RR: Showdown to Sundown Half Iron.... part 1 (the lead up!)

pcsronbo · Apr 1, 2011

So this is race was picked based on schedule. In my prep for IM Cda in June, I needed 1-2 halfs. I also wanted to space out my riding to break up the insanity of the pain cave, as I knew I’d be living there are all winter/spring. So I planned one trip to Florida (8 days) in Feb and then another to Las Vegas (8 days) over spring break. This race was on the day before we left. Perfect. Done. Signed up. Never even looked at the course info.
 
I got a little bit of a late start in November due to surgery revisions and then getting sick – put me behind by several weeks for Ironman CDA. So much so CC told me to cancel all 13.1 stand alone races, we’re just going to wing it and we’ll figure it out as we went.
 
Training has been pretty good though.
 
I finally started refocusing on my swim, after an all time low swim year last year (<75,000yds – normally I’m 150,000-250,000). But I’m digging my new body and I focused on rebuilding and within a few months dropped from 1:45’s down to 1:35’s – which honestly, is good enough. With wetsuit, I can crank out 1:25’s easy – although I only found that out in the last couple weeks as I hadn’t donned the wetsuit since my last race in Sept.
 
The bike has been solid, but except Florida, totally indoors. I’ve been teaching an Endurance Spin class on Sundays – 2-4hrs depending on whatever CC had on my schedule. Mixed with at least 2 other sessions/week, sometimes including another 3 hours on Sat – things were coming along just fine. The florida trip really cemented that, as I was doing some real good speed while keeping the HR real low, so that felt on track. Hills though? Not so much. You just cannot do those perfectly on a trainer – but lots of drills to try to replicate it have been done.
 
I’ve dropped 15lbs since November, so I’m half way to race weight goal (205). I’ve STAYED under 222 for a while now, which is a personal milestone as that’s officially 100lbs off the scale. My body comp is changing too, as I can see more ridges and stuff on my legs. It’s all good. One of these days I’ll get another body fat test but I’m thinking I am about 165lbs of fat gone. For good (dammit)
 
The run has been amazing. I’ve been seeing Adam (the movement guy) and doing PT maybe 2x/wk for months. All in order to migrate my form towards something better than it was – now that I had the muscle strength to support it. New shoe type, MANY sessions adjusting orthotics, and much PT to fix “the basics” (such as major inflexibility in big toe – well how can you push off if you cannot bend you big toe fully? Well… ya cant!). All sorts of stuff, but all coming together just fine. I’ve been tickling my 13.1 PR on Z2 training runs. So it was just primed to have it’s ass handed to it. I finally did breach it by 2min on my last long run before this race. So I was more ready than I’ve ever been.
 
This is a no taper training race. Fun.
 
The day before I leave I look up the race course. 6000ft climb on the bike. 1000ft climb on the run. HOLY-SHEIT! IMOO lap is only 2500ft (42 miles) and that’s brutal. What-The-Hell-Did-I-Do went through my head… Oh well, too late now. Ah, great, look up the race company? Yeah, last year’s race was MASSIVELY dissed as the biggest piece of crap ever run. Wow, great. Hard course AND I’m probably on my own. Good thing this is tri 47 or something, because I guess I just don’t care. BRING IT.
 
I have to ship my bike. Cannot manage the entire family AND this big azz bike box on the plane. So I ship it. Nerve racking! Midnight (my bike – Chasing Midnight – Ode to my Ironman debut) arrives 2 days before me. We arrive Sat and I immediately go get her. First thing I see is my helmet strap hanging OUT OF THE BOX! FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK! Get it up to the room, unpack it. Helmet will be fine. Get REAL damn nervous when the fork just kind of flips around. Oh shit. It’s broke. Dinner? No –come on, let me finish…. No… crap kids are hungry… ok, I have to endure a LONG dinner and get back to get her reassembled. I figure it out. Phew. Seems ok. Thank goodness. Everything is there, everything assembled. Cool. Ready for my 5 hour ride Sunday!
 
Oh wait… where am I gonna go? Hmmm… Maybe just from the hotel to Red Rock Canyon? Everyone says that’s cool. Hmmm… got to cross the Las Vegas strip to get there? Ug. Not keen on that. Early Sunday will be filled with drunks. Maybe I ride to the race course and back? Sure. Get google directions and pack the car GPS “in case”
 
So I pack a ton of food, some cash, and head out. I’ll keep this short and say the ride was not. 3 hours it took me to get 35 miles to the race site. 2 hours to get back. A few highlights? Well, the 4000ft of climb, into a 25-30mph 50 degree wind (wind chill low 40s) was fun. Also the 7 mile STRIAGHT DOWN hill (which was part of the race course) was just awesome. Not sure I could use my hands after that. Oh, then I got to turn around and go up it. But the 35mph SUSTAINED RIDE with the wind to my back was actually cool. Until I flatted. At 5hrs and a mere 70ishmiles, I was done. Something didn’t feel right on the downhills. I thought it might be the bike, but maybe it was just me not being used to outside.. I don’t know. Confidence not good on down hills.
 
Monday was a swim at the most awesome pool ever. I had drills so I decided on a pool. Brought wetsuit though as I’d only had the thing on maybe 2x this year. $3 to get into the Desert Breeze community center. 50m pool split up into 20 freakin 25yr lanes. All full. Was awesome. Brought DS1 and he did 400, I did 3000. Needed an hour bike so I went to Red Rock Canyon. JUST AMAZING. However, about 5 minutes into the ride I was in a SNOW STORM. In Las Vegas. In March. I didn’t have any cold weather gear. I pussed out. I drove the look. WOW. I mean WOW. Gorgeous.
 
Tuesday I had a 2 hr ride and 45 min bike. So I went back to Lake Meade to ride more of the course. The Sunday ride kind of scared the shit out of me, to be honest, as that took me about an hour to make it 7-8 miles. So I decided to go the “other” way on the flatter part of the course (it’s all relative, I realize now). So I did that, it was pretty damn hilly actually. Shit. The way back way brutal. I thought I was just such a sucky ass rider that I would be freakin doomed on race day. Visions of DFL were streaming across my head. Anyway, I had a 45min run after so I packed up the bike and took off into the Hoover Dam Train tunnels path. I was flying right from the get go. Huh. Go figured. I ripped out a 10:20 and 9:18 (NO WAY was that right I think the tunnels messed my GPS up) – and then turned back for 2x11:30’s easy. GREAT pacing for me. Huh this REALLY confused me considering how bad I was feeling on the bike. I was truly puzzled. I KNOW I didn’t drink enough. 2 bottles on the bike (Cleaning ladies stole/tossed one of my bottles dammit) WAS NOT ENOUGH FOR THE DESERT. I drank 30oz on the run. I didn’t pee for hours. Yeah, not enough. I also KNOW something isn’t right with the bike. I’m still being a grade-a-baby on the downhills. This will not do. I normally don’t blink at a 35mph descent. I never hit 27 and when I did I was afraid. Really afraid. WHAT THE HELL?!? The crazy winds were NOT helping but this wasn’t right.
 
Ok, lesson learned – you have to drink a lot in the desert. I mean a LOT LOT. And I suck. Or I don’t. Huh. So confused, I sent a whiney email to CC. I don’t do that often but I knew I needed talking down. I was “almost but not quite” in freak out mode. The dichotomy between bike and run really had my head spinning.
 
 Wed was a 3300 swim, in wetsuit, followed by some seriously hard ass run drills for an hour. Crap. 5x4min in Z3 is hard when you’re friggin tired AND for some reason you are screaming out 8:54-9:18 pace intervals. For some of you, that’s not much. For me? That’s damn close to my 1 mile PR pace. 5 of ‘em. Was hard. Was AWESOME I was holding those paces. And not on flat ground. Exhilarating actually. Could I actually DO this pace sometime in my not-to-far-future? I think maybe… possibly… yeah, I could. It was hard, but it wasn’t STUPID seeing red kind of hard. Huh. After that I had to go to work for a few hours.
 
Thursday I was able to sweet talk my way into a bike store. I lost/broke a spacer up front and that was causing the rattle up front. Easy. $11 fix. I ended up spending a LOT more there. Las Vegas Cyclery you guys rock! Next up was a 90min bike. Decided to FINALLY get back to Red Rock Canyon and ride it. 13 mile loop. Yeah, ok, so much for this being a recovery ride. It was 7 miles of nothing but climbing (see a pattern here?) 1500ft. and then downhills which due to wind I could kind of do, but no more fear on the downhill. Phew.
 
Friday was…. REST. I had a10min run slated, but I ended up working 6 hours. Good thing as I now had a sick kid at the hotel (DS1) and I was tired and race was in less than 24 hours. Got my packet and listened to the course talk. Strange race, starting at noon. Changes everything. Including “what happens if we are stuck out in the desert past sundown” to which the response is “it’s pitch black and you cannot see a damn thing – we will come issue you lights, but there is an 8 hour cutoff”. Ouch. Ok, we head out for dinner and DS1 isn't eating much. Let me in on a secret. MY BOYS ALWAYS EAT. 102 fever? Yeah, they'll eat. So I knew he was REALLY sick. CRAP CRAP CRAP. Now am I sick? Will I GET sick? Will DW or DS2? CRAP!!!!!!!
 
We went back to hotel early, chilled and got everyone in bed early. I had a noon race, but figured after a decently hard week of training I could use it. About 3am DS1 gets up crying (a 10yr old boy crying? uh oh) and his throat hurts REALLY REALLY BAD and he cant breathe. So after some serious adreniline moments I find it's "just a little hard to breathe" - umm.... BIG DIFFERENCE!!! ER vs tylenol-and-wait-until-morning. Well, that didn't work so at 4am I walk to Walgreens and get some throat spray and find out when the clinic opens (9am). Finally get him to sleep by 5. fun! Hey, what's a race without a full night of sleep?
 
I get up around 7 and grab DS2 and take him to breakfast. I have NO idea what to eat in this situation... so I have a bagel w/ butter, some waffles a taste of pancake, so eggs, and a small bit of bacon and ham. I had no idea. Enough to hold me but not enough to stay in my gut all day?
 
Drop DS2 off and head off to the race course at 9:15... have to get there REAL early since there is 2 transitions.
 
Off I go.....
 
(to be continued)

cak73 · Apr 1, 2011

Ooooooo. A cliff-hanger!
 
Hope DS1 wasn't too sick for too long and that DS2 and DW never got sick.

Yo Sake · Apr 1, 2011

Remember, you are supposed to give us <short version> then get into all the details under <long version>?? I hope there is only TWO chapters in this book.
 
Boy, you were going through quite a bit already by the start time. Even it was just another training day kind of race, I would have lost all my hair by 9:15am....

tpenn40 · Apr 1, 2011

"It's pitch black and you cannot see a damn thing." LOL! I literally laughed out loud on that one.

BethR · Apr 1, 2011

Exciting! Can't wait to read more

KitKat · Apr 1, 2011

Nice! Keep it coming Ron.

SpartyGirl · Apr 1, 2011

This was worth the wait - what happens next?! <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">

Tri-Tammy · Apr 1, 2011

More, more, more!!!! <img alt="icon_thumleft.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/icon_thumleft.gif" style="width:22px;height:20px;">

zojmn151 · Apr 1, 2011

Can't wait to see what happens next!
 
Hope DS1 is feeling better!

niemsco · Apr 1, 2011

Come on man, I only look at splits

MBannon · Apr 4, 2011

Epic lead-up to race day, and thanks for bringing back all the memories of that insane bike course.

hobey · Apr 4, 2011

Ya know, driving around Lake Mead kinda makes me not want to bike it...and I like hills.
 
Finally got to this...epic. Now to search for part 2...

RR: Showdown to Sundown Half Iron.... part 1 (the lead up!)

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