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ITU LC Worlds: One more season, in the books...

2011-11-20T11:07:00.007-06:00

2011 triathlon season is finally over. For a while I didn't know if I'd make it. I've had a lot of fun, enjoyed some success, and seen some good improvements. But a few months ago I realized that I was mentally just DONE. Not done with triathlon for good, but I do need a break. I could force my body to keep going, but if I'm mentally burned out and not enjoying it, what would be the point? So the plan became, just make it through Long Course WCs and then take as much time as you need. I wouldn't sign up for anything until I was itching to race and train again. I'd spend time with Kai, pay more attention to my job, and hopefully even investigate what the phrase "social activity" means.

It was a good plan, and the right plan, but what it meant was that as time went by and my "A" race drew closer, what I was looking forward to most was it just being OVER. Tough to get motivated to perform when you're thinking like that. I did what I needed to to prepare myself physically but my brain was not quite bought in to the idea. And on a course with 7000+ feet of climbing on a 75 mile bike, followed by 2000 feet of climbing on an 18.6 mile run, my head, heart, and body were all gonna have to be engaged. I put my trust in the hope that when I finally got there, I'd catch the race fever and start getting excited.

I was very fortunate that my parents and best friend Rich were all able to come out and support me. We stayed in a nice house in a great part of Henderson, NV. My coach was also racing, so it was really great to have her there as well, especially since I don't get to see her much.

In the last few days leading up to the race, my thoughts and emotions were all over the place. I was nervous, I was excited, I was ready, I was terrified. Fortunately, having my coach there and also reminding myself that I've raced plenty of times before, I know how to do this, helped me to go through the motions of what I needed to do to prepare without overthinking things too much.

The weather had been beautiful the few days we'd been in Henderson so far except for some rain that had passed through the previous day, but race morning dawned clear and COLD- somewhere in the upper 30s. I was gathering my nutrition bottles and getting ready to head to the start when I got a call from my coach- "Swim is canceled". Um, whut?? For a second I thought it was a joke, but clearly it wasn't. Combined air and water temps did not meet the safety standard of the ITU, so there would be no swim. We would start out of T1 on the bike.

OK, I thought, readjustment time. I did take a small moment to note the interesting coincidence- at Myrtle Beach last year, the qualifier for this race, the swim was also canceled. And not only that, but I had done two other races this year that had canceled swims- IMNOLA and 5150 NOLA. I also took a moment to be kinda bummed that I wouldn't be doing a Long Course Triathlon today. I'd be doing a Long Course Bike/Run. But there wasn't time to dwell on it, I had to get to the start and get myself re-calibrated. Race day always throws some unpredictable stuff your way, and how well you adapt can make all the difference in whether it throws your whole day off or not. I was finally calm, I was ready- let's do this.

The race officials pushed back the start time to let everyone make their adjustments. I did all the normal pre-race stuff- putting nutrition on the bike, pumping the tires- then picked up my T1 bag with all my bike stuff in it and brought it back to Jen's room. My coach had gotten a condo that was about 10 yards from T1, so it was the perfect staging/waiting location. She, her friend Cristy and I waited, warm and stress-free, until it was time to go down to T1 to start. They were starting us on the bike one at a time at 5-second intervals in race number order. Mine was the first one up, so when they called all the 600s I said my goodbyes and headed down to Hazel waiting for me.

It still wasn't even 40 degrees, so I decided to go with vest, arm warmers, leg warmers and gloves for the bike. I wound my way up the hill out of transition as part of a giant slow-moving bike-walking procession. Up to the top, it was finally my turn, and off I went to tackle the hills of the Nevada desert.

The thought of whether or not I would survive this bike course had been haunting me for months. I'm generally a pretty good climber, but there's just no way to adequately prepare for the amount of climbing on this course in the flat swamplands of south Louisiana. I did the Six Gap Century ride in Georgia about six weeks earlier, which was the most climbing I had EVER EVER done and was a lot more than I'd be doing in the race today, but it had taken completely everything I had to finish that. There was NO way I'd have been able to run after. But I also knew that I had done everything my coach told me to do to prepare, and I trust her completely. I kept telling myself that even if I doubted myself, I didn't doubt her- so when she says I'm ready, I must be. As I rolled out of transition, clicked my feet in and started pedaling, I knew that there was no more time to worry. I'd been building up my training bank account all year and now was the time to cash out.

To sum up the entire bike ride- it was GREAT. It went just about as good as it possibly could have. I rode conservatively but not scared. I spun up the hills to save my legs and took advantage of the downhills as much as I could. I never looked at my watch; I knew I was riding as steady and strong as I could while still saving my legs to be able to run. There were high and low moments as I knew there would be, but mentally this was easily the best long bike ride I've ever had in a race. I was appreciating the beautiful desert scenery, I shouted encouragement to other riders as we passed, I stayed focused on each hill and section of the course. I especially enjoyed when my coach flew by me as if I were standing still :) I was definitely working, but I actually enjoyed myself out there!

Reason #437 that my coach is a genius: it was SUCH a good thing that I'd done Six Gap (which was her idea). Every time a hill got tough or my legs felt a little burn, I could truthfully remind myself that it was nothing compared to what I'd ridden out there. Knowing that I'd made it through something that was so much tougher gave me a ton of confidence- definitely a welcome feeling, since the bike is where I normally feel the least sure of myself.

Near the end of the course are three hills called the Three Sisters. They're short but very steep climbs back-to-back-to-back. I had the thought of these on the back of my mind the whole ride, hoping that I'd have enough to get over them without trashing my legs right before I got to the run. What made me the most nervous was that I hadn't seen them yet- they're on a bike trail through an area where there are no roads, so I couldn't get out to see them before the race. I'd heard they were STEEP, but I had no idea how much or how long they were.

When I finally rounded a turn on the trail and saw what looked like a vertical wall of asphalt in front of me, I knew I had reached them. But then, my immediate reaction took me by surprise- a message flashed through my mind as clear as if there were a billboard in my head: "BRING IT." A devilish smile spread across my face. I got up to the hill, dropped it into my climbing gear, and was up and over practically before my legs even started to burn. Yeah, it was steep- but Hogpen (at Six Gap) was steep like that for SEVEN MILES. This course had nothin' on me ;)

I was feeling so good that as I crested the top of the third one, I turned to a spectator and joked, "Is THAT it??" After that it was a fairly easy ride back into town, except for the truck that almost ran me over. I had been growing more and more eager to finish the bike, as I normally do in long races, but today it was for a different reason. Usually I just want to get OFF the damn bike, but today I was feeling so good that I just wanted to RUN already! I knew I had ridden the course exactly as I should have, and I couldn't wait to see what my legs had in them.

Turned into transition, tossed Hazel to a volunteer, in and out of the changing tent with the best volunteers ever, and finally I was running! The run course was 4 loops, each made up of two out-and-backs heading out of the transition/finish area two different ways (which meant that I got to pass the finish line about eight times!). In one direction you were heading uphill, and then downhill the other way. So it was two miles up, two miles down for 18+ miles. My legs unfolded just as I'd hoped- yeah they were tired, but they were moving and there was definitely fuel left in the tank.

The uphill/downhill was going fine, I was enjoying the cheers from the spectators (especially my parents, Rich, and Jen's husband Dave) and all was well, until about halfway through the second lap. I started getting stomach cramps that were just annoying at first, then painful, then FRIGGIN OW to the point where I was thinking I might have to stop, because the jarring from each step was really hurting. I rounded a turn where I thought I might see my parents, and I was glad I didn't because it would have been hard to smile at that point. The only thing I could think of was that some Coke might settle my stomach, so I decided I'd go for it at the next aid station. That's always a gamble early in the run, because you can't run on Coke forever- once you start on it, your time is limited. But there was absolutely no way I was taking in any more of my gel flask, so Coke it was. And it was magic- almost immediately I started feeling better.

It was still tough to take in fluids though, and I knew the desert air was probably sucking a lot more water out of me than I realized, so I was just crossing my fingers and hoping I'd have enough to make it to the end. I was still moving really well but the uphills were getting harder and the downhills were definitely getting more painful. Early on in the fourth and final loop, my legs really started to feel it. They were getting heavy like bags of sand. I could tell I was in a calorie/fluid deficit and that eventually it would catch up to me- I just hoped I'd hit the finish line first! I hit the bottom turnaround and thought, here we go- ONE more 2-mi uphill, then coast a mile downhill to the finish; do my legs have ONE more climb in them? Heck yeah!

I passed the finish line for the umpteenth time, but it was also the LAST time I had to pass by it- next time would finally be MY turn! I headed around the corner for the fourth and last pass up what I was calling the Hill to Forever- over a mile straight up a looong road. There were runners, runners, runners as far as the eye could see. My bags of sand that used to be legs were threatening to quit but I was not listening. Not now! Just make it to the turnaround, smooth sailing downhill from there... When I finally got there, I remember thinking, I got this now- even if my legs DO give out, I could ROLL downhill from here!

I was in the last mile of the last race of my whole season. I had done everything exactly as I should. Even with the few surprises that race day had brought, my day had gone exceptionally well. And an offseason of seemingly unlimited possibilities was right there up ahead of me. With those thoughts and many others swirling through my head, my feet lifted and carried me on my fastest mile of the day, joyfully through to the finish line. Finally, I got to go LEFT at the sign that said "FINISH LEFT/ 2ND, 3RD, 4TH LOOPS RIGHT"!!

And just like that, it was over. My legs had made it after all, I had survived the bike, the course hadn't killed me, and I hadn't even come in last! I hadn't exactly finished too high in my AG either, but I really wasn't worried about that. It was truly a world-class field out there, and just to be able to go out and race with them and to wear the USA uniform was really an awesome experience. Of course without my coach, none of it would have even come close to happening. And without my parents and Rich as an awesome support crew, it would not have been nearly as enjoyable.

So now, offseason- I said I wasn't going to put any kind of timeline on when I'd come back, whether it was a month or a year or whatever. I'd come back when I really WANTED to come back. The rest has really been great, mentally and physically, and sleeping in on a Saturday morning was an exquisite luxury I had forgotten existed. I figured it would be at least a few months of total downtime, but it's been two weeks now and I *think* I just felt a little itch... the kind that only gets scratched by training and racing...........

Athleta Iron Girl: We Finally Got To Swim!

2011-05-23T10:20:00.003-05:00

Another last-minute signup. I hadn't planned on doing this race either (just like 5150), but when it got close to race day I just couldn't resist. It's so cool that now we have races right here in my backyard, on the courses I train on all year. I can't NOT participate. So even though it would be my 5th race in 6 weeks, there I was at the expo, registering.

The Iron Girl is a series of women's-only events. This was the first year they had one in New Orleans. It would be on essentially the same course as the 5150 race last week, just shorter. It was advertised as a 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run. The day before the race though, as I was signing up, I heard they had shortened the bike because the area where they originally had the turnaround was being used for something else on race day. The bike would now be 10 miles. Holy Hammerfest, Batman! This was going to be fun.

Iron Girl also attracts a lot of first timers. I heard someone say that 50-75% of the field would be first time triathletes. Very cool! I am a competitive person by nature and enjoy pushing myself to the limit, but this wasn't going to be that kind of race. Of course I always want to do my best and this time would be no different, but I just couldn't go into it with my normal race day killer instinct, knowing that I was racing with ladies who had baskets and bells on their bikes. I looked at it more as a chance to practice some race-day skills & strategies in a low-stress environment. And a chance to enjoy some raging Girl Power, of course.

The whole race experience was a bit of a whirlwind- starting off by being mega late to transition. Somehow I must have miscalculated my morning prep time, because I ended up showing up at the race site with about 2 minutes to get body marked, pump my tires, lay out my stuff, fill my bike bottle, put on my sunscreen, lube up my shoes, and get the heck out as they were closing transition. I was already DFL, and the day hadn't even started yet!

We FINALLY had good conditions in the lake and were able to actually have a swim (the swims have been canceled at the last two races at this venue). In fact, the conditions were just about as perfect for swimming as I'd ever seen them.

On the start line, I thought I recognized the girl to my left, though I don't think we'd ever spoken and I couldn't quite place where I'd seen her. Probably at other races in the area. She looked awfully serious- definitely had her game face on and looked like she'd done this many times before. I decided that she looked fast, so I'd try to stay with her through the swim.

She did end up being fast, and I lost sight of her before we even got to the first buoy. Oh well :) I swam strong- and more importantly, straight- but wasted some time in T1 getting out of my wetsuit (Race Day Skill Practice #1- wetsuit removal). It was only my 2nd time having to take my wetsuit off by myself in a race, so even though I could've swam without it (water was 74-75 deg), I figured I could use the practice. It probably would've gone a tad faster if the empty bike rack I leaned on hadn't started to fall over when I leaned on it.

Bike- hammertime! The bike is my weakest leg of the 3, and I always push the edge of under-performing because I'm afraid of blowing up on the run. Since this race was so short, I knew I really couldn't hold back at all (Race Day Skill Practice #2- GO HARD on the bike). The 10-mile shortened bike route must not have been measured very closely, because everyone's Garmins had it as closer to 11. Remembering the slight mishap from last week's 5150, I started the feet-out-of-shoes thing a little earlier and managed to get it done properly before the dismount line (Race Day Skill Practice #3), but I did not attempt the full flying dismount.

I wasted some more time in T2 fumbling with my race belt, trying to get it to clip properly. If I were smart, I would've finished putting on my shoes, grabbed my visor, and taken care of the race belt while on the move out on to the run, but I guess I didn't think of that. So I stood there fumbling with it for several seconds and THEN finished the shoes and headed out. Lesson learned. Race Day Skill Practice #4 (although unintentional)- order of operations in T2.

Run- I came out of T2 right on the heels of the girl in my AG who I had seen on the start line for the swim. I had caught up to her on the bike, she passed me right back, I passed her again a few minutes later, and apparently she rolled into T2 right behind me. Whatever lead I had on her had evaporated while I was messing with my race belt. After doing my best to hammer on the bike, my legs weren't exactly feeling perky. I tried to rally my spirits by telling myself that it would be over quickly, I only had to go half the distance that I did last week when I came through that exact spot onto the 10K run at 5150.

The other girl and I were matching stride-for-stride with me slightly behind as we rounded the parking lot out of transition to get out on to the road. I didn't like the idea of running like that the whole way, but I wasn't willing to go much faster at that point than I already was. I'd find out soon enough if she had speed to burn or was just hanging on. If it came down to which one of us could gut it out harder, I knew I'd have the edge. At least that's what I always tell myself- running is so mental that any confidence boost you can give yourself will help.

Another thing I'm pretty good at on the run is running the tangents. If you run corner-to-corner rather than following the middle of the road, you can save a significant amount of ground. There were a few right-angle turns heading out onto the road, and I couldn't believe it when I saw her sticking to the middle of the lane. I lined myself up on the tangent line and, without altering my speed at all, squeezed out ahead of her around one of the corners. Tangents, people! It works!!

I was ahead, but now I had the problem that I couldn't see her. Was she falling back, or keeping pace with me, or about to blow past me and leave me in the dust? I had no idea, and wouldn't know until the turnaround. I read one time that it takes a lot of guts to come from behind, but that it takes a different and special kind of guts to run in front and stave off challenges from behind. I always remember that passage whenever I'm running in front of someone I'm competing against. (Race Day Skill Practice #5- general tactical running skillz. I know I had said that today wasn't going to be about all-out killer competition, and it wasn't- but I could tell this girl wasn't new at this, so between her and me was fair game, I reasoned. We were both pushing each other to be our best.)

I wasn't running all that fast for a 5K- not nearly as fast as I would've liked. But it was what my legs were giving me, and I had to work with it. In between the one mile mark and the turnaround my legs finally decided that they'd had enough racing after all I'd put them through in the past 6 weeks. Unfortunately, I still needed them to deliver me to the finish line, so we struck a bit of a deal: just keep moving, legs, and I won't ask you to go much faster. They accepted, barely.

At the turnaround, I saw that my fellow age group competitor had indeed fallen pretty far back. Of course I knew that wasn't a reason to slack off, so I kept to the deal I'd made with my legs and plodded along steadily to the finish line. One step a time, until- YESS! DONE!!

I did the usual post-race mingling, found my friends & other GNOTri-ers as they finished, congratulated my competitor on a great race, and headed over to the post-race "Breakfast Cafe", complete with danishes, pancakes, coffee, fresh cut fruit, and bagels with smoked salmon. They even had capers! This is a women's race, after all- of course they'll remember all the important details! Our male support crew was bummed that there was no beer. I joked that maybe they'd have Chardonnay instead, but alas, no.

Turns out that I ended up 1st in my AG, and 5th overall out of 305 ladies. Very cool! My transition rankings, however, were more in the 40 to 50-something range- lots of room for improvement there!

Because there were so many first-timers though, the day really wasn't about the final placement- it would be hard to rejoice too much over "beating" an 11 year old or a lady with a basket on her bike. There was some great racing among the more experienced competitors in each age group, but for me the day was more about going out and trying to get the best out of myself and also enjoying the opportunity to race on my home course. The fact that I won something was a really nice bonus.

And of course, Miss Kai had to model the hardware.

2011 IMNOLA 69.1

2011-04-19T08:30:00.005-05:00

Yep, that's right, 69.1. Swim got canceled. Which means that the last 2 half iron distance races I have done have had canceled swims. It seems that people who would like to do an *entire* half iron-distance triathlon may want to avoid the races that I'm signed up for...

I wasn't planning on doing the whole race anyway- I was signed up as part of a relay team. I was the swimmer/biker, and fellow GNOTri-er Jescica was the runner. She called me from transition race morning as I was on my way there to tell me there was no swim. In Myrtle Beach last year, they canceled the swim due to high e. coli counts in the water. Sunday at Lake Pontchartrain was a different story. A front had come through 2 days prior, and ever since Friday the winds had been ridiculous. I train up there all the time and I know that there's always going to be some wind at the lakefront, but this past weekend it was pretty bad. And it was a northerly wind, which is the worst for swimming conditions since we're on the south shore of a huge-ass lake.

When I got to transition, I went over to check out the lake. The chop was definitely not the highest I've seen, but it was coming FAST, and HARD. I even spotted some rip currents running parallel to the shore. It looked borderline swimmable, but it wouldn't have been pretty. The buzz around transition, though, was that the swim wasn't canceled because of the swimmers but rather because they couldn't get the support boats out there. Apparently they weren't even able to set the buoys. No support craft = no safety for swimmers = no swim. Makes sense to me. It was a bummer, but the right call.

Over at the relay rack, Jescica and I were readjusting and discussing our plan. Everyone was pretty good natured about the cancellation, probably in part because I was at the relay rack and most of the others there were only doing the bike leg anyway. I ran into my hairstylist, which is not as odd as it sounds since he is a cyclist himself and was there to support his friend, who is also the owner of the salon where he works and who was racked two bikes over from me. He asked me how my new haircut was working out - he recently cut my hair reeeally short, Halle-Berry-style - and I told him it's been great!

In Myrtle Beach, the way they started us was we all got corralled into an area right by swim out, with no shoes or bike helmets, as if we'd just gotten out of the water. They let one person go every 5 seconds in totally random order. When it was your turn, you ran to transition to put on your bike gear. So we still had T1 times. On Sunday, they had us all pack into transition, get all our gear and bikes ready and file out of transition two by two (Noah's Ark style, as one person put it). So we skipped the swim and T1 and just started off on the bike. They also had us maintain our wave order, but it was random within the waves.

Relays were the very last wave to go off, and somehow when we lined up I ended up at the back of our wave. This means I was approximately the 3rd to last person to start in the whole damn race! I thought to myself, "I sure hope I'm faster than at least SOME of the people in front of me, because I do not want to be the last bike out on the course!" It was about 8:30 AM when I finally got going.

The bike ride.... hmm what can I say. A 20-knot wind out of the east on a primarily east-west out and back single loop made for some fun times out there. It was a hammerfest the whole way out just to keep moving in a forward direction. When I could finally see the turnaround way up the road, I was literally counting pedal strokes just to make it to the cones. One, two, one, two, just make it there, one, two... Then of course the tailwind on the way back was not as satisfying as I would've liked, but isn't that always the case? As you can tell, riding flats into a headwind is not one of my strong suits. Which is frustrating, because more often than not it's what we get down here.

I've ridden that exact course once a week for about 3 years and I can honestly say this was easily in the top 5 toughest ever out there as far as windy conditions. Around mile 10-15 or so, on top of one of the highway bridges, a gust of wind was so strong that it actually blew one of my contact lenses out of my eye. So I did the rest of the bike ride with one eye. I was kind of sweating it that I might lose the other one - my prescription in the missing-lens eye is -7.0 and in the other eye is -8.0 - so there would be no way I could go on if I lost both. There were a few close calls but thankfully it didn't happen.

Rolling back into transition, I was thrilled to hand the chip over to Jescica and let her take over! The relay transition was actually pretty cool. I ran in and racked my bike like normal, then ran over to the relay pen next to run-out where all the runners were waiting. A friend standing at bike-in had waved over to Jescica when he saw me roll in, so she was ready and waiting for me. I ran up in my socks, since I had to run all the way across a huge transition and figured I could do that faster in socks than in bike shoes. She grabbed the chip strap off of my leg, slapped it on hers, and off she went.

After a quick trip home to get a new contact lens, we went to meet Jescica at the finish line, collect my Relay medal (it's the same medal but it says Relay instead of Finisher, which is pretty cool), and enjoy the post race festivities. The festivities, that is, not the food- seriously, in one of the very best food cities IN THE WORLD, the best you can do for post-race food is fruit, pizza, and Wal-Mart soda?? That is embarrassing. I was embarrassed for my city and felt like I should apologize to all the out of towners. At least the free beer was plentiful. They'd have had a riot on their hands from the locals if they'd tried to put any kind of limits on THAT.

Jescica and I stayed around for the awards ceremony, since we couldn't tell from the printouts if we'd actually won anything. The relays were all jumbled together with male, female, and mixed teams. Turns out we were either 4th or 5th out of female relays by my estimation (they never did split out the results so I have to guess based on people's names) but they only gave relay awards to the top 3. Age groups got top 5. Oh well!

I was a little disappointed in my time and wished I could've been a little faster, considering the work I've been putting in on the bike. But I did go into the race a little depleted- I got super, super sick on the previous Saturday night and couldn't really eat anything until about Wednesday. And, looking at my power numbers, I averaged a much higher wattage than I ever have on any of my training rides. So it looks like the effort was there, even though the time was affected by the weather conditions. So I'm cool with it.

I took a photo with Monte at bike check-in, but it's not uploaded yet. There are also one or two pics of me biking courtesy of Gary, Sherpa Spectathlete Extraordinaire. I'll post them later.

What a bummer for all the first-timers that they don't make a 69.1 sticker!

Some Bumps In The Road...

2011-04-09T20:41:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to figure out how big of a deal I should make over this:

It's the corner of the kitchen countertop. I can tell that the two pieces of granite probably have the same *name* as far as their color, but they are obviously quite different. The sample he showed me was like the upper portion, with quite a bit of the yellow/gold color. The lower piece has hardly any yellow/gold and is mostly black, white and grey. I know he noticed it as it was going in- there's no way he wouldn't have- so he must just be hoping I won't say anything. So do I tell him to rip it out and redo it? I'm leaning towards yes, but I'm not looking forward to the battle of wills that I'm sure will ensue.

There's a 2nd issue with the granite. He's installing a granite table that's going to be attached to the back wall of the kitchen. It will be supported by one leg in the middle. I saw the leg they're planning on using, and it's a turned table leg with some funky designs on it (was that a bunch of grapes I saw??). In my head, I was thinking it would just be a plain round leg. I don't like turned legs; never have. But according to the contractor, the granite people ONLY have this type of leg. And the local lumber yards aren't open on Saturdays, so I couldn't find what I wanted. They didn't have anything quite right at Home Depot or Lowe's. Should I just use a 4x4? I guess if plain round is good, plain square would be OK too. Then would I paint it trim color, or stain it to match the cabinets? Ooh and the big question about the table- counter height or bar height? I was always picturing it at bar height in my head, but is that a bad idea? I feel hesitant about that for some reason.

Oh, and the medicine cabinet. ARGH! I got a recess-mount, 20x26 frameless beveled-edge cabinet that was very nice. I figured the larger size cabinet would be good, to maximize storage space. But it turns out that it wouldn't fit in the space between the studs. So I went back and ended up with the espresso one that I liked best in the first place (and was 1/4 the cost):

The worry was that it's not the same espresso, but I held it up in the place it would be mounted and it really looks OK, I think. The bathroom is so tiny that you can't back up too much from the vanity to really be able to compare the two. So maybe I can get away with it.

But the new question is this: should I just get a plain mirror for over the sink, and get a mirrorless cabinet to put over the toilet for storage? That idea is suddenly seeming like a better way to go. Do you think the different-espresso issue would be more or less of a big deal for a cabinet like that? I may just have to bring one home and compare the medicine cabinet idea vs the over-toilet-cabinet idea. GAH so much trouble for a silly medicine cabinet!

Here's another issue: windows. Originally, he had put replacement windows in the quote. I wasn't convinced that was really necessary, but I left it in. I figured that if I decided against windows I could use the money to upgrade something else. But as everything started coming together, I realized that I really did want the new windows. I figured he would probably want to install them before all the painting and tiling got done, but before I knew it it was done, so I just let it go and figured he had a plan. But when I talked to him yesterday and he said we were ready to move on to final punchlist items, I thought, "what about the windows??" When I brought it up, he claimed they were never in the quote. Ah, but everything lasts forever on teh internets! So I got out a copy and showed him where new windows were specifically identified. He said he'd take care of it. I wonder how much of the tile, paint and trim he's going to have to redo.

About the punchlist: this is going to be a long list. There are a LOT of little things that are just not quite right. There's paint that's not finished, caulking not done, gaps under the base moulding, gaps behind the granite backsplash, nail holes not covered, the kitchen faucet is loose, there are no doorknobs, the valves under the bathroom sink don't match... and those are just the obvious ones. I'm sure I'll find plenty more when I actually go and LOOK for them. It's a little disconcerting to see that such lax attention to detail is apparently OK for him.

And the TRASH again!!! After the original Trash Fiasco, when I told him EXTREMELY clearly that he and his workers were to haul off their trash themselves and not put ANY trash in my outdoor garbage cans, they were again filled with his construction crap when I got home yesterday! Are you kidding me?? The trash people already warned me about overloading the cans, and that they're not to be used for construction debris. I am VERY irritated about this. Especially because he promised a dumpster, and it has never shown up.

Now for some good news- the shower floor is done! And it looks fabulous!

I do kind of wish that the grout lines on the lip lined up with the grout lines on the floor, but I'm not overly bothered by that.

The finished product:

I also really like the new front door, I think it's very cute:

The ceiling fan is up in the kitchen:

And I think it goes quite well with the one in the living room:

I had them switch the blades to the darker side. They had originally installed them both with the lighter side down.

The kitchen faucet is on and working!

And today, the vanity finally got installed!

It is so cute! I (stupidly) didn't realize the drain pipe would be so visible, but I guess that can't be avoided. Maybe I can make something to hide it a little bit. Also a bummer that it takes away some of the storage space, but that's probably the case with all vanities to some extent. I still really like it though.

The light fixture is installed too. I like how the squareness matches up with the squareness of the vanity- what do you think?

Oh and as you can see, there's a toilet now too:

And that picture right there ^ shows the entirety of that teeny tiny bathroom!

A shower curtain rod was apparently not included in the work scope, so I may have to mount that myself. I can't stand those screw-into-place ones; they always seem to fall down after a while. So I bought one that screws into the wall. I might be able to get the guys to put it up for me. I thought about doing shower doors but I figured with the shower curtain, you can pull it back to show off the shower tile. I certainly don't want to hide it behind frosted glass! And I don't think that the few hundred I'd spend on a custom, unfrosted shower door is really worth it for the guest house. Oh and lastly, the tininess of the bathroom means that you probably couldn't open the shower door all the way anyway. So, shower curtain it is.

Current assignment: find a suitable table leg. And prepare myself for some difficult conversations (granite, sloppy details, TRASH) that are sure to be coming soon. Blah.

Somebody Pinch Me!

2011-04-08T11:36:00.002-05:00

The two most-anticipated jobs were done yesterday- the granite people installed the countertops, and Eddy tiled the shower. I hurried home from work, eager to see how both had turned out. The shower had until now been only a figment of my imagination, and the last time I saw the granite countertop sample was weeks ago.

After talking over the design with Eddy & Walter the night before, I felt a lot more comfortable that it was going to look how I wanted it. But it was still a pretty big deal for me to be able to let go, to let it happen without me being there supervising or calling and checking in every five minutes. I really trust Eddy and Walter and the quality of their work, and that definitely helps. I would also like to think that I'm learning to let go of my normal tendency (compulsion?) to Supervise, Monitor and Control. I realized this when I couldn't remember whether I had told them I wanted the center accent tile to be oriented diamond or square. I thought to myself, "well, I trust their judgement and I'm sure it will look fine either way." This may not sound like a big deal, but trust me- for me it is! I knew that things would probably come up that required them to make judgement calls or possibly alter the plan a little bit, and I trusted that they'd do a good job.

Well guess what- THEY DID!! And then some!!

I am so BEYOND thrilled with the shower! It's one of those rare instances where the reality turns out just as good as the picture in your head, if not better! Everything is perfectly lined up: the corners of the diamond with the stripe around the middle, the stripe with the soap niche, the top of the diamond with the window, the diamond centered on the wall. One thing I didn't have in my drawing was the row of small tiles around the top of the shower- Eddy must have thought of that himself. I think it's a great idea and looks fabulous. Also in my design, I had the niche reversed- with the small tiles lining the back and the larger tiles cut to line the indented sides. I guess Eddy must have thought that putting the small tiles lining the indented part would make it match more with the window recess, and plus the stripe hits right at the lower edge of the niche so keeping the same tiles there would make it flow better. I think he's right on the money with both of those ideas.

I was already thrilled, but there was even more to discover! I tore myself away from gazing at the shower and walked into the kitchen, where I was greeted with this:

Holy Transformation! How on earth does that tiny kitchen look BIGGER with all those cabinets in it? And how did they manage to even fit all those cabinets in that tiny kitchen, let alone make it look good? And the granite color is perfect! It blends with both the richer, more gold-toned tile in the kitchen and with the lighter tile in the rest of the house, just like I hoped it would.

I talked with Zoltan this morning about the rest of the jobs that are left. There really aren't many- I can't believe it's almost done!

There's a little more granite to install in the kitchen. They're putting in a granite table, sticking out from the wall, with a round pedestal support. This is the spot where it's going, and you can see the slab leaning against the wall:

That reminds me... I have to tell him whether I want table height or bar height. For some reason, I always pictured bar height in my head. What do you think- would that work?

There's also a little more grouting to do, and the tiling of the bottom of the shower.

I was trying to decide between three options for the shower floor: 1) use the larger main tiles; 2) use the small tiles; or 3) small tiles on the lip of the shower base and around the perimiter of the bottom, and fill the middle with the main tiles. I didn't think Zoltan would go for option 2, because they'd already used so many of the small tiles and they'd have to buy even more of them to do that. I figured if I really wanted them on the bottom, I'd pay for the extra few sheets that we'd need. But when I spoke with him this morning, he said Eddy & Walter were already out buying the extra sheets! Bonus! It turns out that I'm getting a mixture of option 1 and 2. They're doing the bottom with the small tiles and the lip with the main tiles. I was a little upset when I first heard this because I was thinking that the lip would look really great with the small tiles. But I was assured that it looks good with the other tiles, I adjusted the picture in my head a little, and I think I'm cool with it. This is another BIG deal for me- I have always had a very hard time adjusting to Changes To The Plan. Once I get an idea set in my head, any changes to it can feel disastrous. But this time, it was no big deal. So I'm one step further on the road to emotional maturity, and I can't wait to see my finished shower!

Also today, they may be installing the new vanity. I am so glad I found this one, it is totally perfect. Still in the box, but here's the photo on the outside:

And here's the space it has to fit in (where the hammer is laying is where the toilet is going to be):

It's 20.5" wide, which is a little bigger than the old one at 18". In such a tiny space those couple of inches could mean a lot. Cross your fingers that it all fits!

Also as part of my assignment last night, I brought home a shower faucet, a bathroom faucet, and some associated hardware doodads (TP holder, towel bar, etc).

I agonized a bit over these decisions. Not only because I agonize over ALL decisions, but because I was having a hard time balancing saving money vs getting something really nice. On one hand, if I'm going to spend extra money, I'd definitely rather spend more on the main house where I'm actually going to be living rather than in the guest house. But on the other hand, I don't want to take away from the niceness of things I put a lot of thought and effort into, like the countertops and the shower, by putting in cheapy fixtures.

It turned out, though, that I actually rather liked the construction-grade brushed nickel fixtures and hardware. There were faucets that I thought were only marginally better-looking that were $100 more expensive. So I think it's going to end up looking good, and I saved a good bit of money. I know that some of the lower-end brushed nickel finishes are bad with fingerprints and water stains, so I'll just have to wait and see on that.

As I write this, the shower floor is being finished, the granite table is being installed, the ceiling fan is being hung, and they may even be installing the bathroom stuff. The pile of tiles outside the house has gone from this

to this

and by tomorrow, all the major work should be complete and we should be talking about punchlist items. I can't believe it!

Today's assignment: a medicine cabinet. I looked at them at Lowe's and Home Depot yesterday and couldn't find one I liked. Actually I found two espresso-finished ones that I really liked, but they weren't the same espresso as the vanity cabinet. Bah. Then I tried to find one that was an untrimmed plain mirror front, but all of those had molded plastic insides that looked like utter crap. I thought about just putting a mirror instead of a medicine cabinet, but with a bathroom so tiny, it needs all the storage space it can get. I did find one of those over-the-toilet storage pieces, which was great, but it also had an espresso finish that didn't match the vanity. I promised Zoltan I'd have a medicine cabinet by tomorrow, so it looks like I have my work cut out for me today!

It's Starting To Look Like A House...

2011-04-08T09:13:00.002-05:00

Over the next 2 days, the work continued at a crazy fast pace. Minute by minute, it was getting closer to my vision of the finished product that I have been anticipating for so long.

The tiling in the main living space got finished,

and grouted.

The trim got painted:

See Kai's weave poles over to the right? I tied those poop bags to them so the guys knew not to throw them out when they got rid of all the trash in the yard :)

Trim is back on, looking sharp!

The guys came up with this idea for the threshold to the kitchen, using the leftover scraps from other tiles they had cut. I thought it was a very nice touch and a great surprise!

While I'm on the subject, I really can't say enough about Eddy and Walter, the two-man Dream Team who have been doing most of the work. They're at my house over 10 hours a day. They always show up on time. And not only are they reliable, they also do excellent work. And fast! Pretty much everything I've posted up until now, except for the structural beam replacement, is their work.

In addition to everything else I already posted, over the last 2 days they also framed the soap niche in the shower,

installed the box for the bathroom vent,

and hung the new closet doors.

The guy who Zoltan (my contractor) used to replace the structural beam was the same guy he used for pouring the new concrete in the shower floor. This was going on at the same time that Eddy & Walter were tiling, painting, grouting, and drywalling.

This whole sequence happened in about a day, starting from this (see the hole in the floor?):

to this:

then this:

then more concrete, et voila- a shower floor.

That same day, 2 days ago, the kitchen cabinets went from here

to here.

Starting to look like a house, right?? The next two jobs were the two that I had been anticipating the most- the kitchen countertops, and the tiling of the shower. I talked to Eddy & Walter the night before they were going to do the shower (which was yesterday). Walter had the picture I had drawn, but it was just a sketch and I found out that he really wasn't clear on exactly what I wanted. It was a good thing I got home from work before they left for the day. We went into the bathroom with the different kinds of tiles, we talked it out, I drew on the walls, and Walter helped explain it to Eddy, who was going to be doing the tiling and who doesn't speak as much English as Walter does. I was very relieved after we talked and I knew that they were clear on my design. I had been worried that they were working so fast, they would tile the shower while I was at work before I had a chance to talk to them about it. I was also happy that Zoltan didn't ask me for more money because of all the small tiles I used in my design. It was a lot more than I think he was anticipating, and those sheets of small tiles aren't cheap. I think after the whole trash fiasco, he figured he owed me one. I agree.

That evening I also brought home that day's assignment- ceiling fans and a bathroom light fixture. My good friend Beverly owns several rental properties and has a lot of experience buying this sort of thing, so she came with me to help out. And given my normal speed of decision making, this was a Very Good thing.

They put the living room fan up the next day (yesterday) but since I don't have a picture of it from the store, here's a sneak peek from when I got home last night:

The kitchen fan isn't up yet. Neither is the bathroom fixture, but here it is in the box:

I headed off to work the next morning with a teeny bit of butterflies, knowing that when I got back home I would have kitchen countertops and I would see my shower tile design in real life for the first time!

I also had a new assignment- come home with a bathroom vanity. Not all that easy of a task, considering the teeny amount of space I have to put one. Most teeny vanities are of the low-grade, 49-bucks variety and I didn't want that. I finally found the perfect one on Home Depot's website. They were in stock at one of the local stores, so off to HD I headed after work. I also wanted to look at faucets, showers, and medicine cabinets. It's all coming together, FAST, and I need to keep up!

Tiles! Paint! Cabinets!

2011-04-07T22:13:00.002-05:00

Lots has been happening over the last few days! As my elderly next door neighbor, Miss Ella, says, "They sho been makin' a lotta noise back there!"

They finished ripping everything out- floors, bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets- just about anything that could be removed, was. Then after the structural beam got fixed and the ceiling got replaced, it was time to get to work on the exciting stuff. Like tiles! The color is "Coral Almond". It was a tough choice between Coral Almond and Coral Beige. The fact that I thought that Coral Almond looked beige-ier and Coral Beige looked almond-ier did not help the decision process. The wall color choice was a little easier. Sam, the decorator, handed me three options and all I had to do was point to one of them. And since it's such a small space, we're using the same paint color throughout. The colors look a lot more bland in the pictures than they do in real life... I think they look great! I'm really happy with my decisions.

New pretty ceiling and new paint!

Some tiles laid and one coat of paint:

One of the only things I kept was the tile in the kitchen. It's in good shape and the color actually goes well with the other tile & the walls.

The kitchen, with old crusty cabinets removed (the tile is covered in drywall dust, so you can't see the real color of it):

The guts of the bathroom wall:

The rest of the bathroom (yes it really is that small):

At the end of that day, my assignment was to pick a grout for them to use the next day. The sample my contractor originally brought was a nice color, but too light. I have NO desire to be cleaning grout in the next, well, EVER- so I knew I needed a darker color.

Which one do you like best?

The top one? Yeah me too!

Also on Grout Day, guess what showed up in my yard? Some lovely new Honey Maple kitchen cabinets!!

Very sturdy and good quality. I was impressed.

Last but not least- guess what that is on the ground over there?

That's my shower! I had a very clear idea in my head of what I wanted the tile in the shower to look like, but I wasn't sure my contractor and I were on the same page. When I saw the special tiles show up in the yard, it was a good sign. It also meant that I better get my design finalized with him QUICKLY because soon it would be too late!

The Beginning

2011-04-06T20:33:00.002-05:00

So like I said, we started on the back house first. I'll live back there while the work on the main house is being done. I don't have any photos of the inside of the back house before the work started, but just picture an overstuffed storage locker and you've about got it.

They did a great job of demolishing everything and getting it out of the house. A MUCH better job than they did of actually removing the garbage. This quickly led to a problem.

Can you see a house back there? Somewhere?

The next snag we ran into was the support beam along the front of the house. When they opened up the wall in the bathroom, they found that it was almost disintegrated by termite damage. The whole beam, along the entire front of the house, had to be replaced. This meant that some of the ceiling had to be ripped out. They weren't going to be able to match the swirl pattern on the ceiling if they just patched it up- so hey, let's rip the whole ceiling down and replace it! And put in some new insulation while we're at it.

This meant we got a whole new pile of trash in the yard. See the termite-eaten wood on the bottom?

The trash issue was getting ridiculous. Kai had about a 1-square-foot space to go pee in, and there were any number of things she could have cut herself on.

She was leaving dusty footprints every time she came in from being out in the yard.

I had to get a little ugly with my contractor. I HATE doing that, but this was beyond nuts! I mean seriously, take out the damn trash!!!

Without going into the gory details, I made it abundantly clear that the trash had to be gone TO-DAY. By the end of the day, the yard was looking MUCH better. Phew.

So they spent about one week making a mess, one day FINALLY cleaning it up, and then the good stuff began... next post!

A New Kind Of Transition...

2011-04-06T12:02:00.002-05:00

When I started this blog, I wrote about my transition from beginning triathlete to Ironman. Now, I have a nearly-as-exciting transition to write about: the transition of my house! From drab to fab, from passe to updated, from WTF? to OMG!

The work just started to really ramp up about 2-3 weeks ago, and already it's been exciting, infuriating, challenging, and fun. I've been taking pictures so I can remember the process, in all its frustrating and transformative glory.

A little background: I live in a 1920s house that I bought back in 2006. It's a classic New Orleans shotgun, with all the rooms in a line and no hallways. There's also a separate apartment/inlaw suite/guest quarters in the back of the yard. I love my house, I love my neighborhood, I love my neighbors- but the house is in serious need of some TLC. It doesn't just need one or two things repaired or updated; it needs EVERYTHING. What's not falling apart (window frames, siding) is either dated & ugly (fake brick wallpaper in the kitchen, wallpaper borders), cheaply done (bargain-bin bathroom fixtures, afterthought closets), or just downright inexplicable (wooden shutters nailed to the walls on the INSIDE of the living room).

There was no way I was going to be able to afford everything the house needed. UNTIL I found out about the 203K home renovation loan! The bank assesses the current value of your house and the value of the renovations it needs, adds them together and gives you a loan for the total amount so you can do the work with the extra money after you pay off your existing mortgage. They don't actually GIVE you the money, of course, they hold on to it and as the jobs get done you submit for a draw and they pay the contractor. It's like getting free money to redo your house!! OK not quite, but it definitely made the whole project possible.

So, to the present day: the guest house is getting done first. The plan is for me to then live back there while the crew is working on the main house. This is working out well because it's giving me time to pack up and move all my stuff from the main house, as well as get used to the process before we get to the work that matters the most.

As I write this, the shower is being built, the tiles are being grouted, and the kitchen cabinets are ready to be installed. I have plenty of pictures and will post them in order from day 1, catching up to where we are now. I know there are a lot of people back home who are very interested in what's going on down here, so hopefully this will be a good way to share all the ups & downs & latest updates! Stay tuned!

Dear Athlete,

2010-10-14T13:34:00.002-05:00

Congratulations! You are being contacted because you have earned a spot on Team USA for the 2011 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships because of your outstanding performance at the 2010 USAT Halfmax National Championship. The 2011 World Championships are set to take place November 5, 2011 in Henderson (Las Vegas), Nevada.

I just received the above email in my inbox. I got my slot!!! Woo HOO!

Wait... this means I have to do an ITU Long Course race on the Silverman course...

"The Silverman has been branded the "toughest course in North America," featuring a 2.4 mile swim in Lake Mead, a 112 mile bike ride with over 9,700 feet climbing, and a 26.2 mile run that boasts an additional 2,000 ft elevation gain. "

Yikes! I better get working!

Soo, who's interested in a trip to Las Vegas next November??

The Race Of Many Names

2010-10-08T14:58:00.006-05:00

The Myrtle Beach Triathlon, The Halfmax Championship, The USAT Long Course National Championship.... all sorts of fun, rolled into one 70.3 mile package. Or actually, 69.1 miles, but I'll get to that.

The Venue: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. One of the best beaches in the US. I had thought the swim was going to be in the Atlantic, but it was actually planned for the Intracoastal Waterway. That ended up meaning that although I spent 4 days in Myrtle Beach, I never did see the ocean.

The Trip: 832 miles each way in the El. My first long road trip in the new car, and it was a champ. 13 hours? Piece of cake! I was accompanied by 2 Cervelos- Hazel of course, and fellow NOLA racer Dann's P3, who would be reunited with his owner upon arrival. I was also hoping to be accompanied by a certain pit bull, but that didn't end up working out. No dogs at the host hotel. Boo.

The Crew: My mom, my Aunt Denise and my 7.5 yr old cousin Cecilia. This would be Denise and Cecilia's first experience as spectathletes so my mom supplied them with lots of useful info on what triathlon is and how to watch one. They did great. They made some awesome signs:

My coach was there too but I can't really count her as 'crew' since she was there for the race herself. She did provide tons of great help and did make me feel a little like a rock star though, so that deserves mention.

Thanks, Jen, for tolerating my crazy!!

The Hotel: Or should I say the palace? I found myself in a two-bedroom suite with two full bathrooms, three balconies, and a full kitchen. It's a good thing I ended up having some crew come stay with me, or that would have been a very lonely place to stay in by myself!! Also, it was a VERY good idea to stay at the host hotel. It made packet pickup, bike checkin, race morning and everything else sooo much easier.

And now, the good part- The Race!

Prerace: Rehearsed my T1 and T2 run route. Since we were only assigned to a rack and not a particular spot, I was able to put my bike stuff on one side of the rack and run stuff on the other. I really liked that setup. After a little of my usual routine of 'staring at my stuff trying to convince myself that this is more complicated than it really is', I left it alone and went out to wait. I was about to put on my wetsuit since I was in the 2nd wave. A lady walked by saying something about the swim being canceled. My mom, Denise and I all thought that it was her way of trying to be funny. We acknowledged that it was a stupid joke and went on about our business. Imagine my surprise when about 2 minutes later, I heard the race director on the PA system saying- you guessed it- the swim was canceled. Too much e.coli in the water due to all the recent heavy rains. The race would now start at 7:50 and would be a time-trial start, beginning at swim exit. OK, slight change of plans! I called Jen, who was chilling in her room and who thought I was kidding at first when I told her. If I had been kidding about that at that moment, I hope she would've slapped me because that would've been a really dumb bad joke.

Swim: So yeah, no swim. Instead of swimming, we got to pack in like sardines on the concrete walkway where we would've gotten out of the water. There was no order to it at all. At 7:50 they were supposed to start letting people go, one person every 3 seconds, to start their run up to transition. We couldn't wear shoes, it had to be just like we were getting out of the water. They did let us wear socks though, and I also wore my arm warmers and my Garmin. That would save time in T1. To give an idea of how packed it was and how long we stood there, there was one girl who was sitting on the ground and asked up to the girl next to her, "have they started yet?" The girl replied, "yeah, they started about ten minutes ago." We weren't even all that far back and we hadn't moved an inch yet. All in all, I stood there waiting, on concrete in socks, for about 45 minutes before I finally got my turn to go. Great warmup!!

T1: My support crew was waving and cheering as I ran past on my way to transition. Having the arm warmers, socks and Garmin already on helped me to be speedy. Helmet, shoes, go! We had to run across grass in our bike shoes and mount on a little bit of an incline, but it went fine. I was off!

Bike: The bike course was shaped like an uppercase letter "i" and we did two loops of it. That meant that there were seven 180-degree turnarounds, but most of the rest of it was straight. It was also flat except for a couple of onramps. It was also VERY WINDY. I knew it would be, and I wasn't looking forward to it. I'll take a hilly course over a windy one any day. Jen had told me the day before that a windy day is a mental game- if you're not mentally tough, it'll break you. And if you are tough, then you can take advantage. I know that being mentally tough is one of my strengths, and I tried to tell myself that, but I couldn't help being a little intimidated by the wind. It was fortunate that the wind was at our backs for the longest straightaway on the course. But the section just before that was where the headwind was the strongest. That meant that not even 10 miles into the bike, my legs were burning and my HR was sky-high. Not good! I told myself I could use the tailwind to regroup and get my legs back a little. But of course I wanted to take as much advantage of it as I could, so I didn't want to slack off either. I ended up going 23-24+ for most of the long straightaway. Sweet!! It felt SO much better than that damn headwind!

On the 2nd lap, I was a bit slower all around and my legs were REALLY feeling it. My quads were burning and cramping like they were going to lock up any second. I was worried that I'd get off the bike and not be able to move, much less run, but I remembered that I'd felt a little bit like this on the bike in IMNOLA and my legs were fine for the run, so I tried to just not worry about it. When I realized I was grinding out barely 17 mph into the headwind, I was NOT happy. What was even worse was getting passed by a bunch of girls in my age group all throughout the bike- even when I thought I was going fast! The bike is definitely my weakest area, and I know I've made a lot of improvements in these last several months but I also still have a way to go to get it up to the same level as my swim and run.

Finally, the end of the bike was getting near. I really wanted to go 2:48, which would be a 20.0 mph average for the 56 miles. Looking at my watch, it looked like I was going to miss it by a few minutes. Bummer. But the bright side was- I was about to be OFF of the BIKE!! No offense Hazel, you do rock- it's not you, it's me :)

T2: For the 2nd time in a race, I took my feet out of my shoes before getting to the dismount line. For a second there, my foot was tangled in the strap of my shoe and visions of a faceplant ran through my head. But it all worked out fine, and I was able to run much faster to my spot than I would if I had my bike shoes on. Made a quick swap and was off to the run- how would my burning legs hold up??

Run: The answer- this was easily the best 13.1 miles I have ever run. I couldn't get over how EASY it felt. I kept thinking over and over, "it feels like I'm floating". It was an out and back 2-loop course. I didn't even feel like I started working until the 2nd lap, and even then I was well under control. I went out a little slower than my goal pace, as planned. I knew that meant I'd have to do some time at faster than my goal pace, but I was OK with that.

I loved the way the course was set up- I kept realizing that more and more as I went. There was a veeeery slight downhill for a good portion of the way out. It was barely perceptible, but just enough to get your legs turning over quickly without having to work as hard as you think you would. This worked out really well for the beginning of the run when I was trying to get my run legs under me and settle in to a pace. Then on the first time back, it was a little harder but that was OK because I was settled in. On the way out the 2nd time, I really took advantage of the "downhill" to work my sub-goal-pace effort. Then on the way back the 2nd time, it was harder but that was OK because I was almost done so I just went for it.

I took in more gel than I normally do, and I think this was a good idea (I called it my "fruit punch" gel, because it was 3 different flavors mixed together- hey it's the end of the season, I was running out... that's all I had left!). At one point late in the run I started to feel a bit of fatigue, so I gulped some extra gel and water and felt much better. Usually I put off sipping my gel while running because it's kind of a pain to get it out of my tri top, open it, sip, close it, and put it back... but seeing how well this run went, I'm definitely going to be better about getting those calories in on the run.

There was a weird little dogleg out-and-back section at the end of the loop that you actually did twice per loop. So whenever you were on that short section, there were four lanes of traffic. The volunteers were yelling themselves hoarse trying to tell the runners, "1st and 3rd times on this road, go around the cone and to the left side; 2nd and 4th times, to the end and then the sidewalk"... huh??? There were people all over the road, people crossing traffic, it was chaos. Fortunately I made it through correctly and unscathed.

I really can't say enough how awesome this run felt. Even when it got tough, I was in control. I kept an eye on my average pace for the run and it was right on. I thought I was maybe going to miss my stretch target by a minute or so, but I was going to make my major goal. I cheered on the 2 other GNOTri guys when I saw them, FINALLY found Jen and waved at her, and then cruised in towards the finish line feeling AWESOME. Slapped high fives to my mom, Denise and Cecilia, then across the mats and DONE!

Results: I ended up placing 23rd in my AG out of 39. Doesn't sound so awesome, but considering this was the national championships and there was some SERIOUS talent there, I think that's OK. I ended up getting a PR both for the bike and run legs, which was cool but also made me super bummed that we didn't have the swim so I couldn't get a 70.3 PR. Argh! But that aside, I was very happy with my results:

T1: 1:41 (fast, but bc of me having socks, arm warmers and Garmin on already)
Bike: 2:48:43 (I got my 2:48 after all! Sah-weet!)
T2: 2:48 (that's more like it for me.... sigh)
Run: 1:44:47 (I MADE IT! I got my 1:45 and 8:00/mile average! I really didn't think I did! Totally happy about that)
Total: 4:37:59 (...not that that means much, since it was 69.1 and not 70.3)

So about Team USA- the top 20 get automatic slots. The slots will roll down to the top 25 if anyone in the top 20 doesn't claim theirs. Also, since Worlds is next year (which is what we're qualifying for), they have to score everyone against the age groups they'll be in NEXT year, not the ones they're in now. This doesn't affect me directly, but it does affect how many people will be in my AG for scoring purposes. They said they'd send out emails within 2 weeks or so, notifying you if you got your slot. So keep your fingers crossed for me! Nevada 2011, baby!!

Oh and I almost forgot- after the race, Cecilia really wanted to go swimming. She and I both thought this would be a great idea, since I didn't get to go swimming that morning. We had a great time. So thanks, my Cecilia Buddy, for making my triathlon experience complete!

Snake Bite Tri

2010-06-21T15:04:00.002-05:00

Three words best describe this race: Hot, Hot, and HOT. By the time of the 8 AM start, it was easily topping 90. The heat index for the day, which is measured in the shade, was at least 105. You have to get yourself to just not think about it. At least that's what I do. Because if you dwell on it you'll just be miserable. And it'll still be just as hot!

Swim: There were 3 waves. All females were in the 3rd wave (it was a very small race). The water was almost as hot as the air! It was like a bathtub in there. Fortunately it was also as calm as a bathtub, which made sighting easy even for me. There was one girl who insisted on swimming into my butt the entire way around. I got an elbow to the goggle one time too which was nice. She seemed to be trying to get me to move over. I'm sure she was frustrated, but hey I was just swimming in a straight line, I wasn't about to alter my course just because she wanted me to! If she wanted to swim to the inside she could go around me. But she seemed to prefer my butt. Oh well. I think the swim was quite long. My friend, who was an NCAA swimmer, looked at all the times and thinks it was at least 100yds too long. For a 400 meter course, that's pretty significant. I heard them say "3rd and 4th women coming out of the water!" as I got out, which was very cool (that would be me and Butt-Girl).

T1: I opted to wear socks, which I would later regret. Other than that, I was pretty fast for me, although that's still not fast. I think I lost 2 spots by the time I got out onto the bike.

Bike: 13 mile straight, flat, out & back course. A bit of a headwind on the way out provided some challenge, but I knew the way back would be sweet. I chased down some women in front of me and tried to keep a mental note of my position. I passed a coworker of mine to get into 3rd place. She passed me back and I got to watch another girl draft off of her for about a mile until I passed them both again. On the way back, a few miles from the end, I found myself in a back-and-forth duel with two other women. We were trading the top three spots back and forth. I was leading the race two different times, though only briefly. It was really exciting. We were zooming by other riders like they were standing still. Eventually, one girl pulled far enough away that I knew I wouldn't catch her, but I kept her in my sights (not hard on a straight road) and finished the bike in 2nd place.

T2: I opted to not take my feet out of my shoes before dismounting the bike, another decision I would come to regret. Again, fast transition for me but still not that fast.

Run: Whoa, this was the longest 2 miles I've ever run! I could see the girl in 1st ahead of me. She wasn't pulling away, but I wasn't gaining much ground either. By the time we passed the first mini-aid station, which was two people handing out icewater towels, I was well in need of some cooling off. I reached out and received... a dry washcloth. What a tease! The next aid station was a water stop. A little girl was handing out water and Gatorade. I was about to ask for water, when the guy right in front of me took the cup of water she was holding. I passed by as she was turned around to get another cup. Foiled again!

Then we turned off the road and entered a shaded section of trail. I guess the shade was nice, but the real thing I noticed was we were running on a thick pad of pea gravel. As if my legs weren't heavy enough, now I was running on what felt like sand. "Turnover!" I kept telling myself. "Just keep running!" I thought about what it would feel like if another woman came blazing past me, putting me into third. I might not be able to catch the girl in front of me, but I certainly didn't work this hard to lose my second-place spot! After we finally exited the woods, there was another mini-aid station. I reached out for water, but all he had was Gatorade. 0 for 3!

I could tell there wasn't anyone immediately about to pass me because I didn't hear any cheers for anyone else after I passed a group of spectators. Coming up on the water-and-Gatorade aid station for the second time, I could see they were handing out water bottles. And they looked COLD. Sweeet. I reached out for one... and a guy right next to me (where did he even come from??) grabbed it. And that was it, we had passed by. Are you kidding me?? At this point I let out an audible "AAGH!" I was passing a guy who said, "here, you want some of mine?" I managed an "I love you!!", guzzled some precious H2O and gave him the bottle back. I then came up on my friend Clay, got out a quick "missed EVERY aid station!" to him, and he mercifully splashed me with some water from his bottle as I passed. Then, up ahead- the finish line! So close, but so far away... had it really only been an hour since the swim start? One hot, tired foot in front of the other, and I made it to finish 2nd overall. And promptly drank 2 bottles of icy cold water. Aaaaaaahhhh, finally.

Results: I was 2nd overall, which is way cool! (remember though, it was a small race, something like 46 women total, so it's not quite as impressive as it sounds) But looking back over the results, what do you think made the difference? Yep, you guessed it, transitions. The girl who won was about 25 seconds ahead of me, and that's about how much faster her combined T1 and T2 were than mine. Our other times were startlingly identical (I outswam her by one minute, she outbiked me by one minute, and our run times were 0.2 sec apart). Guess who needs to do some transition work?? Talking to my coach though, I realized a few things. 1) This is not unexpected, since we've never really worked on transitions before. For the half and full IMs, they don't matter as much and I've always had bigger things to work on. She gave me some good tips that I will be practicing. 2) This is a good problem to have! For a race to come down to transition times means I'm making some good progress.

My bike average was good, 21.1 mph. I was a little concerned that it was the same average that I had in Heatwave a few weeks back, where the bike course was almost twice as long. But Heatwave was a slightly rolling course, so I was helped out by some downhills. This one was pancake flat. Heatwave, despite the name, was also nowhere near as hot. But in any case, my biking has definitely improved just in the last couple of months, and that in itself is a major victory.

My run pace was 7:46, which was slightly disappointing. I ran 7:10s for a longer race not even a year ago. But, I hadn't biked nearly as fast, nor was it nearly as hot. And I went into this last month or so of training knowing that the strong bike focus for this phase was going to take something away from my run. I've hardly done any run speedwork at all in the last month at least. So I do understand it. But of course I want to be faster, who doesn't, right?

And in the end, this race was for fun of course, and I had fun. So I was more than happy with it.

I almost forgot the best part of the race- the Headsweats visor in the goodie bag! Seriously, that was the main reason I signed up for this race.

Lots of great GNOTri performances, including several AG wins and places. Congrats to all! Now go find some air conditioning :)

One Year Ago

2010-06-20T17:16:00.002-05:00

A year ago today, I woke before dawn in a place far from home and prepared myself for the biggest physical challenge of my life. Actually, the real preparation had been going on for the last twelve months in order to get me to that predawn morning.

I remember the first triathlon I ever did- a sprint called The Grandman on May 31st, 2008. I rode a commuter bike with my running shoes. It was my first open water swim. It was the first time I'd run three continuous miles since my injury the previous winter. And I LOVED it. I remember crossing the finish line and thinking to myself, "I am a triathlete!". It was the biggest feeling of personal accomplishment I'd had in a long time. I knew I had to have more of this sport.

In the days that followed, I thought about what I wanted to do next. I was looking around on the internet, talking to my new triathlon friends, and learning about this whole new world of sport. Sure, I had run before, but this was different- the sense of community, the oppenness and welcoming of other triathletes, how much FUN everyone seemed to be having. I started reading about Ironman. Wow, I thought, that is a whole other level. But I talked to some people who had done them, and they were very... normal. They didn't wear capes like superheroes, they went to work and had lives just like I did. I started thinking- why couldn't I do that? That turned into "I bet I could do that" and then "I wanna do that!". I talked about it to my friend/coworker Adam, who happened to be contemplating his first Ironman at the same time. And that was enough to put it over the edge. At the stroke of noon on a June Monday, the instant the general entry opened, he and I both signed up for the 2009 Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Twelve months to get ready- the countdown was on.

I knew I couldn't do it by myself. I knew I needed help. I had only done one tri, I could count on one hand the number of times I'd swum laps in the pool, I didn't even have a bike besides my hybrid, and I was just coming off of an injury that had sidelined me for a few months. I didn't know how to find a coach, but I knew I needed one. It ended up happening mostly by accident. I read an article on Beginner Triathlete that I liked, and I clicked on the link at the end for the author. I found the name Jennifer Hutchison, read a little about her, and thought she could be a good fit. We scheduled a chat, I told her my story and what I wanted to do, and did she think this was possible? She told me yes. We must have talked for about an hour. It totally clicked- I could tell right away that she "got" me. My Ironman roller coaster ride was starting, and I was strapped in and ready to go!

Over the course of that year, I did a few more races, bought a bike, eventually was healed enough to run faster than Granny and her walker, faithfully rode with GNOTri on the Saturday Rides of Pain (I only cried a few times), figured out how to fit more and more training time into a week, made a lot of friends, and had a lot of fun.

There are many memorable moments that stick out:

-My first 100 mile ride, which was by myself in the blazing heat, doing four 25-mile Hayne loops (I HATE Hayne loops).

-Running 16 miles (at the time my longest ever) at the crack of dawn so I could be ready in time for Easter brunch.

-Almost getting run over by drag racers on Hayne at dusk. I had started my ride too late and was running out of daylight, when all of a sudden headlights across the whole road were screaming towards me. That was probably my scariest bike experience ever.

-Finally breaking 1:30 for 100m in the pool, after it had eluded me for a long time.

-My super-brick workout of 4 x (20 mile bike/4 mile run), also in the blazing heat, which ended up taking me about 8 hours.

-My training trip to CA, on the Wildflower course. So much fun, even though just the thought of Nasty Grade made me cry before we even got there.

And there are many more.

So back to that morning. It's June 21st, 2009, and I'm standing in the kitchen of our rented house in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, spreading peanut butter on a bagel. It's barely 4:30 AM and the sun is already coming up. I can see the predawn glow through the window over the sink. I'm ready. My transition and special needs bags are packed, my bike is checked, my swim gear is by the door. And more importantly, I have the training in the bank and I know it. I've done the work my coach has given me and my trust in her plan is complete. If she says I'm ready, then I am. I don't know exactly what will happen out there today, but unless there is some major accident I know I'll finish.

And right about now, back here in NOLA around 11 PM Central time, is almost exactly one year to the minute since it happened. I did finish. I am an Ironman. I'm still moving forward- there's been a lot more racing since that day and a lot of changes. I've set my sights on some new goals, gained more experience, and I continue to have a great and rewarding relationship with my coach. But that day one year ago is a day I will always remember.

Stupid Criminals: Triathlon Edition

2010-06-14T20:24:00.002-05:00

Two weekends ago was the Heatwave Classic Triathlon in Ridgeland, MS. I headed up there along with several GNOTri teammates.

The race was great- it's almost an Olympic distance but with a short swim (0.5 mi). The bike ride is along the scenic Natchez Trace Parkway, and the run is on a paved trail through a shady wooded area. It was my first race with the new bike so I really wanted to tear it up out on the bike course. I managed to do pretty well on the bike- YAY- but then had no legs getting out on the run. I felt like Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump. After the turnaround on the run I realized one other reason for that- the run was mostly uphill the whole way out, but so gradual that you couldn't really see it. It was just enough to make you a little miserable. On the way back I was able to open it up a little and take advantage of the slight downhill, so at least that was good. And for once I didn't end up way out in the middle of the lake during the swim, with the race going on waaaay over there... I need to remember that whenever I think to myself, "oh I'm getting some swimming room, this is good", that it's actually NOT good because it probably means I'm veering off to China. So the fact that I managed to swim mostly straight on a right-turns course (I'm better on left turns) was good enough for me. I even took home some hardware!

But the real story of the day happened before the race even started. I was jogging around the parking lot warming up, about ten minutes before I was going to head down to the water. I saw some cops standing over by the side of the parking lot. I didn't think anything of it, since there are normally cops at races for traffic control. But when I ran by, I saw them putting cuffs on the kid who was standing with them. He looked youngish, early 20s, and was all dressed up in his triathlon gear, body marked and ready to race. As I passed I heard one of the cops say, "they have some pretty unique serial numbers, you know, especially those fancy carbon ones". Wait, wha?? I had to find out more...

On my way back around the parking lot, the cops were putting the kid in the car. I got the scoop from two ladies who were standing nearby- the kid stole the bike from packet pickup the night before (which was held at the local bike shop). Then in his infinite wisdom, he brought it to the race and tried to race with it. How on Earth did they find him, you ask? Perhaps because the race number attached to the bike was the same as the number WRITTEN ON HIS BODY. The bike shop people showed up, found the bike by make, model, and serial number, and then found the kid. (I heard he was going to parade around with a neon sign saying "I STOLE THIS" but he thought it would mess up his aerodynamics.)

I really don't have much else to say about that. I mean, seriously?? A bike just happens to go missing the night before the biggest sporting event in the area, and you think they're not going to look there? Although, Coach Rick had a good point- "I actually don't know if I'd have looked here, because I'd have thought no one would be that dumb."

So whether it was bold, just plain stupid, or both, it was definitely something I did not expect to see that morning!

Bonehead Move Of The Week

2010-05-26T22:00:00.002-05:00

You know your week is starting off well when your Bonehead Move comes on a Sunday. Somehow I just knew I wouldn't top this one the rest of the week.

So I'm doing my 20 min run off the bike. My instructions were to go out at an easier pace for the first 10 mins, then come back a bit faster, sub 8:30. OK. I cruise out for the first 10, then make the turn and start picking it up. I figured I would pick it up gradually, but as I looked at my watch I could see that I was picking it up REALLY gradually. It felt like I would step it up noticeably, but only see a 2 second or so difference in my pace. For the first several minutes, this continued. Noticeable increase in effort, tiny change in pace. What was up?? My mind started thinking of all the reasons why this could be- did I not fuel properly? Did I not eat right the day before? Was I sleep-deprived? I know I've been focusing on my biking lately, riding Saturday and Sunday instead of one or the other and not really doing a long run. I knew that meant my run would suffer somewhat, but was it really going to be this dramatic? I could barely get down to 8:30 pace, and I used to cruise pretty easy at that speed. What's happening to me? My mind was racing.

With about a minute and a half to go, I'm pushing way hard, when something in the back of my mind went "wait a second"... I checked my Garmin again and realized I had been looking at my AVERAGE pace that whole time. I clicked over to my instantaneous pace- 7:06. A-HA! Houston, we found the problem.

Yes, I am that tool who doesn't know how to read her own instruments. Although, I have definitely never made this mistake before.

At least my run isn't falling apart as badly as I was fearing!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Stella Has Left The Building

2010-05-10T17:40:00.002-05:00

Meet her new replacement:

I brought her home on Saturday and I've only ridden her once. I don't know her name yet. But she is screamin' fast.

It was a pretty productive Saturday. It started at 4:45 with a drive to the northshore for a 70-mile ride (which turned out to be Stella's farewell tour). It was a really nice ride. The change of scenery was exactly what I needed, and our smaller group of 7 (5 girls, yeah!) was fun and friendly. I *conveniently* stopped by the bike shop on the way home, since it was *conveniently* on the way, and they *conveniently* had a P2 in my size that they had been bugging me to look at. I had told them I wasn't deciding anything before IMNOLA but I'd come by after the race. I had been there the day before just briefly to check it out and get an initial fitting but didn't have time to make any real decisions.

I had recently started thinking that it might be time for a bike upgrade. Stella has been AWESOME, no doubt. But I'd never ridden anything else, and I'd been hearing how carbon is so much nicer to ride- that it wouldn't beat me up so much and I'd be able to run better off the bike. Training for half and full IMs does mean a lot of time in the saddle. And biking is my new Primary Focus Area, since it is my "key limiter", aka "thing I suck at way more than the other two". So to my thinking, if I'm going to be spending a lot more time at it, and I want to really improve at it, it should be comfortable and enjoyable to do.

So to make a long story short, over two hours later I rolled out of the bike shop with two bikes- a brand-spankin-new Cervelo P2 and a slightly forlorn, saddle-less and pedal-less Stella- along with over $200 in free bike stuff (thanks Bike Connection, you rock!) and a significantly lighter wallet.

I then proceeded to go home, wash the car, take Kai for a walk, and then collapse of exhaustion onto the couch.

Sunday I took her out for a quick 30-miler, which was pretty intense on the way out due to a strong headwind. She handled like a dream! I could tell right away that there was a big difference when going over bumpy roads. Much smoother. The one bummer about the new bike is that the only two colors I do NOT particularly like for vehicles (bikes, cars, whatever) are red and white. And you can get your 2010 Cervelo P2 in any colors you want... as long as they're red and white. Doh! But hey, if my bike times start improving, I think it'll grow on me real fast!

*Actually, Stella isn't really gone. She's still here while I decide what to do with her. She still looks sad without pedals and a seat, though.

IM CDA Race Report, Part II

2009-07-07T18:58:00.002-05:00

Bike:
I had scouted my route from bike rack to transition exit the day before when I dropped Stella off. It was super easy. I had the third rack from the front, almost all the way to the side. All I had to do once I picked her up was go back to the side aisle and run straight down it to the exit. I got to the mount line, shoved off, started my Garmin, and then it was just me and Stella for the next seven or so hours.

First though, we got to ride through town and all the cheering spectators. I knew my crew was out there somewhere but I didn’t know quite where, and I tried to look for them as best I could without crashing. I saw them within the first few minutes, waved, and immediately ran over a manhole cover and almost wiped out. Well, not really almost, but I made a mental note to be more careful the next time I decided it was a good idea to be waving on the bike.

A moment before near-disaster:

I was in SCR, as my coach had told me to be for at least the first thirty minutes. The first part of the bike course is mostly flat, so it was a good time to just spin my legs, get warmed up on the bike, and enjoy the experience. We headed out to the out-and-back on CDA Lake Drive, which is the part of the course that you both bike and run on. There’s also a really short out-and-back on Northwest Blvd, which I thought was at the beginning of the loop. I realized I wasn’t heading that way and thought I had made a wrong turn somewhere. For a minute, I thought, “Oh no! I’m going off course and I’m going to be disqualified!” But then I realized that was silly, there was no possible way I could’ve gone off course, and that other part must be at the end of the loop. Phew.

I didn’t know exactly where the turnaround was on CDA Lake Dr, but I assumed it was near where this hill by a bridge was. I hadn’t gone any further than that on my training rides in April. So when we got to the hill, I kept thinking the turnaround would be just ahead. It turned out it was a good few miles past that point, which was a surprise. It was mostly an easy ride though, except for one longish gradual hill. When we finally got to the turnaround, I saw all the special needs bags laid out and made a note of where mine was. Then back down the lake road to Government Way.

Heading north on Government Way is still pretty much flat, so I really hadn’t done a whole lot of work on the bike yet by this point. And my swim was mostly an easy cruise, so I was still feeling really fresh. I knew the hills would start by the time I got up to Hayden Lake, and that the hardest one is one of the first ones, but I was surprisingly calm about it (especially considering the total meltdown that I had on my way to Nasty Grade on the Wildflower course that March). I realized I was more eager than anything- I’ve ridden these hills before, I know I can do it, now it’s finally showtime so let’s go!

When I was passing the Albertson’s on Gov’t Way I heard one of the volunteers say, “Here comes the race leader!” I saw the flashing lights of the escort vehicles coming the opposite way, and shortly thereafter was a guy moving VERY fast on a VERY nice-looking bike. It was probably Pontano, looking back at the results, but at the time I didn’t know who it was. After he passed, I remembered the Mardi Gras half marathon, when the race leader passed us coming the other way and us runners on the other side all started cheering for him. I cheered for the next few bikes that passed after the leader. I don’t think anyone else did, and I don’t know if the racers heard me, but it made me feel good anyway.

By this point, it was about an hour to an hour and a half into the bike, and I still felt like I hadn’t really worked yet all day. I knew that was good, since I had a lot of work to do on the hills coming up. I knew that once we made the turn onto Hayden Ave by the country club, that it was about to start. Having ridden the course back in April was a HUGE help all day. Knowing what road I was on and knowing where I had to go next, being able to picture my position on the course map, made it feel so much more manageable. George the masters swim coach made fun of me for taking that April trip (“What didja do that for? You must have too much money to spend”), but I think it’s definitely a best practice!

My Hammer bars stopped being appetizing about an hour into the bike, but I knew I needed to keep filling the tanks if I wanted to be able to run at all, so I stayed on schedule with my eating and drinking and Thermotabs. Other than checking the timing for my eating/salt pill schedule, I didn’t look at my watch at all. I didn’t check heart rate, cadence, distance, or anything. It just didn’t feel necessary. My coach told me that it’s better to go by perceived exertion IF you have a good sense for it, and that I do. So throughout the bike I kept taking a self-inventory, asking “does this feel like a solid aerobic pace?” and “can I run after riding at this effort level?”

We turned on to English Point Rd and got our first taste of the hills. The first one is steep-ish and short. The volunteers at the corner were cheering loud. Gear down, spinspinspin, done. No biggie. Sweet. Then the long downhill- the one where you’re thinking, “hey this is cool, but CRAP I have to climb back up!” It’s a really scenic part of the course, but all I could do was hang on to the aerobars for dear life, stare at the road ahead of me, and try not to go off the cliff at the edge of the road (I’m a bit of a wimp on downhills).

Then came the “big” hill, it’s not huge but it’s the biggest one on the course. I got down to first gear and spun my way up, in the saddle the whole way. My heart rate got pretty high but I got to the top reasonably comfortably and recovered well on the way back down. There’s another hill just after the big one that looks HUGE as you come around the corner, but when you get up to it it’s not that bad.

And so on like that for a while. I realized that drinking one bottle of sports drink every hour in 60 degree weather is different from drinking one bottle every hour in 95 degree weather when I had to stop to pee about ten times. I pretty much knew that would happen, but my body was used to drinking that much so I figured I should do it anyway. The only times it was mildly annoying was when I had to wait in line for one, but it was never long.

On the way back into town from my first loop, I got passed by this guy who was going pretty fast. I saw the name on his bib number said “Pontano” and I realized I’d just gotten passed by the race leader! Cool.

Passing my awesome support crew:

I had a pretty relaxed little picnic at special needs just after the beginning of my second loop- I ate my chips, read my notes, restocked my Hammer bars, and generally chilled out while the volunteer held my bike. I eventually felt guilty that I was keeping him from REAL work and decided to get my butt back in gear. I told him, “Well, I guess I’ll get back at it.”. He replied, “Back to work, huh?” and I answered, “Why not? It’s a beautiful day!” and off I went.

The start of the second loop was probably my low point on the bike ride. That was when I started feeling the effects of the hills from the first loop, and was looking down the road at another round of the same. The thoughts of, “Can I really run a marathon after this?” started creeping into my head. I remembered that Jen told me that there would be highs and lows throughout the day. I had listened to her, but I’d never done a day as long as this so I’d never experienced that to this extent. I told myself that this was just a low, and not to worry about it because I was going to feel better soon, I wouldn’t feel this way for the whole rest of the race. That made me able to calm myself down about it a little bit and just focus on riding. And a little while later, I did rebound and feel good again. The hills the second time around were definitely more challenging, and my legs felt like they had more miles behind them than they had left in them, but staying focused on the moment and the immediate task at hand- this hill, this downhill, this turn, this aid station- helped me to not think about that. I tried to go as easy as I could whenever I could, which wasn’t often out on the hills.

One thing I did notice was I was passing tons of people on the hills. I wasn’t trying to, that’s just how it happened. I thought about trying to go up slower, but it felt like that would actually be more work so I just went with what came naturally. I don’t think anyone passed me on any of the hills, not that I can remember anyway. This one guy who I kept passing on the uphills and who kept passing me back on the downhills yelled out to me one time, “You sure can climb good!”. That made me laugh. Another guy who passed me on a downhill shouted, “This is the one good thing about being fat!”

The wind REALLY picked up for about the last hour or so of the bike. I could see some very menacing-looking clouds off in the distance and was hoping they weren’t heading our way. Or if they were, that they’d hold off at least until I got off the bike. The wind itself though didn’t bother me much. It wasn’t anything more than a lot of the training rides I’ve been on at home. One guy passed me and said something about the “hurricane force winds”, which just made me think- well then it’s a good thing I’m a Katrina survivor!

Another thing that I noticed all day but especially on the bike was how awesome the spectators for this race are. The volunteers are also amazing of course, but I just couldn’t get over how many of the local residents sat out in their front yards cheering for us, in pretty crappy weather, ALL day. You ride the section from 4th Street to Government Way and through town four times on the bike, and I saw all the same people all four times. There was the guy/girl in the Elmo suit playing the drums, the lady in a cow costume mooing at us, a kid dressed as a chicken with some sort of cape on (Super Chicken?), people ringing bells, banging on coffee cans, blasting music, cheering and shouting and carrying on all day long. Old, young, people with kids, groups of friends and people on their own. It was chilly, windy, cloudy, and generally crappy out and yet there they were, so enthusiastically supporting all these athletes who they didn’t even know. It was easy to believe that they really, honestly wanted us to have a great day out there and that they were pulling for every single one of us. It was really touching and inspiring.

Rolling back into town the second time, I couldn’t believe I was almost done with the bike! On one hand, it did feel like it had been a long time, but on the other hand, I was 2/3 of the way to being an Ironman! How crazy! At the end of my long training rides, all I could think was “Get me OFF of this thing!” and I’d read several race reports that described the same feeling at the end of the bike. Don’t get me wrong, I was definitely ready to hand Stella off and get on with the rest of my race, but I was honestly feeling pretty good. When I got to the arrows on the pavement that I passed on the last loop that said “Finish This Way” and “2nd Loop This Way”, it felt so good to follow the one that said “Finish”. At this point, the entire course was lined with cheering spectators all the rest of the way into transition.

About to make the turnaround and come up on the "To Finish" sign:

IM CDA Race Report, Part I

2009-06-26T11:13:00.003-05:00

Pre-Race:
I actually slept well the night before. I got to bed a little later than I wanted to because of finishing a few final prep tasks (story of my life) but I got to sleep right away and slept until the alarm went off at 4am. Had my pre-race breakfast of a bagel and peanut butter,

grabbed the run and bike special needs bags and my sports drink from the fridge, and Mick and I headed to the race start. Body marking started at 5am and I was supposed to meet Adam there around that time.

We easily got a parking spot at the downtown lot because we were so early. It was barely 5am so the body marking volunteers weren’t busy yet. I had three ladies do my body marking- one for each arm and one for my leg.

It gets light out up there by 4:30am, so by 5:00 it didn’t even feel like it was that early. It was pretty chilly though, so I got my clothes back on as soon as the ink dried.

Then I had to go put my gel flask, extra bars, and towels in my transition bags and put my sports drink bottles on the bike. After that it was off to drop off bike and run special needs bags. On the way back from doing that, I realized how much more crowded it had gotten since we’d arrived. It was definitely a good idea to get there as early as we did. Adam passed by going the other way, saying he was getting one of his gels and that Stacy was waiting by the big blowup Gatorade bottle. Mick and I met up with Stacy there,

then Molly arrived,

and before long my parents, Rich and Heather showed up and then Adam got back. By that time it was almost time for the pro start, so we stood around and talked and then watched the pros go off at 6:25. There were age groupers filing down to the beach start area but I liked where we were standing for the time being. No need to get down there and get myself all worked up before it was necessary.

After a few more minutes, Adam and I realized that we really better get headed down there soon, so we started putting on our wetsuits and sunscreen.

Somehow all of a sudden it felt like we were late, or maybe it was just butterflies making us hurry. We took a quick picture in our superhero suits,

hugged and high-fived our support crews, and then we were gone. By this time it was an absolute crush of people everywhere, but people were pretty good about making room for us when they saw we were athletes. It was slow going when we got down to the walkway along the lake leading to the opening to the beach, and Adam started worrying that we wouldn’t make it in time. I wasn’t worried, either because there were tons of other athletes around us and I assumed they wouldn’t start with half of us still on the sidewalk, or because I wasn’t wearing a watch. I lost Adam about three times between there and the beach, and oddly enough it is not easy trying to find a neoprene-clad, swim-capped triathlete among a sea of other neoprene-clad, swim-capped triathletes. We never spoke about why we were staying together- we clearly weren’t going to swim together since he’s a lot better swimmer than I am- but I think we both at that moment wanted the familiarity and comfort of each other’s company. There were too many people out there and this was too big of a deal to be alone. So each time I found him again after a few seconds of being “lost”, we were both relieved.

We finally made it down to the beach and then it was decision time- outside or inside? I had talked to my coach about where the best place to start would be, and she wouldn’t tell me what to do beyond giving me the pros and cons of each option. Outside- more swimming room, less crowd, but you have to swim further and angle in. Inside- you get to stick to the buoy line and have a more direct route, but you’ll get pummeled. I knew the reason she wouldn’t tell me what to do was because she didn’t know what it would be like on race day, and she couldn’t know what I personally would be comfortable with. I didn’t really know either, so I decided to play it by ear and decide when I got down there. So as I looked down the beach towards the outside, I saw that if I truly wanted to get on the outside of the crowd, I’d have to go waaay down almost halfway to the end of the beach. The people lined up out there were already SO far away from the buoy line, it was crazy. It looked like most people had the idea of starting to the outside to avoid the crowd, so ironically that’s where the crowd was. So then I looked to the inside, and saw that it was noticeably more sparse, although there were still lots of people. But how badly would I get trampled if I started there? Wasn’t it insane to consider swimming the buoy line unless you’re a really good swimmer? We didn’t have a lot of time to decide, so when Adam said, “So what do you want to do? Outside or inside?”, I didn’t even think and just said “Inside.” He didn’t hesitate either, said “OK”, and off we went.

We ended up a few people back from the front, just a few strides away from the water and directly on the buoy line. It was crowded of course- there was nowhere on that beach that wasn’t- but we weren’t packed in there like sardines, like we probably would have been if we’d gone outside. I decided we had made the right choice and I was happy about it. It’s a good thing, because all of a sudden, BOOM! The cannon went off. I heard Adam say something like, “whoa, crap!” and then we were headed for the water. I’ve seen video clips of IM swim starts on youtube, and one thing that struck me was how long it takes everyone to get in the water. It seems like there are swimmers already making the first turn and there are still people on the beach. But because of where we’d lined up, we took about five steps and we were in the water. Easy peasy!

Swim:
I knew I’d be getting pummeled no matter where I started, so I was ready for it. I’d heard stories of people panicking because of all the bodies around them, kicking and punching and flailing, and I was a little worried about it. I was well aware that there’s really nothing in training that can prepare you for an Ironman mass start (well maybe something like this Clif bar ad)

so I wasn’t sure how I’d react. And you know what? It was the weirdest thing. I felt oddly detached, somehow, from the whole experience. Almost like I was floating above myself, watching it all happen. The people around me who were pawing at me, hitting me, swimming into me didn’t bother me at all because it’s like they weren’t really there. Or I wasn’t really there. Or something. I just kept stroke-stroke-breathe-ing, following my own rhythm, mostly unaffected by the chaos around me. And it really wasn’t that bad of chaos anyway. Sure it was congested, yeah I got hit in the face a few times, but it really wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined it could be. It was actually more exciting than anything- I was in the middle of an Ironman mass swim start! How cool is that! Overall, the swim was a very zen experience. It never thinned out totally to where I got my own swimming room. It was more off and on. For a few minutes it would be congested, then for a few minutes I’d have open water. Off and on like that for the whole swim. When we got out after the first loop, got back in and angled to turn at the first buoy, it did get pretty chaotic again but then settled back into the off-and-on pattern. I pretty much cruised easy the whole time. I did use some of my “sprint speed” (Ha Ha) a few times to get out of traffic jams or to get away from someone on my feet. When we made the far turn at the end of the way out, the sun was in our eyes and it was hard to see the next buoy. A lot of us (including me) turned too sharply and ended up heading to the inside of the course until the kayaks got us pointed the right way. I almost hit a kayak a few times. It’s weird how hard it can be to see those things until you’re almost on top of them!

When I got out after the first loop, I heard the announcer calling out times- “36:39” was what he said as I was turning to get back in the water. I briefly thought, wow cool, that’s almost exactly my time from the swim in the N.O. half-IM, I must be moving pretty well out there. There was a moderate chop in our faces going out, but it must have been evened out by getting to swim with the chop on the way in. It wasn’t as bad as it had been on my practice swims on Thursday and Friday, which I was very happy about.

Getting out of the water after the second loop, I almost couldn’t believe that my Ironman swim was already over! One third of my day, although nowhere near the other two in terms of time, was already completed! And swimming the 2.4 miles continuously was way easier than I thought it would be.

I looked for some of my support crew on my way out of the water, but there were tons of people and I needed to concentrate on not falling down while running in the sand and on getting my wetsuit top down by the time I got to the strippers, so if they were there I didn’t see them.

T1:
I got to the strippers and it took a second to find one who was free. Finally a few of them noticed me and called me over. I already had my wetsuit down to my waist so it was a quick pull to get it over my hips and then I was down on the ground. They had it off my legs in a flash and I was back up and on my way to my Bike Gear bag. The volunteers directed me to the women’s changing tent, and once inside a volunteer who was free grabbed me and sat me down in one of the folding chairs. She said, “OK, what do you need?” and it took me a minute to think of an answer, because I’d never been helped before! Finally, she said, “Shorts? Socks?” and I snapped out of my daze and said yeah, socks! I grabbed my towel to dry my legs so I could put on my bike shorts and my calf sleeve. It was sunny and pretty warm out so I decided to leave the arm warmers and gloves, and took my dark sunglasses rather than the clear ones. I put sunscreen on my face while she did my legs. I grabbed my Thermotabs and helmet, she put my number belt on for me, then I sat there a minute reading a few of my support notes. I’m pretty slow in transitions anyway, and to my thinking, what difference are a few extra minutes in transition going to make in an Ironman? So I took my time. My volunteer just kind of sat there waiting for orders, which made me hurry more than anything else. I didn’t want to be keeping her from someone who needed her to actually DO something! I finally told her I was ready, she asked me if I needed anything else, I asked her where the port-a-potties were and headed out. Halfway to the port-a-potties I realized I had passed up the sunscreen volunteers, so I headed back against the flow of traffic to get my arms done. They certainly did their job well, and I spent the rest of the way to the bike racks trying to rub the sunscreen in so I wasn’t a white-covered mess for my bike pictures :)

Race Week, Wed-Sat

2009-06-19T19:26:00.002-05:00

As I write this, I'm looking at the IRONMAN wristband I'm wearing. It means that in a few short hours, I'm going to be out there doing something that I've been training for, visualizing, anticipating for so long. It's finally here, and that feels both wildly exciting and slightly surreal.

Fortunately, I'm really not that nervous. I know I'll have some butterflies tomorrow when I get down to transition and swim start, but I've been surprisingly calm all week. I think a lot of it comes from the confidence my coach has in my preparation- she says I'm ready, and she's never been wrong, so I must be ready, right?

I probably walked around a little more than I should have these past few days. I did my best to stay off my feet and rest, but I couldn't resist getting out there into the excitement of it all for at least a little while. It's a good thing I got here as early as I did too, because I found tons of last-minute things that needed doing. Fortunately, it turns out the only thing I forgot to bring was my salt tab dispenser. Not so fortunately, they didn't have any more at the bike shop and I wasn't looking forward to driving all over the place looking for one. Then Erik had the brilliant idea that the canisters for mini M&Ms are pretty much the same thing, so I headed to the grocery store for some. They didn't have any mini M&Ms, but the Mentos gum containers are really similar. So my salt tab dispenser for tomorrow is a Mentos gum container, and there is a pile of Mentos gum sitting in a baggie on the table.

The athlete village was really cool. I bought my requisite CDA gear, of course. I also got my mom to buy me a luggage tag that says "CDA 2009 Finisher" with my name on it- I'm not so superstitious that I couldn't buy something that said "Finisher" already, but even so I don't really want to look at it too much yet :) I also went to the "Ford Motivational Zone" and entered some messages for my friends, which they'll display at some point on the run. I didn't realize at the time that they only accept the first message they get for each athlete, so I hope my friends' families didn't try to send them messages, because they're only going to get mine (since I got here first). Whoops!

My parents are super excited. They've never seen me race before, not since high school and not in a triathlon anyway. I'm really happy that Rich and Heather could make it, since Rich is one of my very best friends and it's awesome to have him here to share this (and getting to meet Heather has been awesome too!). Mick has been insanely helpful this entire time, between giving me a flat-changing clinic and helping with everything bike-related, to keeping my parents occupied when I've been busy with other stuff. Molly got here this afternoon too, to stay with us and to cheer for not only me but also the other 98237493827 people she knows who are racing. It's great to talk to her since she's on the same path I'm on and understands what I'm feeling.

Slight drama with the bike, but everything seems fine now. When Mick and I tried to change the tire on the Zipps, we found out that they're insanely tight and neither of us could get the tire back on. We even broke two tire levers trying. We ended up having to bring it to the bike shop and have them do it for me. So, if I flat in the race, I pretty much have to wait for the bike wagon to find me. BUT, that's not gonna happen, right?? Then today, as we were leaving to go to bike check-in, he found a gouge in the back tire. It wasn't super serious, but it was enough to make me nervous to ride on it. So we ran back to the bike shop and had them swap it out with one of the tires on my other wheels. So now the new tire is on, Stella is happily camped out in transition for the night, and all is well.

The athlete's meeting on Friday night was pretty cool. All 2000+ age groupers in one huge banquet tent, listening to all the details, warnings, and rules for the course. One of the guys was really funny. He was explaining how some parts of the bike course are pretty technical and that we really should listen to the posted signs that say SLOW DOWN- he said, "I know you've been watching the Tour de France and the Giro, but, you're not that guy. So slow down." Then when he was talking about how age-groupers aren't allowed to leave their shoes clipped into the pedals for the swim-bike transition, he said, "I know you want to do it and you think you can handle it. But I've seen you, you're not that good. So don't do it."

Right now, my parents and friends are out on the front porch drinking wine and chatting, I just finished my final pre-race talk with my coach, and I'm about to mix up my bottle of concentrate for the bike and then go to bed. Wakeup time is 4am, with the goal of getting to body marking when they start at 5am. Adam is supposed to meet me there. We'll exchange our special needs bag notes for each other at that time too. I still have to write his, but I've been thinking about what I want to say for a while now so it shouldn't take long. I saw Shannon at bike drop-off earlier, WITH his bike fortunately (the airline had lost it when he first got here! Talk about stressful!). On Friday I saw the two guys I met on the plane from Denver who were coming to volunteer and sign up for next year- Joe and John- they're strippers and catchers tomorrow. I also saw John and Karen on Friday- the couple who split the cab with me to the Enterprise rental car place in Spokane when all the airport rental car places were sold out (hooray for not being the only one with poor pre-planning skills!).

This week has been awesome, the whole town has Ironman fever. But I am definitely ready to GET IT ON already! If anyone wants to track me, go on ironman.com and my bib number is 2044. See ya on the other side!!

Packing

2009-06-15T20:55:00.002-05:00

I definitely should have started this a few days ago. I still have time, but I'm a little nervous that I'm procrastinating on something that is so important. But I think actually that I'm putting it off *because* it's so important... I guess that makes me nervous, so I don't do it. Or something like that. One thing I hate about packing is I ALWAYS feel like I'm forgetting something, no matter how far in advance I do it. So I know that makes me avoid it a little.

I just finished making out my list- Swim, Bike, Run, T1 and T2. I still don't know what to put in my bike and run special needs bags. Any suggestions? All I can think of is a long sleeved shirt in the run bag in case it gets cold in the evening. But I don't think you get your special needs bags back, so whatever I put in them I have to not mind losing.

On the plus side, it looks like I do have everything on my list. I just have to get it put in one place! In retrospect, I should have sent a gear bag with Stella. Then I wouldn't have to be packing stuff like my helmet, pump, wetsuit, etc in my regular suitcase. Oh well. It should all fit.

Speaking of bikes, look what I got to ride this past weekend!

My friend/spinning instructor/kick-ass cyclist Courtney let me borrow her TT bike since Stella was gone already. We ride the same size bike, so all it took was a few seat adjustments. Actually, this was the very first bike with clip-in pedals that I ever rode. It was probably the first bike I ever rode that didn't have a kickstand :) When I was thinking about getting into triathlon a little over a year ago, Courtney and I went riding on the levee. She took her road bike and let me ride this one. To this day I have no idea how I didn't crash the thing- I had NO clue how to stop and start with the clip-in pedals. By some amazing stroke of luck I stayed upright (or rubber-side-down, as Ariel likes to say). I know it was luck because the very next time I rode a bike like that, which was when I bought Stella, I fell over the first time I tried to stop. I'm glad I didn't know how nice of a bike hers was when I rode it, or I probably WOULD have crashed it just from the extra nervousness!

So I still say this weekend was my first time riding a carbon bike, since I didn't know anything when I rode it that one time. OMG it was so nice! Courtney has always told me that a carbon bike rides so much smoother than aluminum, especially for a smaller person. I was skeptical, but not anymore! If it wasn't for the painful saddle (I'm spoiled by my Adamo!) I would have been riding in crazy style AND comfort! Courtney laughed at me when I thanked her today and said how nice it was, saying that she and Todd (bike shop guy) were saying that after I rode that, I'd be wanting a new bike. Not quite, Stella's still my girl, but damn it was nice!!

OK, back to packing! Quick, someone remind me of something I'm forgetting! Socks? Sportsbras? My race belt? Help me out here!

10 Days!!

2009-06-10T21:14:00.002-05:00

Ten days away from Ironman. Ironman is in TEN DAYS!! And I haven't even freaked out yet. Honest. I'm still just excited. I have definitely been having my moments of, "Can I do this?? I CAN do this, right??", but I keep reminding myself that my coach knows what she's doing, and I've done everything she told me to, so I MUST be ready. Even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes.

I read an article somewhere which described the feeling of standing on the beach before the mass start as something like 'wondering whether you belong there', and I can totally see that. Me, an Ironman? Seriously? No way, right? I mean, people who do Ironman are these crazy super-athlete people, and I'm just... me. I don't *feel* like I'm made of iron. I don't feel much different from how I did a few months ago, or even a year ago. But I've done all the training, so I must be different.

Taper is going pretty well this time around, I must say. Normally I feel like crap during taper but I feel alright. Still working on the sleep thing though. Tonight's going to be an early one, I swear! Open Water Wednesday today was fun, they fired up the grill so we all hung around eating burgers and hot dogs in the parking lot after swimming. People were wishing me luck, since it was my last Wednesday at the lake before I leave for CDA. I got asked "so when's your race?" a whole bunch of times, so I got to say "not this Sunday, but next" a whole bunch of times, and it felt so weird each time!

On a not-so-good note, I had a little bit of a rough time on my last long run. It was my longest run, 22 miles, which was preceded by my longest bike the day before (118) and my longest swim the day before that (5500). Everything was going fine until about mile 14, when I started to get a pain in my left quad. I realized after a while that it must have been a cramp, which hasn't ever happened to me before. It wasn't awful, just annoying, for a while so I kept going. Then I was on my last loop with about 4.5 miles to go and it just kept getting worse. It spread through my whole quad and intensified to the point where it felt like my muscle was getting ripped out of my leg every step. But it was my 22-miler! THE big one! I couldn't quit this! It felt OK when I walked, but I didn't want to walk. It was a 22-mile RUN. I figured since it was just a cramp, I wasn't doing any serious damage to myself, so it was OK to push through. I ended up spending the last 2 miles hobbling and crying, it hurt so bad. But, me and my stubbornness finished that damn run. It took all week for the pain to go away, then on my first taper "long" run of 11 miles, it came back again. Bad news. I got a sports massage the next day, which hurt like HELL but the therapist thinks it's going to be OK. I ran yesterday and today and it feels fine. I'm going back for more pain next Monday and hopefully that will fix me up 100%. The other 2 long workouts of that weekend, the swim and the bike, were pretty uneventful. I had to do most of the bike by myself since Shannon had to leave early, but I managed OK. My Garmin actually said 128 miles, but it was reading off of my speed/cadence sensor instead of the GPS and I think its calibration is a little off. So I went conservative and said 118.

Then on Sunday this week, I got to jump in the lake with all my clothes on to fetch an errant pit bull who was intent on following a family of ducks all the way to the Northshore, it seemed.

"Who, me? Naughty?? Never!"

"You must have me confused with someone else. I was just playing with my ball like a good girl."

Pretty sunset at the lake

Rough day for a swim

Training totals, 5/25 - 5/31 (last big week; M & Th off):
Swim- 11940 yards
Bike- 133 miles
Run- 24 miles
Total Time- 16:25

Training totals, 6/1 - 6/7 (Taper Week 1):
Swim- 5380 yards
Bike- 95 miles
Run- 20.4 miles
Total Time- 10:52

Oh and did I mention- TEN DAYS?!?!

TAPER TIME!!

2009-06-02T12:06:00.002-05:00

I am officially on day 2 of my taper for IRONMAN! How crazy to be able to say that! I guess there were some parts of me that thought this would never come. Or thought that I'd never get through all those crazy long workouts to get to this point. Peak 1, Week 1 underway. Does this mean I'm at the "peak" of my fitness? I guess it does, that's the idea anyway, but it's kind of weird because I don't really *feel* any different from a few weeks or months ago.

Yesterday I got the official "Athlete Guide" for CDA in my email. I started getting crazy butterflies just reading it. Special needs bags, bike drop-off, pre-race lake swim, transition closing time... it's all getting so REAL. I guess I should buy my plane ticket up there, huh??

I also just found out that Stella has to get dropped off at the bike shop for shipping next Wednesday. That's so close!! I might have to borrow a bike for my last ride or two before I go up there, since Stella's the only one I have. And I get to use the Zipp 404s again! Courtney also offered to let me use her aero helmet, which I politely (though gratefully) declined. I am definitely not cool enough yet to use one of those things.

To recap, it's been a long couple of weekends of training. Jennifer's prediction of "eat, sleep, train" for most of the month of May wasn't far off. Not TOO far, anyway... :P

Sunday, 5/24: How much fun can you have in 8 hours? A lot, if your idea of fun is biking and running, and biking and running and biking and... The agenda for the day was a 20 mile bike/4 mile run brick, four times. I was kind of intimidated, but as I've been doing a lot lately, I told myself "the only way out is through", and got going. I admit, I was a little excited too. Plus I had some training buddies lined up which I knew would help make it fun.

Loop 1- Went with Shannon. 7am and we were off! Bike good, run good but starting to get hot already.

Loop 2- With Shannon again. WINDY on the bike and HOT HOT on the run. The icewater from the cooler in my truck at refueling stops between biking and running was sooo refreshing. Making sure to keep up on salt tabs. Was that thunder I just heard in the distance?

Loop 3- Rode and ran with Erik, who did an awesome job on his first brick. Especially considering he was riding a mountain bike so he had to work 10x harder than me. More thunder, and then some rain out at the turnaround on the bike. It started raining harder and I was scouting out places to stop and take shelter, but then it stopped. Phew. The run was good. Passed by Coach Kevin and Coach Rick's trucks at the shop for what felt like the 85th time.

Loop 4- Did the bike by myself, then rode back into the parking lot to find Erik had come back. Apparently he felt guilty leaving me to do the last one by myself, so he volunteered to ride his bike alongside me for the last 4 mile run of the day. Nice! I'll always take the company. About halfway through the run, I started to really get tired. I held up really well all day, no pain or excessive fatigue or anything. I still felt good, but like I told Erik, "I just would kinda like to stop now". Jen told me that for my last run I should imagine myself at mile 22 of the IM marathon, with 4 miles to go until the finish. I visualized that, like I often do. I imagined how I'd be tired (which wasn't hard, since I was), how I'd want to be done, but how excited and thrilled I'd be to be so close and how I wouldn't want to waste a minute of the experience by wishing for it to be over. That last run was my fastest of the day, and I ended up finishing close to my 1/2 marathon pace. DONE!! I made it! The single longest day of my IM training- success! And I had no pain anywhere, just tired.

Training totals, 5/18 - 5/24:
Swim- 8300 yards
Bike- ~160 miles
Run- 28.8 miles
Total Time- 18:13
(I missed an extra day this week because I was starting to get sick, plus I had an extra scheduled day off to prepare for the big weekend, in addition to my regular Monday off, so this was actually 4 days instead of a whole week)

The Big One, Part I

2009-05-23T21:27:00.002-05:00

I knew this weekend was going to be big. Probably my first clue was Jennifer putting "BIG WEEKEND" into Training Peaks. Also her advice that I take Friday off of work. When I first saw this weekend in my training plan, I was scared of it. But as I got closer, I kind of started getting excited for it, and anxious to see how it would turn out.

Two days down, one to go. Friday's Longest Swim Ever (5000 yd) was good, followed by a nice, uneventful 10 mile run. Today was an 80 mile bike, which I almost cut short but I'm glad I didn't. I rode with New Training Buddy Shannon again today, and I'm grateful for that because he's the reason I didn't stop after our first 63-mile loop. I know I would've regretted it. It was a WINDY day but we hung in there.

And got water at the same gas station as last week, and wished to jump into the same ice machine again:

Then this evening, sporting the compression socks, went out to the Greek Festival and ate gyros, yum.

Tomorrow's brick extravaganza? Bring it on!!

Milestone Weekend

2009-05-18T12:05:00.002-05:00

Two significant firsts this weekend- first time going over-distance on the bike, and my first 20-mile run.

I was lined up to ride with a guy I had met on a group ride a few weeks ago who is also doing CDA, which was great news since everyone else I know is training for short-course races right now. I know it's important to get a lot of solo riding time to simulate race conditions, but I really just couldn't imagine doing my scheduled 110-miler on Saturday all by myself. I think in the race it'll be different too- I won't be riding *with* anyone per se, but there will be people all around, for most of it anyway. And it's not advisable safety-wise to ride alone on the route I take either. I did do my 100-miler alone and it went well, so I do have that.

Anyway, even though we had made plans to ride together, I was worried it wouldn't end up happening. He was scheduled to be on call for his job so the possibility was there that he wouldn't show up. So when the group was getting ready to roll out at a few minutes to 7 on Saturday morning and I didn't see him, I was bummed but not totally surprised. We started out, the group promptly dropped me as I knew they would since they do their shorter ride much faster than my long-distance pace, so there I was 10 miles into it and looking at 100 more miles of solitude. That also meant I probably had to stay on the 25-mile Hayne Blvd loop, since getting on and off I-510 (to get to the rest of the loop) is something I wouldn't do alone.

Then up ahead, I see a bike coming back down the road towards me. It's Shannon, my riding buddy! He said he started off with the group, figuring I was with them (it's a big group), then Coach Kevin told him I had been looking for him and was probably a little way behind. So he doubled back to find me. Awesome! I was really relieved. We settled into a steady rhythm and got to chatting. At first I felt a little awkward thinking about the fact that I was about to spend 7 hours of one-on-one time with someone I'd only met once. But it worked out really well- he likes to talk, and I like to listen :) (OK so maybe I like talking a little bit too, hehe) He was really considerate about going my pace and not pushing it, which I really appreciated. 110 miles of that would have been annoying, to say the least.

We made a gas station stop at 100.9 miles for some MUCH NEEDED ice cold water.

If that ice maker hadn't been padlocked I think we both would've hopped into it at that point. It was HOT out. I tried to lay up against it while Shannon was inside buying the water, but it was too well insulated so it wasn't cold on the outside. Bummer.

The cold water was amazing and really reenergized me. I joked with Shannon that hey, I'm feeling great, why don't we do another loop while we're at it?? Then when we were a few miles from the parking lot he said, "hey, let's go run a marathon!" Even though we laughed about it, part of me was thinking, holy crap I AM going to do that, and not too long from now!!

The best part about the ride though was that the thunderstorms that had been threatening all day started coming down JUST as we were pulling into the parking lot to finish the ride. I got Stella packed up and got in the truck before it got too bad, and then drove home in crazy torrential rain. Perfect timing! The other best part of the ride? Our 110-miler ended up being 114! I guess four miles isn't too big of a difference at that point, but knowing that I covered more than the IM race distance is a huge mental boost!

Saturday night and Sunday morning were AWESOME. Since I was instructed to do my long run later in the afternoon to simulate race conditions and to give me more time to recover from the ride, I actually got to SLEEP IN on Sunday morning! I can't even remember the last time I did that! It also meant I got to go out to dinner, at a real restaurant, like a real normal person, on Saturday night! Add that to the list of "Things I Didn't Realize I Would Appreciate So Much Before I Started Training For Ironman".

Sunday's run was another milestone- my first time doing 20 miles. I figured out a 5-mile loop route so I'd be able to refuel often enough at the truck. I was halfway through my first loop when I remembered why my legs were feeling kind of tired- "Oh right, I biked yesterday!" I got really lucky on the run with the weather. I just missed the thunderstorms again- I started after they were over this time. Usually that would mean that I'd be running in the post-summer-rain steam bath, but it cooled off quite a bit after the rain so the weather was actually kind of nice. The best part of this workout was that I conned one of my friends into meeting me out there to run the last loop with me. I was feeling pretty good, but having the company was still a definite boost.

When we were in the last mile, I started thinking about the progression of my long runs. I remember back when my long run was 12 miles, that miles 11 and 12 had been pretty painful. But that as the distance had gotten longer, it was still just the last two that were tough. So yesterday, it was 19 and 20 that were a little tough and 11 and 12 were no sweat. Isn't it cool how the body adapts? And this morning, I do feel a little bit creaky and sore, but way better than I remember feeling after that first 12-miler. So not only am I able to go longer, but it seems like I'm recovering faster. I'm fascinated by this, in a science-project kind of way.

(Speaking of science project, you should have seen my kitchen when I was trying to prepare my nutrition for this weekend! "OK if I want 600-800 mg of sodium per hour, 150 cal from my drink and 100 from solids, 32 oz of fluid per hour, and I'm going to be out there this long...." Mad scientist territory, for sure!)

So one more big weekend is in the books. Two more left. And because these last two are the biggest, I get TWO days off this week and next! Woot! After anxiously anticipating this month of workouts for so long, it feels really good to be in the middle of it and actually making it.

Week's totals (5/11 - 5/17):
Swim- 8600 yards
Bike- ~145 miles
Run- 30.6 miles
Total Time- 17:06

Becoming...

2009-05-08T00:02:00.010-05:00

Made it through another tough weekend. Three more Build weeks before starting my taper. Weekends used to be a time to rest and recuperate from the long week. Now, the weekdays are my downtime that I use to recover from/prepare for my weekends! I actually get up earlier on Saturday and Sunday now than I do during the week. Sleeping in? What's that? I vaguely remember something like that, it seems so long ago...

This weekend ended up being tougher than I thought it would be. I knew Sunday's long brick was going to be a challenge and I'd been psyching myself up for that. I figured the long bike on Saturday would be OK since it was shorter than the previous week's long ride, which had gone well. So when I could tell within the first few miles that Saturday's ride was going to be a struggle, I wasn't quite prepared for that. Nutrition and hydration worked out fine, the wind was there but it wasn't terrible, I just wasn't feeling it. My legs were tired and I was sleepy-tired too. I remember when A told me how he crashed his bike on the levee a year or two ago. He was training for either Ironman or Ultraman, was on a 6+ hour ride, and fell asleep while riding and crashed. It was a funny story but I really didn't "get it" at the time. Well, I get it now! It didn't happen to me but it was close a few times.

I was bummed out that the ride hadn't gone very well, because it worried me that maybe I was doing something wrong. Was I eating right? Sleeping enough? Getting enough sleep has been a struggle for me for a long time but I'd actually done pretty well that week leading up to the ride. Then I thought, well, I *am* in the biggest month of training right now, doing the most volume I've ever done- maybe I'm supposed to feel a little bit like this? Maybe I just have to get myself through these next few weeks, and then I'll get a bunch of energy back during my taper. Or maybe it was just "one of those days".

An interesting thing occurred to me as I was biking/running this weekend though. I was thinking about the tough time I was having and I was mentally going over the next few weekends' workouts, trying to imagine what it would be like and how I'd get through them. I admit I was (and am) a little intimidated. Then I thought, wait a minute- if I can get through these next few weekends of training, I CAN do Ironman. I'm doing approximately an Ironman or more over the course of the weekend each of the next three weeks. So if I can do that three weekends in a row, with no taper and while still doing my regular weekday schedule of training and work, hey- I can handle CDA! Wow, what a thought. It was one of those light-bulb moments. My ratio of excited:terrified for June 21st just jumped up on the side of excited. It's going to be a LOT of work to get there, and it's going to be a ton of work once I do get there, but for the first time I think I actually feel like I might show up prepared. Yes, I know my coach has told me over and over that I would be, and yes Jen I do trust you! But you know me, if I'm not worrying about something, check my pulse.

The sleep thing is going to be my biggest challenge over these next few weeks. I know that if I can get my body enough rest, the workouts can only feel better. So far this week I've slept more, but still not enough. It's a start.

Last week's training totals (5/4 - 5/10):
Swim- 7960 yards
Bike- ~125 miles
Run- 28.9 miles
Total Time- 15:18

Run Naked!

2009-05-05T20:58:00.002-05:00

Ah, those hot, still, sultry New Orleans nights. When the temperature doesn't go down just because the sun does. Summer is just about here. A perfect night for a naked run. It was my first "no gadgets" run in a long time, and I was excited as I put on my run stuff and left the HRM strap behind. Since it was a short easy run, and because I was so into the naked idea, I even decided to... are you ready for this? go WITHOUT my calf sleeve! I'm not trying to wean myself off of it per se, but I am interested to know if I actually *need* it or not. A few minutes into the run, I started getting a funny feeling in my shin. Stopped and stretched and it went away. Phew! It was probably a complete mental thing anyway.

I had to laugh at myself as I walked out the door. As I was stepping outside, I had a brief moment of, "wait, how do I do this without my Garmin??" I quickly reminded myself that you run with your legs, not your wristwatch, and all was well. It felt GOOD actually! Liberating! Running without the calf sleeve, I felt like a little kid trying to get away with something just so slightly naughty. And after just having a good swim workout where I surprised myself both with my times and with how good it felt, I was definitely enjoying my night. So, try it! Run naked! You'll like it :)

In other news, I did my first century ride on Saturday! 100 miles, in the bank! Coach Kevin rode with me on the first 25-mile loop, but he and the rest of the GNOTri crew were racing Crawfishman the next day so the other three loops were all by my lonesome. I didn't plan ahead very well and found myself out of water on the third loop with no money to buy more. I stopped at a convenience store that I figured would have a fountain soda machine that I could get water out of, but no luck. They didn't have one. And there's not much out there on Hayne Blvd so options are limited. So I was totally thrilled when, just as I was leaving to find another place, a nice lady offered to buy me a bottle of water. She went in to the store, leaving me with Stella outside, and brought out a big bottle for me a minute later. Thank you, nice lady!!

In keeping with the "longest-ever" theme that my weekends have become, I then did my LRE (Longest Run Ever) on Sunday. Three loops, with some speedwork on the last loop. Although I was tired by then, I was excited to do some faster intervals since it means my coach must be pretty happy with my base level at this point which is encouraging. Both the ride and the run definitely felt long, and it was hot for the run, but really I didn't feel too bad. Also encouraging.

Unfortunately I had to miss Jazzfest, for the first time since I moved here. Where I was running in City Park, I was able to hear some of the music drifting out of the Fairgrounds, and I saw lots of people walking and biking over that way. So at least I got to share in the excitement a little bit :)

Last Week's Training Totals (4/27 - 5/3), Swim-Focus Week:
Swim- 10500 yards
Bike- ~135 miles
Run- 21.5 miles
Total Time- 16:01

IM CDA Training Camp For One

2009-05-01T15:40:00.004-05:00

I've been back from CDA for days, but just getting the chance to write about it now! What an awesome trip. I am SO glad I went. George the swim coach gave me crap about it, saying basically that he thought it was a silly idea, but I don't care. It was really important to me to be able to see the course before I got there for the race. I think that alone reduced my anxiety factor by about a hundred. Which means it's still at around eight zillion, but hey that's just how I roll.

I was really anxious to see just how killer the hills would be. I had gone back and forth in my mind between "OMG I'm never going to be able to make it" to "maybe it will be kind of fun?" and back again. Coach Neil did say that CDA didn't have anything as scary as Nasty Grade on the WF course, but I didn't know if he was just trying to boost my confidence.

There was a bit of a setback- at the last minute my training buddy couldn't go and I had to scramble around to find someone to go with me. My good friend Mick was sooo gracious to offer to go with me a different weekend even though he really didn't have time for it, but for my schedule this weekend really worked out best. Luckily, after some convincing/coercion/bribery I had Erik lined up to be my sherpa and SAG wagon driver. Phew. Got Stella packed up and I was on my way.

Sing with me now- "It's my bike in a box..."

First impressions- wow they aren't kidding when they say this place is beautiful. That barely begins to describe it. Mountains, trees, lakes, well-kept small-town city blocks, friendly people, sun and sky as far as you can see. Just walking around the town and breathing the crisp air was getting me excited for June 21st.

After settling in at the house on Friday afternoon (if anyone needs a place to stay when visiting CDA, I'll give you the name of the people whose house I rented- fantastic!) and putting Humpty Dumpty, I mean Stella, back together again, it was time for an easy spin ride of the run course. Erik came along, riding one of the bikes the people left for us in the garage. The run course winds through town, zigzagging through the city blocks down to the lake and then up to the Centennial Trail, which runs alongside a main road and winds up down next to the lake again. Almost the whole way on the Centennial Trail, you've got the lake immediately to your right (left on the way back) and you can look out at the mountains and forests on the other side, the misty clouds hanging in the trees, the boats on the lake. Gorgeous. Then the rest of the run is through town, where you can look at the nice houses and cute shops. Much better than my usual run on the levee down here, where the view practically never changes. A trip to the grocery store to get some food for the weekend rounded out the day. Day One- success!

Saturday, the plan was to ride a loop of the bike course (it's a 2-loop course, like the run) then run an hour on the run course. Since I was by myself, the temptation to sleep in was strong but I knew I didn't want to be going until late so I got out there around 9am or so. It was chilly!! Leg warmers, arm warmers, jacket, and gloves were very necessary. I piled my extra water, SE concentrate, extra food, pump and assorted other goodies into the rented Vue (which was a trooper all weekend) and took off. The plan was to meet Erik for the first refuel/map check on the way out of town, about 45 minutes in. I only had two maps. One was the course map from the IM CDA website, which had the route on it but not all the street names. The other wasn't even a map but a list of all the streets you had to turn on. I didn't think to print out two copies of each and there was no printer at the house, so Erik took the route map and I took the street list. Over the course of the ride we met up several times to compare maps and make sure we were still going the right way.

For the first 15 miles or so, the course was flat and I was just spinning easy. So far, so good! I saw some other bikers out and I wondered if they were locals or if they were doing the same thing I was. Or maybe both. After heading north and getting out of CDA proper, I entered Hayden/Hayden Lake area and got my first taste of the hills. A few SCR climbs but nothing bad yet. Approaching Hayden Lake, the roads and scenery started reminding me a lot of the Finger Lakes region of New York, back up at home. There were the cottages along the shore, narrow winding shady streets and awesome views across the lake to the other side. I wanted to stare out at it but quickly realized I better keep looking at the road. I turned onto English Point Rd and started going down, down, down. It was kind of nice going downhill, but all I kept thinking was that every foot I went down was another foot I had to eventually climb back UP! From looking at the route map and profile, I knew that the big hill, called The Wall, was coming up soon. I was nervous but not panicked like I was at WF, for whatever reason. A few more SCR climbs and then I turned a corner and found myself on a pretty long, fairly steep climb. I got down to my easiest gear and cranked up it. Towards the end I stood once, then sat again, and wow I was at the top! Was that it? The Wall?? No way! I didn't even feel like crying! I met up with Erik at the parking lot of the trailhead at the top of the hill, refilled, and headed off again. Made the turn on to Lancaster and started down a sweet downhill. I settled into my aerobars for what I figured would be a nice rest to catch my breath and get my legs back under me. Came around a turn and was smacked in the face by what seemed like a vertical wall of road in front of me. Holy Crap! Oh well, just suck it up and pedal, I told myself. It turned out that as I came up on it, it really wasn't as impressively vertical as it seemed from far away. It was tough, but I didn't even have to get out of the saddle once. There was also a small stretch near the top where it leveled out slightly before continuing to rise, giving me a nice little mini-break. A lot of the hills on the course turned out to be that way.

For a while, the course was pretty similar to that. Some climbing, some flats, some downhills. Nothing killer, but they did keep coming. I counted at least 7 SCR climbs, about half of them requiring my easiest gear (I'm riding a 27 cassette right now). The toughest roads, after English Point, were Dodd, Rimrock, and Hudlow. There were also a few technical parts where you had to make right-angle turns right off of a downhill. If it rains, some of those might be sketchy. After turning back onto Government Way, the road that leads back to town, I was back in the BCR and stayed in it the rest of the way. So almost all of the climbing is in the middle section, and you get a nice breather at the end of the first loop and beginning of the second before you have to start climbing hard again.

Back at the house, I was fairly tired but thrilled at how bad I DIDN'T feel! Quick change and then out to run. Erik took (another) one for the team and accompanied me on a bike. An hour later and wow, my first training day was done! And it was only around 3:30! We went out to dinner that night at a pretty nice restaurant in town called Brix, then I turned in to get some sleep before an even bigger day on Sunday. Day Two- success!

Sunday came around, and due to not feeling so great after waking up I ended up getting started later than the day before even though I'd wanted to start earlier. Oh well. I took some advil and lay around for a while, then was good to go. The agenda for the day was another loop ride then a two hour run. The ride this time went even better than last time. We didn't have to stop as often because we pretty much knew where we were going. It was definitely hard work, but knowing what to expect did help a lot. Coach had said that today was going to be tough, so I did have some worry in the back of my mind about the run even though I was feeling fine so far. Nutrition and hydration worked fine, as it had the previous day. I'm really happy with my nutrition plan. I didn't take too many Endurolytes though because it was pretty cold and I wasn't sweating excessively.

Back at the house again, time for the second half of the brick. I was tired, but not dying. Erik again graciously volunteered as my gel-flask-and-Endurolyte-holder for the run (or at least succumbed to my guilt trip). I kept waiting for something to happen, like my legs to totally die or to hit some kind of wall or something, but it never did. I had been envisioning today to be a day of gutting it out, getting some really hard training in the books, but I ended up just having another nice run. The weather wasn't perfect, it was cloudy and rained a little, but I was feeling fine. After both of the bike loops, I was feeling OK but not sure about being able to do another one. After almost an entire run loop, I was definitely feeling like I could do another. I took that as a pretty good sign.

And then, I realized- I had made it through my weekend! Still standing! And I didn't even cry once! Day Three- success!! I felt SO much better now that I had a pretty good handle on the bike and run courses. Even the tough parts didn't seem as scary now because I had done them and knew what to expect. And even just walking down the streets of CDA, knowing I've been there before and recognizing the sights, is going to have such a calming effect on me come June. And at that point I will need ALL the calming I can get. I'm still partially terrified, but I think I can say that my excitement is actually starting to outweigh my terror. And for me, that's huge! It would've been nice to be able to get in the lake, but the water's still in the 40s so that didn't happen.

Weekly Training Totals (4/20-4/26):
Swim- 7150 yards
Bike- 135 miles
Run- 28 miles
Total Time- 16:31

Swimming Just Got Way Funner!

2009-04-15T09:10:00.004-05:00

Why, you ask? My new Splishie suits, of course!! I just got my first order of suits from Splish. Boy, was it hard to just pick a few! I even custom-made one (more on that below).

My first workout bikini! The first thing it made me think of when I tried it on was how badly I need a tan :)

It has monsters on it

This one to me is THE Splish suit. It's the first one I always think of when I think of Splish.

And it reminds me of Rainbow Brite a little. Can I be Skydancer?? (He was way cooler than Starlite)

And my Splish Custom suit!

Yeah that's right, I said it!!

[For those who may not know, HTFU is a saying in the tri community that you use when someone complains too much. It stands for Harden the (F) Up!]

Can't wait to wear that one to masters swim!

Had a nice brick workout Tuesday. I don't think it was intended to be a brick, but I didn't get a chance to do the run earlier in the day so I ended up having to do it right off the bike. For the 2nd time in a week, I got to watch the sun set over the lake while running. You couldn't really see the sun this time because it was cloudy, but the reflections off the clouds made the most amazingly beautiful colors. I sort of wished I had my camera but those kind of pictures never quite capture how awesome it really looks anyway.

Also Tuesday, a coworker who I hadn't talked to since before the 70.3 was asking me about my race. I told him it was great, I had fun, etc etc and that I'm continuing to build for Ironman. He asked me, "so do you have any injuries?" and really, the answer is no. I have the occasional aches and pains and soreness, but there's really nothing wrong with me. I thought about that for a second- comparing the volume I'm doing now, at 15+ hours per week, with what I was doing just a year ago (hardly anything, just coming off of injury). And my body is healthy and pain-free. I've read and heard that an easy, gradual buildup toughens up your bones and tissues so they get adapted to the workload; so in my brain I know it happens. But it's a different thing to actually experience it. I am the same *me* that I was before I started training for Ironman, but there's no way that that *me* could've gone out and done half of the workouts that I do regularly now. It's a pretty cool feeling, and a little strange at the same time.

In related news, for the first time I saw all the numbers for my big weekend workouts from now until CDA. I'm half excited, to think that my body is/will be capable of doing all that, and half friggin terrified, to think that very soon my body WILL be doing all that! Here's a taste: remember my training totals for last week, from my last post? Well on one weekend late in May, I will be doing about that much in 3 DAYS. Yikes!! There's one thing I know though. If Coach Jen says I can do it, then I can do it. I might have to make her remind me of that a few times though!

I guess I need to take some of my own advice... HTFU and get out there!!

Weekap, Post-70.3 Recovery

2009-04-12T16:27:00.005-05:00

Having just finished the longest run of my life, preceded by the 2nd-longest bike of my life the day before, the phrase "recovery week" seems a bit of a stretch. But hey, I'll go with it.

I'm still pretty thrilled with my race experience from last week. I'm so happy that everything went well- the lake was calm, the weather was great, my nutrition plan and pace plan worked just like it should, I had no cramping problems. I did find out when I looked at the results from my AG that my bike was really slow. I knew it wasn't going to be fast, but damn- I was about 15 minutes slower than most of the women in my AG who beat me. And also a bunch slower than a lot of the women behind me! I did want to ride faster during a lot of the bike and had to consciously keep slowing myself down in order to stick with the plan. I do know that I probably wouldn't have had as good of a run if I had ridden faster. So, I just gotta get better at this bike thing. I hear that it takes a long time to fully develop your bike legs, so maybe there's hope for me yet.

The rest of this week was pretty relaxed. The first run after the race was on Wednesday. I was surprised how good my legs felt. A little tired, but no soreness anywhere. A couple of "hill simulation" bike rides (my memories of the WF course must be fading, because I actually thought for a second that "maybe I CAN handle the hills at CDA...?"), long aerobic swims, a fun run with a friend and then... the weekend. Long ride Saturday, long run Sunday. The long ride was by myself since most of my teammates were racing the Crescent City Classic 10K here in town on Saturday. I would've liked to, but time in the saddle is way too important to miss right now. So Stella and I headed out on the levee all by our lonesomes. Other than getting hit by a dog with ONE MILE left to go, the ride was fine. Just long. And fortunately neither Stella, the dog, nor I were injured in the incident. I was just ticked off that the people had their dog off the leash in a leash-required area that is very highly traveled by bikers. And yes, the dog ran into me, not the other way around.

Easter Sunday I was going out to brunch. I also had a long run scheduled. Now anyone who knows me knows that I do NOT like to get up early in the morning. But I also hate having long workouts looming over my head all day and then having to do them late in the day when it's getting dark. I think I decided that I hate that more than I hate early mornings, so when 6am rolled around I was waking up to get out there and hit the pavement. I must say, having 16 miles done before 9:30 in the morning was a pretty sweet feeling. Pretty sweet other than that my legs were totally DEAD from the day before. I rode later in the day than normal on Saturday, so there only ended up being about 14 hours between the ride and the run. I realized this right after I started, when I found myself saying, "Wait, I have to run on THESE for 2.5 more hours??"

A few hours (and a few mimosas) later, I was feeling much better.

We caught part of the French Quarter Easter parade on our way out. Any occasion is a good excuse for a parade in this town (there's a float coming but you can't see it too well):

Back at home, I had just finished my easy trainer spin and was watching the 70.3 World Championships on TV when I started hearing more and more noise outside my front door. Turns out it was another parade, going right by my house! It was actually more of a "walking club" than a full-blown parade but it was very cool. Kai and I watched from the front porch.

The banner says "Original Pigeon Town Steppers".

Some of the costumed Steppers themselves, though not a great view:

Then, after the walking club itself, comes anyone else who feels like going along:

My next door neighbors were out watching too (pardon my garbage cans)

My next door neighbor Gus knows EVERYBODY

Kai watched too, and wondered what all the fuss was about

Phew. I think I'm going to go sleep for three days. Happy Easter everyone!

Training totals for the week-
Swim: 5650 yards
Bike: ~138 miles (Long bike: 85 miles)
Run: 26 miles (Long run: 16 miles)
Total hours: 15:22

Race Report- IMNOLA 70.3 2009

2009-04-06T18:53:00.003-05:00

Pre-Race:
First of all, the night before the race, on my final pre-race mini run, my Garmin decided to crash. I think there must be some sort of gremlins involved, because the last time it acted up was the night before my last race. I eventually got it fixed, but I had to do a master reset which meant I had to reload all my HR zones, profile, training screens, etc. It also meant it didn't recognize my cadence sensor but it was late at night at that point and I decided I didn't want to mess with it further. So I just went without cadence.

Back to the morning of the race- ate a banana and peanut butter around 5am. Got to transition, said good morning to Stella, dropped off my stuff, got body marked and headed back to the car. The body marking volunteer was a little uneasy about marking my left calf instead of the right:

"Can you put my age on my left calf? I wear a calf sleeve on the right."

"Umm... we're supposed to do the right..." (goes to mark right anyway)

"Well OK, but it's going to be covered up."

"Ahh, um, OK..." (reluctantly marks left, looking over his shoulder to see if he'll be yelled at)

"Don't worry, I won't tell them it was you."

Drove over to swim start. I started getting really excited at this point. Seeing all the athletes walk around, the starting chute, all the commotion- it was great. Watched the pro men and pro women's waves go off. My wave wasn't until almost an hour later. Went to go stand in the porta potty line before getting my wetsuit on. Little did I know that I would be in line for at least a half an hour! I finally got through with only minutes to spare before my wave start. As I headed to the start corral I heard the announcement, "Women 29 and under is the next wave to start", and I didn't even have my wetsuit on! That was the fastest wetsuit-donning I've ever done. Threw the cap on, grabbed the goggles, "Women 29 and under, one minute to go", elbowed my way through the next group waiting in the corral, scampered down the seawall steps, got into the water, put my goggles on, and about ten seconds later, we're off!

Swim:
We got really lucky with the weather for the swim. The water was so calm, it was almost like a pool. I found swimming room fairly quickly and aimed for the outside of the swim course. It was a point to point swim where we swam in a wide lane created by the seawall on one side and the buoys on the other. I headed wide, for the buoys, since it was a more direct route (the seawall curves a little). Just about everyone else swam close to the seawall, which was not only longer but also choppier because of the water hitting the sides. Oh well, more room for me! The swim was smooth and mainly drama-free. I got into a good rhythm of stroke-stroke-breathe and actually did a pretty good job with sighting and swimming straight, which I'm normally not good at. I had been saying for the last few days that since my only other time swimming the course was in rough water with a hangover, I knew my race would at least be better than that. And it was- I exited the water feeling good and relaxed.

T1:
I availed myself of one of the strippers to get my wetsuit off, which was nice. Had to run pretty far to get to my bike. A lot of people were walking their bikes out of transition, but I always like to run mine. It's a good warmup and it always makes me feel like a badass :)

Bike:
My instructions for the bike were to ride strong but conservative, making sure I still had some legs to run on at the end. It was tough getting passed by so many people, especially when I felt like I could be riding so much faster. I reminded myself of what Jen said- that if I rode at too high of a HR, I'd be walking the run. I definitely didn't want to do that. So I held it pretty steady at high Z2/low Z3. There was a bit of a headwind heading out to Chef Highway, which I thought was nice since we'd have a tailwind heading back. Usually it's the other way around. Unfortunately, the winds switched while we were out there and we ended up riding back into a headwind that just got stronger as we went. I kept telling myself, "This isn't so bad. It's breezy but you've ridden out here in way worse." Eventually though, it got to be about as bad as I've seen it out there. Trying to keep my HR down while fighting a headwind like that was tough. I saw several GNOTri teammates at various points- Coach Rick, Mitch, Marcos, Ken, Rick M., and a few others. Also some coworkers.

I stuck very close to my nutrition plan. I ended up going through my concentrate a lot sooner than I thought I would though. I need to practice with that. I was taking one Endurolyte every 20 minutes, with instructions to double up if my legs started to feel crampy. Early on in the bike ride, I felt like my legs were almost on the verge of cramping. I started doing one Endurolyte every 10 minutes. The almost-crampy feeling never really went away, but it never got worse either. There were two things I kept repeating to myself. I asked, "Can I run a half marathon on these legs?" The answer kept being yes, so I figured I was doing OK. The other was the self-check list that Jen gave me in our final pre-race talk- "Strong, relaxed, focused & fueled". That helped a ton. Heading up the last two bridges on the last part of the ride, even though there was a wicked headwind pushing us back as we climbed, I felt pretty good. A little tired, but ready to run. I couldn't help but smile at the spectators cheering us in to transition. And I saw Beverly! That was awesome. I also saw Erik right before I got off the bike.

T2:
Had to call out to the people in front of me walking their bikes to get out of the way as I was running mine down the aisle. I thought it was pretty funny that I could be saying "On your left!" in transition. Stopped at the porta potty on the way out to the run (no, I did not pee on the bike).

Run:
I always feel like I'm running so s-l-o-w off the bike, when usually I'm actually running pretty well. A few minutes in, I checked my watch and saw I was running about a minute per mile faster than I should be. Even though I felt fine, I dialed it back a little. There was still a long way to go.

The first stretch was an out-and-back on Lakeshore Drive, where there's pretty much no shade. By that time of day, it was at least 85 degrees and full sun. It was hot. Luckily the heat doesn't bother me too much and I had plenty of gel and Endurolytes. I passed Rick M. early on, he was walking. I asked him if he wanted to run with me and he told me he couldn't, his legs had cramped up badly. A minute later I realized I should have given him some of my Endurolytes and I felt bad, but I didn't want to go back. Just before the turnaround I saw Coach Rick coming back, already around the turn. He said to come over there and run with him, so I laughed and said I'd be right there. Waved and smiled at the spectators at the turn. I kept hearing "Yeah, GNOTri!" from people who didn't even know me but saw my race top. That was cool. I came around the turnaround and started grinning. I was feeling GOOD. It didn't even feel like I had biked at all.

After the turnaround, I was coming back down Lakeshore Drive and I saw Rick M. again, still walking. This time I remembered and asked him if he wanted some Endurolytes. He said yeah, he lost his on the bike. Bummer. I grabbed a few out of my baggie and handed them to him as I ran by. I haven't seen him since- I hope they helped. Then I saw Mitch heading towards me and slapped him a high-five as we passed. Then Coach Kevin. Go GNOTri! A mile or so later, I finally came up on Coach Rick. We talked for a minute and then I went on. Right after that was the first time I saw Erik on the run. He had his bike, so I hoped that meant he'd ride down the course and cheer for me again later- I knew the support would help. He asked me how I felt and I said, "Awesome!" And I meant it. The sun was shining, a little breeze was blowing, I was feeling strong, I was racing in my first half-Ironman in my hometown along with my teammates, I had my own cheering section- what could be better?? He shouted out that my swim time was great and asked me if I wanted to know the numbers. I didn't really care about it at that point, I was just enjoying my run, so I said no thanks.

I noticed I was passing a LOT of people walking. The headwind on the bike combined with the heat of the day must have gotten to a lot of people. I kept sipping my gels, drinking my water, popping my Endurolytes, and cruising. I felt like I was on just another Sunday long run. Easy peasy. The bagpiper in City Park was cool. I thought about my mom and how much she likes bagpipes, and made a note to tell her about it. I passed two guys who were saying to each other, "This is a respectable pace, right?" Then I passed and the second guy said, "Well that's a little more respectable" and I laughed. They shouted after me, "Just don't drink all the beer before we get there!" About mile 7.5 I started to feel it a little bit. About a mile later, I definitely started to get tired. The last 3-4 miles were very tough, but I knew I had come way too far to slow down now. I managed to keep my pace up down that loooong stretch of Esplanade Ave. When we finally hit the I-10 overpass I knew we were close. When we crossed Rampart and entered the Quarter, I started to realize that I really was about to make it- I was about to be a half Ironman! I managed to pick it up a little at that point. Less than a mile to go. I passed a guy who said, "Oh great, I'm going to get beat by another girl". I said, "Get over it" and kept going. At the turn, people were saying, "800 meters to go!" Part of me was excited, but part of me was thinking, 800 meters? Damn that's a long way! Started counting the blocks heading down Decatur. Is it that traffic light, or the next one? Passed a spectator who said, "Four blocks away!" Saw Erik on the sidewalk holding a big poster with my name on it. Ha! That was a surprise. Now there were people on both sides, clapping and cheering, and for a second it felt like a Mardi Gras parade. The finish line up ahead looked SO GOOD. Another spectator- "Less than a minute left!" Then I was on the mats, then my arms were in the air, then I was across the line and I was DONE!

Post-Race:
When the volunteer took my chip off, I looked down and saw blood on the back of my ankle. So that's what I was feeling for the first half of the run. Walked around, saw some friends, looked for Erik who had my post-race bag. Finally had to borrow a lady's cell phone to track him down. Found him, got the bag, mixed up my Recoverite. Wish it didn't taste so nasty. I looked at my watch- 5:11. That didn't include my swim time or T1, but unless those were really slow then I'd probably made my (secret) goal of finishing under 6 hours. Sweet! I didn't find out until I talked to my coach a little while later that I'd also made my (secret) goal of doing the run under 2 hours. Double sweet! Picked up the bike from transition, got a much-needed shower, stopped by the post-race party but it was pretty much over, got my customary Domino's pizza, and called it a day.

The goal for this race was to get some baseline data to help focus the last few months of my Ironman training. I'd never done this much at once, so there were several unknowns. How much fluid would I need? What HR can I sustain? How many calories can I take in? What will my stomach tolerate? How much sodium do I need? What kind of pace can I run off the bike? And so on. I knew it was important to do exactly what the plan said so that my coach would get the data she needed. The other point of this race was to finish feeling strong and excited for Ironman, not dying and thinking that I never want to do this again. I don't know if I'm exactly "excited" yet for Ironman, I'm still a little terrified, but I did feel strong and I do want to do this again. Coach said to enjoy it, since you only get one first time, and I really really did. I never could have done it without her preparing me so well these last weeks and months, or without her excellent instructions and nutrition plan. I had the easy part- all I had to do was follow directions. And now I can proudly say that I'm a half-Ironman.

A light recovery week this week, then it's time to get started on my first Build phase for CDA! I'm ready, let's go!

Pictures:

Bike drop-off on Saturday. There's Stella's spot on the rack!

Settled in for the night

Lookit all those Zipps!

Coach Kevin, directing traffic at bike drop-off. "No number, no entry. Sorry!"

Coach Rick (in green), also directing traffic, and George the swim coach (in blue), who helped me plan my route from swim exit to my bike rack

There's Stella on the rack all the way to the right, and swim exit was back between the porta potties and that white tent:

I never saw these kids with the Super Soakers, but this looks like it was probably a win-win for most people involved:

A few miles into the run, feeling great!

Rockin' the awesome GNOTri jersey

Done!! (I think I wore that medal for all of about 2.5 seconds)

Ouch!

Team Shell, The Next Generation

Strong, Relaxed, Focused & Fueled

2009-04-04T22:51:00.002-05:00

Stella is dropped off, my gear is packed, nutrition is mixed. The Garmin decided to freak out and stop working (why does it feel like this is becoming a pattern right before races??) but thankfully it's fixed now. Bike drop-off was awesome- sooo many bikes and people. Had the final talk with Coach and got some great last-minute pointers. I'm ready to go. She says if I can just remember "strong, relaxed, focused & fueled" I'll have a good day.

Bring it on!!

Expo Day

2009-04-03T19:12:00.005-05:00

So I was a dork and went to the very first race briefing, right when the expo opened. Hey, may as well get it out of the way, right? It turned out to be a good idea because by the time I left, there was a line out the door.

I also wanted to make sure I got there in time to get my GNOTri race top! I was so glad the coaches got them in time so I could race with the team colors. I know on race day there will be a lot of family members and friends who will be looking for the GNOTri tops to cheer for us, and that will be so cool! One girl's family all volunteered to work the same water stop together so they would be sure to have a good place to watch- now that's thinking.

I had to try it on in the little changing tent (another brilliant idea) to make sure I got the right size. When it made me feel a little bit like a sausage, I knew it was right :)

Walked around the expo a little, bought some logo gear:

Then headed home to follow Coach's instructions and REST. I kept looking at the wristband they gave us, which we have to wear in order to get the shuttle buses and get into transition. I kept thinking- It's ON now, and by the time it comes off, I will be a half-Ironman. Wow! This is really happening! I'm still staring at it now. For some reason it's this wristband that's suddenly making it feel real.

Well I managed to rest for about 30 minutes, then brought Stella to the bike shop for one final check. After they told me I was neurotic, and that nothing on my bike was different from when they checked it a week ago, Todd adjusted my derailleur a little bit to make me feel better and then I left.

Then it was time to go back to the expo for Macca's talk. I'd been trying to spot him all week but he probably just got into town from Hawaii a day or so ago. Saw Marcos and Lenny (teammates) at the talk. Macca signed autographs and took pictures with people both before and after the talk. People were nice and respectful, but man he was mobbed. Poor guy couldn't even walk anywhere. But he was so nice about it. I never saw him say no to anyone's request for a picture or autograph, even when his people were telling him he needed to go somewhere. Someone asked him if he was going to swim the course before the race. He said he wanted to, but he'd heard the lake was dirty. I had to set him straight so I told him no the lake is actually in really good shape right now, and if he wanted he could come swim with GNOTri in the morning, they're doing the course. He asked what time, so who knows, maybe he'll show up. Thank you to my new friend John the Photographist for snapping a photo:

And Molly, I didn't manage to grab any of him for you, but I didn't forget about you!

Back home again. I'm really going to rest now, I promise. Talked to Coach, she gave me my customary pre-race "Calm the F Down" talk, for which I am always grateful. Now, to keep my brain calm, I will make my Swim/Bike/Run/Misc gear lists and start packing. Tomorrow- bike drop-off. Get ready Stella!

Final Tune-Ups

2009-04-02T23:05:00.004-05:00

3 workouts today. All short and sweet, with a little bit of speed thrown in there, to put the finishing touches on my race prep. Coach says I'm ready, so I must be.

A lot of people say they get tons of energy during taper because of the reduced training volume. Well I just realized something- I hate tapers! I've been feeling sluggish, slow, and out of breath all week in my workouts. I thought back to the pre-race week for my last few races and realized I'd felt the same way then too. Apparently this is a common reaction- who knew? Coach Kevin says, "Tapering is tricky because of what happens when the athlete starts to give themselves rest, the system in the body that responds to stress starts to shut down. You will start to feel like you are out of energy, sluggish, and getting out of shape. THIS IS NORMAL." Phew! I guess that makes me feel a little better.

The "Taper Twinges" are in full effect as well. TWICE this week my shin felt funny during runs. By now though I've gotten pretty good at telling the difference between bad pain and pain I can ignore. I think this is the latter, fortunately.

For a bit of good news, today I set a new PR for 100 yards! I've been in the 1:30s for a looong time now. The last two workouts that had hard sets of 100s I was able to hit 1:30, but I'd never broken it. I decided today I was going to go for it. I had a quick set of 3x100 descend. I don't know what the time of my first 100 was because swim practice ended so the coach took the clock away in the middle of it. Oh well. The 2nd was 1:33. The last one, I went all out from the beginning and just tried to not let up. Usually when I swim "fast" and it gets hard, I let up a little because I think I won't be able to make it to the end if I don't. This time I wanted to see what would happen so I kept going. I figured, 100 is short so just suck it up and go! The last 25 I was trying to decide if I'd gone fast enough to hit 1:29. I thought maybe, then no, then maybe. Hit the wall, look at the watch- 1:27! Woo HOO! Yes I know that's still not considered "fast" by swimmer standards, but I'll take it!

Tomorrow (Friday): No training. No work either, woohoo! Go to expo. Get packet. Get GNOTri race top. Go to bike shop and have cadence sensor fixed, tires checked. Drive new portion of bike course. Make gear lists and start putting stuff together. Go to Macca's talk. Grab his ass for Molly :) GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP.

Saturday: Rehearse transitions. Check and recheck that everything is packed. Quick spin and run. Drop off Stella at transition. Mix up concentrate. Get more sleep.

For all you who wish you could be in NOLA for the inaugural IMNOLA 70.3, here are some pictures to help you feel like you're here:

Jackson Square, where we'll be finishing:

Satellite view of Lake Pontchartrain and the NO area, with the course highlighted (swim = red, bike = blue, run = yellow)

And one from Al, trying to scare the out-of-towners:

Less than a week to go!

2009-03-30T21:51:00.003-05:00

After a few obstacles this weekend, I finally got my last long ride done and am officially tapering. The ride was not good- I hate getting stuck out after dark, and on top of that I almost got run over by an illegal drag race- but at least it's over.

One last lake swim on Wednesday, assuming the weather is good. I did this weekend's long run on the race course and visualized myself running it on race day. My friends are making their spectating plans, my GNOTri teammates are also tapering and are getting excited, pro-spotting is officially underway (kinda bummed that I missed Natascha Badmann on Sunday) and everyone is doing their good-weather dances!

I'm so excited to be doing 1) my first half Ironman, 2) a race in my hometown, and 3) an IM race in its inaugural year. The fact that I get to do all three at the same time is so cool!

I've learned so much from the coaches and the tri veterans on our team- tips and tricks, yes, but perhaps more importantly, how to relax and remember that above all, this is FUN. I tend to be really tough on myself and I'm OK with that, I just need to make sure it doesn't cross the line into interfering with me enjoying myself out there.

Overall, I'm pretty confident about Sunday. A lot of that is probably due to the fact that it's my first, so I don't have many expectations. I also know that I'm not getting a full taper because I'm not peaking for this race, so that may affect my performance and that's OK. The main goal is to go out there and feel strong, race smart, follow the plan, and end up with a good assessment of where I'm at in my preparation for the full IM in June.

The major assignment for this week is to get enough sleep, so I better go do that now. Come on, Sunday!

Almost fully recovered...

2009-03-25T20:25:00.004-05:00

No, not from an awesome long run, hard ride, or big brick, but from a weekend of drinking and partying my butt off- neither of which I do much of anymore- with two of my best college buddies. And I learned quite quickly that staying out late and doing shots do not lead to quality Ironman training. It was a blast though!

Jeffrey made us t-shirts:

Kai came out barhopping too:

One funny, one serious (minus Jeffrey):

Me n the boyz:

Aside from drinking, we also went to a very nice dinner at Commander's Palace, went out for crawfish and oysters, walked around the French Quarter, and I even got a few workouts in. I had two cabana boys to write down my times and fetch me cold beverages during my swim workout- not bad at all!

When I awoke on Beverly's couch at 6:55 Saturday morning and realized I had an open water swim clinic at the lake at 7:00 was when things started to go... a bit downhill. I don't know exactly how much sleep I had gotten but it wasn't much. I also don't know if I was already hungover or still drunk from the night before. I quickly rallied the troops (thanks for being such good sports about that, btw), ran home, switched out my fancy dress for a wetsuit, and was off to the lake. In retrospect, probably not one of the better ideas I've had in my life. But it was going to be my first time swimming the race course and I didn't want to miss it. Everything went fine until about 2/3 of the way through the swim. I'd actually been enjoying myself- fighting the chop was keeping me entertained, and trying to follow a course I didn't know, with no buoys, kept me focused. Then, I don't know if it was the chop that finally got to me or if I swallowed one mouthful of lakewater too many, but all of a sudden I decided, "I need to get out of this water NOW". I was feeling ILL. I had no idea how much longer I had to swim but I could see a kayak and a few swimmers out in front of me so I knew I was going generally the right way. I had to stop and breaststroke/doggypaddle for a minute a few times to keep the nausea under control. Not fun. I finally made it out and staggered around for a while until I felt stable enough to get in the truck and drive home. I felt pretty gross for a while afterwards, but I never did get sick. Though I probably would have felt a lot better if I had, I bet.

Unfortunately, the hardcore-ness ended there. The weekend's long brick got severely shortened and the long run didn't end up happening. So now I get to do a 90-mile ride this weekend instead, a week before my half-Ironman, and I just did my long run yesterday. I was feeling pretty guilty about screwing up my training, so I am definitely back on the wagon this week. For the first time, I did a ride and run BEFORE work! This is unheard of for not-at-ALL-a-morning-person me.

The final tally:
Good friends visited: 2
Workouts accomplished: 3
Workouts blown: 2
Bars patronized: at least 6
Drinks had: don't even ask
Fancy dinners: 1
Oysters eaten: 2 dozen
Crawfish eaten: 5 pounds
Hours slept: not nearly enough
A great weekend had by all: CHECK!

TMF Wildflower Training Weekend

2009-03-16T20:18:00.002-05:00

As I sit here, Stella is still in her box, my bags are still packed, the dinner dishes are still out, and I'm too tired to do anything about any of it. But it was totally worth it- what a great weekend!

The "weekend" actually started on Tuesday when I took Stella to the bike shop to get all packed up for her long journey. Thanks to the AWESOME guys of Bike Connection, I got Stella, my helmet, bike shoes, a pair of running shoes, my water bottles, AND my wetsuit all packed into the bike box. And all I had to do was drop it off and pick it up. They even gave me the box to use.

Wednesday: Woke up at o-dark-thirty to fly to San Francisco. Got picked up by my good buddy Mick who did a super job of putting Stella all back together again. It was a little unnerving to see her in pieces like that! Nice and easy 60-min run through Golden Gate Park. Had a few glasses of wine and a yummy Indian dinner out with some Smofo girlfriends- it was SO nice to get to see you all!

Thursday: Took Stella out for a spin to make sure everything was screwed on tight and working properly. Went to the local pool for a swim and a treadmill interval workout (Jen, if you're reading this, the next time you tell me to do "my favorite swim workout" I will be sitting in the hot tub with a margarita. Just sayin'.). Stopped by Sports Basement to load up on training nutrition for the weekend's activities- I'm glad we were in a hurry because I could have spent a long time and many dollars there! Hung out with The Macinator! and his mom, who took me on a very nice little tour of SF. We walked around Haight-Ashbury and the Mission, went to Amoeba Music, and had a great dinner. We also fell prey to an overzealous meter maid... I may be from the flat swampland, but even I seriously doubt that was a 3% incline!

Friday: Packed up the Mini and we're off! To Lake San Antonio, that is. On the way, I learned about In N Out Burger, subjected an innocent Aussie to country music singalongs, successfully piloted the Mini, and did a lot of oohing and aahing over the scenery. So, so different from NOLA. Green rolling hills, misty-covered mountains, vineyards and farmland as far as you could see. Once we got there and everyone got settled into the cabins (which some people tried to make more complicated than it needed to be :P) it was time for a quick shakedown ride, sunset transition run, and then a meeting with Coach Neil. The hills certainly didn't waste any time in kicking my butt! Right at the beginning of the bike course was a biggie that nearly took the wind right out of my sails. I had been scared of the long course ride before that, but now was when I started to get *terrified*. After the ride and run, we all gathered in cabin 8 for introductions, a talk on training/racing nutrition and some general Q&A. We hadn't done an incredible amount of working out that day, but somehow I was just exhausted! I was about to fall asleep standing there. I really enjoyed meeting everyone and socializing- everyone was so nice- but as soon as we were done I headed for bed and was out like a light.

Saturday: The day started with a swim. Apparently a very early swim on "California time". The lake was fairly cold, but not bad. I actually had a great swim. It was my third time in cold open water in a wetsuit and it was the first time I really felt comfortable. I got into a great rhythm and just cruised. My sighting is still bad though. I need to work on that in the pool.

Then... it was time. Time for the bike ride I had been getting more and more terrified of by the minute. "The last 12 miles are the hardest", Coach Neil said, so we were to ride conservatively to save up for Nasty Grade and the rollers that followed. I was so scared I could barely talk. I knew it was going to kill me, I just KNEW it. How could I possibly get up those hills? I was going to be cranking as hard as I could and I would still slow to a stop and fall over. I'd have to walk up half of it. If I didn't just die first, that is. What business did I have thinking that I, a person who lives below sea level, could even attempt to hang with these Californians who eat hills for breakfast?? We lined up for a photo, then there was no more time for anticipation- we were off!

That first hill was HARD again, but Charles was nice enough to get a flat on the downside so we had a few minutes' rest. The middle of the ride was pretty nice, actually. The countryside was beautiful, the weather couldn't have been more perfect, Coach Neil drove the SAG wagon and met up with us every ten miles or so, and everyone in our group rode well together and got along.

But that knot in my stomach kept getting tighter and bigger... Nasty Grade was still ahead of me, and I was feeling overmatched. When we were a few miles out from it, I was so scared that I started to get nauseous. When we turned the corner and Coach Neil said, "Here it is! Go for it!" I actually started to cry.

No way out now, no way to go but up. I crankcrankcranked, stayed in the saddle for as long as I could, counted my pedal strokes, concentrated on my breathing. I made it to the "false summit" in the middle where it levels out a bit and was able to catch my breath a little. I was definitely working hard though. Then I turned the corner and it just went up, up, and up. Crankcrankcrank, breathe, crank, sit, stand, I'm not gonna make it, I can't do this, How much further??, sit, stand, breathe, CRANK. The last 100 yards and it just gets steeper. I couldn't even look ahead- if I looked alllll the way up to the top so far away I would die. Breathe, crank, I can't, I have to, I can't, I won't make it, I have to, sit, stand, crank. I saw a sign up ahead- I'll just make it to that sign and then I'll stop and walk. Can I even make it there? Wait, is that Coach Neil's car by that sign? Is that the top? I can't make it. Am I really almost there? By some amazing stroke of luck, I made it to the top, heard Coach Neil say "you did it!", then pulled over, got off the bike, and stood there gasping for air. My body was trying to cry but I didn't have enough breath in me to do it. I just made these little whimper-grunty noises. I walked back towards Neil, he reached out for Stella, and I practically flung her at him and kept walking. A minute or so later the others started showing up. Roxanne and Karen were all, "Is that it?? That wasn't so bad!" while I'm standing there about to keel over.

After a few minutes to regain our composure and refuel, we were off again. Yes, I'd made it up Nasty Grade. NO it did not make me feel any more confident about hills! It just proved to me that yes, they are as scary as I thought! The last 9 miles or so of the ride were all about survival. I was beyond dead at that point. Mick was feeling rough too. We told each other, "If I can do it, you can do it". I had to repeat that in my head a few times, especially when we hit the last tough climb coming in to the park. When we passed the "Prepare to Stop" sign at the park entrance, I would've laughed if I had any energy at all. I thought, "I've been 'prepared to stop' for a long time now, thanks!"

Back at the cabin. We made it! Now time for a run! Before we could contemplate that though, we all made a beeline for any available horizontal crashing surface and collapsed for a few minutes.

Cyrus, tired but feeling accomplished, and Michele, who was recovering from the Oly course ride:

The smile must be from the delirium setting in... but note that I am changed and ready to run!

The run was a really good idea actually. My legs felt better at the end than they did at the beginning. The 'ice bath' in the lake after the run felt even better! Then after a much-needed shower, it was time to EAT. BBQ chicken, lasagna, potato salad, grilled sausages, I can't even remember what all I ate. But it was a lot, and it was good :)

A recap of the day from coaches and captains, and we were off to bed again.

Sunday: Long course run. Two of the other girls and I ran together and we had a great time. The weather was PERFECT again, the scenery was beautiful, the conversation was good. Almost half the course was on trails which was really neat. Some challenging hills, but very fun. The "Pit of Despair" at mile 10 was definitely not despair-worthy, we were feeling good! Took it easy down the very steep incline heading in to the transition area, then opened up and went as fast as my legs wanted to take me to the finish line. What a GREAT run! Another cold dip in the lake, quick shower and then, sadly, it was time for our goodbyes.

What a great weekend. Challenging, tiring, but great. Everyone was so nice, friendly and fun. I got to see a new city, meet some new friends, hang out with some old ones, train in a new place, get some (painful but necessary) hill experience, and generally just have a blast! Thanks again so much to Coach Neil and the rest of the TriMoreFitness team. I'd love to come train with you all again sometime!

Weekap, Base 2 Week 5

2009-03-09T17:39:00.003-05:00

(Get it? It's a recap of the week)

This was my biggest training week to date, both in time and distance. I'm excited because I feel pretty good physically and I'm not completely stressed out. I'm even more excited because on Wednesday I'm heading to CALIFORNIA for a training weekend on the Wildflower course! Stella and I are hittin' the road! Two main purposes for the trip: to go on vacation and still be able to train (I figure any trips between now and Ironman are going to have to be training-related), and to get some hill experience (SOMEone thought it was a bright idea to sign up for a hilly Ironman when they live in an area where a 27-foot-high manmade hill is the highest point around).

During the week I had a pretty tough treadmill workout, two OW swims, ran 3 days in a row for the first time in a long time, an 85 mile ride (!), some pool swims, some spin workouts, and a long run. Whew!

One of those open water swims was the first of a series of three swim clinics that Coaches Kevin and Rick are putting on before the New Orleans 70.3 race. This one was the first time in wetsuits and the first time in cold water for a lot of the participants. It was only my second time, but I felt pretty comfortable. I was ready for the out of breath feeling since it happened the first time. They say that gets better as you get more used to the cold water. I hope they're right- that 2.4 mile swim in Idaho is seeming pretty long right about now!

Arriving at the lake bright and early:

Mitch, not so sure about this whole "lake" idea, trying to use his Phone A Friend to get him outta here:

Me laughing at Debby's comment that putting on a wetsuit is like "trying to put boudin (sausage) back in the casing":

Mitch trying to pretend he ain't scurred:

But we all knew how he really felt:

Coaches giving last minute instructions:

Boat support crew (who have both done CDA!):

We did it!!

Even Mitch!

Al got caught with his pants down,

...and Coach Rick still looks a little like a weatherman:

Too bad I'll have to miss the second swim clinic- did I mention it's because I'm going to California?!?- but I'll be there for the 3rd one when we swim the whole race course.

And finally, today was a much-appreciated day off!

Weekly totals-
Swim: 8740 yards
Bike: 100+ miles (86 with Stella plus 20-30 on the spin bikes)
Run: 28 miles
Total Time: 14:40

Wednesday OW Swim Report, 03-04-09

2009-03-07T17:42:00.003-06:00

This week's OW swim was a memorable one for two reasons:

1) It was the first OW swim of the season;

2) It was my first swim in a wetsuit!

I had tried on the wetsuit a few times since getting it for Christmas, and now was finally showtime. The lake was a balmy 57 degrees or so. Emails had been flying around about booties, caps, gloves, filling your suit with warm water, and cautionary tales of blue lips and hospital visits. I know 57 is pretty cold, but all the folks out in California swim in the ocean all the time and the water barely gets up to 50 out there! I'm coming to learn that when a New Orleanian tries to warn you about "cold", it's best taken with a grain of salt. A few weekends ago, Coach Kevin rolled out of the swimhole for our ride with long pants, long sleeves, booties AND a headband... it couldn't have been much colder than 50.

I got my wetsuit on all by myself and headed to the steps with a group of 3 or 4 others. Some people were already swimming. I was a little nervous but excited too. I stood on the bottom step for a few minutes (about hip-deep) with Greg while we waited for Marcos and Chris to get in. It was the neatest feeling... my feet were cold, but the rest of my legs couldn't feel the water at all! They were just as warm as they had been when I was standing on the shore!

Finally the other two got their act together and we pushed off. You know how when you first step off into the water, you sink a little then come back up and start swimming? Well I pushed off and glided right on top of the water like a cork, no sinking at all! It was amazing!

The cold water did take my breath away a little bit and it took a few minutes to feel like I could breathe again. I did a fair job of sighting (something I'm not very good at), settled into a rhythm, and had a good swim. I decided to do just one half-mile loop instead of two though. For my first wetsuit swim and my first OW swim of the season, I felt like one was enough.

Success!

Coach Kevin, a little under the weather so not swimming but there to help as always:

Coach Rick, looking dapper (and also a little like a weatherman):

I Got A Brick For My Birthday

2009-03-04T19:17:00.003-06:00

All the craziness of Mardi Gras is finally over. It's a little sad because Carnival is a really fun and special time of year, but it's nice to actually be able to drive around the city and have everything back to normal. As 'normal' as this place ever gets, anyway.

I had a long run on Lundi Gras and decided to run all the way down St Charles, which is the parade route. It was 7:30 on a Monday morning and people were already out getting their areas set up on the neutral ground for the parades that night. It was like running through an obstacle course- ducking through tents, dodging around camp chairs and barbecues, weaving in and out through barricade tape. I was in the Carnival spirit though so I enjoyed it. I love the excitement that you can feel in the air at Mardi Gras time. Over the weekend while I was running I spotted the Rolling Elvi, complete with police escort, all ready for the night's parades... (pictures courtesy of rollingelvi.com. I didn't have my camera with me)

I was all ready to catch a 100th anniversary Zulu coconut, the most prized of all Mardi Gras throws, on Fat Tuesday. But unfortunately I had to leave early that morning to drive to South Carolina for my uncle's funeral, who tragically passed away at the much too early age of 60. It was very sad, especially since he remarried about ten years ago and has a 6-year-old daughter. I'm glad I got to be there though, and I'm glad I got to see my family. They don't all get together much. It was a long drive, about 750 miles, but fortunately I was able to bring Miz Kai along as a most excellent traveling companion. Everyone loved her, especially the kids. She was such a very, very good girl with all the commotion, new people, and being in a strange place. She was steady as a rock. I couldn't be more proud of her. Did I mention that she and the kids loved each other?

The day after I got back was my birthday, and I celebrated by going for an 80-mile ride followed by a 30-minute run. My coach offered to give me the day off on my birthday, but I mentioned that it would probably be a better idea to give me the day *after* my birthday off, so that's what she did. But after that long ride, I was so tired I didn't make it past midnight and one drink!

As I usually do on my birthday, I did a bit of reflecting on the past year. 26 was a pretty good year for me. One of the bigger milestones of that year was my first triathlon. I had been thinking about triathlon off and on for a few years by that point and I finally decided now was the time. I was coming off of a long layoff due to shin splints and I was barely up to running 3 miles but I wanted to do it anyway. Not to mention the fact that I'd never swum in open water, nor did I have a road bike. So off to Alabama I went for the Grandman triathlon, with the hybrid bike in the back and Beverly along as moral support and cheering section. I got scraped up before the race even started by falling in a hole unloading the bike race morning. That day taught me two things: I really CAN do this, and I will NEVER again ride a hybrid bike in a race.

So, here comes 27. Just about 12 months from the day of Grandman I'll be doing my first Ironman. I'd like to do a few other things in my 27th year, like run my first non-Ironman marathon, enter an agility trial with Kai, get a little better at this cycling thing, get a better handle on how to balance training/job/Kai/etc, be a little more social, a little happier with myself, and when all is said and done, to not forget to enjoy the ride.

Rain, Rain, Rain

2009-02-16T12:47:00.002-06:00

I guess we've been too spoiled by such nice weather for our group rides these past few weeks, because it rained ALL weekend! I couldn't complain too much since we have had a nice long run of great days. But I did complain a little. I'm a wuss about the rain. Running in it isn't too bad, as long as it's not pouring, but biking in the rain is scary and not fun.

I knew it was going to be raining Saturday morning, but I still trudged out to the swimhole at 6:30 to see what the group was up to. If there was any training going on, I'd feel guilty if I didn't show up. Turned out there were only about five of us who showed up (not including either coach, I might add!). A few were going to run instead, but that plan got scrapped too as the skies started to really open up. Rick said he was going to the gym to ride the spinning bike. Three to four hours on a spin bike? NO thank you, not for this girl! I was tired and cranky anyway, so I decided my plan was to go home and go back to sleep. The weather cleared up a little in the afternoon so I did Sunday's long run instead of the ride.

Sunday morning, it was STILL raining but I knew if I didn't ride then, it wasn't going to happen at all. So out to the swimhole I went. This time, there were 8 of us who rode. Five turned around at Venetian Isles (about a 45-mile round trip) and Marcos, Leslie and I continued on to Ft. Pike. It would have been about a 63-mile round trip, but shortly before the turnaround point I got a flat. Yay. Marcos changed it for me (while the three of us got eaten alive by swarms of biting gnats) and we made it back. 60 miles was plenty for me, even though I was supposed to ride 80. Oh well. Some days you have it, some days you just don't. At least the two hour nap I took after I got home felt good!

At the swimhole, with Stella waiting to be unleashed:

(Normally this parking lot is PACKED with cars for the weekend ride!)

Marcos: "Huh? I'm awake, I swear..."

Al, ready to ride as always:

Me, pretending to be excited about riding in the rainy wet:

(did it work? No?)

Nope, Still Don't Like It

2009-02-08T19:51:00.002-06:00

Another long run Sunday. 14 miles today. The weather was perfect too- sunny and 70s. Normally I enjoy the alone time on these days, but for various reasons I did not want to be alone with my thoughts today. So I tried running with the Ipod. I listened to a few songs and a few chapters of my audiobook, but that was about all I could take. I ditched the Ipod after about mile 5 and was much happier.

It turned out to be a good run. About 25 mins faster than the last time I did this distance, and I felt just as good if not better than last time. It's interesting because I don't feel any different today than I did a few months ago. But comparing those two workouts to each other shows that obviously things have changed. The training must be working!

In other news, Carnival season is well underway. I went to the Krewe du Vieux parade last night, widely known as one of the most satirical and THE most "risque" parade of them all. A few years ago, this was the first Mardi Gras parade I ever saw. My mom was visiting so we both went. After the first few floats with gigantic replicas of male genitalia, swimming sperms on sticks, the walking krewe of "Pizza Sluts" with strategically placed pizza boxes (think SNL's Dick in a Box skit), we realized we weren't in Kansas anymore! The theme for this year was "Stimulus Package". Warning: pictures not family friendly...!

Race Report- Mardi Gras Half Marathon 2009

2009-02-01T10:51:00.002-06:00

Pre-Race:
Of all the days for my Garmin to act up, of course it picks race day! I was getting dressed at about 5:40 and noticed that the screen on my Garmin was totally blank. I put it on the charger and yup, 0%. When I took it off of the charger the night before to leave it out with the rest of my clothes, it must have never gone into hibernate mode and the battery ran down. It has NEVER done that before. Go figure. I did a pretty good job at not freaking out at that point. I got picked up at 6:00 by my GNOTri teammate Marcos. The race started at 7:00 so we figured we'd be fine. But once we got to the Superdome, it was a huge free-for-all and we sat in the truck waiting in line to park for at least twenty minutes. The good thing about that though was that my Garmin had more time to charge- I had brought my laptop so it could continue charging on the drive. My warmup was running from the truck to bag check, then from bag check to the starting line. I managed one or two quick stretches along the way. The weather was perfect- about 50 degrees. I'm glad I decided not to wear anything more than a tank top and shorts. Ran into Coach Kevin and Coach Rick at the start line.

Race:
For at least the first three miles, it was insanely crowded. I couldn't get a good rhythm going. The buildings in the FQ were messing up the Garmin too. I remembered my coach saying, "the only way your plan won't work is if you go out too hard, or mess up your hydration". I definitely wasn't going out too hard, so I stayed calm. Because of all the pre-race craziness, it took me a while to relax and get my mind settled down. At about mile 3 was when I kind of "woke up" and started smiling.

Things that made me happy- Seeing lots of friends along the way (including Beverly at Audubon Park- THANKS for coming out, girl!). Cheering for the guy leading the race as he came the other way down St. Charles (I was only at mile 5 or 6 at that point!). The Team Spot-Tees aid station at mile 8, where everyone was dressed as vampires, complete with fake blood and bats hanging from the trees. The people playing Chariots of Fire on a big boombox (I told them it made me feel like I should be running in slow motion). The spectator with his mp3 player rigged up to a megaphone so we could all hear it. The guy who dropped his Gu packet and actually stopped to pick it up.

Things that irritated me- There was just one really. Between mile 8 and 9 I must have run through at least three clouds of cigarette smoke from the spectators. Seriously, people??

So I ended up going out very conservatively. At about mile 8 I decided it was game time and I needed to start really getting after it. I picked up the pace to about 8:00, then to about 7:45 a mile or so later and held that to the finish. It got tough and I got tired, but nothing ever really hurt (like the inside of my ankle did at Vegas) so I thought that was really good. I definitely had to do some serious self-pep-talks in the last two miles or so though! There were tons of spectators lining the course for the last few tenths of a mile. That was great. Rounding the final turn and seeing the finish line just up ahead was even better! Chip time was 1:46:28. A new PR- woot!

Cooldown and post-race:
Ate some bananas, walked around, found Marcos. Watched the marathon winner finish. Saw Coach Kevin and Coach Rick again. Came back home and did a warm-down jog with Marcos and Kai. Texted my coach :)

Now it's time for my favorite race day tradition- the post-race pizza! Domino's, here I come!

A Time To Reflect...

2009-01-27T20:11:00.002-06:00

Ana of Paco Collars lost her beloved Paco to a freak accident this past Saturday. The previous week, a friend of a friend died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 36, leaving an 11 year old daughter behind. Even though I didn't know either her or Paco personally, there's no way I could be unaffected by the enormity of these tragedies. It's caused me to do a lot of thinking.

When I meet someone who has experienced a great loss in their past, or if I find out that someone I know has gone through that kind of experience, I think I subconsciously accept that as the way things were supposed to work out. Like that person was always someone who was going to lose that family member. Like it was always known, or has always been that way. But then something like this happens, and I think, no no, that's not right, it isn't supposed to happen like this. This isn't the way the story goes. And then I realize the subconscious assumption I've made about those other situations. I realize, this is how my mom felt when she lost her mother at a young age. This is how G felt when his brother died. Those things weren't supposed to happen either.

I know that all sounds silly and probably insensitive. It's not meant to. But as someone who has the luxury of never having lost like that, it's something I've never been forced to fully process. Do things happen for a reason? Someone like me might say yes. Someone like my mother might ask, what possible reason could there have been for my mom to die so young?

I am also a person who likes to have a plan and structure for my life. Not knowing how the story ends really gets to me sometimes. Do I have five days left with Kai or five thousand? Will she die of old age after a long happy life, will she get some awful disease, or is some freak accident going to take her away from me, like Paco? Will I know it's coming, or will it happen suddenly? Will I be with her when it happens? I just worked out how long 5000 days is- 13.7 years. In all likelihood, I have less than 5000 days with Kai since that would put her at about 19 years old. Thinking of her remaining life in terms of days- even thousands of days- just made me shudder a little. I'm constantly haunted by images and thoughts of what might happen to take her away from me. Maybe 'haunted' is too strong of a word, but it is definitely something I think about more than I should.

When she dies, am I going to be one of those people saying "no, this isn't supposed to happen like this!"? Later on, after she's gone, will I be one of those people who I have somehow assumed always knew it would end the way it did? Will I feel like I wasted any of our precious time together, and would I ever forgive myself for that? And the hardest question of all, the one guaranteed to make me cry if I think about it long enough, what will my life be like without her in it?

I love her so much it hurts sometimes, and I know some of that hurt comes from the knowledge that our time together, no matter how long it ends up being, will be far too short.

Sometimes I want to shout at myself, JUST ENJOY THE DAYS YOU HAVE!! IT MAKES NO SENSE TO BE WORRYING ABOUT HER DYING WHILE SHE'S STILL ALIVE!! A smarter person might be able to do that better than I seem to. It's the not knowing that is so hard to deal with sometimes. Although, if given the option, I would probably still choose to not know. What I do know is that right now, she is living and loving and warm and fuzzy, and snoring away on the beanbag behind me. And I know that I'm going to continue to love her, protect her, share silly, fun, goofy and cuddly times with her, and revel in the deep bond we have for as long as the story allows me.

Rest peacefully sweet Paco, and may peace also come to your family in time. And K, wherever you are I wish peace to you too, from the knowledge that you raised your daughter to be a strong person who will turn out just fine, even though she'll never stop missing you.

Oh, George.

2009-01-21T22:04:00.003-06:00

No I don't mean George Bush. I mean George the masters swim coach at the gym. I'm not on the masters team but I often swim at the same time as their practices. George answers my swimming questions and gives me pointers on my stroke, which I appreciate a lot.

He also makes me laugh because he's so darned encouraging. A perfect example of this was a conversation we had tonight. My coach hadn't given me times for my set of 200s, so I asked him about it:

Me: So, how fast do you think I should do the 200s?

George: Um... how about 3 minutes?

Me: No way! That is WAY too fast!!

George: Really?

Me: Yes!

George: Huh. I thought you were faster than that.

Me (laughing): Thanks George, that's real encouraging.

George: Well do you want me to BS you? Tell you, "Oh that's great!!"? You know the times.

Me: (laughing harder): At least you're honest.

I almost choked during that whole first 200 because I kept laughing. George's birthday is on Friday. A bunch of his swimmers are going to meet at the pool to swim and have a drink for his birthday... think I should bring him a really embarrassing present? Singing telegram, perhaps? He'd be thrilled :)

Time Management FAIL

2009-01-20T22:20:00.003-06:00

As my training progresses, it's becoming more and more important for me to figure out how to balance my time between training, work, Kai, and other responsibilities. There have been times when my workouts have suffered because I haven't devoted enough time and attention to getting them done properly. There have also been times when my work has suffered because I'm prioritizing it lower than training. And I would always love to spend more time with Kai.

I'm clearly not giving up my training, and I gotta pay the bills so I can't give up on my job. So, I'm going to have to figure out this time management thing.

Today I had a treadmill run and a long swim. Most 2-workout days I do one at lunch and one after work, and that works out fine. But there were two extenuating circumstances today: the inauguration and a late meeting at work. I found myself at 1:45 PM sitting in my office, without either workout done. I really didn't want to swim after my late meeting since that would mean a really late night. So I decided to leave the office right then, go to the gym and do the run and the swim, and come back for the meeting. Sounded like a great idea but I ended up getting in the pool at almost 4:30, with my meeting starting at 5:30. I barely got in a third of the workout before I had to leave again.

I hate messing up my schedule like that, since now I'm going to have to do that swim tomorrow. But more than that, I also hate feeling like I screwed up and I'm not making my training enough of a priority. I always tell myself, "if it's important enough, you'll get it done". I know it's only going to get harder from here as the workouts get longer, and I worry that might mean my commitment isn't strong enough to make it. But as my coach says, as long as it doesn't become a pattern it's OK. And she's probably right. I did get my run done, even though it was HARD and my legs are SO SORE from yesterday's PT session that I could barely step up onto the treadmill!

Sigh. Living and learning. Tomorrow I get to try again!

Why I Don't Train With An Ipod

2009-01-18T19:47:00.002-06:00

Note that I don't have anything against Ipods. I'm really excited about the new one I got to replace the one I lost (ugh). I just don't use it for training. I've been asked about this several times, so here are my reasons:

1) I like to hear what's going on around me. When I'm running on the roads or after dark, this one is obvious. But even if I'm running on the levee, with great visibility and no cars, it still feels weird to not hear my surroundings. I'd end up turning the music down so far that it wouldn't even be worth it.

2) I don't want to be distracted from what I'm doing. I know that part of the point of running with music is to take your mind off of the effort and make it pass faster, but I don't like doing that. Every workout has a purpose and a goal, and I need to be paying attention to make sure that I'm meeting it. I want to always be aware of what my body is telling me. I want to be fully in the moment, not taking myself out of it. And at most races you can't carry music anyway, so why not train the way you're going to race?

3) On the other side of the distraction issue- I find that listening to music makes me focus MORE on the passage of time. You know roughly how long each song is, so it becomes a recurring reminder that only about five more minutes have gone by. I'd much rather keep track of where I'm at by just checking my watch once in a while.

4) I always get nervous passing people on the levee who are wearing Ipods. I call out "on your left!" but they never hear me, so I'm always afraid they're going to step to their side just as I pass and I'll hit them. And sometimes they're blocking the path, so I have to wait until they actually see me before I can pass. That makes me NOT want to be one of those people.

5) I don't like carrying stuff. The flapping cords and the arm band holder or whatever you use would bug me. I already have a heart rate monitor, training watch, water bottle, Road ID, visor/sunglasses, keys sometimes... I don't want any more gear!

6) One of my favorite things about training is the "me-time". I get to be alone with my thoughts, I don't owe anyone anything, and I can think about whatever I want. I use the time to process things that I don't have time to think about during the rest of the day, I daydream, I visualize my races, and most of the time I just enjoy the quiet. I spend so much of my day listening to all different kinds of sounds that I'm usually not in the mood for any more auditory stimuli.

7) Most people use up-tempo, pump-you-up type music for training. I don't try to get myself pumped up for workouts. I save that for races. Workouts get done because they have to get done and that's that, so no pumping up required. And if I did get my adrenaline going for workouts all the time, how could my races be any different? I get really intense when it's time to race. I don't think I could do that every day.

So there are my reasons. The one exception to all this is watching treadmill TV. I reeeeally don't like running on the treadmill (aka Dreadmill). The ones at my gym have TVs in them which makes it slightly more bearable, although I'd still much rather just run outside. I have a treadmill workout on Tuesday- maybe I'll watch some inauguration coverage.

"Oh it was SO bad..."

2009-01-11T19:53:00.002-06:00

A good friend of mine used to say that when he was making fun of Kai for being such a princess. It would go something like this:

"How bad was it, Kai?"
"Oh it was SO bad! They made me go outside, in the RAIN!"

I was thinking of that today while I was riding and it made me laugh a little. Which was good, because I definitely needed something to laugh about! Today's ride was BLECH. I know the wind is always stronger on top of the levee but still I underestimated it. I was supposed to be doing intervals of 75 cadence/high resistance alternated with 95/low- the wind was so bad, there were times I was barely cranking out 75 on the low resistance intervals! That, combined with my 50-mile ride the day before, meant my legs were NOT happy. And what's with the weather, anyway? Yesterday was 75 degrees, sunny and gorgeous. Today was 55, crazy wind, and dreary. Ugh.

One good thing though was my transition run. I've just started running off the bike again now that my Ironman prep is fully underway. It was only a 20 minute run but I was encouraged with how good it felt. Or I guess I should say, how bad it didn't feel, since running off the bike doesn't ever feel exactly what I would call "good"!

At least that bad ride is behind me. Tomorrow is a day off, and Kai rocked at agility class tonight, so I'm in a better mood for sure. But OH, it was SO bad!! :)

PBG's Cardinal Rules of Training

2009-01-10T21:00:00.000-06:00

I was asked for some advice the other day, and it made me start thinking. There are lessons I've learned along the way (often the hard way unfortunately) that lead me to feel very strongly about certain things. I thought it would be fun to make a list of them, so here are the first three. In no particular order:

1) WEAR GOOD SHOES. I say this all the time. It's worth repeating! Your shoe is the buffer between you and the ground. If you're going to be out there pounding the pavement, you better be doing it with the right equipment.

2) ALWAYS GO BEHIND. When you're running across an intersection, do not assume that the car at the stop sign sees you! If at all possible, always go around behind the car even if you have to go out of your way.

3) ONLY RACE ON RACE DAY. This is a big motto of mine. Training is mentally and physically different from racing. If you push yourself at race pace every day in training, how are you going to get yourself fired up for your races? Not only do you risk injury and burnout by racing your workouts but you probably won't improve. The day to really test your limits and see what you can do is race day. Training days have specific goals, and they're not to set a PR or to beat that guy in front of you on the bike path. Training should be challenging, more so for some workouts than others, but remember that you want to peak on race day, not on your Sunday morning training run.

...and visions of Ironman danced in her head...

2009-01-08T20:36:00.000-06:00

I just had a GREAT long run.

My new shoes are good, they make my legs feel happy. I had on a new pair of fingerless gloves that were fun. I was slightly warmer than neutral, which is the perfect temperature for me. The crazy wind we've been having lately was thankfully absent.

But what made it awesome was the serious Ironman daydreaming I had going on. I've been doing it for a while, especially on my long workouts, but this one was especially good. A lot of the time I try to picture the bike, since I know it's going to be veeeeerrrry looooong.

But today I was at the special needs bag on the run. I imagined what the perfect pick-me-up at that point would say, like if I had a note in my bag. I imagined how I might feel at that moment, how I might be in a lot of pain and in danger of losing sight of the amazing thing that was happening. How I might have to remind myself of the excitement simmering under the pain, let it come to the surface, and remember to savor every moment instead of wishing to be done. I imagined looking back on the entire year of training I'll have done up to that point, all those hundreds of miles that will have gotten me there, only a few measly miles left to get from I WILL to I DID.

Pretty powerful stuff! I got so into it that I lost track of where I was, never looked at my watch, and ended up running a little too long. Whoops! But I felt great. And now I'm having a decadently delicious "recovery drink" of a vanilla-ice-cream-and-eggnog milkshake, and I am very happy... can you tell??

Happy running, everyone :)

Going Public...

2009-01-06T22:49:00.000-06:00

On June 21, 2009, assuming no major injuries or catastrophes between now and then, I will be an IRONMAN!

I decided to sign up this past summer. I'd done one sprint triathlon and decided hey, this triathlon thing is pretty fun, what else can I do with it? So I started reading about Ironman. I found out that you have to sign up for them a year in advance, since they sell out pretty much immediately when registration opens the day after the race. I was in no way ready to compete in an Ironman, but if I waited to sign up until I was ready, I'd have to wait another whole year.

I was considering Ironman Florida since it's pretty close to NOLA. And it's in November which would give me more time to train. I told my training buddy about it, and he said he was thinking of going for a full IM as well (he's already done a few half-IMs). He also told me I should sign up for the one in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, because it's a great course and a great town. But... that was only a year away! I couldn't go from zero to Ironman in a year, could I? Then Training Buddy made the good point that the Florida race would only be a few more months away, which is still not a very long time. So if I was gonna go for it, may as well really go for it!

The day we signed up was funny. We were each in our offices clicking refreshrefreshrefresh on the registration page, sending frantic messages back and forth- "OMG it's not loading!", "Help I'm nervous already!", "Only three minutes to go!" At noon on the dot, we scrambled to sign up as quickly as possible before it filled up. I don't remember when it sold out, but it wasn't long! Luckily we both got in. Then after the excitement died down, I had a realization: "You have not run further than five miles in a Very Long Time, and in 12 months you're going to be racing 140.6 miles." I needed help!

That was when I found my coach. I was embarrassed to even tell her that I'd signed up, thinking she'd laugh at me and tell me no way could you do that! So one of the first things we talked about was how I wanted to do this race in a year, and if we were going to be able to work together, I needed to know now whether she believed it was possible. She told me I needed to be committed, stick to the plan, and trust her, and yes it could be possible. So I've been doing that the best I can, and I'm really seeing progress. Just a year ago I couldn't even run because of shin splints. And now, I'm working out six days a week, two workouts a day most days, with NO pain. (well, just the good kind!)

So I'm training for a hilly race in a town that's below sea level. I'll be completing my first marathon and probably my first century ride on the day of the race. I'll have worn a wetsuit in the water maybe once before. And it'll be just over 12 months from the day of my first sprint triathlon.

I can't wait!!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-28T09:11:00.000-06:00

I've been having a good time visiting the parents, seeing old friends, and hanging out in my old 'hood. I always like coming up here. I even went to track practice one day and ran with the distance girls. It was fun, and it was great to see my old coaches, but it was weird not knowing anyone on the team anymore!

The day before, which was the day I got here, I had a tempo run. I was supposed to do it two days earlier but because of the Missing Shoe Saga I hadn't done it yet. Talk about a rude awakening- I leave New Orleans in the morning, where it's close to 70 degrees, and by the evening I'm running in windblown snow at 12 degrees with a wind chill of -4. Gah! I actually felt really good, or maybe I was just so numb I didn't feel anything at all. I did keep thinking to myself though, "I used to LIVE here?!? And run outside all winter??"

I also participated in a fun Christmas tradition- the Candy Cane Relays. On Christmas Eve morning, the current track athletes, coaches, and any alumni who are home for the holidays meet up at the school and run a relay race (with candy canes as batons). It's a lot of fun to see some former teammates, hear what everyone's up to, and laugh and cheer for each other as we try to hand off broken remnants of candy canes. It was even funnier this year because we had to run around the bus loop. PHS is getting a brand new all weather track (yay!) but it's in the process of being built so there's no track right now.

Henn giving the pre-race instructions

All the alumni lining up to give their introductions (I'm the one on the left with the red thing on my leg)... there were more alumni than current athletes!

Ready... set... GO!

Look at that handoff! Henn, you taught me well :)

Mike T posing with his winner's trophy

It was good seeing you again, Henn!

Christmas morning was great as always. My mom and I both love having presents under the tree and stockings filled, so Santa still comes. He brought some great stuff this year, including the umbrella I asked for, the really cute coat I reluctantly left at the store a few days earlier (Santa is so sneaky!), and a 100-qt crawfish pot for my parents for next year's crawfish boil (Santa's helpers are pretty sneaky too!). One of the best gifts, and biggest surprises, was my brand new....

WETSUIT!

I'd never worn one before and I wasn't sure if it was going to go on all the way... it was TIGHT!

Getting closer...

Ta-daa!

It's Super PBG, here to save the day!

Jay-R got some presents too, like always. Unwrapping presents is one of his favorite things to do!

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Missing Shoe Saga

2008-12-22T17:58:00.001-06:00

So if you're pbg, and you're leaving town for 10 days, and two days before you leave you realize that you've lost your running shoes, what do you do? If you answered "freak out", or "panic", then you know me pretty well :)

The shoes are old anyway so losing the shoes themselves wasn't that big of a deal, but they have my custom orthotics in them. I wouldn't mind running once or twice without them but ten days is a long time. I couldn't get new ones made before I left, since I was leaving town before my PT's office opened again. I didn't know if I could even find a suitable replacement pair of shoes, since the Hurricane 9 has been retired.

Friday morning when I didn't have them, I assumed I had left them at Greg's. So instead of running at lunchtime I'd just get them after work and run then. No biggie. Except when I got to Greg's.... no shoes! That's when I really started thinking and realized I probably left them at the gym Wednesday night. I wore them to the gym after my run, which I never do. I must have forgotten to pick them up on the way out after swimming.

Got to the gym and checked the lost and found... nada. I was very upset at this point. The next morning, Saturday, was the group bike ride. I headed back to the gym immediately after to check the locker room where I probably left them. I saw the masters swim coach, George, while I was there. He suggested a few more places to look and told me he'd call me if he heard anything. I looked in the locker room, all the open lockers, at the pool area, the back entrance desk... nothing. I called my coach and we talked about contingency plans- I'd try to run in new shoes with no orthotics, and possibly substitute some elliptical in case the running bothered my legs. I wasn't happy about it, but there wasn't much choice.

As I was pulling out of the parking lot, dejected, George called. He asked, "what kind of shoes were they again?" He had them!! I couldn't believe it. I said, "really??" so he said, "no, I'm just making this up to waste my time." Aw George, what a sweet guy. I raced back in there, grabbed the shoes, and gave him a huge, dirty, sweaty hug (I was still dressed in my bike clothes) because I knew that's exactly what he didn't want me to do :) He found them in the lost and found, in the Friday bin. They must have been turned in after I looked in there.

PHEW!! Crisis averted! I didn't realize how attached to my shoes I am until I couldn't find them. We've been through a lot together! When I thought they had been stolen, I felt so violated.

So that's the story of the missing shoes. And yes, I will be much more careful in the future!!

Hardcore Moment of the Day,

2008-12-21T07:26:00.000-06:00

brought to you by the letters R-I-D-E and R-A-I-N.

What a crazy day Saturday was! And not just because of the bike ride where a few people wiped out, one necessitating an ambulance call (more on that later), or the Missing Shoe Saga (more on that later too). There was also all the last minute stuff to take care of before the next morning's early flight to NY for Christmas. PHEW.

Saturday morning, 5:00 AM rolled around way too soon and I *almost* stayed in bed and skipped the group ride. The plan was to ride with the GNO Tri group for the first time and I was excited, but also a little nervous. I'd never ridden with more than two other people before, and what if I was the slowest one there? Or what if I did something stupid and caused a crash? But in the end, I knew that as good as the bed felt, I'd regret it if I didn't go, So up I got, packed Stella in the truck, and headed for the meeting point.

As everyone started showing up, it started to rain. Not hard, but enough to get the roads slicked up. The general consensus was that we'd ride anyway, since "what are you going to do on race day if it rains? DNS??" I saw some people that I knew and lots of people I didn't. I was surprised at how many people showed up- there had to be close to 50 of us. My friend said there's not usually that many.

When we finally rolled out of the parking lot at 7:00 sharp, it was kind of a rush! For the first time I was riding in a huge group of people. There were bikes all around me, and I knew I had better keep good control of Stella or there would be problems quick. It was also really cool though, this huge group of triathletes, and I was one of them! I already decided this group thing was much cooler than riding on the levee all by myself.

Kevin, the guy everyone calls Coach and who is one of the "leaders" of GNO Tri, knew that it was my first time. He rode over to me and told me not to worry, just stay on his wheel and he'd look out for me. And that's exactly what he did- I stuck right to his back wheel almost the whole time, caught a nice draft, and let him worry about the road ahead. It was so nice of him to take care of me like that. I was able to enjoy myself in what could otherwise have been a pretty intimidating experience.

Sticking close to his back wheel meant that I caught all his road spray though, and combined with my own spray hitting my back, I got pretty dirty pretty quickly. It was happening to everyone though. At least it wasn't cold.

On the way back, one of the guys in a group ahead of us wiped out. The group behind him came around a corner and found him laying in the road, unconscious. Totally scary. Kevin said he was a really experienced rider, and must have just caught a slick patch or hit one of those reflector things in the road. No one was around him when it happened and he doesn't remember, so no one knows for sure. He seemed OK after a few minutes, coherent and alert at least. A group of us waited until the ambulance showed up and then Kevin waited with his bike until someone came to pick it up. The rest of the ride was uneventful, thankfully, but I did hear of another friend of mine from the lead group who wrecked twice. Kevin made sure to tell me that this type of thing is very rare! I think he was afraid I'd get freaked out. I'm just glad everyone is OK.

It was my longest ride so far, about 45 miles I think. We were moving at a pretty good pace (for me anyway), had the rain and slick roads to deal with, and it was my first group ride, so I allowed myself to feel a little hardcore after we were done. Especially when I got back to the truck and was wiping all the dirt off my face. Aw yeah, bring it on!

Wait, what did I just say??

2008-12-19T11:44:00.000-06:00

I've been feeling a change coming for a while now. There have been rumblings of it- the feelings of satisfaction after a long workout, getting excited over trying a new nutrition product, spending more of my day thinking about my key sessions for the week... Well it finally hit me the other day. As I was writing my workout comments for my coach, I realized that TWICE in two days, at two different workouts, I had very distinctly thought to myself, "This is FUN!" Once was a tempo run and once was a spinning interval workout. And I actually thought it was fun *while* I was doing it.

This may not seem like that big of a deal, but to me it's pretty huge. I've always enjoyed the fitness I get from working out, and I've always felt a commitment to keeping up with my training schedule, but I've never been able to say with a straight face that I really truly enjoy it. During school I used to get frustrated when I'd hear teammates and friends talk about loving running. Yeah, running was something I did and did a lot of, but it was always because of a sense of obligation, competitiveness, or just plain stubbornness. Definitely not because of any kind of love.

So how did this happen? I don't really know. It's not because I'm getting good at it and winning stuff, because that's definitely not happening. Maybe it has to do with being injured for a while and not being able to train. I'm finally doing more now than I was before the injury, and that does feel good. But however it happened, when I think of how I felt before my tempo run on Monday ("let's go, time to stretch the legs, this is going to feel good") compared to how I used to feel before tempo runs ("crap, this is going to hurt, when is it over??") the difference is pretty apparent! I'm still not going to go on the record and say that "I love running" or any kind of crazy talk like that, because it's definitely not all sunshine and puppies, but I have been having some good workouts.

And it's not all because of me by any means- I have to give a shout-out to my super-duper coach, Jennifer of Ironclad Coaching, since I would be a lazy blob without her, and to my PT, Mike of Babin Physical Therapy and Babin Tri-Sports, who keeps me going with regular tune-ups :)

With my next race being my biggest one so far (the New Orleans 70.3 in April) and my training volume increasing, I hope this new-found enjoyment continues. I'm still not too crazy about my long bikes... it would be great if those became fun all of a sudden, but I'm not holding my breath :)

Can Anybody Hear Me?

2008-12-14T21:00:00.000-06:00

Some of my favorite lyrics from one of my favorite songs:

And I fail
But when I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will

Can anybody hear me
I just want to be me
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will

Tonight I can't. I was excited for today's run, it was the first one that I got to do some targeted pace work. It was going to be fun. But I just can't. I went back and forth on it a few times, but I guess I'm just going to have to move my schedule around and fit it in tomorrow. I hope I get out of this funk soon, this sucks. Especially because physically I feel great.

Today I learned...

2008-12-11T22:31:00.000-06:00

...how right people are when they say you have to keep swimming consistently or you'll lose your feel for the water. I swam tonight for the first time since before I went to India, and it felt like I was learning to swim all over again! You would think that since I was just training for a half marathon that I'd be in decent shape, but apparently it doesn't completely cross over. After my first few sets, I was tired! And they were easy sets too! Finally by the end I was feeling a little more like my old swimming self, but still far from fishlike.

Before India, I was getting a little burned out on swimming. I think the weather turning colder had something to do with me starting to not look forward to my swims. Also I think I was just getting bored of up and down and up and down and up and down the pool all the time. I still wasn't thrilled about the cold today- I totally wussed out and swam inside. Even though I hate swimming inside, sometimes I hate the cold more. But even with that going on, I didn't have that burned out feeling about doing my workout that I'd been starting to have before. My break from swimming wasn't planned, but maybe it's good that it happened. It is the offseason after all so it's not like I have a race to worry about, and it's kind of nice to feel that swimming is new again. Maybe I should buy a new suit to celebrate. Of course, I doubt that my upcoming swims are going to be as easy as this one was, so maybe I shouldn't speak too soon about my newfound love for swimming and instead just get my arse in the pool and get better at it!

Ms Kai doesn't know what all the fuss is about. She thinks swimming is awesome no matter how often you do it.

And it's even better if you get to carry a big stick.

Just What The Doctor Ordered

2008-12-10T22:50:00.000-06:00

I wasn’t feeling very well on Wednesday afternoon, which was exactly what I didn’t need with the race coming up this weekend. So to help it go away as quickly as possible, I went home early from work and pretty much stayed in bed the rest of the day and all of Thursday. Along with taking several naps and eating a lot of soup, I also got a lot of quality time with Kai. I felt a little bit bad that she might be bored with just sitting in bed all day. But one thing she does very well is sleep, and she performed that duty exceptionally well those two days.

Early on during that time, I was struck by the fact that we hadn’t spent that kind of time together in a long time- a kind of purposeful nothingness. We hadn’t simply been in each other’s company, not doing much of anything at all, for as long as I could remember. And I noticed things about her, things that I always notice but usually in passing while I’m on my way from one thing to the next- like the way she rests her head on the pillow like a person, or the way she smells when she’s sleeping. She likes to change positions every so often, alternating from curled in a tight ball to flat out on her side. Often when she uncurls from her ball to lie flat, she stretches- arching her back like a cat and spreading her toes. When she dreams, she twitches her feet and face and sometimes makes a noise almost like a muted bark, and I always imagine that she’s chasing squirrels. She checks on me every now and again, lifting her head off the pillow and blinking sleepily in my direction, yawning, then when she’s convinced that everything is still how she left it, she lowers her head back down with a sigh and goes back to sleep. I relished the fact that I was able to spend unhurried time soaking in all these wonderful things about her, all these things that I love so much and am constantly trying to imprint on my memory forever.

My house is poorly insulated so I hate to run the heat too much and waste it, which means it’s pretty cold inside in the winter. That meant that we also spent a lot of time cuddling those two days, much of it with her curled up to my side under the blankets. I always worry whether she gets enough oxygen down there, but I also love the feeling of her warm furry body next to me so I let her do it. She eventually gets overheated and has to come up for a break anyway. It’s secretly one of the things that I, as a person who hates to be cold, love about the wintertime- the summer is just too hot for that much body contact. But Kai, ever a creature of comfort, hates to be cold as well. So those cold winter nights more often than not find her snuggled up next to her mama, an arrangement that serves both of us well.

After two days of us lazing around together, I was feeling much better and went on to Vegas to have a great race and an awesome weekend. I met some friends in person for the first time, I made some new ones, had lots of laughs… and oh yeah the race was good too! My first half marathon- I finished feeling strong but also that I’d given it all I had, which were exactly my instructions so I consider it a success. I was satisfied with my time too. Even though I didn’t have an official time goal, I wanted to break 2 hours and I did (1:53). I’ll write up a more detailed RR later. Now it’s time to catch back up on some sleep, with a certain pit bull of course!!

On To The Next One

2008-12-03T17:11:00.001-06:00

Home safe from India. It was a looong flight! We almost missed our connection in Newark. This was after over 20 hours of traveling already. It's a good thing we made it (barely!) because I think I would've lost it at that point.

Now time to focus on Vegas. And it's about time too, since the race is Sunday and I leave here in 2 days. It's been a while since my last race so I've been thinking about this one for kind of a long time. I was doing really well too, putting some great long runs in the bank over the last few weeks. Then my schedule got upset by the terrorist attacks, and my whole system was upset by the traveling anyway, and now I'm kind of stressing. I shouldn't be any less fit than I was a week or two ago, but I still feel that way.

I think I decided that if this race does not go well, I'm going to try to find another half marathon to do in the very near future. Then hopefully I won't have to deal with any issues like I did with this one and I'll be able to have the good race that I know is in me. But I'm not going to think about that any more right now, because there's still a race to run. And two of the things I know I'm good at are focus and determination. My head's not quite where I want it to be in those respects considering how close the race is, but I have faith that come race time I will be ON. Thirteen miles? Easy peasy. Bring it on!!

Three Days And Counting...

2008-11-28T22:00:00.001-06:00

That's how long it's been since I've been able to run/bike/swim/do anything besides sit in a hotel room and watch the news. It's a pretty trivial complaint, considering all the people here who have lost their lives, lost loved ones, and who are still unaccounted for. I know how extremely fortunate I am that missing workouts is the worst thing I have to deal with right now.

I wrote a big post with everything I've experienced since the attacks started, but it was too long to post here. Basically, it's been interesting for sure, but I've never felt too much in danger. I was probably the most scared while listening to the explosions the first night. Whenever we heard voices in the hallway of our hotel we would turn off the TV and stay really quiet for a few minutes. That whole night we stayed dressed and ready to run in case we needed to (I made sure to put on my sportsbra just in case!!). I wore my pants with the cargo pockets so I could carry my passport and some cash without worrying about it falling out. But luckily, that was as intense as it got for us. We never felt too freaked out, even then. I knew there wasn't anything I could do about what was happening, so I just made sure to stay alert and be ready to act if we needed to.

Over here in Mumbai, it was late at night Wednesday night when the attacks started. The whole day Thursday, we pretty much just stayed in the hotel room watching the news. We did venture out at one point to try to find some water. Every place was closed, but we could see some people moving around inside a restaurant on the corner where we had eaten dinner two days prior. They wouldn't let us in but they sold us two bottles of water. This was about 11:30 AM on Thursday. I took a few pictures out on the street just to capture what was going on. The street outside our hotel was very quiet. There were more pedestrians than I expected, but still much fewer than normal.

Around the corner from our hotel, police and military were blocking off the street that led down to the Taj.

At the end of the next street, we could see all the parked vehicles from the news stations that were covering the story.

Soldiers from the Indian army were stationed along the streets. This truck was parked directly across from our hotel.

The next day, Friday, we were finally able to meet up with the rest of my family. We are now at a different hotel, further from the action. Originally, we were all supposed to stay at the Trident, so my brother had to scramble around to find rooms somewhere else. Friday afternoon actually felt pretty normal- my mom and I, along with my brother's fiancee and two of her cousins went shopping for saris for my mom and I to wear for Saturday's party. We went to a big department store where the whole third floor was all saris. So many different fabrics in every different color you can imagine. And the beadwork and stitching is just amazing. Saris are so cool!

Now it's Saturday morning. My brother just left to go to the Trident to try and retrieve his luggage. He and his fiancee had sent their bags ahead to the hotel, before everything started happening. They've been living in borrowed clothes since then. My brother's suit for the party is in his bag, so hopefully he can get it back or he might be partying in a t-shirt tonight!

Today's mission for me is to find a treadmill. Even though life is pretty much going on as normal where we are, it's still too dangerous for me to run outside. And unfortunately this hotel doesn't have a gym. I'm also starting to worry a little about being able to get my flight out of here. I imagine the airport must be pretty backed up. I know that missing my race next week would be another very trivial complaint, but I'd really like to make it. Not much I can do about it now besides just wait and see. And enjoy myself while I'm here- can't wait to wear my sari tonight!

Thanks so much to everyone for sending your thoughts and prayers. It really makes me feel good to know that so many people are thinking of me and my family. It is very sobering though to think of how many people there are in this city who have not been as fortunate as we have.

And you think triathlon is crazy?

2008-11-25T17:31:00.000-06:00

The next time someone tells me I'm crazy for doing triathlon, I will laugh and say, "You want crazy? Try running in the streets of Mumbai."

People EVERYWHERE, narrow streets, unmarked intersections, stray dogs and livestock roaming around, horns honking constantly... and that was in the first five minutes!

And that's the tamest street of all, I didn't get a picture of the really wild ones (I was too busy holding my life in my hands!). I had to keep repeating to myself which side of the street I was on- "Now I am running WITH traffic" or "Now I am running AGAINST traffic". Although that doesn't help much, since the people basically just drive wherever there's room. Lane lines, if they even exist, are a mere suggestion. I figured out that whoever is in front is who has the right of way, whether you're another vehicle or a pedestrian- if you manage to get in front, they'll let you go, but if they nose ahead, you better get out of the way!

To prove I really did it, here's me starting out (I'm on the right side with a white t-shirt):

And a big shout out to my Bahraini running buddy. After I'd been running almost ten minutes, I saw another guy on my side of the street who was running too. He had sneakers and shorts on, so I figured he was probably running for exercise rather than just trying to get somewhere. We got stopped by traffic at the same point, so I asked him, "are you running too?" He replied, "Arabic, you know?" to which of course I said no, sorry. We started back up running, and came back together again a few corners down. I called to him and asked him, "Can I run with you?" and made gestures towards me and then him, while scissoring my fingers to look like running legs. I think he pretty much got it and he nodded, and then we were off. He helped me fend off traffic, showed me where to turn, and really helped me get my confidence up to handle the streets. We couldn't talk much, but I managed to figure out that he was from Bahrain and he was here because of the hospital (whether working or as a patient or family member, I don't know, but I asked him if he was OK and he said yes). I told him I was American and I was here because my brother was getting married. I'm not sure if he understood the wedding part, but he knew "American". After another ten minutes or so, I got the impression that he was done but I had about 20 still to go. I told him I had to get back to the Taj, and he ran me back there and we said goodbye. At that point, I was much more comfortable navigating the streets on my own, even though I did manage to almost get lost (luckily I ran into a Mumbai police officer who kindly gave me directions). So I don't even know his name, but THANK YOU, my friend from Bahrain, it was so nice to meet you and run together!

What are you good at?

2008-11-22T15:12:00.000-06:00

Whenever I read an interview or survey with questions like "what are you proudest of about yourself?" or "what is your best personality trait?" I always think about what my answers would be. It's tough to come up with anything, because I don't tend to think of myself in those terms. So when a friend of mine recently told me "you're so fast" (yes that was you MD!), I didn't really think about it at first. Today on my long run, those words came back to me. It's funny that she said that, because I've actually never been fast. I did run a pretty surprising 10K last month at the end of my first Oly tri that I was really pleased with- don't get me wrong, I wasn't breaking any records, but it was a lot faster than I thought I'd be able to go at that point. But still- fast? me? That just sounds silly.

In school, we won a lot because we had a great team. We had two girls who were very good, then a few who were OK-to-decently-good (I was one of these) and then several more who contributed to the team in one way or another. Our team was very good because we didn't have just one or two superstars, we had a consistent level of pretty good talent among a lot of people. I loved being part of that: achieving more together than any of us could have achieved alone.

So, I was thinking about all this, and wondering if I'm not fast, then what am I? What do I do well? I decided that my best athletic strength is the ability to outrun my abilities. Meaning that when I need to, I can push through a lot of discomfort and doubt and pain and get more out of my body than I really had in there. My coach used to tell me I was a 'big-meet runner' because I'd always have my best races when it really counted.

I remember running my last leg of Hood to Coast in August, when I was still on my comeback from shin splints. I hadn't run anywhere near 7.28 continuous miles yet in my training, but that was how long my last leg was, so I crossed my fingers and off I went. I remember looking at my watch after about 2 miles and not really believing I could keep up my 8:45ish pace for 5 more miles (I'd been running around 11:00 pace in training!). But I thought, hey there's only one way to find out... and just kept going. I finished with an average pace of just under 9:00 which I was totally pleased (and surprised) with.

On my long runs lately, I've felt great, but I haven't felt like I could run much faster over that distance than I already am. But if history is any indication, I guess I won't really know until race day. I'm excited to find out.

Stuff I Like...

2008-11-17T20:53:00.000-06:00

pbg's Product Hall of Fame:

My Nike FitDry sportsbras. These things rock. I am VERY picky about my sportsbras. They have to be tight enough to stop the bounce, stretchy enough to get on and off easily, have a wide chest band to be supportive and allow for the HRM, and be made of a good technical material. Check, check, check and check. I think I have one in every color!

Under Armour running shorts. They hardly feel like I'm wearing anything at all. And even on long runs, no chafeage. Sweet.

Nike running gear- whenever I go to the sporting goods store (which is way more often than I should), I always try on all the brands but I keep coming back to Nike. The materials are good, the fit is good, the cuts are good. They don't make me look like a sausage (like Under Armour does, except for the above shorts), they don't fit me weird (Adidas) or ride up (Champion, and many of the off-brands) and they seem to last a long time. This tank top is my current favorite. I like to wear it for my long runs. I think it has some special clip for your head phone cord, but I don't use that. I just like how it fits.

Garmin Forerunner 405. This thing is totally cool. It does way more things than a watch should ever be expected to do. I'm addicted.

Bike shoes. Easy on/off, comfortable, and apparently stylish- I had a girl stop me one time as I was leaving for a ride to ask me where I got those cool shoes so she could get some. She was disappointed when I showed her they were bike shoes and really not the best for walking around in, although she looked like she was still considering it anyway.

Angel Eyewear sunglasses, "Mystique". I first bought these on my first (and only so far!) trip to California. I lost them when I moved, and I was so disappointed because I don't think they make them anymore and they really are the best sport sunglasses I've ever had. They fit my face perfectly and don't bounce when I run. Fortunately I found someone selling them on ebay, so I bought all they had!

Calf sleeve. I am so in love with this thing. It helped me tremendously when I was trying to come back from my shin splints. At first I wore it 24x7, now I just wear it when I work out. I could probably wean myself off of it at this point, but I'm very attached to it. As you can see, it's been through a lot :)

The best running shoes ever- Saucony ProGrid Hurricane 9. I got fitted for these by my PT and I'm about ready to get my 3rd pair. Along with my orthotics, these shoes keep my over-pronating feet in line, which keeps the rest of me healthy and happy.

Foooood.... The best stuff I've found so far. I have a lot of experimenting still to do, but so far I love: Gu2O (great calorie/carb replacement without an overwhelming flavor or overload of sugar), Honey Stinger (honey as an energy gel- genius! And the gummies are great too), Hammer Bars and Larabars (very few ingredients, and they're all recognizable- cashews, dates, almonds, raisins- and the texture and taste are perfect for mid-workout), nuun (light taste, slight fizziness, great for replacing electrolytes when you don't need the sugar or calories of energy drinks).

tran⋅si⋅tion /trænˈzɪʃən, –noun

2008-11-16T08:34:00.000-06:00

"movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another"

Before you can figure out you're transitioning, though, you have to know where you were, then that it's changing, and then where you want to be. Or at least where you think you're headed.

So before I could figure out that I was transitioning into an adult, I had to figure out what that meant. Who was I, really? What was I trying to be? When I was in college, I used to always hear people say that college taught them who they really were. Whatever that means. I used to get so frustrated at that because whatever that boat was, I missed it. If there was a class or a seminar on it, I didn't find it. Nor did I have some kind of "a-ha!" epiphany moment. But it did make me start asking myself the question. I never really thought to wonder about who I really was before that. I didn't realize it was something people actually thought about. But like everything else at college, what I ultimately learned was how much I didn't know. What motivates me? What makes me happy? What do I want to achieve with my life? Do I have a "type", as far as guys that I like, and what is it? What's REALLY my favorite flavor of ice cream? (OK so that last one was easy. All of them. Just not the ones with chunks of cherries in them, that's just gross.)

So now here I am, about 4.5 years post-college, and I finally feel like I've started to make progress on some of those answers. I guess you figure out those things as you see how you respond to different life situations. What motivates me? A challenge. Wanting to feel loved and appreciated. Pleasing someone. The desire to do the right thing. I'm still working on it, but it's a start. And I'm finding that the more answers I get, the more comfortable I feel with myself as a person. That's a transition I've been wanting for a long time.

What other transitions have I been up to? I've gone from New Yorker to New Orleanian; from dog sister to dog mom, thanks to the most amazing canine companion any girl could ever wish for and who I love more than I thought possible; from student to gainfully employed; from living under someone else's roof to being a homeowner; from reluctant athlete to inactive blob to finally an athlete again, and an eager one this time; from codependent to able to stand on my own two feet.

Not least of all, this season was my first time trying the transition from swimmer to cyclist and cyclist to runner. And I think I really like this triathlon stuff! In my rookie season, I did two sprint triathlons and one Olympic distance, and I had a blast. Now I'm getting ready for my first half marathon on Dec 7th which I'm very excited about (Vegas baby!). Next year will be even better. I've got a great coach and I'm happy with what I'm doing. So there's another answer to one of my questions- what makes me happy? Triathlon!

Now off for my 135-min long run, the longest until Vegas. Also the longest run of my life so far, actually. See, things are changing in a great way, and that's what it's all about!

Congratulations, It's a Blog!

2008-11-11T19:19:00.000-06:00

I have never been a blog person. Not that I have anything against them, I just didn't really read them or picture myself ever writing one. I still think it's kind of a weird idea- I mean, do I really think I have enough interesting things to say that people will actually want to read it? Besides my mom, that is. I know she'll read it. Honestly though, I'm kinda boring.

But, I wanted a good way to keep track of my workouts, training-related stuff, and race reports. I'm excited about the new things I'm doing and I have some pretty big goals I'm working towards.

It's too bad that I can't blog while I'm running actually, since that's when I seem to do my best thinking. I've been writing blog posts in my head during runs for the last few weeks at least. Time to finally write them down for real, I guess!