The Easy Button

SOOOO….. What now you might ask?

We are 2 weeks out from IMOO and I have just kinda been drifting through life, enjoying the unstructured nature of rest and recovery mode, perhaps a bit too much. It’s interesting what fills the hole where training has always been!

Looking ahead I have some loose plans for September 12, 2010:
a) Go faster (DUH!)
b) More run training
c) Lighten my load by about 30 pounds
d) Have just as much fun while moving more quickly

That’s it. What? You thought there would be more or more detail?? There will be, it’s early yet.
I am in the process of evaluating my options for how to accomplish a & b.
Wednesday, we have a meeting with Brent, a USAT Coach at the Sports Med Acceleration Program to talk about some strategic planning and what we might be able to do there without having to sell a kidney to finance some coaching. I am thinking more about doing a few short key training phases with him, not so much a full year of coaching and getting too spendy. Despite what my kids tell you, I am not made of money! I think we can swing it if we don’t get too out of control with our needs.

I am also combing the Internet looking for ideas for a training program to follow. Having followed one now for a whole year, I know which components were working for me and which ones I could use a different approach with. In past years’ half marathon and full marathon plans, I used Runners World training plans laid out in miles with goal paces based on my actual race times. Last year, I adapted an Iron-distance plan out of the Triathlete Magazine triathlon plan book. The problem that arose from that is that the plan was laid out in hours (time). As a slow, fat triathlete I found I really need to be told how FAR (miles) to go and not how long (time) to go. Mostly, this is because as a slave to the laws of physics (gravity, inertia, etc), I tend to do as much as the plan says and not much more. Sooooo…… if the plan says do 45 minutes of running, that’s what I do. For the 8-minute miler that means something much different than the 12.5-minute miler, but even knowing that I didn’t make an adjustment in my volume. So, to keep myself an honest woman, I need a plan measured in distance.

I have been at a plateau for while with my weight for far too long. Initially, I expected there to be a bounce back up from my all time low weight when I finished Dr Partello’s program as my body found it’s set point. I am now about 30 pounds above where I thought that set point should be and I am determined to get back there. Carrying around that extra “junk” takes its toll on my speed and endurance and it’s time for it to go away for good. We have a couple of bodybuggs (those little black things you see the contestants of the Biggest Loser wearing) on the way to help with calorie balance management, so we’ll see how that goes.

As far as the “have fun” part of my goals, Mike and I have talked a little about that too. For right now we are in negotiations with our son who works at Staples to find us some “Easy Buttons” . I am thinking maybe a little one to mount on my tri bike handlebars. Going up Midtown and Old Sauk Pass would sure be more fun …… And maybe we could carry a little one with us to the finish line and push it for Mike Riley? I envision him asking how it went, me pushing the button and the button says in its canned voice “That was easy!”

Things No One Ever Told Me (but I Wish I'd Known Ahead of Time....)

Many of you know that my oldest son turned 18 last month. There have definitely been some growing pains for everyone with this. Big changes have cropped up at every turn.

We have watched our son go from skating the razor's edge of getting through the remainder of his senior year to careening over the edge of the cliff. There was a time when we hoped for a B average. When that didn't happen, we calculated how many points it would take to get the lowest possible D- so we pass the classes. Nick has always been a good kid, although performance in school was always a worry. He is a very bright kid, he just never saw the value or had the internal drive to do well in school, resulting in acing tests and taking zeros on homework, which generally causes the GPA to take a big hit.

Since his birthday in February, it reached another level. He could start signing himself out of school, and he did it .... alot. Once he moved all his stuff out after signing himself out of school and moved in with his friend for a couple days, until he showed back up at home. He came back, and I thought we had reached an agreement - he would finish up his last semester of school and at least graduate. It was a tenuous situation at best, but we were headed for the finish line. Or so I thought.

Last Friday was the last day of school before spring break, and we found Nick had not come home for lunch from school and we knew something was up. After a little calling around, we finally got a text from Nick saying he had gone on a spring break trip (news to us) with his friends to the UP of Michigan and he would be back the following Saturday. Nothing we could really do - technically he's an adult and can take himself on vacation. Oh yeah - he also quit his job, a job for which he was getting school credit for as a youth apprenticeship class.

Yesterday, we called him to find out when to expect him. He texted us back after ignoring the call to tell us he liked it there so they were going to stay there, in another state, hours away. "I'll let you know more details as they become available." (WTF is that??)

So like it or not, I guess he is done with school and not going to talk to us. Disheartening I know, but hopefully he will come around to at least have a conversation with us soon. We love him and miss him, but we can't live his life for him. He always has liked to learn his lessons the hard way. So for now, I guess we just sit back and wait for the other shoe to drop, and work out our frustration on the track and trainer.

It's so hard to watch someone make decisions you know will affect them for the rest of their life, and knowing they are really only hurting themselves. It's like watching a train wreck happen right in front of you. Being a parent is a much tougher job than I thought I was signing on for......... I feel like maybe I should apologize to my parents for my own boneheaded stunts.

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IMMoo Musings from Aluminum girl

Well the IMWI this past weekend was certainly an eye opener. What a phenomenal experience! First of all, I bought the prettiest pink helmet at the IM sports shop - I cannot wait to wear it. (That makes the third helmet I've bought in about a year, I think I will be selling the others on ebay.....)
We began our day at 3AM Sunday when the alarm rang. We showered, dressed and drove to Madtown, got parked right near the Terrace, and headed to our spot just outside of transition to begin the body marking frenzy. What a weird job it is to have someone come up to you strip off their shirt and pull down their pants to have you write on them - just kind of an odd thing to do. There were folks there from ALL OVER. I had a heck of a time trying to communicate with a few of them. One fella was Italian I think and I had to take a couple different runs at trying to get him to tell me his age so I could mark his leg. I finally asked him in French - the first and only time I have been able to put those 5 years of Jr/Sr HS and 16 college French credits to practical use! (Sorry Mom, sad but true....... my mom was a French teacher for those who didn't know that). It was there that I think I really started to get a sense of just how many people there were competing in this - kind of overwhelming!
Before we knew it, we were looking for a good spot to watch the swim start. I have never seen an open water swim event, so I was really curious. It was just amazing to see all the people in the water together, especially when the cannon went off and all 2200 people began to move along the shore together, just a mass of arms and legs and swimcaps. I think I had a little panic attack just watching.
Lesson #1: I need to find a place to practice open water group swimming on a smaller scale. Maybe we need to do some of the Aquathons next summer. For sure we need to spend time in a lake.
We watched as all if these many hundreds of people finished the swim or hitched a ride back to shore in the rescue boats. They were guided out of the water and helped out of their wetsuits, then ran through the chute and up the helix for their swim to bike transition. I broke out the cowbells for them and rang them for everyone I saw. We shouted and jumped around for those we knew- Darin, Kitty, Jay, Bolder, Roman, and the others. As it neared the end, we headed to the car for a quick change to warm weather clothes and to get in line for the shuttle bus to Verona to watch the bikes go by.
Lesson #2: Go to the bathroom before you get in line for the bus. It's a REALLY long line. And don't drink a bottle of water and a diet Coke while you are waiting (refer to the previous sentence).
The bike portion was long but it was really cool. We arrived about 0930 and again the cowbell came out. We watched as everyone sped past us and I rang that bell through the first loop for everyone and then again on the second loop. There was a pregnant lady who sat down near us on the first loop and bitched loudly about how the bells were bothering her. Her bitching was bothering ME, so I figured we were even and kept the bells going. I firmly believe that every single person needs to have encouragement and motivation. I know that there likely people there who had not brought their fan club and needed someone to cheer them along. And probably those folks that are straggling in at the end need it even more than the pros riding like lightning off the front. So we rang and rang and rang until it was time to get back on the last shuttle bus at 4. We had been waiting to see Kitty come by on her second pass , but we hadn't seen her and the buy told us if we wanted a ride back to Madison, we had better get on the bus or walk.
Lesson #3: Ringing the cowbells for 8 solid hours creates a lot of cuts and scrapes on your fingers. By the time we got on the bus, my knuckles were all raw, sore and bleeding. OUCH! And also, your wrists hurt - like a little carpal tunnel going on.
Once back at the Terrace, we headed up to a place where we could look down upon the "BIKE IN" finish and watched the last hour before the bike cutoff. This was one of the most emotional parts of the day for me. We saw people struggle to the finish line. Some could barely get off their bike. Some had to actually have the catchers unclip their shoes from the bike. One guy was leaning so far to the left I thought he was going to crash his bike into the wall, then he actually had to be held up for several minutes by the volunteers once they got him on his feet to keep from falling over. We saw one girl start down the chute and she was SOBBING as she realized she had made the cut by just a few minutes. It seemed especially cruel that after biking 112 miles everyone had to bike UP the helix (3 story corkscrew ramp) to get to the finish.
We waited and waited for Kitty and still we didn't see her. At about 5:20 we saw Tawnya and some of the other SWATs. They had been driving by her on the motorcycle all day and knew that she was going to get pulled from the course and wouldn't make it back. That was just a heartbreaking moment. I can't imagine getting that far and being pulled. I am not sure I would be able to manage that with any grace at all - might just wrestle someone instead of giving up my chip if I had the strength.......
We then headed up to the Capital Square to watch the run. There were people lined everywhere cheering people on. The bells had to stay put away - my hands couldn't take it anymore - but we clapped and cheered for everyone we saw. It was kind of nice that everyone's first name was on their bib number so you could shout something personal. Some of the folks were looking a little dazed, so it may have just served to confuse them for strangers to call out their name though. We hung out, ate supper and spectated for many more hours and finally headed up towards the finish line to watch our friends finish. One by one they went by, then the group dispersed to do their own thing. After standing around so long, mike and I decided to walk along the course backwards and watch for those we may have missed. Before long we saw Jay heading towards us. We shouted and waved, then took off running across the capital lawn to get back to the finish to see him cross. We found him after the finish to congratulate him, then headed home shortly afterwards. Erin crossed the line too about that same time. Shortly after that, we headed home, exhausted. It was the quickest 20 hours of my life.

Other lessons/thoughts on the day:
- After watching all day and blogging with many of these people, I feel like my family grew Sunday by about 2200 people. I was genuinely happy for everyone, worried about them finishing, getting hurt, or not making the cutoffs. I feel like I took every step, every pedal stroke, every meter of swimming right along with these folks.
Man, Christmas is going to be REALLY expensive this year......

-Spectating made me more sore than any brick or race EVER. I never get muscle aches and pains, just an occasional ache in the night after a big run that goes away with NSAIDs. For really the first time in a long, long time I spent Monday and then Tuesday with thighs and hamstrings so sore and tight i could hardly walk. My feet hurt, I had several blisters, I was sunburned beyond belief. Who would have thought standing around WATCHING stuff would be so exhausting? (I know no one is really feeling all that sorry for me, it's not like I did an Ironman for pet's sake!)

-if Frank can do it so can I: We watched this guy Frank Farrar all day. He is 78 and did his 50th IM. He made it in 3 minutes before the cutoff for the run, totally hobbled up and stumbling. If he can do it, I can do it.

- I really could care less about seeing the pros race. I want to see Joe Everyguy struggle and get to the finish in the last few hours. I want to see the folks that just barely make the cutoffs, the folks that entered knowing they would be in the back of the pack or maybe not at all. Let's face it - they are me. And they work hard and deserve as much or more recognition than the pros and elites as far as I'm concerned.

- The experience the first to the finish line have is far different than the experience of the last to the finish. The faster folks race through crowds of spectators, streets and sidelines packed with spectators calling out and cheering rock star style. The last 1/3 to 1/4 of the iron candidates go through sparse (if any) spectators clumped around the finish. I felt a little bad that more people didn't stay to cheer everyone on or that more finishers didn't come out and cheer on those behind them. Everyone deserves the Rock Star Treatment. Next year, I am taking Monday afterwards off so I can cheer to the very end. (Plus, I will need to be off Monday so I can Register for 2009!!!)

- The whole day was an emotional roller coaster. Excitement, anticipation, nervousness, disappointment, fear, anxiety, pride. I felt them all and then some. I jumped up and down. I cried a little along with the athletes and families. The moods of the day were palpable everywhere we went.

- It was amazing to see those that were racing after overcoming adversity - absolutely inspirational. There was a woman we saw on the news that had overcome stage 4 Ovarian cancer and was doing her first Ironman. There was an amputee. We saw many with there stories written on the back of their jerseys, including a man who had completed his last chemo treatment just one month ago. I can't put into words how moving that was - I am tearing up just writing about it now. I hope that if I am ever in a situation where I am put to the test like that, that I would embrace life that way instead of wallowing in a pity party.

Most of all, I learned I still have a long way to go. Mike and I have had a lot of "what if" conversations and watching everyone throughout the day helped to put in to perspective what it is we need to work towards and work on. The conversations pre and post IMWI are very, very different.



At the end of the weekend, I think I have more questions than answers-

* could I do it in the rain, heat, or weather issues? Had the race been on Monday instead of Sunday it would have been cold and rainy, not sunny and gorgeous. Could I do it like that? Doubtful.

* Could I really do that swim? the swim is long, and brutal. I would really need to toughen up and quit being a marshmallow.

* The bike scares me - could I do it well? Bitch Hill - Nuff said.

* What if I can't make the run cut?

A Lobster with a Side of Wings

Sunday morning Mike and I were up and on the road at O-Dark-Thirty headed out to watch the Accenture Triathlon in Chicago. We had a fairly nice ride in with a little fog but very little traffic. About halfway in, we remembered that we left the cowbells on top of the fridge …. Bummer. We headed for the exit that would point us toward Lakeshore Drive and the Miracle Mile and parked somewhere in Egypt and walked a mile or more up Monroe to Lake Michigan to find the Biguns.
For the first time, we met Di (and later Bigun himself), their friends Andy and Brittany, Roman from Boulder, and Dr Dave from Omaha. What a nice bunch of folks! They had a great spot all laid out under a stand of shade trees just off from the swim finish.
The tri itself was absolutely GINORMOUS…… like 8000 athletes and their fan clubs, people everywhere. Mike and I found our way to a piece of shoreline along the last few hundred yards of the swim and watched them swim by. Looking up the shoreline, all you could see was a never-ending moving line of swim caps along the shoreline for as far back as you could see. It was really cool to look out and see it. We sat for quite a while watching the people stroking past us, looking at the technique, their form, their wetsuits (or lack of – BRRRRR!) – some came in strong, some came by us obviously about out of gas, others reached and clung to the ropes for rest. I think it was good for Mike to see that even at an event this size there people doing whatever had to be done to get to the finish – sidestroke, doggy paddle, elementary backstroke, anything and everything.
After watching Dave, Roman, and Marc head out of the water, we headed to the other side of transition to where the bike came back in from Lakeshore Drive. A girl could get a serious case of bike envy sitting there, let me tell ya! Saw a sweet pink Trek Equinox roll by and fell in love, then fell a few more times for a variety of other pretty bikes. There were lots of people running by playing Hike-a-bike with flat tires or mechanical problems on their way back to transition (We learned later they had been told that if they had a flat, etc they were just done, don’t fix it, so I guess they were just trying to make it back in). Before long we saw Roman and the Bigun roll on by, looking strong.
Then we headed on over to the run finish to wait for the grand finale. On the way we stopped and snapped a couple shots at Buckingham fountain. It was her 80th birthday and they were serving cake.
Not far away, we headed in towards the finish line. We arrived just in time to watch Bigun finish. Then we hung around waiting for the awards and checking out the booths. This is where I fell in love with yet another bike – the Orbea Diva. She was beautiful. I thought momentarily about hiking my miniskirt up round my waist and hopping on, but thought maybe it would be a bad idea to flash my underwear to downtown Chicago. We did watch the salesgirl walk her out when they packed up and Di and I worked on a plan to kick the salesgirl in the shins and ride off with the Diva, but I don’t think Di would have shared well with me since she was eying the Diva up too…..
This group took down lots of bling – Bigun took 2/10 in his division and Roman should have placed somewhere too but was overlooked and is working on straightening that out.
I thought it was really cool to see the pros that were there. I don’t recognize a lot of names, but there were a few that I remember reading about in the magazines – Becky Lavelle, Michellie Jones, and others – so it was cool to see them up close and persona, among the masses racing just like everyone else.
Afterwards we took a drive up the lakeshore near the Northwestern campus and had an early supper with the group at a little wing place. It was a nice end to a really fun day and we enjoyed the company of these nice folks. Beautiful day, exciting race, good company, and good food – who could ask for more?
It was also a long day, longer than we had expected and I am positively glowing, not so much from the joy of triathlon-watching, but more from the hours I stupidly spent in the sun without sunscreen on.the.lakefront. My face, chest and back felt like someone lit me on fire - a bonafide lobster. Should be all good again in a day or so. I have 2 colors I turn – pasty white or fire red, no middle ground.

We arrived home and got caught up with IMKY-Live right quick. We saw Baboo cross the finish line, ad then checked in on our other blog peeps and Tawnya’s dad. Misty was down to the wire and we bummed when we watched the clock turn to 17 hours, but our spirits were buoyed when we heard the announcer say the cutoff had been extended 37 minutes as that was the time the last swimmer hit the water. We waited patiently sure she was going to make it. We watched her last four-minute split load to the athlete tracker and within a few minutes we watched her cross under the finish. What a cool moment. Shortly after that, I read Baboo’s post he had written about her in the wee hours before the race and it brought me to tears. It’s official – she is my new hero.

The Week in Review from Africa, Wisconsin

It's hot - Africa hot - in Southern Wisconsin this past few days. Now I know, all you hardcore folks that live in the land of zero-scaping are rolling your eyes at that, but it's truly no fun to workout outside. Really, its not so much the heat as the humidity I guess. Anyhoo, humidity cranks up the whine for sure.
We have spent much of the week in the pool. Mike is making good progress in the pool. I just hang around swimming laps. My run/bike has suffered a little because the swim is a different kind of cardio. Tuesday was SWAT group, and we got a nice big bike in there, but didn't do the run leg since it was getting really late. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday were all swim nights. Thursday, I had planned to do a brick but I ended up taking my Maddy dog in to the vet with a sore paw. It ended up she had broken off her toenail way down deep inside the paw and then had not come off all the way, creating a huge wound. She had a little minor surgery, got a gimongous bandage, some antibiotics, and pain meds and we were home again. That pretty much killed any big exercise plans - Maddy needed some TLC, so we just took a quick swim and came back home.
Friday, I got home from work and felt like taking a nap, but instead took off on a run sheerly out of guilt. Here are just a few of the things I learned:
1) Half a jar of dill pickles and some deli ham do not make a good pre-run snack.
2) a bag of red sports beans and gatorade don't go well on top of pickles and ham.
3) If you jiggle that mess up repeatedly, it makes you feel like barfing
4) if you haven't ran in almost a week, don't try to do one of your long routes.
5) Swimming needs to supplement your other cardio, or your other cardio suffers.
6) If it's really hot and humid out running sucks butt more than usual.

I did not barf. I did however run really slow. It was painful slow and I never really did find a groove. It has been a long time since I needed to bargain with myself to finish the run and Friday was one of those runs. Had to keep telling myself - you CAN get to the corner, just make it to the church, OK you can walk that hill but then you have to get going again, just finish the mile, just make it one more block, one more driveway, one more barking dog, and so on.
lesson learned: make more time for running, especially if you plan to run a 1/2 marathon in 6 weeks.

Party Like a Rock Star- the Janesville Triathlon Report

First off, I should probably apologize to you all for leaving you hanging in suspense for so long for my race results. I am sure no one has gotten a THING done today waiting on me to get this report written.
This has been a very busy week trying to wrap up all the details of my last week of assignments and papers to be written for school. As of last Sunday, I had only to write up 6 lengthy written assignemnts, take 3 tests and a final exam for my last 2 classes (Community Nursing and Intro to Theater), and write a large, involved project paper for my last Nursing class. I somewhow managed to wrap it all up. At about 2100 tonight, I finally submitted my last paper which ended up being 25 pages of written work and more than 40 hours of writing and research. I am exhausted and my brain is completely numb, but sending in that last paper is my last task for completing the requirement for a B.S. in Nursing from Ball State University. Graduation will take place next weekend in Muncie Indiana. Even as tired as I am now I could cartwheel around my entire yard to finally be done. For this last 2 classes this summer I have entirely lacked in the motivation department, so I am ecstatic to have finally finished up. I might even try to find time to read a book that I did not purchase from a textbook library.
And now for the moment you have all been waiting for .............. (drumroll please) ........ the race report from the Janesville YMCA Triathlon yesterday. The day started well. I got up, got dressed polished off some cranberry oatmeal and tried to move the slow men in my household out the door at a reasonable time. (have you ever heard that women were slow? the opposite is true at my house.... I sat in the car waiting for everyone else to come outside when it was time to leave)
Mike was obviously on the verge of a nervous breakdown and watching him made me nervous for him. My mission was to remain as calm as possible and try to de-escalate his anxiety by being calm and comforting myself. So we drove down to Lions Beach, unpacked our stuff, picked up our packets, got marked, and set up our transition areas next to each other. We talked for a while to the SWAT members hanging around, said hi to my sister and her kids, chatted with my mom and some friends and before long it was time to hit the beach.
Mike and I stood together. he was in wave 7, I was in wave 9. After some race instructions we couldn't hear, they started us off. I watched folks swim out in heats of 30. It didn't seem to look all that far and they had a lane marker strung out to the turnaround buoy. I saw all kinds of chaos out there - breast strokers, sidestrokers, backstrokers, and some unidentifiable strokes. With the small waves, it looked like the takeoff was going to be manageable. I got Mike into the water and watched him swim out. It hit me then - I was going to do this and Mike's fate was in his own hands now.
As I waited for my heat, I worked myself up into a real lather. I lost sight of Mike and got worried. Then I started worrying about myself. Before long we took off. The water was cold and I was worked up. I got kicked in the chest as we waded out to where I couldn't touch anymore. I started out with a breaststroke, but when I tried to put my face in the water, I got panicky. I couldn't see a thing. My heart raced, I couldn't catch my breath and I was freezing. Mentally I tried to calm myself as I tried to move forward. It took me until I reached the buoy to finally gain control of my faculties. I found myself stuck between a freestyler that was weaving all over and I couldn't get around and a chick doing the elementary backstroke. On my right the weaver was ramming me, on my left the elementary chick wa kicking me like an eggbeater. I finally swerved way out and got ahead of them, hopefully for good. The last half of the way back I found my groove. By the time I realized I was close, I stood up and I was only in water up to my knees. I ripped off the goggles and cap and started running up the beach. I couldn't find anyone I recognized but I could hear the SWATs screaming my name. Man, they sure know how to make you feel like a rock star. I was looking around for a face who could tell me if Mike was out of the water and someone shouted "your husband just got out - he's maybe a minute ahead of you!" I was so happy to hear he was safe and had gotten the swim done. I ran up the beach and tackled him in transition with a hug and a peck and got to getting the transition thing done.
Here is where I dicovered I had not remembered to prep my shoes. I fought with the ratchet on my bike shoes, unable to get the quick release to release and let me get my Flintstone feet into them. They finally relented and I got them on, I picked up the gloves and threw them on the ground, threw on my belt and took off.
The bike was awesome and I got to pass folks right and left. one guy pulled up to me about halfway through and said "If you didn't notice I was just drafting off you for a while." He sat on my wheel and really started to piss me off so I took off ahead of him every time he tried to keep drafting. what an ass. I finally told him to stop it and took off. I was trying to see his number to report the draft, but I never was able to get it. The bike was really windy and the course was backwards from how we practiced, but I still knew it and felt really comfortable giving it all I had. I love the bike and I knew it was my only shot at making up time.
I got back to transition and started power changing. In the picture below I was asking the SWATs and my family type folks where Mike was. They said I just missed him and I remember saying "Now I'll never kick his ass!" and my mother kidding me about saying ass. I hollered back that if she had been listening better earlier she could have heard me say the F word. I remember hearing Lucas say "Oh my God I just heard my gramma say ass."
On that note I took off and laughed to myself all the way up the street. i was so twitterpated I forgot to grab my Garmin for the run off my handlebars. and my Ipod. RATS! that made for a long run with no tunes for cadence control and no idea how fast I was going.
The run sucked, plain and simple. I.HATE.RUNNING.
but it was the last 4 miles of the race so I sucked it up and went as fast as I could stand. People passed me right and left anyway, men, women, children, turtles, you name it. Trying to amuse myself without and Ludacris to listen to, I searched for a phrase to describe getting passed by so many . I remembered a RWOL post lamenting getting "chicked" at races (passed by women) and decided my version was called getting chiched and dicked. I approached the turn into Lions Beach preparing myself mentally to be able to see the finsh line and then get redirected out another mile before actually finishing. Whoever designed that has a cruel streak..... it was helpful to know I just had a mile left so I gave it all I had until I got to the finish. Final time on my watch 1:51:00, -about 10minutes for the swim shore to shore, 51:00 on the Garmin for the bike, and the rest was run and transition time. it was about what I had figured on, a little too long for the run but that is so variable from day to day that I just take what I can get. There were people behind me so I was not last, which is alwasy good.
Got packed up and headed home after some visiting, feeling pretty good about the whole thing.
After a while Martin called to tell me I took second place in the Athena group, with Allison in first place. So now I was not only an official traithlete, I was also sporting some bling. Sweet.
My brother in law Jeff and his brother Brad did the tri too and kicked butt. We went to a party in the afternoon at Brad's house, then joined the SWAT team at the Speakeasy for dinner. What an awesomely fun day. I had a blast (and I think I ate one of everything, but who cares? ).

Now for the thank yous -

Thanks to Mike for helping me work so hard
Thanks to my boys for coming to root us on and take pictures
Thanks to my sister Michele for spotting Mike on the swim and helping him feel comfortable in the water, for supporting us, and all the million things she does to help us out and support us on race days

Thanks to my mom (pictured) for coming to cheer us on.
(Just in case you didn't know it, my family totally rocks)
Thanks to the SWATs for the support during practice times and for rolling out the ROCK STAR treatment before, during, and after the race. You have no idea how much that means to me and how motivational it is to have a cheering section.
Thanks too to all of you who read me and sent encouraging words, help, and support.
And let me not forget to thank the academy..........
(if I forgot to mention anyone, I didn't mean to)

here are the results: 170/224 overall, 2/3 Athena ---> swim- 10:50 (135th) bike+T1- 54:24 (109th) Run +T2- 46:15 (194th) = Final time 1:51:27

What I learned:
- I need to practice open water swimming........ alot.
- I can't forget to prep my shoes again. undo the bike shoes, untie the double knots on my running kicks.
- Do something different with the Garmin and Ipod. They make a big difference on the run
- swim 2 minutes faster than Mike so next time *I* win............ (you listening big guy? Bring it on!)

Confessions of a Former Lifeguard

As a child/teenager, I swam all the time. I was on the swim team and swam endless laps for hours and hours, practicing my meet strokes- fly and back - but also doing my share of freestyle. I worked many summers at Rockport Pool lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons, and guarded lap swimming at Rock County Pool in the winter and did my fair share of laps at both of those jobs just for fun.
So, I had it in my head that now, after almost a 20 year hiatus from swimming laps, I was going to get back into the pool and be able to kick out 400 yards of freestyle like it was nothing.
Um, yeah. ... about that.....
A- I am pushing 40. I no longer have a 16 year olds swimming ability.
B- I haven't swam laps in 20 years and I can tell
C- just because I can run 10 miles and bike for hours, that does not mean I have the breath control to tolerate tons of swimming without losing my breath.

When we started swimming laps for SWAT practice a couple weeks ago, I realized I probably had some issues with swim endurance. I decided as long as I was starting over with lap swimming and Mike was learning to swim the right way using the Total Immersion model, that I would learn to swim using the TI method too. Then a) I can help Mike with drills and b) I might pick up some skills to help me with distance swimming if we ever get to Ironman or half-iron distances where I will need the technique to conserve energy on the swim.
The TI learning curve has not been as quick as I had hoped. We have 2 pool options. We can go to the YMCA and swim in the indoor pool where it is relatively quiet but has a short pool so doing a lot of turns. OR we can go to Rockport Pool which is an outdoor Olympic size pool, but there is limited lap swim times and they integrate the lap swim with open swim most days. This week we mostly have gone to Rockport because the pool is quite long so seems to more closely simulate open water swims because there are less turns (I know, not exactly the same thing, but it is in my tiny head). Today, I went to lap swim by myself and was set to do a few more TI drills. After a couple of unsuccessful laps, I focused on other swim strokes. It was 90+ degrees F today and I think every dirtbag in town was at the pool for the simultaneous open swim. Little kids were crossing through the lanes. Gangster wannabes were cannonballing off the side. Kids splashing around was creating a lot of turbulence. It messed me up. I was trying to practice underswitch and zipper drills and I was drifting all over the place and couldn't get in a comfortable place in my head.
So I decided on a plan B for next weekend's Janesville Sprint Tri. If I am not feeling comfortable with a 400 free in open water, I will do the breaststroke - that is an easier stroke for my to control my breathing, I can sight myself forward easily, and I feel very comfortable with it. So..... today I scrapped the TI drills and swam a mile of breast stroke. my 400 split was 11 minutes which I am OK with. The whole mile too 44 minutes. I just have to survive the swim. I can make up time on the bike and I can't do much more with my run. If I can do that I should be pretty comfortably in the middle of the pack.
The Duck Toilet Triathlon is a go and I have a swim plan. Excellent. (and shame on me for not practicing sooner).
Any other thoughts out there on my game plan? Flaws in the thought process? Let me know people, that's why I confess all my sins to you...... :-)

Hills are your friend

When I first started biking with my friend last summer, she and I would complain about the hills. She has been biking far longer than I, and she would tell me that anytime her husband hears her complain about hills, he tells her "hills are your friend." It didn't help her love them any more.
I have taken that phrase on as my new mantra while road riding. While I am climbing, I repeat to myself over and over "hills are your friend, hills are your friend." Until I get to the top. It has not helped me like them any better, and sometimes you can still here me griping about it under my breath.
While Mike and I were riding this past Friday and Sunday, I began noticing that hills are becoming much easier. I am feeling stronger and faster and I notice that I can go up them much easier, even pass people along the way. Hills really ARE my friend I guess. Not my best friend mind you, more like that one friend whose calls you duck whenever you can, the friend that you have to be careful not to spend too much time with if you can help it for fear of a togetherness overdose- but your friend all the same.

The other thing I have found useful lately is a little drill from our new SWAT friend Martin. I will credit him as the the founding father of "The Dog Shit Drill." Basically, you practice bringing your feet all the way around the pedal stroke one foot at a time, more in a motion like pushing your foot forward on the downstroke, and like scraping dog poop off your shoe on the upstroke. I think the intent is to teach you to use all of your power around the whole pedalstroke, not just the downstroke to hill climb.

Despite all this great advice and practice, if I don't watch it I still find myself mashing it up in the big rings. Not sure why I can't break this habit yet- I am trying though. I'm just not a shifter- its more comfortable to pedal hard and slow than spin it easy and fast. Makes me feel faster I guess.

Thelma, the new love of my life

Today we got up and kicked around the house picking up. It really needed it - the maid is so fired! We ran out to do some miscellaneous errands. Yesterday, Mike got a guy on a Bobcat at the neighbors house to come and get the boulders moved from the old rock garden to the new one, so our first stop today was the Home Depot to pick up dirt, fertilizer and other miscellaneous yard items.
Our next stop was the bike shop. We have been bitching about the Yakima roof rack we bought last summer. It is hard for Mike to get them up and down, we need a ladder to do it, and I am far too short to even think about being able to help or do it myself, which rules out any "drive to get there" bike routes. We bought the rack last summer to be able to take the bikes AND the camper on camping trips, then we sold the camper the next month. I know- dumb- but thats just how we roll. I have been drooling over the Saris Thelma rack for months in the cycling magazines, and I have heard through the grapevine that one of the guys from the Michael's team is one of the people involved in engineering this for Saris which is pretty cool. Mike watched the You tube video explaining how it worked and he was finally sold on it too. So today we picked her up and brought our new baby home.
We had made plans to run with another couple from the SWAT group at 2, so we were really on a tight time line to get home and get to Edgerton for a run. We got there right on time and somewhere from Janesville to Edgerton it got really HOT! We took off quick and I was having a hard time keeping the pace up. They are fast runners (well everyone really is compared to me usually) so I was really trying to keep up a pace that everyone could deal with. Bottom line, I was not successful. My legs felt like rubbery lead and just didn't want to move. It was hot, I was sore and tired, and i really struggled. To compound things a little more, I really had not had much in for calories for the day - I was at 535 for the day when we arrived at their house - or much in to drink most of the day. I walked quite a bit off and on and I.NEVER.WALK. The few Sports Beans I brought along were not enough to make up for the calorie debt and it was so hot out I ran out of water with at least 2 miles to go ( I never finish all my water in my fuel belt either). So, I bonked a little, tried to overcome it unsuccessfully, and finished with a dismal pace of 4.9 mph. A little embarrassing.
So, today's lessons were:
*Don't overestimate your ability- Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is my mileage tolerance
*Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Especially before a longer run
*Eat something you fool! What do you think- you can run on FUMES!
*Try carrying a gel for quick sugar, just in case.
*Pay attention to the weather and prepare a little better.
So anyhow, hopefully the Hagens are OK with today - I know they were wanting a workout too and I held everyone back.
Tawya asked me today why I do not like to run. After thinking a little bit about it this afternoon, I guess it is because it doesn't seem like you cover much ground very fast, and also because physically my performance is so variable. On the bike I never seem to have an off day, but with the run some days I feel like Superman others I just feel like I am wearing cement shoes or get too out of breath, or just plain struggle to keep going and finish. I really want to do a half marathon sometime this summer/fall, but I am a little worried that the run I sign up for will be one of my OFF days and I will suck more than usual at it. So, my strategy is to run more, until I like it more or I get better at it. Or it kills me - :-)
We got Thelma assembled to night and I also got to transplanting some of my favorite plants from the old rock garden to the new one. I had some plants I got from Mike's gramma before they moved to North carolina and I really wanted to get them transplanted, since I really am kind of sentimental about them. I also had some that I transplanted from my Dad's garden last year, and some other stuff I had planted over the last couple years that I really like - lillies, Jacob's Ladder, ecchinacea, and some other yellow thing that spreads everywhere. I moved gramma's hens and chicks too, some of which got run over by the Bobcat and yet were nice and perky tonight. I took some of gramma's daisies and used them to seed the new bed along with some other widflower seed. We shall see how it goes - you never know. Cross your fingers for me please!

An Exercise in Stupidity - another race report

For reasons I cannot really fathom, I signed us up for a 10K today, the day after the hardest race ever. Why did I do it? Well it was cheap ($10 for me, $15 for Mike), it was through my work so we got a special tee, and it was local. It was called the Finish Line 10K for the American Cancer Society, and there was also a 5K and a fun walk.
There were maybe 15 people that did the 10K. Most everyone was out of sight ahead of me the whole way. We ran from Traxler Park over the bridge on Centerway, behind the hospital on the Kiwanis Trail into Riverside Park. I was pretty much dead tired by then. I ended up shortcutting a quarter mile off the park, kind of by accident. What did it matter? There were 3 girls behind me but it didn't cut them off at all and it didn't move me farther up in the pack. There was a HUGE hill through Riverside Park I had never done before, pretty much don't plan to ever run it again - it sucked big butt (and I cannot lie....) and I was sucking wind hard at that point so I walked up it, bitching the whole way.
As I ran out of the park and down Memorial Bridge back to Traxler, there was not another runner in sight. I crossed the finish line at 1:10.11. Whoopi-de-doo. I'm done. There were 3 girls behind me, way behind, like walking that finished about 10 minutes after me, so not DFL at least.
Now it's time for homework and rest. Lots of both.
Memo to self: back to back racing - not such a great plan, ya big dummy.