Final Days leading up to IMAZ

[Cindybigglestone]

I'm now four days away from racing Ironman Arizona and my coach has suggested I start writing down my thoughts and what is happening as I approach my "A" race. I decided to share this with you all, I will try and get on line to update this while in Tempe.

Its been just over a week with no caffine! The reason for this is so I can reep the benefits of my favorite drink on race day. The first few days were tolerable no head aches or major changes other then getting out of bed much slower knowing I'm heading to the kitchen for "Tea" Giving up Coffee is something I've done in previous races and I highly recommend it for all you coffee drinkers.

As many of you know I have been suffering from Chronic knee pain. Seeing Don once a week for the last three months (the Massage therapist at EMC) has made the pain lessen and givin me the ability to run again. For the first time in my ironman training I have been running four times a week. I hope this will help on Sunday.

My bike training has gone well although I should of gone outside a few more times but the training I got on the Compu-trainer has made me feeling stronger then ever before.

My swim training has been perfect with the help of Ben my (and many of your) swim coach. I've been told I give him more shit then anyone else in the pool and to stop back talking. Sorry Ben but I've been back talking to the teacher since I was in preschool, I dont think I can stop :D Thank you to everyone that goes to Swim 4 Tri and making me work so much harder then I would on my own I hope I will show the improvement you all have helped me gain. And thank you Ben for putting up with me and not trying to kick me out of the pool more then once :rolleyes: You are the best swim coach and I'm thankful you put up with all of us!

My bike is packed and in Tempe with Ben, it was amazingly nice of him to fly down with it so I didnt have to. I'm about to leave work to finish packing and take the dogs out for thier long goodbye walk. Fly our tomorrow afternoon.

Current weather predictions for Sunday, mostly sunny and high of 93 degrees. Bring on the heat!!!

[MikePritch]

Cindy, have fun and a great race. All will be pulling for you.

Regarding Semena, please continue all means necessary to callout questionable sendoff times, w/o sets, etc... The silent glares are my favorite.

;)

[benbiggles]

It will take a stronger glare than Cindy's to make me submit to longer send off times Mike, you know how I enjoy pushing you guys to your limit and back again.

Cindy, you have done everything you can given time constraints and other factors. I have never known you run so well and I mean it when I say I can't go out and run easy with you anymore, you are just to fast.

Also for those of you who think IM training is all 5 hour bike rides and long brick workouts think again. The VO2 protocol is intense but generally minimal in volume. My IM PR (my first IM) was done on a volume of under twelve hours a week with less than 20 miles running a week. Cindy's PR (and 2nd Kona slot) was achieved with similar minimal volume.

The beauty of minimal volume, well let's just say I did my first tri in 1989 and am still as excited about it now as I was back then (and injury free for the most part).

Good luck Cindy, can't wait to see you tomorrow.

[BryanU]

Kick some arse, Cindy!

[andrew]

Good luck Cindy - seeing how strong you were training in Tucson you'll have a great time.
and if its 93 deg, you should have a nice tan too :)

[max]

Go Cindy!! We will all be cheering for you from rainy Seattle :)

[Heidi]

Good luck Cindy! I can't wait to hear all about it. I am feeling so lame here in Hawaii reading about all of the training and racing going on elsewhere. Well, actually, I'm not.:D We're having a good time and I've managed a few workouts. So far no swimming besides snorkling, so I'm sure I will be suffering on Tuesday at S4T. See you soon and go FAST!

[max]

Boy Heidi - do you really have nothing better to do in Hawaii than read SVTT posts :confused:

[Tomgru]

Cindy... you'll do great. Just quick smiling during the race so darn much and focus on running faster. if you are smiling, you must not be running hard enough. (although... you were smiling when you passed me last year at IMC... so i'll just shut up now).

Have a GREAT race.

[Cindybigglestone]

Thanks for all the well wishing! I'll really need it on this one. I arrived in Tempe yesterday, Ben picked me up and we went strait to the Retail tent at the expo to finish setting up the TYR product. While Ben was working I sat outside in the sunshine and yes WIND! It seems to be a bit windy here this time of year but yes I already knew that, so it is what it is and I've decided this is the last time I talk about the wind or 98 degree temps were supposed to get on Sunday.

Were staying about 4 miles outside of Tempe at the Residence Inn which is perfect with a full kitchen and free Breakfast. What can I say I'm not that high maintenance. Ben turned off the AC for me at the hotel and is suffering through it I think he's looking forward to Sunday night more then me when we'll turn it back on.

Todays plan is to get a massage (I have someone coming to the hotel)
Build bike
Packet pick up
Swim 20 minutes and decide if I go with a long sleeve wetsuit or sleeveless.
I've had a lot of shoulder issues and the long sleeve suit can hinder my stroke but if the water is cold I'll happily pay the price.
lastly get on the bike and ride for about and hour. Maybe I can find TJ Tolakson to ride with me we rode up Mt. Lemon together and all :D we have it on video!

Overall I feel good, still no coffee but I did have a few classes of wine last night with all the TYR folks, they were buying so I couldn't pass it up ;)

Sounds like the weather in Seattle in nice I hope everyone enjoys the sunshine!

[Kara]

Good luck Cindy! You will do awesome.
Just think of all of the fans we run during computrainer workouts and you will be well-prepared for the wind during the race:)
Have fun!!!

[Cindybigglestone]

My final report before race day,

Thursday - built up my bike and went for a hour ride, after I got a massage from "William" who also works on Heather Golnick. He was very helpfull with my shoulder and knee problems, I feel Fantastic!

Friday - went for a short swim yesterday and got smacked right in the face! at least thats out of the way! I thought I had a bloody nose/face but couldn't tell because the water was chilly and my face was a little numb. Anyway I wasn't all that hurt just stunned. It is hands down the worst organized swim I've ever been through everyone goes out the same direction and comes back in the same direction. There are buoys put out down the middle of the lake and your told to stay to the right of them. Apparently people don't know how to circle.

-Got another Massage from "William" to anyone doing CDA he'll be there and I have his number ;)

Saturday/Today - Got back in the water and it was even more chaotic so decided to cut it short and swim 15 minutes not a great workout when you have to site every three strokes to make sure no one is going to run into you. Did I mention the water is murky and you cant see your hand as it goes into the water? At least tomorrow we'll all be going the same direction.

All my things are in Transition and I have the entire day to put my feet up and relax, Ben is cooking dinner tonight so we might go out to Oregano's a nice Italian place down the street.:D

While online looking at stats, we found out the race is about 78% male and 22% female, wonder whats going on with that? It gives the men the majority of the Kona spots :mad: Oh well cant dwell on that to much, I need to just go out there and get it done in the fastest way possible! May even pull out some back stroke!

That all to familiar nervous/excited feeling has set in and I look forward to the start. Each race for me will always feel the same I don't think you ever get used to the feeling before the gun goes off or the amazing feeling of crossing that finish line.

I hope everyone competing tomorrow has a safe race. No matter what the day brings or how much agony I may be in I will always have a smile on my face! If it doesn't make me smile its just not worth doing :)

I'm late for my movie...Cheers!

[Steveq]

Congratulations Cindy - just seen you cross the line looking great - what a race !!!!

[Mary]

Congratulations on a great day Cindy. Looks like it was hot and windy, you finished with a great time. 6th in your age group. My fingers are crossed for Kona.

Mary

[benbiggles]

Wow, what a day, 95 degrees and winds gusting to 25pmh. Cindy has had an amazing day despite the conditions, PR'ed her run, had a solid swim and held tough during the bike in what were very challenging conditions.

6th in her AG is truly awesome and I know for sure one of thise girls (Rachel Ross) already has a Kona slot as she won her AG in Kona last year, so yes, fingers crossed for that 3rd go on the Big Island. It will be tough due to so few women as an overall % racing (22%) meaning 3 slots in her AG. She only needs it to roll down two spots if there!!! I will try and update you tomorrow.

Oh and Cindy says 'Ouch' :)

Thank you everyone for following Cindy's progress, it meant a lot to her knowing that team mates were routing for her, especially during the tough times of which there were many today.

I am so proud of my wife and impressed with her resilience and ability to put up with me coaching her.

[catrenajs@yahoo.com]

Way to go Cindy. You are my inspiration!

[JenHuffmanSwift]

We checked in on you while out running the Mt. Si Relay today. Team Synergy was out in force today!

Awesome work. Can't wait to hear all the deets.

[Heidi]

Congratulations Cindy, sounds like you had an amazing race!

[andrew]

Great race Cindy, 6th in your AG is fantastic - i couldnt believe yr run time : 4.01 in 93 deg! Thats good even if you havent swum and ridden yet ;)

[Ryan]

Great Race Cindy, I echo Andrew's comments of running a 4 hr marathon, that is fantastic. Now if you could just find a good swim coach:)

[benbiggles]

Thanks Ryan, but don't forget I am Cindy's run and bike coach too ;)

[Cindybigglestone]

First I would like to say thank you for all of your support it means the world to me and helped out many times as I passed through some difficult parts of the day. This Ironman will go down in my books as one of the toughist to get through. I compare it to IM Malaysia in 2004 as far as difficulty in the heat but at least Malaysia didn't have 25mph winds.

The day started at 3:45 am with a hot cup of fully loaded coffee YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA finally, it was great! I ate 1/2 a bagel with cream cheese hopped in the shower and Ben started handing me gels while in there convinced I needed to eat more. So my volunteer support of the day started :eek:

Got to transition at 5:15 am pumped up my tires, got body marked and filled my Transition bags with last minute goodies. Found a quiet spot to sit and relax before I needed to get the wetsuit on.

Swim - Firstly I would like to remind some of you how difficult it is to start your first open water swim in April with a 2.4 mile open water event. Ben is the best swim coach this town has, and he has worked wonders on my swim. I guess what I need is just more hard open water experience before an event of this magnitude.

I started to the far right of the swim start and when the gun went off it was an instant whirlpool of arms and legs. This was the most crowded swim start I've ever been through maybe due to the cement wall we were up against. I managed to stay with the crowd for what felt like forever until it finally spread out. I was surprised at how quickly the swim went by, at the finish I felt like I could continue swimming, I was also surprised at my time after feeling this way but happy to have some energy for the rest of the day.

T1 - Went smoothly did my transition outside of the tent grabbed my bike and got out of there. Later I will see this transition was way to long and cost me unnessesary time.

Bike - As I started out on the 112 mile 3 loop course I quickly realized today was not going to be the day to set any PR's I could barely ride 14 mph going out it was 1:15 minutes to the turn around which is also a gradual climp and as you head out you can see sand strorms/clouds getting closer as tumble weeds were blown everywhere across the roads it was very discouraging. After the turn around I headed back towards town with a tail wind that brought my average up to 19.2 mph about 45 minutes to get back into town. 1 down 2 to go and the wind got increasingly worse. I finished the bike 20 minutes down from my goal time but glad to be done with a very difficult ride and considering the conditions this was actually a solid ride (6th fastest in my AG).

T2 - Again went smoothly but slower then normal

Run - The heat of the day had set in completely, weather reports put it at 95 degrees but when your out in it on a course with 1% shade it felt closer to 100+. I started out at what felt like an easy pace but ended up to be a bit faster then I wanted to go out so I slowed down a bit and seddled into 9 minute miles. At every aid station I drank Cola and water, grabbed ice to hold onto and put down my top and pop a few in my mouth. All the Ironmans I've done my normal mindset by now is pure joy to be on the run and almost done with a very long day. This time something was different, I had to fight off constant horrible thougths of quitting, that nasty looming question of why the hell am I doing this to myself? I was way off my goal for the day and why finish anyway? Its freakin April! I have never seen so much carnage out on an Ironman run, it seemed like everyone was walking, sitting in the shade to cool off or throwing up, it was difficult to focus I wanted to walk with them but I continued to run I knew that once I walked that was it no running again. The only shade was going under the bridge overpasses although there was no satisfaction in this shade as I tried to run through these section quickly due to the overpower smell of urine. The rest of the course was on cement that destroyed my legs. By mile 11 I had severe pain at the IT band insertion on my left knee. I was forced to slow down a bit due to this pain and the buckling that was happening in the same leg.

All in all it was nice to be done with the race I did walk away with a new run PR (5th in my AG) for an Ironman and the satisfaction of finishing strong and healthy. The mental toughness of this race will stay with me and help me for the next one. I look forward to getting back in the pool and for the warm weather to bring temps up in the lakes so I can work on my open water swimming.

The girl who finished 5th in my AG got the last Kona spot, she was crying and outwardly yelling with joy at roll down! This made it a bit easier to take to see someone so happy with getting into Kona. She was the faster athlete on a difficult day and deserves it.

Thank you again for all you encouragement!

[Tomgru]

just an awesome day! i believe they count double when the conditions are bad and you struggle mentally through the entire day.... Just great work! Couldn't be more proud to say i know you.

[BryanU]

Cindy: Great race, great report.

Ben: Great way to get a peek (you need more calories in the shower? Hmmm...)

[andrew]

Great report, you should be v proud of this one. 4 hr marathon in that heat is fantastic.
Can you run mine for me?

[Kara]

Congrats Cindy! What an amazing race. I cannot believe you PR'ed in the run in that heat! Way to push through mentally. Great job.

[Ron Stadick]

Great job Cindy! Way to go, hanging in there with such tough/hot conditions. you're awesome and an inspiration. Thanks for the race report

[Simone]

Hi cindy;

Just read your note! Congrats on a great race and great results! Awesome!

Bowing down in front of my PC as you are kicking off the season with a kick ass performance! See you soon!

-Simone