I just woke up.

It's 10:30am, and I just woke up.

The Bug is already down for his first nap. Matt laughed at me when I came downstairs.

But I was EXHAUSTED. And I just don't sleep well when I'm not at home, so I had 4 days of butt-whoopin' followed by not much sleep. And that equals a lazy Monday morning, so I figured now would be a good time to recap.

I'll add pics later, as I really didn't take many. I mean, why on earth would I take pics with my 2002 digital camera that's heeeeuuuuuggggeeee when I have James and Steve around? So I'll just direct you to those pictures as they come in.

Wednesday I packed up and delayed leaving as much as possible...not because I didn't want to see all my friends, because I was SOOOOOO excited for that. I was SOOOO excited to meet my teammates, too. But I was so NOT excited to leave Matt and the Bug. And, as predicted, I stood in the basement to say goodbye I cried like a little baby. The Bug looked at me with that "should-I-cry-too?" look so I stopped as much as I could, but I realized I would just cry a bit in my car and that was going to have to be okay. I've never left him overnight before. I don't even like to leave Matt but this was even worse. I read somewhere that having a baby is like having your heart walk around outside your body, and I guess that's the closest I can come to explaining it.

So I drove. And I decided the best thing to do would be to play fun tunes and talk to my buddies. I called IronJohnny, my training bud from the first Ironman for both of us, and told him where I was going. He told me all about his IMUSA training and we shared stories. And I felt better. I talked to a few other friends, too, and despite hitting a major storm in western Ohio, I felt better.

Before I knew it, I was in Chicago. The stupid thing was that I filled up right near my house and then forgot to fill up at the last station in Indiana, which meant that as I pulled into Lincoln Park I was coasting on fumes. Which then meant, of course, that I was going to pay the most insane price for gas I've ever paid. Ugh. But my little car made it from Cleveland to Chi-Town on one tank! Yay Chewy!

Jacks and I got the car unloaded and brought all my stuff up to her apartment. We caught up like we had never left and like we still lived in our house from Miami, the Nuthouse. And I was reminded of how awesome it is to have friends that you can just pick up with like five minutes have passed no matter how far away you are or how much has changed. This is true about my WIBA friends; many of whom I hadn't seen in a year and a half, and we've all changed tremendously, yet we could still ride, swim, and run like we did it last weekend.

You just need friends like that.

Thursday I woke up and drove to Vision Quest in Lake Bluff for testing with Robbie Ventura. Yeah...the real one. The one who rode with Lance and stuff. Needless to say, I was a bit intimidated. My buddy and teammate Stu was there to help document (thanks, Stu!) and I also got to meet Coach Emily! CycleOps was also there and I got to meet some really cool people who work for what I'm convinced is the coolest company on earth.

Robbie was SO nice and down to earth. You would never know how amazing he was if it wasn't for the posters all over the room with him and his teammates. I even forgot my running shoes and he let me wear some of his! Super nice. Within a few minutes I didn't feel quite as intimidated as I did on that drive up.

I did the LT test and got my finger pricked every 30 watts. It was awesome to see how my body was reacting to the stress and what it would mean for my training. Robbie explained everything to me in simple terms and I am amazed at how scientific this process is. Sure enough, at a certain point, my lactic acid skyrocketed, and that's how we determined my power zones. I am already a HUGE fan of training with power; it's everything that for me heart rate training was NOT. I'll be writing more about that as soon as I get a chance.

When the test was done, Robbie took me into another room with Stu and Emily to do a strength test, or as I refer to it, a Lack Of Strength Test. Ugh. I clearly know what I need to work on. I was frustrated at times, and even had to bite down pretty hard on the upper lip. I just know that I was pretty strong before The Bug and now I feel a little back to square negative one. But, that's life, and I'm not going to whine about it anymore...it's time to just change it. So I will.

I finally made it back to Old Town in the city and Jacks and I figured out a place to go to dinner with our buddy T-Bone. We didn't even head out until pretty late, so I didn't know if I'd get to see any of my other buds I was going to try and meet up with, but I did! My buddy Chris came to meet us and so did my other friend Chien...and my super awesome friend Mouse! We ate lots of food, laughed a lot, and drank a lot of sangria. It was SO fun and so good to see them!

Friday Jacks and I headed up to Madison which took a little longer than anticipated. I remembered my first drive up there with ESpeed and Wil and how afraid I was of what I'd encounter when I got there. This time was different. The fear wasn't there as much--there was an odd familiarity to it, perhaps like if you step into your old high school cafeteria and you remember what it was like to sit there and what you were like back then. I wondered what it would be like this time. How would Madison be different to me?

And it was. Totally, 100% different this time around. But in a good way.

What 9 1/2 Hours in a Car Will Do to Me

Had soooooooooooooooo much fun this weekend.

Am soooooooooooooooo sleepy.

Realized that 9 and a half hours is really too long for me to drive. 6 were by myself. I started resorting to such measures as to roll down all the windows (manually, because my car is hoopty) and sing whatever my iPod threw at me. My favorites were:

Chik N'Stu by System of a Down
Billie Jean by The King of Pop and my fave, MJ
Poprocks and Coke by Green Day
True Blue by Madonna
Pour Some Sugar On Me by Def Leppard--at this point some headbanging was involved

I thought about all the fun I had with my WIBA friends and my BFF Jacks this weekend, and how smelly the laundry was in my car, how amazing it was to meet freaking Robbie Ventura and how cool he was, how fun it was to meet my awesome coach, how sore I am, ruminated about what cheese curd might taste like, thought some about the maneating mosquitos in Wisconsin, and how much gas and tolls cost me this weekend--which made me throw up in my mouth a little bit-- how much I wish I could see my WIBA buds and awesome teammates more often, how that IM course is just tough--plain and simple, how far I've come so far, and how much I couldn't wait to get home and hug my boys.

And finally Western Ohio was behind me and my exit came.

And I ran in the house, saw Matt and Jackson, held my little guy and just cried for about 5 minutes.

Which made Jackson a bit confused, so I tried to tell him it was because I was happy and then he giggled and pulled my hair.

More to come, but for now, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs are calling.

:)

The hard part is getting in the car...

I'm all packed and ready to go.


I am so excited to see my buddies in Chicago and Madison this weekend for WIBA! And to meet my new teammates! And to ride and run on the Ironman course again!


But what I'm not excited to do is leave this:





Oh boy. This should be an interesting 5 1/2 hour drive...


For those of you heading to WIBA, I'll see you there! Can't wait!


But I have a feeling this ride will be a little sniffly.

Best Brick EVAH.

Okay, I know this is easy for some of you but in the words of Billy Madison "It was HARD for me SO BACK OFF!"

(kidding) ;)

Did a ride today of 28.4 miles and crazy negative split it for an average of....

20 miles per hour!

For the first time EVER!

(I've never, ever seen anything resembling a 20 on my bike computer. I've seen 2, but not 20.)

My average heart rate was 153, and I definitely felt like I was pushing it a bit, but I know I could have gone faster, too.

Then hopped off, and maybe it was the adrenaline, but I had a good little brick run...sludged through the first mile at 9:32 but then ran the 2nd at an 8:45 pace and felt FANTABULOUS AND LIKE I COULD GO FOREVER!

Don't you just LOVE it when that happens?

Well, actually, I don't know, because it's never happened except for today.

But maybe it'll happen again! Boo-yah!

Opening the Box

Well, so a few more days have gone by...

I had to go to good ol' Middletown to see my baby cousin Jamie get married! So. Fun. Literally, remembered holding her in my arms when she was a baby. It was so good to see my family.

I haven't had much of a chance to write anything down this past week. Let's recap why:

1. Hubby ROCKS and surprised me with Jack Johnson tickets with Best Friend, too!



2. I did 10:37 of workouts last week. Yahooooo! That is a lot for me. I know it's small taters for some of you out there, but it was fun and hard at the same time. I'm getting a lot in early in the morning before The Bug wakes up and then squeezing some more in later when I can.

3. Had Brick #2 with the EvoKids on Saturday--they did SO awesome and have already really improved! They just rock. And I'm working on getting another school...my buddy's trying to work some magic with me, so I'll keep you posted!

4. In my spare time, I've been doing this:
So yeah. Writing's been on the back burner this week.

But I owe you a story of my fitting, so I intend to do that! I am a woman of my word.

I need to give MAJOR PROPS to the guys at SPIN Bike Shop in Lakewood, Ohio. Especially John and Greg--John did my fitting and Greg is the owner of the shop. What awesome guys! They hooked me up with an amazing bike, and that's for sure. I really appreciate everything they did to help me out and get me set up with my new team bike! Thanks, guys! And if you're in the Cleveland area, check them out!

So, I went to get fit on my new bike. I felt strangely like I was going on a blind date. I walked in and saw it....

But first I saw my buddy, TriEric! My Iron Bro! He had agreed to take time out of his day to help me document the fitting. He also provided lots of advice, as usual. Thanks, buddy!

The first thing I did was meet John, who would be doing my fitting. He, Eric, and I helped pick out a saddle. Then John explained everything we'd be doing for the fitting...he was going to take a million measurements, do a few flexibility tests, use some crazy contraption that was like a giant human protractor to figure out some angles and cosines and tangents and whatnot, and somehow this would all make the world's most perfect bike.


Whoa. I felt waaaaaay outta my league. But I could tell John really knew his stuff, so that made one of us! Whew!


I changed and put on my shoes and sat on the bike for a little warmup.

I immediately could tell this was different. I've been riding an entry-level road bike with aerobars stuck on it. This was a whole 'nuther ballgame, and it just felt different. My body was in a totally different position and the shifters worked really well! My shifters get stuck a lot on my old bike (Arcaro). But I love 'er. We had many years of history...six to be exact, and although we had our fair share of fights, she took me all the way to Ironman.


Everything about this ride was just sleeker...and I was in a completely new position. I wondered what this would do with my riding. Hmmmm. I guess I only can go up, huh?


John put some extra support on my shoes, which I didn't even realize was possible. But I have noticed my feet have changed since I had The Bug. I guess that's what carrying a ton of extra weight around will do. My shoes felt so much better when John was done putting supports on them under my new cleats! Eric helped me pick out some new cleats that were a lot bigger than my old ones. I could already tell the difference in power I was getting from my pedal stroke.

So John did his magic and took the angles and made the cuts. I sat there, slack jawed, in awe that this thing was really mine. I know that this did not come for free; I take this position on my team very seriously and I intend to honor the investment they've made in me and the gamble they've taken on me. This Time Machine reminds me that I owe them. Big time. And I intend to work my butt off to make my team proud and give back as much as I can to the triathlon community.

I got home and literally COULDNOTFREAKINGWAIT to take my bike for a ride. So I did...

....for an hour and a half.

Unreal.

You know when you've been running on your trusty running shoes forever, and you just keep running in them because you love 'em and don't even realize how worn they are until you put on a new pair and you go, "Wow...I didn't even know they were that worn down."

It was kinda like that.

I've realized over the past week and a half that I've been riding every second I can get that maybe I wasn't as bad of a cyclist as I thought I was. The times I've been averaging with the same heart rates I was holding before are consistently 2-3 miles per hour faster. Thursday I went 43 miles faster than I've ever gone in my life on any bike split of any distance, with an average heart rate of 143.

This thing is amazing, and I am still absolutely in awe that I'm allowed to touch it.

So here it is...

An early birthday surprise!

Friday pretty much felt like my birthday AND Christmas all rolled into one day as I got my new BMC TT02...and promptly told Matt I'd "just go for a little ride..."

only to ride out to LORAIN .

(Which is not just a little ride.)

O.
M.
G.

I have to give you the whole story--from a fitting that I can only compare to the fitting I had for my wedding dress, down to the maiden ride, my first brick with the EvoTri Kids, and then yesterday's AMAZINGLYFANTABULOUS ride. But I don't have time right now.

Because, Matt surprised me this morning with another early birthday present. That being two tickets to go see Jack Johnson tonight in concert!

Iamsoexcited.

So tomorrow I'll tell you all about my new ride! After I hit the bike early with the kids again tomorrow--yahoo!

Man, this summer rocks. :)

Happy Father's Day

...to the most patient, kind, best diaper-changer without complaining, raspberry-giver, burping contest challenger, guitar-hero rock star playing, metalhead lullaby singer, giggle-inducing, caring, and loving Daddy ever.

Love,

Your Little Man

EvoTri Battle of the Schools News!

Well, I guess I should rename... It's not "Battle of the Schools," as of now, due to legal headaches I didn't anticipate, it's just going to be school singular. Nonetheless, I've been working on some stuff and am very excited to start putting it into motion this week. I've got a good crew interested and hopefully what I do this year will lay some good foundation down for next year. And I can then get some other schools on board and have the legal mumbo jumbo down!

So basically, my initiative for EvoTri was that I wanted to get kids involved in triathlon. I'm getting a crew together here for the first time on Saturday, and I'm so pumped. I've got a good mix of swimmers, runners, and kids who just want to tri but don't really play for any team right now. I'm working with our girls cross country coach who is a triathlete (and my former swim coach when she was in high school and I was in middle school--how's THAT for nuts?) and she's been awesome. Here's what my summer plan looks like!

Saturdays: Brick workouts! We're going to start with a 30 minute ride and a 15 minute run, and tack on a little each week. Most of the kids are nervous about this. One of the swimmer girls claims she "can't run." I'm excited to see how they progress!

Wednesdays: AM spin/core class! This is going to be fun. It's something that the cross country coach has set up and will be a great cross training workout for the kids. Plus, my core could use some help, too. :)

Open Water Swims: I'm working on at least one and hopefully two of these. This is where the biggest legal headaches are. Hopefully I can get the waivers squared away and get two dates set for this soon. I think all the kids can benefit greatly from this, as we all know how different the open water is from the pool, you know?

Mini-Clinics! I'm working on doing one or two mini clinics on transitions or maybe a little bit of bike maintanence/nutrition. These will probably be after the bricks on Saturdays.

Our Two Races: July 20 Huntington Sprint Triathlon and the August 10 Greater Cleveland Triathlon! These are both sprints that are local and well-run. I know both of the RD's and they are fabulous guys. The kids can do one or both of the races depending on their schedule. They seem really excited about this! It makes me get really excited, too. :) And, I can still fit in my training for Steelhead while I'm getting these kids into triathlon, which totally rocks. Thanks, Coach Emily!

Oh, and you know what else makes me excited? My bike is ready TOMORROW. It kinda feels like Christmas Eve. I got fitted on Monday, but that's a WHOLE 'nuther post!

Anyway, I think this is a good start and I'm very excited about it! Hopefully it will go well this year, these kids will get bitten by the tri bug, and it will grow next year. I'd like for next year to have more schools and also somehow get the families involved of the kids--maybe a sort of "parents vs. kids" along with the "school vs. school!" Although, I tell ya what...ain't no way I want to be swimming or running against some of these guys....yikes! I might be creating monsters, here... ;)

Bring on the summer!

The Very Definition of a Bad Idea

No, it wasn't that I wanted to celebrate my friend's birthday at lunch. Nor was it the fact that she chose the restaurant. I mean, it's her birthday. She's the queen.

It was not even the fact that she chose the Original Pancake House...which I've decided is pretty much my favorite place to go out to eat ever because they have PUMPKIN PANCAKES AND THEY ARE SOOOOOOOO TASTEEEEEEEE.

It wasn't even that I tried to get something kinda healthy. That was a good idea.

It was the 3000 meters I swam afterwards. That, my friends, was a bad, bad idea.

(BURP)

HTFU and CTFO

Whew!

Whirlwind week/end. Soooooooomuchfun in Indiana, but a little rough coming home last night and not getting into bed until 2, and then turning around and heading to my sauna of a classroom again. Doh! A few more days and then I'm chillin' for a few months. Awesome!

So I was thinking during my workouts this weekend (first open water swim for me--yay!) about how much my head game has shifted lately. Part of that is, undoubtedly, due to my brain being rewired as of last October 2. Maybe some of this is just me being officially in my 30s and staring at my 10th year of teaching. (How did that happen, by the way?) I'm fascinated with the mental side of training and racing and it makes me long for the days when I got to teach Psychology as an elective. So. Cool.

It seems like there are really two major schools of thought out there. The first, and major one, that I hear a lot about is HTFU. Which means, loosely translated, Harden the Freak Up. (Some words have been changed. :)

Yes, yes....we may hate to admit this, but us triathletes are a notoriously whiny bunch. Waaaaah, waaahh, waaaahh, my heart rate, the weather, the wind blew at me, someone looked at me funny, the guy in front of me farted in my face, a piece of grass blew the wrong way, the water was too wet, etc. And I know that, from time to time, I am totally guilty of said whining. Hence the HTFU phrase. At times, necessary, no? Now, no disrespect to those who make this their #1 philosophy. There are a million and one ways to do something, and some HTFU'ers do extremely well focusing on this motto. Hey, you know what? I am a firm believer in that you do WHATEVER works for YOU.

I have come to accept, after much fighting and banging my head against the wall in my past 30 years, that HTFU does not work well for me.

CTFO does.

This means, again loosely translated, "Chill the Freak Out."

As evidenced with my two races thusfar this season, when I CTFO, I do the best. Perhaps this is because I put a great deal of pressure on myself already (which is the theory College Friend devised this weekend as we were discussing the subject). College Friend is a fantastic tennis player and played 4 years of varsity doubles. She said how it's similar, and she had to adapt since when you play doubles, you are two people who must play like one. Sometimes her partner would be a HTFUer, and sometimes they would be more of a CTFOer. So she adapted so that they could focus as one unit. That would be really hard to do, I think. I guess that's why she's really good at tennis and I'm the world's worst. :)

But in triathlon, when I have, in my head, said, "Okay, self. You're going to start going as fast as you can, for as long as you can, and as hard as you can, and have as much fun as you can" I have ended up with 19 seconds shy of a 5 year old PR in a 5K, and a 5+ minute PR in the half marathon.

When I obsess and stress about this heart rate and that heart rate, this temperature, this result or this split and make that the driving force in my race, I just--plain and simple--don't do as well. Sersly--for cryin' out loud. My paycheck does not depend on this, you know? For most of us out there, it doesn't. This is a hobby. This is not definitive of my self-worth or character.

C.
T.
F.
O.

It is one of many pieces of who I am, and I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can. At the risk of sounding too-Pollyanna-ish/Thoreau-ish, I'm just gonna CTFO and enjoy being out there with my health and my friends and enjoy every start and finish line I'm lucky enough to be at.

Unconventional, I know. From what I can gather, most triathletes seem to be HTFUers. But it works for me, so I'm gonna go with it.

Coach Emily and I discussed this and she said that she sees similar patterns in her swimmers that she coaches. Sometimes they get so caught up in the numbers they forget that they CAN do it. If they just let go of the B.S. and extra stuff and just go hard, they do well, and they hit the numbers they were so focused on anyway.

So, I guess I'm going to keep training as hard and as often as I can, and in a race I'm going to start fast and then keep getting faster.

Let's try it this way, self. Let's see how this goes.

Because, really, open-water swimming is overrated...

...right?

And so is cycling outside?

Or, I guess another way to look at it is, I REALLY am going to need to get some cold-weather cycling gear...


April 5, 2009.

SO. IN.

CAN'TFREAKINGWAIT!

This week has been a little nuts. I think of it as the "storm before the calm." All hell seems to break loose the last 2 weeks or so of school, and meetings, grades, paperwork, projects, and tests just pile up like crazy. So, I'm trying to squeeze in my workouts as much as I can.


It doesn't help that JayZ (who, from now on will be referred to as what I actually call him--The Little Bug) decided it would be a perfect week to test how fast Mommy and/or Daddy can come running in the night. We've come to the conclusion that this is just a little "I'm-almost-8-months-I-wonder-how-much-I-can-manipulate-them" testing. We (gasp) decided to turn the monitor off. My buddies with kids at work think we were crazy to still have it on, but, I don't know, what if something HAPPENS? At 1:37am? You know? ;) So it feels somewhat liberating to relinquish the monitor chain. And, we all slept like babies last night. I still can't believe how bit he is and how fast these past 8 months have gone. How does he already look like a little man? Could it be the 3 haircuts he's had already?! Or perhaps the fact that he's not yet 8 months old but comfortably wearing Size 18 months clothing? Sigh.....

I've also had a little trouble squeezing in the workouts with the Mommy Guilt. Like right now, it's Saturday morning, and I should be riding. But I didn't get to see him before school yesterday since I kissed him goodbye in his crib at 5:20am so I could hit the pool, and then after school I was wiped out and left around 7 to see a movie with Best Friend. So today, I just really wanted to hang with him. He's playing in his walker now and zooming all over the place. As soon as Matt gets up here I'm going to hop on the trainer for 2 hours, watch Lost, and then also attempt a 1 hour swim. Ugh. Tomorrow I have an hour run, a 45 minute spin, and then a friend's shower. It's hard to fit this all in, but I guess I should be pretty happy that I'm getting most of it done for now. As soon as the schedule frees up I won't have any trouble.

Things on the training front are going OK...I am anxiously awaiting my new ride, which will be here in a week! Yahoooooooooooooooooo! Swimming is coming along, although I was pretty humbled in the water last week. I deserved it, though. I had been on a pretty long hiatus from the pool, and it showed. Let's just say that Mugsy the Pug could have probably beat me in the 100 yards. Yeah, it was that bad. But this week felt much better, and for some reason swimming speed seems to come back a lot quicker for me. I'm hoping another week or two and I'll be right back up to where I should be.

Well, I hear Matt, so it's time to try and get on the trainer! Here I go...

I've been swallowed by a gigantic work monster

Yeah...buried...no time to blog...arg...

Just gotta get through it, though! I know, I can't complain. In 2 weeks I'll be off for over 2 months.


Just gotta get through the next two weeks.


:)


That and for the past two nights Jay Z has, for no apparant reason, gotten up and fussed lots. Like, last night, it was about every hour. Ugh. Missed my run this morning and slugged through it this evening. Tomorrow's swim should be interesting. I NEED to sleep. If he's up all night, I might have to push it to Friday.


But, you know what? Things still rock. 'Cuz guess who started to crawl today?

Two more weeks...and it's me, and my team, and a summer full of training and good times.

I.

can't.

WAIT.

Move Along

Okay, so I did it. It rocked. It was a blast. And now I have to move on.

I've got a half ironman to get ready for. And, hopefully, another PR to shatter.

But that is going to require some serious work. Mostly on my bike.

I've always known I was a decent swimmer--not record breaking by any stretch, but I feel pretty good in the water and can git-r-dun without too much worry. And I've been sort of forced to see myself now as a pretty decent runner. Again...emphasis on the word decent. Not fantastic, but I can pull it out and do okay. I'm not standing on any podiums, but, you know.

The bike is another story. I know it sounds silly...I try to explain to my students how the bike is the hardest for me, and inevitably someone says, "How hard can it be? It's a bike."

I know. Believe me, I know.

I think this is why I am super stoked to train with power this year. It's no secret that I don't heart HR training. Mostly because I feel like it's always held me back. I'll be getting tested at VisionQuest soon, and I am so freakin' curious of the results. Because, seriously, who holds a heart rate of ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY ONE for an hour and fifty minutes and feels fantabulous? It just doesn't make sense. Hopefully I'll get some answers. My max heart rate must be about 397 or something.

So I think power will be a good thing for me.

So when I'm looking at where I stand, proportionally, my run and swim are about at the same level. But the bike? Oh geez. Pa. Thet. Ickkkkkkkkk.

So, I've been getting back into getting up early this week. I haven't said much about it here but, for several reasons, it was really, REALLY hard for me to get up early during most of this second half of the school year. And, eventually, I decided I needed to let it go. It worked, and now things are much better. And you know what? After a morning swim yesterday and a morning spin today, I realized the following things:

• My mommy guilt for working out virtually vanishes. Because JayZ is still asleep. He doesn't even know I'm working out. So I'm not missing anything. Except his cute little snoring that I could listen to all day, but that's another issue.
• I can catch up on the Daily Show and Colbert on the trainer, or my favorite podcasts from InTransit, Tac Boy and The.Bigun, Simply Stu, and GYGO. Again, no mommy guilt. It's just me! My time!
• Holy crap does it make me SUPER DUPER PRODUCTIVE. Yesterday I even had time to hit the local coffee joint for a tasty brew before work--and still made it to work 15 minutes early.

So, I think this former sleep-in junkie turned early bird during Ironman training and then back to getting sleep whenever she can will be turning back to the dark side of morning workouts again.

Oh, and I've been working on my initiative for EvoTri, too, and I am getting some great response. As soon as I firm a few things up I'll tell you all about it!

Well, that's about all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must move along.

A Perfect Day

So I guess I'd better post something here before I forget any details. Because yesterday was perfect. It was, in 6 years of road and tri racing, the best I've ever, EVER felt during a race. So if I don't write this down I'm afraid I might forget it.

Hands down, the BEST part of the race was having TriShannon there. My partner in crime, my training buddy from my first sprint triathlon...thanks for coming all the way out here for this race, Winks! You rock.

Okay, let's see here. I guess I'll just rundown the weekend.

Friday after school I went with JayZ to pick up TriShannon (aka Winks) from the airport. Then Matt, JayZ, Winks and I had dinner at the Winking Lizard...mmmm. I had a tasty Hoegarden (however you spell it) and a nice big grilled chicken spinach salad (my favorite) and we all split spinach artichoke dip. Delish.

We then headed home and watched the season finale of the Office. Yeah. Crazy Friday night, huh?

Coach Emily gave me some great visualization exercises which I did before I drifted off to sleep. I pictured all the different parts of the course and feeling strong.

Got up and headed downtown to meet Daisy and E for a quick run with some pickups to race pace and hit the expo. I felt really good and like I was just chomping at the bit to race. I guess that's what a year and a half off of racing long stuff will do to you. We had a yummy lunch with the best cornbread I think I've ever had at the Chophouse. Then we headed to the expo.

I went to the pacer booth to see Kara (my running coach since 2002--not to be confused with equally awesome Coach Emily) and pick up the VIP passes for the brunch downtown for Matt. Kara handed me the passes...and also said, "I have a few things for you" with a smirk on her face. She then handed me three pace bands. One for 1:50, one for 1:45, and one for a 4 hour marathon. With a smile, she said, "Just in case." I kind of laughed but then she explained to another friend why she was handing me those bands.

I kind of feel like she's one of the few people who I really take seriously and listen to when she says things about my abilities. Because, she knows me very well. She was there the day I walked into Second Sole and met Canada Jenn and said, "I think I'd like to try running and stuff." Even though I had already finished my first marathon at that point, I was clueless. She guided me to my first half marathon in Athens, and then a PR at the River Run, followed by a 56 minute PR at my next attempt at a marathon in Cincinnati in 2005. Kara knows the numbers. She knows pretty much the results of every race I've ever ran. She knows my VO2 max. And she has consistently told me that I haven't seen anything close to what she knows I can do as far as times go, especially in the long stuff. She said that again, and I really listened this time.

So when she handed me the 1:45 pace band and I saw how much she really believed I could do that, it meant something to me. Because she really knows.

And I think that's when, in my heart, I just knew I would do it the next day. I would have a huge PR and a great day...I just sort of knew at that moment.

Later that night we had a fantastic pasta dinner at Arrabbiata's near my place. We came back, chilled out a bit, and went to bed.

The alarm went off at 4:57 for me (which was really like 2:57 for poor Winks) and I heard JayZ fussing. I went in and gave him his pacifier and he drifted back off to sleep. I kissed him goodbye and kissed Matt goodbye, too.

I had a tasty breakfast of 2 cinnamon Eggo waffles with peanut butter (yeah, that's weird. I hate syrup and don't like bread either, so I put PB on my waffles. It works for me.) and had a half a cup of coffee. I then called JenC and we made plans to meet at her office downtown near the start line, which was AWESOME. See, it was about 48 degrees and pouring at this point. Winks was pretty angry about it since it just doesn't rain in Denver. I was okay with it, since I'm used to running and racing in the rain. But we both agreed it affected our mood a bit. I started to wonder how the cold windy weather would affect me. I hoped it would be OK, since I always prefer cold over hot. Thanks to JenC for providing us a nice warm place to change and use the potty! It was great to see her at the start and finish!

We lined up and stood in the windy rain. It was probably about 50 degrees or so at this point. I found my pacer for the 3:40 marathon group and the plan was to stick with him as long as I could. If I felt it, great. If I wasn't feeling it, I'd just take the day as it came.

The first few miles were pretty quick. I peeled off my long sleeves at mile 1 and tossed them to Kara and her hubby Tim, but I'm pretty sure he didn't even see it. Oh well! That's what a throwaway shirt's for, right? The mile markers seemed a bit off in the first few miles. I tried to go by their splits instead of what my Garmin said. I figured their results are what counts so I should go by that. I'll put them both here though just to see how much it added up at the end.

Here's how it looked:

Mile 1 8:21

Mile 2 7:49 Whoa, we're goin' pretty fast. Um...should I worry?

Mile 3 8:55 (Garmin said this was 1.04)

Mile 4 8:07 (Garmin said this was 1.02)

(a lot of miles 3-4 were gradual uphills along the Shoreway)

Mile 5 7:47

At this point, when my Garmin said 5 miles (and not the race course), I was 34 seconds off my 5 mile PR.

Whoa. I started to get a little nervous. First off, my pacer was all over the freakin' place, God bless him. Would I be able to keep this up?

Mile 6 8:33 (Garmin said this was 1.02)

According to my watch, I hit the 10K mark at just over 50 minutes. A HUGE 10k PR for me. According to the race course, I hit it in just over 51. Still a PR by 4 minutes. Sweet! I took a gel here, and planned to take another one at 11 miles.

Mile 7 8:17

Mile 8 8:33 (Garmin said this was 1.01) Ooh. That mint-chocolate gu which is so tasty when I'm going slow wasn't sitting well with me. Ugh.

Mile 9 8:39 (see what I mean? ALL OVER THE FREAKIN' PLACE)

Mile 10 8:47 (Garmin said this was 1.03)

At this point, the rain had subsided and I was still just feeling great. Allenjel was running with me and looking strong in her BQ quest. I saw on my Garmin that my average pace was well under 8:24, and I started to play the numbers game. I knew if I didn't blow up, I was going to PR big time. I tried to think to myself, "just three more miles. You can do anything for three little miles."

Mile 11 8:22 (Garmin said 1.02) Do I take a gu? I feel great...and the last gu didn't sit well with me. Agh! Decisions, decisions. I have 2 more miles to go. Can I gut it out? I decided yes. I didn't want to take a gu and have my stomach rebel on me at the last second.

Mile 12 8:19 (Garmin said 1.03) At this point, I could almost taste it. I was running with a huge smile. I was going to do this. I was going to come in well under 1:50! My average pace was 8:17 according to my watch. I figured even though I wasn't lining up to the course numbers I was still safe. I told Allenjel to go get her BQ, and then turned off to the half course to head back to East 9th street.

Now, on a side note, I thought we weren't allowed to wear headphones. I swear I read that somewhere. I knew I would really benefit with some kickin' tunes in that last mile but I didn't want to violate any rules, so I didn't bring it.

I SAW TONS OF PEOPLE RUNNING WITH HEADPHONES IN THE ENTIRE RACE. Grrr. If you're gonna have a rule, then enforce it, you know? Kanye could have really helped me out in that last .75 miles. I was tired and I was alone, so I tried to just go as hard as I could. I was smiling the WHOLE time. The crowd support was WAY better than I remembered it the two times I've participated in this race, and I was happy for my little hometown marathon!

There's the balloons! And the music!

I started to laugh, and ran to the finish line. I stopped my watch and had a look!

Watch said 13.25 miles. 1:50:08. Average pace 8:18. Which, of course, the distance and pace don't mean squat since the only results that count are the race course's splits.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww shoots. You mean to tell me I missed sub-1:50 by 9 measly seconds? Arg! Maybe I should have looked at my watch in the last quarter mile, but I didn't want to. I was just smiling like crazy and soaking up the moment and the energy of the finish line. So I won't trade that for those nine seconds, you know? I knew that the course didn't care what my Garmin said and the course time would stand. But I have to admit that it seems a little bit off. It was even stranger when TriShannon and JenC's Garmins also said EXACTLY 13.25 miles. Oh well! Regardless, my previous PR was 1:55.18. So this was over five minutes of a PR for me. The official results are 13.1 miles in 1:50.08, which is an 8:24/mile.

I was kind of dumbfounded.

I just stood there for a minute laughing.

And then I heard my parents! They came down to see me and snapped a few pictures. I called Matt to see where JayZ and he were. Turns out a police officer directed them DIRECTLY ONTO THE RACE COURSE and he was pinned by runners for 50 minutes. Arg! Poor guys. I told them just to head home and we'd go out for pancakes later. I know he felt bad because he really wanted to be there.

As he was frustrated and telling me what happened, I said, "Hey!" He stopped and said, "What?" I said, "I did it. Can you believe it?!" And he said what he always says. The same thing he said, in his soft-spoken way, when I got my James Madison Fellowship, when I finished Ironman, and when I made my team:

"Yep."

One of the 589,965,145 reasons why he's the best guy ever. :) Thanks, Matt, for always believing in me. Always.

I found TriShannon and JenC and then even found TriguyJT! TriShannon was dealing with some serious leg pain. She soldiered through and still did fantastic. And JenC had an unofficial PR or, according to the race course, darn near close to a PR despite riding 3 hours yesterday! I am so proud of my friends!

Now here's the really strange part.

My average heart rate?

181

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY ONE! FOR 13.1 MILES!

Do I have the heart of a jackrabbit or something?!?!?! Gah! And I didn't bonk. Or feel bad at all, really. Just a bit tired and my stomach was a little queasy, but that's it.

Mega props to anyone in my age group who can BQ. I can't imagine holding that pace for another 13.1 miles. It would take me a lot of miles, a lot of time, and probably no triathlons. Just running. LOTS. So right now I'm not really seeing that on my radar.

But I do feel pretty good about breaking 4 hours in the fall! :)

I looked up the official results just to see what they said. I ended up finishing 25/278 in my age group, which I usually don't even pay attention to. But I saw that I was 25th and realized that, for the first time EVER, I broke the top 10% in something long with a big field. That absolutely shocked me. I never thought I could do this well in something long.

But really, nothing much has changed.

I remembered this later that day, when my buddies asked how the race went and I told them. They asked "What does that mean?" when I told them my time, so I tried to explain as short as I could. "Oh. Cool." They said. And then we all turned our attention to the Cavs and to drinking some beers.

It's funny, how sometimes in our heads (or at least just in mine) we get so caught up in times and stuff. But in the grand scheme of things, unless our paycheck depends upon our race times which, for most of us, it doesn't, it really doesn't matter that much. I could have ran a 2:37 today and my friends would have still said "Cool." Really...no one cares that much but me, you know?

For me, the most exciting part of the whole thing was for me to see that time. For me to see the results and really understand what they mean. For me to see how far I've come in 7 months. And, for me to smile when I think about what I'm going to do this summer and how happy I am to race again.

Doing this for me, and only me, is how I roll. When I block out the hype, it yields my best results every time. I'm going to try and remember this throughout this season, as undoubtedly not every race will be flawless.

The sun came out literally as soon as I crossed the finish line yesterday. My mom snapped this picture of my two buddies right after we all gave each other a big sweaty hug.



I can't wait to see what the rest of this season holds!

Maybe I should have a kid every year

Hooray for pregnancy blood doping!

1:50:06

7 months post-partum, and over a 5 minute PR.

Wow. I'm kinda still a little shocked.

And I had enough in me at the end to dance to "Hey Ya" at the part where it says "Shake it like a Polaroid picture."

At 5 miles, I was 34 seconds off my PR. At the 10K, I PRd by four minutes.

Wow.

When I take the pressure off myself a bit, it seems to work for me.

And had a wonderful time with TriShannon and JenC, and even got to meet TriguyJT, too!

It's gonna be a great season!

The Grand Experiment

...which is what I'm calling my race this Sunday.

It's an experiment, and I don't really know how it will go, but I've done all that I can and plan on enjoying whatever the day throws at me. I'm just glad to be out there, and with friends to boot!

The details are, quite honestly, not as important to me at this time. I know what I have trained for, the heart rates and paces and numbers and miles, and I will throw myself into getting that when that gun goes off. I tend to do better when I relax a bit, step away from the buzz, and take the pressure off until I'm standing there in line and hear that gun. Unconventional, I know. It's why I stayed as far away from Ironman Village as I could in '06. Just how I roll, I guess.

The pressure has been on in another, much more important way this week. I got another call. Another biopsy. Another diagnosis of cancer for someone I care about very much. I'm 30 years old, and I'm angry. I'm angry that I've had way too many of these calls. That I've already had two funerals this year. That I'm seeing too many of my friends, eyes red and voices shaking, dealing with these calls.

I'm scared that someday I might have to do the calling.

Suddenly, race day is seeming less of a fear or proving ground and more of a declaration...of my health, my friendships, and my hope. I'll enjoy every second because I know how lucky I am to be there, to put a number on, and to have a race day.

And that's it, really.

________________

UPDATE: Stage 2, with a 90% survival rate. Not as good as Stage NONE, but as good of news as we could get. I still might have to get Mouse's cross stitch project, though. :)

Wheel Mooch

First, I made it! They made it! Yahoooooooooooo

Now, I get my mornings back, so I can fill them with more workouts. Sweet!

Went for a ride today with Aimee, TriEric's wife. She had 3 hours and I had 1:30 to do, so she rode over to my place and then we headed to the park from there. It was really fun and we had a great ride, despite me being a total wheel mooch.

Wheel Mooch: noun. One who clings frantically to the back wheel of a cyclist, holding on for dear life in the draft, while the aforementioned cyclist does all the work. See also, TriSaraTops. Commonly used: Wow, that TriSaraTops is a real wheel mooch.

When all was said and done, I managed just over 27 miles, which would be my farthest ride outside to date. Yay! Special thanks to Aimee for letting me tag along, and for not minding my total wheel-moochness.

I definitely notice that my hill ability has pretty much gone down to nil, although it's slowly getting better. Apparently, pregnancy blood-doping doesn't work for me cycling hills like it does running. Boo. What this means, is that I really just need to head into the valley, by myself to avoid all humiliation, and just climb up some hills in my granny gear until I get better. It will feel a little bit like this:

"Thank you sir, may I have another?"--Kevin Bacon in Animal House, and TriSaraTops getting spanked as she granny gears up a hill

But, alas, it must be done.

Having a few buddies over for some s'mores tonight--yum-o! First of the season. A great way to celebrate no more AP test (until next year)! Tomorrow will be my last long run...8 or 9 miles, with 3 at race pace. I can't believe next week will be the race! Then it's REALLY time to hit the hills and pool, which times up nicely with me getting my life back after Friday's test. Woot!

I just love May. Minus the allergies, of course. But that's a minor detail. :)

Coming up for air

Taking a brief moment to post a few momentary, random thoughts:

• My students are SO ready and I'm pretty excited for them. They are finally understanding that they can do it. It rocks.
• Subway cookies might be the most delicious treats on the planet.
• I had 2 absolutely rocking runs--one with JayZ yesterday and a great fartlek run in the rain (again) today.
• My Nutter girls ALL PR'D and I am SOOOOOOO PROUD OF THEM! And of Mr. Lush, too--he PR'd and went sub-2! Yahoooooooooooo to my girls!

Looking forward to the race--can't believe it's just around the corner and my girl TriShannon will be here soon! Boo-yah!

Okay, that's all--gotta run! Get me to Friday....

Partyin' Like it's 1912

The AP test is this Friday, so I doubt I'll have time to post this week...or do much of anything. I will be lucky to squeeze in my workouts here and there.

Not surprisingly, I tend to look to the past for inspiration. My students are freaking out on me as they approach their "race day." I try to tell them that if they've been doing what they should have all year, they will be more than fine on Friday. Cramming for the AP test 4 days prios makes about as much sense as squeezing in a 20-miler four days before your marathon.

I'm making them little notes with Smarties attached that have one of my all-time favorite quotes on it. Exhibit A:

"The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at best, know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if they fail, fail while they are daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." --T. Roosevelt

For many of them, the cards have been stacked against them as they deal with serious issues outside of school. I want them to know how proud I am of them for making it to test day--regardless of what happens. They have grown tremendously and I consider myself lucky to witness this.

Sometimes, getting to the starting line is overlooked. Often, getting to the starting line is a task in and of itself for many reasons, and one that should be celebrated. Sure, there are standards of "success," whether it's a 5 on the AP test from the College Board or a sub-10 hour Ironman. But, ultimately, I want them to understand that success must be defined within. Your goals and dreams may be up for discussion, but they are not up for negotiation. Ever.

For me, the goal is the journey. I am so grateful to be able to stand at a starting line in less than two weeks, and with one of my best friends there, too. Sure, I could have done more over the past seven months to prepare for one standard of success--time. But at what cost? At one that, at this point in my life, I'm just not willing nor have any desire to make.

I am very nervous and excited to enjoy the day and share it with friends. For me, that will make my race day a success.

Have a wonderful week everyone--see you after I get my life back on Friday!

14 miles--check!

And in the POURING rain, to boot! But it was about 65 degrees, so that's not too bad. Made for wet, heavy shoes, though.

I ran the first 7 easy and then tried to knock off 50 seconds or so per mile for 6. I did 4. The last two, well...I was just outta steam. I did the last 3 easy for a cooldown, but I had to estimate the distance and time because my Garmin battery died after 11.5 miles. Man, how did I ever run before my Forerunner? I am such a dork with the data!

I'm not gonna lie. Part of me wondered, how on earth am I going to do all 13.1 miles faster than this? I am panting like a dog and I'm freakin' EXHAUSTED. Can I do it? But I've now ran three separate times OVER the distance. I know I can go the distance...but from there, I have no idea.

I don't know. I guess we'll find out. But race day always has a little magic to it, right?

Public Service Announcement

Never, never, NEVER buy a gift from PersonalCreations.com.

The WORST customer service EVER. EVER EVER EVER.

They screwed up the shipping and sent the gift to me, and refuse to acknowledge the mistake or credit my account. Now I have to purchase packaging and reship it myself.

I informed them I was going to post this everywhere I could and also write a letter to the manager (since they refused to let me speak to one). So, here it is.

HORRIBLE company. Cute gift, though...but don't buy anything from them unless you want a lot of headache and to be out extra money!

/end rant/

And, it strikes again!

IT being the magical pregnancy blood-doping syndrome that has been striking my running lately.


I wasn't sure how my run would go today. I sort of had an unintentional week off. And by off, I mean laying around sleeping and drinking ginger ale. Good times.

My rockin' new Coach Emily had me go for a walk last night just to get moving again. I took Mugsy the Wonder Pug for a nice walk since it was pretty chilly for a run with JayZ. Today, she had me at a 50 minute run. Matt has class tonight, so I knew if I was going to get it in at all, it would be with JayZ in the stroller.

Hmmmm. Pushing a 21 pounder in the stroller might not make for a good comeback run after a week off. I was a little nervous.

It is sunny and beautiful, but a little chilly at 50 degrees or so, so I bundled up JayZ a bit. We headed out. I decided to actually wear my heart rate monitor. I don't think I've worn the thing since Ironman--seriously. I am not a huge fan of HR training but I know it can be beneficial for data's sake, so I reluctantly put it on. I'm surprised the battery even worked!

Despite a little wind, it was a fantabulous run. I felt GREAT. Not even great, FANTASTIC! I was really shocked.

And especially shocked to see an average pace WAYYYYYYYYYYYY faster than I thought I'd have--especially since I was pushing JayZ. I usually don't take my watch on runs with him because I figure I'll be slow and it's nice to just run with my little guy without splits, you know? But I was pleasantly surprised--no, elated is a better word--to see what (for me) is a pretty good clip with an average HR of 157.


Wow.

The grand experiment which is the Cleveland Half Marathon is going to be really interesting. My mileage is nowhere NEAR what I wanted it to be, but things still seem to be clicking for me...knock on wood. We'll see what happens this weekend, as I have a 14 miler with my last few at race pace.

I also have a few peeps to give shout-outs to--My NUTTER girls!* First, congratulations to Cerveza and her hubby Dave, who both ran their first half marathons in Columbus 2 weeks ago and ROCKED IT! I am so proud of both of them!

Next, I have to give BIG SHOUT OUTS to my other NUTTER girls racing this weekend--Hedda, who is doing her first half marathon EVAH! I am sooooo proud of her--she's a new mommy who's managing to balance a little guy, a job, and training for her first half! WAY TO GO HEDDA--if I was there I'd throw a tart in your general direction ;) And to Lush and her hubby Tyson, who will also be tackling the Mini for I think the 4th time this year? They ROCK and I smell HUUUUUUGGGGEEEE PRs for both of them! Lushious has been running so strong and I can't wait to see her kick butt! And to my girl Jacks, who will be taking on the Flying Pig this weekend--go get 'em, girl! :) She's become quite the tri-chick, too--can't wait to head to ChiTown to hang with her and then go to WIBA in about 2 months!


Last but not least, best of luck to Coach Emily who will be heading to St. Croix for the 70.3 this weekend! I might be a LITTLE jealous of her on the beach. But not of her climbing that hill. Holy cow! GOOOOOO Coach Emily!


Gotta go cut some of my tulips--we might have frost tonight so I want to cut a few for our kitchen and for my classroom!

Spring's here and I'm soooooooooooooooooooo excited to be racing! I might have a big race announcement soon...it involves me traveling rather far and totally violating my "I only race if I can drive there" policy, but this would be SO fun that I can't pass it up. I'll keep ya posted!

*NUTTERS are my chicas that I lived with senior year of college...AGD girls, and since our mascot was a squirrel...(yeah, seriously a squirrel)...we named our house "The Nuthouse." Oh, and everyone at Miami names their houses. It's just what you do. Some are quite dirrrrty, actually, and ours was pretty tame. So that's how we came up with NUTTERS. I won't tell you what happened when the guys next door stole our sign. You don't want to know.

Finally...

I'm starting to feel like me again!

Man. Whatever the heck this bug was that I caught was ROTTEN. I guess it could have been worse--I wasn't throwing up--but it reminded me of when I got Mono freshman year of college, and my throat was so swollen that I was snoring so loudly that poor DaisyDuc had to carry her mattress into another room to sleep in one night.

(Seriously. Poor Daisy couldn't sleep a wink and didn't want to wake me up. I woke up and looked down to see my bunk mate gone--mattress and all!)

My throat is much better and I'm feeling a lot more like me, but I won't be doing any training today. Or, tomorrow. That will be almost a whole week off. Which led me to my previous post's ruminations.

From what I have been discussing with those who know this stuff, it seems that (big surprise here) I'm freaking out a bit for not much reason. I need to remember the consistent work I've done since January. The speedwork, tempo runs, and various long runs in the 10-12 mile range as well as a 13 and 14 mile run already. And this weekend, provided I continue to feel better, I'll do 12-14 again. So that will mean I will have ALREADY RAN THREE HALF MARATHONS. I have covered this distance three times. Each time having a successful negative split.

My mileage has been lower than I'd like, but I've also been swimming and cycling a teensy bit, so that should help a bit. I've seen lots of my triathlon friends greatly improve their race times from adding cycling to their routine, so I'm not going to worry about it for now.

I also have a history of my head being my biggest enemy on race day. I know I am capable of doing well on the 18th, and I think I need to make mental training just as high of a priority as I will my next two weeks of runs.

So here's the plan:

A Goal: run a 1:50 half. Follow pacers for first 11 miles, then dig deep for the last 2 on my own when they turn off on the marathon course. Then grill out and drink beer with TriShannon.

B Goal: Stick with pacers for first few miles, and run the rest on my own. Go 1:54 or less. Then grill out and drink beer with TriShannon.

C Goal: Stick with pacers for first few miles, run the rest on my own and decided just to finish, high-fiving as many people as I can along the way. Finish. Then grill out and drink beer with TriShannon.

If I don't give it a shot, I'll kick myself. I've put in a great deal of time and consistent training for a while now, as well as sort of already running "three half marathons" in training. I need to go for this. I can go for this.

First task: get 100% better.

Next task: kick butt.

This rots.

Still not myself.

Fever is gone after 2 days, but still not 100%. HAVE to go to school today and sludge through. Ugh. Am visiting doc later.

May have to reasses my half mary goals. Ugh. I hate to do that, but I'm going to miss my 14 miles with 6 at race pace this weekend, and I don't know if I can squeeze it in next week after school with these AP tests looming over my head. And I missed my splits last weekend, although I know it's probably because I was starting to get this nastiness.

To top it all off, work is nuts. Next week, I'll most likely be going in early, working through lunch with kids, and staying later.

Maybe instead of a 5 minute PR, I just shoot for a PR.

It just is frustrating because I feel like I was trucking along and doing SO well. Maybe my body will surprise me here, but I don't know. This is supposed to be fun, and I want it to be fun. TriShannon will be here and that's fun. Maybe I shouldn't try to do too much here. A small PR's just as good as a big one, and there's always half mary's I can try later.

This week rots.

The Definition of a Class Act

From Ed, in my triclub, who has since moved but posted this on our forum and I just had to share. He just finished Ironman Arizona.

If you read his post here, it will explain who Ellen is and why Ed gives her his finisher's medal.

This is truly what it's all about.

I've got a fever....

...and the only thing that will cure it is more cowbell.

Actually, I don't know if cowbell will help. But I'm willing to try.

Like, I really have a fever. 101.2.

My quest to not miss ANY days before the AP test has failed miserably.

I feel like poop.

Ugh.

(If you're wondering why I'm up at 2:41 am, it's because a) I feel like I was hit by a truck and b) I'm trying to type up sub plans. Good times.)

The funny part is I ran 5 miles last night, and was all, "Man, I feel pretty sore from Monday's ride! What the heck is wrong with me? I'm such a pansy!"

OR I'M RUNNING WITH A FREAKING FEVER.

Sigh.

This BETTER BE GONE BY TOMORROW. I don't have time for this nonsense.

Things I Learned Tonight

On this, the second ride I've done since September, 2006, here is what didn't change:

1. Cars in the park where I cycle are STILL A BUNCH OF BUTT MUNCHES. I forgot what it's like to hear, "GET ON THE BIKE PATH," "F-YOU," and the sound of rapid car horns while riding. And this is in a PARK where there are signs every mile or so saying, "Share the Road." Oh well. They are probably miserable people, anyway.

2. I PROBABLY should not try to hang with a group that is going about 20 miles an hour.

3. By hanging with said group for the first 5 miles, then realizing just how fast they were going, it made for a looooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnngggggggg and rather lonely 20 more miles. Story of group rides for me. Group rides usually turn into solo rides where I beat myself up about how slow I am.

4. I have a lot of work to do.

Things that HAVE changed since 2006:

1. If this was '06, I probably would have cried on the car ride home in frustration, since that was pretty much my standard operating procedure. But I came home, kissed my boys, and laughed about how I just got my butt whooped. I laughed. Huh?

2. Yeah, this whole "not getting my proverbial panties up in a bunch" over a ride in April where I was embarrassingly slow is new. I think I like it. Because I just kinda know I'm fine, and I have time to do the work that needs to be done to get where I need to be.

3. I think it's because since 2006, I've survived Ironman and childbirth, and not a whole lot fazes me. I don't mean that in a cocky way, but more just at peace with myself I think. I know I'll probably never break any land-speed records, but I'm amazed at what my body has done in the past year and a half, and I have a new respect for it.

So I guess some things never change. And some things have been changed forever.

First Fever

I had a rather sluggish and rotten run Saturday.

I was supposed to run 10, with 3 warm-up, 4 at race pace, and 3 cool down. It was a lot warmer and more humid than I like or expected, and I ran out of fluids at mile 6. Great. I really dislike running in any weather above about 72 degrees, and in my perfect little world every run would be in a nice overcast 55 degrees. :)

I also had a hard time hitting my paces and decided to just do 3 at race pace-ish (but slower--boo) and 4 cool down. My average pace was fine for the whole run, but I beat myself up about missing the pace for the 4. I guess they all can't be good, right?

Ah, still got the 10 in. I guess that's good. Next week I have "13-16 with a negative split." I'm shooting for at least 14. We'll see how I feel.

For now, my concern lies with little JayZ. He has his first fever and it's just tearing me up. I just wish I could make it BETTER RIGHT NOW. Sigh. We think it broke this evening, so hopefully he'll be my smiley little guy again tomorrow. Poor little bug!

I'm hoping I'll be able to do a brick tomorrow with some buddies in the evening, but it will depend on how my little man feels. Plus, my body might be telling me to take it easy. I feel pretty sore today, so we'll see how things go.

I talked to my new coach, Emily, yesterday, and she rocks! I am so pumped up for this season! Looking at my countdown clock, I really don't have too long until Cleveland Half Marathon...gulp! I'm just pumped to run with my buddy TriShannon. That'll be the best part of the day!

Dinner in the sunshine

Today, I had a somewhat crazy day at work. I came home and enjoyed a nice dinner in the sun with my three boys. Then, the boys who have just two legs and I went to school to hear two guest speakers share their experiences.

They were Sudanese "Lost Boys."

JayZ sat quietly on my lap, staring and occasionally sighing. He gripped my fingers. I sat and listened to the stories of these two guys--just a few years younger than me--and tears welled up in my eyes. I squeezed JayZ's hand. A lot.

You know what? Even when you've had a rough day and you think life stinks, it doesn't. It's wonderful.

It's just like riding a bicycle...

I rode outside today.

For the first time (according to my Garmin, which I'm pretty sure is right) since September 30, 2006.

(Yes, that's a SIX at the end.)

I was pretty nervous. I wondered just how bad I'd be, as, after all, I really really have not worked on my limiter much. Bleh.

So I knew it would be my own stupid fault if I totally snailed it.

Light winds, blue skies, 75 degrees. That makes for a challenging day in the classroom (as the proportion of kids acting up increases exponentially with every degree the temperature rises) but, as it turns out, a perfect day for a ride.

So I started out on my old familiar route. I figured I'd go to my normal turnaround for a total of about 16.5 miles. And then it happened.

I forgot about sucking. I forgot about being slow.

And I had a blast.

The first mile or two I was a little apprehensive, but then it just started to click. I felt like I had never left.

I got home with a big smile on my face. And you know the best part?

I blew my expectations out of the water. I managed to average 18 miles per hour.

EIGHTEEN!

That, for me, is pretty good. Especially considering my year and a half hiatus. The crazy pregnancy-blood-doping theory holds true again! Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Watch out, pre-baby TriSaraTops. I have a feeling post-baby TriSaraTops is going to kick your butt.

Laying out the plan

So life's been kickin' my butt a bit lately, but I wanted to get a post up to outline what I've been working on for my new team. I've been wanting to do this for a while and actually started implementing it about a month ago. I figured if I made the team, fantabulous--it will greatly help me in putting this together--and if I didn't, I was going to go ahead with my plan anyway the best I could. I am very excited to have the support of my team for this project and hope to make it even better than I originally planned!

Here's what's going through my head. You can hear my actual interview on the website, but I was rambling rambling rambling and so nervous I was shaking and I have a horrible Cleveland accent (think Aflac Duck), so I'd rather just write. :) (TacBoy and The.Bigun also caught me off guard so my rambling and bad accent is also on their latest rockin' podcast! ha ha)

Goal: I want to focus on getting young people (middle and high school age) into triathlons.

Rationale

• it is great for overall fitness
• it complements all other sports and is fantastic cross training
• it gives kids "something to do" that is healthy and NOT illegal or unproductive
• it can bring families together to train and set goals
• triathlon helps you realize how strong you are and what you are capable of--young people, like all of us, can sometimes use a reminder of this in the face of stresses they are dealing with

Plan

• Create a website/blog called "The Tri Zone" geared toward young triathletes. This can be a place to share information, training suggestions, race reports, etc. I'm pretty technologically stupid, so it might just be a blogspot thing for this year.
• Ultimately, I want this to be the foundation for a local club that any community can set up. Sometime in the near future I envision this being a "club in a box" that I can send to anyone interested in setting up their own TriZone locally. It's a relatively easy, local, grassroots-style club that I want to be easy for any parent to administer. Parents have enough going on already, so I don't want people to be intimidated by boatloads of work to get this going. Hopefully, the club can sort of "run itself" if the foundation is strong, and that's what I'd like to work toward.
• Pilot this in my community (Northeastern Ohio) this summer. See what works, and what needs improvement. Tweak it, and spread it to other communities next summer.
• I have picked a few races that we will focus on here: The CVAC Tin Man Sprint Triathlon, the Greater Cleveland Youth Triathlon, and the Huntington Beach Sprint Triathlon.
• Implement a "Battle of the Schools" to get area kids interested in competing in a triathlon, meeting other people, and pushing themselves to be their best while challenging themselves

What I've done so far:

• I am still in the planning stages here, but am getting some great support and help from my friends in my tri club!
• I am starting to contact area Athletic Directors and Principals about setting up some kind of an informal group to try the Battle of the Schools. Another friend on the Board of CTC with me is helping contact some east side schools (Kenston and Chagrin) and I'm going to work on three west side schools (Rocky River, Bay Village, and Fairview).
• I will contact all track and field, cross-country, and swim coaches in all 5 districts to drum up some of the obvious candidates, but I also want to open this to all kids because, as many of you out there know, quite a few people get into triathlon who NEVER did ANY of these sports in high school! (myself included--I never swam on my high school team--only club summer teams)
• The focus of the East Side Battle will be the CVAC Tin Man, the West Side Battle will be the Huntington Sprint, and the Greater Cleveland Youth Triathlon will be the culminating triathlon of the summers for all five schools.
• I'd also like to have some kind of picnic/recognition after the Greater Cleveland Triathlon is done to reward the kids for their hard work and celebrate with their families.
• I'm trying to figure out how to handle a weekly training session on the east side (far, far away from where I live) but know that it will be no problem for me to lead one on the west side.
• I need to also consider the EXTREMELY IMPORTANT logistics of safety and liability, so I plan on getting this in order ASAP.
• I need to consider the eligibility rules of the Ohio High School Athletic Association for any fall athletes who compete in these local races. The last thing I want to do is have a kid be ineligible to compete in a fall sport because they did a "formal" race after such and such date!
• My tri club just "stumbled upon" a local young triathlete who is doing her senior project on area triathlon clubs AND is on the JUNIOR NATIONAL TEAM for USAT. Yeah. I plan on talking to her. A LOT.
• My awesome former Coach also has a contact at USAT who is on the committee for Youth in triathlon, so I'm planning on picking her brain a bit, too.

So that's what I've been up to! Oh, and getting ready for this AP test. And trying to train as much as I can. That's pretty much sucking up most of my life at the moment. And, of course, spending as much time as I can with this guy:

I'll keep you posted on the progress of this! I am really excited!

Start acting like a triathlete.

Seriously.

I need to really start acting like a triathlete. No excuses.

It's been hard to get in anything but running lately. Partly because I feel like, calorie-wise, it's the best bang for the buck. I can sneak in a 5 miler without too much time, and the only gear I need is my shoes (and perhaps the jogging stroller if JayZ is coming with me). Setting up the trainer, pumping the tires, checking the chains, or driving to the pool just takes more time. And it hasn't been happening.

Like, at all.

I hadn't swam since March 23rd until Sunday. I was pretty nervous to see what Rob had in store for us at our Oberlin swim clinic. I thought about wussing out and not going. I mean, what business do I have trying to keep up at a tough swim practice? Sheesh. I was kind of disgusted with myself.

So then I got there and heard we were doing a 20 minute time trial.

Gulp.

Prepare to have booty handed to me on a platter.

The good news is...I did the same as I did last time we did a time trial.

The bad news is....it's April, and I DID THE SAME AS I DID LAST TIME WE DID A TIME TRIAL.

Booooooooooo.

I guess I can at least be happy that I could still do it, and to some extent, I can kind of "wing" the swim. But that's not why I do this sport. I don't do it to "wing it," and I certainly don't do this sport because it's easy.

It's really easy for me to go for a run or a swim, because I'm relatively good at it. I'm not breaking any land-speed records, but it comes pretty easily to me. I can wing it.

There's a big pink elephant in my room right now on a bicycle. And this year, there are no excuses. I need to get better. I have no excuse NOT to get better.

It's easy to do what you like. It takes a tougher chick to admit you are NOT good at something, and then DO IT.

So, it's time. It's time for me to get outside on my bike again. To get dropped for a while. To feel my quads burning as I churn up a hill that everyone's already at the top of, and to blink back a few tears of frustration so no one sees. To swear a little bit under my breath. To remember that yes, I can do this. I might feel worthless and like the worst cyclist in the world, but I'm not. I know in my heart I'm not.

I just have to work at it. That's all.

a RACE REPORT!!!

No, your eyes are not deceiving you.

I have a RACE REPORT!

Like, really!

Not just a training report, or a report of JayZ, or some other random stuff.

I RACED! I RACED! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

(so I'm a little excited)

Okay, so I decided to do this 5K, even though I'm usually SOOOO not a 5K fan. The school district with the most people there gets $5,000 to better their physical fitness program, and that rocks. So, I figured, I might as well. Even if I walked it, it would be good for our school, you know?

Now, I had NOOOOO idea what to expect in this race. Let's list the reasons why:

1. I haven't RACED at all since 2006.

2. I haven't RACED a 5K since November of 2006.

3. I haven't done track work or speedwork (minus a few tempo runs) since (and I'm not kidding here) JUNE of 2006.

4. I OBLITERATED my core during the year 2007. Seriously. The 55 pounds I gained are gone, but I am, uh...still a little soft and mushy all around. (Yeah, I know. Nice visual, huh?)

So, of course, in Competitive Sara's head, a PR would be nice (which is anything under a 7:39/mile) but realistically I was hoping to hold more of a tempo pace, which would be a 7:50/mile. That would still push me hard and I would call that a victory.

But really, who the heck knows what this body was going to do? I had no clue.

And I was so giddy at the start line! I felt like a kid on Christmas. My good buddy Allenjel was there and I'm so excited to see her kicking so much butt and getting super fast! I thought if I could keep her in my sight the first mile or two I'd be in good shape.

Let's set the scene: 42 degrees, light winds, and what my buddy Canada Jenn likes to describe as "piss raining." What a wonderful day to race!

The only black shorts that were clean were the shorts I wore for my first marathon when I was about 30 pounds heavier, so I think I looked a bit ridiculous. Oh well! At least they were comfortable, right?

So the gun went off and I took off. HOLY SMOKES. My body was giving me a big WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON and my mind was like, SHUT UP, DUDE, JUST GO!

I checked Garmin around the first half mile, and was running at a 6:28 pace.

AGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Miss Six is back! But I really have no business seeing her today. I knew I was in for it later!

(I swear, a year and a half off racing and I make the same freakin' pacing mistakes. Some things never change!)

So I tried to slow way down....tempo run, self...tempo run...Their Mile 1 marker was a little short so I tried to go more by my Garmin. I hit the first mile in somewhere about 7:20, so that was good.

Mile 2 I felt a little slower. I tried to just remember that I can do this, and there's no reason for me NOT to be able to hold a tempo pace today. When I finished mile 2, my average had gone to around 7:38. (And that's when a teensy voice in my head said, "Hmmmmmm....PR, perhaps?") But I knew differently! That last mile always seems to kill me.

I got in a footrace at the end with a girl who was, like, 11. I sort of felt a little bad trying to beat her and let her have the last step or two. (She's 11! She deserves it more than me. Seriously.) I patted her on the back and told her "Nice kick!" Man, when I was 11, I thought running around the BLOCK was far. I love seeing kids race!

So here's the exciting part.

I didn't PR, which, of course, I really shouldn't be surprised about.

But my average pace (according to my Garmin) was 7:49!

For 3.1 miles.

With no speedwork.

And no racing in a year and a half.

And a mushy midsection.

Which, my friends, means I was only 10 seconds or so per mile off my PR that I set back in 2003!

Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

So, that's what I call a victory. :)

Hopefully my school district will win 5 G's. That would rock! I also got to see Bloggister and Rootsrunner at the end, and Allenjel kicked major butt and placed in our age group! So all around, a wonderful day for a race.

Now, bring on the long course stuff! But maybe another 5K sometime...now, Competitive Sara is just getting curious about what she can really do. :)

______________________

UPDATE!

They posted the race results...turns out they had me at a 24:02, which is a 7:45/mile pace. I'll take it! I forgot to hit my Garmin at the end (typical) so I like theirs better. :) They also had the most interesting slaughtering of my last name I think I've ever seen....almost as good as the "Sara Avacado" swim ribbon I have from 4th grade. I love it! What I don't love, however, is the fact that I missed 3rd in my age group by FIVE SECONDS! Boooooo! Poop sandwich. Oh well--that's what I get for not catching her! :)



Here's me and allenjel chillin' with some random eagle dude.....huh?



We almost jumped in the big inflated jumpy thing they had for the kids, but it was cold and we were tired so we opted against it. Maybe next time!

Six Word Memoir

Whew.

It's Wednesday, and I'm as tired as I am on Fridays.

Yikes.

DBQs will do that to you...but they are done (yay!) and my students have really improved so much. I am excited and nervous for them as they enter the home stretch before the AP test. All I can do is prepare them the best I can, I guess. The rest is up to them.

Went for a 4 mile run Monday and a 5 mile run yesterday with JayZ. He goes out cold every time. Yesterday I did an out and back and felt like I was flying along for the first 2.5. And then, at the turnaround, the wind hit. Man, when that wind picks up...whew. Let's just call it one long hill repeat, 'cause that's pretty much how it felt. The kickin' stroller is not very aerodynamic, and especially when you add a 20.25 pound six month old boy.

So I missed my tempo run, but oh well. I haven't really missed anything yet, which I am quite proud of, so this one time I'll chill about it. Flexible, flexible....right?

And this weekend I'll have a little 5K action that I'm going to try and treat like a tempo run, so I'll get some speedwork in there. I'm not holding my breath to race this one well, but hey, I'm just so excited to put a number on again! Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

So my boy Bubba will be doing his first 100 MILE RACE this weekend. Bubba, you CRAZY! But that's why we love him! Best of luck to you! He also had a six-word memoir on his blog, which I heard about on NPR and thought they were really cool. In six words, try to sum up your life. It's hard, huh? I think I've settled on mine:

"What do you mean, slow down?"--TriSaraTops

What's your six words?

How to Drive Yourself Crazy

1. Assign a DBQ Essay for the test on the last day of the quarter.

2. Try to grade it in a weekend....

3. While still eating, sleeping, and attempting to have some kind of life.

Not my smartest moment!

Thank goodness for a KICKIN' 10 mile run yesterday to help me keep my sanity--6 hill repeats and still a negative split! Yahoooooooooooooo

Now if I can just find the time this week to enjoy the weather and finally go for a ride outside!

But for now...back to my DBQ dungeon.

And this is what I call EXCITED.

EXCITED might be the understatement of the century.

I am honored to be the newest member of EvoTri, and thank my family and friends for supporting me! I am so pumped to join the team, and even more excited to continue forward with the work I've already started to get young people involved in triathlon. This is going to be a jam-packed, exciting season as I combine two things I am extremely passionate about: triathlon and working with kids. I'll be outlining my plans as soon as I get the time here to jot them down...right now, JayZ is attempting to crawl, so I kinda want to check that out. :)

Thanks to my family and friends (and new teammates) for believing in me! I am so excited to begin this new adventure!