Getting closer!!!

EEEEEeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm here in Panama City FINALLY!  The expo was quite nice and made everything that much more real.  I have been to a bunch of different race expos but by far this one had the coolest bag :D  There wasn't a lot to choose from at the expo but that's ok because I don't need to spend that much money.  We each bought a race jersey and a visor and I am hopefully planning on wearing my visor during my run.  It's super soft and comfy!

Ironman swag :D  Our sweet new tri bags

Official bracelet, ticket to everything, makes everything real bracelet!

Ironman timing chip (still don't know how to put it together though)

The last pic, of the timing chip, is kind of confusing.  I have no idea how to put the circle deal on the neoprene strap.  the strap is about twice as thick as the holes in the timing chip soo....not really certain how that's supposed to work.  I guess I'll figure it out here soon!

As for tomorrow we are planning on swimming in the morning, meeting Mirinda Carfrae at noon, going for a short bike ride in the afternoon, checking into our little condo/hotel room on steroids, then athlete meeting/dinner at 5:30, then who knows what!  If the food isn't very good at the athlete dinner then we're going to make dinner in our kitchen hopefully.  Lots to do!  Lots of fun!!  Then Friday is going to be feet up and relax before an early dinner and early bed time!  Yeah!

 

En Route to Florida!

Ok, well I've talked about something exciting that has potential to happen in the near future, I was hoping to have official news of said event before Florida, but turns out they were purposely waiting until after Florida thinking I wouldn't worry about it.  Well so much for not worrying.  On a positive side though, I've been told that I don't have that much to truly worry about.

So what have I done with my new allowance of time?  Due to taper time I am no longer logging more time in athletic clothes than work clothes and have been able to sit back and relax.

My view from my back yard just a few days ago!

This was my comfort and view from the back part of my back yard just a few short days ago.  The temperatures were near the 80s, the sun was out, and I was fully able to wear shorts and flip flops without thinking twice about it.  Then "Sandy" came, yep, that awesome little hurricane, combined with a great cold front prompted "Frankenstorm".  I am very thankful that I didn't have to deal with the weather like people along the East Coast, but it still dropped literally 40 or more degrees in one day, and has since stayed lovely cold.  I was smart and took advantage of being able to have fun in the weather for one more back ride!  

Yeah, the back of my Equinox was looking a wee bit crowded and messy after my ride.  Just think, I didn't even have running stuff in that mess!  I had a blast though and remembered that I really honestly do like riding now and I always prefer to be outside instead of inside.

So after my ride and working and packing and cleaning and fill in blank here with nonsense, it was finally time for my annual pumpkin party that I have with my cousins.  This year instead of having just the one set of cousins we had both sets of cousins, my Aunt, sister, mom, and grandma over to carve pumpkins.  By the time everything was all said and done we had nearly 20 people at my house enjoying each others company, carving pumpkins, and sitting around bullshitting about anything that crossed our minds.  

Our Pumpkin Line on my front porch.

Now that I am relaxed and have found out that tapering can be enjoyable instead of scary, I'm getting ready for Florida!  I worked Sunday and Monday night in order to get my 24 hours in for work, then stayed up Tuesday so that I could sleep in the car on the way down.  We left around 2ish and just stopped in Pelham, Alabama for the night before continuing on to Panama City, Florida tomorrow morning for check in!

So this is rest :D

You know what doesn't help a triathlete taper well?  Kona.  Kona was last weekend and all this week every blog I read, obviously triathlon related, is about Kona.  I WANT TO GO!!!  I know I have to qualify, or luck out and win a lottery spot, but I want to go!  It sounds like way too much fun to not go, plus it's in Hawaii, problem?  Nope!

So I feel like a slug because I haven't done anything in what feels like forever.  I forget that I ran 8.5 miles on Thursday then managed to accomplish virtually no sleep from 8:30am Thursday until 3:30PM Friday.  Yep, that's what working nights and not being tired does for you.  I was completely exhausted come Friday afternoon, and according to Red almost demon-like when you go to wake me up after I've been asleep for only two hours, but you'll have that.  I think in the honor of resting I will continue to not do much tomorrow as well, then do my long swim, or bike, on Monday since I'm off and it's supposed to be BEAUTIFUL out.  I am really hoping for beautiful weather for our race, not something crazy cold and ridiculous, nor super hot and death creating.  I did check the weather and all this week it's supposed to be near 80 down there, I could go for a couple degrees cooler, but not much, because in the early morning during the swim, then after the sun goes down, it could get rather chilly. 

Oh, motivation that I keep mentioning to Red is if I do some how miraculously qualify for Kona I am making my friend train me all year up to Kona.  :D  It's just a dream, but it's a fun dream!

Real quick.  I've discovered a good way to get more vitamins and goodness in my little body.  My new smoothies taste amazing.  I've been using V8 as a base, then mango, strawberries, and baby spinach for my happy little smoothie.  I can't taste the spinach, which is a huge plus, but I still get the benefits!  Yeah!!

Understanding Taper

Ok, so part of the Ironman thing is becoming obsessed with the process, race, and everything that surrounds Ironman.  Part of that obsession is reading other triathletes blogs and trying to figure out how they train, the best nutrition, ways to prevent injury, and deal with life working full time, training full time, and not let the house go completely to crap.  Well in reading these blogs I kept coming to people saying how you go crazy during taper and start worrying about every ache and pain and if you ever did enough training.  I didn't get that point and didn't understand how you wouldn't welcome not having to train for 15-20 hours a week and actually get a break.  I get it now.  I was looking at my training plan and I realize that I'm still technically 3 weeks out, 2.5 but whatever, and my taper is supposed to start next Monday.  Well with my work week going on like crazy and some potential for awesome changes coming about, I think my taper is going to start a week early.  With that being said, I am nearly positive that unless I start running in the very limited time that I will have, or doing circuit training in my basement with my kettle bells, I am going to go crazy.  My body has adapted to the high mileage just fine and feels like if I'm not pushing myself every day, or at least nearly every day, that something is wrong.  I had to remind myself that I just swam 3000 meters last Friday before going to work, swam 1600 meters Thursday, and ran 15 miles Wednesday, I forget what I did Tuesday and Monday, but I do know that I did something every day last week.  I was just on the trainer this past Sunday and I don't feel like I've done anything.  Now with taper coming up and me not feeling like my legs are on fire or something I understand how other triathletes say they start to go crazy from the lack of intensity.

I'm just going to try to embrace the taper and remember that the crazy miles I put in all year long are going to carry me through in 2.5 weeks and that I'm not going to lose all of my endurance in just a little bit.  I am going to be fine.  My goal is to embrace the taper and enjoy this time of not trying to fit in a 2.5 hour run, or a 5 hour bike ride, or find something else to fill my time.  It's time to embrace, understand, and love the taper.  Or maybe I'll find something to do on Monday or Tuesday since I'm off lol.  Maybe I'll embrace the taper on and off depending on my work schedule.

Happy training!

Ouch

The three week mark is here!!!  Next week is my last huge push of mileage before I start my 2 week taper.  I cannot wait for taper time!  I would like to say I've always considered myself to be in fairly decent shape and athletic.  I have played sports year round during high school and when I got to college I still ran and went to the pool.  When I moved to Cincinnati my sister suckered me into a 5k and distance racing became my new obsession.  I have done half marathons, full marathons, and every distance of triathlon up to a half thus far and nothing compares to all of this mileage.  Yeesh!  I have been finding new and entertaining ways to make my body perpetually sore for nearing a year now and this is the longest my legs have ever stayed this tight.  I ran 15 miles on Wednesday, that's cool, I biked the night before, swam the day before, and on Monday put myself through an intense kettle bell workout circuit.  It's Friday and my legs are still sore.  Since Wednesday I have swam nearly 3 miles, doesn't sound like much, but considering the fact that it has been done essentially with no kicking and only using my arms, that's a long way to drag your body with just your arms.  Want to know the funny thing?  I want to do it all over again.  :D  I'm crazy, I know, I'm a nut case, I know.

One of my friends just mentioned last night that Ironman Texas still has some spots if Red and I were interested.  Red of course scoffed at the idea because the race is in May, me...well I'm intrigued.  I have a new strange addiction called Ironman and I think I'm in love.  I'm incredibly tired, sore, and worn out, but I'm in love!  I have abs that are better than any time when I played soccer, I actually have calves instead of sticks, and I don't feel like I'm going to die attempting to run more than a couple of miles.  I'm ok with this!  I mean I didn't even bat an eye when I took off for a 15 mile run, I just went, yep sounds good!

Well I have to work tonight, yippee, which means sleeping during the day.  Tomorrow will bring sleep until early afternoon, then head down to Mariemont (no idea where that is) for packet pick up and a 5k run that Red talked me into, hopefully pick up my new Merrell boots that I've been wanting FOREVER, then go to the UC football game, and eventually make it home to sleep again.  This weekend means tomorrow is a rest day because, if all goes well, Sunday is going to be roughly a 7 hour training day.  I'm supposed to be on the bike for 4.5 hours, run for 1.5 hours, and swim for .5 hours.  I'm not super certain how everything will turn out but for now the weather appears to be on my side so yeah!!  7 hour training day here I come!  Night!

4 weeks!

We have reached the 4 week mark!  This is terrifying and exciting at the same time!!  I now have 2 weeks left of high mileage/high intensity training before starting the 2 week taper.  I feel like my taper started three weeks ago, but I'm hoping to actually pick it up this week and get a lot accomplished.  I've been getting kind of bored running the same routes all the time so I decided that I would try to change it up a little bit.

There's a nice neighborhood, that isn't very big, across the road from ours and I thought I would check it out.  Well I am notorious for getting lost so I figured writing everything down for directions would be a good idea. It is a good idea so long as there aren't very many turns.  I forgot how tiny my arm was, so my little 6 mile run took up my ENTIRE arm.

Yep...That wasn't thought through..

This run didn't turn out very well anyway because it was supposed to be 6-8 miles and it turned into only 4.  Mapmyrun doesn't show gated communities that have a million signs everywhere saying "No Trespassing"  "Private Property, Trespassors will be Prosecuted".  As I was debating about running through anyway I realized that there was a giant fence going all along the property and instead of just a small gate that swung open it was a huge sliding door gate of sorts.  So much for that plan, so I turned around and migrated back home.  

On a positive note, I have 4 animals in my house, 3 cats and a dog, and they are all AWESOME!  Some people say my smallest cat is evil, but I prefer to think she's just very partial to her mother.  I am pretty much the only one that can pick her up, toss her around, snuggle her, or do whatever I want and not risk getting clawed or growled at.  The other cats are huge cuddle bugs, and my Zoey is the best dog on the planet. 

We did not stage them like this.  :D

Meekah is the giant cat on my right, Sakhmet is my tiny cat on my hip, and Zoey is my puppy by my feet!  They love to cuddle with their mommy!  

Ok, well I'm going to finish up a couple things around the house then hopefully run before going back to sleep.  I have to work tonight but fortunately I only have to work tonight and Friday this week!  Yeah!  That means lots of training this week!!  Woot!

Happy Training!

Ironman Athlete Guide is here!

Ok, so this morning I was having a little issue getting out of bed.  It's super cold and rainy outside and I was toasty warm under my covers, no likey getting out of bed.  Well I finally migrated to the kitchen for some coffee and was putzing around cleaning and then eating breakfast.  My phone made the little noise to tell me I had an email, yippee, either a bill or junk mail right?  WRONG!!!  It was the Ironman Florida Athlete Guide!!!  I went from blah to ridiculously happy in about 0.0002 seconds.  Yes the guide is kind of boring to read and it's not the most riveting material out there, but it is just another mile marker of how close we are getting to my very first Ironman!  I'm so excited!!!!

I'm hoping that this little guide will be the motivation that I need to jump start my training.  I've been picking up crazy hours at work, and the weather here in Ohio has been far less than ideal.  When i'm not working it has been roughly 50's to low 70's, not bad right?  But then add in the constant threat, or actual, rain along with a healthy dose of wind.  I've said it once and I'll say it again, I am a huge baby when it comes to training in the cold and wet conditions.  I will play soccer no matter what the conditions, but riding a bike when the lows in the mornings are in the 30's to 50's and it's sprinkling...I think not.  I did get the dreaded trainer out the other day so hopefully that will help :D.  I have noticed that my bike fitness is MUCH better than when I started this nonsense last winter.  It used to KILL me to be on the trainer for more than about 5-10 minutes because the resistance felt so crazy, now I'm fine on it resistance wise, but my attention span needs work.  I'm hoping to force myself onto the trainer more here lately so that I am forced to deal with boredom on the bike for a couple of hours at a time.  Red swears that will be my un-doing at our race, I'm really really hoping to prove him wrong!

In other news, there isn't a whole lot going on.  I may have an opportunity here soon to become a certified Personal Trainer, and get paid for it.  The only other thing that is going on is the fact that I am teaching a friends daughter gymnastics and that I'm going to get my hair cut in about 30 minutes.  Woo!  I know, exciting!  Ok, well time to get my tush to the gym, which coincidentally is where my hair appointment is :D  Lifetime has the "Lifetime Spa" where they do massages, hair stuff, and other nonsense that would probably make a lot of sense to a normal girl, but I'm just figuring it out.  I'm hoping they don't screw up my hair.  Lifetime seems to do everything from their pool maintenance, locker rooms, and work out equipment in high quality.  I'm hoping that the efforts put forth in those areas translates into the spa deal, which I think it may considering they are booked whenever I hope to just walk in to get my hair cut, Great Clips this place is not.

Later,

Happy training!

D'oh!

Ok, so I just realized that when I wrote my last post that I was a little off, I think....I know of someone else that is doing Ironman Florida and she says she only has 3 more "hard" weeks of training before taper, and I swear I just counted 4 "hard" weeks left and two weeks of taper...which brings me to the D'oh moment.  Last week I thought I only had 6 weeks left, but now I think I have 6 weeks left.  I officially have no idea how many weeks there lol.  I'm pretty sure now is 6 weeks out and I'm loving it!  I've had a few longer runs lately and I feel great the entire time. 

For those who actually read my blog, you will remember that I went into survival mode and had a cramp-tastic marathon in May for the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon.  Since then I have been working on figuring out what on eart went wrong, and making sure that it doesn't happen again!  I am fairly certain that I have it figured out, at least under control.  Lately I've been running 11+ miles and not having any issues.  During my route I have a water fountain that is glorious because it is 4 miles from my house, but not glorious because I can't keep moving when I need a drink, duh.  This is how I think I've found my problem, when I pause at the drinking fountain I can feel my hamstrings tightening up and getting angry.  I then wander around a little bit and don't try stretching too much, and everything is better.  I start running again, nice and easy, then work back up to pace, and so far no problems.  I can tell that I need more electrolytes during my runs because by the time I get home I love water yes, but I really want something else.  I've been drinking my GU Brew Recovery as soon as I'm done as well and so far it seems to be working great!  It tastes amazing and I haven't had sore/dead legs the next day. I forgot to drink it after a 10 mile run and went to the UC football game, I couldn't figure out why I was so tired, then it dawned on me that I didn't drink my recovery drink!  It could be a coincidence, but it was proof enough for me, so I now swear by it and try my hardest to not skip it after hard workouts. 

In other news, there isn't much to report.  A couple weeks ago I logged over 166 miles for the week, and didn't break down!!  Yeah!!  The next week though I picked up crazy random hours and only logged roughly 45 miles for the week.  Boo!!  It was my own fault for agreeing to randomly work days AND nights instead of just one or the other.  Thanks to that brilliance I had the most messed up sleep schedule on the planet, which also effected my time and ability to actually trian.  This week I am working 10 more hours than I did last week, BUT they are all roughly the same.  I go into work every evening at 7p and my only variable is what time I get off, some days I get off at 11p and others I don't get off until 7a the next morning.  This means that during the day I can actually get things accomplished, like cleaning, sleeping, and TRAINING!  So far I'm off to a good start.  It's only Tuesday and I've already ran 11.5 miles and swam 2700 yards.  I know I should be doing more this late in the training, but I'll take what I can get.  I'm hoping to get out on my bike tomorrow, or I may break down and get on the trainer for an hour or so, because it's supposed to rain all week.  We'll see what happens!


Happy training!

6 weeks out! Eek and Awesome!

Well Ironman Florida training is amping up quite nicely.  Last time I wrote I talked about bonking and hating my ride, well things are a little different now.  Saturday I rode 95 miles with Red and didn't want to kill anything!!  We stopped way more than I originally wanted to, but it worked out for the best.  I ended up eating about 1,500 calories during the whole bike ride, that's more than some peopel eat all day and I did it in one bike ride.  The funny part, I still lost weight.  Yep, even with cooler temperatures, setting my watch to remind me to drink every 15 minutes, and Red making sure I was drinking more, I still lost 2 pounds during our excursion.  Meh, it happens. 

On an awesome note I have found a Pandora station that I love, discovered that the Xenia Station has free hot dogs at noon on Saturday, and have made a running route that is rather enjoyable and already has it's own water!  My new Pandora runnign station of choice has become Queen, not only does it regularly play Bohemian Rhapsody, one of my all time favorite songs, but it also plays a ton of songs that I never realized help me relax and run better.  I was listening to my old stand bys for running with Pandora and was pretty bored with my selections.  I realize that they are trying to play similar songs, but once I hear the same selection 3 times in a 3 hour period, I'm shot and annoyed.  I switched to Disney even just for a change of pace, but discovered that it only plays bout 10 different song selections.  So during mile 2 of an 8 mile run I decided to go for Queen and see what happened.  I love it!!!  So that will become my new reliable regular running station.  If anyone has tried the iheart radio app for their ipod or android let me know if you get better service than I have.  I can normally make it through about 5 minutes but then it buffers or something for about 10 minutes until the next song starts, or commercial.  I thought the radio would be a good change, but apparently I was a little off.  The route I was running when I made this discovery is my new go to route for longer distances.  I used to be reluctant to make a route starting from home that was longer than 5 miles, simply because of the lack of water.  But now I have a route that has a drinking fountain at mile 4, which works out perfectly for my 8 mile run.  I'm usually ready for more water by the time I get home, but it's better than attempting 8 miles with no water.  The only downside to my new route is I have to cross 2 overpasses for 75.  The one on the north end of my run isn't too terribly busy, but the one closer to my house definitely keeps me on my toes, not every one is looking for a tiny runner when they're getting on and off the highway.  So far I've played human frogger and survived, so I'm hoping to keep it up, at least until I find a better route. 

Now back to the free food.  I love free food.  If you say you don't like free food, you're lying.  During our ride yesterday Red and I stopped at the Xenia Station to fill up our bottles.  While we were wandering in and out of the bathrooms and looking for the drinking fountain a nice lady asked if we would like a hotdog.  At first I said no because I thought they wanted money, then Red asked me what time it was because they were free hot dogs after 12:00.  It was a quarter til 1 so FREE FOOD!  Yes, we turned our 3 minute stop into a 15 minute stop to enjoy some free hot dogs.  We hopped back on our bikes after our snack, went the 20 mile round trip to Yellow Springs and back, and had another hot dog when we arrived.  I thoroughly enjoyed our new snack. I had no idea that eating hot dogs during a huge bike session would work out, turns out that it was a welcome change in my nutrition!  Solid food as opposed to gels and gummy chomps.  Also, it was a pleasant surprise! 

This week is another solid week of training, where we will definitely go into the triple digits of mileage, but it's going to be fun.  I can feel my body getting stronger, and I can run faster for longer periods of time.  I'm not thinking "I'm dead, I went out too fast" at the beginning of every run, now I'm at mile 8 or 9 thinking all I need is maybe some water and a gel.  I'm getting excited about Ironman more and more every week, but I'm also getting nervous.  I'm worried my running mileage won't be enough, or I'll get dropped in the swim, or something stupid.  Oddly enough, I'm the most confident about the bike now.  It used to be my least favorite thing and my most dreaded weakness of any triathlon, now I think it could potentially be my strength, or at least not my undoing. 

Back to work!  Happy training!

Learning curve with nutrition

Anyone that knows me knows that I eat A LOT.  My friends in Evansville used to make fun of me because on our way to dinner I would be eating a granola bar or some kind of snack while walking across campus.  University of Evansville's ENTIRE campus took up barely one city block, yet I would be eating a snack on the way to dinner, go figure.  I still eat a ton, I have a ridiculously high metabolism thanks to all of the running and nonsense that I do on a daily basis, hence the giant caloric intake.  This high requirement for calories does pose for a small drawback though.  When I'm training I have to carry my own nutrition in my pockets or a running belt.  Normally for a half marathon I'll eat 1 or 2 gels, a full I'll eat anywhere from 3-7 depending on the conditions.  I've noticed lately that I am MUCH happier when biking when I eat roughly 200+ calories/hour.  I used to eat less than that and wanted to kill someone part way through the ride, and usually ended up being a lousy biking partner.  This year though I've increased my intake and have noticed that I am not only happier, but biking stronger.  I did a 56 mile solo ride a couple of weeks ago, the weather was nice and cool, I went through pretty country roads, enjoyed life, and ended up singing Disney tunes at the top of my lungs the last 15 miles to keep myself entertained.  No bonking, no crashing, no nothing.  I was a happy midget thoroughly enjoying my bike ride.  This past Saturday I did another solo ride and I hated everything.  I was hot, I was tired, I was hungry, the path went up hill on roads I didn't particularly care for, cars tried to hit me, and my act of kindness by giving my CO2 cartrige to an older couple with a flat was promptly met by an ill-turned karma of being stung in the butt repeatedly by a trapped bug of some sort.  Yep, not a great ride.  I strongly believe that probably 90% of my mood could have been better tempered had I taken in more calories and more fluids.  When I did my 56 mile ride in cool weather I took in about 800 calories and was as happy as a lark.  This past week I called it quits and was mad at the world at 50 miles and finished my should have been 75 mile ride at 66 miles.  I would have stopped at 50 but I was still 16 miles from my car.  For that great ride I took in just shy of 1000 calories, but the temperature was about 15 degrees warmer, the terrain had a lot more uphill, there was a serious head wind for about 20 miles thanks to the cold front moving in, and my metabolism was already jump started with an 800m swim that morning.  After that wonderfulness I have decided to go back to the drawing board and think of ways to not make me a miserable biking companion, not hate everyone around me, and basically be a fat kid on a bike by eating constantly. 

I like my gels, the Gu chomps aren't bad, and the Stinger waffles are good too, but I'm getting a feeling that they aren't enough.  I'm looking into different ways to get more calories in my drink so we'll see what happens.  My current bike bottles are normally filled with 1 bottle of water and the other bottle of electrolytes but contain no calories.  My new plan is to fill one bottle with electrolytes and the other bottle with gatorade of form, something with calories.  I'm also looking at Skratch labs, it's an all natural drink mix with calories that I've been reading about, and also looking at EFS mix stuff.  They all do essentially the same thing, just some sit with different people better than others.  Ironman Florida is now 7 weeks away, so I guess the time to figure out what works best for me is now instead of later.  I'm also considering Red Bull for T2 going into the run for a little caffeine boost.  I read in a couple different blogs where people swear by drinking Red Bull coming out of T2 so we'll see.  I already love the stuff so what could go wrong?  Famous last words huh?  This week I have a lot of running and swimming on tap so I can test out my Red Bull theory, then this weekend I have a 90 mile ride on Saturday which should be a PERFECT time to figure out some more nutrition.  I'm going to attempt some of the EFS mix, try to take in at least 200 calories/hour of food on top of my drinks, and see what other nonsense I can come up with. I'm considering plantain chips to get a crunchy solid food in there and just to change up the texture since most of my calories are in a liquid or gooey state.  I'll let you know how this goes!  If it's an epic failure, at least I have 7 weeks to figure it out right?  Seven weeks DOES NOT sound that long at all.  Here goes nothing! :D

Happy training :D

It's Been A While....

So, it's been almost two months since my last post.  I think I'm slacking just a tad bit. I have a good excuse though I promise!  July was a busy month with all the wedding-ing and honeymoney-ing that I had going on.  My bridesmaids were awesome and started trickling in the week before my wedding, then the actual wedding happened, then lots of traveling/hiking/nonsense for about 2 weeks then back to work.  I picked up a bunch of hours to make up for the fact that I hadn't worked in nearly 3 weeks and then we had to get back into severe training mode, so that's the long and short as to why this blog has essentially been abandoned for the last couple months. 

Run down of the wedding.  AWESOME bridesmaids :D Sam (my seester), Rowena (essentially my seester aka best friend since 6th grade), Danielle (cool roommate from California), and Eliza (cool roommate from Missouri all came reading and rearing to go for our adventures and craziness for the next few days.  Danielle and Eliza weren't technically my roommates, but I took over their room so often that I just claim them as my own anyway :P.  Meanwhile, I was told I was weird because I went nearly the entire time of the wedding prep and wedding without a melt down.  I did, however, have a quick melt down thanks to a certain someone deciding that they needed an invitation on a silver platter handed to them or else they weren't coming to the wedding.  They did not get their requested royalty delivered invite, but they did get an invite nonetheless, but threw a tantrum and didn't tell me they weren't coming until I asked them the night of the rehearsal dinner.  They then proceeded to tell me they weren't coming because they essentially weren't getting their way and what they felt was their role in the whole event and that I wasn't special and shouldn't get special treatment in my wedding.  This person also went on to upset and insult my sister, which made me pleased as punch, so yes.  That caused a small melt down, which was understandable.  ANYWAY.  After all that everything went off without a hitch and it was all beautiful, fun, and splendid.  The reception was a ton of fun, great food, and lots and lots and lots of friends!  I loved it!

After the wedding shenanigans we met a lot of our out of town guests on Sunday for breakfast then started heading our separate ways.  Monday and Tuesday Red still had to work so we didn't leave for our crazy honeymoon until Tuesday afternoon.  We flew into Vegas late at night then drove to Zion National Park Wednesday morning.  Hung out there a few days, hiked the Narrows, 16 miles in a gorgeous/dangerous canyon, in one day.  Went to Bryce for a day and a half, did a 4 hour horseback ride while we were there.  I love horses so this was my favorite part, Red hates horses so this was his least favorite part. :D  We then wandered on over to the Grand Canyon and stayed at the North Rim, highly recommend, until we hiked Rim2Rim in one day, not recommended.  The last 4 miles of Rim2Rim are RIDICULOUS, essentially straight up and is incredibly rough after you've done 20+miles before this climb.  We spent the night at the South Rim which was amazing after camping for the better part of two weeks before taking a shuttle back to the North Rim.  We were going to stay there again, but our cabin was like a scene from the movie Arachnophobia, so we chose to start our drive back to Vegas a night early.  We ended up sleeping for a whopping 6 hours in St. George before continuing on to Vegas for one last night.  We saw Ka and the Blue Man Group before heading back to good ol' Ohio, yippee.  We landed at 11:00am on Saturday and I had to work 7p-7a both Saturday and Sunday night, no me gusta. 

Since then we have been busting out the training and getting back into shape for our Ironman.  We are now a terrifying 8 weeks out from D-day and hitting the ground running.  The past 4 weeks have been 100+ mile weeks for run-bike-swim, and that looks to be the M.O. for the forseeable future.  This Friday I have a 6 hour training day which FORTUNATELY I have picked up a training buddy for the last hour.  My friend from work jumped on the idea of cheering/dragging/jogging me through my last 6 miles of running AFTER I bike 75 miles and swim a mile.  yep, that's going to be a rough day, but it'll have a refreshing ending of finally having something else to listen to other than my headphones and my body flipping me the patella. I have to say that I actually do enjoy my training and am getting incredibly excited/nervous about my race.  This is going to be amazing, challenging, and insane, but tons of fun no matter what way you look at it.  My goal is to finish strong and not feel like death when I cross the finish line.  Red and I are both hoping to beat each other but will only feel good about beating each other so long as the other one isn't curled up in the fetal position in a ditch.  Red is hoping that my short attention span is my undoing, while I hope that well...Red reads my blog so I'll just let him guess :D

Happy training!  I'll try to post more frequently and keep everyone updated on the latest and greatest sweatfest known as Ironman training! 

105 degree days

Well, this has been fun, actually it seriously has been fun!  Today I went to Caesar's Creek with Scuba Steve and Red for a little swim-bike-run nonsense.  We showed up around 6:45 and figured that we would be some of the very few people hanging out at that early hour.  Low and behold, when we pulled into the parking lot that we were not the only ones by a long shot.  When we started to get ready for our swim there were about 30 other triathletes all with the same idea of trying to get their work outs done early to beat the afternoon heat.  By the time that we finished our swim there were about 60 athletes in the water, all doing open water swims, not just hanging out, and some more athletes up in the parking lot!  We were shocked that there were so many people out there, but it was really cool!  To me it seemed to help having all of those people out there because our swim seemed to be more focused, and it forced us to sight more instead of just letting ourselves zig zag everywhere.

Now about this beating the heat shenanigans...yep..that wasn't a thing.  First off the water was rather warm.  Red and I swam at Caesar's on Wednesday and the water was not exactly chilly, but it didn't feel like bath water.  Today, after another 3 days of 100+ degree weather, the water was decidedly bath water temperature.  I didn't completely mind because I really don't like cold water, but at the same time, it's kind of hard to cool off and enjoy the swim portion of your work out when the water is nearly the same temperature as the air.  I really did enjoy the swim though because it was a lot of fun trying to keep other swimmers in my sights and attempt to pick them off on our laps up and down the beach!  We swam a mile which means that we swam up and down the beach swim area twice.  I think the best part though was making fun of Scuba Steve because he left for our workout this morning well before Red and I did, and he got there after we did. He lives the same distance from the park as we do.  He had to stop at Walmart and pick up a new nose plug because he couldn't find his.  I thought this was hilarious because lately he's been taking his 3 year old son to swimming lessons where they are teaching them to blow bubbles out their nose and not need nose plugs.

funny and almost accurate :D

Meanwhile, after we finished our mile swim we decided to head out for a 38 mile bike ride.  I actually enjoyed the ride despite the heat and the two ridiculous-I-think-my-heart-is-exploding climbs.  On the way up the second climb my Garmin beeped and Steve asked if that was my heart rate saying I was dead or if it was time to drink water.  I set my Garmin to beep every ten minutes so I would get an adequate amount of water in my system during the bike because I am terrible at drinking on the bike.  It's not a balance thing or anything, it's the fact that I simply forget because I'm usually too busy trying to hang onto Red's wheel.  Well this time I figured with temperatures climbing well above 90 by 10am I thought setting a little reminder was a good idea, and it turned out that it was a great idea for all three of us!  The only set back was Scuba Steve getting a flat and figuring out that his replacement tube was also busted.  He went through 1 CO2 trying to inflate said replacement tube, thought the cartridge or something was faulty so he wasted his second CO2 on the same tube, finally felt the air coming out of the tube with his other hand.  Red had a spare tube and I had a CO2 so we finally got him fixed up to finish our ride.  The tire wasn't perfectly aired to the 120psi that he probably wanted but it definitely got him back and able to ride with us the rest of the way.  

Finally, we got back to the parking lot after cruising for the last 6 miles or so and decided "Yeah going for the run is a good idea".  Hmm...our original plan was to only run 3 miles, well about 0.4 miles into the run that plan quickly dropped to 2 miles simply because we didn't want to back out that much farther.  Red and Scuba Steve had put a ton of ice in their shirts and shorts while I was in the bathroom so I had no ice.  Scuba Steve gave me a handful of ice from his shirt pocket which felt wonderful!  All of Red's ice had melted by that point so it wasn't going to be any use.  We finally made our world class slow run back to the car and were ecstatic to be done for the day!  We had logged over 40 miles for the day, didn't die, and enjoyed each others company!  Our workout for the day was longer than the poor souls stuck doing "Ironman Muncie" today since their Half Ironman distance was dropped to an Olympic distance due to heat.  Tons of people were ticked because of the distance change, but meh, I'm glad I didn't pay $300 to run an olympic distance race!  I didn't pay anything and was able to stay close to home and still go farther than they did.  From what I've read it sounds like everyone was safe at Muncie, which was the point, but I still think a half would have been doable, incredibly slow, but doable.  

Now as for tonight, I work all night.  I just checked the weather and it is nearly 10:30 at night and still 85 degrees or so.

Yep, that says 102 for tomorrow.  

Everyone hydrate, fuel, and stay healthy!  Happy training!

Oh, and the title of this post says 105 degree days.  When we were done our cars thermometer said 101, when I listened to the radio and checked "what it feels like" it says 105+.  Woot!  Tomorrow is supposed to "feel like" 110, at least I'll sleep all day in AC and work all night in AC :D

Heat Wave!

Wow!  So it has been over 90 degrees almost every day for weeks, I think it has been 90+ since the beginning of June.  This heat has made training interesting, but it is getting better.  When I first attempted to run in the heat a 10 minute mile for 1 mile had me thinking about turning around, now I'll run 4-6 miles, and so long as I pace myself, I'm fine.  Today I was retarded and felt really good and ended up running about 8:03 for a bit and then paid for it in the end.  I was keeping 9 minute miles for the first mile then was like, hey I feel good just keep running, and dropped to 8 minute miles.  After that I slowed up for a second and getting started was not going to be a thing.  The next two miles hurt like crazy, namely the last mile.  It was rather rough.  I still ended up averaging about a 10 minute mile over all but it was still crazy hot and I felt like shizen.  I'm getting better though so it's ok.

On the plan for tonight is a 30-40 mile bike ride and a potential 2 mile run depending on what time it is.  Red and I are wanting to go to Lebanon for fireworks this evening :D  I love fireworks!

Since tomorrow is officially Independence Day Red has the entire day off!  I, unfortunately do not, but that's because sick people still need hospitals no matter what day or time it is.  I don't have to work until 7pm though so we're thinking about taking a bit in the morning and doing a baby tri essentially in training.  We're going to swim about a mile, then bike maybe 40, and depending on time and heat, we'll run probably 3-6 miles, again, that depends on how hot it is and the temperature.

I hope that everyone has a great July 4th!  Stay safe!  I hope everyone gets to watch some fireworks this year even though a lot of them have been canceled due to the lack of rain lately so everything is REALLY dry!

Open water swims, German Shepherds, and heat!

So yesterday was the first real brick workout of the season that included an open water swim.  I am not a huge fan of open water swims, I suck at sighting, and I don't like not being able to see in the water.  I need to get a lot better at open water swims though because I go from swimming 1:20 100's to 2-3 min 100's.  No me guesta.  I would probably be a lot faster if I could swim in a straight line though.  Red and I went swimming at Caesar's Creek, it's a lake, I didn't name it, and he says "just sight off of me".  Sure!  That sounds like a great idea!  Ok, well I put him and the bouys on my left because I breath on my left.  This worked for about 20 yards when I was like "hmm...I can still see them but they seem to be getting smaller." Yep, that's because I was swimming off at an angle to the right.  Ok, I'll correct a little bit, well then Red is laughing because I apparently swam in front of him, remember he was on my far left, and nearly ran into a bouy which was even farther left.  Red was cracking up watching me swim zig zags all over the swimming area.  We finally turn around and I start heading out and attempt to sight off of Red again.  Yet another fail.  I almost swam onto the beach! So, a long story short I suck at sighting and need A LOT of work!  On a positive note I was able to successfully get my new wet suit on and not feel like I was going to die or feel weird!

After the swim we changed out of the wet suits, humerous, then grabbed our bike stuff and headed out. The route was really really nice and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Lots of country roads, pretty houses, and rolling hills.  We found a nice ridiculous hill that as soon as I looked at it I had a roll of expletives coming out of my mouth and even more foul thoughts in my head.  Once we were to the top though it wasn't too bad.  The most exciting parts about our ride were when Red threw a water bottle at me and an impromptu sprint from a giant german shepherd.  Ok, Red didn't really throw a water bottle at me, but his bike and water bottle cage did!  We hit a bump and his rear water bottle decided that it wanted to land in my lap/the grass next to me.  We eneded up stopping and getting the water bottle, but I still found it humerous that he thought my cages were too loose and he's the one that lost the bottle.  Later we ran into a group riding for diabetes, at least that's what their jerseys said, and they were pretty cool.  We rounded a corner though and Red was in the lead, therefore he became the prime target of a giant black german shepherd.  The dog's owner was mowing the lawn when Fido decided that he wanted to come bounding after us, maybe charging is a better word.  Bounding sounds like he wanted to play and I'm positive that was the last thing on this dog's mind. 

Yes the dog chasing Red had a muzzle, but the dog was all black and very ticked off!



After that excitement we finished our bike ride and decided to go on our run.  It was about 93 degrees and the route we went had very little in the way of shade.  Initially things weren't too bad but then it was very very hot!  Once I built up my momentum and my legs decided to agree with me then running wasn't too bad.  I was actually enjoying it but then we got to a shaded section and decided to stop for a minute.  Once we stopped there was very little in the way of getting started back up for a while.  It took us 35 minutes to do 3.1 miles. I completely forgot to stop my watch when we were in the shade for a couple of minutes but I'm pretty positive that in the best situation we still averaged 10min/mile.  Meh.  Not great but considering the heat and the fact that we swam and biked beforehand I'll accept it.  I'm hoping that next time we can improve on that though!

Swim: 1/2 mile

Bike: 28.5 miles

Run: 3.1 miles

Happy Training!

I need to learn to schedule better

So....I suck at scheduling my life.  Two weeks ago I only had to work 2 days during the week and I cleaned the house and was fairly productive on that front.  I also did a lot of training and felt like I got a decent amount of stuff accomplished, except none of it was really "top priority".  Yep, I didn't do a whole lot in the realm of wedding planning, training planning, Master's program application, GRE studying, or any quilt projects.  Last week I did a few more things that were slightly more important than cleaning and such, but not a whole lot.  I worked 32 hours as opposed to 24 which was nice, but I just trained a lot and worked.  When did I choose to make wedding appointments, take the GRE, add more training, and study?  The week I work 41 sporadic hours. Yep. Not my best move.

Working 41 hours isn't that bad, it's the timing that kills everything else during the week.  I work third which means that during the day I'm sleeping and I'm awake most the time at night.  On days I don't work I'm usually napping for the next time I work, or frantically trying to get stuff done around the house.  This week my schedule was a little on the retarded side, I made it so I shouldn't complain.  I worked  Thursday, Friday, Saturday, slept most of Sunday, ran errands, slept in Monday, work Monday night (now), then will sleep on Tuesday, go for a bike ride and go to bed early.  I then work on Wednesday where I will have to nap part way through the day, I'm off all of Thursday but I will be sleeping most of it because I worked Wednesday night.  Oh, and I won't sleep all of it because I am taking my flower girl to get her dress in Dayton Thursday at 11am, I get off work at 7:30am, she better behave or else this could be disasterous.  After that I get to go home and sleep until Red gets home and then we're heading to the jeweler to pick out our wedding rings.  Friday I take the GRE at noon then I picked up 7-11 that night where I need to go to bed early because Red and I are getting up at 7am the next day to go to Caesar's Creek for a long S-B-R brick.  I have to make it a fast brick though because I then work all weekend, Sat, Sun, Mon again.  This was definitely not thought through. 

Ok, well that was my little rant.  On a more positive note I am getting much faster on my bike! I went for a ride with Red and his friend from work Super Steve and I took a turn pulling and kept the pace at 22mph for the whole 2.5 miles!  I know it may not sound like a lot, but I'm proud to be able to pull at all let alone be able to do it at 22mph on my own!  Yesterday Red and I went to the trail with the intention of doing a 50 mile ride.  Well I was grumpy because I was hot and wanted to play at the water park at Kings Island, I'm 4'11" I'm allowed to act like a small child and never grow up, and Red had already done a long work out earlier that morning, so when it came time for my work out I was no longer interested.  Top it off with working the past 3 nights and I was done.  I ended up getting cranky and turning my 50 mile ride into a 10 mile time trial, and actually it wasn't that bad!  I ended up averaging 18.3 all on my little lonesome and that includes the stops at the roads which were every 2 miles, literally, so I'm not upset at that time at all. I know I can do better than that though because I was fighting my Qdoba the whole way because I was silly and thought that it would digest in the 30 minutes from Qdoba to starting the ride at the trail.  Silly midget.  Meh, I was still happy for my average and am ready to attempt to beat it the next time I'm grumpy.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a 40 mile bike whenever I wake up and Red gets off work.  At this moment I'm considering turning it into a mini brick with a 2 mile run after the bike just to shake things up a bit.  We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Happy training!

Holy Keurig Batman!

Ok, well now you know I have a Keurig!  I am 100% positive that my productivity is going up about 100-fold throughout the house BUT my ADD has gone through the roof...SHINY!! Meanwhile.  So this past weekend was more training, as usual, but I was at my mom's house and it was also my Bridal Shower this weekend!  My sister is 5 years younger than me, not too many of her friends are getting married right now so she hasn't been to many (read as any) bridal showers.  She put together a very nice shower with awesome food, fun games, and as always, lots of entertainment.  My sister is HILARIOUS!  She's also incredibly crafty and driven.  When Red finally proposed Sam (sister) didn't give me an option and claimed Maid of Honor right then and there, that was fine I just found it funny how aggressively she took hold of the title and how awesome she has been with it.  I hate planning, Sam is a planning fiend, when I get frustrated with all of this wedding nonsense she is the first one to step up and start looking, reassuring, helping, anything I need.  Well she coordinated a Bridal Shower that involved some rather opposing groups and people who never knew each other.  Everyone got a long peachy, every one was laughing the whole time, and we had some awesome cupcakes and cake that Sam made and decorated.  

Sample of her decorating skills :D

Meanwhile, while my family was organizing the gathering of two families, some ex wives and current girlfriends, friends from out of town, and general shower nonsense, I wasn't supposed to help, or at least that's what I was told.  So the morning of my shower instead of rushing around like they were trying to get everything done, I went for a nice long run around my mom's house.  Her road is open hilly country road, it's quite nice because it's so different from Cincinnati.  I really do not like Cincy, it's far too busy for me and way too crowded.  But either way, going back to my mom's in the middle of no where is a very nice change in scenery!

Part of my stretch of road :D

It makes me happy to run up and down mom's road, around the country blocks, and such.  When most people think of "around the block" they think of sidewalks, lots of houses, and what not. Around here "around the block" is at least 5 miles and 99.9% is farmland scattered with a few houses.  It's glorious!  

The coolest part about running at my mom's is coming home to my Zo pup and playing fetch with her on 5 acres.  She loves all of the extra room to run and just hang out!

The single coolest dog on the planet!  I don't care how cool you think your dog is because you're wrong, mine is the absolute best.  Totally biased but totally right. She had been looking at the camera right before I took the pic but of course moved.

Well after all of this tomfoolery was over I finally showered and was allowed to help set up some of my shower.  Mom, grandma, and Sam had most of it done, but they finally let me help!  Everyone showed up to my shower and the laughs and fun times began!  I received a lot of cool gifts, far more than I ever anticipated getting for a shower, and loved everything and everyone!  I'm getting stuff put away slowly yet surely and my new Keurig and I are becoming the best of friends.  I now have roughly 100 K-cup things of a variety of flavors and I fully intend to try every single one as soon as possible.  I am positive this is why my new resting heart rate is over 100bpm but that's ok, just means I get stuff done faster!  :D  Ok, back to being productive and getting ready to work out today!  I ran yesterday and plan on biking this evening.  I would like to get in the pool sometime but for some reason going to the pool seems to take so much more effort than getting ready to bike or run.  Later!

Happy training!

Yeah sweet training!

So I'm glad my body got over its "it's too hot" nonsense.  I was able to eek out 86.03 miles this week!  Granted only 14.6 miles of that nonsense were running, but that's not too bad considering the fact that I'm not in marathon training anymore.  The weather has been intensely hot lately which I'm thinking does a number on me, but I discovered that if I hydrate more than your average midget that it's not too bad.  This week I think I honestly drank about 5L of fluid each day because I was going to be sweating so much.

Monday my body was rebelling and doing a good job of convincing me that it was too hot to run, but Tuesday onward my body decided to get with the program.  Tuesday I ran with Red on lunch and felt great!  We have a 4.25 mile loop that we run on his lunch break randomly.  It's kind of nice to be able to have a set mileage and have a running buddy for quick jogs.  Later that night we went for a ride and I road tested the new bike which I have now named Felix.  I've been trying to think of a name for my bike since I was finally able to ride it, and for some reason Felix just sounded cool.  Allegra, my old Felt, is now officially my commuter bike, and Felix is now my road racing bike.  That was the entire purpose of buying Felix, but at first I thought I was going to rotate Felix and Allegra based on what the training ride would be, now Felix is training and Allegra is commute.  Felix is a GREAT hill bike too!  Oregonia hill is about a 1.5 mile climb and though I've been getting a lot better at my climbing I was only able to keep Red in my sights while riding Allegra. My first climb out on Felix and I was able to not only catch Red, but also pass him all three times that we did that hill this week!!  Woot!!  He still has me on flats....for now :D

FELIX!!!

Wednesday I did a tempo run before work, my first time ever trying to honestly make myself run a certain pace all on my own.  I suck at pacing, I've said it once and I will say it again, I suck at pacing.  Red is the human metronome, I am the human spaz.  He'll say "let's run at 9:30, or 10:00, or insert time here, and he can do it.  Me I go "let's run at 10:00 min pace today", and I'll take off at an 8:30 for the first mile and Red normally has to rein me in.  Yep, pacing is not my thing.  Well I'm going to make it my thing this year!  Wednesday I ran 5 miles at what was supposed to be 5 different paces.  Mile 1) 10:00, 2) 9:30, 3) 9:00, 4) 8:30, 5) 8:00.  I was a little too fast on the first mile and ended up at 9:41, meh.  I hit all of the other miles except the 8:00 but that was because my legs were flipping me the patella and telling me to bugger off.  I'm loving my new shoes, Asics Gel Blur 33's.  They're light, comfy, move great with me, not a huge heel, and AWESOME colors!  Mine are neon orange!

New shoes!

I'm hoping that next week I can up my mileage some and be super productive training wise, but I don't see that happening.  I work Sat, Sun, Mon night which means that Tuesday I will be sleeping all day.  That leaves Wed-Saturday to get stuff done.  I'll be super busy this week though with wedding stuff so yeah!!!  Hoping to get my dress fitted, more stuff for the wedding, the an amazing weekend filled with family and friends for my bridal shower!  We'll see how much actual training gets accomplished.  

Happy training!

Heat, and bikes, and running OH MY!

Wow!  Ok, so Ohio jumped all over the summer bandwagon and has decided that 80's is its new comfortable. This isn't too bad if you're biking, and definitely not bad if you're swimming, but if you're running....not so much.  I love the heat so I'll definitely get over it and embrace the heat!  I apparently suck at running in the heat so part of the plan this week is to suck it up and guess what?  Run in the heat!  I need to get over it and just do it because it's not going to get any cooler and I have miles to run!

 In other news I HAVE A NEW BIKE!!  Yeah!  My Felt B16W came in last week and by Thursday afternoon I was able to have it fitted, cut down, and ready to ride!  So guess what?  I went for a ride!

Red and I only went 20 miles because I'm a wimp and didn't realize how different a tri bike would be from my road bike.  Wow, I was in for a rude awakening of how much more narrow my new bike felt compared to my old bike.  My old bike is a Felt FW40, if you can't tell I really like Felt, and it felt awesome!  My FW40, aka Allegra, has been my road bike, tri bike, and commuter bike for the past 3 years and has served me well.  She will continue to serve me well but it was time to upgrade to a new bike.  That's where my B16W comes in!

This is me pausing on Allegra towards the middle of our 40 mile ride.  Red and I found a nice shaded spot and decided that it would be a fun photo opportunity.

Me riding my new bike!  

As you can see I am definitely not in aero!  I did end up getting in aero later, that's what those white bars and those little squares are for.  I rest my elbows on the squares and my arms/hands just hang out on the bars, which coincidentally is where my shifters are now.  I looked like a weeble-wobble when we first started out because the steering is so much touchier and it just feels so much more narrow overall.  I have to give it to Felt and West Chester Cyclery though because even on my first ride out I wasn't uncomfortable or feel like I was off on my fit.  I just needed to get used to the tri-bike geometry which is slightly different than my road bike.  

Our 10 mile turn around point = photo op!

I love how much smoother my new bike is compared to my road bike and how much more efficient she seems to be!  I can easily sit at 20mph and not feel like I'm dying pushing after a couple of miles.  I can sit on Allegra and do 20mph as well, but I feel like I have to work more to get there, I can have a happy pace of 17-18mph on Allegra for miles though so she's not slow by any means.  I just think that this new bike is more efficient and the geometry change is to help get the most power out of your legs without roasting them so they can stay fresh for th erun of a triathlon, that's why it's a triathlon specific bike.  I can also easily get up to 25mph on my own, I can't maintain it super long right now, but I can at least get to it on flat ground!  Red and I rode 40 miles on Wednesday and I was on Allegra.  I can stick with Red for a good long way going 25 but I had to be drafting to hit those speeds.  We were going almost 27mph at one point when I was on Allegra, again I was drafting so being sucked along, but I still at least hit it!  This time I was all on my lonesome and hit 25mph at mile 19 of a 20 mile ride!  Woot!  Now I just have to become more confident in my handling abilities so I can come off the trail, which is a straight line, and start turning and doing hills.  Hopefully all of this will happen this week!  If I follow the plan for this week there will be 4 runs, 4 swims, and 2 bike rides between now and Saturday.  Then Saturday is ZOO BABIES! At the Cincinnati Zoo! :D

Happy training!!!

There's the wind...

Ok, so for anyone that knows me even a little bit they know I hate the wind.  A light breeze is one thing but wind of noticeable strength is really really really annoying.  Well Red and I went up to Bellefontaine this weekend for my sisters graduation party and decided that we would also get a little training in.  My mom lives in the middle of no where which is AWESOME.  I love it out there.  It's not crowded, noisy, or busy.  It's nice, quiet, you can see the stars at night, and not feel like someone is always watching you because they live so close to you.  I love being at my mom's.  The only downfall is that there is a lot of wind.

For my sisters graduation party we had great weather to play outside or hang out inside.  We played frisbee, sat out on the front porch, and just enjoyed the company of family being together.  Then Sunday was Mother's Day but my mom had to work which meant no Mother's Day breakfast for her.  Red and I took advantage of the fact that she was going to be gone all morning and went for a nice bike ride.  Last year Red had mapped out and trained along a route that's 37 miles when he was training for Ironman Georgia 70.3 and it is a very nice little route.  We decided that we would go out for a nice training ride along a similar route.  My mom's house is a few miles away from Indian Lake so we decided that we would ride from my mom's to the Lake, around the Lake, then back to her house.  Well on the way out things weren't too bad, I thought I was doing a great job keeping about 20-21mph seemingly effortlessly.  Later I realized that I had a very tiny part in that speed capability.  Anyway, we enjoyed the scenery, and the not so busy roads.  Most of our ride was bordered by farm land because that's about the only thing out there.

There are some cute brick houses, some that look like old one room school houses, and fun scenery.

Most of our ride looked a lot like this though.  Fields still waiting to be planted with beans or corn.

Well last year Red stayed on 117 which is a rather busy road with the occasional semi roaring next to you.  Now most people are very considerate when they come up along you and they try to get over some and give you some space.  Other people, not so much.  There have been multiple times that a car has come so close to me that I know I could easy rest my elbow on its side mirror and catch a ride.  I don't mean reach out and touch a car with my hand, I mean just extend my ELBOW and tada! Instant car lift.  Anyway, Red didn't like how busy 117 could be last year so we decided to take a slightly different route this year.  The wind on 117 was also ridiculously brutal, I didn't notice it too terribly much because I was drafting off of Red which was VERY nice!  When we turned off of the main road Red decided he wanted some more company rather than a drafter so I came up next to him for a while to chat.  That wasn't too bad because the wind was coming from the side, well we then had to turn back into the wind in order to get home and that was ROUGH.  We went from a happy 17-20mph to a lucky 15-16mph into the wind.  I was cursing the wind and commenting on how Ironman Florida is going to suck, it is notorious for being windy (a fact I didn't know when I signed up), when we came upon a pleasant surprise!

A one lane covered bridge!  

I think covered bridges are really neat so this made what was turning into a crabby ride a very fun surprising ride!  Red and I road up the hill on the other side of the bridge and decided that we both wanted a picture of the bridge so I rode back down and took a picture of our pleasant surprise!  I was quite happy with this and then realized that we were still about 12 miles away from home.  

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful, very very windy, but not too bad.  At some point Red and I decided that since he had let me draft during the middle part of our ride that I would pull on the way home.  I am a very ineffective puller.  First off, I'm tiny therefore I make a terrible person to attempt to draft off of, second off when wind is involved I am stopped in my tracks.  I was lucky if I was going 16mph into the wind, there were multiple points on the way home on 235 that we were going downhill and I was pushing to go 15mph and if I attempted to "coast" I actually started slowing down, going downhill.  Last I checked if you're going downhill you should be able to pick up speed, not slow down.  Meh.  I did impress myself though with my mental gains from a couple years ago.  I used to get very frustrated and want to give up and make Red let me draft the rest of the way home.  This time I didn't ask once for him to let me draft, and even though I was incredibly frustrated I didn't get angry, I started thinking of ways to get stronger.  I can't change the wind, and a bike can only change so much in your power output, but if the power isn't there from the rider there isn't a lot else that can happen.  So now I'm going to start doing more actual lifting exercises for my legs.  Oh, and speaking of new bikes....I am getting a new bike at the end of this week!!!!  I'm so excited!!  I promise pictures of my new bike when it comes in!

Happy Monday!

Post Flying Pig Marathon

Ok, well it is now Wednesday and my legs are finally feeling like my normal legs.  It didn't help my recovery that I worked all night Sunday night and did a 16 hour shift Monday.  I worked from 8p-730a on Sunday, and 3p-730a on Monday into Tuesday morning.  I then slept for the vast majority of Tuesday/Tuesday night, and now I feel MUCH better.

So during a marathon you are running, or at least on your feet, for 26.2 miles.  Those can either be a not bad 26.2 miles, or it can be a "my feet and body hate me I hope you die" 26.2 miles.  As you can tell from my race report my marathon was the latter of the two races.  So now that I'm clean, stretched, fed, and rested I figured I would share some of the carnage with you guys.  It is a normal process for runners to either get black toenails, or to lose toenails during training, racing, and what-have-you-ness.  For the better part of 2 years I didn't have the correct number of toenails, and I was ok with this.  Then, by some miracle, I had all 10 toenails from about February of 2011 until Sunday May 6th, 2012.  Yep.  Right after the marathon one of my toenails decided to jump ship.  Usually it's just getting a little blister and part of the nail comes off and it's not that big of a deal, and there's a little bit of a nail still hanging on leaving promise of a new nail to come back eventually.  Not this time.  Some how I managed to rub my second toe on my left foot so much that a blister formed under the nail and popped the entire thing off the nail bed.  It wasn't very comfortable, so after I got home I thought it wouldn't be too bad to just take it the rest of the way off.  I'm not super positive that was a smart decision.  My toe now looks decidedly naked and feels really weird.

No, that is not peach nail polish, that is my baby naked toe.

I also had a blister the size of a ping pong ball on the inside of my right foot, which I hadn't realized was making my compensate and run on the outside of my foot which cramped it all up for two days.  Now the blister is healing with one of those awesome "blister band aids".

The blister actually didn't completely fit under the band aid, but now that it's healed some it fits under the majority of the band aid.

My poor nail-less, blistered feet lol.  I was going to turn this into a relaxing swim week to try and work my legs some without killing them, but I don't know if I want to get into a pool before my toe had healed over some and my blisters have healed.  I think I'll schedule a massage or something for my feet and try to make it up to them. I use a foam roller on my legs and it makes them happy, so now I need to make my feel happy again.  

Happy running!

Flying Pig Marathon Race Report

As promised, here is my race report!

My morning for the Flying Pig Marathon started at 4:30am.  The race started at 6:30am but I needed time to get dressed, eat breakfast, double check my stuff for my bib, gels, inhaler, and headphones, then make the 40 minute drive to downtown, park, and find our corrals.  It also took a little bit longer to get ready because we were coordinating when Red's mom and sister Tam would see us on the course to cheer and also try to get them in multiple spots to see Red, Me, and his other sister Sarah.  Originally we had finish times that would have spread us out by an hour between the three of us.  My dream time was 4 hours or less, Red was hoping for something between 4:20-4:30, and Sara was aiming for 5 hours.  Red came the closest with getting his marathon time at 4:46.  Meanwhile, the start of the morning was uneventful which was nice.  We quickly found parking and made our way to the corrals and commenced standing in line waiting for port-o-pots.

The race started at 6:30 and it took us about 8 minutes to get to the starting line from our corral.  The weather was decidedly warmer than in years past and I tried to make a plan of drinking more Gatorade earlier in the race than normal.  The last 3 times I have done the Flying Pig I had only ran the Half Marathon and it was normally raining, cold, or both.  This Sunday it was hot, humid, and had some of the clearest bluest skies ever.  Normally I love a nice clear blue sky, but not when we are running on a stretch of highway for 6 miles with no shade and no one really cheering.  Red and I started out the race with the idea that he was going to pace me at about a 10 minute mile to loosen up my legs and keep me from going out too fast.  I have a horrible habit of flying out of the start and weaving in and out of people like it's my job, it normally then bites me later in the race and kills whatever time I had gained earlier.  Well this time I had a plan and I tried very very hard to stick to it.  I stayed right with Red, my human metronome, and didn't try to make him reel me in every little bit, and things worked well for the first few miles.  I pointed out that since it was so warm that we should be drinking more Gatorade since we were sweating like crazy.  The fact that I pointed that out at mile 5 should have been a strong indication that I should also replenish my body with water, my brain didn't make the connection at the time but afterward it could have had a stronger impact on my race than I realized.  We took our gels at mile 4.5 and migrated onward both feeling great and enjoying the weather, the volunteers, and just running in general.  Finally around mile 10 or so I was getting "froggy" as one friend put it, and started pulling away from Red.  We had talked about him pacing me for the first 9 miles, so to pull away at mile 10 would have been ok except I had just told him I wanted to run the entire first half with him.  Hmmm...well he told me to go ahead and go on since I was running down hill so fast and he didn't want to push it that much that soon.  So I went ahead and was feeling great!  Then I realized that we were decidedly not done with the hills yet and Red caught back up to me.  We continued to play leap frog until about mile 15 where I would break away on the down hill portions, then he would catch up on the up hill portions.  I love running downhill, but Red is champion when it comes to climbing up hill!  Finally we reached a hill around mile 15 where I caught back up to him and he told me to go on because he needed to take 30 seconds and walk, that was fine.  I continued on and looked at my watch and realized that it could be possible for me to still hit my 4 hour mark if I picked it up a notch or two.

Up until that point we were set at a great pace to come in around a 4:30 or so marathon, which was not what i had planned.  I had the great idea that at mile 15 after taking a gel and dumping water on my head, that picking up the pace would totally work and I could cruise in at around 4 hours or at least get a new PR. I'm not sure what number of mistake this was but it was a terrible idea.  I couldn't figure out how to make myself go too much faster though without losing motivation so I decided that I needed to change something.  For nearly every race I have the same play list on my ipod.  It's not the exact same, but quite similar.  I am greatly motivated by music so I decided that if I wanted to change my pace I needed to motivate and change my music so I switched to Pandora on my phone.  That worked!  It helped me move forward and pick up my pace and bounce along just happily listening to something different.  Well now that I had fueled my spirit I really should have fueled my body so it could keep up with my positive thinking and positive attitude.

I had pretty much only been drinking Gatorade and wearing the water, I should have tried to drink more water instead of wearing it.  I realized around mile 16 or 17 that my stomach was grumpy and I became scared of what to put into it since I still had 10 miles left in the race.  About mile 17 is when my race started to come undone.  My stomach was upset, I knew I had a bad blister on the inside of my right foot and it was making me run funny, and my legs were getting tight.  By mile 18 I needed to slow down and let the 4:30 pace group pass me, which irritated me for quite a while.  I had been using them as my carrot to stay in front of them but meh.  After the 4:30 pace group passed me I decided that I just needed to stretch a bit then I would keep them in my sights.  This worked for the next 3 miles or so but then it was all down hill from there.  Mile 20 I was really struggling to keep the pace group in my sight and by mile 21 my idea of staying anywhere near them evaporated.  My legs were seizing and I was hot, really hot, I just didn't know it at the time.  I was wearing as much water as I could at every water station, I had stopped drinking so much Gatorade because I thought it was the source of my grumpy stomach, and was really focusing on keeping my legs moving because they just got worse the more I slowed down.  By mile 22 Red had closed the 5 minute gap we had between us and surprised me by running next to me all of the sudden.  I had no idea he was next to me until I just started looking around and looked right at him.  It was quite nice to see him smiling and asking how I was doing because from miles 17-25 there really weren't that many people cheering or much of anything to look at, so seeing his smiling face was a great pick-me-up.  He asked how I was doing and I pointed out that I had started running 3/4 of a mile then walking about 1/4 mile and that was my goal for the rest of the race.  He said he knew I was walking since he caught me, but our walk breaks were opposite of each other and I was walking slower than he was during the breaks.  We hung out for the next couple of miles and he tried to help me stretch out my angry seizing legs and we just enjoyed jogging/walking/shuffling until about mile 24.  I took a gel at 23 or so and started to feel better, but I knew that I was just holding Red back.  Normally if I'm hurting he stays with me during races, or I stay with him when he's hurting.  Whenever he starts to slow down during a race he tells me to move on, etc. etc. etc, well this time it was my turn to tell him to migrate onward.  My IT band was almost completely seized up, my hamstrings were ticked off beyond compare, and I was bonking hard and taking two gels back to back was only scratching the surface.

The ticked off band.

Red was still doing great, he wasn't sprinting away, but he wasn't cramping or feeling bleh, so I told him to go ahead at mile 24 because I was only able to jog about 100 - 200 yards without having to stop and work on my IT band.  So the next two miles I ran by myself again and finally crossed the finish line in 4:51, almost an hour over what I wanted to be.  After I crossed the finish my legs were shaking like crazy, I was so tired I wanted to cry but I couldn't, and another one of the many awesome volunteers came over to check on me.  Something I learned at the finish of a race is to not tell the medic/volunteers that you want to sit down.  If you do then you get a one way ticket to the med tent.  Nuts. The medic volunteers were awesome though so I was not grumpy or upset at all about them wheeling me away.  Since it was so hot they were being extra cautious about anyone that said they had cramping, felt cold, or just didn't feel well.  I was taken to a cot where I was told to lay down and let someone stretch me while I was also told to drink two more bottles of watered down gatorade, as if I hadn't drank enough of that already.  Apparently I needed it though because the only way you get out of the med tent is if you can 1) walk without cramping and 2) go pee.

I downed the first Gatorade like it was nothing while one of the most awesome people on the planet, a complete stranger, stretched my legs to try and get the tightness our of my ticked off muscles.  She was a physical therapist from Children's Hospital who volunteered to help people out on her Sunday off.  I also had two nurses who kept talking to me, checking my vitals, and insisting that I drink...a lot.  I wasn't nearly as bad off as the other people in the tent, but I certainly appreciated their help all the same!  I was finally released and was able to walk like a fairly normal post-marathon human being.  I learned some lessons during this race and as beat up and cranky as I was during/after the race I am already attempting to plan when I will run my next marathon so I can attempt to get some kind of redemption for the Flying Pig Marathon.  To know some of the things I learned during my marathon check them our here, from my last blog.

Happy running!