A Fast Four

There was no way around it. This is what I would call the proverbial “rubber meets the road.” My husband is a gifted project manager and his talents have been put to use by our church leadership. There is now an additional time commitment on our calendars, the most significant of which is our needed presence during the setup and teardown of different ministries during each weekend service. We were both asked to take on this responsibility and we gladly accepted. As I wrote in our previous post, as much as I love triathlon, our long term vision is well beyond the years we spend here in this lifetime, and investing in people as part of a life centered around God is our deepest heart’s passion….though I do have secret hopes that there is something like triathlon in heaven, maybe running through the mountains of Alaska where the bears actually run alongside you, you know – like dogs, with no thought given to you being their next tasty morsel???

So this past Sunday I had a long brick (bike then run) on my schedule as part of my preparation for Ironman Kansas which is June 15th. The only way to get ‘er done was in the afternoon after church. Even a rough time estimate showed it was going to be a long day.

But I had worked it out in my head and on paper. It was a 4-hour ride followed by a 45-minute tempo run, so I had the bike route planned out where Steve would drop me off at my Start and then meet me in Alton, IL where I could ditch the bike and go finish my run. We decided it was best to just pack everything – bike, drinks, food, clothing, shoes – into the car and just leave from church.

It went perfectly. I ate a peanut butter sandwich and some veggies after service, downed some Gatorade and we were off.

Driving there I noticed the temperature was 87F. Getting out in the parking lot, it felt every bit of it. On the one hand, great! This could be race-day conditions in a few weeks, and I still needed to acclimate to the heat.

On the other hand, gahhh!! More sunscreen, 4 water bottles, and more money for a stop along the way to replenish fluids…Steve slathered on the 45 SPF where only he could reach well enough - my shoulder blades - not anywhere else, for goodness sakes! This was NOT the Wetsuit Grope-a-Thon :).

I filled my water bottles with undiluted Gatorade, pressed one of the lids down without the nozzle closed, and full-strength sports drink shot right up like a fountain and drenched the side of my face. Normally I would’ve been mad, but instead Steve’s genuine laughter at something right out of The Three Stooges made me laugh too.

I saddled up and took off. The ride was hot but glorious and my legs felt like they could go on forever. I went up through Hardin, IL and came back down south to Alton 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I plowed through nearly 100 oz of Gatorade and forced myself to eat a Clif bar and 3 packs of GU along the way. It was NOT easy to eat. Endurance training in the heat causes much of the blood to leave the intestinal tract and be dedicated to cooling the entire body, the effect of which is the hunger mechanism is nearly wiped out and the last thing on your mind is eating (even for me :)). One must teach the body to take in solid food even when the desire to eat is nonexistent.

When Steve got to the parking lot, I had been waiting for just a few minutes near some caves that through nature provided me free air conditioning. Steve put my bike in the hatch, and I laced up my shoes and Fuel Belt and was off.

The run called for a negative-split, meaning run the second half faster than the first. It was still in the upper 80s and within 5 minutes I was thinking are you insane? The heat was brutal and I trotted along carefully, amazingly staying in the lower heart rate zones. It was my mind that was doing the negotiating with the muscles…c’mon just 5 more minutes and then you can turn around and go HOME…

After 23:30 I turned around and kicked it up a notch?? Yep, sure did…I wanted to be DONE very badly. Visions of lean meat and whole wheat pasta, followed by lots of dark chocolate, danced in my head. By now we were approaching 7pm, the latest I had trained in a long time.

When I got back to the car and walked around for a minute, rivers of sweat were pouring from me. I had consumed 20oz water/sports drink in less than 45 minutes and a wave of nausea hit me for a few seconds. I bent over and waited for it to pass, knowing it was due to a lack of heat acclimation.

After stretching a bit, I looked at my arms/legs and could not believe the magnificent rash I had developed over the course of the day. Sweat, salt, and sunscreen just didn’t play nice on my skin and I headed to the park bathroom to wash it off and put on dry clothes.

I also discovered before my run that I had a small indentation on the top of my forehead from my bike helmet, probably from the padding sticking to my sweaty head. I’ll need to look at the positioning of my helmet – who wants race pictures with a helmet print on their head?? :)

Overall I was very happy. Sunday’s route was one I’ve ridden in years past and this is the first year I am actually fast. Riding near the river and farmlands caused me to collide with a fair number of gnats, some of them sticking to my arms liked miniature roadkill :).

The way I looked at it -- I was so “fast” Sunday, even the bugs couldn’t get out of my way :).