Ironman Florida Race Report

Well, hello everybody. It has been ages since I have posted something. Not many interesting things around these parts; especially since I hit the taper. The workouts just became things to "get through"; and my level of tiredness was skyrocketing. But everyone said that was normal. So I went along with it.

The last couple of weeks pre-ironman were hard. Especially from a focus perspective. It was SO close to the race; but yet so far away. Know what I mean? You are on the final straightaway; but utterly scared of injury or illness. You had made it this far; and the worst thing would be to fall sick; or hurt yourself during taper. So I made sure I was extremely cautious.

About 2 days before we left for Panama City Beach (PCB); I went through my transition bag list and actually packed them. And I am going to tell you; they were organized! You see, I had a system. I had bags within the bags. A big gallon bag with all the things I knew I was going to put on for sure; a bag with my nutrition, and the things I could need or would leave in transition I just left lose in the bag. And it worked wonders. Didn't necessarily have speedy transitions; but I am sure I had faster transitions than a lot of people.

We started our trek own south on Wednesday at the crack of stupid. We left before 6 am; because I wanted to make sure I could hit registration on Wednesday instead of Thursday. We drove; and made it there right on time. I remembered things from last year and I had Todd park the car close to where I thought transition/finish/check in/store would be. Turns out this year they had moved most of the stuff another 1/4 mile down the road. So we walked; and walked.

Once there I registered without a problem; while Megan and Todd hit the Janus inspiration station to make signs. Megan went to town! She is a little creative bee. Coach had warned me about not looking at the scale when they weighted me in because it would likely be that I put on a couple of lbs.; and sure enough I did ( i blamed it on the 10 hours of driving, having my shoes on and water retention). It didn't bother me as much as I had anticipated. After that one of the wonderful volunteers explained to me all there was to know about the stuff contained in my athlete bag; where to put my numbers, what to do with my chip; etc. I left the registration tent, found the family and headed to the IM store; where I proceeded to buy a bike jersey and a couple of visors. You might say; I should have waited, but I wanted to make sure I got the things I wanted; and waiting until after the race was a bit of a gamble.

The rest of the day went without a hitch. We checked in to the hotel, and went to enjoy the beach.

Thursday rolled around and I met my friend Melinda for the gatorade swim. I wanted to make sure I swam in the ocean to remind my body of the feeling. The swim was LONG. Even though the sea seemed calm there was definitely a current; that made swimming toward shore pretty hard. Right then I knew, Saturday's swim would be slower than I would like. And I made peace with it. The rest of the day was spent at the beach, at the pool, in the hot tub. Just hanging around with the family.

Friday came pretty soon, and it brought along my in-laws. I was SO grateful for them coming! On race day Todd would need all the help he could get to take care of Megan and spectating my race. My day was pretty boring, I sat and laid down a lot. Then it was time for gear check in. I had my bags all packed and ready to go, so I just rolled into transition and dropped everything off. Then it was time for more sitting and laying down. I became a pro at it. Friday night I got almost no sleep. The bed did not feel comfortable; and my head would not quiet down. Eventually 4 am came along and I was ready to get up.

I got up, had breakfast, got dressed; braided my hair and at about 5 am we headed out. On our way to the start line we got a phone call... The alarm system company; letting us know there was a burglary alarm in our house back home. Trust me when I tell you, that even though it was not a pleasant piece of news to receive (turned out to be a false alarm); it kept my mind off the race for a while and as a consequence I did not get as worried as I normally do. Bonus!

Once the special needs bags were dropped off and the bike set up; all there was left to do was hydrate and wait. So I did. With about 30 minutes to the start, I donned my wetsuit and headed to the beach. And then I saw the crowds. Holy shit! I kissed Todd goodbye and went over the timing mat to take my place at the beach.

As I was standing there, looking around,, getting more nervous by the minute; I saw Megan and my in-laws, they had made it to the swim start! And I just LOVED being able to kiss my little girl before the start of the race. That made a WORLD of difference on my mindset. Next thing I know; they are singing the national anthem; Mike Reilly is telling us we will be Ironmen by the end of the day; and then the cannon goes off.

THE SWIM

I had positioned myself on the outside of the field, far from the buoys and towards the back of the pack. Being that swimming is not my strong point, and that I tend to panic in the water; I decided that little to no human contact would be essential to my swim. After about 1-2 minutes of slowly making my way into the water; I started swimming. There were people all around me; and I honestly felt calm and collected. Yes; I saw arms flailing and got more than one mouthful of water, but I felt like the group was "pulling" me. I did not feel like I was working hard. The water was not calm as it had been the days leading up to the race. There was quite a bit of chop, and I did my best to navigate my way in it. The first turn buoy was interesting to say the least. I don't think people get the easy physics concept that 2 bodies can't occupy the same space at the same time; so I saw a lot of "fighting".. Which reminds me of seeing people wearing snorkels... Hmmmm, strange. Anyhow; i tried to stay out of the "fuss" as much as possible. I got hit a few times; scratched some others; but managed to generally keep moving forward. Little by little I got closer and closer to shore and I was able to hear Mike Reilly's voice cheering people in. And I smiled, underwater. Heck! I was doing IRONMAN. I ran up the beach, crossed the timing mat after my first loop and headed back out to the water, for another dose of salt water. I tried to spot my family, but had no luck. Off I went. The second lap was harder, slower and choppier. There weren't as many people to draft off of, and you could really feel the water pulling; yet the first turn buoy was chaotic again. This time I actually got sandwiched between 2 guys; who pulled me under water. Now, on a regular day, ,that would have scared the living daylights out of me; but not this time. I was PISSED. I got my head out of the water; hit the guys and shouted a very loud "FUCK YOU!". Then I continued to swim. Slowly but surely I made my way to shore. I hit the sand and started peeling my wetsuit off. I had survived the swim; and I knew I could finish the race.

T1

I tired to be as fast as I could here; but a couple of inefficiencies by the organizers; coupled with a very crowded t1 tent, and some not very quick volunteers made for an interesting experience. My transition bag system worked pretty well, except that the volunteer could bot understand what I was saying. I changed, headed out and waited for about 2 minutes to get sunscreen applied. I knew I was not racing for placement; so I had not problems waiting to get my skin properly protected.

THE BIKE

After I got on my bike I immediately started drinking. I still had salt water taste in my mouth and that made me thirsty. About 1/2 mile from the start of the bike, the course went past our condo; so I got to see and wave to my family. I would not see them for another 6 hours. After that I started executing my plan. I took it easy the first hour; but we had a tailwind; which helped me go quite fast. I was just taking it all in. Pedaling; drinking; eating my nutrition; being passed by people; passing people. I was having a blast. Then we turned on to the headwind; which would stay would us for the better part of the bike; and I saw my speed drop. I was still staying in my zones; maybe a bit under where I should have been. I just wanted to make sure I did not blow myself up. My nutrition plan was mostly working. Most of my calories came from EFS liquid shots; with about 75 calories and hour coming from Carbo pro. The 75 calories of carbo pro started giving me stomach issues; so I stopped taking it. I never felt low on energy; but I did feel my stomach get hungry. After we had passed the roughest part of the course (the out and back section was a false flat; with a headwind and horrible pavement, at about mile 70) I decided to try bananas to make up for the calories I was behind on. They totally hit the spot! They made me feel "refreshed" and I took a couple of them over the next 20-30 miles. I kept pedaling; stretching my back and my neck every so often; and just moving forwards.

I did have a couple of snafu's along the course. I stopped to use the porta john handed my bike to a volunteers; and she promptly dropped it, breaking my bike computer (so I rode more than half of the course without cadence and speed data). About 10 minutes after that as we are going on one of the few uphills in the course; I made the rookie mistake of switching gears too fast and I dropped chain. As I got off my bike I told myself "Breathe" ( I took a deep breath) "now fix it"; so I did. It took me a mere 30 seconds and I was back on my bike.

The last 5 miles were the longest ever. You hit front beach road and you know you are close to transition; but it still takes forever to get there. Not to mention the beautiful tailwind we had at the beginning of the bike was now a headwind; and a pretty bad one at that. Eventually I took the last turn towards transition. Took my feet off my shoes; waved to my family and rolled in.

T2

This transition was faster than the first one, but still not as efficient as it could have been. I had another whole outfit change, and also took time to apply sunscreen; as well as hit the porta potty on the way out.

THE RUN

As I had rolled in to T2 I took a couple of tums; as I always have stomach issues when I transition to the run. I don't think they had much of an effect. Upon exiting transition we took a left turn and ran to a turn around point for about 200 meters. At the turn around is where my family was waiting for me to see me. As I get closer and closer, Megan sees me and she took a straight line to run to me in the middle of the course. Luckily no one was coming so we didn't block anyones way. I got the best hug and kiss; and the biggest "awwwwww" from the crowd. It was awesome! After a few I love you's I headed out to run. At this point I was still feeling pretty good; trying to hold back my pace, making sure I did not go out too hard. By the time I reached mile 1 I was already walking. My stomach was completely clogged, I had a rock sitting on it; and I felt nauseated and disgusted by anything I tried to eat or drink made me want to gag. I hated having to slow down to a walk; but Liz and I had gone through this scenario many times before. So I knew what to do: Walk like I had someplace to go; and not give anything up. And I did, I walked, and tried jogging, then running... until my stomach could not take it anymore; so then I would walk again; and repeat the cycle. I hit a couple of low points here; where I was so mad with myself and my stomach. Never once I thought of giving up though; but I did think I would have to walk the entire marathon. I was looking sort of pitiful; and then a spectator told me something that renewed my hopes; she said: you have all the time in the world to let your race come back to you. And that was exactly what i needed. It took me almost 3 hours to finish the first 1/2 of the run course; but by the time I hit the turn around point in front of the finish line; my stomach had calmed down enough so I was able to run a bit more. And I did. And I started passing people, and I started drinking, and eating. And my run came back to me. And I felt AWESOME. I was doing Ironman, and I had the race in the bag. I was not going fast; but I was running and I was smiling again. And that my friends was key. The miles slowly went by. And I never hit the "wall". Yes, my legs hurt and I could feel the overall fatigue; but at no point i thought I could not continue. My mission on that day was to stop at nothing but the finish line. And that was exactly what I did. Upon seeing the sign for mile marker 25; I set a little challenge for myself: to make the last mile my fastest. There would be no stopping, there would be no walking the aid station. Just a steady effort to the finish. I pushed, and I passed people and I heard comments: " Great form" "You look awesome" "Strong finish". And I believed them all. I took them all in, and made sure to feel proud about it. I ran my way through the residential neighborhood, and took thee last couple of turns. The closer I got, the louder I heard the cheering and Mike Reilly's voice.. The last left turn; the home stretch. The lights, the people, the noise. Completely surreal.

The chute gets really narrow right before the turn around; and I was "stuck" behind a girl. I could have attempted to pass her, but I did not want to trip and fall; or make her trip and fall. So I slowed down and let her go. This race was not about placing. This race was about getting there and enjoying the experience. We took the last turn into the finisher's chute and I just cannot believe my eyes. Here I am about to become an Ironman. Little 'ol me; an IRONMAN.

I cannot contain my smile any longer; I just want to raise my hands and celebrate the accomplishment. As I am approaching the line I heard Mire Reilly say "Danni K. you are an Ironman"; arms up, smile big. The line, the volunteers. And then, I was done.

My entire year of work had came to fruition and I had the race of a lifetime. Could not have asked for a better day.

Conclusions coming soon....

Augusta 70.3 RR or How I fell in love with triathlon all over again

I know it has been a while since I have blogged. IM training, family life and work have kept me busy. As my training hours ramped up I tried to spend as much “free” time with my family as possible; putting less essential things in the back burner big time; with blogging being one of those activities. Also; after the last “disaster” race I had back in May I realized I had become too dependant on what blog world thought of me and my training and decided to take a step back. That proved to be a very smart decision.

Last weekend I raced Augusta 70.3. It was my third half ironman but my first “Ironman brand” race. I had never been part of a race of this magnitude. The transition area was HUGE and slightly intimidating.

Molly and I arrived on Friday evening; me by car, Molly by plane. I picked her up from the Augusta airport and we headed to the hotel. We chatted all the way to the hotel and then some; but soon thereafter it was time to get some sleep. Friday was the “most important” night of sleep according to Coach. I slept really well. Woke up without an alarm on Saturday and we headed to the river for some swimming. The current was quite strong and we were swimming upriver… Let’s just say we did not cover a lot of distance. Out of the water, walk back to the hotel, and off on a quick spin. Once the pre-race brick was done; we tried and tried to find some food. Downtown Augusta is not as cute as I thought it would be. Most of the storefronts were closed and there was nobody on the street with the exception of the athletes in town. We finally found some food (and coffee) at the host hotel and headed to the pre-race meeting and athlete check in. All I am going to say is that I expected this to be better organized. We stood in lines for at least 40 minutes; and we all know that the day before a race that is not super smart. We went through the expo and I scored a VERY nice TYR tri top for 50% off (I wore it on race day). After all that mess we went out to drive the bike course. The elevation chart posted on the website makes it look a lot hillier than it actually is. We also saw a LOT of people riding the entire bike course the day before the race. Not us!

The rest of the afternoon went by fast. Lunch, a quick trip to starbucks for some real coffee, and back to the hotel to put my feet up. Around 6 pm we headed to transition to drop off my bike and then we met up with Wes, DeeDee, Kevin and Kathy for dinner at Carrabbas. Again, not the smoothest operation around…. We waited close to 2 hours to be seated and then about another 30 minutes to put our food orders in. At this point; my head had kind of checked out already; but the company was AWESOME. While we were at dinner it started raining, quite hard actually; and for a slight bit I worried about my bike. Minutes later I realized; there was nothing I could do, so I let it go. We said our goodnights and Molly and I headed back to the hotel. I got all my nutrition ready and went to bed.

Race morning started at 5am. Woke up, ate my breakfast; drank the horrendous hotel coffee and started getting ready. I got dressed, body marked myself, Molly helped me with the sunscreen and I left. I walked to the host hotel to catch the shuttle to transition; and once I was on it I started chatting with people. I know most of you already know but the triathlon community is awesome. ‘Nuff said.

When I got to transition I set up pretty quickly. The space between the bikes was awfully small and I did not like that fact one bit. That paired with the fact that all the people from your same wave were set up next to each other made for a pretty tight set up. Coming out of the water to T1 would certainly be interesting. Anyhow; I think I have become really efficient at setting up my transition as I have learnt from past experiences what I tend to do and in what order. After setting up I headed to use the “facilities”. The line was long. Once I made sure I had done everything I needed to do in transition I headed to the swim start. Since it was 1.2 miles away they had shuttle buses; but those lines were long and out of control, so I walked. Molly was going to wait for me at the start and take my morning gear bag so I wore my spare sneakers. At this point, I was getting slightly nervous, your typical butterflies; but at the same time I felt calm. I knew going into this race that this was not a performance about time; but about executing my IM plan and making sure it worked. Upon arrival to the swim start I was delighted to see they had A LOT more porta potties J I picked up my chip and started my search for Molly. I found DeeDee really easily and we made a back up plan for my gear in case I did not see Molly. Shortly thereafter I found my Sherpa Extraordinaire. We hung out, watched the pros go off and too soon it was time for me to get ready. Wetsuit on, body glide applied, swim cap, goggles… Off to stand with the rest of the pink caps. When my wave was called we walked to the pier from where we were to start and since I was towards the end of the line I had to stay on the pier until everybody went off.

The swim

The horn went off and as people started moving away from the pier I lowered myself into the water, found some space and started swimming. I was unusually calm. There really wasn’t anything to sight off so I followed the other pink caps. I did my best to swim as straight as possible and I think I managed. There was one thing that surprised me about this swim (other than my swim time); I never freaked out, I never thought “what am I doing?” which is a common occurrence for me. I think knowing that this was NOT my BIG race helped me stay calm and focused on having a good swim and having fun rather than worrying about time. I never looked at my watch; but the swim still seemed long. You all know the water and I are not exactly friends; but I am learning to embrace our relationship J At one point I did think that I was going to have another sub par minute swim because I felt like I was not really going “faster” (there was all this hype about how much faster you’d go because of the current; and we did indeed swim faster -a lot faster- but when swimming I really couldn’t feel the current’s assistance). I just swam, and swam and swam. Eventually the swim exit came into view and I picked up my pace. As we were getting closer to the exit someone tried to grab my legs and swim over me. NOT COOL. I kicked hard so that whomever was trying to swim over me would at least get a kick in the face J You don’t mess with me on swim exit!

T1

The run to T1 was long; but I had my legs with me. I am not sure how fast I ran, but I felt calm and able to push it. They had wetsuit peelers and that was awesome. Only bad thing is that my feet were full of grass and I had no way of cleaning them. Like I said before, transition was packed tightly; and when I got to my area; both the ladies to my left and right were there as well. Not much space to move around. I got my gear and headed out.

The bike

Molly and I had driven the course the day before and it did not look as hilly as the elevation chart showed it. I left transition; clipped in and off I went. I took it extremely easy for the first .25 mile because there were A LOT of bikes on a very small space. Once we hit the open road I got aero and started pedaling at the cadence I would hold the entire bike leg… Above 85 (this was my strategy and my goal). The first part of the course seemed really fast; I was going at about 20.5 mph and I did not feel like I was working hard at all. I really tried to bring my HR down; but my watch kept showing me zone 4 (I had set my watch to show me the zones that I had pre-programmed and not the actual HR number). The funny thing is that I did NOT feel like I was riding Z4. My breathing was easy, my legs were not burning and it felt relatively “easy” to go. I decided to go by feel rather than worry about HR. I followed my nutrition plan as I am going to do for IM (goal #2 for this race) and luckily I never got tired of my “food”. I found the bike course extremely enjoyable, and honestly just had a FUN time out there. People passed me, I passed people. I was not concerned about placement at all. As coach instructed me, I spun up the hills and made sure my HR did not go too much out of control (the key to letting my stomach digest my food to ensure a good run). I felt strong the entire time. On previous races I normally hit a “low” point at around mile 48 where I want to be done and my legs are toast; my cadence drops significantly and I slug my way back to transition. During this race, that never happened. I kept getting myself mentally ready to fight through it; but the low never came. I think the nutrition plan might have been responsible for it; I think I was more consistently fueled and my energy levels remained more constant than in previous races. I was just having a lot of fun; and I think that was key. I had my best bike split on a ½ IM.

T2

Rolling into T2 I could not believe my bike split ☺ I was HAPPY. I jogged/walked my way to my rack being very careful not to step on the potholes on the way or lose footing. I put my bike back on the rack, changed shoes, grabbed my nutrition and left.

The run

I started the run feeling really good. My legs were there for the most part; definitely better than on previous races. The run for me is usually a mental challenge. I get overwhelmed by the distance I have yet to cover and I start slipping slowly. Knowing this, I started working on that right away. I kept repeating my mantras and just focusing on myself and my own race. I ran the first 2 miles non stop (maybe slightly faster than I should have.. but I can’t really judge my pace off the bike as it always feels like I am running slow and it turns out I am not) then my stomach got a little bothersome. Some burps, a little bit of reflux. I took water at the aid stations, mixed a couple of walk breaks here and there and little by little my stomach started to settle. Here is when I started seeing Molly at regular intervals on the race. She was AWESOME! Giving me encouraging words, taking pictures, relaying messages from coach. THE WORKS. Totally rocked the spectathlete, Sherpa duties during this race. I hit the 7 mile marker a little slower than I wanted; but after that my stomach finally felt better and I was able to run more. I could still not tell how fast I was running; but I kept running as long as I felt good. I would run about 8/9 minutes and then take a 30 second walk break to “relax” my stomach (harder efforts make my stomach tense up… weird, I know). I was so unattached to a time goal that I was just focused on feeling good and nailing my IM strategy. I had a smile on my face the entire time. Yes I was sore, I had a huge blister on one of my toes on the left foot but I felt AWESOME. Never ONCE did I question what I was doing on the race course. On the contrary; I was inundated with the feeling of loving this sport and being SO lucky to be able to do this. The spectators were awesome and hearing people cheer for you made you want to go harder/faster. With about one mile to go I allowed myself to look at the total elapsed time and could not believe my eyes! I was on pace to break 6 hours!

Crossing that finish line was awesome. For the first time I allowed myself to “celebrate” as I was crossing the line. I had finished the race and I felt like I could have kept going. I glanced at my watch; did a double take and started laughing. I had not set out to beat the clock; or even set a PR. Coach and I took a look at how my training has been going; what bumps in the road I have encountered and we agreed that a sub 6 was probably not achievable this time around. Especially because I was not racing at my HIM pace; but more like practicing my IM pace. And there I was; sub 6 and feeling awesome. Completely speechless.

I walked out of the finish chute; found Molly and headed towards the food/drinks. I had asked her to bring my recovery drink so I could take it right away; and I think that helped my recovery tremendously. We hung out to see Wes finish and then it was time for me to get my stuff and get on the road.

I learnt a lot of lessons during this race. The biggest ones: when I “let go” I can achieve big things; and it is definitely all in my head. Here it is to hoping I will be able to remember these lessons on November 7th.

Training camp: coach ELF style!

Yesterday was day one of Camp ELF. Andrea, Cat and I made it to Chicago after lunch and after getting acquainted we headed out to do our first training session. We are not talking smal potatoes here... It was a 2 mile open water swim; where we got to meet Jen H. as well.

The lake was a good size and with the exception of Cat who was doing a combination of swim/run/swim, we swam around it. Each loop was about a mile, so we headed for 2 loops. Immediately after we started I lost sight of everybody. Jen and Liz are very fast swimmers and there was no way in the world I would be able to keep up with them. So, truth be told I didn't even bother.

Sighting was a bit difficult mostly because the landmarks were unfamiliar and the lake was new to me; so I did my best to try to follow other swimming caps. The first loop was uneventful; I swam and swam and swam and eventually made it back to the beach. The second loop felt much longer than the first one but I made it around. I had a few moments where my left calf/foot cramped up and I managed to push through. I was happy to finish up though. This was mostly a confidence builder for me. I set out just to swim the 2 miles; without concern about times, to gain peace of mind that I could finish the Ironman swim. And you know what? I can. I totally can swim the 2.4 miles; and I think I might be able to pull in a pretty decent time as well. Only time will tell.

After swimming we all headed to Noodles for dinner. It was delicious; and it really hit the spot. Conversation was awesome too; but we were all pretty shot. Long day of travel and workouts; we were ready to hit the sack.
I slept pretty well; and the morning came all too quickly. I was greeted by the one and only BOSS; and I do have to say he is the cutest Chihuahua I have ever seen. Not your typical loud, obnoxious Chihuahua; but this sweet little thing!

Everybody got up and after a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee (of course) we headed to the track to get our running videotaped and critiqued. One by one; we ran, got taped and then carefully listened to what Liz had to say about our form. It was very interenting to see the different running forms and to watch Liz run. Oh my gosh! Her body is able to move in ways that I am not sure I will ever be able to. There is no "bounce" to her running. It is pure forward motion. I am hoping someday I'll get there. We did a couple of timed sets; before and after run critique. It will take some getting used to the new way; but it should be more efficient.

We headed back to the house for some lunch; and since Cat and I were borrowing Liz's bikes we got fitted to them. Man she has some nice machinery! We chilled for a while and then it was time to head out to swim. Again. This time it was about form and stroke efficiency. We all got some excellent pointers and I was able to discover my lats. That is a whole new source for swimming power right there. Truth be told, it is harder to swim with my lats and it will take a while to build endurance. Anything to get better and faster, right?

Next on the list was a spin through the Arboretum. I loved that we were able to just ride there. I am always having to get in my car, drive somewhere and THEN ride. But here, we just got on the bikes and started pedaling. Awesome. The place was gorgeous. Mostly shaded (a nice break from all the sun we were exposed to), with a lot of turns and some little climbs thrown in for good fun. We rode for an hour and then left Liz to finish up her 2 hour ride.

After everyone showered and cleaned up, Andrea and Liz made this awesome chicken dinner with curry and coconut milk. VERY YUMMY. Add some veggies and brown rice and you have the perfect athlete's meal.

Right now we are just chillin'. Boss is by my side murdering Squeaky Carrot, Andrea is watching The Office, Cat is Facebooking and Liz is writing schedules. Pretty soon I think I will be crashing hard and hitting the bed and it's onle 8:15. The day has been long but super fun. The company is great and that makes training that much more fun. We have been bad about taking pictures, but I am taking the camera during our ride tomorrow. Hopefully something good will turn out.

Coping & Inspiration

It has been a couple of hard weeks around these parts. Weeks with some accomplishments and some setbacks.

I finished the first training block for IM; and I managed to get in every training session with the exception of a recovery bike after my long run last sunday. That long run was the hardest one I've had in a long time; mostly because I have been battling some really nasty leg pain on my left leg. I have been coping with it as best as I can; but sunday I'd had enough. My run was so painful that it made me incredibly angry/upset. I had to hobble/walk the majority of it and I felt cheated out of my session.

The pain basically boils down to having really tight muscles on my butt and that is putting pressure on my sciatic nerve and making my leg hurt/tingle. I have started massage therapy and it is better; but still not 100%. I will continue to go as often as I can afford it and I am doing a lot of stretching/rolling at home as well. Hopefully if I work at it diligently I will be able to solve the problem. I'll give it all I have.

Last weekend I was also asked to participate on the swim portion of a relay team on a small sprint tri. One of the coaches from my old tri program asked me if I would relay for one of the women she is coaching now; who was not so comfortable in the water. I did not hesitate to accept. I remember when I was in that same position; being afraid of the OW. The race went well; the woman had an awesome race and so did I. I had my best 1/2 mile OW time... almost 3 minutes faster than last year.

Of course while watching everybody riding and running I wanted to race pretty badly; and I had to keep reminding myself of "the big picture"; what I am trying to accomplish this year and how a short sprint is not exactly the most "beneficial" for me at this point. Next year.

The week was good; I had a nice recovery week and I mostly enjoyed my workouts. And then there was yesterday.

S (the woman I relayed the swim for) asked me if I was still planning on attending the OW practice they held at the local lake. I had told her that even though I was planning on swimming a mile (2 loops) I would swim the first loop with her. You see; she had attempted to swim the one loop by herself and found that when she got to the second buoy panic had set in and her head convinced her she could not do it.

Upon arrival yesterday morning I found S and was very specific about the goals for the day: "I will NOT let you quit. You will swim the entire loop. Doesn't matter how or how fast you go; you will move forward and you will finish." With that statement right there I also assured her that I would stick by her side the entire way and offer reassurance; I would not exactly "help" her swim, but I would be there to comfort and calm any nerves that might arise. From my own experience I knew that once you finish one of these OWS, your self confidence takes a huge boost; and that is what I was after for her.

When the horn went off we waited until everyone had left the beach to start swimming. S set off swimming and I was right behind her. A couple of strokes later she lifted her head and looked for me. I was able to notice the little "scared" feeling and I assured her I was right behind her. She sighed with relief. I moved up to her "breathing side" so that she could see me there each time she took a breath. Slowly but surely we made our way around the loop. At the final buoy; with a mere 150 yds to the finish I told S she would swim to shore by herself so that I could go on to the second loop. She agreed no problem; after all she had come that far and there was no way she was quitting now! I was SO proud of her; still am. Sometimes all that it takes is for someone to show you they believe in you.

Right now I am fresh from watching the coverage of the Irongirl Atlanta. Man! I want to race so much! I was watching the women and got flooded with this feeling of happiness and fun. I love this sport so much! Can't wait for my next race!

Unleashing the animal

Countless times I have read on Coach’s blog about racing and training “like an animal”. Always wondered what it meant and if I had experienced it. The answer came to me last night during my group ride.

After riding the century on Saturday I thought for sure this week would be a slow, steady slugfest. I rested hard on Sunday; and when Monday came around I was actually looking forward to my run and testing my legs. I went out after work and was surprised to feel my legs respond well. I was not necessarily fast; but it was one of the best runs I have had in a while. I decided to run without music and to go out as light as possible. It was just a one hour run and I had hydrated well during the day; so I thought there would be no problem if I ran without water.

The schedule also called for running without HRM and boy did I love that! Going by feel felt awesome and the time ticked away pretty fast. My simple out and back route proved to be efficient, fun and yet challenging; as the last ¾ mile was mostly uphill. I was very happy with my performance and headed home in a high of sorts. As it always happens when I run after work; my adrenaline kept me up way past my regular bedtime. When I finally fell asleep; a severe storm rolled through that made me wake up every 45 minutes or thereabouts. A bad night of sleep to put it in simple words.

Tuesday morning came way too early and I was exhausted. The 3000 yds on tap did not look appealing; but I was going to put the effort and get through them. And then I reached the pool. The lanes were full and I made the decision of just showering and heading to work; switching my rest day from Friday to Tuesday. Needless to say; Tuesday night I was asleep by 9 pm.

Wednesday morning found me working from home; able to get a couple more hours of sleep and well rested. Work was busy, nothing too terrible but a constant stream of projects and requests. My feelings towards the evening ride swing back and forth: I wanted to bag it, I wanted to go out and ride hard…. Eventually I decided I would go and try my best to hang with the “B” group. A couple of times I had ridden this ride with the “C” group and found their pace too slow for me; but the B group seemed intimidating as it was always full of guys with long strong legs and a policy of “If you have never ridden with us and don’t know the route, take a cue sheet because we will not wait”.

Armed with a couple of bottles of water and a cue sheet, I decided I’d give it my best to ride with B. After the long, steady century I just wanted to go and ride HARD for once. My schedule had a couple of intervals built into it; but I wanted more. We rolled out and knowing that the first 15-20 minutes of all my rides feel awkward I stayed comfortably on the middle/back of the pack and spun my legs to make sure they warmed up nicely before I started the efforts. A couple of people must have thought I was already struggling by mile 1 when we were going up a hill and I was just spinning instead of pushing the higher gears. A couple of words of encouragement were thrown my way and I smirked and thanked them.

About 5 miles into the ride; the group got split in 2 at a traffic light. Since I was on the middle/back I was on the group that stayed behind. I got a little pissy about it; but quickly decided to change my attitude and make the most of it. There were about 8 of us and I quickly put myself towards the front. I got into the big ring and decided I would keep up with the leaders no matter what. I was going up hills on my big chain ring (something I do not do much); descending like a champ (I am a big chicken when it come to descending); and finding that I had to slow down so I would not pass the leaders that knew the route. I was holding back; and I just wanted to GO.

I rode like this for a while until I was certain of where we were going and what the route did. In one of the flat sections, I passed the leaders and asked if I could take a pull. I was met with incredulous eyes. And I took that as a challenge. I shouted: “jump in” and started hammering. I cannot begin to tell you how good I felt. Getting down in aero, pushing the gears yet keeping my cadence at the level I wanted; knowing that I (the short girl in the small bike) was pulling the big guys. I was riding on roads all too familiar to me, at speeds about 2-3 mph faster than I normally ride them at. We came to a stop light; I looked behind and saw I had dropped about ½ of the group. The guys that stayed with me were commenting on how fast I had pulled them on this particular stretch of the road; and were actually complimenting me on a job well done. But I was no where near finished. As soon as that light turned green I started going again and was determined to pull until the end of the ride.

I gave it my best; I was working hard and one of the guys passed me as if I was at a stand still. I tried hard to get on his wheel, but to no avail. Definitely too fast for me, but I did not get discouraged; it just made me want to work harder. I finally caught up to him at another traffic light. As soon as that one turned green I went back to pulling. And man, I was going fast! And I felt STRONG. I felt the animal coming out right from inside me; and it was the best feeling I have experienced in a long time.

I wanted to ride a bit longer so I headed to ride an extra loop; but the guys wanted to go back so we said our goodbyes. I left with a bunch of "Well done's" some "thank you for a great pull" and the one that made me feel the best of all: "hope you come back next week and I can ride in your draft".

Century!

I honestly do not know where time has gone. It has been over a week since I posted my last little update and so much has happened ever since. Here are some little snippets:

- I improved my OWS time for the one mile by 3 minutes
- That same weekend I went on a riding adventure and ended up getting lost; taking longer than expected and loving my iphone and its map application
- I participated in another 10 mile TT with my bike; and not only did I cut almost a minute of my previous time; I also came in second AG (not a lot of people in my AG; but it still counts J )
- I realized that of all 3 sports, I LOVE riding my bike; and think that during the winter I need to do a better job of working on my bike fitness
- I have become totally addicted to the TDF; and suffered withdrawal symptoms on both of their rest days
- I realized that I only have 3 months left until Ironman (holy cow!)
- I went on my first century ride and I am still able to walk! Ha!

I thought I’d expand on the last one since it was quite the occasion. Last year I did this organized ride called “Lake Norman Excursion” if you look at my posts from last year; you will see that I had done the 65 mile option and was considering doing the 100 mile this year. Since I knew that long rides were coming; I ran the idea by coach. I mostly wanted to do my first century on a “supported” environment. What does that mean? With potties along the way; with water stops and with the peace of mind on the back of my head: should I need someone to pick me up; there would be vehicles doing exactly that. I didn’t exactly take advantage of all the stuff they had at the rest stops; after all I was experimenting with new ideas for my IM nutrition; but it was nice to not have to carry a gazillion bottles of water.

I got there early; mostly because I thought the ride started an hour earlier than it actually did; I got set up and started socializing with different people. I saw some old “friends”, some new ones, and just hung out until it was time to roll out. The first couple of miles were slow. You can imagine, about 600 people all starting at the same time; it is not exactly a recipe for fast, fast, fast. I was riding with a group of 3 other people and we were just keeping a conversational pace with some bursts of speed here and there to pass people that were going a little bit too slow. One thing that made me laugh early on: we had been riding for all of 15 minutes and we passed a couple, just as we were passing them the lady said: The first stop is at what 12 miles??. I thought to myself… there is someone who is really not enjoying herself on this ride; and who is having a hard time already. I did not want to be in her position.

We rolled past the first rest stop; we had plenty of water and food so we could skip it. We were keeping a nice pace; and I was focusing on my nutrition and hydration. I decided to try a combination of Carbo Pro 1200 and EFS liquid shot. Even though the Carbo Pro tastes like cough syrup; I found it quite enjoyable (I am one of those freaks that likes the taste of cough syrup) and the EFS liquid shot tasted like vanilla and was going down nicely. One of the things that I struggle with the most when fueling/hydrating during long workouts; is the taste that remains in my mouth after drinking sports drink. I can only drink so much of it; after a while it makes me gag. So I decided to get my calories from “food” and my salt from salt tabs, and stick with water as my main hydration source. This worked quite well for me. When we got to the second rest stop I already needed to use the potty (good sign of hydration spot on). So we took about 5 minutes to refill water bottles, stand in line and use the “facilities”. Then we rolled on.

At about mile 30 the routes split; and the group I was riding with chose the shorter distance. Here started my solo riding. I will say that it was not as mentally hard as I expected it to be. I was able to always keep people in sight and I think that helped. I would catch up to a group, ride with them for a few minutes and promptly get dropped on a climb. My strategy was to spin up the hills to try to keep my HR as steady as possible. With this being my first century I did not want to take the chance of pushing too hard too soon; and then be left with no energy to finish. Coach’s instructions were: I do not care how long it takes you, just FINISH the ride. And I was going to follow that to the T.

My nutrition was working great. I was getting a bit dehydrated perhaps; so I upped my water and salt intake. Within 30 minutes I was back on track. Around the fifth hour; my EFS liquid shot had ran out; so I reached for the first gel I could find. It happened to be a Chocolate power gel. I ate it; and within 15 minutes I could tell that it had messed up my stomach. It just felt like a rock; sitting there. I forced more water down; and made sure to keep eating and drinking as close to schedule as possible. The heavy feeling never went away; but it also did not get any worse. And I was able to get through that.

The route was H-I-L-L-Y; and I would be lying if I said that my hear did not sink a couple of times when after turning a corner I looked up and saw yet ANOTHER climb. But I put my head down, spun up and got through them. One thing that I noticed is that my cycling fitness has tremendously improved since last year. The 65 and the 100 mile options of this ride share a good part of the route; and I was able to realize that some of the climbs that last year “killed” me; this year were barely leaving me winded. Score!

The hours ticked by and then, I was done. I rolled back into the campus we had departed from; located my car; dismounted my bike and, even though I was tired, I noticed I could run. I got my running gear on and set on to my 10 minute run. My legs felt strangely ok. Sore? Yes. Painful? No. I could do this! Then, I noticed they were putting away the post ride food; so I chose to stop running to go eat. I wanted to eat something other than a gel. Man, a muffin never tasted so good. And ice cold water. Ahhhhh!

What did I take away from this experience? I think 2 things: I CAN ride the 112 miles in IM; and perhaps I need to revise my goals for the race. I was not as fast as I would have wanted to be; and I am not sure I can quite get there by race day in November; so it is time to take a good look at myself, my fitness and my progress; search deep in the heart and come up with goals that challenge me yet are attainable. Am I giving up on my “top secret” goal? Heck no! I just think that fixating myself on THAT particular goal; is just a recipe for disaster at this time. It might not be this year; but I WILL get there.

Mid week check!

Well, it is not exacly mid week; but it's as close as it's going to get.

Training has been going well; not superb, not bad; I am getting the work done. Week one of IM build found me with the lovely company of "Aunt Flo" and that ALWAYS makes me drag and feel out of sorts. I am a bit tired but nothing a few more hours of sleep this coming weekend won't fix.

I have also been paying close attention to my nutrition and logging in my food intake on an online tool. I think I have been doing well in that regard too. With the exception of yesterday.

Yesterday was a "special" day since I went to lunch with a woman I met at my last OWS. It turns out she is training for IMFL too and lives close to my house! I have not trained with people for a very long time and this is a much welcome change. Anywho, we got together to talk about training, triathlon, injuries and all that goes along with being an athlete. Even though we met at a healthy place, you never know exactly what is IN the food they make. So all I could do is guess amounts and nutritional values based on what I saw my food contained. I did not go crazy and ate like a mad woman; but I did not act all concerend about it. I tried to keep it as natural as possible. And I think I did well.

Today I am working from home and the best thing about it (besides being able to wear my pjs all day) is that I get to watch "le tour" as it is happening. Yay Versus!!!!

Tonight I have a bike ride with some hill repeats thrown in there for some flavor. I think I have pictured what hills I will be riding, but it will all depend on how traffic is behaving. The ONE thing I need to work on as far as bike handling skills go; is making U turns. I am SO scared of them that each time I have to do one I end up unclipping and turning my bike around. Silly, I know, but the last time I attempted a U turn fully clipped in I ended up falling off my bike and having a bruise/ bump the size of a watermelon on my left butt cheek. Thanks, but no thanks.

And that is how my week is going so far. A couple of more days and then the weekend is here; which will bring me an OWS and a 4 hour bike ride. It is time to start building my endurance back up. I am armed with a new nutrition plan (thanks Cat!) and I am ready to give it a go.

Let's get this show on the road!

Ironman build starts today

And I am ready to tackle it head on.

On tap: longuish run after work. Followed by recovery and ice bath; so I can get up and run again tomorrow.

Yeah.... Bring it!

The game is ON

I am not quite sure what happened yesterday during and after my bike test. Something inside me changed. Maybe it was the good results I got from the test (which hurt like crazy) or maybe it was Coach's comments about my performance; I am not sure what, but my game mind is ON.

Ironman build starts tomorrow and I am excited to say the least. I looked at this week's schedule and I am picturing in my head which routes I am going to go; which hills I am going to tackle and how successful I will be at completing all of my swim workouts.

Now more than ever I am convinced that my head plays a big role on how I perform my training sessions; and I am very serious about controlling my thoughts and making them work to my advantage.

The game is ON; and I am ready for it.

Holy cow!

It has been like a month and a half since I last updated this blog. Honestly I didn't feel like there was anything worth writing about. Not that my life is not full of adventure or really cool things (I wish); but it's just that I've been focusing on work, training and spending the rest of the time with my family.

We took a pretty cool vacation to Disney World... Well, more than pretty cool; a ROKIN' vacation to DW. We booked it about 2 months in advance and we kept it a secret from the little one until the day before we left. Why you might ask... Simple, have you ever told a 4 year old that you are going somewhere really exciting in a month; only to have them ask you EVERY SINGLE DAY: Are we leaving today?? 4 year olds have no sense of time; at least our 4 year old doesn't. So we chose to keep it a secret. Mind you, I was dying to tell her where we were going. I had been preparing her little by little in conspicuous ways... Say, Would you like to go to DW one day? (while looking at DW pictures on the computer)... You get my drift.

The night we told her was priceless. When we broke the news she covered her mouth with one hand, her eyes opened as big as I have ever seen them and she said: Oh my gosh! The look in her eyes... Man, I live for this stuff. Making your children happy is the best feeling in the world!

The trip went without a hitch. I asked coach for a smaller "load" of training; since I wanted to fully focus this time on being a family. With IM training looming in the horizon and all the countles hours I will spend away from home I wanted this to be all about my daughter, my husband and the 3 of us as a family unit. We had a blast. We rode rides, we ate junk food, we swam in the pool (ok splashed around), we had breakfast with the princesses, we filled out an outograph books and we took more pictures that I will even be able to print. And yes, we spoiled her rotten. It is hard not to when you are in this magical place, you know?

Upon our return, work slammed me hard. Deadlines, requests, things I had never seen/done before; a very bumpy 2 day trip to Chicago. Somehow I pulled it off.

Training has been going well. The past 2 weeks were "adaptation" after vacation and this week is rest/test week. I am only testing in 2 sports this time. Run and bike. Wednesday was my run test. It hurt like a mother effer; but I am super pleased with my results. Let's just say I held a pace I never thought I'd be able to hold. Yes, I thought I was dying while I was running at that pace; but 3 months ago, I thought I was dying when I was running a pace 30 seconds slower. So I call that progress.

Tomorrow is my bike test; and oddly enough I am really looking forward to it. Biking is my favorite and I want to keep getting better and better at it.

Ironman build starts on Monday and seeing my schedule on Training Peaks makes me excited/nervous at the same time. It is all becoming so real, you know? It seems like it was yesterday that I signed up for the race and here it is, July already, and there are a mere 4 months to go. It's coming and I am ready (OK not yet, but I will be)!

The 8 things post

I asked myself.... Why not??

8 places I have lived

1- Buenos Aires, Argentina
2- Mendoza, Argentina
3- St Louis Park, MN
4- Westborough, MA
5- Eden Prarie, MN
6- Shakopee, MN
7- Charlotte, NC
8- Monroe, NC

8 dates I remember

1- December 31 (b-day)
2- October 23 (husband b-day)
3- August 18 (Daughter b-day)
4- August 10 (anniversary)
5- March 7 (mom b-day)
6- January 4 (dad b-day)
7- September 6 (young brother b-day)
8- July 21 (old brother b-day)

8 things I thought I'd never do

1- live in the USA
2- Run a half marathon
3- do a triathlon
4- love running
5- sing up for Ironman
6- like peanut butter
7- work as an accountant
8- have a blog

8 things that changed my life

1- moving to the USA
2- meeting Todd
3- being pregnant
4- giving birth
5- running my first 1/2 marathon
6- doing my first triathlon
7- deciding that 1 child is enough
8- signing up for Ironman

8 tattoos I have

1- a rose
2- a daisy
3- chinese symbols for eternal love
4- a pegasus
5- the TCB symbols that Elvis wore
6- 2 tribal dragons
7- a Phoenix
8- the symbols for triathlon

8 celebrity crushes

1- Hugh Jackman
2- Johnny Depp
3- Anthony Kiedis (singer for Red hot Chili peppers)
4- Keanu Reeves
5- Elvis Presley
6- Ryan Reynolds
7- George Clooney
8- Mark Whalberg

8 things I did today

1- Drank coffee
2- Ate breakfast
3- tickled Megan
4- hugged husband
5- surfed the web
6- watched cartoons with Megan
7- washed dishes
8- drank coffee (yes a lot of it)

Rest Week!!!

There is not much to report in my world. This was a rest week and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After the meltdown from last weekend; my body and my head needed an extra easy week. My schedule said to move things or cut them short if I needed it; and trust me, I did.

The bad sunburn from saturday's race made it very hard for me to even put work clothes on; so I didn't even try to put on my bathing suit to go to the pool. So the week was spent among work, yoga, a run and a ride. Since I did not run the Half marathon during the race las weekend; Liz said that my legs would probably recover quicker than if I had ran it. And she was right! But then again; she knows this sh!t so why would she not be right?

I had quite a few talks with Liz about the last race. What went wrong, how can I improve. And I think I know exactly when my race was done; the exact moment that my head went south (and my body followed suit). I am vowing to never let that happen again.

In a sense it is good that this happened now. You see, ever since I started triathlon, my races have been getting better and better. Each race has been a PR, each of them an improvement. In a way, I think I had been spoiled. I was never upset about any of my races. I always did better than I expected. This time around was different. I think I might have gone into the race a little bit TOO confident; cocky if you will. And I paid the price. I now know how it feels to have blown a race. To have worked hard for something you really wanted; just to let it slip from your hands by poorly executing the plan.

It took me all week to finaly feel "at peace" with this. I accomplished that while at hot yoga on saturday morning. (on a side note, I LOVE hot yoga, you should try it). And now I am ready to move on.

Rest week has been awesome; a much needed break. It is amazing how a rested body wants to get going again! Can't wait for monday!

White Lake Race report

I thought long and hard about what I would write when I posted this race report. I still haven't quite figured it out. In a nutshell, it was the worst race I have ever executed. It was windy, it was hot, and I messed it up big time. I lost it, broke down and was never able to pick myself up.

The swim was ok, I positioned myself in the middle of my wave and when the gun went off I promptly got swum over. I did not panic, but it took me a while to find my rhythm. We were swimming on a lake, the pretties one I've ever swum in; you could see your hands and sometimes the bottom as well. I had a few minor issues here, I got hit on the face and had to stop to put my goggles back on; and I also got a cramp on my left foot. Overall, I improved 2 minutes from last year's Half IM swim. I did notice that I was not going on a straight line; and I need to keep practicing to make sure I swim as straight as possible.

T1 was uneventful. I got all my stuff on and headed out.

The bike started out good; I felt awesome the first hour. I got all my nutrition down; my cadence was right where it had to be. My HR did not go higher than Z3 the entire time; and I was keeping a pretty good speed. Then when we took a turn into the 20 mile stretch of road, they also turned on the wind and they left it on for the remainder of the race. At some point during hour 2, I got so focused on getting to T2 at a specific time; that I totally blew my nutrition. I found myself drinking just water, instead of my Gu2o; and having a hard time eating my Clif blocks.

At about mile 45 on the bike, I lost it. I realized I had slacked on my nutrition, the wind was still on; my legs were toast. I found myself yelling at the wind to stop. Talk about crazy, right?? The pavement turned really rough and my stomach was done.

When I rolled into T2, I knew I was in for a tough run. I put on my running shoes, grabbed my belt, visor and nutrition and headed out. I ran less than 1/4 mile; and then my stomach revolted, my legs called it quits and I started self doubting myself. Here is a sample of all the things that went through my head:

- You suck
- Why the hell are you doing this?
- How are you going to finish Ironman if you can't even run a Half Ironman?
- Everybody is better than you
- You should quit right now
- You should drop off from Ironman

I was so concerned about what all of you would think that I considered a DNF instead of posting the time I ended up posting. I felt so embarrased. I fought really hard with my inner competitive self. I WALKED the entire 1/2 marathon; and it took me almost the same amount of time to go the 13 miles on the "run" than it took me to go the 56 miles on the bike.

Of course I am not pleased with my results. I was ready to have a great race; and it is entirely my fault that I did not follow my race plan. And I am now experiencing what happens when you don't go according to plan. Is it easy? NO. Did I learn anything from it? YES.

I was so focused on posting an x:xx time; that I completely blew it. And I wanted to post that time so that all of you could see how good I am. And then is when I realized: Since when do I do this sport for others and not myself?? When did I lose sight of the most important part of the equation? Myself and MY achievements.

It is a hard way to learn the lesson, a HUGE humbling experience but I am glad it happened. My focus and my priorities are once again where they need to be; and I am ready to move forward.

Change is here

I am still here. I am still training. I am still working. I just needed to collect my thoughts for a couple of days.

Change is upon me; both mentally and at work. The second one BIG time. Some things transpired within the last couple of days and I am now given the opportunity to show off my colors. If you are my friend on Facebook; you might have seen my status update: "Time to step up to the plate and hit some home runs. My chance to shine is here. Game on!" A lot of people thought it was racing related; not so much. It is 100% work related. Let's just say that I have been working hard with the hopes the "higher powers" would notice. And they did. It just came out of the left field; and now it is all me baby. And I am ready.

Training is going well. Last weekend I had an outstanding open water swim. For the first time in my Tri "life" I felt strong and confident in the open water. I got into a rhythm that I was able to sustain for the entire duration of the swim. I passed people... did you read that? I passed people. That does not happen often. I am usually a coward when it comes to swimming in the open water; but that did I didn't feel that way. The water was cold; and it was a bit shocking at first; but once I got used to it, it was just perfect. A common occurrence for me is to have to side stroke, to catch a breath. Well, I did not feel the need to do it even once. The only time I HAD to stop was because the rescue boats were blocking my way getting people out of the water. And you know what? I got a bit upset because they were preventing me from negative splitting the course; just like Coach wanted me to do. All in all, I think I chopped about 5 minutes from my one mile time compared to last year on the same "course". I call that improvement :)

As much as saturday was a high in regards to training; sunday was more of a letdown. I had a less than stellar bike ride; where I could not keep my HR in check and it became a matter of "just get through it". I was not able to hit any of my prescribed intervals and was sucky overall. It is funny how you go from an all high to a pretty low place. I wrote to Liz that things didn't go as planned and the ride sucked; to which she replied that it is patterns over time that matter. I would usually be upset about not being able to perform as expected; but not this time. I told Liz I was totally at peace with the workout. And I was.

I have been at peace with myself this week. And interestingly enough; I haven't had the best week ever. With all the ruckus at work, my head and my body are just exhausted.

Next week is my season opener. And this year I am going big. White Lake Half Ironman will be waiting for me next saturday. I am trying to eat even cleaner for the 2 weeks leading to race day, and I have not had a single piece of candy or added sugar since last saturday. My reward for the hard work? Hopefully a great race, and of course a special treat after the race.

GAME ON!

And now we interrupt your regularly scheduled posts...

to send a message to my mother.

MAMA:

TE QUIERO HASTA EL CIELO. LOS EXTRANIO MUCHISIMO.

MUCHOS BESOTONES

TU HIJITUS.

Carry On...

The week in review

It is sunday, 7:46 am and I am enjoying my rest day. This has been a crazy week. I feel like I am always saying that.... Oh well.

To say this week was busy is an understatement. On Easter Sunday the husband was brought to tears by some pain in his neck/shoulder area. Truth be told, it scared me. He never cries when something hurts; this must have been bad. I tried massaging it for him, used my handy stick and was able to find a couple of knots. I convinced him to go see my ART guy on monday. So he stayed home and was planning on driving himself over there; except that he was barely able to move his head... not very apt for driving, wouldn't you say? So I came back home, drove him over there and then picked Megan up from school. I had a long run on tap and after considering the idea of doing the 1 mile loop in my neighborhood for the hour and 40 minutes the schedule called for I realized doing that would be setting myself up for failure; so I moved the run to the following afternoon.

The run went well, I thought I was running slow as snails and it turned out it wasn't. That was particularly satisfying due to the fact that in my attempt to try and run the less amount of downhills possible (really bad for the IT band) I managed to score a route with some very steep and long uphills. Can you say: ouch?

On wednesday I had my long swim of the week. Since I am doing a 2.4 mile open water swim in May, coach has me swimming over 3000 yds once a week. The workouts always seem daunting, as swimming is still NOT my favorite; but on the positive side I have been able to "risk" it a bit more while in the pool. Before, if I was feeling too much burn on my lungs I would back off, now I have managed to overcome the fear of not being able to breathe and have pushed myself harder than I ever thought possible. Now, I am by no means fast, BUT I have been able to find my different paces in the water. Moderate IS moderate, fast IS fast; before it was all the same. While this progress is not fast or easy; I am getting there. One of these days I will arrive, one of these days my stroke will feel fluid and I will not feel like I am dying after a 500 moderate.

Thursday brought in a bike ride. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE riding?? Even when my butt is uncomfortable in the saddle. I love the feeling of power in my legs. I love pushing the big gears and feeling the burn. After a really bad bike test the previous saturday (where I could not bring my watts up - we then figured my calibration was WAY off-) it was beautiful to see I was able to put out some big numbers (for me) without much effort. BEAUTIFUL.

Friday was another swim, with some speed sets built into it. I gave them my all and did not chicken out once :) YAY! Victory.

For the longest workout of the week I had a 4 hour brick on tap on saturday. 3:30 on the bike and :30 run. I woke up with a sour stomach. Let's just say I considered apropriate to have a bathroom within reach.... So I stayed inside. Got my set up all ready, Buffy on the TV, drinks, cliff shot bloks, 2 fans, air on my tires, reset computer; and finally got on my bike. While the hours did not tick quickly enough, I really enjoyed the "ride". I never went over the HR zones stipulated and I was also able to ride over 65 miles. While I know it's just "indoor" miles, last time I had a 3 hour indoor ride I did not even get to the 50 mile mark. Definitely improvement. What's best of all is that when I got off that bike and into my T run; my legs felt fresh. My HR stayed in check and I was able to run at my goal pace no problem.

There are only 3 more weeks until my first race of the season. Up next, two weeks of lower total volume race specific work; then taper and then game on! Can't wait!