Sunscreen FAIL

"I'm going off the rails on a crazy train!"   -Ozzy

82 mile bike yesterday afternoon... 14.5 mile run this morning! :)

* I took a half day off on Friday to get my 5 hour ride in.  It was a gorgeous 80 degree day.  Winds were nasty as usual at the Texas Motor Speedway, but this was my longest ride to date, so I was pretty excited to hit another milestone. 

* I sprayed sunscreen on like crazy... but apparently the winds blew it off before it hit my skin.  Well, at least it's going to be an interesting tan line. :P

* Putting on a sports bra to go run this morning was excruciatingly painful.

* I didn't succumb to using that as an excuse as to not go run.  I actually ended up adding an extra couple miles to the run, just because I knew I could.  (My foot is feeling great!)

* Leaving to go down to the Woodlands next weekend to ride the majority of the IMTX course.  I can't wait!  If you told me last year that I would be excited about riding 90 miles, I would have fallen over laughing.

* Riding 90 miles will be my "taper" for my half iron the following weekend.  Or is the 1/2 Iron my taper week...  bwhwahahah... crazy train.

* I've had a rough couple of weeks with some let-downs and now I'm back to my normal, happy self and having so much fun with this training.

* At the end of next week, I will have surpassed my entire training total for the bike of last year.


Hope everyone is having a great weekend of training!

Girly tough!

I've had a few tough days getting my training in this week, but I was determined to redeem myself in the pool today.  I even painted my toenails blue last night to give me a little extra motivation.  Silly, I know, but it kept me thinking about it all morning and couldn't wait to get to the pool.  Whatever works?!  I'm thinking I'll end up with blue-painted toes for Ironman Texas now, too! :)  And, of course, wore my girly-skull swim cap (available here) to keep things fun.

Blue toes for the pool

So, this was a big deviation from my training plan, so I apologize to Don Fink and accept full responsibility if I crash and burn because of my non-compliance to your carefully crafted training plan.


2.4 miles - 85 laps.   The furthest I have swum to date is 60 laps.  Crazy? Maybe.  A huge mental boost?  Abso-freakin'lutely!  

I had missed a couple of lunch time workouts due to work functions this week, so I used some of that time to get this swim in.

It went awesome!  I was lucky that there were a couple of decently good swimmers that came and went during my swimming time-  thank you gentlemen for swimming with me when you didn't know that you actually were...  The laps went by fairly quickly. I started to feel a little slow at around lap 70, but then I realized that there were only 15 more to go, so I got my head back in the game.  Especially when I knew I was going to finish faster than my conservative guesstimate swim time of 1:30.

I finished in 1:24.  Looking at the swim pace, I think I may have double counted a lap or two, but I'll take it.  When I finished, I was alone in the pool.  I kind of wished I had someone there with me, because I really felt like I did after I finished my first marathon.  A little on the emotional side - because I had just accomplished - what was to me- a big goal.  So, yes, I shed a couple of tears.  Only a couple - and only out of the left eye.  It probably had more to do with the pain that the goggles had caused from sucking to my face for that long, but nonetheless, I was excited.  For someone that had only learned how to really swim 2 years ago (for my first sprint triathlon), achieving a 2.4 mile swim was a big deal.

Can't wait to get a few more of these done and especially some in open water.

Ok, I'll admit it.  I'm going to race with a fanny pack.  Technically, it's called  a SPI Belt, which stands for a "Small Personal Item Belt," but when push comes to shove.. it's a fanny pack.  But, just like the closet Snuggy wearers out there, I kind of like it. 

It's small and works just like a race belt, and has these wrap around pull cords/ toggles that actually hold your race number (sold separately) and the model I purchased has six individual elastic sections to hold gels.  Then on top of that you have the zippered section to hold whatever your heart desires.  (Although the pouch looks tiny, it can actually fit quite a bit.)

I purchased one of these at the Dallas White Rock Marathon expo.  The particular sales lady that I had was umm.. how do I say this nicely... not in a good mood?  I was very close to walking away, but I could see the benefits in having one of these puppies for IMTX.  Since the course is a three-loop course, I think I'll just be carrying my hand held water bottle as normal instead of having some monstrous Fuel Belt attached to me.  I figured I'll have my gum stash, a couple "keep me motivated snacks" and whatever else I deem necessary at that point. 

Plus, they make my abs look good.  See photo.  Alright, I'm lying. Not my abs, yet.

I tried it out at the DWRM and it bounced a little, but I was able to tighten it up and barely noticed it. Overall, pretty happy with the little bugger.  Even if it is a fanny pack.

Awesome Story! There's also a link on the right side of my blog for the organization, "Triathlons for Transplants."  Check it out!

Dallas Organ Recipient Finishes Ironman Triathlon

By MEREDITH LAND

Sorry, dude.  You're DQ'd!

The new USAT newsletter had a link to their "updated" rules - with the new instruction as to wetsuits, etc.  So, as I'm perusing them, I noticed on the run portion that they specifically state:

6.1 Permitted Conduct. A participant must run or walk the entire portion of the run course. Except for reasons of safety and when no advantage is gained, all runners shall follow and remain within the prescribed course. A participant who gains forward progress by crawling or otherwise violates this Section shall be disqualified.

So, that got me thinking whether or not the same rule applies to the ITU.  Sure enough.  As plain as day, they say:

The competitor: 

1) May run or walk
2) May not crawl

They also go on to say that you can not run with a bare torso  (seriously, these people have no sense of fun at all.)

But, here's my point.  Arguably the most infamous Ironman finish was in 1997 where Sian Welch and Wendy Ingraham do everything in their power to finish and duke it out by crawling to the finish line.  According to today's rules, they would have been disqualified.  As far as safety goes, I understand wanting everyone to be trained to a point where they don't have to crawl, but if you pull a hamstring with 300 meters to go - you can't gut it out and crawl yourself to finish?

Sigh.  I'm joking about my training plan.  But some of the best stories in sports are those that defy the odds and push themselves to achieve when everyone else would have quit.  I'm not a proponent of crawling, I just think that as long as you're making forward progress without assistance, I don't care if you're doing the worm to get there.   Thoughts?

2010 Race Medals

So, I don't have any more races scheduled for the year, so I figured I'd review 2010.   What a year! 2009 was my first in triathlon and this year was one of some awesome accomplishments and one where I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot about racing.

This year I competed in:
  - 3 Sprint-distance Triathlons
  - 3 Olympic-distance Triathlons
  - 3 Half Marathons
  - 2 Bicycle Rally's
  - 1 Adventure Race
  - 1 Half Ironman

1.  Supporting first -time races is good for the community and for our sport.

2.  Adventure racing is a heck of a lot of fun.

3.  If you want to race fast, you have to race smart. (And that means slowing down for sharp left turns)

4.  After finishing my first 70.3, I realized that I had the drive, the will  and the sincere desire to tackle a full Ironman.

5. Bike rally's are not to be feared. Personally, I felt they would be filled with a bunch of peloton-riding hard core cyclists.  But, everyone is so friendly and they didn't even laugh at my aero bars (at least not in front of me) And, rest stops every 10 miles... with cookies??  Seriously?  Made me question being a triathlete.

6. If the race you're going to ride / run in has hills... it's best to train on hills.  Trust me on this.

7.  No matter how far you are out of your league you feel in any race, you still belong there.  There is room for the person who finished first, just as much as there is for the person who finished last.  Don't let anyone tell or make you feel otherwise.  No one can take the experience away from you.

8.  Always double check the race signs.

9.  Bloggers are a great source of inspiration, motivation and experience!

10.  I can't wait for the 2011 season!!

30 weeks or 206 days.  However you look at it... THE JOURNEY HAS STARTED!!

This last week has been a transition period- from finishing out the 2010 triathlon season and sprinting (!) to beginning marathon training and now this week, I begin IM training.  Not much of a rest period, that's for sure. But, switching gears to start going "long" is an adjustment.

White Rock 2009

I had a great 12 mile run last Saturday morning.  That was seriously double  the longest run I've completed in more than 3 months.. at least?  Nothing like crash coursing into marathon training.  I'm only 6 weekends away from the White Rock Marathon, so I have a lot of running to catch up on. I had a nice invite from Jason over at Life of An Aspiring Triathlete - also running White Rock- to join him for a 16 mile run, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hang.  Trying to take it slow and easy and trying not to get injured, but thanks Jason!  You Rock!  (We'll train together at some point - promise!)  

Ironman training (today) consisted of a 2,500 yard pool swim at lunch and then a 10k run this evening.  The run is more than what is called for, but I'm having to adapt to keep my mileage up.  I'm typically swim between 1,500 and 2,000 during a session, but at a greater intensity, so upping the mileage wasn't too bad- but still seemed like a long time to be water-logged.  My swimming will be dropping from 3 days/ week down to 2 so that shouldn't be so bad.

As always, I have my wonderful swim partners to thank (Blake & Michelle) for keeping me motivated in the water.  I've always preferred being a "wolf pack of one" when it comes to training, but I always enjoy their company.

Hope everyone is having a great week.  :)

After setting the world record for an Ironman race, Chrissie Wellington had this to say on her blog. And, to me, it is one of the most inspiring things I've ever read. Thank you Chrissie for being a great role model to women of all ages and for the sport of triathlon!

"...as with any ground breaking performance the inevitable questions arise. They are never directed to me. More whispered in the background, or implied in conversations with those who know me. They ask how it is possible to do what I did without the use of performance enhancing drugs. I don’t believe that silence is golden – and my brief response is this. I got into this sport almost by accident. Not for money, for glory or even for world records. Simply to see how good I could be. I had a talent that not even I knew I had. It took a few special people to help me realise that talent and hone me into the athlete I am today. But I devote my life to this sport. Putting my heart and soul into fulfilling my potential – mentally and physically. It requires sacrifice, hard work, determination and an ability to look beyond the physical boundaries that others set for you. I look in the mirror and I know that I am clean. I have never, nor will ever, take performance enhancing drugs. I don’t need to. What you all saw last weekend is the real me, putting my heart and soul on the line to test my limits and show that the bar can be raised.  This is a wonderful time for women in sport. Please, let us celebrate that."


From Chrissie Wellington's web site:
http://www.chrissiewellington.org/blog/challenge-roth-anything-is-possible/