Humble Triathlete

Top 10 Surprises in 2010

2010-12-31T15:55:00.040-05:00

Wow, what a special year 2010 has been, not so much because of what I did but rather because of many things I did not expect. Here are my top 10 surprises in no particular order:

1. Finished my 8 year long 50 states marathon quest with 8 sub-4 marathons (3:39-3:58). They were the fastest multiple marathon race times for me since I got into tris back in 2006. Thank you, Coach Bill, for getting me to the finish lines and more!

2. Entered a bikini contest! Holy moly, this is something I never thought I'd do but it was to help a friend raise awareness for a good cause, not to show off my old body. Still, submitting my photo to be voted on publicly was one of the hardest/scariest things I've ever done. I'd rather run a marathon or do an ironman!

3. Ran my first ultramarathon. Thought my legs would be wanting a bit of a rest after my 50 states were done but no...

Derby 50K (actually 31.5 mi), 4:45:18, 4/19 Female.

4. Joined Facebook, finally. Finding it to be a wonderful way to stay in touch with friends and make more friends. Unfortunately though, it's taken nearly all my time away from blogging :-(

5. Found a great tri club. After years of merrily training mostly on my own, I joined a new tri club at my Y, had loads of fun training with others and I even got up the courage to do some short races. EEKS!

Blanchard Park YMCA Tri Club

6. Did a 21 events this year! Started the year focused on getting my 50 states done and thinking running 8 marathons would keep me from doing much else. Boy, was I wrong...

7. Visited Australia. I tagged along on one of my hubby biz trips and got an unexpected trip of a lifetime!

8. Signed up for the Boston Marathon, again. I am really not a fan of big, expensive races but the chance to meet up with friends I'd probably never see in person otherwise was too much too resist. Now I'm just going to have to make that race worth every penny ;-)

9. Was a part of Bree Wee's Spreading Aloha to the Marshallese project. This was my first time bringing holiday cheer to folks who don't have much and the best Christmas for me in years!

10. Heard about Team Mango Racing's new half & full iron tris in Kona mid-February starting in 2011. No qualifying, no residency requirements and no race fees. It's a dream come true for someone who loves racing without much hassles or hoopla. (And I now have a new big goal that will probably keep me busy for years :-)

Happy New Year & may 2011 be full of nice surprises for you!!!

I've Lost My Marbles!

2010-10-30T19:54:00.018-04:00

OMG! I just did something that I thought I'd NEVER do, something TOTALLY out of character for me!!

But before I get to that, let me give a quick wrap up of what's been going on since I last posted. After the Turtle Marathon I did the Ride for Ronald metric century with Dave end of September.

A week later, I tackled the Health First Olympic Tri (1500k swim, 42k bike, 10k run) on October 3. This was the second of two "A" races for me this year ("A" race means I was targeting it for a peak performance with a specific goal in mind). I'd done this race twice before in 2006 and 2007 but had always had a hard time on the swim and a disappointing run. This year my goal was to knock off 15 minutes and get under 3 hours.

Unbelievably, I ended up finishing in 2:39! This was helped by MUCH nicer weather this year than we've had in the past (2006 was super hot & humid; in 2007 we raced in a thunderstorm). Still, I will not complain about a 36-minute PR or a third place finish (3/13 F45-49) in a race distance that has always been tough for me because of the relatively long swim. Booyah!

The next two weeks I headed north to run the Hartford Marathon in Connecticut on October 9 and Green Mountain Marathon in Vermont on October 17. Both were "C" races so the main goal was to just finish and have fun. But I've had a streak of sub-4 marathon finishes going this year, plus I'd never run to sub-4s back to back (closest was 3:59:38 and 4:00:21 back in 2006). Would this be the year I do it?

YES! 3:51:48 at Hartford (12/92 F45-49) and 3:45:40 at Green Mountain (9/62 F40-49). I think three things really helped with that: 1) good running weather at both races, 2) not a lot of downhill running on either course, and probably most importantly 3) working with a coach and training with a group. I really haven't been running much mileage at all compared to before but did a lot of very focused speed work for the oly tri and am much stronger mentally it seems.

So with all these races that went well why would I lose my marbles???

For those of you who don't know, Bree Wee's has a special project where she's planning to bring Christmas to a group of Marshallese people on the Big Island living in third world conditions. These folks are originally from Bikini Island and were forced to move 56 years ago because the U.S. decided to use their island for bombing tests. To show support for them, she asked her friends to send pictures of themselves yesterday in bikinis for a bikini photo contest. This includes men and women, at work, at school, wherever they are, doing whatever they do on a Friday.

Now I'm the type of person who usually AVOIDS photo contests. Believe it or not, I pretty much avoided cameras altogether until I began blogging in 2006. Very camera shy! I don't usually wear bikinis except to the beach, pool or jacuzzi. I most definitely do not wear them to be voted on by the public!!

But then I thought, wait a minute, this is just another challenge, no? If I can run marathons, do ironman triathlons, jump out of planes, jump into lakes with gators, why can't I do this? So what if everyone just laughs or gasps? I'm not expecting to win, just like I'm not expecting to win races. This is to support a good cause and to help a friend.

Well ... submitting that photo took probably more courage to do than any anything else I've ever done before. So SO SOOOO NOT ME! I was actually relieved when the album was first released for voting without me in it. I figured Bree had gotten her goal of 56 bikini photos and I'd just missed the cut. But, it turns out that a few photos had just been inadvertently left out. I am actually now in it. YIKES!!!

PS - If you want to vote and are friends with Bree on Facebook, click here and just click Like for the photos you like. You can also vote by leaving a comment on her blog post if you have a Google account or OpenID account. Just mention the name underneath the photo you want to vote for (more than one is allowed). Only one day of voting - ends Saturday, 10/30, at midnight Hawaii time!

Turtle Marathon

2010-09-08T16:08:00.041-04:00

Don't expect much and you'll be fine.

That was my attitude after Steve Boone of the 50 States Marathon Club told me the Turtle Marathon was a minimalist's race. My original plan was to do the New Mexico Marathon in Albuquerque on Labor Day Sunday but it'd cancelled. The Turtle Marathon was the only other NM state marathon that would fit into my race schedule if I wanted to finish my 50 states quest this year. Past years' results on MarathonGuide.com showed usually only 20-30 marathoners and the reviews were not glowing but for only $15 (yes, $15!), why not?

I mean, who needs lots of other runners, spectators, entertainment along the course or well-stocked aid stations when you train by yourself and are used to running boring routes and carrying everything you need? Heck, it was even on the Labor Day weekend too (Monday) and though the weather would be hot, running in an arid environment would be a nice break from running in humidity. Sign me up!!

But the real question turned out to be HOW do I sign up???

All previous race-related website links seemed to lead to nowhere. Emails I sent to the point of contact (POC) went unanswered. Phone numbers were disconnected. Had the aliens abducted the race director?!? After weeks I finally came across a City of Roswell events website that mentioned the race with a new POC, Vern (Bob, the previous one, had retired). I called the number (no email) and Vern assured me the race was ON. He said there'd be no online race registration this year, however, so I gave him my address so he could mail me an application. More weeks went by and nothing. I called again, gave him my address and same thing, nothing. Does this guy want me to run his race or not? Then a month before the race Vern told me there was a new race website with an application that could be downloaded and mailed in. YESSS! Now I felt much better about getting on a plane and flying cross country for a tiny race in the middle of nowhere.

Then I got worried that if it was this hard for me to find out any info about the event, would anyone else be there? You see, in order for it to count as one of my 50 states, there had to be a minimum of 5 starters and 3 finishers. Hubby Dave suggested I bring extra cash to sign people up on the spot ($20 on race day). It'd be cheaper than flying back out to New Mexico to do another race if there weren't enough starters/finishers. But a week or so before the race I checked out the Marathon Maniacs website and saw that 5 of their members were also planning to do the race. Then fellow bloggers Misty & Brian said they were also going to be there. So by race day I knew there'd be at least 8 starters and knowing what type of runners we were, 8 finishers!

Full and half marathoners gathered in Calhoon Park at 5:30am. Man, was it dark!

Silly me, there turned out to be a LOT more than 8. While waiting for the start I scanned the surprisingly large crowd and spotted Carol, Annette's Marathon Maniac friend. We chatted for a bit and she pointed out some other guy doing his 4th (FOURTH!) marathon this Labor Day Weekend. See, and you thought I was crazy for running 8 marathons this year?!?

Me and Carol, a real Marathon Maniac though she was not wearing her MM jersey today (probably because she wore it yesterday!).

I kept looking for Misty or Brian, or Misty's friend Kate who lived in Roswell, but it was hard to recognize people you've never met in person in the dark. Oh well, I was sure I'd see them out on the course somewhere. After a few announcements and a countdown, we were off at 5:40am. I was glad I wore my headlight as it was even DARKER once we got going and sunrise was not for another hour. People liked my headlamp and for a while I running with a little entourage.

I know it looks dorky as hell but it helps keep me from rolling my ankles.

We ran on a bike path for the first couple miles and then ended up on the highway, a highway we'd be for 11 miles until the turnaround and then 11 miles back, so a total of 22 miles! Yikes, like running on an outdoor treadmill!!

But the early start kept temps fairly cool (~65 degs F at the start) and the dark also masked the nothingness that was out there. By the time it was light enough so I could put away my headlamp I was already at mile 4 or so. Where'd everyone go? The field had spread out a lot so it was pretty much just me and my compadres, myself and I.

Sorry for the blurry photo at sunrise but, trust me, you ain't missing much.

It is then that I realized I must really love running. I mean, people think running a marathon indoors on a track is boring but really the ones I've run have been a blast because there was music, runners and spectators you'd pass over and over, aid stations and portapotties every lap, and constant comfy temps the whole time. Very controlled, predictable and stimulating. This was the exact opposite: no music (at least for me because I never wear headphones when running outside), no one around me, no idea where the aid stations were or what would be at them, no portapotties (I'd heard there might be one but never saw it). Just a vast open stretch of highway for miles with an occasional vehicle passing by at 70+mph and other lonely runners way off in the distance. Oh, and an unforgiving sun that was going to cook you if you didn't get done as early as possible. What a challenge!

By around mile 5 I started to see and cheer for some half marathoners who had reached their turnaround. YAY, something new to do! There was an actual aid station table set up at mile 6.55 with one person there but you had to grab the cups yourself. Still, an aid station with cups of water and Gatorade, and our first spectator!

Coming up on mile 10, I spotted something else new ahead. Ooh, photo op!

Holy moly, a bend in the road - How exciting!

Gah, I must be nuts to be out here.

Playing with my shadow, my only companion for miles.

Boy, am I glad I decided to bring my camera. Between sips to make sure I was staying hydrated, checking my Garmin to make sure I'd moved (same highway scenery!), taking photos and eating an occasional gel, the miles actually seemed to go by faster than I thought they would. At mile 11, I grabbed a bottle of water on the ground just in case there was nothing at the turnaround but an arrow on the ground. Remember, low expectations.

These were every 2-3 miles where there was no actual aid station.

At the turnaround, however, there was another aid station table, not only with fluids but also fruit and TWO people there. Amazing!! I decided to make a full stop and chatted with them for a bit while refilling my Fuel Belt bottles. The guy told me I was right at the 2-hour mark. My Garmin said 1:58-something but I'd forgot to set it so it'd keep going when I stopped. Still, that was right about where I wanted to be.

A surprising amount of climbing on this course. For some reason, I didn't notice the altitude (usually very affected by it).

As soon as I left them I realized I'd forgotten to take a photo. Doh! But there was no going back as the woman ahead of me was the second female and I was only a couple minutes behind her. There was a chance she might come back to me (with only two 15-16 milers run in training in the last couple weeks, however, I was not going after her). The return leg was mostly downhill which was nice, but also into the sun and with the wind behind us which made the sweat pour into my eyes even in the low humidity. Temps were now well above 70 and climbing fast. The name of the game was to stay steady, stay hydrated and stay SANE.

Heading back sunglasses were a must. A lot of sweat now but my shoes were staying dry so it was drying up fast!

I haven't a clue what I thought about the next few miles but remember cheering for folks going the other way, including Carol and Misty (though she didn't recognize me). Turns out Brian was only a couple minutes in back of me which is why I didn't recognize him either (having recently run a 100-miler thought he'd either be way ahead of me or way in back). I waved to a few cars that honked as they drove past and remember wishing more big trucks and campers would roll by so I could feel the big gust of wind they created. Thankfully the hills on the course helped break up the route so I could only see pieces of highway bleakness at a time, and there was always the hope I might see the number two female again. Before I knew it I was back at half marathon turnaround aid station near mile 20!

And this time I remembered to take a photo after filling up on fluids. Thanks Ellie for being out there! (I think that was her name)

The last few miles also flew by except for the last two. The funny thing was that I couldn't wait to get off that darn highway and as soon as I did I seemed to be going in slow motion. WTH??? Did I hit the wall? Was I now running uphill a little? Was the heat getting to me? I suspect a little of all of the above but I just kept following the occasional orange cones like Hansel following bread crumbs. The area looked very different in sunlight but there were other things along the way that I remembered from before: a road that I crossed, a hole I'd avoided, a bend in the path, a hump that I went over...

The finish line from the other side after I'd gone through. The guy in red shorts was recording finishing times.

Soon there were more parked cars along the road, some familiar looking buildings and people standing around ahead. I wasn't sure exactly where the finish line was as there was no arch or clock. I ran past some colored flags lining the bike path and then heard a guy call out my race time. That must mean I'm done!

3:57:55 (9:04 pace, 3/12 Females)
Not bad, in fact, about as good as I could have hoped!

But best part about this race was still to come.

Oh my, my choice of turtles? They're all so adorable in their little cupcake holders.

Of course, I had to pick the green one as green/teal is my favorite color.

I found Vern, the RD, and thanked him for putting on a nice little event. Turns out there was a record number of marathoners this year -- 39! Plus at least as many half marathoners and many more 5K walkers & runners so a nice amount raised for the fight against MS.

Great job, RD Vern!

As for aliens, well, I didn't see any along the course but did see one near my Roswell hotel.

Thanks lil' green guy!

So let's see, what'd all I get for $15? A bright orange race t-shirt (the one Vern is wearing above), a uniquely challenging race course, much more runners and course support than I thought would be there, some wildlife sightings (2 dead skunks on the road, one bird of prey flying overhead - hey, beggars can't be choosers), no race medal but a cute handmade ceramic turtle sitting on a base shaped like the state of NM and, of course, NM checked off my 50 states list. I'd say the Turtle Marathon was a total BARGAIN!

So now I have only 3 more states left -- WOOHOO!!!

Kona, Blackberry & Blogging

2010-07-26T21:03:00.017-04:00

Is it possible NOT to have fun in Kona?

I don't think so, even if I crash on my bike which I did (no worries, it was not really serious). In fact, with every visit, it just feels like I'm back home. Here are a few pics from this trip:

I ran two small 10K races while there. Both courses were a bit long and pretty tough but I got in some good speed work and ended up with two first place F40-49 finishes which was nice. I'd hoped to also do two open water swim events (a one mile and a 1.2 mile) but, unfortunately, both were too soon after the crash and my shoulder and ribs were not up to swimming long so I did my own shorter ocean swims. Next year for sure!

Oh, as for the broken Blackberry in my last post, no, it wasn't me who hit it with a hammer. Dave did it, but only because he already had a new one with him and just wanted to see what my reaction would be. What a dirty trick!!

But high speed internet service was fairly unreliable on our trip so the last couple weeks I've been dabbling with Facebook. Can you believe it? Me, one of the last hold-outs. But now I see how much easier it is to stay connected with friends via Facebook vice Blogger, especially when connectivity may be limited and every click that results in a new page being loaded can be painful. So like many of you already have, I am switching to using Facebook for most of my postings. This blog will serve mainly as a place to house race reports and longer thought pieces as well as my race schedule and 50 states progress. If you're on FB, you can find me here. Look forward to connecting with many of you there!

Offline for a Bit

2010-06-25T17:11:00.001-04:00

Oops, Dave's Blackberry had a lil accident (got hit by a hammer :-).

So now surfing is limited to ocean waves.

Got a couple of books to read.

And some quality time to catch up on.

Good luck to all racing in June & July!

Casper Marathon

2010-06-11T12:57:00.047-04:00

Traveling to new locations, meeting fun people, running in cool places. This is why I decided to run marathons in all 50 states and the Casper Marathon in Wyoming did not disappoint!

I actually flew into Denver which was much cheaper and only a 4 hour drive from Casper. While in Denver, I met up with fellow blogger, runner and triathlete Iron Eric and his wife Nicole for lunch. They'd had a new family addition since I last saw them at Florida 70.3 in 2007.

The drive up to Casper also allowed me to see Southern Wyoming, which I'd never been through before. It was not as stunning as the Yellowstone area, which I'd seen on the drive between my week-apart marathons in South Dakota and Idaho in 2006, but having lived in the burbs all my life I never tire of seeing mountains, ranches and lots of open land. The pink asphalt on the roads was also quite unique.

The Casper Marathon was small affair with about 150 marathoners, 200 half marathoners and a few relay teams. The course started at 5270' and ended at 5100' and was mostly flat but the altitude would be a factor for flatlanders. Still, that didn't keep 50-staters like Amanda and I away (photo above; we met on the short bus ride to the start). In fact, my guess is that a quarter of the field were 50-staters and/or Marathon Maniacs. Most of us don't care about slower marathon times or the fact that the course was not certified (hence no race times would count as BQs here). We just want to run in fun places and check the state off our list!

I'd planned to carry my camera with me during the marathon but discovered in Denver that the shutter was no longer opening on its own (probably due to embedded sweat & grime). I could force it open with my fingers but decided it'd be too much of a pain to do so while running so I left it behind in my gear bag just before the 6:30am race start. Sorry, no photos during the race!

Photo of the path we ran on from the race website.

The first few miles the dry air and cool 50-ish deg temps felt magnificent but the thin air was immediately noticeable. Everyone seemed to be huffing and puffing way more than they should be so early on but I went out fairly hard on purpose. You see, another common high altitude side effect for me is having to pee often, which led to my slowest marathon time (4:32:05) at the 2007 Colorado Marathon. So I was employing a new race strategy that hubby Dave suggested: run harder so you won't feel like peeing. I also drank very little before the race even though I knew I was supposed to do the opposite especially at high altitudes. Things went great for the first half and I got to mile marker 13 in 1:53:31 (8:43 pace) with NO pit stops vs. numerous ones before but only in the first half. YAY!!!

We ran alongside the Platte River for most of the course (photo taken after the race).

But thereafter things got more difficult. Temps warmed up quickly with lots of blue sky and little shade along the nice quiet riverside path. I'd drank all the fluids I was carrying by the midway point and was now grabbing a cup at every aid station but it still wasn't enough. My pace plummeted down to the 9:30's and heading out on this long out-and-back section from mile 10.7 to 16 seemed to go on forever.

Finally I got to the mile 16 turnaround and decided to make a full stop to refill one of my water bottles and take in extra fluids. Shortly thereafter, two women passed me, one who was in her 20's and another who looked to be in my age group. Gasp! But there was nothing I could do. I'd gambled with my pacing and hydration and was now paying the price. Grumble, grumble, plod, plod ...

The good thing about heading back, though, was that many more runners were still headed to the turnaround and everyone was encouraging each other, often by name as they were printed on our race bibs. This is the type of small race camaraderie I love and it made the miles go by much faster. There were very few spectators otherwise on this course except volunteers at the aid stations and folks at the relay exchange points.

Another post-race photo inserted to break up all the words ;-)

Near mile 20, I made another full stop at an aid station to refill a water bottle and drink plenty. Now folks headed in the opposite direction were pretty much nonexistent but I was feeling better than I did a few miles back. When I passed the 20 mile marker I hit the lap button on my watch (no Garmin) and it said 2:59:32, which meant I should be able to finish within 4 hours as long as I didn't slow down much more.

But then the path made a big turn and I saw another woman less than a quarter mile in back of me. Yikes! The competitive side of me kicked in and I picked up my pace and made it my mission to not let her pass me (not without a fight, at least). Around mile 23, I was surprised to see up ahead the woman who'd passed me earlier who I thought might be in my age group. She still looked to be running strong but I was slowly closing in. He-he.

Finally after mile 25, I caught her and said "good job" as I went by. She said something similar but I don't remember exactly what. Then I saw another young woman up ahead who I'd run behind for most of the first half of the race. I hadn't seen her since the halfway point but wouldn't it be nice if I could catch her too?

I gave it a shot but it was not to be. Still, I ran the last 10K in 57:06 (9:11 pace) and finished with my best marathon time to date at 5000+ feet altitude.

3:56:31 (9:02 pace), 2/14 F40-49, 6/47 Female.

And the woman I was chasing the last few miles actually turned out to be in the F30-39 AG. Oh well! As for whether it felt equivalent to running a 3:44 race time at sea level as predicted by the Daniel's Running Calculator, I'd say it felt harder since I wasn't acclimated to the altitude. To me, this race really seemed to be more of a lung workout than a leg workout!

I actually ended up winning my age group since the 1st F40-49 was the overall female winner. All award winners got the same prize, however, a nice folding camping chair with an insulated compartment to carry food and additional pockets for other stuff. It's probably the most useful award I've ever gotten and it'll come in handy this weekend while spectating at a race.

Hanging out afterwards was a blast. I met up with a few other 50-staters while enjoying the plentiful post-race food.

Dawn Easton, the race director, came walking by so I grabbed her for a quick photo (above) and thanked her for a wonderful Wyoming race experience. Highly recommended for other 50 staters!

Just 4 more states left in my 50 states quest!!!

Oh my!

2010-06-07T00:48:00.013-04:00

How can it be over a week since I last posted?

Well, I'll use this post to try to answer that and name 7 more random things about me since I was tagged by Aron.

1. Three friends and I recently hosted a Hawaiian luau for our tri club. It was the first party for friends (not family) that I have planned in something like 15 years. Have I mentioned that I'm really an introvert?

2. Dave & I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary the same weekend as the luau. Still hard to believe I found someone who's willing to put up with me for so long.

3. Words with "rl" in them are virtually impossible for native Japanese speakers like my parents to pronounce correctly. I have no idea why they named me Shirley.

4. Contrary to what you might think, I LOVE to sleep. I can sleep for 8-10 hours straight at night and take 2-3 hour long naps, no problem. Last week when I started feeling under the weather, I was sleeping way more than I was awake, not by choice though.

5. After my third marathon (Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage, AK), Dave and I took a glacier cruise where there were some other folks who'd done the race including the first 50-stater I'd ever met. I remember initially thinking that he must be nuts.

6. If I ever won the lottery, I might consider buying a summer home in Wyoming or Colorado. Very beautiful out here and I think I prefer high altitude to high heat & humidity. Or is it the grass just looks greener from the other side?

Casper Marathon race time: 3:56:34, my fastest at 5000+ ft.
(Equiv. to a 3:44 at sea level per Daniel's Running Calculator :-)

7. I wish I knew a way to read blogs and write comments offline like folks can read and reply to email offline using Eudora or Outlook. If anyone knows of an application that will allow me to do this on a Mac, please do tell. I often end up just sleeping on planes ...

I'll be catching up on my blog reading soon after I get back!

Change on the Horizon

2010-05-25T10:08:00.030-04:00

I love the smell of triathlon in the morning.

The smell, you know, that I-eat-gators-for-breakfast smell, the whole place. Smelled like ... Victory.

But I was only spectating. Four of my tri club teammates were racing, two doing their first-ever triathlon.

In the first wave was one of the first-timers, a guy who I used to be faster than in swimming two months ago but he now can kick my butt in the pool. His 750m swim time, an incredible 12:24. Faster than my fastest 400m swim time in a tri. *Cry*

And fast on land too. So fast that every time I clicked my camera, he was already out of the frame. And the same for all but one of my teammates who I managed to get in the swim-to-bike transition. I don't know how the heck Dave gets any pictures of me racing!

But it sure was fun to be out there cheering for them (I'm the dork wearing the lei).

My fellow teammates all finished well with three of four placing in their age group categories. Being sorta one of the co-captains of the tri club, I felt like a proud mama.

Dave and I also went out for a bike ride last weekend, the first one together in *gasp* nearly two months. It was short (only 30 mi) but it felt so good to be spending quality time together on the roads, to feel the wind on my face, and to be back on Genie, my road bike, who has probably been wondering whether I still loved her having not ridden her much lately, my tri bike, Cali, too.

Man, how I miss riding and tri training. I thought I'd be happy to return to running marathons this year but the truth is I'm not. I want to be doing more with my tri club buddies and Dave, especially now that it's hot & humid again. Ick! Running long is really no fun when you're drenched after just one mile and would rather be doing something else.

So, I whined to my coach, who was also at the tri last weekend (with the biggest skateboard I've ever seen, nearly the size of a small surfboard!). And guess what?

He's going to let me finish my 50 states marathon quest this year but allow me to focus on tris after the Casper Marathon (WY) on June 6th. Woohoo!!!

But not half irons (1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, 13.1mi run), where I can rely on my endurance and a strong bike and run to pull me through. No, for me, that'd be too easy. Besides, my tri club buddies are focusing on short course tris, sprints and olys, so training for a half iron would still not allow me to do much with them.

So the decision: this summer I'll be gearing up for an Olympic tri. Big gulp!

My target race will the Health First Oly Tri (1.5k swim, ~43k mi bike, 10k run) on Oct 3, a race I've done twice before in 2006 & 2007 and have always stunk up the non-wetsuit legal swim and died a slow death on the hot run. To meet my goal of breaking 3 hours, I'll have to lop off 15+ minutes (!), which means a LOT more time spent swimming and doing shorter, faster bike and run workouts.

Who knows, I might even get faster running marathons (last year I ran a 3:38 in Fargo while focusing on tris). But the main thing is I'll have friends and Dave alongside me who will make training and racing a lot more fun. This is supposed to be a fun hobby, right?

As my brave new friend K told me recently, "The worst thing that could happen is that I'd throw up." And if I flop, well, I'll still have four marathons in the Fall as comfort food ;-)

Oops!

2010-05-21T12:34:00.002-04:00

Shirley:

Due to the post-race adjustments, Jeanine Heath moves up to our overall 3rd place; Molly Izzo to our OM 2nd place, so you will actually get a 2nd place AG award. I’m organizing the stuff over the weekend and will begin sending awards out next week.

Congrats.
Joel Schiller
Delaware Marathon

Un-Freaking-Believable.

Perfect Recovery Workout

2010-05-20T22:36:00.027-04:00

Wow, it was just what I needed. A lot of huffing and puffing, sweat and even some nausea towards the end, but a lot to be proud of afterward.

So soon after a marathon, you ask?

Yes. But it was not me who did it. It was K, a new person at our tri club run workout tonight.

I really didn't have a workout scheduled but showed up just to say 'hi' to my tri club buddies whom I love dearly and miss since I've been unable to do as much with them recently with all my marathoning. I had some new running shoes that I wanted to give a test spin anyway. Knowing I shouldn't be doing any of the speed work that was assigned, I told the coach I'd be bringing up the rear.

It was hot, really hot, like 90 degs F at 5pm when we headed out for our "warm up." There were 10-12 of us and the group spread out quickly as folks settled into their easy run paces. My legs and butt felt fine (YAY!) but I forced myself to run super easy. I chatted away with some folks at the back of the pack whom I don't usually get to run with often. Then I turned around and saw K running by herself falling further and further behind.

We'd only gone perhaps a quarter mile and I could tell she was really struggling. Have I mentioned it was hot? She began walking and I fell back to check on her since the coach was further up with others. K said she was OK but really out of shape. She mentioned maybe being able to go on if she could do 1 minute of running and 2 minutes of walking. I said fine. Let's do it together.

Initially, K didn't want to hold me back and encouraged me to go on without her but I told her I needed to take it easy because I'd just run a marathon. We walked on for a bit more so she could catch her breath and the coach came by. She too suggested run-walking but doing 1 minute intervals of each. I looked at K and told her let's give it a try. I'll keep track of time.

So we set out running again. I kept chatting away as we were when we were walking not realizing at first how hard poor K was working. We were running at probably a 12-13 minute per mile pace but for her that was really hard. I told her not to talk. I'd talk when we were running and I told her about my Delaware Marathon.

3 - 2 - 1, time to walk. She told me she'd quit smoking 5 months ago and this was her first time running. She mentioned again how very out of shape she was and asked whether she should maybe do something else to get started.

3 - 2 - 1, time to run. I told her that I thought the best way to get started running was to do exactly what we're doing, just go slow and do as much as she could, unless she had any knee or joint issues. She shook her head. Then I proceeded to babble on about how some people actually run-walked marathons this way.

We got to the mile 1 marker on the bike path doing the 1-1 run-walk and then decided to turn around and go back. Others in the club were supposed to run to the 2-mile marker and turn around so we'd see them coming back.

K didn't think she'd be able to do what we did to get out here. I suggested we go as far as we could doing the 1-1 thing and then walk the rest of the way in if needed. K was OK with that so off we went.

It was still 90 degs but felt a bit cooler going back with the wind in our face. The sun also went behind a big cloud for a while which was nice. I was doing pretty much all of the talking now as K was having a hard time talking even during the walk breaks. She was just barely making it to the end of the one minute runs.

With about a quarter mile to go, I pointed out where we'd started, which was where we were to finish. K had never been on this bike path before and had no idea how much further we had to go. Knowing the end was near was a huge relief to her.

Now only a couple hundred yards left and a large sign by the end is clearly in sight. K tells me she's feeling a bit nauseous. I knew she was staying hydrated as she had a large bottle of water with her and was drinking often. It must be due to a very high heart rate. But she surprised me by saying, "The worst thing that could happen is that I'd throw up." Wow, this girl is a real trooper!

I may have given her an extra 5 seconds of rest but we began running again. It was our last run interval and I encouraged her as much as I could to keep her going. As we got closer to the sign, I realized it was going to take a little more than a minute to get there, maybe 1:05, 1:10 max. Should I tell her?

I glanced over at her at the minute mark and saw there was no need. She was gunning for the sign.

Afterwards, we gave each other a high-five and walked around a bit while waiting for the others to return. Later she gave me a hug and thanked me for running with her. She told me she never would have gone so far or pushed herself as hard on her own. I thanked her for giving me the perfect recovery workout.

Delaware Marathon

2010-05-18T13:32:00.045-04:00

Warning: The stunts in this post were performed by an experienced crazy marathoner and should not be attempted by runners who have common sense.

Apprehension. Now there's a feeling I haven't had at a marathon in a while.

Since my fall Tuesday night, I'd spent two days cursing, hobbling and ironing. Finally on Friday I could walk pain-free but my butt was still quite sore. I decided it was best for me not to try running at all until race day. Why am I doing this silly 50 states marathon quest again???

Oh yeah, I thought it'd be fun to travel and run marathons.

But there was no backing out. Dave was coming with me to the Delaware Marathon since he had to be in DC the following week anyway. The weather forecast was pretty good: party cloudy, 58 degs at the 7am start, high 60's later in the morning. I'd even been assigned bib number 77, which had to mean I was going to have good luck, right? Right??

Still, I had no idea what to expect. I'd never gone into a marathon not knowing whether I could run. OTOH, I knew adrenaline was a powerful pain killer. Here I am at the start doped up on a couple Tylenol 8-hours hoping for the best. Funny, I just realized I'm standing in front of some medical cots, things I was hoping not to see during my race.

For a smaller race (600 marathoners, 700 half marathoners, 200 relay teams), this race was very well organized with an attractive start/finish area (I like balloon arches). They also offered nice cash prizes to the top-3 open and top-2 masters winners, not that I was thinking I'd win anything.

50 yards into the race, my Achilles felt tight but my butt seemed to be OK. I was running and trying to stay positive. Woohoo, only 26 miles and 335 yards left!

The first couple miles we snaked along the scenic, flat Wilmington riverfront. This photo is actually from the race website as Dave had gone back to the hotel after the start of the race to get his free breakfast. Priorities!

Later, though, there were some hills and we'd see them twice since this was a double loop course. After mile 6 is where things started falling apart.

Because climbing hills requires using your butt and my left butt was broken (not really, but definitely not working right). To get up them, I had to use a lot of right hip flexor and my left calf so now they were complaining too. Hey, give us a break! We're not used to working so hard on hills. That's the butt's job. Yeah, not in our contract. We're going on strike. Blah-blah-blah.

Miles 6-10.5 seemed to take fooooooor-eeeeeeeeev-eeeeeeer and take a lot out of me. Not good!

Dave had his bike and was riding around on the course. He found me at mile 11, just in time to see my grimacing turn to relief as we headed back downhill.

But a little hill at mile 12 nearly locks my butt and legs up so I accepted Dave's offer to go back to the hotel and get more dope (Tylenol 8-hour) to hopefully get me through the race.

Back on the flat riverfront section was easier but I'm now just hanging on and only just over halfway done. It was the second worst I'd ever felt midway through a marathon (the worst being at the 2007 Olathe Marathon where I had major GI issues).

Dave is waiting for me at mile 15 with a baggie. I greedily grabbed it from him but dropped one and then another pill on the ground before I could get them into my mouth. ARRGGHHH! Now my hands aren't working!?!

Luckily, there are 5 or 6 pills in the bag. I saw Dave again a little while later and handed him the bag back with only one pill left. I swear I took only 2, though! (Technically, I know it is cheating to receive outside help during a race but I was past the point of caring.)

But unlike morphine or heroin, there's no immediate relief. I trudged on for a while dreading those hills and told Dave he should just go for a ride elsewhere and leave me to wallow in self pity. He refused. Perhaps he thought I took all the pills missing from the bag and would collapse any moment? I do look pretty awful in the above photo.

But then around mile 17, the drug starts kicking in! We're now back in Brandywine Park which had plenty of shade and the spring has begun to return to my step.

There are cute llamas in a zoo that I didn't see before on the first loop.

A pretty wooden foot bridge that I do remember from before but enjoy much more the second time (I've already passed the bridge so I'm not in the photo).

Nice river views.

And a wonderfully shaded bike path.

By the time I got to mile 19 where the hills began again, I was warmed up and ready to start racing!

Wow, what a difference. This time the miles seemed to fly by and the hills were no problem.

My high continued all the way to the finish. I didn't count the number of folks I passed after mile 20 at this race as there were so many relay runners passing me and distracting me (again, something like 200 teams!). But I know three people not wearing "Relay" on their backs passed me the last quarter mile, including one woman who happened to be in my age group. Oh well!

At least I finished and stayed out of the medical tent. Here are my splits for anyone interested:

Official splits:
First 5.2 mi (flat) in 44:46, 8:36 pace.
Next 13 mi (hills and flats) in 1:59:49, 9:13 pace.
Last 8 mi (mostly hills) in 1:08:39, 8:34 pace.

My watch splits (surprisingly even paced halfs):
1st half 1:56:11, 8:52 pace.
2nd half 1:57:02, 8:56 pace.

Final race time:
3:53:13 (8:54 pace), 4/29 F45-49, 39/212 Females.

Thanks to Dave for all the photos and support. No doubt it would have been much uglier if I'd gone to this race alone.

Now, time to see what all you bloggy friends have been up to. Thanks for your kind words of encouragement and for reading!

3:53:13

2010-05-17T07:53:00.003-04:00

Un-Freaking-Believable.

Well, far from an easy race for me but I managed to run and finish!

An Unpostable Injury

2010-05-13T08:51:00.035-04:00

Un-Freaking-Believable.

With a fast recovery following the Cox Providence Marathon and 50-60 degs F forecast on Sunday for the Delaware Marathon, I was thinking a sub-3:50 looked doable. But now all bets are off!

Because the ground jumped up and bit me again, this time at my first spin class in ump-teen years. &$#?$%@!!!

Now some of you may recall that I usually AVOID spin classes like the plague because I hate spin bikes (they never seem to fit right and hurt me more than the workouts) and I am not fond of riding indoors in general. But this one allowed, actually encouraged, us to bring our own bikes & trainers and the instructor is the coach of my tri club. I figured I'd be safe and it'd be more fun to ride indoors with my tri club.

Indeed, it was the best spin class I'd been to but getting off my bike would present a problem. It became very apparent that I'd not ridden on a trainer much. Who knew my bike would be much higher on a trainer than on the road, that I couldn't easily just lean it over to get my leg over it, and the floor would be so slippery when wearing bike shoes?

Man, I might as well have been wearing skates. And the spin room floor, of course, was one of those really hard tiled floors that made asphalt feel spongy.

Luckily, I did not hit my head (no helmet worn indoors) or re-fracture my tailbone (an old childhood injury). I was also able to catch my bike before it hit the floor (it got pulled over when my leg got caught on it). But now I have a most painful bruise on my left butt bone right where the left leg connects to it. Darn tush has lost much of its cush due to years of endurance sports -- WAH! And you'll just have to take my word for it as I'm not posting a photo of this injury.

Good news: It only hurts when I sit or move my left leg.

Bad news: I'll need to do both to get on a plane and run a marathon.

Good news: Ironing doesn't require sitting or much leg movement. (I have a big pile that I've been putting off doing. So much for being an ironwoman - HA!)

Anyways, Dave will have many nice pressed pants & shirts but who knows what'll happen on Sunday. Then again, whoever said running a marathon would be easy?

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some other photos from the past week:

Dave celebrated his 49th birthday down 25# from the beginning of the year, even traveling nearly every week.

His typical lunch lately (fruit salad, frozen mixed veggies, carrots & celery sticks).

Me (front left, red visor) and some folks from my tri club at Lucky's Lake, a local swim spot that has gained cult-like status in free swimming.

With no swim on my training schedule, I was there mainly to support team members who'd never swam in open water before.

But I couldn't resist getting in a quick swim myself. Busted ;-)

First-time lake crossers got to sign Lucky's "Wall of Fame", which has become so full now that folks are signing the ceiling!

Dinner with fellow ironwoman Vickie and her husband who were visiting from Michigan (sorry, terrible photo as my camera was on the wrong setting).

Nearing the finish of the Cox Providence Marathon.

My apologies for being MIA on blogs. I hope to catch up next week when I get back from Delaware and am able to sit for much longer than I can now (even with a doughnut it's far from comfortable). Good luck to everyone else racing this weekend!

Update 5/14: Able to walk pain-free today! Fingers crossed for running on Sunday.

Cox Providence Marathon

2010-05-04T08:52:00.032-04:00

3:54:20.8 (8:57 pace), 10/88 F40-49, 58/360 Females.

I know, I know ... My goal was to just to finish the Cox Providence Marathon (Rhode Island) and I end up with a sub-4 BQ?

But I swear NOTHING spectacular happened. Really, this race was about as close to a training run as one could get. Thankfully, as I could use less drama after the Gator Half Iron! So you guys luck out as this race report is going to be fairly short.

Despite being a low key race for me, I decided NOT to run with my camera. I knew I needed to stay in tune with how I was feeling and stay focused on where I was stepping. Believe it or not, I'd already turned my ankle once at the Orlando airport - GAH!

The weather was forecast to be 60-65 degs at the 8am start, getting up to 75-80 around noon. Bleh! At least it was supposed to be mostly cloudy early and training in Florida and Hawaii, heat and I were on a first name basis (although I preferred not to see much heat at a New England race).

A half an hour before the race, I went down to check out the race start/finish area which was pretty much right in front of my hotel. Sweeeet!

Where is everyone?

There were supposed to be about 1000 marathoners plus double the number of half marathoners but no one was really lining up yet. So I went back to my room, put Mr. Camera away and came back 10 minutes before start time. One good thing about being small is that it's fairly easy to wiggle past people in a crowd and go through gaps in corral fences.

After the national anthem, I snuck in around the 9-minute pace sign. 60 degrees felt surprisingly cool with a nice breeze in our face. I ran by an easy feel, even enjoyed a few hills early on, and arrived at the halfway point in 1:54-something (~8:45 pace). Oops!

I knew heat would slow me down later though and I had no plans to push much harder at the end for a negative split or even an even split. Not with a 90% healed up ankle, my longest run in 4 months being only 16 miles and another marathon to run in 2 weeks.

But speed is relative. Around mile 15, folks around me began to melt. I stayed on an 8:45 pace until mile 19 then backed off and began walking through aid stations to make sure I got enough fluids into me. Blue skies, no shade, plenty warm. Still, people were coming towards me. At mile 20, I began to play "How many runners will I pass before the finish?"

Answer: 41, 17 of which were women.
2 guys passed me. 1 woman too, technically, but I passed her back on the final stretch so she doesn't count :-)

The only unusual thing that happened at this race was that my name didn't appear in the posted results. OMG, why am I not there?!?!

I went to the Yankee Timing trailer, showed the guy my race bib (which was folded now but not during the race) and told him my Garmin time. He said I was the third person whose time wasn't recorded for some reason (we were using the new Chrono B tag where the timing strips stay on the bib). He manually entered me into the computer with a 3:55:00 finish and I ended up with a 3:54:20.8 net time. Close enough.

54 marathons, 44 states done. 6 more to go!!!

Aloha!

2010-04-26T09:08:00.017-04:00

This Easter, Smoosh Bunny (SB), a Giant Marshmallow Bunny that has been mailed back and forth between my hubby Dave and his sister for years, turned 21!

And he (she?) showed up with a message.

So I brought him along with me back to Kona. SB got lucky and had his own seat on one of the flights.

He hung out on our lanai when I went out for my first run in 2 weeks after having sprained my ankle at the Gator Half Iron.

He hopped and sat in Dave's patio chair and watched surfers and boogie boarders play while patiently awaiting my return.

After my 5-mile run, I was drenched but very happy that I had no ankle pain at all -- Woohoo!!! But I was NOT used to running in heat having been spoiled by an unusually cool winter in FL. Need to start out earlier, not mid-morning when it was already approaching 80!

As promised, I took SB out for a bike ride. To make sure he had a good view, I put him into one of my rear bottle cages.

I'd been mostly cycling while I couldn't run to stay in shape the past few weeks (unfortunately, the ankle flexion involved when swimming bothered my ankle so Coach didn't have me swim much once I could put weight on my foot). Below, we are at the bike ride turnaround. I had to hold onto SB tight when I took him out as that rascal wanted to keep going!

As usual, we had a headwind going back but lovely ocean scenery and other cyclists to try to catch made the ride back fun.

Next up for me, 3 marathons in 5 weeks, starting with the Providence Marathon (Rhode Island) on Sunday. My longest run was 16 miles last Thursday but all I want to do is finish these marathons, which should be doable provided I don't roll any more ankles.

Look forward to catching up with everyone this week!!!

2010 Gator Half Iron Tri

2010-03-26T08:03:00.045-04:00

Thanks, everyone, for the congrats, ankle condolences and baby shower wishes, too, LOL. I'm happy to report that the ankle is MUCH better now, almost normal looking. It's still weak, though, so I'll be taking things slow. No races until May, which is good.

As for being a superhero? No, not me. I just did what I've always done when I fell down: I got back up and found a way to get home. But more on that in a bit.

First of all, I chose the Gator Half Iron Tri because it was a small race with a flat course and hopefully cool weather being held in March. Last year, my training/racing was all about hills and heat and, to be honest, I was sick of it. I just wanted to see how fast I could go in flat, cool conditions for a change!

I was joined by three fellow BPY Tri Club members. Two of us on the left were half iron vets while the other two were newbs. The other woman, Jacklynn, is the coach of the club, however, and a very good swimmer, spinning instructor and a strong runner so I knew she'd do well even if it was her first half iron. We also had a few other tri club members and family members come out to spectate and support us adding to the fun.

With only ~80 participants, the race had just one "mass" swim start and it was actually my first in-water start (as opposed to a beach start). We lucked out with 68 deg water temps so I went with my sleeveless wetsuit. How that happened, I don't know but I'll take 68 over 58 any day!!

The swim course was two rectangular loops plus some and I swam fairly hard from the get-go, another first. Still, by the second lap I was swimming mostly by myself, as usual. Man, these folks are fast! (or is it I'm still slow?)

Whatev. Except for my wetsuit pull-string wrapping itself around my right arm and my swim cap creeping off my head, I was very pleased with my swim. I was only a few minutes behind many others and with a strong bike would be seeing them again soon.

1.2 mi Swim: 39:07 (1:51/100 yds), a 5-min PR!

In transition, I had a great spot on the end right next to the bike exit as I was one of the first to rack my bike the day before. Gotta love small races where you can rack your bike wherever you want, first come first serve.

T1: 2:25, one of my fastest T1 times but mainly because the transition area was very close to the water.

The bike course was FABULOUS, one big oblong-shaped flat loop. We had a 10-12 mph headwind starting out (notice flags in swim exit photo) that grew to 15-20 mph as a front moved in. But having ridden in much stronger winds the weekend before, it didn't seem bad to me. I just stayed down in aero and kept telling myself the wind is my friend, the wind is my friend ... I passed the two male tri club teammates by mile 20 or so and gave both guys a cheer. Probably never fun being chicked but at least if it's by a teammate or someone friendly maybe it's not as bad?

Mile 29 was where the course turned so we'd have the wind mostly at our backs. I'd averaged 18.6 mph up to that point and now it was time for the fun to begin!

WEEEE!!! I never saw my Garmin go below 20 mph again. Around mile 40, I finally caught up to Coach Jacklynn, who'd come out of the water 8 minutes ahead of me (she will no doubt be much harder to catch in the future). By then it was raining but the roads were straight and I saw no reason to slow down. In fact, I decided to speed UP a little knowing the weather would be getting worse soon. The last 5 miles or so, Dave found me on his bike and a couple tri club members drove by in a car cheering, which pumped me up even more. Thanks guys!!!

The hardest part of the bike course to me was this little maybe 50-yd dirt path between the bike mount/dismount point and the transition area. The rest I give 10 stars on a scale of 1 to 5.

56 mi Bike: 2:45:54 (20.3 mph), not a PR but only 16 sec slower than my fastest half iron bike split which was on a course that was actually 1.5-2 miles shorter.

T2: 1:15, fairly fast but the porta pottys outside of the transition area would be my next stop.

With that taken care of, I was now ready to blast the 2-lap run. The clouds, rain and wind kept temps well below 70 making this the coolest weather I've ever raced a half iron in by far and I felt very strong coming off the bike. I didn't start my Garmin until I got out of the porta-potty but ran my first mile at a 7:52 pace, which felt quite manageable. Hmm, a 1:45 half marathon might be doable?

I saw a couple of paper Gatorade cups on the ground from an aid station I'd just passed. No biggie to step on one, right?

WRONG!!! The next thing I knew I was down on the ground with a familiar sharp pain in my left ankle. ?#@$&%!!! Was there a rock or something in the cup?

I couldn't believe it. The race had gone superbly up to that point and now this stupid misstep. Fortunately, there was no one else around at the time as I HATE falling in front of people (the aid station was unmanned because they were short on volunteers). I got myself back up on my right foot and wiped off the dirt and asphalt pieces embedded in my right palm. My right knee was bleeding from a scrape but nothing major. Then I tried to put some weight on my left foot. OWWIE!!!!!!!

Crap! It was very painful so I was worried at first that I couldn't continue but then I remembered my last ankle incident at the Little Rock Marathon three years ago. Yes, unfortunately it's happened before ... There I'd rolled the same left ankle on, ironically, a little rock at mile 8. It was also very painful to walk on at first but I kept trying not wanting to have to come back and run another Arkansas marathon. At that race, the pain subsided some as I kept moving and eventually I was able to jog/run pretty well and go on to finish -- 16 more miles! Then my ankle swelled up like a melon and hurt like hell afterward ...

So I tried the same here. Sure enough, my initial very painful limp became just a painful limp, then a slow jog with a sorta painful limp, then a slow jog with a less painful limp and eventually a jog/run with tolerable pain on every left footstep. Adrenaline is a powerful painkiller! After a while, probably few could even tell I'd hurt my ankle but I knew. It felt weak and wobbly and I had to be super careful to make sure I didn't roll it again or it'd probably be the end of my race.

After a turnaround on an out-and-back section, I saw Coach Jacklynn coming towards me meaning she was a few minutes behind me. I told her what happened and she gave me some words of encouragement and a high five, which I very much needed. Then I saw a couple other tri club folks cheering for me on a corner which also helped raise my spirits. Then hubby Dave was at mile 3 helping out at an aid station (have I mentioned they were short on volunteers?). Having seen me run countless times, he knew something was not right.

Dave: What's wrong?
Me: I'm going to need ace bandages and ice when I finish.
Dave: What happened?
Me: I rolled my ankle back at mile 1.

Dave knew better than to ask me too many questions or try to baby me when I'm hurting. The next mile I felt my ankle stiffening up and was forced to slow down some more. Grrrrr ... I went through the 5 stages of grief and accepted the fact that Coach Jacklynn would probably be passing me soon but I'd try to hold off any other females if I could ;-)

Meanwhile, Dave hopped on his bike and began working at the next aid station for a bit while waiting for me to go by. He amazed some folks by appearing to be everywhere on the course handing out cups and food, snapping pictures, and cheering for folks, and not just me. What a guy!

Two of my tri club teammates.

As I came back to the transition area to begin lap 2, another tri club member who'd come to support us came up alongside and ran a few steps with me. I tried to tell him how I'd rolled my ankle, had probably blown my PR, blah-blah, wah-wah, but he wouldn't hear of it. He just kept telling me how awesome I was doing and to keep going and finish strong. Dang it, why won't he listen?

Then I realized that Coach Jacklynn hadn't passed me yet so perhaps I was doing OK. Maybe I still have a shot at a PR? No, Silly, your goal is to just finish this race. Focus on the ground and make sure you don't fall again!

The second lap required even more caution and concentration with more people on the run course and the thunderstorm fully upon us. We were running in squall-like conditions at times and everyone was encouraging each other while doing their best to avoid huge puddles, cars and each other. Jokes were being made about the rain coming down so hard that you wouldn't need a shower after the race and the rivers of water on the roads making you wish you had a canoe to paddle your way to the finish. And, the volunteers, OMG, what few there were, were still out there holding onto their umbrellas and raincoats while also trying to do their job in the driving rain and wind. Crazy!!

They actually made me think that running was easier, even with a sprained ankle. At least I was moving and staying warm and would be done soon. That is, provided I was able to stay upright on that same little stretch of dirt to the transition area that also led to the finish line, my least favorite part of the run course as well. Here's a little video clip of me finishing (TRT 14 sec):

So, as you can see, no heroics. I just kept moving which kept most of the swelling and pain at bay. The "No Way" comment was because I couldn't believe my ears when I heard my finish time (the overhead clock was knocked out by the rain but there was someone calling it out). I hadn't looked at my Garmin since my fall and had no clue what pace I was running or what my race time was. It was a total shock!

Final race time: 5:12:22, 1/3 F45-49, 7/22 Females
12* mi Run: 1:43:42 (8:38 pace).
*Again, the course was short.

Then I headed straight to the EMT to get my ankle wrapped up and iced as I knew it was going to balloon up as soon as I stopped. Coach Jacklynn finished a few minutes later with big smile on her face.

Oh, as for gators? The only gator I saw at this race were chunks in a rice dish they served at the finish. Tasted like chicken :-)

Thanks to Dave and my tri club buddies for a great day of racing, smiles and photos. And thank YOU, Dear Readers, for your patience!

A Precursor

2010-03-25T12:21:00.001-04:00

I know, I know. I still owe you a race report but something arrived in my e-mailbox today that I thought was the perfect precursor:

______________________

Here's to us, those born between 1930 - 1979 !!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets on our heads.

And when we had our sleds, we tied them to the bumper of a car and had a really neat ride as long as you made sure you didn't slide under the car when it stopped.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts, air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter or lard and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight ... WHY? Because we were always outside playing. That's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps, and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We didn't have Play Stations, Nintendo's and X-Boxes. There were no video games, 150 channels on cable, video movies, DVD's, surround-sound, CD's, cell phones, personal computers, Internet or chat rooms.

WE HAD FRIENDS, and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms didn't live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house, knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

______________________

Next up will be my race report, I promise!

Gator Half Results

2010-03-22T13:46:00.003-04:00

The run was about a mile short but no complaints. It would've been a PR either way.

Euwwww, a cankle.

Oh No, Not Again!!!

2010-03-21T19:06:00.006-04:00

As some of you know, I have weak ankles. I can almost just look at a rock and roll my ankle on it. In fact, this one I never even saw and still went down. But, I did finish the race. Back with more after the final race results for the Gator Half Iron are posted.

How Did You Get This Way?

2010-03-18T14:23:00.032-04:00

This is a question that I often get asked and was asked again this week while running with a fellow tri club member in his 20's. What I think he meant was "How did an old lady like you get so fast?" OK, maybe not quite that but along those lines.

Of course, I am NOT really that fast but it has become apparent that I am faster than average when it comes to running, especially for my age (48). But how did a math/science geek, someone whose parents discouraged her from doing sports, who often finished last running laps in P.E. classes, who never did any competitive sports growing up, who has no remarkable weight loss or cancer victory story ... GET THIS WAY???

To be honest, I think it's just simply consistency and stubbornness (Dave calls it strong will). While I don't have any sports background, I did get into jogging/running back in the 70's when I was about 16. My parents hated the idea because they thought girls shouldn't be out running but my best friend had a crush on a guy who ran XC and, well, it was more important that our clique do everything we could to help her see him, which meant running (even though most of us weren't runners!).

Throughout college, grad school and into my mid-30's, I was very career driven and took pride in studying/working 60-80 hours a week. I continued to ignore my parents and jog/run off and on for some semblance of fitness but largely for stress relief. Running was a good way to get away from the desk, solve problems and let my mind relax so I could go to sleep or go back to work and get more done later. The last thing I wanted to do was put more stress on myself, however, so I never pushed myself to go fast, never kept track of mileage, pace, time or how often I did it (maybe once a week, once a month, who knows???). I do remember running fairly often when my dad was dying of cancer, though, but that was just a phase during a very stressful time.

In 2002, at age 40, I finally entered my first race, a half marathon, while visiting Kona with my sister and her husband. They'd run races before and encouraged me to sign up. I was actually in great shape (one of my 40th birthday goals) from taking karate and gym classes but I remember being terrified. I was so afraid of being timed, of having to run with other people, of having to drink out of a cup, of finishing last. No one was more shocked than I was to discover that I could run sub-8 minute miles! Maybe ~25 years of slow off and on jogging/running had given me a good aerobic base?

And similarly in 2005 at my first triathlon, I got a big surprise. First, I had no idea how tough swimming 400m would be. I hated swimming back then and didn't really know how to swim except to save my life. I freaked out when others touched me and went off course into some weeds (where gators were surely waiting to eat me). I eventually got back on course thanks to a kayaker and came out of the water nearly dead last after the longest, scariest 15 minutes of my life. Then was I was soooooo relieved (and then pissed) that I went on to hammer on the bike and run. When I finished, all I could think of was that I had to learn how to really swim so I could do more tris! So I signed up for an Ironman ...

But one thing for sure, I don't think of myself as a natural or hardcore athlete at all. I enjoy training and racing, yes, but what I'm looking for is simply more variety and quality in my life. As I've mentioned before, I had a fairly sheltered upbringing and a lot of fears growing up. There are a lot of things I didn't do because I was too Type A in school/work, too worried about trying new things and sucking at them, too uptight about not being able to control things the way I want, too whatever. Karate challenged me to look at things differently and in endurance sports now, I am quite different, or at least trying to be. I'm continually finding ways to keep things fun, keep active and keep improving myself *without* running myself into the ground. That's what I think has allowed me to "Get This Way" and whatever happens Sunday at the Gator Half Iron Tri, I'm keepin on keepin on.

Thank you for your kind comments on my previous post. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Winter Park 10K

2010-03-14T18:27:00.047-04:00

Alternative titles for this post:

46:05, I Survived!
Slip & Slide
Twist & Turn
B Race, Be Careful
Zone 4, Ouch

I gave myself an extra day before writing this race report to allow me to gain some perspective. Because I was not really pleased right after my race. I'd hoped to run a negative split and finish in 46:00 or better. Instead, I ended up with a positive split and 5 seconds over my time goal. 5 SECONDS!!!

BUT, when I set that time goal awhile ago, I had no idea how technical the course would be: 25 turns (click on the map above to enlarge), half on uneven brick roads (yuck!) and quite wet and slippery thanks to two days of heavy rain. Have I mentioned that I train almost exclusively on fairly straight, smooth roads and bike paths that are relatively free of puddles, slick leaves, slimy algae/moss and toe-catching surfaces?

Man, my heart rate was over 100 just waiting at the start. Coach's last instructions to me echoed in my head:

Be very careful with the cobbles and the crowds - this race is a tough one because of the course and people - stay out of harms way.

Plus, he'd assigned me a 60-mile bike ride to do after the race and a 10-mile run the next day. Gee, thanks Coach ... Perhaps that was his way of making sure I didn't overdo things at this 10K. After all, it was only a "B" race while the half iron tri next week is my "A" race.

Yet, at least I'd made it to the start line. Since my last post, I actually had some serious doubts. On Wednesday my left calf mysteriously began feeling like I'd done a hundred heel raises. WTF? I haven't a clue why but it was same calf that bothered me most from the half marathon back in December and I was quite worried. I bailed on all runs this week and only swam, stretched and foam rolled hoping I could run by the weekend. By Friday it was better, thankfully.

Before the race began I found Running Geezer 26.2 and Sheri (photo of us above but from after the race), who'd run 10Ks before and this particular course a couple times. I wanted to make sure I didn't start out too fast and hoped to run with Jim the first mile or so as he'd told me he'd be shooting to run 7:30-ish pace. But, that was before we knew the course was going to be slick. At the start he told me he was going to back off his original pace to make sure he didn't slip and fall. The gun went off and I followed him for about the first half mile through two 90-degree turns until the crowd thinned out. I hit mile marker one where the course clock said 7:30. Right on target.

But how long did it take for me to get across the start line?

Of course, that answer would have been easy if I'd just looked at my Garmin and computed the time difference but I was WAY too busy. Avoid running on slippery leaves! Don't run on the painted line! Pick your feet up on that brick! Watch out for sneaky depressions! Stay clear of puddles! Whoa, felt a little slide on that last step -- be careful! Don't slip, don't trip and whatever you do, DON'T FALL!

And all the twists and turns on the course were driving me nuts. I never felt like I could get into a rhythm. Ack, another turn! Which line to take? Hop up on the grass to avoid the big puddle? No, go wide, go wide! No, don't go wide, there's someone passing on that side! Slow down and get up on that grass! Eeks, it's squishy. Don't roll an ankle! Whew, made it. Now speed back up!

So they say this is a very scenic course but all I saw was the ground below me. I ran mainly by effort but began feeling like I was working way too hard by mile 5. There wasn't much shade on this stretch of road we were on and the temperature was now about 60 degs F, which with 90% humidity felt hot (esp. having run in cooler, drier conditions much of this year). Blech! To make matters worse, we went around a traffic circle that made me think I was still somewhere back on mile 4 (I got it mixed up with a lake we were supposed to go around, a lake that I missed seeing!). AHHHH! Slow down, you've still got 2 more miles to go!

Obviously, I'd lost my mind at this point in the race. I'd lost count of the miles. I'd forgotten the last course clock time. I finally glanced down at my Garmin, saw 83 and assumed it was 4.83 miles (it was HR 183!). I glanced down again a little while later and it still said 83. Gah, screw it, just keep running!

But a couple turns later I saw a familiar stretch of brick (like the road we started on) and glanced up to see finish line straight ahead -- Woohoo! There were two women not far ahead of me, one further front who was in her 20's and another one who was possibly in my age group (AG). Is it just me who wishes people's ages are written on their calfs at every race? The second one kept turning around to see where I was and made me decide to drop the hammer and leave nothing out on the course. I'll figure out how to do the bike ride later!

As I passed her she told me "good job" and I tried to say "thanks" but I think all that came out was a grunt. After that I just focused on the bricks to make sure I didn't do a face plant on the final stretch. I didn't even see the finish line clock as I ran under it!

Gun time: 46:12
Net time: 46:05 (7:25 pace), 5/113 F45-49, 41/979 Female

FWIW, here are my Garmin splits:
mi 1, 7:23, AHR 165
mi 2, 7:21, AHR 177
mi 3, 7:15, AHR 184
mi 4, 7:19, AHR 185
mi 5, 7:29, AHR 183
mi 6, 7:35, AHR 183
0.27 mi, 6:34 pace, AHR 184
Tot 6.27 mi in 46:07, 7:21 pace, AHR 180 - zone 4*
*Ouch. Perhaps I started out a bit too fast but I think the slippery, twisty course really made me work a LOT harder than I expected!

Whatever, being my first 10K, it's a PR either way :-)

I stuck around afterwards to watch my friend Marathon Chris finish with a 2:32 PR. Congrats, Chris!

Then a couple hours later, Dave and I rode 60 miles on one of the windiest days this year (steady winds shown in the left, gusts in the right). Averaged only 16.9 mph, but I'm just glad we were able to get it done.

Sunday (today), 10 miles run on a cool, breezy, low humidity day. 9:10 avg pace, AHR 153. Zone 1 bliss!

Next Sunday, the Gator Half Iron Tri!!!

Pie Training

2010-03-09T15:06:00.021-05:00

Pie? Did someone say pie???

This may sound funny but I am more nervous about the 10K than I have been about my marathons or iron tris. There's so much more time during a long race to settle down, get into a groove and even fix things if they don't go right at first. To me, there's more reliance on endurance, my strength, and less on guts and speed, which don't come easy for me. Some may disagree but here's how I view long races vs. short races (Other includes nutrition, weather, luck, etc.):

To improve as an athlete, though, I need to be eating more red and yellow pieces. Any more blue pieces would be like just eating more "fat". It may taste good but it's not going to help me meet my goals. Bringing out more racing guts and speed is mostly mental for me. That is, I know I have some but they're tucked away deep behind some big mental barriers. This week I experimented with a few things to try to break them down.

#1 - Run for your life

Hearing the about Chelsea King's recent murder, I was reminded about Nicole Ganguzza, another young woman who was slain while running on a popular bike path near where I live, and the two times I've been nearly attacked too. You want motivation to run fast? Run past where Nicole's body was found four times and remind yourself how fast you ran when chased by a crazy naked guy and a hooded villain on a bicycle. Not the most pleasant of thoughts but effective for last Thursday's run:

6 mi, get faster every 2: 7:46, 7:54, 7:30, 7:30, 7:09, 7:03
7:29 avg, AHR 172. A solid solo run for me!

#2 - Ride like a roadie

Established group rides can often be very intimidating to newcomers with other riders (mostly guys) all decked out in their fancy kits (club/team uniforms), $$$$ bikes and legs of sinewy steel. Dave and I showed up at an Eastside Cycling Club (ESCC) group ride for the first time last Saturday. Dave looks like a strong rider and fit in right away. Me? I'm sure some of the guys there were probably thinking "Who's this little chickadee? I think we'll eat her for lunch." The A (fast) & B (not as fast) groups started off riding together but then split up on this one stretch of road. Dave was up ahead with the A riders and I got stuck back with a few Bs. When it became my turn to pull, though, Dave just got done with his pull and was now in the back of the A group ahead and sort of lagging to see if we'd catch up. That was just the motivation I needed. I pulled at 23+mph to get the groups back together and then hung on for dear life. Note to self: Do this more often!

#3 - Swim fast or freeze

The lake looks harmless enough but it's hiding a dark secret. No, no lurking gators, amoebas, Lochness monsters or other open water nastiness. The water is just cold, really COLD! And it'd have to be in the mid-90's for two straight weeks for lakes to get even close to 70 so we'll probably have mid to high 50 deg water temps at the Gator Half Iron next weekend too. In other words, get used to it, Princess. I mentioned in my last post trying to find a neoprene swim cap. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one of the cool ones below:

But then again, I'd have to wear a swim cap over it during the tri ... So I settled on a plain "hot head" that I got from a local dive shop.

I know it looks dorky as hell but all swim caps do on me. The important thing was that I got my butt (and head) into that cold water after the group ride to lead some tri newbies on their first-ever open water swim. Did you think I would do it on my own? Man, I tell ya, if you want motivation to swim fast, cold water will do it. If you swim slow, your hands will go numb!

After a long brick (bike-run) workout on Sunday I rewarded myself with another cold dip. This time no "hot head" worn as it was just for my legs. Who needs an ice bath when your backyard pool is 52 degrees!?!

But my legs are feeling good and I think I'm as ready as can be for my 10K on Saturday. Thank you everyone for your advice and input!

Quick Updates

2010-03-02T16:11:00.009-05:00

I'm short on time (again) so I'm going with bullets:

* Hawaii - Thanks to everyone for your phone calls and emails over the weekend. Dave and I were in Florida when the tsunami hit Hawaii but our area of the Big Island was evacuated. Fortunately, there were no reports of damage. Unfortunately, there is no reason for me to fly back to Kona immediately ;-)

* Swimming - We're still having unseasonably "cold" weather here in FL and water temps of nearby lakes are currently in the high 50's(!). I'm going to try to find a neoprene swim cap for the Gator Half Iron in 19 days. Last Friday I did a swim time trial with my tri club and am happy to report that I was 3rd fastest out of 12! Disclaimer: There are a lot of folks who are fairly new to swimming in my club. Still, my swimming has improved a lot the last month since I got back in the pool.

* Biking - I rode my first 60-miler of the year last Sunday. YAY!!! But if we have 20-30 mph winds like we had on Sunday, a fast bike split will be tough at Gator. My current half iron PR (5:42:32 @ Miami Man 2008) is actually on a bike course that was ~2 miles short. But, one can always hope for a PR at Gator...

* Running - The week before the Gator Half Iron, I'm actually running my first-ever standalone 10K. Gulp! I've been running 3x/week with one run a week involving some faster running (1/2 mile intervals, 2-3 mi @ 10K-1/2 mary pace). I'm hoping to finish the 10K in 46:00 or better (7:24 pace). How did I come up with that goal? Well, I ran one 5-miler (~8K) in 35:21 (7:04 pace) way back in 2002 before I got "fat and happy" running slower paced marathons. Last year I ran a hot & humid 12K in 56:20 (7:34 pace) the day after running 16 miles. I basically just split the time difference to come up with what I thought I could run a 10K.

If anyone has some advice/input on running a 10K I'd love to hear it. How do you decide what pace to run? How many miles do you run to warm-up beforehand? Do you carry your own fluids? Do you race with a Garmin or HRM? If so, what HR zone(s) are you in? Do you bring an energy gel for before or during the race? How many days did it take for you to feel fully recovered?

Happy March, everyone!!

Last 3 Days in Photos

2010-02-21T20:52:00.019-05:00

Dave Friday morning. In just over a month, he's lost 17# and 6% body fat (per the Tanita Ironman scale we have) by eating cleaner.

Later on Friday, a new tri club blog I created went live. (Some of you may recognize the template from another blog I used to have but have decided not to pursue as I am just too busy!)

Saturday morning I helped out at a local race by doing some data entry. My fingers are actually my fastest body parts :-)

Afterwards, Dave and I went for a 2-hour ride. In 55-65 deg temps, he cruised along at 20-21 mph while I struggled to keep up. Grrr.

Sunday morning he set out to demolish me again, this time on a 30-mile ride. Lean MEANIE!

At least Sunday temps got up into the 70's.
(My apologies to all who are snowbound)

We saw some new bicycle-friendly signals on our route. YAY!

After the ride, a 7 mile brick run. Ended up with an 8:41 avg pace, not bad but a 168 AHR was higher than expected. Hmmm.

Then I went to a Total Immersion freestyle swim clinic for my tri club. Since I do a different style of freestyle, I volunteered to take photos/video and be there for support.

But some things are universal no matter what style of freestyle you do, like good head position and balance in the water. I must continue working on these things myself lest I be left in their wake.

And that pretty much wraps up my weekend. Hope you all had a good one too!

In Case Anyone Was Wondering ...

2010-02-17T13:48:00.016-05:00

No, I wasn't taken away by the M-dot police for my last post.

No, I've not been glued to my TV watching the Winter Olympics.
(Though I will take up a little space on my blog to root for Team USA)

So, what's been happening? Have I been training the past week??

Well, yes, BUT ...... Surprisingly, NOT the grueling type of training that we all love to hear about and that I thought I'd be doing in order to shoot for a PR at the Gator Half Iron (1.2 mi swim, 56 mi bike, 13.1 mi run) next month. Darn!

And it's not because of the unusually "cold" weather we've had here in Central Florida recently. Although sub-50 deg F temps does make it much harder for me to go outside, especially wearing all sorts of extra layers of clothing that makes me look like I've gained 10# -- UGH!

It's because Coach thinks I only need base miles to keep me fit while trying to help me rebuild (from the two irons last year and calf injury in December) and get stronger. So for this half iron training cycle thus far (and there's only 4 weeks left!), there's been NO 2200+ yard swim workouts, NO bike rides close to 50 miles, NO runs even 8 miles in length. YES, I'm going freakin' CRAZY!!!

Instead, I've been on a new diet of shorter, higher quality workouts. The last couple weeks, my total hours training per week has been less than 10. LESS THAN 10 hrs/wk -- OMG!!!!!!! Quite possibly the least I've ever worked out since I got into working out (excluding periods of major illness).

But many workouts have been with members of my tri club who are training for shorter races (and quite speedy). And nearly every one has been like a treat: Ooh, a 1500-2000 yard swim workout? Yummy! A 30-mile bike ride? Cold, but very tasty! 5-6 mile run? Thank you, may I please have another?

It'll be interesting to see how well I race with this Less is More type of training. To be honest, I've never really done it before. My idea of less is more has been doing LESS of some things and a whole lot MORE of something else ;-)

So we shall see. God help me if this works ...........

PS - Very busy week for me otherwise. I'll be catching on you guys starting tomorrow!

Ironman Schmironman

2010-02-11T13:12:00.062-05:00

Caution: This post may contain some material that may be viewed as offensive to some. If you have no sense of humor or are affiliated with WTC/Ironman, I recommend you skip it.

DC Rainmaker's recent post made me realize how much I LOVE non M-dot (non Ironman brand) races. Gasp! Horror!! Shame!!!

I really do. Why???

Well, besides lower cost, less crowds, hassle and hoopla, and, to me, a more rewarding race experience, I think athletes get much better treatment at smaller, independent races. For example, I recently got two emails from the race director (RD) of the Gator Half Iron, which I'm doing next month:

One had this picture of their trapper doing her job to ensure we have a nice race.

Because we all know gators are a possibility in FL lakes, although in March they are most likely hibernating or inactive and oblivious to any neoprene clad triathletes sneaking into their territory. In late May, however, when the water temps are 80+ degs, well, that's another story (and one you won't likely hear about from the Florida 70.3 RD).

The other had a photo of one of their volunteers to do body marking for the ladies.

Because we all know what a special and sensual experience it is to expose your arms and legs to be tickled by a big black felt marker, and how the person doing it can make or break your race. At M-dot races, chances are that all the hotties are doing the race so that the folks doing the marking are, uh, let's say, less hot.

It's these little things that make a race special to me. That personal touch from RDs, a race shirt or logo that every other triathlete is NOT wearing, the satisfaction of gutting things out when there was NO ONE around to carry you to the finish, that look of awe in others when they find out you went 140.6 (or 70.3) miles just for fun, NOT for a label.

But I have nothing against those who do M-dot races and wear their logos. In fact, I welcome them. Just beware, especially if you're in my age group, I find M-dots to be exceptionally motivating targets when I'm racing ;-)

PS - I also think there are a lot of great marathons besides the biggies: Boston, New York, Chicago, Marine Corps, the RnR series ... EEK, please don't hate!

What's Driving You?

2010-02-08T12:24:00.016-05:00

Last week was my first real week back in tri training this year. It was fun but also frustrating. I've definitely lost some gears and endurance in swimming so that anything faster than ironman pace feels hard and I'm feeling fatigued after just a 500 warm-up. My bike Garmin trilled and stuck its tongue at me as I fought winds gusting to 30 mph. My HR monitor cackled as I hit zone 4 on my first brick run in months.

Where's the fun, you ask?

Well, the truth is that I'm happy to have just gotten out there. My local tri club held their kickoff meeting on Saturday and I saw my old self in many of the newcomers there. The fear of having to put their face in the water to learn to swim. The terror of having to ride a bike on a road with cars or deal with a flat tire. The anguish at having to run on tired legs after a bike ride.

Yep, I remember all those feelings when I first got into tris and I've come a long way. But now with two ironmans under my belt and no plans to do another one this year, why am I continuing to set new goals for myself when I don't really feel there's anything left to prove? Why don't I just relax and play with my grandkids, host Longaberger or Pampered Chef parties, or maybe even clean my house for a change?

Well, besides the fact that I don't have grandkids yet, am an introvert who hates selling things and would rather do just about anything else but clean house, I have some other things to get me off my duff:

New friends to train with -- YAY!!!
(Me in orange with hubby Dave, left, and some folks from my tri club)

A hubby who drops me like a bad habit in 50 deg weather. Grrr...BRRR!!

Thoughts of warm weather, the ocean and beaches in my future.
(mile 9 of Kona 1/2 Marathon)

What's driving you to get out there???

Tag, Tag, Tag!

2010-02-04T09:57:00.021-05:00

OK, I was tagged awhile back by folks and need to come clean. The first one was from Leana. Answer the following questions with one word answers:

1. Where is your cell phone? Bookshelf.
2. Your hair? Thick.
3. Your mother? Japanese.
4. Your father? Hardworking.
5. Your favourite food? Salmon.
6. Your dream last night? Weird.
7. Your favourite drink? Coffee
8. Your dream/goal? Kona.
9. What room are you in? Breakfast.
10. Your hobby? Blogging.
11. Your fear? Injury.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Hawaii.
13. Where were you last night? Home.
14. Something you aren't? Tall.
15. Muffins? OK.
16. Wish list item? Empty!
17. Where did you grow up? California.
18. Last thing you did? Emailed.
19. What are you wearing? Ponytail.
20. Your TV? Off.
21. Your pets? Fish.
22. Your friends? Few.
23. Your life? Good.
24. Your mood? Even.
25. Missing someone? No.
26. Vehicle? Mazda.
27. Something you're not wearing? Shoes.
28. Your favourite store? TrackShack*
29. Your favourite color? Teal.
30. When was the last time you laughed? Morning.
31. Last time you cried? October?
32. Your best friend? Hubby.
33. One place that I go over and over? Y.
34. One person who emails me regularly? Dave.
35. Favourite place to eat? Home.
*Not really much of a shopper but I love working there!

The second one was from Maria. Name 10 Things That Make You Happy (I'm choosing to list things that don't happen everyday):

1. New running shoes.
2. Getting back to the pool after a hiatus. But NOT seeing how slow I've become!
3. A firm bike tire before heading out on a bike ride.
4. Having Dave home during the week. He usually travels a lot for work but is actually home this week - YAY!
5. Sleeping in on weekends.
6. Helping/supporting friends and fellow athletes.
7. Seeing "0 new items" in my Google Reader.
8. Coloring in a state on my 50 states marathon map.
9. Hearing the flight attendant say "Welcome to Kona."
10. Getting a $300 airline voucher to be voluntarily bumped from a $10 award flight. This happened last trip!

The third one I tagged myself to Name 10 Specific Goals for 2010:

1. Finish my 50 states marathon quest. (8 7 more marathons to run)
2. Run my first-ever 10K, ideally 46:00 (7:24 pace) or better.
3. PR in a half iron tri, ideally 5:40 or better.
4. Swim 100 yds in a pool in less than 1:40. Fastest to date: 1:43.
5. Work out with more people. (Except cycling with Dave on weekends, I trained alone for the most part last year. This year I want to do things differently.)
6. Help out at a minimum of 10 local races. (Should be easier since I'm not training for an iron tri and having to go so long on weekends; 2 so far)
7. Stretching and/or foam rolling at least 2x a week.
8. Help Dave get down to 200#.
9. Read one book. Eek, NONE last year!!! **
10. Play 2 piano pieces I used to be able to play well. Can I even still read music?!?
**Parts of Trizophrenia or other books I read don't count. Must be a whole book.

Not sure who has done these tags already or not but if you haven't and want to play, consider yourself tagged. I think the second and third ones, in particular, are a great way to kick off 2010, even in February ;-)

Fun 5K and Indoor Marathon Afterthoughts

2010-02-01T22:39:00.019-05:00

Saturday I ran the Deerwood 5K, a small out-and-back race held just 2 miles from my house. YAY! But having run a marathon the weekend before, I had no plans to run it hard so I brought my camera to take some photos and video of my awesome fellow Blanchard Y Tri/Running Club members. The event was NOT chip timed so they let me watch the race start from the spectator side and then I went around to be one of the last starters. That was a first!

Below is what I got. To hide the video controls, move your cursor outside the window. To view a larger version directly on the Vimeo website, click here. (TRT 2:16)

Sorry for the bouncy running segments. Obviously, I don't have as smooth a stride as I thought!

Blanchard Y Tri/Running Club (Click to enlarge)

Me and a couple coworkers from Track Shack, one of the race sponsors.

Final race time: 22:54 (7:22 pace). Shh, Don't tell Coach ;-)
1/23 F40-49, 5/89 Females.

_____________________

Also, there were a couple of good questions in the comments of my previous InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon race report that I thought I'd post here in case anyone else might have been curious:

1. Which indoor marathon did I like better, Instep or Zoom Yah Yah (ZYY)? (from Lindsay & RoadBunner)
Ooh, TOUGH question. Both are GREAT events but I'd have to say I liked Instep a bit more, because of the bigger track, more interesting venue, automated lap count/timing system and volunteers handing you fluids & fuel (vs. self serve). But ZYY's runner camaraderie and spectator enthusiasm are unmatched.

2. Do you do anything specific in training to get ready for them? (from Petra)
In training for ZYY last year, I ran quite a few laps during my long runs thinking I'd have to prepare myself mentally, but the laps flew by during the race and I realized I didn't have to. So for Instep this year, I did just my usual marathon training.

3. Do you find them harder? Easier? (also from Petra)
Easier! No worries about the weather, hills, when the next aid station or porta potty will be and much more runner & spectator interaction (--> fun!). Just put your legs in automatic and enjoy the ride :-)

Happy February, ya'll!

InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon

2010-01-27T11:36:00.043-05:00

Do you enjoy running a marathon ...

In ideal, cool dry conditions?
On a flat, windless course?
While listening to music?
With other friendly runners?
With frequent cheering spectators?
Where you can see the top runners competing?
Having your favorite drinks/foods served on the course?
Not having to look for or wait long to use a porta-potty?
Even if it may not be a PR?

If you're like me and answered "yes" to all or most of the above, the InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon should be on your To Run list!

I know, I know, running a hundred (really, 95.4) laps around an indoor track sounds so BORING, but I have yet to find anyone who's run an indoor marathon who thinks it is, including me. And it's not because we're crazy! It's totally different than speed work you might do on a track or running laps on your own. The closest thing I can think of to describe my race experience would be to say it was like a Go Cart ride!

Don't believe me?

Well, here I am waiting at the start. Some of the kids have been on this ride before, which is often the case with any good fun-rides, right? Me, I've run 52 marathons, including one merry-go-round (150 laps at the Zoom Yah Yah Indoor Marathon last year). But this ride is bigger, both in number of runners as well as the track size, and the building which houses the track is quite special, as you'll see. Pardon my giddy look!

The gun went off at 8am and about a hundred of us jumped on and spread out along the track (which was a thin sheet of rubber over concrete so not very forgiving but better than nothing). The inside lane was for fasties or those wanting to pass. The outside lane was for those going a slower pace. After that, all similarities with track running as most folks know it ended.

For one thing, this track was inside the Pettit National Ice Center, which is an official U.S. Olympic training site for speed skating. It was actually 442.8767m long, not your traditional running track length because there was a 400m speed skating oval INSIDE of it. And inside of that ice oval, there were two international-sized (100' x 200') ice rinks for hockey, figure skating and short track speed skating. For moi, who had been ice skating maybe only 2 or 3 times as a kid and had only seen ice in the form of ice cubes in her ice baths recently, this was an AMAZING facility!

Right photo from a Journal Sentinel article about the race.

The first lap, I just admired the gigantic uber slick and shiny ice surface. Ooh, near zero coefficient of friction, I bet could slide my butt around even without skates! I looked at the big banners and colorful flags that were hung all throughout the building. With the Winter Olympics coming up, there was also talk that some world-class speed skaters might be on the ice later, which made being there even more exciting.

And the indoor temps? OMG, a blissful 55 degs F, which actually felt closer to 50 because of the dry air, just perfect for running, but I had to be very careful about going too fast early on (first race since my calf injury last month!). Without a Garmin -- we're indoors, remember? -- I figured I'd just capture splits every 4 laps (1.1 miles). Completing them in 10-10:30 minutes would be about a 9-9:30 min/mi pace, which is what I wanted. Simple, no?

Actually, NO, it wasn't, because the laps were going by too fast! I kept getting distracted so that I'd miss looking at my watch when I was supposed to. The best I could do was capture splits every 8 laps instead:

1st 8 in 20:00 - OK, but no faster.
2nd 8 in 19:51 - I said NO faster!!
3rd 8 in 20:34 - Good.

And poof, 24 laps gone in 1:00:25, 6.6 mi @ 9:09 pace.

Here's a YouTube video created by Fit Milwaukee that will give you an idea what was going on. It's really of the marathon relay event held the day before (they had 2 teams in it) but the marathon was similar with the exception that everyone was running at the same time so no runners on the sidelines for the most part (fast forward to 1:05 to see people running):

So while you could be Speedy Gonzales churning out lightening fast laps on the inside lane, you could also be like me who was cruising on the outside lane, occasionally playing bumper runners and switching to the inside lane, chatting with folks, checking out what was written on their shirts, reading banners & signs, high five-ing little kids' hands hanging out from the bleachers, singing/humming along with good songs they were playing (but why did they play Theme from Rocky so early???), thanking wonderful volunteers, the list goes on and on ...

But boredom or dizziness? Nonsense! Unless perhaps you were a SPECTATOR :-)

But let's go back to those wonderful volunteers, shall we? IMO, they had the toughest job. Not only did they have to stay warm in the cool conditions, they had to pay attention to what runners were saying they wanted and then hand them that as they went past. I chose to ask for things I wanted a lap ahead to avoid slowing down:

Me: 1060, orange bottle next lap (translation: please give bib #1060 her sports bottle with the orange drink on the next lap)

Volunteer: Got it!

And next time around, a volunteer would be looking for me and ready to hand me my bottle. Next lap around I gave it back. Awesome service!!

And how did all those bottles, gels and whatever get on the tables, you ask? Well, before the race, we runners marked and staged our stuff on tables with specific bib number ranges. That way, during the race we knew to ask volunteers near our table as we went by. They also had extra sports drink, water and gels on hand to make sure we never ran out fluids or fuel. Thank you!!!!

Now back to the ride.

0.4 laps from where we started was where the finish line was located and also a large projection screen which turned out to be showing everyone's name, number of laps completed and the last lap split. From a photo I saw of last year's race, I thought it was a count-down screen showing how many laps the top runners had left. With all else going on, I didn't bother reading it until about halfway through my race. So after 2 hours, I glanced up to see how the fasties were doing and holy moly! MY name was listed there with 48 laps done. Quick, hit the lap button NOW!

24.4* laps in 1:04:13, 6.7 mi @ 9:35 pace (incl. porta potty stop).
*fractional lap to account for the distance from the start line to where the screen was

So, obviously, I'd failed miserably at keeping track of any more 8-lap splits the last hour. Hey, have you tried tracking laps around a Go Cart course? But now that I knew lap counts and lap splits were on the screen, things should be easy, right?

Well, not always. The names were constantly scrolling downwards as people were crossing a mat behind you so if you happened to be running in front of others nearby, your name would get pushed down from the top and you had to be quick to find it as you ran by. There actually was a guy standing there holding a sign that said "Ask me for your lap count," but I never did. I just found it more fun to keep playing Find Shirley's Line :-)

Photo of the female winner from a Journal Sentinel article about the race.

In the second half, I noticed a few skaters were on the ice and added watching them to my list of many things to do. There was one guy who looked pretty fast but my guess is that he was not headed to Vancouver. No matter, the real excitement was unfolding on the running track. The leader for 21 miles had to drop out due to a previous ankle injury that began bothering him. Julie Spencer, a tiny woman who made me look big, was the leader by more than a lap for a while. Then Matt Sveum, who'd lost the lead pack earlier, closed the gap and ran past her in the final laps to win the race in 2:51:07. Julie finished second in 2:52:38, a new women's course record. Frickin' incredible to see these folks fly by again and again averaging a 6:30-ish pace!!!

Thereafter, other fasties would periodically jump off the track as they finished their race. After 3 1/2 hours, the ride began taking on a different character. The mid-packers became the new "fast" runners and with fewer people on the track, it got easier to pass people and to run on the inside track (which we all know is a little shorter than the outside track) when no one faster was around. By now, folks have also been running together for a while so friends had been made and we were encouraging and helping each other. Announcements of those who had reached 90 laps, were on their last lap, or had just completed 96 (meaning they were done), were becoming more frequent and they pumped you up too, finishing or not. This party was still getting started!

Meanwhile, I was closing in fast on lap number 80, where I'd decided I would pick up my pace to an 8:30 (2:20 lap time) if I'd not heard any complaints from my calfs earlier. Not a peep! For a short while, I enjoyed passing some who had passed me earlier in the race, even though I knew they were going to be done before me. Before long I was at lap 92, where with 4 laps to go I figured it was safe to let go of the brakes. For the first time during the race, I made sure to FOCUS and COUNT my remaining laps:

1 down - WEEEE, I'm flying!
2 down - Look Ma, no hands -- I mean, sweat!!
3 down - WOOHOO, let's floor this motha!!!
4 down - Wha -- it's time to get off the track?

Announcer: Shirley Pratt from Florida, 96 laps completed!

Final race time: 3:58:42 (9:06 pace), 3/8 F40-49, 7/27 Females.
13.3 mi (48.4 laps) @ 9:22 pace.
12.9 mi (47 laps) @ 8:51 pace. Last 1.1 mi (4 laps) @ 8:09 pace.

Token bib and medal photo.

Me and a couple faster friends from the race, Marathon Maniacs #1083 & 1084.

Nice race schwag (socks and pink fluid bottle given as the AG award).

Thanks for coming along with me on my ride!

Hello from Wisconsin!

2010-01-24T19:50:00.005-05:00

Ran the InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today in 3:58:42. I'd hoped for a sub-4 but my top priority was to finish without reinjuring my calfs or anything else. Mission accomplished!

Seeing much snow, however, not so much. It's been rainy here with highs around 40 degs F. Go figure, they're supposed to get more pretty white stuff this week after I leave. You win some, you lose some.

Most Memorable Marathons

2010-01-22T13:14:00.044-05:00

Since I "only" ran 4 marathons last year (2 standalone, 2 in iron tris), I've felt the need to get myself back into marathon mood. To jog my memory, here are some of my most memorable ones, many of which were run before I began blogging end of 2006.

Top 5 Most Speedy Marathons
1. B&A Trail Marathon, MD - 3:27:59, 3/2006 (even split)
2. Marine Corps Marathon, VA - 3:29:07, 10/2005 (neg split)
3. Rocket City Marathon, AL - 3:29:41, 3/2003 (neg split)
4. Museum of Aviation Marathon, GA - 3:30:58, 1/2004 (neg split)
5. Camp Lejeune Marathon, NC - 3:33:18, 2/2004 (neg split)

Top 5 Most Scenic Marathons
1. Big Island Intl Marathon, HI - 3:40:24, 3/2004 (rain forests & beaches)
2. Colorado Marathon, CO - 4:32:05, 5/2007 (beautiful canyon & river, but my PW)
3. Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon, AK - 3:38:18, 6/2004 (mtns, forest, wildlife)
4. Marine Corps Marathon, VA - 3:29:07, 10/2005 (natl monuments & famous bldgs)
5. Tri-State Marathon, UT-NV-AZ - 3:58:52, 3/2006 (snow capped mtns, high desert & sand carved canyons)

Top 5 Most Fun Marathons
1. Zoom Yah Yah Indoor Marathon, MN - 4:18:49, 1/2009 (150 laps of smiles!)
2. Marine Corps Marathon, VA - 3:29:07, 10/2005 (awesome camaraderie & spirit!)
3. Disney Goofy Marathon, FL - 3:35:22, 1/2006 (so fun to be goofy!)
4. Bayshore Marathon, MI - 3:45:28, 5/2005 (last of my 21 marathons in 9 months!)
5. Fargo Marathon, ND - 3:38:05, 5/2009 (wonderful spectator support & signs!)

Top 5 Most Surprising Marathons
1. Disney Marathon, FL - 3:33:32, 1/2003 (my first marathon and a BQ?)
2. Boston Marathon, MA - 3:36:34, 4/2003 (I have to run a second marathon?)
3. Rocket City Marathon, AL - 3:29:41, 3/2003 (first sub-3:30 & first neg split -- hmm)
4. Big Island Intl Marathon, HI - 3:40:24, 3/2004 (me first overall female?!)
5. Zoom Yah Yah Indoor Marathon, MN - 4:18:49, 1/2009 (who knew 150 laps could be so fun?)

Top 5 Most Screwed Up Marathons (my fault)
1. Olathe Marathon, KS - 4:27:58, 3/2007 (drank unfamiliar sports drink - poop!)
2. Air Force Marathon, OH - 3:45:55, 9/2003 (started WAY too fast - crash & burn!)
3. Carlsbad Marathon, CA - 3:54:19, 1/2005 (wore new shoes from the expo - owie!)
4. Little Rock Marathon, AR - 4:05:50, 3/2007 (sprained ankle at mi 8 - yikes!)
5. Nike 26.2, CA - 4:04:24, 10/2004 (ran early downhills too hard - oh my!)

Top 5 Most Screwed Up Marathons (NOT my fault)
1. Valley of the Sun Marathon, AZ - 3:59:15, 3/2005 (Not enough buses to the start)
2. aka Valley of the Suck Marathon, AZ - (no driving to and parking at the start)
3. aka Valley of the Yuck Marathon, AZ - (20 min race start delay due to #1)
4. aka Valley of the Outta Luck Marathon, AZ - (no volunteers at some aid stations)
5. aka Valley of the $@?&#!! Marathon, AZ - (not enough fluids or cups & a hot race!)
Luckily for everyone, this marathon is no longer in existence.

With the exception of the last two Screwed Up categories, I'm hoping some of my marathons this year will make one of my Top 5 lists. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ouch, That Hurt

2010-01-20T12:07:00.027-05:00

First of all, thank you for the comments on my previous post. For sure, Dave & I are a team and will be working together on his new diet. Right now, I'm getting a kick out of receiving emails from him (he's in DC now) telling me how "good" he's been. Traveling for work so often is where his biggest challenges lie, I think. I'll keep you posted on his progress, if for no other reason than to keep him accountable. I keep telling him he needs to start a blog!

Anyway, now on to my pain ...

Fortunately, it's not my calf again or some other injury, but it hurt nonetheless. What, you say?

A hard 5-miler yesterday.

With a marathon on tap for this weekend, I had to be super duper careful not to overdo things, yet I had to be honest about working hard. Since my calf fiasco last month, I've done mostly long & slow runs. That is, after I could even run again (there was no running to speak of as I hobbled around for 2 weeks). But, of course, I'm working with Coach Bill again and, well, I did not hire him to let me do what I want, did I???

No.

So "5 miles Hard" was what he wrote and that's what had to be done. Wah, I'd rather run 20 miles easy!

I started out with a mile warm-up. Then I stretched my legs. Then I stretched my arms. Then I checked my Garmin to make sure it was going to record what I was going to do (you'd be surprised how many times I've accidently stopped it instead of started it -- doh!). Then I took some deep breathes. Then I checked my Garmin again. Jeez, get on with it already!!

OK, here we go. Beep!

1st mile, 7:31 - Well, I didn't want to start out too fast anyway.

2nd mile, 7:22 - Better, and no word from Mr. or Mrs. Calf. Doubly good.

3rd mile, 7:15 - Ran past a group of Navy guys chatting & stretching. Had to look strong.

4th mile, 7:20 - Darn. Starting to feel the burn.

5th mile, 7:14 - OMG, how much further, how much further, how much further?!?!?!!!

Beep! Thank god!!

5 miles in 36:42, a 7:20 avg pace.

TBH, I was a little disappointed. But not bad for a solo effort and so early in the season and coming off an injury. There's definitely some work to do to meet some TBA goals I also have this year, though.

Mind: HA, you thought we were just going to do 8 marathons, 2 half
marathons, a 10K, a 5K and a couple half irons and leave it at that?
Body: Gulp, yeah.
Mind: Silly body! Mwhahahahaha.

Anyway, it's all systems go. My first marathon of the year is in Wisconsin on Sunday. It's another crazy indoor one :-)

Clean(er) Eating

2010-01-18T14:18:00.019-05:00

Above is one of my favorite pics of Dave taken on our honeymoon in Jamaica back in 1994. He went kneeboarding, swam a mile roundtrip to a nearby island and got resort certified to go diving while I, who could barely swim to save my life, spent most of my time on the beach sunbathing and fighting off babes eyeing him (note the 2 in back -- grrr).

In 2004, he was at his heaviest (270#) and full of self-loathing. He kept this second picture on his iPod to motivate himself to lose weight.

Getting back on his bike and riding with me the last few years has helped him get back down to 220-230#, but he's still NOT where he wants to be weight-wise or fitness-wise. This year he's decided to bite the bullet and tackle the last frontier: his diet. He got a book from a work-sponsored life balance class he attended last year:

Now I'm all for Dave eating better, but this book advocates a RADICAL diet change. No dairy products, no meat (only fish, which he hates and won't eat), no sugar, no added salt. Processed foods are to be avoided and only very limited amounts of whole grains are allowed. So pretty much everything Dave loves and used to eat regularly before is out. His diet will now largely consist of fresh veggies, fruit and legumes (uncanned). Man, it puts my so-called healthy eating habits to shame!

Some positives I see are:

- No food logging or calorie counting (Dave has a really hard time doing them)
- We're going to save ~~a lot~~ some not buying dairy products and meat.
- Our stove & microwave will stay much cleaner.
- There'll be lots of "junk" to donate to the next food drive.
- What we saved can be used to buy fruits and veggies from Costco, which only come in HUGE quantities.
- I'm burning extra calories washing and cutting up lots fruits & veggies.
- Dave was beaming when he told me he'd lost 8# last week.*
*According to the book, not unusual as it's mostly water weight from not eating so much salt.

But, unfortunately, he also felt like crap on the bike last week. Not sure whether it's the new diet, the 95+% humidity we had on Saturday, the 22mph winds (30mph gusts) on Sunday, or possibly all of the above.

Anyone have any advice or experiences with a clean eating diet like this? What do you eat/drink to be able to go long and perform well on your workouts? How does one get away from the notion of rewarding yourself with food? Is it possible to succeed with one spouse on the diet and not the other? Will he become so lean & sexy that I'll have to brush up on my martial arts to fend off ogling women?

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

2010-01-11T12:11:00.019-05:00

Which in Hawaiian means Happy New Year!

But, unfortunately, as of last night, I am back in Florida freezing my patootie. I know sub-30 deg F temps are no biggie for many of you but for me, who starts shivering when the thermometer drops below 70F, some DRASTIC measures are needed.

Like a new warmer look to my blog :-)

So what's been going on the past couple months???

Not a whole heck of a lot. Which is how it's supposed to be after an iron tri (or two), right?

Well, not quite ...

Without Coach Bill looking, I ran a half marathon early December, pulled a calf muscle midway and hobbled/walked to a near PW (1:48:41). That forced me take a couple weeks off from running so I woman-upped to meet my local Y's 100-mile swim challenge (counting miles I swam in that pool only). Then I was back in Hawaii for the holidays burning up some rubber on the roads riding with Dave (he wanted to bike 7000 miles in 2009). Oh, and I also ran a bit to see if I could still muddle through a marathon end of January.

My 2009 workout totals:

Swimming: 162 mi (116 swims, avg 2458 yd)
Biking: 4628 mi (109 rides, avg 42.5 mi)
Running: 1008 mi (116 runs, avg 8.7 mi)
Other: 35.4 hrs (62 strength/stretching sessions)

It's actually the first time I've ever tracked my workouts for an entire year so I have nothing to compare them to. The last few weeks, however, I felt like I was doing this most of the time:

Compared to what I was doing before when really training.

But it's back to business and blogging. In 2010, I plan to run 8 marathons to wrap up my 50 states marathon quest, two half marathons, my first-ever 10K and my third 5K (eek, short races). I'll also be doing a couple half iron tris to stay in tri shape for who-knows-what in 2011. And, I am back working with Coach Bill as it's obvious that I should NOT be left on my own ;-)

Look forward to catching up with all of you this week!

PS - Does anyone know an easy way to get a list of blogs I follow in Google Reader into a sidebar widget?

Trizophrenia Winner & Random Iron Thoughts

2009-11-16T12:22:00.049-05:00

KennY, you are the winner of my Trizophrenia book giveaway! Email me your address so I can ship the book to you. My email address is available on my blog profile. (Please reply by Friday, 11/20, midnight eastern or it will go to someone else!)

___________________________

This past week has been weird. No specified workouts, no race worries, no concerns about weather. I've eaten all sorts of crap (leftover Halloween candy and birthday cake) and don't feel one bit guilty. I passed on doing a couple of bike and run events held last weekend that I could have done just for fun. Instead, I allowed myself to be slothful and just pondered some things:

- Signing up for 2 irons 2 weeks apart was the best thing I could have done. They kept me honest in my training and gave me a chance to do both races that I wanted to do. I know I recover quick from long races and would have gone CRAZY if I only did GFT and was stuck "all dressed up with no place to go" two weeks later.

- Some folks run/walked to get through their iron tri marathons, I run/pooped. I came across Top 8 Race Fueling Mistakes Made By Ironman Triathletes and Mistake #3: Eating too much (too late) on the bike and Mistake #1: Mixing Sugars (between my bike & run nutrition) look to be the most likely causes of my GI distress. The only way to know for sure, though, is to do another iron tri :-)

- The next 3: Ironman Arizona (11/22), Ironman Cozumel (11/29) and Ironman Western Australia (12/5) are all sold out, however :-(

- Though training for and doing an ironman does require much more effort than a running standalone marathon, I find it them much easier to recover from. I'd heard this before from several others too. I think it's because swimming, cycling and running a slower marathon don't beat your body up as much. Aside: The current world record for most number of ironmans completed in a calendar year is 15.

- For me, the hardest part about doing an ironman was training in 80-90+ deg heat all summer long. Coach advised against me going to Kona to train because he thought it'd be too cool. He was right. Nothing but training in FL could have prepared me as well for GFT, plus doing so gave me a chance to find out about the major bike course change before race day. B2B was 30-40 degs colder and my main concern was just staying warm enough on the bike after the swim. GI issues at both races, while annoying, were not show stoppers. Two very different races, one awesome training plan to get me to both finish lines. Thanks, Coach Bill!

- Top 10 list of the toughest things I've done so far:

1. 1992, Watch my dad die of cancer
2. 2004, Earn my 2nd deg black belt in karate (bruised ribs, very painful sparring)
3. 2001, Earn my 1st deg black belt in karate (1st major athletic achievement, age 40)
4. 2006, Learn to swim (truly *hated* swimming back then!)
5. 2006, Ironman Florida (first rough water swim, survived but missed swim cut-off)
6. 2004-5, Raise $21K for 2 charities (first FR effort, very hard for me to ask people for $$)
7. 2009, Train for 2 iron tris, GFT & B2B (embraced the enemy: heat)
8. 2007, Olathe Marathon (first time I had major GI issues in a race, nearly DNFd)
9. 2004-5, Run 21 marathons in 9 months (my 21 Run Salute)
10. 2005, Run a hot August 5K all-out with no speed training (21:56 min of agony!)

You know the saying: What doesn't kill you ...

And a couple announcements:

Firstly, Team Hendryx is accepting athlete applications for next year. If you have a running, triathlon or fitness goal you'd like help with, they can help whether you're based in Orlando or elsewhere. My coach, Coach Bill, is the POC for Team Hendryx and can be reached by email at cwenner @ cfl.rr.com if you're interested.

And secondly, I'm going to take a BIG break from blogging and training between now and probably my next race, the Instep Icebreaker Marathon (WI) in January. 2009 has been a very busy year for me and 2010 looks to be even busier. I need to get a lot of stuff squared away in the meantime and apologize in advance for not commenting as often on your blogs during this time but will try to follow along as much as I can. Best of luck to everyone racing, esp. Molly and Jen who are both doing their first ironman (IMAZ) this weekend!

2009 Beach 2 Battleship Iron Tri

2009-11-12T09:26:00.041-05:00

Official Finishing Time: 12:45:52, 3/10 F45-49.

Where to begin???

First, I must thank all of you who have helped me, supported me, cheered for me, listened to me, put up with me and stuck with me all throughout this year. I could not have done it without you. Thank you!!!!!!

As you probably have guessed, B2B went well for me overall. There were a number of bloggers doing either the half or full iron distance so this event, for me, was probably half about racing and half about socializing. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet up with everyone I wanted to and of those I did meet, a few (Linae, Skoshi, Dread Pirate, Kevin, IM Able) did not make it into my camera :-( But my camera did capture a number of folks at B2B, including my support crew (thanks Dave and whoever else took the pictures), so this race report will be heavy on photos and not just of me. YAY!

_____________________________

Pre-race

At the expo (L to R): Vickie, 21st Century Mom, me.

After the pasta dinner (L to R): Me, Vickie, 21st Century Mom, Waddler, SW Trigal, TriSharkie.

After the 12:00 athlete meeting (L to R): Me, Nancy, Calyx, Donna.

Lesson learned: If you want to stand out, wear a high vis jacket. I had people asking me if I was Shirley all weekend it seemed and met the most number of bloggers I've ever met at a race. It was like old friends getting together since we'd been following each other's blogs for so long. Missy and Ryan, I'm sorry we missed meeting up, Ryan for the second time at a race. How is it I can miss seeing a guy who's like 6'5"?

_____________________________

The Race

The B2B swim was a point to point course with an incoming tide that was expected to result in extraordinarily fast swim times, as in 2008. At the athletes meeting, the race director mentioned that you could probably even stop swimming and float along in the current and still make the 2:20 cut-off. Me likey!

But on the bus ride over to T1 (swim to bike transition area) race morning, the woman in back of me said that a couple folks actually missed the swim cut-off last year because they swam on the right side of the channel where the current was supposedly the strongest and went too far past the first turn and were not strong enough swimmers to fight the current to get back. Yikes! So I made a note to keep my eyes peeled for the "wiggly" man (air filled stick figure on a boat) that marked the turn and start swimming towards it early.

Unfortunately, spectators were not allowed at either the swim start or swim exit so I have no photos from either. Nancy's training buddy Dave zipped up my wetsuit at the swim start and I saw Roy, another Orlando athlete I've trained with a bit, and IM Able just before getting into the water. The water temp this year was 67-68 degs and felt nice compared to the air temp which was below 40 when we started 8-O Here's a video from last year's swim that someone took that will give you an idea of what we looked like in the channel. WEEEE!!!

2.4 mi swim time - 1:06:40* (1:34/100 yds), 7/10 F45-49. WOW!!!
*Time includes climbing out of the water on a ladder, getting my wetsuit stripped, going through a fresh water shower and running to a timing mat maybe 100 yards from the water.

So it's a good thing that Dave did not listen to me when I said I thought I'd finish the swim in around 1:20-1:30. He got there early and caught me running to T1 (I am to the right in the above photo wearing a jog bra under my swimsuit). BRRR!!! I was very happy to be wearing swim socks, which were allowed, so my feet could stay warmer before, during and after the swim. They also made running 400 yds from the water to T1 on concrete and asphalt MUCH easier. Thanks Bootchez for recommending those socks!

The women's dressing tent was a lot more crowded than at GFT but I found a chair to sit on in a corner. I took the swimsuit off but kept the jog bra and HRM that was underneath on and dried off as much as possible. Then I proceeded to put on more clothes than I've ever worn on a tri bike segment. Tri Shorts, short sleeved bike top, leg warmers, arm warmers ... I saw Vickie and Dread Pirate come in shortly afterwards. Jacket, bike gloves, ear warmer, socks -- where the heck are my socks???

After searching desperately in my bag and around me for a couple minutes I realized I must have worn them during my test ride the day before and forgotten to put them back in my bag. DOH!! Sockless I go (hopefully the toe warmers on my shoes will keep my feet from freezing). At my bike I pulled on my fully fingered gloves too but wound up taking them off only a few miles into the ride.

T1 was no doubt a new record slow time but due to a timing glitch was not captured. Instead, it would be included in our bike splits. Oh well ...

This race had two separate transition areas. T1, where we started our bike segment, was near Wrightsville Beach and we'd finish at T2, which was by the Battleship North Carolina about 12 miles away. Of course, our ride was wee bit longer than 12 miles and part of it early on was actually on I-140, an INTERSTATE. Ooh, wet cycling dream come true!!!

For the most part, though, the bike course was on rural roads. I thought it was pretty flat as advertised but there were so-called false flats (sneaky inclines that look flat but aren't). The wind was low in the first half and since the pressure of finishing my first iron tri was off, I let my HR hover in the hi Z2 to lo Z3 range early on and passed a lot of folks. A few women asked me if I was Shirley as I went by. Sorry, I'm not sure who you all were but thanks for the words of encouragement!

At mile 30, we passed the first aid station and I was definitely warming up. I had to make a brief full stop to pull off the removable sleeves from my jacket so it could be worn as just a vest. They went into my front pockets along with the gloves I took off earlier giving me a nice tubby tummy look. My arm warmers went up and down depending on whether I was riding in full sun or shade but never came off, nor did my leg warmers or the vest. I don't remember my feet bothering me so they must have been fine without socks.

Around mile 35, a black sedan drove past me with some folks cheering and honking a bike horn out the windows. I didn't know whose car it was but recognized hubby Dave and my step-daughter KT. They'd found me! My son-in-law KV was behind the wheel of a rental car.

Dave's nickname for me is Muffin and it was his idea that they'd all wear orange during the race to make them easy to spot.

They came prepared and cheered for me several times along the bike course, which was great. We also saw a hunter with a bright orange hat and camouflage clothing sitting on a chair by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere watching cyclists go by with either a rifle or shotgun in his lap. Yeah, he motivated me to go a little faster! No, we did not get a picture of him or ask him what he was doing.

Somewhere along the way, Dave got out of the car with his bike to get his workout in during the race. As he hammered along, he encouraged folks and perhaps disheartened a few who thought he was in the race. No race number, not racing! He caught up to me after about 20 miles, said a quick 'hi' and then fell back to be picked up by KV. Must be nice.

The last 38 miles of the bike course were the toughest. Notice on the bike map that nearly straight stretch of road from the topmost part of the course to the bike finish? I'll give you one guess which way the wind was heading. WeatherUnderground said it wasn't more than 6 mph but it felt more like 8-10 mph, especially going up and across this one last bridge that was in the last couple miles. Evil!

T1 + 112 mi bike time - 6:30:47*, 2/10 F45-49.
*My bike Garmin says I averaged 18.0 mph for 107.4 mi (it's missing some miles because it turned itself off a few times and I didn't notice right away) so assuming I rode about the same speed the whole 112 miles, my T1 time was ~15 min, which is about what I expected.

I handed off my bike and helmet to a volunteer and then was totally dependent on other volunteers telling me where to go as I'd never been to T2 (bike to run transition area) before. I found my running gear bag and then almost went into the wrong changing tent. Oops!

T2 time - 9:34, including a porta-potty stop, as usual.

I began the run feeling probably the best I have ever in a tri. Hmm, maybe I should ride 112 miles more often? Looks like KT had taken my suggestion about what could be written on signs literally. (Click for a closer look at the sign).

The run was much hillier than I thought it'd be with 2 bridge crossings and two other short climbs later along the course, all of which had to be done twice since the course was two laps. But at least the temps were really comfy, high 50s to low 60's when I started. In the first few miles, I saw Nancy, Calyx, Donna and SW Trigal, who were finishing up their half iron. They looked strong and gave me a boost. How fun it is to see folks you know during a race!

I got down to the 6.55 mi turnaround in about 1:05 but then got hit with GI issues again, unbelievably, even worse than what I had at GFT two weeks ago. WTF?!?!!! Not sure what was wrong this time (I didn't even take Perpeteum on the bike at this race and there was no Gatorade being offered on the run course) but I took all the meds I had with me (Gas-X, Pepto Bismol and Immodium). Nothing seemed to help. I had to take off my Fuel Belt and carry it over my shoulder again, and make friends with every freaking porta-potty along the course. Thankfully they were at mile apart intervals at this race too.

Every time I got out of one, though, I felt fine and was able to run well again until about a mile later. My gut was like a clock! One guy told me he couldn't help but smile every time I passed him (he passed me when I stopped). I hoped it was because of my shirt and nothing that might have shown the problems I was having (like toilet paper stuck in my shorts or worse ...).

Meanwhile, the Team Muffinator B2B Support Crew waited patiently for me along Water Street (miles 3, 10, 16, 23). KV's sign got some laughs from folks.

The sign on the back, however, probably puzzled some. (KV is a Civil Engineer specializing in water modeling and I think this is his way of saying "imagine you're running downhill")

Starting my second lap, it was getting dark and colder so I grabbed my clip-on headlamp and a long sleeve shirt from my special needs bag. Although the race director had said the run course would be well lit the entire way, I wasn't taking any chances and it turned out to be a good decision as parts of the Greenfield Lake Park area (southernmost part of the run course) were very dark, so dark that I once ran off the path and onto a street. Too busy looking at the ground where I was stepping, I had missed seeing a sign and volunteers directing us to turn right. Oops again!

My need to make stops pretty much every mile continued on the second lap, unfortunately. How in the world can I have anything left in my system? But, I was making good progress regardless so after I saw my support crew at mile 16, they took a water taxi to the finish line to make sure they got there in time to see me finish (the lines for them were long!). I kept busy by looking for folks I knew along the course. I'm not sure when I saw them but I remember seeing Linae, Kevin, Skoshi, TriSharkie, Dread Pirate, Vickie, and Waddler. I cheered for them and hoped everyone would make the cut-off.

As I was making my way back, Dave used the Buddy Pass we were given to grab all my gear so I didn't have to go collect it after I finished the race. Thanks Dave! My crew found ways to entertain themselves.

Unlike other races, B2B had runners from a local college escort you in on your last mile if you wanted. Mine showed up about half a mile from the finish and I'd forgotten about this so I tried to outrun him at first. Where the heck did this young guy come from? I'll show him ... Dude then started talking to me, told me I was really moving well (yeah, like a sub-8 pace!) and asked how far I wanted him to run with me. What? Oh yeah, uh, how about just to that T2 clock up ahead. That way I could slow down some and actually make it to the finish without dying. At the clock, he told me I had 300 yards to go and congratulated me.

26.2 mi run time - 4:58:53 (11:24 pace), 3/10 F45-49.
Total race time - 12:45:52, 3/10 F45-49.

We received a nice race medal and I also got a little piece of the original teak deck of the Battleship North Carolina.

_____________________________

Post-race - Most of these were taken during the awards cruise:

Me and my two favorite post-race treats: hubby Dave and recovery socks.

Vickie and I on the Henrietta III riverboat. B2B was Vickie's first iron tri. Congrats, Vickie!

Poor lil' pancake ain't got a chance against an ironwoman :-)

After breakfast and the awards ceremony, the boat began to finally move.

We got a closer look at the USS Battleship North Carolina. Lots more guns!

Outside in the fresh air, I found Nancy and her training buddy Dave. Nancy completed the B2B half while Dave did the full distance. Well done to both!

Wonderful time with family, gorgeous weather, great race -- what more could I ask for?

Congrats to everyone who raced B2B, Ironman Florida, Silverman or otherwise last weekend. Please forgive me, I am behind on my blog reading but will be catching up soon!

Unofficial B2B Race Time: 12:45

2009-11-07T22:36:00.003-05:00

The official results have not yet been posted but that's what the video that Dave took of me finishing said. W00T!!!

Race report to follow in a few days. Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm spending a couple xtra days in Wilmington with my awesome support crew. Photo: (R to L) Hubby Dave, me, step daughter & son-in-law.

Creator of Frazz Giveaway!

2009-11-02T10:28:00.021-05:00

My recovery from the Great Floridian Iron Triathlon has been going great! I am raring to go get me a new iron PR at Beach to Battleship. Of course, my body may have totally different plans but I will be there with a big smile no matter how long it takes to cross the finish line. 2 irons in 2 weeks, what the heck is wrong with me???

Well, a new book I've been reading, Trizophrenia: Inside the Minds of a Triathlete, seems to explain it all.

Trizophrenia: Symptoms typically include an obsessive-compulsive need for the rituals of the sport: eat, swim, eat, work, eat, ride, eat, work, eat, run, eat, go to bed early. Delusional spending on expensive equipment, indifference to pain, and hallucinations of future grandeur intensify over years spent in the sport.

Sound like anyone you know?

Well, I had the opportunity to do a Q&A with Jef Mallett, the award-winning creator of the syndicated comic strip Frazz, who in his book unravels the sport's mystery and madness while raising it to new heights of hilarity. To get to know him a little better and have a chance to win a FREE copy of Trizophrenia, read on!

1. When is Miss Plainwell going to do her first tri?
I don't have any plans to get Miss Plainwell into a triathlon, but that doesn't mean a thing. My characters are always doing their own thing without my permission. Seriously, characters do that. Ask anyone who tells stories for a living. You create them, you think you control them, but no. Which raises some seriously disturbing theological questions, if you want to go there. I'll say this, though: Miss Plainwell somehow looks a little like my wife, and she just did her first triathlon this year.

2. As a triathlete in the colder climates, how to you stay in shape and motivated in the dark cold months?
Well, I'm a middle-aged triathlete who's constantly behind on his deadlines, so even dark, cold months whip by remarkably fast. So motivation is not the problem. I have plenty of indoor swimming options, and you can run in just about anything. The one change I've made is that I hardly bike at all over the winter. In recent years, I've found that if I concentrate on the other two, do a few masters meets and aim for a spring marathon or something, the bike comes back almost seamlessly. And my gear isn't all covered with salt (from the road or from me on rollers).

3. If Frazz doubled the value of the car when he put his bike on the rack, wasn't the Chevette over-priced or did he just use his old bike that day?
You know, that's a very good point. Maybe he had his gym membership receipt in the glove compartment.

4. How do you train your mind to overcome the pain when you do this silly stuff?
I just watch golf on TV and suddenly everything else seems painless. No, seriously, I would NEVER watch golf on TV. But I have certainly compiled a handy list of bad days for comparison's sake, and that works nicely. Beyond that, it's just habit. Every time you push through pain, the easier it gets. And then there's the real motivator: It probably works the other way. Every time you back off, the easier that gets. And I don't want to experiment with that, so I press on.

5. Frazz seems to have the most problem with the swim. Is that your case too?
It might be. Or it might just be where it's most evident. I can hold my own in a triathlon swim, but I go to a Masters meet and compete against specialists and I'm thoroughly fed my own lunch. There aren't so many casual Masters swimmers, where you go to any given marathon or 5K and you're not likely to come in last, let alone come in last several times in the same meet. Make no mistake, though: I love it.

6. How do you maintain your drive over the years and face the fact that you aren't as young / fast as you used to be?
I'm only not as young as I used to be. I'm still getting faster. That's the beauty of never being particularly elite when you were younger. And it's also the beauty of a sport where there's always somewhere new to improve. I am less fast on the bike. But that's the discipline that had me closest to elite status (which, not close at all) when I was young. And a few years back, I realized I needed to decide if I wanted to be a cyclist with a wetsuit, or if I wanted to back off that and be a triathlete. So I'm not as close to the top of the bike split list anymore, but I'm a little more of a threat by the end of the race.

7. How many bikes are too many?
Well, you can only ride one at a time. But it's nice to have a choice. You know what's the best thing about too many bikes? You can lend them to people to try out. It's the evangelist in me.

8. We have read that Frazz could be cast a grown up Calvin. If that is the case, wouldn't Caulfield be Hobbs?
That gets debated a lot, which, is OK. Like all cartoonists my age, and smart ones of any age, I learned a lot from that strip, and feel no compulsion to hide it -- or copy it. I think Frazz developed Calvin's hair -- messy hair never goes out of style, and it fits his personality -- but I think his personality falls closer to Hobbes's. Hopefully not too close, though. Who could re-paint the Mona Lisa?

9. How do you balance work, family, and training?
With mixed success. I have better days and worse days. But it all ties together. Training makes me better at the other two, and being fit makes me more efficient, so an hour spent training is not necessarily an hour lost in the other areas. And obviously I couldn't race without an income or support from my wife. We don't have children, the cats don't care, and the dog would run with me all the time if she could. Everybody gets 60 minutes an hour, and hardly anybody thinks it's enough, and yet it all gets done. Best I can tell is that when you have time to waste, you learn to waste time. Maybe the inverse follows.

10. What was your parents reaction the first time they saw you in bike shorts?
My parents bought me my first pair of bike shorts when I was a teen-ager. I'm more worried about how they feel when they see me in a tri-suit at 47.

To have a chance to win the book, leave a comment and name your weakest sport if you are a triathlete or were ever to become one (even hypothetically). To get an extra entry, let me know you're linking back to this post (http://humbletriathlete.blogspot.com/2009/11/frazz-giveaway.html). Comments will be accepted until Friday, 11/13, midnight Eastern time. US-based and non-U.S.-based friends are welcome to enter.

Good luck, everyone, and I'll see you on the flip side of B2B!

B2B Blogger Meet-up???

2009-10-30T18:01:00.008-04:00

Has anyone heard about one?

If you're going to be at the race, please go to the B2B Triathlete's Blog and leave a comment on the meet-up post. And pass the word to other B2B-ers!

2009 Great Floridian Iron Triathlon

2009-10-27T19:30:00.064-04:00

First of all, THANK YOU, everyone, for your comments, emails and encouragement. I really appreciate it!!!

Someone at the race said it best, "The Great Floridian is like box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." And I'd say I got one of those pieces with a big, hard Brazil nut on the inside. A few weeks ago, I thought of putting it back in the box when I discovered there was a new, much tougher bike course. Instead, I decided to keep it and figured it'd just take longer to chew on. Then at the athletes meeting the day before the race, the race director said to add an extra hour to your expected finishing time. He wasn't kidding!

Ironically, the thing I was worried about the most, the swim, turned out to be the easiest part of the race for me. Thanks to a recent cold front, water temps dropped from 85 degs to 74 degs in a week and wetsuits were allowed. Winds were low making for calm water conditions at the start. It really doesn't get much better than this and I looked forward to a great day.

The swim course was 2 laps around an inverted triangle. Knowing that I have a tendency to veer left, I lined up on the right side of the pack, which also meant I'd also swim a slightly shorter distance than those who started further left. This is not cheating, just lining up smart! And with only a few hundred friends swimming with me, as opposed to 2000 in an Ironman brand race, I knew the contact would be minimal. While I have a second degree black belt in karate, sparring in water is not my thing.

Off we went and this time I was happy to have no problemos with my wetsuit choking me and no worries about losing my timing chip (last race, someone grabbed my foot and almost ripped off the ankle strap so I safety-pinned the velcro strap down). Very early on, though, I almost ran into one female swimmer who was doing the backstroke but going totally the wrong way, like almost back to shore. Strange... By the first buoy turn, the only thing annoying me was my swim cap. It kept creeping up my forehead and I had to periodically use both hands to wrestle that sucka back down. Probably freaked out a kayaker or two as I momentarily just floated face down to do that.

Still, I got done with the first lap in around 45 min, which was right on target for me. I strolled out of the water, tried to fix my swim cap again, grabbed a cup of Gatorade and headed back in for lap two. I have no idea what that guy in back of me is doing in the above photo. Maybe some sort of lap dance? Sorry, that was bad ...

Anyway, on the second lap, more swimming with occasional swim cap dealings and, get this, I, little ol' ShirleyPerly, actually clobbered and almost swam over one guy who had slowed down. Oops, sorry Dude! I've got to stop thinking I have the water all to myself late on swims. All the lessons, hard work and open water swimming practice have put me squarely at the back of the middle of the pack so I am no longer the slowest swimmer out there. YAY!!

Swim time: 1:33:01 (2:12/100 yds), 5/5 F45-49, 26/39 Female. Unofficially, a 53 minute 2.4 mile swim PR!! (I finished the IMFL 2006 swim in 2:26 but since I did not make the 2:20 swim cut-off, the time wasn't recorded.)

Over to the wetsuit strippers and then to grab my bike gear bag from some kind volunteers who'd retrieved it from the rack. For some reason, the women's side of the changing tent was nearly the same size as the men's side even though there were only 39(!) women doing the race vs. over 200 men. HEE! I had my choice of chairs to sit on, plenty of room to spread out my bike stuff and my own iron maiden to help me put my bike jersey on, put away my swim stuff, apply sunscreen on my back/shoulders, etc. A royal treatment in what seemed like a white palace!

So perhaps I enjoyed things in there a bit too long ... T1: 8:09, 4/5 F45-49, 22/39 Female. After all, this is a race, you know.

Time to see if my new bike shoe cleats work. Usually nothing new on race day is the rule but mine were so worn out that I was not sure if my bike shoes would be able to stay clipped in, especially on a hilly ride, so we switched them out for new ones. (And, of course, I did not notice how worn out they were until I went to check my bike in so we had to pay nearly double to get them last minute at the expo. Doh! At least they had the right ones ...)

About a quarter of the way through the ride and not a cloud in the sky. The weather forecast for record high temps seemed to be correct. DRATS!!

At least the new cleats were working fine. Dave took the above photo from the top of Sugarloaf, a well known climb in the area but just one many short steep climbs on the bike course. Interestingly, it seemed that a few guys were always dismounting their bikes and walking up the steep hills rather than even trying to ride up them. I was never quite sure what to say when passing them so I just huffed and puffed extra hard so they'd think I was working too hard to talk.

But, is it wrong to smile while doing so?

Soon enough, though, they'd blow past me on the downhills and Coach had instructed me to only coast to rest my legs. It was like playing leap frog at times with me passing some folks on the uphills, them passing me on the downhills, etc.

On a flatter section, miles 36-48, I'd hoped to pick up some speed but was suddenly transported to Kona and dealing with nasty headwinds much of the way. UGH!! Then I realized I'd made a mistake bypassing the last aid station that was at the bottom of a hill, just before a sharp left turn and then another steep climb (I would've had to make a full stop as I don't have the bike handling skills to grab a bottle, refill, while descending, turning and climbing in a very short distance). The wind on the flats took a lot out of me and when I got to the next aid station, I was dehydrated and completely out of fluids. I ended up having to make a full stop there to refill both my aero bottle and spare bottle. And why not hit the porta-potty too while I'm at it? Yes, you can be dehydrated and still have to pee!

By the time I completed the first lap and got back to the transition area where the bike special needs bags were located (~mile 60, see photo below), I felt like I'd already ridden 100 miles. Not good! My feet were on fire from the constant pressure I was applying to fight the wind (which often happens to me when riding in Kona but seldom anywhere else) and my butt wanted off the bike NOW!

Queue theme music from the Kung Fu TV series.

Me: Coach, the heat, hills and wind are kicking my @ss. What should I do?
Coach: Stay hydrated and fueled, Grasshopper. Race your own race.
Me: But, Coach, how can I possibly get through 52 more miles of torture?
Coach: Release yourself from expectations. Expect only that YOU WILL FINISH.

Music fades.

I really didn't need anything from my special needs bag so I decided not to get off my bike for fear of not getting back on. I cruised past Dave and told him that my bike split was going to be a lot longer than the 7 hours I thought it'd take me, probably somewhere between 7:30 and 8 hours but I will make the cut-off. And just saying that was a huge relief, actually, so I could stop beating myself up for being so slow and just focus on staying in my target HR zone and getting the job done. Besides, I had plenty of company on the second lap compared to my solo training rides, and we all know misery loves company.

To pass the time, I made it my mission to warn folks who did not know the course to save their legs for the last 12 hilliest miles of the course. Some replied despondently that I had to be joking. Sorry, folks, I wish I were! But the funny thing was that I thought those horrible hills were actually easier for me mentally because I knew I'd be going slow there. Being unable to go much faster on the flat sections because of the unseen enemy (wind) was the harder pill to swallow.

Bike time: 7:45:09 (14.4 mph). 4/5 F45-49, 21/39 Female.
OK, I might have been just a little thrilled to be done.

I handed off my bike to another nice volunteer, grabbed my run gear bag and headed back into the white palace. First things first, I had to get my aching feet out of my hard bike shoes and into nice comfy running shoes -- AHHH! I actually had a complete change of clothing in my bag but decided to change only my top and socks. Didn't see any point in changing shorts as the clean pair were just another pair of tri shorts anyway. But since it was going to be a hot & sweaty run for at least the first hour or so until closer to sunset, I wiped off as much sweat and grime from the ride as I could and made sure to apply lots of Body Glide. I did not need any chafing or blisters to make things any more challenging!

Racers were required to have reflective tape or decals on both the front and back of them during the run so I decided to be a little creative :-)

Another stop into a porta-potty and I was out of T2 with a new record long time: 11:31, 4/5 F45-49, 25/39 Female. Holy smokes, did I doze off somewhere in there?!

But once I got on the run course I woke up. The city of Clermont was celebrating its 125th anniversary and there was a little festival going on along part of the lake. Fun! More things to see and it brought out more people. I took a cup of Gatorade at the first aid station right outside the transition area without thinking -- BIG MISTAKE!!!

I totally forgot that Perpeteum, which I consumed late on my bike ride and probably still had in my stomach, and Gatorade lead to explosive consequences for me. Oh sh*t, literally! By mile 3, I knew I was in trouble. Gas pains galore and a dire need to find a porta-potty fast. Sorry if TMI!

Thankfully, they were located nearly every mile and I hit all but one of them on my first of 3 laps on the run course. It was not pretty, my pace, I mean, but I was surely making progress if I was going from porta-potty to porta-potty, right? I mean, who needs mile markers when you have big green boxes?

Luckily, I had experienced this GI issue in training before and actually had brought some stomach meds with me. I just didn't remember I had them until around mile 4 and after I took them it still took a while for things to settle down. I had to take my Fuel Belt off and carry it over my shoulder as any extra pressure on my gut was dangerous. But carrying it was surprisingly easy, even comfortable (like a sling for my right arm to rest on), so when I finally, FINALLY, completed my first lap (~9 miles) about two hours later, I decided to continue carrying it. That way I could still have my gels, other emergency meds, water bottles and my cell phone* with me.

*The cell phone was really important as it allowed Dave to track me using Sprint's Family Locator Service. This race did not have any athlete tracking and even if it did, it wouldn't say where I was, just that I'd passed a certain point at a certain time. With the GPS tracking of my cell phone, Dave pretty much always knew where I was on the bike and run courses, which made it a whole lot easier for him to spectate and take pictures.

Before heading out for lap 2, I stopped at the run special needs station and exchanged visors for the one that I'd attached a Nebo clip-on cap light. I'd thought I'd only need it for my third lap but the longer bike ride and slower first lap meant it was already getting dark. And, man, was I glad I had it. People often talk about going to dark places during ironman races meaning in their minds. This race had lots of them outside simply due to limited light!

We only had a quarter moon that night and although there were some spotlights along the run course it was impossible to light the entire course. Along this one tree canopied trail we ran on, it was virtually pitch black except for glow rings the athletes were given to wear around their necks and near the turnaround where an aid station was located. Eerie! A few folks ran with me for a while because I had a light, but I actually preferred running alone. My GI issues were improving but I was not-so-silently at times releasing a fair amount of gas along the course. Better that no one be near me ...

Around the lake again and back to festival area for the second time and in the darkness it looked even better. The rides were now all lit up and there were lots more people around. A number of them were lined along the path cheering for the athletes going by, which was really nice as there were only a few pockets spectators on the course elsewhere and I'm sure some folks really needed the encouragement. I stopped at the run special needs station again to grab more gels and saw Dave. I happily reported that I was doing much better now and was actually getting faster with each lap :-)

On my last one, temps were now in the 70's with a nice breeze which felt just right, not too cold or hot. Most of the folks I saw were walking and I tried to encourage everyone I passed and only asked those who asked me what lap I was on what lap they were on. Our answers were the same (last) but I suspected many who didn't ask were probably not on their last lap and would not finish by the 17:30 cut-off :-(

I was running well now but continued to stop briefly at the aid stations to eat a few pretzels and down some water. There was no sense in changing the routine that had gotten me thus far and it also gave me a final chance to thank the wonderful volunteers at the aid stations for all their help. The only aid station I didn't stop at was the last one. It was only about a half mile from the finish and I saw a woman and man running ahead who also looked to be on their last lap. Ooh, what have we here, a little spark of racing adrenaline after all?

I took a quick swig from my water bottle instead and just gave a quick thank you to the volunteers before beginning my final kick to the finish. I was amazed to find how much energy I still had left in my legs after being out on the course for so long. It didn't seem much different than running a standalone marathon, actually. Maybe I've practiced finishing strong so many times in the past that it just comes automatically? Who knows, but it made for a pretty nice first-time iron tri finish.

Run time: 5:23:25 (12:21 pace). 2/5 F45-49, 15/39 Female
Final race time: 15:01:13. 3/5 F45-49, 16/39 Female.

WOOHOO, bye-bye iron DNF monkey on my back. And, remarkably, I have very little post-race soreness which should make for a fast recovery for Beach To Battleship, another full iron tri, in 2 weeks. DOUBLE SAH-WEETNESS!!

Other numbers for those who love numbers:

4500 - Approx. feet climbed on the bike course per my Garmin
199 - Entry fee for this race
140.6 - Miles covered during the race
89 - High temp (F) for the day per WeatherUnderground.com
46 - Number of times Dave tracked my cell phone during the race
25 - % folks who DNFd (and this race does not attract many first-timers)
14/16 - Max wind spd/gusts (mph) per WeatherUnderground.com
8 - Number of times I used a porta-potty/restroom during the race
2 - Number of race shirts I got (participant and finisher)
1 - Awesome, supportive hubby
0 - Times I thought about about quitting

PRICELESS!!!

15:01:13

2009-10-25T01:47:00.005-04:00

Holy Moly, what a tough race!!!

I finished, though, and that's all that matters to me. But I suspect there may be a LOT of DNFs when the final results are posted :-(

Full report to come soon. Must get some sleep!

Next Saturday: The BIG Dance

2009-10-19T20:07:00.019-04:00

How in the world could 9 months have flown by so fast? Or, for that matter, 3 years?

It seems like just yesterday I was dabbling in tris, learning how to swim and trying to stay upright on my bike. Yet, here I am less than a week away from the Great Floridian (GF), an iron distance triathlon that I would never have considered doing not long ago. Heat plus hills? NO THANKS!!

But GF has a rich and storied history. This year marks its ~~25th~~ 19th anniversary and it's challenged many of the best triathletes long before Ironman became a household name. In fact, I'd heard it was a Kona qualifier at one time and used to sell out with over a thousand participants. Now the race director would be lucky to have a few hundred. Why???

Two words: Ironman Florida (IMFL).

Two weeks later, usually cooler and a whole lot flatter, IMFL now attracts most triathletes in the area who are seeking their first ironman finish, ironman PRs or a Kona slot. A large part of it is also probably the brand name marketing, i.e., getting called an "Ironman" when you cross the finish line of an Ironman brand race.

Me? I'm actually the type of person who would do an iron distance triathlon when no one is looking. What I wanted this year was a new challenge, not a new name. I already knew how to swim and could swim long (though not as fast as I'd like). I'd ridden 80-100+ miles several times and had run over 50 marathons. So just doing any ol' race with a 2.4 mi swim, 112 mi bike and a 26.2 mi run didn't stir those butterflies like it did back in 2006 when I was brand new to the sport. I needed more!

With the help of Coach Bill, we devised a plan so that I could tackle one of the toughest iron distance tris around and another one two weeks later that was similar to IMFL. This year I'd learn how to ride hills and handle extreme heat like my tri heroes, and I'd also have a shot at finding out what I could do on an flatter, cooler course. Both within the same training cycle and for about the same price as one Ironman brand race. Now we're talking!

And the excitement has seemingly made time fly. I never got really burned out from training this year. I was never more dedicated in getting myself to the pool or getting outside to deal with the horrible FL summer heat. Embrace the heat my @ss, it was more like try not to let it kill you! I never lifted weights and stretched more diligently. I never watched my diet and weight so closely. Critical when training long in serious heat!

So very different than back in 2006 when I trained myself for IMFL. Then, I basically got so that I could swim 2.4 miles, but only in the best water conditions, and I could get by on the bike and run. Unfortunately, Mother Nature would produce the worst water conditions making it a short race day for me -- Oh well!

Thus, it's ironic that the big question this Saturday is also what will Mother Nature throw at us? Namely, will the water temp be wetsuit legal (78 degs or less)?

Well, in its 2519 year history, GF has been not wetsuit legal only once before. Last week, someone measured the lake temp and found it to be 85. UGH! But then a cold front blew in over the weekend and that same person said the lake temp this morning was well below 78, perhaps even too cold and too rough for the swim to be held had the race been today. Later this week, the weather should be warming up again and the winds dying down some so who knows what it'll be by Saturday morning ...

Ahh, the uncertainty of ironmans.

Wish me luck. There's no athlete tracking available so I'll update you all after the race either late Saturday or on Sunday. Hope you all have a great week!

Epic Weekend!

2009-10-12T17:22:00.051-04:00

First of all, CONGRATS to everyone who raced last weekend! I know it was a big weekend for many and look forward to catching up with everyone soon. The last few days I have only been on my computer to do 3 things: work, answer email & deal with my Iron Dilemma. And thanks to all your great input, I was able to come up with a way to ride some flats with Dave, then ride some hills on my own *and* still have him close by and comfortable while he waited 3-4 hours for me to finish.

How could that be possible when flats/home and hills are located about an hour apart and it's 90+ freaking degrees outside?

Tadda, enter our favorite home away from home: Hampton Inn.

In fact, one is located only a few miles from the Great Floridian course and we've stayed there the night before other past events in Clermont, FL (like the Assault from Sugarloaf Ride and FL Challenge half iron). For training, however, we've always gotten up early and just driven out there in the morning and driven back home. Why not stay there after the big Saturday brick workout and drive home after my long Sunday run?

The night's stay would be FREE anyway using Dave's Hilton hotel points and he'd been home all week so surely he would not mind spending one measly night in a hotel this week. Worst case, I'm sure he could be easily bribed ;-)

He'll get to control the thermostat the whole weekend. (I usually set ours at home to 82.)

He'll get to watch History Channel shows, Myth Busters, Dirty Jobs and other stuff he likes on cable TV. (We don't have cable at home.)

We'll eat dinner at the restaurant next door after my long brick workout. (We rarely eat out together unless we're on travel or it's a special occasion.)

Free breakfast Sunday morning. (Need I say more?)

Lunch at Panera, which is also next door, after my long Sunday run.

Plus, lots of attention and cuddling all weekend when I'm not working out. (Partly because I'll be ffffreezing in a 65 deg room!)

So the plan was to ride a 45 mi flat-ish route together and then I'd do another 60 on my own for a total of 105. My favorite route mapping tool these days is Bike Route Toaster. It provides a nice elevation map and you can also download the course directions to your Garmin, something that Dave likes (I prefer knowing the course in my head). I had let go of the notion of riding the actual GF course (the first half is definitely not flat!), but there are plenty of hills I could ride on my own to make for that.

(Side note: Coach said I could ride flats when I told him that I didn't think I could get Dave to ride in Clermont again after the fire ant and heat exhaustion episode. He did not direct me to ride flats specifically and probably would have preferred that I ride some hills.)

But Mother Nature (MN) had other plans ...

That B*tch produced record high temps this past weekend. And, of course, I had the "brilliant" idea to start our ride about the same time I'd be riding on race day after my swim, 9 am, and by then temps already felt like 86 degs. Bleah!

Dave fared well in the heat this week on the flatter course even with temps soaring to 102 with the humidity factored in. YAY, Dave! Unfortunately, I had 60 more to do by myself :-( and I gotta say that heading out on my own for the rest in that heat was beyond tough. To make it a bit easier for me mentally, I decided to do 2 laps, as some of you suggested. That way I could also get more water from a park with restrooms and never be more than ~15 miles from Dave who was heading to the hotel after his ride.

MN was having none of it, however. She was determined to break me down and decided to see if some rain might dampen my iron spirits. Ha, I'll take rain over heat any day!

But did I bring my little blinky light so I could be more easily spotted on the road by cars in limited visibility conditions? Doh!

So I rode on a nearby bike path instead of the narrow, shoulder-less roads for a bit. Now I am not a big fan of riding on bike paths but in this heat and rain, there was NO ONE to dodge on the path and it was much safer than tempting fate on a narrow road with a fair amount of traffic in the rain. A few miles later, the rain stopped and the heat index skyrocketed up around 100 again. I was back riding on the roads again now that I was further out, which was nice so I didn't have to slow down at every intersection, but somewhere along the way I lost my desire to hit all the steepest hills on the GF course. I settled on riding only the nasty ones at the end of the GF course at the end of my ride. The rest of the ride would be only rollers, which in this heat was going to be plenty for me.

Lap one was done with little fanfare. Not sure what my average speed was but I know I was going faster than only 13-14mph last time I was riding on what was supposed to be the easier part of route. WTF??? Is it the heat? Am I dehydrated? Did I eat enough? Did I push too hard early on? Another slow leak in a tire?

It was hard to tell at first riding in a fairly barren area, but then it became obvious when I turned and got to an area that had some trees.

WHOOOSH! Yes, leaves were blowing off trees and coming toward me. Not a good sign. The skies had clouded up again and then huge water drops began thudding on my helmet. I knew what was coming ...

CRRRAACK!!! Crap, thunder.

Yep, MN was royally pissed now. She brought in a full-blown thunderstorm with 23-25 mph winds and driving rain to try to stop me. There was really no shelter out there and it'd take Dave 15-20 minutes to come get me (and by then the storm would most likely be gone) so I just kept pedaling. I struggled to keep my speed above 10 mph heading into the wind and rain but the more important thing I was doing was counting the number of seconds between the time I saw the lightening and heard the thunder. Fortunately, that time did not seem to be getting less so traversing those nasty hills late in the course, which are also some of the highest points in the area and where some tall power towers are located, should be OK. I hope!

The funny thing was that I think I climbed those hills the best I ever have. For one thing, the storm had dropped temps down into the 80's so it was considerably cooler than the other times I'd ridden them. But also, my adrenaline levels were red-lining. There was no way in heck I wanted to spend any extra time on those hills with all the thunder and lightening in the area (a lot of people who get hit by lightening are not in the midst of a storm but rather on the outward edges). All the rain, however, created rivers of water in the low areas of the road where I knew some cracks and wheel grabbing potholes were lying in wait so I could not coast downhills as fast as I normally would in dry conditions. And the fact that there were very few cars out on this road in the storm was both a good and bad thing. Good because I didn't have to worry much about them not seeing me or hitting me. Bad because if I got hit by lightening or crashed and couldn't call for help, there was no one around. (Dave would eventually see that I'm not moving on the GPS locator service we have with my cell phone, though, and find me as long as my phone was OK).

So, basically, I could not crash, that's all there was to it. Nothing I could do about lightening except try to stay away from tall stuff. Just don't crash. Don't crash. Don't crash.

I went up the hills and down them almost as slow. I gave myself ample time to brake and made sure to round corners carefully. I finally made it to the hotel with a total of 105.3 miles completed in 6:44:27 (15.6 mph avg). Whew!

By then it'd stopped raining but was still cloudy which was nice for my 5-mile brick run. Towards the end of the run, however, the sun came out again and it felt like 95 degs even at 5:30pm. Ugh ... 5 miles done in 49:25, a 9:53 pace. Better than I thought, actually, and Dave got 3 huge bags of ice for my ice bath to reward me. Thanks Dave 8-O

The next day Mother Nature came out fighting again with temps already feeling like low 80s at 7:45 am. Probably would have been better to run 18 miles in the evening when I'd be running during the race (and when things would hopefully be getting cooler rather than hotter late in the run) but I wanted to get the run over with early. My legs felt sluggish the first 3 miles but got better and I ran fine until around mile 10. Then the heat index was well over 90 again and even running largely in the shade felt so hot with the little wind there was. I envied all the cyclists I saw knowing they were creating their own breeze.

By mile 14, I went into survival mode taking regular walk breaks every mile to keep my HR down and to try to get as much fluids into me as possible. It was not pretty and I definitely did NOT finish as strong as I would have liked but I got 18 miles done in ~3:15 (10:50 pace, including walk breaks). I'll take it! Dave picked me up from where I finished, got another 3 huge bags of ice from the ice machine for my ice bath and today I'm feeling surprisingly good considering all I did this weekend.

I made it to my taper -- HOORAY!!!

----------------------
Weekend workout summary:
Fri 4500 yd swim: 4x1000s with five 100's thrown in the middle.
Sat 105.3 bike (15.6 mph) + 5 mi run (9:53 pace), 80-102 deg HI, 3700' climbing.
Sun 18 mi run (10:50 pace), 81-98 deg HI.

Iron Dilemma

2009-10-07T16:52:00.016-04:00

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on Dave. Luckily, he's home this week so I can "monitor" the fire ant damage and help ward off infection. One time he got several bites on his foot and it swelled into a big wiener so he couldn't put a shoe on it for days! Of course, that hasn't stopped him from walking around outside barefoot or sitting on the ground where those buggers may be ...

Anyhoo, I have a BIG dilemma and I need some input from you again.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this coming weekend will be my biggest week in training volume and then I get to taper. To date, most of my long runs have been done a day or so *before* my long rides. This was mainly because of Dave's travel schedule (he usually got home after midnight on Fridays and could not ride long on Saturdays). In an iron tri, however, you ride long and then run long and many iron training programs have you ride long on Saturdays and then run long on Sundays. This weekend will be the first and only time I will do that: Saturday - 105 mile bike plus a 5-mile run, Sunday - 18 mile run.

Now Coach has said I can actually do this last long ride on flats to spare Dave more agony (he really should not be riding hills in heat without a solid nutrition plan). But a big part of me actually wants to head back out to the hills again knowing that a few weeks ago I couldn't even imagine running after riding the new Great Floridian (GF) course and nearly bailed on doing the full distance. Last weekend, I rode 74 miles, the toughest parts of the course, and then ran 7 miles off the bike without too much difficulty, which makes me feel better but I'm still worried, esp. since the swim may very well turn out to be not wetsuit legal. This week's highs are still over 90 degs (~100 deg heat index) -- WAH!

So, here's my dilemma:

If I leave my loving, supportive (and itchy) husband at home and ride the GF course by myself this weekend, I'll get a much better sense of what to expect on race day. However, Dave will feel left out (cycling is the one activity we try to do together every week) and he'll worry about me being out there by myself, although it's fine by me (the riding alone part, not his worrying). More than likely, he'll force himself to come with me and do as much as he can again and, similarly, if he gets into trouble, it'll be hard to modify the route and there aren't many places to rest/refuel along the way. Plus, this weekend's weather looks to be even hotter than last weekend and so even if he does only half of the ride with me, he'll still have to wait 3-4 hours for me in the heat to finish my ride and run (even in the shade, it's plenty hot).

Alternatively, I could ride flats nearby our home with Dave and just hope the training I've done will carry me through the race. Riding flats is much easier for Dave in the heat. We can also do multiple loops passing by multiple places to rest/refuel as needed. He can head home and get out of the heat whenever he feels he's done and still be fairly close by while I'm out riding. However, riding flats is nothing like riding hills to me and doing so will not help my confidence much for GF, although it will help for B2B.

Please let me know what you think I should do!

Active Rest & Recovery

2009-10-05T13:34:00.023-04:00

This is a term I used to hear and say a lot when taking/teaching fitness classes a while back. Between intervals of high intensity stuff, we'd do intervals of low intensity stuff, such as jogging or jump rope. We never got to completely rest until we were done and one of the things that I remember thinking when I was first exposed to this type of training was that the instructor must be smoking crack. How on earth could jogging or jump roping be considered rest?

But after several weeks, it did get easier and I became a lot stronger both physically and mentally. And so it seems with my iron training. While it used to be that a half iron would pretty much wipe me out, now it's just a step-back or rest week for me. Coach gave me my usual one day off (Monday) after the FL Challenge and I was right back into training -- I mean, recovering -- so that it was business as usual by the weekend:

Fri - 15 mi run @ 8:51 pace, AHR 159, 83-86 deg HI. Last bit of the cold front!

Sat - 2x2000m open water swim, 1:35 w/ my wetsuit. It still feels like it's choking me but it doesn't bother me much after a while. I pray that GF will be wetsuit legal!!

Sun - 74 mi bike on the GF course minus flatter parts, 15.5 mph, AHR 141, 77-88 degs HI.
7 mi brick run @ 9:41 pace, AHR 158, 87-90 deg HI. Back to hot :-(

But no doubt the hardest thing about last weekend was seeing Dave suffer during the ride yesterday. Although he's not training for an ironman and has done very few rides over 50 miles in the heat, he wanted to go the whole way with me and I could not talk him out of it. He did fine until mile 60, but after that, the sun poured out through the clouds and we'd just begun the hilliest part of the course where there was virtually no shade. His HR skyrocketed and he had to dismount his bike and walk up one of the steepest hills. After making it to the top, he then had to go sit under a tree for a while to cool off. Not a good idea in FL!

Yep, a bunch of fire ants found him but he was too exhausted to move. Finally, he got up and we brushed off as many as we could from his shorts. He decided to take a different, flatter route back to the car but insisted that I go the original route to hit all the hills late in the GF course. I worried about him the whole way but found him back at the car waiting for me. Poor guy had gotten chills, probably from heat exhaustion, and also a severe rash from all the fire ant bites on his butt (he's somewhat allergic to them -- not a pretty sight). Even after my 7-mile run, he was still out of it so I drove us home. And wouldn't you know it, he has an appointment with a colonscopy doc today ...

Anyway, this coming weekend will be my biggest to date in terms of volume. Hopefully Dave will know his limits better (you try telling a former Marine that ;-). After that, I've got a 2 week taper going into GF and then 2 weeks to recover for B2B. Yikes, it's getting close!

Don't Blink!!

2009-09-30T09:53:00.014-04:00

Cuz it's not gonna last long.

This cold front, that is. Morning temps are below 70 for the first time since like April. There's a cool, crisp feeling to the air and NO wind. We're only going to get up to maybe 83 degs today. Incredible!!

Too bad my legs are not quite ready to run the 15-miler I have on tap for later this week. It's the perfect day for it. No, instead I have a swim to do. The lifeguards will probably be all bundled up in sweats shivering. Hell, I might have to wait until lunch time so I won't freeeeeze my patooey getting out. Do I even have any sweats?

Thanks for all the nice comments on my FL Challenge post. It was the most difficult half iron tri course I've done to date, even w/o the nutrition SNAFU, but I wouldn't want all races to be easy or go well, would I?

No, then it'd be boring and I'd have to move on to something more challenging :-)

Hope everyone has a great day!

2009 Florida Challenge

2009-09-28T21:32:00.029-04:00

Well, they don't call it The Intimidator for nothing. The Florida Challenge was already the toughest half iron tri in Florida with its hills, heat and humidity. There was really no need to move it up a month and change the bike course to make things even tougher. Good grief.

Still, it was a good opportunity for me to practice racing my own race as Coach would say, get more training on the Great Floridian (GF) course, work on my ironman pacing, nutrition, etc. Dave, however, put as much work into it as if it were a real race so I'll show off some of his photo handiwork :-)

As expected, the water temp was too warm to be wetsuit legal so, sorry, no funny pictures of me dancing or wriggling to put the rubber suit on.

But, does this swim cap make my head look FAT?

Out of the water in 53:38, not fast but a new non-wetsuit 1.2 mi swim PR for me and many pink caps still behind me. 8/10 F45-49, 38/53 Female.

T1 - a leisurely 3:58 with too much time spent trying to pull on my tri top (not easy when wet) and then running my bike all the way to the end and around the transition area as required to avoid colliding with folks coming in from the swim. So much for being close to the Bike Out. It meant you had further to run with your bike -- ARGH!

My HR was 171(!) by the time I got to riding and took several miles to settle down. Climbing hills out of the saddle didn't help. I know it's hard to tell with my short legs so just work with me here ...

But that was just for show. I sat back down as soon as I passed the camera ;-)

Halfway on the bike course and being a good girl now staying seated spinning up hills, coasting down them and letting everyone and their grandmother pass me.

Not a very aggressive aero riding position at all but I can ride forever and back.

56(?) miles done in 3:25:38 (16.3 mph). My Garmin and others I spoke to said 58+ miles but it is what it is. 6/10 F45-49, 20/53 Female.

T2 - another leisurely 3:50 thanks to a pit stop. Probably the only time I'll ever pee on my bike is when I'm desperate. On to the run!

Whoa, who put a brick in my Camelbak?! Man, it felt like it weighed 20# (really only 6-7).

What's worse, though, I just realized I've somehow lost all the gels I had in a pocket. $#?@%!!! Surely there'll be some gels or food on the course, right?

Nope, just fluids. And extra from Mother Nature too. But the rain made the 98 deg heat index plummet down into the 80's for a while --Ahh!

Finishing lap 1 of the 2-lap course, keeping things slow and easy. A kind volunteer had given me a small bag of chips her friend had (the friend wasn't too happy about that, I might add) and I had one emergency gel in a separate pocket. All was not lost.

Ate the gel at the 6.55 mile turnaround and decided to walk through all aid stations and drink as much Gatorade as possible for extra calories. Now it was solely about survival.

Ended up doing a lot more walking when the sun came back out but, fortunately, it rained again and my final mile ended up being my fastest -- Yippee! 13.1 miles done in 2:18:34 (10:34 pace), 4/10 F45-49, 20/53 Female. Not the run I'd hoped for but far from my worst.

Me and my beautiful racing buddy Erica. We leapfrogged and encouraged each other on the bike and run segments.

Final race time: 6:45:23, 5/10 F45-49, 20/53 Female. Funny, it does not feel like a half iron PW (Personal Worst) at all.

Maybe it's because of the awesome medal I got.

Or perhaps it's because I know now I'll be happy with any finishing time at GF, which, BTW, is only FOUR weeks away - OMG!!!

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

2009-09-21T14:48:00.022-04:00

No, not that one!

Poor Coach has been sounding like a broken record player lately getting me to focus on my original iron goals instead of the tantalizing one (sub-13) that came along later and preoccupied me.

It's hard for me to let go of time goals but it must be done. This weekend I did a carefree 50-mile ride with Dave that helped. We hit those nasty hills late in the Great Floridian iron course again and I didn't even look at my Garmin (obviously, as it had turned itself off when I hit a bump and didn't even record anything for miles!). Though those hills were still far from easy, knowing what to expect was HUGE. In hindsight, I really let those buggers get to me last weekend. I just couldn't believe the course would end that way. Plus, I pushed too hard on some flats shortly before them thinking they wouldn't/couldn't be as bad as the ones in the first half of the course. Wrong!

I should know better than to assume, especially with the GF race motto being "Are You Tough Enough?"

After that 50-mile ride, I ran mainly by feel and pounded out 5 mi @ 8:34 pace, a new best run off the bike in 95-96 deg heat index. And the night before I'd run 13 miles @ 9:07 pace in 91-88 degs HI (got cooler after sunset). Un-freaking-believable. Was it not me who was cursing and struggling to run in 90 degs just a few short months ago?

Next weekend I'm doing the Florida Challenge half iron tri. It's held at the same venue as the Great Floridian but with GF only 4 weeks later, it'll not be a hard racing effort for me. Just an opportunity to train on more hills and practice my pacing, nutrition and transitions in a race situation. Maybe I'll also practice some of the hill training "tips" I saw on the GF race forum:

- Remember it's also 1/2 down hill!
- Train by getting a single speed fat tire bike and do a couple centurys
- Lock your front brake for training rides.
- Switch your front and back rings
- Remember that you won't have to worry about drafting.
- Move to Switzerland for the month of September.
- Get Lite! Buy one of those balloon kits & replace one of your water bottles with the helium for you to suck on before each hill.
- Find an overpass and tie bricks to the back of your bike.
- Before it's to late send money to the FL. state officials in exchange for two loops of the flats.
- Start practicing running hills in your bike shoes?
- Go for rides wearing your full wetsuit.
- Keep tires inflated to 40 psi.
- Stuff bottom bracket with 1/4" aggregate rocks.
- Train riding 15-18% grade hills with standard (non-clipless) pedals.
- Put on a set of Power Cranks for those 15-18% grade hills.

OK, perhaps just the first one, but I think it's good to have a sense of humor about doing GF.

Much congrats to Petra on running a hard-fought Boston Marathon qualifying race time last weekend in Berlin!

Oops, I Did It Again

2009-09-18T12:50:00.018-04:00

Got WAY ahead of myself and lost sight of my original goal this year, which was "simply" to do 2 irons tris 2 weeks apart. No cares about finishing times, just make the cut-offs and have fun. After all, I am still an iron virgin!

I know this back-to-back iron nonsense may sound CRAZY to most of you, but I am someone who is motivated by the unusual. I'd much rather run marathons in all 50 states than shoot for a marathon PR (current PR 3:27:59). Only after running 21 marathons in 9 months did I dare try running my first-ever 5K. Ouch! To learn how to swim, I had to sign up for an Ironman (could not commit for anything less).

Some people have called me "hardcore" but I don't consider myself that, actually. WACKY would be a better description, I think.

But I am having fun, that's for sure. Perhaps too much at times as I have been accused of looking too smiley in my race photos. My apologies to anyone who may think I'm doing a disservice by making things look easy but I truly do feel fortunate to be alive and out there. In my younger days, I was a highly stressed out, malnourished workaholic who never thought (or cared if) she'd see her 40th birthday. Now approaching 50, I'm celebrating good health and making an effort to enjoy life whenever I can. And doing 2 irons this year, well, that just looked to me like a ticket to do more of that. (Plus, the training time and costs of doing both were not much different from doing one Ironman brand event anyway so it was like getting 2 for 1. And I am most definitely a bargain hunter :-)

But I must be reasonable with myself and Coach has put my head back on straight, again. My primary goal will be to start and finish both races healthy. If a certain desired race time (sub-13) comes with doing so, that's a bonus. If not, that's OK too. There'll be many opportunities for me to shoot for faster race times if I stay healthy and keep having fun.

So thank you to everyone who posted comments in my previous post. I'll be hitting the hills on the new GF bike course a few more times before race day (10/24) and by then should have one of only two thoughts:

A) Ready Freddy, all systems go.
or B) Still tougher than I'd like, but I got it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I Didn't Sign Up For This!

2009-09-14T16:01:00.024-04:00

OK, last week was rough. I missed 3(!) workouts due to time constraints while working on a special project. I only managed to swim 3 out of 4 planned crossings at Lucky's Lake (got a bad headache during the first crossing, had problems sighting and focusing, then by the 4th crossing it began to rain making visibility even more limited, plus I'd be the only one out there swimming, so I wimped out). But those things happen ...

The big surprise happened on Sunday. I discovered that the Great Floridian (GF) 112-mile bike course has been changed!!

And NOT for the better, IMO. In the past, it's been a hilly first third with a fairly FLAT second third and some gentle rollers the last third. Here is what the elevation map looks like for this year's race (created using Bike Route Toaster):

ARGHHH!!!

So now the second half is quite hilly too with the last 12 miles being the worst. WTF???

And, of course, I did NOT know this when I signed up for the race last year or when I signed up for Beach to Battleship (B2B), another full iron tri, two weeks later. Looking at the race forum discussions, it appears that the race director began a thread talking about a bike course change just last July. Crap ...

Well, yesterday Dave and I did an organized bike ride called the Assault on Sugarloaf, which is the GF bike course, and found out the hard way. We didn't have time to study the course map or turn-by-turn instructions they gave us that morning so we just followed the orange arrows, like everyone else. But at ~mile 40, I knew something was up when we rolled past the turn-off for the flat section of the previous GF bike course and started heading back to the start. Then I realized that sign we saw earlier painted on the road (something about a 2nd lap) meant we'd be hitting the hills again. YIKES!

But the course is nice and flat for a bit early on. We resisted temptations to latch onto pace lines.

An aid station at ~mile 50. Thus far, we've ridden on hills, through rain and now the sun is coming out to bake us. What a welcome sight in the middle of nowhere.

Never let someone take a picture of you eating a banana.

At the halfway point, Dave is done. It began raining again as I headed out for the rest.

It was a lonely ride but I did see a few folks later at the aid stations. I'd be surprised if 50 people did the whole 112 miles.

But I was one of them. 112.4 miles in 6:54, a 16.3mph avg. Not a bad ride for me considering my Garmin said the course had ~5200 ft climbing (nearly double what I had anticipated!), we had rainy/wet conditions at times and there was no traffic control (so we had to obey all traffic laws). After I got done, Dave also discovered that my rear tire was not fully inflated (must have rolled over something and had a slow leak). Possibly it wasn't just the hills that turned me into a slug late in the ride?

Still, my legs were beat. Here are my thoughts about the new course:

Mi 1-60 - What I expected from the orig GF course so all is good.
Mi 60-100 - More hills than I'd like but manageable.
Mi 100-112 - Brutal, esp. in 90+ deg heat. I think I'm going to be sick.

So with that, I am rethinking my game plan knowing that this new GF bike course is going to wreak havoc on my race goals and the quick recovery I need to do B2B two weeks later. I need some input from you guys. What would you do or suggest?

A) Bail on GF and make B2B my "A" race.

B) Change to do the GF olympic distance race offered the same day and make B2B my "A" race.

C) Change to do the GF aquabike event (2.4 swim, 112 bike) offered the same day and make B2B my "A" race.

D) Do GF as planned but with modified race goals and hope to recover fast enough for a better finish at B2B.

(There is no bailing on B2B as my step-daughter and son-in-law are coming to cheer for me at that race, plus it's my birthday weekend)

OK, so please let me hear your thoughts. Hope none of your races have major course changes that would make them much harder either.

PS - Still way behind in my blog reading but trying to catch up before my Google Reader explodes!

Just a Quickie

2009-09-08T12:05:00.011-04:00

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm short on time this week working on a special project so just some quick bullets with thoughts and happenings from last week.

New swimming motivation - Did another 4K swim at Lucky's Lake on Saturday. With now 10 crossings under my belt, I'd been thinking of joining the haloed 100K Club (those who've done 100 crossings). But after I got done, a guy told me he'd seen a small 3 foot gator on the other side earlier in the morning, and I don't think he was kidding. Dam gator! Now I'm going to have to swim faster and get all my crossings done before that thing gets too big for comfort.

Lightbulb moment - For the first time in months, Dave was actually home all week and he kicked my @ss on the bike on Sunday. We had 100 miles to ride and after mile 60, I had to back way off the 18-19 mph pace we were going to be able to finish the ride in good shape and run afterwards. Dave felt sorry for me and stuck with me. We ended up with a 17.3 mph avg but I ran the best I ever have off the bike, 4 miles at a 8:49 pace in 94 degs heat index. Click! I remembered what I was told at an IMFL training camp back in 2006: Give up 15 min on the bike and gain up to 45 min on the run. I believe it now.

More running in circles - I found another indoor marathon! This one's called The InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon and it's held in January in Wisconsin, a state I've not yet run in which is good. And it involves running "only" 95.4 laps vs. the 150 I ran at the Zoom Yah Yah Indoor Marathon last January in Minnesota since the track is bigger (443m vs. 282m). It's a guaranteed flat course with dry 50-55 deg conditions, no wind, 95 aid stations, 190 opportunities to use porta-potties. I don't think I can resist :-)

50 in 50 by 49? - And speaking of marathons, originally, I was planning to complete my 50 states marathon quest in 2011 when I turned 50 but I've been thinking why wait? I only have 8 marathons/states left to do (WY, NM, WI, WV, DE, CT, RI, and VT) and could do them all next year. There are just so many unknowns in this economy. Some races are struggling due to sponsor cutbacks and traveling has become increasingly more difficult, esp. using frequent flyer miles, which I try to do whenever possible. Then there's the lure of moving to Hawaii early. Who wouldn't want that?

Anyway, back to my project. I'll be catching up on what you've all been up to by the weekend!

Back in the Food Chain

2009-08-31T12:16:00.021-04:00

Gators, snakes, turtles, oh my!

Has it really been nearly 2 years since I last swam at Lucky's Lake and got my patch?

Well, Coach put an end to that streak last Saturday morning. This time I did 4 round-trip crossings vs. 2 (each one is 1K long), my longest swim this year and my first non-wetsuit open water swim over 2K ever!

The water temp was 85 degs but I did see a couple people wearing sleeveless wetsuits. Some had noodles in tow, others had fins, snorkels, you name it. I wore fins only on my last crossing since my arms were quite tired. That way I knew for sure I could make it. The rule is if you have any doubts, don't do it!

Because there are NO lifeguards or people on kayaks watching over you. And you know there's NO such thing as a guaranteed gator-free lake in FL.

Just to remind you and give you a "fuller" FL lake swimming experience, Lucky, the owner of the house whose backyard we start from, has placed a couple decorative gators right at the water's edge. Nice guy, huh?

Before we got started, I saw something breaking the surface of the water near some reeds by the shore. Just a turtle it turned out. Whew!

And soon we were off. Here's a photo from the Lucky's Lake Swim website to give you an idea of what the lake looked like. There was a much bigger turnout Saturday morning, though, like about hundred swimmers, which was nice. The more links in the food chain, the better!

Most folks did 1 or 2 crossings. I was going for 3-4 so I asked Dave to float along next to me on the last 2 for added safety. It worked out great, I thought, until I found out that the fins he was wearing hurt his foot a lot (he's been having top of the foot pain lately). Next time I'm on my own so I'd better get faster so I can swim while there are still others out there.

One of the last to get out but all limbs still attached. 11,524 yards in 3 swims last week!

My post-swim treat: jalapeno bagels, one of my favorite foods. Dave brought some home for me when he went through the Chicago airport on Thursday. Thanks Dave!!

Saturday afternoon, I put 10 miles in on a gym treadmill at a 7:50 pace. The cool, dry 70-80 deg indoor temps felt soooo nice to run in and, really, I wasn't wussing out. I was actually trying to be smart about not overdoing things in the heat for a change. And, of course, that 4K swim earlier did take some energy out of me already so I didn't want to push things too much.

Because Sunday I was to do a "short" 50 mi bike ride followed by a 13 mi brick run. The ride ended up being 59.3 miles (18.6 mph avg) but the run was right on. Don't want to run any extra in the heat! Ended up with a 9:51 pace in 93-94 degs heat index, which is on the low side of my iron marathon goal pace range so very happy with that. It seems that wearing a Camelbak is really helping me stay much better hydrated. I might even wear it during part of the marathon at the Great Floridian depending on how hot race day will be.

So ends another iron training week for me. Congrats to everyone who completed IM Canada and IM Louisville!

9 Weeks Till GF

2009-08-24T16:22:00.025-04:00

And I am NOT freaking out. I am NOT freaking out. I am NOT freaking out.

But maybe I should be?

I mean, a little fear is healthy, right? 140.6 miles is a long ways to go, right? The Great Floridian (GF) is a race that most locals avoid, right? And to do another iron tri two weeks later is just plain nuts, right?

RIGHT???

Well, I don't seem to know what's right any more and I blame my coach. I think he's been slipping some delusional drugs into my recovery drink to keep me calm and lacing my workout routes with subliminal messages telling me that I was born to do ironmans and that two are better than one (born to do ironmans, two are better than one ...)

No, just kidding!!

But what he has done with me since February has been pretty remarkable. At the start of this year, I felt old and broken down with frustrating, lingering hamstring issues (from back in July 08) that were hampering my running, right arm/shoulder pains that were bothering my swimming, and haunting memories from a bike crash in Feb 08 that were still making me ride like a little old lady going down hills and around corners. Where's my little basket and cane?

Now 7 months after working with him, though, I'm feeling good and very positive about my racing again. I'm nearly as fast (or maybe faster?) as I used to be when I was in my best running shape, late 2005-early 2006, and now I'm running only 2-3 days per week (20-30 MPW). I'm swimming better than I ever have and pain-free most of the time. And my cycling, well, 98 miles yesterday never felt so easy. I averaged 17.8 mph for the first 70 miles with Dave and another guy, then rode harder on my own for the rest (per Coach that was OK) and ended up with an 18.1 mph avg and plenty left over in the tank to do more -- YES! That's the best I've ever felt after riding ~100 miles.

This post is basically to answer some questions that Meg Runs had asked me about coaching, which I think has been key for me this year.

Do you have a tri coach?
Yes. I've worked with a running coach and a tri coach in a group training setting before but this is the first time I've worked one-on-one with a coach who's designing a training program just for me, a HUGE difference.

How has that helped you with your training overall?
As I mentioned above, Coach has fixed me up and gotten me strong again. He did this by getting me back to strength training & stretching regularly and also by having me cut back on volume (Gasp!) and do more speed work (Yikes!), all things I was reluctant to do on my own. What I also love about having a coach is having more time and less worry. I spend ZERO time figuring out my training (that's his job) and just do what he tells me. And he doesn't usually give me my workouts more than a week in advance so I can't fret about what I don't know and can only focus on the current week at hand (which is good because am the Master of Putting Extra Unnecessary Stress on Myself!). I completely trust* that he will get me to race day in shape to meet my goals so I actually don't worry much about the race any more either. But, to make this work, I have to do and track my workouts diligently (miles, paces, conditions, how I felt, etc.), and my nutrition too as they go hand in hand for me. All the logging is sort of a pain but I have to say that this coaching has worked out much better than I could have ever imagined and it's nice to be able to see progress outside of race results (particularly when training more than racing for a change).

*This trust is something that has evolved over time. I'm actually a control freak by nature and had a hard time initially letting go of control over my workouts. But I made substantially more progress in 2-3 months working with Coach than I had in 6 months to a year on my own so I learned to let go.

Do you recommend specific running coaches or is this someone that lives near you?
Coach Bill does live in my area but our communication is largely via an online interactive training log and email. IMHO, choosing the right coach is much like choosing the right haircut. It's highly individual and very much dependent on your personality and needs. I talked to 5 different coaches last year. Three of them were referred to me from others and they coached everyday athletes as well as pro and elite level triathletes. One coach I worked with for a while via the local tri club and Coach Bill actually found me, I think, through a local bike e-newsletter in which I was mentioned. Whatever the case, it turned out Coach Bill and I got along the best, by far. He's a strong runner and has also done some crazy ultra events himself so my desire to do two irons in two weeks didn't faze him. He's very responsive by email (my preferred communication) and didn't put any limits on how many times I could contact him like some did. He also wasn't going to charge me an arm and a leg or make me buy a bunch of training gadgets to get started. I'm old-school at heart and often forget to bring/wear gadgets or look at them if I do!

For anyone interested in or on the fence about looking for a coach, I'd suggest also reading DC Rainmaker's Thoughts on Triathlon Coaching. Many of the points he makes I agree with and I think they'd apply to any coach, really, not just a triathlon coach.

Hope everyone's training is going well!

I Just Had To Post This Too!

2009-08-19T11:28:00.011-04:00

This is one of the most inspiring videos I've seen in a while and it's not an ad for Nike, Ironman or some company, which makes it even better in my book. Check it out.

For anyone who doesn't already know, I DNF'd my first Ironman race in 2006. Thanks to SpokaneAl and Michelle Sidles for posting it.

OMG, I'm One of Them!

2009-08-17T22:56:00.073-04:00

Three years ago when training for Ironman Florida 2006, I used to see amazing people swimming laps back and forth effortlessly in the pool. Occasionally Dave and I would see a brave woman riding solo out on the roads in the middle of nowhere. I saw a few crazies running in the worst heat of the day.

How the hell do these people do it?

I was quite new to tris back then.

Good swim technique? Eh, I just want to survive the 2.4 mi swim and go on to my better sports.

Riding confidence? Who are we kidding? I could ride long but barely in a straight line let alone fix a flat tire.

Heat tolerance? I think I wore out the belt on my treadmill that year.

What I was missing was love for the sport. Truthfully, I was really just a runner who was dabbling in tris then. I had the time and desire to train for an ironman but not really the heart or passion. (As some of you may recall, my main reason for signing up was to learn how to swim, as in freestyle, that cool stroke that real swimmers did. Seriously, I hated swimming so much that nothing less than an ironman would have gotten me to do it!)

But without a doubt, heart and passion are driving me now. And what a difference. When things don't go right, like two weekends ago, there are some tough times, oh yes, but there are no "Why the f*ck am I doing this?" moments. Trust me, there were a LOT of those in 2006. This time, the answer is clear: Because You Know You Love Tris.

Yep, I'm a sick puppy. Good or bad, I am happy and thankful to complete every workout. Each one, even a bad one, is much better than what I could do back in 2006. Even when plodding along painfully and slowly, I know I am getting stronger mentally and learning some new lessons that will help me later. At a minimum, I'm getting more heat training and respect for the iron distance, for Mother Nature and for myself. Each one is a deposit in my training bank, as many like to say, and a step closer to who I want to be and where I want to be in a few years.

The only part that is not really fun for me, however, is the nutrition side. Before this year, I've never really had to make major changes to my diet and routine. For 50+ marathons, I just drank water (or sports drink in a race) when I felt like I needed to and consumed gels every few miles, maybe an salt cap or two if it was a warm race and I remembered to bring them. So simple! But now things are serious, perhaps even a matter of life or death when training for much longer in severe heat and often alone (Dave can't ride with me for more than 50 miles in such heat and no one I know wants to run long in it. Can't blame them!). I've got to put aside fun and do what's necessary.

So every day I'm studying food labels closely, logging food, weighing myself before and after each workout, estimating sweat rates, salt losses and calorie expenditures. I need to make sure I don't overdo things earlier in the week (Coach said every workout does not need to be in the heat!) and that I get enough fuel & fluids into me before the long weekend workouts.

That said and done, I'm happy to say last weekend went great!

Fri - Swim 3100 yds w/ 15x100 yds. Not effortless per se, but swam four 1:45s (Fast for me!)
        and broke 100 miles in swimming this year (I'm Tropical :-) - w00t.
Sat - Run 17 mi, 90-97 deg HI, 9:56 avg pace, neg split, AHR 158 (Z2).
Sun - Bike 85.22 mi, 76-96 deg HI, flat, winds 4-14 mph, 17.5 mph, neg split, AHR 133 (Z1).
        Brick run 5.22 mi, 97 deg HI, 8:55 pace, neg split, AHR 157 (Z2)

So I feel ready to share what I'm doing nutrition-wise in case it may help anyone else. Note I'm usually 122-123# but can fluctuate +/- 2 to 3# day to day depending on my hydration level.

Daily calorie intake M-W 2000-2500 cals.
Daily calorie intake Th-Su 2500-3000 cals, plus extra fuel & fluids during long Sat-Sun workouts as follows:

Long runs (per hr) - 30-40 oz fluids*,
     100-200 cals (1-2 gels),
     550-750 mg sodium** (gels, Nuun, salt caps)
Long rides (per hr) - 30-40 oz fluids,
     300-400 cals (CarboPro, Gatorade, Clif Bars, Perpeteum***),
     650-750 mg sodium** (Gatorade, Clif Bars, Perpeteum, salt caps)

* Even drinking 140 oz fluids during and after Saturday's 17-miler, I was down 2# when I got home, meaning I lost like 11# during the run!! My sweat rate when running in 90+ degs and high humidity is actually 50-60 oz/hr(!) but my body can't absorb more than 30-40 oz/hr. So I've been working on gaining a couple extra pounds of water weight (i.e., carbo loading) before every long workout. Thus, even if I lose a few pounds, I'll be back to or close to where I usually am.
** Haven't had any low salt issues but plan to up my sodium intake to the recommended 1 gm/ hour. For the run, I'll add a sports drink, which will also add more calories (can probably handle up to 300). On the bike, either more salty foods or more salt caps. I already do eat extra salt in my diet before my long workouts.
*** Though I ran well after the long bike, I had some noticeable gas issues after consuming Perpeteum late in the ride when CarboPro and solid food were no longer appealing. Googling tells me I'm not the only one (I don't handle soy or whey protein well). I'll be trying some things next time to try to minimize that. Sorry Dave and anyone near me!

Final note, I've decided against using a one-product-does-it-all nutrition like Infinit. Mainly, I don't have the time to dial down a formula (or two) that will work in 80-90+ degs (Great Floridian Iron Tri) as well as 50-70 degs (Beach To Battleship Iron Tri) two weeks later so I'm starting with what I know works for me in the heat and will adjust accordingly for the cooler race. To do that, I need maximum flexibility that a pre-mixed formula won't allow.

Family Reunion

2009-08-11T12:53:00.019-04:00

Well, I'm not sure how much rest I actually got last week with 2 days spent traveling to attend a family reunion for 3 days but, technically/training-wise, it was a rest week:

Swim - 1 (3500 yds)
Bike - 2 (81.6 mi)
Run - 3 (27 mi)
Strength Training - 1
Total Hours: 11:43 - Yikes, still seems a lot.

But, I got to be with hubby Dave for 5 days in a row (which doesn't happen often unless we're on vacation) and escape the heat and humidity for a bit -- Woohoo!

The purpose of the reunion was to celebrate Dave's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. It'd been many years since all the kids and grandkids had been together and we all stayed at the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA, which is ~40 mi east of Portland, OR, on the north side of the Columbia River. Dave and I got there Wednesday night and were departing Sunday morning while others were there for a whole week. LIFO (Last In First Out) is better than NDOS (No Dave Or Shirley). We crammed in a lot while we were there, though. See for yourself :-)

Thursday, our first full day there, Dave and I got up early to hit the gym for a quick workout and then went on an all day tour of Mt. St. Helens, WA, with everyone else. We donned blue hats (really visors but we kept calling them hats) that said "Pratt's 50th." Hey, at least we didn't have to all wear the same camp t-shirt.

As I shivered in the 60 deg temps looking at where Mt. St. Helens was supposed to be (see previous post below), Dave did his usual thing in a short sleeved polo shirt.

My step-daughter and son-in-law horsing around while two other Blue Hat Group members tested a park ranger's knowledge of the big boom that occured back in 1980.

Son-in-law killing time on the bus ride back.

Friday morning, Dave and I went for a chilly 30 mile bike ride (60 degs felt like 50 degs with 20-30+ mph winds - Oh my!) and then I ran laps around Stevenson for 8-miles to warm back up (it's a very small town). In the afternoon, the Blue Hat Group all went on a paddle boat tour of the Columbia River. Oh joy, more cold and wind.

Saw many of the usual sights you might expect along the river (bridges, fishing platforms, islands, etc.), but did not expect to see kayakers coming up behind the boat to surf in its wake. Is there anything people don't surf these days?

Got a closer view of one of the daredevils enjoying the winds along the Gorge that make it one of the top places in the world to windsurf and kiteboard (shown here). Cycling, perhaps not so much but what do dumb tourists like us know?

Friday evening, we attended a concert featuring Aaron Meyer, a rock violinist. Thank goodness, it had been moved indoors. Dave's parents seemed to have fun. (No, that's not me in the red)

Saturday morning, Dave and I set out for a 50 mile ride along the Gorge. This time I made sure to wear my windbreaker in addition to two layers while riding against the wind. Here I am climbing a 3-mile long hill generating enough heat to operate a small camera.

At the turnaround, I strip down to two layers. We climb back up the big hill and took a break near the top at Cape Horn (not Pe Ho). Dave's helmet has given him a Squiggy hairdo.

The kids enjoyed the break and view as well.

Dave in orange approaching Beacon Rock, a popular rock climbing spot. He was in heaven riding in the cool weather and hard to keep up with, especially on the downhills!

Me near Bonneville Dam about 5 miles from the hotel. Now with the wind behind us, temps near 70 and over 3000 feet of climbing done, my legs are finally feeling good. What is it with me and 50 mile warmups?

We beat a slow moving barge going upriver.

A post-ride treat to get the legs ready for high heels in the evening. Eek!

Dave with his mom in the hotel corridor. We all had rooms nearby each other so no escaping seeing each other for long.

Me along with two of Dave's more colorful siblings.

At the formal dinner Saturday evening, a toast to 50 years of marriage.

On a 6am Sunday flight back to Orlando. How in the world did this week go by so fast?

Thanks to my brother-in-law Tim for providing several of the pictures above so I could have more to share from our trip.

Welcome to Iron Training

2009-08-07T10:16:00.012-04:00

It's not supposed to be easy right, right?

Two weekends ago, I sailed through my long workouts thinking I'd conquered the heat. Last weekend, however, we were back at war and taking no prisoners:

Fri - 3500 yd swim (7x500, 1:17, no wall push-offs, 85 deg pool temp), plus a weight workout
Sat - 14 mi run (9:53 pace in 96-99 deg HI). Last mile a major struggle, though.
Sun - 85 mi bike (15.8! mph ave in 79-98 deg HI) + 4 mi run (9:44 pace in 96-98 deg HI)

What was the difference?

Perhaps the even hotter conditions and further distances but, more likely, I just didn't get to the weekend fully rested, replenished and ready to do battle. Besides not drinking enough after my super hot weight workout and also doing a couple hours of yard work, I also noticed that a lot of foods just didn't seem appealing to me. Hot foods made me feel hotter, dry foods made me feel thirstier and just chewing sometimes seemed to require too much effort. Ah, I'll just take a nap instead!

So by the weekend, I'm sure my fluid and glycogen tanks were not full as they should have been. And, of course, I realized this around mile 8 of my 14 mile run on Saturday when there was nothing much I could do about it except try to not make it worse. Yeah, right ... not likely while running in 90 bazillion degs! I felt my heart rate rising, legs starting to feel heavy, a bit of lightheadedness and queasiness -- Not good!

I managed to get the run done but dreaded the long brick (85 mi bike/4 mi run) the next day. I knew it was going to be even uglier (18 hours is not enough time to replenish fluid and glycogen levels) and, to make matters worse, Dave was gone over the weekend so he wasn't around to cheer me up or pick me up if I fell over from heat exhaustion.

But Sunday turned out to be where I've probably made the most gains I have ever in my iron training. I learned how to keep riding for an additional 55 miles when my legs were ready to quit after just 30 and how to summon a 7:36 mile out of myself after a grueling bike ride (Coach said the first mile was supposed to be hard and it was). Also, another remarkable discovery: there is nothing wrong with biking only 13-14 mph and running a 10-11+ min pace -- I'm still still going forward!

So three big lessons learned for me:

- Make sure to hydrate and fuel up well before the long weekend workouts as well as during and after. Heat is unforgiving.
- Bring a variety of foods/drinks. My stomach is very finicky in the heat and gets tired of the same thing after a few hours.
- Even if my body is near empty, I can keep going (albeit slower) if I stick with my nutrition plan (to come).

Oh, and another thing ...

60 degrees is frickin' freezing when you've been used to living and training in 85+ degrees!!

Dave and I (with 2 jackets on) at Johnson's Ridge, an observatory point for Mt. St. Helens (WA), which was hiding from us behind the cover of clouds.

Multnomah Falls (OR) from our tour bus going along the Columbia Gorge.

I'll be catching up with everyone next week when I get back from my family reunion. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Confession

2009-07-29T14:55:00.018-04:00

With Dave usually on travel during the week, there is no one in my house but my fish to witness what I do. And they do have a way of tattling on me. But I've been sneaking around them.

What have I been doing?

Well, anyone who knows me well knows I'm an over-doer by nature. I can do the right or wrong things to the point it doesn't really matter which I've done. In particular, I think I maybe overdoing this heat training stuff. At home, not even going outside, LOL.

The main part of our house is set to 82 degs and this is primarily so that I don't kill any more aquarium fish (they don't seem to like it when their water temps get above 84-86). The rest of the house, however, can get much hotter, especially upstairs where our home gym is located. Ahhh ... If I'm working, working out or sleeping in a room for a while, I usually set the thermostat for that zone to 85 (if Dave were around, usually the temp would be 77-82). Last night, though, I did a weight workout upstairs and the thermostat read 99(!). Bah, why turn on the A/C? I can handle the heat now, plus I'll be saving on our electric bill.

Well, I think I paid for it this morning in the pool. Just felt tired and unable to stay as focused. It was only a 2000 yd workout and I even skipped a 50, I later found out when recording the yardages and paces from my watch. Couldn't even count to 4!

At first I thought it was just lifting too much too late but Dave reminded me that I'd also done a very hot workout. Oh yeah, forgot about that part. And did I drink much while I was dripping and leaving puddles all over the place? NO (maybe 12 oz). Or afterwards? Noooo, too tired. DOH!

Another one of those stupid fathead things I do from time to time. In my zeal to HTFU and JUST DO IT, I just don't think sometimes.

Anyway, gotta go outside and do my yard now. Anyone ever try attaching a bike aero bottle to their mower?

Tag About Threes

2009-07-27T04:37:00.047-04:00

Saw this fun tag on Wendy's blog. I am not going to tag anyone either but if you want to do it, consider yourself tagged!

Three names I go by:
1. Shirley
2. ShirleyPerly
3. Muffin (Dave's nickname for me)

Three jobs I have had in my life:
1. Computer consultant (now)
2. Oceanographer/Computer Scientist (out of college)
3. Waitress (first-ever job)

Three places I have lived:
1. Orlando, FL (where I am most of the time)
2. La Jolla, CA (where I attended grad school)
3. Richmond, CA (where I grew up)

Three favorite drinks:
1. Coffee (usually only in the mornings)
2. Diet cola (not picky about brand)
3. POM Wonderful pomegranate juice*

Three TV shows that I watch right now:
NONE - I don't have time to watch TV! (no cable either)

Three places I have been recently:
1. Kailua Kona, HI (June-July)
2. San Diego, CA (June)
3. Fargo, ND (May)

Three people who e-mail me regularly:
1. Hubby Dave
2. Coach Bill
3. Karen (work associate)

Three of my favorite foods:
1. Grilled salmon (a rare treat, maybe 2-3 times a year)
2. Strawberries (an occasional treat a few times a year)
3. Jalapeno bagels (when I fly through Chicago-ORD)

Three things I'm looking forward to:
1. Moving to Hawaii full-time
2. Being able to swim 100 yards in 1:30
3. Doing a race with my grandkids (when I have some and they're old enough)

*I got some samples of POM Wonderful recently -- WOW! I really like the taste of it (kind of a tart grape-cranberry flavor to me) and it's loaded with anti-oxidants, great for me because even though I eat a lot of fruits & veggies, I know I don't eat much foods high in antioxidants. And I know I should but I'm a LAZY eater who's content to eat the same ol' foods unless a change is obviously needed (say, I'm getting sick or feeling weak). This makes it easy, though. Thanks POM!

_________________________

Workout-wise, another tough weekend but I nailed my nutrition and all went well:

Fri - 3000 yd swim (3x1000, new 1000 yd swim PR of 19:41) + strength training
Sat - 12 mi run (11am, 91-93 deg HI, 9:46 pace, neg split, AHR 151 - low Z2)
Sun - 70 mi bike (17.5 mph, 81-96 deg HI, flat course, low wind, neg split, AHR 140 - hi Z1)
+ 8 mi run (noon, 96-94 deg HI, 9:16 pace**, neg split, AHR 157 - Z2)
**About 30 sec faster than my iron marathon goal pace (see blue box to the right) but felt great and was trying to beat a thunderstorm that was moving in.

I'm not sure why Coach scheduled this week's long brick workout the day after the long run but it was a nice change and I'm not gonna complain :-) I will talk more about my nutrition in an upcoming post. That and dealing with the heat are probably the two biggest challenges in my iron quest this year.

Chain Condom???

2009-07-22T23:25:00.055-04:00

No, it's not something kinky. It's something bikey! Helps keep bike chain grease from getting all over the place: in your car, in rental cars, in suitcases, in hotel rooms, in your house and even in your bed! (Dave steps on it barefoot, it goes where he goes). Warning: If you ship it to work, you might get questions from nosey co-workers who see the package.

Yippee! I got my invite, based on my finish at the RnR Man Half Iron. But I won't be doing it, unfortunately. I'm doing another half iron the weekend after and that one will be an important test of how I handle the heat at The Great Floridian. Still, nice to have made the cut!

The stock market the last couple days? No, it's my HR during my Tues run. 5 miles, no problemo -- HA! It was evil at 6pm in temps that still felt like 90+ degs and totally obvious I haven't done much hard effort running recently ... UGH.

Mile 1 warm-up (9:09, AHR 146) - Plenty warm after just 10 steps.
Mile 2 hard (6:56, AHR 165, max 182) - ouch, Ouch, OUCH!!
Mile 3 easy (11:43, AHR 149) - Gasp, I'm dying :-(
Mile 4 hard (7:07, AHR 169, max 183) - Oh no, not again!!!
Mile 5 cool-down (9:28, AHR 157) - I'm too old for this stuff.
Lesson learned: Mornings or 7pm would be better for speed work.

My Garmin FR 305 arrives tomorrow! Been using Dave's old Garmin Edge 305 for biking & running but it has no wristband so I've been carrying it in a Fuel Belt pocket, not ideal when needing to monitor pace and HR often (running by feel is unreliable for me in the heat, as you can see from the splits above). Why not the new Garmin 310XT? Too expensive, plus it seems to have bugs that need working out. (Update 7/25: Kevin has figured out how to get the 310 working!)

Drats! And no spare swim cap with me, of course. But I could still wear it so I decided to go ahead with my swim today and fiddle with it as needed (I have a LOT of hair and can't swim without a cap). 6x500, 1 min rest in between, easy-med-fast-med-easy-fast. Swam a new fastest 500yd time of 9:21 (1:52/100yd) -- Whoohoo!!!

Fight the Pudge

2009-07-19T22:12:00.102-04:00

Well, I'm back in Orlando now and the first couple workouts here have gone well. But this was sort of a recovery week and Mother Nature foiled my plans to run 8 miles in the heat of the day by brewing up a thunderstorm. It was 91 degs (heat index 99) when I started out and it dropped down to 82 degs (HI 87) by the time I got done -- Heavenly!

But I know I won't always be so lucky so I must continue to fight the pudge. Pudge?

Yes, for me, this is mainly excess adipose tissue in between my ears that causes me to want to be lazy and take the easy way out, or seek comfort in doing only the things I want to work on, which are not usually the things I need to work on. It has also been known to lead to FS (Fathead Syndrome) whereby I think I can pull a rabbit out of a hat without having either a rabbit or a hat.

Like here at my first-ever tri.

What idiot thinks you really don't need to be comfortable in water to swim 400m?

But this year, I'm committed to fighting the pudge, specifically, training hard but also training smart. The Great Floridian, the first of my two iron tris, is notoriously hot and hilly (for FL). Only the swim will probably be in sub-80 deg temps.

So I've been compiling a list of things to help me stay motivated out in the heat whilst most folks I know near me are doing their best to avoid it. FWIW, here's what I got:

- Make sure to stay well hydrated. This is an obvious one but one that I still struggle with as I hate to stop to pee during a bike ride or run. It's getting better, though. I'm planning my routes more carefully to go by places to refill my fluid bottles and make pit stops, as well as giving my body more time to do its business before heading out. One good thing about "wanting" to train in the heat is I don't have to leave super early and can go whenever I feel ready.

- Prepare for the worst. Coach says there's nothing like training in heat - painful sometimes but it will really help you get your nutrition down and be ready for anything on race day. Nuff said.

- Bring a little of Hawaii with you. This may not apply to everyone but wearing one of several colorful items I bought there makes the heat seem more tolerable. I remember the island's beauty and am also reminded that someday I hope to qualify for a certain Kona race and that racing well in heat is a must for that.

- Log weather conditions and HR too. Like logging food or weight, numbers only make sense if you know their context and what's right for you. Faster is not better if you're working way outside your target HR zone and progress can be seen even if you don't go any faster in the same conditions but are able to do so at a lower HR. Weather numbers will also be useful for the next item.

- Use the Daniels Running Calculator. Seeing what your equivalent running times/paces would likely be in cooler temps will make you feel better about running slower in heat. My recent Kona half marathon time of 1:40:26, for instance, is equivalent to a 1:37:33 in 60 degrees or less. Only 26 seconds off my half mary PR!

- Compare your performance relative to others'. Just because a PR is unlikely at a hot race doesn't mean you can't still race well. More often than not when it's hot, I find that I move up in the AG and overall standings, which is always nice. Bring on global warming! JK ;-)

- Remember that training in heat will make you stronger. It's a hardship that your body and mind can adapt to and will become stronger from. I should be taking advantage of all that I have right outside my door. Do athletes who live in Colorado avoid training on hills or at altitude?

- Cool your body down ASAP when you're done. Dipping in a cool pool or sitting in an ice water bath while sipping a cold recovery drink feels soooo good after a hot long workout. They are also great for short term memory loss so I can get out there and do it again.

Feel free to leave your tips on embracing the heat or fighting pudge in general!

Iron Mumbo Jumbo

2009-07-13T04:04:00.057-04:00

Sorry, no new photos from the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce today. This is just an update on my iron training. I'm now 5 months into it with only 4 to go!

And this weekend was a biggie, the first one clearly beyond my half iron comfort zone. Poor Dave missed out (he had to return to the mainland last weekend) so it was just me and training partners myself and I. We psyched ourselves up by first reviewing the IM time goals that Coach and I discussed last month following the Rock 'n Roll Half Iron:

Swim 1.2 mi - 1:30 (2:07/100y) with a wetsuit
Bike 112 mi - 6:30-6:45 (16.6-17.23 mph)
Run 26.2 mi - 4:15-4:30 (9:44-10:18 pace)
Total race time - sub-13 hours.

Note: I know better than to think that everything will go according to plan on race day so these numbers are just to act like a hot poker stick for me in training. Although I have yet to complete an iron distance tri, this go-around I want to give myself the chance to do more than just try to make the cut-offs because, one, I think I can and, two, I'm no longer content with squeaking by, not by choice anyway. Gotta keep things fun and interesting!

Then off we went to do the workouts:

Friday - Swam 3500 yds: 7x500 with 1:00 min rest @ 2:04/100 avg pace. As directed, I practiced sighting, breathing every 5 strokes to build lung capacity (I prefer breathing every 3 or 4) and did some "fast" and endurance paced 500s (1:55-2:02/100). This was my longest swim since 2006 and a far cry from where I used to be back then, indeed, even at the start of this year when just one 500 was not all that easy for me, really. Check plus.

Saturday - Rode 75 mi: Total avg speed 16.6 mph, the lower end of my IM bike goal pace range, but ~70 mi were on the legendary Queen K highway @ 16.9 mph (the rest through town & traffic). Only in the last 15 miles when pushing pretty hard against the usual headwind (and watching my average speed drop lower and lower) did I feel lonely and want someone to commiserate with, not draft. Honest! Afterwards, a 45 min brick run: 4.7 miles @ 9:34 pace in 85 degs (89 heat index). A bit faster than my IM run goal pace but it felt comfortable so hopefully that means my bike nutrition and pacing were good. Check.

Sunday - Ran 13 mi: 9:47 avg pace in 85-86 degs (89-90 heat index). Waited till the hottest part of the day and selected a nice rolling, fairly shadeless route with plenty of heat radiating back from the black pavement too but there turned to be a nice breeze. Darn ;-) Actually ran the first 4 miles at an 11:05 pace(!) which meant needing a big negative split to get back into my goal pace range (you can do the math). Lesson learned: Need to wear my Garmin where I can see it more readily, as opposed to in my back pocket. It's quite possible for me to take running easy too far on tired legs. Check minus.

So, overall, a good weekend of workouts. The real test, however, will be how I do back in Orlando where it's generally hotter & stickier. But that won't be for another few days :-)

Hope everyone's week goes well!

Rewarding Yourself

2009-07-07T02:46:00.071-04:00

This is something I'm not very good at, really. Rather than give myself a break or some treat for achieving something, I'm more likely to simply raise the bar higher and jump right into my next challenge.

It's nothing new for me. I never attended or celebrated my college graduations either, opting instead to go straight into grad school and then a full-time job after that. Most of my "rewards" in endurance sports, come to think of it, have been signing up for new races, getting new equipment to replace or augment old ones, seeking out better ways to train, etc. -- all stuff that could lead me to do more, more, MORE!

And while that may sound good, it can also be like supplying heroin to a drug addict. So I've been practicing rewarding myself differently while here in Kona, just to mix things up. Here's some proof of my recent debauchery:

I bought a new kit from Bike Works (top only shown here). I really didn't need one and it's not going to make me go any faster but it was just so darn cute. Total splurge!

Before the race award ceremony, we chilled and just gazed upon some tranquil tide pools. After several minutes, we realized that some of the rocks in the water were actually sea turtles! Nice not to always be in a hurry. (Click for a closer look at one)

And this one sunbathing seemed to be sending me a message. Hmm ... (Clickable)

Just for grins, we tried out a nearby surfer's snack shop despite having a fridge full of much healthier options back in the condo. Gorgeous view and great company.

My first whole hot dog in something like 30 years and Dave's second-ever Loco Moco plate dish (white rice topped with a hamburger patty, fried egg and brown gravy). No fear! No regrets!

Saw some 4th of July fireworks, another first in years. Usually we don't do much besides ride our bikes on holidays but this only involved stepping out onto the lanai. It's a start!

How do you reward yourself?

Big congrats to everyone who raced last weekend, in particular, Cliff and Leana, who both completed half iron tris, and RunningGeezer262 who ran as a first-time guide for a blind runner in a 5K event and the guy also happens to be training for an Ironman. Click here for RG262's great read!

This past week's workouts:
Swimming (3) 7450 yds
Cycling (3) 125.66 mi
Running (2) 13.36 mi

Kona Half Marathon

2009-06-29T16:37:00.028-04:00

One word: Magical.

This is where it all began for me 7 years ago. I toed the start line of my first-ever race and made a startling discovery: I was no longer one of the slowest girls in PE!

I'm going to let my pics do most of the talking about my 2009 Kona Half Marathon experience but here's the nitty gritty for those who are fond of numbers:

1:40:26 (7:40 avg pace)
1/57 F40-49, 5th Overall Female.

What a coincidence! The day before the race at packet pickup, I saw Robyn and Art, fellow Floridians and 50 State Marathoners. Robyn used to work with me at Track Shack but recently moved. Miss you, Robyn!

Also met Olympian running legend Frank Shorter there and I told him it was all his fault. He handed me my first race medal back in 2002 and I haven't been able to stop racing since.

I got to the start line just 5 minutes before the race was to begin. No big deal, no nervousness, just another training run ... HA! By mile 4, I was well under my intended 8 min/mile pace for the first half. Good thing Dave was out on our lanai early to see me go by (and one of these days he going to take a pole saw and cut those ugly power lines).

He was actually expecting to see me with a white visor, though, not a red one. I told him RED. Whatever, there were only about 500 half marathoners and the field had spread out considerably by then.

Nearing the turnaround, I gave a big cheer for Bree Wee, my favorite tri pro and friend who was headed the other way already with a huge smile on her face. She was in second place overall and the lead female. So happy to see her having fun!

But who wouldn't have fun in paradise and with wonderful volunteers like this?

Before I knew it, I'd gabbed my way to the turnaround with Rob (just behind me), who was also a triathlete and from the S.F. Bay Area, where I'm originally from. If I could talk fairly easily, that means I wasn't going too fast, right? 6.45 miles in 49:54 (7:44 pace).

So unless I totally bonk, I'm going to make my sub-1:45 time goal easily. Why not shoot for a negative split anyway? This is the best part of the course, IMO, mile 7, heading back along Alii Drive and Kailua Bay. Just to the right is where the Kona Ironman swim starts.

But now it's well over 80 degrees and getting hot. Aid stations were only a mile apart but I prefer carrying my own fluids as I drink better from a bottle, plus the extra weight usually helps keep me from running the first half of a race too fast. Usually.

At mile 9, I chatted briefly with this guy from Colorado who told me he has no probs running in heat or at altitude but the humidity here was killing him. Dude, don't ever come to Florida in the summer.

Mile 13, nearly done. Caught 3 women in the second half. Enough to place? Who knows ...

Just make sure not to trip over the speed bump and do a face plant in front of everyone.

Hawaiian shave ice, a very welcome treat after a hot race!

Early on pacer Rob finished a couple minutes behind me. He'd not run for 3 weeks before the race because of the flu yet did well.

Yes, a new coffee mug award! The small black one in my hand, not the big one, silly.

Hanging out with greatness after the race (R to L after moi): Olympian Frank Shorter, pro triathlete Bree Wee (with son on her lap), race sponsor and founder, 70-year-old running phenom Jon Kunitake.

Total race time: 1:40:26 (7:40 pace). Last 6.65 miles run in 50:32 (7:36 pace) -- Woohoo!

Top 5 differences between 2002 and 2009:
5. Results
2002: 1:43:59, 2nd F40-49. 2009: 1:40:26, 1st F40-49.
4. Hydration & nutrition
2002: 6 oz water. 2009: 22-24 oz Nuun plus 2 gels.
3. Pacing
2002: No watch, no idea what pacing meant, really. 2009: Sports watch, a pretty good feel for what I'm capable of and a Coach to answer to.
2. The big question on my mind the last few miles
2002: Will I die of a heart attack? 2009: How many women are ahead of me?
1. Post-race recovery
2002: Food and a nap; quads hammered for days. 2009: Food, ice bath, nap and a 35 mi bike ride in the afternoon. Did I just run a half marathon?

Top 5 things that were the same:
5. Same beautiful course.
4. Frank Shorter was here.
3. Heat & humidity, but less than Florida.
2. I LOVE running and racing in Kona and still want to retire here.
1. Dave's still taking pictures of me. Thanks Dave!

Being the spouse of a runner is hard work.

Wish You Were Here

2009-06-26T23:14:00.017-04:00

It is freaking GORGEOUS here in Kona!!!

Surf's up and a breezy 80-85 degrees. Not as cool as San Diego last week but nice compared to the wet sauna back in Orlando and I know many of you are dealing with some horrible hot weather too :-(

But, ideal beach weather is not ideal for running PRs so my current half mary PR (1:37:07) is safe. On Sunday, I will only be shooting to run a sub-1:45 at the Kona Half Marathon, which is about as fast as I ran it in 2002, actually. But back then, that was an all-out race effort for me and I hurt for days afterwards. This time, being a C priority race, my goals are to have fun and to finish with minimal post-race soreness. (Coach had planned all of June to be a fairly easy month for me following the RnR Half Iron. My iron training resumes in full force July, which is next week - Gulp!)

Here's a few photos from our trip so far. Wish you could all be here too!

Off to do a 3-4 mile easy run. Totally screwed up: 4.1 miles @ 7:45 pace. Oops!

Taking photos of two people riding bikes is harder than you might think.

As usual, a headwind coming back into town but some nice ocean views.

Dave down in aero cursing the wind.

What happens when you curse.

A turtle (made of coral pieces) on the lava rocks along the Queen K highway.

Taking a business call. Grrr ...

One day that Blackberry is going surfing ;-)

Aloha for now and hope you all have a great weekend!

Back to Reality!

2009-06-21T23:22:00.019-04:00

And 90 bazillion sticky degrees in Central Florida. Bleah!

But, man, San Diego was great. Here I am on Harbor Island with downtown SD in the background. Besides two blissful runs on the island (7 & 8 miler, 8:44 & 8:19 pace, respectively) and a refreshing bike interval workout on Fiesta Island, a popular time trial venue, I racked up an additional 30-40 miles without even trying. Shhhh, don't tell Coach ;-)

But slow walks and easy pedaling don't count as workouts, do they? After all, I didn't even break a sweat doing them in that nice cool weather. Let's call it sightseeing :-)

And there was lots to see ... all sorts of Navy and civilian boats moving through the harbor, fixed and rotary wing aircraft taking off at the Navy ~~Amphib~~ base on Coronado Island across from the hotel. Dave, the geek he is, constantly quizzed me on the various types of military vessels and aircraft. Fortunately, our marriage is not based on my knowledge of that stuff ...

This was the third trip to San Diego for my little travel bike. No more backaches riding rental bikes that are too big for me, no outrageous oversize luggage fees and no excuses for not getting bike workouts done while on travel. YAY!!

A fun bike ornament I saw atop a pole. The wind made the wheels spin like a pinwheel. Hmm, I think I could use some wheels like that ...

But do I need a yacht? Nah, I think I'll pass on this offer. Truth is I get deathly seasick and would never buy a boat, unless perhaps they offered a condo, in which case I'd keep the condo and sell the boat.

Swam at the Point Loma Y. They let me in as a guest for free since I'm a Central FL Y member and thank goodness it was an outdoor pool (I *loathe* indoor pools). But it was 25m long, not 25y. Who knew an extra 2.3 yards could make such a difference?!

And to wrap up our week, we had a wonderful dinner at Roy's Restaurant with some long-time friends who both live in the SD area (photo L to R: Suze, Dave, me and June). Great excuse to come back for more visits!

But first, back to the swamp for a few days and then off to paradise. Got the Kona half marathon on Sunday, 6/28, and some serious catching up to do on my blog reading. Really, I haven't forgotten about you all!

Good luck to everyone doing IMCDA today, especially RBR, Formulaic and TriToBeFunny!!!

This past week's workouts:
Swimming (3) 5574 yds
Cycling (2) 73.6 mi
Running (2) 16 mi
Strength training (4!)

What a Difference a Day Makes!

2009-06-15T12:50:00.010-04:00

And 2000 miles.

Summer has definitely arrived in Orlando and my heat training has been in full force the past couple weeks. On Saturday we rode 65 miles and it was 87 degs (heat index 92) when we got done and I headed out for my 5-mile brick run. Will I wilt like I did a month ago?

NO! Much better this time. But, no faster ... 9:16 avg pace for 5 miles vs. 9:11 for 4 miles. However, my average heart rate was lower and I didn't feel like I was about to die at the end. Progress!

In fact, I even had some left over energy to mow my yard a few hours later. YAY!

Which is good because on Sunday morning we were headed to San Diego for the week. Double YAY!!

There we were greeted by a beautiful breezy, sunny day. Perfect for sailing and a 12 mile run along the San Diego harbor waterfront. 70 degs, 8:27 avg pace :-)

From our hotel balcony we've got fantastic 180 deg scenic views. Here's looking towards Point Loma and more sailboats.

A big cruise boat going past headed out to sea. Maybe one day I'll go on a cruise when I've got nothing better to do :-P

We've got a noisy neighbor down below us, though. But she has couple cute chicks that are amusing to look at so we'll forgive her.

Coincidentally, Dave and I both used to live in the SD area back in the 80's. He was a Marine 2nd Lt. stationed at MCRD and I attended UCSD for grad school a couple years later. Always fun to come back for a visit and hit some of the old places we used to both go to, like Rubios, which is no longer the hole-in-the-wall fish taco joint it used to be 20 years ago but still a favorite.

Hopefully, I won't loose too much of my heat tolerance in just a week. This cool 65-70 deg weather is spoiling me really bad!

Last week's workouts (still taking things pretty easy):
Swimming (2) 2800 yds
Cycling (3) 121 mi
Running (2) 17 mi
Strength training (2)

Keeping Things Fun

2009-06-08T11:35:00.022-04:00

My Ego: So another good race! Maybe we should start eyeing a Kona slot, try winning some races, looking for sponsorships or somehow turning this hobby into a job someday?

My Sensible Side: WHOA! We've been down this road before. Life becomes really ugly when we focus on things too much. Keep it fun. Your best is NOT trying to be the best all the time.

What???

Yes, it's true. I was raised to try to excel in everything I did. Until my mid-30's I worked relentlessly and my health and other aspects of life invariably suffered. My "problem" was that I was good at a lot of things (or so it seemed, for I didn't pursue things I sucked at) and was willing to do what it took to succeed. And once I got rolling on something, I didn't know the words quit, slow down or balance. I was pretty much all or nothing.

Which is why that DNF at Ironman Florida 2006 was so meaningful to me. Yes, meaningful. Until age 45, I'd never experienced a major failure before.

It would have been easy to say, well, I really hate swimming anyway and tris are just not for me, and go back to running marathons. Or, turn around and try again next year hoping the water won't be as rough (and then probably walk away from tris because I still hated swimming).

Instead, for the first time in my life, I stuck with something I was not really good at. It's taken me 3 years to become a swimmer and a real triathlete (in my eyes, someone who embraces and loves the variety and challenge of all three sports). I now have a coach telling what to do and, perhaps more importantly, what NOT to do. I've got two relatively new sports with lots of room for growth (compared to running/jogging which I've been doing off and on for over 30 years, though competitively only the last 7 yrs). Plus, I'm spending more quality time with hubby Dave who likes to ride bikes too. Life is good!

Yet, the last thing I want to do is make training and racing a job, or become obsessed with competing, setting PRs and trying to be the absolute best I can be all the time. I'm happy for every swim stroke, pedal stroke and footstep I take. And if I can get out there and want to do it again, I've won. I think that's a large part of why I signed up for two irons two weeks apart, to make sure I take my training seriously but not too seriously. There's no way in hell I'm doing another iron tri event so soon if I hated the first one :-)

Keep it fun, everyone!

Last week's recovery workouts:
Swimming (2) 4300 yds
Cycling (3) 112 mi
Running (2) 15 mi
Strength training (3)