Bringing it Back

It's hard to know how to start this post! How do you say, what you have been up to for the last 6 years? I think I will leave a lot of those last six years in the past and look at why I'm "Bring it Back."

While I stayed active in the past six years I took a fairly significant break from racing until late 2015 when I was talked into racing a tri as a relay with my husband. I wouldn't say this race went as planned but that combined with the buzz that my hometown might get a 70.3 or 140.6 sparked my interest in the sport again. I think the buzz motivated a few people as shortly after it was confirmed we were not getting a local MDot race, a sizable group of locals signed up for NC 70.3 in 2016. I said what the hell, I never had the 70.3 I wanted...... why not give it another shot! 2016 ended up being a lot of work and a bit of a roller coaster going from basically the couch to "racing" a 70.3. At some point in 2016 I decided I would register for a 2017 Ironman. Lake Placid.

On December 30th, Jose and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary! At dinner one of the things we talked about how much fun we had in 2016. That conversational left me wanting to document 2017 and my Journey to Placid as it unfolds. Bringing back my blog seems like the perfect way to accomplish that. So here it is............

Changes

So, it's been awhile since I posted. Ok, a LONG while! Somehow I stumbled upon my old blog posts and started reading them. As I read them I had to wonder if I actually wrote them, in fact I double checked that indeed I had written them. It became very apparent to me how much has changed in my life and what a different person I have become. This for some reason made me feel compelled to write a post. As I reflect on my words from two years ago I cannot put my finger on exactly what is so different in my life now, but there is something. So I guess the question is what am up to now and what exactly has changed?

Well first is the addition of this little stinker to our family!

               This is him grumpy from pure exhaustion. Normally he runs around like he is part squirrel.

Although I used to race a good bit, I have taken about a year and a half off from it. Even though I was still working out and trying new things like, crossfit, yoga, and kiteboarding I never felt compelled to step on the starting line. Until last weekend! I am however glad to say that I finally raced again last weekend and really enjoyed it. I am sure there will be more races in the near future. Along with some other "events," but I'll save that for another post. In my defence being hit by a deer on my bike and breaking my sacrum only to be followed 3 months later with a random slip and fall ending in a broken elbow with 6 screws and a plate didn't really leave me with many racing options.

I guess overall my view on life has just changed. Maybe it's maturity, maybe it's experience, maybe it's good or bad but either way I can not explain how strange it felt to look back at what I wrote two years ago and not recognize that person. As I read those old posts great memories came back and as I sit here today life is pretty good, so I have no complaints! That being said its time for one of my favorite workouts, the tempo run!!!

Time to Talk

So, I have been very MIA for the last hummm like 10 or 12 weeks and now it is time to talk about what happened. One day I was blogging about my 8 hour epic training day and preperation for ironman and two days later I went out for a 60 minute easy ride, returned home, tossed my bike across the room and informed my husband I was done. Then crawled into a black hole of anti swim, bike, run. This has left people asking two questions. What happened and what have I been doing?

The first question is a little more difficult for me to answer. I am a very black or white all or nothing person. It seems I just burnt myself out both physically and mentally. It was a solid six weeks of doing very little before my legs stopped feeling heavy walking up steps and it was just last week before I could stomach the idea of getting into the pool. For the first couple of weeks I spend A LOT of time on the couch, played wii and did puzzles. It almost felt like I had the flu, but wasn't sick. Then I started doing some yoga, tried crossfit, and started to learn to kiteboard. I went for walks, road my mountain bike, got a dog, and generally just chilled. Then due to some pleurisy (fluid around the lungs, which is not suppossed tp be there) I needed to sit on the couch and rest for about two weeks while taking some drugs and getting better. Which brings me to NOW!

Now, I am back to having that burning desire to go run, to fling sweat of my finger tips on a hot brick, to jump in the long course pool and bang out a tough swim, to knock out a long ride, to wake up at 4am and train. That is who I am, I am very passionate about this sport and truly love it, which is why I think so many people were confused by my complete withdraw from it. I will be honest that during this whole process the thing that made me the sadest was not bailing on ironman, not lossing my fitness, not explaining to friends/family/coaches/ that I was quiting, but the feeling that I had lost something that had once brought me so much joy. At one point I loved the sport, the people, the training, the gain of fitness, but I had lost all of that. I was scared that I would never enjoy the sport again, sad that I had lost it. It was kinda like a bad break up. I was glad it was over but still had all of those great memories which made it very difficult. Many people told me that if I just took some time off that things would be ok and the passion would come back. I did not believe them and was sure that if the passion did come back it would be more like a year or two or even five. BUT, I was wrong and the passion is starting to come back, so I am going to get back on the bike, back in the pool, pull out the AVIA's and run. Maybe even do some structured training and do some fall racing.
I am so glad to be feeling the joy of triathlon and I never want to lose it again. Time for a ride!

Gators!?!?!

No I am not a Florida fan, in fact I don't even know which Florida school the Gators are. I do however know(from my time living in Macon, Ga) that the Dawgs and Gators don't like each other.

I am talking about real Gators. One of the unique aspects of growing up in the Low Country is our wildlife. Gators, dolphins, migrating manatees, sea turtles, nasty sand gnats, ect. As I child I always found it interesting to watch how the tourist reacted to each of those. They pay big money to go on dolphin cruises, are confused by why we have beach blackouts at night for the sea turtles, swat in amazement at the invisible biting Sand Gnats, and to my biggest surprise they go Gator Hunting. If I had a dollar for every time I heard a tourist ask, "Where do I find a gator." Ummm... any pond on a warm sunny day? Duh.... Even my husband is slightly mystified by these creatures. When we lived in Macon we would let our dog swim in the ponds. I had to be really firm with Jose about not doing that here, not in any pond, ever, because they ALL have gators. It's true, but he didn't believe me. Last month I took my residents and boss down to Savannah for a tour, lunch at Paula Dean's and a tour of the Juliet Lowe house. However, they just wanted to go Gator hunting. Really? I planned this great day for them and all they wanted was to find a gator? So, I found them a gator! You have to understand I grew up with gators they are commonplace to me. I am so confused by how fascinating they are to people. I was told at a young age "Just stay away from them." I think I was also told one of the gators ate the neighbors dog, which probably was not true but just intended to scare me enough to stay away from them. It worked!

Anyhow I came across this today as I was riding my bike. It was a good 10+ footer, just out enjoying the warm day. Note that this is a pond in the middle of a neighborhood with a sidewalk about 15 feet from where he sits. NO ONE was Alarmed, it's just a gator! However, I thought I would share it anways for all of you who may never go gator hunting.

st. george

Let me start by saying that this blog is going to be rather hard for me to write, which is why it has been so long since I have written anything. I have been procrastinating officially saying I have decided not to do St. George. I know it is the right thing for me to do. I am just not where I should be with training and with it being an early season race, I feel like racing would jeopardize the rest of my year.

Ok, enough of that......

Day Off

This last Monday Jose and I were fortunate enough to be able to take the day off from work, but our version of a day off is not what most people would expect. When I looked at my training schedule, I felt a little bored by the workouts, but a few small modifications quickly turned it into an exciting training day. The plan was to swim an hour, ride 6 hours and run 2 hours. Yes, I realize it is not normal to have this kind of training day on a Monday after a full week of training. But the idea of it had me a bit scared and nervous, which made the training exciting.

We started the day with a pre-sunrise swim. It was sort of non eventful and before I knew it we were on our bikes in a frigid 40 degrees. Our neighbors gave us some funky looks as they prepared to head off to work, but I am pretty sure if they knew what we were up to the looks would have been much worse. Unfortunately it seems that every other morning this month has been above 60 degrees with light winds, while we had to ride the first hour in really cold temps and with a very strong headwind. I kept wanting to turn around and call it a day, after all, it is not like I had to do this.




This is about an hour in, we had been averaging about 15 mph into a fierce headwind, I could not feel my extremities and was not enjoying my "day off".



This was our first planned stop at Gardens Corner. Unfortunately the Piggly Wiggly has closed.

Once we got past Beaufort and out of the headwind, we hit a short section of tailwind before the wind direction shifted and we had a crosswind, followed by more headwind latter in the day. The good news was that it did warm up a for a little while about 4 hours into our ride. However, as we were finishing the ride the clouds moved in and the temperature dropped again.



Once we got done with our ride it was time to head out for the run. I was really unsure about this section of the day. My plan was simply to head out the door and just see how I felt. There was no sense in hurting myself and jeopardizing my training. In the end, Jose and I kept the pace really mellow and just chatted the entire way. Before I knew it we were back home and we had just done a 9 hour training day.

Update

Nothing much is new in terms of personal stuff. After a successful trip to Puerto Rico I settled into some solid training. I feel completely unprepared for an 140.6 mile race, but I am told that is somewhat normal for 8 weeks out. I was kinda bummed to not be able to make it to Costa Rica for the Rev3 race. I heard it was an awesome event. Being part of the Trakkers team though allowed me to follow the race and cheer for my team mates who were able to make it. I also really have enjoyed getting to learn about our new sponsors, two of which really stick out.

First Avia running shoes. I will be honest, I have been curious about these shoes for a while. This is a company that has been in the business for a while and I was excited to try out their innovative shoes. My big issue with shoes is that I need a certain level of stability, which ends up in me running in a bulky feeling shoe. The Avia Quest is the shoe I have been training on, and I am happy to report that it is not bulky feeling at all. While it might look bulky sitting on the shelf at a store, I think you will quickly realize that even though it is a stability/motion control shoe, it allows my foot to track more naturally. Having said that, I am not really sure how a motion control shoe can feel natural, but that is why I leave the shoe making to the experts.

The second new update is Recovery Pump. This is an Active Pneumatic Compression System which, in my most basic of layman's terms, pumps air into four different chambers. The process begins at you feet and moves up your leg, then starts again. The goal being to flush out all the waste product from your legs. The bottom line is it feels good and I can tell you that this is becoming a common sight around our house.