Team Luna Chix Swim Clinic!!!

Swim Clinic for Women

Where: Marist High School Pool - 3790 Ashford Dunwoody Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30319 When: 05-31-2009 Session One: 12pm-3pm Session Two: 3:30pm-6:30pm
Whether you are a beginner swimmer or advanced, join the women of Team LUNA Chix Atlanta Tri Team for a fun and highly educational swim clinic to benefit the Breast Cancer Fund.Each swimmer will experience extensive pool time and the clinic includes the following:
• Videotaping of each swimmer
• Analysis of each swimmer’s stroke and “limiters”
• Specific drills to improve stroke
• Proper stroke technique and drills will be demonstrated and practiced
• Suggestions for further swim training to achieve individual goals
• Free samples of LUNA sports nutrition products

Clinic Instructor: Coach Tim Storsteen
• Former All American and scholarship swimmer at Clemson University
• Ten years of coaching experience for U.S. Swimming, U.S. Masters Swimming, YMCA, and Triathlon Swim Coaching and certified with American Swim Coaches Assn.
• Masters Coach for Westminster Killer Whales

Registration
*ONLY 10 SPOTS AVAILABLE IN EACH SESSION*
Please register by May 24th. Send an email to teamlunachixatl@gmail.com and additional details will be provided. Pre-payment is required to reserve your spot otherwise the clinic is first come first serve! Note: must be able to swim 100 yards to participate. Cost is $100 per swimmer and 50% will be donated to Breast Cancer Fund! Cash is preferred. We will also accept checks, but no credit or debit cards.

I went to Panama City Beach and came back with a hickey!

Okay so the title of this post may be slightly misleading....it really should say Gulf Coast Race Report 2009. But I really did go to PCB and come back with a hickey so I guess it's not totally false! Here is the low-down of the race!

I felt good going into Gulf Coast. I knew that pending nothing horrible happening I would have a good race, and I would PR. This was my second time racing the half-Ironman distance. So far it's my favorite distance to race. Friday the swim wasn't as bad as everyone else seemed to think. Master's swimming all year has paid off and I felt good. I swam without a wetsuit because the water was really warm and I was pretty confident that it would be not be wetsuit legal.

So here is how my race went!

The Swim: This was the part of the race that had me the most excited. I had an AWFUL swim last year and was sure that this year I would be in the 36-37 minute range. Right away my goggles filled up with water. I tried to adjust them but it wasn't really working. Out of no where, my goggles came off and floated away into the ocean!! What the heck? I looked for them but they were obviously gone forever. Suck. Suck. Suck. At that exact moment I saw Tat and yelled for her. I don't know what I was going to say, but she was stopped and so was I, so it seemed resonable to call her name. She didn't hear me and swam off. I figured that I would swim with my eyes closed. Unfortunately my eyes were burning from the several brief
seconds when my goggles came off and my eyes were under water. I was totally unprepared for this and had no idea what to do. I swam with my eyes closed and got totally off course several times. I swam breast stroke and hardly got anywhere. So I decided to swim tarzan style! I made it out of the water with a nice hickey on my neck from my wetsuit, and eyes that were more red and puffy than Cheech and Chong! Despite my goggle malfunction I still swam faster than last year! My goal time was 37minutes, and I was 4 minutes and some change off that! Oh well! Next year!

The Bike: I had a game plan for the bike this year: HOLD BACK! Ride it at Ironman heartrate zone. Feel awesome the whole time. Do not push it. Repeat: DO NOT push it! I am SO happy that everything went according to plan! I was using a disc race wheel which was my only regret on the bike. It was windy and I felt uncomfortable, like I was being blown all over the place. There was no way to know that it was going to be that windy, because the Friday before the race it was not really windy at all. That is just a risk that you take when you use a disc! The bike course seemed a lot more deserted than it did last year. I remember huge packs of guys coming whizzing by me. This year I only got passed by about 5 or 6 guys. Only one chick passed me, Shelley Ruiz, and we played the ultimate game of cat and mouse passing each other almost 20 times! She is a bike coach with the Atlanta Tri Club (so am I) so that was fun! I was trying really hard to stick to my game plan and not push myself when she would pass me. I ended up with a 2:37 bike split, 21.4 avg mph, faster than last year!

The Run: Remember my awesome game plan of not pushing it on the bike? Well apparently I didn't push it enough because my legs felt really good when I got off. Too good because my first mile came in at a 7:20 something pace. Ouch. I tried hard to real myself in but it took another mile at a ridiculously fast pace before my body adjusted to what my mind was thinking. I slowed down. Then I slowed down some more. I honestly felt great until the most God-awful blisters I have ever had in my entire life started cropping up around mile 7-8. I am a total weirdo about not having my feet wet. I cannot stand it. So I wore a glove and filled it with ice instead of dumping water on my head. It worked really well. I peed in the port-o-potty in transition so that wasn't an issue. I guess that at some point you just start sweating a lot when it's hot as a motha! The best part about the run was that nothing really hurt that much. My hips felt great, my knees didn't hurt, no back issues, not one single cramp (although I thought I felt a calf cramp coming on). The only thing that was not good was my nutrition. My plan was to eat two gels on the run. Maybe three. I usually only take 2 gels for a 10-13 mile run with just water. Well this year there were no gels on the course, only Clif Bloks. Those things TEAR me up! I ate three and was like NO WAY! So I went without, I felt a little bonky around mile 10 so I stopped and had two orange slices and some flat cola. This was my first attempt at a long run with no gels and I didn't like it. Lesson learned: don't trust the pre-race booklet about nutrition. ALWAYS pack your own! My run time was 2:06:55 an 11-minute improvement over last year!

My overall finishing time was 5:33:24 which was much better (14 minutes!) than last years 5:47. I placed sixth in my age group and got an award! I was the 32nd overall female out of 296 finishers and I was the 209th overall finisher out of 999 finishers. I am happy with my results for the first time in a long time! It felt great to have a good race, podium, have the amazing support of my friends and family, and be able to race with such an awesome group of local tri geeks! I was off my goal time, but considering what I was dealing with, I was totally whole with my race and my results. I didn't let the swim mess me up, and I stuck to my race strategy. I learned a lot during this race and I am looking for another half distance race to do because this was so much fun!

Congrats to EVERYONE who showed up, completed, placed, and supported down in Florida. You guys are awesome and it was really appreciated. Pics are up on Facebook!

Big Pimpin'......

Tomorrow I am leaving for Panama City Beach for my first race of the season! Woot! So very excited to get this done and over with. I had some pretty high expectations of myself but after my little stomach virus episode last week, I am not sure if I will be able to have the race I dreamed of having a few weeks ago. One thing is for sure: I MUST PR! That is my only real goal. Of course, I have goal splits that are written down, and a super-secret goal time, but I want to keep that super-secret for now.

In the meantime my bike is pimped out and ready to rock and roll! It looks like it will be hot, which is why the race is called "Gulf Roast" I have my Michael Jackson white glove that I will be wearing and filling with ice. Don't hate. It works. It also looks like the water is warm this year, and most likely won't be wetsuit legal. Of course I will bring mine because I know that these things can change pretty quickly. Chance of showers....I don't care if it rains as long as I am OFF the bike.

Good luck to all my fellow racers that will be out there representing their hard work this weekend! Can't wait to see everyone (too many people to even start to mention!) Look for me out on the course in my bright blue Luna kit!

Sunday Funday!

Today has been quite the day already!

I did a reverse triathlon: 6.35 mile run, 1.5 hr ride, 1.2 mile swim. Felt good, the best that I have felt all week. I may actually be returning to normal here shortly! Yay! My confidence to no longer slacking for Gulf Coast. I went through some old Garmin files and realized that I have put in the training, I just need to relax and let whatever happens happen this week!

After my triathlon I ran errands, gave both the dogs a bath and an extra long run, did laundry and now I am TIRED. Going to pick up some yummy Mai Tai takeout and do some stretching then call it a day!

Hope your Sunday was a funday too!

Party like a rockstar!

Things were moving along quite nicely in triathlon training land for me until last week. I have been partying like a rockstar, drinking too much beer, staying up WAY too late and still getting my training in! Oddly my times are improving despite doing all the things that are supposed to be horrible for tri training. I ran the fastest 12 miles ever, on 4.5 hours of sleep, and 6 beers (and maybe a half bottle of wine too!). That was a huge confidence booster! My biking and swimming were getting much stronger too.....until the friggin' swine flu hit me and I have been down ever since!

Last Sunday was to be the last big hoorah before my half taper and full taper weeks. The plan was to do a little Reger-like triathlon. I woke up Sunday feeling a little quesy. I ate a light breakfast because my tummy didn't seem to want to eat a lot. I headed out to the SC and decided to ride 56 miles in the following segments: 20 miles easy, next 20 moderate: last 16 hard. I ended up with an avg speed of 19.3 after the first 20, 19.8 after mile 40 and finished up at 20.1. I was pleased with that but noticed that my tummy was still hurting and I didn't take in enough calories. I figured that I was dehydrated from previous nights beer drinking and the fact that I didn't get much sleep. I started off on my hour run and ran into Matt (Kelly's husband) I saw Kelly out riding, she took an unfortunate spill on the bike but still managed to get her 70 miles in. Go Kelly! When Matt saw me running he decided to turn around and run back in with me. Oh. My. God. Seriously? Matt is way too fast to even think about running with me. He was jogging and I was running. Acutally it was really good for me because he was pushing me to run faster than I felt like running. At that point my stomach was not happy and I was pretty sure I was just hungry. I finished up my run and was pleased with my time and distance.

Sunday night all hell broke loose. I started puking and didn't stop until 5am Monday morning. My back was hurting so badly that I was crying. I was in more pain then when I broke my leg! I called my mom that morning because I honestly thought that I had spinal meningitus, the swine flu, or some type of parasite that was going to kill me. I was throwing up water, had taken three scalding hot baths, and was using every form of heat that I could find and was still miserable. Mom came over and took me to the doctor a couple hours later and they sent me to the hospital. Suckity suck. I hate hospitals. A CT scan, ultrasound, bloodwork, and several bags of IV fluids later, they told me that I wasn't going to die. That would come next week at mile 9 or so of the run at Gulf Coast.

So today is Friday and I have only done one swim so far. I attempted a run and got two miles before I almost puked on Wednesday. Today I went to the hooch for a 10-miler. I made it 3.5 miles before I got dizzy and threw up. I think my body is trying to tell me something! I know in my head that I am still not 100% but my body wants to train so desperately! I have not gotten caught up on my sleep either this week, and I feel fat and lazy.

Thanks to everyone who checked in with me in my ill state! I appreciate it! I am going to attempt some training this weekend, more for confidence than any actual gains in my fitness. I REALLY hope that I can kick this before next weekend!