Life and Everything That Comes With It!

I know it's been months, actually almost a year, since I've written a blog.  I have many
excuses, but quite honestly I just didn't have anything that I wanted to say.
This past month has been tumultuous to say the least.  There have been a lot of
changes going on around the house, good and bad.  Trying to deal with change is
always tough and then suddenly on top of all this my mom was diagnosed with
cancer.  It came out of nowhere and really shocked everyone in my family.  The
good news was that they had caught it early and it could be dealt with by her
having surgery.

It was difficult during the weeks leading up to my mom's surgery and it took a
lot of planning for me to be able to make it out to Colorado to be with her for
it.  Her surgery also happened to fall on a race weekend for me.  I already had
plans in place to race at the Texas 70.3 that Sunday and my mom's surgery was on
Thursday.  I decided that I would make it to both, knowing that would put a lot
of stress on my system.  My mom's surgery was the priority and whatever
happened at the race would happen.

The week finally came for me to head out to Colorado.  I left on Wednesday and
then Thursday morning we got up at 5 am for the big day.  Waiting during the
surgery was the hardest part.  We knew that the surgery was a fairly routine
one, but nothing seems routine when it is your own family member.  Finally
around 1 pm the doctor came out and said the surgery was a success and that my
mom was doing well.  We were all very relieved.  Finally after what seemed like
forever, we were able to go visit her.  The first day and night was hard for her,
as she was in a lot of pain.  I sat there wishing I could take the pain for her
and tried to help her as much as I could.  Even now as I write this blog it
brings tears to my eyes.

By Friday she was doing better and it was time for me to leave her with the rest
of my family and head to Houston.  When I stepped off the plane in Houston
the humidity hit me like a wall.  It was palpable.  I headed to my brother’s
house around midnight to try and get some sleep before I had to check in
the next morning. I like to try and pick someone or something to race for when I do longer races
to give myself some motivation.  Obviously this time it was easy to pick who I
would be racing for, my mom.  So, I woke up Saturday morning feeling happy to be
racing that weekend and anxious to see if my bike was in one piece!  I drove to Galvestonand picked up my bike checked in, went for a little ride and then went to the hotel to check in finally around 5 p.m.  Everything was going
pretty smoothly.

Race morning came very quickly after such a long week, but I was feeling good.
I had to wait an hour and a half after the race start for my wave to go off.
That is always the hardest part, waiting.  Finally it was time for my wave to
line up.  The water was a nice temperature and the swim was pretty uneventful.
I still have a lot of work to do on my open water swimming, but I came out of
the water feeling good.  Then it was on to my favorite part, the bike.  The bike
section was flat and there was a very strong headwind heading out to the
turnaround.  There are certain things that are key for me to do well in hot in
humid races.  Making sure I drink enough and taking salt pills.  I did neither
of those.  Around halfway through the bike I started getting dehydrated and then
the leg cramps started to set in.  I had to come out of the aerobars and keep
stretching my legs to try and get a little relief for the last 20 miles.  I
finally reached the end of the bike and was hopeful that maybe stretching my
legs out on the run would help with the cramping.  It did not.  The run was pure
torture; at that point I was just trying to survive.  I tried to run to every aid station and then took as much water and Gatorade as I could handle.  The
only thing that kept me from dropping out was the fact that I was doing this
race for my mom and I wanted to finish.  The finish finally came and after I
crossed the finish line I took off my shoes and realized that my foot was
bleeding from a big blister I had somehow managed to obtain.  I thought the
entire run that I had a big rock in my shoe.  I limped over to the medical tent
and had it bandaged up.
I definitely didn't have the race that I had hoped for, but I was happy that I
was able to persevere and finish and do something to honor my mom.  There was a
good ending to the race; I was able to get a spot to the 70.3 world
championships in Vegas in September.  Good things come to those who persevere.

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Back in the Saddle

I know I haven't posted anything in a while, but it's been hard to come up with something to write when it's winter and there is nothing going on.  It's spring now though and this past weekend I did my first "real" race of the season, the Brooklyn Duathlon.  Getting myself together ended up being more of a challenge than the actual race.  I could not find my racing flats as I was getting my bag together and when I went to pump up my disc wheel I couldn't find the attachment for that. I ended up finding it in one of my pockets and was able to get my tire pumped up, but I never found my shoes.  Then when I got to the race I went and did my run warmup on the course like I normally do and had put my sunglasses on top of my head.  They must have fallen off while I was running because I couldn't find them when I got back to transition.  I saw one of the race officials with some sunglasses that he wasn't using at the time and went over and begged him to let me borrow them. It was about 10 min until race time and I was getting desperate. He finally agreed.
So, I head over to the start line where they were giving the race instructions.  They mention to us right before the start of the race that due to the storm last week they had to change the run course to something much more challenging with some very large hills.   I'm the kind of person who likes to study the course before a race so I know what to expect. I don't like surprises... i.e. large hills.  Everyone is in the same boat though, so off we go.
Sure enough a couple of minutes into the race we come to a very large and long hill.  There was one other large hill around the end of mile 2 and then it was downhill to transition.  My legs were a little sluggish on the first run and the hills certainly weren't helping.  There were 2 girls ahead of me going in to T1.   I finally make it to transition and was off to my favorite part of the race, the bike.  The bike was great.  The Prospect Park bike loop was very similar to Central Park, mostly rolling with one decent hill.  I actually liked the Prospect Park loop better than Central Park.  I passed both girls on the bike and was in the lead going into T2.  I was starting to feel better after a bad first run.   The second run felt a lot better, but I was having some pain in my right hamstring that had been bothering me all week.  I was chugging along and then around mile 2 one of the girls that I passed on the bike comes running by me.  That's the way it goes sometimes though.  I finished second, I can't be too upset about that for my first race of the season.   I felt pretty good overall, but was a little disappointed with my running.  It's hard to tell though with a race that is really hilly like that.   We will find out in a few weeks when I do my next race.  I'm off now to do some running intervals.

Home, Sweet, Home...

After a delayed return home from Colorado due to illness we finally made it back! I was very happy to come home and see my husband after 3 weeks. I had a wonderful time there visting family and friends and even though the kids and I got sick I still managed to get in 14 days of training. Hopefully those 14 days of training at altitude has done something to improve my performance!
One of the best parts of my trip was that I was able to go with my friend Cara to her swim practice at Lakeshore Athletic Club. Its not just any swim practice though, it's led by legendary triathlete Wolfgang Dietrich. That's one thing that I love about Boulder. It is littered with current and past pros. There's a lot of ex pros that now coach and lead masters swimming at the local athletic clubs. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn from and train with the best! Here are some pictures from my trip.

Now this is a real burrito!

The sun setting behind the mountains

The temperature the first week, brrrr.....

Picture I took on one of my bike rides...

Beautiful Colorado!!

I am so happy to be home, it has been way to long since I came to visit last. What a great way to kick off the New year! The one thing I am looking forward to the most is the mexican food. No offense to all the east coasters but you have no idea what real mexican food is!
Its funny that when I lived here for 27 years in one of the best places in the world to ride a bike I didn't even own a bike. I rode a bike of course when a little kid and randomly did the MS 150 when I was 24 on a mountain bike with flat tires but other than that I had no interest at all. I have a bike here now though and I am hoping to ride as many times as possible over the next 2 weeks while I'm here. I want to take as much advantage as possible of the high altitude and the scenic climbing.
I started my trip off yesterday with a nice long run. I was so happy to be here I didn't mind that my legs were very stiff from traveling all day the day before and was suffering a little from the altitude. Today I hit the pool at the Y near my parents house for a nice swim and when I got to the end of the pool there was slime all over the wall. Yuck! I guess they want to give the pool a nice "open water" feel. I will post some pictures soon!

Christmas is over.. Now what?

You know that feeling that you get after the holidays are over and you have nothing to look forward to but a long winter? That's exactly how I've been feeling since I came home from the half ironman. I'm tired and unmotivated. I started doing races immediately after the baby was born in June and then trained 8 weeks for the half ironman and now race season is over. It's officially off season. That means time to hit the stregnth training and work on my weaknesses. Let me tell you, that list is long. My coach wants me to now focus on improving my run times over the off season and do a series of running races. I really like that idea and I love running so this should be good. It will be interesting to see how much I improve from now until duathlon Nationals in April. Hopefully that will keep me motivated over the long winter until the sun comes out again.

Race Day

My alarm went off at 4 am and I was anxious to get going. I got my stuff ready and headed out to meet the rest of my group. When we got to the race it was already packed with people setting up. As we were setting up our stuff we learned that the race was going to be wetsuit legal after all. It was a very positive start to what was going to be a long day. Since I was in the 7th wave I had to wait quite a while for my group to start. The swim course was 2 loops and by the time I started there were already a large number of people starting on their 2nd loop of the swim. As you can imagine it was very chaotic. The swim was pretty uneventful although I felt like I couldn't really ever get into a good rhythm because I was being bumped and kicked so much. I was happy once I hopped out of the water and headed off towards T1 to get ready for the bike, my favorite part. The first part of the bike we had the wind to our bikes and it was super fast. I was thinking how great this was going to be until I made the turn straight into the wind. It was like I had come to a complete stand still. I just hammered away until we turned again and then I had the crosswinds. That was very scary, there were times when I was leaning so far to try not to get blown off the road that I thought for sure I was going to crash. I made it to the end of the bike and breathed a sigh of relief. Next was the most important part, the run. That's when I started to unravel. I had some problems on the bike with my bag that was holding my GU so I didn't take anything except sports drink and water. I ran out during the first part of the bike so I didn't have any fluid the entire 2nd half of the bike. By the time I got to the run I was completely dehydrated and my stomach started cramping immediately. It was so painful all I could do was walk and not even that at times. One thing I have to say for people who do triathlons is that everyone is so encouraging to each other. I had many people ask me if I was ok and if I needed any help. I watched helplessly as the time continue to tick away and thought that this was it, my race was over. Then around the end of mile 3 the cramping went away and I was able to start running at a pretty good pace. The miles went by pretty quickly after that until around mile 10. The last 3 miles felt like an eternity but I finished and I felt great. What an amazing experience it was and I ended placing 3rd in my age group. I can't wait until the Rhode Island 70.3!

Miami Man Weekend

The trip to Miami didn't exactly start off on the right foot. One of the people I was travelling with had their bike damaged in shipping and we had to spend Friday getting parts to fix it instead of riding like we had hoped. Then on our way to get parts for her bike the rental car door broke and we had to go exchange the car. Needless to say I didn't get out on my bike on Friday once we finished with everything. We just packed it in and called it a day.

I woke up Saturday morning with much more optimism as we headed out to the expo and bike check in. My excitement soon abated as we went out on the bike course and were practically blown off the road by the wind. I was going 14 mph and couldn't get in my aero position. The only wheel I had brought with me was a disc wheel that makes riding in the wind very dangerous. We checked in our bikes and then decided to try out the swim course that was being previewed. The water was very nice and very warm. Warm normally would be a good thing except that the water has to be below 78 degrees for a wetsuit legal race, the water was 80 degrees. I was starting to get really nervous. I wanted my first half ironman to go well and with the wind and the threat of a non wetsuit swim the odds were being stacked against me. The one good thing was that these problems affected everyone so it would be a level playing field. We left the expo headed back to the hotel and got our things ready for race morning before we headed out to dinner. That night I couldn't sleep at all. I was so excited and nervous and all I could think about was whether it was going to be windy or not the next day. As I was drifting off to sleep I received a text from my husband wishing me luck and sending me love from my family. After that I knew everything would work out.