Ice baths are magic! I ran nine miles pretty hard and feel great now..like I could go do nine more. I am ready for washington half. Bring it!
The way you set up an ice bath is get two+ bags of ice from store. fill up tub with cold water. sit in cold water to acclimate. then add the ice. too hard to get into the water if you add ice first. Sit there for 15-20 min. Then take a nice warm shower to warm up the skin and muscle, but not long enough to warm up into the joints. That’s how i do it anyway.
The secret to tolerating an ice bath is bundling up your core with fleece jacket and hat! Hey, notice anything interesting in the picture below? I’ll post more about that later!
David’s article was published in the Washington Post on November 14th.
I got this email from David Brown of the Washington post…thanks to anyone who emailed David with your story!
I am a science reporter at The Washington Post (also a triathlete) who is doing a story on deaths in triathlon. As you know there have been a bunch this season (two at NYC, two in different Vermont races, one at Dewey Beach in Delaware three weeks ago, one at the Nation’s Tri in D.C. in early September). As always, most occurred in the swim. I am looking for some triathletes will to talk to me about panic attacks in the swim leg of races, as I think this is an overlooked and underdiscussed possible explanation for these deaths. I see that you blog has had some interesting discussions on this topic in recent years. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to get in touch with the people posting to the discussions.
Are you willing to talk to me on the record about this phenomenon if you have ever experienced a panic attack (or some version of one)? Can you give me the names of any triathletes who have had such experiences whom I could contact and see if they are willing to speak on the record?
thanks and best
David BrownDavid Brown National Staff The Washington Post
August 7th, 2011 was an epic day of racing in Wilmington. I did a mini sprint triathlon with two of my daughters: Laura and Becky.
Prologue
I think it all started back in January, when Laura and I did the Little River Trail run. We ran 4 miles together in the freezing cold that day.
Laura loved racing together, so this summer she said wanted to do a Triathlon. I chose She Tri’s because it was a nice short distance race, all female, flat course, and close to the beach. We planned our family beach vacation around that week. And, I put together a beginner training plan for Laura and she started riding her bike in addition to running. I bought a decent bike for her to ride using my REI dividend. It’s a Marin Fairfax. It’s a good fitness level road bike. And Laura loved it.
Becky was already running just for fitness and fun, and she asked if she could do it too. So, they both started following the training plan. And they shared the spiffy new Marin Fairfax bike, naming her “Marina”. It was not any problem sharing Marina for training. But come race day, we were faced with the dilema: who gets to ride Marina? The other bike option was the Trek 500 mountain bike. Not a bad bike, in fact, I raced my very first tri season on that bike! 
But Marina was definitely slicker, faster and more comfortable than the Trek. They decided that they would swap bikes half way through the race, each riding Marina for 5.5 miles of the 11 mile bike course. We were planing to stick together throughout the race anyway, so that was a good plan.
About ten days before the race, Becky got a bad flu, was physically wiped out, and could not do any workouts. She was really worried about that. I told her that she would be fine, and you are supposed to rest your body anyway before a race. She was just getting a little extra rest!
Travelling to the Race
We packed up three bikes onto the back of my car, and headed to the beachhouse we rented in Surf City, NC. That’s alot of bikes!
Surf City is about 30 miles north of Wilmington. We had a nice quiet evening unpacking our suitcases and walking on the beach. We went to bed early in preparation for our epic race day!
Setting up for Race
We woke up early, ate some bagels and peanut butter for breakfast. Then we set out for the She TRIs race site in Wilmington. We arrived about 45 minutes before the official race start time. We pumped our tires up. We loaned the bike pump to the woman parked next to us. It was her first race that day, too!
We had plenty of time to pick up our race packets, get our time chips, and go to body marking. Body marking is one of my favorite parts of race-day, and Becky and Laura thought that was very fun. I did not think to take a photo of that moment. sniff sniff.
Then we went to set up our transition areas. I showed them how to apply their number stickers to their bike and helmet, and pin the bib on their shirts. We went over the plan of what to do in T1 and T2. We were all wearing sport bras underneath a speedo swim suit. The plan was to put on bike shorts during T1. Put on Sneakers, helmet and then ride. In T1, all we had to do was rack the bike, take off the helmet, and put on the running shirt with bib pinned to it. This was a good plan. We were all set to go. Here is Becky (left) and Laura (right) ready to go! Becky was using the Trek bike, and Laura had “Marina”.
 |
 |
We had about an hour before our swim start time, so we walked around and observed other athletes as they came out of the water, went through T1 and headed out for the bike. I saw two of my age group friends head out on the bike: Gloria and Rebecca. It was fun watching them race, as they are both fast chicks!
Swim 200 meters
Due a mix-up in the swim start times, we were at the end of the swim line. This put us behind alot of super slower swimmers. Laura started at 8:53am; I was 30 seconds later; and Becky brought up the rear. There was one girl behind Becky and that was the very end of the line. We passed quite a few swimmers, but tried not to stress over it. We mostly wanted to have a fun day. Our swim times were about 5 minutes.
Bike 11 miles
The bike was a two lap flat course around a scenic little lake. The race photographer was right at the start of the course. We were all smiles, as you can see!
 |
 |
 |
As we settled into the ride, I went to the back and let Laura and Becky set the pace. We passed a few other riders. A few riders passed us. Laura has good bike legs and so she kept inching ahead of Becky and me. I could tell they were both working pretty hard. I was so proud of them!
I hoped Laura remembered the plan to switch out bikes after the first lap. She did not. After we got started on the second lap, I had to ride full speed ahead to catch Laura. We stopped and waited for Becky to catch up. We all took some drinks from our water bottles and carried on with Lap number two. It was beautiful weather and we all had a great time, I think. We finished with a 13 mph average pace. That was a really great result for a first Tri!
The Run: 2 miles
Laura had gotten a little bit ahead of us again in the second lap of the bike, so got to transition first. She waited for Becky and me in T2. We all started out on the run together. Laura settled into a steady jog ahead of us. She had a big smile on her face.
Becky looked wiped out and said she couldn’t run. She said that her legs felt like Jello. She had missed most of her brick workouts due to being sick; and I think she was still not back to full strength. I told her what Ginger told me to do in the Ironman: If you can’t run, at least hold your head high and power walk. So Becky and I power walked. When able, we did little spurts of running.
We saw Laura inch away little by little. Becky has nice long legs, so her power walk pace was pretty decent. And her run spurts were pretty fast. As we ran across a little wooden bridge, there was a guy shouting out motivational things. That spurred Becky on to keep running a little longer. As soon as we were out of sight of that guy, she stopped to walk. I asked her if that guy helped her to keep running. She said “Yes!”. I asked if she wanted me to yell things to keep her running. She said “No!”. I felt the best thing to get her to the finish line was for us to keep up with the power walk/run plan.
We passed a few folks, who were also walking. It was hot, so we took water at the aid stations. As we neared the 1 mile turnaround, we passed Laura jogging on her way back. We did high fives. Laura looked strong and still all smiles.
In the second mile, we passed a few folks, who were also walking. It was hot, so we took water at the aid stations. We again ran over the bridge with the motivational guy. He was awesome! I told Becky to keep running, only six more minutes of suffering, can you do that? She said no. We walked some more. When we could hear the finish line music and cheering, she picked it up and ran the rest of the way across the line, looking strong!
 |
 |
The race photographer heard our names being called and figured we were related, so she took this shot of us together. I did buy all these pictures, by the way! Good memories!
Our pace for the 2 mile run was 13 min/miles. I was pretty amazed at that. I was proud of my girls, and happy that Laura had a strong day, and that Becky kept up and finished the run despite jello legs. And it turns out that Becky got third place in her age group, beating the 4th place by 2 minutes. If she had not worked hard power walking, I don’t think she would gotten third.
Post Race:
After the race, we went to Star bucks for coffee and cake pops. Yummy!
Then we went to the beach. Yay beach!
Today I did the Roan Moan 2011 Metric Century ride put on by the Bakersville Firestation. The ride is 62 miles of hills, including a Cat1 climb up to the top of Roan Mountain. It was the hardest thing I have done since my Ironman. The easiest part of the ride was much hillier and harder than any of my training routes. And then they stuck in two monster climbs to make it one hillacious day for me.
Ride Stats
Here is my Garmin Data. The ‘flat’ parts on the elevation graph were by no means flat! Just sayin….
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/103067890
- Avg speed before the big Cat1 climb: 16.6
- Avg speed up the 7.3 mile Cat1 climb: 5.9
- Avg speed down the mountain and to the finish: 25.9
- Overall Avg Speed for entire ride: 14.6
- Max Speed: 49.9 (this is a record, dang, would have liked it to top 50mph!)
- Race weight 152.2 - hope to do better getting that down for next year
Race Prep
Here I am driving toward the race start. My ears popped. A foreshadowing of diffucult climbs ahead.
I got a little lost on the way, so arrived at the site with just 25 minutes to prep. I headed over to the registration tent to get my bib number. I got that, and then went outside for a potty break. They were laoding the porta-potties onto trailers. I asked “Is it too late to pee?”. The guy said “Yes, but there’s a bathroom inside”. Phew, I took care of that business, then went back to get my bike and nutrition all set up.
I met two BT buddies: Jon and Ken. That was nice seeing a couple of friendly faces. I didn’t chat too long because I was pressed for time. I got everything together and rode back over to the start line, positioning myself in the middle of the pack. The announcer was calling out instructions.
Then I rememembered that I didn’t have my heart rate strap on. I really really wanted to have that for the big climbs to gauge my effort level. So, I got out of the lineup, rode back to my car, and grabbed the strap. As I rode back to the start, I heard the gun go off. Dang. I rode up and got in the back of the pack, so it put me behind some slow riders. +
The Race, leading up to big Cat1 climb
It took several miles to pass folks, and I had to do some hammering to catch up to some groups. I finally settled in with a good solid group of male riders.
There were alot of hills. We were averaging 16-17 mph. I would sometimes get dropped on the hills, but could catch back up on the descents and flats. I tried hard to stay with them. One one small descent, I could have flown fast and free, but a stupid car got in my way, and was going slow! Dammit, I can’t pass a car on the road.
I lost contact with that group on the first big climb. It was a Cat3 climb of about 3 miles, with some fairly steep grades. It was hard! On the descent down from that climb, I was in front alone. I like descending fast, but am not used to a long descent with twists and turns. I approached the first turn a little too fast, and realized it in time, braking. But I came too close to wiping out, so that made me more cautious, so I slowed down. Then a faster male rider passed me, and I followed his lead. He was a great descender, so I tracked after him, matching his speed on each turn. It was perfect. I could go fast, and trusted him to know how fast to take each turn. Soon after that descent, there was a SAG stop. I talked to the good descender. Turns out, he lives near the race, and rides those hills all the time, so he knows each turn. My pace group was at the SAG stop, so I was able to get back in with them, and so did the good descender.
The next part of the ride was a narrow road along the Tweetsie railroad, which followed alongside a river. It was beautiful. There were parts of the road where we’d ride through narrow passages carved out of the rock. Most of the ride, I was working pretty hard trying to keep up with the group, so that took away my enjoyment of the scenery. But the pace slowed during this trek along the river, so I did enjoy that part of the ride very much. I was glad to be with a group here, because there were lots of turn offs that would have been hard to follow if I was alone.
Next we started a long gradual incline up to the base of Roan Mountain. This was 15 miles of steady uphill grade. So unfair to throw that at us before a killer Cat1 climb. I lost touch with my group somewhere along here. But it was okay, because I knew the monster climb was coming, and I knew I was going to lose them there anyway, as I planned to do the climb at my own steady pace.
The big Cat1 Climb
There was another SAG stop at the base of the climb. I stopped and tweeted this picture, saying ”41 miles of hard climbing. worst is yet to come. phew…im toasty”. I filled up just one water bottle at this stop, not wanting to carry any excess weight up the mountain.
My brother Mark gave me this advice for the 7 mile trek up the mountain:
Advice that has worked for me is to mentally divide to climb into thirds. So 7.5/3 = 2.5 miles. The first third, take it easy. The second third, push harder, but not all out. The final third, push hard, if you have the legs. Following this advice, it is not uncommon to catch and pass many of the people who dropped you at the begining of the climb. Since it is mostly down-hill after the last climb, it’s ok to be a bit fried at the top.
I set my watch to show lap distance and hit my lap button. I started the climb at a steady pace. The grade was not awful, so the first mile I felt pretty good. There really didn’t seem to be any steep sections, but the relentless climbing took it toll on my legs with each mile. I discovered that I had never before tried drinking water while climbing. All the climbs in my homelands are 5 minutes long, so I can drink before or after, and I usually drink during downhill grades where I can stop spinning my legs. So, it was a bit of a challenge.
Mile 2 ticked by. I was feeling it but hanging steady. I passed a few riders. I think one guy passed me. I figured that meant all the stronger riders were already ahead of me. I dunno.
There were several folks stopped along the mountainside. I’d ask them if they were okay. I got answers like calf is cramped, or their back was hurting, or they were tired. I decided that no matter what I would not stop until I got to the top of the mountain.
The had funny pacman mile markers on that big climb stating how many more miles to the top. I snapped a picture of the one at 4 miles to go. (I did not stop to take this picture, either!)
When I saw 3 miles to go, I was very tired and my legs were toasty, but knew I was going to make it. But I did not feel like I could go harder at this point. I felt it best to maintain my current steady effort. I got a migraine around here. I think it was from doing an Andy Schleck grimace. I decided to focus on relaxing my facial muscles. That worked.
I started getting low on water. It was a big mistake to skimp on that, particularly with a hot day. I had to ration it the rest of the climb.
2 miles to go and I was hurting. My legs were toast. I said “Shut up, legs”. Somewhere around here there was a section that was slightly less of an incline, which provided a brief respite from the relentless climbing.
1 mile to go and I was really hurting. I drank my last bit of water here. I longed to see that SAG tent at the top of the mountain. I needed water. And I needed the climbing to stop. I said “your legs are on fire, this climbs going higher”. Jason says that in spin class sometimes. I used something else from spin class during this climb, too. Sometimes he does these standing recoveries, where you stand up and spin real slow. I did this just to give my body a rest. I’d shift up two gears, stand up , and just very slow spin. This was great to stretch out my back and legs.
As I rounded a corner and saw the SAG tent, I was ecstatic. Rest was so close. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe it, tho, for fear that it was a mirage. I just kept up my steady climbing. As I passed some folks standing along the mountain below the tent, I said “please tell me that is not a mirage”. They laughed and said “No, you are at the top”. Oh thank goodness.
All downhill from here
I unclipped and was so stiff, that I had trouble getting my leg over my bike. I got a cramp in my right hamstring doing that. I rubbed it out and it seemed okay. A volunteer came right over, took my bike to park it, and gave me some water. That was just lovely. I saw my pace group at the top. I was pleased that I had caught up to them.
I filled my water bottles, ate some fruit, and took a picture. I tweeted “omg glad thats over.” I saw my pace group leave. Dang, I lost them again. I took another picture and tweeted …”all downhill from here w00t”
I started down the climb following four guys. The first two were descending too cautiously. I wanted to go faster. You can’t really pass on the twisty turns of a descent tho, so I had to wait for a straightaway section to pass. I got past them finally. The next two guys were not going as fast as I would have liked, but they were going fast enough. So I did not pass. I did not want to do the lead out, as I would not have known how fast to take each turn, and to be honest, I was cooked so was not feeling super confident. Not a good state for fast descending.
Some turns were marked with arrows saying “Slow Turn” along with a skull and crossbones picture. That was amusing and scarey, and we took those turns pretty slowly. I would have liked to get a picture of that.
Even after the descent down Roan Mountain, the rest of the ride was mostly a downhill grade. There was a nasty little climb near the end that probably wasn’t really that bad, but again, I was cooked so if felt really hard. I was very very very glad to get back to the Bakersville Firestation.
Post Race
There, I chatted with BT buddy, Jon while I ate the absolute best post race meal ever: BBQ, baked beans, coleslaw and raspberry crisp ala mode. All home made, probably by the fireman’s families. I also saw Stacey Richardson, who always takes first female finisher at the century ride. She is amazing. Ken eventually showed up too. Apparently he had gotten off course near the Tweetsie railroad section. That sucks.
I was so sore and tired that the 35 minute drive back to my hotel was difficult. When I got there, I took a quick shower,then headed for the pool for some R&R. The pool was cold. It felt great. Then I went into the hot tub and stretched my sore muscles. That was great too. I jumped back in the pool for more cold, then more hot. I don’t know if that’s a good idea for recovery, but it sure felt good. I wonder what the TdF guys do to recover for another day of relentless climbing.
Things I learned
- practice drinking while climbing
- don’t skimp on water. dumb!
- mountain centuries are like visiting an amusement park. The climbs are like waiting in line for a long time. The descents are like a short thrill ride that you waited for!
- The food at bike events is way better than at triathlons. way, way, way better.
- Find a good descender to follow on the downhills. Not sure how to do that, but it makes a huge difference.
- My brother looked at my Garmin data and noticed that my HR was higher before the climb than during. He said I should have not worked so hard up to the base, and worked harder during the climb. Interesting. I do tend to take climbs at the same effort level as the rest of my ride. hmmmm…
Tags: climbing, metric century, mountain
This is Part 3 of my Kure Beach Race Report. Read Part 1 and Part 2.
Official Results
Swim 1: 7:49 (5th AG)
Run 1: 13:57 (4th AG includes Transitions)
Bike: 31:41 5 (1st AG; 6th OF)
Run 2: 14:02 (5th AG includes Transitions)
Swim 2: 8:55 (2nd AG includes running up beach back to start area)
Overall: 1:16:21 (2nd AG)
Swim #1
As I described in Part 2 of my race report, I just barely go to the start line in time. The horn blew off and we all stepped into the waves. I hadn’t really positioned myself well, so just followed the crowd and mozied on into the waves. I wasn’t yet in a racing frame of mind.
I did a few dolphin dives, then dove under a couple of waves, and started swimming. The water was pretty calm, and I didn’t think about sharks much. The way out to the first buoy was pretty crowded, and I felt a little like a sardine. But I love that…I feel like a little kid playing with a bunch of friends in the waves.
I rounded the first buoy and started swimming parallel to shore. There was a strong current, so I was swimming fast and easy. It was alot of fun, I really love this swim course! I tried to remember to kick my legs for added speed, but it didn’t feel like it was doing much, as I was already swimming fast due to the current. So, I just kept swimming at a solid easy pace along with that current to the final buoy. As I turned toward shore, I could feel the waves move past my body. I tried to swim in synch with their movement, so as to use their speed to my advantage. This is something I learned in an OWS training swim…the day that I discovered that I was athletic.
I exited the water and ran up the beach toward T1, still not yet feeling in a sprint racing mode. I stuffed my cap and goggles into my sport bra for later use in the final swim. I found my running shoes in my spot on the beach, grabbed them and ran up the boardwalk. They had kiddie pools filled with water to rinse the sand off your feet, so I stepped in one, then out, then put my shoes on and was off for the first run.
Run #1
In my rush to get ready for the race, I had not grabbed a watch. So, I was racing ‘naked’, meaning no computer data. I had no idea how I was doing. I started running hard, and I was breathing hard, but I was not quite going ”balls to the wall” hard. A friend named Rebecca passed me early on in the run. I tried to keep her in sight and use her as a pacer.
Near the end of the run, a girl with ’48′ on her leg passed me. She had a black top with a pink triangle shape on the back. I’ll call her Pinky. I tried to keep Pinky in sight on the run, with plans to blow her away on the bike course. I lost sight of both Rebecca and Pinky going around the last corner near T2.
The Bike
I had a pretty fast transition, swapping shoes, donning helmet, grabbing bike and go! At the mount line, I did a flying mount, and botched it because my suit was slippery from sweat. I finally got going, stood up and hammered to get up to full speed. Around the little corner and it was go-go-go. I passed Rebecca fairly soon. I thought I saw Pinky in the distance and made her my target. I was going almost balls to the wall on the bike. But not quite, because I knew I had to save something for that final swim. I inched closer to Pinky, but could not quite catch her.
At the turn around for lap 2 of the bike, I took the U-turn too fast and botched it. I ran over a cone, had to put a foot down, gather myself back up and get going again. I’m sure I looked like a complete idiot. And I lost sight of Pinky! Hammer hammer hammer. How bad do you want it. Go go go. That’s what went through my head on that bike course.
I did not know my speed because I had no watch. I never did see Pinky again on the bike course. But, I felt like I was going strong and fast, so felt good about that. As I approached the final stretch of the bike, I saw the race photographer. I remembered to do Jazz hands like my friend, Jennifer. Her race photos are always so cute!
Run #2
My legs felt okay despite going hard on the bike. I racked my bike and grabbed my visor and started running hard. I figured Pinky was long gone, so my goal here was to not let anyone in my age group pass me. Fairly soon, I passed a girl in a yellow tri suit with 38 on her leg. I said ‘come on, stay with me’.
It was a little bit hot; I was breathing hard; and I was tired. A couple of spectators were holding hoses out spraying runners. I ran right up to them with wide open arms and said “Thanks – you are my favorite volunteers of the day”. It felt great.
No-one in my AG had yet passed me. I soooo wanted to slow down. But I had to keep on going. I thought of an episode of “Sponge Bob Square pants” where he and Patrick Star went around playing “opposite day”. So, every time I wanted to slow down, I thought “opposite day” and tried to speed up instead. It was fun, and must have worked okay because my 2nd run split was about the same as my first run split, despite killing it out on the bike course.
This picture is near the end of the run and, look – the girl in yellow did stay with me. I was very tired by the end of that run…and looking forward to the cool ocean water.
Swim #2
As I approached the beach, I stopped by the boardwalk and ditched my number belt, visor, and shoes there. Then I ran down to the hard sand, skipping T4 altogether. I had my cap and goggles stuffed in my bra, so got them out and put them on as I ran. There were volunteers directing swimmers to swim all the way down to the flags, then enter the water. I didn’t run too fast here, as I wanted to catch my breath before swimming.
As I entered the water, I took note of yellow capped swimmers. Those would include all females aged 35 and up. I swam as hard as I could so as not to let any yellow caps pass me. There was one yellow cap that I swam side-by-side with the entire swim. It was super fun, and I enjoyed the challenge of not letting her slip past me. I normally don’t care too much about anyone passing me in the swim, as I can always catch them later on during the bike. So this was a really fun challenge for me. And maybe I ought to swim sprints like this every time. Hmmm.
As I exited the water, I noticed the girl swimming next to me had the yellow tri suit on. She sped past me toward the finish line, but I didn’t much care, because I remembered she was 38, not in my age group.
After crossing the finish line, I glanced back at the time clock. It said 1:40. My wave started 26 minutes after the clock started, so I figured I was about at 1:16. I was pretty happy with that time…a bit faster than last year. I didn’t think it was fast enough for a podium finish tho, as last year’s top three females in my age group were all under 1:14.
The End
I packed up my race gear and headed for the food tent. Grabbed some drinks and snacks. Talked to some tri peeps. I looked at the posted race results and read 7/23 (7th place out of 23 in age group) next to my name. But I had read it wrong, that was someone else’s ranking. They were doing some stupid bike toss contest, and I didn’t think I placed, so I did not wait around for the awards ceremony. All I really wanted to do was go lay on the beach and relax. And to be honest, I was disappointed with a 7th place finish. Here I am back at the car fixing to leave the race:
It wasn’t until the next day that I learned from my friend, Scottie, that I had actually taken 2nd place in my age group, when he texted me congratulations. I never did figure out who Pinky was. Maybe I misread the age on her leg. She definitely was not the 1st in our age group. That chick was way ahead of me the whole race. Or, maybe I passed her in transition and never did see her on the bike. I might have been chasing a ghost the whole way. lol. Doesn’t matter, because whoever she was, she helped me go hard and get a great bike split. So, thanks, Pinky.
Tags: kure beach
