Ironman Florida Eve...

It's Friday and things are heating up. Yesterday Stuart got in a good swim session, giving the real Navy swimmer in the family a run for his money!

We spent the day checking out the bike course, letting him ride various parts of it. It's as flat and fast as they promised. But boy does it look boring!!! Then the two of us snuck out for a run. Being around the Ironman aura must have been motivated since Stuart clocked me running at a 9min/mile pace. For me, that's smokin'! I also ran into Lee Zohlman, founder and elite coach with BodyZen who was one of the instructors at my USAT coaching clinic last weekend. It was great to get a few minutes of his time one-on-one. If I could afford him, would so want him to be my coach.

Last night Stuart, Mom and I met up with the rest of the Endurance Nation crew for a very yummy dinner, but not before pausing for a few sunset pictures on the balcony overlooking the Gulf. We met some great folks - newlyweds David and Lee who are both taking on the Ironman tomorrow morning, and got to catch up with Coach Patrick as well.

Today's been a busy day so we hope to be in bed by 10pm. Mom and I volunteered all day in the Transition area, handling bike check-in for nearly 2600 athletes. We saw them all -- the pros, the cool calm folks, the excited, and the terrified. In honor of Halloween, I even got some weird S&M, gladiator type dude checking in his swim-to-bike bag. On the flip side, I also got to see and escort Heather Fuhr, although she was a bit busy working as the pro liaison doing some trouble shooting. So, no fan photos. :-(

Stuart and my dad arrived at about noon, and I was lucky enough to be able to escort him personally through the whole process. Heck, even the pros didn't get that treatment!! Compared to many of the athletes who had come through, I was so proud of his calm demeanor. He looked prepared, ready, and confident while at the same time respectful of tomorrow's challenge.

He loaded his bike on the rack, and then we stopped for a few quick photos with Mom and Dad. The rest of the support crew has arrived, so it's time for dinner and then tomorrow is RACE DAY!

Ironman Florida, Day 1

The next few entries will be less about me, and more about my better half. This weekend Stuart will be taking on his first Ironman. We arrived safely in Panama City Beach yesterday morning, having picked up my mom at the teeny tiny Fort Walton Beach airport on the way from Pensacola. The first think you need to know is, it's freakin' FREEZING down here! Seriously, it was 37 degrees yesterday morning and the high was only a windy low 60s. We might be shopping at Wal-Mart for some sweatshirts. Sunshine State, my a$$!

We checked into our condo and wandered down to get him registered and check out the Expo. Apparently, registering for an IM is serious business, they check his ID twice, stamped his hand and then barred my mom and I from even peeking into the magic tent. So, Stuart disappeared into the shadows while we waited.

Luckily, though, he emerged safely on the other side smiling broadly with his bag of race numbers in hand and an athlete's bracelet on his wrist.

We wandered around a bit, collected his bike from the shipping company and had the super-hot Zipp 808s put on. Apparently, we couldn't escape politics even at Ironman -- I got a 5min massage from "Joe the Massage Therapist"! We also checked out the TriggerPoint tent, interesting but painful in a physical therapy kind of way.

Stuart took his bike for a ride, while mom and I relaxed at the condo. I think I'm still trying to overcome the exhaustion from the weekend, an all-nighter getting packed on Monday and traveling.

A good dinner thanks to my mom at a yummy seafood restaurant (fresh caught grouper, anyone?) and we were in bed before 11. Not the most exciting post, but I think the days are building.

Run Like A Girl

This morning I ran the Nike+ Virtual Women's Half Marathon down in Old Town Alexandria with my friend Erin. Julie was supposed to join us, but crashed her bike at 10:30pm last night riding home from our house. She showed up at the starting line with some wicked road rash on her face and a very swollen hand. Needless to say, she definitely wasn't in any shape to run, but she wished us luck. Erin, on the other hand, was attempting her first half marathon and was totally ready for action.

This was a small race with a cool concept -- the actual Nike Women's Half took place in San Francisco with the slogan "Run Like A Girl". If you ran "virtually" today and had the distance documented, you got the finisher's schwag (a Tiffany's keychain). Our local running store Pacers did a great job. There was only one water stop, no closed streets and less than 200 women out there, but lots of positive energy -- and a finish line loaded with smoothies, water, donuts and free massages. Needless to say, that was all incentive to haul my sorry, slow self to the finish line!

Erin had gone into this saying she was going to stay with me for as long as I was able to run. The morning was cold as we set out - mid40's and I was glad I'd worn long sleeves, but my legs were cold. I was holding a decent pace, a touch faster than I was truly comfortable with, but since I knew I'd be walking the back half most likely, there was no reason to keep it totally slow. But it was still too slow for Erin....before the 5k mark she had surged ahead. I didn't mind though. First, it was stunning out. We ran most of the distance along the Mount Vernon Trail, which crossed the Potomac and was flush with red and golden leaves. Second, being a Nike/iPod event, music was legal! It's amazing what a difference it makes in diverting you from the pain and helping the miles to slip by.

The course was an out and back, and as I hit the 5.5mile mark I started feeling the tendon acting up. I kept urging myself to hang tough and at least run until I hit that turnaround point at mile 6.55. It was so frustrating -- I was feeling good, in my zone, everything was working except the damn lower leg. I passed Erin on her return trip about 1/4mile from the turnaround and told her that my running time was now measured in minutes before I disintegrated into a walk. She admitted later that she could see the pain in my face. But something happened as I approached the turnaround and the pain subsided a bit. The course wasn't hilly, but the few rolling sections allowed me to bound up on my toes, letting the tendon stay contracted for a bit. And a wicked blister on my instep had me trying to land more on the outer edge of my foot. The combination seemed to take the immediate pain away and the threat of spasms subsided. The mix I had on my iPod was a good one that let me settle into a groove and just go. Twice I pulled up and stretched alongside the trail, begging my leg to hang in there. My goal of hitting 2:30 was in sight if I could keep running just a touch longer. At the Zooma half marathon in June, I had to stop running at about mile 8. Today as I passed mile 8 I held my breath, nervous that the pain would return but something, maybe the music, was holding it at bay.

When I hit the ten mile mark I breathed a sigh of relief, at this point even if I had to walk, 2:30 was doable. I did the math...if I kept running, I could possibly break 2:20. I hadn't done that since first contracting tendonitis two years ago! Time to dig deep. It seemed as if most of the women that day had chosen to do the 8mile route, since I spent most of the morning running alone. I pushed hard, stopping twice more to stretch and before I knew it I was within half a dozen blocks of the finish! I could see Erin waving wildly at me as I kicked towards a strong finish. 2:20 on the nose for an average of 10:43min/mile. For me, an outstanding result! Erin too had a great day, with a 2:04 and the knowledge that she really didn't even push that hard and could easily have gone sub-2.

I have been so bummed for the last month or two that my tri season was so short. So today I feel happy. This was a good race for me - there's no championchip to "prove" my time, but I know it. And despite my desire to continue to get faster, stronger, lighter, fitter, apparently I've had a good year. My new keychain is now holding my keys, and will be a reminder to me each time I fire up the Jeep this winter that my hard work is paying off slowly but surely.

80 degrees in October!?!?

My friend and neighbor Brodie has convinced me yet again to try and get up in the middle of the night to run with her. Ok, so maybe it's technically not the middle of the night. But when the sun isn't rising for another 2hrs it sure feels like it! You see, Brodie's one of those super dedicated moms who can both get up at 5am to get her workout in, and be corporate woman/supermom during daylight hours. So, rather than over-committing and failing, I've agreed to try it once a week. 5:30am.

Yesterday was day one. Mid-October. Leaves are changing. It's 5:30am. And I'm in shorts and a t-shirt because it's 68 degrees out two hours before sunrise. I grab Nick's leash and we're out the door. Just a short, easy run - 30min of chatting. It was amazing to me how many people were out. I wondered how many were just taking advantage of the crazily warm weather, and how many are always out there before 6am getting in their miles before the rest of the world wakes up.

I wish I were one of them. Really, I do. I love the idea of watching the sunrise while I run. Being one of those dedicated souls who arrives at the pool before it opens at 5:15. Or doing sun salutations and warrior poses in the peacefulness of a quiet house while Stuart and the dogs are still asleep.

And when I have a one-off opportunity to do such a thing, I love it. It's a moving and motivating experience. But the reality is, that no matter how hard I try, I haven't been able to make it a habit. My sleep is precious. The bed is warm. Stuart and the dogs are all snuggly. Giving all of that up is hard when you're still in the throes of sleep making the decision to "rise and shine". And, to be honest, I believe in the bogeyman and I'm scared of the bad guys who lurk under cover of darkness. Every now and then, Stuart and I go for a nighttime run. and it's fabulous. But, when it's just me, I do my best to be home safe and sound by the time the sun sets.

Maybe if I had to... If, like Brodie, I knew that if I didn't get that workout in first thing, it wouldn't happen that evening. Or when the day comes that I do actually sign up for an Ironman and have to get in those 2 or 3-a-day workouts. But there isn't that compelling reason to not hit snooze or at least wait until daylight. For now though, I'll enjoy the challenge of getting up early just one morning a week to spend time with a friend.

Holding Myself Accountable

For someone who claims to love this sport as much as I do, it's amazing how many different ways I find to waste time that could be put to more productive uses -- whether it's training, sleeping, or just important stuff like reading or getting laundry done. Instead, I get trapped by mindless things like this and end up losing an hour of my day. Or I laze about saying I'm tired, but don't actually just take a nap and get it over with.

So, I just checked the calendar and there's 11 weeks left in the year. It's off-season, and as I slowly put together the 2009 race calendar it looks like the first triathlon of the year will be in early May. With that in mind, I'm using this blog to hold myself accountable. I want to get in another 88hrs of training time by January 1st. That's a measly 8hrs per week. Very easy to do if I stay organized and don't waste time making excuses. I don't like publicly admitting I've failed so here it is, I'm putting this goal out here where others can see it and read it. I'll occasionally post updates to prove to myself and you my readers that I'm achieving this minor goal I'm setting for my off season.

No more using the dogs as an excuse - if I really feel I can't leave them, there's always yoga, some upper body strength and core work in the basement. It's dark - well, the gym is open until 11pm. It's cold - birthday and Christmas are coming, asking for more cold weather riding gear.

8hrs a week. That's less than 5% of the hours in a given week. Why wouldn't I want to spend at least 5% of my time doing the things I say I love doing???? And with that, I'm off for a ride. Later...

Craig Alexander - Ironman World Champion!

Yes, it's true. My not-so-secret triathlon crush is Craig "Crowie" Alexander. Stuart indulges my harmless little fantasy because I tell him it's partly because he reminds me of what Stuart probably looked like twenty years ago. We have his poster hanging in our basement, and I went ga-ga when I got to say "Good luck, Craig" as he walked past me at the start of the 70.3 World Championships last year. And I almost swooned when he smiled and said "thanks". I mean, let's face it, the guy's seriously hot.

So, that in mind, you can imagine how excited I was yesterday evening as I watched him come off the bike in 11th place, and just churn through the miles of the marathon solidly picking off his competition. And in the end he won the Ironman World Championship! He looked stronger at mile 25 than many folks look at mile 1 of that race. My cousin Billy and some of his swim teammates arrived shortly before Crowie crossed the finish line, and so they had no choice but to watch it with me. I was as excited as if my team just won the Super Bowl. Seriously, since this is the Super Bowl of triathlon.

Now I'm off to enjoy my Sunday, motivated by all those awesome athletes out along the Queen K and Ali'i Drive yesterday.

Running, Singing, Running AND Singing

Do you sing? Do you like to sing? More importantly, can you sing and carry a tune? I must admit, I love to sing. But, even I can't stand the sound of my own voice, which is why I usually confine my singing to alone in the car with the radio volume on high. That way, I can experience the joy of singing without having to hear my own voice. In fairness, I also sing during Mass if there's some old person nearby who sings even worse than I do and so can cover my tone deafness. And unfortunately for Stuart, now that we've been married for five years, I'm feeling more comfortable with just belting out lyrics in front of him (the grimaces let me know that my tune-carrying ability still leaves much to be desired).

So there's something about running with my iPod that brings about a challenge. For the record, I'm one of those people who is pretty much categorically opposed to racing with an iPod. First of all, in most races mp-3 players are forbidden, and that law and order part of me feels compelled to obey. I go even further and consider those who do use them to be cheaters since we all know that listening to music makes it easier to run further and faster.

That being said, I'm most definitely not opposed to training with an iPod as long as you don't become addicted to it. Most of the time, I run without it. Either because I'm running with Jill (when she's in-country) or with Nick the dog [NB. see the happy twosome at right], or with other friends, family, etc...

But, when I do bust out the music, I must admit I love it. Here's the problem though, and I welcome input from the whole dozen or so of you who happen to read this blog. How on earth do you run without wanting to sing along!?!?!? I mean songs like Paradise by the Dashboard Lights are 8.5minutes long. Even for me, that's more than 3/4 of a mile's worth of running. But it's an entertaining song and singing along doesn't help my breath pattern. Not to mention the strange looks from the other people on the trail! Break into Madonna, or Eminem or something even more eclectic and bizarre and people really start to stare. I've got my fair share of Midevil Punditz and other world or electronica music that provides a beat without lyrics. However what really seems to get me going are those studly songs you hear on the loudspeaker before a triathlon. Or the soundtrack of "What It Takes". Or even an 80s mix of Madonna, George Michael and Ah-ha. So, what do I do? Run without an iPod even on those days when I need that extra oomph? Or get over myself and not care about the ears of those around me on the trail and ask ya'll for some other song recommendations to add to my list for the listening pleasure of those around me? All opinions are welcome. :-)

Appreciating Real Running

Years ago, long before bad form, extra weight, and simply less-than-ideal physiology began to contribute to my leg problems, I often bemoaned running. I regularly skipped workouts or whined that they were too hard or too long or too wet or too something. But for the last two years, since tendonitis in my left leg has really sidelined me and impacted the quality and quantity of my runs, I miss it.

I miss the sweat. I miss the mind over matter decision of whether to walk or to push harder. So when I do go out for a run these days, I make sure I enjoy it and aim to have a smile on my face as I did last year finishing my first half Ironman.

Which is why tonite's sunset run with Nick was so much fun. We walked Joe and Ally first and took care of his 'business' first, so both of us were plenty warmed up and ran from the moment we left the house. It's the first run of the season in long sleeves. And we just ran. Real running, not a half hearted 12min/mile shuffle. Up the hill onto the Bluemont trail, the hill we normally walk, this time we ran strong. By the time we hit the last 1/4mile near the house, the part where I'm usually struggling and pushing myself to just get to the turnoff, it was nearly dark. So I couldn't see clearly how far I had left and therefore could just run. No heart rate monitor, no sense of distance. Just the happiness of running based on my own breath and the smile on Nick's silly little face beside me.

I don't know if there will ever again be a time where I run free from injury and that nagging worry that it could get even worse. But in the interim, I'll remember not to take these moments for granted and to enjoy the strength I do have to run with my faithful little goofball beside me.

Sea Gull Century

My first century is done and in the books - and other than some pain walking downstairs and being incredibly tired, I feel surprisingly good. This was a goal I'd set in 2007, and didn't get around to, so I was excited to have beautiful weather to try and hit the distance this year. The last 7 or 8wks of slacking on training meant that I was pretty nervous going into this. The longest ride I've ever done was 64miles, and that was this past July before Rhode Island 70.3, so this was going to be a huge jump in terms of distance and challenge. I warned Stuart that we might be creeping along at a snail's pace, but after last week's AquaVelo he said he was ready for a long easy pre-Ironman ride and so promised to stay with me.

We got a much later start than planned - it was a long drive to Salisbury so we didn't actually mount our bikes until 8:45 (last riders had to be on the road by 9am). On the advice of some friends, I chose to bring Coraggio - my red Giant road bike. I felt strong the first 22miles to the first rest stop but realized I'd had little to drink during that hour +. So we took the time to drink some gatorade, grab some orange sections, and then refill the water bottles for the second leg. The rest stop was pretty, off the main road at a state park along the water.

It really was a social occasion! Miles 20-40 we ended up chatting with some guys down from New Jersey, and the group of them pulled me along at 18+mph until I finally admitted that I was pushing too hard so we let them ride off. We hit that second rest stop in a little over an hour and Stuart commented on how hard I was riding. He was saying it as if impressed, but it made me worried that I was going to blow up with thirty or forty miles to go, and vowed to back it off on the next leg until the "lunch stop" at mile 60-ish. We left that stop along with a guy in a Booz Allen jersey riding a fixie! It was his birthday so he also had a birthday hat on top of his helmet and a mp3 player with speakers in a pannier on his bike. He, his dad (the BAH employee) and his girlfriend were making a day of it. We rode together for a while, but then surged ahead.

As we hit the one "hill" on this incredibly flat ride - the bridge to Assateague Island - we ran into a DC Tri clubmate and rode with him for a while. This was the most beautiful part of the day, and we stopped on the bridge to take a few photos.

Turns out the lunch stop was a bit of a bust. Oranges, cookies, and some bread in addition to water and gatorade. I'd been imagining a ham sandwich or something. Oh well, I consoled myself with the thought that I was feeling amazingly good. My girly-bits weren't hurting, and I was just a few miles shy of my longest ride ever. I knew I was going to do it.

After the disappointment of "lunch", we looked forward to the rest stop at mile 83 (where they served some yummy pie and ice cream!). From there we knew it was less than 20miles to the finish, but I told Stuart that the day was getting to me and we needed to take it easy so I didn't die during this last hour. But then with about 8miles to go we hooked on the back end of a pace line and just let it rip. It was fun to red-line it, and see if I could hang on with these guys, and even more fun to succeed at it!

I know it wasn't a race, but still figured that my average speed would be a good indicator of how well I was doing, so I was very pleased to see that we did the entire ride in sub-6, averaging 17mph. Considering I was hoping to average 15 over that distance - I'm excited by how strong I felt out there.

The one bummer of the day was that we didn't get to meet up with Trifueler extraordinaire Anton- who apparently left his mobile phone at home so we couldn't hook up at the finish line. A fun day, but not sure I'd do this ride again. Long day's drive, and other than the one bridge, it wasn't as beautiful of a ride as I'd expected. Nice riding, but the scenery was nothing special. On the up side, it was a wonderful experience to share with Stuart. To ride easily and just talk for hours with nowhere else to be.

It Can Be Tough

It can be tough to be the coolest dog in the neighborhood! Ally might be the princess, and Nick the neurotic goofball, but Joe is just plain cool...