Life in the Big Ring

New Website

2009-12-08T13:37:00.001-07:00

So now you know! In addition to sitting around eating bon bons and reading trashy magazines, I have been busy making some fun changes! The first one you will notice is that I have moved my blog to www.gofastmichelle.com.

Please stop by and take a look, subscribe and bookmark it and let me know what you think!

Bunnies For Boobies!

2009-12-04T08:01:00.003-07:00

This is a repeat post from a couple of months ago!! Bunnies for Boobies needs your donations! Please consider donating to this worthy cause (breast cancer) and supporting our team! The Pink Chase Fundraiser is next weekend (December 12). Help us kick some breast cancer ass!

So who do you know? I'm sure there is someone. Someone you know that has breast cancer. Or someone who has survived. And maybe even someone who has died. 1 in 8. That is the statistic. In your lifetime, you or someone in your circle of friends and colleagues will be diagnosed with breast cancer. That is a frightening statistic. I know many people......my mom, a grandma, a friend's mom, did I mention my mom, and a friend diagnosed at age 39. I also know Amy who was recently diagnosed at age 31 while 35 weeks pregnant. I know women that have died. And I'm only 40....how many more women that I know will have this diagnosis in the next 10 years? 20 years? How many do you know?

Clearly, more research and money need to be thrown at this cause. So I have teamed up with fellow triathletes and general badass chicas Amy Dannwolf and PIC Sonja Wieck to form Team Bunnies For Boobies and participate in K2's Pink Chase Fundraiser. The Pink Chase raises money for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a foundation committed to finding a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime by providing critical funding for innovative clinical and translational research at leading medical centers worldwide and increasing public awareness about good breast health.

What is the Pink Chase all about? This is the fun part......teams of three women compete for the most vertical skied, most creative costumes, and most money raised. Amy, Sonja, and I are all over this challenge!! Not only are we triathletes and general outdoor enthusiasts, but we also love to ski and rip it up on the slopes! And since we are all not really competitive (hahahaha), we are completely excited to go and rip up Keystone Mountain on December 12 and compete for the grand prize.

How do you fit in the picture? Well, we need your support!! Powder7 and Smith Optics have already committed to supporting our team (remember, that's Bunnies For Boobies) and now we need your help!! Please consider making a donation here, and remember that lots of companies will MATCH your donation!! Amy, Sonja, and I want to make a difference and are committed to this cause. Please help us out!!

By the way, I just mentioned Powder7 and if you are looking for skis this is the place to go! Check them out!

Smith Optics is a sponsor of the Pink Chase and is helping out Bunnies For Boobies out as well, check out these googles we will be wearing (in hot pink of course)!

So please, consider making a donation! And remember, grope your wife/girlfriend and save the boobies!

Rest, review, repeat

2009-11-23T17:17:00.008-07:00

Rest, recover, recuperate. Who knew I needed all of these things after a long season? I didn't know. I had no idea.

But I started my race season way back in April. April!! Rage in the Sage in Vegas (BABY!). It seemed a bit early at the time but at that point my race season was to be over mid-September. And I distinctly remember eagerly awaiting the race because the off-season had gone on too long. Oy. Two days after Rage, I lit my headlamp and started running down the Grand Canyon. And kept running all the way to the other side and up a bit too. Until my knees started giving me trouble and I turned around and ran back. For 38 miles I had an incredible adventure.

Beth and me at Rage

Grand Canyon

The month of May came and went and I rediscovered my legs after a couple months of "over" training. And I decided to run BolderBoulder for the first time. Then there was the Hugo Bike Race at the end of May (78 miles!) and racing was an absolute blast. And I was training with my peeps and feeling good.

Me, Sonja, Beth post-78 mile road race

And June? Well that's where my season started to go long. I went to Kansas to race in my first 70.3 and qualified for Worlds. And really, who can turn down a spot to Worlds? Certainly not me!! So I forked over my $300 and made plans to be in Clearwater in November......I didn't race Lake to Lake because at the last minute I decided to haul the girls to Hawaii for my sister's wedding. (good decision!)

That's my Clearwater spot!!

Aloha

July came and went, with only one race...Boulder Peak (and the first time EVAH I went to the med tent). But I also met my new love, my new-to-me tri bike Newt and we started spending quality time together. At high speeds. Ahhh, still makes my heart flutter!!

Newt ready to race at State Games sprint

August was all about speedwork. A sprint at the beginning of the month and Nationals 3 weeks later. And then 3 weeks after that, Worlds in Australia. Can you say whirlwind??

Nationals

Australia with Anthony, Sonja and Beth

And though my season when initially planned out was supposed to end after Worlds, I had one more Worlds to prepare for in Clearwater. But I really wanted to be done. And the weather turned too just to make it a bit more difficult. The beautiful "normal" October fall weather we have here in Colorado turned cold, wet and snowy. And the trainer had my name all over it...in October. I started to doubt my fitness and all the hard work I put in over the spring and summer. I didn't have many long days over 3 hours. But I managed to put a great race together.

Sonja and I racing together!!

Clearwater has come and gone and now I am setting up next year's race schedule!! I am so proud of this last season, I am almost sad to say goodbye to it! But I am ready to put it to bed and look forward to the challenges that 2010 will bring. A couple of bike races, a couple of half ironmans, a handful of oly distances, a worlds race. And the kicker? Ironman Arizona 2010. I'm signed up!

But back to resting, recoverying and all that good stuff. I got sick after Clearwater (and no I'm not blaming Sonja but she did start it!) and decided it was good to take a few days off. A few days turned into a conscious decision to actually take an entire WEEK off. I haven't done that since I had salmonella poisoning almost 3 years ago. The week went on and my cold didn't get better and I really had no good reason to swim, bike or run. It was kinda nice. I do admit to lots of lounging. And eating too because I think my appetite was still big from the race. I have been baking. And I have not missed training.

Until now! So, starting tomorrow morning I am back in the pool. And since I have a marathon in January (why, oh why did I pick a January marathon???) the miles will also pick up tomorrow!

So, with that....farewell to "last" season, and the 2 week "no" season, and hello to "off" season!!!

Ironman 70.3 Worlds Race Report

2009-11-16T08:25:00.011-07:00

I am sitting here in my kitchen so thankful to be home with my family and to be in front of my beloved computer! I came home from Florida last night, it was 15 degrees in Colorado.....and I had a sunburn from being on the beach earlier in the day!

Sonja, Anthony and I arrived in beautiful Florida on Thursday afternoon. Except it wasn't that warm....lingering effects from Hurricane Ida had cooled things off. We quickly built our bikes, got a bite to eat and then headed over to Pier 60 for a look at the ocean in the dark. As we walked over, it became quite obvious that the ocean was, well, angry. It was roiling, wavy, and clearly not meant for swimming in. Although, of course, I'm thinking about a nationals repeat and a swimmers course. The buoys were not in yet. Huh?. Oh no....they won't cancel the swim will they?

Yes, it's a poor picture but here's the official logo in the sand

Friday morning rolled around and it was time to check in. This is where I got my first case of nerves.....I saw the sign....Ironman 70.3 WORLD Championships. Oh shit....what am I doing here? There are 75 women in my age group.....75 of the toughest women in the world..... AHHHHHH!!! Time to take a deep breath, smile, relax, and remember what my goals are for the race. It's not about everyone else. It's about me!!! Anywho, did you know they weigh you at these races? Crap. I hop on the scale (after taking everything off I possibly could without actually being naked in public). Didn't like the weight number. Didn't like the % body fat number. But I did like the third number....hydration. I was ready to race because I was peeing every hour!!

This is where I initially freaked out....

Being only my second 70.3 race, I am still not used to all these bags they give you, morning check in bag, bike bag, run bag.....I was a bag lady. We finally got everything packed up and it time to check the bags and bike in. Here was where I really started to realized how great the volunteers are at this race. I was greeted at transition by this volunteer who took my bags and walked me to where I was to rack my bike. He gave me a map of the new swim (yep, WTC decided to switch from the ocean to intracoastal bay) and walked me through everything I needed to know about bag drop, picking up the bags, changing tent (girls on the left!!).....it was friggin' awesome (those that went to the awards banquet will understand that reference)!!

We then went to check out the swim start and swim exit and realized that it was a time trial start. Yippee!!! Looking back at my Worlds experience in Australia, a big mistake I made for the swim was getting caught up in the beach start and looking for feet to follow, assuming there would be faster swimmers than me. It lead to me getting the crap kicked out of me in the swim and a relatively slow swim time. So it was important for me to stay in my own head and my own race at this swim start. But with a time trial start, I knew that it would be my race from the get-go. There would be no splashing around, kicking, fighting for position. Just me getting to the left/right of the line of swimmers and doing my own thing. I told this to Sonja too because I knew she could also have the same experience and I knew it would play right into her goal of having a kick-ass swim. (not to mention the fact that she has been puttin' time in the pool the last six weeks and also would play into the kick-ass swim)

The four of us (Son, Anthony, me and Steve) settled in early and relaxed. And then it was race morning! Sonja did a spectacular job of finding us a hotel 2 blocks from transition.....so we dropped off our bottles in the morning and went and relaxed back in our room before heading to the swim start. It. Was. Awesome. Avoiding the transition area craziness and chatter!!

Me and Son

Transition

Swim

OK, I will confess now. I did not warm up. I did not run. I did not swim. I did nothing. But apparently that was OK. I did, however, have to pee. Again. And then I realized that the pavement wasn't wet from people getting in and out of the water....say it with me....EWWWWW! So I joined in the fun! With that taken care of, I lined up and got in the water. The day had finally begun. I started out extraordinarily controlled and relaxed. My breathing was fantastic as was my sighting. I kept thinking about the pacing I had done in the pool in order to have the swim I wanted.....I was so tired of having mediocre swims!! I knew to start out slow and build into it....focus on turnover and breathing. I ran into some traffic but it wasn't too bad. I felt like I was flying in the water with minimal effort. It. Was. Friggin. Awesome. The swim exit was a bit crazy as we were essentially funneled in to a skinny, slippery ramp and there was traffic. But I swam as long as possible and got the heck out of the water. I didn't have a watch and had no idea what my time was but I felt great about my swim. So I smiled. At every spectator and volunteer. And I thanked every volunteer I encountered.

I had a great number so I was able to pick out my bag right away and head into the tent. There were not one, but two volunteers there helping me out! OMG. I love this! They took off my wetsuit and asked me what I needed. And then they sent me on my way!

Bike

I picked up Newt, saw teamie Anthony, told him to have a great ride, got on my bike and off I went. Was this really going to be the draft fest I had been hearing so much about? My goal was to stay out of it and be legal. I kept my chain in the little ring to get my legs under me through the 12% short climb up the bridge and I started my garmin because I wanted my heart rate data to manage my effort. I was being passed from the get-go like I was standing still and naturally, I picked it up. And then I scolded myself.....what are you doing??? You have 56 miles, this is not an Oly race. Simmer down!!! Be true to yourself. And that was my motto for the rest of the ride. Be true to yourself. I knew where I needed to be via heart rate and I knew that I was going to be much more aggressive compared to my ride in Kansas. So I just settled in and smiled. At the spectators, at the people passing me, at the people I passed, at the volunteers. I was having fun! And, I was going fast. Everytime I checked my watch I was in the 22 - 24 mph range. Really? But, I was in fast and flat Florida and my heart rate was exactly where it needed to be. Weeeeeeee!!!!

For the first 24 miles of this ride, I was riding alone doing my own thing. I think I even asked myself at one point, where is the drafting? And then I found out. I started getting passed by PACKS of people. 10 - 20 deep. Really? Apparently, these peeps weren't too concerned about drafting and certainly not looking to avoid it. C'mon, just give it a try....race on your own!! And then it got scary. I was approaching a U-turn and a pack had overtaken me and I was being passed on the left and right. People yelling and accelerating into the U. OMG. Some f****r is going to take me down!!! I made it through that turn and just tried to get over to the right and let them go by. Saw a penalty tent and it was inexplicably empty. I finally got in a good place to drop back and be alone when I was overtaken. Again. By another deep pack. And once again, I was being passed on the RIGHT! AHHHHH!! DANGER DANGER!!!! I was trying to figure out where to go with this pack when I heard the officials motorcycle and was in a bad place. So I made a break for the front. I will pull these assholes if needed!! I went left, yelled at people that I was on the left and got to the front. Phew. This was crazy. But I avoided a possible penalty by moving to the front. And so it went from there, just trying to avoid pack after pack. I was kind of "on" my nutrition but I was also a bit concerned I hadn't taken enough in. My hydration seemed to be good because I had to pee again. But had I taken in enough calories???? Probably 500 calories on the bike....seems low. I looked around and I was on a flat bridge and it was absolutely beautiful. Water all around me. Sunny. 5 miles to go. I started shaking out my legs and headed back into town.

You know what the volunteers did when I came into transition??? They took my bike!!!! I felt like a friggin' rock star!! It. Was. Awesome!! Picked up my bag and headed back into the change tent. Once again, I had my own personal assistant giving me water and asking me what I needed out of my bag. Hat? Yes. Gel? Yes. The area smelled suspiciously like urine but I wasn't about to pee on the seat.....and for the first time EVAH, I had to use a porta-potty during a race!! (as a side note on transition area porta-pottys......EWWWWW......c'mon peeps can't you hit the bowl? When you are pooping????????? EWWWWWW)

Run

I was out of transition and onto the run course and initial check of the body was good! My legs felt decent! And then I realized I had left my hat on the chair in T2. Crap that's my favorite hat. And then realized I hadn't taken off my top like I had intended so I could just run in my sports bra. Duh. Hello....race brain???

I soon realized that there were some pro women finishing up their first lap as I started my first. I saw Jodie Swallow ahead of me and heard she was fourth woman overall. And I seemed to be catching her. Huh? I looked at my watch and told myself to simmer down. But I felt good. I caught her. She passed me back and I was on her shoulder. I saw Sonja's dad and waved and smiled. And there was ELF (I read her blog) on the sidelines cheering for Jodie and telling me to stay with the fourth woman overall!! It. Was. Awesome. And then I passed her back on the hill. And never saw her again. Then I got passed by Laura Bennett, Sarah Groff, Amanda Stevens, and Michellie Jones!! I could reach out and touch a pro! But I didn't because that would be kinda weird. I continued to feel good but knew I had many miles to go. I took a sip of gatorade at each station and cooled off with the sponges.

Just so you know, this run course is a bitch. It is hard. It is not flat. It is 2 laps up and over the Memorial Causeway, which just happens to be a 12% grade. So, 4 hills over 13 miles. Very difficult. As I was coming in to finish my first lap I still felt OK. I started lap 2, and around mile 7 I started to hurt. Badly. My knee hurt. My feet hurt. My back hurt. My hip hurt. I had officially entered the hurt locker. Ugh. I still had 6 miles. Up and over my third hill. I just wanted to walk. I wanted to quit. I told myself there was no way I would do an Ironman next year or even ever do a 70.3 again. Never. I started the bargaining process....just run to the next block, the next tree, the next whatever. Constant forward motion. Just keep moving. Had I run out of nutrition? Possibly. One more hill and then the finish.

And then the best part of my day happened. Sonja had started 5 minutes behind me and I knew she would pass me at some point. And on that final hill, there she was. On my shoulder. She didn't say anything. Nor did I. We just climbed the hill. We crested the hill. I felt better with her there. I told her to go on and she said she was exactly where she needed to be plus she wanted to get her dad to take a picture of us racing together! She handed me water, told me to relax my shoulders. I told her to go. She said no. Then we saw Eric and got our picture and I sent her on her way. It. Was. Friggin'. Awesome. I am lucky enough to be able to train with this wonderful woman and she is an amazing training partner and friend but to be able to run with her in a race? That was the most amazing mile and a half. It brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.....Thank you Sonja!

Then there it was, the finish line. I smiled and crossed the finish line. I did not need the med tent, I did need advil. Anthony and Sonja were there and we did the thing we love to do.....cheer other competitors to the finish line. What a great day. Oh, and I will do another 70.3 and I will do an Ironman. Next year.

Here are the numbers:

Swim: 27:53 (Yippee!!! And, 2nd out of the water in age group!!)

T1: 3:28 (Listen, I really wasn't in any big hurry, I wanted to chat with the lovely volunteers!)

Bike: 2:23:33 (23.4mph!! Woot Woot!!)

T2: 3:27 (I had to pee peeps and clearly still not in that much of a rush!)

Run: 1:44:30 (didn't meet my goal of negative splitting but oh well!)

Total Time: 4:42:15

9th in Age Group!!!

Pier 60

Ahhh, the beach, toes in sand!

Building Again

2009-11-11T09:49:00.003-07:00

Here's the latest update......I am building my house again after the "fire" (I really don't want to offend anyone that has actually been through an actual fire)! I picked up my computer yesterday from the data recovery dude in Boulder. And the good news is, I have more data than I thought I would get back! Bad news, I have lost all recently created pages and numbers documents. And all of Isabelle's baby pictures from the first 3 months of her life (but I'm pretty sure my mom can help me out with this one). And I have to reorganize all of my 3000+ emails into their proper categories (I use email as a filing system for personal and business). And I have to re-do all photo events for the last six years. And I lost all of my play lists on iTunes. And for some reason the recovery process duplicated lots (500+???) songs that now need to be deleted. But hey, I have data!!! So even though I am looking at hours and hours of work in front of my computer......it's OK. I can deal with this.

And bless my wonderful husband, he took on the whole "negotiating with Apple" part of the deal. And as of last night, I feel mildly satisfied at what they are doing for us. Of course, it is not compensation because they are not liable for data loss blah blah blah. But they are at least doing something.

Speaking of my husband, a big Happy Birthday Michael!!! You are my rock, my love, and I cannot imagine life without you!! Have a wonderful day:)

Oh, and that other little thing around the corner......Clearwater???!!! Yep, hopping on a plane in the morning and racing on Saturday. I am excited! I'm looking forward to meeting new peeps, and racing in another "worlds" this year. I have my race plan and nutrition plan all set up, now it's just getting to the start line. Of course, I am traveling with my buddies PIC Sonja and Anthony and I know we will have fun:)

I will try to post an update or 2 and I believe you can follow live on www.ironman.com. Just look up my last name and make sure I got out of the water without too much bruising and ego bashing (last world's experience). My start time is 7:15!

Ciao for now!

Apple Burned My House Down

2009-11-07T08:01:00.003-07:00

Or, alternative title...The Things I Lost in the Fire. There was not an actual fire I assure you but the only way to describe the loss I have experienced over the last week is to compare it to that. PIC and I got to ride outside the other day....it was glorious and 75 degrees. As we talked about what happened, she said just that. It's like your house burned down.

It's my computer. My mac. My life. Apple has ruled my world since 2006 and actually before that I think. I am an Apple lover and we are an Apple family (except for Michael's work stuff)....an iphone (my second one since they don't actually swim), 3 shuffles (only 1 currently works), 3 nanos, 2 classics. I need a laptop soon since my kids are taking over the desktop and a macbook pro was at the top of my list. Was.

So what happened you ask? I upgraded my operating system to Snow Leopard about a month ago since I wanted to upgrade my iPhoto and do more things with my 4,000+ photos. Easier editing, better organizing....it all sounded so wonderful. I put more memory in the mac to handle the new OS and at the beginning of October I was up and running! It was great! I love iPhoto. iTunes was pretty much the same and I also changed my mail option to mac mail. For the last month I have been editing, sorting etc. etc. Snow Leopard also prompted me to set up a guest account. Great! I was thinking about having the kids work/play there and not potentially mess up my stuff. But Sunday night my computer went to sleep while I was putting the kids to bed. I came back down to check email and accidentally clicked on the guest account. It took a very long time to log in. Way too long. So I hit escape to try to get back into the main log in screen. Once there I logged into my account.

And it was gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. I did what any person who has had experience with an IT department does. I rebooted. And logged in again. And once again. Gone. I literally panicked. I may have screamed. I freaked out. Michael freaked too. It was all gone. The programs were there but they were empty. iTunes prompted me to start a new account. Same with iPhoto and mail. WTF? The documentation of my children growing up over the last seven years. Years of building a great iTunes. And my mail. All documentation of my work, my business, receipts. Gone. As I type this I am shaking again. Garmin data for the last 3 years? Gone.

After 30 minutes on the line with Apple support on Monday, I get this.....we know about this problem with Snow Leopard and guest accounts but we can't help you. You need to go to a third party data recovery specialist. WTF? I was crying trying to keep my shit together and not rip the Apple guy's head off on the phone.....because I know that as much as that may have made me feel a tad bit better, it wouldn't have accomplished anything else. So I find a data recovery specialist and after several days of him looking into the problem here's what we know. He has found raw data files but it doesn't have any information on it like date stamps or anything helpful like that. He feels pretty confident that he can recover most photos (THANK YOU!!!), all of iTunes, and not so sure about mail and any other documentation. All for the low low low cost of $700. And, more than likely, I will have days and weeks of work to go back in and reorganize all the data.

And what is Apple doing to help us out? Well, at this point, nothing. Nothing!! They keep pointing the finger back at me......because I didn't back up my data. See, because I had the new OS, I was a tad bit lazy getting around to backing up my computer. I was confident that I was OK with Snow Leopard. I have a hard drive. It's just unused and empty. But is this problem really my fault? I think not. This is a known problem to Apple and there are no warnings out there. No one told me at the Apple store....BTW don't set up a guest account you may lose all your data.....no warnings. So tell me, what is your data worth to you? How much would you pay for it? How much should Apple?

I will get my computer back on Tuesday. And we'll see what I've got. I am mildly hopeful but I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking how stupid I was for trusting my OS and not backing up. And freaking out that I may have lost all those wonderful family photos. My children's history......My business.......My life......

Lessons here peeps???? BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!!!!

AHHHHHH

2009-11-04T12:39:00.002-07:00

So last week, I didn't have much to say.....this week I do. But on Sunday night after dancing with the girls to a variety of music on my computer (including Thriller!) I somehow managed to delete everything on my computer. Or maybe not delete. It's just hiding. Somewhere. Every single piece of information on my iMac. You know, like every single photo taken the last 6+ years. My iTunes? Yep, it's gone too. Tax returns, word files and even my mail. Just gone.

I call up Apple Support on Monday morning and talk with "Mark". Mark has no clue what I have done except that it has something to do with a guest account. (I accidentally hit guest account to log in after putting the girls to bed rather than my account) "Mark" put me on hold to talk with someone who apparently knew alot more than he did and when he got back on the line I got the dreaded......"this is probably not what you want to hear but you'll need to try to get you data recovered from a third party"....... Are you f***king kidding me? I go to the wrong account and my data disappears into thin air. Really? Oh, and the kicker - "Mark" tells me that this problem is known to Apple (I just recently upgraded my operating system to Snow Leopard) and they are working on a solution. That made me feel tons better. How about you?

My computer is now sitting with some recovery expert dude and I am waiting to find out how much this will cost. And how long it will take. In the meantime, I have hijacked my hubby's computer while he is out!!! Fun, fun, fun.

Thanks Apple!! Appreciate the support for your f***ked up operating system Snow Leopard. Beware out there peeps and back up your data!!!!!!!! And don't use any sort of guest account!

On the training front, I am finishing up a pretty tough week (snow storm included) and am fried! But should be just enough time to be recovered and rested for Clearwater! I can't wait for the after race margarita on the beach, toes in sand:)

Blogity Blog Blog Blah

2009-10-26T09:49:00.007-06:00

Blogity blog blog blah blah blah. You may (or more likely, not) have noticed that I am taking a bit of a blog break this week. I just don't have that much to say! (Gasp, the shock, the horror!) Life is nice and settled right now and we have cruised to the end of October. As I type this, we are in the midst of a winter storm warning and I think I have yet another foot of snow that needs to be shoveled. Naturally, Michael bolted out of town for business yesterday so it's up to me to get it done. Total bummer. For him.....I decided not to shovel his side of the garage!!!

Where's the bush?

Not much to report on the training front either. Clearwater is a couple of weeks away and I have been getting my final workouts done although the weather is not cooperating. It is only October and me and my trainer have already been spending way too much time together. This could be a tough winter!! I just have to trust in the work I did all summer long, focus on my nutrition and go out there and have fun all day long (well half day)!!

I've been spending lots of time thinking about next season as well as Halloween and all the candy my kids will bring home. But next season is shaping up!! I have my preliminary "A" races and then of course my "A/B" races. There will be races in Arizona, Knoxville, Kansas, Budapest, Alabama and a really, really long race next November either in Florida or Arizona.....

But right now, I have that pre-race build tiredness thingy going on. And the I could eat more thingy going on. And, wow that couch looks way comfy thingy going on too. Less than three weeks to Florida. A quick little trip with my peeps Sonja, Anthony and Steve. Another half-Ironman under my belt.

Here are some fun photos!

Isabelle as the Monkey King in a production of "The Little Frog"

Nana and Iz

Silly Char and Iz at the Fall Festival last weekend

Char the pirate!

Iz the cat!

Denver Half Marathon 2009

2009-10-19T09:13:00.004-06:00

I signed up for this race back in August for a couple of reasons. First, I really like this race - it showcases the best of Denver and it is about as flat as you can get at altitude. Second, I thought it might make some sense to have a half marathon under my belt going into Clearwater, at best this would be a quality training day and I was hoping to PR or it would just be a good training day. And third, I figured if I was going to do it, may as well sign up before the big price increases!

On Saturday I woke up with a scratch in my throat after sleeping 10 hours....not a good sign. And then my tummy turned on me. Not good, but may have been attributable to the mass amounts of coffee I ingested earlier in the day. A PR?? Really, my goal was to beat my 1/2 marathon time off the bike at Kansas 70.3 earlier in the year. But could I do this without the good 2.5 hour "warm-up" of being on the bike? With a cold? I knew I would get up and race regardless of how I felt and I knew that I would do whatever I could with the run with whatever I was "given" on that particular day.

But race morning was kind of interesting! Sure, I still had that horrible cough/itchy throat thingy going on.....got my breakfast down (and yes, it was my favorite pre-race breaky Mix1!!) and then realized that I was indeed a tad bit nervous! Why was this? I am usually not nervous before a running race so this was a bit unexpected. And then I figured out why.....I wanted to PR. I had a time in mind and I knew it was realistic and I really wanted to do it, I'm pretty sure I haven't approached a run race with that mindset before!

Michael and the kiddos got me to the race in plenty of time to warm up (PIC Sonja ran down to the race site even though she wasn't racing and she warmed up with me!!!) and then I got positioned around the right pace group. I felt pretty good at this point but maybe a tad dehydrated so I knew I would need to take in some fluids along the way. No worries though and then we were off!

I was towards the front of the start line so the pace was a bit quicker from the get-go. I kept my eye on my heart rate and the first mile came in around 7:50. Perfect. Next mile was a bit quicker at 7:33 and I had to remind myself that I also wanted to negative split this. So I just kept my heart rate in the range I knew would get me to the finish line. And so it went for the first 6 miles, keeping myself in check so that I could pick it up (or in this case maintain my pace) to the end. As the miles ticked by I knew that I had a good chance at my PR but as I hit mile 10 and that uphill to Cheesman Park, my legs started feeling heavy and my breathing was a bit more labored. Uhhhhhgggghhhh, a 7:54 on that mile. Got to the top and kept pushing on the downhill and then I got a sight for my sore tired eyes. Boo Yah Tyler was at the Park cheering on the runners!! I loved seeing him and although I couldn't speak, I waved to him and that gave me a little lift on the remaining downhill. Now onto mile 11 and I heard Bethie cheering (didn't know it was her at the time!!) and that gave me another lift. And then PIC was there running beside me telling me to watch my breathing, relax my shoulders and hands and that I was doing great and to keep the pace up. That mile clocked in at my fastest at 7:21......I managed to tell her something to the effect of you're killing me but really what I wanted to say was thank you. And then I was in the final mile running up Lincoln. I had no capacity to pick it up but my pace did not slow down. I even passed a girl in the finish chute.

1:41. A PR!!! And 9th in my age group, 68th woman overall. I will not lie, those last couple of miles hurt, but you know what? It is supposed to hurt. I even had those thoughts....you know the ones. The why am I doing this? But then I crossed the finish line and saw my wonderful family. The hurt subsided and I was left with a great feeling of accomplishment. So thank you to my peeps, PIC, and my family for the cheering and everything else. And to Trakkers, it was a great experience to wear the device (didn't even notice it!) and hopefully help them out bringing it to market.

With that report, I have just one more race on the schedule for the year: Clearwater!!!

Racing With Trakkers!

2009-10-16T16:45:00.004-06:00

This weekend I'll be lacing up the ol' running shoes and heading downtown to run the Denver Half Marathon. The weather will be gorgeous and this course is awesome - running through downtown, passing by the Pepsi Center and Coors Field, then running to City Park, then to Cheesman Park. I also really enjoy making the turn towards the finish line for the half while the marathoners go straight!! (No worries mate, I have a marathon on my schedule for January)

But the really cool thing about this race is that I am testing a Trakkers device while I run. Trakkers is a cool company that has developed a GPS device (about the size of a beeper) that you hook onto your shorts. It then sends information about your race to a website and friends and family can "watch" you run from their computer! Because they are still in development, your feedback is critical and needed. I have copied the email I received from Carole at Trakkers about the process. If you are awake at 7:00am on Sunday morning, please give this a try and give some honest feedback - it will be appreciated!

Below is the link you can send to your loved ones to use to follow you on race day. At this point I don’t think our application is compatible with iPhone but we are moving in that direction. I think (but am not 100% certain) this test is only viewable from a computer – and I have heard MAC causes problems. ?

(Feel free to forward this email to your friends and family if you’d rather not take the time to explain everything I am below.)

When sending the link to your friends and family, please ask them to fill out the online user survey they’ll find on race day. We are specifically not giving online user instructions how to navigate the system as this is part of our test (frankly, it’s the primary purpose). We realize not every person who wants to follow their loved one will be computer savvy and we are trying to create a system that is fairly intuitive to navigate. Our online user feedback has been critical to improvements and we truly appreciate everyone’s time they’ve taken to give feedback on their experience.

I thank you (and your friends and family) in advance for any feedback they offer. Ultimately, we are creating this device and website for THEM so they can follow you during your training and racing. Knowing how to make this better for them is our primary objective.

We are continuing to make modifications to URL page until race day, so know the final version will not be ready until the morning of the race. Also, if you have difficulty getting to this page, try copying and pasting the URL directly.

Here is the link they will go to on race day.
http://www.trakkersgps.com/trackevents/event-test.aspx?eventid=16&subeventid=19

Thanks again for your help! We are excited for this test and eager for your loved ones to have an intimate connection to your progress!

K2 Pink Chase Fundraiser

2009-10-07T08:25:00.004-06:00

Clearly, more research and money need to be thrown at this cause. So I have teamed up with Amy Dannwolf and PIC Sonja Wieck to form Team Bunnies For Boobies and participate in K2's Pink Chase Fundraiser. The Pink Chase raises money for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a foundation committed to finding a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime by providing critical funding for innovative clinical and translational research at leading medical centers worldwide and increasing public awareness about good breast health.

What is the Pink Chase all about? This is the fun part......teams of three women compete for the most vertical skied, most creative costumes, and most money raised. Amy, Sonja, and I are all over this challenge!! Not only are we badass triathletes, but we also love to ski and rip it up on the slopes! And since we are all not really competitive (hahahaha) at all, we are completely excited to go and rip up Keystone Mountain on December 12 and compete for the grand prize.

By the way, I just mentioned Powder7 and if you are looking for skis this is the place to go! Check them out!

Smith Optics is a sponsor of the Pink Chase and is helping out Bunnies For Boobies out as well, check out these googles we will be wearing (in hot pink of course)!

So please, consider making a donation! And remember, grope your wife/girlfriend and save the boobies!

Worlds Race Photos

2009-10-06T14:08:00.006-06:00

As promised, here are a few of my favorite race photos from Worlds. Thank you thank you to PIC's dad Eric Willis for hanging out photographing all the action that day. If we are elite age group triathletes, then Eric is an elite age group photographer!! These are all of his photos.

Transition. We ran over that bridge out of T2.

Me at the swim start. Sure they all look like nice women.

Just don't get in their way!

I'm on the right being overtaken by a pack of women. Oh, right. There wasn't any drafting....

Run Ford Run!

Running it in

Me and PIC post race. Yep, that's my dad in the background.

Sonja, me and Beth goofing off after the race

Of course, the butt shot!

7.5 Weeks

2009-10-05T08:41:00.007-06:00

I look at that title "7.5 Weeks" and think no, nothing interesting like the movie "9 1/2 Weeks". And while we're on that subject, what in the heck happened to Mickey Rourke? In that movie he was hotness in front of a fridge. And today....did you see The Wrestler? Plastic surgery gone awry? Yick.

But I digress.

Yeah, I've been taking a little break from blog-land. It's the only break I'm getting right now too. So while a lot of my friends and training partners have eased into their post-season fun trail running, mountain biking, sleeping in, staying up late, I am into my last build to Clearwater in 7.5 weeks. Yikes. And the problem is......well, I have to admit the season is getting long.

My first race was back in April!! Rage in the Sage immediately followed by a non-race but big event nonetheless: Rim to (almost) Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon. From there I raced Bolder Boulder, then onto Kansas for my first Ironman 70.3 race. Then Boulder Peak, State Games of America, Nationals and Worlds. There was also an 80 mile bike race and a crit in there as well. Phew - that's a lot of racing. Denver Half Marathon for a "training" race in a couple weeks. And then it's down to just one race left....and it's on another "world" stage.

But I'm ready to put in the work. I'm ready for another few weeks of tough training. I'm ready for the mental challenge of a 70.3 race. I know I can put together a sound race strategy and nutrition plan and I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. I know my goals. Sure it could be another tough swim. And I know (doesn't everyone) that the bike is just a big draft-fest (there's a reason it's also known as Cheatwater).

So yes, the season is getting long. But I am still doing what I love to do. I get to be outside even on crappy days (either the weather or me) and watch the season turn into fall - my favorite time of year. I'm running, I'm swimming (more time in the pool!!), and I am on my bike. And I have no shortage of training partners.....PIC, Steve, and Anthony are all headed to Florida with me. And after that???? Oh yeah. I signed up for a marathon!!

Crazy is as Crazy does. 7.5 weeks.

Australia pictures part 2

2009-09-28T12:04:00.010-06:00

So here's how this was supposed to work: go to the Apple store to purchase iLife '09, go home and immediately install new software and the all important iPhoto upgrade (which I have resisted until I saw the editing feature in action), edit all Australia photos while baking cookies and whistling, publish said fabulous, edited photos on blog within days of returning from trip.

And here's what actually happened: accidentally purchased family pack of iLife '09 that I don't need from Apple store, decide to install anyway and return the next day, pop in the disk only to find out that I need to upgrade my operating system to run new iLife '09, also discover that I need more memory to do any of this and order another memory card to install, and since I want iLife '09 and a new operating system Apple made the decision for me that I must also include iWork in the software package. Even if I don't need/want it. Follow? To sum up, I have not edited one single picture. Oh well, here are some highlights from week 2!

We left the Gold Coast on Monday morning after the race and road tripped up North. I was hoping to hit the southern edge of the Great Barrier Reef and force the kids on a boat so Michael and I could snorkel but we didn't make it that far. We can only take so much "are we there yets", "I have to go to the bathroom," "I'm hungry" in a couple of hours!! Our first stop was a cool little town called Mooloolaba and its sister Maroochydore. Great beaches, great food but we only stayed a night and then went to the Australia Zoo. This is the zoo that Steve Irwin founded and it was an awesome place! After visiting the zoo we went further up the coast and ended up in a great little town called Noosa Heads. We found a great apartment 1 block from the beach and a cafe with "free" wifi!! Of all the strange things, free wifi was scarce any where we went in Australia!!!

Isabelle before this trip held her nose every time she went under the water. Well, not anymore....she is now learning to boogie board and body surf!

Charlotte petting a baby alligator at the Australia Zoo.

Charlotte and Isabelle fed Asian elephants too!

Of course, there was a great croc show....Crikey, look at the size of that thing!

There were even pony rides!

These are wombats. Pretty cute and cuddly too but apparently you don't want to pet these guys.

Building sand castles.

Yep, I decided it was time to take a surf lesson! That's me getting yelled at by the instructor.

Wiping out....

Standing up!!!! OK, this surfing stuff is hard work, after 2 hours I was exhausted!

From the Sunshine Coast, we flew back to Sydney where we met up with my parents. They had a few days to themselves (sans kids/grandkids) to enjoy Sydney and then we came in and crashed their "quiet" party. We took a double decker bus tour of the city!

The opera house is just as amazing in person as it is in pictures and movies.

As is the Harbor Bridge...

Some random water fountain that I really liked. Sydney is a lovely and clean city!! We will return some day and run the marathon!!!

Australia pictures part 1

2009-09-22T14:18:00.009-06:00

It is a cold day here in Denver and although I said I would edit my pictures before posting, that means I would actually have to go outside (in the cold) and drive to the nearest Apple store (to buy the latest version of iLife with the way improved photo editing) thus risking an accident since I am still fighting jet lag and would probably fall asleep at the wheel. Phew, what a sentence!! My jet lag seems to be getting worse rather than better and I'm 3 nights in. This is based on my astute observations of every one else in my family sleeping at 12:30am and me watching them! But really, how long can this last?

But I digress (trust me, I'm doing that a lot lately). Here are some great pictures from our trip. There will be more coming and more race photos too!

We stayed at the Q1 on the 54th floor in Surfer's Paradise. This was our view! The beach and waves were great although the water was a bit chilly.

OK, tilt your head to the left. This is the Q1, its design was based on the 2000 Sydney Olympic torch.

14 hours after leaving LA, here's my mom and Michael at the airport waiting for the next flight to the Gold Coast. (Surfer's Paradise is a town along the Gold Coast)

Yes, they are as cute and cuddly as you think! On our first full day in Australia we went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and some of the first animals we saw were koala bears. Oh, they are cute. And the best part.....

Isabelle, Charlotte and I got to hold one! Her name was Par-lay and was 18 months old. Koalas are solid animals - she must have weighed around 30lbs, that is why the girls couldn't hold her, plus Australia has very strict koala cuddling laws!

And then it was on to FEED the kangaroos! The 'roos were everywhere and more than eager to approach you to see if you had food! The girls loved feeding and petting these guys. What a cool experience!

This 'roo really "liked" Michael and got a bit aggressive with him. No worries mate, the wildlife helpers immediately stepped in!

I think the sign says it all....

Naturally, PIC Sonja and I found a rather large croc and we wrestled it to save the children:)

Feeding the lorikeets

It is tough vacation-ing with a wife who is tapering and about to compete and not enjoying a beer or 2. But Michael is a trooper and seemed to handle it OK!

Some of Team USA before a group run

Packet pick-up with Anthony, Sonja, Beth and me. This is the near the start beach. It's true - it was a beautiful venue.

Registration.....guess who's in the picture?

Anthony and Steve at the opening ceremonies

Kind of a strange picture, and yes, editing would help. But remember the thing about the Apple store and driving etc.....Anywho, this is Team Australia leading the parade of nations into the opening ceremonies. They had around 1000 athletes!!

Ummm, OK. We were getting bored waiting to march in the parade!

All I can say is, Oh Tahiti!!!

Me and my Dad.

Dad and Mom at our post-race celebration. It was wonderful having them with us for the race and everything els!

Oh My

2009-09-21T20:49:00.003-06:00

Well, we have made it back from Australia! I have so many photos and fun tidbits to share....but not right now. Jet lag is messin' with my world. And just try to explain jet lag to a kid. The family is getting its bearings and I am downloading and editing photos. So, check back soon! Fun stuff to follow!

Race Report

2009-09-13T17:18:00.002-06:00

I have snuck away from the family to my favorite $2 internet cafe for a bit of blogging and emailing!

This week has been an amazing experience and the race will be forever sketched in my head. In short, I am very pleased with the race. I really had no idea what to expect but had a feeling that it would be the most aggressive competition I have ever been against. And I was up for the challenge. I will post a more complete race report but here's the quick and dirty.

We lined up for the swim on the beach....that's right it was a run/dive start into the water. Gulp!! There was elbowing on the line before the horn even went off. Once it did, I was right in the front pack of girls trying to get to the front and the clear water. If Tuscaloosa was the toughest swim I have ever had, then this one was by far the most aggressive swim. From the get-go I was getting kicked, punched, swam over and even had my goggles almost knocked off. It was unbelievable. I thought that maybe at the first turn buoy it would settle down but it never did. Girls in my face trying to push me off the feet I had in front of me. Tapping the feet I had in front of me and almost getting my teeth knocked out. Wow. I did manage to throw a punch or 2 but believe me it was purely self defense. I was glad to be done with the swim and out of the water. If you look at the results, you can see that I was with about 8-10 women in my age group fighting it out to the end of the swim.

I think I was pretty slow in T1 but really I was just trying to get my crap together after the brutal swim. But I got on my bike and was happy about it. The crowds and cheering were awesome. People just cheering for USA USA and it was me they were cheering for! My legs were tired though and I thought that the bike wasn't going to be good. I was all alone for awhile and then was passed by a group of girls in my age group. One of them being Steph P (amazing and fast athlete). I decided to go with them and see if I could keep up. Unfortunately this pack was all drafting off of Steph. I was watching the action unfold in front of me while trying to stay at the back of the pack and in a safe legal position. Several of my USA teammates and Taggart from Australia were drafting like there was no tomorrow. I couldn't believe it.....CHEATERS!!! I stayed in back for the most part but then at the start of the second loop tried to get around everyone and be in the front. That didn't last long and was at the back again. I was terrified of getting a yellow card (ITU penalty) and eventually the group disappeared. Kudos to Steph for staying in front and out of the draft-fest.

Off the bike and onto the run. The run was tough but amazing. Once again, these random voices yelling go USA and Go Ford!!! I can't even describe the feeling. My legs felt flat and I just had a hard time getting going. But I relaxed my shoulders and just did what I could to get through it. The best part of the day was hearing my family cheering for me, and Helen and Eric, and Steve, Michele and Sarah. Loved it!!

And then it was over. 2 hours and 20 minutes later, I finished 19th in my age group (my goal was top 20!!). I ran my way in on the blue carpet and was finished. It was awesome. I seriously get goose-bumps and tears in my eyes thinking about it.

A huge thank you for all the support from home......it means so much to me to have that kind of support. Hugs and kisses to all!!

So, I must be off.....ROAD TRIP up the coast. I have no idea where we will end up!!!

And, a huge congrats to my Practical Coaching teamies: Bethie was the rock star of the day with an 11th place finish in her age group!! Sonja had a fabulous day with a 31st place finis! Lori D rocked her age group at 9th! Anthony also had a great day!!

Race Info

2009-09-11T03:48:00.003-06:00

G'day from Australia!! Good news for those of you wanting to watch the race from North America.... www.triathlon.org will be showing live coverage of the race tomorrow. So, for those of you in Denver, the race begins at 3:00pm Friday afternoon. I start at 3:29 so start looking for me to finish (and all the other USA athletes) around 5:40ish??!!

Now it's time for sleep zzzzzzzzz!

Gday part 2

2009-09-10T18:18:00.002-06:00

Quick update from the Gold Coast!! Phew, it has been a whirlwind of a couple of days and here we are, less than 24 hours from race time! I am excited and only a wee-bit nervous. Last night we had the opening ceremonies with all the athletes from each country lining up and walking into the event lawn surrounded by friends and family. It was pretty surreal and so great to see all the different countries. Australia, as host nation, has almost 1000 athletes here. YIKES!!! Somoa has 1! Anyway, I am ready to race. I am ready to go. I really think this will be FUN....a flat and fast course. No wetsuits but a relatively cold temp of around 71 in the water. I'm pretty sure this will not be an uphill swim like Alabama.

Now I'm off for a quick massage and then brunch with Team USA. Bike check-in this afternoon, dinner with the family (they are at Sea World today), and a sleep-over with PIC Sonja at her hotel. My start time is 7:29am. I'll try to get another quickie post in sometime after the race.

Oh, and one thing I have forgotten to mention is that I LOVE Australia!! The people are wonderful and nice and I am really looking forward to exploring up the coast next week!

G'Day!

2009-09-08T17:43:00.002-06:00

G'day from Australia!! My mom and I found a $2 high speed internet cafe on our way to the grocery store so we splurged and I get to post a quick update!

We made it here without too much trouble although the Sydney Airport has an extra carseat in its baggage somewhere. The kiddos held up better than I could have hoped on the LONG flight over and we finally made it to the Gold Coast some 20+ hours after leaving Denver. We never experienced Sunday. Jet lag was at its finest on Monday night though and we managed to stay awake until 8.....morning has come early for me at around 4:45!!! At least I am not too used to sleeping in.

Sonja and I rode our bikes on Monday afternoon and the most important thing to remember here in Australia.....when in doubt STAY LEFT!!! It has been interestng to get used to being buzzed by cars on the right side. It is now Wednesday and we haven't gotten ourselves killed yet so that in my opinion is success.

This place is teeming with triathletes! Teams of very fit-looking people are riding there bikes, running along the ocean and this morning at the pool, swimming....we are trying to not gawk at all the fast looking people but it is truly impressive.

Yesterday we had a bit of fun....the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary with the family and Sonja's family. Iz, Char, and I got to cuddle a koala!! It was unbelieveable. At that point I thought I wanted another baby and quickly realized that no, what I really want is a KOALA baby!! SOooo cute! Great pictures will be posted in a couple of weeks. After the koalas, we visited the kangaroos and fed them. Saw many mamas with their joeys in pouches and I was even accosted by a "friendly" teenage boy 'roo who thought I had more food for him. Priceless.

Today we will have more quality beach time and then I go into athlete-mode tomorrow. Team USA run in the morning, a tour of the bike course, Team USA picture and then the opening ceremonies where we will march in our uniform in the athlete parade!!

That's it for now. Will post again next time I grocery shop:)

Countdown

2009-08-31T13:42:00.004-06:00

It's finally time. For almost a year I have had this trip planned. A year. Mind you, I actually only started to plan the vacation part after I got home from Tuscaloosa. Details. But nonetheless, Saturday my family and I leave for Australia. Or Austraia as Charlotte says. I will race in the ITU Triathlon World Championships on September 12. Toe the line with the best of the best. How fun is this going to be? There are so many people to thank that have helped me get here: financially, physically and mentally. You know who you are and THANK YOU!! This is going to be an amazing experience and I am ready to take it all in:) I will send updates from Aussie-land and will have access to Twitter and email and Facebook. But Twitter updates are the easiest so once again......follow me @michelleford6p!

But this week is nutty....training, packing. The process of getting ready to leave for 2 weeks. And I seem to have caught myself a little cold too. So now I have to get healthy to go sit on a plane with recirculated air for 14 hours. The kiddos have DVD players, iPods, Nintendos .....pretty much every conceivable electronics device to make my trip that much more enjoyable. I mean their trip.

In other news, Michael completed his first Olympic distance triathlon yesterday in Windsor! The weather was ccccooooold. For us spectators. But he did great and really enjoyed his race, I am so proud of him! Way to go!

Charlotte and Iz at the swim start. Probably should have been decked out in fleece and wool hats.

Look how grey it was!

Michael coming in off the bike

Finishing up.....he looked a bit too happy!

No question who the star is here!

2009 USAT Age Group Nationals

2009-08-24T14:58:00.013-06:00

Note: This is LONG!

Let me go on record, I love Tuscaloosa. I know, I know, before heading to Alabama for the first time in my life, I could say I wasn't enthusiastic. At all. Hot and humid was pretty much all I could think about. How could USAT hold a race in such horrid conditions. (OK, well horrid conditions for moi) What does Tuscaloosa have to offer??? So I planned my trip with as little time in 'Bama as I could get away with. In to town late Thursday night (although that was due to United and miles), race Saturday, and out early Sunday morning.

Too bad for me. Tuscaloosa is a pretty cool place. The folks in Alabama are incredibly friendly and nice, everyone knew about the triathletes that were invading their beautiful city and we were welcomed with open arms. And the race venue? It was beautiful! Mind you, the water in the river was a tad bit warm, and as a local said...dingy. But it was tree-lined, hilly, good road conditions, and there was some shade on the run. And it was right next to the University of Alabama!

Anywho, I arrived Thursday night and PIC Sonja was waiting for me and we drove the hour to Tuscaloosa. It was late but as always we entertained ourselves with music and fun chatter. Tyler and Beth were our roomies for the weekend and they were waiting up for us. It was late and I'm sure we could have stayed up much longer but we needed to calm down, quit laughing and get some sleep. We are, after all, very serious athletes.

Like I said, serious athletes. Very. Serious.

I missed the "C"

Friday morning we got up and went for a nice warm-up jog on the campus. School is in so we were weaving in and out of students but had a ball checking out the campus. It was definitely humid so we were all soaked after just a few minutes. Oh well. No whining. Everyone is going to have to race in the same conditions. Breakfast at IHop and then off to a meeting with TriBoomer and Athletes4aCure. We volunteered (rather, Son and I volunteered and hooked Beth and Tyler to join us) to do a live twitter cast of the elite race after our race on Saturday. We were planning on watching the race anyway (friend Amy D was racing her first ITU race as a pro!!!) and knew that this would be a fun way for us to give back to the triathlon community and this cause.

Beth, me, Brian aka TriBoomer, Tyler, Son

Then it was time for packet pick-up, bike pick-up, racking our bikes in transition, and checking out the race course.

Tyler was driving so we thought we should wear our helmets....

Paul Mitchell was raising money for its foundation so Priscilla, Son, Beth and I had red extensions put in our hair!

Having fun in the back seat!

Swim finish with the dingy water

Going into this race I felt pretty calm. I had a recovery week and by Wednesday I felt like I needed a workout. I was already packed. Thursday I was jittery....think me on 18 cups of coffee (and I only had 1 cup!). Zowie I needed to get on the plane and get to the business of racing. But I wasn't nervous. I knew the conditions could be tough but there was not alot I could do about it and I had no idea how it would effect me. So I just went with the flow. Maybe I was too focused on what I would wear during the race (the race was not wetsuit legal and my current tri shorts are too big to swim in). But maybe that was good because it didn't give me any time to focus on the race and the possibilities.

The course looked tough! Decent sized hills on the 2-loop bike course and a couple really big hills on the run. Not flat at all except for the run finish. But that is good....

I slept great and woke up right before the alarm.....RACE MORNING! The four of us went about our business of getting ready and we were off to transition. I was able to drink a mix1 (my all time favorite pre-race meal/drink) and ate half an almond butter sammie. Other than that I felt good. I was still worried about what my sciatica might do on the run and, of course, that pesky stomach muscle pull that only shows up when I'm redlining. And I was about to redline for 2+ hours.

The crazy atmosphere in transition

Steve, Tyler, Anthony, Sonja and I went for a little warm-up jog next to the river. We stopped and looked at some of the swimmers already in the water and realized that there was a current in the river. Which was strange because the guy who told us the water was dingy also said that there was no current because they control the flow of the water from the dam.....but there was absolutely a current. And it was strong. We watched some swimmers go nowhere in the water and may have actually gone backwards. Uh oh. When we returned to the start area, the first swimmer was just getting out of the water. In 30 minutes. We heard he normally swam 22 minutes. Huh. There clearly were people in the water that were struggling. And, the long part of the swim course was directly into the current. This will be interesting.....Coach Steve-O had a couple of last minute instructions for me based on the current and a last minute goal (which I just kind of chuckled at) and I was in the water trying to warm-up in less than 6 minutes before my wave start. Not likely.

SWIM

I lined up in my usual position for the swim and we were off!!! I was totally calm and relaxed at the start and just started swimming but not pushing because I knew the big push of the swim wasn't at the start. I let a couple of girls go.......that was kinda hard but I knew there was some work coming up. First buoy everything was going well, my stroke felt great and my breathing was under control. Second buoy was where we saw the stationary swimmers and I positioned myself right where I thought I needed to be for the current. I was swimming straight for the buoy and I thought....this isn't so bad.....and then I took another 6 strokes and sighted again. And I was completely off course!!! Unbelievable. And there was a kayak there trying to point me and another girl back on course. Some corrections in my line and I made it around the buoy but I was pretty surprised at how off course I was in such a short amount of time. Now the hard part. I picked up my effort at this point but I can tell you that the middle red buoy did not seem to get any closer. And I couldn't even see the yellow turn buoy. And that damned red buoy just didn't get any closer. I made a conscious effort to increase my stroke cadence and tried to stay relaxed. But I just didn't feel like I was making any headway. Phew. Finally made it to the red buoy and saw the yellow buoy on the horizon. Are you f****g kidding me???? OMG. My swimming stud friend Cory was in the wave 3 minutes behind me and about this point I saw him cruising along right next to me.....YEAH FEET!!! I did my best to stay in his bubbles but it was probably only for about a minute. I finally made the yellow buoy and now just had to get to shore. I felt like I had been in the water forever. I got out and looked at my watch.....are you kidding me??? I can normally swim a race in 21 - 23 minutes. Today's time??? 29:33. I just kind of laughed and noticed that a girl had been on my feet for at least half the swim. BEOTCH! She beat me into transition.

(Note: because of flooding earlier in the week due to hurricane ???, the dam was opened which caused the current)

Not much to report here except I could tell I had expended a bit more effort than usual in the swim. I got my speedsuit off (thank you Syd!!!) and got the heck outta there.

T1 1:47

Bike

Finally on the bike I knew I was supposed to take the first lap of the 2 lap course "easy". Whatever. The girl on my feet in the swim passed me right away as I was getting my feet in my shoes and it was all I could do not to go after her. Relax and do your own race I kept reminding myself. My heart rate was all jacked up due to the hard swim and I hit a hill before I even had a chance to relax and get it under control. I think the first part of the ride was uphill. I finally relaxed and felt in control at the first dog leg. I saw a bit of drafting and kept out of it. And I felt great every time I passed a rider with a disc wheel. Haha!!! And I really started to feel OK. And I passed the girl on my feet on the second lap. My legs ached but it was all manageable. I felt like I was pushing but in control. I did however feel my silly stomach pull-thingy. For some reason, when I'm redlining in TT position it locks up and becomes almost painful. But I tried to relax and breathe through it. I knew it would be a problem so now I was in manage mode. I stood up out of the saddle each hill and it was all good. I only got passed by a couple of people and I had expected to be passed by many more during the ride. But it never happened. It was kind of surreal! And then it was time for T2....the bike seemed to go by fast!!

Bike 1:06:48 (ave. 22.3mph)

Damn stomach thing really roared to life as I hit transition. But I racked my bike, put on my shoes, grabbed my number and hat and moved on out.

T2 1:12

Run

My main goal for the run was to be consistent and not have a total meltdown like I had at Boulder Peak (not that I may or may not have had control of that). Start out strong but conservative. I had 3 good hills to get through before the flat section to the finish. I grabbed water at the aid station and put ice down my sports bra. So far, so good. But I was in manage mode....the stomach thingy was there in the background. Grrrrrrr. Up the big hill and to the turnaround. And then I saw the strangest thing. I saw PIC. And my race brain couldn't figure out what had happened. I started behind PIC. Why was she behind me now? CRAP, I thought. Was it a 3 lap bike course???? WTF? And it dawned on me that I had passed her on the swim. And then it slowly occured to me that for the first time EVER in my triathlon career that the swim was going to have a major impact on results. I was pretty sure I was top 5. OMG now I just need to hang on and I'm going to have a pretty good result. Steve-O passed me on the third hill and pointed behind him for me to follow.....I tried. But I was breathing pretty hard so I hung with him for a minute and he went on his merry way and told me to relax my breathing. And then a minute later Son was there. I knew it was her, I know her breathing, I have trained with her day in and day out for the last 7 months. Go Sonja...I said to her.....and she told me to stay with her on the downhill.....Oh I wanted to but I was on the edge of blowing up. I relaxed my shoulders and tried to ride the downhill. And away she went. But I was determined. I was on the flat stretch and I figured I only had about 20 minutes left. Can I hold this pace for 20? Sure I can. And my breathing completely relaxed and I felt great. I picked it up a little. And then I saw Tyler's finish line. And I knew I only had a quarter mile to go. This is it. Make it good and don't let anyone else catch you. I finished strong with a bit of kick. Yee Haw!

Run: 44:30 (personal best)

Overall time: 2:23:48

5th place age group

39th female (not bad for an old lady)

Qualified for 2010 Team USA in Budapest, Hungary

I looked down at my watch and saw my time as I was gasping for air. Really?? Even with the slow swim time? Even before looking at my watch I felt good about the race. But I was surprised at the time, I didn't think I had broken 2:30. I left it out there, managed my discomforts and finished strong.

And the best part? Not only did I have a good race, but so did my Practical Coaching teamies. Steve, Sonja, Beth, Lori and I qualified for Worlds next year. Tyler, Anthony and Barry had fabulous races. What a cool day. I love racing with my teamies around, supporting them and vice versa. And just knowing that they are all out on the course.....it is an awesome feeling. I am so lucky to know and train with these wonderful peeps.

Team 1 (me and Beth) at our lookout point for the Elite race

Volunteering for the twittercast was an absolute blast. Sure we were tired. Sure we didn't get the recovery we needed. So we needed to sit down. What overcame all that was the fact that we were out there supporting a great cause and having a great time doing it. I look forward to helping TriBoomer and Athletes4aCure again in the future!!

Me, Sonja, Beth

5th place podium finish (I got a bottle of fish oil!!)

Celebration dinner

Beth, Jacob, me. Jacob won the fastest combined transition time competition. 1:37 for both transitions!

Much about nothing

2009-08-19T17:20:00.005-06:00

I am sitting here with just over 12 hours until my plane departs DIA for the hotbed (literally) of Tuscaloosa, Alabama (well, landing in Birmingham and driving to Tuscasloosa). Home of the University of Alabama and race site for the USAT Age Group Nationals. With all of my training buddies in tow it is bound to be a fabulous weekend!!

For those of you on Twitter (follow me @michelleford6p), a couple of us have signed up to help @triboomer and @athletes4acure cover the live pro race after the age group race on Saturday....a Twitter Cast! Sonja and I will be taking pictures and video and posting current leaders on the bike and run. This will be a blast! Last year we did the same thing but in an unofficial/stalker-ish way. Pictures should be better quality this year with my new phone!

Start of the men's pro race

It was cold in Portland last year. I expect fewer clothing items in Tuscaloosa.

So, I leave tonight and 2 hours later Michael and Charlotte return from their quick trip to California to visit G-ma Nelly. I miss them and won't see them till Sunday....

My little bat-girl

A couple of Charlotte-isms in the last week that make me giggle:

Char (I'm on the trainer): You're riding your bike?

Me: Yes

Char (looking around): Well, where are you going?

Then....

Char (alone in the family room playing a game): Who tooted?

Me, Michael and Iz look at each other: Huh?

Char: Oh, it was me!!!! hehehehehe

So there you have, my random ramblings for this Thursday morning. I need a workout.

Weekly Update

2009-08-14T17:09:00.005-06:00

Monday: Speed, speed, speed, speed, speed

Tuesday: Speed, speed, speed, speed, speed

Wednesday: Speed, speed, speed, speed, speed

Thursday: Thankfully a day OFF!! (but only this week)

Friday: Speed, speed, speed, speed, speed

Saturday: Speed, speed, speed, speed, speed

Sunday: Speed, speed, speed, speed, speed

Rinse and Repeat.

There's a reason I haven't posted any weekly updates of late. A couple of reasons really. But mainly it is because all I have been doing for the last 2 weeks has been speedwork.

At first I admit, it was kind of fun. I have been waiting all season for some quality speed (not drugs peeps, my abundant use of coffee is legal). All the long swimbikeruns. Hours and hours of distance work. So many hours that I had to remind coach Steve that I am not doing an Ironman at the end of August with the 17 Hour Training Day crew. Well, at least not this year.

So bring the speed work on!! I looked at my schedule and saw nothing but short, intense workouts. What to do with only a 2 to 3 hour session?? All the time left in the day....oh, my productivity will go way up during the day. Loads of laundry, tons of research, looking for new clients, lots of cooking etc. This is gonna be great. And it did, it started out great. I had a couple of fantastic sessions on the bike and run that I felt very good about. And then Steve-O reminded me that you'll probably feel a bit flat for the next week or so......and I did. After the first couple of speed sessions I was flat out exhausted. Drained. Not a lick of energy. All I wanted to do was lay on the couch. And eat. But then I'd have to drag my butt off the couch to get to the kitchen. How badly did I need to eat? For the first time in months, I woke up in the middle of the night. Starving. Had to feed the beast to get back to sleep. 0 to hungry in 3.9 seconds. Oh, and how fun am I? I have yet to be able to watch an entire movie all the way through. Tonight I promised my hubby....we can watch half of Frost/Nixon tonight and the rest tomorrow! But I'm not sure I'll even make it half way right now!!! Good times.

A few of us have also been trying to train for the heat and humidity of Tuscaloosa for Nationals next weekend. This consists of putting on clothes for your run/ride when it's 90 degrees. The first time, I put on a long sleeved shirt for my 1pm run without any shade. I was dehydrated in approximately 30 seconds. The first 2 miles went OK. The last 4? Hot. Thirsty. Need a nap. The next run with a long sleeved shirt I brought the water bottle. At least my brain isn't fried. Yet. PIC and I saw someone heat training at the gravel pond earlier this week. He had on a hat, long sleeved shirt, and sweat pants. I guess I'm just not that serious!

And so it's progressed over the last week and a half. Speed, speed, speed, speed. Another session today that went fairly well. A couple of mini-sessions coming up this week. And then the true test coming up this weekend. Nationals is here, I can hardly believe it's August. And that means Worlds is right around the corner......

"Performance" video

2009-08-13T12:51:00.002-06:00

I just saw this video on Everyman Tri and had to post it....it made me giggle!!! The first rap/cycling video EVAH....

Performance that's the name of the game

If this silly tune gets stuck in my head I am DOOMED.

What A Weekend

2009-08-10T09:59:00.007-06:00

The family did its best to wear ourselves out this weekend! We started Friday night by heading to Boulder Creek to play and picnic with PIC's family and new friends H&B. I don't think I have been tubing in the Creek, well, since college. And though we were a bit tentative at first, it was a blast!! Charlotte sat on my lap and giggled the whole way down even after getting dumped. Isabelle was a wee bit frightened after she went under and decided not to go for round 2. I tried to lose my favorite crocs (x2) but they were rescued. I even got a bit of rock rash on my bum! We all ate, talked, and watched the kids play and the sun set. It was a beautiful evening!

Charlotte is always game for more fun. I may or may not have been dumped off my tube....but there is no photographic evidence!

Michael crossing the creek

My sister's wedding reception was Saturday night (yep, the wedding was in June in Hawaii with just the family). I had so much fun seeing old family friends and catching up with high school friends too. It is so cool to see time pass with these people, I've known them for practically my entire life and they are always around for the milestones. My girls behaved beautifully even though there were no other kids around and we loved meeting Nicole and John's friends.

All dressed up and yes, I am wrestling Iz

Friends and family

Newlyweds Nicole and John

Ummm, table 7 was clearly the place to be

My parents

Isabelle and Mary having a deep conversation

Charlotte and her new favorite "toy" - a Blackberry

As we drove home, we saw a fireworks display and stopped at the side of the road to watch. Nice evening topper!

On Sunday, Michael left the house early to ride Highgrade and the girls and I made breakfast and watched a movie. Very relaxing. OK, it was too relaxing. I needed to get my workout done but needed a bit of help getting out the door. Michael packed up the kids and I packed up my bike and we headed back to Chatfield. I got my ride done and the family played at the "beach" for awhile. A stop at Dairy Queen on the way home and a bbq on the deck wrapped up our fabulous weekend.

No wonder we all went to bed at 8. Phew!!

State Games of America

2009-08-02T08:53:00.003-06:00

On Saturday I drove myself down to Colorado Springs to participate in a little sprint triathlon at the State Games of America. The entire event is pretty cool, something like forty different sports for kids of all ages to compete in. The triathlon fit perfectly into my schedule and after the near "disaster" at Boulder Peak (I know, I know, it wasn't really a disaster, more like a disappointment) I was just wanting to have a positive experience before heading into my "A" races later this month and September.

I woke up in a good mood and had just a bit of tummy butterflies. I could still eat though (Mix1 is the BEST!!!) and had a small cup of coffee on the drive. I was having a good time listening to cool music and watching the sun come up. Even though transition opened at 5:30 I purposely decided to be anti-Type A and I showed up around 6am. I still got a fantastic transition spot! This race was so low key that there were only 6-8 bikes per rack. It made for a long transition area but I was comfy and could have even had a tent popped up in the space I had.

A. Newt ready to go....look at the room she had on the rack!

After setting up, I took a nice long jog around the lake. Surprisingly, after a 100 mile bike on Wednesday followed by a 6 mile run and then a 12 mile run on Thursday, my legs felt nice jogging. I picked up the pace a couple of times and knew I would have a good run. My potty visits were right on time and I was getting excited. The water temp was supposedly 74 degrees and I even flirted with the possibility of going without a wetsuit but Saturday morning the air temp was only mid-50s and I was a bit chilled. So then the question was sleeves or sleeveless. Having 2 wetsuits now is making my life difficult. I made the call - sleeves - because I remembered that last week's sleeveless pond swim really ticked me off because the wetsuit would not behave (kept coming undone in the back, wetsuit hickies, pull string wrapping around my arm etc.).

The other great thing about this race was that there were tons of newbies toeing the start line. I LOVE watching these people because it always reminds me of where I started.......Danskin in 2003 - and it brings back great memories. And because I had people help me out all those years ago with my endless questions, I always try to help everyone I possibly can that are new to the sport. A couple of women had no idea where to put their race numbers and weren't afraid to ask me so I spent a few minutes with them before heading to the beach. Really, the newbies are the coolest.

Time for the swim start!!! As I have talked about before, I hate swimming with the boys. EWWWWWWW! They are aggressive and full of testosterone and ready to hit/kick/swim over anyone in their way. And my wave had boys. I'm pretty sure it was the old fart wave (40+) and the boys were foaming at the mouth ready to go. Normally, I head to the front of the line and swim to the front of the pack. But with these boys???? Nope. I lined up right behind super swimmer Cory with hopes that I could ride his draft through the first couple of minutes of craziness. No such luck. Feet and arms everywhere. Yucky boys!!!! Finally I made it to clear water without too much damage and just tried to get in my groove.

Swim: 12:06

Transition went smoothly but last minute decided to not wear sunglasses. My favorite pair of Optic Nerve sunglasses broke last week and I love love love racing in them. My other pair is too dark and it was still kind of cloudy so I opted out of the glasses. (yes, that was another shameless product plug) Although I raced last week's crit sans glasses without a problem, that may not have been my best choice...

I started out on the ride knowing that there was a downhill and then a decent sized uphill. I hadn't previewed the course but got a glimpse of the hill on a drive-by. And the course was 4 loops so I figured it must be a downhill, uphill, downhill and an uphill. Times 4. Huh. The first downhill was fun except for the fact that I couldn't see!!! The lack of glasses and the cold wind and the downhill speed made my eyes water and my nose run. Hoping there are no pictures because clearly, that would not be pretty. Then the start of the first uphill and I swear it felt like I had a flat because I had slowed down so much. Nope. No flat. Just a big hill with a headwind. Lovely. Up and out of the saddle to the top, a corner, and a fast downhill. The next uphill wasn't as steep but I still got out of the saddle to climb. At this point my quads screamed at me a bit, they were feeling the effects of the last week (ummm, last 6 months). Oh well. It was what I had. And so I just counted the hills to get my 4 laps in. Before I knew it I was headed back to transition and my feet were numb.

Bike: 40:45

Racked bike, and almost fell over trying to put my flats on numb feet. Left transition and noticed a women ahead of me seemingly running at a good clip. Perfect! I had a bogie!! I reminded myself to just get in my groove and slowly reel her in. Whatever. I passed her in the first half mile. OK, here we go! But I could tell by her breathing that she would not fight me on the pass. My breathing was under control and hers was labored. About this time a 22 year old boy toy passed me and I thought he was cruising. But he never got that far ahead of me, I was pacing with him! I saw Cory on the dog leg of the run (well, he saw me I was a bit focused) and then I was at the turnaround. I still felt great. My hammies were a bit tight but I didn't have any of the cement-like feeling I had at the Peak. I could also feel that stomach cramp just a bit but I'm not sure if it was a breathing cramp or related to my stomach muscle pull (blah blah blah). But I managed it and just kept going, tried to pick it up slightly, and tried to reel in boy toy. And then I was done. Sprints tris go by so quickly!!

Run: 21:11 (PR!!!)

I felt great even though I had no idea what my times were. I was pretty sure I had won my age group because no one passed me. And that was wonderful and everything but I didn't care. I knew in my heart I had put together a strong, solid run and that was my goal for the day. I knew my bike was OK, and I was OK with that. I talked with Cory for awhile and then we went to check out our results. 2nd place overall. And all my splits were right in line. Nice!!! But the best part was that I knew before even seeing splits that I had had a good day. The results just confirmed it. What if the results were poor??? I think I would still have been pleased with my run.....I like to think that the results are a by-product of a good day:)

So, here's the fun part. Everyone knows that triathletes are a bit of a crazy bunch. And we all seem to have our own quirks. That being said, I let a few of mine go today:

I did not race with my trademark ponytails (GASP!!!!). And I liked it.

I did not time my race. OK, this was a fluke, I was wearing my watch but apparently did not start it. But it was great. I had no idea what my splits were. And, in fact, didn't care.

I didn't wear sunglasses on the bike or the run.

I showed up casually to transition.

I did a light swim warm-up and a heavier run warm-up.

What does this all mean??? Well, nothing really except that it is always good to try new things and to not get caught up in your own hype/history. Allow yourself to let some things go or maybe try something new. But always with the purpose of not forgetting why we are out there on race day. To push ourselves, to expand our horizons and most importantly, to have fun.

I had fun Saturday!

Strong Survive

2009-07-29T17:45:00.001-06:00

If you watched the tour, you probably saw this commercial. Unless, of course, you are like me and only saw it when I didn't DVR the days events.

When the game is on, all bets are off.

Great video.

The Call

2009-07-27T20:17:00.006-06:00

It's been awhile since I've had a call. You know the one. It's not really a question, more like a statement. Coach Steve: There's a crit on Sunday I'd like you to consider. And then the topper. And Sonja and Beth are doing it too. Because we all know, if Son and Bethie are in, so am I. Really, no questions asked. If they were going to jump off a bridge, I would just say OK. Because it would probably be a kick-ass good time. And who am I to question races or bridges?

So that's how it started. I got the call Friday, the crit was Sunday morning. Which left me not much time to stew over this one. And, of course, this after a conversation with Holle about how doing a crit this close to my key races was kinda out of the question. Oh how things can change. A crit you ask? Criterium. It's a type of bike race but not at all like the Hugo race we did back in May. That was an 80 mile road race. This was a figure-8 type course several city blocks long with 8 turns on each loop. All out racing for 40 minutes. Very aggressive, very in-your-face. Crashes are apparently relatively common for the "novice" women. Yeah.

PIC Son and I rode down to the race from GV, a nice 14 mile easy spin. I've been missing my PIC, she's spent the last month in California with her family so we finally got a chance to just chat. She was pretty nervous because she's seen a crit before and knew what kind of mess we were getting into. I wasn't nervous. Yet. I was blissfully unaware at that moment. That changed as soon as we rode up and I saw the course. We were there early enough to get the low-down from Steve on how to ride the course and most importantly, how to negotiate the turns. He was also throwing down all sorts of f-bombs about the competition and how there are no nice bike racers and things like that. If any of us crashes don't think about it just keep moving. Hmmphf. Clearly, I needed to put my skirt away and grow a set quickly before the start. Only problem was, I only wanted to take a nap. Sometimes this happens before a race - getting a serious case of the yawns. But this was pure tired-ness. I knew it Friday night and after Saturday's workout I was just plain tired. I rolled my legs Saturday, put my feet up, took a nap. Did what I could to start feeling fresher but I woke up Sunday and just wanted to go back to bed.

We lined for the start and I'm really not sure how many of us. Seemed like lots but if you look at the picture there weren't that many. As Cat 4 racers we had the first start time of the day: 7:00am. The gun went off (was it a gun? not sure) and it was game on from the get go. I had to get my foot in my pedal as soon as possible and immediately hit it. There was no gentle roll-up. No gradual acceleration. It was balls out from the start.

Lined up at the start, the PC girls are at the left of the picture

C'mon legs, let's go!!! That was me talking to my legs. But not out loud because once again, we were not allowed to speak to the competition. Ohhhhh, the legs were not happy. Downright pissed if you ask me. But I pushed them. After the second turn I somehow was behind and towards the back of the pack. WTF? Already? So for the next 2-3 laps I worked hard to catch up with my girls. I finally got back on with them and round and round we went. It was really interesting watching the lines of the turns the other girls were making. They were completely different from what Son, Beth and I were taking. For a left hand turn, we would be at the far right of the street and everyone else was in the middle, using the turn lane. I would have to hit my brakes every other turn or so as someone would unexpectedly (or not) veer into my line and I needed to avoid them. I didn't look behind me because whatever was happening there was of no concern to me.

About halfway through the race the unthinkable happened. A PC girl went down in front of me on a left hand turn. White bike, black pony tail, it was Son. Even though we were supposed to ride on and pretty much ignore what happened that was impossible. To see your teammate and PIC skidding on the ground in front of you.....it took a very conscious effort to not stop and check on her. I had to hit my brakes though so I didn't run over her and then Beth and I were flagging Steve that she was down. After I did this I looked up and crap.....there was a huge gap now between the lead group of girls and me. FUCK. I knew I didn't have the legs to get myself back in and I was worried about Son. But I put my head down and kept pedaling. I saw some girls ahead of me and vowed to close that gap but the front group was gone. On the next pass where Son went down, she wasn't there. And Troy was in the exact place as the last time I saw him. That was good, she clearly wasn't hurt badly. And I kept pedaling. My legs still were begging for a break but there was still time left.

After a couple more laps I heard Steve and Holle yell about letting the girl behind me take a pull. Excuse me? There's someone behind me? Are we kidding? I took a quick peak and sure enough, a girl has been riding my wheel for I don't know how long. And I got pissed. I stopped pedaling and she went around me and I took a breather on her wheel for a moment. But she wasn't really in to the whole sharing equal pulls. In fact, she would pull for 2 turns and I would take the remaining 6. Really did not care for this chick at all. We caught some of the girls I had my eye on and then looked up and saw we only had a couple of laps left. I knew exactly what was going to happen - she was going to ride my wheel through the last turn and shoot ahead of me down the straight-away and beat me to the line. She even said something like nice pulls at the start of the last lap. But not today. I was not going to let her do that after pulling her ass around the majority of the race. The last turn she shot ahead and I did everything that I possibly could to stay on her wheel. I caught her and passed and as you can see:

HA! I got her at the line!

And then it was over. 40+ minutes later, 16+ miles, and averaging something like 21+ mph. It was really intense. And I was pissed. Finally, my aggression got the best of me and I wanted more. It's too bad it didn't show up earlier in the race!! I ended up 13th, Beth was 10th, and Sonja 7th. She's fine except for a lovely case of road rash on her hip. Lessons learned? Of course. But I'll keep those to myself for the time being. Will I do it again? What do you think? OF COURSE!!! But probably not until after the big races:)

Later, Michael and I took the girls back to the course to watch some other races. I want to learn more so that the next time I can put myself in a better position in the race. I watched the more experienced racers take the turns, I watched the tactics. It was fascinating.

Charlotte, Isabelle and Annie. Yep, they look like angels. We know better.

Wednesday

2009-07-14T11:33:00.005-06:00

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday!! The last month Wednesday's I have been riding my bike. Going long. Riding LOTS. Steve told me, I have your ass on Wednesday's for the foreseeable future. Oh boy.

The first Wednesday was 156 miles. That's right 156. I was with Steve and PIC Sonja. And I knew I had a chance to keep up because they were much more tired than I was plus I was jonesing for a good workout since I had just returned from my mini-vacation. And, I really didn't want to get dropped in the middle of nowhere.....Has anyone actually been to Wiggins, Colorado? Does anyone want to go to Wiggins, Colorado? I'd post pictures but they would all look suspiciuosly the same: flat road, corn fields, cows, blue sky etc. We rode it in a paceline. Yep, three-man/woman paceline. For 8 hours. And you know what? It was "fun". I'll put that one in quotation marks because I realize that my definition of fun seems to be a bit skewed when compared to some other people I know. Before that day, that farthest I had ridden was somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 miles, in the mountains. But that didn't concern me at all. Somewhere around the 50 mile mark Steve and Sonja both yelled at me to quit my aggressive pulling. Oops, sorry folks, feeling good and forgetting we are not EVEN half way yet. Of course, I would pay for that later. But what's a long ride without a good lesson?? At 80ish miles, we pulled into Wiggins. And stopped in the local grocery store where the lady at the register was somehow convinced that I was trying to steal (right in front of her) the melted Almond Snickers bar that I had in my back pocket since Boulder and was stuffing in my mouth. She even followed me to the bathroom. Apparently I looked like a criminal in my bike shoes, helmet, and lycra. At mile 100, my stomach went south. It was hot and I was starting to dehydrate and I wasn't eating enough even though every 15 minutes Sonja would yell EAT! As I was trying desperately to shove a bit of food in my mouth Son went off the front and decided she felt good. Dropped my ass pretty quickly. She got yelled at too! And so it went, for 156 miles. Stopping for Gatorade whenever we could. Paceline the entire way. And then the clouds came in and cooled things off a bit and we were 135 miles in. And feeling pretty good! 9 hours later, we rolled back to the car. What a day, what a ride, what an accomplishment! (Sonja actually took pictures of the day, here is her version!!)

The next Wednesday was a "short" jaunt to Deer Trail...86 miles. Gotta love these rides east. Pretty flat. Kind of fast. This week's crew was Steve, Beth, Holle, Kim, and Sarah. It's always interesting when you get in a paceline with folks you are not quite used to. I don't quite read other riders cues as well as I can read Steve/Sonja/Beth. But we eventually got in a good groove and had some fun with our pulls. Speaking of Beth, she flatted 15 miles in. And then again at the huge bridge seam at the edge of Deer Trail and her day was done. We made sure she had a ride home and we took off again. Kim decided to push hard early on. Holle and I were game but Sarah wasn't quite up to it. We regathered and then noticed it was f***g HOT. And we all had almost no fluids left. Steve-O spotted some old fire station and a water spout and we all gratefully filled up our bottles with yucky silty/sulfury water. We all made it back to the car and did what any sound-minded triathlete would do after 86 miles. Put on our running shoes and went and found a trail to run for 20 minutes. Can anyone say Jamba Juice?

And the next Wednesday you ask? Well that's the one where Steve-O decided the best way for me to get used to my new bike was to HAMMER me on a Chatfield loop. I was panting the entire way and I must say that I did figure out the gearing and shifting pretty quickly. I had no time for anything else. Once again, it was hot (it is JULY!!) so we after we were done riding it was time to put on the shoes and sprint!!! It was a "short" workout. But intense. And I couldn't wait for it to be done.

Last Wednesday??? Back to Deer Trail. But no company this time. Which is a good/bad thing. Good because I just have to concentrate on following Steve-O in the paceline. Bad because all I have to do is keep up with Steve-O in a paceline. This time on the way back we hit the evil big bridge seam from hell and both flatted. Flats fixed and away we went. Steve-O did the majority of pulling which I was fine with because even following him I was still working hard. Every time I went off the front and tried to keep up the 22+ mph he was holding I thought I might die. I almost hoped for another flat because we were out of tubes and cartridges and I knew my day would then be done. But no such luck. We finished in fine form and of course, put on the running shoes and ran for 25 minutes.

And, of course, there are plans for this coming Wednesday. After today's "comfortable" ride up Shadow Mountain. Thankfully, Bethie will be along for the fun. Plus, a paceline is much more fun with more than 2 people.

Newton

2009-07-13T11:01:00.004-06:00

I have been trying to narrow down the list of GREAT name suggestions for the new ride. Here are a couple that made the final cut:

Apple

Jolissa (That's Not My Name!)

Camila

F2 (f-ing fast)

Black Beauty

But this weekend seemed to have a significant theme. It started on Friday. I had a conversation with Foster about Newton running shoes. And then there were the Newtons at the Rez. I know, these are shoes and really nothing to do with a bike. But still??!! But then, as I was talking to my bike about her name during the race Sunday (doesn't everyone talk to their bike during a race???), I looked up and saw a mailbox. And guess what the name on the mailbox was? Newton. I started to giggle and figured that was a sign and so it looks like the name is Apple Newt. Or Apple Newton. Or maybe just plain Newt. Newton.

Not to mention that I'd rather not have to explain F2 to my kids......

Boulder Peak Race Report

2009-07-12T18:53:00.004-06:00

Ahhh yes, it's time for the annual Boulder Peak race report. But actually, it marks about the year mark that I've been blogging and putting this stuff up for anyone to read. In fact, I just read last year's report (here) and am kind of chuckling to myself on some of the differences/similarities in the report.

So here it goes. All week long I have been excited for this race. I wanted to do well. I wanted to have a great day. And, although I didn't tell anyone this, I wanted to podium. Really, really badly. I wanted to be up on the stage accepting an award from Barry Siff. I knew I had a great race in me, I knew I was ready, and I put a bit of pressure on myself. But I was relaxed and after a great (read: painful) speed session on Wednesday, I had a day off and a couple of swims.

Saturday morning comes around and Michael and I headed to the pond for his first pond swim. I hung out with him (BTW really awesome to do that) and saw some friends, including Beth and Tyler. We finished up and heading home I started not feeling well. Heading up to packet pick-up I was actually a bit nauseus. And a head ache. Oh, what am I doing to myself??? I recovered a bit, picked up my packet, noticed it was HOT, and got the heck out of there. I even drove Old Stage in the unlikely event it had flattened out since the last time I rode it (no such luck).

Pictures do not do Old Stage justice. It is really much steeper than it appears (600 foot climb in 2/3 mile, approaching 15% grade). Fun!

I had a relaxing evening and tried to go to bed early. (A big THANK YOU to Michael for taking care of, well, everything while I was in pre-race mode) But, alas, the butterflies in my tummy were alive and well and fluttering up a storm. I did fall asleep in decent time and slept soundly until I got up.......at 3:00.

This is hands down Michael's favorite look.....compression socks and crocs. Hot, hot, hot

Driving to Boulder I tried to down my breakfast and got about 3/4 of my almond butter and jelly sammy down. But I really didn't feel so hot. Tried to drink coffee....yeah, no. And, I was kind of sleepy too which was also unusual. I was early to the Rez, but thankfully so were all the other Type A athletes, got a primo parking spot, tried unsuccessfully to drink a Mix 1, set up transition, and headed back to my car to relax. But my tummy was still not good......I met up with Sarah for a warm-up and finally I started to settle. Yeah!

StevieP (coach extraordinaire) was a spectator/active coach today rather than a participant, which was a bit different than I am used to. He is normally racing all the races I do, we may see each other before the race and get a few words of wisdom but today he was THERE. Which was cool. Kind of. A bit freaky too. Before the race began he told me he wanted me to push the envelope a bit with this race. Take some chances. Go for it. I was basically planning on doing that anyway so I headed off to the swim start....

Swim

My wave had my age group, relays, and the young men (under 19 hehehe). So I thought I had a chance to catch some feet and maybe draft a bit!! And as the countdown started, I smiled and felt quite relaxed and was excited to get going. We were off and there were some quick people off the front. Even though I was going for it, I still had to keep the effort in check, this was after all a 2.5 hour effort. Before long, I noticed I was swimming stroke for stroke with a woman right smack next to me. Cool....this is good. I even tried to fall back to catch her draft but we were literally swimming the same pace. Right before the first left turn, she went to the inside line and I stayed to the outside and I never saw her again.....she beat me out of the water by about 30+ seconds. I ran into some traffic on the final stretch and my god was this swim really this long???? Finally I made the last turn and swam into shore. Comparing times from last year I do have to say I think the swim was long, last year's may have been short but in the end, does it really matter? Nope, but checking other's times, including the female pros, it looked like everyone was a couple of minutes slower than you would expect.

The thing about this race is that the run into transition from the swim exit is pretty long. And up a hill. So I was breathing pretty good coming out of the water, and since I have my new long sleeve wetsuit on, I can't actually see the time coming out of the water. Which is probably a good thing looking back on it. Steve meets me halfway up the hill and tells me there is girl about 30 seconds up on me and I knew exactly who he is talking about but I don't know who this girl is....but he's running right next to me telling me to hit it on the bike. OK Coach. Put me in!!

Swim: 25:44 (swim rank was 45 out of everyone so I'm good with that)

This was a quick one, our wave had the first rack. Wetsuit off, helmet on, bike out of rack and out of transition. And there was Steve again!@@@!!!! At this point I knew I liked it better when he races too!!! I rather ungracefully get on my NEW bike (!!!!) start pedaling and he's telling me to take off. OK!!!! So I did!

T1: 0:46

Bike

Phew, my heart rate was pretty high starting out but I went with it. I felt great and got in the big ring right away and just went with it. In the back of my mind, I knew I had Old Stage (approximately 2/3 mile of up to a 15% grade) to get through at mile 6 and then lots of fun stuff from there. I wanted to make sure I had room to push on the hill. Plus I was a bit concerned taking the new girl (bike) up there when she hadn't been before. I mean really, that's kind of a scary climb for a newbie!!! On the approach to the hill I relaxed my shoulders and did a mental check. I was good to go. The hill steepened, I dropped gears, got up out of the saddle and started climbing. OMG. I love the new girl climbing. It felt good. Natural. Not really a struggle. And I knew that I was smiling. Or grimacing. Same diff. Love the bike. Of course, SP passed me on the hill but not like I was going backward. She is an animal and incredibly strong and amazingly fast. And away she went. But I was good except for the darned cramp under my ribcage (damn damn damn). It started towards the top and just kept checking in with me from time to time on the bike. I tried not to think about what that might mean for the run.

I got to the top and then down down down.....I was flying, hitting the brakes for the speed check at the bottom but riding pretty aggressively. It was fun!!! Down Left Hand canyon and I played cat and mouse for a bit with a 35-something year old with a sperm helmet. But then dropped her like a bad habit after the left turn and that little climb to Nelson Road. Man, I felt great on the bike. I wasn't taking in fluids like I should have been but whatever!!! Weeeeee!!!! That annoying cramp also seemed to let up as I was heading into the Rez so I was relieved and ready to get going on the run.

Coming into transition, I knew that I had a good ride. An aggressive ride. I felt like I had pretty much left it out there. Little did I know, I had. Feet out of the shoes, dismount bike and run into transition.

Bike: 1:17:49 (20.1 mph ave. and almost 3 minutes faster than last year!)

Shit. Almost immediately after my feet hit the ground running the cramp raised it's ugly hand and said something to the effect of "forget about me???". Racked my bike, saw Matty Reed (!!!), put on my shoes and got the heck out of transition.

T2: 1:12

Run

I saw my lovely family as I left transition and blew them a kiss. I started off with a pretty good pace and was hoping the cramp would let go. And then I saw Steve who rode next to me for a bit telling me to get my feet off the ground and to go. By the time I hit the 1 mile mark I was breathing pretty hard. My mantra from the get-go with the cramp was "manage". As in manage the cramp. Don't stop, just let up a bit on the pace and work through it. So I was trying to do this. Manage. Manage. Manage. It worked a bit and the cramp let up a bit. Mile 2 I was hurting. I still had passed a couple of people but had also been passed by several fast boys. Manage. Manage. I now had a new mantra as I approached mile 3 and had been passed by the eventual 2nd place girl in my age group. Focus. Focus. Focus. I was now getting light-headed and dizzy and I took in some gatorade at the aid station. Don't freak out at getting passed. It's OK. You are not having the run of your life today and that's OK. Focus. Manage. Finish. Mile 4 sign. God, I have 2 miles left. I wanted to stop. I wanted to walk. And then, I wanted to puke. I thought I was going to leave a little present on that awful run course. But I kept it down. Everytime I tried to pick it up I got light headed and wanted to vomit. Not good. I felt like I had the marathon shuffle going on. And then I got passed by a woman who I had passed early. Fuck. Focus. Manage. Get to the finish. And then I got passed by another woman in my age group. Well, there goes a podium finish. And on the final stretch I got passed again. And I had no answer. I crossed the finish line and looked at my time. And then I had people asking me if I was OK. Do you need to go to the med tent? Yes, I do as I wasn't processing and I still thought I was going to pass out.

Run: 50:26 (actually only about :30 seconds slower than last year)

Total time: 2:35:55

5th age group

Final thoughts

Thank you to Sydney for helping me get to the med tent! And thanks to those volunteers in the med tent. I didn't need an IV but I was probably on the edge of dehydration. And for some reason the heat got to me today. It took me a good 20 minutes to get to feeling like I could walk around again. Today (Monday) I'm feeling much better although the place where the cramp took hold is still sore and I'm trying to massage it out. Emotionally I'm pretty much OK, and I think in the long run, it's a good thing to have a disappointing race every once in a while. It makes you appreciate the good ones that much more. And really, the only disappointing part of this race was the run. Could I have prevented what happened? Was the pressure I put myself under a contributing factor to the cramp? My nervousness? Tough to say. But I have a month to figure it out before another hot race....Nationals in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

I am proud of my effort, I pushed it and I had a great ride. And I think I have a name for the new bike!!!! (more on that later). So again, thanks for all the cheering and congratulations to everyone who competed and finished yesterday!

Which reminds me. The words on the back of the Boulder Peak race shirt:

Training at ALTITUDE means I get up everyday BELIEVING I have the CONFIDENCE to SWIM 1.5 k across the REZ....KNOWING I have FUELED my body enough to BIKE 42k and POWER up OLD STAGE...and REALIZING that no matter how HOT it gets out there I will hit the 10k RUN with EVERYTHING I have left in ME and I will CROSS that FINISH line.

Introducing.....

2009-07-08T15:05:00.003-06:00

Lots going on this last week and all sorts of stuff to blog about but first things first. You may remember my post back in May about that sexy TT bike that I was drooling over. Ohhhh, I wanted it so much but at that time the owner of said sexy TT bike was not willing to let her go. So I waited. I looked at other TT bikes, even considered a nice Cervelo. I checked eBay, I called bike shops. I just figured I would have to wait until the fall to find the right bike. But in my heart all I really wanted was that darn sexy Isaac.

You know that saying, good things happen to those that wait.....I can't believe my luck. Owner of sexy TT bike finally decided to let her go (and trust me, now that I've ridden her, I know why she didn't want to part ways!) and I have my very own sexy TT bike. Check it out!!!!

A few minor adjustments from Steve-O, and this girl is ready to go. I rode her today and I'm in love. Again. And she's mine!!!!!!

I had a talk with Princess and so far she's behaving herself now that she has a little sister. Although at the time I may have neglected mentioning the HOT-ness factor of the new bike. And she probably doesn't understand yet that she's going to get a bit of a break for the next couple of months. Princess will be pissed.

But here's the deal. I need a name for this sexy TT bike!!! And soon, I am racing her Sunday!! So please, please, please leave some comment love with suggestions. I don't think think "sexy TT bike" is going to work!!!!

P.S. Thank you Michael!!!

Hawaii Pictures

2009-06-30T13:37:00.007-06:00

Last Monday morning after returning from Kansas, the girls of the family headed to the airport to fly to Maui with a quick stop in San Francisco. I only had 3 hours of sleep and absolutely no recovery time from the 70.3 race, but really who's complaining when the end destination is Hawaii??? One flight puking incident (no, it wasn't me) on some unsuspecting passengers (they were very kind), an expensive stop to re-clothe the sick child in the university shop at the airport, and a broken DVD player (NOOOOOOOO!!!), we finally arrived in Maui....one of my all time favorite places.

I lived here for a summer back in 1989 and honestly, the place just hasn't changed much since then. Of course there has been lots of resort development but the essence of the place feels the same. I just look out onto the water and I somehow feel like I am home. If I ever win the lottery you will know where to find me!!

Here are some pictures from the quick Hawaii trip. The girls and I had a fabulous time!! We did, however, miss Michael/daddy tremendously.

No ka oi.....Maui sunset with Molokini to the right

My little swimmer girl Charlotte

Isabelle and Charlotte at the pirate pool

At the wedding

At the beach, notice the HUGE surf in the background!

Tahitian dancers

A hammerhead shark at the aquarium

Another quality picture of me

Fun underwater shots

June 22 -29 Update

2009-06-29T12:12:00.002-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Monday: Masters 5400 yards

Tuesday: "Free" swim.....not sure what that actually means but I swam in my new TYR swim suit for 30 minutes!!

Thursday: 30 minutes easy w/ pull buoy

Saturday: Gravel pond 6 x island/back

***As a note this is the most I have swam in months!!!!

Bikes

Monday: 1 hour at Chatfield (no Garmin have no idea miles)

Wednesday: 156.2 miles (from Boulder to Wiggins and back), 9 hours. Awesome.

Sunday: 43 miles. Fast

Runs

Tuesday: Track

Friday: 8 miles

Saturday: 8 miles

Other:
Weights/abs x 1

Sleep

OK this week. Had a hard time with time change and travel, woke up with headaches until mid-week.

Recovery

Recovered very well from big ride!

Mood

Good, can't wait for next race. Was bummed I missed Loveland.

Health

Allergies blah blah blah.

Comments

Good "build" week, although I missed my brick run after aggressive ride Sunday due to family commitments. Body feels good, mind feels good. Ready to hit it again this week!

Nicole's Wedding

2009-06-22T16:03:00.004-06:00

After the race on Sunday, I raced to the airport (thanks Anthony's parents for the ride!!) to get on a flight home, so that I could race to the airport Monday morning with the girls, to get to Hawaii for my sister Nicole's wedding!!! Phew!! We arrived in Maui Monday afternoon and the wedding was on Tuesday night. It was a small, intimate and beautiful wedding. And it was exactly what Nicole (and John) wanted which made it even more special. I am sooooo happy that I was able to witness the nuptials with my girls. (Michael was missed more than I can say) Here are a few photos.....

My dad and John

My girls

Nicole and John

Love the look on her face, what were they talking about? Anyway, look at how gorgeous the day and scenery were (and the bride and groom of course)

Kapalua Bay is pretty popular for weddings....there were 2 others going on at sunset!

The happy couple!

Finally, Kansas 70.3 Race Report

2009-06-22T09:36:00.012-06:00

OK, it's been 8 days since Kansas and I will do my best to remember and document everthing that happened. But to sum it up? Awesome. Going into my first half-ironman distance, I have to admit to having relatively low expectations. In fact, I made the "panic" phone call to Steve the week before saying that I didn't think I was ready, not in good enough shape etc. Then reality took over and I realized that I have done an amazing amount of work going into this race. I kept thinking about all of the long training days that I have done and realized that this distance, in terms of time, was really nothing out of the ordinary. Sure, putting together a half marathon after riding 56 miles would be different (or difficult....) but I knew that I could put myself out there for 5 1/2 hours.

I left on Friday morning with Michele and Anthony Beeson. They were kind enough to drive us and our bikes to Kansas and I got to hang out in the back seat with Barry. After some clever engineering tactics by Anthony, we got the bikes loaded and we were off. Boredom for me set in about 30 minutes later and I started texting PIC who then set me up on Twitter. (@michelleford6p for anyone who wants to follow!) That kept me going for awhile until my phone battery starting getting low!!! But really, it was an easy drive and 8 hours later we arrived in Kansas. Of course the room we checked into was a smoking room! I am not kidding!!! As soon as we walked into the room I thought I had smoked a pack of cigarettes, it was horrible. There were only 2 other rooms available at the hotel and they were smoking as well so we went with the least offensive of the 3. Yuck. To top it off, we ended up smelling like smokers. Oh well, we headed out to dinner and called it a night.

Saturday was course recon, packet pick-up, and bike drop-off in transition. We took the scenic route to the race site and a got a pretty good idea of how the bike course would be: up then down then up then down then up then down. You get the idea. Nothing terribly steep or long, just kind of relentless. The entire PC gang was waiting for us and we got on our bikes and rode the run course. Nothing too exciting about the run except for one big downhill and then turn around and go up it again. And do that twice since it was a 2 loop course.

The neat thing about this race was the military presence. There were teams of military personnel, Operation Rebound (from the front line to the starting line), and individuals who were competing. It was pretty cool to be amongst our troops.

Me and Beth in a HUGE helicopter - it could hold 2 fully loaded hum-vees!

We'll just say that there was a "bachelor" party at one of the campgrounds along the run course. I couldn't wait to see her again on the run!

Doreen, Beth, and me. Team PC had females represented in almost all the age-groups!

Race morning started early.....3:20am! Transition opened at 4:45 and there was limited parking at the race site and we are all Type A's soooo.....need I say more? For me, things weren't going as smoothly as normal on a race morning. Shall I say I was waiting for shit to happen and leave it at that?? Beth and I were hanging out and having our pre-race moments (love these) and finally things started moving along for both of us!!! LOL

Anyway, one of the hard parts of this race for me was all the variables that I needed to prepare for......weather-wise. The forecast was pretty awful: rainshowers by 7:30am, flooding, hail, lightening etc. My swim wave was at 6:42 so I figured all this would happen while I was on the bike. Would I need arm warmers? Rain jacket? Would we get pulled from the course due to lightening (happened last year)? I packed my running shoes and socks in plastic baggies in T2 so that I would at least have dry feet momentarily on the run if it came down to that. As we drove to the race site though, there was cloud lightening. Darn it, I thought the swim would be cancelled, and I like the swim! But as the sun came up, there was no lightening. There was no rain. Yet. It was cloudy but the temp was great. So with a few final preparation (and yes, another port-o-potty stop! For those keeping track at home, that would be 4) I pulled my wetsuit on and got in line for the start.

Swim

I was mellow and quite frankly, happy at the start. I wasn't nervous, I was excited. I was surprisingly relaxed. I lined up in my usual place at the start and noticed that only a handful of girls were toeing the start line of the swim right up front with me and the majority of my wave were in the backseat, so to speak. Somehow I spaced out at the start for probably 1 second and because of that I took a hard kick to my upper right thigh. Ohhhhhh, Owwwwww! That was a first, I have never been kicked nor have I ever kicked anyone at a start. I felt the muscle tighten and I thought it was going to be a cramp, it hurt like hell. I put my head down and relaxed and got the hell away from the girl that kicked me, and then the cramp let go. Phew! That could have been bad. I saw one girl in front of me but I was sticking to my plan of a "casual" swim and I let her go. Almost immediately I was in swim traffic, the water was not clear so I swam up on a couple of people in front of me and had to dodge several other swimmers along the way. But the nice part of being in the second wave of age-groupers was by the time I hit the last straight-away, I had no one ahead of me and it was smooth swimming the remainder of the way. I'd love to say I felt great but I really didn't but I didn't feel awful either. However, I was surprised at my time.....29:11, I did think it would be a bit faster. I was second out of the water for my wave.

I heard some great cheering coming out and it's always so humbling to have people you don't know cheering for you. And then the people I do know! I heard Troy.....I swear that man's booming voice gets me going every time.....I heard Syd out there too as I entered transition. I'm so used to an Oly distance race where you gotta get in and get out FAST. But not this time, I put on socks, put my stuff in the bag so it could get transferred, helmet and I was ready to go. The cheering coming out of transition again was awesome and then I figured out that I was one of the first few age-group women on the bike course!

Bike

The goal on the bike was to spin it out the first 5 miles before getting into the big ring. So that's what I did getting out of the park. The spectator support was just fantastic but as I left the park I was out on my own. One of my other goals for the bike was to have fun for 56 miles, to smile, and enjoy the day. It was a bit eerie though, as I was only getting passed every once in a while at first by the guys I had passed during the swim. Lots of sperm helmets and disk wheels!! But no women were passing me. It started to rain a bit but never a down pour. I settled in and noticed that the course was marked every 5 miles. Great!! Now I had something to help me out with nutrition! Every time I saw the mile sign I took a drink out of my bottle. And every half hour to 45 minutes I took a gel. This, I knew, would be tough....getting in enough nutrition to hold me for the entire race. But seeing those signs really made my job easier. I kept checking my heart rate too, just to make sure I was in the proper range. Every time I checked I was exactly where I wanted to be, and after 15 miles my legs finally let loose of the cobwebs and I felt I could push more. Around mile 20 I caught the lead girl in my age group and was now in first position for my age group. About this time too I got caught up in a group of guys who were drafting off of each other. I was trying to get around them but every time I passed them, one of them would immediately pass me back. Grrrrrr. One of them was an Australian who said something to me......either it was encouraging or mean....but I couldn't understand a word of what he said! I hung with these guys for a couple of miles but then realized I was a tad bit high on my heart rate and really not into the drafting scene so I let them go off of the front. At about mile 40, a gal from my age group passed me. Well, with the disk wheel she had, passed may not be the accurate word. She FLEW by me. And so I was in second again. The miles just kept ticking by and the hills just kept coming, it really was relentless. Even though I say relentless, I have to admit I really liked this course. The hills seemed to be just my size and I felt very strong the entire way through. At about mile 50 I realized that I was almost done with the bike, and now had to run a half marathon......HA! All in all though I felt great throughout the bike and was ready to test the legs on the run. And the weather??? Thank goodness the meteorologists in Kansas City are as accurate as the ones in Colorado - only a couple of rainy moments. No hail, lightening, or flooding.

2:47 (20.0mph ave.)

Coming off the bike I did nothing fancy like a flying dismount. Heck, I don't even like doing those in an Oly!!! I didn't even take off my shoes. I just didn't know how my legs would feel...would I even be able to walk??? I was definitely stiff in my lower back (expected) but my legs were OK. I put on my dry shoes and socks, grabbed my visor and race number and got out of transition.

Run

Leaving T2, I saw Troy and Annie (Sonja's super family) right away and then Sydney and a couple of her pals a bit further up. I believe I gave them a huge smile but it may have looked more like a grimace, not sure. But I felt good and knew I was on my way to meeting my goal of having fun. The bike had gone well, and now I just had to put 13 good miles on my legs. I quit thinking of it as a half marathon at this point because it seemed a bit overwhelming and I just started to tick off the miles. Those first couple of miles though.....well, there's no other way to say it. They hurt. It took almost 20 minutes for me to feel like I was in good form. The crowd was awesome - I heard my name a few times and it was incredible. It made me want to go fast!!!! (BTW, there were some people cheering for me and I couldn't figure out who they were....so THANK YOU and leave some comment love so that I can cheer for YOU next race!) But I couldn't do that (not that I could) or I would risk a blow-up of epic proportions. So I glanced at my watch to make sure I was in my range and sure enough, I was. Good. I saw Steve, he looked strong. I high fived Sonja she looked great. I saw Keith and Beth and they looked fantastic too. My body felt horrible and I just tried not to think about it. I also had to remember nutrition.....and to keep getting liquid and calories down my gullet. The sun finally made a appearance and it was getting hot. At each aid station I took Gatorade (well I tried....I'm not real accurate with the cup but managed a gulp or two!) and a sponge.

Finishing up lap #1.

As I finished up lap 1, I knew I was keeping a decent pace. And I knew there was still a possibility of blowing up. But more than anything I knew that I could do it. Finish it and hold onto 2nd place. I saw the 1st place girl and wanted to wheel her in but I wasn't gaining any time on her so I completely focused on getting to the finish line. I was more than half way done with the run and every step I took got me closer to the finish. I felt in control of my race and counted down the miles......5, 4, 3....and then I had 2 miles left. Yippee!!! But I was hurting again....really my feet were killing me. But not enough to stop or slow down. And then I was at the finish chute. And Mike Reilly (of Ironman announcing fame) saying, "Michelle Ford from Aurora, Colorado". It was unbelievable. I pumped my fists in the air and checked my watch. Holy Moly. 5:03? WTF? In all my pre-race calculations, I only came up with a 5:15.??? I had no idea how I got that time but everything hit me like a ton of bricks (yellow bricks, see picture below) and all I had left was tears. Well, sob actually. Thank goodness PIC was there at the finish too and she gave me a big hug and I just cried. It. Was. Awesome.

Anthony, Beth, Keith, me at the finish

Oh, and the run??? I managed to PR off the bike with a 1:42. And I held onto 2nd place in my age group. And I grabbed a slot to the 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater in November.

Me and Coach Extraordinaire Steve having a "moment". I may still be crying.

PIC Sonja had a kick butt race and placed 2nd in her age group too. And we're heading to Florida together. Of course!! Sisters from another mother. And father. Whatever.

Awards were actual yellow bricks. Very cool.

Team Practical Coaching had a stellar day - we nabbed 4 Clearwater spots. I can't tell you how happy I am that Anthony and Steve will be joining Son and I. Beth had a 4th place age group finish and just missed a Clearwater spot, we will miss her:( There were also many PR's among the group and as always, I am so proud to be a part of this wonderful team.

I'm Baaack

2009-06-20T11:56:00.002-06:00

Whew, this past week has been a whirlwind! First was the road trip to Kansas last Friday, followed by my first 70.3 race (BTW thanks all for the well wishes!!). Second was the flight back Sunday night from Kansas to make absolutely sure I made the 6:00am flight Monday morning to San Fran/Maui. Third was actually traveling with my lovely daughters sans hubby which is probably what I was most worried about! Then came my sister's wedding (beautiful) on Tuesday followed by lots of trips up and down the pool slide, teaching the girls how to body surf, making sure no one got swept away in the ocean etc. Last, but not least, was the overnight flight back home!!! To be sure, I am exhausted. So are the girls. But we are so happy to be home! Now we are off to Boulder for Michael's first packet pick-up and his first tri tomorrow on Father's Day. Phew! It's going to be fun.....but no time for blogging.

Upcoming posts/thoughts: Kansas race report (this one will be looooong); Nutrition thoughts; Hawaii pictures!

Kansas Bound

2009-06-11T17:58:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow the second road-trip of the year begins....I'm heading off to Lawrence, Kansas! I'll be hopping in the car with Michele, Anthony, and Barry. And then on Sunday at 6:42am, I begin my 70.3 journey: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. Zowie!! I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous but really my anxiety level right now is pretty low. This is going to be a pretty cool experience and it looks like the pro field is stacking up. Tim DeBoom (Hot) and Chrissie Wellington (Way Hot) are the top contenders and it'll be interesting if I see them out on the course. My legs are coming back to me after the last week of training and should be raring to go on Sunday morning.

If you're interested in keeping track of me, www.ironman.com has a live athlete tracker that shows swim/bike/run splits.

After the race, the real fun begins!! I fly back from Kansas Sunday night and then hop on another flight Monday morning.....off to Aloha land. I am so happy that I will be able to witness my sister's wedding to her wonderful fiance John on Tuesday! And I'm dragging the girls along with me. Sadly, this was all pretty last minute and Michael won't be able to join us:( It also means I will miss one of my favorite races - Loveland Lake to Lake - next weekend but considering where I'll be instead, I'm gettin' over it!

I'll do my best to get a race report up ASAP but we'll see.....

Stormy Sunday

2009-06-07T14:27:00.003-06:00

You gotta love spring weather in Colorado. About 2 hours ago I was riding under sunny skies right about where this funnel cloud formed. But this afternoon the nasty clouds moved in, the tornado sirens went off, and we headed to the basement. Except that I went outside first to get a picture of this! We are still in the midst of a tornado and thunderstorm warning....the kids are all fired up and all I want to do is take a nap:) More on that in the next post. Hopefully I won't get any more pictures!

Work

2009-06-05T13:27:00.003-06:00

It's been one of those weeks. You know the ones, you see it on your calendar. You know it's coming. And you know why it's there. Those weeks of intense workouts. Of swims you grit your teeth through and hope hope hope that is the last set. Of bike races and tt interval work. Of track sessions that look something like 4 x 2000. Followed the next day by a 65 mile bike in the mountains and a 6 mile run, fast and hard. So as much as you think you may dread the "work" week ahead, you kind of in a weird way can't wait for it to begin. These are the kinds of weeks I don't talk too much about because I get that familiar look....the are you out of your mind look. You know the look. And you've only talked about Monday, the first day of your week. So with a sense of apprehension, because you know the hurt locker has your name on it this week, you go and get it done. And you do it with a bit of a smile on your face. Why? Because this is the stuff that we love. The stuff that makes us hurt and beg for mercy. And most importantly, it's the work that we know will give us the advantage and the confidence on race day.

Steve put it out there on the schedule. I saw the work and I knew it would be hard. I just finished up a 20 hour week, which included a rest day and one day with only an hour swim. Wednesday was the day we had the crazy brick, Shadow Mountain and a run and I knew it be hard physically and mentally. I knew I would be tired. I knew my legs would hurt. I knew I might want to cry. A couple of times. But I also knew that if I could get through this day, it would be a huge building block under my belt. I've done this ride before (many, many times) where the quads are just begging for mercy. The intolerable burn, the feeling of not being able to push anymore or your legs will fall off. But I also did not want to get dropped. So I was prepared to work and hang in there as long as I could. And I did. It was not my best ride and I was hurting like I knew I would. But I stayed with the group. And although I was having conversations with myself about not doing the run the last half of the ride I got off my bike and put on my shoes. I ate my gels and started running. I won't lie. It hurt. I had Holle next to me and we both didn't give up or let up on the pace. We just ran. I wanted to socialize with her but not today. There was work to be done. The big surprise? After mile 2 I didn't feel so bad. Sure, I was working hard but my legs found some hidden strength and I just went with it. After all was said and done (or in this case rode and run), we biked 65 miles of hills and finished it off with a quick 5.3 miles. And now, I can look back at the week and smile. I did it. I put the work in and had good runs, a good swim Monday, good bike rides, and an aggressive brick.

This week will not be as intense with my first Ironman 70.3 on Sunday. The 6 days after that will be about recovering and maintaining heading into Loveland Lake to Lake.

Yee haw and a big Boo Yah: Race Season is Here!!!

Hugo Bike Race

2009-06-01T08:28:00.011-06:00

Normally, I can sit down and write/type a race report without much thought and effort, it seems to be more of a verbal regurgitation. But with this race, not so much. I am having a tough time getting it out there. The race was Saturday and I have sat down several times and not been able to gather my thoughts. In my mind it was a momentus (not even sure that's a word) event, so exciting, so intense....where do I even begin? So here are some snippets of the day....

To put it in a nutshell, I loved this race. I was nervous to be sure, but ignorance especially in this situation was bliss. In fact, Steve was visibly more nervous than Sonja, Beth and me. When I asked him about that after the race he said, "I knew what you girls were getting yourselves into, you didn't"!! So what had we committed to? A cycling road race in Hugo, Colorado (somewhere near the Kansas border I believe). 78 miles long. And we registered as Cat4 (novice) racers. Steve gave us all a quick low-down on race strategy and tactics but really, you don't know how a race will unfold until you are in the thick of it.

Getting ready before the race. Steve and Troy played a HUGE role in helping us out. They got our bikes ready, pinned on our numbers, filled bottles, and basically got us ready to go!!! Then, they sagged for us. We couldn't have had a better support crew. Thank you guys!

Beth and me before the race. Yes Steve, I am eating.

Beth, Sonja, me, Steve right before the race began. FYI Steve - not eating here.

As we lined up for the start, I looked around and saw all sorts of girls in various shapes and sizes and differing levels of intensity. As I sometimes do, I questioned myself....do I belong here? Will I fit in? Will the girls like me? Is my bike nice enough? And then I corrected myself. Who gives a shit self, this is a fucking race, get over it. The whistle blew and we started off.

The hardest part of the day for me was first half hour when I was just trying to get my shit together and get my legs warmed up. The lead girls would accelerate just slightly up the hills and my quads would let me know they weren't excited about that. But we'd crest the hill and my quads would shut up and I would feel pretty good. After my talk with Steve, I was paying close attention to everything going on: the subtle (or not) pick-ups and the pain in the ass slow-downs. I haven't ridden in a pack that big before and really my main goals were to not get dropped and to not fall and take anyone with me! I also had specific instructions to not talk so I just listened.

And boy, there was lots to listen to. Those girls were CHATTY. Everyone seemed to be talking about all sorts of interesting (NOT) topics. And, these girls loved to announce anything that was going on: slowing!, on your left/right!, bottle!, that's my wheel!, squirrel! etc. About 20 miles in (approximately, I was also instructed to not wear a garmin or heart rate monitor), I hear an "Oh Shit," right behind me and then a shoulder in my right hip/thigh. WTF? There was also no "sorry" or any sort of acknowledgement that there had been an unintentional bump. Someone tried to take me down, are we kidding here??? But since i had taken Steve's crash course on bike handling the day before, I kept pedaling and accelerated a bit and then just decided to get to the front of the pack. BEOTCH!!!

Here we come! BTW Steve, I don't believe I am eating here since I only took in 3 gels in 3 hours 35 minutes.

There we go!

Another interesting part of riding with these girls was that no one would take the lead. There were just a handful of us that would actually take turns pulling. I couldn't believe how many girls were just hanging out at the back of the pack and never ventured to the front for a little pull. There was one point in the ride I was pulling up a hill and made the sharp left indication that I was done pulling, and NO ONE came through!!!??? I was still in front. So, I slowed down. And then I just stopped pedaling before someone else stepped up. Fascinating!

At mile 40, we encountered our first feed zone. Since I had hardly taken any nutrition anyway I certainly wasn't going to risk my life and those around me by attempting to take a water bottle and just rode the yellow line. At the same time, the pro men came whizzing by and it was chaotic. Then I heard Steve yell.....go with the men! So I did what I was told by my coach until a gal in red came up to let me know that "we don't attack in the feed zone." I wanted to tell her I was just listening to my coach and not attacking but I wasn't supposed to talk. Clearly Steve knew I would say something idiotic like, it's my first race I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just a triathlete. Help! The cool thing was, a minute later she looked at me and said, OK, now we can attack. So we did! Another girl came up later and asked my name and my category and how I was feeling so I finally broke my silence reluctantly.

As the miles went by, I grew more comfortable and more aggressive. I was feeling good! It was great knowing that I could ride in the front for a bit and then pull off and take a break and then get right back in the thick of it. It was also unbelievably cool to see Sonja and Beth with me in the front pack (I really have no idea how many girls were with us at that point and no CLUE as to how many had dropped off).....we were all riding very well and even though we weren't talking I still think we had an inherent understanding of where each of us was at! After the second feed zone, the three of us were still in the running and Beth and I went to the front. Should we stay? Should we go? I thought it was too early - we still had 18 miles but we definately knew we could do it and possibly even be successful. What a great feeling!

At mile 70 I heard Beth behind me say GO! I figured we were making our move and I went. I pedaled a bit harder and looked back and realized I was by myself. Wha? What should I do? Only 8 miles left so I continued to go off the front. I caught a Cat2 girl and various men in the groups in front of us and I passed them like they were standing still. Who are you? That's what was running through my head. I mean really, leading off the front in a road race? I just smiled to myself. This was fun. I kept looking back at the pack and they were still visible. A quick check of my legs and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold them off so I let up a bit and let them consume me. But, I got right back into it and tried to make my way to the front because we were clearly heading for a sprint finish! The posturing began and I couldn't quite get myself where I wanted to be for the sprint but I was in it and surged to the end. Beth was up in front, Sonja right behind her with me on her tail. It. Was. Awesome.

After the race. Yes, Steve I am eating again.

The interesting thing about this entire experience are the lessons learned as well as the woulda, coulda, shoulda's that I keep thinking about. It's Tuesday and I'm still thinking about it!! But I suppose that's why bike racing is so addictive. And yes, I will do one again. And maybe in the near future!

Again, thanks to Steve and Troy for the support. A big shout out to Sarah and Nicole who also rode extraordinarily well. To Holle for stepping it up and having that big nasty growl/grin on her face at the finish line!! And, of course, to my PICs Sonja and Beth for sharing such a fantastic experience. You girls rock.

May 25 - 31

2009-06-01T08:19:00.002-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Friday: Masters, sprint day ~3500yds

Sunday: 12 minute quick loosen-up

Bikes

Tuesday: 1 hour trainer

Saturday: 78 mile road race (update in next post!)

Runs

Monday: ~9 miles (BolderBoulder 10k plus warm-up)

Tuesday: Track, hill repeats

Thursday: 8 miles

Sunday: 8 miles

Other

Weights/abs x 1; bike racing 101 (see next post); pedicure (only important because my feet finally have healed enough to get some work done!)

Sleep

Better

Recovery

Recovered very well from 10k and felt great all week, was ready for a good effort Saturday

Mood

Good

Health

Achilles roared its ugly head after hill repeats and pain radiated into heel which kind of freaked me out. Met with Dr. Ken and with a bit of work on it, some icing and some stretching it is feeling much better and Sunday's 8 mile run went well. Still struggling with allergies. Can I just get a Claritin injection?

Comments

Good week, was ready for more work and this week I have it!

BolderBoulder

2009-05-25T15:37:00.005-06:00

What an awesome race!! I am almost embarrassed now to say that today was the first time that I have participated in the annual pilgrimage to Boulder on Memorial Day to run a 10k. It's true, I've lived here the majority of my life and today was my first BolderBoulder - and certainly not my last. My day started early, about 4:30am. Had a bit of coffee, some organic raisin toast with almond butter and agave nectar (more on my "natural" eating at a later date), hopped into the car and plugged in my favorite tunes. I love driving early in the morning - not many people out there and it's kinda peaceful:)

Me, Steve and Sarah getting ready to warm-up.

Initially I was hoping to run a personal best (PB) in this race since I have been running well lately and I thought I should be able to beat my OTB time at Nationals last year. I had an aggressive goal time but readjusted my expectations after talking to Coach Steve. Too many people, too many turns, and let's just say pretty hard and hilly! My main goal? To have fun and enjoy the bands and the scenery and the party! And to negative split the race. This was a great last minute goal from Steve and made me really think about how I was going to take it out. I qualified for a decent wave and started at 7:05. Steve, Sarah, and I warmed up and served as unofficial port-a-potty inspectors along the route to the start line. The weather was beautiful, sunny but muggy, and I almost took some sunscreen from the volunteers at the start. I was excited to start, not anxious, and taking it all in. Um, yeah that would include the individuals that neglected to put on deoderant and "ahem" the gentleman in front of me just farting away! The gun went off and I had a huge smile on my face and was elated to be running (away from fart man)...a definate feel good moment.

That first mile was awesome, the Blues Brothers band playing at the 1/2 mile, and people everywhere. I glanced down at my watch just to make sure I wasn't caught up in all the crazies taking it out too fast and sure enough, I was pacing a 6:30. Yep, I put the brakes on a bit and came in around 7:15. I was feeling good, and sweaty!! It was soooo humid that I was just dripping sweat! Turn after turn after turn.....the course was turny and it was hard to cut the tangents with so many people. But I was going with the flow. Mile 2 came in around 7:30. Still feeling good and still remembering the goal of negative splitting. At the 5k mark I was about 23:18ish and thought huh, can I hold this? Can I take this down? What about this slight breathing cramp that is building? How many miles left? Who's the guy running in the pink tutu and should I let him pass me? Are my shoulders relaxed? How's my breathing? What's my family doing? What are we having for dinner? I need to get the oil changed in my car..... I'll stop there.

Mile 4 came in about 7:20. So I was in line for the negative split. Mile 5 was my fastest (a nice downhill) at 7:10 (garmin came in at 7:04). Those last couple of miles, well, truth be told, the entire race, my legs felt heavy and not fresh which makes perfect sense for where I'm at training wise. But I chose to not let it affect my thinking. I was on my way to a PB if I could just hold the pace. Funny thing is looking back, I wasn't red-lining, so I should have had a bit more push in me. I also held back thinking I had to leave a bit in the engine for the big climb up Folsom, but I didn't realize the race didn't go all the way up the hill - only half way! So yes, I left a bit out there. Running into the stadium is incredible! I tried to find myself on the Jumbotron but then realized that I needed to pick it up and kick it in. And then the race was over. I glanced down at my watch and grinned. I didn't come close to my original goal time (about a minute off), but I did negative split and I did PB. 46:06. And, out of the 571 females age 40, I was 8th!

So here are a few of my favorite things from BolderBoulder '09:

Blues Brothers band

Elvis in his white leisure suit

Guy running in his business suit and briefcase, and the person telling him to pick it up he's late for a meeting in 20 minutes

Guy running in pink tutu

Beatles band

2 groups of belly dancers!

Run Forrest Run!

Chalk writing on 19th street (Tour style) with um, male genitalia and the encouraging words "Keep it up"!!

A beer at the finish (before 8am)! OK, I didn't drink it!

Reusable goodie bags

The next pair of shoes that I will own CROCS - they make a sweet "recovery" shoe

NO POPSICLES (the clouds came in after I finished and the temperature DROPPED)

Running by the sushi bar where I last did karaoke (there were no cameras or video I'm pretty sure, and that was 20 years ago)

Running in Folsom Field

Watching all the other runners in Folsom Field

Having coffee with Steve and Sarah and teaching Steve about the Iphone. Sorry PIC for the strange texts and emails:)

May 18 - 24

2009-05-24T17:08:00.002-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Monday: Masters, 4500yds

Saturday: Gravel pond 2 laps

Bikes

Tuesday: 2 hours no speed, forgot my watch so I don't know how many miles!

Thursday: Computrainer, 25 miles, hard effort

Friday: 45 min. ez on spin bike

Sunday: 29 miles TT position, steady

Runs

Tuesday: Track, main set 8x800

Friday: 4 miles fast OTB

Saturday: 6.5 miles conversational pace

Sunday: 15 minute jog OTB

Other

Weights/abs x 1

Sleep

Still not great. Either can't get to sleep or wake up in middle of night and can't get back to sleep. Will try accupuncture, don't believe it is due to overtraining as my body feels good and I've had some quality workouts.

Recovery

Rest day on Wednesday but felt out of sorts all day and into Thursday but more than likely related to lack of sleep.

Mood

Decent with periods of happy and sad

Health

Allergies!!!! Or I'm on the front end of a cold but I think it's allergies.

Comments
Feel like I have had some quality runs and bikes lately. Legs finally feel as if they have some giddy-up on the bike!!! Very happy with efforts although not as pleased with swims. I understand the plan though and am OK with only a couple of swims a week (sometimes only 1!!).

All I Want...

2009-05-21T19:11:00.004-06:00

Sing it with me peeps!

All I want for Memorial Day

Is a TT Bike

A TT Bike

Yep. I am drooling just a bit as I saw a few of the SEXIEST TT bikes evah in Steve-O's garage today. Keith has just acquired a beautiful new Isaac and Steve is putting the finishing touches on it. But above the new TT bike being built was one that seems to have my name on it. I kinda checked her out (and I think she gave me the once over too), I even took her out for a mini-spin. She was BEGGING me for some speed so I picked it up and up a bit more (that is once I figured out the gear shifting). And then I realized I had no helmet so I slowed it down!

She looks almost exactly like this one. Thanks PIC for the photo!

So I am really hoping this bike may be in my immediate future and I think the bike hopes for that too. She has spent the last couple of years gathering dust in a closet. Oh, I would treat her so well!! I have just the right spot in the living room where she could hang out with Princess. And we would ride FAST. Otherwise she is headed towards retirement.....as in slow casual rides. There outta be a law - no casual riding on any sexy TT bike. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE owner of said sexy TT bike, please let me adopt her!!!!

P.S. Princess is pissed.

The Bank

2009-05-17T20:37:00.004-06:00

It's been awhile since I have put what I would consider quality workouts in the bank - you know, the proverbial triathlon bank. I guess in my case it's the World Bank although I will be taking a pretty hefty withdrawal with the upcoming Kansas 70.3. The bank that I am referring to is the one we all make deposits to with each and every workout we do. Good, bad, ugly. It is all deposited into the Bank for use later on. A good run, ride or swim? Always nice to draw on those later on. But usually it's the hard workouts, the ones we sometimes dread in the upcoming week, the ones we have to not only get ourselves ready for physically but mentally as well, that make the biggest differences in our Bank balances.

And I have forgotten about that. The last six (or so) weeks I have struggled. I have lagged mentally, I even lost my smile. I have been dropped on more rides than I care to think about. I have hurt. I have even questioned my motivation.....the why do I do this to myself questions. But what I forgot is that all those experiences were just that. Experiences, difficult or not, and something from which I will draw upon in the upcoming weeks and months. I have made some huge deposits in the Bank which I only now recognize, and I remember that sometimes you have to go through the crap to come out smelling like a rose. Or something weird/icky like that!!!!

Things finally came together this week, or maybe I just finally realized it. I rode Shadow Mountain twice this week and didn't even cry once. I smiled. I laughed. I rode with my awesome buddies. I recognized in someone else the suffering that I had done and tried to help her out of it. I had fun. I even sang up the steep part of Shadow. I didn't run out of gears. My legs were strong, tired but strong. And that ache that had been there for weeks has disappeared. There were FAST descents, and it was FUN. And yesterday morning, I had a great run.

On my schedule was a 15 mile run. I knew it was going to be tough because I haven't been running long since Grand Canyon and my weeks haven't been too stacked on miles. But I wasn't freaked out and I was relaxed going into it. There were specific goals with this run: first 6 miles easy, next 8 miles at my half race pace, 1 mile super easy. I was determined to run those first 6 as easy as I could. I let people pass me, I said hi to everyone I saw, and I kept looking at my watch to make sure I was in the right range. I wanted to pick it up!!! But I kept myself in check, I wanted those next 8 miles. Mile 7 came along and I was ready to go, I slightly picked up the pace and was at 8:20. Not bad but not quite the pace I was looking for. So I picked it up slightly again. 8:08. I felt good. There was lots more there and I only had 6 more to go! Only 6 more to go?? Who is this person?? I knew I could hold this pace and even lower it from here. I also knew that I wanted the 14th mile to be my fastest and I didn't want to blow up to do it. The miles just seemed to go by quickly 8:00, 7:45, 7:53..... and I was at that final mile. Yes, I was hurting. My legs and ass(!!) had felt heavy the entire run but I just didn't let that get into my head. I knew I could do it and finished it up with a 7:38. No negativity. No self-doubt. Just lots of positive thinking and positive self-talk. And fun. I loved being out yesterday morning with everything as green as can be, the weather perfect. Alone with my thoughts....my positive thoughts. Knowing why I do this. Because I LOVE it!!!

Afterwards I was so happy that I nailed the workout! I was just a bit giddy and tired and had a silly smile on my face. It lasted almost all day! And looking back on not only that workout but the successes of the past week.....I know my Bank account is looking fat and happy and there is plenty in there for the upcoming withdrawals.

Cha-Ching!!!

Random Stuff

2009-05-11T09:30:00.004-06:00

Here are some random cool things that have been going on in my world.

First, although this isn't just in my world, Mother's Day was pretty cool this year! We got together with my family at Maggiano's and had a great meal with great company. And look at what Charlotte made for me:

On the other side it says "I love mommy". She did the artwork on the bag all by herself! Naturally, my tomboy has a t-shirt and sweats on in the picture. And I don't think her hair was combed. But I absolutely love it. Inside the bag was a cool book with her artwork and this description:

My favorite part is that I'm 3 ft. tall and weigh 2 lbs. At least it isn't the other way around!! Oh, and my favorite food???? Broccoli! And my favorite song??? That's not my name!!!

In other randomness, PIC Sonja told me about this cookbook she has and how she makes awesome bread. I have always been scared shitless to bake bread. I mean there's all that kneading and rising and punching and so on and so forth. Who has the time/patience for that? But since I have more time these days and I'm trying to be more housewife-like/mom-extraordinaire - like, I bought some yeast. And then I bought the book "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day". And then I found out you don't have to do all that kneading/punching/rising blah blah blah stuff. You literally throw water, yeast and flour in a bucket, mix it, let it rise, put it in the fridge and then cut a piece off and throw it in the oven when you want fresh baked bread. And it keeps for up to 2 weeks. Now, this is my kind of recipe. Easy easy!!

I am not kidding you, this came out of MY oven. I made it myself! And the best part??? It tastes awesome!! My family ate the entire loaf for dinner and wanted another one the next day. And since I had the dough in the fridge, we had another fresh-baked loaf in a matter of minutes!!

And how could I not mention my husband-extraordinaire until now? He decided earlier this year that he loves trail running. Loves it so much in fact that he wanted to try running trails for 50k (or 31 miles for us non-k peeps). He signed up for the Greenland 50k, I wrote him a training plan, he followed it, and on Saturday he ran 50k and came into the finish chute smiling. It was a great day for him and for me to be out there supporting him. Charlotte and I saw him come in for his third (out of four) loop, had a picnic in our car, and then cheered him in at the finish. We met some neat people out there and had a blast! Great job Michael, I am so proud of you!!!

Charlotte running in with Michael

May 4 - May 10 Update

2009-05-11T09:15:00.004-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Monday: Masters, distance day 5000 yds

(Coach has a plan, more time on the bike less time in the pool. See below.)

Bikes

Tuesday: 1 hour TT position (trainer), easy

Wednesday: 34 miles, rollers, pretty aggressive

Friday: 2 hours spin bike (after 30 min., 2 min. LT efforts w/ a sprint)

Runs

Tuesday: Abbreviated track workout, 4 miles total

Thursday: 10 miles harder than it should have been

Sunday: 7 miles tready (darn rain!)

Other

Weights/abs x 1

Sleep

Getting better. Tired but not sleeping due to personal stress. Fell asleep in front of TV a couple of times at night.

Recovery

Pretty good. Felt like a lighter week for me although legs after Wednesday ride were sore and tired. Legs for Thursday run were heavy and sore but after day off on Saturday my run Sunday was great (for a treadmill).

Mood

A bit down due to personal stress but getting better:)

Health

Overall good but watching soreness in legs. Left achilles is tight in the mornings but seems to loosen up and my left knee has kicked in a couple of complaints. Right knee also bitching a bit, would like a cortisone shot but I have resisted thus far.....

Comments

Felt like it was an "off" week but I had a couple of decent efforts in there. I haven't been in the game mentally and am looking forward to getting back on the bandwagon, there will be a couple of good mental tests for me this week.

Spring?

2009-05-06T11:48:00.007-06:00

I'm almost even afraid to say it out loud....spring. It actually feels like spring these last two days. The sun is out, the temperature is over 70 and there is a light breeze blowing. I even got a bit of color on my arms! In a nutshell, it is f****g beautiful. My apologies for the fbomb in the middle of describing a perfect spring day but, well, when you've had the spring like we've had here in Colorado, you would understand.

Spring was the absolute worst thing that could have EVAH happened to our winter. Mild winter? Ummmm, yeah. We were spoiled, at least those of us who had the opportunity to ride in the mountains in January. And even more riding in February and into the beginning of March. Absolutely great training weather. And we never really got that cold. But then spring hit. And it snowed. Lots. And on the weekends. And it got cold, just last week I was on a ride and decided that I have never been that cold before on a bike. Absolutely miserable.

But not yesterday and not today. Yesterday I went for a ride with Beth in the morning, and we ditched our arm warmers and went sleeveless!! We had a great ride too - working the rollers on route 105. Our legs were barking at us at the end. And today? A lovely run at Chatfield that was almost.....hot. Yep, spring is finally in the air. But because I am from Colorado, I know to not be fooled.....another snow storm could hit. And I certainly won't plant anything in the yard for another week. And my arm warmers and gloves will continue to live in the back seat of my car at least for another month.

Beth and me at the Rage

Ahhhhh, welcome spring! And please please please stay for awhile!

April 27 - May 3 Update

2009-05-04T08:34:00.004-06:00

It's been awhile since I've posted an update but with the Rage, R2AR2R, Nasty Virus, and Recovery there hasn't been too much going on!!

Weekly Update
Swims

Thursday: 3600 long course meters

Friday: Masters sprint day, approx. 4000 yds

Bikes

Wednesday: 70 miles, 8200 ft climbing

Friday: 1 hour spin bike

Sunday: 50 miles

Runs

Tuesday: Track 3 x (800, 1600)

Saturday: Track 16 x 400 (8.5 miles total)

Other
Weights/abs x 1

Sleep

Not good due to personal stress but seems to be getting back to normal

Recovery

Good. Not much to recover from this week.

Mood

Good except for stress

Health

Fully recovered from last weekends virus by Thursday. I noticed some achilles pain swimming and Dr. Ken thinks it is from rolling my ankle in the Grand Canyon so he's working on that now too.

Comments

Felt like a good ramp-up week. My run Saturday was awesome, I felt great. Ride Sunday was also a good solid effort.

Speed Kills

2009-05-01T09:09:00.004-06:00

Yep, that's right. I have a couple of reasons for the title of this post....but really, it came to me this morning as I showed up to Masters swim for the first time in uh, six weeks? I do push myself when I swim by myself. Really. I do. Kind of. But not the way Coach Paul pushes me in a Masters swim session. Even yesterday as I swam by myself, I lulled myself into a kind of....I don't even know the right words.....consistent pace during my 30 100's. I know what pace I can hold give or take a couple of seconds without much variation or, errrr effort? But that's not really the case. Of course it's effort but I guess it just doesn't seem that way when it's such a no-brainer for me. Some of my peeps can do this running and/or riding. They know exactly how fast we're going and it is a mystery to me how they know. But put me in a pool and it is the same type of knowledge. Consistant pace. 15 second rest. I just knocked the 100s down one by one. Heart rate - high? Um, no. The only thing I needed to work on was loosening up my shoulders and make sure my right arm was where it needed to be. Sure, I pushed a couple of them. But not like I pushed this morning. Literally a 15 second difference in a 100. 15??!!

It was a sprint day at Masters and one of the sets was 4 x 100 FAST. En Fuego as Coach put it. Zowie, I'm thinking to myself. This is going to hurt. Because, I really have no speed right now. I don't have that fast gear going yet. I tried on Tuesday night at track. Really, I did. But when it came down to it? There was no fizzle in my sha-nizzle. My get up and go, got up and went....nowhere. I'm pretty sure the virus I had last weekend combined with the Grand Canyon sucked the life out of my speed so hopefully it will make an appearance again soon. And the track workout was almost like the 30 x 100's, just knocked down an even pace, only varying by a couple of seconds. Effortless? Hardly but I just knocked 'em out. But these 100s? They were on 2:30, so plenty of rest. First one, 1:08. Cool, but that hurt. 3 more? Second one, 1:08. That one hurt even more and not much giddy-up on the final length. Third one, oops 1:09. Wait, can I have more rest? Darn. Fourth 1:08. And it hurt. My arms, legs, abs, back. I could feel the lactic acid burning. But, I'm happy with the times and honestly I'm pleased with the burn. It's time to get it back! Of course, Stevie-P has other plans for me this month. One of which is to keep me out of the pool in favor of more time on the bike.

Another reason for the speed kills title? I have been riding in our hills here in Colorado for several years now and it still amazes me at the complete lack of respect that cyclists receive from drivers that are in big cars and trucks. Some days are good and I complete a ride and think, no altercations or bad experiences with drivers - yeah! Some days, like Wednesday, I get off my bike and thank God that nothing bad happened and I'm able to drive myself home. C'mon drivers, share the road! There is no reason to bark and yell at cyclists. There is no reason to flip us off. And certainly no reason to cut us off, spray dust on us, honk at us, and give us mere inches from your mirrors. Slow down and CALM down. It's not the cyclists fault that you are late for work. (My PIC rode Wednesday too and she had some choice comments as well about the a**hole drivers, read it here)

And since I'll be on my bike no less than 17 times during the month of May, this subject of aggressive drivers is something I'd like to NOT write about again.

Princess and me last year on better terms (even if I had just wrecked her the week before!)

Why so much time on Princess? Well, a certain lackluster bike performance at Rage of the Sage earned me some quality time on the bike. Apparently I will learn to LOVE the burn of the bike!! Bring. It. On. After the miles and miles and miles and miles I have put on the bike since January, I'd like to see some improvement coming up. And if it's not until Worlds? I suppose I can wait. But maybe not.....clearly not as patient as I used to be!!

R2R2R

2009-04-26T13:10:00.017-06:00

I know, I know, it's been a long time in getting this post up. All sorts of stuff going on both good and not so good including but not limited to having 3 out of 4 family members puke in the last few days and yes I was one of them. But since I really don't want to write about the copious amounts of vomit I have seen lately, I am finally sharing my report! Oh, and since I have been laid up - I have taken the "easy" way out and just posted videos directly here without the benefit of editing, sweet effects, music etc.

After our great race day in Henderson and a fun night on the strip Saturday night, we were off on the next part of our big adventure...the Grand Canyon. Michael, the girls, and I had never been there so it was going to be an adventure and fun for all. For me, it was definitely an adventure. For some reason, it sounded like a good idea to run R2R2R (south rim to north rim to south rim), lots of climbing, lots of descending, and a great way to actually experience the GC.

Of course, as soon as we got there and looked over the edge, I nearly had a heart attack and turned around for home. Oh holy moly! It didn't help that the girls ran full speed ahead towards the edge. THE EDGE. Yes, I know, there is fencing around the lookout point. But really, it is just fencing and I seriously thought I was going to lose it.

Michael, Charlotte and Isabelle at the edge. I am literally shaking as I took this picture.

We checked into our hotel and met up with the rest of the gang and started getting ready for the day ahead. I woke up at 2:10 (5 minutes ahead of schedule) and got ready to go. The group had decided to leave in waves: Andrea first around 1, me and Keith next at 3 followed by Sonja and Dave at 3:30, Steve and Anthony started at 4. Oh man it was dark!!! Absolutely no moonlight but it was warmer than we thought, around 35, and really just perfect.

Keith and me at the start of the day

I led off setting a very conservative pace....in fact we were fast walking more than we were running. It was steep and I knew that my knees were my limiting factor for the day, if I could make it down without too much stress and strain I would be OK. All of a sudden we were at Indian Gardens and on the edge of the horizon, the sun was coming up. A quick potty break and we continued on. It was so peaceful in those pre-dawn hours, listening to the water, the sounds of my feet as I ran along, hearing different animals (not sure what they were!), it was a surreal time of the day. I'm actually very glad we left when we did......first of all I couldn't remember any of the terrain for the way back up and secondly, I couldn't see over the edge!!!

Sunrise almost to the bottom of the canyon

I heard some talking behind us and sure enough, there were Dave and Sonja!! We all ran down to the Colorado River and were just giddy when we got there. The color of the river was green, not brown as I had been expecting, and I thought a swim would have been nice:) Next up was Phantom Ranch, I believe we were around 9 miles in at this point. We watered and fueled up and got ready for the next "chapter", the box canyon.

Dave, Keith, me, PIC at Phantom Ranch

The box canyon was all that it was cracked up to be....stunning scenery. Canyon walls on either side of us, the creek roaring down next to us. Everyone was feeling great at this point, the pace was good and I was smiling and laughing. The milestones after the canyon were Cottonwood, Ribbon Falls, the water crossing, Ranger Station at Roaring Falls, and then onto the North Rim. After the canyon, I felt what I was hoping to avoid: my knees. And I had promised myself that I would turn around if started to hurt. So even though I felt great otherwise, I had a decision to make.

Just turn your head to left a bit.....this is the box canyon

Just keep running....

Nuun tabs are the bomb!

Water crossing - clearly not an issue!

We made it to Cottonwood and then climbed onward. I cannot begin to describe how gorgeous the day and the scenery was....and it's even hard to put into pictures. At Roaring Forks I left the group knowing that I was only half way done and 18 miles in....and would likely be on my own the rest of the day. But it was OK and I really never even thought twice about turning around. I was now on my own to enjoy all that the GC had to offer! As I started back, I realized how much climbing we had done. It didn't seem like it at the time but there was some pretty steep terrain and my knees were screaming for mercy. If it was too steep, I'd walk and as soon as it flattened out a bit I would run. It worked out great and I ran more that I walked.

On my way back, I didn't focus on the fact that I had to go all the way back up!

The next couple of hours I had a blast! There were all these running geckos (lizards) that kept me company on the trail and I tried not to crush them. My nutrition and hydration were going reasonably well and I was looking forward to the candy the Phantom Ranch cantina had in store. And, I was starting to see more people on the trail so I'd wave and say good morning. I'd also stop every once in awhile just to take in the scenery.

My apologies for the Blair Witch-y video...

Colorado River mid-day

M&M's at the cantina. Yum!

I reached the cantina and found one of my favorites....M&M's and proceeded to wolf them down, they seemed to hit the spot (for now). I mailed off a postcard to my parents and headed out.....and who did I see??? Dave! Great news, I had a partner for the remainder of the trip! His achilles started hurting shortly after I left the group and he made the decision to turn around too. Kind of funny though, because he couldn't really run the uphills and I couldn't really run the downhills so after awhile we just settled into an aggressive hike!

After crossing the suspension bridge it got HOT. As in probably over/around 100 hot. We were still maintaining an aggressive pace but mid-way through the first set of switchbacks I stopped in some shade and realized that I wasn't doing so great. Those awesome M&M's were begging for a reappearance, I was sweating profusely, and my heart rate wouldn't calm down. So, we hiked slowly! After that, I would cool off at every water crossing we hit - feet, head, whatever I could get wet. And then, before I knew it, we were back to Indian Gardens. Only 4.8 miles to the top from here, but when I looked up it may as well been another 15 miles. At this point I was about 32 miles in, my legs were hurting and tired, and it was still hot hot hot! I am really grateful that Dave and I were keeping each other company because this would have been seriously difficult had he not been there laughing and joking with me.

Delirium stage you ask? If you consider having a conversation about making sunscreen from hippo skin and mule poop then ummm, yeah, we may have been a bit delirious. Huh. And really, that last 1.5 miles??? Took forever. For. Ever. But we did it, we finally came to the last tunnel and decided to run the 1/4 mile in. 36 miles. 12 hours. And then we were done. At the top. Amazing. And that's why this post should actually be named R2AR2R (Rim to Almost Rim to Rim).

The black bird of death at Indian Gardens.....I reminded him that I wasn't dead yet I just kinda looked like it

The view coming out of Indian Gardens

So close to the top

Hmm, explanation for this? Nah, I think the video says it all! And yes, we did the 2 3/4 push-ups at the top.

Yep, that says it all doesn't it?

I reunited with the family and sat down. I knew I was in for some problems with my feet but didn't want to take my shoes off yet. And then we waited for the rest of the group to arrive: Sonja and Keith came in strong, Andrea aka "rockstar" arrived shortly after that, and then the boys. We watched the sunset on the Grand Canyon and decided to clean up and get some food.

The aftermath - the blister on that toe was almost as big as the toe itself! I had no less than 3 blisters on each foot.

Almost a week out of the experience now and I am extremely proud of what me and my teamies accomplished. It was an amazing day and adventure and I wouldn't trade that for anything. Although next time? I may take the helicopter tour:) Or not. I know I had the best view of the day!

Oh, I forgot, the best part of the day? At the finish when I saw my family again and knowing they had a great adventure day on their own. The girls are now officially "Junior Park Rangers" and can tell you all about different kinds of scat! And Michael? Total rock star taking care of everything while I was out exploring, thank you love!

Road Trip

2009-04-23T20:17:00.007-06:00

In pictures. I'm still working on the R2AR2R post/video/pictures but here's a view of the trip in pictures!!!

There was a caravan of cars on the way to Vegas: Tyler, Anne, and Sonja.

Me and Bethie pre-race recon. For some reason, the bike course seemed very different on race day. It could have been the head wind. Or the fact that I had shoes on. Or maybe because I put my helmet on backwards for the race. Oh, scratch that....there was no photographic evidence. It may or may not have happened. I can neither confirm nor deny....

Family post-race. It was so great to have them there cheering me in at the end!!!

Ummm, Charlotte got a hold of the camera

PC girls

Anne and I were In 'n Out virgins..... that was an amazing burger. Animal style. Who knew?

The PC gang. For some reason Tyler is taking off his shirt???? And what is Beth pointing at? And why is John spooning Anthony?

After Zumanity (which I LOVED), we went to see the fountains at the Bellagio

You thought the Hoover Dam was cool? Not as cool as the suspension bridge they are building right next to it!!!

Isabelle at the trailhead

Phantom Ranch: Dave, Keith, me, Sonja

Wow. I went from here to almost there and all the way back.

Oh Holy Moly

2009-04-22T09:27:00.002-06:00

Those were my first words when I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. Now they are the words I am using looking at the MESS I have to clean up from our Vegas/Grand Canyon road trip. There is laundry to be done, car to be cleaned, groceries to be bought, email to be caught up on, and of course, blogging to be done! So, in a nutshell, it was a freakin' awesome trip and the GC was unbelievable. I am alive, happy, and sore. The blisters on my feet are ugly. There will be much much more later!

Rage in the Sage Quick Report

2009-04-18T15:35:00.003-06:00

We're in Vegas Baby!! And I haven't even gambled yet! Michael has.....he's up $150. It'll be a big night as long as I don't fall asleep. Here's the quick race report:

Lake Mead is gorgeous. And incredible cold. Yep, 56 degrees this morning, I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am that I am a proud owner of a full sleeve wetsuit. Two caps and earplugs and I was ready to swim. The water was choppy and the current was very strong, that was the toughest open water swim I have encountered up to this point.

Bike was tough too! The recon yesterday didn't seem to do the actual course justice and I struggled a bit with sore/tired legs. I was passed by 3 women (maybe 4).

On to the run I felt pretty good and had quick turnover and just kind of went with the flow. i was passing guys all over the place and at the turnaround it looked like I had a solid hold on my place barring any disasters.

Finished up strong and am pleased with my performance. All of PC did great today and thanks to Michael and all of the cheering section!

I don't have any splits yet (except for the run at 47):

5th woman overall
2nd place age group

The kids are swimming in the pool now, and in a bit we're off to the strip to see Zumanity and fun fun fun:)

The Beach

2009-04-14T13:05:00.005-06:00

The only way to celebrate the end of ski season is to get your bikini top on (or not depending on how you roll), dust off your lawn chairs, fill up the cooler and head to the Beach at A-Basin.

The kids are finally old enough to enjoy the Beach so we went up on Friday. Unfortunately, we are having a wet and cool spring so the swimsuits stayed at home.....but it did mean great snow conditions!

Isabelle had sunscreen issues

Mmmm, juice boxes with Lauren on the Beach

We're pretty sure Charlotte will letter in every sport in high school

Anita showing how it's done at the Basin. That's right, she's double fisting!

The sun eventually came out for 15 minutes and I did manage a sun burn. With #70!

April - April 12 Update

2009-04-13T13:10:00.003-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Monday: 30x100 long course

Thursday: 20 min swim

Bikes

Wednesday: Epic loop (74 miles, a billion feet of climbing)

Sunday: 1.5 hours spin bike (raining)

Runs

Tuesday: Track (16x400)

Saturday: Track (10x800)

Sunday: 5 miles OTB and good effort

Other

Monday: Weights/abs

Friday: Ski day on rest day (only did 2 hard runs)

Sleep

Yes. May I more please? Sleep has been great except for after Epic.

Recovery

Hamstrings were sore after track on Tuesday. And legs hurt and had no power on ride Wednesday. Massage on Thursday helped but surprisingly (to me) hammys were still sore on Saturday at track.

Mood

Good. A bit stressed out at end of week with pre-trip planning and personal business.

Health

Great.

Comments:
A bit surprised at lack of response my legs had riding on Wednesday but I understand that my recovery will be different from everyone else's. And my legs will probably feel this way until the end of August. Yikes. Run is feeling great and am excited to see what plays out at race this weekend.

Adventure Time

2009-04-11T08:20:00.004-06:00

Well, it's time to let the proverbial cat out of the bag. I have committed to something big. Like almost can't believe I said yes big. And I'm freaking out just a little bit about it. Only a few people know about this adventure because sometimes when I take something on that seems too big I don't talk about it. Not to mention the "are you crazy" comments and "what is wrong with you" statements that I want to avoid because this one actually fits both of those.

Grand Canyon

In a little over a week, I will be joining a few team mates and friends in running the Grand Canyon. Rim to rim to rim. R2R2R. Approximately 47 miles and 11k in total climbing. Give or take 14 hours. And 2 days after my first tri of the season.

I have never even seen the Grand Canyon! But I am truly getting excited for this. It is not a race but a true adventure! How did this come about? PIC (naturally) has had this particular adventure on her list of things to do and since we are racing in Vegas, a mere 5 hours away, it seemed like the perfect add-on to an already fun-packed weekend. I never thought Michael would say OK, but sure enough, a couple of weeks ago he signed on. Thank you Michael!

So here's how the entire weekend looks: pack up the family car (a la Griswold style) and drive to Henderson, NV. About an 11 hour drive. Hang out with the Waltons and Wiecks in the family house in Henderson. On Saturday, race the Rage in the Sage. I am the wimp of the group as I am only doing the Olympic distance. Sonja and Tyler (and various others) are doing the Half. Saturday afternoon family bar-be-que at the house. Saturday night adult night in Vegas where we will see Zoomanity! Sunday, pack up and head to the GC. Monday, up around 4am to start the trek. Tuesday, drive back to Denver!

"There is a prospect of a thrilling time ahead for you." That was the fortune in my cookie from dinner the other night and that statement couldn't be more perfect. There IS a thrilling time ahead of me. There were also a bunch of numbers on the fortune too and I'm playing them in Vegas!

March 31 - April 5 Update

2009-04-04T19:35:00.003-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Monday: 3800m

Wednesday: 45 minutes non-stop (swim and pull)

Friday: 3600m

Bikes

Monday: 2 hours trainer (5 min. tempo every 20 min)

Tuesday: 1.5 hours LSD

Wednesday: 1 hour trainer (5 min. tempo every 10 min)

Sunday: 2.5 hours spin bike

Runs

Thursday: 10.4 miles Chatfield loop (first 6 miles conversational pace, last 4 pushed)

Saturday: 9+ miles (8x1mile repeats on tready)

Other:
Weights/abs x 3

Sleep

Very good this week. Must be tired as I fell asleep on couch watching TV both Thursday and Friday nights (haven't done that in ages, and yes I am FUN!)

Recovery

Good. Lots of swims this week which help me feel recovered.

Mood

Good. Not much crankiness.

Health
Healthy!!! Started taking preventative allergy stuff as we head into April

Comments
All in all a good week. Had a great run Thursday night and was able to push pace a bit for last half of run. Got HR up into "danger" zone but backed off pace just a tad and tried to keep at it.

Felt great that I didn't give up:) Next time I will push for longer and try to get my wits through mind games! Swims this week were strong, saw some nice times on Monday and felt good pushing. Lots of trainer time on the bike this week so I can't wait to get back outside again.

Colorado Springs

2009-04-02T10:17:00.008-06:00

Last weekend, I took the first (or maybe final) step in my quest to redefine myself career-wise. I headed up to Colorado Springs for the USAT Coaching Level 1 Clinic. Of course, with the blizzard on Thursday and Michael's flight home Thursday night canceled, I was a bit late to leave Denver and arrived an hour late. No worries, the first course I missed was by my least favorite lecturer. I was very fortunate in that my friend and fellow tri-chick Sydney was also going to the course so we decided to travel and room together and had a ball!!!

The only unfortunate part? I haven't sat my ass in a chair for 9 hours straight, well, since I was last gainfully employed. That was difficult!! And, of course, not working out for a couple of hours a day left me feeling BLAHHHHH. The good part? I was able to listen to all sorts of great people talk about what I love to do and talk about: nutrition, running, biking, swimming, mental training. It was incredibly educational and highly motivating. Oh, and the really cool part? The clinic was held at the OTC. Yep, the Olympic Training Center (insert oooohhhhhs and ahhhhhs here), that's right hallowed grounds.

Anyway, here are some cool pics from the weekend:

Sydney and I arriving at the OTC, we were clearly in a hurry to get to class (can you tell she just got back from Cancun?)

The walk of something or another.....I found the cool sport

If only I knew how to rotate an image in blogger.

We had lunch in the OTC dining hall. Not only did they serve up the BEST food (awesome salad bar, salmon, couscous, fruit, noodles, soup, etc.), but it was served up on these plates!

These block had names of all the past Olympic champions

Love this quote

On Saturday night, some folks from the clinic went to Manitou Springs for dinner on a recommendation that The Loop was the place to go for good margaritas. Really, who cares about food if the drinks are good! As we were driving into Manitou Springs, I remembered the last time I was there and all I can say is Pikes Peak.....I'll be back (in my best Ah-nold voice-over)

No really, it's just Gatorade

Kristi, me, Sydney, Ryan...really cool people and conversation

I am back on the Starbucks bandwagon

OTC cool pics

And the best part of the weekend? Finally breaking out of class on a beautiful afternoon and going for a run in the Garden of the Gods. Wow. It doesn't get much better than that.

Me, Ryan & Syd

Me and Pikes Peak

March 23 - March 30 Update

2009-04-02T09:50:00.005-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Monday: 3000 meters at DU, comfortable pace

Wednesday: 4000y Masters

Saturday: 30 minutes EZ

Bikes

Thursday: 2.5 hours trainer

This is what happens when there is a blizzard - trainer time!

Runs

Tuesday: 8 miles EZ in am; PM track (hill repeats) total for day: 17 miles

Friday: 6 miles tready, comfortable pace

Sunday: 10 miles hills, comfortable pace

Other:
Weights/abs x 2

I kinda like this saying...

Sleep

Much better this week, slept around 8 - 9 hours a night

Recovery

Body is still pretty tired but I don't expect that to change any time in the near future. Massage on Thursday didn't happen due to blizzard, will reschedule for next week.

Mood

Good.

Health

Felt like may have a cold coming on or possibly allergy season has started for me. Will start taking Claritin and keep my fingers crossed.

Comments

Good week although I felt like I was "tapering" on Friday and Saturday with lighter workouts due to class in Colorado Springs. When Sunday came around I still felt tired so knew that the "easy" days weren't that easy.

So much

2009-03-31T16:46:00.002-06:00

to talk about and so little time! There was the almost "blizzard" last Thursday, my awesome weekend in Colorado Springs, an incredible run with incredible people at Garden of the Gods, all the things I have learned in the last several days, a ride with Princess' new buddy Scarlett, trying to re-live college days and "cram" for an exam, finish up my CPR certification, and everything else. I am WAY behind!! So, tomorrow I will swim and lift, make sure our finances aren't completely out of whack, finish up the "test", pass along contract comments, make dinner, and post a more complete update HERE!!

Life Is Good

March 16 - 23 Update

2009-03-24T12:53:00.002-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Tuesday: 45 min. non-stop pull w/ paddles

Friday: Masters, 4000 yards

Bikes

Wednesday: 1/2 Epic ride (55 miles, 4 hours, 5500 ft climbing)

Sunday: Shadow, fast (50 miles, 3:17, 5865 climbing)

Runs

Tuesday: Track

Saturday: 8 miles (miles 3, 5, 7 fast efforts)

Other

Weights/abs x 2

Sleep

Not sleeping well. Having a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep even though exhausted. Restless.

Recovery

Not going as well as I would have liked. Ended up taking Monday and Thursday off to help in recovery. Still tired in run on Saturday and still not 100% on bike ride Sunday.

Mood

Cranky with some happy

Health

Fine

Comments: Tough week due to being tired.

Sunday Smack-down

2009-03-22T17:53:00.008-06:00

On your marks....

OK, in your best TV announcer voice: Sunday, Sunday, Sunday....Smmmmmackdown!!! This is how it happened: I was talking to Steve on Friday and I told him Sonja and I were planning on a Shadow ride Sunday. He and Anthony were going to ride Shadow too so I suggested we all ride together. He said no: we'll give you 20 minutes and the losers have to make us lemon bars (assuming that Son and I would be on the losing end of this deal). I, of course, said: Bring it. And then called Sonja knowing that she would never, EVER, turn that kind of challenge down.

Troy (PIC's awesome hubby) volunteered to be the official starter....and at 8:10am this morning we were off. As an added bonus, Tyler Boo Yah started 8 minutes ahead of us.....we had a rabbit. PIC and I discussed at the beginning of the ride that all we needed to do was match our awesome ride of last week, our own personal smackdown of 3:30 for the Shadow Loop. We didn't need to go all out from the start or anything silly like that. We were completely on the same page. Except that we decided to start our 2 minute pulls 8 minutes into the ride. Uh-huh Smackdown. All I can say is that 30 minutes in, I was solidly in my race-pace heart rate zone.

Up Deer Creek. Up High Grade. Down High Grade. We gained a couple of minutes on Tyler - how did we know you ask?

I think the S&M for me and Son is really only fitting....

Troy was keeping tabs on all of us (Tour-style naturally except that he wasn't on a motorcycle)!

Up Shadow, working together and working hard

We last saw Troy at the bottom of Shadow. I thought our time was limited now only because Steve-O had sounded so confident when he said he would catch us up Little Cub. But up, up, up Little Cub we went with no signs of Steve and Anthony. Sonja was feeling great at this point and I was struggling to keep up....but my awesome training partner said no worries, we can do this. She started taking longer pulls and kept tabs on me and we got to the top. Now the fun starts with a pretty long and curvy downhill. No stopping. No talking. Just riding. And then we were at Deer Creek and still no sign of the boys. At this point we both knew we could do it. And crush our 3:30 from last week. We passed our normal point of letting up and cruising to the cars and kept at it (much to my surprise)! And then we were done. No boys in sight. Tyler was waiting for us at the bottom - he cruised in at 3:22 (by himself!!). As for the girls??? 3:17. And Steve and Anthony: 3:08. Well within the 20 minute smackdown range.

So really, the only question now is...What do we win? Lemon bars do sound pretty tasty at this point but I also like the idea of domestique duty for the rest of the year - hauling water bottles and food, pulling us up Epic and Shadow etc.

Day Off

2009-03-19T15:58:00.002-06:00

After a disappointing ride yesterday, Coach asked me to take a day off. An unplanned day off. By the way, when I say disappointing just think getting dropped in a warm up. I mean I could not for the life of me get my legs to give me any more ummmph. And I wanted to hammer with the girls so badly - we were riding with the '04 Olympic Bronze medalist for goodness sakes!!! But, alas, it was just not my day. After the millionth time being dropped, I decided to pack it in at mile 28. Great plan but the problem was it still took me another 1.5 hours and 28 miles to get home. Zowie (for those doing the math that would be 56 miles, 4 hours, and not sure of feet climbed). I spent the next 2 hours in bed but I was too tired to sleep. So I read my book (yep, it's true, I am devouring the Twilight series and I know I said I'd never read a teen book but these are awesome!), felt my legs spasming (is that a word?), and tried not to be bummed out at my lack of performance.

And then came the call from Coach telling me to take a day off, to recover. I didn't fight it because it made perfect sense. In looking back over the last week, well OK the last month, there has been LOTS of training, lots of hard work, and not much time for recovery. So, here are my top 10 list of things to do for an unplanned day off:

1. Sleep

2. Eat

3. Re-stock gels, nutrition bars, sports drinks etc.

4. Re-stock entire kitchen (I eat more than I care to think about)

5. Make a dent in washing "wicking" laundry......I forgot about some of these clothes because they were at the bottom of the pile....almost as good as buying something new!

6. Go outside and try to even out silly bike tan lines (thx PIC!)

7. Read book

8. Watch movie (Netflix is great)

9. Stretch

10. Pedi (OK, I didn't actually do this but my feet need a little love!)

The big question is, am I ready to get back into it tomorrow? I plan on giving it a shot - Masters in the morning and weights and abs. Fortunately, it is swimming so if I'm not feeling it I will get out of the pool and go home and get back in bed. I won't have to swim 3 miles to get home, that is a relief.

March 9 - March 15 Update

2009-03-16T08:43:00.003-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Wednesday: Drills

Friday: Masters, sprint day, 4100 yards

Bikes

Monday: City View (45.7 miles, 4900 ft climbing, 3:25)

Thursday: 2 hours spin bike, 5 min. tempo effort every 15 minutes

Sunday: Shadow Mtn (50.6 miles, 5865 ft climbing, 3:30)

Runs:

Monday: 3 miles treadmill easy

Tuesday: Track (ab. 6 miles total)

Thursday: 4.5 miles conversational pace

Saturday: 11 miles, neg. split, moderate/hard effort

Other:
Weights/abs x 2

Sleep:

Tired but issues sleeping this week.

Recovery:

No issues but quite tired by end of week.

Mood:

Good.

Health:
Knee was very sore after track but recovered by end of week.

Comments:

A good workout week ended with a great Shadow Ride Sunday. A bit disappointed with knee situation but good news is that it is not limiting workouts.

Trouble

2009-03-15T18:22:00.004-06:00

If PIC Sonja and I weren't enough trouble on our own, take a look at this picture. Yep, there's a new bike in the mix, a beautiful yet-to-be-named Isaac that PIC can call her own. It's true, we will no longer be twinkies on the bike. But after today's ride we will now be known as the Isaac Girls. (sorry Steve!!!)

Princess aka Aloha Mahalo in blue and her new pal in white

So today's workout was, in a word, awesome. PIC and I had a very specific ride today, just the 2 of us (well, with the bikes that would be 4). But nobody else. This was no social ride, it was a 2-man (WO-man), 2 minute pace line for the Shadow Mountain ride. And we KILLED it!! We were super strong on all 3 climbs, kept a great steady pace, and continued our pace line even on the downhills. And you can tell we are both working on our downhill skills and had some great descents!

All told, 50.6 miles and 3.5 hours. What a ride! Thanks Sonja and yet-to-be-named awesomeness:)

I think Sonja's hair pretty much sums up the ride!

Track

2009-03-11T12:39:00.006-06:00

The first track workout of the season (long season) was last night. We are officially off and running (no pun intended but I was talking about track so...)! Starting track workouts feels like the start of the on-season but it really isn't. As I have come to learn in the last couple of years, there is no official "off" season. Only a non-racing season. My last 5k was in December and that even feels like forever ago. So many things have happened since then, or at least one major thing.

But I digress....So track tonight was just a continued beginning of the training journey. But a beginning nonetheless. I had the same nervous tummy but I planned my meals correctly so I knew I wouldn't (or at least hoped) blow chunks on the track. The workout was simple: a 2 mile time trial. I knew going in that PIC Sonja wouldn't be there but I was hoping my other PIC Bethie would be. She wasn't. Which just meant I was on my own and would have to figure out my pace and everything else on my own. This is a good thing as sometimes I rely too heavily on other people's paces, energy and thoughts. I positioned myself right behind the fast boys (they were talking about running around a 6 minute pace) and I ignored Steve when he wanted me to come up front. I felt good about my position and knew it was aggressive for me.

We all started and I let a couple of guys out in front of me with the intention of catching them after 1 mile. I'm not sure what our pace was at the 200 but it was quick, fast enough for me to get that feeling of dread - oh shit I have to keep this pace! But I gathered myself, fought the panic feelings, relaxed and got control of my breathing. 1 lap down, 7 to go.....Funny thing is, after all these long rides and runs, it was all I could do to tell myself, self you only have to do this for 10 more minutes - that's it! And it still seemed like an unreasonable amount of time. I missed the pace call at 400 and 800 but was around 5:00 at the 1200. Of course, since my HR was around 170 I was unable to do the math and the first mile came in at 6:43. Hmmmmm, wasn't my fastest mile last year a 6:37??? Where's Beth I need to check with her on that.....oh man that means this last mile could be brutal......I passed the 2 guys that started ahead of me with 1200 to go, got lapped by the fast boys and all of a sudden I just had 400 left with a pace call of 11-50 something. My brain got to work and figured I could make the 14 minute cut-off for the Group 1 "qualification" with just a 2 minute effort on the last lap......I came in at 13:31 which I believe comes out to a 6:48 second mile, so I didn't die off too badly. Not a bad way to start the season!

And, if you call this good news, I'm now "officially" in Group 1 at track. I can honestly say that I never thought that would happen. Oh joy, I can now look forward to getting crushed weekly at track....it's gonna hurt, true, but I am psyched!

With the good comes the bad. As Steve-O said, at least you have your run and your bike.....that's right we went to the pool to see how I've done on my stroke work over the last couple of months. And, there has been no change. None. Crap-ola. So much for that sub-21 swim.

See that elbow? That should be bent, not a straight arm

Here's a video of some one arm drills and at the end I manage 1 or 2 good strokes, maybe there is hope!

March 2 - March 8 Update

2009-03-08T21:22:00.002-06:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Wednesday: 1 hr 5 min non stop (20 min swim, 30 min pull, 15 min swim)

Friday: Masters, sprint day, 3800 yards

Bikes

Monday: Epic loop (5 hr. 25 min., 8500 ft climbing, aggressive ride)

Friday: City View loop (46 miles, ~4000 ft climbing, easy ride except for wild goose chase second half of High Grade that boosted my HR 10-15 bpm for ~20 minutes)

Sunday: 2.5 hour spin, easy/moderate pace

Runs

Tuesday: 9 miles, conversational pace

Thursday: 11.3 miles, conversational pace

Saturday: 6 miles, easy/moderate pace

Other

Weights/abs x 1

Sleep

OK, pretty tired this week. Woke up on the weekend feeling like I needed several more hours sleep. Passed out on the couch for a bit on Saturday afternoon.

Recovery

Good. Legs felt relatively good considering load but were reasonably tired and heavy on Saturday but still managed to pick up miles 4/5 at a good clip with an under race-pace HR.

Mood

Good for the most part

Health

Good. Kids have been fighting colds so I feel I am waiting for a cold to happen but have weathered the germ pool well so far.

Comments

A record time week for me coming in at just over 20 hours. I was quite tired coming into the weekend but still managed to eek out a run Saturday. Really had a hard time coming into Sunday and almost didn't manage a workout but sucked up 2.5 hours on a spin bike with Michael and good people watching (and 2007 Ironman on video screen helped). Robust appetite this week.

16.5

2009-03-06T17:37:00.007-07:00

Hours. As in, 16.5 hours so far this week I have spent training. And it's only Friday. An Epic ride Monday, a City View ride this morning. A couple of swims, a couple of runs and voila, we are at a record time week. I'm not sure that when I wished I could train part-time in the past (when I was working full-time) that I really understood what that meant. And to be honest, I'm still not sure what it means!! I can tell you this.....I'm tired. And I'm hungry. Really hungry. But I also feel good. And I feel strong. And it is only early March. But my body is holding up remarkably well (thank you Dr. Ken at Active Care and Andrea massage therapist extraordinaire!!) and I'm curious to see how all this plays out in the upcoming season. First race is only 6 weeks away - Rage in the Sage in Vegas baby!

Me and Tyler before our ride this morning.....it was cold and windy!!

General goofiness with Steve

PIC Sonja and me....I think we may have freaked some people out at Chipotle after our ride today. I'm pretty sure we may have set some sort of weird record for how FAST we scarfed our burritos down!

GSW '09

2009-03-04T14:23:00.001-07:00

For the past 16 years, a group of us girlfriends have been gathering in the mountains for Girls Ski Weekend. It started way back in the early '90s (YIKES) when KC and I went to Steamboat for a weekend and called Foster while she was working in Mexico. The group has grown since then but what has always remained the same is how much we look forward to this weekend. Sometimes it involves going out on the town and sometimes we just hang out and talk. But we always have a great time getting together, talking, laughing, sharing, and of course, skiing.

Thanks for a great weekend Lisa, Lesa, Anita, Steph and Laura:)

Feb. 23 - March 1 Update

2009-03-02T18:36:00.003-07:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Monday: Masters distance ~5000y

Wednesday: Masters mid-distance w/ stroke ~4700y

Bikes
Tuesday: Epic loop, moderate/hard effort

Thursday: 33 miles, just under race pace

Runs
Thursday: 9.5 miles

Friday: 6 miles, 1/4 mile race pace 4, 5, 6

Other

Weights/abs x 2
Ski day x 2

Sleep

No issues but very tired this week

Recovery:

Massage after brick Thursday, really loosened up legs.

Mood:

Good

Health:
Good. Knee a bit sore this week, have been tempted to get a shot.

Key Workout Description: Bike/Run Brick

Location: Cherry Creek Reservoir for bike, run from house

Nutrition:

Waffle and 2 hard boiled eggs before starting. 1 bottle Perpetuum on bike, 1 gel with 10 minutes left on bike, 1 mini Lara bar before run. Sipped off Perpetuum bottle during run. No GI issues and no hunger.

Weather:

Nice temp but very windy especially in reservoir.

Distance:

33 miles on bike; 9.5 on run

Pace:

Ave. 17.2 mph on bike and ave. 9min/mi on run

Heart Rate Stats:
Ave. 120 on bike and 142 on run

Comments:

Good workout although bike was pretty tough with headwind and legs were very sore from new exercises on Wednesday. Legs loosened up by run and managed to keep a pretty even pace throughout. I was able to finish strong on the run.

Epic AGAIN

2009-02-25T14:17:00.008-07:00

Last year I was insanely envious of PIC Sonja when I heard she and Coach Steve were off on their long bike rides up Shadow or an Epic loop and I was stuck at work doing you know, work stuff. From the stories I heard about the rides, they were long and fun with lots of laughter and riding side by side socializing. I wanted to join them so badly, I wished I didn't have to go to work. But you know what they say (who is "they" and why do "they" have so many sayings?), careful what you wish for!

I was not this happy riding Epic

Now I am getting the phone calls, hey you want to do Shadow tomorrow? Sure, sounds great. Only then it turns into an Epic loop which I had only done once before last June. And here we are in February, FEBRUARY, hitting Epic. Here's the summary of this ride: up and over Deer Creek, up Parmalee Gulch, up Kerr Gulch, up backside of Shadow Mountain, up backside of High Grade, hope you can hold onto the fast downhill on High Grade/Deer Creek, ~75 miles, 5 hours 45 minutes, and a billion feet of climbing, OK about 8500). This was last Thursday, and the ride went well. I mean, as well as an Epic ride in February can go. But we did it, I got dropped once on Kerr Gulch (more on that damned gulch later), but I hung in there with Steve-O and PIC, stayed fully engaged and had a great ride.

And then the decision was made on Friday, Epic on Tuesday? My smart self says, hmmmm 2 Epics, some running, swimming and skiing in one week? Nah. But my smart self never speaks up only the yet-to-be-named dumbass that thinks, Great Idea!!! Let's go! Plus, PIC tells me the night before the ride that it is going to be "easier" than Thursday's ride. Right.

It all started so nicely, so pleasantly. But I soon realize that Steve is riding a bit harder up Deer Creek than last week and my heart rate is nearing 150, which is right around race pace. Not good, especially since we are only 1 hour into a 5+ hour ride. And my back is bothering me on the uphills too......down we go and onto climb #2. Fortunately for me, PIC dropped a couple of things while shedding some clothes and needed to go back to retrieve them and I settled into a nice easy pace. But again, Steve picked it up towards the top of Parmalee and this time we didn't stop at the top.

Now Kerr Gulch (aka fucking Kerr Gulch grrrr). I thought it would be easier this time around since we didn't have the F2 (fucking ferocious) headwind like last week. I was sadly mistaken. Steve is pedaling along, Son is on his wheel, and I am hanging on in the back. They both stand up, I follow suit, look up and they have dropped me. What???? AHHHHH. I was dropped here last week and it happened again, and the weird thing? Out of nowhere I cry. Which is a bad thing when you are redlining because you can't breathe. I calm down, put my head down, and managed to catch up. But I was pissed off and frustrated. I yelled out I HATE YOU STEVE but he had his tunes on and didn't hear me. I wanted to go back to work at the office. I was going to quit the ride. I was going to take Little Cub home and call it a day. My legs hurt, my back hurt, and there were still 2 more climbs to go. No Way. And I was still crying. We made the rest stop (Circle K) in Evergreen, I dropped my bike off and headed straight for the bathroom. I needed a moment to gather myself before I strangled Steve. PIC followed me in and helped me realize, it's just a climb. It's just today. And clearly, Kerr Gulch is now my next mental obstacle to overcome. (BTW, PIC - THANK YOU!!) I didn't quit, and decided to stick on Steve's wheel up Shadow.

Only problem with sticking on Steve's wheel you ask? Well, it means that you are now the main focus of the finger pointing - meaning stick on my wheel as if your life depends on it. No easing up, just full on stay with Steve. There were several times when he gave me "the finger" as I was falling off the back and I just shook my head, are you f***g kidding me??? Apparently, PIC was behind me chuckling because she had been in that position so many times before on Steve's wheel - the shaking the head, the I hate you, the I'm never doing this again, the can I just stop at the top and take a nap, the are you kidding me we just hit 45 mph on the downhill.

On our way back to the house, PIC and I decided that somehow Shadow got steeper in the last 5 days. Not sure how that happened but it did. We also decided that we were not going to do that ride again. We collapsed on the front lawn, looked up at the blue sky, and started giggling. And then Steve said, so ride it again Monday? PIC said YES. And, of course, so did I.

6x1

2009-02-23T13:59:00.001-07:00

I know, it's a bit late to post a video from last Tuesday's track workout. But it took me that long to figure out iMovie. And then I realized I couldn't post from iMovie and had ask PIC what I needed to do. Which lead me to compressing the video and then creating a YouTube account. Just so you know, these are all activities I had sworn NOT to do. (not asking PIC, just the video compressing and YouTube stuff) I probably shouldn't admit it took me that long to do any of this.....that's right, I've been lazy and busy. At the same time.

So my apologies for the following video.....this is what happens when I am home alone and dreading a track workout. I also apologize for not reading the owner's manual for the camera thus leading to the blurry video. I am the only one to blame for the shaky camera and general goofiness. Oh and it was my first time using iMovie too....so enjoy!!!! (BTW, cast of characters: me, Bethie, Sonja, and Sonja's cat)

Feb. 17 - Feb. 22 Update

2009-02-23T13:03:00.002-07:00

Weekly Update
Swims

Monday: Masters distance ~5000 yds

Saturday: 1 hour non-stop (20m swim, 25m pull, 15m swim)

Bikes

Thursday: Epic loop (74 miles, 5 hrs 40 min, 8500 feet climbing over 5 "hills")

Runs

Tuesday: 6 x 1 mile repeats

Friday: 12 miles w/ 1/2 mile race pace efforts miles 6-10

Other:
Weights x 2; core class x 1; 1 ski day

Sleep

Recovery

Generally good. Normatech pants on Friday after run and legs felt great afterwards. Stretching almost daily.

Mood

Good with periods of crankiness

Health

Somehow tweaked lower back this week, it started acting up on Thursday ride, possibly due to increased speed work, core class, and time on bike. It loosened up on Sunday so I'll watch it and not push over next week. Knee also a bit sore this week. Otherwise healthy and weathered another kids' cold.

Comments:

Even with a day off this week, I was pretty tired and sore but felt I had some quality workouts and hit a couple of milestones (swim on Monday was aggressive and was able to keep pace with fast girl, Epic on Thursday in February and stayed in-the-game entire ride, quality 12 miles on Friday on tired legs and happy with speed effort).