stuckinord

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:49:37 GMT

Did I seriously get stuck in ORD on my first trip for IBM? I really did! Thanks Ike...

My first gig!!

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:59:37 GMT

So, it looks like I'm on for Louisville. I had a conference call this week discussing the logistics. A conference call I came really close to missing because of a problem with my Notes database. My server didn't receive the meeting notice until 9:30 the night before, so I was completely unaware of the meeting until the coordinator called me at 9:10 that morning asking why I wasn't on! Gah!!

The Ryder cup is interfering with our trip a bit, causing all our hotels to more than triple in price for Wednesday and Thursday :( Our client ended up finding us a room at their rate, but I bet it's going to be packed and traffic is going to be crazy. That's ok, since according to our lead, the client starts work at 7:30 AM!!! I guess I'm going to have to kick my habit of sleeping in. This working from home stuff has been spoiling me.

I should be traveling back and forth every week for the next 5 weeks. Since it overlaps with a couple of my races, it'll be interesting to see if I get all my training in. The good news is, we're in taper mode for Ragnar...so the mileage I have to get in is lowered.

2008 Fall/Winter races

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:15:41 GMT

So, my fall/winter race season is about to start, and I have to say...I'm more ready than I thought I would be. I think it helps that we ended up signing up for so many running races that triathlon had to fall by the wayside and I got to concentrate on only one sport. I got some cross training in with a little bit of swimming and spinning...but I haven't been out on my bike more than twice this year. I'll definitely have to make up for that next year, if I want to finish the races I hope to.

So, the lineup of races for the rest of the year are

9/26-9/27 Ragnar Relay - In only 3 weeks, 5 other crazies and I will be running the 184ish miles from Cumberland, MD to DC. We're one of the only 7 ultra teams (6 runners instead of the regular 12) and of those 7, only 3 of them are mixed sex....guaranteeing that we will at least get 3rd place! :) I originally signed up for the hilly route, but ended up trading it with one of our runners who was waiting to see if he'd recovered fully from his injury earlier this year. That means I somehow ended up with the easiest set of legs for the whole relay...only 27 miles total and mostly flat! Sweeet! Still, it means 3 legs of around 10 miles each, and about 5-6 hours of rest in between. Luckily I'm really good at sleeping in cars, but that may change when I'm in a car with 3 other sweaty stinky runners and my legs are screaming at me

10/11 Baltimore Half Marathon - Only 2 weeks after Ragnar, we signed up for the Baltimore Half....mostly because we LOVED the shirts (and our amazing time) from the relay last year. This means we'll be taking it easy the weekend between these two races...and enjoying our time out in Baltimore. We're even having a party while we're out there celbrating the end of the relay, at Bertha's Mussels in Fell's Point (since they're the major sponsor of our Ragnar team).

11/9 Outer Banks (OBX) Marathon - Wow, renting a house in the outer banks in November is WAY cheaper than July :) I'm excited about this one. It's pretty much completely flat except for a large bridge around mile 20. This will only be my second marathon ever, so I may have some trouble, but I wanted to get another one under my belt before....

1/10-1/11 Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge - Ah...the culmination of all this training. Ok, so officially it's 2009 and not 2008, but it's the real reason we've signed up for the other 3 races. We wanted to make sure we were truly trained for this experience. Walt Disney's Donald Duck Half Marathon on Saturday and then the Mickey Mouse Marathon on Sunday. We've already booked a 2-br Villa at the Old Key West resort, and we're planning on taking it super easy. But even with taking it easy, this cannot be an easy race. Based on Julia's advice, I will be carrying a camera and taking a bunch of pics and probably walking a lot and just trying to enjoy myself. (That 20 mile training walk from earlier this year is looming, and freaking me out a bit)

In training for all of these races, I've ramped up my running miles by quite a bit. You can see my recorded workouts here. Like I mentioned before, I haven't been on my bike in forever, but I have been making it to spin classes at the gym every other week or so. And I joined this amazing swim clinic at American University. It was taught by the head coach of the AU swim team and a few of their alum/swimmers. 7 sessions for only $75 which included the pool access and an hour and a half of instruction during each session. I already think I'm a better swimmer because of it, but now I have to put all I've learned into practice and get my yardage in. I tried a couple times in the last 2 weeks, but I have definitely lost all of my endurance with swimming. I can barely swim 100 yards any more without stopping.

That's going to have to change because it looks like my goal race for next year will be the Longhorn Half IronMan in Austin, TX :)

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:08:18 GMT

I wrote this a long time ago and it's been sitting here as a draft for forever. I may finish it eventually...but for now i feel like I should just post it as-is.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So, since my last post...I've actually done a few events. Since most of them were too long ago to write a real race report, I'll just put a quick synopsis in one large post.

AT&T Austin Marathon (2/17) - My first marathon evar!! OMG, this was an amazing race. The weather was supposed to be rainy and super windy, but it ended up being beautiful. I don't know if it was the course that seemed to block the wind or if it just wasn't windy that day, but we didn't seem to have too much trouble there. The hills were supposed to be only from mile 9-12, but Holy Crap it seemed like they never ended!! I got a bit disheartened when I saw that I was in Z4 basically the whole race, and complained to Connie a bunch (I'm so sorry Connie) but she kept my spirits up most of the time. Mike and Richard were amazing, out on the course every few miles...almost where I thought I'd just seen them. (They missed us a couple times early on, but after I called them from the porta-potty stop at mile 7 that never happened again). Around mile 20, when I was feeling the worst, I decided to try to ham it up for a photographer. Then I looked closer and realized it was Julia!! (She told me earlier that morning she would be wearing a colorful wool hat...I can't believe she was still wearing it that late in the day!) Getting to see someone I didn't fully expect to see and her cheering kept me on kept me on a high for the next few miles. I got to see everyone I wanted to see: ran into
rheller
before the race even started (he said he recognized my voice...I'm so loud!) and ran across Alyssa running in her pink skirt :) I saw Julia again, hanging with CJ (which was super awesome, I hadn't seen him since Vegas of last year!) They both had their cameras out and were busy snapping up pics. After the race, I just went home and napped while Mike took care of everything in the house...then went over to Ayer's to visit with my lovely goddaughter (and her wonderful parents of course) for a bit. I limped around there for a bit, drinking their liquor and eating sooo well. The next night was a celebratory dinner at Buca Di Beppo with a ton of people...so they sat us in the Pope room. Sooo much fun!!! Back to race details, Connie and I both made our goal of beating the 5 hour mark...just barely. We passed the 5:00 pacers just as we were getting to the last quarter mile (to Julia and Mike's surprise)

Shamrock Half Marathon( 3/16) - Connie and I drove down to VA Beach the day before the race, and barely made it in time before the race expo closed. Luckily, they still had a few shirts in our size, and I also bought myself a bracelet I wanted but didn't want to buy until I had finished my first marathon. Then we went to dinner with Kathi and fretted about the weather reports. All the ones we saw were forecasting a storm with crazy winds. Again, we lucked out...it wasn't the prettiest of days, but it didn't even really rain on us at all, and warmed up quite a bit although the winds were insane!! We might even have PRed if I hadn't had to stop to use a porta-potty (a recurring theme for me at races) and then sorta lost track of Kathi and Connie. We still did well, and came in under 2:30. Connie and Kathi both left me in their dust during the sprint to the finish, with Kathi running at least a 6:30 pace and Connie holding strong around 7:00.

One Day Hike 50k (4/26) - The training for this was brutal. 20 miles of walking is WAY harder than 26 miles of running. This definitely made me rethink my ability to walk the marathon at the end of an IronMan. That day, we made it to the check in on time and then decided to drive to the nearest town and wait for Hien, John and Lap (the crazies who signed up for the 100k) to get to the halfway point so we could meet up with them.

[Unknown LJ tag]

Update

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:05:24 GMT

Well, the past few months have been exciting, but not in a cool workourt-y way. After the marathon, things at work picked up to such a degree that I didn't really have time for anything. I would attend meetings all day and then head home to eat dinner and get back on my computer to get my coding/testing/integration work done. I had signed up for the Shamrock half marathon (March 16th), the 50k hike (April 26th) the 42 mile 5 boro bike ride (May 4th) and the Columbia Oly (May 18th), and just thinking about all of that made me tired. I tried to keep it all up, going to Kenpo twice a week, long training walks on Saturdays and work outs at the gym for running and cycling...but my motivation was pretty lacking. I think I only got in a few workouts a week. (Definitely not boding well for a half Ironman this year)

I thought seeing the Team Z nutritionist would help, but got so busy that I ended up standing her up for one of our appointments. I finally realized I needed to take a break from it all and concentrate on work, training just enough to finish the events I had signed up for. Just enough to finish them...although Columbia is going to suck so bad because I haven't been swimming at all. I put myself on hiatus with TeamZ and reset my expectations. I put back all of the weight I lost while training.

Now that most of those events are done, and work is seeming to fall back into a pattern, and most of my trips are over with (Going to Vegas this week!!! Sweet!!!) I am finally starting to get motivated again. My goals for this year are:

1. Go to Kenpo as often as I can and get good enough where I feel like I can test in December (which may be hard, since with all the travel, I haven't been in 2 weeks and won't be able to go again until I'm back from Vegas),
2. Increase my speed in the bike and run and just maintain my speed (or lack thereof) in swimming. Connie was reading the triathlon swimming book and it talked about how new swimmers usually see improvement in the first few months and then plateau when they get the technique down. I'm hoping to hit that plateau and sit comfortably there.
3. Finish any of the races that I've agreed to sign up for. None of the triathlons are longer than an Oly, so speed will be key there. The running races are a different story. I'm signing up for the 182 mile Ragnar relay with an Ultra team (meaning 6 runners instead of 12), meaning I'll be running 30 miles over a 30ish hour time period. And I've already signed up for the Disney Goofy challenge in January of 2009.

I hope that focusing on speed in triathlons and only doing endurance for running will help me with that disjointed feeling I was getting last year in training. I think I can really only focus on one event at a time, and after the marathon, I think I want that to be running. I still enjoy swimming and cycling, although swimming is much more enjoyable when you take external factors out of the picture, like trying to find and pay for a pool to swim in, or other swimmers kicking and hitting you. The same kinda goes for cycling. I think I would probably enjoy cycling the most if I didn't have to deal with cars or other cyclists...although this jaded view might have something to do with how stressed out I was during the 5 Boro Bike ride yeserday (OMG, was that really yeseterday?)

The first step in this whole direction was to sign back up with TeamZ. Just reading the email from Ed got me excited about everything again, which is a great sign. Going to NYC this past weekend was sooo much fun and spending time with friends and going to Vegas (woohoo!! Vegas!!!) this week will be the shot in the arm I need to get me moving again! Maybe doing Columbia with the team will seal the deal, and I'll actually accomplish all my goals this year!

Finally a post! (to quote Jay)

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:14:41 GMT

Just a quick one to note that it's kinda amazing how quickly I was able to go from absolutely loving my new job to thinking I may have made a huge mistake. Interesting....

Regular posting will commence soon.

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:08:11 GMT

As the race gets closer and closer, I'm getting more and more freaked out...and less post-y :)

As bad as I've been about posting, I've actually been doing pretty well in my training. After being sick for the first week of January, I pushed myself out of the door that weekend to do the 5 miler we were scheduled for. I took it really easy, running on the trail behind our house so I could bail at any time. Around mile 3, I started feeling incredibly sluggish and decided to cut it short, to just under 4 miles. Still, I wasn't terribly slow, and the weather was beautiful (mid 50s, partly sunny)

That next week, we had a scheduled 18 mile run, so I worked hard at getting my workouts in. The hardest part was actually getting time on a treadmill. After work, the gyms were inundated with New Years resolutionists...so I usually had to put off my runs until 9 or 10 pm. I also started going back to Kenpo on Monday nights, because he's extended the advanced class to 2 hours...so the hour drive out there is now worth it.

By the time the 18 miler rolled around, I felt like I was back on track...but I was still dreading it a bit. I'm so so glad we went out to run with the team, because we picked up Gin as another training partner. Since she also hadn't been running the long runs in a while, she forced us to slow down a bit in the beginning. By the time she left us around mile 13, we were still going full steam. I don't think I started hurting until after mile 16, which was amazing!! We switched from 7:1 intervals to 5:1s after the halfway point, which I think also helped a lot. I'm still in awe about how well this run went, the first 9 miles felt like a breeze....crazy!

The next couple weeks flew by, including my birthday and restaurant week. I got in workouts where I could, and went out to eat a lot :) I got to see my sister (Hi Nance!!) and parents and aunts and uncles and friends I hadn't seen in a long time. It was super nice, but not relaxing at all. So by the time our 20 miler came around, i was already pretty exhausted.

Connie and I decided to do the 20 miler at Burke Lake park, since Hien would be there training for her 100k hike. It was a 4.5 mi loop on rugged trail (mostly dirt with some roots and a bit of gravel...and about 3/4 mile paved) so we assumed we'd do about 4.25 loops with the last quarter being an out and back. I guess our memory of how flat this trail is (it goes around a Lake for God's sake) was kinda skewed because we did a LOT of climbing. It was also freezing cold out, and some of the uphill sections were iced over. We actually managed to get 3 loops in with no trouble at all, feeling almost as good as we did for the 18 miler. The 4th loop, though...was miserable. Every muscle in my leg hurt (especially the glutes). Seeing Hien and her training partner perked us up a bit (until we heard that said training partner took a spill down one of the icy sections), but it just wasn't enough to keep us in a good mood. We managed to finish, and in less than 4 hours!! (3:47:34 to be exact, although to be fair, I stopped the clock every time I had to stop and pee and when we stopped to refill our bottles...so it ended up being almost exactly 4 hours). Given how hilly / icy the trail was, I'm glad we didn't try to go for anything longer than 20. Connie reassured me this run was about as bad as her last 2 marathons, so I'm feeling pretty confident.

The last 2 weeks have been taper. We went for a 2 hour run on the 2nd, and another 1 hour run just this past Saturday. Both felt pretty good, and we managed to do the last run in sub 10:00 miles....which is amazing for us! :)

I'm feeling pretty confident about finishing this race, although I'm getting a bit freaked out too. I actually packed all my nutrition last night!!! Me! I never pack until the day of travel! I think we have it all setup though. We're planning on carrying our drink of choice (HEED for me, Accelerade for Connie) in our fuel belts, and drinking the water at the water stops. We'll send Mike, Richard and my dad out with full squeezy bottles full of the stuff to, so if we do see them on the route, we can fill back up. If not, we'll start drinking the Powerade Mountain Blast they're providing on the course (since neither of us have trained with it, it might not be the best thing....but it's a last resort thing). I hope to eat a Gu / Clif Shot every 4 miles, and take small swigs from my Hammer Gel flask as necessary...washing those down with water. I have a bottle of Endurolytes, which I hope to take every hour or so, but I've only practiced with them twice (once during an Oly Tri and the other time for our 2 hour run). I'm still not sure if it's risky, but I also don't want to cramp up.

The rest of the plan is to just take it easy. We're going to walk up the steeper hills and not worry about getting passed by other runners. One of our coaches has even challenged us all to negative split this race, so that may be used as a motivator to take it easy for the first half. Although that may mess with our plans of running the first half using the 7:1 interval and the second half at 5:1. Hmmm...

I think I have it all thought out though. Am I missing anything?

Training over the holidays

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:06:44 GMT

Ugh, what a holiday season it's been. I had a blast, but boy am I happy it's over.
The Thursday before Christmas, 5 of us (Mike's parents, Brian, Mike and I) piled into the parent's SUV and trudged out to Nashville, TN. The drive wasn't too bad except for Brian's section where it poured the whole time. By the time I took over, around midnight...it had finally cleared up and we managed to get in to Kathy and Karl's place around 3am.

With a 16 miler scheduled for Saturday, I decided to sleep in and rest all of Friday. I ended up spending most of the day with the niece and nephew while the guys got to work on the floor. I had originally planned on helping...but with 4 guys (all with way more experience than me) all working in the same room, it got crowded quick. I think I just mostly got in the way. This kinda continued all weekend, and I ended up only nailing down one row of flooring in the whole house. Oh well, I can't complain about not being put to work! :)

The 16 miler...well, it kinda sucked. Karl showed me the route he usually runs which is about 4 miles...so I assumed I'd just run that same loop about 4 times. I walked out the door in my t-shirt and pants and immediately walked into a wind gust. Thinking it was cold, I went back in and put on a long sleeved shirt and gloves. Big mistake!! It was actually in the 60s outside, the wind was just so strong, it felt way colder. By the time I got a mile down the road, I was burning up. I turned around and headed back to the house to strip and try again.

I did 3 of the loops that Karl showed me and extended each of them by running past the house each time. The out part of the loop was fine, with the wind at my back and running mostly downhill. Then I'd turn around and have 25 mph winds in my face and running uphill most of the way. By the time I was at mile 10 I was ready to cry. Around that time, I stopped back at the house for a pee break and to fill up my water bottles, and wow was it hard to convince myself to go back out. Then again, the house was full of people all trying to get things done, and furniture piled up on the back porch...so there wasn't really anywhere to rest either. So out I went!

The last 5.5 miles took over an hour, but I finished it. And I felt so accomplished afterwards!! Well, accomplished and tired. I ended up napping the afternoon away at the house we were borrowing from Kathy and Karl's friends.

On Monday, I forced myself out again to run the 50 minute run on our schedule. I knew that I would probably not run on Christmas day, and we were driving back to DC the following day...so I couldn't slack off too long. I managed to get in a little over 5 miles and averaged 10 min miles. Not too bad considering it was so soon after my longest run evar!!

My prediction came true and I didn't get any workouts in Tuesday or Wednesday...which I severely regret now because I managed to get myself sick on Thursday and was out of commission for another week an a half. That meant no runs and no workouts until January 6th!! Blargh!! Look how empty this is!!

It also meant being sick on New Years Eve. No worries though, we still ended up doing our yearly ritual of going to Sam's house and playing board games. This year, I think everyone brought a bottle of champagne and we all proceeded to get drunk off of it. Then I found myself a comfy corner, wrapped myself in a blanket and watched my husband get trounced in board games by the half-Asian team :)

So, besides being sick, I had a wonderful Holiday season. Getting to watch my niece really get Christmas this year was super fun...she kept counting down the days, and made a special Christmas plate for Santa with cookies and hot chocolate and carrots for the reindeer (we had Zoe nom nom the carrots and put the ends on the plate to make it look like animals had eaten them). The kids' faces on Christmas morning were adorable, and the fact that they could barely make it through all their presents without taking a nap (actually Nathan had to be put down for a nap with 3 or 4 presents untouched) was hilarious. That's what you get when you invite the Grandparents.

Training update

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:20:35 GMT

Wow, it's been a while. And since I want to keep up this blog, I should probably post more often than once a month (or worse!)

My training has finally picked up after a lull in October. I think I was burned out from all the training I did earlier in the year. My first year racing and I did 4 triathlons (one was a mini), 1 aqua-velo and 6 running races ranging from 5k to half marathon. Maybe I started out too aggressively? By the time the last triathlon, marathon relay and half marathon rolled around (all back to back weekends) I was pooped.

I gave myself a few weeks to recover, but the Austin Marathon was looming...so it was back to the grind. I even managed to get in a few outdoor bikes in before it started getting cold. The coolest ride was a commute into my new work location. The ride was just under 11 miles, and it's mostly on trails, so I only have to deal with traffic for about 3 miles of it. (The bad news is that 3 miles is a 2 lane road - 1 lane each way.) I met up with a coworker who commutes in at least once a week on his really cool recumbent, so he could show me where the turns and stops were, but now that I've done it once, I'm sure I could do it again. If only it weren't so cold!! And I weren't such a cold weather wimp!!

The marathon training has me focusing on the run, even though Coach Ed still wants us to do 2 swims and 2 rides a week. I'm following TeamZ's plan for the Myrtle Beach marathon, since Austin and Myrtle Beach fall on the same weekend. But I've been kinda slacking on the swimming and biking. Waking up at 5:00 when it's 20 degrees out and going to swim is not very appealing. And biking outdoors on Sunday, the day after our long runs isn't either. Especially since our long runs have now exceeded the longest runs I've ever done (16 this weekend!! eeek!!)

So my weeks are ending up with 3-4 runs and a trainer ride...and those are my good weeks. I've had a few weeks where I've done 2 runs and a bike, or 2 runs and a swim. I hope I'll still be in good enough shape to run my first marathon. I noticed that Ed's plan only has us running 20 miles before the race, so I guess he's assuming we're doing the bikes and swims. Ugh!!

My long runs have been going pretty well. I try to meet up with Connie for most of them, so that we can push eachother to finish. Although I'm sure she's a lot more help to me than I am to her...since she's already run 2 marathons. The encouraging news is we have been doing all these runs at under 11:00 miles, so my goal of coming in under 5:30 is looking pretty doable. Mike keeps telling me to set a more aggressive goal, but I don't want to be disappointed for my first marathon ever. Maybe I'll try those Yasso 800s that Rich was mentioning a while back.

This weekend's run is 16 miles, and I'll be running it alone in Tennesee. I wonder if I can get any of Mike's family members to go out and run with me. :( I have to make sure I do the whole thing because it just gets harder from here on out. It looks like our schedule has us resting for 2 weeks after this run with a 10 miler and then a 5 miler. Then we increase again to 18, followed by a rest of 10, peak at 20 then taper to 16, 8 and then race. I'm tempted to run longer than 20 somewhere, but I have no idea where to fit it in. And the taper looks not so tapery to me...but I should just trust Ed.

On a side note, I tried Gu for the first time on my 10 mile run (I ate only half of it, and stupidly only brought the other half with me on my 14 miler....a 14 miler probably requires more than half a gel) I had the Vanilla Bean, probably from one of my races earlier this year. Up until then, I'd pretty much exclusively used hammer gels because of the sugar content. But, wow...Vanilla bean Gu is yummmy. It tastes like vanilla frosting. Worried, I looked at the nutrition list and only 3 grams of sugar!!! I bought a few more of these to try out, but if they work on longer runs, I may start alternating them with my hammer gel...just for a change of pace. As much as I like the vanilla frosting taste, I'm sure I'll get sick of it quickly.

I bought a new car

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:39:53 GMT

If there was anything I could have done that was stupider, I can't think of it. A recession is coming, I had a very new car already...but at least I can write down my thought processes, to look back on later when I've forgotten

In 2005 I bought a manual WRX wagon (no frills, no options...except a spoiler, I guess ) that suited my needs...but Mike pointed out when I bought it that it might not be enough car for me. I stupidly ignored him and told him that if I could get a great deal on the WRX, I would be perfectly happy...and if I didn't, then I'd go test drive that dream car that I had been drooling over for months (Lexus IS 350). The Subaru dealer couldn't believe my backup plan, but eventually gave in and sold me the car for the price I wanted.
The plan was to use it for our Home Depot runs, and as our every day gas saver car (compared to Mike's G35 coupe). I assumed the trunk would be big enough to haul things around and the gas mileage would be somewhere between the 20 and 27 they mentioned on the sticker. Both turned out to be wrong. The car barely got 20mpg, and all my driving was highway driving. And Mike could never fit anything in the wagon trunk that wouldn't fit in his car.

Then I got the job in Arlington, and we started carpooling in with 4 people in the car. It was doable, especially since most of us are small...but not exactly comfortable. Winter started coming in, and every time I drove Mike's car I envied his butt warmers.

But I just couldn't justify spending the $$$ for the car I really wanted. The toys were nice and all, but it was RWD and from what my friend Robbie said, the back seat wouldn't have much more room than my WRX did. I used those excuses for a long time until Mike pointed out that Infiniti just remodeled the G35 sedan....and hinted that he would actually encourage me to buy one. Doh! Mike is usually my sanity check, the person I go to when I need to be talked out of spending money recklessly. And here he was saying I should take a look at this car and telling me how much he likes it. Bad move, man.

So a couple weeks later we go test drive the thing. And it's wonderful!! Drives so well, has all the toys and gadgets I like. To compare, I decided to go test drive my dream car, the Lexus (and a few others). It drove a bit nicer (the shifting on the automatic sport shift was smoother) and had cooled/heated seats instead of just heated. But it was RWD and cost $9k more!!! I know..RWD is better performance, but after having 2 Subarus in a row, I'd been accustomed to AWD. And moving from TX to DC (although I know, we're still technically the South) means I'm still terrified of driving in snow and ice.

After thinking about it for a while, talking to everyone I knew and redoing our budget to fit the payments in, we decided that it wouldn't be too much of a financial burden to go ahead and do it. I will have to hold myself to the budget cuts I put in place for me next year, but the new car is so worth it!! Keyless entry and start, moonroof, heated seats, bluetooth phone integration with the speakers, HDD based GPS with 9.5G worth of space for mp3s, iPod interface...all the toys I could ever want and more! Lets hope my gadget-iness is sated, because...

I also promised Mike I would keep this car until it died, so here it is in print. I PROMISE to keep this car until it dies...regardless of what cool gadgets come out in the meantime. I also promise not to drive this car into the ground early just so I can get a new car.

So...Merry X-mas to us. We now have a comfortable, wonderful new commuter car that Mike gets to drive on the weekdays (he drops the 3 of us off because his parking is paid for) and I get to drive on the weekends.

Memo to self

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:18:36 GMT

Don't do that again! Don't forget to eat lunch and then decide that 4pm would be a great time to go for a 40 minute run. You will feel like crap, you will be incredibly slow and you'll end up sitting at your desk in a daze, feeling dizzy and wondering what the hell made you decide that was a good idea!! A third a cup of yogurt and a half a cup of cereal for breakfast and an apple in the afternoon is NOWHERE near enough calories for something like that you dunderhead!!!

On a happy note, I managed to run 3.9 miles. On a not so happy note, it took me 42 minutes and I feel like I'm gonna sick-up. Good thing there's nothing in my stomach.

One other happy note...even if I had eaten well and done everything right, I still wouldn't have been able to do that kinda distance in that time a year ago.

One more thing...52 degress and 19mph winds, bring a long sleeved shirt or arm wamers stupid!! Gloves woulda been good too.

Nike Women's Half Marathon Race Report

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:00:53 GMT

Yay!! My last race report of the YEAR!!! This post will be WAY shorter than the last..I promise!

As I mentioned, the race started at 7:00, so we woke up at 6:00 and started walking down there with about 25 minutes to spare. It was super dark, but we could hear the crowd roar as we started walking. They let the elite athletes go about 20 minutes early, so I think that was them taking off. It was kinda cold that morning, so I wore my PJ bottoms over my new running skirt (they were the only pants I had big enough to easily take off over my shoes)...and my free Brooks long sleeved shirt (I got it from the Baltimore expo when I bought my shoes) over my short sleeved running shirt. When they let the first of the non-elite runners go, I stripped both of those off and handed them to Mike.

I tried to seed myself in the right pace group, but I was on the wrong side of the street and there were just SOOOO many people. I have never in my life seen that many women gathered in one place.   Mike said you could feel the estrogen in the air. I was kinda shocked to see a few men with race numbers on...but later found out that there were about 800 men (500 half and 300 full marathon) out of about 20,000 runners that day. Wow!

Usually the first few miles are sluggish for me, but I felt great this time. I looked at my watch at the first mile marker to see my time and was like...hmmm, why is it showing cadence?! Crap, it was set for cycling instead of running. I was so annoyed with myself, I didn't pay attention to my time and just reset the thing to run mode. Ooops!

Near the 2 mile marker, I tried again to see how I was doing. 0:00:00?!?!? Crap!!! Forgot to turn the timer on after I reset modes. Grrrrr!!!!

I started it up, but by this point I had no clue what my time was. I assumed I started about 3 minutes after the first runner, so I just started paying attention to the clocks at the mile markers. They had them setup at every mile and every 5k...sweet!!

The whole running part kinda passed in a blur. I remember the first 6 miles or so were pretty flat, and I was feeling really strong. The scenery was gorgeous as we ran along Embarcadero...with almost constant views of the bay. They had a few bands sprinkled across the course, and even a motivational speaker screaming at us about how great we were. The funny part was when she hit the topic about how we were all WOMEN, STRONG WOMEN!! and the guy in front of me pumped his fists up in the air :)

Fisherman's wharf had a small hill (which was probably comparable to the grade I was running in Baltimore) but nothing compared to THE HILL at mile 6. Over a mile of switchbacks, climbing up the hill right next to the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm sure the views were stunning, but I was having enough trouble gasping for air that I couldn't pay attention.   There was a short tease in the middle there, where I thought it was over and let out a little cheer before someone corrected me :( I finally made it all the way up, and found out that the mile only took me about 12 minutes!! Sweet!!! Little did I know they would just be taking us halfway down and then all the way back up again. And descending was not nearly as fun as I thought it would be. I was definitely running fast (my Garmin registered a 5:30 pace for a bit there, but I think that was a fluke) but only because I felt like if I didn't keep turning my legs over, I would end falling down the hill. I tried to view the scenery on the downhills as much as possible, and it was really really beautiful. I overheard a bunch of people saying they were walking on the downhills to save their knees...and maybe that woulda been a good idea if I could have slowed down...but I really did want to get those things over with as soon as possible. And they were helping my time :)

Just before mile 12, the courses split as they started herding the half marathoners towards the finish. I remember thinking, holy crap I'm tired...there's no way I could keep going for another 14 miles!! (I guess we'll find out in just a few months). At the last mile, I saw my time and realized I was blowing away my target time of 2:24 (11 minute miles) and got a short energy burst! I crossed the mat when the clock said 2:15!!! :)

Official Time: 2:11:01 (10:00/mi)
Placement: 1923 / 12181

Surprisingly, I wasn't sore most of that day. Walking the hills of San Francisco the next day, however was torture!!!

Nike Women's Half Marathon TRIP report

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:31:05 GMT

This one was my furthest race, San Francisco!! I booked tickets on my favorite airline (Yay, miles!!) and a hotel room kinda close to Union Square, where the race would start. About a week before the race, I remembered that my friend Robbie lived out in San Fran. I hadn't talked to him in years and decided this would be a great time to catch up. Called him up and he was soooo amazing. He offered to pick us up from the airport, and to let use crash at his place. He has a studio apartment just a few blocks away from the race start and he has his "bed" setup on the floor of his huge walk-in closet to make it more like a one bedroom. He mentioned we would have to sleep on sleeping bags on his living room floor, but that was definitely worth saving the $500ish it would have cost to stay in the hotel, so we took him up on the offer.

Mike and I flew out on Friday evening after work. There were some delays through ORD (they were even starting to setup all the cots as we walked by) but we managed to make it through and get into SFO around 11 PM. Robbie was there waiting for us, and drove us back to his place where he'd already setup a bed on the floor for us.

The next morning we woke up pretty early (3 hour time difference will do that to ya) and headed out to get some Northern style Vietnamese Pho. (Yelp review is here) Ok, so yet another thing Robbie does for us...hooks us up with the great places to eat. This place was AWESOME!! I'm still craving it now, two weeks later. We walked around San Fran a bit more, and were trying to figure out what we'd do that day when we overlooked Union Square and saw HUGE crowds. Oooops!! I had forgotten that packet pickup was Saturday only...good thing we walked that way. We headed down, I picked up my number and chip and then wanted to check out a bit of merchandise. They didn't have an expo, but the tents were right next door to a NikeTown...so we popped in there to see what I could find.

The place was MOBBED with women!!! I couldn't believe how many people they could legally fit in there. And all the shirts were gone, except for the extra large. No biggie, I bought a skirt and a pair shorts. Robbie waited in the super long line while I was picking them out, so I got to check out right away (seriously, how amazing is this guy?!!?). Then the girl right in front of him tells me she's decided not to buy the burgundy shirt she has and it's a size M....SCORE!!

We walked around a bit more, exploring Chinatown and stopping at the Chinese playground to meet Rob's friends and sue their restroom. Mike's foot starting hurting, and we managed to make it back to the apartment before it was too terrible Decided to go to make dinner reservations at a Burmese fusion place in the Castro district (woohoo!!). Then in the time remaining, Robbie drove us around to see the sights. He drove us up to Coit tower, and then to Fisherman's wharf where we passed these boats taking their last tour of the bay. $10 to go all the way out under the Golden Gate bridge, around Alcatraz and back. Sweet deal! By the time we got back, we were already running late for dinner, so we hoofed it to the car and took off. We found parking right away, which surprised Robbie, since he had assumed it would take at least 30 minutes to find something. Dinner was awesome!! It was mostly noodle bowls where you got to choose your protein and sauce and even noodle type. You can find the menu here.

So, the next morning was the race. I had thought it would start at 8, with it being a late October race...but we looked at the packet when we got back and found it it started at 7!! UGH!! Sooo happy I still had jet lag.

Hmmm...this is turning into a trip/food report. I might just put the race report in the next post. For now, let's just say the race went VERY well (for me).

Mike and Robbie went to breakfast as I was running and planned on getting to the finish before I got there. But they got a bit lost and then stuck in crazy traffic, and I ended up finishing first. Good thing, too...because there was NOOO parking around the finish area, and the only way to bus there was to be a runner. I have no idea how other racer's friends were able to get out there. They ended up parking at a Safeway, that had a roaming tow truck...so Robbie went in to shop while Mike came and got me out of the finishers area.

The plan for that day was to take the BART out to Oakland and have lunch my Aunt Kim (no actual relation, but she is my mom's best friend) and her daughter Kim Anh. Aunt Kim actually lives in McLean, only a few minutes away from me...but she was in Cali because Kim Anh was VERY pregnant and due any day. Well, any day ended up being that day, and she was taken to the hospital around the time I was reaching mile 6 :) Since Aunt Kim didn't have a car to pick us up from the BART station, we were going to call it off until Robbie suggested he could drive us out there. (again, I'm gonna have to stop bragging about how great he is, but he's gonna have to help out by not being so great) We made great time and got to Oakland in less than 30 minutes. Aunt Kim fed us some pizza, and we took her granddaughter (Kim Anh's almost 2 year old daughter, Kate) for a walk around the neighborhood. Holy crap was that a nice area!! Even Robbie who had been disparaging Oakland a bit was in awe. Once Aunt Kim got Kate down for a nap, we took off...she had been up since 4:30 when Kim Anh's contractions started and it looked like she could use a nap herself! Truth be told, I really really needed a nap too!

Got back to the apartment and I just crashed on the floor while Rob and Mike got some work done on their computers. I woke up just in time to watch a movie with Mike before dinner.

Ahhhh, dinner!! My first night in San Fran, I mentioned that I wanted to go to either the Stinkin' Rose or House of Prime Rib. Robbie's eyes lit up a bit when I mentioned House of Prime Rib, so the decision was made...and daaaaammmmnnnnn was that a good decision. For about $38 a person we got salad, steak, creamed corn or spinach, a potato, bread, cornbread and Yorkshire pudding (pricey, but really not especially comparing it to other nice steakhouses, and considering how much food we got). The prime rib was ridiculously good...never had anything like it. The Yorkshire pudding and cornbread were brought out straight from the oven, and the cornbread was shaped like little corn on the cob! :) Robbie's friend, the Colonel, came along with us...and was great company...regaling us with stories of his ex-girlfriends and his dog. (hmmm...that makes him sound boring, but I promise, he was hilarious) This dinner was the perfect end to a perfect trip.

This trip was sooo wonderful, we had the best luck ever. We had beautiful weather, no fog, easy parking, amazing food, great company and the best host we could ever ask for! We even managed to pay him back a tiny bit by fixing his wireless router :)

Swim practices

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:53:55 GMT

I skipped swim practice again today. I woke up around 5:15, realized that if I got ready and left right away I'd still be about 10 minutes late, rolled over and went back to sleep. Ugh, it's amazing how easy it is to talk myself out of exercising that early in the morning :(

That makes it over a month since I've been to a swim practice...right before Bassman. I need to get back in there at least once a week during the winter.

Winter training starts this week with us ramping up our running miles for the marathon in February. Our weekday workouts have shifted to put more emphasis on the run (from 2 swims, 0 strength workouts, 2 runs and 2 bikes to 2 swims, 2 strength, 3 runs and 1 bike on the trainer or in a spin class) but our weekend workouts have stayed the same with a long run on Saturday and a long bike on Sunday. I know I won't get all the workouts in, and Coach Ed is actually thinking about coming up with scaled back workout plans for people who just can't get 8 workouts in a week (!!) but I want to try to get in as many as I can without burning myself out.

The team is preparing for the Myrtle Beach marathon on the 16th, but since it's on the same weekend, Connie and I decided to go do the Austin marathon instead! :) MIke's usually pretty hesitant to travel just for a race (and with good reason, the 3 days in San Fran was pretty costly) but since we can combine this one with visiting family and friends, he's actually pretty excited.

Profile

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:50:44 GMT

Yay! I finally updated my profile for the first time since I opened my account. The old one talked about how I was looking forward to my wedding :)

Baltimore Marathon Relay 10/13/2007

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:59:47 GMT

Back when I first started running, Sam and I committed to running a 5k and a 10k together this year. We did our 5k back in June at the Herndon Festival, my 2nd race ever! Just a week before my mini-tri. Our times weren't great, but I don't think either of us were racing for time...so it wasn't a huge deal.

We were still trying to decide on which 10k to run when Connie came back from her Shamrock half marathon and showed us her awesome medal. At that point, we decided me MUST HAVE ONE!! and Connie mentioned that the Baltimore marathon had a relay option and would have really really cool medals with crabs on them. Eeeek!! So Cute!!!

The relay had 4 legs all ranging between 6 miles and 7.3.We had 4 runners lined up so we were ready to go.

On Friday, we all left work early and drove up to Baltimore. Mike, Sam and I met up at 2:00ish and rode up together. Connie and Kathy headed up earlier in the day. By the time we got through all the traffic and into Baltimore, they had already picked up our packets! Sweet!! Especially given the fact that the race volunteers lost our original number and spent forever trying to figure out what happened before they gave us a new one. Whoever relayed the race with the number 13033 is going to be really upset when they find out, though.

I spent a ton of money at the expo, buying a long sleeved under armor shirt (it's blue!!) and some new Brooks running shoes. After running in my Asics for so long, I had forgotten how light Brooks were. I've gotta remember never to switch again, sorry
mizmizuno
(actually I've never tried on Mizunos...I probably should have. Mike has a pair and loves them.)

After the expo, we headed off to the hotel to check in. I had originally requested a double room, but they were overbooked and had to give us a king...for 5 people!! Luckily, Connie brought an air mattress...and we asked them to bring us up a cot while we were out at dinner (I didn't want them to see how many people we were squeezing into the room, especially since I paid for it with points). 2 people on the bed, 2 people on the air mattress, 1 person on the cot...Perfect!!!

For dinner, we walked down to a restaurant that Connie recommended and it was soooo good. I had these veal and beef stuffed peppers, but then realized that there weren't enough carbs in my dinner. We solved that problem by heading straight to a pie shop a few blocks away :) Mmmm....we bought the peach, strawberry and apple pie and the woman who worked there gave us a "sample" of the lemon chess because I was drooling all over it!! Yummmmmm...soooo happy. After stuffing myself with food, we walked back to the hotel, climbed in our respective beds and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, we woke up around 6, packed up all our stuff and put it in our cars...just in case we didn't get done before checkout time (1pm). Then we walked over to McDonalds and got ourselves some breakfast and coffee. Sam being the first runner was smart enough to eat a granola bar instead of the crap we ate...mmm, sausage egg mcmuffin!! We all walked over to the start area, just a few minutes before the race to see Sam off. Then we realized that the bus over to the 2nd relay start had already left and the one to the 4th relay start was leaving in 15 minutes. Connie rushed over to that bus while Mike and I walked Kathy to her area...about 1.5 miles away.

Holy crap, the relay point was MOBBED!! There were almost 600 relay teams, and we were supposed to spread out along the route by number...but everyone was huddled around the bus drop-off, hoping to see their runner. This caused the crowd to spill out into the race route, forcing the runners to run by us almost single file. There were cones in place that we were supposed to stay behind, but at least half the people were standing 5-6 feet outside of them. Every once in a while, a volunteer would walk by and yell at everyone to get behind the cones to make room for the runners, but these jackasses would just shuffle around and ignore them completely. Ugh!! I was soo super frustrated.

About an hour into the race, we suddenly heard the guy with the bullhorn yell our number out, and we saw Sam's tiny hand sticking up out of the crowd.   Oh My God!! She finished her 6 mile run in under an hour....that is so BADASS!!!!   Our first 5k took us about 36 minutes, so she improved that much in just a few months. And I forgot to mention she has two little boys (ages 4 and 2) and didn't have as much time to train as she would have liked...wow!!

Sam and Kathy quickly traded off the chip and Kathy was off and racing. Kathy's a running coach for the DCFit running group, so I knew she'd be pretty fast. We congratulated Sam a bit more and then booked it to my transition area, about 2 miles away from where we were at. Again, my transition area was awful. Not nearly as many people...but I think that's because there were some ridiculously fast relay teams out there, and they'd already cleared through. One guy made it clear he thought he was better than us, by basically standing in the middle of the route and completely ignoring any of the volunteers. I guess he didn't realize that we were all waiting for our runners too.

At this point, Mike told me to calm down and just get ready to run. He was right, I was getting worked up for no reason and needed to focus. I took off my long sleeved shirt and gloves and started trying to psych myself up. Kathy came in just over an hour after she took off for her 6.8 mile let. Yay!! Our fastest split of the day for sure.

I took off and pretty soon ran over a timing mat...probably for the 20k. The crowd turnout for the race was really pretty awesome!! There were people cheering pretty much the whole way...although I felt soooo guilty every time I passed and they would tell me how strong I was looking at the halfway point. Of course I was looking strong, I had only been running for half a mile :) My leg was mostly flat and uphill...although my uphills were pretty shallow (they felt pretty steep at the time, but looking back on them now after my San Fran race, they really weren't) I felt great pretty much the whole time!! I had my watch set for 9:1 intervals, but I ended up running most of the way and taking only 30 second walk breaks every now and then. According to the Garmin, I ran 6.24 miles in 59:04 which would make it a 9:27 pace!!! The race had said my leg was only 6.1 miles, which would make my pace more like a 9:40, but still Yaaayy!! I never run 6 miles in less than 10 minute miles, let alone all uphill.

The final transition area was WAY better run (again, because it was more cleared out by then). A guy on a bullhorn was way in front of the crowd and yelled our numbers as we got close. I could see Connie's hat weaving through the crowd and headed that way. We hugged, switched the chip and she was off.   I climbed on the bus for my ride back to the start. On the way back, I chatted with a few runners, shared some Starburst, tried to call Mike and watched as our bus driver got lost in downtown Baltimore and accidentally got on the highway heading to NYC :) I finally made it to the bus stop and actually jogged back to the finish area...surprisingly I wasn't sore at all!!

Found Mike, Kathy and Sam near the finish...after I had got my medal. We had a primo location to watch the finish right by the announcers box. The only draw was we had to stop everyone walking by to keep them from walking all over the power cables in the area. Two teenaged girls actually sat down on a trailer right in front of a panel that said "Caution: High Voltage" and another woman climbed on the trailer hitch right next to them so she could get a better view of the runners. Sigh!

We got to watch Connie pass through the finish line just as the clock was displaying 4:15, which meant our time was around 4:11! Sweeeet!!!   I have to savor this moment, because it's probably the closest I'll ever get to running a sub 4:30 marathon in a LONG time, if ever!!

We all celebrated with our free beer and crab shaped medals, and then hightailed it back to our hotel to take quick showers. I had called to get another checkout extension, so we didn't have to be out of there until 2:00.

Afterwards, we all headed to Fell's Point to eat at Kathy's cousin's restaurant Bertha's....of the famous Eat Bertha's Mussels bumper stickers. Poor Mike had to support us for the race all day and then suffer through watching us all eat mussels, crab, scallops and shrimp in front of him. As a reward, we stopped by this gelato place next door and got the best gelato I've ever had!! Mojito flavored. I swear, I thought I could taste the rum in it!! Soooooo good.

Wow, that's a lot of race report for just a 6 mile run. I just don't want to forget any detail, so I figured I should write it all down. I'm going to have to hide most of it behind a LJ cut or something.

Hmmm...need a running userpic.

Yaaay!!

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:49:28 GMT

My friend and workout buddy (and enabler, but I guess we're kinda both enablers ) Connie now has a livejournal!!!! Obviously, mention her a ton in all my posts, so it'll be nice to have her on here :) Her username is nevermore1849

Oh, and I forgot to mention this back then, but another friend of mine from waaaaayyy back in the IBM lab LDAP Development years has also started a livejournal. He just completed the Longhorn Sprint Tri in Austin as his first triathlon ever, and might be getting hooked!! :) His username is rheller

Uh oh, looks like I'm turning into a livejournal ho...just like Julia and her facebook/linkedin obsession (which I also share).

mmmm...Cake

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:41:30 GMT

I just took the elevator up 2 floors to eat sheet cake in celebration of birthdays of people I don't know.

And I wonder why I'm putting back on all the weight I lost last year :(

In my defense, there are 2 staircases in this building but only one allows access to our floors. Being new here, I didn't want to get stuck in the wrong one and be forced to walk 8 floors down to get out!

mmmmm...cake :)

Bassman International October 7th, 2007

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:05:54 GMT

My last triathlon of the year, and boy did it feel like it. I think I peaked for Smallwood, and have been barely holding it together since. You can tell by looking at my workouts on runningahead. October is pretty barren!

So, I felt like crap at this race. I knew ahead of time that I would, so when Mike said he wanted to get some work done on the house, I told him he wasn't obligated to drive all the way up to NJ with me. Bad news is, Mike wasn't there to cheer me up. Good news is, our closet has drywall now! :) That's especially good news, since we haven't really gotten anything done on the house in many many months.

PreRace:
Tony was nice enough to let us stay in his hotel room. He even booked the hotel for Sunday night so that we could all shower before heading into the 4 hour drive home.
Connie and I met up in Vienna to do our 15/15/15 Brick, then headed back to our respective places to shower and pack. We took off from my place around 4ish, I think (I need to start writing these race reports closer to the races) Got up to Jersey close to 9:00 and decided to save time by getting something to eat before going to the hotel. Tony recommended this Italian place nearby, and when we got there we saw 4 tables of TeamZers already eating...it had to be good :) After a wonderful meal of pasta, red sauce and seafood...along with the HUGE glass of wine I ordered to counteract the coffee I had to keep me awake on the drive, we headed over to the hotel and made it there by around 10:30. We had to call Tony again to find the room, and woke him up...Sorry Tony!! We snuck in, climbed into bed and quickly fell asleep.
The next day, we all woke up early. Gin hitched a ride with us, which worked out perfectly because she was running the Half Ironman which started an hour before our race...but Connie and I still had to check in and get our numbers. It was still really dark when we got there, and there were NO volunteers telling us where to go. We managed to find a place to park, chatted with these two first time triathletes parked next to us, checked in for our race, setup our transition area and then walked over to the tent to sit, eat and wait for the race to start

Swim:

As the last half ironman swimmer was coming in, we waded our way out to the swim start. The water was the perfect temperature, and the water wasn't as mucky as all the other races we've done to date...which as nice. I took Jay's advice and stayed back so I could took the time to pee. By the time the swim started, I was still in the back...but I assumed like all the other races I would make my way up to that pocket that I always seem to swim in. This time though, it never seemed to happen. I seemed to keep bumping into people left and right (even Connie, sorry Connie!!) and couldn't get a rhythm going. I was also having to stop a lot and breast stroke to catch my breath, which has never happened to me in a race before. The only good thing about this swim was being able to see the bottom...then again, it was right beneath us...I think I skimmed it multiple times with my hands just trying to swim. People were walking right next to me and the water was just above their knees.
So, I finally got out...and trudged up the shore to the transition area. Tracy and Christy came running past me, and some spectators yelled that they were beating me. I was already pretty demoralized from the swim, and it was taking all my will power just to convince myself to continue the race...so I didn't bother chasing them.

Swim Distance: .6 mi
Swim Time: 24:39 (2:25 / 100m)
Place: 145/176

T1:

I had a hard time getting my wetsuit off and ended up having to sit down and tug it off my ankes, which was the perfect way to end that swim :) I really just couldn't keep track of what I had to do and in what order. Coach Ed ended up yelling to me "Cathy, whatever book you're reading in there, I can get you the cliff notes!" :) That really provided the kick in the butt I'd been needing all morning. I finally got all my crap together and ran out of there.

T1 Time: 7:05
Place: 165/176

At least I wasn't last!

Bike:

Again, as soon as I was away from the pack, I was completely unmotivated. I couldn't even get my heart rate above Z3 (another problem I've never had before). The route was really flat, which I thought I'd like but it made it kinda boring too. Early on in the ride, I dropped a water bottle...and would have not bothered to pick it up, but it was the one with HEED in it. As I was stopped, Chris passed me...just starting his second lap for the Half!!! Sweet!! A short brush with fame.
Almost an hour into the ride (around mile 13...to show you how slow I was chugging along) Connie came zooming by me. She slowed for a while and shouted some encouragement :) but I was just going too slow and she was having a great race!! The great thing is, having her ahead of me really encouraged me to push myself harder. I tried to just keep her in my sights, but that was near impossible. After 10 miles or so, I could barely make out her bright green jersey if I squinted really hard on a super long straightaway :) Having her as my rabbit helped immensely though, it gave me something to concentrate on other than how miserable I was...and brought my average up from 13mph to just under 16!! Yay, Thanks Connie!!
Around mile 24, I saw 2 of our team member volunteers (Talia and someone else I don't know) riding around the course, smiling and shouting at everyone they saw. I readjusted my attitude right about then, and realized that just last year this bike ride alone would have killed me...let alone swimming and running in the same workout. I might as well enjoy myself and finish out my last race of the year in a good mood.

Bike Distance: 29 mi
Bike Time: 1:49:24 (15.9 mph)
Bike Place: 161/176

T2:

Best T2 Ever!! Wow, that mood adjustment came at the right time. There is some serious room for improvement, but this is the best transition I've ever had. Swapped shoes, swapped hats and headed out.

T2 Time: 1:42
T2 Place: 100/176

Run:

Headed out on the run and immediately felt like I had to pee again. We were running through a campground, which had a ton of bathrooms so I knew stopping wouldn't be a problem. When I got to the first water stop before the first bathroom, I decided hydration was still necessary and downed a half a cup of water and half a cup of whatever sugary thing they gave me (can't remember what they were serving...Cytomax maybe?!) 2 miles into a 4 mile run I still hadn't seen any bathrooms, but I did pass Connie as she was heading into the finish!! I had much more energy at this point and yelled out her name. She looked so strong!! Ken was right behind her, and I assumed they were running together...but she told me later that she had just passed him at that moment.
Right after that, I started passing people I recognized (a couple Zers who were happy and chatting, Christy who had passed me back in T1, and more). I finally saw my first bathroom, but at that point I was only a little over a mile to the finish. I sooooo had to go and was tempted to stop, but my competitiveness kicked in, and I didn't want the people I passed to get in front of me just 'cause I had to pee. Made for a pretty uncomfortable run from there on out, but I'm glad I did it. I planned on not sprinting at the finish like I usually do...actually I had assumed I had no energy left for it :) but as I turned the corner, there was Connie cheering me on and running alongside me. I picked up the pace and tore across the finish line and didn't stop till I hit the bathroom!! Yay!!

Run Dist: 4.1 mi
Run Time: 42:38 (10:24/mi)
Run Place: 143/176
Again I have Connie to thank for pushing my speed up.

Overall Time: 3:05:26
Overall Place: 158/176

Yay! I completed my last Triathlon for the year, and despite how crappy I felt, it was one of the best races I've run (swim time sucked, but bike and run were both some of the best times I've posted to date...more analyzing this later) Obviously, some of my mood was burnout, as I haven't worked out almost at all since this race. I'm going to have to factor this kind of thing into my race season next year.

Boy am I glad the race season is over

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:47:49 GMT

Until February that is! :)

3 race reports coming up...tonight hopefully

General Smallwood Olympic Race Report

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:13:56 GMT

Since the last two weeks have been kinda crap in the way of training, I decided to just skip the weekly workout posts and get straight to the race report. My first Olympic distance race was on Saturday September 22nd in General Smallwood State Park, Maryland.

Pre-pre race:
We asked Mike's parents if we could stay over at their place on Friday night. It only cut about 30 minutes from our drive that morning, but anything to avoid traffic across the Wilson bridge. We later heard that they closed it intermittantly that morning for up to 40 minutes at a time...so it was a good call.

We brought over some cheese, salami and bread...and Mike's mom made the bestest, cheesiest lasagna that I've had in a long time. With sausages (2 kinds!!) and salad (homemade balsamic dressing!!) on the side. I think I'll be to be signing up for this race again if I can get a feast like this every time. I also drank a mojito and a bit of wine...which may not have been a good idea, but it did help me relax.

I then proceeded to take everyone on a long goose chase for some Lifeway Kefir. I'd been using the Pomegranate flavored smoothie as a pre-swim workout snack...and it's been great!! It's settled my stomach on those icky mornings, it's helped with my energy levels in the water. Great stuff! I thought it might be a good thing to have before a race. Unfortunately, the 2 grocery stores we stopped by didn't have it, and I was forced to buy a Stonyfield farms smoothie instead. Nowhere near as yummy :(

We all got to bed around 10:30, and other than Zoe waking us up once around midnight, I slept pretty soundly.

Pre-race:
Woke up at 5:30ish and made it out the door at 6. I drank almost half my smoothie in the car on our way over there, and washed it down with a small bottle of water. Connie and I went to go pick up our pakckets and get body marked, while Mike unloaded our bikes again (Have I mentioned before how great he is?!) We setup our transition areas, I panicked when I found out I had no goggles (two races in a row, I've had to borrow Connie's backup pair! Time to buy my own) We grabbed our wetsuits, stopped at the porta-potties, then headed to the TeamZ tent to eat a banana and worry.
When we had about 30 minutes to go, we decided to suck it up and try to put on our wetsuits. Good thing we gave ourselves that time because putting on a wetsuit sucks!! Coach Ed helped us get them up as high as they needed to be, and it made a huge difference. The pain in my right shoulder I had felt when I was trying the suit out in the pool disappeared. Yay!

Swim:

All the women in the race and all the relayers were in the 3rd wave, so I got to watch the other 2 go and it helped with my nerves.
The swim started in the water, so we had to walk down to the end of the dock and hopped in. 72F is COLD!! And the water was murky and nasty with tons of algae...basically the same as every other race I've done. Basically as soon as I got in the water, I realized I had to pee again. Hmm...I'd been told to just pee in my wetsuit, but I was a bit wierded out by that.
The airhorn went off and we started swimming. I got jostled a bit in the beginning, but then found a spot and headed in. The course was a small diamond that we had to loop twice, so I got jostled again when the first 2 waves passed us up on their second loop. Not too terrible though...they were so fast, they were gone in a heartbeat.
The first loop sucked and it felt like it would never end, but by the second loop, I felt like I was going pretty fast. I even sighted well this race...so I was super excited when I started passing some people from the first wave.
I tried to pee while I was swimming, but never was relaxed enough to go. I finally treaded water near the finish and forced myself to go...because I didn't want to have to take the time in transition.
I got to the dock and a volunteer hoisted me up. Coach Ed was there and he gave me a high five as I wobbled my way up the dock. I could feel all the water (mixed with pee) running down my leg and splashing out of my wetsuit (eeeeeww) as I walked and then jogged the LONG LONG way up to the transition area.
Even with that good second loop though, I ended up in 54th place out of 77. Better than I expected, but worse than I had hoped.

Swim Distance: 1500m
Swim Time: 33:56
AG Place: 7 / 14
Overall Female Place: 54 / 77

T1:

Get to transition, strip off my wetsuit and realize I have to pee again!! WTF!! I decide to run back out of transition to use a porta potty (no way am I peeing on myself again!). Finally get back and get all my bike stuff ready. Lose a flip-flop and hunt around for a bit before I realize I've been in transition a WAY long time and it doesn't matter. Head out right behind Christy from my swim practice lane.

T1 Time: 8:57
AG Place: 10 / 14
Overall Female: 72 / 77
WOW!! was that slow!!

Bike:

This leg was way slower than I had hoped. I knew about the initial rollers from the preview ride, and maybe just took it too easy on those. I dunno.

As I was heading out on the bike, I saw at least 4 of the leaders people coming back in, walking their bikes!! I heard later that the course cause more than a few flat tires, and none of the leaders were prepared for that. I did pass a bunch more people on the course fixing flats. I even heard that Stephanie had 2 of them...on a 25 mile course!! Crazy.

This was my first race with a heart rate monitor on, and I'm not sure if I'm going to keep doing that. I was in high Z4 and Z5 for the first 30 minutes of the ride, and Z3-Z4 for the rest. I kept slowing down to try to get it lower, knowing I would need some of that energy for the run...but nothing was working. I gave up on that about halfway through the ride and just tried to keep from getting into Z5 again. Around that time, I got passed by a 20-something girl, who I designated as my rabbit and pushed myself to keep her in my sights the whole time. It worked, and I even managed to pass her back up at the end of the ride (although she blew past me on the run and I never saw her again).
Surprisingly, I didn't get passed very often. Although I chalk that up to being in the last wave...all the fast people were ahead of me :) Unlike Culpeper which started all the older women and men in the later waves..and they came zooming by me on the bike and run.

Bike Distance: 24 m
Bike Time: 01:35:26
AG Place: 10 / 14
OF Place: 60 / 77
Hmmm...same AG place as my T1??? Blech! I thought biking was supposed to be my strong sport :(

T2:

Pretty uneventful. Because this was my first race with my Garmin, it took me a little while to get the watch off the bike and put it on my arm. Probably should have done this while I was still riding. Or I could look into that link that Jay posted a while back.
I'm still slow in transition, but I'm not going to care too much for now.

T2 Time: 00:03:02
AG Place: 9 / 14
OF Place: 60 / 77

Run:

This went surprisingly well. I guess I was wrong to think that running would be my weakest sport. We ran on the same course as the beginning of our bike, which mean relentless hills. Luckily, it wasn't too hot out, and we managed to stay in the shade for most of it. I passed up a couple people early on in the run and then, just like in the swim...I was alone for most of the rest. I saw Connie and Grace about a mile after the turnaround point, and since I know Connie runs under 10 minute miles and Grace runs 8 min miles (!!!!), I assumed I'd seem them come flying by me any second. I climbed the last big hill and turned onto a gravel road for the last mile...and all I can say is that last mile took FOREVER. The last .2 miles felt like an eternity!! I could hear the horns blowing at the finish line, but the run just kept on winding through the campgrounds. Finally, I reached the finish (after being in a SUPER long chute starting at the parking lot and crossing a long wooden bridge across the water). Again, I had enough energy to sprint to the finish (where the hell does that energy come from?!)...managing to hold off Grace by mere seconds! Damn, she is a super fast runner!

Run Distance: 10k
Run Time: 01:05:09
AG Place: 9 / 14
OF Place: 52 / 77

I grabbed a piece of pizza, chugged down a Gatorade, and shared a hamburger with Connie, who had come in just a couple minutes after me. We both marveled at how much harder this was than we thought! She mentioned she had a panic attack during her first swimming loop and spent most of it doing breast stroke. Maybe it was the wetsuit?
We hung around for a bit and then went to the transition area to pack up. Mike had planned on doing it for us, but Stacy was working the transition area and told him he had to have racers with him. Then we all went back to Mike's parents house and crashed on their sofas :)

Overall Time: 03:26:28
AG Place: 8 / 14
OF Place: 56 / 77

Weekly Status 9/10-9/16

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 01:32:31 GMT

Arrgggh...I wrote this post on Tuesday, saved it off for editing before posting it, and completely forgot about it. Well, here it is...blargh.
======================================================================================================

It's been a while since I've done one of these, so I'm just going to skip the past few weeks and just post the details from this last week inside a cut. I've been building for my first Olympic distance race, but didn't get real serious about my workouts until this past couple of weeks.

Totals
Run: 17.9 Mi
Bike: 54.0 Mi
Swim: 1650 Yd

Monday:
    Yay! I got workout in on a Monday. It helps that the weekend before was pretty mild, with a King's Dominion trip on Saturday and a 24ish mile ride on Sunday (we had planned on doing 50, but cut it WAY short when we realized our legs were sore from saturday).   I left work late and the sun was already setting, so I decided to stop by Gold's Gym to get in my 50 minute run. I ran it with 7 minute run and 1 minute walk intervals, and managed to get in 5.4 miles in about 56 minutes. I have to say, running on a treadmill for that amount of time sucks majorly. I used to think I liked the treadmill because I could change the pace easily and push myself harder, but since I've been working on my distance base and ignoring speed...that factor's become less and less important. Plus with my brand new Garmin (I should post on that) I'm able to keep track of my pace and push myself on my outdoor runs without feeling like I'm gonna fall off the crazy moving belt!

Tuesday:
    I slept in and didn't do the swim, but did manage to get my bike in that evening. I left work late again, so I either had to ride down near work or drive home and get on the trainer. I probably would have been lame and just headed home for the trainer, since it was only a 30 minute ride, but I'm still so enamored of my Garmin that I insisted on riding outdoors. I stopped at a trail along the road on my way home and rode a quick 8 mile ride. The trail was super easy, with almost no hills, but I still only managed to stay in Z2 for under 10 minutes. Hmmm....need to work on my Z2 bike training.

Wednesday:
    I was hoping to finally make it to my first track practice with the team, since there was a transition clinic being held right afterwards. I completely missed the practice, though, because of work. Great. I did make it to the transition clinic, and pushed myself to stick around for a (very) short run. I pushed myself for for a quick 9 minute mile (my first in a while) but decided to leave right after that because the children's football practice had just ended and everyone else was leaving. Lame I know, but our workout did only call for about 2 miles of speed work. I managed to get half of that in.

Thursday:
    I came so close to skipping the swim again (I woke up still tasting dinner from the night before), but pushed myself since I felt guilty for skipping on Tuesday. I knew I looked bad when Coach Ed and Tony both asked me if I was all right...and the first few laps I felt like I might throw up. I think after a few minutes, I got into a rhythm and started doing better. I even managed to not get lapped by the girl leading our lane (who was wearing flippers, but still didn't want to move up a lane). Managed to get in about 1600 yds in 45 minutes...which isn't great, but considering how I felt, I was impressed.   I immediately hopped back into bed when I got home and didn't wake up for 2 more hours...making me a little late for work, but I'm so so glad I did it.

Friday:
    Since I skipped 2.5 workouts this week, I decided to get another one in today. I went to the gym, got on the treadmill and did what I thought was our run speed workout. 10 minutes in Z4 (it took me 9 minutes to get up there...so really 19 minutes of running faster than I normally do) then about 3 minutes of walking. Then 3 minutes all out. With the warm up and warm down, I ended up getting about 3.2 miles in only 30 minutes. If you take away the warm up, I ended up doing a 5k in only 28 minutes!! Sweet!!! (My Nike+ was way off of the treadmill, and said I only ran 2.8 miles, which got me in a bit of a funk. I decided to try it with the Garmin during my next run to see if it was off...since it'd been months since I calibrated it)

Saturday:
    Equipped with my Nike and my Garmin, I took off for a run on the trail behind our house. Basically wanted to go as far as it would and kept up with my 7:1 intervals. Because the trail is really really shaded, my Garmin kept losing signal during the first few miles...but seemed to do much better for the rest of the run...even on the way back. Strange. I'm now sure that the Nike+ is off now, because even with losing signal, the Garmin said I ran 8.2 miles and the Nike said it was 7.4 (and I even turned it on way after I turned on the Garmin). Cool!

Sunday:
    Connie, Mike and I went to preview the Smallwood ride. It was supposed to be a 50 mile ride, totally easy...but there were some serious rollers and a couple steep hills in the beginning of the ride, which made the 2nd loop suck ass.   Mike was so great and only rode the first loop, so he could sag us in the car for the 2nd. He equipped us with gatorade and water and warned us when any cars were approaching (there weren't very many of them...yay) We cut a short out and back out, making the ride only about 47 miles...but it was my longest ride ever! Averaged about 15 mph, so I hope I can do better than that during the race.

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:36:49 GMT

Hmm...I guess my definition of soon is different from most :) So, I can finally talk about why I've been gone for a while...actually I coulda mentioned this a week and a half ago. I got a new job!! Next Monday I'll be starting up at Lockheed Martin as a J2EE Security Architect for a SOA solution they're working on. I'm so super excited and scared at the same time. The coolest thing is, my new work building is a block and a half from Mike's building. I'll be able to carpool in with him and sometimes meet him for lunch. I wonder if we're gonna get sick of eachother, spending that much time together.
My last day at my current company is this Wednesday, so I've been pretty busy trying to get everything lined up so they barely notice I'm gone. That and training for my first Olympic distance race this coming Saturday!!! Eeek!

Training wise, the biggest news is I ran my first half marathon, about 3 weekends ago!! A bunch of people from my team signed up for the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon down in VA Beach, and in a slightly drunken state at a party one night, I thought it would be a good idea to sign up too. Ugh!! Then again, if I was able to run the 20k, I thought that a half marathon would be doable. Mike and I rode down with Grace, who drove both ways...including the 7 hour drive getting down there (Labor day driving down to the beach...figures) Thank you so so much for that Grace, we owe you a ton!!! The three of us stayed with our friend Jenn, who had access to a beach house and was super super nice and let us stay (we even kicked Grace out of the last bedroom, she slept on the couch)

I probably don't have enough room here for a race report, but long story short...I ran the whole time with Gin and some of it with Tony (who was crazy and ran 8 miles before the race!! You can read his race report here). Gin was recovering from a sprained ankle, and my foot ended up getting bruised, so we took it a bit slow...running 5 minutes and walking 1. Mike rode one of the bikes at Jenn's house around the course and popped up all the time, cheering us on and taking pictures!! He so rocks. We finished in 2:45, which was 15 minutes faster than I gave myself. I had a ton of fun, and didn't feel too terrible afterwards. Especially after the 45 minute nap I took on Jenn's couch.

This past week has also been really good. I'll post my recap tomorrow.

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:55:13 GMT

Hahahahaha!!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070829/ap_on_go_pr_wh/rove_s_car

I'm just surprised Steven Colbert isn't involved in this somehow. Stuffed eagles? "I love Barack Obama" bumper sticker? Dude, I love it.

Will be back to regular posting soon...with an explanation of my absence.

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:49:20 GMT

So, if I thought the week I posted about was bad, last week was way worse :) I started feeling like I was fighting off a cold, and didn't want to push myself too hard, but I may have taken it easier than I should have. I only managed to get in 2 workouts during the week.

Tuesday Swim:
    As usual, I was late. I have no excuse for this really, the rec center is only a couple miles away from my house. So I missed the 10 minutes of warm-up and started in with 5 sets of 500 we were supposed to do. The first 3 were in Z2 and I think we miscounted one, only doing 400. The 4th was in Z3 and I led the lane, which meant I freaked out about how close people were behind me and sped up my stroke, which ended up making me slower :) We made it through the first 4 sets in only 50 minutes, though, which I'm pretty proud of.
   As an aside, there was this HUGE clump of hair floating in our lane. DISGUSTING!!

Thursday Bike:
   This probably doesn't even count as much of a workout either. I got my new bike in (Oh, did I mention I bought the Giant from Texas? I love it!!) and my friend Sam said she'd be interested in buying a bike. Connie also mentioned she'd be interested in selling hers and buying mine since my old Felt is way newer than the Giant she bought from Mike, and it has a triple. So we all met up to ride the trail right behind Sam's house...so Sam and Connie could test ride both of the bikes.   We ended up riding about 45 minutes and totaling just over 10 miles. This was Sam's first ride on a road bike!!! so the first few miles were a bit slow, but she got the hang of it super quick and by the time we turned around, we were averaging about 16-17 mph...with Sam yelling "Go faster!!" Yay, Sam!!
   In the end, Sam and Connie came to a consensus on bikes and Connie ended up with my Felt and Sam ended up with Mike's old Giant. It was actually perfect, Sam fit on the 53cm frame better than Connie and won't have to spend the extra money on a shorter stem that Connie was planning on buying.

Friday:
   We flew up to Florida in Mike's dad's plane (I'll post about the weekend later tonight, hopefully). We left around 8am and got in around 2:30, although we were in Pensacola, so it was actually 3:30 here. After slacking off so much, I thought I'd try to go for a quick run before our party that night...but since it was ridiculously hot, I decided I'd stick to the treadmill. I got all geared up, walked over to the front desk to ask about their workout room and they said their treadmill was out for repairs. Doh!!! They did say they had an exercise bike, and after all that chafing in Austin, I was smart enough to bring bike shorts with me. Went back to the room to change, got to the exercise room and found one of these except it was about 50 years old. I sat on it for about a minute, kept sliding off the crazy tilted seat, and decided to skip my workout for the day.

Saturday:
   I really had planned on waking up early and running, really. I even had an alarm go off at 6:45, but it just wasn't happening. I managed to convince myself to run, at 11:30!!! In Florida!! What the hell was I thinking. I even thought it would be my long run (6-8 miles)...stocked my fuel belt up with gatorade and water and headed out. I ran through a bunch of neighborhoods behind the hotel, thinking there would be shade. No such luck...the sun was beating down on me the whole time. I actually managed to get in 3.5 miles and stopped by the room looking to restock on liquids and head out again, but once I got inside with air-conditioning, there was nothing i could do to convince myself to go back out.   I decided to reset my alarm and try again for Sunday. Instead, I changed out of my dripping sweaty nasty clothes, into a bathing suit and Mike and I headed off to the beach. The water was so warm and the beach was GORGEOUS.   I even thought of going for a swim, but I didn't have any goggles with me, and once I saw the jellyfish swimming around, I decided against it. Instead, we kinda just jumped around in the water, keeping our eyes peeled for those nasty things.

Sunday:
    This time I actually woke up and headed out. I had only brought one sports bra and one pair of running shorts (actually, a running skirt) so they were kinda nasty when I put them on.   I ran in the same neighborhood I did the day before, but found a couple large loops I could repeat to increase my distance. Once I hit 5 miles, I was planning on turning back, but I kept hearing Tony's voice in my head saying I could run anywhere between 6 and 8 miles, but I should really try for 8...so I pushed myself and ran an extra loop before heading back. It ended up being exactly 8.01 miles!! Thank god it was early, because it was already 88 degrees out with 76% humidity and a heat index of 96.   I ended up running through as many lawn sprinklers as I could find to try to stay cool. Thank you to all the people who water their lawns early in the morning!

This week isn't shaping up any better than last. I ended up actually getting sick, and have been cooped up at home for the last 2 days.   I'm going to try to go run tonight (but I'm going to have to take it pretty easy), and hopefully do all the workouts for the rest of the week.