Heatwave pre-race thoughts

As I get ready for what used to be "the race" for me only a few years ago, I think back a little from then to now.

* Back then, I just wanted to finish. Now I want to place. Funny thing is, as my
age group gets older, my age group gets harder!!!!!! I mean, what the heck??!!! I
thought as I aged, it might get easier because I wasn't as much of a "spring
chicken" as I used to be. Not the case. Sad but true.

* Crazy thing is, I have improved EVERY year on the swim, bike, and run. Sad thing
is, I seem to be dropping lower and lower on the age group rankings because of the
first reason!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr..................

* My mind never ceases to wonder if there is actually an alligator right below my
body at any given moment, ready to chomp me up if I get near the back of the pack.
Could it be all the stories or actual photos I have seen of alligators near the
very spot where I swim? I'm not sure, but I am kicking my booty off as fast as I
can tomorrow............I ain't stickin' around out there by myself to be live
bait for the hungry guy awaitin' :)

* Must the women always be stuck in the last wave? Why does my husband get to be #69
this year, while I am stuck with #368? How am I supposed to hawk him down on the
run with that much of a head start????!!!! NO FAIR, I'm tellin' ya!!!!!!!!!

* I always seem to forget how bad that 6 mile trail run hurts until I am actually
face to face with it. "It's not THAT bad," I tell myself. "It's not THAT hot. I'll
be fine. I won't fade. I'm tougher this year." Oooooohhhhh, the things we tell our
minds to shut them off :)

* The draft-fest seems to get worse and worse every year. Women that normally don't
beat me, or might outbike me by a bit, seem to ALWAYS somehow overcome me at this
race. Wonder how that happens EVERY year?? Hmmmmm.......I'll keep my thoughts to
myself.........or you could just ask my husband........if you have an hour or 7 to
hear his rant ;) LOL!!!

* 96% humidity should make for some interesting asthma-like, snorting-sound huffs
coming out of my mouth. If I pass your or you pass me, please excuse the noises
being forced out of my mouth. Do not fear. I am not dying. Proceed to the finish
line. I will arrive shortly thereafter in one piece.

* The cool shades I wear are placed over my eyes for 2 reasons.
1) To block the sun.
2) (and the most important reason) To disguise the pain-stricken look I am making
because I am ready to be done with that 6 mile trail run.

* Am I the only one that cusses going up that horrendously short, but steep hill one
mile from the finish line? I mean, Gahhh... did they really have to put that hill
there? And speaking of hills, what about the little incline at the finish line?
I really don't recommend your finish-line photo to be taken coming up the incline
finish!!! :) NOT a pretty face this gal is makin' !!!!

Let's take a stroll down Heatwave memory lane, shall we??

Heatwave '07

Heatwave '08

Heatwave '09 (the making of Mississippi Heat triathlon team year ;)


Well, that's about all I've got right now. My transition bags are packed and ready to go. All that's left to do is race. This will be the first time we have "trained right through a race." Ironman Canada training may break us this year, but we will have to wait until tomorrow to find out. The good news is that our performance can't
be worse than Memphis in May........or can it???? :)

Post-Heatwave party anyone? :)

Memphis in May race report

"Think we should sit this one out dear? Yeah, probably so." :)



So, let's rewind from race day back to the entire week b/f Memphis in May, shall we? Our triathlon team puts on a yearly beginner-friendly triathlon called Soak up The Sun. Bill was our race director for the year. He did a great job getting everything planned out and ready to roll this year---so far, so good on lack of complaints this year. The only caveat is that Bill was out of town on vacation the entire week and didn't get back home until late Friday evening. We took over for him last week and got everything all sorted out. I will never understimate staying on your feet for an entire day again. Seriously, my legs and feet ached so bad Friday evening and Saturday evening, it felt like I had completed speedwork type training days. Only I hadn't. Packet pick up lasted from 3pm-7pm. I stayed there the entire time helping out, then bought pizza for all the volunteers. By the time we got home, finished loading the car for our Memphis trip and loading the car with tons of cases of water, cookies, food, and sodas, etc, for the race, we only got about 2 hours of sleep. We were up by 3:30am to drive to Reunion Lake to get things ready to go for the morning. The race went smoothly overall, thank goodness! It's always so rewarding to see all of the planning finally coming together. Even more so, there's nothing more rewarding than seeing a beginner triathlete complete their very first triathlon. SUTS was Matt and myself's first triathlon, so it's extra special to us to be able to put this on every year ;) Anyway, we ended up getting things cleaned up and heading to Memphis around 1pm.

Getting ready to announce door prizes and overall awards Talking Josh, Jackson Metro Cyclists president, into Soak up the Sun 2011 ;)


The crazy thing is, if you have to forgo packet pick-up when you get into town, in order to go to the hotel first and take a nap because you are too exhausted to pick up your packet, maybe you should forgo the whole race? Hmmm............that would have been the wise thing to do, wouldn't it?

So, Friday evening after we ate dinner with some friends and picked up our packets, we got things ready in the hotel room and got to bed.
Only problem is, I was complaining to Matt that my legs were throbbing just laying in the bed---like I had raced or been through a long day of training. Not good. Not good at all. I put on my compression socks and elevated them in the bed. I told myself maybe I should listen to my body. The week of Soak up the Sun had really worn me down, obviously. I just couldn't justify paying the expensive entry fee, driving all the way to Memphis, and not racing the one race in the area that we had never done.

Fast forward to race morning: Alarm went off at 4am. We laid in the bed contemplating whether we would race or not. I decided I could quit at any time if things got really bad. I needed the training at least. I was supposed to train for the weekend anyway. This is the first race where I didn't experience that adrenaline feeling like I always do. I just wasn't in it........physically or mentally. When the mental part of my race strategy goes, it's all over for me.

The Swim: This is the first true olympic distance that I have done. I have been
having issues with my wetsuit making me feel a little too restricted and
claustrophobic. I decided I would go for it anyway. I actually had a
pretty good swim, for me anyway. It was a little tricky getting my own
wetsuit off---there were no peelers. This made T1 extra long for me.
I am not a swimmer and will never be anything close to a good swimmer but I am learning to accept that. Ithink the fact that I wasn't mentally caring how I did on the swim actually helped me have a good swim this time. I was pleased.
Time: 25:00

The Bike: The sad part about the bike for me was that when I saw the 5 mile marker
sign, I felt like I had already ridden 20 miles. How sad is that? My legs
were like bricks. So heavy and just worn-out. I decided I would try to
push to at least break 20mph. It was just such a letdown for me. I've been
training so hard and put in lots more volume than last season. I kept
telling myself, "You KNEW coming into this race to not have expectations.
You shouldn't even be racing today." It was so bad that I was actually
secretly wishing that I would have a flat. Sad, sad, sad. I debated on
the bike if I should just skip the run. I talked myself out of that. I
rationlized with myself that our coach had prescribed a brick anyway that
day----I might as well stick to the plan at least.
Bike: 20.5 mph

Run: This is where I was most disheartened: The run is where I gain ground. No
matter how bad of a swimmer, or how much ground I still lack on catching
up on the phenomenal cyclists, I can usually get them back on the run. This
is always my time to come back and pass lots of people. I was walking by
mile 1 :( Now, I know the heat could have been part of the factor. It was
92 degrees and not much shade. The first mile was uphill. There was a water
stop right b/f my watch beeped for the first mile. I stopped here, poured
water over my head, and walked. First Mile: 7:32----with a walk. Not bad.
Only, I was trained to hold around 7:00 miles, on a good day. I made it to
mile 2. Mental games were floating in my head again............"just quit
at mile 2. Walk back to bike transition and call it a day. What are you
gaining at this point?", my mind was saying. Nope. Can't do it. Not yet.
By mile 2, my feet were getting extremely blistered. I never wear socks
on smaller size triathlons and I have never gotten blisters. For the first
time in a tri, I decided to wear my Nike Lunar racer training flats. Never
blistered me before. Oh but, buddy, they were KILLING my feet.
Slaughtering them.

7 blisters from a 6.2 mile run!!!
I walked after every hill. I walked at every water
stop. I walked around 10 times? I ran a pace for 6 miles that I don't even
have trouble holding on a marathon. Yeah, I know. Cry me a river :) I am
crying in my Cheerios............It was a bad experience for me. I have
NEVER walked a triathlon run. Never. There's a first time for everything.
Run: 8:03 pace

Now, please don't get me wrong. I am not saying these are horrible times. These are just not the times I was trained to race. Every athlete has their own goals, so I by no means wish to downplay another's times by showing my own. I am simply saying that I should have done better, rating myself from what I am trained to do.

By the time I crossed the finish line, Matt was waiting for me and wanted to cool off in the lake where we swam. I took my shoes off and walked over. Caught cramps in my feet trying to take my shoes off. Rarely get cramps. Had to walk it off for a bit. Tried to get in the lake-----screamed out b/c the blisters burned so bad when i got in the water. We talked about our race. Matt had a bad race as well. I said, "we should have listened to our bodies. What did we expect them to do when we were this exhausted?". He agreed. So, we loaded up on Memphis BBQ and other foods, sat on the grass, and enjoyed talking to others on our team.


We left shortly after the race, and decided to head back home. We unpacked and decided to grab some sushi/hibachi for dinner. Here's the bottom line to a horrible weekend:

We shouldn't get so upset over a race. We should just be happy to complete triathlons. Period. Our bodies weren't meant to do well this weekend. We both knew that going into this race. It's just the fact that we've both been training SO hard. When triathlon and Ironman training takes away so much of your life, you at least want the satisfaction of knowing that you are improving and you can justify that your time spent training is worth it.

We need and must keep our eye on the prize, and that's Ironman Canada. It's not the local races that seem so important at the time. It's the one day in Canada that we should focus on. Because when we look back at this small part of the big picture of our life, Memphis in May triathlon 2010 will barely be remembered, if remembered at all. There is so much more to life. We have to keep our priorities straight, and even though this race wasn't good, it's nothing compared to what else life offers us. We need to step back for a moment and breathe. We need to remember......this started out as a hobby. This started out as 2 beginners struggling and barely making it through a 500 meter swim in a pool----it was called Soak up the Sun Triathlon 2005:) I still remember that feeling of accomplishment. That race was for me. It was a competition with myself, no one else. That is the healthy way and thinking to triathlons. We have gone from SUTS 2005 to 3 1/2 Iromans, too many to count short-distance triathlons, 8 marathons, and 1 Ironman Florida, to Ironman Canada 2010 in just a few more months. Thank you God for allowing us to be healthy enough to do ALL of these extraordinary activities. We are blessed and need to not take THAT for granted. Triathlon DOES NOT define me. It's just a small part of who I am. How do I sometimes forget that?

If I make it till Sunday.......

..............I can finally come up for air and breathe!!!!!!!

Wow!! What a crazy busy 2 weeks it has been! Soak Up the Sun is dominating my life lately. If I can make it all in one piece until race day, things don't go too crazy, and hop in the car on our way to Memphis, we will be all ok ;) We will most likely be up till after midnight getting everything and everyone sorted out for race planning. Then, we will be up again by 3 am Saturday morning. Our plan is to leave shortly after the awards ceremony, and have our car loaded and ready to head to Memphis, to Memphis in May triathlon. This will be our first, so we're excited!!!!! The only negative aspect is that we might be too exhausted to enjoy the rest of the weekend!!!!

Say a prayer that I am all together in one piece and this race turns out to be a success like last year...........we are hoping for around 400+ racers again this year...............it's all finally coming together ;)

Out of "Bounds"

Matt and I had it cut out for us this morning. Yep. Hill Bounds.

* Quite intense
* Must do more often
* Don't really enjoy the feeling of almost vomiting every time I reach the top of the hill
* Definitely must do more often
* As for reasoning, because I really don't feel like vomiting at 5am while running

As you can see, I can't seem to come up with complete sentences this morning. I think the hill bounds beat my body up a little.........possibly all the way up to my brain? ;)

For the past couple months, Matt and I have been doing hill repeats, which is what we THOUGHT our coach prescribed us. Upon looking at the plan a little closer earlier in the week, Matt picked up on the fact that our coach actually prescribed hill "bounds", not repeats. Oh yes, there IS a difference ;) So, this morning we attempted to do what we were assigned to do all along.


So, here's a little dialouge from the morning:

5 AM---

1st Hill Bound---------
Matt: Maybe these aren't quite as bad as repeats---they're hard, but in a
different kind of way.
Amanda: (thinking to myself) Yeah, these aren't going to be as hard---SCORE!!!

2nd Hill Bound---------
Matt: Hmmmm.........that seemed to feel a little longer than the 1st.
Amanda: Yeah, I kept waiting for you to say, "ok, stop." It took forever.

3rd Hill Bound--------
Matt: Ok, these are worse.
Amanda: (wooo wwoooooo wwwooooo wooooooo---breathing like I'm dying)
Yeah, these are worse.

4th Hill Bound--------
Matt: Holy Mother, I think I am going to hurl.
Amanda: (gagging) Ugh. This is awful. I don't know how many more I can do.

Then we carry on with a conversation as we run down the hill. We discuss how Matt thinks he should hurl instead of me, because it would be much more impressive since he ate a larger breakfast. Ooooohhhhhhh, the conversations that 2 married triathletes carry on at dark o'thirty in the morning.................impressive, huh? I know you're jealous ;)

Repeat dialouge from 4th hill bound x 2.


Now, let's complete this day with a recovery bike with Tabata intervals. Wonder how we shall sleep tonight??

Recovery week.................................where AREEEEEEEEEEE You???????????

Nobody told me before........

This is a blog entry I copied from another triathlete-----It seems to sum things up pretty well ;)


There are a lot of things that nobody told me would happen to me before I started doing triathlons. A lot of strange side effects that maybe needed some forewarning aside from the obvious like, "your aerobic capacity will increase and your resting heart rate will go down." No, these are some sneaky little things that you might never even think of, and although all of them won't happen to every triathlete, I am pretty sure that they will happen to most who take up the sport after a lifetime as a non-triathlete.

-Food will become infinitely more important to you than it ever was before, and in several aspects. You will constantly think about what you are eating and if it is the best fuel for your workout. You will suddenly start caring about carb/protein ratios. You will be a whole lot hungrier, and it is the kind of hunger that most normal people do not understand. So if you are on a long car ride with several non-athletes and you tell them you are hungry, there is no way they can possibly understand the urgency of the situation.

-You will find yourself using an awful lot of porta-potties, whether they be at races or on a pitstop in the middle of a run or bike workout. It will become so normal to you that you will forget that most normal adults do not have occasion to use them very often, and they will likely look at you like you have 3 eyes if you should suggest they use one.

-You will suddenly have no problem discussing bodily functions around others. Normal people won't usually offer up a story about nearly crapping their pants in casual conversation, but for a triathlete it just becomes a story that we can all laugh at, and most of us, unfortunately, can relate to.

-Along the same lines it will suddenly seem perfectly acceptable to pee yourself when covered head to toe in a neoprene suit. Normal people aren't really into that kind of thing, but we just call it "warming up" *I will say though that I have met one triathlete who still chooses not to do this, but that is only one and the rest will happily admit it.

-Your time between laundry loads will shrink considerably as the dirty clothes will pile up faster than you can imagine. This is especially true in winter with all of those extra layers.

-You will start to plan vacations around races and with most social events that come up you will immediately wonder, "how will that conflict with my training schedule?"

-There's a good chance you are going to start getting up just as early on weekends as you do on weekdays so that you can get your workouts in.

-You will lose your ability to stay up late at night. And by late I mean 10, or in my case, 9.

-Suddenly a 7-day week will run Monday-Sunday and not Sunday-Saturday as the calendar might suggest.

-You will probably master changing clothes in your car without anyone noticing.

-It will suddenly feel perfectly natural to walk around in stretchy shorts.

-Several times a week you are going to smell chlorine in your nostrils all day long. This of course is dependent upon you actually doing your swim training.

-You are going to have to take a lot more showers. Or at least I hope you will.

-It won't seem weird to do a workout in the morning and then still have to do another workout when you leave your job at the end of the day. To a lot of people that is compulsive exercising. To us it is just training.

Careful, it might happen to you, too. :)

One Word.

Last Sunday, Matt and I were listening to Chip preach at Pinelake. This series of sermons has been related to heaven. During part of the sermon, Chip asked us to think of one word that would describe how we feel right now. He said he imagined that most people's word would be 'tired'. I will admit, at that moment, he was right. I WAS tired. I AM tired quite a bit lately----most busy month ever at work, triathlon season at its peak (which means mass emails from MS Heat members every day to answer ;), training, training, and more training, etc.

Matt looked at me during church and said, "Hmmmm.......if I had to pick one, it would be 'content'." I sat there for a moment, and I couldn't help but smile inside. What better word to describe how you feel but content? It sure made me feel good ;) I know I am not a perfect wife by any means, but being married means taking the good with the bad. He sure loves me, through my happy times, as well as my horrendous, PMS-stricken moody and devilish times!!!!

And although my word for the day might have initially been 'tired', if I had to pick a word for my life right now, it would be 'blessed'. I am totally, 100% blessed. I deserve nothing that God has given me, yet he has showered me with a wonderful, attentive husband, a beautiful family and friends, perfect health and fitness to partake in Ironman triathlons, and a wonderful job in which I can help others first-hand. I couldn't ask for more. Often, I just stop in the middle of the day and pray quietly, "thank you God. Thank you SO much for all you have given me." For I am BLESSED, indeed ;)

Mental Toughness

Mental toughness: Let's just say we finely sharpened ours this past weekend. Friday evening, they were predicting tornado-type weather for the entire weekend. We were due a long ride and run, as usual. Saturday morning, we woke up with plans to either drive to Vicksburg to get some hill work in for preparation for Canada, or ride with some friends in Madison.

Yeah. Neither one of those quite happened. Matt woke up early to check out the weather radar. It looked like it was heading straight for us, so we didn't want to chance being out on our bikes for that long period of time. We really didn't have any other plans for the weekend, so I guess no better weekend to have to stay inside.

Here's where the mental toughness comes in: 3 hours 30 minutes on the trainer, followed by a 4 mile brick run. Now, it really doesn't sound THAT bad when you put it into writing, UNLESS you regulary ride a trainer. 1 hour is doable, although not fun. 2 hours is not only not fun, but starts bordering on dreadful. It's where you hit that 3 hours and beyond point where the fun REALLY starts. (sarcastically put, of course ;) We decided to take a mini 5 minute break after each hour. That, combined with non-stop Lost episodes on Netflix made it bearable. The thing that made us want to pull our hair out, though, was the fact that when we got finished, the weather ended up turning out ok. We rode the trainers for that period of time, when we might could have ridden outside:(

Saturday, we also tracked our 4 friends from Mississippi competing in Ironman St. George. It was fun seeing them progress throughout the day!!! We got to watch them all cross the finish line live on ironman.com

Today, however, was another test for mental sharpness, I suppose. Plans were to wake up at 5:30am, hop on the bike trainer (oh,how I missed it SO much!! ;) for 1 1/2 hours, then a long run.

Newsflash once again: that didn't happen. We woke up to see it lightning outside our bedroom window, and could hear the rain pounding down on the rooftop. The bonus was at least that we got to sleep till 8am. Up we went: hopped on the bike trainer to get that over with for the day. We would miss our brick, but did what we could.

Once we got off the trainer, we could see the sun shining. Perfect!!! It's like this was some type of cruel mother-nature joke on the Cassell's !!!!! Ughhh. We couldn't miss church for a long run, that's not even a question, so we decided we would eat a big breakfast, go to church, then come straight home, throw on some running clothes, and get out the door to get that long run complete.

Hello HUMIDITY!!!! If today is any indication of how hot this summer is going to be, we are in for a rude awakening. "Mental toughness", we told ourselves. "Ironman Canada is going to be hotter than IM Florida was, so we need this." (at least we told ourselves that to tolerate the run.) It was 90 degrees with 89% humidity (which we didn't find out until AFTER our long run, once we were severely dehydrated and felt like death warmed-over ;) Never underestimate what hill intervals done on the trainer the day before a long run will do to your leg power!!

It was a LONG, mentally long, run for sure. We aren't used to this heat already, and our bodies showed it. I really don't feel like doing anything the rest of the day, except lay around. (which I most likely will do :)

In the end, though, even though this REALLY was a mentally tough weekend for us, we do realize it will make us stronger. The mental battle of this thing called Ironman really does matter. When you are out on the course for that long period of time, if you don't have mental strength up top, I don't think you'll make it. We have 4 months left to sharpen it up.

With that note, I am going to hibernate on the couch for a bit. My toughness has been sharpened for the day. :)