Dearest Joe,

Me, humored after reading Joe's blog

Dearest Joe,

I was very humored by your inept attempt to flee the state and get in more heat training than me. Yesterday while I was baking in the sun for upwards of three hours I was wondering "Is Joe heat training like this?" Never mind that I was poolside sipping on margaritas. It was hot.

My research has shown me that it's a mere 55% humidity in San Antonio. It's 78% right now in Louisville. I would like to remind you that we are not doing IM Arizona, it's Kentucky. And they don't do "dry" in Kentucky. Trust me on this one, I have an entire family to prove it. Never mind that in Tucker the humidity is only 45%. This is a minor snafu that will be taken care of once the rain moves in.

So while you are getting friendly with an armadillo in Texas I will be right here, with no A/C on and the dryer running. Wearing my parka and scarf, five pairs of socks, and a portable heating pad, riding my steel mountain bike on my trainer.

Warm regards,

Dani

PS- Delirium is a sign of an oncoming heat stroke, so you may wanna get checked out by a professional.

Good Karma

I forgot to mention that during my Gaps ride I saved another turtle from possible death. He was just chilling out in the road while climbing up Wolfpen. I unclipped myself and brought him to safety. That's my second turtle in one week! Then on the way home Saturday night from dinner there was ANOTHER turtle in the road! I really wanted to stop and get him, but it was on Northlake Parkway which is busy, plus it was dark, etc.

I think that turtle's equal speed. This is good karma people.

Momma rides!

Imagine my surprise when my mom said that she wanted to buy a bike! I went with her to Performance partially for the support and mostly because I wanted the purchase to go on my Team Performance card. Mom's request for a single-gear bike with brakes on the feet was denied because that will limit her too much on where she can ride. Instead she has seven gears and hand brakes.

Today we went to the track so I could run and she could ride without any interference from other cyclist. Momma did much better than I thought she would! She didn't fall and had no problem figuring out how to stop.

My run was less than stellar. Turns out that circles are pretty boring. I eventually ending up doing some sprints. Ouch. With mom chasing me I got down to a 5:57/mile pace. My knee was hurting. Stadium stairs aren't as hard as I remember them being either.

Congrats to momma for riding five or maybe six miles. She is super-stoked that she doesn't have to wear underwear under bike shorts. She is now ready to conquer some "hills" and wants to ride at Stone Mountain. Watch out!

Tales from a serious brake squeezer!

It's 2am and my alarm is set to go off at 5:00 am for my ride at the Gaps. Instead of sleeping I was reading Competitor magazine and wondering what the world record is for the woman's 40k time trial. Should I fire up the computer and search for it? Nope, I will try to sleep instead. Ugh. Remind me in the future that codeine make me WIDE awake! I can't seem to remember not to take it in the evenings!

Despite being majorly tired I got up and made my way up to Dahlonaga with Keith, Bob, Sue, Tat, Steven, Dave, Hunter, Sarah and Olga. Right away Sue started hammering it and Bob followed. Keith, me, Olga, and Sarah attempted to keep them in our eyesight. They're really good climbers! I learned today just how much I don't like descending. There are cool things about the Gaps: the climbing, the nice scenery, the inspirational things still painted on the ground from the Tour (my fav: Dopers Suck!) But what goes up must come down: and this chick doesn't like going down! When you see a sign with squiggly marks on it and there is a runaway truck ramp? Yeah, um that requires a lot of brakes for me. I would hit about 30 mph and just freak and squeeze tighter and tighter. Olga would blow past me in the aero bars-so much confidence! Keith said "You're pretty good at climbing but you suck at descending" Well brakes are like what $40? I would rather burn through a pair than have an accident any day!

After the ride Keith, Bob and I ran for 45 minutes. My legs were no where near as trashed as I thought they would be. It was a pretty descent run, hot, and not as flat as I wanted it to be. But it was the mountains so what did I expect?

In other news Keith no longer wants to be referred to as "Hill Troll". He believes that it has negative connotations. I asked him if he thought that "Mountain Muskrat" sounded better. He doesn't. He likes the nickname "King of the Mountain" or "KOM" but I think after yesterday, Bob has dibs on that one!

Triathlete!

My lower back....

I have been having more issues with my lower back lately and it's becoming very frusterating!

My first problem with my back occuring only when riding. My lower back would go numb. This pain was alleviated when I got properly re-fitting on my bike with Matt from The Sport Factory. He rocks!

During Gulf Coast my back was killing me on the bike. I was so uncomfortable that I spent a lot of the last 20 or so miles out of the aero position. My back was going numb, and the pain wasn't sharp, but it was really uncomfortable.

After GC I got a sports massage. She noticed a lot of muscle twitching in my glutes while working on my left lower back area. I told her that it was very painful and she asked if I had a bulging disc. Nope. I felt better for a couple of days.

But now I am in pain again. Lots of pain. The ride on Sunday left my left lower back screaming. Even after being off Monday and spending hours on the heating pad and stretching I still had to use the bed to help turn myself over in the middle of the night.

Now the pain has started in my butt too. Left lower back, left butt cheek. It's a burning pain in my butt and a tightness in my back.

I did my core, leg, back strength workout today that Matt prescribed. It was really hard to do anything one-legged on my left side. My butt was very unhappy.

Should I give it another week and see the doctor? I am only 26 with back pain already?!? I am about to stretch and spend another couple of hours on the heating pad. Ugh.

Life in the slow lane.....

Yesterday evening at Master's there were small signs up that said "slow" "middle" and "fast" I panicked that they were going to do some sort of segregation on us. Fortunately the signs were for the kids swim team practice that now swims along-side us. These kids are really, really fast. They have horrible form, but they kick and flail themselves to the end of the pool much faster than I do. Sigh. I am jealous. BTW, swimming next to two people who are both doing butterfly stroke, and very fast, is difficult. It makes for some water swallowing and slow swimming. Sigh. I am a slow swimmer. At least it's starting to get warmer outside. The pool doesn't feel wetsuit legal anymore.

During Tuesday's ride Tat and I came around the corner and found a little turtle. Well, the turtle was actually big. I slowed down and Tat yelled "come on let's go!" The animal lover in me feared that the turtle would get run over. Or worse, that a cyclist would come around the corner and hit him. I stopped to pick him up and he leaked something all over me. Either he was incontinent or was full of water from the lake. Either way I put him in the grass and then sprinted off the catch up with Tat.

I am starting to get a little fatigued. I guess 13 hours the week after Gulf Coast may have been a bit much. Nothing to worry about just yet, but I am feeling like I need a nap on a daily basis. The week of Gulf Coast marked the one-year point where I started running after my accident. It's hard to believe that I have only been running for a year! I never thought that I would be at point where the pain in my leg wasn't constant.....but it's becoming less and less apparent every week.

Only 9 more days of training until I start a much needed recovery week!

I am in week 10 of a 24-week Ironman training plan. I am not a mathematician but I gather that means that there is a little less than 14 weeks left. Yikes!

Tour De Cure....

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Tour De Cure raised money for the Diabetes Association. The ride took place on Silk Sheets hillier cousin, Satin Sheets in Tyrone. The Luna Chix were out today. We look very serious in our outfits. We got some Luna Moons and Luna Bars that I look forward to eating.

The plan was to ride the 100k (60ish miles) at a high aerobic pace. Around mile 10 Olga, Maria-Lana, and Don went VROOM past me. I contemplated.....stay with my Luna ladies or chase them down? The back of Olga's jersey was taunting me and my ego made me chase them down. I thought that maybe they would slow down once they saw that I was with them, but no, they kept hammering it. Olga was out in front riding like a madwoman. Then Dan got in front and I thought that they were going to drop me. Surely we wouldn't hold this pace for 45 more miles right? There was a good bit more climbing than I thought there would be out there today, and my legs just aren't into climbing right now. It was my ego that kept me riding today and I reluctantly even took turns pulling my 3 fast comrades.

At one point the RBM team passed us and one of the #$%holes almost ran Olga off the road. What is it with guys on bikes that makes them so rude? Well she drops it into the big chain and latches onto the last guys wheel. Oh. No. Are we really doing this? I had no choice but to downshift and tuck in behind them. I looked down at my computer-31 miles per hour. I did hill repeats yesterday and trust me, my legs weren't exactly loving this. We got to a climb and they guys dropped us. Thank goodness!

Around mile 45ish I got a second wind and no longer felt the need to suck anyone's wheels. We were gobbling up riders left and right and it was fun to sprint the hills when they tried to latch on our wheels. There was a minor incident at the end when we sprinted and Don cut me off and we almost crashed, but we didn't so that's all that matters.

I was very surprised to see my avg HR was only 140 for this ride. I swear that I felt like I was working harder than that. I certainly went a lot faster than I thought I would today. It was a good ride though, very well organized and they put big signs up warning us of holes, RR tracks, etc, which was nice. This course reminded me of Macon, and I wouldn't mind riding down there again.

Hunter turns 40!!!

Hunter turned the epic 4-0 yesterday!!!

Happy Birthday Hunter!

Stopping to smell the roses....

It feels so good to be home and have Gulf Coast behind me! I feel quite relaxed and calm now that it's all over and done with. My recovery has been totally amazing. I was no where near as sore as I thought I would be. After a mini-bike ride Monday I was totally good to go-no more soreness. My left knee is tender like it always is, and I have been icing it a lot.

I rode yesterday at Stone Mountain for 1:40. Bob and I rode a couple of loops, then Dana joined in for one, then Dave, Tat and Steven came. Tat was sporting her new P2C from All3. It's very nice! Dave was representing Cobb County and it was great to have him in our neck of the woods! Although there were no roses to stop and smell, the ride was still fragrant with the sweet smell of honeysuckles. It was a fantastic ride and my HR avg was so low, 128, I thought that maybe there was a problem with my monitor.

Today I wanted to get a run in but had one problem: blisters on my feet. I had this one blister in particular that was really big and on top of my pinkie toe. It made it look like a little cone-head toe. So I had to take matters into my own hands:


Nothing a little time with a syringe couldn't fix!

My plan was to run the big loop at Stone Mountain, but it started to rain so I bailed and went to the gym instead. I did 7 miles on an incline. Knee was bothering me, but if I raced a half-Ironman 4 days ago, my quads, calves, and hammies have no recollection of it.

This evening it was on to Master's swimming for more amazing workouts. I was very sad to learn that the heat has been turned off. No more steamy morning swims for me! Because of this really weird cool weather we are having, the pool was very cold. When I say very cold, I mean like maybe 74 degrees cold. But it may have been colder. I froze the entire time. Coach "I don't care if you're a triathlete when you're here you're a swimmer" Bill tricked me into swimming 800 yards more than I was supposed to. That is what happens when someone is telling you what to do and you can't do quick math in your head. Whatever because I need all the swimming I can get. I couldn't get over how awesome today's swim felt! I was way faster than I thought I would be and when Coach assigned me some IM's then learned I can't do IM's (yet) he made me do something even harder. He told me that I needed to do it because I seemed like I liked a challenge. Oh really?!? Me?!? When he said I could use the pull buoy I declined telling him "that was for emergencies only"

Hope that everyone else is stopping to smell the roses and having a great training week too!

Gulf Coast Triathlon

Me and Sister Madonna Buder, 78 years old, oldest Ironman finisher, a legend!!

How do I even begin to do a race report on this event? I found myself calm on race morning but very emotional. It was unlike most race mornings, I just wanted to burst into tears and I couldn't explain why. My mom called me and just answering the phone made me cry. I couldn't tell her why, I was just so overwhelmed that I was about to do this race! So here's the lowdown:

Can you tell that the swim a bit rough?

The Swim: The swim was not at all what I was expecting. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about how calm the water is at Gulf Coast. Well, not this year. Women were getting in, then just coming back out immediately. The picture shows my wave, about 50 yards in. Everyone promised the water would get better once the whitecaps stopped, but it didn't get better, it got worse. It was hard to see buoys because the swells were so big. I didn't really swim that much freestyle, it was a whole lot of tarzan-like swimming and gulping so much water that I was sure I wouldn't need salt tabs. At the half-way point I was 19 minutes in and feeling okay. Coming back in there was a current that made it feel like we were moving at all. I kept seeing the sand at the bottom of the ocean, and it looked like people were getting close to being able to stand, but when I tried, the water was too deep. I finally made it out, about 6 minutes slower than I projected for myself, feeling like I had spent time in a washing machine not swimming!

The Bike: My goal was to not ride so hard that I blew up on the run. I knew that I could average over 20, but was also aware that I could go so hard that I would blow up too. I wanted to keep my HR below 155. I was surprised to see it stay in the 140's the entire ride. In order to keep it in the 150's I was riding over 23 MPH and I knew that was too fast. So I just dropped it back down and thanked God that something was going my way. The bike felt really effortless and I passed a lot of chicks going out. I was very chipper and made sure that I told everyone that they were looking strong. Not one guy said a word back. Most women said thanks and I was looking strong too. About 20 miles in my back was totally fried. Aero position was very uncomfortable and I had to get out of the saddle a lot. After the turnaround I saw that people were really slowing down a lot. I passed even more people. The wind picked up quite a bit but it didn't do anything to my speed which I was thankful for. Reger passed me at mile 45. I passed him a few minutes later, then he passed me, then I passed him, and finally around mile 51 or 52, he passed me and I didn't put up a fight to catch him. But it was nice to have someone to play cat and mouse with! I got off the bike feeling really wonderful, legs were a lot fresher than I expected them to be. I averaged 21 MPH and although I could have gone faster, I don't think it would have been smart!

The Run: The run started off great. I was clipping off mostly 8:45-9:00 minute miles until mile 5 when I noticed my arms were very hot and beat red. They were also bone dry. I knew immediately what the culprit was: my $#%&*#@@ sunscreen. I was so worried when I bought suncreen that it wasn't going to be breathable. I (thought) that I read all the labels to make sure that I would still be able to sweat. But I clearly didn't (later I read the label and it's "sweat proof") My body was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. My lower back and legs were the only thing that was producing sweat. As it turns out, sweat is a very vital part of cooling your body, both internally and externally, and without sweating, you will overheat. By mile 6 I was totally miserable and was dumping everything I could think of on myself, ice, water, sponges, etc. This turned my socks and shoes into a sloshy mess. By mile 8 I had blisters all over the place and was dizzy. Mile 10 I noticed that my arms were now cold to the touch and covered with goosebumps. I was concerned that I was on the verge of a heatstroke (those are the signs) thank goodness for Tat being in the park (and being a nurse) she ran with me when I was sure that I was going to pass out. She refused to let me walk and promised that I would not die of a heatstroke. The only good news about the run is that I felt like my form didn't break down. Aside from being hot, my body didn't really feel all that bad. Around mile 11 my hips started to bother me, but that was really it.

The finish line wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. Instead of elation that I had finished my first half-Ironman, I felt like my body was 108 degrees. I made my way over to the medical tent where they covered me in ice and cold blankets. They insisted that I was dehydrated although I told them that there was no way because I hadn't been sweating. They poked me 5 times and couldn't get any veins. Finally they hooked me up to and IV bag. The IV made me feel worse, dizzy and a throbbing headache, so I asked them to take it out.

My time was 5:47:29. Not the 5:35-5:40 time I had hoped for. Under different conditions I think the race would have been a better experience for me. But you live and learn, and I figured out a lot of things that I wouldn't have known had I not done this race.

Major appreciation to the "super-fans" Tat, Steven, and Eduardo who came down to cheer us on. Tat even jumped into the medical tent and started giving IV's! You guys rock!

Sudie, Dylan, Steve Brown, and Matt all brought home hardware. You guys rocked it too! Congrats to everyone else who finished strong: Joe, Keith (who was upset he never caught me), Bob, Ashley, Hunter (it was his 1st half too!), Gary, Randy, Sue, and all the others who were out there racing hard in tough conditions.

It's also very sad to learn that an Atlanta resident, Pat Kane, died following the swim portion of the race. The comments that were left on the news story were shocking and very inappropriate given the fact that someone lost their life. Some people are just disgustingly rude.

Click on my Flickr link for the rest of the pics!

Are you ready/ How do you feel?

It seems like everyone has asked me if I am ready to race on Saturday and how I am feeling. I figured for those who didn't ask, they might be wondering.

Are you ready? I am SO ready! I wish that the race was tomorrow! At this point, I have put in all the training that I can, so now it's time to race! In a perfect world I would have started master's in January, and done long rides instead of running the ING and doing the Sprint tri. But I can't turn back time and change things, I just have to be confident in knowing that I have done enough training to get me across the finish line.

How do you feel? REALLY excited! I have never looked forward to something that will be this painful in my entire life! The beach, friends, unlimited beer at the after party and a race? Who wouldn't be excited! Actually, I was a bit worried at the beginning of the week. My lower back was still hurting( especially while swimming) and my left hip/buttock areawas very tight. My knee started acting up the way it always does during a taper week. I was also exhausted and my body just wanted to sleep. I told myself that I have trained hard for three weeks, and I am just showing the normal signs. I got a (ouch) sports massage yesterday and my back didn't hurt at Master's last night! This morning I was thinking that maybe the sports massage was a bad idea because I was MORE sore, but after intense icing like she told me to, I feel 100% better. I was on the trainer today thinking- if I feel this good on Saturday it's going to be a great day!

My step-dad asked me what I expected of the race. I told him I am not sure, but I expect that I will 1) finish and 2) it will hurt. Those are about the only things that I am totally certain of at this point. Since this is my first half-ironman I am using it to help me better understand long-distance triathlon, and assess where my body is in terms of my Ironman in August.

Have I told you that I was EXCITED? We leave early tomorrow morning, not a moment too soon! I have packed everything I own related to triathlon, including two wetsuits, the race wheels are on the bike, and my coffee is pre-set for the morning, I am ready!

Good Times....

It was a *wild* weekend for me, and by wild I mean that I actually stayed up past 10:30 p.m. three nights in a row!!! Friday night I had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with Victor, Karen, and Christy. Saturday morning I got up very early to get up to Red Top Mountain for an open water swim. Technically that wasn't a social outing, but it sort of was. Major apologies to Bob and Sue for sending them to the beach when the rest of us were at the dock! Oops! Also, Hunter needs props for swimming in 60 degree water with no wetsuit!

Saturday night we went to the Braves game. Go Braves! It was great because I went to high school with both Jeff Francouer (RF Braves) and Jeff Kepinger (2nd Base Reds) so it was fun to see them play against each other.

After my ride on Sunday I took Poncey and Bella to the doggie park to play with Tat and Steven's dogs, Boo and Oscar. Hunter and Keith came by also. We clearly all love each other a lot to spend this much time together! After dropping the dogs back home we went up to Roswell to support Diego who was racing in the Crit. I will say that this was the most boring athletic event I have ever watched in my entire life. It was mostly older people drinking wine. There was very little cheering going on and only 1 cowbell! After about an hour outside my throat starts closing up and I can't breath. So all this time outdoors left me feeling like I was getting sick. I am really looking forward to Florida and (hopefully) no allergies!

The same only different....

Since my last race didn't go as planned, I wanted to be better prepared for Gulf Coast. So Sunday I woke up and ate the exact same thing I plan to for race day. I wore the exact same outfit (new Luna tri kit) and headed out to the Silver Comet. Last week after my long ride I ran six miles. My stomach didn't feel too hot, it was a mix of nausea and feeling really heavy. Bob was telling me about his race day nutrition and it sounded like a good idea so I stole his nutrition plan and tried it out for myself.

Things were going great until I realized that my bottle of perpetum was gone. I was not a happy camper because that was 250 calories that I was going to need to make it back in. Thank goodness I found it coming back in, randomly sitting on the side of the trail.

Spotted Reger riding with some people, and almost hit a big turtle coming back in. I thought about going back to get it, but then didn't have a good place to put it so I kept going.

I was really disappointed that it wasn't hotter. It was actually almost chilly. So I hopped off the bike, practiced a quick transition, and decided for some added heat I would put on my compression socks and Luna Jacket. Seriously?!? It was hotter than Haiti and while I was thankful that my stomach felt fine (thanks Bob!) I was pouring sweat and my jacket was soaked through after only 10 minutes. Boo-Yah Joe!

56 miles total ride.....let the magical taper begin!

Horoscope knows a lot!

Oddly, my horoscope is always close to being correct. This is just the one that pops up on MSN's website, but it always seems to know what kind of mood I am in. Today I have started to feel jittery about racing a half-Ironman in one week! I am going over things like nutrition, hydration, pacing strategies, etc,etc, over and over again.

Here's my horoscope: You may sense a nervous restlessness today, dear Cancer, that is egging you on to take action. A journey to one place may have you bouncing off to another place that may lead you on an adventure to someplace completely different. It may seem as if you are on some crazy scavenger hunt towards a pot of gold. The energy of the day may leave you feeling ragged, but don't give up. Persistence will pay off in the long run.

Off to seek my pot of gold!

Not the advice that I wanted!

I sent out an SOS e-mail to a former professor of mine who specializes in environmental physiology. His research is based on heat, so he knows all about this acclimating that I am trying to do. For the record, I have declined to participate in any of his "studies" because they require that you have your temperature taken rectally. Not my idea of fun.

So I e-mail him asking what else I can do to get ready for the heat and his response is:

"Your best bet is to go to the environment you will be racing in and spend a couple of weeks training there. Your next best bet is to simulate the environment you will be training in. In other words, train in a environmental chamber. But that's probably not an option. There's really not a magic fix here. You can try the sauna thing (probably not at an extreme temperature that saunas are usually set at), but you may be dealing with training at a reduced capacity. In other words, training dehydrated a bit possibly. Think realistically about this though, it's just a race. Your not an Olympian or a sponsored professional so even though you are big into racing it's really not a huge deal if you don't do as well as you would like. And let's say that you are as heat acclimatized as you possibly can be, even then would you be at the top of the pack? I don't know the exact answer to that question and I'm not saying you wouldn't be, but I'm just trying to get you to think more realistically and just have fun. So what if you finish a few minutes slower than you want to. JUST HAVE FUN and try to be more prepared for the next race. I hope you don't take this as me insulting you because I'm not trying to. I just want you to look at the big picture."
Take care and good luck,JW

Clearly the Dr. doesn't understand the importance of me being a professional age-group athlete! :) But I will try to listen anyways!

Something isn't right.....

It's a really weird thing to try and run in the "heat of the day" at the end of April, in Georgia, and it's not even hot! I went out to the hooch yesterday and got in 9.5 miles. I have forgotten how hard the hooch is on my anterior tibilias muscle on my left leg. I did feel good though, and I didn't hit the wall, which is awesome because I have been doing that a lot lately on my runs. Oddly when I finished running there wasn't a drop of sweat on my shirt. Not one wet spot. It was in the 70's but felt kind of cool to me (thank you heat training) and no Joe, I didn't have on a jacket! But no sweat?!? I always sweat even when it's cold! Weird.

My allergies are still out of control and after running I was on the phone with Tat and could hardly breathe! My throat felt like it was closing up on me and I was hacking up some serious grossness. My stomach started hurting which I think had something to do with all the mucus. I am over flowers and trees and everything else that has pollen on it! Meds aren't even touching the allergies and I am even choking while swimming outside! I am hoping that PCB will be allergy free for me because I don't like this crap at all.

For Freddy: The Brooks? Friggin' awesome! Very stiff and supportive. I could see where some people might think that they are too stiff. I am trying to move away from the heavily cushioned shoes and try to get as close to natural as possible. My arch feels much better and it was nice meeting you the other day!

Anyone wanting some open water swim practice!?! Head out to Red Top Mountain Saturday and meet us as 8 a.m. on the beach. Something tells me that the water will be cold, so bring a wetsuit if you have one.

Oh and who was the person that complained about Emory's pool being too hot?!? You aren't smart at all because they turned that sucker WAY down! This morning it was 50 degrees at 5:30 a.m. and the last thing I wanted was to see that the pool wasn't steamy and hot! Heat training people?!? Ever heard of it? Hot is the new cool!