Practicing for Race day

Today I did a short brick workout. It included a two hour negative split bike ride, followed by a 33 minute run. Lately, in preparation for Rev 3 Tri, I try to find the worst hilliest bike routes, but today I only went for moderately hilly, as I am in taper mode! Rode 33 miles at 17.7 mph, 133 avg hr. For the run, I did a hard pace for 15 minutes to get “fast feet off the bike” feeling. First mile was pace of 8. I feel good about that! Then I eased up pace and tried to simulate HIM race pace. I felt strong! Overall pace of 9:37 for this hilly, albeit short, run. I feel ready to race!

I practiced T1 and T2 and a few other ideas I had. I took a bunch of pictures with my new Nikon Coolpix SS220 digital camera. I got it for Mother’s day… I had asked for something cheap and small to take on bike rides with me. It’s really too nice to take on bike rides! But it’s takes great pictures, and is very compact, so I can take it lots of places – including to Rev 3 Tri! I will be posting lots of photos next weekend!

Here are the pictures from my workout today, with captions explaining them.

I came up with an idea how to put on Chamois Butt’r for my half iron race. I can probably HTFU without it. But I tried this idea today just for the heck of it, and it was very easy. Here’s how I did it…

My daughter bought a temporary tatoo. Isn’t it cute?

I used the plastic bubble lid from that temporary tattoo container.

I filled it with a blob of Chamois Butt’r and taped it to my aero bottle using white fabric medical tape.

Here is the same thing from another view. While riding, I globbed the Chamois Butt’r into my fingers. I made a fist to protect the glob. Then I stood up on the pedals, and put my fist down my tri shorts. Then I opened up my fist and applied the glob to the correct area of my butt that needs protection. It was really quite easy. It helped that I was coasting down a slight incline while doing this. So, you’d have to time this maneuver just right.

It poured buckets last night here in Chapel Hill, making my backyard all muddy. I did not want to run across the yard in my tri shoes and get the cleats clogged with mud. Lots of folks at races hop onto their bikes barefoot, with their shoes already clipped into the pedals. Then they slip their feet into the shoes while riding. I tried this idea a long time ago and came to the conclusion that I am just not cool coordinated enough for that. Same conclusion today. hahaha. No pictures of that epic fail!

A friend gave me the idea to put duct tape on the cleats to keep mud from clogging them up. (Muddy cleats can be hard to clip in.) You have to tear off the tape off the cleats while riding, before clipping your shoes in. I tried that idea today. Here is a picture of getting the tape prepped. I folded one side onto itself for easy grabbing later on.

Next picture is the tape is on the shoe. It was hard getting the tape OFF the shoe while riding. I had trouble reaching it, and tried different strategies. The best way seemed to be to put my right arm thru the frame of the bike to pull the tape off the left shoe. And vice versa. If that makes sense. Will have to practice this more. Or maybe just not worry about mud in my cleats? I’ve done muddy races before and mud hasn’t ever kept me from being able to clip in. Anyway, it was a fun exercise!

I get blisters on my toes alot from running, so I always rub some lube on them. As long as I lube my toes, all is well. My favorite lube is Mission Anti Friction creme. I’m afraid if I skip the lube at Rev 3 Tri, I will be in pain for the last part of the run, and it will slow me down. So, I came up with this idea to put lube on the inside of my sock. Then I turned the sock right-side out, very carefully so as not to disturb the lube.

I also sprinkled some baby power into the sock. That helps the sock slide on quickly. Here is all my gear laid out for my brick. The socks (with lube on the inside of them) are laid inside my running shoes. (I rode the bike sockless.) This idea worked great. My foot slipped into the sock quick and easy. When I was all done with my workout, I rubbed my toes. They felt slippery from the lube. So, the lube smeared around my toes nicely.

Gosh, this was supposed to be a quick blog of just pictures. Sorry if I talk too much. Like Wendy.