Mama Simmons

Hope

2012-02-10T10:26:00.001-10:00

Well there sure has been a lot of buzz about Lance coming back into triathlon, huh? I have to say, when I read one of the articles yesterday morning I yelped out loud when I saw that Honu was on Lance's schedule for this year! I think that is just flat out awesome. We get to race with Lance!

As if I wasn't excited enough about Honu this year. :)

I know there's some controversy about him and the doping thing and all that... And while it might be naive of me, I am glad that there has never been any definitive proof of cheating because it allows me to continue to live in my world where Lance is still a cancer-surviving Super Hero.

I remember very well watching Lance win the prologue of the 1999 Tour de France... I was sitting on the floor of my grandma's living room about 2 feet away from the TV with tears in my eyes... At that time I was 25 and had raced 4 seasons of triathlon and 1-2 seasons of bike racing... and was five days post my first (of 8) chemo treatments for Hodgkin's Disease. I swear to you if the only thing Lance ever won in cycling was that Prologue, he still would have been my hero for life because the hope I felt that day was something I will never forget. Cancer can be cured! There can be life after cancer! And it can be better than before! These are things a 25 year old going through cancer treatments needs to hear/see/know. So the fact that he went on to win the whole damn race... and then 6 more in a row after that... well, I'll just say I was cheering for him whole-heartedly every year.

So now... now... what is it like 13 years later and I've been racing triathlons ever since and now get to start Honu at the same time as Lance? Wow.

I hope he kicks ass. I also hope that some of the top pro men give him hell and make him work. I hope he suffers. I hope the other guys kill themselves to run him down. I hope WTC doesn't gift him a Wildcard spot to Kona. I hope he earns one fair and square. And I hope he wins.

No Really, It Was Easy!

2012-02-07T20:55:00.000-10:00

This afternoon I went out for an easy run. It was dumping rain and crazy windy all day but that seemed okay to me. It was just an easy one after all.

You know what's interesting? I think I have finally actually truly embraced easy running. You probably all thought that I embraced it at some point last year since I did so much of it, huh? But you know what? I didn't actually ever really embrace it. I *did* it, diligently, but not really because I wanted to... I did it because Lucho told me that is what I needed to do to actually build myself a real aerobic base and I trusted him. And he was right. I built an enormous aerobic base.

All that easy/slow aerobic base running did not make me as fast as I wanted to be, but it did make me durable as hell. And it did set me up so now I have the capacity to literally try to rip myself apart in training in a way I would have considered to be suicide several years ago. You don't even want to know what I've done the last couple of days... I wrote it up on my calendar and while I figured I'd probably be able to get through it all, I didn't think I'd rip through it all the way I did. It was awesome. Now I have the capacity to not only do work, but to recover from work... and then to do work again the next day, and the next day, and the next day, which is what will (hopefully!) lead to some big smiles at some finish lines this year. :) Though I will tell you, even if it doesn't, the satisfaction I have gotten out of the training I have done recently is enough for me. I'd easily choose to bag racing and just train if I had to make that choice! I know some of you think that is nuts but that's ok. :)

But that's not what this post is actually about. It's about my ah-ha moment while I was jogging this afternoon... That true realization that what allowed me to do what I did these last 4 days was spending much of last year jogging. Those easy efforts- the ones that are meant to be aerobic- need to actually be easy. I know I've said this before but the goal is not to go (or be) slow. And I will tell you- I know that holding back and going slow when you want to go fast is not an easy ask. It's frustrating and it's not confidence boosting and you have to swallow your ego (a lot). But do it anyway. Build yourself a real base. And once you've got that built you can then go crazy dreaming up all the hardest back to back to back workouts of your dreams... which you are then capable of executing! I think that part is so cool- and it's worth the ego sucking slow-ass jogging you have to do to get there. Trust me. :)

What A Difference A Draft Makes!

2012-02-04T15:04:00.000-10:00

I am loving loving loving riding my bike these days! Part of that is definitely due to the fact that we have had a very dry winter so far... dry roads all through January is definitely something new and while I'm sorry that the Big Island has been declared a Disaster Area due to draught, I am selfishly thrilled about the blue skies. It also didn't hurt that the winds were on the lighter side again today. I am going to be spoiled and soft if these conditions persist!

The other thing that is making riding more fun these days is Oia'i'o. Going out and having power goals to hit with every ride totally makes riding every bit as much fun as swimming! :) This morning I headed out with Patrick which was awesome for several reasons... partly b/c the workout I wrote for him was one I wasn't altogether sure I could do myself (so that made it exciting) and partly because Patrick is a dedicated athlete who has his shit together... which means he shows up on time and completely prepared to execute the workout exactly as planned. I love smart athletes who pay attention to the details.

Anyway, the lesson learned today was mostly about drafting. I think I always knew that drafting provided significant benefit to the rider in the back, but I've never really been able to document concrete proof of that before today. So Patrick and I are about the same size, which theoretically means that we would both have to be putting out about the same wattage to go the same speed... but he is stronger than I am so the wattage goals that were appropriate to him would be impossible for me to hit... But I figured I would just try to hang on to his wheel for as long as I could? Interestingly though as we compared numbers after each interval, I was able to hang on no problem because I was saving average ~50W while sitting on... I never would have guessed that the drafting advantage would be so high! But we proved it over and over on every interval today. For you math/science geeks out there, the equation looked something like this:
(PW = MW+50) Where PW = Patrick's Wattage while pulling and MW = Michelle's Wattage while sitting on.

Some key take-aways in my own brain:

~The drafting advantage is greatest when on a flat road into a headwind.

~The drafting advantage is significantly reduced when riding even a little uphill (like maybe 20W vs 50?) Patrick is a good climber so I felt this for sure on every slight incline today.

~If you are a woman and in training you are constantly drafting off of men who are not significantly stronger than you, you are not working nearly as hard as you could/should be.

~Now I'm going to have a harder time controlling myself and not being even MORE PISSED when I witness draft packs in Ironmans. Gah! Drafting really is a significant and blatant form of cheating. Don't do it during an event that calls for an "Individual Time Trial".

So all in all another Super Saturday of bike/run! I am feeling awesome.

How To Think Like A Swimmer

2012-02-02T11:31:00.001-10:00

OK so I was listening to a triathlon podcast the other day (Dork alert! This is what I do during the day... But wait for the good part! I call it 'work'!) and these guys were talking about how they view swimming and what motivational techniques they use to get through those dreadful swim workouts... I was like What? Dreadful swim workouts? I do not understand. Swim workouts are not dreadful.

Of course I get to swim outside in a longcourse 80 degree pool with a view of mountains and palm trees (and sometimes I get the ocean which is always interesting) so maybe that's part of it... BUT I grew up in Ohio and swam in an indoor natatorium and had to dry my hair before walking outside in the winter so it wouldn't freeze (Yes! Been there, done that! For years!)... I swam double days all through high school and don't remember dreading swim workouts. So don't give me that as your excuse.

Anyway, listening to those guys talk about swimming and how they play these little mental games to get themselves to finish a 2500yd swim workout got me thinking... Is that normal? Do triathletes really think that way? I do not. Ever. And Nalani does not. Ever. Really! I asked her. The conversation went like this:

Me: "Does it ever occur to you to bail out of a swim workout?"

Nalani: "No."

Me. "Do you ever have to play mental tricks on yourself to persuade yourself to finish a swim?"

Nalani: "No."

Me: "Me neither."

Hmm. Maybe that's one of the reasons Nalani was top female amateur out of the water at IMCdA last year? She doesn't bail on swim workouts. Ever.

So it has occurred to me that maybe we think differently about swimming than some other triathletes do, which of course got me to thinking about the specifics of that... So here you go... Maybe you'll find this interesting? This is how my brain works when it comes to swimming. This list may be a bit random and cover all things swimming (or not) so bear with me...

~I don't write boring swim workouts. Even if my swim workouts are long and repetitive (hello 5 x 1000's), they are not boring. How do I achieve this? I check my splits and assign goals every time. Seriously. I think I've said this before but it's true so I'll repeat it... I know the split of just about every 100 I swim. Even if I don't check my watch every time I hit the wall I estimate based on how I feel and check every 200-300M... so during those long swims I have a goal to hit every time which takes away any sense of boredom I might have. And typically I'm trying to negative split so there's that goal too. Unless its a recovery flop, I always have an interval to go off... never that 15" rest BS... I hate that. Having intervals requires you to do math while you're swimming which is HARD so it totally keeps your mind occupied and hence, not bored. Any of you runners ever go to the track and just jog circles without ever looking at your watch? I didn't think so. Don't go to the pool and ignore your watch or the pace clock. That really is rule #1.

~Play with toys! I don't do all my workouts with toys, sometimes I just swim, but 1-2 times/week I incorporate toys into swim workouts for quite a bit of it. Triathletes sometimes get a bad rap for using toys in the pool but seriously I think it's just because they don't know how to use them so they use them at the wrong time for the wrong purpose. Know why you're using your toys and then they can be valuable tools. Here's a primer:
Buoy- use it to help you obtain the correct body position if you tend to sink otherwise. When you're in this position, pay attention to how it feels to be up on top of the water. Get your stroke rate up a bit and press your chest down and practice swimming downhill. Tighten up your core and feel how you can initiate rotation with your hips. Pay close attention to the feeling of being balanced and focus on your early vertical forearm instead of just trying to stay afloat.
Paddles- use them for strength sets, usually in combination with buoy. As long as you're not crossing over and have decent stroke technique, you're not going to hurt your shoulders by using paddles too much. If your shoulders hurt when you're using paddles, your technique is wrong. Water should feel heavy when you're using paddles. Paddles increase the surface area of water you get to pull, so if the water doesn't feel heavy then your hands and forearms are not in the correct position to really pull it. Use paddles as resistance training for muscular endurance work. Paddles should make swimming harder, not easier.
Bands- if used in combination with a buoy then their only purpose is really just prevent you from 'cheating' by kicking with your buoy. If used without a buoy, it's a whole 'nother ball game. If you want to know if you have a decent efficient stroke, tie your feet together and try to swim. If you can't make it across the pool before your body resembles a horizontal uppercase 'L', you've just found out you have a major inefficiency in your stroke. In all likelihood you're not effective in grabbing and pulling water, probably because you're dropping your elbows and missing that whole Early Vertical Forearm thing swimmers talk about. Strap on paddles and start teaching yourself how to effectively grab and pull yourself over the water and eventually you will make it across the pool. I've also watched swimmers teach themselves to relax most effectively when swimming with bands. It's hard enough just to swim with those things, so you can imagine if you tense your whole body up you just sink like a freakin' rock. Once you teach yourself how to swim with bands, use them when you want to incorporate strength and power into your swim sets. If you're a runner, think of bands like you would think of hill repeats. Sometimes you do short/hard efforts like 25's and 50's... Sometimes you do longer repeats. I've done an entire 2000m+ main set with bands alone. It's possible so don't limit your brain to thinking you can only ever do 25's and 50's with bands. Add paddles and make it more about strength. Remove the paddles and make it more about technique.
Fins- Use them when you want to work REALLY hard. Swear to you you'll never get your HR up as high in the water as you will when doing a set of sprint 50's with fins. Try it! Those leg muscles of yours require some oxygen when they're working hard. Can also use fins if/when you're trying to teach yourself how to swim and you're doing drills- they'll help keep your momentum up which is critical if you're actually trying to swim correctly.
Kickboards- Sorry. Hate those. Never use them. if you're going to kick, multi-task and kick on your side without a board. Isolating your kick is not nearly as functional as kicking on your side. The only purpose I see for using kickboards is if you're swimming with your friend and have an incessant need to chat socially. And if that's the case, go for a run instead.
Snorkel- I'll admit I see some potential with the snorkel but I don't actually use one. Potential there would be to allow yourself to focus on proper stroke technique and front quadrant timing- specifically by removing your need to rotate to breathe, which is when many swimmers very commonly drop their lead arm and miss a huge opportunity to generate power at the top of the pull while they are turning their head to breathe.

~Find someone to swim with. No matter what anyone says, it's possible to achieve steady improvement in your swimming if you swim alone, especially if you've got a coach challenging you with good workouts and appropriate intervals. That said, the ideal scenario is that you have someone (you like) to play with in the water. Ideally your swim partner is around the same speed as you but a little faster/slower is ok. You'll still get motivation by trying to stay ahead of him/her if you're the faster one, or trying to keep up if you're the slower one. Masters programs can be great, though many masters programs tend to focus on only shorter distance sprint sets which is not ideal for triathletes. I think given the choice between a masters program with short sprint sets every night or swimming on your own attempting long challenging sets trying to hit specific splits, I'd go with the latter every time. I should also add here that this is what works for me... partly b/c the closest masters program to me is 2x/week in the evenings from 7-8PM and ~30' drive away... vs a free longcourse pool 1 mile from my house that I can hit mid-day with a motivated swim partner like Nalani... well, that is a no-brainer. And clearly we have made it work. That said, I'd vote for masters over swimming alone in any of the following scenarios: You don't have a coach and don't feel confident about writing good swim workouts... The coach on deck is awesome and takes time to correct your swim stroke... The program is convenient time/location for you and otherwise you would just go flop easy without direction... You like the people in the program and that motivates you to go swim... It's a program geared toward triathletes so the swimmers embrace sets with repeats longer than 75 yards.

~Last point here (and then I'll stop I promise). I had a question about bilateral breathing vs breathing only to one side. My take on that is that while it would be nice if we could all bilaterally breathe perfectly, it does not come naturally to most of us. Many very accomplished swimmers breathe solely to one side and this is fine. Remember your big picture goal as a triathlete/swimmer... get through the swim as fast as you can without it trashing you so you can bike and run to your best ability. In order to accomplish that you're going to need oxygen! So get oxygen by breathing as often as you need and to whichever side is most efficient for you to do so. Most of us don't spend enough time in the water as it is, so to spend your limited time throwing yourself off balance by trying to force yourself to breathe to both sides is not a smart use of your pool time. Like I said in my last post, build your fitness, tweak your stroke to make it more efficient, then keep building fitness so you can maintain your form. You could have perfect form but without fitness it'll all fall apart fairly quickly so I'm in the camp that you can't just work solely on form. I can't tell you how many times I've worked with swimmers who can totally swim with great form for a 50... then send them off on a 400 and it all goes to hell. So pay attention to technique and play with different hand/head positions some, but your main goal is to increase your fitness in the water. I promise you it is easier to perfect form once you are fit.

Holy cow this post got long! Are you still reading? I'm impressed. But really, you should stop reading and go SWIM. I'll just finish up by saying that you really need to have some fun cute suits to swim in- and plenty of them. If you only have one swimsuit (and it's ugly!), you are missing out! Think like a swimmer and go buy a fun suit.

And on that note, I'm off to the pool!

On Rocket Science And Swimming...

2012-02-01T14:52:00.000-10:00

I'm sitting here once again feeling fairly trashed and somewhat nauseous after swimming... I haven't really been swimming all that much volume lately so when I do get to the pool I'm in this mindset of make the most out of it so I'm working my tail off. Not really going very fast (relatively) and I'd say that's just b/c I haven't been putting enough time in the water to have the fitness level required to swim as fast as I used to swim... It'll come so I'm not particularly worried, but for now, yikes. I'm tired!

This set will look pretty familiar to many of my athletes... here's what we did today (main set):

2 x 100's FAST, 1 x 100 easy. Repeat 4-6x through depending on your fitness level. Intervals should give you ~10-15" rest on the fast ones and plenty on the easy ones to go really easy and get recovered. So for example maybe you go 2 x 100's @ 1:30 then the easy one on 2:30... the key to the set is to make the fast ones as fast as you can go. Not pacing them per say, racing them. It's brutal if you do it right... and like most workouts, way harder when you're actually doing it vs when you're reading about it on a computer screen. :)

Seems like there's been much written about swimming lately... I definitely find myself agreeing with a lot of it. Want to be a good swimmer? Swim more. Get yourself to the point where your form is not atrocious and then build your fitness level and then tweak your form a little more and then build your fitness level more so you can maintain your good form throughout the whole workout. Doesn't really seem like rocket science though it is quite interesting to read the stuff on Slowtwitch.com these days... I don't actually frequent that site too often... I'd typically prefer to read triathlon related stuff that you guys write vs some anonymous person on a forum... but one of my athletes suggested I take a look at a thread about swimming with bands and I have to say, I just read through that with my jaw dropped open. I guess my main take away was that a lot of the information I take for granted as being totally commonly known is, well, not as commonly known as I would have guessed. Just interesting, that's all. I guess maybe I could have chimed in on that thread but honestly I just didn't want to get involved.

It's February! One of my athletes sent me a text after adding up his total swim volume for the month of January... and after comparing it to his January of 2011 (when he was on his own) and noted that he swam 30K+ more this January vs last January! Ta Dah! And take a wild guess at how much faster he's swimming this year as a result? I have not added mine up but I would guess I'm down this January as compared to last January... probably 10-20K less this month vs Jan last year... and consequently not swimming as fast. Like I said before, not rocket science. The information is out there and for the most part, people who know swimming agree that in order to be a faster swimmer you have to swim more. I think whether or not you actually choose to do it is simply a function of how much it matters to you. And no judgement attached there... just a fact. If it matters, if it really matters, you'll figure out a way to get to the freakin' pool. If it's not super high on your priority list right now, then you won't.

My personal goals for February don't actually involve increasing my swimming all that much... maybe I'll bump it up closer to 10K/week but that would be about max for now. I'm considering a big bike week coming up soon and that is gripping me to some degree so seems like something I'll probably do. Biking is higher on my priority list right now. :)

I Like Being In Charge

2012-01-29T13:32:00.000-10:00

We have had the most stunningly beautiful weather here lately. Just sunshine and blue skies and fairly light (for us) winds... 75-80 degrees... If it makes you feel any better, I'm not taking it for granted and I'm outside a lot lately soaking it all up!

Yesterday I went riding with one of my athletes... I always thought that I liked riding alone but what I really like is being in charge (Ha! We can laugh at this but if I'm honest this is true! And I currently have my DREAM job telling other people what to do every day! Lol)... and I'm not typically in charge of group rides which means I'm at the mercy of the pace that everyone else wants too ride... which I swear is nearly always either too fast or too slow... BUT I have three local guys that I coach who are all just a bit faster than me (ie I can hang on their wheels as long as we're not on a long climb) so the ideal scenario is that I rotate through them and we do their workouts together! Good for me because I get to spend time with, get to know better, watch, and advise (Get in your aero bars! Eat now! Pick it up! Back off! What's your HR? Etc.) while also getting great training in and they get to have a super solid workout that gets done exactly as it was intended. Win-win! Yesterday Armando was my project and given that it was his first day riding with his new power meter it was a super opportunity for us both... because not only now do I have a graph to look at of his data from the ride, but I also had his face to look at after 4+ hours to see what kind of toll the prescribed effort was taking. He did great too... Though at one point coming home I told him to pick it up for a bit at 240-250W... he weighs more than me so of course when I had to start ~~swearing out loud~~ gritting my teeth to hang on and saw that I was at 250+W on his wheel I totally started barking at him to back off (something along the lines of I'm at 250W so I KNOW you are at 300!) There is no fooling me when I am also looking at my power numbers. Lol.

Anyway, in good news we got through the ride and he did not fire me* so it's all good. :)

Patrick, you're up next weekend! :)

Speaking of being in charge, last night we had an episode of Super Nanny here at home. At 3 years old, Moana is testing the boundaries of how far she can go with us... maybe she's picked up some bad habits at school (ie whine and end up getting what she wants?) but here at home she does not ever get what she wants when she screams/whines. I've told her that since before she even understood sentences so this is nothing new (and consequently I think she screams/whines less than many 3 year olds) but last night she was fiercely protesting bedtime (which she pretty much never does?) She just kept saying NO I DON'T WANT TO GO TO BED and she just wasn't listening... So I followed Super nanny's instructions and got down at her level and explained to her that she was not to talk to me like that and that it was bedtime, etc and put her in bed... then for 45' we went through he just WAILING SCREAMING IN PROTEST... And then she would get out of bed and I would go put her back in bed without saying a word... more WAILING AND SCREAMING... I can't believe our neighbors didn't call CPS. It was definitely hard to listen to all that but I heard somewhere a quote about parenting that went something like "Choose your battles wisely, but when you engage, win at all costs." So we held our own and won that one last night. And wouldn't you know it... nap time came today and she just happily grabbed her blanket and went to bed. Phew.

*He later told me he survived the ride (and didn't fire me) because he has suffered a particular type of hearing loss that involves voices. Ha! That totally made me laugh!

Stretching

2012-01-25T19:41:00.003-10:00

Yesterday afternoon I took Moana to gymnastics... we were there a few minutes early so we were just watching some of the older girls training. I am always so impressed watching girls aged 12-16 working so diligently like that. They were doing elite level combination moves on the beam and just practicing the same thing over and over and over... If they fell off, they'd get right back up and try again. And if they nailed it, they'd get right back up and do it again. They were striving for perfection but clearly not just once. They wanted to be perfect every time. I just love that work ethic.

Some of the girls were taking time to stretch... Moana assumed that meant they were tired, which sort of made me laugh. Sometimes while she is playing in the bath tub in the evenings she knows that Mommy is tired so Mommy spends time on her bedroom floor stretching... so of course upon seeing one of those girls stretching she asked me, "Mommy is she tired?" Lol.

I was just on the living room floor stretching which made me think of that scene from yesterday. I am fairly sore today- mostly calves and glutes. Calves don't surprise me- my calves get tight and sore sometimes so I tend to micromanage them to avoid actually hurting myself- but the glutes thing was new. Interestingly Nalani commented this morning at swimming that her glutes were sore too so it must have been the run we did together yesterday morning. I actually didn't know short steep hill repeats could make glutes sore like this? It's not a 'bad' sore... just a normal muscular reaction to a new workload, and evenly spread to both sides. In all honesty I sort of like the feeling because it shows me that I have stretched myself beyond where I have gone before. Amazing how we can do that to ourselves with a grand total of 6' of actual work!

So that also got me to thinking... about adaptation and how our bodies adapt so well to the stresses that we regularly put ourselves through... So for example, I can go run 15-16 miles up and down mountains and not even be slightly sore the next day. That would be because I've done that stuff so much that my body has already adapted to it. So while it sounds like a big stress, for me right now, it's not really that big of a stress. Which means that kind of workout is no longer giving my body a huge reason to adapt. Yet a grand total of 6' of power sprinting up steep hills and my body goes WTF was that? Um, that was a stimulus that I expect to adapt to! Pretty cool, huh? (Clearly my problem is not going long. It's going fast!)

I think the lesson there is that we need to find ways to be creative and shock our bodies a bit because if we keep doing the same training over and over all the time without providing new/increasing stimulus, then our bodies have no reason to adapt and change. And interestingly, that does not always look like increasing the volume. Sometimes, it means decreasing it! But then, I guess that would depend on the type of training you're used to doing (and therefore already adapted to). And then of course you must consider the type of event you're training for... though when you're fairly far away from your big races that you actually care about, there's not so much danger in doing workouts that are, say, the opposite of Ironman.

Stretch yourself!

Was That Magic?

2012-01-22T20:17:00.000-10:00

I ran 15 miles this morning... with 5 of them in a little local 8K.

I was driving to the race in the dark this morning thinking about what a complete freakin' head case I am... coming up with all these stupid excuses about why I wasn't going to run well this morning... primarily just having flashbacks of all the shitty run races I have had over the years and that since I always run so poorly at these things today would surely be no exception... especially given that 3.5 hour brick yesterday blah blah blah. (Good mental technique, eh? You like that? Lol. Just being honest here. I already admitted I am a headcase when it comes to running races!) Truth be told, part of the reason I did that brick yesterday was to give myself a bit of an 'out' for today... you know, well of course I didn't run well because look what I did yesterday type of thing (Even if I only said that in my own mind and never outloud...). And let's face it, I tried to freshen up prior to a 5K two weeks ago and that didn't even start to work for me so I figured why waste a whole weekend of training for a dumb little 8K that no one (not even me!) cares about?? And while I *knew* I was sabotaging myself before I'd even started warming up I just sort of accepted it as my reality and well, whatever.

Maybe I lowered my own expectations too much but my goal today was just to see if I could knock off 7:30's for 5 miles. Heck, I have not done that in training lately so it would require a bit of that Race Day Magic bullshit people talk about to pull that off and honestly my confidence about even doing that was not high. BUT, I took away the I didn't get to warm up enough excuse by arriving in plenty of time to jog 4+ miles including some pick ups so at least I had that going for me. And honestly, even warming up I did not feel that brick in my legs at all so maybe these 5 miles wouldn't suck that bad after all?

Random picture of Diamond Head from Kapiolani Park... where most of our running races are around here. I did have a nice view of the sunrise over the ocean during this race so I know, I should never complain!

I set my garmin to show me only distance but it was auto-lapping every mile so it would buzz at me and flash the split if I cared to look... so I had the option... which I took the first time it buzzed and saw 7:30 on the nose. Ok I'll take it. It didn't feel that hard, but then of course mile 2 went up/over Diamond Head into a ridiculously stiff and relentless headwind and I knew from prior experience that was going to cost me at least 40" so I did not dare look at my garmin when it buzzed the second time. And the third/fourth/fifth time it buzzed I also opted for ignorance. I felt like I was running fairly well... I was working and pushing the way I think one is supposed to in a running race which honestly was rather new. Usually I just feel like such complete garbage that I can't even push and the whole thing is a struggle... but today, while it hurt, it seemed like it hurt in the appropriate way, and that sort of made me happy. :)

I finished and as soon as I caught my breath I went to the history file on the garmin to check my splits. We'll just ignore mile 2 because that one does not count... but after that I ran 7:29, 7:29, 7:24. I'll take it! To me, while I know 7:30 is not crazy blazing fast, this race was definitely a confidence boost in the right direction. It was not a PR for 8K but it was close, and given that I've been light years from my run PRs lately, being close is something I'm happy with. It feels like a step in the right direction and more reflective of some of the work I have done lately which honestly is just sort of a relief. I won my age group which I suppose is cool, but only b/c nobody fast showed up and honestly I could have placed 10th in my age group with the same splits and been just as satisfied. I hope it wasn't too rude, but rather than hanging around for awards, I went and jogged 6 more miles so I could rightfully call this a long run day. At the end of this weekend I'm feeling rather satisfied in a way that is rare in my world!

In two weeks I have an option of 10K or 5K. I would WAY rather run the 10K, which makes me think I should probably suffer through that damn 5K again.

Oia'i'o

2012-01-21T17:57:00.001-10:00

I'm in LOVE.

I could go on and on about how awesome my husband is (seriously I am fairly certain he should win some sort of award for Most Patient/Understanding Man On The Planet) or about how incredibly awesome my little 3yo is (she seems so grown up these days and is the sweetest, smartest, most enthusiastic kid around- she just picked a flower and brought it to me and said Congratulations! I don't know what I did to deserve that but I'll take it!)... but since this is mostly a Triathlon Blog, I'll focus on my newest love, my Power Meter. :)

I went out playing with it again this morning (I've never named my bikes- just never got into that- but seems like maybe I should name this Power Meter? Maybe I'll call her Oia'i'o? That's the Hawaiian word for truth. There you go. I just decided that. Now Oia'i'o is not an "it", she is a "she".... ta-dah!) Anyway, Oia'i'o is teaching me a lot about myself... like that I should ease up/slow down more when warming up... and that when I stop focusing I tend to ease up and relax... but when I want to focus I can indeed create some watts and hold onto them!

I didn't have a solid plan starting out this morning. In all honesty I was just a bit on the hungover side (hot date with my hot husband last night and a fairly significant amount of wine will do that to a girl but you should have seen my hot new dress!) so I wasn't sure how the ride would go... consequently I didn't want to ride with anyone (Oia'i'o has replaced my desire for any riding partners, at least temporarily) and figured I'd just play it by ear and ride how I felt.

Fairly early on I saw a rider on the side of the road changing a flat... turns out it was one of my athletes so I stopped to help him... while on the side I saw a trio of roadies ride by... 2 gals who I've raced against for years being pulled by a strong guy... a few minutes later I was back on the road doing my thing and 20' later I had caught that trio. Crap. Obviously they were riding really easy if I caught them but you know how roadies are... My fear was that if I passed them I'd end up with some passengers and then involved in some sort of cat-n-mouse chase game... but sitting 25 meters behind them ~~stalking~~ watching I could see my power was way lower than I wanted it to be (I didn't want to go *that* easy today) so I had no choice but to pass and hope that they would stick to their own plan and not jump on. I was afraid that the fact that I was wearing my I Drop Boys kit that Julie gave me might not help my cause...

Now is as good a time as any to see what a longish interval of ~220W feels like I rationalized... So I made the pass and waved hello and then just hung on in the hopes that it would stick... several minutes later I glanced behind me and the road was clear so phew, I settled back into my steady effort/pace and continued on my merry way. Turns out, I sort of enjoyed that harder effort so I threw in another interval like that prior to turning around... then coming home I had ~~a wicked headwind~~ the nice opportunity to increase my avg power so I did a couple of 30' intervals w/ 3' rest that were 20-30W higher than what I was doing on that same stretch of road last week (to be fair this ride was only maybe 60% of that ride distance, but still, that was fun!)

It's interesting to watch HR and how that correlates with power... last week I put myself through a bit of an overload week and I could 'see' the fatigue I'd created in the form of HR numbers that were a bit depressed earlier this week... no real cause for alarm there as long as you back off a bit and allow a couple easy days for it to bounce back to normal. This morning my HR was responsive and I felt fairly strong which was a sign that I was good to go so this is why I was unafraid to give it a little push today. (Lesson there is that it's key to know what is 'normal' for your own HR numbers so you can tell when they are elevated or depressed and alter your training accordingly.)

So there you go. Oia'i'o and I are starting a wonderful new relationship! I love knowing the truth.

The Thursday Thing

2012-01-19T15:28:00.000-10:00

Got up in the dark this morning to go for a social jog with Nalani. We haven't run together as much lately which, as a result, means that all of our swims start with 30' of sitting on the pool deck and catching up on everything. So for today I scheduled us a 10 mile social run through the Botanical Gardens near where we live.

It was pretty much the most perfect morning we've had in I-can't-remember-how-long... It started in the dark under a little sliver of a moon and then as we got closer to the gardens the sky started to get orangish and the birds started chirping and there I was just jogging along and talking girl talk with one of my best friends and then we turned around and saw these giant sheer mountains that were lit up orange by the dawn light and.... ahhh..... Stunning. Just stunning.

Nalani commented that we should come back at lunch and do our TRX workout there. Sounded like a good idea to me! So after spending a few hours working mid-morning, I packed up my car with my bosu ball, jump rope, resistance bands, TRX, and yoga mat (all my fun toys!) and drove by her work to pick her up... we found this spot that seemed like it would work.

It does seem like a bit of a crime that we have not done this before... I can promise you we'll do it again. Maybe we'll make it a Thursday Thing?

HELP! I Am Addicted To Graphs.

2012-01-15T21:57:00.000-10:00

You know what's funny? I went for a long run today and did not want to be tempted into 'racing' myself at all... last year (last week!) in this situation I would have just not started my watch... but now... NOW I have this garmin that I've figured out how to upload to my computer so I can see all these graphs with all the details of every workout and I was thinking how nice it would be to be able to see the graph after I was done... SO I strapped that damn garmin on my wrist and hit 'start' as I started running. I did set it to show me only the distance I was running- in an effort to avoid racing myself (and that worked) but still... too funny to me that in like 3 days I've become this graph-ADDICT. But isn't this a pretty picture? Elevation profile from today's run.

You know what else? I've started collecting vertical feet. Yes... Now my route planning takes into consideration where I can find the most/biggest hills. It's a good time of year to build strength, I tell myself. So I got either 1900 or 2000ft of vertical gain, depending on which computer program you use and whether or not I hit the 'elevation correction' button. Anyway, now you can see why I did not want to race myself today. Racing this course might have sent me to the hospital! Lol.

So what's the cure for this type of addiction?? And if my garmin stops working will I just quit running? Will runs no longer count if I don't have a graph to prove it got done? GAH. I need to free myself...

Power Meters Don't Lie

2012-01-14T15:47:00.000-10:00

I'm feeling a little more like a data geek now. I swear I won't turn into a full on data seeking whore but after my ride today I can see 100% how riding with power can make a cyclist stronger/faster.

So I woke up this morning and it was not raining and it wasn't even very windy... so I packed enough fuel with me for a 5 hour ride just in case I felt like going that far... (I could choose at ~2 hours whether I wanted to go 4 or 5). Ok I should just be honest... after I got my garmin to talk to my power meter last night (power meter detected! yay!) I got it in my head that I was doing the longer loop today so I don't know who I'm kidding suggesting that I might have turned around early. I was not going to turn around early. Duh. I mentally prepped myself to ride for several hours longer than I've ridden since early October and got going as soon as it was light enough to see.

I set my garmin to show me 3 second power, avg power/lap, and HR. I didn't need distance or time b/c I know this route so well and honestly it didn't matter today. My plan was to ride as I normally do- same HR range, and just watch power to get a feel for how it works and what it does. Interesting that the 3" power numbers really do jump around all over the place even when your PE/HR stays totally constant. But the lap avg power was a great feature and one that I will continue to look at probably just about every ride. I hit the lap button every ~30' and my goal was just to try to keep it steady and try to repeat the same avg power for each segment of the ride... which didn't happen when I was climbing or descending of course.

How's this for a sexy looking graph of my ride profile today?

I actually felt fairly good for the first 4.5 hours of the ride. My power numbers were lower than I ~~hoped~~ anticipated they would be but I really had nothing to compare them to so maybe I was just unrealistic in my expectations? What?!? I can't hold 200W for 5 hours?? My ride time and avg HR were about the same as I was doing last February (data geek alert... I checked my log from last year to compare!) so fitness wise I'm not that far off... but power numbers for (most) women who are 130lbs are not big sexy numbers. Well, not yet anyway. :) Interestingly, in the last 30' of the ride today I felt like I was just dying a slow death and that was 100% confirmed by the little numbers on the garmin that were just going down down down. Lol. I'm not sure I needed concrete proof of my lack of muscular endurance, but I got it! In good news it will be super fun to watch those numbers come up over the next few months.

So my overall first impressions:

~Power data keeps you from slacking. I really did stay more focused (and normally I'd say I'm pretty good at focusing for long periods but today especially) b/c I kept checking that avg lap data and trying to get it to display the number I wanted. Lose focus for a little while or start coasting and that number goes down which is the opposite of what you want!

~Hills and headwind are now more appealing b/c they provide an opportunity to raise your avg power. Hills are my friends!

~HR doesn't show the whole picture of the ride. Notice the flatline here that doesn't show at all how I was completely falling apart at the end...

~It's going to be fun to start planning interval rides now that I'll have some concrete way of measuring the work. Ok maybe 'fun' isn't the right word- I anticipate there will be times this year that I will HATE that damn power meter, but in the end it's going to be really good.

~I think that this ability to play with a new toy on the bike is going to keep my bike training more fresh and interesting this year. You know, I think this is my 17th year of riding(?) and I pretty much do the same couple of routes all the time and that can get *old*... but adding this new element of something concrete to measure will keep it more exciting for me I think.

~As a coach, I would LOVE IT if all my athletes had power (no pressure!)... Because although I could subjectively say "I felt tired" or "I felt great" while riding (both of which are important assessments), being able to say that my power dropped ~10W in the last 30' of the ride is concrete and measurable. Objective evidence combined with subjective assessment makes for a really clear picture of what is happening fitness-wise.

~Overall I give it a thumbs up. :)

Graphing It Out

2012-01-11T18:53:00.000-10:00

So this may come as a surprise to some of you... and rightfully so given that I spend my days staring at garmin power files on the computer... BUT I had my first personal encounter with Garmin Connect and Garmin Ant+ Agent today. I guess I can say that now I know why I waited so long. What a PITA.

Lucho and I were on the phone yesterday ~~laughing~~ talking about how some athletes come home from workouts and spend hours online pouring over all their data... I mean, data is important to some degree of course but honestly if I had an extra 90' each day I would rather be out riding my bike than staring at my computer agonizing over every heart beat and watt I produced during the ride that was cut short so I could do that. And honestly I look at enough data coming from my athletes that well, I just haven't felt the need to do that for myself. And now I will promptly contradict myself by saying that since my power meter is coming tomorrow I decided that I should figure out how to get those graphs to show up on my computer screen just like my ~~geeky~~ smart athletes have done. (Just kidding I love you guys! Geeky and all! :)

You might ask how in the world I have managed to get this far in my athletic career without uploading data??? Lol. I will tell you that my post-workout notes on Training Peaks are as detailed as they need to be (minus the graphs) as I input not only the objective data like pace/HR/distance/time but also how I felt (awesome, sluggish, heavy, relaxed, motivated etc) and I pay more attention to the way I feel than the data numbers. I also look for trends to try to figure out when I feel good vs when I feel sluggish/tired and see if I can figure out how to replicate the good days more often. I'm pretty sure I don't need a TSS score to tell me when I should be tired or when I should feel great. I'll be able to tell that for myself by paying attention to the signals my body is telling me. #itdoesnthavetoberocketscience

But I digress. Back to the data!

Can I just tell you that I spent 90'+ downloading software (GAH! Shoot me in the head!) and then immediately updating that same software then finding out that that wasn't the right software so eventually (after bitching about it on FB and Twitter) I googled phrases like 'why won't my computer recognize my garmin 310XT?'. Funny that new users have to google that stuff instead of the folks behind the Garmin site making it, well, user-friendly and easy. Crazy. I finally found some answers on some random chat site and after rebooting and hard booting and force quitting and reinstalling and restarting eventually the data from my ride today magically showed up on my computer screen. On a graph! Ta dah! Check this out. Fun ride today.

Next week when I do that ride again I'll have wattage numbers to look at too so that should be interesting. Actually, the only thing I really wanted to know about today's ride was total elevation gain. I knew my HR and time and speed and distance and how I felt while I was pedaling. So I don't need to look at lines on my computer to tell me that. But Lucho's always talking about 4K ft of climbing and 6K ft of climbing and none of those numbers make sense to me b/c a) I normally ride rather flat routes and b) I've just never paid attention to elevation gain. Anyway, now I have a concept of what nearly 5K ft of climbing looks/feels like. It's only hard if you, well, go hard. :)

So anyway, all that time that felt rather wasted but maybe I'll gain a bit of insight into my own strengths and weaknesses this year if I dedicate a little time to staring at my own graphs. But I will NOT spend 90'/day doing so. Staring at graphs will never get you as fit as riding your bike.

Some Things I Know For Sure

2012-01-09T18:48:00.000-10:00

I've had so much I've wanted to blog lately but just, well, have not sat down to do it. I was going to post one last night but I spilled something on my keyboard and the only letter it wanted to type was 'm'. So had I posted last night it would have been really interesting I'm sure... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. That also would have made it really hard to play Words With Friends. Good thing for iPads. Phew.

Luckily this morning it was all dried out so I did not have to go get a new keyboard. That would have been a bit of an emergency b/c let's face it, I live on this computer!

I think blogging is harder when you do it less often b/c there's so much to write about... I become like a victim of over choice... like hmmm, what do they want to read about?? I ran a shitty 5K yesterday. Is that interesting? Not really. But I bet you wanna read about it, huh? For the sake of working through it in my own mind I'll write about it... I was bummed for sure and have yet to decide if I ran shitty because I overslept and didn't get in a decent warm up or just because I am a shitty runner. I am trying not to think it is the latter (training has been going so well!) but given that I am frustrated pretty much 100% of the time at the finish line of these damn running races it's hard to push that thought aside. Or maybe my goals are just unrealistic at these races? Maybe, except that yesterday I didn't even run my old 10K pace. For a 5K. Yet last week Wednesday I did a tune-up workout that consisted of 3 x 1000's @ 6:40 pace and nailed those so why I can't even come close to that when it (sort of) matters is beyond me. Maybe I'm a head case? I'd really like to think I'm not a head case but I very well might be when it comes to these running races. I swear I was not overly tired as I did next to nothing for the 2 days prior to the race so that was not it. Sometimes I wish I was one of those athletes that gets some sort of magic boost from wearing a timing chip but one thing I know for sure is that timing chips are not magic propellers for me. If I can't hold a pace on a Tuesday morning when I am by myself with my garmin then I'm not going to be able to do it on Sunday morning just because there are some other people around and I'm wearing a black velcro strap around my ankle. So there you go. I'll try again in a few weeks at another 5K. I must be a glutton for punishment or something but I swear there's nothing more motivating to me than failing to achieve a goal. Next time though I might actually train in the days leading up to it because while it goes against all conventional wisdom, my best days tend to be when I should be ass tired. So I think it would be fun to test that in a local 5K. It seriously can't go any worse than yesterday, so why not?

Moving on. Let's talk about something more fun, shall we? Last week I booked a plane ticket to Arizona! I'm going in March first to attend Hillary Biscay's SMASHFEST Training Camp in Tucson. (Any of you wanna join me there? Anyone? Anyone?) I am seriously looking forward to that! I better start swimming more b/c 100x100's is on tap (another thing I know for sure- scy is going to drive me batty for that set! Flipflipflipflipflip) and climbing Mt Lemmon (which I have never done) should be super fun (ok maybe not quite so sure about that one?) Afterward I'll hang out in Scottsdale for the week and then that following weekend I'm going to be working with some of my own athletes... several who live there and several who will be flying in (some of whom I have never met!) So March is going to be a very FUN month. I graduated from Arizona State and lived in Tempe/Scottsdale until I moved here 7+ years ago so that area feels a bit like my 2nd home. There's some awesome riding there too that I miss very much! Krista is going to get initiated to that Bartlett Lake climb, that's another thing I know for sure. It will be my little Thank You gift to her for letting me crash at her house for the week. :)

Let's see... what else? My Powertap should arrive this week... so I will look forward to that. Quantifying my suffering! Lol. Perfect.

That's all I know for sure tonight.

Something Has Clicked

2012-01-04T20:41:00.000-10:00

As soon as I started off running today I took note of the fact that I felt awesome, again, and it occurred to me that this is a feeling I have been having more and more often lately. Like pretty much every run I've done in the last 4 days (all 6 of them) have felt really good. Whether or not I'm trying to go 'fast' (fast is relative of course), I just feel like my feet are turning over quicker and it all feels super relaxed and easy and light natural. There's been less and less of that I feel like an elephant feeling when I'm pounding the pavement. Yay! (I'm not a big fan of feeling like an elephant.)

Something has clicked (and it's about damn time!)

Of course in times like these it is important to take note of what has been going on so as to make this a repeatable thing. Maybe it was the 360+ miles I ran in Nov-Dec. Or maybe the culmination of an entire year of rather consistent easy aerobic base running, coupled with some speedier intervals lately. Maybe it's the increased frequency of my runs? I'm fairly certain that for me, frequency is playing a bigger part than overall volume. Or maybe it's just that I am starting to see myself as a runner?

I swam this morning for the first time in a week or so... Let's just say swimming frequency has been indirectly proportional to running frequency lately and, um, it's obvious. Oh well.

What Worked?

2011-12-31T15:28:00.001-10:00

Blah blah blah... 2011 is almost over and now it's going to be 2012... I guess I'm supposed to get all excited about it being a whole new year and all but really, we're all going to wake up tomorrow morning and see that the sun will come up just like it did this morning (which was just *stunningly* beautiful btw I was out riding my bike with some friends and this bright orange ball of light started peeking over the mountain and I don't know how we managed to stay upright on our bikes while we were staring at it). I guess some of us will wake up feeling better than others tomorrow morning... I plan to be one who feels good. I don't understand why people would start off a new year being all hung over?? Hello? Drink in moderation and take 2 e21 tabs with a big glass of water before you go to sleep tonight. Duh. ;)

Anyway, I suppose this is a good time to do a bit of reflection... what worked this past year and what didn't work... what we want to continue doing in 2012 and what we might wish to adjust. Given that this is (mostly) a triathlon training blog I'll just write a bit about my thoughts in regards to triathlon for me...

What worked? Hiring Lucho as my coach. That was quite possibly the best triathlon related decision I have ever made. I really learned so much about training this past year. So not only did I have a good year racing, but I finished it up still as in love with the sport as ever... I trained a ton this year (close to 900 hours!?!) with very few injury/illness issues and I am entering 2012 with a rather high level of baseline fitness (as compared to last year anyway). I feel like I have a decent understanding of how to proceed from here to make the most of it. So thank you, Lucho.

What didn't work? Hmmm. I'm kind of stuck here. It all pretty much worked. :) Ok, here's one: riding without a tire liner this past month didn't work. I put one of those tire liners in my back tire yesterday and so far so good- no flat today anyway. So that is fixed already and it's not even 2012 yet.

What do I want to continue doing in 2012? Everything! Lol. Can't I have it all? OK let's be real here... I want to continue coaching to the best of my ability. That is going incredibly well btw and I may write another post with more details in the coming weeks. I plan to continue my own routine of stringing together consistent training weeks. I plan to continue to search for my limits and then push them out further than I thought they could go. So ok all this is really vague for you here but I swear I have a plan with details in my head. ;)

What do I plan to adjust in 2012? Now that I have built a strong aerobic base I am adding in some faster running... intervals and shorter running races in the coming months before getting back to longer Ironman training in the spring/summer. On the bike my plan is to add power (ie Powertap!) partly because I think having personal experience with it will make me a better coach for my athletes who have power and partly because I think I will like biking even more when I can track my progress in a more concrete way. And as far as swimming goes, (Lucho will be stoked to hear this though he already knows it) my plan is to pull back my emphasis on it. I'll still swim some but my focus is going to be bike/run and if I lose a minute on my ironman swim, well, I lose a minute on my ironman swim.

So there you go. 2011 was awesome. I expect 2012 to be awesome too. Happy New Year!!

Win-Win Training!

2011-12-28T16:31:00.000-10:00

What a fun training day today! Today was the first day in a long time that felt like triathlon training to me... I've been focusing on running for the last few months and have let my swim/bike go to some degree so it felt good to really get back at it and feel like a triGEEK again. :)

I am a creature of habit and my typical Wednesday workout is swim/bike brick... I have not done that since like September though. And Nalani has been gone for the holidays so my once/week swims have been alone and uninspired lately. In good news, a couple of my athletes are on a break from work this week so I invited them over to come swim and ride with me this morning. I tied my feet together for the whole swim workout which was fun. I don't swim that much slower with bands vs without bands which probably doesn't say much for my regular swimming! But whatever. I got a solid strength swim in and didn't have to actually see how much slower my 100's are now that my swim volume has been reduced to like 3K/week. Win-win!

So it was 8:30 by the time time we started riding and I was like "Ok boys you have 3 hours to drag me through 62 miles..." (Scott had a meeting to get to today so I did not have unlimited time to play on my bike). Patrick and Gene took my instructions seriously and got after it right from the start. We stopped for ~3' at the turn-around to pee and fill bottles and then we were right back at it... Turn and burn, baby! Of course on the way back we also had to stop briefly for my weekly flat (big piece of glass this week). It's like not even news anymore when I flat b/c it happens so often (my 4th one this month- ridiculous!). That nearly new Continental tire is going straight in the trash b/c clearly it sucks. Anyway, Patrick did his best to make up for lost time there in the last ~20 miles... and wouldn't you know it... ta-dah... ride time 2:54 and I was pulling into home and didn't even make Scott late. Win-win! Drafting on the bike is the bomb. I do that so rarely b/c I do so much of my training alone but what a relief to not have to deal with the wind as much today.

In exciting news, I found out today that I was named Hawaii Sport Magazine's Female Cyclist of the Year. Holy crap! So of course I am super excited to back that up in 2012. After the ride today it appears I'm starting from a decent point fitness-wise (light years ahead of last year anyway).

Christmas Week Images

2011-12-24T13:31:00.000-10:00

It's Christmas Eve which somehow feels weird to me... pretty much always has since I've been an adult... given that my strongest memories of Christmas are being a kid with my family in Ohio with snow on the ground. Now *I* am the mom (after 3 years this still feels weird to me!) which I guess puts me in charge of making the memories for Moana... Right now I am consoling myself with the fact that she is only three so she won't really remember this one, right? Lol. One of these years I won't get to use that excuse and I suppose I'll have to put more effort into Christmas.

Anyway, I am ahead of the game at the moment, primarily b/c I stayed up until ~11PM (late for me!) wrapping presents last night and I am hoping that Moana somehow ignores the fact that Santa is bringing presents wrapped in the same wrapping paper she saw in our closet last week. Coincidence, right?!? In the coming years I'm going to have to be way more sneaky and sly about all this b/c Moana is one freakin' smart cookie. She will be stoked tomorrow though... she definitely understands more about Christmas this year and anticipation for Santa's arrival is high. I'm sure it will be super fun for us all.

Part of the reason I finished the wrapping task last night was so I could go out on a bike ride guilt-free this morning... turns out it is yet another wet windy day here on the island (Wind advisory! Yikes!) so it was pretty much a mess out there today but I made the best of it. I managed to stay upright and kept air in my tires which is about all it takes these days to make me declare 'decent ride' in my post-workout notes.

Isn't this a cool banyan tree?

So here are some other images from the week around here. I didn't take this one but found it on FB (taken today)... this is a beach ~9 miles from my house (I run here on my longer runs) and you can see the rain storm off shore. Most of the time when I say I'm riding through rain it's just short little squalls like this that pass fairly quickly (ie as fast as the wind is blowing, which today would have been ~30mph).

All this weird weather has left lots of crap on our roads which is wreaking havoc on my ability to keep air in my tires while riding my bike. Exhibit A from last weekend...

Exhibit B from Wednesday... Check out that big ass nail. It jammed itself right into my rim and I'm actually going to have to replace the rim tape after that one. In good news, with all this recent practice (3 in 3 weeks), I am *awesome* at changing flats now. I'm hoping Santa brings me some new tubes and CO2 cartridges, but even if he doesn't, I stopped by the bike shop yesterday to stock up so at the going rate I'm good for at least another 5 weeks.

Don't feel too sorry for me though... on the ride my goal was just to get here...

You'd think that since I live in Hawaii I would make a point to do this more often... but I was sitting there on the beach on Wednesday trying to remember the last time I just hung out on the beach and listened to the ocean?? It's been a while. Too long, really. I think in 2012 Training Peaks should figure out how to let us work in their software program off-line... in which case I would get a laptop and make this my office. Now THAT is a New Years Resolution worth making!

Anyway, it was really nice to just hang out and relax for once... every once in a while I caught a glimpse of my hot husband riding a wave... nice for him to have some time off work this week too and play in the surf where he grew up.

So all in all it's a cruisy relaxing week of holiday fun over here on Oahu. We won tickets to Sea Life Park and I think Moana may be as excited to go see the dolphin show next week as she is for Santa's visit tomorrow...

Merry Christmas to you all!!

I Did Not Feel Like Running Today

2011-12-18T20:03:00.002-10:00

So this afternoon I was planning to go running but instead I found myself on my couch... sinking in... not really feeling so interested in moving. I fell asleep briefly and decided to bag the run b/c I just felt too tired.

But then I was trying to figure out if I was really that tired or if maybe I just imagining it? I did not have an especially big week of training or anything so I didn't feel like I had a real reason to be tired. Was I just being lazy? There had to be a better excuse not to run. But as I tried to come up with an excuse I could live with, I realized that I did not really have one. I was not feeling sick... I am not injured. I was just letting myself be a prisoner to gravity. So I started perusing twitter and facebook and blogs on my phone (still from the couch) and found myself reading all those 'motivation' quotes... you know the ones about how right now somewhere someone is out training and when you meet head to head in competition, she'll beat you kind of quotes. So I dragged my ass off the couch and put on my shorts and shoes and ingested my magic potion* and got out the door.

And you know what? I had a stellar run! It was shocking, really, the difference in how I felt once I got out there. I'd call it one of my best runs of the year. As I was floating home, feet barely touching the ground, I was thinking about how incredibly glad I was that I did not bag that run. I proved it to myself once again- you don't have to feel good prior to starting. You just have to get out there and do it.

*My magic potion... you wanna know, don't you? Ok I'll tell you... Two e21 tabs and a shot of espresso. Magic, I tell ya. Works every time.

I Saw A Ray Of Light

2011-12-14T19:42:00.000-10:00

So this morning I woke up feeling old and creaky and stiff. I am not that old I know, but 37 is different than 27 for sure! It was raining (again) and I just couldn't make myself go out and run (again) so I rationalized it by telling myself that I really needed to get some work done... and then I really needed to clean the house (it is a complete pit)... and then I needed to get some more work done... and then lo and behold a ray of light came through my living room window.

Light?!? Was that sunlight??

Here on the ~~dark~~ Windward side on Oahu we go days without seeing the sun in the winter... maybe a bit like the Pacific Northwest, but warmer. I can't remember the last day we had here that it did not rain (I have not had a bike ride since Kona that didn't involve water falling from the sky) and since I am solar powered, seeing bright light coming in from my window today instantly changed my mood. I jumped up and looked outside and <GASP> blue sky OMG! Within 5' I was wearing bike shorts and pumping up my tires. No way I was going to waste this opportunity to ride when the sky was BLUE!

It was all super for about an hour and then it went back to being winter and the front rolled in and the sky opened up and I got wet. Not a huge deal I know but it does get a bit sketchy b/c those white painted lines are as slippery as ice and in places they are thickly painted and like a foot wide... I am careful b/c I prefer staying upright when I am riding my bike.

I'll keep trying because one of these days I'm going to get to ride when it's not wet. I just know it.

I'm perfecting the art of changing flat tires too. I didn't succeed in keeping such a positive attitude about my flat today- primarily b/c it was the second one in 2 rides on that bike and the tires I'm running are fairly new (less than 300 miles on them) and I replaced them specifically b/c the old ones I was using were totally worn down with too many miles to count. I figured I'd prob start flatting more often on them soon so I bought new Gatorskin Hardshells (which supposedly are more flat resistant but after my last 2 rides I beg to differ). I was only ~7 miles from home and I hated to spend a co2 cartridge to spin myself home... thought about trying to hitch a ride but then I knew if I did that I would lose my mojo to run so I gritted my teeth and fixed my flat. And now I need to make a trip to the bike shop for some tire sealant because flatting every week is a pain in the ass.

In good news, Moana learned how to patch a tire tonight. She got a kick out of that! :)

Time To Start Buying Leotards

2011-12-12T20:56:00.000-10:00

So today I picked Moana up from pre-school and took her over to a local gym that has a reputation for churning out some of the best gymnasts in the state. I heard they had a program for kids 3-5 years old and since Moana has shown some agility I thought maybe she'd enjoy checking it out. I really just wanted to get an idea of their schedule and fees, etc but of course as soon as we showed up a friendly coach told us there was a class going on right then and asked Moana if she wanted to join in... Duh. Don't need to ask her twice on that one!! She ran right over to the trampoline and forgot I was even there.

Of course Moana has a BLAST and swung around on the bars like a monkey and jumped into the foam pit and walked across the low/wide balance beam and did forward and backward rolls like a champ. She was totally into it and when the coach said jump she jumped and when the coach said arms in the air she put her arms straight up in the air... full on monkey-see monkey-do syndrome there which was perfect. So cute and I was just smiling ear to ear watching it all from the balcony of the gym.

Which brought back memories... sitting there watching the older girls just drill themselves... they would pick a skill and just practice it relentlessly over and over... there was some real talent in that gym and I had goosebumps watching. I remembered being that age and spending like 20 hours/week in the gym doing everything my coach told me to do (and more... if we were supposed to do 30 pull ups over the course of the workout I would do 60... shocking, right?). I absolutely LOVED being a gymnast... and still today I appreciate the discipline and hard work I learned to do when I was so young.

At one point Moana was standing on a taller mat and (assisted) she took (another) flying leap toward a bar and caught it with both hands! The look on her face when she realized she did it was absolutely priceless. So I signed her up and we're going back tomorrow. I've heard that when she puts a leotard on it'll be like magic, so that will be super fun for her too! Don't worry, mom. I'll take pictures. ;)

The only thing Moana didn't like about the gym today was that after an hour it was time to go home. She threw herself on the floor and yelled out NOOOOO!!! I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME!!!! So much for the good impression I thought we made... Ha! But like I've said before, apples don't fall far from trees so it shouldn't surprise anyone that my offspring apparently subscribes to the 'more is more' philosophy as well.

On Watching A Marathon

2011-12-11T14:28:00.000-10:00

What an interesting morning! I don't know that I've ever actually watched a marathon? I've been a spectator at ironman before but not a straight up 26.2 on the road. It was pretty cool!

I woke up before my alarm went off b/c I was excited (and a little bit nervous) for the morning... I told a couple of my athletes that I would be out in Hawaii Kai (mile 17ish) and would try to run with them til mile 22 or so... I arrived ~90' after the start of the race, just in time to see the lead pack of men flying around the corner... it was a tight knit group of 6 African men... Um, ok I have seen pictures of elite runners running and maybe a video here or there but I'm fairly certain this was the first time I've ever seen them running in person like that and I will tell you- they were beautiful. They were running so fluidly with these huge strides and their heels were coming up to their asses after every step... feet barely touching the ground as they were just gliding together all in sync. Unfortunately it was still dark out and they flew by in a flash so I only got to see it for maybe 10 dark seconds... but wow. It was cool.

About 10' later another lead vehicle came driving by and it was the pack of lead women (and a few men hanging on to them) looking similar to the men. They make running look so easy.

I wish I could run like that for 1/4 mile. Seriously.

I hung out on that same corner for another 20' and watched as the sun started coming up and more runners started streaming by and it was starting to look a little harder. The strides got shorter and the heels weren't coming up as high and the faces looked a little less stoic as the runners became more human. It was really windy here today and they had all been running straight into a wall of 20-30mph wind for like 8-10 miles... luckily they were turning into a tailwind for the last ~8 miles but you could see that the effort of holding pace into that headwind had taken its toll on many. Blah! Like marathons aren't hard enough?!? Gotta add a 20mph headwind into the mix? Fwiw, don't come to Honolulu if you're looking for a marathon PR. But I did see a bunch of friends and local athletes I knew running by and looking great so I did my cheering part (and I was wearing my Be Relentlessly Positive tank top which seemed appropriate for the event).

I actually jogged a couple miles as warm up b/c I figured running 8' pace is not always the easiest thing for me to do and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be huffing and puffing and holding my athletes back or anything in case they were running that fast when I started pacing with them... And as soon as I saw my first one I jumped in and started running with her and went into my you're doing awesome super duper positive happy talk... 3 of my athletes were all running within about a minute of each other at that point so I sort of traded off running with each of them for the next ~5-6 miles... I was actually only planning on going to mile 22 but ended up getting close to mile 24 b/c I was sensing they were hurting (duh, marathons hurt!) and just didn't want to let them go! Interesting too b/c as the miles ticked by I started getting more and more militaristic in barking orders at them... My message morphed from the happy/smiling You're doing awesome at mile 18 into more of just SHUT YOUR BRAIN UP and GUT IT OUT by mile 23. Classic.

One other thing I should point out is how different marathon pace feels at mile 6 vs mile 22. I almost felt a little guilty about how good and fresh I was feeling running alongside my athletes... but I was at mile 6-8 and they were 20+ miles in and the effort required to hold pace at that point is significant... I KNOW how hard it is that late in the game... but early in the game, well, not so hard. Just an interesting observation that seemed really black and white today. I guess that's the lure of the marathon!

Anyway, eventually I did let them all finish on their own (they did well- all 3:40-3:46) and then began a very interesting jog back to my car (which was ~7 miles away). Honolulu is one of the only marathons that doesn't close the course at like 8 hours or whenever courses typically close... and for whatever reason it just attracts a bazillion (ok 22,000+) people, mostly from Japan, who walk the entire course. Some rather leisurely. I'm not sure I understand the draw to fly to another country and go for a 26.2 mile stroll, but to each his own I suppose. I do know that I ended up surrounded by many of them as I was running back to my car- the whole 3 lane road was completely crowded and jammed with people going in both directions so I just weaved my way through and watched as they all went about their business of finishing their marathons in their own way. It was very eye opening to see that.many.people out there chugging along... relentlessly through 30mph winds (and sideways rain by that point)... If Honolulu is any indication, way more people finish marathons in 5-7 hours than in 3-4 hours. And good for them for getting off the couch.

So there you go! It was a super fun day and I'm stoked for my friends and athletes who gutted it out today. I got a decent 15+ mile run in (was happy with that and how I felt) and then got to my car and found the texts from Krista and Shane that they totally surpassed our expectations at Tucson 1/2 Marathon this morning... Honestly I thought Krista was ready to run 1:40-1:41 but she bombed through that course in 1:39 flat with Shane right by her side and got a HOLY SHITBALLS text response from me. Totally made my morning. ;)

Mostly About Moana... And Some On Running.

2011-12-09T18:17:00.001-10:00

So I don't have anything hugely important to blog about but I suppose there are a bunch of little things that my mom probably wants to know so here you go.

Moana is obsessed with wanting to go to her brother and sister's house. Hmmm. Where is your brother's house? I ask. Brother's house is at Holidays. She says. Oh, where is sister's house? She thinks to herself for a moment and then replies, Sister's house is at Molidays. (I don't know either but we've had this same conversation probably 4x in the last 3 days.)

Moana is also obsessed with Christmas lights. She LOVES them. We have Christmas lights on our tree and on our wall inside the living room and on her bedroom wall and on our outside patio. They are set up so they can be turned on via light switch and she asks every day if she can turn the Christmas lights on... then when she does she says Don't you just LOVE that?

Moana is extremely easy to buy Christmas presents for. Last night she went out for sushi with Auntie Nalani (true story! one of her favorite things to do!) while Scott and I went Christmas shopping. I restrained myself some because I don't think Christmas for a 3 yo needs to be some giant massive ordeal, but I will say that all I had to do was wander around from store to store and pretty much anything that had a princess on it or was colored pink would be something she would just flip over if she found it wrapped under the Christmas tree in a few weeks. Every time I ask her what she wants Santa to bring her for Christmas she ooohs and ahhhs and says she hopes he brings her Princess shoes. Shocking, I know. Christmas this year with a 3 yo is ~~going to be~~ already way more fun than Christmas without a 3 yo, that's for sure. :)

The marathon is this weekend. I am not bummed I'm not running it, which I suppose is a sign I made the right choice in choosing not to do it! I do think I'll go out there on Sunday morning though and run with some of my athletes for a while in Hawaii Kai... I have 4 athletes running it this year... one first timer who is going to shock herself and do really well, Nalani who's ready to PR, another gal who is rather new at running- this will be her second time running Honolulu- and she is going to PR by like an hour over what she did last year, and another guy who's been sick through most of the recent training block so honestly I just hope he finishes! But he's a man so he'll figure it out. ;)

I am finishing up a pretty big week of running myself (big for me anyway- I know some of you run a ton more). I am rather pleased with how well I have handled it so far... 65 miles planned this week (I've got 48 done so far) but I'm spreading it out over 9 runs so none of them are crazy long or anything. Running frequently makes it rather easy to accumulate volume... take today for example... 7 miles in the morning then 7 again this afternoon and ta-dah! 14 miles for the day but I swear I feel like I only ran 7 (i.e. I feel fine). Part of that is because those miles were all highly aerobic so I was not killing myself to get them done, but even the hard runs I do I'm recovering really well from. I do think that is the benefit of all those aerobic base miles I did this whole year. I totally remember (not too long ago!) when I had a hard time figuring out how to run 25 miles in a week without getting injured. Then I thought 30 was a big week... then 40 was a big week. Now 50 is normal and I'm trying to get to the point where 70 is normal. It's all relative, isn't it? One thing I know for sure is that running 30-35 miles/week does not work for me... I've been running for ~17 years now and it's taken me this long to get to the point where I can handle the volume I think I actually need to run the way I actually want to run. I think about what works for me in swimming... high volume and frequency. What works in biking? Lots of miles and riding frequently. I've never really run lots of miles before so that's the route I'm going in 2012. Stay tuned to see how it works. ;)

Opportunities

2011-12-07T15:08:00.000-10:00

So I was back out on my bike today. I think this was my fourth ride since I started back last week and its so cool because every ride is just a little bit better than the one before... that makes me super motivated and leaves me wanting to ride more often! Last week when I was a bit concerned about how weak my legs felt, Lucho assured me that it would take about a week to get much of that muscular endurance back and of course he was right. I'm not as strong as I was in September but today I felt leaps and bounds stronger than I did last week. :)

I had the opportunity to practice changing a flat tire today. It's been quite a while since I've had a flat... seriously maybe August was the last one? Even though I've probably changed 50+ flat tires over the years, I always get nervous when it's time to load up that CO2 cartridge... I've screwed it up a couple times before and since usually I'm riding alone and only carry one tube/CO2, well, if I screw it up I'm stranded and looking to hitch a ride. I suppose I should carry two but I like just having the little saddle bag on my bike and only one spare tube fits in there... That's why I carry my phone I suppose. Two flat tires would = a phone call for a ride home.

Anyway, at one point when I was riding and drops of sweat started dripping down on my sunglasses I thought about how grateful I am that I have the opportunity to ride outside all year long without completely freezing my ass off. It was ridiculously windy today (that is really nothing new) yet I managed to keep a really positive attitude about it today (that is kind of something new). I was actually rather proud of myself for not getting all pissy... instead of bitching to myself under my breath (or actually swearing out loud) I thought about how grateful I am that I have access to this uninterrupted stretch of rather flat road that almost universally presents me with 15-20mph headwinds (for like an hour). What a super opportunity to do big gear strength intervals! So I popped it into my 53/11 and spent about an hour just grinding away (GGRRRRRRR) and building back my bike specific strength. Amazing how just framing it differently in my head made the whole ride a completely different experience from what it could have been.

Speaking of positive opportunities, Recovery e21 is taking applications for their 2012 Triathlon Team until Dec 15. I haven't talked a lot about this awesome all-natural electrolyte supplement lately but rest assured I still take them every time I have even a remotely key workout where I want my leg muscles to function. I still don't know exactly how this stuff works (maybe it's the magnesium?) but it's effects are black and white to me... when I take it I feel better than when I don't! I take it before, during, and after hard training and somehow my legs feel less pounded and sore than they otherwise would (or do if I forget to take it). Anyway, I'm proud to represent this company and this product and if you want to do so as well, get your application in this week. It's a great opportunity!

The Double RoughWater Swim 2011

2011-12-04T16:10:00.000-10:00

I'm trying to decide whether or not that was fun.

In the beginning it was fun. Toward the end of the swim it was not fun. But then we finished and got dry and started drinking champagne. Then it was fun again. :)

Sitting right here at my computer (even though the buzz has mostly worn off) I hardly even remember how irritated I was in the last ~30' of that swim.... even though I specifically reminded myself to not forget how shitty that was. Hmmm. Our brains are funny. I won't soon forget the jellyfish stings though b/c I am starting to get welts all over my body and they itch like mad.

OK, back to the beginning. Check out my awesome supporters! Scott lead me on his surf board and Moana hung out and played on the beach with a friend of mine. Moana loves being body marked.

Can you believe this is Moana's 4th time at this race!?! She is a seasoned veteran at this point. I just read over my Double RoughWater reports from 2008 (the year I was 6 weeks post-partum) and 2009 (the year I was pregnant and they should have called it The SmoothWater Swim) and 2010 (the year of the torrential downpour and nasty brown water). Kinda funny to read those b/c they bring back memories... though I should have read them over again before this morning because then I would have remembered that every year this race starts with a very unceremonious yell of the word "GO!" while we are all standing on the beach chit chatting and then we all look around at each other and wonder was that really it? And then we run into the water and start swimming. Same same this year.

Scott and the other escorts were waiting out at the first turn buoy that is maybe 800M off shore.

It was a little windy this morning but didn't seem crazy or anything (at first). I felt good and strong and confident and felt like I was swimming well. That's pretty much the story of the first 90'. Boring I know, but that's life when you're ocean swimming.

I definitely noticed that the water was not as clear this morning as it typically is. Seemed very opaque (not necessarily brown/dirty but just not at all clear). Turns out the water was just pretty much thick with jellyfish and if we weren't swimming into jellyfish we were swimming into jellyfish bits and pieces. I was getting stung a little on the way out but not really worse than other times I've been out there so it didn't bug me too much. But then it got bad.

~90' into the swim I swam through what felt like some of the worst jellyfish swarm I've ever been through. At that point it was like adding insult to injury b/c while I felt like I was swimming fairly strongly, the wind chop was very challenging to swim through and it was tough to get a good grip on the water when it's moving like that.... and seemed like it was just taking freaking forever to get back (I was not imagining this- found out at the end I was 53' out and 1:13 back! Clearly I was stuck in a wicked current b/c usually our splits are more like 1:03/:59- usually its a little faster coming back, not 20' slower!) Anyway, choppy opaque water, strong head current, wicked jellyfish stings... twice on the way back I stopped and asked Scott if we were even moving?? Where the hell was that turn buoy?? Ugh. I was over it at that point. Apparently Scott was over it too- he told me afterward that the chop was so bad that he had a hard time keeping up with me on his surfboard (hence there are no videos from this part b/c he couldn't just leisurely paddle with one hand next time me like he did on the way out when the chop was going with us...). The thoughts going through my head were significantly less happy at this point... I was thinking about how much Benadryl I was going to have to take later to avoid the huge itchy welts I was surely going to have all over my body.... and I was having thoughts like I am not a terrorist why am I being subjected to this electric shock torture?? It was bad. Just shocking sting after shocking sting and it seemed there was no way out of it and I could not see them- only felt them. It really did feel like torture.

(While sharing war stories afterward pretty much everyone had the same story- wicked jellyfish stings the whole time. Nalani said she was grabbing them and pulling her way through them- like swimming through jello. But not quite as fun as that would be...)

Anyway, I was swimming as well as I could have and I never felt super tired or anything (which is a result of all that swimming I have done these last 6 weeks) but it didn't really feel like I was 'racing' either... mostly b/c no one was around me for much of the time. About 50-60 people were there swimming this year (bigger than years past) and I was 10th out OA, 6th woman and 1st on my age group. Once again the women totally outclassed the men at this event. Top 2 finishers were men but then Vicky was 3rd and Nalani was 4th OA... 5 more people were enough ahead of me that there was no chance of me catching, and there was no one within striking distance behind me either so I did not have to bust ass or race to the finish or anything. This picture of the finish shows about how lonely it was. :) And I know this looks calm and easy... and in the channel coming in it was calm! The chop crap was probably 3/4 of a mile off-shore where we did the bulk of the swim.

So I won my age group which was cool (4th year in a row) but really I'm just lucky that I am old and all the fast female fishes are younger than me. :) Top 3 women were 30-34 then the next 2 were 25-29. 2:06 was only a minute faster than last year and 8' slower my fastest time but as I always say, conditions make such a huge impact in a race like this. I did feel stronger this year than I have ever been before at this race though so it's a bit disappointing to have had it take so long but it is what it is. In good news, this swim did not trash me anywhere near the degree it has trashed me in the past (the champagne afterward, well, that's another story! :)

Starting tomorrow I'm going to hang my swim suit up for a while and become a runner.

New People At The Pool

2011-12-02T16:03:00.000-10:00

So this morning, as is typical for a Friday morning, I was sitting on the edge of the pool deck chatting with Nalani when we saw a rather fit looking woman walking toward us. She looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't place her though I knew she was not someone I'd seen at this pool before. My friend Marcy was there and introduced the athletic woman as Melanie McQuaid. Ah ha! THAT is how I recognized her.

You know what is cool? When you are confident enough in your swim fitness to say to a 3x World Champion, Hey, wanna swim with us? She accepted my offer and after a long w/u we ended up spending 1800 quality meters together this morning. Ok technically she spent them closer to Nalani given that I was off the back a bit desperately trying to chase, but nonetheless, cool.

That was way better than my experience with another new woman at the pool this past Wednesday... I was about to get in to swim next to her and before she even saw me swim she told me to hold my line so I wouldn't run into her (no lane lines, remember?) I was like, um, ok. I wanted to snap back with something about how I'd been swimming at this pool for 7 years now and her first time here she's giving me instructions about how to do it?? Just keep your trap shut, Michelle. I was good and held my thoughts to myself but I'm telling you, this woman wore fins the whole time and I was swimming dead center on my line when she kicked me (how she managed that I have no idea??). Apparently she should have been more concerned about her own ability to hold a line.

Anyway, this week just flew by. I just spent the whole day sitting right here in front of my computer working. I've got an awesome crop of athletes right now, 13 of whom are building toward an Ironman next year (only 2 of which are first-timers). I love Ironman.

The Ocean Around Oahu

2011-11-30T10:49:00.000-10:00

Some random stuff for you on a Wednesday...

Just saw a cool video clip of amazing Australian Ultra Swimmer Penny Palfrey who (yesterday) broke the record (again) for the Kaiwi Channel swim... that would be Moloka'i to Oahu and she did it in just over 12 hours. I look at those conditions and salivate. I hope it's just like this on Sunday! Not that I have much interest in swimming for 12 hours, but 2 hours in conditions like that would be epic and a heck of a lot of fun! I wonder if Penny will hang around this weekend for the Double Roughwater Swim and take us all to school?? I sent her a FB message and asked her to.

Speaking of fun(?) ocean conditions, here's what North Shore Oahu (this is Waimea Bay) looks like in winter. Not sure why this guy is trying to stand up paddle at Waimea when shorebreak is like 3x overhead? I saw a follow up picture on FB and, well, that wave did indeed take him to school. I bet he won't try that again.

It's Like Riding A Bike

2011-11-28T15:54:00.000-10:00

Last night I spent a bit of time on Training Peaks and looked through some of my training from last year... I gotta say, it was really quite fun/amusing to read through my bike/run workouts from January... that was my first real foray into HR training the right way (vs just wearing a HR monitor and watching what my HR did rather than actually changing anything up because of it)... I smiled as I read my notes about how frustrated I was going so slowly on the run trying to keep my HR in range... For many reasons (and that review process is the main one) I'm glad I always keep good detailed notes of each training session.

Anyway, what was especially fun was to read back on my bike workouts and what I was feeling that first month. My bike fitness progressed a ton faster than my run fitness last year and it wasn't long at all before I was riding a pretty decent pace at a rather low HR and according to my notes I was always amazed at how I didn't feel smashed or anything after some fairly long (yet not that slow!) workouts. And that meant I could back up every workout with another workout and another workout... solid stuff and I loved it.

So I haven't been riding my bike much at all since Ironman. Maybe a couple little rides here and there but nothing longer than maybe 40' and all on my road bike just la la la sight-seeing like a tourist. But I've been feeling some motivation to get back on my bike lately so today I got out my TT bike and my Garmin and actually did a short ride with some HR guidelines in mind. I was completely mentally prepared to cruise at my tourist pace since that's what I had to do last year for a few weeks as I was getting back into biking... but interestingly, that was not the case today! I was surprised to see that my HR was acting like it was August instead of late November. Apparently all that work I did last year (and progress I made!) did not just melt away in my 6 weeks off the bike. Nice! So looks like this year I won't have to spend a couple months just getting my aerobic system in place... it's still there... yay! Instead I'll get to focus on strength right from the start- which I think was my limiter on the bike last year. It's fairly common to have strength limiter so I am not alone there, BUT I am looking forward to seeing how strong I can get on the bike in 2012. In all honesty going into Kona last month I was fairly confident in my biking ability but I was quickly very humbled by how fast some of those other girls were riding... Interestingly, rather than feeling intimidated by that, I find myself feeling inspired. I can do that too. I know I can. I am feeling motivated! :)

My Happy Place

2011-11-27T18:14:00.000-10:00

Well you will all be happy to know that I broke my funk! Mamasimmons is back. Phew! All it took was a 2+ hour run with 1700ft of climbing. :)

I think I was just missing the challenge of having any real 'meaty' workouts this week so it was awesome to go to my favorite route and run it feeling like something other than a lumbering elephant. It is certainly the case with me that I need to have good solid challenges on my plate. This run took me to my happy place.

Interestingly (don't tell my husband) I could not stop thinking about UltraMan during this run... and what a cool challenge that would be... I have some serious curiosity about just how hard it must be given that super ultra athletes Rich Roll and Jonas Colting both dropped out and DNF'd... If you've been following it this weekend you know they all mentioned the wind and they were not kidding- this really was one of the windiest weekends we've had all year with sustained winds of 20-30+mph. That's just relentless crap to ride through- and shoot, that kind of wind is tough to run through too! Anyway, we'll see if this UltraMan fantasy of mine is just a passing phase or if it actually becomes a goal at some point... I was thinking today that it would be super cool to go crew for someone next year and that would obviously give me more insight and probably set me straight and cure any crazy thoughts I might have about doing it myself. Or not.

In My Head

2011-11-26T15:08:00.000-10:00

I've written like 3 different blog posts over the past week but have yet to hit publish on any of them. Do you ever go through periods where you just don't think that people really need to know what's going on in your head? That's where I'm at right now. Sometimes I read over what I write and wonder does anyone actually care about this crazy stuff going on in my head and in my world? And then I just save it and figure that since the benefit of writing it all out is actually just for me to sort out my own thoughts that I don't have to actually hit the publish button it to get what I want/need. So sorry, you're missing out on my deepest thoughts this week but here's some 'surfacy' stuff that you probably don't care about either. ;)

And just for the record, I'm not injured. I'm not pregnant. I'm not getting divorced. There is nothing crazy/big going on in my world... just in my head. Honestly, I think I'm in a bit of a tailspin because I'm just basically in between goals at the moment and don't know what to do with myself without some big race that I care about coming up at some point soon. Ok, the Double Roughwater is next week but somehow in my head that does not count as a 'big race' that I actually care about. Isn't that funny? I bet you guys all thought that I would really care about that one but it's just sort of another swim that I enjoy but it's not even on the same plane as 'Ironman' or anything to me. So of course I'll do the best I can at that swim but I'm not like banking my year on it or anything. It's just a fun challenge that I do every year.

And I'm not running the Honolulu Marathon. I got my race number thingy in the mail thing the other day... I entered the marathon last January when it was $35 for residents... I figured that $35 was not a bad price to pay to have the option of running it if I felt like I wanted to come December... I would never pay $180 or whatever it is to run that marathon (or any marathon for that matter!) which is what it costs if you miss the early entry. (Isn't it funny I'd pay $35 to not run but wouldn't pay $180 to actually run? Ha!) Anyway, I just don't feel like my running is at a point where I would cross the finish line of the marathon feeling like YES! THAT was awesome. I think I could put together a decent but not *super* (for me) marathon right now but running a marathon just to run a marathon when I don't think I'd be super happy with my result doesn't excite me much. (I'm too hard on myself at the finish line of run races so anything slower than what I really think I could do would be dissatisfying and I just don't feel the need to put myself through that again.) Honestly, it's not worth the recovery time to me when all I really want to do is train. I am enjoying run training right now and just want to keep on keepin' on and that does not involve resting for and recovering from a marathon.

Moving on. I did run a rather disappointing 1/2 marathon last weekend. It wasn't actually truly terrible until the last 3 miles... which I guess are pretty much universally terrible in 1/2 marathons but really this was like all of a sudden I'd picked up a 3000lb grand piano and put it on my back to carry up and over Diamond Head at the end. True story- While I was 'running' those last 3 miles I had the thought that 9' pace was actually a decent pace to be moving given that 3000lb piano on my back. Ha! Interestingly 4 days later I ran a 10 mile Turkey trot on the same course, called it a tempo run in my head (instead of a 'race'), felt absolutely horrible warming up, yet ended up coming through 10 miles faster than I did the first 10 miles of the half marathon and feeling 100x stronger. That sort of just solidified in my head that some days are just better running days than others. Go figure.

Anyway, we had a nice Thanksgiving. Nalani's family has the brilliant idea of having pie and coffee for breakfast on the beach (isn't that a wonderful Thanksgiving tradition?!?). So then later when you're stuffed from Turkey and potatoes and green beans you don't also have an obligatory piece of pie to stuff down. If you eat the pie in the morning after a solid 10 mile tempo run you can really enjoy it. :) Anyway, I thought it was brilliant. And here's what it looked like...

Twinkle Think... Twinkle Think...

2011-11-23T19:00:00.000-10:00

Moana had a party at pre-school today and came home with a helium balloon. She let it go when she came inside and it ended up on the kitchen ceiling. It was cute to watch her drag a chair under the balloon and stand on it to grab it and pull it down. I gave her a high five b/c she was super proud of herself for 'solving the problem'.

Mama! I solved the problem!! Mama mama mama I solved the problem! Mama I solved the problem! Mama mama mama... (she is in the repeat everything 100x stage... that I hear lasts until she's about 13).

A few minutes later (after re-creating and solving the same problem several times) she let go of the balloon in our living room and then let out a very loud SHRIEK when she realized that vaulted ceilings provide a problem that cannot be solved with a chair. There was quite a bit of serious (and rather obnoxious) whining at first. Since we watch Sesame Street pretty much every day, we were able to calm her down by telling her that we need to Twinkle Think... Twinkle Think... (if you have a toddler you probably understand this reference... if not, use your imagination) about how to solve this new problem. That made her smile and eventually with the use of a broom pole daddy helped her solve the problem.

All this problem solving reminded me how much I enjoy solving problems. That I am indeed happiest when I have a problem to solve. Right now I have a couple of problems that, in the big scheme of things, are not very big problems, but they are problems for me nonetheless. One of these problems is that my running is (still) slower than I want it to be... which I know is not a unique problem and it is, indeed, a problem I have had for, well, let's see, since I started trying to run? Maybe it's a problem I'll never truly 'solve', because really, how many people truly think I am really happy with how fast I am running... Um, is there anyone who thinks that?? So this problem of mine is rather universal yet I whine about it sometimes even though I know that is very obnoxious. Anyway, I have spent a good amount of time Twinkle Thinking and hopefully have come up with some potential solutions. Unfortunately, this one won't be solved in a matter of about a minute with a long broom, but I think some diligent smart work over the next several months will point me in the right direction.

Keeping The Dermatologist In Business

2011-11-22T21:17:00.001-10:00

So today I made my annual trek to the dermatologist. We have Kaiser insurance which has turned out to be way better than I anticipated... mostly b/c the folks at Kaiser understand and promote preventative medicine better than what I experienced when I had a regular open health insurance. Anyway, they know ~~I am a crazy triathlete who spends too many hours in the sun~~ my health history and consequently send me appointment cards in the mail telling me I have an appt to come in b/c they want to make sure to get rid of all my little pre-cancerous spots before they become a big deal.

Anyway, I took Moana with me and she was just awesome the whole time. She loves going to the doctor! Go figure. At her 3 year appt she got 3 vaccines and a TB test and didn't even flinch when the needles went in (and she watched! Brave girl!)... so today while doc was freezing my spots off I was totally pretending to be as brave as she was... though I was not watching... not that I could have seen anyway. Most of my spots were on my upper back and neck and, um, that freezing stuff stings. And then it burns. And then it blisters. OUCH. In all I had 7 spots that he thought were pre-cancerous and one that had developed further into a basal cell on the back of my neck that he actually numbed up and cut out today. Of course my first/only question before I let him cut was Am I going to be able to swim because I have a swim race in less than two weeks so if not I can come back after and you can cut away all you like but he assured me I could swim tomorrow no problem. Phew.

In more good news, he said I didn't have anything else that looked serious, though he did move me up to the 6 month appointment slot vs the annual one so clearly I'm not off the hook here. Now all of you who live where the sun don't shine all winter can give a little nod of thanks that you don't have to worry about this stuff as much as we do here in the land of year round ocean swimming and sleeveless bike jerseys and zinc sunscreen.

(And before any of you go ape shit on me about not wearing enough sunscreen, you should know that 100% of my basal cells and pre-cancerous spots have come on my upper body where I was exposed to mantle field radiation 12 years ago during treatment for Hodgkin's Disease. I can lather on sunscreen all day and I am still going to be at higher risk than you due to this history.)

Reflections: The Swim Block

2011-11-16T09:30:00.000-10:00

First, by the numbers:
~50,000 meters done in 11 swims over 8 days in 5 different pools and two ocean locations. (Estimated 50,000 b/c ocean swims are not exact, but it's pretty darn close.) I didn't keep track of exact minutes or anything but logged ~16 hours of swim time. All that done with 1 awesome training partner who made it way more fun than it would have been solo.

Most challenging part:
~Finding the time to do it all... This was more challenging logistically than say a bike or run week would be simply b/c of pool hours and availability we had to work around. Good thing we had the ocean as an option as well.

The hardest workout:
~ The first one last week Wednesday 5 x 1000's. That workout trashed me. Lucky for me we got to do that one twice.

The least enjoyable workout:
~The second one last Thursday morning. I was still trashed from Wednesday and the water was freezing and it was dark out the whole time.

The most enjoyable workout:
~Tuesday morning sunrise ocean swim. It was simply gorgeous and glassy and glorious. Swimming doesn't really get much better than that.

The biggest surprise:
~That we both swam right through the fatigue and actually felt better as the block went on (rather than worse as I expected). Not only did we feel better, we swam faster at the end. It was awesome to do the test 1000's at the start and the finish of this week... Interestingly, my slowest one this morning was faster than my fastest one last week... In total I dropped 93 seconds (combined total for 4x1000's) with the last two each being a full 30" faster than the last two I did last week.

More deep thoughts about swimming a lot... These might seem a bit rambling but remember I just spent ~16 hours swimming so I had lots of time in my own brain... In no particular order...

~When you swim 3x/week for maybe 2-3 hours total, swimming is not nearly as natural and automatic as it becomes when you spend 16 hours/week doing it. If you want to feel more natural and confident in the water, spend a lot of time there.

~ I was very rarely bored in the pool. Go figure.

~I was crazy stiff/tight for the first ~3 days and then either it got better or I became numb to it but I swear right now I am not as tired/fatigued/sore as I was on Friday. I talked to Lucho about it yesterday and told him that I expected to feel like I was sliding right down the side of a mountain all week and was nervous about how quickly I felt like I was descending last week Thursday (day 2!). I was rather certain that by Sunday I would have been in the depths of hell on those 100x100's... But instead of sliding down out of control, by the 4th day I got my grip and actually started clawing my way back up. And then by day 6 I found myself climbing a whole different mountain- one that was higher than the one I was on last week.

~While I would admit that it was common for me to wake up in the morning feeling like I'd been hit by a bus, by the time I got up and had some coffee and hopped in the pool and got going I was okay. Same story told by Nalani so it's not like I am a freak of nature here- she fared physically and mentally pretty much exactly like I did.

~Surprisingly, I did not need a feed bag all week. Maybe a little more hungry than normal but not ridiculously so. I did find that I was very thirsty and my skin was very dry (there were days- ok really that was just Monday- where I swam doubles where I didn't even get out of my bathing suit between swims- true story- and I swear I felt like my skin was fuzzy from the chlorine. Nasty.) I also felt sleepy a lot and stiff especially through my upper body but also my legs.

~Pretty much universally when I swam doubles I felt physically better on the second workout of the day. That's the same story I've got for running so maybe afternoons are just a better time for me physically?

~Where's the physiology in what we found out this week? I don't really get it... science would say that as we use our muscles a lot and get fatigued that we would perform worse, not better. The improvement/adaptation part is supposed to come after we allow our bodies an opportunity to recover, which, when we're swimming 2x/day doesn't seem like recovery? I mean, Sunday 10,000M, Monday swam twice for 6700M, Tuesday swam twice for 6500M, then this morning swam faster than I've swam in years? Hmmm. I would say that yes, physically I felt better but that maybe the biggest difference was in my head... My confidence this morning was sky high and I had that Eminem song in my head (I'm Not Afraid) as I just ripped off evenly split 1000's that just got progressively faster as the swim went on. I knew I was not going to fall off any cliffs and I think the confidence I gained this week was the biggest benefit of doing the swim week.

~I'm really glad we did this swim block. Like I said above, the biggest benefit for me may have been emotional/mental vs physical... I thought it was super cool to pay attention to how my body was physically responding and teach myself that my limits are so much further out there than I even thought they were. This week, while challenging, did not put me at my physical limit (as far as volume goes) which of course begs the question- Where's the limit? I still don't know... which is rather cool I think. I absolutely loved the challenge of this though.

~I don't think I'll repeat this swim block in the near future, primarily because I don't think it is the wisest way for me to spend my training time and energy. The swim is not my limiter. I will say though that after this week I am now in love with the idea of sport specific blocks and without question I will be putting in some very big bike and run weeks in 2012. I feel like this week was further proof that our bodies adapt to whatever stresses we place upon them. Guess what kind of stress I'm going to apply next? ;)

If you have any other burning questions about this swim block, feel free to ask below... I'm happy to answer!

Sunrise Swimming

2011-11-15T10:13:00.000-10:00

This morning I dragged myself out of bed at o'dark-thirty to go swimming again. We dove in the ocean just as the sun was coming up and I found myself breathing.every.single.stroke because this is what my view looked like. It turned out to be one of the most glorious swims we've had all year. I really have nothing to complain about.

Going Fast Is Harder Than Going Long

2011-11-13T15:55:00.000-10:00

Spoiler alert! Swimming 100x100's is not that hard.

Really, it wasn't! I'd say the hardest part was arranging the logistics and finding a pool that was open when we needed it to be open... Once that part was set it was just mind over matter in getting it done. I will say though, had we tried to do this at the Marine Corp base where the water is not heated I likely would not have made it. As it was, I had goosebumps for the last ~30x100's and the water we were in was probably near 80 degrees. BUT, there was a hot tub and it was indeed hot and we hung out there post swim for ~10' and then I was totally fine and started drinking beer. :)

Back to the beginning... last night I was packing my bag with everything I thought I would need for this morning and I counted out 100 raisins and put them in a little baggie for Nalani... she loves raisins and I thought it would be a fun little treat for her to eat one after each repeat. I knew we would not actually need those raisins to keep count (we had watches for that) but it was still kind of a fun little gimmick to help pass the time nonetheless.

The place we swam this morning had both a short course pool and a long course pool... unfortunately we were relegated to the short course pool to start which was a bit of a bummer but beggars cannot be choosers so we did not complain at all! We spent the first 20 x 100's warming up and kept the pace super relaxed. First 10 @ 1:40, next 10 @ 1:35 and we cruised 1:23-1:25 for those.

The next 40 were the meat of the whole set... originally planning to do 40 @ 1:40 but that was assuming longcourse so we changed it to @1:30 since we were shortcourse... I do think 1:30 SCY is easier than 1:40 LCM but then flip turns are a strength for me... anyway, we got through 4 of them and then got the tap that the LCM pool was open for us... YAY! So we gathered our stuff and moved to the other pool and restarted the 40 @ 1:40. It was not hard to keep count for those either b/c 10@1:40 takes 16:40 and every time my watch got to 16:40 I hit split so it started over and we just did that until we got to 16:40 4x. Again, we just swam steady effort and came to the wall 1:32-1:34 for each of those and just kept knocking them out. No real speed involved there but we did not fatigue or slow down at all either.

With 60 down (really 64!) we were over the hump (and it seemed like just about done really) we got our toys (play time!) and pulled the next 10 easy with just a buoy @1:45 (mostly this was like a mental break), then put on our paddles and swam 10 with just paddles @1:40... Then the plan was to finish up the last 20 with paddles, bands, buoy @1:40 again but BONUS we had already done those 4 in the scy pool so we really only had 16 left to hit 100! And honestly, after 84 x 100's, 16 felt like nothing and they went by in a flash. We were a bit fatigued at the end of course but I wouldn't say I felt worse at the end than I did after the first 60... and in the end we both agreed that a 20 mile run is harder. Shoot, even a 10K run where you're racing is harder. A 2.4 mile ocean swim race is harder. Shoot- even those 5 x 1000's we did on Wednesday felt harder... reduce the intensity down to nothing but steady and volume is really not that hard once you wrap your mind around doing it.

Going fast is way harder than going long. That's all I'm saying.

The funniest part of the morning... somewhere around like #75 I started smelling hamburgers on the grill. Um, really!?! People are grilling burgers right now?!? What kind of sick cruel joke is THAT?? In the 7" we had at the wall I asked Nalani if she also smelled it (was I hallucinating??) and she said yes and I swear I spent the next several 100's almost choking on the water b/c I was laughing so hard at the thought that these people were relaxing poolside with a big juicy burger while Nalani was treating herself to a single raisin after every 100! HA! That just seemed hysterically funny to me at the time. I'm totally craving a burger right now but I have not had one yet. Though I did bring a couple of beers in a cooler and we sat outside the pool under a tree and enjoyed them immensely. :)

Saturday

2011-11-12T13:21:00.001-10:00

Let's see... I'd say I'm 1/2 way through the big swim week but I have not done my swim yet today so not quite there... but it will only be 3K this afternoon and not that hard so I'm not the least bit concerned about it. Today is the easiest swim day on our schedule, primarily b/c it falls between the 7K ocean swim (yesterday) and the 100x100's (tomorrow).

So we were pleasantly surprised yesterday that the conditions for our ocean swim did not suck. I do think it's always good to mentally prepare for THE WORST and then when it's not that bad it seems downright pleasant! :) The weatherman totally botched the forecast for this weekend... It has not really rained at all so I don't know what that forecast about rain rain rain for 3 days in a row was about. Yesterday in town it was all blue sky and a few puffy white clouds and we were like, um, this does not look like what we thought it was going to look like! I chose to wear a wetsuit though during that long ocean swim and I'm glad I did b/c it allowed me to relax and cruise at an easier effort than normal... and then my lips did not turn blue and I was not shivering at the end so that was a big bonus too. We made it all the way to the Ala Wai Channel Marker buoy and back so basically the whole Double Roughwater course. Thinking about it today I would say that it really wasn't that bad but I will admit that after about 90' of swimming yesterday I was thinking that I was OVER IT and actually started day dreaming about running. Miracles never cease I guess.

Interestingly, this morning when I woke up I actually felt better than I did yesterday morning. My fatigue is actually less after the third day than it was after the second day. In fact, my whole upper body feels rather normal right now. Go figure. Ask me again Monday morning and I may have a different story though?

For a while yesterday our 100x100's were in jeopardy.... scheduling challenges that moms have to deal with when their husbands have stuff they want to do too meant that we needed to get that swim done in the morning instead of the afternoon but finding a pool that is open on Oahu on a Sunday morning is no easy task... I thought briefly about hopping the fence to get into our normal pool b/c really, I'm sure no one would even see us in there (and it's not like I haven't hopped fences to get into swimming pools before but I guess that was college and we were drunk and I really should not tell that story b/c, well, the police were involved and my mom reads this blog and anyway...) This community is so awesome and when I put the SOS out there yesterday Kim came through in an amazing way and figured out how to get us in to a private pool... and not just any pool... a HEATED long course pool... with lane lines. We will not know what to do with ourselves!!! Rumor has it there is also a hot tub there and a sauna... OMG. I will take pictures and post about that tomorrow. Epic workout is back ON and we owe a big thanks to Kim and Coach Joe for helping us make it happen.

I was asked if I am also running during this swim block... yes... am running! Mileage is cut down of course but I'll still get in ~35 miles this week and ~40 next week so definitely not cutting it out. I'm running a 1/2 marathon next weekend so it'll be interesting to see how that goes after all this swimming.

Did I mention we are going to a Chocolate Party tonight? I know. Perfect fueling for the 10K swim tomorrow morning. Moana is going to be a complete spaz. This will actually be her third time attending this annual party. Last year she made the evening news because she was so cute- all covered with chocolate and a big goofy grin on her face.

Swimming A Lot Kicks My Ass

2011-11-10T14:58:00.000-10:00

Ok so we're ~1/4 of the way through... 12K of swimming done in the last 30 hours... that's about our weekly average when Ironman training (we did not swim that much all spring/summer just like 3x/week) and I am feeling it!

Yesterday we did our 5 x 1000's and they went pretty much as I thought they would. I managed to hold a steady pace with each one getting just slightly faster... the 5th one was 10" faster than the 2nd one (1st one was w/u) so they were all right there in a tight range avg 5-6"/100 slower than my t-pace in that pool. Given how I feel at this moment (after swimming twice today) I would say I'll be surprised if I can repeat that next Wednesday but we'll see. I've heard stories from cyclists who have done RAAM and they've said that while the fatigue in the beginning is high that by the end they are feeling stronger and stronger every day... that would be super if that happened but I am not holding my breath!

Our normal pool does not open until 8:30 on Tues/Thurs so Nalani and I decided to go over to a pool at Pearl Harbor (military base) this morning. It opens at 5 so she came to get me at 4:30 and I had the coffee brewed. I had flashbacks of my high school days and waking up in the middle of the night waiting for one of my teammates to come get me to drive me to swim practice (I was too young to drive). I did not drink coffee back then so I really don't know how I did it. I guess 15 year olds are just resilient like that?? Anyway, it wasn't until we arrived at the pool that I remembered how lucky and spoiled we are that our normal pool is heated... this one is not. And it was dark and very windy at 5AM and I know everyone hates it when I bitch about being cold when it is 70 degrees but I'm telling you... 70 degrees (it might have been less than that?) and no sun and 20+mph wind and an unheated pool for 4400 yd just left me completely shivering and with muscles that did not even feel functional. I will say it was nice that this pool had lane lines and a pace clock, but I will take heated water over lane lines and a pace clock any day. And let's face it, long course yards is just weird. Who builds a long course yards pool??

So I spent much of the rest of the morning writing programs (and sending emails to several of my new athletes reassuring them that yes, it is ok to jog/walk that slow if you have to to keep your HR low... trust me... it works... be diligent...) and studying these animated videos of world record holder swimmers. Can you believe the kick on that guy? For 1500M he can do that! I watched that video for probably 10' with my jaw dropped open thinking I don't know if I could do that for a 50. I'm totally a 2 beat kicker- using my kick only for balance. I really get very little propulsion from my kick, as evidenced by the fact that when I tie my feet together I only slow down maybe 4"/100... as opposed to Nalani, who has a very effective (but still 2-beat) kick and slows by ~12"/100 with bands. Anyway, so this afternoon when we went back to swim we tried some 50's where we practiced kicking faster just to see if we could do it. Very interesting to feel how for the first few I really just did not have the motor coordination to kick like that... then my brain got in touch with my muscles and it became ever so slightly more natural. Still not something I'm going to strive to switch to b/c I think as a triathlete it's not really the best idea to use so much energy kicking like that, but nevertheless it's not a bad idea to have the ability to kick in your toolbox so you can call on it if it ever becomes appropriate or necessary.

Anyway, so I am a bit worried about this weekend. I think it's going to be more challenging than we originally anticipated for a couple of reasons... a) I'm more tired than I thought I would be on Day 2... b) Weather calls for rain, high winds and 7 ft waves (small craft advisory warning... WE ARE SMALL CRAFTS... we are advised) so the 7K Roughwater course is not going to be easy (or even pleasant) tomorrow morning... and c) The pool we're planning to go to on Sunday for the 100 x 100's is similar to the one we swam in this morning in that it is not heated. GAH! I am going to freeze to death.

Let The Swim Challenge Begin!

2011-11-08T15:28:00.000-10:00

OK so tomorrow starts our 8 day swim challenge! I've come up with an outline of the schedule... logistically how we are going to fit it all in... several double day workouts and hitting up 3 different pools (working around pool hours- ugh!) as well as the ocean on 2 of the days... and we should be able to get in 45-50K over the course of 8 days. The two key days are the 2+ hour ocean swim on Friday (with kayak assist) and 100x100's (long course meters!) on Sunday.

We are going to start with 5 x 1000's tomorrow... moderately strong effort... timed just to get a baseline. Mostly I am super interested in how much this swim challenge week is going to hurt/fatigue us, so as a fun experiment we are going to finish out the challenge next Wednesday with a repeat of the 5 x 1000's to see how our times compare (doesn't that sound like fun?). I'm expecting to see a bit of a drop off in times from start to finish but then I would think that after a couple further weeks of reduced workload maybe will see a bump... say if we were to repeat the set 3 weeks later... but honestly I have no idea how we will feel?!? I have never really done anything like this before... well not in my adult life anyway. I think I did when I was in high school but I don't remember keeping track of total yardage or really paying attention much at all. I just did what my coach said and consequently I just have vague memories of swimming ~6K in the mornings and ~4K in the afternoons... wincing if I were to massage my triceps and and feeling like a zombie much of the time. It's just a week this time though so I'm not all that concerned about it (maybe I should be more concerned?)

Anyway, when I consider my reasons for attempting this week here's what I come up with:

1. I'm fairly certain I *can* do it. And the fact that it is a different challenge outside my normal training challenges makes me *want* to do it. Just sort of a break up the 'normal' week type of thing. (I'm pretty sure this is Nalani's sole reason.)

2. I'm genuinely interested in my physical response to such a week? My guess is that in the short term I will feel some real fatigue and will likely be slower at the end of the week than I was to start it. But then I would expect to see a fitness gain after a bit of recovery time but I am curious as to how much that will be? Significant benefit or no? And how much recovery will be necessary prior to seeing a gain? Unanswered questions. I do think it's cool though that Nalani will be doing the whole week (ok really its 8 days) with me though b/c then rather than an "Experiment of One" it will be an "Experiment of Two". Will we respond the same way or not? Again, unanswered questions. But maybe some interesting answers?

3. I look forward to going through this experience myself b/c several of my athletes have inquired about wanting to do something similar so I'm sure I will learn some valuable lessons (make my mistakes on myself and my gracious guinea pig Nalani) rather than making them on you. :)

Anyone out there have experience with a big swim block like this? Any predictions on how the 1000's will go on the last day vs the first? (Nalani's big question revolves around how hungry we will be after all that pool time!!?)

My Perfect Saturday

2011-11-05T16:03:00.001-10:00

I'm not really sure I could have dreamed up a better Saturday? It went something like this:

5:20 Get up and come downstairs to check IMFL swim times. All 3 of my athletes did great (2-3' PRs for the experienced guys and a very solid one for my first-timer) so phew I can breathe and brew some coffee.

5:45 Brew 2 extra french presses of coffee and put them in an airpot so it'll stay hot and be ready for us post swim.

6:10 Go pick up Nalani for our run/swim in town. Girl talk in the car. Could have ended my day right there with that and would have been happy. But it gets better!

6:45 Plan to start the run with Elizabeth and Nalani but hang on I need to check my phone one more time for IMFL updates. Steady steady they are pacing well and doing awesome on the bike. Perfect. Ok let's run! 30' venting session with the girls was just what I needed... then let it go and let's chat about more pleasant things!

8:00 Plan to start swim but delay again b/c hang on I gotta check IMFL updates again. They are all still on the bike. From the splits it looks like it was windy. I rest assured that was not an issue for them based on what they trained in here. Let's swim!

8:30 I start to think that I was quite ambitious in planning an ocean swim that included 3 x 10' tempo sections when I am the weak link of our little trio. Um, I do not want to be swimming out here alone! Kill myself to hang on to Nalani's feet (and she was generous in cruising at a pace that allowed me to do so. Mahalo, Nalani!) I should probably note that I got a nasty sting from an unknown sea creature right across my cheek- OUCH- so I guess the day wasn't 100% perfect. But in good news, we managed to navigate through some pretty big waves and we didn't get pummeled so that was a relief.

9:45 Back to my phone for more updates... YES! Gene and Patrick both biked 5:18 and are now running at the pace they were planning to run. Sweet. See Scott and Moana who showed up at the beach park (with our dog!) as well as Elizabeth's husband/daughter (who is about 1 year older than Moana). Introduce the 2 little girls and watch them become instant friends playing in the sand and water. Really, there are not many things cuter than 2 little girls playing with sand toys at the beach like that! They were in heaven. As was Hoku who was just chasing her ball in the waves. Go get that airpot of coffee to share with my friends and spend the next hour chatting and drinking coffee on the beach while watching our daughters giggle and play. Lest you think my life is perfect I should mention that at one point I got sand in my coffee... one of the hazards of drinking coffee on the beach I guess. So again, not a *perfect* day but I won't complain! Lol. ;)

10:45 AWESOME. Gene and Patrick are both 1/2 way through the marathon and holding steady pace. Leigh is done with the bike and onto the run. Moana and Nalani and I pack up and head to another park to watch a kid's soccer game. I drive while Nalani uses my phone to get updates on everyone else we know who is racing.

Noon I start freaking out b/c ironman.com is freezing up and not giving updates anymore and OMG my athletes are just about to finish and OMG somebody please give me a freakin' update!!! Finally I see Patrick's come up 9:55 which is a 20' PR for him in his 2nd IM (first one same course in 2008). He stayed totally steady the whole day and even at the end was running only ~10 sec/mile slower than he started. I literally started to get tears in my eyes as I smiled and reported his finish to Nalani (I'm such a sap!). 20' later I finally get an update on Gene who finished with a 9' PR in 10:23. Bummer for Gene he got a respiratory infection on Thursday so he was off today but even his 'off' day was not bad at all. Like Patrick, he stayed super steady all day and executed his plan and finished running only ~20"/mile slower than he started. Never fell apart.

3:00 Moana is sleeping and my phone rings and it's Leigh... Calling to tell me about how she ran every step of that marathon- started at just over 9' pace and held that the whole marathon. 4:03! She said "Michelle I remember you telling me that if I was running 9 minute miles I'd be passing a lot of people and you were right! I was passing so many people!!" Leigh was just gonna do one Ironman and was hoping to break 14 hours. Today she went 12:26 and signed up for next year. Can I brag a little more and tell you that Leigh swam 52' in the last 70.3 she did but swam 1:15 this morning?!?

OK I am drinking a beer. Holy crap I'm pretty sure coaching Ironman is a hell of a lot more fun than racing one. ;)

Sidewalk Chalk Is Useful

2011-11-04T10:47:00.001-10:00

I've totally been into apples lately and have tried lots of different ones. At this point I'm rather convinced the 'honey crisp' ones from Costco are my favorites. They are juicy and crunchy. I don't like soft apples. Anyway.

I was supposed to do my first real track/speed workout yesterday but I felt like crap so I skipped it and slept instead. Actually, back that up- I was supposed to do it on Tuesday but it had been dumping rain so much that I knew our dirt track would actually be a mud pit so we ran hills instead and rescheduled track for Thursday. Excuses excuses, right? Gah! And this was a workout I was really looking forward to doing but it just wasn't happening.

Yesterday I battled that flu virus with my typical arsenal of fruits, vegetables, kefir, and apple cider vinegar 'tea' and woke up this morning feeling better. So I wanted to do that track workout! BUT, it really hasn't stopped raining all week so our track looks like this. While Moana would probably love to run through that, and I agree it has the potential to be fun, I opted not to do that today.

In good news, I can be quite resourceful in making things happen when I want them to... so this morning I powered up my garmin and borrowed a piece of pink sidewalk chalk from Moana (one of the many benefits of having a 3 year old is the endless supply of sidewalk chalk at the house) and jogged over to a quiet neighborhood a few miles away where there is actually a flat section of road... measured out and marked my distances and set to work.

It was a perfect workout this morning and I think I executed it exactly as it was meant to be and as I was jogging home I was thinking about how *ready* I felt to finally start that type of running. I've spent ~10 months just diligently establishing my aerobic fitness and I have this base that is so huge I feel like I can do just about any workout and absorb it and recover from it so much better than I've ever been able to do in the past. The workout I did this morning would have left me tired and sore last year... but this year it just left me invigorate and hungry for more.

I've got 3 athletes racing in Florida tomorrow and 1 in Vegas. Spent much of this morning talking the Florida ones ~~down off the cliff~~ through dealing with cold (they are also from here and 47 degree air temp is very cold for us!). I've lost some sleep this week thinking about them and their racing this weekend. I'm pretty sure I'm more nervous being on the sidelines watching than I would be on the start line racing.

My 'Off Season'

2011-11-01T18:17:00.003-10:00

In risk of stating the obvious, um, it's NOVEMBER. Time flies when you're having fun! Though I guess it would not be an untruth to say that Oct 1 seems like absolutely forever ago. Like seriously, wasn't it like a year ago that I was packing and getting ready to go to Kona? Had to have been at least a year.

So I'm not really employing 'off-season' in a typical sense of 'off-season' the way some people interpret 'off-season'. Let's face it, since it doesn't get cold and snow here in Hawaii, we don't feel the need to hibernate like some athletes who live in normal winter climates do. We still have some races coming up in the next couple months and while I would not say I'm taking them too seriously, I do like it that they give me a bit of a sense of purpose in training... or maybe I'm just using them as an excuse to train, which is what I really like to do... and I have to say, training for the sake of training because I simply enjoy training is awesome for me. It's been such a relief to go out and just run or swim... and just run or swim and not (over)analyze how every particular workout would/could/should affect a specific race performance. And I feel the freedom to experiment with different types of training too which is rather fun. For example, Nalani and I went out running this morning and at the end as we were finishing up and feeling like we had worthless wet noodles for legs, I commented that we had done this to ourselves with a total of 7 minutes of ridiculously hard work. 7 minutes. Amazing. But cool.

Another thing I'm thinking about employing is a big swim block (Lucho gave me the thumbs up on that today which definitely means we should do it)... thinking about trying to see if we can put together an 8 day block with ~40-50K of swimming... incorporating some double days and some long swim days... now would be the time to do that and benefit from it I think, and shoot, I just think it would be a fun/cool challenge. Especially given that Nalani is game to play too. Of course she is! I think we will start that next Wednesday. Stay tuned and I'll tell you more about it as I figure it out.

So I guess you could say that while my 'off-season' isn't a traditional physical break, it is most certainly a mental break because the way I am viewing my swimming and running right now. It's just fun. Even if it's a lot. And some of it is hard. (Notice I didn't mention my bike at all... that would be because I'm not spending much time on it. That is also the reason I am actually enjoying all this rain we are getting! Running in the rain = awesome. Biking in the rain right now would make me pissy. And I am not doing anything in my 'off-season' that would make me pissy.)

And in other fun news, check this video out. I got my TRX back out (yes it hangs in my living room) and Moana is enjoying it every bit as much as me. It's like an indoor swing set that requires a strong core.

My 3 Year Old Fairy

2011-11-01T09:41:00.000-10:00

Moana's life has been hectic this last week! I know my mom is dying for an update so here you go... :)

Thursday she turned 3. Scott's parents were here so we had a little birthday party for her and she enjoyed her cake. The icing was a bigger hit than the cake, for sure. (On Friday I had to throw the rest of the cake away b/c, well, sorry but I work from home and I have NO will power when there is cake in my house.) Moana got one of those balance bikes for her birthday so now she gets to ride bikes like mommy.

On Friday she got to go on a field trip with her school to the pumpkin patch, which is really just a farm in Waimanalo where they import a bunch of pumpkins and put them in a field... but we do what we have to do here in Hawaii where pumpkins do not grow on their own. Anyway, she came home with a white pumpkin. Interesting, I thought. I asked her if she got to pick out her pumpkin. "Yes! I picked out my pumpkin!" What color pumpkin did your friends pick? "Orange." Were you the only one who picked out a white pumpkin? "Yes." Wow. I thought that was so cool- the fact that at 3 years old she is confident enough to go against the grain and be the only one to pick out a white pumpkin. Good girl.

Saturday we went to the zoo with grandma and grandpa. What do you see?

Good thing grandma is strong!

Then yesterday was Halloween so of course we went out and taught Moana how to ask strangers for candy. (It did not take her long to get the hang of that.) The neighborhood we went to was all in when it came to this holiday... houses all decorated and everyone was gathered outside in their driveways (no need to ring any doorbells b/c everyone just sets up their candy tables in their driveways and blasts scary music and the kids just run up the driveways and collect their candy.) No kidding there were 300+ kids Trick-or-Treating there... plus all their parents as escorts... it was like a block party. Pretty fun. Moana was a bit intimidated by groups of older kids who were much more aggressive than she... but she learned to just sort of stand back and wait... just let them do their thing and then she would approach the driveways when there was adequate space.

In the last bit of Moana news today... Guess who had her first haircut last night? Nalani's mom cuts hair so she did the honors. She cut 4-5" off but it's still really long. (This pic is pre-cut.) Moana was a trooper and didn't mid getting it cut at all. One of her friends at school also just had her hair cut so I think that made it more acceptable. Maddy got her hair cut! Peer pressure can be awesome like that... in the same way last month it was Maddy wears big girl underpants...

Botanical Gardens and Old Pali Pictures

2011-10-30T12:01:00.000-10:00

It only rained on us a little this week so these pictures are missing the torrential downpour feel and the waterfalls and rainbows, but even without all that, it was still a pretty good run this morning.

Through the botanical gardens.

Most of the pics I took today look a lot like this. I should figure out my camera settings.

What does that sign say?

Whatever. Breakin' the law... breakin' the law...

The fun part... Old Pali.

All counted there are 6 gates to pass through on this run. Each way. They can try but they cannot keep us out.

Mountain running with an ocean view.

A Freebie Swim Workout

2011-10-26T14:42:00.000-10:00

Some days we just swim really easy. Today was not one of those days.

I know some people think swimming is boring or whatever but I promise you, if you're paying really close attention to splits and changing up your effort to try to hit different paces, swimming can be every bit as fun as a track workout. :)

Given that we're training for a 7K swim, our key days are at least 4K right now. Here's what we did today. Can modify/shorten it if you're looking to do a good quality swim workout but are training for something shorter... (And if you're one of my athletes maybe you saw a version of this on your calendar this week!)

1500 straight swim with paddles/bands/buoy. First 500 easy then descend the 500's from there. Take ~15" off each 500 (~3"/100) so you're finishing at a solid effort last 500. (And yes, I was checking my watch during flip turns so I knew my pace each 100.)

5 x 300's where the first 200 is steady effort (t-pace +3-4") and the final 100 is @t-pace (which feels hard at the end of a 300). Pick a send-off interval that gives you ~20" rest and repeat! If there's not 3-4" difference in pace between your first 100's and you last 100, you're going too fast on the 200. Slow it down so there's a difference in PACE, not just effort. Check your split at the 200 to make sure you're hitting the right paces.

2 x (100 fast, 2 x 150's moderate effort, 100 fast!) rest 1' between sets. Think of these as broken 500's. Interval for the first 100 is t-pace, so you have to swim faster than t-pace to even make the send-off (it's really touch-n-go), then the 150's settle into moderate effort but again, keep the interval tight so not much rest at the wall- like 10". We went on t-pace +10" for those. The 'rest' is more like active recovery during the 150's. Then you don't get much rest going into that final 100 so it's time to dig and get under t-pace again.

100 c/d easy. Finally. You get to go easy. And you get to stop thinking. :)

Blah blah blah...

2011-10-25T20:15:00.000-10:00

I spent a bunch of time thoroughly cleaning Moana's room (it's been a while). Since she is turning THREE on Thursday, all her 2T clothes got put in a box that I'm giving to a girlfriend who has an 18 month old daughter... I also got rid of a bunch of 'baby' stuff that we will not be needing. It felt ridiculously good to purge.

I went through my drawers as well... I have an insane amount of race t-shirts. While I don't mind giving many of them away, some I just feel a need to keep, even if I know I am never going to wear them. The oldest one I found was a Wildflower shirt from 1999. And why is it that I never wear my Ironman finisher shirts? I have a whole drawer full of them now and they are just taking up space. I cannot bring myself to throw them away but I cannot think of an occasion to wear any of them. So there you go. They just take up space as I find myself unable to purge them. (In the same vein I am unable to stop training for and racing them. Hmmm.) Maybe I should learn how to quilt.

In the midst of all the organizing I collected all of Moana's hair ties and headbands and barrettes and bracelets (they were scattered all over everywhere) and put them each in their own little bowl on her dresser. She got home and found the little bowls and exclaimed, "Look Mama! Accessories!" She then proceeded to pull down all the bowls and dump them out and play with all her accessories. Perfect. Her room was clean for like at least a couple of hours anyway.

You wanna know the trick to getting your 3 yo to eat broccoli? Steam it a bit and then pour a little good balsamic vinegar over it. Tonight Moana said, "More broccoli please!"

Moana insists every night that even if she does not finish her dinner, daddy is NOT allowed to eat it. Interestingly, it seems ok if I do.

Between bouts of cleaning and organizing, I am running. A lot. Lucho turned me into quite a durable athlete this year and I have found that the more I run, the more I thrive. I have not found my ceiling there yet, though I may try looking for it in the coming months.

Having Fun With Running!

2011-10-23T15:34:00.000-10:00

So I woke up early this morning... drank good coffee and listened to the rain pounding our roof and worked a bit until the sun was almost up... Put a long sleeve shirt on (first time all year I think?!?) and headed out the door to meet Nalani for a run. Running when the rain is coming down in buckets is our 'winter' running at its best.

I didn't bring my camera along this morning but in searching through my photo albums I found some shots from years past... given that this is my all time favorite run of course I have taken pictures before. What these shots are missing though are the raging waterfalls that were covering nearly every crevice in the sheer mountains and the double rainbows we saw as the sun was rising this morning. I made a comment to Nalani that even when it's raining this run is awesome. Her reply? Especially when it's raining.

It hasn't stopped raining here all day. I am completely tempted to go do this run again right now.

Having Fun With Swimming!

2011-10-22T13:58:00.000-10:00

This morning Nalani and I went to the beach to ocean swim with a new gal who may come on as an athlete of mine next year. Super cool gal- after we met her Nalani and I agreed that she would be hard not to like. :) She's also going to be hard to beat next year because without much ocean swimming experience she swam stroke for stroke with us for an hour... and she can run rather well. I can't wait to teach her how to ride a bike efficiently. Yikes! The gal has talent. Better yet, she's genuinely nice.

Anyway, there was a box jellyfish warning this morning but we ignored it and swam anyway and I'm so glad we did! It would have been a shame to miss today because the water was warm and clear and awesome. I'm fairly certain we had a tail current both ways which has never happened to me in 7 years of ocean swimming. But we swam out 30' and got way further than normal so we figured it would be a long ass haul back... yet interestingly, the return trip took right ~30'. Amazing. I will say though, as awesome as the water was, the best part about the swim today wasn't really the swim- it was the cool girls I did it with. :)

So here's a fun BatShitCrazy story for you... Driving home today Nalani and I started talking about epic swim workouts we could do leading up to the Double RoughWater Swim (coming up Dec 4). I threw it out there that we should do 50 or 60 x 100's... She said "Well if we're gonna do 50 we might as well do 60." Good point. I said then that maybe we should do 70 b/c that's about how long the Double Rough is. Nalani immediately nodded her head in agreement. "Yes, let's do 70," she said. How far would Nalani go? I pushed it to find out... Clearly I've been reading Hilary Biscay's blog too much so I threw it out there that we could try to tackle 100. The car was silent for ~3 seconds before Nalani got this giddy grin on her face and said "YES! Let's do THAT!" There's a reason why I love that girl. So the remainder of the car ride was spent trying to figure out the logistics of swimming 100 x 100's... it would have to be on a weekend b/c she does not have time to swim for almost 3 hours prior to work... but our pool is only open from 12-1 for lap swim on Saturdays so we would not have time to fit it in there... We settled on the Marine Corp base pool on Sunday, Nov 13... start time TBD. If you're local and you want in on part or all of that let me know. :)

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

2011-10-20T19:14:00.001-10:00

Mamas out there know that sometimes we have to play little tricks to get our kiddos to eat. Moana likes to take her time eating and I am not super patient about that so sometimes I find myself rushing her a bit. To be fair, if I don't, she'll take a full hour to eat three bites.

She knows from experience that her dad is like a garbage disposal and will eat her food if she doesn't eat it (He does not throw anything away. Ever.). It has happened that after he has eaten the rest of her dinner, she decides she actually wanted to eat it afterall. So it's become a little joke around here that she better eat her food before daddy eats it.

Tonight Scott was playing soccer so Moana and I were on our own for dinner. As is her pattern, she was taking her own sweet time to eat so I whispered that she should hurry up and hide her food in her belly before daddy comes home so he won't eat it. What a fun game, she thought! This worked for like two bites and then she thought maybe it would be just as good to hide her food near her belly under her shirt. I assured her that the best way was to *really* hide it by getting it into her belly through her mouth. Eventually I heard Scott's car pull in so I told her she better hurry up! Daddy was almost home! Well, with that she was paralyzed with fear and couldn't even eat another bite and then burst into wailing tears when Scott walked in the door. Argh. Greetings, Daddy!

So anyway, that backfired. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Though looking back, instilling fear when it comes to daddy arriving home was not exactly a brilliant move on my part. #mamafailed. #wontdothatagain.

Her birthday is coming up a week from today. And she knows it. She keeps telling me that her birthday is coming up and she is going to be THREE. I asked her if she wanted something special for her birthday dinner? She said, "Yes! I want cake for dinner!" I know a lot of you will be quite proud of her for that. :) #offseason.

In other Moana-isms, she saw an older man out jogging today. She said, "Look! He is running!" Then she added "He's not going very fast. He should run faster." Ha! I assured her that he was probably just diligently building his aerobic system via MAF technique. #teachthemearly.

She's Gonna Be A Fairy

2011-10-18T20:18:00.002-10:00

Man I was a sucker today. It's almost Moana's birthday, and it's almost Halloween... That is my excuse. :)

I took Moana to the mall this afternoon to go shopping for a Halloween costume. In the car on the way there she decided that she wanted to be Hello Kitty for Halloween. I thought that was rather clever for an almost 3 yo to decide something like that on her own, especially given that I have not really exposed her to Hello Kitty (Grammy did buy her a very cute HK shirt though so she does have one of those). Anyway, at the mall we went to the Hello Kitty store. Yes, there is a whole store dedicated to Hello Kitty and yes today was the first time I ever walked in there... but unfortunately I'm sure it will not be the last. They did not have any costumes in there- interestingly no clothing at all- just little overpriced knick knack things that would keep a 3 yo interested for ~3 minutes. So we moved on.

Found another store that did have Hello Kitty clothing... I found a rather cute little dress with HK pictured on the front so asked her if she wanted to wear that for Halloween and she replied matter of factly, "That is not a costume. That is a dress." Ok then. Let's move on.

On to the Party Store... Holy crap. You know, I am not the most creative person in the world (to put it mildly) so this store was just completely overwhelming to me. I pretty much just stood in each aisle for a few minutes with my eyes wide and with this dumb look on my face like I've never seen so many little items that I guess are supposed to make little kids parties way more fun. Moana, on the other hand, was in heaven. Eventually we found the costume aisle and that, I will admit, was quite fun! Moana can be quite opinionated when it comes to her Halloween costume... she knew what she wanted and what she didn't want. It felt a bit like wedding dress shopping, but eventually we found the one... She's going to be a ridiculously cute fairy in a few weeks. Stay tuned for pictures after Halloween.

Then somehow I got caught up in buying a bunch of other very cheap crap. It was all just so cheap. Like $1 for this and $1 for that and before I knew it I was spending $40 on a bunch of crap. But we do now have party hats for Moana's birthday party (she *really* wanted those) and Hello Kitty plates to eat off of... (They sell Value Packs of magic wands?? 20 wands for $1.89? Can't beat that, right??) along with some other cheap little toys to put in party favor bags for her classmates at school (better than candy I suppose). Moana was over-the-top excited about some of the dumbest little things but hey, she's 3 so her tastes are different from mine. And today was the day I gave in to the fact that 3 year olds can be happily entertained for quite some time by dumb little plastic toys made in China.

Anyway, Moana and I really did have a blast this afternoon at the mall. Coming home I taught her a chant (I think it was a cheer actually from when I was an 8th grade cheerleader) "I like it, I love it, I want some more of it..." So we came home and she put her Fairy costume on for Scott (wings and all) and she then started chanting I like it, I love it, I want some more of it! Scott was like, That's it. You're not allowed to be alone with her anymore. Lol.

If you came here for training news, you'll be disappointed this time. If I pay attention to social media it appears that right now I should be eating cake and ice cream and feeling totally burnt out from all-things-triathlon. I am not burnt out though and I am not eating much crap. And while I do not have a 'training schedule' per say I do have the thumbs up to exercise as I feel... and I'm sure if I told you what I feel like doing right now I would be judged til no end as a crazy triathlete who doesn't have her priorities straight... so I'll just keep it to myself for now.

The Playlist

2011-10-16T15:28:00.000-10:00

The Awards Ceremony after Kona was inspiring (to say the least). The best part (I thought) was the video they put together and played at the end... super cool. I looked for it online somewhere but didn't find it... BUT, through the magic of Shazam (love that ap!) I captured the playlist they used for the video. It's now on my ipod and you can bet I'll have all these songs burned into my brain after the amount of running I plan to do while listening to them in the next year. So whether you were there at the awards and saw that video or are planning on being at the awards next year, here are the songs to inspire you in 2012.

Have a Little Faith In Me; John Hiatt
Sunny Hours; Long Beach Dub All Stars & will.i.am
Shine; Shannon Noll
Back to Front (Circular Logic); DJ Shadow
Coming Around Again; Simon Webbe
Lasso; Phoenix
Harder Better Faster Stronger; Daft Punk
Hold You (Hold Yuh); Gyptian

Someone (Anyone???)

2011-10-14T20:28:00.000-10:00

Life after an Ironman that didn't go as planned is very similar to life after an Ironman that did go as planned. I spent a couple days being physically sore and then started to feel better. My blisters are healing but I'm about to lose 3 more toe nails. Moana is still as cute as ever and wants to be a Princess for Halloween (shocking I know). Laundry still piles up around here and I still cook and eat good food. (I've indulged a little but not that much. Mostly because fruits and vegetables make me physically feel good while ice cream and cookies make me physically feel crappy. Doesn't seem worth it?)

I've had some interesting conversations this week. A couple good ones that made me feel better... including one with Coach where I started to tell him how my legs felt and he said he didn't care how my legs felt... How's your head? Good point. Probably more important right now is how's my head vs how are my legs...

A lot of people I just kind of know have asked me how it went last weekend. I'm always unsure of what to say to those people because really, they're just being polite in asking. They don't know the difference between 10:34 and 11:04 in Kona so I've tried hard to just fake a smile and respond with something like "It went well" and then change the subject.

I did have a really great conversation with one of the older ladies at the pool this morning (yes I was at the pool this morning). She was one who genuinely did want to know how the race went... she's watched Nalani and I train for years... so we talked for ~30' before actually getting in and swimming and I let her into my head and told her what I really thought. And then she told me what she really thought and it came across as so genuine that it was easy for me to hear. This woman is in her late 60's and swims very slowly. She told me that she has asked herself many times why she swims... she knows she's never going to compete or try to win anything... but yet she's one of the most regular patrons of the pool year round. She simply said she enjoys doing it and it makes her feel good.

It can be so cliche to talk about 'enjoying the journey' but she was just so right... and I genuinely have enjoyed this whole journey... and I will continue to enjoy it for years to come. Which means that even when your big race didn't turn out like you thought it might, life goes on and you show up at the pool a few days later and swim another workout.

But let's not get too sappy here, ok? I'm no where near giving up. In fact, I have a theory as to why my race didn't go so well last weekend (it involves horror-mones and tampons so I won't go into the details for fear of scaring either one of the men who read this blog) but there's a part of me that is dying to have another shot... sooner rather than later. And seems like 6 weeks later would be an excellent opportunity to test this horror-mone theory of mine so I've become like Desperately Seeking Susan trying to find someone (anyone???) who knows someone (anyone???) who can get me a back door entry into IMAZ. In the name of research, I mean. I'll be like a one woman show testing the theory about our ability to perform at different times of the month. I've emailed many people individually pleading to help but it seems that a back door entry into IMAZ is not especially easy to come by. But if I don't ask then for sure it won't happen so I thought I'd put it out there... If you are or know someone (anyone???) who can convince one of those WTC folks to assign me a race number for November 20, let me know, will ya? Mahalo.

Kona

2011-10-10T23:20:00.000-10:00

Ok grab a cup of coffee because this is probably going to be long. I have a lot to say. ;)

When I crossed the finish line on Saturday I smiled because I was done and let's face it, it's a privilege to get to race in Kona and the day I can't smile there is the day I should retire. That said, I was less than thrilled with my performance and at the time did not think I would write about it at all. And then a couple days passed and I got to witness the very inspiring awards ceremony last night and got home tonight and spent an hour going through all the great pictures people took and well, I'm not so pissy now. Which means you guys will get the race report after all! :)

That said, I'm not sugar coating this at all... it's exactly how it went down as I remember it tonight.

Race morning was fine. I woke up ready to go get my best Ironman. I was confident I was going to have a great day. Mentally I felt calm and collected and I went about my business doing all the normal pre-race stuff. When it was time to get in the water I found Nalani and Scott and we got in together. Nalani's husband had a great spectator spot on the wall and got some great photos. Can you see us? It's like Where's Waldo? (Hint. Scott is wearing red.)

Giving Scott some swim instructions that went something like Best to start on the left of that Ford buoy but stay left rather than cutting over too soon and getting close to the buoys. Just aim for a direct line to the far turn buoy that we can't really see...

So we swam out to the front left and treaded water... listened to the drums beating and the helicopters overhead and tried to keep my heart in my chest. I heard my name and turned around to see Ange so we wished each other well and then finally the cannon went off and we got underway. I don't have a lot to say about the swim other than that I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't get violent for me really at all. I've had way more violent swim starts and I was completely prepared for war but shockingly I had a ton of clear water. (The first 40 miles of the bike totally trumped the swim in the chaos department- stay tuned.) I didn't do a lot of drafting on the way out, mostly b/c I didn't trust the men around me not to slow down... sorry but I was looking for a woman b/c my experience is that strong women swimmers tend to set out at a pace they can maintain, while many men set out at a pace they cannot and therefore slow down and I did not want to get caught behind that. After the turn buoy I did find eventually find a guy who seemed to be swimming a good pace and he was off to the left swimming a little wide on his own so I cruised on his feet and felt like I was having a decent swim for sure. I was happy in the water!

Getting out I saw the clock... 1:01?? Um, ok, that was my slowest Ironman swim ever. That was weird. But then I heard Michelle Ford's name called out and I was running shoulder to shoulder with my friend Erica McClurg into T1 and started the bike with Julie Dunkle so I knew I was in good company. I completely let go of the swim time knowing that it was just long or whatever. Those girls are all strong swimmers so to be in their company was perfect. Indeed, post race I saw the swim times and seemed everyone was ~3' slower than they should have been. Once again, a lesson that swim times in triathlons don't matter for shit.

I started the bike and right away did not feel super. Hmmm. That's okay. My plan was to start slow and ease into things so I tried not to stress about it. It was crowded around me and I just let like 200 people pass in the first mile. Then climbing Kuakini Beth Shutt passed by and I looked up and saw that the 3 people immediately in front of me were Michelle, Beth, and Julie and I thought about how cool the blog world is because without blogs I would not know those girls at all. Instead though I felt like I was in the company of friends. :)

Anyway, another 300 men passed me in the next few miles, some of them very closely (read, scary!). A few women went by too and while I wanted to be able to respond to that I really just felt like I could/should not so I continued to just do my own thing. I was riding without any data at all (I left my watch in my dry clothes bag before the race started so I didn't even know what time it was) which normally would be perfect for me... However... when the only data you have on your performance is your place among your competitors... and you are a decent swimmer at the World Championships and therefore being passed by 100 people per mile... well... I was fairly certain that I was having the shittiest bike ride ever... even though I felt like I was moving along well... it seemed like everyone else was moving along faster.

In the first ~15 miles I was being passed by steady streams of men mostly one at a time. Normal for crowded course conditions. Then a group of 4 men passed. Then no one for a while... then another tight group of 6 men would pass... then no one for a while... then another group of 6 men would pass... um, really? Warning: rant coming up. This was not a situation of the course being too crowded. The drafting I saw on the course was flat out blatant wheel sucking cheating. At one point maybe 20-25 miles into the bike I went by an aid station but didn't need anything so I moved left into the center of the lane to stay out of the way of people who were trying to grab bottles. Then I got swallowed up and passed by men on both my right and my left, which freaked me out because that is not normal in a triathlon! So I glanced behind me just to see if I had room to move right or left and, um, there were streams of cyclists coming at me for as far as I could see. I was probably going ~20mph but was being passed like I was going 10. I swear I have never seen anything like this in a triathlon... I had flashbacks to how scared I was at that big bike race on Oahu last month- it was just like that. I screamed out loud as they swallowed me up and pretty much just stopped pedaling because I didn't want to get caught up in it. Eventually they all passed by... all 40-50 of them... and I was left coasting with my jaw dropped open. I saw some women hanging on to the back of that group and that just pissed me off but what was I going to do? Where were the race officials?!? Julie was off the back of that group and commented as she passed by me How do you like that peloton?!? She said that 3 race officials had gone by but had not been able to split up the group. We just watched them ride off into the distance... they must have been going 24+ mph which is not hard when you are in a huge group like that... And sure enough, there was a motorcycle riding next to the group but even then it wasn't being split up at all. Eventually they were out of sight but I had a hard time not continuing to be pissed about that. Julie and I played a very legal game of leap frog for the next 10-15 miles and I swear every time I got close enough to her I bitched out loud about the drafting and then finally was like, I should just let it go already.

Today I saw this picture on Facebook. Unbelievable, no? If some of the bike times seemed outrageously fast on Saturday, this is why.

Anyway, I did really try to keep a positive attitude amongst all that. At one point (after the peloton passed by) my athlete Teri came up next to me in an official race vehicle and cheered me on and got photographic evidence that I was not actually a pissy bitch for the whole ride. ;)

Ok blah blah blah. The bike went on forever. I was fairly certain that all 1800 competitors in the race had passed me in the first 50 miles, but shockingly I saw that there were actually still some behind me after I turned around in Hawi. (Btw, it was very windy on that climb... easily the windiest I've felt while racing up there and between Honu/Kona this was my 8th time racing up that hill. It was a nice tailwind going down though!) Interestingly, not many people passed me on the return trip. Phew. My legs sort of finally came around and I felt more like me after ~mile 75 (love it when it takes 75 miles to warm up?!?). I was mentally prepared for it to be really hard from Waikoloa to home (that section is pretty much all uphill with a headwind) but turns out this was the best part of the whole race for me. I remembered training on this section with Kiet in August and I gained a sense of confidence and I started picking off cyclists ahead of me one by one. I felt a sense of relief that maybe I didn't suck at cycling after all.

Coasting down Palani into T2...

I did not know my bike split which was fine... I knew from how many women I saw pass me in the first 1/2 that I hadn't had the bike I was hoping to have but whatever... it wasn't terrible... and then off the bike jogging through transition I was like UH OH. Quads were starting with twinges of cramping and I wasn't sure what to make of that. I'd followed my nutrition plan exactly, drank what seemed like plenty of water, took e21 every hour just like I always do... but my legs were not happy. Hmmm. Damage control time. I just told myself to relax through T2 and maybe after a minute or so the muscles would relax and I'd be ok... I used the porta-potty in the change tent and actually saw my right quad muscle bunch up... um, that is not good. So I took my time through T2... poured lots of cold water on myself, and eventually got moving.

Looks like I am happy here, doesn't it? I put on a good act for the camera because I swear I don't remember being this happy running up the hill out of T2.

My plan was to jog easy for the first 5ish miles down Ali'i Dr. I really did not feel good at all though and I knew I was going really slow and it was not easy. I was trying to figure out what to do... I didn't think I needed to eat more- I'd taken in as many calories as I'd planned on the bike (which was plenty... and I was taking Vespa too which always reduces my need for calories) and I'd peed twice on the bike and again in T2 so I was not dehydrated. It did feel really hot and the sun was out in full force so I kept drinking water and shoving ice down my top. Nothing was helping though. My quads were just twinging and eventually just full on seized up which stopped me in my tracks completely. ARGH! I HATE THAT. Eventually I adopted this jog/walk routine to keep myself moving forward and pretty much spent the rest of the marathon in damage control mode.

Letting you into my brain at this point is tough... I was pissy for sure because I knew I was not having the day I had planned on... then I'd get pissy because I was not following my plan of being Relentlessly Positive... so then I'd try to perk up and think about something good but I was completely incapable of interacting with anyone including my friends who were passing me. Ange was so nice- she ran by like mile 5 or 6 and was asking if I needed anything and she was trying to be so encouraging and I just totally couldn't respond other than to tell her to just keep running. And while I was happy for everyone doing so well, the rate at which I was being passed made me certain that I was the only person out there having a bad day and I was trying to talk myself through that and be positive but then those positive thoughts would last like 10 seconds and then I would go back to wondering why I suck at this so badly. I remembered writing in my race plan that I was not going to cave... Was I caving? It seemed like I was and that's what pissed me off most. But my muscles were cramping. So is that caving? Could I will myself not to cramp? I didn't think I could. But maybe that's why I couldn't? I don't know. And that bugs me.

After I got up onto the Queen K the clouds rolled in and the temps dropped like 50 degrees and I saw Chris Lieto jogging at a snails pace and I swear that was the most inspiring thing I'd seen all day. Not that I was glad he was having a shitty day or anything, but it was a good reminder that what we do when things aren't going well is defining of our character... The fact that he was hanging in there when clearly he was not having his day was exactly the thing I needed to see. (I had already seen 5 pro women run by toward the finish, including Rinny who was absolutely hauling ass down Palani- I swear I've never seen anyone run so hard with such a determined look- it was incredible!)

So I trudged on... doing this little walk/jog thing that seemed to be the only thing that would prevent the full on cramping seizures. I drank Coke at most aid stations, took e21 every so often, and backed off the water b/c my hands were looking bloated. Finally I got to the Energy Lab for my special needs bag, grabbed Moana's little blue shovel (it was time to dig) and carried it with me to the end. Teri took this picture ~20-22 miles into the marathon... you can kinda see the shovel stuck in my bra. And again, I swear I do not remember smiling but photographic evidence shows otherwise. (Thankfully this picture does not show my feet because they were most certainly both on the ground.)

In the last couple miles I remembered what my coach told me and my mantra became just freaking WILL your legs to run... just freaking WILL your legs to run... just freaking WILL your legs to run... just freaking WILL your legs to run... I swear that is the only thing I thought to myself for I don't know like maybe 20 straight minutes? I should have thought of that earlier because it worked. Running down Palani I grabbed the shovel out of my bra and held onto it tight and actually started smiling for real.

I finished in 11:04. I know I should not bitch about that at all because it was faster than I've previously gone in Kona, but it was just not a day that felt reflective of the training I have done. Which just leaves me more determined than ever to freaking figure out how to run a marathon off the bike.

In good news, my athletes Nalani (10:58 new PR by 13'!) and Scott (13:15 first IM finish!) both did really well and finished happy. :)

And my husband and my daughter and my mom looked cuter than ever out there supporting me all day!

So I hope this doesn't come off as too much complaining... I just wanted to keep it real. It is a privilege to race in Kona and I do not take that for granted. And even on a day that didn't come together as I'd hoped, I would way rather be out there racing than watching (lesson learned form last year!) Attending the awards last night was awesome and a good reminder of how incredible this race really is. And this morning I flopped around in the ocean and looked at the fish and just swam super easy by myself and that was a good reminder of the fact that I do actually truly love this sport. Especially in Kona. :)

Thursday

2011-10-06T13:37:00.000-10:00

This morning when I was making coffee I started telling Scott... "48 hours from now we'll be..." And he was like "STOP! Don't even go there..." So apparently the trick to not being nervous two days before the World Championships is to just not even think about it. So instead we just drank our coffee and pretended it was a completely normal day and headed down to the pier for another swim.

I can't remember the last time I've had a morning where I've seen so many people I knew before 8AM. Nalani and I rode cruiser bikes down to the pier and saw Ange driving down, then Mike and Sandy and Mark, then I met Marni and saw my friends Kristen and Olwen while checking our dry clothes bags, then Ben, Rae, Roberto, Trish, and Diana were all finishing up their swims while we were standing on the sand contemplating putting our caps on. We were just about to start swimming when Michelle and Sonja got out so we delayed swimming while chatting with them. Then I finally got to meet Molly as she was about to jump in the water. Liz was getting out and then "Oh there's Mary!" so we hung out chatting with her and then finally went ahead and started swimming. Coach did say 'social swim' this morning so really, I was just following the plan. I'm such an obedient little athlete.

We did the obligatory coffee thing while treading water (poor me) and then finished up just as the Underwear Run was getting underway. I had no desire to jog along Ali'i Dr in my underwear so there was never any intention of participating... though I suppose I could have done it in my bikini as many did... though that really isn't participating in the 'underwear' run, is it? Kurt decided that there should be some set of 'qualifying standards' for the underwear run. Had those been enforced only ~1/2 of the participants would have been allowed in. But those who were in... we *all in*... or maybe more appropriate *all hanging out*. Lol. There were times when Nalani pointed and I really just should have looked away. Yikes.

Interestingly, in a little bit I'm going back to the pier to have a chat with a woman who is here writing a story about Kona Ironman for Outside Magazine. Mary gave her my contact info and the email I got from her said, "How about 3:00ish? I'm waiting to hear back from Dave Scott about what time he is available..." Ha! Yes. Interview me and Dave Scott. Because we're like, totally in the same category. Or maybe she just really wants very different perspectives for her article? That must be it. Regardless, I think it's pretty damn cool I get to do that. I'll let you know how it goes.

For now, I'm just doing more chilling out and relaxing. It's a good thing I get to exercise ALL DAY on Saturday because this whole not-training-just-resting thing is driving me nuts. I'm bored and I just want to go swimbikerun. Conditions should be perfect on Saturday. I have not actually checked the weather, but it seems the south swell will be gone so the swim will be normal, and if the weather stays like it has been all week, it won't even be hot. Maybe a bit windy but nothing out of the ordinary. Kona is getting soft.

It's Just Getting Better

2011-10-04T20:19:00.002-10:00

If it's possible, today was even better than yesterday. I am having a blast so far this week... so far it's really everything I hoped it would be (maybe even better?) and I'm having a hard time containing myself. :)

So many good things... trying to remember them all! Swimming this morning was a blast. The water wasn't very clear b/c of the south swell that is churning everything up but it was warm and really nothing to complain about. In fact, I hope it gets way bigger/messier in the next few days b/c it's fun to watch people freak out. Anyway, I met more fun people down there again this AM and it was all very social as you can tell from my new profile picture on Facebook. ;) Scott and Ange and I swam for a bit before ending up at the Coffees of Hawaii boat where Scott was pretty sure he'd died and gone to heaven.

Speaking of Scott... he arrived in last night from Kentucky... his first time ever to Hawaii... about to do his first Ironman on Saturday and he is soaking all this up like a kid in a candy store*. It's really quite cute and it is so good for me to be around him right now. Not that I'm jaded or anything (really I'm not!), but, having lived here for 7 years and just having been around this for a while, it's just easy to forget how incredible it really is for most people who have not previously experienced it. Scott notices everything (the sunsets and the fruit and the geckos and the canoes in the ocean) and genuinely enjoys it all, which makes him extremely pleasant to be around! And it is a good reminder for me as well... he is helping me soak up this experience through the eyes of a newbie in a way that I would not otherwise.

At some point I'll get into race mode, but not yet. Physically I feel awesome and mentally I feel even better... so I will be fine on Saturday... but honestly I haven't given the race much thought. Instead I'm just enjoying the social aspect of this week so far. Maybe on Friday I'll try to transition to race mode?

*Speaking of a kid in a candy store... we hung out on Ali'i Dr watching the Parade of Nations this afternoon/evening, per Kerrie's recommendation. I'm pretty sure she was trying to sabotage my week with that one because all those people threw so much candy at Moana that we're going to be set well past Halloween with the stash she collected.

The Scene

2011-10-03T13:57:00.000-10:00

Our condo here is awesome and provides all sorts of ammenities... like a free public computer in the lobby! So, yay! Updates from Kona! :)

We arrived yesterday afternoon and driving into town Moana was like, "Oh look at the bike! Oh and another bike! Look there's another bike! More bikes!" That pretty much sums it up. I don't remember so many people being here so early in years past, but it seems like indeed, the economy in Kona is doing just fine this month. This place is packed. This morning we finished swimming* at ~7:30 and there must have been 200 swimmers in and around the pier getting ready to swim and another 200 people just hanging out on the wall watching the scene. That's really what it is... a scene.

I was looking around yesterday and feeling such a mix of feelings... on one hand, I was like all these people are so dorky! All wearing some sort of triathlon race kit/clothing (really? to the grocery store?) and compression gear and really brightly colored running shoes and just generally looking dorky! So I was trying to explain my conundrum to Nalani... like trying to balance my knowledge of the fact that these people are such dorks yet at the same time I am one of them. Lol.OK I have not been able to bring myself to wear any compression gear here yet. I do think I'll probably not venture out in public in it this week. Something about trying to limit the scope of my own dorkiness while being amongst the Mecca of it here this week.

One of my favorite things about this week though has to be running into so many old friends and meeting lots of other bloggers too. I hadn't even been here for an hour before running into Kerrie and Glen at the farmers market, where Rain caught a big green gecko which thoroughly entertained Moana. Then this morning Nalani and I met a bunch of gals down at the pier to swim... Beth and Libby and Katie and Michelle and Sonja. What a fun group to swim with! It was all good until we were on our way back in and there were swimmers everywhere coming right at us. I am amazed at how many people were swimming with their heads ~~up their asses~~ down and just generally not paying attention to the fact that swimmers were coming right at them the opposite way. I managed to avoid most of them by moving to the side. Caution: There are no lane lines at Dig Me Beach. Pay attention!

Anyway, tomorrow morning looks to be another swim with Ange and Mary and maybe some others? Kona is so fun with all these people here. It's nice to be able to balance my need to be social with the little bit of exercise I still want/need to do this week... then I have the perfect excuse to be a hermit most of the afternoons b/c I have volunteered to be on duty while Moana naps every afternoon from like 12-2. Yep. Grammy go take a break and go do whatever you want... No problem... I will hang out in our condo and read a book while she sleeps... Perfect. :)

My athlete Scott arrives in a few hours so hanging with him will be super fun the next few days... then my husband Scott (too many Scotts!) will arrive on Wednesday... so it's just going to keep getting better for a while before it gets hard. Stay tuned for more from The Scene...

*Kerrie will be happy to know I got my Panic swim training this morning. We did the whole course. Phew! I can do it.

Wake Me Up When September Ends...

2011-09-30T15:57:00.001-10:00

Oh wait, September is over now? That would mean... um yes, it is October (ok almost). Which means I should be paying bills right now but whatever... I'll get to that later. Blog and FB come first! Lol.

I've had this song on just about every playlist on my iPod all summer... And what it really means is that oh my It is October and we get to go to Kona! Moana and I are flying over on Sunday... my mom is flying in from Ohio and meeting us there Sunday night... which is awesome. I've wanted my mom to have an opportunity to witness Kona during race week for quite some time now... so there's that... and then she gets to hang with Moana all week which will make them both deliriously happy. It will make me deliriously happy too because then I'll get to ~~be free~~ go cruise around town and do the fun race week stuff and pretend to be cool. Win-win-win for everybody!

The last couple of days have been fun. Julie flew into town and is here in Honolulu doing some work prior to heading over to Kona so we've had a chance to hang out some together. It got me thinking about this whole blog thing and how it is so awesome to actually gain new friends because of it. Somehow Julie and I became blog/FB friends (I don't even quite remember how that happened?) and then we met in person last year in Kona and now it just seems like she is one of my old friends from forever ago... So she wanted to swim while she was here and of course I jumped at the chance to be ocean tour guide yesterday! I showed her a bit of the Roughwater course... We were out there floating in the crystal clear 80 degree water and she was like 'last time I swam in open water it was 59 degrees and so murky I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face'... We had some pretty severe currents (think about swimming ~15' out and ~6' back kind of thing) but I knew that Julie is a strong swimmer so it was awesome that I didn't have to worry about her at all. We could just have fun!

So last night we were making plans for her to come to my side of the island and swim with Nalani and me this morning... and then she asked if she could take a shower at my house after she went for her bike ride. This was like 6:30 last night and outwardly I was like oh sure while internally I just flipped out and immediately went into frantic cleaning mode. Um, if she was going to use my shower that would mean she would see my bathroom and well, let's just say that by the time I went to bed last night it looked very different than it has all year (maybe since last time my mom came to visit?) I swear I used to be a clean person and I kept this house spotless... but then I got a husband and a dog and a baby... none of whom give a crap if the house is clean or a complete pit. After several years of driving myself nutso trying to keep it perfect all by myself I finally just caved and realized I would live a more peaceful existence if I just stopped worrying about how clean my house was... which is all good until that blogger friend who you don't really know asks to shower in your house. Anyway, the house is spotless now! Unfortunately that will not last through the weekend. Oh well.

Anyway, so Julie went out riding after we swam this morning... I pointed her in the direction... my normal ride... and she was totally pretending to be me (on my bike with my bike shoes and socks lol! We really are long lost sisters) except I tried to tell her that usually it's 25mph winds and dumping rain. I'm not sure she understands what I whine about though b/c this is what she got today.

Let's see... what else? Andrew at Bike Fit 808 offered to do a little Retul tweaking to my new bike to make sure it was set up correctly. My two cents- If you live here you should go see him and have him adjust your bike so it fits right. I knew mine was close b/c it's the same bike as my old one and when the guys at ITB set it up they measured them both out and set it up the same... but close is not exactly the same... the computerized thing Andrew did caused him to tweak just a few little things and Tah-Da! Bike feels super comfortable (just like my old one) and I feel more in control of it. Honestly I didn't think it would be much different but it's definitely all good now. So huge Mahalo to Andrew!

In other news... if you're going to be in Kona next week go stop by the Coffees of Hawaii tent on Ali'i Dr in front of Basils. We ordered some Limited Edition Kona 2011 swim suits from Splish... They are a really pretty blue this year! Seriously there are only 80 total (40 women's and 40 mens) suits for sale (actually less than that b/c one of them is mine and one of them is Chrissie Wellington's and 2 of them I've already sold to friends here). Last year we sold out of the bikini's the very first morning they went on sale! SO, if you plan on swimming out to the floating espresso bar and want a suit to take home to remind you of how freaking cool that was, get to the COH tent early in the week to get your suit. They'll also be there at ~4AM on race morning selling coffee so you can get all perky with your caffeine fix before you even set up the nutrition on your bike next Saturday. :)

Ok and while I'm in selling mode, check out these awesome bike kits that Julie sells! She started a fun little women's group in San Diego called idropboys.com and she brought me one of these kits. How awesome is this? LOVE IT! Truth be told I am sure there are some men here who would probably not think this was funny but whatever. I think it's awesome and can't wait to wear it!

OK I think that's it from here... I won't have a computer in Kona so not sure about my ability to update the blog... though Nalani will probably have her ipad and she's nice like that so maybe she'll let me borrow it? A Hui Hou!

My History With Kona...

2011-09-28T19:29:00.001-10:00

I had a longish bike ride today (by myself) which gave me plenty of time to think... and I started reminiscing about my experience with Kona... starting from the beginning... and then I thought that some of you might find this interesting? So here you go!

In 1995 my boyfriend was a triathlete (he was the one responsible for getting me started with this crazy sport!) and he was doing Kona... I was in college at Arizona State and I spent the whole day in the computer lab (internet was kind of new- I didn't have it in my little apartment) hitting refresh on the IronmanLive website. This guy was absolutely amazing in my mind but Kona took him like 14+ hours that year (he could do other IMs in like 10 hours) so my first impression of the Ironman in Kona was that it was a ridiculous endeavor.

In 1996 I think it was the same story. Same boyfriend. Same finish time in Kona (or maybe he DNF'd that year? Can't remember). What a bastard of a race that one was!

By 1997 the love affair with the boyfriend had ended but my love affair with triathlon had not. I did my first Ironman in Canada and finished in like 14+ hours. (Isn't that how all Ironmans' go? LOL) I didn't bother attending the awards ceremony but it was brought to my attention later that the Kona spot for my age group (20-24) rolled all the way down past my name... somebody told me that since I essentially 'turned it down' by not attending the awards that I was forever cursed and now would never get to do Kona. Whatever. Did you see my finish time?? I would never be anywhere near fast enough to do Kona. Duh.

OK I can't actually remember every single year (aren't you glad about that?) but I know that from like 1998-2004 I was (for the most part) living in Arizona and I was training with a lot with other athletes who would do Kona every year. Most of the time I would tag along on their long rides (I've always liked riding long) but then I would go get ice cream while they did their brick runs. (Um, hello!? It's like 110 degrees why would you go running after you just biked 110 miles??) Somewhere in there I finished a bunch of other Ironmans. I also got and conquered cancer.

By 2005 I was living in Hawaii so I went over to Kona to watch some of my friends who were racing. It was a blast! We were trashed before noon and hanging out in bikinis in front of Lava Java cheering at all the pro men as they started the run... We were yelping, "You're SO HOT!" That was easily one of the best weekends of the year!

2006 was much of the same... went over to watch... spent much of the day drunk as a skunk as just had way too much fun! I Love Kona!! :)

In 2007 one of my training partners informed me about the Hawaii State Qualifying spots to Kona... What!? So if I was the first Hawaii resident in my age group to finish Honu then I could do Kona? Seriously? I didn't know if I was good enough to do that but I was going to try! Crossing the finish line in 5:22 at Honu that year turned out to be enough to get me a spot on the start line in Kona (oh my how times have changed). Holy shit. I was in! I was ridiculously nervous that year and felt completely inadequate. Consequently I made some big mistakes but I dragged myself across the finish line anyway... 12:12... then promptly started convulsing in the med tent. What a bastard of a race this one was!

While the race was happening in 2008 I was about 3 weeks from giving birth to Moana so I sat right here at my computer that whole day ~~sulking~~ watching online and feeling fat and blah and wondering if I would ever regain my pre-pregnant self? Poor me. That really was not very fun. But then I got this. So it really wasn't that bad of a year. :)

But in 2009 I was back with a vengeance! Indeed, within a few months I'd regained my pre-pregnant self and I once again snagged the state spot at Honu... With the help of JH I was much better prepared for Kona that year... still suffered a pretty big meltdown on the marathon but whatever! I got to do Kona again and finished in 11:17... a big Ironman PR for me before my daughter even turned one. I felt very satisfied with that one.

In 2010 I missed out on the state spot at Honu by 3' (damn flat tire!). I was there in Kona all week working for Coffees of Hawaii... had a blast working on the Floating Espresso Bar and seeing all my friends race but I will be honest- I woke up race morning feeling severely unhappy to be on the sidelines. I made a bit of a promise to myself that I was going to get myself fit enough so this year I would get to be in the water when that cannon fires! That spurred my decision to find my awesome coach, and well, the rest is history.

I think the lesson in this history goes something like Make a decision about what you want and then act on it... and that while it sure is easier if you do, you don't have to win the genetic lottery in order to qualify for Kona. You just have to be ridiculously patient and committed and consistent. :)

So YAY for making decisions and acting on them! It's 2011 I get to race again! Funny, last time I did this race it seemed like everyone started asking me "Are you ready!??!" I swear I have not been asked that question once this year. Lol. Duh. I've worked my ass off this year and can't wait to race. Fire that cannon already! :)

I'm Not Over It...

2011-09-25T08:49:00.000-10:00

Two weeks from right now my triathlon season will be all over for 2011... I think I'll be kinda sad!

I'm so excited to go race but then at the same time I just want time to stop because I don't want it to be over yet... I want it to happen but then I don't want it to happen because then it will be all done. Clearly I have had toomuch coffee this morning. Just ignore me. Lol.

Yesterday morning I started off riding... it was my last long ride of the year (I think?!?)... and seriously I had the thought that I am so glad I am entered in Canada for next year because I'm just not over it yet! And I was thinking that maybe I really should be by now... Shouldn't I be, like, burnt out or something?? I mean, It's been a loooong training year... I started doing long rides in January... I totally lost count of how many I have done this year. Should I go back and count? I don't know if I even want to know? Now I'm curious. Ok hang on I'll go look at Training Peaks...

OK I'm back... I counted long rides (90+ miles)... You really want to know? (Stop reading if you don't because I'm about to tell you! :) I did 21 rides this year that were 90-120 miles! (That's a lot of Inifinit!) One more in 2 weeks... :)

In good news, my ride yesterday was possibly the strongest ride I've had all year (with the exception of my race at Honu). I had a couple things going for me which helped for sure... I was highly motivated and really wanted to ride, the roads were dry (!!), the winds were moderate at 10-15mph (vs 15-25+), and I was on my new bike. Yep! Finally got to ride her for a long time and I'm happy to report she handled the distance with flying colors.

I was also thinking just how much I enjoy riding long... especially when I am by myself (I swear I am not even being sarcastic!) and it also made me wonder why people who don't LOVE riding their bikes do Ironmans? Anyway.

It's a good place to be, mentally, right now. Still being at the point where I feel hungry for more... there's not even a hint of dread about doing my long run this afternoon...

In good news, after Kona I'll have the Honolulu Marathon to train for... and yesterday I got an email invite to the 30th (Possibly) Annual Waikiki Loooooong Distance Swim (yes that is the actual name of the swim) so I've got that 4.5ish mile ocean swim to train for again as well! But I doubt I'll get to do another long ride until January so I'm going to make the most of the one I get to do in Kona in 13 days. :)

It's Not Really A Dress Race

2011-09-22T19:45:00.000-10:00

I should stop telling Moana that she is going to Kona next week. She doesn't understand 'next week' very well. This evening she was upstairs yelling "I WANT TO GO TO KONA NOW!!" Yeah, welcome to the club, Sweetie.

Earlier we were hanging out and she insisted on putting on one of her princess dresses (what's new?)... and Grammy sent a box that arrived today so Moana has new glass slippers that light up when she walks so of course she was wearing those (she will probably sleep in them tonight)... and can't forget her pink wings (she knows how to put those on all by herself now). She was holding her magic wand too and then she informed me that the race in Kona was a 'Dress Race'. What is a Dress Race, I asked? Apparently the person who wears the nicest dress in Kona is going to win. You heard it here first, folks!

Maybe I'll put Moana's wings in my special needs bag. Those might really come in handy in that last 10K.

So things are going well here in my world. That rest last week hit the spot and consequently I have been nailing all my key workouts this week and then just totally chillin' out on my easy days. Today I had an easy run on tap. Max HR 145, he said. Um, I don't think I've ever done a run that easy?!? I wasn't sure I could do it with a HR that low. But as a fun little game I made it my goal to actually stay <140 as much as possible... I felt like I was crawling... totally brought back ~~nightmares~~ memories from January/February when I was trying to keep my HR <150 and was jogging like 10'+ pace but this time it actually didn't bug me at all... I just kept barely moving forward little by little and then almost fell over at the end when I saw 9:16 pace avg HR 138 on my garmin.

Let's just review something for a moment, shall we? My Ironman marathon PR is 4:07... that's a whopping 9:25 pace. I'm thinking there is a massive PR coming my way in a few weeks. That's what I'm thinking.

Yesterday I did a swim/bike/run. It was sort of long, parts of it were hard, and all very specific. At the end of the run when I sat down to type my post workout notes in Training Peaks, it occurred to me that I felt like a machine... just program in the sport, the time and the pace and I just churn it out.

So anyway, that is cool. And confidence building. Seems like I've been reading a lot about confidence and mindset lately... This is an interesting time of year if you're racing Kona... it can be so hard to keep yourself from overanalyzing everything... comparing yourself to everyone else and wondering if you're doing the right stuff in these final few weeks... Am I doing too much? Am I doing enough? Am I going hard enough? Am I going too hard? (Is there such a thing?) I think in these final weeks is when a coach is worth his/her weight in gold because as the athlete, all you have to do is shut out the noise and follow your plan... Trust your coach and don't overanalyze any of it. I think I'm doing a great job of that this time around... And I'm really looking forward to testing myself with another Ironman!

Stars On My Toes

2011-09-18T20:29:00.000-10:00

Moana and I had fun today. She has become such a cute fun little person and I love hanging out with her! I should probably do a real Moana update to document all the cute little things she's doing and saying these days... maybe for her third birthday, which is coming up in about a month. But there's this little tidbit for now... yesterday I got home from my bike ride and like usual was soaking wet and a complete mess and she told me that I looked soggy. Nice vocabulary, used very appropriately! Good girl! Then she looked at my shoes and exclaimed, "Your shoes are fabulous!" That got me thinking that she must not have a very firm grip on what 'fabulous' means, because, um, I have peed on those old nasty dirty stinky bike shoes. They are pretty much the opposite of fabulous.

Anyway, we were at the drugstore today and on a whim I bought these little sticker decal things that go on your fingernails/toenails... actually Moana saw them from the cart and said "Oh can I have those!!?!" and I just couldn't think of a reason why not... So we came home and did our toenails. :) I took a picture of her feet because they are like 100x cuter than mine, even when my toes have little stars on them. Little fact: I only needed 9 stars because I am missing a toenail, which I'm pretty sure is a sign I'm ready for Ironman.

Speaking of being ready for Ironman, I finally had a decent run today. Yay! I had a good swim on Friday and a good bike on Saturday and a good run today... It is all coming together right on time. Interesting too because the run was by HR today... which (sorry coach) I typically ~~hate~~ enjoy significantly less than just running by feel or by pace... so in all honesty I wasn't super excited about doing this run... because runs by HR all year have meant hold back slow down ease up and after a while, well, that just gets obnoxious. NOT that I don't understand the rationale or believe that is good for me- I know it is- which is why I do it- but that doesn't mean I necessarily enjoy being on a leash. But what I found interesting today was that I was finally able to run the effort/pace I wanted to be running at the HR coach wanted me to be running at... and that was actually enjoyable. :) And then at the end I got to bump it up to tempo HR which actually meant "bust a gut HR" so that was pretty cool. Instructions were to keep my HR >165 even on the downhills and the route I chose had a rather significant downhill in the final stretch... I was not sure I would be able to run it hard enough to do that... but I did! I'm pretty sure the stars on my toenails were the key factor in allowing me to do that so for sure I'll be bringing those decals to Kona and performing the mother/daughter pedicure on Oct 7.

Rest, Coffee, and Exclamation Points!!!

2011-09-16T21:25:00.002-10:00

I'm feeling so proud of myself... I actually started to clean my house tonight. I know. Weird. But seriously, I did three loads of laundry and all the clothes are folded and put away. Even the socks. There's only one explanation for that. Mama had a recovery week.

I know it's kind of an odd time to take a recovery week... 4 weeks out from Kona... but it was completely necessary. I was a zombie. Last week was kind of a half-assed recovery week but that didn't quite cut it. But in good news, we got it right this time and today I actually caught myself singing along to the radio in my car. And my Training Peaks notes about my bike ride this morning said something like, "On the Peppy Scale of 1-10, where 1 is how I felt last Friday and 10 is 'OMG somebody tell that obnoxiously giddy girl to shut the hell up', I'm at least a 7 today. Maybe an 8."

So that's good. I've missed feeling like this! And now I will use lots of exclamation points!!! Lol. Dork.

And as is coach's favorite way to end a recovery week, I was assigned a swim test today. My heart pretty much dropped when I saw that last night because I totally fail swim tests. Write the word 'test' in the workout and I just completely choke. So I actually told Tim that I wasn't going to 'test', but I would go swim as fast as I could and see what happened. ;) I prepared by sleeping a full 8 hours last night and then kept drinking shots of espresso this morning until I started shaking and then I went to the pool and kicked the shit out of those 300's. Yay me! So that made me happy.

Speaking of espresso and good news, I'll share this with you too... Coffees of Hawaii just released a new special roast called 100% Chrissie. How cool is that? Queen of the Ka'ahumanu... They'll be selling this in Kona of course (stop by the COH tent in front of Basil's on Ali'i Dr while you're there!) but you can also order it online starting today. I've got a couple bags of this stuff on their way to me right now and can't wait to try it... I'm sure it's awesome, but whatever, who cares what it tastes like!?! The placebo effect of knowing that I am drinking the same coffee as Chrissie on race morning is the key here. If you're in FOMO, use promo code SMILES for 20% off!

QUEEN KA'AHUMANU COFFEE - ESPRESSO

Hawaiian history - past and present - is alive with female achievement. From Queen Ka'ahumanu in the 18th Century, to today's Chrissie Wellington, multiple-time World Champion triathlete. Read more about the similarities here. This coffee reflects Chrissie’s custom cupping profile that is stronger and brighter than our normal line. Intense and punchy, it’s dark roasted and makes a bold statement to start the day. A portion of the sale of this coffee will be donated to two great charities that Chrissie supports:The Blazeman Foundation for ALS Girls Education Nepal

On Chasing Rainbows

2011-09-13T11:06:00.000-10:00

So this morning I went out jogging (Of course. It's Tuesday after all.). After that 1/2 marathon on Sunday I was too pissed off to remember to power off my ipod and garmin so batteries in both were dead this morning... which was fine because I was just jogging and sometimes it's good to listen to your own thoughts rather than Eminem. Except when your own thoughts are still on the pissy side and you're still allowing yourself to wallow in your own misery about what a shitty runner you are.

But really, it's been two days and I just need to snap myself out of this funk and let it go already so in the second mile of my run I tried to think of something positive... how about a positive experience I had this year while running? Yeah. Let's think about that. Let's see. Ok. Well, I PR'd the 10K at the Honolulu Triathlon by 2 minutes. That was a good run! And I PR'd the half marathon at Honu by 3 minutes. And I PR'd the marathon in an Ironman by 20 minutes. Hmmm. I think I see a trend. In all three triathlons that I actually cared about, I ran faster than ever before.

Ah ha!

So then by like mile 3 of my run I was laughing at myself because when I look back at my running record this year, it's obvious that I'm training like a triathlete. Which is, um, what I asked my coach to help me do. And clearly he has done. So while I may suck at running open road races, my running off the bike has improved dramatically. Maybe in the past I could run a decent 5K, but that never translated over to holding it together in a longer triathlon... Until now...

By mile 4 I had convinced myself that I was not a shitty runner at all! And in all likelihood I'm going to have a new marathon PR when I cross the finish line in Kona in a few weeks! (Isn't it awesome how just a couple miles of running has this power to transform your mindset??) And just when I was daydreaming about how much of a PR my Kona marathon was indeed going to be, it started raining... but the sun was out... and a brilliant rainbow appeared... and I just knew it was all going to be okay.

I didn't have my camera with me on my run but I came home and found that my friend Carol-Lynn had taken this shot and posted it on Facebook. The end of that rainbow was pretty much at my house this morning. It was awesome.

On Sucking

2011-09-11T18:56:00.001-10:00

I ran a local half marathon this morning. It was just a low key event in a nearby town. Not a hard course, even if it was a bit long. I didn't run well. Which is frustrating. But not surprising. I've pretty much proven to myself in training lately that I can't even run a single mile within 20" of my old half marathon pace without falling right off the cliff, and since race day magic doesn't happen for me, I should not be shocked. I mean, I wasn't expecting a PR. But I didn't think it was unreasonable to expect to run faster than I would in a half ironman. But I didn't. Three times I've gone faster in half ironmans. And I ran a faster open half marathon when I was 3 months post-partum. With the flu. Go figure.

Anyway, this pretty much proves to me that if I am not doing speed work, I should just stay the hell away from running races. It's just gut wrenching to work so diligently and consistently and then try to run a half-way decent race and fail. Argh. And then after it was over some people were trying to be nice and give me excuses for why I suck, but whatever. I hate excuses. In my mind it doesn't matter what I did yesterday. And if I didn't hydrate well enough yesterday, well that's my fault. I appreciated two comments I got today though... Marcy actually asked me if I was okay because she said I looked like shit. Thank you. Because at least she was honest! I'm sure I did look like shit since I felt like shit. And then my athlete Leigh said the best thing she could have said... "It'll be there when it's important to be there." Thank goodness I have smart athletes to console me. ;) But I really appreciated that from her today. I think that is what I needed to hear to help me keep it all in perspective. And I hope Leigh is right. Because sucking like this 4 weeks out from Kona is not especially confidence boosting.

The one thing that didn't suck about today was that Moana was waiting for me at the finish line wearing her little Nike running shorts and shoes... I asked for my race t-shirt in a child size small and even though it fits Moana like a dress, she wore it all day. So that made me smile.

On Rest And Recovery

2011-09-07T10:39:00.000-10:00

My phone call with coach yesterday started something like this:

Tim: "I read your blog post about your swim and then went into Training Peaks and hit delete delete delete..."

Me: "Oh thank you!"

Tim: "WHAT?!? You're happy? You actually want rest??"

Ha! Yes. I actually want rest. Go figure, huh? I know it does not happen often but sometimes I actually do want rest. :) So that got me thinking about why in the past I have seriously resisted rest. And I think it's because I truly didn't feel like I needed it. I mean, why rest if you're not tired?

I know many traditional triathlon training plans call for a rest week every 3rd or 4th week or whatever. But honestly, that is the most arbitrary thing ever. It makes more sense to me to listen to your body and take rest when you need it. And if your life is not extraordinarily stressful, and your nutrition is really good, and you're sleeping 8+ hours/night, and your training is set up to be appropriately taxing, well, you can probably get away with just an easy day here and there and just stay on a consistent training plan for longer than those traditional cookie cutter plans call for. Tim and I have similar feelings about this which is one reason why I think our coach/athlete relationship has been a rather successful match.

Anyway, in the last few days I've been honest with myself and honest with Tim (this is key!) and just told him that I was exhausted. So yesterday I bailed on that second run and this morning I went to the pool and flopped so slow and easy that one of the older ladies there actually stopped to ask me if I was okay. Ha! Clearly I have learned to take my easy days easy... And clearly I actually am capable of embracing rest and recovery when I feel it is warranted. Tim made a good point yesterday too... he said look what it took to get you here... Indeed. I really had to do WORK, and lots of it, to get myself here and that feels rather satisfying. :) In good news, I can feel my energy levels coming back already...

My Give-A-Damn's Busted

2011-09-06T10:37:00.000-10:00

This morning I went out for an easy jog... I have to say, being by myself and just jogging and not trying to go as fast as I can while having a ton of people around me was a huge freakin' relief. Two days in a row of frantic racing was a lot harder than I anticipated.

Yesterday was the Waikiki Roughwater Swim. This race attracts tons of people from out of state... swimmers come from Australia and California and Texas and well, all over for this race. So it's a good humbling experience to participate because just when you think you're a good swimmer, you get to race against real swimmers and you realize, well, maybe it's really just big fish in small pond syndrome, even though we are actually in a huge ocean. Or something like that.

So I couldn't find any pictures from the race this year, but I found these from past years and really, the ocean still looks the same. And while the conditions were good and calm this year, the pictures would probably look exactly like this.

There were about 900 people racing this year. They split it into 4 or 5 waves so even though this looks kind of crazy, the start was nothing like an Ironman start.

Not surprisingly I was very tired yesterday morning (maybe more emotionally spent than anything- I gave it all away in that bike race Sunday) but I tried to fake it for this swim. That lasted maybe 100 meters. Lol. I found myself in this frantic mess of swimmers and I was sprinting to start and my heart had that familiar feeling of wanting to jump right out of my chest and then I just had this WHAT ARE YOU DOING moment where my Central Governor just really stepped in to shut me down. Then that song came into my head... I really wanna care... I wanna feel something... let me dig a little deeper... nah... nothin'. I'm with ya, Jo Dee.

By the time I got to the first turn buoy I'd decided that I just did not have it in me to dig dig dig for this race. I know it's a big deal for some people but honestly I just didn't care. So I found a gal who was swimming a decent enough pace and I just got on her feet and stayed there til the end.

Looking at these pictures makes me think I should have enjoyed the swim a lot more than I did... it really is quite beautiful, no? No wonder people come from all over to swim here! I need to change my attitude and stop taking this for granted I guess. Since we swim here all the time (well, pre-Moana I swam here all the time... now it's a bit less) it's easy to forget that it really doesn't get much better than this.

Waikiki skyline from the water...

Anyway, I finished in 1:01 which shockingly placed me third in my age group. I don't know how I was supposed to feel about that... 3rd is cool I guess but 1:01 is not indicative of how my swimming has been going lately... but honestly I never got myself to the point of caring. I think I'm on the brink of being overly tired because this is what my brain does when my body needs a bit of a break.

DEMRR... How It Went Down

2011-09-04T20:45:00.002-10:00

I woke up this morning at ~2AM and started thinking about different scenarios about how the race might go this morning... then my HR hit ~150 (I have an active imagination) and I figured I might as well just get up.

No boring details about morning race prep... it was fine and normal and I drank my coffee and went to the bathroom (several times)... I left my HR monitor at home because really, who wants to see numbers like that? Not me.

The first ~30 miles of this race are ridiculously nervous. At least it was not raining this morning. Dry roads were *very* welcome when you've got 120 anxious cyclists jammed into one lane all trying to be right up front behind the neutral car. Motorcycles were jamming by us on both sides trying to keep everyone in the single lane- and it was fine when we were riding 3 abreast but then everyone started trying to move up and at times there were 4 or even 5 people jammed side by side in the lane and I was thinking I just do not have the nerves for this kind of stuff. That was just like 90 minutes of hell and I could not wait for it all to split up on the big climb. I'm in this group somewhere near the front... and that guy was hanging out the sunroof of the neutral vehicle on his bullhorn yelling at everyone to STAY IN ONE LANE...

Finally we got to Kunia Rd (long hill) and the neutral car pulled off and the horn sounded and all hell broke loose. My heart jumped out of my chest and I was breathing 100 times/second and my hamstrings almost ripped off and I still got dropped by the lead guys. That hill is freakin' steep right at the start and I just do not have the power to do what those guys were doing. But Teri did. I watched her ride away and GRRRRRR tried so hard to stay there but just could.not.do.it. Ok. Plan B. Just ride steady within myself... so that's what I did and I was with a group of 4 guys and we climbed hard but it was doable and before I knew it I felt mostly recovered so I jumped away from my 4 guys and caught another group of 4 guys who were just up the road... I was feeling fine by then but by this point (maybe 1/2 way up the 30ish min climb) the main pack including Teri was gone.

Then, like an oasis in the desert, I saw my teammate Ben up the road... waiting for me. Oh sweet. His mission for the day was to help me win so from the middle of Kunia Rd he just put me on his wheel and started time trialing. Ben is training for Kona and he is strong so he has no qualms about just riding hard and he didn't ask for help from anyone (he was also pulling the 4 guys behind me). As strong as Ben is, I did not think that he was going to catch the lead pack... I was happy just sitting on his wheel though because if there's one thing I know how to do, it's riding steady. And that's what Ben was doing. Riding steady. I was also thinking that drafting one guy I knew well was ever so much more enjoyable than being all nervous and on your brakes and surrounded by a gazillion cyclists you don't really know... So this was by far my happiest section of the race. It lasted maybe 20 miles.

Because you know what? We freakin' caught the lead group. I could not believe it! Be careful what you wish for though, right? Because now we were back in the scenario of being in the middle of all these guys... there were maybe 40 in that lead group which included Teri... but now we were the only two gals in that group so one of us was going to win and man I felt pressure to make it me after all that work Ben did to get me there...

So the next, I don't know, 45ish miles were a mix of GO GO GO with slowing slowing slowing then back to GO GO GO. It would string out and then bunch up and I was just nervous as hell thinking once again that I do not have the nerves for this kind of thing. This is a pretty cool shot of the long strung out line... again, I'm in there somewhere, probably near the back b/c I was too much of a wimp to be aggressive and try to get near the front.

I was feeling okay during that section- not super but not too bad. I knew I'd burned up about 1/2 my matches on that first long furious climb and then maybe one or two more during Ben's 20 mile TT trying to catch the group... then several more trying to avoid a crash (very near miss for me around Kahuku as a rider went down right in front of me). How many matches did I have left? I wasn't sure.

Then the hills started... so I found out... (Hint. Not many.)

The last 25ish miles of this race include a bunch of short steep hills that are the true test... I made it up a couple of them.

And then they got really steep. Yikes.

I felt my quads starting to seize up on one of the climbs and had no choice but to back off the effort and let the group go. ARGH!! I don't think the cramping was an issue of dehydration or electrolytes or fueling or anything- it was just purely the fact that I'd burned up all my matches! Muscularly I was not prepared to dig and go to the well that many times. This was the first time all year I've had any cramps but also the first time all year I've done so much very hard climbing and surging. It is not a coincidence...

Anyway, super teammate Ben might win the award for Most Patient Cyclist today because he soft pedaled and waited for me over and over in the final miles as I just could not dig at all. I had one gear left and that was all I could use. This is a great shot of Ben with me on his wheel... second to last climb of the day... maybe mile 105ish?

I'll spare you the rest (it's boring anyway- just me pedaling my bike and trying to stay upright) and just say that I finished... 2nd female and 34th OA in 5:22, which is 4 minutes faster than I've done this race before, if that means anything. Solid ride for sure and I am happy with it! I really did give my best effort today. The fact of the matter is that to win this race you have to train like a cyclist, not a triathlete. Teri is a cyclist, and she trains like one! (I would know... lol.) I am a triathlete, and I train like one! So there you go.

Afterward we all went out to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner/awards and Teri and I drank a couple beers and shared war stories. :)

Waikiki Roughwater Swim tomorrow morning! THAT, I think, will be a hell of a lot easier than today.

*BTW, most of these photos were taken by Colin Cross (photo credit!)... same awesome guy who came to my house to fix my rear derailleur hanger a couple weeks back...

Mama's Gold Chain

2011-09-02T20:27:00.000-10:00

So on Sunday I'll get to race my road bike around the island... the 112 mile road race that inspired the original Ironman way back when...

We start down there on the south side of the island and ride around clock-wise. It doesn't get hard 'til we hit the middle of the island- that's where the ~~shit hits the fan~~ climbing starts... It's super important to get in the right group on that climb b/c after that there's a fast descent down to the North Shore and then ~40 miles of headwind heading around to the east side. I do that headwind section all the time on my normal route and it's really not fun to do alone! Definitely best to be in the middle of a pack of strong men on that section. The last ~25 miles it becomes a race of attrition b/c that last bit is filled with short steep little hills that will break riders one by one as their endurance runs out.

I won't lie- I've done a bit of secret training for this race... I want to win it! (Did I just admit that??) I'm really not sure if I can which is what makes it intriguing... I know my endurance is there but fast/hard climbing? Ouch. That has not been my focus this year, and last time I tried a bike race (July) I got my ass handed to me when it got fast and furious uphill... In an effort to avoid that this time around, the last 3 Saturdays I've driven my road bike to the middle of the island and tried to completely trash myself on those long hills so I guess we'll see if that's enough? I think if I make the right group on the first big climb I'll be in good position for the rest of the race so we'll see how it goes! I know there are some other very strong women who will also be racing - my biggest challenge may actually come from a gal I am coaching (and I *know* the hard training she has done!) and of course we are not the only ones who want to win... In good news, we are all friends and after the race we will buy each other beers and tell good stories about the deciding moments of the race. And if Teri wins she's already agreed to buy the beer. :)

In good news, my road bike should now be in tip top shape for the weekend. Since I haven't ridden it much this year I haven't taken extremely good care of it (are you surprised?)... but my friend Dennis took it last weekend to wrench it for me... I told him it was pretty much fine but just that shifting into the big ring it was kind of sluggish (i.e. I had to push the lever in twice and stop pedaling for a moment to get it to go into the big ring.) Dennis of course knew better than to believe the bike was basically fine so he took the whole thing apart and said it was all completely corroded... so he replaced the cables and the bottom bracket and the pedals and the tires... and he put a new chain on it too... a gold one! Did you even know they made gold chains? I'd never seen one. But it is sweet. I'd take a picture and show you but it's been raining the last few days (shocking, I know) and my bike is a mess again because of course I've been riding it on those wet roads. But it feels like it's brand spanking new and I'm stoked to race on it this weekend.

Anyway, apparently when Dennis took my bar tape off he said the handlebars were completely pitted/corroded and flat out not safe. Lovely. So I got new handle bars for that bike too. This was the email he sent me earlier in the week... Yikes.
"i keep discovering things on your bike, my dear

took the tape off your handlebars, discovered that

the metal (aluminum) is extremely pitted. i am guessing

from a combination of salt, rain, and sweat. i have to confess,

i have never seen a pair of handlebars like this...

usually, they just have a white patina of corrosion."

My poor bikes. I guess that's proof they get used though, eh? I've always said that I don't mind dirty bikes. The only clean ones around here are the ones that don't get ridden. Take my new P3 for example. I keep waiting for a dry morning so I can go out and ride it but we have not had one yet.... so it still looks absolutely perfect. ;)

Anyway, stay tuned for fun bike and swim race stories from the long weekend!

*As an aside, the 3 original events that inspired Ironman were the Waikiki Roughwater swim (2.4 miles which I will do on Monday) and the Around-Oahu bike race (112 miles which I will do on Sunday) and the Honolulu Marathon (which I will do in December). The original Ironman event was held on my 4th birthday (Feb 18, 1978). Pretty cool that I get to do all three of those original races plus Kona in the same year!

I'm A Lifer

2011-08-29T11:10:00.000-10:00

So Nalani sent me an email this morning that said, "I have the active.com registration open for IM Canada right now."

And that was all it took. I didn't need a beer or even 10 minutes to think about it. I called Scott who said yes (although on the condition that he gets a trip to Bali at some point... fair enough!) and since I have my credit card number memorized, it was just a matter of pressing some buttons on my computer and then Ta-Dah! "You are now registered for Ironman Canada".

In all honesty, I had not even considered doing Canada until I got that email from Nalani. I've done Canada twice before though... 1997 and 2002. Canada '97 was my first ironman (you never forget your first time!). I was injured most of the summer and therefore did not bike or run much at all. Unlike some people I cannot just go pop off a 10 hour IM without training... But I did pop off a 14:20! :) Anyway, I do love that race and I will be happy to go back to Penticton next August for my 12th ironman.

So that got me thinking... I wonder when I'll get to stop doing Ironman? At what point do you say enough is enough? Hmmmm. I really do not know. Maybe when you get to the point where you don't enjoy the training anymore? I'm definitely not there yet. I still love the training. I love the lifestyle. I love the racing. Maybe I'm just a Lifer?

Watching Ironman And Running Long...

2011-08-28T14:44:00.000-10:00

Watching Ironman online is fun! I woke up this morning at like 6AM without my alarm and popped right out of bed to come down and check out the online coverage of Louisville and Canada... I had 2 athletes racing in Louisville (Armando and Scott) and 1 in Canada (Mary)... My phone was going off with text messages and videos and phone calls from Marianne and Meg (wives watching in Louisville) and everybody just did GREAT! Armando's goal was to qualify for Kona... we knew it was kind of a long shot for him but he went for it and knocked out a 10:17 (35 min PR!). He PR'd across the board swim bike and run splits and dug as deep as he could and got pretty close landing in 20th place in his age group. Maybe there's 11-12 spots so doubt the roll down will go to 20th but I'm so proud of his effort. He called me after from the med tent and sounded as happy as one could be in that scenario. :) Scott did awesome too... not sure if you remember his story but he is my old high school friend who got up off the couch last summer and decided to do a sprint triathlon... He has lost ~50 lbs in the last year... Then he won the lottery and got a shocking spot to Kona! So he just used Louisville as a day to gain experience and I instructed him to drop out after ~4 miles on the run and save it for Kona in 6 weeks. Scott swam a 54 this morning. I about fell off my chair when I saw that but so happy for him! Then he went and biked a 6:06 which isn't too shabby for someone who just started riding about a year ago. Scott has about the best attitude of any triathlete I know and I can't wait to toe the line with him in Kona. He and Nalani and I are going to have a bit of a swim race! How fun will that be?!? I am pumped. Mary also threw down a 4' swim PR this morning in Canada- still waiting to see her finish but great start to the day for her!

Anyway, this was kind of my first taste of watching my athletes race Ironman via my computer... but there's a bunch more to come... I've got athletes racing in Florida and Arizona later this year and then next year in New Zealand, UK, NYC, Mont-Tremblant, and Wisconsin (so far)... Coaching athletes through Ironman is highly rewarding I think.

In other good news, I've had a bit of a breakthrough lately with my running. Had a super longish brick run yesterday and then nailed another 20 miler this morning. Coach's philosophy when it comes to me and running has gone something like this: Oh, so running 20 miles is hard for you? Then keep doing them until they are not hard anymore. And finally, it appears I'm there! 20 mile runs have become so common place in my world that I almost don't think twice about them anymore. I think this approach has worked for me because a) I'm ridiculously motivated and b) I've become rather durable and am not injury prone so I have been able to actually handle/absorb them. I did today's run mid-morning when it was just brutally hot and sunny (and humidity at ~100% since it had just stopped raining) and just set my garmin to show only distance... I've found that I truly do better when I don't micro-manage pace and instead just run by feel. I don't think there's a 20 miler I've done this year where I have not negative split so that is very confidence building! :)

I actually haven't really kept track of weekly miles much this year... sometimes I add them up just out of curiosity though... This week seemed like a rather big run week so I did the math and came up with 53 miles. That's a pretty solid run week for me... and when you add in the 20 miles from last Sunday it actually becomes 73 in the last 8 days. I think that must be some sort of personal record? It's cool though because the more I run the more I like running and the better I feel. Running has this 'automatic' feel to it now where much of the time it just flows. 6 weeks til Kona.

If It Ain't Broke...

2011-08-26T16:13:00.000-10:00

So I've been wanting a new bike for quite some time now (I know, who doesn't want a new bike, right??) but I've had this guilty feeling about it because, well, I have a nice bike and besides the fact that it is ~5 years old and has about a billion miles on it and it's all corroded and stuff, sometimes it shifts just fine. And I've raced really well on it. I think I was afraid of even talking about getting a new one because what if she heard me and got pissed off? And then, like, took it out on me during Ironman? And what if my new one didn't fit as well as my old one? Because let's face it, that P3 fits me and I've had some success on it over the years. Could I find a bike that was even better for me?

Since the only thing I was really dissatisfied with about my old bike was the fact that, well, it is old, it crossed my mind that my dream bike was really the same bike, but just new. (i.e. with parts that function flawlessly.) Don't get me wrong, my old bike has some new parts (2 chains, cables, aero bars, bottom bracket, headset, and pedals this year alone) but next up I was going to replace the shifters and that bottom bracket was still clicking on me. Riding here in the rain all the time and in this humid salty air is really tough on bikes and bike parts. Then after I stripped that bottom bracket hangar thing a few weeks ago and thought the whole frame was ruined, well, Scott said "Just get a new bike." Really?? A new one?

Don't have to tell me twice!

The guys at ITB completely hooked me up and I went to pick up my new P3 today. It pays to be a longtime loyal customer! I took my old one in so they could get my new one set up the same way... and ta dah! My new machine.

So even though there really is not room for a third bike in my kitchen, my plan is to keep my old one for a while and ride it most of the time in training... especially on wet days. This white one will be like the baby that gets to go out sometimes on sunny days and when it's time to race. Funny how just the thought of this new bike makes me all nervous... I guess I should at least ride it enough to stop being nervous just looking at it, huh?

What Are You Gonna Do Now?

2011-08-24T18:49:00.000-10:00

So yesterday I was talking to coach and he said that today I was going to have my hardest swim of the year. My ears perked up. Really!?! Sweet. I love hard swims.

I think had he not actually told me about it I would have assumed he just typed it wrong. Because seriously, how can the entire main set (2700M) be done with just paddles and bands? That's a lot of swimming with just paddles and bands. I haven't kept track really of how much of that I've ever done before but I'm rather certain that I'd never done that much before. But then I looked at it this way: I've been swimming for almost 30 years now (wow that makes me feel old) and to do something I've never done before in a swim workout, well, that was exciting!

So there's this guy who's always at the pool... he's training to do the Maui Channel (~9 miles) solo in a few weeks so he's swimming all.the.time. He watched me going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth with just paddles/bands so he tried it to. I admit I laughed a little because the first time he tried it his body formed the shape of an 'L' with those bands on and he had a hard time making it across the pool. I helped him a bit with some technique tips (chin down, rotate hips!) and he got it better after that... but he was like wow that was hard! I told him to keep doing it. It gets easier. :)

When I finished up my main set he said What are you gonna do now? I told him, 4 x 100's fast @ 2:00. Lots of rest, so swim fast. He did them with me, and indeed, we swam fast! This guy rarely does any fast interval type swimming so for him the panting breathing thing was a unique experience. I think he liked it though because it seemed like he wanted yet another set... Again he said, What are you gonna do now? I replied, "Well now I'm gonna do 100 cool down and then go bike 100 miles." I think he thought I was exaggerating. Lol.

I Didn't Actually Piss Myself

2011-08-20T20:29:00.003-10:00

Like once a year I buck up and go ride with a group of hard core roadies. I just looked back in my blog archive (I love blog archive!) and found a post I wrote about the one roadie ride I did last summer. Funny b/c I said it was the hardest ride I had done all year... So today I went with the same group and again, I proclaim (hands down!) it was the hardest ride I've done all year. Yikes. Those guys don't mess around.

In good news, I had several very light/easy days in a row this week which brought me back to life. I wore my HR monitor today though just to make sure that I was indeed out of the woods and back to normal. Given that my HR went up to 115 while putting on my cycling shoes, I figured I'd have no problem with being unable to elevate it today. I'll blame the 115 on the ~~fact that I was nervous as hell~~ 2 big cups of 100% Hilo coffee I drank on the drive over to the ride... (By the way, isn't it odd to drive to a bike ride? Anyway...)

I won't bore you with all the details, but suffice to say that I got what I wanted out of the ride. Some super hard climbing efforts, lots of grit your teeth time, a max HR I've only seen maybe once this year, and some practice uttering words that I can only say when Moana is out of earshot. I learned that Pineapple Hill is actually quite a bit longer and steeper when it comes ~80 miles into a ridiculously fast ride vs when it comes at ~40 miles after relaxing in your aero bars with a nice tailwind. And at mile 92 when I was chasing the guys over some steep rollers and desperately trying not to get dropped, I thought I might actually lose control of my bladder. That has actually never happened to me before. It was crazy because I was standing up and sprinting as hard as I could up this hill and thinking "Am I going to piss myself??" I didn't, if you must know, but that was such an odd feeling. I mean, I've pissed myself on my bike before, but always on purpose and only while racing. Today was not that.

Doesn't that sound like fun? Honestly, it was kind of fun. I'm super glad I went. But I'll also be super glad to get back on my TT bike next weekend and just chill out ~~forever~~ at HR 150... How easy is that going to seem after today?? I swear, so many times I wanted to say to those roadies today Pssst! Hey you know what? This would be so.much.easier if you guys would just chill out and ride steady 20mph instead of slowing down to 10 and then speeding up to 30... And then they probably would have responded Um, shut up Tri-Geek... why would you get off a perfectly good bike and RUN?

Avocado Shopping

2011-08-18T17:29:00.000-10:00

Yesterday I went grocery shopping. Remember the crisis about not having peanut butter?? It's resolved. Phew! Well I also bit the bullet and bought a couple avocados. I love avocados. But, um, yikes. They are $2 EACH right now. Which doesn't make sense when we can go avocado shopping for free in our backyard.

My neighbor and I took turns this afternoon ~~straining our necks~~ collecting avocados and Moana was an awesome cheerleader... Chanting stuff like You almost got it and Yay great job you got it!

In less than 15 minutes we'd collected the motherload of avos. We left some on the tree for next week.

This one is bigger than Moana's head!

So one of these came off our tree and one of them I paid $2 for at the store. Guess which is which? Argh.

But let's stay relentlessly positive, shall we? In ~a week when these get ripe, we're going to have a HUGE batch of guacamole! :)

The Value Of A Coach

2011-08-17T13:53:00.000-10:00

I've been living right on the edge of my recovery limit for the last probably ~10 days and I finally raised the white flag today. I started my ride and even though my bike felt great (yay for new cables!) my body was telling me no so I bailed and came home.

The beauty of riding by HR (especially for an overzealous workhorse like me) is that it does not lie and when you can't elevate it even when you are standing up 'powering' over a hill, well, it's time to go home and rest. I ride with HR almost 100% of the time so I know what is normal (for me) and what is not... It really helps put some objectivity into what would otherwise be a subjective decision to bail on a workout... It eliminated the question Am I just being a wimp?

Coach has taught me so much in this regard as well. We were talking yesterday... and since I write detailed notes about my workouts (and since he actually reads them!) he could tell that I was just barely recovering from day to day and knew that at some point soon I was going to crash... he cautioned me against pushing through in a scenario like this... one day that is too hard could just push you right over the edge and then it could be weeks to recover... I think today could have been that day. I could have jumped off the cliff but I'm getting smarter in my old age so instead I just took a little peek and decided I was afraid of heights so I backed away. Herein lies the value of a coach. I think some athletes need a coach to ~~cattle prod~~ guide them into training more or at a higher intensity than they otherwise would on their own... but some of us need a coach who can be totally objective and tell us to STOP. DON'T JUMP. So instead of running twice tomorrow I get to take a nap. Beautiful. Notice how I'm not even resisting? That in itself is a clear sign. Lol.

So now I'm going to follow the advice I give to my athletes when they ~~bitch~~ communicate about being tired... Eat plants. Eat protein. Drink water. Sleep. I'm also going to go take a shower and actually wash my hair and then go buy peanut butter. It's been 2 days since we've had peanut butter in this house. That's gotta be some kind of crime.

Ok I'm A Thief But It Was Totally Justified

2011-08-14T20:44:00.001-10:00

Ahhh. I finally ate enough food to feel satisfied. I swear, I've been like a bottomless PIT this week. It's ridiculous.

So yesterday was the last swim of the North Shore Swim Series. Normally this is my favorite one... maybe because it is the longest, but also because more than any of the other swims, the point to point course requires knowledge of the ocean and navigation skills.

There was an unusual west swell yesterday which caused some decent shore break that made simply entering the water and getting to the start buoy challenging for some. Before the swim I was talking to Robin (my age group rival this summer!) and I told her that best/fastest route along this course requires staying on the inside, hugging the rocks to whatever extent you are comfortable. But then in the pre-race meeting the lifeguard got on the loudspeaker and said not today... today it's better to be on the outside he said... he also informed us about an extra buoy they placed past Waimea Point (around that last point before the bay) and said we needed to go around that on our left shoulder... Then he made us all put our hands on our left shoulder to make sure that sank in. Normally there's no buoy there but I guess the idea was that since sets were rolling into that point maybe it was best to make us all stay pretty far from those rocks we normally hug. Anyway, then I felt bad thinking maybe Robin thought I was trying to steer her wrong by telling her to stay inside when the lifeguard just clearly said it would be better to be outside... argh... so we talked again before the gun went off and I didn't know what to do and told her it was a crap shoot- maybe best course of action was to just swim with our people and hope for the best??

I could make this a really long story... but I'll do my best here to just hit the highlights... I swam hard. I swam strong. I was in a good solid pack of mostly girls but Lectie and Robin were also in my pack so I knew I was in good company and swimming with my people... I fought like hell for Lectie's feet when a couple people tried to steal them from me... um, I don't think so. Our pack was very aggressive which was fine by me. You want to play like that?? I can play like that. So I threw some elbows and kicked rather forcefully a couple times to make my point and eventually I won the battle for Lectie's feet. Robin was on my feet. I never even really looked up the whole swim (only at Lectie's feet!!) but I knew we were farther out than I've ever been because I never saw the series of rocks we normally swim right over. The water was deep the whole time. Then around Waimea Point I finally saw that last orange buoy and I remembered putting my hand on my left shoulder in the pre-race meeting so even though I watched my whole pack skip that buoy (instead making a beeline to shore), I headed for the buoy. I figured I was either going to lose to that whole group or else there would be a lifeguard forcing them all to go back around it in which case I would be there first... in the end, no enforcement of that last buoy at all so I got beat by ~a minute by my whole group. Oh well. I got what I came for which was a good solid/sustained ocean swimming effort. Robin sent me a nice note later and said she appreciated our competition this summer and that I should have won in her book by choosing to go around that buoy. In the end I was officially 2nd. I let that bug me for about a minute and then got over it.

In the end our whole group got our asses kicked (they were mostly 1:01; I was 1:02, 9 minutes slower than last year!) because people who didn't listen to the pre-race meeting and swam inside like normal beat us all by minutes. And the total newbie people who listened to the lifeguards and swam really far outside ended up like 30+ minutes off their expected times.... the current was definitely worse the further out you went so those instructions were totally off. I heard that ~40 people got pulled from the water because they just weren't making headway at all. Yikes! Anyway, so that's a wrap on the swim series. I'm bummed it's over!

Then I went and did the type of bike workout that makes your legs burn when you walk up the stairs later. O.U.C.H. I don't do those much. Totally different type of riding/fitness required for that type of riding! But definitely fun to do something different and to ride on different roads for a change.

Today I had my first real bonk of the year. Bonking sucks! I'm usually super careful to avoid it because, well, it sucks! My problem was that last night we went to a concert (ok the concert was not the problem- the concert was fun!) but it was lawn style seating and no outside food/drink allowed so we had to eat the crap they were serving and I'm sorry I'm just not going to eat those deep fried chicken wings... so my dinner last night was rather small. I knew I was hungry but made the choice to not eat enough vs eat the crap food. The short version results of that decision had me sitting under a shade tree ~13+ miles into my run this morning (I say morning but it was almost noon and ridiculously hot by then) having thoughts like I suck at this I should just go home and clean my house like a normal wife/mom I have completely craaaaacked because I have just flat out trained too much I'm so tired this sucks. I ate a GU at that point but had the thought that there's not enough e21 vespa gu or inifinit in the world to save me now... I swear to you if I would have had my phone I would have called Scott and just sat there under the tree until he came to get me. But since I had no phone, eventually I convinced myself to stand up and I started jogging toward home. A few miles later I found myself at a corner looking at a McDonalds that I've never previously stepped foot in... I had no money but I thought maybe I could either bum some of somebody (surely I looked pathetic enough- like a drowned rat really) or convince the teenagers behind the counter to donate some Coke to save a poor girl's life... I carried my empty bottle in there, saw how crowded/busy the place was (really?? That many people eat at McDonald's for Sunday lunch??), and walked out with my bottle full of Coke. I swear I am not normally a thief but in this situation I was desperate! I totally justified that in my sugar-deprived mind anyway. I stood there in the parking lot and downed ~20 oz of fully carbonated Coke, burped, then ran home feeling like a million bucks. That stuff is seriously magic.

You Can't Catch Me!!

2011-08-10T20:15:00.001-10:00

So Moana's new favorite game to play is "You Can't Catch Me!!" She runs around the house squealing and repeating that phrase while Scott and I run around squealing and pretending we can't catch her. Anyway, tonight while we were playing I was thinking that would be a good phrase to write for Kerrie on the 'motivational' board they set up coming out of the Energy Lab at Kona. :)

In good news, I have my brain back! All it took was two really easy/relaxed training days, some really nutrient dense food, and a couple nights of 9+ hours sleep. Turns out, that combination is actually quite magical on the third day when you go to train again. I actually thought I was mis-reading my watch a couple times this morning in the pool... haven't seen numbers like that in, well, I can't remember how long? So that was cool.

Then my instructions for the bike afterward were pretty open... basically, if you can get your HR up above 145 then do the ride, if not, bag it and spin home. It took ~30 minutes and some focusing, but eventually I got my HR to 145 and I felt strong so I gave myself permission to continue riding. And then I thought about how far I've come this year. I remember coach telling me last winter that a time would come when I would worry about getting my HR up to 150... which seemed incredibly ridiculous at the time because all the riding I was doing back then involved getting dropped by groups and a whole bunch of soft pedaling to keep my HR <150. How could it possibly change so much?? But there you go... this morning I was flying along Kam Hwy and really did have to focus and ride rather fast keep my HR above 145. And I felt like I could have gone on at that effort forever. Ok, well, not forever. I take that back, coach. Please don't make me try to do it forever. Though I guess when your water stops look like this maybe riding forever wouldn't be such a bad thing? (Check me out- taking a picture for you guys!)

In not so good news, my bike is acting up again. Ugh! It was shifting all on its own today and the jerking I felt last spring in the left crank is back. That poor bike has been through hell this year. I took it to my friend Dennis this afternoon and he's going to wrench it for me and see if he can't make it work appropriately. Maybe new cables will help? Maybe if I cleaned it and took better care of it that would help?

Anyway, I started this post with a bit about Moana so I'll finish it with a bit about her as well. She started her new preschool this week and is so happy... I took her Monday morning and she just ran right into that room (where she knew no one) and yelped out HI EVERYBODY!!! She is not shy. And now she comes home and sings songs to me about monkeys teasing alligators... you can't catch me!!

I'm Too Tired To Think Up A Witty Title For This Post

2011-08-07T18:27:00.000-10:00

It's Sunday night and I'm brain dead (again). I find it interesting how when I'm training hard/a lot that my brain just shuts down and I'm unable to think. This was a pretty big week and I'm tired (clearly I'm brain dead b/c in reality is was a huge week but I'm in denial or something calling it a "pretty big" week). What's funny is that I find myself rationalizing that I'm not like incapacitated or anything so I'm not really that tired. Ha! What will it take before I raise the white flag? I don't know... I'm not quite raising it yet... though I think many (most?) athletes would be raising it right now if they felt like I do right now. I guess I just think that if I'm still able to go out and complete my workouts and nail 'em all exactly like they were intended, then does it really matter how I feel between sessions? Don't answer that.

So Friday night I was preparing for my bike ride on Saturday morning... got all my nutrition together (this will not surprise Kiet!) and then figured I better put my bike together... it was still in its box in the back of my car. So Scott brought the box inside for me and then I went to work putting it together. I do this a lot it seems and have not had a problem with any of it since I can remember so it was really odd to me when I couldn't get my rear derailleur screwed in... what is going on?? I tried for several minutes and then wondered briefly if it was stripped? I didn't even know this could really happen but I stopped trying and googled it and sure enough... OMG... it's not the derailleur that gets stripped- its the hanger on the frame... which on the P3 is integrated into the frame... so at this point I was completely sick to my stomach thinking I just ruined my bike and was going to need a new one... holy crap... I tried one more time but saw the little aluminum shavings and just thought I was going to die (extreme I know but um we don't have $4K for me to get a new bike right now). I called a friend of mine who has been working on my bike and he wasn't sure what to do when the hanger isn't one that can come out and be replaced (like it can on my road bike). I put it on FB and within like a minute got a message from a local mechanic who was sure he could fix it... along with several other offers from friends who said I could borrow their bikes. I was so overwhelmed with the kindness! Colin actually came over at 10:30 PM with a tool that rethreads that hanger and fixed it for me. Which was most amazing because I don't even really know Colin... I mean, I've seen him around and know his name of course but it's not like we've been close friends for years. He's just a good guy with a good heart who understood my desperation and wanted to fix my bike for me. Amazing! Anyway, he said the smartest thing I did was stop trying to force the derailleur in there when it wasn't going. So learn my lesson- make sure that derailleur is square in there (not crooked) before you try to install it and if for whatever reason it doesn't go in, stop trying and call a professional. :)

So, phew! Even though I didn't get much sleep (was up way past my bedtime with this bike fiasco!) I got to go riding on Saturday morning. I went with the group which I don't normally do (usually I ride alone) and turns out it's infinitely easier to ride with a group on a windy day. One word. Drafting. What a huge difference! Coming home I was watching my HR and it was a difference of like 20bpm when I was out front vs when I was sitting on.

Today was interesting. On the schedule was another hour of repeats up and down a long steep hill... running this time instead of biking though. It takes ~50 min (of short steep hills) to run to and from the (long steep) hill I used... so you can do the math and figure out how long I ran... Anyway, I nailed the repeats and currently have the FKT on Old Pali, which I plan on keeping because I'm not telling anyone else where I start/finish so therefore no one can beat my time. ;)

Anyway, after the last hill repeat my water bottle was empty and I was thirsty but the closest park bathroom I knew about was over a mile away... I was desperate and wanted water before that so I went out of my way a bit to get to a church that I knew was around the corner and would certainly have a water source. So picture the scene... It was ~9:15 on a Sunday morning and every resident of Kaneohe was driving into this particular church parking lot. I was in my "I could/should wring out my socks" state when I realized that I would have to actually go inside this really nice church building to fill my bottle... so I pretended that I didn't look like a dorky triathlete (who am I kidding?) and walked inside the building, where I was greeted by the church greeters who graciously directed me to the bathroom while pretending not to stare at my compression socks. I proceeded to drip sweat all over the granite countertops as I filled my bottle. Down in one (I was thirsty) and filled my bottle again, smiled at the little old ladies as they filed into the sanctuary, and decided that next time I'll just gut out the extra mile to the park bathroom rather than subject this poor church building to my bodily fluids dripping off me like a faucet.

If There Are No Pictures, Did It Really Happen??

2011-08-04T21:24:00.002-10:00

Can you believe it? 2.5 days in Kona and not a single picture. Not one. Sorry! Kiet said it was b/c we were too focused on training. I'm saying it was because my jersey pockets were too full of fueling products to carry a camera. Anyway, Kona looks the same as it always has. Lots of black lava rock, some palm trees here and there, a very blue ocean, and blue skies every morning followed by some cloud cover in the afternoon. Oh, and it's ridiculously windy. And hot. Well, not that hot. Mostly just windy.

I'm not even sure where to start about the trip. I can sum up by saying it was awesome! We nailed 6 workouts in a row over the 2.5 days and spent the rest of the time eating, sleeping, and talking about Ironman... Ironman fueling and Ironman pacing and Ironman training and Ironman tapering and Ironman mentality. Lots of Ironman talk. I guess that's what you'd expect out of an Ironman training camp! We are such dorks.

Tuesday I got up at 3:30 AM to catch an early flight to Kona. I arrived at 6:30AM and we were riding by 8. We rode long- out to Hawi and back. It was pretty cruisy riding out and then we put in a solid effort on the climb and then on the descent we got passed by a guy who was flying down the hill. I made a snap judgement to jump on his wheel. I should check max speed on my garmin from that ride b/c I bet it was the fastest I'd ever made that descent! Super fun. And kinda scary. The crosswinds weren't the worst I've experienced up there, but they were pretty solid. Then when we hit the rollers section to Kawaihae Kiet took over the pulling and was kinda putting the hurt on our new super descending friend. Turns out this guy was from Moscow and was training for Ironman Florida. The three of us traded very strong pulls all the way to Waikoloa where Kiet and I pulled off to fill our bottles one last time. I was kinda glad to be rid of our Moscow guy b/c I figured we could then ease up a bit on the effort for the last 25 miles. But then in Waikoloa Kiet swallowed a couple of e21 tabs and I reapplied my chamois cream and before I knew it we were hauling ass back to Kona into a nasty headwind and climbing one hill after another and riding side by side both too stubborn to take a break and draft even for a second and Kiet kept upping the pace and pulling like an inch ahead of me and I was like um I don't think so so I would up the pace further and then see another hill ahead and swear under my breath and then Kiet would up the effort again and so would I and OMG the wind was brutal and then another hill and there is no way I am going to crack but are you kidding me aren't we done with these hills yet?? We were both so stubbornly persistent and neither one of us would give a freakin' inch so we just crushed each other for like an hour straight into that wind. It was awesome. Then we rolled into Island Naturals all sweaty and disgusting and ate a ton of really good food. And talked more about all things Ironman.

We got back to the condo and I wrung my socks out off the side of the lanai and Kiet was like see, we totally should have a picture of that. I bet that's not the photo you want from Kona though, huh? You'll just have to use your imagination on that one.

Yesterday was a weight training session on two wheels up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down Hina Lani for like an hour and instructions from coach were to add on length to the ride as we felt... turns out we both felt like adding time so 3.5 hours later we got back and headed out for an hour long race pace brick run. Nailed that but holy cow I really had to work for it. That run ended with me flat on my back in the shade on the sidewalk for at least ten minutes. Follow it up again with more good food and talk about all things Ironman and then really? Not done yet? PM masters swim practice. Super. Kiet was like I'm having hot flashes are you having hot flashes? Uh huh. Waves of heat just took over my body randomly all afternoon/evening. I was exhausted and brain dead and rather intimidated on top of all that because there were a ton of people there swimming (like 7-8 per lane) and I wasn't sure where I fit in but What the heck? I jumped into lane 1 anyway. Seemed like some feathers were ruffled b/c the feeling I got was that a couple of outsiders weren't exactly welcome taking up precious space in lane 1. Odd. But I just kept my mouth shut and busted my ass trying to keep up with the feet in front of me while not holding up the people behind me and just sprinted for 50's and 100's for an hour never being able to calculate a single split or figure out pace or send-offs or anything. Short course yards flip flip flip OMG I hope my legs don't cramp. Then it was finally over. Coach Steve was warm and gracious and invited me to come back anytime but I think next time I go to Kona I'll avoid the drama at the pool and stick with the ocean.

Speaking of the ocean, we finally got in it this morning! I drank like a pot of coffee first. Kiet doesn't drink coffee. I tried to convince him but he was steadfast. Ok. I'll just be all perky all on my own! :) Then we ran what some people might consider a long run but my coach called a moderate long run... mid morning on Ali'i Dr out past Keauhou and it was hot and I taught myself that I can run race pace on that course in those conditions and it was all very confidence building, even if I'm still having hot flashes every few minutes.

In the end, it was an amazing couple of days. Kiet is super cool- a great training partner and good conversationalist too! I'm trying to remember a time when I enjoyed training so much... Tough to say but this may have been one of the best little training blocks I've ever done. All totally Type 1 fun!

I Hope My House Doesn't Catch Fire

2011-07-31T21:39:00.001-10:00

I get to go to Kona on Tuesday! So psyched about that. Kiet is already trying to blame his impending Type 3 Fun on me but I won't let him do that... I think my insane love for training on the Big Island will rub off on him immediately and he will buck up and the fun will certainly be Type 1. And if it's not, well, the 120 mile ride on Wednesday was HIS idea. Not mine. Just putting that out there in advance.

So anyway, stay tuned for fun training stories and pictures from Kona later this week.

As for now, I'm just trying to figure out how to get my legs back before my flight takes off on Tuesday morning... Remember how I've written so much about all those easy runs where I'm holding back and jogging and la la la bored-out-of-my-mind? Yeah. Those days are over. These days I read my run workouts and think either a) Coach has me confused with one of his other athletes who is clearly a more accomplished runner than me, or b) That fall he took last week on his mountain bike hurt his head worse than we thought.

I did my long run this afternoon... It wasn't one of those just get the miles in types of runs... It was more like how fast can you run 18 miles? Turns out, faster than I thought, (but amazingly right in the range that coach thought). So that was cool. But then later I was crashed out on my couch and emailing one of my athletes who was lamenting how much her legs hurt after her long run and I commiserated by saying that I wasn't sure I could get up off the couch if my house was on fire.

In other news, ladies... listen up. Last week I resorted to using Moana's diaper cream for my second long ride... but today I stopped into my local bike shop and inquired about some stuff that might work even better... And I found it! (Huge mahalos to Sonja at ITB for recommending it!) Hoo Ha Ride Glide... Have you tried this stuff? I balked at the $22 price tag on the big tube so instead just bought a couple little travel size packs to try out... I was sure I wouldn't use that whole huge tube. But, um, let me just say this- I didn't even ride today but I used it. Twice. This stuff is nice. Cool. Tingly. Now I'm thinking that I would pay $44 for that big tube and surely would use it daily. I mean, really. Even if you don't ride bikes this stuff might be worth checking out. Just sayin'.

More Tofu, Please!

2011-07-30T21:15:00.000-10:00

Tonight we went out on a family date. Mostly b/c we couldn't find a babysitter but we were tired of sitting around at home on Saturday nights so we figured what the heck. Maybe Moana will like Thai food? So we brought her with us. And... Indeed! She is a fan of Thai. She ate green papaya salad and tofu/vegetables... she was insistent on using her chopsticks and we just let her try. I think she liked the tofu because she could successfully stab it with a chopstick and then pretend it was a popsicle to eat. It just kinda cracked me up though when she was all Can I have more tofu please? I wonder how many two years olds ask that? Lol.

Moana is starting a new pre-school next week. I told her it was Flying Fairy School so obviously she is PUMPED about going and tonight after dinner we went to gather the list of supplies the school requested. (Don't be too jealous of my very glamorous life.) Moana couldn't wait to get her new "School Surprise". She kept asking about when she was going to get her new wings. I wonder how she'll feel about this new school when she finally figures out that they're not actually going to teach her how to fly?

This morning was another ocean swim race. Moana loves ocean swim races. It means she gets to play in the sand all morning! Scott dug her a private little pool to jump in.

The race was something like 1.6 miles along the north shore from Chun's Reef to Waimea Bay. This one might be my favorite of the four races in the series... maybe because it tends to be a bit choppier than the others and sometimes there's a good current against us and it requires some ocean navigation skills to make sure you don't swim like 2+ miles. The picture below makes it look a lot more simple than it actually is.

Here's a photo of some people trying to get out to the start. This actually makes me laugh a bit... all these people trying to get out to the start buoy via the most direct line, which also happens to be right over the shallowest part of the reef. All they had to do was go right or left and the water was deep enough to swim in without getting cut on the reef. This is kind of like the first piece of the puzzle when it comes to ocean navigation skills...

Anyway, not much newsworthy about the race itself. I felt a little lost because I was never swimming around people I knew. It was weird. I kept looking around at the people I was swimming with but it seemed like everyone I saw was a teenage boy. Where were my people?? Anyway, I swam hard, think I took a decent line, felt pretty good, and came out of the water ahead of everyone else in my age group. So that was cool. It's been a while since I've won my age group at one of these races... like a couple years I think? Gosh... now that I think about it, maybe even 4 years?? Last year I was 2nd-4th every time, the year before I was 2nd at all four swims to Miki, and the year before that I was pregnant... so yeah, it's been since 2007 that I've won here. I just talked (wrote?) myself into feeling better about this race. Lol.

Of course, a 13 yo girl came and whooped us all and won for the women. Damn kids. Of course, 11 years from now when that is Moana I'll be like super proud mama!

How I Want To Feel On Oct 8

2011-07-28T18:30:00.000-10:00

So we're in the time frame where coach is trying to kill me again. It might be time for me to dig out my cat suit.

I just had a rather ridiculous 3 days of training and I'm trying to remember if I've backed up long rides before the way I just did? I don't think I have? Maybe once... but all this training is killing off my brain cells so I can't be sure. It was interesting though b/c yesterday I really struggled and couldn't get my HR up (and swore a lot)... that had me rather worried about how I was going to get through another 90+ miles today... but as they say, today was a new day and I felt like a freakin' machine on that bike. (Nailed it!) I kept a mental imagine of Ange's new blog picture in my head on all my intervals today as a reminder that THAT is how I want to feel when I finish Kona. I know Ange worked her ass off this year in prep for Lake Placid and it paid off for her (clearly!). I love seeing that- when people are consistent and diligent and focused in their training and then BAM! Awesome race when it matters. Very motivating for work horse athletes like me. :)

Anyway, ~70 miles into my ride today I was stopped at Turtle Bay to refill my bottles one last time... Turtle Bay is a nice resort on the North Shore and it was almost lunchtime and I could smell the burgers grilling and the place was full of rather overweight pasty white tourists lounging by the ocean and relaxing on vacation and I just had this thought... No thanks, I'll just have another GU and go bust my ass into that nasty headwind one more time... Because I want to feel like Ange on October 8... But ya'll enjoy yourselves.

Sharks On The Big Island

2011-07-26T07:34:00.000-10:00

Call me a romantic, but I always assumed the waters off the coast of the Big Island were free from sharks. For whatever reason, even when I might have a bit of fear of swimming alone in ocean water elsewhere, swimming at the pier or at Hapuna always seemed totally benign (like a giant aquarium, right??) and I wouldn't hesitate to jump right in. And I probably I still won't when I am there next week, even though the shark sitings in both places have come one after another this year...

Sunday night bullet point style..

2011-07-24T21:16:00.001-10:00

~Last night we had a party b/c it was Scott's birthday. Normally I wouldn't drink margaritas the night before a race but I was just trying to be a good supportive wife and then suddenly somehow the entire bottle of Tequila (the huge one- from Costco) was *gone*. There were only 6 of us drinking margaritas so you do the math.

~Some of the margs were blended with lilikoi and some were blended with lime. The lilikoi was totally better, but all the lilikoi and limes came right off our trees which I thought was pretty cool.

~I spent much of the day yesterday making carrot cake from scratch for Scott (cream cheese icing too). I finished it up, put it in the fridge, then about an hour later opened the fridge and watched that cake fall right off the shelf and splat onto the floor. Unfortunately Moana learned a new word and then we went to the bakery and bought a new cake for Scott.

~When Scott got home from surfing Moana greeted him at the door and said, "I didn't do it. Mommy did it."

~I got a message from Nalani this morning telling me that lilikoi and lime are good luck the night before a bike race. I think what might have been even luckier was if I would have done any threshold hill repeats in training lately. Turns out, the fitness required for a fast hilly bike race is different from the fitness required to put together a decent Ironman, and I'm not as good at faking the threshold stuff as I hoped I'd be. It was fun though and even though I humbly got my ass handed to me, I'm glad I went. Those people who just ride bikes are very fast. And big congrats to my athlete Teri who flew over from Maui and won!

~This afternoon we took Moana to see Sesame Street LIVE. Imagine a concert hall full of kids ages 2-6ish and a bunch of adults dancing and singing in large furry animal costumes... Moana was enthralled and just enjoyed every second of that show. Especially the audience participation part... She was happy and she knew it! :)

Just Freakin' Rise To The Occasion

2011-07-20T20:14:00.000-10:00

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. And some of my athletes are going to call me a complete hypocrite because I just wrote a piece for them on setting appropriate goals and ended that post by saying that you simply have to earn yourself a level of fitness to support your goals. And I still believe that whole heartedly.

But then there's Thomas Voekler.

Not saying he's not fit enough to achieve his goals- just saying that in the past that guy has not shown that he has the physical capability to do what he is doing this month in France. But he's doing it. So what's the deal with that?

And this is a total aside, but I have to say, I do wonder if he is a master player in the psychological game... Every day he says that he doesn't expect to keep the jersey tomorrow but then he goes and fights like hell for it all day... and then keeps it. We all know athletes who do this to some degree (and btw I hate it when athletes do this)... they say, "Oh I can't go as fast as you..." blah blah blah and then you're training/racing together and they totally do go as fast as you and becomes this psychological blow... b/c you're killing yourself going as hard as you can and that sandbagger athlete is still riding right on your wheel or running shoulder to shoulder with you uphill and the obvious implication in your own mind at that point is I am not as fast as I thought if I can't drop this guy/gal who told me he/she couldn't go this fast... So I do wonder if Voekler is getting under the skin of the other contenders when they attack on a climb and can't shake him. It must be a bit of a blow to their confidence when they see that guy hanging on like such a sticky booger. Maybe that's why they only attack for like a second and then sit up? Anyway. That was a complete aside.

Back to Voekler. My thought there is that he actually really does truly believe in himself. He must truly believe that he is as good as those other climbers. So if day after day we hear all the commentators say that he doesn't have the physical capacity to climb with them, but yet, he is climbing with them, then it must all be in his head, right? So maybe there IS such a thing as Race Day Magic? Or in his case, Race Month Magic... where you have a good deal of baseline fitness but then race day comes and you just freakin' rise to the occasion. Previous ceilings you may have put on yourself... break through them! To hell with your heart rate monitor and power meter on race day. Just go race.

Now I may have completely jinxed Voekler here and he might just get dropped like a bad habit tomorrow when they climb those huge Alps... but even if he does, well, he still showed me something this last week about what we can all be physically capable of if we just believe ourselves to be.

Gutting It Out

2011-07-16T16:08:00.002-10:00

So yesterday I was at the pool and chatting with two guys I see there a lot... recreational swimmers. Sam said, "Michelle I see you running all the time and all over the place! Kualoa, Kaneohe, Kailua..." Then Steve piped in with, "And biking too! I see you biking all the time!" Such is life when you live in a small town... can't hide when you're out training I guess! Then Steve asked me if I was going to be at the Waimea Bay Swim race today... Indeed, I would be... then he asked me if I ever rest/taper. I told him that I do, for some races, but not for these summer swims... (I was trying to picture the look on coach's face if I asked him to rest me for these swims... lol.) Anyway, I told Steve that while I was planning on racing to the very best of my ability today, that I would not cut any other training to try to make my time any faster. I said, "Well, let's put it this way... tomorrow I'm going to ride up to the start (34 miles) then do the swim race, then bike another 60 miles." Steve laughed and said Ok got it. I felt like the crazy gal in that I Am Training For Ironman video.

Anyway, the race was super fun this morning! Waimea Bay is beautiful in the summer (in the winter the waves here can be HUGE and crazy... but summer it's calm like a lake up there.) I was walking down the beach to the start with Nalani this morning and I made a comment about how I needed to get my brain into RACE mode... I just didn't feel like I was there mentally... I told her I needed Jana (my old swimming rival) to get really pumped up for these races. Unfortunately Jana moved away this spring... Anyway, we swam out to the start line and I heard a gal say, "Is that Michelle?" I said yes and looked at the gal who I could not really see b/c of the sun glare... She said, "It's Robin!" I laughed. Perfect! Race mode ON. Robin is an excellent swimmer and in my age group... an old friend of mine from my AZ days... she came to Hawaii to visit last summer and beat me in a couple of these swims so I knew I was going to have to really be on my game if I wanted a shot at the age group win today.

The women swimming out to the start line while the men wait on the beach... Stole this off Miki's FB page. :)

So the horn went off and we all started sprinting (see my FB page for a video of the women's start if you are so inclined!) I was out at the far buoy with the majority of the fast gals all right around me... went HARD for the first ~300M or so and then looked around me and saw that I had Nalani to my left and Lectie to my right... nice. Nalani and Lectie both beat me by ~a minute at Honu so I knew I was in good company if I was with them... Then I started channeling my inner Thomas Voekler (sorry, Cat- I know you hate him but you have to admit it's impressive what he has done the last few days) and decided that just b/c I cannot normally swim with these gals does NOT mean I couldn't today! So I made the decision to buck up and grit my teeth and gut it out and battle for position (And we did battle! That Lectie is aggressive! And I was aggressive right back! Love you, Lectie!) and I hung right in there as long as I could. Right around the last turn buoy I saw Robin come up on my right and I was like shit Michelle GO GO GO and I dug and I dug and I tried to get her back...

So ok, I lost. She got me by 5 seconds! BUT, I am happy with this race b/c for once I felt like I really tried and I did not give up mentally like I have a tendency to do sometimes when the going gets tough. And to be only 20 seconds back from Nalani, well, that's the closest I've been to her in years! We were talking about this race afterward while we were riding... I told her that I got exactly what I wanted out of it... a solid hard effort where I stayed mentally engaged and in it the whole time. The place matters less to me than the effort I gave... I did not back off when it got uncomfortable like I sometimes do. (I did not 'give' Robin that win today- she earned it! Fair enough.) And now that I know Robin is back for the summer, well, now maybe I'll have some fire in my belly in the days leading up to the next race in the series. Stay tuned. :)

And for those of you coming out to race Kona in October, I hope you are practicing riding in the wind. Because, well, it's been freakin' W-I-N-D-Y here. Riding home was brutal. At one point I wondered if we were riding into a hurricane? That's all I'll say about that.

My New Love

2011-07-13T20:24:00.000-10:00

Some good stuff going on! Bullet point style:

~Our pool was open today! Happy! Yesterday I swam in a grossly hot and cloudy pool (YUCK) in the neighboring town. At noon, because that's when its set up longcourse. I blanked out on the sunscreen which was BAD. Totally sunburnt back and shoulders last night. :( Normally we swim at 7AM so I don't worry about sunscreen... but if our pool had continued to be closed (and the noon swims would have therefore been more regular) I would have had to start worrying about it for sure!

~My biking is coming right back. Every time I go out on my bike the numbers I see get better and better. Makes it quite motivating to go ride my bike! :)

~My swim and run are coming along more slowly. They are coming along for sure... a little better each day... but not quite as quickly as the bike. Regardless, it feels good to be back on a set schedule again and just doing my thing. I still really like training for Ironman.

~My conversation with coach yesterday went something like this:

Me: Are you going to kill me in the next few months?

Coach: I'm going to try!

Perfect. I wonder if I'll still like training for Ironman come September? I bet I will.

~I took Moana to the playground this afternoon. It's been forever (maybe a year??) since I've tried to do a pull up. I remember I used to do them all the time when I was at the playground with her... I knocked out 6 today without a ton of effort and called it good. I might have been able to squeak out 1 or 2 more if it would have mattered... But I'll never know b/c in my head it did not matter.

~I have a new love. My Blendtec blender. Bought it at Costco last week after the guy demo-ing it told me it was better than a Vitamix (I've always wanted a Vitamix!) Anyway, I saw how the thing worked and just forked over my credit card and now we all drink smoothies several times/day. I went through a whole big bag of spinach in like 5 days b/c I'm experimenting and I put spinach in everything I blend. Seems like it's really easy to eat raw/paleo with this thing. I'm not totally raw nor am I paleo but I'm trending in those directions more and more and this thing is making is eeeeasy. I bet I'm getting 10 servings of fruits and vegetables these days, which really is quite satisfying. That smoothie I took a picture of (below) is guava juice, lilikoi (from the tree across the street), kiwi, strawberries, spinach, Udo's Oil, and some whey protein. I'm pretty sure I could live on smoothies like this but Scott tends to give himself ice cream headaches b/c he drinks them too fast so he prefers solid food. So I still have to cook some meals. But I kid you not, Moana ate green 'ice cream' the other night and asked for it again tonight... I called it Popeye's Ice Cream b/c of all the spinach! She just remembered it was green and said, Can I have the green one?

~Nalani claims that the Vitamix makes a mean margarita so we're going to have a margarita face off next weekend... her Vitamix vs my Blendtec... and we'll use the lilikois from the tree across the street to make them even better! It's Scott's birthday next week so that should be a fun theme for his party. :)

Monday

2011-07-11T10:38:00.000-10:00

Swimming just got harder.

I rode my bike over to the pool this morning only to find out that the pump broke yesterday and they don't know when it'll be fixed. Parts have to be ordered from the mainland and in the past when this has happened it's been months of waiting... So this news made my heart drop. :( Of course I'll find other places to swim but logistically it'll be harder. Nalani and I are truly spoiled having that pool so close (1 mile from my house and about 1/4 mile from Nalani's work) so normally swimming rarely involves driving a car. AND that pool is longcourse which I just LOVE. I think we will start getting up super early and driving over to a pool on a military base that is longcourse yards. I know. Who makes longcourse yards pools??

Anyway, that got me thinking about consistency and about how it's so much easier to be consistent when logistically you can fit training into your life. With a free (heated!) pool located 1 mile from my house, I really have no excuses not to swim, you know? So I'm consistent. And therefore I get better at swimming. Which makes me enjoy it more. Which makes me want to keep doing it. Nice upward spiral, huh? Vs the other situation that I think a lot of people face... It's logistically a pain in the ass to get to the pool, so they skip workouts a lot, which makes swimming harder and improvement hard to come by. Then it's hard to enjoy swimming b/c the workouts aren't fun b/c they're just not seeing improvement... that's an ugly downward spiral that I hope to avoid during these next few months of logistical-pain-in-the-assness I am about to face with this sport.

So it was a no go on the swim this morning... which just meant that I got started earlier on my bike ride... and of course as soon as I started riding it started raining. Perfect. Obviously it's Monday. I felt like I was being tested. But whatever. I passed the test! :) Each time I've gone out on my bike I've seen my avg pace get a little faster while my avg HR gets a little lower. So it's all heading in the right direction and that is motivating.

As it was raining on me this morning I thought about an interview I saw with Andy Schleck (Go Andy!!) the other day. The interviewer (Frankie Andreu?) asked him if he thought rain would be a factor in the uphill finish of the stage and Andy's response was classic. He just kind of shook his head (rolled his eyes?) and dismissed the question with a quick 'no'. The gist of it being, of course, that as professional cyclists they don't let things like rain get in the way of their riding. It's a non-factor in their minds. I liked that outlook and adopted it for myself this morning. Of course I also had visions in my head of all those professional guys crashing all over the place this last week so I would be a fool to say I didn't heed some extra caution on the wet roads... yikes.

Just Me, Myself, and My Heart Rate Monitor

2011-07-10T14:28:00.000-10:00

So I'm continuing down this road of trying to recover from CdA. I think it's going as expected. I don't feel super but I don't feel terrible and I think my head is in the right place. Coach is encouraging me to be patient which I appreciate.

I'm back on the heart-rate-monitor-as-choke-chain plan... jogging and riding and seeing those numbers and then backing off and going even easier and walking up hills and well, you know the drill. This morning I actually drove to Kailua to get my run in because it's flatter there and I didn't want to have to walk half my run (which I would have had to do to keep my HR in the right place on given the hills around my house)... so there I was jogging ever so gently on a flat road being passed by a very old man who appeared to be barely moving forward but obviously he was going faster than me and in my ears Jamie Foxx was singing You know you're looking at a winner winner winner I can't miss can't lose can't miss you know you're looking at a winner winner winner yeah cause I'm a winner... It was a rather classic ironman training moment in my world. Lol.

Anyway, whats interesting to me this time around is that I find myself much less frustrated at the slow pace I have to jog to keep my HR in the right place. In the winter when I was just doing this for the first time it was incredibly frustrating. Right now? Notsomuch. I was thinking about that this morning while I was jogging and I came to the conclusion that last time I was only like maybe 75% sure that this was the right way for me to be training- and 100% of that 75% was simply because it's what Tim told me to do and he sounded so confident in it... (I swear the only reason I stuck to it was b/c I didn't want to let him down by not following the plan.) But this time around I am 100% certain that this is what I need to be doing. I know that it's going to get better and I know that by putting my time in with this slow/easy stuff now I'll be able to really push the harder workouts that are coming in the next few months. So it's all good. I am not worried.

Interestingly, I got a note yesterday from a young gal who trains here locally... she told me that her coach was making her train at HR 140-150 and that she was very frustrated at the slow pace she had to hold and that she couldn't hang onto any group rides at that heart rate and that she felt like ending every training session in tears... but she heard that's how I trained and is that true?? I smiled with understanding and wrote back to her- yep, true. That's why I ride alone so much. Just me, myself, and my heart rate monitor.

Surviving In My House

2011-07-08T16:36:00.000-10:00

Recovery from an Ironman is interesting. You think you feel fine, then you go swim/bike/run something short and easy and think ok I feel fine- this is great and then you go try to do a real workout and think um, ok maybe not.

I've been 'exercising' the last few days and feeling fine so this morning I tried to do what I would consider a 'real' swim workout... descending 200's. I bailed after 6 of them b/c I felt heavy and sluggish and thought Really, there is no point to doing this today. It's just not there yet. Interestingly, I was completely fine with my decision to bail on that workout... I very rarely bail on workouts because I hate feeling like I failed... but I think I'm getting smarter in my old age b/c I didn't feel like I failed at all this morning. It's like I've got this new objective perspective on myself as an athlete... and when my body is telling me NO, it's easy for me to listen and back off or stop. After years and years of this, I know that the good feeling when you're training ebbs and flows and soon enough I'll be killing it again.

But since I much prefer the killing it flow vs this heavy/sluggish ebb, I'm thinking I really need to start paying attention to details again when it comes to recovery. I'm sure I didn't do myself any favors (when it comes to physical recovery anyway) by drinking four beers within a couple hours of crossing the finish line in Idaho... or by eating all the crap that I did and not really sleeping much at all while camping in a tent at 8,000ft when it was less than 40 degrees... you know... those things probably didn't help. But whatever. It's fine. Now I'll get back to doing the things I used to do that allowed me to feel good training... because now I want to feel good training again! To that end, I went to Costco today and stocked up on avocados, broccoli, mangos, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, strawberries, lemons, spinach, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, almonds, cashews, chicken, fish, shrimp, cottage cheese, and greek yogurt. When I was checking out the guy at the register looked at my cart of food and said, "I could never survive in your house!" Ha! That cracked me up. If he thought that then I pretty much guarantee that I would never survive in his house either. To each his own. I was wearing a tank top that said Ironman Coeur d'Alene and he asked, "Did you really do that Ironman??" I replied YES. And I won! (ok little white lie- should have said almost won but I could not resist). Then I told him, there's a reason why I eat all this food! So here's to good recovery going forward... :)