This past weekend I made the trek up to Houston again to do my first sprint triathlon in longer than I can remember. I went to packet pickup on saturday and I heard some of the volunteers talking to someone about whether or not it would be wetsuit legal. I was shocked. I was standing there sweating my ass off in a summer dress and thought there was no way the water would be cold enough. After living in Hawaii and before that racing all of my races in Houston in the summer, I had never worn a wetsuit for a swim. I had just the week before received my first wetsuit - a zoot fuzion - and I wasnt expecting to try it on until I got back to Mexico. I quickly fired off an email to my coach to tell her that I was going to try it in the race instead if the water was cold enough. After that it was off to stuff myself with some Texas BBQ - ahh the pre-race meal of champions. We were laughing that I would be burping/barfing BBQ the whole race the next day.
I got to the race and set up my transition area (we had a great spot for the bike in and out which made it that we had about 4 steps before the mount/dismount line). This is always helpful for those of us who are not coordinated enough to put on or take off the bike shoes while riding. We got the word that the water was 72, so I put on my wetsuit for the first time ever. Yes, this dummy forgot to try it on the day before. Thankfully it fit! I will post pictures in a few days of the race.
The swim - it was a water start and I have to say, I LOVE WETSUITS! I was just floating around with no treading until the gun went off. I was at the front in a realy good position, and by the time I got to the first buoy I couldnt see anyone else around. I came out of the water in 1st and ended up having the 3rd fastest swim time of the day - thanks coach! After the race when I washed out my suit and wetsuit I realized how nasty the water was. I am now convinced I am going to get some sort of nasty disease.
T1 - going into T1 there were strippers and when they were pulling off my wetsuit my bottoms started coming off as they pulled me across the grass. The guys got a lovely view Im sure.
The Bike - I was fully expecting to hear on your left right away into the bike because I didnt think I had that much of a lead. Shockingly it never came. I was fairly conservative on the bike because we were on the shoulder of the highway and there were no lanes blocked off. This meant that if you wanted to pass you had to head into a lane of highway traffic. I have never seen this before, but I didnt want to risk getting hit by a car. Plus the shoulder had tons of gravel in it, and I kept feeling my bike slip. As we got to about mile 7 I saw to ambulances for two different people. Both were awake and on stretchers with lots of blood, but they appeared to be ok. This was another reminder to stay safe. Bike was 18.4 MPH and was third AG. I wasnt as fast as last race, but given the conditions, I am happy with it and happy I came out of it without an injury.
T2 - I didnt remember getting passed on the bike, but I figured it was becuase I was in lala land the whole time. I was sure it was a mistake. I have NEVER come into T2 first. But when I got there, mine was the only bike racked. Sweet! Time to run
The Run - all I can say is holy hotness. There was no shade or even a hint of that wind I felt on the bike. It was hot as hell and all I could think was that it better cool off by the half ironman in november or I will have some major issues. I tried to keep a quick turnover and just keep going. At the turnaround I could see the second place girl and she was moving. I picked up the pace a little bit, but she was faster. At the last mile she caught me and blew by. I tried to keep up with her but just didnt have it in me.
I crossed the line in 2nd, and with a lot more confidence going into the Half IM in a couple of weeks. Chris will make the trip to Houston this time and be my support sherpa since my mom is going to be in NYC watching my little brother run the marathon. I cant wait to have him there - he is
not as excited because he has been asking what kinds of restaurants and stores there are in the Woodlands. I guess he is preparing for while I am out on the bike. I will send him on an excursion to scout out the local area and report back for those of you that are coming out for the Ironman in May.
Oct 25, 2010
Oct 15, 2010
Swimming is going swimmingly
Even though it is my best event in triathlon, it is always good to see improvement. I started back up this past summer, so I know it is still early, but I am already getting faster. Back in July when I first started training for the ironman, my coach had me do 20x100 to get a feel for where I was fitness wise. I have no clue what to compare my times to so I wasnt really sure how I fared when I finished, but I got a chance to compare to myself on Wednesday. I had another set of timed 100s and this time my average pace was 4 seconds faster than in July. I still dont have anything to compare it to, other than my previous time, but I am gaining time on myself, so I guess that's a good thing, right? Then today I had a timed 2k swim, and again the last real thing I have to compare it to is my half ironman I did a few years ago. I know they are totally different (one was ocean swim, it was a race, etc), but I have nothing else to go off of. This time I was 4 minutes faster. I know the real tests are in the races, but this is giving me a little bit more confidence going into the sprint next weekend and the half ironman in a few weeks. And after doing these time trials (especially the 100s), I know I can push myself more in the swim without dying at the end. Im sure it is all mental, but every little bit helps right?
Now if only I could improve on the run, but I think that is going to take a lot more than a good coach. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Now if only I could improve on the run, but I think that is going to take a lot more than a good coach. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Oct 10, 2010
Oye, Michael Phelps is here!
First of all, HUGE congrats to everyone who raced ironman this weekend. I tracked everyone all day (it was my birthday weekend so Chris couldnt complain!), and I am so proud of everyone. I know it was a rough day for a few of you, but finish or not, you are all heroes of mine!
In celebration of the Bicentennial, Mexico decided to recreate the Olympics. This sounds like a really cool idea in theory, so Chris and I went to check out the events on Saturday. It was a mess. There were over a million people expected to go (and stand together in a .5mile space of street), and walking was nearly impossible. Basically along the street the events were set up and you could walk by and see people compete. Problem was that the "arenas" were about 3 stories high with no bleachers, so you really could only see on the screens around the street. Mexico had the Olympics here in 68, so why they didnt choose to house these events in the old arenas is beyond me. I guess that would have made too much sense. Rumor was that Mr Phelps was making an appearance and I was excited to see him swim. But when we got there I quickly realized that he wasnt really going to be swimming. The pool was about 15 meters and he was in a relay with a few other Mexican swimmers and racing agains some past Mexican Olympians. Some were old(er) and none could compete with him. So instead of seeing a race I saw MP dive in and swim almost the full length underwater. Im sure he was thinking the entire time WTF am I doing here??. But then quickly realized the amount of money he was going to be making for showing up. After watching for just a few minutes, we left. The events went on today so I couldnt even have a good run. NOT happy with Marcelo (the gov) at this time.
This was the closest we got to Michael - he is on the big screen.
Here I am standing in front of the "Track". It was probably about 200 meters around. You cant see the people because we snuck into an off limits area by pretending we were tourists who didnt speak Spanish.
And finally, for your viewing pleasure....While many of you were staring at hot bodies in speedos in Kona, I was staring at my own athletes in diapers. They were competing in some event, but not sure what it was. I assume it is an ancient Mexican art form. Notice the socks - I guess that is their idea of barefoot running. Although I am not sure many of these dudes do too much running.
Now it is couch time while Chris cooks my birthday dinner and I rest up for another tough week of training. Have a great week everyone!
In celebration of the Bicentennial, Mexico decided to recreate the Olympics. This sounds like a really cool idea in theory, so Chris and I went to check out the events on Saturday. It was a mess. There were over a million people expected to go (and stand together in a .5mile space of street), and walking was nearly impossible. Basically along the street the events were set up and you could walk by and see people compete. Problem was that the "arenas" were about 3 stories high with no bleachers, so you really could only see on the screens around the street. Mexico had the Olympics here in 68, so why they didnt choose to house these events in the old arenas is beyond me. I guess that would have made too much sense. Rumor was that Mr Phelps was making an appearance and I was excited to see him swim. But when we got there I quickly realized that he wasnt really going to be swimming. The pool was about 15 meters and he was in a relay with a few other Mexican swimmers and racing agains some past Mexican Olympians. Some were old(er) and none could compete with him. So instead of seeing a race I saw MP dive in and swim almost the full length underwater. Im sure he was thinking the entire time WTF am I doing here??. But then quickly realized the amount of money he was going to be making for showing up. After watching for just a few minutes, we left. The events went on today so I couldnt even have a good run. NOT happy with Marcelo (the gov) at this time.
This was the closest we got to Michael - he is on the big screen.
Here I am standing in front of the "Track". It was probably about 200 meters around. You cant see the people because we snuck into an off limits area by pretending we were tourists who didnt speak Spanish.
And finally, for your viewing pleasure....While many of you were staring at hot bodies in speedos in Kona, I was staring at my own athletes in diapers. They were competing in some event, but not sure what it was. I assume it is an ancient Mexican art form. Notice the socks - I guess that is their idea of barefoot running. Although I am not sure many of these dudes do too much running.
Now it is couch time while Chris cooks my birthday dinner and I rest up for another tough week of training. Have a great week everyone!
Oct 7, 2010
Same ol' same ol'
So they finally updated the results for the tri (after over almost two weeks) and instead of updating my swim time, they removed 20+ minutes from my run time. So now I am showing as 1st in the run and it looks like I had a near drowning in the swim. I thought about changing it, but the overall time is accurate, and it is the only time I will ever see that pace next to my name in an oly distance tri. Plus I dont really want to wait another two weeks for them to fix it.
Nothing new is going on, just a lot of training and working with a little sleep mixed in. Sunday is my birthday and to celebrate we are going to get crazy and go out to dinner on Saturday, and I may even have more than one glass of wine. But only if Chris can carry me home. The only other plans I have are to plop myself on the couch and watch eveyone cross the line in Kona this weekend. I know, I cant get over how exciting my life is either!
Last week was a recovery week, which means this week begins another set of hard work. It has all been going fairly well except yesterday I tried to wake up to swim, and just couldnt get out of bed. I decided to go after work and get in an extra two hours of sleep. Well at the pool there was one lane open for people who weren't part of the swimming class and there was one other dude in the lane. He was a weirdo and kept staring at me. I let it slide because I was almost done until he decided to stop at the deep end and rest. Ok, no biggie, he is tired right? Wrong! Every time I swam to that end he would drop under water and stare up at me. The first few times I thought it was a coicidence, but after about 15 turns, I realized he was a disgusting perv. I decided to go with the typical Mexican passive aggressive behavior to deal with this jack ass and not confront him directly, but do deep flip turns where I would "accidentally" push off of the wall extremely close to where my feet would almost hit him. After I hit him with my feet twice (not hard I promise), he got the hint and started swimming again. Then after he got out he stood in his towel at the end of the pool staring again for the last 15 minutes of my swim. At least now I have an extra reason to not sleep late and swim in the AM. Morning swimmers there are so much less perverted. Slow, but not perverted.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend - I will be watching and cheering from home!
Nothing new is going on, just a lot of training and working with a little sleep mixed in. Sunday is my birthday and to celebrate we are going to get crazy and go out to dinner on Saturday, and I may even have more than one glass of wine. But only if Chris can carry me home. The only other plans I have are to plop myself on the couch and watch eveyone cross the line in Kona this weekend. I know, I cant get over how exciting my life is either!
Last week was a recovery week, which means this week begins another set of hard work. It has all been going fairly well except yesterday I tried to wake up to swim, and just couldnt get out of bed. I decided to go after work and get in an extra two hours of sleep. Well at the pool there was one lane open for people who weren't part of the swimming class and there was one other dude in the lane. He was a weirdo and kept staring at me. I let it slide because I was almost done until he decided to stop at the deep end and rest. Ok, no biggie, he is tired right? Wrong! Every time I swam to that end he would drop under water and stare up at me. The first few times I thought it was a coicidence, but after about 15 turns, I realized he was a disgusting perv. I decided to go with the typical Mexican passive aggressive behavior to deal with this jack ass and not confront him directly, but do deep flip turns where I would "accidentally" push off of the wall extremely close to where my feet would almost hit him. After I hit him with my feet twice (not hard I promise), he got the hint and started swimming again. Then after he got out he stood in his towel at the end of the pool staring again for the last 15 minutes of my swim. At least now I have an extra reason to not sleep late and swim in the AM. Morning swimmers there are so much less perverted. Slow, but not perverted.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend - I will be watching and cheering from home!
Sep 28, 2010
Race Report - Houston Tri
Ok, the results still arent fixed, but I want to write the RR before I forget it all. Ahh it feels so good to write a race report that has three events!
This was the first time for the event and it was run smoothly and had awesome post race grub! It also was my first race back and had very little expectations going into the race, and pretty much wanted to have a good time and be able to get some calories in during the race. This would be the first Oly I have done with any fuel at all, so it was a challenge.
The bad part about the event was the issue I had with seeding. I am supposed to race in the 35-39 AG since I turn 35 in two weeks (10/10/10 –this has to be lucky in some culture right?) but when I went to packet pickup, I got seeded with the 34 and under. The next day at the race, I went up and asked if I should change groups and was told no, that the computer had me at 34. Which meant I was starting with the last group 25 minutes after I actually should have. It also meant when I checked the race results at the end I was under 35+ with a 25 minute longer swim than I really had. The nice people are correcting this quickly though, or so I have been told.
The swim –
It was a two circle loop with a run in between. The water was brown and you couldn’t see two inches in front of you, but it also was flat and calm. The worst part was having to dodge all of the slower swimmers twice. I came out of the water in second for my start time, but 3rd for my AG (confusing right?). I felt good the whole time, and probably could have pushed it more, but since it was my first one back I didn’t want to die in the run. Looking back I should have gone faster because I died (or never really started) in the run anyway.
T1 – 500 meter run into T1 is never fun after a swim
The bike –
It was also a 2 loop course. It was impossible to tell who was ahead of you and who was behind especially since I started out of my AG. There was a duathlon, an oly tri, and an oly tri with a 300 swim instead of a 1500 swim all on the same bike course. But any time I passed someone I was happy. I am starting to see some progress on the bike. It was an 8 minute PR for me. I am a slow biker, so it was still a slow time (19.something MPH), but I will take it. I was able to get in about 100 calories without puking – progress! And I passed many people, and only heard ON YOUR LEFT! a few times when the second loop elites came by. The course was very flat and the day was overcast, but we had majah cross winds the whole way that really slowed me down. I just have to say, I love my new bike. My saddle, not so much. Looking for a new one and am open to suggestions.
T2 – uneventful. it's a T2 need I say more?
The run –
I should have stopped while I was ahead and never started the run. I forgot my garmin so had no clue how fast (or should I say slow?) I was going which was probably a good thing because it would have only depressed me more. I only got passed twice, but then quickly realized that I was at the slow end of the pack because we started an hour after the race began. No bueno. In my mind I thought I was running, but when I passed the spectators they were probably wondering why that girl in the red was walking so slow. Seriously, it was a shit show. At the last mile some dude who was behind me the whole way came up and said ¨let’s sprint to the finish¨. I told him I thought I was sprinting. He laughed and picked up the pace. I stayed with him for one step. My PW by far in a 10k. My legs just didn’t show up that day. I don’t know if it was the half marathon two weeks ago, the 10 miler I ran last week or what, but I was pretty bummed by this. The good news – no soreness today.
My first tri back in forever, and 2 out of 3 events went well, so I am not going to dwell on the crap that was the run. The plan going into the next two races (a sprint and half ironman) is to work on running. Swimming is going to the wayside for a bit with only twice a week trainings to make up for the extra run work. We shall see if I improve. If not, it is going to be a long day to spectate the half ironman in November - sorry dad and chris!
This was the first time for the event and it was run smoothly and had awesome post race grub! It also was my first race back and had very little expectations going into the race, and pretty much wanted to have a good time and be able to get some calories in during the race. This would be the first Oly I have done with any fuel at all, so it was a challenge.
The bad part about the event was the issue I had with seeding. I am supposed to race in the 35-39 AG since I turn 35 in two weeks (10/10/10 –this has to be lucky in some culture right?) but when I went to packet pickup, I got seeded with the 34 and under. The next day at the race, I went up and asked if I should change groups and was told no, that the computer had me at 34. Which meant I was starting with the last group 25 minutes after I actually should have. It also meant when I checked the race results at the end I was under 35+ with a 25 minute longer swim than I really had. The nice people are correcting this quickly though, or so I have been told.
The swim –
It was a two circle loop with a run in between. The water was brown and you couldn’t see two inches in front of you, but it also was flat and calm. The worst part was having to dodge all of the slower swimmers twice. I came out of the water in second for my start time, but 3rd for my AG (confusing right?). I felt good the whole time, and probably could have pushed it more, but since it was my first one back I didn’t want to die in the run. Looking back I should have gone faster because I died (or never really started) in the run anyway.
T1 – 500 meter run into T1 is never fun after a swim
The bike –
It was also a 2 loop course. It was impossible to tell who was ahead of you and who was behind especially since I started out of my AG. There was a duathlon, an oly tri, and an oly tri with a 300 swim instead of a 1500 swim all on the same bike course. But any time I passed someone I was happy. I am starting to see some progress on the bike. It was an 8 minute PR for me. I am a slow biker, so it was still a slow time (19.something MPH), but I will take it. I was able to get in about 100 calories without puking – progress! And I passed many people, and only heard ON YOUR LEFT! a few times when the second loop elites came by. The course was very flat and the day was overcast, but we had majah cross winds the whole way that really slowed me down. I just have to say, I love my new bike. My saddle, not so much. Looking for a new one and am open to suggestions.
T2 – uneventful. it's a T2 need I say more?
The run –
I should have stopped while I was ahead and never started the run. I forgot my garmin so had no clue how fast (or should I say slow?) I was going which was probably a good thing because it would have only depressed me more. I only got passed twice, but then quickly realized that I was at the slow end of the pack because we started an hour after the race began. No bueno. In my mind I thought I was running, but when I passed the spectators they were probably wondering why that girl in the red was walking so slow. Seriously, it was a shit show. At the last mile some dude who was behind me the whole way came up and said ¨let’s sprint to the finish¨. I told him I thought I was sprinting. He laughed and picked up the pace. I stayed with him for one step. My PW by far in a 10k. My legs just didn’t show up that day. I don’t know if it was the half marathon two weeks ago, the 10 miler I ran last week or what, but I was pretty bummed by this. The good news – no soreness today.
My first tri back in forever, and 2 out of 3 events went well, so I am not going to dwell on the crap that was the run. The plan going into the next two races (a sprint and half ironman) is to work on running. Swimming is going to the wayside for a bit with only twice a week trainings to make up for the extra run work. We shall see if I improve. If not, it is going to be a long day to spectate the half ironman in November - sorry dad and chris!
Sep 27, 2010
How do you know if you travel too much?
Race report for my first tri is coming soon. I am still waiting for them to adjust the time for my swim to be correct, but in a nutshell I was top three in swim, had some major improvements on the bike and ran like crap. 2 out of 3 isnt awful for my first race back in almost 3 years though!
After almost a month away from home I started realizing there are some big hints for me that I travel too much:
1) I never have the correct currency in my wallet and I always have currency from at least 3 different countries
2) I spend more hours in a plance seat than in the seat at my desk
3) I know all airport codes by heart. CUN is one that I always do a double take on because I read it incorrectly
4) I never know the time zone or the city I am in
5) Without fail I get into my first cab and speak the wrong language.
6) I havent unpacked my bags in a month
7) My dogs forget who I am until I open my suitcase with their presents I bring from whatever Pet store I find on my trip. Yes I have resorted to buying their love. And if I keep this schedule I am going to have to start buying Chris's love too.
8) The flight attendents on the plane know who I am
9) Every week in my training schedule there is an off day that says Travel to xxx
10)When putting in my OOO I realize that my return date is longer than the longest vacation I have ever had.
Yes there are some perks to all the travel that I am very grateful for, but it is always good to be back home!
After almost a month away from home I started realizing there are some big hints for me that I travel too much:
1) I never have the correct currency in my wallet and I always have currency from at least 3 different countries
2) I spend more hours in a plance seat than in the seat at my desk
3) I know all airport codes by heart. CUN is one that I always do a double take on because I read it incorrectly
4) I never know the time zone or the city I am in
5) Without fail I get into my first cab and speak the wrong language.
6) I havent unpacked my bags in a month
7) My dogs forget who I am until I open my suitcase with their presents I bring from whatever Pet store I find on my trip. Yes I have resorted to buying their love. And if I keep this schedule I am going to have to start buying Chris's love too.
8) The flight attendents on the plane know who I am
9) Every week in my training schedule there is an off day that says Travel to xxx
10)When putting in my OOO I realize that my return date is longer than the longest vacation I have ever had.
Yes there are some perks to all the travel that I am very grateful for, but it is always good to be back home!
Sep 13, 2010
Finally a Race Report!
Part of my long travels this month have been due to the fact that I ran the half marathon in Chicago. I was so excited to finally have a race on the schedule and to see how the training has been paying off. The verdict is in, and I am excited to report the training is working! The race wasnt all positive as you will read and I am working to try and figure out what is going on.
After a week in Panama, I traveled for 12 hours to get to Chicago on Friday night. I met my mom and Chris there (for Chris's first time) and we spent a rainy saturday doing a little shopping and sightseeing. I also got a flu shot - probably not the best idea the day before a race, but they dont offer them in Mexico, and I dont know when I will have a chance again. Sunday I woke up feeling good and ate my normal pre-race breakfast of coffee, banana and some watered down gatorade. I got to the race about 45 minutes early and did a warmup and was ready to go. Then all of a sudden about 5 minutes before the race, my HR spiked to over 215. At first I thought that my monitor was slipping down my chest because the highest I have ever seen my HR is 192, but I moved it around and couldnt get the reading to go to normal. We started walking up the path to the starting line and I thought that if I got close to the line, I would pull off to the side and delay my start until it went back down. I wasnt feeling nervous or anxious, so I didnt know why it was doing that. Finally it went down (phew) and i was off. Goal pace was 8:45 and the mile recap is below:
Mile 1-5: 8:36 pace
I assessed how I was feeling the whole way and really was feeling great for my first race back. I decided that if I was still feeling good after 6 miles I would push the pace up a bit
Mile 5-6 - Still felt good and decided I could go a little faster
Mile 6-9.2 - 8:22 pace. Still was feeling good. At this point I decided to have a gel. I never take any gels in half marathons, but my coach has been having me practice this for the ironman, so I went ahead.
Mile 9.2-9.3 - Holy crap I am gonna barf up that gel. I looked down and my HR was back up to 220! I immediately slowed to a shuffle (read walk) to the next med tent. The guy there took my blood pressure and told me it was really low. I told him that was normal until he informed me how low it was. He kept me in there for a while until everything was back to normal. I begged him to let me finish. 1) I felt fine again 2) this had never happened to me before and 3) the only way home was my mom and she was at the finish line 3 miles away. After about 10 minutes he cleared me and I was back on my way at a much slower pace.
Mile 10-13.2 (this was one of those longer races :)) slow pace, not even sure what it was since I had stopped for so long.
Finish time - 2:07.
I was definitely not sad about this race. I was able to keep the pace and think i could have run my goal if my HR didnt spike. The plan is working and I am sticking to it.
After the race I found my mom and Chris (who I had called to warn I was coming in about 15 minutes late because of the unexpected stop) and explained what happened. It may have been too many late nights in a row with no sleep like this one:
In all seriousness, I know this isnt something to take lightly. I have an appointment with the doctor to get looked at before my next race. I have had my heart looked at many a time in the past for various reasons, and have never had a cardiologist find anything life threatening. But this is my heart, and I only have one, so I am getting checked out. Im sure there is a logical explanation since this has never once happened before. It could be that all my travels has worn me down, I could be dehydrated, the gel might have caused a weird acid reflux type reaction, or any number of things. Hopefully it is just a one time benign situation and I am all cleared to move forward, because I would really love to race the triathlon in two weeks. But health always comes first so I am gonna be better safe than sorry!
After a week in Panama, I traveled for 12 hours to get to Chicago on Friday night. I met my mom and Chris there (for Chris's first time) and we spent a rainy saturday doing a little shopping and sightseeing. I also got a flu shot - probably not the best idea the day before a race, but they dont offer them in Mexico, and I dont know when I will have a chance again. Sunday I woke up feeling good and ate my normal pre-race breakfast of coffee, banana and some watered down gatorade. I got to the race about 45 minutes early and did a warmup and was ready to go. Then all of a sudden about 5 minutes before the race, my HR spiked to over 215. At first I thought that my monitor was slipping down my chest because the highest I have ever seen my HR is 192, but I moved it around and couldnt get the reading to go to normal. We started walking up the path to the starting line and I thought that if I got close to the line, I would pull off to the side and delay my start until it went back down. I wasnt feeling nervous or anxious, so I didnt know why it was doing that. Finally it went down (phew) and i was off. Goal pace was 8:45 and the mile recap is below:
Mile 1-5: 8:36 pace
I assessed how I was feeling the whole way and really was feeling great for my first race back. I decided that if I was still feeling good after 6 miles I would push the pace up a bit
Mile 5-6 - Still felt good and decided I could go a little faster
Mile 6-9.2 - 8:22 pace. Still was feeling good. At this point I decided to have a gel. I never take any gels in half marathons, but my coach has been having me practice this for the ironman, so I went ahead.
Mile 9.2-9.3 - Holy crap I am gonna barf up that gel. I looked down and my HR was back up to 220! I immediately slowed to a shuffle (read walk) to the next med tent. The guy there took my blood pressure and told me it was really low. I told him that was normal until he informed me how low it was. He kept me in there for a while until everything was back to normal. I begged him to let me finish. 1) I felt fine again 2) this had never happened to me before and 3) the only way home was my mom and she was at the finish line 3 miles away. After about 10 minutes he cleared me and I was back on my way at a much slower pace.
Mile 10-13.2 (this was one of those longer races :)) slow pace, not even sure what it was since I had stopped for so long.
Finish time - 2:07.
I was definitely not sad about this race. I was able to keep the pace and think i could have run my goal if my HR didnt spike. The plan is working and I am sticking to it.
After the race I found my mom and Chris (who I had called to warn I was coming in about 15 minutes late because of the unexpected stop) and explained what happened. It may have been too many late nights in a row with no sleep like this one:
In all seriousness, I know this isnt something to take lightly. I have an appointment with the doctor to get looked at before my next race. I have had my heart looked at many a time in the past for various reasons, and have never had a cardiologist find anything life threatening. But this is my heart, and I only have one, so I am getting checked out. Im sure there is a logical explanation since this has never once happened before. It could be that all my travels has worn me down, I could be dehydrated, the gel might have caused a weird acid reflux type reaction, or any number of things. Hopefully it is just a one time benign situation and I am all cleared to move forward, because I would really love to race the triathlon in two weeks. But health always comes first so I am gonna be better safe than sorry!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
