Sneak peak...

Just for a second - why don't I talk about 2010 :) This morning I had to represent my place of work (Road Runner Sports) at a local sprint triathlon. Don't worry I wasn't racing. You couldn't pay me to strip down into my tri suit at 6:30am when it was 47F outside. I was freezing, even in my car with the heat on and sipping my Starbucks latte. So this got me thinking about my LEAST favorite thing about triathlon...

I LOATHE stripping down, putting my wetsuit on and getting into cold water when it's cold outside. My feet just freeze and it makes me unhappy and uncomfortable. Before every race I get nervous about that more than anything else. When I raced Escape from Alcatraz in 2007 I remember sitting on the boat, in tears because I was frozen all morning, could not get warm and still had to jump off the boat into the cold water while it was still dark outside. I knew this was going to happen, so race morning I put those ski boot toe warmers in my cleats. That was the BEST decision I have ever made. My feet were able to defrost on the bike and it wasn't so painful to run. I ended up having a stellar race that day.

Then before IMNZ I remember worrying about being cold, the water has a reputation for being frigid and you never know what the weather will blow in from day to day. It gives me shivers just thinking about walking from transition to the water barefoot with frozen feet (I know I can bring cheap flip flops to walk to the water with and leave there, I have done that, but wasn't worth it enough to continue to repeat)! Fortunately I got lucky and the weather race morning was calm, slightly warmer than usual and I was perfectly comfortable in the water... PHEW!

And then when I signed up for IMC, I had the same fear. Unlike IMNZ where I swam in the lake 3 times before race day and had the chance to get used to the water temp, I never even touched the water at IMC before I jumped in race day. I only talked to people about the water temperature, but I came from swimming in 90F lake water and 85F pool water. My temperature gauge is much different than others. However I was once again pleasantly surprised when I walked into the water and was comfortable :D

How does this relate to next year???

Well for some reason I signed up for Oceanside 70.3 which has a reputation for being VERY chilly! When I asked JH about racing Oceanside she wrote me back saying, "you do well in the heat, why don't you choose a warmer race like New Orleans 70.3?" And all I could think was, "I KNOW!!!!" I'm going to turn into an ice cube before I even get to the turnaround buoy ;-/ EEKS!!! But, I am staying with Marit and can drive there and training through our winter is lovely and there are just TOO many positives about Oceanside (ahem, except the COLD) and TOO many negatives about NO 70.3.

Then I am racing IM Coeur d'Alene which also happens to have a frigid reputation! What the heck am I getting myself into next year? I better HTFU this winter!!!

And that's not all folks :) I am also signed up for IM Wisconsin! We will see what happens with that one though, I am not in love with the idea of that race... yet. Kona would be a great reason to skip it - HEE HEE! But I age up next year and have some serious time to cut off before that's a possibility. Next year is all about putting in the work, being smart and having some fun in the process :)

Who knows, maybe I will continue to bring the warmer temps with me to races :) That would be FABULOUS!!!

Happy Halloween!!! I won't be dressing up, going to a movie (non scary) instead :-)

hmmm...

Yes its been awhile. I took a break not only from training, but from blogging too. I've been thinking and thinking about what I want to write my next post about and you know what??? Nothing pops into my head. That box of chocolates I talked about a few posts ago, yeah well they all look the same right now!

Last week I went to DC for a family thing. I thought it would be fun, it would be cool to see the fall leaves, enjoy the crisp fall air, see some cool things, etc... When we arrived it was 40F and rain. The weather continued that way until Monday when I was flying home and I remained frozen the entire time. In fact I even made a list of all the reasons I hate the cold :) I didn't even bother with including the things I like about the cold (there are a few). The highlights of the trip were going to the Smithsonian American History Museum, National Portrait gallery and National Archive museum. Then on Monday after a little begging we walked around to the Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and WWII monuments. All of those were very cool!



As far as training goes I am still taking it easy. Not much going on there. But I am okay with that, slowly the training will pick back up and as people are taking their breaks after IMAZ I will be getting back into shape, just like last year.

Earlier today I got a 20 minute lecture from Marc about why I don't want to ever race Kona. But isn't that the appeal? How that race can break the best athletes? The heat, the wind, the competition. One day I will find out for myself what its like and then maybe I will be the one telling the horror stories :) Until then I will learn from what I can and ignore the rest.

My dad sent me a cool Eleanor Roosevelt quote that he thought was cool...

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences."

Now if you have anything you think would be good to write about just let me know :) Without much training I am rather boring.

what's going on?

I suppose it's time for an update.

Last week I was "training" and this week I am not. That's right I am taking two more weeks off of training in any way, shape or form. Unlike post IMC (that was only 5.5 weeks ago!) I am okay with it this time. I have made peace with the rest and I will enjoy it as best I can. No training takes away from my routine. Yes I am a creature of habit and on Sunday when I got word that I wouldn't be training this week I made the decision to give my week some structure. Which means I wake up at the same time each morning so that I can actually sleep at night and I am spending lots of time at coffee shops studying.

Why more time off? Well, I am not sure im ready to discuss that fully on my blog... But I will say that I was digging myself into a deep hole healthwise and if I didn't take a step back and chill out then I was setting myself up for a disastrous 2010 racing year. So JH and I decided more time off was necessary!

It's just weird because everyone is either going off to race Kona or gearing up for IMAZ or training for an upcoming marathon. And I keep reminding myself that most of these people are just getting ready for their first IM of the year, where as I already have raced two and have been going since October of 2008. Once I think about what I have done this year I relax a bit.

I have been studying for the GRE and I am taking advantage of my extra time to fit in as much studying as I possibly can! Standardized tests have never been my thing... I was talking to one of my friends who has her master's and she was telling me I would be fine, even if I just winged it. I just laughed at her and she didn't get why I was laughing. I explained that the term "winging it" and me with tests has NEVER been successful! I can wing many things, but tests are not one of them. Trust me, I have tried!!!

In other news, my little ipod died the other day :( I posted that on my Facebook and the next thing I know my phone is ringing. One of my dear friends had a new Ipod shuffle for me!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

And what is a blog post without my lovely little bugger Cody :) He goes to work with me sometimes, so here he is working really hard... Normally he just sleeps on the cement by my stool. If you can see the stool in the bottom right corner, that's where I sit while I work - not the most comfortable place in the world!


GOOD LUCK EVERYONE racing KONA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ramblings...

I don’t have anything exciting to report. JH is SLOWLY adding more and more into my training schedule each week. I had a bike ride the other day where my body and mind thought about pushing the pace, I didn’t, but at least I felt like I could - HAHA. Other than that everything is slow. I’m not complaining, it’s just great to be outside and training a bit! The weather is cooling off. We have been hovering right around 100 degrees during the day and sinking into the mid 70’s at night. I’m going to miss the heat and have been soaking up as much as possible. That means running at 3 or 4pm when its warmest… yes I understand how crazy that sounds, but it feels so good! You would NOT catch me saying that this time last year, but somehow training for IMC all summer has acclimatized me to the heat.

As far as fall 2009 racing is concerned I am done with triathlons for the year! Now its time to do some run races and some bike races and get ready for next year. It’s a fun time around here right now too… everyone seems to be gearing up for IMAZ and/or a few are going to Kona!

Life is like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re going to get. With that said I feel like Forrest Gump sitting on a park bench with my box of chocolates on my lap wondering which to go after first. I guess trial and error is what it comes down to, right? This isn’t a bad place to be, but my type A personality shines through here and I want to make each chocolate be the right pick! I realize that’s not reality… failure is inevitable and that’s okay. I just want to make sure I maximize what I learn from each chocolate I choose??? Oh now I am confused ☺

This morning I ran with Marc (Kona bound!) and BH (IMAZ). It’s always comical running with those two and they always ask me all sorts of girl questions. Most of them I cannot repeat on my blog, but I enjoy giving them what insight I can. Although I do believe most of the time they forget I am a girl. That’s okay, I really don’t mind!

The ramblings of this blog post directly reflect the ramblings in my brain the past couple weeks! I currently don’t have answers for just about anything, but I could talk circles around several different topics ☺

Time for dinner with Dad... haven't seen him in a few weeks!

Together again

When I came home from Canada I put my bike box in the hallway. I opened it up and pulled out all the dirty bottles, clothes, and other random bits I stuffed in there. But until this morning my bike remained in its travel box.

Everyday I looked at my bike and felt bad, but never felt like putting it back together. This is where I thought having a live in bike mechanic would come in handy :)

And now your probably wondering (or maybe not) if I have ridden since IMC... well, yes I have! I have a fixed gear bike that I like to play around on. The weather is finally cooling off so I rode my fixie to work the other day. And that's the extent of my bike riding :)

This morning I woke up and put my bike back together. We are together again! Unfortunately we are VERY VERY slow right now. I got dropped a few times on my ride this morning and never felt like working hard to catch back up. Even though I am in S-L-O-W motion on the workout front it is lovely to be outside and our morning lows have dropped so its almost chilly... okay, not quite - but almost! HA

As far as what IM's I am doing next year... I have signed up for IMCDA and IMMOO, but to tell you the truth I would LOVE to race IMC again next year instead of Wisconsin. Probably should have thought about that earlier, but no big deal! Everything has a way of working itself out :)

Back at it :)

I can't tell you how HAPPY I am to be back into training. Sure its not even half the amount of training time I normally get during an IM build, but I get to swim, bike or run every single day!!!

This past weekend I went to Telluride, Colorado for the weekend with some friends. It was great to get out of AZ and play in the mountains. On Saturday I went for a LONG hike where I had the chance to think over a lot of things going on right now. Nothing bad is going on, just some slight changes :) One of them is going back to school. I have a few things I need to accomplish before I can get in, but hopefully fall 2010 I will be back to school getting my masters. Other changes??? Well, let me get through the graduate school application process first. Then Ill tackle the next change.

Today was my first day back at master's swim. I was sad to show up and see my least favorite coach on the deck. He practically sleeps during practice and that's just NOT okay with me. Then I had some dude in my lane whose name I forgot, probably because he collided head on with me not once, but TWICE! Okay, the first time was no big deal... but seriously, TWICE?!? I was angry and just wanted to be done with my swim so I could come back another day and start over. However, I don't work that way and I stuck with it until practice was over. I should have known after the first incident and a two of my normal lanemates decided to switch lanes when they saw this guys lane manners. I won't make that mistake again.

Let's end this post on a happier note :) I am officially signed up for two IM's next year!!! It's my favorite distance - do I sound like a broken record??? :-D Next year I plan on staying stateside for my IM's... no more distance markers in kilometers.

Here is a picture from the awards ceremony at IM Canada

Time OFF!

After several races already logged this year it is time for a break. Jen has told me I MUST take two full weeks off. If I get antsy I can go to a yoga class or walk. Cody and I already walk everyday... but he is lazy and will only let me take him 1.25 miles (we have a loop we do) at his pace. Since my cold is finally getting better I am beginning to get antsy and was thinking that next week if I go missing you may find me at the gym walking on the treadmill for a couple hours :-)

This is what happens to Cody after our little walks...

He isn't a very active dog, he just likes to carry around as many toys as he can fit in his mouth. His record is three tennis balls.

I hope everyone is having fun training!!! I can't wait to cheer everyone on at there IM's in the next few months :-)