Ironman Santa Rosa 70.3 Race Report
*********************************************************
This report of mine begins thus,
Far out on the ramp, there stood a few of us,
With dreams and sacrifices made a few,
Brave men and women stacked up in a queue.
The sky above had a breeze in the air,
Lingering doubts brought me despair,
The day ahead was long and tough,
But our bodies and will had prepared enough.
The hour arrived to do a repeat,
Pull, push and paddle with our arms and feet.
Breathe in, Breathe out, I synced my strokes,
The waters of Gull Park, had trained us blokes.
Out I came off the waters strong,
Transitioned and changed for a bike-ride long.
Cautioned on downhills and hydrated well,
The goal was to finish before the mercury swell.
Atop the saddle, I trained the body sore,
Hoping no flats show up, we prayed some more,
Pedalling, spinning and grinding my teeth,
I climbed and flipped the bird at defeat.
As the wrath of Helios, steadily soared,
The headwinds blew, and busted my core,
Jelly legs carried me to the points,
I rested the saddle, and massaged the joints.
Here the need came to dig deep and deal,
Found my reason to push and suffer the ordeal,
Too much invested to turn around now,
I poured some water and wiped my brow.
The miles began, with a spring in the feet,
A few more to go, on the count of a beat.
Steadily, the heat and uneasiness creeped,
I endured and gave the sprinters a greet.
The legs were tired, as they were battered long,
But my will is iron and the training strong.
Dumped ice to cool, drank cola and gels to fuel,
Perseverance my armor, when the conditions turned cruel.
Keep It Simple Stupid, said our beloved Coach,
Nothing to fear, my resolve pressed on this approach.
Cheered with a few, helped a dear one,
In my head, by this time, I had already won.
Slowly inching closer to the line,
Made it special by crossing with a comrad of mine.
Met the folks who'd been cheering long,
Hugged the ones whose words made me strong.
Beneath the blue sky my dreams are few,
This journey incomplete without my Asha crew.
The time is now to relax and celebrate,
Raise my fists up and joyously elate.
For the year began with roadblocks few,
Here we are, today, a Half Ironman new.
We learnt to be happy and seldom frown,
With a head held high, we place this crown.
You, our strength in this journey far,
Suggested us ideas like bread with achaar.
Wrapped in kindness, angels have blessed,
Enjoy the race, was always stressed.
With gratitude filled in my heart,
We train to prepare for another start.
*********************************************************
After a successful Oakland Olympic distance triathlon (insert link), the goal was to train for an Ironman 70.3 the following year. During the fall, swimming and biking had taken a back seat I had been running a few 10Ks to keep up with the winter training. The plan was to run a full marathon in Napa and later attempt the 70.3.
But life had other agendas and I had to alter my plans accordingly. Around February, things sorted out and I signed up for IMSR 70.3 on the 14th Feb 2019. Talk about some self-love!!
Unlike my previous report, I have shared some wisdom/mantras from my training days that have acted as my cornerstones and have shaped me to be a better version of myself. Feel free to skip it and head to the race report at the bottom.
LIFE HAS OTHER PROBLEMS
When I had joined the Asha triathlon program, I was driven with a goal to train hard and live up to people's expectations. In order to "look good", I showed up to every workout and even ran/biked/swam some few extra miles/yards than my peers. I neither cared much about my nutrition strategy nor invested in undergoing a proper recovery post an injury. Unknowingly, I was fueling this inner competitiveness to become an affirmation-addict. Those "kudos" and "achievements" on Strava meant that more people were noticing and appreciating me. The notion of fitness permeated in my everyday life so much that it was impossible to escape. Missing a workout felt like a guilt trip and I had the urge to catch-up every now and then.
At Asha's Spring Run, Surekha and Pramoda reminded me that life had other problems too. I was fortunate enough to not have any commitment issues while training. There are people out there who have family/work commitments far greater than mine and yet they have a smile on their face every time they show up to a workout. This was by far the most valuable piece of advice someone gave me. The months that followed, despite how shitty I felt at the end of my training, this mantra helped me mentally recover and check my expectations.
STOP BEING HARD ON YOURSELF
Mid-season, I fell down off my bike at the Old La Honda. A slight oversight caused me to fly off my saddle and land on the dirt side of the trail. I had a minor road bruise on the hip and a contusion on the left pinky. Even though there were visible injuries, I was ready to ignore them and ride the remaining 40-odd miles.Thankfully, I listened to Karthik and Sumit (Prabhu) and headed back. Gauri and Prakash helped clean the wound and Shashi took me to the urgent care. Fortunately, there were no fractures and the nurse helped dress up the wound.
All this while, I was mentally and verbally cursing myself. Clearly, my ego was hurt and the thought of missing workouts was unsettling. Coach Char reminded me that this program is a hobby that people are supposed to enjoy and have fun. Despite this, I wanted to jump right back into training as I couldn't risk a poor showing at Santa Rosa.
Later in the season, I started having a mild pain around the left knee. Ideally, one should reduce the intensity and let it recover. Despite this, I was doing hill repeats and on one such occasion, Shashi asked me why I was being so hard on myself. This was a valid question and I couldn't answer it. Being hard was the only way I knew how to push myself and take the training seriously. The seeds of such a mentality had been planted in me since childhood. It does work for some people but it also stages them up for a possible injury. And if the injury ever became a serious one, there was no way I could successfully achieve anything. This thought was more terrifying than having to deal with dialing down my training plan. I started incorporating a run-walk strategy and doing bikes rides on Foothill.
THREE- TRAIN HARD, RACE EASY and ENJOY
Sumit shared an email about the training principles and how we need to identify the purpose and differentiate between our short weekday workouts and long weekend workout goals. He also focused on managing our recovery well. The way I had been approaching the training was only building up my endurance and the tips helped me to break down and analyze my workouts better. Shashi helped us correct our swim strokes and it helped improve my swim time. The weekday spin sessions led by Akila were nicely broken down into multiple hill climbs and flat simulations. The single leg exercises helped us focus on the pull rather than the push. Cumulatively, we were all getting stronger by the week.
IT'S ALL IN THE MIND
Shashi shared an email about the importance of training the mind and building up the mental fortitude. To succeed in this sport, one needed to get comfortable being with yourself for long hours and at the same time stay focused. Focus and dedication was never an issue with me. What lacked was a vision and subsequent goals. There were occasions where I would dread the long weekend rides and keeping up with the training plan was an arduous task. Surya told me that it could be an indication of mental fatigue and that I should take it easy and pace myself. Over-thinking about it wasn't going to help me. Instead, I needed to break my workouts down to smaller achievable goals. On the bike rides, I started focusing on the nutrition strategy and counting the number of calories on the hour. For swim, the focus was on my catches and hip rotations while keeping the body balanced.
I also started eating more to help me sustain on the long runs. This was helping me slowly improve my endurance and speed.
KISS- KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID
As an athlete, we have a tendency to over-analyze and complicate situations. Occam's Razor principle helped me keep things simple when there were a barrage of thoughts knocking on the front door. Most often it is the easiest solution that helps push us throuh life. Santa Rosa was going to be one hot race. I was worried about the fatigue. Theincident wth Sarah Tru was not encouraging. I have never liked the heat.
Training for IMSR 70.3
Let the ground crack and rocks crumble around you because that’s how something amazing grows, through the cracks.
Shashi's email
Race day:
Pre-Race preparations
Weeks prior to the race day, I had started preparing for a hot day. Got gels and
Printed routes from the athlete guide and went over them multiple times. I was worried about the heat and a wrong turn would mean I would have to run in the heat.
went over the bike course before race day. The over-thinking and nervousness had began to set in.
Mock bike ride at Santa Rosa wasn't an encouraging one. It broke my confidence in dealing with heat. Mixed emotions: Give up now and no one will care. Keep on pedalling and see this through. My back and knees were busted and sitting in the car ride back was somewhat painful.
Break it down to what worked and didn't work.
Didn't go well: Nutrition, neck and back started to pain, e-gel solution became hot and sugary, felt like hitting a wall on the way back, couldn't sustain a steady pace.
The only good things from the ride was that I didn't lose my way and I had mental motivation to push me through it.
Now for the heat. Don’t wipe yourself off completely after the swim, just your feet, so you can put on socks and shoes.
Heat training:
[11:56 AM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Dump ice in your top, in your cap and keep going.
[11:57 AM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: It will hurt you a bit but that is better than the heat.
[11:58 AM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Apply chamois cream very liberally. With all this water dumping on your head and body, it might chafe a bit.
[11:58 AM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Stay positive. You will be fine.
Monitor your HR, if it peaks. Slow down or walk. Just cos it didn’t happen during training or “it’s not your pace”, don’t push.
[12:02 PM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Put your feet up, relax. And keep asking yourself questions. 1) what should I do if it gets very hot? 2) what is my plan when HR goes high. Etc.
[12:02 PM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: The more your repeat the better you will remember.
[12:03 PM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Just like interview prep.
Reminded myself that it was a different day and it would all work out.
Mental revision of the course. I have a annoying habit of not remembering the routes. Got down to
2. Swim
3. Bike
4. Run
I tend to worry too much into the future and this disrupts my internal balance which results in me giving up on everything around me. This one line however, stuck to me and I kept thinking about how deep this line actually is.
We are self-centered and don't think about how others may be going through a worse condition than me. At the time, no one else's pain seems relevant to you and you'd want to get out of yours first.
I do things as a means to distract myself from me. I don't have a passion for it nor a compulsive need to be the best. But I am competitive and want to be able to do better than most. I aim higher so that I can reach or atleast try moving upwards towards it.
Problems:
- Visa not done
- Gaadi is broken
- Date nahi milegi
- No travel done
- Inching closer to 30
- career mein peeche
- Money for the house
-
Of the many things I could have done after my successful past year, I didn't expect sitting at home would be one of them.
-I was out of job and life seemed to be at standstill.
-kept up with my training mostly running
-did a play "A Widow of No Importance"
- Was I depressed? Agitated? or pretty relaxed?
- What do I want to convey? Life mein aur problems hai - Talk about other things that life teaches you
- Juggling work, theater and training
- No girlfriend
- Confused about priorities,
- Too hard on myself and yet a smile on my face
- Life took a 180 degree turn
- too much in our head to enjoy life and its challenges
This report of mine begins thus,
Far out on the ramp, there stood a few of us,
With dreams and sacrifices made a few,
Brave men and women stacked up in a queue.
The sky above had a breeze in the air,
Lingering doubts brought me despair,
The day ahead was long and tough,
But our bodies and will had prepared enough.
The hour arrived to do a repeat,
Pull, push and paddle with our arms and feet.
Breathe in, Breathe out, I synced my strokes,
The waters of Gull Park, had trained us blokes.
Out I came off the waters strong,
Transitioned and changed for a bike-ride long.
Cautioned on downhills and hydrated well,
The goal was to finish before the mercury swell.
Atop the saddle, I trained the body sore,
Hoping no flats show up, we prayed some more,
Pedalling, spinning and grinding my teeth,
I climbed and flipped the bird at defeat.
As the wrath of Helios, steadily soared,
The headwinds blew, and busted my core,
Jelly legs carried me to the points,
I rested the saddle, and massaged the joints.
Here the need came to dig deep and deal,
Found my reason to push and suffer the ordeal,
Too much invested to turn around now,
I poured some water and wiped my brow.
The miles began, with a spring in the feet,
A few more to go, on the count of a beat.
Steadily, the heat and uneasiness creeped,
I endured and gave the sprinters a greet.
The legs were tired, as they were battered long,
But my will is iron and the training strong.
Dumped ice to cool, drank cola and gels to fuel,
Perseverance my armor, when the conditions turned cruel.
Keep It Simple Stupid, said our beloved Coach,
Nothing to fear, my resolve pressed on this approach.
Cheered with a few, helped a dear one,
In my head, by this time, I had already won.
Slowly inching closer to the line,
Made it special by crossing with a comrad of mine.
Met the folks who'd been cheering long,
Hugged the ones whose words made me strong.
Beneath the blue sky my dreams are few,
This journey incomplete without my Asha crew.
The time is now to relax and celebrate,
Raise my fists up and joyously elate.
For the year began with roadblocks few,
Here we are, today, a Half Ironman new.
We learnt to be happy and seldom frown,
With a head held high, we place this crown.
You, our strength in this journey far,
Suggested us ideas like bread with achaar.
Wrapped in kindness, angels have blessed,
Enjoy the race, was always stressed.
With gratitude filled in my heart,
We train to prepare for another start.
*********************************************************
After a successful Oakland Olympic distance triathlon (insert link), the goal was to train for an Ironman 70.3 the following year. During the fall, swimming and biking had taken a back seat I had been running a few 10Ks to keep up with the winter training. The plan was to run a full marathon in Napa and later attempt the 70.3.
But life had other agendas and I had to alter my plans accordingly. Around February, things sorted out and I signed up for IMSR 70.3 on the 14th Feb 2019. Talk about some self-love!!
Unlike my previous report, I have shared some wisdom/mantras from my training days that have acted as my cornerstones and have shaped me to be a better version of myself. Feel free to skip it and head to the race report at the bottom.
LIFE HAS OTHER PROBLEMS
When I had joined the Asha triathlon program, I was driven with a goal to train hard and live up to people's expectations. In order to "look good", I showed up to every workout and even ran/biked/swam some few extra miles/yards than my peers. I neither cared much about my nutrition strategy nor invested in undergoing a proper recovery post an injury. Unknowingly, I was fueling this inner competitiveness to become an affirmation-addict. Those "kudos" and "achievements" on Strava meant that more people were noticing and appreciating me. The notion of fitness permeated in my everyday life so much that it was impossible to escape. Missing a workout felt like a guilt trip and I had the urge to catch-up every now and then.
At Asha's Spring Run, Surekha and Pramoda reminded me that life had other problems too. I was fortunate enough to not have any commitment issues while training. There are people out there who have family/work commitments far greater than mine and yet they have a smile on their face every time they show up to a workout. This was by far the most valuable piece of advice someone gave me. The months that followed, despite how shitty I felt at the end of my training, this mantra helped me mentally recover and check my expectations.
STOP BEING HARD ON YOURSELF
Mid-season, I fell down off my bike at the Old La Honda. A slight oversight caused me to fly off my saddle and land on the dirt side of the trail. I had a minor road bruise on the hip and a contusion on the left pinky. Even though there were visible injuries, I was ready to ignore them and ride the remaining 40-odd miles.Thankfully, I listened to Karthik and Sumit (Prabhu) and headed back. Gauri and Prakash helped clean the wound and Shashi took me to the urgent care. Fortunately, there were no fractures and the nurse helped dress up the wound.
All this while, I was mentally and verbally cursing myself. Clearly, my ego was hurt and the thought of missing workouts was unsettling. Coach Char reminded me that this program is a hobby that people are supposed to enjoy and have fun. Despite this, I wanted to jump right back into training as I couldn't risk a poor showing at Santa Rosa.
Later in the season, I started having a mild pain around the left knee. Ideally, one should reduce the intensity and let it recover. Despite this, I was doing hill repeats and on one such occasion, Shashi asked me why I was being so hard on myself. This was a valid question and I couldn't answer it. Being hard was the only way I knew how to push myself and take the training seriously. The seeds of such a mentality had been planted in me since childhood. It does work for some people but it also stages them up for a possible injury. And if the injury ever became a serious one, there was no way I could successfully achieve anything. This thought was more terrifying than having to deal with dialing down my training plan. I started incorporating a run-walk strategy and doing bikes rides on Foothill.
THREE- TRAIN HARD, RACE EASY and ENJOY
Sumit shared an email about the training principles and how we need to identify the purpose and differentiate between our short weekday workouts and long weekend workout goals. He also focused on managing our recovery well. The way I had been approaching the training was only building up my endurance and the tips helped me to break down and analyze my workouts better. Shashi helped us correct our swim strokes and it helped improve my swim time. The weekday spin sessions led by Akila were nicely broken down into multiple hill climbs and flat simulations. The single leg exercises helped us focus on the pull rather than the push. Cumulatively, we were all getting stronger by the week.
IT'S ALL IN THE MIND
Shashi shared an email about the importance of training the mind and building up the mental fortitude. To succeed in this sport, one needed to get comfortable being with yourself for long hours and at the same time stay focused. Focus and dedication was never an issue with me. What lacked was a vision and subsequent goals. There were occasions where I would dread the long weekend rides and keeping up with the training plan was an arduous task. Surya told me that it could be an indication of mental fatigue and that I should take it easy and pace myself. Over-thinking about it wasn't going to help me. Instead, I needed to break my workouts down to smaller achievable goals. On the bike rides, I started focusing on the nutrition strategy and counting the number of calories on the hour. For swim, the focus was on my catches and hip rotations while keeping the body balanced.
I also started eating more to help me sustain on the long runs. This was helping me slowly improve my endurance and speed.
KISS- KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID
As an athlete, we have a tendency to over-analyze and complicate situations. Occam's Razor principle helped me keep things simple when there were a barrage of thoughts knocking on the front door. Most often it is the easiest solution that helps push us throuh life. Santa Rosa was going to be one hot race. I was worried about the fatigue. Theincident wth Sarah Tru was not encouraging. I have never liked the heat.
Training for IMSR 70.3
Let the ground crack and rocks crumble around you because that’s how something amazing grows, through the cracks.
Shashi's email
Race day:
Pre-Race preparations
Weeks prior to the race day, I had started preparing for a hot day. Got gels and
Printed routes from the athlete guide and went over them multiple times. I was worried about the heat and a wrong turn would mean I would have to run in the heat.
went over the bike course before race day. The over-thinking and nervousness had began to set in.
Mock bike ride at Santa Rosa wasn't an encouraging one. It broke my confidence in dealing with heat. Mixed emotions: Give up now and no one will care. Keep on pedalling and see this through. My back and knees were busted and sitting in the car ride back was somewhat painful.
Break it down to what worked and didn't work.
Didn't go well: Nutrition, neck and back started to pain, e-gel solution became hot and sugary, felt like hitting a wall on the way back, couldn't sustain a steady pace.
The only good things from the ride was that I didn't lose my way and I had mental motivation to push me through it.
Now for the heat. Don’t wipe yourself off completely after the swim, just your feet, so you can put on socks and shoes.
Heat training:
[11:56 AM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Dump ice in your top, in your cap and keep going.
[11:57 AM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: It will hurt you a bit but that is better than the heat.
[11:58 AM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Apply chamois cream very liberally. With all this water dumping on your head and body, it might chafe a bit.
[11:58 AM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Stay positive. You will be fine.
Monitor your HR, if it peaks. Slow down or walk. Just cos it didn’t happen during training or “it’s not your pace”, don’t push.
[12:02 PM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Put your feet up, relax. And keep asking yourself questions. 1) what should I do if it gets very hot? 2) what is my plan when HR goes high. Etc.
[12:02 PM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: The more your repeat the better you will remember.
[12:03 PM, 7/24/2019] Shashi Asha: Just like interview prep.
Reminded myself that it was a different day and it would all work out.
Mental revision of the course. I have a annoying habit of not remembering the routes. Got down to
2. Swim
3. Bike
4. Run
I tend to worry too much into the future and this disrupts my internal balance which results in me giving up on everything around me. This one line however, stuck to me and I kept thinking about how deep this line actually is.
We are self-centered and don't think about how others may be going through a worse condition than me. At the time, no one else's pain seems relevant to you and you'd want to get out of yours first.
I do things as a means to distract myself from me. I don't have a passion for it nor a compulsive need to be the best. But I am competitive and want to be able to do better than most. I aim higher so that I can reach or atleast try moving upwards towards it.
Problems:
- Visa not done
- Gaadi is broken
- Date nahi milegi
- No travel done
- Inching closer to 30
- career mein peeche
- Money for the house
-
Of the many things I could have done after my successful past year, I didn't expect sitting at home would be one of them.
-I was out of job and life seemed to be at standstill.
-kept up with my training mostly running
-did a play "A Widow of No Importance"
- Was I depressed? Agitated? or pretty relaxed?
- What do I want to convey? Life mein aur problems hai - Talk about other things that life teaches you
- Juggling work, theater and training
- No girlfriend
- Confused about priorities,
- Too hard on myself and yet a smile on my face
- Life took a 180 degree turn
- too much in our head to enjoy life and its challenges
Comments
Post a Comment