Race Journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019

IronMan 70.3 Santa Rosa: 1.2 mile swim + 56 miles biking + 13.1 mile run

The first one!

(Pic credits: Sumit and Neha)

"She is a woman of few words.." - said no one ever about me.
Similar to its predecessor, this one is going to be long. I've broken it down into parts so that the less amused reader can skip through the entire back story and/or the forward moving one.

The actual triathlon training this year started in Feb 2019 (ish), but in reality it all started to get serious only in April.

[Part I of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] The off-season, the buildup and the rise (Sep 2018- Apr 2019)

[Part II of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] The fall and the revival (May - June 2019)

[Part III of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Taper and the race day!

[Part IV of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Learning beyond the training plan

[Part V of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Random musings from the first-timer

[Part V of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Random musings from the first timer

[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]
Previous: [Part IV of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Learning beyond the training plan

Heads-up: This part might be too detailed or too long or TMI for some of the readers. I am writing this to keep track for myself and in the hope that there is atleast one person out there who will read some part here and pick up something useful.

Some random musings from the race training, I totally admit I wrote these for myself and have no guarantees that these will do wonders for anyone else:

I had to be mentally convinced about it before I could physically do it.
I was one of the slowest people in our sprint/Olympic gang and haven’t done an Olympic triathlon yet. I used to ride behind coach while he was sweeping for the bike rides. I had never once clocked the speed I would eventually need for meeting the bike cutoff. But I was the first one to sign up for the half Ironman in our cohort. Not sure if it works for you, but for me, signing up needs no training and you have to be willing to see something beyond and trust your body and mind to work, even if it seems impossible.

The goal will seem far, get used to it.
Throughout the training I would evaluate and re-evaluate my progress. I would make notes and try to see if I did anything better. What didn’t change was the fact that the actual 70.3 distance seemed impossible. What did change was the fact that I started seeing incremental progress towards that goal and began trusting the process. The goal will appear impossible, but don’t let that derail your decision to try. You don’t need to know everything or be a certain way when you start- all you need is an appetite to push yourself and be prepared to fail.

Don't go easy on yourself
It is important to push.

Don’t be afraid to let triathlon thoughts mingle with other parts of your life
It helps to know what drives you and what kind of a life makes you happy. While I knew I had a problem with saying yes to too many things, I also knew I loved having a full life which explored different parts of me. This meant triathlon had to be balanced with improv, work, social life and personal life. I knew giving up one of these would make me miserable but I also knew that I had to drop a lot of other things that were not in this scope. It also helped to draw parallels between different parts- I had switched to a new role at work in Feb and it felt a huge jump from my current skill set. Everyday I would come home discouraged about whether I had made the wrong choice in stretching. But the more progress I made at work, the better I felt about my training and vice versa. The more I was willing to let go and be in the moment at improv, the better I got at my training and vice versa.

But when the time comes, don’t hesitate to drop things
I had been doing HIIT since September 2017. Ramping up the half Ironman training meant crunching in two workouts in a day and moving around schedules to drive to either place on weekdays. At some point, my body and mind were pushed to the limit. I was hesitant about dropping HIIT but it was probably the best decision because it freed up mental cycles.

Don’t forget what your life looks like outside talking about triathlon
..especially if you care about having other friends! But be prepared for people to not understand.

Respect your body for what it is doing
When you train with a cohort that is as amazing as mine, it can be super motivating. But the flip side is when you put in the work and don’t see the gains you think you should see, it can be honestly very frustrating. This training season, I learnt to respect my body for what it was becoming independent of any metrics that my mind had preconceived notions about. Could I run a 10:00 min mile consistently even though for most people that was a slow pace? No. But I was running at 11:00 which was faster that what I had done earlier. Was I hitting 17mph average speeds? Lolwa! But I was maintaining a slightly higher pace for 4x the distance and more than 2x the elevation than I had done earlier. And I was also looking more colorful on the bike rides than ever (okay, I made that last one up)
You will find out about random things in your body and oddities that you had never encountered.
I was pushing myself beyond my current capacity and that meant being prepared for all kinds of pain and random diagnosis. It’s all part of the journey.

Experiment with nutrition and draw reasonable boundaries
If you are a hungry person, don’t be ashamed to admit it!

This won’t be your last race
..hopefully!

Don’t forget to laugh at yourself
The number of jokes people have cracked at my expense of not being able to eat/drink on the bike or coming in two hours after the first person on the training ride is crazy high. It was funny and I would exaggerate these till the point that none of it was personal. This also included jokes about my "not so subtle" open water swim tactics. This is who I was and if no one else, at least I got some entertainment value out of my attempts.

Whatever you do, don’t forget your spirit
I am (in)famous for not going down without a fight if someone came too close in open water swim and for not being very soft spoken when I overtook folks on the bike. It is these small things that my mind would pick up and choose to focus on, rather than the fact that I was messing up so much. Don't forget the swagger!

Get comfortable in your company 
I love talking, so I would do it when I was scared or losing motivation or falling behind. I would talk to Mirchi on the crazy downhills as I freaked out about going too fast. I would think of lyrics and words which have power and sing. Find your companion.

When the going gets tough, make sure you complain
It is hard, it is frustrating, it is bound to knock the winds out of you. Don’t be afraid of complaining about it and letting it out. I found it easier to do something after I had ranted about how hard this was. I used to complain all the time about riding next to vehicular traffic and then I would go on the road and realize that actually I might have talked myself out of that fear. I would hate the thought of 50+ mile bike rides, but on the bike I would freely curse the route creator and anyone going slow or fast and all this helped keep me sane.

Get to know your cohort. 

Talk out your problems early on
Make sure there is something bigger to worry about and the smaller worries will pass under the radar (Okay I'm kidding!)

Life will happen and your schedule will mess up. 
The sooner you accept it and plan for it, the better. Some days will be a drag. The sooner you accept it and plan around it, the better it will be. You go through a whole gamut of emotions, it is all part of the journey. You’ll see a lot of things that could have been better if something was set right earlier in your life, but it wasn’t and that’s that. These are the cards we are dealt and you play with them.

It is so liberating to just have you and your bike or you and your wetsuit and you and your shoes, that be enough. As the Angry Bird says, there is freedom in movement and this is definitely a joy not everyone has- don’t forget to feel it.


If you’re a woman, it might feel harder. 
Find your allies. Find out who inspires you, both inside and outside the program! Outside the program, I regularly follow some amazing female athletes- what I see, I can aspire to! Ditch what society might have taught you about female bonding and stereotypes, we can all lift each other up and we can all do this together.

It takes a village!
As I mentioned in the race day report, my race is a culmination of so many experiences and contributions to my journey from so many people. Lean on others, let them lean on you. When I cross the finish line, so does everyone else who helped me. When they cross it, a part of me wins too :)

This is your race!
Don't hesitate to do things your way :)

[Part IV of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Learning beyond the training plan

[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]
Previous: [Part III of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Taper and the race day!

Heads-up: This part might be too detailed or too long or TMI for some of the readers. I am writing this to keep track for myself and in the hope that there is atleast one person out there who will read some part here and pick up something useful.

There are a lot of things that I thought about or worked on beyond the training plan to make the final day happen. Here are some of these:

Nutrition

This is critical! I used to primarily run earlier and I would never think of fueling mid run. During the races I would liberally use the aid stations. This had to change once I switched to longer triathlons since as our coaches and mentors stressed, our bodies are going through a lot and you need to eat before you need it (definitely before you think you need it!). I experimented with gels and found that e-gel worked fine for me every hour. I also found out that I am a hungry woman so I needed close to 300 cals on the bike. In the end I settled on 150 cals from Tailwind mixed in my hydroblade and 150 from e-gels. I would also carry a small ziploc with nuts in case timing goes off by a few minutes or if I need to change the taste. Also, don't go by someone else's estimate of how much is needed! Your body is unique.

Contacts vs glasses

I have myopia and I also pay too much attention to irrelevant details. Which meant unlike some others, I couldn't wing it and just wear normal swim goggles or sunglasses. Wearing one-day contacts in water is not the best decision but it worked for me last year. However, as the distances get longer, so does the probability of your contacts drying out mid-race. Also, it just didn't feel as the best idea to use contacts given that my left eye still had remnants of the swelling. In the end I decided to use prescription swim goggles and then switching to contacts in T1 but keeping a pair of prescription sunglasses as backup- if there is wind or your eyes are too dry, your contacts may not go in as easily. I used a combination of sanitizer, then drying off the extra, putting some lens solution and then handling the lenses.

Cleats

I can't stress this enough- if you are planning to use cleats, get them in the off-season and practice in a parking lot. The trainer is good to get used to how to move your legs and get accustomed to cleats, but it is no match for real life riding. For instance, I practiced cleating and uncleating on my right side throughout the trainer phase. Before I used cleats on a weekend ride, I noticed my stopping routine on platform pedals and realized that actually my left foot goes down by default when I stop at a traffic signal and bending the bike at an angle helps me keep the balance when one foot in cleated in. Make sure you notice things like that and get comfortable early on. If you are anything like me, remind yourself that you will never feel completely ready to use them until you start and even after that- just get used to it.

Aero bars

I got aero bars installed on my bike soon after the bike fit and in the beginning it felt like a not so useful add-on given that I couldn't even take my hands off the bike handle to drink water. However, once I had these, I got used to them sooner than I thought and it helped immensely in powering through the flats and when I needed a different bike position. I also tried to train my mind to treat going on the aero bars as the start of a push phase so when I mentally started to drift, I would go down on the aero bars and let the habit kick in. But be prepared for your bike to handle differently because of the weight and placement of the aero bars - I wouldn't add these extremely close to the race.

Get to know your gear

By the time race day rolled out, I had tried every single thing in my bag, including backups. This is how I work and feel reassured. Find your balance and make sure you are familiar with everything- on race day you won't have the luxury of calm and serenity (or logic!). Also, practice beforehand with a fuel belt if you know you might use one on race day. Have a pre-race checklist ready, as well as list of what is needed in each bag (e.g. this is a great list).

Clean your bike!

That chain might actually be silver colored and not black.

Taper blues are a real thing!

Read this.

Periods

Where to start on this one..I'm no expert but a cycle can roughly last 28-35 days (don't quote me on this). If you are one of the "lucky ones" it will be frequent as a month. If you are "even luckier", the blood flow will last 5-7 days. In some cases, you will feel weird symptoms mid-cycle. In some more cases yet, you will get hit with terrible Pre-Menstrual symptoms (PMS) almost a week +/- 2 days before the actual date. In yet more cases, if your flow is heavy enough, you will feel that loss and life will feel drab and dull. Some women get cramps terrible enough that they can't walk or can barely get out of bed.  I could go on and on but the point is that every woman experiences these in a different way and this is an important part of our existence and training.

When I did the math for myself, it was hilarious- there would not be many days during the month when I won't be dealing with a hormonal thing or the actual periods. This meant, making sure that training didn't halt because of this. I did adjust as and when my body demanded, but I also had to learn to push where in the past I wouldn't have. For instance, on one of the days, all the guys did 3 Eden repeats and I barely did 2 but was drained because of my periods. Sumit and I discussed that I could just do a slightly easier flat but in the moment I remember telling him, what if this happens on race day! I was very very slow, but I did that third hill repeat. In stark contrast, there were days when I took the swim gear with me or was prepared to run or go for HIIT, and would make a last minute call to skip it because my body just wasn't ready. Until last year, this felt unfair and I felt frustrated. I also found that inspite of all the hours I was putting in my performance numbers would get impacted by the time of the month! However, this year, I was prepared for this to not stop me. I didn't time the phases as much as I could have (next time!) but I definitely worked on the mental aspect of not letting this derail my progress. I do believe I have become more consistent with working out given the cycles.

Until last year when I started training for the sprint triathlon, I had never used a tampon. I never had to, because I would just avoid the activity if I was on my period. Just like the rest of my gear, I took time to make sure I am comfortable using these if needed. In addition, the actual race is 8.5 hours. Add the time that you'll take before the race to change into race gear and after race before you get to a restroom, you are easily looking at 9.5-10 hours. Based on my online searches and talking to friends, this exceeded the recommended time of 8 hours (which will be shorter if you have a heavy flow). So, I tried to teach myself how to change the tampon quickly if needed in places that will not be your apartment, and more important, how to not get frustrated when others can easily transition from one activity to another while you have to rush to the restroom and figure out how to do this. In addition, it also helped to have this happen to me on really hot rides because that added an extra challenge.
Also, if you don't cut the thread, apply chafing cream to the thread, otherwise be prepared for a sore bottom (true story!).
If you are anything like me, your stomach will be bloated for an arbitrary amount of time, the gels which work fine won't sit too well in your stomach, your lower back might hurt etc etc. I found it best to be aware of all this beforehand and to not let this throw me off course if this happened on race day.

Next: [Part V of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Random musings from the first-timer

[Part III of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Taper and the race day!

[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]
Previous: [Part II of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] The fall and the revival (May - June 2019)

Taper!

I thought I'll enjoy taper but in reality, I had almost all the symptoms detailed in this article that Coach Char sent:  the fatigue and little aches and grumpy and depressed part. I was freaking out about my bike not being OK because the brakes would occasionally start squealing and the gear shifting wasn't smooth and even after a tune-up, I wasn't reassured. This would eat up many brain cycles. Sumit helped us clean our bikes a few days before the race and that helped (thanks!). Three-ish weeks before the race I got a persistent dull pain in my right shoulder. Immediate thought was rotator cuff but after a PT appointment, she told me it was the trap muscles and that in general the shoulder needed some long term effort. In the short term, some exercises and a sports massage fixed this.

Lesson: Don't wait until the end for a sports massage, the benefits are for real!

The other highlight was Donner lake swim. I had done the 0.5 mile swim here last year with my cohort and it was so much fun! The drive to Donner lake with Deepak, Souj, Ashish and James and then spending a chill evening with them, and Neha and Sumit felt so nice, especially considering all the other race things I was thinking about!
On the Donner lake swim morning, I was excited about the 1.2 mile swim. I started slow and never found anyone to draft for long (story of all my swims!) but found a rhythm pretty soon and then pushed through. Coach Char had told us to not go crazy on the swim since we were one week out from the main race. In addition, he had told us that no matter what happens, this should not affect our race next week. I was bummed out by James' experience but I was also not too worried about him. I was happy for other people in my cohort who had come a long way to do the 1.2 mile swim just like me! As for me, I was mentally prepared for the swim to go either way - I'm glad it went well. I finished it under an hour (around 57 mins).

The next part was to pack for the race. I was heading out of office for a backpacking trip right after the race, which meant work and logistics were a nightmare. I spent most of the race week running around like a headless chicken. What gave me solace was the fact that I wasn't worried about the actual race as much, it was the packing and the logistics and the actual bike etc- this helped keep me sane since all of these were fixable.

James, Ashish and I coordinated and drove on Friday morning before the race. We left super early but by now I was used to waking up slightly before my usual time to fit in work and workouts so wasn't too sleep deprived. We checked in and got all the labels. I obviously over thought all logistical steps but thankfully it was done! We checked in the bikes and then decided to drive the bike course. James found this boring but it helped me because I saw some hard parts which would come up after another hard segment- this meant that I would need to be mentally prepared. We all got late after this so everyone headed straight to lunch (Indian buffet). We came to the airbnb, I napped for a bit (unsuccessfully), checked and rechecked my bags and finally slept. 

Race day!

Woke up at 3:15, woke up a lot more in between but I was expecting that so would have some water and try to sleep off again. Ate a PBJ and banana in the morning, my stomach was not too thrilled and and that was a first. It has possibly never happened but oh well, I had a race to go to.

Swim: Ready, Fire..aim!  [2,402yd, 53:05, 2:12/100yd]

(title credit: Surya) I was a little nervous at the swim start but mostly due to logistics. We had seen the transition the previous day but there were too many back and forth trips between the bike and the gear bag (which was on the far end of transition area). In hindsight, we should have come earlier and done things in one shot. Also, the line to the restrooms got crazy long and I wasted some more time - should use the restroom first.

In all of this, I forgot to eat a gel and felt super hungry right before the swim start. I saw Coach Char right before I went in and told him I was hungry, he reassured me (as usual) that it would all be OK when I start. I placed myself at the end of the 40-43 mins group- talent or not, need to be crazy first!
None of us had been able to warm up before the swim so in my first few strokes, I opened the neck of my wetsuit while in a horizontal position and let water gush in. I was OK after that. The swim itself was lonely, I couldn’t draft much- as the title indicates, I swam too many extra yards even though the pace itself was decent. Clearly, I have my work cut out for sighting.

I got out and was a little disoriented mentally. I think it might have been because of that missed gel because the swim itself was fine. My calf muscles felt so heavy so couldn’t run up the incline that was T1. Then my watch paused before the wetsuit was removed which meant I had a very rough sense of how far along I was. I am still not sure why but focusing in T1 was hard and while I was slow, I noticed a small staple pin stuck to my heel. I wiped it clean, checked for bleeding and then carried on. I used the restroom in T1 (again maybe I was out of brain cells by end of swim and should have done this earlier) and checked the foot again and took off. I ate an egel during this time and also wore contacts and applied sunscreen . By the time I mounted the bike, I thought I had probably taken half the time in T1 as that in my swim, so I needed to bike fast!

Bike: Fire in the mountain! [56 miles, 4:04:18, 14.1mi/h]

My goal was 15mph average speed. I had to account for stopping for water and having an egel every hour so this would average out and hopefully put me above the cutoff. In the first hour I didn’t really stop and did around 15 miles at 1hr 5mins ish mark. This is something I had timed with the aid station since I had to eat my e-gel and refill the water. I restocked my hydroblade, refilled water and took off. In hindsight, this aid station could have been skipped.
I can’t recall anything memorable in the second hour except there were the hilly parts of the bike course. While it is no fun to look up when you’re on an incline and see more of it, I had practiced counting to 30 on Eden and spin and pushing while I counted. As soon as I hit 1, I would reset to 30 and my (Pavlovian?) response would kick in. This worked fine! I tried to sit upright by holding the elbow rest for my aero bars during uphills and this helped my lower back. I used my aero bars a fair amount on this ride. At some point in the beginning, I was riding without them and noticed the speed was below my target-  just going on the aero bars pushed me over to my target speed so for the rest of the ride, I pushed as much as I could without killing my lower back. I think my sit bones hurt a bit but the fire of missing the cutoff because of T1 was too much to give way to anything else!
I saw James pass me by within the first 5 miles and was relieved because I knew if he got the swim nailed, then nothing could stop the man. I also saw Souj twice and same feeling!

I spent some time mentally calculating cutoffs and trying to estimate how far behind I was and some time calculating how much I should make up in the second and third hour. I also wanted to time my stops with the aid stations where I could eat while the bottles were being filled. In hindsight, I wasted a lot more time at the aid stations. My own stop for a gel was short, but even with volunteers helping and adding water, I could have made it a quicker process.
There were also places where I wanted to go faster on downhill but someone overtook me just before and was now riding ahead and braking. Blah wonly! Sometimes there were cars in our lane and going close by which also impacted how comfortably you could overtake someone. Somewhere around middle of the ride, my brakes started to howl again. This meant I got extra looks at aid stations and course directing turns, I tried to ignore it remembering that it had happened in the past and the braking function was okay, but it’s a horrible feeling when you can’t trust your bike completely.

Inspite of the cutoff stress, I guess I was still in cheerful spirits and hadn't lost my mind. At some point a woman announced "on your right", this could be one of those times when your blood boils or you get in a fight, but I guess everyone was so toasted that we both started giggling like kids and I let her pass and then moved over.

I made one last stop at 42 and sped through after that. Just like in the water, you don’t stop until your hand hits the sand below, I didn’t stop using the aero bars and pushing until I saw the first of Team Asha peeps at the end of the bike route. I had clocked in 4:04 with my (unneeded) long stops and stopping for gels- probably my fastest. I saw Team Asha cheerleading gang and it was so awesome!

Run: Earn back the race registration fees through the aid stations [13.1mi, 2:59:28, 13:49/mi]

By the time I finished my bike ride, the temperature had crept up and I was also exhausted from pushing on the bike. The distance between the bike rack and my gear bag was two blocks. I would have tried to go faster in socks but the T1 incident gave me pause. I hobbled in my cleats, removed helmet and gloves (something I always used to forget). I changed into shoes, reapplied the chafing cream, ate a gel, popped a salt tablet, refilled my hand held water bottle, wore my cap and took off.

From the beginning itself, I knew the run will be hard but I was just relieved to not be on the bike anymore. I couldn’t be sure if I had passed bike cutoffs but I knew somewhere that I couldn’t have taken 40 mins in T1 so bike cutoffs should have been fine. I didn’t have much of a sense of how much time I had to run and I would try to do this with a fried brain over and over in the next three hours.

Throughout the season, I had trained to jog nonstop. When I would practice on the treadmill, I would train to push and walk in between. And I had run half marathons in the past where I had mainly run- walked but that gave me some confidence that even if it looked impossible, I was capable of doing that distance- I would come to rely on this belief a lot in the next 3 hours. The first mile was decent, I convinced myself I’m just headed to the aid station. But starting mile 2, I felt exhausted. It wasn’t so much that there was pain or major cramps, my guess is it was the heat since I had fueled myself totally on target throughout the bike ride. Around mile 2, I saw James and he seemed to be unhappy because of a cramp. I told him to chill and take it easy- I had no idea how far he was but if I had 3 hours, so did he! I told him I was tired. You could see the crowd had thinned out already. Whenever I’ve run a race before, I have always positioned myself in the middle so that even if I slow down, there are still running peeps around me. This wasn’t one of those days. A little before mile 2.5 I met a woman who was jogging consistently. We started chatting and I pushed myself to go with her. She was from SR and had done this course before. We did the math for both of us and concluded that we had time. It was so awesome to have her company for the 1.5-2 miles since I was able to jog along and talk. At one point I almost went on the other side of the run route and thankfully, she was alert enough to stop me from taking a turn. I also saw Vividh go by around this time and was so good to see a familiar face (yelling 'butter chicken' as usual)!

The entire run was a negotiation process with my mind and body. I first convinced myself that I’ll do 5 miles in an hour. In reality I got to 4.5 in the first hour. I was still feeling guilty about T1 fiasco but I reminded myself that I couldn’t lose this mentally with over 8 more miles to go. I talked to myself (as usual), fooled my legs by running and stopping without having a structure, and stopped at every aid station. Again, this was longer than needed but I took water, Gatorade, coke and poured ice over myself and inside my clothes liberally. I was also carrying gels in my handheld and ate dutifully every hour (egel for first hour and hammer which is lighter for the next 2). Since all of these were fine and yet I felt exhausted, I think it must have been the heat and general tiredness.
There were so few people that every time I saw them, I would call out and either try to get them to jog with me, or join them if I was walking and they weren’t. I met multiple such folks and every time we passed each other, I would ask them to run along- it not only made me feel stronger than I was actually feeling, but it also gave me the company I needed to break up the monotony. I also realized how hard it can be to push yourself when everyone around you seems to have fallen to a slow walking pace or maybe even given up. I met lost of first timers and it was fun to regale each other with stories and cursing the heat.

By mile 8 (the confusing u-turn), I was by myself again. But now I also knew I’m cutting it close to cutoff so I started pushing myself to run for longer intervals- this part was just hard.
Around mile 11.5, I saw Coach Char! That was the highlight! He started talking and he seemed worried that I was dehydrated or maybe exhausted (?), but once I started talking, he looked like he clearly regretted asking me to start! I was yapping away to glory. Coach kept my spirits up, finishing up would have been way harder had he not been there. I also realized I was probably one of the last people running but again, my mental sanity was a precious resource I had to conserve and so I avoided letting that get me down. Coach was super energetic and talking and helping others who looked equally miserable and out. He told me I had enough time to eat a meal and come back (I totally didn’t buy that!). He left me at the final turn and told me to run down with full Swagger (or something like that). I saw James on the side first, he looked so worried and relieved at the same time and I kind of guessed I’m close to cutoff. Then I saw Sumit and Shashi on the right side and Gauri. I saw Neha on the left urging me to cross the mat- I knew I’m definitely cutting it close!
And then it was done! There were crazy hugs, so much talking and all the pics and so much excite. The whole team Asha crew was there and I was done! With only 8 mins to spare, but it a race no one could take away from me.

Miscellaneous race thoughts

• I was dehydrated after the race, so no matter how much water you think you are taking, account for more on a hot day!
• I met Tim and Rinny (Mirinda Carfrae) in T1 after the race when I went to get my bag! Moral of the story, carry your phone when you go to pick up your gear bag- you never know who you'll meet!
• Eat before you start, maybe this is what messed up T1 and at least somewhat the bike and then run. It is a domino effect as your body will forever be making up for the deficit or tiredness.
• Your mental sanity is extremely precious in the race, don’t while it away.
• Learn to use the lock mode on garmin device.
• Don’t stop unless you have to- more so on bike than anything else. Could have saved 5ish mins since I had enough water.
• Post race pain lasted a day- this meant either I didn’t push enough or that I’m wolverine. In any case, means I’m capable of doing more.
• Think through the post race logistics: where to leave the phone, wallet and what you'll need right after. There will also be a LOT of stuff to carry after the race so try to plan ahead for this because if you're like me, you'll be zonked out!
• Some things to check or keep in mind:
• The hydroblade has water with salts in that- that could be messing up the disc brakes
• I got a slight cramp in my leg while biking- I learnt that if it goes away in a few strokes, then it’s likely okay.
• Learn to eat and drink while riding
• For me, the knee and shoulders get stressed a lot- working on your core regularly is for real!

What's next

I want to definitely train for a marathon and do another half ironman this year. Still deciding the course for the next year!

Acknowledgments 

(apologies if I miss someone, this is always hard!)
Some people are self-made- in contrast, I am a totally trained woman! My race was a culmination of so many experiences and contributions to my journey from so many people. I can't stress this enough- I may have done the miles on the final day, but it is a huge effort from a lot of people that went into this. Starting from team Asha, Coach Char, Coach Shashi and Coach Sumit who cared so much! They listened to my over-dramatic rants, my cribbing, gave me nuggets of wisdom, approved and disapproved of my choices, but were there with me throughout. The mentors, especially, Surya and Karthik were always there when I had a question or just random jitters to share. The power gang from my first year: Surekha, Pramoda, Akila and Nitya- it was kickass to have them around. Some of them would lighten the atmosphere by telling me "full aag wonly", some of them pushed me to go harder on the bike sessions, some of them always cared to follow up with a message after the big moments to check up, some of them had to say nothing but give me a hug before my race which said so many words. Whenever I talked to Surya, I came away with three realizations: one would be the answer to the actual question I asked, two was that I can do this and three, that she is a badass! All of you are awesome :)

Huge thanks also to Coach Chakri and the other alumni/mentors (Yuvraj and Ranjit who gave great tips and reassurance during our swims, Sankar who always had pearls of wisdom and laughed at whatever we said, Deepa), Coach Venki who had amazing bike/life tips and reminded me to always have swagger, the actual coords (Souj, Ashish, Gauri), the maybe coord and fellow aero bar wannabe (Deepak), my IMSR first-timer cohort (Souj, Deepak, Ashish, Vividh, Vishal, Maneesh, James), the other IM 70.3 peeps (Megha, Milind, Swetha, Suryakant, BB, ..) folks who got us started last year (Prasad, Stan), my 2018 cohort, my swim instructor, my HIIT instructor - everyone did their part in making this happen. Thanks also to the new Team Asha gang who came out to cheer for us at Santa Rosa and/or supported us throughout the season while we slogged it out - all of you are super inspiring.

Huge shout-out to Renuka, the real head coach who always had the right words to say and great tips throughout the season. It was awesome to have amazing women around me as I trained, especially Souj- you rock! Neha and Sumit were my go-to peeps at multiple points during the training- I would come to their place under the pretext of improv or triathlon training and then refuse to leave, thank you for letting me raid your kitchen and your time! Also, this list would be incomplete without the Mission point express (Deepak and Souj) who not only let me carpool with them since last year, but also provided amazing company both during training and off it, and made it all fun.
Thank you! I am privileged to have so many amazing people around!

Last but not the least, huge shout-out to James without whom there would be no food in my belly and no air in my bike tires- you are an amazing partner in crime! Also, shout-out to my brother, who is also training for his first half ironman this year and was as usual a fun companion to discuss anything under the sun with! And a lot more non-Asha folks who encouraged me along on this journey- thank you, everyone!

Next: [Part IV of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Learning beyond the training plan

[Part II of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] The fall and the revival (May - June 2019)

[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]
Previous: [Part I of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] The off-season, the buildup and the rise (Sep 2018- Apr 2019)

May 2019

At the end of April, I was travelling to the east coast for ten days. I was nervous about missing training but I was confident I could manage based on how much things had improved since Feb. During my travel, I ran on a treadmill wherever possible and walked out for longer distances if not. I couldn't get access to a pool or bike but it was a great break! I also ran as part of a marathon relay team at Pittsburgh Marathon which will always be special since that was my first long race 7 years ago. I ran at a slow pace but didn't have to stop and walk and to me, that meant so much.

Lesson: There are so many ways to measure progress, make sure you find the ones that appeal to you or else someone else will give you theirs and you might be miserable forever! The race journey is long and brutal, might as well enjoy your own created victories and milestones while you're at it :D

I had noticed some fogging in my left eye a day before the race and a burning sensation. There was minor swelling. The next morning I wore my contacts and ran the race and the swelling was gone. The rest of the week was uneventful. I landed in California, worked for half a day and took a nap. By the time I woke up, my eyelid had swollen again. The first appointment wasn't until the next week but I could still see so I thought that was ok. Besides, I didn't want to miss open water swim for yet another weekend!

This was a bad idea. On Saturday morning, I went to Gull park knowing that I will likely not go into the water. Coach Char took one look and confirmed that it was a bad idea. I waited it out and was thinking about the bike ride the next morning.

This was also not meant to be. I woke up the next day with an even bigger eyelid and a cold. I found the first eye doctor I could and was diagnosed with a case of internal hordoleum (swelling inside the eyelid) which I was told made swimming a bad idea. I started meds and had to go back to the doctor every two days. I also had to stop all workouts because presumably it wasn't healing fast enough (and the cold didn't help).

I wish I could say I handled this phase gracefully, but that would be a big lie. I pinged the coaches, ranted to Coach Shashi on a long call about how it felt over because I was so close to the race and had already missed three weeks of training and how I'll never get to Kona (okay that last one didn't happen, but you get the over-dramatization here). All the coaches were extremely chill and told me to take my time to recover and Shashi stressed that after that, its their job to help me get to that finish line- that was such an amazing gesture for someone running around like a headless chicken. My eye made it look like I had gotten into a fist fight, so I couldn't really go to work, which meant lots of hours alone at home with a lot of time to doubt.

Looking back, maybe this was the time I actually became convinced about the race. It also jolted me to the reality that there was no telling this won't happen again and I actively looked for prescription sunglasses for the bike/run and polarized prescription swim goggles as a backup.

Lesson: If you wear glasses, there are a lot of small things you can do to be prepared for things that can go wrong! I cover this elsewhere but be prepared to use prescription sunglasses, and for wearing contacts when your hands are dirty after the swim etc.

I was still not cleared for swim but by third week of May, I decided to go for the weekend ride. As luck would have it, it rained on Sunday morning. So James and I did a double brick: I did a spin workout, followed by treadmill run, followed by another spin workout and another brick workout. It was hard, but it felt so good to be able to use my body again and I truly started to understand what people meant when they said you have to push yourself. I got back to swimming the following week and got some great tips from Shashi. It was really hard to go back to the pool after 5 weeks because my muscle memory of all the small tweaks I had built up in the first half and my endurance- both seemed to have disappeared.

All this made me realize the importance of having your mental sanity, looking back it was such a small thing but I learnt the hard way that I can't let my own idea of how things should be get in the way of appreciating how things are.

June - July 2019: The revival

I had used the down time to get my bike fitted- I still had shoulder and arm pain post ride but slowly the ride itself became more comfortable. I did take time to adjust to the new bike and the new position. It was frustrating to get back to things and find myself not where I thought I should be but that too passed. I actually learnt a lot about letting go and incremental steps during this time which has also helped me deal with similar challenges at work.

Missing training because of the travel/eye/cold did mean that I had to readjust my plans. I decided to drop HIIT for a semester, it was already physically too taxing to manage it with the triathlon schedule. I performed with my improv troupe in the beginning of June (which was great in terms of timing!) and had to mentally put it aside until the race. I said no to so many things because I knew the peak training phase will take all effort. I also decided to not travel outside until the race.

Lesson: In general, as your race gets closer, overestimate the time and effort everything else will take and ruthlessly prioritize. When you're not training, you'll be thinking about the training- account for that.

I picked up all three disciplines again, this time not skimping on the runs and slowly built up to the target mileage. I was still not hitting bike cutoffs in any of my bike rides. I also had a problem of not being able to eat/drink on the bike while riding so I got a hydroblade which helped! We had a mock tri in Gull park around third week of June where I experimented with wearing prescription swim goggles in the water, then changing into contacts, and using hydroblade on the bike- it went decently well.

Lesson: Try out every single thing you plan to use on race day, including whatever you have as a backup, if any. This includes wearing (or not) arm warmers under your wetsuit or calf sleeves under your wetsuit, or eating a gel before swim, or eating a gel before run etc.

In early June, some of us also did a mock ride at Santa Rosa, it was a crazy experience for me! I was on the bike for over 5 hours and the temperature had soared to close to 100! And then at mile 42 I got lost, and then at mile 42.1, I got a flat. I also ran out of water and had to ask a random Santa Rosa resident to fill my bottles. It was such a horrible performance but it was so funny and ironical. I had never seen what the front wheel of my new bike needed for a flat (kids, don't do this!) so when I got a flat in the front tube in the scorching heat, I easily wasted some 5 minutes just staring at the though-axle in disbelief. Anyway, I learnt so much in that ride.

Lesson: Practice flat fixing and if possible, under stressful conditions when you are tired. It'll tell you where all you can mess up!

By end of June, I knew that I had to push more since taper would officially start mid July. In this time, I gained a new appreciation for what my body was capable of- every morning I would be tired and feel like I couldn't do anymore. But then I would start the workout and it would all be fine. Throughout the season I also had several episodes related to periods since they were amazingly timed to always show up during one of the longer training rides so I also got some practice of working with that. This part was super helpful because I learnt that even though I would complain to no end, my body was capable of handling the activities just fine - something that was absolutely important for me to know during the race day. By the time we reached taper, I was decently satisfied with whatever I had done.

Next: [Part III of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] Taper and the race day!

[Part I of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] The off-season, the buildup and the rise (Sep 2018- Apr 2019)

[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]

Prologue: the off-season

I completed the Tri Santa Cruz Sprint triathlon in August 2018 [race report]. Immediately after, I left for Hawaii, which is when the rest of my cohort did an Olympic. Marin seemed too far and logistically not super appealing which meant the tri season was over with a sprint for me in 2018. This, of course, didn't stop me from thinking about a half ironman, even though my training was not close to meeting any of the three cutoffs. Doing the race actually required training, but signing up didn't :D

Looking back, my off-season should have been more focused. I bought the cleats in November 2018 but given my love for experimenting on the bike, I wouldn't use them for spin sessions until March 2019 and on a long ride until June 2019.
Lesson: Get started on cleats as soon as you can! You'll actually never feel ready - until you start. 

But I deviate. After the Sprint triathlon in August 2018, I maybe did a few swims for the rest of the year. I didn't touch my bike almost all of the off-season except for Eden repeats once since that was something I used to be scared of and couldn't convince myself to go out and bike alone. I did get to focus on running in a crazy way. In October 2018, I ran two half marathons, one marathon relay, one 10k, all in a span of 4 weeks. While it was great to keep active but this spurt didn't do wonders to my left knee which has always been a slight sore point.

I had also been going for HIIT (Strength training + cardio) since September 2017 but I decided to give my body a break from both the tri training and HIIT so for the first time I skipped a semester. In addition, the tri season had been super overwhelming and I felt the need to dial back the intensity and focus on other things in life (like actually doing laundry, returning phone calls, replying to emails etc).

All this led to end of 2018 being a training-free period. I have a tendency to lose stamina and gain weight pretty quickly so while this did no wonders to me physically; mentally I was really relaxed, which in hindsight ended up helping me in its own way. I was aware of what the next training phase meant and this part (carb-loading + setting up the right routines and practices before the madness began) helped with the sanity.
Lesson: While it is important to train in the off-season, don't forget to give yourself a mental reset. You'll need it before the longer training period starts! 

I restarted HIIT and my running in the first week of January 2019. I had all my best plans laid out to get a head start on the training, until a sharp random breast pain threw me off during a weekend in mid-Jan. What followed was a series of medical appointments and ultrasound and trying to understand what was happening. The symptoms would continue intermittently for the next 3-4 months. I wish I could say that I took this in my stride but in reality it made me reconsider what I was doing and if it was my body giving me a signal. I would later get a diagnosis and find out that it wasn't really due to the exercise, but this would become another one of the random things that as a woman you just have to accept.
This meant that real training wouldn't start until Feb.

Feb-March 2019: The buildup 

My sprits were high again by the start of Feb. I had started with indoor bike workouts and signed up for TrainerRoad. I was getting used to cleats on the bike while using the trainer which was better than nothing. I had picked up on swimming and running as well. In the first week of March, I headed to Baylands to practice cleats in the parking lot (thanks James!). I had my first obligatory fall which turned out to be not as bad as I had imagined and then I moved on to do a short ride in Baylands.

Lesson: Practice using cleats as soon as possible in a safe spot, like a parking lot. In the time before you switch to using these for the long rides, pay attention to what side do you naturally favor, which foot comes down first when you brake at a traffic light, how do you start pedaling etc.

Throughout Feb and March, I worked on indoor bike sessions (with cleats), running and swim drills. I also attended the Total Immersion workshop. I had the (obvious but delayed) realization about how the kick needs to be connected with the rest of the stroke. It made sense to me in theory but in reality, it took me around a month of frustrated swim sessions to get accustomed to what it meant in the water. I also tend to learn better when things are clearer in my head so in this duration, I watched a number of swim videos at a super slow speed until I could see what order my spearing hand and the kick needs to be in and how much the delay should roughly be. I also had a feedback session with Karthik (thanks!) during this time and he told me about the kick and gave me tips too. I don't time these now, but when you are erasing one habit to replace it with another, I feel you have to put in the extra effort and do all those mundane chores which you hate.

Lesson: While it can be very appealing to hit tons of laps every time you go into the pool, take the time to avoid that if you need to work on your stroke. It takes patience and mental focus to make the slightest of adjustments and sometimes this means doing the same boring routine every single day. 

I also continued with my HIIT classes at this time. My schedule was starting to get crazy but manageable. I am also part of an amazing improv troupe and we were planning a show in June, which meant atleast two evenings had to be devoted to rehearsals. In addition, I had switched roles at work and taken up something I wasn't prepared for, which meant a lot of stress and self-doubt.  I was also aware of the official training kick-off in April.

April 2019: The rise

April 2019 meant start of the weekly training plan and return to double workouts in a day. By mid-April, I was roughly settling into a routine of pool swim 2-3 times a week, one indoor spin session and one Asha spin session during the week, long bike ride on weekend, HIIT 2x per week and mostly one hill workout for the bike during the week. At this point it was some workout almost everyday and twice on some days. My body seemed to be handling it OK so I let it be.

Swim:

By April 2019, the time spent in the pool started to pay dividends. In the first week, I went for a swim workout (it was actually dedicated to Souj completing a year with Tri group and joining an ultra competitive age group, which made it more fun!) and hit my first sub 2:30 (for 100 yds)! It felt amazing. After that I continued to work on minor tweaks to the stroke every time I went to the pool- swim has always been my favorite out of all three so it wasn't hard to motivate myself for this.

Bike:
Asha Spin sessions had started and last year I couldn't make this due to conflict with HIIT. This year I switched out the days for HIIT classes so that I could attend Spin. I also tried to do another spin workout at home earlier in the week (Surya had some awesome tips for this!). The long weekend bike rides were back and starting to ramp up- this was the part that freaked me out the most. And it showed in my bike performance. I had dealt with multiple issues on my bike (Swaaagger) last year and was far from being comfortable. It also bothered me immensely that inspite of all the work I was putting in, somehow it felt that I wasn't seeing the pace improvement in my long rides. I had an aluminum bike which I loved but my gut feeling was that the gear shifting not being great etc and other things which I had felt since last year, weren't just my imagination. I actively started looking for a new bike. This was a pretty late decision considering I was close to 3 months out from my race. My current bike was an endurance fit so I also decided to make the leap to a race fit (or aggressive fit). I am terrible at making these decisions but also I didn't want someone else to make it for me because there was almost a 50% chance that I won't adjust to the new bike in time. On one of the rides in third week of April, while I felt great, the bike clearly felt clunky- post a tune-up. In the end, I followed my gut feeling- I had seen a red SuperSix Evo with a slightly bigger frame size than my current one at GoRide. When I went to test it out, I could feel the lightness. In spite of not being great at bike handling, I realized that I would possibly not see much of a change if I switched from endurance aluminum to endurance carbon bike and at some point I might want to challenge myself further. I bought the SuperSix Evo (Mirchi) by end of April, just before heading out for work travel.

Mirchi made her debut at the end of April and while I was instantly faster on the bike, I also got terrible shoulder and upper arm pain and pain in the groin area- this had never happened to me on a bike so I scheduled a bike fit.

Lesson: Don't wait till late to change your bike if that is what you plan to do- not only do you risk not adjusting to your bike in time for your race, but you also might not find the right size with the right components.

Lesson: Get that bike fit! Except, maybe if..NO, get that bike fit!

Run:
This period was great for training but very overwhelming in terms of managing the schedule. Between work and improv and the triathlon training and trying to have a life, the one thing I couldn't fit in was a regular run schedule in April 2019. It was often brick runs or 1-2 short treadmill runs in a week. I had work travel planned at the end of April/beginning of May and I convinced myself that I could keep sane and get back to it while I was travelling. Looking back, I should have spoken with one of the coaches earlier and told them how mentally overwhelmed I was and what I could do differently. There was also another lesson in there about being open to sharing how you are mentally stressed. I feel throughout the training I had no problem discussing things like cramps or periods or chafing etc, but I hesitated to bring up the mental stress of the non-triathlon stuff in life and the race prep for the half ironman,. I actively worked on changing this starting April end. I spoke with Sumit who was under the impression that I was running but not logging (I wish!) and wasn't thrilled but also told me that there is nothing wrong in discussing these things with the coaches. (I would remember this during the painful half ironman run!)

Lesson: Don't hesitate to make your training your own, based on what else is going on in your life. However, make sure you talk to the coaches or mentors to find alternatives, they are very much OK with making amends to the plan if that's what keeps you sane!

By mid-April, I was starting to regain my confidence in attempting the race distances. I started a 100 day countdown to IMSR 70.3 on April 17. My notes remind me that on days when I didn't workout, I felt restless! As Surya had said, "don't go easy on yourself" and I wasn't planning to.


Next: [Part II of Race journal: Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa, July 2019] The fall and the revival (May - June 2019)