IMAZ RR #1 - A Total Bust (Almost)
So basically, this whole last week has sucked, and it culminated in a pretty worthless RR.
Ever since my race last Saturday, I have been sick. I could feel it that night, and I knew I was in trouble for sure the next day. All week I have felt like crap. Coughing, bad sore throat, muscle aches, stuffy head, and goopy eyes. I had been on broad spectrum antibiotics since Friday after I cut my left thumb pretty bad cutting a zip tie off my bike. I was afraid of it getting infected during the swim. So I basically got sick, on antibiotics. I continued them for 3 more days and was no better so I stopped them. After Myrtle Beach I traveled to Washington, DC for a conference then made my way to Phoenix on Thursday for this big training weekend. I have been so sick, I did no training whatsoever all week. I played it day by day. I had bad nights every night this week and just could not do anything. So on to my original plan.
Thursday 90 minute run - bagged it
Friday RR swim in Saguaro Lake - could barely breath out of water, still had goopy eyes - bagged it
Friday I had a little better day but a crappy first 1/2 night. Second half of night went OK and slept pretty well but still had goopy eyes. I decided to wake up early and eat then see how I feel. Weather was supposed to be perfect so I really wanted to do it. Plus it's the only reason I came to Phoenix. I made no preparations the night before....didn't even build my bike.
Saturday morning was up at 6:00. Hadn't gotten the protein shake I was going to drink (again no preparation) so I went to bagel shop and got 2 bagels with cream cheese and coffee. Ate those and was feeling pretty good. No problem with eyes. So I went ahead and built my bike (no pump so anyone's guess on tires) and got my bottles made. I made (2) 24 ounce Infinit bottles with 6 scoops each. Aero bottle with 48 ounces water and 3 more 24 ounce bottles of water. Headed out to the course and started at about 9:15.
The first couple hours went OK and was going pretty well at goal watts - around 170 (.70). But then I just started not feeling good. I started coughing. I could not really get comfortable, and my watts were falling. Then my throat started hurting and I got the dry mouths. I could not drink enough to keep my whistle wet and it was really uncomfortable. My nutrition was going as planned and I had no GI problems, but it just didn't feel good. I was beginning to think I shouldn't have gone, but now I was out there. At about mile 60 I decided to bag the run. At mile 70 I decided to just try and go 100 miles. I have never gone 100 miles on my bike. I did all the calculations and planned my turnarounds appropriately to hit 100. I ended up doing about 3 laps on the course. I ended up with 100.4 miles in about 5:15 and a declining NP which ended up at 156 (IF 0.64). I've never been more happy to be off my bike.
As soon as I packed up the bike and the gear, I started coughing....a lot. Was coughing up some ugly junk. Drank 20 ounces Infinit and 20 ounces water on the way home. When I got home I hopped in the shower and peed, for the first time since I started the bike. My bike fluid totals were 120 ounces of water and 36 ounces of concentrated Infinit (1350 calories) for an average of 30 ounces an hour. Clearly not enough on a hot day (80's to 90's), even when dry. Honestly I didn't know I was really behind.
So anyway, to summarize......
No long run
No long swim
Long bike - 100 miles which I've never done - but no brick run
Good nutrition but needed more fluids.
I will be back here in 3 weeks for RR #2 with a group doing a supported race rehearsal ride/run. I plan to be healthy and hopefully I will execute better. I'm really hoping troubles today had to do will illness (I'm almost positive it did) and not fitness (pretty sure not). But with a RR that was basically a total bust, I won't know until then. Hopefully I'll start to feel better so I can get back to regular training soon.
Comments
I hope you are feeling better soon!
@Patrick - never thought about the cold medicine I had been taking for days.
I am feeling better, but still have a sore throat and cough. I am trying like hell to stand down and rest, but it's taking a mental toll on me. This is my first IM. I have had a good year racing HIM, and my IM training was going really well until now. I have done pretty much every workout for the whole 20 week plan up until now. Then I decided to do a 1 week taper prior to Nationals (one week lost), then lost a week training because of illness, then did the defunct RR and am still not training because of illness. As an IM rookie, especially one who has now gone 100 miles on my bike only once (5 hour rides only twice) and has never run farther than 18 miles, I am worried that I won't have the fitness with all this time off. Granted, there isn't much I can do about it. It's not like I could have been training all this time sick. And it seems to me that with how well my training has been going, I think I should be able to do fine. My legs weren't even sore after that ride last weekend. I guess I just need some reassurance that 2 or 3 weeks of limited training this close to the race isn't going to wreck what I've been working towards for a year.
If you've followed the meat of the EN IM plan, YOU HAVE THE FITNESS. Oodles, loads, scads of fitness. Rest up, get better, execute the next RR, then have fun at AZ! With your numbers you'll do fine.
Terry - You will be able to complete the IM without worries. Regarding run fitness: as long as you stay within yourself on the bike, and don't go out fast on the run, you do NOT need more than 2 runs over 2 hours prior to an IM. Just get back on track with the training, and you will surprise yourself on Nov 21st. This first one is about finishing, more than anything else.