Elizabeth Simi - Check in #3 - Triathletes Journey - Athletes in Motion Podcast Ep 051

Just grit your teeth and push through.  That is the best you can do at times. 

In this episode of A Triathlete’s Journey, Elizabeth is doing just that.  Dealing with a torn meniscus, Elizbeth is just trying to get through the walk/run training for Ironman California but she does that with  a scoop of reality mixed with a dollop of humor.   

A great episode for those that just need to keep moving forward!

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Transcript

Narrator: 0:10

Welcome to the athletes in motion podcast from race to recovery. With your hosts, Tom Regal, and Kenny Bailey.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:29

Hey, Tom, how are you?

Tom Regal: 0:30

I'm fantastic. Kenny, how are you?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 0:32

I am fantastic. Because we have Elizabeth back with our update. As everyone knows, this is our Triathlon Series where we're trying to keep up with trying to keep up with you guys on trying to on your workout schedule for the year. Yeah, exactly. So we're excited to have you back. We're excited to have people in to listen to us and watch us on Youtube. Before we get started, make sure you hit like and subscribe. Really? Helps us Yeah, so find a button and

Tom Regal: 1:00

subscribe. Just do it. Do it. Now. We'll hold well, wait a second bigger. Thank you.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:05

Okay, perfect. So Elizabeth, we're getting we're getting ever closer to our Ironman California in October. How many weeks away? 10 weeks. 10 weeks?

Elizabeth Simi: 1:18

Yeah, unfortunately, you're starting to do

Tom Regal: 1:22

single digits or jumping down to single digits.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 1:24

Okay, so how are you feeling? What's the last update? We were we were struggling through some stuff. But are we still struggling? Are we oh, yeah, we're

Elizabeth Simi: 1:32

having a good time. Having a great time. So went down to Disneyland was there walked 11 and a half miles and thought it was going to die because my knees were so bad. So I made the call to the doctor and got cortisone shots in my knees to see if that would help. Um, it helps with arthritis. Not so much with the meniscus tears. Yeah, yeah. But um, yeah, yeah. So I, I'm still out there doing my thing. And I'm not giving up. I'm just got to realize that it's going to hurt when I'm doing the walk part of it. So, you know, so I'm doing a lot of math in my head right now, basically.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 2:19

So 10 weeks to go on that. I'm sorry, Tom. But I'm just gonna say weeks to go on that. You know, is there a time where you go, okay, like, either? Is there a go time? Is there sort of a fork in the road time that you're that you ask yourself? Is this is this crazy? You're not crazy? Are we past that time, or we're just saying, you know, Damn the torpedoes. And, and let's just go and see what happens.

Elizabeth Simi: 2:41

It is definitely crazy. And I am not going to give up. I, I will be at the starting line no matter what. And get out there, Do the swim, get on that bike and make it past where I made it last year. And as long as we don't have the wind, like, ya know. The good news is we've had a lot of wind this summer, so I've had lots of practices.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:11

Oh, good. So it's probably gonna be rainy and 65 that day, and it's gonna be so happy, right?

Elizabeth Simi: 3:21

I've never, I've never ridden in the rain. So don't say wonderful.

Tom Regal: 3:25

But Kenny Jenks is there

Kenny Bailey<br>: 3:27

to say, you're gonna love it. It keeps you nice and cool.

Tom Regal: 3:31

So what is Tim doing with your plan right now? So is he focusing more on the bike at this point? I mean, we obviously it's not running. So it's, we're trying to get you stronger on the bike to get you past that cut off.

Elizabeth Simi: 3:44

Yeah, I really need to focus on the bike. Definitely. I have a problem, though. Because I just want to keep going out there and walking and running and see kind of pushing myself to see how much pain I can handle. Yeah, I know,

Tom Regal: 4:02

shave that for race day. That's how much pain you can take.

Elizabeth Simi: 4:10

But definitely focusing a lot on the bike and getting me to focus more on the bike. I mean, I enjoy the bike riding to a point. But I don't like the trainer stuff. And I know, that's probably where I should be having my head focused on so I can get stronger. But it's boring. So totally.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 4:34

Give us an idea of sort of, so I know the environment in California. It's been pretty hot. How has I mean, give us sort of a painted picture, if you will, of sort of what that what those training days look like, is it I think it's in the hundreds on some of those days, isn't

Elizabeth Simi: 4:47

it? Yes. In fact, I'm thinking Sunday I was lucky it was all I think it only got up to 100 but I got out really early Sunday excited five and a half hour bike ride that day. And it was good. I mean, I stuck it out. And I didn't get overheated, which was good. Because some of my long rides I have because I've gotten out too late. It was, I mean, it was a good day, even though it was hot. And the worst part is just trying to figure out where the heck to ride for five and a half hours, you do the same, you know, thing over and over again. And then. So I kind of went into exploring neighborhoods because I was bored to death. Obviously, I get bored. Which is weird for somebody who's getting fired, man. Right?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 5:41

Well, and that's, uh, you know, there's a, there's a certain bit of mental, right toughness that you're trying to do, right? Because you have to do two loops in in California. And so, you know, you come back, you're like, great, I gotta go do that all over again. So, you know, so doing those loops can also right mental kind of strengthening, if you will, right?

Elizabeth Simi: 6:01

Yeah, and I love when I can get out on the course, which is really nice. It's just, if it's going to be too hot. I don't really want to be out there. Because there's no shade. I mean, unless you're on Babel slue, which is, you know, they still haven't fixed. Great. It's still rough as anything.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 6:21

Yeah. And they've changed. So I understand that they've changed the, the transitionary, right, to try to make it shorter for the run. Have you heard any updates on that?

Elizabeth Simi: 6:31

Yes, the transition area, instead of being in the ballpark is going to be in this parking lot. And from what I've seen, people are saying we're going to go underneath the kind of bridge. So there's it and up into the parking lot. So it's really going to decrease that transition time. Hopefully, they're going to cover the ground because it's dirt and softer. And it could be pretty rocky and kind of weird in there. So I don't know what the plan is there. Don't know for sure if they're maybe going to go over the street like we did last time. That mean, they had the roadblock. So I don't know why we wouldn't be able to go over the street, but I'm not sure what their plan is. But it is going to decrease the amount of time because going up into the ballpark was that long run up the hill and then into the ballpark.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 7:22

It was a half a mile run, which is really good. I guess the reason I bring that up is because just because you're used, like the good news for you is you get to do the course. Right? You're right. It's in your backyard. However, they're still changing stuff up, right? So there's going to be just changes where you got to pay attention, that you can't just assume that, well, I was like this last year, so it's gonna be the same. They're gonna throw a couple curveballs at you.

Elizabeth Simi: 7:45

Right, and I understand they're changing the run. But they haven't posted anything about that all they've done is the transition. It sounds like the bikes probably going to stay the same. I mean, I don't know how they could actually change it. I know I think the year before they had it going through clarksburg and for some reason, they changed that to you know, the route it was last year. So who knows, you know, they can do whatever they want, I guess. And we just go out there and do what they say. Right?

Kenny Bailey<br>: 8:15

Well, and that's the fun part, right? You just go out and like you said, you know, at some point in time, you just sort of the courses, the course you just sort of deal with like, like, like get started anxious. So

Elizabeth Simi: 8:23

Right. And I mean, I think once you get out on a race, it's nice because they're like, Okay, you swim this, you bike this, you run this, you don't have to make any decisions where in training, you're, you're going, Okay, I need this much time. Where am I going to go? What am I going to do? What's the safest route? You know, there's so much in that you have to decide training, where a race it's like, Hey, you just go do what somebody tells you to do. It's easy.

Tom Regal: 8:53

Just kind of go with the flow. You don't have to worry about what gas stations to stop at who's gonna watch your bike or you run into the restroom. It's all their races are so much better.

Elizabeth Simi: 9:04

races are so easy.

Tom Regal: 9:07

It's the training that sucks.

Elizabeth Simi: 9:11

In a lot of respects. But you know what the training to do? I mean, like last night, Tim did a time trial he does out on the canals we have here. And the nice part is the community in triathlon is amazing. And everybody's out there just pushing you and train, you know, give telling you how good you're doing, even when you don't feel like you're doing very well, you know, but, you know, that's the good part about training is getting in with your groups and having the encouragement and so I was thinking about that after last night because I'm looking at, you know, all the people I'm training with, and I mean, these people are incredible athletes, right? And then there's me and I'm like,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 9:59

Well, you're not As you know, you're incredible in your own way, right? Because you're you're getting it through, you're getting it done right. Are you are you doing open water right now in that river? Or are you guys swim in the course? Are you how much open water? Do you think? Or do you don't really need a whole lot for you though, right?

Elizabeth Simi: 10:16

Right. I do open water usually twice a week because I go up in the lake. So you know, I'm always out. I love open water swimming. So you know, I know that's weird. I know, you guys know. They're like, Hey

Tom Regal: 10:34

y'all. Yeah, that's much better. That's my preferred mode of being.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 10:38

I hate swim. I hate pools because you have to turn around. So I'd rather just get in a rhythm and go.

Elizabeth Simi: 10:42

Yeah, so I'm very lucky to have TBS and be able to go out with them and do open water swimming twice a week. And then I don't think anybody has hit the river yet, though, because I do belong to some open water swim groups. And I don't see anybody going in the river. It's, it's still high. It's It's crazy. It's crazy. I mean, you know, the California drought is definitely over for now. Because

Kenny Bailey<br>: 11:11

that'll be an interesting twist on this one, right? Because I know the snowpack was pretty heavy, the rain was pretty heavy. Like it'll be interesting as you get your 10 weeks away as you get closer, what they're gonna if they're gonna make a call now, they're not gonna make a call. If you know if it runs too fast, I guess I don't know if

Tom Regal: 11:29

they control the flow of the rivers. Right? We have hydroelectric power there. No, it's Mother Nature, controlling whatever's coming out of the out of the Sierras. This kind of crank it down, right? Or is there

Elizabeth Simi: 11:40

they do to control it? We have two dams between the American River that are they open and close them a lot. And so they could slow the American River if they need to. Sacramento, I think that's controlled by this Shasta Dam. So I don't know what they would do with that. But I know that's pretty much the Corps of Engineers, they have to make decisions on, you know, how much water do we need to keep and lead out and not a bunch of swimmers? Exactly. And really weird thing is our salmon, you know, a lot has to do with the American River with the salmon run. And they're not even letting people salmon fish this year. So because the salmon were affected so much. So it's like, it's there's a lot of weird stuff going on with our rivers right now. But,

Kenny Bailey<br>: 12:36

you know, control what you can control. Right? I guess that's that's what it gets to. Right.

Elizabeth Simi: 12:40

Right. And hey, if they let the water loose, we can get down on the river faster.

Tom Regal: 12:46

And yeah, jump in there. So you can have more water, scowling and getting out of out of the river. That's the hardest part.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 12:58

So regarding water, how how's the nutrition doing? How is anyone with 100 degree weather, especially in California, right? Because you just sort of you sweat it off. You don't really notice and notice sudden your skeleton. So do you feel good about sort of your hydration and nutrition right now? Or do you feel like that's an area? Okay?

Elizabeth Simi: 13:16

No, I'm really, really bad. And I'm trying to focus on taking my liquids in which I did so much better on Sunday. And my problem is, at the beginning, I don't drink enough. And then later on, I'm so thirsty. I just tried. Yeah, exactly. That's when you end up with a headache, or you don't feel well or, you know, that type of thing. So I'm really trying to focus on that Tim suggested making lines on my water bottle and putting a timer on to drink so much. Because it's not that I don't drink I just sip. And so that all sudden, an hours gone by and I realized my bottle still, you know, is about this full and I'm like, Oh, I didn't drink as much as I thought I did. So yeah. Yeah. So I working on that.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 14:07

Yeah, that's, uh, you know, I think Tim's idea, right of doing that. I love that data gives you an idea. Yeah, it gives you a sense of sort of, okay, what volume do I need to drink? It's not that you need the lines every single time you just it starts putting like, oh, okay, that's what a that's what that feels like, rather than just because I do the same thing. I do sips and then 20 miles and I, you know, have a bottle because I just I don't like guzzling. Right? Right? You there's something you know, there's obviously a difference or incipient guzzling, but, you know, somewhere in between. So if you can figure that out, the lines help you figure it out, at least. You may not need those lines on the race, because now you understand sort of what that feels like, if you will, right. So you're not freaking out, like where's my lines?

Tom Regal: 14:45

And training it gives you a good visual, though to know how much you are taking and to go Oh, yeah, I did take I did get in enough. And that's it's good practice for that. So

Elizabeth Simi: 14:54

yeah, it's fueling I'm still working on what works for me. A is stopping more and actually like eating a crosstable thing, are we you know, so?

Tom Regal: 15:08

Yeah, what have you found so far that you like and what have you found that you don't like? It doesn't work. It's always interesting to see what people eat.

Elizabeth Simi: 15:17

Yeah, I don't like gels at all like at the GU things that you squeeze out, but I do like gel blocks, the different types of gel blocks. And there's one brand I use all the time, but I can't think of what it is. But it has it tastes good. And it's easy to eat. So I do that one a lot. And then I got stuck on these stupid peanut butter jelly little sandwiches, because

Kenny Bailey<br>: 15:42

carousels are fantastic.

Elizabeth Simi: 15:46

They're hard to eat while you're writing. So yeah, like goos, like coming down, you're

Tom Regal: 15:52

gonna eat them faster. Three bytes, I'm

Elizabeth Simi: 15:56

done. I do everything really slow.

Tom Regal: 16:02

Time is of the essence. Add some water because it's just gonna glue your mouth. And now you have something to focus on for the next 30 miles of just trying to get your job pried open again and get it off the roof of your mouth. It's fun.

Elizabeth Simi: 16:18

That I'll try that next week. And

Tom Regal: 16:20

you have to take our liquids, and you find yourself drinking a lot because you're just trying to get this crap out to birds.

Elizabeth Simi: 16:28

Just fixed everything.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 16:32

Just put everything on the roof of your mouth and then stuff it out there. And

Elizabeth Simi: 16:37

I'll be like the dog licking the top.

Tom Regal: 16:40

It's like a slow release time release.

Elizabeth Simi: 16:45

So So yeah, so that's, that's what I'm working on is a consuming food. And you know, it's just it's, I think that's one of the things that everybody kind of forgets about to like, what do you guys ask about the nutrition and hydration? Because it's really an important part of the whole thing. Because when you're hungry? Things go bad.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 17:09

Yeah, yeah. How much do you rely on? Are you going to rely on the food that's available at the stations versus the stuff that you carry? Or do you have like a mix on that one? Or do you feel like you're gonna carry most of what you eat?

Elizabeth Simi: 17:22

Last year, I carried everything because I was afraid to stop this year, if I you know, feel like my speeds going good. I may stop. I did grab some waters last time, which that was fun. I never grabbed water run. I was riding a bike before I've done it running. But

Tom Regal: 17:42

that's yeah, it's a different Mark. Yeah,

Elizabeth Simi: 17:45

I did. Well, though, I didn't draw. I was I was

Tom Regal: 17:49

awesome. Well,

Elizabeth Simi: 17:51

yeah. So but I was watching like a lot of people. It was like they were having a picnic at the aid stations. And I'm like, How can you have time. So I definitely will carry most of my stuff. And I usually, I forgot I like to have a banana with me. So I do like to eat bananas. So and they're pretty easy once you get them open to eat while you're riding. So I will carry my bananas on my

Kenny Bailey<br>: 18:18

say go do something about you know, the idea of chicken broth that you finally get chicken broth on the aid stations when you when you start running. Because as the sun goes down, the chicken broth comes out. It's like that's my prize. Like it's like I get it because I'm not carrying chicken broth, right. So it's like we get chicken broth. Like somehow that's that's, you know, I'm so excited. I'm like looking around people. Like we get chicken broth, you know? Please, like we're out. I'm like, what? Like, that's not cool faster.

Elizabeth Simi: 18:50

Well, I'm looking forward to that part. It's like that, you know, so like, I heard there's Coke, you know, drinking some cola the other day while I was you know, out because like, Oh, let's see how this works. But

Kenny Bailey<br>: 19:04

they say that Coke is sort of the nuclear option is once you start it you can't stop it. Because you know, it's like because the sugar and caffeine high and so it crash off once you crack. Yeah. Yeah. Once you crack that, once you crack that genie open, you got to Yeah,

Tom Regal: 19:19

you got to keep it going. So So save that as a definitely nuclear option. That's your that's like if you're in case of emergency, if you're really starting to fade on the on the bike or the run. You know, usually I try to say save it for the run type of thing as you're going through and you get like that a halfway point and yet, then you know that every aid station you have to you'll take water in but you'll have to take coke and at the same thing just to keep it just to keep it going. Interesting because you could you could just Yeah, run out. Yeah, it's not it's not always a soft landing. It depends. It depends on the person. Yeah. If you especially if you don't drink Coke very often or you don't use it in training. It is yes, it's liquid nitrogen, it just bam, it just explodes on you. You know, and you will get a big rush out of it. And then you will crash and burn off of it just as quickly. So if you're not used to it, yeah, I would say try and drink a little bit dry it?

Elizabeth Simi: 20:18

Well, that's why I thought I should, you know, I can. My question is, is it flat coke? Or is it sparkly Coke,

Tom Regal: 20:26

it probably won't be flat. If it's flat, it's great. But know that it's probably going to have at least some bubbles in it, it's really hard to make it flat quickly. Okay, and they will open. Usually, I don't know, they used to take the two liter bottles and open them say they have them out there. So the longer you're out there, the more flat it might become. But ultimately know that if you slam a glass full of a cup full of it, that it's probably going to be pretty carbonated enough to you know, make your eyes burn.

Elizabeth Simi: 20:54

Yeah, yeah, that was the thing. You know, when I opened the cannon, I was drinking it when I was doing my walk. It was like, there's a lot of you know, carbonation in this. That's what I was thinking, is it carbonated not, so maybe, maybe they'll all be flat. Maybe

Kenny Bailey<br>: 21:13

the most interesting thing about, you know, when you when you this is what I did, at least when I enter the aid station, because it's a fairly long aid station, right? Okay, it's at the very beginning, it was grabbing some water just to get in there, grab a coke. And then in the middle, you got some food options, right? So banana, grapes, oranges, whatever, eat that. And then right before you leave, you grab a water to cleanse your palate. And then I think there's about 2030 feet, there's a garbage can. So you do the sort of the coke up front. Eat a little something, do the water at the end. And then that way, you know, you don't have you know, cola syrup in your mouth. Yeah, he leaves. So you know, think about how you go through that aid station. Because you can you can not break his stride because I would, I was attempting and that I had to walk but I attempted to run to the aid station, walk through the aid station to do that. Boom, at the beginning do that hit eat Beep boop, boop, boop right at the unit, grab the water for their way and then go so that way you have that. It's not like a 10 foot eight station, it's a fairly, you know, it's a few yards, right?

Tom Regal: 22:16

People and know that is just keep moving, keep moving through it, maybe you slow your pace down just a little bit. So you can make sure you get everything in. But don't stop the whole idea even on the bike, if you can, don't stop eat on the bike rolls through everything just it's that relentless movement, that's going to get you to the finish line, it's the stopping for, you know, a minute or two and you do that 10 times now you're at 20 minutes and 20 minutes could make a world of difference at the back end. So the less time that you're stopped, and at least moving forward at some pace. It helps out tremendously, because it's just cumulative at the end, right? It'll check with you eventually.

Kenny Bailey<br>: 22:59

You'll notice the Asians have sort of a similar setup on all of them. So once you start seeing the rhythm, if you will, you know what's the layout, the layout, the layout, right? And so then you're just kind of like boop, boop, boop, okay, food here.

Tom Regal: 23:11

Right. And Tim will probably prep you with all of this, you should prep you with all this just before the race, but things that that you know, on the bike when you're coming into an aid station, as you start to slow down and kind of make your way and you look to see who's around you. And as you're coming in, there are people holding up cups and things and whatever. And basically, if you want water sharp shout out water, water, water, yeah, really loudly, and they will tell you what is the next person down or waters over here I have water. If you're looking for Gatorade, you shout out, I want Gatorade, I want gay, they will point you to where it is. That way you're not slowing down to the people that have water and blocking somebody getting water when you just want Gatorade, the next one down. They let you know that so the more you can tell them as you're entering into that area. Shout it out, tell them what you want. If you need, you need whatever, they're they're looking for that and they're super responsive to volunteers are great when they know what you want. Otherwise, they're just standing there. Like, I know what to do. I'm somebody

Kenny Bailey<br>: 24:10

volunteers are fantastic. Yeah, I mean, they want to help they understand what kind of painter and they understand that it's been a day, right? They want to you know,

Tom Regal: 24:18

and they're all Yeah, yeah, they're all there like they want to they want to get you what you want as quickly as possible to help you on so the more that you can shout out and tell them and then yell Thank you of course afterwards. Yeah, that's critical. Give him a big smile. Thank you. Don't be watered down going. Yes, you guys rock and then on again, and then that just makes everybody's day at that point. They

Kenny Bailey<br>: 24:39

repeat that you know, 18 more times and you're like, alright, so it sounds like it sounds like you're doing great underwater, right? That seems to be a good one. It sounds like you're ready for the pain cave on the walk. I mean, this is gonna be what it is and you just go as long as you can and then the bike. You Spend the focus on the bike, which is fantastic. You're starting to realize that nutrition, you know, just continue to lock that down over the next 10 weeks. I'm assuming now you're in kind of the big throes of the big, you know, your volume is 10 weeks out your volume is pretty, pretty hefty.

Elizabeth Simi: 25:17

It's like you look at stuff that is like, three hours or, which is three hours a walk, you

Kenny Bailey<br>: 25:25

get a book on tape and call it a day. And so it's time to do a podcast. We're super proud, we're super proud of you that you're continuing to kind of do this. And I know you're, you're, you know, it's virtually uphill on this thing. But you're continuing to just sort of heads down and continue with a positive attitude, which is fantastic. So, yeah, fantastic. So we got a, we got a few folks rooting for you, we hope. And again, don't I'm just gonna say this to say it. But you know, at some point, you know, you still need your knee after this race is done. Right. So, you know, if it comes to a point where it gets silly, then, you know, it's, yeah, we all want to finish it off. But we also want to have, you know, healthy, healthy retirement and live. So yeah, kind of thing. So if it's not, you know, we love the tenacity. But at the same time, you know, we're just, we want to tell our viewers, you know, we want to balance that pain, you know, it's not pain and pain, if

Tom Regal: 26:24

you're going to do structural damage, we don't recommend you push, that kind of pain, that's like, get things checked out, go through it, make sure that if it is just discomfort, if it's a high level of discomfort because of some issues, but you're not going to create any more structural pain or damage to yourself down the road, then, you know, keep pushing on if it is structural damage or that that painful, then pull the plug. I mean, there's, you know, don't be smart about it. Let's be smart about it, but in the same sense, control what you can control. Love your attitude. It's, it's great, you know, just keep pushing along. And you know, taking what comes at you is great. So we love that. Love that tenacity for sure. Yeah. So. So we want to thank everybody for for checking in. Keep listening, subscribe, hit that button. Subscribe Now, while we're talking while you haven't clicked out of this yet. And yeah, keep up with the comments and questions and following along. So we're really having a good time with this. So thanks again, Elizabeth. Really appreciate your time on this. And looking forward to the next, the next check in and a few weeks. We'll be down to single digits at that point. So before we will be fun to hear how all of that is shaken up as we get real close to race day. So thank you so much, and for everybody, we'll catch you on the next one.