Less than 20 days to Ironman Wales, but I just had my second cataract surgery. My previous op was back in January, and I "reviewed" the procedure here. Well, second time around was an easier experience. The anaethesia wasn't as uncomfortable and I was less nervous about the surgery (but more nervous about the anaesthesia). I'm one day post-op now, and I'm sat at home passing time since I'm not allowed to lift anything heavy, do impact exercises, or swim. So nothing fun then... at least I'm off work again today, I think I'd have left with a headache by mid-morning!
So how did this one compare to the last? It was nearly 8 hours before I could open my eye and not feel nauseous from the wonky vision. When the muscles that control the eye are put to sleep your eye can rotate to a different angle, making the world in that eye rotate. Add the blurriness from the operation and the dilation, then throw in a healthy measure of "new glasses" feeling and you're approaching the evening after the surgery.
One decent, but not stellar, night's sleep later... I'm actually seeing a lot better. There's occasional double vision and there are certain distances that just don't work, right now. That should improve. My right eye was the one done previously, and that's set for long distance. The left eye (done yesterday) was supposed to be set to focus about 20 inches (50cm) away. That was so I'd have good vision for computer work, the dashboard while driving, cooking and food prep. Then I could have reading glasses for close-up work. Well, I'm currently focussing at about 8-10 inches, which wasn't the plan. One reason I didn't want this (which is the "normal" monovision they give people), is the larger difference between what the eyes can actually see. It takes a while to get used to it, but it's not a problem for people who don't have other eye issues. For me, if I have another flare-up of macular edema in one eye then I'm essentially down to only one useful eye. In this scenario having extreme short-sightedness in one eye is kind of pointless.
There are options though:
1. Within about 6 weeks of cataract surgery you can have the lens replaced. Much later and the little pocket that the lens sits in will have "shrink-wrapped" the new lens and the surgery is less advised.
The real downside here is that it's yet more eye surgery.
2. After a couple of months the vision can be corrected using laser refractive surgery. The downsides here are that healing takes at least as long as the cataract surgery and that the vision needs to be "stable" before the surgery. For uveitis sufferers, a "stable" eye is often a dream. My eyes have periods of medicated stability, typically lasting 3 months, during which time I switch from worrying about distorted vision to worrying about glaucoma.
Anyway, in general the vision is somewhat improved. This time didn't feel quite like the magic bullet of the first cataract surgery, but given time it should settle in and I'll know for sure how the vision is going to end up. Then I can make decisions about lasering the eye to fix my focus.
For now, it's time to continue resting up and making sure my eye recovers quickly. Then I can get back to the serious business of tapering for Ironman Wales, where I'm hoping to raise money for Olivia's Vision. I'd love people to check out their website and maybe sponsor my Ironman on their behalf...
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Los Alamos Triathlon
Yesterday was the Los Alamos triathlon, a local sprint race (20km bike, 400m swim, 5km run). Today marks exactly 4 weeks to Ironman Wales.
The Los Alamos triathlon last year was my second multisport event and my first triathlon. It was nice to be able to return to it this year, see all the new people I've met through the sport and have a great race. The LA tri is run in an unusual order: bike, swim, run. Since it's a pool swim, this is done to spread people out by the time they hit the water. Also on offer for the first time this year was a time-trial start for the "elites". I got talked into signing up for this group, so I gathered with the fast guys and gals at the start and waited my turn to leave. One every 30 seconds... a friend snapped me about 50 yards down the road from the start (that's why I'm the only person in the picture, I'm really not that fast).
Waiting around at the start, it was pretty chilly, so it took a while for the legs to warm up. Training for the ironman distance doesn't really emphasize the short efforts, so I think I may have under-paced the ride. On the other hand, riding harder might have bought me another minute at the expense of time on the run...
I got back and had a minor nightmare unclipping at the dismount line. Left foot, out. Right foot... come on right foot... On my first attempted dismount I started to lift the bike with my right foot and had to give a good sharp twist of the foot to get out of the pedal and off the bike. Next step, almost running past my rack at transition! Anyway, it wasn't that bad, but it was good practice at not getting flustered and practicing "less haste, more speed". So then I was off to the pool, for my worst swim of the year. My arms felt like lead, my legs would only kick slowly and the water felt like hot treacle. A swim that should normally take me seven minutes and change without pushing too hard took over 8 and a half minutes. Maybe some of it was the residual of Thursday's 2 mile swim session, but frankly I don't think that was it. Sometimes you just have a bad day, and I apparently can't swim after cycling.
But I can run (apparently)! Once I got out of the pool I was back to zip through transition (well, it felt speedy, but it was longer than T1) and see whether I could catch anyone on the run, having been overtaken in the pool. Well, one personal best 5k run later (18:49) I was crossing the finish line having shown an improvement in all three events over last year, for a final time of 1:05:16. Even better, it was enough to take 6th overall! Signing up for the elite wave took me out of contention for an age group prize, but I don't need the glassware and it was super fun to do the time-trial start.
So now back to my regularly scheduled training... I'm looking forward to the week after next, where I start my taper (yay, less training!) and get my left eye operated on (yay, vision!). Then it's all recovery until the big day in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
(You can still sponsor me and raise money for Olivia's Vision, a uveitis charity. For details, see this old blog entry.)
The Los Alamos triathlon last year was my second multisport event and my first triathlon. It was nice to be able to return to it this year, see all the new people I've met through the sport and have a great race. The LA tri is run in an unusual order: bike, swim, run. Since it's a pool swim, this is done to spread people out by the time they hit the water. Also on offer for the first time this year was a time-trial start for the "elites". I got talked into signing up for this group, so I gathered with the fast guys and gals at the start and waited my turn to leave. One every 30 seconds... a friend snapped me about 50 yards down the road from the start (that's why I'm the only person in the picture, I'm really not that fast).
Waiting around at the start, it was pretty chilly, so it took a while for the legs to warm up. Training for the ironman distance doesn't really emphasize the short efforts, so I think I may have under-paced the ride. On the other hand, riding harder might have bought me another minute at the expense of time on the run...
I got back and had a minor nightmare unclipping at the dismount line. Left foot, out. Right foot... come on right foot... On my first attempted dismount I started to lift the bike with my right foot and had to give a good sharp twist of the foot to get out of the pedal and off the bike. Next step, almost running past my rack at transition! Anyway, it wasn't that bad, but it was good practice at not getting flustered and practicing "less haste, more speed". So then I was off to the pool, for my worst swim of the year. My arms felt like lead, my legs would only kick slowly and the water felt like hot treacle. A swim that should normally take me seven minutes and change without pushing too hard took over 8 and a half minutes. Maybe some of it was the residual of Thursday's 2 mile swim session, but frankly I don't think that was it. Sometimes you just have a bad day, and I apparently can't swim after cycling.
But I can run (apparently)! Once I got out of the pool I was back to zip through transition (well, it felt speedy, but it was longer than T1) and see whether I could catch anyone on the run, having been overtaken in the pool. Well, one personal best 5k run later (18:49) I was crossing the finish line having shown an improvement in all three events over last year, for a final time of 1:05:16. Even better, it was enough to take 6th overall! Signing up for the elite wave took me out of contention for an age group prize, but I don't need the glassware and it was super fun to do the time-trial start.
So now back to my regularly scheduled training... I'm looking forward to the week after next, where I start my taper (yay, less training!) and get my left eye operated on (yay, vision!). Then it's all recovery until the big day in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
(You can still sponsor me and raise money for Olivia's Vision, a uveitis charity. For details, see this old blog entry.)
Friday, August 10, 2012
4:59:30
Since my last blog entry I've done two races, I've had 5 doctor's visits and one job interview. That kind of thing can really take it out of you...
Anyway, as a result of the 5 doctor'svisits I have been proclaimed healthy (apart from my failing eyeballs) and I have cataract surgery scheduled at the end of the month. Yup, cataract surgery two-and-a-half weeks before Ironman Wales. Still, after a rough couple of weeks where my vision was frighteningly bad I can see again! Okay, only one is is really useful, but cataract surgery should bring that up to two. :-)
I'm still waiting to hear on my job interview, and between opthalmologists, rheumatologists, cataract surgeons and optometrists I'm totally over doctors right now. But training and racing is still good...
So what races? Well, there was the Cochiti Lake triathlon, which was a lot of fun, and Ironman 70.3 Boulder.
Cochiti Lake tri is a feature on the local calendar, and I can see why. It's a nice lake swim, followed by a relatively tough bike (nearly half is on bone-jarring chip-seal, and it has a couple of small hills to slow you down) and then a run that starts with a steep hill, continues on false flats and then bakes you alive in the heat. Did I mention that it was awesome? Okay, so there were some timing SNAFUs, but they all got sorted eventually. Also, by my GPS the bike was about a mile long and the run was 0.3 miles short. Everything went as expected really... the bike was a couple of minutes slower than I would have liked, but my run was a 10km PB at 40:42! Of course, the course was slightly short, and I don't run 10km races very often. I'll take it though. It got me my first podium of the year - 3rd in the M35-39 age group, with a total time of 2:27:51.
Now, the highlight of the last month: Boulder 70.3!
I'd been really looking forward to this. Technically it was a "training race". It was my second ever half-ironman, fifth ever triathlon and the litmus test for my Ironman Wales training. It was also to be my redemption for falling apart doing Ironman 70.3 Austin last year.
Boulder is a super-cool town. I have friends there, so accommodation and good times were sorted. The girl was my driver for the weekend as my eyes were in pretty bad shape, and she was an awesome support team and cheerleader.
The race itself was well-organised. It was a lot more low-key than Austin, but everything was done well. The volunteers were brilliant and the porta-loo to athlete ratio was good (except on the run course).
I'll get pictures and put them up some time, but this race had me nervous and I'll explain why. There's a mantra that applies to many sports, and triathlon is no exception: "Nothing new on race day". I broke that rule in several ways: new bike - I bought a used TT bike less than a week before and had only 60 miles on it by race day; new wheels - there was a sweet deal on used Zipp 404s that I couldn't pass up, so I picked them up in Boulder on Saturday and raced them on Sunday; new goggles - probably not so bad, but I have a collection of goggles that fog, so I bought new goggles (a brand/model I've not worn before). I'm sure there's more, but you get the point. Race day was full of surprises.
I actually warmed up before the swim. This is something I've never done before any oopen water events. Still, it felt good and gave me a bit of confidence in my new goggles. They worked like a champ and I could actually see well enough with my blurry eye to sight for the buoys and stay on course. The water was around 70-71F and was good until I got a slight stitch, probably from the pretzels I was snacking on before the start. Swim Time: 35:08
Dolphin diving out of the shallows, I jogged up the chute towards T1 looking for people I knew. I heard a shout of "Go Bike Works" and failed to see who shouted. Anyway, thanks to that unknown supporter (I was wearing a tri top from Bike Works on Hawaii's Big Island). My plan was for leisurely transitions, to practice for Wales. So I dried my feet, pulled on socks. Next step, sunscreen. I got my bike shoes and helmet on and loaded my pockets with gels. I figured I'd start with a gel in transition and washed it down with a little drink, then unracked the bike, double checked my transition area and jogged to the bike start. A slow transition, but I felt happy and relaxed.
As I got on my bike the guy in front of me lost both bottles from his behind-the-seat cages and all his sports drink spilled. Shame, but he should invest in better bottle cages! The girl was here cheering for me too, so I started the bike ride hoping that I could handle the TT position for the full distance. The road quality on the Boulder course was good. There was no debris to speak of by the side of the road, the surface was fast and smooth, and the hills were subtle: false flats, gentle descents and just a couple of steep bits to keep you honest. Near the end of my first lap I was passed by two female pros just finishing their ride, sadly I didn't recognize them to cheer them on. My second lap was good, and knowing the course by then I felt really confident about the (small) hills and corners. After 56 fun miles I got back to transition - bike time: 2:33:22, by far the fastest I've ever ridden that distance.
The run was around Boulder Reservoir. Since it was an exposed course I took my time in transition again and layered up on sunscreen. After the fact I guess I missed some bits, so I've got some red stripes as souvenirs, but I did a decent job. Then the run... I didn't bother to time my swim, and I used my Garmin Edge bike computer for the bike leg, so I had my Timex Global Trainer watch to time the run. To make sure I'd get GPS lock quickly I'd taken it on the bike with me and turned it on. It auto-powered off during the ride, but as soon as I got to T2 I turned it back on. No GPS lock until about mile 4. I even had to reset the GPS 3 times. I'm really not impressed by that watch. So I ran the first few miles by feel, which included feeling the need to stop. First aid station - one portaloo with a green "vacant" sign... except that the lock was broken, so I stood and waited for a minute before deciding to move on. Second aid station... same problem. Fortunately this one vacated quickly and thirty seconds later I was back running again. The lack of facilities on the run course was my only complaint for the whole day.
After the first lap I decided that I'd try to hold my pace until mile 10, then if I still felt as good I'd go for a fast last 5km. The day was getting hot (around 88F/31C) by this point, so at every aid station I was grabbing ice water for my head, ice for my shirt, ice water for down my back... I even grabbed coke by mistake at one aid station, so figured it was rude not to drink it. More calories are good, right?
Anyway, at mile 10 I felt good and tried to up my pace. My effort went up, but glances at my watch didn't show me a corresponding increase in pace. Never mind, I settled into a rhythm and waited for mile 11. My pace managed to creep up through miles 11 and 12, then with about a quarter mile to go I gave everything I had. It's really amazing how good it feels to run fast, especially after that kind of effort. I felt like I was flying when I got to the finish line, a marked change from Austin last year, and I was all smiles as I got my finishers medal, some ice water and went to find shade. Total run time: 1:43:32.
So my race time was 4:59:30. Over an hour faster than my last half-ironman. I'm still having trouble comprehending how I got under 5 hours (even just 30s under), and the fact that I felt great afterwards. Sure, my legs stiffened up when I stopped moving, but I had plenty of energy left and since I'd not tapered for the race I'm a lot more confident about Ironman Wales now.
It looks like I'll be getting to the start line in Wales with two working eyes and some solid training behind me. I'm actually starting to shake some of the feelings of impending doom that I've been having about the race!
Anyway, as a result of the 5 doctor'svisits I have been proclaimed healthy (apart from my failing eyeballs) and I have cataract surgery scheduled at the end of the month. Yup, cataract surgery two-and-a-half weeks before Ironman Wales. Still, after a rough couple of weeks where my vision was frighteningly bad I can see again! Okay, only one is is really useful, but cataract surgery should bring that up to two. :-)
I'm still waiting to hear on my job interview, and between opthalmologists, rheumatologists, cataract surgeons and optometrists I'm totally over doctors right now. But training and racing is still good...
So what races? Well, there was the Cochiti Lake triathlon, which was a lot of fun, and Ironman 70.3 Boulder.
Cochiti Lake tri is a feature on the local calendar, and I can see why. It's a nice lake swim, followed by a relatively tough bike (nearly half is on bone-jarring chip-seal, and it has a couple of small hills to slow you down) and then a run that starts with a steep hill, continues on false flats and then bakes you alive in the heat. Did I mention that it was awesome? Okay, so there were some timing SNAFUs, but they all got sorted eventually. Also, by my GPS the bike was about a mile long and the run was 0.3 miles short. Everything went as expected really... the bike was a couple of minutes slower than I would have liked, but my run was a 10km PB at 40:42! Of course, the course was slightly short, and I don't run 10km races very often. I'll take it though. It got me my first podium of the year - 3rd in the M35-39 age group, with a total time of 2:27:51.
Now, the highlight of the last month: Boulder 70.3!
I'd been really looking forward to this. Technically it was a "training race". It was my second ever half-ironman, fifth ever triathlon and the litmus test for my Ironman Wales training. It was also to be my redemption for falling apart doing Ironman 70.3 Austin last year.
Boulder is a super-cool town. I have friends there, so accommodation and good times were sorted. The girl was my driver for the weekend as my eyes were in pretty bad shape, and she was an awesome support team and cheerleader.
The race itself was well-organised. It was a lot more low-key than Austin, but everything was done well. The volunteers were brilliant and the porta-loo to athlete ratio was good (except on the run course).
I'll get pictures and put them up some time, but this race had me nervous and I'll explain why. There's a mantra that applies to many sports, and triathlon is no exception: "Nothing new on race day". I broke that rule in several ways: new bike - I bought a used TT bike less than a week before and had only 60 miles on it by race day; new wheels - there was a sweet deal on used Zipp 404s that I couldn't pass up, so I picked them up in Boulder on Saturday and raced them on Sunday; new goggles - probably not so bad, but I have a collection of goggles that fog, so I bought new goggles (a brand/model I've not worn before). I'm sure there's more, but you get the point. Race day was full of surprises.
I actually warmed up before the swim. This is something I've never done before any oopen water events. Still, it felt good and gave me a bit of confidence in my new goggles. They worked like a champ and I could actually see well enough with my blurry eye to sight for the buoys and stay on course. The water was around 70-71F and was good until I got a slight stitch, probably from the pretzels I was snacking on before the start. Swim Time: 35:08
Dolphin diving out of the shallows, I jogged up the chute towards T1 looking for people I knew. I heard a shout of "Go Bike Works" and failed to see who shouted. Anyway, thanks to that unknown supporter (I was wearing a tri top from Bike Works on Hawaii's Big Island). My plan was for leisurely transitions, to practice for Wales. So I dried my feet, pulled on socks. Next step, sunscreen. I got my bike shoes and helmet on and loaded my pockets with gels. I figured I'd start with a gel in transition and washed it down with a little drink, then unracked the bike, double checked my transition area and jogged to the bike start. A slow transition, but I felt happy and relaxed.
As I got on my bike the guy in front of me lost both bottles from his behind-the-seat cages and all his sports drink spilled. Shame, but he should invest in better bottle cages! The girl was here cheering for me too, so I started the bike ride hoping that I could handle the TT position for the full distance. The road quality on the Boulder course was good. There was no debris to speak of by the side of the road, the surface was fast and smooth, and the hills were subtle: false flats, gentle descents and just a couple of steep bits to keep you honest. Near the end of my first lap I was passed by two female pros just finishing their ride, sadly I didn't recognize them to cheer them on. My second lap was good, and knowing the course by then I felt really confident about the (small) hills and corners. After 56 fun miles I got back to transition - bike time: 2:33:22, by far the fastest I've ever ridden that distance.
The run was around Boulder Reservoir. Since it was an exposed course I took my time in transition again and layered up on sunscreen. After the fact I guess I missed some bits, so I've got some red stripes as souvenirs, but I did a decent job. Then the run... I didn't bother to time my swim, and I used my Garmin Edge bike computer for the bike leg, so I had my Timex Global Trainer watch to time the run. To make sure I'd get GPS lock quickly I'd taken it on the bike with me and turned it on. It auto-powered off during the ride, but as soon as I got to T2 I turned it back on. No GPS lock until about mile 4. I even had to reset the GPS 3 times. I'm really not impressed by that watch. So I ran the first few miles by feel, which included feeling the need to stop. First aid station - one portaloo with a green "vacant" sign... except that the lock was broken, so I stood and waited for a minute before deciding to move on. Second aid station... same problem. Fortunately this one vacated quickly and thirty seconds later I was back running again. The lack of facilities on the run course was my only complaint for the whole day.
After the first lap I decided that I'd try to hold my pace until mile 10, then if I still felt as good I'd go for a fast last 5km. The day was getting hot (around 88F/31C) by this point, so at every aid station I was grabbing ice water for my head, ice for my shirt, ice water for down my back... I even grabbed coke by mistake at one aid station, so figured it was rude not to drink it. More calories are good, right?
Anyway, at mile 10 I felt good and tried to up my pace. My effort went up, but glances at my watch didn't show me a corresponding increase in pace. Never mind, I settled into a rhythm and waited for mile 11. My pace managed to creep up through miles 11 and 12, then with about a quarter mile to go I gave everything I had. It's really amazing how good it feels to run fast, especially after that kind of effort. I felt like I was flying when I got to the finish line, a marked change from Austin last year, and I was all smiles as I got my finishers medal, some ice water and went to find shade. Total run time: 1:43:32.
So my race time was 4:59:30. Over an hour faster than my last half-ironman. I'm still having trouble comprehending how I got under 5 hours (even just 30s under), and the fact that I felt great afterwards. Sure, my legs stiffened up when I stopped moving, but I had plenty of energy left and since I'd not tapered for the race I'm a lot more confident about Ironman Wales now.
It looks like I'll be getting to the start line in Wales with two working eyes and some solid training behind me. I'm actually starting to shake some of the feelings of impending doom that I've been having about the race!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)