Timberman 70.3
This race was used in preparation for my "A" race Ironman Hawaii (7 weeks away)
Goals
-Get battle tested for longer distances in the bike and run
-Establish my current fitness for Swim + BIke + run and dial in that fitness towards the Ironman World Championships
-Test out my left leg and make sure it can stand up to harder efforts and racing conditions. (This was an old injury and tightness of my hip from early in the season. I was forced to DNF Rhode Island as a result.)
-Continue to work on my diabetes strategies for the Half Ironman distance. (Last year I tested new ideas and needed a few races this year to continue to prove that they were correct.)
-The results was a fast day and slow day all wraped into one. Mental note and physical note; being sick does not bring speed but does build character when trying to race...
Swim (Note my swim time was 30min not 35 as IM live posted... this was due to a last minute wave switchero! Hey 5min is a lot on the swim : )
-8:15 wave time, second to last. Mentally preparing to pass lots of folks and dodge and weave : 0
-Start off strong and swim hard trying to find the fastest moving group
-I miss the lead group of swimmers and fight to try to bridge up to them.
-After 5min of swimming i fall into no mans land! No one in front to draft....
-After turning the first corner the swells and wind picks up and the water is a chop.
-The pace slows a bit but my effort remains high.
-I pass some swimmers bobbing trying to find the buoys between swells.
T1
-In and out, with out a hitch.
-I usually test my blood sugar but opt not to (This would come back to get me later in the day.)
-Fumble a bit to slip my feet into the pedals as the first mile is straight up out of transition.
Bike
-Moderate, moderate, moderate I say to my self. ....
-My HR pings at 166bpm.. get er down... get it down.
-Pass a few small climbs on the way to a nice 9% grade climb. Up the hill someone ask me if it is aerodynamic to ride a disc that rubs :/ Grrrr. I stop and check the wheel and find it is rubbing but only when I climb!
-Feeling good.
-I sip some carbopro and pass lots of cyclists.
-Crossing the top of the major climb and headed down the backside I pass by Chrissy Wellington on her way back into town. Huh, she was gritting her teeth.. a sign of things to come?
-Miles 20-40 are flat and in and out of the wind. The rain picks up and soaks us all.
-Still feeling strong
-Climbing back over the hill to head back towards the lake the roads are treacherously wet and the combination of cars + slower cyclists + steep downhills forces me to slow and at times stop.
T2
-Feet out of the shoes, into transition and out onto the run. Avg speed in transition.
Run
-Yikes.... mile one feels yuck.
-Mile 2 no better.
-mile 3 into the porto potty to pray to the potty gods.
-Feeling nauseous I throw up once and then back into the porto potty at mile 5... whats happening here?
-My HR drops like a stone... averaging 8min miles at 125bpm.
-My stomach sloshes and I make a third pit stop and oh no... yep... diarrhea cha cha cha... Guess I have a bug?
-I walk and run and gut the first loop preparing for the second. At mile 7 I know everything is off as I cant eat or drink to keep food down. I am just sick.
-To add to the chaos, when i am sick my blood sugar skyrockets and causes more havoc. A short explanation of what happens to you when you get sick as a type 1 diabetic. Insulin tends to not work as well and when you are ingesting mass quantities of carbohydrate your blood sugar can spike. On this day my blood sugar was off charts high. A normal persons body would not experience this but for me it means that all the food I am taking in to perform in the race is being urinated out via my kidneys. This downward spiral unfortunately leads to electrolyte loss, dehydratrion and calorie depletion rapidly... ie not good. As you can see at all costs I try to avoid getting sick!)
-With that in mind... I keep running and look to get more insulin on board when I finish the race. Taking insulin now would be too dangerous as it could also crash my blood sugar before breaking the tape. I pick up the pace for the final 2miles and eek out a smile at the finish.
-Not the run I envisioned but a challenging one for sure!
-Fortunately, even with a slow run I was able to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater FL. Cool.
Diabetes Notes
-three days before the race: Short steep taper (Wednesday to Sunday almost completely off. Lots of rest. Managed good blood sugars up to the race)
-3:00am Overnight before the race I wake up with a stomach bug and wind up in the bathroom sick. I go back to bed.
-4:00am Eat two powerbars and take 4units of humalog and go back to bed
-5:30 AM wake up, feeling ok but slightly dehydrated. Start on bfast
-Eat powerbar and energy drink
-Start WAKING UP! Feeling amped to race.
-6:00am test and bs is way high.. Nerves + being sick makes my insulin not work as well as it should. I take an extra shot of 1 unit of humalog.
-6:15am eat another powerbar and take 2units.
-Keep my basal unit on my pump on at .55units
-7:30am arrive at transition, keep drinking water and can feel dehydration still
-7:45am test and BS is 390mg/dl (This is still way too high and has been high all morning, The consequence is that much of the powerbars I have been eating over night and for breakfast have not been absorbed into my body but rather urinated out and causing dehydration. A mjaor issue for me as I am starting a long race calorie depleted and dehydrated. Fortunately on this day the weather looked to be cooler and rainy.)
-8:00am I take an additional bolus of 1unit of humalog and turn off my insulin.
-8:05am I inject 1.85units of humalog into my arm. (Normally I would take 3units of humalog but given the correction units i had been taking all morning I was afraid to take the full amount and consequently get low during the swim)
-8:12 I ingest 400 calories of carbopro.
-8:15am Gun goes and i go into the lake!