And 2 weeks later we are back to normal life...

I dont want to continue to dwell only on IM Wisconsin, but i do have to say it was a pretty big deal for me. Not in how i finished or in how or how i placed or even what  my time was but in the fact that it's been awhile since i did something I DIDNT THINK I COULD DO. Now granted. I " thought" i could cover the distance. But partly bc of my profession and partly bc of the work needed I did at times DOUBT question my body and its ability to do this.

This snowy awful freezing cold too much snow from october to april winter I had my doubts. I had the wonderful support of not only my husband but some blog friends ( ER!) and of course this crazy lady:

Yes I know she is going to love me for posting this:

She put this on her blog and i taped it to my mirror. The date is in March, right about when i was feeling pretty overwelmed with winter ( or whatever you want to call it when you have snow on the ground for 6 + months) and some injuries. I also had struggled all fall with glute med tendon issues from the end of a great summer ( again this is all 2010) and didnt run until january. and at that point i was running on the TM or on snowy icey yuk. It did a number on my head even tho my body seemed to be healing but at its own pace.

I love this poem/saying. I have had it up on my mirror before, during tennis seasons and what not, but it came at a great time and it really helped me DAILY to remember that what is happening today...Isnt going to be what is happening in a week if I was smart. There were, as there always seem to be, some days and some weeks where Coach had to tell me " nope, do nothing the TP is a plan, we change it if we need to." I sometimes had to go and delete the " fun!" that was written in there bc It killed me to not do some of the wko's bc my body wasnt ready. I never run tested last winter ( hehehe) but secretly that was hard too. I would take a run test over a bike test TODAY!

So my point is that getting to that start line was huge. I can attribute it to a few things:
*CORE STRENGTH and ALOT MORE GLUTE work than i have ever done..I saw my PT every 3-4 weeks as needed. Sometimes it was for mobs and sometimes it was just to tweek my HEP and catch up on things ( my PT is awesome and i LOVE HER!)

*SLEEP, yes I got at least 8 hours.

*PATIENCE, yup...patience.

* DIET.....And sorry but i cant say it was bc I had this puritan and clean diet. I mean i ate well. But i also decided that for IM training and even half iron or ANY training i need to eat. I have had my issues with eating disorders and someday maybe i will share all that, but i do know that what got me healthy thru that was knowing i had to fuel my body and if i wanted to play tennis competitively ever again i had to eat. So taking this forward to this summer, I ate. Yah i didnt eat nearly enough Dairy Queen for Cheryl's liking but i did, i ate pretty much everything. Heavy on the Almond Butter and i also really upped my protein intake but not at the expense of eating grains and oats and bagels and rice and sweet potatoes. Not a huge pasta fan but you get the point. Not the time to try to slim down or get ripped.

*COACH and Friends and family that supported me...So much fun to do this training. I seriously cant see doing IM training alone. Yea i did my long runs alone, for the most part but my sister and some friends often  met me along the route, and of course i had my hubby to ride with and friends /co-inmates of JHC to banter and see at Dairyland Dare and the Verona ride. Its easy to get withdrawn and think only about your sore __________( fill in the blank) so training and haveing those people to bounce ideas off of or compare Estim with was amazing.
THANK YOU!!

Ok this is getting way too long and my initial intention of writing about my 2 weeks off has gotten lost. So anyways i did nothing for 2 weeks. I took a walk, I let some niggles heal up ( my arch hurt, thought maybe i had a 1st or 2nd Met stress fx but i have no terrible triad going so i knew it would heal) and it did,,,I went to the lake and froze ( and realized you peeps that did CDA and swan in 58 deg water? wow, no go for me) and then i rode my road bike sunday and my glute is sore! Go figure. I did a super easy jog today, 45 minutes, no idea how far bc i just ran. Lets just say I think a 5k is going to hurt a ton this fall bc my legs are pretty happy in the slow mo mode!

So here a few more pics from race day: Still makes me laugh and smile...
this is my friend, i have no idea who he is but CY took this and it cracked me up.

 Here is my sore toe, i may need to get those little guys into the DPM....it actually doesnt hurt! And no its not gangrene.

 This swim start still makes me cringe. I think i may rethink my start position for next year.
Yes I said next year.

 These tu-tu'd guys made me laugh.

 Here are my true sherpas. They are awesome and i am so thankful for their support.

 Here is Rich hanging in the street, after he decorated it with Good luck Toots and with my sacred word: TRUST. Sadly i didnt see it:) oops. And usually i havent been putting Rich on the blog, but he deserves it this time. Last year we had some bad people use my blog to hurt him and i just decided not to put him in here, but this time he deserves it. I am the luckiest girl around:)

And after the weekend in Madison? We went to Philly for some work and some play. Here i am with my pet dog? Cool sculpture. My cousin is the president of the College of Natural History so we saw some cool things, ate some amazing sushi and then topped it off with awesome ice cream. It was a great addition to my weeks off!


And in closing ( sigh, finally i know) I have made more apple crisp, cleaned out closets and even started to look at 2012 races. Despite being on a hiatus from TP and from training its fun to think about next spring and how to escape winter. It's not here yet but its never far from my mind ( insert JAW's theme song) its coming.....

PS and all you skiers, i have the utmost respect for you. Go for it. I hate being cold.. end of story.

Bike and Run

Ok I started the ride super conservative. I had been told i would get passed right and left, and yes, that is what happened. Coming out of the water i felt good, i started my fueling plan right away and even added in a banana from aid station one. Things were fine, i felt good, if not a bit too slow but i hoped that all i had been told was right. The crowds were awesome. The ride felt good, and as i started to feel more confident i started to push a bit harder, but all within my boundaries. The first loop of Verona I took SUPER conservative. I couldnt remember for sure some of the sweeping turns, and it appears from the road rash that others didnt remember them either. So it wasnt til the 2nd loop that i bombed down the Garfoot road and a few others. My Garmin read 54.5 mph for my max speed. That is a record if its true. Then again my Garmin sometimes says i ran a 4 min mile so I am not sure i am buying it.

I did pass a ton of people on the back half and felt SO strong. All seemed to be going just fine. My Left calf felt a bit tight, even during the swim i was trying to plantar flex and dorsi flex it but everytime i stood ot try to stretch it it felt fine. so i just sorta shrugged it off. My Left upper trap felt like it was on fire, and i am sure it was, it felt like a sunburn, but i had a jersey on so it wasnt that. Just muscle burn. The balls of my feet hurt. But heck this was all just random stuff. The only "issue" i had was the tops to the PERFORM bottles kept poppingoff, leaving Gretta getting a wet shower of sugar, so i got a bit bummed at that, and of course i would hit a railroad tracks and then it would go everywhere.

Got back into town, road up the helix ( that is evil) and was reminded to not get out of my shoes til the top. I did a flying dismount VERY CAREFULLY since my feet seemed to want to maybe not remember how to hit the ground but it was fine. Handed Gretta off and went to change!

T2 was speedy, i think the extra minute for sunscreen and a long pee were well worth it. I was happy with what i chose to wear and my legs seemed to be spinning along fine. I made sure to not run too fast, even if the first few miles seem downhill i was totally being careful. miles 1-4 are easy no matter what so lets make them easier. I took a gel at around mile 3 and another salt stick and...

WHAM. Door slams.

I started to immediately get nauseated. I figured i just needed to run it off. But it just got worse. I cant even tell you much more about that run. I dont remember when the walking started but i know i ran with a 2nd gel klutched in my hand until about mile 13 when i knew i couldnt take it.

I tried clif shot blox, ugh, bad...then i tried a few powergel blasts, ugh again. I choked them down and felt worse. I kept taking water at the aid stations and ice bc i started to feel really really hot. It was a dry heat, so i didnt feel like i couldnt breathe it just felt hot. ice was going in my hat my top my shorts and around mile 14 i had the first feeling that the shoes were wet and my big toe calluses were slipping around and it felt like i had a needle in there. I sorta just blocked that out.

I ran by Jen on State Street and said DAMAGE CONTROL, and she said "that is fine!" so i felt ok about this even if i didnt really feel OK:) Some good things are that i kept moving forward, i really didnt feel l had to walkuntil i started really getting GI cramps and also knew i needed to TRY to get something in me. So coke it was. Coke and ice chips. But it was hot bubbly Pepsi. How disappointed:) At one point a kid handed me a cup and i said " what is it ?" realizing it was a cup of potatoe chips. yuk!

The fans were amazing, my stomach was starting to gurgle, i could hear it like it was sloshy and i didnt feel bloated if anything i felt like my abdomen under my sternum near my diaphragm was tender and hard. And of course then my Left arm started to hurt so i had to really keep that thought out of my head. Its funny how you go to places like that. It wasnt dark, per se, but it wasnt positive either. Then when i started telling myself that this race goes against EVERYTHING i preach as a Physical Therapist who works in wellness and preventive exercise i knew i needed to do a 180 on the mind talk:) I felt good in my legs and all my strength and core work from the summer was paying off, i had no reason to walk other than to get my stomach ok and to try to take in Kcals, my legs were slowly feelign the effects of no fuel but overall I did not have any musculoskeletal issues so i just kept plugging along. When i was running i felt pretty ok. So hey, I will take what i can get.

Running down that finishing chute was the best thing EVER. Kate told me to make sure to raise my hands over my head, and so i did, and i high fived people! I had convinced myself to smile that entire last 13 miles, and to tell myself i was fine and good, so i wanted a picture that showed that. Ooops. I took my hands down too soon and my finisher pic looks like a robot with rigor mortis in the upper body:)

The Post race was a blur. You dont need to know nor do you want to know, but lets just say I went down pretty fast and Rich got my head downd, medical came over and rich said my pulse was strong and we were good. I have to thank my sister who helped me clean up afterwards ( TMI) and I think there may be some new lulu shorts in my future. My good friend STeve who got me drinks and laughed at me, even tho i was appalled at my post race condition, and Rich's daughter Emily who came all the way up from Chicago for the day with her cowbell. I am sorry i didnt get a massage from her! Anyone of you who lives in Chicago, drop me a note, she is a great LMT!!! You need to see her!

Overall I cant ask for a bettter day. The swim was scary, the ride was great, the run i had legs for but i think i had too much sodium. Live and learn.

And as of today I can walk stairs, i finally was able to eat again tuesday ( yea it was bad) and now i am happily eating anything in sight.

So that is all i have for ya. I need to let Triathlon take a rest for a few weeks here, but looking forward to some more fun in 2012.

Pre race and Swim

Ok sorry to make this into a long drawn out post, and i am not trying to hook you in, but i have so much stuff to do ( funny how that built up all summer, wonder why?) i am going to break this up. I have scattered pics, and many have been on FB so you may not get as many fun pics.

Pre race: I would certainly say I was exhausted pre race! I didnt have a great taper. Everyone kept saying i would feel like a million bucks, but i didnt. I felt cranky and tired and struggled to get to the pool to swim a 2500 M set.  Since i swim LCM in the summer i wanted to suddenly trade that in for a short pool. And a warm pool! We lost summer pretty quick the first week of september. The one good thing about taper was the US OPEN tennis. I had dreams of being done with my IM and sitting in the stands ( not walking, of course, having someone carry me) watching tennis. I had a little VMO flare up. My medial quad decided that the short and fast efforts were really not appropriate after doing 100+ rides on hilly courses, this flat and fast stuff was just not right. So that put a bit of a red flag up till it calmed down. I have had that before so i knew that a few days of no riding and the right treatment would be fine. None the less it made for some anxiety. People told me that if i didnt have some " pseudo " injury in taper i wasnt normal:) so true.

We drove to Madison friday AM, stood in a way too long line to register ( over 90 minutes) and then by the time i got to the hotel friday night i could barely move i was so tired. IT was raining at flushing meadow so my plans for a tv night were dashed. So we hit State Street for some Pizza and hung out watching one of my faves, with Sandra Bullock...the Proposal. Sleep was not good that night, i had the pre race " lets go thru the entire race plan in my head..." going and the replay button just kept going and going.
I had so much anxiety about the swim i knew i just had to get in that water and swim, no matter where i started i was going to get some beatings. So finally saturday night i sorta slept, at least i wasnt playing the race in my head:)

So race morning came and i was ready! I did all the stuff i need to do, and I was so lucky to meet Michelle ( Rural Girl, no rolldown girl)and hang out pre race. We had met up to swim saturday and then we had bumped into each other race morning. It was meant to be. It was her 6th? IM?I think. so she talked me thru alot and helped me time my dressing, and all that. I just followed her around like a new kid at school.

As it got closer to the race we walked down to the lake and saw Jenny and Jerome. That was a nice break and a nice way to start my first IM. Then we went to the lake and procrastinated till it looked like the inevitable was about to happen. I had to get in and find a spot.


I decided to start a bit Right, and in the front. I mean it. FRONT. As the people got in the water it was amazing to me, i didnt want to look back, but the space was getting very tight. More and more men, many many green caps, and so few pink caps. I wanted the women to come around me and unite! I asked a woman next to me her expected time and said "If you are going under 60, get ahead of me."
She said " no i think 1:15." I was thinking...??? why are you in the front row?



Suddenly after some dude was groping me, the cannon fired and we were off. It was just as i expected.
I cant explain it, but there was nowhere to go, I had been in the front or close to it about 2 min before the cannon and now i was suddenly in a sea of green caps. How did i get back so far? Even if i had wanted to hammer there was no hammering to be done, it was suddenly a total doggy paddle, breathe and try not to panic race. I got into "Just get thru this" mode. If i was able to put my head down for 1-2 strokes i could breathe but after what felt like 15 minutes of head out doggy paddle i was drinking water and just trying to not get kicked. Suddenly some open water appeared and i would go there. Then it would get congested with green caps.AGAIN. The first turn buoy was madness. I didnt go Vertical but i did take a few head pounds from a big green capped arm till i seriously yelled at the top of my lungs " DUDE, STOP, YOU ARE HURTING ME." it stopped:)

I know nobody means to hurt anyone, and other than that one outburst i really tried my hardest to know that the swim was like this for everyone. Its not a personal assault against me. As we turned to come back the other side i had some water, and I had gotten inside the buoys, this was awesome. I still had some navigation but overall i was swimming:) When i was nearing the end of the 1st lap i heard the flyover for 9/11. I was amazed that it was 7:30 am, so my time was not that bad. I had given up hope that i would go under 1:10. But i guess taking a beating meant i was also getting a draft.

I rounded the turn buoy for the 2nd lap and actually felt hot. I was comfortable and really swimming in my zone. I dont know what my split was and it doesnt matter, i found feet that seemed to be going straight and then they would stall and i would motor on. I was able to do some pick ups to get thru tight spaces of green caps, and was able to get on some good feet ( with neoprene booties, really? it was hot in there!) for most of the back side of the last lap. Coming into the final turn i was so happy. I had survived.
I hadnt intended to look at the clock, but it is RIGHT there so when i saw 1:06:xx I was so happy!
I got stripped then did the calf workout up the helix to T1.
Lots of great pictures from Terry Lee and Yndecam, here is one i found which cracks me up. At least i look like i am doing a crunch:)

T1 was uneventful....got dresssed, out the door, and to my bike. It's a LONG transition, so lotsa running in barefeet. But i was off on the bike and down the helix and started my ride knowing i had done a great swim.

IM Wisconsin, the short version

So wow. I will update this more when i have time, its been a crazy return to home since the race. I now realize why people go to an IM earlier than they think they need to, bc its nuts. I thought 70.3's were crazy, this was insane. But I am so happy with how it went overall, and in true Julia fashion I have had to step back and enjoy the good of the day and not focus on the "what I can do better next times." 

The volunteers, the weather, the venue, my friends and family, all of it was just amazing. I couldnt have asked for anything more ..other than not having major stomach issues after about mile 6. But I digress, and learned that IM is not about one mile, or one gel or one bottle or one stomach ache. It's about putting it all together and figuring out how to make it work. 

I will do my best to write a good blog on this soon, as of today i can finally eat again:) YAY. And my energy is coming back. Nothing is planned officially for 2012, but i will say this. When i finished, and as I was "resting" as my sister told my parents ( ha) I told Rich this was miserable and I was never doing it again. 

This morning I called him at work to ask him if he would divorce me if i signed up again.

hmm.....

Birthday Weekend

It's Rich's birthday tommorrow so we started celebrating friday with his brothers ( 3 of them have birthdays in the same week, good timing mom!) and that carried over to a great ride saturday. We explored a new loop and since i had a taper brick on the schedule it was fun to actually feel like i was TTing again. I havent TTed since mid July, so when i saw some 12 min efforts I got all giddy inside. The 100+ stuff is fun, but i really like to rev up Gretta and see if she can go fast and with a good high cadence as well.
Then i had a harder than usual run afterwards. Yay!
All I can say is that i think i blew a gasket! I was wiped to the max this morning when i woke up and so after some thought and a sturdy " opinion " from my coach we called it a full rest day. Nada. Nothing. I left the house to go get food for tonight, and that was about it. I havent done that in???? not sure. I Wasnt sick I wasnt tired ( hahaha, um really?) so like a small child i fought the nap. I decided that at 7 am the best thing to do was to clean the fridge and then try to sleep.
Wait.
I mean clean it out and eat all that i can out of it. Silly.
I am not up for cleaning the fridge right now.
So Eggs, Bacon, fruit, some greek yogurt with that fruit, a bagel, i lost track after that. Jasmine tea, and slowly the food coma helped me to go upstairs and fall back asleep.
The party continued with more family over tonight, the pool is cooler, two days ago in full sun it was 76 now its 71. Amazing power that lightbulb in the sky has, and to my delight my youngest nephew Will has learned to go into the deep end. He motored around, and would not stop. My brother said the other night he swam at the lake, then got on his bike with no shoes and just his suit, and then got off and ran to the car.
His first multisport effort he claimed.
So tonight he tried my pull buoy and a star was born. Now dont get me wrong, he isnt a young Phelps, but that Pull Buoy kept that littel fanny from dragging down and he was just thrilled. Little does he know i packed it away with my brother so he can have it for HIS birthday in 2 days.
Lots a family time this weekend, which is how it should be! and yes lotsa cake with lotsa frosting. I heard that is the key to a good 1st IM.

That's it from Taperville.

Too bad i didnt see Phil and Bobke too

So this past weekend i hit the Dairyland Dare. Figured why not, get some more hills, drive back to Madison area AGAIN...and sleep in a bad hotel bed. Why not? Our hotel did have one thing that was good. Location, Location, Location. .7 miles from Lands End and the start of the Wisconsin Gran Fondo.

Of course i wasnt Fondo-ing, so the timing chip was sorta silly, but it was still fun to go "BEEEEEEP" over all the timing mats.

Highlights: Waking up at 4 am .  ha kidding. that goes into the lowlights.
Ok lets start over:
Closing my eyes at 5:30 am in the parking lot of Lands End ( start of the event) and realizing that little dude with the brown hair who was lifting up my bike and giving it some love was none other than:
Robbie! Too funny, had i known it was him i would have had a sweet remark about not having a team car when he said all the bottles made the bike SO HEAVY!

Riding with my honey and Scott, not quite the Triple Bypass but still pretty darn fun.

No flats, for me. Scott had one.

Eating the best chex mix and 1/2 banana mid ride, i know i know, that isnt my IM nutrition but it was better than a slim jim. I was fine. Yay I can do that during IM and not puke.

The volunteers! Can you say WOW. They were at MOST corners flagging you to turn.

Riding with Ben!

Running with Ben!

Never Bonking

Eating good food after. I dont know if it was good, but it was food.

Beer. Yup. I had a great Belgian, then ran into some Dartmouth 99's who gave me their beer coupons. This made Rich And Scott very happy. ( remember the location location location of the hotel? close by)
And yes it never hurts to be a Dartmouth Alum.

All the people telling me i had a nice rack. Yup, i havent heard that much:) so i had some fun with that!

PS i got this from a gumball machine, you turned it and when i got a green one all the ladies OOOHED and AHHED. "GREEN,that is very rare, the prizes are great!" I bound inside to see tables of pumps and water bottles and shirts. and....antlers. Yup. Lucky me:) Antlers are for the green gumballs. Oh well. I guess i dont need another bike pump!

Lowpoints:
Seeing Michelle roll in all beat up, glad she is ok.

Riding in the pouring rain, that stinks. But i know i can do it.

No brakes on descents for about 20 miles after that. Or at least realizing if i rode my front brakes I had an  ENDO waiting to happen. So was smart about that.

Seeing Rich roll in after the pulled the riders for bad weather. Too bad he couldnt meet his goal of 300K but i was glad he was safe.

Getting ANOTHER pansy massage from the students. Wont complain, but i am, i know. I had the same thing at Chisago. Just bad luck. I was gractious dont worry but come on people, if you are at a race you may want to not tell me you have joint problems and cant give any pressure. Laughing that Scott and Rich had the best massages ever, their massage therapists were hammering on them!

The beds, the pillows, the flies in the room, did i say location?

The continental breakfast = CARB BOOM. NOt a fruit or protein to be seen. So what do we do? hit the land of the EGG mcMuffin. You gotta do what you gotta do. At that point sunday morning we had no interest in a simple sugar.

Getting home sunday and going to swim, at 1500 i needed a nap. Game over. I got out.

So that is about it. I dont get to go to Wisconsin again ( well other than for a swim race next weekend!) until the big dance. Getting closer......

Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa all in 3 days!

Hi people. Pretty deep into training and travelling so i will be brief! It's too much work to get my phone out of my way packed back pockets so there is no evindence of all the roads we covered on friday, and there is no evidence I was in Iowa soon after ( via car) for a Family Reunion.

IM training is tough. I am starting to see how little things like having to get in the car and drive 3 hours after a long ride and T run, then sleep in dorms on crappy beds is more irritating to me now than if i werent in the thick of it.

So Friday went like this:

Bike farther and faster than i have since the Triple Bypass last year. And on my Tri bike none the less. I still think climbing is meant for my road bike, but that is another matter. We rode from home to Hastings, across to Wisconsin, Prescott down the river ( and the hilly parts!) back home to Red Wing, to Cannonfalls on a lovely trail that we pretty much had to ourselves, then back on country roads into Farmington, Rosemount and then home. I had a low moment around 100, we were short on water and we were both just getting fatiqued. We had a nice cloud cover but it was sticky out.
Got home to do a T run and felt a bit jittery. Not bonking Jittery but like i was still riding my bike, despite standing in my kitchen. Perhaps 10 gels, 2 waffles, and powerblasts and lotsa Perform just had me a bit hyperglycemic. But the run was fine...hot...but fine so i think I was fine! Just tired.

ICe bath, subway, out the door for a three hour drive to Luther College! Woohoo!
Late night pizza ( of course we made it for the ice cream social, so eat dessert first right?) and in bed by 10 pm.

My Preus family cousins came from all over ( Norway, duh) but also Germany ( Johan Christian Hermann Linka...) there is some Deutsch in there, and it was lovely to see and meet many of them. I am sad to say i missed the entire saturday morning education bc i was...running:) I did get going by 7 am, but 2 1/2 hours later i was done. I made my run to get ice ( we are in a dorm no ice, no fridge) and i was just trying to cool off. It sure is Humid down there i love it, but when the trail i am on says tehre are two potty stops with water and they are no where to be seen....well....I fogot Iowa has these NON MODERN REST STOPs. That means there is a hole in the ground. OK. The trail supposedly went thru, according to a gal i asked in the route, but when i ended up on a corn field i was so lucky to find "Jared" with his camelbak and we ran back into Decorah on a road. I had no clue where i was, and am sure the little pink flags on the proposed trail would have gotten me into town eventually, but i was so short on water i was ready to fall over. Only in Iowa do i end up in a corn field, ask a random farmer/person in a truck, and find a Luther native to chaperone me home. It was my lucky day.

Since i also was blessed with my monthly visitor i had a few GI issues that luckily waited till i was home ( my dorm home!) and food that day was sparse and sorta icky. Dinner was Nordic buffet. yup, we got a bit of it all. No Lutefisk thankfully, but beets, pickled herring, pureed rutabaga ( which is actually kinda good) and some pork and swedish meatballs. Needless to say my tummy is sorta not happy. Its all good, but not what i would normally eat for good recovery.

We stopped on the way home and got Corn ( Yes! finally roadside corn) and some tomatoes. Our's are taking their time coming in. I had a rest day and my body thanks Jen for that. I can see how the cumulative stress wears on you but mentally i am doing good, just trying to stay positive and keep the physical body parts working. So far so good, a few spots i keep my eye on, but one day at a time.

Happy Weekend. Keep this great humidity coming. I cant stand the thought of a frigid lake start on Sept 11!

VOTE FOR DKT!

As many of you know I am racing for the Gear West Bike and Triathlon Team, not only is this a really awesome group of people, but its a store that supports its triathletes as people first, and racers second.

I have always had great respect for the folks racing on the development team, and especially bc David Thompson races locally when he can and isnt too busy to change out my cassette or give advice in a course.  He may be a super fast pro, but after the race, or sitting at his kitchen counter,  walking Henry, or hanging with his wife and my good friend, Hannah, David is a super triathlete but also an equally super person.

I am sure you all have your favorite pro's, but I hope you will consider voting for DKT in the Janus Charity Challenge:

Click here to vote for DAVID for the Janus Charity Challenge

P.S. Ruby and Henry say "VOTE FOR DAVID!"

So that is what sub 5 feels like!

Yay, I finally broke 5 hours in a half irondistance race. I cant tell you it has changed my life, if anything it will make my life a bit more painful in the next week, but I am happy to say I think i worked hard for that soreness and inability to go down stairs:)

Yesterday I raced the Lake Chisago Half Iron Distance Triathlon. It's about 45 min from my house and early in the season when i got shut out of Door County I figured Racine was it. But then that weekend was my mom's 82nd birthday ( and mom now i know how it feels go down stairs like you do:((
And in hindsight that weekend was brutally hot for all of you to race. So this worked out ok, you can never complain about sleeping in your own bed, thou getting up at 3:30 am in your own bed seems more wrong than in a hotel!

I dont have much to report stats wise yet and have no ACTION photos, but i will give you a quick recap.

Weather looked to be good, actually COOOL!!! I know, weird. My good friend ( and partner in crime) Renee came from Wisc to stay and since she got in friday we had all saturday to bum around, do our pre race stuff, eat, nap, shop andOF COURSE watch the TDF. Tangent. I am so sore today ( monday) and SO SAD there is no more TDF to watch. ( insert pouty lip)

Ok back to the race.

I heard this course was EASY and FLAT and 2 years ago i know it was short, and EVERYONE broke 5 hours. Ok that isnt true but it was surely a PR course. In the mean time i know the roads were changed and the course is now true. And after yesterday I think we all thought "this is deceptive!" It wasnt Hilly but it sure wasnt flat on either the bike or run.

The swim. Oh the swim.
When you see the line of buoys and wonder where the rest of the rectangular course is you have to take pause and figure that they had to put in more buoys. nope. Fog rolled in and so you couldnt even see the line of buoys. Being in wave 2 we had a good shot out and the canoes were at the end to stop us from swimming further to the other side of the lake ( nearly there anyways) but on the way back in it was a total cluster. Imagine sighting to see masses of green caps coming AT YOU. I was pretty sure i was on the right course and others had drifted over to us, but who knows i didnt spend time hanging around i just swam RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT. it was a total Cluster. and I know a few people that knocked heads. Not a fun swim at all. Oh and the water temp? Well over 78, very hot, we were little lobsters. But this RD always says wetsuit legal. So go with the masses i guess.

I felt good, other than the sheer panic of getting wopped a few time. and i thought "ok this is good practice for IM!"

Not sure my time, but i used the strippers who looked bored and came into T1 with a girl who hadnt used them and watched her sit down and thought "hmm, i made a good choice." I think my swim time was 32:xx so happy with that for now.

Bike: The first 5 miles are tough for me, my VMO's ( medial quads) are usually tight. I popped a Salt Stick and voila, all good. I started my feeding plan immediately. No matter what the clock said i was practicing for IM. I had it in my head that the bike sets up a good run, so i forced fluids when it was not hot at all, reminding myself that the fluids i had were Kcals, and i saved the water for post gel. I took 5 gels on that bike, and 2 bottles of perform. It may not seem like alot but i am not a big drinker, i just dont drink that much when i ride. But i had great energy, into the wind, when the packs went by  I just knew i had to work the wind and not cheat. So i rode clean. And other than one pair that i yelled " you may as well be on a tandem" I just shut up and rode my race. And no marshalls.
time? not sure.

Run: Goal was sub 1:40 and my plan was to take it out easier and then see what i had left at mile 6-7.
It was getting hot, sun came out at the end of the ride, and i was ok with that. IT wasnt hot, just around mid to upper 70;s but still the sun made it worse. Water and Gatorade stations were pretty randomly placed and we were sharing the stations with incoming and outgoing runners so i again had a few collisions with runners. I dont think i had too much of an issue with anything till around mile 6 my Left Hip started to really bug me. I have had some issues with that glute so i was praying i could get thru this. I ran with Suzie for a few miles and i could hear her behind me. I knew there were some really fast women right on my tail but i also knew they werent in my AG:) But i still wanted to do well OA if i could. I didnt look back until i entered the park and i saw nobody so i just kept it together, hoping to not have a finish like in Kansas, and got thru the chute with nobody right on my tail. And I did go sub 1:40! I think i was 1:38:xx which is a huge run PR for me in that distance.

Aftermath:
Hung around for awards, i didnt get a cool DALA horse but we got a Trivet with lots of swedish colors and Rich even got one! The stud got 3rd out of 21 in his AG. That is huge for him, so proud of him! He took it to work to show all his staff what a stud he is. And after the race i said to him " you got the same award as i did, but i had to do more than twice your distance!" I was kidding. But he had a great reply:
"Yes, i know. All the glory and i did half the work, you will learn." ha, too funny.

Renee had to drive back to Wisc but before we left we had to snap a picture. As you may recall when we were in KS in 2010 we got this pic:

 Now Chrissie was not in Chisago City, MN but the next best thing to Chrissie?
Well DKT! What a fantastic champion, and so he filled in for CW:

 David's blog is some fun and honest reporting on the real life of a real pro that doesnt spend his life trying to win Kona. A working man pro with a fantastic wife, my good friend Hannah, and a super shop that he works very hard for, Gear West Bike and Tri.

All in all this race was a good test for me. I am not sure i would go back unless they got it cleaned up a bit, but hats off to the RD who really did her best to accomodate 1800 athletes in a small space!

Next up? 5 days to recover and then we hit the course in Madison next weekend. Woohoo.
Send me some recovery tricks! ( oh besides the obvious, rest, compress, ice, massage, protein, eat well, etc..!)

This is more like it...

Yes I mean the heat. I am sorry if some people dont handle the heat well, and while i am happy with 80 I have to admit that in order to survive the sub zero i need the insane heat. If you live here you may understand me, and if you live here and think i am nuts then perhaps you need to go buy another snowblower and some shovels and another turtleneck. It will be here soon.

So in bullet point fashion since i have heatstroke right now ( kidding):
We had a great ride at Lake Pepin last weekend. I am glad we werent doing it this weekend bc 93 deg was hot enough, and today they say its 97 and a heat index of 1 million. I dont know, i know that the humidity is high. Anyways. This picture was taken when we are still in MN and i was telling Rich to stop dawdling bc we still had about 50 miles to go, so my pose reflects my " um this isnt a leisure ride."
Then again you cant see me and my sister said i look like Frankenstein with my braids. Yea i know they stick out, not sure how to fix that. other than to get longer hair.

 Then here i am modeling one of my sweet Betty Designs purchases. The Tank top. i love it. I also got a kit, that will come in the next photo. ( note that my braids are again frankenstein-esque)

(it doesnt look like its 97 with a huge dewpoint does it?)

Friday night we had a fun Skirt Chaser event where we bought too many Skirt sports things ( Ok i did) and then we rode our bikes in the rain ( it had actually stopped) and the guys chased us. It was totally a fun ride, and they did indeed catch us but i dont think more than 1 gal was riding hard bc we were too busy chatting and also in my case, tucking my skirts sports dress into my shorts so i didnt get a rooster tail up my behind. Then we had a nice bbq and i had some Brat with my saurkraut, mustard and pickle entree. Super fun event and if you havent seen Nicole DeBoom's line you really are missing out. Of course you have. Hillary Biscay wears it....Skirt Sports I know there were some pics taken but i havent seen them, but this is the dress i wore: and since it was cold ( um not really but it was wet) I had to buy the longsleeve top that matched! 

This weekend i did an open water swim race at Lake Harriet. one of your metro lakes. It was either a 2 loop ( 5K) or 1 loop (2.5K) and i decided to do the shorter one. CAll me a wimp but if i didnt see you there then you had better not. It was wetsuit legal ( Gosh dont know how in the world i could have done that it was hot) but i felt pretty good, swam easy to start and let the high school kids get in front of me and eventually gap me, so i was solo, with some behind me and i had a lovely swim. The course is an upside down triangle so with only two buoys and about 1000 out and back it was tough to sight. But i remembered Michelle last year telling me that Ocean Swims have no buoys so i got my big girl lake suit on and went for it. I had to stop just once at each turn bc they were not 90 deg turns, and make sure i had cut the angle right, but i think i did pretty good. No giant fish, a few weeds but came out in about the same time as last year. Turns out i won my AG ( since all the others were like 16 yo) but not sure what i won bc i left to go ride before the heat index reached 1 million again. LOVE that open water, especially without a wetsuit. It's so freeing!

Here is me with the Men's winner and GW teammate Thad: He started 20 min ahead of me, did twice the distance and i think got out about 5 minutes after me. That is a swimmer for ya!

So we race again this weekend, July 24, a local race. I am pretty non jazzed excited about it, and i am not toally sure why. Actually i think i am just not STRESSED out about it. I have my game plan, and its really a good long practice day for IM. So i will be a total liar if i dont say i dont care how i do, but if i can nail my nutrition and game plan as a mini practice for Madison ( at a faster pace) I will be happy.  I have a friend coming to stay with me, renee, from Wisc, but Kansas fame ( my partner in crime in Kansas) so that will be awesome. 

That's about all you need to know for now, other than my awesome sauce mom turned 82 yesterday. Pretty awesome. And yes I have been watching Parks and Rec's reruns. You wont get that if you dont know who April is. 

July 4th weekend and lotsa family fun ( reported a week late)

A bit tardy on this post but oh well. It's the weekend after the 4th and I didnt realize what a blast i had up north till this weekend when all the sudden the wet and sorta stormy saturday morning has me wishing i had that perfect weekend back. We drove up late friday thru the WORST storm i can remember. I was so scared and we finally pulled over and got off 35 around Sandstone bc we could not see. It was so windy and raining so hard. We sat it out for about 40 minutes then continued on up to Duluth and Two Harbors where it was still raining. The next day ( which was LOVELY!) we found out there was a tornado and straight line winds right where we were driving so no wonder it was bad. It was.

Saturday meant a long day in the saddle and a run afterwards. I had mapped a ride that took us UP from the lakefront, which meant two things. Hills and Heat. There were two things i hadnt planned on for that 100 miler, and to be honest I was expecting 4 things, bc everyone says 4 things go wrong in an IM so i was just thinking there would be 2 more! 

Around mile 20 we hit a gravel road. Huh? that wasnt on the map. Maybe we missed a turn? nope. Maybe we should turn back? hmm. That would not work for the route we had bc we would have to be on 61 ( busier freeway) longer than i care to ride on it. And well...we kept thinking " the airport is on this road, what gives?" Well the airport WAS on that road but it was the Silver Creek Airport. Never connected thru that one, have you? good thing, there was no Starbucks and no bathrooms. Its basically a hangar:) so we had 8 miles of rough road and yes i was thinking that a flat was imminent. Luckily the only real aftermath was a super dirty bike and super sticky yukked up front brakes bc my front bottle holder means i get some drips down the front fork. Ick, it was like crystallized sugar.

So we made it to the real roads and right above Beaver Bay the real climbing started. We had a N NW wind at 18 and that means a head wind, coupled with uphill ( its all uphill from the lake) it was 12-14mph and slower at times. I was supposed to do a TT in there, 30 minutes at 40K pace and i laughed, sorta pathetic to do a TT at that pace, but i tried. You know why? Bc I was getting dive bombed by theses guys:

Yes our good friends the Deer Flies. Ack. As soon as we sped up going downhill they were gone, but they are pesky little / BIG buggers. Rich said " those arent flies they are hummingbirds."

So we made it Isabella, we refilled at the one little stopping place where the nice lady asked us all about the "white powder we put in our water bottles..." and we had some fun with that one.Not sure she knew who Contador is but we said he gave it to us. The way back flew by. Literally, downhill, tailwind and all was good, the flies were still around and i think that the bright outfits attract them but at least we were going fast enough it didnt phase us. At one point i nearly fell off my bike trying to swat one and decided taking a bite would be better than a fall. 

I practiced my nutrition and sorta gag when i do the math on how much sugar was ingested over nearly 6 hours of riding ( like 1800Kcal) no wonder when my mom offered us some donuts later that day i sorta had a gag moment. My sister was a champ and met me at Iona Beach ( where the Gitchi Gami trail is) to run. Rich soldiered back home to get 115 for the day and She and I laced up and hit the trail for 5miles. It wasnt too bad. But it was HOT. The only issue i had was a hot spot on the ball of my foot. I dont usually wear socks to ride but may consider it if I get that again. It was super painful to run on. Not a blister, not Mortons Neuroma, but just a hot spot from climbing likely and yes it was HOT. I do wear socks to run, but if anyone has any tips for this let me know! After we ran we did a version of this:

And no this isnt from this weekend bc we were so hot we went right to the lake in our clothing and, by the way? Those flies were biting if you were sitting still. So we were so hot that 50 deg water felt so good. And SO COLD. OUCH. The water in Superior never warms up from the air or sun. The currents may allow some warmer water 1 day out of the year but its pretty much always 50 or below. So good for an ice bath.

Here's a pic we took monday on a shorter ride. See we really had awesome weather, winds pretty much from the west ( land) and despite this being warm the lake breeze usually keeps the flies away so you sorta have to pick your poison. Flies and heat or Wind and no flies:)

I was lame with the camera after saturday. oops. we hung out after that ride and run, napped, ate BBQ pork and  hamburgers at the EFA picnic, and hit the DQ where i forced down a small cone. See, all that Gel gave me NO interest in anything sweet the rest of the weekend.

We hit Pike Lake in Duluth for an OWS, and it was lame. Too much boat traffic and the only good part was not wearing my wetsuit. So it was a long drive for not much swimming. Oh well. Now I know.
Monday was more riding and some hiking and visiting with others up at the cabin. My sister and my nephew were here for a few days from Houston so it was fun to see them even tho it was too short a stay.

So there ya have it, a bit of training, a bit of family time, and wow short weeks are nice:) Happy Weekend After July 4th to you all!

Waconia Race Report and IM training....

What a fun weekend. Really I am learning to embrace sunday races, even though i far prefer to race saturday to "get it done," I realize the pluses of a sunday race to get organized and actually gain some fire from the adrenalin that builds on a saturday.

So Waconia is one race i have always done. Even when i was playing tennis I tried to do this race bc its a lovely venue, the course suits me ( rolling hills on both bike and run) and the town of Waconia and its volunteers put on a safe and well done race! Last year i totally surprised myself coming in 3rd and taking a slot to BOUS. I had been indecisive about what my season would look like in 2011 after having done 2  70'3s buy Mid June, and was sorta feeling like i was just going to fill in gaps and then maybe do AG natx. So when i had a chance to go to BOUS it totally gave me a fun and special summer of 2011.

This year I knew i would not be "able" to go to BOUS, even tho it would have been super fun to do it again especially in Alabama! ( I think its ALA, and not Arkansas? oops not sure) but i have other plans that weekend in the form of a little Ironman! So my thoughts on Waconia this year and my honest goals were to ignore the hype of the enormously competitive womens Elite start list and to go as hard as i could on legs and a body that i was not sure was recovered from the throw down that Kansas gave me 2 weeks ago. I had done some training last week, but nothing that made me think i was "ready." So when i said i wanted top 10. I meant it.

Rich got himself signed up as well, and that made it even more fun to go and have him there to share in the fun race day. Kudo's to him. The weather ( yes i need to comment on this every post, sorry) has been so poor that his normal riding at 5 am with his group has been rained out or very wet for the past 2 weeks. I dont think he has ridden consistently at all this entire spring or summer, so he has realized that a little swim and run may be good "Wet Road" alternatives. Anyways we drove out to Waconia early and I assured him that "you are just racing yourself, oh and me on the bike, so go have fun!" haha, nothing like a little family wager to keep that bike power up right?

So without more blahblahblah ( but really that is the fun stuff, and the stuff i remember)

 1/2 mile Swim: Elites and teams started in a wave format. I was a bit concerned bc you never know what guy is going to use you as a punching bag. But i had clear water to the 1st turn buoy and even to the 2nd buoy when we turned back to shore. But it was there that somehow i got the "zig zag" elite male ( and I do know who he is) in my path. I finally had to sit up and yell as loud as i could "DUDE! HOLD YOUR LINE!" and he evened out. But gee whiz it was like every time i would re-align my path he would change his. It was like he was determined to swim INTO me. I exited the water a bit slower than i had hoped but still fine.
Nothing like seeing yourself at attention in a wetsuit:)



T1: FAST ...yes I am getting the hang of this.

20mile Bike: I had a bit of an issue at the start bc I seem to be prone to catching air on my front 404's. I was taking some faster corners to get out of town and i had to really work to keep the front wheel down. It scared me and made me think about riding a 303 for Madison, but i realized once i got on the open road i was fine, it was just the corners with some wind that picked me up. I rode hard. I caught up to the super phenom junior girls that raced elite and can swim like fish. And then i caught up to Becky the eventual winner of the race. I was SO NERVOUS bc i passed her clean but the moto was right there and they slowed down and hung out after i passed. I KNEW i made a clean pass but heck what do i know, you just never know. So i thought about that the entire race. And hoped i would not get a penalty ( i didnt and later asked them and they said that they were watching the girl i passed) Phew. Suzie came FLYING by me around mile 17...and off she went. Suzie is a super biker and i was just waiting for her to leave me in the dust!
I passed Heidi coming towards the finish up a hill, which was maybe annoying but we were going up a hill and i had to. We came into T2 together ( Heidi ended up third) and she BOLTED into T2 i think i would have torn a limb running that fast!
T2: Fast again. But i couldnt feel my feet ( a combo of cooler water and some rain on the bike, yes for the love of pete, can i do a race once when the sun is out?) so i had a harder time getting my feet in my shoes.
4mile run: Starts out level and then around 1/4 mile you start a gradual climb up Cemetary hill. Its not too steep but you know you are going up up up and then it turns and you go up some more. The rest of this run is rolling out and back. Nothing like seeing who is coming at you after you turn around. Gulp.
Suzie was in front, then Heidi, the Me, then Becky. that is all i knew. Becky passed me around 1/2 mile and i could tell she was gaining on 1 and 2. Around Mile 1.5 I  heard cheers for " Go womEN" So i knew there was a stealth shadow on my heels. Michelle passed me then and i stayed right with her ( behind her!) til mile 2. At the turn around I remembered that i only had 2 miles to go and i needed to try to keep this pace or even up it. I did just that. I started seeing Suzie get a little bit closer, and it wasnt so much that i was chasing Suzie it was that I knew there were at least 3-4 girls tailing me that potentially had faster runs than me. I passed suzie up a slight hill and then started getting my game face on to prepare for yet another "SPRINT" into the chute like 2 weeks ago. I kinda didnt want to do that. I Was sore sore a week from that. And didnt want to get that sore again. And Suzie is 28, I really thought i was a goner if she decided to run a fast 800 on me! Luckily i had about 10 seconds on her, and was able to keep that till the finish. 4th Elite. I will take it. Followed very closely by Suzie and my good friend Jenny.
I think this is close to the finish bc i look like i stole something.


Photos are from Nick Morales at TriJuicehttp://www.trijuice.com thanks Nick for coming out!

Rich did awesome as well. He really had fun and is realizing what he needs to work on if he wants to get faster. But in his words " all the guys in my AG ( 55-59) are these skinny I used to do marathon guys" So i think he feels ok about that since he is a "mesomorphic I dont like to run more than 4 miles" and "i wont turn down that cookie guy." Love it. What a great team we make, balance is key right?

I got a neat mug that we used last night to drink some beer and since it had been dry for about 4 hours we hoped to sit out by the pool to grill. But apparently we cant go for more than 4 hours without rain so we grilled and came into have our dinner. Sigh.



On other fun notes ( and tardy notes since i am guilty of posting infrequently you get a hodge podge of stuff...) Last week MSP hosted the NVGP cycling. That is Nature Valley Grand Prix and we headed to uptown to watch the Crashfest  

 The Crit didnt disappoint but we were not at the right corner, and at least 20 of the front women went down on a turn into the bell lap. Pretty unfortunate bc they neutralized the race. Crit racing isnt for everyone. I am lucky i did it and only crashed once...lotsa blood and ambulances at that corner.

Here is my Hillary Biscay costume and my sister in Uptown watching fast women on fast bikes. She tells me my glasses look like the kind my dad wears, but his are black and he is 85 yo:) Maybe i need a bigger face!

So what is next? This is a post for another day, but i see the first signs of true IM training on my TP. I see 100 miles and a T run ( and not just 20 minutes) and i see 2 hour runs and i see stuff i need to not look at today. Because today is today and i can deal with that stuff the day prior for planning and the day of for the actual workout. I told Coach last night that i am trying very hard to enjoy the success i have had thus far and let go of my expectation that i need to "Crush, Destroy, Win" Every wko. Bc I suspect that when it comes to IM training some of the wkos you just DO. You dont judge you dont look at splits and you dont get excited to log it into TP to see how much you won the workout by. Granted this is new to me, but i suspect i am on track here. So I am enjoying some speed now, and will begrudingly realize i need to not go run a 2 hour run expecting to run 8 min miles:)

Super excited for this and cant wait to share it with you and also, of course, hear your advice on IM! My goals? someone asked me that after Waconia. I have no idea. I think i want to get thru the training, then let the day unfold.

Happy monday to y'all. We had some sun but its about time for some rain ( yes I am serious) so had better go get the clothes from outside!

Recovery 101

Greetings, wow, two posts in one week. Julia must have some time on her hands. Yup.

I finally gave in yesterday to recovery week. It's not that i fight it, its that i figure if i feel ok, why should I not do some light easy workouts? Well yesterday I think it hit me. I am not sure what hit me, but when i walked into the locker room I had that " Does anyone else think its hot in here?" thought. I hit the outdoor pool and it was lovely, cool, and brisk, i was not hot anymore!

But when i got out i had this wave of nausea. hmm. I dont get nauseated much, and there is usually no reason i cant eat or drink. But yesterday was a totally different story.

I had the chance to meet the lovely Angela at a caribou coffee about 20 min from her new home and 20 min from mine. My mug of cold press ( iced, yum yum) sat untouched. She likely thought i was just too busy talking to drink but the taste of it made my stomach churn. So home i went after a fun hour of talking , to "try" to get some food into me. Nothing sounded good. I made a smoothie that quickly did not settle in well ( I wont go into details) and thought, ok then, today is going to be a rough day. Nixed the run and the strength work for later in the day, and somehow made it to work to teach my classes. And wouldnt you know it was one of the most challenging group of residents i have had. That is all good. But I have to admit when i feel like poop its a challenge when i hear the Rec. Asst say "Harriet wants to come to class!" ( Harriet is blind...and "Florence is coming!" ( Florence is a rather large woman who needs max assist to stand.) that is all on top of many others that are all quite independent. So anyways it takes all my motivation and my skills to manage them all safely when we are standing and doing balance work! Phew. But I made it, and didnt pass out ...

Got home and slept. Not alot but some, and felt a bit better. At the same time I have bilateral "shin splints" to keep it simple. ( KISS!haha) and so i keep thinking that this time is ok, better to be resting up ( would rather not feel like puke) but coach says i am not recovered. And who knows what or why i have this stomach lower GI thing going but i guess i have to let it ride its course. I do find that i feel prettty ok about 48 hours after a race, but sometimes true "smashtime" doesnt set in, for ME at least, till 72 hours later. I do know that inflammation from an insult peaks at 72 hours, so i am guessing that is the same thing for an endurance event. You will feel ok 1-2 days after then on the 3rd day you fall off the wagon.

I am taking a few tangents here but i just think i need to keep realizing that recovery, at least for Me, in a effort that had me cramping at the finish means i need to not "expect" to do much for a full week after that race. The lessons i learn. They keep coming. IF you have good recovery thoughts, let me know! I did have a massage and i had Acupuncture and yes, i did eat my fair share of "crap":) And now that has turned to gingerale and crackers. Maybe I overdid the Dairy Queen!

Kansas 70.3 Race Report

Well well, that course doesnt get any easier. But somehow I still want to go back:)

No photo's yet, and wish i had had my camera when Chrissie walked right by me at the gate at the KC airport ( flying Frontier, of course, bikes fly free!) but at that point i was pretty done with this sport for the day and wanted to go home. So i didnt chase her like a groupie, but sorta wish i had!

Anyways.

Pre race: Hung with Renee, we had a blast as always, laughing and feeling like we had forgotten how to SBR and feeling like we had walked FOR-EVER the days before bc of the parking at the park and the split transitions. Upstairs T2 and downstairs T1. The only stress was the forecast looked grim. Like "80% chance of storms, could be strong, winds to 30 mph, blahblahblah" set to hit at what time? oh what about 6-7 am? super. Nice. Ideal. I had some weird dreams friday night after dining with Leslie and Jeff, where our dinner talk went from : "yah, i heard this many people died in lakes last year..." to " Ya, at one race in KC they had to do a stand down on the race bc the water was covering the roads and people were literally being blown off the roads.." to "gosh i wonder if they would turn this into a half marathon? No way then i am doing a training run..." We all the sudden all laughed and said "WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT!!!?"

So that night i dreamed they turned it into a Du, and the weird thing was that the only people in transition were me, renee, leslie and...Uli Bromme. Who was totally kicking our butts as she was practicing her transitions. ( Last year Uli was there and i was impressed that as we walked our bikes back to the car, she had to, also)

Race day: Radar looked spotty but it hadnt rained and so when we woke up at 3:30, yes, and were out the door at 4:15 it was still cloudy but my radar skills showed me we would get the swim in but after that it looked iffy. Fine. Rain and pour on me on the bike, our spring here has been " bad " ( that is being nice) so bring it on. I can handle it.

Swim: hit the water with what the announcer called " the old ladies" nice one, good pr dude, and it was rough. the rough where you look around and say "where is that boat?" well there was no boat just a constant wind that gave a nice chop, reminiscent of the chop at Texas 70.3 in 2010. Thank goodness i didnt freak, just worked it but nobody was getting a PR on this swim today. Somehow the water wasnt too hot, it was about 74 they said ( i think) but since the sun wasnt out it wasnt too bad. I was warm but not overheated. I caught the pink capped men from the 50+ and otehr than a few near punches and a few near breast stroke kicks into my face i got thru them unscathed. Got out 2nd in my Ag and felt pretty good about that swim.

T1: long run to my bike, no strippers so had to get those legs off but made double sure to get my EFS gel flask since this was my maiden voyage with liquid shot and not powergels.

Bike: Up the hill out of T1 my legs were not happy. I was cold my calves felt tight and i knew i was in for some positive self talk to remind myself that THEY WOULD COME out to play, but for now the legs wanted nada to do with riding. So i started my nutrition 5 min in, a bit earlier than i had planned but figured it couldnt hurt. I got passed just exiting the park by a woman with 48 on her calf and i never saw her again. She ended up winning and heck at mile 4 when she went by I had nothing to give to even try to keep her in sight. I was ok with that, I kept thinking about Jen saying " listen to your body, race your race."

Overall the bike went well for me. I felt really strong after mile 10, the legs did come back to me, and other than having to come out of aero a few times descending ( there was alot of wind, more than 2010) I think i rode stronger than last year. My time is about a minute slower, but that is ok, not a big deal. I felt stronger as the ride went on and i took the hills just as i wanted to, not hammering them but spinning up with good cadence and steady tempo efforts. I didnt get passed by anymore women in my AG and Leslie ( 40-44) didnt pass me till we were entering the park, that was a secret goal of mine, to not let her pass me! Even tho she started 2 min later than me and had a slower swim i know how strong a rider she is!

T2: pretty solid. Got my shoes out of the meticulously packed bag ( since it WAS GOING TO RAIN?, nope, lucky us) we all packed shoes in plastic. Socks on, new EFS gel flask full and ready and off i went.

Run: mile 1 felt hard, into a wind and sorta uphill grade, but my thoughts were " SLOW DOWN" do not overcook the first part of this run. I think i did a pretty good job of that, and since i was running naked just had my watch going. I was helped my many many cheers from people i knew and some that i didnt, but it was nice to hear that support. I had a BAD side stitch from the get go and realized i took a big drink as I left my bike in T2 and think that was a bad idea. So i decided that nothing was going in me until that let up. Finally around mile 3 it subsided. Now the issue is that i finished my bike flask around 2:20, and i came in at 2:46.

Mile 3 of the run was 23 min later. So was that too long to wait for nutrition? Well i didnt much think i had a choice. And by about mile 5 my legs were starting to really feel more and more like cement. I sipped on my EFS and i even started taking Perform on the course. By mile 8 I REALLY felt like i had NOTHING in my legs. Like i could barely turn them over. At this point i really wanted to walk a bit and i was feeling the urge to get negative, so i just kept saying "RACE DAY MAGIC, you make it happen....keep going." I knew i was slowing down and it was evident when at mile 12 i got passed by a gal in my AG ( from MN!) and i had nothing to give to staying with her. The entire run felt hard. I know that the runs are hard, but i never really felt i had that steady state in me even. Perhaps this is where i am with my run fitness now, that is ok, bc I didnt run much this winter and i sure havent had any long hard runs after rides like that! But as we all know its hard to get passed in the last miles and not be able to "go along."

So as i was reading Elf's blog last night ( wonderful! So cool!) I laughed out loud at the "at mile 10 hurt yourself." well that one rang true for me, but it may have come even more evident in the last 800 yards when another 45-49 gal passed me. And this time i thought " no. go with her." and i tried. And i didnt feel so hot but i kept trying. Eventually we turned the corner to head into the finish chute and she sorta cut me off, i dont think it was intentional, or maybe it was, but either way when i saw that yellow brick road and the timing mats about, well lets say it was ABOUT as close as the baseline to the net post, i had this instant instinct to " RUN DOWN THAT DROP SHOT." and off i went. She was behind me but i got to that mat first, and then proceeded to go thru the finish and then look up to Chrissie putting a medal on me.

I am glad i didnt fall over on her:)

And then the real fun began. I cried. I cramped. I shared a baby pool with super runner Kerrie, and then i got really cold and cramped some more, and then found renee and paid her to go get my wetsuit from downstairs bc i couldnt walk. And finally after a bit of salt ( potato chips) and a bottle of perform, and a coke i was walking a bit better. My feet cramped...the intrinsics of my feet and my toes, and it was the most painful "sport cramp" I have ever had. Yup, there is a first for everything.

And so it goes, 45 sec from 3rd, 1 sec ahead of 4th, and heck, who said 45-49 yo wm were any weaker than the 40-44 women:)?

Thanks to my awesome friends and family for all the messages, and FB comments. It means alot to me that you all care enough to track me race day! and of course to my coach who always says things to make me feel better and keep things in perspective. I have another day to eat crap and drink wine ( I am told) but after spending the day in the KC airport where the TSA literally went ballistic on me for leaving my bike box while i went to pee ( Yes he said "YOU MUST BRING THAT BOX WITH YOU INTO THE LADIES ROOM..." to which i said "it wont fit in the stall....whatever") ok i didnt say that, but the TSA needs to go catch some real bad people, not me...anyways...I had alot of time to eat airport food and i am sorta done with it....

Sorry for that tangent. next year i am driving again. I hate flying with my bike, WAY too much stress....

And now that i have used up all your blog time, thanks for reading and keep praying for summer here in MN. Sub 60 when i wake up makes my unheated pool a bit chilly for masters!

Off to see the Wizard!!

Long time no blogging. oops. Life is clicking along, some ups some downs, some training some not training, just sorta how it goes these days. Friday I head to Kansas to meet up with Renee and Leslie and her fabulous parents for a fun time in Lawrence, KS! I cannot wait to do this course again, as last year it kicked me hard. I had a few ( many) tough moments on the run due to heat and to some monthly issues and this year I am sure there will be heat but "knock on wood," no visits from aunt flo. ( sorry guys, its a significant downer when it lands at mile 5!)

Goals? Yea I have a few but the number one goal i have is to play within my heat boundaries. We have NOT had hot weather other than this past weekend. I ran for an hour ++ sunday and it felt hot. It was 75. Not 89. So i have some pacing to look at, all without wearing a Garmin or any sort of HRM, or anything. Just decided i was gonna go naked for the entire thing and see how it goes.

The bike is far from easy but its a fun course and i like punchy rollers mixed in with long hills so on that front its just going to be a fun long hard ride! And as for the run, as i said, well lets just pace that one and not win the 1st 5k!

The swim is also gonna be awesome. This race has two T's, Renee and i coined them "Downstairs and Upstairs." Downstairs is T1 and you get to climb out of the Clinton Lake on your bike, ( and also two times on the run) and then you rack in T2 Upstairs. Pretty slick, just remember two pair of shoes so you dont have to walk 1/2 mile in barefeet at 5 am sunday morning. Not good. I checked lake temps for Clinton Lake and as of June 5 it was 75! COME ON HEAT. lets get that lake up to 76 please!! Which makes me laugh that i am even wishing this since last year the day prior to the race they literally ANNOUNCED that the race was not going to be wetsuit legal.

*** mass run on all the speedsuits....all vendors very happy:)

All racers who bought them not happy come sunday, when they declared it WAS legal now. AFTERALL!

Oh well someplace it was 75.9 degrees. I have never been SO HOT in a swim, seriously bad bad move so i sure hope that someone gets some guts and if its really that hot will just say "nope, if you need a wetsuit you arent eligible for places." its pretty simple people.

Stepping stones here for the start of IM Training ( gulp) so i am just going to go out and have a fun day! Good luck to those racing Eman( hope your water is 76 too, lol) and be safe out there!

Here are a couple of pics from our OWSwims, The water is still BRISK!!! Like So brisk i wore my skinsuit sunday and i didnt want to catch the water more than 2 inches below the surface. Brr...Hannah was a trooper and once we got our faces in we were ok!

Pretty soon i will need to be circling this lake to get some continuous swims of over 1-1.5 hours, and heck i dont want to do that in a pool:)