Road Trip!

Last week I did something I have always wanted to do!  Cross the border on my bike!!! :):):)

And guess what, this trip was not even my idea! Lol!  A friend wanted to ride to Buffalo to visit his brother and asked me to come along!  It definitely was a great ride!  We left Wednesday morning just after rush hour with the potential of hitting some rain.  It was a bit dodgy getting out of the city but we lucked out with the weather and never did get rained on! Woohoo!!!

Our route from TO to Buffalo - 191km

We kind of winged it in terms of a route to get there.  We both looked at maps and figured out a rough route.  Luckily, my friend memorized roads once we hit St.Catharines for us to get to the Niagara Parkway and eventually the Peace Bridge which was the bridge we needed to cross to get into the U.S.  

 Niagara Falls from the Canadian side

                                               Crossing the border using a separate entrance

Once we reached the bridge, I rode part of it and walked the rest of it as I wasn't a fan of huge trucks whizzing by me as I was on a narrow sidewalk.  We had a separate entrance to go through and it was pretty easy going.  No real questions were asked and it was smooth sailing!  Total ride was about 191km and took us about 7 1/2 hrs.  We stayed in Buffalo for two nights and stayed in a quaint little neighbourhood.  I really did have a nice stay there!  Then we made the return trip on Friday once the sun rose and tried out a different route.

 Buffalo to TO route (garmin died in Mississauaga)

The highlight of the trip was crossing the border back into Canada.  We got to use the car lane!  I always wanted to do that! Ha!  The border officer was very nice and really just chatted with us.  He did ask us if we made any purchases and if we had alcohol or cigarettes, lol!  The day was perfect for another long ride and we took about the same time to get back home.  We rode at a pretty good click though, just as fast as a training ride with minimal stops.  Getting back into TO was really sketchy as we hit rush hour traffic in the middle of downtown.  So once we got to my friend's place I waited rush hour out before I rode the rest of the way home.  The trip was a ton of fun with great company and a great ride!  Now I can officially say I crossed the border on my bike, we rode into another country, and we crossed the country from lake to lake - Lake Ontario to Lake Erie!  FUN!

                                                            Lake Ontario in Burlington

True Savage

Finally, my race report of the "True" Savage, aka SavageMan Double, aka SavageMan 100!

SavageMan Triathlon Festival
Sept 15-16, 2012
Deep Creek Lake, Maryland

This was one of those races I have read and heard about, thought about doing, but at the same time seemed so insane that I wasn't sure if I would, lol!  It has been labelled as one of the toughest triathlons in the world by reputable magazines and websites.  And I fully believe it! Ha!  I not only did the half ironman; I decided to do the "true"/double/ SavageMan 100 - which is racing the olympic distance on one day and then doing the half ironman the very next day.  This race was my final race of my crazy five week schedule.  I started off with a tough Ironman and ended this stretch with the toughest half ironman in the world the weekend after another tough half ironman at Muskoka!

The weekend started with the olympic distance race on the Saturday.  Since I raced the Muskoka 70.3 the weekend before I did absolutely no training in between the two weekends!  I needed to survive!  I also was not expecting or looking for any PBs this weekend due to the nature of the tough course!  I was sooooo nervous going into Saturday's race.  I do not think I have ever been this nervous before a race!  Not even for Ironmans - ok, maybe not! ;)  But seriously, I was feeling the butterflies in my tummy!  These nerves were not for the olympic race itself, it was for the half the next day!  I was already nervous about the half and the infamous Westernport wall and the descending!

SavageMan 30

The swim was a pretty fast swim, probably because it may have been a little short.  I felt good in the water and all nerves disappeared once the race started.  I came out of the water in 24:11, 2nd in my age group but first out on the bike due to a pretty decent transition.  On the bike I felt good as well.  I was a little hesitant at the beginning because I was worried about descending but none of the descents were bad so I was pretty comfortable out there and putting in a strong effort.  This bike course had four notable climbs ranging from 5-8% average grades with max inclines of 8-14%.  However,  I found two of them were tough and I had to go into the small chainring in the front.  To my surprise, I returned to empty bike racks in transition.  Bike time was 1:25:02.  I was first off the bike and starting the run first in my age group.  But this lead was short lived as I could not hang on during the run.  The run was pretty brutal itself.  More hills!  I struggled during this run!  Big time!  It took every ounce of energy to keep running.  I was hurting so bad!  My left ankle turned and every step was painful especially running up the Fire Tower Rd which was a steep gravel hill.  In addition, my poor right hamstring was just yelling at me to stop!  Or at least walk up the hills!  It was so bad I actually wanted to cry out there during the run.  I could not push the pace and I lost my lead! Lol!  I had two girls pass me in the last couple of km of the run.  Ah well!  I ran a 59:42 for a total time of 2:52:36 and ended up in 5th overall in my age group!  Not too shabby!

SavageMan 30

First race done!  Now back to being nervous!  Lol!  Watching You Tube videos of previous years' races did not help.  You watch buff men in all the gear falling all over the place trying to climb the wall.  It really is funny but really played on my confidence.  If these men can't get up, I had little faith in my ability to get up especially since I lack the ability to stand up on the bike on steep hills!  (I REALLY need to learn this skill!!!).  You see, there is an alternate option to climbing the 31% grade Westernport Wall on the bike course.  There is an actual detour we can take which is a bit longer but not as steep.  So I was not sure what to do!  Do I attempt the near impossible and risk injury or take the safe route around.  A couple of my friends decided to take me to the wall later that afternoon to give it a go.  We drove to Westernport and I was greeted with the steepest climb I have ever seen in my life!  At this point I was literally shaking with nerves!  I am not kidding either!  I was scared!  The climb leading up to the wall is no dance in the park either, there are pitches of 22% and 26% grades.  So I started climbing with my friends and strangers cheering me on!  I started really aggressively and was hammering away feeling pretty good.  Then I hit the crappy pavement of the 31% wall and just gave it all I had.  I tried to keep my wheel straight and tried to stay to the right which had slightly better pavement but soon enough as I was nearing the end I started wobbling and couldn't keep my line.  I went right into a pothole and I was done!  Down I went!  Haha!  But - it did not hurt!  So I decided at that moment I was going to give it a go on race day!  I tried it, I fell and I was not hurt!  And I was pretty close to the top!  Like a few metres away!  So with the added adrenaline on race day I thought I may have had a shot.  And my strategy changed to trying to go up the first part easy and then giving it all I have for the last part.

SavageMan 70

Race morning was pretty uneventful and I was not nervous at all!  I really had nothing to lose!  Lol!  The swim went ok; I think I went off course a bit and I was swimming on my own.  I swam a 32:46 for the 2km swim.  The run to transition was also uphill with stairs, surprise! surprise!  On my way to transition, my Garmin ripped off as I was taking off my wetsuit!  Oh oh! I tried to repair it in transition trying to get the tiny pin back in the holes and I did it but it wasn't stable.  Since I did not feel like losing a $400 watch I decided to leave it in transition and therefore, race with no watch.  Got on the bike and was greeted with Toothpick, a 0.5mile climb with a max grade of 16% and average of 9%.  Then the descending started!  My favourite part (enter sarcastic tone here)!.  This course really is not for me!  I can climb the hills and pass many people doing so but I just get passed back on the descents.  Boo!  All that work for what seems like nothing!  But as a fellow competitor told me during the race - climbing well is much more impressive than descending.  I was freezing during the descents and the cold did not help my hamstring either.  It felt really tight and I tried to pedal whenever I could just to get some blood flowing and warm up the muscles.  We descended until we hit Westernport - here goes nothing!  You can see my attempt in a previous post in the You Tube link video.  There were crowds of people lining the wall cheering madly while the Rocky theme song was blaring.  I wanted to pass a couple of people near the bottom because I knew they were weaker climbers so I went a little hard at first and then settled in to a rhythm until I hit the 31% wall.  Then I gave it all I had and unfortunately had to start further to the left than I would have liked to avoid people and rode straight into potholes and crevices.  Since I had some good momentum I rode right through them until two people crashed right in front of me. I managed to swerve and stay upright and kept going.  I even gave a loud savage like groan to turn my bike again until a guy came from behind me and to avoid hitting him I swerved one more time.  This time with less speed and right into another pothole I went down!  I got further up than my first attempt the day before and I was oh so close to the top!  Ridiculously close!  I could of had it if it wasn't for me trying to avoid the other guy!  But I did not hurt myself and I had fun!  This was actually the highlight of the race for me!  I went for it!

Going up the wall with my savage look!

There was still another ~60km to go on the bike and the wall was the start of Savage Mtn which took me by surprise.  I was hurting here!  We had to climb another 2.4miles with an avg grade of 6% peaking at 21%.  Then more climbing and more scary descending.  The climbing was relentless!  Hills just kept coming and coming!  I would look up and just see another one coming.  Geez!  This was no easy bike ride.  We had climbs with several 17%, 19%, 22%, 23% grades!  I was happy to reach Killer Miller which I was warned about and was told it is actually harder than the wall due to it's location in the bike course.  We climb for 1.3miles with an avg grade of 8% and a max of 22%.  I was surprised how long this climb was but the crowd support was awesome!  Since I passed 3 or 4 guys while climbing the crowd went nuts and egged me on.   When the climb got tough, a guy spectating ran beside me the rest of the way up giving me words of encouragement!  He was awesome!  Thanks stranger!  You got me up Killer Miller faster than if I were to do it by myself!  Later I found out my friends (all of them were guys) did not think I was going to make it up Killer Miller and asked me if I had to get off the bike!  I was angry at them for their lack of confidence in me!  But I showed them!  Haha!  After all the significant climbing was done I had one more obstacle.  As if the hills and the wall were not enough, I was chased by a dog!  No kidding!  A boxer came right for me and bit me!  I could not believe it!  First time I was ever bitten by a dog!  I yelled at it to try to intimidate it but to no avail!  He got my foot but did not break skin thanks to my bike shoes!  I did feel it and it hurt a bit but I was scared more than anything else!  I cycled like mad to get away and he chased me for a bit and then stopped.  Really?! I was so happy to see the end of this long bike ride though - took me a whole 4hrs 29min to complete this ride.  Ewww! Lol!

SavageMan 70

Finally got onto the run course and I was a mess.  I was struggling, my hamstring was hurting, my whole body was hurting! The run course was the same as the olympic with an additional hill and it was two loops.  I suffered the whole first loop.  It was awful!  However, I somehow managed to pick it up in the second loop and ran relatively well.  I did a lot of passing and was feeling stronger.  Maybe the coke I was drinking kicked in to give me my second wind.  I ran a slow 2:28:48 for the half and finished the whole thing in 7:29:10.  By far my slowest half ironman ever!  I was 6th in my age group for the half and finished 3rd woman overall in the SavageMan Double!  That was one hard race and it definitely lives up to its name!

I may be back to take care of some unfinished business! ;)

Savageman in pictures!

Since right now I am a little on the lazy side to write up a full race report I thought I could post some pics up for a race report in pictures! ;)

So here they are:

From the Savageman 30.0:

   

Just passed two guys! ;)

From the Savageman 70.0:

The next 4 are my favourite picture sequence from the Westernport Wall:

That is right! Ride right through a pothole!  31% isn't enough!

Crap, they just crashed in front of me!

OMG! I managed to just miss them! I'm still upright!

TURN! OMG! Still upright!  Go!Go!Go!

Finally, the finish!!!

I will write up a proper race report in the next couple of days! Promise! :)

Muskoka 70.3 Race Report

Muskoka 70.3, Huntsville, Ontario

 September 9th, 2012

This was race #3 of my crazy 5 week race schedule.  Not knowing how much juice I had in me I still wanted to improve from my last year's time.  I was hoping for a very optimistic race goal of 6hrs but had a realistic goal of 6:15 tucked in my head.

I stayed with my friends in Parry Sound and made the trek with them to Huntsville race morning.  Did all my usual pre race checks which included pumping tires and setting up my transition and then just waiting for the swim start.  The swim was a wave start which is much more to my liking than mass starts.  

The swim itself was pretty uneventful.  I felt pretty good in the water but it felt long to me.  I was actually getting a bit tired or bored of swimming the 2km.  Guess that is what happens when you just swim twice in the pool in the last month (since the Ironman).  I came out of the water 6th in my age group with a time of 36:38.  Not that spectacular but ok.  Funny, I swam twice this distance in just over 46min in the Hudson River - shows the effect of the tidal current we had in that race!  Made the run uphill to transition and got out of there as quick as I could and onto the 94km hilly bike course.

(I really like this pic!  I may actually buy this one!)

The bike!  Hmmm, what to say!?  Maybe riding 160km the weekend before wasn't such a great idea.  I just felt like I had no juice in me for the bike.  I could not get going and I was getting frustrated.  I think I also realized that this course is not meant for me.  I am not the greatest at short steep hills, I think I am better at long hills and rollers.  I do not take advantage of the downhills as I get into chicken mode out there.  So even though I felt like I was trying to push on the bike, I felt like I wasn't moving.  I also felt a bit unwell on the bike and kind of wanted to puke.  Riders who I am normally stronger than were passing me which did not help my state of frustration, lol!  We had some headwind to contend with which would make it harder than the previous year but I felt like I should have been able to put up a better bike split than last year since I am a better rider now.  In fact, I was about a minute slower. Boo! Time was 3:25:31.

I was happy to get off the bike and start the run.  I was not sure what state I would be for the run as I barely ran since the Ironman.  My hamstring is in a bad place and I was minimizing any training to try to get it better. My hamstring actually also hurt quite a bit on the bike which was new.  My parents were there to cheer me on which was awesome!  Gave me a boost at the beginning of the evil hilly run! ;)  Surprisingly, I had some running legs in me.  I wasn't moving very fast but I was able to run even though my hamstring was telling me to stop at every hill.  I was still mentally strong so I tried to remain strong throughout and I did.  The last 4km were pretty painful but I did not stop to walk.  I ended up running about 9min faster than last year! 2:11:30.

Total time was 6:18:47, 18th in my age group and 91st women overall out of 238.  Not quite the time goal I was hoping for but I will take it.  I was happy that I did not mentally check out this year like I did last year.  I remained focused on the run!  It is a tough course and I still did improve from my previous time by about 8min. Yay!!! :)  And my parents were there to watch and cheer me on which was awesome!!!!  It makes me smile to see them get all excited when I pass them while racing!

Oh....and immediately after this race I made my decision about Cozumel.  No way San Jose!  I do not have a second Ironman in me.  I had my race in NY, I exceeded my goals and am super happy with it!  There is no guarantee that I would go faster in Cozumel even though the course is easier; it still is an Ironman and they are never easy.  Furthermore, my hamstring would not survive the rigors of training and racing a second Ironman.  Well, maybe I can push it through but I would probably just cause more damage.  So, Beach to Battleship will be my last race, then I will take some time off and be fresh and ready to start training for next year!  Ironman #9 is confirmed - Mont Tremblant in 2013!

    

Determination!

If this is not the face of determination, I do not know what is! Lol!  Here is a pic of me going up the Westernport wall during the SavageMan half! So how Savage do I look???

And just for laughs, here is a You Tube clip of my attempt going up.  You can start seeing me at about the 8:00 min mark!  Full on teeth gritting grimace!!!  Enjoy!

Link:   Westernport Wall climb video

And here is another clip taken from a friend's camera capturing my failed attempt; oh sooo close!!!

Race #3, 4, and 5

Pheww!  I just survived my crazy five week race schedule which kicked off with Ironman NYC and ended with Savageman 100!  I SURVIVED!!!!! Lol!!!!

I will write up proper race reports soon but I thought I should just post a quick recap of the last 3 races in the last 2 weeks with back to back half ironmans!

Muskoka 70.3 was race #3 and as expected, it was a tough one!  I did improve my time by about 8min from last year but was disappointed with my bike split.  I found it was a windier day but I rode pretty much the same split as I did last year.  I made up my time from the run which I managed to push hard and stayed focused.

Then the following weekend I went down to Deep Creek Lake in Maryland with eight other guys for the Savageman race weekend for race #4 and 5.  I was nervous and even scared for the half ironman which included massive climbs such as the Westernport Wall hitting a 31% grade, Big Savage Mtn hitting 21% grade, Killer Miller with a max 22% grade, and several climbs at 15+ % grades!  By far this was the hardest race I have ever done!  I will also post a video of my attempt up the wall which may give you a laugh! Ha!  I did manage a 3rd place in the women Savageman 100 (combined time of the Olympic and half IM races).  It was quite the experience though.

I now have about 5 weeks before my next race which I am really hoping to smash and PB!  But first, a little bit of recovery and then back into some training!

September!

This is how I celebrated September 1st!  A long ride to Lake Simcoe and back with a popsicle and a yummy watermelon stop! :)

I cannot believe it is already September and I am planning on taking advantage of any good weather we have left.  Before we know it, it will be rainy and dreary and then snowing and cold! So I hopped on my road bike and went long, 160km.  I was not sure if I was actually going to pull this ride off but my friend let me draft behind him and I just focused on keeping my legs going, lol!  It was a fun ride with some fantastic weather.

Tomorrow I will be racing in the Muskoka 70.3!  I have some business to take care of on that course since it is one of the more difficult half ironmans out there.  However, I do not know how much I have left in me to put in a solid effort.  I want to do well and I am going to go for it.  I just hope my body and mind responds with me and I can push through it.  I also hope my hamstring does not give me too much of an issue.  Even though I have backed off the training and am doing very little running in hopes of letting it heal, any run I do just makes it worse.  I am now at the point that it hurts to walk.  It doesn't hurt all the time walking and I am not limping but when I run it is immediate pain :(   So I will be running the half on very minimal run training but I have done this before when I was dealing with my PF earlier in the year.  So it can be done, it is just a matter of how much pain I am going to go through, or if I can ignore it, how much more pain will I be in afterwards. This is almost unfamiliar territory for me. I have been very lucky in the injury department and I have had pretty bad ones before.  I have pushed through injuries before and then managed to rest up and heal.  This hamstring though has been lingering longer than I had hoped for and I am not too happy about that.

Which brings me to more thought about Cozumel.  If I do go ahead and do this race, how much of a set back will I put myself in.  The race is at the end of November so afterwards I can take December completely off and even part of January.  I can take that risk.  But if my hamstring really is that bad, and if I do make it that much worse, is it worth it?  Will it be so bad that I will not meet my race goals and then the effort of a 2nd IM goes to waste?  If I am told from a medical standpoint to not do this race, then I am out.  I will talk to my coach about it too and see what his opinion is.  I just have never really hesitated about a race so much that this may also be a sign.  Maybe I am done for the season (well after B2B) and I am not mentally ready to go through the training of a 2nd IM.  Oh boy!? Lol!  On another note, here is a pic of the delicious watermelon we enjoyed last weekend:

Race report for tomorrow's half ironman to come soon! ;) Wish me luck!!!