Keep on Running, Keep on Running, Running Running

Random Friday Facts - the travel edition

2012-02-10T02:24:00.000-05:00

- I've been the cause of a missed flight once. NEVER AGAIN.

- Bumps in the air are OK but sudden drops are NOT, in my opinion.

- That can of Raid sitting in my hotel room, haven't had to use it yet.

- I've eaten alot of pasta and pizza and I'm still saving that apple.

- My hotel bathroom has a shower curtain. This may not seem like a novelty but believe me, in some countries, it is.

- Mr. Sweetie's goal this year - take a vacation with just me and NOT with my bike in tow.

- My Delta airline miles are the only ones I've been good about tracking and making sure I get the credit. I need to stop being lazy about my AA miles and Southwest miles.

- They speak about 69 different languages in Burkina Faso.

- I'm not good at packing light.

- I almost brought my yoga mat with me on this trip, but figured that was a bit excessive.

- I've never visited Australia, South America or Antarctica. Been to every other continent though.

- I'd never been west of the Mississippi until I was 23. And despite growing up in New Hampshire, I'd never been to Rhode Island until I was something like 27. And even then, it was only because I flew into the Providence airport.

- Judging from all the crowing late last night, the rooster outside my window has no concept of dawn.

- As much as I enjoy traveling, I enjoy returning home even more!

Bonjour du Burkina!

2012-02-07T15:55:00.007-05:00

Hello from Burkina!

Here's a map, just in case you are like me a year ago

when I had no idea where Burkina was located either...

The trip has been good so far, I'm enjoying the fact that it's simultaneously February AND tank top weather. Bigger bonus that it's not quite as hot this time around as it was last time I was here. In fact, it was even "chilly" yesterday thanks to the poussiere (dust storm) that blotted out the sun. And by "chilly" I mean it was comfortable and I wasn't sweating buckets wearing a short sleeve shirt and pants. The Burkinabe, on the other hand, were bundled up in coats and hats. I think it was in the low 80s.

There hasn't been as much exercise action as I'd hoped there'd be by this point. Sunday's workout was missed due to a delayed flight, late arrival time, and general weariness from being awake for almost 36 hours (sleep doesn't happen for me on planes). Monday the hotel couldn't find the key to unlock the gym. I didn't have time to argue and haggle with them, so I let it be and hoped the key would turn up by today. Tried again this afternoon, still no key. I threw a bit of a hissy fit (I kind of feel bad about it but I was desperate and I wasn't rude) and they put finding the key at the top of their priority list. Within 5 minutes, I had it in my hot little hands so I could keep my date with the treadmill. No AC, no fans, and close to 90 degrees, it was awesome. We'll see if they can find the key again for me tomorrow so I can get a bike ride in. I'm not really sure why they lock the gym - they have a guard standing right outside of the gym door (to make sure nobody walks off with a treadmill?) and, quite honestly given the fact that the key was missing for who knows how long and nobody complained, I'm pretty sure hardly anyone even uses the gym. Or knows where it is located (it took me a good 7 days to find it last time I was here).

I bought a cell phone yesterday from one of the guys selling phones in the streets. It is old school. Haven't actually tried to use it yet, but I like how small and simple it looks. I got back to my hotel room after my meetings today and there was a giant can of Raid sitting on my nightstand. I haven't actually seen any insects in my room, so it makes me a little curious what the cleaning staff seems to know about my room that I don't. I also stole an apple from the Air France lounge on Saturday and I'm saving it for that moment when I am desperate for some fresh fruit (they don't recommend eating the fruit here because of the water and I'm paranoid so I actually obey this rule and last time I was dreaming about fruit by the end of my trip). And my French is actually serving me pretty welll so far, it's definitely better than last time I was here (see: throwdown over gym key and the fact that I wasn't totally lost during my meetings). Oh, and an alarm clock isn't really necessary here - the rooster and goats next to my hotel room wake me up on time just fine.

I've finished two more books. One, My Name is Victoria Donda: The Extraordinary Story of One Woman's Struggle to Reclaim her True Identity (by - you guessed it - Victoria Donda) was a bit of a disappointment. It's a true story about an Argentinean woman who, when she was 27 years old, found out that the people she thought were her parents actually weren't and her true parents were actually desaparadicios and were killed by the military. It could've been a really interesting story, but the way she wrote was obnoxious and towards the end of the book, I just kept hoping each page I turned was the last one. She was very repetitive and extremely self-centered and self-important. I didn't learn as much as I would've liked about Argentina's turbulent history; instead, I learned more about the author's dating history and wardrobe choices than anything else.

The other book I just finished was Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. Like his other book that I read, this was very well-written, well-researched, and really offered a vivid picture of mid-1930s Germany as Nazism was on the rise. I didn't realize how much the U.S. tried to placate Germany and avoid confrontations. And how... friendly we were to the Nazis. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

February? Now?

2012-02-01T21:59:00.002-05:00

Don't ask me where January went, I have no idea.

Nothing exciting on the workout front except that I sat on my trainer this AM, watched reruns of Grey's Anatomy episodes from back in the day when it was a decent show, and tried (mostly failed) at getting my HR into the appropriate zones. I've done alot of griping on the blog about the new HR zones in the past month, this crankiness has to go away at some point, right? When these zones give me a new PR, I will shut up.

So I'm going back to Burkina Faso for work again soon. This time around I'm trying to retool my wardrobe a bit (I know, I am going to one of the poorest countries in the world and all I can think about is my wardrobe, I get it that I am a spoiled, Western girl and you better believe I understand how lucky I am that, as a girl, this is my biggest worry. Women in most places have it much worse). So it's going to be hot there (mid-90s) and AC isn't exactly prevalent. Normally at home 90 degree weather isn't much of a problem; I have a whole summer wardrobe of tank tops, shorts, and skirts to help me through it. But I figured out first-hand on my last trip that women aren't really supposed to be showing off their legs in Burkina. So skirts are out. So are spaghetti-strap tank tops. And thus, 9/10s of my summer wardrobe is ineligible. I think what it will come down to is this: LOTS of dri-fit shirts from triathlons. And sports bras. Paired with linen pants. I can't take all the classiness. At least I finally have an excuse to wear my dri-fit race polo shirt from 70.3 Galway.

The Non-Winter Winter Run

2012-01-31T20:57:00.003-05:00

Today I got into work a bit early with the intention of cutting out earlier than usual (after putting in my full workday, of course!) so I could run around DC and enjoy this beautiful spring, I mean winter, day. With the days getting noticeably longer (hooray!!), it felt really strange to leave my office, running shoes in hand, at 4:15pm with the sun streaming brightly through the windows, making it feel like it was mid-afternoon and I was playing hooky.

I started my run with a few of my co-workers and we jogged down to the Mall as a warmup. I had a progression run on the docket for today and I was looking forward to tackling it. Three miles, get progressively faster so you are working hard when you finish. I was going to try to go by HR but it was giving me all sorts of wacky numbers, so that idea when out the door and I went on effort instead. It was a beautiful, perfect evening to be running around the Mall, time zipped by and suddenly I was on the last bit of the workout. I've been thinking lately that I need to put a bit more effort into running, really work hard to stay in the appropriate HR zones and try to see what pace I can push in those zones. I'm so used to Ironman training (long slow distance) and the fact that I get to do a bit more speedy stuff right now (hooray for no spring marathon!!) is kind of awesome because it kind of makes me feel like I'm ahead of the game. I am seeing numbers I don't usually see. Case in point: there was a 6:xx on my Garmin for my last mile. I haven't seen a 6-something in ages upon ages! And I certainly didn't expect to see it in January. Even better was the fact that I didn't feel like I was dying or had maxed myself out. I think the consistent strength training is helping to mold me into a better athlete, I can't believe I waited this long to get serious about it. I'm so excited for this season, SO EXCITED! I've never felt this way in January. Maybe some of it has to do with the warmer-than-normal weather, but I think alot of it has to do with the fact that I am consciously trying to make the right choices (I said no to triple cream brie cheese for a snack and yes to hummus. I said no to the second bowl of ice cream and had an apple. I'm going to bed early. I'm getting my workouts in, even the strength training). The little things that, as I'm realizing now, matter so much.

The Workout Where I Almost Lost It

2012-01-29T13:17:00.006-05:00

So this morning I hopped on my trainer for a little ride. No big deal, right? Ohhhh no, there was so much drama going on in my basement this morning. Blame it all on the new heart rate zones I'm using. Ugh (in a good and bad way. Good - hopefully I will get faster. Bad - it takes alot of work to hit the prescribed zones sometimes. Today was one of those times). The last bit of the workout called for some Zone 4 effort and I Could. Not. Get. Into. Zone. 4. I was standing up on my bike, I was sprinting, I was huffing and puffing. Until it finally happened. And with each pedal stroke, I was getting more and more angry. I had this overwhelming urge to shriek, get off my trainer, and throw my bike across the room. It was the same frustrated feeling that I would have as a kid and my little brother would do something that would totally send me over the edge or I would be sent to my room as punishment and there was nothing else I could do but shriek at the top of my lungs at the injustice of it all (yes my parents were saints for putting up with me). However, unlike my tween-aged self, I didn't scream or throw my bike across the room. I gritted my teeth, pedaled harder, and eventually got my HR to where it was supposed to be, and finished the workout, both me and my bike in one piece.

Last night I got to spend time with some of my favorite people - my Aunt Amy, her two cute kids Lilly and Xander, and my cousin Charlotte. I don't get to see Charlotte nearly enough and it was a treat to have dinner with her (and Amy) last night and get caught up on each others' lives.

Cousins!

Hill Repeats - the Good, Bad, and the Ugly

2012-01-28T12:26:00.005-05:00

Jen was super secret squirrel and slipped this gem of a workout - HILL REPEATS - into my recovery week. I obviously didn't check my schedule too closely this week because I almost had a bird this morning when I saw what was on the docket for today. You want me to do WHAT on my Saturday? Haha, it would be funny if you weren't serious.

Anyway. There is a hill a couple miles away from my house and that's the one I use every time I do this particular workout (which I've done on 2/4/2010, 4/2/2010, 3/9/2011, and now today). Before I do a workout that I know I've done before, I never go back and check what my previous stats were. I just don't want to know. Because then I'll be thinking about those times the WHOLE workout and I'll probably just get frustrated. But you better believe I check and compare the stats afterwards. I love and loathe the hill repeats - love them (and hate them) because they are hard, love (and hate) how I feel when I am doing them, but LOVE how I feel after they are over. Especially if I don't have a meltdown in the middle of the workout. The repeats are an exercise in both physical and mental fortitude. And now that I've done this exact workout a few times, it serves as a good benchmark to see where I am fitness-wise compared to previous seasons. Oh, and they are a great way to make your thighs even bigger (because we all know that's EXACTLY what I need). To add to the fun, the workout doesn't call for me to just go up and down the hill, I'm supposed to get progressively faster with each one, descending times, if you will.

I only looked at my watch when I'd click the lap button at the top of the hill, clicking off another repeat. The times were decent, but I thought I'd done them faster in previous years. They had done some construction to the sidewalk recently, maybe they moved Street Sign A at the bottom of the hill (signaling the beginning of the repeat) and Street Sign B at the top of the hill (signaling the end of the repeat). Maybe they moved them around and I'm actually running further than previous workouts. Yes, yes, that must be the reason I'm not getting the times I think I should be getting. Anything to make myself feel better. For as much drama as I'm throwing into my description of this workout, it was actually pretty drama-free. I came, I ran (up and down alot) and I finished. No meltdowns (unlike on the 3/9/2011 workout, according to my notes when I apparently just stopped in the middle of one repeat and had to talk myself into finishing the workout). No super slow times like the first time I did it. And my times were consistently faster than the previous occasions I did this workout. Nothing spectacular, but... Progress. I'll take it (along with some ice cream, an apple, and two slices of pizza to recover from my efforts).

PS - finished The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks yesterday. A quick read, total chick lit, but really cute.

Random Friday Facts

2012-01-27T18:55:00.006-05:00

I have absolutely nothing interesting to post today. So, here are some Random Friday Facts:

- There are few things I love more than a good quality bagel toasted with butter. Today I managed to hold myself to 2 bagels at work on Bagel Friday (I also stole two more to take home with me to enjoy over the weekend. Crass, I know).

- I've always wanted a red front door. What is that song, is it they see a red door and want to paint it black or the other way around?

- When Miles is thirsty and his water dish is empty, he picks it up and throws it around the house and sometimes he'll throw it down the stairs. This is especially awesome when it happens during the middle of an interval bike workout and you are clipped in to your bike.

- I'm kind of a book snob. You won't ever catch me reading Danielle Steele or anything like that. But I do indulge in a little bit of Nicholas Sparks literature, it's a guilty pleasure.

- I'd never been west of the Mississippi until I was 23.

- We have a queen size bed and all three animals sleep on it every night with us.

- I realized this week that I am 2/3's of the way to 45. Not thrilled.

- I never, ever check my voicemail. Last time I did it was sometime in late 2011. Just text me instead!

- Every morning and every night we have to arm ourselves with a squirt bottle and play "referee" when it's time to feed Bissell, Miles, and Hoover. Their own food dish is never good enough, they always have to steal from each other.

- The first "naughty word" I remember saying was when I was 6 years old and called my little brother a jackass. I still remember the looks on my parents' faces and the silence that followed my foray into potty-mouthism. In my defense, they used "jackass" in Pinocchio and it's a Disney movie and I had no idea it was a bad word.

Why Mr. Sweetie IS a Sweetie

2012-01-25T21:16:00.005-05:00

So I swam this morning and actually got to the pool before my lanemates started the first set (this has been the week of being on time - I've gotten into work EVERY DAY before 9am. It's a strange and awesome feeling to beat your co-workers to work). Anyway, back to the swim. Good lord I'm terrible at pacing during the swim. Really terrible. I've not yet mastered the art of the "descending swim" or the "start conservative and finish strong" type of set. No, no - instead, I try to start and hold a stupid fast pace (for me, I will not say my splits because in reality they are NOT stupid fast) which always ends with my lanemates saying, "hehe, you kind of died there in the last 50, didn't you?" And I've also discovered that trying to swim stupid hard really only buys me about 2-3 seconds over 100yds, compared to swimming a steady, strong, DOABLE pace that doesn't leave me gasping at the end. And please let's not get started on open water swimming and how my pool fitness does NOT seem to translate to the types of OWS times I'd like.

Anyway. Would you like an example of why Mr. Sweetie is a sweetie? He's been super nice this week by dropping me off at the metro station on his way to work, saving me from the worst 30 minutes of my morning (the bus commute to the metro station). He leaves for work too early for me to fit in a shower between my workout and our departure, so I've just been getting ready for work at the gym in my building. And guess who forgot to pack her work shoes this morning? And guess who didn't realize it until, oh, halfway to the metro station? Mr. Sweetie was nice enough to turn around, bring me back to the house to get my shoes, and then drive me back to the metro station. Without a single snide remark (had the roles been reversed, I don't think I would've had the willpower to hold my tongue). I brought an extra pair of shoes to work with me today so this won't happen again (but then I forgot to actually take the extra pair out of my bag and leave them in my office, so that didn't do me any good).

I looked at my workouts for next week. Not going to lie... I am getting EXCITED! Excited as training ramps up, excited for upcoming races, excited for... my first ever double run day! Neither run is super long, but even when I was just training for a marathon and trying to qualify for Boston, I don't think I ever did a double-run day. I feel like double run days are serious, and I think it's kind of cool that Jen thinks I am serious enough to be given a double run day :)

Yesterday I finished the book "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." A co-worker of mine had recommended this book and with the movie out in theaters, it was on the top of my list. It is one year after September 11th and Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy whose dad died in the terrorist attacks, is on a mission to figure out a puzzle that he thinks his dad left behind for him to solve. The puzzle ends up being the backdrop to other more important story lines. In the beginning, I wasn't a big fan of Oskar's character (I know, terrible thing to say about a kid whose father died). He comes off as being too smart and pompous for his own good, kind of reminding you of that know-it-all child you used to babysit for when you were a teenager. But then layers start to peel away and I found myself liking him and feeling sad for him and rooting for him by the time the book finished. In the end, he really is just a kid trying to overcome a trauma that hopefully most of the rest of us never experience. It was well-written, definitely quirky, and as you read it, you feel like you are inside the minds of the characters who are narrating. The most poignant part, I thought, was when Oskar was talking to someone about why he needed to know exactly how his dad died. It was towards the end of the book and I really just wanted to give him a hug. NOBODY should ever have to think about something like that. Definitely a book I would recommend.

Sugar. And Chocolate. The New Gateway Drugs.

2012-01-24T19:43:00.010-05:00

So we're about through with the first month of 2012 - 2012 being the year I really focus on cleaning up my act nutrition-wise. It's not that I've always eaten badly (compared to a vast swath of America, my diet is probably A-OK), but there's always room for improvement. Let's start with the bad - the really, really bad. My insatiable sweet tooth. If it is covered in chocolate, I will eat it - not only will I eat it, I will crave it - and I won't eat it in small quantities either. Let's not count the number bags of chocolate chips I've gone through this year... Soooo, cat is out of the bag - I'm still enjoying sweets in 2012, for now at least. I'm worried that if I start denying myself certain foods now, I'll be so tired of a rigid diet come April that I will just crack and go wild. Closer to race season/the A-races, the level of consumption will have to go down, otherwise I will be in trouble. This is going to take a lot of self-control on my part and Mr. Sweetie (my husband's new moniker on this blog) will probably have to go all TSA on me and search my purse for bags of chocolate before I enter the house. I'm actually searching for recipes that will be a suitable replacement for all things chocolate so I will have something to fall back on when my sweet tooth calls - I would love to hear any recommendations. I actually found a yummy apple/cranberry pudding dessert that has no added sugar and is super easy to make.

Then there is cheese. And bread. I usually go straight for these things in the evenings when I get home from work (the hour between getting home from work and sitting down to dinner is definitely my weakest time of day). I've done a decent job at limiting my consumption of cheese and crackers/baguettes to the weekend and, even then, not going overboard. Moderation. I've also been trying to replace these sorts of things with bananas with almond butter or apples with cinnamon when the urge to snack strikes.

I've been baking alot, but most of what I bake gets given away, so I don't think the baking is much of a problem.

The real challenge this year will be when race season arrives. I'm throwing this out there in an attempt to garner some peer pressure - the diet will be cleaned up FOR REAL come April. What does this mean? It means fruits, vegetables, whole grains. No processed foods. I want to say "no recreational sugar" from April until after Ironman July 22nd but that is a tall order. However, it seems like a waste to be putting all this effort into swimbikerun and strength training and getting enough sleep and to only commit to 90% healthy eating. Maybe just no recreational sugar in July. I know it is all about balance and it's probably doubtful that a little bit of recreational sugar will wreck my race. But I also know that if I give myself an inch, I'll take a mile. It's all or nothing. Once I start down that slippery slope of one Lindt chocolate, suddenly my desk at work will be covered in colorful wrappers in the span of 10 minutes (you think I kid - just ask my co-worker two doors down whose candy jar I raided yesterday).

If anyone out there has any hints at all about conquering sweets cravings, I am all ears.

Weekend Shenanigans

2012-01-22T16:46:00.005-05:00

So we cleaned out the pantry this weekend (and by we, I mean my husband). It was completely disorganized and impossible to find things in there. As it was being reorganized, we discovered we had three bags of shredded coconut (all different kinds), multiple bags of sugar, multiple kinds of sugar, and a ton of flour. Guess I never checked the pantry thoroughly when making my baking shopping list. Won't need to buy coconut for awhile...

I'm trying my hand at making chocolate souffle tonight. This is the type of dish that requires precision and my baking fail last week (attempt to make homemade caramel) proves that precision is not one of my strong suits. Anyway, fingers crossed the souffle will be edible.

On the training front, this week has been a lot of swimbikerunstrengthtrain. I've done a decent job so far in January in not missing any major workouts and cutting very few of them short. This week I did miss one run off the bike due to time constraints. Yesterday I got myself out the door in time to meet up with the Team Z'rs doing a run on the trail - it was cold and icy due to the freezing precipitation we got the night before, but that also meant the trail was almost deserted and the trees looked like they were encased in ice - it was quiet and pretty and the perfect way to start off a Saturday. It's funny because I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not in the off-season anymore, Ironman training has started. I'm not in the thick of it, but scheduled training hours are in the double-digits and I don't have a weekly day off anymore. I am hungrier than usual AND I'm sleeping hard. Last night I slept for nine hours, it was fantastic.

I bought a bag of chocolate chips yesterday and I didn't eat the whole thing (in fact, I ate hardly any). Progress.

Ain't Life Wonderful

2012-01-21T11:31:00.004-05:00

Do you ever wake up in the morning and instantly feel happy and excited, almost like you have butterflies in your stomach because you are so eager for the day to start? I usually have this happen to me on the morning of a day with big events - a race, a trip, seeing my husband when he gets back from a long business trip, seeing my family. But lately I've been waking up with this same excited feeling for no reason other than I am just thrilled to be alive, surrounded by so many great friends and family, doing things I love every day. What's not to be excited about? I'm beyond lucky and I know it. And this upcoming year has so many things I'm looking forward to doing, I can't wait for it all to get started!

- My husband is wonderful. He lets me be me, he knows how to deal with me when I am crabby-cranky and he doesn't hold it against me, and he also doesn't let me get away with being a total brat. He spoils me, encourages me to do the things I'm interested in, even if they are different than his interests, and he's a truly good person.

- I have two best friends, Katie from high school, and Erin from college, and I am so incredibly lucky to have them in my life. Sometimes daily life gets in the way and we don't chat as often as we'd like, but when we do, it's as though I just saw them the day before yesterday. Conversations with them instantly brighten my day. They are easy, rewarding, perfect friendships and I couldn't ask for anything more.

- Work. I love my job and I have great co-workers. There isn't much more anyone could want out of a career.

- My family, both immediate and extended, are awesome and supportive and FUN (and not in the dysFUNctional way, we are all perfectly functional). My Aunt Amy, who is more like the cool older sister you always wished you had, lives down here in DC and she was one of the main reasons I wanted to move down here in the first place and I love going to visit her and Andrew and Lilly and Xander (the cutest cousins in the world).

- The triathlon community, both local and extended. I've met so many great people through the sport and I met many of my favorite people through training and races. I have a fantastic coach who has helped me achieve race times I never thought were possible. I help teach a bootcamp through my tri club, an activity I really enjoy, and it's easy to find people to swimbikerun with.

- My weekends are filled with ordinary, easy, low-key activities like long workouts, brunch or dinner with friends, movie nights with my husband, reading books, and doing cuddle time with my dog. These weekends are perfect, just as they are.

- This year I get to go a tri camp in Tucson again, climb Mount Lemmon and run in Sabino Canyon with many of the great people I met through last year's camp. Then I get to go to San Diego to catch up with my friend Mylene, who is one of the people I admire most in the world. Her outlook on life is so positive and I always see the world in a new light after talking with her. After Lake Placid I am going to do a Tour de East Coast and visit family in NH and the Cape that I don't see often enough. And then I get to go to Vegas for the first time ever and do a race.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Numbers

2012-01-19T20:47:00.003-05:00

Is it always about the numbers? Can I be a decent triathlete without worrying about a whole slew of numbers? If I just put my head down, do the prescribed workouts, eat a balanced diet, is it OK that I ignore the numbers sometimes?

By numbers, I'm referring to the outputs generated by all the various gadgets beloved by the stereotypical triathlete - Garmins, heartrate monitors, bike computers, power meters, etc etc etc. I own a Garmin with a HR monitor and I use it during most of my bike and run workouts, especially if I'm outdoors. But I haven't downloaded the data from the Garmin since sometime last summer (I know, what is the point of gathering the data if you're not going to analyze it). I don't own a bike computer so I have no idea about cadence (ever) or distance when I am on my trainer. (I did own a bike computer once - first birthday gift from my then-fiance, now-husband. It fell off my bike shortly after I put it on and I accidentally ran it over. Haven't had a bike computer since). No power meter. And I rarely bring a watch to the pool with me unless I have specific instructions to gather splits. And there are some days I simply don't want to run with the Garmin or any watch at all. So sometimes I don't. I've been pretty decent so far in 2012 at filling out Training Peaks in a timely manner with the results of my workouts, mainly so Jen can see how I'm doing and we can discuss any problem spots - but my entries are relatively devoid of numbers, except when I thrown in HR or some mile splits.

Right now I'm pretty comfortable with my relatively number-free athletic life. Sometimes I wonder if I should someday invest in a PowerTap or power meter thingamajig, but then I wonder if I'm really good enough at the moment to warrant such an investment. But if I do make the investment, will it help me become a better athlete, the type of athlete who needs that sort of equipment, who needs to keep track of those sorts of numbers, who is good enough to warrant the investment. I can assure you that as long as I don't win the lottery, 2012 will not be the year I invest in a PowerTap thingamajig. But it may be the year I get a proper bike computer.

Finished a book yesterday - fluffy book this time around. The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand. Total chick-lit book that my aunt Amy lent to me through the Kindle (so it was freeeeeee for me! Thanks Aim!). It was about a restaurant on the beach in Nantucket. Having been a waitress throughout my college career, I can tell you they got most of the restaurant lingo correct. And some of the characters in the book seemed just like characters I met during my waitressing days - it's hard to explain and I'm not trying to be stereotyping, but I noticed that, like any career field, restaurant work attracted a certain type of person - social, gregarious, outgoing, etc - and I never quite fit that type. In any case, the book was an amusing read and the restaurant they portrayed seemed to be a much cooler place to work than my former place of employment - Chilis. Bleck.

Da Booty

2012-01-17T21:00:00.005-05:00

So, this is a little post about body image. I count myself as one of the lucky ones who hasn't experienced any major issues (unless you count that time in college that I had too many jello-shots and told my then-boyfriend, who was madly in love with Britney Spears, that I was going to go to the gym EVERY DAY so I could one day be hotter than she was. Then she went on to have a meltdown and shave her head - problem solved). I'd even venture to say that right now, at age 30, I'm probably the most comfortable with my body type as I've ever been, including middle school, high school, and college. I say this EVEN THOUGH just last week I managed to totally split the lining on one of my work skirts (can I just say I've never been more thankful to have my own office than I was that day, using terribly dull scissors to hack off the remnants of my woeful-looking skirt lining). I say this EVEN THOUGH I've noticed that my pants are fitting me a bit tighter on the thighs and da booty. I say this EVEN THOUGH my button down shirts from Banana Republic are a bit snugger than they used to be. Am I getting fat? I don't own a scale, but I don't think I'm getting fat. Rather, I think I'm changing shape. See, I started running when I was 12. X-Country from 7th grade through 12th grade, a few years off in college, and then my senior year of college I started training for my first marathon. In terms of exercise, all I ever did was run - no biking and no swimming. I realize now that running makes you skinny, maybe even scrawny. Many of the clothes I own today I bought before I started triathlon. I had a scrawny upper body and I hadn't been biking enough to make my legs bigger. I recently bought the book Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald. He devotes an entire section of his book to different athlete body types. Even though I knew that runners, swimmers, bikers, triathletes are all built a little differently, reading this section was really eye-opening. And it explains alot as to why my old button down shirts suddenly feel a bit small (thank you swimming! you've given me lats!) and why I need to buy my pants according to thigh-size, not waist size (if it means my legs will be more powerful on the bike, I will take it!). My runners body has turned into a triathlete's body - a hybrid swimbikerunner. Do you know who is one of my favorite triathletes? Bree Wee. Not just because she has a great blog, is a phenomenal athlete, and always seems to see the bright side in things. But also because I feel like she has a similar build to me. And she looks great. She uses the body that God gave her to swimbikerun her way onto the top of the podium. And while I don't have her athletic abilities and I'm not going to be standing on top of the podium, and while I sit here and say I'm totally comfortable with how I look, it's still nice to have a role model and it makes me want to embrace what God gave me and see how I can go. Embrace the thighs, the glutes, the bigger arms, the lats - you've earned these muscles through hours on the bike, in the pool, and on the trails!

Ta Da! The 2012 Race Schedule

2012-01-16T11:41:00.004-05:00

Well, sort of. I've technically only signed up and paid for three races so far:

- Rock and Roll Half Marathon here in DC on March 17th

- Ironman Lake Placid on July something

- 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas, NV on September 9th

But there will be more! I'm planning on signing up for the Rumpus in Bumpass Oly in April. There will be a half Ironman in May, I just haven't decided which one yet. There's the Kinetic half, which is local and my tri team does it every year. Last year's bike course sounded better than previous years, so it is tempting to sign up. And then I remember the run course and how much I dislike it (3 loops with one long hill you get to do three times). But things could be different this year, maybe I will like it because I plan on actually being in decent race shape and taking it seriously. However, there's another half earlier in the month in Charlottesville, VA - the Monticelloman that sounds really tempting instead. If I go with Monticelloman, then I will do the Kinetic sprint instead of the half (I did the sprint last year and it was one of my better decisions). June brings the Rev3 Quassy half ironman - I did this race last year and *loved* it. Rev3 does a great job with their races. Team Z is doing it this year as one of the team races, adding to the fun. I'd like to slip another Oly and sprint in towards the end of June/early July, but it depends on whether or not it will really interfere with my final build weeks for Ironman Lake Placid. July is IMLP. August I will NOT be making the same mistake I did last year by doing a half Ironman four weeks after an Ironman - instead, I'm going to work my butt off early this season and try to qualify for Age Group Nationals. Main reason (besides the fact that I've wanted to do AG Nationals for awhile), they are in Burlington, Vermont which is one of my favorite places ever (especially in the summertime when it's not covered in snow). While there, I may pay a little visit to where I went to undergrad, Saint Michael's College. September brings 70.3 Worlds in Vegas, which is the ONLY race I will be flying my bike to this season (the 2011 season was a little out of control). I'd like to do another sprint or oly later in September, but nothing is set in stone. October will be another local-ish race, I just haven't decided which one yet. Watermans half Ironman? Rev3 Half-Full half ironman? Beach2Battleship half ironman? Maybe do the oly or sprint at Waterman's and choose one of the other half Ironmans? I have time to figure it out. And I'd like to do more of the EX2 trail races in the fall (and maybe this spring if I get my fingers clicking on the registration button). I'm super excited about this season - especially since I've been sticking with a regular strength routine for a few months now and I'm monitoring my nutrition more closely and I'd like to see both those things pay off come race day. This season is about the PR and NOT the chocolate chips!

Winter Outdoor Riding!

2012-01-15T19:56:00.005-05:00

A miracle occurred today. It's January, below thirty degrees this morning, and this happened:

It's my bike! And me! And we're going for a ride outside!

That's my bike and I - outdoors. I ACTUALLY BIKED OUTSIDE TODAY IN THE FREEZING COLD. I can't remember the last time I rode outdoors in January - at least a few years ago - and I haven't been on my bike outdoors since October when I rode around the Marine Corps Marathon course cheering on my friends. I still had remnants of my cheering costume on my helmet (a bow) that I left on today. Maybe I'll leave it on this entire season.

So, drama aside, biking outside this morning was actually... pleasant. It went by REALLY quickly and I warmed up fast. Hill repeats were on the schedule so I paid a visit to the hills in Rosslyn and had some fun there. When I went for my T-run after the ride, my legs felt a bit heavier and more tired than they normally do after a trainer ride - probable proof that riding outdoors is a bit more challenging than indoor trainer rides. I should probably ride outside more often.

Speaking of challenging, it was hard work getting into and staying in my proper heart rate zones. Not impossible, but it required work, which isn't how it used to be. I'm really excited, this could mean good things for this season! It means I can work harder and not be as worried about blowing up on the run.

In totally non-triathlon news, I figured out how to blow dry my hair straight. I know, big news, right? But it really is a big deal; I could never can figure out how to get my hairbrush positioned right without making a rat's nest out of my hair, so I always resorted to the flat iron. But this new way was faster and I like the results better.

We finally watched the movie Miracle last night about the 1980 US Olympic hockey team that beat the Soviets - it has been on my list for awhile and it didn't disappoint. There was definitely some interesting sports psychology throughout the film and it made you think about hard work and how much it is worth.

Heart Rate Zones and Hurricanes

2012-01-14T19:16:00.006-05:00

This past week I've been trying out my new heart rate zones for the run and bike. With my run, my Zone 2 has a higher ceiling by a few beats so I'm actually enjoying my new run zones. I can run a smidgen faster while still adhering to the prescribed workouts. With my new bike zones, heaven help me, it is a Challenge (with a capital "C") to get my rear end into Zone 2. The bottom part of my current Zone 2 used to be the upper end of my old Zone 2. While it makes for a bit of a challenging transition, I'm hopeful it will pay dividends once race season rolls around. I spent this morning's trainer ride looking on the bright side - I'll have alot more heart rate zone to play with at Lake Placid this summer compared to 2011 so I won't have to go quite as easy on the bike as I did last year. I'm excited to see how well I adapt to these new bike zones, especially once I take my bike outdoors (ummmm, that's supposed to be happening tomorrow morning, but it's also supposed to be below 30 degrees. I'm not excited about this).

Last night I finished my most recent book - Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson. It's historical nonfiction, written almost like a novel. Fun fact: did you know that my husband and I got married on the 106th anniversary of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane? The writer not only talked about the hurricane itself and the damage it wrought on Galveston, TX; he wrote about this history of predicting weather here in the U.S. and how forecasters managed to overlook this giant storm. It's hard to imagine that sort of thing happening today with all of our technology and 24 hour news stations. The morning of the hurricane, people were swimming in the ocean, kids were playing in the water that flooded the streets, and alarm really only seemed to set in when the water rapidly began to rise and take down houses. This book was extremely well-written and hard to put down and I'm excited I found this author - I'll definitely be reading more of his books.

Random Friday Facts

2012-01-13T20:00:00.003-05:00

- At work I keep the language setting for my e-mail and MS Word set to French - I make ALOT of spelling errors when I write in French. Those accents - they get me every time!

- I discovered you can see what type of keyword searches have led people to my blog. This past week, my favorites are

- "quest ce qu'un tamale recipes,"

- "don't just jump into a half marathon" (ummm, I don't think I've ever done that), "

- "space cookies with nutella," and

- "chocolate doesn't ask silly questions."

- Time to take one of my skirts out of rotation. While much more comfortable to wear now that the lining split and completely disintegrated, I'm afraid the skirt's integrity has been compromised.

- We've started leaving our dog outside of his crate when we are out of the house on the weekends. So far, nothing has been destroyed.

- I don't like strawberry ice cream. And not a big fan of vanilla. Both are a waste of calories.

- I choose chocolate every time.

- I found some of my old journals from when I studied/worked abroad. Am now thanking my lucky stars that 1) I write better than I did back then; and 2) I have more exciting things to write about than how many bars I went to last night or what drinks I imbibed in. Otherwise, this blog would be in trouble.

- I've never worn jeans to any of my workplaces here in DC.

- I worked my way through college as a waitress at Chili's. Bleck.

- Metro makes me cranky.

- I need to buy new swimsuits. One year is far too long to have the same two suits in rotation.

- It's a Friday night and I've been wearing my pajamas and tattered high school sweatshirt since 6:30pm. Does this mean I am old? Or just sensible?

Strength Training - TRX

2012-01-12T19:56:00.004-05:00

Last January, when I resolved that 2011 would be the year I would do more strength training, I purchased a TRX. While I really didn't do nearly as much strength training as I should have in 2011 because I was a slacker, the little I did do was usually on the TRX. It's basically a suspension training system that relies on your body weight to supply the resistance. As an added bonus, you end up working your core on pretty much all of the exercises because you're constantly trying to stabilize yourself and keep proper form through all the reps.

Do you know what my favorite thing is about the TRX? It's portable. So these past few weeks I've been bringing it to the gym at work and haggling my co-workers to come join me for a workout. Strength training is so much more fun when someone else is doing it with you and I've found I'm much more likely to actually do it when I'm sharing the joy with others. A little bit of trash talk circulates between us prior to a workout (well, mainly just me telling my friends that I am going to "break them"), adding to the fun. It's also been nice having someone tell me if my form is decent or complete crap (because when I do the TRX by myself in the basement, I have zero clue).

There's a ton of videos on YouTube of possible exercises. And my sister Allie has taken a few TRX classes and showed me a few fun exercises when I saw her over Christmas. A few of my favorites are the pike pushup, lunges, mountain climbers, and these terrible side planks with a twist. If anyone is ever interested in joining me for a TRX workout, I'd love the company!

Showtunes and Movie Trailers

2012-01-10T22:26:00.004-05:00

I received some iTunes gift cards for Christmas (thanks West Coast family!!) and I'm starting to put them to use. New songs on the iPod = Happy Runner/Happy Commuter. I think I might splurge and purchase some old school songs from high school and college. Songs I used to own on Napster that are now trapped in my long-deceased laptop from college. But, more recently, I've been updating my iPod with more contemporary tunes, most of them very workout-friendly. My favorite playlist at the moment includes:

Starlight (Muse)

Little Too Much (Natasha Bedingfield)

Stereo Hearts (Gym Class Heroes)

Save Me, San Francisco (Train)

Good Life (OneRepublic)

The Cave (Sign No More)

Tonight Tonight (Hot Chelle Rae)

Escape (Enrique Iglesias) (judge away)

Beautiful Girl (INXS)

Loser Like Me (Glee)

Wannabe (Spice Girls)

I found a few of these songs through movie trailers (bonus points if you can guess which songs and which movies - hint, most of chick flicks. You can judge, I am totally secure in my movie trailer choices). Movie trailers are, quite possibly, one of the coolest things ever (and they are often better than the movies themselves). If I could choose one job in life, any job, I would want to put together movie trailers and their soundtracks. We have Apple TV and you can watch as many movie trailers as you want (for free). I've done whole trainer workouts to trailers. It's a very efficient way to watch films - you see all the best parts and it only takes 2:25 of your day.

Growing Like an Unfettered Goldfish

2012-01-09T21:58:00.003-05:00

I've noticed that my workout wardrobe has taken on the characteristics of goldfish. Apparently if you put a goldfish in a bigger environment, it grows larger. The same can be said for my collection of shorts, t-shirts and sports bras. They all used to fit in a modest-sized bin in my closet. Then it became harder to close the bin, so they graduated to a long bin beneath the bed. And as of recently, I can't snap the cover shut on the bin AND it takes a bit of heft to shove it back under my bed. It must be the two neon-colored sports bras I received from my sister-in-law for Christmas that has thrown my collection over the edge :). I'm not really sure where I'm going to store my clothes next, maybe my husband's side of the closet?

I finished a book today. Joan Didion's Blue Nights. I had read her book The Year of Magical Thinking a few years back. While that book chronicled the short span of time in which she lost both her husband and her daughter to sudden illnesses, Blue Nights focused on her fears of getting older and the many ways in which she missed her daughter. I love the way she writes because she sometimes she goes off on a seemingly irrelevant tangent about some small detail, but she brings it back and ties it to the main point of her story. The way she notices and remembers these small, minor details - the china they used after her daughter's christening; the type of flower her daughter wore in her hair at her wedding - it makes you think of the small details in your own life that are relevant to you in a way that maybe only you can understand.

For me it is this: in my office at work I have a black and white framed photo of my brother and I. I am 7, wearing the plaid pink and black fleece jacket I owned in 2nd grade (you can't tell the color because it's a B&W photo, but I remember the jacket well). That would mean my brother was about 2. It's in the driveway in front of our house and I had just gotten off the school bus. It's autumn and the leaves are scattered on the ground. My arm is around him and his attention is focused on something in his hands, something the photograph doesn't capture. I'm crouched down to his level, my arm around him, looking like I'm about to say something. My face says it's likely I was on the cusp of a snide big-sister remark. I find myself looking at that picture often. Marveling at how different we are from the people in that photograph taken more than two decades ago. Realizing that I rarely put my arm around my brother, both back then and now, and that's a rather sad fact.

It was a heartbreaking book. Some of the concerns she brings up included a feeling of frailty, a developing fear of doing seemingly ordinary things (crossing the street, etc) because they suddenly seem fraught with previously unknown dangers - dangers known only now because of an imminent fear of dying. I know I am only 30, and it's not really a feeling of frailty I feel, but sometimes I feel afraid of things that I didn't used to fear - like I might die doing them, even though previous experience has shown them to be perfectly safe. Like flying. Or riding my bike in the city. I push these fears aside (because what am I going to do - not fly, not bike outside?) because I am too young to let fears like that get to me. Blue Nights brought these topics to mind as I was reading.

We cancelled cable today. The only downside is that the cable box is shut down and therefore no longer shows the time. I suppose we should invest in a clock for the basement. I discovered YouTube has a bunch of TRX videos, so I'll be perusing those for some workout ideas. And this morning I had my final fitness test to start off the year - the swim (lord help me). Besides the wheels coming off on the last few 100 repeats and my stroke falling apart, it went as well as could be expected. There is nowhere to go but up. Oh, and I was chosen for a lottery spot in the Chesapeake Bay 4.4 mile swim this June. When I signed up for the lottery I couldn't find info on the entry fee. No matter, I thought, I'm sure it can't be more than $100. EHHHH, I was wrong - $250. I hadn't quite budgeted for that this month. Maybe I won't sign up but I'll train this winter/spring as though I signed up and do lots of open water swimming. That will help me get my act together for the Lake Placid swim, right?

I've Figured You Out, Girl Scouts!

2012-01-08T18:05:00.005-05:00

The Samoa Girl Scout cookies are, hands down, my favorite of these once-a-year cookies. And unfortunately I've never been good at stockpiling my boxes so they last me for the rest of the year (see: lack of self control). However, with the help of the trusty internet, this weekend I have cracked the code of the Samoa cookie - now I can make them YEAR ROUND. WHENEVER I WANT. Halle-FREAKING-lujah.

I actually cheated a bit and made them bars instead of cookies (less time-consuming because you aren't cutting and topping the individual cookies). And I think next time I will actually use the pan size they called for (9x13) because the shortbread is a little thicker than it probably should be because I used a smaller pan.

Not my photo. Obviously.

Here is the recipe I used (I wish I could take credit for coming up with the recipe myself, but let's be honest, I'm not quite that creative. Or daring). I got this from the http://bakingbites.com blog.

Homemade Samoas Bars
Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

First, make the crust.
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. The dough does not need to come together. Pour crumbly dough into prepapred pan and press into an even layer.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer. Let topping set until cooled.
When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter (it’s easy to get it through the topping).
Once bars are cut, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish.
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes 30 bar cookies.

Humble Pie

2012-01-07T18:47:00.005-05:00

The people I think are the most admirable in the triathlon world are those who are humble about everything they have accomplished in the sport. The ones who aren't posting on Facebook about how many miles they just biked, how fast they did their long run, or the stat to every single leg of their most recent race. The ones whose blogs have matter-of-fact, useful race reports that may or may not recount their splits, instead of a race report full of bravado. The ones who do the work quietly and consistently, the ones who don't NEED to call attention to their training and performance because their results say it all. On way more than one occasion, I've been guilty of the faux-pas I just mentioned. When training for my first few Ironmans, I had FAR too many status updates on Facebook about all of my athletic accomplishments of that day. I felt like I needed to talk about everything I was doing to get noticed, get attention and admiration - and honestly, my results were pretty mediocre. Nothing that commanded the bragging I was doing. In the age of Facebook, blogs, Twitter, it's hard not to get caught up in shameless self-promotion. But as I notice the habits of those around me who I do admire, I'm trying to make positive changes in my habits and the way I carry and represent myself to emulate the behaviors I find admirable and not get sucked into the braggart role. This has required many large helpings of humble pie.

Case in point: recently I was introduced to someone who is also involved in triathlon. We chatted for a bit about races and what we did in 2011 and plans for 2012. She was quiet and very modest about the races she had done while I yammered on and on about how I did X, Y, and Z races last year and what I hoped to accomplish this year, blah, blah, blah. Well, later in the day I Googled her to see what AG she was in, etc. Annnnddd, she's a pro triathlete. I felt pretty stupid. And at the same time, felt so much respect for her - she could've easily said, "I'm way too fast to be training with someone like you" or "Do you have any idea how fast I swim/bike/run, do you really think you could keep up with that" etc, etc, etc. But she didn't. She didn't let on one bit about what a pretty kick-butt triathlete she is. And there are other triathletes I've met through my tri club who, in their first Ironman and/or first year of doing triathlon, qualified for Kona. Their FB pages were quiet on those days where they won a race or placed really well in a competitive field - the only activity was the virtual congratulations by others who had caught wind of their accomplishments by either being at the race or hearing it from someone who was there.

So, this blog, my FB page, all a work in progress. If you look at my race reports from 2011, you can tell I vacillated between including my splits and omitting them - they aren't the most important thing in the race report (I think the learning experience of the race is definitely more important) and if people really want to know, they can just check your profile on Athlinks.com. But, it's kind of nice to have the splits in the race report so when I look back, all the info is right there. I hope that if I continue/slip up and exhibit some of the aforementioned undesirable traits, that someone will call me out on it. You'd be doing both me AND everyone else a favor.

Run Test & Check off that First Book of 2012!

2012-01-05T21:53:00.004-05:00

So yesterday I had a run fitness test - an assessment to see where I am, basically. While a 20 minute all-out run on a morning whose temperatures hovered at 17 degrees isn't really where I feel my happiest, things went better than I expected. After my warmup, I gave myself a final pep talk ("You are fast, fast like the wind" "You love to run" among other silly mantras) and clicked "start" on my Garmin. I didn't let myself look at my pace - just like in a real race, I didn't want to know because then I would get inside my head and havoc would ensue. I ran with music and figured I'd run out for four songs and then turn around and head back towards home, so I concentrated on the music not the time. Oddly enough, my forearms (??!!) felt the most fatigued - too much strength training? (haha, that will be the day). All I kept thinking was "if I could only take my heavy gloves off, my arms would feel so much lighter and my forearms won't be sore anymore." When all was said and done and I looked down at the Garmin after clicking "stop," I wasn't thrilled with my overall pace but I wasn't overly disappointed either. My spirits were further buoyed later when I took a look at the results from my two earlier tests from one and two years ago, the data was better on all counts on my latest test. So even though I sometimes feel like I am slow because I'm forever in Ironman training mode, this test shows that maybe I'm headed in the other, faster direction.

What's the term in football when one player runs smack into another and totally flattens him? Mowed down? Clotheslined? Bowled over? Flattened? Well, whatever it is, that happened to me today on the Metro platform. Some guy literally ran into me full tilt (did not even slow down) and knocked me on my rear. And I saw him coming at me too late to do anything effective to prevent it - it was either jump onto the metro tracks to get out of his way or brace for impact. He didn't even stop after he knocked me over. Oh, and in case you are wondering, he made his train - I HOPE IT WAS WORTH IT YOU JERK.

Rant over. I finished my first book of 2012 today - Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Overall I thought the characters in this book were more likable than in Pride and Prejudice and it was an interesting look at relationships and courting and marriage back in the day (like 200 years ago back in the day). Truthfully, I'm glad I live in 2012, not 1812. Before 2011 ended, I made a booklist of 25 classics that I'd be interested in reading this year. Her other book, Emma, is waiting in the wings on my Kindle, but I think I might read something fluffy and easy next before tackling that one.

I love it when I win

2012-01-04T20:17:00.004-05:00

I win.

My husband refuses to believe it is true - he tried to change the subject when I called him after my arrival at work. And then tonight he refused to let me show him this picture - so I just tagged him in it on Facebook instead. Isn't the internet great? He told me that even the dog misses the Leg Lamp. I suppose it is going to be a long 10 months for the two of them, until the 2012 holiday season when the lamp makes a reappearance in our house. But I received several compliments from my co-workers today. I was also disappointed to find that the fishnet stockings were glued to the leg, hampering my efforts to stick a dollar bill in them. Alas.

Tomorrow I'll get back to actually talking about athletic endeavors. But this detour in subjects was just too fun not to pursue.

Chocolate Chips or PR?

2012-01-03T21:09:00.004-05:00

So, this had to go up on my pantry door:

Hmmm, what do I want more - chocolate chips or a PR? Because I think I'm going to have to choose. Or at least keep the chocolate chip consumption in check. Or just not keep Ghiradelli chocolate chips in my pantry.

The Great Leg Lamp Debate of 2012

2012-01-02T20:58:00.007-05:00

This has graced our front window since December of 2010 (Yes, a FULL YEAR).

The epitome of class

We had bought the lamp as a joke Christmas decoration. We took our 2010 family Christmas card photo with it:

And the cats enjoyed basking in the soft glow of electric sex.

And... then we never bothered to take the lamp down with the rest of our Christmas decorations. I initially wanted to bring it into my office, but we were moving locations later in the year, so I figured I'd bring the leg lamp in after the office move. So the lamp sat in our front window, greeting visitors and collecting cat fur on the fishnet stockings all spring, summer, and fall.

Well, the 2011 holiday season has passed and I need a lamp for my office. I was looking forward to wrangling the lamp on the bus and metro with me during tomorrow's commute. And when I informed my husband this evening that, as of tomorrow, the leg lamp would be gracing MY office instead of our home (until next holiday season), he put up a stink. Apparently he wants to keep the leg lamp in our front window PERMANENTLY.

I don't share those same sentiments. And I also leave for work later than he does. Who wants to bet where the leg lamp will be this time tomorrow night?

2012 Athletic Goals

2012-01-01T16:41:00.004-05:00

After taking a much needed break in October after my last race where I didn't think or care about triathlon for about a month straight, I started thinking about my 2012 race goals. I don't have my race schedule completely mapped out quite yet, but it'll likely be Rumpus in Bumpass Oly in April, a half ironman in May (I hate Kinetic every year, so I'm loathe to sign myself up for that one), either a sprint or Oly in May, depending on what half I decide to do, Rev3 Quassy half ironman in June, Ironman Lake Placid in July, fingers crossed that I qualify for Age Group Nationals held in August, and then I'm signed up for 70.3 Worlds in Vegas in September. We'll see how I feel later in the season, but I'm planning on at least one more half after 70.3 Worlds, I just don't know which one yet. And maybe one or two shorter races mixed in. But those that are mentioned by name, those are the big races. Oh, and besides Vegas, I'm not flying myself or my bike out for any races - 2011 was a little out of control in that respect.

So, the goals, in bulleted form:

- Improve daily nutrition habits

- Consistently strength train and improve functional strength

- Get more sleep

- Do my workouts on the appointed days, at the appointed times of day (i.e., get up out of bed EARLY so I can workout before heading into the office)

- Be competitive in my age group

- Become faster in each discipline (as in: break some pesky time barriers that have been taunting me - sub-35 in the half iron swim; sub-1:15 in the iron swim; sub-2:45 on the half iron bike; sub-6 on the iron bike; sub-1:43 on the half iron run; sub-4 on the iron run).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my big focuses for 2011 was the mental side of triathlon and racing. I'm still going to work on making strides in that area in 2012, but I'm turning a lot of additional attention to improving my STRENGTH and NUTRITION in the coming year. I recently picked up Matt Fitzgerald's book Racing Weight and though I haven't read all the way through it yet, I am already seeing habits I should adopt to clean up my daily eating. I'm decent at making acceptable food choices 90% of my day, but it's that other 10% that wrecks me (damn you baguettes and chocolate chips hiding out in my pantry) Periodically keeping a food journal would also assist me in eating mindfully, as mindless eating is one of my weaknesses. Oh, and chocolate. Put those two together and you have trouble (case-in-point: yesterday afternoon I went to bake whoopie pies and realized the bag of chocolate chips I was going to use had only 3 chips left in it... whoops). If I know I have to write down everything I eat, chances are pretty good I'll be less likely to stuff half a bag of chocolate chips in my mouth.

Admit it, chances are pretty good most of you out there are just like me that when time is tight, strength training is the first thing that gets pushed off to the side in your weekly training schedule. I never quite understood the importance of consistently doing strength training - you want to swim/bike/run faster, swim/bike/run more often right? How does strength training fit in that picture? In November, I began going to the Team Z Monday AM boot camps on a regular basis and I began to understand WHY strength training needs to have a place in every successful triathlon regiment (OK, I don't understand the scientific specifics nor can I use the scientific lingo to provide an explanation - but it makes your core muscles stronger so you can support your body correctly during training/racing; it builds muscle and strength in your upper and lower body so you can be more powerful on the swim, the bike, and the run. That's it in a nutshell. Oh, and it has the potential to give you great abs). Another weakness of mine: doing strength training on my own - I will actually do a strength workout in a group and I won't wimp out partway through as a result of peer pressure. So, in 2012, I'll be at the boot camps and I will also be conning my friends into using the TRX with me at least one other day of the week.

And so we meet again, Goal of Get More Sleep. Grad school initially ruined me and my pre-2008 early bedtimes, and my unfortunate inability to drag myself off of FB and blogs in the evening has continued the downhill spiral. Getting home from work past 7pm doesn't help matters (because guess who didn't roll out of bed in time to make it to work before 9:30am) and it is just one vicious cycle every day. It. Has. To. Stop. NOW. The goal is to be in bed by 9-something, lights out before 10pm every night. Even the weekends. And the computer is banned from the bedroom.

I think the get-more-sleep goal will help with the goal of doing my appointed workouts on the appointed days and times. I also need to stop procrastinating in the mornings - I've let myself enjoy leisurely paced Saturday and Sunday mornings for the past few months and have found myself not starting workouts until late in the AM, which then throws off the entire rest of the day and I end up feeling like I got nothing substantial done. And getting up early to get workouts in before work NOW, when training is relatively light, will make sticking to that habit during Ironman training (where it really matters) that much easier.

The last two goals - being competitive in my age group and meeting time goals - go hand-in-hand. If I don't meet those time goals, I'm not likely to be placing in my age group. End of story. Some of the best advice I ever got from my coach was to not race the clock, but to instead race the girls in my age group. The times take care of themselves. And she was so, so, so right. I was loathe to actually write time goals on my blog, but I did want to look back at this post at the end of the season and see if I accomplished the times I thought were plausible for the season. Those times I want to break, they've basically been staring me in the face for awhile and it's time they go. Some of them I want to smash by a landslide because I should have the capability to do so (ahem - swimming). And others I know will be much more challenging. If I manage to keep up with my other goals, and continue to follow the plan, train consistently, and make progress on the mental side of the sport, these two goals will take care of themselves. I also need to make myself do some more open water swimming if I'm EVER going to see something besides a 35 on the clock for a 1/2 ironman or a 1:15 on the clock for an Ironman. I am apparently a terrible open water swimmer, even though I love it.

In short, the overall goal for 2012 is to act like an athlete who is serious about her hobby. I've asked myself this question in the past - "is it worth it?" Is getting a faster time, placing in my age group, qualifying for races worth sacrificing things like staying up late, eating whatever I want whenever I want, going out, etc, etc. Will I really accomplish more if I make these kinds of changes to my life? I think the answer is yes. And the 2012 season is the perfect opportunity to get serious, sacrifice, and see what level it takes me to.

2011 - You Were Really Good to Me

2011-12-31T18:52:00.002-05:00

2011 is, hands down, one of my most favorite years. So many good things happened, in triathlon, in my personal life, and in my work life. And any of the not-so-good things that did occur, usually happened for a reason and I'm a better person for it. So, cheers to saying goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012. My resolution - floss more and curse less.

A Very Merry Christmas - 2011

2011-12-30T21:43:00.010-05:00

This year was our year for Christmas in California with my west coast family. And, like always, it was a wonderful holiday with some of my favorite people. Jackie recently got a job at Pebble Beach golf resort so the family headed up to the Monterey Peninsula for the holiday. Vacation started with an awesome dinner followed by some much needed sleep. The next morning, I woke up to this view:

18th Green

And then I took a run along the coast and had this view:

It was hard to tell what I did more of - running or stopping to take photos

Before we headed into Carmel and tasted some pretty amazing cheeses at a local cheeseshop that gave out unlimited free samples. Have you ever had coconut flavored cheese? It's like a pina colada but better.

Cheese please!

The rest of Christmas Eve was spent eating tamales and having a family game night - nights like these are some of my favorites.

Christmas morning dawned and I started the day with a perfect run.

Pebble Beach Cypress Tree

And then I was totally spoiled by my family. I can't wait to figure out where I'm going to display my new Spode Blue Room plates and my new camera puts my old 5 megapixel camera to shame. The new camera even has a *sparkle* setting.

We had a fantastic turkey dinner (yes, I normally do the vegetarian thing, but I love Christmas turkey far too much to give it up) before it was game night and then we tried to take some family photos. Lauver Family Photos over the years:

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2007

The boys played golf on the Pebble Beach course on Monday - my hubby shot an 82, which is 10 over par and not bad for someone who can count on two hands how many time he's played golf in the past decade. He also shot a hole in one on Christmas Day on the 9 hole course. While he was playing golf, I was swimming here:

My definition of awesome = outdoor pool next to the Pacific.

Bonus that on the side near the restaurant, I could smell crab cakes every time I took a breath.

The 3000 meters FLEW by. I also kept hitting my left hand on the lane line in an attempt to stay in the sunny part of the lane (I have the bruises to prove it, haha).

Golf shots:

Good form!

Finishing up the round

It was one of the best family Christmases I've ever had, so thank you Ted, Lori, Allie, Jackie and Steph! I miss you guys already!

2011 In Review

2011-12-28T21:14:00.007-05:00

I've got my goals for 2012 mapped out - but you can't go forward without looking back. I realized, when looking back through my blog entries from late last year/early this year, that I never wrote down any goals for 2011. So, a non-goal oriented retrospective on how 2011 went down, both athletic and non-athletic.

- Faster times. In the 1/2 Ironman distance I finally broke through the 5:45 barrier that's eluded me for, oh, FOREVER. I ended the season with a 5:23, which was 23 minutes faster than my previous PR at that distance. I finally said goodbye to the 3:00 mark on the 1/2 Iron bike too, good riddance.

- SUFFER. I started to wrap my mind around what it meant to actually race a race, not just finish one. It's supposed to hurt, but in a good way. I didn't finish too many races with feelings of regret or shoulda, woulda, couldas which always haunted me in past seasons. I didn't fall apart on the run, which I was notorious for in 2010. Don't get me wrong, there is ALOT of room for improvement, but I feel like I'm starting to "get it" - and it's fun, like a game, a whole different side of the sport, a challenge that I never thought of before. I owe all of this to Jen for helping me see the light.

NOT a pretty picture

- Race Day Nutrition. KISS - keep it simple stupid. No more bike buffets, no more liquid-only calories. Every race goes like this: gels, water, saltstick tabs, NUUN. And maybe a powerbar if I need variety. I ate 18 gels - EIGHTEEN GELS during the bike portion alone at Ironman Lake Placid and my gut felt better than it ever has during an Ironman.

- Bucket List Races. I was so lucky to be able to check off a bunch of races from my wish list this year. Wildflower was with my west coast family and I liken it to biking through a Steinbeck novel. Lake Placid was an awesome mini vacation with my family and friends and we lucked out with perfect weather while the rest of the country was under a ridiculous heat wave. Timberman was the first triathlon my brother was able to come watch me race, as well as my best friend Erin and my goddaughter. I also got a hug from Chrissie Wellington. Best Day Ever. I turned 30 racing the Galway 70.3 in Ireland and got a chance to spend time with Angelina and meet Charisa, both awesome people and athletes.

Finishing up the first lap at IMLP 2011

- Miscellany. Did a marathon, went to tri camp, placed in my age group here and there, met lots of new friends through the sport, added to my shelf of marathon/half ironman/ironman medals at work (next year I get to start a new shelf because the first one is full :) ), and didn't get burned out.

Top of Mt Lemmon!

Overall, athletic-wise, 2011 was a much needed year in terms of racing confidence and overall happiness with triathlon. I learned alot in terms of how to race and realized it's not always about time, it's also about placing and it's important to race others, not just yourself. I also learned the importance of confidence in your training and abilities - I always counted myself out before the gun even went off in previous seasons; it was nice to see what happened when I instead decided to count myself in.

And the other accomplishments of 2011:

- Traveled somewhere besides New Jersey for work. Burkina Faso for a two-week, eye-opening work trip.

Kids in one of the villages outside Kaya

- Realized I can have a peaceful co-existence with my dog, made much easier when he stopped chowing down on my wardrobe.

Miles and me

- Made it a point to spend time with family and friends I don't get to see very often.

College Roomies 4 Life - Melis, Erin and I

All grown up in 2011! And responsible for kids!

- Continued to revel in the fact that I finally have a job I truly enjoy.

- Got my bake on. Alot.

Chocolate wasted.

- I've always loved reading, but now that I have a Kindle, it's made getting books into my hot little hands a much quicker affair. I didn't really keep track of everything I read this year, but in the past few months I've read:

- The Year of Fog (thumbs up)

- The Hunger Games (thumbs up)

- Catching Fire (thumbs up)

- Mockingjay (thumbs up)

- Unbroken (HUGE thumbs up)

- The Help (thumbs up)

- Cutting for Stone (HUGE thumbs up)

- A Dog's Purpose (thumbs up)

- Bella Canto (thumbs up)

- Sarah's Key (HUGE thumbs up)

- Pride and Prejudice (thumbs up)

- And I am loathe to admit I read some Nicholas Sparks books too; I am a sucker for easy-to-read chick lit.

- Celebrated 5 years of marriage with my husband!

Craigville Beach, Centreville MA - same beach my parents worked at in college when they started dating.

Mishmash

2011-12-20T07:50:00.003-05:00

For years I have been running on the bike path near my house. And every morning between 6:30 and 7:30, there is an older gentleman who is out walking and he gives everyone an enthusiastic greeting as he passes them. This morning my greeting was "Where have you been??" I guess that's what happens when it has been *months* since I went running on the bike trail before work. Sign that maybe I should do more running outside? Well, in all fairness, I've gotten some pretty awesome trail runs in over the past few weekends with good friends. I even brought Miles out for a 90 minute trail run on Sunday and he LOVED it. It wasn't a technical trail (I could see that going terribly wrong), but I'll take him with me again when I do some easy trails in the future. To him, it was one big dog park (minus the other dogs and the reality of being on a leash). In other news, I finished two more books - Pride and Prejudice and The Help. The Help was a great read (obviously) and I'm looking forward to watching the movie. And I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice, much more than I expected to - I also need to make time to watch that movie. If anyone has any book suggestions for my 2012 reading list (which I will probably get started on now...), let me know!

Random Friday Facts

2011-12-16T07:30:00.002-05:00

1) I've spent far more money on athletic shoes this year than regular shoes.

2) My least favorite chore has always been doing the dishes. I hated it so much that in college, I would sometimes hide the dishes in the closet (there wasn't any food left on them, but I know, still gross).

3) Before I got married, I rarely cooked. Even when I first got married, you'd be hard pressed to find me in the kitchen. And baking NEVER happened. Then... I grew up.

4) I love to read.

5) My freestyle stroke apparently is still pretty terribly - my left arm continues to do wonky things all on its own.

6) During the training leading up to my first Ironman, I said I would never EVER train or do another Ironman again. That was obviously a lie.

7) Before I moved to DC, I'd never really eaten "ethnic foods" (think Thai food, Vietnamese, etc). NH is really good at sprouting alot of chain restaurants, but not much else.

8) I usually sleep on my stomach

9) I started the whole vegetarian thing earlier this year to clean up my diet for Ironman, but now the idea of meat kind of grosses me out.

10) I spend about 50% of my evenings trying to keep my cats off the kitchen table and counters.

11) Punctuality is not one of my strengths.

12) I got my hair cut really short in middle school and I think that scarred me for life - never again!

13) My sister-in-law sent me a photo of the best saying, "Chocolate doesn't ask silly questions. Chocolate understands."

The Non-Athletic Goals for 2012

2011-12-14T21:06:00.005-05:00

These aren't really New Years Resolutions, more just things I'd like to accomplish next year. If I were to make New Years Resolutions, they would read something like "curse less" and "eat less chocolate," "complain about Metro less frequently" and where is the fun in that - less, less, less. 2012 is going to be about MORE, MORE, MORE (and I am not referring to cursing, chocolate, or complaining).

1) Read MORE books - as in at least 50 books in 2012. Mark equated this to be about a book a week, and when he put it that way, it seems a bit ambitious. I'm planning on keeping a tally of what I read, and it's not going to be all fluff.

2) Become MORE fluent in French - I know, seems sad that a French major in undergrad doesn't consider herself fluent enough after that college education, but my French is rusty and it does improve the more often I use it. I've been doing alot of reading, writing, translating French on one of my projects and I've noticed these tasks have become substantially easier and faster over time. I'm just a bit shy when it comes to speaking it and MY GOSH do I hate the grammar - too many verb tenses. So, how will I become more fluent? I'm looking into becoming a member of Alliance Francaise; at least one of the 50 books will be one of the French literature books that's been gathering dust on my bookshelf; and hopefully there will be some more trips to Burkina in the next 12 months.

3) Eat MORE fruits and vegetables - this one is definitely tied to athletics, but it's relevant here too. 2012 is when I clean up my act, make fruits and vegetables a priority, and gradually ease my way into a more "clean eating" type of lifestyle that is sustainable.

4) Get MORE sleep - cast off my grad school ways (grad school was TWO years ago) - FB and blogs are NOT a good reason to stay up late. Before I started grad school, my lights were out by 9pm and I was easily getting up before 5am for my workouts. Feels like grad school has ruined me for the past 4 years, and it's high time I got out of this rut, especially since I don't have any good excuses anymore. Let's see if by this time next year, I'm back to having lights out by 9pm again...

5) Learn MORE recipes - (let me caveat that by saying HEALTHY recipes, it's pretty obvious I know how to find - and bake - those unhealthy ones). Dinner at the house is predictable every single week. It is a 99% guarantee that we will be eating one of the following for dinner: pizza, pasta, veggie quesadillas, burritos, butternut squash soup. We might mix it up by throwing in a salad or making a burger one night (GASP). I have a number of great cookbooks that are begging to be used - and so they will be in 2012!

6) Call my family MORE often - this goes for Mom and Dad and Morgan and my West Coast family. Too often I've let Facebook messages and texts take the place of real, meaningful conversation. It's unfortunately a pretty frequent occurrence that I startle myself by realizing it has been TWO WEEKS since I last talked to my mom. Oops. It's time to get back to basics and actually call the people I care about.

7) Take MORE pictures - (and post them on this blog). I don't take enough pictures, I'm going to change that in 2012. And if anyone has any point-and-shoot camera recommendations, I'd love to hear them. I think just about anything will take better photos than my 6.5 year old 5 megapixel camera (I KNOW they make camera phones with more pixels than my camera, don't remind me!)

I'm sure I'll be adding to this post as I think of things, but this list isn't going to get too much longer because then it becomes overwhelming. And I will also be trying to curb the cursing, complaining, and chocolate binges.

Salty Chocolate Nutella Cookies...

2011-12-12T21:33:00.002-05:00

Because that's what this season needs - a little more Nutella. I celebrated my friend Tonya's birthday this weekend by baking up a storm in her kitchen (and after cooking in Tonya's kitchen, I like it better than my own - no dogs underfoot, no cats stealing food, A KITCHEN AID MIXER).

The Lifestyle section of the Washington Post has a holiday cookie quiz (What Holiday Cookie Are You?). I, apparently, am a Chocolate Cookie (I could've told you that without the quiz...). As a little reward for taking the quiz, it gave me this gem of a recipe to try. And so I baked it on Sunday: Salty Chocolate Nutella Cookies.

Ingredients:

2 cups (10 ounces) flour
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (3.2 ounces) natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
2 teaspoons kosher salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at a very soft room temperature (see headnote)
1 1/3 cups (9.3 ounces) sugar, plus 1 cup for finishing the cookies
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone liner.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt in a small bowl.

Combine the butter and 1 1/3 cups of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Beat for about 2 minutes on low speed, until fluffy, then add the egg yolks, cream and vanilla extract; beat on low speed until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until just incorporated.

Place the remaining cup of sugar in a shallow bowl.

Scoop 30 to 35 heaping tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheets. Shape each mound of dough into a ball, then roll it in the remaining sugar to coat evenly. Space the balls 2 inches apart on the baking sheets, then use your thumb to make an indentation in the top of each cookie, gently flattening the cookies a bit as you work.

Bake one sheet at a time for 10 minutes or until the edges are just set; the tops of the cookies will be soft. (If the indentations have lost definition, press the centers again immediately after you remove the cookies from the oven.) Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool. Pipe or spoon the Nutella into the center of each cookie while the cookies are still slightly warm.

Serve or store once the Nutella centers have slightly set.

*For the butter, they suggest taking it out of the fridge the night before and leaving it on the counter so it can easily reach the right consistency.

**Makes 30-35 cookies.

***Oh, and when they say space the cookies 2 inches apart, they know what they are talking about. Trying to cram 30 dough balls onto a small cookie sheet makes for some ugly-looking baked cookies.

Recipe Source:

From Huntsberger and Willis, of Whisked! in Washington.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2011-12-08T22:18:00.003-05:00

Yes, it's Christmas, which IS the most Wonderful Time of the Year. But I attribute the magic of December to more than just the obvious (Baby Jesus, holiday parties, ugly sweaters, abundance of baked goods, holiday music, presents). December is very much akin to that pre-Ironman magic where anything seems possible for the upcoming race season. It's the strange but comfortable in-between season time where the work for 2011 is complete, results have been dissected, and plans to improve in 2012 have been made. Goals are in the process of being set for 2012 and you decide to go big - setting your sights higher than you ever have before. You map out the things you will do better - go to sleep earlier, do all of your workouts on the alloted day, eat only 2 bagels on Bagel Friday at work instead of 5, cut back on the Chocolate Wasted cupcakes, etc. Visions of PRs at every single race dance in your head. You're stoked about training again - you can't wait to be woken up in the middle of the night by your growling stomach, as it has already burned through your daily calories because you are in the middle of Ironman training. You have grand plans of actually doing your strength training workouts on a weekly basis. ANYTHING seems possible. It's just... magical. But the best part is - you don't have to start doing any of the above things in earnest until January 1st, when 2012 training officially begins. You get to continue indulging in holiday food, fun, and relaxation, all the while remaining totally convinced that 2012 is going to be a stellar year (regardless of how many 3lb bags of M&Ms you consume this week). It's like having your cake and eating it too (literally). It's all the dreams and excitement and anticipation, without the sacrifice, sweat, and tears. At least for the next few weeks until January 1st (and reality) rolls around. I plan on enjoying myself (not SO MUCH that I totally fall off the wagon and can't find it) for the next 22 days until it is time to get back down to business. I'm already looking forward to it - 2012, are you ready???

Backyard Burn 5.5 Miler - race report

2011-12-04T15:27:00.009-05:00

I had been hemming and hawing the past few weeks over whether or not I would sign up for a race this weekend and if so, which one. The Hot Chocolate 5K/15K seemed like the natural choice (ahem - CHOCOLATE), but I just couldn't justify the high entry fee (and after reading the live feed on FB yesterday morning about THAT race debacle, I'm glad I didn't sign up). When my friend Karen told me she wasn't going to be able to race the Backyard Burn 5 Miler in Clifton, Virginia this Sunday and that she could transfer the bib to me, I took her up on it. It's an awesome series, well run races, and really casual. I've only raced the Wakefield course before (which is one of the easier ones) so I was interested to see what the more technical Hemlock course would be like. It was hard. Like, sucking-wind, almost-falling-into-rivers-twice kind of hard. It was hilly and rocky and definitely required some scrambling. The first 0.7 was mostly on pavement on gravel and then the course hurtled you down some steps built into a hill, then it was an immediate uphill. We looped around into the woods and started the hard stuff. I had forgotten my HR monitor and Garmin (yaaayyy low-key running) so I had no idea of pace, mile markers, elapsed time, etc etc etc. As we entered the woods, I counted myself as the 5th girl (but I had no idea how many of the girls ahead of me were 5 milers and how many were 10 milers - I assumed all were 5 miles because they were BOOKING it). I passed one girl after a few minutes of entering the woods and was promptly passed by a different girl who had relaxed form as she sped away from me. I managed to keep her in sight for the next couple of miles, but I didn't kill myself trying to catch her and focused on keeping the 5th position. Trail running requires more thought than road running (i.e., how do I get over those rocks without simultaneously falling into a ravine) and I found it took me AWHILE to get into a rhythm. Probably at least 2 miles. We ran by the finish start/finish area as we started a different loop back into the woods. It was here that I started to find my form. After a short uphill on pavement, the trail flattened out and then went downhill, allowing me to catch my breath. At one switchback before this section, I saw that there was a girl not too far behind me, and I ran the rest of the race convinced she was on my heels ready to pass me and I didn't look back (if I didn't run with these thoughts, I surely would've stopped/walked up some of the uphills towards the end). We had a nice section by the river where I picked up my pace (until we hit some rocks) and then... another uphill... that just... kept... going. It eventually flattened out and I knew I was probably a little more than a mile from the finish and tried to pick it up. I didn't see anyone ahead of me and here and there I would hear someone behind me. I just wanted to keep my 5th place (still convinced all the girls ahead of me were 5 milers). I *finally* saw the finish and the clock read 44:12 when I crossed the line. Not as fast as I wanted, but Mark told me I crossed the line in 2nd overall (which means 3 of those super fast girls were 10 milers who were doing ANOTHER loop). He also told me they were only about 30 seconds ahead of me (and the winning 5 miler girl finished only about a minute ahead of me) and I had closed alot of the gap during the back-half of the race. So that made me feel better about my time (and when I looked at last year's results, I would've also gotten 2nd overall with my time as well - so I'm not as slow as I thought, it was just a harder course than other trail races I've done).

We stayed around the the awards (I needed to build up my pint glass collection) and I got to stand on top of the podium as I won the 30-39 AG (NEVER have gotten to stand on top of a podium - it was weird and Mark said I looked really uncomfortable up there, haha). It's too bad this was the last trail run in the series this season, but I am toying with the idea of signing up for a few of the races in the spring series. I love the laid back environment and EX2 Adventures runs a first-class event every time. Plus, trail running is supposed to help build strength and make one a stronger runner overall and who can't use a little of that?? It was good to see some of the other Team Z'rs out there and I'm excited for the 2012 season!

Random Friday Facts

2011-12-02T06:42:00.005-05:00

1) I think that peanut butter and chocolate is the most amazing food combination ever.

2) I started running when I was 12 - my mother decided I needed an extracurricular activity and made me join the middle school x-country team. There is no arguing with my mother when she uses a certain tone of voice with you.

3) I'm working on my 2012 goals (both athletic and non-athletic) and I think I have most of them figured out. I've definitely put more thought into the 2012 goals than any other year so far.

4) We just moved office locations at work. My new office is now located just steps away from the Main Kitchen where the admin staff bring all leftovers from lunch meetings. I think the free food gods were smiling on me during office assignments.

5) My left arm has been a troublemaker at swim practices this week. Every single deck coach has stopped me to tell me something I am doing wrong with it during my swim stroke. Hopefully once I fix all the idiosyncrasies, my swim stroke will be much more efficient.

6) I haven't owned an alarm clock since college. I use my cell phone.

7) I used to be really good at getting to to work before 8:30am. Now, well, let's just say I am not.

8) Every time I visit my parents in New England (or they come down to see me), they bring me Maypo because you CANNOT find this amazing breakfast food in stores in the "South." It is a precious, precious commodity in my house (and thank goodness Mark doesn't like it, otherwise I would have to share).

9) The smell of oranges remind me of Christmas.

10) Tonight I am babysitting a friend's three kids (all age 9 and younger). I owe her because she watched our dog for us when we went away for a weekend. When we went to pick our dog up, she told me that "If I can handle my dog, I can handle multiple children." We will see after tonight :)

11) I spent last evening having a "Christmas Story" and "Christmas Vacation" quote war with my in-laws on FB. I haven't laughed so hard in ages.

12) I have a neighbor who is really good at finding food porn on the internet. And every time she finds something chocolatey and delicious, she tags me in a link on FB and I can't resist - I have to make whatever it is she found. One week it was chocolate chip cookie oreo brownie bars. Another week it was chocolate wasted cupcakes. And this weekend it is going to have to be this: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Torte with Mousse.

Give the 5K some respect...

2011-11-28T20:13:00.005-05:00

Want to know what I learned on Thanksgiving this year? I (re)learned that 5Ks are... HARD. HARD HARD HARD. In the running/triathlon world, I don't think we give enough props to the 5K - the glory always seems to go to the marathon, the half marathon, the long course triathlons. I'll say this - Ironman and marathons may last longer, but the pain is controlled, bearable. A 5K is all the pain of a marathon compressed into 20-ish minutes. You tell me which is worse.

I lined up with 1400 of my closest friends for the annual Derry, NH Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. After tracking my friends doing IM Arizona the previous weekend, I was all jazzed to race. Then race morning arrived, along with the nerves (yes I still get nervous, even for 5Ks, because I know how much they SUUUUCK), and while it would've been nice to just jog the race, I knew that wouldn't happen. I was there to race, not jog, and while I wasn't counting on a PR (I've not exactly been super diligent in my running since the beginning of October and speedwork - what is speedwork??) I wanted to finish that race feeling like I earned that extra piece of pecan pie (pronounced peeee-can, not puh-can).

Mark and I met up with our friends Ashley and Tim for the race and we had grand plans to run together, but that quickly fell apart in the race start chaos. Nobody knew exactly where the start line was located and nobody heard the gun go off, but suddenly people started to run. I was smooshed in a sea of 10 year olds, baby joggers and dogs and middle school x-country runners, darting all over the roadway to try and get around them. It took about a half a mile, and suddenly I had some clear road ahead of me - just in time for the long, steepish hill around mile 1.5. It was there that I needed to pull it together and suffer - the adrenaline from the first mile had disappeared, the legs were feeling heavy, and even though it was chilly out, I felt like I was wearing way too many layers. The gloves came off (literally) and I huffed my way up the hill, passing a few people, but also getting passed by some high school x-country boys who looked like they were out for an easy jog. I caught up with Tim here, and we switched places a few times, and I ran the rest of the race convinced that he was on my shoulder and would bolt ahead of me at the finish line. After we passed the Mile 2 marker, things went downhill (literally - this is a good thing) from there, with a few uphills. We rounded a corner and the volunteers there were saying things like "you're almost there" and "just a little further" and I looked around and totally convinced myself that yes, these buildings look familiar, the finish line is right up ahead. Turns out the mind is very impressionable to suggestions in weak moments such as mile 2.6 of a 5K and I was not just around the corner from the finish. Too late though, I had already kicked and started passing a few more people, and it would've been embarrassing to slow down. Legs were on fire, stomach was churning, and that stupid finish line was NOWHERE to be found. It finally appeared and I threw myself across it - glancing at the clock and instantly hoped that they were scoring the race by chip time and NOT gun time (unfortunately, it was gun time and I was slow slow slow - but fortunately, so was everyone else in my AG and apparently I came in first hahaha).

We topped off the 5K with a fantastic breakfast at my best friend Erin's house with her parents (can I just say that parents are the best - it doesn't matter if we are 5 years old or 30 years old, they still cook us meals and take care of us). My goddaughter provided the entertainment (she is 2) by informing us that she was a "hot mess" (I love how 2 year olds will repeat anything you tell them). Then it was back to my parent's house for a big turkey dinner (I give up vegetarianism from Thanksgiving to Christmas - I don't care if this makes me a fair-weather vegetarian, I love roast turkey too much to forgo it). Friday, Mark and I drove up to Maine to spend some time with my best friend Katie and her husband - we caught an awesome sunset on our drive to dinner, bought our dog a moose antler to gnaw on (this is Maine, after all), and I got to spend some quality time with one of my favorite people. A great mini-vacation all around :)

Strength Training

2011-11-21T22:02:00.002-05:00

Last Monday at 6am, I was doing this:

OK, they are a bit nicer at Team Z boot camp.

And I proceeded to feel like this until about Thursday:

P-O-O-P. (I figured I'd spare you the visual).

Team Z has a boot camp on Monday mornings. Stupid me, I'd never actually taken advantage of it before last week. I want 2012 to be a great season and I've always been a bit of a slacker when it comes to strength training. There are several reasons (as will be explained below) why I'm finally getting my lazy butt to boot camp, and one of them being Get Stronger because stronger typically equals better fitness and ability to maintain form and race faster.

Anyway, can I just tell you, I was completely naiive when I thought about how difficult boot camp actually would be. "Ha," I figured, "I've done an Ironman, I think I can handle an hour of strength training." When I could barely hobble out of the room an hour later, I figured now might be a good time to eat crow and take back ALL my thoughts and bravado. My co-worker and fellow Team Z'r, Janine, was also at boot camp that fateful Monday AM and we spent the next two days calling each other as soon as we arrived at the office. No greetings, no how are you's. Simply:

"Can you walk like a normal person yet?"

"No. Can you?"

"No. I feel like I put my legs through a meat grinder. I'm thinking about rolling myself in my desk chair to my next meeting so I don't have to try and stand up."

"Even trying to stay upright on my yoga ball is painful."

And so it went. I approached this morning's boot camp with more than a little trepidation. I wouldn't say that today's hour of hurts-so-good torture was any easier than last week's; just that I was smart and stretched over the past week, did a few squats so my legs wouldn't go into full PTSD mode this morning when we surely would be doing more than our fair share of squats, and was fully prepared to feel the burn. And I'm happy to say that I can walk like a normal person, I enjoyed every minute of boot camp, and I'm so glad I've started going. I basically suck doing strength training on my own. I'll be in the basement with my TRX, totally distracted by the TV, and taking rest breaks and moving on to a different exercise when things start to feel just a little uncomfortable. At boot camp, you have peer pressure to keep up, to not stop, to keep doing squats, leg lifts, planks, pushups (damn pushups!) far past when you normally would've cried uncle if you were alone.

Want to hear something funny? Here you go: in a matter of weeks, I will be helping Kerri Kramer lead the Monday AM boot camps. She's been a great teacher so far, but unfortunately she cannot cannot magically grant me upper body strength - I sadly discovered while trying to do pushups during boot camp last week that my upper body strength is kind of nonexistent. This is a problem that I'm going to need to fix stat because a boot camp leader who falls flat on her face during her 5th pushup is what one might call ineffective and uninspiring. So, Operation Do-More-Than-Five-Pushups has begun. Reaching my goal will take baby steps, but I'm already claiming a small victory today: not walking like a geriatric after boot camp.

The Highlights

2011-11-17T21:32:00.003-05:00

Having a positive mental attitude is key to finding success in just about anything - racing, marriage, life in general... So here are the positives I found in my day today:

- I got a compliment on my flip turn at swim practice this AM. As a person who avoided flip turns like the plague up until last year, I feel like I've made a lot of progress.

- Mark and I learned something new about each other this morning - turns out, we were both band geeks in middle school. I played the flute and he played (wait for it...) the Xylophone!!!! It's nice to know that even after 5+ years of marriage, there are still surprises.

- I bought a mini cupcake pan tonight. This means MANY more cupcakes in my future (and in the future of those around me).

- I made it to work before 9am. Victory is mine.

- I think I solved a budget mystery on one of my projects at work today.

- I found out today that I FINALLY will be in town to attend the McGreten "Ugly Holiday Sweater/Christmas Vacation spectacular. I've missed this event for too many years now and I WILL cram 4 years of fun into one evening. Just you watch.

- I'm going to go to bed before 10pm.

- I didn't have to cook dinner tonight OR do the dishes - LEFTOVERS, awwww yeah!

- Our pantry was stocked with Grape Nuts for my breakfast enjoyment.

- I ate chocolate for dessert.

(Bleep) My Grandpa Says

2011-11-14T20:33:00.005-05:00

So, I've been training, but there isn't much to discuss there. I swim, I bike, I run, I did some strength training (THAT one is a shocker. I actually did the Team Z boot camp this morning and it quickly became apparent that I'm NOT in the most awesome shape ever. AND that I need to work out with a group so I don't wuss out during strength sessions) and then I eat (tonight's pre-dinner dinner - a side of chocolate chips and a whole baguette with some triple-cream brie piled on top). Alas, no funny and amusing training stories.

I've been busy in the kitchen. Six pies, two rounds of banana nut muffins, and one batch of these chocolate-delights:

Chocolate wasted cupcakes

I bake during the off season. And luckily I have many good neighbors and co-workers who are more than willing to take the fruits of my oven off my hands so I don't start next season weighing 50lbs over my goal race weight.

Mark's parents visited us last week from California. They are wonderful and totally took Mark and I out to eat almost every night, a throwback to the college days when parents took pity on the penniless-ramen noodle-eating student and treated them to a real meal. It's nice to know that even though Mark and I are not longer the aforementioned students, his mom and dad still want to treat us to dinner :) We already miss them and can't wait to see them next month at Christmas!

Have you ever seen the website (or read the book) "BLEEP My Dad Says"? My grandpa is temporarily residing with my parents in NH while he recovers from a very minor surgery. After talking to my dad yesterday about his past couple of weeks, I think my grandpa has given them some pretty good material to work with in terms of crotchety conversation. Most of it is not fit for my PG blog, but I will say he did refer to church as "that goddamn place." Mark also informed me yesterday I do a dead-ringer impression of my grandpa (yet another trait I've inherited from my father), which perhaps I will break out over Thanksgiving dinner when grandpa is out of earshot :)

**Note: I do love my Grandpa, mostly because he is so non-PC. None of the above is meant in any malicious manner.

I tried to get myself a mug of hot chocolate this afternoon at the fancy coffee machine at work. FAIL. I couldn't figure out how to get the thing to open so I could put the packet of instant hot chocolate in. I finally gave up after a few minutes of pushing (wrong) buttons and trying to force the door open. Sad thing is, I successfully got myself hot chocolate half a dozen times less than two weeks ago from the same machine. I think I just need the packets of Swiss Miss where you just add water.

Random Friday Facts

2011-11-11T08:38:00.005-05:00

So, I've been meaning to do a Random Friday Facts blogpost for awhile, courtesy of Katie's blog, and while I don't think mine will be half as amusing as hers are, I'm giving it a shot.

1) I put together surveys for a living but I absolutely refuse to take any surveys myself.

2) Our two cats are named after vacuum cleaners - Hoover and Bissell. My dad's nickname for me when I was a kid was Hoover and yes this was well before I was training for Ironmans.

3) I don't talk much when I'm driving - I can't multi-task like that.

4) I've always prided myself in being someone who doesn't drink coffee. Then my husband discovered how to make amazing pumpkin lattes on his espresso maker and I've now become a "recreational" coffee drinker.

5) I always thought "espresso" was actually spelled (and said) as "expresso." I learned the correct spelling about three months ago. Which is sad because I hate misspelled words.

6) Even though being 30 hasn't actually been that bad, I still don't like it.

7) I've recently rediscovered a great love for Grape Nuts.

8) If you'd asked me three weeks ago whether or not I saw myself running any races this offseason, you would've gotten an emphatic NO. Nowwww, I think I'm changing my mind...

9) I love reading well-written, witty blogs.

10) It's my favorite time of year - stores are stocking peppermint flavored ice cream.

11) When my mom was my age, she had a 7-year old and a two year old. I don't know how she did it - I can barely get myself dressed and out the door in one piece on a daily basis.

12) I really like my job. This is the first job that I've had that I truly enjoy the work.

13) As of today, I will have baked 6 pies this week (4 apple and 2 chicken pot pies). No, I did not eat them all myself; I bribe my neighbors with baked goods.

14) Seven years ago today, my husband and I were introduced - we had our first date seven years ago tomorrow.

Book reviews

2011-11-09T22:20:00.002-05:00

My aunt Amy recently gave me a Kindle for my birthday - Best. Gift. Ever. I'll admit, I'd never had a hankering for an electronic reader - I've always liked having my book in hand so I knew how many pages were left and could easily flip back and forth. But I'm a total convert and I love the possibility of having hundreds of books right at my fingertips - just click a button and *bing* a new book magically appears right in front of you (and so does a charge on your credit card, haha). So right before I left for Burkina, I downloaded two books; both of which turned out to be FANTASTIC reads.

The first was Laura Hillenbrand's new novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption . It's the true story of Louis Zamperini, a runner who came within spitting distance of the sub-4 minute mile before deploying with the Army's Air Force during WWII where he was shot down over the Pacific, spent 40+ days on a life raft before being captured by the Japanese and placed in a POW camp for over two years. This book talked alot, both directly and indirectly, about mental strength - what it took to come within seconds of a 4 minute mile and what it took to make it through the day on just one ball of rice and not give up hope. As an athlete, this book offered so many lessons on mental fortitude. I know that reading it won't make me a better athlete, but it did give me some food for thought on strategies to fall back on when hitting a rough patch during a race.

The other book was Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. This book had nothing to do with sports or mental toughness - it was just a really interesting, well-written, and entertaining story. It's about the lives of twin brothers, and the lives of those around them, as they came of age in Ethiopia in the mid-20th century. It was written so vividly that I could actually picture in my mind the places described in the book, what I imagined the characters to look like, and the events as they took place. I totally lost myself in the book and finished it in about two days - THAT's when you know a book is good, when you can't put it down and you find yourself looking forward to a few quiet moments alone so you can sneak a peak at a few more pages.

And now I'm reading Pride and Prejudice. You can download alot of the classics for free on the Kindle and I've told myself that I can't buy the third book of the Hunger Games, or any other book for that matter, until after I finish Pride and Prejudice. In 2012 I'd really like to expand my reading horizons and delve into some classics so I've devised a plan. I must read one classic book for every contemporary/fluff/Nicholas-Spark-ish book I download on my Kindle.

To Marathon or Not to Marathon - that is the question

2011-11-07T20:52:00.005-05:00

My lovely coach Jen recently sent me a goals sheet for the 2012 season which, of course, got me thinking about next year. All the hype and chatter about this past weekend's NYC marathon has started to make me rethink my original desire NOT to do a marathon in 2012. 2012 is the last year that the old qualifying standards (1:37 for women) will be used. And while I've never had a burning desire to do the NYC Marathon (I'm a Boston girl all the way, from marathons to clam chowder), suddenly I want to. Really want to. In 2013 the qualifying standard will be a 1:27, about 5 minutes faster than my 1/2 marathon PR. So, do I take the easy route and jump into a half marathon sometime in the next two months, just to meet the easy qualifying standard and grab a spot in the 2012 race (which would interfere with my hopes of doing a late season half ironman); or, do I decide to really focus on the 1/2 marathon and marathon in a later year and really challenge myself to meet the new standard? Or maybe do both. Physically, if I focus and work and do everything right, a 1:27 doesn't seem out of the question. I would need to be ON my game mentally. The smart move would probably be to put the NYC marathon on the backburner for now and just focus on the 1/2 marathon and doing what I can at that distance in March at the Nation Half Marathon (Rock and Roll Half, whatever it is).

I went running!!!

2011-11-03T20:52:00.003-04:00

I laced up my running shoes this afternoon for the first time in, ohhhh, about 4 weeks! I haven't run a step since Watermans the second weekend of October. I just hadn't felt like it. But my run today was glorious. GLORIOUS. I can't believe I voluntarily went without running for so long. I think I needed the break though; otherwise, I don't think I would've enjoyed today's run as much as I did. I don't know exactly how far I went or how long I ran for, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I'm already looking forward to my weekend run, an encouraging sign. Between getting on the trainer last night and going for a run tonight, it almost looks like I am training again. I'm not going to get serious about anything until after January 1st; I have no desire to have super-structured, goal oriented training during the holiday season. Trying to train for a marathon last year during Christmas was a disaster; I spent Christmas morning staring out my window, eating butter rolls in bed, and wishing I didn't have a two hour run on my schedule. I'm not subjecting myself to that this year - no winter marathon. Maayyyybbeee I will do a half marathon in March. Maybe. I know it seems like I lack motivation right now. And maybe I do. But that's all part of the off-season. I don't want to burn up my stash of motivation before 2012 even starts. So that's why I'm not stressing about missed workouts. I'm eating entire bars of Cadbury chocolate before dinner. And I'm not scheduling any big races until the spring.

Burkina Trip

2011-11-02T20:58:00.007-04:00

So I spent the last half of October in Burkina Faso for work. It's a small, landlocked country in West Africa with pretty much the coolest name for a capital city - Ouagadougou. I spent most of my time in the capital city, but was able to go out into a few villages, which was definitely the highlight of the whole trip. I also forgot that it was October - the temperature was about 100 degrees every day, which made me REALLY appreciate the fact that my hotel had a giant pool.

Burkina is one of the poorest countries in the world. The average Burkinabe lives on about $2/day, not even enough for a Starbucks latte here in the States. Literacy rates are extremely low and when you get outside of the cities, electricity is basically nonexistent. It's a whole different world and visiting Burkina made me appreciate all the creature comforts of home. Tape decks still rule and iPods are nonexistent - I let our driver borrow my iPod when we were out in the village and the poor guy didn't know how to switch through the songs, so he started listening to them in alphabetical order and had to suffer through Atomic Kitten, Abba and A Teens. The people there were super nice and I'm really looking forward to the next opportunity I have to go back. Here are a few pictures from the trip, since images are worth 1,000 words:

Burkinabe bike lane (psst - I got to ride on the back of a motorbike, it was great!)

An elementary school classroom

One of the households in the village we visited

Village children

As a white girl, I was a novelty. These kids had followed me to my car

Burkinabe bike shop. Really, all you need are tires, bikes, and some know-how

If you are interested in checking out a cool organization, take a look here: Friends of African Village Libraries. I heard about the organization from a friend and visited their office while I was in Burkina - they work with villages to install libraries so that local children will have more to read than simply their school books. As someone who loves to read (I read 6 books during the two weeks I was in Ouagadougou), I can't imagine my childhood without books. And this organization works with the villages to ensure there is buy-in and local responsibility for these libraries. I was really impressed with the whole business model and concept. Take a look!

Part of me wishes I had taken more pictures; but the other part of me is glad I didn't. As much as I want to try to capture everything I'm seeing over there, I know there's no way the pictures can do it justice. I also feel borderline exploitive when I take the photos - I know that many of the kids and adults like having their photo taken, but I feel guilty that it's basically for my own pleasure - there isn't any way I can print and give them a copy right there.

Born in the USA

2011-10-31T22:39:00.003-04:00

And THANKFUL for it! I love traveling for two reasons - seeing new places and gaining a new (or renewed) appreciation for everything that I have at home. Visiting Burkina was great for both of those reasons. I have so much I want to write about that trip and pictures that I'd like to post, but I'm too tired to do it justice at the moment. I have workouts waiting for me in Training Peaks, which means I should find my running shoes and see what it feels like to ride a bike again. I also almost forgot my Training Peaks login this morning. Awesome. I feel like a very out-of-practice triathlete at the moment. But I'm totally OK with it. I've rested and relaxed over the past three weeks, and I'm not going to rush the off-season. I cheered at the Marine Corps Marathon yesterday and didn't feel a twinge of envy of the runners doing the race. 2011 was a long, busy season and if I want 2012 to be a success, I can't push myself back into heavy, regimented training until I am truly ready. And I can tell that I'm just not ready. Light exercise - yes. Swap my workouts around if I feel like it - yes. Eat Halloween candy - yes. 15 hour workout weeks - no. 4 hour bike rides - no. 5am swim practice - no. And that's where I stand!

10th Grade French class

2011-10-14T21:16:00.004-04:00

I've known my co-worker Rachel for 15 years now - we both went to high school together in NH before moving down to DC post-college. Two years ago, she helped me land an interview, and subsequently a job, at our current company. Rachel and I met in French class my sophomore year. I don't know if any of you ever took language classes during high school, but if you did, surely in the recesses of your mind you can recall the dialogues the language books would use at the beginning of each chapter to introduce upcoming concepts. There was one dialogue that both Rachel and I recall being particularly memorable. Memorable enough that we still remember it to today.

"Ou est le guerisseur?" (where is the local healer)

"Il est dans la brousse." (he is in the bushlands)

Etc, etc, etc. It was introducing a chapter on French-speaking West Africa, a completely foreign concept to us New Englanders (especially to me who didn't even own a passport at the time). HAHA, when would we ever need this vocabulary?!?

Well, as Rachel informed me this morning - I might actually get to use some of the vocab from that dialogue on my trip to Burkina. Hopefully I won't need to ask where the local healer is, but if I'm in a pickle, at least I'll know how! That high school French lesson was good for something!

Waterman's Half Ironman - last one of the season!

2011-10-11T21:18:00.009-04:00

At the beginning of the year, I was looking for ways to stretch my season out as long as possible. Triathlon in November? Sign me up! But then my schedule changed a bit and some scheduling conflicts appeared and instead my season was going to end the second weekend in October (and no, not at a race on some tropical island - I'm saving that race for when I'm 80 and the rest of my competition is in a nursing home). I figured I'd be disappointed ending my season early, but by the time October came around, I was ready to be done. Truthfully, I've not been 100% plugged in since Lake Placid. I've enjoyed all the races I've done since then, and PR'd on each one, but there was a lack of focus on my part during the training and I think it showed, despite the PRs. I chose not to resist the sweet nothings being whispered by the ice cream in the freezer or by the chocolate bars at the store down the street. I also made this a few too many times:

It's an atomic calorie bomb.

I didn't get enough sleep and didn't make training the priority it should've been. I stopped reading the mental focus books that had been such a big part of my early season. I wouldn't go so far as to say I was burnt out - I was still having fun. But other things were worming their way up on my priority list and I simply let it occur. This is something I want to work on for next year.

So, after that little intro, ready for the race report? Watermans was a small half ironman taking place up in Marbury, MD, less than an hour from DC. This also happens to have been the site of my very first road triathlon back in 2007. That one was a sprint and I distinctly remember during the run thinking that anyone who did more than a sprint was crazy. Race day dawned perfect - sun, coolish temperatures (I think it only got into the high 70s) no humidity and very little wind. The great thing about this race was how small it was (3 swim waves!), the no-frills attitude (got my packet picked up, body marked, and transition set up in about 10 minutes flat), and the 8am start :)

I wanted top-5 overall. It was a small race so I figured that maybe I had a shot. I'd read that the water temperature was 64 so I pulled out the long-sleeve wetsuit (I think I was still traumatized from the temperature at Galway 70.3). Turns out that 64 was way warmer than whatever it was in Galway and I could've totally gone with the sleeveless. At least the full wetsuit kept the fields of seaweed from touching my skin - ewww. The wave, even though it was all women racers, was small. Just the way I like it. After the gun went off, it didn't take long to find clear water and be on my way on the two loop swim. Almost immediately my arms felt fatigued. Was the full wetsuit constricting? Was it general lack of swim fitness from missing too many AM swim sessions? Who knows. By the second loop, I got into a rhythm and my arms were actually feeling better. Sighting was no problem and neither were crowds. Unfortunately, my swims are terribly predictable and I finished in almost the same exact time as the rest of my 70.3s this year. Maybe next year will be when I finally break through the elusive 35:00 barrier. I had no idea where I was in the pack of girls but I ran to T1 like I stole something.

The timing mats turned out to be broken in the transition area so there isn't a record of my only fast transition times this whole season. I got on the bike and started looking for the girls ahead of me. I found a few, but not before I was caught by the speeding bullet that is Kendra (who ended up winning the ENTIRE race - who, one year ago, had never clipped in on a bike or been to a swim practice - if that's not rockstar, I don't know what is). The bike course was hillier than I had expected, but it wasn't terrible. The roads were in decent condition and didn't have alot of traffic on them. All good things. I rode on my own quite a bit because competitors were so far apart from each other. Throughout the ride, I felt really decent. Kept to the usual nutrition plan of a Hammer gel every 15 minutes for the first two hours (then every 20 minutes for the last hour) and a sip of water every 10 and a Saltstick tab every 30. This has worked great in all my other races and Watermans was no exception. But partway through the ride, I don't know if I let my head get to me, or if I really was slogging through molasses, but I just felt slow. By the time I finished the ride, I was convinced this was my slowest ride since Quassy even though it shouldn't have been because it wasn't all that hilly. I never remember exactly what time my Garmin says when I start the bike, so I can never calculate the bike time while riding. It's probably for the best, since it usually keeps my head out of the game, but lately I've had myself convinced that I rode super, super slow and I get off the bike all pissy. Whatever.

As I rode back into the park towards T2, I only saw a handful of girls out running. This was heartening. Maybe I wasn't as far behind as I thought. I had another faster-than-usual transition time on my way out to the run. The run was hilly - comparable to basically every other half ironman run this season (except for Wildflower, that deserves its own category, and Galway which was pancake flat - but there were 30mph winds, I don't know which is worse). There is always the lofty goal of running a 7:xx pace in a half ironman run - a lofty goal that I've never achieved. Oddly enough, the closest I came was at Quassy which was RIDICULOUSLY hilly on the run. My watch also crapped out on my at Mile 2 on that run and beeped at me every 2 seconds and refused to show me my mile splits - I think I need to run without knowing my mile splits from now on and run purely on feel. I've come to believe that the body is capable of much more than what the mind allows it to do. But I'll measure progress in small increments. No stopping and no walking and be consistent. I took in a bit of a Hammer gel during the run and had water at every other aid station. On the first loop, I counted myself as 6 back when I got to the turnaround. As I made it around the turnaround, I saw two girls not far behind me and both were looking strong. I had a talk with myself and kicked it up a notch - I didn't want to finish the race having any regrets. Mentally, I felt like I was in a good place throughout the run. No I wasn't getting the splits I wanted, but it could've been worse, and at least I was hitting around the same times each mile, with a few exceptions. As I approached the turnaround, with about 3 miles to go, I passed one of the women in front of me - putting me in 5h place. One of the girls that was behind me was slowly gaining so I just put my head down and ran. With the exception of a little nausea and dry-heaving action 1/2 a mile from the finish, the rest of the run was uneventful and I held off the girl behind me. I finished 5th overall and 2nd in my age group, with a shiny new 5:23 PR time. I'll take it.

This was a great race to end my season on. A few days after the race, I was looking back at some of my old race times and it hit me just how far I've come. The time for my first half ironman was a lovely 6:16 or something like that. I was on my bike for almost 3.5 hours and thought I was going to die on the run. I seriously considered getting a refund on the full iron-distance race I was already signed up for and proceeded to tell everyone and their mother "I'm done with this crap" for the rest of the afternoon after the race. Breaking 6:00 seemed unfathomable and I figured people who got times like 5:25 were Kona material. I never in a million years thought that I'd be getting times like the ones I got this season. And the best part - I feel like I can do even better. I think it's an absolute possibility that I'll shock myself next year and manage to go even faster. Part of this is the physical training, but part of it is mental. Not only believing in what one is capable of, but learning how to shut one's mind off so the body can do what it was trained to do. I still have alot to learn, but that's what makes every race fresh, new, and fun. That's why we keep coming back, right? You don't know the limit to your potential and every race is way to find out what you're capable of. Alot of this realization has been thanks to my awesome coach Jen who has given me not only great workouts, but lots of stuff to think about in terms of the mental aspect of the sport.

The race was also a perfect way to catch up with old and new friends from Team Z and elsewhere. I think I scared poor Katie by ambushing her outside the chip pickup tent ("You're Katie - I read your blog, I LOVE your blog!"). Gina was wonderful enough to lend me a chip strap because I forgot mine again - my ankles thank you Gina! And Lauren executed a great race and is totally ready for Cozumel. It was so nice to see Dawn and Kendra and I'm looking forward to racing with them next year :)

And so the season is over. I've yet to buy a can of frosting, but I'm sure that'll happen soon enough. I'm off to Africa on Saturday for a two-week work trip to Burkina Faso! Do you know how long I've always wanted to write those words - "I'm off to Africa for work!" I think I've been dreaming about that since I was a little kid, traveling to places completely different than anything you'll find in the US. It opens your mind to other things that are out there, but also REALLY makes you appreciate what you have at home. Like electricity.

Sidenote - every time I try to tag my post with the label "triathlon", it automatically adds in the tag "Living like a feral cat." I need to find whatever posting I gave that tag to - I'm sure it's probably an interesting read (and, sadly, probably has to do with how I live when Mark is away on a business trip).

70.3 Galway race report

2011-10-06T19:24:00.008-04:00

I raced in boots and a scarf. It was that cold.

Not going to lie, this whole idea of turning 30 was a bit traumatizing. So, to prove to myself that I'm still young, I can still have fun, I'm still cool - I decided I needed to do something really special. And when I saw that Ireland was hosting an inaugural 70.3 the SAME DAY I was turning 30, well, that sealed the deal. Didn't hurt that we were also celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary a few days later and would make an extended vacation out of it.

We arrived in Ireland on the morning of September 1st, so about 3 days before the race. Within hours, Mark was practically an expert at driving on the left. And navigating the Irish roads. We somehow managed to found our B&B with no help from the GPS and without getting lost ONCE. I was super impressed with the B&B - we were staying in Salthill and not only did we have a view of the ocean, but we could also see Transition from our bedroom window. Score! This proved to be especially great on race morning when it was freezing cold and windy and the last thing you felt like doing was getting to transition early.

The ocean - and Transition!

We shook out the travel cobwebs with a short run on Thursday afternoon, scoping out the transition area along the way, and trying to figure out the swim start and finish. I'm terrible with T1 and T2, and the fact that this transition area was super long and narrow probably wasn't going to help me much on race day. Thank goodness for jetlag - by the time 5pm rolled around, we were starving and tired. We strolled out to the Latin Quarter for an early dinner at the Kings Head Pub, and walked back to the B&B through the park along the water, previewing most of the run course along the way (I'm all about multi-tasking). And we were in bed, asleep before 8:30pm. I think I was 10 years old the last time I fell asleep that early :)

They like triathletes here!

The poor B&B owner, I think we may have slightly offended her by NEVER being around for breakfast. The first morning we overslept (I slept 12 hours - TWELVE HOURS!), the second morning we ran out to the beach for a swim, and the third morning was race day and they don't serve breakfast at 4:30am in most B&Bs. Friday was a stay-off-your-feet day. So we drove the bike course and simultaneously went sightseeing around Connemara (see-multi-tasking). The bike course was an out-and-back from Galway, out the N56 to Maam's Cross, and then back to Galway. It was during our drive along the bike course that it dawned on me "I have to bike on the left and pass on the right." Thank goodness the course was NOT technical and instead was very straightforward; otherwise I could see myself making a few mistakes. I also carried enough water with me so I wouldn't have to do bottle handoffs with my left hand. Connemara was beautiful, even though it poured almost the whole time. We (well, Mark) had a Guinness in an Irish pub in one of the towns along the way, we took some photos of a castle from afar (too cheap to pay the entrance fee), and that was about it. And we drove on the left most of the time. I don't have any photos of how narrow the roads were, but let's put it this way - there was no way I could even have my window open, because half of the shrubs alongside the road would've ended up in my lap.

Bikes! In the sky!

We went to packet pickup on Friday, before heading out to Connemara. They had the usual stalls selling stuff: IM gear, wetsuits, toy rifles - you know, why use your words to encourage racers to go faster when you can shoot them instead?

Saturday we met up with Angelina and Charisa at the practice swim. They had both already been in the water and said it actually wasn't all that bad. HAHAHAAAA, FUNNY! Well, at first, the water was bad. Like ice cream headache bad. And even though it looked calm from shore, there were some waves. But then I got into a rhythm and my head got used to the water, and it really wasn't all that bad. Nothing that I couldn't deal with on race day. After dropping off our gear bags and bikes, we had a long, 2+ hour lunch that afternoon at a local pasta place and then dinner at the pasta place next door to the first pasta place. I had a Magnum bar for good luck before heading back to the B&B for sleep. I didn't sleep all that great that night, but what can you do? I kept waking up and hearing the wind howling all around us - maybe the wind will die down race morning. Fat chance.

We love to race! We love to race! (we also like to match)

Race morning - woken up by wind, not the alarm clock. Lovely. It was also my 30th birthday. Even more lovely. Thankfully, I was more focused on the race than my gray hairs that morning. According to the locals, the remnants of Hurricane Irene were drifting by. Could things get any more lovely? We waited until the last possible second to head over the the race site. I put on every warm article of clothing I owned. Including my wetsuit. At least it wasn't raining - yet. The winds were ridiculous. And at first it was too dark to see the water, but when it became lighter, you could see the whitecaps and the boats getting jostled about. They made an announcement that they had pushed the race start to a little later and shortened the swim to 1000m. I was relieved they hadn't canceled the swim outright. No, it wasn't going to be fun to get soaking wet before biking in the 50 degree temperatures and wind, but I'd rather have that than a cancelled swim and a pretend triathlon. Angelina and I were in the second to last wave. It gave us lots of time to stare at the water and realize just how choppy it was. By the time it was our turn to make our way down to the water, there were girls in our wave who were in tears looking at the water.

Don't be fooled by this photo - it was REALLY choppy! Honest!

The gun went off and in we went! Within moments, it was obvious that this was NOT going to be a PR swim of any sort. I was only about 12 minutes faster than my usual 1.2 mile time. We had to fight the current on the way out, all while getting slapped in the face by waves if you sighted at the wrong moment. More chop and current after the first turn, but then with the second turn on the way back in, it sort of felt like flying. The whole swim felt like some sort of warped carnival ride. But, it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be - not a single ice cream headache! I passed a number of guys in the waves ahead of me, and when I got out of the water, I saw a few girls in front of and around me, so I was in the mix.

Bike on the left. Pass on the right. And don't fall.

I ran forever to get to the transition area. Then I tried to get armwarmers over my wet arms using hands that were blocks of ice. I didn't bother with sunglasses (it had started raining at this point), remembered my helmet and my race number belt, and then ran forever to get to my bike. I put my bike shoes on at some point too, don't remember when. Got on the bike and spent the first few miles reminding myself to stay on the left. I had no idea where I was in terms of my age group. There wasn't any body marking (booo), but I had sort of an idea of what race numbers were distributed to girls in my AG. I loved the first few miles of the bike course - - there wasn't any rain, I was passing people, and spectators were shouting things like "Brilliant job!" I made the left turn onto N56 and felt like I was flying - no idea what my mph were, but when the splits popped up every mile, I was pretty happy with them. We had been told that there would be a headwind going out and tailwind coming back in - so when I was seeing those splits, despite the "headwind," I figured I must've developed some crazy bike skills overnight; the alternative - that there was a tailwind - just wasn't an idea I was willing to entertain. Around mile 10 or so, it started to rain. And by mile 20, it was raining hard. Around the halfway point, I started to hit a low point where this suddenly wasn't all that fun anymore. I was wet and cold and the wind and rain were showing no signs of giving up. And I discovered that there WAS a headwind on the way back to town. But there was a bright side - I was doing OK in the girls race - I'd seen a few girls go flying back from the turnaround when I was a mile or two away from it - and the out-and-back really gave me a chance to see where I was and things were OK. And when we were about 6 miles from town, the clouds started clearing and the sun came out - amazing! We went from dreary, disgusting weather, to beautiful weather - just in time for the run!

Ohhh Emmm Geeee - the sun!

I saw Mark right when I headed out of T2 and he told me that he'd found carrot cake for my birthday (Carrot cake is my favorite birthday treat). If that isn't motivation to run fast, I don't know what is! The run course was three loops through Salthill and into town, with an extra 1000m tagged onto the last loop as you made your way to the finish line. The first 2.5 miles were zippy - all due to a tailwind. Which meant the last 1.5 mile of each loop was a bit more of a struggle - we were running straight into the wind through a park along the water - absolutely NO shelter from the wind. Again, the spectators and volunteers were awesome during this leg - lots of cheering and lots of Irish accents and lots of use of the word "brilliant." Can all races have cheering spectators from Ireland? I kept a relatively consistent pace on each loop, but it was never quite as fast as I had hoped. But I had no GI issues and I didn't spend any time during the race dreaming of food or water or fruit smoothies - this is always a sure sign that I nailed my nutrition. The last 1000m were a struggle - lots of headwind and general lack of desire to still be running. I was beyond thrilled to see the finish line.

First loop - feeling good.

In the end, I don't really count this race as a PR because it wasn't a true 70.3 with the swim being shortened. But this was DEFINITELY the worst weather I have ever raced in. However, it also had one of the best post-race buffets. Hot stew anyone? Back at the B&B after the race, I gorged on my carrot cake and put on layers of warm clothes. We headed over to the host hotel under the guise of checking the results since they weren't posted online. My visit also coincided with the 70.3 Championships rolldown. I told myself that if I came in the top 10 in my AG, I would stick around for the rolldown. I came in 8th. Stuck around for the rolldown. AND GOT A SLOT (and not even the last slot!).

Vegas. 2012. 70.3. Be there or be square.

This was an awesome race and I would do it again - even without making Mother Nature sign a contract guaranteeing better weather. Angelina and Charisa did great - and Charisa got 3rd overall - rockstar! I loved having the chance to catch up with Angelina - she is one of the nicest people ever. I am hoping we will both be at Jen's tri camp again next March. Mark was a trooper for cheering in the terrible weather AND for finding me carrot cake for my birthday.

And while I'm still getting over the shock of turning 30 (humor me, one of these days I will stop talking about 30), if my birthday was any indication, it's going to be a great year.

Daily grind

2011-09-27T22:40:00.004-04:00

Oh holy heck, life feels like it is on fast forward. Each day is eerily similar:

- Set alarm for an unholy early hour

- Hit snooze at least twice

- Roll out of bed, grumble about being late, pull stuff together for the AM workout

- Do AM workout

- Eat

- Accidentally get sucked into Facebook and instantly lose 30 minutes of my morning

- Start the commute to work (if on bike, curse at cars and bikers who don't pay attention; if on public transportation, roll eyes at length of time it takes for people to board bus)

- Run to 9am daily meeting and arrive 2 minutes late AGAIN

- Work

- Lose track of time and find myself still in the office at 6:30pm

- Commute home (get sweaty on the bike or on the metro, happens either way)

- PM workout

- Eat dinner at a ridiculously late hour

- Get sucked into Facebook and blogs AGAIN

- Go to bed (and always later than initially planned).

Fortunately, my weekends have been a bit more exciting and less monotonous - visits with friends, a wedding this coming weekend, then a race the next weekend, and perhaps I'll be in Africa the weekend after that!

How do people fit in more in their daily life than sleep, meals, work, and workouts? Any time management advice (besides the obvious STAY OFF FACEBOOK) is always appreciated!

Even dogs hit low points

2011-09-21T22:05:00.003-04:00

This past weekend was AH-Mazing! But since it's 10pm and I need to sleep, and a posting on my weekend and what an awesome best friend I have deserves sufficient time and attention, it's a post for a later date.

This week I'm holding down the fort with the dog and two cats. When it's just Miles and I, we have a nice routine down. Go to the dogpark one or two nights during the week (I know, we live life on the edge). I'll take him running with me more often. Etc. Last night I had a one hour run with some intervals. I usually don't take Miles running with me for workouts scheduled to last more than 45 minutes, or anything that has any type of speedwork. But I felt too guilty about putting him back in his crate for an hour, so on went the leash and off we ran.

Miles is a very predictable dog. I know exactly when he will want to go to the bathroom, exactly when he needs to eat, and how many stretches and shakes he will perform when he gets out of his crate every evening. He's also predictable when we go running. For the first mile, he is gung-ho, loving every step of the run. This is because he thinks we're running to the dogpark. We pass by the dogpark, where he looks longingly in that direction. Then, without fail, within 300m, right after we cross the small bridge over a creek, he puts on the brakes and refuses to run. There's usually some coddling and cajoling on my part and he eventually gets going again. About 3/4 of a mile later, he does it again. But then that's it. He sucks it up, realizes he's out there for the long-haul and we're not turning around anytime soon, and he just runs. Sometime when I'm out for a hard run, or in the latter half of the run in a half-ironman, I need to remind myself of this. I'm in it for the long haul. There's no turning back. Just suck it up and deal with it. And there's always rewards at the end. For Miles - it's the opportunity to slurp water out of the cats' water dish. For me, usually some sort of junk food. To each his own.

Don't ride so close to me

2011-09-14T21:52:00.002-04:00

So, is it just me or does anyone else get a little peeved when you are biking along and suddenly notice a stranger stuck to your back wheel? For. Miles. Part of it could be that I'm not the most confident of riders and I don't like to be close to people. But I think the main reason I get irked is because I don't know the person or their riding abilities and they could be an even worse rider than me. And I'd rather not have my suspicions confirmed through them crashing into me.

It's always guys that do it too. Come on guys, man up and stop drafting off a girl.

Timberman Race Report

2011-09-13T20:52:00.003-04:00

Let's overlook the fact that this race was almost 4 weeks ago - better late than never, right? This race has been on my bucket list for awhile (and this is the year of the bucket list races). It's in my home state of NH in a beautiful area, they serve ice cream at the finish, and a triathlete by the name of Chrissie Wellington does this race every year. In addition to wanting the opportunity to to see Chrissie race in person, my good friends Tim and Ashley were doing the race and Timberman 2011 was suddenly too tempting to pass up. Signing up back in April, I conveniently forgot about the fact that it was only 4 weeks post-IMLP and, as my complaining in previous posts showed, 4 weeks really isn't enough to adequately recover from 12+ hours of swimbikerun.

Anyways, as much as I was looking forward to the race (I'd get to see my family AND my best friend Erin and her family and my goddaughter), things in the days prior to the race weren't going very smoothly. Work was super busy and suddenly I was going to need to drive up Friday instead of Thursday and drive back on Sunday (immediately after the race) instead of Monday. Plans for a place to stay fell through and hotels and B&Bs in the area were all booked. I was tired, cranky, and not feeling in peak shape for the race. But things have a way of working out in the end. I took Friday off and left DC early in the morning, arriving at my parent's house in southern NH at a reasonable time in late afternoon. I caught up with some of my favorite friends from high school, Heather on Friday night and Kathy on Saturday morning. And my friend Megan - her parents, the Bielawas, who are the nicest people in the world, had a lake house 20 minutes from the race site and opened their home to me for the weekend. Everything worked out in the end and I loved catching up with Megan's family, who I haven't seen in ages. Race weekend was turning out better than I ever could've dreamed.

Pre-race: I didn't sleep nearly enough the night before the race. Maybe 4 hours. I didn't fall asleep until 11pm and then I woke up at 2:45am and couldn't get back to sleep. I finally gave up at 3:45am, got my stuff together and drove to the race site. Parking opened at 4am and I arrived at 4:30 to snag one of the last spots - it was my lucky day! I munched on bagels, set my stuff up and checked and double-checked everything, chatted with the girls on my rack and discovered that one of them, Melanie, lives about 1 mile from me in Arlington and we have lots of mutual friends. She went on to completely rock the race, finishing 6th in our 30-34 AG and snagging a slot to 70.3 Worlds! I caught up with Tim and Ashley right before the swim start and before I knew it, it was 7:40 and time to go for a swim.

The swim:

The water was chilly enough for a sleeveless wetsuit and compared to Lake Placid's mass start, my tame wave of only 30-34 AG women allowed me to find clear water quite quickly. I did a decent job at sighting, and the swim on the way out to the buoys felt smooth and fast. However, the swim back in seemed to take forever and my sighting was less than stellar at that point. I had a feeling it wouldn't be my best swim, and it wasn't, but only by a minute or so. Disappointing, but c'est la vie. I was ready to turn my focus to the bike and run, which was where I really was hoping to do well and make up time.

T1:

Wetsuit strippers are awesome.

The bike:

I drove the bike course the day before the race. It was an out-and-back course. It started off hilly, just like I expected, with the first 10-15 miles being hills, hills, and more hills. Then the middle part of the race was flat, flat, flat, and the last bit of the race had a few hills, but more downhills than uphills. I've never gone sub-3 in a half ironman before and I was determined to go sub-3 during Timberman if it killed me. I would take a 2:59:59 and call it a winner as long as it was sub-3. I had my watch set on Multisport mode so I had no idea of my HR or my pace, just the overall time. I tend to race better this way, keeps the head out of the game. As I headed out of T1 on the bike, my mom, Erin, and my brother were right at the bike mount line cheering. It was especially meaningful to see my brother. He has had some rough times and we've had our differences, and it really is a post for another day, but seeing him there meant the world to me.

The bike portion was pretty uneventful. I did my usual nutrition of a gel every 20 minutes, sip on water with Nuun every 10, and take a salt tab every 30 minutes. It was a warm day and I wanted to make sure I got enough salt and electrolytes in me. I also wanted to make sure I was properly hydrated so I wasn't dreaming about water and beverages on the run, so I took in extra sips of water between the alloted 10 minutes. I passed girls and a couple would pass me back and we would play leapfrog. I actually enjoyed the hills (usually do), but the one at mile 10 was a little excessive. Once the course flattened out a bit in the middle and had fewer sharp turns, it was easy to settle into the areobars and go to town. The course was actually pretty crowded with racers, I was never alone out there. On the way back in from the turnaround, I really focused on concentrating on the race and making sure I was doing my best to pedal hard and work hard. Sub-3 or bust, right? I actually had no idea how I was doing time-wise, but when I rolled into T2, I was pretty sure I met my goal. When I talked to Mark that night and had him read off my splits to me, I was shocked with my bike split because it was faster than I thought I was capable of for that hilly course. Mission accomplished!

T2:

Nothing terribly exciting to report, except that I chose to pee while I was sitting in transition getting my run shoes on rather than go to a port-o-john (whatever, we are triathletes and we are disgusting when we race). In the end, this proved to be a wise decision because I eeked out a 1/2 Ironman PR by only 30 seconds. If I'd taken a proper pee break, that wouldn't have happened. It also proved I was hydrated, yippee! It's the little things, right?

The run:

I felt really good and strong out on the bike. Ironman, what Ironman? During the bike, my legs felt fine. And then I started to run. Oh, that Ironman. Apparently legs are like elephants - they don't forget. I wanted to start off with run splits in the 7:40s, but when my watch chirped at mile 1 it showed a split over 8:00, and proceeded to just get slower from there. I drove the run course the day before the race and it didn't seem too hilly, but when I was actually out there running, there were a number of gradual hills that weren't as noticeable from the car. Even though it felt like I was running at a decent pace, my splits were actually pretty slow. I never imploded on the run or walked, or dreamed about water, or cried uncle. So, in that sense, the run wasn't a total wash. I simply wasn't fully recovered from Placid and it manifested itself on the run, that's all. The course was two out-and-backs, and I saw Chrissie cruising to the finish as I was starting my run. She was smiling like she was out for an easy jog and her competition was pretty far behind. I was watching my overall time and as I got closer to the finish, I knew it would be close for a PR. In the end, it was only by 30 seconds, but I'll take that. Besides the legs feeling really tired, I didn't have any other major issues, nutrition and hydration were spot on. It was only during the last mile that I started to feel sick, and the whole way down the finishers chute I talked myself into not tossing my cookies. Chrissie Wellington was passing out finisher medals and now was not the time to toss cookies. I held it together, got a finisher medal and hug from Chrissie (she is COMPLETELY awesome - posing for pictures with anyone who asked and hugging sweaty, stinky triathletes), briefly chatted with blogger Frayed Laces, who totally had an amazing race, and took a quick swim in the water to cool off. Tim and Ashley both had fantastic races and while Tim said he was never going to do another 70.3 again, I know he is probably researching future 70.3s as we speak.

I really had no idea how I was going to do in this race - I didn't come into it completely expecting a PR, but at the same time, obviously that's something I wanted. And while I am really happy with my bike time and how much I have improved since my first 70.3 back in 2008, I really need to do something about my run. I don't know if it's a mental block or physical, or a combination of both, but I need to stop allowing myself to take it easy on the run, I need to stop allowing myself to make excuses and stop feeling like slower times are acceptable. This may be something I'll be focusing on in the off-season. Mental toughness on the run.

So, Timberman race weekend was great. Which was good because the following days were a bunch of crap, with my wallet being stolen from under my desk at work (WTH!!!), an earthquake, a hurricane, and a crazy schedule at work. Fortunately, however, another race (and a vacation to Ireland) was looming on my schedule, which is a post for another day!

Thanks for reading!

10 Years

2011-09-11T21:30:00.005-04:00

Oh, that's right, I have a blog. And I used to be pretty good at keeping it updated. I have two big race reports to post (spoiler - they involve Chrissie Wellington AND 70.3 Worlds) but yet haven't made the time to post them. I guess that's what happens when you have your wallet stolen, an earthquake, a hurricane, turn 30, celebrate your 5th wedding anniversary, do two half ironmans, and go on vacation to Ireland, all in a matter of weeks. So much to write about, I hardly know where to begin.

I went on my run today - the first run since 70.3 Galway on September 4th. I felt slow and jiggly (thank you Cadbury chocolates) and the weather was MUCH warmer than what I had been experiencing for the past 1.5 weeks in Ireland. But all that didn't really matter. This run wasn't about shaking off the cobwebs or seeing what I was made of. Instead, it was for running the three miles down the Columbia Pike to the Pentagon. And then standing there and thinking about 10 years ago. I think about it anyway, every time I run by the Pentagon and its memorial on my usual weekend run. But ten years is a big deal. Just like it was hard to fathom how much life was going to change after 9/11, it is now hard to remember what life was like before that day. And my life hasn't really been directly affected the way the lives of my close friends in the military have had their lives affected. 7 days before 9/11, I flew to France for my semester abroad. I flew out of Boston's Logan airport and my parents got to walk me through security, all the way to the gate. That's now a thing of the past, like so many other things. And without brave people like Erin, Ashley, and Katie - who have all spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan while the rest of us went on with out daily lives in our comfortable homes - there would be no triathlon, no comfortable, safe life to lead. So to them - thank you (AND a big congrats to Erin who just got her nursing exam results back and is OFFICIALLY an RN).

No More Bike Commuting

2011-08-17T21:54:00.003-04:00

So after IMLP, I took a whole week off from working out (and ate lots of chocolate instead). The next week I started bike commuting again and did very little additional exercise. However, bike commuting 18 miles a day did add up - 90 miles that week. The next week, I got back on a regular workout schedule with two-a-days. I bike commuted Monday and Tuesday and by Tuesday evening felt awful. I was tired, I was cranky, I was hungry, and I was sore. In short - bike commuting in no way was helping my recovery from Ironman. Add to that the fact that I (sortofstupidly) signed up to do Timberman (a 70.3 in lovely NH) exactly 4 weeks out from IMLP - proper recovery suddenly became extremely important. Drastic times call for drastic measures - I'm sucking it up and taking the bus/metro as much as it pains me. At least until after 70.3 Galway. Before working with Jen, I didn't fully understand the importance of proper recovery between races and between workout sessions. I'm still learning, yes, and I'm still making dumb decisions here and there (140.6 + 70.3 + 70.3 in 6 weeks) (but hey, it's better than 3 half ironmans in 4 weeks, right?). Racing right, setting myself up for a PR, that's how I need to race from now on. No more "racing for fun" or signing up for an extra race just because my friends are doing it. If I'm investing this much time and energy and money into the sport, then I need to make sure I'm doing everything else right to succeed (i.e. RECOVER). So, next year I will be planning out my season a little more carefully post-IMLP.

However - good news. Within days of giving up the bike commute, I felt much more refreshed, rested, and... recovered. I think we're good to go for this weekend. Cheers to a weekend with great friends, an awesome race, and hopefully a run-in with Chrissie Wellington.

I'm back!

2011-08-09T21:36:00.003-04:00

I fully enjoyed my last weekend without structured workouts. Saturday was a bike ride with Jessie, she is on the USC triathlon team and she will be kicking butt and taking names - I am glad I'm not in her age group! We went out for a leisurely spin around the bike path. Unfortunately, lots of other people had the same idea and not everyone is well-versed in bike path etiquette. That's why I save the bike path for leisurely rides, not training rides. I've become a master at the low-speed bike crash and demonstrated my prowess at this activity on Saturday morning when another cyclist and I locked front wheels and went down. It looked uglier than it was, nothing more than scrapes and bruises, and most importantly the bike was fine.

Sunday was an open water swim down in Luray. Janine and I woke up early (OK, she woke up early, I overslept - stayed up too late watching Battlestar Galactica (that's a sentence I never thought I'd type)) and headed down to Luray. I think the course was marked for about 700m or so. We ended up doing 4 loops, which was 2 loops more than I had initially figured I'd do (I was still on the "I-will-only-do-what-I-feel-like-doing" plan). I need to get out and do more open water swimming - too bad Luray is 1.5 hours away, I'd take that any day over the Potomac.

Guess what was waiting for me on Monday - workouts in Training Peaks! I'm officially back. Swim and TRX on Monday with a swim and run today (along with bike commutes both days). There may or may not have been a little happy dance in my office when I laced up my running shoes and put my HR monitor and Garmin on for the first time since Lake Placid.

The happy dance abruptly ended once I started running. It. Was. Hot. Even though it was past 6pm, the sun was still beating down on the Mall. My legs still had alot of Ironman shuffle in them and the run quickly became a slog. Thank goodness my Garmin battery ran out right about the time things started to get ugly. I'd rather not have digital evidence of the ugly run. But I got it done, got the bike commute done, and I'm going to bed before 10pm. Victory on all fronts.

Random musings...

2011-08-04T20:39:00.006-04:00

- At least once a day when riding my bike to work, the background music for the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz starts running through my head. Da-da-da-da-da-daaa, da-da-da-da-da-daaaaa....

- Today's bike commute was full of pleasant, cordial, polite people. They warned you when passing, people I passed said "thank you" when I let them know I was on their left. Cars did not try to run me over when I was in a crosswalk. The sun was out and the birds were singing. This was in sharp contrast to yesterday's commute where I was almost run off the bike path by some guy who magically veered to the left as I warned him as was passing. I was also almost run over by a lady in a mini van when I was in a crosswalk (WITH THE RIGHT OF WAY) - she then proceeded to gesticulate with her hands, making it seem like it was all my fault, being in her way and all... There were no birds singing yesterday, but a bird may or may not have been flipped...

- I've already started thinking about this year's Christmas card. I KNOW it is only August, but last year's card will be hard to top. Besides, I start listening to Christmas music this time of year anyway.

- I went for my first post-IM swim this morning. Hello muscles I haven't used in two weeks!

- It only took me a week to eat the 1 pound bar of chocolate.

- I like my dog. No, I LOVE my dog. Sound strange? Ask Mark, it has been a long process for me to get to this point. He's a very sweet dog; but, for a time it was hard to focus on his sweet personality when he was eating all of my Banana Republic clothes on a daily basis and my running shoes two weeks before Ironman...

- Hehe, take a look at the labels for this post.

Paranoia

2011-08-03T20:12:00.002-04:00

Does anyone else have odd things they are paranoid about? Alot of mine have to do with appliances. I refuse to leave the house if the dishwasher is running, if the washing machine is on, or - heaven forbid - the dryer is in use. The dryer, especially the dryer - I always picture it getting so hot and catching the lint in the lint trap on fire. Mark says he cleans the lint trap whenever he uses the dryer; but being the paranoid wife that I am, I don't believe him most of the time. I refuse to leave my computer plugged in to the outlet when I'm not home and thunderstorms are in the forecast. Power surge! I don't know how well my Mac would handle it and I don't want to test it and find out. I also don't leave lamps on if we leave the house for any reason (you never know, a cat could knock them over and start a fire). Fortunately, Mark puts up with me and (usually) indulges me in my requests (though, I picture him turning on all the appliances and then gleefully walking out of the house when I'm out of town - freedom! Kind of like how he makes a giant steak wrapped in bacon every time I'm out of town).

We're not even going to touch race-week paranoia or stomach virus paranoia; that's just a WHOLE other can of worms and worthy of several posts of their own.

Back in the (bike) saddle again

2011-08-02T20:56:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I got a sign from God. A sign that said, "stop eating Oreo cake and get on your bike." I dropped a paper on the floor in my office, bent down to pick it up, and... I RIPPED THE LINING OF MY DRESS. Hey, I know I indulged a bit after Ironman, but don't you think that's a little extreme? I burned at least a week's worth of calories on June 24th, right? Can't we save my rear and thighs busting out of my clothes for next week if I continue down this path?

Alas, it's too late. Time to put the cake away and dust off the bike for some bike commuting (and I mean, dust off the bike - I meant to clean my roadbike since it's full of mud from a messy commute weeks ago, but I got lazy).

Ironman: The Aftermath

2011-07-30T19:35:00.003-04:00

To say I've enjoyed my recovery to the fullest would be... well, an understatement. In the week since the event, I've managed to go to bed before midnight exactly once. I've indulged in doughnuts, hunks of cheese, baked cheese wrapped in pastry dough, beer, oreo cake smothered in homemade frosting. I'm almost done with the one pound bar of chocolate that I opened 4 days ago. I ate a huge, HUGE ice cream cone at Ben and Jerrys. I've done nothing athletic, save the 30 minute ride I did on the trainer this morning. I just finished a gigantic bowl of cold potato soup (main ingredient - milk and heavy cream). And I'm on my way to get frozen yogurt. On the car ride home from Lake Placid/Burlington, as I was polishing off a bag of Skittles and some orange soda, I said to Mark "I don't know how long I can eat and drink like this." Well, apparently I can do it for least a week. Like anything out of the ordinary, it can take a little while to get adjusted. And... I'm adjusted. This food binge hasn't been quite as epic as last year's post-Ironman tour of Italian food and culture (a record 5lb weight gain in a matter of days), but it has still been fun.

Tomorrow we're supposedly going on a bike ride (if I go to bed before midnight and wake up before 8am). And Monday I'm going to start bike commuting again (getting boxed in by tourists on the metro escalator, waiting 20 minutes for a train, and then getting cropdusted on the bus Friday afternoon was enough to make me remember why I bike commute in the first place). It's back on the wagon next week - otherwise I don't know if I'll ever find the wagon!

My Thursday night project and weekend breakfast-lunch-dinner

Which is the tougher endurance event? Ironman or eating a pound of chocolate?

Ironman Lake Placid 2011: The Race Report

2011-07-27T19:54:00.003-04:00

I know, not the most creative title. Actually, there are several race report titles that would've been appropriate:

- Saltstick tabs, where have you been all my life?

- The rest of America may have been melting, but it was a perfect day in Lake Placid!

- Volunteers and cheering spectators are the best!

- Who needs a Bento Box when you have a half-empty sports bra?

- How I gave up being a vegetarian at mile 24.5 of the run.

- But the most fitting would have to be this: Not a perfect race and not my best time, but by far the most solid Ironman performance I've ever pulled together.

IMLP 2011 was my 5th Ironman race. My first two were flat, flat, flat courses - Florida and Beach2Battleship. Both yielded times that would be hard to top. My third and fourth Ironmans were hilly - France and Wisconsin. I also fell apart on the run at both of those races and was very disappointed in my finish and overall effort.

So far, this year had been different from previous seasons. I've set PRs and reach time and place goals. I believed in myself and in my abilities. Things were... different, in a good way. So, going into IMLP, I felt calm, confident, excited and ready to race. My number one goal was to put together a solid race plan, stick to it, and have a consistent, strong race. There would be no "balls to the wall" racing; I'd actually keep tabs on my HR, be conservative on the bike and start the run off easy. I'd try to be smart and patient. I'd actually have to turn my brain on to do some thinking so I could pull off a smart race.

There is something almost magical about the week before Ironman. The hard work is done. You have your race plan in hand and you think about it during every spare moment of the day. You visualize the perfect race (and the perfect post-race meals). The possibilities for a perfect race are endless and untainted by any realities of race day (flat tires, bad weather, nutrition blunders). You can't wait for the race to get here so you can see if your aspirations become a reality. You try to eat right, sleep enough, and mentally review your race-day packing list every hour. You arrive at the expo and get that race bracelet slapped onto your wrist (which you later will not want to remove, even days after the race has passed). You are surrounded by 2500 other athletes who are just like you, an exclusive club made up of only people dedicated enough to spend 15-20 hours/week training. You see the finisher's chute and imagine what it will be like to run down it. You sign up for IMLP 2012 the day before the 2011 race - and cross your fingers that you really, REALLY like the race the next day because you and your bank account are fully committed for another 365 days.

We stayed about 30 minutes away from Lake Placid on Rainbow Lake (thanks Aunt Vicki and Doug for being wonderful hosts and letting us crash at your vacation house!). We discovered that swimming is our dog's favorite sport (he swam after dragonflies for 50 minutes straight on Saturday) and I (tried) to learn how to drive a motorboat (disaster! I think I will stick with biking). I got my practice swims in, took the bike for a quick spin to show off the rented wheels and make sure all was right, and tried to stay off my feet in the days leading up to the race.

Race morning dawned early, 4am. I actually slept well the night before, after I made Mark take the top bunk on race day eve (on the first night I had enthusiastically claimed the top bunk, only to realize shortly thereafter that I was deathly afraid of plummeting off the edge of the bed and ruining my race before it had even started. I slept the whole first night crammed against the wall, using a pillow as a railing against the abyss). I toasted two Dunkin Donuts bagels and topped them with peanut butter, just like I planned, only to find that I wasn't in the mood for peanut butter at all. I managed to choke down 1.5 bagels and part of a PowerBar for breakfast, along with some water. There wasn't much to do race morning once we arrived besides double-check the gear bags, have the bike techs pump the rented Zipps since I was too chicken to do it myself, and set up my nutrition on the bike. Saw the rest of the Team Z'rs/Strike Out MS group before the swim start, pilfered some sunblock since I had forgotten my own, and opted not to wear a wetsuit since it was wetsuit-optional and I dislike wetsuits anyways.

The Swim:

Kerri Kramer and I entered the water together. I decided I'd try to be brave and start a little closer to the middle than I had initially planned, take full advantage of the draft. So, the swim was a bit more crowded and violent than I would've liked, but it thinned out much faster than IM France did and I quickly managed to get myself into a rhythm. I wasn't going to go all-out on the swim and I figured I'd finish my swim around the usual time, which turned out to be true. I did manage to get myself on the cable line for parts of the second loop and I focused on a good pull and smooth stroke. I love the swim, and even though I'm not fast at it, I think it's the most relaxing part of the whole race. When I started the second loop, I was amazed at the draft as I re-entered the water - it just sucked me out to the buoys!

T1:

I've had my Garmin for 10 months and still haven't mastered the MultiSport mode. I fiddled with it for awhile, gave up trying to make it show me HR (if anyone knows how to do this, TELL ME), and just switched it over to Bike Mode instead. This made for a longer-than-ideal transition time and I think my volunteer was puzzled by slowpoke-ness.

The Bike:

In the weeks leading up to Ironman, I'd been silently fretting about how I would carry all of my nutrition. I was going to eat mainly gels, with one or two powerbars mixed in. The plan was for 3 Hammer gels per hour, with one or two of those hours eating a PowerBar instead. So, this amounted to about 18 gels (in case I didn't want any PowerBars) plus a couple of extras (because you never know) plus some PowerBars. And a flask of gel, for insurance. There was no way 18 gels and a gel flask and two PowerBars were going to fit inside my Bento Box. I also forgot electrical tape to tape anything to nutrition to my bike. I also had saltstick tabs and Nuun tablets to tote along as well. Fortunately, my sports bra is quite roomy and in went the gel flask, salt tabs, and a tube of Nuun tablets, with room to spare (I don't know if I should be happy or saddened by that). And off I went on the bike, with the full intentions of sticking to my race nutrition plan. The first hour went by quickly - I was taking it easy, trying to ignore my slow average speed staring me in the face from the Garmin. An Ironman is about patience and the slow bike speed was testing that patience, but I knew it had to pay off in the end. I started taking salt tabs immediately, every 30 minutes. I sipped water with Nuun every 10 minutes and I took in a gel every 20 minutes, for about 280 calories/hr. When the second hour started, I was feeling hungrier than usual and decided to take in a gel every 15 minutes for about 360 calories/hr. I continued that trend during the 3rd hour, just to be safe, frontloading the calories. The salt tabs seemed to be working well, this was my first time using them in a race and I felt strong and alert and better than I usually feel on the bike during a race. I was aiming for about 500mg of sodium/hr Mentally, I felt like I was in a good place, I saw the other Team Z/Strike Out MS girls on some of the out-and-backs, as well as my friend Brian who was doing his first Ironman. I focused on keeping my HR in check, in the 130s for the downhills and flats and letting it climb into Z3 for the hills. My legs didn't feel fried after the first leg and I actually came into Lake Placid after the first loop a little sooner than I had anticipated. Passing by the Team Z tent was great, hearing everyone cheer. My parents were out watching their first Ironman so it was great to see them. Tim, Matt and Jennie were rockstars and I saw them all over the bike course cheering. I started the second loop feeling just fine. The second loop was pretty uneventful, besides the fact that I found I was only craving the Hammer gels and had no interest in the PowerBar (which I had to eat anyway since I fumbled around and lost a gel late in the game). I probably should've drank a bit more water, as I started the run feeling thirsty, but overall I am happy with how my nutrition panned out. Those salt tabs were MONEY. I finished the bike, happy to have avoided any flats, and was ready to run.

T2:

Faster than T1, had already given up on MultiSport mode.

The Run:

In my previous two Ironmans, I wasn't looking forward to the run at all. I simply wasn't in the mood to do it. At France, I remember yelling out to my family that I didn't feel like running. Not the best attitude to have when a marathon is staring you in the face. France and Wisconsin showed me that a total implosion on the run can ruin any good feelings you might've had about your race prior to that point - it showed me that you can feel good one mile and terrible the next. It showed me that the Ironman marathon doesn't give a crap if you are a good runner or think that running is your strongest discipline. All of this was in the back of my head when I headed out - I would take the run one mile at a time, running absolutely no faster than 9:15's, drink water at every aid station, take a gel every 35-45 minutes, and stay mentally focused on the positives. I cracked mentally at France and Wisconsin and my number one goal on the run was NOT to crack this time around. The weather was perfect for racing and it was about 2:45ish by the time I made it out to the run course. I didn't want to run the risk of overheating, so I took cold sponges, dumped ice in the sports bra (which was also carrying more Nuun tablets and salt tabs, ditched the gel flask though) and pour cold water over my head. The first few miles felt OK-ish. They were downhill, so that helped with the pace. But I quickly discovered I needed to exert some self-control when it came to fluid intake at the aid stations. I would've drank every cup I could get my hands on, I suddenly felt that thirsty, but I knew I'd feel terrible after with all that fluid just sitting in me. Some aid stations I was more disciplined than others. I started walking the aid stations, just so it would make taking in water a bit easier. I usually felt icky after drinking the water, but I didn't want to run the risk of dehydration. I took in the gels at the times I had planned. The turnaround for the out-and-back down River Road felt like was never going to come into sight. My pace was slowing and I knew before the first loop was out that I probably wasn't going to get my goal run time. However, besides the aid station walks, I was running everything, including the hills, and that was something to be happy with. There were a few mentally low moments on the run (you know you've hit bottom when you find yourself feeling pangs of envy for people who dropped out of the race and were now being driven back to the start area on the back of a 4-wheeler - at least they were done RUNNING). That was probably the lowest moment and once I started the second loop, I felt better and better. My stomach was more settled, I didn't need to take in as much water, I managed to wait to go on the Coke until mile 18. I had hoped to pick up the pace at mile 18, but that didn't happen - I just managed to keep things consistent (consistently slow), mainly in the 10's, with a couple of 11's mixed in when I came up to the steep hills. But there was no unplanned walking, no pity-party, and no negativity on my part. I was no longer focused on time and after awhile it didn't seem like I was out there all that long. Time stood still. I was enjoying being out there, I savored the cheers and the music blaring from the houses and spectators as I made my way back into town towards the finish line. By the time I hit mile 22, I knew that I could make it to the finish without imploding. Unfortunately, I didn't have much left in me to go any faster, it was just a slow shuffle for those last 4 miles. At mile 24.5, I conveniently forgot that I was a vegetarian and enjoyed some hot chicken broth (SO GOOD). I saw a guy riding a stationary bike that was somehow hooked up to a margarita blender. It took alot of willpower not to steal the whole pitcher of margarita and down it right there. The last 3/4 of a mile to the Speedskating Oval seemed to take forever. And then, right as I was coming down the last hill towards Main Street and the entrance to the Oval, it hit me: I was about to be an Ironman. People had their hands out for high fives from ME. I was 3 minutes away from a cold soda and any kind of food I wanted. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I had spring in my step. I couldn't stop smiling. No, I wasn't about to cross the finish line under my goal time, but I had put together a solid race and I enjoyed myself until the very end. I hadn't savored any of my other Ironman finishes besides my first one (too hungry in Florida to care that I was an Ironman, too dejected and disgusting-feeling in France or Wisconsin to care) so I was going to savor this one all the way to the end... until a girl in my age group whipped by me in the last 30yds. Dammit! My planned finish line stroll became a sprint as I passed her back. She yelped in surprise, ran harder and caught up to me, and we crossed the finish line neck-and-neck. Neither of us had any idea who actually crossed first, but there was a hug and congrats to each other anyway because it really didn't matter (OK, it did - first thing I did when I got home and had internet access was check). I crossed first by one second. Hardest I've ever worked for 32nd place in my age group - and probably my proudest moment in the whole race. Though, perhaps the sprinting is a sign that I had enough left to work harder earlier in the race?

Final Thoughts:

I loved this race. And while there was some initial disappointment about my overall time, I got over it quickly because IMLP is not a PR course (unless you are Jackie McCarthy :) ). I had stuck to my plan, had a Plan B for when things weren't quite right, and executed a solid race that I can be proud of. I didn't bonk once. I'm also super excited to race Placid next year and hopefully blow my 2011 time out of the water. I've been enjoying my recovery period (probably a little too much judging by the amount of crap I've been eating) and my post-race indulgences have lived up to all of their pre-race expectations and dreams :) Did you know that there is something better than chocolate ice cream? I didn't until I went to Ben and Jerry's in Burlington and had their Chocolate Therapy ice cream. I haven't been the same since. A big congrats to all who raced on Sunday, especially Brian, Annie, Harriet, Jen, Kerri, Jackie, Aileen, Mike, and Kate. Watching all of you run your way to the finish was the best part of the day. My parents had a great day, so hopefully they will be up for Placid in 2012. My dog still hasn't recovered from the 19-hour spectathalon, and Mark and Aaron were sherpas extraordinaires. And Mel, Iwan, Tim, Jennie, Nelson, and Matt were super awesome for giving up their weekend to cheer for us racers - any chance you want to do it again in 2012?

Now, some recovery time before ramping up for Timberman and Galway! So glad the season isn't over yet!

They have flown...

2011-07-17T22:05:00.002-04:00

... Pigs, that is. Today is Sunday. We leave for Lake Placid on Thursday. And I am essentially packed and ready to go. This never happens. I am always the one up super late the night before a trip, packing at the last minute, freaking out that I don't have everything, having a bird because I can't find something important. It's only when pigs fly that I am actually ready early for something.

This week is all about minimizing stress and maximizing sleep. We did all our our laundry today, cleaned the house top to bottom, I cleaned my bike, my suitcase is packed, I have all my nutrition and last minute items purchased, I've found race wheels to reserve, and most of my race-day tri stuff is also packed. I have my lunch all packed and ready to go for tomorrow and we even have our dinner pre-made for tomorrow night. It feels awfully nice to have things squared away - I should do this more often!

Workouts this weekend went really, really well. And I managed to do every single workout this entire week. This is my "A" race and I want to do everything right. Unfortunately, I'm not bike commuting to work this coming week - I've made it this long without any biking injuries, I don't want to tempt fate the week before Ironman by biking to work. Plus, it's not in my taper plan to bike an extra 18 miles a day.

Focus for the rest of the week - quality sleep and race focus. I have goals in mind and I need to keep them at the forefront until I cross that finish line. I've been visualizing the race over and over in my head over the past week. I think I am as ready as I will ever be. I don't care about the weather - I'm going to swimbikerun 140.6 miles whether it is sunny or it is pouring (I just hope for my parents' sake that it is not pouring - it will be an unpleasant IM spectating experience if this year is a repeat of 2008).

Now it's time to get some of that quality sleep I was talking about.

It's getting shorterrrrrrr.....

2011-07-11T20:47:00.002-04:00

The workouts... the countdown... they are all getting shorter and shorter. IM Lake Placid is almost here! 13 days!

I'm excited. The nerves are there too, of course, but that just adds to the excitement. I think about the race in my free time. I spent 2.5 hours thinking about it on my train ride up to New Jersey today. I had motivational tunes blasting on my iPod and just visualized how I wanted the race to go, from start to finish. What I wanted my emotions to be, how I would feel during the swim, how my legs would feel during the bike, and what it would feel like to run the whole marathon. How it would feel to run around the Olympic oval and cross that finish line. Would this Ironman finish feel just as amazing as my first Ironman finish? What do I need to accomplish to get that same high? Is there anything better than your first Ironman finish?

Anyway, enough deep thoughts. Even though the workouts got shorter this weekend, I was still tired. Maybe I need to go to bed earlier. Or maybe I would sleep better if I didn't have a cat sleeping on my head, another cat sleeping on my side and a dog sleeping on my feet. I did an open water swim on Saturday morning. There aren't a whole lot of open water places to swim nearby to DC... except... the Potomac. One word: ick. You couldn't pay me enough to ever do the DC Tri or Nations Triathlon and swim amongst the "sleeping" fish in the heart of DC. The lower Potomac, where the swim was held, appeared to be cleaner. The water didn't stink, no "sleeping" fish, and there were living things in the water (in the form of LOTS of weeds). So, the open water swim wasn't too bad, once you got past the weeds. Then it was off on an hour run through some nearby neighborhoods. Then a BBQ with the team, a great way to cap off a morning workout. Mark treated me to an awesome dinner of homemade pasta, red sauce and grilled vegetables on Saturday night. I managed to stay awake through half of the Deathly Hallows movie before crying uncle and going to sleep before 11. The exciting life I do lead.

Sunday was the last substantially long brick before Ironman. I wanted to make it a good one. The past few weekends I haven't been as focused as I should've been through the workouts. I was supposed to do a T-run after my long bike ride 4th of July weekend. I forgot to write it down and forgot to do it. I was so irritated with myself when I figured out my mistake a few days later. Swims have been cut short here and there because of time constraints. So, even though I'm excited about Ironman, I still feel like there are a few things I could do better, like be more focused. I need to focus on more than just the emotions and feelings of the race - I need to figure out a race strategy and make sure I'm taking the necessary steps over the next few weeks to execute that strategy. Anyway, Sunday's brick was good. I FINALLY rode with Kerri, we're both doing Placid and I kept missing group rides with her because I never manage to get my lazy butt to a ride on time. It was a good, hilly, hot ride with an equally hot and hilly T-run (yes, I remembered to do my T-run this time). We rode on some different roads in Poolesville and had a really great time, it was nice to switch up the ride from the usual route. Though, I did take a wrong turn and found myself riding up a dirt road. I was too stubborn to admit that I might've been going the wrong way, so I just kept going, until Kerri finally called me out. Tri bikes don't make the best off-road bikes, I really thought I was going to bite it once or twice.

So, last big weekend of workouts complete. Taper has begun. It's time to make time for more sleep, eat healthy, drink lots of water with Nuun tablets. Write up lists for packing, think about race strategy. Dream about the perfect race. And plan out a strategy for the post-race food binge.

Tennessee: Home of Friendly People. And Giant Farm Equipment.

2011-07-06T21:35:00.009-04:00

Best friends and a baby

This past weekend, Mark and I ventured into the South for the 4th of July. My best friend Erin, her husband Ashley and daughter Reagan live about 45 minutes west of Nashville, right on the border of Kentucky. A long drive, but totally worth it. It was a truly great weekend.

Are we there yet?

A rundown of what I did:

Biked 80 miles and saw more tractors than cars (more on that later). Took a nap. Ate the best popsicle in the world (mint chocolate chip). Went to a U2 concert. Had dinner and a girl's night out with my best friend. Set off pyrotechnics. Lit a sparkler. Slept. Ran 19 miles in ridiculous humidity. Swam in an outdoor lap pool. Baked cookies. Ate cupcakes (of the homemade AND of the Georgetown variety). Played in a sprinkler. Watched the Tour de France. Ate cinnamon toast crunch cereal and ENJOYED it. Drank sangria (OK, only half a glass, but it was something!). Read 5 books with my goddaughter. Didn't turn on my computer or check e-mail or facebook once. Got chased by a dogs on three separate occasions on my bike.

My 80 mile ride on Saturday morning was bliss. I managed to get out the door by 6am (!!??!!) and was done before 10:30am. I watched the sun rise over the cornfields of Kentucky and had the roads completely to myself for long stretches of time. It was a bike rider's dream (strangely, however, I didn't see a single recreational rider out there besides myself). Barely any cars, sunny weather, quiet roads, and beautiful scenery. I did, however, almost get run over by a tractor on steroids. It looked like something straight out of Transformers. As I was biking down this stretch of quiet road, I heard a rumbling behind me, looked back and saw a tractor that spanned the width of the road lumbering right at me. Fortunately, there was plenty of space by the cornfield to pull over, which I did immediately. And that was my excitement for the ride.

Saturday night = U2 concert. Erin and I went out to a fancy-shmancy dinner of tapas, just the two of us (the boys were in charge of the baby and took her out to buy booze and fireworks - awesome). The Vanderbilt stadium only held about 43,000 so every seat was a good seat and it was an amazing show. All the songs I wanted to hear were played and I can now check this off my bucket list.

The mothership has landed.

Sunday was all about recovery. Recovery from a long bike ride. Recovery from a late night out. Recovery from too many sweets.

This is what I want to do every time I am within a 10ft radius of a red velvet cupcake.

No, scratch that last part. Sunday was all about the sweets. Erin and I went on a baking rampage and filled the kitchen with cupcakes, frosting, cookies, and almond-coconut-pecan balls. July 4th weekend was my last hurrah with recreational sugar before attempting to give it up until after Ironman Lake Placid. You know what's going to get my through those last difficult miles of IMLP? The magnum bars, with a side of oreo balls and brownies, that will be waiting for me at the finish. Maybe I can even finagle some Cadbury Mini Eggs out of thin air to add to my feast. So what if Easter was three months ago - there have to be Mini Eggs somewhere!

Anyway, what better way to recover than with a swim? A swim in an outdoor 50yd pool. A swim in an outdoor 50yd pool that isn't crowded. And I did just that on Sunday. I have the sunburn on my back to prove it.

Monday was my long run. I wouldn't say I was dreading this run all weekend, but it was hanging over my head all weekend, getting in the way of important things like alcohol consumption, cupcake and cookie eating (who am I kidding, nothing gets in the way of cupcakes and cookies). Thanks to Miles, I got up with the sun. I ended up doing the majority of the run on quiet neighborhood streets. Everyone was so friendly - people in their yards would smile and wave at me. People in their cars would wave at me. It made the run so pleasant - why don't more people smile and wave up here in DC? 19 miles later, I rolled back up to the house, looking like I had jumped in a sweaty pool of water. Ick. Last long Ironman run in the bank. My weekends (except for that one on July 24th) have suddenly gotten easier and emptier. Strange. But I am definitely OK with it right now.

I've always gone out to watch the fireworks shows in the past. But in Tennessee, you can buy fireworks and make your own show. So that's what we did. And now I have a better understanding of how people can hurt themselves setting off pyrotechnics (we didn't have any major mishaps, just a few minor ones). Between the 4 of us, we have 25+ years of higher education. But apparently that means nothing when setting off fireworks. We managed to hit the house with one. And then had another explode in the yard. Oops. Nobody was hurt and it did make for a good story.

After the second mishap, we decided to hide behind the car

Seriously guys, stop blowing stuff up.

And that was the weekend in a nutshell. Here are a few of my favorite pictures we managed to take of Reagan. I saw her back in March and she is a different baby 4 months later, but still super cute and very sweet. On my last night, I gave her a bottle and put her to bed. The little stinker already knows how to play me like a harp and managed to get me to read five books to her before going to bed! Being smart and cute is quite the irresistible combination :)

Cute Reagan

She looks like trouble. Fun trouble :)

Wouldn't you read 5 books if those eyes were staring at you?

Peak weekend for Placid

2011-06-26T15:14:00.007-04:00

This weekend last year, I was swimming here:

Biking here:

And running here:

The weekend this year was spent in a less exotic locale than the French Riviera (Poolesville, MD, the Wakefield HS pool, and the streets of Arlington/DC) but was no less tiring. Peak training weekend for IM Lake Placid (i.e., spend more time swimming, biking and running than sleeping and eating your weight in burritos every day and every night) was this weekend. Taper starts in a little over a week. Friday was a long swim - I actually managed to get the whole set in before work AND before the pool closed. Saturday I did a long (long, long, long) bike ride with Brian, who is also doing IMLP. We did two loops of the 52 mile course out of Poolesville, plus a few smaller loops to come out with about 120 miles. There were plenty of hills and flats, ascents and descents - similar to Placid. I felt good through the whole ride, taking in nutrition every 20 minutes and water every 10 minutes or so. I'm sticking with mainly Hammer gels for nutrition and, can I just say, I lost count of how many gels I ate during this ride. I don't know how I'm going to carry all this nutrition on the bike - they don't make a bento box big enough. I actually felt pretty good after the ride - not too sore, definitely tired - but in a good way. I capped off my weekend with a 20 mile run on Sunday. Now THAT was painful. I probably pushed it a little harder than I should've - I was mainly in Zone 3 - but I wanted to see how my legs would respond after a long bike ride. But overall I'm happy with the way the run went. After it was over, I managed to get myself up the stairs and spent the next 30 minutes sprawled on the floor, trying to find the motivation to get up and take an ice bath and eat some food. The food eventually happened, but the ice bath didn't. It was also a relatively cool summer day here in DC (only in the 80s), so the recovery tights made an appearance.

I actually did do a few non-training related activities. We had dinner at my aunt's house on Sunday night - spent time with my adorable 3 year old and 10 month old cousins Lilly and Xander - and OD'd on burritos (the impossible has happened - I am over my burrito kick as of today). We took Miles to the dog park and a jaunt around Shirlington on Friday - I've never seen him so excited to be at the dog park. I also made Mark watch a few episodes of Glee on Netflix with me (I think he secretly likes it haha).

Less than a month until Lake Placid!!

Letter to My Younger Self

2011-06-21T21:39:00.004-04:00

With less than three months to go before the big 3-0, I started feeling nostalgic for my youth, and opportunities I inadvertently passed up as a kid. And so, I present to you a letter to my younger self. I don't actually want to change the past, but maybe I can learn a few lessons that could be applied to my future.

To my 6-year old self: Don't be a quitter when it comes to swim lessons. Knowing how to do more than just dog paddle might come in handy one day. (psst - good call on quitting gymnastics though; 23 years later you are still as klutzy as ever).

To my middle school self: Stop obsessing about your terrible bowl cut. It is hair. It will grow back. Instead, turn your energy to something fun and creative. Learn Irish dancing, how to create pottery, photography - SOMETHING. Otherwise, 17 years later you will find yourself wishing you had something different to talk about besides swimbikerun.

To my high school self: Be nicer to your parents. Yes, they are rather strict. And yes, you would still behave perfectly without all of the extra rules - but those rules gave them peace of mind. Also, learn how to embrace athletic challenges and competitions - they are fun and not meant to cause so much angst. Oh, and put some effort into focusing and actually doing your best during practices and races - you'll probably exceed all of your expectations.

To my college self: Don't float through life during college - seize every opportunity you are presented with and always search for more. Take advantage of all the cool programs at school - go skiing, kayaking, snowboarding, hiking, camping (OK, well maybe not camping - you hate camping), take a dance class, go on community service trips to foreign countries. Once you get out of school and enter the real world, this stuff costs money and takes up time you suddenly don't have. Oh, and quit the diving team - join the swim team instead (see above note on gymnastics and klutziness).

To my study abroad self: You are going to France. To live in a medieval town. In the French Alps. Get the hell out of the student bars and go see some French stuff! Go ski. Go biking. Explore. Have your host mother teach you how to cook some of those amazing meals that just pop out of her oven. The bars and alcohol will be waiting for you when you turn 21 back in the US (and the novelty of barhopping will wear off shortly thereafter).

To my post-college self: The defense contracting industry is not for you. Don't wait 5 years to finally come to this realization. Set goals. Make a plan. Don't wait 4 years to go back to grad school. Master the art of non-procrastination before you start grad school - otherwise, it will be 2.5 years of very little sleep. Make an effort to show your friends and family you care about them - life is busy and gets in the way, but that's a shoddy excuse. Marriage is about compromise - as nice as your husband is, you are not going to get your way every time. Get over it. Mac and cheese is not a food group. PS - triathlon is expensive. You might want to consider getting a second job to support your growing habit.

To my current self: Stop procrastinating on taking that photography class or Irish dance lesson - do it now. Embrace each day and never forget how lucky you are to be living your life the way you are. Take responsibility for your actions, reactions, and future - only you can influence and ultimately decide those outcomes. And stop comparing yourself to others - circumstances and abilities differ and no two people are the same.

One more thing - go to bed earlier. I'm going to take my own advice and sign off.

Joys? Wonders? Confessions of Ironman training?

2011-06-19T22:25:00.004-04:00

I was this close to wearing my recovery socks to brunch this morning. My legs were that sore post-long run. But then I decided to save my husband and his sister from the embarrassment of being seen with me clad in knee-high socks, and opted to put them on in the car immediately following brunch. Those things are amazing.

We met up with an old friend for dinner tonight. He was the one who got me to do my first (disastrous) triathlon, which we had a lovely time reminiscing about. Someday I'd like to get back into doing some mountain biking and off-road tris.

I'm starting to wonder if your hair can grow mold if it is never, ever completely dry. It's 10:30pm and my hair is still wet. Between the sweat, visits to the pool, and showers between workouts, I don't remember the last time my hair was completely dry.

I'm starting to give up on girly. Not that I've ever been really girly, but I always used to make it a point to wear a dress or something cute to race expos and bike check-ins, you know, just in case anyone forgot I was a girl since most of my time was spent in sweaty workout clothes. Now I'm starting to forget what cute dresses and skirts I own, but I can tell you all about my favorite tee-shirts and such. I even bought a dress made out of wicking material... and I wear it all the time. It's also a black dress, so you can't tell if I get bike grease on it. I can't say that about any of my Lilly Pulitzers...

Today's run was... hard. But in a good way. I think my body is still getting used to the idea of running more than 13 miles, seeing as it starts to get noticeably sore around mile 15. It better get used to the idea quickly because Placid is in a little over a month and there's definitely more than a 15 mile run involved with that race.

Next week is a monster training week. I don't know if it is a peak week and then the taper starts, but it's definitely up there. The hours are literally like having a part-time job. I'm also hungry all of the time. And I mean all of the time. Do you know how much willpower I had to exert tonight in order to not grab the breadbasket off the restaurant table, cradle it in my arms, and croon "Mine, mine... my precious, my precious." I also bonked in the pool. Who bonks in the pool? Especially when they JUST ate not too long before going to the pool. Next time, I'm going to be armed with snacks, signs prohibiting food on the pool deck be damned!

Oh, and before I sign off - a very important message! Happy father's day to my dad! As well as my father-in-law (who officially became a triathlete in May!) Love you both!

Training thoughts

2011-06-18T17:20:00.004-04:00

With Allie in town visiting this week, I wanted to get my weekend workouts done as quickly and early as possible so we could get on with our day. This meant doing my 3 hour ride on the bike path. I haven't been doing many of my bike rides on the bike path because it's crowded and not very Lake Placid-like (i.e. - it's pretty flat). In fact, it seems like all of my training rides so far this year have been stupid hilly (Skymass, Skyline Drive, Lake Placid course, some Poolesville MD hills. The only thing missing is the Ascension ride, which I will NOT be using for my 120 miler this year). Soooo, this morning's ride was a nice change of pace, especially once I got out of suburbia and the crowds. The 1.5 hours out passed quickly, with a few gels and a PowerBar. Same for the ride back. Then a short brick run and I was finished - all before 11am! My legs don't really feel like they did a 50+ mile ride this morning, probably due to the lack of major hills. Maybe next year I should do a flat Ironman - the rides are over faster and your legs feel less chewed up at the end.

I have a few goals I'd like to meet over the next few weeks as Ironman approaches:

1) Go to bed earlier. I used to be good at this, until grad school ruined me.

2) Eat fewer Magnum Bars. Eat fewer sweets in general. I'm better at this than I used to be, but I've still been known to go on a sugar bender here and there. It's getting to be that time where I really need to save the bender for post-ironman, you know - as a reward.

3) Get all my workouts in. This is tied to goal one - if I went to bed earlier, I probably wouldn't oversleep and have to reschedule my morning workouts.

4) Make triathlon and training a priority every day. This will help with accomplishing goals 1-3.

5) Don't cut workouts short, don't slack, and stay focused.

Happy training!

Training. More training. Even more training.

2011-06-16T22:19:00.002-04:00

I am living in my workout clothes. I've forgotten that I own anything besides work clothes and workout clothes. My laundry basket is full of ONLY gross, nasty, dirty workout clothes. My wonderful sister-in-law, Allie, who is out visiting us for the week, just offered to do some laundry for us tomorrow when she does a load of her own clothes. I told her no, I'm too squeamish at the idea of anyone else touching the disgusting workout clothes spilling out of our hamper.

During these past few weeks, I've started to feel like Ironman training is taking over my life. I don't remember feeling like this during past Ironmans (or maybe I've just forgotten this is how it feels). I literally eat (and eat and eat), sleep (not enough, never enough), swim (I smell like chlorine 50% of the time now), bike (my rear end hurts at the thought of my bike commute tomorrow) and run (no complaints there, strangely enough), and go to work.

And you know what... I love it. I love getting into the office at 9am, knowing that I already worked out for more than two hours. I love getting home at 8pm, because I stopped off at the pool on my way home for an after-work swim. I love being so tired at 9:30 at night that I'm already almost asleep. I love having a goal and doing what it takes to work towards it. Yes, there is always something more I wish I could be doing training-wise. Alot of the time, I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, or I'm not focused enough, etc etc. It's something I'm working on - I need to become better at time-management, because it will make the whole work-life-training balance a little easier to achieve.

Now I'm off to put on the one set of non-workout/work clothes for the day (pajamas!) and try to get some much needed sleep.

Bike Commute Bonk and Other Adventures

2011-06-11T20:21:00.003-04:00

I've been fed up for awhile with the inefficiencies (and high cost) of Metro, so a few weeks ago I started biking to work. My commute now takes less time AND I'm in a much better mood when I arrive at my destination. The commute is about 22 miles round-trip... and this means I'm burning about 800 additional calories a day... which means I need to eat more. I figured this out firsthand when I didn't eat an afternoon snack on Friday and on my commute home, I could feel myself starting to bonk. All I could think about was food and I was rapidly slowing down - soon I found myself being passed by kids, elderly ladies, guys riding stunt bikes 5 sizes too small for them.

Saturday I did one of my favorite bike rides with some good friends - Skymass. The first thirty miles are up, up, up Skyline drive. This is followed by a fun descent into Luray in the valley, which is quickly followed by a steep, terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad climb. But you feel really good when you get to the top. Unless you're like me and fall off your bike when you reach the top... because you didn't unclip fast enough. The rest of the ride is downhill, rollers, and a fast ride back home. We biked in a pace line, which I've never done before. I'm still skittish about riding so close to someone's wheel, but I think I'll get more comfortable the more rides I do like this. Plus, it makes you go FAST - I did this ride 30 minutes faster than the last time I did it. 80 (hilly) miles in 4:56. It also always seems to rain at the end of the ride. We got caught in a downpour about 10 miles from our cars. Oh well, cooled us off. There was thunder and lightening too, so I decided to drive back home and do the remaining 32 miles of my ride in Arlington - good choice because the storms never followed me home.

Today was a long run AND my first ice bath of the season. My legs are still sore from the weekend, but I think they'd feel worse if I didn't do the ice bath. Mark arrived home on Friday night and it has been great to have him home. Not only do I have someone besides the dog to talk to, he makes a mean burger and a mean enchilada - I have missed him (and his cooking :) )

The weather finally cooled off tonight, so I baked up a storm. I've been going through baking withdrawal since our AC broke and it's been so hot - the last thing you want to do is run the oven. I made my mom's strawberry bread recipe (but in muffin form). These muffins have ALWAYS reminded me of summer. We (my mom, really) used to make them in the summers after we went strawberry picking. Strawberry season in NH is in June, so we'd always have these muffins around the end of school and when we'd go up to the lakehouse. Lots of good memories associated with my mom's strawberry muffins.

Next week looks like it will be a good week - lots of good training, my sister-in-law Allie is coming to visit, and we're planning on going to a winery and doing some stand-up paddleboarding next weekend!

Rev3 Quassy Half Ironman - Race Report

2011-06-07T00:53:00.008-04:00

I like hills. In fact, you could even say I love hills. But after Sunday's race, I also believe that hell is paved with hills (you would believe this too if your last mile in a 70.3 race was uphill...). I had so much fun at Wildflower that I didn't want to wait until August to do another half ironman. That 5:40 barrier has been staring at me in the face for the past few years and I wanted another shot at breaking it and I was too impatient to wait another three months. So, I signed up for Rev3 Quassy at the last minute. I read the course description, and there were words like "challenging," "rolling," and "hills," but I still found myself surprised at just how hilly the whole course was when I drove it the night before the race. Visions of big PRs weren't dancing in my head any longer. But no matter, I was there to race hard and test out my nutrition in preparation for Ironman Lake Placid.

In the days leading up to the race, I wasn't as focused and plugged in as I wanted to be. Mark was still out on travel and it had been a somewhat craptastic week (see previous post about Broken AC and Heat Wave). The cherry on top came on the day before the race when, upon my arrival in Connecticut, I found a text from my friend/co-worker who was watching Miles our dog. Apparently Miles had been sick all night, was hacking up a storm, and my poor friend took him to a vet (which was quite an adventure in itself, seeing as she had to take him by taxi since she doesn't have a car - apparently cabbies aren't big fans of sick dogs) and was told by her landlord the dog would have to go. I was almost ready to turn around and head back to DC to get Miles and bag the race - but my wonderful aunt Amy saved the day and took Miles for the rest of the weekend (thank you Amy, you are the best aunt EVER!!). Once this situation was sorted out, I picked up my packet, did my pre-race brick, and drove the bike and run courses. I'm so glad I drove them because it gave me the opportunity to mentally note the hills, condition of the pavement, turns, etc. There would be no surprises on race day. Finally got to the hotel after a fruitless hunt around town for a decent italian restaurant (found none, ended up eating a bagel and bakery breadsticks with hummus from Stop and Shop) and watched tv before falling asleep.

Race morning came and I woke up feeling... kind of like crap. Like I was coming down with a cold. There was lots of nose stuff going down the back of my throat and I kept hacking it up (Miles and I were kindred spirits, channeling each other). I'd had a similar experience with nose crap at Kinetic 2010 and that did not end well at all - but today was a different day and a different race and I was determined to have a different (read: better) outcome. I ate a bagel and drank water, got my stuff together and actually left my hotel EARLIER than I had planned - I had heard the race site parking was really small and I was picturing hoards of Type A triathletes clamoring at the parking gates at 3:30am to ensure they got a spot. Imagine my surprise when I rolled up to the race site, 15 minutes before the 5:15am transition opening, to find that the lot was practically empty. I snagged a spot right next to transition, which was good because I ended up going back and forth between my car and transition about 10 times because I kept forgetting important things like my nutrition and such. I parked myself next to the pro area in transition to put on my sunblock and wetsuit and simultaneously gawk at the pros (multi-tasking). Then headed down to the water in my sleeveless wetsuit (if it wasn't super cold the weekend before in Lake Placid's Mirror Lake, I was pretty sure Lake Quasa-whatever in Connecticut would be too warm for a full-sleeve).

The Swim:

I got down to the lake too late for a practice swim, so I contented myself with dipping my toes in the water and congratulating myself for going with a sleeveless. I started towards the front on the right side. It was a triangular swim and for part of it we'd be swimming towards the sun. My biggest concern was whether or not my fancy goggles would decide to leak, which they have a tendency to do. My wave started and I found some clear water and fast feet pretty quickly. I stayed right in line on the way out, got a little off-the-beaten path when we turned towards the sun, and then stayed on a good line on the way back in. I sighted every 5 strokes or so and focused on shoulder rotation and pulling hard. I couldn't really tell how many girls from my wave were in front of me, and it didn't really matter, I just needed to swim hard. Looking back, I think I could've pushed harder and focused a bit more, but I have come a long way from when I first started doing triathlons and just focused on surviving the swim. I felt like I was out there for awhile, so I was pleased to see my time when I got out of the water.

35:30 (1:50/100m), 13/54 in AG, 57/228 women. Next time I want to break 35.

T1:

I got stuck in my wetsuit again. To add insult to injury, it was caught on film by one of the Rev3 camera guys swooping around transition. He was asking me things like "how are you feeling" and "what do you think about the race" to which I grunted in return and asked if he'd like to be my stripper (wetsuit stripper - get your mind out of the gutter!)

2:22 - better than Wildflower, but pretty much anything is better than my Wildflower transition times.

The Bike:

I was excited about the bike course. I was also wondering if it would seem as hilly on my bike as it did when I rode it in my car the day before. The answer - yes, it felt hilly, but not as bad as I thought it would be. The three mile uphill from 25-28 wasn't all that terrible. I started off aggressively and figured I'd do what I could to hold that pace through the race. Though, I had no idea what my pace or HR were because I don't have my Garmin programmed to show me that stuff - it's all about keeping my head out of the game; it gets in the way when it overanalyzes data. I took in a gel every 20 minutes and I only had one bite of PowerBar - this is the first time I've done a 70.3 with basically just gels and it worked really well. I tried to drink water every 10 minutes (I remembered most of the time) and I had a Nuun tablet in some of my water, so I alternated that with regular water. The weather was absolutely perfect and I felt really good during all but the last 5 miles (those were slow, uphill, and never-ending). I played cat-and-mouse with two women on the bike (both not in my AG) and was only passed by one girl in my AG - she passed me like I was standing still and I think she won our AG, so I don't feel all that terrible about not being able to stick with her). The bike course was super pretty, well-marked and the volunteers were great. The roads were in decent shape too in most spots. I did a better job at staying focused for the whole bike at Quassy than I did at Wildflower, so I'm pleased with that. I focused on pedal turnover, my goals, why I was there, and catching any biker that looked like a girl. Unfortunately, I didn't get the sub-3 that I wanted, but I blame that on the hills.

3:01:16 (18.54mph), 4/54 AG, 21/228 women.

T2:

2:06. I made it a point to grab my visor and race number belt and put them on while I was running, rather than standing around like a fool putting them on and wasting time.

The Run:

I did my best not to think about the run while I was on the bike. I also tried not to focus on the fact that I had a lot of nose crap dripping down the back of my throat, and was it a bad sign that I was already coughing and spitting on the bike - usually I save that for the run. The first three miles of the run are basically downhill. I ran out of transition and felt... pretty good. I settled into a pace relatively quickly and actually managed to catch two girls before the first mile marker. I expected them to stay with me, but they did not, and I kept plugging along. At mile 2, my Garmin informed me that, unfortunately, my lap database was full and it would now spend the next 11.1 miles beeping and buzzing angrily at me. It was amusing to watch the people in front of me check their watches in confusion when they heard me and my Garmin approaching. I tuned it out and it really wasn't a big deal - I just would have no idea what my mile splits were. Miles 4-8 were mainly uphill. Long, steady uphills. A few flats and a couple small downhills to make it interesting. There was a short out-and-back which gave me a chance to see where I was relative to the other girls. I passed both girls I had played cat-and-mouse with on the bike. The two worst miles in this race were miles 7-8 and then the last mile. All uphill. I drank a little water every other aid station. I started eating a little bit of a gel around mile 6. And every mile I would hack up a bunch of stuff, and while that's disgusting and I apologized to everyone around me, it made me feel alot better, and my pace would pick up until I'd have to do it again. I was surprised at how good I felt during the run. Both mentally and physically. Yes, it was uncomfortable, and towards the end I was suffering, but I enjoyed it. I never had the desire to walk or stop. I was in it - this was how I'm supposed to feel during a race. I was 100% plugged in - I focused only on the positives, not the negatives, and I just kept moving forward. The last two miles were a struggle. My legs were tired and I was ready to be done. That last mile, because of the hill, was the hardest of the day. I could see on my Garmin that, if I pushed it hard on that last half mile, I was going to break 5:30 (!!!!!). So, I ran like heck, told my legs to shut up and work, and I crossed the finish line in 5:28:54, a 15 minute PR! Just like when I qualified for Boston, I went from never being able to break that 40 barrier and then breaking that one plus the 30 barrier.

1:47:39 (8:13 pace), 4/54 AG, 18/228 women. This was one of my fastest runs in a 70.3 race - I think Mooseman 2009 was the only one that was even close.

Thoughts:

I'm really glad I did this race, even though it was a long drive up and back and the drama with the dog. I'm thrilled to have finally broken 5:40, and to have managed to pull it off on such a hilly course. It makes me want to do a flatter course, just to see if I could go faster and by how much. I REALLY want a sub-3 bike. I've never gone that fast before, but I know I have it in me, I just need to figure out a way to coax it out. I'm happy I stayed positive and mentally plugged in during the race - with my gagging and spitting, it could've become a repeat of Kinetic 2010, but I'm pleased with myself that I didn't let it. Besides Savageman, this 4th place is the best I've ever placed in my AG in a half ironman, and it was a relatively large race (larger than Savageman, anyway). Nobody in my AG was in the top 3, so I didn't get bumped up to third - too bad, as there were some good prizes that were being given away. Motivation for next time, I suppose :) I would totally do this race again and I'd recommend it to anyone - it's a super well-run race. Now it's time to focus on Ironman Lake Placid... though I might try to slip in one more Oly race if possible... This season has been so much fun with lots of races!

Placid, Broken AC, Heat Wave

2011-06-02T22:05:00.003-04:00

All I've been doing these past few days is think about cold water. Cold air. Cold anything. Having a broken AC during the middle of a 100 degree heat wave will do that to you. I spent all Memorial Day weekend up in Lake Placid, seeing the town, biking the course, running the course, and swimming in Mirror Lake. Apparently Lake Placid is the place to be Memorial Day weekend if you are a triathlete - I was rarely alone on the bike course Saturday and I saw scores of people on the run course Sunday. Spandex, compression socks, and wetsuits were a pretty common sight - it almost felt like a race weekend. So, the course - LOVED IT. The bike course (even with the bad pavement in spots) was amazing. Amazing. The perfect amount of hills, downhills, and flats. This is the first time I've pre-ridden a course before an Ironman and it has given me a boost of confidence. The 5 mile descent isn't nearly as scary as I pictured in my mind, and none of the ascents are too heartbreaking. And it was beautiful - rivers and fields. The group of us rode the course on Saturday and unfortunately got caught in a massive thunderstorm at the very end of the second loop. I'm not going to be surprised if it storms like that on race day. Sunday we ran the course - again, hills, downhills and flats. I can't wait to see what it's going to look like on race day with all of the spectators. And Mirror Lake is gorgeous - the water temperature was perfect for our swim on Sunday afternoon. I wore my full-sleeve wetsuit, but probably could've gotten away with my sleeveless. The whole weekend was a blast, made even better by the fact that there was a great group of us sharing a house together and training together. We were walking distance from a bike shop, ice cream shop, the lake, and the main street.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end - and I traded the clear, cool Adirondack mountain air for a heat wave, broken AC and an 89 degree house when I returned to Virginia. The only upside - Bissell has been too hot and lazy to even be bothered to jump up on the counter. Just when I was reaching my breaking point last night, rain and a cool front moved through and I can happily report that my house is a very comfortable 81 degrees at the moment.

I have lots of pictures I've been meaning to upload, from Tucson to Lake Placid... if I could get them off my camera.

Oh, and a quick random/amusing story. As a married girl about to hit 30, I've been getting some questions on when we're going to have kids (short answer: not anytime soon). The most recent came from the AC repairman. As he's dismantling our AC to figure out the issue (massive leaks, need to get the whole thing replaced), he was making small talk - he asked if I was married (yes) and if I had kids (no) and how long I've been married. When I told him 5 years, a look of shock passed over his face. I thought he was going to say, "oh, well you look far too young to have been married for 5 years already." And I was totally going to take that compliment. But instead he says, incredulously, shaking his head, "5 years and no kids?! That is bad, very bad." and goes back to work.

Everyone has their own opinion, I suppose!

Will Race for Wine - Kinetic Sprint race report

2011-05-20T21:11:00.005-04:00

I came. I raced. And I drank. VICTORY WINE. After the race, of course. Last weekend was a racing weekend - Mark did the 1/2 ironman (his first!) on Saturday and I did the Sprint on Sunday. The half course has broken me every time I've done it, so I smartened up this year and opted for the sprint. Truthfully, I wasn't in a racing mood that morning. All week I kept forgetting I was racing - I went to bed too late, overslept here and there, and I wasn't the most careful about my diet. I was on my feet all day Saturday cheering Mark on and when Sunday rolled around, the last thing I really wanted to do was get up at 5am to drive to Lake Anna and race. But I sucked it up, and showed up. I saw the awards they were giving out at the Half on Saturday - cute tote bags and bottles of wine. Who wouldn't want a cute tote bag and wine?? I decided to make it my mission to win some victory wine at the sprint.

I showed up to the race site late (eh, what else is new - at least I got there before the gun went off). Forgot my bike pump, couldn't find one in transition, and initially opted for a full-sleeve wetsuit when it was clearly too warm for it. The morning was off to a stellar start. I eventually got myself and my stuff together, decided my tires were fine as they were (like I had a choice) and swapped out wetsuits for a sleeveless.

The swim (750m):

Jen - you would've been proud. I lined up at the front, pretending to be a fast swimmer (ha!). I was hoping my mad dashing skills from the beach into the water at the start would be enough to catapult me to to the lead pack, but alas, within 10 seconds of starting to swim, I was run over by 1/2 of the 30-39s in my wave. It still forced me to swim hard, and judging by the violence of this particular swim, I managed to stick with the pack because I never had clear water. I managed to meet my goal (under 14) and I also stayed focused the whole time (granted, it was a short swim, so that's not all that impressive).

13:22

T1:

You'd think I'd be better at this. 2:25.

The Bike (18 miles):

SO much fun! The sprint course was actually the last bit of the old Half course, done backwards - it was great, I knew where the hills and the turns were and what to expect. And it wasn't a technical course, so you could really just get into your aerobars and be aggressive. I raced on feel - no idea what my heartrate was or my average speed during the race. Hmm, not much else to say about the bike, except it was over really quickly!

49:23 (first in my AG?!??!!)

T2:

Nope, still total crap. And this time I don't even have the "I got stuck in my wetsuit" excuse. 1:33.

The Run (3.1 miles -of hell-):

The first mile was uphill. Bleck. I knew it was coming because I saw the people doing the 1/2 run up that same hill THREE times during their run the day before. I can't tell you how many times I mentally patted myself on the back for choosing the sprint, and thus choosing to run up that hill only once. Mile 2 wasn't pretty either, but at least it was flatter/even a little downhill. Ha, even one of my fellow Z'rs said to me after the race "well, you looked like crap at the turnaround, but by the time you passed me a little while later, you looked better." I knew there was some fast girls behind me and if I wanted that wine and tote bag, I was going to need to move - FAST! Mile 3 was downhill - but waaaay longer than I remember that section of the course being. I just kept telling myself to suck it up and reminded myself that I may be hurting now, but it's better than being irritated with myself after the race, knowing that I slowed down and didn't try my best. You know that old saying, "Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever" (that was totally printed on my XC team shirt sophomore year of high school). I crossed the finish line, having not been passed by any girls (and very few guys) on either the bike or the run. That in itself, even if I didn't win anything, was something I was pleased with. And that my mile splits for the run got faster with each mile (I guess it didn't hurt that the last mile was downhill).

21:57.

Final time: 1:28:39. Even better, I met all of my goals - place in the top 10 overall (just eeked that out with 10th), and win wine (2nd in my AG).

I haven't done alot of short course racing these past few years, and I forgot how much fun they can be. There's just something freeing about doing a race short enough that you can go all out and yet not implode. In fact, you are encouraged to go all out. It's like doing the 100m sprint in elementary school gym class - there's no pacing necessary, just go as fast as you can and see how you measure up.

Happy racing to everyone this weekend! I've already gotten my long run for the week out of the way and I look forward to having one "lazy" day this weekend, with my friend Chelsea visiting from Korea. DSW shoe store, watch out - we are coming!

Wildflower!!!!! Long Course!

2011-05-16T21:01:00.003-04:00

This about sums up how I felt about Wildflower - two thumbs up! (I actually had a really great picture to illustrate my feelings, but unfortunately our camera cord has gone missing, so the pictures are currently trapped on the memory card, wah-wah). This race should be on every triathlete's bucket list and if you are ever given the opportunity to participate, DO IT! The beauty of the course and the festival atmosphere more than make up for the fact that this is one of the more challenging 1/2 IM courses out there (I still think Savageman takes the cake on the bike, but Wildflower's run course was brutal. BRUTAL).

Mark and I flew out to California on Thursday and stayed at my in-laws' house outside of LA on Thursday night. Mark, his mom, dad, and sister Allie were all doing the Olympic race on Sunday. Mark has done one tri, but Wildflower would be the first triathlon for the others. There was some nervous pre-race energy in the house and I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn't be ex-communicated from the family for convincing them to sign up :).

The drive up to the race site was something straight out of a Steinbeck novel. If I wasn't afraid of earthquakes or wildfires, I would definitely consider moving to this part of CA. The race site was really remote (40 minute drive to the nearest town/hotel) and most of the racers camped. I don't camp and fortunately nobody else was too keen on camping either, so we stayed in a hotel. On our way to the race site, I insisted we drive the bike course - it's time I started arriving to races better prepared and driving the bike course is rather key. We drove up this MONSTER hill on Nacimiento Drive after we went over a dam and I figured it was the Nasty Grade everyone was talking about (turns out when I actually rode the course during the race, this wasn't the Nasty Grade at all - in fact, it wasn't even part of the course - apparently I need to improve my map-reading skills). After making quick work of packet pickup, we went back to the hotel, put together our bikes (if you told me a year ago that I could assemble or disassemble my bike in less than 30 minutes, I would've called you a liar), ate dinner and went to bed.

Race Morning dawned around 4:50am for me. I ate the usual - bagel with peanut butter and drank some water while I made sure I had everything in order. I was somewhat relaxed - mostly just stressed that maybe I didn't put my bike together properly (cue visions of my back wheel falling off during the ride). I had actually felt more nervous for Rumpus Oly than I felt for Wildflower, though the race plan remained the same: suffer. I think I had a bit more confidence in myself this time around because I managed to suffer at Rumpus and I knew I could do it again. I also wasn't racing for time - Wildflower is not a PR course - I was racing for place. I wanted a top-10 AG spot, which was probably out of my reach, but no harm in trying, right?

The Swim: LOVED IT! We ran down the boat ramp under the ubiquitous Wildflower blowup arch that is in all of the advertisements for the race. The water was refreshingly cold and I managed to find clear water pretty quickly, yet still keep a good line. I stayed much more focused at the task at hand this time around than I did during my last race. I really worked on pulling hard and working hard. I soon found myself dodging the 25-29 AG girls who had started in the wave ahead of me - I caught more of them than I expected. However, I didn't see alot of 30-34 AG girls, so I didn't have a good idea of where I stood in my own group. I was sighting every 5 strokes, trying to take breaths and see the buoys between waves (hello wind - glad you made it in time to make both my bike and swim a little more interesting). About 500m from the swim finish, another girl in my AG pulled up right next to me. I started swimming harder, fully focusing on doing everything in my power NOT to let her pass me. I (barely) finished the swim in front of her - bonus that she helped push me into doing my fastest 1/2 IM swim. I should've been swimming hard like that for the whole race, but I didn't realize I had so much energy left until the end.

T1: My transition time stunk. I need to learn how to already have my shoes on the bike.

The Bike: This was one of the prettiest bike courses I've ever ridden on - and one of the more challenging. The headwind for the first twenty miles only added to the fun. At mile 20 when I made a right turn, it became a heavy-duty crosswind. I was glad I never bothered to get race wheels, I would've been blown off the course and that wouldn't have been much fun. For the most part, the bike was uneventful. Nothing terribly technical, just beautiful scenery. I concentrated on nailing my nutrition (success!) with a Hammer gel every 20 minutes and water every 10, along with a PowerBar thrown in, just for some variety. (A fond farewell to my former bike buffet of cookies, sandwiches, and cheap gas-station crackers with fake cheese) I made up some more time on the bike, passing a couple girls in my age group and lots of young'uns from my old age group. There was one girl, super nice, that I played leap frog with until she left me in the dust on the 9 mile steady downhill portion of the course. Most of the bike course was spent preparing myself for the "Nasty Grade." Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), as previously mentioned, my map-reading skills aren't very stellar and when I was biking the Nasty Grade, I thought it was just a prelude to the actual hill. So imagine my happiness and excitement when I get to the top and learn, that was it! The rest of the bike course was cake (minus the super steep downhill in which I got stuck behind a girl who was wobbling so much, she probably could've used some training wheels - I don't know if it was from fear of bombing down a hill at 35mph or that her back wheel was about to come off - either way, I wasn't going to stick around to see).

T2: I hate transitions - I'm terrible at them.

The Run: Oh holy heck, ignorance is bliss. I'm so glad I had no idea what was coming on that run course. I had deluded myself into thinking it wouldn't be that bad, and I never attempted to actually preview any parts of it - I just went by what the elevation chart said in the event guide - and compared to the bike course, it didn't look that bad! Had I known what I would be doing for the next almost-two-hours, I probably never would've come off the bike course :). Kidding, kidding - but really, had I known, I would've been obsessively thinking and strategizing during the whole bike ride and probably psyched myself out.

So, the run starts and this one girl (not in my AG) takes off like she stole something. For a hot second, I thought that maybe I would try to keep up with her; I quickly realized my running limitations and stuck to a more reasonable pace. The first few miles weren't that bad - some rolling hills, pavement, lots of cheering volunteers, some shade. I was decently content - working hard, but not dying. No, the dying part came around Miles 4-5 when I happened upon the uphill that NEVER ENDED. I finally cried uncle 3/4 from the top when my side vision started to go black, and walked a minute to get my HR under control. I had no plans on walking, but that hill just broke me. I kept it together for the next 4 miles, even feeling a second wind around mile 8 when we rolled through the campsites and cheering crowds. Then I got to Mile 9 and saw another stupid hill. Physically, I felt fine, but mentally I just momentarily gave in to a pity party and walked. I did the same at Mile 10 when I turned around and had to run up the backside of that same hill. It was all mental, I physically could've kept running - and after my 30 second pity-party, I did. At that point, I swear I got passed by the same girl twice (looking at the results later, turns out a set of twins passed me, a few minutes apart from each other). The whole run, I just kept urging myself to get to Mile 12 - after Mile 12, it's literally all downhill to the finish line. Miles 10-12 were a slow, uphill slog. With no turns, so you could see EXACTLY how far you needed to go and how high you needed to climb. I don't know if this course was more physically grueling or mentally grueling. Probably equal on both sides. Right around Mile 11, I let myself look at my watch. And I realized that if I didn't fall apart over the next two miles, and I worked really hard, I might actually get a PR. At Wildflower!?! And so that's exactly what I did. It was only a 4 minute PR, but I will take it, especially because this isn't a very fast course (the winning amateur female time was 5:04 - and even the pro women didn't average more than 20-21mph on the bike course).

So, I've gone back and forth about writing down my times in my blog. I don't want to seem full of myself, but it would be nice (for me) to see the times next to the race report, so I can connect them with how I was feeling during a race. So, here are the splits:

Swim: 35:27 (1:50 pace)

T1: 3:44 (bleck)

Bike: 3:09:06 (17.7mph)

T2: 3:03 (what was I doing??)

Run: 1:52:13 (8:33 pace)

Overall time: 5:43:33, 16th in my AG.

Someday, I will break that elusive 5:40 mark. Someday. I was really happy with how the day went. I was even happier that evening when I ate a gigantic amount of ice cream with no worries. And I was even happier the next day when I was just cheering, while the rest of my family raced :) Everyone did wonderfully - no drowning, no major fails on the bike, and I wasn't excommunicated from the family :) In fact, my in-laws enjoyed the race so much, they are joining their local tri club!! I'm so proud of them! (I'm also savoring the fact that I still have a faster Oly time than Mark - I'm reveling in it while I can, because I know he's going to catch me. Someday. Competitive? Us? Nah!)

Don't be stupid

2011-05-07T22:49:00.003-04:00

With Mark being out of town, I was craving the chance to talk to someone other than my dog. So this morning, since I couldn't find anyone to run the trails with me, I opted to go to the Team Z group run on the bike path. I haven't been to too many Team Z events lately, besides swim, so there were alot of unfamiliar faces. We started running and a group of 4 people pulled away from the pack rather quickly. I don't know what I was thinking, but I decided it would be a great idea to join them. Turns out, it was a bad idea - when your workout says a 90 min run Zones 1-3, it's a bad sign when your first mile is a 7:08 and you are huffing and puffing while the other four people around you are strolling in the park at that pace. Throw in my stupid pride (I won't be dropped, I won't be dropped, I won't be dropped...) and some disillusionment (they are probably only running 6 miles - I'll slow it down when they turn around) and a 12 mile run suddenly turned into an ugly sufferfest. I made it ten miles before I completely imploded. I still managed to finish the run at a semi-respectable 1:29, but those last two miles were a slow slog through hell. As Jen said in her feedback to my TrainingPeaks entry - this was not one of my brightest moments. I'll know in the future NOT to do a stupid fast tempo run less than a week after a 1/2 ironman (Wildflower race report forthcoming, honestly).

My First Tri

2011-04-25T22:05:00.003-04:00

This weekend, the Lauvers are taking the Wildflower triathlon festival by storm. And it's not just the East Coast Lauvers - Mark's mom, dad, and his sister Allie are joining in the fun by doing the Wildflower Oly as their VERY first triathlon! I'm super excited for them and I know they will all do great. I chatted with Allie this evening about the upcoming race, and our conversation made me think of my first triathlon, back in 2005, and how woefully unprepared I was (Allie, Ted, and Lori have been training, and they will NOT be woefully unprepared).

Here is a list of things I learned from my first race:

- Start with a road triathlon; off-road ones are a bit dicey on the bike, especially if you've only mountain biked two other times your entire life.

- Buy a bike more than a week in advance of the race. Especially if the last time you owned a bike, it came with streamers on the handlebars and a banana seat.

- Successfully doing a marathon does not translate into instant success with triathlon. Especially if you can't swim more than one length of the pool without feeling like you are going to die due to lack of oxygen.

- Dog paddle may not be efficient, but it gets the job done.

- Trail running 5 miles is WAY harder than running 5 miles on a road. Things like boulders and rock walls will definitely slow your time down.

- Biking the course the night before is a smart idea. It gives you a heads up on what hills you should walk down so you don't vault over your handlebars a second time.

- Nutrition? What nutrition?

As the above evidence shows, I knew NOTHING about triathlon. I fished around on the internet and found my (embarrassingly slow) results from that first race. I came in 5th in my AG (out of 7, haha). It took me 34:47 to swim about 1200yds; 2:24 to bike 14 miles; and 1:01 to run 5 miles - a grand total of 4 hours. Longer than it took me to run my first marathon. I'd like to say that I was hooked after that first race, but that would be a lie. I was simply happy to have made it through that bike ride alive.

It took me two years, but I decided to give triathlon another go, and what better way than to do that first race again? This time I actually trained for it and cut my times down to 31:28 for the swim, 1:38 for the bike, and 51:58 for the run, finishing in 3:01. NOW I was hooked. But, I've stuck to road-tris. Maybe sometime in the future I'll give the off-road tri another shot.

So, I think my in-laws doing their first tri will be leaps and bounds ahead of where I was during my first triathlon. They've trained, they've had their bikes longer than a week, and they can keep themselves afloat in the water. Next weekend will be exciting!

Rumpus in Bumpass Oly Tri - Race Report

2011-04-18T21:42:00.004-04:00

I've seen alot of blog posts lately on other people's blogs about the power of believing in yourself. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to join in the trend with this post here. Rumpus was not an "A" race for me - it was an early season, short, fun race. But it became something more. Since the Tucson tri camp, it's as though something as finally clicked - I'm trying to make triathlon a priority and do it right. What's the point of spending the time and energy training when you don't bother going to bed early, don't eat right, miss workouts, and don't focus? Jen has mentioned to me before that there has been a disconnect between how I train and how I race. Success in training doesn't often equal success in racing; at least that's been the case for me over the past couple of years. I crack during races. I look at my watch, see a pace or a heart rate and start to over-think things. I don't do enough mental prep work - it's almost as though I am too scared to fully invest myself in a race, because what if the race doesn't go well? I can't really explain it, but it's like I'm afraid to put all of my eggs in one basket, lay it all out there, set high goals and really go for them. Because what if I fail even if I give it my all? Sounds silly, right? Sounds like I'm giving up before I've really even tried. It sounds like I've already failed.

I wanted this race to be different. I wanted to finish the race and feel like I left it all out there. I wanted to know what it felt like to set a goal and really go after it - give it everything I had to achieve it, failure be damned! I did NOT want any shoulda, woulda, coulda's in my rearview mirror. So, in addition to eating right, going to bed early, doing all workouts, etc, I focused on the mental preparation side of things. I have NEVER been so mentally focused on a race in my life. I wrote down quotes from Jen's scary e-mail and posted them on my computer at work, so I could read them 20x a day. I wrote the quotes down in a notebook I carry with me and I'd pull them out to read while I waited for the bus or the metro. I visualized EXACTLY how I wanted the race to go down. How I wanted my pull to feel during the swim, how often I would sight the buoys, how quickly I would get the wetsuit off in T1, how I wanted my pedal stroke to feel on the bike, what I would do for nutrition, how quickly I would get my running shoes on in T2, and how I wanted my legs and arms to feel during the run, how I wanted to feel out there on the course. I listened to "The Cave" by Mumford and Sons probably about 1,000 times during the days leading up to the race (nothing like frenetic banjos to get you jacked up - but actually some of the lyrics were quite appropriate). I thought about my race strategy - SUFFER. I thought about my goals and told myself over and over again that I was fit enough to achieve them - that I should be confident and just believe in myself. By the time race day arrived, I was nervous, scared, excited, and - most importantly - ready.

Pre-Race: Some of the race-day jitters were eased by seeing some good friends I hadn't seen in awhile - I caught up with Melody, saw Tricia from college and her husband Sean and met their adorable son Kieran. Kate and I took some pictures of our miserable, wet selves and sent them to Jen.

The swim:

Thanks to Mother Nature, I was already soaking wet by the time I got into the water. It was chilly enough that it almost took my breath away and gave me an ice cream headache when I did some practice strokes. But, it's amazing how your body adapts when it's go time. By the time the horn sounded, I wasn't cold anymore - I was ready to swim. The swim out to the first turn buoy was uneventful; however, as we made the turn, we were fighting the waves and the wind for the rest of the swim. When I initially got out of the water and saw the dismal time on my watch, I was really disappointed - I've been working so hard on my swim and seen progress over the past year. But looking at the results later that night, alot of people had dismal swims, so I feel less like a slowpoke. Unfortunately, I didn't fully meet my goal of making the swim a 1500m time trial - I found my focus wandering and I know I could've swum harder. So, in the future, along with my swim stroke, I need to work on mental focus during the swim.

T1:

A muddy mess. By the time I got on my bike, I think I looked like I had rolled around in mud. Lovely. I didn't put my shoes on in T1 because it was so muddy. I put them on when I got to the bike mount line, so my bike time is a little skewed.

The Bike:

I've never biked so hard during a race in my life. Honestly. The course was decent - a few rollers, a lovely false flat with a headwind for about two miles, no terribly sharp turns, and some fun downhills. I stayed in aero most of the time, kept my chain in the big ring, and pedaled hard. I had my Garmin set on multi-sport mode and, being the non-techy person that I am, had no idea how to get it to display heart rate, current pace, etc. It only showed me overall time and total distance. This actually turned out to be a blessing because it didn't allow me to focus on pace or heart rate - my head wasn't able to get in the way of my racing. It was a liberating way to race - I listened to my body and trusted it to tell me where my limits were. It worked - I didn't blow up, and I biked faster than I've ever biked before in a race. I felt good - not in an "oh-this-is-such-a-pleasant-bike-ride" type of way, but in a "I'm-working-my-face-off-and-I-like-it" type of way. I managed to take in two Hammer gels on the bike - normally I have no problems eating on the bike, but I was working hard enough where I had to force the gels down. I pedaled hard up the hills, I pedaled hard down the hills. No girls passed me, but if one did, I planned to go with her and not let her get too far ahead. Periodically I'd ask myself if I could go harder, if I was suffering enough or if I could eek out a little more. I didn't hold back at all during the second loop, no regrets, right? My pedal stroke felt just as I had visualized it would. I didn't question whether or not I could keep my pace - I had visualized it so many times, I felt like I was just doing something I'd already successfully done before.

T2:

Also a muddy mess and it was great fun getting run shoes onto my frozen feet.

The Run:

I didn't think about the run at all while I was on the bike. I was focused on the here and now and doing what I could to go as fast as possible. As I headed out of T2, I was passed by two girls - both of whom kept a good pace. I struggled that first mile - there was a hill and I was trying to settle into a pace. I wasn't really thinking at this point in the run - nor any other time during the run. I was just running as hard as I could. I had no idea what my pace or heart rate was - I only saw my mile splits when they popped up after each mile. For me, they were good splits, and I challenged myself to stay consistent. I fully believed I could do it and I knew I could reel in the two girls who had initially passed me at the beginning of the run. By the end of the first loop, I did pass them both. There's not much more to say about the run other than I didn't crack, didn't have a meltdown, and didn't think. My friend Tricia took some pictures near the finish line and you can see it on my face that there was nothing left. No smiling and waving like I've done in previous races.

In the end, I got a 6 minute PR - on a day with windy and wet conditions. I was 2nd in my age group and 11th overall (just missing my reach goal of being top ten - I missed that by 22 seconds). I took a look at the USAT website and I believe my placing at this race qualifies me for Age Group Nationals (held in my college hometown of Burlington, VT!). Alas, it's the same weekend as Timberman - I race I signed up for about 5 days before Rumpus.

I'm thrilled with how I held it together during the race - Jen's advice to "don't think, just race" worked perfectly. I think I may want to race more often without HR or pace data - it really freed me to go hard while listening to my body. I raced with the big kids and didn't get completely dropped. I believed in myself and my capabilities. There aren't any nagging "shoulda, woulda, coulda's" - instead, there is just excitement for the rest of the season!

"Stop Being Safe. Do Not Think, Just Race."

2011-04-13T20:55:00.004-04:00

With the first triathlon of the season on the horizon (as in, this weekend), Jen sent me a little motivational response to my race goals I sent to her. Actually, it was a bit of a scary motivational e-mail and I kind of felt like wetting my pants while reading it, but really, this was exactly what I needed.

That blog post title, "Stop being safe. Do not think, just race" is a line I stole from the e-mail. It's my new goal for the race; that and suffer. No time goals, just go hard and don't hold back. I also wrote down a few other quotes from the e-mail and stuck them on my work computer and wrote them in a notebook I carry around with me. Just to remind myself of what I need to do on Saturday.

Last season, I cracked during just about every single one of my races. Usually on the run. Things got hard (it's a race, they are supposed to be hard) and I would allow myself to cave - slow down, walk, tell myself it's an accomplishment just to finish. I took a look at my race report from this race last year and here is a gem of a line "my head wasn't really in the run and i was just so pleased with how the bike turned out, I almost didn't care how the run went" WTH??!! No wonder I had a crummy race, with that kind of attitude.

I'm trying to turn things around this season. Mental focus and preparation are just as important as the swimbikerun training. I've been reading books and blogs, trying to soak up and understand the different mental prep techniques and how I might be able to apply them to myself and my races. Saturday's tri will be the first true test - I feel like such a poser sitting here saying I'm going to try to race with the big kids (seriously, who am I?!), but that's what I'm going to try to do. Answer when I am passed, no more of this "I'm here to race my own race." That is bull - I am here to race (OMG, such a pretender!). Work hard from start to finish, don't look at the clock, and plan on having this simple conversation with myself over and over:

"Will I die?"

"No."

"Then go harder."

If the end result of the race is that I finish with absolutely nothing left and there are no "shoulda, woulda, coulda's - then I think we can call it a success.

I'm a little leery and uncomfortable with this "race-bravado"-type talk. I feel like an arrogant fool saying it and writing it. But I'm kind of hoping if I just write it and say it enough, I might begin to believe it, and one of these days it'll actually come true.

I'm not this arrogant in real life. Honestly.

I almost cracked tonight

2011-04-07T21:59:00.003-04:00

I almost cracked tonight - I was [this close] to having grape nuts and toast for dinner tonight. Or, worse, walking to CVS and getting a package of Kraft Mac and Cheese. It was late, I was only cooking for one, and in a sick and disgusting way, mac and cheese actually sounded appealing. I haven't had it in about a year. Fortunately, I gave myself a mental smack to remind myself that I would likely feel disgusting if I ate a whole box of mac and cheese (which I would do since I have little self control).

So, instead, I had homemade pizza with lots of vegetables and a big glass of water.

I think I may have finally put my unhealthy, college dorm-style eating habits to rest for good. THANK GOODNESS.

In other news, my dog has been busying himself with eating potpourri this evening. The cats gracefully knocked over a glass of festive potpourri and I thought I managed to pick up most of it, but apparently not. Thank goodness Mark gets home from his business trip tomorrow - I'm not sure how much longer I can handle being outnumbered 3:1 by the animals. As I write this, Bissell is dumpster diving in the garbage disposal... and I'm not even going to waste my energy trying to intervene, I just don't care anymore.

JHC's Tucson Tri Camp 2011

2011-04-05T22:05:00.009-04:00

This past weekend I attended one of Jen's Tucson Tri Camps. It absolutely did not disappoint. JHC's camp gave the words "hammered" and "trashed" a totally different meaning from the usual college frat party connotation (though the result was much the same - passed out, but without the hangover).

I had blog-stalked many of the other campers, so it was nice to meet them in person and put a face to a blog (now I can comment on others' blogs without seeming like a creepy stalker). Everyone at camp was a great athlete and happy to be there. I was hoping I could hold my own - was also hoping I could make it up Mount Lemmon in my 25, since I was lazy and didn't change it to a 27 - had a minor panic attack when I flew into Tucson and saw those hills - yikes!

Day 1: Mount Lemmon (25 miles of UP) and T-run.

What a fantastic bike ride - LOVED it! It's just the type of climbing I like - challenging and steady climb, not too steep, but a climb where you can settle into a gear and power your way up. The views were great and I tried to snap a picture of every elevation marker I passed. One of Jen's Tucson-based athletes was so nice and provided sag support at Mile 14, Windy Point. Sag support complete with pretzels, bananas and NUTELLA - perhaps I died and biked my way to heaven: pretzels + Nutella = Bliss. After Windy Point, it was a short 6.5 more miles of UP before beginning the descent into Summerhaven (home of cookies the size of your face). We all regrouped at the top, took a few photos, enjoyed the sun and cool air, and eventually found the motivation to climb back out of Summerhaven and then descend. I wasn't too nervous about the descent - the road was in good conditions, turns were wide, and no switchbacks. It was so much FUN! I surprised myself by getting into aero here and there and pedaling through some of the turns, and taking some of the turns more aggressively than I normally would. I made it down in one piece and Melissa and I cycled back to the house to begin the T-run. That T-run was HOT. I think I was a bit dehydrated as well - my mouth was dry and I thought about water during the whole run around the neighborhood. I was so happy to get back to the house, I grabbed a big glass of water and jumped into the pool with my clothes on. Four miles in high 90s heat will make you do that. Dinner was at Blanco that night, courtesy of camp - I had a huge burrito and ate my bodyweight in guacamole, which is one of my other most favorite things besides Nutella.

Day 2: Swim, Bike, T-run

We had a bit of a later start because we didn't have the pool until 9ish. Alot of us were on East Coast/midwest time so we were all up with the sun. This allowed for a leisurely breakfast as we packed up our stuff, as we wouldn't be coming back until after the swimbikerun fun extravaganza was over later in the afternoon. We swam in the beautiful sunshine OUTSIDE at the U of A Rec Center. The pool was so, so nice and it was lovely to be out in the sun - even though I was hanging onto the wall, gasping for breath between sets, I really enjoyed the swim. I think I managed over 4000 yds by the end of it. We went to TriSports for a tour of the facility and I had the yummiest veggie sandwich ever for lunch. Then we headed out into the 95+ degree heat for a two hour ride, sagged by TriSports. I actually found that the heat wasn't too bad when you were riding your bike - no humidity and there was a breeze when you were moving. However, the false flat on that ride was NO FUN - I just kept watching my speed slowly dwindle and my heart rate slowly climb - blah. I was in a funk during that part of the ride, but fortunately it passed. I got lost and totally missed the turn I was supposed to take - I ended up a mile or two down the road near a park ranger station in the middle of nowhere. Eventually, when nobody else showed up, I figured out I was lost and turned around and caught back up with the group. We did the Pistol Hill loop a couple of times - a short climb that was rewarded with a nice descent on good roads. The way back to the cars was a challenge - we were hot, our legs were tired, but I pushed it as hard as I could and it was helpful we were going back down the false flat. I only managed to eek out a 2 mile T-run, but the heat was brutal and I was honestly glad it was only two miles. Then it was back to the house, pool time, and most of us just ordered in pizza and called it an early night. I loved going to bed early and waking up early - we were all so tired, it was hard to stay up past 9pm.

Day 3: Sabino Canyon and Lemmon (Again!!)

We were up bright and early to run the Phoneline Trail at Sabino Canyon - a challenging and super pretty trail run. I tried to stick with Jen's husband Jerome, but within the first mile up the trail, my HR was in Zone 5 and I was scrambling over rocks and gasping for breath and wondering how the heck I was going to continue like that for 4 more miles. The trail did start to level out and become a little less technical, my HR went down, and I managed to find a rhythm. Still couldn't catch Jerome, but I did manage to pick up the pace in places and I had a great time on the run! The run back to the car was (mostly) downhill on a paved road - a good cooldown. I was glad we all started early because by the time we were done, it was HOT outside. We went back to the house for a cooloff in the pool and some breakfast. And then... We went back up Mount Lemmon! Not all the way up this time. I rode up to Windy Point and tried (very unsuccessfully) to keep up with Jerome. Riding Lemmon on Day 3 of camp, in the afternoon heat, was a totally different ballgame than riding it on Day 1 with fresh legs in the morning. It was hot, hot, hot out there. I also didn't eat enough and was feeling it by Windy Point. When I got back to the house, I had a beer (well, a quarter of a beer) and sat in the pool in celebration of being done. We did Blanco for dinner again that evening (comment of the night goes to Angelina who correctly observed that Tucson is home to some questionable fashions).

Day 4: Saguro trail running and swimming

Apparently I missed the memo that wild boars and mountain lions are the things to see in Saguro - everyone else some some interesting wildlife - me, I just saw a few rabbits. Boo. The run was hard, my legs were tired, and even though it was only 7am, it was hot. Throw in a looonnngggg false flat that never ended and a run-in with a cactus and that would adequately describe my run. Jerome was being very nice and trying to chat with me during the run (I was running, he was strolling) and all I could really manage were a few gasps and dying animal noises. I just kept counting down the miles and telling myself that I could do it, willing myself not to stop, roll over and die. Sad thing was, it's not like I was running that fast. I'm going to blame it on overall fatigue. When we regrouped, everyone had war stories about seeing wild boars and mountain lions. I, on the other hand, busied myself pulling cactus needles out of my elbow because I accidentally stumbled into a cactus toward the end of my run, oops. The swim was a great way to finish off camp. Jen was nice and didn't have any speed sets in there. Melissa lapped me about a billion times, but I didn't care, as long as I didn't drown, it was a good day. By the end, I had a nice sunburn on my back and the back of my legs - I love outdoor swimming!

I had so much fun that whole week - everyone was super nice, the weather was perfect (a little toasty, but otherwise perfect), and the workouts were a great challenge. This may sound strange, but this was my dream vacation - good weather, no distractions, lots of swimming, biking, running, good food, great company, and sleep. This camp was exactly what I needed to get excited about the 2011 tri season. Good thing too, since my first race is in, ohhh, about a week and a half (are you ready Kate and Bethany?!)!

Thank you to Jen and Jerome for putting on such a great camp - I can't imagine the amount of work that went into planning it and executing it, but I thought it was flawless. Looking forward to next year!

**I have pictures that I will post, but right now I am too lazy to hunt for the cord to my camera. Pictures will have to wait.

Old?? Who said old??

2011-03-26T08:22:00.004-04:00

Last night, Mark and I watched When Harry Met Sally. I had seen pieces of the movie before, and from my vague recollections, Harry and Sally were quite old when they got together.

I guess when you're in your teens and early 20s, "old" is a relative term. Watching the movie last night, I figured out that Harry and Sally were actually 32 - which is only about two years older than I am right now. And I am certainly not old.

Want another example of skewed perceptions? When I graduated from undergrad, I went to Paris for 8 months to do an internship. All of the interns lived together and most of us were around the "just graduated" age. On my second night there, this one girl - Mylene - kept talking about her skincare regiment and various creams, etc. As she talked, I just kept looking at her and thinking "you're what, 21 - you look like you're 18, why are you so worried about your skin??" Shortly thereafter, I found out she was actually 30. My next thought was, "oh, thirty - she's going to be no fun because she's old." Seriously? Why did I think that people suddenly became old and un-fun when they hit thirty? Is there something that supposedly happens to people partway through their 20s that makes them cranky fuddy-duddies? What lies have we been telling our youth?? As it turned out - Mylene was one of the most fun people out there, and her endurance for late nights, bar-hopping, and being social far outlasted the rest of us.

I think I'm having a hard time with this whole turning thirty this year.

But why? Your thirties are allegedly even better than your twenties. You're more established, maybe you are married and have a family of your own - no more dating. You've advanced in your chosen career, you have extra money for expensive hobbies (like triathlon). You know your likes and dislikes, and now can focus on getting yourself to where you want to be - no more wasting time "finding yourself." All of this sounds appealing to me. AND - the 30-34 age group in triathlon is more competitive than the 20-something age groups (meaning people must still be getting faster when they hit 30).

Thirty is not old, forty is not old - triathlon has showed me that 50 and 60, even 70 are not old. Just wiser. In my last half-ironman, I remember chasing down a woman because she looked like she was in my age group - when I got close enough to see her calf, I found out she was actually in her 50s. I am convinced that women who do triathlons often look younger and more in shape than their inactive counterparts. Since it's impossible to stop having a birthday every year, the only way to counteract the negative connotations of "getting older" is to stay active, eat healthy, and take care of myself. Maybe someday I'll be that 50-something getting chased down by a 27 year old, because I look younger than I actually am.

food, Food, FOOD!

2011-03-22T22:20:00.004-04:00

I just ate a burrito the size of my face. It. Was. Awesome. I've been craving a burrito for the past two days for dinner and tonight we finally made them. It's a (slight) break from our usual dinner dish - Mark and I haven't been terribly creative as of late, and we have about 4-5 go-to recipes that we cook EVERY WEEK. And this week, something snapped, and if I had to look at another dish of sauteed peppers, mushrooms and onions, or another pizza, or another veggie quesadilla, I'd just stop eating altogether. So, granted, a burrito isn't TOO different from a veggie quesadilla, but there's something amazing about the goodness of rice, beans, and avocado in a crisp, slightly buttery tortilla.

Fortunately, I've not tired of my chocolate vegan cookies. Bonus points that they are super quick and easy to make - I whipped up a batch after my workout last night at 9:30pm. I spiced them up by adding slivered almonds AND shredded coconut. I'm enjoying this cooking and baking thing. Had you told me five years ago I'd be a little Suzy Homemaker, I would've laughed in your face and gone back to eating my boxed Mac and Cheese. But something has clicked and I think I cook dinner more often than Mark does now (fewer nights that I have to do the dishes!).

In other news, I think our dog is going through the adolescent stages of testing our authority. I've caught him (TWICE) getting up and food surfing off the counter. He's also unnecessarily rough with the cats. And he HATES it when I take my computer out, because it means I'm not paying attention to him. Attention whore. Our neighbors must think that we have a pack of elephants living in our house - elephants that love to rumble up and down and up and down and up and down the stairs at 10pm every night. I thought only cats had bewitching hours, but apparently dogs do too. Oh well, I guess it makes us even for all the times our neighbor plays Call of Duty at 1am and the walls in our house shake.

Speaking of neighbors, we have a set of neighbors who have these (horrible) yap-yap dogs. Every morning my day starts with: 1) Our neighbors walking their dogs around the complex, all the while barking at absolutely nothing; and 2) me peering out a window while expressing my sheer dislike of said dogs. It's a routine now - my day wouldn't be the same without it. This morning was particularly comical - the yap-yap dogs were being walked around the neighborhood for the umpteenth time (how many pee breaks do they need?!?) while Mark headed out the door to go to work. On his way to the car, Mark saw three of our other neighbors out, all walking their (well-behaved) dogs. ALL of them, INCLUDING the owner of the yap-yap dogs, all rolled their eyes and said "I hate those dogs" IN UNISON. At the same time, I poked my head out of the door, looked at Mark, and said "I hate those dogs." So, I guess the feeling is mutual across the neighborhood.

Anyone (far, far away from Arlington) want two yappy, obnoxious dogs? I'll bribe you with oreo balls.

Erin's Dirty Thirty

2011-03-09T20:55:00.000-05:00

Me and the birthday girl

I just got back today from spending the weekend down in Nashville celebrating Erin's 30th birthday. Erin and I have been best friends since college and this weekend can be added to the long list of fun times we've had. I'd say it's pretty close to the top. The whole weekend was a surprise - I arrived and surprised her on Thursday; her cousins Kelly and Melissa arrived and surprised her on Friday; and her friends Nicole and Dan arrived and surprised her on Saturday. Dinner on Saturday night at a trendy restaurant and then partied the evening away at The Big Bang Bar, a dueling piano bar in downtown Nashville. In the end, the night proved that 30 isn't really that old - we still know how to have fun, hang with the younger 20-somethings, and are capable of staying out (way) past our bedtimes once in awhile. It was so nice to spend the weekend with Erin and Ashley, see Reagan my goddaughter, and see everyone else! Here are a few more pictures from the night out. PS - you know you had a good night when, two people are asleep on the bar table by the end of it, the next morning (on only three hours of sleep) you are at the airport, unshowered, with hair still smelling like last night's bar, and the stamp from the previous night still visible on your hand (bonus points if the stamp reads "Bang This"). I was that description, personified, last weekend.

Dinner with Kelly and Melissa

Erin, Nicole, me and Kelly

I think this sums up the night quite nicely