. Whoop Whoop! He's fantastic. My shoulders are a mess from the swim and being in Aero for so long. We're going to do a longer massage before the race. He's so good.

Talked to Rob yesterday about the shin splints and our game plan. Really the only treatment for shin splints is rest. Which is not ideal for my goals right now. Bummer. So I'm taking tonight off from running and Tuesday off entirely. We'll see what happens on Wednesday. Going to try to run again with three days off the legs. Here's hoping.

The idea is to go into the IM maybe a little bit undertrained but healthy. Instead of trying to squeeze in some long runs and going into the race injured or not recovered fully. So I'm following instructions and taking it easy. Feels so weird.

Bonus: I get Tuesday morning off!!! Whoop whoop!

Still hungry all the time, but have to watch the calorie intake with the reduced workout volume. Boo.

22 Days, but who's counting?

So Ironman sent out the athlete email for Ironman Wisconsin today. This freaks me out. I wasn't really nervous before. But now I am really nervous. I read every word of all 37 pages.

My favorite line from the Athlete's Guide: No form of locomotion other than running, walking or crawling is allowed.

Hysterical... Kinda.

So I must be ready for this. I've been training forever, doing all the right things. I was going to write "Eating all the right things" but that's not exactly true. But for the next 4.5 weeks I will be eating all the right things. But I've trained. I've put the time in. I'm tired all the time, I sleep like a rock, my swim is pretty darn good, my bike is strong and my run is kind of a hobble.

You can't be great in all three sports, right?

Decided to share a room with Mom/Dad and E for race weekend. This may turn out to be a big mistake, but it will save me lots of $$$.

OMG, the next 4 weeks are going to be the longest EVER....

Chicago's Finest at 5am

So I have the ridiculious job of opening VQ and starting the 5am workout on Tuesdays. It's a miserable job, but I get my intesity ride out of the way and have Tuesday nights off. Kinda sweet.

My bike was at E's house b/c I got home so late on Sunday night and went right there. And he couldn't bring it over b/c my diva of a bike needs a special contraption to fit on the Jeep rack... she's so needy. So last night we decided to get up early and go to his house, put my bike on my car so I could make it to VQ by 5am.

So we had to get up at 4:15, at the latest.

The power in my house went off at 2am. I have no idea why I woke up and noticed it was out. Maybe there was a noise that woke me up. I never sleep well the night before I have to do something so early. So I was up at 2am, set my phone alarm and tried to go back to sleep. Not so easy.

At 4 I woke E up and we got ready in the dark. Getting ready in the dark can really make you sleepy. And quiet, for some reason. We were both up, I don't know why we were whispering. Funny.

So by the time we got to E's and got my bike on the rack it was only 4:15 or so, I was at VQ by 4:25.

So I could a) Go inside and start working out... but I would just have to get off the bike to set up everyone else's workout.
I could b) Go inside and get my bike set up and change, puts around and get ready for the workout for 20 minutes... but I could do all that while eveyone else was setting up.
Or I could c) Take a 20 minute cat-nap and get up at 5, when everyone else arrives.

I chose C.

Remember that VQ is in kind of a strange place. It's on Elston, just North of Webster. Which makes is definately commercial, not really the kind of place people take cat naps on Tuesday mornings.

My cat nap wasn't really an in-depth sleep. I had NPR on and was really only 80% asleep. But hey, I'll take what I can get at this point. Suddenly there is a rapping on my window. It's one of Chicago's finest.

Cop: "Good morning"
Me: "Hi"
Cop: "Are you Ok?"
Me: "Yea, just waiting to start the 5am workout"
Note - Remember VQ is a black door, kinda like a LA nightclub. It's not obviously a gym.
Cop: "Workout? Where?"
Me: "There"
Cop: "Ok, well it's about that time"
Me: "Great! Thanks for waking me up!"

A big thanks to Chicago's finest for checking on the passed-out girl in the bike jersey randomly asleep at 4:50am on a Tuesday morning in a random commercial part of town. Nice job.

"Anyone That Matters?"

So I was swimming Thursday after work with a particular VQ Clique. Well, two particular people of a particular VQ Clique. Whatever.

We're done swimming and VQer #1 says: "Will we see you on Sunday?"
Me: "Oh, you mean Pleasant Prarie? No, I'll be doing the long ride in Madison on Saturday. But I know a bunch of people doing that race, it should be a good time."
VQer: "Really? Who's going to be there?"
Me: "A bunch of folks, it should be fun!"
VQer: "No really, who's going to be there? Anyone that matters?"
Me: "Ummmm.... I don't really know, I don't know what 'Matters' means..."
VQer: "I mean, any real competition?"
Me: "Oh, that's who matters? Um, I guess not."


WHAT??? YOU ACTUALLY SAID THAT??? ANYONE WHO MATTERS??? MATTERS???

And you wonder why VQ gets such a bad wrap. Seriously.

4 Weeks Out

We're 4 weeks out from the race. OMG.

Big training weekend last weekend. We did the entire bike course on Saturday and then I was supposed to have a long run on Sunday. But the shin splints have returned, with avengence. So the run lasted 5 miles instead of 19. Bummer.

Left work a sec early on Friday packed for the weekend and ready to go. On my way to the bike shop by my folk's house to pick up the double-decker aero bottle deal - trying to get a bunch of liquid on my bike - as much as possible. So I called ahead and put the bottle on hold. Drove all the way to Arlington Heights in rush-hour traffic... wrong bike shop. Awesome.

Drove to another bike shop in Barrington to finally pick it up. Guy behind the counter was the squerrely guy from Taste of VQ a while back. Funny. He made some flirty comment about triathletes looking stupid. "When was the last time you went for a run after a 100 mile time trial?" Loser.

Anyway, I finally made it to Mom's house where she had an awesome dinner waiting - she's so great. By the time I got on the road it was after 8:30 - In Dad's truck that only has AM radio and ONE CD. Not awesome. It was a long 2 hr drive.

Finally get to the hotel at 11 - had a good time hanging with K and M when they showed up. Such fun girls!!! We decided to get up early and do the out and back with J.C. starting at 6. None of us had done that part of the course in a while. I didn't sleep that well that night. For some reason I had to get up like three times.

We were wheels down at Fireman's park by about 6:30 and headed to the out and back. K.H. is a BEAST! She's SOOO fast. We made it all the way to the Helix. Rode it up and down just to see how bad it's going to be. Could be worse. Should be fun on the way down!

Made it back to Fireman's park just as the rest of the crew was leaving. We made a pit stop, refuled and headed out for loop #1. K.H. was crushing it as usual and M.K. and I were chilling out together, chatting it up.

Suddenly this guy comes up next to us and is STARING at me. Usually guys just ride by without a word (which I think is also pretty rude, but whatever). This guy is looking at me and says, "You're looking really strong." What? Who says that on a bike? So I go to give the guy my best "Get the hell out of here" glare and I'm like, wait a minute... it's COACH ROB!!! In from Conn.! What? So cool! I introduce M.K. and Rob and then proceed to pick up the pace and ride just a bit too fast with him for the next 25 or so miles.

I was so excited to see him the adreneline kicked in and I wanted to do my best next to him. We chatted for a while - So much fun! He's so cute... in a dirty-hot kind of way. :)

Finished that loop, refuled and out for a second. Only 40 miles left! Whoop whoop! M.K. was convinced to do it again - she's a rockstar. Longest ride ever for her! I guess for me, too.

My Infinit fell off my behind the saddle bottle holders 20 feet from Fireman's park. So then I was short two bottles of nutrition. But I had cliff bars and Accel Gel, I said I would be fine.

The second loop was not nearly as easy as the first. it was brutal, actually. I was riding alone for the most part, and it was LONELY. But it didn't last long, we were done before I knew it.

Went for a short run post ride to see how the legs felt. The shins were a little tender, but not throbing or anything. So I figured I was safe. Felt great. I could have kept running for sure. I think the long ride stretched out the legs. We'll see how they feel tomorrow.

-------------------

That night Mom and Dad decided they would drop a car off for me 1/2 way through my loop on the run so I had hydration and nutrition for my 19M run. They're so great. I got them up at 5:30 and started the run. It was HOT already. I made it about 2M before the shins were SCREAMING. By the time I got to the first car (5M) I was done. A dissapointing run, but Rob says not to worry, so I'm trying to be alright with it.

Came home and took an ice bath = not awesome.

Mom and Dad are the best crew. They're just amazing.

Mom made an amazing dinner Sunday night and I got to take a LONG nap, so that helped the body out a bit. Nervous about these shins, but taking it one day at a time.

Hiccup

The shin splints are back.

Worse than they were before, these came on with a vengence. Got about 10 minutes into my run last night when I didn't have a choice but to stop and walk. Made it to the water fountain and walked back to VQ. A slow walk, too. Took me an hour total to finish the crap workout.

So frustrated. I thought I had these all taken care of. I was so careful. Stretching all the time... running slower. What a mess.

And on top of it, I think this Ironman thing is really messing with my head. I'm literally on a roller-coaster. One day I'm on top of the world, and the next day I feel like the world is on my shoulders. I'm a disaster right now. These shin splints really have me down. And I was feeling SO good.

I'm supposed to be running 19M in Schaumburg this weekend. But how am I supposed to run that far with these issues? The last thing I need is a stress fracture from trying to run through them.

Thinking about going to get compression sox at lunch today, or after work. I've heard they work and I can put ice packs inside them, too.

Such a mess today...

5 Weeks to go....

Weekend Report: 8/8 and 8/9

I had a chicken salad for lunch on Friday and it made me so sick I had to go home early from work Friday. I was sick all night with major stomach pains. Had some chicken soup and ravioli for dinner and tried to hydrate for the 100M ride Saturday with the girls.

Saturday morning my stomach was feeling better and I went to VQ at 5am ready for a long ride with the girls. We were going to drive to Mendota together to do the ride… but the weather was terrible. T-storms were being called for all morning. Got to VQ and the girls all decided not to go. So I stared the drive to Mendota on my own. About 45min into the drive it started POURING rain. And my stomach was bothering me again.

I decided driving 2 hours by myself to ride for 5:30hrs in the pouring rain (and lightning) was not worth it. So I turned around and went back home. Got went back to bed and got up… still raining in Chicago. Ended up having a nice day with E. (Got some credits for Sunday, not such a good day for E.)

Ran 17 miles on Saturday night, starting about 4… one of the worst runs of my life. It was SOOOO HOT. I stopped at every water fountain, had a hydration belt with me and was walk/running. But it was miserable. E left me about ½ way through, so I ran home by myself. Ended up with major chafing on my back from the hydration belt.

Drove to Schaumburg post B&M’s engagement party, it’s amazing how much things have changed in 5 yrs. E. drove and I slept (God bless him) we got there late and got everything ready for the race Sunday morning.

Up at 4 for the Bangs Lake Olympic Distance Sunday. Weather.com was calling for 100 degrees and ridiculous humidity. Awesome.

Got all set up in transition and was feeling really good. Told everyone around me that I knew, a bunch of VQ tasters – so fun! That this was just a whatever race… I just want to have a good one before IM. No puking or flat tires or terrible runs. That was really the only goal.

The swim start was really fun. Saw a bunch of folks I know and haven’t seen in a long time, had some laughs and tried to figure out what buoy we were supposed to swim around. The swim start was a beach start so I did some of the dolphin dives Charlie taught us. Kinda fun. And got some of the girls out of my way.

The swim was great. I was crusin’ just watching the other girls kind of right behind me so I didn’t swim out to sea. Went around the buoy and apparently there had been a wind at our back. Now it was right in my left ear. Every time I tried to breathe left I got a big shot of water in the mouth – not awesome. Then some chick kept trying to swim up on me. I just couldn’t shake her. And she was going sideways. So I finally spotted where we were getting out and kicked it up a notch. Dph from Taste (she’s awesome) passed me handedly so I tried to follow her head for a while.

There was a ½ mile run from the swim in to the transition area… random, but let me get my head on straight. It was already hot. Transition was short and out on the course. Picked up speed right away. Eric had told me, “You’re the 25th woman out.” Which didn’t really mean anything on the bike course b/c there were duathlaon folks out there. So I stopped counting how many I passed. Two women passed me handedly and one or two guys, but I kept to myself and tried to focus on turnover. It was WINDY!!!

Second ½ of the bike I picked it up b/c I was feeling really good. Drank a bottle of water, ¾ a bottle of Infitit and ½ a bottle of Gatorade. Started to get a bit of a cramp so I slowed down on the fluids.

Came in fast off the bike and hit the run. Thank God I bought the hand held bottle and filled it with GT Endurance, it was SO handy to have… the run was SOOOOO HOT. Cramps for mile 1 and 2, as usual. Mile 2 to 3 was BRUTAL. Uphill on blacktop in the beating sun with no end in sight. Rachel caught me and asked where the turn was… Not too much further I said. Then she went screaming past me not long after!

Saw a bunch of folks I know out there and tried to cheer them on. The way back was WAY easier than the way out. And I was really surprised by how good I felt. I picked up the pace – couldn’t catch Rachel, but it was fast for me with the heat. I was actually singing and talking to people, cheering them on all the way back. So fun!

Came in feeling really strong. I had been hungry the whole race (E. threw out my PBJ b/c he thought it was days old). So I got some chow and hung around for awards. 2nd place Athena and a PR! Not so bad with the wind and heat. Feeling really good about it. 3:00 flat. Solid time.

Had to do a 4 hr ride post race and figuring out a time was agony. E.’s parents were in town and we were at my parent’s house so we didn’t want to offend either. It was WAY too hot out to ride outside without support so I decided to do 4 hrs at VQ – Indoors. Not awesome, but the best choice really. Had lunch with my folks then headed back to the city. E drove and I slept again (he’s so great).

He dropped me off right at VQ and I did 2 hrs while watching Hair the movie and another 2hrs watching Basic Instinct. Right at 3:55 E texts me that he and his folks are getting fro-yo at Anthony’s so I grabbed the bike and met them.

It was funny seeing their faces as I pull up on my tri bike all geeked out. They had never seen me like that – funny really. We had icecream and then I finally got to go home! Yippee!

Overall, a great weekend. Kinda crazy with all the changing of workouts, but Coach Rob is awesome. I’m such a pain in his as* right now, but he’s so good about it. He’s fantastic.

Echo made the Inc. 500 list today. A very exciting day for Echo and my career really. Time for a 50 minute run and some more work tonight. Ironman bound, baby!!!

What A Weekend! Back On Track!

I CAN TOTALLY DO THIS!!!! :) This weekend was an absolute confidence builder. Awesome!!

E came up to do the course with me on Saturday morning and he went out WAY too fast. He had no idea that the back course of the loop is killer hilly. But he figured it out on loop 2 -- I had to wait for him! But it was good b/c it kept me from pushing too hard. Came off the bike feeling amazing.

The Infinit is AWESOME! Drank a bottle an hour -- or 2 scoops -- it's a little thicker than I am used to drinking, but it tastes pretty good and I was killing it at exactly one bottle an hour. I didn't get hungry until mile 60! And I only got hungry then b/c I was talking too much and not drinking enough. It is so much easier to pay attention to the bike when I'm not worried about stuffing my face with food the whole time!

Stopped by C&D's BBQ on the way home. They have such a nice quiet life. I'm kind of jealous in a way. But I do dig the city life, we'll make a change soon enough - then to my folk's house and crashed there. Eric was beat.

I kinda wanted to do the 1/2 in the morning but hanging with the fam was really good. We slept in and went to mass and mom made us a HUGE breakfast, it was awesome. Of course, we were hungry 2 hours later. Spent the day getting E ready for his big golf outing with the owners - so exciting.

Got back to the city and started the 15 mile run Sunday night about 6:30. Felt GREAT! Got new shoes (fitted by M*diggity, awesome) and my shins were fine, legs felt good, and kept a solid 10min pace run/walk the whole way down. Picked it up on the way back, was donig about 9:45's. Felt so good.

It's amazing that my body can handle all this. 4 yrs ago I was literally running from Addison to Belmont and that was a triumph... That I can physically do all this, it's just amazing.

So I know I can do this race! I did more than 3/4 of the bike and more than 1/2 the run this weekend and I could do it all again today. It might not feel quite as good, but I could do it.

This IM training stuff is really more about mental preparedness than anything else. And I can't wait to hear them call my name... "Kara Smith, You are an IRONMNAN." Holy crap.