opps..... ?

Let me start off by explaining that if I am in the car with my husband, he sits in the drivers seat. I like to look it as a team effort though. Yeah, he has his hands on the wheel but I make sure he is driving the correct speed limit(he calls this back seat driving), is aware of all the lights that are changing colors, and I always point out weavers. For the speed limit, I have this rule and it has always worked for me. My rule is you drive 8 miles an hour over the speed limit. My theory is that if you drive faster than that you will get a ticket and if you drive slower than that you are wasting my time because you could be driving faster and not get a ticket. The hubby doesn't like my rule and I will leave it at that(ok so maybe there have been a few arguments about my rule).

The other day we were driving home from Beaufort and I see a police car in the middle of the road and immediately look over to see the speedometer. It was about 10 over and dropping. I think to myself F*** he is about to get pulled over. Sure enough we had blue lights behind us. Hopeful about not getting a ticket I thought that chewing him out would make the situation worse so I didn't say anything to him. I had just read Carole's Blog about how to instantly predict if you were going to get a ticket or not. She says that if the officer walks up to the car and immediatly asks for your license and registration without any prior chit chat you are done, and there is no way to get out joke, cry, flash, or pay your way out of it. Much to my dissapointment, those were the first words out of the officers mouth, and I thought to myself, "damn here comes the ticket."

My husband does the normal pull the license out of the wallet, fumble with the registration/insurance and hand it to the officer thing. Now let me explain, my husband has a very Latin name(Jose Angel Fuentes). However, he is very fair skinned and speaks without any accent and this has caused him trouble more than once with his id/cc/bartenders/ect. because people don't believe that he is showing his real id. The officer glances at the license, looks at my husband and says.... "that makes sense, sorry sir. I was looking for the car with the jeep behind it. Have a nice day." The officer then hands the id back and walks away. Jose and I look at each other completly confused and unsure of what to do. It was the strangest thing.... After a few seconds we drove off without a ticket or even a warning. So, sorry Carole, there must be some exception to your theory, I have no idea what we did, but I sure am glad to have gotten out of that one.

My recommendation on the issue is to just drive the 8 over and not get pulled over in the first place.

Northern Fun

I know Thanksgiving was a week and a half ago and I am just getting around to posting about it, but we had so much fun that I have to post about it even if it is late!

We always go to Annapolis for Thanksgiving to visit my husbands family. His mother is a triathlete, his father a sailor, his older sister has two great daughters(our only nieces), his little sister is probably one of the coolest kids I know(ok so maybe she is 21 now and not really a kid anymore but I still see here as the 12 year old she was when I met her), and his brother in law works for the Boston Globe and is always good for some great conversation. I am very lucky to have this group for inlaws they are always ready to have fun and we have many common interests!

Luckily, this year we arrived to a nice warm front that hung around until the last day we were there. Normally it is what I consider ungodly cold and I HATE the cold. Despite the cold weather my mother in law, being a dedicated triathlete herself(2x kona qualifier and age group record holder at IMLP) always sees to it that we have plenty of training opportunities. In past years she has introduced us to the "4:40 group"(a crazy group that starts their 6 mile run at 4:40am and then hits the pool), arranged multiple turkey trot races, and took me on my first 30 mile bike ride(from which my husband had to bring the car and come pick me up so she could finish her ride!) As always this year we had a couple of treats. First we hit the basement for a little computrainer ride.

That's right they have 3 of them networked together in the basement for winter racing! What a blast. Then she took me to Masters swimming(a great group) and introduced me to her friend Maureen to get advice on cold water swimming. I have signed up for IMSG and have an absolute terrible time swimming in cold water. Of course with all the great advice I got, I wanted to try it out right away. Since the water temp was 53 and beach access less than a block from the house I thought it was the perfect opportunity. My mother in law(Crissy), and husband were not going to let me suffer alone and tagged along. Sadly Jose didn't have a wetsuit and went in a speedo and Crissy gave me her booties, gloves, and cap.... so they were a little colder than I was, but real troopers for supporting me. My father in law(Joe) grabbed the camera and we headed out!

The swim was the coldest water I had ever been in and it sucked. Although Jose and Crissy were cold they were able to swim a bit. However, I was fairly warm but unable to swim because every time I put my face in the water it would take my breath away. I will be looking for any advice to overcome this issue, but that's all for another post.

It was another successful Thanksgiving in Maryland and I can't wait to see what the inlaws have in store for next year!

Fun at the pool!

Today started with a swim! I typically enjoy starting my day with a swim even though most days I have to convince myself to get in the water by repeating the mantra "get in that water and the worst part of your day is over." I hate hate hate the first three seconds of being in the pool. Yet, something about the smell of chlorine and the comforting feeling of warm coffee after swimming just starts my day of right. However, todays swim was exceptionally enjoyable. I don't really know why..... the water was cloudy.... so cloudy that you couldn't see the wall until you almost ran into it. I got stuck in the end lane but made the best of it by trying to splash the lifegaurd during my "blast legs" kick set. Then when I got in the shower I noticed the shower curtain was gone. It was there monday..... and no I didn't notice it when I got in the shower and was fully exposed to everyone in the locker room. However, when I looked down to see water splashing all over my dress shoes sitting just outside the shower I became very concerned. Funny how I was unalarmed by exposing my nakedness to everyone but get a little water on my shoes and the world might end! Friday I will be sure to check for the shower curtain before I get in the shower!

What I use Wednesday coming us soon.

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What I Use Wednesday

Ok, I really LOVE this one!!!! My stick! I have to admit that when I started this sport I was in my early 20's and could get away with a lot. Maybe it was my age or maybe it was the fact that I did much less volume and intensity than I do now, but I NEVER stretched, used massage, or thought about recovery nor did I ever get tight or sore. I remember some of my training partners who were older and wiser than me doing all these things to aid recovery and complaining about being tight or "fried." I literally did not understand what they were talking about or why they devoted so much time to this stuff. Well, now those days are gone, in fact I rarely walk up steps without feeling the fatigue in my legs! So, I have slowly learned a few tricks to help my muscles feel better and the stick is on the top of my list!

It is great for when my legs are stiff, but also to keep them from getting tight. Five minutes a day is all I need. It feels so good! It is works for all the muscle groups from legs to back to arms to neck and I can even get into my hips and glutes with it. I do use it in combination with stretching to help work out the kinks and knots in my muscles. One of the big perks about it is that I can do on my own. To maximise my recovery I also use my Saucony compression socks and Ultragen recovery shakes and have seen a noticeable improvement in recovery between workouts.

I frequently give the stick as a gift and have never heard any negative reviews about it. So, if you don't have one yet..... go get one NOW!!!!

Bye Bye Crosstraining!

I have spent the last several weeks trying to be "chill." I was instructed by my coach to take some time mentally and physically off from triathlon. This was a bit of a challenge for me as I love the life style and structure of triathlon.

Of course we did some of the usual cross training stuff, a good bit of cleaning, and eating the last few weeks but I also took the opportunity to try a few new things. First on the list was a self defense class for runners. Since I will be likely running in the dark this winter and many winters to come I thought it would be a beneficial thing to do! We learned how to get away from someone if they grab you by the wrist, waist, neck, or pony tail. I really hope I never have to use this knowledge but it was fun. I also took a couple jiu jitsu classes which I really enjoyed. It was pretty entertaining to see some of these smaller girls drop 200 pound men to the floor. Finally, my last cross training activity was playing wii. I have played way to much wii over the last couple weeks. However, Jose and I have almost beat Mario so I expect until we do there will probably be way to much wii in my future too.

The official start of my training for the 2011 season was yesterday and I am so happy to see rn, bike, swim back in the routine.

What I use Wednesday

This week I am sharing one of my favorite race day products. First I want to say yes SBR is a sponsor for my team, Trakkes. However, I was introduced to and started using this product long before they sponsored my team. I will never recommend nor does my team as me to recommend anything I don't honestly believe in. Trakkers just happens to have some great sponsors!

So the product is Trislide by SBR Sports. Oddly enough my mother in law also introduced me to Trislide. Apparently she knows her stuff! Trislide is an "aerosol skin lubricant" or as I like to call it anti chaffing stuff and hurry up and get outta my wetsuit stuff!

Why I LOVE Trislide.....
1. It prevents me from getting chaffed. Obviously! But seriously it works really well. I spray it on the neck, wrists, and ankles of my wetsuit, on the inside of my tri shorts, around the edges of my sports bra, and inside my shoes.
2. Since it is an aerosol spray you get the perfect "coating" and there is no caking or rubbing over and over as opposed to some other products out there. Just a nice spray and you are good to go..
3. It doesn't melt in your tri bag!
4. It is fun to spray.

Try it.... you will love it I promise!

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Triple T

Its been oven a week since I finished triple t and I still think I could sum up that race report with one word. OUCH!

Rather than write a detailed race report of how each each segment of all four races went(which would be really long and only include declining heart rate with corresponding declining output and a lot of "OUCHES"), I will just give some of my thoughts on the race. I heard about triple t Ohio a few years ago and have been trying to fit it into my race schedule ever since. So when they added one a four hour drive from me, offered it at half price, put great prizes at stake,and it fell on a weekend I had nothing planned for, I signed up. I will say now that I greatly underestimated the difficulty of triple t, maybe I was still broken down from nationals but Sunday hurt! I was smart enough to realize that having a teammate would be more fun and managed to talk BC into racing with me. Of course the hubby wasn't going to miss out and then our friend John jumped on the band wagon. So we had a nice group of four for the long weekend.

We arrive at the race sight Friday afternoon and checked in. I was instantly excited about the weekend. Transition was set up just off the lake at an FAA camp. The whole weekend was a truly unique atmosphere. People were very relaxed and you didn't have that nervous energy that typically appears at races. We never felt the need to lock our car and left our shoes at the swim start all day. The race director did a fantastic job. Courses were well marked, every event started on time, results were quickly available, and they provided plenty of food all weekend which was free to all athletes. I do have two complaints. First the roads were a little bumpy and second they only put your race number on your right arm so it was very hard to keep track of people as you couldn't see their race numbers. Oh and one last possibly negative comment. Everyone had to wear the same jerseys. This added a very neat aspect to the race, but it made me really appreciate my awesome Trakkers kit which is made by Saucony. My race kit is much more comfortable.

I will tell a little bit more about the races. Friday night was a super sprint which was a fun way to get some speed in and kick of the weekend. And, oh yeah BC laid down a 5 minute mile for 5th fastest overall run of the day.... take that boys. Saturday brought two olympic distance races. The first one is traditional and I have nothing exciting to say about it. The second one starts at 3 pm it is a bike, swim, run and where you start to feel the pain. It is also where I learned It would probably be better to take the time to deal with a wetsuit than deal with the time lost from cramping while swimming hard off the bike in 71 degree water.

Sunday was the final race, a half. Going into the race BC and I had a pretty generous cushion between us and second place so we decided to take it a little easy. I am so glad we had that option as it was a rather painful race even at the more enjoyable pace we set. The totals are four races with over 140 miles total for the weekend.

Would I do this race again? No probably not..... this was a bucket list race for me. It was fun and I would recommend it, but it's done for me! I would however go up there again if others were racing and just race the half on Sunday. Even though I say I would not do the race again I am very glad I did it. And, oh yeah we had a bidet in our 1970's hotel, but no.... no one tried it..... maybe we will have to go back?

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Done!

With the completion of triple t comes the end of my season! This year has been amazing and here is why!

1. I stayed healthy all year! Thanks so much to my wonderful coach for keeping me in line, a great team at drayer physical therapy for teaching how to fix my imbalances, and my amazing husband for taping my stinky, blistered, yucky foot without complaint.

2. The Trakkers team. I was lucky enough to be part of this team of amazing athletes and sponsors. I have to say one of the highlights of my season was getting to meet my teammates and sponsors at Rev3 knoxville(while also racing one bad a** course).

3. Lessons learned. Wow I have learned so much this year. I cannot even start to list everything I have learned this year. My most recent lesson was not to ride a hard 40k on your bike and then jump in a 71 degree lake without a wetsuit and try to swim your a** of unless you want to cramp like crazy. I also have learned how to nail my race nutrition thanks to coach Dirk and first endurance. I have learned I can push my body much harder than I thought.

4. This year has also been filled with accomplishments. There were a few pr's. I finally backed up a solid bike with a run in a half. Thanks to Kat I made it through my longest and hardest bike ride ever. Tracy paced me to a 10k I thought I would never be able to run. I reached volumes in my training that I never even considered doing. There were many more throughout the year but most importantly I had fun each step of the way.

5. Finally my friends and family have given me unbelivable support. My parents dealt with me being missing a lot. My mom actually pushed me to man up and register for my first ironman(IMSG). The inlaws supported me through the very dissapointing eagleman. My mother inlaw as well as training partners Kat and Tracy have very generously shared their knowledge with me. And of course my husband jose! He has been amazing this year helping me with everything from staying motivated to making sure my bike was clean and race ready to yelling at me to do PT. I am very very lucky to have such a great support team.

Now that the 2010 race season is over I have big plans! Four weeks of cross training! I plan to play some golf, ultimate frisbee, take self defense classes, mt. bike, and relax. However I decided this week will be all about me. First up a pink hair extension to support breast cancer awareness month, a massage to get triple t outta my legs, a pedi and mani with my triple t teammate to celebrate our survival of that race, and some much needed wine with the hubby.

Next up .... what I use wednesday.... and a triple t race report.

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What I use Wednesdays!

I am starting a new habit on my blog! I am very particular about the things I use. Once I find something that I like I stay with it. Each wednesday I will share one of these things with you and explain why I use it.

Since I love coffee, and its a daily staple in my life I figured I would start with something coffee related. I love my Contigo insulated coffee mug. My mother in law (also a coffee enthusiast) gave this to me last year for Christmas. This thing seriuosly keeps my coffee hot for ever. Even though I love coffee and drink it often I don't atually drink that much of it because I sip on it. Since I sip on it, it takes me forever to finish a cup and it almost always gets cold before I can finish it. Cold coffee is icky! The reason the mug keeps your coffee so cold is that rather than having a hole in the lid to drink from it has a seel with a button. When you push the button the seal opens and your nice warm coffee comes flowing out of the mug into your mouth! That seal holds the heat in rather than the traditional hole in the lid that let's the heat escape.

The other reason I love my coffee mug.....it has pink on it! Pink just makes me smile, but when you combine it with hot coffee it's almost a guaranteed happy start to my day!

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taper,race, recover

Halfmax recap!

My taper was torture. It always is. My body feels terrible, my digestive system gets thrown out of whack, I am tired all the time, I get very cranky, and I doubt myself. My poor coach got several emails to the tune of don't be dissapointed if I am slow at halfmax. My husband had to listen to me say I didn't like to race. To which he responded that I was full of nonsense. Anyhow we all survived the taper week.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling pretty good. I did my warm up run and my legs felt 100% recovered. Something I had not felt in a long time. That combined with the fact that I had not really done a workout in almost a week I was very excited to race. The announcer said the swim would be wetsuit legal! Thank goodness as my swim training has been weak and I needed any advantage I could get. I then headed to port-o-john(I have a fear of these things, like seriously a real fear), upon my return I see almost everyone is out of transition and crowded around the announcer. Which seemed odd. As I walk past a couple people I overhear them say that the swim is CANCELLED. Yes, very good news for me. But in my opinion pretty sad given that it was a national championship.

The race director decided to do a random tt start. Allowing athletes to line up however they wanted, this he hoped would cut down on drafting. I found it dissapointing as I wanted to race the girls in my age group and would have preferred if we all stated at least within a few minutes of each other. I lined up at the very front as I just wanted to get the race going and stop standing around in the cold!

I quickly got on my bike and settled into my zone much quicker than I thought. My nutrition was a bottle of efs liquid shot mixed with efs sports drink totalling about 500 calories. This works perfectly for me as it is mild in flavor and provides calories and electrolites. The course was a two loop H, with too many uturns to count but it was easy to break down mentally. Final bike split was 2:31. PR! I have laid down some strong bikes before but never been able to run after them so I was excited to see what my legs had.

I ran into transition, grabbed my efs liquid shot and team Trakkers visor and head out to run. I decided not to start my watch and just run off heart rate. I didn't want to know my pace because I had no idea what to expect and knew that running off from my heart rate would bring my best result. The first mile felt good so I turned my watch on knowing that my pace was strong enough to not effect me mentally. The run felt great! I was able to execute my race plan perfectly. I think the cool temperatures really helped with this. Run time was 1:43:30 for a total bike/run of 4:17.

I was pretty happy with the results of my race. It's the first time I have put together a run and bike split in the same race. I hit my heart rate the whole time which is also a first. That is all I can ask for.

Now..... I recover..... I am signed up to do triple t next weekend so I have lots of recovery to do. I will be spending the day on the couch with my saucony compression tights on. The day will also likely include some stretching, mt. biking, a walk, a massage, and some stretching to help aid the recovery. Since triple t is just for fun coach has me official in the off season which calls for four weeks of cross training and "eating like a piggy." Seems odd to me. But the biggest thing I have learned this year is to trust him, but that is a whole other post! Any suggestions for the cross training..... my husband has already taken over the wii!

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blogging from new phone?

Got a droid! Yay! That means I can blog front phone now... right?

Here is the view of my favorite river.... on our way to halfmax!

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This is how you taper?

I hesitate to post this before my race, because I really don't want to make excuses before I even start the race, but this is reality. The last six months I have been training and targeting Eagleman. Everything was going almost perfect. I had been able to run, had some great races, was PRing, and really felt fit. Well, that was until about 3 weeks ago. My training started to feel off, I was really tired all the time, sleeping more than usual, my house was dirty and laundry undone and I didn't care(very out of character for me). All I wanted to do was sit on my couch. I would get excited about the idea of a workout and then go to do it and feel absolutely terrible. I didn't know what was wrong, I talked to my coach, my husband, my training partners, and we thought I was just tired from a HUGE training block and maybe a little run down from the weight I had lost over the last 6 months. WRONG.

So last Friday morning, I woke up and felt terrible. UGGG.... Friday was also the first easy day working towards my taper. I had planned to go for a short walk and do some light stretching in the am and an easy swim in the afternoon. My stomach hurt, I had a headache, was freezing cold, and had no energy. I thought maybe I had eaten something bad and just needed to get moving. I went for my walk at a snails pace wanting the whole time to just stop and sit down. When I got home I laid on the floor for 30 minutes unable to move and barely able to answer my husband when he talked to me. I really wanted to go to work, so finally I got up and headed to the shower. But after realizing that I was unable to complete the shower, I decided to call in sick. My husband set me up with an array of sick people stuff, animal crackers, gatorade, ginger ale, tea, ect. After about an hour and a half I figured something must be really wrong, since. I still couldn't stand up and still had all the other issues I had woken up with, yet I didn't have head cold symptoms and wasn't throwing up. So, I called my mom to take me to the doctor.

The doctor said I had an infection somewhere in my body and all my white blood cells had been released("even the baby ones") and the infection wasn't respiratory or UTI. So I was told to go home take antibiotics, drink lots and 3 days of bed rest. Antibiotics, fine, drink lots, fine, 3 days bed rest???? WHAT???? I emailed my coach and didn't tell him about the bed rest and his response was "3 days rest." OMG, I had a great TT exercise planned for Saturday and Sunday was a 4hour brick and and hour swim. My last big push before the race. Fortunately, for my doctor and my coach I remained so exhausted for those three days that I could not even think about doing those workouts let alone actually attempt them.

So I sat on the couch out and was going crazy. Coach changed my taper and I trust my coach so I went with it. I have to say I attempted to do most of the workouts. I have felt wiped all week. Lots of ups and downs. Still tired. Still frustrated. But today I finished the last workout, got a massage, and am ready to do what I can on race day. Hope my coach knows something........

Rev3 Part 2of2: The numbers!

YAY!!!! Rev3 was able to recover my numbers! Here is my race report of race day and some splits!

The day started when our alarms went off at 4:30. Jose and I did our usual prerace routine, coffee, breakfast, and headed out the door. It was COLD!!!! We set up transition, chatted with some of my Trakkers Teammates and went for a warm up run. My legs felt great, but my hip was killing me and way out line (bad news for my bad foot) from the spill I took on bike the day before, which had me concerned.

As I was heading down to the swim start there was a crowd of about 20 pros I had to walk through. About half way through, I hear someone say, "Hey Savannah, Good luck today!." I was shocked, what pro would know me by name? I looked up to see Michael Lovato talking to me, he is one of the pros on my team and I had met him briefly at the team dinner Friday night. I couldn't believe that he recognized me in my wetsuit, swim cap, and goggles, but it was a great start to me day.

It came time for my wave to get in the water. I lined up next to a couple of my teammates and jumped in as this was a water start. We had 5 minutes between waves, so I did a quick warm up and positioned myself on the start line. The swim was nice, fairly calm, didn't get too many elbows thrown at me nor did I catch a draft. Swim time 31:40, a PR, I'll take it.

Time to head out on my bike. First, I cannot even begin to explain how awesome this bike course was!!! Just beautiful, technical, and challenging, I highly recommend it. Did I mention, it was COLD. I had set out gloves and arm warmers to put on, but for some dumb dumb reason I did not put them on. This ride was so cold. I have NEVER been this cold for this long in my life. For those of you that know me, you can attest to how easily I get cold and how much I hate it. I thought many times about bailing, and at the coldest point wondered if I was going to go hypothermic. Luckily, that was just before the temperatures started to warm up. Ultimately, I was a not too excited about how I rode, I was just to cold and felt out of control of my bike from being so tense. Not to mention my heart rate was just way low. Even though I was uncomfortable I enjoyed the change of pace from the flatlands, I loved the bike course!!! Bike time 2:52:02.

YES YES YES!!!! Time to get off this bike and get warm. My feet were numb coming off the bike, so running felt kinda funny. However, my legs felt fresh and good. I started out running around 8's the worked into some 7:30's. My run mileage has been pretty low so around mile 9 or 10 it started to hit me and my pace gradually slowed. The run course was very nice, shaded and well aided with great volunteers. I headed to the finish line, almost there!!! No wait, turn left???? what??? Ok.... OMG a huge, hill! That's cruel and funny at the same time. Up the hill (they had volunteers on the hill cheering for you), down the hill to the finish!!!! Run time 1:43:12. A 15 minute PR!!!! I will take it.

Total Time: 5:12

A few thoughts on the race.
1. Great great course, best I have been on and I will do it again
2. Amazing volunteers and very well stocked aid stations
3. Extremely family oriented, if you have kids this is a race you should do for sure. There is so much for the kids to do
4. Yes, my timing got messed up, but ultimately the eventually found it. I have had this happen at other races so I don't hold it against Rev3. It happens, I know people who have had it happen at Mdot races where kona spots are on the line. Generally if you give the race director some time he/she can figure it out.
5. Finish line. The finish area was also very nice and exciting, a jumbotron, huge stage, face painting for the kids, and lots more!

Next up, my nutrition report. stay tuned.

Rev3 Knoxville Race Review (part 1 of 2)

I have so much to say about my weekend in Knoxville, it was a great weekend!!!!

We arrived in Knoxville Friday afternoon and headed right to the race site to pick up our packets. The expo had just opened when we arrived, but they were ready to go. The parking and directions were well marked, registration was well staffed with knowledgeable volunteers, the jumbo screen was set up, and they had all the big inflatable slides ready to go for the kids.

One of the major things I noticed about this race over the weekend is how geared they are towards family and the athlete having a great race experience(yes they are still fine tunning some of the timing and gps units, but I have raced several races where my timing was wrong. Not to mention how many race results I have looked and noticed that some of the participats results were clearly distorted).

Rev3 has so much to do for the kids, they had a play area set up with large slides, a child/parent adventure race(which made me wish I had kids just so I could do the race), family movie night on the jumbo screen, and they let you cross the finish line with your family/kids!

On Friday night I headed to the trakkers team dinner while Jose meet up with my aunt for a Gluten Free dinner! Team dinner was a blast, I meet some of my fellow teammates. We had a special treat when some of our team pros(Richie Cunningham, Michael Lovato and Amanda Lovato) stopped by to say hello! Of course pro and team manager Carole Sharpless was there to hang out with us all night and make sure we didn't get too rowdy. They were all so nice and each took the time to talk to us individually about our race season, training, homes, ect.

Saturday it was up bright and early to head back to the expo for team pictures, a fun run with our team pros, a First Endurance giveway at the Trakkers booth, and bike check in. I ended up hanging out in the Trakkers booth for awhile with fellow teammate and 2009 Kona Amature Female Champion, Kathleen Calkins. This chick is seriously fast and super down to earth and humble. Thanks for the race tips Kathleen!

After the expo Jose and I dropped our bikes off at transition and checked into our hotel. I did my traditional prerace nail painting while Jose got our nutrition ready for race day.

Then we meet up with my Aunt for a prerace dinner(and maybe a glass of vino) at Outback! Yum!!!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before race day. Part 2 of 2 coming soon!!!!

Rev3 Goals!!!

I am so excited to race Rev3 on Sunday. I love the half distance races and know that this course and event are going to be a great experience no matter what the clock says when I get to the finish line. Therefore, I have intentionally not set any time goals. I really want to enjoy the day!

Here are my Goals!!!

1. To actually be able to run the run and to get to the finish line without my foot bothering me.
2. To hit my Heart Rate Zones on the bike and run.
3. To stay calm and focused no matter what the day throws my way.
4. To hit my nutrition well. No bonking!!!!

Number 1 is probably the most important to me. I have been struggling with my foot now for over a year and am just now able to train on it and I don't want a big setback.

Taper Time!

My taper for Rev3 officially started at 12:43pm Saturday. By 4:00 I had hit sushi for lunch, barnes and noble for a magazine, and of course starbucks for coffee. Then promtly found this chair open at the pool!

Yes it was 85 degrees out and I am was drinking coffee, but.... I was recovering with this good stuff.

I managed to sit still for about 40 minutes before, I couldn't manage any longer. We headed back to the condo and by 7:30 I had cleaned everything, finished laundry, and cooked enough food to feed an army for a week.

Now I only have 6 days left of my taper week, what is left to do? Tracy and I plan to perfect an energy bar recipe, and I might start packing......

Oh, yeah,and other than a tremendous amount of time on my hands during taper week, I also seem to wake up at like 3am, which Jose loves!!!!! Gotta love the TAPER.

Langley Pond Oly Race Report

This was my last race before the Rev3 Knoxville Half on May 9th. I know that the race is getting close because registration for the event closes this Friday.

We arrived in town around 8:30 Friday night. Our friends, Troy and Kat had arranged for us to stay at Troy's parents house. We preceded to stay up way too late having fun, before finally crashing around midnight, I had been up at 2am so I was more than ready to passout! The alarms went off and coffee started brewing around 5. Everyone quickly made breakfast and we headed out to the race site.

This was also my first race with my new Trakkers team kit and I have to say I really enjoyed showing up to the race site in my team colors!!!!. Saucony makes the kit and it is super comfy and smooth. The water just beads off the material. I knew they made good running shoes, but was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their tri apparel.

I picked up my packet, and headed over to transition. The interesting thing about this race series is that my husband and I rack and start right next to each other since we both race the open division. Well, I rack my bike and start to set up transition when the hubby shows up and asks me to slide my bike down so that he can fit in. Mind you there are only two bikes on the rack so there was plenty of room without me sliding anywhere. I told him to get lost..... What nerve!

Here Is My Transition All Set Up and Ready To Go







One thing I have really been working on is nutrition on the race course. I have started using the EFS Products and they are for real. I am loving the liquid shot. It is kind of like a gel, but there is no gelling agent. I think this is what makes it so different. It not only tastes great but it digests easy and keeps you fueled even during the most demanding efforts. I put about 200 calories in my bottle for the bike and it worked out perfectly.

The swim was interesting, it was my first open water start in the open division. I am by no means a swimmer. I was aggressive in the start and had some feet, but let some girls push me around and ended up all alone. About 2/3 of the way through the swim I caught some feet. However these feet did not swim very straight.

I should also mention that my friend Kat was racing the sprint, their start was after ours, but the swim finish was at the same spot. Kat is a VERY fast and GOOD swimmer. So I am swimming towards "the finish" when I feel someone swim over me and head in a different direction. I look up see that it is Kat and I think wow that is odd and mean, but kept swimming. Well, about 30 seconds later the lifeguards were blowing whistles at me as I had swam way off course. DUH, should have followed Kat!!!! Out of the water in 26:45.

I rushed through transition and got out on the bike. I wanted a solid bike and to be able to push the effort the whole time. It was a two loop course with a low grade hill. The first loop was good. I hit 39 going down the hill but my climb was a little dissapointing as I was a little agressive at the start. The second loop brough some rain, slick roads, bike traffic, and car traffic so even though going up I was stronger going down was slower. All in all it was an ok bike. My legs were really tired and didn't want to give me as much as I was asking for. Bike was 1:07 something.

Into T2!!! I was a little scared about this run. I have been known to be lazy here and I knew it was gonna hurt. I managed to push it and ended up running a personal best 43:XX to which I was happy.

Finish time was 2:20:XX. All in all it was fun day!

Probably the thing I was happiest about from my race were actually my transistions. I typically have had very very slow ones. T1 was second fastest female and t2 was fastest female. I have to attribute some of this to trislide. The stuff is amazing! I spray it on everything and you just slide in and out of it, not to mention it's anti-chafing effects.


At Awards

Rev3 Challenge and Smack Talk

The Trakkers Pro team recently challenged the Trek/Kswiss team to team challeng. The top two men and the top woman from each team at the upcoming Rev3 Knoxville Olympic race will be scored using cross country scoring to determine the fastest team on the day. Winning team get $5,000. Since the challenge there has been a lot of smack talking between the team. Check out this clip from Michael Lovato and Ritchie Cunningham.

http://www.rev3tri.com/...0richie%20quotes.mp3

This makes the race so much more interesting and I can't wait until May 9th. It will be a challenging and exciting race to watch and to follow.

Check out http://rev3tri.com/knoxvilleComingSoon.htm

Registration closes on April 30th so sign up now before you miss out. You can use the coupon code "Trakkers127" for a $10 discount.

My week in recovery

This whole recovery training is new to me. My old coach never took a recovery period, he took recovery days, two a week. This didn't really work for me, I ended up hurt OFTEN. Now I actually work both recovery days and weeks into my training. I was pretty broken down and coming off from being sick so I was given this for my "recovery" week.

Monday:Easy Swim, 3000 Yards

Tuesday: OFF DAY

Wednesday: Brick Easy Effort 1hour bike 40 minute run

Thursday:Power swim 2600. I only swam 2000 because I was swimming outside and freezing. I figured with coming off being sick I was better off to bag the last 600 and go get warm.

Friday: 1 hour bike with a couple of short intervals

Weekend: Recovery is over, back to some good training!!! YAY!!

I actually hate recovery, because I am still on my old coaches mentality of GO GO GO! I felt like crap all week, which I am being told is normal. I hope it pays off!

Cooper River Bridge Run

My first memory of the Cooper River Bridge run in Charleston, SC is from my senior year in college. It was about 11:00 on a Saturday and I had just rolled out of bed.I was trying not to noticed how dirty my house was from the previous nights activities when my roommate walked in the door wearing running clothes holding a box full of fruit and water. I asked him what in the world he had been doing up so early and why he was in running clothes. He explained he had run a 10k over the copper river bridge, I of course thought he was an idiot for getting up so early to run over a bridge.

Well, once I became an athlete myself one of the first races I added to my list of todo races was the Cooper River Bridge Run(I will use any excuse to get back to Charleston)! Year after year we have tried to make it, but have always had a conflict. Finally this year, it fit in the schedule.

We rolled into town Friday night about dinner time, where our friend Tracy had cooked an amazing meal(gluten free!!!) at her parents house on James Island. After dinner Tracy and I had to get to our pre race tradition.



Nail Art!!! We then got our stuff together for the next day and headed off to bed.

4:45 and we are all up and drinking coffee 15 minutes before the alarm was set to go off.

6:30 We pack the car with too many people to count and head over to the race site. Mind you this is a big race with 40,000 runners. I had never done it and was fully expecting to spend lots of time in crowds, waiting, and frustrated. Not at all how it went. We drove over the bridge made, several turns that got us lost, and then Tracy pulls right up to the start line. Crazy! We do a warm up and head to line. Again, Tracy pulls some crazy tricks out of her sleeve and I find myself almost in the front row of 40,000 runners. I was starting to hope that my race was going to go half as well as our logistics were working out.

8:00 The gun goes off! Go time. Since I pace poorly, I had decieded to pace off of Tracy and see what it felt like to run"smart." Miles one and two I felt a little tight but comfortable. Mile three, the climb was good, felt strong and was able to pass a few people. Mile 4 was down hill, where I opened up my stride and worked the down hill. Miles 5 and 6 are nice and flat and take you right downtown. I was able to find a nice pack to run with those last couple miles and felt strong.

8:40+ish I hit the finish line with a 1:30 minute PR (I had no expectations going into this race so I was very happy with this). I guess running smart works.

We easily found the rest of the sardines that had packed into the car with us,hit the First Endurance Ultragen, did a quick warm down and headed out for some brunch and mimosas! Perfect day all around.

lucky chica

I am not typically a lucky girl, but on Saturday I think I used every bit of luck I have ever had and will ever have! I was in Charleston, SC and needed to do a four hour ride. The previous night I had been out with my husband and for some dumb dumb dumb reason thought I was back in college and hit the yager and then a little to much wine all before dinner. We let's just say my four hour ride didn't start until one. We brought the trainers with us, but the weather was actually nice so we decided to ride outside. Then I decided that Jose, my husband, and I should not ride together, just be close enough to check in occasionally. He is a much stronger rider than I am and he would have to ride easy to ride with me or I would have to suffer way to much for being hungover to ride with him. Well. I am horrible with directions and of course missed a turn and found myself on some busy back road with no shoulder and a speed limit of 55. Kinda scary, but I am kinda dumb, so I just kept riding. Yep, I got hit by a car. A car that was going at least 50. I was riding and all of a sudden I hear this loud noise and my elbow got hit really hard. I was so stunned about what happened, I couldn't even tell you what kind of car it was, or even what color it was. Nor did the driver have the courtesy to stop. Here comes the lucky, lucky, lucky part! Not only did I manage to not break anything I didn't even go down. I was waiting for a terrible pain to hit me but it never did. At this point the reality of what happened hit me and I did start to panic and had to get off my bike and stop riding for the day. I tries a few times to get back on my bike and ride back to the car, but once a dump truck passed me and I nearly jumped off my bike and into the bushes I decided to call it a day. Jose, was only about 3 miles away and went to get the car for me. I feel so lucky to be typing this blog right now and next time I am felling uncomfortable with where I am riding I will go home. I honestly had that stupid, "it will never happen to me" feeling about getting hit by a car. I do hope it never happens again. Ride safe ya'll!

extra baggage

Extra baggage(fat) is not fast on race day. A few of us have a little to much extra baggage(thanks mom for all those cookies over the holidays!) than we would like going into the 2010 race season. So, we are starting a weight loss challenge. The first weigh in will be on Tuesday, but the trash talk has already started. We are all super competative. One person who I will leave nameless is determined not to lose since the last time he lost a weight loss challenge he ended up with a tattoo of the Bojangles logo with "Body by Bojangles" on his fanny. No, it isn't Jose. We have also already had to put a no sabotaging rule in place, as the scheming has already started.I expect this to be a highly entertaining 12 weeks
Here are the rules:
12 weeks.
Lose the highest percentage of body weight you win.
20 dollar buy in, winner takes all.
No tattoos
Take a picture of the scale, apparently we have some cheaters in the group.
Plus there will be a weekly incentive TBD and a few sidebets.

I was going to post my strategy, but on second thought I don't want to give the competition any ideas. So, I will post it in 12 weeks.

We have a few spots left if anyone wants in.

looking silly

Since my foot hates me and refuses to let me run like I want to, my coach has me swimming double swims. I have mastered the art of hanging my suit from the rearview mirror and blasting it with the heater in my car to dry it. There is nothing worse than putting on a cold damp suit to get in the pool. Last week while I was doing this my swim coach called me and I had a realization while on the phone with him. The conversation went something like this.

Me: Crap, I think my suit is see through in the butt.
Coach: Which one?
Me: The blue and black one that looks like water.
Coach: Ha, yeah.....
Me: Well, thanks for telling me

Since I swim with a coed group of youth, walking around the pool deck mooning everyone is slightly inappropriate. When I got home I tossed the suit and ordered three new grab bad suits. They arrived yesterday and I am thinking I should have opted for mooning everyone. This is what I got.


Ok, cool... It kinda matches my team colors......



Camo? Really? Sigh..... I have never owned camo in my life....but whatever, it was cheap!


WTF! Skull and crossbones? and red??? Does it get any worse. Good God, I am gonna catch some crap at the pool for this one. I much prefeer pink.....

Luckliy, Trakkers sent me a cool box to lift my spirts. LOVE the PINK!!!!!