Developing and Overcoming a Cycling Phobia

Yesterday was my first day back on my road bike for an outdoor ride in almost a year. You might be wondering what kind of triathlete has not been training outdoors on their bike in that time. Well this triathlete recently dealt with a bout of cycling phobia. It all started last October when I received a DNF – that’s Did Not Finish - at the REV3 Half Full Triathlon. I had signed up for the Olympic distance race, which featured an unusual 30 mile bike course rather than the typical 24.8 miles. 

The race was very late season, which usually signifies difficulty, but I assumed I would be ready. The course boasted several hills; again I assumed I would be prepared. The weather was quite nasty from the start with rain beginning before the first wave. I joked with one of the other competitors that I would not need to worry about getting cold because I had enough “padding” (aka fat) to protect me. This turned out to be a very coincidental comment as you will read further down.

The swim was typical and actually fairly easy even though I had to wear my very snug wetsuit (I had gained weight since the last time I wore it at the Boilerman Triathlon in Indiana). But the problems started as soon as I reached the swim finish. While taking my wetsuit off, I left my goggles in my hand and they got stuck keeping me locked in my wetsuit. Then I had to run up a steep hill to the transition area where I promptly took off my timing chip to finish taking my wetsuit off.  I never put it back on!

The forgotten timing chip was the least of my problems as the rain continued and my once dry clothes/arm warmers were soaked. I did not think there was an issue as I was focusing on my goal of getting my bike out on the road.

Soon after the ride began, I realized I was not prepared for the cycling portion. After the first few large hills – large compared to what I was used to in the Midwest – my legs were burning and I was shaking from the cold. I nearly lost all my strength when I realized it had only been 5 miles. By mile 10, I was already exhausted. I started walking my bike up the really steep hills, but the downhill was even worse. As the cold whipped past me, I felt pain in all my exposed portions. My legs started wobbling and I could barely stay on my bike. I thought just keeping going. If I could just make it to the run, then I could walk the entire 6.2 miles and I could finish.

Lance Armstrong happened to be doing the race too, only he did the half-distance (modified to 70 miles because the swim portions were the same distance). I tried to ignore the hoopla and controversy around this and focus on my race. It did not help when I was passed at one point by him followed by a motorcade. Lots of spectators cheering him on, which made each mile more difficult for some reason. I felt so self-conscious that I was walking up hills and even more self-conscious of my ridiculously slow pace when I passed again by Lance at mile 21 or 22 (oh and my GPS died about half-way through the race so I only knew where I was because of the mile marker signs).

Eventually, I got so drained that upon reaching a hill at around mile 25 (noting that had this been at traditional race, I would have been done with the cycling portion by this point or at least close to it) I got off my bike turned to the two volunteers and exclaimed “I need help!” They thought I was hurt, but the only part of me injured was my pride.

I promptly began bawling. I had never not finished a race.

Back at the camp, they would not let me in the medical tent, but I was mostly delirious from what could only have been mild hypothermia. I left my bike and was wandering trying to find the heating bus. My husband had gone back to the car to get something, thinking I would be another hour or two to finish. Fortunately, a friendly volunteer led me to the bus, where I could barely walk with my cycling shoes still on. Seeing everyone with their finisher medals and shirts made me keep bawling. I was so embarrassed having not finished, “wussing out” without even being physically hurt. I went home feeling depressed and exhausted.

Me looking nervous before the practice ride.

It was the end of the season so I had an excuse not to get on my bike. But as spring approached, I found myself making excuses for not riding. “Well, I want to focus on running races this year. Why ride when I can use my indoor trainer that I got for Christmas?” And so on. Of course, none of this was true. I was simply afraid to get on my bike. I had no reason to be afraid, but I felt great anxiety at the thought of getting out there in front of people on a trail.

This is one of the reasons I started this blog. I wanted to get back to triathlons and get back to my athletic/competitive roots. It forced me to sign up for a triathlon which meant I would have to get back on my bike. Even though I waited until two weeks before my first triathlon since the DNF, I am happy that I finally overcame my fear.

It was definitely scary so much so that I panicked on the first sharp turn onto the path, feeling like I was going to fall over. I almost went off the path into the mud. But once I was out riding, I felt more and more comfortable. Even though it was slow, even though I did not have to ride up any crazy steep hills, I got back on my bike and did a group ride. I may not have the best time at my triathlon, but it is the first step to being a triathlete again. Or at least pretending to be one!

Race Review: The Savage Race Mid-Atlantic

Caution: long blog post ahead!

The Savage Race^SM was my first obstacle course race…and I loved it! I have to admit it was probably the one of the most fun races I have done, second only to the Ragnar Relay series. I love team races because they are super supportive and far less competitive than other races. My team, known as Carrie’s Crew, consisted of my husband, John, team leader and CrossFit queen friend, Carrie, and myself. Small team but big dreams!

Carrie's Crew!

The race organizers did a great job with this race. Volunteers were plentiful and from what I saw, quite encouraging and watchful as well. Safety of the participants was clearly a concern for the organizers. They shortened the course from five miles to four due to heat and safety issues, so a few of the obstacles were not present (“Colon Blow” and “Blazed”). Plenty of water was available (four water stops), but the half-size water bottles would have reduced waste and some kind of sports drink offered at one of the stops would have been good.

Carrie's Crew with more mud!

The race had a great group of friendly, energetic athletes present, many of whom helped people finish obstacles, which is encouraged rather than penalized on this race. Several times I needed assistance from teammates to complete an obstacle and other racers stepped up to help. And being an athletic woman myself, I would be remiss not to mention the major hotties on the course!

Obstacles

The running portion of the race was basically brief sprints (or walks) in between obstacles so I decided to go through each obstacle to detail my experience. I attempted all but one obstacle and did not finish four of them (stars denote not finishing). There was no penalty for not finishing or attempting an obstacle, though, which is apparently different from most other races of this style. I cannot remember the order of the obstacles with 100% certainty, but the following is my approximation of the course order.

Shriveled Richard 

An ice bath about 15 feet long. They force you to go underwater at one point. The cold was not too bad (it was definitely a shock), but the ice itself was sharp. Ouch!

Thors Grundle 

A long mud pit with wooden slats to force you to dunk your head. I’m still cleaning dirt out of my ears! My one complaint about this one was that there was no water after to wash the mud out of our eyes and it stuck to my eye lashes. But this obstacle made for great photos (check out the Savage Race Facebook Page!)

Nutt Smasher*

Basically this was a balance beam with extra bouncing. I got about a third of the way then it started shaking significantly. DROP! SPLASH! Did not finish it. And then I could barely get down the muddy hill.

Me So Thorny 

A barbed wire crawl in dirt. Not bad at all, but I don’t think I was doing it properly. I was short enough to basically crawl on my hands and knees rather than doing the actual Army crawl. The worst part about this and ALL the crawls in the dirt or mud was that the location was a shooting range normally and all the dirt had clay pigeon/skeet shooting remnants. It was painful putting my hands, arms, knees, and legs on the shards!

Swamp Ass

Basically going through a eutrophied, smelly, waist-deep pond. Not bad.

Tires

This was supposed to be tires swinging, but they were just on the ground and you had to step in the tire holes. Kind of silly and not much of an obstacle.

Kiss My Walls* 

A ledge walk similar to indoor rock climbing. The wood was too far apart and I did not have enough upper body strength to finish this obstacle. If they would have made the footholds a little better (wide enough for two sets of toes rather than only one), I would have been able to do it, I think.

Mud Berms

Muddy hills! For some reason these three obstacles causes the longest lines. People would stop to run up or down the berms, but they weren’t really that bad at all. I think people were afraid of folks sliding back down, which is a concern. But I thought they were pretty fun. The sliding one down reminded me of Arnold’s character in Predator, though!

Sawtooth Bars* 

This was the only obstacle I was disappointed that I did not complete. I used to be a wiz at monkey bars. Because it had a sawtooth shape with two rises, I was not able to just use my skeletal structure to swing across. I got to the third bar and dropped in the water :(

8 Foot Wall 

The name is exactly what it was. My husband helped me with this one. I stood on his back and he slowly stood up until I was able to grab the top and get my leg over. Unfortunately we had no one to help him with it so he did not get to do it!

Slippery Incline Wall 

An angled wall with a rope to climb up that had a sprinkler spraying you and the wall. I did not think I would complete this, but it was actually pretty easy if you got enough of a running start to reach the rope. Fun!

LumberJack Lane

Log carrying through a pond. The hardest part of this was there was a wire or something that tripped me along the way. Supposedly carrying two would have made me a BADASS (they had a few “Badass” obstacles), but I chose to just carry one of the small ones.

Barn Door 

A slatted wall that you could just climb over. Pretty simplistic.

Hay Stacks

Giant rolls of hay that were stacked like a pyramid. Super fun, but kind of scary going down because they had been stamped down by previous racers. I treaded it very slowly!

Low Crawl 

Similar to the other barbed wire crawls, but water was spraying you in the face when you did it. This was pretty fun.

Alligator Alley

Running through a muddy corn field with ice cold water spraying on you. Not much of an obstacle, but the mud got pretty thick!

Back Scratcher (without hay)

Imagine hurdles with five foot walls and barbed wire limbo. I did not fully complete this one, but I did 4 of the 6 walls and all the barbed wire crawls in between. I have some lovely brusies on the back of my leg behind my knees as proof!

Wet Willy

Probably the most boring “obstacle”. It was just a pond you could walk or swim across. I obviously chose to swim.

Davy Jones’ Locker 

The second best obstacle of the course and all we had to do was jump of a tall dock (probably the same height as a high dive diving board). With a cute lifeguard in scuba gear so there was good incentive to jump off. I forgot to blow air out my nose on the way down so I got water up there. Oops!

Bad Ass Cargo Net

This was a 20 foot (or thereabouts) cargo net that you had to climb. It wasn’t quite vertical, but it was steep enough that I was a little scared.

Colossus (Ramp) 

The most difficult obstacle on the course. Basically this obstacle was a short concave ramp leading to a vertical wall with a rope you had to climb to reach a ledge. I cannot believe I was able to reach the rope. I got to the last knot, but could not reach the ledge. I tried going perpendicular to get my legs up, which did not work. Then I slid down a little burning my hands. OUCH!!! Fortunately, not one, but TWO volunteers at the top helped me up. I hurt myself in the process, though, so even though I got lots of help I am considering that a completion!

A few bruises I picked up from the Colossus and Mud N'Guts!

Colossus (Slide)

The other fun obstacle and all I had to do was slide down a very steep water slide ramp. Loved it!

Tazed*

Only one member of our group attempted this shocking obstacle. This one had a car battery attached to cords with exposed wires. Instead of running through, which would have been painful, but fine, they made you roll underneath. I chose not to attempt this as I HATE electricity, getting shocked (like when my car door shocks me trying to close it), and rolling makes me nauseated. The teammate who did it did not even make a peep when most of the racers were squealing or yelling obscenities!

Mud N’Guts 

A mud pit under progressively lowered barbed wire. The last obstacle and actually really annoying because of the aforementioned clay pigeon remnants. The mud got so deep I eventually had to use my elbows to pull myself through!   

Finisher medal and t-shirt + race bib.

After the Race

It took Carrie’s Crew 1:54:17 to do the four-mile obstacle course. Even though we did not do all the obstacles, I am still really proud of my team. We were muddy, cut up, and bruised and proud of it! I even had to throw away the tank top I wore because it got so stretched out from the weight of the mud! They had showers, which were essentially low-pressure hoses. It took me almost 15 minutes to clean up. Unfortunately, we were so hungry we did not get to enjoy our after race beers (food was ridiculously expensive so we chose to get food at a local restaurant – taco salad, yum!), but leaving, unlike most races, was quick and efficient.

I highly recommend this race!

Me after the race.

Cheering Other Racers On: Courtesy or Annoying Habit

Today’s blog is somewhat a follow-up to my previous race review blog. During the race, I noticed something strange. Well, strange for most of the previous races I have completed. Barely anyone was cheering racers on. And I do not mean onlookers in this case. This race had very few runners and was on an out and back trail so I did not expect much of a crowd anyway.

What I did expect was more camaraderie among runners. It was July 4^th, the USA’s big holiday (only one person was wearing festive clothes)! With it being a small race by a local track club, I assumed I would see less competition and more people just out to have fun. But I did not really witness much of that. Most people seemed pretty focused in their own heads. Big races with professionals or those trying to score USAT rankings seem to be that way, not these smaller themed races.

Usually I will give and receive quite a few “good job runners” or “keep it up, you are doing great”, but I only heard one encouragement from a woman with a great big smile on her face. Of course, I smiled back adding a "thank you". There was an even stranger outcome when I cheered on the leader and the runners up. The leader just got a strange look on his face and the runners up did not even look up from where there were going. I get the focus that it takes to be in the lead, but I was still surprised. Mainly because at other races I will at least get a nod or hand-up gesture acknowledging the support.

So this got me thinking: is supporting other racers distracting or helpful? I know that it knocks me out of my runner-space when onlookers yell “just crest that hill and then you are home free” because often they have no idea what the course ahead looks like. It can be demoralizing to realize, no I actually do have a few more hills or distance to go. But I have always thought it was good form to be polite to other racers, especially when you see someone struggling or doing really well. I have been in situations where I just needed a little boost and a friendly smile or good job was enough to keep me going.

This all could be a symptom of my recent change in location. Since moving to the DC area from the Midwest, I have noticed much less friendliness among strangers. I have always felt that athletes are a community of our own, though, and are more supportive of each other than the general population given the struggles we face. Maybe I am just feeling nostalgic for a race with a Midwest attitude!

Do you prefer to be cheered or do you stay inside your own head? And is cheering on other racers a location- or race-dependent faux pas? I would love to hear thoughts from readers on this!

Happy to finish a race! (From the very supportive Girls Tri Too Series)

PVTC Go Fourth 8k: A Race Review

I promise I will eventually follow-up on my previous blog, but I keep getting side-tracked! This time it is for a good reason: a race! Each race I attempt and hopefully complete, I plan to write a race review. I will try to include some objective facts, but the reviews will mostly be specific to my experience. So without further adieu, a review of my first race finished since starting this blog!

Me before the race.

The Potomac Valley Track Club “Go Fourth” 8k

The Race

The race gets brownie points for being an 8k. This has become my favorite running race distance mainly because that extra mile to do a 10k just feels like death!  It also gets significant props for being low-stress and low-key. Registration was simple and easy to find. With only about 100 people at the race, even the narrow Washington & Old Dominion Trail was not crowded.

The course itself was mostly flat. I say mostly because the slightly noticeable incline on the return trip was somewhat challenging, more mentally than physically. The W&OD Trail was converted from a discontinued railway line in 1982 so the trail is almost completely straight and scenic. Because it is a publicly used multi-purpose trail, the race course was not closed to non-participants. For the most part, though, there were not that many cyclists or runners that passed by – and those that did were careful to call out “passing” warnings. The trail, even in non-race situations, is a great place to train!

Race volunteers, while not numerous, were friendly and helpful. The course had one water-stop – technically two since it was an out and back course – that was well stocked with water. On a 5-mile race having a water stop at about 1.5 miles from the start/finish makes more sense than just one at the turn around.

Expectations and Outcomes

My goal for this race was simple: NO WALKING! I had done legs of a Ragnar Relay without walking, but not an entire race. The only time I have done this distance without walking was my third leg at Ragnar Relay Tennessee. The time was less than stellar averaging about 13:30 minutes per mile, which is essentially a walking pace for most people. Consequently, a corollary to my goal of no walking was to complete the race at my normal race pace.

Me after the race. I look a little weary!

This proved to be a big struggle. The halfway point of a race is my usual “allow myself to walk” mark. But by only mile 2 of this race, I was already feeling the urge to stop. I kept going when a woman passed me and said “almost to the halfway point”. It gave me a second wind. Unfortunately, after the turn, I was plagued by crippling side stitches and some patches of headwind. But I was making good time. I thought to myself if I can just get to the 5k mark, then I can walk. I kept listening for my GPS to beep at mile 3. It beeped and I kept jogging. If I can just get to the four-mile mark, then I can walk. Another debilitating side stitch and one more mile later, ok, you’ve made it this far, just one more mile to go.

At this point, I noticed that the lady who kept leap-frogging with me would start jogging right after or just when I caught up to her. I normally do not take notice of passing others, but this gave me motivation to finish strong. I mustered some strength at about 0.75 miles to go and sped up. I promptly passed her and just kept going. The last quarter-mile was pure hell. I was ready to stop…

…but I did not! I did the whole race without walking, thus completing my goal! 

My unofficial race results are from my Garmin 405cx (note: I will write a post in the near future about all the gear I use for practice and training). These are likely more accurate than the official race results (in the events) tab because we did not have timing chips. I finished with a time of 57:03.

I am very happy with my results even though it was not an 8k PR (personal record for those newbies out there). I also had my best 5k time during this race at 33:33. The first race of the season turned out to be a great one.