[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]
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.
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.
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)
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 :DLooking 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)
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