Challenge Penticton Part 1 - coffee with Mark Allen & Macca

Then adventure continues…read the first part of my week racing Ironman Kalmar here

Onto the next week which involved 24 hours at home, 50 hours of travel, 1 tattoo, 26.2 miles, 1 awesome relay team, meeting 3 legends - Chris “Macca” McCormack, Mark Allen & Lothar Leder. 

So I finish Ironman and straight into recovery mode because what sounds like a better idea than resting? A marathon at Challenge Penticton the weekend after!  First up recovery protocol, pay close attention because this is very scientific. 

Step 1: Chocolate…that’s all I wanted in the food tent, everything else the thought of made my stomach turn.  Luckily they had stocked it with a variety of quality chocolate for me to gorge myself on.  Mmm especially the hazelnut cream truffles.

Step 2: Beer.  A conveniently placed pub right by the finish line provided the recovery fluids I required, if I’ve learned anything from Macca its that plenty of post race hydration is important and beer is a great delivery system.

Step 3: Big juicy hamburger with fries.  I just crave this after races, and again one of the few things that don’t turn my stomach after a day of sports drink.

(Hydration)

Recovery – Check.

As for the next 7 days before the Challenge Penticton Marathon, recovery and preparation involved one 15 minute run, 8 hours of travel back to Scotland, 1 tattoo, 23 hours of flights and lay overs to Canada, compression up to my eye balls, and wine.  I was taking this very seriously :p

So the question I get most often - why the hell would you do a marathon the week after your first Ironman?

Well Macca had set up a relay team for the first Challenge Penticton race to represent MaccaX.  Originally Macca was going to do the swim leg, until Ironman took over Copenhagen causing him to drop out and decide to do the full race at Penticton.  Things got shuffled around and then unfortunately their runner had to drop out which left them a leg short a couple weeks out from the race.  Knowing that my family is around there he asked if I would be able to jump in last minute to take over the run leg, how could I say no?  I was wondering how that conversation would go with my husband and my coach, so I know I’m doing my first Ironman in a few days…what do you think about a marathon the week after?  A few incredulous conversations and I had buy in from both...well maybe not buy in…more like a “You’re insane, but have fun” kind of response.

So I was in.  At the very least it will be a fun time, a great story, and this time I was determined to cross the finish line standing up.

Unpack, repack, and hit the airport. 

 (Given up packing nicely at this point)

The best part of this race was that there was zero stress, zero expectations so I could enjoy the pre race atmosphere.  Such a stark difference from the week before.

First up on Thursday hit the expo and get to meet my relay team!  It has been so cool going to races around the world and already knowing people at these races, but great to meet them in person.  So we head to the registration tent and….the team doesn’t exist.  What?  We are definitely not signed up for the race, ok send off a message to Macca hopefully they can get us signed up before race day!  After that we cruise around looking at all the goodies, barely containing whipping out the credit card at every tent.  Ohh and they had my Shiv there…by my Shiv I mean the one I’ve been drooling over and dreaming about replacing my entry level bike with, a bike that wont break on me!

(Kick ass team!)

(*drool*)

Gotta love small towns, end up running into Macca at the end of his bike ride checking out the run course (which he neglected to tell me how hilly it was!) so let him know about the team and he said he would get it sorted out.  Next day we met him at registration and team “Embrace the Suck” was born.

(Macca & Team Embrace the Suck)

Then I got to meet one of the biggest legends of triathlon, Mark Allen.  He was around promoting Mark Allen online, and I was invited along when him and Macca went for coffee. I’m fascinated with this sport and want to learn as much as possible so this was entertaining just to hear about the old days and the politics of triathlon.

(Coffee with legend Mark Allen)

On to Race Day

…Tomorrow.  This has become so long I will have to break it up, so stay tuned tomorrow for part 2!  The race, and after party with Macca and Lothar Leder.

Feeling Bullet Proof

I have a two month period with no races, so I've been looking back at past ones.  Below is a race report from my first (and only so far) sprint triathlon.

As for things currently, I am looking forward to racing the Scottish Duathlon Championships in a few weeks.  I've been feeling so good in training, which I know I keep saying but I just seem to absorb the work and keep on going.  I had a run on Sunday that I wasn't sure how it would go, 1:45 of warm up and then intervals of 1-2 min sub 7 with equal rest just slowing down slightly.  I was shocked at how great it felt, I didn't have to push for most of it, until the 1 min intervals when I knew I was going to make it to the end so started to pick it up.  It was unreal, I still cant get used to seeing the paces I am after doing a solid base period.  With the weight training and base period I just feel like my body has become bullet proof, something like this would have had me shuffling by the end just hanging on, and now my form felt strong the whole way through.  When it got hard, I just tightened up form and relaxed into the discomfort, felt like I was practically being pulled forward.  I'm paying such close attention to how my body feels because making it to Ironman injury free is goal number one, but there wasnt an ache or sign of breakdown.

I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record saying how good I feel when everything I read is talking about how people are beat down, hurt and exhausted from training.  All of these articles about trying to get motivation to go out and do the next workout, and I'm still craving each one, and cant wait to get out there and have fun training.  I think its a combination of a solid plan, building up to be able to hold the work, the strength training to have the foundation, and the mindset of just having fun that has me seeing such gains in my running and biking and still feeling fantastic and full of energy.

I'm not the only one seeing it, I had a massage today after a few weeks without one and it was the easiest massage I've had in a while. My muscles just melted, everything loosened up right away. So I'll keep on cruising along, preparing for Ironman Kalmar.

Anyways after all my blabbering on what was just supposed to be a post about my first sprint, heres the race report from last year:

First Sprint Triathlon RR! Would have been faster…but had a coughing fit in transition :s

7/31/2012 9:40 AM CDT

Yay I survived my first sprint triathlon, and second one ever. I was worried about this one, after doing Ironman 70.3 last month my legs just did not want to go fast :s They were in endurance mode, and with a 500m swim, 22k bike and 5k run I needed to pour on the speed!! 

 

Now this was a local race, and I’ve been trying to break into the triathlon scene around here, so I wanted to bring it with a good performance. My legs had started picking up speed the last week before I was to taper a bit (just 5 days) to absorb all of the training and I was feeling sooo pumped just to get out there and push! 

 

I know there has been a lot of talk about 5k’s how some people say its “only” a 5k, or they “graduated” from that distance to longer, and the sprint tri is the equivalent. Well I don’t know that I have ever entered the pain cave like I do in 5k’s in any other distance I’ve done so far, the pain of going fast is so different than the endurance work, and I love it! So this was the 5k equivalent (even ending with a 5k run) and I have a reputation of winning 1^st female in 5k’s, or at least AG (not as impressive as it sounds, small running community) so I had a little to prove out there :p

 

Unfortunately things don’t always go to plan…day before the race wake up with a sore throat and swollen glands :’( With running, and triathlon, so much of it is mental, I knew I could still race with how I was feeling but I was feeling deflated and upset that all the hard work I put in wouldn’t be reflected because my body decided to rebel…even though I had been tapering and not beating it up like usual! This is the last tri I had on the schedule, and I really wanted to try this distance, so I decided if I wasn’t feeling incredibly worse the next morning I would race, if for nothing else but the experience.

 

RACE MORNING:

 

Ugh…my body was definitely still fighting this bug, usually my HR when I wake up on a race morning is around 43-55…it was at 90!!!  I pumped up my tires and it shot up to 160, and I was breathing heavy…this is going to be a tough race…

 

Showed up to the race, the great thing about a local race is the swim was in the pool I train in, and the run on a course that my run club meets at. It’s so nice to have a familiar course J Got my transition set up, and it was nice to see a few members of my running club out there, there are just two triathlons within 5 hours of here and they are on the same weekend, so the runners start tri training, it was so nice to see familiar faces….even though I got some comments on how I should probably just go back to bed :s

 

Swim start, my goal for the swim was just not to get passed by a bunch of people, it was so nice that this was a wave start with people starting every 30 seconds according to estimated finishing time. Sooo much more of a fan of starting by myself than the terrifying traumatizing experience of starting with hundreds of other swimmers in open water and being dunked and swam over…I think I need more time to forget the experience before I try another Ironman event (but a full WILL be happening next year). Finished the swim only being passed by one person, and just happy to be out of the pool, onto the bike!

 

1^st transition went pretty well, got out on the bike, and again started seeing HR and it was 30 bpm higher than its ever been on the bike…even though my legs weren’t feeling too taxed. Other than that bike went well, never really felt the burn in my legs like I had in training, my HR was just too high even though I wasn’t putting out much effort. Transition 2 was pretty slow for a spring at 1:50…a coughing fit while trying to tie my shoes slowed me down…which doesn’t seem like much but would have moved me up 3 spots! The 5k was the same as the bike never reached the burn that I usually feel in the 5k run, HR was high and lungs burned from the coughing, which reduced me to half marathon pace…

 

Overall though finished in 1:14:19, which I am ecstatic about considering how I felt!!! It was enough to win my 1^st in AG and 3^rd female overall. I really like this distance, and cant wait to do another one. However now my focus is running for a while as I prepare for my first marathon. Last time I tried this I got a pelvic stress fracture, so name of the game is stay injury free!!

Runners who tri!!  Running club cleaned up in the local tri...I'm the one in the middle :)