The challenges of this race start with the logistics.  Because we’re relatively local, it was not so bad for us.  We drove down to Providence on Saturday, registered, hit up the race briefing, and dropped off our T2 bags.  Then Sunday morning, Mr. & Mrs. Snow made sure that we had a ride to and from the race without hassle.

It was supposed to rain all night Saturday and most of the day Sunday.  Not even close!  Sunday was warm (beautiful, but warm) from dawn to dusk.  We pulled up to the beach as the sun was coming up, and tackled the challenge of setting up T1.  With the exception of one bike wheel, everything had to be off the ground.  To avoid fumbling around with the plastic bag they gave us, I took the risk and hung my shoes on the brake levers and balanced my helmet on my aerobars.  I crossed my fingers, hoped my gear would maintain its position, and hit the beach.

Took a deep breath...

and off we went!

I love the ocean, but I did not have a spectacular swim.  It was not so much the swimming as much as it was the not-so-hot start and poor sighting on the way back in.  My shallow-water running is not quite up to Baywatch standards, and ends up being more of a plow and flop.  I did my best, though, and swam hard to catch up to the second group.  Once there, I settled in on a strong set of feet through the second turn buoy, at which point I decided to try to pull ahead.  That would have been great had I not mistaken the orange “in” buoys for the yellow “out” buoys.  I kept thinking I was cutting left, so I’d pull right only to realize that I was now swimming away from the course instead of right on track.  I ended up coming out right in front of the pack I’d been swimming with earlier.  Doh!

Onto the bike!

Got through transition pretty quickly, and hopped on my sweet new P2.  Love it!  I was a bit nervous with this being the new ride’s race debut, but I felt great and rode stronger than I ever have.  The reports were that there tends to be a tail wind heading north out of Narragansett, making the first section of the course pretty fast.  Not so on Sunday.  We had a head wind right out of T1.  Oh, well!  Everyone’s in the same boat.  Just get low and keep the cadence up. For the most part the roads were really smooth, especially for New England.  Then we hit Providence.  Yikes!  Not only did course get silly-technical, but there were pot holes and railroad tracks jumping out all over the place.  Let the obstacle course begin!  Kept the cadence high, the grip tight but the joints loose, and managed to make it to T2 without launching any equipment.  Phew!

Tim's dismount...

My dismount!

Yeesh!!  Another detail to work on!  Once I got myself disengaged from my bicycle, I made quick time through T2, and headed out on the run.  Right away the spectators were plentiful and loud.  Thank the Lord!  I had not seen the course, so was trying to be prepared for the worst, but Holy my goodness!  People said that the was a tough hill, but this was insane!  The first time we hit it I couldn’t help but laugh.  Somehow I made it over the top without having to stop and catch my breath, and descended into the technical side of the run course.  ”Obstacle course” really is the best description I can give.  We cut around a tight, blind corner, ran up a hill, crossed a bridge, maneuvered three switchbacks, ran over cobblestones, hopped off and on curbs, and then did it again!  At the same time, it was beginning to get quite warm, and the urban setting did not offer much shade.  I think I’ve made clear that it was a very challenging course, but the spectators made it so fun!  I was rockin’ my new, neon orange Kinvaras – they got themselves quite a bit of attention!  People were shouting all over the place, “Nice shoes!”, “I LOVE those shoes!”, “Go orange!”.  It was great!  It was even better because they’re not only flashy, but they’re super-comfy and light.  I’m thrilled with my run, especially because I rode harder than I am used to.  I was nervous that this more aggressive tactic would fry my legs, but they actually felt great.  I felt stronger and stronger as the run went, and was able to hold my pace throughout.

What a fun course!

This race really has me psyched up for LP – 10 days and counting!

Wait a minute! Did we swap tops??

My speedy new ride!

I am so excited to race on my new bike!  I got it a couple weeks ago and was able to do my pre-ironman 7-hour ride on it.  It. Is. Aaaawesome!

Then there are these guys:

Their image will be burned onto your retina!

Not only are they super-comfy and light, but they’re also NEON!  It may not be sunny on Sunday, but I’d wear my shades if I were you!

Last and littlest, but certainly not least, my new Garmin:

Go-go gadget watch!

I loved my 305, but after 3 years of solid service her inability to accurately read HR required that  she be forced into retirement.  This younger buddy-on-a-wrist-band will be keeping me company throughout the race on Sunday.

More important than all of these treats, I am in a great spot physically and mentally.  I’m seeing the best numbers I’ve ever seen in training, and my body composition is exactly where we want it 2 weeks out from IM.  So excited for these next two races – RI70.3 on Sunday, IMLP in two weeks!

I woke up to the sound of thunder and pouring rain at 4:51 Saturday morning, and, for some reason, my mind flashed to my wetsuit.  ”Tim, where are the wetsuits?”

“Huh…  They’re drying on the hood of the car…”, and back to sleep he went.  Oh, for the love!  I knew I should have brought them in!  How in the good Lord’s name am I going to get a wet wetsuit on??  Ought to be interesting.  Whatever – time for breakfast! Spinney, Wheeler, Jesse, and I rendezvoused at the kitchen table for our pre-race meal and watched it rain cats, dogs, and guinea pigs.  As the thunder and lightening came and went, Jesse checked the doppler to get a sense of what the Big Man had in store for the next few hours.  ”Oh, it’s just a small cloud,” he reported.  I took a look for myself.  ”Ha!  Dude!  That ’small cloud’ covers all of New England.  It’s only ’small’ ’cause it’s on your computer!”  Didn’t look good for an open water swim.  This ought to be interesting. We packed up, put the helmets on, took our lives in our hands, and rode our bikes the 2 miles over to the race sight.  Just as we were coming up to the entrance of the park there was a flash of lightening at the exact same time as a crack of thunder.  I’m no meteorologist, but I know the old “one Mississippi” rule.  Crikies! As we made our way over to transition the announcement was made: no swim, bike course shortened by 10 miles, if the race happens it will begin at 9 (1.5hr delay), more announcements to follow.  Alrighty.  Let’s get comfortable! We all made our way over to the new team tent, and settled in.

Party under the QT2 tent!

A little before 8 the plan was announced: at 9 we would start the 17-mile bike/10k run duathlon.  It would be a time trial start with athletes leaving every 2 seconds.  Oh, geez!  This ought to be interesting! We hung out for another half hour and then began to disperse, heading over to our bikes to get ready for the adventure to come.  This is going to be absolute chaos – there’s no way that they got this re-organized that quickly.  We’ll see what happens!

We were lined up according to the location of our bike racks, and, sure enough, as we stood waiting our turns to start the sun came out.  It didn’t go away for the rest of the day.  Ha!  Cue Alanis Morissette.

So off we went!  Because the bike had been shortened so much, I just rode like a madman and tried to average the highest power and HR that I could, and ran (as coach JJK instructed) “like you stole something.”  What?  ’Cause I live in Brockton I’m a thief?? Well, I rode my brains out, and wasn’t passed by Jesse until we were leaving transition (he did start at least 2 minutes behind me).  He ran by me so fast I thought he was either kidding or going to explode by mile 2.  Neither was true.  Try as I might I could not catch him!  I did, however, have a great race, and must say that Keith Jordan’s team did an unbelievable job getting everything and everyone rearranged for the altered course.  If we hadn’t signed for an international distance triathlon we wouldn’t have had any inclination that things had not gone as planned.  Every corner was well manned, cones and signs were all in the right places, and the TT start went off without a hitch.  Amazing!

We followed up the race with a 3-hour ride, and finished the day off with a team dinner at BHOP.  What a day!!

Thank you to every single person who has ever sacrificed for our freedom.  You are truly appreciated, and never forgotten.

Saturday Post-Race:

• consumed pizza & hot chocolate in the finish area
• raided a convenient store (Sun Chips, chocolate chip cookies, donuts, peanut butter)
• dined at Denny’s (chocolate milk shake, nachos, pancakes w/peanut butter & syrup, eggs, toast w/jelly)

Sunday – Wednesday:

• cereal party (attendees bring a box of cereal and a topping, then mix, match, and go nuts!)

Dont' worry - they're all fortified with calcium and vitamin D!

• awards ceremony (really good gnocchi!)
• VEGAS!!  (left straight from the awards)
• a bit of gambling

"You're a math teacher! You should know those odds suck!"

• a lot of eating:  dinner at the Encore, the Wynn Buffet (twice), chocolate-topped banana-filled crepes, breakfast at New York New York, sundaes with deep-fried oreos, candy…

Home!!

• Love  (Cirque du Soleil)
• more ice cream
• flew home

Thursday:

• lunch with Mikaela, mom, and gram
• dinner with Chrissie and Trish
• ice cream at JP Licks with Chrissie and Trish

Friday:

• corn muffin and hot chocolate on the way into work with Tim
• lunch with coach JJK
• a stop at Sundae School on the way down to Chatham  (banana split, baby!)
• saltwater taffy sampling

Only 30 flavors? Can't we get some variety around here??

• check in at the Chatham Bars Inn (Christmas gift from the Snows – thank you!!!)
• nachos and chicken sandwiches at the Red Nun
• ice cream from Cumby’s

Saturday:

• omelettes, french toast, home fries, and hot chocolate at Sandi’s
• the beach

He really is having a good time!

• P-Town
• 4 different flavors of fudge, a chocolate-covered mound of coconut, and this thing:

chocolate-covered peanut-butter-&-marshmallow-between-peanut-butter-cookies sandwich topped with Reese's Pieces

• dinner at Kream and Kone (not sure why they use K’s…)

Sunday:

• breakfast at Dunkin Donuts (1 munchkin and a small hot chocolate… I was getting full.)
• home
• dinner and the Celtics game at the Snow’s
• ice cream sundaes at the Snow’s  (one final hoorah!)

Now that’s a week off!!

On another, less calorie-dense note, I’ve started Tweeting!  You can follow my random, not-quite-blog-worthy thoughts and doings at Cait_Snow – you’re so excited!!     Along with this, I’ll be shutting off the “comment” option here (you can still contact me through my “contact” page) to stop all of the spam that has begun flowing into my account (no, I don’t want to buy prescription drugs or any enlarging devices, thank you!).  Feel free to “friend” me on Facebook, though, and comment away!

At my first race...

Mom, me, Mikaela - a tight trio!

She's happy to see me so happy.

Still supporting me all these years later...

Love you, mom!

We headed over to T2 at 4:15 to catch the shuttle over to T1.  While this process could easily have been a nightmare, it was actually quite smooth and painless.  Except for the part where I had to pee REALLY bad.  The ride between transitions took about 30 minutes.  I basically high-speed pee-pee danced right off the bus and into the porta-potty line.  Upside: the line was short.  Downside: we waited for a phantom pee-er.  The guy in front of me thought both “stalls” were full.  He even went up and checked, so we all assumed someone was just taking their time.  When I got to the front, I decided to knock.  Wouldn’t want anyone passing out and missing the race in one of those plastic rooms of aromatic bliss!  No one responded.  It’s empty!  It’s been empty this whole time!  That man better get outta Dodge before I exit this thing! Well, I got to go, and was far less aggressive after doing so.  I did not accost the man.

We set up our bike areas, got the tires pumped, sat for a bit, got the wetsuits on, dropped off the dry clothes bags, and made our way over to the swim start.  Now let me tell you something, just because the water temperature is announced as 58° does not mean that it is 58°.  Nor does it mean that your body will function as though it is 58°.  Within minutes of getting into the water my face was numb.  The discomfort is one thing.  The lack of sensation is another.  When you can’t feel your face you don’t know when your mouth is out of the water.  If this occurs while trying to breathe more rapidly, say at the beginning of a triathlon, there’s a tendency to inhale early and take in more water than air.  It took close to 10 minutes and about 6 cups of water to get the hang of using sight to time my breathing, but I got things under control by the first turn buoy.  Aside from the unexpected extra hydration and oxygen deprivation, I actually felt pretty good and was able to settle on a solid set of feet through the first 25ish minutes.  At that point, the claw began to set in.  This is a pose that the fingers lock into when you lose the ability to contract the muscles of the hand into a proper paddle.  Set your finger on the keyboard as though your about to type.  Now, without moving your fingers, lift your hands up.  The claw!  (This doesn’t work if you’re a hen-pecker.)  So now I was swimming along trying to use my forearm as the paddle and just dragging my hands through the water.  I managed to hold onto the feet for a bit longer, but once we made the final turn toward shore, with about 10 minutes left, I started lose them.  It wasn’t by much, maybe a 5-second gap, but that’s enough to lose the draft.  Luckily it was only for that last stretch.

Now came the interesting part: dressing myself without the use of my fingers.  Oh, how underappreciated these little digits of dexterity are!  As I ran into the tent I was swarmed by 4 or 5 volunteers.  Godsends!  I managed to dump my bag out on the ground, but that was about it.  I picked up my long-sleeve shirt, and, before I could finish saying “This might take awhile,” one of the women had pulled it right over my head and down over my torso.  At the same time, one woman wrapped my race belt around me and clasped it while another put my socks and shoes on.  I managed to get my sunglasses on, and place my helmet on my head, but didn’t have enough strength in my fingers to pinch the clasp together.  One woman took over that task and another held my gloves open while I tried to cram my fingers into the their little sleeves.  No good!  At this point I just started running toward my bike in hopes that I’d be able to get the gloves on properly before I reached it.  Nope.  It took another century to manually (with the other hand) straighten my flippin’ pinkies out and get them into their designated glove space.  OK!  I’m ready! I grabbed my bike, and peddled off.  I got the hang of shifting sans fingers pretty quickly and was able to get moving.  Aside from the phantom extremities, I felt great!  There was a decent climb right at the beginning, which was just what the thermogenesist ordered!  (Yeah, I made that word up.)  While I didn’t regain full sensation in my feet until mile 50ish, the harder effort and slower speed on the hills helped bring the core temperature back up.  The course was amazing!  A-mazing!A description of the views simply does not do them justice.

You see that?? And this wasn't even the scenic part of the course!

I couldn't stop smiling - look at this place!

Hopefully these pictures give you some sense, but it’s still not the same.  Just beautiful!  There were some solid climbs, but the difficulty of this bike course came more from the winds that began to set in a few hours into the race.  And the chip seal.  We hit a 20-mile-ish section of this sweet pavement on each loop.  It’s kind of like a rumble strip spread out over the entire road.  Ok, I’m awake!  Thanks!! The chip seal section was followed by “the wall” (a relatively long hill that brought us up to the highest point of the course).  Then came the descent.  While I enjoy a nice challenging climb, going fast is fun!  Max speed: 49.8 mph.  Woop woop!!  This got a bit sketchy on the second loop when the gusty cross winds started to pick up, but I made it down to T2 unscathed.

So far so good...

My legs felt a bit heavy as I started the run, but I knew they’d come around.  By the first mile marker things felt good, and I was excited to try and run down as many people (I know how much guys love being passed by a girl!   ) as I could.  Coming off the bike in 8^th place, I had my work cut out for me to get on the podium.  So work I did!  I kept things nice and steady, pushing into 5^th by mile 8 and 4^th by the half marathon.  The crowds were amazing and made all the difference when things got bad between miles 16 and 19.  I noticed the slight tingling in my pinkies around mile 11 and knew that things could get ugly.  At mile 15 they did.  At least in my head they did. This is too soon to start losing it!  I felt so good – what’s happening?!  Should I walk?  Should I stop??  All those people cheering will feel sorry for me!  I don’t want pity!  They’ll say, “She went out too fast.” Nope!  I’m not stopping.  If I don’t cross that finish line it will be because I collapsed on the side of the road…  I wonder what it feels like to collapse mid-stride.  Is this what it feels like right before you collapse?  Stop!  Focus on the positive! I continued to push through mile 16, and then I remembered Kona.  Ok, don’t be stupid!  Don’t let Kona have been in vain – learn from it!  Back off, regenerate, and then ease back into the hunt. I pulled the pace back drastically, and started speed walking the aid stations.  I walked long enough to get a couple sips of sports drink and water at every aid station all the way through the final one at mile 25.  No kidding!

Keeping cool in the desert.

It took nearly 6 miles to close the 2-minute gap between me and 3^rd place.  Around mile 19 my sight straightened back out and I felt the life come back to my legs.  Even then I wasn’t 100% sure that things weren’t going to fall apart.  Just keep pushing – Tim and Mikaela are waiting for you at the finish line.  The sooner you finish the sooner you get to stop running.  You can even lie down if you want! I really tuned into how I felt and just tried to ride the line between running as fast as I could and not letting the wheels fall off the bus (Munnis, I could hear your commentary through much of this run!).  The crowds through the final 3 miles were out of control and drowned out any doubt or discomfort that was left.  And Tim and Mikaela were right there waiting at the finish line!!

If you’re looking for an ironman that’s a bit like an adventure race, sign up for IM St. George!

The race was amazing!  The course was as advertised: pretty challenging with views more spectacular than you could imagine.

Just past the highest point on the bike course...

I had a tough swim, a strong ride, and a solid run, finishing in 3rd but missing a Kona spot.  Maaaaaan! The revised schedule now includes Lake Placid.  Love it!

We’re in Vegas until tomorrow (that’ll need it’s own post), home for a couple days, and then Tim and I head down to Chatham for our un-athletic, vacation-without-a-race weekend.  Fun!!

Cait,

I would love to hear some suggestions/ recommendations on how to beat the indoor training blues. I believe your winter has been as bad as ours. I generally like to spend some time on the mountain bike, or trail running. However this winter has proven tough with the snow and slop.
What are some of the tips you use to ‘break up’ time spent on the trainer or treadmill?

Keith

Again, I apologize for the delayed response, but, if your seasons are anything like New England’s, there’s a good chance you could still see another snow storm before the 4th of July!  To keep the motivation up when indoor sessions get long and repetitive we like to hold trainer parties.  Everyone brings a trainer and his/her bike, we set up in someone’s basement or at the local bike shop, and enjoy the misery together.  This winter we did nearly every one of our long Saturday rides in the CompuTrainer studio at Fast Splits.

It's amazing what a difference a few good friends and a little music can make!

When it comes to the treadmill, although I only had to do a handful of runs indoors this winter thanks to Saucony’s sweet training gear (I know, cheap plug, but it’s true!), I have done a few longer, 2+ hour sessions on those mind-numb-ers.  While people watching is a great way to take your mind off of the fact that you are putting one foot in front of the other but getting nowhere (in this case, literally, not figuratively), giggling at Mr. Top-heavy-in-a-baby-tee checking himself out in the mirror only does so much.  Along with this, I like to break the run into segments.  Here’s an example (use 130-140 as the desired HR zone):

• 15 min keeping HR 130-133
• 15 min keeping HR 132-136
• 15 min keeping HR 134-138
• 15 min keeping HR 136-140

If the run is longer than 60 minutes I usually take a bathroom/water break about 3/5ths of the way through.  I like to be beyond half-way done the first time I step off – makes getting back on that much easier.

What is the 6&60 workout ?

The 6&60 is an adventure of a workout consisting of a 6-hour bike and a 60-minute transition run.  The adventurous part is not so much in the duration but what can happen over that duration.  This past weekend a few of us had ourselves one such experience while putting in the final big weekend of training before St. George.  We had grown somewhat accustomed to the 75+º weather we’d been having for about a week, and largely ignored the forecast that called for a high of 50º with a 70% chance of showers.  That is, all of us except for Molly.  Smart girl!  I thought my wind vest, arm warmers, hat, thin gloves, socks (don’t usually wear them as my shoes are pretty snug), and toe covers (not full booties) would be plenty.  Actually, I thought I’ll throw the hat and socks on – I can always take ‘em off and stuff ‘em in my pockets if need be. What a dunce!  So we’re riding along, getting drizzled on, but feeling ok.  About an hour and a half in, Jesse and I find that we’ve pulled a bit ahead of the group, so we make a quick pit stop and head back to find the others.  When we hook back up with Molly she informs us that the other three have turned back.  They were too cold, and would finish up on the trainers.  Well!  Let the trash talk begin!  Jesse and I are going on and on about how great we feel, that we thought it was going to be significantly worse, and we can’t imagine going back to get on the trainers and finish the ride indoors.  Pause.  ”We should probably shut up – we’re less than 2 hours into a 7 hour ride.  Haha, a lot can go wrong in 5 hours!”, I say.  ”Yeah, good call,” Jesse agrees.  Molly just laughs at us.  Fast-forward 20 minutes: no one is talking.  I can’t feel my hands, my face, my feet, my lower legs.  It’s ok – no matter what, you will survive this…  You could possibly not survive this! We rolled into Lincoln about 15 minutes later.  Ski country.  Perfect!  Jesse bought a hat and some gloves.  I bought some big-ass ski gloves, a thick jacket/shirt thing, and some men’s large winter socks.  Once the toes were cut off, the socks made for some quite lovely ankle and lower-leg warmers.  Again, Molly just laughed us.  From the ski shop we rolled over to Dunkin’ Donuts for some green tea to warm the soul and the core.  Much better! Next stop:

The top of the Kancamagus Highway!

What you see there, on the sides of the road, is some not-so white snow.  The banks were about 3 feet high!  It hit 90º last week!!  Well, anyway, we could hardly see 10 feet in front of us as we crested the “hill”, but we’d certainly warmed up.  The rest of the ride was, luckily, pretty uneventful, and we made it home in decent time.  It’s a box of chocolates out there, folks, and you don’t get to use a tooth pick!

Cait,
I wanted to get with you about wet suits. I really only have enough to purchase one kind. I don’t plan on doing cold water swims, but I do want flotation. What do you wear?
Thanks so much!
-Wendy

Oh, this is an easy one!  BlueSeventy’s Helix.  Love it!

Warm, buoyant, and flexible!

I didn’t have a chance to legitimately try mine out this year before our first race (unless you count the 100 yards I swam in it to make sure it fit well), so I was concerned that I was going to blowup mid-swim due to the restriction that these things usually cause.  Nope!  This is the most comfortable wetsuit that I have ever swam in.  Seriously!  It’s at least worth a try-on!

Thank you all for reading, and keep the questions coming!

Ingredients:

• 8oz ground turkey
• 2c frozen mixed vegetables
• large sweet potato
• 1c reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 can cannellini beans

Directions:

1. wrap sweet potato in aluminum foil and cook at 350º for ~90 min or until soft to the touch
2. spray skillet with canola oil; cook ground turkey over medium heat until just about brown all the way through
3. add mixed vegetables, place cover on top, continue to cook over medium heat while preparing “gravy”
4. in blender, combine ~1c chicken broth and 1/2 can cannellini beans (~30 seconds)
5. add broth/beans to turkey and vegis; all to simmer for 10 min
6. mash sweet potato in separate bowl
7. pour turkey/vegi/broth mixture into baking pan, and top with mashed sweet potato
8. broil on high for 25 min
9. Let cool for at least 10 minutes.  The inside is very hot!!
10. ENJOY!