Oh my

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

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

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.