Triathlon Addict

Cyman 2012 - New Location

2012-01-17T08:44:00.002-06:00

At last year's Cyman and before most athletes showed up, Big Creek was covered in green slime. It was so disgusting and I felt terrible for making people swim in that when I myself would not. This year, with the power of Race Director, we have moved the location to Lake Petocka in Bondurant.

We have started planning and have a nice run course and an interesting bike course planned, but not finalized yet. The small lake has provided some great opportunities we are taking advantage of: small enough where spectators can stand around the entire thing to watch the athletes in action. Kind of a rare thing to not just get to watch the start and finish. The run will finish with a loop around the lake also providing a nice opportunity for friends and family to watch their athlete finish as well as people be able to see who is in front of them for the last .75 miles.

Post race food, a couple years ago we had the flying burrito guy there. I personally loved it. We would like to bring something like that in this year if costs afford it.

By high demand last year, we will be having t-shirts for athletes as well as for sale.

We are trying to continue to listen to your comments as well as try to head off issues to keep continuing to provide you a great race. Since we are in the beginning stages, if there are any suggestions of things you would like to see or have at the finish, just let me know and we will see what we can do.

Cyman 2012

2012-01-04T11:28:00.003-06:00

This year for the Cyman Triathlon, I will be co-race directing. Just to hopefully get you excited and want to come out and race, we are looking at relocating the race our of Algae ridden Big Creek. We are just in the first part of the planning, but have a potential winner. I can't reveal much since there are several votes that need to happen before we can do it. We will update the website as we get things figured out, but will also try to post here as well

http://sites.google.com/site/isutriclub/

Cyclodrome Race

2012-01-04T11:24:00.003-06:00

This race was super fun to watch. About 30 people showed up to race. It was funny how one lap on the velodrome made people go from "Oh my gosh I don't think I want to do this" to "holy crap this is awesome." We had a 6 lap (I think) time trial for seeding for the persuit race. Both for men and women. The women's race only had a few women so that went fast. The girl that won the women's race also participated in the men's. I believe she finished 6th. We also had a tandom bike give it a whirl several times. Very fun and if you weren't there, you missed out.

The Cyclodrome was "sold" to the University of Texas or some place in Texas.

Collegiate Nationals Race Report

2012-01-04T11:23:00.002-06:00

Tuscaloosa, AL
April 2011
Race Start Air Temp: 90 Degrees
Water temp: low 60's

I have not been very excited to write this report, mostly because I have been super busy, but because it was by far the worst race I have ever had. The water was cold, the day was hot, but it was a great experience.

I started in wave 3 of 5. 1 Team member in each wave. The water temperature was cold - coldest I have swam in, but apparently not anywhere near what it was in Lubbock the last 2 years. It was around 62 degrees. I had a sleeveless wetsuit. Once I got going it wasn't too bad. It was an in water start holding onto the deck. It was crowded. I know I am not a fast swimmer so when the gun went off I hung out for a second then headed out. It wasn't too bad of a swim. Seemed like it took me forever. T-1 we had to run forever to get to it. It was tough when your feet are frozen. I stubbed my toe, but luckily couldn't feel it. I was in and out quick in transition.

On the Bike I was feeling really good. I think it was because of the warm day and just getting out of cold water. The women's Olympic distance race started at noon so by this time it was above 90 degrees. I was averaging a pretty good pace and passing a lot of people. After the first loop and on my way out on the second, I thought to myself, Man I am thirsty, but somehow I had already drank an entire bottle of water. Crap, I am going to be hurting on the run from dehydration. I had a second bottle of water, but it was super warm so I choked it down anyway. It wasn't enough. I died on that second loop. I needed Gatorade soooooooooooo bad.

I came into transition, dropped off my bike, grabbed my shoes and headed out. I grabbed 3 cups of Gatorade at the first station. Not even close to enough. I had to walk. The first mile was a mix of walk for 10 steps, run for 10 steps. Very slow going. I got to the second aid station - it was between 2 and 3. At this point I was so gone. I just stopped at the aid station and downed Gatorade. Pretty sure I drank an entire jug of it. I was there for about 3 min just drinking. Finally I continued on. It was still a lot more walking than running. At the next 2 stations I just stopped and drank as much Gatorade as I could. Finally at about mile 4.5 I could run and keep running. It was the longest race I have ever done.

After I drank more and more Gatorade and finally felt better. It was so miserable, but was fun.

Cyclodrome Race

2011-07-09T08:58:00.003-05:00

Just a little teaser. More to come.

Velodrome

2011-06-30T22:54:00.002-05:00

My absence from my blog has been tied up with summer school. I have a summer class that involves a service project. The project couldn't be more perfect - It is building a velodrome. If you do not know what a velodrome is, look it up because is it awesome. With summer class coming to an end, so has the completion of the track and now an opportunity for all who want to come out and ride it. There will be a minimal cost for insurance, but all details have not been worked out yet. What I do know is that it will be July 7th. Starting at 6pm the track will open for practice. The time trial race to start at 7pm. This will seed people for the pursuit race to follow. The race will be held on the Iowa State University campus in the College of Design building's King Pavilion. You can bring any bike you wish, but no knobby tires will be allowed.

As soon as we started this project I have been super excited to ride this. I got my opportunity this week. I was scared, but it was awesome. I "wiped" out twice getting started, but because the corners are steep, it was more of a slide down a hill wipe out. The hardest part is by far getting started, but once you do you keep going until you get dizzy. It is awesome - You can pass this up!

Where have I been?

2011-03-16T09:08:00.002-05:00

I have been doing quite well, but being lazy. I have finally managed to organize my time to get in my workouts, school and work, but the problem is, I have been lazy about doing my workouts. I am so wore out and have my mind other places - mostly on what I need to do for school - that I haven't completed all of my workouts for the week. I need to work on that.

This was a quick update, hopefully I will have more time in the near future to update more.

Gear and training, but mostly gear

2011-01-29T12:27:00.007-06:00

One of the best things about triathlon is that there is an endless supply of gear to buy and try out. I think that is why the sport is called TRYathlon. :) I could spend hours looking at things that I would love to have, but then I have to pay for them which is sad so I spend hours looking for the best deal. I had to buy a new top to race in for the collegiate race and came across the new 2xu comp top.

2XU Comp Tri Top - It is going to look sweet with the ISU logo on it.

I also decided it was time to get new shorts because they are too big and plus this would be my 5th season in the same shorts. So I spent hours trying to find a site to purchase both to avoid shipping charges. I did not find this, but I did find free shipping on separate sites when you spend so much. Well, I got free shipping on the top and on the shorts and also got more gear.

Sugoi Blast Shorts

Sugoi Top - because it was 50% off and it looks cool

Bellwether J Pants - I don't own any tights so I figured now was as good of a time as any to get some.

Workouts this week went great except for Wednesday. I was just so tired and wore out that I only was able to finish 50 min of my 60 min bike. It has been so long since I have been sore and this tired. It is great. I miss it. It makes me feel like I am actually doing something. Today I have a 100 min bike and a 70 min run/15 bike Sunday. I was able to run for the full 60 min last Sunday and complete my runs this week with no pain other than the "good" pain. I think that week off and a lot of stretching was the key. Last Sunday's run was probably the best run I ever had. It was cold, but it did not feel cold. The path had some snow on it which kept others off of it. Blue sky, bright sun and the peace and quiet. I ran so relaxed and smooth which equated to a surprisingly fast run. I wish I could feel like that all the time. I loved it. This week has been tough for running outside. So much ice and slop everywhere. I am hoping it will be better tomorrow. Next week is my first recovery week. I was kind of worried about not really feeling like I was going to need it, but I can be safe to say now it is a much welcomed week especially because I have a project due in two weeks so I can use this coming week to work ahead a bit.

Good Start to the Year

2011-01-21T20:48:00.006-06:00

So far school, work and triathlon have been well in balance. I have kept up with work, been able to get a little ahead in school and have been able to maintain my workouts with slight modification.

Week 1/10:
Monday: No workout but did get a new closet built at my house.
Tuesday: No workout again - another snowy day and finished up house work before actually making it to class
Wednesday: 30 min Run, Bike 60 min - Endurance
Thursday: 30 min swim, 15 min Run
Friday: 30 min Bike - Interval
Saturday: MECTC Triathlon Clinic Individual Race - 10 min swim (500 yards), 20 min bike (5.67 miles), 15 min run (1.85 miles)
Sunday: MECTC Triathlon Clinic Team Race - 5 min swim (275 yards), 10 min bike (2.9 miles)

This week 1/17:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 30 swim, 60 bike - Threshold
Wednesday: 45 Run, 60 Bike - Endurance/Interval
Thursday: Run 20 min, 10 bike
Friday: Off
Saturday: 85 Bike - Endurance
Sunday: 60 Run/Bike

I will start off with why my run workouts are rare. From all of the snow in the last two weeks, I have been wearing my snow boots which caused me to develop a bit of tendinitis in my heel. It first came about Wednesday of last week, but I just thought it was that stiff feel in my ankles I get every once in a while until I went running Thursday. Ouch. I cut my run pretty short because it was painful, came home, put ice on it and got on the computer to figure out what it was. I tried to stay off of it as much as I could Friday and Saturday. I decided I wanted to gauge my fitness a bit at the tri clinic so I popped a couple Aleve before the race and this allowed me to run pain free - for the most part. I passed on running Sunday for the team race. My Wednesday workout "run" was on the elliptical. I am just glad I can get my heart rate up to a relative decent level on that thing - although I looked like a crazy lady on it. I did run for a short while outside last night. I could feel a slight pain there, but nothing that bothered me. I am going to gauge Sunday on how I feel and then supplement my run with an extended bike workout as to not push my heel too quickly.

Ok, back to the MECTC clinic. For this being my second time in the pool since September, I felt awesome. It is one of those pools you get in and feel fast, even though you might not be. I felt really smooth. The good thing is that I was able to maintain my previous pace. The bad thing is that I wasn't and still am not fast, lol. Oh well. Minor details. The bike was good, but not the actual bike. We rode on T9 trainers. Problem for me: when I found a comfortable place, slightly leaning forward, I would slide forward on the seat so I would move back, but then I was too short to reach the peddles. My needs started getting cramped. I just concentrated on keeping my heart rate at my target level of 160-164. I didn't get as far as I would have liked but I also wasn't on my bike that I have been training on for 4 years. I think it comes out to 15. something miles per hour. I think I could ride that fast on my mountain bike for 6 miles. The run, I felt great. It was on a 1/8th mile indoor track. We started out already breaking into "groups". 3 girls took off in front of me pretty quick. I just wanted to maintain a relative "tough" pace which wound up being a heart rate of 178 and kept creeping up - my anaerobic threshold level is 177 so I was pushing myself. There was a girl next to me on the bike who wound up a little under a quarter mile in front of me, but she was breathing hard so I hoped she would die on the run and I was correct. I ended up lapping her twice and catching the other girl with relative ease. The last girl I caught on the last lap and then I was able to sprint out another 1/16th of a mile to get in front of her as well. I averaged about 8:10 per mile which was definitely in front of where I thought I would be at 8:30. The results haven't been posted. All I know is I did not win, but I would like to see how I compared to the rest of the girls to gauge my fitness level. I feel pretty good about where I am at. I really am going to hit the bike hard the next 10 weeks because I think that will help me the most in the race. I am going to take it easy on the run so I can make sure my foot heals and then hopefully be able to push the run the last 6 weeks or so. The swim, I just don't feel I am going to gain anything. All I want to accomplish is to make sure my arms don't get tired during the swim so I kick more and end up being tired for the bike. I can get into the pool once a week and probably twice most weeks - it just sucks swimming. I also learned a few drills at the clinic to do to help my stroke as well as out of water drills to help improve on days I can't get into the pool. February 5th and 6th the tri club is having "trials" to determine 10k run and 1 mile swim times to seed and decide who will be racing the official championship race. I am unable to make it to those so I will have to time myself around those dates so I can compare myself to the rest of the team and my past levels to see what I need to do prior to the race. I am getting nervous because I want to do well, but it is getting exciting as well, I ordered my tri top which is the fun part of tri - the gear. And just in case I don't get to it, next weeks workouts 1/24:
Monday: 60 Bike - Threshold/Interval
Tuesday: 30 Swim, 30 Run?
Wednesday: 60 Bike - Speed
Thursday: 30 swim if I don't have class, 45 Run?
Friday: Off
Saturday: 90 Bike - Endurance - Livestrong Ride
Sunday: 60 run endurance?

Run workouts are still up in the air depending on heel healing. That sounds kind of like magic.

New Year, New Excitement

2011-01-06T11:27:00.003-06:00

It is hard to believe my last post was in September, well, no it isn't. If someone asked me 6 months ago if I would be able to juggle work, graduate school and triathlon, I would have said of course. How different can graduate school be from undergradute right? Well I found that out. Imagine undergraduate classes or for those that can't remember that far back, take a normal work day. Now take an entire months worth of work/classwork and pile that into one week. It was just non-stop all the time. I quickly learned that I could not treat grad school like undergrad. I fell behind quickly in about 3 weeks, spent the next 3 months catching back up just in time to be finished with the semester. My workouts were non-existant because my "free" time was spent working on homework and projects. I squeeked through with work. I worked "full time" which equated to about 25 hours a week and then using my PTO to fill in for full time hours. 2 of the 3 I could do, not all 3.

This semester I am taking a different route. First, I am cutting way back on work hours to about 15/week. Just enough to keep me a float financially. Second, I have planned out when I will workout. The ISU triathlon club has group sessions that are always more fun that working out alone. I will be doing those Monday and Wednesday. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a class break from 12-2 so I will be swimming and doing my short runs during that time or doing my run workouts later in the afternoon. Saturday and Sunday I am just going to have to get my butt in gear and accept the fact that I won't have anytime to really just "relax". I think I relax better during long runs anyway so at least I am not sitting on the couch stressing out about all the stuff I should be doing rather than sitting on the couch. At least I am doing something. Since Christmas I have gained a million pounds and I feel it. I need to loose 10 pounds to be back into "race shape". I can only ever achieve that weight when I am working out like a mad person. My goal is to reach goal weight by April 9th which is the Collegiate national championship race which will be my last eligible year to compete in the "main event" so of course I want to kick butt. I wish I had more time and didn't procrastinate like I have been.

I finally got back into the swing of things the week after Christmas. After finals and prior to Christmas I kind of went crazy with having so much "free" time that I drew a picture for a Christmas gift so I spent all that time working on it. After Christmas I started out easy. Surprisingly I am in still relatively decent shape. The bike is where I can feel that I am in not-so-good-of-shape.
Workouts for the week of 12/27:
Monday: 45 min run
Tuesday: 30 min run
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: 30 min bike
Friday: Off
Saturday: 60 min bike
Sunday: 6 mile run (53:30)
This weeks workouts:
Monday: 45 bike, 15 abs
Tuesday: 45 min run
Wednesday: 60 min bike
Thursday: 30 bike, 30 run
Friday: Off
Saturday: 70 min bike
Sunday: 7 mile/65 min run, 10 bike

Next weekend I am joining the triclub to Dayton, Ohio for a triathlon clinic. The weekend is filled with speakers/classes as well as an individual and team competition. It will be nice to kind of get an idea of where I am actually at with my training. Hopefully school doesn't take over my workouts this semester.

Cyman Race Report

2010-09-14T21:29:00.002-05:00

My final triathlon, and probably race, of the year was last Sunday. It was a gorgeous day minus the wind, well only the wind when on the bike heading into it :) Race didn't start until 10 so I was able to sleep into my normal time which was nice. I arrived at Big Creek state park at about 9. I headed to transition to set up. People do not understand that you do not need 5 feet of space. You only need enough space to fit your bike on the rack. You do not need to layout a towel, the long way inbetween spaces. I squeezed into a spot in the area I wanted to be in because everywhere was full and figured if I had to squeeze in I mine as well be some place I wanted to be. I rack my bike and start pulling things out of my bag. During this time, others are arriving and looking for space. Across from me there is a towel hanging on the rack. I assumed someone just had their bike out and wanted to save their spot. No, the guy next to it wanted to "encourage space". Are you serious? First you have your bike, your towel laid out and another towel space "saved". Holy crap dude, move your $hit over. I set up my transition, put on the wetsuit and head to swim start. It was a little chilly so the wetsuit was nice to have on before the race started.

Goal: beat my previous race time from 2 years ago (1:19:46)
Although I knew my bike wasn't where I wanted it to be I was going to try.

Swim: 9:04 (9:27)
I decided I was going to start up front because 2 years ago there wasn't too many fast people and I only say this because I had the fastest swim time in my age group. The water was cold, for me. 68 degrees. I have a sleeveless and I was cold. I felt pretty good and actually stayed right online. Not much in and out from the bouys like I normally do. My arms got tired again. I still contribute that to swimming better and just not having time to work on those muscles.

T1: 0:43 (0:57)
T1 was slightly uphill through transition and it killed me. I jogged to my spot and slowly took off my wetsuit. I put on my helmet while I finished taking it off, grabbed my bike and I was off.

Bike: 0:48:12 (43:02)
My legs were not wanting to do what I wanted them to do. They weren't tired, they just didn't react. This was an out and back. With the wind on the way out. I finally got going about half way out. I didn't have the half way split that I was hoping for so I just pushed as hard as I could on the way back and hoped for the best. I am just glad it was a sustained 15 mph wind so it didn't blow me around.

T2: 0:30 (0:33)
I came in off the bike, racked my bike, threw on my running shoes, grabbed my visor and race belt and I was off. It felt quick and smooth.

Run: 24:52 (25:49)
I felt pretty good on the run. That hill coming out of transition always seems to be tough. After about a half mile I could really feel myself relax and get running smooth. There was one place my calves started to get tight on an uphill, but push through and finished strong.

Finish: 1:23:20 (1:19:46)
Far short of my goal time, but still happy with the race. I have not had time at all to train like I would have liked. School has completely taken over my life. I have found myself getting up early to work on homework, go to class, homework in between class and get home to work on class work for the next day. If I don't "have" to work on class stuff it is because I have softball. I haven't had a free day in so long. I am going on 3 weeks of not mowing my lawn. I think it has gotten to a point where it just isn't getting any longer. Overall, I was mentally ready and was prepared to push my body to what I know it is capable of. My body just didn't deliver. My time was still good enough for 1st in my age group and 14th overall female. I was very happy with my swim and run times. I am dissapointed in my bike just because that is normally my strongest. Hopefully I will have time to hit it hard over the winter on the trainer.

Training moves on

2010-08-19T13:06:00.000-05:00

Workouts last week were very lazy. A lot going on. I did do spin class Monday and swim Wednesday 1500 yards because that was my last week for the gym. Other than that I did things at home. It was nice to get a big chunk of that done. This week has been a different story. I have had some great workouts. Monday I ran for 60 minutes. I got in 6.5 miles. I felt nice and relaxed and was even able to take the last hill at a reasonable pace. Tuesday my muscles were sore from Monday, but it was a good sore in just the right places. Nothing that hinders working out. Calves were pretty tight. Since it was raining, I jumped on the trainer indoors. I thought I would be on there for 10 min and just be dieing. I hate the trainer. I ended up being on there for a solid 45 min: 10 min warm up, 3x3:00 Variable gearing (1:20 medium gear 90 rpm, :40 easy +120 rpm, 1:00 hard 80 rpm) with :30 second rest after the first two then one minute rest after the last then right into a 10:00 time effort (75%-80) after that 3x3:00 Isolated leg training (20 sec right, 10 sec together, 20 sec left, 10 sec together x3 = 1 set) with :30 sec rest in between sets then a 4:00 cool down. Wednesday a 35 min bike followed by a 20 min run. I felt great. I pushed myself hard on the bike and worked hard on the hills then came back and ran 2 miles hard (7:30 mile pace) with 5 min cool down jog. I was exhausted but it felt good. I was pretty sore all week and thought today I would be even more sore, but I actually am hardly sore at all. I am taking tonight off then will run tomorrow night. I start school next week so I will get in the pool then. Going to shoot for 2 times a week in the pool and hopefully hook up with the triclones (Iowa State Triathlon Club) for workouts during the week. It will be nice to have someone push me. I canceled my Y membership since I am paying for the athletic facilities in Ames. I will actually get to swim in a nice pool - sorry Grubb Y, but your pool sucks and is disgusting.

Big Creek 30 Race Report

2010-08-11T08:18:00.001-05:00

I learned a couple things Sunday at Big Creek: 1 - I have work to do, 2 - hot is hot. I arrived late at the site because usually they have the bike racks separated by numbers so I was going to be in the same row no matter what time I arrived. I arrived at 7:15 to hear an announcement of the race being shorted to 1000m swim, 40k bike, 5k run. Only the swim and run were shortened. This boads well for me since the bike is my strong suit. Transition closes at 7:30. Ok, I was a little later than expected, but it worked out perfect. I got marked and picked up my timing chip then headed into transition. I was way at the end of the bike rack, but really didn't care. I ended up with a lot of space which I didn't need, but it was always welcomed. I get my transition set up and got out of there right at 7:30. I didn't have time to jog or warm up, but it was already pretty warm and I also wasn't going to go out hard like I normally would in the swim. We stand on the beach for the pre-race talk. I chatted a bit with a friend who this will be his first triathlon. I gave him some pointers then he was off while I waited for my wave.

Swim: 22:36 (~33:45 for 1500m) - goal 38 min for 1500m
I was off at 8:16. I started in the back because it has been awhile since I have raced. Once we started I remembered why I don't start at the back. It takes everyone forever to get going. I got impatient and jumped in. It worked out well. I picked up a draft and another girl swam right next to me so I didn't have to site and I had a draft the whole way out. Thank goodness because my arms got exhausted. I ended up having to kick more because my arms were so tired. I guess I should have gotten in the pool more than 5 times this year :) Anyway, I was happy with my swim time especialy no wetsuit because the water was 84 degrees.

T1: 0:56
I still got it. I had a quick transition. The only thing that slowed me down was the fact that my spot was in a really crappy part of the parking lot. Tons of rocks and cracks that killed my feet. I am just glad it wasn't glass. I should have payed more attention to this before the race and tried to clean up the area a bit. Oh well.

Bike: 1:19:04 - 18.9mph - goal: 1:18 - 19mph
I was slower than I liked, but considering the swim completely wiped me out and I did not have my legs the entire ride, I thought I did well. I passed 7 girls in my age group which turns out I was 3rd to last out of the swim and gained my spots on the bike. I would really have liked to average 20mph if I had more time to train. I think I would have if I could have been able to push harder at the beginning when I was riding with the wind. Oh boy it was windy too.

T2: 0:58
I was a little slow here and it was again because of the rocks and at this time the pavement had heated up quite a bit. I would have like to get it under 0:40, but I think my spot wasn't going to allow that as I was quite a ways off of the path.

Run: 27:08 - 8:44/mile
No going to lie, I was dead. For as many times as I have raced at big creek (4 times before this) I have never realized that the first mile was all slightly up hill. It's funny how you never notice these things until you are hurting. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel considering I have done a couple bike/run bricks, but never included the swim before any of those. I felt good for about the first 1/2 mile then it was painful. It was hot. I was having trouble keeping water down on the bike. I would burp and I would get a mouth full of water I just spit out because it was discusting. I went through 2 water bottles on the bike. I just kept forcing it down knowing it was going to be hot. I am pretty sure the heat is what killed me. My legs weren't tired and I wasn't breathing hard, I just had no energy. I started right behind a girl and finished right behind her. No one passed me, but I passed a lot of "tough" looking people. The heat got to everyone. Didn't pass anyone in my age group or even see anyone that could be. It turns out the next closest one was 6 min in front of me.

Finish time: 2:10:42 9/18 age group
This was a good race and helped me realize what I need to keep working on. I am right where I thought I would be and can dial in my training to meet my goals for the National Collegiate race this spring. Hopefully it works out that I get to go.

Pre-Big Creek

2010-08-06T16:45:00.000-05:00

Big Creek is Sunday. Am I ready? I suppose. I am not mentally in it yet. First off, I didn't even realize it was on Sunday until Tuesday of this week. I almost forgot about packet pick up on Saturday. I still need to practice my transitions since I haven't actually done a real transition since Hyvee of last year. I am a little rusty getting my bike shoes on on the bike. I need to change my laces in my shoes, clean my bike, and gather up my gear that has been in a box for almost a year. I was hoping for a wetsuit swim because I know I will be a little anxious for the swim start, but decided I will just start at the back and avoid the crazyness at the front. I am feeling good for the rest, but not sure about putting them all together. It has been a long time since I have worked out for 3 hours. I am going into this race as a "I need to get the tri-fever" again to get me some motivation for this winter. I will try to get the race report up before December.

Progress

2010-07-21T10:56:00.000-05:00

I have officially registered for Cyman and Big Creek. I have been doing well with workouts. It feels great to be back on the bike. I finished up my long bike leading up to Big Creek. 1:45 followed by a 10 min run. I felt really good. I don't think I will get my average I would like to see on the bike, but I know right now I can finish it with a decent time. I have one more 1:30 bike and 15 run brick and a couple shorter ones. Swimming is going well. It is amazing how taking time off and coming back makes you realize how terrible your form was so I have been working on that. I wish I had more time before I needed to start working on distance work, but I can come back to it right after the races. I need to get out in the open water a couple times to get use to it again. Other than training, starting to wrap up softball season and get back to school. It is going to be a busy fall.

Ok, here we go...

2010-06-25T08:18:00.000-05:00

After 10 months of not thinking about triathlon, I have decided tonight is the night I begin my obsessive compulsive thinking of triathlon. If you can believe it, I have not been on my bike since IMKY or been in the pool. I am dusting off the bike and heading out for a short ride. I am excited, but at the same time remember the time commitment the training requires. Also, probably should mention my new goals: Collegiate National Championships 2011 and Ironman St George 2012. I decided that I really like the IM training and want to get back to it. This time it will be over the winter when nothing is happening except it will be tough to be on the trainer for 3-4 hours. I am also going back to school this fall which makes me eligible to race at the nationals. You have until you are 28 which I will be in the spring so this would be my last opportunity to do it. I am planning on joining the ISU triathlon club which takes a spring trip down to Texas for that event. I am pretty excited about racing with some of the best "youngsters". I have decided I need to get a race or two in this year so I am going to do Cyman and debating whether or not to do Big Creek since I have yet to get on my bike or get in the pool. I am going to take the next couple week to evaluate my situation and then make the call from there. I am almost thinking of registering just because so I get back into tri. The only thing stopping me is with it being the Midwest regional championship race, there is going to be some fast times which mine will not be. Really don't want to come in last, but for now, I need to get my bike gear together and find my swimsuit...

This is where I am at

2010-06-02T08:42:00.000-05:00

I have been out of the triathlon loop for about 9 months now going on ten. I have just had little interest in getting back on my bike and in the pool. I am still running because I find it very relaxing and a nice stress reliever which we all need. I am running the Dam to Dam this weekend. Not in as good of shape as I would like, but I still think I should PR in it. My time lately has really been preoccupied with softball. I joined a fast pitch league and really love it. It is a nice change. I just wish it was more often. I have also joined 2 other slow pitch leagues which are fun as well. I am going back to school in the fall which is stressing me out. Just the work and hectic schedule that goes along with it is something I am not looking forward to. The three years will fly by, right?

Life's importancies - is that a word?

2010-02-12T07:54:00.001-06:00

I have been a little preoccupied and not updating my blog. I don't know if it is the lack of triathlon interest at this point or other things are just more important. I hope it is the later. I have been working out, but not triathlon specific workouts. I finally got on my bike and trainer the other day to find it was very uncomfortable. The steep geometry was not like the spin bikes at the gym. I remember when I use to find them uncomfortable because they weren't steep enough. I have been going to spin class about twice a week and the other days have had random workout classes or just me on the treadmill running. I have not been in the pool for a long time and I don't want to. It is funny that I love triathlons and hate when they cancel the swim portion, but I do not want to train for the swimming. I think it is because I put in all the work, but don't really know if I am doing it right or not. I feel I can put in 5 min or 500 hours and still come out the same. I will worry about that later. For now I am using the spin class to push me on the bike. Even though the bike is my strongest, I feel that I can gain so much more if I could just push myself in training like I do when I am racing. Same goes for running. I have gotten into and love the long slow runs. Working on pushing myself a little more in that too. In the mean time, I have applied to get my Masters of Architecture. Still waiting to hear back. I spent about a week of constant getting my application together. I missed the Jan 1st deadline. Not because I was lazy and put it off, it was because I decided Jan 21st that I was going to apply. I got my portfolio together and studied for the GRE and took the exam all within a week. It was pretty intense. I just hope they still consider my application. I am very excited about going back to school, but at the same time I love my job and could not have asked for a better opportunity than I get now. It will really make the decision hard when fall comes. For now I am still trying to get back into the flow of working out and slowly making the transition over to race focus. That reminds me, I still have not registered for any races this year. Last year by January 1st I had registered for all of the races I was doing. I am still in the post-Ironman depression stage. Hope the weather will help me snap out of it soon.

Oh my

2010-01-12T08:05:00.000-06:00

Where have I been? Being lazy. So much, yet so little has gone on in my life. December was all a blur. I "started" working out again because I was starting to put on a few pounds and wanted to nip that in the butt right away. I got to the gym about 3 days a week. I was trying to find a women's basketball league to play on, but no such luck so I have been randomly taking on 8 year olds at the gym. Only been beat once, lol. I have been fighting off getting back in the pool. Mostly because I hate the pool at my gym because it is disgusting, but also, it is boring. I have been doing the spin class twice a week which I really like because it takes me out of my comfort zone that I have been training in for the last year and a half. Christmas was good and I enjoy a lot of food and great company. The snow storm almost kept me from visiting my family, but it came early enough it really wasn't an issue. I spent Christmas eve and day with my boyfriend and his family. It was very enjoyable. For Christmas, my boyfriend's parents bought us tickets and a whole trip to the Orange Bowl so New years eve, off to Miami, well Fort Lauderdale the first 2 days. It was so nice those first 2 days, then it just got colder and colder. It would have been great had a prepared and brought proper clothing. All in all it was good. I was able to get out and run out in the "warm" weather. It definitely helped my winter laziness. This week I am getting back into the swing of things. I discovered a machine at my gym that I really like. It actually challenged me. At first I thought it was worthless until I figured out how to run it. I have no idea what it is called, but it has "floating" foot pedals and the moving arms. Basically simulates cross country skiing. I am on level 1 because the resistance was so tough during the cardio training. I will conquer this. It has also got me excited to go back to the gym on the days there is no spin class. I have had my trainer set up in my house now for about 2 months. I have been on it twice. Can't do it this year. I think it was the hours and hours I spent on it last winter that I can't bring myself to get on it or even want to look at it. Sorry bike, I love you, but I am not ready to spend that much time with you right now. I have been trying to find alternate training tools rather than just swim bike and run. I feel that the Ironman not only sparked some interest, but burnt me out. I think it is just the fact that I am not training for an Ironman anymore. It makes me sad. I have decided on a few goals this year, things that I have lacked on during the IM training:
1. Get moving. No more long slow training all the time
2. Get involved with activities outside the triathlon world
I just need to get my mind back into the whole training thing. Hopefully spring and the warm weather will re-motivate me.

IAFE 5k

2009-12-04T14:12:00.001-06:00

This race, if you want to call it that, I do every year at the International Association of Fairs and Expos trade show that my work exhibits in Las Vegas. This race consists of 10-15 people doing a 1 mile walk and 5-10 people doing the 5k. The people that do the run are the people you would typically see starting in the back of a regular 5k race. Last year I won this race so I was back to defend my title. Haha. There is one guy that beat me the first year I did it, I beat him last year and this year...he won. I just did not have it again. I looked up the elevation differences: Des Moines 900ft, Las Vegas 2,000ft. That slight difference I can really feel when I am running. This year I ran 2 miles before the race even started because they don't warm up. Well, they do, you run down the hall of the conference space and group stretch. Not enough for someone looking to get out and get moving right away. The course is around Bally's. Some areas are scary because we are running through the drop off/pick up area and the service parking lot where there are lots of trucks. All 7 of us lined up to go. Dudes #1 and #2 appear to be a father and son pair and they take off first. Last year Dude #1 took off way to fast and so I was not worried about him being in front of me. Dude #3, the winner, follows close behind those 2. I knew I was going to have to keep him in my sights, but I was not wanting to start out that fast. So I was 5th, with Dude #4 in front of me. He was a bit older and wasn't to worried about him. We do 3 laps. Lap number one - I passed Dude #4 at about a half mile. Dude #3 gets into first after about 3/4 mile. I could see dudes #1 and #2 losing their form so I knew they had started to fast and I would soon catch them. I passed Dude #1 at about .9 miles. I passed Dude #2 just after mile one. Now I was feeling tired but did not know why. I think it has to be the elevation changed because I felt the exact same way last year. After about 1.25 miles, Dude #3 was almost a 1/4 mile ahead of me so I had to pick up the pace. I couldn't I tried, but I think my effort to go 10 seconds faster/mile was so much more work than just running at my pace. after 2 miles he was way to far ahead of me to catch him so I just tried to finish strong. We had dominated everyone else by a good 5 min. I really noticed my long training has hurt my short fast races. I need to get some speed work going. I did run the next 2 days as well for a total of about 15 miles for 3 days. My foot started hurting on the last day so I took Wednesday off and Thursday was my travel day back so I did not workout. I am thinking I will sit on the trainer tonight. I don't want to injure my foot again, especially now when there is no need to push myself. I have moved my kickoff starting day from January to December because I eat to much and need to get back into working out. I don't think I am going to go full blown into triathlon training. I am going to try to do some different stuff so I am not getting burnt out.

Equalizer Race Report

2009-11-02T08:31:00.000-06:00

This weekend was great. Friday night I attended the prerace dinner. A few people showed up, but it was very fun to hear about other people's races and to just meet some pretty awesome people. Saturday started off to appear to be a gorgeous day until you stepped out from behind the wall and felt the wind. wow, that was cold. I arrived at Gray's Lake and setup my pit area. Basically I just dumped my bag onto the ground. It worked. We started at 8am. I felt really good for the first hour. Easily maintaining a 9:30 pace. 5.733 miles in 53 min. Hour 2 went by pretty quick also and still feeling good, but can tell I needed to eat more. Mile 12 I started to get tired. I grabbed the sport beans and tried to get them down. They tasted really good, but they weren't enough. When I came back around on mile 14, my friends had arrived and asked if I wanted a beer. Yes I do, but probably should wait. So my next time around, they had a beer and an egg sandwich ready for me. Holy cow. That sandwich was so awesome and saved my day. I ate another around mile 20 and it carried me through to the end. I combined my egg sandwich with a gel and water every lap. I finally felt good. At about 5 hours and 25 min, I was at lap 16. I really wanted to get in one more plus some short loops. I put my head down and didn't walk. I finished lap 17 in 20 min and then started the shorter 1/4 mile loops. At the start of lap 5 of the short laps, I figured this was going to be the last one and took it easy. On my way back in, I realized I could get one more in if I hurried. So I pulled out one more short loop to finish with 33.99 miles in 6 hours. The day went so fast. Egg Sandwiches are awesome! One friend and myself finished with 33.99 miles for the 2nd longest actual runs for the 6 hour race. A 69 year old man ran over 36 miles. Makes me feel worthless, lol. After the equalizer, I ended up with a 3rd place finish. It was a great experience and if I am still insane next year, might consider it again. NOT the 24 hour race. I will need to be on more drugs to do that race. As of today I feel great and finally going to workout tonight. I took Monday and Tuesday off to finish some weatherizing stuff to my house and last night spent the evening with Rob. It was great, but I am starting to feel lazy so heading to the gym for a little eliptical and probably shoot around. I still have a few blisters on my feet that are tender, but they are much better today. I also have decided to take November and December easy and regroup my thoughts and goals. I need to take some time off of triathlon as I feel like I am getting burnt out on the training. I am going to try to find a league or something to do over the winter to mix things up. Hopefully in the next couple months I can figure out my race schedule. Probably will start up tri training again in January.

Equalizer Run Plan

2009-10-29T09:54:00.001-05:00

I have been unusally slow about getting my race stategy laid out for this weekend and I am not sure why. You would think with such a long race that I would be paying more attention to it. I think the weather changing, being busy at work and trying to get the house winterized have kept me distracted. This morning I have finally put my plans on paper.

Thursday:
Rest, start hydrating. Foods: carbs and protein. Water aerobics, stretch. Good night sleep tonight

Friday:
Stay off feet as much as possible, hydrate all day. Big breakfast and taper meals throughout day. 5:30pm is the prerace meal. Keep it light and stick with the pasta and avoid heavy fiber foods. Water is my friend. Short run and lots of stretching. Get to bed at regular time around 10pm.

Saturday
6:00am: Wake and eat breakfast: Cliff bar (220) with water, get dressed and start slowly on the baby food. Shooting to eat 3 jars by 7 (370 calories total), gather rest of equipment, load car and chill until 7. Pee
7:15: Leave for race, eat 1 gel with water on way to race
7:35ish: arrive at race site, pee, set up “pit” area
7:50: 1 gel with water
7:55: pee
7:58: strip off extra clothes
8:00: Race start – Run

During race: 10-12 oz powerade, 1 gel with 6 oz water and salt tablet – each hour, aleve as needed

I have learned a lot from the Ironman about my feet. I will have them taped up and properly bandaided to start with instead of waiting until I have run 13 miles and severe blisters have formed.
I am excited to get out and race, but also nervous because I haven’t gotten near as much running in as I would have liked. I ran 3 miles on Tuesday and my upper back was stiff Wednesday. I am going to be so sore after this race, but it will be worth it. I hope the rest of my body holds up as I have developed a few achy areas from working

Final week before the Equalizer

2009-10-26T10:16:00.000-05:00

Final week going into the Equalizer run on Saturday. The weather looks nice but the temperature is border line right now on what I want to wear. Right now I am going to have to wear pants over shorts. Didn't want to do that, but anything under 40 degrees I decided was to cold for shorts. Also, I don't feel ready. I haven't ran much in the past 2 weeks because of work and this week I can't really run since it is taper week plus I have a million and a half things to get done at my house before it gets to cold out. Friday is the prerace dinner. Kind of weird to me because who wants to eat a huge meal the night before you have to run that far. It should be on Thursday night. I probably won't eat much there, but hey, it is included in the race fee. This week I am going to try to run 3-4 days 2-4 miles just to get my body loosened up and use to running again. And start drinking water, but not as much as I drank before the Ironman. Holy crap, I do not want to have to pee that much again.

Chrissie Wellington = Awesome

2009-10-16T09:41:00.000-05:00

A very busy work week has kept me from my daily triathlon reading, but I finally have had a chance to read up on this past weekends Ironman Championships. I knew Chrissie had won the women's, but didn't hear anything other than that. She is awesome. I would love to train or drive a car beside her while she trains for an entire build cycle just to see what kind of workouts she does. Great Job Chrissie. Back to work for me.

Equalizer Run

2009-10-13T08:05:00.000-05:00

Training for essentially an ultramarathon hurts. Why would anyone train for just a marathon? To much running, lol. The last couple weeks I have been running about 4 days a week with 2 of those days 5 miles, one day 10-12, and a long run of 14-18 miles. My IM training was not this, but I think it helped me a lot that I could spread out my run days more and extend my aerobic run with a bike effort. I have not been on my bike in about a month. I don't ride outside in the cold mostly because I just don't have the gear to and I have been super lazy about putting it on the trainer. I have gone to a couple spin classes and water aerobics to fill in my "extra" training time. This week I will be at work for about 12 hours a day because I have a project due next week. It sucks because I really need this week to get a final good workout week before my race next Saturday. On top of it all, I am sick. Sunday I ran 18 miles and came home and didn't do anything the rest of the day. I am pretty sure that is when I started getting sick. I had no energy and later that evening I had to blow my nose all the time. Yesterday I could start feeling it in my face and head. It's all in my sinuses. Great. I hope it doesn't turn into an infection. I bought sinus med this morning and will pop those pills all day. It actually gets worse at night because I am laying down and it all runs into my head. So I will continue sucking down water and pills. I am also pretty sure that when I was walking through the skywalk into work, I had snot just about ready to drip from my nose...Nice.

My New Bike!!!!!

2009-10-06T07:46:00.001-05:00

Hahaha...Just kidding, but Man I would love to have this bike.

Product Trial

2009-09-22T08:24:00.000-05:00

Prior to IMKY, I received an email to join this pain management focus group. This was during IM week which turned out to be this group giving our feedback on several pain reliever products. Everything from if we would use it to the labeling. Since then, I have received another email asking if I wanted to actually try out these products. Of course, why not. I received the products in the mail yesterday. 5 items: roll on, topical cream, muscle spray, joint spray, and 2 heat pads. I have to basically try out one product everyday for the next week. I used the roll on last night after my run. I thought that would be the best for the "pain" I had. My hamstrings were achy and figured I could really rub this is with the roll on. I opened the cap and started rolling. It sucked, nothing was rolling on. Very little at first then nothing. So I kind of shook the bottle. The roll ball got stuck then finally it loosened up and it worked, but quit shortly after again. I rolled it on my quads, hamstrings and knees. Nothing. Is this working. I sat there for about 2 min and finally I could feel it working. Mostly it was just burning my skin. I waited about an hour and I couldn't feel it doing anything so I jumped in the shower to rinse it off. Holy $h!t. It was burning. I used soap trying to wash it off, but nothing. I got out, dried off and it was better, but for the next hour it was burning so bad. OK, bad start here. When the burning sensation stopped, it actually felt good. Probably going to try out the joint spray. Not really sure how a topical spray can work on joints, but its free to try.

Equalizer Run

2009-09-18T15:10:00.000-05:00

Ok, I figured since I am already insane, why not do something else insane to wrap up the year? I signed up for the Equalizer run in Des Moines. I have not heard of this before, but a fellow triathlete directed me at it. It is a running race and you do ~2 mile laps for either 6 or 24 hours. At the end, they count up your laps and convert to miles. Next they take your actual miles and multiply it by an "equalizer" number to get the overall winner. This is to eliminate gender and age advantage/disadvantage. I think it is a load of crap, lol. Anyway. I am entered into the 6 hour category. The 24 hour race does NOT appeal to me even in the slightest. Also, how often can you decide to run a 30+ mile race 6 weeks out? Um...very little to never. I would never train just for this race and you have to be insane to do that. Ok, it is just like training for a marathon, but still. I really like the "format" of this race because it is exactly how I have been training, for time and not distance. I don't have to run fast, I just have to try to keep running as long as I can and minimize walking. Sound familiar? Exactly my Ironman marathon strategy. On the entry form, it asks how many miles do you expect to finish. I put down 30 figuring: 6 hours/a 12 min/mile pace = 30 miles. The only results I could find were from 2006. Not sure if they just aren't out there or if they have not done this race since 2006. The winner ran a little over 35 miles in '06 and 36 in '05. It should be exciting. I guess I have to go out and buy more gels. Yippee.

Body, are you listening to me?

2009-09-16T12:53:00.000-05:00

The last 2 weeks have been really weird. After the Ironman, I felt great and ready to start working out again. I took the rest of the week off and managed to not do anything triathlon related for all but one 45 min bike ride. I cleaned and cleaned. My house was disgusting. You never realize how gross it is until you actually clean it. Tuesday the 8th I decided I would start getting back into it. I ran for 30 min Tuesday after a long time spent at the grocery store. Geez. Wednesday, I went to the pool thinking I was going to get to swim. Nope, it still wasn't open so I lifted for 45 min and went home and biked for 45 min. Thursday I ran for 40 min. I was exhausted on Friday. My legs were achy and I just didn't have any energy. Saturday I also took off because I drank a little to much for the Iowa/Iowa State game and slept the rest of the day. Sunday I managed to do some stuff around the yard and mow. I played 2 softball games that night. I had to do a lot of sprinting that night because I had a good hitter behind me. Monday came and I could feel my legs were not use to that. Stupid me, thinking my body was ready for a little more intensity, went to a spin class. Wrong idea. I got about 5 min into it and my legs were not having it. I did the class about about 25% since that was all my legs could handle. Oh and I did this after I had lifted for 30 min. Good work Kel. After spin class I went home and walked my dog. That felt good to do. Loosened my legs up. Tuesday I went for a 5 mile run which normally takes me 40-45 min took me 50 min plus my 5 min cool down walk. Augh. I was not breathing hard at all, my body just did not want to go. So that brings me to tonight. I am planning on trying to go swimming. If I feel good I will do some laps since I have not been in the pool since IMKY. When I feel tired I will jump into the hot tub :) There is a yoga class at 630 that I am planning on hanging around for so I will probably lift a little bit before then. Tomorrow night, not doing anything. Its really weird how I feel ready to go and feel like I could pick up with my normal routine, until I actually start doing something then my body just shuts down and refuses to work. Guess they were right that it takes 6 weeks to fully recover from an Ironman. Hopefully by then I will have a little bit more of an idea of how I want to go into my training for the off season. My idea of my goal for next year would be to get my half ironman time to 5 hours and to qualify for nationals. This is going to take a lot of hard work, but I think it is a reasonable goal that will really push myself to see what I can do. My goal race I guess would be the Pigman half which is a qualifier for the Long Course nationals in September. I have a list of what I feel I need to work on the most over the winter and have read several good articles about off season training that I think I am going to use the winter months for speed work and then in the spring start building the endurance to go along with my already found speed :)

Ironman Louisville Race Report

2009-09-09T08:04:00.000-05:00

Sunday at 3am: Wake up because of some stupid girls in the hall. Kind of wanted to punch them in the head. Tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't so I got up and started eating. Cliff bar down. Awesome. I always have trouble eating solid foods before a race. 1 packet of instant oatmeal, went down a little harder. Now onto the baby food. 4 jars of baby food = 200 calories. Total breakfast = 570 calories and 16 oz of water. Cover myself in sunscreen and get dressed. Choice of clothing: tri shorts and tri rib top. Exacty clothes I wore for my very first triathlon 2 years and 1 week ago. I chose the tri shorts because bike shorts were to bulky for me. I always trained in tri shorts or just plain shorts on short rides. I double check my bag and I am out the door at 4:20am. I am way ahead of schedule now because I woke up an hour early.
4:40am I get to transition and was pleasantly surprised that we could already get in. It was not suppose to open until 5. First action was to pump up my tires. I ask a girl next to me where the pumps were and she said you had to bring your own. What? That is crap. You can't put a pump in your morning bag or leave it anywhere so how was that going to be possible for me since I didn't have anyone to give it to either. How dumb. I managed to borrow one from another girl nearby. Ok that is done, water bottle full, spare kit on bike, bento box with nutrition. I am ready. Stop at the potty before leaving transition, came out and guess what I see. The bike pumps. Not only are there bike pumps, but they have someone do it for you.
5am: walk to swim start that is .75 miles down the road. It was kind of scary because there wasn't many lights, but it was better that 3000 of my workout partners for the day were also heading that way. I get to the start, get body marked (almost forgot) and got in line. I wasn't to far back. Within 500 people of the front. 5:20 I sit and wait. People walking by thought the line should be ending soon. Nope, sorry, you guys have a long ways to go yet. Port-a-potty line got long fast so I decided to go. 6:30 came and I needed to pee again. I headed towards the bathrooms when the line started moving. Crap, I didn't want to lose my spot or lose my bag so I started jogging back to the line. The guy in front of me had grabbed my bag, thank goodness, so I didn't lose my spot. I got in line, but still had to pee soooooooo bad. At this time the line kept slowly inching forward so I could never relax to pee. 6:40ish, the first national anthem was played. Right after, the 2nd one was sung. Hmmm...is this necessary. After they were done, the bugle player played the little "tune" that is played before the start of the Kentucky Derby. That was neat. About 2 seconds after, the rest of the pros jumped in the water and at 6:50 they were off. They now started filing us down the ramp to the docks. I had to get rid of my morning clothes which sucked because I was cold and still had to pee. At this time it was getting very painful. I got my goggles on and soon enough, it was 7 and people were jumping off the dock. They split the line into 2 to get people into the water faster. They said one dock didn't have an advantage over the other. That was crap because I had swam for a good 15 seconds before I even got to the 2nd dock. Oh well, it was 15 seconds, lol. So I get to the "line split" and they are yelling at us to hurry and run down to the dock. Holy crap, I am going to slip and fall before I even get going. Well I made it to the dock and jump in. I did a scissor kick so my shorts didn't ride up and held onto my goggles. My shorts rolled up a little bit and my cap slid up a bit, but all in all, I was in the water and swimming and still having to pee more than anything else in the world. We had a short up stream swim. I don't tie my shorts in a race because it always ended up being a pain when I had to stop and pee, but I wish that I would have because with the combination of my stroke pushing water down my body and the current, the tops were catching water. Great, I am swimming with a parachute. Everyone else was to the left so I stayed to the right side of the channel. No draft, but I also wasn't getting swam over the top of. Ok I was, but I am telling myself it would have been worse on the other side. I am about 30 min into the swim now, still having to pee, it hurts. My goggles start fogging up. Awesome. I keep swimming. I see the turn buoy and also what appears to be someone walking? Sure enough, I put my foot down and I could stand. First thing, I pee and pee and pee. Oh my gosh, that was the most awesome thing ever. I clear my goggles and do a little bit of walking and then jump back in. The rest was pretty uneventful except I got kicked in the stomach and elbowed in the eye. I get to the swim finish and climb out of the water.
Swim time: 1:38:59 Rank: 1961
Goal time: 1:45
I walk and grab a water. I jogged the rest as my body wanted to get going. I got my bike gear bag and head for the tent. The day prior we dropped off our bikes and gear bags. Each participant got a volunteer to "show" them around transition. They showed you were your bike was, your gear bag, the potties and which tent you were suppose to go into. Now during the race there was a guy standing by the tents saying men here, women here. I ran around to the other tent, get in there and sit down. Some random guy comes in and is like, where am I suppose to go? Haha, yeah right, he just wanted to see all the naked women. I put on my shoes, helmet, sunglasses, race belt and my "arm warmers" (tip for those who don't already know this: Since I didn't have anyone else with me to throw my gear to, Everything had to be replaceable, which means my arm warmers. I took a pair of mens tube socks, cut off the toes and used those, works great). I didn't have a volunteer to help me with my bag like others say, but there were people in there. I started putting my stuff in my bag and the woman was like I will get it. So I left it and and headed for the potty. Wow, I have to pee a lot. I run to my bike and I am off.
T1: 6:17
I feel good. It was a gorgeous day and I was having fun. Bike was flat for about the first 10 miles then the hills started. I don't remember much for the next 5 miles. Mile 15 was the out and back section. It was basically 2 mountains. You went down one huge hill and climbed up a second and then turned around and did it again. They weren't steep, but very long. It was a cool section because the trees lined the road and created a tunnel. After that section, there was another short 5 mile section until the start of the loop. I don't remember much other than thinking, I wish I was at mile 60 and not 30. I get to mile 40 and I was starting to lose energy. Up to this point I was eating a gel every 30 min and a salt tab every 30 min opposite the gel and drinking water and a few sips of gatorade. I downed 2 gels. Stomach started getting icky so I ate a salt tablet and it all settled and now I had energy and could go. I also started grabbing bananas which were awesome energy. The loop goes through the small town of LaGrange. It wasn't as neat as I had built up in my head, but it was pretty cool. You go through there so fast because it is basically all down hill so you are flying through there. The next 10 miles or so was either flat or slightly down hill, very few climbs and also were I killed the course. After that starts the very narrow, rolling hill section. This was fun. The back section was also rolling hills, but they were a little bigger. Start of the loop has some fun down hills and some good climbs which I took very easy both times. After I got through LaGrange the 2nd time, I just gunned it for home. I felt great and really took advantage of the down hills. At this time, I still have not stopped to pee on the yet because there was always a line at the potties. I had to pee so bad that I could not ride aero because it hurt. I new I had a good 10 miles until the next aid station. I was not going to make it. I stopped and just squatted along the road and pretended to work on my bike. I was there for 5 min it felt like. Holy cow. The rest of the way home, I passed all the people that I had kind of been "riding with" and was pretty much alone for the rest of the ride. I past a few people on the flat section coming back, but there weren't many other around.
Bike time: 6:28:49 17.3mph Rank: 1423
Goal Time: 7:00
I enter T2, volunteer takes my bike and I start running towards my gear bag. Holy crap, can't run with cleats on so I stop and take them off. I get to my run bag and head for the tent. Yeah, I got my personal volunteer this time. I sat down and she dumped out my bag. She asked me what she can do and I said she could rub my neck and shoulder, jokingly. She said whatever I wanted. I turned her down and said that i wouldn't want to leave then. I put a bandaid on my one toe I knew I would get a blister on, body glided up my feet, pair one on, pair 2 on, shoes on, and change my tri top to a regular sports bar. I changed out of the tri top because those come up higher on my chest and tend to rub and really hurt no mater how much body glide you put on for long race. Dumping enough water on your head washes it away fast. Grab my visor and I am off...to the bathroom. Pee...again. Ok, now I am off.
T2: 7:19
I head out on the course. I feel surprisingly good. I thought I burnt my legs out on the last part of the bike. We have a short section through town and then get to the bridge. There was huge expansion joints on the bridge and I thought to myself as I am running up to one, don't fall and then what do I do, almost twist my ankle. Wow, not walking for 25 more miles. I head off the bridge. Mile 3 was about the start of the loop course. Wow, miles 2 and 3 were at 8:15 pace, that didn't last long and I knew it wasn't going to. Plan was to run in between aid stations and walk the stations. This worked out good. Aid stations slowly got longer and longer. At mile 6, I had to stop at the bathroom very badly. Not peeing this time. Not cool. This continued about every other mile now. Just before the end of the first loop was the run special needs bag. I got mine and sat down with it. I took a couple aleve, rubbed biofreeze on my thighs, rubbed bees wax under my arms, put more bandaids on my toes, I mean blisters, and refilled my salt tablet dispenser. I had another pair of arm warmers in there incase I got cold. I almost took them, but decided not to. I was actually chilly when I would dump water on my head so I stopped doing that and figured I would be fine. At this time I also got to look through what else was in there. I had my friends put items in the bag that they thought I could use for the rest of the run and words of encouragement. This was awesome and some were very funny. Gave me a good laugh. I am sure people were wondering what I was laughing so hard at. I ditched the bag and start off again. By this time, I was not tired yet, but my muscles were sick of vibrating. If I could have had any item that they would have given me at this time, it would have been a compression body suit. Anything to keep my body from vibrating. Quads started first, I could kind of run and hold them a bit, until it moved up to my abs and then my arms. Compression clothes are awesome, I just wish I had some. Mile 14 runs you down the finish roads and then 50 yards from the finish, you turn and head out for the your 2nd lap. wow, that is going to be exciting when I get to really finish. It was the hardest because everyone was like, you are almost done. I was like in 12 miles :) I headed out for lap 2. There was a guy that was running by me through that area. He had to walk so bad, but didn't want to with all those people. I laughed and left him behind when he started walking. It is now mile 15 and I have need to stop again at the potty. Finally I think the upset stomach is gone, now just peeing. No more liquid. The chicken broth had made an appearance at mile 16. Sweet. It was now grapes and chicken broth. the bananas went bye bye at about mile 10 when i ate one and it tasted like what I left at the previous aid station :) Pretzels also tasted mighty fine at this point too. I hate pretzels. I quit eating pretzels because it made me thirsty. Last potty break was at mile 19, Yes! In the mean time, I made it to mile 18 and then had to walk. It now got to a point where, if I could get myself to start running without it hurting, I could run farther. I tried to run 5 min and walk 1 min. I would run about 2 min and walk 45 sec until mile 19. The vibration of my body was what hurt. The Ironman shuffle was very prominent ever from the beginning of my run from several people. I am sure it didn't take long for me to develop it. I continued to run about 3-5 min and walk 30 sec. until mile 22 when I was able to run all of that. I had a hard time in mile 24. I told myself I am running all of 25. I got to 25 and it hurt so bad, but I pushed through it. The crowd really helped. I came down the road, made a left turn and a right turn and headed down the last stretch. I was so excited and the tears started. I could see people finishing ahead of me. No one else was around me. I hit that Ironman carpet for the last 50 yards. I couldn't hold back, I was trying to smile, while almost in tears when I crossed the line and heard "Kelly Kalvelage, you are an Ironman" (I have tears in my eyes as I am reliving this while writing this) I had finished.
Run time: 5:11:52 11:55/mile Rank: 1625
Goal Time: 6 hours
Finish time: 13:33:17
59/87 Age Group W25-29
319/525 Women
1590/2352 Overall
Goal time: 15 hours - try to not get a glow stick.
Guess what? NO GLOW STICK FOR ME!!!!

Immediately a volunteer came up to me, put my finishers metal over my head and wrapped me in that silver blanket thing. It was hot and I did not want it touching me, but she kept wrapping me in it, lol. She walked with me out of the finish area. She asked if I wanted something to drink. My answer: I want a cheeseburger. She said there was food at the convention center and then wanted to know if I wanted a finish photo. She says here is the line. I said I am not waiting in line, I am hungry. She asked if I knew where the center was, I did and then offered to walk with me, but I was ok. I got down there, ate or should I say inhaled 2 slices of pizza. I got my morning clothes bag and put on my long sleeve shirt as I was getting chilly. I slung the bag over my shoulder and just about died right there. That hurt so bad. It was at this time that I realized just pressing a finger on my arm hurt like the devil. Wow, nobody touch me. I headed outside to catch up with a friend that arrived sometime during the run. He gave me a ride to transition and then took off back for Iowa. I got to transition to get my gear bags and bike. I put on my bike shoes and helmet. I got on the bike. Owwwwwwwww.... groin area is not liking this one bit. I force myself to get on and ride back to the hotel, which was directly outside of the finish line. We couldn't have someone bring this stuff there for us? That would have been awesome. I get back to the hotel, get in the elevator to my floor and step out. Cleats are still hard to walk in so I take them off. This the point where I noticed I had a lot of blisters and one in particular was right in the center of the ball of my foot which hurt like hell to step on with bare feet. I stumbled back to my room, threw my gear down and proceeded to make phone calls. Oh my gosh, it was such an incredible day that I will never forget. I will do an Ironman again, there is no doubt in my mind. If you asked me during the run, I probably would have threw my pretzels at you, but now, I want to do it faster :)

Only thing I would do different is put bandaids on before starting the run. Since this was my first marathon, I didn't know what to expect.

Learned: compression would have been nice to have
Overly hydrated causes you to pee...A LOT
Raspberry creme gels are still awesome, tangerine is not
Go to the welcome dinner, it is fun
The days before the race are busy - I will put up another post about the days leading up to the IM
I am slow on the uphills. Need to work on that, but I knew I was :)

Stats from Athlete Tracker (there is discrepancy between the tracker, results online and official text results)

TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:38:59) 2:36/100m 1968 1923

FIRST BIKE SEGMENT 22 mi (1:18:41) 16.78 mph
SECOND BIKE SEGMENT 37 mi (56:57) 15.80 mph
THIRD BIKE SEGMENT 67 mi (1:46:17) 16.94 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT 112 mi (2:26:54) 18.38 mph
TOTAL BIKE 112 mi. (6:28:49) 17.28 mph 1572 1525

FIRST RUN SEGMENT 3.38 mi. (30:27) 9:00/mile
SECOND RUN SEGMENT 8.25 mi. (52:28) 10:46/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT 13.1 mi. (56:28) 11:38/mile
FOURTH RUN SEGMENT 15.33 mi. (32:27) 14:33/mile
FIFTH RUN SEGMENT 20.19 mi. (1:01:51) 12:43/mile
SIXTH RUN SEGMENT 25.04 mi. (1:04:36) 13:19/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT 26.2 mi. (13:35) 11:42/mile
TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (5:11:52) 11:54/mile 1590 1546

Kelly Kalvelage...You are an IRONMAN

2009-09-01T18:47:00.000-05:00

Those words never sounded so sweet than the very moment you are crossing that finish line after a long and demanding day. 13:33:17 was my overall time. I am excited to get my race report up just as much as you all are waiting for it, but for now I am still soaking in the excitement. Look for the report in the next couple days as I have lots to share.

4 days...

2009-08-26T11:57:00.000-05:00

Today is my last day full day in Iowa before the big race. I am taking off tomorrow for Louisville. I could not be more excited to do this race. I am sure as soon as I get there, the nerves will set in. Right now I am more anxious just to get going. Tonight I am dropping my dog off at the kennel, dinner with friends and then spending the night with Rob. I am pretty excited about that too since he has a huge work project to turn around. Tomorrow Rob and I are having breakfast before I am on my way. I have a full schedule Friday and Saturday which will be nice so I am not going crazy over race prep stuff like I have earlier this week. I will do a massive check over my stuff probably Friday and Saturday before equipment drop off to make sure I have everything. It is challenging because I won’t see my run or bike bags until I get them in the race. I have to make sure I have body glide in all of them since I won’t be able to get my bike bag for the run. Just things like that. I just noticed last week I should get my oil changed soon in my car, but wasn’t sure if I would have time to do it. I was able to get squeezed in this morning. Good thing I did because my brake lights weren’t working. I would have never known and that would have not been a good thing to not have when you are driving 8 hours some place. Good thing only the bulbs needed to be replaced. All in all, I am so ready for this race and can’t wait to get out on the course to see what I can do.
Race Goals:
#1: Finish and have fun doing it
#2: Have a great time
Strategy:
Swim: take it easy (which isn't hard for me) but not to easy that I lose track of time
Bike: Slow, Slow, Slow to start. My heart rate tends to be the highest here.
Keep power even on the hills
If I am feeling good and no stomach issues, the last 10 miles I can push it a little bit
gel every 30 min, salt tab every 30 min, 1 water bottle/hour, half bottle of gatorade/hour
Run: Just keep moving
Walk Aid stations, Run inbetween
Gatorade and water at every station, salt every 30 min

Race weather: upper 70s, party sunny, wind 5-10mph. I will take that! Hopefully the ran in the preceeding days goes through quickly to result in a fabulous day!

Question I am going to ask myself several times during the day: Why are you doing this?
Answer: Because I really want the tattoo, haha, just kidding, ok I really do, but mostly to prove that I can be successful in anything I set my mind to and why not!

I am always looking to challenge myself and better myself in anyway that I can. After all, I have an "A" personality :)

Follow me on race day: August 30, 2009 at www.Ironman.com. On the home page will be a link to the athlete tracker. #337!!!!!!!!!

#337

2009-08-19T16:49:00.001-05:00

Officially Ironman Louisville Race Participant #337!

Going Strong

2009-08-18T16:13:00.000-05:00

I am so happy to be tapering because my body just could not take any more. I was finally able to run Sunday and last night and feel "good". My legs are still a little tired and achy, but not near as bad as they have been. I am doing a 3 week taper. I decided on this last year when I tapered for 1.5 weeks for my half and I was tired during that race. This year I tapered 2 weeks for Kansas and felt great. I also have doubled my workout times since then and decided 3 weeks would be the min. I still did workout 11 hours last week, but it felt like hardly anything. This week I have 7 hours which feels like nothing. I am doing some final lists of stuff I need and then going to start compling my stuff. I have my room lined up, Anubis' "room" reserved, directions and schedule all ready. I can't wait to get going. Workouts this week and up to my race: Monday ran 30 min, tonight: bike 1 hour, tomorrow: swim 45, Thursday: off, Friday: 2 hour bike, 30 min run, Saturday: 45 min - 1.5 hour swim (depends how I feel), Sunday: 1 hour run, 45 min bike, Monday: 30 min swim, 1 hour bike, tuesday: 30 bike, wednesday: 30 min run, off thursday - travel day. Friday I have a million things to do: 30 min swim, check in, I volunteered for a pain focus management group (I get $75 to buy stuff with!), IAMTRI group get-together, race essentials clinic, welcome dinner and mandatory athlete meeting. Also inbetween all that I am going to go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Bat Factory. Saturday 20 min swim, 20 min bike, 2 mile underpants run for charity then back to my room to get my gear and check in at noon. Then I am relaxing the rest of the day. Hoping to meet a couple friends that evening for dinner from IAMTRI that are coming down to cheer. Sunday is the big race day. It is going to come fast. I feel like I am not ready yet just because I have to get a few things from the store and then gather up everything, clean my bike and check the rest of my gear. I will get most of that done this weekend, then I can relax.

Updates

2009-08-12T07:39:00.000-05:00

Couple things that have happened in the last couple days: 1st and most important - Taper time. My taper started Monday, but I did have 1.5 hour bike and a 45 min swim. I bailed on the swim because my neck was sore from biking Sunday. I couldn't turn my head far enough to breathe so that was out. Tuesday I did a 45 min bike and a 35 min run. My body is exhausted. I am going to try to swim for an hour tonight, give or take 15 min. I have been looking forward today since Sunday. Not only because it is finally an easy day, but my bf gets back from vacation :) Tomorrow I am going to swim for 30 min and run for 45 followed by either one or two softball games. It is the final tournament and if we win we play 2 games, but if we lose the first, we are done. Friday: Day off!!! Also I am having my orthotics remade because the left one is not working correctly. My foot does not sit on it correctly in my shoe. The ball of my foot is on the beginning of the arch so every time I step, it slides down and rubs and it burns bad. I have also found out that I have less than 17 hours to finish IMKY. IMKY is unique in that is has a time trial start. In the past, there is one entry point where you wait in a big line and one after another jump in and go. The swim cut off is 2:20 after the last athlete enters the water and the official time ends 17 hours after the last athlete enters the water. This year, there will be 2 entry points for the swim. Same swim cut off except now you have to finish the bike by 5:30 and the race cut off is midnight. so if you start last, say around 7:30 am, you have 16:30 to finish the race. You basically have a shortened bike time. I am not to worried about this, but how many people finish in that last 30 min. Quite a few. So now I am going to have to hurry to get to the swim start in the morning along with everyone else having the same plan now. The reason behind this is what I think is really dumb. Due to permits issued by Louisville and surrounding communities, they have to have the race done by midnight. Really? This isn't a big enough race, and we aren't brining enough money to the city that you can't give us an extra 30 min? Ok. Not going to worry about it because I have no control over this. I am going to race my race and not worry about anything else. 2 weeks from tomorrow I will be on my way to Kentucky. I can't wait.

Downhill from here

2009-08-10T08:15:00.000-05:00

Nothing else can make a person more nervous, anxious, excited and scared at once than an email saying the athlete guide is available and race numbers will be assigned soon. I was rushed with all of these emotions when I got that email last week. What I think was funny was I had the guide all printed off before I got the email. What are the chances that within the 30 seconds of posting it and emailing saying it was ready, I checked the website. I think that is a little more obsessive than anything. Hey, what can I say, I am excited. Also in that email was a note saying, if you know you are not participating, let us know so we won't give you a number. My last chance to back out. Nope. I am ready. I just finished up my last build week. I basically have 3 long workouts left. Tonight, tomorrow and Saturday. 20 days left. I finished up this weekend with a 15 mile run Saturday and a 30 min bike on the trainer. It was a great day to "practice" in Kentucky heat. I need to make sure I keep myself cool. Sunday I had a very interesting bike. I started out about 9, biked for an hour when a line of storms had come up on the West. I was about 10 min from Ankeny so I decided to turn back and wait it out at the park there. By the time I had thought that and turned around, it had started raining. I got back to Ankeny and the rain stopped. I checked the weather on my phone and there was another line coming through so I decided to head home and get the rest of my nutrition and head back out. I figured it will be gone by then. I got home, got my gels and headed back up to Ankeny. As I got in Ankeny, it started thundering and lightening so I stopped at the park and waited it out under a shelter. After 10 min it had stopped. There was Another line of storms coming so I thought I could make it up to Big Creek before they arrived. I was wrong. I got 10 min North of Ankeny when the torrential down pour started. It was actually refreshing. I was more concerned about my phone getting wet than anything. It was nice. I made it to Big Creek just in time for it to stop raining. I took sometime to dry out my stuff and packed the bike back up. It started lightening again so I waited about another 5 min. It never stopped raining so I started to head back home. I got 5 min from Big Creek when it started pouring again. I would have kept going, but I was riding directly into the wind and it hurt so I turned back to wait it out at Big Creek. I dried my stuff out again and spent another 30 min there waiting for the storm to clear. It was still thundering out, but I was freezing cold and drenched that I just said screw it and headed home. I got half way home when the sun came out and got sooooooooo hot. I really enjoyed the ride. I just wish it would have been a little less windy when the storms were coming up. That made it dicey. I have started my list of things I need to take. It is no longer a list, but now a book. It is very long and I don't even have non-race stuff on there yet, lol. This is the last week my pool is open so I will need to find another one to swim at next week. Probably have to go to the downtown Y. Hours in the next 3 weeks have dropped off significantly from what I have been doing. I won't know what to do with myself. Maybe I will get some stuff done around the house or maybe turn on that black screen thing in my living room that has pictures on it. It has been a long time.

Just in

2009-07-31T15:00:00.000-05:00

I just received confirmation that my shoes have arrived on my door step. Yay, except I won’t wear them running for another week. But they will be fun to look at and transfer my speed laces over to them. Also arriving today are my new Compression sleeves. I am super excited about them. I am going to put them on as soon as they arrive. I will be playing softball until I die tomorrow so I will wear them in between games. The games, I get more beat up than when I just do tri training, but it gives my muscles a little bit of a different workout. My legs have just been so dead this last week and a half and I still have another week left. I really notice that they are tired when I do hills on the bike and they are super tight when I run. I think my body is trying to tell me to not run. I have this pain in the very bottom center of the ball of my foot today that developed when I was sleeping. Great. I am hoping it goes away by tomorrow. I will need to put my orthotics in my cleats tomorrow because those are what kill my feet. If the field was a little bit softer it wouldn’t be so bad. Well my run last night really sucked. It was such a gorgeous day and I felt like shit. My legs were so tight. I spent quite a bit of time before I ran stretching and that helped until I had to run up a hill and then they tightened up and I was miserable. I feel like I am running with two stiff boards. They don’t cramp up, they are just tight. I need someone to give me a massage. I got home and stretched out really good before my softball game. Good thing I did because my first at bat I had an in the park homer that I had to sprint around the bases. My quads gave out after I rounded first but they kicked back in before I fell on my face. I am glad I am not sore, but my body is defiantly screaming for a day off. I think I am going to take next Tuesday off because that seems to be the day I have my horrible workout and I am completely spent. That will recharge me to finish out my last week strong. As much as I would rather be sitting at home eating ice cream and watching a movie, I am going to really miss doing these long workouts. I had the most perfect workout Wednesday night. I got to the pool. Had the whole pool to myself. It was such a great peaceful swim. That hour went by way to fast. I even sat in the hot tub for 5 min. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I needed to get home to do my bike before it got dark. I took off on the bike. It was so nice out, not hot, not windy. Perfect. This was the first time in a while that I was enjoying myself. This is where it hit me that I was really going to miss training for an Ironman. I am sure now that I will do this again. I need to figure out what I am going to do after my race. I need something to train for otherwise I won’t get my butt outside to do anything. I need to have a goal. I wish there was a half IM closer to Des Moines in the spring to do. After all this Ironman thinking, nothing else really seems challenging to me. I am thinking about just focusing on getting fast for the Olympic distance to qualify for nationals at Big Creek next year and actually doing Nationals if I qualify. That might be a lofty goal, but hey, I have a whole year to train for it. It will just be hard to get myself going fast after doing these long easy workouts. I will have to ride with Tribeaner. She kicked my butt on the hills.

Compression Sleeves

2009-07-29T13:38:00.000-05:00

I ordered calf compression sleeves this morning. I have been up in the air whether or not this was something that I needed. I have not really had any problems with my legs being sore or crampy until the last 2 weeks. My run yesterday turned into another 25 min run and a 35 min walk. Legs were just tight again. I did get lots of water down so I knew it wasn't dehydration this time. I actually had to pee 2 times on my run. I probably could have run another 10-15 min, but I started to get a bit of an upset stomach so I just walked and wasn't going to suffer through that. I still had the burning feet thing too. I put aquafor on my feet, but that did not help. Going to try this blister powder stuff and hope that helps. New shoes should be here by this weekend so I will get those on next week to start breaking them in. So my crampy legs last night was the deciding factor in ordering the compression sleeves. I am hoping that will help with my recovery in the next week and a half and then get me even more ready for Louisville in 32 days!

Less than 5 weeks

2009-07-28T07:48:00.001-05:00

Time is ticking off very fast. I did a final review of my training schedule to fine tune it and compared it to a couple "recommendations" on the last 3 weeks and feel it is right on. I just hope I have done enough up to now. I feel like I don't hardly ever work out anymore. I just found my very first training schedule I wrote 2 years ago for my very first triathlon. My max work out week was 6 hours. Hahahahaha. Oh the days. I use to have a hard time staying on the bike for more than 30 min. Now I can't even get warmed up in 30 min. That is an equipment check.
Last Friday I had a 5.5 hour bike. I was more focused on dealing with the wind because it was windy and super hot. My ride got cut short because I am pretty sure I was developing a bit of heat exhaustion. I got home and jumped in the cold shower. I had a good ride otherwise. Nutrition felt good, I felt good and only a couple times did I curse at the wind, but it was very brief. Saturday no workout. Sunday I ran for 2.5 hours and only got in 15 miles. The combination of new orthotics and socks was causing my feet to be on fire. I would run about 1-2 miles and then the balls of my feet would just be burning so I would have to stop and remove my shoes quick and then go on again. My feet are just sliding around a little to much. I tightened my shoes a bit, but I didn't want to too much because the tops of my feet start hurting when I have my shoes to tight. It was a good run. I jumped on the bike for 30 min after for a quick easy spin. I even felt great for softball later in the day. Monday, I went home after work and grabbed my mountain bike and was going to bike to the pool. One thing I forgot was that I still needed to fix my break from earlier in the year. It still works, but keeps catching so it was scary on the steep down hill. Made it to the pool and swam for 45 min. I feel so slow because I get so tired. After the swim I biked to the grocery store to pick up a few things and then biked home. It was great to get my swim and bike all done in one. I came home and mowed lawn and then reviewed my schedule and started making notes about the course at Louisville. I have a lot of work to do on that yet, but that is what I am planning to use to keep my busy during my taper. I ended up staying up a lot later than I wanted because I was reading the newest Triathlon Life. :) Today I have a 1:15 run. Tomorrow I have an hour swim and 1.5 hour bike. Thursday is an hour run and then softball. Friday I am going to attempt to make it to the pool for a half hour since that is all I can get in now that they are closing it at 6. This weekend is kind of up in the air. I am suppose to play in a softball tournament on Saturday, but not sure if they are going to have enough players so I may not. In that case, I will do my 6 hour bike Saturday and my 2.5 run Sunday. If I play, I will just switch them around and do the run right away Saturday morning. Training is winding down. Perhaps when I am not working out 17 hours a week I will start getting nervous. I hope not. There is just so many things I still need to figure out like how am I going to carry my salt tablets on the run? I need to figure out how many I am going to need too. So many things, but it is a good thing there is a lot because it will keep me focused and busy so I don't start getting anxious. I am starting to get excited again.

OOOO la la

2009-07-23T10:07:00.000-05:00

Change of plans last night. I felt like crap leaving work and really did not want to go to the pool. I told myself to suck it up and get your ass in their because you only swim twice a week and you cannot slack on the swim. I was tired, but I went. I get in the pool and didn't really plan out what I was going to do. I figured I would just start swimming and figure it out while I was warming up. I started swimming, kept swimming and kept swimming some more. I decided I was going to swim 2000 yards. Nope, I changed my mind, 3000 yards. I felt so great and smooth that I was willing to give up a bit of the bike tonight in lieu of a great swim. It is not very often I feel like swimming and very rare that I feel like not getting out of the pool. I ended up getting in the laps in 1:05. The pool I swim in is only 21-22 yards so I am not exactly sure if I swam slightly over 3000 yards or slightly under. I just figured each lap was short 3.5 yards and added the extra laps for it. By the end, my face was going to explode. How do you keep your face from building up so much pressure? I need to figure that out. After my swim, I headed home and had a bowl of oatmeal and then headed out on the bike. I only got in 1.5 hours because the sun was almost set and people can't drive. I started out on the bike and went up a very short, not steep hill by my house and I about died. My legs were soooooooooooooooo tired. I didn't think I was going to go longer than 20 min. I kept going. I couldn't hardly get going so I decided I would just take it easy and spin my legs out more to get them ready for Friday. By the time I got to 15 min, I had forgot my legs were tired and was back up to normal speed. I headed up through Ankeny and then back home. At the turn around, I really wanted to be home. Good thing that that is where that thought came up so I couldn't turn back early. I was going to have to make the entire trip. I am trying to work on the mental part of these long bikes. I need to not think about the time and just enjoy the ride and focus on form. I got home at 8:30. I get heartburn really bad if I eat after 8 so I could only eat something very light. Bowl of corn flakes. Blah. showered and then turned on a baseball game and started one of the books I got at the library today. "How to stop worrying and start living". It is pretty good so far. I started the other book "the secret" and left it at work to read during lunch. That one is kind of slow because it really only has one point to make and it just keeps giving examples of it. Ok I get it, move on. Hopefully it will expand its point a little more. Tonight I am going to do my "loop of pain" on the bike. It really isn't. It encompasses the 6 hills that are by where I live. There is 2 short quick hills, 3 long gradual hills, and 1 really steep hill that just kills me. I wish I had more time to do repeats on it. I will try to work that in several times in in the next couple weeks. Then I will do a short easy run after before my game. Tomorrow is going to be a tough day. It is suppose to be windier (10-15 mph wind) and hotter than it has been plus a chance of rain. It will really test my mental toughness.

Starting to freak out

2009-07-22T14:05:00.000-05:00

This last week I am starting to freak out about my training. I feel like I haven't done enough and I have just about run out of time. I am going to push these last 3 weeks and hope that I have done enough to get me through. I have picked up a couple books about not worrying about things I don't have control over, but I have invested so much time, how can you not worry. Augh. I finally realize this past Sunday that this Ironman is going to be hard. I did a 2.5 Bike/1.5 run/1.5 Bike/30 Run. I was exhausted after that. That is only about half of what I need to do and add a swim on top of that. I wish I could have another 4 weeks to train. I have 2 6.5 hour bikes, 1 5.5 hour bike and 3 2.5 hour runs left along with my normal during the week workouts then taper time. The time is coming up so fast. I can almost smell the Ohio.
Update on the foot: I got my orthotics last Thursday. I ran 45 min on them Thursday night and felt really good. No pain and most importantly, no pain the next day. I ran again Sunday for my 2 hour run. Stupid me, I didn't wear socks so I have a huge blister in the arch of my foot. That skin is not use to having anything touch it. The run went good. I attempted to run again last night, but my job distracted me from drinking water all day so I was very tight and crampy for the run. I ended up only running for 20 min and walking for 40. My legs felt very heavy. I am sure there was some fatigue from Sunday, but it didn't feel like it normally does. I am sure I was tired, but the no water thing really hurt. Tonight I am getting in the pool for an hour and a 2 hour bike to follow. Tomorrow a 30 bike/30 run followed by a softball game. I am doing my long bike Friday since I will be out of town and not able to do it Saturday so that will be my day off. I will be eating very bad food all day at the family reunion. Yum! Sunday a 2.5 hour run. Probably will break it up into a 1.5 hour run/30-60 bike/1 hour run.

How can someone so fast get faster?

2009-07-13T13:23:00.001-05:00

I completed my 100 mile bike ride in 5:15. Yes! I was so pumped. That will equate to a sub hour bike for an ironman, except now I need to figure out how to make Louisville flat. lol. Because I did not have any "real" hills on this ride. I actually felt really good on this ride the entire time. My neck started bothering me, but it never got to the point where it was painful. I was super pumped about doing the Ironman now, until I opened up my blog and saw there was only 48 days left. Augh. I am super nervous now. Scared mostly on how the day is going to go and knowing that I am going to be in pain and it is going to hurt like hell. I just saw that Chrissie Wellington finished Challenge Roth this weekend in 8:31:59! New world record for an ironman distance. That is so insane. She is so fast. How does she keep getting faster and faster? A 4:40 bike for the new record too. Wow is all I can say. Wow!
My training has brought me to this week. This will be my longest hours of training for my entire Ironman training. 19 Hours for the week. I am hoping to get all of these hours in. My foot has been "up in the air" the last week and I have been more nervous about running on it than I really should have been. I am hoping to get in some good mileage running this week to get my going again. This last weekend wiped me out. It was so much fun. When you try to squeeze in lots of fun, sleep tends to be the thing that gets shorted. I was kind of looking forward to working today just to get some structure/routine back. But it was a super great weekend.

Century Ride

2009-07-10T14:02:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow about this time I will be a memeber of the century club. I have my first ever century ride tomorrow. I am excited to do this ride, but I know when I am doing it, I will hate it and want to quit. I need to really work on pushing myself through hard to finish what I need to. Anyway, I am tired today. Had my first summer session softball game last night. We have moved up to the "B" league. I will definately say the guys hit the ball a lot harder in this league and the girls actually hit the ball. I like the more challenging competition. Had a great game. Got hit in the shin with a ball. It hurts a lot today. Relaxing tonight to get ready for tomorrow's big ride.

Absent

2009-07-08T08:34:00.001-05:00

I have been absent from my blog for about a week now. I have been very, very busy. This week will not be much different. Couple highlights of last week. Swam for 45 min straight Wednesday, Biked 4.5 hours Friday and another 4 hours Saturday morning. Thanks TriBeaner for keeping me going. I wanted to quit many times. Thursday I was able to run for an hour. No running since then because my foot, once again, has decided to give me problems. I am going to the doctor today to talk about the possibility of getting custom orthotics. I have been doing a lot of research and believe that a person with my foot type will benefit greatly from orthotics. I am hoping it will eliminate these random problems. I attempted to run yesterday morning. I ran for 3 min before the top of my foot cramped up. It finally "released" and then I was left with a sore tendon. The metatarsalgia is still present. It comes and goes. Monday of this week I swam for 45 min and then had a 1:45 bike. Tonight I am going to attempt to swim for an hour with a 1.5 hour bike. I have a feeling I am going to be exhausted tonight so it might end up me just floating in the pool. Tomorrow is the first game of softball for the summer session. I am excited. Keeps things exciting and not just doing triathlon specific workouts. Well that is all for now. If I remember I will update you on the foot orthotic situation.

Hyvee Race Report

2009-07-08T08:32:00.001-05:00

It has only taken me a week and a half to get this up and I just stole it from my Register blog instead of writing a new one. Basically I just want to forget about it and move on because it wasn't an A race for me, things went wrong, but there were things that went right. So anyway...

Hyvee Triathlon Finish: 2:48:09 12/73 Age Group 104/418 WomenSwim 37:20 T1: 1:11 Bike: 1:15:29 T2: :59 Run: 53:14Am I happy? No. Why am I not happy? I don't know. Looking at my times, I should be very happy, but why am I not. I had a very disappointing swim. I contribute 80% of that to my start. I had a great starting spot. Right behind one girl on the right center. I started a little further to the right last year and had a great start so my plan was to do the same. I was to far to the center and I got hammered. After about 20 meters into the swim girls kept hitting my legs so I just could not get going therefore they all swam over top of me. I tried to make my way to the right further to get out of the mess, but there was just to many people to my right. All the way to the first buoy was horrible. When I got to the first buoy, it got worse. Since I was right up next to it, I got hammered again and even panicked a little bit. It was the first time ever I had considered stopping to let the crowd pass, but I kept at it. I went around the buoy and made my way almost off course to the way inside since everyone else had kind of went out wide. The traffic cleared up, but to much so now I did not have a draft. I started to make my way over behind another girl, but she could not swim straight for anything. She was running into people all the time so I decided to abandon her and just swim my line and wait for someone else to pass and jump in behind them. Well no one else had passed until the last turn where it got a little crazy again. I swung out wide to avoid the mess. I started getting into some heavy traffic from the 2 waves in front of me. Spent most of my time navigating around them and not really swimming. I felt really good on the swim and was relaxed, most of the time. I knew I had been in the water longer than I wanted, but did not expect what my watch read when I finished. 8 min way to long. I was going to have to make up serious time to meet my 2:40 goal. In and out of transition. I love transition. Out on the bike. It was great. It was flat and very fast. I just went hard. I had expected the wind to be more of a factor, but I really didn't feel it so then I thought maybe it isn't out of the West. I got to the turn and nope the wind was behind me. Awesome! I flew. There was not one person I passed that I didn't just fly by. It was great. Gave me a lot of confidence. Coming into T2, I was unsure of how my legs would feel because of how hard I pushed the bike. I jumped off my bike and ran through T2. Calf almost cramped up. I put on my shoes and went off on the run. I felt pretty good. Stomach was a little upset, but forced myself to throw up before the second aid station and that made me feel so much better. No mile markers so I wasn't sure of my pace which was tough because if I needed to pick it up, I wouldn't know. I got to about 5km and finally my legs had completely loosened up and I could push it a little more. I need to do more bricks to get my legs going a little earlier. I had a great run. The hills were big, but I just focused on keeping my knees up and my cadence quick. Having not run any hills for about 3 months, I was very surprised at my run time. I will take what I have learned from this race and keep improving. I will come back stronger next year. Each day I am realizing I should be happy and each day I am becoming more pleased with my progress. I want to thank the DSM Register for the opportunity to share my training with everyone and send out my congratulations to all the athletes.I will change my focus to my training for Ironman Louisville August 30th of this year. I will continue to focus on my running because I feel I can improve in that "easier" than I can with my swim. Swimming is so technical that it can take a couple years to drop a couple min off your time. The run, I should be able to drop a good min off my 10k pace by the end of this year to be back to where I was last year. I need to continue to work on my nutrition. Still having major GI issues and heartburn pretty bad. I am finding that this extreme endurance training is wreaking havoc on my body big time. All in all, I love triathlon more everyday and will continue to push my body to its extreme to see what I can really do.

Hyvee Triathlon

2009-06-29T12:50:00.000-05:00

Race report to follow in the following days. I need to evaluate somethings about it and work on accepting the fact that I did not do as bad as I am playing it up in my head.

Who determines these swim waves?

2009-06-24T13:32:00.000-05:00

I have one thing to complain about. Swim wave times at Hyvee this weekend. Female under 29: 6:48 am. Transition closes at 5:45. What am I suppose to do for an hour? I have thought of several things. Take a nap, go out for breakfast, hang out in the beer garden. But the one I have chosen is to time my warm up to end exactly at 5:45, put my shoes in transition, get out of transition, stretch. By the time I am done doing that, the first people will be out of the water. This is a unique opportunity because now I can watch how the elite group do their transitions and maybe pick up a few things that could help me out. Normally I would be swimming still so you never get to see these guys/girls. Since these will be the people winning my age group, it couldn't hurt to learn from them. Also by the time my wave goes off, some people might be finishing. lol. Just kidding. Almost will get to see them come back in from the bike to run. So by the time I am done, all the food will be gone and I will have to wait 2 hours for a massage. Hmmm...that sucks. Oh well, what can ya do? I am heading out to the lake tonight for a swim. I was debating about whether or not I needed to get in the water without my wetsuit. I am pretty sure I will be fine, but it can't hurt to get out there and swim just to make sure so I won't have that tiny bit of doubt. And when else are you going to get out and be able to swim an hour with a life guard in open water? Not very often. This will be nice. Last couple days' workouts: Monday: 30 min swim because the pool water was 96 degrees. Hot tub water: 101 degress. Hmmm...little warm don't ya think. I about passed out so I decided it was time to get out. Tuesday: 45 min run in am. It was hot! Wednesday: 30 min bike this morning and an hour swim tonight. Thursday: 30 min run am and 2 hour bike after work. Friday: off. Picking up my packet, going to Rob's softball game and then to the Icubs. That is the plan anyway. Rain could alter these. Saturday: 45 bike and 30 min run. Equipment check and gather it up. Clean up bike and take to bike check in. Try to get to bed early(ish). Probably getting up at 3:30 Sunday. Going to braid my hair which will take the most time. Also wanting to get to the race sight so I get a good parking spot. the DSMtri club has special closer parking. So I want to get there probably around 4:45-5 just to make sure I get a spot there.

Going for broke

2009-06-22T13:52:00.000-05:00

I have been doing tons of research online all weekend and think I have narrowed down my stomach issue. I think I need more sodium. Clue #1: I feel that I am eating and drinking enough, it is just taking my body forever to want to absorb it. Clue #2: I believe I get Hyponatremia (the nausea, fatigue, vomiting, sleepiness are hints to this), Clue #3: I have been relying on gels for my electrolytes. I ordered salt stick caps today. I also found a place where it talks about salt. My thought was why can't I just eat salt? It will become unpalatable and I need the other 4 - potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride. I am hoping that this is my problem and I can get this worked out in the next couple weeks. I have been doing some "water" tests the last couple days. Weighing myself before and after working out so I know exactly how much fluid and sodium I am going to need. The hot humid conditions are definately how Louisville is going to be. I ran 10 miles yesterday. Stupid me, I forgot to put the insoles back in my shoes. You have to ask how does one forget to do this? It was simple. I had a one track mind of get out and run and try not to die. Last time I went running, when I took my feet out, the insoles came out so I was going to let them dry and glue them in. Well I forgot to put them back in. No wonder they felt so big. I just thought my feet hadn't swollen up yet. I did get a small sore on the side of my foot just below my ankle. I am sure I would have gotten that with the insoles. The bottoms of my feet got a little "hot" at mile 8, but no blisters. Thank goodness. Tonight I am going to the pool and then staying inside on the bike tonight. In the "ac". Might have to turn it down a bit and put all the fans on I have. Running tomorrow morning and then I have tomorrow night off. Can't wait for Hyvee to be over. I just hate all the "stuff" you have to do before the race. Packet pickup, athlete briefings, bike check in, but I am still excited to do it. I love the races. It is what keeps me motivated. Right now I am not planning on doing Big Creek just because it falls on my last big weekend before Louisville. I have a 7 hour bike Saturday and I will be wiped out for the race Sunday. Might throw in Iowa Games or Hickory Grove if I need something to do. Well back to the training.

4:50 Bike Hurt

2009-06-20T13:46:00.000-05:00

I have been home now for about 20 min from my 4:50 bike. It was a good ride and it was a bad ride. First the bad. I am really starting to question my sanity, if I had any to begin with. Why am I doing this? The longest bike I had yet, and it killed me. I made 80 miles in 4.5 hours and then did a slow cool down around the neighborhood. I guess I wasn't really tired, my legs just hurt and my saddle region was screaming. It would have been better if I was able to stay aero and be comfortable because then my legs stopped hurting when I was down. I had to sit up a lot the last hour. I will get to that in a bit. My quads are what was yelling the loudest. Oh man. I am still struggling with my nutrition. I will elaborate more in a second. If I had to add any hills today, I think I would have just died. Ok onto the good: I did ride 80+ miles today. I have figured out that being in the aero position is a start to my nutrition problem. I started having stomach problems today right at 1:15, when I have the other times as well. I found that after 5-6 min of taking a gel is when my stomach reacts to it. I started sitting up after 4-5 min and sitting up for 5 min and then going aero again. This worked really well until after 3.5 hours. I started to have to sit up longer before I felt better, but by the time I could feel it settling in my stomach, it was time to eat again. Ugh. I did not have a strong urge to throw up, but it was on the way. By 4 hours I wanted to throw every gel I had at passing vehicles. I was getting upset. Just then, my boyfriend text me and I asked him why I was doing this and he said "because you are awesome". That really helped get me through the last miles. I will have to plant signs and pictures of him around the course that I can read to keep me motivated. Today I also tried Elite. Um...no reaction to it, I guess. I liked the salty taste it left on my lips when I ripped open the packet. This got me thinking that I do need more salt. Would it be weird to just carry a salt shaker around. Then I passed Casey's and thought, I should stop in there and see if they have those little salt packets. Hmmmmm....this could work. Well I didn't stop because I wanted to get home so bad. I did stop about half way on the bike to pee and right when I got home so I feel I was not dehydrated. This problem is driving me nuts. The upset stomach was what was causing me to sit up longer, which was brutal. Today, even the light 5-10 mph wind out of the West was pissing me off. I try not to think about it because it takes so much energy to be pissed at something you can't control. I also decided I would rather do a hilly course than have a flat windy one. I discovered today that the old Lincoln Highway between Ames and Nevada has a bike lane. That was sweet. Today I was also very tempted to eat the nats that were stuck to my arm. I could have eaten for 2 days with all of them. Gross. I also got sunburned on my forehead where the vents are in my helmet. So I have 2 red vertical marks there. Great. Good thing my hair will cover it up, hopefully. I did not get burned anywhere else other than my face. That was where I put the most sunscreen. So maybe less is more? Or mostly I just sweated it all off. I also think I have figured out why people in their 60s still feel like they are in their 20s. Because I feel like I am 60 years old today. So when I am 60, I will remember that I felt like this in my 20s and it will be the same :) At the rate I am going, I hope I make to 60. Geez. Thursday morning I ran 45 min the morning and then biked for an hour after work. I went on the trail that heads up to Big Creek. I couldnt remember why I don't like that trail, and then I remembered. Holy Crap, that trail is in horrible shape. I think I had more water on me than I did in my water bottle. I lost the straw and sponge from my aero bottle about 5 times and then I just took it out and held it in my hand. It was so stupid. On the way back I took the road. Never riding that trail ever again. Well, maybe if I had a full suspension mountain bike. People are insane to ride on it. Friday was my day off. Well kind of. I hadn't mowed lawn in 2 weeks now so I figured I would do that last night. hahaha. it sucked. First off, the grass is about a foot tall, second it is really think because I over seeded it this year and third, it was very wet. So my normal 20 min mow turned into a 30 min mow plus another 20 to rake. I never even got the front mowed. Ugh. I was dripping wet so I came in and showered. Took a short nap and then went out for a couple drinks with some friends. So maybe sometime today I can get the rest mowed. I need to hire someone to do my yard work because the weeds are taking over my raspberries and rubarb. Tomorrow I am going to attempt a 1.5 hour run and a short 30 min bike after. Might have to take the mountain bike so I am not sitting on the same place as I was today. Decided I am not going to do much of a taper this week for Hyvee. Probably will take Tuesday night off and Friday and only do a short bike/run Saturday before dropping off my bike. I like the excitement of Hyvee, I had the logistics of it. The mandatory meetings, registration, the expo, bike check in, race morning chip pick up and marking, the parking. It just goes on. I liked Kansas because you could get so much done the day before and get it all done in one swoop because it was all at the race site and I didn't have to drive 30 min across town to get there. The traffic much better too because busy roads were NOT closed. I am going to crash on the couch. I just found a fucking cockroach in my spare bedroom. Holy fuck I am going to burn down my house to get rid of these bugs. The ants have discovered last night where I feed my dog so they were all over his food bowl this morning. I had to spray it to kill them because there was literally a hundred ants on it. So I filled up his water and set it on the floor while I cleaned his stand. When I set his bowl on the floor he looked at me like, you want me to eat off the floor? But I am a God. I said you stuck up little monkey, lol. Just eat. I cleaned up his stand and then put his food and water dish back on it, then he came over and ate. Spoiled rotten. He is now laying spralled all over my bed so I have to sleep on the couch. At least I get the big tv then, lol.

Nutrition Help

2009-06-18T11:58:00.000-05:00

I am still struggling on this 4th disipline of nutrition. I need help. Here is my background of things I have tried. Last year, I trained with a powerade mixture that I mixed. In races I used gels. My HIM last year, I double mixed the powerade in my aero bottle and planned to drink half of it and then fill it up with water and drink the rest, gels to fill out the other calories. Bad idea. By mile 20 I was starting to burp and then around mile 25 I threw up. I could not keep anything down the rest of the bike. Not even water. I would drink it, and then I would burp and it would come right back up. Felt better on the run. Took gels and drank a lot of water. Ended up being pretty dehydrated after the race. This later year, I have been training with gels and water only. Been taking about 2.5 gels an hour and 1-1.5 bottles of water an hour. It has worked really good on my training rides. I did try the Zym tablets you put in your water, but on a training ride I got a really bad stomach ache. Kansas HIM I had water and gels. I had 3 gels before the start of the race with a bottle of water. First 20 of the bike, went through 1 bottle of water and 2 gels. I was taking 1 gel every 25 min. Shortly after mile 20, I felt like I was running out of energy so I took another gel at 20 min. I started burping and then followed that up with my stomach hurting. The "I am on the verge of needing to puke" that is how the whole day my stomach felt. I kept eating a gel every 25 min and drinking 1+ bottle an hour. I felt a little better after I took a gel, but that didn't last real long. On the run I switched over to the gatorade and water only. Drank 1-2 cups of each at each aid station. This got me through, but my stomach never got any better until I stopped running. Then it was fine. I do not think I was dehydrated at all because I peed about 10 times after the race and urine was still pretty clear. I am not sure what is out there that I should try. I like not having a sports drink and just using the gels, but maybe a salt tablet or something. Will that help? My HR on the bike was a little higher than I normally bike at so could that have made a difference. It was at 80% instead of 74% So I slowed the second 20 to get it under 75% thinking that would help, but never felt any better so I just kicked it up again and went. Overall, I never felt low on energy or thirsty. I just wanted to stop eating and drinking. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

How can you afford this?

2009-06-18T08:26:00.000-05:00

Today I realized that Ironman training is expensive, but not for the reason you think. Yes, equipment, race fees and travel are a lot, but the most expensive is the area you don't think about. Food. Holy crap. Just my training nutrition is burning a hole in my pocket. I have gone through 48 gels in the last 3 weeks. I just ordered 48 more. I should have started collecting them in the race on Sunday, then I could have a lot of them right now. lol. Then on top of that, I have to buy regular food. My last resort is what I eat almost every night. Oatmeal. It is cheap and quick to make. I have gone through an entire canister in the last month. It seems like I never have any food at home because once I do buy food, it is gone in 3 days. I need to set up automatic delivery or something because who really has time to go grocery shopping 3 days a week. I have definately seen a huge increase in my food budget these past few months, but more so this last month with the huge increase in training time. I can't imagine how next month will be. August won't be as bad, I hope, because I will be tapering for most of the month. I will have to take some time off of training just so I can save money on food, lol. Maybe I should pick up a second job to cover it, lol. All this talk about food is making me hungry. Darn it.

Kansas 70.3 Race Report

2009-06-15T11:06:00.000-05:00

This morning I am back to normal. I woke up starving and tired. I am surprisingly not that sore. A little stiff in some weird areas. My knees (more specifically my acl area) are stiff and my butt is sore. But those 2 areas make it tough to walk, lol. Well lets get started with the weekend:

Friday:
I spent Friday trying to relax. I got off work and went to the pool for a 20 min swim. Mostly to test my new goggles and my new ear plugs. I decided that I wasn't going to wear the ear plugs yet because I felt like they were going to get knocked out. I sat in the hot tub for awhile trying to loosen up my shoulder so the headache I have been having since Wednesday would go away. Got home and gathered up my gear and tried to get to bed early. Ended up laying on the couch running through all my gear mentally because I was sure I forgot something. Went to bed about 10. Not to bad, but a little later than I wanted.

Saturday:
Got up at 6:30. Had breakfast and packed the car. I was off at 7:45. Dropped my dog off at the kennel and headed for Clinton State Park, just West of Lawrence. Very foggy day. I needed the sun just to get pumped about the race. My stomach was in knots the whole way down. I tried to drink as much as I could all day to stay hydrated. I arrived at the race site at 11:45 and parked. Walked the 1/2 mile to registration/T2 and then walked another 1/2 mile to T1 to check my bike in. It was exciting that we were able to get body marked on Saturday so that was one last thing I had to worry about race morning. The distance between the transition areas changed my race morning strategy. I went to rack my bike by the seat, but it was flopping in the wind so bad I had to rack it by the handle bars which took up 3 spots. Later I was lucky to find out that those 2 people did not show up anyway. After checking in my bike I went up to the first athlete meeting. Waste of time. They didn't talk about anything that I didn't know, but man people had some stupid questions. For example: If we are doing a relay, does the runner have to be there at the start of the race? Really people. How lazy is this runner that they can't be there to cheer on their teammates and everyone else doing the race. If I was the swimmer in that relay, I would leave before their run then :P hahaha. No I wouldn't, they had beer there. :) After the meeting, I headed to Amy's campsite. She is a triathlete I met on iamtri. I will be meeting several more of these people after the 2nd athlete meeting. I stayed at her campsite until about 3:30 and we walked up to the expo area to wait for the pros to be finished up with their meeting. Pros got out, I met Tim Deboom and I got Chrissy Wellington to sign my swim cap. She is amazing. She does not have an ounce of body fat on her. After that race we waited for the 2nd athlete meeting to finish up and met several other folks from iamtri. Most of us went out for dinner. Everyone had such a fun story. It was great to meet all these people that you talk with online and probably will never meet again. There was a small group from Pittsburg all the was to Los Angeles. After the dinner, Amy and I headed to our getto hotel. It really wasn't to bad until you walked into the bathroom. It looked like no one had cleaned in there for years. There was even one of those non slip mats in there. Gross. Can't imagine what the underside of that looked like. The curtain looked brand new though :) Amy and I talked about the race and checked our equipment and hit the hay about 8. Well Amy did, I watched the baseball college world series until about 9 then I went to sleep.

Sunday: Race Day:
Woke at 3:45 am. Immediatly turned on the weather because it was suppose to rain. Great huge storm headed right for us, with a lot of rain following. Ugh. I hurried up to get dressed, covered myself in sunscreen and was out the door at 4:15. I wanted to get to the site and get my stuff all set up before it rained. Transition opened at 4:45. I got to the race parking shortly after 4:30 and walked to T2 to drop off my running stuff. I put my run stuff in a plastic bag because I was not going to start with wet shoes. I threw all the stuff I needed for the swim and bike in my gatorade bag and left the rest of my stuff at T2. Walked down to T1. First thing for me was to get my tires pumped up. I did not bring a pump because you had to be able to fit all your stuff in this gatorade bag or it wasn't going to be brought up to T2 for you and you had to go back down and get it. I was not going to feel like doing that. I got the tires pumped up, set up my area and drank another bottle of water. I sucked down some gels because I kind of felt like eating and I figured I better do that now while I still felt like eating something. I got 3 down before the start of the race which was what I wanted so I was happy with that. I was all ready to go by 6am. I walked around transition checking out people's bikes because I love looking at bikes. I found some of the iamtri folks and talked to them for a bit. At 6:15 I got all body glided up and put on my wetsuit and headed to the swim start to watch the pros off. By this time, My stomach was in knots again, I wanted to throw up and wanted to go back to bed.
Swim: 40:37 Goal: 45 min
My wave was off at 6:50 so I didnt have to long to wait until I went. It was a water start so you had to tread water for about 4 min. Thank god we had wetsuits because I cannot tread water. It was so hard because everyone was kicking their legs all crazy and arms were flailing about. This was before the start of the swim. Gun went off. Holy crap it was crazy and there wasn't that many in my wave (18-29 women) Could not imagine any more people. We took off. I spent the first 300 yards fighting off people and trying to find a good draft. It was good until just before the first turn when the wave behind me started catching me. (men 40-44) They were so violent. I got kicked in the face for the first time ever because of those assholes. I also got raped for the first time too. 4 times to be exact on that swim, holy hell. There would be a group of about 3-4 guys that would just swim right over me. Really? There isn't enough room to go around. Geez. The end of the swim was crazy. It felt like I was in a washing machine. The water was so rough. We ended in between to docks and you walked up the boat ramp. Everyone stopped at the end of the docks. I was like get the hell out of my way. They only had carpet on 1/2 of the dock which was retarded. I looked at my watch 40:45. Awesome! I was way under my goal of 45 min so that gave me some extra adrenaline for the bike. There was no way I was going to beat 6 hours if my swim was to much longer than 45 min. I just felt really smooth and relaxed. I think it was because I was able to catch a draft for a good 1/2 of the swim.
T1: 1:53
My bike was racked at the end by the swim exit so I didn't have far to go. I put my goggles, cap and wetsuit into that tiny ass bag and grabbed my bike. There was so many tiny rocks and crap. It was painful. It was also very crowded and this stupid guy was just walking right down the middle of the aisle. I was like get the fuck out of the way dude. Finally he stopped and I ran past him and out to the mount line. I was surprised that my time wasn't longer. Felt like it took me 5 min to get out of there.
Bike: 2:57:43 (18.9 mph) Goal: 3 hours
I hop on my bike, but one of my shoes flipped upside down so I figured I would just go and spin it back around. Nope. Shoe hit the ground and I about wiped out. Had to stop to get it turned around. Ok, now I am off. I knew I was going to have to hit the bike hard because this was going to have to absorb my transition times and my extra run time to beat 6 hours. The first part of the bike was with the light wind so that helped a little, but not a lot. I felt really great. I hammered the first 20 miles. My HR was about 7 beats higher than I wanted, but I figured it would come down after awhile. This was just because I was so excited to get going. Nope, I had a hard time getting it to come down. By mile 20 my stomach was getting upset. Great. This is what happened to me last year in my HIM. I ended up not being able to keep anything down the last 2 hours of the bike which made it very miserable. This time I slowed down and kept drinking water. I kept eating the gels as planned. I started burping a bit, but it all stayed down, thank god. This year I eliminated any other liquid than water. Everything else gave me an upset stomach. Well upset more than it was. I had a 21 mph ave after the first 20 then it started slipping in the next 20 because I felt like crap. Mile 40 came up and I knew the next 10 miles were almost all downhill so I picked it up again. Mile 50 was half way up the huge hill and I knew there was only 1 more big hill left and 2 short steep hills in the park. I also realized at mile 50 I could still make 3 hours. This pumped me up and I gunned it for home. I quickly looked at my watch. Just under 3 hours, YES!
T2: 1:41
I got off my bike and ran through T2, well for about 10 steps then my calves gave me a hollar. I did not want them to tighten up or I was going to be screwed. I walked a bit, mostly because people were in my way and I was all the way to the other end. I got to my rack, dumped out my stuff. Almost forgot to put my socks on. Geez, that would have been bad. I hate socks. Grapped my visor and belt and was off.
Run: 2:01:01 9:14 pace Goal: 2:15
Oh I felt like I was going to be hurting, but I wasn't. I actually felt really good. Awesome. I wasn't going to push myself at all and just run comfortably because I haven't run more than 6 miles in 3 months. I was also very cautious of any pain that could arise in my foot. Before I knew it I was at the first aid station. I grabbed some water and gatorade. I love those sponges. I was going to make sure I got one of those at every station. The miles actually went by fast because I was thinking about how crappy my stomach felt and what I was going to get at the next aid station. Those came up way to fast because I did not want anything. I always grabbed atleast one water and one gatorade since I was not going to eat any more gels. Just before mile 3/10 (2 lap course) was the only hill. It was steep enough that I wasn't even going to waste my energy trying to run it. The first pass I had to walk backwards up it because my calves tightened up. The run went by so fast. I was able to keep either a 8:45 or a 9:15 pace. I was very surprised at that. I thought, yes, keep this up and you will make your 6 hours. I did not realize how far under 6 hours I could finish until I was at mile 7. I actually felt a goal of 6 hours was going to be a huge task ahead of me for how prepared I felt. Mile 7 also brought 3 girls in my age group to pass me. Grrr... I was not even going to try to keep up with them. There was so much race left. I got to mile 8 and was at 4:55 on my watch. Alright if I can keep a 10 min pace, I can finish in 5:45. Yes how cool would that be. So now at mile 10, I could see 2 of those girls. One had started walking, YES. I can catch her. I just kept at my pace and it slowly ate away at theirs. I passed girl 1 just before mile 11. Girl 2 was about 60 feet in front of me. I got to mile 12 and decided I had enough left to pick up the pace. I went for it. I knew I had to pass her early enough that she would not try to keep up with me and out sprint me at the end. She didn't even try. Ok this is great. At 12.5, I was just about to back off my pace, when another girl in my age group was right in front of me. Awesome, I am going for it. I kept the pace up until the finish. Coming down the shoot I turned around to make sure she wasn't there then jogged it in. Oh my gosh, I was so excited to finish. From the times last year, that would have put me in the top 10 in my age group. Not this year. That got me 23rd. Really. That was sad to find out, but I was so happy with my time. I ended up running a pr in the half marathon with a 2:01:01. That is a 9:14 pace. Wow. That was my pace at the last olympic. I need to learn how to run faster at shorter distances, lol.

Final time: 5:42:55 PR by 43 min!

Summary:
Things I learned:
Do not get your shoes wet. I got water in mine at mile 3 and it was horrible. The bottoms of my feet burned so bad. I don't have any blisters but man they burned. I am sure it is because my feet have 2 inches of thick callusted skin on them from never wearing socks that saved me. I need to work on getting my stomach ready to accept food at the pace I want to go. After all of that, I am dissapointed with my bike time. Well the middle 20. A massage after a race is awesome. Beer after a race tastes very yummy, but water does not. A very cold sponge on a hot day takes your breath away. My wheel hypnotises people. Even though I was starving after the race, I did not want to put food in my mouth which made for a miserable night. Getting kicked in the face hurts. Even though the guy in the wheel chair is flying past you on the downhill in the run, he does not have an advantage over you. He is just awesome. Be sure when you grab a water, you know if there is ice in it or not because you could choke on it. Very dangerous.

Now that this race is over, I will work out my aches in the next couple days and get ready for Hyvee in less than 2 weeks now. Need to get my derailer fixed. It wanted to jump gears a bit. I am also highly considering a massage. Oh yes, a massage. But right now I am burnt and don't want anyone to touch me. They could work on my butt because that is not burnt and that is the place that needs the most work. :)

Pure Awesomeness

2009-06-14T19:17:00.000-05:00

Ironman Kansas 70.3 was awesome. The awesome details to follow in the next couple days because right now, I need to get something to eat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ready!

2009-06-12T07:32:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow I leave for Lawrence, Kansas for Kansas 70.3. I am ready, well after I pack my bags tonight :) I did an hour bike last night and a 20 min run. I felt very loose and relaxed. I hope I don't get tensed up from driving tomorrow. I need to recruit someone to give me a massage Saturday night. I will just cover myself in icyhot. It will be awesome. Goal for this race is time only. I want to PR my HIM. Shooting for under 6 hours. I am hoping the rain holds off, or atleast the storms.

Taking a risk

2009-06-09T08:10:00.000-05:00

My worst fear has come back to haunt me. My foot is showing signs that it wants to develop yet another stress fracture. AUGH. The tendons in my foot are tired and sore, which is exactly how my foot felt before. I ran last Thursday for 3 miles and it was really starting to get bad so I stopped. I haven't run since then until this morning. I ran about 4 min. Yes, that is 4 mins. The pain is not there, but that feeling before the pain comes was. I am very nervous now about Sunday that I will really mess it up. Only Planning a very short run Thursday just to get my legs ready. Probably will only be about 5 min. Just enough to get a sweat started so I can stretch out really good. Did a 30 min swim last night. The pain I have had in my arm is finally gone so last nights swim was nice. I am not sure what is causing that pain. I thought it was from swimming so I did a shorter than planned swim to see how I would feel today and there is no signs of stiffness. My arm still gets tired when I swim and that is just because I am not use to swimming with a "better" form. Taking the bike out Thursday night for a final equipment check and then packing everything. I need to get to the LBS to get a new tire. Yes, a tire. I was changing the tire I had on my 808 to my disc so I had the same tires on the wheels I am going to race on Sunday and put the other one on my 808. Got it on the wheel and started pumping it up. What is that noise? Yes, there was a hole about an 1/8" long and 1/16" wide. Not a small hole. So that tire is shot and need to get a new one. I am also going to pick up another pair of Tyr Nest Pro goggles. I love these goggles. Other than that I am taking it pretty easy this week. It has been nice. I could get use to this, which is a big problem since I need to push these last 11 weeks. Well, I could take a nap right now. The 11 hours of sleep last night apparently weren't enough. Geez. lol.

Week 25

2009-06-05T07:53:00.001-05:00

Well...It has been a long, short week. The week went fast as each day I now have packed full of fun and exciting activities. Mostly, I just look forward to that day I can wake up at any time I want, not have to workout, and not have to even think of working out. September will be here soon, lol. The days seem short when I am trying to get stuff done, but the day ends up being long because I am exhausted by mid day and still have to finish the day. Workouts this week: Monday, I got in a 45 min swim. Tuesday I was on the trainer for 1:30 after I ran in the morning for 45 min. Wednesday I was feeling the effects of the 3 hour bike on Saturday and race on Sunday so I didn't do any "official" training, but did play softball that evening. Thursday, I swam at Raccoon Park for 20 min and then ran for 30. I planned to do an hour, but my feet are bothering me again. This is really starting to get me down. I am going to take it easy now that I have started my taper except for this Saturday's long bike. I might do a 30 min run after if my feet are feeling better. I don't want to push them being I have to run 13.1 miles in a little over a week. The pain in my foot is not in the same place the stress fracture was, but it is very similar pain to that leading up to the fracture. I am hoping it is just the tendons in my foot are a little tired and nothing more. Good thing it is a taper week and I don't have to really do much of anything. Maybe I can wash the 5 mile high pile of clothes in my closet. I have not washed clothes in 5 weeks. Good thing I have an unlimited supply of underwear :) Tonight is a day off. Tomorrow I am heading out with Tribeaner for a 3:45 ride and a 30 min run. Should be a nice workout. It will be really nice to ride some place other than my normal rides. It gets boring riding in the same place over and over. It is also tough to find roads that are not super busy too. Sunday I probably won't workout. I have some things in the yard I need to work on so that will be a nice easy day. I am sure it will rain all day so I will sleep most of it.

Bluff Creek Triathlon Analysis

2009-06-01T16:29:00.000-05:00

Now the fun part. Official results are finally up. My line: Swim :33:23, T1 0:45, Bike 1:30:53, T2 0:26, Run 55:07, Total 3:00:35

Actual swim time was ~32:00. There was a 400 yard "jog" to transition, that hurt the time. T1 awesome. Going to brag a bit, both of my transition times were the fastest for all female olympic. That is where my edge is. To bad there isn't more of those, lol. Bike :P that sucked, 18.3 mph but the fastest bike time was 1:18 which was my original goal of 21 mph. Looks like everyone hurt on the bike. I was averaging over 23 mph (wind helps) until the first hill at mile 7, then it all went downhill from there, wait, uphill. Up a big f*cking hill. We should have done the bike course backwards, then we would have had awesome splits because it would have been with the wind. T2, smoked it. Run, this has been changed from the "original" results. Swim got a little faster and this got a little slower. I would have been happier with the slower swim :) 8:53/mile average. Better than I thought I would do, but right where I was hoping it would be for this race. So if I drop off 15 min from the bike and 5 from the swim, I will be at 2:40, my goal time for Hyvee. Seems more doable now than it did 3 days ago. Ok, so I am done obsessing with Bluff Creek now, time to focus on Kansas.

Bluff Creek Triathlon Results

2009-06-01T07:47:00.001-05:00

This last weekend I raced in the Bluff Creek Tri. From the get go, I was not in the race mentally, which resulted in a very tough day. Sunday morning I woke at 6am to walk the dog and grab some breakfast. I loaded up the car and headed for Ogden. I arrived at 730 to find pretty much everyone already there. I got my race packet and rack my bike. I got stuck by a person that this had to be their first race because who brings a bag big enough you could carry your bike in, really. So he had about 5 feet or space for just his transition stuff so you think that finding a place for his bike would be easy (forshadowing for later) I squeeze in my bike. I only have my running shoes to layout so I just set them in front of my bike and my bag in the back after I pushed the other guys bag over. Race time. We had to take a shuttle 2 miles to the beach for the start. We get there and I am still not nervous. This is how I know I was not mentally ready. I never really got nervous. My stomach is usually in knots and I don't want to eat anything, but I was actually hungry. There wasn't very many women in the olympic race which lead to a small wave. I had a good shot up front, but was reluctant to be confident with it feeling as if I wasn't ready. Normally I would have been all about it. We take off and I quickly find a girl to draft off of, but after the 2nd buoy, she was out in never never land. So now I have to swim by myself. Still hoping someone will pass me. Sure enough, after the 3rd buoy, another girl passes me. I try to jump in behind her, but I was having a hell of a time finding her line so by the time I got in line, she was to far ahead of me to draft off her and I lost her. Now my toes are frozen and I just wanted to be done. Swim: ~32 min. We had a good 400 yard run to the transition. Took about 3 min to run it. I strip off the wetsuit and I am off on the bike. I had practiced getting my shoes on on the bike, but I never practiced with wet fee so I had a hell of a time getting my shoes on. The bike was miserable for me. The road was crappy and it felt like 80% of it was into the 12 mph wind. There was really only 3 big hills. The 2nd one wiped me out big time. ~1:30. We got in on the run and I get to my rack to find there is no room for my bike. The dude next to me had his bike in my spot. Awesome. I kind of throw my bike on his and take off. I was lucky the guy on the other side of me was standing there so he must have re racked my bike because it was actually on the rack when I finished. Thanks dude. I mentioned later to the guy that you have to put your bike back in your spot and he said that there was someone else that took his spot. With 5 feet of transition area, there should be room for you. Your bike doesn't need a 2 feet space between the next bike. I take off on the run completely exhausted, but my body doesn't feel to bad. Just no energy. I was hungry and thirsty. I ran out of water on the bike. I had 2 bottles which should have been enough, but it was not. I reach the first water station and down 2 cups. They only had a swallow in them. I should have grabbed another, but I kept on. The next water station I was like I need 3 gatorades. These were 3/4 full so I really only needed 2 but took all three and downed them. Ahhhhh...much better. I was getting some energy back so I grabbed usually 2 gatorade at each of the other stations. I actually was very very happy and surprised with my run time. ~55 min. For only getting one 5 mile run in training the last 2 months, I was happy. I finished somewhere around 3 hours to finish 2nd in my age group. It was a tough day for me. I think it was the 3 hour bike from Saturday that kind of wiped me out, but that was ok. This was mental test today. I am not sore today so I know I was ready physically for the race. The bike was just brutal for me.
Lessons for the day:
-Swimming in 67 degree water for 30 min gives you numb feet
-Running with numb feet is not easy
-Getting your bike shoes on with cold wet feet is hard.
-Do not open a gel until you are ready to take it. If not, it results in your hands, arms, and aero/handle bars being covered in gel that you have to attempt to lick off because you need the calories. It is very difficult to clean off after sitting in the sun for 4 hours.
-When hills have names, they are going to be harder than hard. One guy in front of me got off and walked his bike up the hill.
-If the county is going to close a road for road work, there is a reason. Maybe check out the shape of the road before the race.
-Running on an uneven dirt road is hard.
And finally
-Athletes do not want to drink diet pop after a race. Give us something with sugar and calories!

Overall it was a good weekend. I am still waiting for the results to be posted so I know my actual times and splits. Today I am heading to the pool to see if I can get an hour swim in. Might be mostly sitting in the hot tub. :) That will be good too then I can work on my mental preparation for Kansas in 2 weeks!!!!

How do you know?

2009-05-29T13:18:00.000-05:00

Ok. So this is something that has kind of bothered me. Not really, but it did happen again today. On my Register blog, people comment about what I should be doing and what I shouldn't be doing. Sometimes it is common sense things that, yes you can answer correctly, but when I say what my workouts are, how does anyone but myself know if it is going to be good or bad for me? Example: this weekend I am planning a 3 hour bike saturday with a short run and then Bluff Creek Tri sunday (oly). Comment was to only do a spin on Saturday because those 2 back to back will take its toll on my body. Yes, yes it will, but that is exactly what I want it to do. After this weekend I start my taper for Kansas so this week is my final build and my schedule calls for a 3:30 bike, 50 run, 30 swim sat and a 2:10 run and 50 bike sunday. My original plan was to do dam to dam sat and bluff creek sunday. Since I can't run Dam to Dam or 2:10 for that matter, I am changing it to a bike. And why not? I am also not going out to do Bluff Creek other than to make sure I get my ass in gear and do something on Sunday versus sitting on my ass all day. I hope that I am super sore on Monday and that I got in 2 quality workouts because for the next 2 weeks, I won't hardly be doing anything. So...why would you want to make a comment about someone else's training plan when you don't know anything other than the workouts? It would be like someone saying "I am running an ultramarathon tomorrow" and me answering well I think you should take it easy, that will be hard on your body. Hahaha. Ok enough about that. So I am planning on making this a tough weekend and I am ready for it. I am SO ready for it. Tuesday night I went swimming with a couple fellow tri bloggers. It was really nice to finally meet them in person. Swimming in the rain is just as fun as running in the rain. I just wish it was a little warmer. It was nice because no one else was around so when I strip down in the parking lot, I don't have to worry about to many people seeing my ass. :) Wednesday I was back in the pool for 30 min because that was all I could swim. My shoulder is still getting this sore feeling, but it goes away within a couple hours after I stop so I am slowly pushing my time. I am hoping that it just needs to get strengtened up again since I haven't really swam in 4 weeks. Stupid injuries. I subed for a softball team Wednesday night which wore me out big time. It was because I got on base everytime, but this league is different. All 10 batters hit every inning. The 10th batter hits it and the outfield has to get it home before the runner does. I bat 9th so when I get on base, the next move is to sprint for home as fast as I can...every inning. This can wear a person out. Plus the game is 30 min longer than a normal game. It was also very cold. It was good though to do some sprints. My legs are finally getting use to wearing cleats again. Only a tiny bit sore today. Some stretching tonight should elimate that. Thursday I did a 1.5 hour bike. I felt horribly slow. My legs were tired and I just couldn't get going. Then I played my final spring softball league game. We won and came home with the League Championship. It was awesome. So I will be wearing that t-shirt around for the next week :) Today is my off day. I didn't think that I had that much to do this weekend, but I really do. I didn't mow lawn last week so it is like a hay field right now in my yard and I am almost out of underwear. If you knew me, you would be very surprised at this since I have about 100 pair of underwear. Yes, it has been a long time since I washed clothes. The hamper was full 3 weeks ago and now the entire bottom of my closet is covered. It wouldn't be to bad if it was just work clothes, but I have been to Big Creek 3 times and sailorville once and those clothes are in there. I don't even want to think about it. Despite the "advice" of not doing the 3 hour bike saturday, I am doing a 3 hour bike Saturday. Going to try to get up early to watch my friends run the Dam to Dam since it goes right by my house and then I will take off on the bike. I will come home and get my stuff ready for Sunday, do a few practice transitions and then I will see how much energy I have left. Might hold off and mow lawn on Sunday. Like I am sure that will happen. It will probably be another week before I do it, lol. My neighbors are probably wondering what happened to me because I have never let my lawn go this long without mowing. Oh, so many things to do, but I love it. I love getting out, working out, playing softball, watching softball and just being out of the house. My dog hates me, but what can ya do. College world series softball tourny is in action this weekend. I see Washington went on, but Missouri got beat. I really wanted to them to win because of the Big 12, but also because Arizona St. needs to lose. Seems like it is the same teams every year that end up in the finals. Also I have a ticket to the Principal Charity Classic. Probably have to go by myself since no one else has tickets. Not really sure what I am suppose to do there so I might not be there very long unless I find the beer tent early :) Ok well good luck Dam runners and see you on the Beach Bluff Creek racers.

Race time...to early

2009-05-26T08:34:00.001-05:00

I woke up this morning to some light rain on the window and thinking, this would be a nice day to not do anything until I realized it was Tuesday and my first race is in 5 days! Augh. I am not ready. Ok, so most people say that before their first race, but I really am not ready. As of now I am going to just wing it. I haven't been in the pool for 2 weeks now, but I have been in the lake several times, lol. The swim I am not to worried about because I don't really try at that anyway. I basically just get in, go, and try to avoid all havoc. After the race, I always think, why didn't you swim faster? but that is the extent of that. The bike I am feel very confident with except I am nervous about my wheel set choice. Basically because I haven't had much chance to ride both my 808 front and disc wheel combo in any windy conditions. I am hoping it isnt windy. The run I am very very very nervous about. I ran yesterday and felt like complete crap. That could have been from the 3 days of drinking, being very dehydrated and lack of sleep. I just felt very stiff, achy and anxious. I am trying to not think of the race this weekend because I can't really do anything to benefit my situation this week other than maybe some extra time in the pool to work on my stroke, but that is about it. I got all of my gear out and it is now in a big pile on my floor. I need to get it organized and work through my transitions. I don't think I have been this nervous for a race ever. All of my other first season races were sprints. If this was a sprint, I would not worry at all. It is the extra 3 mile run at the end that I am dreading. I am thankful that I have raced at this venue before so I know the terrain and I know it is flat so that helps. I need to get organized. My brain is jumping from one thing to another. Focus.
Other workouts for the weekend: Friday - nothing. Slept. Saturday I got up "early" and headed out on the bike. Was going to do 4 hours. I headed north of town, up through Ankeny, Slater and then to Huxley. I have never gone through Slater before. I was pleasantly surprised to find a bike lane heading north out of Slater. As I headed north out of slater, the wind suddenly shifted from a nice 5mph wind out of the southwest to a 15mph wind out of the Northeast. This made it tough going. I got half way between Huxley and Slater when the bike lane ended and the road turned to complete shit. Bumb after bumb after hole. It was so miserable. I got to 1:45 and decided to turn back. That would still be a 3:30 bike. I turned back. With the wind pushing me back, I was moving at a pretty good clip. The bumbs were horrible. It was like riding across the road rumple strips. I thought my arms were going to fall off. I made it home for a total of 3:08 ride. I was booking on the way back. It was awesome. I quickly transitioned to a short 10 min run. My legs hurt, I was very stiff. I got home and stretched. Finally my legs were feeling better from wed and thurs. Spent all day Sunday on the boat, which was so much fun. Monday I slept most of the morning and then watched a movie. Went back to bed and got up and decided I really needed to run. Went for a 45 min run. Longest one yet. I felt good after about 2 miles. I was so dehydrated. It was kind of rainy and I think my skin sucked all of that up. I got home and forced myself to down a couple glasses of water. Today I am working on rehydrating. I was going to go up to Big Creek for a swim, but I think it is going to be rainy so I might pass and stay home and do a bike on the trainer. I also have a 30 min run to do either before the swim or after the bike. I will see how hard it is raining after work. The rest of this week I am unsure of what workouts I am going to do. I need to get out of my head that I need to do good on Sunday and just train through it, but that is hard for me to do. I need to focus on Kansas in 3 weeks and get myself prepared for that distance. After that is Hyvee which I am unsure of right now of what my strategy will be for that race. After Sunday I will have a better idea. I need to get going following my training plan. I am starting to fall behind on the time. I almost feel like I am starting all over again. I am going to try to get another 45 min run in Thursday and a short one Saturday. Other than that, probably a 3+ hour bike saturday. Going to try to get up early to watch my friends run past my house Saturday for the Dam to Dam and then I will take off on the bike. Friday I will take off for sure because that is my prerace workout plan. Friday off with workouts on Saturday to get everthing loosened up and one last equipment test. Sunday will be nice that is starts at 9, but I don't really want to still be racing at noon. Chance of rain on Sunday which will suck. I will be miserable in the race and then I have to be in the rain on top of that. I like training in the rain, but not racing. It should be a good week if I don't drive myself crazy worrying about this race. Atleast up until Thurday I will be thinking of softball. Last game for the season champion title. Go Where my pitches at? !!!!!!

Totally not triathlon related

2009-05-22T09:29:00.000-05:00

Today I am tired and only slightly hung over. Much better than I was earlier this week. I am definitely excited that it is Friday. Last night I had a softball game. We are now 5-0. We had a great night last night. I even had a home run so I got to work on my endurance running, sprinting skills. My quads and hip flexors are sore along with the rest of my body. I feel old. Somedays I don't think I will make it to 30. Ugh. This weekend is going to be awesome. I am going to try to get in a 4 hour bike tomorrow and then Sunday will be hanging out on the boat for my bf's birthday. I am excited.

Not just me

2009-05-20T13:46:00.000-05:00

Over the last 2 months, injuries have taken its toll on my body physically and mentally. As I have started to finally return to my training, I was pleasantly surprised to see this morning a new blog by my favorite triathlete, Chrissie Wellington. It has been a long time since her last blog. Title: learning the lessons. I figured it was going to be something about a tiny goof she made on the bike or something like, I was 2 seconds late for taking a drink. I mean really, Chrissie is awesome! Boy was I wrong. This one hit home hard with me. She was talking about our expectations for ourselves, in training, racing and in life, but what happens when those expectations are not met? Have we "failed" ourselves. Her blog was about how do you cope with not reaching your goals. I stopped reading right there and thought to myself, how do I cope with not reaching my goals? Holy crap, I don't know! I sat and pondered at this for hours. Why do I not know this? I do something, but what is it? Then it hit me. I do nothing. I don't look back at the events leading up to the event, during the event and how to improve on those items. When I "fail", I do not want to admit I failed. This is something I have struggled with all my life, admitting when I am wrong. Why is that so hard to do? Does it make me a weaker person? No, everyone makes mistakes, but it is how you learn from those mistakes. This is what I need to work on. The rest of this morning I was going over the last 2 months in my head and what did I do that caused these injuries? How do I learn from these? It really all came down to a lot of basic things that when you become "comfortable" with a sport, you don't think about anymore. When Chrissie did not have her A race, she looked back at why she did it in the first place. I had to look back and ask myself the same question. Why AM I doing this? I'm not out training to win races, but to give myself a healthier lifestyle. I should not be beating myself up over not being able to run 7 min/miles, but just be happy that I CAN be out running. Triathlons are so much fun for me. Granted, it helps to do really well, but it isn't the end of the world if I dnf.
On a much lighter note, I received my new wetsuit yesterday. Awesome. It fits perfect. It definitely fits a lot different than the men's. The neck is a lot tighter than I am use to so I hope I don't freak out in the water because of it. I also need to work on getting out of it. When it fits like it is suppose to, it is a lot harder to get off your second skin.

Back moving again

2009-05-18T08:50:00.001-05:00

It has been a long week of sitting on my @ss not doing a darn thing. My last "workout" was my bike to work on Tuesday. I did play softball on Thursday night which just about killed me. The muscles in my hip and lower back got so tight. At the beginning of the game I could not move quick at all, but by the end, I was making some sort of effort to move. I ended up just going to the bar after and drinking. I think that helped because by the end of the night, it felt much better :) Friday, I did not do anything. I mean absolutely anything. I slept, slept some more, went to the chiropractor, and then slept. It was great. Saturday: Slept until noon. Got up and got moving. This loosened my back up enough and so I attempted to mow lawn. Accomplished. The starting of the mower was the toughest, but good thing I just put in new spark plugs so it only took 2 pulls. Didn't do much of anything else the rest of the day. I went for a ride around the block on my bike to see if I could go out on Sunday. It felt good. I stretched out my back and hips as much as I could. That seemed to help because when I got up Sunday morning, it felt pretty good. I was going to attempt to run. I grabbed the dog and headed out for a 20 min run, 2 min walk, 10 min run. I felt great as long as I kept perfect form. Soon as I started twisting or leaning a little bit, my back reminded me to stand back up. I was running very easy and relaxed, but little did I know I was running at an 8 min/mile. Awesome. Maybe I need to hurt my back more often so I stay relaxed. My last 10 min run ended mid hill so I was going to finish the hill and jog slow to get my heart rate back down. Ended up running for 13 min and then finished with a 5 min walk. Got home and stretched. I think I am going to add a bike in also. I went to the store/mall first because I knew if I did the bike first I would not make it there. It was also still chilly and kind of rainy. It was suppose to clear up so I figured when I got back I would go. Waiting, Waiting, Waiting. Still cold and rainy. Before I knew it, it was 5. Crap. I better get going. I ventured out. Was planning on only going for 30 min, but felt so good to get out, it ended up being an hour bike, with a little messing around in the park with my transitions. I feel pretty confident on my ability to get my shoes on and off on the bike. Tonight I am getting in the pool and then doing another short run. A solid 25 min run. I am excited to start building up that time. I only have 2 weeks before my first race to get my run distance up so my foot is ready to go. All in all I feel good today and just hope this keeps progressing in favor of me and not more pain.

All I can do is laugh, but even that hurts

2009-05-13T10:52:00.001-05:00

I found out this morning that I sprained my back. hahahahahaha. Oh my gosh that kind of hurt. And apparently this is more serious than it sounds and feels. Yesterday morning I was watering some grass I planted and was pulling the hose to the back and kind of twisted weird. It didn't really bother me at the time, but as the day went on, it got worse. By the end of the day I could barely stand. I biked to work yesterday and thank goodness that didn't bother it. I got home, showered and iced my back. It got a lot better, but this morning it still bothers me to walk and sit at work. I went to the chiropractor thinking I just needed to be adjusted, but nope. Darn, I was hoping for a quick fix. He told me to not do anything for a couple days because I could end up tearing the ligament and really f*cking it up. So no running, lifting, but I can walk. YEAH. Guess I better practice walking fast since that will be what I will be doing a lot of this year. I think I am still going to try to go to the pool tonight just because I haven't been there in a week and then come home and see how it feels to sit on the trainer. I also had him look at my thumb because that is not even close to being better. He actually said that my thumb was the most severe injury I have right now. I laughed and said that is good since I don't really need it anyway to race. He also did some work on my shoulder and stretched it. He said bruising will be normal. Hahahaha. I will have to take a week off to just recover from the deep tissue work, lol. My shoulder really wasn't sore where he pushed, it was more in my bicep and pectoralis major. So now I am starting to really stress out about this whole running thing. If I have to take another week off to heal my back, that only leaves me with 4 weeks of running before my first race. I am not even to running for 25 min straight yet. Ugh. I managed to sell my old wetsuit last night. I was sad to see it go, but glad to see it go to a good friend. I got on the Internet and purchased my new one. Same suit, just the new women's version and a much smaller size. Hoping that the cut on this one will not have such a long torso and cut in a more at the waist. I also got my box of gels last night. I love it when I forget I bought something and then you come home and there is a package waiting for you on the stairs. It is like Christmas. Tonight I am going to sit down and make a list of all the things I need to do before my first race. I am also going to have to sit down and figure out my running schedule again. My 5 hour bike ride this weekend might not happen either. My lower back, same area on the right gets wore out and I am sure that is why I am injured where I am is because that muscle was weak. I also got a few exercises to work on my back and core. I just get to sit on a physio ball and bounce. That sounds fun and I can do it before my back gets better. This is why I am not going to a regular doctor from now on when I get injured. They just tell me to ice it and come back later. Even the little bit of work my chiro did on my thumb has made it so much better and I have exercises for that too. I am so sick of being injured. If I didn't have 3 races coming up next month, I would take 3 weeks off completely. Well I guess now if something kind of bothers me, I will have to be extra careful with it because it is telling me it is weak and it needs to rest. So until next time, I will keep on laughing because that is what will get me through!

Wetsuit For Sale

2009-05-12T09:11:00.000-05:00

I am selling my wetsuit because when you lose weight, it no longer fits and I dont think drying it will shrink it. I bought it February of '08 and wore it for 5 races and 1 open water swim last year. It is a Neo Sport 5/3mm Sprint John. Size Small. I was 170, 5'3" when I bought it. If you are up to 5'9", it would probably be more ideal for you as the legs are almost to my ankles. It is a 3/4 length (midcalf) sleevless. Stitched and glued seams with an easy pull cord that has a velcro to hold it during the swim. I am buying the same suit, just smaller, so I would highly recommend for an inexpensive wetsuit. Asking $70 for it, but will accept offers.

Swimming, back on...

2009-05-11T08:26:00.001-05:00

I am going to hit the pool tonight. No pain in shoulder as of yesterday morning. Hoping it stays away and I won't have to worry about it. I hate being injured. It is the worst feeling in the world when you are trying to train for an event that is really important to you. Today I need to work on getting rehydrated. I went a little overboard on Saturday night, but that happens when you are having a great time. I got my bike cleaned up yesterday. It was not near as disgusting as I thought it was, but it was still pretty bad. Now it is all shiny and ready to go it for its check up. I am hoping to get it back by tomorrow night so I can get out and bike otherwise I will have to take out the mountain bike. I did work on that yesterday too. Didn't clean it (it needs it bad too), but got it in a rideable condition. I am going to have to take it in to get it back at 100%. Maybe this winter when they aren't as busy and I have more time. Saturday's 5 hour bike ride turned into a 3 hour ride on the trainer. I was very impressed with myself for getting up out of bed Saturday morning. It is mostly because I slept for 12 hours Friday night. I was out of bed at 6:30, walked the dog, and threw my gear in the car. The plan was to start in Ankeny and head North. I got one block and turned back. It was a popcicle already. I do not have the gear to ride in 40 degree weather. I went home and got on the trainer. It was a struggle mentally to get through it. I am on my last cycle of building before my 2 week taper to Kansas. I am starting to get more stressed out about the whole running thing because on Friday my foot is starting to feel pressure in the area of the fracture. I am not sure if it is in my head or if there is something going on. I am hoping it is just a little "tired" from wearing sandles all day at a job site. It doesn't bother me when I have my tennis shoes on. I did not try to run this weekend, but will tonight. If there is any pain, I am off it again until my races. I might have to forgoe Bluff Creek, which is super dissapointing, but might be necessary. I am hoping these final weeks to race time go smooth. I probably will take the week before Bluff Creek to fine tune my transitions and nutrition. I am hoping to get in atleast one open water swim before Bluff Creek. Does anyone know the temp of Blue Heron Lake at Raccoon River Park?

Little over 3 weeks = Race time!

2009-05-08T08:59:00.000-05:00

I just realized that my first race is in 3 weeks and 2 days. I have been concentrating so hard about Kansas, IMKY and Hyvee that I forgot about Bluff Creek. I totally don't feel like I am ready. I have so much that I need to practice and fine tune before the race. I am leaving my shoes clipped in the bike this year and I need to work on getting them on outside on the move. I have actually some what mastered the "flying squirrel" technique. It isn't as crazy as one may think. Atleast the way I do it. I was also looking at the start list and my age group is going to be fierce. Out of the 5 other people registered, 2 will for sure kick my butt, 2 are slightly faster, and 1 is unknown. It is going to be a tough day, but good thing they will be out of the water before me so I won't have to stress about them catching me, but I can focus my energy on catching them. I kind of want to throw up right now thinking about the race. The hangover could be contributing to this. I did have a great run last night. I was pulling out 7:30 min miles. Not sure if the pain in my legs is from that or from softball last night. We only played 5 innings, well 4.5 because we 10 runned them and we were the home team. 3-0 baby! I have also been recruited to playing the rest of the season which I am excited about because I have a blast playing. My hitting is still pretty rusty, but I was able to hit is pretty close to where I wanted. Few more games.

Back to 100%, Now down to 66.6%

2009-05-07T09:18:00.000-05:00

I finally felt 100% in my workouts last night. I felt strong and had a great time doing them. I went swimming because I thought my shoulder was better, but it is not so I actually stopped after only 25 min. My subscapularis is the culprit. I am now out of swimming for an unknown period of time. I have also decided that this is my last injury. No more and it better be healed by May 17th. That gives it a little over a week. So for now, I am back down to 66.6 repeating % :) Some people out there are laughing at my exact percentage. My bike workout was inside on the trainer. I got home from the pool and was going to head out, but right as I was going to leave it started sprinkling. I looked at the radar and it was going to be over soon, but decided to throw the bike on the trainer so I could get a longer bike in than I would have been able to if I was outside. It actually worked out better. I was able to make supper and watch the movie I have had for almost 2 weeks now. I biked for 1:40. I had a 20 min warm up, with 2x3:00 ILT with 30 sec recovery. My main set was 3 x 17:30 (#1 70-75%, #2 75%, #3 80-85%) with 3:30 recovery. I was really surprised at myself that I was able to hold #3 for the entire time at that rate. Earlier in the season, I would have crapped out and had to drop my heart rate after 3-5 min. I finished it off with a 10 min cool down. It was a great ride. My supper was ready when I finished and the movie was 1:40 so it all worked out perfect. I ate, showered and then crashed early. But the best thing was waking up this morning feeling refreshed and excited to start the day. I am back!

Great Night!

2009-05-06T08:25:00.001-05:00

Last night my intention was to get out on the bike for 1:20-1:40 and then run after. This did not happen, but what did happen was so much better. My bf came over and helped repair a broken window at my house. When I say help, I mean, he did all the work while I stood and watched :) It was weird to actually have someone help me since I have always had to do it myself or hire someone. It was super sweet of him and I am so thankful for his help. He had to take off for a softball game while I was left to finish the glazing. This took me longer than I had expected, mostly because I didn't want to do it. By the time I finished, got everything cleaned up and changed, it was 7:30. Decision: bike or run? I was not going to get both in before dark and before I needed to eat by 8:30 so the decision was easy...run. I grabbed the dog and we took off. 2 min walk, 8 min run x 3. I ran on a familiar route so I new the mileage. I was able to maintain an 8 min pace, which I was super surprised at, but at the end of each mile, my heart rate was very high. I was able to get in 3 miles total in 24 min, but without the 2 min walks, I don't think I could have maintained that pace for the entire 3 miles. My body remembers how to go fast and really wanted to go, but my lungs were saying NO, very loud and clear. Tonight I am heading to the pool. My shoulder feels better today. When I was stretching last night, I didnt get that normal achy feeling I was getting last week. Hopefully when I get out of the pool it won't be raining so I can get outside on the bike for a ride. Today I finally feel like my body is back to "normal". The last 2 weeks, I could tell that something just wasn't right. I didn't want to eat, I was low in energy from not eating and tired, very tired. I lost 5 pounds in those weeks, which is not good. I probably would have lost more if I had actually finished all of my workouts so it is probably a good thing I couldn't finish all of them. Yesterday, my appetite finally came back, I pigged out and today I feel so much better. I woke up this morning and finally felt refreshed and ready to start the day. I almost thought about working out this morning, then I slapped myself in the face and came back to my senses. Next week is bike to work week. I signed up again this year, but really not wanting to do it yet. I do like doing it because it is an extra 40 min of biking I can get in rather than driving. I don't like having gross hair all day though. I do need to "fix" my mountain bike yet from the last time I was on the trails. I just need to adjust the derailer and brakes. Nothing important :) That is why there is 2 of each right? lol. I am also playing softball again this Thursday, which I am super excited about. I guess taking those few years off after getting burnt out on it really helped spark interest again. Well, speaking of normal, I am going to get something to eat, I am hungry...

Des Moines Register Blog

2009-05-05T16:41:00.000-05:00

www.desmoinesregister.com/triathlon
Location of my blog for the register.
Scroll down to bottom of page

Shoulder, listen here...

2009-05-05T08:05:00.000-05:00

My shoulder still hurts today. I think I am just going to smash it into the wall to give it a reason to hurt. Such a stupid, annoying pain. Other than that, today looks like it is going to be an awesome day. I am getting the disc wheel out tonight to practice riding it in the wind. I am trying to get myself motivated to make my first blog on my Des Moines Register blog. Actually trying to narrow it down to a few topics because I will ramble on about everything tri and completly lose everyone in it. Just a short update today. Little tired this morning.

Good progress

2009-05-04T08:01:00.000-05:00

Saturday - 76 miles in 4:20 = 17.6 miles per hour. Not very happy with that. I am very happy about getting in the 76 miles, but was hoping to get in 80 or at the very least average 19 miles per hour. I rode this on the bondurant to Baxter trail. It is 40 miles round trip. I made the first out and back in 2:15. I stopped back at my car half way to refill water bottles and grap some more gels and then I was off again. I went to mile 18 and then turned back. I stopped to stretch because my hip flexor was bothering me and my neck could use the break. The trail is relatively flat. Slightly down hill on the way out and slightly uphill on the way back. Plus that was into the wind. When I started, there was only a 5 mile per hour wind. By the time I was on my second lap, it was up to 12+. No wonder I had a hard time coming back. I thought it was because I was exhausted. Overall I felt really good. My back, neck and saddle region was all that bothered me, other than my already sore hip flexor. I am confident I can do the 112 miles on the bike now. I was hoping my time for this would be faster because it was flat and very little wind. Since Louisville is way hillier and probably will be windier, probably looking at only 15 mph average for the bike. That is 7.5 hours, which is under the 8 hour time mark so I will be happy with that. I was suppose to run on Sunday, but drank a little to much Saturday so I forced myself to get up and out of bed this morning and did the run today. How do people work out in the morning? If my dog wasn't pulling me along, I don't think I would have moved. Tonight I have a swim and a bike. I think I am going to get the disc wheel out tonight since it is suppose to be a little windier so I can try it out in windier conditions. Debating about putting the 808 on the front. That makes me nervous. I feel like this post is just rambling on and not making any sense today so I am going to stop. I need to go back to bed.

Big weekend

2009-05-01T12:46:00.001-05:00

Finally a nice weekend. Well, Much better than it has been. I have a list of things that need to be done at my house since my dog decided he was going to destroy it. The list includes replacing glass in a window, replacing door and floor trim, and washing the blood off the curtains. Workouts: Tonight 1:30 bike - intense (if I have the energy). Tomorrow: 4.5 hour bike. Sunday: 1:15 Bike followed by a "21" min run (3 sets of 7 min with 3 min walk inbetween). I had a great swim on Wednesday and a short bike after. This week I have been feeling so wore down. I don't know if I am sick in some sort of way, but I have not felt like eating. I get hungry, but the thought of actually eating something makes me want to throw up. I have been trying to drink as much water as I can, but even that I am not thrilled about wanting to do. Last night I passed on my swim workout because I think I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder from Monday's swim. It was bothering me at work so I decided to give it a break. It was only a 30 min swim anyway. So I did a 30 min bike followed by a "15" min run (3 sets of 5 min with 5 min walk in between). I also decided to sub for a slow pitch softball team this year and last night was my first game. I had so much fun. I can't wait to get into it full time again. Today my shoulder is feeling much better. I think I just need to give it a little time for the pain to go away. Monday I will be back swimming again. Last night when I was running, my body wanted to go, but my heart rate was not having it. I was running at what I thought was a comfortable pace. My body was relaxed and I felt really good until I looked at my watch: 168. Holy cow, I need to bring that down. 161 is my 75% mark. Usually I run at 155-158. I have lost so much cardiovascular endurance but not muscle memory. cardio needs to get with the program here :) I still havent run any place yet where I know the mileage so I dont know my pace right now. You cant really tell your pace for a 5 min run anyway. In about 2 weeks I have my first "straight" run. 25 min, so I will be able to check out my pace then. It is probably good that it is a ways away so I can get some endurance back first. I also have my blog set up on the register. I will post a link on here when they have officially launched them. I am planning on gearing that more towards my thoughts and training for the Hyvee and keeping this blog for my Ironman training. I will have several different feelings and thoughts for each, especially when Hyvee nears. That will be my focus then, after Kansas and after Bluff Creek. So for 2 weeks, Hyvee will be my focus, lol. After that I am still debating about signing up for Big Creek. I want to do that race, but I am for sure waiting until after Hyvee so I can see how my body feels and how my foot has taken the stress for the month of June. If I make it through June with no problems, I feel like I am in the clear. No races planned (maybe Big Creek) until Louisville. It is crazy how fast all of this has gone by. Feels like I just registered. On my email, the calender goes out 3 months. July is now the third month. One more month, August will be there. I will see the race day everyday from then on. I am getting nervous. I need to go bike or something.

Goals - revamped and 1st run in 6 weeks

2009-04-29T07:42:00.000-05:00

This last week, I have started to become stressed out, unmotivated and just a mess about my training. The thumb injury, the sinus AND ear infection, and my 6th week of not running was taking its toll on me physically and mentally. I felt like I am started to get burnt out on biking and swimming. I feel my season cracking and falling through the cracks. I am so worried about re-injuring my foot, not having enough endurance or time in to do what I want. My first race is in 5 weeks. I am getting nervous and stressed. With the advice of a good friend, I sat down last night and re-wrote my goals for this triathlon season. This was very hard for me to do because you never want to lower your expectations, especially for those of you that know me, I only expect the best. New goals: 1st goal - Finish Ironman Louisville (this is the same and will always remain #1). 2nd Goal - PR Ironman Kansas 70.3. 3rd Goal: Finish Top 15 in my age group at Hyvee Triathlon. 4th Goal: PR Bluff Creek Triathlon. The top and overall goal is to not re-injure myself. As I look at this, these are still pretty high bar expectations of myself, but even if I lower my goal, I would not be happy if I didn't reach these levels. The only one that will be a push for me is a top 15 finish at Hyvee just because I don't know the competition that will be there. It will be a tough race field. I compared my "pre race" time to finish times last year and I should be right around #10 if I finish where I think I can and where everyone else finished last year. I could probably sit down and go through the entire list of entrants and pick out the people I know that will beat me at Hyvee, but who really has that much time and then there are people out there like me, who have worked their ass off and will be a surprise finish there. I am sure there will be several of us. I probably will end back up in the same place I finished last year, lol. I also looked over my return to running plan and my current workout plan and did a little changing around and I feel confident that it will get me through and help me return to running safely. I am still nervous about running 13.1 miles after only being back for 7 weeks. Not the distance, but the distance on my foot. Will it be ready? I sure hope so, but hopefully I will feel more confident when that time gets here. I did do my first run on Sunday. I got a very late start in the day. Around 5pm, I felt like running. It looked like it was going to rain, but I thought it would pass and I would run after it passed, so I waited and waited and waited. The storm was moving to slow, so at 6pm, I got outside. I walked 5 min, ran for 5 and then turned to head back. I was to do 5 more min of walking, but it started to sprinkle so I cut it at 3 min and started to run. Right as I started to run it down poured. I ran in the pouring rain and it was awesome. I really wanted to keep running, but that is ruining my goal of not re-injuring myself so I stopped at 5 min and headed into the house. I felt so great, but can tell I have lost a lot of endurance or it was from staying up until 5am drinking. I am hoping the latter. Monday, I went for a swim followed by a short bike. Still dragging a bit. Last night, I did a short bike and went to the batting cages. It was so much fun. I have not hit a softball in about 4 years. Next year I am getting on a slow pitch team for sure. I need to get out and scout teams that are awesome because I want to be on a good team, but until then, I am going to try to find a team to sub a few games for. Tonight I am back in the pool and then followed by a bike. I wish it would be about 5 degrees warmer out. The temp is right at that temp were my feet freeze and it just becomes a very uncomfortable ride so right now and probably the rest of this week I am stuck on the trainer again. Saturday I am getting outside for my 4:30 bike! Thursday will also be my 2nd run. 3 - 5 min blocks.

Going to be Famous

2009-04-24T16:45:00.000-05:00

I was reading the Des Moines Register a couple weeks ago, and they were asking for bloggers that were doing the Hyvee triathlon. Last year I read most of the people that had volunteered to do this and was kind of disapointed about what I was reading. Most had not done a tri or they were very new. Mostly, no one really talked about their training. So this year, I decided to "apply" to be one of these people. I just recieved an email saying that I was chosen to be one of the bloggers. I am excited about it, because I am hoping to give people some insite on triathlon training. Hopefully I don't come off to technical or worse, to boring. Look for me in the paper before May 8th and my blog starting on May 8th for the register. I am excited. Don't worry, I will not deny my current blogger fans from this blog, lol. I need to get more fans.

Feeling good

2009-04-24T08:23:00.000-05:00

The warm weather definatly can make anyone feel awesome. My foot feels good, my thumb is almost healed, and my sinus/ear infection is almost gone. Tonight I am taking the night off to recooperate and gather my thoughts on my upcoming return to running. I ordered new shoes, which are to arrive Monday because I want to have the best possible shoes, in the best shape so I know if I get reinjured it isnt because of crappy shoes. I am pretty sure that is the reason the stress fracture arrived in the first place was from wearing wore out shoes to long. I think tomorrow I will venture out for my long bike outside. I need to get use to riding in not so perfect weather. More for my mental training than physical. My mental training needs work.

Center Trails

2009-04-23T07:46:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night, I ventured out to Center Trails to do some mountain biking mostly because I didn't want to ride in the wind. I had such a blast. I am heading out there again tonight. I need to take my mountain bike in to get it tuned up pretty bad. I definatly took it for a ride Tuesday night. Hopefully it makes it through tonight. I also noticed that I have already fallen behind on yard work. When did the grass start growing again? I have weeds and flowers growing all over the place that they are not suppose to be growing so I have to get that together. I might be working in the rain this weekend on that. Hopefully I will get it done this weekend. As for tonight and tomorrow, I will be spending as much time outside as possible.

56 glorious miles, wait, make it 60

2009-04-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

Dispite the fact that I have a sinus and an ear infection, I ventured down to Lawrence, Kansas this last weekend for the free training ride they had. Let me tell you, it was a great day to do this great ride. It was up in the air or not if I was going to go because of the rain, but it looked like it was going to clear up so I went. Arrived at the race start at about 1pm. Got all of my stuff ready to go and ended up almost missing the group. I had to quickly catch onto the last group. This was such a nice ride. I am hoping race day will be as nice. I am glad I did this because now I know the course and know where the good spots are to take in some nutrition and where I can let me heart rate get a little higher or where to keep it low. Roads were all smooth. It was great. I am very happy with my training so far for the bike. I never felt like I was tired. I had a mental set back where I missed a turn and ended up going an extra 4 miles, but once I over came that, I was feeling good again. I feel like I will be able to be under my 3 hour mark on this course. Just hope my running will be where I want it to be. Sunday, I laid in bed all day. Today, I am skipping my swim workout to go home and rest. I finally have a little more energy today than I did all weekend. Hopefully I will feel much better tomorrow. Side note: Sunday is the end of week 6. I get to run. It is only for 10 min, but I am super excited.

Geezz, now I am sick...

2009-04-17T13:34:00.001-05:00

If it isn't one thing, it's another. Today I have come down with a horrible head cold. I think it all started because of my Wednesday night swim. I got water in my left ear pretty bad and was never able to get it out. So today my head is completely plugged up and my left ear canal hurts. I spent an hour this morning laying on the floor at work and then went home for a nap. I am back at work, but I think I am going to go home again and sleep. My thumb is much better today. It is still tough to hold things that I have to move my thumb more than 2 inches from the rest of my hand. After my swim last night, I jumped on the elliptical for 45 min and then moved to the treadmill for a cool down walk. I wanted to see if my foot had any pain in it, so I did a brief 2 min run. It felt so weird to run. After I stopped and walked, my calves cramped up pretty bad. Tomorrow I am heading down to Lawrence, Kansas for a Kansas 70.3 training weekend. They have a free group ride on the bike course with an aid station and on Sunday they are offering a free entry to do the half marathon. I am not staying for the run, for obvious reasons. I am pretty excited though to do the bike course. It is suppose to be pretty hilly even though they won't come out and say it is going to kick your a$$. It will help me get prepared for Louisville. Hopefully I have enough energy to make it worth while and the weather cooperates. Hope everyone is getting out and enjoying the nice weather and your training is going good.

Really?!...

2009-04-15T08:19:00.000-05:00

Things were going along great, so you know something had to happen. It did. Saturday, I was in Cresco on the bike trail doing my 3:45 bike. I was testing out my race setup. I was flying. It was such a great ride and such a great day. At mile 67 of 70, I come upon a dad and his 2 daughters. I slow up and let them know I am coming up behind them. They didnt hear me, so I said it again. They all scatter across the trail, so I said I will be passing on the left. Well him and his daughters move to the right. I started passing, when all of a sudden, one girl pulls back over to the left in front of me. I slowed down and then all of a sudden she slams on her brakes and I did as well. I couldn't get my feet unclipped and fell over. I got up and checked over my bike because I knew I was fine and wanted to make sure I didn't break anything. Everything appeared fine, so I started off again. Soon, my thumb started to hurt. By the time I rode the last 3 miles to my car, my thumb was very sore and could not use it. By the time I got back to my grandparents, I had thrown up because it hurt so bad. As of today, no fracture and not broke, but I do have a splint on it and it is still swollen pretty good. I can move it, but not hold anything with it. I did swim last night which didnt bother it enough to stop. Mostly it is just one of those mental set backs. I also decided today that I officially can not do the Dam to Dam. I just can't risk running that long of a distance that early returning to running and that close to 3 other big races. It is dissapointing and really kind of brings you down when you have been training so hard for something and then you are unable to do it. I have 1.5 weeks left before I can run again. I can't wait. I think that will really give me the boost I need to give me the hope that I can finish this season, but now that it is getting closer, I am getting nervous that my foot won't be healed and I am going to reinjure it and not be able to run for the rest of the year. It is stressing me out. Usually when I get this stressed, I run. Haha. Well, for now, I will keep up doing what I can. The warm weather helps.

Oh, How I wish I could run...

2009-04-10T15:37:00.000-05:00

You will never realize how bad you want to and need to run when you can't. This hit me really hard last night when I was on the elliptical that I wanted to run more than anything in the world. I moved to the treadmill for my cool down walk and I wanted to punch the people that were running on the treadmill and yell at the other people that could, but weren't running. I am sitting at the office now looking outside at the gorgeous day and wanting to go for a run. How I miss it so. It has been 3.5 weeks now since my diagnosis. 2.5 weeks left! It is taking forever. I am sick of being inside, I am sick of the elliptical, I am sick of water running. I am to the point now that I feel like crying because I can't run. I am hoping next weeks warm weather will help because I will be able to get out on the bike instead of being inside. In the mean time, I will look to see if I can find the new Asics Nimbus shoes online for cheap. Maybe by the time I can wear them they will be on sale.

Week 17

2009-04-08T13:04:00.001-05:00

This week I have found myself to be full of energy and ready to go. That was not how I felt this last weekend. After taking Friday off, Saturday's bike was long, hard, and pretty much worthless, other than the saddle time. I more or less could have just slept on the bike, it would have been the same thing. After going out Saturday night, drinking way to much, I found myself getting home at about 4pm Sunday afternoon. I was so exhausted. I did some lifting at home and some biking and walking. Very uneventful. Monday, I was full of energy and hit the water hard. I felt great and fast in the water. My hour swim flew by, then it was off to my house to do an hour bike, which also went by really fast. Tuesday, I was on the elliptical for 50 min and then went home to do a 1:20 bike. Before I knew it, it was 8 o'clock and I was painting my nails :) Tonight I have a :45 swim and a :40 bike. Should go by fast, plus I think I can get outside on the bike tonight which should be really nice. Tomorrow I will swim for :30 and be on the elliptical for 1:30 followed by some lifting. This weekend I am heading to my grandparent's for Easter so I will have a change of senery for the bike. I am glad it is going to be warm. I have a 3:45 bike. I am going to try out my disc wheel this weekend too if it isn't to windy. Also going to be heading to Lawrence next weekend for a group training ride on the Kansas 70.3 course. Should be fun and exciting. Hope it will be super nice.

Week 16

2009-04-02T08:15:00.000-05:00

Why is it that some days when you swim, you can swim so fast with so little effort and other days, no matter what you do, you have to take 30 strokes to make it to the other end of the pool? Sunday I swam 1.2 miles in the pool in 43:20. If I finish that in the race, I will be super happy. Monday when I went swimming, not matter what I did, I just could not get my glide down. It took me 4 more strokes than usual to do one length. It was really weird and it made that workout super long. Sunday, after my swim, I did some water running and then went on the elliptical for 15 more min. Monday, I swam, and then did the elliptical for :40 and lifted. I think I lifted to much because my legs have been shot for the last 2 days. Tuesday night, I was suppose to do a 1:30 bike, but it ended up being 1:00 and then I went for a walk for :30. I just could not get my legs going. Wednesday night, I swam for an hour. Big, exhausting workout and then went home to do my hour bike. I only did :40 of that because I was so hungry. So while the burgers were cooking, I biked. Tonight I will swim and hopefully water run and with the remaining time of my hour run, finish up with the elliptical. I will lift after. Tomorrow will be a rest day, so I will hit the lifting hard tonight. Saturday I have a 3:30 bike. I can't wait until it will be nice enough out to get outside again on the bike. Sunday, I did make it to the Natural Living expo. It was kind of weird to see building green stuff for your house with nutrition, but it was all about "greening" up your life, so it made sense. I stopped at a booth that had metobolic testing. It was free, so why not. I got the results, nothing I wasn't expecting except it was not what I expected it to be. The body fat was where I thought it would be, but it also tested for your hydration level. It said 55.43%. I thought it was just because I just got done working out and didnt drink anything. The guy says, that will effect it maybe by 5%, but that at the most. It should be closer to 70% so now I am working on drinking more water during the day. It is hard. I just keep forgetting about it. Now I have a big, bright green glass that I have at work to remind me to drink. Plus, the constant going to the restroom reminds me that I need to drink more water. Tonight, if I have energy left, and I stop playing with my blackberry, I am going to apply my new spiral graphics to my wheel. It is going to be sweet.

Week 15 wrapping up

2009-03-28T13:31:00.000-05:00

Couple exciting things happened this week. First off, my wheel arrived. I put my "new" cassette on it yesterday. It did not want to go on very smooth, so I brought my wheel home and put it on my bike on the trainer so I could make sure it was changing gears smoothly and then played with my bike a little more. I don't have the pump adapter yet, so I cant put the tire on, but it is suppose to be cold this week so I am not in to big of a hurry. I decided to put the 808 on the front for fun to get a picture of the new setup. I can't wait to get it out on the road.

Wednesday, I got on the elliptical for 30 min. after an hour swim. Thursday, I tried out water running for the first time. It was challenging at first to run normal, but I soon got that figured out and ran for 45 min. It was a nice workout. It really worked my quads. I have been icing my foot all week and it seems to be helping a lot. Today the pain is almost completely gone. I had a 3:15 bike today and took my dog for a walk immediately following and it kind of "acted" up at the end of the walk, but that is all it has bothered me in the last 2 days. Tomorrow, I am going to have an hour swim and then water run for an hour, then I will probably get on the elliptical for :30. It takes a lot to get your heart rate up water running. I am going to stop by the Natural Living Expo on Sunday also. Not really sure what it is all about but it seems interesting and plus it is free so why not.

Wind, what wind?

2009-03-25T07:54:00.000-05:00

This last weekend was so awesome out. Why can't these nice weekends line up with a long bike weekend for me so I can get outside to do it. I had a 2 hour bike Saturday, which I extended by 15 min just because it was nice out. Sunday, I was going to go to the gym to swim, but ended up cleaning my house, tiling my kitchen, cleaning my car and switching out the winter clothes for the summer ones. So no workout. It was a recovery week anyway. This week, I hit it hard on Monday. Had a great swim and then came home for an hour bike. It was almost 70 degrees out, so I ventured outside. Yes, in the 32 mph sustained wind with 45 mph gusts. It really wasn't bad until I turned around to head back home. I had a short 4 mile out to my 6 mile loop of hills that I do. I did that loop twice since it is kind of out of the wind a little bit and then headed home. Well, I had it in the small gear up front and the large gear in back and was still struggling to keep moving. It was like riding up a steep hill for 4 miles straight. I figured this will give me an idea of how that humungous hill in Louisville will be. I even had to peddle hard going downhill when the gusts came. All in all it was a good workout. I would much rather be outside than inside biking. Last night I was inside on the trainer for 2 hours. I did my last Saturday inside bike workout since I was outside last weekend. It was intense! Tonight I am back in the pool and I am going to attempt to get on the elliptical after. I tried it out on Monday for 1 min and it didn't seem to bother my foot at all. If it does bother my foot, I will head back to the downtown Y and try some water running. It will be good to get some "running" in. I miss it.

Foot Update

2009-03-20T07:57:00.000-05:00

I went to a podiatrist on Tuesday since my foot has been acting up again. I heard the worst 2 words I could have heard...Stress Fracture - 3rd metatarsal. Seriously? Oh yes, no running for 6 weeks. Great! I didn't want to do good or anything this year anyway - being VERY sarcastic. As of now, I don't have a cast or anything on it, but if the pain doesn't go away within 3 weeks, I have to go back and get a boot cast put on. So I will not be running for 4 weeks and then weeks 5 and 6 I will get on the eliptical and see how that feels. After 6 weeks, I will have 4 weeks until my first races - Dam to Dam and Bluff Creek Triathlon - same weekend. I am going to have to forget about having a PR for those 2 events (atleast for the Dam to Dam and the running part of the triathlon) because I won't have built enough mileage back up to do any speed work. I will barely just get enough mileage in to finish them. Probably end of June before I can to do any real speed work. I think I am most dissapointed because I wanted to do really well for my first races. Other than that, I dont really think the long miles will help me in the Ironman anyway. I will still have to walk most of it, lol. Now I have added weight training back into my schedule 3 days a week and I am going to try to get in a 4th or maybe 5th day of swimming. I will definately up the intensity on the bike to help me keep my endurance that I have already built and perhaps add a 6th day of biking. In a couple weeks, I am hoping to get out on the mountain bike and work on hills since that is my weakness, but that is putting the pressure on my foot where it hurts. I will have to wait and see. Seeing my new disc wheel helps to ease the pain :)

To Disc Wheel - A Zipp 900 to be exact

2009-03-20T07:51:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to share with all of you my recent purchase :) It's so pretty. I was looking at the HED Jet disc wheel, but on a whim I decided to check out and see what ebay had to offer. Since they didnt have any HED Jet discs, I checked out what they had for Zipps. I found this sweet piece of equipment. The ad says it is an '08, but those graphics are pre '08, so my guess is the guy bought it early '08. He owns a bike shop and never even used it yet. No cassette mounted on it, ever. And since Zipp hasn't changed anything from their '07 to their '08 model (or '09 for that matter), it is bascially a brand new wheel. I can't wait to get it out on the road. I can't believe how much it looks like a Sub9. I will have to compare it straight up with a sub9 to see any difference.

To disc wheel or to not disc wheel

2009-03-15T11:54:00.000-05:00

I am sitting here this morning waiting for it to warm up a little more outside before I go running. The thought of buying a disc wheel has entered my mind again. The Zipp Sub9 is out based first on cost and second, it doesn't come in a clincher. I have it narrowed down to the HED Jet Disc. I also want to get a sweet decal for it. Thinking of the spiral one. I am waiting for a price from the local bike shop and now it is just a matter of when I want to pull the trigger to get it. I thought this would be the year to get it for sure because I will have such long races on it and I will get the most benefit from it. I have until the end of May to decide if I am going to get it for sure. If anyone has any experience with this disc wheel, let me know. I would love to know more about it other then everything else that has been printed on the internet. Well I am off for my 1:45 run for today.
Side note: I did finish my first 3 hour bike ride Friday night. My legs were tired when I was done, but not sore the next day. I am hoping they hold up today for the run. The warm weather should help a lot.

Week 13

2009-03-13T07:49:00.001-05:00

This week has been going great. Foot pain was gone and I haven't felt this great the entire week for my workouts. Monday, I did feel slow at first when I got in the water, but after I did a few sprints I felt really smooth. I added some intensity this week to the bike and run. Wednesday night I did the bike and Thursday I added the Run. The swim always seems to be more intense to me because I just want to float around and not really try. I was worried that the Wednesday night bike would wear my legs out for Thursday, but I felt really good in the swim (that is usually where I notice I am tired) and the run was awesome. I did 2 sets of: 1200 @ 75%, 800 @ 80-85%, and 400 @ 85%. I was really surprised at how fast I had to run to get my heart rate to get that high and stay there. I did this on the treadmill and for the 400, I had it at 6:15/mile pace. The treadmill did not like that. It was shaking all over the place. I could feel my foot starting to hurt when I was doing my cool down. This morning it was a little achy so I iced it and it seems to have gone away. It is not completely healed. I decided that it is a muscle/tendon weakness. When it acts up, the next day, the muscles that support my ankle are tired. I just need to strengthen that area. Tonight I am going to do my long bike. I am up to 3 hours. How nice would it be to get outside for it, but that won't happen. I am hoping that in 2 weeks it will be nice enough out to get outside because that is when my 3+ hours start. Saturday will be my day off. Heading to the Casino for my grandpa's birthday. Sunday will be my long run for the week: 1:45. It is going to be awesome out for that run.
Yesterday I got an interesting post card in the mail. It is from the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation and it says that I qualified for the 2009 State Games of America. I qualified by getting 3rd in my age group at the Iowa Games last summer. The race is August 1st, 2009. I was planning on doing Big Creek that weekend, but have not signed up for it yet. The State Games of America are in Colorado Springs. If I did not need to save up my money for Louisville, I probably would do this race. I looked up the times from prior years and it looks like I would be very competitive in this race. Maybe a top 3 finish. For sure a top 3 in my age group (based on prior year times) Anyway, it is only a sprint and it is far away so Big Creek is still the plan. Big Creek is going to be a very competitive race this year being the midwest regional championship race. This will really give me a feel of my talent or lack thereof in this field of great triathletes. It is going to be a great year of racing and I can't wait to get started!

Week 12 Overview

2009-03-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

This week was very productive until this weekend. My foot pain came back on Tuesday, but now it is a different place. Still on the top of my foot, but now further down so atleast I dont think it is a stress fracture. It definatly isnt as painful as it was the other week, but it is enough to keep me concerned about it. I swam Monday night for 1:00. Good tough workout. Tuesday I ran first and then biked. I pushed myself harder Tuesday than I normally do. It was just so nice and I felt great. I finally actually got my heart rate up to the 75% mark. Usually I am sitting about 10 beats below that. I ran 5.28 miles in :42. = 7:57/mile average. Awesome! That was including my warm up mile too. Then I came in and did an hour bike. My legs were shot from the running. I am learning that if I have a bike/run combo in the same day, I have to do the bike first if it is anything other than spinning my legs out because if I have to get my heartrate up, my legs just wont put out enough power to do it. I have also noticed on some of my runs that my legs start to get tired, but breathing tired. Now it is starting to occur on the bike. I need to some how get my legs to rest more so that they are fresher so I can get the quality workouts in that I need to. Atleast with the run, I can push through it, the bike I cant get my legs to get moving if they dont want to. Wednesday I had a :45 swim and an hour bike. Fairly easy workout. I did have a good bike that night. Thursday, I switched my Sunday long run and my normal Thursday workout (swim, run) to Sunday so that I could get some recovery time for my foot. I ran 1:25 Thursday night (gorgeous night) and followed that with a :45 bike. Friday is my rest day. Saturday I had planned for a 2:45 bike, but only got 2 hours of that done. My legs just were not going to have it. I couldnt get my heart rate up so I felt I would skip the last bit of the workout instead of just sitting there and not really trying. Today my plan was to switch the run with a bike for extra foot rest time. I am not doing anything today. I am having trouble getting motivated today. It has to be the weather and the time change. It is now noon and I just got out of bed. I didnt even want to make breakfast and that is usually the only reason I get out of bed is because I am starving and want to eat breakfast. I think that is my favorite part of the day - eating breakfast. So today I am not working out. I just dont think my mind will be in it or my body. Maybe not being able to get my heart rate up yesterday was a sign I need to take a break. With these short workouts today, skipping them wont hurt my progress, probably only hurt it if I did them not 100%. So with that being said, I am continuing to ice my foot and trying to stay off it. Not really a problem. Monday I will start in with a swim and Tuesday I will be up and running again. Hopefully pain free.

Week 11 Total Time: 12:30:00

2009-03-02T08:39:00.000-06:00

This week I completed the longest workout week so far. 12 hours and thirty minutes. In that time included a 2:30 bike and a 2 hour run. I told myself if I finished my entire weekend workout I could get a blizzard Sunday afternoon. It was an awesome blizzard. Extra sweet. Just about half of my total time came from my weekend workouts. Had the 2:30 bike plus a :40 run Saturday and a 2:00 run followed by a 1:00 bike on Sunday. I was very pleased that I was able to finish it, with no foot pain and still feeling great today. Tonights swim workout will really let me know how much energy I have left, but as of right now, I am feeling good. Little stiffness, but nothing that shouldnt go away after stretching tonight. My feet are really happy with me for throwing out my old shoes and starting in with a fresh pair. Up until now I never really felt the effects of worn out shoes. I also decided that I am going to not use my Zoots for the Ironman. I just feel I am going to need something with a little more cushion. I checkd out the new Asics Nimbus 10s. That is totally what I am going to wear. Just waiting for the price to come down. Hopefully by midsummer I can find a sale on them some place. This week I am going to start adding some intensity to my bikes. I tried to do that 2 weeks ago and I just about died. It was to much. I will start with a few 15/45 sprints just to get my legs use to it again. I think after I get outside, it will come back to me. For some reason I have a hard time riding "easy" when I am outdoors. :)

Swim time

2009-02-27T09:55:00.000-06:00

Why is it that in some pools you feel so much smoother swimming than in another? Thursday's I swim at a different pool that I normally do. Man I felt good last night. Even though I felt smooth and fast, I didnt swim any faster, well atleast I don't think I was. The pool I normally swim at isnt 25 yards. It is some where between 21 and 22. I haven't remembered to bring a tape measure to measure it, but I just counted tiles and estimated. So with that being said, I dont know how fast I normally swim 100 yards. I was able to swim 1200 yards straight in 22:30. Slow, I know. So that is alittle over 1:52/100 which converts to 1:18:51 for 2.4 miles. Slightly ahead of my time that I would like to finish the swim in: 1:30. I felt like I could easily swim that speed for the 2.4 miles. Granted I didnt have to sight so if I figure that in, I probably will be closer to 1:30, which is fine by me. It is under the 2:20 cuttoff :) I also got on the treadmill after to run for 1:05. My foot was a little stiff, but overall no major pain. I stretched out really good after and have very little pain if any walking this morning. Now I am debating whether or not to skip the run Saturday or not. Maybe I will venture out for 10 to 20 min instead of the full 40. Today is my day off, which I am super excited about and really need. Seems like that last few weeks I have had to skip atleast one day of working out because I am so exhausted. This week I was able to do all of my workouts which I am super excited about. I guess not going out or spending any time with friends and sleeping all weekend is what I need to do. Yippeee...I guess I will have to say goodbye to my friends for the next 6 months, lol. I am beginning to see why people say this is a big time commitment. I knew it was going to be a lot of time training, but I didn't think of the recovery/rest time that would be needed to be able to finish the workouts and have enough energy to make them a quality workout. They need to include that in training plans. 2 hours of sitting and doing nothing time. Well, I am going to try to make most of my free time to rest today for my 2:40 bike and 2:00 run Sunday. Maybe making time to read will help give me more rest time.

Ankle pain, go away

2009-02-25T09:41:00.000-06:00

Well, my first "injury" of the year has arrived. I have this pain in my foot/ankle region. Right where my foot bends on the top at the ankle. All across there. It has bothered me a little bit before, but nothing that lasted for more than a couple hours, but on Sunday it acted up enough that made me cut my run short last night. I ran 1:20 on Sunday. When I started out, my ankles and calfs were a little tight but usually they loosen up once I get a couple miles in. Well it did, but the ankle stiffness never really went away. I got home and did a :40 bike and then stretched. I iced my ankle and tried to stay off it the rest of the day. Monday morning it was painful enough that my morning walk with the dog was cut short because I just didnt feel comfortable walking on it. I iced it again and stretched it. I only swam and biked Monday night and it didnt bother me at all. When I doriflex my foot is when the pain comes. So dont do that one might say, but how are you suppose to run with a mid foot strike or at all for that matter? Yesterday it wasnt enough pain for me to even notice it all day. So I got home and did my 1:15 bike and then off for my :45 run which ended up only being :10 because I decided that my ankle was still sore enough I didnt want to put it in jepordy for my 2 hour run on Sunday. I have 3 more runs this week. The big 2 hour run on Sunday, a :40 run off the bike Saturday and a 1:05 run Thursday. I am going to attempt the run Thursday since it is on the treadmil and kind of go from there. If there is even the slightest pain on Saturday I am going to skip that run so I can get in my entire run Sunday. I am hoping it will be better by then. I have also decided my shoes are a contributing factor. I have been holding off on replacing my shoes. I have another pair that I used for a couple races at the end of last year that I was going to use for my training this year, but didnt want to get them out quite yet. Well, this is the week I am going to do that. Hopefully that will be the problem. I have also found that stretching is going to be a huge thing for me to make sure I do everyday. It has helped me and my body not get sore. When I stretch, it seems to help my ankle feel a little better. Could be all in my head, but isn't this game 90% mental?

Bike Fit Results

2009-02-22T08:40:00.001-06:00

After my bike fit Thursday, I finally got on the bike yesterday. Wow, I am going to kick some butt this year. Well at least I feel that way. I had a 1:45 bike that flew by. My shoulders never bothered me once. My neck did a little bit at the beginning just because of the big drop in my handle bars. That will take some getting use to, but if I didn't look up as far as I normally do, it didn't bother me at all. I didn't move around on the seat like I normally do looking for that "comfortable" spot. I have the cyclops fluid trainer and I actually was pushing one gear harder than I normally do because I had that much more power into my pedals. I actually had to back it off a gear so that I could keep my higher cadence without jacking my heart rate up. I am so excited to see how this plays out for my races this year. One thing I noticed today, day after my long bike, is that my shoulders do not bother me at all. Usually my left shoulder is tight and gives me a little bit of a headache. It feels so good today. Just for that simple nagging pain not do be here made it all worth it. Be sure you all wave at me when I am flying by you on the bike this year! ;)

Bike Fit

2009-02-20T08:48:00.001-06:00

Thursday of this week I had a bike fit from Rassmussen's. I had read the Punk Rock Cycling blog that Kelli did about her bike fit and decided I needed to have one done. I bought my bike from there at the end of '07 and they did a quick fit on me, but I know that my bike isnt set up the best it could be for me. I want to have it the best it can be for my 6+ bike rides this summer. I got there and Adam aske me some questions about any pain I was having and tested my flexibility. My shoulders get stiff and I had a little bit of knee pain from last year that luckily has not returned this year. I am not flexible. Also my aerobars are to long, i cant reach the shifters without lifting my arm off the rest. He recorded me biking for about 10 seconds and then we looked at some angles of my hips and shoulders. He was really surprised I havent had any lower back or hamstring problems because my knee angle was at the bottom of the range. So we lowered my seat a little bit. I felt to squished. so we raised it up a little and put on a shorter stem. By shorted I mean I went from a 9.0 to a 6.5. Big difference. Also flipped the arm rests around so it brought the shifters closer to me. They still feel a little long, but I think I will test this out first before investing in a new set of bars. We also lowered my handle bars. I got back on and WOW, I felt so much faster already, lol. I felt like I was able to put more power into my stroke and my stroke was so much smoother. In the video we compared the 2 and the first one looked like I was just sitting on my bike and leaning over. The last one, I looked more like a sprinter coming out of the blocks. A much more aggressive position. Adam also put 1 shim in each shoe to get my knees to follow the same line and in my left shoe, added a couple risers because my right tibia is slightly longer than my left so my hips were rocking quite a bit, but are much better now. My seat ended up being 1/2 a centimeter lower and moved quite forward quite a bit more which helps me sit on my aero bars a lot better. I am excited to try it out this weekend.

Week 10 coming to an end

2009-02-20T08:32:00.000-06:00

Training is progressing with a few set backs. Week ago Wednesday, I took the night off. I was so exhausted. Thursday I did get my third day of swimming in and a 55 min run. I did exchange my Zoot shoes for a 1/2 size larger. They seem like they are so long, but the width seems better. I did get a small blister inbetween my big toe and 2nd toe, but I think that was because my feet were slightly damp from swimming when I put my socks on. This last weekend was my birthday weekend. I did not go out and drink, but did have a busy weekend. Friday night I got my annual massage at The Spa at West Glen. I treat myself to a massage there every year because I feel like it is more relaxing than your typical $40 Y massage. You get to sit in the relaxation room and have a glass of wine and then you get a warm table and soft music and then after sit in the sauna. Who could ask for anything more. Well I could, I want someone to rub my feet while I sit in the sauna, lol. Saturday, I got up early to shovel. So after an hour of that, I was done and decided to come in and start cleaning. It has been awhile. It was taking me forever to clean. After 6 hours, I didnt have enough time to do my bike workout, but figured an hour of shoveling and 6 of cleaning was enough of a workout. I took a shower, watched 30 min of tv and then off to Hairball. That was great too. 3.5 hours of music right up front. I got redbull dumped on me from the band so I had really sticky hair, but it was all good. Sunday, I got my 1:50 run in. Just about got 13 miles in. It was such a nice day and it went by so fast. It was the first time of my legs not getting tired after 1:10. They were a little stiff on Monday, but some light stretching helped. After that, I had a birthday supper at my house where I invited some friends over. We had wine-a-ritas. They are awesome. Monday, I was completely drained of energy. I guess that run took more out of me than I thought. My hour swim ended at 35 min and I had to get a bike in too since I wasnt going to have time Tuesday night to do it because of the Motley Crue concert (which was awesome by the way). I spun for about 30 min. I just couldnt get my heart rate up because I couldnt get my legs moving fast enough. I went to bed. Tuesday morning I got up early to run. I ran 35 min of the 40. Still just so tired. Wednesday was another story. I felt great. I did my hour swim and then headed home to do the 1:10 bike from tuesday. Thursday was another good day. I got in a 30 min swim. I always feel really fast at the downtown pool, but in reality I am not. Then I got in a 60 min run with my new Zoots. I have come to the conclusion I am keeping them. I ran in them without socks which made a world of difference. Socks are over rated. I think I need to "break" in the beds a little bit. They just seemed a little sticky on my feet. I am sure it is just the coating on them. Today, I am a little stiff, but that is to be expected. This weekend I am staying home and reading and getting in my workouts and to finish up my "recovery" week. Next weekend is the big 2 hour run. Hope it is "warm" out for that.

Week 8 and 9

2009-02-10T08:19:00.000-06:00

Training has been going great! Last Monday, I had my usual hour swim. Tuesday I had a good bike and run. I tried out my Zoots for the 2nd time. I came to the conclusion that I need to exchanged them for a larger size. I am going to see if that will help with the foot numbness. Wednesday I usually go to a spin class, but I decided that I am no longer going to go because it is just a little to high intensity and it just isnt long enough now. Also, I can get my full 45 min in the pool before my bike now since I am doing it at home. Thursday I had really nice run outside with my dog. Friday was a well deserved day off. I went to the botanical center. They had a wine festival there. I drank to much. Put me out of commission on Saturday. Not because I was hung over, it just zapped my energy. I played skywalk golf on Saturday morning with my sister and then we went shopping after. By this time it was 2pm and I only have 3 hour until I needed to get ready to go out so I had 2 choices: A- do my 1:45 bike and :30 run or B- nap. I took a nap. At 6 I was meeting a couple friends for dinner and a movie. We had Tai. It was so awesome. We went to see "He's just not that into you". Oh my gosh, it was such a good movie. Sunday I did get in my longest run of the year. I ran for 1:35. I just about got 11 miles in. My lungs werent tired, but man my legs did not want to do the last 2 miles. And surprisingly, my legs never got sore. I followed up that run with a 30 min bike. Last night I had my hour swim and an additional 35 min bike. I usually lift after my swim, but I was pretty tired yesterday so I went home right after the swim to get the bike in. Tonight I have an hour bike followed by a :40 min run. I am seriously considering biking outside tonight. I will have to see if I can find my lights. This Thursday I will be trying out the larger size of Zoots. I am hoping they work. I have a :55 min run to see. I am also adding in my 3rd swimming session this thursday. I am forced to swim at the Downtown Y since they are the only ones that have lap swim right after work that day. I will only get in :30, but it is better than nothing. Then I will do my run after. I was suppose to have this swim in oh about 9 weeks ago and I am finally adding it in. This Sunday I have 1:50 min run. I am thinking I will get just about 13 miles in. I have my route planned. I will make it all the way up to Ankeny and back. That is crazy. I should stop into the Tai resturant and get some more food on the way. I am hungry now for it.

Moving right along

2009-02-01T17:42:00.001-06:00

This week was another good week of workouts. I did skip my workout on Wednesday to go to the Slipknot concert. I was to excited to go to focus on actually working out. Great concert and my neck is still sore from it and my voice is completely shot still from then and last nights super bowl party. Monday I had an hour swim and was going to take it easy after and do the yoga class, but there was no class so I ended up lifting anyway. Tuesday I ran the first time in my Zoots. My little toe fell asleep which I think is because they are to tight, but they dont feel like they are. I have that problem with the style of shoes that I have been wearing for 2 years now when i run on the treadmill so I am hoping that is the problem. I always feel horrible when I run on the treadmill. I cant wait to get out on the road with them. I did run outside on Thursday which was really nice. Since I skipped my wednesday workout I had to get in a bike on Friday so I actually got up early to make the bike class at 5:30. I get there and guess what, the instructor never showed up. I have about had it with the classes at the Grubb. 80% of the time, the class I am planning on going to never end up happening. If they know they arent going to have it, they need to publish it some place. So the only class I do now is the bike class on wednesday night, but in a couple weeks I am going to drop it because my bike time needs to be longer and I have to get in a longer swim so I will have to do my swim first and come home and bike on the trainer. I am glad because that class is pretty high intensity and keeps my heart rate pretty high. I might jump in that class once in a while just to get the higher intensity workout in, but probably not very often. I will probably be to tired. Today I ran 1:20 min outside. I was slow today. i only got 8.5 miles in and last week I got 9 miles in in the same time. Not that much different, but was hoping to get that long it again. My gut felt like it was trying to digest a rock. It was heavy and uncomfortable. I think it was all the crappy food I ate last night. Yesterdays bike ride really wore my legs out so that could be a contributer to the slower time too. This week will be my last week, I think, of running with the group I run with on Thursday. I need to get another swim in and the only time I can get in the pool is during the time the run is so it makes it difficult to do both. This weekend I have a couple busy workouts. Saturday I have an hour and fifty min bike followed by a 30 min run and sunday I have a 1:35 min run followed by a 40 min bike. In 4 weeks I have my first 2 hour run. I cant believe I have 7 months left until Louisville. This time is going to go by so fast. I am almost fearing that the summer is going to go by and I am going to miss most of it because of my training, but then i look at it as I will be outside training so I will be enjoying the sun, rain and wind and everything else mother nature throws at me. I cant wait for it to get warm enough to bike outside. I have my first 4 hour bike in 3 months and I am hoping to get outside in 2 months because it is starting to get hard to sit on the trainer for more than 2 hours. I cant imagine 3 hours on there. It will be tough to find a movie that is that long. :)

New Zoot Ultra TT

2009-01-25T16:45:00.000-06:00

Today I went and bought a pair of Zoot Ultra TTs. I am super excited about it. They are not exactly the ones that I wanted, but they were 2nd on my list. I decided that I was going to get a pair of racing shoes for my season this year since I will be due for another pair about half way through the season. I have a pair of Asics I bought and only used for about 50 miles last season, so those will be my training shoes this year and the Zoots for my racing. Cant wait to really try them out. I got my 1:45 bike in yesterday and got 9 miles in today on the treadmill followed by a 30 min bike. My legs are tried and are on the verge of hurting. I went to the botanical center today for the winter blues thing. It was so nice to sit in the warm summer like atmosphere. It was nice that the sun was shining. I sat in the sun up on the balcony. The only thing to make it better would have been someone giving me a massage. I was so relaxed there I almost fell asleep. Great event, definatly recommend it to anyone suffering from winter blues or if you just want to go and sit in the sun and listen to music.

Awesome...that is all I can say

2009-01-24T08:58:00.000-06:00

The last 2 weeks have been awesome for my training. I had my first 2 hour trainer ride last Saturday with a half hour run after followed by a 9 mile run on Sunday with a 30 min bike after. The rest of the week and last week have been excellent. I got a couple 1+ hour rides in, some great swims and productive runs. I have made all of my workouts and felt great doing them. I hope I can keep this up for the next 8 months. Today I will have a 1:45 bike and tomorrow I am actually going to have to run inside on the treadmill because it is going to be cold. I have a 1:20 run followed by a 40 min bike. I need to start working in a 3rd swim workout which I am finding hard to do on the day that I want to. I think I am going to have to break down and actually go to the downtown Y. Just once a week, I should be able to handle that. I am also finding out it is much easier to get my workouts in when I don't have any other outside distractions. I have been able to get home after my workouts and be productive in getting cleaning and paper work done. I am going to the Botanical Center on Sunday for the winter blues thing. It should be fun and relaxing. A great way to rewind after my workout and warm up from the cold. My birthday is coming up. Planning to get a great massage. I can't wait for it!