Race Schedule and Results

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Why I love Ohio

yet, still can't wait to get the heck outta here.
Friday our front tree looked something like this (it was near 80 and beautiful out too boot!!):
This morning around 5am, Tom gets up to let the dogs out and all I hear is "you've gotta be kidding me". After all the yard work we've done this year so far, we woke up to this:
Yup... that's snow. And the best part is that tonight it's supposed to be colder and then Thursday the high is like 75. Nice! We think we saved everything in time for them to freeze. I guess I'll learn what they mean by not planting anything until Mother's Day. And thus my friends, it why I love Ohio and can't wait to get the heck out of here!
So after a long weekend of training, we're forced inside today to get out 1:10 bike done and a our 40 minute run. That should be great fun on the trainer! Can you tell I'm not a fan?!? So glad that I'm not doing an early year Ironman race. I don't possibly think that I could get the miles in. :)

Thursday, April 24, 2008

What a week

I feel like I've been physically beat up this week. At 14.5 hours of training, I'm definitely feeling it. I guess that's what it takes to be an Irondiva! Although the allergies don't add anything pleasant to the mix!

I lost 3.6 pounds this week on weight watchers. I really love the program and am hoping to see positive results. I definitely didn't deprive myself this week, although I know that next week's weigh in will really be a true test of how I'm doing. And not too many looks from other members - one "what the hell are you doing here" from a family friend, but whatever. :)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

My new motto...

I've come up with a new motto for Ironman training and really life in general. On a few of my workouts this year, I've really thought I'm pushing it and it ain't easy. So many times negative thoughts fill my head, be it when I'm hurting or when people hear what I've done this past week for exercise and either roll their eyes or ask if I'm nuts. So my motto is: "If it were easy, everyone would do it". It's become a mantra I find myself repeating when things get hard during training runs, rides and swims. I heard a quote yesterday that said "a champion is made when no one is looking" and I understand that. My hard work will pay off and I'm going to be so happy that I challenged myself. Heck, I'm already there!

Something that Tom and I like to do to check our progress is a 21.75 mile time trail bike loop, followed by a 5k. Tom did a bunch of times last year and I did it a few, although didn't keep track of my times so I didn't have numbers to compare. We did it this morning and boy did I forget how much it kicked my arse! :) We biked over to the roads that we do the ride on (it's about a 7 mile bike there to the next town over and DESERTED country roads). It was pretty windy today, although we could only really feel it when we went south and since it's pretty much a rectangle course, we flew with it at our backs. Tom did fantastic - beat his previous best by over a minute. I finished the bike loops in 1:08 so about 19.2mph which I'll take - into the wind I saw speeds of 13 and 14 so that killed me and this is so early in the season. It was really my first hard brick of the year and my legs felt it right away. I always forget what transition legs feel like at the beginning of the season and of course had my usual "why do I do this" thought go through my head as I started. But I finished the 5k, albeit slow and we jumped back on our bikes and made the 7 mile trek back home (it was definitely a little slower coming home!) I'm pooped though now! I can't believe how much pushing it for nearly 2 hours really drains you. I felt so good and so bad at the same time. That's the funny thing about triathlon, isn't it?

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Long time no blog

What can I say??? I've been busy (oh, and the weather has been PERFECT in Ohio). This leads me to not be on here much. But Tom and I have gotten so much done around the house, lots of training in outside and have enjoyed many nights already on the deck. I think the end of winter is in sight, although I'm hoping to not jinx myself. Our new roof is almost complete, we've painted the shutters black (they were a light green before), painted the white front door red, got a new mailbox, mulched, started a stone path by the deck and done a lot of planting. Here are some pictures to show off all our hard work. This is what the front porch looks like now. I did the hanging baskets myself and am darn proud of how they came out!Tom made these planters for either side of the deck. I love them and can't wait to stain them the same color as the deck. (and yes, that's my girl Charlie hanging out and my hubby in the background, although he'd kill me for including this picture of him so pretend like you don't see him!) And the little miniature looking house is out dog door - yeah, they are spoiled like that!We found this planter at Big Lots and I had to have him to remember my times in Tahiti. So we bought him and planted his "hair". He's now sitting on our back table and I am in love with him. And finally - I have to write a little about this. My mom found out that she has skin cancer. Two spots on her face needed to be removed. She is going through a procedure called MOHS to have them removed. They knew that they would have to do the two spots in two visits. The first was this past Thursday. We thought that it was going to be a simple procedure and she asked that we don't come to the appointment because it would be nothing. Luckily my sister took the day off because it ended up being a big procedure - the doctor said probably the most difficult he's ever had to do. He cut a piece off her nose about the size of a dime and then had to try to stitch it back up. She ended up with 8 internal stitches and 34 external, running from her nostril to her eye brows. I ended up meeting them at the doctor's office just as she was getting released (darn me living 45 minutes away!) and was able to bring her to her house and spend some time with her that day. She was in a lot of pain, was swollen and just miserable - the paint pill did finally kick in. We saw her last night and she was doing great. She is starting to get a pretty nice shiner, but she feels good. She too will hate me for putting this picture on here, but it's definitely the picture of a fighter and I'm so proud of how she's handling things. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be extra careful in the sun. Especially all of you athletes that just don't think about it when you are working hard in the beautiful weather.

So that's pretty much my week. We had a tough 50 mile bike on Friday and a really hilly 8 miler on Saturday. Today I took a day off knowing that I'll have another hard week ahead of me - Coach Tom just informed me that we have 14.5 hours this week! And I'm on day 3 of weight watchers and doing well. I really think I'm going to be SUPER successful, although it's hard not snacking on everything in site. My first weigh in will be on Thursday - duh duh duh... I'll let you all know how it goes. We did go to Whole Foods today for the first time and found lots of good thing (high fiber cereal, whole wheat cous cous, steel cut oats, lentils, etc.). We'll be back there soon to see what else we can venture to buy.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Big Step For Me

After many months of struggling to lose about 15 pounds before tri season starts (and finding that I've actually GAINED some weight in the past few weeks) I have decided to join Weight Watchers again. Tom and I were biking last night and I just thought about how I've struggled with my weight long enough. For those of you that don't know me, I was on WW for about a year prior to meeting Tom and lost nearly 25 pounds. Since then I've gained about 15 of it back. It's a program that works, one that's easy to follow, but I just never stick with it on my own when I try. I guess I need to accountability of someone weighing me in, of paying $12 a week to be weighed in, sitting through a 30 minute meeting talking to me about portion sizes and things like that.

I'm a little apprehensive and kind of mixed with different emotions about it all. First, it bums me out because I had hoped to be able to do it on my own, but I have finally just surrendered and said that I can't. I know I can't. If I could, I would have for the past 5 years! Second, I'm worried about the reactions I'll get from others at the meeting. I've gone through the eye rolling and the "why's she here" comments before and it's hard. No, I'm not huge and don't need to lose a lot of weight, but I still struggle just like everyone else there. I hope that people can see that and will accept that. I know the instructor of the meeting I'm going to and I hope that she's supportive. My sister will be there and I hope she won't laugh at me for coming. Sometimes I think it's harder for someone like me - I mean heck, I'm training for an Ironman for Pete's sake. But we all have our own struggles, and this is mine.

This is my year. I'm owning it. I'm making my events my own and I'm doing every thing that I do for myself. And to fully take control of it, I need to do this for once and for all. Thanks for listening to me, hopefully you 'll understand too.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

So maybe I'm not as horrible as I thought...

I always think of myself as a horrible swimmer. I know how to swim and feel that I'm good at it, but just slow as molasses. :) You can see my post below about doing the dead man's float and just having arm spasms. I'm just slow... that's all there is to it! :) We've been working really hard in the pool this year and have been swimming for about 3 weeks, 3 times a week consistently. We've been doing more structured workouts from the book "Swim Workouts In A Binder For Triathletes". At the beginning of our swim training I did a 100 test where I swam 3x300's with a :30 rest, averaged my 300 time and then figured out my 100 time (sounds a lot more confusing than it really is!)

My first test looked like this:
1st 300 - 6:22:05
2nd 300 - 6:20:29
3rd 300 - 6:26:15
Average - 6:22:56
100 Test time - 2:07:39

They have a chart in the book of average times to help you figure out your 100 versus your 300. Yeah, I'm so slow that I wasn't even on the chart! That's pretty pathetic. My goal this year was to just make the chart.

Yesterday when I tested, these were my results:
1st 300 - 5:59:04
2nd 300 - 5:58:23
3rd 300 - 5:53:30
Average - 5:56:59
100 Test time - 1:59:00

And guess what ... I'M ON THE CHART!!! And I was so happy with my improvement in 3 weeks that by the time our first tri rolls around, I'm hoping to not get beat by the girl walking in the shallow water directly parallel with me as I'm swimming. Uh huh... that actually happened last year. Hey, it's baby steps!!! :)

Sunday, April 13, 2008

My weekend

I have written a little about my IT problems. My cousin who happens to be a PT recommended that I might want to try Trigger Point Therapy and that the problem might actually be a trigger point in my hip or butt. She said that there was a book that she recommended that we might want to look int. Tom and I trekked over to our local Barnes and Nobel and were amazed at the book. So amazed that we swore if we were going to get through Ironman training, that we would need it! We picked ourselves up a copy and hurried home to find out what could be wrong with me! :) THE BOOK IS AMAZING! After reading the section on knee problems, we identified where I might have a trigger point that could be hurting me. It's in the tensor fasciae latae (Yeah, I know... I thought I'd need to be a genius to figure all of this out too) and quite surprisingly, we were able to locate the point on my hip in no time. I went through the roof with pain when I found it!!! We massaged it out for a while then called it a night because we had a half marathon the next morning (and yes, I'm the experienced runner who did something new the day before a race). So this leads me to Saturday.


We had a half marathon here in Columbus. It's a pretty big one - over 5000 people, Bingham Racing puts it on, etc. Anyway I'm a little concerned about my knee, although with all the kneeding and massaging from Friday night, who knows. We get to the start and it's so crowded compared to some of the races that we've run recently. We have chips which is nice and it's an alright day to run - in the 40's but pretty windy. We take off and it takes us about 2 minutes to cross the start line. We dodge all the people who think they should line up with the 8:00 mile people and finally find our place. We take off fairly fast - our first mile was a 9:10, but the next three are 8:59's. I feel horribly sick (and did even prior to the race), although no knee pain. INSTEAD, my hip hurts! Lovely. I slow the pace, start to lose gas around mile 10, tell Tom to go ahead because he is having a great day and shuffle my way in the last 3 miles for a finish time of 2:03:58. Not too bad considering I felt like crap well into the afternoon. Tom almost PR'ed after leaving me, although finished in 1:58:32 and was about 30 seconds from a PR. If he had left me earlier (which I had urged him to do) he wouldn't have had any problems bettering his PR. Oh well... now he's got it in his head that he wants to run Chicago because he's faster and thinks he'll crush his full marathon time. I'm not falling for that one again! :) Plus it's only 2 weeks out from the Ironman and that's WAY too close for me (and him, but you can't tell him that and have him actually listen). We might be getting some friends to come do it with him which would be a lot of fun. We'll see.


So that was the gist of the weekend. Saturday after the race, instead of sleeping and laying around, I went to a bridal shower, then we went out for a great evening with some newer friends that we've recently met. We had so much fun! Sunday we laid around until dinner at mom and dad's which is always good time.


Oh... and one more thing... be VERY careful if you run alone, especially on empty roads where people might let their dogs run. Tom was out for a 5.5 mile run the other day on some country roads that we ALWAYS run. A gentleman had let his dogs out after work and they attacked Tom. He's alright, but they got a good chunk out of his tricep and back. And he's a big guy - these dogs were easily 150 pounds and he said that there was nothing he could have done to stop them. So just be careful...

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Slowly but surely

I'm getting into the grove of training. I find myself exhausted come bed time, but I know that with time, that will get better!

We had a great weekend - very productive for an early April Ohio weekend! It was BEAUTIFUL first and foremost which is wonderfully exciting. We spend tons of time outside getting the house put together a little - painted shutters, got the yard and flower beds cleaned up a bit, planted a few little baskets here and there, cleaned the garage, etc. It was so nice to finally be able to move outside and not be stuck indoors wishing to go outside! :) Now if we can just get the weather and higher temps to stay, I'll be a happy girl.

Of course with the beautiful weather came outdoor training (FINALLY!!!) We got a short 8 miler in on Sunday, although my knee's been bothering me a bit so I took it slow and am staying off of it pretty much until this weekend when we have a half marathon. Yesterday was the best though - we got up early, filled orders, and then popped the biked on our new roof racks and drove them to Alum Creek. We left from there and did a 72 mile ride. It was close to 80 degrees, sunny, and the roads and bike paths were pretty much barren! It was a great confidence booster early in the season to be able to hop on our bikes and just ride 70 miles. The only thing I don't suggest is riding until your famished, inhaling a 6" subway and 2 cookies, then thinking that you can just get back on your bike for the last 36 miles! :) Didn't work well for me. We laughed about how many people we're "sick" yesterday in Columbus... the golf courses were definitely crowded!!! Tom and I both came home looking like we'd been playing in the sun. If we had desk jobs at a corporation and had called in sick for the day we'd have so been busted!!!

So now I sit looking at the rain. Oh well... guess it'll help me stay inside and get some work done.

The joys of being a business owner!!!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

The power of the Ironman

I never realized the power of the Ironman until I signed up for it. Back in November when I paid my $500 to race, I knew what I had signed up for, respected the distance, but didn't really think that it could affect my life ALL that much until I experienced it first hand. Now in the second week of our training program, I beg to differ.

Every time I'm swimming my ladders, every time I'm powering up a hill into the wind on Mrs. Felt Good, every time I'm pushing myself for a PR on a run, I'm thinking about the Ironman. I'm thinking about the goals I've set for myself for this coming year. I'm thinking about the power I'm gaining. I think about the excitement that I'll feel seeing my 13 or so family members at the swim start, the bike dismount, miles 4/9/17/24 of the run, and the finish line. I think about the pride I'll feel to be one of the few women who have taken on the challenge head on and kicked it's arse! There really isn't a time that I'm not thinking about what the Ironman race will be like for me.

And you know what... I LOVE IT! It's such a powerful motivator and I love how it makes me work just a tad harder. This is my year - a year for growing, getting stronger and gaining the confidence in myself that I may have lacked in the past. This is my year - to be an Iron Diva!