Race alone or run with a friend

I found out about a small local and cheap half marathon right here in Ridgefield CT a few weeks back and was considering doing it. I was already on a training plan to do the Hartford Half marathon on October 9th when our plans changed (our being my training partner and I) so we wouldn't be running that race. I continued to run on the plan just to have a plan. We've now settled on Philly on 11/20 - so long as my training partners long run goes okay this Saturday.

As I've posted lately I've been feeling a bit off lately. Tired and crabby and not hitting workouts like I wanted to. So I've been debating on whether or not to do this race. Well I need to decide today. I get a text form my TP and she asks to run long this Saturday so I'm thinking I'd rather run long (not 13.1) with a friend than I would race a longer distance. So I'm going to go ahead and listen to the ol' body and run w/ a friend. Take it easy, slow down and enjoy the changing leaves and friendship.

I've also decided not to lift this weekend. LOOK at me!! Listening to my body for a change. How cool I have my own barometer! ha Swim was AWESOME last night. I was able to settle in and work on stroke and not blow myself up, but as anyone who swims knows when you make shifts in your stroke it can be hard on the new muscles you are using lap after lap. My shoulders started barking at me. I'm supposed to do Shoulders and Arms today and Chest and back on Friday, but I think my arms could use a break too.. particularly with all the swimming I've been doing.

Despite the shoulder pain I had a GREAT swim workout. I was actually able to focus on my stroke and not worry at all about speed! I got some awesome pointers from some of my fellow swimmers... real swimmers not triathletes. There's a difference. A HUGE difference. We did the catch up drill holding a bar. It keeps you HONEST and you can really feel what you are supposed to feel. The extension and glide.

We did it a little bit differently than this guy. We held the bar parallel to the bottom of the pool, but you get the idea.



After we did this and I could really feel the difference my fellow swimmer reminded me about the whole "get your hip out of the way" thing... accentuating the proper rotation from your hip not just your shoulders and I could, again, feel a difference. Now whenever you switch things up with your stroke you feel a bit slower (though my buddy assured me I wasn't slower) I did feel like it was a bit 'easier' as in I wasn't struggling so much to try to glide as I usually do.

This is an Advertisement for something, but you get the idea.



I'm pretty excited about last nights developments and hope this is the beginning of some good progress in my swimming!

Goals and goal setting

Okay.. I'm going to start this post out on a tangent before I forget. I've escaped to the coffee shop (having non-caffeinated beverage as per my decrease in caffeine) to let my ears stop ringing from the constant motion and noise of two 4 yo. (DAMN THEY NEVER SHUT UP! ha) before I head to swim. Ah, my night off.

Anyway. I was checking out and saw some Justin's Natural Peanut Butter w/ Honey at the check out. I've seen this stuff on GoSonja's blog (she's getting ready for KONA people) and thought I'd give it a shot. So I bought one NON-HYDROGONATED packet opened it and ate it. YUMM YUMM YUMM. Anyway that's not the point. My reason for mentioning this is that I was reading the back of it and it says, "EVERY BATCH TESTED FOR AFLATOXIN-FREE!!!"I nearly jumped out of my seat to cheer. If you've read the China Study you are aware of this horrible little toxin that is found in most peanut butter. And as a mom that loves the convenience of peanut butter finding some guaranteed aflatoxin free is very cool. So anyway... I had to share this discovery w/ the bloggy world. Maybe some day I'll have Justin's give away.... stay tuned! It's THAT good.

Back to the task at hand.

I've mentioned AMs blog Goals for the Week before and love what she's doing over there. I've been meaning to implement her ideas into my own life and have started the process in my brain, but haven't been able to get it all done and truly implemented. First off I have a REALLY hard time thinking forward TEN years. I know that I won't be cementing anything by thinking about it now. I think part of my mental block is considering in my mind how old my kids will be and how old I will be at that time. UGH! How can I even begin to GUESS what my life will be like, but I guess that's what this process is all about... not just rolling through life to ARRIVE at the 10 year mark with just whatever life has thrown at you. If you have a goal and a dream you can reach it .. and if you don't, well you get whatever you get! Not that that is a bad thing... I guess.

I have been setting weekly goals based on my goals for the next two years. (which I said I would divulge. We'll see if we get to it today - because I know you are checking in every day to see if I have spilled the beans yet. I guess I kind of have already.)

So far I've managed to get my mind around the next 2 years. Everyone knows that that I (we) have the midterm goal of getting back to the PNW... say 3 years from now. And then Tom (therefore I) has a BIG long term goal, but that is not mine to share!

So I thought this would be a great thing for me to hash out here on the ol' bloggy blog. This is a work in progress so you will probably see this topic again in the next three months as we come to the close of 2010.

AM first breaks down the 10 year, 5 year, 1 year, 6 months 'what will my life look like' question. She then extrapolates her day to day goals from there. Making sure she's on track for the big kahuna (you can read about it on her blog in much better detail HERE.) She breaks everything down into categories. (I've chosen mine to be: Mom, Wife, Athlete, Personal Growth, Financial, Home, Environment.) It appears that you don't have to have goals in EACH CATEGORY every week.

Your goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Related). Again check out her post for more detail and examples on that item.

So we'll start off talking about the next two years. Ten is just too much for tonight's mommy brain. Plus I have to go to swim tonight. :D

Athlete: In the next two years I want to hear the words, "Laura Mount YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!" I plan to tackle the HIM (again) next year then IM in 2012. I have sign off from my better half for this much and have buy in from the Grents to give extra support when the training blocks get HUGE!

Mom: Be more connected to my kids more. Really hear them. Sit down and ignore all the BS going on around in the house (read computer, laundry, dishes) and connect with them. It's not enough to just "be there" with them every day. I will come up with some SMART goals around this soon.

Personal Growth: I need SOMETHING! A job.. sure... volunteer gig.. sure. SOMETHING! I'm drowning in the mundane tasks of momdome.. and I'm not lovin' it. Can I get an AMEN!? There are some ideas rolling around in my head: trainer/coach Need to dial this down to what I REALLY WANT and then come up with my GOALS. I am working on some things that need to wait until some other people are more available, but hopefully I'll have something to report on this in the not too distant future. There are some opportunities out there.

Financial: We're pretty dialed here. Of course the purse strings could always be tightened, but that doesn't really hash out w/ my athletic goals now does it?

Home: SMALLER SMALLER SMALLER, Less cluttered and in the PNW. Oh wait. That's probably not going to happen in the next 2 years. I would say that goal is back burnered right now. I'll go for neater/less cluttered for now.

Environment: Once again consumption. Consume less. Less in general, but also less packaging. So I see LOT'S of weekly SMART goals I can tackle on this one!

And I'm not sure where this last one fits. Partly in athletic and partly in personal growth? BLOG REVAMP! I messed with the colors and what not a bit, but I mean more than that. I'm looking to turn this into more than just my 'family journal'.. there are so many great bloggers out there sharing their journeys in various different things, but this blog is about to become all about my athletic endeavors. Perhaps I will start a new one for that and keep this address for my family stuff. I feel bad that I rarely if ever update the grents and others about the fam damily anymore.

So I'm toying w/ some new names as I try to figure this out. Here are the two I've come up w/ so far. What do you think?

Wife Mother Athlete

Endurance Junky

Still working through it.

So the goals for the week that I extrapolated from all this stuff that's been not rolling, but FLYING at WARP speed through my mind.

Athlete: Hit my ab workout 2x a week. (a strong core is key)

MOM: spend at LEAST ONE hour EVERY day on the floor playing w/ the kids whatever they want. God an hour seems minuscule doesn't it?

WIFE: Quality time w/ the hubby at least once this week.

FINANCIAL: MAKE Tom call about getting rollover paperwork for his OLD 401k from FIVE years ago

PERSONAL GROWTH/HEALTH: only TWO cups of coffee a day.

And you ... what are your goals for this week? How do you go about figuring out your goals for the coming year? Do you have a process?

Oh.. and I've talked about the vision board before. I did a vision board when we were trying to get pregnant. Check IT out. I kid you not we got two babies... THOSE babies. My kids looked just like them when they were babies!!!! I am going to make one of those for 2011 once I get it all hashed out!!!!

LISTEN!!!

Listen to your body. I keep reading that over and over and over, but why oh why is it so hard to listen. To both the advice AND my body!?

So it's September - almost October - and while I didn't race a lot this season I did work hard... not to mentioned I opened the year w/ a huge marathon PR. My body (and mind) is starting to bark at me a bit right now. I wasn't really feeling like I needed an off season, but I'm starting to rethink that. I'm thinking that from now on when October rolls around it's time to cool my jets a bit. I mean I'll still work out - obviously, but it won't be so focused, so intense, so purposeful. Well it will still be purposeful, but the purpose will shift from 'go out there, kick ass and see what that body of yours can do' to 'go out there and have a BLAST!!!'. No worry about speed and intensity.

I've been toying with doing a half marathon (local, small, fun, cheap) in a few weeks, but have been hesitant to register and couldn't figure out why. On my run today (a tempo workout that I was totally NOT nailing) I figured it out. I feel like I need to put up a good number... ie. race the race and go all out, but right now I really miss just going out for a nice long run and enjoying the scenery. The leaves are changing after all and I don't really SEE that stuff when I'm out there pushing myself into the puke, er, red zone.

So I'm thinking it's time for me to scale it back a bit and run because I love it. Push myself, but not to the brink. I'm getting ready to ask a lot of my body (and mind - okay, mostly mind) come January I think they are both entitled to a little fun over the next couple of months.

I think my body is also requesting more sleep and LESS caffeine.. silly silly body of mine, but it's time to listen. So I'll be moving the 'get coffee/caffeine consumption under control' from a December goal to an October goal. (Come on I can't go cold turkey people.)

Focus!

My dad has always described me as an inch deep and a mile wide as opposed to an inch wide and a mile deep. Hmmm I really do take it as a compliment (though I think it was his way of calling me a scatter brain) bc I like doing and knowing a variety of things, but it makes it hard for me to concentrate on any one thing for a very long time.

I have made some decisions about what the next two years of my athletic life are going to look like, but still find my mind wandering and me spending time unwisely looking into and at things that are not in line w/ my two year goals. I then have to remind myself to stop wasting time (it really is nice to have some things figured out and not feel like I'm spinning my wheels and wasting time looking at things over and over again) and remember that I've already made this choice ... I don't need to be looking into marathons in the next two years, I don't need to find training plans and looking into different strength routines. I need to remember my choices, remember my goals and only do things that push me forward to the completion of said goals. (I'll talk about those later)

I'm working hard to stay focused. It seems I'm able to find the focus for each workout or for a training schedule, but things are always flitting around in my mind and steering me off course for bigger picture stuff. Maybe that's why I like the training schedule so much. It keeps at least one part of my life somewhat organized and focused. Now to figure out how to bring that into my everyday life.

Here are some things I am doing to stay focused on the goal:
1. CLEAN OUT MY HOUSE! Get rid of all the extraneous stuff that just clutters up my space and wastes time. I want to have this done before I start the main set of work on the next two years. I figure this will help me maintain focus and not get distracted by the 'stuff'.

2. CHOOSE A TRAINING APPROACH AND STICK TO IT! I've stumbled upon Endurance Nation somewhere along the way and have decided to go with them for my training for the next two years. As they say, "I'm drinking the Kool Aid" over there! This saves me from researching training plans and changing things up mid season ... and wasting MORE time. Dumbs things down for me!

3. BE A TRIATHLETE! at least for the next two years. I want to qualify for Boston. I tried this year and missed by 10 minutes. I know I could do it and am convinced that my race strategy Fd me up this time..... BUT I want to do Ironman.. I want to focus on triathlon. This does not jive w/ thrashing my legs by RACING a marathon. (again 'drinking the Endurance Nation Kool Aid' on this decision.

4. SET MY BIG PICTURE GOALS and follow through w/ shorter term measurable goals! Thanks to AM at Goals for the Week for providing guidance and motivation in this department. This should help keep me focused on the 'big picture' while doing what I do best.. focusing on the little chunks one day at a time.

What are your tips and hints for staying focused .... especially when life throws you curve balls or your motivation just isn't there and the wheels are starting to fall off???

Caffiene!

I am a die hard coffee drinker. Okay not die hard.. I'm really quite the snob. I blame it on the fact that I started my love affair with coffee in THE coffee city - SEATTLE! Man I love that town. Anyway.. focus.

I drink coffee every single day. I've quit here and there only to come back and I've decided that I love coffee not for it's caffeine jolt (though that's a nice bonus), but for the experience and process of it. It's a nice comfort food and I WILL NOT give it up.

Well my consumption ramped up as my frequency of early morning workouts ramped up. I would have a cup when I first got up... then my normal two cups. Well yesterday I had that PLUS a HUGE chocolate bar... well beyond my 'one serving' allotment. And to add insult to injury it was espresso laced chocolate. DAMN that stuff packs a punch. Uh, maybe not so much if you stick to ONE serving, but yesterday I was flying so high I could barely concentrate and had the jitters. It was bad. I had said chocolate bar in the late afternoon... and all the while I was eating it I was thinking, "I'm going to regret this later".. this did not stop me from eating it. UGH!

By the time dinner time rolled around I could barely stand to be in my own skin. I got out of the house for some quiet time before swim and my head was just spinning. Getting in the water helped to calm things down a bit and I'm glad I did it, but I was still a mess and didn't get to bed until midnight. Obviously there was going to be NO early a.m. workout today. Not a great start to my day.

I felt like I got hit by a truck this morning when I woke up. Had some 'hair of the dog' so to speak w/ my a.m. cup of coffee... and then another. SHIT! Here we go.

Well, my speed workout SUCKED today! I still couldn't focus very well and my heart was pounding out of my chest and my attitude was in the shitter... damn damn damn. Why does caffeine make me feel a bit psycho? Oh well. Lesson learned, right? At least until the next time I get a hankering for a chocolate bar and go and eat most of it! I was feeling a bit more calm half way through my weight set, but am still definitely feeling the aftermath of a caffeine overdose!

So, note to self ALL THINGS IN MODERATION!

Masters swim

I'm back in the pool.... I joined a Masters program at the local Y. I'm an aspiring swimmer. I fake it in the races and beat myself up about it all along the way. I was thinking about taking the entire winter off of swimming.. though I don't feel like I ever REALLY got into it this summer w/ my one night a week in the sound adventure. I decided that I need to spend more time in the pool.

I've decided to go Monday at 5:30am (OUCH) and Tuesday at 8pm. Now I've been getting up a couple mornings a week at 5am to do a 6am workout. I really like to start my day slowly w/ some coffee and a little email and facebook so I get up early. Well, I figured 5:30 isn't that much earlier than 6am... well I'll tell you 4:30am is VERY different than 5am. Why? Who knows. That 4 at the beginning just kills me. It takes me longer to get to the Y than it does my gym ... so if I want my 'quiet time' it's 4:30am. I don't like to hit the ground running.. anyway. I digress. So I set my alarm for p.m. on the first day so I missed the monday a.m. swim and hit the Tuesday p.m. I rolled up and was instructed to follow the schedule which amounted to 3000 yards/meters of swimming. Holy crap you guys really get to it huh? Well, I doubted I would actually finish the work out and was bummed that there was no coach (isn't that what I'm paying for), but I finished the workout and didn't feel like a total swimming moron. Yeah me!

Well, my alarm was set for the correct time this a.m. I'm astonished at how much that extra 30 mins changes my attitude. I was NOT feeling it this a.m. I got up had my coffee and rushed off... as I'm headed to the pool I'm thinking ... 'why am I doing this?" It's SEPT the END of the tri season this is insane". I didn't have any of these types of thoughts when I was going to the pool at 8pm. Anyway. I showed up talked to the coach.. mostly just to tell her I was new and say hi. Here we go w/ another 3000 meters (Side note: I went to a swim clinic the evening before and did some swimming.. maybe 1200 - 1500 yards.

I think I have unreasonable expectations of Masters programs. I'm always very underwhelmed. I expected that the coach might talk to me a bit about my swimming before I got in the water since I was new. Things like.. what kind of experience do I have (I could have sunk like a rock for all she knew), why I was there so forth and so on. I mean obviously I'm there to swim, but I'm no masters swimmer.. I'm a triathlete.. this may have been good info for her to have. Though I think she figured it out when I balked at the butterfly! Or when I swam w/o kicking... :D

I got no direction on my freestyle.. and that's not bc my stroke is so great. I did get some feedback on the breast stroke and back stroke. Awesome I'm sure that'll come in handy on race day. Anyway....

I have to work REALLY hard to keep my negative self talk at bay when I'm in the water...well I got lapped like crazy this a.m. and tried not to take it personally.. then one of the ladies that was swimming in our lane moved over .. to a more crowded 'fast' lane. I guess the benefit of being slow is that we had only 3 people in our 'slow' lane while the fast lane had like 6 people crammed into it. Whatever.

As I'm trucking along in the slow lane trying really hard to stay positive and focus on all the things I learned about MY stroke yesterday in our swim clinic I started thinking about the evolution of my running. I spent MANY years at the same speed and only recently feel like I've really kicked it up a notch and seen improvements in my speed so I'm trying to go easy on myself in the pool. I'm a neophyte in the pool. Let's get our stroke down and then worry more about the speed!

I'm also thinking I might try to figure out how to do Tuesday night and Sunday afternoon instead ... the early a.m. stuff is ROUGH!!! and no good for my attitude and continuation of the program. And then again maybe I'll just get used to it. I did like having it done!

Planning..

This time of year always starts the gears turning. I'm not sure if it's the closing of the triathlon season (for me) or the season change or what, but I start planning my season for next year at the beginning of fall. Obviously nothing is in stone, but the pencil is flying and the fingers are a searching through the schedules on the internet. I'm comparing school schedules and trip schedules and cashing in my "SPUs" (spousal approval units).

I've been trying to decide whether or not I really need to take some time off after this 'season'.. using that term VERY loosely considering I only did two triathlons.. and sprints at that. I did a few running races early in the year and will do a few this fall/winter... again nothing MAJOR. ie no marathon

I basically decided that I'm going to do a couple of half marathons and maybe a 5k or two through the fall and winter then take December "off"... meaning no races no super long stuff.. I'll keep spinning and lifting, but won't be so focused. Then in January I'm going to check out Endurance Nation's Out Season plan.. basically a huge sufferfest of short HARD intervals to get some speed into the legs. I'll do this plan for 20 weeks then hit a 12 week HIM training plan for Timberman in August. I've got some other stuff (races) thrown in there, but like I said nothing in stone so I won't bother writing about it because it will likely change dependent on our schedule and what I can talk others into doing... racing with friends is more fun!

Now just waiting for the sun to come up so I can safely go for a my long run before my parents head back to Texas until the holidays. Good thing I've gotten used to early morning workouts because that will be the only thing available to me now... since I have other motherly/wifely duties that need to be completed and the school hours are the best times for that.

What's on your plate for the upcoming year?

Fairwell early morning rides.

Farewell early morning rides. I'll see you again in May. It's been real!

Nicole (my 'friend' I keep mentioning) and I headed out for our last 6:15 am (which had to be pushed to 6:30am) ride today. It was a balmy 47 degress and I'm happy that Tom has all the necessary gear to keep a girl warm. Some day maybe I'll get my own.. or at least hide some of his so I can always find it! :) My favorite arm warmers were missing today and I think they migrated to his bag.

It was cold getting started, but we warmed up. The most irritating thing wasn't the cold, but having to put the ride off only 15 minutes caused us to find ourselves in a lot more traffic than usual. Now I consider myself to have fairly good bike handling skills, but riding on these roads in traffic is nutso. People around here do not like to wait for you to get around that blind corner so they either gun it as they go by you (oh, point made...) or squeeze you out till you almost lose it on the gravel or get your wheel stuck in a storm drain. A nice big yellow bus did that to me today. GRR!

I'll still ride ... just not so early.

A big Shout Out to Madison

I was just writing and email to one of my Madison Peeps and started talking about Madison and how I miss it. Damn what a town!

I MISS THE HECK OUT OF MADISON! That really really shocked me. Not that I didn't think I would miss it, but I miss it to my core. THAT shocked me. I have moved a lot in my life and I've never missed a place like I miss Madison. I didn't even miss Seattle this much.. well I did, but in a different way and I think only less bc I know we will - eventually - return. With Madison it's different. We pulled away with no plans to ever return.

Madison is like a slice of heaven... really it is. Except for when the mercury falls below say 20 degrees. :) It's like "Leave it to Beaver", but big enough to not be SUCH A SMALL TOWN that everyone is all up in YOUR BUSINESS! I remember the first day I rolled into town. It was early November. I pulled onto our street and it was lined on either side by the most beautiful trees that were a blazing bright yellow at this time in fall. There were sidewalks.. YES SIDEWALKS.. on both sides of the street. It was a quaint feeling... a street full of modest homes. Just two blocks off a little shopping district w/ little shops both shopping and dining. I had no idea how much I was going to fall in love with that town. And I wouldn't realize how much I loved it until I left. That is a damn shame.

A lot of my feelings about that town are probably intertwined with the fact that I had my kids there and got through all the BABY stuff there. My kids and I rocked the crap out of every park in in town, the zoo, every coffee shop and all the bike/running paths. We were out there almost every damn day... until it got so cold that it just wasn't responsible to have kids out there. :) Then we took advantage of the pluthera of affordable kid activities and the homes of some wonderful midwestern friends.

And midwesterners... Don't even get me started. They are like southerns, but they are sincere! They really want to help you... they live to help you! It's amazing. Another thing that was BRUTALLY obvious when we moved to the east coast. Don't get me wrong. The people out here aren't RUDE, but they aren't midwesterners that's for sure! If you've ever spent time in the midwest you know what I mean. EVERY SINGLE person that came to our house to do a job in the midwest (which happens to be quite a few) treated us like family and acted like they were home. It was AMAZING to say the least... particularly having two very curious kids all up in there faces when they were trying to do said work.

And the recreation... damn I really didn't get how much I should have been appreciating that! The biker friendly roads and all the trails. Going from Seattle (also highly bike friendly) I didn't get that NOT EVERY PLACE makes it so damn convenient to ride and run safely. I have a much greater appreciation for that.

IMOO (Ironman Wisconsin) was just last weekend and I really miss having an IRONMAN in my home town too. It's an amazing spectacle. I took my easy access to spectating.. and thus inspiration for granted!

Anyway.. just wanted to give Madison it's proper due. I love you and I miss you!!! (The town and my peeps) I think of you often and for all five of you reading this... and the few of you that haven't been there. If you get the chance check it out!

Back in the pool

The weather has cooled! (YEAH!) and I'm back in the pool. I signed up for a masters program at my Y. Now as a triathlete I'm a bit nervous about the whole swimming w/ swimmers thing. Triathletes tend to only do freestyle and have our own little way about it. I'm hoping the swimming swimmers can help me w/ my stroke and finally get it nailed. I've already informed them that there is no butterfly in my future. They agreed to that.

I showed up last night to find that the evening sessions have no coach.. WHAT!! Okay. I can roll with this. So the 'captain' guy shows us the workout... 3100 yards. WHAT!? Okay. I can roll with this. So I just jump in the water and get started bc we know this could take me a while. I figure I'll swim until the time cut off (uh, 1.5 hours) or until I can't swim anymore.

Guess what I finished the work out. Holy crap did I just do that! And the more amazing part is that I didn't totally hate it! :) My friend Nicole (she's a swimmer) was telling me that she loves swimming because she can block out all the sounds and miscellany that goes on in life and just be. I have always found that while I enjoy blocking out the 'sound track' of my life I have always found that my mind goes to negative places (all related to my swimming) in the absence of the sound track. I worked really hard last night to shut that girl (miss negativity) up and focus on my stroke and being positive. It really helped. I got in a groove, but discovered that (as w/ most athletic endeavors in my life) I really don't get into my groove until late in the session. Gotta love the endurance stuff!

I'll go to the a.m. session on Monday to see how the coaching portion goes.

Danbury HV Sprint Triathlon

I drug my friend Jill down to the HV Danbury Triathlon. Okay.. drug is not the right word. We met less than a year ago and when we found out we shared an interest in athletics we got to talking and it turns out she aspired to be a triathlete... so then started the pestering and nagging on my part to get her to commit (she is a VERY busy lady) to a race this year. I prodded and prodded until we settled on this race as her first. I almost feel like I should apologize. This was a tough course! The weather was PERFECT! A bit cool just standing around in the a.m., but nice when you were out there.

OA place swim T1 Bike T2 Run overall
45 Laura Mount 7:10 2:00 41:19 1:04 25:02 1:16:33

Swim: 7:10

The swim was short... my favorite... just 1/4 mile. The distance suited me just fine, but the waves were sent up SO fast that 300+ people were dumped into this short swim almost all at once. We clobbered each other the whole way. If I went 10 seconds without being kicked, hit, pushed or pummeled I assumed I went off course and would have to pop my head up to confirm that I was still in the midst of the crowd. After we turned the first buoy the sun was right in our eyes and you couldn't see a thing. I guess at this point it was a good thing we were so crowded bc you didn't really need to look up to know you were still on course. If I'm going to get better at swimming I'm really going to have to swim more. Side note: People were talking about the weeds in the lake and I almost laughed after my LAKE WINGRA swimming in Wisconsin it's hard for me to be bothered by too much in the way of lake swimming.

T1: 2:00

I put arm warmers on bc I thought it was going to be really cold biking soaking wet. BIG WASTE OF TIME. Getting arm warmers on wet arms is a pain

Bike: 41:19

This course was hilly. 9 mph uphills w/ 34mph descents. It was fun, but frustrating. You would get in a groove then, bam, be slapped in the face by little gear hill. Then power down, get in a groove, bam, uphill. There were a lot of newbies out there riding the center line b/c the roads were banked and pretty chewed up. Frustrating, but pretty normal. There were lots of bends and curves along the course that kept it interesting. Downhill at 30+mph into a 90 degree curve. Good times.

When I dismounted my legs were wobbly... uh oh.

T2: 1:04

nothing exciting here. I ran up to the wrong wrack initially and forgot to take my pump (bc I will NEVER race w/o a pump again.. whether or not I have intentions of actually changing a flat) out of my back pocket and threw it back toward my stuff.

Run: 25:02

Holy hell! I felt like I was going to puke right away on the run. Tried to suck down a gel and couldn't choke it down. My legs felt okay, but I felt asthmatic through most of the run. I didn't need to let anyone know I was coming b/c they could hear me panting. There is a pretty killer hill right at the beginning. I focused on cruising to the top as best I could. I ran the whole thing and by the time I got to the top I felt like I had my legs under me again.. now for the breathing/heart rate. Was trying really hard to get in a good cadence while getting my breathing and heart rate under control. Threw the whole run my mind kept trying to tell me to slow down and enjoy the ride... but really I was there to race. After my last sprint I had told myself that I might be able to win my age group in this race bc I knew it would be small. The more I thought about it the more I realized I hadn't been passed by any women since I got out of the water... and the swim was so short that I couldn't have gotten that far behind my wave in 7 whole minutes... right? I started looking for women to pass. Again this was a small race so we didn't have our wave numbers or age on our calves so I had no idea if the women I passed were in my age group or not. I pushed through it all and had to concentrate really hard to not puke when I got done... I left it all out there. (though when I saw the results I wondered if I could have run faster if I had turned my brain off and just run.... I know I HAVE run faster)

At the end of the day I ended up 1st in my age group (yea), 3rd in my wave (I'm not sure what that means as I'm not sure how the waves were broken up... ), 5th woman and 45th overall. I'm psyched to have gotten back out there this year.. even if it was only two races (well, two tris) and now I'm back in planning and scheming mode for next year as I lace up the running shoes and hit the road in anticipation of some half marathons coming up this fall and winter! :)

Gosh we've been busy...

I've been so so busy doing... hmmm.. something I'm sure. We've been living it up this summer making a big mess and lots of noise and now school is back in session (thank god). The kids and I are both really REALLY ready for school to be back in session. Jason and Lily were getting bored and I was getting frustrated. I am not an effective Preschool coordinator. :)

I'm happy to have some quiet time to clear my mind.. oh and to clean.. yea that too.. we'll get to that as soon as my head quits rattling.

Both the kids are loving school and seem to be excelling already. They are psyched for new friends and, er, some structure! :) Again.. structure not my thing.

My head is still rattling so instead of pummeling you with all the things that are rolling around up there I'll stick to... yes, I'm alive, yes, all is well, yes, blogging more is on my list of 'things to do now that school is in session'..... stay tuned. For all 5 of you that are still hanging in there with me! :)

I'll start off w/ the blogging on Sunday with a race report from the sprint tri I'm doing tomorrow. 1/4 mile swim (now that's my kind of swim), 12 mile ride, 3 mile run. I drove the course yesterday.. the ride is CURVY and two loops... I'm not a huge fan of loops, and the run has two murderous "walker" hills. I haven't given this race a lot of mental space (see post above) so I'm not sure exactly what my goals are... you know there is always something in the back of the mind, but I'm kind of 'whatever' about it. I'll let you know how it goes!

could it be... it's raining Gu

Another Gu give away. No way! Yes way! will you win? Will I win? If you win will you share bc I told you about it? There are some cool new flavors.... and I know many of you could use some free fuel!

Check it out HERE!

Bonus she's a mom!

Great GU give away...

Not by me, but by a great triathlete up in Caratunk ME!!!

Check it out HERE!

I crashed my bike and now I'm a whimp!

Last Saturday I met my friend Nicole for an early a.m. ride. It had rained the night before and the roads were still wet. Now the major irony about this is that when I was a flatlander in Madison, Wi I wouldn't ride in the rain/wet, but now that I'm in the Connecticut Alps why the hell not. Windy curvy roads w/ some wet on them... bring it on.


This is when it first happened.

We rode the course that we normally ride, but rode it backwards. There are some climbs and descents on this course. Namely ONE (usual climb) that is short and windy, but STEEP required out of the saddle the whole time. Well going down this descent on wet roads apparently requires a lot more caution. I hit the pavement going about 30 miles an hour. Not good!

The good news is 1. I didn't hit either of the two trees I was headed straight for, 2. I didn't break anything, 3. my bike still works. It sucked, but it really could have been much much worse.

Basically I was going down the hill went around the first curve of an S curve and when I came around and saw the second part I knew I was going to fast to make the turn. I hit the breaks... too hard and locked up my wheel. I realized this was happening as my back end started to become my front end. I was able to let up on the breaks and correct this, but I was headed straight for two trees and knew I was going too fast to make the bend. I tried pumping the breaks, but it was too late. I held on far enough to clear the trees then just laid her down. No choice really. I'm sitting there at the base of the tree in a daze and my friend came up and asked if I was alright. I told her I needed a minute. My head was spinning a bit and I was a bit dazed. I did a mental scan of the body and all seemed okay. Nicole said, "Uh, you are sitting in a big ant hill." Indeed I was... right at the base of that tree I NEARLY hit. I got up and was moving okay. Brushed all the ants off myself and pulled all the dead leaves and dirt out of my rear break. I looked over my arm and looked at my leg, but opted not to lift my shorts up. I knew I had road rash, but didn't think looking at it would help. We rode for a bit then I stopped again feeling the need to check my leg out to make sure it was at least free of dirt. I opened up my shorts... YUCK. Poured some water down my leg (OUCH), assessed the bike one more time, and contemplated calling for a ride. I decided I didn't want to be a total pansy.. I wasn't broken, the bike wasn't broken. It was time to ride. We rode the 12 miles home.

OMG the shower was almost the most painful part of this whole experience! Water on exposed nerve endings HURTS! I showered, slapped some second skin and guaze on it and hopped in the car to head to Lake Placid to volunteer at Ironman. It was sore, but not too bad.

I had to change the second skin daily and had to tape quaze on the outside to catch all the oozy stuff coming out. I ran on it on Sunday and it was okay ... I was definitely aware of it, but more like a big bad bruise.

The time it hurt the most was the night I tried to 'dry it out'.. I took all the bandages off and let the air hit it.. OMG... exposed nerve endings. It hurt SO bad. I was relieved when I was told to put bacitracin and a bandage on it during the day.


This is after 'drying it out'

Well I'm not quite a week out and I'll be damned if it's not almost healed. I barely have a scab. There are scabs on the areas that were obviously deeper than others. I'm amazed! It's still sensitive and very bruised... though it doesn't look bruised. There are two huge knots under the two main scrapes.


This is yesterday and it looks even better today

So to all the nurses and people I got advice from.. thanks it worked!

Yesterday Nicole and I went out for another ride. We were planning to ride 40 miles, but it started to rain and I bailed at 23 miles or so. There I was looking down a hill and curve very similar to the one I had crashed on ... slick and covered in rain. I couldn't do it. I had to go home. I was a total nancy on every hill on the way home. Breaking and tensing up. I had to keep telling myself to relax. I was so disappointed. I DO NOT want to be a pansy ass, but I knew that if I crashed again yesterday I would have a big mental challenge to get back on the bike. When I came home I asked if Tom had had the same problem when he got back on the bike after a crash he, of course, said no. Which made me feel even more like a pansy. I'm guessing he was in his 20s when this happened so I'm going with that "nothing's gonna get me" attitude of youth.

I was fine on the down hills as long as there were no bends... when it was dry. When it was wet all bets were off. I didn't trust myself or the bike to be able to keep from locking up.

DAMN DAMN DAMN!! Hopefully I'll be back to good as new soon, but I suspect I'll be nervous in the rain for a while.

Shocking realization

So we went to dinner last night... Dad wanted to walk at the mall so we went to Uno's Pizzeria. Granted this is not a place I would normally go ... and Tom certainly wouldn't be excited about it, but it was convenient and air conditioned. (A bit OVER air conditioned, but anyway).

As I was looking at the menu I saw that only two entrees had the nutrition info so that got me curious. I got the handy dandy iPhone out and looked up the nutrition info for the rest of the menu.

I was shocked to discover that all the seafood dishes had WAY MORE fat and calories than both the 8 and 10oz sirloin dishes. Fat AND SATURATED fat. I did a bit more digging b/c I know that the fish itself shouldn't be so damn fatty. My discovery is that chain type placed like this put all sorts of CRAPPY (read trans fat) sauces on their fish dishes and the meat is only meat and some salt. (Barring any sauces that could, I guess, be added to meat dishes as well.) Now I know there are even more issues that crop up w/ the whole meat thing.. like where did it come from, what was it fed... so forth and so on, but really!!!! Next time I'm going for the sirloin man! No sketchy fat (bad fat) laden sauces to just outright RUIN the highly nutritious meal I thought I was having.

Anyway... I know I should have known this to be true... and I'm hopeful that at smaller (read not chains) restaurants they are still using good ol' fashioned butter and lemon not some prepackaged manufactured mystery sauce!

Results are in...

So it's official I was 3rd in my age group. Who says you don't lose a triathlon in the swim. I TOTALLY lose a triathlon in the swim. Numero uno and I had similar splits on everything else and I beat numero dos in everything but the swim. I realize the number 1s swim was pretty darn quick.. but I could make up time on T1 and the bike and swim.

#1: 52    175 MRS. #1         F  37   1/22   F3539 Superior        CO 1    14:30    1:02   33:17    0:54   24:12 1:13:53
#2: 115   168 MRS. #2         F  36   2/22   F3539 Middlebury      CT 1    17:31    1:38   35:03    1:01   25:43 1:20:53
#3: 147   166 Laura Mount     F  35   3/22   F3539 Bethel          CT 1    23:09    1:53   33:41    0:56   24:38 1:24:15

testing

I am trying this post to your blog from email thing. Is this thing on?

Pat Griskus Sprint Triathlon

Aka.. first triathlon since August 2008. Wow... that shit is hard. Worth it, but hard.

It was a HOT day yesterday so I decided to forgo the wetsuit. Okay, many of you know I am not a stellar swimmer. I'm not trying to be self deprecating here... it's just a fact. I did go out and swim around a bit without it to see how it felt and it felt HOT.. okay, but hot. I decided that anything I would gain from the wet suit would be lost because I would be so damn hot. Not sure if that's true in retrospect, but I'm glad I did it. I showed myself that I can do it ... even though it's harder and slower. the swim course is a bit different... let's see if I can explain it. There are two rows of buoys coming off the beach at an angle meeting at the top of a triangle. Waves start from left and right on each line of buoys. When you hit the top of the triangle you turn and come down the middle of the triangle together w/ your friends from the other line of buoys. Well this is all well and good... except when someone strays from their line of buoys (which we all know happens quite a bit in triathlons) and comes straight at you and hits you in the lip w/ their forehead while you are siting. I got my wits about me and kept going assuming I would have a fat lip. Thankfully it's split, but not fat.

Out in 22 minutes. While the official results aren't out I'm pretty certain I was either last or almost last in my wave. UGH. Must learn to use my legs. I basically pull myself through the race. So for you swimmers.. next time you toe the line use your pull buoy and you'll have a decent idea of how I get through .5 miles of swimming... minus your hips sinking every time you site! I think I spent too much time w/ the pull buoy back in the beginning bc I outright FORGET to kick.

Out of the water and to the bike. My transition was slow b/c I was having some trouble w/ my timing chip. It was coming off and I had to take it off and reposition it w/ my shaky "I just pulled myself for .5 miles" arms.

This course had a couple of technical descents, but I wouldn't say it had a lot of climbing.. more rollers w/ one out of the saddle climb. I felt great on the down hills. Felt strong and confident in my bike handling (I did get the tri bike out for the event), but on the flats (well false flats w/ slight uphill) I felt weak. My quads and hip flexors were NOT loving that. Flats were good. I only got passed by a handful of people on the bike and was frankly embarrassed by how many people I passed from my swim wave. SERIOUSLY! I did want for better mile markers in this race as I need to figure out how to change sports quickly on my Garmin (bc I haven't done a tri since I got it) so I opted not to use it. I felt okay about my bike, but know I could do better. I'm going easy on myself since I haven't spent a ton of time on my bike and haven't spent any time really working on speed.

Transition okay... almost ran out w/ my pump and tube in my shirt so I had to back track a bit to ditch them.

Now my favorite... the run. We ran down a big hill, flat for a bit then turned around to run up the big hill. As I ran out of transition I saw one of Tom's co-workers that was running the race w/ a relay team (aka on fresh legs). I don't know this woman at all really and certainly have no idea what kind of runner she is, but I tried to keep up with her. No dice. I kept her in my sites for most of the run, but lost her on that blasted hill. It took me a mile before I felt like I could breathe (first time the whole race) and then fell into a groove. I was looking to catch my friend Nicole. She is a stellar swimmer and I knew she would have a huge lead on me out of the water (turns out is was about 8 mins.. ugh), but I figured I would run her down on the bike...nope. So now I was really trying to find her. I didn't catch her until the last mile. I saw her at the turn around and tried to pick it up. I didn't think I would catch her if I didn't do it before the big hill. She's got more experience w/ the blasted hills and I thought she would tough it out longer than I did. I finally caught her in the middle of the hill and finished only about a minute or two in front of her. :)

My favorite part of the race was the finish shoot. As we turned the corner to head in a guy passed me ... quite easily I might add ... well I wasn't going to have him pass me right there at the end. I picked it up and pushed as hard as I could. It hurt. Just before the line I let out a grunt and he heard me and picked it up. Someone told me I 'won', but I'm pretty sure we came in together. The guy smiled and patted me on the back. Ah a little friendly competition.

All in all a good time. As always a learning experience. I do think I prefer the long stuff where I can actually have time to catch my breath and get in a groove more. Not big and giving it everything for 1.25 hours... I think that was about my time. Not sure yet. Good news is it's 10 mins faster than both the sprint tris I did back in 2007.

Vegan or non-Vegan

As many of you know I spent a few years as a vegan... a raw vegan. And of late have been suffering w/ some 'issues'... fatigue and digestion related. It's kept me from racing for over a year now and I feel better, but I continue to struggle and try to figure it all out. I just stumbled upon Devon Crosby Helms' blog and particularly THIS post. I thought it was a great post and was so happy to hear that someone else had struggled with the mental aspects of changing your diet back from the vegan thing. As I've worked to add protein back into my diet I have stressed about everything that I put in my mouth. I really enjoyed this post and thought some of my other nutritionally minded folks might enjoy her site.

I tend to feel that nutrition is highly individual. While some may really thrive on a vegan diet others may not. I definitely agree w/ Devon's sentiments about the relationship w/ food being destroyed (for me personally) and not really staying in tune w/ your body as a result of stressing so much about what is (or isn't) going into your body. I distinctly remember feeling like I could eat a whole chicken during a vegan diet and ignoring my body's signals. My body was SCREAMING for protein and I ignored it. NOT GOOD!

Anyway.. I certainly don't have the answers... not for you and not entirely for myself, but I'm working on it!

In other news I registered for another sprint triathlon.... in a week and a half!!!! The Pat Griskus Sprint... it's hilly and I am sure the swim will be a challenge (when isn't it for me?) It's in the evening so I couldn't pass it up!

Was just cruising through her blog again and found THIS post that I also enjoyed.