"Self education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is."
Isaac Asimov
This past weekend I set out to prove to myself I am ready for my first Ironman 70.3 race at the end of this month, in Raleigh. The plan was to ride 50 miles on the bike Saturday morning, run a 5K race, as part of the Frederick Running Festival, Saturday night. Sunday morning we'd run the Frederick Half Marathon and collect our medals for a long training weekend.
Friday night I went to bed early in preparation of the awesome weekend. Saturday morning at 6:30am we set out on our bikes. Unfortunately, we ran into trouble quick. One guy broke his master link within the first 6 miles. We were a rider down quick. We continued on for 38 miles over mountains, steep inclines and various local towns. The ride was going great and I climbed two mountains, for the first time ever. The climbs didn't go well, I learned quick I need to start climbing more to be in Lake Placid shape.
Sadly, I also found out I need to take better care of my nutrition on the bike. About 35-38 miles into the ride I got severe cramps in my quads! Cramps so bad I couldn't pedal. I had not been eating, I had not been drinking and I forgot to take my salt sticks. All my own doing and my own stupidity. "Train like you race, race like you train," my friend Ginny says. I'll start to heed this advice. I called for a bailout ride to take the drive of shame but friend continued on. Within ten feet he managed to blow both of his ties and needed to come back for a ride. We see these events as an omen and obviously we were supposed to stop our ride thanks to fate!
Saturday night, I went to run the "NutJob," 5k. The first two miles went great! However, the 3rd mile proved a challenge. My quads cramped again, for the third time this week. I had to do a trot/walk back to the finish. I ran a 34:29, officially. Not my best 5k, but still a race I pushed through adversity and finished.
Saturday night I went to bed early after laying out my run gear.
The morning of the half marathon was PERFECT! Sunny, in the 60's and no wind. The day would remain perfect. Learning from my cramping mishaps, I doubled up and took 2 salt sticks before the race and continued with two salt sticks every hour. It worked perfect and I had no cramping issues even with a hotter than expected race and a lot of sweat I had no cramping!
The other goal of this half marathon was to test my ability to handle Gatorade. Gatorade has become the drink of Ironman and in a pinch I needed to be able to tell if I could tolerate the drink. First, Gatorade tastes like shit, second, I can tolerate it if I have to drink it. I only drank on course Gatorade and I made it to the line. I also found out Powerbar Vanilla gels are by far the best gels! I love them. Easy to eat and more liquid than other options, I'll be using those for my long course racing. Last, Powerbar Energy Bursts are delicious! I could eat these as candy and I like the way they work. Also, they freakin' taste like candy, did I mention that before?!
Thus, the half marathon did what I needed it to do. I have my nutrition products I like and I have a loose framework for how I'll fuel. I'm also going to carry my own Skratch electrolyte mix instead of using Gatorade. But I'll get into all this more as I find out what I need to take in per hour.
The best part of the half marathon was running with my friend and his coworkers. I had the opportunity to help pace in some first time half marathon finishers. I got the feeling of giving back and the experience to remember what it feels like to conquer your first distance event! I feel like I upped my run karma!
Overall the weekend was great! I trained with my buddy and collected some hardware for the effort. I've found my loose fueling plan, now I just need to put my powers of OCD into affect and come up with a concrete plan to follow in Raleigh! I'm feeling good and confident for the first time! Now, I just need to start climbing on the bike so I can be ready for and tackle Lake Placid Ironman!
Thanks for reading! I'll post more later in the week!!
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