by

On and On…

That is how my season is going, it just keeps going…..on and on. I knew it would be a long haul with my last race in November. However, I am not burnt out. Mentally I am very much motivated and happy and grateful to be putting in the work. Even when we had 10 straight days of 50s and pouring rain.  That is past us and we’re in this stretch of weather right now that makes living in WI totally worth it-75 and sunny, no wind, (compared to the wind advisories last week that had me gripping my bike for dear life) for the next 8+ days. Unheard of, and it’s October!

I added another race for October and wanted to choose one that would really test my fitness and give me a good idea where I was and what I needed to work on before Vegas. I chose Rev3 due to how they treat the athletes (like gold) and the difficulty of their courses. Rev3 Anderson was perfect timing and less than 2 hours from my parents house in SC. I had a great time and Rev3 did an awesome job as always.

Rev3 is so unique and they treat the athletes so well. Everything right down to the transiton areas are just that much more thoughtful that other races, including the “70.3″ races, especially so. I flew into Augusta to stay with my mom for a bit and then we drove up to Anderson. Check in was a breeze and I made sure to attend the pre-race meeting due to the 2 transiton areas. Glad I listened because they clued us in to a potentially tricky hill and the logistics of setting up the two seperate transiton areas. One was at the lake of course, one being back in town to start the run.

It was not difficult and it worked out quite well. No drama setting up the bike and I was happy to find a restaurant offering a great gluten free menu. Not exactly a relaxing day as usual, but I got to bed early and after the party at Hooters next door to the hotel broke up (note to self to not stay next door to a Hooters next time) we had some peace and quiet and I actually got some pretty good sleep. And as usual, the 3:45 am wake up call was rough.

I was actually hungry when I woke up and was able to eat a huge breakfast which was awesome, no doubt it helped my race!

I got to the race start WAY too early (transiton opens at 5! Shuttle buses start at 5:15!), it was so easy to  set up T2 so I got to relax in the car until the shuttle brought us over to the lake. The swim was cool! We started on one side of the penninsula and swam around it, landing on the other side.

I decided to line up front and center, it was a running start and I knew from my warm up the lake got deep very fast, so it was run a few steps and dive. I looked back about 15 seconds before the gun went off, finger on the “start” button on my watch and thought “I am going to get the crap beat out of me”! Good thing I lined up in front because I got a pretty good start, I always struggle with the swim start.

The gun went off, I ran hard, dove in and got a pretty good position.

I was having a good swim and could tell I was moving well and they buoys were placed so well, even with all the turns. I was trying a new wetsuit for the first time in a race and it’s a keeper. I hated how I felt in my other wetsuit, like a big beached whale that had no feel for the water. Like I was bobbing way on top of the water just flailing my arms. I have never felt a wetsuit like this new one (Xterra Vector Pro) WOW!! It just moves with you like you’re wearing nothing. It’s amazing.

I got to my bike and stuffed my wetsuit in the morning bag (which Rev3 promptly had back at the finish waiting for you) and jumped on my bike.   The bike was amazing, really beautiful and really hilly. It took me 34 minutes to do the first 10 miles, luckily I was able to pick up the pace throughout the bike. The hills were not crazy steep, but relentless. I remember thinking once for about 2 minutes “holy crap I’m in my big chain ring!”. But that did not last long. I ate my mini snickers and gulped my Liquid Shot (which I now LOVE) and felt pretty good!

Towards the end, this guy pedals up to me and says in a really concerned voice “ARE OUR MORNING BAGS AT TRANSITION??” It struck me as the weirdest question and I had no idea why he was even thinking of this. I said “that is the last thing I’m concerned about right now”. Turns out he had no idea we were NOT going back to the lake and left everything at said lake. Poor guy! I hope he found his shoes! I would have been nicer had I known why in the world he was asking me in the first place.

So, I rolled into T2 and knew I had an okay ride-nothing out of this world, definitely not bad at all. 1 or 2 girls passed me in my AG but I was confident I could outrun them so I did not kill myself since with the hills, it could come back to bite me. I could not tell where I was but there were not many female bikes there yet. However, I had no idea if we were racked by age group. I grabbed my second flask of liquid shot and took off and was so happy my legs felt great. I knew it would be a hilly run. I also knew I had been doing countless repeats on the beast. Bring on the hills!

When I encountered a hill, I literally thought “you are nothing compared to the beast” ha! Whatever gets you through. And the ribs?  They hurt badly and I had to modify my breathing. I also knew I had a couple girls to run down and could worry about it later.

I passed one quickly and it took me about 6 miles or so to find the other one. It was a lonely run after we broke off from the Oly race. I just focused on anyone to pull in and counted people on the turnaround. The support was great and I really enjoyed the course. We has some cross country course action, downtown and hills!

Just as I crossed the finish line, a TV crew started to interview “The Bachelor” which I was a little confused about. My finish line photo shows me looking to the side and I have a look on my face like “huh?”.  My mom said “great race! They are interviewing the bachelor!”

 I  stuck around and enjoyed the post race activities and awards-the half awards were held later in the day and not a ton of people stayed. I had a good race! Pretty high up overall and 2nd in my AG. There is ALWAYS room to improve but I saw some great improvments on a tough course. As we know, not all races go well so you have to enjoy it and appreciate it when they do.

Post race food: great! Panera had cookies, sandwhiches and chips for us. Rev3 had pulled pork, funnel cakes, etc. Fun stuff for the spectators!

Countdown to Vegas….

by

Alaska Part II

I think that the Alaska trip is fast becoming a yearly thing. Wish it could be more than 1x a year. When I was coming back, a guy I sat next to on the plane summed it up very well. He said “it’s so hard to explain to people what’s it’s like here”.

It is hard! I went back to Juneau  this past week and did a lot of running and swimming. I did not realize how hot and humid it’s been here when I found myself able to run, and run and run and have endless energy and I was able to BREATH in the nice cool air. The warmest temp I felt was about 57. It felt awesome! Juneau also has a beautiful new saline lap pool and I had it to myself most days. I found out it was saline when I jumped in and got a big mouthful. It was great-no stinky chlorine smell. The above picture is what I saw on my runs out the front door. Did I get used to it? No way, I had to pause on each run to take it in, while keeping one eye peeled for bears.

What did I do in between all the running and swimming? Spending time with the cutest nephew ever and catching dinner:

We all have really crazy looks on our faces in this picture! Long day on the boat?? In true getting away style; no blackberry, no TV, no radio. I enjoyed every minute of it.

As you may or may not know, Juneau is a rainforest. It is in the middle of a 17 million acre national forest and 1000 square miles of an ice field-and the glaciers are gorgeous!

 

 

 

What always strikes me as funny is that you see the above pictures basically from the Safeway parking lot-you don’t have to go far, everything is up close.

I also had my fill of wildlife sightings which I love.  From the not so exotic porcupine crunching away in a tree, to a pod of Orcas super close to the boat-very exciting. I will be positng video of that soon. Bear, of course and these guys below:

 

Most of the time, I was doing this:

Stay tuned for more pictures and video this week!

by

I will not…

I will not apologize…

  • For being competitive.
  • For loving the pursuit of excellence in everything you do.
  • For wanting to win.
  • For eating chocolate every day.
  •  For being a hard a$$ about excuses. “There are no excuses, only priorities”. I like that!
  • For  being  a little obsessed with stories about transformation, whether they be about someone who rose up from adversity to someone losing 100 lbs.
  • Perfect example of point above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1ZIKtPHR7c
  • For wanting to go on a bike ride instead of doing the dishes. The dishes will be there when I get back, the beautiful day is available now!
  • For having silly names for my dogs. Ava=tater tot or Ava Potata’ (thanks to my niece for that one: :) .  Willie-the willie monster or Willie gee willikers.
  • For loving the Team TBB website and reading the posts by Brett Sutton.
  • For being all or nothing. If you do something-DO IT.
  • For not being able to give 100% of me to people at all times. I need my alone time too!
  • For being really frustrated at people who blame their circumstances on everyone else.
  • For my point of view.
  • For fueling with Snickers and Milky Ways on my bike. Whatever works and it does the trick.
  • For  being addicted to “So You Think You Can Dance?”.
  • For cheating on my GF diet every once and a while with pizza. I love pizza.
  • For drinking an ice cold Coke after a long, hot ride. It hits the spot sometimes!

It’s been a busy summer around here and things are not slowing down! Last weekend, I volunteered and raced at the Oshkosh Kids Tri (again, not held in Oshkosh) the day before the Oly (again, not a real Oly). I highly recommend volunteering at a kids race. This was hilarious and well worth being on my feet all morning. There was a real “swim” in the lake, bike and run. The distances depended on the age group.

They started out with the 3 year olds! Never too young to get them started. This was hands down the most hilarious age group. I have never seen kids with bigger smiles on their faces. My job/post was first to body mark (which they thought was super cool) and then to direct them where to go on the run. Let me tell you, those little legs were turning over FAST! They looked like little wheels spinning down the pavement. Most of them ran with their bike helmets on, bare feet or water socks and busted out the fastest pace they could to the finish. I loved yelling “You’re running SO FAST!” because the smiles would just get bigger. No tears in this age group. Many came up to me after the race holding up their medals saying “LOOK WHAT I GOT!!!”. TOO CUTE.

Then came the other age groups, 5-7, 9-10 and up to 12 years old. This is where the drama started. Clutching of the stomachs, drool, crying (I DON’T WANNA RUUUUNN, WAAAAAAA) and general drama. After one outburst, one exasperated parent was doing anything just to get their kid to the finish line (which you could see from where we were standing, ha ha). Everything from “but everyone is waiting for you! You have to run!” to, “just ruuuuuun!”.  I have to say the parents in general were pretty good and not hounding their kids too much. LOTs of tears in these age groups on the run. Some of the older kids were really into it and I could totally see a few of them going very far if they choose. There were some beautiful runners! And, the nice thing? All those kids said “thank you” for every little thing. Imagine that!

We had a gorgeous morning for the race on Sunday. I met up with my athlete Rick who was READY for a good race. We figured out some nutrition and bike fit issues and I was so excited for him. I knew he was going to smash it when he looked at me before the swim and said “This is it, this is my race. It’s my course, I train on it every week”. You could just tell from the look in his eyes this was genuine confidence. And, he smashed it!! It was really exciting to see.  He’s getting ready for IM WI and I did not let him taper for this one so I am very excited for him come September.

The swim was really nice and although it was another out and back with one buoy line (see the chaos of the Chisago race in a previous report about this) it was not a head clunker like the other one (well, not as bad at least). I have been doing some open water swimming to figure out how often I need to sight and figured out a good pattern and it worked well. At the turnaround I noticed I was not far off the lead pack at all so in general it was quite good.

We had very little wind for the bike which is always a treat. It’s a 32 mile bike opposed to a 40k. But per coaches orders, “smashfest from the gun” I rode it like it was a 40k. I was a little tired but looking back I was coming down with a little bug, but it did not affect things much. Much faster than last year and that’s all you can ask for! The only thing that drove me nuts but could not be avoided were the turns on the course. I think I counted like 8+ turns in the first 2 minutes, whew. That, and you had to remember you were starting with the sprint so you had to chill out a little until the course split. I will say that people seriously need to learn bike etiquette while racing. This was one of the loneliest bike portions I have ever done. I did not have company except for a small portion around mile 20 and then I just hoped the course was marked well.

An out and back run which I like because I could see where I was. I was 3rd F and ended up holding on to that spot which was fine. Like I said, faster than last year so placement was irrelevant. And yes, it took me a while to get to this way of thinking. An age group win after some timing issues which had one girl in my AG (who actually did the sprint) running a 4:45 mile and biking 28 mph. Yes, we cried foul on that but they accidentally put her sprint times to the Oly distance. Alls well that ends well. So a few days rest to clear up a cold and back to normal soon. I can’t wait for my mini break in Alaska at the end of the month. My brother sent me a picture of their new aquatic center and it’s gorgous!! So lots of running where I have one eye out for bear (okay, two eyes and maybe a can of bear spray), a 5k lined up (it’ll be “cold” so maybe I’ll run really “fast”) and lots of good food like salmon and elk burgers. YUM!!

by

Half Assed or Full Assed?

http://www.xtri.com/features/detail/284-itemId.511712733.html

I love this post from Chuckie V and it mirrors what I have been thinking lately.  The link is smushed below that giant picture up there. It’s basically about choosing to do something full- assed or half -assed and choosing to be your best but that’s only part of it. I’ll let you read the rest since he says it best. But I will say that one thing that has always bothered me is when people say, “this sport is so selfish”. But is it really? Why is this sport selfish but others are not? Isn’t the pursuit of being your absolute BEST in ANYTHING “selfish?”  And, what is wrong with choosing to persue something 100% and sacrificing things to be your best, whether it is work or sport? I don’t think there is anything wrong with it at all. And if you have to sacrifice “balance” then so be it. If you really want to do your best, somethings gotta give. You’re just going to have to choose what that something is and be okay with it. If you want something you don’t want balance, you want FOCUS. 

I will never forget a couple years back when I worked hard enough and was lucky enough (and I say both just because you never know who will show up on any given day) to win a race. I was talking with my friend Renee afterwards and she introduced me to a friend of hers. He saw that I won and looked me up and down with some disdain and said “Yea, but you’re probably one of those people who TRAIN” like it was okay to do well but not if you admitted to really working at it. It was one of the strangest exchanges I’ve ever had with anyone. Weirdo.

Anyway, I’ll be jumping around here a bit. I am behind on a race report but in other news, the weather here has been ridiculous! Hot, hot hot. And, my husband and I chose every activity  (not purposely) this weekend that required standing and walking around is said sun and heat for 7+ hours on end. First, EAA, which is in Oshkosh and is the larget airshow in the world. I am not even super into airplanes but this is actually pretty cool even if you’re not into planes. By the time the actual airshow started we were HOT and exhausted and did not even make it through the show. I can’t figure out how to get that picture down here but that is me in front of the engine for the Boeing Dreamliner, the long overdue massive plane their working on. WOW!

I think we spent about $20 in fluids alone here. The next day we drove down to the Galena, IL area (what a beautiful area, I had no idea! Makes me want to do that Galena race) for an auction that again had us standing around in HOT weather with no shade. Thankfully for my ride today I had some cloud cover. Never thought I’d say that. It might only be in the 80s by the end of the week!

I went to the track Sunday to do my standard Sunday track session and I knew it was really hot but I did not want to throw in the towel without trying. The first sign I should have done it indoors was the very rare occurance of every single gate around the track being locked. So, like any determined person, I climbed and jumped the very tall fence and hoped no one was watching because it was not graceful and I almost ripped my shorts off. Part of someones shirt was hanging off this same spot so I was not the only one to attempt the climb, balance, teeter, jump.

Warmed up and I was shocked I was holding the speed I wanted to for as long as I did and then…alarm bells went off in my head. TOO HOT!! TOO HOT! I went through almost all my fluids after only 5 repeats. I have never felt so crazy hot before and I could not take it. It’s like I was burning from the inside out. I freaked out and I drove to the Y after another balancing act on top of the fence and headed to the air conditioned treadmill. There is a fine line between toughing it out and being stupid.

And onto the race report. My friend Julia sums it up well here:

http://julia-gobiggreen.blogspot.com/

I wanted a low key, flatter course and chose Chisago. I headed over to the St. Paul, MN area and stayed with Julia, same Julia from our KS 70.3 adventures. She was nice enough to let me stay at her house and borrow everything I forgot and feed me :)   So onto the race, why in the world did I think it was low key or an “easy” course? Not low key, NOT FLAT!! And yes the fog was bad. I saw it rolling over the tree tops while we were in transition and poked Julia and said “hey, check that out” and then before we knew it we could not see the lake. Or the buoys. It was a head clunker for sure. It was an out and back swim and everyone was crossing over and swimming right towards eachother and I had some close calls. I definitely got my arms tangled with people as we were swimming right towards eachother. I also could not see the buoys until I was right up on them. I sighted horribly and was all over the place. I don’t know what they could have done differently except for having a rectangular course or something.

Onto the bike and I was very surprised it was almost chilly. Stupid moment #1 of the race. My sunglasses fogged up the second I put them on and I could not see a thing and had to take a turn under a tunnel and ran right into the tape they had blocking where you should NOT turn. The tape is stretchy and it travels a very long way, I just kept pulling it and pulling it with me with it around my chest, ha!! Oh my gosh. Then one of the volunteers said “keep going! I will take care of it!” What a way to start. The roads were not great, just one of those courses where you put your head down and just got it done. We were with the sprint race for a while so it was hard not to get caught up in the sprint speeds and let people go. Again I did not see any marshalls like High Cliff. There were mile markers every mile on the bike and I don’t know if I liked that or not! It at least kept me occupied on an otherwise fairly ho-hum course. I felt pretty good!  I ate so many flipping carbs before this race it was not even funny. My main goal though was to finally get close to  having the run I knew I had in me. Training was saying one thing, racing was saying another and I had to figure it out. A huge part of it was a not good bike fit I received back in May. Oh well, I went back to my tried and true fitter and my run improved drastically. It really is an art and a science to get someone maximizing their bike and then understanding how to get them to run off the bike really well. Brent at Emery’s is genius at this. As soon as I set up my bike in his fitting area a couple weeks back, they took one look at me and said “you must be running like crap off the bike”. YES! So it was not just me thinking something was off.

However, having my run legs back excited me a bit too much and I whipped off far too many miles in the mid 6s before implosing at mile 9/10 before getting my head and legs together and holding it together to the finish. And I felt good, what a great feeling. I was exceedingly pleased with this. This was one of those races where if I blew, I blew and did not care much and wanted to see how much I could push it. Turns out the implosion was not bad and gives me a good idea of where to start out next time. And it was hilly!! I turned the corner after the first mile or so and said “you’ve got to be kidding me”. I saw one very long black top road in the sun with constant up and down rollers. It was not too bad and kept it interesting. It was kind of a cool run course. I am still laughing about what one guy said to me when I started to spiral a bit at mile 10. He said “you need to chill out and just try to keep the same pace”. ha! Must have been the part where I could not figure out what speed I needed to hold and was all over the place. It was an out and back with mile markers every mile which I liked. The competition was fierce at this race and overall it was well run. I agree with Julia in that it’s not one that I would repeat. Too many other good ones out there to try and do, but it fit the bill for this weekend and I had great company for the race.

I’m taking another little midseason break and heading to Alaska again, I can’t wait. Before that though, the Oshkosh Oly Tri is coming up. Again, not in Oshkosh, not really an Oly distance… but it’s 7  miles from my house and I can’t pass that up. It’ll give me another chance to figure out why I can’t swim in my wetsuit. I’m too buoyant and too hot in it! The water temps at these races HAVE NOT BEEN 74 as they say. I actually feel like I am in one of those silly sumo wrestler suits people put on to “wrestle” in. That’s a great analogy actually. I am cooking my brain on these swims and most of the races I have done so far should not have been wetsuit legal. I’ll just leave it at that.

Then it’s time to start thinking about Worlds in November!

by

Rain Man and Doing the Double

Wow, what a crazy couple weeks! I have been traveling non-stop and cannot wait to have one week of whatever “normal” is. I’ll have to wait though as I am off on another trip tomorrow and Tuesday. Sit back and relax, this will be a long one-with no pictures which I hate, sorry.

So you may be thinking “what in the world does the movie Rain Man have to do with this post?”. Well, last week, let’s just say I was definitely taken out of my routine and I acted a bit like Rain Man when he starts to flip out when he did not have his normal, every day schedule, remember that??  It’s 3 O’Clock I have to watch Judge Wapner!!” and he flips out and Tom Cruise has to pull over at a random house so he can watch People’s Court. I did not react much differently last week. And I do NOT do well without sleep. If I were a CIA agent and someone used sleep deprivation on me as torture to get me to talk I’d crumble in a second.

 Now, I like to think of myself as being very flexible and going with the flow to say the least. I have traveled all over the world by myself, have lived in a couple different countries for an extended period of time and it takes a lot to get me frustrated or wound up. I kind of reached my limit last week. I was asked to interview for a management position at my company and was told I would be flying out to Boston 2 days before heading out to KS 70.3. I knew it would be a tough schedule, but I could easily make it work, so I thought. That’s before I found myself stuck at O’Hare (big surprise, ask me how much I love flying through O’Hare) at 12am knowing I had to be at another airport at 5:30am that morning to make my flight to KS. I needed to EAT and SLEEP. It was bascially Friday and I had done neither since Wednesday night. I knew already it was going to be rough.

I was running like a nut from interviews, to the airport, delayed flights, running to gates and basically flipping out at the level of horrible customer service most airlines give you. I will say though  as a side note that I cannot say enough good things about Frontier Airlines. No bike fees and they treat you like a million bucks. So, to make a long story short, I got into Milawaukee about 1:30am Friday morning. Went to my friends house where I had all my stuff for my next trip. Broke down the bike, packed, closed my eyes for a minute, then went straight back to the airport. Flew to KS, and then drove to Lawrence. I was fried. I was hungry. I had been up for I don’t know how many hours, 36?? I was downright goofy at that point. I met my friend Julia at the airport and said “I NEED COFFEE NOW!!”. I could not have made the drive without it. I have to say that everyone at O’Hare needs to go to the Kansas City airport for training on how to treat people. It just amazes me how nice they are there. The people in KS (the airport is in MO, minor detail here) blow me away with their kindess and hospitality. I remembered this from last year when I was very suspicious as to why everyone was being SO NICE. Even the toll booth workers asked if we were racing, how it went and how nice it was that we were there. People in restaurants came up to us saying what an accomplishment it was to do the race and do we like the city, how did it go, etc etc. I remember thinking “what in the heck is going on?? Why is everyone being so nice??”

Anyway, with how I was feeling, I kept saying “do well DESPITE this”, you do not have to feel good to race good (it’s true, anything can happen and you never know how your body will respond-more on that later). Thank goodness for the amazing house my friend Julia get to stay in. We have our own room, a gourmet kitchen to use, nevermind we were too afraid to touch anything or make a mess….I got to lay down and take a nap when I got there, finally. I still had all day Saturday to catch up and try to feel normal.

So, we went through the whole upstairs, downstairs transition set up and there were no lines at registration, I think it took maybe 5 minutes. Again, all the volunteers were SO NICE. We got total crap in our race packets/bags. A sample size of Wheeties. Are you kidding me? Then of course they spit us out of the registration line right into the tent where the Mdot logo threw up on everything from towels to COOKIE CUTTERS. Get me out of here NOW. Of course I did end up buying a new pair of running shoes to which Julia said “SHOE WHORE!”. K Swiss Kwicky Blade Light-LOVE THEM. New fav shoe. Julia just stood there shaking her head while I tried them on. She knew once they suckered me into trying them on, they were mine! Besides I got a water bottle and a towel with the shoes and 50% off some flip flops. It does not take much to make me happy.

Back to the house after dropping off our bikes (that is always such a nice feeling) and more rest. I do very short tapers and it felt like I had been tapering for weeks. I was so so tired, no appetite and I felt super sluggish, big surprise after my cross country adventures. Nothing tasted good and I could barely shove any amount of dinner down.

We woke up at 3:30 and have our timing down to a science for this race. It was hilarious, it’s like we’re in the military race morning. We had a timer to get up, one to eat breakfast, to load the car and when we should be leaving. Just as we were pulling out of the driveway, the “leave for the park” timer went off, brilliant! We sailed through the state park entrance with no lines and got some pretty decent parking. Tied a ballon to the truck so we could find it (things look much different in the dark at 4am and then after the race) and went to set up T2 which was at the “top” or upstairs from T1. Meanwhile we were watching the lightening off in the distance. 80% chance of storms and rain which never materialized. I was updated on the minute with Julia’s quick weather checks. She is the weather guru. I still did not feel bad but who knows how the week would make me react.

I got in the water and when the gun went off I was immediately HOT. I was so overheated I wanted to puke. There was no way the water was 74! Then, this is where I got all Rain Man-like. The water was really rough and I was not expecting it. I do not mind rough water at all. I just was not expecting it. Normally I would react to the situation and just adapt. But I kept fighting it every stroke every step of the way. I was getting off course and I kept thinking “this is NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING”, “it’s not supposed to be like this!!”, “how in the hell did I get so far away from that buoy??!”.  So what? Adapt and keep going. I did not do that today. I made one bad mistake in that I did this race last year and had some time goals in mind this year. However, the weather had it’s own ideas and did not care that I had some times to hit. I know better than this also.

On to the bike and my body was just not responding. Whenever I tried to push, nothing was there. I was uncomfortable, nothing tasted good and I felt weird. Same with the run, “it” was just not there. I wanted to stop badly. Nothing was bad, just not good, that’s all I had today. Nothing sat right in my stomach, nothing felt right, and no energy. I was mad, and disapointed to say the least. I think I also have a mental issue with some of these bigger races which I hate to admit but it’s something I may have to work on.

I was happy to see Julia do great and I  still had a good time in Lawrence. I love it there and I would still do the race again! Really a great venue and city. It was just not my race this year. And here comes “the double” part.

 A couple days later I noticed I felt really good. It did not seem like I raced at all and there was a half on Saturday that I could still sign up for. 2 half IMs, 5 days apart. What would happen? Could be very bad, could be brilliant. So, I signed up. I had a full week of normal food and sleep. I hate this particular race, I love this particular race. I always say “this is my last year doing this one for a while”. HA!! I always see so many people I know and always have fun.

I packed up the car Saturday morning and drove 20 minutes north. There was one other girl on my rack that did KS last Sunday too! We both wondered what would happen. we kind of looked at eachother like “this is really stupid”, ha!  So, I did not want to be in the first wave, but that’s where they put me. I felt good in the swim, the water was much colder than I expected but it felt good. It was a running, shallow water start and I do not like these. Especially here because the water is SO shallow for SO long, I never quite know when to start swimming. Then you start swimming and it gets really really shallow for a while again, all this sand bar stuff. I got off track a bit here and there but overall not bad. This race has wetsuit strippers, bonus! One less thing to worry about. Plenty of bikes left on the rack when I got out of the swim. Onto the bike and up “the hill”. Now, I will downplay this hill and when I asked people in my tri group if they were doing High Cliff, they said “oh man, then I would have to do “the hill”. I say it’s less that 1% of the race, it’s not bad, suck it up. But I will say, the hill is kind of a bitch. It’s long and steep and it’s the first thing you have to do right out of transition for the run and the bike. But, I felt really good. Legs were there, head was there. You just never know! So, within the first 5 miles I had 3 girls pass me hard, I kid you not I was going 31 mph, geared out with a nice cross/tailwind. But they were working way too hard. Heads bobbing, bodies all over the place pedaling like maniacs. They really wanted to pass though. So I though “okay, so this is how it’s going to be” and I was willing to play today. I  passed them back, one girl made one more attempt but she was working way too hard to maintain it. So, all that was left was Sue and I. Sue is an AMAZING runner and she was having a really good bike. We were in sight with eachother the whole ride, but I had to idea were were #1 and #2 or #2 and #3. I have been working SO hard for SO long on the bike. Not just doing some extra rides or longer rides, hardly. 2 YEARS of working on it. 2 years ago I rode 2:47 on this course, I just could never quite figure this course out. It was not hilly but a ton of false flats, super windy and mentally it really got to me. It gets to you because you just don’t move on the bike. You’re in the TT position and it’s always very windy and when you look up, you see one very long lonely road ahead of you and that’s about it, nothing to break it up, you just keep pedaling as hard as you can. This year, I did a 2:35. PR!! I knew my legs would not be 100% for the run so I kind of had to take advantage of how I was feeling and really crush it. I still did not know my place but I know the volunteers on the course were always really good about letting you know where you are. My legs felt pretty good off the bike actually!

I started up the hill and never once thought to walk. I felt pretty darn good. I knew I could get my HR down really fast once I got to the top and really start to run. So, they reversed the run this year. Same course, different direction. It actually made a bit of a difference and everyone ran a bit slower this year. I can’t quite figure that one out. This run course really tears my body up. The one part I hate is running through a mowed field in full sun on super uneven ground. Then, your feet get beat up by running on super uneven exposed rock beds. But then come the trails and I LOVE this part. On the first loop I heard “you’re 3rd!” and quickly found 2nd place girl and passed quickly. Then, I never saw anyone for a long time. I just pretended I was doing a hard training run.

In my last few races I have wanted plain, cold water REALLY bad. I don’t know if I am getting a bit dehydrated but I knew I wanted WATER. Every once adn a while you pop out onto the road and hit an aid station and then back into the woods, it’s a pretty cool run course actually.  I felt good, but I did not think I was running super fast, but it did the job today. It was a lonely, quiet run through the woods. On the 2nd lap I had a bit more company and tried hard to just keep my pace. It always amazes me how fast 13.1 miles go. Before I knew it I had one mile to go down the hill. It is 10x worse going down and I swear this is why I get so sore from this race. It’s all out crazy fast running downhill for a long time.

So, 2nd F and 1st in my AG. I did not feel other worldly, but it was okay! Sue had a brilliant run of course and I had a great time running into so many people I knew after the race. For a minute I thought the post race food really improved this year (although they added a beer tent this year!) and I loaded up on a grilled burger, chips, full size candy bars!! Until someone said “your food is around the corner, this is the stuff you have to pay for”. HA HA! Well, I did not have any money, so I basically said “oh” and left it there. Oops. Sorry. I think I was just really hungry and mesmerized by the sight of FOOOOOD and wanted it!

I do not know what’s next. I used to love Muncie before it was Muncie 70.3, that’s a possibility. Definitely another Rev3 this year and then Worlds in November. For now though, major rest time. NOW I feel like resting and my body is talking back to me today. And for the position I interviewed for? They decided not to hire anybody and put the positon on hold, waaa! Oh well, back to being flexible and going with the flow :)

by

Knoxville and Destroyed Legs

Once again I have not updated this in a long time!  Not much going on except for a continuation of winter here, lots of training and a very busy schedule.

So this will be the first real race report I’ve done in a while! I did a very early season half on a TON of indoor training and it worked out brilliantly. Just because you’re indoors does not mean you’re not working hard. I ended up getting a few rides in outdoors the last few weeks here. I have never experienced such a cold, wet spring. I was very nervous about racing in any temps above 60 as I had hardly even felt 60 degrees as of yet. Turns out I did not have to worry about that.

On one hand I did not expect anything of this race. On the other hand, I knew I had been training really REALLY hard and was just curious to see where I was. Nothing more, nothing less. This was also the first Rev3 race I had done and I was excited to give it a go. All their courses are TOUGH and based on what I have to do in November (Long Course Worlds on the Silverman course) I am seeking out the most humbling toughest races I can this year, swallowing my ego and giving it a go.

Knoxville is a weird city. But, everyone was extremely polite and nice. My friend Ben and I seemed to be confused more often than not driving around. And, we did not end up hating each other or killing each other after 10+ hours in the car together on the way down. It was actually quite fun!  Lots of laughs and I was so happy he invited me a couple months back. Thanks Ben!! The city left me thinking who woke up one day and said “hey let’s have a race in Knoxville, TN!”. The countryside is what clinched it for me though. It was gorgeous and HILLY. The more I thought about it, it is a great venue. A river running right through downtown, friendly people, and a course that kicks your butt from here to next week. 

Race week and the days leading up to the race are always nutty no matter how hard you try to minimize stress. Registration, checking your bike in, driving the course (thank goodness we drove the course, more on that later) trying to not be on your feet while running around like a nut was tough. The Rev3 check in and expo were great though and you can tell they care a great deal about the athletes. So where do I start?

Let’s start with the pre race swim. Tons of people at the dock which was great. I wore my Desoto bib john and sleeveless top, jumped in and said “whoooooaaaaaa!” It was COLD. Like low 60s feeling cold. Not too cold for this WI girl though. Made a mental note to myself to scratch the sleeveless for race day and go full sleeves. I kept hearing we would be swimming most of the distance with the current. Not so much. So how do I explain the swim…you walk about a half a mile?? or so from transition. Jump in and swim in the opposite direction of transition. Hit your buoys (which I did, literally, ha) and then backtrack past where you jumped in, so you swim past where you jumped in and down to transition. Almost a point to point, but not.

Bike check in was easy and I liked how Rev3 has everything personalized. Your name and number on your rack, first name on your bib (I will spare some details of the actual Rev3 race because of a soon to be launched idea that Ben and I came up with. That’s what happens when you’re in the car for 10+ hours).

We drove the course and got lost 3 times within the first 3/4 mile. No joke. There was construction downtown and it was SO SO very confusing. Not Rev3s fault.  Once we got out in the countryside it was gorgeous. I heard some climbs were rated and there were in fact some great uphill climbs and long sweeping downhills. We made note of where we had a tricky downhill followed by hard turns at the bottom, etc so very very smart idea to suck it up and do a few more hours in the car. You can really let go on some of the downhills here, great course.

So, after more running around like nuts we went to bed at 8pm, NERDS! I was not nervous in the least. I felt super low key and excited to race. Happy to be OUTSIDE!!

4:30 am wake up call after tossing and turning all night, as usual (okay, maybe I was a little nervous),  and do the standard choke down the breakfast and get all your stuff together, etc etc. Walk down to transition, get stuff set up, you know the drill!

It was chilly and I could not be happier. Race day turned out to be 60 and overcast, yes!! We walked down to the start and I could tell right away we were NOT swimming back with the current. That was plain as day. I also noticed that although we could see the Oly turn buoys, the half ones were no where in sight which I thought was kind of weird. Like they were so far off we could not even see them??

All the women went off at once which I love since you know right where you stand right away. The water did not feel so bad with adrenaline and a full sleeve suit. Could have went with the sleeveless for sure. I lined up in front, had a huge smile on my face as any nerves I had went totally away. I was EXCITED to race!!  The gun went off and I swam HARD right from the start, no fooling around. I had really clean water sighted a little too well as I plowed into the first buoy, oops.

Then, I kept swimming. And swimming. And swimming. The turn buoys seemed pretty far. Made the turn and then it got very choppy which was weird because it did not seem like it at all before. So I picked up the pace even more and every time I looked up that finish balloon thing at the end was NOT getting closer. My lats and triceps were screaming so I kept swimming even harder. Still not getting closer. Then I started to pass quite a few men that went off 4 minutes ahead of us. What the heck? I hardly saw any pick caps so I was really confused as I would be for a while. You could not get “off course” because you were swimming down a river. If you looked to the right and the shore was there, you were okay :)

I cannot tell you how long it felt to get to the finish dock. Then after swimming for however long you have to haul your butt up on a dock and flop up there, run down the dock, through a restaurant entrance, across the street and up to transition. I flopped on the deck and looked at my watch.  WTH?? That was long!!  But then I got in transition and saw only a handful of  female bikes gone which confused me even more. Then out on the bike, guys who started 4 minutes ahead of us were coming from behind on the bike. I was thinking “what in the hell is going on??”  Turns out I had a solid swim, it was just long.

Luckily getting out of town on the bike was not as hard as it was in the car. What can I say? It was hilly. Like really really hilly. But I was prepared extremely well. I think I pissed someone off after the race when they asked me what I thought of the bike course and I said “I kept waiting for the really hard parts”. Ha! I admit it, it was hard but that’s what I wanted. My bike felt amazing after some tune ups and some new aerobars and base bars and again, no complaints about just getting outside and riding! I had a huge smile on my face the whole ride and loved every second of the course. I am used to very short, very steep hills here. This was different. The hills were more gradual but very long and I loved it!

I came up on the bike turnaround and this was a good opportunity to see where I stood. One female went by. Then 2, 3, then me. Okay quick assessment, 4th place. I thought I had a good chance of running at least 2 of them down so I held my place on the way back and did not kill myself trying to catch them. Turns out I was a bit closer than I thought as I caught 2 in transition right away.

Another quick assessment and my legs and stomach felt GOOD. I had a rough 1st mile, I will spare the details, nothing exciting, but I was really able to pick up the pace and felt great on a hilly course. Rev3 did a great job of putting together a race worth traveling to.

No drama on the run! I was able to pick up my pace throughout the run and again at the turnaround I saw only 1 girl ahead of me and after a quick calculation I knew if we both kept running at the same pace I probably would not catch her but you still have to go as hard as you can because you never know what’s happening to that person. Looking back, the 1st place F must have been way ahead as I only saw that one, but turns out I was 3rd-which was FINE, trust me.

I felt great heading to the finish and was super pleased with how I felt. I really could not expect much more and knew we really really lucked out with the cool and almost rainy weather.

It was solid race. I have never raced a larger event this early and I am happy I did not let any hesitations stop me. Very good prep for Kansas 70.3 coming up in a few weeks. Oh man, did I just say a few weeks!!? It’s gonna come up fast!

Post race damage? I felt great for 2 days as I normally do. Stuff hits me really late. My legs did not only feel sore, they felt damaged this week, ha! Like something was NOT right! A few long walks and a swim and I am seeing some improvement. I got what I paid for alright!

So back to the grind with KS looming in the near future!

by

Mr. Smooth comes for a visit!

The annual Tri Class has started at the Y and I have a lot of very beginner swimmers this year and some coming back that are not so beginner anymore but are all the same working on their technique! This article is reprinted here with permission from Swim Smooth, a fantastic source for all levels of swimmers. This is perfect for many of the things we’re working on currently.
Each year, I have a 10 week course for people gearing up for the season. After one year of 30++ people signing up (chaos and too much for me), I cut it down to a max of 15 so I did not spread myself too thin. I know on the first day now when we do a general swim assesement I will see pretty much the same things from people in no particular order:
*crossing over the center line
*straight arms or dropped elbow under the water
*dropped wrist when hand enters the water (try sculling with a drop wrist, you’ll go straight backwards!)
*lifting the head out of the water to breath-waaayyy out of the water
*all types of fun body position problems-hips dropping and legs dragging on the bottom of the pool for example

Some very basic tips I can offer the beginners:

*RELAX!

*For the guys, get rid of the super baggy running shorts and do yourself a favor and get some jammers. Your drag will be reduced dramtically and you’ll get a better feel in the water. Look good, feel good, race good :)

*Good pair of goggles and swim cap. 

*Quality suit for the women-not a vacation/resort suit, but one that can withstand the chlorine.

*Keep an open mind and be okay with doing some things that might make you feel silly or uncomfortable. Think about how kids are in the water. They play, dive, swim, etc and are not afraid that they “look silly” trying something new.

*When doing drills, make sure to carry that good form over into swimming. If you do the drill perfectly, but go back to swimming the same old way after the drill, it’s not a good use of your time. Don’t be afraid to go slower and apply what you’re learning and let it click before worrying about your speed. You might have to go slower in order to go faster.

*Start good habits right away such as a solid, tight streamline off the wall. Being a beginner is not a good excuse to be sloppy on some things.

*Please do not expect to be able to stand up or walk during the swim portion of a race. You’ll be in the lake, or ocean or river and you need to be prepared. Take it seriously. There is a particular race director in the area that caters a bit too much to beginners in giving them a false sense of security “Everyone can do it! Shallow water!”.  You know what? No, not everyone should or can do it. BE PREPARED for any and all conditions. Do not depend on the 14 year old lifeguard with a water noodle to rescue you.  If this sounds harsh, 3 or 4 people died during races here in WI last year and I do not fool around with the beginners when it comes to this.

*On that same note, don’t blow it off saying “oh but I will be wearing a wetsuit”. Be able to swim over the distance of the race, in open water, without a wetsuit!
 We’re sure to work on ONE issue at a time because swimming can be overwhelming. You can think about body positon, head position, how your arm enters, the catch, the pull, what your legs are doing….you get the picture. Focus on ONE thing at a time. I love the pictures with this article-although step #4 and #5 got swaped and I can’t swap them back, but it’s self explanatory. Enjoy the article and check out swimsmooth.com.  Another great resource is goswim.tv. Go to drills and you can watch footage of drills excuted by great swimmers for all strokes, not just freestyle.

Developing A Better Feel For The Water

A Swim Coaching Article By Swim Smooth

If you are quite new to swimming freestyle and are struggling a little to get to grips with the stroke then this article is for you. When trying freestyle you might be finding it hard to breathe and regularly take on water or find the stroke very hard work – perhaps needing to stop and rest at the end of every length? If you’ve had any of these problems, or if you don’t feel like a natural swimmer, we know it can be quite dispiriting! Don’t despair though, in this article we’re going to look at helping you develop a basic feel for the water which will help your breathing and make the stroke feel much easier.

One of the big differences between a really strong swimmer and someone new to freestyle is their ability to get a purchase point on the water at the front of the stroke. This is the bit of the stroke after the hand enters the water and extends forwards, the point where you start to press the hand and arm backwards to create forward propulsion. This area of the stroke is called your ‘catch’.

If you aren’t tuned into this area of the stroke then your hand will tend to slip through the water instead of getting support from it. When breathing this leads to the hand dropping vertically in the water instead of remaining in front of you to support you:

With the hand low in the water like that it offers you no support at all and your head will tend to sink causing you to struggle to breathe or take on water. A much better breathing position is like this with that lead hand out in front offering you support:

The difference between these two positions is that the lead hand stays out a little longer in front, supporting you as you swim. Timing your stroke so that your lead hand engages with the water like this should happen on every stroke, not just when you breathe as it gives you a longer stroke that is more efficient and relaxed.

If you’re quite technically minded and have studied footage of great swimmers on the internet, notice that their hands pass in front of their head – one above the water and one during the stroke underneath. That’s good swimming technique and in the jargon is called ‘front quadrant’ swimming. Here’s our animated swimmer Mr Smooth in this position, with his hands passing in front of his head:

How do you develop this? Here’s a drill that will really help: Using the fins (flippers), kick on your side with the lower arm out in front of you. Look downwards and turn your head to the side when you need to breathe before returning it to the water. Unless you have an exceptionally good kick we highly recommend using a pair of fins when practising this:

You may have done a drill like this before, perhaps thinking about rotating your body onto the side. This is important for the drill, make sure you are at 90 degrees on your side:

With this drill we’re first going to turn our attention to that lead hand, make sure the palm is facing down towards the bottom and the hand is ever so slightly angled downwards as well. Focus on maintaining it when you turn your head to breathe and notice how much extra support it gives you:

If you’re not sure if you’re getting this right then get a friend to watch you do it – make sure you’re not collapsing the elbow and showing the palm forwards which is very easy to do!

Now we’re going to introduce a progression which is to perform one arm stroke and swap sides. Kick on your side for as long as you like to compose yourself and when you’re ready keep the lead hand extended and bring the back hand over the top. Once it reaches the front start the underwater stroke with the other hand and swap sides:

Don’t be at all surprised if that front hand wants to start the stroke before the rear hand gets to the front – it’s very likely in fact! Don’t let this concern you, it can take a little bit of getting the hang of, in fact for some swimmers it can take a couple of sessions. That’s normal.

As you get the hang of this drill, swap sides more often counting to about six in your head and then swapping. Each time your change sides focus on keeping that lead hand out in front of you for support before the rear hand gets to the front.

When you’ve got this nailed down nicely it’s time to try some full-stroke swimming keeping that lead arm out there for support. Try this with the fins on at first, the extra support from them is useful while you work on the timing of the stroke like this.

Finding The Right Timing

Swimming with the hands completely meeting at the front is called a ‘catch-up stroke’ which is pretty much the opposite end of the spectrum from where you started where the hands were slipping through the water.

We don’t really want a full catch-up stroke because it introduces a big pause which isn’t very efficient or rhythmical. Instead we want that lead hand to start its stroke just a little earlier before the recovering arm reaches it. This gets the best of both worlds, it gives you a long stroke with lots of support combined with a nice rhythm to the stroke.

Finding the right stroke timing is a matter of experimenting a little and discovering what feels best to you – give yourself several sessions at least to find this out. You’re looking for much more support when you breathe and a feeling of lower effort which means you’re swimming more efficiently. You should soon be able to string several lengths of the pool together in succession without having to pause for a rest or to catch your breath!

One more quick tip: when breathing you may find you forget that lead hand for a second and it starts to slip down again. If you’re breathing every three strokes a useful mantra to help is to say ‘one-two-stretch-one-two-stretch’ to yourself with the stretch on a breathing stroke. This reminds you to keep that lead arm stretched out making your breathing much easier.

Two Great Strokes To Watch

First, make sure you take a good look at our animated swimmer Mr Smooth, you’ll find him on our main swimming technique website www.swimsmooth.com – the animation is great because you can view him from any angle and slow down the footage to a very slow speed to see how exactly he performs the stroke.

The second stroke to watch is a girl called Hannah who swims with us in Perth, she’s not an elite swimmer and her stroke isn’t perfect but it has a lot of good elements to it which you might find interesting to see. Check out her stroke technique here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZJaFbNOOEM

more About Swim Smooth – the home of great swimming technique

Swim Smooth is a swimming coaching company based in the UK and Australia. We’re famous for a straightforward no-nonsense approach to improving your swimming. On our website you’ll find a wealth of easy to read articles to improve your stroke technique. We offer swimming DVDs, swimming training plans and training tools to improve your swimming including our unmissable new DVD Catch Masterclass packed with fantasic footage of elite swimmers showing us their stroke secrets. Also don’t miss our unique animated swimmer “Mr Smooth” showing you an ideal freestyle stroke in action:

Article © Swim Smooth 2011

by

Whirlwind

And just like that, I’m back and…it’s still winter here. I came back from Kauai to a nice little snowstorm that greeted me. Welcome back to Wisconsin! I went to Kauai first and foremost to see my family. We are not able to get together as much as we used to since we’re cominig from Wisconsin, Alaska and South Carolina. What a perfect place to meet. I was able to spend some amazing time with my nephew, Leif, who is SO SO much fun to spend time with. He was brave in the waves this year so we had a lot of quality beach time.
Of course, I got some training in no doubt. What I was told, but did not understand before I left is that the biking is not great on Kauai. I now understand it’s because over 70% of the island is not accesible except via helicopter due to the little issue of just not having any roads. But there is one amazing climb up to the canyon that makes Mt. Lemmon look like a wuss. A tad shorter but with some panic inducing ascents.
Enjoy some pictures!

Look at this view! This is the famed Napali coast. They filmed King Kong here and Jurassic Park and a handful of others that I can’t remember right now. I had no real desire to go on a no-door helicopter ride when I got there, but I woke up one morning and said “I am going on a helicopter tour today!” and dragged my mom with. No dragging needed, she was up for it!





Above, it’s the Grand Canyon of the Pacific and it did not fail to impress. We stepped up to the viewing platform,and even Leif said “woooooowwww”.

My favorite beach and the area of the island I would stay in if I go back. However, I’m working on the fam to go to the Big Island next year since they’ve been to Kauai two years in a row.

I had to plead to Leif to please stop eating the sand after this picture was taken.



Sunrise! One of my favorite things to do was to wake up early, head out for a run and have this be the start of my day.

So what is up next? The Tri Class is starting at the Y next week. I got to meet some of the new people I will be working with and it seems like I will have a great group this year and many new faces. What I have to get ready for again though is waking up at 4:30 to do this. I never get used to it.
My friend Julia and I are furiously plotting our “upstairs downstairs” race (KS 70.3) and I can’t wait! Nothing like going to a really fun race with a really fun friend.
http://julia-gobiggreen.blogspot.com/
I am also trying to plan a trip to Henderson, NV to do some training. I raced out there a couple years back and LOVED the biking and running. It was amazing. The most pristine beautiful roads within the Lake Mead Nat’l Park. Roads where you’re either going 10mph or 40 mph, not much in between. Any takers?? Looking for a training partner that can kick my butt around the course a bit.
Other than that, I’m trying to will the snow to melt here. Getting antsy…