REV3 Knoxville

It's all about perspective.  I learned that this weekend.  If you live in a hilly area, this course is awesome.  If you live in central Ohio, this course is brutal (but still awesome).  If you train all winter in a warm place where you can swim and bike and run outside, it's not too early for a half Ironman.  If you live in Central Ohio and Mother Nature hates you,  it's going to be a bit of a struggle.  If you think about how lucky you are to have the ability to move your body 70.3 miles, you'll love every minute of it, no matter how slow, hard, and hilly the day is!

We got to Knoxville on Friday, checked into out hotel (which was located right at the finish line and perfect), checked into the race, walked around the finish line area and finally met up with teammates.  It was so fun to finally put faces with names and I'll always laugh about us twitter and facebook stalking people as they walked by in their lime green visors, trying to figure out who everyone was.  A lot of  "hi, I'm Colleen... aka Irondiva or @CBKingery. :)  We ended up grabbing a great Mexican dinner on Friday night with a bunch of the team and Tom's teammates.  Lots of laughs!

Saturday was super busy.  We met in the morning for the practice swim.  Holy crap - the water was cold.  And yet, I freaked a little.  Again, about perspective.  I've been swimming in a pool which is probably 82 degrees or so.  Tom's two teammates are from California and thought the 62 degree water of the Tennessee River wasn't too bad.  I couldn't feel my feet, hands or face.  But it was fine.  The TYR Hurricane Cat 5 wetsuit was AWESOME and I'm not just saying that because they are a sponsor.  The thing freaking rocks... flexible, no chaffing, kept me floating and warm! :)  Two thumbs up.  

After the practice swim, I showered, busted out my "I pee on my bike" shirt (thanks Triathlon Rocks!) and grabbed some grub before volunteering at the registration tent for a few hours.  People loved my shirt - some took pictures, some asked if I really do that, others just said "best shirt we've ever seen" (btw, if you want one, you can contact Triathlon Rocks and tell them I sent you - they'll give you a special deal!  Their website should be up shortly, but they are on twitter @TriathlonRocks). 

After volunteering, I got my bike to check, realized my brakes were rubbing something fierce that I couldn't fix, totally freaked out and luckily the great people at the mechanic tent took care of Papa Smurf and made it better.  I love my Kestrel to death, but the breaks are a little funky and I changed my wheels out which weren't working real well with the set up.  They got my bike done by 7:15 (bike check in closed at 6) but I was still able to get it in there, all settled and ready. Quick bite to eat with Tom's team and I was ready to crash!

I slept well the night before the race, but had been on my feet WAY more than I wanted on Saturday and woke up Sunday a little groggy and sleepy.  And nervous.  Did I mention that?  Holy nerves.

Tom, his team, my twin Kristin and I walked to transition and got everything set up.  It was chilly in the morning and all I could think about was how cold the water was going to be.  My stomach was flip flopping.  I found Tom and we walked out of transition and the tears started.  I just felt like I was in over my head with this race.  He assured me that I was fine and to remember that I'm not racing it.  This isn't a course that suited me well - we don't have the terrain around Columbus to get us fully prepared for the climbs, and it's early in the season.  I knew I wanted to treat it as a training day and just get through it. 

We got our wetsuits on and made our way to the swim start.  It's an in water start and all of the half women started together in pink caps.  Tom was in our wave too because he changed to the aqua bike so I smiled when the man on the mic yelled "the party has started now that the women are in the water".  The women and Tom. :)  He was loving it...

Swim - I positioned myself in the back of the pack.  Tom didn't think I needed to be that far back, but felt like I was going to panic.  There were a lot of pink caps in front of me and the water was cold (although it felt warmer than the practice swim).  The horn sounded and I panicked.  Full on "oh my God, I'm going to die" panic.  Called that one.  As the pink caps swam off, I did a quick pep talk.  I can do this.  I swim all the time.  Head in a go.  Maybe a minute later, I was totally calm, swimming in a body free bit of water and passing some pink caps, then some yellow (the wave before).  The turn out seemed to be 5 miles away and there was not the help of the current that I was hoping for.  I felt like I was in the water forever, and that was fine.  I got out in 48 minutes.  Shoot... that was really slow.  I later learned that the course was long and on average, people were 5-6 minutes longer than usual.  Made me feel better, but I'm still slow.

T1pokey for some reason and didn't get out real quick.  I think it was like 2:30. HA!

Bike - Remember how I said Tom was going to bike with me.  Yeah, that lasted about .05 miles! :)  This course was a dream for him (he was in the top 5% of the bike overall).  I just got comfortable and knew it would be tough.  I didn't however think it would be that tough (Wes, you warned me and I will forever listen to you!).  Again, perspective... when you don't bike any hills, it felt like I was climbing mountains.  The course was beautiful and I really have to tip my hat to REV3.  The volunteers were amazing and I loved having police AND volunteers at ever intersection.  I used my small ring a lot.  I just rode comfortable.  I ate when I needed. Drank my EFS Grape (love that stuff)  Yes, I peed on my bike.  I think I averaged like 17.2mph and I was thrilled with that.   It might have been my slowest half bike at 3:15, but I was happy with it.

T2- I got to transition and Tom was finished with his race and waiting.  Kristin's bike was the only one in my rack at this point (she rocked her race btw getting 2nd in our age group and I am so excited for her).  I guess others struggled with the course too.  I couldn't for the life of me get my belt on right.  And I think I yelled at Tom to not take pictures of me trying to get my shoes on.  Yelled hi to Meredith and Dave and got on my way.

Run - Again, I just wanted to take this run comfortably.  I turned my watch off.  I didn't care what pace I was running.  My legs felt a little sluggish, but I was happy.  The first couple of miles were flat and went by quickly, but I knew I was running a very slow comfortable pace.  I got to maybe mile 3.5 and the climbs started.  Short and steep.  Mile 4 had a huge climb.  Miles 5-8 were up and down.  I never thought "I want to be done" but I knew that I was running a very slow pace.  It felt right that day...  I saw some teammates and cheered them on.  I talked to people, thanked the volunteers and police.  Running to the finish line was amazing. 

I finished in 6:19:xx. That's slow for me.  But it was a great race - I was comfortable, happy, enjoying it.  I didn't care about being fast, what my pace was, where I was in the pack.  I just moved forward.  A teammate told me to repeat "I eat pain for breakfast" when it hurt and I added "I eat hills for lunch" which kept me smiling.

I ended up 5th in my age group out of 20.  Not too shabby for a training day.  Trakkers rocked - I'm so honored to be racing with my teammates who are pure rock stars... a few podiums, a few big PR's!

So I'm home now and sick as a dog.  Sunday night I started to feel crappy with a sore throat and itchy eyes.  Yesterday was all out cold.  Last night I slept 11 hours, got up, ate breakfast and went back to bed for another 4.5 hours.  And I could shut my eyes now and probably sleep till morning.  My body is run down.  Oh... and for all of you asking about Tom's Achilles.  We don't know what's wrong.  It started bothering him 2 weeks ago.  No distinctive pop.  Lots of swelling and absolutely no way he could run.  Not a ton of pain, but went to the ART tent on Saturday before the race and they wouldn't touch it.  They said that there was a visible ridge which made them think rupture.  YIKES.  He raced the aqua bike Sunday (and came in 2nd out of 8!) and it felt fine, but he couldn't walk the rest of the evening.  It's probably two times the size it should be and we have an appointment with a sports med doctor on Thursday.  I'll keep you updated!

REV3 does things right.  From check in, to the volunteers, the race and the finish line party, everything was top notch. I honestly felt this was one of the most organized races I've ever done.  All of the little nuisances that usually bother me at races weren't there.  This is a top notch race and I'm hoping to be back next year.  But, I'm going to have to find some hills this time around!

Sunday recap

It's been a busy week.  This was the first "hard" week of training - ie, 12+ hours and I felt it by the end of today.  It feels good to be back into the swing of a program though. I'm enjoying pushing myself and being spent by the time my workouts are done.  And not once did I sit and think to myself "why did I sign up for another Ironman". Always a good week when that happens.  I'm happy that I had my EFS Grape drink to get me through my workouts and then my First Endurance Cappuccino Ultragen for my recovery.  Seriously, if you are looking for a great tasting product that is easy on the belly, check out First Endurance.  Yes, they are a sponsor of my team, but I am a believer in their products.  I've only been using them for a month or two and I am really happy. Oh, and check out my testimonial about Recovery Pump on their newish website!  HA... love it!  Okay, enough product raving! :)

So my totals for last week looked like this:

Swim - 5100 meters

Bike - 76.4 miles

Run - 27.6 miles

I'm happy with that.  I feel like I'm getting stronger - it's a slow process and I have to be patient.  I have a half marathon in two weeks which will be a good test for me. I'm not looking to PR, but I'm hoping to feel confident going into it!

Tom ran the New Jersey Ultra marathon this past weekend with the Team Type 1 Running Team.  Mad props to these guys.  You all know that they are all type 1 diabetics, yada, yada, yada.  But, one of the guys came in 2nd in the marathon with a 2:55, one of them came in 1st in the 100k in 8:55 and one of them came in 4th in the 100 miler in 17:28.  The team had a great debut - I can't wait to see what they all do the rest of the season! By the way, check out the team's new website (here).  I may be a little biased since I'm married to him, but I think the web guy did a great job with the new site! :)

Team Trakkers totally rocked this weekend too.  Tons of teammates racing and training all over the place - 70.3's in exotic locations, the new 5150 series, half marathons, 10 milers, 100+mile bikes, 4050m swims.  So motivating! Congrats to everyone.  I can't believe that it's only 56 days until my first tri with these guys.  Not only is it a huge eek because it's my first tri of the season, but also because it's a half Ironman.  In May.  What was I thinking???

I keep an eye on my followers and I've been stuck on 143 for a while.  If you read my blog and I don't know about it (through you being a follower or commenting), come out of the woodwork. I'd love to know!  So many people say "I saw your picture on your blog", but they never comment or aren't followers. I want to know that you are out there!  

And I'll leave you with a quote that I saw on twitter today that totally made me laugh:

"Every time you fart as you're walking through first class getting on a plane, Jesus high-fives your grandmother."

 

You are great

I just have to say, you are all great. I loved the comments about my need for a vacation, as well as the good thoughts during our ski/casino trip. Here's an update for you - the vacation idea kind of came and went. We booked a cruise and then proceeded to cancel it less than 24 hours later when my voice of reason kicked in. Damn it sucks being responsible! Honestly, it would have been heaven to sit in the sun with an umbrella drink and read trashy educational magazines, but the cruise lines get ya, hook line and sinker. I booked this great 3 day cruise for an unbelievably low price (like too good to be true low price). Then it happens - you find out that it's going to cost $170 to get from the airport to the boat, $200 to get my passport renewed and to me in less than 4 weeks, $60+ dollars in tips, who knows how much $ for beer and soda, $ for a dog sitter, $ to park out car at the airport while we are gone, etc. I guess I was having an airhead moment when I booked and thought that I was actually getting off that easy. So being a grown up, I realized that wasn't a smart choice and canceled. We're traveling to some great locations for races this year - Knoxville, Portland, Chicago and Sandusky (what, you mean the beach and water at Lake Erie aren't like that of the Bahamas?) so I need to just suck it up buttercup and realize that if I want to spoil myself in the sun, I can move out of Ohio. :)

As for the casino and ski trip - great time! BUT... we didn't ski (which was good because that means I didn't have a chance to break my face, and yes, you can totally break your face). My poor momma has been in PT for some hamstring problems for quite a while now and she was really scared to risk hurting herself some more (not to mention she has a bum back). It would have been hard for all of us to enjoy the day, knowing that she was trying to be a tough girl for us, or worse, sitting in the "lodge" while we were having fun. We opted to stay in the casino and blow through some more money. Honestly, I didn't lose much (although I didn't win much either... penny slots are not big payers). There was a lady at a machine down from us that was all nonchalant when the bells started ringing above her machine. She won $82000 on a quarter machine. $82000! She just sat there and smiled. Hello - Tom and I said that we would have been doing carpet angels and running around like we just struck gold. Hell, I almost did that when I won $50 on the Zeus penny slot game. I was big time people...

Okay, so that's that. I have other exciting news and needed to wait to tell you because I needed to break it to my mom first (no, I'm not pregnant).

I've decided to do another 140.6. I know. I know. What happened to the "I'll never do that again" statement? If you know me, you know that it's total BS and to never listen to me. I said that after my first marathon (and I've since done another 6) and my first three Ironman races. I'm super excited though. I've decided to race the full at Cedar Point for a couple of reasons:

• It's a REV3 race and we know that it'll be top notch (and they won't run out of water on a 96 degree day)
• My teammates will be there and many of them will be racing - and I'm sure the smart others who raced the half will make it a party, cheering all of the long distance course people.
• Three words - BLOGGER MEET UP (I mean, hello so many of us will be there - Sunday night could get crazy!)
• It's in Ohio. A 140.6 in Ohio!
• I totally feel like I got robbed at IMLOU. That's all I need to say about it.
• I honestly enjoy training for an Ironman in the summer. Yes, I bitch about it. I'm not going to lie because there are days when it sucks. But in general, I love knowing that my body can do what it does and training for an Ironman distance race tests your body to the fullest.
• I have some goals. Some time goals. I want to see some results of my hard work!

And speaking of Team Trakkers, they introduced the pro team the other day.

Team Trakkers/REV3 2011 from REVOLUTION3 Triathlon on Vimeo.

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! The full professional team includes:
Hillary Biscay: 2008 Ironman Wisconsin Champion; 15-time top-three Ironman finisher
Courtenay Brown: Danskin Tri & Silverman Half winner; Inside Tri columnist
Kathleen Calkins: 2010 REV3 Cedar Point 3rd place; Top Amateur Kona 2009
Richie Cunningham: 2x 70.3 Champion; 4x Top-Five 70.3 World Championships
Brian Fleischmann: 1st World Team Champs; 2x 2nd place USAT National Champs
Jacqui Gordon: Multiple Ironman and 70.3 Top-Ten finisher
Amanda Lovato: 2010 Pucón 70.3 Champion; Multiple Half Ironman Champion; Multiple Top-Five Ironman finisher
Michael Lovato: 2x Ironman Champion; 3x Top-Ten Kona; 3x National Champion
Chris McDonald: 3x Ironman Champion
Jessica Meyers: 2010 Augusta 70.3 Champ; US National Team; Armed Services Champion
Matt Sheeks: 2010 Duathlon Pro National Champion; 2009 Duathlon AG World Champion

I know that I've said it already and I'll say it again and again - it's still kind of unreal that I'm racing for a team like Trakkers. Our sponsors are amazing (REV3, Kestrel Bikes, Avia, Canari, TYR, All3Sports, First Endurance, SBRSports).

It's going to be a good year... a very good year!

Two things...

Thing #1 -
I know that the going green phenomenon is huge right now. And you all know that I'm going green in my own way! I already love being part of Team Trakkers. It's been what, like a month since I was invited to be part of the team and I already feel like I've known some of these people forever. I can't wait to race with them all. My new Kestrel has been ordered (I went with the 4000 Pro and I know it's going to be a beaut). My new Avia Lite III's have been ordered. First Endurance was just announced as our nutrition sponsor. And I signed up for my REV3 races too. I'm excited to be racing at new venues - Knoxville, Portland and Cedar Point. And then I found this little beauty the other day. Can you say perfect pre-race shirt??? :) And no, it's not a St. Patty's Day shirt. It's a Go Team Trakkers shirt. I swear!

It's kind of surreal to be a sponsored athlete. I mean, I'm not out winning races. I've placed a few times here and there, but I'm not what I always visioned the "sponsored athlete" being. It's definitely an honor to have companies believing in our team, knowing that sure, some of the athletes are totally badass (who am I kidding, we're all badasses in our own way!), but there are a lot of us that are doing what we love (be it a little slower than others) and having the time of our lives. We're relateable athletes (yep, that's a word)... we have school and jobs and spouses and kids - just like most triathletes. We work hard to get better, but remember that racing is more than placing (although placing is super fun and we know that too). We all have traits that make us good candidates to represent an amazing organization and some outstanding companies.

Still doesn't mean that I don't pinch myself every now and then to make sure that this isn't all a dream.

GO GREEN!

Thing #2 -

Okay, so I've been contemplating changing the name of my blog. When I first started this blog it was called "Fighting for 15". It started as a weight loss blog and well, I never lost 15 pounds and quite frankly decided that life was too short to write a blog about my weight loss struggles. Anyone who read it (which was like my mom and my sister) probably thought that I was off my rocker, obsessing with my weight anyhow. Then I signed up for an Ironman. People always asked if I was offended that I was doing a race called an IronMAN and when I finished, if I would call myself an IronWOMAN. Nope. I'd be Ironman. And a damn proud one at that. I considered starting a women's Ironman training site or training community and calling it Irondivas. That's how it started. Yes, I'm an Ironman. But I'm as far as a diva as they come (unless you ask my hubby and yes, some days I do exhibit some diva traits, but really, what woman doesn't???). Honestly, I'm a jeans and tee shirt kind of girl. I never wear heels. Never. I don't wear makeup. And if I blow dry my hair and straightened it, it's probably because I have an important meeting. Otherwise, it's in a pony tail. All. The. Time. Expensive things... not unless I have a coupon or a gift card or it will make me faster. So why is this blog still called Irondiva?

Problem is, I can't think of anything cute, fun, witty. I always read blogs of people with these great titles. Me, yep, not so much. Any suggestions?