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Attention F4 Alumni! Over the past seven years, more than 2500 of you have aspired and perspired your way through assorted FastForward Programs, reaching amazing accomplishments from 5K to Marathon, Sprint TRI to Ironman, and more! During that time, you hopefully enjoyed our fantastic coaching and cutting edge training methodologies, and got in really great shape! From chatting with many of you recently, I know that life doesn’t always allow you the time or money to dedicate to formal F4 training, so NEW for 2012 I am offering a way to still enjoy some of F4’s most desirable social aspects and up to FOUR group RUNS per Program… all for $49/ yr. from Spring 2012 – Winter 2013. If at anytime you want to ‘upgrade’ to a formal program in order to receive the latest training schedule and learn from some of our great new coaches, then you can apply your F4 Pack fee to the cost of that program.
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Many FastForward athletes participate in three or four Programs per year, and enjoy good health, low burnout, and well-timed fitness peaks as a result of our well-designed year-round approach to endurance training in Colorado. As a way to encourage more of you to realize these benefits and to say thank you to those who’ve paved the way, I am offering an all new F4 Seasons’ Pass for $499/ yr., which allows for unlimited participation in any F4 RUN or TRI Program from Spring 2012 – Winter 2013.
So, here’s what you get for $499/yr.:
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Deposit Deadline is February 14th.
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A perfect day – Ironman Arizona Race Report
In November 2010 I volunteered at the Ironman Arizona (IMAZ) to get one of the slots for the 2011 race (the race sold out online in less than 30 minutes). With that, a whole year of training and practice races started – those that know me, know that I travel a lot for work and the last year was not different – 111 nights in hotels and ~ 100,000 miles in the air.
I traveled to Arizona on the weekend of November 13th with a rental car and got to Tempe the afternoon of the 14th. My home base was the Courtyard on Ash Avenue – about 5 blocks from Tempe Beach Park. Nothing was pointing to the Ironman at that time and I spent a few days with short training runs, bike rides and swims around the race site.
On Thursday I did the usual pre-race chores such as registration, merchandise tent as well as picking up Mom from the airport that evening. Friday got a little bit more serious with Jenn Downey and Katherine Dean joining the race team and the Athlete Dinner and Meeting in the evening. The remaining crew joined us (Scott Fliegelman, Jen Szabo and my wife, who probably endured the most challenging 52 weekends up to that point) during the dinner. Saturday was a practice swim in Tempe Town Lake, which was our first opportunity to enter the water. After the swim I was relieved that the water was not too cold (once you get over the first shock). The afternoon program featured double checking the race bags, bike and bag check-in at the transition area and trying to stay off my feet 
Race Day
Weather report 73 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny – what more can you ask for?
Final bike check – filled the bottles for the first 3 hours and topped up the Speedfil. Checked my tires and inflated them to 110 psi. You make a lot of new friends with a good pump in the transition area on race morning and at some point you just have to leave, otherwise you are the pump buddy for hours. Said my good byes to the team and headed for the water.
Swim (2.4 miles – 1:26:30) The swim was great – the gun went off and I settled into my rhythm. Mostly breathing to my left, as the sun rose to the right and reverse on the way back. The most interesting moment was as we approached the bridge, I could not see a turn around – well it’s 150 to 200 meters past the bridge. During the swim, I got a few close contact hits but nothing major. As I got to the stairs a volunteer helped me up and my wetsuit was stripped.
T1 (13:21) Had to enter the tent (no public nudity allowed at an Ironman) and boy – they are all so serious. Put on my bib shorts, jersey, socks and shoes and was out of the tent. Got sunscreen and went towards my bike, which was “parked” in row one. A volunteer was already grabbing my bike and handing it to me – full service.
Bike (112 miles – 7:51:13) Given that IMAZ is a three-loop course, the first loop was uneventful and fast – I averaged 15.2 miles over the first 38 miles and the weather was great.
On loop two, winds got added into the equation – it was a tailwind going out, which was nice given that there us a slight incline going out and a headwind coming back. I stopped for a bit at the special needs aid station to grab some Coke and Snickers from my bag. Trust me – that combination at mile 63 tasted like heaven . I also refilled my gels, blocks and salt for my nutrition strategy, which was ~350 cals per hour, plus one salt stick tablet every 15 minutes.
Loop three was a bad one – right around mile 90 a spoke broke in the back wheel. You can prep only so much (new tubes, new tires, race day tune up), but at the end of the day, we all are at the mercy of our equipment. I had to wait about 20 minutes for a new wheel to arrive (thanks to my angel on the scooter) and those were a long 20 minutes. I was so upset, that I went the remainder of the bike course at such a speed that you cannot tell the bike issue from the splits.
T2 (7:43) Much funnier group of people Had to use the tent again and switched into running shorts and shirt. I also put a special blister band aid on a hot spot on my feet. I also put on new socks. To show you how mushed up your brain is, I had to remember what I had to put on after socks (if you guessed shoes – that’s the correct answer).
Run (26.2 miles – 9:20:08) The run is also a three-loop course, which makes IMAZ very good for the spectators. Loop one was one of the best runs in my life – coming off the 112 mile bike ride I averaged a 15:23 min/mile. For me that is very fast (I was hoping (!) for a 16 min / mile). Everything felt good – I applied the same nutrition strategy as on the bike, something that had worked throughout all the long workouts during the season.
Loop two was where I started to have issues on the forefoot area of both feet. Since I left my blister band aids in T2, I did the next best thing and asked the medics on the course. That proved to be a mistake, as they put a gauze pad on my feet and wrapped the whole foot in a elastic band aid so that the band aid would not move. What happened in the next few miles was that I developed massive blisters under both feet and all over the heel cup.
We are talking golf ball size … every step became more painful as the run went on. I was overtaken by Katherine on the run course and tried to keep up with her (congratulations to her amazing finish), but I just couldn’t. Even Scott’s negotiation approach did not help. My feet were done and eventually we realized midnight was out of the question.
John Collins (the “creator” of Ironman) once said, “you can quit and they won’t care – but you will always know”. That was embroidered (thanks Mark Blackmer for an amazing job there) on the shirts I had for Mom and Esra and it became my mantra for the next & final 5 miles.
Scott Fliegelman, Mark Loehr, Joel Carabello (and later Jen Szabo) were walking / shuffling alongside me and we averaged a 25 min/mile (or even slower). Guys – I can never repay that debt.
I also had to give back my timing chip and sign a waiver that I’m officially not on the racecourse anymore.
The last 300 meters though made it all worth it. As I was heading for the finish line, Dave Downey from Boulder County Communications caught up with me (based on my speed not too difficult) and asked “what are you doing” – I explained I’m here to finish the 140.6 and that I’m heading for whatever is left of the finish line. His entire team had been working that event since Thursday and was breaking down everything at 1:50am, but they all came to the finish – thanks so much – that meant a lot.
Esra, Mom, Katherine, Jenn, Scott, Mark, Joel and Jen –they were all there. It made for a truly magic moment.
So – I might not be an Ironman by WTC standards (you have to finish sub 17 hours for that), but I did the whole distance (140.6 miles – 18:58:30). I’m a finisher …
After the race Once back at the hotel, Esra was kind enough to take photos of my feet – just to give you an idea how my last miles were.
The next morning I went (ok, I was driven) to the awards banquet and met Dave from BCC to thank him and the crew for their late night support. Dave said they took a video of my finish and would like to show it – wow – I did not expect that – he even introduced to “The Voice of Ironman” Mike Reilly who introduced the video onstage. As I found out later they also showed the video at the volunteer dinner, where it inspired a few people, too.
The “IronYear” in Review: Bring a blister kit with you on the run – the boy scouts weren’t kidding when they said “be prepared”.
You cannot go it alone – you need a team with equal dedication perseverance and pain threshold (for different reasons). In that my thanks go out to my coach Scott Fliegelman from F4, Jen Szabo and others from the F4 team. Jenn Downey and Kathrine Dean – my training buddies for making some of the long bike rides very enjoyable and so many others along the way. My mom for making the trip to Arizona – it doesn’t get easier to travel for her, but she did it anyway.
My wife, the most amazing person I know (after her morning coffee). I could have not done it without you. With me being on the road so much, you never once “barked” at my long workouts. You were there to help me along the way and to share the finish. I love you more than you know.
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Kailua-Kona Hawaii. Lynnda’s Ironman World Championship Race Report
The week before the race was unbelievable. The town was packed with “hard bodies” (and a few wanna-be hard bodies like mine!!). You could feel the excitement and anticipation in the air. It was really pretty cool! There were give away’s every morning at the practice swim – you just had to be in the right place at the right time (and I wasn’t always in the right place at the right time).
The welcome banquet, held the Thursday before the race, was pretty neat. Started off with some Hawaiian entertainment followed by race info - right as they got to the race info, the skies opened up and it poured rain and just didn’t stop. It was raining so hard no one could hear what was being said! Kind of a fun way to start the official race activities!!
OK…the race. WOW…what an awesome experience!!
The Swim
I’ve talked to a lot of Kona veterans and they have all said the swim was rough on race day. My strategy was to start about 1/3 back in the pack and stay to the left where it would be hopefully less crowded.
On race morning, I was one of the people standing in the water at the sea wall waiting to go out for the swim start. I didn’t want to go out too early because I didn’t want to tread water for 15-20 minutes before the canon went off. Then I saw that there were a bunch of kayaks out in the crowd and people were hanging on to them. So I swam out and hung on with some on my new BFFs (who had either been there a while or were scared because several of them were shivering…great!!). When the race announcer said 5 minutes to go, I left my new friends and moved away from the kayak. The next thing I knew the canon went off and the race was on.
To say it was the roughest swim I have ever done is putting it mildly – but I guess that is to be expected when you have 1900 people all starting the swim at the same time and it’s in the ocean. Except for the last couple of hundred yards, I was never more than an arm’s length away from a person in front of me or to the side of me, my toes were constantly being touched. The swells were such that it seemed like people magically appeared underneath you.
Although my strategy was to be on the left, I somehow found myself snugged right up to the buoys that were on our right on our way out to the turnaround. I think the current must’ve been pushing us towards them (or we were all sighting on them and naturally ending up by them). I got hit once pretty hard in the face on the way out (she apologized)…outside of that it was just sort of constant contact which made it hard to swim with good form.
As I approached the turnaround boat, I tried to move to the left which was the strategy that Scott and I had discussed. I got a little ways away from the right but was shocked to see that as we turned to go around the boat, we had to swim through sort of a little channel. It was like a funnel….all these people came around the boat turning to the right and we all had to swim through a much narrower space-you couldn’t swing wide which is what I was hoping to do. The contact back there was pretty brutal. I stopped once to check things out and my left hamstring cramped hard (which was probably due to me swimming with my head up too much). I reached down to grab it and just got pummeled…it was like salmon swimming upstream. I realized I couldn’t hang out there so I put my head down, got horizontal and started swimming – hoping that the cramp would go away. It finally did.
Swimming the mile back was a little less contact but the water seemed to be getting a bit rougher – I felt like I was swallowing more water and had a harder time seeing the buoys. I could tell we were making progress because, for most of the swim, you could see the bottom and could see that you were moving over it. I got hit hard in the head (he stopped to apologize and make sure I was ok). It did result in me popping up vertical and my right hamstring cramped hard. Dang it!! (at least I was now balanced as far as muscles that had cramped!!).
Off the end of the pier, I started to feel a bit dizzy/nauseous with the swells. I felt like I was either going to toss my breakfast or burp. I stopped to tread water for a few minutes and managed to burp a couple of times. I knew I had to get to the end of the swim so I put my head back down and swam on in.
When I got to the stairs I wasn’t feeling really great and I was so happy to be out of the water!
T1
I walked into transition, grabbed my bag and walked to the changing tent. Yes…Lynnda walked a transition – I was really not feeling great. A super sweet volunteer got me into a chair and helped me with my stuff. I cannot say enough about the volunteers in the changing tents – they were awesome. My T1 angel actually put my arm coolers on for me, had someone come put sunscreen on me, went and got me some Ironman perform to drink, helped me make sure I had done everything on the note that I stuck into my bag (things like: put chapstick in pocket, don’t forget HR monitor, eat a biscuit). She was amazing.
I did want to eat one of the biscuits that I had so I walked from the changing tent to my bike munching on the way. I felt much better by the time I got to my bike and was shocked to see a lot of bikes still in my area of transition…I was sure that my swim had been pretty awful and that my “less than fast” T1 had put me at the end of the pack.
The Bike
It was awesome starting the ride. The weather was gorgeous, the course was lined with spectators and I was in Hawaii doing the Kona Ironman!! I actually felt a thrill go through my body.
The temperature at the start was 77 degrees…it topped out at 96.8. It was quite humid but I didn’t think it was overly humid (you sweat a lot in Kona…no way around it). I was quite worried about drinking enough water so I took a water bottle at almost every aid station. And there were lots of aid stations. The bottle hand-offs all went well…probably because there weren’t that many people going through at the same time that I was.
Scott knew that I was concerned about the bike – it is the weakest area for me, is the longest part of an Ironman and, in Hawaii, can be the most brutal part of the race due to heat and winds. He had given me lots of “nuggets” to think about one of which was to remember that I would be riding on the “friggin Queen K Highway doing the Hawaii Ironman”!! Every time I got a bit bogged down, I would remember what Scott told me, look out to see the ocean and somehow things just felt better. I also tried to notice something special every hour or do something special every hour (like thanking a policeman for being out there keeping us safe or coming up with something witty/cheerful to say when I passed someone or finding an especially pretty flower along the way). I did actually have some conversations with some of the men….they would pass me on the downhill and I would pass them on the uphill. After a while, we got to know each other as we talked in the few minutes that it would take to pass each other.
Chrissie Wellington went flying by in the opposite direction right after I turned off the Queen K to head up to Hawi. I knew she wasn’t first – I had seen Julie Dibens go by already. The look of determination on Chrissie’s face was inspirational.
The last 10 miles up to Hawi were incredibly windy (if it had been a training ride in Boulder, I would have gone home…no, I would have called my hubby to come get me!!). Scott and my husband had both coached me regarding riding in the winds. I was riding with a “regular” front wheel (no dish to catch the wind); I tried to stay small on my aero bars; I tried to stay relaxed; I tried to lean into the wind (which worked until it seemed like gusts were coming from all directions). I cannot tell you how happy I was to reach the turnaround point in Hawi – phew! Now I just had to get downhill in the wind. ;o)
The downhill went better than I thought it would although I wasn’t very aero for the first 10 miles of it.
Then it was back to the Queen K….oh yeah….the “friggin Queen K and I am in Hawaii doing the Ironman and there is the ocean and even the lava is beautiful”. Yeah…that Queen K, the one with head winds/cross winds all the way back to Kona. ;o) Luckily we had some cloud cover when we were going through the worst of the lava fields. I could still feel the heat coming up from the pavement – and felt very lucky that we were not experiencing a blistering hot Kona Ironman day.
At mile 80, I thought about Kaitlyn and mentally thanked her for providing me with some inspiration/determination. Mile 100, was Karen’s mile. And then the countdown started. The longest bike ride I had ever done up to that point was 100 miles…and when I finished that ride I thought “well, I know I can do 12 more miles”. So now it was time to see if I could do 12 more miles.
I got to the Energy Lab road and made it through the runners that were going in both directions (in and out of the Energy Lab). Only 6 more miles to go on the bike and then I get to do the run…but oh how I wished I was one of those runners that was already done with their bike and most of their run.
And then, there it was, the turn to go back to transition. Woo hoo…I was done with the swim, about to be done with the bike and I was finally going to get to run!!
T2
I had 2 angels in T2…the guy who took my bike was so nice. I hadn’t taken my feet out of my shoes – to be honest with you I was a bit tired and I didn’t want to crash. I got off my bike and asked him if he would also take my helmet and he said sure and he would take my shoes if I wanted. So, off came the helmet and shoes and I ran into the changing tent. (yes…I ran this time and passed people along the way…it was a long run to the changing tents!)
In the changing tent, my second angel came along-those volunteers are just awesome! Once again I was helped out of bike specific stuff and into run specific stuff. I got thrown a little bit when I couldn’t find the vial of Right Stuff to add to my water bottles. I normally mix everything before the race but we had to turn in our transition stuff the day before. I couldn’t mix my nutrition bottles and leave them in the heat for over 24 hours so I had to mix stuff in the changing tent. Not finding everything that I had planned to find, threw me a bit.
I had a bit of race brain going on. I changed socks (my feet were pretty wet from the run into the changing tents) and then remembered that I had a hot spot on my left foot that I wanted to cover with body glide. So, had to find the body glide and had to take my shoe and sock off and then put them back on. Argh! I did eventually get out of T2 but it was a really long transition!!
The Run
Hurray….I finally got to do the run!! My husband was standing on the ramp as we ran out of T2. He was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t tell what it was…the crowds were already pretty noisy and I was pretty hyped up. So I just put my hands in the air to indicate how happy I was and kept running. He was trying to tell me that I had a shot at the podium – it’s probably good that I didn’t hear him – it was sort of nice to run without pressure.
I loved the first half of the run. I was feeling really, really good. Several times I caught myself running way faster than my target pace and had to slow myself down. I did remember that I had a vial of the Right Stuff on my fuel belt so I stopped at one aid station to add it to my bottles. A woman from my age group passed me and I was tempted to run with her but she was running a pace that was faster than my race plan. So I let her go … the important thing for me was to run my plan because I knew it would get me to the finish line.
I made 2 big errors on the run. The first was a nutritional error. My plan was to take a gel every 2-3 miles. I took one at mile 3 and it tasted awful so I blew off taking gels for the next couple of hours. I was hoping that the Carbo Pro in my bottles would do it for me. The second was my head lamp. 2 hours into the run it got really dark. They gave us glow sticks but they worked to sort of see each other coming not to light the way. My head lamp didn’t work. I was shocked and upset. I kept trying to get it to work and the darn thing just wouldn’t work. I ran with it in my hands for a couple of miles before I gave up on it and put it away. I reminded myself that you have to adjust on the fly and I needed to get over it. If need be, I would just find someone with a light and run with them. So on I went. Luckily they had some lights down in the Energy lab so that was better than I had hoped for. And, when I got back up to the Queen K the moon was out so that provided some light. But I wasted time and energy trying to make it work (probably the first indication that my nutrition was going downhill) and my pace dropped off as I was running pretty cautiously (I had heard lots of tales about people tripping and falling in the dark).
My nutritional error caught up with me coming out of the Energy lab. At first I thought I was just disoriented because of the lack of light but then I realized I was actually not too stable on my feet. Duh…what did I expect when I wasn’t taking in enough calories? I ate a gel at the next aid station and it tasted wonderful. I did another gel at the following aid station and every other aid station after that. The calories quickly turned around my feeling of instability and then I only had to deal with the darkness.
One woman that I had run a bit with when I was first trying to get my head lamp working caught up to me at an aid station. I asked her how her light was doing and she said great but that soon we wouldn’t need it. That we just need to get to those yellow lights we could see in the distance and that meant we were near town. Woo hoo!!! That meant I was really close and would soon be able to see!
Before I knew it, I was at the yellow lights and then I was in town and then people were yelling at me that it was all downhill after the turn on Palani and then I was on Palani. And then Kuakini, and then Hualalai and then….on Alii Drive! I cannot describe the feeling that I had turning onto Alii Drive. There were so many people there and you could feel the excitement in the air. Everyone cheers for you – it is the most awesome thing. I broke into the biggest smile that I have ever run with and it stayed on my face all the way to the arch. I will never forget those moments – they were magical.
And then…it was done. I had completed the Hawaii Ironman. I had completed the toughest Ironman there is. I had done the longest continuous swim of my life, the longest bike ride of my life and the longest run of my life. I was and will forever be an Ironman.
So…in hind sight, what were the mistakes I made? Here is my take on it.
Swim – I didn’t follow my plan and stay left. Had I stayed left I might have been able to keep my head down a bit more and avoid the hamstring cramps and, possibly, reduce the body contact. That might’ve resulted in swallowing a little less ocean water which would’ve been good. I also should have done some electrolyte preloading which I had practiced but didn’t do.
T1 – sure I felt bad but geez…walking the transition? It was a race…
Bike – not sure what I would’ve done different on this one. The only time I stopped was to take some Advil and I did that as quickly as I could. I did not stop to use my special needs bag. I did drink enough water; I think my nutrition and electrolytes were good. I just plain and simply need to get stronger on the bike. I hit my power targets going out to Hawi but was under the target on the ride back to Kona.
T2 – was too long. I should’ve had a better plan for how the flow would go but…I really didn’t know how the flow would go. I now know how it should’ve gone. I wasn’t really prepared for either transition – and maybe you have to do one of this to really understand how to prepare. I never sat down and really “walked” through how the transition would go…and that is no one’s fault but my own.
Run – no matter what stick to your race plan (which I did) and your nutrition plan (which I did not). I think I am darn lucky that ingesting gels fixed me up when I was coming out of the Energy lab. I also should’ve given up on the head lamp sooner than I did-I didn’t react well to that one but, as I already said – I was probably starting to suffer the results of my poor nutrition.
So how do I feel about my race? My #1 goal was to finish the race – I knew I had the fitness but that is only one of several factors on race day. I really wanted to finish the race and enjoy the experience…would I be able to “enjoy” the day? Check that goal (both parts) as completed. ;o) My next goal was to not be the last person in my age group. I know this is a silly goal but I didn’t want to be the last finisher…although being the last finisher would still mean that I had accomplished my #1 goal! That goal gets a check mark. Then I had my dream goals – to finish in the top 10 and to finish on the podium. Well…I can check off one of my dream goals and I came darn close to the other one (the podium is places 1-5 (which I did not know until the awards banquet) and I was close!!). So overall, I am one incredibly happy Ironman!!
I hope that this race report helps you with some future race of your own. We may as well all learn from the mistakes/experience of others – sure beats having to make every mistake on your own!!
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Want more???
Kailua-Kona Hawaii. Monday October 10, 2011. Two days after the Ironman World Championships.
I actually feel great today. My left big toe is still pretty sore and swollen-I’m pretty sure the toe nail is going to be a goner. I have several places where my skin is raw – I suppose that is pretty normal after going 140.6 miles…just new for me. I am very lucky that my hubby (the ultra endurance cyclist) is very familiar with raw skin and had calendula salve with him – my skin is healing nicely.
To tell you about the race, I feel that I need to tell you about some of my prep for the race. When my coach, Scott Fliegelman, started working with me a year ago, my goal was to go for the 70.3 World Championships. For the past 4 or 5 years, I managed to injure myself every year at the Sprint and then try to heal and race for the rest of the year. Scott’s goal for me this year was to get to the start of my desired race(s) healthy…which meant staying healthy all season…which meant being smart all season. I will tell you that I was open to any and all suggestions/directions that Scott gave me. If he said do it, I did it.
We made 2 immediate changes to how I raced. The first was to switch me over to a run/walk strategy. Throughout the winter, I trained using run/walk. I did the Moab half marathon in March using run/walk. I used run/walk for every race I did this year that was 10k or longer (yep…I even did a modified run/walk at the Peak!).
The second change was for me to learn how to race within my limits on the bike. That meant training and racing using a power meter. There were several reasons to do this: 1) the injuries I incurred in previous years seemed to happen on the bike and 2) the run is my strength…I needed to get off the bike and be able to do a strong run. So…I did some field testing and established training and racing ranges for the various races that I would be doing. We eventually modified my cycling strategy to include what we called a “watt break”…I would ride at the upper limit of power for that race and then take a 1 min “watt break” (where I would back the power off) every 9 minutes. I found a multitude of benefits to my new strategy for cycling: there was no bluffing the power meter…I was either producing or I wasn’t; I loved having something to do out there on those long bike rides…checking the power meter to make sure my perceived effort was right (i.e. I wasn’t dogging it), watching the clock to see when 9 minutes were up; having a watt break every 9 minutes ensured that I had a chance to drink/eat regularly; AND I got off the bike and could run!!
We didn’t make any big changes to my swim training. I continued to swim under the tutelage of Jane Scott. I did add an extra swim session once regular open water swim was available. I had to keep an eye on the amount of swimming I did and on my form – my left shoulder is still bothersome if I do too many miles with sloppy technique.
Almost every morning I spent about 30 minutes doing stretching/strengthening/re-alignment exercises. The exercises were a combination of Egoscue (which I have been doing for over 4 years now) and exercises that Bob Cranny recommended. Bob is a well known physical therapist in Boulder – I went to him last year in the weeks leading up to the 70.3 – I was injured and needed some help in order to do the race. He got me through that race and then had a long talk with me about why I was getting injured every year and recommended that I talk to Scott about coaching me. I had an appointment every 2 weeks with Bob. I would go in and tell him what was bothering me most. He would work on it, figure out why it was bothering me and give me exercises to stretch/strengthen that body part. I did my “Bob” exercises religiously!! I can’t recommend Bob enough – he is excellent at what he does.
On top of all that, I received regular massage with Michael Scholl (weekly during my Ironman training) and visited Mark Plaatjes for an old ankle injury that flared up a couple of time.
I was having trouble maintaining my weight so I asked my Team WILD coaching partner Jenny (a diabetes educator and dietician) to evaluate my diet and she made some key recommendations to help me keep the weight on. I also had the chance to talk to Chrissie Wellington about race nutrition before we went out to swim one day. She was, as always, her normal gracious, giving self and gave me a lot of nutrition tips for before and during a race.
Would you need to do all that just to do an Ironman? Absolutely not. Keep in mind that I am 60 years old and I have been running since I was 14…that’s a lot of wear and tear on the body! I always said I would never do an Ironman because I didn’t think my body would hold up to the training. (Yeah…never say never!) My 70.3 World Championship goal, which morphed into Ironman World Championship goal, was important to me and I wanted to do whatever I could to increase my chances of making it to and through the race. The support team I put together to keep my body healthy was key. The other key was the partnership that Scott and I had. He was the coach and, as I stated earlier, if he said do it, I did it. There were a few times in the last weeks of training when I was starting to feel the wear of all of the training and I was worried about some of my remaining workouts. I talked with Scott and we went through the pro’s and con’s of the workouts and made training plan modifications if they were necessary. He reminded me that I was the only one that my body was “talking to” - it was my job to let him know what “body feedback” I was getting. I really feel that that partnership made a huge difference in both my physical and psychological preparation. Hopefully all of you will find a coach that you can successfully partner with!
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After dropping my continuous glucose monitor (CGM) in my T1 (swim to bike) bag, I met up with some Team WILD teammates and a couple of friends, and we all began suiting up. Thankfully the clock isn’t running when you put your wetsuit on, because it takes me a long time! For this race, I was wearing my insulin pump, which isn’t waterproof, in an Aquapac pouch around my waist. I also was swimming with a 100% basal rate of insulin. Some teammates have waterproof pumps, and some left their pumps on the glasses table right by the swim out. My blood sugar an hour before the swim start was 144 and then just before getting in the water was 157, and I ate a gel (25 grams of carbohydrates, or 25g CHO) at each of those times.
I entered the water about 25min before the race start. IM MOO is a deep-water start, so you tread water while you’re waiting. With a wetsuit on, this really doesn’t take much energy, though. I was intentionally starting toward the back and off to the side of the buoy line, as I’m not a fast swimmer and didn’t really need to put myself in the thick of the thrashing mob. I started the race with Karyn Brown - we loved seeing the sun coming up across the lake as we waited for the cannon.
And then - boom! The race started! We could hear the crowd on the shore (and on the top of the Monona Terrace) screaming. At water level, it sounded like most races - some splashing, a little grunting, me counting in my head. Although I had some body contact on and off throughout the race, I never got a big kick in the head or face, and nobody accidentally removed my goggles, so I was quite pleased! This is a 2-loop swim, and I stopped at the start of the 2nd loop to eat another gel in the water; I took this opportunity to take in the crowds, the swimmers, the kayak support - it was pretty amazing. The whole swim took me 1:51, and I’d anticipated about 1:50, so that seemed pretty good.
I ran out of the water (or rather, was kind of pulled… nice volunteers!) and up to a couple of wetsuit strippers who did a much more efficient job of getting the rubber full-body girdle off me than I ever do J. I started running up the helix and saw my screaming family in their orange T-shirts (my family lives about 90 minutes from Madison and 7 of them came to watch!), and then Tony taking pictures further up. What fantastic energy was coming from the crowd and other racers! I ran inside and was handed my T1 bag, and then into the women’s changing room, where a volunteer who knows me (she trains with some teammates in Chicago) helped me out.
My blood sugar was higher than I’d expected in T1 - 263, so I opted to only eat 1 shot blox (8g CHO) at this point. I set my pump to a temporary basal rate of 130% for the next 8 hours to accommodate the many carbs I planned to eat on the bike. I put on my biking things (socks, helmet, race number, sunblock, sunglasses) and ran outside to my bike, carrying my bike shoes. I was handed my bike and scurried to the mount line, where I got on and started the longest part of my day.
While the time in the saddle is the longest segment of any distance triathlon, I knew that this Ironman course was rather notorious for its difficult bike leg, and I’d had an opportunity earlier in the summer to ride the 40-mile loop that you traverse twice in the middle of this course, so I was aware of the upcoming challenge. While I knew that I could make time cutoffs on the bike course, I also knew that I wouldn’t have much buffer time and thus couldn’t afford many glitches like flat tires and blood sugar issues.
The first 3 hours on the bike I got all my nutrition from one water bottle filled with Ironman Perform powder as well as some Carbo-Pro and SaltStick tablets. In total in there I had 152g CHO and 1000mg sodium. I also drank 3 bottles of water and had 6 SaltStick tablets besides this, so I was on track to have 50-55g CHO, ~30oz of liquid, and ~700mg Na per hour, which was my plan for the whole time on the bike. I train (and race) with a power meter and had a power goal, but I also was displaying my overall speed on the bike so I’d make sure to make time cutoffs. In the first couple of hours my blood sugar stayed high - 324 was the highest number I saw on my CGM, which I was consulting every 30min. I also checked my blood sugar once in the first half of the race - since I was on one of the few flat portions of the course at that time and no other racers were around me, I actually tested while moving. I took 2 different mini-boluses (25% of the insulin I would normally take with that blood sugar) during this period, and for the rest of the bike my blood sugar was in the 150-180 range, which I was happy with.
After the first 3 hours on the bike I was taking a bottle of Ironman Perform from aid stations and drinking one of those per hour, supplemented by one Fig Newton and one SaltStick tablet each hour. One of those hours I hadn’t grabbed the right bottle from the aid station, so I had a bottle of water along with a gel and 3 Fig Newtons.
I saw WILD supporters in their orange T-shirts many times on the course. In Verona, around the halfway point of the race, I again saw my family with their cowbells (my dad actually runs an auction business and they’d gotten ahold of an extremely loud dinner bell, which no doubt dismayed those cheering near them, but was great for me to hear!). At the halfway point I was doing great on time, and saw that I could back off a little on my effort on the bike, to save some of that energy for the run. That was a very good feeling for me!
The Wisconsin course has a lot of hills, a few of them grueling… not long, but difficult, and there were people out there with crazy costumes and megaphones helping the racers up those. I’m pretty sure I saw at least one very hairy man in a Viking hat wearing a tiny (2-piece, woman’s) bikini and a cape. My second time around the loop there were fewer people cheering on the hills, but my friend Sandy and her daughter Samantha ran me up one hill, assuring that I looked strong the whole time.
I saw my family again in Verona and then turned to head back to Madison. I was starting to really look forward to the run of the Ironman. Not only is the run my strongest discipline in triathlon, but there’s also time to interact with people cheering, and to read all the signs on the course. I really like picking up other runners and helping each other through a mile or so out there, too. And I’d only seen my teammate Kathleen so far on the bike course - on the run I would possibly see everyone, since there are many out-and-back sections on the course. I reviewed my diabetes plan for the run, which was to back down to a 75% basal insulin dose and try to get in 40g CHO per hour, if I could. At the last aid station on the bike course, just past mile 100, I waved to friends who were volunteering there.
And then I woke up in an ambulance. I remember asking the paramedics what had happened, and they said I’d gotten into a bike crash in Ironman Wisconsin. I definitely didn’t believe them, as I clearly remembered doing a couple of half-Ironmans (that would be last year and the year before) but thought “a whole Ironman? No way!”. So evidently it’s fairly easy to forget a year of your life when you land on your head in a bike wreck. By the time I’d been in the ER for a while I remembered most of the last year, and even a lot of the race. I still don’t remember the crash or immediately afterward, although an eyewitness account says that I was indeed waving (and/or trying to throw out a gel wrapper) and bobbled a little - maybe I went over a little bump? My blood sugar was 179 when they checked it in the ambulance, so shouldn’t have been affecting my performance at that point. Anyway, I went down and was unconscious by the time I stopped skidding it’s not a very interesting story, so I might have to add a mountain lion to it.
I spent a couple of days in the hospital in Madison. I broke some ribs (they don’t know how many, so I enjoy telling people 7), fractured my pelvis, got a concussion, and had a pneumothorax. Also some cool road rash. I don’t recommend broken ribs - they’re kind of craptastic. Evidently I kept trying to get the hospital to let me out that first night (I don’t remember this) so I could see my teammates go through the finish chute and become Ironmen. Eh, the broken ribs could’ve waited?
All along, I said that if I didn’t make it in the race I was going to sign up for IM MOO 2012 the next day. Now, I should perhaps say that I _really_ thought I’d make it! And even if I didn’t, I thought it’d be a missed bike cutoff and not a crash that stopped me, so I’d be out cheering on the run course. Alas. Anyway, on Monday when online registration opened for Ironman Wisconsin 2012, Tony was sitting on my hospital bed with me and signed me up (I still couldn’t be trusted to type at that point ).
So many things were going right in the race this year, and I can only hope that those elements are also in my favor next year. The weather was pretty darned good, not including severe humidity, strong winds, or rain, any of which would slow me down. My blood sugar, while not perfect, had gotten into a nice groove after the first couple of hours on the bike. My continuous glucose monitor was getting a good signal and giving me reliable data, so I didn’t have to stop multiple times to check my blood sugar. I was able to get in as many calories as I had planned on, with no stomach problems showing up. I didn’t have any mechanical issues with my bike. My body was holding up just fine (although I understand that I hadn’t even started the run, so presumably it would’ve been doing worse later!). My family was having enough fun that they can probably be easily coaxed to come cheer next year, especially if the weather is similarly nice.
I really was having a great race, until the abrupt end of it. I’d had a huge smile on my face much of the day, thanked the volunteers, high-fived fans while running up the helix, laughed at various silly signs. I’m disappointed to have trained so long and hard to have the season end this way, but I still had a simply amazing journey to and in this Ironman. Being a part of Team WILD (Women Inspiring Life with Diabetes) has been fantastic for me, and being the captain of our IronWILD team this year made me keep all 10 of the other team members in mind throughout my training. These women are amazing. FastForward Sports, my training group, has gotten me to and through all of my athletic goals in previous seasons, and I once again taxed my poor coaches with endless questions and arguably too much analysis as I very determinedly made my way through this season (I take the training very seriously, even if/when I’m the most remedial athlete in the group). Being a member of both of these groups was huge for me, and I cherish the friendships I’ve gained through them. I loved the process of working my body to the point where I could reasonably expect it to complete a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2-mile run in one day. I didn’t get to do that on 9/11/11, but was it a distinct possibility? Absolutely!
Right now, I’m busy with healing. I guess that’s a slow process with these kinds of injuries, but maybe I can start water running soon. And before too long, the training will start up again’ and so on to IM MOO 2012…
]]>After four very successful training seasons of helping nearly 100 athletes to reach their Ironman dreams, we are happy to continue the tradition for 2012! Once again, a major challenge of Ironman is actually getting into the race, and for 2102 we are offering four chances to do so. FastForward feels strongly that the very best time of year for Ironman is late August or early September, which best suits our Colorado weather and optimal outdoor training season (March - September). Earlier races require too much indoors training and/or unpleasant outdoor sessions, and fall Ironman races also risk foul weather for key sessions, plus possible burn out from too long a tri season.
As such, we highly recommend Ironman Canada or Louisville on August 26th, 2012 OR Ironman Wisconsin or Rev3 (Half or Full) on September 9th, 2012. We are very familiar with all three of the IM event locations and courses and are excited to add the Rev3 event to our offering this year, as a number of F4 IM Alumni plan to participate in this exciting new event. Registration will be ON YOUR OWN, and will sell out… IM CAN and IM Wisconsin likely the day (hour) they open online, while IM LOU and Rev3 will allow you a bit more time to sign up traditionally.
Team Training- With only two weeks separating these goal races, the F4 IM Team will be able to training together throughout the season with only very minor divergence in August for a proper taper period. It is a unique and highly valuable benefit to be able to train for Ironman with the support of your teammates, and only FastForward offers this opportunity.
*Note- Those who plan to do other IM races in 2012 may join our regular F4 TRI training program in March or select private coaching through our PGC program.
Training will run from January 4th - September 9th, 2012 with the first two month’s informal training focusing on swim/ bike/ run technique clinics, equipment, nutrition, and other fun low-key educational sessions before commencing formal training in March.
Detailed Training Info:
Pricing breakdown:
Sign up Now- Use ‘Contact Us’ button above to request a registration form.
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