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!

New Food Obsession...

...I've decided it's high time I start taking my food consumption more seriously and in doing so, G has started calling me the "Nutrition Nazi" (please don't be offended!) we already eat "fairly" healthy and I more than G need to lose a few pounds off this frame in order to get stronger/faster. This is in NO WAY a diet, but more of a new obsession with HOW I eat, WHAT I eat and most importantly WHEN I'm eating certain foods.

So fast forward to me thinking about how good beans are for me- fiber, protein and lots of other great nutrients to fuel my body so I created what has turned out to be a pretty darn good bean salad.

Here is what it's made of:

Salad:
One can of Chick Peas (rinsed and drained)

One can Red Beans (rinsed and drained)

One can of Black Beans (rinsed and drained)

One can of Corn (rinsed and drained)

Four chopped stalks of celery

One chopped Yellow Bell Pepper

Chopped Grape Tomatoes

Dressing:

Top with Red Wine Vinegar Mixed with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a touch of dried Oregano

Mix it all together and about an hour or so before eating add the Dressing and stir. Obviously Refrigerate and Enjoy!! Full of Protein and Good Fats, a few carbs...everything an athlete needs for a healthy lifestyle!

Kona 2008- a look back

It's been over two months since our trip to Hawaii this fall and I wanted to share some of our experiences while we were there...first up- Hawaii Ironman Championships. We'd never been to Kona before, muchless the race...first time for everything. Having completed IMWI a month prior, I had full respect for what it takes to get to Kona and how hard all these athletes worked to be a part of it. A truly exciting experience. Our hotel overlooked the finishline area and the streets were a buzz in the days leading up to it. I was nervous for the athletes! I swam part of the course (and stopped to watch tropical fish along the way) as well as a trip to the "coffee boat" that parks itself out there and provides shots of coffee to the athletes...top notch treatment! Freebies were everywhere, swim caps, fuel belts, hats, t-shirts, you name it! So fun!

The day before the race is what's called the Kona Bike Count- we didn't know what was going on, but knew folks would be dropping off their bikes in transition so we wondered over and thought "why are all these people here with clipboards and pens?" well, turnouts the product companies count their stuff to see how many of their bikes, saddles, wheels, etc make it to Kona. It's mayhem at best! Greg saw an opening where no one was up toward the front so we wondered over and began to watch for people. Well, turns out we were right next to the Triathlete Magazine photoshoot area. SO cool to see all the athletes up close and personal....here are some shots worthy of sharing:

Macca

Macca posing with his (soon to be busted) ride

The ever smiling Chrissie

Umm..the girl is JACKED, huh?

the finish area from our balcony!

The Navy SEALS who jumped pre-race

the Normanator

Chrissie climbing

Hilary Biscay

This Army dude rode in full gear...sorry the picture sucks, Runner's World did a blurb on him, he finished under 14hours...so cool (or boiling hot, however you choose to see it!)

Natasha..I don't think she finished :(

Patrick takin' it easy out of T2
Chrissie snuck up on us, where are all the cameras and crew??
A shot of the finish shoot
The jumbo-tron they had at the finish shoot
the conch blowers/fire throwers!

G &D volunteering at the finish area- guess who we found coming in just over 10 hours!
What great photos, huh? Patricks friends were like "you sure were happy to see those volunteers!!" they didn't know we KNEW him!! The guy in the background didn't get this sort of greeting...he looks bummed out.

Aloha...we had a BLAST watching and volunteering at this race, what a fun experience!

Turkey Trot 5M, a new tradition?

Greg and I hope to have started a new tradition....running the Westfield Turkey Trot (5mi) while in NJ for the holidays. It's a nice race on Saturday (which is nice since we usually travel on Thursday) and it's in a cute little park about 15mins from where Greg's family is. Greg's brother, sister in law and two nephews and niece came out to watch (they've never been to a race before) and they seemed to enjoy it! Hunter even commented he wanted to run it. They have a 1mi race before the 5mi which a lot of kids ran, I mentioned it to him and said he had a year to train for it! So we'll see next year if we are able to run it again...we had a blast (I was WAY over dressed) and Greg had a sprint dual with the guy next to him in the picture...he ultimately let the other guy have his glory :P Too funny!

Happy Turkey Trotting...

New gear always keeps me excited to workout…

One thing I never think much about is fashion in the pool (who cares, right?) with good swimming suits costing more than my wallet wants to part with, I am usually one to wait until the one I’m wearing falls apart before I buy a new one. I usually run to City Sports at lunch and buy whatever one they have in my size and I wear that until it falls apart (repeat cycle!) Well, when I received an email for 30% speedo and saw that my favorite fabric (chlorine proof endurance by speedo) suit was already 50% off ($39 down from $78) and an additional 30% off on top of that I had to splurge ;) I bought both of these and two new pair of goggles all for (drumroll please….) $85. Well my suits arrived yesterday and I almost didn’t get out of bed for swimming this morning, but when Greg hit the snooze and I didn’t go right back to sleep, it was the excitement of wearing a new suit that ultimately got me up and to the pool. Sometimes, it’s the change for the norm that motivates us.

Watts (or whats) a watt?

A watt is defined as the measurement of power. Power is an expression of work rate. These two terms have become everyday words in our house, along with “work”. Work is defined as Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something. Sounds like fun, lets do some hard work (expressed as power) to improve how many watts I can produce at a given time. In the “power world” this is usually measured as a functional threshold power (aka FTP) usually as a one hour all out effort. There are a bunch of ways to test for your FTP, but I’ve always done the 2x20min all out with a 2min easy effort in between. You take the NP (normalized Power) of that entire 42min effort and that is your FTP #. A month ago, mine was 207w (after having taken off almost two months after IM Wisconsin) I dedicated 4months of hard work to raise my FTP (with a goal of >10%, or 230w or more) this is week #4 of 16 weeks. I retested last night and I’m already at 217w, pretty much 5%. It’s amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it. I earned every one of those watts gained and frankly, I worked for them, too. I was reviewing my charts in WKO+ (the software used to analyze my power) and my power distribution chart (for the past month) shows that 30% of all my time of my bike this month has been at my FTP range…in other words. I’ve gone hard/all out for 1/3 of my time on my bike this month (including warmups and cool downs.) I was astonished to see that percentage that high, but I guess that’s how you get better. When “hard” isn’t “hard” anymore, you’re improved. I’m proud of those 10watts, and know that next motnh it will likely be less of a jump but am hopeful that come week #16 I will be at or above 230w. If I could set a longer range goal, I’d like to be at or around 245-250w by May. Let’s shoot for the stars!

My harder work is on the run. Biking is far more natural to me than running. But don’t worry…I’m working on that too. And if I remember correctly, last winter improving my FTP actually helped my running, too. It’s a long road but I have lofty goals for next year and want to see myself achieve.

I am SO thankful for my health, Happy Thanksgiving.

Broke out the tights and mittens and hat...BRRRRR...

With temps not leaving the 20s and wind gusts in the 20s it was quite cold this weekend so I decided it was time to break out the tights and mittens and hat and I still froze!! wow, it was cold out there. I forgot how hard running in the cold and wind is, but I'll take it over the heat and humidity anyday! So I bundled up, and set out to do some Z3 intervals, and nailed them all. So I really can't complain. I'm trying to get my running mojo back. This time last year I was running easily 20secs faster in each zone than I am currently, and I was loving it. Ever since I hurt the ol' calf in May my running just hasn't been the same. So cross your fingers for me that my run mojo will come back. I miss it dearly.

Here we go again....

Today is Nov. 7, 2008….any idea what you will be doing Nov. 7, 2009/ 365days from today? I hope to be traveling 140.6miles, again…this time in Panama City Beach, Florida. With Greg and his cousin Dave…should be lots of fun. Granted, lots of work leading up to it….lots of pain, heartache, eating, sleeping, riding, sleeping, running, eating, swimming, and did I mention sleeping :) 2009 is sure to have lots of roads that lead to success and we can only get there when we challenge ourselves! My goals shall be to stay healthy and lets see if I can break 12 hours this time around :)
IM Florida, here we come!

This sport HATES me....

Seriously, every single sport has me down lately....saddle woes on the bike, sore knees from the run and now swimmers sinusitis (I think!) Sinusitis refers to an inflammation of the sinuses, air spaces within the bones of the face and is most often due to an infection within these spaces. I think I have this right now. After my flip turn show on Wednesday (and again today) I have had a stuffy nose, slight headache and have been sneezing uncontrollably! Thought I was getting sick, but did a little research and found this was a common problem (with swimmers and triathletes) the dozen consecutive sneezes after exiting the pool this morning had me thinking this is all related to the water/chlorine?
Anyhow, sounds like medication, saline spray, a nasal cleaner-outer, or a nose plug are my options...jeesh...I thought all this working out was supposed to be GOOD for your body. Who knew??

Ah, the joy of flip turns...

I'll admit it....I know HOW to do flip turns (have for a while now) but am too lazy to do them regularly, so I don't. Well, with the addition of the MAC pool into our Masters swim locations, I decided it was high time to add flip turns to my repertoire of swim abilities! MAC does not have gutters, nor low walls to grab onto, ekkk! I've almost thrown out my back reaching for the high wall...so today was a great day to work on the ol' flip turns, and I'll admit, it was fun and not that hard! We we're at MAC, though we were at Harvard's Blodgett and we had the WHOLE pool to our Masters group (read: 16 lanes!) so I had a lane all to myself and I decided it was time to break out the flips. Only had a couple water-up-the-nose incidents...and at the end I stopped doing them to be able to make my intervals, but overall I enjoyed the workout and the turns. Yippee...

I need a new look....

I decided I needed a new blog look, enjoy!