Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Smartass Camp Day 4- flat part deux and long run pain

Oh, man it was a long night. Who would have thought that exercising a bazillion hours a day would have you tossing and turning for 8 hours? Well after finally falling asleep at 5am it was time to get up at 6:30 to get ready for the swim. Well I realized what may have been keeping me up... I was STARVING! I did remember at one point in the middle of the night having the distinct urge to go grab a Cliff bar, but I'm so sick of those damn things that the thought passed quickly. So when I got up this morning I parked my butt on the floor with 2 giant bagels and a jar of peanut butter and ate until I was nearly sick. Welcome to Smartass camp.

The swim this morning was an uneventful 2700 meters. I shared the lane with Dave and Miranda and we just cranked it out without too much enthusiasm. After the swim we had to quickly get ready for the ride. Smartass coach had suggested that maybe I skip the bike since I looked like such crap from my restless night, but since it was just a 90 minute Zone 2 ride I figured what the hell...

Well, a mile into the ride I got another surprise from the bad luck fairy. I'm riding along, minding my own damn business, when bump, bump, bump, bump.... ugh. The tire was FUBARed. I stopped and luckily Will R and Will W stopped with me to fix the tire. The tube hadn't set properly near the valve and it was bulging out of the tire. I was probably less than a minute from tire explosion. Thankfully we were able to get it fixed on the fly.

So now there was only one problem... By the time I was up and rolling I was riding with 2 pros and 2 solid age group men who were all set to do Zone 3 intervals. Good stuff. Dave was nice enough to ride his warm up with me and then off he went hammering out his set. I figured it would be fine because we were doing an out and back and the rest of the group should be heading back shortly and I could jump back with them. This is where the fun began...

I was riding along not paying attention when all of a suddon the group went flying by me in the other direction.

Ok, I just have to turn around and catch them.

But of course this happened to be at the busiest section of road so I had to continue in the other direction for a good 2 minutes before I could pull a U-turn. By this point I was a good mile behind the group.

So here I am, by myself with a sketchy tire situation and no tire levers with the nearest group 1 mile ahead and gaining distance.

Time for a hammerfest!

I started riding like there was no tomorrow. When I started the pursuit my average speed for the ride was 17 mph at mile 12. With my basic math skills I figured that I would need to ride 4 mph faster than them to catch up in 15 minutes. Hmmm... can I do 23 mph? Well, I figured out the answer was yes... in zone 3... and after 20 minutes I was going to be friggin SPENT! I caught up with them at mile 20 and my average speed had increased to 18.8 mph by that point. Holy hell!

I was so trashed when I caught up with them. Thankfully Khai was nice enough to spin back to Paulo's with me because I don't think my body was up to any more intensity for the day, especially with a 2 hour run on the schedule!

After the ride we force fed ourselves pasta and went to take a 45 minute nap and then it was already time for the run. No rest at Smartasscamp.

When we started the run along the Rio Grande it was hot and we were tired. But we forged ahead. The run was just like any other 2 hour run I've had except... no treadmill or 7 layers of clothes WOOHOO!!!!

The only downside to the run is my foot. I've had a nagging pain on the inside of my foot just below the ankle. The nagging pain turned into a real pain at mile 9 and now I'm praying to the allmighty triathlon gods that I don't have a stress fracture. Damn it! Just when I was getting the hang of this training thing. Thankfully Sophie comes in tomorrow so I will enlist her ART help for an opinion on the matter. I think I'll be skipping the trail run tomorrow evening just to be safe.

Your moment of zen...

9 comments:

Unknown said...

You could look at it two ways, Jodi.

(1) Some evil spirit is getting his kicks by flatting you out.

(2) A genuinely kind-hearted spirit is trying to teach you by example to carry tire levers, a pump, CO2 cartridge and a spare tube on all rides.

You got some serious grit. Hope today's ride is flat free.

E-Speed said...

I have been having pain there too occasionally.

I think it is from when I turned my ankle at Youngstown.

Hopefully it is just something of that nature and not a stress fracture.

Trying jumping up and down on it, if it is excruciating it might be fractured ;) (don't really do that, ask your ART friend to help you out!!!)

Eat eat eat girl and get some sleep tonight!

JenC said...

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger right? Let's hope that is true. Good luck with the foot! Hope you were able to get some sleep last night. Missed you at the pool today.

We need to get your bike bag set up with tire levers, CO2, etc., so there are no worries. I hear that new bikes/wheels have lots of tire problems in the beginning. You are just getting them out of the way now. Joy, right!

Enjoy Day 5!

Janet Edwards said...

Well my friend, at least you are going to be a whiz with tire issues soon! You are getting in core hard core biking!

So many jars of peanut butter are you going to go through at training camp???

Best of luck with the foot!

TriSonq said...

Careful Jodi. Make sure you take care of the foot.

So proud of you sticking it through when you felt like crap!!!

Nice catch up on the bike too.

EAT!!!

B Bop said...

Reading of all the miles you're putting down with these tough workouts at smartasscamp makes my feet hurt....

It sounds like a strange spot for a stress fracture and it seems like there is a bunch of muscle/soft tissue in this area so hopefully just a little inflamation from all of the hard work, just be careful with the anti-inflamatories (wait, I learned that from you ;-)

Listen to the ART people, eat, eat some more, and sleep. I've realized how easy my training workouts really are after reading about your time at smartass camp. You are inspirational.

Charlie said...

Well after I commented on how flats now are good race prep, I had my first flat of the year.
Wanna go in on a case of tubes with me?

Anonymous said...

Way to hang with the pros, Jodester.

qcmier said...

This camp sounds like so much fun. Months from now are you going to start conversations with: "This one time at tri camp..."