IM Adventures

Angry Starfish-the Tale of the Charleston Half-Marathon

2012-01-26T10:05:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I participated in the Charleston (SC) 1/2 marathon. I did finish. It wasn't a pretty one. The angry starfish was my prize for finishing. I'll explain, but first some context!

The trip to Charleston was fun, Karen and I were hosted by an old friend of mine and her partner, both of which were running the half as well. Karen of course, was running the full marathon. Something about trying to get all 50 states....me, not so much. the weekend was to include the run and then a bike ride the next day.

Our friends are both into triathlons as well, and of course our conversations somehow always steered towards training. We all know how it feels to ride long distances on a bike, the girly parts can and usually do, get sore. Evidently, some friend of theirs convinced them to examine said parts by using a mirror after a ride to see what a sore girly looks like. It apparently looks like a squashed eggplant. I cannot think of a worse idea than doing that, but the image stuck in my head, and from now on, I may complain about my squashed eggplant after riding.

So, on to the race report. The morning was cold, and I wore my favorite pair of tights. I had conveniently forgotten that they caused chafing in the nether region the last long run I did in them, so I quickly knew that I was not going to have a relaxing shower after the race. But, I toddered along and for the first 6 miles or so, everything seemed ok, except for the chafing. Around mile 6, I started to feel like I needed a porta-potty....a quick duck behind something was not going to cut it. I recalled how, at the DC 1/2, I waited in line for a random potty for 17 minutes, so I vowed to go to the first one I saw. There it was, a random porta-potty, across some railroad tracks, clearly not part of the race. Off I went, across the broken glass field, railroad tracks to the potty. There were only a couple of people before me, so my wait was short. After my business, I realize there is no tp....so I am looking at my throwaway shirt or my $1 gloves as my only options. The gloves went. Thinking I am good to go, I continue onward, only to be stopped after about a 1/2 mile with serious intestinal pains...nope not done yet. Waddle on, walking and running to the next porta--one major complaint about this race is the paltry amount of portas on the course, there was one every 2 miles or so and that my friend is not enough.

I stop and wait and just before I get to go, oops happens. Wow, that is not something that I prepared for, but luckily, I still had my throwaway shirt to cover my accident. Clean up myself, dump and wipe and go running again. Like clockwork, I had continued pains, and porta stops, I started feeling the effects of frequent wiping with cheap tp. This goes on until I finish, and then I think I am ok b/c I stopped running. Nope. No stopping. Every 15 minutes I go, now at the finish area where they have all of 10 porta-potties and they have run out of even the cheap tp they had. On to using paper towels. My ass is on fire but I gotta wipe, right?

Waiting for Karen to finish the full marathon, tried to eat some food, going to the porta, scraping my ass with paper towels, not my best few hours. Finally, she gets done (it wasn't that long, actually, but I was feeling pretty shitty--ha.) We all four pile into the shuttle bus back to the start and the car. Walking back to the car, oh no.....not done yet! No porta potties in sight! Thankfully, there was a bank, and someone my friend knew so I avoided another "accident" but not by much. Arrgghh.

When I finally go into the shower and the water hit me, it was like liquid fire spraying on my ass. I wasn't sure I could even wear underwear, with the chafing that I had from the tights and all the potty breaks. After complaining about my sore ass, it was named the Angry Starfish. Needless to say, I did not do the bike ride the next day. The angry starfish needed some rest.

Peru-lat part

2011-10-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Peru, Last Part!
Ok, so I am in the hyperbaric chamber, under pressurized oxygen, kind of freaking out since it is shut like a submarine. To combat the fear, I am lying on my stomach, with my face as close to the oxygen as I can. I was so glad when the hissing stopped and they opened the chamber and I got out! I felt better already, finally able to take a breath, a full breath! Still a bit dizzy, but the weird wet breathing noise had stopped.

Back in the mini-van ambulance to the clinic, where I was put back on the IV for the remainder of the night. They were nice enough to let Karen stay with me, and she slept in the other bed as I lay awake staring at the ceiling, with the freaking IV and old-lady oxygen tubing not letting me roll on my stomach or side, which is where I like to sleep.

In the early morning, things got a little chaotic, as the doctor came in to tell me that I needed to fly to Lima and stay there for at least 2 days before I flew home, and that he needed to go with me. No problem, I thought. Well, there was a problem, b/c the stupid idiots from our tour tried to tell Karen that she needed to fly to Lima at 7 am, when I wasn't going to be able to go until 11 am. That caused a lot of angst for me, as I didn't really want to be alone in a Peruvian clinic without Karen around! Finally it all got worked out, and I was bundled into another ambulance to drive the 3 blocks back to the hotel to shower and pack up. I managed to talk the doctor out of making me fly with oxygen, telling him that I hiked for days on 1/4 of a lung, so I thought I could make it on the flight.

The flight to Lima was kind of strange, the doctor really meant he was flying with me, he sat beside me and checked my oxygen levels a couple of times during the flight, as well as got us to the hotel and checked it there, and gave me some medicine. Nice guy, interesting talking to him about Peru and his thoughts on the country.

Karen had booked us into a nice hotel, well, very nice--JW Marriott--to spoil me a bit. Lima is an interesting place, doesn't rain and is basically a desert. It sits on some very high bluffs made of dirt. Great views, but kind of weird since the bluffs are crumbly dirt. We visited some pre-Incan ruins in Lima, as well as some Incan ruins on the outskirts. We basically had a private tour, so that was cool. The ceremonial sacrifical area was creepy, and there was a place where the sacrifical girls lived until they were selected for sacrifice. A huge honor for the family, not so good for the girls.

We walked around Lima a lot, got a strange near tour of the City by a taxi driver, going to a famous museum of Peruvian items, and then he took us to some famous Spanish houses where we were able to touch a book from the 1500s, everything was just out in the open and not protected! We also saw a catholic church with some beautiful tile work.

New Years Eve came and we ate at some Italian restuarant, and saw some fireworks over the ocean. I was feeling much better at this point, but Karen had come down with a cold. Our trip ended with the long flight back to Virginia. I was never so glad to get home, and this was the only vacation that I've ever been on where I lost weight!

After we got back, we got a copy of the doctor's notes, and then I got kind of freaked out. I was dehydrated (which is why it took the nurses 5 tries to get the iv in) and basically in super bad shape due to the pulminary edema. Lesson learned and happy to be ok! I don't have an itch to go back.

Peru Trip-Out of Cusco

2011-04-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

So, light-headed and dizzy, which was becoming the norm for me, the group made our way back to the hotel in Cusco, via our bus. We disembarked and upon entering the hotel lobby, a nicely dressed man was waiting for me---the doctor. We went upstairs to our room where he checked my pulse-ox and stuff. So, the reading on the finger thing was 80, and I am thinking it is ok, b/c that would mean I had a B. Wrong. The doctor told me to lay down on the bed and not to move while he went to get the hotel O2. I asked him what the deal was, and that's when he told me that a normal reading would be 95+ and that he was concerned about the sounds in my lungs. Huh? Then he said that anything under 85 required constant O2. Hhmmm, I thought. Maybe that explains my unability to walk up steps.

The plan was for me to go to his clinic, just down the block, and get on O2, go to a hyperbaric chamber, and be on intrevenous fluids and anti-biotics overnight, and then to fly down to Lima the next day. Karen and I were not going to Lake Titicaca--the doctor said that he has trouble breathing there, and he was used to 11,000+ altittude. So, off I went on my next adventure.

At the clinic, they gave me a bed to lay in, some old lady O2 (the nose clip kind) and then the poor nurses jabbed me 5 times to get a vein--evidently I was really dehydrated, didn't know that-- to start the IV drip. It was ok for a while, but time moved very slowly and thankfully Karen stayed in the room most of the time. She did leave to go eat and bring me back some food to eat. As the night wore on, things got weirder--Carlos our guide stopped by once shortly after I arrived, and promised to come back-he didn't.

The doctor made arrangements for me to go the another clinic with a hyperbaric chamber, we left around midnight in a van that was an "ambluance". They brought a gurney, but I walked out on my own, thank you very much. At the chamber clinic, I had to put on PJs, since nothing metal could be in the chamber. Karen slept while I lay in the air-tight, kind of freaky chamber. It is like a sub doored tube--no handles on the inside and clear plexiglass for about 2 feet so the occupant can see out. It was weird--hissing O2 came from the bottom, and I was trying my hardest not to freak out b/c I was trapped with no escape. The plexoglass fogged up and I could see where other occupants had written on the fogged glass---kind of really freaked me out.

Jungle Days 2 and 3

2011-03-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

Ohhh, poor me! My insides were unhappy, resulting in multiple trips to the bathroom. Much to my chagrin, the water is shut off each night at 10 pm. Let's just say that being unable to flush was not a good thing at all. I was up all night, sick and sitting on the toilet. The snoring from next door was incredible, never have I heard such loud snores from what sounded like 10 people. If this family had a dog, the dog would have snored as well. I am sure the noise from our side, while not snoring, was not much better. Sorry!

Day finally dawned and I felt worse, the intestinal issue moving up to my stomach. I hate feeling like I am going to throw up, and the mixture of that feeling plus the need to sit on the toilet made for a really bad time. Karen tried to get me something to drink, but I really couldn't drink or eat anything. I felt like crap. Finally, I puked in the trash can and slept a little. I was miserable, but at least it was kind of nice in the room, not hot, small breeze and I could see the jungle outside of the room. Karen brought some ginger ale and crackers which I nibbled on, and then some chicken soup, which I could not eat. It was bright yellow. The color alone made me gag.

Karen got to go on a little hike, and pond boat ride, and took some good photos for me to see. I could not stand up but did rotate between the bed and the hammock. Finally, in the late afternoon, I took a shower and felt a teeny bit better. Still could not eat anything but crackers, but did try to drink ginger ale. The snoring family left, so night 2 was better and I got some more needed sleep.

By Day 2, I could actually get up and showered without any problem. I ate breakfast and walked around the big lodge a bit. Even after 2 days at sea level, I was dizzy and winded when I climbed to the second floor. I knew this was bad, and told Carlos I needed to see a doctor when we got back to Cusco later that day. It was really unfortunate that I got super sick in the jungle and we had such a short time there, as there was a lot that we could have done there. They had biking, hiking, kayaking, canopy climbing, etc. that Karen and I would have loved to have done. But, all I saw was the view out of the room. Oh well.

We left early to go back to fly back to Cusco. The boat ride back was much faster, given we were going with the current and the bus ride back was much the same as the one out to the boat launch. Bright orange dirt road, many unfinished bridges, people on motorcyles, people doing laundry in the water. We went to an ice cream place in town, and then flew out and back to Cusco. Not a terribly exciting town.

The minute we landed in Cusco, I got dizzier. We were to leave the next day to go to Lake Titicaca, several thousand feet higher than Cusco.

Christmas and Jungle Day 1

2011-02-22T10:27:00.000-08:00

Sooo, back in Cusco for Christmas eve and day. Slept in sort of, and away Karen and I went to walk around town to see the Christmas parades. It was kind of neat, all the surrounding villages get dressed up in costumes and march around the main square. Very colorful and interesting, most seem to make fun of the Spanish, but at the same time, are deeply Catholic. We watched from a second floor coffeshop and then it began once again to rain. A Peruvian woman who said her name was Paula, latched onto us, trying to sell us some carved gourds (yes, we did buy some). Anyway, she wasn't as obnoxoius as others and we negioated what we thought was a pretty good deal; $50 for 3. They are pretty intricately carved and a nice reminder of Peru.

I managed to make it through a good part of the day, but as the group decided to continue walking about, I got too tired and went back to hotel to sleep. At this point, my breathing sound was freaking me out a bit, so I asked Karen if she could hear it. She said yes, but that it had happened to her and it was no big deal. I may be able to use that line for the rest of my life.

The group went out for dinner on Christmas day, and then out drinking and dancing. I didn't even eat dinner and laid around trying to rest and sleep. The next morning, we left for the jungle, another travel snafu as we weren't even sure when we were leaving or what we could or should bring. We landed in Puerto Maldonato in the early afternoon and were met by our jungle guides. We were bussed to their company headquarters, given some fresh fruit juice and water and then a tour of this snake rehab center. Very interesting. They also had humping turtles, a small cheeta-like cat and lots of snakes. Got to hold a boa and had my photo taken. Down at sea level, I thought I'd feel better, but not really.

We drove around Puerto Maldonato for a bit, not much to see but unfinished bridges, dirt roads, an unfinished highway, lots and lots of motorcyles and scooters and the usual unfinished buildings. We finally drove off into the wild, down dirt roads to our long boat canoe for the boat ride to the jungle encampment. The boat was about 30 feet long, and about four or five feet wide, wooden with one of those long handled motors that can be raised in shallow water. The ride was interesting, passing multiple unfinished bridges, as well as several families doing laundry in the muddy creeks. The boat ride was fine, we were fed lunch once we were underway, and the trip was pretty and interesting, but very, very long. The river was kind of high, with quite a bit of flotsam such as trees and large branches. Thankfully, we didn't see any dead animals or bodies. As the sun began to go down, we were not near the lodge, and then the trip became an adventure. One guide was in the bow with a light, shining on the stuff the captain was to miss and there was a lot of trees and large pieces of debris in the water at this time. I was slightly nervous, because although I knew I could swim, I wasn't sure if things in the water would let me!

Finally we arrived safely at the lodge. We had to climb up an embankment and walk a bit to get to the lodge, and I nearly passed out trying to walk up the slight hill. I was really getting tired of the not being able to breathe thing. The lodge was very neat and we ate a nice dinner immediately. Afterwards, we were shown to our rooms, which were partitioned off under a large roof, with two beds with mosquito netting, a hammock, and a seperate bathroom. The walls did not go up to the roof, and they were quite thin. There was a family next to us that had the loudest snores I have ever heard and all of them snored. As I struggled to sleep, I realized that it was not just the snores keeping me awake....my guts had started to roil.

Inca Trail Day 4

2011-02-17T06:21:00.000-08:00

The final day on the Inca trail was an early one; the porters scratched at our tent at 3:30 am and before we even could get out, they started taking the tent down. It was early, it was rainy and we were hustled out of the tent to breakfast before we were even really awake. So, breakfast up until this morning was pretty hearty--not so on the last day. We got one pancake and that was it. Not a lot for an entire morning. Everyone at the camp (there were probably over a 100 people) was crammed into the bar/restaraunt building to wait for 4:30 since the checkpoint didn't open until 5am. So, we all sat there, stood there, waiting to get going. Evidently, since it was Christmas eve day, the porters all wanted to hustle down the mountain to catch early trains to get back to their familes--which I understand, but really? 3:30am?

Finally, we all left and then waited at the checkpoint for a bit until we could all get through. Day 4 was mostly downhill again, so I was able to keep up; not that I could breathe. At the Temple of the Sun, the sky unzipped and the rain intensified to the point of absurdity. We could not see Machu Pichu from there, and of course, there was no sun. Rain, rain, rain pouring rain as we walked down the mountain past some other ruins and then finally into Machu Pichu itself, well past it to the final checkpoint. The rain was hard and sideways. We huddled under some cover with a bunch of other tourists and hikers, trying to decide what to do. Finally, most of us agreed to brave the rain and get a truncated tour of Machu Pichu, a couple of our group elected to go down to the Aqua Caliente (town) to dry out.

I wish I could say that Machu Pichu was the best thing I ever saw, but I didn't see much of it since it was raining too hard to see. The Incans had cut slots into the walls and drainageways for water removal, and the water shooting out of these slots was more like a fire hose than not. The water was coming out so hard, that it shot out more than 10 feet and would have knocked a person over. Water was pouring down the steps like mini rivers and the rain just kept pounding. Our guide, Julio, said he had never seen it rain this hard. Still, it was a pretty location, and the buildings were cool. We scooted off the mountain down to Aqua Caliente and met up with the others at a restaraunt at about 10 am. We were told we were not going to get lunch until 1 pm and we were all very hungry. Our trip guide, Carlos, was supposed to meet us at Machu Pichu, but he was a no show, and he didn't show up until close to 1pm. We all had to buy food early or we were going to be very grumpy.

Walking around the town was still hard for me, I couldn't climb steps or go uphill and the sound of my breathing was getting weird. Since I was on antibiotics for my brief stint of diaherra, my ears got sunburned, adding to my happiness. The town was very touristy, and of course, it had a craft market packed with the same crafty things. Finally, and I do mean finally, we got lunch (pizza, ok but not great) and then really finally, we got on the train to begin our journey back to Cusco. The train was cool, an old train that had been redone and was very nice. The ride was slow, but better than walking! At the station, we transferred to a bus and then back to Cusco. I was beat. Carlos had prepared a nice Christmas eve meal, with a cooked turkey and we ate a lot and I crashed. Karen and some others went out to see the festivities on the town. There were lots and lots of fireworks, and they said it was almost like being in a war zone with everyone shooting off fireworks in large crowds.

I slept and listened to my bubbly breathing.

Inca Trail Day 3

2011-02-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

The 3rd day of hiking dawned a bit rainy, but not drenching. We were awakened, as usual, by a porter scratching at our tent, with hot cocoa tea and a small basin of hot water to wash in. At this point we learned to get up, packed and out the tent as fast as possible, or the porters would begin taking down our tent around us! Having done that, and visited the seatless toilet, we ate a nice hot breakfast and began our day of hiking. The rain, unfortuately, did not stay away for long and soon we were again hiking in it.

The third day was the longest distance--I think it was 10 miles--but a mix of up, down and level hiking, through some valleys and across some ridges and then down miles of steps. I was still feeling like shit, without the ability to catch my breathe, and, while the downhill and level trails were ok, any uphill was agony. We again, hiked until around 2 pm before we got to our lunch spot, another camp area which would have looked out over some good views, but which was just more clouds. As soon as we got to the spot and took off our packs, the rain started in earnest. Lunch was good, as usual, with hot soup, an entree and tea/water. The bathroom was again seatless, and about 1/4 mile down a path, I struggled to get back up to our dining tent. I was beginning to feel like I had a fever. The rain poured, and then really poured, when our guide, Julio, said we needed to get moving, so we could make the final camp site in time for dinner. Off we went, into the absolute drenching downpour. This was our lot for most of the remainer of the day, as we started down the thousands of steps for this part of the trail. Water was running in rivers down the stone steps and its a wonder no one slipped. Thank god for hiking poles. I was able to keep up with Karen going down the steps, which made me feel like less of a loser. We passed a couple of more ruins, one right after we left the lunch spot and another some hours later. I chose not to hike up steps to one of the ruins, chosing to sit below a rock overhang and rest. I was beat at this point, and feeling worse by the hour.

After the break, we descended through a rain forest part, in the rain, and down more steps. Porters were running down the steps with their huge packs, like it was nothing. Pretty impressive. The last couple of hours was the hardest for me, I was feverish, and tired, and dizzy and just wanted to lie down. I began to be a bit concerned as I was really feeling bad.

The last camp site is the same for everyone, it was packed, and there were some hot showers and a restaraunt/bar. As we finally got there, the rain stopped and we could see the river valley and surrounding mountains. Very pretty. I crashed for a bit before dinner. As I lay there, I could hear a couple of porters talking behind the tent, one guy kept reciting the names of the porters, like he was counting them, I presume to know how the tip was to be divided up. Weird. Karen, along with some of the others in the group went to the "bar" and had some beers, I rallied enough to walk down there, but didn't stay long. The last meal was followed by the tip ceremony, where we as a group gave tips to the cook, the porters and the guides. It was kind of strange, Julio was translating and I swear he didn't translate what they said correctly. Not sure why. More partying ensued, not for me, I was trying to sleep and feeling like shit. Sometime in the night, it began to rain again.

Inca Trail Day 2 50 Steps

2011-01-25T09:22:00.001-08:00

Day 2 on the Inca Trail is the hard day. It's the day that the climb up to Dead Women's Pass occurs, and that means 4-5 hours of hiking uphill, sometimes very steep uphill to an altitude of over 14,000 feet. So, the day again started out cloudy and rainy. The uphill hiking started right away from camp and again, right away my head was pounding, legs weak and I was gasping for breathe. Nearly last in line again, I struggled up to the first set of ruins of the day, very cool wayside for travelers with what was probably a great view, but was covered in creepy clouds. After resting a bit, we continued up and up and up to bathroom break stop on a relatively flat area with some more campsites. There were women selling candy bars, Gatorade, water and other treats, which they lug up every day (I saw them go past me earlier in the climb). I bought a Snickers bar and used the squatter. Thankfully it was a sqautter not a seatless toilet!

After the break, more climbing and more gasping and I was really struggling badly just to move forward. Kind of made the IM seem easy. Lunch was at another camp area, with lots of food. I really just wanted soup, and was not really hungry. The uphill was relentless, one could look down and see the trail snaking along the side of the mountain and the porters and other hikers making their way up. I was losing it badly at this point, and nearly broke down as I tried my hardest to walk a bit more quickly. Not happening. Finally, I decided to break it down like an IM run, just get from point to point and not think about the whole. This led me to decide on 50 steps at a time. So that's what I did. Walked 50 steps and stopped for air, walked 50 steps and stopped. Sometimes counting in Spanish, sometimes in English, but moving forward 50 steps at a time. This of course, led to my thinking about how 50 is a good number for many things and I thought about all the things 50 could mean: 50 seconds, 50 steps, 50 minutes, 50 hours, 50 days, 50 pounds, 50 runs, ect. Now it makes no sense at all, but it did on the mountain!

With the rain now pouring, and the wind picking up, my slow 50 step mantra got me up to Dead Woman's Pass--and I wasn't the last person in our group! Of course the rain was pounding and it was super windy, so once we all made it up, we skeddadled down as fast as we could to our next campsite, down in the valley. We could see the colors of the tents as we hiked down the steep and slippery steps and slopes. I seemed to do ok on the downhill, but my freakin back started to kill, so about 2/3s of the way down, Karen took my pack. Bliss.

Camp was chaotic, many campsites and lots of activity. The bathroom was seatless. Arrghh. The clouds hung low and intermittently rained as we ate another huge meal and sat around playing cards until nearly 9pm. The porters were pissed, as the dinner tent is their sleep area, but we didn't know that at this time. I took a nap as soon as we got there, so I actually rallied a bit and played some cards with the group. Sleep was fitfull, my head kept pounding.

Inca Trail-Day 1

2011-01-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

Morning dawned, well not so much dawned as a lightening of the gray and rainy sky, on the day we were to start the 4 day hike on the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. I awoke with a need to go to the potty, and promptly began taking anti-biotics due to, well, you know. Breakfast was good, more cocoa tea (I was getting a bit tired of it at this point) and an egg with bread and jam. After that we waited, as usual, waited for the bus that was to take us to Kilometer 82, the traditional start to the trail. We waited some more. After an hour or more, the bus arrives and we get all our gear loaded and off we go into the rain.

We finally got to the beginning of the trail, and it was raining, raining, raining. We all get under these open-aired shelters and our trail guide, Julio, went through the 4 days in summary. The place was packed with tourists and porters. The porters were stacking up our porter bags and weighing these piles of stuff, some were carried by blankets knotted at the chest, others were carried by traditional shoulder straps, all looked super heavy. Finally, we start down by the river to begin the trek. Oops, not yet. There was a passport check, which we all had to go through, along with our trail permits. Several people had incorrect information on their permits, I was male, Karen had the wrong passport number, and one of our group, Jenny had mysteriously aged a decade. Finally, we all get through the checkpoint and start the trek.

We crossed the river and then there was a steep, but fairly short ascent. I nearly passed out at the top. I finally realized I was not in good shape and took a Perivian altitude pill, which seemed to help. Or, maybe it helped that the trail was mostly level. The rain stopped after about an hour or so, and we hiked past some small and then a large set of Incan ruins. The ruins were pretty cool, so much still standing and so organized looking. We were told that many of the ruins along the way were way stations, military outposts, or food storage places.

At lunch (around 3 pm) we had our first taste of expedition trekking. The dining tent was set up, and we had a huge lunch, with salad, soup and entree. All very good. We also had our first use of the porcelin pit for a bathroom. We called them squatters and came to prefer them to the alternative. The last part of Day 1 was a climb up to camp 1, from another checkpoint. I nearly passed out on that climb as well and stumbled into camp 1, very discouraged and dizzy. At the camp, there were a couple of families living in their adobe huts with no glass in the windows and no indoor plumbing. The toilet was the 2nd variety we found along the trail, a toilet bowl with no seat. We hated them.

Dinner was again a lot of food, and most of the group played cards for a bit before dinner. I slept. The trek was not turning out so good for me.

Peru Trip #2

2011-01-12T10:17:00.000-08:00

Monday (12/20/2010) dawned with the promise of biking and hiking. Carlos the guide was late yet again, so we were late leaving for our downhill biking as we made our way to the town of Pisac and eventually to the town of Ollantaytambo. As we were going to start the Inca trail on Tuesday, we had to pack for the trail. This should have been a simple task, we were to be given porter bags for our clothes and sleeping bags and the total weight of what we could bring was to be no more than 8 kilos or 15 pounds. Well, getting that message to us proved to be very difficult and confusion reigned for more than an hour before we got all packed and ready. The porter bags were late, Carlos did not convey to us what it was that we were to do in a way that made sense to any of the 12 of us, so we basically unpacked, repacked, unpacked and repacked until we got it right. He kind of forgot to tell us about the weight limit and that the remainder of our stuff would stay in the hotel storage. Arrgghhh.

Downhill biking from outside of Cusco was fine, I was able to fly down b/c it doesn't require effort. Still had a hard time breathing, but kept thinking I'd feel better any moment. We biked down to Pisac. In Pisac, we wandered around yet another open air market, with people selling the same stuff they did in Cusco. Carlos did get us into the back of a jewelry store to see how they make silver stuff, which was kind of neat, but kind of weird. We saw our first cooked cuy as well as some live ones in their little cages. Guess it makes sense to eat Guinea pigs, they are small, they don't eat much and multiply like crazy. Still, seeing a skinned and cooked one did not make we want to eat it.

We waited until 2 pm before lunch was handed out, and then another 20 minutes before we got to eat it. We had breakfast at 7:30 am. Hunger is not something I expected on a guided trip. Our comfort level with Carlos the guide was fading fast. After lunch, some chicken-vegetable-potatoe mix, we hiked up to some ruins, the name escapes me. The hike was harder than it should have been, and again, I should have been paying my lack of breathing a bit more mind, but I thought it would all be ok. So, I was the last person up to the ruins, and gasping for breathe and dizzy. Oh well. The ruins were impressive, the terraces for crops, the buildings were all still standing and in good shape. Amazing that people who could build such things did not have a written lanuage!

We toured the ruins and then hiked downhill back to the bus, much easier for me downhill. We then continued for about 2 hours to Ollaytaytambo, where most people stay before starting the Inca trail. As we drove, it started raining. Not a good sign. The town was ok, our hostal (which is really a small hotel) was clean, but sparse and we walked around the town a bit before having our dinner at an italianish restaurant next to our hostal. The food, well, I got pesto pasta and have never seen such pesto, and not in a good way. Lots and lots of it, and it was not paste-like, but sauce like. Not the worst thing to eat, but not the best.

Our porter bags could not go with us on the bus, because it was too small. They finally arrived at 9pm, when we were all ready for bed. Again, the group was kind of becoming leery of the professionalism of the trip.

Christmas vacation 2010-Peru Part 1

2011-01-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

As it turns out, Martina Navratilova and I have more in common than the obvious (you know, my stellar tennis skills!). But, more on that later. Peru, well....it was an interesting trip and to really bore you, I'll write about it in a number of posts.

Leaving Richmond was not an issue, except that Shelley didn't get the message that we were having pre-trip massages and arrived at our house to drive us to the airport early and then nearly drove off with out us! All our flights were good, and the flight from Atlanta to Lima was not too bad. We arrived in Lima around 1 am and then had to wait until 4:30ish for our flight to Cusco. The airport is nice enough to have benches that one can sleep on, so we dozed after trying our first Spanish food ordering. Karen got ice cream, which ended up being a cookie tube with some ice cream inside for 7 soles. I got a cappacino. We napped until our flight and then off to Cusco.

Cusco at 8am was interesting, got a taxi ride to Hotel Prisma and discovered the crazy driving in Peru. Lanes are wherever and horns are the means of communication. The drive through Cusco was informative, and I can best describe Cusco as old, but still unfinished. Many, many buildings are not complete, with pillars and rebar sticking up on the top floor as if the next floor is under construction, but of course it is not. Dilapidated adobe brick buildings set next to new sort of shiny buildings. Roads both paved and not. Very chaotic and unorganized looking.

After checking in and sipping our first cup of cocoa tea, we set out for some breakfast at Jack's. More cocoa tea, and a satisfying breakfast in our belly's we wandered out into Cusco. Wow, we were not expecting to be so accosted by Peruvians selling all manner of trinkets, paintings, sweaters, scarves, carved gourds, etc. We made the mistake of looking at Pepe's paintings and then were swarmed by a lady selling sweaters, another guy selling paintings and two girls with baby lambs or llamas who thrust the baby animal into Karen's arms and tried to get us to take a photo, which they would then demand money for. Thankfully, a policeman scooted them all away. We eventually learned to keep walking and say No gracias or No quiero very firmly. Peru is for sale people, one trinket at a time.

We did small stints out into Peru the first day, walking around for a bit and then napping in the hotel. We walked around a good deal, venturing up the hill to the artist area where we were again accosted by people selling themselves for photos...this time two old ladies and a grown llama. I made Karen take their picture and pay them....Ha. Everything is negoitiable, and we also learned to low ball the price of what we would buy. We had dinner at Green's Organics which was very good. Of course we got there at 6 and while they were open, we were the only diners for most of the meal! Crashing for the night by 9 pm, we both slept a bit fitfully and I awoke with a killer headache. Should have begun to pay attention at this point!

8/13/2010

2010-08-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, taper. The sweetest word. Only wondering when that may begin! MyKaren, as well as Lynn, Sharon, Rick E., Molly and Jill all went to Morgantown WV to participate in the Mountaineer tris. Molly did the Olympic, Rick E did his own aqua-velo and the rest of us fools did the 1/2 IM distance. Gotta say that it was the best 1/2 IM I've had. I had a nutrition plan, and stuck to it like glue and was amazed at how much better I felt! The swim was in the foggy Monogahalia (sp?) River, sooo foggy no one could see the few bouys they had out, I swam very zig-zaggy as a result, but still had a good swim for the first time in my wetsuit since IM last year! The bike was going to the be scary part, but they had to change the course to a 2 loop deal at the last second due to recent chip and oil on the back part of the course. Climbed up and over Mount Morris 4 times total, but it wasn't steep so it wasn't bad. Bike course ended up being 2 miles longer....oh well. The run was along the Mon as they call it, nice and flat and most of it on cinder surface so it was not too hard on the old legs and feet. I posted my best 1/2 marathon time in an 1/2 IM ever. Stunned to say the least, but very happy. I actually broke 7 hours! Barely, but I was thinking I would not be able to do that ever.

So, "taper" week means only one workout a day, but still a 4 hour ride tomorrow, and a 3600 meter swim, and a 1.5 hour run. Some taper.

July 30, 2010

2010-07-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

Gosh, IM Canada is about a month off, and I've been too lazy to write anything. Of course, nothing has really happened that was worth recording. So, I thought I'd just do a little update on my attempt to do a race each month....7 months, 7 races so far:
January - Swinging Bridge 35K-trail
February - a 10K trail race in Pocahontas (small race, cannot remember the name)
March - Shamrock 1/2 Marathon
April - Crossover 15 K
May - Run Like A Girl 8K-trail
June - Corporate 4 miler
July - the 3 Cul-de-sac 5Ks

Of course, August is the big one, plus the Mountaineer 1/2 IM distance. I also did the Chris Green 2 Mile Cable Swim and got swum over worse than any IM event by the crazy fast swimmers. Plus, I did most of the Mountains of Misery 100 miler (well, around 72 miles of it) that was hard.

So, training has been good, ProK is a great coach, and I am very happy with the switch. As for my thoughts on the race, well who the heck knows! It will be a long day. I certainly get more race experience for the entry fee than most!

After Canada, who knows, but I need a race a month to accomplish this little task I've set myself up for! For sure there will a race report.

March 5, 2010

2010-03-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

Gosh, getting sick has really taken me back in fitness. Not that I was all that fit to begin with, given the off season, but I am really struggling with everything now. Finally got back in the pool last week, and after 200 meters, my arms were dead tired. Sad. Running is sslloowww, and I mean slow. I swear I am barely shuffling along now. I had a 10k race last weekend, and I ran my version of hard for 5 miles, then fell apart....my time was 1:06....not a stellar time at all. Sure it was at Pocahontas but really? I cannot seem to get my lungs or legs to work. I am pretty discouraged.

On Sunday, I ran a little over 10.5 miles, took me forever, and I felt tired the whole time. I am running the Shamrock 1/2 and then the C'ville full, and pretty much feel like both are going to be awful slogs. Certainly not any PR,unless one can PR in the worst way. Ha! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to suck it up and do the best I can, even if my best keeps getting worse. Whine. Whine. I just wish I could improve in something. Maybe I will, it is after all, only March!

Snow, Drunk, Sick

2010-02-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

Well, its been a bit since I last wrote. In that time, there's been more snow, I got really drunk, and then I got sick. Not necessarily in that order, oh wait, yes in that order! A couple of Saturday's ago, MyK and I went to a movie with some friends. Sounds fairly tame, right? Wrong. After the movie, came dinner, with drinks, and then someone got the crazy idea to go to a bar. And, I for once, said OK. As far as I can remember, I had a Cosmo, several glasses of wine, a couple of beers, and at least 4 shots. I may have been able to drink that much in my heyday, but not now. I was toast. I danced. I think we got home around 2 am, and when I stumbled out of bed at 8, I was still drunk. Needless to say, I didn't run that day, nor have I really run since. It took me two days to feel even half-way normal, and then I got this stupid cold thing that has put me on my butt. 9 days later, I am still coughing my lungs out, and my nose is all red and sore from blowing and wiping. Fun times. Meanwhile, the snow has come again, and again. Kind of neat, since we don't get much snow here in the south, but kind of ready for green lawns.

1/30/2010

2010-01-30T09:50:00.000-08:00

Snowing, snowing, snowing. Great googly moogly....the weather people have been correct 2 times this winter! Its a miracle! Ok, even though I have decided NOT to do the 50 K, I somehow still found myself out in the beautiful snow....as it fell....with wind....for over 3 hours, running, already today, and it is not yet 1pm. MyKaren, BeB,Twila, and Jenny met at Reedy Creek for a little run as the snow fell this morning, and we were not the only crazies out. I ran a little over 3 hours, MyK and BeB ran close to 4. It was nice, and pretty, and cold, and windy and wet, and hard. We ran east on the fire road to Belle Island, the Lost trail, the fire road, up around the top of Belle Island, the canal walk to its end, over the Mayo Bridge, the floodwall, and the fire road back. Crossing the river was freakin cold, my right ear was completely frozen! Running as it snows is nice, but very cold. I kept getting ice crystals on my eyelashes, across the front of my legs and chest, and my whole head was white. The ice crystals on my eyelashes actually began to impact my vision, so I had to clear them away, which made my fingers cold. Oh, well what the heck do I think will happen when one runs in the snow?

I think in the hours that we ran, it snowed about 4 inches. It's defintely coming down pretty hard. Good thing we have enough milk, eggs, and toilet paper!

1/25/2010

2010-01-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

So, winter training is coming to a close this week at the new place. Not sure if I feel ready for real training to begin, but don't feel completely out of shape either. Next week will bring a new training regime and group to train with, and I am looking forward to it...at least for now. I can't even fathom IM training right now, 2 hours on the bike seems long as does an hour of swim lessons, but at least I've run some long runs.

I am considering, not sure how seriously, doing or attempting, the Holiday Lake 50K, but I have not yet signed up. I am not sure how this happens, but I keep signing up for things I had no intent on trying...first half IM, then IM, and now, perhaps the 50 K. What is going on! I think I have just lost my freakin mind.

Somehow, unless something physically prevents me, I see myself on the start line, in the dark, with other crazy people, attempting to run further than I have ever run, on a trail or otherwise in mid-February. Or, maybe not.

Swinging Bridge 35K Report

2010-01-20T15:34:00.000-08:00

So, after the crappy weather training for the 35K, the day dawned beautiful, not hot, not too cold, not raining! ProK, MyK and our dogs all drove to the wonderful cabin at Bear Creek on Friday afternoon, and we relaxed and cooked my favorite pre-race meal as we waited for the remainder of the race crew and family members to arrive. They did so, but we had eaten already and we fed them the ground beef/feta/mushroom/pasta dish that I love to eat pre-race, along with salad and garlic bread. The gang numbered 8 adults, 2 kids and 4 dogs. Thankfully, we were in 2 cabins so it wasn't crowded.

Trail races are very low key deals, sort of milling around, a few announcements about flagging and markings to look for to stay on the trail and then off we went. Running nearly 22 miles on trails takes some time...for me quite a bit of time, but it was a nice run nevertheless! I pretty much ran with Jill and Lynn, and was a bit surprised that the first aid station took us over an hour and a half to reach, we thought it was at mile 5, but it was more like mile 6. Shortly after the aid station, the front runners started showing up...Tyler was running 3rd overall, and Bryan looked strong. I was also surprised when ProK sped by, close on the heels of the front women, running 3rd at about mile 14 or so. On and on we ran, and finally reached the turn-around point, with some people who manned the aid station, they were very nice. The food was not quite IM standards, but still, with M&Ms, pretzels, coke, and animal crackers, it was better than most! I Gued my ass off, taking and eating all 5 of them that I brought with me. As we approached the last few miles, my freakin back started seizing up, and it was hard to run. I had hoped to finish in 5 hours, but didn't quite make that goal. MyKaren ran back up the trail and met me with a little less than a mile to go. I struggled to the finish, in 5:11. I was tired, but other than my back, I was not as beat up as I normally am after a long run like that.

Turns out its good to be old...I came in 1st in my 50-54 age group, of course there were only 2 of us. ProK came in 2nd, as did Tyler. MyKaren came in 4th of the women, and I am very proud of her!

Next up? I think its the Shamrock 1/2.

1/11/2010

2010-01-11T06:28:00.000-08:00

Cold. Cold. Cold. That pretty much sums up this year so far! We had a wonderful New Year extravaganza with some crazy friends at the beach in NC! We got a road ride in on roads and areas of the Outer Banks that I had never visited, and also got a New Year's Day trail run (yes, a trail run on hilly terrain at the beach--who knew?). We also had some spirits, food and Wii competitions, and great company!

Since we are "training" for the Swinging Bridge 35K, MyK and I left on Saturday so we could run long on Sunday. The weather turned cold, and windy, which made it very cold. Sunday morning, it was 19 when we left our house for a 3+ hour run. MyK, ProK, Lynn, Sharon, BryanD, Jill and I braved the cold and actually showed up and ran. We made it about 3 1/2 hours. Running in the woods wasn't bad, the wind was cut enough to where it was cold, but not uncomfortable. Then we crossed the Nickle Bridge (Boulevard Bridge) and the wind screaming downstream across that bridge was freakin COLD. I actually got an ice cream headache from the wind freezing my sweaty head, and one side of our nostrils got frozen shut. Good stuff. The bad part was knowing we had to cross back under the Lee Bridge. The trip back was just as cold, the only difference was that the opposite side of our heads and nose got frozen. It was all OK, when we were done and eating breakfast with hot coffee!

My off season training continues to kick my butt, Mondays and Thursdays are especially hard, as I have 3 training things those days. Swimming is back so Monday I swim in the morning and then have spinning and weights in the evening. Thursdays is an am run, with the spin and weights in the evening. I am struggling with trying to get my training schedule figured out so that the sessions are evenly distrubuted. Its a work in progress. So, Tuesday is track, and ProK decides we will meet indoors. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Running the stairs at UR Robins Center is not easy. I almost puked or passed out, perhaps it was both. Can't wait for tomorrow....

This weekends run was a taper one, but just as cold. There were a bunch of us, along with the usual suspects, we some newbies. Somehow the run became quite an adventure, including some rock/cliff climbing and off trail explorations. Good stuff and it was fun to branch out a bit. Most ran about 2 hours, I only got in 1 1/2 but felt that was what I could do on that day. Next weekend is the 35K. I am worried about making the 5 hour cut-off. Oh, well, if I do, great. If I don't, I'll be fine. Right?

12/31/2009

2009-12-31T07:12:00.000-08:00

Well, the last post of 2009! The year has been busy with a race nearly every month, beginning with the New Year's Day 10K and ending with the Bear Creek 10 miler in early December. In between, I did a 5K (Forest Hill 5k); the Monument Avenue 10K, the Capitol 10 miler, Kinetic 1/2 IM, IM USA, VentureQuest, and Turkey Trot 10K. Of all the races, the Capitol 10 miler was probably the hardest, because I went into it thinking I did not have to train...I was wrong and paid for it with sore legs for a week. IMUSA was great, even though my bike time was terrible, I still finished in under 16 hours. All in all, it was a hard year with all the riding in the Blue Ridge Mountains in some pretty interesting weather, rain (sometimes torrential downpour, hail, winds, bears (well, only once bear cub). I also really enjoyed the LP torturefest in May, some hard riding in cold windy and rainy conditions, with a long run thrown in to boot. The eating and drinking that followed the training with fun people made torturefest a great trip.

I am thankful for the ability to do all the races, and training, with only minor mishaps, like the endo I did on Buttermilk where I thought I'd broken my wrist. Fun times. Otherwise, I was pretty much mishap free! That's a good thing!

I am hoping that 2010 will be a good one as well, and maybe I can complete IM Canada with a better time than Placid. Happy New Year to everyone and may 2010 be the best year yet!

12/25/2009

2009-12-25T19:03:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas. Here I sit, on my couch watching cheesy Christmas movies and writing this on my new laptop that MyKaren got me! So, we enjoyed the snow, which fell last weekend and we actually had a white christmas, if the leftover snow counts. Anyhoo, it was nice to have snow so early that MyKaren, Lynn, Molly and I decided to go for a nice snowy trail run last Sunday. After the rainy run the weekend before, running on snowy trails sounded like it would be fun.

I had no idea what to expect, I was thinking it would be a bit harder than normal, but had no idea just how hard it could be. The trail had been walked and run on, so there was a narrow sort of beaten down path to follow. First it was not bad, as we ran on the Buttermilk west and onto to the Boulevard bridge. It was sloppy, but crunchy. We got to the bridge, and it was closed to cars, which I have never seen. The only auto on the bridge was a crazy duo in a pickup that was racing up and back to "plow" the bridge. We ran on the bridge itself, since the sidewalk was unpassible, and as we got to the south end, the plow truck came roaring back and started to fishtail. I thought we were going to watch it go over the edge, but of course it didn't.

The north trail was waaay sloppier than Buttermilk which made it harder to navigate. We slipped and slid our way on the trail, Lynn stepped thigh deep into a drift but no one fell. It wore me out big time since no step was firm and sloppy. We ran one loop and it took 30 minutes more than normal and I was dead tired. Afterwards, tired and cold, we went for hot chocolate at Crossroads and then home to collapse. This trail running is hard!

Weekend Training When Rainina

2009-12-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

Now that enough time has passed since the training whilst raining debacle of Sunday, I am now prepared to report on that event. Kidding, it wasn't traumatic, well, not really. ProKaren, MyKaren and I all went shopping on Saturday in NoVa with our winning gift certificates from the VentureQuest race in the fall. We managed to spend our prizes and got some socks, gloves, and other cold weather stuff. The only hitch of the day was the lunch at a Spanish/Mexican place, where PK and I got the same spinach-mushroom quesadella. I thought it tasted a bit off, but not off enough to scare me. As it turned out, we both felt kind of gastro rumbly that night, so I was a little scared of our scheduled run on Sunday.

Sunday dawned...rainy. We bucked up and took off for Pocahontas anyway, planning on running around 3 hours. As we started the run, it was cold, and drizzly. After a bit, the drizzle turned to sprinkles, and thence to rain, followed by the final downpour. PK and I both were not feeling great in the gastro department, but we persevered and kept running. We pretty much stuck to the Old Mill bike trail and then Fendley Station which are not easy but at least are not single-track.

As we slogged on, and of course pretty far from the start, I began to notice that I may need to go to the bathroom. Then, the need became quite significant. I didn't want to have a double-glove moment in the woods, but I was becoming concerned. At this point we were by the campground on the single-track, but of course the bathrooms were all locked....With no options I had to do as a bear does in the woods...in the cold pouring, pouring rain. Not my favorite moment, but thankfully there was no one around at all to witness it.

Always bring tp. You never know.

Bear Creek 10 mile race report

2009-12-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

Oh, the beauty of the woods, the trees, the slight dusting of snow, the gurgle of the creeks and streams....the sound of stomping feet, the mud, crossing the gushing creeks, and the swamp. Bear Creek once again outdid itself as an off-road adventure. It snowed pretty much all day Saturday as we drove to the state park and our cozy cabin. Not that it stuck much on the roads, but it did look very pretty and dusted the ground very nicely. Our group this year was 6 racers, 5 dogs, 4 non-racers (one being Wolverine) in 2 cabins. Staying at the cabins and eating/drinking with friends is the real fun of Bear Creek 10 miler...well, the run is fun as well!

We had a fabulous dinner on Saturday, some beers, some puzzling and then an early bedtime. It was cold on Sunday, pretty darn cold, but sunny. We all bundled up and drove to the race start with just enough time to pee one last time. Then with little fanfare, we were off.

The trail was almost immediately slippery and muddy, that should have clued us in as to the conditions when the real trails begin. For the first several stream crossings, I foolishly tried to find ways across to keep my feet dry, making one good crossing decision, but then one bad one which cost me several minutes. I pretty much ran by myself, for the first part, then the gaggle of gals caught up to me as I knew they would. I don't care how many times I run this race, the way out (first 5 miles) always seems to take forever! We finally got the last 2 mile section before the turn-around and were passed by the front runners, who at this point were 4 miles ahead of us...not sure how they run that fast. Tyler was smiling and in 3rd, and told us to enjoy the swamp. We quickly found out what he meant, as the next mile was slogging through some pretty serious mud. I finally gave up on trying to keep my feet dry, when I stepped mid-calf deep into the mud crossing a small creek. At the turn, I took a gu, and set off just a minute or so ahead of Sharon and Lynn, with Jill right behind me. Karen was about 2-2 1/2 miles ahead at this point on the way to a PR of 1:51.

I tried to pick up the pace a bit on the way back and managed to pass a couple of people as I went. Slogging through the mud and splashing through the creeks made the return trip a negative split, but my overall time was 7 minutes slower than last year, which was slower than the year before, etc. I finished and was glad for it, the girls were minutes behind and everyone looked happy. Somehow this race convinced Lynn and Jill to sign up for the 35 K in Janaury. Somehow I was convinced that I, too, could do the race. So I am now signed up to run 21.7ish miles in the dead of winter....what the heck am I thinking?

Trail running, etc.

2009-12-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

So, I've been running my longer runs off-road on the weekends as well as doing some mountain biking which has reminded me how much I love off-road stuff. I love the smell of the fallen leaves, the quiet of the woods, even in the city, the songs of the birds, the rustle of the squirrels, chipmonks, etc. I love the solitude of trail running. I was running on Saturday morning, along Buttermilk and Belle Island, and I was completely alone, and it was great! I did not see a single person for the majority of that loop. The weather was a little crisp and the river was a little high, so it was roaring along in the background, but I didn't hear a human voice or even cars or planes. As I huffed and puffed up and down hills, all I could hear were my footsteps and breathing. I think that is a pretty darn cool thing about Richmond, I was running in the City, but in the woods and by myself!

I'll be running the Bear Creek 10 miler this coming weekend, which has continued to kick my butt for several years, and I am not getting any faster, but I love the race because it is in the woods. Last year it snowed the night before, so the run was through the quiet snow and that was great! I hope to continue to trail run and mountain bike through early next year, and I encourage everyone to get some trail time!

11/17/2009-Off Season!

2009-11-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

OK, the off season training has to begin, and sort of has begun with some indoor cycling and circuit training at a new shop along with guppies swimming which comes with a track workout. Sounds doable, right? The spin/cycle is good, different than what I am used to but good nevertheless. The circuit training is kicking my fatass, which is also good...but hard. It is amazing how much body weight excersies can hurt. Doing them over a minute at a time, with multiple minutes can cause some suffering, in a good way. My training plan is to do the weekday schedule and then try to get off road on the weekends for some variety. I do like trail running and mountain biking!

My race plans for the next year are not quite finalized, I am currently freaking out about the Turkey Trot 10K next week, since I basically stopped running after IMUSA. Trotting may be all I can do, but I'll still be out there! I also have the Bear Creek 10 mile in early December so I am trying to concentrate on trail running when I run.

Since I am either off season or pre-season training, I needed to think of my mantra for the coming year. I've had the "Any done run is a good run" mantra for 2008, and had none for 2009, so I thought that 2010 needs something to get me through. Since I have foolishly signed up for another mountainous IM event, and since I am in my 50s (WTF????), I've decided that I need to stop shying away from the suffering that IM training brings and my new mantra for the 2009-2010 season is "Embrace the suffering".

We'll see how long it lasts!

11/10/2009-Post IMFL Sherpa Report

2009-11-10T12:05:00.000-08:00

Many people have asked me why do IM events, when they have resulted in interesting physical issues (shingles and bruised bladder-so far) and are hard as shit and pretty much take up your life. The answer for me, was standing at the finish line for a time between 11 pm and midnight, watching and cheering my lungs out for the finishing athletes at the back of the pack.

I have been to 4 previous IM events, participating in 2 of the 4, but I had not been at the finish for the last hour. It was amazing, moving and motivating. I stood along one side of the finish chute, pounding on the placards that line it, keeping time with hundreds of other people, singing, shouting encouragement and mentally willing each athlete across that line. It was crazy and beautiful. Earlier finishers lined up with the families of those still out on the course and volunteers and others that were simply spectators and cheered and screamed and pounded along with the music as the athletes turned the corner and ran, walked, staggered, danced, hopped, skipped and jumped through the final few yards to complete their 140.6 mile journey.

There were the happy finishers, taking the time to hand slap on their way to the finish. There were the serious ones, whose determination clearly carried them across. There was the very tall and thin man who, with a slightly vacant look, somehow walked across, swaying from side to side, with a medical person beside him. One fellow stopped to mime out Y-M-C-A in time with the song on his way across. Family members cried as their athlete crossed, tears of joy and relief. I got choked up a few times, watching it all unfold, as the clock ticked closer to midnight.

I hear that the last person had some 16 seconds to spare. I wasn't there, but I am sure her last few yards were the most memorable.

Congradulations to everyone who completed that journey in Florida on Saturday, especially to Molly, Mary, Tim and Sarah, the Ricks and the Todd, Jill, Jackie and Trish. You are all an IronMan!

10/6/2009

2009-10-06T07:31:00.000-07:00

Recipe for suffering: lay off running for a couple of months, get sick the week before, be too stupid to bring nutrition, and then try to complete a 10 mile run on a fairly humid morning. Suffering will follow. I stupidly did the above this past weekend, somehow thinking that 10 miles is not much, given my IM finishes. Well, I think that freakin race was harder than either IM, mostly because I am an idiot as indicated above. Not only did I kind of blow off really thinking about the race, I had not run more than 10 miles since Labor Day weekend, in fact, I rarely ran at all since IM USA. Whew, the suffering began pretty early and I staggered through it, finishing not quite last, but pretty darn close. Not a PR, unless one counts really slow times as PRs. It is now Tuesday, and my quads are still sore...I could barely walk on Sunday...this from covering only 10 miles. And, to top the morning off, I did not bring any nutrition on the run, how many times will I bonk before I get it? Evidently, a lot of times. I guess I am that stupid person that we all see and wonder why they don't get it. I cannot tell you why. I just do not think correctly about running. I get the bike nutrition, but somehow remain stupid for running. Something to work on.

Guess I am now officially out of shape, so maybe I'll consider beginning training again!

VentureQuest Race Report

2009-09-22T08:20:00.001-07:00

OK, the super short summary: we finished, we are all pretty much unscathed and we got first place in our category. We were the only team in our category, but hey, we did finish the long course so it was a hard-earned first place.

I don't eat enough, which is weird given that I could lose about 10-15 pounds, but evidently I chose to eat too little at the wrong times, like before a long day of running, biking and paddling. But, more on that in a bit.

The race was in Fountainhead Regional Park in Fairfax County. Nice park on the Occoquan Reservior (which, by the way does not allow swimming at all, and which one should not drink--even though it is a water supply--go figure).

The team was 2 Filly's (ProK and MyK) and a Nag (me). It was purported to be 28-35 miles of trekking, mountain biking and canoeing with some special test(s). It ended up being a shit ton of mountain biking (took us around 4 1/2 hours for around 18 miles of biking--don't smirk, mountain biking is much harder than road riding--, about 8-9 miles of trekking (running and bushwhacking) and probably 4-5 miles of canoeing. We did well on the trekking and canoeing parts. The part I usually like about adventure races is figuring out how to get to the check points, but this was not that kind of adventure race. At one point early on, we were in dead last place, but we did not end up there! Yeah!

The biking was following arrows, around and around and around for ever, which is a bike race, not an adventure race. ProK's tire got a flat about 1 mile from the end of the first bike segment, so she runs it in about as fast as we were riding. I bonked big time on the bike, huge bonk, bad bonk, whiney pants bonk. So, of course there was some fighting between MyK and I...enough said, we still like each other which is good. The first bike segment took 3 hours, I ran out of water and energy and was ready to throw my bike down one of the many ravines. But, I didn't and somehow we got to the end of that segment.

Then, we had to run to the next checkpoint by 1:30 pm or we would be dropped from the long course to the short course. We had 14 minutes. Thank god it was mostly downhill and ProK was pushing me (yes this was trekking) and we got to the checkpoint with 1 minute 30 seconds to spare. Did I mention this was supposed to be a fun race? After that, we were on target for the next several points which we reached via canoe and trekking. Then it was back to the bike, to finish. We fixed ProKs flat, but didn't put enough air in the tire, and it went flat about 1/2 back...so she runs the damn bike for another 2+ miles. We didn't have another spare tube. Never seen anything like it. We finally finished (9 hours+), tired and sore, and got our first place prizes--pint glasses!

Our reward was stopping at 5 Guys for bugers and fries. I am still sore. I don't think I'll do that race again, unless I do a whole lot more mountain biking ahead of time.

9/15/2009

2009-09-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

OK, not much to say about training, since I've taken the low road and told ProK that I am sooo burnt out on training that I need to do the absolute minimum to get to and through Longhorn 70.3. So, I am not doing much and it is soo nice! Spent a week in Duck with MyKaren and her sister and financee and her dad. The potential for funny stories with her dad was very high, but he more or less behaved so nothing on that front. It rained every day, with high winds and the beaches were closed for swimming due to the really, really angry sea, but it was relaxing and I got to read a lot. Good times.

This weekend is the VentureQuest adventure race in NoVa that I foolishly signed up for...with MyKaren and ProK as teammates. While they have both assured me that this will be a "fun" race, somehow I am worried. Obviously, they are both so much faster than I, I think I'll wear a shirt that says "anchor" since that is what I'm going to feel like. Silly me, I just had to sign us up and then recruit ProK. WTF? Yes, it was my idea. Yes, I am somewhat stupid.

The race is 28-35 miles long and includes mountain biking, trail running, and canoeing, which doesn't sound bad compared to 70.3 or 140.6...but off road is a whole different animal, and as I said earlier, I've been dragging on the training front. If I survive, I hope to have a race report on Monday.

O Canada! IM Canada 2010!

2009-09-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, crazy train stopped last night, and I got back on the darn thing. I'm signed up for IM Canada in 2010, some 363 days off. WTF? It all happens so fast! SO, more torture to come. Yeah! Sad thing is that now that I know what I am doing next year, I am much happier. What has happened to me?

Recovery?

2009-08-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the time I've been waiting for...the rest and recovery part! Of course, recovery can mean different things to different people. Pretty much took two weeks after the race off, then MyKaren, ProKaren, Shelley and I started hitting the dirt on our mountain bikes. We are signed up to do a short adventure race at the end of September so it was time to get some dirt time.

It was nice to be better than ProKaren at something for about 30 minutes, as she is not a mountain biker. How sweet to hear some complaining about how hard it was! Aahhh. ProKaren was building up a nice set of bruises, but of course I did one better.

We first took her to Poor Farm and then Pocahontas parks since the trails are not as technical, and despite a spill a day, she was doing great (darn her). So, last weekend we decided to tackle Buttermilk. We had made our way to the Boulevard Bridge, I was last in line. At the section that goes under the bridge, both Karens walked their bikes, as it is very washed out and has big rocks. Of course, I decided to try to ride it. All went well for the first 10 feet. Then I ran into a big rock that I did not roll over, so over I went. Flying face-first towards a big pointy rock, I decided to put my left hand out to stop my face from hitting it. Good idea, as it saved my face. Not so good for my wrist. Anyhoo, a bad sprain, major impact bruises and gashes and a hospital visit later, I've been taking a little more time off than anticipated. I hit the ground so freakin hard, I really thought I broke my wrist, so I'm laying in the dirt yelling my head off and scaring both Karens to death. My knees ended up being the things that hurt the worse, I still can't really run. Waahh. But, my wrist is getting better!

We rode yesterday at Pocahontas, I tried the single-track but the jarring hurt my wrist so we did the Fendely Station trail...without a map. 2 1/2 hours later, after riding in circles for quite a bit, we finally managed to get the heck off the trail and back to the car. I wish the trail signs had actual directions on them. I know that portions are easy, but we were not in those areas, we were north of the dam, trying to find the damn dam, to make a big circle, and we just could not find it. Doesn't make the idea of an adventure race seem like a smart one...We think we got chiggers as well..fun times!

IMUSA Race Report - Final Part!

2009-08-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

Sheesh, the run. What can I say about it? I was concerned about the run before I even started the race, and the bike and foot cramps really got me nervous, but I found myself on the run course, trotting down the hill in town and making my way slowly towards the first turn around. Todd ran by me (on his 2nd lap), and we talked briefly before he went ahead. Amy also caught up to me on the 1st out and back, looking strong, but cursing the course. Then MyKaren came along (again all were on their 2nd laps) and she helped me get through a lot of that first out and back. I was feeling like crap, some stomach cramps and general yuckiness, but gamely tried to drink water and gatorade and eat gu every 30 minutes or so, along with more damn SaltStick pills, I think I had about 12 of them overall that day. I was miserable and I made MyKaren promise that she would not make me do another damn IM.

I made MyKaren go ahead after a mile or so, since I really wanted her to finish with daylight left and continued my pathetic trot/walk along the road. I hooked up with a guy name Tom and we trotted and walked along crunching numbers and splits trying to figure out if we were going to make the midnight cutoff. If anyone out there has not been in the real back of the pack, that's what we do, calculate times and distances, and hope that we are not too late! We finally realized that we had done 8 miles in 2 hours and that we had 5 hours left, which made us feel better since we felt we could keep that pace. Going along, I think I saw our entire group at one point or another, and everyone looked good!

As I got to the steep hill in town, ProKaren found me and walked with me up the hill, I was still having stomach cramps and was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep the slow pace I was going at. After some words of encouragement, I trotted off to do the out and back along the lake, and Lisa was kind enough to trot along with me for about a 1/2 mile. At the water stop, I took some cola and that ended up being the difference in my run! I started running at the turn and somehow finally felt good enough to run. It was strange, but some switch seemed to go off and I ran and ran that second loop. I must have passed 30 people as I ran, not a fast run, but an actual run nevertheless. I still walked the hills, but the sun went down, I ran some as well, since I couldn't really tell if there were hills without lights. It was strange running in the dark, from light pool to light pool, aid station to aid station. I kept downing some cola at every aid station, and choked down some more gu and salt pills. The moon that night was very pretty over the Ausable River as I made my way back into town.

At some point I decided that I really didn't want to finish in the last hour and that goal kept me going. Sharon walked with me for the last little bit, and then I took off in an actual run into the stadium for the finish. I had wondered if this finish would feel as good as IMFL, and I have to say it did. I was very, very, very happy and the crowd was great! I ended up running the marathon 4 minutes faster than IMFL, I had a negative split and I finished in under 16 hours. All in all, a hard, but satisfying effort!

Now, I am hoping to join the crew at IM Canada...am I crazy, stupid or just a lemming?

IMUSA Race Report - Part 2

2009-08-04T05:26:00.000-07:00

The bike was hard, fast, hot, slow, painful and beautiful....just not in that order and not equally. I had an eating plan, which I tried my best to stick to while I trudged up the hills around Lake Placid. The first lap was fine, the downhill into Keene was fantastic, fast and smooth! I was flying down the hill passing people like crazy (because I figured that would be the only time I would pass people). From Keene to Jay was fast as well, and then the fun stopped. The remainder of the loop is pretty much uphill, and it sucked the energy right out of me. I had set my watch to beep every 15 minutes to remind me to eat, and it began to drive me crazy, but I drank my CarboPro and Gatorade, took my Saltsticks and nibbled on bananas, pretzels and cliff bars. Lynn caught up to me on the uphill out of Jay, and we rode together into town for the end of the first loop. I got my special needs bag and sat on the curb enjoying my picnic lunch, when ProKaren appeared and was yelling at me for sitting down...I guess she doesn't have picnics when she races. So, the second loop was harder, the wind picked up and it was harder to go, but the downhill was just as fun as the first time! I loved it, I have no idea how fast I was going, but I didn't brake at all, so I'm guessing hi 40s or low 50s....it was bliss.

After catching back up to Lynn on Hazelton out and back, we rode most of the remainder of the loop together and then with about 10 miles to go, my feet started cramping up. This was a new thing, never happened before, but my goodness they hurt like hell. I was trying to wiggle my toes, but it did not good, and the pain got worse as I climbed the bears and then the bastard. I got really worried about running, since it felt like I was being stabbed in my feet and my legs were toast from the climbing in the wind. I somehow tottered into the T2 area, off my bike with less than 45 minutes to spare, and promply took off my shoes and tried to walk to the tent. It was agony, so now I am wondering if I can even walk the marathon, or if I even wanted to try to do so.

The woman "helping" me in the tent was kind of brusk, and she kept pushing clothes on me when I wasn't really ready for them. Bethany and Lynn were changing at the same time, but were a little ahead of me. I was getting a little pissed at the helper, but in retrospect, she did me a great service since she didn't give me a chance to bail. Somehow, I found myself leaving the tent at a trot, I cannot for the life of me remember how that happened as I have no recollection of making the decision to go ahead and try the run. I actually had a faster T2 time than IMFL by nearly 3 minutes, so at least I PRd in something!

IMUSA Race Report - Part 1

2009-08-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

Shoot, I could sum the race up like this: swim was good, bike was ugly, run was ok. But what's the fun in that? The race was a bitch, a couple of bears, some cherries, and a bastard all rolled into one big long day of moving forward. Lake Placid is a very nice town, and we had a great house of racers (Rick E, BlakeE, Shelley MyKaren and myself) and sherpas (some prefer domestique) which was so nice. I need to thank all of the sherpas, because without their wonderful pre-race care, we would have all been in trouble: Sharon, Lisa, Twila and Susie were the best ever! They fed us great meals, made us relax and took care of us throughout the race and afterwards. An IM race simply cannot be done without sherpas, and we had the best! So THANK YOU!!!!!!!

So, the pre-race stuff was all good, we all arrived safely, as did our bikes (MyKaren had a bike scare shortly before leaving, but it worked out) and other equipment. The weather up to the race was nice, not cold, not hot, not humid and surpisingly, not rainy! After last year's torrential downpour and all the rain we trained in this year, we expected rain and more rain. Race day was a bit warm and humid, which took its toll on everyone.

For this race, I had two goals, one was to officially finish the darn thing and the other was to PR in some part of the race...keeping in mind that even a better transition time would count!

The swim start was a crazy as it looks in the photos and from the shore, I waded in about 30 seconds behind the start gun (which has, on both occassions, seemed anticlimatic) and after rounding the dock, found myself in a mosh-pit of swimmers about 5 feet from the golden ticket: the cable. This swim was much more congested and thrashy than the IMFL swim, and I realized pretty fast that being close the cable was not where I really wanted to be! I nearly ran into a safety canoe as it kept moving around, and my goggles fogged up so badly that I really could not see, but I found a spot about 15 feet from the cable and managed to fend off being kicked or punched in the face. The first lap was not as bad as I had feared, I pushed some people away from me and had to stop about 1/2 to clear my goggles, but I finished the 1st lap at 41 minutes or so. For the second lap, I had decided to swim inside the cable and I found a super sweet spot behind a woman and beside a guy and there I happily drafted to the first turn. It was some sweet action! I kept touching the woman's feet, so she was probably pissed off by that, but I didn't mean to! I lost that sweet spot at the turn and the inside line became very congested so I just kept as close as I could to the line and finished the swim. Only really cool thing was at the very end, when I caught a glimpse of a diver below me! I know they are there, but had not seen them, except for some random bubbles!

I was hoping for a swim pr, but missed it by 30 seconds: 1:23:38. The run to T-1 is long, and I took my time changing, since there was sand everywhere and I didn't have anyone helping me change. As it was, I missed some sand in a place that sand should not be when one rides a bike! My t-1 time was abismal, 13:30is, but I felt ready to ride when I left the tent and then waited while the bike people found my bike and got it to me. So, no pr on T-1!

7/13/2009

2009-07-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

Well, in 2 weeks, it will all be over with, and I hope I am leaving the finisher's merchandise tent clutching my purchases! I went to another camp last week, this IM training has been filled with out of town travels, to LP, to the Blue Ridge and Skyline Drive, to Smith Mountain Lake and finally to Lake Gaston. It was a not so torturous torturefest...mostly open water swimming, some running and some biking and lots of eating and some drinking. Speaking of eating, I've been a girl-gone-wild with eating and finally got on the scale yesterday. The number was not good, so I've got to rein in the free-for-all food attitude lest I lug lots of lard with me at LP, which will not make the race any easier.

Yikes, I do not feel ready for the race, my rational self knows I am as ready as I can be, but my emotional self is sitting in the corner sucking its thumb with its eyes closed and hoping for a miracle. Well, perhaps not that bad, but I feel somewhat unprepared. I was told that if one feels ready for an IM, then one has trained too much, and if one feels not ready, they are. I am not sure if I believe that. At any rate, in two weeks it will be in the books. I'll be thinking of my race report as the long day unfolds in 13 days.

7/6/2009

2009-07-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

OK, just to get this out of the way early, I did not ride the scheduled 100 miles this past weekend....I could only muster enough energy for 50 miles of hills along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Bottom line is that the furthest I've ridden for IMUSA is 85 miles. It will have to be enough. I am tired. Way tired. Ready to not be tired. Ready to not be worried about whether or not I'll make it in less than 17 hours. This has been so freakin hard and I am ready for the start gun, good or bad, rain or shine, cold or not. Whine.

So, there you have it! It will be an interesting day come July 26th, but I'll just keep moving foward until I cross the finish line or someone makes me stop. Yeehaw.

6/29/2009

2009-06-29T07:15:00.001-07:00

Whew! What does a bear cub, thunderstorm with downpour, and gusty winds have in common? The answer would be the Skyline Drive ride on June 20th. The IMUSA crew all converged in a rental house near Luray for the long Skyline ride on Friday, June 19th. After dinner and some beers Friday night, we all got some sleep and left early Saturday for the long ride. We had planned on 2 out and back rides of 25 miles (that would be 25 out and back, 2x). The weather at Thorton Gap parking was cloudy, and as we started out, it began to rain a bit. The ride was hard as shit. There was a big climb up to the highest point for that stretch of the drive, beginning at around mile 4.5 and ending at around mile 11 or so. Pretty much straight up. In the now pouring, and I mean pouring rain. At the top, in the rain, my riding buds and I all kind of dreaded the downhill, as our brakes really didn't work due to the wet conditions. But off we all went. My bike goes really fast downhill as I have said, and the rain didn't make me any slower. I was bombing down the mountain, fast as shit, brakes fully engaged, and not slowing down at all. I was not the happiest I've ever been, but at that point there was nothing I could do but go. I tried to stay in the middle of the road (cars be damned) since that was the only part of the road that wasn't running water, leaned back and down on the rear wheel hoping for traction. Raindrops were pelting me in the face and something hard hit me in the chest (not a clue what it was) but I kept screaming downhill. Finally got to the bottom, realizing that it was one long downhill that would need to be climbed back up. More up and downhills ensued, with my biking buds catching me on the climbs.

Towards the end of another downhill, I was alone and saw what I thought was a bigass dog coming out of the woods on my left. I quickly realized it was a bear cub and squeezing as hard as I could came to a stop about 25 feet from it. I was freaking out, b/c I was sure Mama bear was close, so I got off my bike slowly and backed up the hill a bit, until I was about 40 feet away. I was standing there, in the rain, looking at the cub, and it was looking at me and there we stood for a few minutes. Then Lynn came down the hill and I was frantically waving at her to stop. She did, and thankfully she saw the cub as well (I didn't want another goat incident). We stood there for another minute or so, then the cub rambled across the road and into the woods on the other side. No Mama bear showed up. So, again, off we went.

Now the weather got even worse, thunder and lightening, harder rain, maybe some hail...as we kept riding towards Dickies Ridge, because at least there would be shelter. We saw most of the rest of the gang coming back up from Dickie's Ridge in the thunder and rain, as we descended further into dense fog patches. Not a ride for the faint of heart. We finished the first 27 miles and gathered ourselves for the return trip, which was harder than the first part. So, 8 miles of uninterrupted climbing back to the top, more rain, and then the wind picked up. At this point I had decided not to go all the way back to Dickie's Ridge, and was having some serious conversations whether I'd go out again at all, if the weather didn't get better. More screaming downhills, but the rain finally stopped and Lynn and I decided to go to top of the big mountain one more time, back to the start and then out for another 10 miles to get 85 miles in. We did that, with the sun finally out but with the wind gusting pretty intensely. The ride back up sucked big time, but I made it. Since the roads were now drier, the ride down was a blast. After finishing the 85, Lynn and I ran for about 30 minutes and I actually felt pretty good. Other than MyKaren, who ended up riding 107 (she is a stud), people rode between 60 and 100. Much, much, much harder than LP. I figure 85 in that terrain is worth 100 on regular land....

We all drank and ate that evening and then the few that remained did a short lake swim at Arrowhead Lake. Swimming through underwater plants is kind of weird, but once free of those, it was a nice swim. MyKaren and I booked back home, reloaded the cars for a trip to the beach for my family reunion. That was uneventful, but I did get some sun.

We did our last long run on Saturday, was supposed to be 22, I did around 18, MyKaren did around 21. We just ran from our house. I hated it and if anyone had stopped me to offer me a penny if I quit, I would have taken it. Somehow, I got myself through the hot, humid, horrible run, and now I only have the marathon at LP to worry about. I hope to get through 18 miles in 4 hours on race day, so I would have 2 hours to do the last 8; that is my current hope. But if it doesn't work out...I'll just keep moving until the end!

6/15/2009

2009-06-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

One long run and 2 long bikes left! The long Blue Ridge ride 2 weeks ago was on a beautiful day, one that started way early with some serious fog in the mountains. The LP crew that went did 3 out and backs, 1st from 13-3/4 to 0 and back, then from 13-3/4 to 25 and back, and then the 13/34/ to 0 and back again. Some hardy souls then went down the Gates of Hell up to Wintergreen and back, but I was not one of those. 86 miles or so of nothing but climbing or descending was more than enough for me! Lynn and I also did a short transition run afterwards, which I thought was not bad.

What can I say about riding the Blue Ridge? It is hard as crap, I think much harder than LP since there really is never a flat or even flat-like section. The climb grades are around 4% on average, whilst the LP ones are an average of 2%. So, if I can ride BL, then I guess I can ride LP for real. The time it may take me is the thing I am worried about! The 2nd leg goes up a 3+ mile climb, which is all switchbacks and which has been a fun, but sometimes scary downhill. I had the best time on that downhill I have ever had in my life. For some reason, I just took the curves perfectly and was flying downhill with a huge grin on my face and giddy with happiness! It was a blast! As I have said in the past, my new bike loves speed, and for once, I let it go! Wow! Of course the climbing is not so much fun, but after a few stops to talk to myself, I got through it. Working on nutrition, I tried Carbo-Pro and gu on the last leg, and that seemed to work for me, so I'll do that again for the bigass Luray ride this weekend.

Last weekend MyKAren, Sharon, Lynn and I all trooped to Pocahontas for a little bike/run fun. It was kind of humid and hot, and the run was supposed to be 20 miles. We decided to have an adventure and ended up taking our shoes off and crossing the creek downstream of the dam for a 14.5 mile loop. I was losing it for the last several miles of that loop, as that section of trails is not as shady as the the Old Mill Bike trails, but we all got through it. MyKAren, Lynn and Sharon (who, let me remind you, is NOT training for anything in particular) took off to run the BBT loop for the remainder of the milage, while I went off on my own to finish via the Old Mill loop...I actually ended up doing around 19 rather than 20, but I'm ok with that. Given my state when I finished the 14 miles, I was happy with my running for the rest of the run, I had downed some gu and managed to run the majority of the last miles. Who knows what race day will bring, if I can run even 1/2 of the marathon, I'll be happy! So we all finished running, and then ate and then I had to take a nap!

We swam at the secret 50m pool location on Sunday, Lynn and I did 2.5 miles, MyKaren and Shelley did 2.75. I love the longer pool for long swims. Next up is the 100 mile Skyline Drive ride, looks really scary and hard, maybe I should add lights to my bike!

6/2/2009

2009-06-02T07:46:00.001-07:00

OK, now that I am actually 50, it kind of freaks me out. I turned 50 on Saturday, and to celebrate, MyKaren, Lynn and Sharon all went to Pocahontas State Park for a little ride and a lot of run. We rode the park roads for about 45 minutes and that was very nice. The roads are not flat, and since they paved the road to the group camp ground one can get in a loop of about 13 miles. So, we road all through the park and then we had to run. Running is most definitely not my favorite thing and it is not becoming my favorite thing. But, running on the fire roads and wide trails was very nice...cool, shady, challenging and not hard as hard on the body. We ran an 11 mile loop, and then a 7 mile loop for the required 18 miles. It is not an easy run, very hilly for the first 4 miles and then rolling terrain until the short hill at the very end. Very good training for Placid. I really tried to pop the Salt Stick pills and take gu every 30 minutes and drink all my fluids in an attempt to stave off bonking...it kind of worked, I still felt very tired and unenergetic for some of the run, but much better afterwards so maybe I am figuring it all out.

No big birthday plans as the party was my celebration! All of us met and swam Sunday am, very early at the secret 50 m pool site, very lovely and most of us swam 2.5 miles. We love the 50 m pool! Afterwards MyKaren, Lynn and I all had a big breakfast and then went home for yard work. Not a bad birthday weekend!

5/26/2009

2009-05-26T05:13:00.000-07:00

Beer = weight gain. I drank a lot of beer this past weekend and perhaps some days leading up to it, and have gained nearly 5 pounds. Shocking and scary all at the same time! I celebrated my 50th birthday this past weekend, with a very nice party organized by MyKaren and lots of my friends in attendence. I am humbled by the thoughtfulness of my friends and thankful for them being in my life.

Not much else to say about LPTF, we all did a full loop of the bike on Monday, followed by a swim in a very wavy pool that evening, and then more food and drinks and a mostly rest day on Tuesday. I am glad I went, and know that I can physically finish the course, I just hope I have enough time.

MyKaren, Lynn and I went to the Blue Ridge Saturday and rode 57-60 miles. For the record, the Blue Ridge is harder than LP course. Blue Ridge is either uphill or downhill, with no real flatter sections. And there are some flat sections at LP. So, we rode several hours, and then did a short transition run on the AT. It was a very beautiful day, with lots of cyclists out there. On Sunday morning, we did a 7-8 mile trail run on the downtown loop, and while it was humid, that was also very nice. I swam 1.25 miles yesterday to top off the weekend's training.

LPTF-Part2

2009-05-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that this whole multi-day torturefest was a birthday present from MyKaren to me? Silly me to accept such a gift!

The run for LPTF was listed as a 20 mile run, and one of the participants actually did run 20+, just not anyone else. ProKaren actually made us run 3 hours, which in my book is about 16 miles or so....that was the average milage, except for speedy-boy. We ran around Mirror Lake and then on to the run course. It is not easy. The long out and back is long, and I can only imagine it will be dark and kind of lonely after the sun goes down come race day...and I am 100% sure that I'll be out there after the sun calls it a day and sets. However, on the good side, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (keeping in mind that we were running the NEXT day after an 88 mile bike, not IMMEDIATELY after a 112 mile bike) and the scenery is very pretty. The hills that are hard are the intown hill and the one that starts at the ski jump parking lot down to the bridge. The out and back is kind of rolling but not too bad.

I did ok on the run; started to bonk after 2 1/2 hours, even though I thought I'd been eating enough gu. I did, however, recognize that I was bonking, which is a good first step. I now just need to make sure I take appropriate actions, like eating, at the very early signs! Sounds easy enought, right?

But, I made it back, and up the bigass intown hill in one piece and I was happy about that. No real horror stories on the run, except that evidently someone had a badly timed potty stop and "lost" their gloves to that cause. I'll say no more about that, except I thought I was going to have the same type of bad potty stop, but my shy sphincter ruled that out. Bathroom humor is certainly the topic of any long distance racing, triathlons are no exception!

More eating and drinking and napping ensued and we all had a very lovely dinner at the View, where the food was good, but not as plentiful as our appetites would have liked. I did get a nice Happy Birthday dessert and got a nice photo of the group and that was great!

5/21/2009-Lake Placid Torturefest-Part1

2009-05-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

Part 1
To say that I was nervous about attempting the LPTF09 would be a little bit of an understatement. Nervous because if it all went south, I'd be a complete mess until IMUSA. So it was with a bit of trepidation that MyKaren and I started our northern journey on 5/14. We drove up the 81 way, to miss the cluster that is DC and NYC and made it to the outskirts of Scranton by 11:30ish. I wanted to find Dunder-Mifflin's office, but we had a schedule to keep so we got up and left. We were the first to arrive at the house...nice digs, by the way! Got unpacked, which included a bunch of freebies from QuakerCindy and 8-5 gallon bottles of water from Diamond Springs. We sloshed all the way up to LP with the car riding kind of low.

Everyone eventually arrived and off we went for a little spin around Mirror Lake and one lap of the run course. A very long out and back. Very long. We all went to dinner at a great little place in town, the Brown Dog Wine Bar and Cafe (I think I got the name close) and after eating, we all staggered back for some frenzied water bottle filling, CarboPro, Endura, Gatorage mixing, food organizing and general frenzied scurrying around to get ready for the early start of the long bike on Saturday.

Saturday morning was cold and overcast. We left in three groups, the first being DeannaL, Scott and ProKaren, followed 15 minutes later by the larger gang of 5 (me, Lynn, DeannaB, Bethany and KateO) then by the speedsters: MyKaren and Bart. ProKaren said that it was all downhill the first part of the bike, but we quickly found out she lies. It is most certainly not downhill up to the long descent into Keene. We have sinced named the first several miles "the Wench" for the steady uphill climb to the "Gates of Hell" or the descent into Keene. Others may share their experiences going through and down the Gates, but mine was pretty good for the first lap. It is basically four downhills, the first two are short with some flats along the lake (no idea what the name of the lake is) and then there is a 1.5 mile downhill with a little flat, followed by the 2 mile one into Keene. I went pretty darn fast, with no odometer I can't say for sure, but I think I got to the low 40s the first lap. The road is bumpy, at times very bumpy and going that fast for that long is kind of nerve wracking. I find the last 2 miles to be the scariest, simply due to being a bit tired of being super vigilent about speed, body position and road surface.

We all made it down the Gates safely, and had our first sag stop to take off some layers. I really need to give a shout out to Kim, our Sherpa for the weekend, she was AWESOME! The next 10 miles from Keene to Jay are fast, and we were going at a nice clip. The turn towards Wilmington is where the fun starts...the climb out of Jay is one of the harder ones. Pedaling along 86 to Wilmington is up and down, up and down, up and down. We did not do the Haselton Road out and back the first day (well MyKaren and Bart did, but they are studs). Off through Wilmington and then the steady climb back up to LP starts. The climb goes in sections, but it is pretty much a steady climb for several miles, going past White Face Mountain ski place and finally ending at a camp ground. This unnamed climb is now "the Bitch." Then its another potentially fast section to the 2 Cherry's and the 3 Bears and the final one, "the Bastard" when one turns onto Northwood. First lap done, nice sag by the lake, and then the fun started. The weather turned a bit ugly, rain, wind, temperature drop....off we went anyway, with ProKaren and Bethany their own group and then the remaining gang of 4 taking our time at the sag.

The Gates descent was hairy to say the least. I got pushed around a lot by the wind, which kept changing direction and swirling around. It was not my favorite thing. When I got to Keene and the sag, my shoulders where killing me from being so tense. I am proud of all of us for doing that descent. If, for some reason, the weather is bad for race day, we are all ready. I was tired the second lap, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and we all finished with some legs left for our transition run...only 20 minutes, but in the pouring rain and mean ProKaren made us run down the big hill in town and up again. It was hard, mostly because I was bonking, due to ineffective nutrition on the bike. But I did finish it.

We had a great dinner and played cards and all crashed fairly early...next day was the long run.

5/12/2009

2009-05-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

Sooooo, it seems like every 1/2 IM I do, my finish time gets longer and longer. I guess I could come up with the excuse that it was hot and humid as hell, but everyone else seemed to manage the heat and humidity and I am not one to make excuses. As with most of my races, there was a good, an ok and an ugly. The morning began with some excitement, as MyKaren and I tried to get breakfast at the Ashland WaffleHouse at 4 am. At 4 am, the clientele is interesting enough, but some redneck boys decided to have a scuffle in the parking lot just after we walked in. Some thumping ensued with shouting and finger jabbing and all that. Some dude's t-shirt was all stretched and torn, and it all seemed to be a passing thing, when someone called out that a guy had a gun. OK, at this point, MyKaren and I were looking for a safe place to duck, and I was thinking that it I got shot going to the race that I would be totally pissed off. The wait staff was calling the police, yelling about the car make and license plate number, and the waiter guy was being held back from going out to get in the mix. We see the cops screaming towards WaffleHouse and the gun toter's friends were yelling at him to leave..he squealed out just in front of the cops, but of course they caught him. As everything settled down, a woman returns to her seat at the counter, and starts going on about the gun...evidently she was the person towards whom the gun was pulled (which was why the guys in the restaurant were so pissed, "them homeboys can shoot at each other all they want, but don't pull no gun on a chick"). She says "it was a damn 22, if you gonna pull a gun, pull a gun, don't pull no damn 22 pistol." So much was wrong with that, we just ordered our food and got out of there....

Good was my swim time: 40:03, best ever, some 3 minutes better than Timberman and 15 minutes better than my first 1/2 IM swim 2 years ago. Clearly, I am getting the swim. I found out later that many people had trouble in the beginning with breathing in the swim, some had a great deal of trouble. I think that no one realized that 68 degrees would be cold, given that the air and water temp were the same at race start, so we were all surprised at how difficult the first part of the swim was in terms of breathing. Everyone knows what it is like to put their face in cold water. I had some scared minutes, when I just could not get my breathing going correctly, even with some stern talking to. I finally held my breath for as long as I could as I swam, and somehow that worked. The swim was nice, some chop, but not bad, and I just tried to swim with the best technique I could. I really thought my swim was a 46 minute swim, I could not tell where I was in the pink cap pack, but I did much better than I could have expected.

I got to the bike, and felt a little woozy, but that is not unusual and get out on the bike course. I do not have an odometer on my bike right now, so I've been riding by feel and I just tried to go at a slightly uncomfortable speed. No weird bike stories, there was some horses with Hispanic riders, riding along the side of the road at one point, but the ride seemed to go well. I tried to eat the food I had brought with me, and took water refills at the water stops, so I thought I was doing ok. My bike time was 3:25 something, not bad, not great, but ok.

Then the run...well, I can say it was my own damn fault as usual, I just do not seem to learn how or what to eat on the run, so I bonk. And I stagger on, nauseated, weak death marching in the heat and sun. I was kind of dizzy with an upset stomach when I started the run...I ate part of a Gu and had 4 bottles of Endura on me. I thought I was going to pass out during the first lap, as I staggered on, I was waiting for the white vision edge that would signal I was going down. Didn't happen, and I did make sure I ran some part of every mile. Not sure why I didn't just stop. So, MyKaren catches up to me at the end of my 1st, her 2nd lap. She berates me for not taking electrolyte pills, so I start taking 2 every water stop, along with coke and water. No food, because I am stupid. Needless to way, the 1/2 marathon time was not my best one ever, but I did finish and maybe now I'll get the fact that I need to have a nutrition plan FOR THE WHOLE RACE and then stick to it no matter how I feel.

IMUSA is looking more scary each day. I can only hope that I get everything figured out by then. Next up, Torture Fest....I am scared about that as well waaaaahhhhh!

5/6/2009

2009-05-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well, Kinetic 1/2 is just around the corner and I have just as much anxiety as I always do before a race. I keep thinking that I must be faster than a 7+ hour 1/2 IM, but 3 races don't lie. So, who knows, I sure don't. The swim should be ok, since I've done the bike, it should also be ok. The run, well, let's just say it is not my favorite thing in a race and I am not thinking I'll be setting any PRs. I am hoping it is not too hot or humid or hot and humid on Saturday, or for that matter, that it is not pouring. What the heck...the weather is one thing I certainly cannot change so I'll just suck it up and finish!

Training is going, I think I am finally realizing that I actually do have an IM in a couple of months. It's just been such a strange winter and spring with people getting hurt and grumpy. I guess that comes with the kind of training we all do! I am feeling pretty good so far, so that is good. Last weekend I rode 70 and did a small transition run on Saturday, and then swam about 3000 meters on Sunday with the RTC swim at ACAC in the beautiful 50M pool. It was good to get some long swim sections in for a change. My biking is fine, but my girlie parts are KILLING me after about an hour, and that makes it hard to get in aero. I just cannot seem to get the seat correct. I think I am going to try a new seat, but then if that doesn't make it any better, I'll have spent money for nothing. Whine, but it really hurts. I was singing girlie part hurt songs on Saturday, but it didn't help the pain.

So, focus now is getting through Kinetic. Next week we leave for LPTF (Lake Placid Torture Fest) and that should either make me feel better or worse about the IM.

4/20/2009

2009-04-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Seems I cannot get myself as excited about writing the blog as last year. Maybe its indicative of my overall lethargy with IMUSA or maybe its not. Who knows. The list of people who are injured and cannot do IMUSA seems to grow every day, and its kind of freaking me out. I hope the injuries are done and everyone else keeps themselves healthy!

But, I still love SP2! I've gone on a 60 and a 70ish ride and she is a sweet as the road is rolling! I feel like a freakin rocket going downhill, probably because that is the only time I go as fast as she is designed for! Anyway, she is one sweet ride and I feel faster overall, so that is a good thing!

This past weekend MyKaren, Sharon, Molly, Lynn, Bob and I all went to ride/run the Kinetic course. Not flat. MyKaren was the usual rocket so we didn't see her except at the beginning and end of the ride, my group got lost the first lap, I got bird shit on my face not more than 5 miles out, and I nearly had a squirrel run into me. The squirrel was mid-air and about a foot from me when it realized I was there, so it somehow put on its mid-air brakes and flailed itself backwards. The little bit I saw was hilarious, the riders behind me nearly peed themselves. We cannot imagine the story the squirrel told! It was a good ride, the course is going to be challenging, as the run is lots of uphill and it is a three loop run. The bike course is rolling hills, enough to make you work, and some of the road surfaces are crappy but its not bad. Of course, the water will be cold as crap! Yippee!

Swam 1.75 miles yesterday, felt good in the pool, nice and long and relaxed. So the weekend totals were 69 mile ride, ~5 mile run, 1.75 mile swim. Not a bad weekend.

SweetP2! - 3/25/2009

2009-03-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

So, I got my new ride; a Cervelo P2C, which for lack of any imagination, I have named SweetP2 or SP2 for when I am in a hurry! It is sswweeeeeet! Got the Ultegra model which is blue, gray and white, and it looks very cool. I rode it on the trainer for 3 hours Saturday (I know it is sacrilege, but I will have plenty of outdoors time with her), and felt great! I am looking forward to outdoor riding! For the record, I am not thinking that I'll be faster, I am hoping that I'll be more efficient.

Training is still training, and not all that exciting, so nothing new to report on that front. I'm still kind of struggling with the whole training thing, since I feel pretty burnt out, but I need to get over that and be happy about the work I've been doing. Maybe its the months long intensity that has curdled my training milk....I'm ready for some longer, slower workouts!

3/3/2009

2009-03-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

Snow! I've been waiting for a snow day, and yesterday I got my wish! MyKaren and I lounged around yesterday, even though we did shovel the walk, steps and driveway (which is not short) and chopped up a big-ass branch that had fallen over a neighbors drive with our trusty axe. I count that as a back and arm workout for the day. It was very pretty and I am very happy that we finally got enough snow to care about.! The House of Pain was open for business, but we didn't feel like taking our chances on the slick roads with idiot Va drivers, so we are going to go tonight and tomorrow.

The weekend workout was supposed to be 2.5 hour bike followed by a million 1/2 mile repeats, but a few of us mutinied and did a 8-9 mile trail run instead. My thinking is this: I am not going to be doing anything fast at IMUSA, but I am going to be running (or more likely walking) on hills, so my preference is to pack in lots of hills. And it was hard...and we did push it....so there! I felt pretty good at the end and tried to pick it up to catch MyKaren, which I did, but only because she had no idea I was chasing her. Swam on Sunday, and I bagged yen yoga since I got to go on Friday.

I was hoping to get some more bike try-outs this Friday, but now I have to work in the office. Baahhh humbug. I've ridden a P2C, a Kestral and a Orbea so far. I wasn't expecting any big differences from how Sweet Pea feels, but the minute I got on the P2C, the difference was dramatic. Even though I hate to follow the pack (so to speak) I know why so many people have that bike, LIKE BUTTA! I am waiting for a few more similar models (Look and Scott) to come in to try out, but so far the P2 wins hands down! I was really surprised at how responsive, light and yet powerful it felt. At least if I do get one, it will have a different paint job than others....

February 24, 2009

2009-02-24T12:05:00.000-08:00

I can tell that my enthusiasm is not quite what is was last year, since I can never think of what to write! The training is kind of wearing on me, I feel like I have been doing this forever, and the amount of effort, while hard, has been the same for a while. Of course both MarcoDiablo and Mean Mr. Ed are hurting us every week, and the weight lifting has been even yummier than last year, but the distances that we are doing have been pretty much the same for a while and I feel like I am not moving forward with the training as much as last year. Maybe I am just tired.

A few of us have been faithfully running a mid-week early am hill workout for a month or so, running pretty much the length of Riverside Drive (both ways) from the Lee bridge to Boulevard. When we started, we would see the sun rise over the City at the end of the run, now it is getting light before we get 1/2 way through. As hard as it is (and after lifting and biking Monday nights, Tuesday mornings are HARD) it has become one of my favorite things. Pain can make you silly.

I'm trying to work hard on the biking this year, not that I didn't last year, but I am trying harder this year. I am hopeful that I'll see a difference when we get outside. I am also hopeful that I'll be riding a new bike (don't say anything to Sweet Pea!) by the time we get outside. I love my bike, but she is a bit heavy and I don't need to try to hump any additional weight up the Lake Placid hills, I think its going to be hard enough. So, we'll see if or what I get and if it makes me feel fast.

2/9/2009

2009-02-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Yikes, I've been feeling a bit under the weather for the past week, yuk, but it was soooo nice this weekend. February is power month, and the cycling has been cranked up a notch, I had forgotten the joys of power month from last year. Mean Mr. Ed has been cracking the whip and Marco Diablo, well, let's just say he continues to earn his name. I am not looking forward to working out tonight, knowing how it is going to hurt. Oh well, I signed up for this so I only have myself (and a few others who pushed me into the mailstorm that is IMUSA) to blame.

I still am not feeling 100%, which is annoying, and the run on Saturday was much harder than 8 miles should be. I almost puked, and I wasn't running fast or anything. Blah, blah. We swam on Sunday, I did 1 1/4 mile, KillaK and Shelley did 1.5 miles, they still finished ahead of me. Swimming remains a work in progress.

1/20/2009

2009-01-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

Today is the best day...we, as a nation, are getting new leadership and that makes me very happy. In many ways, I am terribly lucky to have been able to witness some extremely important events. Some of the events are not so great, but I have high hopes for today.

Enough of the politics.

I found out what it is like to try to work out in a freezer this past weekend. I do not recommend it. MyKaren, BlakeE and I all traveled down to Pulaski County, Virginia, to participate in a "sprint" adventure race on Saturday. I was freaking out the whole week, as the projected temperatures got colder and colder. The race was supposed to last 6 hours and include paddling, mountain biking and trekking. I had already informed my team that I was not going to do the paddle, knowing that if anyone fell in, they would be dead, with the temps in the single digits. As it turned out, the paddling was canceled anyway (whew!) due to the cold and the fact that the lake was frozen and no one could launch a canoe. We went anyway.

The race started at 7 am, and the official temperature was -3. Yup, that's negative 3. Colder than my freezer. The race would have been ok if we had started out running, not that running in sub-zero is good, but it is better than trying to bike in it. I had tried to use neoprine booties, but could not get them on, becauase of my stupid feet with their high insteps. I got some toe "warmers" and hoped for the best. They did not work as planned, and my right foot in particular was on its way to some serious frostbite. I had also gotten some baklivas for our heads and faces, but trying to breath through the little mesh mouth hole was impossible and we ended up pushing the mouth below our chins. MyKaren and I had on skiing mittens and our ski goggles, both were good choices. The first check point was about 10 miles or so away, and we ended up not making there, as one of us was going hyperthermic and we had to get back to the transition before they got into more serious trouble. I was glad, as my right toes were on their way to frostbite land, and it would not have been a good thing for me to have been out there much longer.

As it turned out, I cried when they thawed. It felt like they were being burned and stabbed at the same time. We got everyone thawed and warmer, and set out for the trekking part, which went much better. We got both trekking checkpoints with some warming breaks in between the two points, and then set out for some orienteering points, and some good old bushwhacking! The run/trek was actually fun, but still hard. We got 4 points in all, and ran/walked for about 5 hours, so it was not a complete bust.

To give some perspective, 16 teams signed up and showed up for the sprint race. 2 teams did not start race morning. 4 other teams (inlcuding us) bailed on the bike. There was also a 30-hour race, to my knowledge, they all started. Those people are the crazy ones.

Tattoos and trails - 12/8/2008

2008-12-08T06:03:00.000-08:00

Most IMFL and IMAZ finishers got tatted on Friday! It was an ink partaay! Everyone seemed happy with the results and everyone seemed to hold up under the needle just fine! I got mine on my right inside ankle, a nice M-dot outlined in black and filled with Scarlette Red! Several of us got our ankles tattooed, one got a very small one on her foot, one on the back of her ankle, and one got an original design on her bikini line. I am hopeful that my ankles will not get fat or stretched, but I guess time will tell. I love my new tattoo!

MyKAren and I and our dogs drove to Bear Creek State Park on Saturday, picking up TriSharon on the way to stay in one of the park's cabins before the Bear Creek 10 miler, held on Sunday. It was a fabulous time! It snowed a bit on Saturday night, which made the woods so pretty. We had dinner and drinks with a few other TrailGirls and slept for 10+ hours before waking to a cold race morning. The Bear Creek 10 miler is not an easy race, and the snow on the trails made it slippery but very pretty. I ran with my peeps for most of the race, just taking it easy until these two girls annoyed me to the point that I decided I had to beat them. They were making comments about how they had to beat us, and were kind of snotty about passing us on the hills, which we were walking. Anyhow, about 2 miles out, I passed them once again on a downhill and flat section and then made up my mind that I was not going to let them pass me again. When I finished I thought I was going to puke, but they did not pass me again. I never said I wasn't competitive.

A New Beginning-12/1/2008

2008-12-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

OK, the name is IMFL Adventure, but as I noted in July, I signed up for IMUSA as well. Crazy but true. Today is the beginning of a new chapter, probably more painful than IMFL, since Lake Placid is a little more hilly...well, a LOT more mountains, but calling them hills may keep me sane. Tonight indoor starts...yipee! I'm looking forward to months of sweat and pain from MeanEd and MarcoDiablo! Really, I am! I'm feeling fat and out of shape even though its only been 1 month since IMFL, so its good I am going to have a schedule and set times for workouts. I do not do well with this workout winging it.

11/17/2008 - Post race and recovery

2008-11-17T05:18:00.000-08:00

Ok, its been 2 weeks since the race, and I am still recovering. I did manage 2 runs last week. Friday I ran about 2 1/2 miles, which was waaay harder than anticipated. Yesterday, I went for a 7 1/2 mile trail run, much nicer, but kind of slow. I feel ok today, even though my IT issue on my right leg is still not stretched out at all.

My biggest post-race issue has been that I got shingles...you know, the thing that you mostly hear that older people get? Well, let me tell you, they are a bitch, and it hurts like hell. Shingles are related to chicken pox, as the virus stays, and basically, it is a flare up of that virus, except it attacks nerves and pretty much makes your skin feel like its on fire. I got several areas of rash (only on 1 side of my torso) and ended up getting an anti-viral to take. They tend to occur when one is stressed and with a weakened immune system (pretty much common before and IM event). So, that was a painful stint; but I am glad that they didn't manifest until the day AFTER IMFL Ouch. Still have some pain, but hoping it all goes away soon.

Still have not gotten my bike from the Tri-bike transport spot; just found out that it has been in for a few days. I am still eating like a pig and that needs to stop before I gain too much weight and can't get it off again. I am taking it easy until December 1st, when training begins for IMUSA. Yes, as I said in July, I signed up for 2 before I ever did one. Good thing I loved it!

The Final Act - the Run!

2008-11-07T05:49:00.000-08:00

As we left the changing tent for the run, we both felt great and were very giddy, knowing that we had given ourselves a lot of time to finish! We ran out onto the course and saw our super-Sherpas around 3/4 of a mile into the run. Everyone was cheering and as happy to see us as we were to see them! The day was so perfect, it wasn't even really hot on the run! We had a plan to run between water stops and for much of the first leg, we were able to do that! We just ran fairly slow but kept going. The water stops were really funny: the Girl zone with their skimpy outfits and George of the Jungle stand out as memorable. Everyone was sooo nice and encouraging, the spectators, the participants, the volunteers were all super supportive! Around mile 3, we passed Steve who said that Som was about 45 minutes ahead of us. As we approached the state park, Patty passed us coming out, and she looked strong and very focused. Since we had ridden our bikes into the park, we knew how far we had to go, so that part of it wasn't as bad as we had thought. I did wonder how the next lap would go, since we passed by a sign that warned of alligators! It was shortly after leaving the park that I began to have some stomach issues and began to want to walk/run. We saw Kate O in the park and Kate G about a mile later and gave both of them big smiles and thumbs up!

Sharon looked very strong and was obviously having a really good day, and I finally broke about mile 9 and told her that I was going to need to run/walk, but that she should keep going. It was very hard for both of us, since we really wanted to do this together, but we had talked about it and we knew that we needed to part ways. Sharon ran off, and I walked some and it was sad for us, but I knew it was the right thing to do; Sharon looked VERY strong and I wanted her to keep up her great pace. I passed Charlotte about mile 10, looking very determined and positive and gave her a hug of encouragement! I passed the super-Sherpas and trudged on to the turn-around! I had thought it would be difficult to turn away from the finish, but much to my surprize, it wasn't all that hard: I knew I wasn't done yet.

I grabbed my gus out of my Special bag, and kept going. Sharon and I realized early in the run that we didn't need or want our fuel belts, as we didn't drink anything from our bottles, but we did need a place to stash our gus. I came up with the brilliant idea of taking my gu pouch off of my fuel belt and putting it on my race number belt! See, even in an exhausted state, I could still think! I "accidently" dropped my fuel belt at the Sherpa station and MyKaren walked with me to the turn. I made up my mind that I was going to run some portion of every darn mile, and that kept me going and focused.

The 2nd lap was still fun, and different, since now it was dark. Some highlights were: the two guys near the park entrance, one of whom ended up dressed pretty much in only his skivvies, which looked like underroos dancing around and spanking himself; saying to the people at the park turn around "Guess what? I'm going to be an IronMan!"; seeing Sharon, KateO, KateG and Charlotte as I made my way through the final lap; the volunteers who were so helpful as i stumbled past calling for cola (pretty much all I drank); the very kind young cheerleader who gave me a Reesee's peanut butter cup in the park; a woman named Jackie from Chicago who walked/ran with me for a couple of miles; and, Molly who walked with me for some of the last mile. As I rounded the corner to the final stretch, I had decided I was going to run, so I did.

I ran down the street toward the finish line and heard the announcer calling names at the finish. My feet hurt soo bad, I thought my big toe on my right foot was going to explode from the blister, but I kept going. Reaching the finish chute was probably the best feeling in the world, and I cannot remember being as happy as that moment. I think I may have jumped around a little, but cannot be sure! I heard the announcer say my name, my hometown and that I was an IronMan, and then I was across and it was DONE! Later today; post race!

Bike report (Part 3)

2008-11-06T05:11:00.000-08:00

Out of the changing tent, Sharon and I ran to find TriGirl heaven! Jackie had my bike all ready at the end of my rack, and I got to say hey to Tim, Jill, Derick, Cyndi as we ran our bikes to the mount line. We rode through the crowds to the open road! The day before when I was packing my T-bags, I had calculated the amount of calories that I was supposed to eat on the bike, and then listed the actual food that would sum up to that total---probably the best thing I did in the whole race--and as I rode the first 10 miles, I ate a Cliff bar as the first of my 1750 calories. Sharon and I were passed at first by a number of zip-wheeled, sperm helmeted riders going like crazy, but we had a plan and we stuck with it. The first 10 miles passed quickly, as we both ate and drank and got ourselves settled in. The ride up the bridge was funny since most people didn't seem to be able to do that small hill, so we passed a few as we cruised up and over. Our first pee stop was at the first water stop. In our excitement in the tent and getting on the bike, we both forgot to pee!

OK, the course is boring. We came to the turn onto Route 20 and just kept riding steady down Route 20, when a white car went by, honking and with a blond woman yelling encouragement to us. As the car whizzed by, I thought it looked like Heidi, but that didn't seem right...and I slowed to have Sharon take the lead, we both commented that it looked like her? A few miles more, and we saw the same car by the side of the road, and sure enough, it was Heidi sitting on the roof and cheering like crazy for us! What a treat!

More pine trees and now a few rolling hills along with a nice head wind as the miles slowly ticked off and we began to look for the special needs stop at about mile 49. Finally, a nice volunteer told us as we passed that special needs was just ahead, and we rolled into the area shouting out our numbers. We had a nice picnic by the side of the road as well as another pee stop (behind a truck) and I ate my Uncrustable and had some Mountain Dew. Grabbed the Snickers bars, another baggy of pretzels with peanut butter, 2 gus and a packet of Sharkies and off we went!

At mile 50, just around the corner from lunch, were our wonderful sherpas! They were very excited to see us and we stopped briefly for a few hugs and photos! Down route 231 with a nice tailwind and we were cranking at 21-22 mph! Mile 60 came quickly. We turned west onto the more interesting part of the ride, through some small neighborhoods with shade and again saw our sherpas! Between 60-70 is where the little out and back part of the ride is, and that little section going east was hard with a head wind and the road is crappy, but since we had driven it, we knew how far we had to go to the turn around. Finally got to Mile 70 and then heading west to towards the final big turn! The road between 70-90 is also kind of crappy, and my privates began to feel really battered, but we kept going, pushing a little harder and now passing people who had flown by us earlier! I ate something every few minutes, sometimes just a bite or a drink of Endura, but I kept eating and ticking off the list of things I knew I had to eat.

We stopped and peed on the side of the road (scandalous) and finally got to Route 77 and the bridge for the second time! Again, we passed people who were now struggling and then, with Sharon in the lead, really began to push the pace (well, she did, I was just trying to hang on!) We flew down the home stretch, which was longer than I remembered coming out, but finally got to the end. Sharon was 30 seconds ahead of me at the transition, and as I came into the end, I saw Todd (Shelley's brother) who was working the chute, and it was good to see a friendly face. Once off the bike, it was all Trigirls and Maramarc boys--Tim, Sarah, Grandison (maybe more, I was kind of fuzzy). Grandison carried our bags to the changing tent and she helped Sharon, while Sarah got me all changed, it was like we were rock stars!!!! Awesome. Having friendly faces helping you get naked and dressed was the best treat of all! Sharon and I both felt good at this point, somewhat suprizing, but the 3-100 mile training rides got us really ready for the ride.

I got my running garb on and we headed out of the tent to begin the final leg: the dreaded run.

Race morning and swim (Part 2)

2008-11-05T06:29:00.001-08:00

For some reason, I had it in my head that transition opened at 4:30am, so I was antsy to get my bottles and water on my bike and tires pumped, etc. Shelley and Anna kindly walked Sharon and I down at 4:45 only to find out that transition didn't open until 5. Waiting was hard, I wasn't even out my PJs and hadn't eaten yet. Anna had volunteered in transition so she put her shirt back on when the transition opened and found us a tire pump and our T-bags. We were very lucky in our bag and bike placements, on end rows and near Porta-potties.

Back up to the condo for breakfast, and I managed to eat a good one: 2 frozen waffles, 2 eggs, applesauce, a banana and coffee. Fully fed, I laid back down and dozed for a few minutes until it was time to get my swim and wet suit on. MyKaren was a peeler, so she left a few mintues before we did.

The walk down the beach to the start area was pretty intense, I think it really hit me at that point that I was going to be in an IronMan race very soon! We met up with KateO and Patty and all of us slowly walked to the start corral. The whole scene was surreal; tons of wet suited people wandering around, some excited, some obviously very nervous, the energy was crazy and the crowd was everywhere. We met up with the remainder of the group inside, as we hugged the rear of the corral. We saw the TriGirls and boys (Jill, Grandison, Jackie, Cyndi, Derick, Sarah, Tim and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head--sorry!) Jill was the best, she was beside herself with excitement for us--a camera man filmed her hugging Sharon and then he gave Jill a hug as well...it was very cool. The gun for the pros went off, and then we waited for our turn, which came much sooner than I thought it would.

We had agreed to wait on the beach, but that plan fell apart very shortly. We all waded in as the masses surged into the water after the start gun. It wasn't but 30 second or so, when Sharon looked at me and said lets go. So off we went. I have to say, I loved the swim. I lost sight of Sharon at the first wall of people who were still walking and bouncing out further; I figured if the water was deep enough to swim, that was what I was going to do. I passed a crap load of people in the first hundred meters, lots of people were bobbing around; doing the breast-stroke to sight, and just kind of thrashing around. Thank god for ProKaren; I could SWIM! I would characterize the swim as aggressively defensive; I kept looking ahead in the water for feet and managed not to get kicked or punched. I just looked for openings between people and kicked like hell when I needed to break free from packs of people. It became a game for me to find the open water pockets and before I knew it I was nearly done with the first lap. As I exited the water, the timer said 50 minutes, so I was freaked out since I thought my first lap had sucked. However, I did see Som just yards ahead of me, so I thought I must be doing ok. After grabbing a mouthful of water, I waded back in for the second lap.

I swam as directly as I could to the corner turn bouy and was alone for much of that leg. At the turn bouy all hell was breaking loose as everyone was trying to be as close to it as possible. Again, I thought it was kind of fun to try to squiggle around people and find the smallest openings to try to squirt through before they closed. At one point, I almost got squeezed between two swimmers so I did a cheating catch-up and pushed them off of me without breaking my stroke! I was quite proud of that move, and actually laughed underwater at myself.

Sighting is something that I tend to do fairly well, and I had a good swim back to shore for swim end. I followed ProKaren's advice which is to sight something on shore; the huge arch is a good one for IMFL, and the hell with the bouys. I was again alone for most of the final leg and finally got to shore and waded out. As I was wading I could see part of the clock: 1:2xxx, so I was happy thinking I was like a 1:28 or 9, so I was VERY happy when I was 1:23! I peeled my wetsuit as I ran up the sand to the peeler station, and then began to call for MyKaren much like Rocky did Adrienne---KAAARREN. I saw Shelley and then Karen at the end of the peeler station, and ran to them for peeling. Both looked at their watches in amazement!

Peeled and showered, I entered the changing tent and came to a dead stop. Never have I seen such chaos and skin. I found a chair and began to dry off and get dressed when I hear my name being called by Sharon! Yeah! We were going to be able to ride together! TriLynn found me and helped me get changed the rest of the way and Sharon and I left the tent together. Tomorrow: the BIKE!

11/4/2008

2008-11-04T05:19:00.001-08:00

OK! I AM AN IRONMAN!!!! I'll break my race report into several sections; this one being the pre-race one. MyKaren, Shelley, Lisa and I all flew down to Panama City on Wednesday. Nothing much to do that evening since we got in after the expo and registration closed. I managed to grab my bike from TriBike Transport before they closed. We fed TriKate and Sharon dinner that evening in our condo as their people were not arriving until the next day. The Boardwalk condos are nice and very close to the action, but still quiet.

We all agreed to a practice swim at 8 am, so we all met up at the Gatorade bag check-in. A pre-swim is a must and the bag check-in is great since you also get free gatorade afterwards. We swam one loop; it was lovely! There was some chop out by the turns, but not too bad. We swam over schools of little fishes and I nearly swam into a jellyfish that was purple and pink. After the swim, we ate breakfast and got our race packets. Reality began to set in about that point, even though I kept thinking I was there for MyKaren and Shelley. Several of us rode our bikes on the run course (another must) so we knew how the run course looked and how far it was. MyKaren, Sharon and I also drove the bike course (yet another must) which showed that the course was not in fact, dead flat. There are some sections of rolling hills, not terribly hard, but rolling hills nonetheless.

Friday was bag check-in day. My sherpas took control and got me all organized and packed up which really reduced my stress! Thanks Sherpas! It was still scary for me to actually drop off my bags and bike in the transition area with all the other really expensive bikes and their zip wheels or disk wheels. My poor little Sweet Pea looked kind of out of place, but we did find a couple of bikes that were really low end and poorly maintained. Dinner was pasta and I tried to get to bed at 8 pm. Tossing and turning and dozing was about all I could manage Friday night...the alarm at 4:15 am was not a surprize.

10/27/2008

2008-10-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

OK, this is the last blog before the big day....only 6 more days, and I'll be in it! The last few workouts have pretty much sucked, but from what I hear, that is normal. MyKaren and Sharon and I rode 1 1/2 hours indoor followed by a 6+ mile run on Saturday. Not a good day on the street. My freakin foot hurt, and I was not nutritionally ready for a 2 1/2+ hour workout. My bad. I swam 1.5 miles yesterday, felt fine with that, at least. I'm hopeful for a good swim and bike and a tolerable run. Shoot, I'm just hoping for an official finish.

Thanks to all the TriGirls and MaramarcBoys who have cheered me on through this journey, and the support of all my nonTri friends and family.

I'll be sure to post copious blogs after the race, but this is all for now!

10/20/2008

2008-10-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

Time keeps ticking and November 1st is fast approaching. Through this training, we have trained in rain, wind, heat, and now cold. It was cold as crap on Saturday, when at 7:30 am, Sharon, KateO and I decided to ride our 50 miles. None of us was really prepared for the cold, windy and damp day. Kate forgot to wear tights, so she was freezing and bailed after 33 miles. Sharon and I braved another 10 miles, but that was enough. We were too frozen to run, so we went and ate soup at Zuppa. Yummmy. We ran yesterday, a much better choice. My freakin right foot was (and is) killing me, I have not been to a doctor yet, don't see a point at this time. I hope I can get through the run and then I'll see what's going on. Waahh. Less than 2 weeks.

10/17/2008

2008-10-17T14:38:00.001-07:00

#2532. My bib number. Getting VERY real now.

10/13/2008

2008-10-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yipeeeeeee! Last long workout done! This weekend was the Eastern Shore 100, and everyone did fantastic! Some of us got a little Bay swim in on Friday, there was some current and water was very salty, kind a good indication of the Florida swim. It was a flat and windy ride, the first time I've ever actually ridden the whole 100 miles on the Shore, although I've been at the ride the last 2 times as well. Sharon made a lovey and hearty meal for everyone; chicken pot pie, salad, some weird orange/onion thing, and pound cake with fruit and whipped cream for dessert. Yumminess.

Then, the ride. The IMFL peeps, as well as 2 of the IMAZ people (and of course MarcoDiablo and MyKaren the sherpa of the year) went on the ride on a beautiful autumn day on the shore. Karen turned around at about mile 17 since she has her last 1/2 IM of the year this coming weekend. It was a bit windy heading north, sometimes very windy, but everyone hunkered down and got it done. After our picnic snacks at around mile 53 (this was evidently the first time the riders actually stopped where I had envisioned...course it helped that I took some photos this time so everyone would know exactly where I thought the stop should be) we headed back to a nice tail wind. The group of 6 tried to get a nice pace line going, but it fell apart after some of the peeps got a little fire in their legs when it was time to lead....at one time the leader was going around 25 miles an hour and was about a quarter mile ahead of the group. There may be a teeny learning curve on how to ride a pace line, but everyone made it just fine. I think we averaged about 15 1/2 on the way out and 18+ on the way back. We may have had a tail wind, but we were cranking along.

After the long ride, we ran a bit on the trails in Kiptopeke, a nice run through spider webs. Whenever we stopped the mosquitos were so bad it really made us keep running. The run really was not any fun, we kept saying that we wanted crowds and water/food stops to keep us going. Afterwards, MyKaren took great care of us, with nachos and beer after our showers, and then a bountiful meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, carrots and salad. We ate like we had not seen food in days. We all had grand ideas of a camp fire and drinking heavily, but we all passed out around 9 pm.

Today, several of us did the dreaded 3-mile swim. We all went to 50 meter pool haven, and swam our little hearts out. Long swim. Very long. But, I felt OK and I think my last mile was my fastest of the day. Hopefully it will all translate into goodness come November 1.

I think we are ALL ready.

10/6/2008

2008-10-06T05:34:00.000-07:00

Today is my Mom's birthday, so Happy Birthday Mom! Saturday was the last long run of IMFL training, a 22 miler after an hour bike. The runs beat me up sooo much more than the long biking, but at least the next time I run (or walk) 20+ miles, it will be on November 1st in FL.

Got on the bikes at Maramarc at 6 am for an hour trainer ride. In my before the crack of dawn, blundering around the dark house , trying not to wake up MyKaren fog, I forgot my biking shoes so I had to bike in my running shoes. Not bad for an hour, but would have rather had my biking shoes. Then the IMFL and IMAZ peeps who showed up (Patty, Tammy, Heidi, KateO and Sharon) as well as a few other runner only people, all took off for a couple of 10 to 11-mile loops. IMFL had to do 2 11-mile loops, which took us generally up to the west end of Grove and east to VCU. It was a beautiful day for a run, and the Sports Backer group was out in force along the same general route, so we actually had herds of runners passing us for the entire first loop. While it was kind of a pain to have lots of runners thundering by, it was also nice to see other people, some of whom actually spoke to us! They were on a down week, and were only running 12 miles....we wished we had a down week, but I guess that will happen soon enough when the taper begins. Of course, I felt very self-satisfied that while they were only training for a marathon, I was training for a long swim, long bike and THEN a marathon. Ha ha-oh wait, maybe I am the dumb one...

The run was very painful for the last 2 miles or so, I told Sharon that I may begin to make grunting and moaning noises as I ran up Monument for the last leg, since I was in a lot of pain with my stupid hip. I always wondered about those runners that you hear who make little ( or sometimes loud) moaning noises every step they take, well now I understand. But I managed to keep my moaning internal, at least for now. I think I did ok with eating, I had 2 1/2 gus and drank 5-10 oz bottles of Endura, for a run that took about 4:15. I felt pretty good in terms of energy, but man was I sore. My quads are still a bit sore, even today.

So, less than a month away, and now it's becoming really, really real for me. I sometimes think I'm ready and just want it to be here, and the next moment I am scared @$%#less. Time keeps ticking and days go by, and I'll soon be on the beach in my wetsuit with the look of abject terror and perhaps, some excitement.

9/29/2008

2008-09-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

Chesapeake Man AquaVelo: the good, the not so good, the really kind of crappy. Just kidding. The training day was great, even though I nearly puked before the swim start, but more on that later. MyKaren completed her 3rd IM distance race in 11 months, and placed 1st in her age group. What a great job! Som finished his 4 of 6 and was 2nd in his age group. All the TriGirl training partners did well and we all are ready for the big time.

The Swim
Due to the n'oreaster, they changed the swim to a "protected" harbor, but of course, the wind was blowing in the one direction that wasn't protected, so it was a harder swim than expected since we swam against the wind and waves on the last long leg. I actually did well, but for the terrible siting at first. I nearly ran into shore! What a doofus. I thought I was going to have a hard time with the swim because, while it was 2 loops, we did not stop between loops, just kept going. For the first time in a swim, I actually did run into people, including Tammy, but had no real issues. Oh, and the water was only 4-6 feet deep, but I refused to stand up, so I didn't, although there were many people who did. Evidently there were stinging jellyfish in the water as well, and I saw and touched a number of them, I was assuming they did not sting, since none stung me. Lucky me. Getting out of the water and standing up was weird, I nearly fell and was kind of woozy-headed. Saw Grandison, Shelley and Lisa cheering and Fred got out of the water with me.

Transition
The T & A tent was kind of crazy. I had decided to change my outfit completely, just to see how it all went. There was no fresh water to rinse off in, and the water was brackish so salt was on you all day. When I got to the tent and Tammy was there, then Sharon showed up (to my surprize, I was faster?), then KateO. I waited for Sharon and my T time was slow, but who cares.

The Bike
Sharon and I had decided to ride together, as we hope to do in IMFL, so we stopped to pee after we left the T&A tent (no portapotties in the T area) after we crossed the timing mat to start to the bike. Off we went, going nice and slow, eating and drinking and taking it easy for the 1st 15 miles or so. We saw everyone so we knew that all had made the swim. After the turn to get on the 2-loop part, we picked it up some, trying to go between 16-17 mph, and stayed in aero and talked when we could. We played the alphabet game, going from A-Z (we made it to X) with words that had to start with the letter. It was fun. Around mile 25 or so, Patty joined us so we all rode and talked and rode and peed and ate and rode. The course was dead flat, there was wind, rain, some terrible smells, a rainbow, a bald eagle, road kill, and standing water. I got a flat about 4 miles from the special needs bag stop at mile 64 (my odometer said 65). I had a part of a crab claw or something sticking through my tire, very small, but I am glad I ran my fingers around my tire. Then the race marshal rode beside me for a while, and I guess I did something wrong, because I got a 6 minute penalty for "side drafting" not even sure what that is....only thing is Sharon got a 6 minute penalty for drafting, but somehow Patty got nothing. Not sure how that all works. Oh well, I am a bad girl.

At the special needs bag, we stopped and ate. Grandison said that KateO was just ahead, so we took off to catch her. We cranked it for around 10-12 miles going 18-19 mph and finally caught her and she joined our pack. The 2nd loop was not as bad as the first one, except for the standing water part, which was now up to the bottom bracket and kind of hard to pedal through.

The end was anticlimatic, we were tired, wet, and stinky and the finishers medal was the cheapest thing around, but it was a good thing for confidence and race practice. We showered and started drinking beer as we cheered for the IM distance people. It was a fun day, and I am glad I did it!

9/22/2008

2008-09-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

Whew! Only 1 more long run left (well, 1 more long training run)! I think I dread the long runs more than the long bikes, but the run on Saturday was my best 20 mile ever, at least in terms of how I felt. Strange, but that 20 mile was only my 4th in my life. I was ready for it to end, but felt so much better than the hurricane 18-miler. I tried to wear the TriGirl tri top, but much to my dismay, I got chub rub from chub on chub rubbing on my right underarm. So now I am not sure if I am going to be able to wear the tri top and I was kind of looking forward to wearing pink. Oh well, if I only had svelte arms.

As MarcoDiablo said in his post, the long run had an extra yummy finish, with MyKaren getting KrispyKreme donuts and bagels for us! Yumminess! Sharon and I ran together, 2-10 mile loops, and it was over almost before we knew it! We totally rocked the run. Yesterday, we swam 2 miles--and did a negative split! Woohoo. It's really weird thinking that we only have 1 long run and 2 more long bikes before the taper begins. Weird, but kind of a relief in a way.

I've been going to the IMFL site and reviewing the photos from the last few years, mostly to get myself in tune with the swim...it does look scary.

I am at the point where I am sure I can do all three things individually, but still am uncertain about stringing them all together. Guess I'll find out!

9/15/2008

2008-09-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

Well, they say your first 100 is the hardest. Actually, they may not say that, but I do. A bunch of the TriGirlIMFLs, as well as IMJoan and MyKaren and next year's IMFLMolly went off on the Heart of Virginia 100 mile ride Saturday morning. The course description included the word "hilly" but we never thought it meant HILLY. It was freakin hot as doodoo, hilly as crap, and hard. I suppose if we can ride that 100 miler, then IMFL will not be bad at all, but I'm reserving my right to call any 100 or 100+ ride sucky. We lost Brad during the first 25 mile loop due to a destroyed rear axel, we lost Charlotte to a blown tire around mile 35. Both Charlotte and KateO had flats, and both changed the tires very capably. However, Charlotte got some help topping off the tire from the sag dude, and it blew out the side before she could get it back on the bike. Lucky her that he was there, at least to give her a ride back to the start.

I ran over a turtle, Sharon said it was already dead, I hope she wasn't lying. I didn't see it at all, as I was following her as we were being passed by a long train of stupid roadies, none of whom said a damn word as they went by. I hate that, just freakin say "on your left and there are a million of us" so no one swerves to miss a turtle and causes the motha of all wrecks. Not that I swerved, I ran right over it. My major melt-down happened around mile 65 and ended somewhere around mile 78 (at a rest stop). Thankfully, MyKaren was there to coax me to eat a gu, take some electrolytes and Tylenol, and keep going. Man, I am a bigass baby when I bonk. But I didn't cry. That would have taken too much energy. The ice cream at the finish was very nice.

Ran 8 or so on the Buttermilk loop with MyKaren and Sharon Sunday am, before it got too hot, but it was still hot as crap. Didn't feel too bad, running on trails is easier on my knees and it was mostly in shade so that helped. Looking forward to the next mega-workout....not really.

9/8/2008

2008-09-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

BlakeE, Rick S and Aimee all finished IM Wisconsin last night! Wow, three more successes! Everyone looked great crossing the finish line. I can't wait to hear the race stories!

Otherwise, neither rain, nor wind, nor pre-dawn darkness will stop the IMFL training group. Several of us rode indoors for a yummy Marco-Diablo hour and then slogged through 18 miles of puddles and rain and wind. Heidi did 16 and MyKAren did 21, but TriSharon and KateO and I did 18 as did Marco. The rain was hard and sideways at times, but it also stopped for a portion so it actually wasn't as bad as it could have been. We did 2-9 mile loops so we changed our socks 1/2 way and got a little dried off. Although I am not sure why, since the minute we left Maramarc, we were soaked again. The first lap, we were all trying to avoid puddles, but by the second lap, we splashed through them like little kids. As one would expect, there was more chafing than normal for most people, I, however, was pretty much ok in that department, guess my extreme sweating trains me for running in wet shoes and clothes. We all decided that our skin was going to be soooo hydrated after the 3+ hour run. I bonked in the last 1/2 mile, mostly because my freakin hip was killing me and my knees were sore. Yikes. Lots of running on sidewalks b/c of the water in the streets and crazy drivers and running on concrete is hard on the knees. Marco insisted that we would be glad when it was over on Saturday, instead of waiting for Sunday, and I have to admit, I am glad I got it over with. The rest of the day was eat, sleep, eat, rest, sleep.

Sunday was another long swim - my 2nd 2.5 mile swim. I felt I could keep going so that was good. My right shoulder is sore today, I'll have to ask ProKaren if I am doing something weird with it when I swim. Only 2 more long runs....well, until the LONG run but that's on race day.

9/2/2008

2008-09-02T06:26:00.000-07:00

Congradulations to TriJoan, Charlton, Som, Todd and everyone else who completed IM Lousiville under HOT conditions this past weekend. Great job! It seems like the IMs this year are having some epic conditions, and I am hoping that all the weird weather is done with by November 1st.

Training is going well, bunch of IMFL and MarcoDiablo and MyKaren (well she did around 100, rode on the trainer beforehand) did an 80 mile ride followed by a run on Saturday. Nice ride in the east end, all of the group did very well! The run afterwards was hot, but I actually felt better on the run than I usually do, I guess I managed my nutrition better, so there is hope! We didn't run the whole 8 miles, so MyKaren and TriSharon (kind of rhymes, ha) did 4 mile tempo run followed by a long swim on Sunday. Ahh, the 50 meter pool is still great! I passed another swim milestone, 2 1/2 miles. longest EVER and even though I was kind of out of it, I didn't feel terrible. I really wish I didn't get water in my nose when I swim, but I do. Actually, I think what happens is that my nasal cavity gets irritated and then the mucus production kicks into overdrive so I am sneezing and snorting for hours afterwards. Kind of makes me nervous for the salty swim in IMFL, but hopefully the salt won't be too bad!

Officially less than 2 months until IMFL. Suddenly it seems VERY close.

8/25/2008

2008-08-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

Timberman, oh Timberman. Ye was harder than we thought, but still pretty! Race report seems to be the same no matter what the course is...good swim (well, for me a great swim), OK bike, lousy run. Apparently, I am a 7:15 or so 1/2 Iron Man finisher, and that, I guess is the story. The swim was awesome, I didn't panic, stop or do anything but freestyle and had my best swim ever..43:02. My wetsuit gave me a hellofa hickey, more like an open wound, which I felt rubbing right off the bat, but what could I do but keep swimming. The last third of the swim was pretty wavy with some current, but it didn't bother me. So, swimming score was an A.

Biking was ok. No matter what I tell myself, I seem to take it a bit easy on the bike, trying, I suppose to save my legs for the run. The bike was quite hilly for the first and last 15 miles, some of the hills were killers, and it was hard. I am definitely going to change my gearing for IMUSA. Anyway, the bike was good, I stopped to go the bathroom and then dropped my chain so I was about 5 minutes or so behind where I thought I would be, and really didn't push myself as hard as I should have on the bike. I really need to stick with my game plan on race day. So, I'd give my bike a C+.

Then the horrible run. I hate the run, especially when I do so well in training. Thankfully, BlakeE stopped and walked and ran with me and got me through the first 3 miles. Thank you BlakeE!!!!!!!! I have issues with nutrition still, issues with pain versus discomfort, issues with mental toughness. I just have issues with the run and it freaks me out big time. But, I did get through it and never thought I'd quit and if I walk the marathon, so be it, as long as I finish. So, my run was 5 minutes faster than White Lake, and it was hillier, so I'd give it a C-.

The rest of the week in New Hampshire was great! We hiked Mount Washington, did a trail run up to Mount Major, swam a little bit (too many speed boats for long safe swimming), did other touristy stuff, drank beer, ate bad, but good food, relaxed. Spent 13 1/2 hours driving back on Saturday (arrgghhh), got up yesterday and MyKaren and TriSharon and I rode an hour on the trainers and ran 18 and 16 respectively. Not too shabby. If I only felt as good or at least similar to yesterdays run on November 1st, all will be well.

8/11/2008

2008-08-11T05:54:00.000-07:00

Running is hard and I don't like it much. The long workout was an hour bike, followed by a 14 mile run. Doesn't sound so bad, and the weather was perfect for the long run yesterday morning. I got up and rode for an hour on the trainer then a couple of IMFL cohorts dropped by the homestead for the long run. We ran two loops, an 8+ and then a 6+, probably ended up running a little more than 14.5 miles. The morning was great, the first loop was no problem, we just chatted and ran along without any issues until less than a 1/2 mile to the end of the first loop.

On the way down Westwood, some stupid covertible BMW nearly hit TriKateO as we ran single-file, facing traffic, hugging the cars parked on the side of the road. As it sped by, the women passenger yells out, "Get out of the road". WTF? I am so tired of stupid people nearly running down athletes to "Teach them a lesson." It wasn't like we were running three abreast, or there was oncoming traffic, or it was a busy four land highway. This was a residential street, on a Sunday morning. Clearly of the three of us, I was the only one with a fight response...I was hoping they would turn around and come back. As we dicussed my fight response, it occurred to me that of course I have a fight response, I am too slow to flee...I'd be quickly caught and have to fight anyway so I just immediately go to the fight stance. Weird, but true. The second loop was much more laid back, we ran through Bryan Park and the surrounding neighborhood. I felt fine during the actual running, but afterwards, my legs were sooooo sore and I was way more tired than when I bike. I rolled my ITB on the foam thing and cried, and that may have helped somewhat, but gosh darn it, that running thing is PAINFUL.

So, Timberman is coming up, and there is no taper for IMFL people. Waahhh. Maybe Timberman will be a good race for me. Maybe. Some lame-ass people completed their last brick of the season on Saturday. I hate them.

8/4/2008

2008-08-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

Whew! This weekend was a training bonanza! As many may know, MarcoDiablo put his coaching foot down and talked me and TriSD out of Blue Ridge on Saturday, because since IMFL is less than 3 months away, everything should be geared towards that race. And that race is all flat and aero. So, 5 peeps and I went for a 76 mile ride out in the east end, quite a lovely ride with some lovely training peeps! We all were basically the same speed, and didn't get lost, and no one had any mechanical issues (well, I dropped my chain, but that's not a big deal). We parked at Osborne Boat Launch, which was great since there was a bathroom right there! Got lots of aero time, and counted dead animals on the road (well, I was counting them) Sad, but true: 4 possums, 1 fawn, 1 skunk, 1 rabbit. Couldn't believe there were no squirrels, maybe they only play in the street in cities. After the ride, we drove to the Battlefield and ran for a bit, not a full 6 miles, but probably 3-4. It actually wasn't too bad, but it was getting hot at this point. Afterwards, we had some beer and snacks under a nice shade tree. Very nice training day.

Sunday, I discovered the beauty of a 50 meter pool, thanks to my training bud. Wow, what a difference that makes! I swam my first 2 miler, ever. And felt great! It makes so much difference not hitting the wall so early and then trying to keep track of the endless laps.

Maybe, just maybe I can do this thing....

7/29/2008

2008-07-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well, others have evidently posted their C'ville race reports, so mine will be brief. Harder than I thought, seriously rethinking the whole IMUSA thing with the hills, swimming better but not by much, need to concentrate more on my running.

But, it was fun to finish with my IMFL training partner and finish my first Olympic tri. I realized that IMFL is less than 100 days away, oh crapper.

7/22/2008

2008-07-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

After this weekend, I may have to revise the name of this blog to IMFL and LPIM adventure. A bunch of us crazy TGs and Maramarc dudes drove or flew up to Lake Placid for the IM weekend of fun, sun, rain, riding, swimming, running, volunteering, eating, drinking, singing up for next year....you get the picture. Five TGs rode together with our 5 bikes, crammed in Cyndi's car. Fun trip up, we stopped in Saratoga Springs for the night, meanwhile BlakeE and crew (Rick and Susie) drove all night. Crazy people. We had rented a house just outside of Keene, about 10 miles or so from LP. So the house was not what one would call "prinstine", having some cleanliness issues and kind of damp downstairs, but given the weather Sunday, it was much better than camping.

Several people rode one loop of the LPIM course on Friday, I rode about 20 miles since I was supposed to ride 1 hour and run 12 miles. They said the course wasn't as hard as Blue Ridge, and it rained on us all, with some juicy thunder and lightening thrown in. Saturday was MyKaren and DeannaB's turn at volunteering, so we all got up early and did a little wet suit swim in Mirror Lake. Great swimming. The famous white line was ok, but I don't think I'm going to try to swim along it, since everyone else will be there as well.

Our volunteer place was bike checkin, but we really ended up doing bag check and questions. Wow, people are so funny before the race. The older women's bags ended up on the ground and not on racks, and some of them were PISSED off about that. Not that it mattered in the end. Our shift ended and the crew headed back to Keene. A couple of us then went for a trail run for 1 1/2 hours, it was wet, overgrown in some places, and hilly, but fun. Sunday was race day and the remainder of the crew had to work, so we all (again) got up at the crack of dawn and went to LP. Shelley got to be a peeler, BlakeE was men's transition, Cynid was bike catcher, Susie and Rick were bike check-out, Jeff was at a run aide station, and the rest were medical tent. We all watched the swim start, and it is as scary as it looked on TV. Just a sea of white splashes, with black arms, colored swim caps flailing about in the lake. The pros were flying.

The rain started about the time of the start gun....and didn't stop for the rest of the day. The conditions were described as "epic" and I think that holds true. It was like a monsoon, the rain was so heavy they were calling for flash flood warnings. The bike course must have been really scary since it is kind of hilly with some crazy long descents. All I could think was that it didn't matter if the bags were hanging or on ground, everything was soaked once it one walked out of the changing tents. And the athletes kept going.

The rain was dumping down and we were all soaked. We finally found some trash bags for rain coats and went to see the last swimmers get out of the water. The last guy out was a local guy with a head injury and everyone was screaming and cheering for him to make it. It was a teary moment whe he barely made it, but then he looked so bad we were all sure he wasn't going to be able to continue. We checked the results and he did finish. Wow. We got Shelley and walked around all day with a brief stop at a bar for some food and drink. We also went to the bike in location for the bike cut-off. A woman came in about 1 minute after the cut off, just tearing up the chute, but it was too late. She fell over with her bike, and then they told her it was over and took her chip. She sat there and cried. It was the saddest thing I saw all day and I never want to be her. Other people were relieved, because the rain NEVER stopped.

The bike are became a mud pit, people who worked there were covered in mud up to their knees. The whole thing was crazy. We saw the top finshers then went back to the house after being in the rain all day. Monday was sign-up day. We had decided to leave at 6:30 am, so we all packed up and went back to LP. The line was already 1/2 mile long and it got to be much longer than that. I felt sick to my stomach but it turned out ok. The line was a combination of finisher store, volunteers and non-volunteers for 09 sign-up. They seperated us at the gate, and all the volunteers in line got in the 09 race. Not many of the non-volunteers got in, and the race sold out on site. Trip back was uneventful. More fun for sure next year....

7/11/2008

2008-07-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Whoopee-Blue Ridge Ride #2 was Saturday! Most of us went 50 miles, and even though it was only 4 miles more than last time, it was harder with more climbing, especially towards the end of the second leg. Oh well, my legs were very tired, and I spent a lot of time wishing I had just one more easier gear to go to, but alas, no matter how many times I checked, no magic gear appeared, so I was left with head down, legs pumping, heart pounding until the hills were done and the parking lot was reached. I have found that I now LOVE going fast. There was a straight downhill section that I totally cranked down and reached 44.09 miles an hour. I was shocked when I saw my fastest speed since last year I was riding the brakes so much they were smoking.

There was a 4 mile downhill with lots of curves that was also a blast. I figured it was going to hurt like a motha coming back up, so I was darn sure to enjoy the downhill. Everyone did great, a few mechanical issues arose this time, but people dug down and through creative cursing, managed to finish to ride. But the best part of the day was fresh blackberries on the side of the road! I actually stopped and ate a bunch, and that was truly some sweet action. Props to those hardy souls that rode 80 and 100+ miles that day. You people totally rock!

Sunday was the Muddy Buddy and I had agreed to fill in for Cyndi as Derick's partner in grime. I must confess that when the freakin alarm went off early (much, much too early) I was wishing I had not said yes. I had done Muddy Buddy races in the past, but it had been a few years and holy crapper, the race has gotten HUGE! The line into the park stretched for miles! Anyway, MyKaren and I finally got to the race and found Derick and Cyndi. MyKaren was going to go for a trail run so she took off for that as we made our way to the start line line. (yes, I meant to have two "lines") The porta-potties at the race were among the foulest I've ever smelled. Just wanted to throw that in there.

The race was a blast, I biked the first leg and low and behold, evil mountain-bike Shawn appeared (that would be the mean Shawn that screams at people when she raced mountain bikes...not a pretty nor happy Shawn, but sometimes very effective in freaking out the competition-and yes I am referring to myself in the third person) as I blasted past poor pedlars who seemed afraid of the gravel pathway, I think I may have passed everyone in my start because I ended up alone for a quarter mile or so before the first obstacle. I nearly finished my first run leg before Derick passed me on the bike. We leapforgged our way through the course,
I was concentrating on biking as hard as I could so my slow run wouldn't mess us up and then trying to run a steady pace. We actually did well on the timing part and finished the last leg pretty much together for the final task, crawling through the mud pit! The mud was really thick, and we passed a team in the pit itself (we are such studs!) and finished in 52+ minutes. MyKaren and I left after the race so we didn't wait for the results, but Derick called later and told us that we had come in third in our age group! All-in-all, a great weekend!

7/7/08

2008-07-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

Shoot, over the weekend, I nearly completed a 1/2 IronMan over 3 days. Thanks to Jeff and Denise, a bunch of us had a lovely 40 mile ride in King and Queen County, followed by a cookout and pool time! What a great way to celebrate the 4th. The Route 14 ride is not easy, but not too hard, and you can always count on a head wind for practice. OK, now my preaching for the month of July...TriGirls have GOT to learn how to ride in groups AND as close to the side of a road as possible. People get all crazy and ride all over, sometimes three abreast, and someone is going to get hurt. Everyone needs to practice riding the white line (the white line that lines the road edge), especially in West Creek since there is a nice concrete gutter to wobble into if need be. When riding on the road, any road, ALWAYS ride within 12 -18 inches from the edge, even when there is not a car, b/c a car can come at any time. Ride in single file, and if the road is really untraveled, no more than 2 a breast. Wheeew. Please pay attention on the road, communicate with those around you, practice a pace line, it will make you a better cyclist. Practice bike handling, go to a parking lot, and ride in tight turns, circles, and try to stay still on the bike. OK, enough of the preachy-preach.

Some of us ran our 12 (well, BlakeE run, so more like 13-14) on the trails at Pocahontas on Saturday, which was nice. I love trail running, and hope to do it as much as possible during this year. Then I swam 1.5 miles in a secret location on Sunday. Again, very nice, and that was as far as I have swum since White Lake, guess I better get on the swim stick! Hope all had a great 4th weekend!

6/30/2007

2008-06-30T06:03:00.000-07:00

The heat was back this weekend, and I don't like it. Waaah. Biked 50 miles in the east end with a few TriGirls and one boy; it was a nice ride. We weren't blazing around, given that most of us were still tired from the week's workouts, but we clipped along quite nicely. I really like riding out that way, into Charles City County and through eastern Henrico and Hanover, its still quite rural and mostly FLAT. The ride was nice, then MyKaren made me run 60 minutes in the heat, humidity and sun. Well, she didn't actually make me, but I blamed her nevertheless. I was miserable, and whiny, but I did manage to finish the run with only a few walking spells. I hate the super hot weather. Guess I better get used to it.

I got a 30 minute swim in the Bay yesterday, on the way to Delaware for a short visit. I'm trying to get used to swimming in salt water, so I am trying to swim in salt as much as possible before IMFL. It was kind of fun, MyKaren and I swam from crab buoy to crab buoy in Kiptopeke State Park, so it was a good sighting and salt water swimming pratice. Every time I get in salty water, it gets less bothersome. Maybe there is hope!

On Tuesday, Master of Pain BlakeE had a little bike chase going with three different groups trying to either catch each other or keep from getting caught. I biked my @ss off, and could not catch the group in front (good job girls!), but managed to keep from getting caught by the fastest group (well, it was only MyKaren and BlakeE) so while it was VERY hard, it was also good. I was still tired from that one on Saturday. Can't wait to see that this week will bring!

6/23/2008

2008-06-23T04:51:00.000-07:00

Well, the first Blue Ridge ride is completed, not without some drama! For my part, the ride was hard, but much better than last year. Maybe I am stronger and more comfortable on my bike, maybe it was just a good day, but the ride didn't seem as hard as last year. I rode 46 miles with several others, while some only had to ride 36, it depended on the race. We do 2 out and backs, the first is around 27 miles total with the second making up the difference. Those that did 36 got lucky, they missed the super yummmy 3-mile climb, I sadly, had to huff-n-puff up it. Bombing down was super fun though! The ride was HARD, but I didn't feel like I was going to fall over on any hill, nor was I gripping my handle bars and brakes with a death grip going downhill. Much better! I ran about 1/2 a mile after 46 yummy miles. Others actually ran a couple of miles, more power to them! Several of us ran 8-9 on the downtown trails on Sunday morning and I was surprised how good I felt!

Now for the drama....as some may know, and others will find out, BlakeE likes to serve up some extra sweet action for a select few. I have not made the list for "special treats" so I guess I'll have to work harder. BUT, back to the point. On Saturday, he targeted MyKaren, JeffW, Cyndi, Shelley, Charlton, RickS, and DerickB for some special treat, to occur at the start of our second out and back. Shelley, in her infinite wisdom or to her demise, decides she doesn't want the super special treat and starts riding down the parkway for the 2nd part of the ride. Then it happened...BlakeE began man-screeching for Shelley to come back..."Shelley, you come back right now...Shelley, Shelley, Shelley, come back!!!!!! and so on. I've never heard him sound like that and nearly wrecked trying to process the sounds coming from him. Shelley, just keeps peddling and kind of backward waves him off. We both thought he was going to jump on his bike and run her down. My guess is that BlakeE wasn't happy with Shelley, maybe I am wrong.

So Shelley and I do our out and back, we run into BlakeE on the way down the big hill, he is still shouting at her. She now realizes that she made a mistake, even though the extra yumminess was a 1-mile descent and then ascent to and from hell (as Cyndi described it), aka a climb of 15% grade. Shelley writes a note to put on BlakeE's car, addressing it to Coach Blake, the best coach of all time, etc....and apologizes for her lack of judgement. Not sure if it worked, but I have a feeling that much suffering will be coming our way (our in a collective sense, becuase the word I heard is that we are all going to suffer for this incident). I say BRING IT!!!!! If it doesn't kill me, maybe it will make me stronger.

6/17/2008

2008-06-17T04:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to MyKaren! Last week was pretty humdrum, nothing new happened. The workout on Tuesday with BlakeE was hard, and I got a little mountain biking in on Thursday in preparation for the Xterra Sport race on Sunday. I love mountain biking. Both MyKAren and I decided to do the Xterra Sport, as our sprint race this year. We both rode 50 miles on Saturday with about 10 people, including BlakeE. OK, Blake needs some directional instruction, because we got lost several times and had to depend on Jeff W, our country-ambassador to get us back on track. We ended up riding the correct number of miles, and the countryside was pretty. It would have been nice to know where we were, but it was an adventure!

The Sport race was a blast! I had done it 3 times before and really was hoping to have fun and maybe break the 2 hour mark. The swim seemed longer than usual, but the current wasn't bad and even though I got into some shoving in the water with some other women who happened to be going my exact speed and were not going in the direction I wanted to go in, it was fine. It was strange to come upon rocks in the water, but I decided not to stand up, when they came up, and just pushed myself along them until I could push off with my feet. I thought I was at the back of the pack out of the water, of course MyKaren was long gone when I transitioned to the bike. The bike was fun, I had a few minor issues, got a stick wrapped around my rear wheel early on and then dropped my chain on a long climb, but it wasn't bad. I rode some things I never have before, so I was happy with that, and the fact that my legs felt pretty darn good, even with the ride on Saturday! I had always bonked on the run before, so I was kind of taking it easy at first, until I saw a woman in front of me...and then as I got a little closer, I saw a 45 on her leg. And I knew I had to pass her, since she was in my age group, I, too, had a 45 on my leg. I passed her on the Mayo Bridge, and decided I'd not push it too hard until after the Mayan Ruins. Those are steep and tall log steps up an old train trestle just below the Manchester Bridge. I got up them pretty easily and then knew I had to pick it up. So I did. I finished strong, did not bonk and nearly finished in 2 hours (2:01). Both MyKaren and I won our age group, she came in 4 of all 37 women, and I came in 11 overall. A good day!

6/10/2008

2008-06-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

HOT. That sums up this past weekend, not surprise there! Last week I did the BlakeE hill route for the first time and tried to keep up with Cindy, but after about 10 miles, she dusted me. That route is hard, no question about it. Ran about 20 minutes afterwards. Saturday's ride was more relaxed for me, I didn't try to kill myself given the heat and the run afterwards. A couple of us went across the river to Chesterfield to do the run, hoping that the selected route would have more shade than a West Creek death march. We finished 7 miles, only because we were able to drench ourselves with a kindly friend's sprinklers at mile 2+ and then again at mile 5 or so. It was still a struggle to actually run in that heat. I felt like I was going to explode, and that, my friends would have been ugly. I did OK with nutrition, working on eating something BEFORE I bonk, and downing magic pills (Enduralytes) more frequently than I did last year, and that helped a lot. So much more to learn!

I am hoping that the heat wave is not going to last all summer. That would suck big time because I'm in it now!

6/2/2008

2008-06-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

OK, summary of Brazil trip. Part 1 - trip down. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, some flying, more waiting. Arrival in Florinopolis after some 56 hours and more waiting for bags. Lessons learned: book multiple legs as one itenerary and all airlines pretty much suck. There is nothing interesting after 18 hours in one airport or another. NEVER BOOK TRAVEL THROUGH ENDURANCE SPORTS TRAVEL! They were ok for the hotel and shuttle stuff, but they really hung us out to dry on the trip down. See Susie's blog for some specifics of the issues. Got in 2 short swims in the ocean and wet suit, so that was good for me.

Part 2 - sherpa race report. Swim nightmare, wondering why swimmers were going right when 2nd bouy was left. MyKaren looking like hell after the first leg, everyone taking longer than expected. Bike seemed ok, nice cheering house on course. Run took forever, it seemed. Everyone looked great in their skirts!

Part 3 - after race report. Did a "canopy tour" which really means, high ropes course. We had fun (all 10 of us) and it was funny to see IronStuds looking a little out of their element. Monday's celebration dinner was at a Brazilian steak house and food was fine. Brazilian beer is horrible. What a dissappointment. Tuesday was post-race party blowout. Unplanned. Much fun and frolicking ensued and several white butts were seen running into the surf for dip, skinny style around 11 pm. While the Brazilian beer is horrible, their national drink is pretty much a knockout punch, but it tastes good. No one lost any teeth or woke up with any black eyes, but it was quite a night. 5 of us also went on a trek on Wednesday to an older fishing village, it was a nice walk and the scenery was pretty. 8 of us left that night for Iguazu Falls. Actually arrived there relatively on time! Falls were pretty, but it got kind of cold, guess I'll be wishing for cold soon. We went to both the Brazil and Argentina sides of the falls, toured a bird sanctuary (well, it was actually a bird zoo), and ate at another steak house (I should be able to spell the stupid actual name, but I am lazy and don't feel like looking it up) which had a cultural show of all the South American cultures. Interesting to say the least. Understood very little of the show, in more ways than just the introductions. But it was fun...HA HA HA.

Part 3 - departure. For all the trouble it takes to get into Brazil, with the visas, and airline crap, they also make it hard to leave. Original flight out of Iguazu Falls was late, so our connection at Sao Paulo was missed and we had to spend another night. Of course, this meant that we missed our American Airline flight from Miami to Richmond. Here we went again. No one would help us, the only flight we could get on American would be on Monday, they could get us to Raliegh but the connection was tight, and it was going to cost several hundred $ more per person (this, after updgraded tickets down to Brazil so we could get there, 2 more nights in a hotel, transportation costs for airport shuttle, etc) and we'd have to drive at 1 am back to Richmond. GAAARRF! So, we get ended up booking flights on JetBlue from Fort Lauderdale and flew back yesterday.

Obrigada TAM, American Airlines, Endurance Sports Travel for NOTHING!

Back home now and ready for some yummy training!

5/12/2008

2008-05-12T06:57:00.000-07:00

Primal Quest "Srpint" Adventure Race was Saturday and BlakeE and I ran (and walked, my fault) rode and paddled around 30 miles or so. When I signed up for the race some months ago, it did occur to me that racing back-to-back weekends may not be a great idea, but little did I realize it was going to be another 7 hour day. So, my tired legs, sore back, and bruised arms, are sitting here thinking that I really will be taking time off now. Until June. When the real training begins.

First, however, there is a race summary to convey. It began at the boat launch area of Pocahontas State Park, which was kind of wet from the rain the night before, but no big deal. The race started with a 10 mile trail run, first a loop around the Old Mill Bicycle trail, then another loop that followed the BB&T fall race course. It ain't flat, and I quickly realized I was not up to par. BlakeE is a great teammate, he was very patient with me during the run part in particular. I did learn more about my nutrition issues and now know that I need to eat BEFORE I crash and burn. Duh on my part. During the second leg of the run part, there were 3 optional orienteering points that we went for, and we did get 2 of them. The third one ended up being in the swamp, and we couldn't take a good bearing to find it, so we thrashed around the underbrush for 20 minutes without any benefit. Finally, we were done with the run part and back to the transition area for some food and a change to biking. MyKaren was there at this point to cheer us on and help out with transition! Yeah for that!

The mountain biking was 15 miles or so, which on the road isn't much, but on the trail....well let's just say it was one of the longest 15 miles of my life. So as we were leaving for the bike portion, the race organizers reminded us that there was a creek crossing about 1/4 mile into the bike, and that the creek was about chest high. I did remember that when the creek crossing came up, so I got off my bike, lifted it over my head and stepped into the creek. There was no bottom. At least no bottom until I, and my bike, which was over my head, were completely submerged. I sputtered to the surface, cursing something to the effect of "well that was much deeper than I expected..." BlakeE and the photographer were openly laughing at me as I struggled to get to a point where I could actually stand. The photographer was clicking away but he lamented the fact that he didn't have a video camera. I cannot wait to see the photos. So, I was soaking wet, all my open food (shot blocks and cliff bar) pretty much disintegrated in my camelback...gross stuff. We biked and biked and biked and biked the single track, I thought for real it was never going to end. I had periods where I was riding pretty well, and periods where I was barely moving. My bike decided to mess with me so it began phantom shifting, just to make this the best bike ever. Poor BlakeE, he was cruising, even though he hadn't been on a mountain bike in years, and I was just trying to crank along, gears shifting and crunching, waaaah for me. We FINALLY got through with single track and cranked the fire roads pretty fast to get the paddling leg.

The paddle was in 2-person inflatable kayaks, which if you do not know, are an invention of the devil. They are sooo freakin hard to steer and neither BlakeE or I ever steer. We decided to have him in the back as he weighs more, and off we go...in circles, backwards, zig-zagging our way sort of downstream to the one and only checkpoint for the paddling section. It was not a pretty paddle, but we just kept going and eventually, kind of got the hang of it. Props to BlakeE who did as good a job steering as possible under the circumstances. We got back to the transition area with about 20 minutes to spare for an "official" finish.

Final tasks were the log PT and then a couple of ropes obstacles. We were told after the race that we picked one of the heaviest logs in the pile for our PT, but hey, we were race stupid at this point. The log PT was overhead press, bicep curls, chest press, situps all to a 4 count, with 10 reps required. The chest press was the hardest because we had to balance it on our hands and I thought it was going to fall on my face and that would be very bad. After all that, we had to hoist it on our shoulders and go around some vollyeball nets. Then the ropes. The first obstacle was ropes with footholds spaced apart and at different heights that we had to cross. That wasn't too bad, and we both did that fairly quickly. The final ropes thing was a cargo net crawl up and over about 20 feet, and we also did that pretty fast, so we now had 2 minutes to cross the finish line. The final task was a 15 foot or so mud crawl and BlakeE and I decided to run and slide it. So we did. The word we got was that it was the best finish of the day...and finishing is what it was all about. Whew. I was very tired and cold and hungry afterwards and some parts were not too fun, but the on the whole it was fun and I am glad I got to do it with BlakeE! He was great!

Looking forward to some rest and Brazil.

5/5/08

2008-05-05T06:16:00.000-07:00

White Lake 1/2 Iron Man is in the books. First, I want to give a shout out to each and every TriGirl and TriBoy who raced this past weekend, it was hot, and everyone gave it their best. So, my race was good, ok and ugly. The good was my swim, which was 8 minutes faster than my last 1.2 mile race swim. I panicked for about 200 yards, and then pulled it together and had a great swim! Happy about that!

The bike was flat with more wind than expected, but I did ok on the bike. I purposely did not push the bike too hard, because I have a habit of crashing and burning on the run...more on that later. I felt good on the bike, except for the dual knives in the base of my neck and of course, my girly parts after about mile 40. I had a really hard time keeping aero after that but just kept moving my legs and getting it done. I think I may have to make some adjustments, maybe try a new seat, because the thought of going 56 more miles with that pain makes me feel like crying.

Oh, the run. To call it a run is kind of not true, but I covered the 13.1 mile distance. It was hot, but that wasn't my issue. I thought when I got off the bike I felt pretty good, and that feeling lasted about a quarter mile. I need to re-evaluate my nutrition, big time, because my stomach was all knotted up and bloated and I just couldn't run. That was disappointing. But that's why I did this race, to identify things I need to adjust before November, so in that sense, it was good.

I really didn't feel too hot because I fashioned my patented "curtain of cool" by draping a cold, wet towel over my head with my hat on top. As stupid as I know I looked, I will do this from now on in hot races because it was like my own little cool cave and I did not get burned on my neck, nor face. I did remove it before the finish line, for the final finish photo, but the rest of the race I was living cooly large! I also did not wear my fuel belt, relying on the water stops. I won't do that again either. I really think I need to know that I can drink whenever I want and I also want to take my own drink stuff so that, too was a good lesson for me to learn. Finally, I really did not have an issue with thinking I wasn't going to finish. I just sucked it up and finished the race and tried to have as much fun as I could. While the end result was 2 minutes slower than my last 1/2 Iron, I did have more fun.

Recap of things I learned:
1. Swimming is fun when I settle down.
2. I should not slack on the bike, because the run is always a crap shoot.
3. Curtain of cool rocks!
4. I need to change my nutrition...this will be the hardest thing I think.
5. I will wear my fuel belt in races.
6. Being happy to be there will get me through even when I am feeling bad.
7. For IMFL training, I need to run after every bike, no matter the distance.
8. A done race is as good as a done run.

4/28/2008

2008-04-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

Eastern Shore weekend #2 is in the books. The 100+ milers all finished with minimal confusion and no flats! There was some sunburns, MyKaren decided to put on her own sunscreen and ended up with a strange (but painful) sunburn on her shoulder blades, complete with finger marks where she slapped on what she could reach. I obviously failed her as her Brazil sherpa, since I didn't make sure sunscreen was properly applied. Ouch. I rode 50 with some non-Brazillians and it was a fine, beautiful day for a 50 mile ride! Clear blue skies, bit of a head wind coming back to the lodge, but not too bad. After the ride, I actually did run for an hour, through the trails at Kiptopeke. I must say I was proud of myself, since the trails were grassy-sandy and there was no shade--it was a revisit to the worse race of my short tri career (Florida 70.3). And I conquered the ghosts of that race, so I was very happy with my hour shuffle.

The after ride party was fun, as usual! Much beer, wine and licquor was consumed, along with huge amount of meat and carbs. Alas, we did not get in a swim, Sunday dawned cold, windy and overcast, but I am sure I'll be getting in plenty of open water swims, starting with this weekend!

4/21/2008

2008-04-21T05:19:00.000-07:00

Whew! That's for getting the long ride in on Saturday when the weather was perfect! I am pleased and relieved at riding 78 miles for my 2nd time riding outside this year, with no issues. I am a big fan of painful indoor cycling now, because I felt strong and, while not fast, faster than last year! My first few outdoor rides last year were very dissapointing, so this year I am happy! We managed to ride without a flat or any other mechanical issues. I did get us slightly lost (about 8 miles worth of lost), and we decided to change the last part of the route so that it wasn't 80+ miles, but I know where I went awry and next time I won't do that error. MyKaren was "riding" with us (which means she would try to come back periodically to us) for her 90 mile ride, and she did not get lost where we did, so she basically rode 70 miles alone. What a trooper! Oh, and then she ran 8 miles in the heat. My time will come for that, but not yet! Best part of the day...drinking beer and eating nachos and burgers at Legends afterwards. That's what I call training!

Yesterday in the middle of the thunder, some of us managed to get in a little swim. I swam a mile, which wasn't as far as I hoped to swim, but the weather was kind of stormy so we decided to cut it a bit short. Looking forward to White Lake, so I can relax afterwards for the remainder of May before the real training starts!

4/15/2008

2008-04-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

Ahh, back from the land o' rain, hail, and cold fronts...otherwise known as the UK (London to be specific). Weather changes there more frequently than even here, which is hard to do! Trip was lots of fun, MyKaren had a personal best marathon, even though she was not running hard since it was only a long, slow training run. Plus, she even stopped to take pictures along her run by all the famous places in London. It only rained 2 times during her race, of course both were preceded by a precipitous drop in temperature, along with gusty winds, and in one case, serious hail. I missed the second rain, but did get drenched in the first (which occurred around mile 9). Lots of crazy people ran, including, but not limited to: many Supermen and Superwomen, lots of Spidermen, otehr strange superhero types whose purpose I could not guess, several gorillas and bananas, a Paddington Bear or two, some Gladiators, more fruit (hard to tell by the end what fruit they meant to be) and a few mostly naked runners. Amongst the celebreties: Hell's Kitchen's own Gordon Ramsey (3:45), and, of course the entire elite field of tiny men and women. There were a bunch of famous people, but only to Britons, I did not know any of them but Ramsey. There were also 6 tribesmen (can't remember from where, sorry) who ran (well they bounced and sang) the course all decked out with their spears, sheilds and home-made shoes of tire tread. They were interesting. the whole route had bunches of people, so sherpaing was difficult, plus I was a solo sherpa, which was kind of hard. I talked to people around me, but it wasn't the same as having some sherpa buds to hang with. The tube was CRAZY, but better than the NYC subway during that marathon. People were packed in like sardines, but more polite than NYC. All in all, it was a fun race to watch.

I did manage to get in a 14 or so mile run on Friday, running around Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and St James Park. I haven't done anything since, and I feel like a big fat lug. Uugggghh. Oh well, tonight the reset button gets pushed and off I go on the next phase of training!

4/7/2008

2008-04-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

Earth shattering news...I was a bandit at the Monument Avenue 10K on Saturday. I've never done that before and it was fun! I got talked into it by my training peeps, and they pretty much kicked my butt doing a negative split on the actual 10K, but it was fun to run it. I have no plans on making bandit racing a career, but I figured that many people would bag it becuase of the rain, and I wouldn't be taking water from anyone who may need it and of course, I did not cross the finish line. Even though it was super crowded, I still felt like people were staring at me and my lack of a number. I went ahead and decided that my race number was 9866, so if I was asked, I would have a number handy. Anyway, the race was fun, I'm glad I got talked into it.

At Master's last week, there was a shaft of sunlight shining into our lane which was really cool, so I was completely distracted by that as I swam back and forth. I got new goggles because I forgot my other ones at the Y on Monday (along with my swim cap) and they are not fogging up yet, so I could see everything as I swam. I was looking at other swimmers and the sunlight, and it was really neat. Yesterday, I swam about a quarter mile in my wet suit (in the pool), and boy, does that make you fly! I loved it! It was like I was super fast! Of course, once I struggled out of it and continued my swim, I felt like a rock in the water. But, its all good, because for now, I do not hate swimming.

3/31/2008

2008-03-31T07:51:00.000-07:00

Quick recap of workouts: HARD. I "negotiated" with MarcoDiablo Saturday to ride 4 1/2 hours and then only do a 4 mile run, to avoid doing the 6 half-mile repeats. I am still not sure if it was a good deal....but I hate repeats so I think I did fine. Brazil group got a better deal than I, guess it was the collective bargaining; they rode 1/2 hour more and then did a 4 mile negative split instead of the half repeats. Oh well, I felt pretty good after the run so it all worked out.

MarcoDiablo had an aerobar contest, and 4 hours later there were still 4 Brazillians in it: TriShelley, MyKaren, Jeff and BeB. The boys were hurting, both had to pee, but they would be darned if they were going to lose to girls. It was funny to watch them squirm. BeB didn't really drink so he cramped up afterwards. Silly boy.

Friday was a spa day with MyKaren. We went to breakfast, got some shots for Brazil, had massages (yumminess), shopped at Nordstroms (yes, I do like nice clothes, just not to work out in!), saw a movie (Mrs. Pettrigrew Lives for a Day-pretty good), etc. It was nice, even the shot I got wasn't as bad as when I was a kid, maybe the needles have gotten smaller or something. Good stuff!

3/24/2008

2008-03-24T05:37:00.000-07:00

Shoot, nothing exciting or new this week. Cycling sucks the life out my legs, lifting does the same, no end in sight. Waahh. No swimming on Sunday due to Easter, but this morning ProKaren made me do too many 50 m sprints without enough rest. At one point, I seriously thought I was going to pass out in the water. Why the heck I didn't just slow down, I have no idea. Just stupid I guess.

The 16 miler this weekend was actually not bad! Now, I don't want to do it every week or anything, but it was suprizingly ok. I must have done something right, because for the first time this year in a long run, I didn't have stomach cramps for the last few miles. I can't seem to get the nutrition part fine-tuned. I don't know if its too much Endurox, not enough water, or too much water, or too much goo or not enough goo, or not enough solid food or....well you get the picture. I am just plain confused. BUT, any run done is a good run, no matter how it feels.

3/17/2008

2008-03-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

Luck o the Irish to ye all! Speaking of green, that's how I felt yesterday towards the end of my 1.5 mile timed swim (which was timewise, pretty darn good for me, nevermind that some people swam 2 miles in the same time, but progress is progress!). There I was, swimming along, trying to keep track of the laps, doing fine with the drudgery of lap swimming and near the end, when I started feeling kind of sick to my stomach along with a goggle-headache. Maybe the two were directly related, I don't know. I did know that the last 6 laps were hard and I really thought I was going to be sick. But I didn't and I finished my longest swim EVER. Yeah! After I stumbled out of the pool and was lounging (meaning slumped) on the pool deck, MyKaren tells me that happens to her as well, its kind of like seasickness. But, she also says that it gets better with time and more long swims. Well, that makes me sooo happy. Not even.

Congradulations to all the TriGirls who kicked it at Shamrock! Looks like a bunch of PRs were set! Good for all of you!

I was plugging away at my 14 miles on Saturday, thankfully I picked up TriTwi about half-way into the run and she kept me entertained for the remainder of the run. Can't say I did a negative split, but I did do it. More yumminess to come I am sure. MarcoDiablo Lucifer and Mean Mr. Ed are surely going to ease up now, right?

3/13/2008

2008-03-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

I've been perusing other TriGirl blogs and notice several future FL IronWomen have a countdown to IMFL on their blogs. I am not so brave. It still makes me kind of sick to my stomach when I really think about what I've signed up and paid money to do in November. So for now, when I need a countdown, I'll just check out TriKO's clock.

3/10/2008

2008-03-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

Yikes, nothing as exciting as last week's post to report, although the party Saturday night had some shining moments as various Trigirls, husbands, significant others and coaches got lubed with plenty of wine, beer and other cocktails, as far as I know, nothing shocking happened. At least not while I was there. Great party, TriLynn!

I am having difficulty running on Tuesday's even though I really, really mean to each Tuesday. I haven't done it yet, so I've been missing one run a week. I am not crying about missing a run, but I do need to do them all.

February was a tough power month, but March Madness is much more. The cycling so far has been brutal, MarcoDiablo has been redubbed MarcoDiablo Lucifer. Ed has been meaner, but in his usual quiet way. Although on Monday, I did manage to meet Ed's challenge on one of his power sets. I really, really, really almost puked. I am sure that everyone in the room was thankful that I didn't. And don't get me started on the weights for March...Its sort of becoming a month of pain...waahhhh.

So at Master's swim last week, I actually liked it! Except for the fact that the water was super cloudy and I seemed intent on swallowing as much as possible of it. It was weird to be swimming along and then realize that I wasn't hating it. Nice, though. Hopefully it will stay this way. Yeah!

Saturday's 2 hour ride was followed by 4 miles and then 6 half-mile repeats. The 4 mile run felt much farther than I thought it should be, and it was raining/drizzling and kind of humid. I am not looking forward to the summer training. I was slow on the repeats, but did get them done. It did seem like further than a half-mile, especially the 5th one. As my new mantra is "Any run I do is a good run" the repeats were good.

After partying on Saturday night, Karen, TriAimee and I went to test a short adventure race course at Pocohontas for some friends on Sunday morning, much earlier than I wanted to be up and about. It was fun, even though my teammates were trying to kill me with their darn speed on both the bike and the running. Naturally, they paddled the canoe while I lounged in the middle, navigating with the map, so I was happy about that. I felt like the Queen of the Nile, except for getting whacked on the head every now and again by the paddle (Karen said she didn't mean to, but I have my doubts).

I was talking to a friend at lunch today, who doesn't take much time for themselves, and I came up with the perfect book title: "Say no to them and YES to you" I'll close with that.

3/3/2008

2008-03-03T06:26:00.000-08:00

Whew. Weekend was crazy! But first, I need to catch up on last week's workouts. Finally made it to Master's on Wednesday...actually it wasn't too bad, in fact, once as I was swimming along, I actually thought it was kind of good. Crazy, I know, but I think I enjoyed at least a part of it. Will wonders never cease?

Ed may be mean, but Mark is the devil, and henceforth, he shall be named MarcoDiablo. Thursday's cycle was pure hell and I didn't even lift beforehand. Oh My God. I wasn't sure whether my legs or heart would explode first and then whether I'd puke or cry first. I have not yet experienced that level of agony this year (last year, I think it would be fair to call the Florida 70.3 race an agony, but that was last year). MarcoDiablo may as well have just had us at level 10 the whole freakin time, "sprinting" yeah right. More like trying to keep the legs going at all. I have to say that it was the quietest cycle I've ever been to. No one could talk.

So Saturday, I was wondering just what the the 1 1/2 hour ride would be like (which was to be followed by a slow 12 mile run). MarcoDiablo was at it again. I have to admit, I did not work as hard as I did on Thursday, but the workout was just as bad. Curse you MarcoDiablo. Oh, and then everyone was doing the same general out and back run, because of the Krispy Kreme donuts to be provided afterwards (more on that soon), so MarcoDiablo lobbied for Riverside Drive to be on the route. Hills on top of devilishly hard biking makes for some tiiiired legs. OK, finishing the run without walking the hills made me feel good afterwards, so it was, in fact OK. It just hurt.

Saturday's workout has been renamed Diablo Donut Day in honor of MarcoDiablo and Krispy Kreme donuts. After the run was completed, he came in with 13 dozen glazed donuts, and then the fun began. TriLiz had said that she could eat one dozen, but later said that she would eat one donut more than anyone else. The challenge went unaswered until TriPatty came in and agreed to the challenge before she really even knew what the challenge was. (Note to self, ALWAYS check on the details of a challenge). TriPatty was behind by 5 or so donuts when she came in the door from her run, so she smashed a bunch of donuts together, and started eating the donut stack like a big mac or something. It was not a pretty sight, TriPatty smashing donuts on top of her stack and TriLiz serenly eating one donut after another as the TriPatty smashstack got smaller. It was like a car wreck, you wanted to look away, but couldn't. People were standing with their bags in hand to leave, but somehow never left, watching the clash of the Trigirls as they ate their way through boxes of donuts. Donut glaze littered the floor, and their eyes became glazed as well, as the sugar overload began to take its toll. The horror, the humanity! Donut after donut was consumed until each had eaten a dozen. TruPatty's smashstack got ever so slightly smaller. TriLiz began to show signs of donut fatigue, while TriPatty's eyes took on a crazed-glazed look as the number of consumed donuts rose. Finally (thank god), at 16 donuts each, the two donut downing divas agreed to a truce and the Great Diablo Donut Day concluded. No word on any after effects.

2/25/2008

2008-02-25T13:08:00.000-08:00

Getting back into the pool has turned out to be much harder than getting back into lifting, biking and running. I think I just dread the swim so much I talk myself out of going swimming much quicker. Oh well, the swimming saga will continue until I get out of the water at IMFL. I did manage to swim a little bit on Sunday, and then had my lesson this morning. My goggles keep leaking, which drives me crazy, and yesterday, I attempted to wear an old swim suit and nearly gave the little boy lifeguard some serious booby shots, as it was sooo loose my boobies were falling out! I was swimming along and thinking that something felt weird so I sort of looked down to see my lefty hanging out...needless to say, I stopped and tied knots in the straps to keep'em under wraps. Not the best look, but it worked. The swim suit went in the trash as soon as I walked in the door!

The 10-mile this weekend was surprizingly ok, even after the hard-ass hour ride that Mark put us through. I think I'll be glad when power month is over, but worry what's next at the same time!

At my lesson this morning, I had to swim with my eyes closed, which was ok for the first 50, but then after doing a couple of sprints, not so good as I banged into the right lane markers and then the left (so hard I knocked my goggles off) like a pin ball. ProKaren was laughing at me, and some woman was asking if I had my eyes closed. Shoot, I hope I never swim like that with my eyes open, because that would really make the swim hard...

2/19/2008

2008-02-19T05:24:00.000-08:00

Whew. This "power" month is kicking my butt, well actually, kicking my legs, but they are attached to my butt. The workout Saturday sounded doable, but was much harder than I anticipated--the 2 hour ride was fine, but the 6 mile run was very hard for me. I guess being sick and not running for nearly 2 weeks took its toll. I did finish the run, it was not a negative split, unless one includes the 3 minute bathroom break. Which I include, of course, so that I did in fact achieve the negative split. Ha.

ProKaren was funny at swim lesson on Monday am. I am now supposed to do different things with my left and right arms...don't ask questions, just do it. Funny thing is that I am actually able to do what she says. Certainly gives me something to think about, other than breathing, or not breathing, while I swim. I was back in the cold pool, wishing hard for the warm pool. The first couple of laps I could not get my breathing correct, I guess because I was cold. It all worked itself out. Oh, and the 100 meters of kickboard was no freakin fun at all. My right hamstring was twanging, and I know my hamstring should not be involved in kicking. I cannot wait until Masters on Wednesday. You know I am lying.

My brilliant idea of lifting and riding Monday nights is kicking my @ss. Of course, every Monday workout is power repeats, followed by mean Ed and his "fun" little sprint-climbs. At least all I have to do is run today, my legs are tired. Maybe by this afternoon I'll feel like I can run, right now in the morning, not so much.

2/13/2008

2008-02-13T05:40:00.000-08:00

Getting back to working out after being sick all last week has been HARD, darnit. I had my little swim lesson on Monday am, and thankfully had to swim in the hot pool because the regular pool was all full. I was in heaven, nice to not be cold when I got in, and since I was still coughing up crap, it was nice and warm....yumminess. Cycling after the new lifting routines was really challenging, Ed remains mean. We were chasing fast people (in our minds), I was just trying not to blow up a lung. I finally ran a bit yesterday, only did 3 miles, but it felt ok, until I stopped, then the coughing started. Still, it was actually nice to run. I do, however, hate the 4 set requirement for some of the lifting routines. I totally did not see that one coming and I'm lollygagging along on my third set, thinking I'd get out of there early, when Ed bursts my bubble with "you know there's four sets" Arrrgghhhh. The fourth set was wicked hard, and now I am sitting at my desk with tired arms and legs. Swimming tonight should be interesting.

2/5/2008

2008-02-05T05:07:00.000-08:00

Word for today is "stupid". That's what I was on Saturday, when I, despite feeling poorly, decided to go ahead and ride the 1 1/2 hours and then run 8 miles afterwards. Stupid to do the run for sure, probably stupid to do the ride. Soo, I finished the run, and then felt like I was going to drop, for real. I was so freakin cold, my hands were white. I guess all the blood was going somewhere else. Anyway, now I'm good and sick, and still feel like crap even though I've laid around for the past 3 days, taking Zicam, decongestents, drinking orange juice and water, eating whatever sounds good, sleeping lots, etc. I had to cancel my swim lesson Monday morning, and I am hoping that I'll be up to cycling by tomorrow. So people---if you feel like you are getting sick, STAY HOME AND GET WELL! Don't be stupid like me.

1/28/2008

2008-01-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

So, word on the street is that someone tightened up my trainer on Saturday morning, and then I tightened it more because I thought that it looked like I hadn't tighted it correctly. Now I know why the run was so hard, it was like 5 turns tight! Oh well, what don't kill you makes you want to kill....kidding! Turn around or payback, it was all good. Now I know I should have it tighter, so whomever did it, I thank you. No, I really do....I really, really do! So you can step forward and claim responsibility, I won't be mad or get even or anything....

Actually, I really am relieved that it was messed with, given how hard the run was, I was worried I was getting super wimpy too soon.

At swim lesson this morning, ProKaren was all fired up with hard drills, and now I am tired again. Plus she said I had to move from my super-sweet guppy lane to the normal slower lane, arrggghhhhh. I need to be "pushed". Whatever. Its pushing to get me in the pool, doesn't she know that? Of course I am not going to say no way, but I am going to miss this weeks masters! I already told her so it's cool.

My pet peeve of the week (nothing to do with training): Is it just me or are a majority of drivers now swinging out into an adjacent lane to make turns for some stupid reason? I've about been hit by several stupid cars, SUVs and trucks who feel the need to swing their nose into the lane next to them when they make a turn, any turn, not even U-Turns. Where the heck is this crap coming from? I could almost see it if it were only the bigass SUVs, but its all sizes of cars. I wonder if I did hit one of them, if it would be my fault? Hhhhhmmm...

1/24/2008

2008-01-24T06:37:00.000-08:00

Gee, I just realized that my titles are boring, everyone else seems to put some theme as their title, but not me! Oh well, my dates will have to suffice. Yesterday I totally did not follow my eating plan, but boy was the food tasty! I had some stupid meeting out of town and after lifting did not have time to eat my usual breakfast before I had to take off, so I stopped at 7-11 and got a coffee and a cheese danish. Yummy for my tummy but also not too good for the nutrient side of things. By the time I got back my office area, I was starving (it was after 2 pm and I don't know about anyone else, I need to eat something every couple of hours) and I still had to go get gas for the state car. So I found myself parking by some food shops on Broad Street near VCU, and somehow I also found myself standing in front of the order counter at 5 Guys...suffice to say, a cheeseburger and french fries is not part of my dieticians plan for me...I did, however, wash it all down with a Fresca (doesn't that make up for the empty but delicious calories?).

I apprehensively weighed myself this morning, but the expected gain from my cheating eating has not yet appeared. Maybe tomorrow. At any rate, it's back down to proper eating....

1/22/2008

2008-01-22T05:03:00.000-08:00

I went to cycling and weights yesterday, so all I have to do today is run (probably in the rain, but what's the big deal, right?). Ed was mean. We did 2 sets of 3x3 minutes level 7 hard, with 2 minutes "recovery" and then some more hard 2 minute sets. Oh my legs were cooked, and of course I had just tightened up my trainer. Ouch. Maybe I need to rethink the whole workout on Mondays if Ed is going to be mean....

I did my timed mile on Sunday and much to my surprise, I did it in under 39 minutes. I think last year my timed mile was like 47 or so. I told ProKaren my mile time and she said that I would only get better, but that she meant that in a good way. She cracks me up. It was cold as crap yesterday morning, I was getting my swimsuit on before the crack of dawn, and thought that the thermometer said 19 degrees which is cold, but then realized it said 14 degrees, which seems a whole lot colder than 19. It seemed crazy to me to be getting a swimsuit on when it is that cold outside, so I mentioned that to some ladies in the Tuckahoe locker room. One of them said that it seemed like an extravagent pleasure rather than crazy. I love it when people turn my perspective around like that.

1/17/2008

2008-01-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

Yummy! Rainy and cold! That means I got to go run my 1/2 mile repeats at the Y!!!! What could be better than that! I can think of a few things. Actually, given that I HATE running on a treadmill, it wasn't that bad. Of course, being able to walk out of work whenever I damn well please makes it even better, since I was able to beat any lunch rush by getting to the Y at 11:15. One reason I hate running on treadmills is that they are inevitably located with a freakin mirror for one to look into as one runs. Maybe I am alone in this, but the last thing I want to see when I run, is my wiggles, wrinkles, flops and fat as I am struggling to run on the darn treadmill. Of course, like any good train wreck, I could not look away. It was kind of mesmerizing, the jiggles of my thighs, the swing and sway of my uni-boob, the look of pain on my face. I was afraid to not pay attention to my running, for some reason I think I am going to stumble and fly off the treadmill when I run on one. But, for this one time, I was safe!

At Masters Swim last night, I was sent to the super-slow lane yet again....sigh, I am a swimming idiot, at least I am a "catching" idiot because I just don't get the whole "catch" thing or even the pull thing, maybe I just am a land-lubber not fit for the water. But, good news is that I am finally exhausted after swimming, and my arms are tired a doo-doo, so I think that means I am least pushing more water around as I flail about down the lane. I hit hands with one my lane-mates last night, twice. I think it was her fault since Pro-Karen kept telling her she was coming over too wide, but it may have been my fault since at that point, I was flinging my arms over any way they would go. Oh, the joy of swimming....

I was pleased to see that the non-Brazil group doesn't have to show up until 7 am this Saturday. While it is nice to get the workout over with so the remainder of the day can be spent sleeping and lounging around, its much nicer to sleep in just a teeny bit longer on the weekend.

1/15/2008

2008-01-15T05:27:00.000-08:00

I had my bike fit last night with Dr. Jim. Turns out I know his wife, small world. Summmary of the fit session: I have weak hip flexors and kind of tight hamstrings, he raised my seat and moved it forward, he raised my cockpit (I love that term, sounds so fast) so I'll need to buy a different stem. I'm to take it easy riding tonight, so I don't hurt myself and end up as his patient! With Karen out of the country, its hard to get motivated to run in the morning, so I don't. Plus it was freaking cold this morning. I going to meet TriLynn to run this afternoon, it will be nice to have someone to run with on my week day runs, plus it is nice to run in the light. I tripped and fell a few months ago running in the dark, and banged up my knee ( and made the best thud sound ever) so now I am paranoid that I'll realy bust myself up. Really, I hate running first thing in the morning, in the dark, in the cold even though I am always glad when it is done.