Joy's Life and Times

Breech Baby and a Gimpy Leg

2012-02-15T17:13:00.000-07:00

Neither of these things is new this week, but they are ongoing. I went back to the doctor yesterday and found that the little one is still happily head up, specifically head-in-my-ribs. Officially it seems that you wouldn't call him breech until about 36 weeks or so; he's wrong side up. Which means that I start a new exercise program that includes inverting myself on the ironing board propped up on the couch. Sounds like lots of fun. The only problem is that with my tiny crunched stomach, which already is inflicted with heartburn these days, being flipped over might not be the most comfortable position. And besides, what am I supposed to do while inverted for 3 sets of 15 minutes per day? Read? Knit?

My right leg has gotten into the habit of gimping up on me lately. Usually it's early on in my runs or after going up stairs too fast, but sometimes it happens randomly in the middle of a run or just walking around. I would blame it on the belly band, but since that's not a constant, I can't. It doesn't swell or hurt particularly, it just stops working right. It feels like I've just finished an all out 400 on it and it's flushed with lactate, while the left leg is totally fine. I know there's plenty of cross communication between sides of the body, so if the left could get on top of things and keep the right in line, it would be helpful.

I taught what may be my last spin class while pregnant on Monday. I want to thank the participants for not busting out laughing at me and my huge belly on the bike with the handlebars all the way up. It's almost like a recumbent. The hardest part of teaching in that room is the way the fans don't cool me at all. I'm dripping with sweat and thirsty the rest of the day afterward. And I may have felt the slightest little contraction afterward...

And moving on to the weekend in pictures, Jeremy and I went to Vegas to celebrate the upcoming wedding of friends. An incredibly slow, uphill, painful run was completely worth it for the views of Red Rock Canyon. The other runners were so incredibly friendly too; I really miss having greetings when passing by (and how hard is it really to wave or say a quick hi, Alamogordians?). I only had ankle swelling for one night after traveling, walking, and staying up too late all weekend. I sound, and somewhat feel, like a senior citizen.

Achilles Healed?

2012-02-08T17:25:00.002-07:00

My fingers are crossed, since I don't want to speak too soon, but the Achilles has been on its best behavior lately. I got in about 20 miles last week all taped up (I'm sure I was a sight with the white tape all over my lower leg and the big white belly band around my waist bulge), with no pain. Then I tested it out again with a 6 miler UNtaped yesterday, and I am happy to report zero pain and stiffness.

The abdominals are another story, however. Every mile or so, they yell at me to stop and stretch, and remind me that they are carrying around a small bowling ball, for which a thin elastic belt is no match. I usually concede and stop for a few seconds. It's good practice for walking water stops in races anyway.

I'm almost 34 weeks now. I thought I'd be huge at this point, and guess what, I am. Some observers are very sweet in how they notice my increasing size. One of the older ladies at the pool told me I've "blossomed" recently. I think that means I look like an overinflated beach ball in my huge yellow striped swimsuit.

Being fully aware that I have six more weeks in which my proportions could expand greatly, I will not be surprised if I am able to breathe, sit, eat, run, and sleep less comfortably than I have until now. But I am a little weary of constantly being told to "just wait until..."

I help a couple people out with their swim strokes in the pool (I know what you're thinking, but they have no idea how slow of a swimmer I am). The other day I was explaining to one how swimming is not the most comfortable activity for me. It's really not my favorite, unlike seemingly the rest of the pregnant exercising world. I get nauseated from this big baby floating up into my gut. So the response I get is, "Just wait!" Ok, until what, exactly? From my observations, you are not only a novice swimmer but also a GUY, so I'm placing your experience with swimming while pregnant at exactly zero.

I try to welcome all other advice, or well, at least pretend I'm listening and taking note. Please tell me your easy labor stories and babies who slept for 6 weeks stories, but your method of sleep training your newborn is not of interest to me. And don't tell me to skip the single and get a double jogging stroller now if I ever think I'll have more than one child.

In other running news, I'm proud of my husband for his 3.5 min PR in the El Paso half marathon this past Sunday. I know he'd like to have run faster, but every minute counts! In my few minutes of spare time between photography shots, I ran the 5k course 20 minutes behind everyone else. I got many cheers and a "you're last!" from a kind spectator. I even led another procrastinator back on course, or actually maybe he cut the course. Oops. I then proceeded on to run the last bit of the half marathon course to cheer on the first finishers. A few course directors looked a little surprised and one policeman told me I should've run the race!, to which I replied, "if only I had my only category!" He gave me a thumbs up and told me he was impressed. Another woman seemed to be using me as an argument when I overheard, "well she's PREGnant and running."

I'll end with a few pictures of the race and downtown El Paso, just a stone's throw across the Rio Grande to Juarez. By the way, there is a Juarez marathon, which I think should be called an adventure race. I'm sure you're dodging bullets and jumping over homicide victims every mile or two.

J is easy to spot in his white hat that is visible over all other heads.

Just so we know which side of the border we're on. And how strong the wind is.

The festive finish line decor.

Happy running to all! Is it spring yet?

Chugging Along

2012-02-02T13:09:00.001-07:00

My running suddenly turn a turn for the worse last week. Believe me, I was not taking for granted my ability or motivation to keep up the mileage, but it turned and bit me anyway. After 4 consecutive days of running, not even extraordinary mileage (I think about 22 combined), my Achilles heel started acting up. Literally, my right Achilles and soleus suddenly brought me to limping.

I can blame extra weight, or new running shoes (same old model though), or just running too many days in a row (for this low mileage runner). How and why it happened doesn't matter if I can't run anymore. But I'm staying optimistic, and treating it with rolling, husband massages, and taping during exercise. I ran 4 miles yesterday with no pain, and only a little stiffness afterward.

This is especially sad to me because running the only exercise I can do outside in the beautiful sunny winter weather we are having (walking is of course out of the question with Achilles problems as well). Otherwise there is only indoor cycling and indoor swimming, which I will keep up, but always while looking out the window and wishing to be out on my same ole route on foot.

Luckily I didn't grieve too much last week, since my parents were here keeping me busy with hiking, skiing (or for me, driving the mountains), and baby laundry (if I can't keep up with my own socks, how will I keep up with very tiny little socks all the time?).

The camera has been along for most expeditions.

The snow clouds were coming just in time.

Fresh 4" on the slopes

Always water streaming from Bridal Veil Falls. And always crooked photos from me.

My birthday night up on the mountain.

Yes, I am in a brand new age group this year! Of course, I'm with the same people who keep aging up with me :) Ready for the 35-39.

Fitness

2012-01-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

I've spent more hours at the gym since moving out here than I accumulated in probably 5 years in Memphis. This doesn't even include time spent working in an office that happened to be housed there, either. And I've learned something about myself. I'm not a "fitness" person. I'm not talking about specific fitness here, such as swim, bike and run fitness. I want to find success in racing, so of course I want to gain specific fitness in those sports.

I guess I'm truly a triathlete, because it's this "general fitness" fitness I can't get into. Recently there was an article on the Science of Running blog about Crossfit. He had some really great points that I'd have never taken the time to research thoroughly or write out. And it got me thinking about the big Crossfit Endurance guy (I don't know if he developed it or what) who trained for and completed an Ironman and maybe a 50 miler? There are a lot of people who now subscribe to his theory that all you need is this program to make you strong enough to do it. I say sure, but most people could finish an Ironman or 50k given a few months and a little SBRing. But did they COMPLETE it or COMPETE in it? I would put this guy in the completion category. Which is totally fine, if that's your goal. That's not my goal.

I'm all for strength training to boost endurance sports performance. But I think there needs to be a lot of specific training in there too. When I was racing well years ago, it was nothing for me to pop out 10 pullups or bench press close to my weight, or any of these other things that the general fitness population feels is so specific to general fitness. What irony. And I wasn't even doing crossfit or spending over an hour a week on strength training.

Core fitness is another big fad that's everywhere lately. Someone actually said to me yesterday about her half marathon, "My legs got so tired at 9 miles! I think I used my legs too much, and I should've been using my abs instead." What a rookie mistake to use your legs the whole time while running. What was she thinking? I did ask her what her long run was, and yes, it was 8 miles. So it's gotten into her head now that if you don't have a "strong core," you won't perform well in anything. Off she went to a 30 minute core specific fitness class. I promise I had a 6 pack from doing nothing but endurance exercise in the past.

I found a great article on the same Science of Running blog about exactly this, the fad of core training (this might be my new fav blog-- they even reference my friends and professors' articles from grad school). They've summed up some research that shows that the core muscles are activated more by actually running than doing back extensions, for example. Again, not to say strength training is unimportant, but that there are better, more efficient ways to see benefits in the weight room. Like Olympic lifts. There's another point in the article about unstable surfaces for core training, which I am just now learning about. Maybe I won't waste my money on another Swiss ball anytime soon. But if someone's goal is to be the best cruncher in abs class, then by all means, keep crunching.

Since I'm defining fitness differently these days being pregnant and all, I've really started to appreciate how consistent my runs have become. I felt like the last two years were filled with regular training that produced random results. I never knew when I'd just melt down on a run or feel unusually fatigued on the bike, doing the same workout but taking 20% longer. These days I run my long run of 8.25 miles in almost exactly the same time every week, despite the weight gain (which is not so consistent lately, and mostly trending up sharply). Today was surprisingly an exception. I was sore from squatting and not feeling "on" for the run. I got to the first mile 30 seconds faster than usual and continued that trend for a few of miles. I ran 3 minutes faster than I have in months. I might credit the beautiful weather and the fact that I could wear a tank top and shorts. Maybe the smell of sunscreen does something for me.

While gaining weight I'm determined that some of it will be muscle. I'm actually liking having a little more mass on me. I recall more than once when I've had friends (usually guys) comment on my slightly bigger size in a complimentary way. And thinking back, I was faster with that extra muscle. Recent browsing through old pictures gives me proof that I am actually scrawnier now. Time to fix that! I really enjoy TRX and Olympic lifts, so I plan to stick to it and start seeing some strength gains.

Another encouraging trend for me is the way Jeremy's running has suddenly gotten fast. I think I had lost all faith in this whole "training" concept for a while, but now it's working for him. He's doing long training runs faster than I ever recall doing the distance in training. My faith may be restored!

What really makes my heart rate go up when running. Bear track or barefoot runner track?

Comparables

2012-01-14T15:54:00.003-07:00

Since my reference levels of "normal" and "fit" have been somewhat distorted lately, I have made up my own definitions. And by my standards, I've been feeling pretty good fitness-wise. I do realize I'm only three quarters of the way into this pregnancy.

Side note: It occurred to me that I only started getting a real belly at 20ish weeks, which was 10 weeks ago, and have expanded rapidly since then. With 10 more weeks to go, I'm expecting at least that much more expansion. I'm religiously applying the Burt's Bees honey ~~flavored~~ scented belly balm, even if there is no evidence for it. It makes me crave baklava.

So back to feeling good about myself. I was chatting with a guy who told me about his friend's wife who got third in a major metropolis's marathon 3 DAYS after giving birth. Yeah yeah, so you say she is an elite runner and was running 10 miles a day through pregnancy, but THREE DAYS? Did you get "days" confused with "weeks" or even "months"? Still impressive, but really, does she not have a sane and caring husband that prohibited her from this? No doubt she went against any reasonable medical advice. I guess that pregnancy brain + postpartum hormonal thing really did her in.

Then of course there was the woman who ran/walked a marathon then gave birth that night, at 38 weeks. she says she ran about half, walked the other half, and finished in around 6:30. I obviously have no issues about running while pregnant. I just can't imagine doing something that boring. I've spent over 6 hours on a marathon course (at least Coeur d'Alene is beautiful), and I wonder why you'd want to do it on purpose? I don't need to prove that I can do 26 miles during these 9 months; I'm pretty sure I could if I wanted to. But why?

I read of women back in the '70s from the Eastern Bloc countries who competed in the Olympics in their first trimesters. I couldn't find any good proof of this. All I can think is, that combined with the drugs they were supposedly forcing on these athletes makes me scared for those poor babies. Recently, though, there was another better documented pregnant Olympian. A Canadian curler was 5 1/2 months pregnant when she was to be an alternate on the team. I don't claim to know much about curling, but it doesn't appear to be affected by extra weight, a larger waistband, or fatigue that could alter the speed, endurance, or balance of other types of athletes. The article says she is the third known competitor at the Games, preceded by a figure skater 90 years ago, and a skeleton rider(?) sledder(?) a few years ago. The latter must've been early in pregnancy, lying on her stomach on a hard surface while speeding headfirst through icy chutes.

Despite stories like these, I'm still feeling fit with my 25 miles a week of running with some spinning a swimming and maybe a little weight lifting thrown in. While my abdominals are getting nice and loose and stretchy, my leg muscles may even be seeing some strength gains from just running under these extra pounds. I'm using my weight and the extra drag all to my benefit. I'll be lighter, stronger, and faster by summer. It's almost guaranteed.

My pool buoy. The lifeguard told me that I don't need the one between my knees anymore. My rear end floats just fine.

One more hobby to occupy my time

2012-01-11T15:47:00.001-07:00

I keep starting to write blogs, then think of other things I need to be doing, like cooking something edible for Jeremy, or finally doing my 3 weeks worth of laundry (it's amazing how infrequently I can get away with it when I'm not outside sweating all the time), or maybe vacuuming the pounds of cat hair out of the carpet, curtains, rugs, etc. There's a lot of stuff on my pre-baby to do list as well, but I keep putting it off since I have 10 more weeks. At least I hope I do.

The cat hair has become more prominent in my mind due to all the lying on the floor. This is caused in part by my discomfort in sitting too long in any position. The baby keeps curling up under my ribs on the right, and I get stitches while doing nothing at all. But I am also lying on the floor taking pictures. I got a new camera for Christmas (my first DSLR!, a Canon Rebel T2i), and while I still stink at photography, it's been a lot of fun. My roommate hairballs (the cats, not Jeremy) have suffered through hundreds of pictures this month, but they should know that when this baby is born, I may forget they exist and wonder who keeps leaving little mounds of partially digested cat food on the floor every so often. So enjoy it while it lasts, kitties. Instead of actually writing any more about this, I'm going to share some pictures of the last 11 days of my life.

My favorite new ornament. It's for the baby, made by his cousins!

Hairy Roommate #1, Sammy. She's always dirty due to a daily rolling on the porch floor.

I interrupt Sally's nap once again.

The Lady of the Mountain. With 2 week old snow in her hair.

I made Jeremy ride around the neighborhood with me at sunset

I'm trying to take a picture a day, as long as I can keep it up. They may start to get a little redundant.

Base Training

2012-01-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

It's really 2012 already? My pregnant brain is slipping away and I had to ask Jeremy yesterday if it was New Year's Eve. I didn't mean to wait until a whole new year to blog again. The past few weeks just got so darn busy with Christmas shopping, Christmas present-making, and traveling back to the southeast. It was a great holiday to conclude a great 2011.

I painted two pages from the future classic Little Blue Truck for Megan

I made a big photo monogram for Jenny

Now it's time to recap the year and focus on goals for the new one. Except that there's not much for me to sum up in the triathlon world. Maybe a couple of overall wins while pregnant to be excited about. I didn't even muster up enough long distance motivation to do a half Ironman this year, for the first time in 10 years. Instead, I did what I felt like doing at the time, which was riding my bike in the mountains and learning to really like running again. And I guess I started learning a little about pregnancy.

The first three months of 2012 I have covered as far as goals are concerned. This specific training leads to a culmination in the form of an ultra-endurance event, the likes of which I've never experienced before. The fun part is that I don't even know the exact date. How do you taper for that?

For now it's all about the base training. I'm not using a heart rate monitor for exercise these days. Dr. Clapp says it's pretty much useless; your HR will vary tremendously just given the stage of pregnancy. I have considered using it just because I'm curious what my heart rate is while panting up a small incline at a 10+ minute pace. Plus, one extra strap cutting off my lung flow shouldn't matter when my sports bra is squeezing my poor expanded rib cage while the belly band is mashing my bladder. It's really comfortable.

As soon as I hit publish on my last post, my running pace took a drastic turn for the worse. I have a hard time keeping a 9 min average now, even though I still warm up and start feeling pretty good about 25 minutes in. Returning to sea level for 11 days made me feel super fast, despite the Little Rock inclines and the stomach bug I picked up from the family (Jeremy got it too, as did about 14 other people to date). I didn't gain as much weight as I had thought I would thanks to the late night puking, but I continue to reach new highs on the scale. I'm up about 13-14 pounds from my low point now.

So it's all about the slow and steady. I really like zone 2, which I've determined, based on my RPE, I spend most of my exercise time in, and when I get a little antsy to go faster or harder, I get a quick reminder from my poor rectus abdominus why that is a bad idea.

Never before have I seen ripped abs in a magazine and been envious. I'm not sure I've even really noticed them before, but suddenly I find my attention caught by those damn Victoria's Secret commercials with their flat (and in comparison to mine, super defined) abs, and I wonder if mine will ever again resemble anything other than their current bowl full of jelly. No really, my stomach jiggles like Jello when the baby starts doing his flips.

Honestly I'm really enjoying the base training. I love not worrying about time and knowing that I'll get even slower yet. Plus I figure with a good 8 or 9 months of it, followed by a slow return to normal exercise, I should be ready to race some long stuff in the fall. I hope I'm not overly optimistic in thinking I'll be ready for a half Ironman in September, because I'm getting the fever.

I did some recruiting for my 27 week picture

Happy New Year!

Pregnant Performance Ponderings

2011-12-08T15:00:00.003-07:00

I'm going to use the term "performance" loosely for the next, oh, 6 months at least. But it is all relative, and I'm trying to keep tabs on what I'm doing and how I'm feeling while pregnant just in case I find myself in this position again.

There are a lot of general guidelines about pregnancy involving exercise, weight gain, nutrition, and whatnot, but I really went into this unsure of what exactly to expect. The general population probably doesn't exercise even as much as my slacker self has the past couple of years, so I feel like I have to come up with my own averages for pregnant athletic types based on articles, books, and blogs. I've had a lot of help from one book in particular, Dr. James Clapp's Exercising Through Your Pregnancy. I can't recommend this book highly enough. More on it later. (I love the 80s clothing.)

The first few weeks of being pregnant, before I knew, I won a small triathlon but felt a bit slow and out of breath. My training was just starting to pick up for the summer since I had an Ironman scheduled for November. I found out I was pregnant just before going to Italy, where morning sickness hit and travel interfered with training; I kept running as best I could those 2 weeks. Until about 16 weeks along, I was sick and losing weight. So it was rough for a while.

But since then, I've felt good and have been keeping track of what's going on in my "athletic" life. I'll be 25 weeks tomorrow, and things are changing quickly. But so far:

Swimming: The first thing I noticed at a few months was the feeling that I had this bobbly floating buoy in my belly. I instantly looked more pregnant standing shoulder deep in the pool, not that anybody could see me. Obviously, I also look more pregnant just wearing a swimsuit. While not looking at my times or doing many intervals, I know I'm slower. It's probably more a lack of swim fitness than anything, but hey, it's a potential excuse. My feet cramp a lot, in the pool as well as at night. Must be my lack of potassium (haha, kidding). So far I have a couple of swimsuits that still fit, but I keep threatening the lifeguard that I'll be breaking out the 2-piece soon. And doing lots of backstroke.

Bike: I was still riding regularly, from an hour all the way up to the mountainous metric century, while the weather was nice, but now it is quite a bit colder, and I realized that two waistbands that both hit at an awkward spot is just not worth it. There are fears in the back of my mind of falling or getting hit by a car and the potential placental abruption following, so combined with discomfort, moving indoors was the logical solution. Teaching a few spin classes when a sub is needed, or just taking the class has kept me feeling somewhat comfortable on the bike. I wear super old, stretchy shorts that I can move up and down, and have only had a few pains in my abs when going hard. Probably not coincidentally, I had this same pain the last few times I was outside on my bike, while climbing a small hill. My doctors and I attribute it to round ligament pain. I tend to get really out of breath early on in spin class, but my HR settles later; I really should start getting to class early to warm up when I'm teaching so my huffs and puffs aren't broadcast through a microphone.

Run: Most surprisingly to me, running has been pretty enjoyable, with just a few adaptations I've had to make. The first was having to pee every mile or two. Luckily the route I almost always take goes through a pretty undeveloped neighborhood with tall bushes, and as a bonus, they're recently closed one main entrance to all traffic. Aha, privacy to squat. It's amazing the feeling of having to go right now so badly, then finding that it was approximately one tablespoon's worth of urgency.

I've kept up my "long" run, trying to do an 8.25 mile loop every week. Thanksgiving week, I actually hit the 35 mile mark, which is definitely more than the average winter week for me. Back in town and adding spinning and swimming in, I do 5-6 miles every other day or so, hitting 20-25 miles/wk. It's slow, but steady. Going the usual out and back route takes me uphill for over 2.5 miles, which means I'm crawling, especially since it takes 25 minutes for me to feel good lately. But a few times I've negative split a 6 mile run by 3 or 4 minutes. The extra weight + gravity can help sometimes I suppose. I can average a 9:00-9:10 pace for most of my runs. While in flat, closer-to-sea-level Tempe, I ran part of the IM course several times. one day I decided to do a few 1 minute pickups, while wearing my Garmin, and was really surprised to see my fast minutes peak in the low 6 min pace range. I was sure the Garmin was malfunctioning, but it was so consistent. I'll take it.

The last couple of weeks, as my ab muscles continue to s-t-r-e-t-c-h, I've felt more stitch-like pains, especially in the lower abdomen. The baby tends to settle low when I first start running, so I've started faithfully wearing a belly band. It seemed a little early to me to start wearing it, but the difference in comfort is amazing. Plus I look super cute.

Strength Training: It's been on and off, with the main difference being my weakened, separating rectus abdominus. It really limits pushups and pullups, and I try not to stress it or encourage any future herniation.

General: With my last set of labs I found out my hematocrit was low, and immediately felt tired the rest of the day. :) But honestly I haven't been very fatigued, even in the 1st trimester. Some days I sleep a bit more or less (which not having a job helps me accomplish).

Weight gain is an interesting topic for me. Having never faced an inevitable, somewhat uncontrollable, imminent gain in my future, it was a scary thought at first. I've never been overly concerned about my weight, since Ironman training has always kept it pretty regulated for me. I was at a normal summer weight when morning sickness first hit me upside the head. From there I lost somewhere around 4 pounds. After about 16 weeks I leveled off and started the uphill gain. From that low sickly point, I am currently up about 10 pounds--mostly in the belly and butt, of course. Normally in the winter off season I tend to put on a few pounds, so this weight is only about a pound more than where I often am. I know the next 15 weeks could add up to another 15 pounds+, but I feel more prepared now, especially knowing that I won't just wake up one morning 8 pounds heavier (well, fingers crossed). I am running out of running and gym shirts that cover the entire expanse of my stomach. Luckily the shorts and tights are just fine. Now if my feet will stay the same length and still fit into my 8.5s.

Back to my Clapp book. The first time through, I skimmed it. I'm not sure what I was looking for exactly, but I didn't find it very specific, much like many reviewers. No, it doesn't say "do this, not that." So I started at the beginning and read every word. Really it takes some common sense and putting together concepts.

A lot of the research is pretty exciting (wish I could've been in on something like this in grad school). Exercise and pregnancy adaptations do compliment each other. Increased blood volume, improved oxygen transfer, better thermoregulation, and an increase in maximal oxygen uptake by a small amount are some of the additive and overlapping effects of exercise in pregnancy. There are definitely some risk factors, especially for abnormal pregnancy, but in general Dr. Clapp is very liberal in his approach to exercise. I am careful to check that the baby is moving within a half hour of my exercise, and I try to keep fueled at appropriate times. While I don't believe it would have been ok for me to do Ironman Arizona, (sorry "coach" dude who told me it was too bad I withdrew since I have so many performance enhancing adaptations-- yeah that may be part of the story, but I also have extra weight, two people to supply oxygen to, stretched muscles, the works, not to mention the potential negative effects on the baby from raising his HR for 11 or 12 hours), I do feel good about the exercise I am doing, and I hope that like Clapp says, I'm helping make him a stronger baby.

So where my exercise goes from here is just a guess, but for now I'm sticking to my loose schedule as best baby lets me.

IMAZ: the spectator's report

2011-12-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

I have been so slow in getting around to reporting MY experience, you know, the important one, in Tempe. Jeremy stole the show, as well as all my fabulous pictures (just kidding, I really fell down on the job).

I'm just so excited for him. He did (most of) the training, he stuck to his plan (except for some of the nutrition part), and had an overall great first Ironman. But since you can read the firsthand report from him, I'll just go over my day.

In the days leading up to the race, there was no worry of resting, eating the wrong foods, stressing about gear or how much it was going to hurt. I was totally relaxed; I knew he'd be fine and have fun. We ate sushi (cooked for me) and a few In and Out Burgers. All the fit athletes walking around outdoing each other in their compression socks and tri suits made me feel more happy that I was not competing. Or racing. :)

My friend Rob, a longtime coach and amazing athlete, who has done over 250 triathlons, was there to spectate as well, and I was lucky enough to get some swimming form tips from him on Saturday. We met up at the Arizona State pool, a huge, outdoor, Olympic-sized, clean, clear paradise. I'd swim every day if I had something like that (and the weather to match). I took my mountain bike along to get around easier and realized that I was crazy for not having attended ASU at some point in my life. I left the pool and rode along a palm-lined pedestrian path right through campus to get to our favorite pizza place.

Race morning was the usual crowded, crazy, cold madness, still with a certain calmness and seriousness among the racers. After watching him do his last preparations, I bid Jeremy farewell for the day, took the bike pump back to the car that was parked ridiculously close to the finish line, and headed up to the bridge over the lake to squeeze in front of 3 rows of people, next to Rob and his friend Tom, who had been up there 45 minutes. I've never seen an Ironman start from such a vantage point, and it was impressive.

We made it to the swim-T1 chute, and I was ecstatic to see Jeremy out running the chute, already stripped, in just over 1:08 (officially in the 1:07s). The next stop was the bike out/turnaround, and we spent several hours there with me picking Rob's and Tom's brains about coaching theory (Tom is a good friend of the Friels), trying to sweep some glass out of the road (big football games the night before do not help the cleaning crews), and tracking racers from our phones as best we could. There was a coffee break in there at some point, some attempted pictures, and some worry over Jeremy looking what we thought to be distressed (turns out he was pissed).

We headed back down to the lake to watch the runners come out after our friends had all headed out on loop 3 of the bike, and we ended up spending hours there. After losing Tom for a bit, we respotted him, wearing a volunteer t-shirt, directing traffic around the run out/start of loop 2. He was much needed! I snapped a few pics of Jeremy, we got some fast food, and I ran back to the car to paint my belly with a Go Daddy for Jeremy's last loop.

Rob kept me entertained throughout the race. He's had so much experience and was around way back when this whole sport started, so he has a great point of view on what's necessary, what's ridiculous, and when you're just being really stupid. I laughed for hours.

Jeremy wasn't doing so well in the middle of the marathon due to stomach issues, and I just really hoped he wouldn't be too disappointed. But when I saw him come around that last turn to the finish line, he was all smiles and running on air. It was either my happiness for him or pregnancy hormones that almost had me crying.

"Dr. Jeremy Harwood, you are an Ironman!"

Vicariously

2011-11-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

It's only 3 days until IMAZ and I'm getting nervous and excited for it. I'm pulling up my IM playlist that has been compiling for the last, oh, 10 years. Some of those songs are going to take me back to the afternoon before IMFL 08 when Nancy and I were relaxing in our room at the Ironman house in Panama City. I can vividly remember it. Some songs calmed me and some got me excited (side note: will these same songs work as "birth music"? hmmm).

I've gone over and over the packing list, worked on taping up the tubular and fitting it snugly under the seat, and tried to remember every last item that could possibly be needed. I've gone through race day in my head, and I've even dreamed about getting to the race late, as usual. This time it was Laura who we were taking to race, but luckily she didn't care that she was starting behind everyone.

My runs have been feeling ok, but I'm having strange pains crop up, like today in my hip flexor. I'm feeling smooth while swimming, but I have been stressing over the water temperature (currently 65F, but was 62 a few days ago).

And all of this for the husband! It won't be my first time as a spectathlete, but I definitely have more invested in this race than ones from the past. Wish us luck!

10 years and 11 Ironmans

2011-11-04T16:07:00.000-06:00

It's unbelievable to me that this weekend marks the 10 year anniversary of my first Ironman. It started in 2001 with Ironman Florida when I was just 24, and my 11th one was 2 years ago in Hawaii. To honor my big Ironiversary, I've gone back and looked at some numbers that I've compiled from these 11 races.

4 days, 21 hours, and 26 minutes I have spent racing Ironmans

26.4 miles of swimming in those races

1232 miles of cycling

288.2 miles of running (um, give or take; more on that later)

11:39 the average of those 11 times

244 approximate number of slices of Pizza Hut pan pizza that could fuel that many calories of exercise

I know a lot of people have much more impressive numbers, but I have a few other stats that may be a little more unique.

2 hours, 52 minutes the time difference between my best and worst IM marathons

30 approximate number of minutes spent lying in the grass on the side of the road in a cute Coeur d'Alene neighborhood (that makes up for some of the above stat)

22 minutes and 44 seconds how much slower my run split was than my bike split that year

10 times I have run that loop through St. Andrew's State Park (17 if you also count the Gulf Coast half)

12.52 miles per hour that I averaged in the last 22 miles of the Queen K in my first Kona, 2002. Proof here.

17:28 minutes and seconds I spent in T2 that year

17 approx number of times I was asked what the hell I was doing in there (answer: lying on a cot, eating chips, and getting my blood pressure taken)

1 the number of marathons I've run in the 4 hour range. I had seven 3's, three 5's, and one 6+.

4 number of different bikes I have ridden in those 11 Ironmans

2 number of those bikes stolen since then (one didn't even last long enough to get me to an IM, see here for a better listing)

It's been such a fun 10 years, and I'm not done yet. I have a few race reports written here of Kona '07, IMFL '08, IMLou '09, and Kona '09. And now for some fun pictures.

IMFL 2001 My very first, and I'm all smiles. Must be first loop.

Notice the required reflective tape. I'm sure satellites could see me from space.

Sadly, I can't find pictures from my first Kona in 2002. I know they're around somewhere. They sure had plenty of time to take pictures of me.

Next was Coeur d'Alene 2003, the inaugural, infamous, 100F race (stats above). Proof that I actually ran at some point (this is before the nap). The guy next to me helped me along, even commandeering a chair from a spectator when I could no longer stand on my own two feet.

I was probably most proud of this finish. I'm even smiling. And no, this wasn't quite my worst time ever.

IMFL 2003 was 5 months later. Much better. Although it looks like this may be my worst run ever based on my shuffle, I actually had my best marathon so far. And look, it's St. Andrew's park!

I waited a whole year to race again. IMFL 2004. I was actually running hard for me, and had a 26 minute PR. Um, St. Andrew's again.

Went to Kona again in 2005 and improved a bit! It helped that Gary raced right next to me, and even waved at me, in the swim. He smoked me later.

But I did improve that year and "ran" under 5 hours.

2006 was back in Florida for a super cold year. This is when I got my "ironman jacket" from Walmart, and 2nd in my AG by 2 minutes. She passed me back in the run when I wasn't looking.

2007 I was back in Kona, and had my best race there so far. I actually ran. Truly. Even smiled on the bike!

2008 was my PR race back in Florida. We had calm winds, but the best part was the friends racing with me. Hey the sun is still up!

Apparently I'm very consistent with my run faces and postures. Check out these two from 2008 and 2004. There's the crooked hat, the arms, the frown. Ha!

IM Louisville was #10

And the final Ironman thus far was Kona in 2009. I'll just put a picture of one of the actual fun parts and just skip the rest.

And while going through pictures I noticed several that feature none other than GaryIronman. My first one, 2 Konas, CdA, and Louisville, not to mention many other Floridas. We may be about equal in wins-losses to each other, but he's almost tripled my total number!

If only I could count the number of mistakes, hours of training, calories of Gu and Gatorade, meltdowns, blisters, tubes, salt tablets... Looking back has made me a little more nostalgic for the days of training for my old friend Ironman. I plan to get my fix through Jeremy in just two weeks (!!), again in June, and maybe next November in Florida when I go participate in Girls' Zone once again, baby in tow. My friendship with Ironman isn't over yet!

Last pregnant triathlon

2011-10-28T15:56:00.001-06:00

Being pregnant has brought me luck in triathlons. We (the baby and I) are 2 for 2 in overall wins. It's been almost 3 weeks since this race, so I may be fuzzy on some of the details (like how freezing cold it was after the race -- oh no wait, it's coming back).

If you recall, I had to race this race since a) it was put on by the base, and b) I had trained a group to race what was mostly first races, and maybe a little c) showing that even at 16 weeks preggo I could win. I have managed to pick races with low attendance for these two OAF wins, but it wasn't intentional, I promise!

The Gord had some cool nights leading up to the race, but nothing like we got Saturday night. We awoke to 35 degrees. Luckily in this case, the swim was the last event due to the lack of water in these parts as well as the lack of experience by the non-triathlete race directors in the use of that technology called "timing chips." So at least there would be no cycling in a wet trisuit. However, to put a wrinkle in my plans, the pool is located outside, and hasn't been used since Labor Day. I did what any logical, hypothermia-fearing triathlete would do: I brought my wetsuit. The logistics of getting the suit on in T2 occupied me on the drive over. I still figured the time lost would be more than made up for in the warmth and speed of my swim. Right?

When we got to the check in we were told that indeed the pool was heated (wait, and they still don't let us swim in it for 9 months of the year??). Thank goodness I now did not have to plead to use the indoor pool, beg to turn it into a duathlon, or explain that wetsuits should absolutely be legal in this race.

The warm up run got me good and out of breath, which is very usual for the first 10 minutes of running these days. Jeremy was on call and had to stop in the middle of the warm up to call a patient back. We rode through our gears and did not swim beforehand, needless to say.

The run was a mass start of men and women from a parking lot across from transition. It was supposed to be a 5k, but I knew last year's was significantly short, and hoped this year's would be as well. I really had no idea how fast I could run, and forgot my Garmin anyway, so just went by how hard I was breathing. It was a good crowd with lots of people I knew from working on base, and a great group that I had helped train. We ran along roads and cut over to a pedestrian path, and I tried to stay on the heels of a Col I knew who had a good pace going on. Jeremy was almost out of sight. A woman was ahead of me for a few hundred yards, but her attire told me she wouldn't be an overall contender (and she probably thought the same-- I was wearing my favorite "IMFL jacket" I'd bought from Walmart before a particularly cold one). I knew at least one other woman was right on my heels. Pulling back into transition, it was immediately apparent that even as slow as I've gotten, it was well over a 5k. Later, after measuring it to be at least 3.8 miles, I calculated that I'd somehow run under 7:15 pace. Woohoo! (I should probably mention that the run elevation gain I'd estimate to be, oh... 8 feet.)

A minute lead on the next female didn't give me too much confidence, but since I was expecting to be behind after the run, it was a bonus. The flat but for some reason not fast bike course was maybe a bit windy, but passing some men, including my pacing Col made me feel better. At the turnaround I was only 2 minutes ahead by my best estimation, but I didn't get the tailwind I was expecting.

During the 700m swim (this was SOOO long for a 5k run, 30k bike!), I was well aware of how my nervousness affected my breathing. I'd start looking at the earlier lanes to see who might be catching me, and I'd start breathing harder, gulping water, and panicking. Interesting that I'm such a mental case.

In the end, I was almost caught by one of my first time triathlete guys who happens to be an excellent swimmer, but held off all other females by at least 8 minutes, most of which was, surprisingly, created in the swim. I had a handful of my first timers finish happy and wanting more. Success.

Jeremy had a really good race and ended up 2nd OA, whooping the rest of the family by 7 minutes! But if you consider that my legs did it for two people....

Since I've been taking some weekly pictures to track my progress in the girth expansion area, I got extra dorky for this one and wore my medal and tri shorts. Surely this baby BOY will turn out to be a triathlete!

And yes I am indeed sucking in.

It's race weekend for me too!

2011-10-08T15:02:00.000-06:00

I am actually attempting one last triathlon of the season. It's the base's annual sprint that I've trained a few people for, and therefore I had to register myself. In my last race back in July, I was very newly pregnant and didn't know it, and while I did run slow and breathe hard, it was nothing compared to the wind sucking I've been doing lately.

I have run 5Ks and probably even a few 10Ks and half marathons holding back in the past, but I've never signed up for a triathlon knowing I'd have to take it somewhat easy. It's a RACE after all! My heavy breathing may scare my fellow competitors, and I keep hearing of this "pregnancy bonk" thing, so I'm going to do my best to limit the chances of both.

I don't know if it's fortunately or unfortunately, but I'm not really looking super pregnant yet. I have a "I just ate too many chips with queso and several pints of beer" look, especially after eating. And yesterday's slow jog felt like I was competing in the Beer Mile from how my bloated tummy felt. So most people won't know that I'm actually pregnant at this race tomorrow.

If only I could wear the awesome present I got this week:

But the low is 42 and I imagine I'll be covering up more. But I am considering wearing the top that makes me look most pregnant, and hopefully not most beer-gutted.

I had one of my newbies text me today to say that it was that time of the month. I'm 4 months pregnant!! No excuses. But I'm probably a little unsympathetic, because I'm sure, in the 70 or 80+ triathlons I've done that at some point, I have had the same issue. I don't remember it affecting me. The pain of racing is always worse to me. Plus, upon a little reading, I was reminded that that part of the cycle is probably best for sprint racing.

Speaking of racing, of course I'm glued to the computer today watching Ironman Hawaii. Seeing the bay, the church, Ali'i, the pier, all of that, kind of makes me want to be there. Ok, I'd really like to be there, just not racing. Still not ready for that. When I see those huge windmills like they have near Hawi I still get a little queasy. And let me just have one moment of jealousy: it is always "calm and cool" when I'm not there?? Really it just depends on how far back you start the bike :)

Thanks to Damie, I now have links to lots of race coverage over the years from this race! I first started watching IMs while on the trainer after recording the 1997 NBC coverage. I never thought I'd actually do the race, but it looked so amazing, it was nice to dream. If anybody wants to borrow my VCR tape, let me know!

While I don't see anyone out there from my computer screen that looks pregnant or even more than a pound or two overweight, I'm going to use today to motivate myself for my big end of the season race tomorrow.

Happy end of season racing to all!

I'll just take the metric version

2011-09-28T19:48:00.001-06:00

This may become a new trend. Whatever distance Jeremy does in his Ironman training, I'll do kilometers to his miles! I think it'll work perfectly.

This past Saturday was the 10th annual Tour de Ruidoso, which hosted a 100 miler and a 100K. This is the city up on our "big" mountain (I know I keep calling it that, but it does go up to 11,000ft, which is over 1000 higher than the one just up the road from us). So we trekked up to the cooler weather, where I decided at the last minute to shed the arm warmers. The sun was coming up and standing at the car felt warm. I regretted this decision for about 2 miles. I told Jeremy to get up there with the front group when we started, and realized that I was so concerned about him that I forgot to position myself accordingly. I know I'm slower lately, but I should still beat some of the mountain bikes and guys in cotton t-shirts. Plus it would be nice to have somebody to draft off of. The first 2 miles I worked by myself up a little incline, trying to catch the pack that had formed in front that Jeremy had gotten onto in time. Not wanting to go out too hard, but not wanting to ride completely by myself, it was a tough decision, but I kept pushing. THEN, we made a turn onto the highway which went straight uphill.

Ah ha, it was the beginning of what had been described on the registration form!

Beginning with a climb from 6840 to 7485, a downhill and a climb back to 7482 and then dropping down to 7257 ... and this is in the first 6 miles!

Of course after the hills started, everyone spread out and the usual happened. I would make up ground on the uphills, people would fly by me on the downhills. I was being particularly careful with my downhill speed due to this whole pregnancy thing-- I really don't want to fall-- so I was getting left behind. Every so often the road would flatten a bit and I would ride with a few others, or a small group. There were several groups of Mexican cycling teams, and I think they particularly appreciated my Los Locos kit. I got at least one chuckle.

I rode in a nice little paceline for a few miles with about 4 men. One was of the t-shirt wearing type, and he was all over the road. You know those people who can't be still to save their lives? He was fidgeting all over the bike. I think he burned three times as many calories as I did per pound. After each person had had their turn behind him, someone finally broke away off the front and let him scare the next group for a while.

Losing those guys somewhere between the braking on the downhills and passing on the uphills, I found myself mostly alone again, until a few hills later when I passed a guy in white. Some people don't say a word in passing (especially when being passed on an uphill by a girl), but Juan Carlos was not one of those people! We started chatting from the moment I pulled up beside him, and he had a lot of encouragement to give. It turns out my new friend is a former pro cyclist from Columbia. He says he was much smaller back in the 80s when he was racing (he weighed about the same as I do now), but still, I kept up with a Columbian pro! He let me go on one of the climbs, and I said I'd see him later.

I knew we were getting close to the airport, with one more hill to go. As I crested one and made a turn, a lone crow the size of a bear cub, cawed at me as I passed. I could tell exactly when Juan Carlos and another guy passed. I think he was cheering us on.

So back to this flat section that I'd been looking forward to. The straight on headwind that we turned into made my speed much slower than I'd expected. The most brutal part was that I could see several miles ahead of me, and I knew that it wasn't ending anytime soon. I later described this "flat section by the airport" as the worst one for me. I was told it "wasn't exactly flat."

Garmin tells me they were right:

As a side note, this reminds me of how mean I am. There's a section on our "flat ride" from home that I always get onto Jeremy for going so slow on. I had in it my head that he had it in his head that it was actually an uphill when it was clearly not.

Again, Garmin was there to settle it:

Yes, I'm mean. Or just really bad at judging grade. But back to the ride. I did take a break at the final rest stop for a delicious PB&J, and I figured it might be a long time getting home. As soon as I saddled back up I saw Juan Carlos up the road just a bit and hoped to catch him for a nice draft. About 5 miles later, I finally got within his view, and I think he slowed down for me. And he left me draft! But it ended quickly as we got to "the final downhill." A very nice volunteer lady cheered us on and told us it was all downhill. This being JC's specialty these days with the extra weight, he took off. But around the corner we found that the nice lady lied. Twice. My Garmin had called it quits for the day at about 54 miles, and left me by myself for those last few hundred feet up and thankfully down as well.

Finally finished, with nothing to do but eat green chile burgers and wait for Jeremy, but not drink the free beer, I found some good people to chat with, I won a recycled bike chain bottle opener (to match my recycled bike chain picture frame), and even saw some football.

I'll let Jeremy describe his long, flat tiring (haha) day with a few more thousand feet of climbing thrown in there. But I want to remind everybody that he only carried himself over that course, while I was biking for two. :)

P.S. Does anyone else have a 405 that only holds a 100% charge for 3 hours??

Smells Like Ironman Season

2011-09-18T17:52:00.000-06:00

I really love this time of year. It's Ironman season! I love the excitement surrounding Ironmans and the last few weeks of training and taper when you either know you have this one nailed, or the nervousness is setting in about the weather, the heat, your bike being in the shop, or your tendinitis acting up.

So far the season is well under way, with IM Coeur d'Alene, Lake Placid, Louisville, Canada, Wisconsin, and Wales over. First timers like Keith had solid first races and got hooked, and veterans like Damie overcame tough conditions to finish with a great race. I've personally only done 2 IMs earlier than October, so I feel like we've still got a lot of excitement coming.

Around these parts it's quite different from what I'm used to. Normally it's me, just me, leaving piles of dirty laundry and water bottles everywhere. I'd scrounge for my own meals in the late evening after a long mid-week brick. But not this year. I've never had a husband train for an Ironman before (or even a IM-training roommate for that matter), and while I'm not giving him his specific training plan, I still feel somewhat responsible for how he races on Nov 20th. I want him to succeed almost as much as I always wanted to, but it's mostly out of my control. That's a weird feeling! I think some of my own "I didn't do a far/ fast/ hard/ windy enough swim/ bike/ run" guilt feelings have been rubbing off on him. It could be for the better, but I know I can be particularly OCD about that, and I hope it doesn't affect him negatively.

My responsibility should be providing nutritious, delicious foods for him, washing 3 loads of laundry a day, moving all 12 water bottles from sink to dishwasher daily, and possibly doing yardwork and extra cleaning for him (ooops, he just mowed the grass; maybe next week). I keep putting that stuff off until 1) my job ends in 2 weeks, 2) my appetite returns from the land of morning sickness purgatory, and/or 3) I figure out which of his athletic clothing actually goes in the dryer (I'm sure I'll shrink something to cut-off 80s tank length).

He's really being a good Ironman athlete so far. He's not complaining too much; only rarely does he admit to tiredness. Despite my heightened olfactory senses, he really almost never smells after working out (I need to start using his deodorant more often). Since I'm only doing partial rides and runs with him, he lets me sleep in most weekends and picks me up for the second loop. He hasn't complained that I rarely cook these days; he doesn't mind the occasional Sonic or Taco Bell run (ok, yes it's more than occasional).

I do need to work on my spectating endurance, since I know an all day Ironman spectathlon is a tiring, energy consuming event. Last weekend I practiced with a half, but it honestly seemed to fly by. I was ready for it. Double the distance will take some work, but I look forward to having friends there to sherpa me through it. Luckily I have 9 more weeks of training.

And now to leave you with our featured Ironman athlete, finishing off his last race with a ~~bang~~ head-first slide.

Immediately from stepping over the finish line, to a full speed dive onto this:

Don't let that Garmin get submerged in the...! oh, well, that's ok, it'll dry.

The open trails

2011-09-01T16:55:00.000-06:00

I had the afternoon off yesterday (have to take all my vacation time before the job ends this month), so I left town at a few degrees over 100 and intensely sunny and headed up a few thousand feet to the trailhead at the top of the mountain. It was drizzling rain and my car reported that the outside temp was 55. In degrees Farenheit. I waited a few minutes until the rain slacked off and headed out to the trails. It definitely didn't feel 55 degrees cool, but it was such a relief to shed the sweaty clothes and breathe a few breaths of moist cool air.

I went to the Trestle trail where I'd been once before with Mom and Dad last fall, but wasn't sure where I'd go after. I hadn't really explored the area, but ended up finding intersection after intersection, all well marked and pointing me to familiar places.

I had forgotten my trail shoes and foot calluses, as it has been several months since I've done any trail running up there (the forest has been closed!), and wound up with a few blisters, but it was so worth it. I kept finding myself just smiling about being out there on the trails. I'm sure the few others out there hiking thought I was a bit psycho, but then again, maybe they understood. I kept marveling at the smell of trees. There are mostly pines up in that area, with a few aspens thrown in for fall color, and I couldn't get enough of the smell. I just wanted to bottle up the air and bring it back down.

I didn't carry any animal repellent this time, since I was staying so close to the highway, but I did get to see a tiny snake and what I am positive was bear poop. I almost took a picture of the poop, but instead just stood there trying to figure out what it had eaten instead. I'm not a poopaphile, I just like knowing what lives on those trails besides deer (which make themselves very known).

Apparently I went down down down many hundred feet at the beginning of the run (I have sore glute meds to prove it), because that last mile and a half was all uphill. I may have even interspersed my running with a few seconds of walking so as to not make it a complete zone 5 effort. When I got back to my car, it told me that the temp was up to almost 80, which felt much more realistic. For some reason I always expect the basin to have cooled off while I was up on the mountain cooling off, but it has yet to happen. So it was back to August and bright sun. It was a nice little vacation though.

I have GOT to make this at least a weekly trip, and with all the time off I'm about to have, it may be a realistic possibility.

Here's my trail, but last year, when it was sunny and dry.

This little snake didn't move a millimeter even when I got up right next to him to check him out. I think he thinks he blends a little better amongst those rocks than he actually does.

new end of season goals

2011-08-25T18:30:00.000-06:00

I've decided that this is definitely not my year for Ironman, so instead of demonstrating another famous Joy meltdown, I'm going to take my $150 and run. Or just spectate. Or maybe do a little running while I spectate. But Jeremy's still in, so I need to at least do partial workouts with him, so I don't sit on the couch gaining weight while he gets leaner and meaner. Plus, I'm totally doing the base triathlon in 6 weeks. If I can win by 40 minutes like I did at a small race last year (I beat 6 whole women), that will be the icing on the cake. I haven't actually been challenged by one of my tri class participants, but I took it as a challenge when she proclaimed that another beginner would "probably win overall." I'm pretty sure she based this on looks and attendance in aerobics classes. You know, because that translates to triathlon speed.

So I'm running, swimming and riding my bike a little. I even did a run on base in the middle of the day yesterday, since it was partly cloudy, not super hot, and I had brought my sunscreen and sleeves. I wasn't running very fast, so I was caught off guard when suddenly I needed a bathroom. The problem was that I was not within 15 minutes of one, and the places to squat were minimal. Here's my trail.

It may appear that I'm running in the middle of nowhere, but actually there was a road a few hundred feet to my right. And while the bush in the center looks substantial, I quickly remembered that there are many surveillance methods in use out here. Namely that unmanned aerial vehicle that flew about 50 feet over my head. So no escape.

And while I can handle the heat of the noon sun when I have some cloud cover, I am barely able to handle the heat in my office or house these days. It's regularly 85 in the office, which for some reason is not being cooled appropriately this week. Then I get home to a house that will not cool down in time for me to sleep before midnight. While looking at the temperature last night -- it was still 95F at 8pm -- I came across this.

Ouch, Phoenix! I hope y'all don't have swamp coolers. It's 8pm there and still 112?? And the LOWS are in the 90s? As Jeremy said, how did that ever become a city? And thank goodness we're at a higher elevation.

There better be some kind of big cool down that happens between now and 12 weeks from now, when IMAZ happens. I'm not spectating in that weather.

And as a final note, I'm very excited that my friend Rob, the super badass 65-year-old, won his age group at Sprint Nationals despite the heat and giving up after the swim. Turns out even fast people give up on their races sometimes. Except then they come back and win.

I've maybe given up on speed as a triathlete, so maybe I'll just come back some day and win something.

back to work, back to work

2011-08-24T18:59:00.000-06:00

I don't think I've even logged into my blogger account since we returned to the States! Good thing I remembered my password. We returned just over a week ago and my internal time clock has yet to reset to Mountain Time. I ~~could~~ go to sleep at 8pm every night, and now getting up in the mornings has gotten harder and harder.

I got some exciting news and some disappointing news when I got back to work last Wednesday. Let's get the bad out of the way: due to a hiring freeze and some financial cuts, my job will be ending earlier than expected. I have 5 more weeks there. At least they gave me warning so I could use up all my PTO.

The good news upon returning was my triathlon training class was ready to commence. I left with just the proposal of starting this class the Monday after my return and was excited that it was approved and had been advertised (a little).

I think it was about 7-8 years ago that I first started a triathlon class back at the U of Memphis. I had been recruiting spinning participants to come run or swim with me afterward for a few semesters, and finally we made it official. It was one of my best memories from grad school. I had a great time spinning, running, swimming and hopping across the aerobics room (those plyometrics really helped the running!), and I made some really great friends from it too. It's amazing how you can bond over looking ridiculous.

This group training for the base triathlon has no idea what they're in for (I can make them also look ridiculous), but they seem to be willing participants and a really fun group.

So, thinking back to your very first triathlon, what are some good tips for these guys and girls? I'm not even sure what I stressed over those first few times. By the way, it's a pool swim, so no swamp creatures to nibble toes.

One Year Down

2011-07-29T20:38:00.000-06:00

We've officially been here in NM for over a year now (and as Jeremy just told me tonight, we have 683 or so days to go). And while the first few months crept along, since starting work, the days go by pretty fast. And that's one reason I've been such a terrible blog writer and even blog reader: work. Anything blogspot is blocked. I don't know what they expect me to do during my hours of boredom there.

It's a new season in southern NM, since the rains finally started. I think today was the first time I have driven through water on base. I even used the wipers once on my way home. Crazy, I know! And then it stopped. Thankfully I hadn't ridden my bike to work today. Since I have no races on the horizon, I've begun racing myself and those unfortunate mountain bike riders with the fat tires on my commutes. Usually in the mornings it's cool and calm, plus the ride descends about 300 feet from my house to work in a nice long false flat. Then it's the complete opposite on the way home: hot, sunny, windy, almost always a headwind, and a false flat that ascends. I can cruise at an easy 25 on the way out, and grind at 15 on the way back, if I'm lucky. I've tried to chat with the people I've caught on the road, but usually they just give a nod and go back to concentrating on their ride, so I go on by. Apparently I've been recognized as the one who does the chicking (it's not my fault they don't know it's a race), so that's more encouragement.

It has cooled down a bit; tonight's run was downright pleasant. June is supposedly the hottest month in this desert, and it proved to be this year. Even without significant humidity, I can tell you that 107F with the sun blazing down and no shade within a 30 minute drive can make for a tough run. But with cloud cover, and especially rain, comes relief!

But we're leaving all this behind in just a few short hours! Thirty-six to be exact (and I haven't started packing). Most of my internet time is spent planning for the Italy trip. There's so much history, and so many things to see, that it's almost impossible to narrow down into 14 days everything I'm interested in. So back to the travel plans, and maybe a little packing. And hopefully in a few days, with a little internet service, I can post some updates and pictures. Ciao!

Summertime

2011-07-23T09:48:00.000-06:00

My summer seems to be divided up in my mind based on visitors and vacations. Races have been sprinkled in there, adding to the trip side. I got started with a trip to Santa Fe, that marked the official beginning of summer on Memorial Day weekend. Then it was off to California, followed by a visit from Charlie, and then last week was a visit from Jenny and her clan.

We filled the days with hiking

swimming in the waterfall (naked, if you were under 2)

hydrating

sliding

sledding

and playing Rock Band.

The extra long weekend went by super fast, and next thing I knew it was Sunday and we were headed to the airport in El Paso to say goodbye :(

The weather has gotten a lot cooler around here and the rains are coming. We had a few sprinkles in the basin, and up on the mountain, the Forest has even reopened. Mornings are so nice with cool temps and little wind, so I've been trying to ride my bike to work more often. It really only takes about 30 minutes as opposed to 15 to go those 10 miles. Some afternoons, I get a straight on headwind for the 7 miles on the highway, but it's going by faster and faster. They keep adding obstacles in my path. For the last few months a section of road right outside my neighborhood has been torn up, leaving rough pavement and thick gravel for a few hundred yards. This week they dug a 4 foot trench on my only exit road from the neighborhood. It requires a dismount and hike of the bike, but doesn't slow me down too much. We'll see what they throw at me next.

One more week of riding and then we are off to Italia for two weeks! The itinerary isn't set quite yet, and I keep thinking of more and more places to visit. There will be little riding, hopefully a good bit of running and hiking, and definitely some swimming in the Mediterranean. One week from tomorrow we leave!

racing from a different perspective

2011-07-11T17:40:00.000-06:00

I've definitely admitted my fear of deep dark water before. And the name of the triathlon on Saturday didn't ease my fears: "Bottomless Tri." So did this mean the lake was some abyss in the middle of the desert that nobody had found the bottom of yet? Maybe it was just so dark down there that it looked like an ocean trench? *shivers*

As it turns out, this Bottomless Lake, which is in a string of them near Roswell, has a bottom which is 90 feet below the surface. I don't know exactly why they have to tell me the depths of these things; I always had to look away from the depth finders on ski boats before I'd get into the water. And googling images of the lake didn't help. Exactly how big is this fish??

Lake Lea, the one we swam in, is a water filled sink hole (so it could be getting deeper all the time?), and was really beautiful. The water was clear enough to see at least 10 feet, which is saying a lot for this southerner used to swimming in mud.

So I busied myself before the race doing the usual setting up, helping the man who blew up THREE tubes before the start (if I hadn't been starting in 5 minutes, I probably would've grabbed it from him and done it myself), and getting a good warm up ride and run in.

This was a the shortest triathlon I've ever done at 450ish meter swim, 8ish mile bike, and 2.6ish mile run. Or something like that. And while I'm not in sprinting shape by any means, I was looking forward to being finished well under an hour.

I got in the water to ~~warm up~~ cool off in my awesome new wetsuit and paddled around just a bit before they called the women to the starting line. Good, no time to panic. All 18 of us lined up waist deep waiting for the gun. It was a straight out and back, almost all the way across the clear blue water. Within 100 yards I found myself checking out who was around me. I found some feet, kept bumping into them, moved over and did the same to more feet, and realized that these two were the lead girls. I WAS IN THE LEAD PACK! Never before have I been in the lead pack in the swim. Not even for 5 yards. Really.

I never start too quickly in the swim for fear of panicking, and found that I was staying steady while one of the girls was fading. Getting close to the turn buoy, I was coming up on the inside of the lead girl, who, by the way, was not wearing a wetsuit. I rounded the buoy first and pulled a little ahead. Sure enough, I did it. I pulled to the front of the pack! Now to hang on... When I don't want to panic, I have the tendency to close my eyes while my head is in the water, only opening them to sight above the surface. Because of this and my excitement of leading a swim, I managed to keep images of lake monsters out of my head. I had nothing but smooth clear water in front of me. And I did it! I held them off and came out first to the sound of the men and spectators cheering and my name being announced on the loudspeaker!

I ran through a quick hose shower and even told the kid holding it, "I've never been first out of the water before!" I heard a comment from the water table, "Is that the first swimmer?" I might've said, "YES! Can you believe it?"

I could just end the race report there, since I've never been so proud of my swimming.

The short story is I won overall. But here's the rest, which is a little less exciting. Into T1 I was closely followed by a couple of other girls, including the non-wetsuit wearers. The one right behind me hopped on her bike just as I was, and I kind of let her get ahead of me, just to check her out. Despite the big college trisuit, she had no TT bars of any sort, so I felt a little relief that maybe the swim was really her strong suit.

Immediately out of T1 was the longest hill of the day. I'd been warned of this, but we'd ridden it in warm up and knew these were flatlanders talking about the size of it. Big school tri suit was hurting right at the start and I couldn't just sit there behind her, so I passed. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't look back. Before the top of the hill, a motorcycle with a yellow clad rider passed and stayed 200 yards ahead of me. A pace vehicle! In yellow, no less! I was fully expecting a woman on the back holding a chalkboard with my lead scrawled in minutes and seconds.

The road surface was definitely the hardest part of the bike ride. It was standard chip seal, like 90% of the roads around here are, but it had a bumpy, wave-like quality. So not only was it rough enough to take a few millimeters of rubber off my tires, but it was so bumpy I couldn't make out the biggest numbers on my computer, and drinking from my profile straw the little Gatorade that hadn't splashed out of the bottle was almost impossible without stabbing the roof of my mouth.

A few sections of road were decent enough to get some speed going, even in the TT bars (without falling off of them), and occasionally I'd gain on the pace bike. Then he'd pull away. Each race monitor sitting in his truck on the route would radio when I went by. I;d have felt like a celebrity, if only the paparazzi had been there.

Into T2 I was still in the lead, experiencing this race from a perspective I've never experienced before. Never have I lead a women's field with no men ahead of me. The run was an out and back, with almost no elevation gain, but luckily the few feet we gained was in the first half. It was already hot by this point, and there was exactly one tree that provided shade on the course. When I got to the turnaround and saw that second place was not in sight, I let myself slow down a bit more and tried to relax. I didn't do a good job of checking my gap on her, but decided it was a two or three minutes. Getting to see some men going out on the run helped pass the second half, and before I knew it, I was finishing very first.

I realized the stress that good swimmers must have. I can't take the pressure of being chased like that! Of course in these reverse order triathlons, I get a taste of it by knowing those fast swimmers are chasing me. But that one still goes down in the record books as the day I won the swim. :)

2011-07-07T20:51:00.004-06:00

I've been so bad about blogging for the last 2 weeks, or however long it's been since we got home from California. It was a great trip, and we followed it up by picking Charlie up at El Paso International for a long weekend of desert activities.

We started with a road ride followed by trying to keep up with him for a brick. I thought this altitude was supposed to slow him down! Maybe it did; I'm just that slow. And can I comment on his trail running, you know, as a triathlon coach and regular gait analyzer? He glides over those rocks like it's nothing, so his upcoming stage race shouldn't be much of a problem.

A few trails outside of our closed national forest are still open, so mountain biking was an option after all. The bike shop owner where we rented surprised us in accepting our offer to come along for the ride, and ended up being our tour guide. Here's some scenery for you. And the view of the mountain is nice too :)

I would've gotten more pictures, but was doing too many white knuckle descents to get out the phone. They were scary due to my extreme lack of mtbiking ability. We were excited that CBD brought some rain for us (see those clouds?). It sprinkled on us on the way home, but ended up being more tragic than it was worth: another forest fire was started by the lightening. Ugh, will this ever stop? We're a little late getting started on monsoon season, but have had a couple of minutes' worth of rain at the house in the last month.

We were sad to see Charlie go after his short stay. This week we've found ourselves wrapped up in something else: the Tour de France. I think I mostly watch it for the commentating by Phil and Paul, and for getting nervous for Cavendish at the end of the sprints. I like him.

I was amused at Contador yesterday when after crashing, he threw his bike off in the ditch like, "get this piece of $*** out of here." If I was that spectator I'd be on that thing riding off into the distance before he could turn around. I'll take his toss-asides.

It's around :40 in this video if you missed it (and poor Janez Brajkovic).

Side note: For some really good analyses of TdF power data, see my favorite sports science blog.

Besides visitors and tours of France, we've started picking up the training around here, and that includes a few bike commutes to work on the very wide but very dirty shoulder of the highway that's not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It really only takes me 15 or 20 more minutes than usual, so if I can just get everything together, it's not overly inconvenient.

We're leaving tomorrow for Roswell again, to do the Bottomless Lakes Triathlon. It's super short, but we swim first, just like I like it. The only stress I'm having is from reading about this Bottomless Lake, which is 90 feet deep, but clear. I keep telling myself that I've done Ironmans in deeper, with shark potential to boot. This won't make me panic. THIS WON'T MAKE ME PANIC.

Next week we host a long weekend again, but filled with some different activities. Jenny and family will be here to check out the desert and see if it's up to Jackson's standards. I'll report back on that.

CA: Monterey down to Ventura

2011-06-20T23:09:00.000-06:00

Jeremy once again is on the ball and blogging before I wake up in the mornings. So he has all the good pictures and stories of our adventures. I'm not sure I can even add anything to what he's said, except he's such a good travel buddy. It seems we get hungry at the same times, need a restroom break together, and want to do the exact same stuff. And what else do you need in a husband?? :)

Monterey was an awesome city, with a bike path stretching at least from one end of the other. We actually never saw either end; it was left to the imagination. Around Fisherman's Wharf, it was crowded with walkers and those 2 seater side by side cart bikes where you can put your 4-year-old sister in the front basket and do all the pedaling for you and your older sister who pretends to be carrying her weight... sorry! Memories of pedaling around Point Clear, AL.

Anyway, I loved Monterey and all of its coastal bike paths, people, historic canneries, mansions, and flowers. I think I might do this with my front yard instead of the multicolored rocks.

After an amazingly filling breakfast (we didn't eat again until dinner) on Sunday morning, we headed south on Highway 1 along the breathtaking cliffs high up over the water. I found myself actually holding my breath along the winding route, pushing that imaginary brake pedal that only driver's ed instructors actually have (mental note, add one to the Jetta).

Jeremy had picked for us 4 state parks to stop by, and I have to admit the first one looked boring upon entrance. It was the most scenic, beautiful park I've probably ever visited. We decided to do a slow run along the smooth dirt paths through flowers, over hills, and along the shoreline. At some point I realized that I take pictures mostly of flowers and/or cliffs. Usually both.

Big Sur state park was pretty impressive as well, though we spent less time here, and even less at Julia Burns park. This was the site of a house in the early 1900s, and it overlooked this waterfall onto the beach.

We finally finished most of the day's journey in San Luis Obispo, where there were many restaurants to choose from, and Mama's Meatballs won our vote. We took a short drive to Lompoc, right next to Vandenberg AFB to spend the night. That got us close to our riding destination for today, which was to Solvang. If you saw the Tour of California this year, or you know Gary Ironman, you also know that Solvang is in some great riding country. We did an out and back to the Danish settled Solvang to have lunch and see the town, then rode through the vineyards and flower fields back to Lompoc.

Our last side trip of the day was to the beach in Carpinteria, which supposedly is one of the safest for swimming. And there were many people doing just that. With the water nowhere near the 70F mark, and the air in the mid 60s, a toe in the water was all I needed to convince me that I was not joining the hardened local kids in that surf. A lounge in the sand was how I spent my time.

And tonight will be spent in Ventura, where 5 large sushi rolls were consumed by the two of us before retiring to our hotel. Tomorrow's ventures may include the Channel Islands, and who knows where we'll end up. Until then.

CA: LA to Half Moon Bay

2011-06-18T18:28:00.000-06:00

Jeremy has done a good job of blogging our adventures the last 2 days in California, but I'll attempt to give my side. Plus some more pictures.Thursday was a long day of driving, for Jeremy. I dozed on and off through Arizona and a little in California. The landscape wasn't too exciting, mostly desert and more desert. I was surprised at the size and number of hills around Los Angeles. My only previous experience in LA is a layover at LAX, and besides the smog I had very little in the way of impressions of it. I still don't really, since we circumnavigated it and headed to Santa Clarita to stay overnight.

As J mentioned, it got hot in the desert, but hot and dry, so one of the first things I noticed upon exiting the air conditioned car in Santa Clarita was the humidity. My hair immediately curled back up to its usual humid look. It's been a while. The second thing I noticed was how cold it was. Wow, I thought it was June.

Friday we drove inland up I-5 through farms growing strawberries, cherries, some type of greens, onions, garlic, cherries, nuts, and many unidentifiable (to me, while speeding along) fruits and vegetables. Off the interstate for a piece on a winding country road, we passed a farm stand selling cherries every quarter mile it seemed. Heaven! That's what heaven will have, fruit stands everywhere you look.

Finally we made it to the ocean at Half Moon Bay State Park.

Overcast and gray, we noticed the temperature was about 58F so we put plenty of clothing on and headed south on our bikes along Hwy 1. The shoulder was wide and smooth, and for most of the 28 miles down, right along the coast. It was lined with yellow flowers, some tiny dots, some large bulbs that contrasted the grayness of the sky and water. A few splashes of purple and white flowers were thrown around in the mix as well.

At a few points on the road, the shoulder we were on was as far as the cliff extended. Just beyond the pavement, a few feet from my tires, I could see many dozen feet down to the rocky shoreline. It was dizzying, so I did my best to look away. Past many beaches, more farmland, and a lighthouse at Pigeon Point,

we arrived at Ano Nuevo State Park, where we parked the bikes and did a short trail run to the beach. We knew we were on the right path when we heard the barking seals from the shore.

It was a spectacular sight to see dozens of elephant seals lounging on the sea grass just 30 feet away from us. They couldn't be bothered to pay us any attention, which was just fine with me. Watching a 2000 pound animal wriggle its way toward the water was fascinating.

I could've stayed hours and watched them, but we needed to get back to town, so we headed back along the same route we'd come. I tried to snap a few pictures of my view most of the way back, along the ocean, through some arches of trees, over a few hills. The hills weren't steep or long, and we made good time.

Dinner was with Laura and Steve in Half Moon Bay! I didn't know they were so close by, but we are going to make a trip to just San Francisco soon. There's too much to see there to only give it half a day.

Today started as a beautiful sunny day but has already clouded over. The temperature is bearable, but still reminds me of February back in New Mexico. Monterey is our next stop.

Racing at 7000ft

2011-06-12T20:19:00.000-06:00

Just an hour away, up in the mountains, lies the great little Village of Ruidoso. It's completely different from my town in atmosphere, weather, landscape, and altitude. Where we have cacti, they have pines. Instead of IHOP, they have delicious local bakeries. It's a little ski resort town at the bottom of Sierra Blanca, shown here:

The Ruidoso Sprint Tri was Saturday, so we traveled uphill that morning to much cooler weather. The car said 37F at one point. Since there is little swimmable water in this state, it was to be a pool swim, with the run around a cute little fishing lake nearby. Distances advertised to be 3.5 run/ 10 bike/ 400yd swim.

The women started off 10 minutes behind the men, running, of course, up a hill. I recognized about two of the women, one of whom is a super fast 50 year old, and the other a blond woman who ran in just ahead of me at my DNF race a few months ago. I didn't know if I'd have been able to catch her on the bike then since I didn't get a chance. At the starting horn, a well-tattooed chick took off up that hill and held her lead. I settled into 4th behind Tattoos, the fast blond, and another woman, with the 50 y-o behind me, like I expected her to be until the bike. About 10 minutes in, we turned off a perfectly nice fire road onto a rocky, dirty, 20% graded trail. I was trying to keep the two right ahead of me within a reachable distance, and found that even though they were running, I could walk and not lose time on them. So I walked. Multiple times, in fact. I twisted an ankle only once and never fell down the sloping hill into the lake.

Here is the scenic Grindstone Lake. Too bad I was too busy looking at the rocks in front of me to enjoy the views.

I ended up passing the woman just in front of me at the end of the run, but never caught the blond or tattoos. But I could see blondie from the start of the bike. I noticed that I would slowly pull her in on the steeper sections of the uphills, but when it flattened out, she'd pull away. Maybe all those hills have been helping! But still I couldn't keep my speed above about 9 mph, and it didn't seem to be that steep of a grade. At the turnaround, I found out why. It was not only more of a hill than I'd realized, but we had also had a headwind! The 50 y-o had passed me just before the turnaround, and she and blondie took OFF down that hill. I thought my 35mph would be plenty fast, but they were gone. I get a little scared and wobbly over 35, so the brakes came on then. Tattoos had been just a little ahead when I saw her, but I wasn't sure that my downhill abilities were going to be enough to catch anyone.

About a mile before the finish, blondie was pulled over messing with her bike. Turns out it was just rubbing a bit when she stood, but I still had to pass and move on after making sure she was ok. Now I had someone chasing me, which helped me not get complacent.

After T2, for which I was not ideally positioned, we had a carpeted run up onto the road, across the road, down a hill, through a parking lot, between some buildings, and into the pool. I had plenty of time to pull on a cap (it makes me feel faster when my head floats) and my goggles. I jumped into a mass of chaos. Men were everywhere thrashing around, passing, clocking me, breaststroking. I was somehow able to get a few good strokes in when not getting backed up on a wall. There were very few chances to pass, except when you got to the end of the 4 lanes and had to get out, get marked, run around the pool, and get back in. When I caught a glimpse of Tattoos, I thought I had a chance to catch her. If she had planted those men to fight me back they couldn't have done a better job of slowing me down. I even started yelling at one point while standing behind 4 guys at the wall, "It's a race! Go!" Out of the pool, we had to run another couple hundred carpeted yards to the finish line. And by the time I got there, Tattoos was out of sight. Turns out she beat me by 20 seconds, while I had beat 2 of her 3 splits. Why can't I run faster??

But thanks to mechanical failures of others' bikes, I maintained my 3rd OA position and got the best trophy ever -- a carved bear that stands on my mantel at about 2 feet high.

Jeremy and I both checked our bike splits after the race to find the exact same time on our computers. But turns out he beat me by a few seconds in the official results. He also beat me in T2, which was essentially a cyclocross practice of carrying my bike over spots of carpet that covered large, sharp gravel. I wonder if everyone did that. He had a smoking fast "swim" time, which included that adventurous carpeted run x2, and finished just out of the bears.

At the end of this week, we're off to California with our bikes to enjoy the Pacific coastline for a while.

That Gray Area

2011-06-06T16:51:00.000-06:00

Too bad training and racing isn't all black and white. I'm typically a very concrete thinker. I like my right and wrong answers; physics was always fun to me because there was a single right answer. Lately I've been a fan of the gray area. Just ask my coworkers. I'm always giving times and amounts in "ish"es. What time are you going to lunch? 11ish. How many people were in your class? 20ish. If I don't know the yes or no, right or wrong, down to the decimal place answer, it's an ish.

While exercise physiology is a hard science, there are a lot of unknowns. Think about the huge combination of biochemical reactions going on all the time. Individuals are so different in their specific physical structures and muscle fiber make-ups, their VO2maxes, their hormone balances, their need of rest and recovery, etc.

Why is it that one athlete can race Ironmans month after month for years, never going over the edge, while another can have years of success only to hit some sort of wall suddenly? What makes me need 10 hours of sleep while others do great on 7? Why can't I do over 50 miles per week and not have hip pain? Is one little virus responsible for pushing me to the point of no return, stuck in the nightmare of overtraining syndrome?

One thing I've learned in my decade of triathlons (I honestly didn't train for the first 3 seasons) is that while there are guidelines of training for specific distances, there are a lot of right answers. There are a lot of wrong ones too, as I've learned the hard way.

The problem is figuring out what exactly goes wrong. Why after years of successes, can changing a few things here and there cause-- bam!-- Failure. With a capital F. That gray area. That darn ISH area. So without pinpointing a virus or the two Ironmans 6 weeks apart, or any other method of my training, I will go delving into the gray, hoping to find the answers to get out.

Out of Towner

2011-06-04T19:10:00.000-06:00

I've been making the habit of being out of town a lot lately. Last weekend was Santa Fe with Jonathan and Colleen, who were amazing tour guides in a city they'd never been to. Colleen had trips and tours planned for us, and Jonathan has this sixth sense for directions. This was my third time to the city and I couldn't navigate without Jonathan's help.

We had some great food and saw some old stuff. The Taos Pueblos are the oldest continuously inhabited residences in the country (at least 700 years, maybe 1000). The oldest house, the oldest church, and the oldest government building are all right there in the middle of Santa Fe, so I ran by. This is the "oldest house."

I continued my run right in the middle of downtown along the river trail. Seems hard to get lost out there, but without Jonathan, I did. Only for a few minutes.

This trail is right in the middle of downtown, did I mention that? How jealous am I? I mean, trees everywhere!

Yesterday we traveled to Roswell for Jeremy's race. I do like a city with a theme.

Just outside of the suburb of Dexter, right beside lines of crop-circled pastures, you have the small, clear, sparkling Lake Van. Yes, we are getting out in the middle of nowhere here. But they had an old school, first class race, Milkman. Speaking of themes, check out the RD's pants! And yes we got our fill of milk and ice cream following.

Jeremy raced fast and only got chicked by only one girl, who is incredibly fast, along with being one of the nicest, most humble people I know. He also baaaarely lost to that 2nd place guy because he started his kick a bit early.

There were no live alien sightings, although one might ask if that was really a deer that hit our car, made a huge dent and crack in the windshield, then disappeared into the field.

We're planning on going back next month to visit another, "bottomless" lake, which is right up my alley (sarcasm font intended). But next weekend, it's up to the mountain for a little racing at 7000ft. I'm packing my extra set of lungs.

2011-05-26T22:02:00.000-06:00

I really like Macca. I just read this excerpt from his new book, I'm Here to Win. I know he's slightly cocky, a little outspoken, and has a tendency to rub people the wrong way. But I really like his confidence. And I feel like we bonded in Kona one year when we both relaxed prerace by the hotel pool. I think he smiled at me.

He "lost" the first few times he went to Kona. Trouble with the heat and humidity (I hear you, brotha) were realized his first year there, in 2002, my first year there! Of course, I finished up the race with a 5:30+ marathon; he DNFed. Joy = 1, Macca = 0. He "humiliated" himself there the next year with a 9:32 finish time (I know, how embarrassing), but went on to win in '07. Joy = 1, Macca =~5. I happen to remember coming back down Palani -- on the bike-- while hearing his name announced at the finish line. Finishing. He had another rough few years there in '08 and '09 (me too!), then figured his stuff out in time to win again in 2010. He just never gives up.

I unfortunately don't have the same attitude right now. I don't have confidence anymore, and I don't have the drive to get back where I used to be (mostly because it seems completely unattainable). But I find a lot of inspiration in his story of lots of successes and a good many failures along the way too. He's really not afraid to fail. I need to remember that.

On a completely different note, I learned this week that 1) cactus leaves (branches? stems?) just like these are sold in the produce department in Walmart, right next to the peppers. I have no idea how to cook them, but I do know I need to de-prickle them first. And while this is not my front "yard," it is similar. Just with more vegetation than mine. And much neater rocks.

And I learned that 2) this thing below is called a guava. And here I've been calling it a giant asparagus all this time. Before these bloom, the stalk, which is about 15 feet tall, looks exactly like an asparagus stalk. I read that they only bloom like this once in their life, after living 5-35 years as a small pointy succulent. That's a way to retire for sure.

Consider yourself a little more educated.

This weekend holds the excitement of a good friends and good food in Santa Fe. Happy Memorial Day!

A race in Lubbock

2011-05-17T20:26:00.000-06:00

Lubbock was a very easy 5 hour drive from our house. Part of the ease for me was due to Jeremy driving the whole way, but also because we took one road all the way there. First we went over the mountains to Mayhill, where we rode last weekend. This week, it burned. Lots of ashy ground and black trees lined the highway.

Below is a campground where we even stopped last weekend. I got some grass stuck in my chain that came back with me. The rest of it is gone. I think this fire was reported to have started due to some power lines caught in the wind. But remember Smokey Bear, and how YOU can prevent forest fires. On the way home we saw some Forest Service trucks stopped along the highway dealing with some active fire. The guy standing by the truck was smoking a cigarette.

Across some plains, some oil fields, and a lot of flat flat land we drove and arrived in the metropolis of Lubbock. Buffalo Springs Lake is a few minutes out of town, so we surveyed the course Saturday afternoon. This is the same venue that the famous BSLT 70.3 takes place on. I expected the lake to be bigger. The hills I expected to be smaller.

We knew the bike course had five hills on it. They were exactly correct. The rest was flatness and maybe a little false flatness thrown in for good measure (or was that just the wind?). But the hills were long and steep, into and back out of the canyon. Nothing to be worried about; it just slows everyone down a bit.

Race morning we were not prepared for the cold. Actually, Jeremy had brought no long sleeves or pants, so a run to Target Saturday night provided him with a sweatshirt. A much needed one. It was 53F in the air, 58F in the water, and thank goodness I just bought a new wetsuit.

This was a small race, but not without the usual crowded bike racks. The evens were on one side, and odds were on the oth... oh no, wait, some odds were on our side too. I noticed the two sets of everything lined up neatly in a row next to my bike when #23 (which I've always known as an odd number) mentioned how crowded everything was. I tried to explain to her that it was more convenient for her NOT to have to duck under the bike rack with her bike in T1. But she argued that in all the races she'd done, she'd had that little space of real estate directly behind her bike. So this girl has rubber bands holding her bike shoes in perfect position, but she can't figure out which side of the rack to use? I just left her alone after my gentle advice didn't sway her, and found she'd moved before the race started.

I was shivering before the race just standing in my wetsuit, so there was no way I was going to warm up in the actual water, or even stick my toe in for that matter. The cannon fired before the "ready, set" was voiced, and we all jumped a mile. At least that got the adrenaline pumping. The water was COLD. Sticking my face in caused a shriek and a few gasps, and the panic didn't subside for about 1/3 of the swim. I did notice a guy near me walking along chest deep, so I even tried that for a few steps. The chop was coming straight at us, so by turning, I found some relief, and coming back in was almost pleasant (oh it's all relative).

The water calmed down a lot after the race.

Standing up onto the ramp, there was a line of volunteers. The first one pulled me out, the next one unzipped me, another unvelcroed me, and still another helped pull my arm out. All as I was running by. What a team! I got the suit off and realized that I was not willing to leave my new (ok, lightly used) wetsuit lying on the ground, so I ran over to the nearby fence and hung it up. Then I started to put on my jacket but it stuck so badly on my wet skin I gave up the fight. Ok, it was actually because I saw mis-rack girl with a jacket on and decided to be tougher than she was. Then I straightened up my area, folded my jacket, dusted the dirt off my feet, and decided it was time to go ride.

Hill #1 starts immediately outside of transition, but it was an excellent place to warm up. Then I'll just sum up the bike by saying this: 4 more hills, lots of headwind.

My right foot didn't have any feeling until 3 miles into the run. But it was perfect running weather, and I enjoyed doing a race in the proper order. Jeremy officially beat me for the first time, and by a lot. Except on the run, where I got him by 10 seconds. I was thrilled with my run until 1) I realized that he'd run almost as fast, and 2) he convinced me that it must be a short course.

I got 3rd place after coming out of the water pretty much last for all women, then not getting left behind on the bike, and coming back to get the fastest run of the women. 1 and 2 only got me by 2.5 and 1 minute, so if I could just not freak out in the water... There's always next time.

In other news, I have a tomato bandit in my yard. This was my first tomato a few weeks ago. It had grown to tennis ball size, with some very early ripening color on it. Upon arrival back home, I immediately checked the garden to find it missing. Not a bite taken out or the whole plant destroyed. Just one missing tomato, as if it had never been there. I now have bars of soap hanging from the wires around them. I'll go to more aggressive measures if this happens again. It's just a warning, oh sneaky garden predator.

the

No more trail running

2011-05-08T18:14:00.000-06:00

We are having quite the opposite problem of y'all in the southeast. The extreme drought conditions on top of the always windy springtime has made forest fires a big issue. On our way back from Tucson last week, we could see the fire on the Organ Mountains, just across the basin from us. Here you can even see some flames if you look closely.

This has closed a few hiking areas that Jeremy and I have either been on or scoped out, including Baylor Pass, which goes across one of the lower points. The reports say the missile range, which is on this side of the mountains, is to blame. The last report yesterday said while it's still burning, it is 100% contained.

Wednesday of next week will be the last day the Lincoln National Forest, MY forest, is open until sufficient rain has fallen to decrease the fire danger. I think they could just threaten punishment by death to anyone using fire or smoking in the area. I'm really sad about this, since what will be closed are ALL the trails and forest roads through the park. We can still ride on the highways, but no more trails. Monsoon season should start in a couple of months, but how much rain will make up for such a lack of it this winter and spring?

After hearing the news of the closing on Friday, I made Jeremy take me up on the mountain not once, but twice this weekend. Saturday we rode a longer loop with smaller hill grades. We were excited about the easy climbing until the headwinds hit. Uff. Then today we went to two different trails. The first neither of us had been on-- the Osha Trail. It was a short loop, but had a couple of trails diverging from it that we had to check out. The running was slow, even on the downhills, due to the rockiness. I slowly developed my mountain goat skills as we ran. And now I'm sure my stabilizer muscles will be hurting tomorrow. Nice views.

Next we went to Cougar Track trail (so named by yours truly) so I could show Jeremy Bridal Veil Falls, which, even in this drought, is still flowing. It was cool and clear, and I just wanted to get in it.

We found no tracks, and I tried not to obsessively look for them.

It was amazing the contrast in the trails. Up at the top, you're in a forest of firs. Go down a few thousand feet and you find red desert dirt trails that run along a flowing creek.

So that was our last weekend in the forest for a while. No more of this:

Or this...

...until somebody can send us some of that extra water from the Mississippi. We'll gladly take it.

Tucson

2011-05-04T20:24:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we went to Tucson to race (or for me, "participate in") Duathlon Nationals. I'll just summarize my race by saying it was a pretty sad effort. Jeremy and I had very similar runs, but he beat me on the bike! I was off in lala land most of the time; I forgot to even look at my splits. I was too concerned with how freakin fast those 48 year old women were! I did actually earn a spot at Du Worlds in Spain in September, but running twice is really painful!

But after the race, we had a great trip. Just north of our hotel about 2 miles was Catalina State Park, where we hiked to burn off our In and Out Burgers (which made the race totally worth it).

Spring has definitely come to the desert, even without rain since last fall. We had a cold spell while we were in Tucson, and even back at home in NM. But not to worry, it's warming up again quickly. It's quite a contrast to flooding Memphis this time of year!

I even had to take some pictures around the neighborhood of all the interesting flora. I'm still amazed that cacti bloom!

Race Season is Here

2011-04-27T18:48:00.000-06:00

We have another race this weekend. This time it's a duathlon, or DUALathon, as my coworker likes to call it. I keep picturing sword fighting for some reason. I have done maybe 3 duathlons in my life, and as I recall, they are particularly painful. I should be getting used to the run-then-bike thing, but another run afterward?? This should be my forte, since I'll never be a great swimmer (I am in my acceptance phase).

The taper came at a good time, since Jeremy is working 12 hour shifts (suckas!), due to this exercise the base is doing. Side note: hopefully this is not TMI to give out... I got a kick out of hearing, "Exercise, exercise, exercise" over the intercom the first time. Being in health promotion, my first thought was that everyone was catching on. Yes, I'm that slow sometimes.

We aren't able to go anywhere fun (outside of the so so fun city) when J is on call, so we rode in the flat basin this weekend. I actually enjoyed it despite the wind and the boringness of the view. (It looks even more boring due to my new camera app)

I had a brief meltdown about 30 minutes from home, and I don't even remember why. But then on Monday, J was off work, so he had our bikes loaded and ready when I got home from work. We drove up the mountain and rode one of my favorite rides. It was cold enough that we started with arm warmers and my hands were frozen at the end. What a difference from the basin! We cut it about 4 miles (and 800ft of climbing!) short, since we didn't want to run out of daylight. And I realized that THIS is what I want to do. I want to ride in scenic places, up mountains, down mountains, in the trees, looking for bears.

If that works with triathlon training, I'm good.

2011-04-20T19:37:00.000-06:00

The days have been flying by with work, a little training here and there, and a trip to Memphis. It was my great aunt's 90th birthday on Saturday, the day before my wedding anniversary, so we flew out to celebrate. I hadn't seen my nieces and nephews in over 3 months, which is well over half of the youngest one's life. It was less than a 48 hour stay in town, but we still managed to get to see Damie, Laura, Charlie, and Olaf.

In training news, well, there really isn't much news. I'd been going to a physical therapist about my 12 year old hamstring tendinitis. After a point, like in any relationship, I realized that he wasn't listening to me and I didn't trust him. I decided it really wasn't worth my time to get ultrasound plus a little deep tissue massage that any good husband, who even vaguely knows anatomy, could perform. So I had to break up with him. I left a message on his voicemail that I wouldn't be coming back, and told him it was me, not him. I've been broken up with over email, and despite my surprise at the time, I've decided that it was the way to go. No awkward explanations or weird conversations.

At work I've been doing a little more. I now make coffee every morning and teach one of my coworkers computer basics. I realized how much he needed to learn when he tried to tell me how to close a document -- by clicking that little X in the upper right corner. He calls me in for help with things like printing certain pages of a pdf. It keeps me busy. I also learned just today that we have a monkey farm on base. I thought I'd fallen asleep for a second when a guy told me this, but no, it's exactly what it sounds like. Apparently it's a retirement home for former primate pilots. I didn't ask too many details, but I do plan to ride my bike out that way. He mentioned flying fish or something too. I think it's worth the ride.

I've had a few people come into my office wanting help with running, and I've recently taught a spin class to total beginners. I really like this crowd of people who are so new, pretty much anything you give them will help them. When "run 3 times a week" is an increase from their current plan, you know they'll be faster with your guidance. Today in a class I asked if anybody ever went to the weight room. I saw 7 blank stares. Aha, this may be the reason you all recently failed your fitness test. Just a guess.

Or maybe it's because you've been testing on the outdoor track instead of the indoor one. Last week a girl told me that she was trying to test inside because "that altitude outside is killing me!" You know, since we pump oxygen into all the buildings to make up for that.

Some of the people are willing to take advice, and I love helping them. And most of them really want to know how to improve. Then there was a girl who I gave several workouts to. Her response was, "I probably won't do this." I love that she was honest!

I need to be more honest with my workouts. One of these days I will most likely be telling Jeremy, "You know that bike workout we had for this afternoon? I probably won't do it." That'll be one of the many days we get warnings on our computers about the high winds. Uphill + 50mph gusts is something I am completely over. Today was a "calm" day, but I still designed our track workout to go with the wind during the hard part of the interval, into it on recovery. :)

While my body is still going slow, I'll still give it a reason to go slow, so back up to the mountains we go!

The most unusual day: clouds and cold.

First Race of the Year Report

2011-04-07T17:11:00.000-06:00

It sure has taken me a long time to get to writing about my race on Sunday. It's not because I had a lot to complete, either. I'm just being lazy. We went an hour south to the Mesilla Valley Sprint Triathlon for the first race of the year. It is what seems to be standard order around here: run, bike, then swim. I knew it was a 5k run and a 500m swim, but couldn't remember the distance of the bike until I got to the starting line and asked a woman standing next to me. Something like 15 miles. A mass start of about 220 people was uneventful. I watched for a few women who quickly got out ahead of me, recognizing one that I knew to take off jackrabbit style and slow down later. The first half was slightly uphill to the turnaround. The race started at 9:00, so I was already getting a little toasty by the aid station. I grabbed a cup of water and promptly poured half over my head, then swigged it. Ahhhhhh, powerade. Guess I should've checked before dousing myself with its stickiness. I could even feel it on the backs of my knees with every step.

I pulled into T1 right with the 2nd place jackrabbit girl, happy with a 6:50ish pace. I find it really hard to pace a run with the thought of the rest of the race in mind. I'd slow down to conserve, then decide to push harder, then remember the bike, etc. The girl just ahead of us must've had a slow transition, because I came out right with her. She and jackrabbit proceeded to pull ahead of me, but since that's just not my style (I can't sprint anymore), I stayed calm and rode my own pace. I was surprised a few miles later when a couple of other girls came by, but only one was really flying, so I just kept my eye on them. My husband also came by me, and I was plotting my repass of the whole lot of them.

Then, a few hundred yards from the turnaround, I heard the hiss of a flat tire, and realized that it was indeed MY tire. Of course I hadn't taken a spare tubular tire in a sprint race. I have never had a flat on tubulars, this was a brand new tire, and besides, I don't have a bit of practice changing them. My race was over. I walked to the turnaround where I spent over an hour directing traffic, cheering, and chatting with my new friend Fred. Luckily I've had lots of practice at the Los Locos Du doing precisely that job.

Jeremy ended up having a good race, but he still doesn't have a win over me yet. :)

Since I got less than a decent workout Sunday (7 whole miles on the bike minus warmup), we made our Tuesday workout a little harder. We rode halfway up the back side of the mountain. I kept my heart rate super high with the thoughts of stalking mountain lions, with which I have become a little obsessed. I met a guy last week whose brother knew a guy killed by a mountain lion while riding his bike in California. I know that's a few degrees away from me, but nevertheless, it's a connection. Sure enough, when we dismounted to cross the creek, I saw a large track in the gravel. Jeremy swore it was a dog track.

I'm getting really good at identifying the differences in canine and feline tracks now, so when people come to visit for training camp, I'll be prepared. I might even have poop-IDing ability by then. And some good pepper spray. Or a hand grenade.

Does this look like lion country to you? Don't answer that.

competition motivation

2011-03-31T18:00:00.000-06:00

This job has given me another new perspective on exercise, performance, fitness, GROUP fitness, and motivation. Everyone who is active duty in this branch (well, any branch) of the military is required to take a fitness test at least once a year. It is an interesting study of sports psychology --particularly motivation. A lot of these people's sole motivation is to keep their job and/or rank, an external reward. A large number of these people hate running. They get no internal satisfaction from getting out on the road and using their own energy to move; there's no happiness that comes from pushing past limits; they don't get that accomplished feeling from finishing a tough workout successfully. How miserable must running be to them!

I'm thankful I enjoyed running even before I found out I had to take the fitness test as a job requirement. So I'll admit to doing a few pushups and a minute or two worth of situps in the weeks leading up to the test. I even went out and ran the 1.5 mile on the track to make sure this wasn't going to be an issue. After all, the 7:10 pace I needed to run to get maximum points is significantly slower than I've run, oh, 8 and a half times that far (half marathon). It was easy. Regardless, the looming test was starting to stress me out, and I finally pinpointed why. I've spent the last year or more calming down my competitive side, which used to be key in my motivation. When you can't manage to perform at even a fraction of your previous ability, it's something you have to do. Anyway, as the test got closer, I started feeling some competitive energy from some girls who were also testing. They're in good shape for the average person, but far from competitive athletes that I'm used to getting whooped by. The pressure was on to max out the test. And for the nervousness I felt, you'd have thought it was a championship race. And I didn't like the feeling. I didn't like the competitive energy, I didn't like the pre-test jitters, and I didn't like all the talk of how I was going to "do just fine." I finally came out of my self-depreciating shell long enough to verbalize that I'd run a half marathon at a faster clip, only to get a mild ridiculing for it.

It turned out to be an easy test to max. I did a few extra pushups and situps, just for good measure, not to rub it in to the competitive girls who failed to max pushups, of course. That my scrawny little non-swimming arms could endure longer than theirs actually was a surprise to me, since they are the self-labeled group fitness "Divas." I think the mentality around these parts is that the number of group fitness classes -- in particular, spinning, body pump, and yoga -- that you can complete in a week is the barometer of fitness. Extra points if you taught them.

After being pushed into attending the body pump instructor training, I quickly realized that I am not a group fitness instructor at heart. I do love teaching spinning, but I like to teach how I ride, and it's not like an aerobics class. I have enjoyed attending body pump classes, but that's where it ends. I don't want to spend my time learning counts to a bunch of songs for body pump; this isn't making me smarter, it's just wasting my time. I think people assume that athletic types are automatically fitness fanatics. There's a big difference. I'm going to have to work on changing my label around here.

This weekend will be the first real race of the year. It's another reverse triathlon, like I ended my season with last year, but shorter. I've always considered my strength to be specifically running off the bike, which means my edge has been taken away. But that's how it goes around these dry parts. I better work on making cycling off the run my thing. I would like to forewarn the faster swimmers that contrary to what the race information suggests, I will not be stopping at the end of the pool lanes to let faster swimmers go by. I'm just not doing it. Nobody pulls over to the side of the road and lets the faster bikes go by, even when it's congested. No fair.

I'm excited to pull out the new Zipps and race gear for a real test of my fitness. I think.

Running DC

2011-03-20T16:32:00.000-06:00

I've always been interested those running tours that you can do in big cities, so I did my own around DC. It was a really great way to see a lot of sights. Jeremy was headed out for a meeting in the District, so I went along for the ride, and to miss a few days of work. Before leaving I had planned first where to run. I found this awesome trail that goes on for about 20 miles on the Virginia side of the Potomac. It was pretty crowded on the weekend mornings, with all the "warm" weather they were having (so we heard; I don't think 45 is all that warm). But the flowers were budding and some leaves were appearing on the willows. Running right on a real river reminded me so much of Mud Island. And the river was just as dirty too.

We ended up running all around the mall, several times, by the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument, the yet-to-bud cherry trees, the Capitol, the colorful townhouses behind the Capitol, the WWII and Vietnam War Memorials, and Arlington National Cemetery, for starters.

And a brief word about the fuel that I ran on. When your usual dining out options include one, maybe two restaurants in town, you might get a little overwhelmed by the choices in a big city. I found every meal to be excellent, and we've even repeated a few restaurants. I'm not sure Alamogordo has heard of Indian food, so I'll be the first to open the Chipotle-style Indian restaurant like they have in DC. And the cafe in the American Indian museum we visited thrice and had different, unusual, and delicious selections every time.

I was happy to be back home for the warm temperatures, blue skies and ~~work that I love~~. I think I'll start a running tour of Alamogordo. You know they charge around $10/mi for those? I'd spend a mile talking about that burning smell that persists when it's even remotely warm out, while viewing the mountains and learning how the basin dropped between the ranges. The next mile, I'd talk about all the varieties of cacti we have. We could look for snakes the third mile. And for the hill runners, we could go up in the mountains and do some cougar and bear tracking. It's spring! Time for those baby bears to come out and play.

I have credentials

2011-03-06T17:02:00.000-07:00

I'm finally official. That USAT test took me longer to complete that I'd planned, so I only sent it in a few weeks ago. Then I stressed that I'd made too many mistakes. And just before I emailed them to bug the poor coordinator about it, I got this.

So now I can start helping people train for triathlons, because you know, I haven't been for the last however many years. Coincidentally as I should be at the top of my training game with this nice paper in my possession (right?), I feel like I'm falling worse and worse out of shape. I think someone borrowed my lungs and forgot to give them back. We went on that group ride in the "big city" yesterday and while I kept trying to find that gear I used to have, it's long gone. And didn't I just run a marathon 6 or 7 weeks ago? 10 miles today was more than enough. Ug.

I'll stop my complaining. After talking to Damie today, I decided I'd appreciate the fact that, unlike the pros, when I'm having a bad day, there are no cameras in my face shooting the evidence. Nobody is riding their motorcycle beside me (falling over because I'm going so slow) asking me how I feel and catching the pukage as it comes out of my mouth. "So Joy, we know that you're trying to run by heart rate and going up a slight incline, but a 9:42 pace is all you got in you?" Yes. For right now it is. And call me Coach Joy.

More mountain action

2011-02-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

For Presidents' Day weekend, we got off Monday! So we went up to Santa Fe for a quick trip. I still can't find a reason not to love Santa Fe, even after visiting the dodgy Sonic where we got panhandled (we were the panhandlees. and we got in really late Friday night and had few choices for dinner. so don't judge).

The main focus of the weekend was skiing, and after a great 3-4" of new snow that fell all day Sunday, Monday was super cold. Does my look remind you of anyone?

I managed to keep all my fingers and toes, thanks to the hot packs my parents gave me for Christmas, knowing my limiter with skiing is the cold. Nobody fell off the chair lift, and J somehow managed to not drop the camera, his poles, gloves, goggles, or anything else (I had a death grip on mine the whole time). That chair lift can take you to some heights, and over areas you do NOT want to go down. I'm not usually scared of falling out of chairs that I'm sitting in. It must have something to do with the heavy skis that are slowly sliding my slickly covered butt toward the edge. We did see some dropped items; the usual poles and gloves along with some unusual mardi gras beads were seen on the way up. Someone also dropped her bra on a tree.

We were sore in lots of new places (like shins), especially after attempting the black slopes, and for me, a few moguls that were bigger than my car. The first time I tried them I spent about half the slope sliding on my butt.

It was good cross training, and we appreciated the warmer temps even more when we got back down to town. I highly recommend taking your mugger with you to Santa Fe. It's beautiful.

Today we did a more true to our sport event: a 5K. It was ugly, even for my lack of speed lately. The first mile was downhill, second uphill, third half and half. I was disappointed to find that the total elevation gain was 160ft. It felt more like 1600ft. I got smoked by one man, but passed Vibram/tights/sleeveless shirt guy early on. The husband closed the gap on me on the uphill, of all places (I'm the short stocky one!), but I solidified my win on the last downhill. Barely. He's gaining on me-- just 14 seconds behind this time. We got 2nd and 3rd OA. I'm swearing off 5Ks for a while now. They go right into that same category with the marathons: not for me anymore. Except it seems J signed me up for Duathlon Nationals, just a few months away. Better not throw away the racing flats yet.

Motivators

2011-02-15T20:47:00.001-07:00

Less than two weeks after our city's new all time low temperature record of -17F, we got to 75 Sunday and today, getting the husband and me out on our actual bikes. Outside. It hurt in all the usual places, like quads, butt, and neck. We both seem to be suffering from a bit of Winter Neck Syndrome, where it hurts to keep holding your head up after a long winter of no bike riding.

Shortly after getting back from our hill repeats tonight, my new wheels arrived at my door! Thanks to my awesome teammate who switched from 650 to 700 wheels this year, I got only slightly used, incredibly fast, best wheels without a motor-- ZedTechs. And they match my bike.

My new job, even though not physically demanding in the least, has been a major stress to me. There are things about it that have me waking up in the middle of the night too uptight to go back to sleep. This is something that has never happened to me before, and while I realize now how lucky I've been all these years to avoid it, I'm not enjoying the morning hangover feeling that follows.

But I'm still working on getting up to swim in the mornings. It's been a hard change. I'm trying to remember my new favorite quote from Nancy, "Change is hard. Drowning is worse." Nothing like fear of death as a motivator.

Computraining

2011-02-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

I've been on it twice now, once on the road bike, then finally the tri bike when I got the race wheel off of it (yes, it's been on there since September, along with my race number). I usually get bored and/or sore in the saddle region quickly on the trainer, so I try to avoid it as much as possible. But I have to admit that this computrainer makes it much more interesting. Not only can I get whooped by the silver bullet man who obviously outweighs me by a few stones, but I can also get whooped by the ghost of my husband who has just done the same course a few hours before more, and whose large red-jerseyed image pulls out much higher wattage than I can dream of (but um, not per kilo of body weight, ahem).

I'm not going to embarrass myself by admitting to any actual wattage marks I've hit (or not hit), but I will say that I probably won't be asked to ride for any pro teams anytime soon. I was surprised at just how slow my reported speed was given my effort, as well as how pitifully my left leg performs compared to my right. It seems to always be performing 48% or less of the work, even though I know it's my more muscular, less fat let. That fact was confirmed several years ago by DEXA. Yes, it breaks down exactly how much fat, bone, and muscle is contained in each appendage. Pretty cool. All I can figure is that my fat heavy right leg puts forth more work in the form of giving in to gravity.

I keep working on that, as well as the efficiency of my pedal stroke. Anywhere close to 90% seems to be possible only when pulling up on the pedals as hard as possible and not letting it fall down again with any speed. Real efficient seeming.

I'm so excited about this new toy that I'm actually planning on getting up to ride in my little virtual pink 2 piece outfit on my virtual pink bike, chasing the silver bullet man, before work tomorrow. He's going down this time.

Birthday Week

2011-01-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

My birthday came and went this week, but thanks to being at a boring job all day, it seemed to go on forever. I'd be celebrating this weekend, but I have 27 hours of bodypump training over the next 3 days that I have to attend. And I have to pay to attend. I better get a lot out of this class. I do enjoy going to the classes, and if I get paid to teach them, it will hopefully be worth it. I've never been a big aerobics/fitness class teacher, but maybe I'll find that I enjoy something other than spinning.

It's almost spring here! I'm looking forward to getting back on the bike outside soon, and having tri camp New Mexico style as soon as someone comes to visit and brings their bike. hint hint

We're still in the process of figuring out which races to do in our last year of the 30-34 age group. Any good southwestern suggestions?

Happy early season training to all!

Phoenix Marathon

2011-01-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

It's over. In some ways I'm relieved it's over, but mostly I'm slightly embarrassed at how poorly I paced it and how slowly I ended up running the last, oh 10 miles. Part of me wishes I hadn't even done it, and conveniently, my chip never recorded a finish time, and there are exactly zero pictures of me doing the race. So maybe it was all a bad dream! Oh wait, here's a video from someone else's finish. Yup, that's me. Evidence.

The pictures that came up on my page were all the generic ones, but includes the great sunrise that morning.

So on to the race. I switched my corral and found the 3:20 pacer. He was a short stocky balding little man with quite a following. The first five miles were almost perfectly on pace, and I was praising little bald man in my head. Then slowly and steady, despite the more steep uphill climb (ok, it still wasn't steep), the pace went lower and lower. I was hitting several sub-7:30s-- through 11 miles, when I finally decided to back off. The goal was 7:38 pace, and I knew that was even pushing it given my complete lack of race pace training. I spent the next few miles, through 16, slowing down steadily, and then hit the dreaded 8+ mile. One single mile after that one was sub 8 mins, even though the course was all downhill from that point on. So was my race. This says it all.

My hamstrings started cramping with more effort than they'd given up until that point, and I paused to turn on the ipod for some entertainment. I have to say I heard some decent songs and bands through about 18 miles on the Rock N Roll course, but after plugging the ipod in, they just annoyed me. Actually everything became more irritating-- the sticky cytomax coating on my hands, the rough road and its cracks that twisted my ankles, the way people kept passing me, my stupid garmin that kept showing these slow miles. Maybe I was really going much faster, and it was one of those garmin glitches. Like how it crashes after 100 laps when the language is set to Danish (for real). But it wasn't.

I even had a mile in the 9s if you count the stop to attempt to stretch the hamstrings. I could've killed the woman on the bullhorn at 25.2 miles who kept saying, "Only one more mile!" That was too long for me. And then, many turns later, I crossed that finish line, one minute slower than my first and only flat out marathon 10 years ago, and only 2 minutes faster than my best IM marathon. Awesome.

I've never felt muscle pain quite like what came over me just beyond the finish line. I sat and waited for Jeremy (PR!), grimacing in pain to the point that people were asking me if I was ok. Not sure what that was all about, but when Jeremy finally got there, the benefit of having a doctor for a husband became clear: he carried an extra pain pill in his pocket and gave it to me.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel hot tub and lounging by the pool, then eating pizza and enormous cookie dough desserts. I contemplated either a) never running again, or b) going for a do over. I'm still holding out on the decision.

We're ready for a change of sport, at least for the weekend, and heading up to the mountain for a little snow skiing. Cross your fingers for our knees and other breakable parts.

It's Here!

2011-01-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's almost time to head to Phoenix for my 2nd/13th marathon. I've been tapering really (too) well these last two weeks while sitting all day trying to learn to speak in acronyms and form numbers. If immersion learning really works, I should be fluent by February.

Before races I always get paranoid about catching a cold. To help matters, now I'm afraid of food poisoning. There was a continuously running video playing just beyond my cubicle all day today, teaching me all about foodbourne illnesses. Did you know that you shouldn't buy raw chicken that's slimy, smelly, or funny colored? Apparently not everyone has access to such information. I poured out a pot of lumpy moldy coffee that was siting next to some cheese left out all night in the break room. I keep meeting new people and shaking hands, and since I don't have my own computer yet I'm using others'. Gaaak I feel dirty!

At this point in the game I should be coming up with all possible excuses for why I may fail to run a decent marathon Sunday. Instead I'm trying the no-way-I'm-going-to-run-anything-but-a-major-PR approach. So excuses will only be listed after the race. And even if it's not a great race for me, I still get a 4 day weekend in sunny warm Phoenix. Reward for sticking (somewhat) to the training.

The holiday is OVER

2011-01-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

Previously, on this blog...

I was running a lot, working on my USAT certification, and injuring myself sleeping. Luckily I've resolved two of the three. I'm now tapering, not actively working on my certification, and over my pains and injuries! But oh, how things have changed.

We traveled first to Kentucky for the holidays to see the Harwood family, where our last 20 miler of the marathon plan shortened without too much consideration to 11 miles around the city of Bowling Green, in lots of beautiful snow. We also got in a short Christmas Day run where the horses in the pastures along the road ran to the fences to greet us, one after another. A beautiful white Christmas!

Next was Memphis where I got to run my old favorite, the Yellow Trail, and see my family for the week after Christmas! Memphis was COLD and damp, but lots of fun. The week was spent with my awesome old (meaning longstanding, of course) friends. And here's another version of the classic trio:

New Year's Day Jeremy and I were supposed to run with Nancy and Jerry... thank goodness she was sick also! That was one more canceled run that I had no problem with. And before I knew it, we were back home, and I was getting ready for work.

Yes, that's right, I now have a full time J-O-B. And let me tell you, the best way to slow down the hands of time is take off work for 10 months, then suddenly begin again. Jerry reminded me of just how good I had it those last 10 months approximately 5 days before it all ended.

Not being a morning person, I've missed pretty much every sunrise here in NM, but caught a great one on the way to work this morning.

Then I caught the sunset over the other mountains on my run right after work.

Thankfully the middle of the week 12 milers are finished, and the taper is in full effect. This perfectly coincided with having less time to do these runs, especially around noon, when the sun is shining and warm, when I've had time to warm up and plan all my pre-and post-run meals, when I can nap right afterward... But in exchange for working, I'm getting paid, which means I can enjoy the new race wheels and computrainer we just bought. The holiday may be over, but the real fun of Ironman training will be beginning soon!

Non-Running Injuries

2010-12-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to report that my hip pain (TFL) has decreased significantly over the past few weeks, that is, until I did a slow 4-miler last Friday. Maybe my body likes a faster pace better? I will have no problems with that on marathon day. My usual hamstring tendinitis that I caught on Ballbuster Hill my last season of college CC has been reminding me of its existence every so often, especially when I lie down to go to sleep.

But in that very position, prone in bed --not out on my long run-- is where I seem to have developed the worst of my injuries from the weekend. It's the right shoulder. Stupid lax joints! And my lack of swimming probably doesn't help that.

The other pain I've recently developed actually did happen on my long run yesterday. It wasn't due to the constant concrete surface or the slope of the road though. It was my fuel belt. As I bounced along for approximately 27,000 steps, the tiny bottles strapped to my waist tap-tap-tapped along, resulting in 3 bruises on my stomach and back, precisely where the bottles sat.

My quads are feeling good, calves have no problems, feet and ankles are managing just fine. Now I'm ready for this race to just hurry up and get here!

mileage pr

2010-12-12T21:51:00.001-07:00

This week, following the 12 week Pfitzinger plan, I ran my highest mileage ever. This is not going to be impressive to any of you who have every run a marathon, I promise. For some reason, throughout college and even Ironman training, I've never broken (to my knowledge, at least), the 45 mi/week mark. Until today.

Today's 20 miler, even though I died a slow death the last 3 miles, pushed me to 48 miles for the week. I mentioned before that I'm trying really (kind of) hard to follow this plan, but actually I was supposed to hit 55. Knowing my past mileage PR of around 45, 55 was just a bit too much. Oh, and also, I skipped the whole "7 of the 12 miles at half marathon pace" part of Friday's workout in favor of running 10 miles at an easy pace with a friend.

Really the biggest news for the week is that I actually registered for the marathon that I've been running all this excessive mileage for. It's in 5 weeks. Considering the disaster that was miles 17-20 today, I'm excited that I'll be well tapered for the actual race.

I think part of my problem today was ole Bob Seebohar from last week's USAT Clinic. I mentioned he is big on training the fat burning zone and consuming fewer carbs. Apparently my subconscious has committed wholeheartedly to this training technique, because, in my delusional state at about 15 miles in, I decided to change my route and not go by home. Home is where the food is. At least I burned about a half pound of fat today, so I'll be lighter on race day, if nothing else.

I know a good bunch of carbohydrates was burned at mile 18.3, and again at 18.7 when I ran by a crazy yapping black chihuahua-like dog who dared to chase me down the street (I had to turn around at 18.5 and face him both directions). My heart rate skyrocketed when my legs realized they had little choice in making a quick escape. I had to challenge him back with yelling and running straight at him. Luckily it worked.

I'm starting to think about marathon pacing now. I read on Joe Friel's blog that the #1 mistake athletes make is poor pacing. I don't disagree with that, but do disagree that emotion is my biggest problem. I really don't know what I am capable of running at this point. I know I have run one marathon (my only flat out) with a negative split, and have negative split an IM marathon, which is how the fastest races Joe has coached have been run. He says it's a hard skill to learn, but I'm not sure if it's just an underestimation of your ability or, in my case, a complete lack of ability to guesstimate a realistic pace. I don't remember ever running while checking mile splits in any of these races. I hoped it was just my central governor telling me how fast to run. Or maybe it was just comfortable and I knew I could hold on. I don't know. So I'm going to make it extra hard on myself and try to stay with a pace group. Nothing like running someone else's pace, right?

So marathon veterans, how do you do it? I was recently telling someone my almost 3 hour time differential between my fastest and slowest marathons. Obviously, I don't know; the 6:23 one felt harder than any 3:30ish ones I've run (except for the lying on the side of the road part). Maybe I'm overthinking this, just like I overthought the decision to actually register. Help?

almost a coach!

2010-12-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we spent in Vegas; I was at the USAT coaching clinic and Jeremy was running the half marathon. We also managed to have some delicious food, go to the Cirque du Soliel show "O," and see some sights.

So where to begin? There was lots of good information at the clinic. I did an extra CEU session with Bob Seebohar, who is an exercise physiologist and sports dietitian. His is a different way of thinking about fueling during and outside of exercise-- at least different from my past thinking. Basically, if we can decrease our reliance on carbohydrates, we'll see a lot less gastric distress during exercise.

Ian gave us more info on swimming, while I was wishing that he'd just coach me. There was a pool right outside, heated and everything. He covered cycling very well, especially for the limited time we had. I came out of it wanting a Computrainer.

Justin covered running and periodization, which I had a hard time concentrating on, partly because he wrote very tiny numbers on the white board at the dark front of the room, and partly because it was Sunday morning and I was watching Jeremy cross the finish line on my laptop at the back of the room.

Side note: Jeremy PRed by almost 5 minutes! And he didn't trust me that he'd be fast with all this extra mileage. Still waiting for his RR.

I learned in the clinic that every class has THAT GUY. Dude if you're going to constantly talk about yourself, at least find something better to brag about than, "I averaged 100 watts on the bike in a half IM." Really? Did you finish before the cut off? Topple over on the hills?

There were lots of great people there to minimize that guy. I became friends with Rob, who is an amazing athlete. He wins his AG in almost every race he does, and has qualified for worlds over and over. On Sunday, when I was approximately 2 minutes late for class, I walked in to find a look of horror on Rob's face, and that guy setting up shop in my seat! He created enough commotion to distract us every few minutes and to make Rob move his seat.

I found it interesting that I'd been doing triathlons about a decade longer than most people in there. A few had 20+ years of experience, and at least a few were pros or ex-pros, but for the most part, the future coaches had been racing for 3-4 years. One lucky girl had been sent by the Y because they just wanted a tri coach on staff. I don't think she had even raced one. Along those lines, we discussed how success in a sport a good coach does not make. It takes a certain personality plus experience maybe? to do it right. I'm hoping my huge variety of performance outcomes will win me some points. At least I've made all the mistakes. :)

I felt like I was in class most of my hours in Vegas, but we ended our trip with me running in Red Rock Canyon park, Jeremy following along in his car (so he could pick me up when I was done). That night was sushi! and the late performance of "O." And O my, it was amazing! I was impressed not only by their acrobatic moves, but also their ability to survive deep dark water without oxygen for minutes at a time. They could teach me a few things about swimming.

Next I have to complete my take home test, hope I did a good job, and get my certificate. Fingers crossed!

Air Resistance

2010-12-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

I'm back for a short time in the Gord after a weekend in Phoenix watching Ali and Joel and Chrissie to their thing at IM Arizona. And, by the way, in case you were wondering, Jeremy and I both stood in line for 3 hours to pull the trigger and sign up. I then went straight to Little Rock (love love love Southwest Airlines -- I wonder if they'd like to sponsor me?) and on to Germantown for Thanksgiving. I got to meet my brand new niece who is so sweet and tiny. And growing right before our eyes.

In the training arena, I had a "recovery" week during this trip, but I'm not sure that 42 miles in the week is quite low enough for me to recover. So I changed it to 22 miles. I'm always expecting (the 3 times I've been back to sea level-ish altitude) to run minutes per mile faster. I hasn't happened yet.

I read in Daniels's book-- I think-- that while running at altitude provides less oxygen per breath (therefore vo2max is lower), you have lower air resistance so you should get some benefit from moving through the air more easily. Ok, um, from my experience, air resistance is not my problem. Yes sometimes wind can be a factor, but on a normal-wind day, that's not really what I consider to be my limiter. Although maybe that's why I can maintain the smokin' speed of 8 mph up the Ski Apache mountain...hmmm.

It can get windy here in the basin. We're between two mountain ranges that are 60 or so miles apart, and it's very flat down here. Today's workout included 5x1000 at 5k pace, which I really can't even guess right now. So I decided on 7 min/mi pace. The first one was slightly uphill and I amazed myself by averaging 6:40 pace. Must be the new inhaler. But that's a story for another post. I turned around on the same road for the second interval and immediately noticed the wind. Not awful wind, but the first thing that popped into mind was air resistance. I should probably blame my slow speed on bad pacing, but it was downhill and I averaged 7:11. Argh. Immediately upon finishing that 1000 I realized that I HAD to go straight back to the house. I forgot the big effect of that taking-off-from-speedwork-of-any-kind-and-then-starting-again has on me: a need for a close bathroom.

I walked/ran the 3/4 of a mile to home, where my Garmin decided I was too close to the computer, so it proceeded to download part one of my run. I then amazed myself by actually going back out to get in 2 more miles and 2 more intervals. I normally would've called it a day, but I'm really trying to follow this plan. I did compromise and go 0.8 miles and one interval short, but redeemed myself with my second interval. Ok, so it was downhill, and still slower than the first one, but the pace was also 40 sec/mi faster than the third one. But I think it was with the wind.

I know a lot of records were set at altitude in the Mexico City Olympics in like 1968, but just how many of these events require the aerobic system? The 10,000m, the marathon....how long do the cyclists ride? Maybe the 1650 swim-- not that the air resistance would matter. But for sprinting, it's ideal.

I'm still wavering on this marathon in Phoenix. We drove the course, and not only is it flat, it's kind of scenic too. But what's holding me back is this thought that I won't be any faster there. The air resistance will be much greater. How much more psychological can I make this? :)

Tomorrow I leave for Las Vegas to ~~party it up~~ take the USAT Coaching Certification class. I'm really excited to be "certified" even though I've been told that level one focuses on training elites. But I'll be official! And looking for clients. Preferable elite clients. j/k :) Jeremy is coming for the fun stuff-- going out at night and running the half marathon. Brett Michaels is the post race entertainment. If that's not a reason in itself to go, I don't know what is.

Precipitation

2010-11-19T16:24:00.001-07:00

I ran into some snow today, literally. I'd heard there was some up on the mountain, and sure enough, it lingered on road 634 where I ran. (This road is too out in the middle of nowhere to even have a name. I think it's the 634th Lincoln National Forest road. I really didn't know there would be that many.)

What's up with my sudden inability to rotate pictures? Actually I did rotate it, but it rotated itself right back when I put it here. Anyway, if you don't mind turning your head to the side, it's a beautiful view...

I don't expect much snow down in the valley this year, and it's certainly too warm right now to have any. Remember monsoon season? Well in comparison to what we've had since then, it's appropriately named.

I was driving home from the gym the other day when it started raining! I actually had to use my wipers like twice. Coming up on the city, I could see a strange dust cloud forming over it. My picture out the car window doesn't give the full effect, but here it is. (I know, beautiful foreground. Sorry.)

It wasn't quite the dust tornado that we frequently see out here. One that size would've been exciting, especially right over my house.

I'm really adapting to this dryness. Coming out of the grocery store on another day, I started driving into a strange wetness on the streets. Looking up at the sky, there were no clouds whatsoever. Maybe a little one rained itself completely out while I was shopping.

This reminded me of a ride we did with the local group. They just went plowing right over all sand, dirt, or gravel that was in the road. I commented that gravel scares me on the bike. One man said, "We're scared of water."

I'm headed out to Phoenix for the weekend for some IM spectating (and sign up), and just to visit another state in which I've only set foot in the airport. Next week it's back to the rainy south. Should I bring galoshes and a poncho? I'll be checking the forecast.

Decision Time

2010-11-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

Even with the elections over, I still haven't made my big decision this fall, which is to race, or not to race. The most urgent (and expensive) race decision involves Ironman Arizona. This Monday we will be D-day. Jeremy and I will be in Tempe, having watched the race and previewed the course over the weekend.

You may wonder why I'm having a hard time deciding on this, since my past behaviors seem to indicate my haste in registering for yet another Ironman, year after year. But I'm hesitant this time. The past almost two years -- since I feel like I lost my running legs and lungs -- have thrown me for a loop. I don't know what's going on with this body that refuses to get back in shape. And while I, of all people, am not afraid to go out and crash and burn on an Ironman course, I sure don't want to set myself up for failure. A year out.

I know once I get to the race and feel the excitement and remember why I love these events, I'll be pushing my way into the registration line and thrusting my $600 check at the nearest taker. But for this week, I'll be weighing the pros and cons (which are mostly my athletic inabilities) over and over.

The next racing decision I can wait just a little longer to make. Jeremy has signed up for the Phoenix marathon in January. I couldn't pull the trigger last month when he was offering to register me. And I'll probably wait until the last minute or until I discover that the race is full.

Last time I was in Memphis I went to my favorite running shoe store where I talked to my favorite running shoe store manager. He happens to be an incredible runner, and is training for his next 100 miler. Deciding when exactly to race, he said to me, "Like you, I don't race just to do it, I want to do well." Yes! Thank you for remembering that about me, when I almost forgot. I can't bring myself to do a marathon just to do it. Why would I want to run the same speed I ran in my last decent Ironman? I don't even think that's an accomplishment worthy of the leg pain it causes. And my only flat out marathon -- my first one, 10 years ago-- was just 3 minutes faster than that. I'm not going out there to PW, or to even PR by a minute or two. And at this point, my legs aren't proving to me that I would do any better than that.

Of course I could be using a false measure of slowness. I am comparing my Garmin data to my many years of runs lacking data. I've always just assumed I did whatever distance my legs felt like they did for that day. I'd go by time a lot, but never charted or measured distance. Now I'm obsessed with mapmyrun.com and my Garmin. Ackkkk.

So maybe I've been running this slowly for years now, but just didn't know it. Maybe I could run a decent marathon. Maybe I'll just sign up under an alias, so my results won't be posted on the internet forever, just in case.

Yes or no?? I guess it's still TBD.

Cool Running

2010-11-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

I had the best run yesterday. It started out near Cloudcroft, our local mountain town. I had looked up the weather and found the first report to be unbelievable, so I checked two more sites and got a twenty degree discrepancy. Turns out it was the coldest of the three -- 42F! But it was sunny and comfortable.

The first trailhead at which I stopped marked the entrance to the Vista Trail, which turned out to be full of nice vistas, but only about a third of a mile long. I got right back in the car and headed just a little further down the road to the Rim Trail. I'd heard of the Rim Trail, but hadn't actually set foot on it before. It started out rocky and rooty, but only for a few short sections. Soon it turned into a nice 18-inch-wide ledge, covered in pine straw and hard packed dirt, that rose steeply to my left up the mountain. To the right, it dropped steeply off into the... well I couldn't see the bottom. At least there were a few trees there to break any potential falls before sliding into the deep abyss. Not sure if I'll bring my shaky mountain bike skills out here any time soon. It was a well trodden trail, but some parts were full enough of roots and rocks that I had a perfect excuse to walk and catch my breath.

Just under 2 miles in, I hit a road crossing. Deciding that I liked the looks of this road, I turned on it instead of continuing on the trail. Now THIS was a nice running road. It was hard packed, smooth dirt with just a bit of gravel. At this point I was feeling the searing in my lungs, and even though the hills weren't bad, I walked some of them. Jeff Galloway said to do it!

Soon I hit a highway and realized that this was in fact the same highway I had parked on. Just not here. But it couldn't be far away. I kept running until the Garmin said 4 miles, since I'd planned an 8 miler. I turned around and must've dazed off for a few miles. Next time I looked down the mileage said 6.4. Oops, wasn't I supposed to get back on the T105 trail at 6? Hmmmm, this looked familiar, but how unfamiliar can a dirt road with lots of evergreen trees look when that's what I've been running on for 4 miles? I kept going. At 7.5 I KNEW I had gone too far. Trying not to panic again (and keeping thoughts of bears this time out of mind), I tried to check my google map on the phone. No service, of course. How is it that I can be up here, higher than anything within like 100 miles, and still not get service?? I knew worst case scenario, I could run a few miles back to the highway and try to figure out which way to run back to my car. It was right at mile marker 5, and I knew I'd parked between, like, 3 and 7. Somewhere.

I turned around and was admittedly unsurprised when the trail marker was very easy to spot going the other direction. Not sure how it's so easy for my brain to faze out for over 2 miles. Can't it do this in my next race? Please?

I ended up with over 10 miles of trail running (read: slow running, Galloway style), plus I learned a new spot to get some off roading in. Very excited to take husband with me next time, and his sense of direction may be what I need to find my car more easily. That or I'm getting the get-me-back-to-my-car-I've-lost-in-the-parking-lot app on my phone.

Travelling the State

2010-11-03T18:03:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we found out just how tall a state New Mexico is. We went 3.5 hours north, still not very close to the north border, but to a beautiful city: Santa Fe. We left early Saturday and got there just about lunch time, so our first stop was a "local" favorite, according to my Yelp app. The bean burritos were good, the green chile sauce was excellent as always, but the red sauce still leaves something to be desired by my taste buds.

We had to walk off some of the lunch, so we oriented ourselves to the downtown area. The square had vendors and artists sprinkled around its borders, and the Native American jewelry artists located along one sidewalk, their turquoise and silver spread on blankets in front of them.

A few blocks over is the Santa Fe "River," which consists of a beautiful smooth stone ravine lined with the yellowest leafed trees you've ever seen. This goes directly through downtown for several miles. I overhead a tour bus guide saying it used to be a raging river, but... I missed the ending. It's barely a trickle in late October.

After lunch was sufficiently settled, we headed over to the Dale Ball Trails, just a few miles east of downtown, for our long run. Now the city of Santa Fe has the #1 for highest elevation of any state capital at 7300 ft. We didn't know how much higher these trails were going to take us. I picked the south set of trails for some reason, and it turned out to have some great elevation gains. Our long run turned into a hike of about 5 miles that took us up to a peak at 8500 ft. Even running downhill was difficult with the rockiness of the trail. I managed a nice controlled fall/rock slide down. But it was totally worth it. Beautiful.

That evening we found a sushi restaurant, which is something we've been sorely missing since moving from Jackson. It was fantastic. We didn't stay out on the town too late that night; we were tired and eager to rest up for more adventures on Sunday.

Our first stop Sunday was at the Aspen Vista Trail, up on yet another mountain. We got there a month or so too late for the peak of the aspen leaves; they were bare. It was also about 37F up there, so we headed back down a bit to the Borrega trails. Now I know I talk about elevation a lot, but I really do need an excuse for my slow running. This one started around 8300 ft and we only gained 1200 or so. It was SO much more runnable than Saturday's. Still very pretty (I mean, I find trees in general just gorgeous after so much scenery that only involves cacti and tumbleweed). There was even a creek that we crossed on a log. Thankfully Jeremy got video of my ridiculous inability to balance on a 2 foot wide flat topped fallen tree. I can never forget it now. And I'm not posting it. :)

After an Italian bistro lunch, we went to the New Mexico Museum of art to check out some Georgia O'Keeffe paintings, then headed to get souvenirs from Trader Joe's (namely, a case of Two-er..Three-Buck Chuck). And then it was time to head home.

I spent the ride home putting together a playlist for my new spin class on Mondays! I love teaching spin, but was a little torn when, after I agreed to it, the lead instructor told me that it's a volunteer class. Whatever, I'll just get such a following that they have to pay me, right? It has to be better than her class. I mean, she wears a weight vest to ride a bike...

The class Monday went well. It consisted of my two workout friends and one guy. Good start. now I need more good spin song ideas! Give me some suggestions, please! I can't play the CDs from 9 years ago when I first started. Right?

Back in the Gord

2010-10-27T13:42:00.002-06:00

What a great 2 week vacation to the southeastern part of the country! It started on Emily's birthday in Little Rock with a party of about 15 seven- and eight-year-olds (and a couple of 4-year-olds). While it was lots of fun, it may have been the longest 3 hours of my life, since I felt the need to help entertain and serve them. Really they were fine on their own, running through sprinklers, doing backbends, swinging in the back yard, and playing soccer, among the "planned" activities.

The rest of the week was regular school, gymnastics, art class, and soccer practice. Days flew by with this schedule, but Jenny and I managed to get some running and working out in. As a side note, I expected running at the lower altitude to be easier; I blamed the steep hills and the pushing of the 120lb double-stroller-with-the-two-big-kids-in-it when it wasn't.

The second stop on my tour was in Germantown at my parents' house. Jenny's birthday was celebrated here, with lots of playing outside and even a brief dip in the pool (by Jackson). In the backyard, a pickup game of baseball began. Jackson was at bat first, urging me to throw the ball harder. When I did, he hit harder, and it went further. Then I took a turn. Apparently my batting skills are not where Coach Jackson expected. He told me, "Joy, you're not very good at baseball." So I became the pitcher again.

Ethelyn came up for the party, but wasn't coerced into batting practice this time. She manned the swing.

While I got a little running done in Little Rock, the vast majority of my working out involved lifting a wriggling 25lb weight. He goes by the name of Ethan. He is interested in everything, so lunges from my arms frequently; it's quite a dynamic exercise. My biceps were screaming the first few days, but I found out in body pump class yesterday that I had no trouble at all with the usually challenging curl section.

After the children and Ethelyn left, Mom and I spent some time shopping, going to the barn to get the horse feed ready, watering plants at the cabin, and some more shopping. Have I mentioned the lack of shopping opportunities in the Gord? Unless Walmart is your venue of choice, you're left without much. Mom and Dad both made some great food for us all week, but this time I couldn't take the leftovers home. :(

I was excited to see my teammates at a team meeting while I was home, and of course I had to go out a few other times with Laura, Jonathan, Charlie, and Olaf. I even got to see Nancy, home from her latest locale two time zones away from mine. I'm not very good at taking pictures, but luckily Damie is, so I can steal one from her. Thankfully she didn't post my surprised-eyes picture.

Wow, that sure was easy to steal from her blog. Thanks D!

I got to run on "my" old trails, the yellow and the Tour de Wolf, along with a few laps around the neighborhood. I ran my very first mapped 5k route. I still remember the day I actually did the whole thing without stopping to walk. I maaaaay have done it slower this time. Even with the flatness of Memphis, my running didn't return. Luckily Barb and Nancy were easy on me during our run. We took walk breaks. Just like old times when training for IMFL.

And then Saturday, time was up. J and I had to head back to the southwest via some very delayed flights. I'm back now, in some beautiful fall weather, still unpacking, getting used to the altitude all over again. To jumpstart it, J and I went up to what turned out to be the nearest shooting range and ran (um, walked) up a thousand feet or so to a beautiful view of the valley. This time my heart rate soared due to something other than animal tracks: the gunshots. It was exciting. And a good way to return "home."

something that scares you

2010-10-14T09:12:00.000-06:00

I have fulfilled my quota for doing something that scares me everyday-- for at least this month. Last Friday before leaving for a two week vacation to the southeastern part of the US (yay!), I went to find a trail I'd been sighting halfway up the mountain. I also was able to find this trail online on some trail website, so I figured it would be 1) well populated and 2) well marked, at least. I set out to do a "long" run, but figured being off-road at 6000ft with 1000ft of climbing, that would consist of about 10 miles.

I parked on the side of one of our mountain climbing back roads that winds up the back side of the mountain and easily found the trail. You could go either left or right at the fork a quarter mile down the hill, so I chose left first. Most of this trail is an old railroad line, so it's relatively flat with some small gravel and an occasional tie. They had built a bridge where a train trestle had stood 50 years ago, the last time trains traveled up the mountain. I continued on down the trail -- down the gradual slope toward the basin -- and found that there are many ravines that they didn't build bridges over. I had to climb down and back up, mostly through prickly bushes. Side note: it seems that every bush has some prickly defense system in the desert. After almost exactly a mile, I decided that my legs were bleeding enough from thorns, and avoiding the prickly pears was becoming harder and harder. I turned around.

Back up almost to the fork again, I stopped dead in my tracks when out the corner of my eye, I saw some other tracks I hadn't seen before.

I analyzed this print for a minute, and couldn't find where it had come from or gone to because of the rockiness of the surrounding trail. Although I know dog tracks have toenails, I eventually convinced myself that this was a dog. A large friendly dog.

Continuing on the other way at the fork, I tried to push thoughts of cougars out of my mind. The trail was overlooking Fresnal Canyon, with some steep drop offs right beside me. Here you can see the trail below the road. No parks or playgrounds or people near.

There were more ravines to cross in this direction of the trail, but most had well worn paths dipping down and back up onto the railroad trail. A mile in, I got to Bridal Veil falls, which is a constantly running stream, even in drought years.

A couple of uneventful miles later, I had to cross a huge ravine and find my way to the continuation of the trail again. It was a steep rocky climb, but easy to navigate. Soon I came to what became the end of the trail for me. I found no path across this creek, even though I could see the trail on the other side. For some reason this picture came out with a very surreal look.

Turning around and climbing my way down that large ravine I'd recently crossed, I suddenly found myself climbing over rocks and thorny bushes with no trail in sight. Thoughts of rattlesnakes, tarantulas and cougars kept creeping back into my mind. I kept climbing. Realizing that not only was there no sign of human life in this area, but I also had no cell phone service, I started to panic. I could feel the anxiety creeping up from my chest as my breath got heavier and my heart beat faster and faster. The grass covering some rocks would be perfect cover for rattlers, and those shrubs all around could hide a stalking cat. Carefully checking placement of each footstep, I barely caught myself before almost stepping on the web of the only spider worse in my mind than a tarantula: a black widow. My mind was racing with thoughts of everything that could possibly go wrong when finally finally I spotted the trail 50 yards down the hill.

Still shaken up, it was almost impossible for me to run without looking over my shoulder the rest of the way back. I kept hearing sounds behind me and repeating to myself, "look big and scary, don't lose eye contact, throw rocks, and fight back."

I've never been happier to see my little car, or to end my 10 mile run 3 miles early. The adrenaline I pumped through my body in those 7 miles was worth at least 20 unpanicked miles. I've decided that Eleanor Roosevelt might not have meant running alone on a trail in cougar country when she said "do something every day that scares you." I'm going to pick my somethings a little more carefully next time. But I'm definitely taking Jeremy back to that trail soon. It was kind of exciting.

No pain, no gain

2010-10-08T12:45:00.000-06:00

I've started to believe more in this statement. I spent so long trying to convince people to just get a little bit of exercise every day -- easy, non-painful exercise -- that I guess I started to believe training goes the same way. Well it doesn't. At least not if you want to improve your fitness, or just not suck at running anymore.

For years I was perfectly content with the slight fluctuations in my running speed. It usually depended on how tired I was that week, or if I'd done some ridiculous workout the day before. Now it's slow all the time. I will have taken 5 days off running, done little else except some yoga, and I'm slow. I can run every day for 5 days straight, and every run is slow. I can warm up for 3 miles before trying to pick it up, but the pickup is still SLOW.

And it's all painful. If not physically painful, then the pace reading on my garmin produces psychological pain. Sometimes I get both kinds. I went to the track at the end of an extremely flat (but slow!) 8 mile run the other day to do some strides. Suddenly upon getting onto the track my legs switched into this gear that I'd forgotten they had. My stride gets longer and stronger, and it's easier to run faster. Four times around the track with pickups on the straightaways had me going faster and faster each time. I looked down at the garmin to see evidence of my warp speed, only to see 6:30. I actually used to run 10ks at this pace? It must've been another set of legs. But now that I've jogged the memory of those faster running muscles, I'm expecting them to take over any time now.

But in the meantime, I'll go on with my painful yet gainful runs. How about this afternoon's long run at 6800 ft? Don't mind if I do! The next two weeks will be at sea level, and I'm hoping to blame some of my pain on the elevation. Time will tell.

Until then, my running motto will be:

"According to the pain is the gain." - Rabbi Ben Hei

And finally, good luck to Maggi and Mark and everyone racing in Kona tomorrow! I'm thankful it's you instead of me this year.

Change of Seasons

2010-09-29T19:20:00.000-06:00

This is the first year since my very first Ironman in 2001 that I haven't ended the tri season with a big bang. Sometimes it's a good bang, other times it's the bang of my legs blowing up on the Queen K. Each year I've done either Ironman Florida or Hawaii in the fall, and I've never once had the slightest motivation to race again until, oh, January at least. I've not even been able to gather up enough interest to do the St Jude marathon, or half, which started only a few miles from my warm bed.

I suddenly found myself at the end of my tri season a few weeks ago. It didn't occur to me before the Yucca tri that it would be my last; I could've signed up for an Oly distance this past weekend. But instead, just as casually as the season started (Rebel Man, I think?), it ended. I'm not sad it's over, or regretful for not doing one more race, and I'm not even thinking about next year yet.

That's because it's now marathon season. Jeremy and I have decided that we are thinking about intending to sign up for a January marathon. Not a big deal to most people, I know. Jeremy, and I'll let him tell his story himself (if he ever blogs again, ahem), hasn't done a marathon since the last knee surgery. This will be his second.

It'll also by only my second flat out marathon. But it'll kind of be my 13th marathon also. Lucky 13! My only other stand alone was the 2000 First Tennessee marathon, so it'll be the 10th anniversary this year. Wow, that's a long time. And I have a different body now. It's been through a lot more, gained a lot of fitness and lost a lot of fitness. I honestly don't know what to expect of it anymore. It makes setting goals a little hard. But onward we go!

Learning

2010-09-23T15:09:00.000-06:00

I've been going to more classes at the gym here just for something interesting to do. I can usually stand another hour of spinning or yoga in my day. I'm trying to not be too critical of the instructors, because for the most part, the classes are entertaining and I get a workout in. And that's what I'm there for-- not to learn tidbits about exercise.

Some of the gems heard in these classes at the gym amuse and sometimes even amaze me for their lack of actual scientific basis. I just can't help but share them!

"Make sure you get enough oxygen in your lungs!" --And remember to keep those hearts beating!

"If you have healthy hamstrings, you have a healthy body" --I'm sure the guy with heart failure and lung cancer is happy to hear that all he needs is a good regimen of stretching.

"This is a good exercise especially for you who are cyclers." -- What kind of cyclers? REcyclers?

"The most common injuries for people who ride bikes are in their shoulders." -- said as encouragement to sit up and flap our arms up and down to "strengthen" them. Is she referring to falling and separating a shoulder? Can you show us some statistics on that?

"The first thing you're going to burn this morning is what you just ate for breakfast that's in your stomach. Then you'll burn the glycogen in your muscles, and only when that is gone do you burn fat." -- So after we all toss our cookies, then run 20 miles to burn up the stores of glycogen, we'll start burning fat... IF we don't go into a hypoglycemic coma first. That must be new research.

"When you squat make sure your knees don't collapse inward. That can cause Female Athlete Triad." -- my fav from back in Mississippi. Yeah if your knees collapse in, you may become anorexic, amenorrheic, and suddenly develop osteoporosis.

So while these are only quotes, don't think I'm not thoroughly amused by all the new moves I'm shown in spin classes as well. Some days I almost can't keep pedaling because I'm laughing so hard; it's very reminiscent of the days of spinning at the downtown Wellworx. Anyway, like I said, I'm entertained and I get a workout. And I seem to be learning some new concepts along the way.

parents' weekend

2010-09-17T11:29:00.000-06:00

We had a blast last weekend when my mom and dad came out to the Enchanted State... or whatever it's called. We started with a visit around town, which took all of 20 minutes, and a stop at Lowe's to get some good dirt for the trees Mom brought! We have five new 12" trees that will hopefully soon be blocking the view of my backyard from the neighbors' house.

Hiking, an excellent cross training exercise, took place each day in a different location. We hit the usual, Cloudcroft, for some excellent old train paths. Saturday was White Sands:

From there we visited Old Mesilla, which used to be a Mexican town, and ate lunch. Next up was the Organ mountains, where we found a trail to an old TB sanatorium,

which was hidden up in the rocks:

Sunday took us up north to Ruidoso, where we hiked across fields,

through tall pines

and to the courthouse in Lincoln where Billy the Kid was sentenced. Or killed a bunch of people. Both?

You may notice our special guest, Flat Stanley. He was visiting from Jeremy's cousin for the week. He likes to dress in Mexican garb.

And now for the ad:

YOU TOO could see all of these great places and more when you come to visit us in New Mexico! And if you call in the next 24 hours, I'll throw in a two-for-one deal at Casa Harwood. Don't wait, reserve your space today!

No really, come visit me!

Yucca Reverse Tri

2010-09-05T11:28:00.000-06:00

I've never done a completely backward, reverse order triathlon before. My experiences with this include 2 races: the Los Locos duathlon (running and then cycling, obviously), which I've done about twice, and before it was even called by this name, and the Dash 'n' Splash. The Dash 'n' Splash was a cute little early season race over at the University of Memphis, in which a two mile run around campus (once to be broken up by a train going through) is followed by a 500m swim. This 20 minute effort sounds relatively easy, but let me tell you, for a (non)swimmer such as myself, it is not.

Yesterday was the Yucca Triathlon down at the White Sands Missile Range, about 30 miles from home. As a side note, I think I discovered the source of that strange burning smell we get when it rains. It's there. Jeremy was on call and nobody could cover for a few hours, so he was stuck at home, leaving me to test the waters at the WSMR. I got there in plenty of time to have my car searched at the security gate, and as I stood in the darkness waiting for my pass, I heard the distinct sound of coyotes in the not-too-distant distance. I know it was a coyote howl, because it sounded exactly like it does on TV, in cartoons. That really had nothing to do with my race, but it of course made me pause at the eeriness.

I had no trouble finding my way to the gym to get registered, but noticed that the small parking lot was not full. As it turns out, I wasn't just early, it was a very small race. Getting my gear together in transition, the man next to me said, "You must be new because I don't recognize you, and I know everyone else here." He went on to tell me that he was going to be third place in his division, because only three of them were there and the other two would beat him. Now that's knowing your competition.

I tried to scope out my competition, but only saw a few women at the starting line from my vantage point at the back of the group. The starter gave the signal, and I slowly began my plod. We ran on a few base roads until we got to the "golf course." At that point, about 2 miles in, we went through an open gate onto a loosely packed dirt/sand road. I've driven through the missile range area with its warning signs of unexploded explosives enough to be wary of unpaved paths. So I followed closely in the footprints ahead of me. We ran through an interesting "confidence course," as it was labeled, that looked like an obstacle course of helicopters, tanks, and other random military-looking equipment. Still no land mines, thankfully. After 3 miles of slightly uphill sand, we did a quick out and back, on gravel, where I could check out positions. I was 6th overall, and the next female appeared about a mile behind me. Of course this didn't make me pick up the pace at all. Instead, I relaxed a little more.

I was wearing the Garmin for the first time in a race, so I know the 10k was more like 5.9 miles. I was ready to move on. The bike was mostly an out and back, starting with a 5 mile gradual descent. It seemed we had a bit of headwind out. Of course everything here is wide open, no trees or other windbreaks, so it was mild wind considering. I decided to take it a little easier on the way out-- the first 25k. As I let my heart rate come back down, an older man came bombing by me, only to slow down several yards in front. A few seconds later came another older man who did the same thing. I backed off from them, since this second one was something to take in. He was riding a relatively new (less than a decade old) Cannondale, but had the oldschool loopy aerobars with silver bar tape. He was wearing not only a fluorescent pink and yellow helmet, but also a fanny pack that said Gatorade Ironman on it. Very much like this picture of Scott Tinley from 1987:

This amused me for a while; I was recalling my favorite article written by ST a while back about how the further back you are in a race, the longer the shorts get, and waaaay back, you might see a fanny pack. Actually, when I talked to him after the race, he had not only raced back when ST did (his first IM was 1988 -- probably using the same aerobars), but he had the same mustache!

Anyway, he stayed legally off the wheel of the guy in front while I did the same to him. Front guy was slowing up some hills and Fanny Pack would stop pedaling, causing me to run up closer to him. Finally I passed, even though we were going very similar speeds. This took a huge amount of effort (apparently these men did not appreciate being chicked), and not one minute later, they came flying around me, slowing in front again. Fine, I decided to stay there. Then another sudden slow up and coasting came, catching me off guard, as Fanny Pack turned around and motioned for me to slow down and move back. I yelled at him in my head, "If you wouldn't STOP PEDALING I wouldn't be too close!!" Normally I would never let two guys in front of me dictate my pace, but seeing how far away the next female was, that whole motivation to go faster just wasn't there. Besides, I was busy checking out the scenery on the way back.

That long uphill at the end finally came, and caused the front guy slow WAY down. Fanny Pack passed him, and he slowed further, eventually I came up on him and passed as well, but FP was way too far in the distance to catch. I arrived in transition to the cheer of like one person, took off all my gear, remembering my Garmin, grabbed goggles and a cap, and jogged to the indoor pool. On the way, I grabbed the 2 empty GU packages I'd stuffed in my top and threw them, left handed, into the garbage can 15 feet away. Nothin' but net. I should've been a basketball player, J!

I got to the pool, fixed my cap, and jumped in the warm warm water. At some point without my noticing, someone had put vice grips on my shoulders and tied a bag of boulders to my feet. In slow motion, I swam up and down each 25m lane vertically. I'm sure my feet weren't near the surface. Amazingly, I passed two men in the pool. I think one was dog paddling and the other must've stopped to go down the slide. I got to the end and climbed out the ladder where one guy was standing with a clipboard. I asked where the finish line was and he gave me my time.

At the awards ceremony, where they didn't give overall prizes, I learned that I had actually beaten about 6 women, and was only beaten by 6 men. I also learned that I can survive a reverse tri, and at least I only have to run once! My next race, if I don't retire for the season, will be this format, so I better start practicing reverse bricks, or practice tying bricks to me in the swim. Change of training plans!

for the love of the ipod

2010-08-27T10:43:00.000-06:00

I've become much more of a music-listening exerciser this past year than I ever had been before. I'm sure some of it has to do with the size and shape of the object I have to carry to listen to music. Back when it was a bulky cassette-playing walkman or even a discman, I frequently took it out and held it by the wrist strap. Mostly back in those days I had teammates to run with, and conversation or heavy breathing usually filled the air space.

These days, carrying the iphone for safety anyway, it's just too convenient not to listen to music. Plus the husband always does. Always. I never listen to it in races, whether legal or not, since I have the tendency to get annoyed with certain songs while exercising. Either they're too slow, or just don't evoke quite the right mood for my effort level. Inevitably, I'll get something like, "Feels like you're dying, you're dying," in the middle of an interval. Thanks, Kings of Leon. You're right.

Having taught 8 or so years of spin class, I know music is important. The selection of the music to go on my CDs, especially when I first started teaching, was a major source of stress for me. I wanted to make sure everyone not only liked the songs I was playing, but was motivated by them to work hard. I relaxed about this after a few years, realizing that you can only please 80% of the people 20% of the time...or whatever that saying is.

As it turns out, the speed of the song is a real motivator, according to some new research done on cyclists. Participants' heart rates increased as the song tempo increased, and while the perceived exertion also increased, it seemed to motivate them to work harder. Distraction plus motivation.

One study showed that once runners hit about 90% effort, they were unable to increase pace anymore even with the upbeat music. Apparently it's not all mental. But lots of them enjoyed the music anyway. I find that at this level is probably where I get most annoyed with songs that aren't perfect for the moment.

Guilty:

So runners, cyclists, and Jeremy who even swims with a swimP3, how does that music effect you?

hills hills hills

2010-08-26T11:33:00.000-06:00

I like to find ~~evil~~ challenging routes for our weekend bicycling adventures, and I think I've come up with one for Saturday. We're heading up north to the resort town about 50 miles away. It is the local ski mountain, and I'm really looking forward to doing some skiing this winter. As cold as it is up there already, it shouldn't be long 'til snow is here. The lows are getting down into the upper 30s and low 40s already. Brrrr. But this weekend, if the rain holds off, we will preview on our bikes what we can take a chair lift up in a few months.

As short as this ride is, even though I'll tack a few miles on the beginning and end, it'll be a gut buster. Should I show this to J before we go, or keep it a secret? >:-)

The pool

2010-08-24T15:01:00.000-06:00

We've gotten pretty good about going swimming lately. I think we've averaged 2.5 times per week. But sadly, the total yardage is hovering around the 1800-2000 mark for just about all of those swims. The first week here we had the luxury of using the 50m outdoor pool in the mornings while the 25 yd indoor pool was being serviced in some way. Lap swimming is not normally allowed outside, so we're stuck in the usually uncrowded, clean, naturally lit indoor.

Last week I finally got the courage to time a 100 at the end of a workout. Up until this point I was a little scared of what my lack of swimming and the (same old excuse) altitude had done to me. Turns out I was scared for good reason. I sucked. It was at the end of the (rather short) workout, and I knew I hadn't been swimming well, but I was SLOW! Like 10-15 seconds slower than I expected (not going to embarrass myself by admitting just how slow it was). Discouraged, and trying to think up excuses for this, I hung my head and cooled down. Then a few days later I was picking up a gym schedule and saw hand written at the bottom of the pool schedule "pool length 50 meters." Knowing at least half of this statement is false (def not 50 anything), I was skeptical, so I confirmed with the lifeguard. She seemed 90% sure it was meters. What a relief. I got in the pool yesterday just feeling the extra power and speed that her confirmation had given me.

Back "home"

2010-08-17T17:03:00.000-06:00

Last week was running camp in New Orleans. It was just me and the pavement for most of the runs, but I decided to get back at it by running 6 days in a row. I probably haven't achieved this frequency of running since college. And I haven't done that much mileage in a week since at least last fall. I had a great time running down the trolley line on St. Charles with all the beads decorating the trees; into the Garden District neighborhood with all their big old houses and bumpy sidewalks; down the median of Esplanade, where I had much more success with actually running than last time I tried it (NOLA 70.3); along the riverwalk listening to the Natchez play its music; on the treadmill because it poured all day. Every night to reward myself for an excellent run, we went to a delicious restaurant to fill the tank. Actually, we would've done that anyway, but it helped me feel less guilty. I was back at home in the humidity, around people with familiar accents, who conversed over such topics as SEC football.

But now we're back "home," to the still slightly unfamiliar terrain, where people talk in an assortment of accents, but not about football. For me, the hardest part of coming back had to be the neighbor. This neighbor is hands down the nosiest person I've ever met. Not only does he have keys to our house, but he also has the trust of our landlord who, ironically, has never had to live next door to him. I almost can't go in the backyard without him either appearing in his side yard, with me in perfect view, or actually coming over to bother me. And forget the front yard! We have to sneak out to get the mail. He is semi-retired, and spends 98% of his time in his open garage, wearing nothing but jean shorts and 8 gold chains. His beady little eyes are always there to see my comings and goings. Upon arriving home from our trip Sunday, we caught him guiltily coming out of our back gate. I hadn't made it in the door before he was ringing our front bell to deliver our mail (don't remember asking him to get it) and explain why he needed to take care of the house and cats next time we're out of town. I completely missed his reason, since all I could hear was, "I'd like to snoop through your stuff." And by the way, his wife is the nicest person you can imagine! I have many more stories of his creepiness that just add to reasons to change the locks. I have no experience with this type of thing; any advice?

The excitement of coming home had to do with my garden. I've planted a few things out back, and I was happy to see that nothing died! I ate my first cucumber today, and have two tiny tomatoes, a small squash, and a microscopic eggplant. Now if I could just go out back and check on them... let's see if the neighbor's around!

Adventures of the mid-week variety

2010-08-05T10:39:00.017-06:00

We're going to New Orleans next week (yay! vacation for me, since I'm so overworked :)), so we used that as an excuse to get in some good "long" training. Tuesday, still obsessed with trails, I wanted to try out a hike/run at Dog Canyon, just a little ways south of here. Turns out that we probably ran about half a mile total in our 4 mile hike, due to the rockiness or steepness of the trail (or maybe the cacti thorns 2 inches off the side, or the hundred foot drop off just beyond...). We saw no cougars or rattlesnakes, much to my dismay, but some really great views of the valley below.

Yesterday J got off work early, so we set out on yet another new bike route. This time we rode from our house up north to take the back way up the mountain, in effort to avoid lots of traffic. I'm not sure who really lives up on the mountain, and where they work, so the worst of the traffic may be on the weekends when people are headed up to recreate. But anyway, we immediately turned into a headwind. My legs were actually more sore from Tuesday's hike than even the 10k last weekend, so grinding up the false flat with a headwind made the ride start really slowly. We made it to the next town, La Luz, and J had an excuse for his feeling crappy: a flat, on his brand new Gatorskin.

Just after changing the flat we turned and headed up. Every road is named for a canyon around here, and luckily I found just the canyon we were looking for. Twice we came upon signs in the road that warned us NOT to cross if flooded. And sure enough, the road was "flooded." These New Mexicans sure like to exaggerate. They call it monsoon season when it rains twice a week. "Humid" is 50%. Flooded to them means 6 inches of water slowly flowing across the road. So of course we crossed anyway. The rest of the route included a couple of cattle gaps (no surprise there) and lots of small gravel. Normally I would've been really wary of this much gravel on the road (lesson learned by my first big crash on a tri bike 12 years ago), but since I was going so slowly, I figured it wouldn't hurt too badly when I fell into it. Even with all the weaving across the road, there was no crashing. And luckily, no traffic either.

We saw in the distance some really nice looking trails (told you I'm obsessed) that we are going to have to visit. Otherwise it was a beautiful vista (everything is named vista) of the canyon as we ascended. I'd mapped this course beforehand just to see how awful it might be. I realized that the elevation graph is color-coded by what your face is going to look like while you're riding that section.

It starts out yellowish, turns orange, red, and by 8% it's well on it's way to purple. Then going down that hill it's pretty green with nausea. Actually the descent wasn't too bad. We decided to take the main road back down, since it was well past rush hour. The sun was in our eyes, at least when mine were open. I seriously need blinders like horses wear, so that I can't see the drop off just beyond the guardrail. By far the scariest spot was the tunnel. It only lasted about a quarter mile, but once inside, it was pitch black. J was a few hundred feet ahead of me, and he completely disappeared from my view. About halfway through, I thought it was only a hallucination of a truck approaching from behind. But I still pedaled my heart out through the blackness, praying that this road that was invisible to me was smooth. Finally I emerged, gathered my wits, and turned around to find that the truck was real. At least he had his lights on. Next time, I will too. And I'll remember to take my sunglasses off.

The rest of the way home was mostly downhill, but the wind of course had changed directions, reminding us that that thunderstorm in the distance could be coming our way. But we made it safely to our doorstep, only still wet from a creek crossing, out of water, tired, and hungry.

As of today, it's taper time for our upcoming sprint in Socorro, which should be flat and fast. Or flat and windy. But it's a pool swim, so time to go practice my flip turns under lane ropes!

Have a great weekend!

another weekend, another race

2010-08-02T10:35:00.000-06:00

First things first: Jeremy has started his very own blog. Now you can actually read the ~~true story~~ other side of the story!

We're slowly getting involved in the running and triathlon scene in the area, and we continued to submerge ourselves on Saturday night. With a billboard advertisement, I could only assume that the 5k/10k/half marathon was going to be huge. I decided on the 10k since it seemed a good middle distance. I contemplated forcing myself to run 13, but really lacked motivation. And just doing the 5k seemed a little wimpy (plus I have no speed). At least I could get a decent workout out of a 10k. Arriving at registration about 25 minutes before race start, we found ourselves getting numbers 28 and 29 of the 10k. Maybe there wasn't going to be the crowd I expected.

All distances started together just before a thunderstorm came over the mountains. By mile 1 we were slipping and sliding, but running toward a rainbow in the distance. I caught men one by one over the first mile or so, and just before the 5k turnaround, I had three in front of me. They all turned around. The next stretch of road was a slight uphill toward our neighborhood, a road we've run frequently these last 3 weeks. My pace was pretty steady; I only slowed down 10 seconds in the second mile. The third mile seemed to last forever, and the marker was located at precisely the 10k turnaround. Now my math skills while running are pretty terrible, but I knew when this mile was over THREE minutes slower than the last one that the course just may be mismarked. Of course, having not one person in front of me, or anyone very close behind me helps the motivation none. At the turnaround I got to scope out the competition, and I found that a few half marathon runners were closest behind, my husband was the next 10k runner, and another woman behind him. The second half was populated by runners making their way out, and eventually some 5k walkers to keep me going. But not another mile marker was placed for the 10k. I immediately felt sorry for the half marathoners (who ran well into the night) when I saw the "12" mile mark when we had at least 2 miles to go. We figure the 10k was .5-.6 miles long.

Crossing the finish line in first overall overall was a new experience for me! And I was excited to win, even though I was at least 4 minutes slower than I'd expected for a tempo pace AND I had only beaten 28 people. J got the overall male award (I keep emphasizing the male), and we both (surprisingly to the race director) won our age groups as well.

Sunday we decided to torture ourselves with another ride in the mountains. Actually I look forward to these in a kind of nervous-because-it's-going-to-hurt-so-much way. But it's so beautiful and so different than what we're used to, it's really a lot of fun. We drove up to Cloudcroft at 8800ft and climbed from there to Sunspot, where the largest vacuum telescope in the world lives. We stopped on top for a quick tour of the observatory, a snack, and an adding of arm warmers. It was cold! But the sun came out for our return trip, plus there was plenty of climbing on the way back to keep us warm. It was a slower trip than our last mountain ride, and we found that we had climbed 3200ft in just 35 miles this time, at a higher altitude. So we're averaging 15 mph, but on 8-9% hills, at a place where there's only 2/3 of the oxygen content of sea level, so we don't feel so bad about slogging out the slow miles. It's certainly scenic. If J would just not hold the pictures hostage on his phone I could show you.

Yea for internet photos! Here's the telescope. I did not take this :)