Testing My Preparation for Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is fast approaching; it’s only 5 weeks away.  Pop quiz:  any idea what Cinco de Mayo is celebrating?  Contrary to popular belief, May 5 is not Mexican Independence Day.  It’s the celebration of the Mexican Army’s victory over the French in 1862.  I learned this on Spring Break in Acapulco between Tequila shots in college…ok, ok maybe they were Lemon Drop shots.  Anyway, I usually only get to drop my Cinco de Mayo knowledge once per year on May 5 but this year I have another reason to discuss that day.

Cinco de Mayo is the date of my first half Ironman.  As I mention in pretty much every one of my blog posts, this will be a 1.2 mile swim, followed by 56 miles on the bike, and then a 13.1 mile run (half marathon).  It will test me mentally and physically to limits I haven’t pushed myself in a long time…maybe ever.  900 participants are entered.  My brother is doing the race against me.  My parents are coming to watch. 

All 35 of my Schmeis35for35 goals are important but it’s not hard to imagine why this one carries much more significance than juggling tennis balls or chugging a beer in 3 seconds.  I’m not sure what would make me feel worse – drinking tequila with the worm, having my brother destroy me in this race,  or the shear pain of running a half marathon in humid, 90 degree weather after completing 4 hours of swimming and biking.  I literally have no idea how I am going to feel.  I have no idea how my body is going to hold up.  I haven’t ever swam that far, been on a bike that far, or ran that far…ever. 

I spent last week trying to adjust time zones back from my trip to Asia.  Sometime around 3am on Tuesday when I was tossing and turning in my bed, I decided I needed to test my readiness for the race.  I needed to know how my body would respond by doing the full distances.  My plan was to head to the pool in a couple of hours when it opened and attempt the 1.2 mile swim.  I then planned on waking up Saturday morning to drive to the race site (2 hours away) and ride the full 56 miles on the course.  I wanted to test myself in the run too but I already knew that answer…I can’t do it currently.  My knee just won’t hold up.  I continue to push the physical therapy to make it better but it’s slow progress. 

In any event, I at least needed to know I could do the full swim and the full bike.  Note that I just wanted to try the full distances on separate days.  Obviously, on race day I’ll need to do the swim, bike, and run all in a row.  Here’s what transpired in my practice sessions this week with the swim and bike:

The Swim – I headed to the gym at 5:30am armed with my Triathlon watch, Triathlon shorts, goggles, and a towel.  After a few quick stretches, a few deep breaths, and a few “Holy shit this is going to suck” thoughts in my head, I pushed off the wall to start the 1.2 miles. 

Quick math question for everyone:  If the pool at my gym is 25 yards long, and I need to swim 1.2 miles, how many lengths of the pool do I need to swim to complete the distance?  Please show your work. 

Ok, I’ll spare you the effort…the answer is ~7 million…sorry, that’s not right.  That’s just what it feels like.  The real answer is 84.5 (1.2 miles = 2112 yards for those who are curious). 

Back and forth I went over and over with nothing to look at but the black line at the bottom of the swimming pool.  The first 100 yards went by and I was feeling really strong and good until I realized I was only 4 out of my 84.5 lengths complete.  After 200 yards I started feeling out of breath which isn’t ideal with more than 1900 yards left.  Somehow though with swimming, it seems like once you push through the 200-400 yard mark it feels like you could go forever.  I have no idea why this is but it happened to me.  I settled into a nice rhythm and finished the 1.2 miles in 36 minutes and 39 seconds.  I didn’t stop at all and it was all freestyle. 

That time would have put me ~150^th out of 425 men in the swim portion of the event last year.  However, I didn’t wear a wetsuit which nearly everyone in the race will have on.  That should help me between 5-10% as it makes you more buoyant.  With that, I would have been in the top 100 which would be fantastic…I’d take that for sure.

The next day I woke up and really wasn’t sore…this gave me a lot of confidence about the swim that I’ve put in the work and can handle it on race day.  It’s crazy to think a year ago I literally couldn’t swim 100 yards straight free style without stopping. 

The Bike - Sue and I set the alarm for 5am and I popped up ready to go.  It’s hilarious that it wasn’t long ago that I wouldn’t even think about getting out of bed on a Saturday before noon.  Of course, that was partly due to the fact I was out every Friday until 4am but that’s for another blog.

Anyway, it was raining but we decided to make the 2 hour drive anyway and hope for the best.  It turns out that “hoping for the best” isn’t a good strategy.  Looking at the radar would have perhaps been more scientific.  If we did that, we would have seen that pretty much all of North Carolina was covered in green…lots of rain.  It poured the entire way there but we made it by about 7:30am. 

There was no way I was going to make it to the race site and not ride…no chance.  So, I got my bike out, put on my helmet, started my watch, and off I went.  The rain was ridiculous…it wouldn’t stop and there were puddles all over the roads.  To make matters worse, the quality of the roads was horrendous.  Every 10 feet or so there seemed to be ruts that I had to go over.  The first few weren’t a big deal but after I had gone over about 100 of them in my first minute of the ride, I thought there was a reasonable chance I would go insane.

I tried to block out most of my thoughts and just get into a zone.  I got into aero position and started hammering along at 20+mph for the first few miles.  I was feeling strong despite all the difficulties with the conditions.  By about mile 20, my neck and shoulders were getting very sore from being in aero position.  My lower back was starting to get very tight.  My ass from being in the saddle for an hour was really hurting.  The good news was that my cardio and legs felt perfectly fine. 

At mile 28, I hit the half way point.  I needed to go to the bathroom and knew that hardcore riders just go while they ride.  I decided I wouldn’t be that hard core and decided to pull over and find a tree. 

Once I got back on the bike, I was definitely ready to eat.  I likely burned ~1200 calories in the first half of the course so needed to refuel.  Proper nutrition and hydration on long rides is really important and I don’t have any practice with how to do that.  I found it really hard to drink consistently and eat gel packs while riding.

Finally, after 3 hours and 8 minutes, I arrived back at the car and had completed the course.  I wanted to finish in less than 3 hours but the conditions were definitely a factor.  The bottom line is I finished and was proud of that.  I hadn’t gone more than 32 miles on the bike in my life and I almost doubled it on this day.  Not bad.

When I hopped off the bike, I couldn’t even imagine having to run 13.1 miles.  My entire body was pretty much locked up and I could barely move.  That wasn’t a good sign.  Plus, one of my goals on Schmeis35for35 is to finish this race in less than 6 hours.  If I do the same swim time as my trial (~36 min), same bike time (3 hours, 8 min), take 5 minutes for transitions, then that means I’ll need to finish the 13.1 mile run in about 2 hours…9 or 10 minutes per mile.  I’m sure I could do that easily fresh and with no knee pain but, of course, I won’t be fresh and I will have knee pain.    

Sunday night came around and I sat in the hot tub staring at the stars; I was thinking about how far I’ve come but how much I still have to do.  I’ve got a lot of improving to do without a lot of time.  That seems to be a common theme with Schmeis35for35

I guess I just have to make it happen, BUSY NOTEPADS style.

Schmeis