Mooseman International Triathlon

Team G representing this past weekend...

Mooseman (International Distance 1.5k swim, 27.25mi bike and 10k run) went off without a hitch. Team G was representing in a big way. First off, Relay Team G (Greg- swim, and a couple friends Daniel and Pam to bike and run respectively) were on a mission to place in the Relay standings. They were fired up. Greg got them off to a strong start with a terrific swim at 28:33, Daniel smoked the bike at 1:09:40 (that's 23.5mph for all you mathematically challenged folks, I believe it was the 4th fastest bike split of the day- only following the 3 top finishers!) and Pam killing the 10k at an even 45:00 (7:15 pace) so they completed the entire race in 2:25:29, placing 1st in the Coed division (out of 13!) and 2nd relay team overall (out of 27!) Kudos to them, I expected nothing less- they are all terrific athletes! They were recognized at the awards ceremony after the race :)

I opted to go it alone in this one and test all my "off season" work. I had not raced in 9months (since IM Wisconsin in September) I was worried there might be some cobwebs to clean off, but thankfully it didn't take long. I lined up in the swim front and center, second row (this is new for me, I usually hang off the back and swim around folks, but my swimming has been good lately so I decided to give it a go up front and see what I had) this is where I should probably mention that the water was COLD, not just cool but "take your breath away COLD", maybe high 50's so I knew I wanted to get in and out as quick as possible! When our wave went off, I just went with the flow, had many bodies to navigate around from previous waves, but did so as efficiently as possible. At the turn around buoy I realized another pink cap and I were stroke for stroke- I thought- what better way to save some energy, I dropped back behind her and swam "on her feet" the rest of the way in. Besides my numb feet- I felt pretty good. 25:53 swim time.

The bike started out fine, I began taking in calories right away and started passing guys, more guys and many more guys (my wave was the first women's wave with three men's waves before us, so I didn't see many girls out there!) It's a very hilly course, with one steep climb around mile 6 or so (Daniel said he saw people walking their bikes up it!) but the rest of the course is more rolling hills. I went hard on the flats and downhills, keep my effort in check on the uphills. I was trying to count the number of women I passed, knowing my wave was the first women's wave- I counted seven that I passed. As I was coming back into transition I saw Greg ahead of me cheering, and could tell by the look on his face that I was back earlier than he expected to see me :) I felt great coming off the bike. 1:21:11 bike time, 20.1mph average.

Next was the run, my weakness for sure. I've been working hard on my run but I feared I might get "run down" by faster girls in my age group. As I exited T2, there were folk there yelling "6th female, you're :45 seconds back" and the guy who was running next to me says "go run them down, girl" HA! Does he know running is my weakness?? So here I was running along without my garmin (which I did on purpose, I wanted to run on perceived effort- no pressure to hold a pace, just run how I feel) and I'm in a position where people are watching me, cheering for me and expecting me to run fast! I took it all in stride and just ran strong, but not so hard that I was panting and struggling. A few women did pass me along the way (so fast that I couldn't even see their age written on the backs of their legs!) I just continued to run my race and have fun with it. As I came through the finisher's chute, the announcer said here comes the 9th female to finish! I ran a 47:45, 7:42pace. (turns out I did not get passed by anyone in my age group, I held my spot during the run! A huge accomplishment for me, given my running is my weakest.)

I ended up with a 2:38:53, good enough for 5th in my age group (out of 86), and 15th female overall (out of 398) the best part is, I had FUN! What a great race. Hard, challenging and fun all wrapped into a couple hours! I still have lots of work to do this season, but I'm off to a good start.

Bring it next weekend at Kansas 70.3 Dave and Greg- wish I could be there for support :(

I wanted to write down a few more thoughts from my Moosman Race-

Some of the things I'm happy about:
1. PR in every discipline (swim by ~5min, bike ~10min and run ~5min) so about 20mins overall faster than I have been as similar distances in the past.
2. 5th in AG and 15th overall Female (was pretty cool to be "upfront" having people telling me how far back I was from the girls in front of me, I almost laughed and said "don't you know running isn't my thing"!!)
3. Not losing ANY ground in my AG on the run. My fear after having such a good bike was that I would get "run down" by a few girls and lose some spots in my AG. I beat the next F30-34 by 3mins.
4. Swimming faster than the Overall Female winner, and grabbing someone's feet on the swim.
5. Staying aero for most of the race (only climbing steep hills out of aero.)
6. Not being a slave to my powermeter, yet hitting my power numbers head on (tells me we're training with the right power zones)
7. Running right at (or just below) my tempo pace without any Garmin data. Also tells me I am training properly and can run in my zones based on RPE.

Things I should work on:
1. Eating less in the days leading up to the race. I felt "thick" I should choose my food wisely and eat more strictly.
2. Getting to the race venue a little earlier in the morning, I didn't have time to get a warmup and stretching in. I got kicked out of transition within 5mins of racking my bike!
3. Losing more weight- I felt like another 5-10lbs off of me would help my run, alot.
4. Stay away from the devil on Devil's Hill- she almost stuck her pitch folk through my spoke as I rode up the hill (she was walking up and talking to someone, swinging her arms!) I had to say something to her before she "spoked" me.
5. Doing more core work (besides my hamstrings, my core is all that is sore today!)

I'm alive, really I am!

Holy couple of months, batman. I have been TOTALLY slacking on the blog. My bad. I know, I stink. BUT....race season is almost here so time to get back on the blog-wagon. Mooseman is a month away (International Distance) I can't wait to race again, it's been since Sept. YIKES!

Ten

What does the number ten mean to you? To me, it's the number of pounds I've been trying to lose for a while. Well, today is a day to celebrate. I have officially lost TEN pounds since Jan 1, 2009! And fifteen pounds since our return from Hawaii in October. 

I am finally feeling the differences, small things. My favorite jeans don't fit well anymore (they look sloppy.) My core feels stronger, more muscular. My legs are definitely leaner/stronger.

JRM steered me in the right direction and I've followed his advice religiously and what do you know? I'm seeing results. It's a beautiful thing! 

Seems I can lose a tad more. So I will strive to be leaner/stronger by tri season this summer- I have no doubt I will see positive race results if I continue on this path! 

Ten has new meaning to me; it's not so intimidating after all!

Harpoon Indoor Time Trial (ITT)

On Sunday I was christened by my first ITT (where you race other riders on bikes set up on trainers) and you follow the progress on a screen at the front of the room. I have never done one before, but thought it might be fun, so we signed up (Greg, Pam, Brandy and myself) Pam and Brandy rode with the "A women" (read: Pro Women) which went off at 12 noon, so we showed up early to watch them! They both did great!  

Soon after their heat, it was our turn. Greg and I in the same (co-ed) heat. I knew I wouldn't win the heat (b/c G will beat me everytime!) But I had high hopes for Greg to win...if you win your heat. You got a case of Harpoon Beer.

So I got started and took it a little easy (you can see in my power file that my rpms (green line) were high so I switched gears a few minutes in and started to work a little harder. The course had a minor hill about half way and then a more substantial (5% grade) hill from Mile 6-7 (If you invert my speed, blue line, you can envision the course profile.) 

My power (yellow line) was fairly consistent (which is good!) and I averaged right where I thought I would (232watts on my powermeter, although the computrainer/official results list 226watts) Overall I was 13th female, not too shabby considering there were a few Pros and bigger name road riders present. I'll take it for my first ITT. It was SO fun! My official time was 24:09 (19.9mph)

Here is my power meter data:

ITT:

Duration:   24:10

Work:       336 kJ

TSS:       46.2 (intensity factor 1.071)

Norm Power: 232

VI:         1

Pw:HR:       n/a

Pa:HR:       n/a

Distance:   8.406 mi

Elevation Gain:     98 ft

Elevation Loss:   108 ft

Grade:     -0.0 %  (-10 ft)

Min Max Avg

Power:       154 288 232 watts

Heart Rate:   0 182 66 bpm

Cadence:     80 107 93 rpm

Speed:       10.6 28.5 20.9 mph

Pace         2:06 5:41 2:52 min/mi

Altitude:     676 689 682 ft

Crank Torque: 121 271 211 lb-in

Temperature: 60.8 64.4 62.7 Fahrenheit

 

Oh, and Greg does not disappoint! He won our heat (21:21 total time) and graciously gave the case of beer (minus a couple) away to Brandy and Pam/Daniel. They stuck around to watch (and cheer, loudly!) for us in our heat. It was a blast!! I'm so proud of Greg...won our heat and was 31st overall (out of 168 people) I only wish he would stop showing off :P

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly- Swim Video

So Patrick (with Endurance Nation) invited G and I to a swim clinic back in Jan. where we did a classroom chat, swim drills and ended with a video analysis. Mine was not as bad as I expected, but there are always things to work on.

The Good:
Good rotation
Good Pull

The Bad:
Back side sinks
Entry could be better
Work on rotating hand slightly inward to initiate catch and get elbow up

The Ugly:
Being in a swim suit on camera, lol!

New Beginnings and New Approaches

I'm SO excited to start training today. We're now working with Janda Ricci-Munn, I cannot wait to see how his approach to training can help us both improve this season! Bring on the pain!

Week of rest and sleep…Timmy was thankful to have company on the couch.

A week ago tomorrow, I went for a run with my pal Pam and was DRAGGING…poor Pam must have thought I eaten a few too many cookies at the Holidays because I simply could not keep pace with her for the life of me. But she dragged me along until about mile 9 when I proclaimed “I’m bonking” little did I know my body had other plans for me. I made it home safely and showered, curled up on the couch to put my feet up and BAM. Chills, fever hit and I asked G if he “caught the license plate of the MAC truck that hit me?” I spent the entire weekend sprawled on the couch freezing, sweating, repeat. I knew I had a fever. Anyway, a week later and zero workouts (I mean not one) I’m feeling a LOT better and hope that I can get some easy workouts in this weekend in preparation of a better workout week next week!

Oh, the cherry on top of my crappy flu week: On Monday as I was walking to the Dr.’s office, I was using my mouth to assist in putting my mitten on when SNAP- I chipped my tooth. Ugh! I spent the week worrying about what my dentist would say (and do to fix it.) Well, I have GREAT news! My dentist fixed me up last night and my smile is better than ever :) I am SO excited!!

Can’t wait to start off a new week, and new month! Smile often!

Bart Yasso’s got nothin’ on me…

Yasso 800s are evil, but a great way to measure improvement. Last winter I was in “full running mode” with my 5th Boston Marathon on the horizon, I was running a lot. This year, not so much. Over the past few weeks went from <20mi/week to up over 30mi/week (I’ll be between 36-40mi this week by the time it’s over) and I’m struggling to find my running mojo. Don’t get me wrong, I can do the work, but my endurance isn’t there (yet) and I’ve felt “slow” ever since IMWI in Sept.

So, I’ve been going to indoor track for a couple weeks now and last night’s workout was 4-6x800s, Yassos if you like. Well my friend Pam turns to me and says “my watch battery broke, can I pace off you” Sure Pam, I’m thinking (until you smoke me!) See, Pam ran a 3:37 marathon to BQ last year…I’m not quite up to snuff with Pam’s running. I was thinking I might have one or two 3:40-3:45/800s in me until I fall apart b/c I haven’t been doing speedwork a lot, and I haven’t done a run over 9mi in months. We’ll see, I thought…

So turns out, I had more in me than I thought. And I was only going to do 4x800, not 6x800…until Pam convinced me she needed to do 6, so I caved. And did 6. Here is how they went:

#1: 3:34
#2: 3:34
#3: 3:29
#4: 3:30
#5: 3:32
#6: 3:33
I chased Pam until I couldn’t chase anymore and she was easily 5-10secs ahead of me on every 800, but it’s awesome to have friends to run with and chase..so not too shabby all things considered and looking back on last March and all the miles I logged and the speedwork I was doing then, my Yassos were anywhere from 3:36-3:31. I’m exactly where I was back then. I seem to have a love/hate relationship with the track…

"Be the Change you wish to see in the world"

"Be the Change you wish to see in the world" by Mahatma Gandhi.

That is the quote on the paperweight I have on my desk (thanks for the gift, Mom!) This quote could not be more appropriate these days. Things need to change.

Somehow I was convinced that January would be a nice easy month of relaxing and settling into the new year comfortably. But suddenly it’s 1/21/09 and we have a new (read: competent) President that I was SO excited to see inaugurated yesterday. I could not be more proud of being an American right now. Watching the crowds, the politicians and all the pomp and circumstance yesterday was enough to bring me hope that change may actually occur with this new Administration. I’m not very political, but I will admit this was the first Presidential election I’ve ever voted in because sadly, it was the first time I cared enough to do so. I am proud to say I voted for Obama, Change we can believe in.

It’s been a while since I blogged and somehow I forgot my password and seems as though Blogger is going to make me set up a gmail account now too? So not cool…and not very helpful in my quest to blog more! Guess I need to change my password and my email.



In my previous post I wrote about losing the same “10lbs” I’ve been talking about for years and it’s with pride that I share I have lost 6lbs so far this month, and I’m down 10lbs since October (after our trip to Hawaii where I ate anything and everything in sight!) So apparently logging my food is good thing (and ever so eye opening) and having a supportive husband who can eat anything and not gain a pound, but will put up with my grilled fish (or chicken) and green bean dinners on a nightly routine is ever so helpful. So the quest continues to be leaner and more fit (numbers don’t mean much to me, I want to be strong and fast.) so these little changes I have made these past few weeks seem to be working, I will continue on this path of being healthier in an attempt to change my body composition.



If you know me personally you have likely heard me cry and complain about my “saddle issues” and discomfort on my terrific (yet painful to ride) P2C. Well, I am happy to report after more than a dozen fittings, six saddles and almost that many trips to the doctor I am SO HAPPY to report that I think we might have found the problem. I rebuilt my road bike geometry (on my original bike) and found that my tt bike hood drop was ~3cm LOWER, causing my hips to rotate too far forward and place all my pressure forward (not on my sit bones) causing me all these problems. SO easy fix, raise my aero bars, and match the geometry of my road bike FINALLY I am comfortable on my tt bike!! Fitwerx2 rocks. They are currently setting up my tt bike with the new numbers- I will pick it up this weekend. We all had smile on our faces after the fix on Saturday, I suspect everyone and their brother was tired of my crying and complaining. I have renewed hope that this fix will allow me to make appropriate gains on my bike this season. I could not be happier to be on two wheels; hooray for Change.



Next month shall bring new changes (yeah!) and challenges so I look forward to tackling those with revived energy! Bring on the changes...

Following through....

I'm terrific at starting things.

Lists, journals, diets, you name it...but I really have to rack my brain to remember things that I have followed through with to my satisfaction. I have great intentions, but usually end up getting sidetracked and forgetting and never getting around to finishing things.

In 2009, I resolve to following through on some of the things that I always intend on doing and usually start, but never finish.

1. Losing these stubborn ten pounds I've been talking about losing forever now! I have begun a training/food journal that really will focus more on how I feel and what went right/wrong and what hurts/doesn't and how I'm improving in an effort to see how I'm affected by things. I would like to log a minimum of 5x/week through Jan. and see how I do. This is a self inflicted challenge.

2. I would like to organize all the addresses I have for friends and family (that I scrounge for every Dec. when I go to do my Christmas Cards) this will allow me to actually SEND the cards I buy for people throughout the year and keep in touch with people better. I will buy a new address book and update before the end of Jan.

3. These are just a couple of many, many things I have attempted to start and never finish. I will likely add to this list, but in the spirit of New Year's Resolutions I am starting small as not to easily fail. I would like to add one thing to this list of things I'd like to follow through with each month this year. Hold me to it!

The good news in this post is I have NEVER EVER dnf'd in a race. If I start a race, I finish it....it may be the *only* aspect of my life that I follow through with!

Happy New Year!