Pride

Yesterday morning, a few awesome girls became triathletes.


I am so proud of them!


At the beginning of the summer, we had a good sized crew. But then, school was out. And vacations came. And work came. And, inevitably, a few emails came from kids who decided to back out. I was kind of bummed, but I tried to remember that this often happens to us adults, too. But I have this big project at work...but I have to do this or that....sound familiar? So, instead of being bummed about losing a few kids, I decided that, you know what? I'm going to make this as fun as I can for the kids I do have, and they will have a great time, and I'll be able to start earlier next year. My mind is already churning with the ideas I have for next summer--a mini-camp, a pre-race pasta dinner, adding 3 more schools that I have solid contacts to, getting all the legal mumbo-jumbo and photo release waivers out of the way earlier, etc. etc.


So I threw my efforts into making these girls feel like triathlon queens in training. Because, we all know, once you have a race day, you're hooked.


On the docket over the past six weeks, we've had two open-water swims, four spin and core classes, 6 brick workouts, a weekly email with training tips, and a transition and race day talk. And I really couldn't have pulled this off without my Iron Bro, TriEric, who was gracious enough to not only lead the brick I couldn't make, but come to our open water swim and give tips in our transition talk, AND cheer like crazy after kicking some major butt in his own race yesterday. Thanks, buddy!


It was so much fun for me to see these girls progress over the past few weeks. The first brick, a few could barely hang on for the ride and then had to run/walk a mile. One girl was taking a few swimming lessons because she didn't really know how to swim. I only know this because I saw her working so hard one morning when I was doing my laps. And I had her in class the past two years, and this didn't surprise me. She's one of the hardest-working kids you'll ever meet...one who just doesn't give up and rarely complains, but throws her effort into it and just tries to make it better no matter what, because she knows deep down in there, she can do it.


You know, the kind of kid that grows up to be an Ironman.


And all five of these girls possess these qualities in different measures and ways. It was really, really fun to see. I can't wait to see where they go now.


So yesterday was the race. I met them down in transition at 6:45. Well, Ashley beat me there, actually, with a perfect spot chosen on the edge of a rack near the bike exit, just like I told them. "The early bird gets the worm!" she chirped. Yep, there's a triathlete for ya, huh?



They laid out their transition towels like we practiced, applied sunscreen, got their water bottles ready, and went over to get their body markings.




And then, it was time to head to the beach. But not before I could snap a picture of them with their numbers on their arms, like tri-rock stars.



They walked down to the beach and discussed the beginning of the swim.

I saw a few girls getting a little nervous about the swim. Two were pretty solid in the water, but the other two weren't strong swimmers and I could sense the fear of the open water rising, despite a nice calm day. I said a silent prayer thanking for this calm day, as I didn't think I could even get one of them to start the race if it was crazy wavy. Whew.



They waded in, got their caps on, and waited for their waves to start. And then they were off. I watched as they made their way to the first buoy. I wasn't worried about two of them, but my other two I was a little worried for. If they can just make it through the swim, they'll be fine, I thought. Basically, the same thought process in my head during Ironman. Please, just let me get through this bike. If I can get through this ride, I can do this...


I ran out to the breakwall about halfway through the course to look for them. I found them both--one was resting on a kayak for a minute, so I cheered her on. I told them before it was totally okay to take a rest, or do some backstroke or doggy paddle or WHATEVER you need to do. She kept going. Good job! I thought. I saw the other one on her back doing a few backstroke kicks. "Good job, Erin! Keep going!" I yelled. She saw me, and gave me the thumbs up sign.


Okay. We're okay. They're gonna be fine.


They all made it out of the water, and I was there to cheer them on with their parents. It was so exciting to me to see all their families come out to cheer them on. That is another goal I hope to have with this thing--to get families together, and maybe even doing the race together.


On the bike course, I just waited for them in transition. Jenna came in first, with some blazing speed, especially for a mountain bike! I had already told the girls NOT to freak about getting passed on the mountain bikes they were riding upon...that there was NOTHING they could do about that, so just run your OWN race. Jenna is a fierce competitor and a captain of the cross country team who is not used to getting passed, so I hoped she remembered my words. She seemed to look great, and I knew she was in her element now. She took off, and passed a few people right out of the gate!


Next came Ashley, another runner and swimmer, too. She swam THREE MILES last weekend for a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. THREE. MILES. I have no doubt this girl will be back for more triathlons, and I can see her going the distance some day! She moved quickly through T2, then realized she forgot her hat so she came back...and then she was off.


Jenna came in first, looking strong, and with a look of determination on her face combined with the desire not to hurl. (Her mom and her had been joking how she often leaves it all on the course....literally....in cross country races.) She crossed the line and smiled as she tried to catch her breath. What a tough cookie!


Then, I saw Jackie and then Erin round the corner. Erin grabbed some Nuun I bought for her in transition and Jackie took a few swigs of Gatorade. Jenna cheered on Erin and told her just a few more short miles and she'd be done...which is what tri buddies always say to each other, right? Jackie was a runner, but I knew this would be Erin's longest run ever. I cheered them on as loudly as I could, and ran with Erin down and up the first hill just to get her going and keep her spirits up.


Ashley came in looking really strong with a nice kick! She crossed the line all smiles and hugged her Mom and Aunt who came to cheer her on.


I was getting a little worried and hoping the girls were feeling okay. It was really, really humid, and the longer they were out there, the harder it would be. TriEric's wife Aimee helped me spot the girls as they crossed the street and made it to the last turn. I saw their parents and uncles, too, as they crossed and we all cheered them on.


They got that magical energy we all get when we see that finish line, sprinted like they were in the Olympics, and crossed the mat.


BEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPP


And they were in!


Four new triathletes. And one more who will be on August 2nd in downtown Cleveland.


I gave big sweaty hugs all around, and we all celebrated. I told them how proud I was of them, and they all seemed genuinely proud of themselves. I especially congratulated Erin, who isn't on the swim team or cross country team. She just thought this sounded like a great way to challenge herself, and she worked SO hard. She made it.

They all did.


They swapped stories about the course and hugged their families. I remembered my first sprint triathlon and the memories I still have from that day seven years ago. It gave me pride to know that this morning would be a part of these girls memories forever, and hopefully they'd had so much fun today that they would remember this feeling of accomplishment and how they can do anything--anything--if they try hard enough.

So congratulations to the newest members of the triathlon family! I am so proud of all of you.

MiltonMan '08

Okay, I'm gonna try and bang out a race report here. Which is hard, only because I'm having too much fun to blog. Thursday was Bug's first Tribe game (he helped break their 10 game losing streak--thanks, buddy!), Friday was our Caddyshack picnic, Saturday was a Luau Murder Mystery Party, and today we took Bug to the Zoo for the first time. So I've been enjoying that, and am slacking on the bloggin'.

Here's a few of us from the Tribe Game:

And here's me showing the Bug there were lions in our midst...

Going into this race, I didn't really know what to expect. To say I was rusty was an understatement. Coach Emily said, "Let's do a race before Steelhead, you know, to work out the kinks." I figured that was a good idea, as the last time I had a T1 or T2 was in Madison. I haven't really pushed myself in a triathlon in a loooooooong time. There were none last year, and the year before was all about LSD. (not the drug, of course. The SLOOOOOOOOWWWWW stuff.) The Olympic Tri I did that year had a 2:59 finish time, and my overall PR in an Oly was 2:54 from a year before that.

So the plan was for Matt, Bug and I to go to the party which was halfway between my house and the race, and then me stay at my buddy's house and they head home.

Why do I think that's a good idea? Ugh.

I don't sleep well away from my guys. WIBA was reaaaaaaalllllllllyyyyyyyy hard for me to sleep. I just felt restless. So I didn't sleep more than 2 1/2 hours the night before the race. Excellent. Also, my buddy has a cat and I am hella allergic, so I think I OD'd on my Nasonex. Needless to say, it was not the greatest pre-race night's sleep, but my buddy was so awesome to let me stay there and break up the (what turned out to be an) HOUR and a HALF drive. Yikes!

The alarm went off at 4:30am, and I immediately thought, what the hell am I doing? I'm not tapered at all. I'm tired. I miss my boys. I don't want to do this race. I feel like poo. I am a sniffly mess. I had a mojito and a bunch of mozzerella sticks last night. I'm 40 minutes from home...I can just drive home...

But then I snapped myself out of it. If I'm going to spend a night away from my boys, there BETTER be a good reason. I thought of Wil's alarm clock going off then, too, and I knew she wasn't going to miss her bus, so I'd better not miss mine. No excuses.

So I drove there, got all set, got my transition spot ready, laid out my towel, and realized I didn't have Yanks for my shoes. Damn. I meant to get those last week....oops. So I had a nice new wetsuit, a sweet new bike, and I was going to have to tie my shoes in transition. I guess that's why I was working the kinks out, alright!

We headed to the water. I remembered what a swim start was like, as the last time I bobbed in the water waiting for the gun was at Ironman Wisconsin. Why am I doing this, I thought again?

To see what I'm made of.

To see how far I've come.

Let's go.

The two loops in the lake were uneventful. I went at a pace I felt good at, and one that I could go all day at. I tried to really focus on good form and gliding in the water. I saw two girls toward the end and I thought I might be able to catch them, so I did. I got out of the water with no watch, and no clue what time I swam in. I would find out later that I swam in 27 and change, which would be a PR by just over a minute. 1:50/100 meters on the dot. I felt great out of the water, and know I definitely could have gone faster. But that's not what this race was about.

Had a decent T1 in 2:11, surprisingly, as I am rusty on transitions! And then I was off. Coach Emily said to keep my watts around 160-180. I tried to do this but found myself lollygagging a bit. At one point, I even muttered, "park it or drive it, granny!" and "this is a RACE, dude!" It's funny--I haven't raced in so long, and I think I forgot what it was like. But I'm happy to say I didn't get passed by ONE WOMAN at all on the bike course, and I passed a few chicks. It was a while before the fast guys passed me, too. That was pretty cool. I'm used to coming out of the water and getting MAD passed like crazy, so this was a nice treat. When all was said and done, my PowerTap said I had gone a little over 25 miles for 19.4mph, but the official race time is 19.1 mph for 24.7. I go by what races say, so that's the story. Still, a massive PR for me as my previous best on an Oly bike leg was 18.3, and the last Oly I did was 17.7.

The best part--or actually the worst I guess you could say--is I only averaged 151 watts. Which means, in fact, that was kind of granny-ish riding by me. Proof positive that I could have gone faster. And that's actually kinda sweet.

T2, despite me having to stop and tie my shoes, went pretty quickly in 1:06. And then I was off for a run. It was pretty good until about mile 2....and then the heavans opened up. What is it with me, races, and rain? Every. Single. Race. I have done since and including Ironman has rained. Good thing I do well in the rain, I guess! It was kinda annoying to have my shoes slosh around, but other than that, not bad. I did the first loop and felt fantastic, so I figured I'd pick it up a bit on the second loop. My Garmin kept going in and out of satellite range so it said the course was a little short, but the time at least was the same...51:29, for the fastest 10K I've ever ran, in an 8:18/mile pace.

I got to the end, saw the clock said 2:40.16, started laughing, and asked the 2 girls working the tent behind it if that clock was right...did it really start with the first wave? I just had to be sure. They then asked me how old I was, I told them, and they handed me a trophy. "You just came in first place!" My age group was really really small, though, so instead after they posted the results I looked to see I was the 5th overall female out of 14--and just a minute behind the 4th female, Alison in my tri club, who rocked the swim as usual and came out the water first.

Cool. But I was most excited about first, shaving 14 minutes off my best time, untapered, tired, and without racing in a year and a half. I raced a smart, and even conservative race, I felt great at the end, and I negative split my run. I surprised myself, yet again.

And THAT'S why I do this.
I told him I didn't know what I was supposed to do with it, either. And, clearly, he is NOT amused.

So I've got some numbers in my head for Steelhead. They are aggressive. I'll lay them out later, but it's safe to say I'm going to go hard, leave it all on the line, race my first 70.3 and not just do it, and see what I'm made of.

It's gonna be fun.

Holy SMOKES.

PR on swim.

PR on bike.

BIG OL' PR on run.

= 14 minute PR for an Olympic Distance Triathlon. And 1st in my (very small!) age group, to boot!

2:40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was in such disbelief that I MIGHT have said a bad word pretty loud, prefaced by "Holy," as I approached the clock. Cuz I didn't roll with a watch, so I only knew my run split. And I was dumbfounded, again.

It's soooooooo good to be back. :) More to come, but for now I need to take my boys for a walk!

This Whole Power Thing

So, I just got my feedback from my test with Robbie Ventura at Vision Quest. I thought I'd share my thoughts on this whole thing, since I am a total newbie at power training.

First off, I don't think it's any secret that I HATE HEART RATE TRAINING. Hatehatehatehate it. Pretty much always have. I feel like with heart rate training, I am forced to go at a pace that is annoyingly and frustratingly slow, and that I got slower as a result. This could mean any number of things: I don't have my actual max heart rate, my allergy medicines affect my heart rate, the weather affects my heart rate, etc. etc. You get the drift. But it has NEVER worked for me, and probably because I was guessing at most of it. Clearly, my ability to hold an average heart rate of 181 in the Cleveland Marathon is a bit unorthodox. But I felt great, even the next day. No problems at all. So I sort of gave up on heart rate training and literally wrote it off in favor of RPE.

Heart rate is a reaction. Power is the source. For this reason, I am already a HUGE fan of training with power. It is what it is: it doesn't fluctuate. It is not affected by headwinds, humidity, stress, allergy meds, blah blah blah. In fact, it takes all that into account and allows you to still push yourself exactly how you should IN SPITE OF THESE THINGS. It's sort of why I like swimming, too: because the numbers don't lie. There's no umpire but the clock, and clocks are brutally honest, you know? Power training takes out the subjective and makes it very objective and easy to follow. I like that.

When I went to VQ to be tested by Robbie, I learned that I would have my finger pricked. O. M. G. I HATE HATE HATE needles. I know, I just gave birth not too long ago and was begging for a needle the size of Montana to be stuck in my back, but I didn't have to LOOK at that one, you know? Well, turns out I didn't have to look at this one either, and they were right--it just felt like a bug bite. That I can handle. :)

Essentially, what we did was we took a small teensy little blood sample every 30 watts. 30 watts was enough that I could tell the resistance was harder, but not too much. Kind of like you went up a gear, except I didn't, and I was told to maintain a steady cadence of about 85 rpms. Then this funky machine thing would measure the lactate in my blood and would tell us how many watts I could push before I bonked. It's really useful information, and it would help Coach Emily set my training zones. Essentially, I would know how many watts to hold when doing a sprint, oly, half or full triathlon. Not speed....watts. Unaffected by hills, heart rate, or wind.

Sign me up!

So sure enough, when I got to a certain point, my breathing sounded like a wheezing hyena and I felt like I just couldn't pedal any more. The machine did its wonder, and we were done.

Here's what I just got in the mail from VQ and Robbie--his words in italics, mine in bold:

Sara comes to VQ with one of her big events for the season closing in at the Steelhead Tri (gulp), where she is hoping to break the 6 hour mark. Other big goals are the Columbus Marathon and an Olympic Race in Cleveland. The test showed Sara has great fitness and also some areas where she can improve her skills to generate some better race results.

The performance test went quite well and Sara's lactate threshold was determined to be 189 watts, which is among the best in amateur women. (Really?! Is that a joke or something?) Her aerobic fitness was also strong as she endured 4 stages of the test with no appreciable increase in blood lactate values. Especially since she considered the bike to be the weakest of her three disciplines, this is good power. (Yay! I have good power! Or is it just the pregnancy blood-doping again?) With continued consistent training and aerobic foundation that will be built upon in subsequent seasons, she will probably see her threshold power continue to increase. (Allllllllllright! Now hit me with the bad news.)

One thing that could be holding Sara back on the bike is her cadence. (Yeah, I can be a real masher. Boo.) Overall, her pedaling mechanics were solid, although including some single-legged pedaling drills in her warmup or cooldown routines would probably help to refine the stroke further. The main goal regarding pedaling will be increasing her cadence slightly...Along with this training, Sara could also benefit from including more work targeting her functional strength and core stability. (Uh...yeah. WHAT functional strength or core stability? Sara = Total Softie) Some basic exercises are included here to help her address weakness common to endurance athletes. (Awesome--no more mushy me!)

So all in all, I learned a great deal about myself. It was really cool to read those words--kind of the equivalent of Coach Kara handing me the 1:45 pace band before my half marathon. Proof positive that it's in there, alright. Now I have no excuse not to hammer that out. I just need to put the time in, that's all.

I got a chart of my zones, their power ranges, and my heart rate ranges, too. So, power training doesn't totally disregard heart rate training, but it makes your heart rate training effective, accurate, and smart. I dig that. It also gave me RPE, too. Here's what it looks like:

Zone 1: Recovery
Power: less than 105 watts, aka Why am I even on this thing?
HR: less than 110
RPE: 1-4

Zone 2: Endurance
Power: 105-140 watts aka DUDE, I could do this all day
HR: 100-140
RPE: 4-6

Zone 3: Tempo
Power: 140-170 watts aka Okay, I'm movin' at a pretty good clip
HR: 140-160
RPE: 6-7

Zone 4: Threshold
Power: 170-200 watts aka Holy CRAP this is hard
HR 160-175
RPE: 7-8

Zone 5: VO2 Power
Power: 200-225 watts, aka OMG I AM DYINGGGGGGGGGGGGG
HR: 175-180
RPE: 8-9

Zone 6: Anaerobic Capacity
Power: over 225 aka ARE YOU KIDDING ME I'VE GOT MAYBE 5 SECONDS OF THIS BEFORE I PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE
HR: over 180
RPE: 10

So that's the scoop. Consider me, the person who swore off heart rate training and all numbers a....convert. I'm sold. It covers all the bases, takes everything into account, and makes it pretty freakin' easy.

Now let's see what it does for my racing this weekend!

Best Birthday Present Ever....

...equals a picnic and day of hiking with my boys.

Race Week...Wait, did I really just say that?

Whoa.

I've got a race this Sunday!

Yahoooooooooooooyippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

(can you tell I'm a little excited?)

Now, let's be honest: this is just a tune-up for Steelhead. My coach wants me to have a race before Steelhead because I haven't had a race since September of 2006.

(Yeah. It was that race.)

So for the first time in over a year and a half, I'm going to suit up here and give it a go. I'm not gonna lie, though....it's going to be hard to NOT drop the hammer (relatively speaking, of course)! But I'm going to try and focus more on smooth transitions, keeping my watts where they need to be, and being smart. It's pretty far away, but my good buddy is having a Murder Mystery Luau Party the night before and she lives about halfway there, so I'm going to crash at her pad and drive up at the crack of dawn in the morning!

I've been having some great training sessions lately--Friday before the festivities began, I rode 2:30 and then ran 15 off the bike. Watts were where they needed to be, pace was spot-on for my goal for Steelhead, and the run was better than I thought it would be. Saturday's run was a little sluggish, but I'm thinking that staying up really late wacked me out a bit.

So I'm feeling pretty good...except for the 48 hour bender of birthday ice cream, cookout food, and Mexican food I've been on (my favorite...every year!). But that's done tomorrow. Hey, you gotta let loose a bit on your birthday, right?

Speaking of which, I had the most fun weekend EVER with my buddies Friday night, family and friends Saturday night, hiking with my boys today (pics to come tomorrow--wait until you see The Bug's sweet backpack) and family this evening. Sharing a birthday weekend with America works out pretty well.

:)

Race day, here I come!

WIBA Training Fun

I know everyone's already said this, but the best part about WIBA is the friendships you make. Plain and simple. It was so good to see my old Iron Friends and to meet some new ones.


Saturday we went for a swim...I got to test out my new wetsuit and it was so tight that I felt a bit like a Polish Sausage as I headed to the pier. As soon as I dove in, though, it was ALL good. I felt great and like I could really hold a good stroke. This was my second time in open water and I wasn't sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. Hopefully I won't have dawdling swims like I did in '06, and will actually turn on the jets a bit in my two upcoming races. I was disappointed with both of my '06 swims and Coach Emily has had me doing a lot more intense stuff in the pool than I've ever done in tri training. Hopefully it will pay off!


The best part of the swim was seeing WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too much of Steve in his shorts. If you haven't seen it yet (seriously, have you been hiding under a rock?) go here. You have been warned.


;)


Afterwards, we all got ready for our ride. I am still a little laughing in my head at my lack of preparation. First of all: zero hills. None. Zilch. Nada. But for some reason, I just didn't feel as worried...more just a calm acceptance that this was going to be hard, so let's get it on. Second, I have ONE water bottle cage on my bike. That has since changed, but I just didn't get a chance to get it before I left. So that worried me a bit, but not too much. I figured I'd just figure something out as I went.


Who is this girl and what has she done with OCD TriSaraTops circa 2006?!?!?!?!?


Anyway, I felt surprisingly chill. I was just excited to ride with Jacks and my buds Pharmie and Wil again. Despite butt-biting mosquitoes (don't ask), a flat, and some lost keys that caused me to leave a cloud of obscenities still hanging over a Wisconsin farm, it worked. We just rolled with it, had a great time, dodged a storm, and got in 60 miles despite a few setbacks. The miles always go faster with friends. :)


Bonus: my watts were right where they needed to be and we had a killer negative split. Hello, sexy tailwind!


It did feel a little like the high school cafeteria scenario, and instead of being a petrified freshman I was more like the junior who still had a long way to go but knew a lot more and had grown up a bit.


Dinner was super fun! I loved hanging with my team members, finally meeting awesome Cara--yay!--and Jonah, swapping stories, and catching up. Can I just say that Rural Girl is my hero? Aside from being hilarious, she is sooooooo talented and yet so humble. This chick is going to ROCK Steelhead and IMW. :)


The run the next morning came too early as my body wanted about 4 more hours of sleep. But once I saw everyone the fatigue vanished, and we had a great run. It was very deja-vu-ish to be on that course again, and I enjoyed it just as much as I did running in the pouring rain. I'm not being sarcastic, actually. I had NEVER been so excited to run in the pouring rain as I was in '06, because it meant I was off my bike and I was going to make it, and I ran with a big stupid grin pretty much the whole marathon. I remembered that, and I smiled again. My buddy Al and I talked about how we ran into each other during that epic race, and then after about an hour, Al grabbed a copy of the ONION and was reading it to us WHILE HE RAN. Gotta love it!!!


My Garmin had no juice, so I just ran by feel and we felt great. I loved every second of it.


Then I was homeward bound, and couldn't wait to kiss my baby boy. It was so good to be home and see all three of my guys.


Thanks to all my WIBA friends, old and new. That's really what triathlon is all about. I can't wait to see some buddies again at Steelhead, and cheer on my other buddies in Racine (XT4 and Al) and at Ironman Wisconsin! Here's a few of my original WIBA buddies, with a pic stolen blatently from Steve :)

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. :)