I finally did it! I trained for four months. Missed only about 4 or 5 workouts over that entire time period. I was very dedicated. Mostly because I was scared to death that I would not succeed. But I not only succeeded, I excelled! I went about an hour faster than I thought I could.
A half Ironman is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. I started training back in January with a plan that was very strict and I spent about 8-12 hours per week training. Some weeks I felt really great and some weeks I exhausted and grouchy. I spent hours on the bike on the weekends and hours running on Mondays. Some days I would wear my compression tights to work. Some days I was so exhausted from a workout, I could barely make it up the steps to the office. But I faithfully kept at it, afraid that if I missed workouts, I would not finish my race.
I experimented with nutrition...did water or Accelerade work better on the bike. How often did I need to take gels on the run? A couple of times I forgot my nutrition and my run was terrible. One bike ride was in the cold rain (unexpectedly) and I discovered that after the arms are frozen, they don't notice the pelting rain. s the race got closer, I started doing bricks- a bike followed immediately by a run. I could not get my nutrition and hydration right and the long ones were usually on big exercise weeks and they never went well. So that had me really worried.
The good thing was that I was doing it with a friend. We commiserated on facebook about long workouts and whatnot. Then we met up in Orlando for the race. It was great having someone to share it with....she had never done one either, so we were in it together. She had done more triathlons than I had, and she had also worked the championship in Kona, Hawaii, so she was more familiar with the the whole big race scene.
Finally, the day came. I packed the night before- checking and rechecking my gear. I had been worried for 3 days about the weather because they were predicting thunderstorms, but the night before, they were supposed to be gone. They weren't. It was storming when we got up, and while waiting for the bus that never came. We ended up walking through the woods in the rain and then a huge strike hit nearby and my friend almost leapt into my arms. Turns out it started a small fire that smoldered all day and then actually caught fire later and the fire trucks had to be called. We went to the transition area and set up our stuff. Then
hung out for awhile before the swim start.
I did not go hard on the swim because I didn't know how tired I would be the rest of the day. I forgot to put on my sunscreen before the bike and felt my shoulders getting a bit sensitive later in the day. The bike was pretty easy and fun until mile 40 or so, and then I just had to hang on another hour. The run was three loops. On loop one, I was joined by a young 21 year old guy who seemed to want to run with me. Turns out he was on his second lap and had walked most of the first lap because he drank too much and got nauseated. We ran together for about 8 miles and then on his mile 11, he had to stop and walk and I left him. When I checked later, I had beat him on the swim and the run, but he beat me on the bike enough to beat me overall.
I thought the whole thing would take me about 8 hours, if I was even able to finish not in complete misery. My stretch goal was 7.5 hours. My actual time.......7:03! If I had known I was that close to going under 7 hours I would have. But I took the swim easy. The bike was hard, but it was doable. And then the run was not nearly as miserable as I thought it would be. I was a little under midway in my age group (67%). Only 15% of the women who beat me were older than me! I thought that was pretty cool.
Anyway, it was great! I loved most of the whole day and I can't wait to do another one. I'm already planning for the next one at the end of October in Austin, TX. I have not worked out in 4 days and my muscles are stiff and sore. I'll get back to it tomorrow and I'll feel much better. My next triathlon is 25 June- I inspired some friends to do their first. We'll be doing some training together and I'll help them out. I gave them all training plans about 6 weeks ago and some have been doing better jobs than others at training.
I'm hooked!!!
