Sunday, July 23, 2017

The Race That Wasn't (Steelhead Specialty: Week 5)

I was scheduled to do my first Olympic distance triathlon this morning.  I was all packed up, dinner was eaten, and I was almost on schedule to get to bed at a reasonable hour before my 3am alarm.

So much stuff!

All packed into one very big backpack

Then it all came apart.

We gave Walter and Spot dinner around 10pm and Walter, who is usually a very enthusiastic eater, just nosed the food around and put his head down on his paw.  Uh oh...not good.  When a bunny stops eating (and subsequently pooping), it's an emergency.  Normally this would be cause for a trip to the emergency room, but thanks to Dr. Beast, we have the required drugs at home and we know how to use them.  Before we started the drugs, we decided to try using abdominal massage to jump start Walter's gut.

Long story short...Mr. R&R and I were massaging Walter's belly until about 2am and he finally produced a little poop!  That meant that we didn't have to resort to using drugs, but it also meant that we were an hour away from the alarm going off.  I curled up on the floor next to Walter and Mr. R&R and hoped for the best.  When the alarm went of at 3am, there was just no way I was going to be able to drive 90 minutes to the race site and race.  It would have been the equivalent of driving/racing drunk.

I went back to sleep and by 9am Walter was doing even better.  We're still not out of the woods by a long shot, but I think we're on the road to recovery.  He's continuing to nibble on kale, making poop, and we're starting to hear little gurgles in his belly meaning that his digestive tract is starting to work again.

Ultimately, I'm really bummed out that I missed my chance to swim nearly the half iron distance in race conditions before Steelhead, but as much as I wanted this race, I want my sweet little baby bunny more.  There's always another race, but there's only one Walter.




Sunday, July 2, 2017

Sickness and Recovery (Steelhead Specialty: Weeks 1 & 2)

I kind of ran out of time to post last week, so we'll just lump the first two weeks of this training phase into one post - okay?

Week 1 was kind of horrible.  I was doing battle with some nasty mix of a cold and allergies, so sleeping through the night didn't happen and training was minimal.  I did manage to get out to the lake and finally swam my first full open water mile, so that made me happy.  I really needed to get that done for my peace of mind before my first olympic tri later this moth - and obviously before Steelhead.  Next on the swimming agenda is to get my ass in Lake Michigan for a swim.


Week 2 was a lot better.  I was finally able to sleep through the night again, so that really helped a lot.  Of course Mother Nature made running a little difficult since it kept storming!  Mr. R&R and I actually had to turn back on a ride on Thursday night because there was fairly deep water flowing across the bike path!


I'm really happy that the bike feels good again.  For a few weeks I was having a really hard time getting any speed on the bike and I couldn't stand being in aero for more than a minute or two at a time.  I was really starting to worry.

I rode a solid 40 miles with Mr. R&R today and I wasn't that far behind him for the most part!  The hour long run after that ride was another story.  My legs did not want to cooperate.  At least I have 6 more weeks to get it together!

Week 1 Stats:
Swim:     1,785 yards (1.01 miles)
Bike:       27.49 miles
Run:        3.76 miles
Strength: none

Total Time:        3 hours, 47 minutes
Total Distance:  32.26 miles

Week 2 Stats:
Swim:      2,025 yards (1.15 miles)
Bike:       62.81 miles
Run:        5.51 miles
Strength: 1 session (30 minutes)

Total Time:       4 hours, 25 minutes
Total Distance: 62.81 miles

June Totals:
Swim:       4.39 miles
Bike:        186.73 miles
Run:         31.97 miles
Strength:  2 sessions

Total Time:       23 hours, 54 minutes
Total Distance: 223.02 miles

Cumulative Distance: 1241.18 miles - the distance from Milwaukee to Salt Lake City, Utah!