Big Monkey's BDAY!

How do I spend my day off? I spend it with Big Monkey..or recently aka GORILLA. After he worked out (of course) we took a family day trip (Pedro,Stella, Polar and myself) headed up to the outlets and then on to Breckenridge to walk through some shops and eat a giant cookie sandwich with cookie dough in between. Then off to his favorite (our favorite) restaurant Outback, only to be recognized from our other home, the gym, by our waitress. Anyway, here is a photo of him from our day (If you can't tell by the photo it is a monkey hat).

Taper Week One of Two.

This is the first of two taper weeks leading up to my race.

Monday I rode my bike for about 4 hours and rode about 75 miles than had a brick run of about 3 miles. My heart rate average for the bike has been really low at about 136 my aerobic minimum. It does elevate on larger hills but that would be the average. I haven't seen a huge difference in my hr on the run though, which is why I predict a long run time for my race...but maybe I will be lucky?

Tuesday I swam 3,500 meters. Then sat around the house eating and watching tv.

Wednesday, today, I got up late and swam 2,250 meters. Went home changed clothes and biked for a speed bike for 45 min (avg hr 146)..I was pushing a larger gear and pushing more on the hills without worrying about my hr. After this I went home and had a shake and some guac and went out for my speed run. Today was suppose to be 2.5 mile sprint on the straights jog the curves...so instead I went back to the hills and ran hills/stairs for 20 min (estimated 2.5 mile time) and sprinted up and jogged back down. After this I had lessons and practice...then finally some dinner. It may sound like a lot of working out, but time wise it is actually really short, only 2.5 hours or so. Intensity was high, but duration was low.

I am suppose to have tomorrow off, but I am trying to figure out how to get in all of my workouts before I have to turn my bike in on Sunday. Sunday we also, hopefully, have the CU/CSU game to go to. This makes my Sunday a dillema, do I use Sunday as my day off?? Or do I use Sunday as a day to train since there is a chance for a lot of standing at the game, depending on where our seats are. If it is a recovery day it would be pretty pointless if I spent a few hours just standing there. Anyway, I have quite a few workouts to figure out and include recovery days, since I have to turn my bike in on Sunday, it makes it a little more difficult.

That's it for now. I'm sleepy...

My workouts are winding down some. My rides and runs getting shorter by the day. It is kind of strange that a 5 hour bike ride is exciting to me...but that is comparing it to a 7hr ride. I would say the same thing about running my long run was 3 hours and now it is all the way down to 2hours. Yes, I agree...2 hours! I have been trying to do more of my running in the "heat" of the day to try to adapt a bit more to the heat instead of avoiding it like I have done in the past. Hopefully, this will also help me :)

I am still not exceptionally fast on the running. Maybe it has to do with the amount of sugar I eat, or something else. Again they do say that it takes 18months to see some "real" results. I haven't been very tired on these rides or runs.

However, I have had some semi significant knee pain on the bike. This week I have gone in for two adjustments to help with this. I do not usually feel the pain until about 3 hours but then it is really there. P says it is because I have bad knees...I don't think that is the cause..since I don't have it doing anything else (knock on wood).

This next week the workouts get a little bit different. I have 3 days of workouts, all consisting of a swim, bike and run..but not too long of workouts. Each day followed by a complete day off.

My mother wants to know how long I plan on taking for my race, but I have no idea. I would say that if I swam in anything UNDER 1:20 I would be very happy, but very unlikely as I am at about 1:35.
The bike is another tricky one. They say it is extremely hilly. I have no idea. The fastest I have averaged over this type of distance was 17.9mph (6hr 15min). In a race you would hope I could go a bit faster, but at the same time, if it is really hilly then possibly slower.
They say the run at this race usually has the slowest marathon times, because people push too hard on the bike and have a hard time on the hilly run. This would be another area that I have no idea on. I have thought I could possibly do a 5hr and 15min marathon (yes extremely slow, but I am trying to be realistic).

If I did these times I would be at: 13 hours and 5min. Would I be happy with this time? Not really. But I guess I should say I would be happy because it would mean that I FINISHED the race. We only have 2 weeks before we will find out!

Rattlesnake Report

Today was a pretty good day for racing. Not too hot, maybe a little too cold, since my feet were numb most of the race. But all in all a good temperature.

The swim was only 500 meters. I did this race two years ago and I swam this in 14 min. That was embarassing. Anyway, this time I swam it in 7:04..however the time says 8min but this included my wetsuit strippers and my run up the hill to transition. Anyway, it was a time trial start and I apparently decided to jump on the girl that started ahead of me. I am not use to being "faster" than some swimmers. I am usually working just to keep up. Anyway, the swim was cold. Then my ear plug started to come out, so I fixed that. I kept sighting the bouys very well. I then fixed my goggles, always some issue. Then finished the swim a little dizzy, not sure why...but it was my fastest swim ever!

I left for the bike and it was cold. You had to go slow around the turns because the road was wet and rocky. It was a very hilly course. Again it is hard to know if you are doing well when you are passing a lot of people. Was I moving fast?? Well, not as fast as I could have I guess...but fast enough. I was passed by one guy on the bike near the end of the bike and so I was trying to keep up with him to transition.

I got in and changed to my running shoes, still unable to feel my feet. It is a weird sensation running on numb feet! I was trying to remain at a good pace. Faster than what I did at my last sprint, since I had lost by 20sec I wasn't going to let that happen again. I was at about mile one when I saw the first runner coming back. I thought this is good, since there were 309 people, at least, that started before me. I didn't stop for any water, my stomach wasn't happy. I had changed up my race morning meal..to a shake and coffee...probably too much of both. Anyway, I was passed by another male racer on the run. We got to the turnaround which consisted of flamingos and a sign, no timing mat, no cone, just turning around on the sidewalk. I'm glad we are honest??? Anyway, while I was on my way out running I kept looking at the runners coming back to make sure none were in my age. I didn't see any. I finished and took first in my age and 5th female overall and 43rd I think overall.

I was happy with my swim, ok with my bike...and I ran a faster run. The weather probably contributed to all of it. I wouldn't say that it was unexpected that I win a sprint race. All in all I should win, with all the training I do, compared to what most people probably do. I was happy to have my first win though and I beat the next person in my age group by 3 minutes.

Hills

I have read other people's blogs (yes I am a blog stalker) saying how they get so nervous before races. I wouldn't say that I am nervous before races. If I have done the distance before I am not very nervous at all. However, for a race like my upcoming Ironman, I am a little nervous. More nervous for the run probably. Mainly, because I have never run 26.2 miles before, even on my long run days. I have no idea what that will be like. I guess my goal will be to focus on one mile at a time..26 water stations.

Anyway, I have been running hills and stairs in attempt to be prepared for hills. I will say that if I am not better at running the hills I will be very disappointed, with all the work that I am doing with these. It's funny because when I am running them I think of my kids at practice that want to quit when we are running sprints. If I wasn't there they would quit, they always have some excuse. They need to come watch me run hills/stairs. I want to quit, but I am running for time. I could go all the way and all the way down (going down the stairs gives some recovery time) but I mix it up so I don't get any recovery time, until it is actual recovery time. I run every second of every run, even when I don't want to. Then when it comes to recovery time, when that is over, no matter what I start again (my hr has lowered but everyone wants more rest). I think to myself, how many people would be out here running the stairs and running exactly the time that they are suppose to, how hard do other people work??

Anyway, I enjoy my hill/stair running. Not because it is fun, but because in my mind I am doing something that not a lot of other people would be doing, or working as hard at it, so I guess I think it gives me some advantage (when I don't have many other advantages!).

Last week I was battling some sort of stomach virus. I still managed to get in all my "key" workouts. Long Bike, run, swim, speed run, speed swim but not much else.
Monday of this week, I swam 6,000 meters or about 3.75 miles. It took me an embarassingly slow time of about 2.5hours.

Today I went out for my long bike. I got up at about 615 and started biking. It was pretty chilly out in the morning and then of course it warmed up. Today my heart rate continued to be quite low on the bike and I managed 102miles in 5hrs 48min. The exciting part of my ride today was that I saw a vulture. Yes, a vulture! I was riding along and a giant bird was in the street ahead of me...it looked kind of like a turkey from a distance. Once I got closer it looked just like the vultures out of the cartoons (the only place I have seen one). It was eating some road kill. It appears to have been a turkey vulture, known that way because it looks kind of like a turkey.


After I got home I had a short run. Today the run was not so great. My legs were not tired just the hr, which was odd since I had such a low hr on the bike. It was probably a combination of the heat and the fact that I ran out of water the last 20min of my ride.

Today I rode 114 miles. In about 6.5hours. Two of the hours were spent on indoor riding. The first hour of the ride was inside just to really warmup and let the unusually cool morning warm up. The second hour was after being outside for about3.5 hours and some strange guy wouldn't stop talking to me. So, I had to tell him I was done with my ride and going home. He came all the way down to about a block from my house before he changed direction. Then I rode inside for another hour in case he was nearby waiting for me to come back out. Then I finished up the ride outside. The ride was ok. It was windy when I was out early and the it actually warmed up more than I had expected, with some wind. But I can't complain because it was better than 100 degrees!

After I finished with the bike I got off and ran about 30min. It was one of my first brick runs that my heart rate was actually controllable. Usually, I get off the bike and it just skyrockets. However, today it was much better, despite the heat.

One lesson learned is that a breakfast of a bagel and peanut butter is not my breakfast of choice. I had a stomachache most of the ride, so back to oatmeal and yogurt.

That's it for now. It was a long day for me today, I got up at 6am to start riding.

Today I had a sprint race. The downside was that I started at 815, which made it quite hot out on the run.

Swim:I decided to wear my wetsuit so I can work on wetsuit transitions. They had changed the course to be counter-clockwise so that was different. The problem was that going out to the first buoy the sun was so bright, even with the tinted goggles, that I couldn't actually see where the buoy was. I was just swimming with the people because I had no idea where it was. I can't imagine if I had clear goggles. Once I reached the first buoy I had to stop and clear my goggles, they had fogged up. Then I got moving. A lot of slow swimmers, which must mean they were quite slow, since I myself am slow, were getting in the way. I finished the swim and exited up the ramp.

I felt that my transition went pretty quickly. The place I had to put my bike was the furthest away from the swim and also the furthest from the bike start and finish. That is really annoying because you have to run barefoot on the rocky cement to your bike, then I had to actually carry my bike shoes to the bike start, because it was so far and I didn't want to slip. I still do not know how to get on my bike with my shoes attached and get them on once I am going.

Biking went well. I was trying to stay above 22mph the entire ride. The downside of the bike are the turnarounds, that seem to clog up and then you have to basically stop to turn and then go. My favorite phrase on the bike became "on your left". I passed so many people I don't even know. Some people were quite dumb and as I am yelling, "ON YOUR LEFT" they would just stay there and I would have to slow down, because inevitably it was when someone on the otherside heading back was passing, so there was no room to go on their left. I finished the bike feeling good.

I took off my shoes on the bike and then ran to the transition, again forever away. Again I felt like they were decently fast transitions. Then off to the run. The run start was right near my bike so that was good.

The first mile is a gradual uphill. I was looking for my family, but they were nowhere to be found. Someone in the crowd commented on my "holy cow, fast pace" but really I wasn't going all that fast, that should tell you how fast most people were going. I wanted to go out normal and then on the turnaround come back faster. I stopped and got some water at two of the stations because it was so hot, I felt like the sun was actually burning me. Anyway, I ran fast back. I passed a lot of people and was passed at the end by some girl that was going way faster than I was. I'm just going to think that she started before me..haha.

I finished 15th overall (actually 13th, two RELAY teams beat me). Third in my age group (however, the first place person in my age group doesn't have a bike time? and was a slower swimmer and runner???) So, I am going with 2nd in my age and I lost by stupid 20 seconds..ugh. I think I could have gone faster, if I would have known how close I was to finishing at the top. I had no idea how fast I was going or if anyone was going faster because I didn't see too many people going fast. I guess I should have just gone as fast as possible even without knowing.

Funny note. My "fast transitions" were actually REALLY SLOW. I am telling you I had to go SOOO far to get my bike after the swim, just to turn around and bring my bike back near the swim start, not fair. I had the 4th fastest bike and the 29th fastest run. And of course I was a slow swimmer at 126th!