Will Tri For Food

Ironman Canada Race Report - 8/28/11

2011-09-06T14:43:00.000-04:00

It's been just over a week since Ironman Canada. The race is still sitting sourly for both Justin and I. It was a hard, hot (95 degrees) day and things didn't roll out exactly how we had hoped. Having done Lake Placid, we (secretly) had grand goals of sub 12 hours as we did 12:30 and 12:35 in 2009 - we both felt like we saved enough during Lake Placid that sub 12 was absolutely attainable, and we still hold this true. However, with each race is it's own conditions and complications and it can either be the best day of racing or the worst. With that said, here is my Ironman Canada race report:

One side note: Justin sent me this article today from RunTri. And I quote, "It was a tough race, 11% did not start, 9% did not finish, and the average finish time was 13:12, ranking among the most difficult of our Top 25 Toughest Ironman event ranking.... The average splits and finish times illustrate just how tough the course was, especially the marathon, in 2011.... Not a single age group averaged less than 12:30 for the event. Very rare."

Pre-race:
Please read the previous post for this... there was sightseeing in Seattle, a road trip to Penticton, a pasta dinner and a couple freak out moments thrown in the day before the race as my bike seat broke. The town was oddly calm for hosting the Ironman - very different from previous races... kind of nice and a bit relaxing though you didn't get the adrenaline rushes like you usually do just by walking around town.

Joey's bike rack, but no Joey.

Race Morning:
We went to bed around 8:30pm, woke up at 3am to eat a bagel croissant (grocery store was all out of bagels, not a surprise and all they had were bagels shaped like croissants... interesting) with PB, honey and nutella with sliced banana on top. We hopped back in bed for another hour and half. At 4:30am it was shower time and prepping last minute things. We were in the car at 5:15am for the 20 minute drive into town. Parking was easy to find. At check in, they made you walk about a half mile around gates and the town to get to body marking and transition when they very easily could have saved us the energy and created an entrance closer to transition. I walked right up to get marked, headed into transition to my bike, checked the tires, added my bottles and nutrition and left my bike for good... I don't think it's smart to fuse with your bike the morning of the race, I do that all the day before. As long as everything passes the very quick checks, I leave that thing alone! Justin and I got coffee and used the restroom (found one that no one was using so didn't have to wait in line!) and made our way to the swim.

Swim: [Liz - 1:22:39, Jus - 1:32:36]
The water was shallow so everyone started out standing. At 7am the gun went off and we were off. I had read in other race reports that this was an awful swim as you never get your own space - SO TRUE! It wasn't until 8 buoys in (which I think there were 12 buoys until the first turn point) that I finally stopped getting kicked, smacked and swam over. That doesn't mean I had room to myself, there were still people all around me but at least I had enough room to relax a little and not be on edge ready to fight someone who punched me as they swam by. It was such a hectic start to the swim. I kept getting irritated with the men because they would come up behind me on both sides and corner me in so I had no option but to slow down so that I could free myself from their trap. It kept happening and I was getting so frustrated! Once I passed the first turn point, I seemed to have found my groove and just tried to focus on staying relaxed and getting through the swim, after all I hadn't trained but twice for the swim (I know, very stupid) so I wasn't in the best shape to try hard. The water was warm and very clear and clean. I made it to the exit a 1:22:39, a minute faster than Lake Placid... impressive as I truly trained very hard for Lake Placid.

T1: [Liz - 4:45, Jus - 4:39]

Bike: [Liz - 6:48:11, Jus - 6:46:46]
This is where the race fell apart for me. I felt great coming out of the swim and took the first couple miles very easy to take in some fluid and gather myself for the 112 miles ahead. Within just a short time, I was holding a solid pace and was feeling fantastic. I was passing a lot of people on the side fixing flats which made me nervous. Then, come mile 30 I hear my back tire making a funky sound. I turn my head, look down and see what I had dreaded... FLAT TIRE! Ugh. I pulled over and took probably 10 minutes to change the flat. Not sure why it took so long but I didn't want to rush anything and screw up so I just kept telling myself to take the time to breath and rest a bit. The cause of my flat? A itty bitty tack... turns out all those people I kept seeing on the side fixing flats had run into the same problem... a volunteer said someone had thrown tacks on the course the night before - awesome, really. I hope those people got enjoyment out of that.

Once my flat was fixed I was really deflated, so many people passed me while I was on the side. I kept trying to keep myself in a good mood. I gave myself the goal to pass as many people as possible and try to catch someone I had been riding with before my flat. I gave great effort to try to regain some time but was freaking out most of the time checking on my tire to make sure it wasn't flat... paranoia. Around mile 50 I was riding a downhill. I looked down at my bike computer and it said 39mph.... I look back up to spot myself and looked back at the computer and it was reading 0mph. WHAT?! When I hit the next flat I glanced down at my wheel to find that the cat eye chip had fallen off... again, awesome. From that point on I didn't know my speed and my timing for nutrition was all screwed up because I had been basing it off my bike computer, not my watch. Whatever, I am perfectly fine riding without knowing my pace. I had gotten through Richter Pass, a 10 mile gradual climb and seemed to be surviving the constant sun rays and heat - it was starting to get really hot out there and I was taking salt tabs every hour. At one point on the course, around miles 70-80 you come to two out and backs, one right after the other. The race started to really feel very difficult for me at this time. My neck hurt, being in aero position was very painful and I could start to feel my sunburn on my back. Soon after I came across the second out and back which is where you pick up your special needs bag. I pull over to grab my bag and yell my number "2367"... 20 seconds later the volunteer yells back "2367? I don't see a 2367!" .......................A-W-E-S-O-M-E! After checking again it was official that they had lost my special needs bag which had a PB & honey sandwich and the remaining gu's I needed for the bike. I didn't have any nutrition from there on until I started the run. I was taught a lesson to pack for the race not needing my special needs bag - you can never rely on anyone else on race day. At that point, I started crying. I was so fed up with the day - nothing was working for me and I wanted to just give up. Crying while biking does not really work. I wound up having a very hard time breathing and snapped myself back into it. Ironman is not just physical, it is mental as well, and I let the race get me for a moment. I decided to take the remainder of the bike easy, very rarely getting into the aerobars, afterall I had no nutrition and I was really hurting and was super hot. The last few miles are all downhill which was a relief. I rode back into transition at 6:48:11, very happy to be off the bike. I was 14 minutes slower at Canada than Lake Placid... but don't forget I had my flat which I took a significant amount of time to fix!

T2: [Liz - 5:35, Jus - 9:36]

I don't have any pictures from the bike... so you get us racking our bikes the day before :)

Run: [Liz - 4:53:49, Jus - 5:03:43]
Heading out of transition I ran to the sunblock stand and had a volunteer slather block on me. "OUNCH!" she says, "you are burnt!" Thank you for that... now please let me continue on to my way in the sun, with no shade, as I complete this 26.2 mile run. Grr.

I started my run off nice and easy. To my surprise, my feet weren't numb and I didn't physically hurt as much as I did in Lake Placid. The start of the run is a bit brutal because you run right by the finishing shoot...not cool. I was heading out right as the first place pro male was finishing - ugh, I have such a long run ahead of me! The run course actually didn't seem too difficult to me. Had it not been so freakin' hot and I hadn't mentally fallen apart on the bike, I think I would have been able to kill this run course. However, that was not the case and I took this one real easy. I walked each and every water station, grabbing 2 waters, 2 sponges and 2 cups of ice at each. I drank the water, ate a peice of ice and dumped the rest down my shirt and in my hat and cool myself down by squeezes the sponges over my head - the heat was getting the best of everyone. This was my routine. At the end of the water stations I would begin to run again. Everyone was walking the hills but I would run them, keeping my eyes on the ground so that I wouldn't see everyone walking ahead - way to easy to influence me to walk as well. At one point, while I passed a guy walking a hill, he says "there are two people running this hill, you and the man up there, everyone else is walking! What is wrong with you two?" The run was entirely along the side of Skaha Lake. There were boats out playing music and a sad sounding steamboat that I couldn't seem to get away from. One of the boats was playing a really good song and I tried to remember the lyrics as I was running but now I have forgotten them - I think it was Ludacris but all my searches for the song are coming up empty :( Anyways, I was pacing an easy pace throughout until mile 16 when I felt the awful side cramp that I had suffered from before in my long training runs coming on - NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! All I could think was that it figures, this is obviously how my days was meant to play out. Now when I say cramp, I am talking serious pinching to the point where it hurts to stand straight. I started taking in double the liquids, cola and pretzels as soon as it started at the aid station and was running VERY slowly as I leaned to my left side. It came to the point where I had to walk it out so I took 5 minutes to walk and stretch at the same time. Still in pain I began running again and just hoped for the best. Maybe 4 miles later it had disappeared and I was running smoothly again. I warned myself not to run too fast now as I know the cramp could very easily come back. So it goes for the next several miles and with 3 miles to go the cramp of course came back and I slowed down. I stopped to walk several more times after this point. With 2 miles to go I told myself to suck it up and run the rest of the way, which is what I did. In pain, of course, I made a bee-line to the finish line, finishing in 13:14:57, running my slowest marathon ever, placing overall 36/80 in my age group (Justin's finish was a 13:37:19).

Finish:
I wanted to see Justin in at the finish as I knew he was also having a bad day out there but as I stood there, I felt like I was going to throw up. A volunteer walked me to the medical tent where I stayed for a hour and drank broth and sports drink. I was freezing cold and wanted to go home. We check out bikes into BikeTransport (awesome company, highly recommend them!) and went home. We wanted to stick around for the last finisher but the thought of a warm shower, dinner and bed sounded much better.

And so that was my Ironman Canada. I would like to head out there again one day to do the race again and see what I can really make of it, but for now it's so long! Happy to have raced another 140.6 and proud of my accomplishment, overcoming the bad times and finishing what I came to do... and that is to do another Ironman!

On a final note, let's go back to the article... I quote "If you beat one or more of the split times in your age group, consider your race a big success." Let's take a look...

W25-29
Average Overall Time: 13:29:48
Swim: 1:18:40 (4 minutes over)
Bike: 6:45:17 (3 minutes over)
Run: 5:13:50 (20 minutes under) <-- This qualifies my race as a BIG success!!!!!!

The night before...

2011-08-27T22:32:00.000-04:00

Here we are just hours away from the start of Ironman Canada! We'll give it one word from what we've seen: brutal. Tomorrow is going to be a really difficult day - not only because it's a tough course but also because it's going to be 91+ degrees and sunny. Who would have thunk that in Canada, eh?

We flew into Seattle on late Wednesday, well, more like early Thursday since we didn't land until about 12:30am. We were at our hotel and in bed by 2am only to wake up nice and early the next day since we were still stuck on Eastern time. We spent the day having fun playing tourist around Seattle. We love that city!

Friday morning we hoped in the car and drove 6 hours over the border and into Penticton. We went straight to race registration, ate lunch and headed to the condo we rented to relax for a bit and then back into town for the pasta dinner. It was ok. Lake Placid was way better and much more motivational. We called it an early night and fell asleep almost immediately once getting back to the condo. I was ticked off immediately at Ironman at registration as I was going through the stops in the tent and arrived at the chip activation stand and the woman says to me "and do you have your chip strap?" (to hold the chip on your ankle). My reply was "No, I didn't know I was suppose to bring my own" and she says "oh, well, that's ok, you can purchase one here for $5 - this is something new that we will be doing at our races" OH MY GOD IRONMAN - SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?!?!? I said no thanks, I'll get one somewhere else. I would rather give my money to a local bike shop than give it to Ironman. I just don't understand how it's ok for them to charge you for a chip strap when we are required to wear a chip. Thanks for the forewarning on that one!

Today we spent the day prepping for checking in. I had a mishap while on my bike ride... my seat bolt broke. Eek!!! We brought that guy straight into the bike shop (Bike Barn, who also received my money for a chip strap) and the crew there was AWESOME! It was fixed AND tuned up in no time. Luckily, I only had to pay $50 for the bolt piece and not $300 for the entire stem, phew! Justin's bike got a nice surprise tune up as well and both bikes were looking good for racing! We dropped the bikes, bike bag and run bag off, drove the run route home and are now sitting on the couch about to eat dinner and go to sleep nice and early. I had a nice volunteer give my VIP treatment at check in who gave me step by step instructions on where and how everything is going to go down tomorrow. Ha, loved it - he was awesome!

Well, this is it! My number is 2367 and Justin's is 331. You can track us on Ironman (http://live.ironmanlive.com/Event/Subaru_Ironman_Canada).

WISH US LUCK!!!! Oh and Joey, screw you for not being here!!!!! hahahahhaha.....

Taper has begun!

2011-08-18T18:13:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update... I completed my final long workout on Monday with a 20 mile run! Paced a 9 min/mile, so I'm happy! I tried Sports Legs for the first time, just out of curiosity and have concluded that they suck. It's suppose to prevent/delay lactic acid build up in your legs during endurance workouts. While my calves were fine, my thighs started burning with about 5 miles to go which never happens. When I say burning, I mean with every step I wanted to cry. To top it off, my legs have never felt worse the day after a long run than they did after this one - I threw out the rest of the sample pack and will not be taking those ever again. Now, time for some tapering... ahhhhhhhh. It's good to not feel guilty for not working out crazy amounts :) While our bikes have already begun their journey to Canada, Justin and I hop on a plane Wednesday night - I'll write a post on final thoughts and what not before I leave... now kick up your legs and relax a lil!

Bike riding

2011-08-09T10:29:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, Justin and I went out for another long ride. With an 82 mile route mapped and added to the Garmin, we made our way to Potomic to start our ride. Again, we started late at 11:50am and the humidity was up and temps hot, already above 90 degrees. Before starting we decided to make this a race pace ride. Properly fueled and prepared for the efforts, we headed on out. Within 5 minutes of the ride, I was glistening (more like dripping) with sweat from the humidity. It was crazy, I hadn't even given any serious effort yet and I was soaked. At mile 20ish, we made too early of a left turn onto the wrong road and instead of the Garmin redirecting us or telling us to turn down the NEXT road when we made a U-turn, it instead decided to redirect us immediately back to the start. Not being completely familiar with the roads, we had no idea at the time. Then at mile 30 we saw a familiar road and thought "this isn't right, we shouldn't be here", and discovered we were 3 miles from the start of our ride - DANG, we're going to have to do the route over again plus add some miles at the end to get in the distance we want! I got frustrated because I hate doing loops but Justin was successful at getting me to chill out and realize doing another loop wouldn't be so bad. After all, it was a great route with some challenging hills. So, off on loop two we went. We stopped shortly into the second loop to get some shaved iced at a rickety stand at an intersection. They were delicious and perfect for a bike ride snack! After completing almost all of the second loop we noticed how lucky we were to have missed all the rain storms that seemed to have rolled through our route as the roads were wet the second time around... that is until we had 4 miles left in the loop and downpours just opened up above us. It was not so awesome. If forced us to take the last of the ride very slowly and when we got back to the start we agreed to call it quits and not add on the extra miles to make it an 80 mile ride... so in the end it was a 66 mile route with 5,056 elevation gain. We paced 16.3 mph which is not race pace but the day presented several challenging factors that slowly ate away at us such as the humidity, temps and rain.

This weekend we're planning on doing 100+ miles for our last heavy effort on the bike. Let's hope we are able to get ourselves up nice and early so that we aren't biking in the smack middle of the day. We're dropping our race bikes off either after our ride or early next week at Bike Transport to send them on their way to Canada. This is crazy how close we are to Ironman!!! I should probably start swimming...

Summer heat

2011-08-02T20:07:00.000-04:00

Today I had plans to do a 20 mile run - I cut that one short by 1 mile and did 19 due to heat. I was stupid and left at 11:45am so it was already above 90 degrees at the start and the day wasn't cooling down (it hasn't for about 3 weeks now).
I mapped out a run where majority was on the Rock Creek Park Trails which is mostly shaded so figured it wouldn't be too bad. However, I started and ended my route along the mall making the Washington Monument my turnaround point - putting the first and last 4.5 miles in dead sunlight. I held strong for the majority of it but lately, again, due to heat, I've been needing to stop in the shade and rest for a couple minutes to cool down - but I made it until mile 15 before needing my first break in the shade. That was followed with three more rests in the last 4 miles. When I hit the street before my loop around the monument, I decided to cut it short and head straight home instead- after all, I looked like a salt stick, had gone through 5 water bottles and had heat radiating off my body. It wasn't pretty.

When I got home, I quickly downed some recovery mix with ice cold water. I weighed myself (I'm now keeping track of my weight until Ironman to make sure I don't get too out of control with the food, hehe) and had dropped 4lbs of water weight from that morning! Holy cow... my lunch never tasted so good and I treated myself to a bottle of Coke - it was delicious!

I've worn my yurbuds for two runs now (including today's) and so far I kinda like them. Yes, they definitely stay in my ears unlike other ear buds so big plus for that but they're designed for you to hear the noise around you (i.e. if you were biking you can hear cars coming) and because of this, any wind overtakes the music and when you're running along a road with lots of cars, you really have to turn the volume up. It's a bit annoying. Still would like to do some more runs with them before I give my definitive recommendation on them :)

That's it for now! Until my next post...

What's that? Things are better?!

2011-07-26T12:31:00.001-04:00

Well, training has been.... BETTER! Yup! After my last post, I tried my best to turn the switch and make a positive out of a negative, and I did. While I still can't seem to get myself motivated for the pool (let's admit, no one is EVER motivated to go swim), running and biking has been successful. Whenever I can get the chance, I'll go for a run or hop on the trainer. The trick to getting on the bike more? Leaving the trainers set up and sitting right next to the couch. That way, 1) it never takes more than 2 minutes to get everything ready for a ride and 2) when I'm sitting on the couch watching TV, the bike is sitting there taunting me and making me feel bad. It's working (it helps that the Tour was on, too). I've done several 2+ hour rides on the trainer and many 1+ hour rides in the last two weeks. Last weekend, Justin and I headed out for a 75 mile ride in MD (though the Garmin says it was only 70 miles). It was in the 90's and no cloud coverage but we enjoyed every minute of it! You can see the ride here. This was our first official long ride so while we went slow, we were feeling great at the end and happy to have gotten out there for the day.

On the running front, I try to get a run in whenever I can... like yesterday morning, I had to be at work at 10 which means I have to be in the shower by 9 in order to leave by 9:30 for my half hour walk to work. So, I woke up at 7 as usual, had breakfast with Justin, walked out the door with him at 8 and got an hour run in - perfect. I am sacrificing my appearance by showing up to the store with wet hair as I don't have time to do anything with it - oh well. The same weekend as the bike ride, Jus and I got out for a 15 mile run bright and early Saturday morning - I headed off to work immediately after as Jus went to play kickball (jealous). Tonight is calling for a 10 mile run and I plan to hop on the trainer for a bit in just a little while. With the heat wave of last week, the runs have been HOT but they only make you feel that much stronger. I've been loving it. Today is no different... 92* but you gotta do what you gotta do!

I am thinking I need to set some goals in order to get in the pool more... brainstorming ideas now.

Last note of the post, I got some new earphones from the store this week - yurbuds. I have been hearing great things about these things and I can't wait to try them out myself; they were created by a triathlete who had gotten fed up with his earphones slipping out and hurting while on long training rides and run. I wear over the head earphones because ear buds *ALWAYS* fall out during workouts. These guarantee that they will not with their patented ear-lock technology. They are comfortable but I have yet to test them, perhaps that will happen tonight. I'll let you know what I think. Seems as though each package comes with a card with an inspirational quote. Mine was: You think I'm chasing you? You think you've got me beat? Well, you've got me all wrong. Pace is my trick. My focus is my inner strength, my iron will. Triumph is upon me. It can't be had without the struggle. I move up on you. I push past you. I cross the line focused and my doubts overcome.

Unprepared and unhappy

2011-06-24T16:13:00.000-04:00

Here we are just 64 days out from Canada and I feel totally unprepared. I need to do some serious jam sessions in the coming weeks if I'll have any chance of completing Canada successfully. I am totally bummed out and angry about my training. Since starting to work in retail, all I want to do outside of work is sleep. I walk a mile to and from work, I stand 8+ hrs everyday (no joke... the only time I sit is at lunch), I constantly have to be on point and happy for customers (which can get very tiring when you're not cheerful or happy), I work awful hours where I'm at the store until 9:45pm at night (and I've had to close I think every Friday night for the last 2 months unless I've requested it off), and I work weekends... everything piled on top of each other makes for a very tiring work schedule that leaves very little for training. Any chance I can get, I'd rather be laying down and sleeping. The worst part, is that I don't even get to train with Justin anymore which is something we really enjoyed getting to do while training for Lake Placid - 8 hour bike rides of us time was actually very enjoyable! Now, I never have that time because my days off are on weekdays when he is working. This past week I have been a zombie... trying to squeeze in workout sessions when I can on tired legs and body. Everything takes 10x more effort than it has ever taken before. It's awful. It's an awful awful feeling.

Yesterday, while half asleep during lunch, I told myself I would allow myself to take the day off today, Friday, my day off from work. My body needs to catch up and refresh, I thought. However, the day comes and I think about Ironman and how freakin' hard it's going to be with the training I've done - scratch the day off... time to workout! I got in a run in the 90 degree heat and bike ride on the trainer... both short sessions but difficult... it helped to make me feel like I am doing SOMETHING to prepare myself for race day. (Pic from my run today... can you spy the plane in route to landing at Reagan?) Now, I just need to get myself to the pool again... I don't remember the last time I've been to the pool. Ugh, this totally sucks.

Anyways... I am not trying to ramble on. I guess it just makes me feel better to express it in someway, even if no one reads this. I am at this moment a very frustrated athlete : ( I have not enjoyed this go around of training for an Ironman... not in the slightest bit.

When I ran the Boston Marathon, my mom had gotten me two swarvoski figurines (I collect them) of a tortoise and a hare with a note:

Elizabeth - Swarovski doesn't make a roadrunner - my first choice. So I got a tortoise + a hare - after the fable - forgetting that the tortoise won. Not so good an example if you're going for a personal best!

So here's the new moral of the fable: after all the marathons, triathlons + Ironman you've been in, it's very obvious that conditioning is only part of the answer (the hare). The courage + tenacity to push through the pain (the tortoise) makes the finish possible! Good luck - I know what an achievement being in the Boston Marathon is - I'll be thinking of you.

I was thinking of this note on my run today comparing myself to the tortoise and hare... I'm all tortoise for Canada. I need to prepare for that pain in order to make the finish possible while remembering that slow and steady wins the race - my way of integrating both versions of the fable together. I guess in the end of both the tortoise wins so I guess that's good news for me. Unfortunately, I do not at this moment have the conditioning and arrogance that the hare possesses which I think you also kind of need.

Another picture from my run... would you ever think of seeing this in the middle of a city? Pretty.

Kinetic Half Race Report (Justin)

2011-05-22T18:39:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we competed in our 1st race of the year- the Kinetic Half in Lake Anna, VA. Both of us were a little more nervous than usual...for me it was b/c the distance for 1st race of the year, new race wheels on the bike, unknown course/bad weather. And the biggest reason is that my training has been very inconsistent this year. My workouts have been more focused and purposeful but I'm missing a lot of them.

To spare an extra 20 minutes of sleep, we stayed at Courtney & Kyle's apartment on Friday night. When the alarm went off at 3:45am, I was happy to have had the extra rest. We dressed, ate and were in the car by 4:30am. The ride down was pretty uneventful but unfortunately we didn't get through parking and packet pick up until 6:40am...my swim wave went off at 7am...better hurry!!!

Swim (41:42)
I decided- being the 1st race of the year- to just swim on my own and not try to draft. I've worked on my swim a lot this off-season with the Masters program and was hoping to see some big improvements. The good: I was pretty confident throughout and swam a half-iron distance personal best. The bad: my time still stunk, I was weaving throughout, and I expended way too much energy. Coming out of the lake, my HR was 180 (even sprinting its hard for me to go above 165 while running/biking).

Bike (2:49:42)
The weather decided to stay overcast and drizzling- which is much better than the predicted rain storms. It felt good to get out on the bike course. The course is lollipop-shaped with 2 loops around and was pretty flat throughout. I decided to forgo the bike computer and decided to pace off heart rate alone. I stayed within my target HR for the 1st loop and then just went all out for the 2nd. Around mile 45 I started to blow up a little so I settled into a comfortable but slower pace and cruised through the last 11 miles. Good: another 70.3 personal best and I was really comfortable. Bad: Didn't take in enough calories and struggled through the last few miles.

Run (2:02:53)
Happy to be off the bike and into transition I quickly realized I left my socks in the car and only had recovery compression socks. I love my running shoes but they're pretty bad when sockless so I put on the compression socks and off I went. The run course is 3 loops with a big hill out of transition. The rest is a lot of up-and-down. My goal was to take loop 1 easy and progressively get faster. Instead, my body let me go faster Loop 2 and blew up on lap 3. All of the up and downs had taken their toll and I was spent. Good: my second fastest 70.3 run time. Bad: My body felt like poo.

Overall
Set Up events puts on really good races- Liz and I have really enjoyed the 2 we've competed in. The weather was ideal throughout being around 65 degs and overcast. It was great having Courtney at the race to cheer us on- THANKS!!! Randomly, my assigned transition spot was right next to Brian Cook (I'm good friends w/ his brother Dan and Courtney/Kyle are friends w/ Brian from high school). Unintentionally we stayed together throughout each leg of the race- I pulled away at the end of the bike and kept a 3 minute lead going into lap 3 of the run. I couldn't believe it when he passed me right as we were entering the finishing chute...so I was kinda bummed but still extremely happy to have PR'ed.

Next up is TriRidgefield...

Pics from our Ride

2011-05-10T21:00:00.008-04:00

Since we haven't posted them yet, here are the pics from the weekend ride. Notice anything new on the bikes?

This ride was our first time out with the new wheels and as mentioned in the last post, the entire 2nd half of the ride was a steep downhill. We both had death grips on the brakes every...we'll give our wheel reviews after this weekend's race.

Weekend Ride

2011-05-08T20:03:00.000-04:00

Liz and I spent this last week finishing our prep for our first 70.3 race (Kinetic Half) of the year next weekend at Lake Anna in VA. Between both of our schedules, we haven't had the chance to do a lot of workouts together but Saturday was free so we were determined to get out for a long ride. We decided on Friday night - over pizza and wine :) - that we'd head out to Shenandoah Valley and bike Skyline Drive...gorgeous scenery and supposedly a fairly hilly ride. We definitely didn't realize how hilly it would be. I've included the Garmin date from our ride so you can see the stats but we did a 40 mile out-and-back that was pretty much uphill for the entire first half (it made getting back to the car really quick). Hopefully this will make the race course feel like a breeze.
Skyline Drive

We have a few pictures from the ride but I'll hold off and let Liz post 'em. We got some new gear that we tried out for the first time so she should be posting soon...

Ramblings of the Boston Marathon (4/18/11)

2011-05-03T11:25:00.000-04:00

It's been about 2 weeks since I ran the Boston Marathon and here I am just now getting around to writing my race report. I'm sure some memories and details have slipped by now but I will try my very best to recall the weekend and race.

Me and Justin and his parents flew into Boston on Saturday, 4/16. As we landed, Justin and I got a bit nostalgic - we miss Boston! We saw our old apartment building as we taxied to the gate and it was weird to think that we were going to stay at a hotel - so weird! We met Jen and Roger at the hotel (they were ring shopping!) and it was time to relax, hang out and take in our old stomping grounds. The wind was a killer and reminded us how much we don't miss that! We ate at Jacob's Wirth (a favorite of ours) and called it a night.

Sunday morning I headed out early to treat myself to a facial and manicure! Jen met me for a manicure and when we were done, we made our way to the expo. The Hynes Convention Center was a mob scene. I don't do well in crowds so the second I stepped in the door I started getting irritated. I bee-lined it to bib and shirt pick up which is where Justin met Jen, Roger and myself. We took a quick stroll through the expo, taste tested just about everything, consumed so many calories from taste testing we were scared to do the math :) We were out of there pretty quickly and grabbed lunch at another favorite, Paradise Cafe (delicious salads AND even better cookies). After lunch we flew by the finish line to snap some pics which is probably the most difficult thing to do! Everyone wants a picture of the finish so there is always someone walking through your picture, posing behind you in your picture or just all together covering the finish line because they want to do some ridiculous pose of laying across it and what not. Luckily, Jen got a good one as we were walking to the expo with a newscaster in the background and all! Nice Jen!

We headed back to the hotel, hung out, walked around the area, did some wedding shopping, Justin got me my most favorite sugary, creamy, delicious thai iced tea from Flour, went to dinner where we ate a eggplant wrapped cheese dessert with chocolate, oranges and some other things on top - I don't think anyone was a fan ;) I was in bed around 8pm but didn't fall asleep until much later.

I woke up at 5:45am Monday AM, got ready, headed to Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and had so much time left over before having to catch my bus (7am) I hung out in the lobby and just relaxed. At 6:50 I headed out to the buses (which were right outside our hotel door) and hopped a bus in 10 minutes. As we left, there was a MASSIVE line of runners waiting to get on a bus... if only they knew they could head into the loading area on the other side of the park, things would go a lot faster for them. The bus ride was about 45 minutes long... I didn't mind. It was chilly and windy outside, which made it feel a lot colder than it really was so sitting on a bus was a lot nicer than sitting outside on the grass. Once we got to athletes village, they unloaded us and I had about 2 hours to do nothing - I picked a sunny spot on pavement and took a seat for some time.

As the announcer called Wave 2 runners, I made one last stop to the bathroom and then followed the crowd on a walk to the start. It was still windy but the sun was out and it was getting warm. I took all my sweats off and started the race in my tank and shorts which was nice. My gloves were gone within the first 5 minutes of running.

Boston is an easy course - proof because there is a net decline. Not to say it's not challenging, because it is. Here is what gets you... miles 16-21... some consistent gradual hills, including heartbreak hill (which I still don't know where it was - but found out it was over when I reached a huge sign that said "Heartbreak Hill is over!"). This is where I started hurting and slowing down considerably. If you don't pace and hydrate yourself accordingly before this stretch of the course, you're doomed. However, if you do, you'll make it through strong and finish well!

I totally got caught up with everything and went out fast! My 10km pace was 7:47min/mile. My half marathon was a 8:06min/mile. I told myself to slow down but it's really hard to do when you're in the moment. My 30km was 8:26min/mile and I finished with a total time of 3:50:30, an overall pace of 8:47min/mile. So clearly I crashed, haha. Here is where it happened: mile 17. I saw Justin and told him "I'm REALLY tired" I even stopped for a quick chat and pic. From this point on it was mind games. I slowed down and finally, at mile 20 I let myself walk the water station. Once you walk, you ALWAYS let yourself walk again... and I did... every water station after that point. You hit Brookline at mile 22 and it killed me because I know how easy the course was from there on out and how close I was to the finish but I still had a rough time getting through the last miles. Once I hit the Citgo sign I got a rush of adrenaline and ran fast for the last of the course. I spotted Justin and his mom at a corner, stopped to say hi then sprinted on to the finish. Somewhere in the final stretch I heard Jenny screaming for me but couldn't spot her or Roger- the crowd was huge and noise level high - but I did wave and look to acknowledge that I heard her!! haha. To the finish I went!!!

Two notes on the overall race course: crowds were awesome the entire way - you never had a dull moment. Second, there were huge New Balance signs marking the start of every town along the course with phrases like "NB runs fast through Newton"... etc. You cross something like 8 towns throughout the course so it was a fun way to countdown to the finish.

I was so happy to be done and was so proud of my accomplishment for making it to Boston. Now I'm addicted and will try to requalify in the future (not this fall but next year for sure). I want to come back and beat my time. I want to come back with experience and do the race right that time around!!

YAY for finishing Boston : )

Thank you Justin, his parents and Jen and Roger for making it out to cheer me on! Thanks for my family for tracking me and sending me encouraging messages the days before and after the race. Knowing I'm in your thoughts while running does great things for me mentally! Thank you mom for the Swarvoski figurines and note - I think I'll do a post on this gift alone on another day!

Gettin' my tan on...

2011-04-09T08:11:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update to let you know that my long run went really well! I was able to pace an 8:18min/mile - a total run of 2:46. That's good enough for me to feel good about Boston. Once again, the compression socks were a savior. Unfortunately, I got caught up with the nice weather that day and didn't think the sun would be strong enough yet to do any burn damage... clearly, I was wrong. Ouch! It hurts :(

Cutting this close

2011-04-07T11:52:00.000-04:00

I hate to admit it but I am doing my last long run of 20 miles today (heading out in about a 15 minutes). I left this one way to close to the marathon but I really feel like I need to do it to feel good for Boston. Last weekend was my sister's bachlorette party so obviously I was not going to cut time out of that to do it! Today is my day off so I'm going to go get the run done now. I'll be rocking the compression socks, music, gu & gu brew, and a tank and shorts (cause it's going to hit 68 during my run and the sun is shining!). Ideally I wouldn't listen to music but I kind of want to so I'm just gonna. From the moment I get home until next Monday I'll be in recovery and will really stress easy runs so that my legs are ready to run their best come next Monday! EEK!

A picture from my 13 mile run this past week (cause I think post are 100x more interesting w/ pictures!!!):

Official Boston Marathon Jacket is in!

2011-03-31T11:19:00.000-04:00

This past Tuesday I got my Official Boston Marathon Jacket! My store sent it down from Boston and as I walked in to work on Tuesday my manager says "guess what's here?!" This year's colors are black and green, which is very fitting for Boston - I like it. It's a lot heavier than I imagined them to be but it has a nice mesh lining inside and is going to be an ideal jacket for when the temps drop. This jacket is pretty sweet. When I was looking at them online, I learned that this year, they actually screwed up and did a screen print of the logo in the front where it's usually embroidered. To remedy the mistake, they knocked $5 off the jacket's price. Even with this mess up, the jacket is still awesome and something I am super excited to have finally gotten. Now to ask the question... is it bad luck to wear it before running the race? I haven't even tried it on... I think I need to wait until I cross the finish line.

Cherry blossoms & a long run

2011-03-25T12:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I ran *almost* 21 miles (20.95 to be exact). It went pretty well too! It was cold out (46 degrees) but it was my day off and I had to get one of my last two long runs in - rain or shine, warm or cold. I decided to wear my CEP compression socks during the run as well because my calf's were screaming at me all day on Wednesday with pain and I wanted to avoid all possibilities of hurting even more yesterday. I also gave myself the day off from workouts Wednesday to rest and prepare for the run (even though I worked and was standing straight from 8am-5pm). I gotta say, the CEP socks worked wonders! They are my new best friend on long runs - and I am seriously considering running Boston in them after yesterday. My legs felt amazing the entire time and when I was done I didn't feel completely spent like I have in my previous longer runs. I'm a believer - even if I look goofy running in knee high socks. I finished in 2:55:47 which put me at a pace of 8:23min/mile.

My route took me around the mall, down hanes point, around the Jefferson Memorial and Tidal Basin, over the bridge to Mt. Vernon Trail, back over the bridge and another loop around the mall. The cherry blossoms are just days away from their peak so I got to see a bunch of them starting to bloom - so pretty!! AND, I don't know if I was just really sad on my run or I have really bad allergies (which I didn't discover I had until I moved to DC last summer) because my eyes were tearing the entire run which was super annoying. Anyways, here are two pictures from my run:

Same Ride, Different Day

2011-03-20T19:27:00.004-04:00

(On our way to lunch after our bike ride. Spring is here!)

Liz had today off from work so we wanted to get a good training day in but also had some other errands to run. Our compromise...we quickly headed out for the same 45 mile ride I did yesterday. I've added the Garmin link below in case you care to compare the stats.

3/20 Ride to Potomac

A Little Catch-up on Training

2011-03-19T16:08:00.004-04:00

Today's supposed 60 degree, rainy day turned out being 65 and sunny...so instead of the trainer, I took advantage and went for a ride from our apartment to Potomac, MD. This was pretty much a variation of the ride we always do (just a bit shorter) since its the only safe ride out of the city and into some 'country-ish' roads. I followed up the ride (garmin data below) with a 30 minute brick run around the National Mall.

As for training as a whole, it's been going really well but fairly inconsistent. I'll be good about the diet, then splurge for 2 days. I'll do hard workouts 4 days in a row then miss 2 days. I now have a good base in my run/bike so lately its been adding more distance. My long runs are in the 12-14 mile range and my longest bike rides this year have been 56 miles. In another month I'll start adding some speed. In the meantime, I need to keep my momentum going and quit skipping workouts.

You probably noticed I left out swimming above. Every year I promise to focus on my swim and every year I procrastinate. This is the one leg of races that kills me time-wise...especially in shorter races. I've been averaging 1-2 swims per week but my effort has varied. To fix the problem, I signed up for a Masters swim course. I'll write another post on this later since I've only been through 2 practices but my first impressions are positive. I've gotten some advice on form and being forced to keep up with a group of swimmers prevents me from slacking off. I'm hoping to have a competitive (or at least average) swim time for my age group by TriRidgefield. I'll keep ya posted on how that's going...

3/19 Ride to Maryland
2/18 Ride to Maryland

Signs of spring

2011-03-15T18:00:00.000-04:00

Daylight savings was this past weekend and Justin and I walked around around DC on Sunday to explore new areas we haven't really been to. During that time, we 1) bought a box of girl scout cookies at a local farmers market, ha... who would expect that? 2) tried horchata for the first time at a street vendor - it was good, 3) saw a lot of fancy schmancy embassies, 4) picked up a new running hat for Justin, 5) tried cupcakes from the new cupcake store in Georgetown called Sprinkles - $3.75 for a cupcake... prob the first and only time I'll eat one of those, and 6) snapped a picture in front of a blooming tree - the true signs of SPRING!!! It was nice to take the day off from training since we BOTH weren't working and get to spend some quality time with Justin : )

Today I ran 20.5 miles, the first of three 20 mile runs. It was ok - the course I routed out ended with a lot of hills which was prob a really bad idea (even though I got through them) but I could feel it. Downhills hurt bad, I was just wishing for flats for the last couple miles. When I got home, I felt like I was going to throw up. I laid down on the floor for awhile and drank my recovery mix and then showered. I then headed to the grocery store across the street to pick up food for dinner and rewarded myself with Cadbury Mini Eggs - YUM. Easter is the only time of the year I can get these candies and i LOVE them. I am snacking on them right now as I type :) Now I think I am stuck on the couch for the rest of the night - I have no desire to get up anytime soon. Here's to what I expect will be a restful nights sleep tonight :)

What is cornhole?

2011-03-11T23:52:00.001-05:00

For those of you wondering (and who have asked), here is a quick explanation of cornhole... I have also provided a drawing for you :)

The game consist of two slanted boards, each with a hole carved out near the top, the boards are laid something like 28ft across from each other. There are two teams, two players on each team. One team member stands at each board. Each team has 4 bean bags. The two players standing at the same board take turns throwing their colored bean bags to the board across from them. After they have tossed all their bags, the other two players at the other board collect the bean bags and toss them back over to the other board. If your bag lands on the board you get 1 point, if you get the bag in the hole you get 3 points. The goal of the game is to be the first team to reach 21 points (or how we play in the league, the team who scores the most points out of 8 rounds). However, if each team gets a bean bag on the board, they cancel each other out. Same goes for getting the bean bag in the hole. It's pretty fun but can also be extremely frustrating when you aren't playing well. My team is 50/50 right now and the league championships are next weekend. It was a fun thing to do every Thursday night throughout the winter...

I ain't complaining, cause I love the rain

2011-03-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

You know the chevy commercial? It's raining, it's pouring, but I ain't complaining, cause I love the rain!

It's a rainy day and unfortunately it's my day off :( I'd prefer the sun. BUT, since that isn't going to be happening, I trying to pump myself up so I can get outside and run the 7.5 miles I have scheduled for today. Boston is just over a month away so I can't be missing runs! When I get home I'll hop on the bike for a hard spin. At least the 60 degrees makes up for the weather just a little bit.

This morning I cuddled up under a blanket and finally watched The Social Network (I've tried watching it twice before and fell asleep within 10 minutes both times). I wish I could watch movies all day on the couch but than I'd feel guilty at the end of the day. Perhaps when I am done with my run and bike and before I have to leave for corn hole tonight (yup, Jus and I are totally in a corn hole league) :) Out I go!!

A short run for fun

2011-02-10T10:56:00.000-05:00

Last night, Justin and I went for a short run and stopped by the Lincoln Memorial for a pic. Justin ran in his new Saucany Kinvara's for the first time. I'm sure he'll be giving you the low down on those eventually. They are bright orange, like blindingly bright orange. Bright shoes mean you have to run fast ...run FAST Justin!

Calling it a night

2011-02-01T19:58:00.001-05:00

2 hours on the bike, 4 mile run, 10x100 strides and a 30 minute swim is where I call it quits for the day! Today was my Saturday which means heavy workouts and I am feeling really good about everything I've done today. I felt strong throughout my workouts but I gotta say that I am feeling it now in tiredness. I am exhausted and ready for bed and it's only 7:30pm. I'm going to be fighting this one so that Justin doesn't give me a hard time for going to sleep early! :)

Once again the little girl that lives upstairs was running around early (she has feet of an elephant) and was throwing her toys all over the floor so I set the bike up in front of the laptop and turned on an instant movie on Netflix - Sunshine Cleaning - and put on noise cancellation earphones... ahh, the sound of muting someone out. It passed the time and my ride was over in no time.

my bike set up today

Next I headed out for a 4 mile run with the gym as my endpoint. At the gym I ran strides seriously for the first time ever. The track at the gym is teeny tiny so I had to run 1.5 laps to make it equivilent to to 100 meters. It went surprisingly well and look forward to doing these again next week. I used a swim as a cool down since I haven't been in awhile and thought it was necessary to get in the pool today.

Now here I sit as Justin has gone to the pool to swim fighting to keep my eyes open. He better get home quick or he might find me tucked into bed fast asleep ;)

Goodnight!

Like Old Times

2011-01-27T09:55:00.004-05:00

Nothing like a little winter weather to make training more interesting. While the news wass busy with its weather-related doom and gloom, I figured I'd head out for 30+ min run and then head to the Y for a swim...luckily, ours was the only Y that didn't close early for snow.

As discussed in earlier posts, this year was really strange for me in terms of training. I never found a good rhythm and then basically shut down everything but running after August. As a result, heavy training has been a nice slap in the face...I've spent the past few weeks (and will continue for another 1.5 months) of nothing but base building. Plus I've added in consistent weight training for the first time which may or may not last b/c my muscles are completely spent by the time I get to swim/bike/run.

The biggest hurdle so far has been swimming. Always my weakness, coupled with hiding from the pool for months, I was a little nervous to do my T-test. This is used as a base 100m time for training: to determine we swim 3x300m w/ 30 sec rests and then average the times. While training for IMLP in 2008, my t-time was 1:53. This time around I'm untrained, sore from lifting, and swam the 1st 300m too hard and posted a t-time of 2:07...not good.

The good news is its early. But I have a long ways to go and think a private swim lesson may be needed to help me improve since this is the only leg of triathlete that I haven't significantly improved in since 2008. I guess its good that my swim focus started this week!

Welcome to my weekends

2011-01-26T11:41:00.000-05:00

Working retail is tricky when it comes to planning out my workouts for the week. Take this week for example. I had put together my training plan with the habit of doing big workouts on the weekends - two days off to do lots and wear myself out tired. However, my weekend this week was yesterday and today - two straight days off. This meant I had to rearrange the schedule and motivate myself to get the big workouts in early in the week versus later in the week which can be hard to do! Fortunately, I got a good day in yesterday of biking and running and I plan to do a 13 mile run today, whenever the weather decides to let up before the snow, followed by a 30 minute swim (which I didn't get to fit into yesterday). It's been tricky but hopefully I will start to get use to the change up and the lack of consistency in my weekly schedule.

This week was the official start to my Boston Marathon training! WooHoo! There are twelve weeks until the race and I am already super excited. I've decided to add something new into my marathon training this time around - tempo runs and strides. I figured this would be a good idea since I PR'd at my last marathon and I would like to see if I am capable of anything more. Adding these into my training will build the speed I need, hopefully. I'll keep you posted on how it's going since this kind of training is new to me.

Yesterday it was 45 degrees out and I could not pass up the opportunity to enjoy a run in the warmer weather while it was around. Note to self: Craft baselayer and Mizuno thermal tights are not good running gear for 45 degrees.... I was sweating! (but not complaining). I got to watch the sun set during the run along with lots of other runners. Picture was from yesterday: sunset behind the Lincoln Memorial - pretty, even though you can't really tell in the picture.

Exciting Friday night at the Y

2011-01-15T09:42:00.001-05:00

2 week prep training is officially done. After a recovery week, the serious training begins.

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Hi again!

2011-01-08T09:57:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile! Sorry!

To start things off, here's an update on the IM Canada debacle. They ended up sending an email out taking responsibility for their administrative error. Apparently $69 was the correct amount (which I still don't understand the calculations fully) but they gave athletes the option to reject the fee while honoring the original registration, which was the option I chose. I did not choose this because I am trying to be cheap, I chose it for a couple reasons: 1) the way they handled this whole thing was disrespectful, 2) I 100% would not have signed up for the race had the total cost come to nearly $700 at the point of registration (instead I would have closed the page and looked into doing another race somewhere else), 3) they never clarified the issue of EAS having access to our credit card information, which still concerns me, 4) they did not give us the option for a full refund, which I strongly believe, to practice excellent customer service, they should have offered. Anyways, it's over and done with and (somewhat) forgotten. I'll still be at the starting line on August 28 with intentions to race my heart out and have a great time.

Moving on, I started the new year off by signing up for my third race for the season, which will be TriRidgefield! I love this race and am looking forward to competing in it once again. Now it's time to decide on the remainder of my races so that I can sign up and have my race schedule set.

On another note, I took a position at City Sports in Georgetown. City Sports was my go-to store when we were living up in Boston (where it was established) and when I found out they were opening a new store in the area, I applied immediatley. Now I get to spend my days in a store I love, with awesome people, all while getting to talk to customers about things I love most. I'm excited about the job and actually look forward to going to work :) The store is awesome and unlike any other City Sports out there. Here are some pics:

Annnnd, now back to training. Justin and I have officially switched back to our (QT2) training diet. BOO! Now it's back to protein smoothies for breakfast, veggies for lunch and non-carb meals for dinner. It's always difficult getting back on this diet and you get some serious hunger pains during the transition but we both know that we feel 100x better and more energized while on it so we are pulling through and making that change. Now I just need to find some new, healthy recipes for meals so that we don't default to our regular stuff and get sick of it too quickly.

That's all for now! More updates to come soon...

Jus and I were out in California (Palm Desert) for Christmas vacation. We got to do some fun runs up steep mountains, here are some pics:

Back At It

2010-12-06T22:25:00.004-05:00

Exactly 30 days since the NYC Marathon and 104 days since the Timberman 70.3 (my last triathlon), I hopped on the bike trainer to start my training for IM Canada 2011. It's 30 degrees and windy so I was more than happy about an indoor ride.

After a year away from Ironman, I'm looking forward to the serious training. For the 1st time in 3 years, I'm going the self-coaching route. I'm a bit anxious about whether I can create a strong enough plan and stay dedicated enought to PR at both the 70.3 and 140.6 distances. I'm hoping the blog will keep me honest...

*Can anyone guess the background show?

News from Ironman Canada?

2010-11-29T12:15:00.001-05:00

I received this email from NA Sports (owner of Ironman Canada) on Friday evening, sent to my inbox with the subject line reading: "News from Ironman Canada"

Dear Subaru Ironman Canada Entrant,

As many of you may be aware, effective July 1, 2010 British Columbia moved to a harmonized provincial and federal sales tax at a combined rate of 12%. This has been a controversial and confusing tax change but it is the law and therefore must be collected on all sale of goods and services. Unfortunately when your entry to the 2011 Subaru Ironman Canada was processed through Active, HST was not collected on the entry fee. This has recently been brought to our attention and we are obligated to collect that tax.

To that end, the credit card that you used to enter the race will be charged $69, the amount of the HST on the entry fee. We will begin processing the charges on Monday, November 29th and these will be complete by December 10th. Should you wish to have this charge applied to a different credit card or if the one you used to enter has expired, please contact our athlete services center at admin@nasports.com or 877-377-2373. We apologize for this error and any inconvenience it may cause.

Ironman Canada Triathlon

First off, seriously? Screw that. This error was made on their behalf, not mine, therefore, is it not my responsibility to now pay that tax. If I bought a TV several months back and the store forgot to charge the HST, they would most certainly not come hunting me down today looking for that money. NA Sports and Ironman are not "obligated" to collect that tax, they are choosing to place that cost on their athletes. Excellent customer service would be for them to man up to their mistake and pay the lost money out of their own money-filled pockets. But I guess it's no surprise that they suck at customer service.

Second, from reading forums about this issue, I learned that they are in fact charging too much since part of the 12% was already collected at registration for GST. At most the HST should be ~$40. In fact, Active now shows that it is charging $644 for this race (I paid $603.75) which you assume is now factoring in the HST... through math, they should only be charging $40.25 to athletes who have already signed up.

Third, this is not about the money (though nearly $700 for one race is absurd), it's about how they are handling it and principle. This was a planned tactic, and one that screws the athletes the most. They send the email the day after Thanksgiving - a holiday weekend when most people are traveling and away from their email. They say they are going to start charging this fee on Monday which means we had ZERO business days to return to our computers, our email and become aware of the situation. They do it at a time when most people are buying the bulk of their holiday gifts (Black Friday & Cyber Monday) in hopes that people will just overlook the charge on their credit card statement. They have the subject line read: "News from Ironman Canada" as if it's no big deal. How about adding in there somewhere about how you are going to be charging my card?! Last, they do not offer any sort of alternative options if we do not want to pay this additional fee. It's their way or what? I have a say in this too, thanks.

Fourth, um - I am pretty sure it is unlawful to retroactively charge a credit card without authorization. Do not TELL ME you will begin the charges on Monday, you ASK ME if you are allowed to charge my card.

With that said, I've written an email telling them they are not authorized to charge my credit card until a full explanation on their calculations and a refund option is provided. I've also asked them to explain to me why they thought it would be a good idea to come back to the customer for this money. Not my error, not my problem. I know it will be a lot of money for them to pay out of pocket but I guess that's the price you pay for your mistakes AND for great customer service.

I am SO over Ironman.

Now I wait on a response (as do so many other athletes) and hopefully before they take the action of charging my card because I will dispute it. I'm so fed up with them and they have no right to treat loyal athletes like they are idiots.

BAM! ...and YAY!

2010-11-18T15:35:00.000-05:00

Lunch by the water, anyone?

2010-11-15T14:14:00.000-05:00

We were fortunate enough to have ANOTHER warm weekend, nearly 70 degrees on Saturday so Justin and I headed out for our first bike ride since our last tri (not including the trainer). Wanting to take it real easy and enjoy the fine weather (especially because Justin still needs to recover from his marathon), we biked down to Mount Vernon and back, a total of just under 40 miles. We stopped in old town Alexandria for lunch at a creperie and enjoyed some delicious food and apple cider - yum. However, we would have much rather preferred lunch at the picnic table located in the water - too bad we weren't able to make it quiet there, but we tried!

Check out this very cool shot I took of Justin along the route - how great is that tree?

NYC Marathon- Race Report

2010-11-09T20:46:00.002-05:00

After much ridicule from Liz, I'm finally writing a new post...

For the last 5 years I've tried to gain entry to the NYC marathon but was never selected in the lottery so instead I watched from the sidelines as Liz and her family each ran. As a spectator, I've seen the incredible crowds on 1st Ave and cheered on runners as they've turned the corner into Central Park but miles 16-26 are all I've seen of the course. So as a 3-time reject, my time was finally here to run.

Heading into race weekend, I was extremely excited to run. Having done a few 70.3's and shorter races this year, I hadn't been this 'pumped' since IMLP last year. All of my long training runs have been done around 8 min miles so I set a 3:30 goal time in NYC. With this in mind, I knew my biggest issue would be holding back for the 1st 13.1 miles.

Race Day:
This was probably the most well organized race I've done. I took the subway from Grand Central to the Staten Island Ferry and hopped on for a 7am take-off. I met up with Joey's friend, Rooney, and tried to gather all the advice I could get from a NYC Marathon veteran. Rooney hooked us up with a ride from Staten Island to the race start and after a quick chat with team continuum, we split off for our respective 'villages'.

Bathroom and coffee lines were short so I took care of business and walked to my start corral at 8:50am for a 9:40 start. As the gun went off, I started with the 3:30 pacer and found a surprising amount of space on the lower level of the bridge. It was windy and cold on the bridge but I held an 8:40 pace for the 1st mile and an 8:05 for mile 2 so I warmed up quickly. The crowds started around mile 6 and were pretty steady throughout. With all of the cheering, I turned off the ipod and concentrated on the cheers and my stride. I was forcing my to stay at an 8 min pace b/c I felt like I could go a lot faster. Even though I felt good, I was pretty surprised by all of the hills and knew they'd eventually take their toll. I was prepared for the verazano, queensboro and the trek into central park but felt like 90% of the course was uphill.

With a steady headwind and all of the uphills, I finally started to slow around mile 14. The smaller uphill in Queens right before the bridge killed me. I struggled to keep running but had dropped to 9:15 min miles and knew the rest of the race would be a battle. Not wanting to show my fatigue, I put on a smile and sped up around mile 16.5 as I knew I'd be seeing Liz, my mom, Joey, and Jen for the 1st time. Their cheers and the overall 1st ave mojo kept me going strong until the Willis bridge in Harlem. Unfortunately, it turned ugly from there. I slowed significantly and started cramping at mile 23. It tooked everything I had not to start walking and if my race crew hadn't been waiting at 24, I probably would have. Getting another boost from them, I was able to finish the last 1.5 miles strong with a final time of 3:37:15.

I missed my goal by 7 minutes but PR'ed by 8. Overall, I am very happy with my time and felt I gave it everything I had. I still believe I have a 3:30 in me and am strongly considering going for it this Spring. In the meantime, I'm trying to recover quickly so I can run the Rosaryville 50k this weekend. Right now, I'm way too sore and wouldn't be able to run but we'll see how I feel on Friday.

A big thanks to everyone that came out to cheer me on, gave me advice, and made it such a great race weekend. Hopefully this will kick start my return to blogging...

Justin ran NYC

2010-11-09T12:48:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, November 7, Justin ran the NYC Marathon. He killed it, setting a PR at 3:37:15, good enough to place in the top 24% of his age group, which is so rad. CONGRATS JUSTIN, I'm so happy for you! We got to track him in real time with the sweet athlete tracker Joey put on his ipad (such an improvement from the delayed text messages that usually overflow your phone once the runner has FINISHED the race).

I'll get him to post a race report soon - maybe this will be his official return to the blog? Maybe ;)

In the meantime, here are some pics from race day:

Justin's on the right in the yellow shirt - mile 16.5

Support crew, toughing it out in the cold.

GO JUS GO - mile 24.5, so close!

At the finish - YAY!

With finishers medal :) Now time to get some grub!

Justin's last 20 mile run before NYC!

2010-10-27T10:03:00.000-04:00

It was summer time in DC this past weekend (and this entire week, too)! With temps in the mid to upper 70's, we took full advantage of what could be one of our last warm weekends and spent a a lot of time outside. Saturday, Jus and I headed out to the Shenandoah Valley - I wanted to see fall foliage. We drove the Skyline Drive from the most north entrance and completed about 35 miles where we ducked out and drove through farm towns back to DC and did a last minute wine tasting (our first wine tasting ever!). It was a lot of fun! We got a bottle of red wine that will be at it's peak in 2018! That will be stored away until Justin's 36th birthday!!! HA - kinda scary to think about!

The Shenandoah Valley was not as colorful as I thought it would be but the weather man did say that the colors are very muted this year. It was still very pretty though. We stopped at scenic views and did about a two hour hike. Picture is from a stop we made along the drive. It was very quiet and creepy at times at how secluded the trails were. I was freaking out the entire time again about bears because the guide said are in hibernation BUT will come back out on mild days to do some last minute eating. At 73 degrees, I'd say that's a mild day. So of course, I was on edge the entire hike. Fun times!!

Sunday morning was the Army 10 miler (pic above). Lucky for us, the course went right by the street we live on at mile three. We rolled out of bed at 7:40 and made ourselves cozy on the middle medium by 8 to hear the first wave gun go off. 8 minutes later, the first runner came by - that's 4 min/mile pace!!!! 30,000 people run this race which is A LOT but I found it to be pretty cool. We stayed out from the very first to the very last person. The runners were SUPER friendly and were screaming their thanks to us for being out there and cheering them on. It was a fun way to start our Sunday.

After that, Justin did his FINAL 20 mile run - WOOHOO!!! He told me he would write a blog post about it, but look how successfully he was at doing that! I'm telling ya, I'm going to change the name of this blog soon to cut his name out of it! :) Feeling motivated, I decided to try to run 13 miles (or 2 hours, whichever one came first). I've let myself get way too lazy and thought this would be a nice way to shock my body ;) I trailed behind Justin for the first few miles up and through Rockcreek Park and then started slowing my pace down. I don't need to hurt myself. Rockcreek Park is a REALLY nice run. There is a sidewalk throughout the entire park AND one of the roads is closed off completely on weekends to cars so lots of people head out to bike, roller blade, walk, run or just sit by the river and relax. I took some pics, as usual... here they are...

Step AWAY from the Snickers!

2010-10-21T16:33:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been just about two weeks since I ran my marathon and I've gotten a total of two workouts in since! I'm on a roll... I was so excited to be in my off-season and I think I took it to the extreme. I'm not thinking twice about it though, as my body needs to enjoy the sugars, fats and utter laziness that it so rarely gets to enjoy. Luckily, Justin has the NYC marathon in a few weeks so he's still sticking to a strict diet, despite my wanting bad foods. So, at least dinners have been healthy. My snacks, however, not so much. Reese's peanut butter cups and snickers! CVS had them on sale -$3 for two bags - who can resist that deal!! Not me. So these bad boys sit in the freezer just waiting to get eaten, which will be soon :)

Today I went for a nice, leisurely run. Nearly 70 degrees with sunshine, it was the perfect day to be outside. I switched between running and walking for about an hour and half - love the workouts where I don't need to pay attention to my watch. Part of my run today was an exploration through Roosevelt Island. This loop was pretty cool as you're on trails the whole time and away from traffic. It's escaping to the "woods" in the middle of a city. Here are some pics I took along the way...

And, just so everyone knows, I successfully registered for the Boston Marathon 2011! Registration opened at 9am on 10/18 and I was on the site ready to sign up right when it opened. I started to panic because the registration page kept refreshing to a empty form whenever I clicked the submit button. Freaking out that I was doing something wrong and wouldn't get in (Justin told me earlier that week that it was expected to fill fast), I headed to Twitter and searched for #BostonMarathon to see what the deal was and if everyone else was having the same issues I was. Turns out, they were. An hour later someone sent out a working link to registration (BAA had a broken redirect due to heavy traffic, apparently) and I got in first try - phew! Just 7 hours later, the marathon filled and registration closed - a record breaking time (last year it took 2 months). It's not a huge surprise, based on the stats showing the rapid growth of marathon runners over the years, but still, no one was truly expecting a one day sell out. As you can imagine, with the major fall marathons having not even happened yet (Marines, NYC, Philly), there are a lot of angry peeps out there that have been training their butts off to get into Boston and now can't. Given the massive backlash BAA has received, I'm pretty sure there will be major changes next year - adjustment of qualifying times, getting rid of some of the charity slots (5,000 slots are held for charity runners), increasing the race size, introducing a lottery system???? All are options (some good, some very bad), I'm interested to see what they decide to do to fix the issue. But, for now, I am thrilled to be registered - this has been a goal of mine since I started running marathons and I can't wait for April 18th!!

Mohawk Hudson River Marathon 2010 Race Report

2010-10-13T09:29:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon. We headed out Friday night and stopped by Joey's for the night in Jersey. We spent Saturday morning there and left around noon to finish the trip up to Albany. We went straight to check-in, which was quick and painless, then took a detour as an excuse to see the area out to an apple orchard and got hot apple cider and apple cider donuts - both of which were fantastic. We made it to the hotel early, ordered take out from Olive Garden, set-up shop in front of the TV and laptop and watched Florida State football and Kona World Championships for the rest of the night. Jenny and Roger got to the hotel around 9:30 and we stayed up chatting until about 11:30.

Race morning we woke up at 7 - Jus was awesome and had gone out and gotten coffee before we even woke up. We headed out around 7:40 and made it to the race start at 8 which gave us a half hour to use the restroom and relax. This marathon is a point to point course that starts in Schenetady and ends in Albany. The course was beautiful as it runs along the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers the entire time. Majority of the course was on a bike path so you were off roads and surrounded by trees that are bright orange and red this time of year, so it made it a very pleasant scene. Really nice course.

I was nervous before the race because the day before and the morning of, I felt like I was suffering from a heart attack. My chest hurt and I was getting crazy pains and pinches. Jenny and Roger assured me it wasn't a heart attack and offered some alternative causes for the pain :) That helped calm my worries (but I'm still going to make an appointment with the doc to get it checked out).

Jenny and I lined up behind the start and soon enough the horn went off. This race is known to be flat and fast with several nice downhills where you can pick your pace up a good bit. It was cool at the start - in the 50s but within the first mile, I was taking my long sleeve shirt off. In the process I managed to break my water bottle top but saved it enough for it to carry me through till I got my replacement from Justin at mile 14. I went out way too hard but in a way, it was hard not to. The first half of the marathon was FAST. When I crossed the 13.1 mile marker and saw the clock at 1:43 I thought "YIKES! I gotta slow down or I'm going to crash" That is the fastest half I've ever run (by 3 minutes)! I had a lot of conversations in my head from that point on. "Slow down, but not too much" "Well, go fast when it's a slight downhill but take the flats easy" "I want to stop" "My legs HURT" "Why do I do this?!" "If I had music, this would be a lot easier" "So many people are passing me now, I'm slowing down too much" "Where is a port-o-potty?!" "If I keep this pace, I'll have 12 minutes to run my last mile" "I hate racing" "Gosh, I wish I had music"

I got to see Justin and Roger at several points along the course which was awesome. At mile 14 I stopped to use a port-o-potty but totally rushed the pit stop so that I didn't lose too much time. At mile 17.5 there are train tracks and in the runners guide they said if you get stopped at the train, they'll adjust your time, but there were no mats so I'm not sure how they handle that but all I was thinking after I hit mile 17 was that I didn't get stopped by a train! I listened carefully and ran faster than I should have for that half mile till I passed the tracks. Phew - made it!

Most of the course was quiet. There were spots where there were good sized crowds but for the majority of the race, it was just the runners. When I hit mile 24, I had something like 23 minutes to finish the race - this is when I knew I was guaranteed a Boston qualifying time (even though I ran the second half of the marathon 10 minutes longer than the first half). I got really happy and just kept telling myself to get through these last 2 miles. At this point, runners had spread out. Mile 26 was the L-O-N-G-E-S-T mile EVER!!! I thought I was going to lose my BQ time on this mile because the end felt like it was never coming. However, it did... finally, the crowds appeared, people screaming "JUST AROUND THE TURN AND YOU'RE DONE!" I got a crazy cramp in my side in the last .2 miles and had to walk a minute and stretch it out but I ran the rest of the finish and read the clock at 3:36! WooHoo! I'm going to Boston!

After the finish I immediately took off my sneakers to reveal a huge blister that had formed around the top of one of my toe. I could not put any pressure on it - it felt as though I broke it. I was in pain. It's looking better now that it's been a few days but still hurts. I also got to make friends with an adorable 4 month old puppy at the finish - so cute!

Soon after, Jenny came running through the finish and looked amazingly happy to have completed the marathon (without training!) ;) Congrats to Jenny - I am very happy she decided to do the marathon!!!

And so, it's time to let my legs relax. I get to sit back and watch Justin train for the NYC Marathon and not feel the slightest bit guilty for not working out as hard as he is :) It's going to be a great feeling.

Running long

2010-09-28T16:08:00.000-04:00

In 12 days, I'll be running the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon. To do my final prepping, I ran long today (20 miles). This was my one and only long run between Syracuse and the marathon. Last week I did a couple hour runs at an easy pace to remind my legs that they are not in their off season yet. 12 days legs, 12 days.

Today was hugely successful and has lifted my spirits quiet high! Given that I've let myself eat a good amount of junk food last week and that I haven't worked out hard, I thought my run was going to be a struggle. Even with the strong headwind and raising temps, I managed to pull out a 19.84 mile run in 2:45:22 for a pace of 8:20min/mile ON THE DOT! (I don't use my running pacer, this is all off feel). I had to stop a couple times to breath quickly because once I hit the Mt. Vernon trail, there were no water fountains to fill up on for 1hr 25min, so I had to go easy on the hydration so that I had enough to last me through to the next water fountain. Anyways, I'm really happy about today and I hope I can keep it up for the marathon so that I can get me one of them Boston Marathon spots :)

I am crossing my fingers a million times for good weather on race day. This year has been kind of a wreck when it comes to my races and weather. Goofy Challenge: rain/sleet/snow/40 degrees both days, TriRidgefield: rainy, EagleMan: hot/more hot/100 degrees, Timberman: rainy/cool/60 degrees, Syracuse: rainy/super foggy/60 degrees. What I would love for my marathon is partly cloudy, high 60's to low 70's. That would be ideal for me. Cross your fingers, too!

Syracuse 70.3 Race Report 2010

2010-09-21T09:14:00.002-04:00

The race is done and in the books and now there’s just a marathon standing in my way of the complete off season! Here’s the race report…

Justin and I drove up to Syracuse Saturday morning. We headed straight to registration to get all the hassle out of the way. This was the races inaugural year so I was a bit concerned about how smoothly things would go. To my surprise, I was in and out, back in the car within 15 minutes. From there we were off to rack the bike which was about an 18 minute drive away. I did a quick ride; made sure everything was ready and racked my bike. I headed down to the water where Justin went for a swim to feel the water and oh good lord, the water was frigid. I didn’t even get knee deep before I decided I’d skip my short swim for the day. After that, we checked-in to our hotel and met up with Hirsch and CREW for dinner at pastabilities (yum). I was in bed at 8pm.

Race Morning
I was up at 4:30am, plans to leave at 5am. Walking out to the car, I was (twice now) pleasantly surprised that our hotel had breakfast out for the taking (I was not expecting this as it was the races inaugural year). We grabbed a (small) cup of coffee and left. Expecting temps in the 40’s, I was again (third time now) pleasantly surprised that it was in the low 60’s at 5am – SWEET! Though, there was on and off mist/light rain. 18 minutes later we pulled into the enormous grass parking lot (holds 4,000 cars) without any traffic backups. The morning was going smoothly. With plenty of time before race start, Justin and I found a spot under a tree (to stay dry) near the water, sipped on more coffee that we got at the race site and just waited. I guess everyone wanted to show up later rather than early because they ended up delaying the start by 15 minutes due to heavy traffic of athletes trying to make their way to the race.



Swim [39:02]
Since there was a delay in the start, they condensed the time lapse between each wave group. The start seemed rush but I didn’t mind, I always find it annoying when I start an hour+ after the first wave. I was nervous about how cold the water was so I didn’t even feel it that morning until my swim start. Again, (fourth time now) pleasantly surprised that the water didn’t feel as cold as the day before. Maybe because I had a wetsuit on but the temp was def. doable, actually comfortable with a wetsuit on, at 62 degrees. I kept a groove in the water the entire time. The water was a bit cloudy but I could see the space around me which is all I need to feel alright. Buoys were easy to spot, too.

T1 [3:24]


Bike [2:57:18, 19mph]
The day before, Jus and I drove the first 10ish miles of the bike course. It was nothing but one hill after another. Sweet Road ain’t so sweet (pictured above). I figured from the elevation chart, the course should be semi-flat after 15 miles or so. I decided not to kill it until I was through with the early hills. After which I got going with some consistent, fast speeds. There were a good number of rolling hills throughout so by no means was the bike “easy”. It was not at all what I was expecting it to be going in. I decided not to wear arm warmers or glasses which was a smart move. There was a mist the entire bike so you were never dry and my helmet dripped water throughout. The fog was crazy at certain points (pictured below – not me in the pic). Roads were in good condition, farms all around, not much to complain about here. 1 loop course – gotta love that!



T2 [2:01]

Run [1:48:03, 8:15 min/mile]
My feet were super numb coming off the bike. I think this is due to shoe fit (need to buy some new, wider shoes for next season). It takes about 4 miles until my feet feel normal. The run course was a point to point run which I'm not a fan of. Because of this, you had

to drive to transition once done to collect all your things – annoying. By the time I started running, the mist/rain had stopped and it was just overcast. For the most part, the run was flat but it did have a couple small hills and false flats. But overall, I’d say the run course was easy. A bit boring as you run on one long, straight, 4 lane, divided road for most of the time. By mile 6 I was ready to stop. I didn’t want to race anymore. I was tired, my legs hurt, and I still had 7 miles to go. Ugh. Working through my negative thoughts, I stopped looking at my watch and just kept putting one foot in front of the other, counting down the miles at every mile marker. Coming down to the final stretch everyone was screaming “just around the corner and you’re done!” Well, where was this corner?!?! It felt like FOREVER to get to THE corner but they were all right, you turn it and there’s the finish – LOVELY! I checked the watch and it said 5:29 and change… holy cow, another PR (by 10 minutes) and sub 5:30 ;) !! I was close to running my fastest half marathon in this race – which right now is a 1:46. I was ecstatic.

Total Time: 5:29:45
AG Standing: 16th/68 (Only one girl came in sub 5 in my AG so that is promising, ha)

I personally really enjoyed this race. There were a lot of things that made it nice. Well organized, small town feeling, great volunteer support (including the police and army/navy guys), normal, calm, friendly participating athletes (not like the tool bags that flocked to Timberman), the surrounding towns totally embraced the race and athletes, even the cows and horses that stood at the farm fences to watch us (it was really cute!). The only thing I would change is to have the run end at transition (I know this defeats the SYRACUSE part but whatever, it’s close enough). HUGE thanks to Justin for all his help and crazy ability to show up in about 50 different spots of the race to cheer for me :) And, love and thanks goes to my family of course for tracking me and sending their positive vibes!

And with that, my tri season is now complete. Until next year…

Soon to be on our way!

2010-09-17T14:11:00.001-04:00

I'm packed up and ready to go! Tomorrow AM, we hit the road for Syracuse for my last tri of the season!

Crazy how fast the spring/summer went - seriously, it flew by! I'll have one last big race this year and that's the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon, which I'll be running with my sis, Jen - YAY! I have to say though, I am kind of (REALLY) looking forward to the off season. I love this time of year... the fall, cool air, picking apples, Halloween, leaves changing colors, carving pumpkins, apple pie, Thanksgiving, delicious & yummy food, time with the family, Christmas, yearly vacation with Justin's family, New Years, ~~snow~~, my bday, ~~freezing cold weather~~... lots to look forward to in the coming months. This is all that I was thinking about while packing for the weekend :)

I think I'm going to do some shorter distance running races throughout the fall and winter. I've never done a 5K or 10K (outside of work associated races) but I'm definitely thinking about doing some soon. AND, I think I know someone nearby that might want to do them with me, maybe (ahem, Courtney) :)

Well, see you on the other side of the weekend... Syracuse 70.3, here I come!

So many GU flavors to choose from for the race... shall I have Jet Blackberry, Vanilla Bean or... um, Jet Blackberry or Vanilla Bean. Oh wait! I spy 1 Orange and a few Espressos... ok, good, I thought I was really limited there for a second ;)

Our Sunday of fun

2010-09-13T10:57:00.000-04:00

The Nation’s Tri was yesterday, here in DC. We had plans to head out for the start of the race and be spectators for a good part of the day with Cork but the rain was coming down and staying in bed sounded a whole lot better. 8:15 rolled around and Jus and I finally woke up. We logged onto the computer to check out how everyone was doing in Rev3 and decided to take a stroll down to the race since the rain had lightened up. After a quick stop at Dunkies, we headed down to the race to find that, at 9:15, wave starts were still going off!! It took over two hours to get all the wave groups out into the water… so crazy, so long (the race started at 7am)! We got to see the last two wave groups start, some stragglers almost swim straight into the rocks on the river line, and then walked the bike/run course around the tidal basin (the long route) to the finish. Rain was on and off the entire time. It was no fun. Once we made it to the finish, we took a seat and cheered on the finishers, one man after another… after another…. after ANOTHER! Where were all the women?! Well, given the first female wave group went off over an hour after the first wave group, I guess it made sense that we weren’t seeing them. By the time they started coming through the finish, we were tired of watching and headed back up to the apartment for a lazy day which included grilled cheese and soup for lunch and a long, much needed nap on the couch. Man, I love weekends.

Congrats to everyone who competed in Rev3 yesterday! You all did an awesome job. AND, way to go Joey for going sub 13, just 2 weeks after IMLOU! So happy we got to see you finish this time on the live camera!!

Some pictures from the Nation’s Tri…

Swim...

Run...

This kid in the mask frightened me.

What's with the 3 minutes?

2010-09-09T17:00:00.001-04:00

Today was my last long run before Syracuse 70.3 next weekend. I left the apartment at 9am for a 2 1/2 hour run. The second I started running I knew it would be a good run. I felt refreshed (even though I'm not), light and fast. It was quiet on the streets and cool - it was about 72 degrees throughout my run (loved it)! The results, I'm really happy about: 18.4 miles, 2h 33m for an 8:18 min/mile pace with three quick stops for water refills. Last week I did the same run at the same time of day, except it was 90 degrees when I started and mid 90's when I finished. Results from last week: 17.06 miles, 2h 33m for an 8:58 min/mile pace with about 10 stops to cool down/stretch (would have been A LOT slower had I not stopped). It was a TOUGH run for me and I def. struggled through it. Having trained day in and day out in the heat, the run in the cool, crisp air this morning was a nice change and I guess it showed :) I hope it pays off in the marathon and I can do a Boston qualifying time (fingers crossed).

Now here is something I can't figure out. Whenever I go for these long runs, it ALWAYS, ALWAYS takes me exactly 3 minutes longer to run back then it does to run out. It is always 3 minutes to the dot. I find it really interesting, and I guess it shows that I am at least consistent, ha, however slower on the way back! On every long run, I contemplate turning around 3 minutes early at the half way point to factor in this inevitable delay on the second half of the run, but I never do because I convince myself that this time, I'll do an even split, but I never do. Never. At least it stays at 3 minutes and doesn't increase with each week :)

Just a couple more days until I fall into my 1 week taper. Looking forward to Syracuse!

(Pic: Dead tired on the floor post run. Why the peace sign? Cause it's what I always do, unconsciously, at the finish line of races... I never MEAN to do it, I just do it, haha. In fact, when I finish races now, I tell myself over and over as I cross; "don't do the peace sign, don't do the peace sign" haha). Thought it was fitting for my final long run!

IMC... it's on!

2010-09-01T13:56:00.000-04:00

Well... IT'S ON! Justin, my brother and I are all signed up for 2011 Ironman Canada!!

What did I just get myself into?!??!???!?

GO JOJO!! Rock IMLOU Sunday!!!!!!

2010-08-25T19:30:00.000-04:00

Bright and early tomorrow morning, Justin and I are headed out to Banff for a long weekend to celebrate a friend’s wedding. We’re psyched to explore new land in chilly weather – can’t wait! Except, Justin found out that berries are in full bloom right now which means there have been a ton of bear sightings – EEK! Scary. I’m def. buying my bear-be-gone spray.

Since we’ll be out in Canada, we’re unfortunately going to be missing Joey (http://www.ironjoe.blogspot.com/) race his third Ironman down in Louisville on Sunday. We couldn’t be more bummed out about this. Though we won’t be there in person, we’ll be tracking him online when we’re on the ground and cheering him on from 30,000 feet up in the air during our flights home. I’m happy my sister Jenny, her fiancé Roger and my parents are all making the long trip out there for his race. Emotionally, I think any Ironman athlete would agree that having friends and family there cheering you on and supporting you throughout the entire day is the most important thing you could ask for. And, let's face it, they're pretty darn good at cheering!

Joey doing IMLP 09

Joey- BEST OF LUCK ON SUNDAY!!! Hope your 8 week training/nutrition crunch pays off ;) It will be hot, it will be sunny, it will be a hard race, but we know you’ll rock it and finish strong! Would you rather it be hot, hot, hot and sunny or cold and rainy, rainy, rainy (ahem, your first IM) – I guess you’ll be able to tell us after you’re done. Looking forward to tracking you and mentally sending our positive thoughts on race day…haha. ROCK ON!

GO JOJO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Timberman 70.3 2010 Race Report

2010-08-24T17:29:00.000-04:00

Going into this race, I wasn’t expecting much. This was my first time doing Timberman and Justin’s second (it was actually his 70.3 debut back in 2007 so I think it was an exciting time for him to return to the scene of the crime). I was calm. I hadn’t taken a real taper as my A race is mid-September, so I was looking to race well but certainly did not have any high expectations.

Justin and I arrived at race check-in around 3:45pm on Saturday. Right off the bat I fell into a rotten mood. First, what’s up with K Swiss’ shirt sizing? As with every race, I marked off a size small and when they handed me my shirt I gave it a quick glance and asked with all seriousness, “is this a kid’s shirt?” It looked like the perfect size for my 9 year old niece. They assured it was a woman’s size small and said I would have to come back at 7pm when everyone has checked in to exchange it for a different size. Screw that, way too much effort; I just won’t be wearing it around (which is too bad cause they were nice shirts). Second, we ran into the expo shop to pick up a pair of yankz shoe laces for me and saw that they were charging $5 for a Timberman water bottle (which they typically give you for free in your goody-bag, but not this year). All the other ridiculously overpriced branded items in the expo made me want to ban these races forever – I hate seeing money hungry corporations. Then, as we left, I stopped by the information tent to ask how much tickets were for the pasta dinner. There response: “We don’t have any information about the dinner, it’s not run by us so we don’t know” GIVE ME A BREAK! Really?! The freakin’ pasta dinner is put on by the police department where the proceeds go to a cause and because they're not getting any of the money they’re not going to give out any information about it? Christ, so ridiculous!! A bit ticked off, we went to transition, set up our bikes and made our way to Applebee’s (where we had the most boring dinners ever but healthy nonetheless) and then our hotel. We were in bed around 8pm. Wakeup was 4:20am and we were out door at 5am.We lucked out on parking and got a spot across the street from transition – happy we didn’t have to wait in the shuttle lines after the race! As for weather, it was an overcast day, high 60’s at race start with some sprinkles that arrived later during the bike and run.

Swim
[Liz- 39:41, Justin- 44:31]
Last weekend I tried on some wetsuits at a local tri shop. I was in the market for a new one because I hate the one I was using. One suit I tried was the QuintanaRoo Hydrofull suit and I fell in love – the easiest, most comfortable suit I’ve ever tried on. That night we did some internet searching and found the suit for a nice price and ordered it. I received it in the mail on Friday, hours before heading out the door! I was a bit concerned about doing my first swim in the suit at the race, but luckily I had no issues. It felt awesome. I did dolphin dives up to the first bouy since it was so shallow, after which I caught a groove and just swam. I got stuck in a couple jams before the first turnaround and the waters were choppy so it wasn’t ideal but either way, I think this was the fastest half swim I’ve ever done so I was happy with what I posted. I’m just ready to get faster because the swim really hurts my time.

T1
[Liz- 2:15, Justin- 2:57]
I ran into transition just behind Justin. Fairly quickly, I was out and on the bike.

Bike
[Liz- 3:00:04 for 18.7 mph, Justin- 2:57:55 for 18.9 mph]
I was expecting the bike course to be a lot more difficult than it actually was. To my surprise I was able to hold a decent pace for most of the ride. There were a lot of false flats which I am really good at going fast on. What I’m not really good at going fast on are hills and for each one that I approached I was passed over and over again. Hills drive me absolutely crazy and I’ve decided that hills need to be a major focus of mine for next season. If I can conquer hills, I’d be pretty fast on the bike. It started sprinkling halfway through the bike but thankfully, it just sprinkled. My stomach started getting weak at mile 36 so I decided to skip on taking more GU’s. Justin passed me (surprise, surprise…on a hill) somewhere around miles 40-45. I caught him again on a downhill (he’s a big ol’ chicken and was breaking down a hill because the roads were wet from the rain) but only to get passed by him again on an uphill… haha. At mile 52-ish, I decided to take a 2x caffeine GU to help me make it through the run. I wanted to throw up the second I took it and told myself I wouldn’t take anymore GU’s until absolutely necessary for the remainder of the race.

T2
[Liz- 2:33, Justin- 2:30]
I was happy to be off the bike. I threw my sneaks on, pulled my hair into a pony-tail, left the sunglasses behind and started my run. As I was leaving transition, fellow CREW member Grant told me Jus was just ahead of me and to go get him. Happy he didn’t make up too much time, my next goal was to catch Justin ;)

Run
[Liz- 1:54:41 for 8:46 min/mile, Justin- 2:04:28 for 9:31 min/mile]
With every race, I tell myself to run the first mile or two at a nice and easy pace. I can catch my breath, undo the numbness in my feet and get my running legs together. This is exactly what I did this race only to find out my fastest running was the first several miles! The first 3 miles I apparently paced an 8:14min/mile! Surprised again, the run course was not too difficult. I caught Justin somewhere between mile 2 or 3, chatted quickly, and was off. The run was pretty uneventful. They had plenty of water stations and food along the course which was really nice. 13.1 miles of running (no stopping to walk for me!) and I finished with a personal best! I was SUPER excited. I waited at the finish to see Justin run threw and get awarded his finishers medal from Chrissie Wellington which was super awesome.

Final
[Liz- 5:39:14, Justin- 5:51:58]
This is the fastest half I’ve ever done and I can’t wait to see what I can do in next month’s race. I am still unsure of how many girls were in my age group (official results haven’t been posted where they tell you) but there were over 100 and I placed 25th – which I’m really excited about. I have been training really hard and hope that with some more serious workouts, I'll be in a good position to finish my last tri of the season strong. Justin posted a great time even though he was in a calorie deficit most of the race. Congrats, Justin! We need to find some better race day fueling as GU’s don’t seem to be doing it for us anymore.

We headed to the food tent and filled our plates with food. However, I only ate the clam chowder, roll and banana in the pic below... everything else went into the trash.

Parting thoughts
I had a lot of fun racing Timberman. Take out the greediness that makes up these races and the “God’s gift” athletes that seemed to flock to this race and I’d have to say it was a beautiful race and well organized. I had a great time. The drive was a little too much for me, especially our drive home which took over 11 hours thanks to heavy rain and major traffic. All-in-all it was a successful day and happy I came out to race! I received a text from my brother congratulating me on the finish and said he’s bringing the competition next season… need to be doing 5:20’s – BRING IT!!!!

2010-08-21T19:43:00.001-04:00

Timberman check in. This is my last scheduled tri of the year before a run focus. Even though I'm not trained for this race its fun to come back 4 years later to my 1st long distance race. And same as the 1st go round, wake up temps will be in the low 50's...

2010-08-21T19:17:00.001-04:00

Timberman- Transition Area

A little running, a little biking

2010-08-12T15:57:00.000-04:00

As I write this post, I am 2 hours into my recovery from a long run. I headed out late morning ready to rock a 2hr 15min run. It was hard to get myself out the door given the severe storm that was rolling through the area making it look more like 10pm than 8am. I waited out the storm by falling asleep on the couch while watching the news and when I woke at 9am the sun was shining. When I stepped out the door at 9:45am it was hot and humid – ugh. I tucked my shirt up, pressed play on the shuffle and started the watch to count me down to my turnaround. I ran around the Mall, over the Memorial Bridge and down the Mt. Vernon trail until I hit 1h 7m 30s. I back tracked the same route home. My purpose of doing the Mall twice is 1) the high activity of tourist keeps me preoccupied from my actual run, 2) there are water fountains so I can refill the needed 2 times throughout the run, and 3) there are bathrooms in case of emergency. I did a total of just under 16 miles, running 3 mins longer than planned, coming out to an 8:46 min/mile pace. Not too shabby, I must say! Let your mind wonder and your legs do the work and you’ll be running faster than you actually think you are.

Speaking of which, Justin read an article in Men’s Journal about a new sports mix that is getting signed into the market. It’s called the Sims drink. A woman has researched the most ideal sports drink for over 8 years and has finally come up with the formula. Through her test, she found that runners who drank her formula ran 15-20% faster. We decided to give the formula a try and have been drinking it for a couple weeks now. I haven’t done any self-tests as to if it’s actually making me faster, but I def. haven’t felt fatigue on any of my runs and given today’s pace, I have to say that maybe it’s working. Here’s the formula if you want to try it out:

32 oz. water
¼ cup sugar
¼ tsp salt
2 sachs of Emergen-C
½ packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid powder for flavoring

Fruit Punch is good – but really fruity. Lemonade is DISTGUSTING. Orange is superb and our favorite so far. Here's a pic of the special brew:

Onto other news, last week, we were up in CT for a visit. On Saturday morning, Justin and I left for a 60 mile ride. I mapped the ride out myself and purposely went out of my way to find hill after hill to make up the ride. YIKES! I didn’t know it would be as hilly as it actually was. We started with Hilltop, of course, and then continued onto the Hilly 100 ride. We cut off the route near Sherman for our turnaround but not without doing the hill that makes me want to cry from pain. Joey took me up this hill last year (I think it’s Kirby Hill Rd) and I didn’t realize I had included it in last weeks ride. When we approached the hill, I said “what is this?!” and not far after I realized, “oh god, this is THE hill”. We were both out of the saddle just trying to pump the pedals as fast as possible. I was gasping for air as my legs were shaking, certain I’d fall over at any point. Well, we both made it up! There is no better feeling than completing a hard hill with a nice downhill on the other side. Near the end of the ride we took Joes Hill Rd then Dingle Ridge Rd, both of which are NOT easy. We ended up climbing about 6K ft total. It was a tough ride but I certainly don’t regret it :-D When I got home, my sister’s dogs, Reese and Bailey attacked me with kisses in an attempt to lick up all the salt!

I’ll leave today’s post by showing off a bowl that my nieces, Jillian and Haley made for Justin and I. They asked us for our favorite colors a few weeks back and this weekend we received this adorable, and my most favorite, bowl!!

Culpeper Sprint Race Report

2010-08-03T21:31:00.000-04:00

When we moved down to DC, we started looking immediately for local triathlons to race in. One of these races was the Culpeper Sprint. It’s put on by Setup Events who covers a crazy number of races in Virginia and the Carolinas. Hands down, this was one of the best races I’ve ever been to. Well organized, friendly, beautiful area, sufficient water/Gatorade/food/port-o-potties, a great transition area, and everything else you could ask for in a race. Count me in for more of these events next season!

We woke up at 4:20am, showered and jumped in the car for the 1:20 drive to Culpeper, VA. When we showed up at 6:30am, the place was buzzing with people already. It’s an 8am start so I was surprised to see lots people there, hanging out, relaxing before the race. And, these people looked like serious competitors – decked out bikes and fit. We checked-in and set up transition and had an hour to hang out ourselves. We jumped in the water and did a short barefoot run.

Swim:
[Liz: 16:14] [Justin: 17:10]

Justin was the first wave group, men 35 and under, I was second. It was an in water start, wetsuit illegal (water temp was 84… 14 degrees warmer than the outside temp at the start!). Lots of weeds in the beginning but it didn’t bug me so much. The start of the swim was kind of brutal. I wanted to try to swim hard but I was getting caught behind other girls or sandwiched between two. I found it hard to break from the group but at the first buoy turn, I found my space and decided not to kill it as I was pretty tired from fighting the group. And, let’s face it; I’m an awful swimmer, so killing it would probably mean I would come in 20 seconds faster than I had, haha.

T1:
[Liz: 1:28] [Justin: 1:33]

The mounting line was up a short hill which sucked because you had to push your bike up but other than that, an uneventful T1.

Bike:
[Liz: 54:39, 17.7 mph] [Justin: 52:23, 18.3 mph]

The bike course was a 16 mile, rolling hills through the farmlands that just made for a beautiful ride. I tried hammering out the bike but the uphill’s always get me, though I think I did well on the downs and flats, at least I was happy with my pace. I love seeing how many girls in my age group I can pass on the bike. I feel fairly confident in my biking outside of hills so it’s always a fun game for me to play to pass the time. I passed three or four girls, mostly all within the first 15 minutes of riding. The bike went by quickly and before I knew it, I was heading into T2.

T2:
[Liz: 1:33] [Justin: 1:25]

We had to run our bikes down the same hill we had to run them up at dismount which wasn’t so fun. I need to start learning how to dismount barefoot, it would have made running downhill much easier and my time at the rack quicker.

Run:
[Liz: 24:23, 7:51 min/mile] [Justin: 25:02, 8:04 min/mile]

Running out of T2, a girl in my age group passed me and she had great speed. She ended up placing second in my age group. I tried to just keep a good pace as the first half mile or so is slightly uphill – no walking allowed. My feet were a bit numb but they always are after my bike. I thought I was running slowly, as it certainly didn’t feel as though I was going very fast. You break off from the main road twice onto side roads for two out and backs. I saw Justin on the first out and back which is always nice to see a familiar face when you need it! Each back in the out and backs were slightly uphill but didn’t seem so bad when running them. With about a half mile to go, I heard a girl coming up on me breathing quite heavily. She passed me and I looked down at her calve to see the number 28 and thought, OH NO! I’m not letting you pass me this close to the finish! So, I picked up the speed and passed her back… she passed me back again. I see, she’s a fighter. The last stretch to the finish is on grass and there is a sharp curve that turns right into the straight away to the finish. I passed her again as we reached the grass and just kept screaming at myself in my head to go fast. She was on my heels until we hit the sharp curve in which I dug deep and shot out a full out sprint, finishing first! :) Exhausted from the final stretch battle, I took a second to breath, turned around, gave her a high five and we laughed at what a nice finish that was. It was fun.

Total:
[Liz: 1:38:15] [Justin: 1:37:31]

So…from the results Justin ended up beating me by 44 seconds. Whatever dude, I beat you badly in EagleMan!!!!!

Post Race:
We grabbed some food and packed up our stuff and put everything into/onto the car and headed back to relax and hang out for the awards. The race waited until the very last finisher came in before the awards ceremony started which was pretty cool and very respectful. AND, even cooler, most of the racers stuck around for the awards ceremony so you had a large crowd… most races everyone leaves immediately but this was cool that people actually wanted to stick around.

This race was awesome! Will def. be doing it again next year!!

You big dummy!

2010-07-28T15:08:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Justin and I took a ride to his office to see what he would be looking at if he wanted to bike one day a week. Most of the ride is on trails, so away from cars, which was nice. It was hot outside (in the high 90’s) so we prepared by taking as many liquids as possible ( three water bottles for me). I’m not sure what went wrong but when we got to his office, I was starting to get cranky… WARNING! A sign of bonking. I had gone through all my water bottles and the grocery store across the street didn’t have any cold Gatorades, just waters. So I rehydrated by downing a large bottle of warm Gatorade and refilled the rest of my bottles with half Gatorade and half cold water. I snacked on a Powerbar and apologized to Justin ahead of time that I was probably going to be slow on the way back.

Slowly but surely we were kicking away at each mile when about halfway through, dark clouds starting rolling in. I know far too well that this meant bad things ahead. Trying to out ride the clouds, we started cranking away. That plus a gusty tailwind from the oncoming storm meant we were flying in the 35+mph range. It was very cool and fun. However, not fun was when the clouds inevitably caught up and we took shelter under a bridge as the downpours, lightening and thunder did their thing. About 30 minutes later, the sun started coming back out so we hopped back on the bikes to finish the ride. Reminding you that just before we stopped at the bridge, we were flying on the bikes, which means I was in the hardest of gears, which means when I got back on the bike and tried pedaling up the short hill coming out of the bridge underpass, I couldn’t get enough power and ended up falling flat on my side. Awesome. After a minute to regroup myself, I walked the bike up the hill and got on at the flat. Not even 10 minutes later, Justin, slows down after a split in the path and yells “go left!” but I’m already past bonking and had delayed reactions and ended up slamming on my brakes and sliding out from the wet path, once again falling over and skidding on the cement. This is why you ALWAYS wear a helmet, because you never know what is going to happen even on the easiest of rides. I hit my head (thank you helmet), but out of instinct I threw my hand out and ended up with a nice cut on the side of my pinky finger and shoulder, let’s not mention the bruise on my leg. Instantly I started crying because I was hurting and thought I might have broken my wrist. Jus rinsed the cuts down with some water and told me not to look at my hands (at the time, they were quite bloody). When I had calmed down, we walked about a quarter mile while pushing the bikes. Getting the guts to get back on, we attempted one last time to finish the ride biking. This time I was truly going SLOW as I didn’t have much use of my hands. We made it home, and I immediately tended to the wounds.

My wounded hand (it's much grosser and painful than it appears here)

Now that it’s been a couple days, the only thing that still hurts is the cut on my hand. It’s still trying to scab over, and I hope it does before the weekend because we’re racing and I don’t want to have to worry about it. Ugh to unsuccessful rides!

Some pics (PS: I have no idea why there are borders around every picture... stupid blogger):

We're now playing kickball... this is our field - awesome!

On a long ride last weekend where we saw ridiculously large houses.

Under the bridge... I look happy (and sweaty, ew).

Under the bridge... bored, taking pics. HI JUSTIN!

Hot Summer Days

2010-07-16T18:04:00.000-04:00

Acclimating to the DC weather has been a work in progress. My wake up call was racing EagleMan – it was absolutely brutal. I drank 6 full water bottles on the run alone, never mind filling my hat with ice AND eating a cup of ice at every water station.

I think I could easily estimate that since we’ve moved here, 90% of the days have been 90 degrees or above. I learned this morning that this past month was the hottest June recorded worldwide. That is pretty insane, and scary. I receive weather bug alerts multiple times a day on my cell warning me to stay inside due to air quality and heat advisories. Last week I noticed a camera man from the news taping me run down the National Mall – it was hitting the 100’s that day and I am sure they aired footage that night with something along the lines of, “don’t be this crazy idiot, stay indoors.”

I simply cannot though – I need to train, plus, I like working out outside!

Before I head out the door, I load sunscreen onto my face, hands and shoulders, the three areas I burn easiest. There is a bottle of sunscreen sitting on the table next to the door just so I don’t forget! I’d pass on wearing a tank and opt to wear just a sports bra so just to remove one extra layer but I don’t for the very reason that I think I would get yelled at by the building I live in on my way out. Seriously, we don’t meet eye to eye : )

The other day I went for just over a 9 mile run along the Mt. Vernon Trail. I thought I was going to die from the heat. I kept a very decent pace but the entire run is in dead sunlight (as it seems all run paths here are). After a long stretch around the Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary (gross name) that seems endless, I took cover under a tree for a few minutes. It was just so hot. I continued on but decided to turn around early, cutting the run short by a total of 10 minutes – no big deal. I was quickly running out of water and the path doesn’t have any fountains, so it was smartest to just turn myself around. On my way back, I stopped 3 more times to get shade coverage for just a minute each time. Even though it was brutally hot out and I was soaked in my own sweat at the end, I was happy and felt fantastic.

The new shoes are working out great, too. I’ve taken direction to powder my socks and glide my feet where I commonly get blisters. Haven’t experienced any pain yet, so that is good news on my end! Yay! My running shoes have been a size 7.5 since I can’t remember but they put me in a size 8 this time around. Maybe my big ol' feet just needed some extra room?

This weekend is our FIRST weekend in DC (outside of when Cork and Kyle came down), and we’re looking forward to exploring new places while getting some bike miles under our belts. I love weekends.

Hi. Have you missed us?

2010-07-13T19:59:00.002-04:00

It has been awhile – sorry! We’re now back and hopefully we’re here for good!

A lot has been going on. In short, Justin accepted a job offer down in DC so we quit our jobs and made the move south, but not without running away to Europe for two weeks first. Training was strong up until that point but we pretty much took the entire month of May off.

We raced TriRidgefield the first weekend from being back with not such stellar results but I guess you can’t expect much from taking a month off. Not helping the situation, we then went on to race EagleMan 70.3 the following weekend. Let’s not talk about that one. Well… ok, let’s.

EagleMan is located in Cambridge, MD and the swim is in the Choptank River. When Jus and I showed up to rack our bikes the day before, we decided to swim some of the course to get a feel for the water. We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. We fought waves, lost sight of the buoys, couldn’t see a foot in front of us it was so brown and brackish, our goggles kept fogging… oh boy. We took it for what it was, headed out to our hotel and only hoped for the best for race day. On race morning, we were told the swim would be wetsuit illegal – wonderful. Along with all the other athletes, we sat on the docks and watched one wave group after another go off. An hour and 25 minutes later, my wave set to the water. 57 minutes later, I exited into T1… yes, 57 minutes. That is 1.2 miles, 57 minutes. No, I’m not lying. I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain that one. Bike and run can be summed up in three words: no shade & HOT! Given all conditions, this race was a tough one. But I hate leaving a race with a bad taste in my mouth so I will be signing up for it next year to redeem myself.

TriRidgefield Results

Liz:
Swim: 18:08
T1: 3:00
Bike: 41:42
T2: 1:10
Run: 24:15
Total: 1:28:15

Justin:
Swim: 18:24
T1: 2:41
Bike: 38:03
T2: 0:55
Run: 23:10
Total: 1:23:13

EagleMan 70.3 Results

Liz:
Swim: 57:26
T1: 2:17
Bike: 3:02:31
T2: 2:47
Run: 2:21:35
Total: 6:26:36

Justin:
Swim: 1:03:07
T1: 2:02
Bike: 3:02:55
T2: 3:09
Run: 2:31:17
Total: 6:42:30

We signed up for a local sprint in Culpeper, VA for August 1. Let’s hope we both see some improvements by then! Haha.

I’ll leave you now with some pictures… pictures taken with intentions to write blogs for each… but have failed, of course. Will be back writing soon! PROMISE.

EagleMan 70.3 swim course

EagleMan 70.3 bike and run course

EagleMan 70.3 post race.. our only photo of us

Bike riding in DC - painted wall behind us with some history lessons :)

DC bike ride - just pretty and relaxing

DC bike ride - storm is a coming...

DC bike ride - STORM, stuck under a bridge for 30 mins

DC run

DC run on the canal

The heat and humidity are causing nasty blisters all over my feet... check it out, this one put me out of running for a week.

105 miler with Jus and Joey on 4th of July at Lake Waramaug

105 miler with Jus and Joey - starting to get tired at mile 75 miles

Fleet Feet helped me out with some new shoes and gear to deal with the heat and humidity, I so hope this all works!

Had to end my post with this delicious treat... Pompagrante FroYo with blueberries - YUM! My lunch on my walk home from getting new sneaks!

Weekend Ride Data

2010-03-22T10:30:00.000-04:00

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Apple Valley Ride- 3/20/10

Still trying to figure everything out with the new Garmin but here's my first attempt at sharing this weekend's ride info. Still a bit confused on starting the ride when I'm not at the exact point the Garmin wants me to begin at and our speed is off b/c I haven't changed the timer to auto start/stop when not riding. Hopefully by the next ride I'll have more of this figured out.

Completely Shelled

2010-03-22T09:35:00.003-04:00

(Still looks like Winter but its actually 70+ degrees outside)

Having been in the base-building phase for about 2 months now I wanted to spend the last week of training with some added intensity while staying consistent. I've been backing off on running a bit to focus on swimming/biking/weight training/proper dieting/yoga and was finally ready to bring it all full circle.

The training week started well enough but I could definitely tell that the workouts were leaving me more spent than usual. Wednesday was such a nice/warm day in Boston that I tacked on a quick 10 min run in my Vibrams before hopping on the bike. Being the first time this year running in Vibrams, I forgot how much this takes out of my legs.

After a 7.5 mi run on Thursday (it was a struggle to run this far after Wednesday's Vibram run), I woke up Friday feeling like I'd run a marathon...just completely wasted. Knowing the weekend would be beautiful (70-75 deg), I rested up Friday and got ready for a 50 mi ride on Saturday. The day was as good as advertised...sunny/hot. As you can see from the pic, we still have some flooding from last week's storms but it was fun biking through freezing cold pond water since it was so warm outside. Once again I woke up the next day feeling pretty weak so we made it a recovery day and will start the new week's workouts today instead of Tuesday.

As a random side note, I am now officially registered for the 2010 NYC Marathon...I can't wait!

Fridge = Depressing

2010-03-12T18:47:00.000-05:00

Our fridge. By the looks of it, I'd say we've reached the weekend (when we've run out of food).

Spring Tease

2010-03-10T12:51:00.002-05:00

This past weekend was pretty amazing as it was our first Spring tease! Jus and I were like little kids on Christmas morning when we woke up on Saturday. The sun was shining through the window and temps were expected to reach a high of 56 degrees. Giddy as could be, we prepped our bikes, had breakfast and was out the door for the first real bike ride of the season!

We started our ride in Harold Parker State Forest which was about a 30 min drive from home. I had gotten Justin a Garmin GPS for his last birthday and this was its debut ride (finally!). It was SUPER nice to not have to print directions and cut, fit and tape them to the post of our bikes. The Garmin was a recommendation from Joey, who also has one, and the thing was awesome. Rides can be so much more pleasant when you’re not constantly hunting down street signs or worrying that you missed a turn. Two thumbs up from me!

We biked 49 miles in 3hr 30mins. A 14mph pace was totally ok with me for my first ride back and even better, there was no bonking.

On Sunday, we B-lined it to the gym to get an early morning swim in before the rest of the world woke up. We kept it at 40mins since we still had a bike and run scheduled and didn’t want to kill ourselves too early, especially for me, where this was my first weekend really back at it.

After the pool we made waffles and packed up the bikes again for another ride. This time we started from Concord High. This is a regular starting spot for us (as well as 50,000 other bikers in MA). We biked 36miles in 2hrs 30mins through quite streets and farmland. We got to see what quite possibly could have been the largest cows ever which was an added bonus. When the bike was wrapped up, we finished the day with a 40min run in the city. At that point, we were both tired; I was shaky (dehydration?) so it was nice to be done.

It felt great to be outside riding again, finally. Winter is a drag but makes days like this past weekend so much more special and enjoyable! This upcoming weekend isn’t looking too hot BUT there is a positive to every negative… its daylight savings day!!! WHOOHOO!!!!!

Jus biking through quiet streets...

Fingers Crossed For a Nice Weekend

2010-03-05T08:41:00.003-05:00

Anyone living through New England winters can relate to the excitement of the first nice weekend. The weatherman says right around 55 and sunny all weekend- and even though they're usually wrong, I'll delude myself into believing they'll be dead on. That means its time to pull out the workout gear more appropriate for 70 just because I can.

From a training perspective, this is huge. You can finally see the light at the end of the winter training tunnel. Motivation is high and now I'll try to carry this through until the first race (right now its Mooseman on 6/6).

Planned weekend workouts:

Friday- 45-60 min run

Saturday- 4 hr bike, 2 hr run
Sunday- 45 min swim, 4hr bike, 1 hr ru

Checking In...

2010-03-01T09:03:00.005-05:00

(Pic from this weekend's swim workout)

Liz was looking back at our posts from this time last year and its amazing how different the years have started off. This is pretty much the result of struggling to mentally get our lives back together after Ironman, some poor race planning (Disney's timing wasn't so great and the weather sucked but its a race Joey's had us looking forward to for the past couple years).

I also think last year was different from a training point of view. Prepping for our first Ironman I had no idea what it would take to actually finish...each missed workout or bad meal felt like a weight dragging me further from the finish line. Even the 70.3's from the last 2 years have had some question marks. The heat/wind for Hawaii, the heat/timing/the Beast for St Croix- they all left me some doubt. Now that I've completed some of the hardest races at each distance, its become more difficult to find that fear (drive) that prevents me from slacking off.

For a while I found enjoyment in doing longer distance races but I think my limit has been found at Ironman and hopefully a 50 mile run. Distances I may do once every few years to prove to myself that I can still do them but more than that would be a chore. So now I'm trying to become a more complete athlete: get faster, lift weights, practice yoga, do more cross training activities and overall find more happiness from sport. Hopefully this will mean more local races (I hate nothing more than every hotel being booked on race weekend 9 months in advance) and a better balance in the types of races we do.

Having said all that, the last couple of weeks have been great in that I've actually looked forward to my workouts and can't wait for race season to start. 98 days til Mooseman...

Coffee!!!!!

2010-02-05T15:46:00.002-05:00

I don’t drink coffee. I have never been a fan of the taste. The first time I had my REAL cup of coffee was just a few weeks before Ironman Lake Placid. Yes, 25 yrs old and never had a cup of coffee. I decided to try a cup to see how it would affect my workout. I poured myself a cup before going out for my final long distance swim, bike and run. If I saw a noticeable difference in level of energy, I’d have a cup before the big race. To my surprise, I didn’t feel any more energized than usual therefore concluded that there was no benefit for me to drink coffee.

Wednesday night, however, Justin and I met up with a friend who was in town for work. We knew it would be a late night for getting our workouts in so we met up at a coffee shop for some caffeine. While there, I had two cups of coffee to once again see if I could get an energy boost and avoid the to-tired-to-workout attitude. Over an hour later and a 10 minute walk home, I was WIRED! Like shaking, heart pounding off the walls caffeine rush. I hated it. My resting heart rate is already high as it is; it’s pathetic. What feels like an “easy” workout is >160 bpm for me. When I try, like REALLY try to take things easy, I can maintain between 150-155 bpm. But when I do that, it feels EASY. When I’m trying my hardest, you best believe my heart rate is just under 200.

When we got home, we had dinner and than hoped on the bikes. I was worried that a workout would not be smart as it would increase my heart rate even more. Disregarding my worry, Jus and I kicked out a nice bike ride. I survived. Showered and in bed, my heart was still off the charts. I managed to sleep and woke up swearing that I would never ever again have more than one cup of coffee at a time. Never. That is, if I ever decide to have coffee again.

And we’re biking…

Dust it off

2010-01-26T14:53:00.001-05:00

After agreeing to one more bad meal this past weekend, Justin and I are starting to kick things back into gear. It’s time to start training, eating healthy and getting our minds back into racing and the upcoming season.

To be quite frank, I’ve taken this recovery too far. I ran the Baystate Marathon back in October and went into recovery. OK, that’s normal. The only problem is, is that I stayed in that recovery straight through training for the Disney Challenge and here we are today, in, you got it, a recovery. I am tired of being lazy, convincing myself out of workouts and telling myself one more bad meal isn’t gonna hurt. The weight of last year's endless training is still with me, I suppose.

But, I have some big goals I'd like to achieve this year which means I need to get my mind in line now. My work now will pay off in the end.

Justin and I dusted off our QT2 nutrition plans from last year and reviewed our old food logs. We sat down and planned our meals for the week before making a trip to the grocery store. We have some oldies we're bringing back into the mix. Last night we had shrimp and crab salad. I'm still trying to get over how gross it is to eat crab (yuk) but I ate it nonetheless cause it's healthy. If I can learn to love salmon (which I do), I can learn to love crab.

We've also both started a new food log because these seemed to really work well for us last year in kicking our diet in shape. We'll stop the food logs when we feel things are back on track. Yesterday I consumed about 1,600 calories, which on a non-workout day, is 300 calories too many. Yes, 300 too many. However, this is ok. We're giving ourselves two weeks to get back on the diet and relearn what we should/shouldn't be eating throughout the day. It's strict, but it gets easy and it just makes me feel way better. You in fact end up getting to eat a lot, but eating more goes hand-in-hand with working out more so it's a win-win situation.

Tonight we head to the pool. I don't think..... I.... remember the last time......... I swam. Last year I saw great improvements on the bike. This year, I'd like to see great improvements in the swim. Practice makes perfect.... so let's go practice.

Disney's Goofy Challenge Race Report: 1/9 - 1/10

2010-01-15T15:23:00.001-05:00

Leave it to Joey to have been the one to suggest we do the Goofy Challenge – a silly idea. I love endurance sports, but I need to cap my distance at 26.2 miles for now. That is sure to change sooner or later, but for now, I like the challenge of running the best time I can for half or full marathons rather than how many miles I can do. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun experience, but def. not something I’ll do again anytime soon. So, with that, on with the race report…

Pre-Race

Everyone headed down to Disney on Friday. It wasn’t until 8pm that we all met up for dinner and than headed to bed for some short hours of ZZZ’s.

1/9/10 - Race Morning (Half Marathon)
Disney is annoying. The parks open at 9am and to make sure they can open on time as so they don’t miss out on losing one single dime from people buying their ridiculously overpriced park tickets on these two days; they start the races at 5:40am. An early race start means we were up at 3am which doesn’t sit well with me. With some food and coffee, we headed to bus transportation where we, along with a couple hundred other runners, waited 45 minutes for a bus. That was awesome. Not to mention that Florida was in a “deep freeze” so temps were in the teens and twenties and the weather called for snow/sleet that morning. Sweet, so happy. I could have gotten this in Boston for much cheaper, thank you.

The bus trip took 35 minutes from the resort to Epcot where the race started… about 25 minutes longer than needed, but whatever, it was a warm bus. At race start, people were decked out in trash bags and winter gear, so much so that many only had their eyes exposed to the cold. It was hilarious, actually, to see this scene in Florida.

While we were waiting in line for the restrooms near the corral line up, the fireworks went off to mark the start of the race. Jus, Joey and I were in the first corral so we ditched the line and ran straight to the start to begin our run. Nothing like a sprint right before you start. The bathroom would have to wait… till the end of the race.

Race (Half Marathon)

There really isn’t much to say about the race course. It’s flat… as flat as can be. You’re on access roads and highways the entire time, minus one, yes ONE mile through Magic Kingdom. To pass the dark and lonely time, local bands, cheerleaders and Disney characters found their spots on the side of the roads and gave some good energy boosters to the runners. The race weather started with sleet, switched to snow, switched back to sleet and finally switched to drizzle. It was messy, miserable weather all day long.

I felt absolutely fine for the half marathon, running faster than I wanted. Jus, Joey and I stuck together until mile 6, after which Jus broke away. Joey and I stayed together the remainder of the race, finishing just seconds apart. The last maybe half mile is through Epcot, which I thought was a cool ending. Through out the run we took pictures of the course and with the characters. Unfortunately, there were lines for every character so I only got a few. There is a reason why the requirement is to pace a 16min/mile for this race! At every mile marker there was a billboard that marked the mile that runners could take a picture in front of which was neat, too.

After a strong finish, we wrapped ourselves up to stay warm and went to spot Court come through the finish line which sure enough, there she was, feeling great and looking good with a smile on her face!

Post-Race (Half Marathon)
Off to the buses and back to the resort, we took some hot showers, bundled up in our outdoor clothing and cuddled up in front of the TV under blankets and fell fast asleep until we were all fully defrosted.

1/10/10 – Race Morning (Marathon)
It would have taken very little to convince me to not go out and run the marathon. My legs were tired and so was I and given that it was even colder outside than the previous morning, I had no motivation. But, no one tried to convince me so off to the marathon I went, this time, wearing leggings, baggy running pants (to trap the heat in), a Craft turtleneck shirt, a pullover, two pairs of gloves and a beanie hat. Sadly, I dressed perfectly for the weather. The routine was the same as the half marathon, only this time the buses were prompt and we had plenty of time pre-race to do what we needed to do. Finding a group of people in our corral, we hung out for a bit until the race started. During this time, I met the CEO of Sharpie – yes… the REAL CEO this time ;) Hopefully pictures to come… (ok, he wasn’t the real CEO).

Race (Marathon)
Same old same old – the first half of the course was exactly the same as the half marathon course, except with a 4 mile loop around Epcot in the beginning. The marathon course was a bit cooler because there were a total of about 7 miles through the parks. We went through Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot. There was a great crowd out, especially at race start which I give big props to them! It was EARLY and COLD!

If you’re looking for a qualifying race – do Disney. This course is flat as a pancake. I wish I could have attempted this time around but knew better not to (nor was I in the condition to). Jus, Joey and I ran together until just after Magic Kingdom and then we all split from there. After Magic Kingdom until Animal Kingdom, a 4 mile stretch, was rough. There was nothing to pass the time. However, a hilarious couple in character acting as lost, obnoxious tourist gave me a laugh at mile 14.

You leave Animal Kingdom hitting mile 18. I was feeling really good. Tired, of course but was in a groove, however, other runners were dropping like flies. I was observing the Wall first hand. Left and right people were stopping to walk and stretch. I had never paid much attention to the runners around me in my previous two marathons to see if the Wall was actually real but I certainly saw it in Disney, that’s for sure.

From mile 21 on the course was pretty awesome. Lots of crowds, beautiful scenery and action to keep your mind occupied. Here I started counting down the miles… 4 miles to go, 3 miles to go… almost there. I wanted this race to be done with. I took a quick pic in front of the mile 26 billboard and was off to the finish line. DONE! I am officially Goofy and have my three medals to prove it.

And with that, I say, never again.

Half Marathon final times:
Liz: 2:04:29
Justin: 1:58:11
Joey: 2:04:25
Courtney: 2:54:59

Marathon final times:
Liz: 4:31:12
Justin: 4:13:40
Joey: 4:38:26

My legs hurt a great amount the days after the race and what better way to make them feel better than walking around the parks all day? Monday and Tuesday were park days and we all flew out Tuesday night.

Big thanks to Jen and Justin’s parents for being totally awesome and coming out to cheer! I was counting down the miles till we got to see you all – it was small highlights in my run : ) Jen was so awesome that she lost her voice – that’s the kind of cheering I’m talking about! Ha ha. Thanks to Cork as well for heading out to cheer for the marathon with a hurt foot after doing the half herself : )

Once the pictures from the race are developed, I will be posting them so stay tuned.

Two days till Disney

2010-01-06T17:03:00.001-05:00

In two days I will be racing in the Disney Goofy Challenge (13.1 miles on Saturday, 26.2 miles on Sunday). Jus and I fly out on Friday with time to settle in, get some grub and relax before calling it an early night.

I’ve become too comfortable in my off-season laziness and have had a tough time coming out of hibernation. I have had zero motivation to train for the Goofy Challenge and I think it’s because I wanted to take full advantage off the off-season before ramping up to start training once again for the 2010 season. My goal for this weekend is to just finish both races. I am in no condition to run these miles but we’ll see what strings I can pull to get through it. I do not want to hurt myself so early on so I’ll be taking it nice and easy. I have no real plan – I won’t be wearing a watch. I’m going to listen to my body and give the race what my body has to give. I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be pacing 10:30 min/mile, it’s just my guess, I could be wrong.

My sister Courtney is running the half on Saturday. My brother Joey and also Justin are doing the Goofy Challenge as well. My sister Jenny will be cheering us on : )

I am debating on whether I want to wear earphones. My music has been driving me crazy lately, mostly because I am tired of the songs on my shuffle but also because my shuffle tends to repeat a lot of songs and every time it repeats a song I heard 10 minutes earlier, I get just a little closer to throwing it on the ground and stomping it to pieces (ha ha). I don’t like listening to other people’s breathing and pounding feet which is why I always choose to wear earphones in the end. I prefer not listening to music, but there are pros and cons to everything, I guess.

I’m hoping some of those Disney characters can pull me through this weekend. Come on Mickey.

An Early Christmas (Justin)

2009-12-18T18:01:00.005-05:00

One of my buddies from college moved out to Colorado post-grad and what I'm guessing happens to everyone that moves there, fell in love with the outdoors. He started up his own company (http://activegearreview.com/) where he's sent outdoor gear from all different companies.

He was in need of some help from fellow runners for some magazine deal he's working on and there's no way I was going to turn down the offer. I was sent 3 pairs of New Balances that just arrived today: the 1064's, the 760's and the MT876's.

I can't wait to give them a beating and let you know how they hold up- my reviews to follow soon...

Just a couple of pictures

2009-12-14T09:37:00.000-05:00

Here are two photos from the weekend. Jus was awesome kicking out a 2:15 run (while I just did 1 hr). It was cold but we dressed perfectly. Rain was arriving later on so we made sure to kick the runs out early.

Jus on Charles River

Ice, BRRRR!

I'm so disciplined : )

2009-12-11T11:33:00.003-05:00

Last night was my company's holiday party. This year it started earlier in the day and was in the office (instead of at a restaurant) which is cool with me. It was a fun time with lots of chatter, games and delicious food (mind you I only had 1 meat ball, 3 shrimp and maybe a couple of peanut butter cups - great control on my part!). The party ended at 6pm after which everyone went out on the town. Being the disciplined athlete I am (ha!) I hoped on the T at 6:15pm and headed home instead to go for a run. My motivation has been real low lately but this week has been great and I didn't want to end my streak last night. Home by 6:45pm and out the door for my run at 7pm. I was jealous cause Justin had just gotten home from his run which made me REALLY not want to run! I was out quick though so that I didn't give myself the opportunity to back out of going.

Temperatures were dropping last night so it made for a cold run. I went the usual route down the Charles River. The way out had an awful headwind that made me feel like my nose was going to fall off. I was giving so much effort just to move forward. The way home was awesome though as I had the tailwind pushing me along. The trail was pretty empty - a few runners here and there, but just a few. I stopped with a min left in the run to snap a pic in front of Faneuil Hall and it's xmas tree. Thanks to Jus, I'm rockin' my new night vision jacket from Brooks - like? I'm blinded from just looking at it.

I took a hot shower afterwords and ate prob the worst turkey chili we've ever made for dinner (but still not bad). Tonight I have off - yay! - and couldn't be looking forward to the weekend more than I am right now!

Cash Cab and Us

2009-12-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

Well, even though yesterday called for a run and/or swim for Jus and I, we decided to hop on the trainers instead. It was nasty outside and it's too early in the season to be sacrificing comfort for workouts... that comes later in the season (like my attitude?). Usually we throw on VH1 music videos then both put on our own earphones to listen to our own music, that way we listen to what we want yet have something to watch, make sense? Yesterday though, my shuffle was sadly forgotten in the car, parked in the garage, 1 mile away from our apartment, so I had no music. Jus was oh so kind to sacrifice his music too and instead we put on the Cash Cab and decided to make a game of the game. We played along and for every question we answered incorrectly, we had to sprint 15 secs on commercial break. Thanks to smarty-pants Jus for answering all the questions (I think I got a total of 3 questions right), we only had to sprint a total of 2:15 the entire show - that's 9 incorrect answers.

After biking, we did a core and arm workout, a routine Jus put together. My arms hurt and my stomach even more.

Jus on the trainer, watching Cash Cab.

Transition from Laziness (justin)

2009-12-03T10:32:00.003-05:00

Its been a lot harder than expected to get back into serious training mode. To start at a level of absolute apathy and move back into an everyday training schedule has caused my mind/body to riot. Trying to go straight from the couch to 6 days a week wasn't working so well so I decided to make it more of a slow transition.

During Ironman training, I followed a hardcore nutrition and training regimen and am slowly reintroducing those things back into daily life. My diets not perfect yet and I definitely haven't been doing every workout on the schedule but each week (for the last month) I've gotten a little better. With about 1 month to go before the Goofy Challenge, I'm ready to jump in head first. I picked up some new running kicks (Mizuno Wave Elixir 4s) which are more minimal than I'm used to- I can tell a big difference with these shoes and am definitely more conscious of my stride. While there is a decent amount of cushioning in the heel, I get sharp pains when I let my stride breakdown and it forces me to correct my stride. I've also been consistently using a Trigger Point foot roller that helps with my arches (Plantar Fascitis) and a foam roller for my leg muscles. I'm hoping this prevents my usual injuries and helps with recovery. With 37 days till the Goofy Challenge, I'll take any advantage I can get.

The moon is bright!

2009-12-01T18:47:00.001-05:00

Look how bright the moon is tonight! (yea, my phone doesn't take such great pics). That's all - just a very bright moon.

Puma's Sprint Your Halls Off

2009-11-23T19:50:00.000-05:00

Today my company had Puma come in for a promotional event called Sprint Your Halls Off. Puma is trying to expand their brand even more from fashion to performance, hence the event. They came in, took over our hallway and set up a speed trap. We all, individually, ran down the hall in Puma kicks and clocked in our times. Top seven people with fastest speeds moved on to run for our company's average time (which they'll compare to other Boston-based companies to find out who holds the title of fastest). Being one of two females that actually participated, I automatically made it into the the group of seven, but sadly came in with a 14.3mph speed (everyone else came in with 15.7-17.6mph). Oh well! Good thing I do endurance, not speed! It was a fun time, and the Puma folks were great. Our video should be up next week (i'll post it) but to get a better sense of what it's about, here is their promo video:

And some pictures...

I think he's running fast!

Puma showing off their stuff : )

The final times...

Travel (Justin)

2009-11-18T11:29:00.002-05:00

I've been struggling to get into a consistent training sched as I prep for the Goofy challenge. Last week I was sick and when you throw that in with all the usual excuses- tired after work, wife on a break from training, and it gets dark at 4 freakin' 30!!!- I pretty much ended up doing nothing. I got in 1 medium and 1 long run and thats it...pretty lame.

This week I decided I am re-motivated and ready to dive in head first. I had to travel to Ft Worth, TX for work so I packed up my new running kicks (Mizuno Wave Elixir 4s) and some warm-weather running gear. Upon arrival in Texas, I've found its a lot colder than expected (H55 L34) but that just means that locals were too cold to go outside and overcrowd my run route. The low temps has made this city a virtual ghost town. I missed yesterdays run b/c of work so I woke up early this morning, wound my way through the city, and hit the Trinity River running route. The starting temp in the low 30's ensured I had the place too myself- though a couple people in the city commented that I must be crazy for running in shorts. Its hard to see from the picture but I started from the office where the picture was taken and ran along the river thats hiding behind the big glass building on the right (total run was about 6 miles). The goal is to get in 1-2 more runs before leaving tomorrow afternoon and maybe an hour bike at the hotel gym.

Lots of reflections in one big paragraph!

2009-11-09T21:40:00.001-05:00

On my walk at lunch on this beautiful day (70 degrees and sunny!), I thought a lot about this past season and next. Some of the below might seem choppy but I'm kinda just letting my thoughts go (and don't really feel like editing)...

This past season was a great one for me in many ways. I kicked the season off with a great race at the Honu 70.3. This was my second half ever and I went sub 6 hours -- 40 minutes faster than my first half (Rhode Island) in 2008. Then, at the end of the season, I took on the Pumpkinman half and did 5:50:56, an 8 minute improvement from Honu with no prepping as I was in recovery from IMLP. I did a few other repeat races (Shelton and Cranberry Oly) and did faster times than the previous year at both. IMLP, the race of the year made this a great season all on it's own! I still don't know what made me sign up. Whatever it was, I'm happy for it. When I did the Rhode Island 70.3 in 2008, I was making the turn for the second loop on the run when my brother decided to videotape me as he ran by my side. In pain and on the verge of giving up (though I would never give up!), I turned to the video camera and said very clearly "I am NOT doing Ironman!" Ha, well, so much for that! When I had my first talk with coach John, far before the training season started, I told him I wanted to finish IMLP under 14 hours, could I do that? I need to give myself more credit! I did 12:35 in my first Ironman, a time I couldn't have been happier with. I hope I am never not completely nervous and scared out of my mind for Ironman races, it's a pretty awesome feeling to have and following it up with a finish is pretty awesome too. Also this season, I was sponsored by Bear Naked, which was a cool experience to be a part of. My biggest improvement and the one I'm most proud of is biking. Going back down memory lane when I bought my first bike, I fell straight over when I tried to clip into the pedals. On that same day, my first bike ride ever, Joey and Justin thought it would be a great idea to bring me up a road called Hilltop Drive (you can guess from the name, it's a road straight up a steep hill). Not even halfway up and I again fell straight over while fighting the incline and not being able to snap out of my pedals to catch my fall. Now, I make Hilltop a part of every ride when I'm in Ridgefield, even if it's just riding up it once only to go right back down before heading home. This past season I upgraded my race bike to a Cervelo which means areobars! Just the thought of areobars scared me before this season. I took my first ride alone on my new bike and quickly overcame a fear of riding areo bars! I finished my season with my second marathon ever, the Baystate marathon, and set an 11+ min PR. But most importantly, the best part of training/racing this past season has been that I've gotten to go through it all with my family - racing and training with them and having them their for support is unbelievable.

Top 10 training memories of this past season:

1. Buying my first ever carbon bike (and treating it like it's my little piece of gold). My first drive in the car when I had to bring it along, I packed it up IN the car instead of on the bike rack because I didn't want to get it dirty with dead bugs... hahaha!)
2. Biking my first ride over 70 miles which came out to be 116.82 miles with Justin, all while trying to beat a bad storm!
3. Going for swims in Walden Pond - mine and Justin's best discovery of the season!
4. Doing the Hilly 100 (though it didn't exactly come out to 100 miles) with Joey in the cold and rain. This route ended with a climb up Cains Hill that Joey feared he wouldn't be able to shift up due to frozen fingers, but we both made it!
5. QT2 - yes, very much a love/hate relationship :-) But, seriously, my ability to get past my dislikes in foods so I can eat more healthily.
6. Running on the treadmill only ONE TIME and discovering the peacefulness in winter running.
7. Joey breaking his derailer at mile 82 of a 100-something bike ride followed by us all sitting on the side of the road for over an hour as we waited for a ride home while dogs barked at us and bugs bit us the entire time.
8. "Night of the Living Dead" bike ride with Justin.
9. Rich guy lending us his rich guy car to go get our car 20 minutes away as we were stranded in the middle of a ride in the dark. The entire time thinking we were going to get pulled over and gunned down by the police for driving a stolen vehicle.
10. Getting hit by reality and getting terribly winded 10 minutes into our bike ride in Hawaii (head + wind = tough riding) and getting extremely worried that I was doomed for the Honu 70.3 just a few days away. For a positive memory, being able to jump into the ocean for a cool down dip halfway through a training run!

Next season:
Ironman races are still in the books for me, but next season I've decided to focus on 70.3 distance races. There are positives and negatives to training for an Ironman but in reality, next year, I think I'll only have the sanity to train for 70.3s. I'll focus on improving at the half distance and then take on another Ironman in 2011. That's the plan and I'm stickin' to it. This way, I'll have more time on the weekends and nights to do other things than swim, bike and run, like have a life. I'll also be able to do more races next season which I was itching for this season. With an Ironman race, your entire schedule and race calendar is planned around that one race. And, let's face it, I'm broke and want more for my money. I can get two half ironman races for the price of one full Ironman. Sounds like a deal to me ;) A focus on halves will also allow some more time to train for a marathon or two. A Boston spot is my carrot and I'll keep running till I get it!

Those are my (many) thoughts for today. Since I've gotten to reflect, I though it'd be appropriate to end this with a picture of me finishing my first race ever - the inaugural NYC half marathon! Ah, the start of it all!!

Shamed into a Post...(Justin)

2009-11-04T17:28:00.003-05:00

I always appreciate Liz's subtle hints that I haven't been doing my part with the blog.

As she mentioned, I started training again after a long and much needed hiatus. Having taken such a long break, I feel completely refreshed and ready to set some unrealistic goals...which brings me to the Disney Marathon. I'm signed up for the Goofy Challenge but may drop out of the half to focus on the full marathon- it all depends on the next couple months of training. If I'm capable of getting near a Boston-qualifying time (3:10:59) its marathon only- otherwise I'll be trying to set PR's in the half and full back to back. So I guess I'll have lots to blog about in the coming weeks. Now I'll cover the shoes...

After some post-season discussions with Liz and Jon Hirsch (our coach) about our future goals- long term and short- I started thinking about what I want to accomplish in triathlon/endurance sports. For a variety of reasons, I know I will never be a top age grouper or have a true chance of qualifying for Kona. I'd love these things to happen but there's a limit to the sacrifices I'm willing to make for sport so these probably aren't in the cards for me- Liz on the other hand has a definite shot at these goals. So my "goals" are to continually improve my times and find new ways to push myself. We've signed up for a bunch of half iron distance races next summer so I'll definitely have my shots at getting faster.

As for finding new ways to push my limits, I have a lot ideas for the next few years but want to start with a 50 mile ultra marathon next fall. I'm never content with just finishing and know that I'm prone to running injuries (every season so far I've had to take some time off) so I evaluated my training. The idea for barefoot running started by reading "Born to Run" (seems like it affected a lot of people the same way) but then I started doing a lot of research and reading argument from both sides. Without going on a whole rant on the pros/cons, I decided to give them a try. Worst case, I still get hurt and toss the shoes in the trash. Best case, I run with better form, strengthen my legs, and prevent common injuries. I've only worn them appr. 5-6 times and just jumped from a previous long run of 15 mins to 30 mins and felt really good but extremely sore and tired- after some more time I'll give another post of my reviews.

So would I wear these if I was still in high school...hell no. I'd be too self-conscious. But in a big city this is one of the more normal things you see. I have no idea what line I'll draw in the sand between running minimalistic and wearing running shoes but I know I'll be keeping them solely in the sports usage category...no fashion statement for me.

What I've been up to

2009-11-03T19:01:00.000-05:00

Hey All - sorry for not blogging in awhile. When Jus and I started this blog, we agreed to keep the focus 100% on all things related to training/racing, and, well, since I haven't been doing much of that, nor have I thought about it, I haven't really had anything to post. Justin on the other hand, he's started training again so he has no excuses (er, Jus, get the hint... START POSTING!).

I've been in a very deep recovery/rest period since the Baystate Marathon and have limited myself from exercising. Honestly though, I haven't even wanted to exercise either. Coming home from work, sitting on the couch, watching TV and continuously losing at Monopoly gets old quick though and I'm starting to hit the point of restlessness. Tonight, I joined Jus on his 1/2 hour run and kept a nice slow pace. It was an awesome night for a run - 50's, no wind. Why did it rain and drop into the 40's, with snow later in the afternoon on the day of the marathon, yet now it's awesome out???

My next race is not for another 2 months, which will be the Disney Goofy Challenge. I'll run a half marathon on Saturday followed with a full marathon on Sunday. Along for the ride is Justin and my brother Joey and my sister Courtney is in for the half. We're taking a mini-vacation to hit the theme parks and have some fun with the company of my other sis, Jen who will be around as the cheer squad! I can't wait, it should be a lot of fun.

Oh, the picture above. Justin got a pair of vibram five toes awhile back. Want to know about them and what he thinks of them? Well then, he should post about them, shouldn't he?

New Vanilla Gingerbread GU

2009-10-20T19:34:00.003-04:00

We just got a holiday shipment in of GUs: Mint Chocolate (YUM, my favorite) and new Vanilla Gingerbread! Hoping it taste good... if it's anything like Mint Chocolate, it will be DELICIOUS! We'll let you know.

Baystate Marathon Race Report - 10/18/09

2009-10-18T16:40:00.008-04:00

Today I ran the Baystate Marathon. Total time (according to watch) was 3:44:25 (8:35 min/mile pace).

Good news: I improved my marathon time by 11:13 which is great. The only other marathon I've run was the NYC Marathon last year (excluding Ironman) where I did a 3:55:38. Bad news: I missed qualifying for the Boston Marathon by 3:26 - so close but no cigar! Man!

I'm kinda bummed I didn't qualify but I can't be upset because I improved my time by a lot. And, I'm really happy with my performance with the factors that played into this race. One, I never REALLY gave myself a rest after Ironman - I was doing an oly tri 3 weeks after and then a half the second weekend of September. With recovery after the half, I had 3 solid weeks of training for the marathon which included three 20 miles on the weekends. My nutrition has gone down the drain and I'm not sure why I thought eating healthy the week leading up to Baystate would somehow make up for the last 2 1/2 months. The weather has been freakishly cold for October (well, all summer at that) and this morning it was 40 degrees with a feels like 33 degrees, windy, overcast skies and 80% chance of rain. Mentally, I was checked out of race mode after the Pumpkinman Half. So considering all the above, I'm extremely proud of my time today and it only gives me better hope for a chance of qualifying next year. Now, on to the race...

It was an 8am start. I met Kathleen and Brian (from work), Kathleen was doing the marathon, Brian the half, in the arena where check in was and shortly after we headed to the race start.

After saying goodbye to Justin and Jen, we hunted down the 3:40 pacer. This is a 1,000 person race so it wasn't too hard to find the pacer and get a spot close by. For the first 7 miles or so the rain held out but once it started raining, it rained. With the rain, it felt cold and with my clothes soaked, I started freezing up. I held strong till about mile 21 where even grabbing a cup of water hurt because my hands were so cold. I stuck with the pacer till mile 20 and was feeling awesome about a qualifying time, too. I guess that's the thrill of racing long distance... you never know when things will go right or wrong and how. The other runners were awesome and everyone was in good spirits. I liked the pace group I was with - a good group of peeps to run with.

Throughout the race, the 3:40 pacer switched out 3 times. This mentally deflated me a bit because while I know they are doing this to guarantee a true finish time, I would like the same pacer to pace us the entire time so that their bodies can adjust to the mileage we are putting in and pace us off how we all feel. The last pacer that came in was told we were behind our time by 1 minute (which I disagree with) which seemed to have translated to like 5 minutes to her as she booked away from the pack. None of the group stuck with her as her sprint with fresh legs was just not doable for us with 20 miles under our belt. It was now my responsibility to finish this race on my own.

Clearly I slowed down enough in those last 6 miles to come up short. When I hit the last mile marker, I had about 6 mins left on my watch to qualify. I tried to pick up the pace but my body was saying no. I hit 3:41:00 as I turned off the street into the final finishing area, which honestly was a let down for being so close but I was also so happy for doing such a great time and just finishing. It was cold at the finish and I was shaking. I B-lined it to the bathroom to change into dry clothes which oddly, did not warm me up.

At the end of the day, it's another marathon I've successfully completed! I think I'll be back at Baystate next year to try to get my 3:40 and will cross my fingers for better weather! =)

Thanks for Jus and Jen for coming out on a gross day and cheering me on. I envied you two as you drove by in the car screaming out the window with cheers.

NOW, it's officially the end of my race season - time to be lazy and put some weight on before we do this all over again next year! hahahaha.

Getting my stuff ready at race check-in

Mad at Jen for dropping out of the Marathon :(

Race start

3:40 pace group - I'm the one in the grey shirt in the middle!

Headed for the finish - oh the rain.

Jus and I after the race!

Ridgefield 1/2 Marathon Race Report - 10/4/09

2009-10-07T12:38:00.003-04:00

This past weekend, Jenny, Joey and I ran the Ridegfield Half Marathon. It turned out to be an awesome day for a race – warm and (eventually) sunny. It was a late start of 8:30am so we got to “sleep in”, eat some breakfast, relax and not rush the morning of. Cork was kind enough to come support us and she brought along 4-legged support crew, Reese. I think the two of them ended up doing a lot of running/walking as they moved from point to point throughout the race!

Going into the race I wanted to run my marathon pace of 8:20 to see what kind of shape I’m in. I’ve done several 20 mile runs the post consecutive weekends and my last I paced an 8:24 which I was very happy with. I felt good at race start. When the horn went off, I started fast – first mile in 7:40 – SLOW DOWN! I made a conscious effort to slow the pace down after that and ended up pacing about 8 min miles for the next 3 miles. My pace was still too fast for my liking and it hit me quick. At mile 6 or so, I started running each mile slower and slower. Saw Cork and Reese at mile 7 and gave a shout that I was TIRED but at that point, you’re more than halfway done and for some reason that thought works for me to keep me going.

The last 2 miles I slowed down considerably. Not sure of my pace but I would guess 9:30 min/mile. I finished at 1:50:56, good for an 8:27 min/mile pace. While I am happy with this finish, I am kind of bummed at the same time because this was an easy course. Maybe my body is just tired and I need to physically and mentally relax a bit before the marathon. Maybe my lack of nutrition during the race (took nothing but GU20) left me with no energy. Maybe some skipped run workouts due to working late are hurting me, not helping? I have to improve my pace by 7 secs for the big day – can I do it?

Joey headed in with a sub 2 hr time and Jen came in at just over 2 hrs. Great job to both of them – it’s always fun doing races with family! Thanks to Cork and Reese for making it out for us!

Now, it’s time to taper.

Time to run

2009-09-23T09:23:00.006-04:00

This will be quick! I did my first 20 miler this past Saturday and made it through in 3 hrs 5 mins. That's good for a 9:15 min/mile and in all honesty, I didn't run to run fast, I ran to what felt right so I am feeling very good about my pace. 2 more of these to go...

(My favorite view of Boston from run)

I headed out at 6am today for an hour run with lots of hills - there is only one spot to do that near me and it's Beacon Hill. I did 6.75 miles in 1hr 6 min for a 9:46 min/mile pace. MyMyRun says I climbed a total of 328 ft. Not sure if that's good or not for doing a hill workout.

(6am in Boston - good morning!)

(one of the hills of Beacon Hill - it's far more intimidating in person, I swear)

Cranberry Trifest Race Report (Oly) - 8/30/09

2009-09-18T11:08:00.007-04:00

So it’s been awhile and I blame this entirely on Justin for not posting enough… technically it’s his turn! ;)

Anyways, not much has been going on over here. Jus and I have been doing some really light workouts but nothing to demanding. A few runs here and there with a mix of biking. Swimming… ummm…. yea, swimming… we’ve done none of that. This weekend I start my first 20 miler for my marathon training – John says to keep it easy, goal is to just finish. This should be interesting.

We’ve done a couple races since the last post. 8/30 we raced in the Cranberry TriFest. Sprint was on Saturday, Oly on Sunday. Saturday’s race was cancelled due to a tropical storm but lucky for us the Oly was still on. Conditions weren’t excellent, but not bad either. Overcast skies, dry roads (considering how much rain we got the day before), the air was a bit cool. This race is used as a regional club championship race so there are a lot of fast racers on the course.

Swim: [30:36 - 1:55/100yds]
The swim is in Loon Pond in Lakeville, MA, a shallow pond where you can easily stand the entire 0.9 miles. I was the second to last wave group to go out, Justin I think the 4^th to go out. I lined up close to the front of the group only to get agitated and annoyed once I started swimming. I slowed down and dropped back to find a spot of my own. I’d rather get a slower time and enjoy my swim, esp. when I wasn’t competing, but rather just doing. I desperately need new goggles, mine are so scrapped up and worn that they look foggy before I even put them on. It made for a difficult time to spot but I made it somehow or another. I was out in 30:36. That’s a whole 13 sec faster from last year… sweet! (OK, I’m an awful swimmer, but something I’m going to work to improve for next year).

T1: [3:43]
I love wet suit strippers… none at this race. Not much to say about my time, but slow.

Bike: [1:15:47 - 19.7mph]
Over the last year of training, my bike times have improved a lot. I feel better on the bike and it shows in my times. I’ve done a ton of biking and put myself into some tough training rides (I guess I need to think twice when I decide to ride with Joey, he never makes anything easy). This year was 7:21 faster than last…sweet x2! Given that I am writing this three weeks after the fact, and my old age, I don’t really remember a whole lot about the bike course except it’s a great, 25 mile rolling hills ride.

T2: [2:09]
Hm, I need to work on my transition times for next year, too.

Run: [51:00 – 8:13 min/mile]
I wanted to push myself on the run, I wanted to give myself the goal to not let anyone in my age group pass me, if they did, I would chase them. The short start of the run is on grass/dirt and I hate races that don’t start you immediately on the road because I get discombobulated and have to focus on tripping over rocks and tree stumps instead of getting my hat, water and GU’s situated. I was pretty tired in the beginning of the run and my right calve was cramping. I refused to walk or stop and stretch cause I figured it was a short course, suffer through it. Quickly, at mile one, a girl passed me with a 26 on her calve – crap! I kept on her heels when not soon after another girl passed in my age group! Ugh, man, I was starting to fall back. With an extra boost of determination, I passed one of the girls as she fell back and I was happy enough with that accomplishment. The run was pretty quiet the rest of the way, I just kept on going. After the race when they posted the times, I was pretty amazed at my run pace – I certainly didn’t feel like I was going that fast and I absolutely did not feel like I could even go that fast in my condition. And…sweet x3, I ran 26 sec faster than last year. (Don't make fun of my hair... Justin keeps calling me a banshee. I got my haircut and I don't know how to deal with it yet when racing!)

In the end, I placed 15/39 in my age group, which I feel good about. I think if I treated this race as an A race, I would have done far better, but given I haven’t worked out since Ironman, I am pretty darn happy. Total time: 2:43:21.

And, last but not least, here are Justin’s times:

Swim: 30:32 [1:55/100yds]
T1: 2:59
Bike: 1:15:19 [19.8 mph]
T2: 1:46
Run: 51:40 [8:20 min/mile]
Total Time: 2:42:14

If you want to see where Justin and I were in relation to each other throughout the race, check this out. It’s a new results review that is pretty freakin cool. I’m the red dot, Justin is the blue dot. Watch me chase him down the whole race! : )

Another race report to come soon for the Pumpkinman Half we did last weekend! We’re falling behind on these posts!!!

Be Bear Naked

2009-08-18T14:55:00.004-04:00

This past Sunday I hosted a Bear Naked breakfast clinic at the Sharon’s Back Triathlon. Justin raced while I set up shop and promoted Bear Naked to the athletes and spectators. There were parfaits, stickers, coupons and lots (and I mean lots) of free sample packs. It was a ton of fun and a great day for a race. There were three other Team Bear Naked athletes racing that day (seen in pic) so it was pretty neat having a crew there to support.

Hearing the horns go off for the swim waves really made me want to get back into racing! Alright, Ironman, you took enough time away from me, I’m ready to race again! For that very reason, I decided to sign up for my final triathlon of the season, making a total of 3 races left plus 1 marathon. My final triathlon of the season will be the Buzzard’s Bay Sprint, directed by the same folks as Sharon’s Back. From what I saw and heard, the races are well organized, beautiful and fun. Can’t wait! Last night I got on the trainer and did a killer 1 hr ride. I was so excited to be training again, haha! Now, less than 2 weeks away from the Cranberry Oly! YAY.

Back at it and some other random thoughts...(Justin)

2009-08-14T09:05:00.002-04:00

We're now almost 3 weeks post IMLP and we've worked out exactly 3 times (mountain biked, a 3 mile run, and a 4.5 mile run)- we know what you're thinking...impressive.

Being a member of Team Bear Naked, Liz needs to host a race breakfast and decided to pick Sharon's Back Sprint triathlon. She picked this race because the race company (Max Performance) does a great job, the race director seems like a really nice guy, and one of my co-workers is doing his first triathlon. This left me with 2 options- race or wake up at 5am on my b-day and watch other people race (unfortunately the 3rd option of sleeping in was nixed by Liz) so I decided to race. My only goals are to have a lot of fun and maintain some dignity by not losing to a Tri-Virgin. Plus the course is flat as shown by the video below:

Now on to my random thoughts- JoJo recommended reading the book "Born to Run" so I checked it out. The book is amazing. Runner or not you should definitely read it. I was interested throughout but a couple topics were of high interest: why people run and running injuries. I've gone through a lot of knee and foot pain since I started running/triathlons and over time the pain has always gotten worse (I started sitting out workouts before Ironman b/c of sharp pains in my feet). The book covers the evolution of footwear and the semantics of human feet in a very 'non-preachy' way- though I don't think the author's a big fan of Nike.

Without breaking down the specifics of the book, it has definitely given me a new perspective on my shoes, training and diet...all 3 were on my mind well before reading this book. For shoes, I've been looking for something that will prevent foot pain. Training, I've wanted to complete some ultras and qualify for Boston and have been looking for the right plan to meet these goals. And for diet, I've been frequently looking at a more primal diet (unprocessed, natural foods). We were basically eating this way on the QT2 diet with exceptions but I definitely saw the benefits and am considering making it a full time thing. I'm sure I'll have more on this as I start serious training for the Fall/Winter races.

3 pics for the fun

2009-08-10T09:38:00.006-04:00

Today we focus on Justin.. haha..

First off, I forgot to add this pic into my IM race report - Justin and I got to feast on McDonald's on our ride home after the race. I can't remember the last time I had chicken nuggets and fries (maybe 5 years ago?) but they were just as I remembered them. So good. Here's Justin enjoying his fries:

Second, with all the down time we've had lately, we bought the new Wii Resort to help fill some of the time. I crack up every time I watch Justin play Wii, the best is watching him play table tilt on Wii Fit : ) Here he is sword fighting:

Third, we got out yesterday for our first ride post-ironman on the mountain bikes! We headed to the Fells and took to the paths. This was my first time mountain biking on trails. I don't know if it's my thing. I'll give it a few more tries, next time with the correct nutrition and gear (need gloves!) and we'll see how it goes. Here's Justin at the top of a hill that we might or might not have had to walk up (it's much steeper than it appears!) ;)

Post-Ironman Despression Syndrome

2009-08-07T11:33:00.003-04:00

Was reading an interesting article the other day that my sister sent along.

I am gonna go ahead and diagnose myself with PIDS (Post-Ironman Depression Syndrome). The funny thing about this article is that Justin and I had been talking about how we’ve been having these exact thoughts and feelings mentioned in the article just the day before reading it.

The article says that it is normal to feel “a bit of a letdown, kinda-lost feeling after an Ironman,” after all, you’ve been focusing on this one date for the last year and now that it has come and gone, you feel empty. “Your formerly-constant thoughts about training, racing, nutrition, transition bags, carbon aero widgets, and what-I-have-to-pack-for-my-workouts-tomorrow have now been replaced with a single, all-consuming thought: What do I do now?”

The week immediately after Ironman, it felt good to do nothing. I got to eat whatever I wanted, didn’t have to rush home for a workout, had all weekend to enjoy Boston rather than heading out of the city for long rides. That was nice. But now, it’s starting to catch up with us. Ok, the BBQ and cornbread was delicious but ugh, I don’t feel so great after eating it and I want to go for a run to feel a bit better but can’t. Walking around and shopping all day Saturday was nice, but now I have a high bill to pay and I suddenly remember why I hate living in a city filled with tourist. Coming home from work and taking time to make dinner, hang out and watch TV at regular hours is great but I’m starting to feel useless and lazy.

The article recommends that you have no races on the calendar for 8 weeks after the Ironman to ensure a proper recovery. From Lake Placid to my next race is 5 weeks apart. Justin would have been the same but decided a celebratory birthday tri was appropriate and signed up for the Sharon’s Back Sprint Triathlon on Aug 16^th, so he has 3 weeks. Neither of us wanted our season to end so early so we ended up signing up for the Pumpkinman Half on Sept. 13^th. Stupid? Probably, the article even says this is a no-no, but we’ll learn from our mistakes. Plus this race has an awesome post-race feast that includes apple and pumpkin pie – YUM!

As soon as I start to feel fresh, I’m going to begin my focus on running (unfortunately, running is the hardest on the body and therefore is the slowest to get back into). I’ll be running the Baystate Marathon with Jenny on October 18^th and we’ll both be aiming to run sub 3:45. I’m looking forward to the challenge! However, until I can start running normally again, I continue to be in limbo.

IMLP Race Report (Justin)

2009-07-31T10:54:00.003-04:00

I'll skip the pre-race details since Liz listed everything below. I think we were all fairly relaxed but a little anxious for race day to finally be upon us.

The week before the race, I put together some personal race goals. I felt comfortable that even if I fell short of these times, I'd still be really happy and have a chance of beating Liz and Joey (always fun to have a little competition). Here's what I was hoping for:
Swim- 1:25:00
T1- 0:08:00
Bike- 6:40:00
T2- 0:06:00
Run- 4:30:00
Total- 12:49:00

Race Morning:
B-fast (3am) was 2 hardboiled eggs, a bagel with peanut butter and 2 bananas. An hour before the race I ate a Clif bar. As expected, I didn't sleep much the night before so I got up early and starting all my race day prep. I actually started calming as the race got closer...a resignation that whatever happens, happens and its too late to change anything.

Swim: (1:22:12)
My plan was to start towards the front of the crowd and fight my way to the inside of the buoy line. It actually worked out pretty well and I found some great feet to draft off of. There was definitely a lot of chaos but nothing too bad (pretty sure I cracked someone in the face with my elbow though). I finished the 1st loop in 39 min and change and reminded myself to slow down...it'll be a long day. 2nd loop was thankfully uneventful- I hopped out, found the strippers, and took a slow jog towards the transition.

T1: (6:32)
I guess I was too amped up to realize I was supposed to change in the tent so instead I got ready at the bag rack and moved on. I didn't really have the dizzy feeling I usually get after long swims so I was happy about that.

Bike: (6:31:22)
Pre-race, I decided to break the bike into 4 equal sections. The 1st, I'd go very slow to get my bearings. In the 2nd I'd hold race pace (17.2 was my goal). 3rd I'd go hard and catch all the people starting to fall about and 4th I go just below race pace to prep for the marathon.
The plan worked well until I went to hard in the 2nd section and tried to hold on the 3rd. I had to stop at the turn around for a new timing chip (SUGGESTION: DONT BE NICE AND CHANGE RACE #'S FOR THE ALS GUY!) and was able to catch my breath- 3:04:00 for the first loop. By mile 95 I was starting to hurt and hurt bad. I passed Joey on the Big Bear Hill and was just willing myself to be done with the bike.

T2: (4:30)
At this point I was so 'bonky' that I kept grabbing any solid food I could to replace calories- not caring about the effect it could have on the run. I was also very aware that I was starting the run ahead of Joey and Liz and was now officially the Hunted.

Run: (4:25:44)
Surprisingly felt great to start the run. I kept looking over my shoulders expecting to see the 2 chasers but knew my pace was strong. I finshed the first 13.1 in 2:01:00 and started to feel like just maybe I could do a sub-4 hour marathon. Those thoughts quickly dissipated around mile 15 when the transition food started messing with me. I couldn't eat (stomach made me stop every time I ate), couldn't take gels (threw up) and couldn't really drink (gave me a sick feeling). In my head, it was only a matter of time before getting passed...they could smell blood in the water. Somehow I was able to will my body through the next 10 miles and finish in front. The crowds were unbelievable. They always cheer but when you starting hurting, they go crazy screaming your name and doing everything they can to force you through the next step. It was extremely helpful during those last few miles.

Final: 12:30:19!!!

Thoughts on the race...
A HUGE thanks to everyone who called, texted, and gave their support. As always, Liz's family was incredible throughout the entire race. I'm so happy my mom was able to be there supporting us throughout the week. Everyone's efforts made the race that much more manageable.

My two favorite moments of the entire race were taking in the scene before the swim and the crowd support as I ran up the Sentinel Road hill on the 2nd loop. I don't know if I could have kept going if I had allowed myself to walk at any point during the run and those people are the reason I didn't walk when I wanted to most.

Now Liz and I are taking a week off from being healthy and just enjoying the lack of regimen. I'm already planning my next challenge and what Ironman I'll be doing next...THANKS AGAIN!!!

Ironman Lake Placid Race Report (Liz's Report)

2009-07-30T11:47:00.012-04:00

Ironman Lake Placid 2009… It’s in the books!

First off, thanks to everyone who has supported me throughout the last 8 months as I trained my butt off for this once race. Justin, the family, coach John, and friends. Without your encouragement and understanding, it would have been a long, tough journey.

Jus and I on a practice bike

Me and Joey at registration

Pre-Race

We headed to LP Wednesday after work, didn’t get to the house until about 1:30am. Thursday through Saturday were resting days – short workouts and lots of laziness. LP is beautiful; it was nice not to have to do anything and just get to take it all in. We stayed in a house right on the run course, 2 miles from town, it was a great spot.

Race Morning

Jus and I woke up at 3am to eat breakfast. I never have much of an appetite on race mornings and even though this was Ironman and it’s essential to eat, I still didn’t want food. I had a bagel with peanut butter and one banana. We went back to bed for an hour and half and woke up at 4:30am to get the day started. Dressed and ready to go, Joey, Jus and I headed to the race. I checked the bike, pumped the tires, dropped off transition and special needs bags and suited up. Just as I was getting the wetsuit on, the sky graced us with a nice little downpour. Being nervous already, the rain didn’t help to put me at ease. We made our way to swim start and I got a good stretch in before entering the water. I started to tear up a bit from the nerves and being a little scared of the day. We saw Joey walking into the water, wished him good luck and parted ways.

Strecthing

Swim [1:23:38]

I got in the water with 10 minutes till start. I got used to the water and found a comfortable spot to start. I placed myself about 10 feet behind the crowd that swarms the start line. Justin told me to turn around and take in the crowd – that was an unbelievable sight and feeling, one you can’t describe. He soon left to find his starting spot and I was then on my own. I watched the clock tick away. The spectators cheered on their athletes and the athletes cheered on their supporters. The gun went off at 7am exactly and the race was underway. Playing it safe, I kept my head above the water until I felt like I had enough space to actually swim. I didn’t want to risk a punch in the face or losing my goggles. To my amazement, I had a nice swimming spot once I hit the second yellow buoy and it was smooth sailing from there on out. I was relieved and surprised at how the swim was nothing like I thought it would be. I was expecting punches, pulls, anxiety, not-so-smooth swimming and all the works. Instead, there was a little bit of bullying for the first couple minutes but once all the swimmers found their spots, it was as if I was the only one in the water. I lined myself up to the left of the buoys, spotted the line underwater and kept it the whole way. There is a wire that runs the swim course under water in Mirror Lake so you don’t have to spot, ever. All the swimmers created a very large draft and at points I felt like I was just floating yet moving so fast in the water. It was funny to see the scuba divers underneath you as you swam. I did my first loop in 40 minutes, second in 43:38 for a total time of 1:23:38. This was actually good times for me this season so I can’t complain. Wetsuit strippers are, in my mind, the best thing in the race. With that out of the way, I ran to T1 with a smile on my face.

Swim start

T1 [6:47]

The transition from swim to bike is long. You have to run a quarter mile just to get to transition and then run another quarter mile to get to bike mount. I was happy with my time of 6:47. The volunteers were awesome… they told me just to throw everything on the ground I didn’t need and they’ll take care of it all. That’s what I did and at the end of the race, everything of mine was in the bags, nothing lost. They didn’t have my bike ready for me as I ran by so I had to stop and wait for someone to grab it. Once I got it, I was out and riding.

Coming through on the bike - furthest right.

Bike [6:34:01 – 17.1 mph]

I had half of a peanut butter sandwich right when I started the bike. At this point, the rain was gone and the sun was starting to shine through. I was feeling good starting the bike but reminded myself over and over again to take it easy; I had 112 miles to go. Climbing the first hill before the long descent into Keene I caught up to Justin and gave him a little shout out. We stayed together for the following few miles until he pulled away and took off. I took the hills slow but the flats fast and the descents even faster. I caught up to Joey on the big bear climb. Unintentionally, we stuck together from than until just about hitting the last 15 miles or so on the second loop of the bike. I felt strong starting the second loop and was confident I’d come in with a good time. I saw the family cheering on both ends of River Road – they put themselves in great spots to cheer! I hit the huge descent before hitting Keene at 46 mph. I was scared to take my eyes off the road to see my speed but I was curious. Joey flew down this hill like a madman. I caught back up with him on the out and back and took the final pass on the bike before hitting the last 12 miles – later! I was happy to see transition again as I dismounted the bike and headed into T2.

T2 [2:52]

I took T2 fast. The volunteer that was helping me in the tent said to me as I left “THAT was a fast transition!” Ha.

First loop of run on River Road

Run [4:28:35 – 10:16 min/mile]

I was very nervous to see how I would feel on the run. My legs have always hurt a lot for the first 2 miles or so of the run during my brick workouts in training. To my surprise, I felt awesome heading out for the run. No pain. I was tired, but actual pain, there was none. I think I was gleaming ear to ear. I carried a water bottle the entire run which has become more of a comfort thing for me than anything else. Going into the run I told myself to walk every aid station. It’s a long run, I need time to regroup and make sure I am fueling up properly. That’s exactly what I did. At every aid station I took sponges and squeezed them over my head, then whipped my face off. I’d take a Gatorade and a piece of banana. That was my routine. When I hit the end of the aid station, I was running again. I saw a lot of familiar faces out on the course which really helped to keep me going. Justin always gave me a wave, Joey and Phil would yell encouraging words each time I passed one of them, Kristoph and Steve, who I just met for the first time that weekend, worked an aid station and spotted me both times I came around and cheered. The crew from Landry’s was out cheering the racers on and I recognized them as they yelled “YEA BEAR NAKED! GO!” The runners themselves were great. I talked to couple of them out there and it was a huge help to pass the time. I started drinking cola on the second loop as my stomach started feeling a little iffy. The cola worked and I made it through the run (and the whole race) without any issues. The best moment in the race for me was hitting the last aid station, seeing the finish, hearing the cheers, and knowing I had just done an Ironman. I threw my water bottle to the side, put a smile on my face and took in the crowd’s cheers as I ran the final stretch of the course. It wasn’t actually crossing the finish that was THE moment for me; it was that last half mile that meant the most. I saw my family as I turned the corner of the oval – I don’t think they will ever realize what having them there did for me that day. Thanks guys! Extra props to all of you for a great sign that helped me spot where you were AND for even more awesomer shirts : ) As I crossed the finish line I saw Justin waiting for me – I walked over and greeted him with a huge hug.

Heading to the finish

Post-Race

I am never hungry after long workouts. I tried eating a piece of pizza immediately after the race but the thought of it made me nauseous. I took a cup of pretzels and had about 5 of them. I headed into the message tent for my 10 minute message. I was freezing cold after it and was shivering. I got my morning clothes bag and changed into some very warm sweatpants and hoodie, met the family for pictures and called it a night. With intentions to head back at midnight to see the last finishers come through, we couldn’t get ourselves off the couch once we were home, showered and had a full stomach from dinner.

Congratulations to Justin for becoming an Ironman and to Joey for becoming an Ironman for the second time. One question for you, Joey: What did you get me into? IRONMAN?!

Joey, Jus and I - You are an IRONMAN!

Afterthoughts

No one can truly understand what it feels like to complete an Ironman until you've done it yourself. It takes a lot of training, dedication, sacrifice and courage. Most will take it for granted and never truly understand what it takes. There are many points in my training where I wanted to give up. There are also many moments that were memorable and fun. As much as biking in 20 degrees sucked, I look back at those times and laugh and say "oh, what were we thinking." I would and will do it all again - only faster next time : ) Only until Jen told me did I find out that had I been racing just one age earlier (24), I would have been three minutes behind the girl who took the Kona slot... and you bet I would have given it my all to make up those three minutes for a 12:32 finish and a ticket to Kona. Oh well, what can you do? I couldn't have asked for any more on race day. Thanks again to everyone for routing me through and helping me get here. With just a couple more triathlons this season, I'll soon be starting to focus on qualifying for the Boston Marathon this October. The season is just halfway through - much more to come!

The Family in their support shirts!!

Last Weekend

2009-07-20T16:49:00.005-04:00

We are just six short days away from the big day! You bet I am NERVOUS!!!!

This past weekend, Jus and I headed back to Walden Pond for a swim on Saturday and a short bike on Sunday. I know people say to never change anything up in the weeks leading up to a race but I needed new goggles and I didn’t really see what the big deal was… I can try them out Saturday and in Mirror Lake when I get to Lake Placid. Bad idea.

I got a new pair and tried them out on Saturday. The first stretch of the swim my left eye kept filling with water. I tried to fix it once but when it refilled, I was frustrated and decided to just keep swimming with my eye closed. I fixed it when I hit the first turn point where it’s shallow enough to stand. Only to frustrate me more, it refilled during my next stretch to the second turn around point. In an attempt for one last fix I stopped and adjusted the goggles. I drafted off Justin on the swim back to the start and the goggles seemed to have stuck – perfecto! Though, as I crawled out of the water to go grab my old goggles for loop two, my left eye started stinging. I stopped and just held it, tried to tear up to make it feel better and maybe get whatever felt was in it out but no luck. We ended our swim there and picked up some eye drops which help tremendously. On the positive side, we felt great swimming and we both broke this seasons swim times for a 1.5 mile swim which is a good way to end things.

Our ride on Saturday was nice, though nature is against us. For the whole two hours we rode, the sun was beaming down on us, not a cloud in the sky. Once we were done, we headed to the pond to relax a little and try to fix our awkward tans. First off, Walden Pond is a zoo when it’s nice out – police enforcing number of people allowed on the beach and all. Jus and I snuck in on a back trail and hiked around to the beach and found a spot. I’m not kidding though, the very second we sat down, a huge cloud rolled in and many more after that. This is not the first time this has happened - we kid how something or someone is against us. Our stay was short lived, also due to two creepy little girls that just stood and stared at me the entire time we were there. They made me feel really uncomfortable!

The weather for Sunday is looking good, good, good. I just need to make sure I finish before those PM storms roll in! : )

3 days till departure!

Making progress

2009-07-17T10:25:00.003-04:00

We're making progress. Now the weather calls for an overcast day with a thunderstorm in the afternoon. OK with me. I'll be back up and posting weather updates next week! ; )

A Good Omen???

2009-07-16T13:50:00.003-04:00

I'm taking this as a good sign...though Liz will probably disagree...looks like the race organizers know I already have this one in the bag:

IMLP BIB #'s:

Justin: 179
JoJo: 637
Liz: 1945

Oh no...

2009-07-16T09:19:00.004-04:00

Ok, I know I am obsessive, but I can't help it. I know a lot can change in a 10 day forecast, and I am sure hoping it does. I mean, just yesterday it was saying sunny and 83 degrees, but now its all changed. What the heck?! : ( Still crossing my fingers...

Crossing my fingers X 1,000!!!

2009-07-15T13:55:00.005-04:00

OH! There is a God!!!! Please oh please let this forecast be accurate for July 26!!!!!!

Lots of swimming & a nice weekend!

2009-07-13T10:01:00.005-04:00

This weekend, Justin and I found ourselves spending most of our time around the Walden Pond area. It was a beautiful weekend, nice weather, no clouds in the sky.

We got up super early on Saturday thanks to the loud beeps of a garbage truck, ate breakfast and were out the door. It’s a half hour drive to Walden Pond, which isn’t so bad. This pond is awesome, too, one of the cleanest I’ve ever seen. I think we were expecting ourselves to be the only ones out for a swim that morning but when we got there, there were groups of triathletes suiting up. We swam a triangle twice for a total of 2 miles then headed out for a run. After, we hiked around the pond as a nice recovery : )

Sunday we were back at Walden Pond for a swim followed with a bike ride. It was a really great weekend and we had fun. When we got home on Sunday we had pasta w/ homemade garlic bread – yum! There is nothing better than a simple bowl of pasta and delicious bread.

Getting Real

2009-07-08T17:50:00.002-04:00

I’m starting to get nervous. I’ve been waking up with stomach pains and haven’t been feeling all too hungry. It seems the thought of Ironman is consistently in the back of my mind and now that the “hard” training has come to an end, it’s starting to seem all too real. Before it was just training, now it’s the real deal. There is nothing I can do from this point on that will prepare me more for Ironman than what I’ve done in the last 7+ months.

I’ve gone back to the start of this blog to see the post that Jus and I have written during our training and it brings back a lot of memories from this past year. I wonder how I ran 16 miles on snow covered grounds or better yet, how I rode for hours in the cold while my toes and fingers felt like they could snap right off. I’m amazed at how I managed to make a drastic change in my diet – no sandwiches for lunch, candy for snacks, cereal for breakfast, no this and no that and everything in between…. WHAT?!! I have sacrificed time with my family and friends… all for this one race. I have woken up before the sun has risen for a workout and have eaten dinner after my bedtime cause it’s the first moment I get. Not to mention, I have done all this while planning a wedding (which I do not recommend getting married and doing an Ironman in the same year).

It’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of changes and a lot of unwanted sacrifices but here I am. I’m extremely satisfied with the work I’ve put into Ironman. I feel that I am ready (but am I?). At the end of this week I change my diet once again so that I lose 4 lbs by race day. Am I looking forward to it? No. But, it’s just another thing you have to do for Ironman. Until the next post… I’ll be here – doing what I do.

A bonus picture of Jus from last weekend in CT:

Training in Lake Placid

2009-06-30T08:43:00.008-04:00

This past weekend Justin and I drove up to Lake Placid to train on the course with Joey & crew – 1 MONTH AWAY, BABY!!!!!

In my opinion, this weekend was key for a successful race day. The intimidation of not knowing the course is now non-existent. I no longer have the doubt of whether I can do it or not. Now, it’s just a matter of in what time (which I’m just looking to finish, not win)! Lake Placid was filled with athletes training for the Ironman – it was kind of cool to be surrounded by it all already, I feel like half the people doing the race were there this weekend.

Saturday started with some coffee and breakfast and then it was out the door for a 112 mile bike ride. The weather was not cooperating as it was on and off showers all day with a few glimpses of sun. Jus and I were not looking forward to rainy weather on a hard training weekend but we looked at the positive – we now know how to take on the course if this year’s race weather repeats last years (but I really, really hope it doesn’t!). I felt strong on the bike and was feeling good about it after the first lap – ah… just have to do that all over again! Second lap was just as good and I left the bike with confidence.

After the bike, Jus and I changed into some dry running clothes and headed out the door for an 8 mile run. The sun was shining when we left and it was nice to feel the warmth, finally. We headed 4 miles from the start of the run and back which included the killer hill that we had not known about. This was an extra bonus to help add pain to our legs! On our way back into town, more clouds came rolling in and the last 2 miles were in downpours. A warm shower and well deserved dinner finished the day.

Sunday morning the sun was out and I was looking forward to a day outside. The group headed into town for some breakfast and then split for training. Joey, Jus and I trekked down to Mirror Lake for a 2.4 mile swim. Ugh. We floated out to the pier to where the official start of the swim is… started the watch and off we went. Joey pulled away early as Justin and I stuck together for the majority of the way… headed to the beach at the end of the first lap, ran the beach and back in the water we went. I did the second loop 2 minutes slower than the first, Justin did it faster. The swim didn’t leave me feeling too great – but in general I have been bummed about it. I just can’t seem to get into it.

Back to the house to change and all three of us were out for a long run. I mentally prepared myself for the entire loop of the run, apparently somewhere in conversation Joey and Jus agreed on skipping the out and back. The run course is “easy” enough, but I can see the long stretch out of town and back being long, tough and lonely. We all held up well and with 2 miles left back into town, two ladies rescued us by letting us fill up on water at their athlete water stop. After I split from Joey and Jus, I hoped in Mirror Lake at the end of the run to cool down. I stumbled back to the house, showered and packed up. We grabbed a quick lunch and some FroYo in a waffle cone at Ben & Jerry's (YUM!) and headed back to Boston.

The race is coming up way too quick!!!!!

View of Lake Placid:

Again, sacrificing good tan lines for tri:

A sign on the run course that made me laugh:

Packed up and ready to go:

116.82 miles...

2009-06-21T19:41:00.007-04:00

Justin and I were pleasantly surprised when we woke up yesterday to just an overcast day - this could actually turn out to be a good riding day. We turned on the weather to find out the rain will start day in the day - around 7pm. With the news, we packed up our stuff and mapped out a 105 mile bike ride from Walden pond to and up Wachussett Mountain and back.

We love these rides cause the suburbs are beautiful and roads are mostly quiet. This route had some good slow climbing hills but nothing too too challenging - that's where Wachussett Mtn. comes in. On the way out we got lost, which added 10 miles onto our ride. By the time we hit W. Mtn. we looked over how far back it was to the car and having already added 10 miles onto the ride, should we go up the entire mtn? We decided to go up and over side of the mountain but not to the top - we were already 57 miles in with another +50 to go and rain was due to start at our expected finish time and the DARK rain clouds were in view already. Next time that mtn is ours!!

To sum a long ride up into a short blog post - it went great. We were stupid and never stopped for food but that was not entirely our fault as there was no real places to grab something on the route... NOTHING. B/c of this I started bonking a bit halfway through but I ate a powerbar and a gatorade and actually came back feeling alright. Justin felt really confident - feelin good the whole time. The last 5 miles we were riding under some dark clouds as the wind picked up... you could feel a storm coming and we loved it as beat it out. In the end the ride came out to just under 117 miles... sweet. Looking forward to more long riding in LP!!!!

Out on the route

on the route...

laying in the grass at the end of the ride watching the rain clouds come in.

AH.. to be done... now let's go eat some pizza ; ) haha.

I love the fall. Wait, it's not fall?!

2009-06-19T12:05:00.003-04:00

The rain has been a real downer and on top of that, it’s been freakin cold outside. I thought we were nearing the end of June but maybe I have my months mixed up. What pumps me up more for some long bike rides this weekend is, you got it, some more rain…SO EXCITED!

This past week, Justin and I decided to opt-out of the long run and do a track workout. We finally got to calibrate our foot pods, too! We’ve been training this entire winter and spring as well as raced our first two races of the season without the foot pod and I have to say, it was really nice not knowing my pace. It takes the stress of “how fast am I going?” and the distraction of checking your watch every few minutes out of the picture. I’ve run some great paces without even knowing it at the time.

We did separate workouts. I did 6 X 800 meters at 5K pace with a 400 meter float at marathon pace. Justin did a more “advanced” workout of 800/1600/3200/1600/800 as 800 at 5K pace, 1600 at 10K pace and 3200 at marathon pace. Justin got some nasty blisters that aren’t going away from the race last weekend so he was only able to make it to his 3200 mark before he had to stop. I had to take short breathers and gulp down water between each of my sets, too! In the end, we were really surprised by our times – I paced about a 6:20 5K and 7:20 marathon and was able to hold them throughout all the sets. Justin held an even faster pace (but I’m not sure exactly what his numbers were). We’re hoping that throwing in a couple of these every now and then for the rest of training will help us prepare for our run at LP and beyond.

Next weekend we’re heading out to LP with Joey & group to do some serious training on the course! I’m nervous to see how I hold up – will it give me confidence or leave me shaking with fear? This should be a true test to whether we’ll be ready come July 26^th. Should be fun.

Health Net Tri Race Report - June 13, 2009 (Liz)

2009-06-17T15:37:00.003-04:00

As Justin said in his race report, we were both returning to the Health Net Tri this year to end it on a high note. My “course issue” last year was that I missed the 2^nd loop turnaround on the run. Why? Cause little kids were standing in front of the tiny sign on the ground and no one was telling the athletes to turn for the 2^nd loop (I guess this is why you need to know the course before doing it). I had a DQ. I wrote a (nice) note to the race director explaining the DQ in hopes of a fix for this year. Fixed it they did! Only adults worked that water station at the turnaround and the sign (still too small, in my opinion and it was upside down) was eye level with a volunteer directing athletes.

Swim:
39:30 [2:43/100yds]

I don’t know what has happened to me this year but I need to get my butt in the pool. I did the swim 4 minutes slower this year from last year and even at that, I should be hitting better times. I got the guts to start at the front of the swim wave which turned out (obviously with my swim time) to be a bad idea. It took more effort out of me than I think helped. The water wasn’t clear at all, tough to spot other swimmers around you (oh how I miss Hawaii water!). I swam alone the entire way – sometimes feeling like I was off course because no one was around me…luckily I was not (or maybe if I was that would explain my time, ha).

T1:
1:41

I was happy to be out of the water but disappointed with my swim time – I got over it and soon enough was out on the bike.

Bike:
1:11:46 [19.2 mph]

The first 3 miles of the bike is a gradual uphill – I was on the small gear and didn’t push myself hard so that I’d have energy later. I knew after getting past this initial hill, that it would be down and rolling hills afterward so it was something to look forward to. The roads on the course are in alright condition. There were a good number of times when I said “this is where I’m getting my flat!!!” and tense up as if that will help avoid any dangers in the road that could pop my tire. Amazingly, I didn’t get a flat but that was luck, for sure. I rode the course with a group of about 5 other athletes where we just kept passing each other, dropping and repassing. It was a little annoying but what can you do.

T2:
1:09

Socks, shoes, water bottle… I was out running.

Run:
50:35:30 [8:09 min/mile]

It’s always nice to get to the running portion. You’re almost done and no real issues could go wrong that will stop you from finishing. The run course was rolling hills, the nice part was that to every uphill there was a sweet downhill. The run out was far worse than the run in. I stuck it out with no issues but tiredness. Good run.

Total time: 2:44:43

Had I gone 1:48 faster I would have placed 3^rd in my age group – boo to me.

Congrats to Justin and Courtney on a great race. It’s always more fun racing with others you know : ) And a huge thanks to the cheer squad (Les, Kyle, Jen and the girls) for coming out to support us – like we always say, it takes far more effort to cheer than to actually race ; )

Health Net Oly Race Report (justin)

2009-06-16T09:14:00.003-04:00

Big thanks to Jen, Kyle, Leslie, Haley and Jillian for providing a cheering crew. You were easily the loudest and most motivating fans on the course.

Liz and I completed this race last year and both were left with a bad taste in our mouths- I got 4 flats on the bike and was one more issue away from being a DNF and Liz had some course issues. But the race is well put together and beautiful so we figured we'd come back to finish the race on a high note. So on to the race...

Swim: 41:35

Absolutely horrendous swim...embarrassing. It will serve as a nice slap in the face to get to the pool for every workout until Lake Placid. I won't even bother with more detail.

T1: 1:48

First wetsuit race of the year so it took a little longer to strip off the wetsuit.

Bike 1:10:33 (19.6 mph)

The bike course is really hilly, so the variation in speed is huge. I think I was going 7mph on one of the uphills and hit 38mph on the down. I would have loved to have averaged 20mph for the first time in a race but was still pretty pleased with my finishing time. Since we didn't taper, my legs weren't as fresh on the hills but I still felt like I had enough for a strong run.

T2: 1:06

I forgot socks which was not a good thing.

Run: 47:54 (7:43 min/mile)

I hit the run with a purpose. Liz and Courtney's wave started 10 minutes ahead of me so I used being behind as motivation. While its inevitable that Liz will beat me in a race soon (she's getting too fast not to), I'm not going to give in without a fight. Once again the course is really hilly so the run wrecked my quads. It also meant my feet slid around in my shoes (remember no socks) to the point that I lost a lot of skin- 3 days later I still can't walk without some pain. But fear of losing forced me to keep my pace and it turned out to be a new PR for an Oly-distanced run.

Final Time: 2:42:58

From here until Lake Placid, its straight training. I need to learn to love the pool for the next month. My current swim efforts won't get me through the ironman...

Honu 70.3 (Justin's Race Report)

2009-06-11T14:13:00.008-04:00

Hey All-

Liz provided great insight (and pictures in her post below) into our training mindframes (nonexistent?) the two weeks prior to Honu so I won't go into too much detail. Even with the lack of race week training, we ate pretty well and stayed active (and more importantly, not sunburnt). So skipping ahead, here's how the race went...

Swim:
45:54 [2:18/100 yds]
Definitely not pretty from a time standpoint and only a mildly better time than last year's St Croix (I guess I'm not suited for the no-wetsuit, ocean swims). I spent a lot of the swim fighting off 2 whales of men- sadly we were going about the swim speed- and am pretty sure I was bear hugged at least twice mid-swim. Once I was able to get a little breathing room I realized the person passing me on my right was swimming the breast stroke. For personal pride I sped up but it still wasn't pretty. The biggest difference in my swim this year is that I actually felt good when I left the water. There was no gasping for air, sea legs, or blurred vision which was great!

T1:
3:40
Liz had me beat out of T1 and my only thought was to get my butt moving and hope not to blow up on the bike...

Bike:
2:57:33 [18.9 mph]
Having heard horror stories about the winds and heat on the bike I definitely gave the course a little too much respect. I drank constantly (went through about 6 bottles of Gu2 and Gatorade Endurance on the bike alone plus my normal gels/food) to prevent dehydration. For whatever reason, I enjoy going uphill and this is where I get to pass most people. With only a short section of heavy winds and the heat not getting to me yet, I decided to push the pace a bit on the turn around. My hard work paid off as I passed Liz with about 10 miles to go on the bike. At this point the heat was finally starting to hurt and the nutrition wasn't going down quite so smoothly.

T2:
3:18
I devoured a PowerBar and decided to carry a water bottle for the first time (which I clutched like a priceless treasure until crossing the line)

Run:
2:00:17 [9:11 min/mile]
I had 2 goals heading out on to the run course: 1) Don't blow up 2) Break 2 hours
Immediately leaving the transition, I found two running keeping about a 10:30 pace and decided to tag along. I knew that if I could stay hydrated and feel good through 7 miles, I could care less what I did to my body for the last 6. For a while, I kept looking over my shoulder waiting for Liz to pass me since I kept seeing her right behind me on short turnarounds. Miles 8-11 followed an endless rode out-and-back where it seemed like an athlete graveyard. Runners had devolved into zombies, completely spent and praying for the race to end. Something about this made me happy...I felt strong knowing I had better race prep to pass all this people on the run. At mile 10 I tore past our local Hawaiian buddy Michael and had to talk a little smack on the pass.

I am very happy with my total time of 5:50:40 and have a lot of work to do before Lake Placid. Up next, Liz, Courtney, and I will be racing the Health Net Oly Triathlon in CT this weekend.

Hawaii 70.3 (Honu) - May 30, 2009 (Liz)

2009-06-10T12:23:00.010-04:00

Sorry for the delay on the race report – coming back to reality, I wasn’t much in the mood to be productive…

Pre-race:
Given that I was on my honeymoon, I wanted much of relaxation and little of hard work. Be it stupid, the only pre-race work out I did was 2 days prior to race day which consisted of an hour bike and half hour run. I struggled on the bike as it was really hot and I was winded. This didn’t help build confidence for the race but I tried not to think about it – everything was going to be great. I was fine on the run and a mid-way ocean swim to cool down with was great! Race morning, we woke up at 4:00am, had a bagel w/ peanut butter, a banana and sports drink each and then headed out the door for our short drive to The Fairmont Orchid – the host of the Hawaii 70.3. Hopped on a shuttle and went just a few miles down the road to the start.

Swim:
44:49 [2:15 / 100 yds]

The swim was a mass start with the option to start deep in the water, at waist length or completely out of the water on the beach. Given that this was my first mass start ever and first tri of the season; I felt comfortable starting waist deep, middle of the pact. I didn’t really feel like getting beat up and toppled over. The cannon went off and it was a mad dash out into the water for 1100 racers. The swim was a counter-clockwise, 1-loop in the crystal clear waters of Hapuna Beach (rated one of the top beaches in all of US!). Water was warm, no wetsuits allowed. Opposite of what others say, I didn’t see many fish. I caught some feet to draft for some of the way and depended on others for direction – I only looked up out of the water twice to spot the buoys which was nice. As far as time, I didn’t do so great – about 4 minutes slower than my one and only ½ IM last season. I came out of the water at 44:49. I guess I need to get back in the pool and do some serious training.

T1:
Nothing could be left on the ground, everything needed to be in a bag hanging on our bikes. Rinsed the salt water off on the run up to T1 with a hose, threw the helmet, glasses, race belt and shoes on and was off. Total time in T1 was 3:36. Yea, room to improve. Ha!

Bike: 3:01:10 [18.5 mph]
I was most nervous for the bike cause I’m not a strong biker. Within the first 5 minutes, I spotted two people fixing flats. Eek – not a good sign. We started with an out and back on Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway totaling close to 8 miles. We continued toward Hawi where we turned around to head right back to where we came from. There was a slight headwind about 7 miles out of the Hawi turnaround which slowed everyone down, but I’m not complaining because it was nothing compared to what they could have been! The road shoulders were huge and clean – drivers were amazingly polite. Justin passed me somewhere between mile 42-47 on an uphill. He is a maniac on hills and are definitely his time to shine! Overall the course was reasonable – some good drawn out hills, absolutely no short and steep ones. The sun was hot and I scored myself some awesome tan lines, including race number tattoos (see pic). I drank two bottles of Gu2O during the ride and felt pretty good. My only issue was at mile 46… my left foot went dead. My fit has my left foot turned inward a little and before the race I had issues with this but never bothered to fix it. I blame this for a dead foot. I’ll fix the alignment for my next ride and hopefully things will turn out better! Mauna Lani Drive was the end of bike – I finished successfully without any issues with a total bike time of 3:01:10 which I am happy with.

T2:
Not much to say – put the sneaks on and headed out for a 13.1 mile run. Total T2 time was 3:13 (my number bib ripped so I had to safety pin it on – took some extra time!!)

Run: 2:04:21 [9:30 min/mile]
I felt really good heading out for the run. I had forgotten to grab my water bottle to run with in T2 so I was a little panicked at first. I knew this would be a hot run and I wanted to be assured that I would have water when I needed. To make up for it, I made a point to drink up at every single water station on the course – routine at each station: gulp of water, gulp of Gatorade, finish water, dump ice down the sports bra and ice water on my hat, seemed to hold me over between each station just fine. The run wasn’t pretty, not even enjoyable for the most part but definitely new scenery than what I am used to and different at that. The run took you through lava fields and parts were on the grass of a golf course, which I swear was hotter than the lava fields. There was not one spec of shade the entire run, just you and the sun. The course was rolling hills with 4 out and backs. I spotted Justin at the first turnaround and gave him a wave. He was looking strong and as much as I wanted to catch him, it would have taken a lot out of me… next time ;) I really had no issues on the run. In fact, I probably could have gone faster but I kept telling myself not to kill it. I walked each water station to assure I was getting enough liquids. I have so much more training to do for LP, it wasn’t worth making a mistake. I took a GU every 45 minutes in the race and this seemed to work out well for me. The last mile of the run was the hardest part for me, it always seems to be. The stretch was entirely across the golf course and you could hear the cheering at the finish line which for some reason makes it feel longer to get there. I made it though, with a total run time of 2:04:21. I crossed the line with a smile on my face, happy to be done and to go sub 6. Such an improvement from RI last year. I snagged myself a Gatorade and took a seat in the shade to stretch before grabbing some food.

My final time was 5:57:08 which is 40 minutes faster from RI! A little (actually, a lot) of training goes a long ways! : )

Not sure if Justin will be posting his own race report… if not, below are his times – congrats to Jus for setting a new personal PR and for ALMOST breaking 2 hrs on his run!

Swim: 45:54 [2:18]
T1: 3:40
Bike: 2:57:33 [18.9 mph]
T2: 3:18
Run: 2:00:17 [9:11 min/mile]
Total: 5:50:40

On a side note, on the flight out of Boston to Hawaii, we met a guy named Michael who lived in Hawaii and was doing the race – super nice, friendly guy. He told us he was going for the Kona spot for his age group. We were happy to catch up with him at the awards ceremony and congratulate him on accomplishing his goal - he’s doing Kona : )

A successful race in the books…

Married & headed for Hawaii!

2009-05-25T08:04:00.004-04:00

Well, we're now married! The wedding was a great time and we couldn't have done it without the help of our family - thank you all for holding us together and helping to make it such a wonderful time. We were up late last night packing for Hawaii and in about 50 minutes we'll be heading out to the airport for the honeymoon.

The family made some great signs for us to show us their support even when they won't be able to make the Hawaii 70.3. THANKS guys - ha, they are great!

Good luck to Joey, Courtney and Lesley in Tri Ridgefield coming up next weekend. We'll be thinking of you all on Saturday night and Sunday (even though you're likely to be done by the time we wake up) and wishing you an awesome race. Can't wait to see how you all do - ROCK IT!

Sorry for the rushed posting but we wanted to get something up before we left. Aloha!

Wedding & Hawaii

2009-05-20T11:47:00.010-04:00

HI EVERYONE! (Liz here)

SO sorry we’ve been on blogging hiatus! Life has been busy.

We’ve been training hard, no lack of effort there. The past couple weekends have been tough though since we’ve been traveling and with weekends reserved for long bike rides, we haven’t been able to put in the mileage we should have – but we do what we can. In fact, this past weekend I found myself in Ridgefield for my sister’s graduation. Had an early wake up call at 5am to drive to Fairfield for a 6hr ride with my brother, only to find out he never woke up that morning for his drive from NJ - awesome.

I headed back to Ridgefield to ride solo for 3hrs. I didn’t have a computer hooked up on the Cervelo yet, so I had no idea what my pace was, but according to mapmyride, I did 58.13 miles which gives me a 19mph pace – holy cow. Not sure if that is accurate but I hope it is!

(Pic of Turtle Pond from ride)

Justin and I are getting hitched this Saturday!!! Word from the wise: do not plan a wedding and an Ironman within the same year, or at least not within 2 months of each other, cause it has made our lives hectic. Pics below have been our living conditions the past month… looks like fun, right? Lots of wedding boxes, lots of bikes, lots of everything…

We’re headed to Hawaii for our honeymoon and racing the Hawaii 70.3 on May 30^th. We’re psyched.

AND, last note for today (promise), this season I am being sponsored by Bear Naked and am really excited about it. I love their products and looking forward to supporting them through my racing. More on this to come… : ) Unfortunately, all the gear is too big so I’m sending them back to get exchanged which means I won’t be rockin the Bear Naked goodness in Hawaii : (

3 Weeks

2009-04-28T09:15:00.003-04:00

First off, congrats to everyone that ran the Leatherman Loop (a local 10k race in Cross River, NY that traverses through creeks, lots of mud, and over some good-sized hills) this past weekend! All 4 of us (Liz, Jen, Courtney, and myself) had great runs on what turned out to be a very hot day- I'll post some pics when available. Liz, Courtney and I all ran this course 2 years ago and had tremendous time improvements at this years race.

Race Results:
Liz: 1:07:26 (good for 4th place in AG)
Jen: 1:09:06 (finished strong in 5th place in AG)
Courtney: 1:31:14
Justin: 0:57:27

During the ride back to Boston, Liz and I started talking about how crazy the next few weeks are going to be. We have 3 graduations, our wedding, Hawaii 70.3, and IMLP training all within the next month (I know there's other stuff too I just don't remember...damn short term memory). While laying out the next few weeks, we realized we only have 3 more weeks of working out before Hawaii (the other 2 weeks are recovery and taper).

That leaves us with only 18 heavy workout days between now and the race- 2 of which are during our wedding weekend). Up until now, our training has consisted of long, endurance workouts. At this point, we can swim for 2.5 miles, run for 20-something miles, and bike well over 100 miles but can we put it all together with some speed? I was fairly spent after the hard effort 10k last weekend- how am I going to fly in hotter weather with open water swim conditions, high winds on the bike, and searing heat during the run!?!

The mayhem starts today with a speed swim and a strength progression bike. Forecast is for 90+ degrees so I may throw in an easy run to complete the trifecta and soak up some of that heat...let's rock.

Catching the pack...

2009-04-17T09:43:00.002-04:00

This morning was a 5:40am wake up call. I got on the trainer for an hour and then headed out the door for an hour run. Technically I was only suppose to do a run today but this past Wednesday was brutal – biked in the AM, had busy day at work, and then did a 2.5 hr run that evening and come yesterday, I was exhausted and didn’t workout. So, I made up for it this AM. (and am now very tired…)

My run was great! Legs felt good, only took a few minutes to get into the groove of things. I’m starting to run faster and faster with each run I do, making it just a bit further than I did before.

I was shocked at how any people were out running this AM on the Charles River. It was very unusual, until I processed that the Boston Marathon is just around the corner. Yup… that explains it. Lots of new faces out on the river. In an attempt to keep myself entertained, I spotted a pack of runners ahead of me (all dressed the same) and figured they were taking it easy given they are running 26.2 miles on Monday, so I said to myself “go catch them.” I ran a bit faster and after a few minutes of good effort, it was apparent I was not going to catch them… what the heck?! Only until they turned around and headed toward me did I realize that it was a group of Kenyans… yea… no chance I was going to catch up with them. HA!

All the activity was a nice change. What is usually a lonely run was shared with many other athletes this AM and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jus and I are headed to CT this weekend but I’ll be back on Monday to cheer everyone on in the marathon!