Pumpkinman Challenge and the juggle of life

This past Sunday I completed the Pumpkinman 70.3 Half Ironman Challenge in South Berwick, Maine. I want to say it was my eighth Half Ironman in the past 20 months?

I was exited to do this race, as it was the first half ironman where I had raced the course prior. Last year I raced Pumpkinman after completing Lake Placid and was shelled, still nursing broken ribs and a bruised spleen and completed little or no speed work or intense training leading up to the race. Last year my completion time was 4:45.

Well this year, my mouth was writing checks it in the end had no business cashing. It was all on credit!!! I had been fooling around with my teammates on our on-line forum and well, as it stands with all of us being ultra competitive and pranksters, it got serious and we started the throw down of who was going to do what to each other, etc. I’ve had a leg up on the ultra course as of late. As bold as I can be, I think I had a pretty good bulls-eye on my back as a result of the banter. It was all in good fun! Let just say, our team of www.qt2systems.com athletes have talent all over the place!

Actually, the added incentive was needed, because at times the season seems long and mundane especially after doing a spring Ironman (St. George). I like to push and this certainly motivated me even a little more. I took the banter and brought it into my workouts as I do with pretty much anything that is going on in my world. For instance, if I’m having an issue at work, with the kids, etc I’ll try and find a way to use it as motivation even if only for an hour. I’ll visualize at times trying to reel in a Qt2 mate or another competitor. I'll even well-up in tears of happiness dreaming of walking my daughter down the isle getting married or something futuristic that just moves me to want to dig deeper.  Come to think of it, I pretty much do that all day!!

As I wrote in my last post, I completed the Pemi Loop about three weeks ago. Man, was that more of a recovery than I could ever imagined!!!! I was warned it would be like that, but I’m just so stubborn I always think it’s going to be different for me with this sort of thing. The recovery should take about 6-8 weeks, and racing 1-3 weeks after was going to be issues come to find out.  Almost all my toenails popped off and I could barley walk for three days! I’ve never been that messed up after a race after many!!!

My workouts prior to this race where coming along nicely. I train in Maine and run some pretty hilly routes. My track work was fast and I was able to shed the weight pretty fast in order to attain race weight. I was pretty exited to see what could happen even though in the back of my mind I was not recovered I felt my durability had increased a good amount. This process of learning what your body can or cannot do is another aspect I love about endurance training. It was certainly going to be a “what if” playing out live.

The past few weeks at work have been stressful and that has so much to do with how you recover as well. In addition, I’ve been driving a ton with work and family and my sleep was not where I would like it to be. For a few weeks I’ve been trying to spend more time with my kids, driving about 600-800 miles a week, putting in 40-50 at work and 10-16 in training. This is never an ideal mix, but the only way I can pull off all that I want in order to have the kind of life I dream of. Something or things give like this and it’s a work in progress.

With all the usual nutrition and prep work complete and not a single brick or workouts missed I felt ready despite the above.

I received the pacing from my coach and it all made sense. The goal was to put out 215 Watts, Swim 30-32 and run a 6:50 pace and hold onto that for as long as possible. The possible completion time would be 4:30-4:38 or about seven minute improvement form last year. Here we go!!

Race morning, on time and ready. Up at 3AM and get delayed a little and I’m now finding myself a little late. Don’t like this, but the course and crew at Pumpkin get me in and ready fast. I head down to the water and I’m excited to race as an Elite even though I’m the oldest and have no business being there. This year I’m excited to swim because my volume and mechanics were worked on a ton over the summer.

A couple of people who I’ve crossed paths with came up to me to say hello and told me that they’ve been following this blog and posts and thanked me for motivating them each day. They told me that they have no excuses because they seem to have a simple life as compared to mine. Wow, what a way to start a day and race. I thanked them and we wished each other success for what lay ahead!

Boom, off and actually find feet and stay with them. No contact and I felt like I was sailing pretty well. I did not want to look up and lose the feet and I cruise for a bit. I round buoy one and shoot for the next. I have two swimmers to my right swim over me and force me to my left at the next buoy. It was a turn, or was it? I look up and we were turning one buoy too soon. Darn, lost feet and I get back on course. Here come the other swimmers from the next wave behind!! Oh!! 33XX but ok with this.

Bike transition and we are off. The weather and day are ideal. I get after it and immediately I’m not feeling it. Having a hard time meeting the watts. There is something a miss. I struggle for a bit and more or less determine that after the first 25 I’ll free up and I stay consistent. Mile 26 and I’m not getting any stronger.

Finish up a little dejected however, I see all my kids, mother N- Law and wife heading out into the run. This actually was the first time my kids saw me race and I was so excited. I wanted to stop right there and hug them all and forget about the race, but I was pretty dialed in and wanted to catch my teammates in the worst way!

I head into 6:50 without issue and I felt I was going actually nail this run and run a 1:30 or better half. Legs are turning over and I’m holding back a ton. I keep the pace for the first 3 miles and then I start to fade faster than the slide we plan. Mile 6-7, my legs are cement and I can’t get my heart rate up based on perceived exertion. It was like mile 20 in a full ironman. I’m not breathing hard just no pop at all. I nailed my nutrition leading up and all day up until that point and even added an extra gel shot because my stomach felt fine. I peed on the bike on plan.

Mile 8-13 where I dig deep and pretty ugly. I slid all the way to a 7:45 pace. I finished at 4:51 and off about 20 minutes of where I projected. This day was all about completing and as soon as I knew I was cooked, I went about smiling and high fiving my mates on the course and was happy for their days.

For about 2 minutes I was bummed, but I had my family with me and it changed my spirits immediately. We went and left the venue and had pizza and the kids were so excited to start swimming and running after watching all the amazing athletes. I was able to snag medals for each of them and they were thrilled. It was one of the reasons I started this a while ago and I had forgotten about wanting to expose them to other people and families that lead active lifestyles’. It was in the end the best part of this race for me! They are still talking about it!

During my long drive home with the kids I sat quite in the car thinking about my life. I spoke to Jesse and sorted out some stuff that didn’t make sense with him or me at the time. Jesse re-enforced that the Pemi Loop was more important to my future and races than this race and that Pumkinman was not an “A” race for me. I posted to Face book my initial sense of disappointed and the fantastic thing about FB is that you def get a different perspective when you can’t get out of your own absorbed way once in a while. My pal Shanna summed it up for me, take it in, learn from it and make the necessary changes if need be. So true and this is what I came up with.

1)   I need to continue to simplify my life and say no more.

2)   The Pemi Loop was more critical to my future than this past race and my durability is what is being focused on right now.

3)   I’m very much on track for the other larger goals.

4)   I can’t shed weight so fast because it borders on being unhealthy

5)   You can’t race fast after shelling yourself 3 weeks prior

6)   Driving 800 miles a week is not going to make any of this get better.

7)   The pacing was based on a best-case scenario with the possibility I was recovered enough to achieve the result. It was going to show around mile 7 if I was not recovered. This was a good test.

8)    Don’t do every ride on a Computrainer. I have not ridden outside since May!!

So in closing, I’m really exited to push onto some incredible goals next and feel great about my effort, etc. The next five months are going to be epic.  I just know in my soul that what I’m learning out there is invaluable and gong to fuel some great stories. Up Next, Raising Funds for Chile!!! Picture above is part of the course (that's not me, but it will be). I'm learning now about altitude sickness.