Bounce Bark Run

Love is in the air

2012-02-14T17:34:00.000-08:00

My sweet Valentines kept me company today and made me feel very loved

My other Valentine is traveling for work but I found this waiting for me this morning :-)

Data Nerds Unite

2012-02-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

If you remember the cool TrainingPeaks features I blogged about a few weeks ago, and you were jealous, fear not - you get these features in just 2 more days! And more cool stuff too! Check out this blog post from over at TrainingPeaks to see for yourself!

I'm really looking forward to the Segment Editing so I can name all my local climbs and track my times on them. And adding sugar to the nutrition tracking - well, obviously that's one I'd like to keep an eye on based on my last post, right?*

*Yes, I'm eating sugar again, I just needed a few days off. I feel much better for not having had 3 desserts a day for 4-5 days. I am still concerned about all the sugar snuck into our food, hence the best attempts I can to avoid processed foods/junk. If I'm gonna have sugar/dessert/candy I want it to be the GOOD stuff!

Sweet Thing

2012-02-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

I might have a slight problem with sugar. In 2011 I cut recreational sugar for the month of May, and it was a great way to "reset" myself a bit. I was able to enjoy it after that without riding the endless roller coaster of sugar highs and lows all day and craving it constantly. Last week I found myself experiencing the signs of rampant sugar addiction again - thinking about it constantly, eating several desserts a day, polishing off several boxes of cookies in a week, waking up and thinking I'd rather skip my workout and just jump straight to that chocolate chip coconut cookie in the cabinet...time to SNAP OUT OF IT!

So I cut out the sugar again. I may go for the rest of the month, I may reintroduce it again sooner but I need to regain a little bit of control first. Day 1 was hard - after 24 hours without sugar, I was sleepy at 6pm and ready for bed, thinking that life without sugar was not worth living (I can't make this shit up). Day 2 was better, and by day 3 I felt fabulous! I had one small package of raw cacao treats while I was down in Arizona yesterday but I think just staying away from processed sugary treats is helping me a lot.

In other news, training is going well. I closed out another strong week of building volume/intensity and have one more big week to go before rest week! I've been doing a lot of TRX for my strength work lately...I love the TRX! Nothing has taken me further with my core strength because it requires engagement of multiple muscle groups for every move. I told Coach this week that it never gets easier, I just manage to do the moves for longer!

I also started using my swim snorkel finally this past week. My old masters coach (from ~2009) pulled the snorkels out once and we tried them and I promptly inhaled water up my nose every time I put my face in the water and so I threw it back on deck. And never touched it again. But now it's 2012 and Coach says they are good swim toys to use and my swim guru - who is helping me change my whole stroke - wants me to use them, and so I've bought one. The first time I tried it, I once again inhaled a large amount of chlorinated water and threw it on deck. The next time, I spent the evening before visualizing a smooth calm inhale/exhale that did not involve my nose and the next morning I was able to do 50-75 yard blocks with the snorkel on! I'm excited to incorporate snorkel sets into my swimming now!

On my way back from Arizona yesterday, the security line at Sky Harbor was really long for the D gates (where my flight was) so I went over to the A line (the gates all connect in Terminal 4). The Homeland Security guy checking my ID said "You know you're in the A line and this is a boarding pass for a D gate, right?" I told him yes but I know they all connect (the terminal is a big square). His response? "I don't think you want to do that, it's like a mile walk." First of all...no way it was a mile. Secondly...there are moving sidewalks the whole way! *shakes head*

I'm going to go have some Greek yogurt as my "dessert" (oh gee, how exciting) and go to bed by 9pm now, as the 4:45am alarm for masters comes awfully early. Have a great week!

Random Thoughts From Training

2012-02-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

We've got a rain storm coming in tonight and I. Can't. Wait. I've been sniffling my way through a bout of allergies ever since we got home last week...pretty sure that's cause it rained while we were gone and now everything is blooming and thinks it's spring already! I need a little bit of rain to tamp down all those allergens for a few days.

I was s-l-o-w and dragging in the pool at 5:30 this morning. A little sniffling isn't a big deal on the bike and run but it does complicate breathing when swimming! I swam hard for as long as I could and when I felt my form truly slipping, I put the paddles and buoy on. Don't judge, Coach says they are good for me. After I got back from the office this afternoon, I put in my time on the TRX for a strength workout. My core strength has come so so SO far in the past few years, and most of those gains have come in the 2 years I've had the TRX here. I haven't tried anything that challenges my core as much.

I'm still tickled pink about putting in a solid week of work last week. Not that I've been slacking but I trained on my own for December and took my recovery from IM AZ seriously, and then January was just easing back into regimented training. February is clearly where we start gearing up a bit!

Last week was just the beginning of picking up the weekly volume!

I've been chuckling because my bike volume will likely look deceptively low this year. I'm using a different trainer than I did in past years...Coach suggested I use Jeff's trainer instead of mine, as it's a bit tougher on me. I still put out my intended watts for each workout but I just seem to have to work a little harder at it. The interesting thing is that for whatever reason my speed/mph is way way lower on this trainer for the same power output as the other one. So a workout that would have averaged something like 16mph on the old trainer is a nice speedy...12mph on this one :-) Hence, I'm not going to worry about trainer mileage because I know I'm putting out quality watts for the workout!

One of my favorite geeky things to do in my TrainingPeaks account is look at the Performance Management Chart. The short version of how the chart works, from the TP site, is "just remember the blue line represents your fitness, the pink line shows your fatigue, and the yellow line shows how fresh you are." I like to look back all the way to when I started with Coach in fall 2008 and see how far my fitness has come. You can see the blue line build to IM AZ 2009, then drop as I recovered, build to Austin 70.3 (my A race for 2010), then drop as I recovered (but not as much as the year before), build to IM AZ 2011 (new peak fitness!), then drop as I recovered (again not as much as the previous year), and now it's juuuuuust starting to build again. I love seeing a quantitative measure of increased fitness from season to season!

I'm playing around with nutrition again for this season, using some things from last year and trying new things. It's what makes this time of year so much fun!

Happy training!

Home, Home on the Range...

2012-02-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

We got home very late last Sunday night and were immediately thrown back into the fire - it's been one CRAZY week. Work was just insane, we were both commuting back and forth to the office a lot, all 3 dogs had classes to attend in the evenings, and sleep went right out the window. Somehow, I managed to get all my workouts completed and handle way too many hours of meetings at work, on less than optimal hours of sleep per night.

It all came to a head Saturday morning though, when after 8 hours of sleep, I woke up feeling like crap. I walked and fed the dogs and then went back to bed. I woke up again around 11:30am, ate a bit more and suddenly felt fantastic! I'm so glad I listened to my body and took the time to rest up some more. I nailed my workouts for the day after that! With the completion of my long run today, I've put a solid week of training in the books - really the first big week of 2012 - and gained a little more confidence about how much I can juggle when life is truly nuts.

A few photo/video highlights...

Max and Puck doing their last run of the night at their first nose work class - success!

Some Stanley agility photos from his trial in January. My baby dog has turned into quite the momma's boy all of a sudden. It's awfully sweet.

Beach trip this morning! I can't believe it's February...

Beach dogs are happy dogs

Max says you should never turn your back on the sea

Puck chases a seagull

Boy was he surprised when the wave hit him...

He was even more surprised when he jumped off a rock and landed in a deep pool of water - first time swimming!

WTF was that??!!

3 dog baths and a long run later, I'm all worn out and ready to watch football. Have a great week, everyone!

Cruise to Run - Days 5 and 6

2012-02-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

Friday was our last island stop of the trip, on Barbados. I could see the race start/finish beach as we pulled into harbor. We were bussed from the terminal over to Brandon's Beach for the 5k run and open water swim. It was a hot and windy day, so I wasn't expecting any sort of PR, but I had a run test to get done so I knew I'd be going hard.

You can see the little orange buoys at the beach

Many of the local runners and track teams came out to do the race as well

And we're off!

"This hurts."

Matchy-matchy with Gayle post-race

No PR but 2nd in AG calls for a recovery beer!

By the time awards were announced, I was on to the victory beer - W30-34 podium posing with Sarah

Once all that was done it was time to swim! I'm so glad I was able to swim in open water nearly every day last week. Here's a view back towards the beach from the 1st buoy

I don't know *why* everyone made fun of my swim cap... LOL

Saturday was a day at sea as we cruised back to San Juan before we all headed home. We hid out and avoided the crowds plastered to every chair on deck of the ship and ended the day with one last dinner with Alex and Susan.

Sunday we disembarked and headed home. There were some eventful airline bobbles along the way but it couldn't diminish the glow of such an awesome trip! I can't recommend Cruise to Run enough for anyone who is looking for a warm sunny fun vacation with some active people.

Tomorrow, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Cruise to Run - Day 4

2012-02-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

Thursday was one of the most wonderful days on the cruise. We again skipped the group run and went on an all day excursion exploring the natural beauty of the island of Dominica. This little volcanic island has some serious vertical scenery and amazing features.

We snorkeled on the Champagne Reef (so named because it sits on the edge of some volcanic activity and the water bubbles from underneath you), visited the Emerald Pool, lunched at a beautiful research center in the mountains, and then visited Titou Gorge and Trafalgar Falls before returning to the ship.

Those are several old cannons underneath Jeff!

As our guide explained it, this is Dominica's erection tree. With a ratio of 7 women to every man on the island, the men need to keep up their, ahem, energy, and so they boil the bark of this tree as a natural form of Viagra.

I'm pretty sure we were in bed by 8pm that night. It was a long day!!!

Cruise to Run - Day 3

2012-02-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday we arrived in Antigua.

Jeff relaxed while I headed off for a 13k run to Fort Barrington and back. At the turnaround, we climbed up to the Fort to take in some spectacular views!

You can see Fort Barrington up on the hill below

Alex loves me.

See the teeny tiny people on the beach in the middle? That's where I was a few photos back...

Almost there!

A quick run through the showers and we were off to explore the port town we docked at.

Jeff and I were so proud of ourselves - on Wednesday night we managed to stay past midnight (the only time we managed that the entire cruise). We danced at the big party on the deck and then moved on to the nightclub later.

Gee, I have no idea who graffitied on the door of those Ottawa fans... :-) (hint: it wasn't me)

Cruise to Run - Day 2

2012-02-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

Tuesday found us sailing into port at Tortola (British Virgin Islands). Jeff and I skipped the run for the day (to the top of the large hill on the left of the first photo) and hopped on a small boat that took us to a teeny island called Jost Van Dyke, which has virtually no roads or power, just beaches with bars.

As usual, dinner back on the ship at the end of the day was highly entertaining.

Cruise To Run - Days 0 and 1

2012-02-01T14:19:00.000-08:00

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to blog again. I had a week without any real internet access (and the miracle is I survived!) and then we got home and I have barely slept and been swamped in work and trying to catch up on the 1000+ (seriously) blog posts in my Google Reader rather than write my own.

On Sunday the 21st, we boarded a Princess cruise ship with a little group called Cruise to Run. IM AZ buddies Alex and Susan had done this cruise several times and talked me into signing up last year. Basically you go on a cruise with a bunch of crazy endurance athletes, do a little race on each island we stop at, have guest speakers (the amazing Sarah Reinertsen and Runners World's own Bart Yasso this year), drink a whole lot of alcohol and confound all the people who are just on the boat to eat their body weights in cream puffs and roast in the sun.

Let's get on this thing already!

We set sail after bedtime on Sunday night and woke up Monday morning pulling into the harbor on the island of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands!

Most of the cruisers were still asleep as we disembarked for our first run of the trip.

With Alex and Susan!

St Thomas iguana

The St Thomas run was a 5k with an unusual format for determining the winners. You had to submit your predicted time and run without any watches - the closest to the predicted time wins! I had a super easy run on the schedule so I submitted 30:30 as my 5k time. My finishing time? 30:24! Just 6 seconds off. Amazingly the top 10 were all within 4 seconds of their prediction. Still, I was happy with it!

After we cleaned up from the run and got breakfast, we were off to Magen's Beach on the other side of the island (a quick 15-20 minute hop). There is no better way to recover from a run, I'm now convinced!

We got lots of open water swimming in while we were there too!

View of the harbor coming back over the hill

Monday night was also the first of the formal nights on the cruise, as well as a big free-booze C2R reception. Par-tay!!

Another Adventure Begins...

2012-01-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

Friday afternoon saw us saying goodbye to the California sun...

A couple of these on a layover set the tone for the trip.

And finally, almost 24 hours after we started, we ended up in a room with this view on Saturday afternoon. It didn't suck.

From the other direction it looked like this.

This didn't suck either.

We spent Saturday evening catching up with old friends.

As well as doing the large amount of philosophizing that comes when 2x IM finishers gather. Or we were just wondering how Alex grew that beard. :-)

Old San Juan (Puerto Rico) was beautiful to wander around in at night

And finally, 37 hours after I woke up in my own bed at 4:45 am for 5:30 Friday morning masters, we slept.

Today (Sunday) we pack up and leave on the next leg of our adventure, doing something that is very new for me! Hopefully I'll have some internet access along the way...in the meantime, remember - Protect the Planet!

Another weekend, another agility trial..

2012-01-19T07:35:00.000-08:00

Need I say more? The goober dog is FUN.

The Jumpers run (the 2nd one) landed him a 3rd place too! Here he is with his cousin who got 1st.

There were quite a few outtakes to get that photo, as these two wanted to bark and play...at one point we were chasing them around with their ribbons dragging behind when they took off running all at once.

Stan is off to a big show this weekend and he looked pretty nice when he left! *fingers crossed*

Life With Puck

2012-01-16T14:59:00.001-08:00

Puck has been in our house 3 months now, so I thought I'd give a little update on how life with Puck works. After about a month he was fully potty trained and after about 2.5 months, he's been trustworthy to leave alone in the house for a few hours at a time. So with that simple puppy stuff under our belts, life gets more interesting.

He is a very intense snuggler and if he had his way, would spend his nights sleeping on our heads. Instead he starts out in his crate and sleeps there until Jeff lets him out around 4am, after which he gets in bed and spoons us. He is perfectly content to sleep late too, no rushing us out of bed like the beardies do!

He's a food maniac and SO obsessed with his meals that he refuses to go on morning walks because they only delay breakfast. Evening walks are acceptable however.

As soon as breakfast is served, he races out to the yard to wrestle and run with Max, who teases him with toys and then takes off running and barking. They want to do this as soon as they have eaten, even if it's...5am. So they get locked in the house till more like 7am. I hope my neighbors are awake by then!

He's incredibly people focused and always wants to greet new people. He's quite frustrated when every person we pass on a walk doesn't want to pet him.

He has recently learned how to dig.

Puck thinks he's a beardie, which isn't surprising since he lives with 2 of them. This past weekend he had the chance to join me at an agility trial (more on that in another post), followed by a playdate at Stanley's breeder's house. He was delighted to engage in the reindeer games with all the other dogs and had no idea that he was not the 9th beardie there.

"What? I fit right in!"

We started conformation class last week, as his first dog show is coming up next month. He had a very good time as he figured out there was pretty much nonstop food shoved in his mouth as long as he behaved! He starts nose work class in a couple of weeks and I think he's going to LOVE hunting for food in boxes.

So pretty much Puck fits in perfectly around here! He still seems so little to us - still weighs less than either of the beardies - so it will be funny to see more of his personality develop as he grows. In honor of Puck turning 5 months old this weekend, here's a little retrospective of his beginnings!

3 weeks

5 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks/2 months

3 months

4 months

Training Fun!

2012-01-14T20:35:00.000-08:00

With a brief burst of warm weather in the middle of January, I managed to ride outside for a "real" ride (as opposed to my post-IM easy spins) since IM AZ. I had some hills to do on the schedule so Jeff and I rode down to do the Hicks-Shannon-Kennedy loop in Los Gatos. It's relatively short but has some good steep stuff in there (12% at one point going up Kennedy). Given that my bike is still geared for AZ, I was a little nervous about the climb but ended up doing it in my fastest time ever!

I got to play with the new Scatter graph option in beta testing for TrainingPeaks ambassadors. Most of my workout was scheduled around a certain wattage and my cadence held mostly in my target spot for those watts. The really low cadences matched up with the higher watts I put out when climbing the steep hill. Kinda neat to see like this!

Look at that weather forecast...sadly it gets cold (hey it's cold for us!) starting tomorrow. Another limited beta feature but it's pretty cool to compare in the same place with my current training plan!

I'm happy that so far I've put together a really good training week - just one run to go!

Brussels Sprouts and other ramblings

2012-01-11T21:32:00.000-08:00

Probably the most random title ever, right? I ate like 3 cups of these things tonight, I think that constituted most of my dinner. Let's just say there is a beach vacation in my future and I want my race-weight bikini body to go with me. It turns out after never having brussels sprouts growing up and always thinking they were nasty based on what other people said...I found a way to cook them that I love them! (just roasting with olive oil, salt and pepper)

Training is coming along well. Today was another double-swim day (a mostly-pull swim assigned by Coach earlier in the day and my weekly technique lesson in the evening) and so my arms and shoulders are feeling nicely toasted. I'm starting to see the glimmerings of time improvements from all this form work I'm doing...in my first swim of the day (which was not done until lunch because our cold weather - don't laugh - is killing my morning swim motivation) I had to descend a set of 50s and not only did I nail the timing perfectly, I broke a time barrier in the last 50 that I can't remember hitting anytime in recent memory. It will still take more work to hold that good form over longer distances but it's a start! Then in tonight's session one of the things I had to do was descend a round of 50s again! It was good to repeat the same thing with someone hovering over me and correcting my form in between each one. Tim the swim guru has all sorts of new and evil tricks to help me - tonight I was tied to the blocks by a bungee cord and then had to swim against the resistance while held in place to help identify the weak point in my stroke. I got further on the bungee with each repeat and got pulled backwards less each time! So still a long way to go but it's nice to see progress from these weekly sessions.

My biking is still on the light side right now - mostly one legged drills and form work. I'm starting to use Jeff's trainer instead of mine this year on Coach's suggestion and it gives tougher resistance, so I *really* feel slow on it. It'll make me stronger though!

Running is on the light side as well but it feels great after taking the time off post-IM. I know so many people that run so soon after IM but for my body I know a couple weeks off results in much happier running when I come back. Plus I haven't ended up injured in all this time with Coach so we must be doing something right!

Not that I didn't think I was at one point this weekend...here's the story: I did a bunch of run drills on the track on Thursday and watched the videos beforehand very carefully so I could really nail the drills. I came back and wrote in TrainingPeaks that I was so happy with the high knees drill because it really clicked unlike in past years - I got the strong push-off from the ground. About 36 hours later, my calves started to hurt. Like, I couldn't even let Jeff touch them, they hurt to the touch, they hurt to walk. Saturday morning, running was out of the question and even walking was difficult. Thankfully they were better by Sunday for my run and our agility trial. On Monday I saw my ART doctor - who said it meant I was doing the drills right and that if anything I should do them more to condition the muscles properly. So that's good! But he did spend some quality time working out the tight bands in my calves :) He also worked on something Tim wanted him to address, which was my tight ankles. You know how most of you try to point your toes and you can actually point them? Well when Tim was watching me kick in the pool last week, he noted that my "pointed toes" were at nearly a 90 degree angle to my leg. No wonder kicking seems to pull me backwards! My doc noted the same thing, that I had a hard stop at a pretty pathetic ankle angle, and proceeded to loosen up my whole shin and ankle to give me some more flexibility there. I'll be doing a lot of sitting on my feet and walking around on my toes (and seeing Dr Brink more often than he'd like, I'm sure) to keep working on the problem.

So that's pretty much life around here in a nutshell right now. I've been on an emotional roller coaster all week with Melissa's death and appreciate all the kind comments you all left. I'm grateful for good mutual friends who've helped commiserate and remember her fondly.

And because no blog post is complete without a photo, here's a little taste of Puck's daily suffering.

Fun to Run

2012-01-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Due to triathlon taking over my life the past few years, I have not competed with Stanley as frequently and seriously as I did with Max. We used to spend sometimes every weekend trialing all over the state. Instead poor Stanley gets thrown in the ring for competition every once in a blue moon when his mom has a light training week or hopes she has a light training week. Until New Years weekend, he hadn't trialed since July. 6 months is an awfully long time to go without and expect much from a dog. With the anticipated lighter training schedule this month, I entered us in 3 consecutive weekends of trials and hoped his increased maturity would pay off. It sure has!

Stan has gone from the "unknown factor" that made me so nervous to run (would he get this right? would he act like a nut job?) to Fun To Run. We're not perfect, but we're a TEAM now in a way that we weren't before. On New Years weekend, Stan qualified in Novice FAST both days to finish his NF title and took a 4th place and a 1st place doing it! That title also gave him the last title he needed to accumulate for his Bearded Collie Club of America Versatility Excellent (VX) title, which basically says he's an all-around dog who has titled repeatedly in multiple areas (herding, obedience, agility, conformation). My dog rocks.

This past weekend, we only went to the trial on Sunday because I had such bad calf pain (from run drills) that I couldn't walk. I figured with freezing temps and an indoor venue that he was going to be crazy Stanley again but he proved me wrong. We made one mistake (he missed the contact area on the dog walk) but he had a fast and awesome run!

Stanley is looking forward to post IM-Canada when we can go trial our butts off and kick some ass!

And a new year begins...

2012-01-09T08:48:00.000-08:00

Going back to work after a holiday break and starting back at training on the same week is rough. I made it through last week and got most of my workouts done, so I'll take that as a success.

Work has been a bit odd, as my boss's husband got his long-awaited heart transplant the night before we started work again, so she's been out dealing with that and I've been covering her meetings. That makes for very long days not getting my real work done! But I'm very happy for her family that things are going well!

My mom got a new camera for Christmas and that has meant lots of really nice photos of the dogs!

I officially didn't make the draw in the Alcatraz lottery so that one is coming off my race list for the year. Maybe another time! No worries though, as I have plenty to keep me occupied this year!!

Farewell, My Friend

2012-01-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

Today my good friend Melissa - swim partner extraordinaire, dog mom and all around wonderful person - lost her battle with ovarian cancer. There's not much else that can be said except that I will miss her tremendously.

2011 in Review

2011-12-30T09:05:00.000-08:00

Another year of dogs, triathlon and life is in the books! I could spend all day writing a recap and still miss something but the highlights are captured throughout this blog anyway. I'm hoping to have a better New Years Eve than last year (where the neighbors tried to blow up the neighborhood with sheer quantity of illegal fireworks) and am spending it in a hotel room with the beardies, while we do an agility trial in Los Angeles this weekend. With any luck, the lack of houses around here will mean minimal fireworks and the sounds of I-405 rolling by all night will drown them out.

To continue the trend of recapping the year's mileage, I made a pretty little table this year to summarize everything and compare to past years. I started running in November 2005 and so 2005-2006 were run-only years for me...2007 was the year I got the bright idea to do a triathlon to celebrate my wedding and the rest is history.... This time around I added what my main races for the year were, I think that helps explain the mileage better.

Year	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Main Races	Two marathons, two 1/2marathons, five sprint tris	One marathon, one 1/2marathon, three sprint tris, one Olympic tri, one 1/2IM	Two sprint tris, two 1/2IM, one IM	Four 5ks, one 10k, four sprint tris, two Olympic tris, one 1/2IM	One duathlon, three Olympic tris, one 1/2IM, one IM
Swim (yards)	70795	143880	262170	250835	316589
Swim (miles)	40.22	81.75	148.95	142.52	181.95
Bike (miles)	1436.6	2247.5	3430.5	2293.1	3608.8
Run (miles)	806.23	735.4	741.4	701.2	827.12
Strength (hours)	0	11.75	15.75	25.5	21.33
Total Time (hours)	287.6	385.3	490.5	308.5	532.77

2012 brings a lot of exciting things...a bunch of new fun races (I LOVE to race!), a road trip to Canada, a boatload of dog activities (agility with Stanley, the show ring with Puck, nose work with all 3 dogs) including the beardie National here in California, hockey hockey hockey, and plenty of good times with those I love.

I wish you all a happy new year and hope this year is a glorious, happy and successful one!!!

Back in business

2011-12-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Jeff flew back into Phoenix on Friday night so it was just in time to get my holiday spirit going. We ate (and drank) out with good friends several times, we saw a couple movies (Tintin and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - both great!), and I did my best to live on a diet of movie popcorn and Baileys/hot chocolate. And on Monday afternoon, we packed up and hit the road for home - after about 10.5 hours of driving, we got back to San Jose at 2 this morning.

One of Jeff's gifts to me was a juicer - I'm so excited to have some fun with it! I went right out on Christmas morning and found the only grocery store open and bought a ton of apples, oranges, carrots, beets, and so on. So far I've tried the following combos: apple-orange, apple-kale-celery-cucumber-beet, raspberry-pear-cucumber, carrot-orange, and apple-cucumber-lime. They've all been different but very good!

My coach requested my TrainingPeaks account back today and started filling it in with my January schedule. That means I only have a few days left of going at it alone to enjoy before it's time to buckle down and get to work for 2012! Of course, nothing intimidates like the first workout of the year being...a swim test. This year, I'm not going to obsess about it though, I'm just going to look at it as the chance to set a baseline for all the improvements to come!!!

I'll try not to let so much time go by in between blogging this week, especially since I don't go back to work for another week and that means lots of time to have fun! If nothing else, my usual year-end recap will be up sometime this weekend. Have a great week!!!

Vacation Days

2011-12-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

I had a few unused vacation days going into this week and no critical work deadlines, so I took a few days off. That meant there was fun to be had!

With Jeff back in San Jose starting his new job this week, I had 3 dogs to exercise. The beardies are pretty easy but the puppy is a LOT of work! Mostly because he doesn't walk well on leash yet and isn't trustworthy off-leash yet. So we rented some space at AZ Dog Sports to play a little agility (Max & Stan), work a little obedience (Puck), and just make them all tired!

Unfortunately most of the agility equipment was inaccessible when we got there - I would have spent half our rental time trying to drag it out and set it up (plus blown my back trying to set up the contact equipment) - so we mostly worked obedience and the couple things we could get to.

The dogs have been sleeping happily for hours since we got home!

I've also managed to fit in a hair appointment, a "brow design" and a massage in my couple days off! I said goodbye to my long hair and hello to fun hair! It will take getting-used-to though as it goes up into a very very small ponytail!

I hope everyone is having a good week!

Dam Jingle Bell Run 5k and other happenings

2011-12-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

On Saturday my sister and I joined up with some friends to run a chilly little holiday 5k. I knew it was too soon to race after IM AZ so I just ran it nice and easy with Meredith while my sister went harder (and won her AG!). The best part was visiting with my friend Sara's beardie puppy before/after the race and then taking my sister to visit Stanley's breeder and her 10 puppies!

Homemade cupcakes at the finish line was pretty awesome too!

Max and I hit the road on Saturday night and headed to Southern California so we could collect Stanley from his dog show in Long Beach. He had a great weekend and went Best Opposite twice and Select once over the three days. He just needs one more major for his Grand Championship!

And then my boys and I were on our way to Arizona to join Jeff and Puck!

The excitement of today is that Puck got his first drool :-)

I also participated in someone's birthday swim today, but I'll let her blog about that!

Training Peaks Ambassador Team

2011-12-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I received the very exciting news that I've been selected to join the Training Peaks Ambassador team for 2012. (They also announced it to the internet here!)

I've been using Training Peaks for over 4 years (over 3 with my coach and for a year on my own before that) to track my training, so this is a wonderful way to connect with a company whose product(s) I fully support!

I expect I'll have a lot more to say in the coming year about the benefits that Training Peaks provides but just a quick summary from my own experience:

Outstanding, customizable calendar to view and plan all of your past and future training
Customizable dashboard that makes it easy to see the metrics and graphs I want to see about my training
Nutrition tracking pre-loaded with just about every food item I've been able to think of
An array of tools for training analysis
The best setup I've found for delivery of coached workouts and ease of interaction with/feedback to a coach
Simple data uploading and great display of information - I LOVE looking at the maps with my path on them as well as all the graphs that go with them
All sorts of useful and educational posts on their blog
Free webcasts
Awesome iPhone app! I love being able to look up my workout or log it in from my phone!

Anyway, clearly I already have had great experiences using TP and am excited about the year ahead working with them. I'm unbelievably honored to be among the 20 athletes selected for this role and I hope to make them proud!

Coming Back Down

2011-12-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

Wow, 2 weeks without a blog post, that might actually be a record for me. You know how it goes, sometimes life just takes over - and given how long life took the backseat to Ironman training this year, that's OK. I've been busy with dog activities and spending time with my husband and working working working so I can wrap up my projects before our corporate holiday shutdown. It doesn't help that I spent the first few weeks post-race with a bit of a foggy brain but I know that's normal for me too.

So I'll try to summarize everything going on in bullet points!

I reacquainted myself with beer. And it was good.

I used the 100% leaf cover on our lawn to take funny photos of the dogs.

I reacquainted myself with pie. And it was good.

The dogs met Santa. Max was happy, Puck was a little confused, and Stanley was just not happy about the dog in line growling at him.

Jeff had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. The dogs were eager to help him recover.

I've been swimming, biking and running on my own and enjoying a free-form schedule as I wait till January to get back with the ELF for coaching. I went to a TRX group class last week that was a blast. I tried a Powerflex class at Ballys this week (a weight training group class). That was...interesting. I'm very sore so it was a good workout. But it was just too much gym-bunny for me.
Speaking of swimming, I've enlisted the help of an expert to improve my swim stroke and can already feel the difference as he is totally altering my stroke. It's ON for IM Canada in 2012.
Puck turned 4 months old. He's about 30 pounds and all leg.

I went on a beer ride (ride to the brewery, have lunch, ride home). It was extra awesome.

I gave Puck a twitter account. PuckSaint can be found here.
I put up our dinky little tree. All that really requires is carrying it out of the garage and plugging it in. But it took me a few weeks to remember Christmas was coming (Ironman brain strikes again) so this helped get me in the spirit.

The boys VERY much enjoyed the cold mornings we've been having.

They did not enjoy quite so much their post-bath holiday dress up time. Stanta is pissed, the elf is in hiding and the reindeer is passed out.

I've ferried the dogs around to various activities. Since Jeff had knee surgery, I took Puck to puppy class last week. Stanley has done a few shows since he's been home. In fact, last night I didn't get home until 1am because I was out on I-5 handing him off to his handler who is taking him to a big show weekend with her.
I gave a big presentation at work today and despite my sleep deprivation (see late-night handoff to show handler) I nailed it. And now my whole department has a better idea of what I spend all of my time doing.
I'm enjoying celebrating the wonderful things happening to people around me! I'm so excited for my friend Mary who started with a coach this month. She's going to see some big gains in racing this year! I'm also excited for my aunt who signed up for Ironman and started a blog, all in the same month! And I'm extra excited for my husband, who feels like he's been looking for a job forever but always held out for the right fit - he got the offer he was hoping for yesterday!
I got some pretty exciting news myself today but I'll save that for a separate post tomorrow.

Now What?

2011-12-01T12:21:00.001-08:00

After a couple days of limping around feeling a little sore, I was ready to fully embrace the off season and all of its delights. I think, in order, that meant...beer, sushi, more beer, donuts, more donuts, even more donuts, and pizza. Followed by more pizza. And Fat Tire. The scary part is, I haven't really gained any weight. Much to everyone's amusement, I'd really LIKE to gain some weight and not sit at race weight all winter. I was so sick of junk food after the first week though that I greeted brussel sprouts with glee this past Monday.

I drove home after Thanksgiving, took Stanley to a couple days of dog shows (where there was a drive-by shooting), did a body fat dunk test (seriously, did all those donuts mean nothing to you, body?!), went back to work (that went about as well as expected), and have been managing Max being sick. He's in the midst of a much more intense bout of prostatitis than he had a while back and we're waiting for all his meds to kick in so he can get some relief. I've made the decision to neuter him now that he's done showing and that is likely to end his problems in this realm. So my stress levels have been a bit higher than I'd like, without the hard training to boost my mental health. Oh and the weather sucks too.

So...now what? I've been on my bike for some slow small-ring spins to loosen my legs up. I swam once and my shoulder hurt when I did, so I gave myself a week off swimming to let it heal. I'll get back in the pool tomorrow (really, I swear) and take it nice and easy. I'm flying solo for the month of December without a coach, before I get back to training with the ELF in January. I haven't been self-coached since August 2008 so it's good for me to have a break, even if I did panic when I first got the message from Training Peaks that she dropped me like a hot potato (I kid, I kid). I'm going to spend a lot of time in the pool this month, take a TRX class (I want to learn more moves than the ones I know and do at home!), and reunite the trio of Awesome (Jen and Lisa) to do a little mountain ride in Tucson around Christmas.

My race schedule for 2012 is more or less set, though I have to wait until January to hear about the Alcatraz lottery. I still can't decide if I really WANT to get a slot for that race or not...but I'll do it if I get the opportunity! I'll get around to posting the schedule for next year in the sidebar sometime soon.

Until then, I enthusiastically raise a donut to the off-season!

Ironman Arizona 2011 - Video!

2011-11-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

Think of it as the video race report!

Ironman Arizona 2011

2011-11-24T12:07:00.001-08:00

For those who want the cliff-notes version, come back in the next day or two for my race video. I really wanted to wait to post this till I had race photos from ASI but 5 DAYS after I ordered them and I have not received anything yet..

The start cannon went off and the crush of bodies in the water began to swim. There was bumping and jostling and occasionally half a body on top of my legs but I felt good! I really don't mind the triathlon body contact any more and I knew I was getting pulled along with the masses for some extra speed. If I wanted, I could just pretend I was working the pole up the street at Babes or Skin, given how many times my ass was being groped by strangers.

Surprisingly, given that the water temperature was identical to the Splash & Dash I'd done the previous week, I was not really cold. Certainly not the bad shivering and shaking I'd done in 2009 in similar conditions. Maybe all those days of ending my showers with a blitz of cold water to the head had worked.

I'd worried about sighting on the outbound leg into the rising sun but as it turned out all I really needed to do was follow the many flailing arms and bobbing heads in front of me. I made it to the far end of the course, turned left once, turned left again and began the trek back. At that point my watch said 53 minutes and I was on track for about the swim I'd expected. Well, the way back turned out to be a bit more of a challenge. Much of my draft was gone and sighting was oddly difficult - I KNEW I just needed to get to the Mill Ave bridge and yet the buoys seemed to curve in and out. With about 1000m left to go, a bigger girl with a huge kick went by - I latched onto her feet and went hard to stay with her for the draft. I rounded the final turn buoy and headed for the exit stairs. At that point you can hear Mike Reilly and the music and the crowd, you *just* have to swim a little further. 100 yards from the swim exit, my draft, who was having some trouble sighting and had gone off to one side, kicked me squarely in the right eye. We both popped up stunned for a millisecond and then kept swimming. At that point, who cares if my goggle might leak or I might get a black eye, I just want to finish this swim! While it was not exactly where I expected to come out time wise, I learned that pretty much everyone I knew had slower swims than anticipated so I'll just take it for now. We have plans for working on the swim for next year.

A wonderful volunteer grabbed my arm and hauled me out of the lake, I ran up the steps and across the mat, and that was one leg of this amazing race DONE!

2.4 mile swim: 1:57:26

I ran right to the wetsuit strippers, who had me out of my lovely Blueseventy suit in no time, and began the long run to transition - all the way around the bikes and changing tent, grabbed my bag, and then into the changing tent. Where...it was chaos! Last time I'd raced and come out of the water 13 minutes later than this, I had the tent mostly to myself. This time it took a second of scanning the area to find an open chair, which I dropped into and got to work. I had planned in advance with my coach to wear the same outfit all day, which meant riding in tri shorts (having applied copious amounts of Aquaphor before the swim) and a faster transition. While I put my socks and shoes on, my kickass volunteer got a baby wipe for me to clean the TTL dirt off my face, stuffed my nutrition in my pocket, and put my race belt on. I grabbed my helmet and sunglasses and ran out. It definitely paid off to think through the order/commands I needed to bark out in transition to fly through quickly without forgetting anything. I ran for the bikes - where mine was racked on the far end, closest to the bike out - and was lucky enough to get Danni as my bike handler - great to see a familiar face as I headed out!

T1: 4:17

And then it was time to ride my bike, 3 loops around the course, for a total of 112 miles. I knew there was no "racing" that would be done here, simply spinning at the intended watts and fueling up for however many hours it would take (I guessed between 6:45 and 7:00) There was a little headwind on the way out of loop 1 but nothing like last time where I'd had to spin 11mph in my small ring to get my heart rate down and stay within my target watts. My legs were a little cold and slow to warm up but I felt good. After 15 minutes to let my stomach settle down from drinking half of TTL, I began to take in calories. The wind shifted after my first loop and loops 2 and 3 were characterized by tailwind on the way out to Shea and strong headwind on the return trip. Sometimes, it sucked. I might have stuck my finger down my throat and made gagging noises at Jeff on my way out for loop 3 to indicate my enthusiasm. But I knew if I kept at it and just focused on the plan, it would end eventually. And really it wasn't that bad, because I'd practiced riding in lots of wind in aero.

In the meantime, I was entertained by friendly comments from other athletes (soooo many men who flew by me took the time to offer encouragement and I still remember the first who did - when I looked him up later, it turns out he was the 1st overall amateur in the race - how cool is it that one of the crazy fast people is still supporting others out on the course?), by watching the little pace lines of drafters go by (and chuckling when I heard the put-put of the race official's motorcycle shortly thereafter), and by the fact that even while staying within my race limits and not trying to race I was passing people!

So here's where I managed something new and exciting...for the entire bike ride - all 6 hours and 49 minutes - I never got off the bike. I grabbed water bottles from the aid station volunteers while riding. I peed twice on the bike, on the downhill of loops 1 and 3. I knew Mary would be very proud of me for that! And I rode this distance for the first time ever in tri shorts! I experienced some chafing but nothing any worse than usual for me - thankfully I ride an Adamo saddle (cutout in the middle) so the spot I chafe is more at the top of my inner thighs. (Side note: however, when you are chafed...and you pee...it burns a little!)

Eventually I made the last turn onto Rio Salado and knew I had less than 2 miles to go. I started getting ready to get off the bike, undoing my shoes and slipping my feet out, and wondered how it would feel to move after so many hours of continuous riding!

112 mile bike: 6:49:48

The first few steps were...a little rough and then I took off running to grab my bag and hit up the changing tent. Tossed my helmet off, grabbed my socks and shoes to put on, and asked the volunteer to shove my bundle of gels in my pocket while I got my shoes on. Her response? "I'll get it after you stand up. Don't worry, it's not even 4:00 yet and you have till midnight, you have plenty of time to finish." Hmmph. So...transition took a little longer than I would have liked. Volunteers are a wonderful thing to have so I'm not going to say anything negative but a little aid would have been appreciated.

T2: 2:28

Off to run and I knew I needed to dial back my pace right away. Make it feel painfully easy for the first 5 miles. I felt slow as could be, like I was trotting in place, while I ambled along passing people but it worked.

The first 8-point-something mile loop was completed entirely in my goal pace.

Our pre-planned mini goal had been for me to run Jen down and then pull her with me to the finish for a PR for both of us. I was getting updates from her family and mine that I was catching up with her but it was sooner than I'd expected. The next update I got was that she was BEHIND me. Huh? Turns out I'd passed when she stopped to use a bathroom. So I never saw her on the run.

Somewhere around the 12 mile mark, I slowed to walk a hill and felt a wave of dizziness hit. Uh oh, that's not good. My race-fried brain tried so hard to figure out what I needed - calories? electrolytes? even more water? Well after discussion with my coach the missing ingredient was salt - a lot more than I was taking in. So I struggled with nausea and dizziness for the remaining half of the marathon. Not exactly the run time I'd expected/trained to have but that just gives me a goal for next time. For most of the 2nd loop, I ran from aid station to aid station and walked the aid stations while trying Coke, orange slices, anything that seemed it might settle well in my stomach.

The third loop was up and down. I was still passing people more than I was being passed, I was taking in calories at the aid stations via orange slices, and I was trying not to walk more than the aid stations. But somewhere around mile 22 and again at mile 23 I let myself walk for 5 minutes and tried to fuel up for the remaining miles.

At mile 24, I started running and did not stop. I blew right through the last aid station and kept going. I was on a mission to finish. I think the crowd near the Mill Ave bridge knew I was headed for the end and gave me lots of cheers. I high-fived the volunteer working the split off point between the turn to the finish and the other loops of the run. I ran through the parking lot, turned onto Rio Salado and picked up the pace. I ran until I had clear space for the finish chute on my own and then I ran even harder.

The magical moment of an Ironman finish chute arrived. Screaming crowd, bright lights, and Mike Reilly calling my name. The happiest place on earth, even happier the second time around.

26.2 mile run: 4:50:57

I can see now how each Ironman finish is special in its own way. The first...well, there's never anything like your first and that voyage into the unknown. This one was the confirmation that I could do more than just finish, I could come back to the same course, having worked harder and smarter for the two years in between, and improve upon the past.

Finish: 13:44:56
A 75 minute Ironman PR

Having reviewed this race with my coach and identified where I had problems and hearing her plans for me to achieve that next big breakthrough, I can say - though I questioned my sanity for signing up for Canada several times on race day - that I can't wait to tackle the next set of challenges. I'll be resting and doing my own thing for another 5 weeks but then...bring it!

Thank you to my husband for supporting me 100% through all the insanity of Ironman training, to my coach for getting me to the start line in the best shape of my life, to Recovery e21 for supporting all of my training and racing this year (I PRed at every distance this year using e21, those are results that speak for themselves!), and to Dr Brink and staff at Premiere Spine & Sport for keeping all my little aches and pains from becoming BIG aches and pains.

Big Giant Long Race Report Coming Soon

2011-11-22T17:12:00.001-08:00

Maybe tomorrow, depending on how quiet things are with work. And how fast ASI gets their race photos posted. For now, a little pre-race report...

Saturday's practice swim was a good indicator of how the lake would feel on race day (not bad, not TOO cold, faster going out than coming back).

After that I dried off and got in line for bike/bag check-in. I ran into Jen and Jerome Harrison on their way to swim at that point and then again when they came back from the swim. You know how some people you never manage to find in a race this big and some people you see over and over and over in a crowd of thousands? Jen was that someone for me this weekend!

Checking in my bike (nerd in line on time = first bike on the rack!)

And dropping off gear bags..

We met up with most of the spectathlete crew (minus my aunt and uncle who were tailgating the ASU-UofA game) for dinner at Nourish in Scottsdale the night before the race. I know Jeff wasn't really a fan but it was a great place to get a gluten-free dinner the night before the race that fueled me up well.

I stayed up to watch the Sharks game (BIG win over Dallas - woohoo!) and then fell asleep pretty fast, while walking through my race plan (yet again) in my head. I only woke up about 30 minutes before my 4:00 alarm and dozed till 3:50, then slowly woke up while lying in bed thinking about the day ahead. After that I hopped out of bed, ate breakfast, coated my entire body in sunblock (which worked well, no sunburn at all!) and got dressed. A quick walk for the dogs and then Meredith and I were off to transition, with Jeff to join us shortly thereafter with my friend Sara. Dropped off my special needs bags (ran into Jen and Jerome Harrison on my way there), loaded my bottles on the bike, filled my tires, and I was pretty much done in transition. Time to get body marked, hit up the portapotty line one last time (and stood in line with who else but...Jen Harrison) and go hang out with the gang!

I am still amazed at how calm I was that morning. I just focused on executing my race plan and what I had to do each step of the way and it kept my mind occupied. When it was time to get going, I gave everyone a hug, dropped my morning clothes bag off (and ran into Jen Harrison AGAIN - Jen, are you stalking me?), and joined the masses waiting at the timing mat in transition. Thankfully I ran into Lisa and her friends so we could chat for a bit before they let us down to the lake.

Once the pros were all in the water and warming up, they let the age groupers cross the mat and begin jumping off the dock into the water. I held back for a couple minutes and then got on with it - put my goggles on, sat on the edge of the dock, and dropped into the water. Cold, yes, but not nearly as bad as I expected nor as bad as IM AZ 2009.

I gradually warmed up with a nice easy swim up to the start line and then just floated there...watching the crowd, everyone on the bridge above us, and the beginnings of the sunrise on the horizon, singing the national anthem, woop-wooping loudly for the "you're going to be an Ironman today!" from Mike Reilly. The bodies around me seemed to back off from the start line all of a sudden (did everyone panic about being near the front?) and it got more crowded at the same time. I knew from last time there is no countdown to the start so I had a good idea we were close when things got quiet.

And then...BOOM! went the cannon and we were off!

Calm Before The Storm

2011-11-19T12:34:00.001-08:00

Lots of triathletes = lots of food consumed

I've swum in the lake and done a short ride, checked in my bike, dropped off my gear bags...I'm ready. I'm feeling surprisingly calm at this point. The work is done, I've been doing my best to rest and if I'm not rested by now it's not going to happen, and it's time to just get in the water tomorrow and spend the rest of the day executing my race plan - calmly, smoothly and with confidence.

In case you are tracking online, here is a roundup of my times from this race in 2009.

Swim: 2:10:50

T1: 7:35

Bike: 7:34:29

T2: 3:09

Run: 5:03:01

Total Time: 14:59:02

Suffice it to say, I'm hoping for a strong PR across the board in all areas.

Catch you all on the flip side. Ironward!

Ironman Check-in: Done!

2011-11-17T14:03:00.001-08:00

Now to just clean and prep my bike, organize and pack my race bags, stay fueled and healthy for 2 more days, and try to stop obsessing about whether I am getting sick or not!

Ironman Arizona Tracking Information

2011-11-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

On Sunday morning at 7:00am MST, I'll start the race day that will take me until sometime after sunset to finish. I am hopeful for a significant PR over my previous IM finish (14:59:02) and while I have some goals in mind I can't give you anything more definite than that. It's a very long race day and you never know what might happen along the way. I can only hope that I stay positive and keep moving forward no matter what!

If you are interested in tracking on race day, there are a couple ways to do that.

#1 Go to Ironman.com on race morning and there will be an orange-y box right up front with Ironman Arizona and a link for the Athlete Tracker. Enter my race number (#329) there! Once I am nearing the end of the run, you can also watch the Audio/Video link in the hopes of seeing me cross the finish line live.

#2 I'll be wearing a small GPS device for the bike and run that will allow you to see my location on course at any time. Go to My Athlete Live and click the Track My Athlete link in the top right. Find Ironman Arizona and click on my name. (For reference, the course maps can be found on the Ironman Arizona site).

Happy tracking, and thanks in advance for the support and cheering!

Taper = Party!

2011-11-15T19:32:00.001-08:00

This weekend we celebrated taper in style. First up was a swim race at Tempe Town Lake with Lisa!

Ready to go like a *ninja*

The lake was running around 61 degrees that morning - brrr! But we were victorious! And will be again this coming Sunday...

After that, Lisa was kind enough to host a taper party at her house!

Jen loves kale so much

Lisa loves cupcakes :-)

Lisa's tire changing contest was the hit of the night

All of her IM AZ-bound friends!

I've been going slightly stir-crazy the last couple days but I know the end is near. My friends start arriving in town tomorrow and then it's a steady stream of athletes and spectators coming in every day! Just a *few* days to go!!!!

1 week to race day

2011-11-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

and it's time to celebrate all of the friends that make training for an Ironman fun and social! THANK YOU all for making this another amazing year!

Previous editions: 2009 and 2010.

Waiting...waiting...waiting...

2011-11-11T19:22:00.001-08:00

I wish I had more exciting things to report...just a week of work and tapering going on around here.

I've tried to fit in a little pampering to make this taper less boring - had my hair cut and colored (1st time ever!), got a massage mid-week when my hamstrings were so tight I could barely bend over, and I had my pre-race mani/pedi (+ a facial) today. One might think next week would be better for a pre-race mani-pedi but I knew I was smart about doing it early after the woman cut my toe and I bled everywhere - better to get that kind of stuff over with early! In any event, toes that match your race kit = faster Ironman, right? So I'm good to go there!

The dogs are bored bored bored with me! They want Jeff and Puck to arrive already so they have someone to play with. Stanley is amusing himself with rearranging my bed to suit him.

Max at least had an outing just for himself - chiropractic adjustment and acupuncture!

I've been enjoying the gluten-free bakery and cafe just down the street from my house here.

I did my last long brick in preparation for the race. Out on the Beeline into the wind (this sucks, I hate my bike, stupid Ironman) and back at a speed that was 13mph faster (I love my bike, this race is going to rock). Thank goodness at least my run off the bike was 100% happy!

A little view of last night's full (?) moon rising

9 days to go and the weather forecast is finally looking good for race day!

Still here (and there), still tapering...

2011-11-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

Week 1 of taper is done, race day is 2 weeks away! I think this might have been the hardest part, as I was awfully tired and unmotivated this week. And I had a LOT to do!

Stanley and Puck have finally achieved BFF status

So of course they won't see each other for nearly 2 weeks. Because I packed up the world's largest mound of clothing (plus a lot of swim/bike/run gear PLUS a friend's bike and luggage) and hit the road for Arizona with the beardies!

8 hours of driving in rain, 45 minutes of sunshine and 2 hours of duststorm later, I arrived! And then it rained and poured all night and the temperature dropped like crazy. *thinking good thoughts for a warmup* as I'd like to not freeze in Tempe Town Lake...

In the two days I've been here, we've been busy! I drove to Tucson on Saturday for the Trisports.com Garage Sale where I scored all sorts of awesome stuff at super-duper discounted prices. That gave me a chance to see Jen again and have lunch with her and her kids! The beardies and I had some fun walking around Old Town Scottsdale last night too.

Today I had enjoyed NOT having to change any clocks (Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time)! I had an hour run to knock out this morning - at this point that feels short and I was done before 9am, even with dog walking and breakfast and a lot of Facebooking first. Even though I'm feeling a bit of the fat-and-moody taper thing going on, my run pace was awesome, which gave me some confidence that it'll all come together on race day. I had plenty of time to hit up the hardware store, get supplies, and build a fence around the one non-puppy-friendly plant in our yard in preparation for Puck's eventual arrival in town. I even lined up a pre-race tuneup for my bike for this week so that it's ready to go come November 20th.

Anyway, obviously not anything too exciting going on...lots of resting and eating right (kale is my friend) and waiting. The activity is going to pick up around here as next week approaches (taper party *whoop*whoop*) so I'm getting all the down time I can now.

It Takes A Village

2011-11-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

Another reason I am so happy to have reached the taper - Ironman training feels like the most self-absorbed thing you can do. All this me me me time planning the workout, making up bottles, cleaning up after working out, recovery eating...and then all that time spent alone doing the workout. It's enough to get sick of being in my own head!

These first few days of taper have been nice just to get a handle on all the crazy stuff going on at work, try to catch up on what happened over the last week or two with friends, and attempt to nail down everything for the trip to Arizona. Oh dear, the prospect of packing up an Ironman's worth of gear makes me want to cry.

Even though so much of Ironman is alone time, I can't truly do it without the support of my husband and training partners, but also by the camaraderie of friends, even ones I can't train with in person due to distance. The daily Facebook chatter and texts with Lisa and Jen help keep our nervous energy in check - we are all so damn excited to get on with this thing! *clap*clap*

I'm also SUPER excited to see Alex and Susan again, as we all tackled our first IM at AZ 2 years ago and signed up again last year. It just means more in this journey to do it together!

So anyway...yep, this is taper - a whole lot of energy and anxiety and worrying about what is to come. 2nd time around and there's no mystery about how hard the race is. Just planning and waiting...

Happy Howloween!

2011-10-31T18:10:00.000-07:00

Cowboy Puck, 11 weeks old

And an oldie - Stanley the piggie (at 8 months) and Max the skunk (at 5.5 yrs)

The last ride, all 112 miles of it, is done, as well as a run off the bike. It was a very long day out there by myself but overall I'd say it went well. The hay is in the barn and it's taper time!!! The athlete guide was posted online today - I guess that means this thing is really happening? Now I have to start stressing about what to pack and everything I need for race day!

While I'm off riding all day...

2011-10-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

please enjoy how nicely Max teaches the youngster how to wrestle.

Something for everyone

2011-10-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am still training for an Ironman. It's just easier to post puppy photos than to say "I swam today. Again." But this post will have something for everyone.

I rode my bike 5 days in a row this week (if you include last Sunday). I've been very happy to not have to ride my bike the past 2 days. Tomorrow is my last long ride. I'm still working on mustering some enthusiasm for 112 miles solo, with a run off the bike. Taper is so close, dangling there tempting me. I've got to get this done first. One more big day and then I can be a lazy bum. Can you see me trying to talk myself into being excited about this? :-) My last big long swim was yesterday and it went well! Today I had to squeeze in my swim using the gym pool - BLECH. Murky water and people with no pool etiquette who just jump in and bob up and down in the water talking to each other for an hour. There are no (polite, politically correct) words... So anyway I guess the point is the work is getting done, I'm one day away from taper and I'm finally ready for it to be here.

OK if you survived all that bitching and were looking for a dose of dog, Puck had his first puppy class this morning. It was fun! He didn't bound around wreaking havoc but he was definitely distracted by all the other puppies. And he was so tired afterwards that he's slept nonstop ever since he got home.

Menage a Trois

2011-10-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

The dogs finally had a 3-way yesterday. They had a visitor come to meet the puppy and chose to completely ham it up for her, including the beardies playing with their kid brother! Puck opted to snuggle up close, steal her sunglasses and run away with them.

Houston, we have a breakthrough

2011-10-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

Actually, two.

One: After biking an hour yesterday morning, I hopped off and began my 2:45 run. It was 5:30am then. You can do the math on what time I had to wake up to start the workouts. Jeff biked alongside me with a headlamp as I ran down the completely-dark creek trail near our house for 19.5 miles. The sun came up 2 hours into the run - I couldn't see my Garmin so I was blind on pace to that point and just running what felt comfortable. Well, it was a good one - the fastest I've ever run that long. All the work is paying off!

I won't talk about how getting ART on my sore legs felt today though.

Two: It appears Stanley's hard little heart might be melting with respect to Puck.

What the Puck

2011-10-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Because Maggs commented that the blog can't have all the same photos as Facebook.

Nom nom nom. Duck wing.

Look into my eyes. I am too cute to get mad at. Even when I steal your running shoes.

Puck: "When's dinner?"
Stanley: "When's dinner?"
Max: "When are they both leaving?"

It begins with a boom

2011-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

I don't think I ever got to post my video from the swim start in Kona. You hear the boom of the cannon just after seeing the smoke. It's amazing to see nearly 2000 people take off swimming en masse. 4 weeks till it's my turn again!

Adventures in Socialization

2011-10-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

Puppy socialization is generally a pretty fun thing! While they can't go out and hit up the dog park until they have had all of their necessary vaccinations (and personally I'm not a dog park fan anyway), they DO need to meet lots of people and go to strange places, hear new noises, etc etc etc.

I would guess that Puck has met over 50 people already in less than 2 weeks at home. I took him to work with me on his second day, just to visit with a couple coworkers in the parking lot. I took him to pick up the beardies from their spa day this week and he got carried inside to meet our groomers.

He's gone to agility class with me (met all the dogs in class, played with my teacher while I worked Stanley and generally had a good time watching).

On Friday night we took him out to dinner at one of our dog-friendly spots. He was carried inside and just sat under the table while we ate. The only downside was we spent the whole meal with people coming up to talk to us and meet him.

Today we took him down the street to Starbucks, where he got to see lots of kids and their bicycles, more people, cars, etc.

And then we went over to my parents' house so he could run around in someone else's yard (like a fake dog park!) and meet their dogs, a German Shepherd and a pug.

Puck was so sure the old lady pug would play with him since she was his size! He was sadly disappointed but is still plenty tired after trying hard.

I really like what we are seeing - he sizes up a new situation and then is interested in exploring and interacting without fear. So far he is showing the nice solid temperament that we concluded he had when we assessed him at 7 weeks! Next week he'll start puppy class - even more fun!!

One Month Till Race Day

2011-10-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

And I feel...*mostly ready* I have one more big week of training left - peak week - and then it's time to taper and get this body ready to race. I'm glad I have a last chance at another long run, long swim, long ride next week to lock everything in for race readiness. But I'm also looking forward to giving my body some deep rest in preparation for Ironman.

After two big training weeks in a row that both involved travel, this was a recovery week and I can only say THANK GOODNESS. Because I woke up Monday tired and had to spend a full day in the office at meetings. Tuesday morning I felt like a bus hit me, missed masters and spent all day at a training for work. Wednesday morning I realized in my crazy month of travel I forgot to enter Stanley in the big shows next weekend and came close to crying over it. At that point I decided I needed a day to recharge my mind and body - mental health day! I grocery shopped, I ate a lot, I cleaned the house that looked like a puppy exploded in it after a week of Jeff single-parenting all 3 dogs, I paid my bills (Coach doesn't work for free!), I rebuilt my bike that had been sitting in the box since I flew home Sunday...and I felt MUCH better and more in control of my life by the end of the day. Ironman does tend to attract the control freaks and I think that's half the reason we all tend to have a meltdown somewhere in training. I'm just glad mine came during an easier week.

Bib numbers came out this week! Last time I did this race, men got all the low #s and women got the higher ones (I was 2333 in 2009). I guess they reverse things every so often because I will be floating at the start line in 2011 as #329!

You were all super sweet to comment on my photos from Arizona LOL I wrote a few months ago about changes I'd made to my diet and health leading into Ironman training. The combination of things I did seems to have worked well as I leaned out over the summer while still eating my usual massive quantities of food. The gluten free thing has really worked out well for me in terms of keeping me eating cleaner and cutting down on tummy issues during running/racing. I've looked at my last couple races as a test of if I'm at the right racing weight and given the results I think I've hit on something that works. I had a bike test a few weeks ago, my first one since spring, and the combination of more watts and less pounds pushed my power-to-weight ratio to a place we've been trying to get me for a couple years now! *sets eyes on the NEXT target* :-)

Stanley is off at a dog show this weekend (only 40 minutes away but easier for him to stay there than for me to fight traffic back and forth each day) so the house is a little quieter than usual. I know he's having fun getting spoiled rotten and enjoying puppy-free time though!

Max is loving being the only big dog around and getting spoiled with treats and attention. He's also a very good example for Puck, who keeps us laughing with his antics!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Puppy puppy puppy

2011-10-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

I've got all sorts of things to talk about but I'm too tired and busy to write about any of them. So I'm hoping I can just distract you with lots of dog photos in the meantime. Look, shiny!

Stick a fork in me

2011-10-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

because I am DONE after a tough weekend and a huge training block!

Jen and I got out the door early on Sunday to get our bike and run done before it got any hotter. We revisited the site on the Beeline Hwy where I gave Jen a 9.5 for sticking the landing after vaulting a large metal post with her bike. It was a testament to how trashed we were riding in the heat on Saturday that neither of us saw this giant metal beam sticking up in the air, about 6 inches across the ground, all the way across the bike lane until we were on top of it. I was able to veer into the lane of traffic but Jen had nowhere to go and somehow managed to bunny-hop it with her front wheel. When we returned to the scene on Sunday, it was moved aside as shown in the photo and not blocking the way as much. Jen moved it all the way off the road before we left.

Thankfully we had planned ahead to reward ourselves handsomely after the training for the weekend was done. Poolside cabana at Valley Ho for the rest of the day!!!

We were so damn healthy.

When Jen abandoned me to return to her responsibilities back home, I was able to snag a flight out Sunday night instead of o-dark-thirty Monday morning so I was back in my bed and home with my 4 boys by midnight. I'll argue it's better to feel trashed in your own bed at 7am than trashed going to the airport at 4am :-)

Have a great week! Thank goodness I have a rest day!

It's Getting Hot In Here

2011-10-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

Friday night we gathered for a big dinner before our crazy Saturday of training.

Some people are a little difficult when it comes to ordering food. Our poor waiter...

It was so good to hang out with a group of women that eat A LOT :-)

Saturday morning started bright and early with an open water swim race at Tempe Town Lake.

From there it was time to ride LONG. In retrospect, on a day that offered record-breaking heat in the desert, we probably should have skipped the swim and started riding at 5:30am.

Because even though it was beautiful, it was painfully hot before long.

Jen and I rode together all day. I could not have asked for a better person to share a total meltdown with :)

Early and still happy-ish

The fountain in Fountain Hills was not on

Sightseeing in Tonto National Forest

End of paved road

Not too long after that, I had a bit of a meltdown on a long climb (Jen said Cranky Molly has arrived). It was 100 degrees, we'd been in the sun for hours, and I was melting. We found the nearest convenience store and filled up on water and I pounded a Coke. Wheee, instant sugar/caffeine rush = happy chatty Molly!

From there we pretty much hit a gas station every hour to fill our bottles with ice and water. It was stupid hot out. As in we were stupid to be riding long in it.

Eventually it was Jen's turn to get cranky and need a stop. I was happy to oblige and we got to see all the sights of the gas station on the reservation until we were ready to face the heat again.

So much salt on our faces, you could probably read our fortunes in the patterns.

Thank goodness tomorrow is a lighter day - we will be getting our work done EARLY.

In other news...

2011-10-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of my biggest week of training that I'll do this whole year and it's going remarkably well! On Wednesday I ran 19 miles, split across two runs, and the 2nd one was faster than the first. I don't know who these legs belong to but I'm not giving them back!

Dinner was good AND healthy at Aqui that night.

Today (Thursday) I flew down to Arizona for a big training weekend on the IM course. This license plate cracked me up...maybe you shouldn't be living in AZ if you feel this way?

After building my bike and stocking up on an insane amount of groceries, I got to have dinner with Jen! It was good to catch up after not seeing her since last year's tri camp in Chicago.

I'm looking forward to a lot of fun and hard work the next few days. I can't wait till the other Jen arrives tomorrow!

And you didn't think I'd go without posting another Puck photo, did you?

Introducing...

2011-10-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

Skydancer's Conn Smythe aka Puck

Jeff's new baby came home on Monday, just 12 hours after we got back from Hawaii. We're all a little sleep deprived around here but it's awfully fun!

This is the beardie reaction to the puppy crying

Kona Day 5 - Heading Home

2011-10-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

On our last morning in Kona, I fit in a good tempo run on Ali'i Drive and an easy bike spin, packed everything up in a hurry to make the check-out cutoff, and then went to breakfast. I finally got to meet up with a couple of blogger/FB friends at that point!

Good view of the lava fields by the airport

Looking down at Hawi

Kona Day 4 - Race Day!

2011-10-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

There is so much that could be said about watching the Ironman World Championships take place...suffice it to say I was so proud of my friends for all they accomplished and the entire day was an inspiration.

Women's winner and 4-time world champion Chrissie Wellington

Men's winner and 3-time world champion Craig Alexander

Chrissie

Ryan

Marni

Michelle

Rachel

Beth

My coach!!! PRing by 10 minutes and going top 10 in her AG, all just a year after giving birth

The finish line is so magical, it's hard to walk away

Kona Day 3

2011-10-07T23:44:00.000-07:00

aka The Big Ride Day!

Wheels hit the road at 6am in pouring rain. After about 40 minutes it tapered off and by about the 1 hour mark we weren't being rained on anymore. But we got SOAKED. Which was good for the next hour or two as things got warm. The climb to Hawi was definitely not tough from a climbing perspective but the wind made it harder. The descent in the crosswind only had me moderately terrified so that's an improvement over what I expected. The return trip was hilly and windy but nowhere near as hot as I thought it would be (now someone will tell me it was unusually cold this year). Overall it was a great long ride with Jeff and Nigel! Once we were back I had a run off the bike to do - this was right during athlete bike check-in for the race so I saw everyone out there - my coach (who got the photo of me running), Michelle, Chrissie Wellington, Faris Al-Sultan and more!

Wet roads but at least it's not pouring anymore

You can't tell but I'm completely drenched

The sky is getting lighter

Rainbow!

Still stormy skies behind us

Refilling bottles

Turnaround at Hawi

I'm not a fan of crosswind but I'll fake a smile anyway

All in a day's work

Trotting down Ali'i Drive soaking in the atmosphere!

I finally got some poke!

Feeling a little tired but happy with a 7.5 hour training day

Not a bad view from dinner at all

Kona Day 2

2011-10-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

Did my run in the dark on Ali'i Drive this morning so there are no photos. After that it was time for a little swim. (And I do mean little. I was a big wimp about being out there in heavy chop with no wetsuit) Kristi was very sweet about humoring me and making it a "social swim."

Finally meeting Michelle!

Post-swim breakfast at Lava Java, where a certain reigning IM champion (far left, in the back) was spotted out with his Specialized homies.

Yum, oatmeal.

A breakfast view that can't be beaten!

After much running around, I had my incredibly sore calves worked on at the ART tent and taped up by my doctor at the Rocktape booth and I was cranky and STARVING. Back to Lava Java to pick up some to-go food that I ate right on the rock wall by the water. Then I was in better spirits to join the guys who were having their lunch with this view.

I was still hungry so I finally got to try an acai bowl at a place I've had bookmarked for months, Basik Acai. I had The Drifter ("An organic blend of raw cacao, açai and rice milk. Topped with a layer of granola, banana, cacao nibs, crushed almonds, local strawberries and a drizzle of honey"). It was delicious. I will be back for more before we leave!

It rained this afternoon (and again tonight walking home from dinner)!

Another day in paradise done!

Kona Day 1, in photos

2011-10-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

Freakshow

2011-10-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we got the ultimate people-watching experience - a Raiders game in Oakland. Jeff is from Massachusetts and the Raiders were playing New England so...there we were.

Fashion nightmares abound

Tailgating and hoping not to be shot

Pretty view on the long walk to the stadium

Typical Raiders fan

We did have great seats!

Most wrinkled head I've ever seen

After a day spent on my feet watching the game, I was a little worried about how my legs would hold up for Monday's 3:15 bike/run brick. But it turned out great and my long run for the week was even faster than I'd hoped!

Celebratory ice bath

Tomorrow we leave for Kona - lots of training, meeting FB/blog friends, and fun ahead!

Countdown

2011-10-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

Life seems to be one countdown after another these days...

2 days until long run Monday. Yes, I love my long run days. A lot.
4 days until Kona. I'm so excited to cheer for everyone on race day and have a HUGE week of training in a new place.
9 days until one of these guys comes home.

4 weeks until taper begins.
7 weeks until Ironman Arizona!!!

If It's Monday

2011-09-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

it must be time to catch up on my blog! The hard part about these big crazy weekends is just how much backlog occurs and if I don't stay on top of it, I'll be hopelessly behind.

I finished off my biggest training week yet this year with a bang - things are feeling GREAT (even my hip - yay!). On Friday afternoon we headed down to San Luis Obispo for the Lighthouse Century.

Jeff and I found a nice little brewpub on the creek in downtown SLO to hang out until Nigel and George arrived.

Once we were all assembled and checked in for the ride, there was carbo-loading to be done.

(Mine's the root beer)

The boys are very serious about their pre-ride hydration.

And after a solid night's rest, it was time to fuel up and get ready to ride 100 miles on the Central California coast! I highly recommend the Lighthouse Century for anyone considering one - beautiful scenery, not a difficult course, and a VERY well supported ride. It sells out within 2 hours every year!

After a few bobbles in the parking lot at the start (*someone* brought 2 right bike shoes and was not able to join us until later in the ride), we met up with Mary and Suzy and were off at a brisk pace up the coast in the fog and rain.

I had SO much mud and dirt on my body from the first 40 miles

At the first rest stop, we met up with my aunt and uncle who were doing their 1st century. I look short in this crowd. My aunt says that's because I am short.

View from the 2nd rest stop

Once we hit the far turnaround, our missing team member had finally joined us and we headed back into a strong headwind going uphill - FUN!

Heading into the final rest stop, the guys decided to stop in to refill bottles and I continued on by myself. Before I knew it, I'd picked up a whole line of men drafting off me for the last 20 miles!

I only had a couple points on the bike where I felt a little ache in my hip and I was careful to dial it back a little to keep it in check. Overall, my fueling went perfectly, my energy levels were great and my legs were strong throughout - I pulled the last 15 miles at 18+ mph!

Once back at the car, I ditched the bike and headed out on a transition run. ~4 miles later, I was stoked to be done with my fastest century ever (beat last month's time by 22 minutes) and a great run off the bike!

From there, we raced home, picked up the dogs, showered, and made it in time for the Sharks' 2nd home pre-season game

You'd think I would sleep late after a day like that but I knew I had a big Sunday ahead - my long run split into two segments, morning and night. So there I was awake at 5:45 am eager to run! After giving the dogs a long walk and having some breakfast, I headed out to see what my legs had left - 8 lovely miles later, I was back! I spent the whole day twitchy waiting until I could go for my 2nd run. This time, Nigel went with me and we churned out another ~6 miles (for a total of 18+ in the weekend).

After Nigel and I were treated to the special sight of a man shampooing his hair and washing it in the kiddie water play area at the playground full of children, we headed off to meet up with Jeff for dinner. And I was ready to EAT. People wonder why we are at Tomato Thyme once or twice a week but they shouldn't after seeing this food!

Summer tomato salads with mozzarella are like candy to me, seriously.

Nom nom nom.

I think I'm entitled after riding 100 miles and running 18+ in one weekend.

And with that, I'm on to a rest week - yay! My body needs this as training is about to get even harder in Kona and Arizona the following weeks. I'm really just happy that the distance is feeling so doable this time around in Ironman training. My legs STILL feel great - not sore at all - after that weekend. I think I have to attribute it to excellent fueling, compression socks/tights and overzealous use of Recovery e21 (every hour on the bike and run this weekend).
If there's anyone left who hasn't tried some e21, message me and I'll send you a sample. Otherwise, it's 20% off with code "mollymc"

I'm Not Dead Yet!

2011-09-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

I have a bad habit of blogging after the weekend and then getting sucked into training and work and falling off the map. But I'm still here and going at it strong! So far, I am winning when it comes to my biggest week of the year - of course I haven't even trained half of this week's assigned hours yet - BIG weekend ahead.

So what HAVE I been doing?

5:30am masters twice this week already. (And a big long solo swim tomorrow)

Trying to give my dogs enough exercise without going out in the 90+ degree afternoon heat

Having a BIG reward after a brutal ART session on Monday to loosen up Sunday's painful hip flexors. Tears could have been shed. Thankfully by the time I had to ride hard on Wednesday morning it was much much better and after another round of ART Wednesday afternoon is feeling fantastic.

Rejoicing at the return of hockey!

Making some changes to my bike fit with the ever-patient Bruce over at Concept Cyclery. I've been on this bike now for almost 5 months so it was time to re-assess and see if we could put me in a more aggressive position. Thanks to all my lovely ART work, Bruce said my pedal stroke and form have improved dramatically, which helped support the changes we made.

Tripping over a crack in the sidewalk while running after masters today. I carried on with the workout and might have started scaring people heading out on their morning commute.

Bathing my boys so they'd be clean for an overnight stay at my mom's house

Visiting with a possible future addition to our house :-) More on that in a couple weeks...

Ironman Ate My Weekend

2011-09-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

But first, a few shots from yesterday's ride event. I was a bad event director and only took a few photos. So sue me, I was BUSY! :-)

It was a beautiful day for a ride!

The dogs were good about hanging out in between things.

Anyway, on to today...where I had a long ride on tap and a husband with his bike repaired to drag me around the valley. Knowing my legs might still be a bit taxed from racing last weekend, Coach said shameless drafting was allowed!

I suppose I have to admit that fall is coming, we started riding at 7am and the sun still wasn't up!

Hello, sun, can we have some warmth now? I haven't been able to feel my fingers since we started.

Red bell pepper fields

After Jeff and I did one loop of our long route down to Gilroy and back, we swung back to the car to refill our bottles and pick up another ride companion, George! This was my view for the rest of the day.

It was somewhere around the point of this picture (mile 55 or so) that my right hip flexor started expressing very angry thoughts about riding.

As perhaps a gift, it was shortly after that that I flatted with 2 thorns in my front tire. There are no photos of me lying on the shoulder stretching my hip out but it happened. I was awfully chipper about changing my flat though - it went easily AND two different drivers pulled over to see if I needed help. One of them had just finished his own ride and had a full-sized pump in his truck - it saved me a CO2 cartridge!

From there, sadly my hip had some rough and painful moments. I tried to get through them by smiling for as long as possible.

But there were a few tears shed in my official Ironman Training Mandatory Meltdown. I think I got mad at Jeff for slowing down in front of me and then he got behind me and that made me madder because I couldn't draft in the wind and I was going so slow because my hip hurt? Anyway, sniffle-sob-pityparty and then I was better. And the boys pulled me and I pulled them and eventually we were DONE with the ride. I'd gone from freezing before sunrise to cooking in 85 degree heat and pedaled for nearly 5.5 hours.

I arranged to meet Jeff at a Taco Bell several miles down the road and headed off on my run off the bike while he gave George a ride home. I call this my "practicing for training in Kona" picture because it was hot, there was no shade, and the landscape was all asphalt and dry fields.

As it turned out, I had a fantastic run in the heat, covering more distance than I expected while feeling great throughout. I sat in the shade at Taco Bell till Jeff showed up and then asked him to buy me a sugary soda as a reward :)

"Recovery" week is done and there's a BIG training week ahead! Thankfully I've already arranged to see my ART doc tomorrow and Wednesday to address the hip crankiness before it become a real problem. Onward!

Recovering

2011-09-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

I've been working hard at recovering from Big Kahuna this week...lots of sleep, lighter workouts during the week and generally just taking it easy. This weekend I'm back at it pretty strong as I've got a long ride on tap for Sunday. Today (Saturday) was spent executing a different kind of plan, putting on a charity ride that I started last year in honor of a family friend! Everything went smooth this year as the riders were happy with the route, the food and their prizes! The only casualty of the day was Jeff's bike, as his derailleur snapped on the first climb and he had to be picked up from there! Hopefully it will be fixed in time for him to pull me around the valley tomorrow; otherwise I'm in for another solo ride. I brought the dogs along and they managed to schmooze with the crowd and wear themselves out - bonus!

While I was off doing the race thing last weekend, Stan was again tearing it up at a local dog show, going Best Opposite one day and Best of Breed the other. Last week we started him in a whole 'nother performance sport as well - Nosework! So far, he LOVES it as the main idea is to find the food in the box (party time in Stan's world). Eventually he'll learn to scent out and find certain odors. Right now he is still learning the game of trusting his nose to find the hide.

Here is some video from our 2nd nose work class and some new challenges thrown at him. The airflow in this room is very difficult for the dogs as it swirls AND it's a petstore so there are already lots of good food smells around. Once he remembered why he was there, he did great! And he was EXHAUSTED after class from all that brainwork. I love tired dogs.

And with that, I'm back to putting my feet up and resting for tomorrow! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Big Kahuna Triathlon Race Report

2011-09-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

Race morning started off dark and early with the alarm at 3:45 am. Surprisingly I had no trouble sleeping solidly once I'd finally given up on reading and turned off the light. I was tempted to hit snooze but I knew I needed to get going. Copious amounts of sunblock applied to the body, followed by clothes, loading my bottles on my bike, grabbing breakfast and hitting the road just after 4am. Going over The Hill (what we call the mountains in between our valley and the coast) on Highway 17 I encountered some night construction and lane closures but had adequate time to get to my usual "super secret" parking area and roll down the hill into transition. Which was supposed to open at 5 but was already open and filling with bikes when I arrived at 4:58. Still I nabbed a prime spot right between the swim in/bike in-out/run out. My transition area was set up by 5:08 and then I just had to wait!

Thankfully not too long after that I found Jill and was able to harass her in between stints at the portajohn line. Before long it was time to start the walk down to the beach for the pre-race meeting and a warmup swim.

We found Jeff and Nigel waiting when we got to the beach. Surprisingly I was really not nervous - I felt very steady and just wanted to get on with it!

I was having enough fun to ham it up for the camera with my "game face." Jill's coach was one of the race announcers and she kept us entertained while we waited.

After a brisk warmup swim (the water was a balmy - for here, it really is - 59 degrees!), it was time to get in line with my wave. Women 35 and under went off at 7:15, in the 4th wave.

Yes, I really was the smallest person in my wave.

And then finally we were off!

For a 1.2 mile swim around the Santa Cruz pier, with nary a buoy in sight. The only 2 turn buoys were over 1/2 a mile offshore and not visible over the swell until you got really close to them. It made for some interesting sighting!

In the end, I emerged from the murky and cold Pacific in 47:20, over 2 minutes faster than my best 1/2IM swim. With all the sighting issues involved, I'll take it!

And then it was off for a long run (over 1/3mi) up the beach and through the city streets to transition. My actual time in the transition area was pretty short and despite the complete absence of one of my nutrition items for the bike (thanks to the men racked around me), I was on my way before long. T1 time, including the run: 4:15.

I had actually been very nervous about the bike leg of this race since test-riding a portion of it last weekend. It was relentlessly hilly, which I hadn't remembered, and my confidence was shaken a bit. Still, I came up with a plan of attack and intended to stay strong and positive to execute it.

As it turned out, the bike felt FABULOUS! I've never done a 1/2IM ride that felt so great where I didn't spend the last 5-10 miles wishing for it to end already. Yes, it was hilly. Yes, it was windy - so windy that it took me 12 minutes longer to return to town that it took to make the turnaround. But I just felt steady throughout! I attacked the downhills (because at my size gravity is not enough to get down them as fast as I want) and I held back as I spun the uphills (yet still passed people who'd fly by me on the downhill and grind to a halt going up).

I came back into town all smiles with a HUGE bike PR. 3:09:37 for an average of 17.7 mph.

I was very quick in and out of transition (0:37 with the 8th fastest T2 of the entire race!) and then it was time to RUN!

I made sure to dial my pace back heavily in the early miles to save something for later. Jeff and friends biked down the road on my course for a couple minutes to cheer for me before I told them I had to stop talking and focus!

The run course follows a nice scenic path along the coast before turning onto the trails of a state park best known for its mountain biking. Dirt and hills, oh yeah! Unfortunately that didn't do great things for my legs when I was supposed to pick up the pace - I was lucky to hold on to the one I'd had for a while. I realized once I reached the tiki turnaround that the run course was going to be a fair bit longer the 13.1 miles! Shortly after emerging from the state park on the return trip, the sun came out, things got hotter, and my stomach announced it was done with this whole race thing.

The last couple miles were purely a mental battle to make it to the finish - I was officially FRIED. I reminded myself often of one thing throughout race day and it was what kept me going at the end - YOU WANT THIS. You didn't work this hard all year for the goals you set to let it go now, you WANTED to be here, in this moment, facing the point of breaking and make it to the finish line knowing you beat that pain and Kept. Moving. Forward. You've dreamed of a day like this.

Sorry for the melodramatic interlude :) Anyway, when you finally descend from West Cliff Drive to sea level, the course does the most unkind thing possible and leads you down the beach, where you get to run the last 1/3 mile (you know, that extra 1/3 mile that took it over 13.1 miles) on SAND. I immediately ran to the waterline to get the firmest ground I could and then it was just time to focus on that finish arch (and not run into all the families playing on the beach).

Total run ended up being 2:07:11 - nothing special in terms of what I've run in the past but it got the job done in the conditions I faced on the day and I kept moving no matter how bad it felt.

In the end, I finished in 6:09:02 for a whopping 14:15 PR! Slowly I am inching closer to the times I know I am capable of, thanks to all of Coach's hard work on me.

And then I was done. And not smiling anymore because HOLY SHITBALLS my legs hurt! I threw my finish medal and water bottle at Jeff and marched straight into the ocean to ice them.

Aaaaaahhhh, much better.

Best finish medal ever to approximate faces of finishers at the line?

My training schedule for today said Eat something FUN. Don't mind if I do. I'm pretty sure I earned it!

Taper Twitches

2011-09-10T17:15:00.000-07:00

You'd think that since I was training less and less the last week or two, I'd be posting more. But alas, I bought a new laptop to replace my slowly-dying-an-ugly-death HP laptop and it's taken a while to get everything transferred and re-learn the basics of using a Mac.

I've had plenty of time to think about things and appreciate the small moments, like sunrise while running the dogs at the high school.

Workouts done on the coast over a holiday weekend end with a little beach time.

The sun came out eventually, really

The bonus feature of a Northern California beach is, it doubles as an ice bath!

In any event, maybe taper or hormones or 10 hours of sleep a night makes me introspective but, in the course of driving ~250 miles today (drive dog to dog show, drive back, drive to packet pickup, drive back), I had a lot of time to think. About the life I had 10 years ago and how much it has changed. I originally wrote a lot of this out in detail but decided to pass on posting it...I suppose I should respect the privacy of the party in question.

The point is, triathlon for me has really been a way to define my life on my own terms, instead of how others chose to define it for me in the past. I'm ever grateful for my husband, who from the day we got together has always encouraged me to do whatever makes me happy, without judgement, and not allowed me to fall into the easy trap of letting someone else make decisions for me. I don't think there's been a crazy hare-brained Molly scheme yet that he hasn't supported 100%. Including - seriously - "oh c'mon, take off your swim trunks and give them to that girl who's asking so she can win the contest."

In that past life, I was told plenty of things about what I "was" and "was not," and I "was not" an athlete (and yet I "was not" ever ladylike enough either). I remember seeing something about this local race down in Santa Cruz and thinking how neat it sounded but I "was not" someone who could do that kind of thing.

And then I started running and I was a runner. I saw that race in Santa Cruz again and thought - too bad I can't swim. And then I started swimming and biking and did my first triathlon. I saw that race again and thought - I can't swim in the ocean, I'll never do a 1/2IM...but if I ever did...that's the one I'd do.

So tomorrow, when I finally toe the line at Big Kahuna after 4 other 1/2IMs and 1 IM, I will remember the journey it's taken to reach this point and know that - PR, no PR, whatever - only I get to define what's a successful race. Just making it to that point, I win - so let's go have some fun tomorrow!

And in other news…

2011-09-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

I’m enjoying a lighter volume week of training, though still some tough stuff to keep me focused while I taper for Big Kahuna.

I found time to get my car washed. For the first time since I bought it March 30th. (photo taken at carwash)

I saw Dr Brink for some ART on my calves and hips. A VERY welcome intervention after Sunday’s 100-miler, and something I will be doing consistently until Ironman. As a reward for surviving the pain, I went to Yogurtland, which is right across the street.

Despite still having 11+ weeks to go before my last race of the year, I started putting together my 2012 season…I decided I want to challenge myself with more hilly courses next year. On coach’s suggestion, I threw my name into the lottery for Escape from Alcatraz this morning. *fingers crossed*

Oh and – along with my training partner Nigel, my brother, his girlfriend, BSC and some other friends who haven’t come out of the closet yet – I got online at noon on Monday and put this little event on my calendar. :-)

Fun times ahead!

So Much To Say

2011-08-31T17:55:00.001-07:00

First an update on dog life around here…I’ll blog separately for the rest!

Max joined me at a work function a couple weeks ago – he was SO good, just hanging out under the picnic table and being so quiet some people didn’t even know he was there! It helped that I snuck him a lot of BBQ chicken.

Here is Stanley flirting with one of his girlfriends the same week.

When he went to Reno for the dog show 2 weeks ago, he stayed one night with my friends and their Havanese. He tried VERY hard to get someone to play with him.

And here he is going Best of Breed that weekend!

Begging for El Pollo Loco this past Friday night. It must be good luck because he went BOB both days at the show this past weekend!

At agility class yesterday and happy to be there!

Today Melissa’s dog Jemma visited while her owner went to work. It only took 8 hours but they all wore each other out. Here, Max is pissed to be forced to sit with the other two, Stan is sheepish about Jemma talking him into getting all muddy, and Jemma just wants someone to THROW THE DAMN BALL!!!

Sunday in 2 Photos

2011-08-28T20:41:00.001-07:00

A Raging Case of Randomitis

2011-08-26T13:46:00.001-07:00

Another round of playing catchup via bullet points.

While I was training my ass off last weekend, Stanley was kicking ass at the dog show in Reno. I’m hoping to have some video to share with the photos I was sent but it hasn’t come yet.
In any event, he went Best Opposite on Saturday and then went Best of Breed on Sunday! He came home with 7 more points towards his Grand Championship, including a 5-point major.
My swim race last Sunday was just a C race, so I felt no shame in deciding last minute to drop down to the shorter distance and only do a 1-mile swim/3-mile run. This decision was validated when my arms felt like lead 5 minutes into the swim and I did nearly all of the mile alone in no-man’s land. At this stage of the game, I know better than to kill myself for what is simply a training day.
As I posted on Facebook today, it’s nice to know my life/training is at a point where the solution to just about any problem is...eat more. Wake up feeling like ass? Eat until it goes away. Legs hurt? Eat more. Brain fuzzy? Eat more.
The only time this has backfired on me was yesterday when I was hit with what I can only assume was a quick burst of food poisoning. The only explanation I can come up with is that I made a mistake when handling the dogs’ raw food. Let’s just say I suffered for about 4 hours before pharmaceutical intervention succeeded.
Thankfully I was able to pull my shit together (um, literally) in time for my afternoon massage where I let someone new pound the hell out of my legs (my massage therapist of the last 3 years has gone off to nursing school *sob*). New girl wasn’t bad, at least pretended to laugh at all my jokes, and found all my problem areas with ease.
Training is going remarkably well! I had a FANTASTIC long run yesterday morning, over 15 miles, where my legs still felt pretty fresh at the end. Thank you, compression socks and Recovery e21. I may have been won over into the camp of wearing the socks on my long runs. I guess that means I should wear them racing too? Hmmmmm.
This week will match my 2nd or 3rd heaviest training week ever, back from the couple biggest weeks I did training for IM AZ in 2009. It’s awfully funny to be headed into the weekend having put some solid efforts in and still have 9 hours of training to go. Then, I can rest…a little recovery time to let all this training sink in and taper for Big Kahuna!
It’s amazing to be just heading into my biggest part of the year as the season is over or nearly over for others. Somehow it’s already time to think about next year! There are races to sign up for and since things sell out fast, you’ve got to get on them quickly. My calendar is marked for a few items next week :-)

I’d Like to Write a Post About My Day

2011-08-20T20:10:00.001-07:00

but I am too tired to say much. Photos will have to suffice.

We did a wonderful 85-mile ride up at my new favorite riding road Silverado Trail (very similar to IM AZ in terms of flat to gradual elevation changes and wind).

It was so foggy when we started, you could barely see the hills and couldn’t see the mountains.

I brought fast men to chase this time.

Occasionally they let me get close before they took off again.

So I spent a lot of time amusing myself. And eating, eating, eating. I think I took in about 3x as many calories as the guys.

Eventually, on our second loop, the sun did come out.

We went up a random hill, just because I was curious.

I’m not sure the guys were as amused with my side trip.

We ended our day at the nearby Silverado Brewing Company. I’d promised the guys I would drive them to and from Napa, plus a trip to the brewpub, if they rode with me. I ordered a spinach salad and a lamb burger, minus the bun, and combined them for a fairly healthy and very pretty recovery meal!

Now, time to sleep. Because – oops – I forgot I have a swim race tomorrow!

Santa Cruz International Triathlon Race Report

2011-08-18T19:04:00.001-07:00

I know, it’s late in coming. Even the people who know all the details don’t quite believe the week I’ve had. IN-SANE. So perhaps this race report won’t have all my usual long rambling details (because I can barely remember my own name at this point) but it’s getting done so Meredith gets her report!

Anyway…

On Sunday I headed down to Santa Cruz for this Olympic-distance race! My aunt and uncle and of course training buddy Nigel were all racing it. Last year we all did the sprint together.

After waiting through the pro/elite wave and the mens wave start (each wave 15 minutes apart), the women were finally ready to go. We took off from the beach and dove into the chilly ocean water. Swim swim swim for one loop, run across the beach, and dive back in for a second loop. That one seemed to go quicker and I was out of the water in my fastest Oly swim ever. 32:27. 5th in AG.

Serious face?

From there it was a long run up the beach and down several city blocks to transition. The sidewalk was under construction so they made us run on the road. My feet are STILL bruised from this. In n out of transition quickly and onto the bike. T1: 0:54. 1st in AG.

The bike was 4 loops around Santa Cruz. Many of the women I’d started with were doing the aquarun so it felt a little quiet out there but I just kept plugging along. I sent my race wheel with my Powertap back to Saris last week for repairs so I was racing without data and just trying to go off of feel. I learned on the first loop where the “fast” segments were and pushed those harder on the subsequent loops. Before too long the bike was ov-ah! 1:17:05. 6th in AG.

One loop after another…

T2: 0:37. 1st in AG again. Yay me!

As I rolled into T2, I had seen a friend headed out on the run who said “Well there you are, what are you still doing out there???” OK then, my mission was to run her down! Heading out on the run the sun finally came out and things warmed up – I tried to hold a steady-hard pace and see how much I could get out of it. I messed up my Garmin somewhere along the way in the race so I was flying somewhat blind on pace in the run too. I hoped to run down as many women as I could but I only passed a handful, including tearing right past my friend 1/4 mile from the finish line. 50:21 (8:07 pace). 1st in AG. And a new 10k PR by 1 second :)

Look, Ma, no touching the ground!

Nigel was waiting for me at the finish as he’d started 15 minutes ahead of me. We knew with his swim skills I’d be unlikely to catch him but I did beat his race time by 20 seconds – something for him to think about next time :)

With Nigel and my uncle – I’m not sure what happened to the photographer when my aunt joined us after the finish.

In all it was a 13 minute PR for me at this distance and I ran myself into 2nd place in my AG!

Fun little podium moment!

Even better was that my friends/family podiumed too! Nigel and my uncle Dave went 2nd/3rd in their AG and my aunt went 2nd in hers!

Next up is Big Kahuna 1/2 IM in ~3.5 weeks – lots of heavy training to do before then though!

Ode to the iPhone

2011-08-11T14:36:00.001-07:00

I swore I didn’t need one, that I wouldn’t get one, that I had no interest…oh how I was mistaken. And I’m willing to admit it.

I wonder how I survived without it now. Suffice it to say, my iPhone is the best recent addition I’ve made to my technological life!

I can check my email quickly and not have to wait wait wait for each browser page to load for each email as I did on my work Blackberry.
I can check-in places on Facebook (though some who have to see my Facebook feed all day might disagree that this is a good thing).
I can identify a new song that I’m hearing, buy it and download it all in one fell swoop. No more anxiously waiting for the radio to play it again and trying to guess who does it.
GPS mapping to get me anywhere I’m going without packing a separate device.
I can find the closest Starbucks to wherever I’m at, just in case I need a frappuccino fix.
I can create, edit and upload home movies without my laptop computer and some fancy software.
I can listen to podcasts while driving.
I can Yelp from wherever I’m at to find whatever I’m looking for.
When I stumble down the street in the dark walking the dogs at 4:45 am, I can use the Star Walk application to identify all the stars, planets and constellations in the sky. Even if it makes my neighbors think I’m photographing their houses.
I can quickly look up gluten free menu items and ingredients when we eat out.
I can watch my TV shows anytime, anywhere. I’m no longer tied to what Jeff is watching on our TV! I’ve been watching lots of shows on my trainer – the phone fits perfectly on my aerobars!
Two words: Angry. Birds. Need I say more?

And now, that’s 2 blog posts in a week – I feel like I should throw myself a parade or something! :-) At least I am not the only one having difficulty finding time to blog.

It makes me wonder what on earth I did last time around (slack at work) but there’s no doubt this year: I am definitely training for Ironman.*

*most recently evidenced by my request to Jeff to pick me up baby wipes and Desitin at the grocery store**

**Get your minds out of the gutter. Baby wipes are the easiest way to clean up enough post-long-ride when you have to be in public and can’t go straight home to shower. Desitin…well…I may need it with all the upcoming time in the saddle I see on my schedule.

insert blank look here

2011-08-10T11:47:00.001-07:00

I’ve been trying to start a blog post for days and my brain keeps freezing up. As such, I’m apparently incapable of tying together the disparate components of my life in one neat pretty little post. So I’ll just do the random bullet point game and hopefully you will excuse me for my limited Ironman-training brain.

You know you’re riding long when the nutrition for one ride takes over more space on the kitchen counter than your food.

I hammered out my long ride Saturday at my best pace to date. Definitely loving the new bike.

I had fog for the first 50 miles and didn’t pull my arm warmers off until somewhere around 65 miles. I won’t tell you how proud I was to be able to get them off without stopping…

It turned out I’d parked in a great location for my run off the bike – right onto the Napa River Trail (trail to the left in the trees).

While I was running around all weekend exhausting myself, Stanley was showing beautifully in the ring at the Richmond Dog Fanciers’ show in Dixon.

My Iron appetite has gone missing. I’m not sure if it’s something to worry about or just one of those things about absorbing your nutrients better being gluten free. For once I’m really nailing my fueling on the workouts so maybe I’m just not running as calorie-deficient? I’m totally eating meals and snacks, I just haven’t hit that starvation mode I remember from last time around.
Stanley and I wrapped up the obedience class we’ve been taking with a little graduation Monday. He REALLY wanted his graduation cookie but sat nicely till I was done with the photo. The LOOK he gave me though!

We had to teach a trick for graduation day. I don’t know a lot of exciting tricks to teach dogs (mine all know shake, high five, etc) but we cobbled this together from our agility touch training.

I let Max tag along to Stanley’s agility class last night – it was his first time back at class since he injured his neck over the July 4th weekend. You’ve never seen a dog SO HAPPY just to be at his old stomping grounds, even if he was just watching. After class I let him run with Mary’s golden puppy Essie and did a bunch of tunnels with him – he was in heaven! Every tunnel he took, Stanley bounded over the A-frame above it – the boys had FUN.

Speaking of Stanley…on the off chance someone is here for the dog stuff and not the triathlon stuff LOL, he has what should be some very nice puppies due up in Washington in a couple weeks – feel free to contact me if interested and I’ll pass you on to the breeder. In addition, we hope there will be some more coming along in the Midwest in a couple months.
Today is 8 years since Jeff and I got together. Time does indeed fly when you are having fun! What are we doing to celebrate? Um, well…he’s off to backpack in the Sierras and I’m racing this weekend. I guess that makes us an old married couple for sure! :-)
And that’s about it for my weekly brain dump!

Moments in Time

2011-08-02T08:58:00.001-07:00

Lindsay started this last week with a post about random meaningful moments caught with the cellphone camera. I have only had my phone for a little over a month but I managed to dig up some pictures to share :-)

Probably the first photo I took with the iPhone – Jeff at lunch at Britannia Arms on a summer day

Our view most of our days in Cabo. Hard to believe it’s been over a month since we were there – where did July go?

My sweet Max and his beloved soccer ball. He likes to fetch but is extra-obsessive about fetching soccer balls.

Bike riding in Northern California – it kinda all looks like this year round!

Wet dogs in jail – they were not pleased with this option.

San Jose Giants game last week. I love our little local stadium and the small-town feel. The cheap tickets and food help too :)

Wet Stanley. They look like drowned rats at bathtime.

Dry Stanley. I can smell the clean coat from here!

Whirlwind Weekend Saga

2011-08-01T09:37:00.001-07:00

It was another insane weekend of travel, activities and training!

The dogs and I headed up to Sonoma County on Friday afternoon. We took the scenic route and checked out my intended long ride bike course along the way.

We were up north because my brother was going to be racing the full Iron distance at Vineman! I spent Friday evening running errands in Santa Rosa, hitting a cute local gluten-free bakery and getting dinner at Whole Foods before trying to go to bed early.

And so we were up bright and early Saturday (ok, maybe a little grumpy and tired but it was 4:30 am after all) to drive out to Guerneville for the race start. After some major pre-race drama, things got going and Robert was off for a long day of racing! Once he hit the roads on the bike, I drove the beardies over to Beth’s house to play with their sisters for the day and then drove myself to Calistoga for my long ride! I’d been tipped off that Silverado Trail was a great place to ride, roughly 27 miles long with only one stop sign the entire way and a nice big bike lane. It did not disappoint! (Well it might if you get tired of views of grapevines and hills)

And 4 hours later, I was done with my longest ride of the year so far. I even had a really good run off the bike, I could have done it all day – I think I finally got my fueling on the bike just right. Then it was time to swing back to get the (now tired) dogs and get over to Windsor to spectate the race again. My brother had just headed out on his first loop of the run when I got there so we had time to get settled in with the family. The boys enjoyed all the attention!

Putting together a great race, Robert finished his first Iron distance triathlon looking strong!

From there it was a 2 hour drive home for me and the mutts, a quick unloading of the car and off to bed at 11:30pm to try to get some rest for the next day’s workout.

I wrapped up the week Sunday morning with a long run. My instructions were to do a HILLY TRAIL, so I went up Lexington Dam for the first time in ages (possibly have only ever done this on my mountain bike) and then further up the hills behind it.

You can barely see the path running across/up the middle of the dam going to the left.

Here’s what it looks like from below as you approach.

Dam photos stolen from this site, I didn’t run with a camera.

And with that, I was done, exhausted, FINISHED for the week. We saw Cowboys & Aliens (very fun movie) and otherwise I sat around in a tired daze all day and tried to eat a lot.

Hope everyone had a fun weekend!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2011-07-26T15:15:00.001-07:00

As I’ve mentioned a few times, as I geared up for IM training this year I made a few changes that I hope help support my training and overall health.

Gluten Free

About a month ago, when I came home from Mexico and got back to serious training, I cut gluten out of my diet. I don’t have gluten intolerance per se (though I have certainly noticed a response from my stomach when it’s slipped back in) but there seems to be a lot of information out there about the role of gluten in inflammation and it’s yet another way to clean up my eating habits even more.

Surprisingly, it hasn’t been that difficult to cut gluten/wheat out of my diet. Thanks to Whole Foods and a number of conscientious local restaurants, there are gluten free cupcakes, gluten free brownies, gluten free pizza, gluten free beer…what was I saying about cleaning up my diet? Oh yes, I am still trying to avoid those things now too, but it’s nice to have the option at least when I need a fix. Instead I spend even more of my day’s calories on fruit, vegetables, lean meats, nuts, etc etc etc. I took a look at my sports nutrition products and cut out one item that included wheat, but otherwise most of what I’d selected for the year is still good.

I’ve committed to keeping this change in effect through IM AZ, I’ll assess again after that. But I’ve gotten through one month of the five since I made this change without too much trouble, so I know I can handle it. I have seen a marked reduction in my random digestive upsets so that’s a plus. Other than that, I’m not sure there’s a real way to measure change anyway, other than that I’m happily bouncing along through my workouts and recovering well.

Letting Natural Hormones Take Over

I started taking “the pill” when I was 15, for health reasons (massive problems with normal function). I stayed on them through my 20s because I like dogs, not children. But really, there’s been no reason for me to be on them for some time now.

Vasectomy: Best. Wedding. Gift. Ever.

And so, after some more reading/thinking about how the artificial hormones affect female athletes in a possibly detrimental way, I chucked those too. Again, it’s too early to say if there’s any quantitative change but between that and going gluten free, I dropped 3 pounds in the first couple weeks.

Finding Balance

It should be clear by now I tend to find myself on the overcommitted side of things at times. This is not how I want to find myself during Ironman training – it *does not* end well.

As such, last weekend was our last agility trial until after the race. Weekends will simply be too booked up with training. But fear not for the social lives of my dogs, because that makes this the perfect time for Stanley to do more conformation shows. He absolutely loves the show ring and his handler, and all I have to do is drop him off clean. Win-win. It doesn’t hurt that quite a few of the upcoming shows are near places I want to ride my bike!

And Max has been having a blast hanging out with Jeff, including going to a bar for guys night out while Stanley and I were doing agility last Friday night – he’s delighted with all the fun he’s having as a “retired” agility dog.

So that’s where we leave it for now – lots of swimming, biking and running to do and in between the usual mess of work and dog training classes and sleep and massive quantities of FOOD. It’s a hard life but someone’s got to live it.

Bay Team CPE

2011-07-25T21:01:00.001-07:00

Delaying a post on diet and other changes I’ve been meaning to write for a week because I haven’t had any time today…hopefully tomorrow!

On Sunday I dropped Stanley off at the agility trial and went off for an easy 90 minute ride. Right back to Chesbro where I swam the day before – it was much quieter out there this time.

And then it was time for some fun with the dog!

Jackpot (like gamblers) – he did the jump-tunnel-jump gamble quite easily – we got our qualifying points and got out of there before the whistle. Stanley ran past one jump I wanted him to take but now I realize it was a smart move because the judge was standing in our way!

Snooker – my favorite class and 1st place. The video seems to have missed our first red but we did a 5(tunnel)-7(double jump)-6(two jumps) for the opening and then got points for the entire closing. The 7 was tricky since it was not bidirectional in the opening.

Wildcard – another fun run where we had 3 choice points to make along the way in order to qualify. Still going fast on his last run of the day!

Feeling Fishy

2011-07-23T20:24:00.001-07:00

Today was the big 2.4 mile swim, my first one since IM AZ nearly two years ago and only my second time swimming the distance in open water. I mosied on down to Chesbro Reservoir in Morgan Hill to meet up with a bunch of friends for the race.

Photo stolen from race website

I have to say, I’m going to feel spoiled in Ironman with all the buoys…all these OW swim races this summer have involved 4 or less turn buoys for 1+ mile swims so my sighting gets lots of practice!

The swim today had 3 yellow turn buoys – the straightest path between these buoys and the double orange start line buoys made for 1.2 miles. We swam 2 loops to make up the 2.4 miles. As you can see in my little marked-up map, there were 3 orange sighting buoys that were not in a straight line between the yellows + 2 irrelevant red Muscle Milk buoys that marked the course for the youth swim. Suffice it to say, it made for some interesting navigation.

I went into this race a bit sleep-deprived (thanks to husband snoring) and with an achy back (thanks to dog’s agility fun match last night) so my attitude/motivation might have been lagging a little. But the reservoir was warm (68 degrees) and clean and all my friends were doing it so I sucked it up, jumped in and swam to the start line.

Loop 1 – The Warmup. I kept a nice light pace throughout the first loop of the course, just focused on sighing well and swimming with good form. I was more or less alone by the time I hit the red buoys but I expected that with a race this small. When I cleared the last yellow buoy and turned back to start the course again, I made a small boo-boo in sighting for the red buoys instead of the orange start buoys (which we had to pass through again) – this cost me a little bit of time before I realized it but at least I didn’t have to turn around and swim back for them.

Loop 2 – The Draft. My instructions for the 2nd loop were to find someone and draft like mad. Somewhat difficult when there’s almost no one around you but I did spot a woman with no wetsuit, meaning she’d gone off in the wave 5 minutes behind me. Sounded like a perfect draft of someone faster than me and I latched onto her toes. Unfortunately I think she slowed down quite a bit in her second loop but every time I tried to swim away from her, she was right at my hip. So it was easier to just cruise on her feet. The sun came out for the 2nd loop making the return sighting very difficult and it helped to just follow someone else.

At the final yellow buoy, I dropped my draft and sprinted for the finish line at shore. Mary cheered me in as I ran up the boat ramp and I was grinning the whole way with what I knew was coming.

HUGE. PR.

I swam this race 24 minutes faster than my IM swim at Arizona. Who says hard work in the pool doesn’t work?! Even with a slow draft and poor sighting, I am delighted!

The day got even better as I met Jennifer right before she went in for the 1.2 mile swim. We caught up a bit more after her race (which she did GREAT in!).

Nigel came in 2nd in his AG in the 2.4 mi wetsuit swim. While he waited for me to finish, Mary talked him into doing the 1.2 mile wetsuit race with her so he signed up. And ended up finishing as the 1st place man! He got to make 2 trips to the podium and take home a bunch of wine!

One more day in my rest week and then training kicks up a notch again – I can’t wait!