First week in Keene Valley

What fun it has been to be in Keene Valley. It is my place to de-stress, sleep, and get rid of the end of the school year cold!!! I am finally feeling like myself again after suffering from that horrible sinus infection for about 3 weeks. I am finally feeling strong again which is helping my confidence when it comes to Ironman. It has been great training on the Ironman course. I actually did my 3 hour run on the run course today and found out that 1) it will be lonely on River Road at night and 2) the hill coming back into town is torture, it is short but steep and brutal. This may be a walking hill to save the legs for the later portions of the marathon. Only 1 more long run and 2 more long bikes until I start to taper. 24 days!!! I can almost hear it "Kelly Sullivan, you are an Ironman"!!!!! Oh, the tears that come to my eyes when I think about it.

Tupper Lake Tinman 2009

I am super excited about my race experience at Tupper Lake this year. Last year, this race was my key race and this year since I am in training for IM Lake Placid I was excited to see how my training would allow me to do in the half distance. Last year I had tapered for this race where this year I had a full workout week last week and still did really well. I was so excited by my finish yesterday.

I started my preparation the day before the race when I packed everything up and made my PB&J sandwhiches and Infinit nutrition and then let it go. We even put the bikes on the race the day before the race. This way the only things that had to be done the morning of the race was getting out of bed, getting dressed, eating breakfast, and hitting the bathroom. I then took a bath where I visualized the entire race from start to finish envisioning my pacing, my mental state, and all of the strategies that will be used during the race. I felt very confident in this race before it ever started. That was a first!

First, I slept really well the night before the race and even fell asleep in the car ride to Tupper Lake (about an hour drive). That was a first for me ever that I got a full night sleep before a race - with everything packed up and ready to go the day before the race I think it just made me so much more relaxed. Second, it was raining when we woke up and it continued until I got off of the bike. Third, the sun came out during the run. Wow, that is reminiscent of last year when I fried and looked like a lobster after the race. This year, we were prepared with sunscreen even though I know know that I can't reach the middle of my back and didn't think about my armpit area (yes, some burn but not much).

The swim was ok. I struggle in the swim usually keeping my cool but I tried to find a strategy that worked for me envisioning it just being me, the bouys, and the water and sometimes seeing my cousin Kate's face telling me how well I was going to do. It seemed to work. I had someone else from my heat that was swimming the same pace as I was and breathing in the opposite direction as I was so I was focusing on her the entire time just to keep calm. (I don't think she knew she was my calming factor but I thank her for that anyway.) I swam a 44 min 1.2 mile - this was 7 minutes faster than last year. I was really excited seeing that time exiting the water and carried that excitement through transition onto the bike.

Transition went pretty well. I had an orange and put on sunscreen which wouldn't rub in but I still put it on, it was raining too and I still put it on (4 hours on a bike is a long time if the sun comes out and you don't have sunscreen on). I found out about 10 miles into the bike that my timing chip had stayed in my wetsuit. I wasn't too concerned as all I needed to do was put it back on after I got back and wear it during the run to get a finishing time.

The bike was much easier than last year even though I did go out too fast - the hills seemed really easy this time after training on the LP IM course. It was raining most of the way so everyone was covered in road spray so I spent a good amount of time eating road gook when I drank out of my bottles. My poor bike was so disgusting by the end of the ride that it was making crunching sounds because of all of the road grime working its way into the gears. Yuck. I was making sure my nutrition was going well the entire time - I even ate a few bananas because I was worried about cramping. Infinit nutrition is fabulous and kept me feeling great for most of the bike and run. I rode the 56 miles in 3 hours 47 minutes. This was 4 minutes faster than the bike last year. I wish I was faster on the bike as this is my area of concern when it comes to Ironman. I am hoping that the next 4 weeks of biking on the hills of the Adirondacks will make me stronger for Ironman and make me faster on the course.

I learned last year that if you are in transition and need to use the porta poty, do it because otherwise somebody will see you peeing in the woods. So, I used the jon and still had a t2 time of only 3min 33 sec. T2 was actually pretty quick and I hear my dad has video of me during this time. I haven't seen it but he though I was leaving transition but I was entering the porta potty.

The run started out really well. I ran the hills at the beginning which I didn't run last year. My legs felt really great. The mile markers were off since my last 1.1 miles registered at 3 min 3 secs, this actually made me feel like I was going much slower than I actually was which may have made me go faster. (Or if you want to look at it in a different way, I may be the fastest woman on the earth in the mile) I walked through the water stations after mile 8 because I was starting to feel dehydrated - but my stomach was just sloshing around even though I really wanted more water. I don't tolerate gels and gatorade well so I was sustaining myself at this point on oranges and water and hoped that I got enough solid nutrition on the bike with oranges, bananas, infinit (the only thing that doesn't kill my stomach), and PB&J. This guy ended up running with me from mile 6 to the end - funny though, he could have been going faster but decided to run with me. He talked to me a lot and that allowed me to be distracted enough from the pain that I just kept trucking, plus I was thinking, why is this man running with me and chatting like he has known me for years. I was not much of a chatterbox though, he did most of the talking, for those of you who know me, this is unusual. It was interesting. I did the half in 2 hours 31 minutes (I did the half last year in 2 hours 41 min). I was very happy with this time. It was actually only 6 minutes slower than the Lake Placid 1/2 marathon 2 weeks ago. I am really excited about this time. My legs felt good and my mind was in a good place during the run so I am very happy with this performance.

Total time was a 7 hour 11 min race. That is a full 20 minutes faster than last year (not including my bogus drafting penalty from last year which I am still bitter about). I am so excited. I just hope Ironman can treat me as well. I am really concerned about the bike portion of Lake Placid Ironman but I keep telling myself that my legs will be fresh instead of beat up and tired when I start IM because of a taper and that everything will be ok. I really had a great time at Tupper though and hope that that high of doing well will keep me going through the next 4 weeks of training.

Lake Placid Half Marathon

Today was the Lake Placid Half Marathon. I finished in 2 hours 25 min and 31 sec which isn't bad since I had to take a week off with knee pain and I was not feeling very well. My throat was killing me when I woke up yesterday and it was accompanied by a stuffy head this morning. I took Advil and Sudafed and left for the race. The problem was that on the way to the race my stomach started to get really upset. We made our way to the start and took off in really nice weather. The first hill was my test for the knee and it passed! Yippie!!! I did realize fairly quickly that it was humid which made it feel much hotter than it actually was. I didn't know what to expect today since I had run a max of 2 miles on a track this past week and hadn't hit over 11 miles in probably 4 weeks because of my sinus infection and the injury. I did well for the lack of running - I am not in the best run shape but I am in great bike shape and it is shocking how much biking helps with running (the opposite is not true though, running doesn't help with biking). The run went by really quickly and I felt pretty good for the training that I had. I did have an upset stomach the entire time and felt like I was going to puke but it wasn't the end of my world. I didn't PR (which I had planned on doing before the injury) but I was only off by about 2 minutes which isn't bad. Nice day for a run and I was happy with my performance. We had planned on swimming after the run but both Joe and my stomachs were very unhappy and we didn't want to be in the middle of the lake with stomach issues. Hopefully this week we will get in an open water swim and then get in Mirror Lake next weekend (weather permitting).

The afternoon consisted of a thunderstorm and then planting my garden. Wish me luck! I really want to have fresh vegetables this summer! I really want to have a green thumb when it comes to growing vegetables but so far (3 gardens) I have not had great success. I think this is my year! I got 11 cubic feet of soil (garden soil, light top soil, and some kind of special garden soil) and I had seedlings that I put in the ground. This is the year! I just know it.

Animals

Turtles and hawks and blackbirds and rabbits and chipmunks and squirrels, oh my! I saw far too much wildlife on my ride yesterday. The weather was weird and the animals were all acting wacky! Maybe it is me who is acting wacky from being on my bike too much??? Going to try to run today after a week off because of the knee. I am afraid because it feels better but not 100%. We have the Lake Placid 1/2 marathon this weekend so hopefully the knee will cooperate.

Tour de Cure 2009

This years Tour de Cure happened in Saratoga Springs, NY. Last year it was held on a different course and I had never seen any of the course but I did see the elevation profile which made me more mentally prepared than I thought I was going to be. As you know, I have had knee pain since my long run on Thursday which was finally getting better yesterday and I was unsure how I would fair on the bike today. Waking up this morning, my knee hurt a little (maybe a little more than a little) and I was a frustrated by the fact that because of my neighbors (crying cats, barking dogs, yelling drunk people out of a window, hysterical child, and the automatic light going on in the backyard due to something in my backyard) and because of my mental psychosis where I dwell on random things when I should be sleeping (last night it was will they let Joe ride since he didn't do the fundraising and I did and please remember the checks) I had only slept for a maximum of 2 hours. We packed the car and then took off to Saratoga. We checked in with the first of many extremely friendly volunteers who insisted that we take powerbars and made sure we had our pins, tags, and most importantly our maps. We left to eat breakfast (yes, they provide us with breakfast) and then headed out to get our bikes and get ready. I was anxious to get started so I waited for a couple of minutes for Melinda but just decided I needed to know how my knee was going to cooperate so I took off. It was a good thing too because I needed to concentrate on my pedal strokes and how I was pedaling to find where my comfort level was (I could tell you where it was - UNCOMFORTABLE). I made the decision that I wanted to bike for 2 hours before giving up so I was out there for a while, I may as well find a place/way to pedal that was comfortable. The first 14 miles hurt. I was worried. I got to the first aid station where the volunteers were so excited to have us visit them. I had an orange and pretzels, stretched, and saw a casuality of biking. A man had been run into by another cyclist who wasn't paying attention, fell, and probably broke his colar bone (there was an obvious deformity). He couldn't put any weight on his left arm at all and thus had issues controlling the bike and was incredibly uncomfortable. By the way... he fell at mile 4.5 of his planned 100 - which he didn't end up doing. You always know the risks but seeing them happen and knowing that they can happen to anyone is scary. I got to the second aid station and spoke to a man about how I had no idea where I was in Saratoga County and if I got lost, I would have no idea which way to go. Subsequently, I missed a turn and got lost in Saratoga County. Luckily, the man I had talked to, his son, and another biker had also missed the turn and they had already asked for directions. I followed the directions and learned nothing about where I was in Saratoga County - I know that I did add more distance to an already long ride though (and a few hills for good measure). We found the first craziness of the course though while getting back on the course. One aid station for all of the course at the same time. Ugh!! The signs said "Left first loop, Right second". I was confused and people don't know how to mount and dismount their bikes or stop their bikes in an appropriate distance of other bikes which was really scary. We then left the aid station and headed out on a long gradual uphill. The conversation that was had by two riders was "Which do we like best: short big hills or long gradual hills?" I don't know the answer to the question as I have that discussion often with myself on long rides. We continued on through Corinth, Hadley, and Lake Luzerne. It was a beautiful ride. Perfectly balanced with hills, flats, and downhills. There was a volunteer at mile 75 that made me my own PB&J sandwhich made to order. When I entered the last aid station, the volunteers were so nice - they were asking me about my riding, how much I normally ride, what did Ironman entail, how did I get my tour de cure jersey (from fundraising over $500 last year), giving me these fantastic muffins made by 2 of the riders who own the 4 corners lunchenette in Delmar, asking if I wanted water or fruit. As I entered the station (which was the same station as the midway one that was crazy), the chaos had calmed down and the bike people from LLBean were bored. As soon as I got off the bike, they asked me if the bike needed anything, how was it riding. I cannot say enough about all of the volunteers - the ones at the aid station were just the friendliest people I have met, the LLBean bike guys really wanted to be helpful, the guys from the Downtube were fantastic at fixing the bikes of those on the course that needed help, those who were cheering people in as they came back to the high school had so much energy even after having been there for hours, the people from Friendly's who gave me ice cream at the end were asking me all about the ride and how much I generally ride, one of the riders who was also on the course committee asked me where I got lost to make sure that they revisited that area again next year. This event is one of the best to be a part of.

My knee had loosened up at around mile 30 so I was really excited to be riding through most of the ride. What kept me from deciding to quit at mile 24 was the fact that so many of my friends and family members had donated money to me to ride this distance and I felt like I was not living up to my end of the bargain if I stopped early. I also didn't stop because my mom and dad didn't answer their phone when I called twice to ask what I should do (yes, it hurt so much that I wanted someone else to tell me that I needed to stop). I know they would have understood but I really wanted to ride since Ironman is 7 weeks away and people had supported me and I am stubborn and didn't want to get off the bike yet (Ironman training is tough - physically and mentally). I am glad I stayed on the bike now even though I really didn't expect my knee to feel better but it did, not sure why or what I did but the pain really just went away and was just nagging at times but most of the time it was fine.

This ride wasn't as exciting as last year from the prospective that I didn't have deer jump out at me or a peacock in the middle of the road but this years ride was better than ever before just because I was comfortable for most of the ride and felt really strong! I felt confident that I could do the 100 this time after the Hilly 100 two weeks ago. One interesting thing that happened during the ride was that I was asked 3 times if I was doing the 50 because they thought that I was lost. I kept telling people that I was doing the 100 and they would let me keep going. At the last aid station, he explained why I was being asked - I had been given the wrong color bib number so everyone was confused by me being on the 100 mile course. Even though I didn't start with a riding partner, I had some great riding partners on and off, here and there, depending on my speed. It was such a nice day too - mid/low 70's with overcast and no humidity. This was an improvement over last year too (last year was 90 degrees, sunny, and humid).

I really can't say enough about those who run Tour de Cure and the riders that do it. The riders are so nice - not competitive, but helpful, interested, and having fun for a good cause. This is a great event and I can't wait to participate again in the future.

Next up, Lake Placid Half marathon next weekend (hopefully - depending on how the knee progresses this week and how running on it goes). I may take the week off from running and only run on Thursday to make sure it heals completely so that the next 7 weeks are complete training weeks. I need the swim time anyway. By the way next weekend also brings me to my first open water swim of the season!!! I can't wait to be sexy in my wetsuit!!! For those of you who don't know, no one is sexy in a wetsuit (except me - haha)!!! I can't wait since this weekend generally means the start of our time on a consistent basis up at the camp and the actual start of triathlon season.