The Comeback Kid

Yo, what up?

2009-09-13T18:06:00.002-04:00

Okay so my blogging has been non-existent as of lately. I have been so busy/tired/overwhelmed lately that blogging hasn't had much appeal.

But now that I am unable to run or bike I have plenty of time on my hands!

My meniscus is torn is my left knee. It's going to require a scope to sew it back together. If there is enough cartilidge left in the knee they are going to shave it down so that more will regrow. I am hoping that the surgery will leave me in better shape than I am in now. I am broke down. My hamstring is so tight that my hip flexor is hypermobile and hurts all the time. Because of the meniscus tear all my weight bearing has shifted to the outside of my leg causing me to develop IT band syndrome. Like I said, pretty broke down. But my spirits are still high, I have overcome far worse injuries than this. I am able to ride indoors with light resistance, do weights with my lower body, and of course, swim. Oh how much I am going to swim! :)I am doing a month of pre-hab exercises to help strengthen my stabilizing muscles before the surgery. So much fun!

In the meantime I have taken up endurance baking. I am seriously loving baking right now! I have made homemade peanut butter cookies, a homemade carrot cake, and currently in the oven are fruit and nut bars. Other things on my to-do list are a scrapbook and possibly some cross stiching. Life's about to get exciting folks!

I am alive and well!!

2009-07-12T17:16:00.004-04:00

I am here! Been so super busy that blogging has taken a back seat. Lot's of things been going on though....I raced at Irongirl Triathlon. It was fun, it was a "C" race for me so my goal time was 1:33:30 (yes I even had the seconds!) My actual time was 1:33:23 so I was happy with that! Sprints hurt! It was fun to race at an event where so many ladies were doing their first triathlon, they were so excited that it made it really special for me! Plus I was coaching a couple of ladies who were racing, and supporting them was fun!

Last weekend I went up to the Gaps for some good ole' fashioned arse kicking. For some reason I was convinced to go up Brasstown Bald (3 mile climb, highest elevation point in GA) Made it about 2 miles when a truck started honking at me. I was weaving all over the place because it was the only way that I could ride. I was going 2 mph, the power meter said it was 16.5 % incline and my power wattage was over 300. I had to stop. I literally felt like I was going to fall over! There was this amazing 16 y/o rider from Columbia with us, he kept trying to get me to start again by clipping in and holding on to his dad's car ( he was our sag wagon) I was like "you obviously do not know my bike handeling skills!! I ended up turning around only to find that the hill was too steep for me to get back on my bike. I walked it to a safe place and mounted the bike, squeezing my brakes as tight as possible, still going really fast. The rest of the ride was much easier, we did Hogpen last and it seemed much more managable than last time. 50 miles total. Good times!

So I am slowly reintroducing myself to the long stuff. Took too long of a break after Gulf Coast because I wasn't training for anything that required too much work. Rode 56 miles yesterday with Big Brown. He liked to kill me when he rode off and I was trying to catch him going 27 mph (it was FLAT) He likes to see me suffer!

Hope that everyone else is having an awesome summer and training hard! Congrats to everyone that raced today at Chattanooga! Heard that you guys were killing it out there!!

West Point Lake Triathlon

2009-06-16T18:08:00.002-04:00

West Point Lake Tri is going down in history as the very first time in my triathlon life that I have ever not wanted to race. I ALWAYS want to race. I would race every weekend if I could afford it. That is how much I love to race. This time? Not so much. It turns out that racing is only fun when you train correctly. My training? All over the place. Seriously. 10,000 meters in the pool on week.....then 10 days off from swimming. Climb Hogpen.....take a five day break from the bike. Me without a plan or a purpose is obviously pretty ugly. But....like my dad says excuses are like buttholes, everyone's got one. And for me? No excuse other than just being a bit lazy coming off Gulf Coast. So here is the skinny:

Swim: Yikes. Windy. Lake was choppy and I still can't sight worth a flip. Went off course. Matt caught me, tried to draft off him for the last 400 yards or so but he is fast little bugger. Couldn't find a good rhythm, stopped and took off my goggles to look for the buoys once and realized I was WAY off course. Gotta work on those siting skills! Swim time: 30:12 a perfect 2 min/100 meter pace....WAY too slow!

Bike: Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Usually love the bike. Not today. More negative thoughts went through my head than ever before. Thought about DNF'ing because my back, hamstrings and feet were numb. Thought about quitting triathlon. Dropped my chain and was pissed but able to get it on without stopping. Mad at myself for not changing the 11-21 cassette. Just in a BAD mood on the bike. I hate being negative! Couldn't come up with anything positive....then I started thinking about how lucky I was to be able to race in the first place! I am alive! I am healthy! Quit being a whinner! Bike time: 1:13:52 (20.2 MPH)

Run: Actually didn't feel that bad on the run. Only took one gel in on the bike so I bonked around mile 3 but other than that it wasn't that awful. Wanted to it a minute faster than I acutally did. but considering the amount of speed training I have done, I am happy with the results. Didn't get passed too much. Saw my Luna Chix Leslie and Sharon on the course which pepped me up! The Atlanta Triathlon Club volunteers were all out in full force which was fun too! Run time: 51:47 (8:22 pace)

Total Time: 2:37:44 5th place AG, 16th female OA, 118th overall male and female
Goal Time: 2:36:29

Why 2:36:29 as a goal? That was Keith's time from last year and some ice cream was riding on it! Missed it by 1 minute 15 seconds! But we had the EXACT same bike split! How odd is that?

The quest for Brusters continues......

Free Beginners Triathlon Clinic!!!

2009-06-12T15:18:00.002-04:00

Team Luna Chix is hosting a FREE beginners triathlon clinic this Sunday, June 14th from 2-3 p.m. at the Concourse Athletic Club (8 Concourse Parkway Atlanta 30328) we will be covering basic topics including transitions, what to expect, what to bring, bike safety, tips on what to wear, nutrition, USAT rules and regulations, and much more! We will have Luna product to share and will be accepting donations for the Breast Cancer Fund.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Augusta 70.3

2009-06-09T09:43:00.003-04:00

It appears that EVERYONE is doing this race! Like honestly, almost every triathlete that I know is going to either be racing Augusta, or there volunteering. You know how much I hate being left out of the action, so I took the plunge and signed up for the race! Yay! I am MORE than excited! I have been pretty lazy since Gulf Coast, not really following any particular training plan with no "A" race scheduled for myself. It's good to have something that I actually HAVE to train for. (Technically I don't really follow any type of plan for sprints of Oly distance races!)

In other news I am going to attempt to race this weekend at West Point Lake. Yikes. So little race specific training usually equals lots of misery. The heat will be brutal I am sure. Olympic distance racing seems to be the hardest for me! No real goals for me, just trying to qualify for some Bruster's from Scootsie if I can make a certain time goal (a very ambitious one I might add!)

Come holla at me if you see me! Some of the Luna Chix will be there too! I will be at the Atlanta Tri Club tent after the race!

The Hogpen Hillclimb

2009-06-04T09:41:00.003-04:00

I am so excited that I FINALLY got to ride up Hogpen! I have wanted to do this forever-but getting up to the Gaps is always such a hassle and never seems to fit in with the rest of my training. So when Scoots invited me along for a Gaps trip last weekend, I knew that I couldn't resist!

I have heard SO much about Hogpen, I was a little apprehensive about a climb that has left many of my friends off their bikes and walking their first time up. But it wasn't really half as bad as it's made out to be. It would have been a lot easier had I not accidently took a tramadol (pain killer) after Unicoi Gap. Oops. That was totally supposed to be for the leg pain after the ride! I got super-dizzy and sick to my stomach. But somehow I managed to make it up Hogpen and back down! My goal was not to let the mountain goat Scoots get out of sight. I can't wait to climb like that one day!

We rode a total of about 48-50 miles. It was blazing hot because we didn't start until 11am! The best part was that I didn't freak out at all on the descents, because honestly they were nothing compared to what I dealt with in Cali! After the ride was over I was even more dizzy and nauseated (pain killers on an empty stomach aren't a good idea!) We made an emergency stop at Zaxby's so I could hug the porecelin for a few minutes and then I felt better!

Congrats to Aaron for riding up Hogpen his FIRST trip to the Gaps! That's awesome!

Happy Training!

Team Luna Chix Swim Clinic!!!

2009-05-19T19:41:00.001-04:00

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!

2009-05-12T15:50:00.004-04:00

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'......

2009-05-06T07:22:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-05-03T16:50:00.001-04:00

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!

2009-05-01T15:43:00.004-04:00

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!

Yes, I am alive!!!!

2009-04-16T15:31:00.005-04:00

I have been having fun, working training really hard half the time and not at all the rest of the time, went to California for Team Luna Chix Summit and had the most amazing time! The pic above shows me riding in Saulsalito which was SO beautiful. My blogger is acting somewhat weird, so I cannot edit the pics, but hopefully there is another pic on here that shows Sarah and I riding our bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was scary looking out over the water but at the same time totally amazing and incredible! Training in California was for sure WAY different than being in Georgia! I was afraid that once I got back I would not want to do anything here, but it turns out that I was able to suck it up and did 70 on the Silver Comet all by my lonesome self!

Questions for those of you still reading: What is the most awesome running sock ever created? Preferrably with arch support? I am in need of some new socks. I have tried most brands already. I like thin socks but they seem to make my feet really hot when I run. Running right now has been tough for me because of a nasty fall I took last weekend at Stone Mountain on the covered bridge portion of the trail. Ugh. I attempted to run this week but this was all I was able to do: 10 min warm-up at 6.5 mph, 16 min at 8.0, then I had to stop...knee was just acting too crazy and I was over compensating for the bad knee with my hip and didn't want to jack that up too! I have been doing some meridian stretching which has been interesting and helpful. It's a workout too though and leaves me pretty sore.

I am having to hold myself back from going into a training frenzy right now! Gulf Coast is going to be here so soon (May 9th!) and I am sort of freaked out about my knee and the fact that I took 10 days off from swimming due to an ear infection. Ugh. So far this week I have already trained almost 5.5 hours and it's only Thursday, AND I still have to do a 90 min bike and 30 min run. The good news in all of this is that I have finally figured out my nutrition and cleaned up my eating habits once and for all! I have been getting my body fat testing and work and went from 20% to 19% to 16.8%!! So excited about that! The 16.8% in 8 weeks is awesome, but the best part is that I have only lost 1 pound! This means that I have turned fat into muscle, which is okay because more muscle equals higher VO2 Max, metabolism, and hopefully more strength on the bike and run!

Getting 2 Tri/ Raisin Hope

2009-03-23T21:51:00.004-04:00

Saturday I was very fortunate enough to be able to volunteer with Mike Lenhart's organization, Getting 2 Tri. If you have never heard of Mike or his group, I suggest that you check out his website. They are incredible people! I was paired up with another guy named Mike to be his "handler". We met up at Ga Tech and the first thing he said was "wow....I really like your legs." Mike was hilarious! I accidentally bumped into his leg and apologized without really thinking about it. Mike's response was "Don't worry, I didn't feel it!" I wanted to know his story but was apprehensive about whether or not it was okay to ask. Mike was a totally open book and happy to share!He is 31 years old and was in the Army stationed in Iraq when his convoy drove over a roadside bomb. He lost both legs below the knee. It happened on August 17, 2007. August 19, 2007 was when I made my comeback race from breaking my leg. Thinking about this caused me to be so grateful and realize how blessed that I am that I was able to make such a good recovery and that my long-term, permanent damage was nothing compared to these athletes. We spent the majority of our ride deep in conversation about our situations, what he felt after his accident, what life is like now, etc. It is amazing to think about what he has been through in such a short period of time!

Mike is training for the 2012 London Paraolympics. He is a hand cyclist and does the marathon event. We went out to the Silver Comet to ride for an hour before lunch. During our ride Mike was really the handler because he has a mirror on his bike. He warned me of cyclist coming, etc, etc. The people on the trail that day kept looking and looking at us and one lady wanted to take photos! Most of the athletes were hand cyclist that were missing limbs or paralyzed, so I guess it was unusual to see so many at the same time!

After our ride we headed to the depot for lunch. That is where I met Saul Raisin. For those of you who don't know, Saul was a professional cyclist who was involved in a horrible accident. He was in a coma and recovered, but had to learn to do everything again. He still has some lasting brain injury and started an organization, Raisin Hope, that raises awareness and gives support to people with traumatic brain injury. Saul is still able to ride now, but cannot compete professionally due to liability reasons. He has switched over to the triathlon world and is competing in Ironman Hawaii! After chatting for a few minutes we decided to head out and ride more. I was REALLY looking forward to him laying it on me and making me hurt, but he went easy on me! He blew through all the intersections (don't worry, I told him that he had to stop!) and I enjoyed listening to him talk about training in Europe, his lactate threshold testing numbers, the book he wrote, and what his life is like after his accident. He lives in Dalton and in September there is going to be a century to benefit his charity. It would be awesome to go out there and support everyone!

On the way back in from our ride we passed by Mike who was testing out someone else's bike that was a "kneeler". As we rode past him he yelled "Danielle, don't leave with my legs in your car!!!!" His legs WERE in my car and I probably wouldn't have driven off with them in the front seat (they weighed a thousand pounds!) The look on the faces of the ladies jogging was too funny for words.

I got my 3.5 hours of training in although it was broken up and took almost 7 hours, but I didn't care. I left the Silver Comet with a renewed sense of appreciation for things in life and a better attitude. Complain about training? Not me!

Guys say the darndest things....

2009-03-19T08:59:00.003-04:00

So I am at work (Concourse Athletic Club) and I am watching some guys play Squash (my new fav sport...SO hard!) There is a guy sitting by the wall and I look at him and notice that he looks really familiar. Here is our exact conversation:

Me: "I know you from somewhere"
Him: "Is it because I look like Ashton Kutcher?"
Me: "Actually no....you just look familiar...like one of my brothers friends"
Him: "All the ladies say that"
Me: "Right. Do you know Scott Grabol?"
Him: "OMG!!! Are you Danielle Grabol? I used to be your neighboor! You drove me to school for like two years! You totally corrupted me! You gave me my first alcohol! Are you REALLY Danielle Grabol?"
Me: "SHHHH! Be quiet, I WORK here! Yes, I am Danielle!"
Him: (Standing up and staring at me kind of funny) "I just can't believe it's you....I remember you being a lot bigger and uglier."
Me: "Excuse me?!?"
Him: " I mean I just don't remember you being so pretty in high school."
Then I SWEAR I am not making this next part up. He took my water bottle, opened it and drank out of it! When I looked at him like I was going to smack him clear across the room he said "What? I am thirsty!" SERIOUSLY??

In other, better news, I PR'd last Saturday at Silver Comet 10k. 48:33, 7:49 avg pace. Didn't feel as bad as I thought it would. 9/89 in my age group and 39th female overall out of 400 something. I was surprised, I usually place much lower in running races. Guess the speedsters all ran the CRR 10k the week before.

Water logged.....

2009-03-13T09:28:00.003-04:00

Now that I am a seasoned masters swimmer (I have been swimming it for a month!) I will admit that I absolutly cannot swim on my own. It's like the worse feeling in the world to go into a pool and have no peer pressure.

This week was SUPPOSED to be a recovery week. Week #12 out of 20 in my half-Ironman training plan. What's that mean? 8 weeks left until Gulf Coast! Coach Pete doesn't believe in "recovery" when it comes to swimming. So that means that my swimming yardage for the week is currently 7500 yards with one more swim left! Yesterday's main set was 15x100 at hard effort. I didn't swim that hard though because after that we still had to do 4x300's at our best pace. I was so afraid of burning my arms out that I took it relatively easy. The wonderful (and surprising) thing was that my "easier" pace now is what I would have considered my all-out pace last season! Can I just tell you how much I heart master's? Even the times where we have to swim backstroke and breaststroke? Anyways......

Tomorrow I am PR hunting at the Silver Comet 10k. This will be the 4th 10k that I have ever run outside of triathlon. It's probably my favorite distance in running. A little bit easier than a 5k but no where near as time consuming as a half-marathon. It's right in the middle, you know you worked really hard, but not too hard to need to climb down that stairs backwards. Since it's flat I am thinking my odds of setting a personal record should be pretty good. I got a massage this week and my quads are WAY more tender than I would like them to be the day before a race. Hope to see you guys out there!

Funny (and random) story. I am at the Concourse getting ready to swim and a woman asks me "Excuse me, but what type of cellulite creme do you use on your legs? They look great!" Me: "Oh this isn't from a creme. It's from working hard." Ha...ha...some people want the easy way out of everything!

Amazing, incredible baby Ashley....

2009-03-04T20:17:00.003-05:00

I have to admit that it's a funny feeling seeing Ashley. From the moment Karen knew she was pregnant Ashley is ALL that we have talked about. 9 months of baby talk makes you very anxious to meet the little bugger! Friday night Karen checked into the hosptial and I watched a movie with her and her husband. Saturday she was being induced and we weren't really sure what was going to happen, but she made me PROMISE that I would be there with her....so I was there! Like really there, as in there for 19 hours. Holy moly. That was a long night. Karen had some excellent pain control by the wonderful labor and delivery nurses at Northside hospital so she slept through a lot of her labor. The rest of us? We sat up watching to size of her contractions and placing bets on how much the baby was going to weigh.

The action finally got going around 1:30 a.m. Honestly, it was no where near as bad as I thought it was going to be. Karen kicked everyone out of the room except me, her husband, and our other BFF Christy. I should have read a book or taken a class or something, because I didn't know the breathing patterns, or how fast to count, or anything other than the nurse handing me a leg. I realize this may sound weird to some of you, why would you want your two best friends watching something like this? You have to understand Karen. She doesn't do pain alone. Ever. When we were in high school I would go to the dentist with her because she couldn't stand the thought of having her cavities filled. So we are friends like that!

Overall the experience was pretty amazing. Karen's husband was a rock. Totally incredible. They are so much closer after the experience. I am still in a bit of shock and awe and have to say that being a woman is really awesome. No offense to men, but y'all just couldn't hang with the whole birthing of a baby.

The baby? Ashley Madeline, 7 lb 14 oz (Karen's sister in law won the pot of $60 for guessing the weight) she is angelic. Red hair, blue eyes, rosey cheeks and a little red nose, it really makes her look perfect. I have been to see her everyday and it's hard to not take her home. Even her cries are perfect~ sounds like a little bird chirp. I am sure that all this will change in time, but I am enjoying my new goddaughter in all her perfection right now!

To run or not to run??

2009-02-26T09:56:00.004-05:00

Saturday is the Thrills in the Hills half marathon. It's a trail run, and I have never had the pleasure of racing a trail run before. I am trained for it, well, as trained as I can get, and I have run 11 miles on the trails, so I am pretty sure that I can manage 13.1 miles on Saturday. The problem? It's gonna rain. Plus my best friend in the whole world is going into the hospital Friday night and will be induced on Saturday. What to do???

I really don't want to run in the rain. I am a wussy enough about trails without the added danger of running when it's wet. I have never run on these trails before, which already makes them kind of scary.

Karen seems to think this labor thing might take a minute or two. I am pretty sure that I won't miss anything by running the race. But if I do miss it? That would really suck. Karen would be REALLY unhappy as I have committed myself to being there (as in there in the room, yeah I know!)

Does it sound like I am talking myself out of the race? I just might be. Can't figure it out right now! Too much going on!

Tundra Time Trial

2009-02-15T20:10:00.004-05:00

Suckitysucksucksucksucksuckkk!

That just about sums up my first time trial experience. It just wasn't a great day for me. First, I underestimated how much time it would take to get there, then I got lost. I arrived and there was no parking. I rushed to get my number only to be told I needed to fill out some more paperwork. Bob told me to warm up for 40 minutes, but at this point I only had 20 minutes until I started! I rushed back to my car. Everyone else was on there trainers with their skinsuits on. I was wearing all black, including my fleece-lined pants. I couldn't figure out how peeps were riding with shorts on!

I only had 15 minutes to spare, so no trainer for me. I rode around on the trail, which actually cooled me off rather than warming me up because it was starting to drizzle. I lined up and prepared to start. Marc was there (in PLENTY of time I might add!) and he got to see what must have been the worst start of the day: I begged them to not drop me (you clip in and they "hold" you up) when the guy let go of me and they told me to start, I unclipped instead and said "I'm sorry!" I just totally thought that I was going to fall over! So it took me a few seconds to clip back in and get going.

About a mile into the race my left leg flew off the side of the bike. Guess I wasn't as clipped in as I thought I was! My bike started swerving and they guy behind me started screaming and freaking out a little. Totally unnerving! I regained control, clipped in, and continued. I got passed by a guy around mile 3 and tried to keep up but I just didn't feel like I was able to push like I normally can.

When the turnaround came up I was such a wussy. I unclipped and walked it. It was wet and I was already freaked from almost crashing, so I said "screw it!" and got off the bike. I quickly got back on my bike and took off again. I got passed by the guy behind me, but I repassed him about 30 seconds later. I tried to push and push, but I felt like I was moving in slow motion. I passed three other riders, two males, one female and finally made it to the finish line.

25:11. Suckitysucksucksucksuck. Bike computer shows 24:45, so that may have been my actual riding time. Either way I was expecting to average a lot faster than 22.62 mph.

My mistakes were costly as I was 5th female overall with less than 33 seconds separating 2nd and 5th place. But each race is an opportunity to learn, and I learned a lot!

The winners got the most incredible hand blown glass awards. So beautiful. Next year the top three females will also get the same awards. So next year? I'm gonna practice more!

Congrats to Amy for her 3rd place finish, she's super strong! Marc and his Aaron's teammates did great too!

FINALLY made it to Master's!

2009-02-06T15:14:00.004-05:00

After working at the Concourse for almost a month, I finally made it to Master's swim practice. My main excuse has been that it's been too cold to swim in the outdoor pool and when it hasn't been cold, I have had clients and can't swim. But today everything lined up perfectly and my work day was over in time for me to make the 11 a.m. swim practice. Lord have mercy. Those people tried to KILL me! Here's what we did:

500 WU
4x150 as 50 kick, 100 swim
3x300 at 90% Max
7x100 at 100+% max on 4 minutes. After you did your 100 you had to warm-down with back, breast, or free until the next 100.
2x25 underwater

My first 100 came in at 1:24. This was the slowest out of everyone (my lane was in the 1:08-1:15 range). Coach reassured me that there ARE slower swimmers, but today he had warned everyone about the workout, so I guess they stayed home. By the 5th 100 I was hating life and swimming and contemplating duathlons. By the 6th 100 I was literally seeing stars and color flashes and thought I was drowning. By the 7th 100 I realized that I had swum 3000 yards WAY faster than I would on my own and maybe Master's wasn't that bad after all. My slowest 100 was 1:33 and it was because I hit the guy coming back and had to stop and stand up.

Swimming underwater while holding my breath was the only thing I excelled at (and of course the kickboard!) I made it from wall to wall both times. It was really, really hard.

Positive about Master's? It's quick and dirty. No breaks, one hour of intense swimming. Plus the pool is saline which my skin loves.

Negative about Master's? I did my Dara Tores weight workout yesterday and went into the swim already feeling like my arms were noodles. But that was totally my fault and I learned my lesson.

Afterwards my fellow master's attendees told me I did good and promised that next week the Tuesday and Thursday midday practice wouldn't be this tough. I think I decided that I like it tough!

2009 race calendar is complete!!

2009-02-05T11:28:00.002-05:00

Well, I have finally figured out what my race calendar will look like for 2009! It's all about quality and not quantity for me this season!

2009 races:

2.14.09: Tundra Time Trial 9.5 miles of pure hell on wheels, all out puke or go home bike race. Sounds like fun huh?

2.28.09: Xterra Thrills in the Hills 1/2 marathon: 13.1 miles of running on trails. I LOVE trail running (minus downhills and rocky sections which I am a wussy about)

5.9.09: Gulf Coast Triathlon 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run: Gotta go back because last year's race was UGLY. Hoping for a PR.

6.28.09: Irongirl Triathlon 1/3 mile swim, 18 mile bike, 3 mile run: I want to race with my Luna Chix, plus the 18 mile bike course is one of my favorites!!

7.12.09: Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon: 1500 meter swim, 26 mile bike, 6.2 mile run: I have a love/hate relationship with this race. Loved it the first time I did it, hated it last year (rain and my saddle fell) Gonna race it again so I can leave with happy memories!

10.3.09: Atlantic Coast Triathlon 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run: Haven't done this race yet but heard it's beautiful in Amelia Island. Plus it's pancake flat which I LOVE!

**11.7.09: Ironman Florida 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run: The Ironman monkey isn't quite off my back just yet. I need to do another one but I wish that I didn't want to so badly. I said that I wouldn't do one this year but it's addictive!

**I am not actually signed up for IM Florida yet! I will be going to Orlando for the 70.3 race to try and secure a spot! So I might just be a spectator again this year! If I can't get into Florida there is a slight chance I might consider doing Arizona instead.

Smartwater Fitness Challenge

2009-01-29T07:46:00.004-05:00

On Monday I had the opportunity to personal train some contestants that were competing in a weight loss challenge sponsored by Smartwater. It was for the radio station, 790 The Zone and they showed up with a big entourage! There was the GM of the radio station, the cameraman, the woman asking questions while we trained, David Pollack (the host of the radio show and super cutie!), 3 representatives from Smartwater and the contestants. Talk about being under pressure!! The contestants were very overweight, over 400+ pounds, one was close to 450. I was SO nervous that they were going to pass out. I did make sure that I spent a good 45 minutes with them going over their past medical information and I took their blood pressure. Once the training got started they were wonderful, great attitudes and very serious about losing the weight! During their warm-up the host asked one contestant what his biggest obstacle was going to be to losing weight. He replied: "Ruffles Potato Chips. I just love 'em man!" It was quite funny!!

I scored some cases of Smartwater and a very comfy jacket, like REALLY comfortable (I slept in it Monday night that is how fuzzy and warm it is!)They filmed us for what felt like FOREVER because we had to repeat everything we said twice!

More info to come on when/where it will air. Or if it will air. It might be just a web video. I didn't ask questions just did my whole trainer thing!

Sad family news....

2009-01-25T13:50:00.002-05:00

Early Saturday morning there was an explosion in the garage of my Aunt Linda and Uncle Jimmy's house in Kentucky. Very sadly the dog that I am pictured with above, Sparky, died in the explosion. Their house caught on fire and they lost everything.

It's such a horrible thing to lose everything you own, but I am thankful that they were uninjured. I am very sad about the loss of their dog, because I know how much she meant to my Aunt Linda. They have been married for 49 years and lived in this house for 40+ years, and it's sad to see so many memories gone with the house. My Aunt had my grandfather's purple heart and bronze star from WWII and I am pretty sure that the fire destroyed those along with other family mementos.

The strange thing about this is that this past summer my Uncle Johnny and Aunt Karen who live just minutes away had a fire that started in their attic and they lost everything as well. My mother is obviously upset and concerned about the fact that two of her siblings have had serious house fires. She wanted to know what my plans were in case my house caught on fire. Honestly, I have never even thought about it, so I called my friend Steve who is a firefighter and he gave me the following tips:

-Do not store things that are flammable close to things like your furnace or hot water heater (if you have gas) most fires/explosions start with something that has a fuse like your hot water heater. A lot of people will store things in their garage (gas cans, paint, etc, etc) that will cause a fire to spread quickly and become very dangerous.

- Make sure that your fire detectors are working and that you have a CO2 detector if you have gas.

- Openly discuss a fire plan with your family. It's important to talk about what you would do if a fire broke out upstairs or downstairs.

-Buy a fire escape rope ladder if you live in a multi-story home. Store it under your bed or close to the window you would use to escape if you couldn't make it downstairs.

-Unplug/ power off electrical devices when not using them.

- Don't leave your dryer running when you aren't home. Clean the lint filter and the hose regularly. Don't use fabric softner as it will cause the filter to be covered with a residue. If you use softner, regularly remove the lint filter and clean with soapy water.

You don't think much about things like this unless it affects someone in your life!

I'm BAAACCCKKKKK!!!!!

2009-01-23T08:13:00.002-05:00

Apparently typing about how much technology sucks only makes technology mad at you and then it will retaliate. At least that is what happened to me because my computer broke. I never realized how awesome my computer was until I was no longer able to use it. I still had access to the essentials, e-mail and facebook on my Ipod but it wasn't the same. I love you computer. So sorry for the misunderstanding!

It's hard to believe that January is almost over! Where has the month gone? I am not complaining because the faster it goes, the closer that we get to warm weather. I heart warm weather. I ran on Saturday at the trails at Stone Mountain. It was 18 degrees. The first mile was miserable but after that I warmed up. I saw two huge deer being chased by a massive St. Bernard. I had to stop and walk a lot because I had enough sense to know NOT to try and run over the rocky parts that were iced over. Eventually the trail dumped me out to SNOW MOUNTAIN. So friggin' cool! It looked like a ski resort (but just with sledding!) I wanted so badly to sneak in there and play, three football fields of snow in Atlanta! Tickets are pricey, $20, but it may be worth it to wear your kids out for a day.

My 2009 race schedule is evolving daily and almost completed. I really want to do the Tundra Time Trial and trail half the following week, but I also want to be realistic about the fact that I am in horrible shape. Horrible. Or at least it feels that way. We'll see!!

Technology stinks!

2009-01-12T12:52:00.003-05:00

Saturday I had a very specific workout on the trainer. It involved 5-minute intervals at 2-4 BPM below my lactate threshold. In order to do the intervals I needed one thing. My heartrate! The problem: NONE of my HR monitors would work! MY Garmin 305 and 201 weren't picking anything up. My Polar 625 was apparently dead as well. Keith said "maybe your hearts messed up". Um, probably not. But with four monitors at least one should work right? I decided to dig up my original Polar monitor, that was really cheap but didn't give me any problems. Old Polar watch with one button that only tell my heartrate and has a stop watch? That one works. I only wasted 20 minutes figuring everything out! Grrrr!

Technology failed me again on Sunday. I had the first brick of the season planned at Stone Mountain. It was miserably cold and I was under dressed for the occasion. I bought some hand warmers but they didn't get warm enough so my hands and feet were frozen solid. It's a weird feeling to get off the bike and start running and not be able to feel your feet at all. But it wasn't really awful, and at least I am able to look forward to warmer weather and blistering heat and humidity.

Next up on my list of things to conquer in 2009? Master's swimming. I am such a cold-weather pansy (they are swimming outside!) but I am considering starting tomorrow at 11 am. Or maybe I will just copy their workout and swim on the inside. We'll see!

Being lazy at work?

2009-01-11T19:42:00.001-05:00

Are you tired of sitting at your office all day with no breaks, gaining weight by the nanosecond? Well then I have the solution for you! PINGFIT!!! Sign up and this super-hot chick (and a cute guy~!) will appear on your screen every few minutes prompting you to workout. It's simple and right now it's free! So take advantage!

Here's the link!

Seven for Seven in '09!

2008-12-30T08:13:00.006-05:00

This is me trying to run on my Aunt's treadmill in her basement. The closest gym is 30 minutes away. Since it was 73 degrees it would have made the most sense to just run outside, but there are TONS of wild dogs and unleashed dogs and people generally drive crazy, running on the inside made more sense. I was trying to run to keep from gaining a million pounds. It worked because the holiday season only had me two pounds heavier than I was before. Yay! That's only 7000 calories which isn't bad considering I probably ate at least an extra 15,000 (Kentucky cooking is hard to resist!!)

I was fortunate enough to contract a very minor stomach bug that took care of holiday weight gain. That combined with my strength training has left me back in the negative. Woot!

I am extra happy that last week I went 7/7 and worked out every single day! Very little of that was spent triathlon training, in fact I only swam 1500 yards, spent 4 hours biking, and ran 13 miles. Things are getting kicked up a notch this week in preperation for Gulf Coast. It's 19 weeks away and I only have two pounds to lose to get to my "perfect" race weight. Since I started a new job at the Concourse I don't doubt that I will get there. I am spending a lot less time sitting at my computer screen and hours on my feet and demonstrating how to do things. I am going to start Master's this week too, if I can suck it up and get outside to swim. Pool....really warm. Outside air temp? Not so much.

Other than house remodeling (don't EVEN get me started on that topic!) things are pretty quiet with me. Totally pissed about the Falcons losing AND the Tech game.

Thanks Aunt Linda!

2008-12-30T08:06:00.005-05:00

One of the best things about going to Kentucky has to be hearing about all the incredible things that my mother and her brothers and sisters did when they were younger. Turns out there is not a whole lot to do in Kentucky, except get in A LOT of trouble. As my Granny Bird would have said "Little Heathens". My Aunt Linda gave me this picture of my mom (pre-dental fixes!)before I left. I think I am going to use it for her "spacebook" (as she calls it) profile. If this is what I have to look forward to when I get older than I am in trouble......

I told my mom that she was allowed to find ONE horrible pic of me and I would post it in return for this!

Santa baby,

2008-12-23T19:22:00.003-05:00

My Christmas wish list is super simple this year! I want:

A healthy left-knee that never, ever hurts when I run!

Entry into Ironman Florida

My two toenails back that fell off earlier in the season

And of course, a stocking stuffed with PR's! Tons of them!

If you are feeling extra generous, a little frolicking in the snow would be fun for the dogs too.

Dear Granny Pups,

2008-12-22T07:46:00.003-05:00

Thanks so much for bringing us over a stocking full of doggy toys!! We fought over them and played with them all weekend!

Bella, however, hates things that are stuffed. It's her goal in life to make sure the stuffing comes out of all of her toys. So sadly, the football and Christmas tree didn't make it. The gingerbread man and pillow are still unscathed.

Are you following me?

2008-12-18T07:40:00.002-05:00

At the gym on Tuesday I was in the locker room talking with Dana about Olga. Then in walked Olga. Then we were talking about the Suobs and in walked Sue! Yesterday I was at Performance talking to Keith about bike computers. I asked him a question and he said he wasn't sure, to ask the Suobs. So I left and there was Sue again! I was e-mailing Bob yesterday telling him Sue should see my friends at 1st Choice, and she was already on the way there! Strange coincidence? Probably not since we live about a mile from each other!

But do you want to know what is strange? Me getting faster without really trying all that hard. Of course I mean faster in shorter distances, but still, it is somewhat weird. First I ran around Stone Mountain last weekend. I was making my way around it when I realized that my time was much faster than normal, without nearly as much effort. When I finished and compared numbers, I ran it 4:30 minutes faster than I did a few weeks earlier! Things have been like that in the pool too. I was swimming 300's Tuesday and thought that I was counting incorrectly because they were so fast. I stopped and did the calculation, yes 6 x 50 IS 300 right? Then I swam two more and counted very intentionally and they were the fastest 300's I have ever swam, but with very little effort!

I guess this goes to show you that on 7 hours of training a week you can see increases in speed. Of course I don't imagine that I will be able to keep my speed up when my volume increases, but I will try. Interesting to see the relationship though. I think that my body is just so fresh right now, no fatigue from long workouts. Loving it!

Running the Virginia Highland 5k on Saturday. Join me if you love to suffer. 5k's hurt like a motha. Wishing for a PR!

Bella orgins defined!

2008-12-12T08:02:00.002-05:00

Last night Christy came over to help get Karen's baby shower invites printed up and addressed. She kept looking at baby Bella and finally she said "I know exactly what she is, she's a puggle!" Christy got on the internet and googled it, and there was Bella! She is a little pug/beagle mix! They have them in brindle markings, although it's rare. She has wrinkles like a pug, but the face, ears, and tail of a beagle. Plus Puggles have BIG heads and everyone is always commenting on her oversized head! Scroll down and you will see a picture of a brindle puggle, it's Bella!

Don't forget, tomorrow NBC will be airing the Ironman World Championship! It's on from 2:30p-4pm, eastern time. Gotta figure out what to do about little Gracie's b-day party which is earlier that day since I forgot that IM was coming on, and thought that it would be on later in the day!

Saturday is also the Navy Seal Challenge here in Atlanta. I would be down for it, but I have to take a CPR class plus I can't do a pull-up. Sad I know. I try and try, but the bottom half of my body currently weighs a lot more than my upper body strength. I will keep trying though! Looks like fun (and it's free!) for the rest of you guys!

Ornery.

2008-12-06T07:49:00.003-05:00

Sometimes we have good days and we have bad days right? Well some of you may know that my step-father suffers from dementia and lives at an assisted living facility. There are days were he is a total sweetheart but others, well, it can be a challenge to be around him. Yesterday afternoon while visiting him I was telling him that his sister has a birthday coming up on December 21st. I suggested that he send flowers. He said he didn't want to, and I told him that he could at least send a card. He got aggravated and said "why should I send her a card? She never does anything for me on my b-day?" (Totally not true! She actually flew into Atlanta for his birthday this year!) Trying to not point out his confusion but get him to understand that sending a card was the right thing to do I replied "George, I always learned growing up that two wrongs don't equal a right. So send a card." His response: " I am tired of hearing about your do-gooder horsesh$*!" What an ornery ole' coot. I laughed at him because there wasn't much else that I could do at that point.

Then Poncey in his infinite wisdom decided that the bush his sister Bella was sniffing was exactly where he wanted to pee, and he did, on her head! She and I are both unhappy about that one!

Speed.

2008-12-01T07:50:00.002-05:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thursday I headed up to North Carolina to have Thanksgiving with my Dad and his family. On the way up there I was snagged by a state trooper and given a speeding ticket. Grrrrr, my 12th ticket in 10 years of having a driver's liscense! I know what you are thinking: lay off the speed! But really and truly I don't speed anymore than anyone else does. I just speed on road trips, usually on holidays, and always in the left lane, so I may stand out too much. What happened was that I was on the phone with Pee Wee getting updates on all my peeps that were running the half and full marathon. I was super excited for them and then all of a sudden Beyonce's new song "Single Ladies" came on. I started juking and jiving (a term my Dad likes to use) and before I knew it I was being pulled over by a state trooper. When he asked me if I knew I was going 85 in a 60 I said "I had no idea" and that was the truth! He was "nice" and made my ticket for 69 in a 60. Thanks. That's why I try to avoid driving on big trips.

So I was thinking that the fair thing to do would be set up a Dani is Dumb Speeding Ticket Fund. Everyone who ran the half should donate $2. If you ran the full you need to donate $4 because I was doubly excited for you guys. That should more than cover the cost of the ticket!

Enough about me, onto you guys! I want to say congrats to everyone who ran the half, especially those of you running your first (Olga and Steven). Tat ran her first marathon and rocked it! Nat PR'd on the marathon and snagged some hardware! Sue PR'd on the marathon course and Bob did awesome as well. There were a couple of ladies running post baby-which deserves special recognition because I can't imagine how hard that is!

My Luna teammate Michelle also ran her first 50k trail run this weekend. She won first overall! Way to go Michelle!

I am more anxious than ever about racing somewhere now!

You had me at footstrike #1

2008-11-23T18:27:00.002-05:00

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love my new running aide. No, it's not an oxygen tank, as great as that sounds, it is actually a quite simple piece of equipment. It's this. Oh how I love this little knee strap! I have only used it twice, but so far with good results. Previously my left knee had major pain every time that I ran. Now it only hurts when I run really fast, and I think this little contraption is helping.

In other news, I am totally jonesing for any type of competition. I am dying over here! It's so bad that I am racing people at the grocery store down the aisles! Kidding, but you get the picture. Things are pretty boring in the workout department with nothing to train for. But I am also way too busy for anything too significant right now. I have started planning my 2009 race calendar and it looks pretty sweet. I will probably be running a half marathon trail run in February, and that looks like my next "race".

Totally random odd thing that happened to me: In class last week one of my professors asked me if I had a sister. I told him "no" and he said that he only asked because his neighbor and I look so much alike. I told him that "everyone has a twin" and he asked me if I was part Japanese because his neighbor was. What?!? Me Japanese? Um no. The professor is Chinese, which was so funny to me because he should know that I am not Asian! Funny thing is that this is about the 10th time someone has mistaken me for a ethnicity other than my own: Hispanic, Brazilian, Asian, I have heard it ALL!

I am watching the live Ironman Arizona coverage of the finish line. I miss the feeling of crossing that finish line and falling into someones arms already....

ZZZZZZOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

2008-11-16T19:17:00.003-05:00

BRRRRRRRR!!!!!! Ya'll are some lucky ladies that I supported today because when my alarm went off at 5am I surely didn't want to get up! I went to bed late last night because we went to the Hawk's game (thanks to Pee Wee for the great tickets!!) and was super sleepy this morning. My job was to go to the Zooma half marathon and 5k and ride around on my bike, with a first aide kit and my phone, in case of emergency or someone needing a little medical attention.

I froze to death.

Literally, I have never been so cold in my life. I wore fleece lined pants, compression socks, shoe covers, a Sugoi sub-zero fleece lined top, a vest, another fleece lined jacket, and a windbreaker. It did nothing for me! The weather was about 35 degrees at the start but with the wind blowing and me riding so slow I just never warmed up, I got colder.

It was super fun despite being ultra-uncomfortable. I rode with the winner for a while, then rode around and found Tat, Michelle, Misty, Laurie, Sue, Sandy and some other peeps I knew riding the half. Then I rode some more until I absolutely could not bear to ride anymore for fear that I was hypothermic. I met Kevin who was there supporting his wife. I saw Kate win the 5k after 3 weeks of running coming off a stress fracture, go Kate! I mulled around the Luna tent and handed out some samples.

I did score a long sleeve technical shirt for volunteering! I love long sleeve tech shirts! It's a wee bit short on account of my bosom but I can figure out a way to make it work. There was one guy who did the whole run in drag, full on wig and everything! This was a woman's race series, but men were allowed to race. I was riding behind "it" thinking "wow, really hairy legs!" Then realized it was a guy in one of those running skirts! He was second overall, totally by himself and all the homeless people were having a really hard time figuring out what the heck was going on. I mean the run WAS in downtown and all, so it couldn't have been that unusual!

Suck it up buttercup!

2008-11-15T08:01:00.006-05:00

Poncey contemplates what to do when tri season is over!

First of all, did ya'll know Bond went Gangsta? Don't want to ruin the new movie for you but it was a surprise for me. Actually anything would have been a surprise since I don't really follow Bond movies that much. Anyways....

I was really ill last week. A sinus infection, ear infection and what I think was a touch of the flu all combined together left me feeling horrible. I didn't workout for what felt like FOREVER but it was actually only 4 days. That's the longest I have gone without swimming biking or running since I broke my leg! But I had no choice, I felt really crappy. Thanks to Scoots and Tat for helping me along in my healing process with yummy soup, thera flu, and cough drops. It was appreciated!

Getting back into the swing of things I realized that I am seriously out of shape. Not just out of swim/bike/run, but out of all of it shape. A couple weeks ago I was happy that I wasn't doing any structured training/racing, but now I am bored. I am trying new things:cardio salsa :(, holding plank as long as I can (2:30 minutes) jumping rope (10 minutes, also hard) the evil stair climber on level 14, running up and down Stone Mountain twice (1000 feet elevation gain in one mile, that is a keeper!!) but sadly, these things just leave me feeling sweaty, not really satisfied. So today I am sucking it up and going on a good ole' fashioned run around Stone Mountain followed by a swim. This is going to be tough because I has reintroduced weights the past several weeks and I can't lift my arms. Not so sure how far I will get with the swimming, but it's worth a tri...ha..ha...try.

In other news, school done (as in I am finished!) This means I need a job to save up some money for medical school! (kidding mom! PA school really!) Let me know if you know of anything health related!

Do you want a puppy????

2008-11-11T18:19:00.004-05:00

Vanessa forwarded me an e-mail that someone abandoned these 8 precious little puppies! They are so adorable looking and it just breaks me heart to think that people could be so cruel to just dump their unwanted dogs off in the street!

They are free to a good home, no clue what they are but look like maybe a lab mix. There are 3 black ones and the rest are a brown or brown and white mix. If you are interested please leave a comment and I can put you in touch with the person who is fostering them. Puppies are hard work, but worth all the unconditional love you get in return!

A new president....

2008-11-05T09:52:00.003-05:00

Well, one thing is for sure, we have elected a new president! Go America! We rock the democracy monkey! I did my civic duty and went out and voted yesterday. I researched both candidates and watched all the speeches BEFORE making my decision. I was not swayed by my parent's, friend's, or the usual "voting for a certain party". I let the issues be the reason why I voted who I voted for. I am proud of everyone who gave their time up to vote!

That being said, there was something very disturbing on Facebook yesterday. Someone I know posted their status as "F$%& (candidates name) and anyone who voted for him is a F$#%&$% idiot!". Comments like that are ignorant and totally uncalled for. You simply cannot call someone an idiot because they exercised their right to vote for someone-and that person was not who you voted for! I was so disturbed by her comment status, that I deleted her as my friend.

Basically, who you vote for is your business, not mine. I am responsible for myself, and of course it would be my preference if you voted for my candidate, but it's up to you to do your own research then make an educated decision based on your views, not mine. While standing in line to vote yesterday I was texting my friends, many of whom were also in line. One of my friends asked me who I was voting for, I responded with his name, but didn't ask her who she was voting for, because I am certain it wasn't the same choice as mine. Either way, I still love her the same and would never judge someone because their political views differ from mine.

I hope that those of you reading this will be respectful of your family, friends, and coworkers choices, even if they aren't the same as yours!

Two years ago today......

2008-11-02T18:02:00.008-05:00

Two years ago today I was in Bay Medical Center in Panama City Beach Florida. I had just had surgery to repair my shattered tibia and fibula in my left leg. It looked like this:

The accident was the result of a collision between myself and a car traveling 50 mph. The car didn't see me, and hit me from behind. I went onto the windshield (and broke it) then landed in a gravel parking lot. This saved my life:

The driver of the car kept going and ran over my bicycle. It blew out his tires and he had to stop:

Yes my bike is in pieces!!!

My road to recovery seemed to last forever! I was using a walker because I couldn't bear any weight on my left leg and all my road rash on my right side prevented me from being able to use crutches. I was unable to navigate the stairs at my home and had to stay with a friend. It didn't help that Poncey was only 4 months old. Looking back on it now, I realize what tremendous pressure it was on my mother, caring for me (including driving my bored self around!), my puppy, my household (laundry, cleaning grocery shopping) all while still working and living her life! I guess my recovery really became her life! Thanks so much mom!

I will never forget all the amazing acts of kindness from some of you guys. Bob Box came to visit me in the hospital, although we had only met several times. A true friendship was born out of his concern. I hardly knew Laurie, Russ, and Kile when they insisted on taking my out to dinner once I was on crutches and getting around a little better. They are now some of the people I adore most in this world. So many of you were encouraging and patient with me, telling me that I would recover and be able to race again, when the truth is that the doctor's said my leg might heal shorter and there was a chance I would never run again.

The path to healing was a tough one. I was in a tremendous amount of pain and very unhappy at my lack of mobility and general need to depend on others. I was given a boot instead of a cast, which meant that I could still swim. The problem was that it took me almost 30 minutes just to get into the pool and my that time I was exhausted! I remember crying the first time I made it the locker room because I was sweating and so tired. I couldn't believe how my body went from being fit to totally broken and out of shape.

I tried my hardest to remain positive and thankful for being alive. People were constantly telling me how blessed I was to have lived through an accident like mine. I was constantly being praised for my optimistic attitude towards my recovery and my resilience, but those of you closest to me knew that I was really depressed and felt like I wasn't getting better quick enough. Many tears were shed during those months and when I finally heard that my boot could come off my leg and I was free to bear full weight on it, I was SO happy!

The first thing I did was walk Poncey for a whole hour! I was limping and in horrible pain by the time we had it back to the house but I was free!!!! It felt so wonderful! My leg gave me a lot of trouble in the months that followed. My patella tendon was sliced totally through to make way for a titanium rod and took several additional months before it was healed. In May I tried to run and it was just some type of painful gimp.

One year after the accident I went back to cheer on IM Florida participants. It felt really good!

One year after the accident I ran my first half-marathon. My doctor's were totally amazed. Things still hurt a lot, but I was determined to not get left behind by my training partners so I just bore down and kept going.

21 months after my accident I completed my first Ironman. I choose to do it in Louisville, KY. The thought of experiencing something so amazing at the same place that caused me so much pain seemed to weird at the time.

24 months to the exact day after my accident I was in Florida again, for IM. I met one of the race directors, who was a witness to my accident. She couldn't believe my recovery!

Everyday I feel pain. Some days are better than others. Certain days I still walk with a limp. I have a herniated disc in my back likely caused from my fall to the ground. But I am alive and that is really all the matters, everything else is just icing on the cake at this point.

While I was in Florida I realized that I really want to do this race. I have totally forgiven the person that hit me, but I need to come to Ironman Florida and not just spectate, I need to race. There is a piece of me that hasn't totally forgiven IM FL, although it clearly had nothing to do with my accident per se.

There are times when I lose sight of how far I have come in such a short period of time. Posts like this help me realize that my circle of recovery is far from complete and I am gaining ground instead of losing it! That's a wonderful feeling!

Ironman Florida 2008

2008-11-02T17:49:00.004-05:00

Iron Cheer Squad headed to Panama City Beach again to cheer for IM Florida's racers! KP told me that he was dressing up for the race and of course, I decided to dress up a cheerleader. Then he sold me out and didn't change into his Elvis costume until the race was almost over! Keith and I were all over the course, watching the swim start then heading out to put up our signage in the park then to mile 86 on the bike course then back to the run course! It was a lot of running around and a long day but it was totally worth it!

It was a totally perfect day for IM racing! Cool, water was calm and I heard that there wasn't much wind on the bike course. Congrats to Joe, Sudie, Scott, and Bree who PR'd the course. I think that Scott (with a wicked fast 9:35 for his second IM ever!) and Shelley (11:03, her first IM) may have qualified for Kona. I was really excited that Bree Wee was racing in super stealth mode and her sister tells me that she qualified for Kona too! Go Bree!

It was so much fun cheering for everyone else racing and the Atlanta crowd did totally awesome. Paul's parent's were out there with everyone's splits and signs for Joe telling him to "turn right!" It was funny! People really seemed to enjoy my cheering (or maybe it was the cheerleading skirt they liked). I of course, will be back next year, possibly with the skirt, maybe something different.

Pictures are posted on Flickr! Congrats again everyone!!

Iron Cheer Squad

2008-10-31T06:42:00.002-04:00

Keith, myself, Tat, Steven, and Dave are headed down to Florida this morning bright and early to cheer on Ironman Florida participants. As an added bonus since today is halloween, I will be dressing up in a cheerleading outfit as an "Iron Cheer Sqaud" member. Yes Joe E. I will take pictures!!!

Good luck to:

Sue Allen
Dana Greene
Allen Heaton
Paul Kindzia
Wes McKean
Joe Reger
Shelley Ruiz
Barbara Sharver
Sudie Teslzer
Scott Whitney

Look for the huge garden of signage that we will make in the park again this year! If anyone is dehydrated and needs a little post-race IV bag, go to the med tent and look for the short Russian nurse. Tell her I sent you and she'll give you an extra little treat!

Sarah Palin is hot!

2008-10-29T14:22:00.003-04:00

It is highly unlikely that I will vote for her, but you cannot deny her hotness, or actually, Sharon's hottness when she is dressed up as Sarah Palin. Well done Eddie and Sharon! This is hilarious!

Congrats to Kelly and Matt!

2008-10-29T14:17:00.004-04:00

Sunday night was Kelly and Matt's wedding. It was beautiful, held at the Cator Woolford gardens in Decatur and the reception was at Wahoo, so delicious! Of course Monday morning I had the most wicked headache, way too much wine for the night before a huge test on EKG tracings! Oh well, you only live once!

Wishing you guys years and years of happiness!

Brrrrrr!!!

2008-10-21T19:16:00.004-04:00

Winter officially began for me on Sunday. Here's how I determine my seasons: Heat on=winter time after heat is on and before A/C= spring, A/C on= Summer, time after a/c and before heat= fall. So the heat is on and it's winter already. Sunday's ride with the Luna Chix was cold. About 45 degrees or so at the start. I could have used another layer on top, and some of those disposable foot warmers. Not everyone was wearing fleece-lined pants like I was. I know that some people were cold but no one complained and everyone rode strong! It reminded me of my first ride in the cold......

I had never ridden more than about 25 miles when I joined Kelly, Vanessa, Anna, and Joel at the Silver Comet. It was early March and COLD! I wore some cotton yoga pants, a long-sleeve t-shirt and a fleece jacket. I brought a (1) water bottle. No nurtition. They said the plan was to ride 40 miles, which seemed okay to me. Apparently I had forgotten about my first-ever ride where I wore pants and they got caught up in my chain ring and shredded up. So this time I took my pants and I tucked them into my socks. No joke. Kelly, Anna, and Vanessa took pity on my naive self and loaned me gloves, a hat, and a scarf. Immediately after the start of the ride I realized my toes were numb. Like really, really numb. After about 20 miles I was starting to get really hungry, and fortunately we stopped for a potty break. Vanessa gave me a Hammer Gel. I had never eaten a gel before and I didn't really get it, but I was so starved that I had no choice.

At the time I had no clue what "bonking" was, but now I realize how bonked I was. People were talking to me and I thought I was responding, but I was only talking in my head-no words were coming out of my mouth! I got dropped and remember a guy riding by me telling me "drop your gears down, your just spinning your legs out". Once the ride was over Kelly offered me a blueberry scone that she had gotten from Starbucks that morning. I don't even like scones, but that one tasted like it had been baked in heaven especially for me.

That was the day I learned about riding in the cold weather and bike nutrition!!!

Babies!!!!

2008-10-20T18:00:00.006-04:00

I got two new little cousins today! Reagan Anne weighed in at 4 pounds 10 ounces and Ashton Nelson weighed in at 5 pounds 10 ounces. Congrats to Amy and Tim! I can't wait to meet them!

LT, VO2 Max, and other things that hurt!

2008-10-15T13:30:00.002-04:00

So I had my VO2 Max retested on the bike. Ouch. I was hoping for huge improvements (ya know in time for the Tour 2009) But apparently there was only my VO2 Max only increased .2 ml/kg/min. Hardly anything worth writing home about. I was whining about this dismal increase when my professor pulled up the information about my lactic threshold. That's where things really started to get exciting because my LT heartrate has increased to 170! MAJOR improvement! My last test was in September 2007 so I knew that I had made some really major ground, but an LT heartrate of 170 is seriously high and I am so happy about it! If I wasn't being tested on a $50,000 piece of equipment by someone with a PhD in Exercise Science, I would think it was a mistake. What does this mean? Mostly that I am a total goon for not having my LT redone a million times in the midst of Ironman training. Because I was working with the wrong LT all season I made minimal gains in speed on the bike and basically sold myself short. Although this is the "off" season and we are supposed to be doing "base" stuff I feel like my entire season was spent doing long slow stuff and now I am itching for some speed!

Speaking of speed (or lack thereof) I ran in the Chandler Park 5k on Saturday with Sarah Heaton. Since we are both coming off Ironman (me Louisville, her Wisconsin) we were pretty sure that we wouldn't be speed demons. Add that in with lot's of hills we didn't know about and it made for a tough little 5k!! We refueled with breakfast at the Flying Biscuit, OMG, so yummy! I need to incoporate one long run with refueling there every week!

Other things that hurt? My ankle. Like really badly. Ugh. But I think that my sinus infection has started to clear up and I am able to breathe again!

Next up on my agenda: transferring bike speed to running speed. Let me know what your favorite speed workouts are, I'm in the market for some pain!

What goes around comes around!

2008-10-13T10:29:00.007-04:00

While cleaning out my closet I came across my 8th grade cheerleading uniform! I tried it on, wow, wasn't that short or tight 13 years ago, but I was able to get all the zippers up! Poncey was looking at me like I was crazy, so I decided that he too needed to try the uniform on.

Obviously, Poncey wasn't a huge fan of the uniform. But blue is definitely his color.
Poncey got pretty ticked off about the uniform and showed me what he thought about me by getting up twice during the middle of the night to go out. He refused to do any business until I fell back asleep and then his butt threw up on the stairs. Nice. There is nothing that sucks worse than cleaning up an explosion at 3:30 a.m.

Motivation

2008-10-08T19:20:00.004-04:00

I am highly motivated to run fast thanks to Golden Shoes. Michael Johnson? That's who I am talking about. Except not this MJ:

I mean he is great and all but I am talking about another Michael Johnson. This one is a lot skinner and kind-of goofy looking but he runs really fast. Not only does Golden Shoes run fast but he can run fast at a really high incline.

We are learning how to administer VO2 Max tests in one of my classes. Fun stuff. Everyone has to learn it, so that means everyone is taking both bike and run tests, multiple times since there are only 14 of us in the class. Golden Shoes went on Tuesday and set the standard for all the non-running guys. They aren't happy. After a little warm-up we let him set the treadmill at a "comfortable" pace. For him it was 7.0 mph. Then his partner ramped that sucker up every three minutes until he almost passed out, or fell off the treadmill actually. I was trying to yell at him as much as possible to encourage him to blow it out, but since I was on the bike getting a sub-max test it was difficult. Turns out my partner was having a hard time taking my blood pressure with me hollering across the room. Honestly I wasn't too concerned with my blood pressure as I was getting a lot of entertainment out of Golden Shoes.

Why? Because at my gym the treadmills only go up to 15% incline. But Michael? He was running at 15% incline and 7.0 MPH like it was NOTHING. HR wasn't even cracking 150. Keep in mind that since this is a graded test, you have to stay at the incline for 3 minutes before you can increase it. His RER (respiratory exchange ratio) was increasing at a snail's pace. It is the indication of what percentage fat you are burning for fuel and what percentage carbohydrates you are burning (at rest 100% fat, at anything above 70% VO2 Max you are 100% carbs)

By the time Golden Shoes was done he was at an 18% grade. His test was the longest I have ever seen at 32 minutes. VO2 Max was 72 ml/kg/min, 75 is considered the benchmark for world-class athletes.

Nothing makes me more fired up then watching someone exercise to the point of nearly passing out. Call me a masochist, but this was fantastic.

VO2 Max essentially means very little to endurance athletes. My professor calls it a "worthless number". He's right. It's all about the lactic threshold for us.

Humans? We really aren't all as great as we thought we were. Siberian huskies that run in dog sled competitions? VO2 Max of 240 ml/kg/min. I'd like to know how they got them to run on a treadmill with a huge mask on their face!

Emerald Pointe Triathlon

2008-10-06T19:11:00.004-04:00

Suck. Suck. Suck. Suck. Suck. Goal NOT accomplished!

Swim: 8:03. It was a cluster bomb of chicks with 100+ in my wave. So difficult to navigate my way through the people, most of whom decided to stop and sight directly in front of me. That's the nature of 400 meter swims! Official swim time of 10:16 includes the hill and getting into transition. Not wearing my wetsuit was a bad idea. I was SO cold. The water was freezing. I felt frozen getting out of the water.

T1: Need to practice cooler looking transitions. Like shoes already on my bike. That's super cool. Fumbled with my helmet. Saw Steph and family cheering. 1:49 transition time.

So far so good. Goal at this point was 11:40 and I was at 12:05.

Bike: Freezing. Really cold. Snop dripping everywhere. I was quite uncomfortable on the bike. I passed lot's of girls within the first 3 miles, than it was nothing but guys. I tried but just couldn't get myself warmed up. My quads felt cold. Bike time of 36:03 and 21.6 MPH avg was slightly faster than I anticipated. It felt really slow out there to me.

T2: There is no way I made it out of T2 in 55 seconds like they claim. Something was sketchy about that.

Run: I looked at my watch when I left and knew I could make my time goal. Well, thought I could at least. My legs were still frozen and I couldn't feel my feet. I went out too fast and my first mile came in around 6:50. I felt like I was going to throw up. I slowed down a bit but stopped keeping track of my pace. I passed tons of guys and saw the lead girls. I only got passed once on the run. Apparently Sue writing "Go Faster" on the back of my leg was inspiring to someone! I felt sick to my stomach but seeing Keith, Dave, and Jim made me push harder. I tried to catch you Dave! I saw Olga and Tat while I was coming back in. When we rounded the corner to the finish line a guy said "let's sprint" I ran as hard as I could and we crossed the line at the same time. When the lady said "I need your chip", I said "I am going to throw up" I grabbed a trash can a did. Official run time says 24:48 but I have it at 23:50. Not sure who's right on this one.

Finish time: 1:13:40. 4th place age group. 12th female overall. Three minutes faster than last year.

Congrats to Tat, Olga, Dave, Keith, Jim, and everyone else who had solid races. Thanks to Hunter, Steven, and the Suob's for volunteering and cheering. Thanks to Steph and family and Kellye for cheering, it was good seeing you guys!

I am now in stealth-mode run training with Scoots. Gotta get faster for next season!

Lost another one!

2008-10-06T11:55:00.001-04:00

Do you think they give discounts for 8-toenail pedicures???

Last race of the season.....

2008-10-04T17:08:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow marks the ending of the 2008 triathlon season. It also marks the beginning of home improvements. Ugh. Triathlon training will be easy in comparison to tiling and painting I am sure.

Very sad that the season is ending. I feel like I am just get started! Okay, that's an overstatement, but I feel like the FUN is just getting started, now that the pesky Ironman monkey is off my back and all.

Emerald Pointe is a fun sprint up in Lake Lanier. Should be chilly. I doubt if I will wear my wetsuit because it's too hard to run up that huge hill in. I did put the "toewarmers" on my shoes. What a pointless purchase that was. Why just the toes and not the whole foot? Whatever. They will work for tomorrow let's hope.

I rarely, if ever, have posted my goals for a race. Generally I will say "get hardware" or "beat my time from last year". Even though this is a sprint, since it's local and the last of the season it draws a lot of talent. So I decided my goals would be based on my time from last year. Basically I would like to improve on everything! Shouldn't be too tough considering the fact that last year I fresh off a broken leg and my running was more like "hobbling". Here's the breakdown:

2007 Emerald Pointe:
Swim: 9:28 (400m)
T1: 3:22 (hill+wetsuit removal)
Bike: 37:10 (21.0 MPH average)
T2: 1:11
Run: 25:32 (8:15/ mile pace)
Total time: 1:16:41
2nd in 25-29 AG, 18th female overall

2008 Emerald Pointe *goal times*:
Swim: 8:50 (let's face it-I can't swim!)
T1: 2:40 (still has the hill but I am not taking off the wetsuit)
Bike: 36:45 (21.4 MPH avg pace)
T2: 1:00
Run: 23:40 (7:37/mile avg pace)
Total time: 1:12:55

I am not exactly in peak sprint shape so this is gonna hurt. Sprint's always hurt the most to me which is why they aren't my speed of choice. I don't know what my speed of choice is to be truthful, but I know that I don't get warmed up quickly enough in races this short. Taking 4 minutes off my time from last year should make for some hard racing, but what better way to end the season?

Triple Tuesday

2008-09-30T20:07:00.002-04:00

Today was just a total workout extravaganza. Three to be exact. Started off with a hilly run in Kennesaw. Why is it so hilly up there? It wasn't humid but it was hot for almost October. I ran up this wicked hill that was 3/4 mile long. I almost puked at the top. Always the sign of a good run!

Second workout was a swim. Total dud. I am apparently made of lead these days. This was my third swim since Ironman and it is my PROMISE to myself this winter to not let myself give up on swimming! It's just way too hard for someone who is a "non swimmer" to be competitive if they don't swim all winter. Got in 1000 yards. Not too terrible.

Workout number three was supposed to be a bike at Stone Mountain until I saw that there was construction work and part of the road was blocked off. Not wanting to ride in semi-circles instead of full loops I was in a tizzy about what to do. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration. I easily could have figured something out but since Keith was there and about to run and I had on (clean) running clothes I decided that I would run again. Wha wha what? Two runs in one day? Yes I realize that this is odd behavior. I also baked muffins this week too. I think my body has been invaded by an alien.

Then after leaving Stone Mountain my gas light came on. I knew that peeps have had to wait in line for upwards of two hours for gas-this is something I am just not willing to do! My plan was to get up in the middle of the night and go to avoid a wait. But then poof!?! I found a gas station that 1) had gas and 2) had no line! Lucky lucky joy joy!

Happy racing!

2008-09-26T17:28:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to give a shout out to all the peeps that are racing this weekend! Seems like everyone has something going on but me! Tat, Steven, Hunter, and Dave are down in Mexico Beach Florida for a race. Tons of you guys are headed up to 96, South Carolina (what kind of name is that for a city??): Michelle, Sarah, Nat, Steph, Kevin, Kellye, and I am sure that I am missing someone. For those of you who are doing your first half: Nat, Steph, and Kevin: have fun! I can't wait to hear all about it!

Happy Birthday to my mom! She turned 39 for the 20th time. What did she get for her special day? A nice big colonoscopy! Just what she has always wanted! On the way to her house to pick her up I got a bad migraine out of nowhere. It was complete with throwing up three times and hiding under the parking deck to find someplace that was dark. Once my peripheral vision returned I was okay to drive mom home. Then my fingers, tongue, and lips went numb. That is usually the sign that it's almost over. Then poof! It was gone! Wasn't as bad as they have been before. At least I wasn't crying. I need to figure out what causes these things. I have never had them before this year. Sometimes it's caffeine, sometimes it's allergies.

To everyone else riding going up to the North Georgia Mountains to ride this weekend: be careful! We were planning on going but decided to conserve gas and ride from the house instead!

Search and Rescue

2008-09-25T09:26:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I decided to try a new trail: Stone Mountain. I love things that are new and exciting! Hunter gave me several tips 1) it is very rooty so be careful 2) there are several places where you might need to walk 3) don't wear your music. He also tried to explain where the path would take me but honestly, I didn't get it at all. I am horrible with directions, even one's like "cross over Stonewall and go around the lake" I told Hunter how long I thought it would take me to complete the run and said "if you don't hear from me come looking" and he did!

The trails at Stone Mountain are way more challenging than at Kennesaw Mountain. I am a big fan. It was beautiful out there running around lakes and not having any clue where I was. My Achilles were very sore and my soleus muscle was ON FIRE! I kept hearing things in the woods and I wanted so desperately to turn around and look for deer but I was afraid that I would fall because I had slipped twice at this point. Then it happened: I fell! It was only a matter of time. I picked myself up and brushed off all the dirt. I had no business running on this part of the trail anyways. I got to the divide in the trail and didn't know which way to go so I choose left (of course I was supposed to go right).

On the way back in I ran into Sudie who was doing an 18 mile run in prep for IM Florida. What a rockstar. I want to run 18 miles on the trails! We stopped and chatted for a while. This must have thrown off my awesome navigation skills because I continued on my path and saw a little old man, then about 3/4 of a mile later I ran into him again. Hummm.....I asked him if I was headed to the end of the trail and he said "Nope, you are just running in a circle!" He directed me back to my car and I made it. 6.2 miles total.

Poor Hunter was surely worried about me because he really did come looking! I was gone longer than I told him I would be. What a great guy! And NO, I didn't run with music. Mostly because I had no choice, both my Itouch and my Nano are jacked up! My phone is messed up too, so if you call me and I don't answer, it's probably decided to randomly turn itself off once again!

Have I ever told you how much I love trail running? Mountain biking anyone???

Surprise!

2008-09-23T19:20:00.005-04:00

If you can't read this clearly it says "Welcome to the other side Grandpa" "Happy 90th". Tat was clearly the one who ordered the cake. When I picked it up the guy at the Publix bakery said "Your grandpa is turning 90 and this is what the cake says?!?" Well, kindof sorta. 90 is the combined number of years Keith and Steven have been alive, so it seemed fitting that since the party was for both of them, the cake should be too!

We had a total blast!! Some of us had WAY more fun than others, I am not naming names, but you know who you are (hint: she carried me in her womb for 9 months!)

Big thanks to everyone who made it out to help us celebrate Keith and Steven's birthday's! Thanks to Donnell for letting us use her house and to everyone for keeping it a secret! I can't believe Tat and I were able to keep our pieholes shut!

Tri 2 Remember Triathlon

2008-09-21T19:37:00.003-04:00

Is is a good idea to race a sprint triathlon 20 days after an Ironman distance triathlon? YES! It was so much fun and so short compared to what I did a few weeks ago! Here is my recap of the event:

Race morning I was sluggish thanks to some tylenol pm and going to bed at 9:30 p.m. and getting up at 3am. I shouldn't have taken it but I am having some really bad sleep issues lately and it was my only hope.

We arrived at the race when the park was opening and it was COLD! Brrrrr! I wasn't expecting it to be this much colder than it was in Atlanta (the race was in Gainsville, about an hour north) and of course I didn't pack any extra clothing to wear on the bike. I was wearing my Luna jacket but it's like a tent so I didn't want to use it. The race was wetsuit legal but for 400 meters and 72 degrees I didn't feel like going through the trouble.

The Swim: What a total clusterbomb of people this was! They gave us three minutes between waves but it didn't help stop all the major clumping of people. I guess there really is no good way to do a 400 yard swim without people backing up-unless it's time trial start. I tried to push myself as hard as I could but there was no point-I simply don't have any swim speed right now. I have made it into once since my Ironman! I made it out in 6:57 and we had to go up a hill (why are there always hills going into transition?) so that added a little time.

T1: Slow. Need to work on getting my bike shoes attached to the bike ahead of time. I was cold and fumbled around.

The bike: Wow....hilly! Of course, it was so close to the North Georgia Mountains I expected this, but what I didn't expect was for people to be walking their bikes up the hills! I think they caught some people off guard and they were in the wrong gears. There was quite a bit of traffic out there and I was calling "on your left" and one guy ran off the road and into the grass. Oops. There really was room for both of us, but I think I spooked him. I passed several girls and lot's of guys. At mile 10 they announced that I was the 6th female so that made me push a little harder. I saw Henry and his new bike-it was really nice! Other than being really, really cold the bike wasn't too bad. I could use some intervals in the next few weeks! Avg speed was 20.1 MPH.

T2: Gotta learn the running dismount. It looks too cool to not try at least once (maybe more if I don't bust my butt!)

The run: My goal for the run: DO NOT let a woman pass me! I am always out in front on the bike and then some chick in my age group will pass me with .2 miles to go-so frusterating! The run was a tough course-hilly also. My feet were frozen but I knew I was pushing it because I was passing tons of guys. I felt like I was going to throw up after running every hill and when I went through the turnaround I looked at my watch and timed when I saw the next woman (who happened to be Fox 5 anchor and speedster Denise Dillon) it was 1 minute 27 seconds. I pushed harder and crossed the finish line. Average pace: 7:42 per mile. Denise never caught me but because she started after I did her finish time was faster. Oh well-mission accomplished, don't get caught on the run! For the record only two guys passed me! Trail running really has helped!

I was the 9th overall female and finished 2nd in my age group. Can't complain about getting some hardware! Scootsie was 2nd in his age group as well (I tried desperately to catch him but beat me by 2 minutes and 8 seconds!)

Congrats to Anna and Henry for getting out there and racing strong! Thanks to Vanessa for cheering ( I love crowd support!)

Only one race left of the season! (insert sad face here!)

T-R-A-I-L!

2008-09-17T19:07:00.002-04:00

T to the R to the A to the I to the L...what's that spell? Trail! I have found my ultimate run spot: on the trails. How much do I love it? I went running four days in a row? Wha-what? Yes it is true. Anti-running Dani is having a serious change of heart.

Saturday Keith and I took the dogs to the trail off Mason Mill. I would run some with Poncey, then with Bella, while he walked (he is nursing an ankle injury) it was pretty exhausting for the dogs (they passed out and slept for 8 straight hours when we got home!) Sunday I hit the trail up again, then on Monday too.

I decided on Monday that I needed some trail shoes before I slipped on a root and broke something. I hit up Big Peach where Kate recommended some La Sportiva mountain running shoes. Painfully ugly, but they will keep me from rolling my ankles.

Tuesday I changed things up and went to Kennesaw Mountain. Wow. Far less technical. Only one tree down and no creeks to cross. Did a longer run and loved it. Calves were burning from the almost one mile total uphill. As much as I detest hills, you would think trail running would be out of the picture for me.

I think it rocks so much because you are forced to pay attention to your surroundings. If you don't you are probably going to fall. This means no staring at your watch anticipating when things are going to end.

This might sound crazy but I think next year I am training for this. A guy at Big Peach was telling me about how beautiful it is up there. I will try and decide in the next couple of months if it's even possible.

News!

2008-09-09T16:49:00.003-04:00

Wow....heard on the radio this morning that Lance is making a comeback! Now it's confirmed! Finally the tour will get interesting again. Let's face it....Hincapie just ain't as much to look at as Lance is!

In other news I was diagnosed yesterday with mild, persistent asthma. I am still undecided on whether or not I believe it. I started having the tightness in my chest again on Sunday, same problems with breathing that I have had since the end of June. I have made two doctor's appointments, thinking I was sick, then cancelled both times because I apparently got better. Well this time I decided that I had to put an end to it! I went to Home Depot Sunday night and couldn't walk around without losing my breath! Doctor said that my lungs sounded fine, no fever, nothing. Then I blew into the inspiramotor and my lung output was only 200. They kept asking me if I was a smoker. Me: "No, I don't smoke." Dr: "Okay, then blow again." 200 again. Dr:" Are you sure you don't smoke?" Me: "Yes, positive. I really like to exercise and I don't smoke!" So I tried like 10 more times as hard as I could. They said that I should be blowing a 400 minimum and that endurance athletes should be able to blow all the way to the top. I told them I really couldn't breathe that well at all. They gave me a nebulizer treatment then I blew again. 300. Better, but still sucks on the scale of lung capacity. My pulse ox level was 98% (good) so they give me a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia or a collapsed lung. Nope. Nothing there. Then they start asking me if anyone has ever told me I have asthma. Nope. Haven't heard that before. Do I get respiratory infections a lot? Yes, like every other month it feels like! They said that asthma is often misdiagnosed as bronchitis. They gave me a fast-acting inhaler and then voila! 10 minutes later I blew a 400! Okay but they said I should really be at 600 with my training.

So I left with two inhalers and instructions to use them for one month and see a pulmonologist. They say it's not "exercise induced" asthma because most of the time I am not training when I start feeling crappy. I just find it a little suspicious that I have gone this long with no apparent "asthma attack". They said that I "adult-onset asthma" and it is more prevalent than most people think. People with bad allergies (that is me!) can develop asthma with excessive exposure to things like smoke, smog, mold, dust, (dog hair from Poncey and Bella probably counts too!)

Like I said, they said I have "classic signs and symptoms" but I want a second opinion. Mostly because the inhalers are expensive and one of them I have to use twice a day and replace every month. I need to figure out what my deductible is for prescriptions.

Today I did feel better and was able to run some intervals and get in the indoor bike for a bit. Last night I had a quality night's sleep because my chest wasn't bothering me! So that's positive too. Maybe being able to breathe will make me faster?

Pics are up!

2008-09-07T10:01:00.002-04:00

Most of the pics from Ironman Louisville have been posted. Stupid Flickr only allows a certain amount of downloads per month, so you will have to wait on the rest. Click on the Flickr link above for the pics. Dave put together a great video and as soon as I get it, I will download it and post it here too. He got me crossing the line on VIDEO! Too cool!

Not feeling too hot today. Chest congestion for the 5 millionth time. Perhaps I didn't allow myself enough recovery before working out again (took one day off, light workouts, Tuesday and Wednesday, ran Thursday, swam Friday, spin class Saturday). I think I will just take today off-why? Because I can! :)

Tracking IM Wisconsin right now. Super-fast swim times from the Atlanta peeps. Two guys are signed up listing their profession as "smarty pants wannabe" love it!

Ironman Louisville

2008-09-02T19:11:00.005-04:00

You asked and here it is: the race report!

Let me start off by saying that doing an Ironman rocked 10 times more than I ever expected it to. This was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I will cherish the memories that I made forever and ever.

The night before the race I started to not feel well. I got flu-like symptoms and got up a million times just generally not feeling well. The morning of the race I couldn't keep anything in (read 6 dukeouts, isn't that like a record?) but I was really ready for the race! Walking down to transition there was actually people getting out of cabs drunk! So funny! They must have thought that we were totally insane.

Before the race I was anxious, but I didn't cry! (I did cry in the shower, but that was more about not feeling well and being so upset it) I got to see my mom, Tat, Steven, Hunter, and Dave which made me feel calmer. There was a lot of craziness standing in the dark getting ready to swim and I kept thinking "I hope the sun comes up soon!" I was lined up with Keith, Bob, and Sue which meant that we were all racing together-awesome! Joe started a little later in the pack. The people that owned the boats at the dock were sitting out there drinking their morning coffee like it was no big deal that 2200 athletes were lined up getting ready to swim 2.4 miles. That's Kentucky for you!

The Swim: Let's just say that I made it through the swim! I am a TOTAL slacker when it comes to doing my long swims and my longest this season was 3800 meters (2.3 miles) and I only did that once about 6 weeks ago. I took a little break from swimming but when I got in the water I was pretty comfortable. Although it was a time trial start, there was still tons of people everywhere and I wasn't expecting to swim into so many people. Made it out of the water in 1:26, I'll take it. Lesson learned: it's okay to just swim 3000 yards.

T1: Didn't feel too hot. Actually, felt really hot, like fever hot. There were some very nice volunteers who wanted to help me out of my bathing suit and into my cycling clothes but I declined. Lesson learned: accept the help, you are wet and it won't take as long with two people!

The Bike: Things heated up pretty quickly on the bike. I felt pretty good and was on track with my nutrition until around mile 20 when I tried to drink some ensure. Bad idea. My stomach totally turned on me. I was so nauseated that the thought of the ensure or my amino vital made me want to puke. I threw out the ensure at an aide station and grabbed Gatorade but couldn't drink that either. So I was relegated to just plain water. Good when it's hot, not good when need to bike 112 miles. I couldn't stomach my clif bar either. Keith caught me on the bike and we played cat and mouse about 8 times until I finally pulled away. Knowing that he was behind me was a big motivator for me to not snivel about my tummy hurting. The bike course was hilly, pretty, and had the best cheering squad you could ask for. There was an odd amount of wind out there....crosswinds...not something that I expected to see in Kentucky. I stopped at mile 66 to get my transition bag and try to use the bathroom. No go. I had two honey buns and ate one which revived me some. I saved the other one to nibble on the rest of the ride. I got passed on the bike by Bree who was winning the race on the woman's side and cheered for her. She was cutting hills in half. 12/27 was a rocking gear choice for me on this race! I was able to get a couple gel packs in between miles 85-100 but then I didn't feel too great so at mile 100 I switched to just water. My back and girly bits were ready for this ride to be over with, but I never really got bored. There was no talking or anything on the bike, just riding, and it wasn't all that bad!

T2: I let a nice lady help me with my running clothes. She set everything up into neat little piles and applied my body glide onto my back for me. The volunteers are the greatest! I spent a couple minutes talking to a nice lady who lost the feeling in her toes. She made it out onto the run and finished!

The Run: Wow it was hot on the run. Really hot. I saw a sign that said 95 degrees when I started. I got to see Brian and Kile as I was starting and they were super pumped up. When I left transition I asked Hunter "Where are Bob and Sue?" For some reason I was really concerned with where everyone else was! I saw Keith as I was running out onto the bridge and he promised that he was going to catch me. I felt okay, just a little depleted and I was surprised that my legs were as fresh as they felt. At mile 4 I ate a gel with some gatorade and then started throwing up! NOOOO!!!! So that started my cycle of jog, puke, walk, jog, puke, walk. Two times the EMT peeps came up to me and tried to get me to come to the med tent. I wasn't falling for it, I was going to finish this race if it meant crawling! It was great seeing everyone on the run, but hard to tell whether they were one their first loop or not. I cheered for peeps when I could but lost my voice around mile 12. I learned that there are some people who can walk REALLY fast and I am not one of them. I tried to use the bathroom a couple of times hoping that if something came out that end I would feel even better but it didn't work. The run should have been called the "speed walk" because every time I saw someone they were walking. Except for Joe. He ran the whole way! Right before the special needs area Keith caught me. He told me that I HAD to get calories in or they would end up carting me off the course. We stopped at the bags and I sat down for a minute and changed my shoes and socks. When I got up I felt a little better so at mile 14 I drank a little coke and didn't throw up! I took one sip of coke at every aide station until mile 19 when I started to get lightheaded. I realized that I was on the verge of passing out and told Keith I needed to stop and get some calories in. I managed to get two gel packs, some gatorade, coke, and a pretzel in before we started back up. Wow, what a difference some calories can make! At that point I wanted to run faster but my legs only knew one speed. I got in one salt tablet and gave Keith my last one. We kept seeing Bob and Sue, looking really strong and in great spirits. It started to get dark around mile 23 and at that point I wanted to keep going, no more stops at aide stations, let's finish this! Hunter and Tat were close to the finish, maybe mile 24 or 25. When I saw them I knew I was almost an Ironman! Hearing the roaring crowd at Fourth Street Live was incredible. I don't even remember them calling my name, but I do remember crossing the finish line and being surprised that I didn't cry. I sprinted as hard as I could and didn't feel a thing. I AM AN IRONMAN! It was an unbelievable feeling!

The craziest thing is that the entire race was so much fun. Even while I was throwing up I loved it because I knew the end result was me crossing that finish line. I was thinking the entire race, I can't wait to do another one! Florida? Wisconsin? Which one? I know I said that it was just going to be this one but I fibbed!

When I crossed the line the lady wanted to know when the last time I went to the bathroom was. I was bone dry and had stopped sweating. I went to the med tent and got a couple bags of IV's and some medicine for my stomach. They took blood and said my sodium level was low and I needed to eat salt. I visited with Bob, Sue, and Keith (also getting some IV's) before heading back to the hotel to shower and get some WHITE CASTLE! Good at the time but now the thought makes me sick. If I even think about anything that made me sick during the race it will make me throw up right now!

I must say how impressed I am with all my fellow Ironman Louisville competitors. There were lot's of DNF's and people on the side of the road with oxygen on, convulsing, and one guy had a major seizure at the finish. So finishing this race was a huge accomplishment! Sue overcame major issues in the water to complete her FIRST triathlon! Sue rocks! Bob, Keith, Joe, Misty, Sandy, Bree, Lee Ann, Rivi, and Jim all finished strong and enjoyed it.

Keith and I hardly said two words to each other while running. I told him to go ahead and leave me but he said "we have a pack". Apparently while I was in the hospital we made a pack to finish our first IM together. I didn't remember it, but Keith did and it meant a lot to me. Thanks.

Iron-spectators: YOU ROCK! Knowing that my mom, Tat, Steven, Hunter, Dave, Kile, and Brian were out there made such a difference! Every time I saw them I got some strength from it. It was a long day for them too and they were so supportive, I will always cherish and remember them for it! Thank you so much for everything!

How do I feel now? Pretty good actually. Walked two miles on Tuesday. Stomach still a little on the upset side but body is okay. Going to spin my legs out on the trainer today for a bit.

Thanks to everyone for their calls, e-mails, texts, facebook messages, etc, etc. Your support was truly incredible and this wouldn't have been the same without you!

Let's do this!

2008-08-30T16:48:00.003-04:00

This summer I have really struggled with figuring out if I made the right decision by signing up for IM Louisville. Every time I did a ride in the heat, with a lot of hills I was thinking " I should have signed up for Florida". But being here in Louisville, I realized that THIS is the race for me! The people here are SO happy that we are here racing, everyone is wishing us good luck. There are signs up at liquor stores, Churchs, everywhere wishing Ironmen good luck. The people here are so nice and this town has so much personality, Florida just wouldn't be the same! One of the things I am most excited about is the run, we go through University of Louisville's campus and they are playing University of Kentucky. It's a big game and kickoff is at 3:30. They warned us at the athletes meeting that there would be a lot of tailgating and things might get kind of crazy out there but I say BRING IT! I want the crazy energy!

I meet Bree today at the swim practice! She's just as sweet in person and she is on her blog! Have a great race tomorrow, I can't wait to see you out on the course!

We rode the bike course today. Lot's of little rollers, beautiful though, which makes it worth it. There are some climbs and of course, I am not the world's strongest on the hills, but I am confident that tomorrow I will be conservative and do alright.

It's blazing hot here! 91 degrees tomorrow. Lot's of humidity too. I really wish that Atlanta wasn't so mild these past couple of weeks. But I met a guy from Portland who was TOTALLY unused to weather like this. Felt pretty bad for him because it must feel like he's in a steam room right about now.

I haven't been sleeping well. Last night I was exhausted but there is a Worldfestival going on and they had bands playing until way too late.

Gotta run, Momma's here!

See ya when I am an Ironman!

Gettin' lucky in Kentucky.....

2008-08-25T12:12:00.005-04:00

I TOTALLY forgot about this shirt until I read something on Bree's blog about her "getting lucky in Kentucky". (I owned the shirt at one point, but gave it to a cousin in KY) I have to say that I am sorry that both she and Paul didn't have the races they wanted to have yesterday. But they seem like two people who really have a grasp on knowing that things happen for a reason, and that it's not the end of the world, it just sucks when your race doesn't go according to your plans.

That being said, this week is really about me focusing on my attitude and how if I can't make my body feel a certain way, I will really try VERY hard to make my mind feel as good as possible. Totally positive. Totally ready for an Ironman!

I am WAY too emotional right now. When I was watching Bree's interview with Paula Newby-Fraiser yesterday I could sense all the emotions and it made me cry! I am giving everyone a head's up....I am filled to the brim with all sorts of feelings, and I am bound to bust soon! So if you see me crying the morning of the race, don't worry, they aren't tears of sadness!

Today I felt like I could swim. My breathing is still labored, but now things are starting to break up, I am coughing more and there is some rattling around in my chest. Seems like that is a good sign. I am also sweating like crazy. Did about 1500 yards non-stop. Left shoulder was killing me, stupid ghost pains! When I got home there was a package for me and with a good luck message for me and Keith this weekend. I got so excited thinking it was a care package and when I opened it up it was just "Advanced exercise prescription" textbook. I was confused until I remembered that Henry (fellow triathlete) works at the post office! Thanks Henry!

I appreciate everyone's well wishes and I can assure you that if you can will yourself to wellness, I am going to do it!

Bree- I don't think you need any "luck" in Kentucky!!!

I. Am. Sick.

2008-08-24T20:13:00.003-04:00

Yes. It is true. Approximately one week away from the most important athletic attempt in my entire life and I am sick. Today marks the fourth day in a row without training, and the other days I "trained" last week were pretty lame. Ugh. If I was super-organized I would be looking back on my training logs and reminding myself of all the glorious hours I have logged on my bike and assuring myself that I am not turning into a big bowl of jello. But I gave up on the training logs (takes too much time to record everything) so instead I am having to rely on other things:

What exactly is wrong you ask? Well I feel like my lungs are filled with fluid, it hurts to breathe (in my chest and back area) my throat is killing me and I can't do anything for more than two hours without being totally exhausted. I am armed with an inhaler and some anti-inflammatories that aren't doing anything, but I haven't given up on them yet. Everyone keeps telling me about their cousin's best friend's husband Billy Bob who was sick and didn't train for five whole days and then PR'd their IM. I believe it. But right now I just want to be able to walk up a flight of stairs without being winded. That's my primary goal for the day.

In other news my left leg has gone totally ape on me. After months of nearly pain-free running the bone is swelling up and my knee hurts even when I walk! Some peeps have suggested phantom pain because I am tapering. I abandoned two runs last week due to it, and let's just hope this "phantom"clears out by next Sunday.

I am throughly enjoying watching all the coverage of Ironman Canada today. I have professed how "over it" I am, but today I am starting to actually want to do this Ironman! I typed up a three-page packing list, re-taped my bars, and will get my bike cleaned up and race wheels on soon!

A lot to say but don't feel like talking.

2008-08-14T07:28:00.002-04:00

I'm here! Just not really in the mood the talk. Things are going ok leading into the last three weeks before my IM. I did a 90/4 brick on Saturday with Keith, Michelle, and her friend David. I was thinking about how great it will be to stop at 50 like Michelle and David did! Sunday I volunteered at Acworth and it was great to see everyone who raced hard out there!

I am sure that most of you have heard by now that Keith's brother was killed in a motorcycle accident. Then his mother suffered a heart attack and was rushed into emergency triple-bypass surgery. Totally sucks. She is still in the cardiac ICU and will hopefully be transferred into a regular room and taken off the ventilator today. So my ear infection and sore throat? Not really that important at the time.

In other news Steven has kidney stones and his wife Tat is having her gallbladder removed today. Again, more sucky stuff. I am pretty bummed about all these people I care about hurting so much. I feel pretty worthless, but I am trying to help out as much as I can. Please keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time!

Rubbed raw!

2008-08-06T18:41:00.008-04:00

Yesterday was my first ever three hour run. I went as terrifically splendid as a run can possibly be when you are on the verge of a stomach explosion at the end and just plain uncomfortable. I think that I was drinking a bit too much water and that was the reason my tummy was upset, because I only ate three gels and had 24 ounces of gatorade. Water? That's another story. LOTS of water. I was super hot and was sweating like I have NEVER sweat before! In fact at mile 13 I took of my socks because they were soaking wet (I can't stand having my feet wet!) and ran the last 5 miles with no socks and wet shoes. But I didn't get blisters so it looks like my 8 remaining toenails are safe! But I was having a ton of discomfort where my sports bra was rubbing me. I knew that it was rubbing me raw (this sometimes happens when I sweat a lot) but what I wasn't expecting was this:

It's kind-of hard to tell from the pic, but it's actually quite painful. Today it looks even worse. It looks like a blister and hurts worse than road rash. There's a lot more but it's not in places that I can show 'ya! During the night it got all oozy and was stuck to my shirt when I woke up this morning. Nice. I was concerned that the water in the pool would burn really badly so I pulled over on the way to my swim and squirted myself with my water bottle to test it out. Bearable so I went to the pool. Probably not the best for the sanitation of the pool, but the chlorine needs to kill something right?

The good news is that I have learned that I need to 1) use body glide and 2) not wear that sports bra for IM. I already turn my bra inside out on a suggestion, so if you ladies have any other tricks let me know 'cuz this burns!

I am late posting the pics from the huge storm we had on Sunday. Lightening stuck a tree in the courtyard and it went down over cars, a gate, and literally stopped at someones front door. If the tree had fallen the other direction it would been right on top of a house and destroyed it. The people who live 8 feet from the tree were truly blessed!

On staying cool and ground chuck feet.....

2008-08-03T19:02:00.005-04:00

The Covington Century was one seriously misrepresented ride. Well, actually, not really. I was told it was hot, that part was true, and it was flat. Ummm.....the beach is flat, not this ride. To those of you who kept insisting it wasn't flat? You were right. It was 98 degrees when we finished with a heat index of 104. My nutrition was WAY off balance because I had an upset stomach. Someone claims that hot perpetuem makes your stomach upset. Don't know if that was the cause, I was thinking it had more to do with the 10 or so bottles of water I was guzzling down. Either way, my tummy was not really hungry, just thirsty, and I wasn't able to take in the nutrition required to ride 110 miles (we tacked on some at the end). The result? I was hot, cranky, half-bonky, and slower than anticipated. The fierce headwinds after mile 75 didn't make things any better. Congrats to Tat and Steven on their first century, to Reger for blowing it out like always, Sarah and Allen for rocking it, KP, and everyone else who had the sense to stay far, far, away from Covington. All in all, I felt really great after the ride and an ice bath....kind of surprised my legs weren't feeling more of the ride. I managed to stay cool today, see?

Oh, and Nat, I read your post about hamburger feet. Interesting. My mom cuts out articles for me too. But they mostly pertain to things like 50-somethings that are still able to have kids. She wants to make sure I know that there are like countless years left in my fertility. I was thinking about your reasons to not partake in ultramarathons and Ironman. Me? I am not too concerned with hamburger feet. Remember Joe's pics of his feet he posted after his 100-mile run? I was still intrigued and thought: I wonder how far I can run before my feet look like that? That's not the reason why this stuff is no longer appealing to me. I realized today while I was reading that my deal-breaker is time. I am SO stingy with my time. I am hyper-sensitive to how valuable it is (to me obviously my time is important) and there is nothing in the world that irks me more than it being 5'oclock in the afternoon and you realize that all you've done is ride 110 miles, bathed, and....well that's it. Laundry? Nope. Reading? Nope. Groceries? Not yet. Target? Maybe tomorrow. If I had an assistant who was willing to take care of all my business (including paying my bills) I would be more than happy to take on these endurance challenges. Until someone can clear off 9-months of my schedule? Not gonna happen. I get too worked up when things aren't done, and hate the feeling that I don't have time. Now if you can create a time machine? Then we might be talking........

The beginning of the end....

2008-07-29T21:40:00.003-04:00

With August 31st approaching pretty quickly, I am finally in the beginning of the end. End to what? Missing toenails, eating gel packs instead of lunch, laundry three times a day, getting up early everyday, I could go on and on forever. Can you tell that I am ready for this Ironman to be over with?

This weekend's training put me over the edge of loving Ironman. Saturday was a 100-miler with Keith at the Silver Comet. I didn't know that it was so beautiful once the trail ends! It opened up to these fields and farms and we saw skydivers (we learned that one died later that day, very sad). Things were going quite nicely on the ride until we went around a sharp corner and there was a break in the trail followed by some railroad tracks. These tracks were curved with the road, and I didn't realize it until it was too late, and I was on the ground. My right hip and left hand took most of the fall. I was in a less than enthusiastic mood at that point. Keith wouldn't accept any sniveling although I thought that my thumb was broken. The tracks won the battle but not to war because I was smart enough to dismount and walk over the rest of the tracks. Finishing the ride (55 miles) in pain wasn't my idea of fun and set the mood for the rest of the weekend.

Sunday I woke up and my hip was killing me. It has a huge knot and bruise on it. I hobbled around and finally made it out to the Hooch around 10:30 am for my 2:30 run. Brilliant!!! It was humid and VERY hot! I saw Pee Wee out there. The 100 miles and fall were still fresh in my legs and the run was pretty slow, but I finished all 2 hours and 30 minutes of it. Knowing I had a cold YooHoo in the car made me want to get it done. At QT I picked up some ice for my ice-bath and the guy asks "Were you just working out?" I told him yes, and he said "In this heat? Are you crazy?" I am starting to think that I am!

Although this weekend was really difficult in terms of training, it taught me that I can suffer a lot. And something tells me that come August 31st, being trained in the art of suffering will come in pretty handy.

Luna Swim Clinic!!

2008-07-21T18:31:00.003-04:00

The Atlanta Luna Chix Triathlon Team Presents
a Women-Only Training Event...
Swimming Clinic for Triathletes
Improve your time, stroke and strength!
Choose from two sessions...

Date: Sunday, July 27, 2008
Times: 9a.m.–Noon OR 1–4p.m.
Location: Marist High School Pool
3790 Ashford Dunwoody Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30319

About: This clinic will include extensive pool time beginning with videotaping of each
swimmer. Based on analysis of each swimmer's stroke and "limiters", the coach
will assign specific drills and offer suggestions for further swim training to achieve
individual goals. Proper stroke technique and drills will be demonstrated and
practiced during the session.
Cost: $100 per swimmer; 50% of the cost will be donated to Breast Cancer Fund.
CASH is preferred. We will also accept checks. No credit or debit cards.
Coach: Tim Storsteen is a former All American and scholarship swimmer at Clemson
University. He has ten years of coaching experience for United States Swimming,
United States Masters Swimming, YMCA, and Triathlon Swim Coaching. He is
certified with American Swim Coaches Association and has over 25 years
experience in competitive swimming. He is currently the Masters coach for
Westminster Killer Whales in Atlanta.

Register: Space is limited! You must have basic swimming
skills to participate (be able to swim 100 yards).
Be sure to reserve your spot by e-mailing
teamlunachixatl@gmail.com and be sure to indicate which session you are attending! Reminder: This is a ladies only event!

The junk in your trunk ride....

2008-07-20T08:44:00.007-04:00

Well, this ride was definitely an interesting one and it was different for several reasons.

We didn't know where we were going. I rode with Bob and Sue (Suob) from Tucker to Social Circle. Originally Bob said that it would be 80-90 miles. Than he said 108. Sue just said "I hope this isn't more than 120."Then some of the roads didn't have names, and there was a bridge out on a road we needed to take, so we had to make some turning around. It ended up being 98 miles. One thing I learned: Always ride with peeps that are 1)Smarter than you and 2) stronger than you. That way you will get faster and smarter in the process! Thanks to Bob for being such a good navigation system!

There were some really weird animal encounters on this ride. First there was a billy goat that was loose and eating some grass. He looked up at us like we were crazy and just started chewing on his grass again. At a gas-station stop a little dog came up and started licking my leg. Bob gave it some moonpie and it ran away. Weird. A few miles later we saw what we thought was a dog darting out in the street. Turns out it was a fawn and it made a beeline for Bob. He had to stop and unclip and everything! Although this last encounter wasn't an animal it was still odd: there was a chain gang doing work out in the street and we were descending down a hill and we were yelling but they weren't listening and Bob almost ran into one of the inmates. To top it all off Bob "accidentally" rode into the back of a car that had honked at us. Big day for Bob out there!

The thing that made this ride really different was the following: While stopped at a red light a "young lady" said (to me) "Excuse me. You have really nice legs, but I think that you need to do some squats to get a firmer butt." I said "EXCUSE ME?" and she repeated herself. SERIOUSLY? Did Miss Chunksta just tell me to do some squats after I had ridden my bike for 90 miles? If I hadn't needed my water so badly I probably would have chunked it at her. Instead Bob just said "Okay, thanks!" and we rode off. This is what she was referring to:

These are brand new shorts. I promise they fit well when I tried them on. I can only assume that after riding all day my butt shrinks, causing me to having these "dookey booty" issues as Keith likes to call it.

After the ride I went on a 50-minute run. Ouch. It had just stopped raining and was 10,000% humidity. It wasn't pretty.

So I think that this ride can be formally named the "junk in your trunk" ride. I wasn't the only one with stuff back there:

Bob seriously had more stuff in his trunk than you could believe. 3 ensures, his dentures, moonpies, $100 in change, the garage door opener, bags full of powdered drink mix. Bob was loaded up.

After some post ride refueling at Los Hermanos Dave couldn't help but notice my sagging issues were resolved. Bonus for peeps still in the restaurant eating:

Why I don't work on my own bike.....

2008-07-14T07:40:00.003-04:00

The lovely image above shows my bike after racing Chattanooga yesterday. Notice the seat pointing totally upwards? That was the result of me trying to adjust my own saddle Thursday to point downwards per my doctors suggestion. I am officially never, ever, ever, ever, ever, going to touch my bike again unless it's to clean it, change the tire, or put the chain on. Everything else will require professional help! Here's what I thought of the race:

Swim: It started raining right before my swim start. Getting into the river and being told when to start is WAY better than a mass swim start. I took off and was feeling pretty decent. Since it was a point to point swim I wasn't sighting like normal until I see a kayak. This meant that I was swimming towards my right instead of straight forward. Doh! So I started sighting and stuck to the left (closer to the bank of the river). They told us that the bright green buoy was our indicator that the stairs were coming up and I got really excited when I looked up and saw a huge bright green thing. Then a couple of minutes later I swam up to a huge group of guys, at least 40 in green swim caps. How did I catch up with them? I kept swimming and swimming, taking 9 strokes and I sighted, still the same spot I was in before. I knew I wasn't moving and started neither was anyone else. I powered myself through by swimming as hard as I could, then the little whirlpool was gone. Apparently there are little spots in the river where this happens. Didn't know that! Swim was 28:04, about a minute slower than I would have liked.

Bike: This bike course was WAY harder than the one from two years ago! But it was really scenic. There were TONS of potholes and I saw plenty of peeps with flats and water bottles all over the place. Around mile 12 or 13 it started pouring rain. It felt like little pellets hitting my skin. I couldn't see anything and was in my aero bars going down a hill. I looked down and was going 39 mph! The rain finally stopped. Around mile 18 my back was just totally gone. I stood up for some relief and when I sat back down my saddle went the opposite way. Oops. At mile 20 I went over a bump and my saddle dropped back even further. At that point I was just trying to not fall off my bike. It was raining again and since we only had six more miles, I thought it would be okay to not try to adjust it. Right. My hamstrings and calves were lighting up like a Christmas tree during those last six miles. It was totally inefficient and wasting a lot of energy. I was still pleased that I managed to avg. 20 MPH. I got a 2-minute penalty for "positioning" because I passed someone and didn't return to the left. It was because the road was crappy there.

Run: The run was a huge disappointment to me. My legs just weren't feeling like they should have, mostly because of the bike I think. I was so proud of myself for putting my shoes in a plastic bag because they were totally dry. Then not even a mile into the run there was a huge puddle of standing water and I got my feet wet. Ugh. I don't like wet feet. The run was better two years ago in my opinion, I thought that this one was harder. Very steep stairs to climb (I couldn't run up or down them). My run pace was 9:04, AWFUL for six miles. I like the out and back on the run because it gave me a chance to see everyone else running, Tat, Keith, Steve, Steph, Matt, Henry, etc ,etc....seeing peeps always keeps you going!

Total time was 2:45:50, not including my penalty. With the rain and my bike issues, I will take it.

Congrats to Tat and Henry on their first Olympic distance race! This was my first Olympic too in 2006! Thanks to Steven and Dave for their support out there! Congrats to everyone else for racing strong in not so great conditions!

Second lesson of the day: Don't make fun of peeps with flats. Someone we know was laughing at Keith because he flatted on the bike. Not even one mile later she flatted and had to DNF because she didn't have a tube. Bad race Karma!

We're 99.99% sure.....

2008-07-10T21:00:00.005-04:00

At least the needle is thin!

We are 99.99% sure that you have a herniated sacral disc. This is what Dr. Hamid and Tom the PT tell me today. Why? Well because instead of getting better, my back is getting worse. The more I train the worse it gets. I am receiving very good care, and very aggressive care, and still I fail all the tests that they give me and my back goes numb within 5 minutes of sitting down. Very frustrating! So far I have done ART treatment, Gratson technique treatment, at-home PT exercises, Dry Needling (wow....8 inch needle in my back and then shocking it so my back will twitch....not fun!!!), and today they hooked me up to a contraption that buckled my feet in and twisted me while pulling me. I joked that they might actually add a couple of inches to me! The only way to be totally sure that this is a herniated disc is with an MRI. So I guess that I need to pony up the money and get it done. They said it's not really necessary because they are treating me like I have one anyways, and there isn't much else they can do. Surgery is only for people with excruciating pain who are experiencing numbness and pain all the time.

The really bad news? That the more I train the worse this is going to get. They promised to get me through the next 6 1/2 weeks until my IM and than I HAVE TO HAVE TO take a break. They told me that they are just putting a band aid on my symptoms, not "fixing" anything. So I have to take the break. A break from what you ask? The BIKE of all things. Ugh. The only thing I could spend all day doing is the thing that is causing me this discomfort. Go figure. If I don't back off? The numbness will get worse, I will feel it all day long, have to get cortisone injections, and eventually it could become debilitating. Double ugh. I love riding my bike but not with those type of risks!!!

What caused this you ask? Well a trauma. Most herniated disc are the result of lifting heavy objects (haven't done that), car accidents, and falling and landing on your back/sacral area. Kind of like getting hit by a car and landing on the ground I ask?Yup....just like that (left hip hit the windshield of the car) and the good Dr. said that was probably the likely culprit. So this disc has been out of whack for a while but I am reaching my "threshold" where it will cause me pain.

So for now? I am taped up. Like I said, I am trying everything possible at this point. I have pretty strict instructions and LOTS of new exercises to do (like holding plank for 2 minutes!) I am not giving up on the .01% chance that this may just be an entrapped nerve.

Don't laugh at the tan lines! This might actually work!

It's better to give than to receive.....

2008-07-09T19:40:00.008-04:00

Well today is my birthday!!! I am officially 27 years old. No more USAT induced confusion (I have been telling everyone I was 27 or sometimes 28 all year long!)

Birthdays are more special after my accident. I look at life a little differently and really appreciate and try to celebrate the fact that I am alive on my birthday! This year I wanted to do something more than "go out to eat", I wanted to figure out a way to honor life. So I decided what better way to honor my life and my birthday than to help someone who is struggling to keep theirs?

I cut off all my hair to donate it to an organization that makes real-hair wigs for people with cancer! The last time I did this I didn't fully understand the impact of what I was doing. I was complaining about how short my hair was, it wouldn't fit in a ponytail, etc,etc, but this time is different. I was talking to a friend of the family today who has breast cancer. She recently had a double mastectomy and will undergo reconstructive surgery on the 17th. When she asked me how I was celebrating my birthday and I told her what I did she just started crying. She said "Thank you. Thank you from all of us that have cancer. You are such a special person to think about others. What you did was really special and it will make a difference." Of course at that point I was crying too. Hearing her say that to me was the best birthday present that I could ever receive!

Don't wait until your birthday to figure out a way to honor your life and do something special for someone. Appreciate the gifts and talents that you have been given and live everyday to the fullest!

Many thanks to everyone for the b-day calls, text messages, e-mails, etc, etc, I really appreciate all of you guys!

Cartersville Century

2008-06-29T18:00:00.005-04:00

Well, it wasn't exactly a century. It was short, about 95.5 miles 17.8 avg mph, over 6000 calories burned! (bonus to weighing so much!). Some peeps rode a little at the end to make it the even 100. Me? I am not really an overachiever much these days. I went into the ride determined that it was going to be great, and that nothing was going to be bad about it. I refused to allow any negative thoughts to even begin to surface in my mind.

My positive thinking paid off because this ride was really more enjoyable than I imagined it would have been. I tried out some new nutrition, potato's, and they didn't work as well as I had hoped. The salt that I added made me really thirsty, and the potato's didn't fill me up at all. Odd. Or maybe they just weren't calorie dense enough? KP did say that they are an excellent on the bike food because of the potassium and sodium. True, but they did get all mushy. Might try them again in addition to something like a Clif Bar.

Sarah and Keith made really excellent riding partners today. They were just perfect. Not too fast, not too slow, and both of them had the perfect positive attitude. I love it when no one complains during a ride! Sarah got honorary hill troll honors because she was seriously kicking it up the hills. Great job girl! Look forward to riding with you guys again soon! Marc dropped up 'cuz he's wicked fast! Suob's did their own thing but heard they were pretty fast as well.

Lot's of animal sightings on the ride including live snakes, dogs, kittens, horses, horses, cows, and zebras. It was pretty cool.

Nat, it was wonderful seeing you out there today and I cannot tell you how impressive it is that you went from 63 to 100 miles! Glad that you were able to put the chamois creme to good use. My girly bits could have used some nicer bike shorts.

After the ride I felt really good. I wanted to go play a game of tennis but Keith said nope. I wanted to run a marathon too Nat forgot her running shoes and so did I. Right. Marc had a belly ache and didn't look so good. I think he was just missing Reger. We all did. Maybe next time.

100 Miles is gonna rock!

2008-06-27T21:08:00.001-04:00

I love my bike.

I love to ride my bike.

I love riding my bike for long periods of time.

I am excited to ride my bike for 100 miles.

Tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun.

I am going to learn whether or not my body likes potatoes instead of Clif Bars for fuel.

You can jump a high fence when a bull is chasing you!

2008-06-24T20:42:00.006-04:00

There have been two times in my life when I have run faster than I ever thought was possible. The first was when I was being chased by a rottweiler, and the second was when I was trying to beat my mom who was riding next to me on her bike. Both times I looked down at Garmin and thought "Why can't I run these intervals on the treadmill?" Well, it's because of a little thing called motivation. I was pretty motivated to not get eaten by that dog and I was also motivated to try and chase my mom down too. I gathered up all the motivation that I could for my 1-minute VO2- Max intervals this week. I went to the gym and realized that it's been a good month since I have had to workout there. I am not sure how I will ever manage to swim in the murky La Fitness waters again after training all summer outdoors! Back to my motivation: the plan was to put the treadmill so high that I thought I would fall off if I didn't run. It worked! I was so scared of falling off the treadmill that I lost sight of the fact that it was so friggin' hard! I am not sure if I can apply this motivation to my swim training!!

In other not-so-related news the Luna Chix Beginner Triathlon Clinic was a success! I recognized Dogwood Girl, and it was great to meet you! It was so much fun to put it on and I hope that it was helpful information!

Let me know who all is going to be in Cartersville this Saturday for the ride....I am doing 100-fantastic miles, my first ever century! Never mind the fact that my longest ride this season has been 80 miles in January.....that's not relevant right?

I listened to you!

2008-06-20T17:53:00.004-04:00

Well, I actually listened for once! All of my favorite healthcare professionals (Tat, Sarah, Dr. Hamid, and Tom) told me the same thing: don't train and go to bed early. After my ART/Gratson session yesterday I was feeling a little bit better. But I had a mild fever and knew that a bike ride may be a bit too much. I came home and vacuumed instead. I wanted to go to bed early but for some reason my exhausted body wasn't telling my mind to stop and sleep. I did manage to get to bed around 10 and slept for a solid 9 hours. And VOILA! I woke up feeling a million times better. I got in a 1.5 hour ride and a 2400 meter swim. Have I told you how much I don't mind swimming these days? It's because I am swimming at Venetian Pools. 50 meters! Outside! Lanes always open! Plus they have a snack bar with ice cream!!!

Tomorrow is a long brick and I know that it will be better because I didn't train on Thursday. It's amazing how taking one day off can curtail a potential disaster

I just talked to Steve Brown who is racing IM Couer D'Alene on Sunday. Water temp is 55 degrees, colder than it's been since 1875 due to the melting of snow on a nearby mountain that feeds the lake. They have hot tubs set up next to the swim exit for people to sit in a warm up! Steve said he hasn't done an IM since 2000 so don't expect anything special from him. Whatever, he's going to ROCK! I am also tracking Bree Wee in her pursuit of an IM Hawaii Pro slot at Japan on Sunday too! Go get 'um!

Pulling out of Irongirls.....

2008-06-18T13:32:00.004-04:00

Today marks the 4th day in a row of me being totally and completely exhausted. I went to bed at 10pm last night, woke up at 6am, ran 6.2 miles, showered, went to see train two clients and now I am home at 1:30 p.m. and ready for bed. Ugh. I still have to swim and study for an exam tomorrow before I can go to bed! I switched to 1/2 caffeine coffee five days ago in an effort to slowly wean myself off the juice before Ironman. But I am having a hard time thinking that is the cause of my exhaustion. I am getting adequate sleep. Around 7.5-8 hours a night. But I am still tired. I also feel like I am getting sick, but I am not. I wake up with chest congestion and a sore throat, but no fever. The rest of my body feels great! My legs are getting used to all the training and aren't complaining much. The ART that I am getting twice a week has done wonders for me but it doesn't make me have any more energy.

Although I am tired, I am still completing all my workouts as prescribed. I am just even more tired after I get done. I called the expert, Kevin Patton today to discuss this plus my freaking out that I am not riding long enough. Kevin told me that it was stupid that I "raced" three weekends in a row. Although I wouldn't call the relay portion of a bike a race, KP noted that I was still holding a much higher pace and HR than I would have during any regular workout. This places stress on your body. I am afraid that I am stressing my body too much right now and it's catching up to me.

Kevin has his clients that are racing IM Louisville riding the Cartersville Century in two weeks. I was planning on riding 85 miles then racing Irongirls the next day. KP basically tells me that I am an idiot for doing that. Get up early one day and ride, rush home and put race wheels on your bike, drive to Gainesville to check it in, then come home and race the next day? That's just begging for illness to come on. I agree. I don't know what I was thinking. Plus how much fun is Irongirls really going to be if I can't taper and blow it out? Not fun at all.

So I am not racing Irongirls. I really didn't want to in the first place but Luna Chix are supposed to be racing. Guess I am a volunteer at this point! I am more than happy with that. Sorry to Dave for wasting the free entry!

Westpoint Lake Triathlon

2008-06-15T15:40:00.003-04:00

Yummy, yummy, Bruster's ice cream in my tummy!

Team Slaughter Scootsie was victorious! I was concerned that my legs weren't going to hold up too well on the bike. They were TRASHED going into the race! Have you ever just willed your legs to not feel sore? That's what I did race morning. I forced them to just work for me! My two biggest mistakes were not warming up at all and not taking any allergy meds. It took me until mile 14 before I actually felt like I was getting going! My Garmin time was 1:08:44 for 24.99 miles, so a 21.8 avg MPH, official time lists me at 1:09:20 because it included the time into transition. I was really hoping to go faster, especially after Sarah told me that the course was mostly flat. But there were actually a couple of good climbs and some rollers in there and I wasn't nearly as fresh as I would have liked. BUT, I did have the second fastest female bike split (after the overall winner's) and I am very interested in knowing what it would be like to taper and prepare for a real time trial!

Getting back to the race.....Olga had a blazing fast 27:02 swim and Tat burned up the run in 46:38. Our overall time was 2:23:59, 13 minutes faster than Keith's and if we could ever pull that time off individually, it would have been good enough for 3rd place overall!!!

The "us against you" format was really good for Keith. He stayed up all night driving from FL, arrived Atlanta and slept for 1 hour before racing. Then he placed third in his age group and took off 4 seconds from last years time!

Congrats to Sarah, Hunter, Jenny, and Steph who were all out there looking strong! My hero of the day was Dr. John Taylor, 87 year old who raced the sprint triathlon! He rocks! Check out Flickr for the rest of the pics!

Team Slaughter Scootsie

2008-06-13T20:53:00.003-04:00

When Tat said that she wanted to relay a race with me and Olga (I would do the bike portion) I was game. I have NEVER had the chance to just blow it out on the bike! We decided on West Point Lake Olympic distance triathlon.

At some point Keith decided that he was going to sign up too and started talking junk about how he would beat us. Right. Team Slaughter Scootsie was born. The deal? Whoever loses has to buy the winner Bruster's Ice Cream.

Keith had this thing called "work" down in Tampa and thought he was going to miss the race (apparently people do this so-called "work" to pay bills?!?) but he's on his way to ATL now and pumped to try and beat us.

His time from last year: 35:53 swim, 20.96MPH avg on the bike and 46:57 (7:33 pace) on the run.

Looks like somebody's buying me an ice cream cone tomorrow!

Sweetwater Triathlon

2008-06-09T07:40:00.003-04:00

I finally got a recovery/taper week prior to this race!!! It was my first recovery week since the week of Gulf Coast and my body was begging for it! Going into the race I felt pretty decent, my back is getting much better. I have had a very nagging knee pain all week in my left knee that was brought on by a 11.5 mile run on Monday. But other than that, I felt pretty good! Everyone said "You have to do this race at least once!" and I know understand why. It's a minimalist race, but the atmosphere is very relaxed and there was no pre-race tension at all.

Swim: Seriously, this was the world's shortest triathlon swim. The ladies started one-minute behind the men and I caught up to about five guys that were just treading water. The turn-around was kind-of hairy and this woman grabbed me and her hand went into my back pocket of my top and she pulled me down. I was less than thrilled because she should have just let go, but instead she kept swimming, pulling me in the process. I exited the water right next to Henry, my mailman. He wasn't happy to see me. I was the second woman out of the water and I could see Keith putting his shoes on and mounting his bike. I wanted to catch him SO badly!

Bike: I tried and tried to catch Keith but all the little twist and turns were not in my favor. I caught the first woman out of the water within the first mile and was leading the race. I caught almost all the guys and at this point, there were only about 5 people in front of me, including Keith. The bike course was changed to make it a little longer, but it wasn't long enough for me! Keith stayed about 30 seconds ahead of me the entire time. Bummer. I only averaged 21 MPH on the bike, which wasn't as fast as I would have liked, but it's hard to build up too much speed on a course this short. Although there were not any substantial climbs, the course was not flat at all either.

Run: Prior to the race I asked about the run (which was also a new course) I was told it was "a trail run" Trails?!? I have never run on a trail before!!! I am deathly afraid of anything that involves off-road running because my left ankle is so weak I am paranoid that I will roll it. The minute we went off road on the run I was totally out of my comfort zone. The gravel, rocks, and sand sucked and I almost fell going up a hill. I slowed myself down a bit but was still totally sucking for air. I thought that I was having a heart attack or asthma attack, because that's how hard I was working! I knew that there were women behind me that could probably run faster than me. It was getting so hot and very humid and I was pouring sweat. My shoes were sloshing even though I hadn't poured any water on myself! I got caught by a couple of guys by the first mile. Once we started running on grass I saw a chick that was smoking the course. She was grinning ear to ear. Not a good sign! I tucked my head down and tried to run harder, but I was giving it everything that I had. The run seemed to last forever and the chick caught me with about 3/4 of a mile to go. There was nothing I could do, I was running as fast as I could at that point and just wanted to hold onto second place. When we got back onto the pavement I rounded a corner and saw another lady digging really deep to try and catch me. I started sprinting and made it to the finish line, literally 10 seconds ahead of her. I felt sick to my stomach and curled over, almost throwing up.

I was the second place overall female and I can honestly say that I raced this race pretty hard! The run was a little bit long (3.6 miles) and my average pace was 7:46 min/mile. That's actually my fastest run pace ever and the fact that it was on a mostly trail run is great! I will post more pics soon! Congrats to Keith for winning his AG!

Holy Heat-Training!

2008-06-07T17:58:00.002-04:00

So I got tired of hearing the dogs panting non-stop because the house was so hot. Plus it was really hard to sleep with the house being 86 degrees. I turned on the A/C. It worked for a few days. Then a couple of days ago the house got seriously hot. Yesterday it was 88 degrees! Turns out the A/C is frozen up. It's defrosting right now. In the meantime I am putting out some serious sweat. I went to Target and took a LONG time shopping for relief. Hopefully once it thaws out it will work again. Heat training sucks when you have no choice!

Nutrition Class

2008-06-05T20:15:00.003-04:00

I am taking a nutrition class. This is great because I am trying to slim down just a little tiny bit. The reasons are purely for my performance in triathlons. I am typically happy with the way I look. If I am able to reduce my body fat by just 1% I will effectively increase my body's ability to deliver oxygen to my working muscles. This is VERY important while racing! So I have this awesome software program that has a million different food brands already in it. You enter in your information, age, height, weight, and activity level and it tells you not only how many calories that you need, but also how much nutrients that you need. You can enter in the exact physical activity that you did each day it will will refigure your requirements. This is what I had for today:

Calories Required: 3014 Consumed: 2297 (76%)
Protein Required: 30.24 Consumed: 130.61 (217%)
Carbs Required: 330-490 Consumed: 307.81
Fat Required: 67-117 Consumed: 61.59

In terms of my vitamins and minerals the only ones that I didn't meet requirements for were Omega 6 and Omega 3 (but I ate a kids chewy Omega vitamin so I actually did get everything!)
I didn't get all the Vitamin D required or Potassium. Everything else was 100% or more, sometimes WAY more, like Niacin which shows me at 275% and Vitamin A which has me at 1975% But I ate a whopping 47.31 grams of fiber! So that is great, but I really need to focus on the other areas. I am surprised that I got in so much protein, since I only ate meat once today. I did have a protein shake for breakfast though so that probably helped!

I am going to try REALLY hard to even this all out, and actually eat more to lose weight! Does the need to eat more fat mean I get ice cream?!??

Nerve Entrapment

2008-06-04T20:20:00.003-04:00

Doesn't this sound so sinister? Well it's not. Thankfully this is something that will be quite managable and will not require that I backdown from any training or racing. WHEW! Big sigh of relief! I was really worried that I had a pinched sacral nerve. The symptoms are similar but what I have is an "entrapment" of a nerve that is most likely caused by my major muscle imbalance. I learned that some of the exercises that I was doing that I thought would help were actually making it worse.

I really had three appointments today. One with Dr. Hamid and two with the PT. I really like them both. They get me, what I am doing, and how hard-headed that I am. I am going to be going to PT twice a week. I promise not to crap out on it. I have no choice, if I don't correct the imbalance this will only get worse. Today they gave me some exercises that I have to do three times a day. I can already tell a difference. I also had my first Active Release Therapy treatment. I was rather skeptical at first but have heard wonderful things about this from peeps who were at their wits end. I have tons of scar tissue so there is a lot for them to work out. It sort of hurts. When I left and went to work I had no numbness at all during my 45-minute car ride. Odd. Than I rode and my back felt fine. Is it possible that one PT session and ART treatment can cause this much relief? They were amazed with how much imbalance I have. It all goes back to that stupid leg-breaking. Whatever. I am alive and they believe that once I get "balanced" I will be stronger than ever. Yeah baby!!!

Big News!!!

2008-06-03T21:53:00.002-04:00

Oh my gosh! Georgia is getting it's very own 70.3 race! Won't be until September 27, 2009 but that is still really awesome! Wonder if they'll have Kona slots? The article doesn't mention it. But that bike portion is in South Carolina? How cool is that? Here's the link!

Because the little birdie said so!

2008-06-03T21:41:00.008-04:00

My encounters with animals have been less than normal recently. First I saved two turtles two weeks ago while riding. Then last week I was scared by both a dog and a snake while racing in Macon. Yesterday I was at Target and found this little bird sitting inside the doorway. Poor little thing was breathing really hard and no one seemed willing to help him. I picked him up and gave him some water. Then I put him in some pine straw by a tree and told myself that I would bring him home if he was still there when I left. He was gone when I left. Weird.

On another note I am going to have a X-Ray done of my lower back. My pain and numbing issues have intensified. I can now only sit down for about 5 minutes without my lower back going numb. If I don't stand up them I will get pain in my left sit bone, hip and butt area. If I stay seated eventually the pain will travel down the back of my leg and cause my foot to fall asleep. Very disturbing. The minute I stand up the feeling starts to return. I don't know what to make of it. I ran for almost 12 miles with no problem on Monday, but I can't sit through one class lecture without squirming around like I have hemorrhoids. I am praying that it's nothing serious. I will keep you posted.

Wow!

2008-06-03T19:38:00.000-04:00

How horrible is this! Please be careful out there guys!

Macon Aquabike

2008-06-01T20:07:00.005-04:00

With 1/4 mile to go Sue was working hard to catch Keith!!

How smart was I to pick the day that was 93 degrees to do an Aquabike? It consisted of a 1.2 mile swim and 56 mile bike. This was the first race that I did last year coming off my broken leg so it was sentimental for me. It was also my first repeat race!

The Swim: Am I EVER going to learn how to swim? I mean seriously?!? I have SO much endurance and for that I am thankful, but still have zero speed! When I got into the water I just swam, pretty much the same way that I would swim a warm-up in the pool. Way too aerobic for a race. I got off course a bit, oops, and had my first ever big kick in the face. The kick really made me very unhappy. I made it out of the water and almost croaked when I saw that my time was 3 minutes slower than it was last year! Okay so I didn't taper at all for the "training race". Plus I wasn't wearing a wetsuit(left it at home, 77.5 who knew?). But 3 minutes?!? Obviously 9000 yards a week isn't cutting it! Time to kick it into high gear!

The Bike: No HR monitor, no computer checking, no goals other than to do better than what I did last year. The first 20 miles were totally brutal. There was lots of wind. Way more wind than there should have been in Macon. I felt like I wasn't going anywhere. My legs were moving but the bike seemed to go really slow. I passed Tat and Karen and realized that the duathletes were already on course. This motivated me to ride a little bit harder. My bad attitude continued on the bike too. A guy rode up next to me and started talking. I said bad words because he scared me so badly. Then I felt really bad about it, but he had dropped back. Sorry guy. Around mile 30ish Sue caught me. Right before she caught me a dog started charging after me. It scared the daylights out of me. She told me after the fact that it was one of the closest calls that she had ever seen. I wasn't prepared for it, I actually think that I was sitting up and rubbing my very numb back. Sue scared me too when she caught me and started talking to me. She's like really,really, really strong. I can only imagine the terror that she imposed on all the guys in the race. The bike was hillier than I remembered from last year. Or maybe it was the wind that made it harder than I remembered. Or maybe I was just riding harder? I did get a 4-minute penaltly because I almost ran over a snake and was screaming (again, I was scared and didn't realize it was alive, see a pattern forming?) because it was huge and slithering all over the road.A guy that works with Tat rode up next to me and started talking. I didn't realize that meant I was supposed to drop back. It's called overtaken. He got penalized too for not passing me completely. He ended up dropping back because he said he was pushing too hard and needed to save some for the run.

At mile 48 I was in tears over the numbness and pain in my back. I was so very uncomfortable and unhappy. I told myself not to quit because Tucker Bob was still behind me and we had been in a texting war all week about how he was going to "see me" out there. At mile 50 I told myself that I was doing good because Bob didn't catch me. Not even 5 minutes later he caught me. The next six miles we spent playing cat and mouse and we found Keith along the way in. At one point Bob passed me and noticed that a guy was on my wheel. He started yelling "drafter, Dani you have a drafter!!" Really loud. I dropped it a couple of rings and the guy dissapeared.

After entering T2 I was thankful that my race was over. It was about 90 degrees and scorching out there. I spent a few minutes cheering for peeps and helping random people apply sunscreen to their back, neck, and head area. One chick asked me if I was "just not doing the run" and I said "Nope! I did the Aquabike! You suckers can run!" She was jealous. It was not a pretty day for a 1/2 marathon. My official bike time was 2:48 something but my actual ride time was 2:47 something......basically about 20.2 MPH Avg.

Since I trained straight through this "training race" I am okay with my results. I placed 4th overall behind two superstar triathletes (Deanna Frank and Heidi Phillips) Results list me as 1st, but it's a mistake. I took 20 minutes off my bike split from last year, so I can't complain about that! My swim is another story.....one that I am still a little sore about and don't want to talk about until I can figure out what's gone wrong.

The real props need to go to the peeps who did the half IM (Bob) and long course duathlon: Keith, Sue, Tat, and Karen. Tat had the fastest 1/2 marathon split of all the women and Sue was the bike queen! They all took home hardware. My training partners rock!

Big thanks also needs to go to Hunter, Steven, and Dave for all their hard work out there on the race course! Thanks guys!

The rest of the pics are on my Flickr!

Dearest Joe,

2008-05-27T12:47:00.003-04:00

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

2008-05-26T08:18:00.003-04:00

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!

2008-05-25T14:31:00.004-04:00

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!

2008-05-25T14:14:00.002-04:00

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!

2008-05-23T13:32:00.001-04:00

My lower back....

2008-05-22T19:51:00.000-04:00

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.....

2008-05-22T19:11:00.000-04:00

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....

2008-05-18T20:56:00.004-04:00

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!!!

2008-05-18T20:20:00.007-04:00

Hunter turned the epic 4-0 yesterday!!!

Happy Birthday Hunter!

Stopping to smell the roses....

2008-05-14T20:27:00.006-04:00

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

2008-05-11T17:40:00.005-04:00

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?

2008-05-07T20:54:00.005-04:00

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....

2008-05-05T13:18:00.007-04:00

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!