Hey everyone, I hope you enjoy this recap of Tracey's training and Half Iron Race. I'm amazed by her and thought you too would enjoy her story. So.. ENJOY!
A Half Ironman distance race. Where do I begin? I guess with why I wanted to do this, because that is a question many people have asked me. I have been doing sprint tris since 1999. I did about one a year until last year when I tried an olympic distance tri (.93 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). I enjoyed the distance and felt I had more in me when I was done.
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| After the Olympic Dam Tri (Olympic Distance) |
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| After the Austin Marathon |
I then signed up for the Rev3 Half Ironman distance tri at Cedar Point. I picked this race because I had read really great things about Rev3 races (and that the course is flat!).
Before I get into race day, I need to talk about my training. I think that the training is way more important than the race itself. You can show up at a race, finish it and possibly finish it well without training very hard. I feel that if I donʼt give my training 100%, then I cheated myself and I should not even attempt the race. So, starting in May, I began the four month training. I followed a plan I found online called, “Super Simple Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Training Program”. It was super simple to follow, but not super simple to do! These are my numbers:
Running Biking Swimming Other (mostly CrossFit)
May 70 miles 178 miles 6 miles 11 hours
June 60 miles 297 miles 9 miles 7 hours
July 64 miles 202 miles 6 miles 5.5 hours
Aug 98 miles 179 miles 6 miles 3 hours
Sept 6 miles 27 miles 1 mile
In total, I trained for 159 hours and covered 1209 miles (which does not count miles on my bike trainer since I donʼt have a computer on it.) When I look back, I am not sure how I did it. Having my three kids at home for the summer made it hard, but having a very, very supportive husband made things a lot easier for me. I got in a lot of early morning rides and runs on the weekends. During the week, I would go to CrossFit at 5:30 am and then I would get on the treadmill or bike trainer at 10 pm. I took my kids to the Y twice a week so I could swim for 50 minutes. (There was some grumbling from the older ones, but I think now they understand.)
I also ran the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May,
rode the MS150 ride in June,
and completed the Dam Tri Olympic distance in June and the Butler Y Sprint Tri in July.
I also ran the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May,
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| Me, Charlene and Susan at the Pittsburgh Half Marathon |
rode the MS150 ride in June,
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| Nate and I at MS 150 |
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| Me and Susan at the MS 150 |
and completed the Dam Tri Olympic distance in June and the Butler Y Sprint Tri in July.
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| Me and my friend Tracey at the Butler Y Sprint Tri |
I had a lot of friends keep me company on my rides and runs: Susan, Charlene, Heather, Tracey, Christi, Holly, and Katie.
Having friends to join me really made the training a lot more enjoyable and I thank every one of you for changing your schedules around to be able to keep me company.
I think I trained really well for this race, so I felt prepared going into it. My biggest fear was something happening to my bike, so the week before I practiced changing a flat many times. Luckily, my bike held up great.
So, with four months worth of training behind me, my husband and kids and I drove to Cedar Point on Saturday afternoon. I was pretty nervous as I headed to the expo. It was very, very organized and I went down the line checking in, getting my chip, and picking up my race packet. I also had to drop off my bike since the bikes had to stay in the transition area overnight. At 4:00 pm there was a pre race meeting where I learned a lot of valuable information, including that the swim might have to be changed. That added a bit of stress because I would have to wait until the next morning to find out. So, I left the expo feeling a bit anxious, headed back to the hotel and met up with Susan and Charlene, who, being the awesome friends that they are, drove three hours to support me in my race. We went out dinner, Susan applied my race tattoos, and I tried to get some sleep.
Now for race day.
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| Christi and I after a 27 mile ride |
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| Katie and I in Toronto before a 12 mile run |
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| Me and Holly after a 60 mile ride |
Having friends to join me really made the training a lot more enjoyable and I thank every one of you for changing your schedules around to be able to keep me company.
I think I trained really well for this race, so I felt prepared going into it. My biggest fear was something happening to my bike, so the week before I practiced changing a flat many times. Luckily, my bike held up great.
So, with four months worth of training behind me, my husband and kids and I drove to Cedar Point on Saturday afternoon. I was pretty nervous as I headed to the expo. It was very, very organized and I went down the line checking in, getting my chip, and picking up my race packet. I also had to drop off my bike since the bikes had to stay in the transition area overnight. At 4:00 pm there was a pre race meeting where I learned a lot of valuable information, including that the swim might have to be changed. That added a bit of stress because I would have to wait until the next morning to find out. So, I left the expo feeling a bit anxious, headed back to the hotel and met up with Susan and Charlene, who, being the awesome friends that they are, drove three hours to support me in my race. We went out dinner, Susan applied my race tattoos, and I tried to get some sleep.
Now for race day.
To be continued...
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