Monday, October 3, 2011

Private HIM is in the books

 Well my private HIM is in the books.  It turns out only two of us did the "race".  SuperKate was crazy enough to give it a go as her first HIM.  She did great!  I'll let her post her pics.  We should have gotten post race pics with our race shirts on, but neither of us felt like spending any more energy.

The weather was absolutely perfect for the event.  Cool and sunny with the high reaching about 70.  We started off at 11 and ran to the Y for a 2100 yard swim.  I haven't been swimming much so I wasn't really looking forward to this part.  I felt amazingly good.  Maybe there is something to be said for being well rested and hydrated.  I changed before and after the swim do there were two extra transitions.
Coming in from the swim

Heading out on the bike
My friends Ryan and Annie came out to cheer and ring cow bells in my driveway.  It was awesome!  Kate's husband and son also came out for the run portion.  I set everyone up in the garage and had burgers and brats for them as well as football on TV.
Ryan and Annie ringing cow bells.

The bike was good once I got my hr under control.  For the first 15 minutes, my hr was in zone 4 which is unsustainable.  I slowed down until it was upper zone 2/lower zone 3 and did a pretty good job keeping it there.  I was able to drink some Infinite ride formula every 10 minutes with no trouble.  Once two bottles were gone, I switch to water and had half a GU.  Total calories in ~600 with about 32 ounces of water.
Coming in from the bike

I felt pretty good coming off the bike, but knew the run was going to be rough.  My jacket had salt stains all over it so I planned to take one salt capsule every loop and a half a GU every other loop along with some water.


Getting ready to run
On the first loop my stomach started feeling a little bloated and full.  Not as bad as it did at NOLA, but not good either.  My hr was in lower zone 3 for the first loop and I decided to slow down to get it into upper zone 2 to see if that would help my stomach.  Within 20 minutes I started farting.  What a great feeling :-).  I started to feel less full and more confident I would have a death march.  Lap 3 was a little slower than lap 2 but it was nice to know I only had 5 miles left.  Then I made a mistake between lap 3 and 4.

starting lap 3 or 4
For some reason an orange slice sounded good to me.  As soon as I ate it I almost threw up but held it together.  I walked over to the bike trail and started running and not more than 10 seconds later I was hurling in the grass on the side of the bike trail.  Thoughts of DNF came into my mind.  Luckily I brought a bottle of water with me on this loop so I rinsed out my mouth and started walking.  I felt much better after that and decided I would run/walk my way in.  No more salt or GU, just water.  The rest of the death march was uneventful.

The finish

Overall, I would say my fitness just isn't there yet to have a great race.  Maybe I skipped too many workouts.  Maybe I didn't go hard enough in some of the workouts.  Maybe it's time to follow a different plan.  Lots of maybes.  I did decide that I won't decide on the season next year for at least a week.  With all that said, I didn't have any bad aches or pains during the race and I felt well enough after the race to cook for a bunch of people.  The next day I wasn't overly tired or sore either.  I's say I was in good enough shape for a good race.  I just need to figure out what it will take for a great race.

I weighed myself before and after the race and I lost 9 pounds or about 5.6% of my body weight.  That seems a little high, but I'm not sure what I can do about it.


The numbers
Total = 7:03:58 - 156
10:21:08 - run 0.5 mile to Y, check in and change
10:13:18 - 500 yards
1:00:48 - rest (wimp)
11:02:66 - 500 yards
1:00:44 - rest
13:45:25 - 600 yards
11:42:37 - 500 yards
12:58:93 - change and run 0.5 miles home
3:12:37 - bike 55.7 - ave hr 157
2:04:32 - bike-run transition - ave hr 142
24:25:55 - 2.5 mile loop 1 - ave hr 168
1:33:47 - chat with spectators
28:25:86 - 2.5 mile loop 2 - ave hr 162
4:01:90 - chat and put bandaids on nipples - ave hr 149
29:20:65 - 2.5 mile loop 3 - ave 159
1:44:23 - chat - ave hr 148
34:15:61 - 2.5 mile loop 4 - puked at the start of this lap and walked/runned it - ave hr 147
1:31:13 - chatted - ave hr 150
31:54:14 - 2.5 mile loop 5 - ave hr 148

Overall it was great to have a goal to keep training for.  It was tougher to keep going without people lining the course than I thought it would be, but we got it done.

9 comments:

Dawn said...

That Is SUPER mike! Just great! You DID it!
Was it just so nice not to have the pressure of a hundred zillion other people in your face the entire time?
Sounds like a ton of fun...and I would much prefer the less-stressed HIM to an expensive, packed, nerve-wracking on any day!
Did you get a medal?;D You DID finish first in your age division after all:D

KovasP said...

So amazing that you did this on your own!

Kate Geisen said...

Man...you beat me by an hour...and that, boys and girls, is the benefit of training.

I think a big difference on the run was the lack of spectators. It's always hard to push when you're on your own. Especially when your "competition" is too busy trying to catch her breath to be breathing down your neck. :)

This was a lot of...well, "fun" is the wrong word :D...but what a great experience. Thanks for letting me play along!

Amanda@runninghood said...

Awesome! I don't even understand this HIM talk but it is soooo impressive to me!!

Patty said...

This is such an awesome idea!!! What a great push to do all this on your own! Congrats on your private HIM finish!!!

Theia said...

Wow! Great job! I could never have done that on my own... I'm clearly lacking motivation.

Did you tell your friends, "I coulda used more cowbell!!"??? lol

Jason said...

What a great idea. I love the fact that you had spectators there and aid stations for you and the other competitors.

I think you are not taking in enough calories on the bike. We need approximately 2x body weight in calories per hour. I take in ~250-300 per hour and I weigh 140lbs.

600 calories over 3 hours is 200 cal/hr and unless you weight 100lbs is probably too few. This will also help you with your electrolytes to help set you up for a good run.

Patrick Mahoney said...

I was thinking the same thing that Jason said. Regardless this was an amazing idea.

A Prelude To... said...

I can't believe you lost 9 pounds and hurled and this wasn't even a "real" race. You ROCK! You and Kate are my heroes!