The Chesapeake Man Aqua Velo at Cambridge, MD

September 24, 2011

Margie Auer

The Swim: I was worried about a couple of things. I took both wetsuits with me (sleeves and sleeveless) and determined that in 72 degree water, the no sleeves suit was a better choice. I wore it around for about a half an hour to get used to is and when I was in the water I can honestly say I didn't have a thought about how tight or constricting it was. I wore a workout bathing suit underneath. I started with an easy pace and never varied much from that. I was smacked in the head about 5 times, stung by a nettle on the side of my face once, rubbed raw on my left shoulder, and entangled (Arms) with some other woman--never had that happen before. 2.4 miles looks huge when you are standing on land, but I just focused on swimming from buoy to buoy and the time went by pretty quickly. Mike (husband) thinks I finished at around 1:15-1:17, but I didn’t even feel like I worked all that hard for it. I just wanted to get it over with. I focused on sighting, (the buoys were about 500 meters apart, and I couldn’t see the turns at that distance) drafting, and my stroke. I started to the left side of the crowd, but it was still a madhouse. People seemed to swim all over the place so it was difficult to avoid them. I looked for Mike in the crowd on the second lap around—just to wave, but I could not see him. He’ll have to wear something other than his red jacket next time. I used my orange workout goggles. This was another fear as I feel like my eyeballs will pop out during my 1-hour workouts in the pool. I didn’t even notice them during this swim. The water in the Choptank River was not brackish, it was salty. I had a nagging back ache for the first half of the race and it seemed to settle down for the second half.

Lessons learned: More glide around the neck and shoulders. Also, buy some Sea Safe jelly fish repellent with sun screen before the Florida event.

Transition 1-The race had set up male and female changing tents. It wasn’t that crowded in the tents, although I know my rear (and other parts) was exposed during the change since someone kept opening the flap to look outside (a volunteer I think). I didn’t and no one else seemed to care—it was funny how modesty goes out the window. I felt good upon exiting the water on what was a very slick boat ramp. I used the side of the dock to steady myself, as Mike had suggested. It was a smart move. I also felt pretty stable on the run out of the water—no balance problems like some have. I had a volunteer help strip me of the wetsuit-very effective and energy saving. I entered the tent with my bike gear bag and took off my suit. They had water and Gatorade in cups for us to drink. I took the water. A volunteer helped me put on my running bra—pulling it down in the back-as I had no towel and was dressing whilst wet. She assisted with my heart rate monitor since with contacts in I can’t see the connecter very well. She also put my wetsuit into the tiny gear bag for me and took away my gear bag—a big help. I love the volunteers. I had pre-buttered my bike shorts, but I added another glob for good measure. I wore my robin’s egg blue bike Gore bike shirt—which I found out is really stretchy or just too big for me. With all the loot in my back pockets, it sagged way below my rear end and looked and felt pretty comical. I ran my bike over to the exit and hopped on.

Lessons Learned: Be very vocal about asking the volunteers to help you. They want to and it makes life so much easier. More glide to combat the wetsuit hickies.

The Bike-I had laid my helmet, shoes, sunglasses and a bottle of fuel out by my bike. All went on smoothly and I ran to the exit where I hopped on and started to pedal before clipping in. I kept trying but was not clipping in. I then realized I still had the clip covers on-fool. So I took them off while pedaling and dropped them on the road. Mike managed to see me do it and picked them both up! A savings of about 20 bucks. I didn’t lose much time and took off. I had a hard time bringing my heart rate down to 135 and must have ridden for about a half an hour at 145-ish. I have trained to heart rate and 135 is the goal as it is the top of zone 2 for me. I tried to think it down since I didn’t feel winded or out of breath. I was never winded or out of breath for the whole race—I was in pain. The entire race was flat and I saw a 1% grade for about a second on the Garmin at one point. I started to feel low back and shoulder pain at about the 20 mile point. I had decided beforehand to stand up and pedal about every 15 minutes to stretch out, and this worked for a while. Towards the end of the ride, I was standing about every 5 minutes.

I had feeding schedule in mind when I started the ride since this was one of the reasons I entered this race. I taped about 10 Hammer Gels to my middle tube. I had backups in my back pocket. I like the Montana Huckleberry and the Apple Cinnamon flavors. The problem with the gels is that they are so sticky, and I used water from the bottle to clean things up. I am not really a fussy person, I mean I squirted my face with water and there was a bit of drooling going on. The edges of the gels scraped my thighs a little but I can’t figure out what to do about it other than eat the dang things as required. I also had three bottles of the Infinit mixture I had ordered on line. This stuff has a slight tang of vomit to it so I spice it up with some crystal lite and the taste in masked enough for me to swallow it. (I don’t know why Mike won’t try it!) All these drinks taste this way to me, but this is the one I can actually swallow. I also had some Hammer electrolyte capsules with me. On the 15 and 45 minute (Garmin time) I ate a gel (2 per hour) with water. On the 30 I took two electrolyte capsules. On the top of the hour I drank the Infinit—at least two swallows. The entire bottle was worth 284 calories. I took a water bottle at each water stop—and I only stopped once because I wanted a banana and they weren’t ready. I ate only one banana because the thought of two was gruesome. I also ate a half of peanut butter sandwich, but it was so hard to masticate properly that it barely went down. I think I will skip that delicacy in the Ironman.

There were lots of flat tires along the road. Most of them seemed to be those tires with the two to three inch rims. I stopped to help one poor guy who needed a spare tire with a long valve stem. My tires were the wrong size so I could do nothing for him other than tell someone along the route that he needed help. It was a relief to just stand up for a while off the seat so my Good Samaritan efforts paid off. It did add about 4 minutes to my time though. I was also alarmed for a while when I saw a bike just lying by the side of the road. I looked for a body in the nearby ditch, but didn’t see one. I was about 5 miles down the road before it occurred to me that the person was in the woods doing a little business.

I experimented with different positions in the aero bars—moving forward, arching my back, slumphing down, etc. Each helped for a bit. My lady parts were talking to me (and they were saying ugly things), and I met my 53-year-old self out on the road. She was not pleased. My sit bones were sore. The front of my pelvis was sore—but it was also numb which allowed me to hold the aero position scootched to the front of the saddle for about 3-4 minutes at a time. My shoulders and upper and lower back screamed for relief throughout the ride. I thought about writing a book of stretching exercises to perform while you are on the bike, but someone told me that the Gatorade UTUBE site has these on line. I will watch them. The MOST important thing I did was dispel the negative thoughts, especially during the last 40 miles. Suck it up buttercup only goes so far. I morphed into a cheerleader for myself at this point telling myself how strong and fast I was going (15 MPH!).

Since this was a two loop course, we traveled through a big marsh preserve twice. High tide was at noon, and the first time through the preserve, there were 4 spots on the road that were underwater. The water was about 3 inches deep and it slowed me down a bit. But, my feet, shoes, and lower leg and back were drenched by the water which felt good so I think that it kept me from getting a hot foot for a while. The second time through, there were about 10 spots that were under water and it was now the water was about 5 inches deep and the ride in the water was longer. This slows one down significantly. I don’t remember riding through water like this, even as a kid, so it was an interesting and diverting experience. The water was salty so I rinsed my bike as soon as I got home.

This ride also gave me a deep appreciation for those city and county officials who believe that it is necessary to keep their roads in good repair. There was one 5 mile stretch that was cracked and bumpy. At the point in the race it came up, the inflicted pain from the road was not appreciated. There was no position I could hold that ameliorated the pain. I also developed a hot toe at about hour 5 1/2. It was the left ring toe. I loosened my shoes at one point and probably should have again when my feet became even more swollen.

On a final note, I saw one dead raccoon, 1 dead possum, 1 really messed up dead fox, one smooshed snake, one dead frog (that I think I ran over and killed again), and a lot of things that looked like crabs. Also, at one point a huge brown bird flew right in front of me. It was bigger than a hawk and may have been a juvenile eagle. I will have to look it up in my bird book.

Lessons learned: I didn’t prepare a bike special needs bag since I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to put in it. I still can’t think of anything. Maybe more Infinit. I felt pretty self-sufficient on the bike and took a water bottle every time it was offered. The cheering of people along the roadside was wonderful. I can’t believe people satt out at the end of their driveways with signs (“Way to go Stranger!”) for hours—I saw them on the second loop so I know they were out there in the misty rain. It was a blessing to hear Mike’s voice at each transition. Also, loosen shoes whenever they start to feel tight. And take off the dang clip covers!

The finish: I was happy to get off the bike and take off my shoes. I could walk except the front of my knees really hurt. I can honestly say that there is only one Ironman in my future because the thought of running for 6 hours (or more) was ghastly. I was also very tired. I don’t think the swim wore me out—I did take it easy. I do regret not having enough caffeine in the morning. I should probably add some caffeinated shot blocks or sports beans to my nutrition. Mike said he thought I was walking around better than many others who finished before me. I want to address the knee pain this week with Mark—my bike-fitter friend at Spokes. We waited around for a massage, but since I was fairly stupid with exhaustion Mike thought we had better get going since we wanted to get home before it got dark. I gave Pepper (our Portuguese Water Dog—who smelled) a shower, then moved into the bathtub for a 20 minute ice bath. This helped and I felt a lot better afterwards. My knees still hurt this AM, and I will run later this afternoon. Landall, my most excellent coach, says I have got to run for 1.5 hours. No problem! Suck it up Buttercup!