Who determines these swim waves?

I have one thing to complain about. Swim wave times at Hyvee this weekend. Female under 29: 6:48 am. Transition closes at 5:45. What am I suppose to do for an hour? I have thought of several things. Take a nap, go out for breakfast, hang out in the beer garden. But the one I have chosen is to time my warm up to end exactly at 5:45, put my shoes in transition, get out of transition, stretch. By the time I am done doing that, the first people will be out of the water. This is a unique opportunity because now I can watch how the elite group do their transitions and maybe pick up a few things that could help me out. Normally I would be swimming still so you never get to see these guys/girls. Since these will be the people winning my age group, it couldn't hurt to learn from them. Also by the time my wave goes off, some people might be finishing. lol. Just kidding. Almost will get to see them come back in from the bike to run. So by the time I am done, all the food will be gone and I will have to wait 2 hours for a massage. Hmmm...that sucks. Oh well, what can ya do? I am heading out to the lake tonight for a swim. I was debating about whether or not I needed to get in the water without my wetsuit. I am pretty sure I will be fine, but it can't hurt to get out there and swim just to make sure so I won't have that tiny bit of doubt. And when else are you going to get out and be able to swim an hour with a life guard in open water? Not very often. This will be nice. Last couple days' workouts: Monday: 30 min swim because the pool water was 96 degrees. Hot tub water: 101 degress. Hmmm...little warm don't ya think. I about passed out so I decided it was time to get out. Tuesday: 45 min run in am. It was hot! Wednesday: 30 min bike this morning and an hour swim tonight. Thursday: 30 min run am and 2 hour bike after work. Friday: off. Picking up my packet, going to Rob's softball game and then to the Icubs. That is the plan anyway. Rain could alter these. Saturday: 45 bike and 30 min run. Equipment check and gather it up. Clean up bike and take to bike check in. Try to get to bed early(ish). Probably getting up at 3:30 Sunday. Going to braid my hair which will take the most time. Also wanting to get to the race sight so I get a good parking spot. the DSMtri club has special closer parking. So I want to get there probably around 4:45-5 just to make sure I get a spot there.

Going for broke

I have been doing tons of research online all weekend and think I have narrowed down my stomach issue. I think I need more sodium. Clue #1: I feel that I am eating and drinking enough, it is just taking my body forever to want to absorb it. Clue #2: I believe I get Hyponatremia (the nausea, fatigue, vomiting, sleepiness are hints to this), Clue #3: I have been relying on gels for my electrolytes. I ordered salt stick caps today. I also found a place where it talks about salt. My thought was why can't I just eat salt? It will become unpalatable and I need the other 4 - potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride. I am hoping that this is my problem and I can get this worked out in the next couple weeks. I have been doing some "water" tests the last couple days. Weighing myself before and after working out so I know exactly how much fluid and sodium I am going to need. The hot humid conditions are definately how Louisville is going to be. I ran 10 miles yesterday. Stupid me, I forgot to put the insoles back in my shoes. You have to ask how does one forget to do this? It was simple. I had a one track mind of get out and run and try not to die. Last time I went running, when I took my feet out, the insoles came out so I was going to let them dry and glue them in. Well I forgot to put them back in. No wonder they felt so big. I just thought my feet hadn't swollen up yet. I did get a small sore on the side of my foot just below my ankle. I am sure I would have gotten that with the insoles. The bottoms of my feet got a little "hot" at mile 8, but no blisters. Thank goodness. Tonight I am going to the pool and then staying inside on the bike tonight. In the "ac". Might have to turn it down a bit and put all the fans on I have. Running tomorrow morning and then I have tomorrow night off. Can't wait for Hyvee to be over. I just hate all the "stuff" you have to do before the race. Packet pickup, athlete briefings, bike check in, but I am still excited to do it. I love the races. It is what keeps me motivated. Right now I am not planning on doing Big Creek just because it falls on my last big weekend before Louisville. I have a 7 hour bike Saturday and I will be wiped out for the race Sunday. Might throw in Iowa Games or Hickory Grove if I need something to do. Well back to the training.

4:50 Bike Hurt

I have been home now for about 20 min from my 4:50 bike. It was a good ride and it was a bad ride. First the bad. I am really starting to question my sanity, if I had any to begin with. Why am I doing this? The longest bike I had yet, and it killed me. I made 80 miles in 4.5 hours and then did a slow cool down around the neighborhood. I guess I wasn't really tired, my legs just hurt and my saddle region was screaming. It would have been better if I was able to stay aero and be comfortable because then my legs stopped hurting when I was down. I had to sit up a lot the last hour. I will get to that in a bit. My quads are what was yelling the loudest. Oh man. I am still struggling with my nutrition. I will elaborate more in a second. If I had to add any hills today, I think I would have just died. Ok onto the good: I did ride 80+ miles today. I have figured out that being in the aero position is a start to my nutrition problem. I started having stomach problems today right at 1:15, when I have the other times as well. I found that after 5-6 min of taking a gel is when my stomach reacts to it. I started sitting up after 4-5 min and sitting up for 5 min and then going aero again. This worked really well until after 3.5 hours. I started to have to sit up longer before I felt better, but by the time I could feel it settling in my stomach, it was time to eat again. Ugh. I did not have a strong urge to throw up, but it was on the way. By 4 hours I wanted to throw every gel I had at passing vehicles. I was getting upset. Just then, my boyfriend text me and I asked him why I was doing this and he said "because you are awesome". That really helped get me through the last miles. I will have to plant signs and pictures of him around the course that I can read to keep me motivated. Today I also tried Elite. Um...no reaction to it, I guess. I liked the salty taste it left on my lips when I ripped open the packet. This got me thinking that I do need more salt. Would it be weird to just carry a salt shaker around. Then I passed Casey's and thought, I should stop in there and see if they have those little salt packets. Hmmmmm....this could work. Well I didn't stop because I wanted to get home so bad. I did stop about half way on the bike to pee and right when I got home so I feel I was not dehydrated. This problem is driving me nuts. The upset stomach was what was causing me to sit up longer, which was brutal. Today, even the light 5-10 mph wind out of the West was pissing me off. I try not to think about it because it takes so much energy to be pissed at something you can't control. I also decided I would rather do a hilly course than have a flat windy one. I discovered today that the old Lincoln Highway between Ames and Nevada has a bike lane. That was sweet. Today I was also very tempted to eat the nats that were stuck to my arm. I could have eaten for 2 days with all of them. Gross. I also got sunburned on my forehead where the vents are in my helmet. So I have 2 red vertical marks there. Great. Good thing my hair will cover it up, hopefully. I did not get burned anywhere else other than my face. That was where I put the most sunscreen. So maybe less is more? Or mostly I just sweated it all off. I also think I have figured out why people in their 60s still feel like they are in their 20s. Because I feel like I am 60 years old today. So when I am 60, I will remember that I felt like this in my 20s and it will be the same :) At the rate I am going, I hope I make to 60. Geez. Thursday morning I ran 45 min the morning and then biked for an hour after work. I went on the trail that heads up to Big Creek. I couldnt remember why I don't like that trail, and then I remembered. Holy Crap, that trail is in horrible shape. I think I had more water on me than I did in my water bottle. I lost the straw and sponge from my aero bottle about 5 times and then I just took it out and held it in my hand. It was so stupid. On the way back I took the road. Never riding that trail ever again. Well, maybe if I had a full suspension mountain bike. People are insane to ride on it. Friday was my day off. Well kind of. I hadn't mowed lawn in 2 weeks now so I figured I would do that last night. hahaha. it sucked. First off, the grass is about a foot tall, second it is really think because I over seeded it this year and third, it was very wet. So my normal 20 min mow turned into a 30 min mow plus another 20 to rake. I never even got the front mowed. Ugh. I was dripping wet so I came in and showered. Took a short nap and then went out for a couple drinks with some friends. So maybe sometime today I can get the rest mowed. I need to hire someone to do my yard work because the weeds are taking over my raspberries and rubarb. Tomorrow I am going to attempt a 1.5 hour run and a short 30 min bike after. Might have to take the mountain bike so I am not sitting on the same place as I was today. Decided I am not going to do much of a taper this week for Hyvee. Probably will take Tuesday night off and Friday and only do a short bike/run Saturday before dropping off my bike. I like the excitement of Hyvee, I had the logistics of it. The mandatory meetings, registration, the expo, bike check in, race morning chip pick up and marking, the parking. It just goes on. I liked Kansas because you could get so much done the day before and get it all done in one swoop because it was all at the race site and I didn't have to drive 30 min across town to get there. The traffic much better too because busy roads were NOT closed. I am going to crash on the couch. I just found a fucking cockroach in my spare bedroom. Holy fuck I am going to burn down my house to get rid of these bugs. The ants have discovered last night where I feed my dog so they were all over his food bowl this morning. I had to spray it to kill them because there was literally a hundred ants on it. So I filled up his water and set it on the floor while I cleaned his stand. When I set his bowl on the floor he looked at me like, you want me to eat off the floor? But I am a God. I said you stuck up little monkey, lol. Just eat. I cleaned up his stand and then put his food and water dish back on it, then he came over and ate. Spoiled rotten. He is now laying spralled all over my bed so I have to sleep on the couch. At least I get the big tv then, lol.