So this is where my Ironman journey ends....

I am very sad, frustrated, and angry to say that as of yesterday, after two weeks of emotional roller coaster riding, that this journey is going to be down to one iron sister between now and November.

I was feeling GREAT with training.  I was getting some excellent rides and runs in, and even a few open water swims, and was feeling perfectly on-part fitness wise for where we were in our training brick.  I went to the beach and after a great 60 mile ride and 6 mile run, the next day was a rest day so I was on the beach laying there and enjoying the sand, sun and surf like a normal person, and after riding some waves in on a boogie board and laying there in the sand on my stomach, I swung my right leg around and felt a very pronounced "pop."

I should preface this for those who don't know, but just over ten years ago, I was hit by a car while crossing in a crosswalk and suffered a compound fracture to my lower right leg that involved five surgeries, a rod, some screws, grafts and even a battery to regrow nerve tissue.  I was able to put weight on the leg for the first time six months after the accident, but after I got up and moving/walking, while I was definitely weak, my recovery was fine, and between then and now, I swum three years in college, have run two marathons, and done ten triathlons.  Never any knee problems whatsoever.  Every once and a while, my knee would feel loose and "pop" a bit, but nothing to report, pain wise or swelling wise, with all the miles and miles I have run.

So one can imagine my shock, when, after a preliminary orthopedic visit and an MRI, I get a call from the doctor last night, to say that not only do I have a "bucket tear in my meniscus," where the torn off piece of cartilage is flipped underneath the main piece, but that I ALSO have no ACL.  It's been torn completely in half.  When this happened, I have no idea...what happened on the beach hurt, but not the way I hear a torn ACL is supposed to hurt.  Nor have I noticed anything in the previous ten years! 

So maybe it tore the night I got hit by the car, and what with bones hanging out of my leg and a huge windshield gash in the back of my head, it was never discovered, and obviously I have gotten along fine without it thus far, so I never ever thought to check to see if it somehow wasn't there! Maybe it was one time when I fell playing beach volleyball 4 years ago? I'll never know, and the reality is, it doesn't matter when it happened, just that it did.

The problem now, though, is it will be hard to fix a meniscus without an ACL, nor could I run 26.2 miles anyway on my meniscus as it stands, anyway, so with the recovery time involved to fix these, this is the end of my journey to IMAZ.  I am crushed and disappointed to say the least, but hell, if I could do this much training thus far sans ACL, whenever I do find the right time in my life to take this up again, boy will I be ready, complete with new knee, and everything will be that much sweeter.

 I don't regret anything about this process, as if prior to this whole endeavor beginning in December, one had told me that I could even get through some of the more challenging workouts that I did in the past month, I would have laughed.    And while it will be bittersweet cheering Amanda on in November, I can't wait to be behind her 150%, and then pick her brain about everything she learned on race day when it is eventually my turn.

So this blog will now be a strange combination of Amanda's continuing journey and perhaps the odd update about rehab and surgery, and maybe perhaps when I feel ready to sign up for a new Ironman... I spent all of last evening allowing myself to bawl my eyes out and wallow in self pity, but that is over now.  The only way is forward, and while I am disappointed beyond proper articulation, I know deep down that in the game of life, this is really small potatoes, and that I have the husband, family, and friends I could not have ever dreamed up, as well as the cutest little red dog, which of course, is what's really important.

Big Week of Workouts!

Super long time between posts!  Unfortunately my life has not been as exciting as Jessica's, nor has my life been as exciting as her posts seem to describe, just busy, busy, busy. Leadville, CO was amazing, but for the entire week I felt like I was working out...even though I was just walking.  The biggest perk from that trip was when I got back to DC I felt like I was swimming in excess oxygen, and it felt GREAT!

An EYE OPENING workout!!

Anyways, I unexpectedly had a lot of free time this week...so plenty of time for working out!  I managed to get a workout in everyday, including a double during the week (swam in the morning before classes, did a track workout in the late afternoon).  But by far the culminating workout of the week was yesterday: the dreaded DOUBLE BRICK.  The brick sounds simple: 25 miles biking, then 3 miles running, followed by another 25 miles biking and 3 miles running, but holy schmoly within the first couple miles of the second bike I thought my quads were going to fall off/stop working...and I only had around 25 more miles to go!  I sort of rallied for around 20 miles, i.e no one was passing me, but the last 5 miles were BRUTAL.  I'm pretty sure snails were passing me while I was going up the last big hill and people on mountain bikes were passing me (this is not a knock on mountain biker fitness, they are usually slower because their bikes are a lot heavier), but I made it!  The three miles running wasn't that bad, but I think that's because I have more experience pushing through physical challenges while running and I'm just in better running shape.

This double brick was definitely an eye opener for me regarding my cycling shape...I need to GET TO IT!  In looking forward to our next couple weeks, I do see that there are lots of long bike workouts and I am already mentally preparing myself to get them done.  To give myself motivation (read: to keep me on track), I will make sure to update the blog more :)

NYC Triathlon and Altitude Attitude Adjustments!

Long time no write! Between some traveling on both our parts (Amanda is actually still away, but more on that in a moment), there hasn't been much time to write, nor much to write about, training-wise, as it has been pretty consistent thus far, until the past week!
Neither of us has spent much time at altitude...my time has pretty much been limited to assorted ski trips over the years, when I'm too focused on my imminent doom and my pounding heart and a zillion other tings to really worry about something so inconsequential as air. But I took a little "family trip" out to Snowmass/Aspen, CO with the hubs and the hound and while I felt great on the hikes we did (Sasha was SUCH a champ, I can't even properly put it in to words!), when I rented a very nice road bike from the folks at Aspen Velo, I was in for a very rude surprise.

My Everest!

I'll first state the obvious and say that there is no flat riding Aspen/Snowmass.  You're either going up a mountain or down one.  I suppose you could cut across the center of the Roaring Fork Valley, but that's Highway 82 and while the guys at the bike store said it "was totally cool to ride on it," that didn't seem like a very good idea to me, as there were no real shoulders, not on the highway nor the other roads.   And the hills are not hills.  They are mountains.  6-8 mile steady climbs are the norm, and it's literally just up and up, no straights to rest or catch your breath.  And here's where the lungs started to burn, then the legs, and before I got the pass-outs, I would have to pull off the road and de-clip (hard to do when you're already going so damn slow it's hard to stay up as it is), and gasp for air while waving off kindly motorists who were asking if I needed help.  I would get so frustrated that by the end of the week, I almost broke down in tears! It was probably one of the most disheartening moments when it came to IMAZ training thus far, and the downhills didn't help me catch my breath/rest either, because now it is just down and down and down and it's windy and terrifying!

This was about what I felt like on those hills

But I guess that's why the real toughies go train at altitude and really stick it out for a whole season for their bodies to adapt.  It obviously would be possible in a few days, but I did come back feeling stronger and will never ever fear anything I come across out east (at least until I try to tackle Bear Mountain, although at least that is at sea level!!).  My best workout was a 15 mile ride (so basically 7 up and 8 down)) and then I ran about 8 miles back to where we were staying in Snowmass, essentially straight back up the mountain on a trail.  Running was hard as hell, too, but somehow easier to work through than biking, likely because during long uphill spells on which I was super winded, I could slow down to a shuffle and catch my breath, which just isn't possible for me on the bike.  And I could run on the trail too, which helped a lot mentally, too, since I didn't have to worry about cars or see that daunting black stretch of road go up and on and on!

I got back to NYC on Friday and the NYC Triathlon was Sunday, and while I felt a bit wobbly on my Cervelo after a week on a road bike to start, I was quite pleased with my race! I took four minutes off from last year, and though the heat and humidity was pretty insane, I felt really strong on the run and bike, and ironically, I think where I messed up was the swim! I just don't think I was as aggressive as I could have been, and veered around too much instead of holding a better line, and my time could have definitely been a minute or two faster, whoops.  My transitions felt solid (the NYC Tri has about a 600-700 meter barefoot run from the swim exit to transition, so there's 3-4 minutes right there) and I could have been a touch more aggressive on the bike downhills (the course has a lot of rolling hills), but the conditions of the road we bike on can be a bit treacherous (LOADS of divots and potholes and joists and rumble strips) and I didn't want to risk a bust or a flat, and tried to make up for it on any stretch of freshly paved road, flats and uphills.

I got 9th in my age group, yay, and looking at the splits of the other girls (esp the top 3), I'm right on par with them in terms of swim and run (in fact, my run was faster than most) but they're 10 minutes ahead on the bike...still a lot of improvement to be made there!

And now for an update on Miss Amanda.  Speaking of altitude, the 8,000 feet of Snowmass/Aspen is small potatoes compared to where she is: Leadville, Colorado, the second highest city in the entire US, and the staging ground for the infamous Leadville 100 Ultramarathon featured in Born to Run at a nutty 11,000 feet.  Amanda is in Leadville for an Army/field medicine training course that works out the intricacies of field medicine/trauma, etc. at high altitude.  Very badass, and they're doing a lot of bivoucing, etc. so she should have some interesting stories about her experiences upon her return! She isn't going to have any time for any swimming/biking/running, but hiking around in full body armor with her field kit/pack/etc. at 11,000+ feet has got to do more for mental toughness than anything else, not to mention those lungs!

P.S.: while hiking the Rim Trail, we saw Lance Armstrong.  Sasha tried to sniff his mountain bike, and he smiled at us. He was on the phone, so no chance for further dialog.

Today went swimmingly...

I swam a total of 2 miles (3200 yards) today in the pool and 2000 of those yards were just straight swimming.  As I've mentioned before, I'm the black sheep of the family because I got out of the swimming game early (pre-highschool) and decided to pursue sports on land instead.  Since I stopped swimming competitively at such at early age, I'm 99% sure that was the most yardage I've ever swum straight. Not too shabby!  This workout also had the added benefit of being in an outdoor pool, so I managed to get a sweeeeeet one piece tan as well.  

I'm the crazy sheep in more ways than one...

Today was also a fabulous day because I am now fairly certain that I can do both the half iron on September 8th and the actual IronMan on November 17th with my current school schedule for this fall/winter.  I've been angsting about this since I found out that I CAN'T do Age Group National Champs over the summer.  I was super bummed about that, but now that I know I can do the other two races, I'm not as peeved...although I've also had a week to get over being a whiny poop face about it haha.  I'm hoping to do at least one regular triathlon before the season is over so I can attempt to qualify for the Age Group National Championship race again (and hope that I can do it in 2014), but we shall see!

And lastly, I only have one more week as a first year medical student! First year went by so fast and the speed of these past few months can be attributed to my training.  It definitely kept me sane and has helped my focus while studying.  So, while training can sometimes be boring, or painful, or tiring/exhausting, or scary (at least when I'm biking), etc. and many people tell me I'm crazy for not only doing an IronMan, but also doing it during medical school, I'm really glad I have committed to doing IMAZ.   144 days and counting!!  

4 hours on the move and counting!

I did my first big continuous brick workout on Saturday, and woo-wee, am I tired!

The plan called for a 3 hour bike ride, followed by a six mile run.  Ordinarily, I would have rallied and gone out 9W for the long ride, but truth be told, the first and last 10 miles are not really training riding, since it is through the city, and I like to go with a group for safety (and then you always end up taking a break at the cafe in Nyack) but couldn't get a group together/buddy that was not light years faster than me, so I ended up just waking my butt up early and riding loop after loop in Central Park.  Not the most exciting, but good for mental toughness and enough hills for spice.  By the end it was getting crowded, but 8 loops plus one extra mini loop for an additional Harlem Hill/mile put me at 50 miles and change in about 3 hours, and then I dropped my bike back off at NYAC and hit the park AGAIN for six miles.  It was all I could do not to puss out and just do a couple of laps around the reservoir (flat) to get up to 6 instead of doing the real loop with hills, but I was glad I didn't waver, as four hours later, I was quite proud! I actually ran at a good clip, holding about 9 minute miles, and felt like I kept a pretty decent pace on the bike...definitely within the 16-18MPH "elite" speed bracket called for on the training plan (vs. 12-15 for "age groupers") and managed my nutrition right, as I didn't feel shakey or dehydrated or completely wiped out/bonked at the end.

Nutrition wise, I had a peanut butter sandwich in the morning for breakfast, plus some coffee and a bottle of water, then during the bike I had a GU and two bottles of water + ACCELERADE mix.  Between the bike and run I ate a banana and then carried a bottle of water + ACCELERATED with me, along with another GU, which I ended up not eating, but I did go through the bottle (about a liter in size).  I bought one of those bottles that go between my aero bars with a straw and that thing is literally I lifesaver! When the bottle is in a cage on the bike frame, I never drink out of it, but with that nifty thing I drink regularly and often.  Huge! I just stopped after 30 miles and refilled it with the bottle in my frame cage, and took off again.

This is your friend!

At the end, was I tired? Yes.  Mad at myself for not remembering to re lube parts of my feet (and other body parts) with Body Glide? Yes.  And I will DEFINITELY remember sunscreen reapplication, too.  I didn't get burned, but don't want to risk it next time as the weather continues to heat up.  Wrinkle prevention...vanity is my favorite sin!!  But
I definitely felt in control and like I did the brick to my fitness level/wasn't overwhelmed by the work out.  And considering the only other time I've ever done anything physical for four hours was when I ran the marathon two years ago, not too shabby!

I have been very focused on the bike length lately, and am still wound the most tight about that without a doubt, but my friend Cameron, who did IronMan New Zealand last year, told me that I can't run enough between now and November, and he's a fit dude, so I'll take that advice to heart.  I felt strong on those 6 miles, but at the end, I was definitely ready to be done, not ready to run another 20 miles! And I only did half the bike...and no swim! Waah!

The two biggest training blocks are still to come, though.  Next week is the last week of our aerobic block, then a week of "recovery" and then on to the "endurance" phase and "competitive" phase.  "Competitive" is the one that has the toughest workouts/longest days, so there's that to look forward to!

Long Days, Bigger Workouts....150 days to go!

I didn't want to stop, but my bike needed a rest around 30 miles in...

I have had a GREAT week in terms of working out, which is good because everything else has been sort of meeeeeeeh.  On Saturday I got in a 60 miles bike, and this week I got in some doubles of swimming and running, managed to fit in a 2 hour run, and did a quick run with a 2200 yard swim today! These past couple days have made me realize how much better I feel when I workout hard all week and has really motivated me to get back into it, instead of the willy nilly workouts I have been doing.  It also helps that is has been nice, sunny, and hot...my FAVORITE workout weather.  I know a lot of people think I'm crazy, but I like to workout in the heat...sweating like crazy makes me feel like I am actually accomplishing something rather than just running/swimming/biking.

Out of all the workouts, I am most proud of the 60 mile bike, as it is the most I've ever biked, annnndd I thought I might die during the middle 15 miles.  It was definitely a mental endurance workout along with a physical one, but I made it and found some pretty sweet spots along the W&OD trail that I've never seen before.  It has made me look forward (okay, ALMOST look forward) to the next long bike.

I have exactly 150 days until IMAZ and it is literally scaring the life out of me, but on the bright side it has also made me get serious about working out.  150 days to get into great shape...150 days until what is going to be an epic day!

Stronger in the legs, not so much in the head

I have been a very bad post-er as of late! Thanks for holding the bag, Amanda, so to speak.  Last weekend was Princeton Reunions, so I was determined to get in a solid ride and run before I headed down to the Jerz for a weekend of friends and memories and general debauchery.

It was also hotter than blazes in NYC for a few days, and so my 48 mile ride in Central park (8 loops....BORING) was quite difficult as it was my first ride in the heat and even though I pounded two bottles of water, not bringing a drink mix (I like Accelerade) was a mistake, as I was definitely woozy at the end .  But it was mentally toughening to keep going through the same loop over and over again, and I felt very nice on my 9 milers the next day before the games began.

I tried to be a good girl and acknowledge that I "can't hack it like I use to" and came back to the city late Saturday night, but the temperature dropped the next few days with the tropical storm (and the buckets of rain that came with) and so did my immune system, and I was sick as a dog for a few days and did literally nothing except fall behind on training and on work.

But I finally kicked whatever it was, and after a mini run to get the blood moving and a 1.5 straight swim (it was supposed to be open water, but there is no way that can happen so long as I'm in NYC...will just have to wait for the beach or Michigania in the coming weeks), I felt good and ready to tackle a 90 (yes, NINETY) mile ride to Bear Mountain with some old swimming buddies Warren, Andy, Steve and his brother, Andrew, and their other fried Jonathan.

Well, after feeling pretty pleased with myself for navigating up from the New York Athletic Club through the city and over the GW bridge with no incidents All By Myself, I stop at Strictly Bicycles in Fort Lee, NJ, to meet up with the rest of the gang and realize that I SOMEHOW HAVE LEFT THE ZIPPERED POCKED IT MY JERSEY OPEN.  That's right.  The pocket where I keep my cash, my ID, and credit cards.  FUCK! Only my drivers license managed to stay in.  The rest was scattered somewhere in the city or over the Hudson.

So after cancelling the cards and just chalking up the cash to be my panhandling quota for the next 2 years, I hit 9W with the boys and immediate realize they are WAY to fast for me.  I insist they ditch me, and I have a nice, strong-feeling solo ride out to Nyack and the Runcible Spoon, with one stop past Piermont to confirm that yes, my Visa was indeed canceleed, and yes, I am the biggest idiot whose ever called you.

I diddle at Runcible and wait for Warren to rejoin me after he turns around after a few more miles from the other guys, who are going to tackle the Bear summit.  I just had to acknowledge that 90 miles AND intense climbs are just not at my fitness level right now, and certainly not with those guys!  And I had a little flat along the way for spice, but thankfully managed to change it without too many screams.

Warren and I head back, and then after a strong ride (for me) back, including the two climbs just after leaving Piermont that I find hard because the way the road layout is with stops, you can't build up much speed (or any) in to them, I feel victorious that I've made it back and to the bridge.  And then, WHAM.  Somehow I eat it right before getting on the bridge ramp (I think I nicked the edge of the cone without realizing it), and my dear sweet Warren, who has now witnessed a day of epic stupid luck for me, hangs with me while I get my bearings again, and still a bit shakey and bruised from the fall, slooowly cruise/walk the tricky turns down the GW bridge, back in to our fair city.

Thankfully it was fairly uneventful back, although I could feel the bruises in my left hip and side knee as well as my sore hands (thank GOODNESS I had gloves on), and while I may have lost a good bit of dignity and can't allow my self any financial treats of any kind for the next week (both as punishment for loosing the cash, and the fact that I don't have any cards), I actually feel pretty good for getting another Nyack ride under my belt (only my 2nd), and will just keep being as diligent as I can with them over the summer, slowly adding in miles past Nyack and also runs in once I get back to Manhattan.  Plus, last time, the back of my neck KILLED from riding in aero, but now it is no problem! Depending on how the bruises and feel, will be up for a nice, long lope in Brooklyn tomorrow!