Bike Crash Blues

It has been 4 days since I crashed my bike. I was very lucky that the results weren’t worse. I didn’t break anything, my bike has some scratches on the shifters, and my helmet needs to be replaced (happy it did its job). The worst of the damage to me is a very sore hand and shoulder and a moderately sore hip. The biggest problem is the crash has left me in a bit of a funk. I was struggling to find the motivation to get into my Ironman training before the crash. The week of the crash I was finally getting excited to get this training done. Then I crashed. I haven’t been able to do anything this week. I am hoping to get I a small run and bike (on my trainer, I can’t ride outside yet) this weekend. I have a feeling it will be another week until I can get in the pool. I want the road rash to heal a bit more before I start swimming again.

Before the crash I felt good, strong, skinny, and fit. Now I just feel blah. I am sure in another week I will feel better but right now I have the bike crash blues; and I can’t seem to shake them.

Pity party over; thanks for reading!

Coeur Sports Triathlon Kit Review

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about looking for the perfect kit for triathlon. I had some requirements of what I thought would make the perfect kit. You can read what they were here. Several people suggested I look at the Coeur Sports line of clothing. I got a one of their outfits and I am SUPER happy!

Here is why this kit is so great:

• The material is amazing. The pictures on the website don’t do it justice. It is perfect material because it is heavy enough that it doesn’t’ feel too thin but not so tight that it doesn’t breathe. It is the perfect mix of soft and shiny (if that makes sense). Some lycra feels like swim suit material; really shiny, smooth, and slippery. The fabric Coeur uses for the their kit is perfect. It is so thick that even though my top is white you can’t tell the built in shelf bra is black. It feels like very high quality fabric. It is such good fabric that even when I crashed my bike this weekend there isn’t a snag in my shorts. As you can see from the photos I went down on my hip pretty hard.

• The length of the top is perfect. It is long enough to cover the waistband of the short and it doesn’t ride up when you are on the bike. Once I heal from this bike crash I will run in it and let you know how it does there. My brick was cut short on Sunday.
• Pockets in the top are well sized. I can fit my iPhone (even in its big giant case) into the pockets. They are easy to get in and out of when you are on the bike.
• Built in shelf bra is great. I am not well endowed on top so this bra is all I need. If you had more up there you may need extra support but not much. This is a one of the best built in bras out there (and I have worn a few!).

• Length of shorts is perfect. Not too long or too short…just right!
• Leg grippers are good. They are the silicone ones (not my favorite) but they aren’t too tight so you don’t get sausage legs. They do the job perfectly!
• Waistband is excellent. It is wide and not too tight. I have named these the “Anti-Muffin-Top” shorts! I am not super toned around my middle and many shorts give me a muffin-top. These shorts stay up and in place but with NO muffin-top!
• Seamless chamois is incredible. They did it! They figured out how to provide the appropriate amount of padding for you while not having any seams!!! I have a problem with the seams rubbing on the saddle and my body. This chamois design is amazing! I only got to ride for less than an hour on Sunday before I decided to get acquainted with the pavement. As soon as I can I will take these out for a much longer ride. The goal is that this will be my kit for all day in Arizona; I have a feeling it will be!

The cost of the kit is $79.99 for each piece ($160 all in). Not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either.  Even though I only got to wear it for an hour I can attest to it’s durability first hand! This kit will last a long time!

*I am wearing a size medium on top and bottom (I am 132 lbs, 5’5″).

Ironman Arizona Training Week 1 of 17 – Crash!

Well I sit here ready to write my first week training summary and this was NOT the summary I wanted to write! I was planing to write about how proud I was that I did every work out on my plan. I wanted to tell you about my awesome new kit from Coeur Sports (I will anyway). I wanted to tell you about my crummy run on Saturday where my HR was really high and I couldn’t run slow enough to get it down.  Instead I will tell you about my bike crash (After I give you the weekly totals 🙂

As you can see I did everything… Except for my cycling which was cut short by some railroad tracks… I really wanted to do everything on my plan this week.  I wanted to start the training off right.  Oh well. At least I got my obligatory crash out of the way! Training wise, swimming was fine this week; nice Tower 26 swim on Wednesday and two other session that went fine.  My long run this week didn’t go so well.  It was supposed to be 3 X 15 min at just sub threshold HR.  It was really hot and and no matter how slow I ran I couldn’t get y HR low enough. Sunday was supposed to be my long ride… 5 hours.  I found a route that was relatively flat but I didn’t have to drive to.  I wrote this week about keeping things simple. So I found a route that went from my house and set off Sunday.

I was about 5o minutes into the ride when I came to a rail road crossing.  I got off my aero bars so I would have more control as I went over the recessed tracks.  I tried to make sure I took them at as close to 90 degrees as I could but with the way the road went and the tracks crossed it wasn’t possible to hit them at exactly 90 degrees. When I crossed it felt like my bike tire was pushed to the left and I went down hard on my right. I was going 19.3 miles when I crashed (see Garmin Data here)Luckily two VERY nice motorists stopped immediately. They got me off the road and helped me sort myself out. My finger and shoulder looked the worse but I could tell I hit my hip pretty good. I called Stuart and he came to pick me up. The good Samaritans were awesome! The man with a tuck offered to drive me home but I told him I was ok.  The two ladies with kids waited with me until Stuart arrived.  We loaded up my bike, went home to change my clothes and get my purse, them went to Urgent Care. X-Rays of my finger and a few band-aids and I was out of there (with some pain meds). Nothing was broken so there wasn’t much to do about it. Amazingly my new kit from Coeur Sports handled the crash like a champ.  As you can see from the pictures below I landed on my hip hard.  There is not a snag on my kit!! Not one! The material is amazing! Expect a better write up about the new kit very soon.  I am really happy with it!

I actually have a funny feeling of relief.  Crashing is part of riding a bike. I wasn’t riding carelessly but I just hit the tracks wrong. I kind of feel like I have gotten this part of bad luck out of the way so it will be smooth sailing from here on out… For this week I will take it easy.  I expect to feel worse over the next two days. My hip and shoulder are definitely out of whack so we will see how that plays out.

The tracks that got me!

It wasn’t broken but it looks pretty bad!

Worst of the road rash

This hurts pretty bad. But not a snag on my Coeur Sports kit!

My helmet did its job!

 

Friday Funny

 

Ironman Training Tips

As I get started on this journey to 140.6 I am trying to practice a few things so I don’t make this experience any harder than it has to be.

1. KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. Don’t make things more complicated then they have to be. One place I plan to do this is on my long rides. I love where I live but the problem is I am surrounded by hills and the course in Arizona will be very flat. Usually we drive to the beach and ride up and down PCH for long flat miles. I don’t want to spend the extra time driving to ride so I will be looking for new routes to use for my long rides that don’t require driving to.
2. Plan Ahead – Plan anything you can ahead of time. Make a meal plan for the week. Plan your workouts with your partner. I am very lucky because Stuart is essentially planning around my schedule, but we sit down on Sunday nights and make a plan for the week that includes dinners and workouts.
3. Prep for the next day – I try to prep as much as I can for the following day before I go to bed. That includes making lunch, setting out workout clothes, packing the car, pumping up the bike tires, etc…
4. Go to bed on time – I am working very hard to be in bed by 10:00 PM every night. The problem is when the kids don’t go to bed until 9:00 that doesn’t leave much time for Stuart and I to hang out. Often, we will end up at the kitchen table chatting until 10:30. I am doing my best to go up the wooden path to Bedfordshire by 9:30 so I can be in bed no later than 10:00.
5. Plan meals better – I am not doing great on this one but I am working on it. Specifically, make sure I have a good snack for my drive home so I can get my evening workouts in and eat dinner after. Also, make sure I have a good breakfast planned. Lately I have been making a quick egg white breakfast sandwich that I can eat on the drive to work.
6. Drink more water – I am really bad about this and it is something I need to do everyday, all day long.
7. Don’t beat myself up over missed workouts – I am only one person. I only have so much time. This training will not last forever so allow myself to skip if I need to. Some days, other things are a priority over Ironman training. Until this becomes my job (which it never will) I have to keep that in mind. I can’t spend the next 16 weeks miserable so if I just can’t squeeze something in, get over it and move on.
8. Something is better than nothing – I find this is a hard one to swallow sometimes. Almost all of my workouts are 1 hour +. Sometimes I just run out of time. I have to remember it is better to do all I can than to do nothing at all.
9. Thank everyone – I couldn’t do this without the support of my husband, kids, and family. I need to remember to thank them for allowing me to do this.  It requires a TON of time and they all have to make sacrifices so I can train.

17 Weeks and Counting

It starts tomorrow.  17 weeks of Ironman specific training. I am pretty sure (notice I am leaving the door open) that this will be my last 140.6 distance race for a long time (door still open). The volume of training required does not equal the amount of time I have to devote to training so this is not something I can’t keep up much longer.  It is a funny situation; I don’t want to keep doing these races because I don’t have the time to commit to the training to get better. I know many people are happy just to train an complete but I would really like to get better. Maybe once my kids are older and I get more flexibility in my work situation I can sustain this level of training; but for my situation it just isn’t feasible to do this every year.  I have all the support in the world from my husband for which I am super grateful.  But it is just too much to do this year after year.

My plan is to do a weekly re-cap of my training including video like I did when I trained for Ironman St. George in 2012. I am so happy with my decision to have a coach for this race.  We have been working together since February and we have built things up nicely.  I am going into this confident that she will get me to the start line healthy and ready to give it all I can. My biggest enemy in this is myself and mornings.  I used to love to get up early and train but that has become more and more difficult.  I can’t afford to sleep in because there is no way I will be able to sustain the training volume if I don’t get some stuff done before work.

So here we go!  I hope you follow along for the ride and see what I can make of Ironman Arizona 2014!

Friday Funny

Vineman 70.3 2014 Race Report

I had goals for Vineman and they roughly translated to

5:30-5:45 – great race

545- 6:00 – good race

6:00+ – meh race

 

My PR on this course is 5:32 and the last time I did the race I did a 6:45. Pretty big spread. I was very confident about my swim, fairly confident about my run, and very worried about my bike. I just can’t seem to make my bike go fast.

 

Here are the details if you just want the numbers

Swim – 32:57

T1 – 3:56

Bike – 3:12:27

T2 – 4:40

Run – 1:59:51

Total – 5:53:51

 

The day started out like any normal race day. Up, eat, use the bathroom, get over to the race… As we were walking into transition I realized I had made a HUGE error. I forgot my bike shoes! Not really sure how I managed that but I had a very early wave so I had very little time to fix my mistake. Luckily, we were staying close by and luckily I had my running shoes on! I racked my bike and took off running back to the room, grabbed my shoes, then ran back to the race. About 1.5 miles total with my wetsuit on from the waist down. Warm up done!

I got to my bike, finished setting up, got out to the water and had about 2 minutes to spare! Well it is better than standing around all nervous with the other ladies! I lined up in the water in the front since I swim fairly well. The start was great! I had a lot of clear water and very few issues with people swimming in my way. I just kept it strong and steady. I was really hoping for something speedy like a 30-31 min swim so I was a bit disappointed to see 32:57 (9/141) the on my watch when I exited the water. (The swim did feel a little long and by my Garmin it was actually just over 1.3 miles…) It was very cool to have our friends at the water exit as well as my parents. This was the first Tri they have ever seen me do. (Thanks Jo for snapping this picture)

I made it through transition and got on my bike. This is my weakness so I was very aware of how often I was getting passed. As usual, I got passed a bunch toward the end. Turns out, 41 women in my Age Group passed me. I hate that. I don’t know what to say about the cycling. It isn’t going well right now. I have a good chunk of time to fix this before Ironman Arizona.

I made it into T2 and out to the run course with no issues. Once I started running and got away from the people it was very quiet and kind of peaceful. My goal was to at least run a 9:00 mile average pace but secretly I really wanted to do 8:30s. I clicked off the first mile in 8:20 and I was very encouraged. I managed to stay under 9:00 min miles until mile 8, then the wheels started to fall off. There is very little shade on the course and it is very rolley. It wasn’t until I got out of La Crema that I started walking. I was feeling weak and a little light-headed so I was walking through aid stations and then a little bit more than that. I was drinking as much coke as I could and eating grapes. For the first 8 miles I had picked off a bunch of women in my age group. But once I started walking a few of them passed me back. There was a lot of leapfrog going on for miles 9-12. But once I made it to mile 12 I picked up the pace and did all I could to pass them all again. There was only one I couldn’t pass in the end. By the finish I had passed 15 women on the run to end at 35/141 in my AG. (Thanks Jo for the picture again)

Now, Stuart had started the day 12 minutes after me and we figured after the swim I would have a 25 minute head start on him. There was a very good chance he would catch me on the run. He didn’t catch me so after I finished I waited in the finisher area for him to come in. And I waited… I started to get a little worried. It was a good 30 minutes and he still wasn’t in. I eventually went and checked for his bike and grabbed my phone so I could see his times so far. His bike was there (with his stinky shoes) so I felt a little better. His bike times looked like he must have had a mechanical issue but there were some run times coming back. After using my mad math skills I guessed what time he would finish and waited out on the course with our friends. Finally he came running in; smile on his face and everything! Turns out he had run over a drill bit and had a bit of drama getting it fixed. You can read his blog about that!

This is a fabulous race. I would recommend it to anyone! But for me, I have to be honest at this point; if it wasn’t for the fact that I am signed up for Arizona, I would happily hang up my tri bike and call it a year. I am finding less and less motivation to keep doing these races. They are very complicated and so much work. I will get my act together and get the training done for Arizona, but after that I am not sure how many triathlons will be in my future. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind!

 

Vineman 70.3 2014 Race Goals

I am going back to Vineman 70.3 this upcoming weekend. I had my best ever 70.3 race there in 2011 and it would be really nice to come close to that time again. My times in 2011 were as follows:

Swim 0:31:37

Bike 3:03:05

Run 1:51:10 (8:30/mile pace)

Total time with transitions – 5:32:25

 

I would really like to say I think I will go faster this year but I am not sure I can. Below are my goals for this year:

Swim < 0:31

Bike < 3:00

Run < 1:58 (9:00/mile pace)

 

If the heat stays away I think these are reasonable goals. Hopefully, like 2011, I will shock myself on the run and pull off another 1:51 (8:30/mile pace) but I am trying to set realistic goals. I have been training hard for this race but you don’t always know how it will come together race day.

The biggest motivator (as always) will be Stuart. He starts two waves after me, 12 minutes later. It is reasonable to assume I will swim 15 minutes faster then him (even though he has been tearing it up in the pool lately!). That gets me on the bike with a 25ish min headstart. I would have to have a mechanical in order for him to catch me on the bike so it will come down to the run. Will he be able to chase me down? With the way the course is laid out and the timing of it all I won’t see him coming until he swats me on the butt as he passes!

Wanted: Perfect Triathlon Kit

I have a proposition for any manufactures of women’s triathlon apparel; make me your guinea pig. I am searching for the perfect triathlon apparel for long distance training/racing. I am just about to start my Ironman Arizona specific training and I have a LOT of training ahead of me. Therefore I have a LOT of opportunity to test your stuff! Use me to test your products and write reviews on your kit. It is a win-win situation! You will get feedback on your kit and hopefully I will find the perfect kit for race day. Feel free to contact me with any opportunities to test out your kit! Rebecca.Korb@gmail.com

You won’t get anything if you never ask…