Overbooked and Overtired Indeed.

Listen to your body it will tell you when it’s overtired; it’s like hitting a brick wall. Referring to my previous post, I think it all (training, class, studying, work, life) caught up with me this past weekend and the evidence was in my workouts.

Saturday was a simple 3000m swim and a 2 hour ride, nothing too hard and definitely the norm for a Saturday. So Ryan and I got up relatively early and hit the pool...well I think “the pool hit us” is a better statement. For some reason, Ryan, nor I, had it in us on Saturday morning. Personally, my shoulders were really aching and I just felt slow. We REALLY wanted to call it quits when we saw an 800 pull set followed by a 400 kick was coming up, but Ryan and I pushed through our fatigue and lack of motivation to complete the workout.

Feeling good about actually finishing the 3000m, when all we wanted to do was quit, was a great motivator to get outside and complete our 2 hour bike.

Luckily, Colorado takes better care of their trails than they do their roads, so Ryan and I were fortunate enough to ride outside on clear trails, in the balmy 40 degree sunshine-y weather. The out n’ back we were doing was only 32 miles and we were figuring that if we could keep our (my) normal 17 mph pace that this route would be perfect for the time required in the saddle.

Now Ryan is a much better cyclist than I am but usually I can stay on his wheel, drafting of course, for the majority of the ride. However, this was NOT the case this awful sunshine-y Colorado day. Ryan kept yelling at me to get on his wheel, so he could get a better workout by pulling me and I could get use to the higher cadence that I’ve been lacking, but every time he picked it up to his normal pace he dropped me like a bad habit. I was trying so desperately to stay with him but my legs were just not having it. They felt SO fatigued. Finally giving in to what my body was telling me, I let Ryan go ahead and continued on at a pace that wasn’t as uncomfortable for my legs.

I don’t have my bike computer on my road bike, but I didn’t need it to tell me that I was going very slow; every pedal stroke was a fight and very painful. I just could not get my legs to go.

Upon arriving at the half way point I looked down and saw a 1:03 on my watch and perked up thinking I had to be faster on the way back since it was mainly downhill. Well I arrived home approximately 1:02 later making the whole ride (32 miles) 2:05! Good grief, I really was as slow as I felt. To put this in perspective, I raced last week on my MTN bike and was only .2 mph slower! Yikes! My legs were definitely on strike.

Once I finally got inside and warmed up a bit, the consequences of pushing my body, when I shouldn’t have, became apparent. I was more fatigued after this 2 hour ride than I was after any of the IMs I have done!!! And to top it off my stomach decided it was angry with me too! I pretty much spent the rest of the day in bed complaining to Ryan how awful I felt and continually asking him if he thought I was a worse athlete than I was last year, still not realizing I was just physically worn-out.

Now a few days removed, I have had the epiphany that my body was trying to tell me something, it was overworked and underpaid. I was tired, I pushed it, and I paid for it....lesson learned. Thank you body, your message was received loud and clear!

Now I must make a change and lighten up my schedule so me and, well, myself aren’t at odds again.

Overbooked and Overtired

The worse part of the triathlon life is definitely the time commitment. I absolutely love training and will do just about anything to get my training in but sometimes life just gets in the way. So what’s a girl to do? Something has got to give, right?

Well unfortunately, I am and never will be a good enough athlete to quit my job and dedicate my whole life to triathlon, so a precise delicate balancing act is necessary to continue doing the sport I love and carry on with my life. Right now I must admit I am struggling with balancing everything. Here is what I have on my plate

1) Depending on how far into training I am, at any given point we can have 10 to 20+ hours of training a week.

2) I work an average 45 hours/week and sometimes those hours are spent in the field where 10 to 12 hour days, hours away from home, are the norm.

3) I am trying desperately to finish my grad school work, thus I have class two nights a week. Not to mention my thesis which will be going into full gear VERY soon.

4) I like to give back to humanity wherever I can since I find myself so blessed with a fantastic life therefore I volunteer one night a week at the Children’s Hospital.

5) Engineering is a different kind of professional world than most; it works like an apprenticeship like in the old days when a son was sent off to learn a trade. First we must take a brutal 8 hour exam on the fundamentals of engineering and pass it (four years of engineering school put into one test), then we must work for four years under a licensed engineer to learn “the trade”, and finally, we must take another brutal 8 hour exam on the practices and principals of engineering to become a licensed engineer. This last one is where I am at in my career. The professional engineering (PE) exam is just a God awful exam testing your knowledge of the last four years (6 year for me, hehe I’ve been putting this off) under a licensed engineer. Imagine taking a test on every little detail of your profession and then some... it’s just plain hard. People study anywhere from months to years for this exam and yup, you guessed it I have to take it in April!!! So I must study all weekend every weekend and then any time I might find during the week!

6) Family time. My poor husband is so neglected! Lucky for me he does Ironmans as well, so he understands the time commitment but with everything else, he is probably really annoyed with me because he is just getting ignored. I know it’s awful and I need to carve out some time for him!! (and the pets!)

Ya see, SOMETHING HAS GOT TO GIVE!!! I find all these things above equally important to me so how am I to choose what goes? I mean I am overbooked, right? And I need to back off on something, right? Am I just being an overdramatic person? How does everyone else balance all of this? I know in the end I will find a solution but right now it just all feels so overwhelming. I guess “overwhelming” is what you get when you have the luxury to complain about such things.

"You owe it to everyone you love (including yourself) to find pockets of tranquility in your busy world"

Chilly Cheeks Duathlon, Race #2

This past Saturday I raced in the second race of the Chilly Cheeks Duathlon series. This race was vastly different than the first one which was a 4 mile run followed by a 10 mile bike. This particular race was a 1.5 mile run, 3.6 mile bike, 2.5 mile run, 7.2 mile bike, 50 meter run, very odd distances but it was a blast!

At the first race I entered the “fat tire” division and decided to stick with that division because I figured I ride my tri bike about 99% of the time so why not have some fun and ride my mtn bike. The first race in this series had the roads partially covered in snow and ice where this race was pretty clear except for the run course which was on trails. Since it was so clear the race attracted a lot more people and a lot more people with road bikes.

Even though it was so nice I was determined to stay in the fat tire division and use my mtn bike; I didn’t want to change divisions and I certainly was not going to cheat and use a road bike in the fat tire division. Unfortunately other people weren’t so honest. There were numerous people using their road/tri bikes in the fat tire division!!! How not nice!!! I was/am so angry with this. I mean if you look at the results I would like to know how ANYONE can ride a fat tired mtn bike on a relatively hilly course holding an 18mph pace! YEA RIGHT!!! Most of the people in the open division couldn’t hold that pace!!! I actually had a lady tell me that she was blatantly cheating and using a road bike in the fat tire division because “the roads are just so nice and it’s not a big deal to not change divisions”. Yea guess who was one of the 6 that beat me??...grrr. Oh well enough ranting I’ll get back to the race.

The first run I did awesome I really put my all into the whole mile and half and surprisingly my efforts paid off I finished the run in 10:02 and second OA. Not bad, not bad. I was happy with this because, doing the math that is a 6:41 /mile pace!!! I have not been able to get under a 7 min mile (7:30 in reality) pace since I moved to CO...not sure if altitude has something to do with that, but I’m gonna blame it on the high altitude ; )

After an embarrassingly slow transition (I couldn’t get my helmet clipped) I hopped onto my bike and began the second leg which started with a nice three quarter of a mile climb. This is definitely where riding a mtn bike sucks! I was very jealous of all that road/tri bikes effortlessly zooming up the hill. Oh well head down and pedal pedal pedal. I finished the first segment of the bike at a 15.4 mph pace, which in my opinion is awesome for a mtn bike.

Another embarrassingly slow transition (no excuse here) and I was off onto the second run which was 2.5 miles of hills. Obviously my pace went down significantly from the first run but I was still at about an 8:30 pace. Again not bad for an uphill 2.5 mile run.

Yet again, another embarrassingly slow transition (see a pattern here) and onto the bike again for 7.2 miles of mtn biking fun! I felt slower on this leg and in fact I was, I averaged about 15.2 mph, still not bad for the equipment being used. But again, I was getting passed by numerous people on road/tri bikes, which was a little disheartening. HOWEVER, I did manage to pass about 8 people on road/tri bikes, WOAH!! (thus going back to the aforementioned women doing 18.4mph on a mtn bike, yea right!).

Coming into transition I felt ok, and knew I only had 50 meters of running left so I wracked my bike and ran barefoot across the line in 1 hour 15 mins!! I was VERY pleased with this time for two reasons 1) I knew I had pushed as hard as I could throughout the race (well set aside the transitions) and 2) I was 7 mins faster and this race was a mile longer than the first race in the series, not to mention having to do 3 additional transitions! DAMN! That makes me one happy lady.

Overall it was a great race, beyond the cheating that was going on, and I finished 7th overall female and 3rd in my age group. My placing was worse than the first race but I can hold my head high knowing that I did the best I could and I ran an honest race. So suck it, you cheaters!!! Tehe ; )

The third and final race of this series is February 20th and again I plan on riding my mtn bike, no matter the conditions and again, running a hard and honest race. Hey maybe I can knock another 7 mins off my time! (Dreaming BIG)

Chilly Cheeks Duathlon Race #1

On Saturday I raced in the first race of the Chilly Cheeks Duathlon series. Actually it wasn’t a real duathlon it was just a 4 mile run followed by a 10 mile bike. It’s been bitter cold and really snowy here thus for this particular race I entered the “fat tire” division....good move on my part, the roads were completely snow packed in parts. Overall it was a good race and I finished 5th overall female and 2nd in my age group but I could have done a whole lot better. However I did learn a few things at this race that I would like to share:

1) No unexpected sprints before a race! Bringing your new puppy to a race and having him slip out of his collar is NOT a good way to warm up for a race! Porter (the new pup) decided it would be a great time to run away from us and play keep- away twenty minutes before the start. Since he really only responds to me right now I had to help catch him. 19 mins later the little rascal was back on his leash and feeling Ryan’s wrath : P and I was running to the start line for the start of the race, out of breath already!

2) Know the course before you race it!! The race was in a state park called Cherry Creek. Ryan and I have ridden there a lot!! So I figured I would know the course and not have to worry about where to go and what I would be racing on because I was already familiar. Two little details that didn’t enter my mind, 1) I haven’t ridden there in the winter and 2) I have never actually run there. Well the run course was on a dirt trail that had about 3 inches of snow covering it and there’s stupid me with regular running shoes on. As you could imagine I was slipping all over the place!! I was first in my division in the run until about 3 miles when some girl, who had these nifty spiked attachments for her shoes, came flying by me! DOH!!! I never saw that girl again : ( Should have brought at least trail running shoes or even my spikes from HS track, anything would have been better than my regular running shoes!

3) Know your equipment!!! After this race I have now claimed the title of being the dumbest/ most unprepared racer of all time! As I mentioned before, I decided to enter the fat tire division of the race because the roads still had snow and ice on them after a week of below zero temps and about a foot of snow, thus onto my mountain bike I climbed. I rarely think I’m good at anything, but on a mountain bike, I’m good...I know, surprising. I don’t know if it’s the confidence of the wider tires or what but, I feel, I’m A LOT better mountain biker than road biker....well until this race. I started the bike and shifted to the gear I thought I should be in and just started to pound away, like usual. Then I noticed my cleat wasn’t properly attached to my pedal, here my cleat had frozen and I couldn’t attach it, thus I stopped, stamped my foot a few times to loosen the ice, and off I went, determined to make up some lost time. I got into the biggest chain ring and just pounded away (insert dramatic irony here). I noticed within the first few miles that my legs were super tired and I had no idea why, the run wasn’t that hard, so I just kept pushing and pushing. My cadence was surprisingly high but since I was in the hardest gear on the bike I just kept forcing my legs round and round. Around mile 8 I started to get really tired and kept getting passed. I was very much dismayed and thinkin’ “WTH! You are good at mtn biking, get you’re a$$ in gear and go!” So I PUT MY HEAD DOWN, started to push as hard as I could and happened to notice I was in the GRANNY GEAR SMALL CHAIN RING AND NOT THE LARGE ONE!!!! The whole time I thought I was in the hardest gear and I flippin’ wasn’t!!! No wonder why my cadence was high and my legs were so damn tired!!! My mountain bike and my road bike are opposite when you are gearing and being that I ride my road/tri bike about 99% of the time, just out of habit, I was shifting gears as I do on my road bike!!! Ya see, I’m a freakin’ idiot!!! UGH!!!! Well as you could guess I switched my gear to the “real” big chain ring and pounded the last mile. I passed 10 people that last mile, that’s a lot for a 300+ person race!!!

Overall the race was great and really well run for a non-sanctioned small race!! Funny that the race that I kinda blew off in getting prepared due to the small size and short distances of the race is one of the races I learned the most from! Oh well the next race in this series is Jan 23rd and I plan on kicking some major a$$!!! : )

Let the Games Begin!!

Finally 2010 training has commenced and ,lucky me, it started with me having a head cold. UGH! Oh well I’m still very excited to get things going even if it’s only the base training stage. Here is my 2010 race schedule (note the two IMs, I’m nuts):

Chilly Cheeks Duathlon series: December 12
January 23
February 20
Boise 70.3: June 12th

Ironman Lake Placid: July 25th

Colorado Relay: September 17th and 18th

(Tentative) Denver Marathon (half or a relay): October 18th

Ironman Arizona: November 21st


Happy Training!!!!

Checking a Different Box

Last Friday, at the doctor’s office, I got to check the married box!

November 7th I married my biggest and best competitor. I’m not talking a competitor in the senses of a mean rivalry or one of us constantly trying to “beat” the other....although don’t think for a second it doesn’t go there. I’m referring to a deeper level of a competitor, a beautiful relationship.

A great competitor is someone that you know can go stride for stride with you, someone who will push you to your limits, someone who frustrates you, someone who pisses you off and most of all someone who at the end of the day you respect and admire. This is Ryan for me! He is literally my perfect competitor.

Ryan is an obstinate, hot tempered, moody, relentless, determined and hard to manage man. If you know me well you can see that Ryan is the perfect guy for me, seeing as I’m not the most, shall I say, easy person to live with ; ) And you can also see that these qualities make for one hell of a competitor. These aspects in Ryan are what I fell in love with, not his anal cleanliness or his ability to cook something more than toast (yea I suck) or his amazing ability to make me smile. Yes those things are great but I was always taught to love someone first and foremost for their faults, I never understood this until I met Ryan.

So three weeks ago I got to marry my perfect man! The day was unbelievable!!! It was over in a blink of an eye and now I get to check that married box.

“It’s one thing to check a new age-range box on a form at the doctor’s office after a milestone birthday. It’s quite another feeling to go from checking the “single” box to the “married” box.” It most certainly is another feeling....it’s wonderful!

Here is a pic of us on the big day...notice the fancy footwear. More, better, pics to come.

Ryan and I with my siblings

Ryan and I with our neice and nephew (Meghan and Daniel)

Trying to post from my phone.

Quote

This is a perfect quote...see previuos post : )

"Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow- that is patience"

~Unknown

Antsy!

I do NOT like the off-season! I am getting so antsy to be on a workout schedule again. Right now Ryan, Val (in house training partner), and I are just kinda working out when we want and doing what we want, waiting for our IM LP training to start. Our days are often…

“Hmmm do you feel like running today? Nope. Let’s bike! Or should we just do yoga? What about a mtn bike ride?”

Some may feel this is great to be on your own schedule and do what you want, and it is great sometimes but I’m not settled when I don’t have a workout schedule to stick to. Watching the Ironman World Championships in Kona on Saturday definitely did not help. I was so jealous of all the athletes there, not necessarily because they were racing the best Tri on earth but because they were just plain racing! (Congrats to all who competed in the race on Saturday, what an amazing race!!)

So obviously I am so ready for LP training to start! This will, hopefully, be November 16th. Yes, I have the exact date. I plan to start scheduled training, 36 weeks from IM LP. However, November 16th seems SO far away.

So what should I do? Does anyone have a good base training plan that I could follow? Or should I just take the time off and go insane? HA!

Suggestions please!!!

Next year I plan to do IM AZ thus I will still be happily training at this time next year. So I'm hoping this is the only year I will have this stir-crazy feeling. We'll see.

New Adventures

I have finally expanded my horizons! In more than one way too! Like most people I get stuck in a rut of every day living; workout, work, workout, sleep, repeat. However lately I have come out of my shell and have done so many new things that I have never had the courage or confidence to do before! Group rides, group runs, masters swimming, and even yoga (thanks Lindsey!).

I am proud to say that I have finally taken the initiative to build my confidence up and get out there and work out with other people. I know this sounds silly but truly I have never had the confidence in my abilities to work out with others. I always feel that I’m going to be holding people up, that they’re going to have to slow down for me, or that I’m going to embarrass myself...well ya know what, I don’t care anymore. Yea I may be slowing some people down but this isn’t always the case, and if they are true friends they won’t mind slowing down once in a while.

It’s the real world! Sometimes you’re better than someone, sometimes you’re not. But putting yourself out there and throwing caution to the wind can really make you a better person and in my case, a better athlete. I may not be the fastest, but I have the desire to be, thus I want to work harder and harder until I can catch those people faster than me.

I think everyone could use a little boost of confidence now and again. My small, but ever growing, confidence comes from my friends and family but particularly from my good friend Rich Burgunder. Rich is this AMAZING runner/athlete, he is one of those people that have faith in everyone and everything. He is the first to compliment someone on a race or milestone reached, he is the first to wish someone good luck at whatever event it may be no matter the distance, he’s the first to give some good advice and confidence prior to an event and he’s the first to sympathize when you didn’t do as well as you were hoping! I think we all need to take a lesson from him. I think we should all be as complimentary to each other as Rich is to everyone he knows, or he doesn’t know for that matter. Honestly, without his little boosts of confidence I would not be the athlete or person I am today. So it does make a difference.

Thus, on to my soap box I climb; make that extra effort for someone else, give someone a little boost of confidence, you never know how much it could really help.

Rich and I, after the VA Beach Duathlon.

Mystery Solved!!

It’s been 8 days since IM WI and I’m still annoyed with the race, although my mystery is solved. My dad’s good friend, Waseem, is a neurologist and my dad happened to mention to him about my poor run due to the numbness in my extremities. And it didn’t take but a moment for Waseem to have a diagnosis. I can’t recall the exact medical wording for this but in lame men’s terms it was compression of my spinal chord that caused the numbness/tingling. Being in the aero position for 6.5 hours and rarely changing positions can often cause compression on the spinal chord, which in turn causes some nerve damage…not serious in the least and it definitely sounds a lot worse than it is.

This again all comes back to me, it’s my fault. When we train around Denver we are often on trails/roads that have many people, turns, and stops, thus you can’t really get aero for too long before you are up on the handle bars pressing the brakes. Whereas in a race you don’t ever have to stop, after all that’s why we pay the big bucks to do these things, so we can have law enforcement and volunteers keep cars off the roads. Thus, my body was just not used to the position, even though I experienced no pain what-so-ever on the bike, it still took its toll. Oh well live and learn right? I’m just SO happy it wasn’t a heart issue, I believe I will live! Haha

And side note: I went running for the first time on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Bushy Run trails, short ones but a favorite of mine, and felt really really good! Pittsburgh is very hilly thus my legs were really tested on how much recovery I really need, and I think I need a little more. I felt great but on the downhills my quads kept giving out on me, not surprising though. So all n’ all I felt great and I’m thinkin’ I’m gonna head out on a short run tonight after work!

PS: Bushy Run's funding has been cut and they can't maintain the park without this money thus they are in need of support, please visit www.savebushyrun.org to help.

Ironman Wisconsin Race Report

This past week I have decided that Ironman racing is a cruel world. You work so hard for nine months or even a year for a day long race and then you are left with… what?

Only three days out from Ironman Wisconsin, I’m thikin’ I shouldn’t be writing this race report as I’m still re-living my mistakes from the race, not my accomplishments. Feelings of accomplishment and pride are too hard to come by when you did not race the way you know you should have and know you are capable of. Oh well here goes…perhaps this will be cathartic and bring out some feelings of accomplishment.

Well we arrived in Wisconsin on Thursday (Sept 10) and met up with our friends Randy and Erica (we were staying at Randy’s place, thanks Randy!!). We had a great cook-out with them with some exciting stories and events, particularly one story of a man drowning that I could not get out of my head…thank you SO much Erica ; ) and of course a visit from the fire department. Needless to say we were definitely starting out the weekend on an interesting note. It was nice and relaxing to spend an evening with our friends and not really worry about the impending doom of our race.

Thursday night we headed to bed rather early, because we wanted to get up and do a practice swim in Lake Monona and then get checked in. The practice swim went quite well, Ryan and I did one lap of the course just to get a feel for the water. Our laps were right on pace for what we wanted to do in the race so we were happy. On to athlete check-in. Athlete check-in went very smoothly and by 11 am we had signed our life away to the Ironman gods.

Following check-in I was anxious to drive the bike course and get an idea of the beast I had been told about. After getting lost and numerous arguments between Ryan and me, we finally managed to find the bike loop we were looking for. Driving the course was a bit intimidating as there were SO many hills on the course; and I’m not talking those measly rolling hills we all like, I mean “get your butt out of the saddle or you are going to fall on your face” kinda climbs. Trying not to get too worried I just reminded myself that I live in CO and we see hills (or mountains as we like to call them in the Rockies haha) like this all the time at home. I would keep this thought with me throughout the race.

Friday and Saturday went by really fast, where all we did was relax and try to concentrate on the task at hand. Personally I was having some trouble concentrating as I was more concerned with the aforementioned drown man. So back to that really quick, a man had drown in the lake that we were to swim in for the race and unfortunately his body hadn’t been recovered. The man drowned on Wednesday night in the area of the swim course. Now it’s said that a human body will float to the surface after a few days. Those few days would put the man surfacing the day of the race!! This, I could NOT get out of my head! I would be swimming in a lake, which I don’t like to begin with, that has a dead man in it, that could float to the surface at any given moment during the race!!!!!!! How could I possibly get that out of my head, yet again Erica I thank you for that information haha. This was terrorizing me throughout the whole weekend and including the race. But anyway I digress, on to the actual race! The alarm went off all too soon on race morning and Ryan and I were off to the race site. Like most races, I’m super nervous the days before the race but calm the morning of the race, this was pretty much the case. Once in the water, treading water for ten minutes, I felt comfortable and ready to race and somehow managed to push the dead guy out of my head. Before I knew it the canon sounded and me and 2,406 of my closest “friends” were swimming (or floundering). Surprisingly doing a mass start with that many people wasn’t too bad. Yea I got pummeled pretty good, but I didn’t panic, I remained confident that I could complete this swim with no problems….but then came the first turn. Nobody could swim the first turn; there were just too many bodies in such a small area, thus we were all bobbing along letting the current take us around the bend. Now during this “bobbing” I had two guys ask me if I was ok, this is definitely strange for a triathlon swim. I said that of course I was fine but I asked the second guy why he was asking me, his response “you have blood running down your face”. Whoa news to me! I did get kicked or hit, not sure which, in the face pretty hard earlier but thought nothing of it, but apparently my face had a different thought. Oh well I though, I’m not gonna let a little blood stop me, after all there are no sharks in this lake. So I swam on, my first lap I was so geeked to see 38 minutes but my second lap I got off course coming into the finish and ended with a 1:21. I think my official time was 1:22 something but I fell face first trying to get out of the water and I had to wait for my severe humiliation to pass before I continued. I really hope they got a picture of that, ya know for posterity sake. Haha ! Either way, not too bad of a swim and 15mins faster than my last race! Oh yea and no dead bodies, SCORE!!!

The swim start with 2,406 people

Transition was long, but oh well, onto the bike. Once I got my land legs back, me and my sexy machine began the looong ride. The first 56 miles of the bike I felt fan-freakin-tastic. I kept looking down at my odometer seeing 20+ mph and kept trying to convince my legs to slow down that I would regret going this fast later, which I kinda did in the end. Thus I slowed up the pace quite a bit, with the help of a very strong head wind, after the first loop of the course, but my legs still felt great and I was in a great mood. Ya see I have a “rainman” type quality to me that I like to count people I pass on the bike and run…so happily I rode counting people I passed (343) and deducting the amount of people that passed me (114 only 20 women). Good ratios in my book, this really kept me motivated to keep going and keep passing people. The only time I can say I felt fatigued and frustrated on the bike was the last 12 miles. I was thinking they would be easy miles, no hills, just coast to the finish, boy was I wrong!! Seriously the spawn of satan mapped out the last 12 miles of the course, I was out of my saddle climbing for like 6 out of those 12 miles. I really really do like climbing and would normally never complain about a hill but come on, at the end of a very hilly 112 mile bike who doesn’t want to just “coast in” to the finish? Well I finished the bike a bit slower than I had wanted averaging about 16.9mph but yet again comparing to my last IM, I was over an hour faster!!! Thus, no complaints here; although, I plan on really really focusing on the bike this coming season

On the bike, not the best picture.

Now onto the run, my favorite part of the whole triathlon….USUALLY. Coming off the bike my legs felt like I hadn’t exercised in a week, they felt so fresh! My first mile I did in 7:45 and I really had to tell my legs that I had 25 more miles left, there is no rush! Thus I slowed down to a very comfortable pace and greatly enjoyed the first 13 miles, I was even singing to the songs that they were playing along the course, my favorite of the day being “I Gotta Feeling” by Black Eyed Peas…very enjoyable! Although as I passed through the half mark I started to notice that my hands, fingers, arms, and feet were starting to tingle, very unusual for me, I’ve never had this before. Thus I stopped at the mile 14 aid station and asked a volunteer about it (mistake number 1). This dude totally freaked me out, told me that it was a heart problem and I definitely needed to walk or I could have a heart attack. This guy figured it was no big deal because even if I crawled the last 12 miles I could finish before the cutoff, grrrrr I didn’t just want to finish before the cutoff, but I also didn’t want to die of a heart attack, thus I listened to this dude and walked (mistake number 2). While I was walking I noticed I had a strong chest pain and started freaking out, but then finally after walking FIVE MILES I realized I had had this pain before and it was nothing but indigestion! DOH! Although my hands, arms, and feet were completely numb at this point. Getting frustrated that my legs felt so good and I was walking I stopped at the Mile 19 aid station and asked for a MEDICAL professional, not just some joe-schmoe, who knew NOTHING!! I was introduced to a doctor who I told my numb issues to and he told me that I was not going to die (imagine that) but it was more than likely that my heart was “overworked and underpaid” at the moment. Meaning my heart wasn’t able to pump blood to my extremities but this was very common and I was fine. Double DOH!!! Although he advised a plan of action of walking a quarter mile and running three quarters mile at a slow pace just to be safe. Him being a doctor and me being a doofus, I listened. It was so hard running a slow pace when my legs felt so good but at least I got the ok to run. The last couple miles I was feeling a mixture of bitterness for having to walk when I didn’t really have to and bliss that I was running again, albeit only three quarters per mile but oh well. Coming around to mile 25 and State street, I decided to screw the doctor’s orders and just go all out! That I did. Finishing so strong was bitter/sweet but I was just happy to be done and feeling great!

The beginning of the run, second runner from right.

Finishing the run strong!

After finishing I admit I was sleepy and slightly sore but I didn’t feel like I just did an Ironman. I felt like I just did a long training day at a leisurely pace. WTH?? UGH!!! Yes I finished my second Ironman, yes I bested my time by 40 mins, but I feel cheated. I feel unaccomplished. I feel like an ass! I'm not sore at all! Gee wonder if that says something. Mentally/emotionally I'm super disappointed and actually quite let down. I am VERY pissed at myself for not doing better. For some reason this year I felt I had something to prove, that I was better, A LOT better than last year, and I know I am but the results definitely didn't show that. UGH I'm just so disappointed. I want to do another race ASAP just to prove that I am better, just to myself though.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am proud of my finish, I am proud of how much work and effort I put into this sport but sometimes you’re your own worst critic and this is definitely the case. Expecting to do about a 12:30, and doing a 13:43, kinda stinks but I know with a little more hard work I can accomplish my goals.

Thank you to everyone who supported Ryan and I throughout this whole process. We are SO lucky to have friends and family that are so supportive.

Ryan and I after the race, do we look tired?? : )

Sorta...

Good grief I'm bad at keeping up with this sometimes. However, I have good reasons...sorta. Insufficient reason #1 I didn't have much to write about and insufficient reason #2 I am unemployed and have been busy looking for a job...sorta.

So in early June I got laid off from the worst job known to man kind. I liken it to a year and a half long hangover, yes that bad. But getting laid off has been the best thing for me, "a blessing in disguise" as my mom would say. I wouldn't have left the job due to the poor economy and would had been miserable for who knows how long, thus I'm happily taking this time off (sorta) and really focusing on things that I love, like training! 

Training has been fantastic! I'm really putting my all into it and finally seeing some results. The workouts are definitely not easy, but ironmans aren't easy. And they definitely take up a lot of time, however lucky for me, time is one thing I do have. 

Finally I am putting in those 20 hour workout weeks I should be. I think the biggest improvement has been the bike. Saturday I rode 86 miles at a very very good pace...sorta, well for me anyway, and I'm itching to get out there more and push it to see what I'm capable of. However, is this really a good idea, pushing the limits, when Ironman Wisconsin is only 6 weeks away??

I'm aching so badly to improve my pitiful IM time from the Great Floridian and know I can but I'm afraid of pushing too hard and "bonking" during the race. Thus when do you know when you are at your true limits before it's too late? 

I think I have just written the longest definition of a procrastinator. Too bad it took me getting laid off to really start getting into this training and unfortunately I'm paying the price of not knowing my strengths and weaknesses in time to really do great at IM WI. I know in the end I will do the best I can and that's all I can do for now, but damn, do I have to be such a procrastinator?

Well I will get my third chance at the IM distance next year at Lake Placid. I was in shock that I was actually able to get into the race and now I'm so excited...sorta. It's well known IM Lake Placid is one of the hardest courses and has a decent that will make me wet my pants, but I really am looking forward to the challenge of monster that is called "Papa Bear"...sorta.

Trainer, trails, trying

This weekend I finally got my butt out and did my long workouts.

My brake on my bike is funky right now and thus I was hesitant to ride outside therefore I rode the trainer. Although, I won’t lie, I prefer the trainer more often than not than going outside. I put in the movie Mama Mia (which I hadn’t seen and it’s great!) and pedaled away. For once I actually stuck to the exact workout listed and was definitely huffing and puffing at the end. A good 2.5 hours later I was done with the bike and happy that there wasn’t a run on Saturday’s workout. I finally pushed myself on a longer ride, imagine that! Good grief I can be lazy sometimes.

Saturday night we attended a “Polo Barn Party” for a children’s charity of some sort. The tickets were free thus the food was free and the beer was free…can’t beat that. So since I had worked so hard on the bike I decided I could afford to have a few drinks. As I enjoyed my numerous drinks, I made a fatal flaw of not thinking of the long run I had in the morning that would inevitably be done hung-over. Much to my amazement when I woke up in the morning I felt ok, a little dehydrated but not hung-over! Whoopee! Therefore, a bowl of cereal later and I was off on my 1.5 hour run.

Moving to a new area kinda sucks because you have to find new areas to bike and run, luckily we have moved to area that is much nicer for athletes than our previous place of residency. The run was all along the Bear Creek Trail which was actually a quite difficult run; I can’t recall a flat section on the whole 1.5hr loop that I ran, YAY for hills!! I was definitely feeling the hills, probably more due to the previous night’s boozefest, but doing mostly treadmill runs didn’t really prepare me for the natural terrain.

Side Note: No matter where I move to, I have found that I will always find a golf course to run on, whether I’m intentionally looking or not. I swear all tri- or running- geeks have a tendency to seek out golf courses! Well the trail I was on winded through the Bear Creek golf course and it was beautiful; of course very little shade, but really pretty.

In general I felt great on the run! My legs were feeling fantastic at the end, which rarely happens, and I was ecstatic. A long hard run complete and I wasn’t that tired afterward! Although to ensure my legs would remain feeling good for the rest of the day, I decided to “treat” my legs to an ice bath.

Hmmmm is it an ice bath or is it 3 minutes of torture (before numbness sets in)? I had forgotten how badly ice baths hurt until your legs go numb. YIKES! After I got in, during the pain, I was thinking how nuts I am to be doing this, even my dog and cat thought I was nuts; they just stood there staring at me with their heads cocked to the side just looking befuddled. However, after a few minutes went by the bath was complete bliss and best of all, it worked! My legs felt great for the rest of the day, not even a hint of fatigue, and they don’t hurt today (Monday)! I must make a point not to be a wuss and do these more often, they’re like miracle recovery for your legs!

After this weekend of trying but successful long workouts, I definitely look forward to what next weekend has in store for me and my legs! Until then I’m focusing on this week’s workouts, which look hard. EEK!

Success…small but good.

So I finally got my butt out of bed, two days in a row, and went to the gym before work to run! Major success for this girl who likes her 9 hours of sleep each night.

So why do I go to the gym to run and not just go outside in my very safe (low crime) neighborhood? Coyotes! And not like the sweet, dumb Wiley Coyote type, mean ones that eat “purse dogs” and kitty cats. We have tons of them around us. I know the majority are scared of humans and will run away but I don’t really feel up to taking that risk…alone….in the dark. I would consider taking Ty (the dog) but he’d probably run away too, that or try to make friends with the darn thing, thus to the gym I go.

I have to admit, I do love running on the treadmill, and I never have an easy day on it. I love being able to keep track of my pace, time, distance, and heart rate throughout the whole run. Being able to see my pace just keeps making me push that speed up just a little bit more every few minutes. By the end of any treadmill workout I’m sweating like a piggy and seriously out of breath, I love it! I love running outside too, especially for the hills, but sometimes the weather just doesn’t cooperate and there’s my trusty friend…the gym!

Speaking of the gym and running on treadmills, I have a rant that is dying to be typed out… I HATE treadmill peepers, ya know those people who run next to you and are constantly looking over to see what speed you’re at and your time/distance, just so they can bump up their speed to make sure they are going faster than you. This guy next to me this morning kept looking over and he didn’t make any attempt to hide his nosiness. He would look over at my speed and then bump it up by one every time I bumped mine up… poor fool I was doing intervals and was only half way through my workout when he stopped, gasping for air, and left. UGH! I usually bring a towel to cover the machine so I can’t see the time but none of my towels can cover the digital speed reading, but why should I have to cover anything? ‘MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! I’m here for me, not to compete with you.’ How annoying. Oh well just gotta ignore them and continue doing my own thing I suppose.

At any rate, hopefully I can keep this routine of going to the gym every morning and of course, continue to get in my other workouts, swimming and biking, as well. I think this weekend will be a big run and bike weekend and surprisingly I’m looking forward to it!

See, he’s too sweet to fight off a big bad coyote, he gives Kona kisses!

Weekend whirlwind!

Last weekend we traveled back to da burgh to get some wedding details figured out and all that stuff out of the way. Well I am happy to report we were quite successful. We got to visit the church, meet with the priest, eat at the restaurant where the rehearsal dinner is, pick flowers, taste food for the reception, and most importantly I was able to find a dress! Whew! What a week/weekend!

As exciting as getting wedding stuff completed there was another much more exciting event that took place while I was at home; the birth of my first niece Meghan Elizabeth! Meghan was quite a surprise to my brother and his wife Erin (and the rest of the family) as they were full heartedly expecting a boy, but much to the dismay of all our predictions a beautiful baby girl was born. Meghan was a whopping 8lbs 3oz and 20.25 inches long. She was so healthy and big that she didn’t even look like a newborn, she looked like she was already 2 months old…she was perfect!

The minute I found out that it was a girl my mom and I ran out to Kohl’s to buy as much baby girl (aka pink) clothes we could find. It was so fun buying clothes for a baby and I can’t wait until I can buy her more and spoil her like good aunts should. My other brother, Shane and his wife, Nadine are expecting in September and considering I probably won’t be able to be there for the birth of my second niece or nephew, I was overjoyed to be there for Meghan’s entrance into the world. Come September I will have two babies to spoil and I couldn’t be happier!

The proud parents!

Meghan Elizabeth

Proud Grandparents

Meghan and me.

This is my favorite photo! Starting the girl early, she will be a triathlete!

Weekend of Races…

Wow what a weekend in the running world! Tons of people that I know were racing in Pittsburgh, Lincoln, or NJ and whoa, everyone did so well, I am so impressed. Whether my friends were racing for the first time , doing it just to finish, doing it for a cause, or doing it to win, they all did so SO well. This is why I love the sport of running (or Tri for that matter) anyone can do any race if they push themselves just a little bit, and what’s even better, the support and encouragement all runners give to other runners it’s just amazing! Yea if you run, or do tris, you are in a fantastic community of people, a community of constant support, whether you know it or not. This great support in itself should be enough motivation to go out and run that extra mile.


I can honestly say at this point in my life I get as much satisfaction as watching a friend do a race as when I do one myself. Yea when I’m watching I want to be out there racing too but I love to see someone cross that finish line that would have never dreamed it possible until they tried. The long and short of it, I’m very proud of my friends and their accomplishments this weekend! You motivate me to go the extra mile! Thanks! : )

Shower, shower, shower...

Wake up, shower, work, train at lunch, shower, back to work, train, shower…see the pattern. That’s a lot of showers. I take, at absolute minimum, three showers a day! I don’t know if my hair or skin can take it anymore. My skin is always dry, but I have lotion so no big deal, but my poor hair; it’s starting to get all dry and brittle and fall out! YIKES! I’m going bald because of exercise…interesting. And the damage that chlorine does to hair alone is just cruel but add on three showers, yea I repeat, my poor hair. There must be a solution that will not compromise working out but doesn’t cause immeasurable harm to my hair. I know there are tons of you out there with the same problem, so what’s the solution? I was told that if I didn’t shampoo in all three showers that would improve the health of my hair, but is that true? Or will I just have to live with the fact that my hair will be crap for entire seasons’ worth of training? Ideas?

Swim! Run! Bike?

Good Lord I’m bad at writing on this thing. It’s funny because I always have tons of ideas what I want to write but just never get around to writing them. Ok I’m going to try SO hard to write more often on this thing, as it gives me inspiration to get farther and faster and better than I was from the previous entry.

So the training is coming along rather nicely but of course there are the ups and downs of training for any long race such as an IM. The ups are I’m starting to workout more often and more consistently, during the week, and the downs are I’m sucking at working out on the weekends and getting those long rides/runs in...a change that must be made ASAP!

Every week day at lunch I am going to the gym and getting in either a run or a swim. In the last 3 weeks alone I have swum more times than I did all last season, and keep in mind last season I did an IM! Yea, can you tell swimming is not my favorite of the three? My swimming is probably where I’m seeing the most improvement…going from doing a 2 min to 2:10min /100m at a comfortable pace to doing a 1:40/ 100m pace is a big deal in my book. I know the time still sucks but I never, nor will I ever, claim to be a great, or even good swimmer. However, now I’m more excited to get in the pool and see how much faster I can go! I love to push myself and when I can see improvement it gives me that much more of a reason to push harder and harder. Then there’s running…

This last year being out in CO, running has been my biggest heart break. In DC I was running, easily, a 7:30/mile pace and once I moved out here I could NOT get below a 9/mile pace, it was AWFUL!!! I started to absolutely hate running and definitely wanted to give up, but after my somewhat decent marathon at the IM, I figured I should push through, what everyone was telling me was a high altitude adjustment, and strive to be that 7/mile runner I once was. Well I’m back on the road and improving everyday! I can now do an easy 8:20/mile pace, still sucky but definitely improving, and that’s after only running for 2 weeks consistently. So it’s a small feat but an optimistic one for me.

And as for biking, I haven’t been doing much of that. I would like to blame my little time in the saddle on just buying and moving into a new house but really, that’s no excuse. I’ve been on the bike once this week and plan on riding tonight, tomorrow, and, hopefully, Saturday….we’ll see how it goes.

Thus, more biking and more weekend rides/runs is really what I’m striving for now. I figure if I suck it up and become a little more disciplined that as I put more time into everything, eventually the improvement in times will come naturally. Here’s hoping!

So it’s been like three months since I wrote on this thing but I have finally been inspired to write something, thanks to my friend Chad’s tri blog. I look at his blog and he inspires me so much, I mean look at this: http://www.chadholderbaum.com/, he is such a dedicated, phenominal athlete and a fantastic person to look to for inspiration. Even though I’ve probably done over a hundred tris, ranging from a sprint to an IM distance race, I find I don’t have the discipline to be as good as I can be. When comparing myself to other tri geeks, I find that they put so much more effort into this sport than I do; and what’s worse is I live in one of the best training venues in the country, Denver! So I’m thinkin’ its about time I stop slacking. I love this sport and I’m tired of being mediochre.

I currently only have one triathlon on my schedule this year and that is IM Wisconsin, although the Pittsburgh marathon and few running races are spattered throughout my schedule as well. Apparently getting married takes all my money away and I don’t have the funds to do all the tris I want. Although, perhaps this no funds is a good thing (only with respect to tris of course), maybe I can take this year as a good training year and really build my base. Now let’s see if I can stick with it.

On a different note, Ironman training started this week for Ryan and I and so far so good. Monday was an hour bike (felt great!), Tuesday was a bike and run, which amazingly I did both and felt good , and today is a 1800 meter swim. I am anxious to see how I fare in the water considering I haven’t been in the pool since the Great Floridian in October. Here’s hoping I don’t drown.