Clean hands

I think I have the cleanest hands ever. With the race becoming closer by the second, and me working with all matter of germs that can be associated with 12-14 yr. olds... Yep, I'm washing my hands ALL the time. Please don't let me get sick now!

Ironman prep

Hey blogland! Thanks for all the good vibes last week. My teacher mechanic friend was able to get the parts to fix my bike. Yeah! Panic attack thwarted! And let me tell you, it rode SOOO nice after the tune-up and new parts.

I was able to get the six hour bike ride in this past weekend. :) I had a little dilemma though. Saturday was accurately forecasted with 25-35 mph winds, with occasional 40 mph gusts, but nice warm 70-80 degree temps. Sunday the weather had a high of 48 and rain forecasted. Hmmm... Which day for the bike? Which day for the run? I chose windy ride, and cold run (which turned out to be a PERFECT day for a run! I think it had to be low 50's and sunny. Absolutely perfect running weather.)

So... I'm getting a pretty good mental game together for my big race. Things I've learned in my training:

- I've been practicing my nutrition all summer. It's not perfect, but I think I've finally got it nailed down. For the bike: Clif bars, Clif Bloks, and Powerbar brand gels (Powerbar has extra electrolytes.) Every 45 minutes, not every hour (that wasn't enough this past weekend.) Although I've been told nothing solid the last two hours of the bike. My coach would rather I didn't do solid foods at all, but I found I really do crave it on the bike. I'll stick with just gels on the run. Boy, I'm not looking forward to that...
- Someone suggested, and I want to follow, that I put Vaseline on my lips before the salt water swim. I definitely noticed some funkiness while goofing off in the ocean in California. Will do it!
- I found a bike jersey on clearance at Performance a couple weeks ago. I really like it. It's red and that's my favorite color. I thought that it would be perfect for photos. Unfortunately I learned this past weekend, the pockets are smaller than standard jersey pockets. Hard to hold food, extra tube, etc. for six plus hours of riding. Another lesson learned!
- I want to take two tubes and two CO2 cartridges. Possibly throw more in my special needs bag.
- I think I want to put some eye drops in my T2 bag. After a long bike, my contact lenses get dry. Chapstik, too.
- Maybe I do need to get off the bike after a couple hours, just for a minute or two, to get some blood flowing in my booty. Helped on my long rides the last two weekends. I think the pro's outweigh the con's. I'll be playing this one by ear on race day.
- Goggle dilemma, I'm thinking comfort over peripheral vision. Small competitive style goggles.
- By swimming in hot sulphur mineral springs, I think I've got over the mental block of the yucky salt water taste in my mouth.
- I've trained in all types of conditions: rain, wind, heat, before the sunrise, middle of the day, in the dark. (I'm lacking cold weather training, but the next couple of weeks seem to have that base covered--could also use some training in humidity.) Oh yeah, I've trained at altitude, so that should help.
- I got another flat tire this past weekend. I insisted on changing it myself. Rear wheel, too! My poor husband watched on while people rode by and looked at him with an eye of disgust as he made his wife change her own flat. He's such a sweetie! I feel like I could do it no problem if I had to.
- We have lodging, airfare, rental car, bike transport...

I'm at the do or die stage in my training. I have two weeks left of heavy stuff. I can't believe it. Do I feel ready? Absolutely not. Would I feel ready if I were faster? Maybe. Those time cut-offs scare me a ton. Obviously I've not done the entire distance... But soon I have to show up. I have to know that I've done everything I could do physically and mentally. The real question is whether or not my legs can do what I need them to do. My brain has done everything it can do. I'm just wondering about this body of mine. It's kind of a scary funny peaceful feeling when you hit this point.

I still have a 3.5 hour run and another six hour bike to go... So I'm not at that point JUST yet, but almost...

25 days, 9 hours, 19 minutes. When will you ever have an event in your life where 25 days seems SO close? (Let me answer that one... It's gotta be childbirth... But I don't know what else might fall in the same category.)

Mean people suck

And today, I'M going to be the mean person... Yes, today it's ME. I have a blog, and it's semi-anonymous, so I'm just going to rant, get it all out there, and be a mean person.

I'm in the teacher's lounge today, and someone decides to talk over the entire 20 foot table to tell me that their brother finished the Chicago marathon this weekend. "Hey, that's awesome, good for him." It actually made me feel good that this person bypassed and decided to talk over 15 people to share this news with ME. Pretty cool.

Apparently, being the mean and cocky triathlete that I am, I wasn't as enthusiastic and impressed as I was supposed to be.

Others joined in to tell me, "But did you hear about it? OMG!"

I just casually acknowledged that yes, I had heard it was 88 degrees and they were afraid that they would run out of ambulances so they called the race off. I think Susie really just wanted to brag that her brother was FAST enough that he missed all the late in the race drama. I'm kind of ticked that they didn't say congrats in his regards, instead they tuned in on the fact that I "wasn't getting it".

The others, not Susie, continued to tell me all about the heat that those people endured. I tried to be nice. (I'm from Michigan, I DO get humidity. I do!) so I commented, "Yeah, I'm sure it must have been the humidity, but I did a half-ironman this past summer in 98 degree heat."

That my friends, did not go over well...

"Yeah, but you didn't have humidity! And they had to take people to the hospital! Somebody died!"

I quickly took my place and shut up, because I was going to get no kudos for my endeavors. These people really do not understand what I do. But I'm home tonight and just slightly upset about the run of that conversation. I looked up the stats. 45,000 people signed up to do the Chicago Marathon. Okay, apparently, only 35,000 showed up. Another 10,000 never finished (in part because they closed the course mid-race.) 250 people needed medical attention. One person died.

So, the one person died of heart problems, not heat. And... if you do the math, 250 people out of 35,000 that started the race--that's less that one percent. While I can't say with complete certainty, I'm pretty confident that at least one percent (probably more!) of the people in my upcoming Ironman will need medical assistance. Heck, I might even be one of them. Have I ever done a triathlon where someone died? YES I have! (Boulder Peak 05') Again, not because of the triathlon, but because of other health problems.

Now, I will give Barry Siff many props for running a fantastic half ironman race in the heat last August, and if there hadn't have been enough water, or Gatorade, or ice for that matter, there would have been more problems. (apparently there wasn't enough water and Gatorade in Chicago.) We're also starting to acclimate to colder temps, so 88 seems a whole lot hotter than it did last summer. But C'MON! Don't blow the triathlete off. Give triathletes SOME credit. Grrr........

30 days out

Shout out to my friend Scott who shares the best kind of "live vicariously through the single guy" stories with me--but doesn't want to be named on my blog. Ha! You made it anyways! I love you man! He did a century ride recently and definitely gave me (and surely every other triathlete out there) props for sitting on that bike seat and then trying to run afterwards.

I'm working hard this week. Thirty days to go. Ai yi yi. I had to do a 3200 (8x400 with :30 rest breaks) in the pool tonight, took me approx. an hour and 20 minutes. That was pretty good for me. If nothing else, I've made some nice gains in my swimming this past year.

I needed to get a tune up on my bike before the big race. I'm so proud of myself. In true Ironman style, I got up at 4:45 a.m. yesterday morning so I could fit the hour bike and 45 minute run in before I gave up my bike for a few days. The great part was that I don't think I was fully awake until the last 20 minutes of the run, so believe it or not, it went by pretty fast. I don't plan to make it a habit, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

Triathlete joke:

Q: How can you pick out a triathlete?

A: They are the ones that get up at 4 a.m. but don't get to work until 9!

I gave my bike to one of the teachers I work with that also moonlights at one of the local bike shops. It was great because he knows I'm on a tight schedule and he promised to keep my bike for only a day or two so I could get it back to train. Unfortunately, he came to school today and told me that a piece of my rear derailer is messed up (the hanger is stripped?) He's going in tonight to see if they have one in stock, but there's a chance he might need to order it. It could take one to two weeks to come in... Send me good vibes and well wishes that they have one in the shop. I'm supposed to do a six hour ride this weekend. I can ride my mountain bike for the shorter rides, but I'm not doing six hours on my mountain bike. Warning to all my roadie friends: I might be looking for a bike to borrow this weekend...

Lots O' Stuff

I'm panicking because I worry that I'm not doing enough. Blogs are so awesome. Someone reminded me to trust my training and not try to overdue it. Point taken. Talked to my coach tonight to express those concerns, and he validated the need to workout midweek, but with monster weekend workouts, I don't need to kill myself midweek. Apparently I'm on the right track.

Unfortunately I didn't get the full monster bike in this past weekend. My lovely husband had the last minute idea to go up to Glenwood Springs for the weekend. (If you're not from Colorado and ever come out to visit, it's a beautiful area, with a 14 mile canyon with bike trail through it, and the world's largest hot springs. You gotta go there!) Anyways, Glenwood was awesome. It was windy and rainy Saturday and we didn't embark on our run until later in the evening, so both my husband and I had the privilege of running in some rough conditions, but that was cool. We're training for an Ironman, and every workout like that gets put in the bank of non-easy Ironman workouts, and those are the kind that help out my confidence issues. I did 10 miles in just over 2 hours. Pretty typical for me, but it was cool because somehow I found myself at 7 miles without even realizing it. At that point, three miles? Pfffp. Cake.

Unfortunately, the five hour bike ride the following day didn't go so well. Both my husband AND I, in our haste to leave town, packed everything except our bike shoes. I still managed 51 miles in tennis shoes on SPD pedals. Not the most comfortable, and anymore might have caused some injuries, but it was a beautiful ride despite the uncomfortableness.

We followed all that up with a 1000 meters in the hot springs--and that water tastes nasty!!! More good Ironman training for when I try to swim in the yucky tasting salt water!

Did I mention how wonderful my husband is? I have a later post completely being written in my head right now about how wonderful it has been to train with my husband. We don't really train together, but we always come back together after our training. It's been one of the best things ever for our marriage.

And last but not least, I mentioned in my last post that I see this guy training rain or shine every morning on my way to work. I'm dying to know what he's training for. Last week, the local newspaper highlighted a guy that has been trying to get in the lottery for the Kona Ironman for 15 years. He finally made it in! And I looked at him the other morning, and then looked at the article... And I'm not positive, but I think it's that guy. Go figure... I'm dying to know what he's training for... And it turns out he's training for Kona. Very cool.

Have a great week! Living the dream. :)

Questions

Last week, post half-ironman, I was struggling with sloth-like tendencies. I was pretty tired and forcing myself to workout was a struggle. I did most of my workouts, but I justified some extra time off because I knew my body was very tired and it needed to recover.

This week, I'm back on the train. Funny thing is... I'm questioning whether the train is going fast enough.

As you get closer to something like an Ironman, I wonder if it's totally normal to start questioning yourself and your training. I did an hour and a half brick tonight. Hour bike, half hour run. I did a similar workout two nights ago but it required elevated heartrates. Tonight I just had to go do the brick and keep my heartrate down. While it'd be a stretch to say that I wanted to run longer, I just don't feel like it's enough. Hmmm... I'm betting this is normal, but it's making me a little crazy thinking about it. .

They must be training

Denver, Colorado proudly boasts 300 days of sun a year.
Today was not one of them.

Yes, the fall season is very pretty and I always love the first time I reach into the closet to pull out a sweater... But overall, fall represents a lot of things I don't like. It represents going back to school, and more importantly, it represents the end of summer and the coming of a long cold winter. Boo hiss.

When I lived in the midwest, fall was always peppered with many beautiful warm indian summer days. We don't see as many of those living in Colorado. It seems like it's just suddenly cold one day. When the weather changes out here, you really never know what you're going to get. 75 degrees one day, snow the next, 70's the following day again. True! It happens! The snow is already flying in the mountains and anyone that truly has a passion for skiing is already giddy with excitement... But I'm just not ready for the cold temps! (The bonus is that we'll get random warm days midwinter and spring shows up earlier here than it does in the midwest--so it all works out in the wash.)

So today: I need to do a one hour ride immediately followed by a 45 minute run for a "Brick" workout. This was supposed to be scheduled tomorrow (when it's supposed to be blue skies, sunny and 70! Argh!) but alas I have parent teacher conferences tomorrow night. So bad weather or not, I need to git 'er done tonight. I had a lazy rough recovery week last week. Can't do that again this week.

So I get home from school today, break out the arm warmers, leg warmers and jacket. I had to dig for them and that saddened me. I load up the bike to head over to the flattest trail I know that also offers a great flat running trail also. It's cold! It's only in the 50's, and very dark and cloudy. I realize that I forgot my gloves. Brrr.... 15 minutes in to my ride, it starts raining. At first I thought I was riding through a swarm of gnats and they were making noise hitting my windbreaker. Nope. Those were raindrops. I'm already cold, and I know my windbreaker won't keep me dry. I wuss out and head home to put the bike on the trainer. (I know, I know. If Kirk is reading this he can brag about all the cold weather rides he did on the Platte trail when he was training for his Ironman. I'm a wuss! What can I say? I was cold and just didn't see the point.)

Of course the rain stops when I get home. I ride on the trainer for the prescribed hour, then head out for the run. (It's now dark out because naturally I wasted a bunch of time.) I kid you not, five minutes into my run, it starts raining again. !!!!??? What the heck? Is this a sign of what I can expect at IMFL? It wasn't a hard rain, just a light steady sprinkle, so I pushed through it and did the entire run workout.

I don't usually work out in the mornings primarily because I'm a not a morning person AND I'd have to get up butt early to get to work on time (I have to be to work 7-ish everyday.) While driving to work I saw this guy running in a pouring rain one morning. I've also seen him biking two other mornings at the same 7 o'clock hour. I'm dying to know what he's training for.

I felt good tonight thinking that maybe somebody was driving by me tonight, in the dark, while it was raining, and maybe, just maybe, somebody drove by me and wondered, "I wonder what she's training for?"


39 days and a whole lot of fear and nerves to go.

Harvest Moon Race Report

Pre-race, I kept telling myself, "It's just a long training day." I was doing everything possible to keep my nerves at bay. My coach didn't make a big deal about it. I didn't taper at all. I had a three hour bike ride midweek and my legs were screaming from the long ride last weekend. It's just a long training day. You tell yourself that, but it's still a race. How can you not be nervous?

It began the day before... Packet pickup. We're rushing around trying to fit a zillion things into that day. We had a couples bridal shower that started at the same time as packet pickup. We did not look like triathletes at that moment. In fact, all my friends at the shower later gave me a really hard time because they haven't seen me in dress in a long time. Walking out of packet pickup, I ran into Tea and I recognized her from her blog. Scary thing is that I looked her up and down like I do every other triathlete--I looked at her ripped arms and immediately thought "That girl's going to kick my butt tomorrow." Then I recognized her... The Hi's and hello's ensued. I'm just now getting online and realized all the smack she posted on her blog after the encounter because I was in a dress and heels! Nice! As much as I would have loved to give her a hard time about it post-race, I'm glad I didn't read the smack beforehand. She did so great and smack talk would not have been called for at the finish line--just high-fives! (But I did get a kick out of it Tea!)

Race day. Emotions and jitters galore. It's just a training day, right?

As I picked up my timing chip pre-race, who should hand me my chip? DUANE!!!! Okay, if you want inspiration, check out his tri blog. He is one heck of a guy. And as inspiring as his story is, he is even nicer in person. I really felt like a met a legend yesterday. I'm a wannabe triathlete and sometimes blogger. He's the real deal. He is a standup guy all the way around. Thanks for everything Duane!

One of the things that really touched me yesterday was the support of my friends-old and new. It means SO much, but I'll save it for the post-race wrapup at the end.

The swim:

Water was cold, but not the worst ever. I've swam in warmer, I've swam in colder. Immediately I was side-by-side with a girl that started swimming off course to the right. She was pushing me off course. Eventually I just had to slow down, let her pass and head even farther off course, and then get myself straight again. Naturally I worry a lot about this with the 2000 person mass start in a month and a half at IMFL. But then again, it's not something I can control... Neither is the fact that I couldn't see the buoys as we swam straight into the sun, but I made due. I made the halfway point in 20 minutes. Not bad. At this pace I could beat my swim time from the Long Course a month ago. Only... At the turn... I got kicked or punched, I don't know, in the face. Didn't hurt and wouldn't be any big deal at all, it's pretty normal in a triathlon swim... Except that they knocked my goggles out of place... And they started leaking... And I wear contacts, so leaky goggles are my nemesis.

Now the goggles are another story in and of themself. My favorite goggles are the little ones that all the competitive pool swimmers use. After having them on for a while, they hurt and leave bad rings around my eyes that make me look like I haven't slept in two weeks, so I tried a new pair this summer. The new pair is a little bigger so I can see way better in the open water with them. Only they leak sometimes, so I have to crank them down tight... And that has given me a couple really bad headaches. So this past week I tried a new pair. Wore them in the pool last week without taking them off for an hour solid to make sure I didn't get the headache. They leaked at first, but I thought I figured out the trick. My IMWI 06 friend Kirk swears by the big honking goggles.

Except once they got punched or whatever, I was done for. Apparently big goggles get hit even easier. I'd stop, tread water, fix them, they'd leak some more, I'd stop, ya da, ya da, ya da. Oh well, I made it in for an uneventful swim other than that and I have no clue on earth which goggles I should wear to IMFL. Swim time: 45 minutes, a month ago it was 46, so I'm happy with that. Not sure about doing two loops of the stuff, but if I hadn't have had leaky goggles, I really feel like I could have swam the 1.2 miles straight without stopping or switching strokes. It was good!

The bike-

Oh my gosh... The bike... Everybody said, "Rolling hills on the first and last part, the rest is relatively flat." I've done a shorter tri on the first and last part of this course. They are some good hills. I knew this. No problem. I took it slow, dropped it into my granny gear whenever possible. No sweat. Two hours into the ride... No problem...

(Except for when I had to pee. I'm still not on the 'pee on the bike' band wagon. At the porta-potty, some guy went in right before I got there. I waited about 30 seconds, and realized he was taking too long. There weren't very many people around, so I went behind the porta-potty, dropped trow, and peed. I really had to pee. I went as fast as I could. I know the guy inside could hear me. We both finished at the same time. He came out, looked at me, I shrugged my shoulders and said "I didn't want to wait." He looked at me like I was the most immodest woman on earth, but I didn't care. In a race situation in the middle of nowhere... I really don't care. Best part was me telling my husband this story post-race. rather loud, and I see the guy two tables over... I had changed my shirt for the run so he might not have recognized me... But he did now!!!)

Okay, so two hours of feeling great on the bike. People are passing me (actually, there weren't very many people left to pass me) but I just kept telling myself, "You're gonna have a great half marathon today!!! You go girl! Save the energy!"

Then came the second half. Long story short, I didn't appreciate all the downhills early on. I thought I was on one big flat for an hour and a half... I wasn't. It was one big downhill. Because I spent the next two hours going up and up and up. And everytime I'd get to the top of a hill, I'd see the next hill, and it was higher up. And each time, you'd swear there would have to be a good down hill somewhere, but it wasn't there. I did in the last stretch catch and pass five girls. They were the only people I passed while I was on the bike, but I feel like I saved my legs for as much as I could, and in doing so, I was smarter than those five girls. Yeah me.

I FINALLY get off the bike (3 hours 57 minutes later). Yahoo! I was so happy to get my butt off that seat! I was a happy camper. I saw my mother-in-law and she was cheering for me. I saw Duane and he was cheering for me. I was happy to be off the bike, and for once in my life, I was happy to start running. Did I mention how bad my butt was hurting from that seat???????

The Run:

If I had started that run after two hours on the bike, I think I would have rocked. But those hills really burnt my legs up. My coach told me to speed walk the first five minutes. Check. No problem there. Then I was to work up to a jog. Check. Jog 9 minutes, walk 1 minute. That's what I was supposed to do. First 9 minutes and an aid station. Check. Next one... I wonder if I can do 8 minutes... That's what IronWil was planning to do for her full IM, and my coach told me to use this as training for the big race. So the next one, I only jog 8 minutes and start walking... Only, my legs are really, really tight.

The next mile got really bad. I had what I call "Water buffalo" syndrome and food and liquids just didn't sound like they were going to sit in my stomach and take the bouncing. This was not a good feeling when I still had 10 miles to go. Ugh. I don't remember if it was mile 3 or 4, but I did eventually force myself to take a power gel. I was hurting, and I just didn't know what the miracle cure was. Apparently, I really just needed to eat. I saw my husband not long after that because it was an out and back course. He did so well! I'm so proud of him. I also knew he would finish a good hour/ hour and a half in front of me. I felt bad that he was gonna have to wait for me to run 10 miles before he'd see me again. Boy, he must have rocked the house today. (And it turns out he did! He finished a full hour and a half in front of me, and he had started five minutes after me. He was a rock star!)

I did a lot of walking in this stretch. This isn't my race, this is just a training day, I don't care! I had all matter of negative thoughts going through my head during this point in the race. Bad, very bad. I knew this. I told myself that I would try to jog for five minutes before I walked next. Before I knew it, I could see the mile 5 aid station. Somehow, my tight legs carried me to the 6 mile aid station. I ran to the turnaround. I ran back to the aid station. I loved the workers at that aid station. They cheered me on both ways. "I just ran all that without stopping!" They cheered some more! I thanked them for everything and kept going.

I also recognized Tea just as I was coming into that aid station. She was behind me? Really? I was shocked. I thought for sure she was a long ways in front of me.

So now I've also got the self talk going "Five miles left, just five miles..." My mind wasn't working. I'm just now realizing that I had six, but at that moment I thought I had five. And I was questioning if I could walk five miles in 1:25 faster than I could jog it. I'm also eyeing the really, really dark clouds in the distance. Hmmm.... I wonder if I'm gonna make it in before that storm hits? And hour and a half left... Yikes, better not think about that...

As much as I labored about walking the rest, I decided that I had been doing well, so I would jog five walk one for as long as I could. It was taking me into the aid stations almost perfectly, too. I'll just do that until I can't do it anymore.

The clouds keep getting darker and darker... But I'm amazingly still jogging... It hurts, a lot! But I'm still doing it! My tight legs were just numb and running on auto pilot.

I'm watching the lightning in the distance.

Somewhere between 3-4 miles left, the fatty raindrops started. No sprinkles, just fatty cold rain drops. The wind had also kicked up pretty darn good. I just kept thinking, "Please don't hail, please don't hail." Brrrr...... Now I was getting cold. Best way to stay warm? Run!!!! No walking girlfriend! Unless you want hypothermia!

I was also thinking about my in-laws. Would they stick around until the finish in this stuff? I knew my husband would. He had to. Would they let him load up my bike and transition gear so it wouldn't get soaked (he didn't even try. It was completely soaked.) BOOM!!!!! Thunder and lightning. I jump about a foot off the ground. It's now pouring rain, it's cold, I'm soaked to the core. Nobody was at the aid station when I passed it, I was so happy they didn't make the volunteers sit through that. BOOM!!!! Another too close for comfort lightning and thunder bolt scare the wits out of me. Are they gonna pull me off the course??? OH NO!!! I have to finish!!! I can't DNF!!!!! I run, and try to run some more. I want to finish!!! But I still have at least 30 more minutes!!! AHHH! I bet my husband is worried about me. How on earth can I get there sooner? Gosh! Please! How? There is no way. You just have to run as fast as you can! But I can't any faster! It hurts! And now each of my feet each weigh about 10 pounds extra each because my shoes are just soggy waterlogged pieces of rubber sloshing the ground every step.

I pushed through about 20 minutes of a fantastic thunderstorm when it starts to let up. I'm now about a mile away. I just want to send my husband mental telepathy messages "I'm coming! I'm really trying to get there as fast as I can!" The last mile has some nice hills in it. I walk the uphills. Oh man, does it hurt.

I look behind me. I see someone about a 1/2 mile back in black. Oh my gosh! Is Tea catching me? I finally just met her in person, but I don't want her to think I'm a wimp walking! I start running again. Ugh. It hurts. Run faster. You can't let her catch you! I don't know if Tea is that competitive or not, so I imagine it's my friend Amy. Amy would totally play that game with me... Amy would run her heart out with all the pain in the world in an effort to catch me. Only I know I don't always have the mental toughness to push through the pain like she does. But this is a new friend... I'm a new person to her. I'm tough. I have to show her I'm tough. It's hurting. But she's not going to catch me.

There is now about 3/4 of a mile left. I'm giving it everything I have because I now also have the motivation that I'm going to beat the half marathon time from my last half IM. I don't know how that happened, but there might be some saving grace in this race after all. Some guy is ahead yelling. I don't know what he's yelling. I ignore the crazy person. Gosh, my legs are so tight. Did I mention it hurt??? Man, does it hurt. I get closer... And oh my gosh... He's yelling "Go Lori!" The guy in the hawiian shirt is yelling "Go Lori!" Do I know that person???? Who the heck is that? My eyes just well up in tears. It's Tim, the best man at our wedding. He's here to run me into the finish line. I asked how my husband did. He said great. He talked me to the finish line. I'm sure my pace was a crawl, but he made me feel like I just finished the Boston Marathon.

Then, with the finish line all blown over from the storm, maybe fifteen people still hanging around... I see Duane at the finish line. I hug him. My mother and father-in-law were STILL there! Almost eight hours from my start time that morning, and they were STILL there! Wow!

My legs immediately seized up, and they've pretty much stayed that way for the next 24 hours, but I did it. I still don't know if I can do the full distance in the time cutoffs, but I proved today that I CAN be mentally tough. I needed that.

I got to see my friend Tea come in. In true motherly fashion, she rushed herself and some of the kids at one of the aid stations into one of the cement restrooms to hide from the lightning. She wasn't the one running behind me. But I know how much training she's done--and it's a lot. If she struggled at all out there, I don't feel so bad about my own race. It was hard. Duane finally said goodbye. I can't believe he stuck around as long as he did. He cheered in several more runners. What a great guy.

And there are so many things I still want to digest about this event. (But it's a long post, sorry if you're still reading.) I'm trying to figure out what I can learn about this as I prepare for the full distance. Hmmm... Still working with that one. Need to figure out the goggle situation. Butt is gonna hurt massively, but for the first time, I'm really glad we chose the flat course of Florida for our first full distance. What else? Jog 5 walk 1 might be a good strategy for me. Eat something on the run even if it doesn't feel like its going to stay down.

I also need to just give a HUGE appreciative thank you to all of our friends and family. I don't know why we're doing this. I signed up to support my friend Amy that wanted to do it. We did it to take our minds off the fact that we can't seem to get pregnant for whatever reason. We signed up because we could. Because it's something we'll be forever proud of if we can do it.

But... In the process, your social life gets zapped. And that upsets me because I don't always feel like I have friends that are interested or support this huge feat in our lives. But then I remember Matt and Dani. At the shower the day before this race, Brian was giving us all sorts of props. I know Brian gets it. Chris wanted to come, but couldn't. And I know he would because he came to my last race. Mom and dad came and stayed all day. Kirk came to see us off for the swim. And Tim... Tim ran me in. Of course Amy called for the race report right after the race. Not to mention I got to meet two new friends. I am so thankful for our friends.

Thanks for reading. It might be awhile before I get to post again. It's a month and a half before the big race, and time will be tight as we fit everything in. Thanks for being a friend, and thanks reading.

AND... Good job hubby!!!! I'm so proud of how well you did!!!!! You look really great in this picture honey! I love you!

Making gains

Congrats to all the Ironman Wisconsin participants this weekend. Some finished, some did not. But they ALL put their heart and soul into it. That much I'm sure of.

I'm having a really good week this week. I hit every single one of my workouts, and my legs are sore tonight, Sunday night. I feel like I'm training for an Ironman. And that makes me happy. Sore legs make you happy you ask??? Yep... It means I didn't sit on my arse this weekend. I rode 80 miles on my bike, I ran 14 miles, and I swam about a mile, all in two days time.

It took me three hours to run the 14 miles today (my hubby did the exact same distance in 2 1/2 hours--good job hubby!) but my coach is pushing the Jog 9 min/Walk 1 min. strategy, and I padded the walk upwards of 1:30 here and there, and it worked well. When I hit the two hour mark today I was still feeling fine. And while I didn't run a minute more than I had to, I felt as though I could have run a "little" (we're not talking marathon here folks) more if I had needed to. I did well!

Not quite two years ago I started training for a marathon around this time. I did a 14 mile and a 16 mile run, and then had some health issues to which the doctor requested that I quit the marathon training. I slowly worked up to those long runs and watched myself build every week. When I finally hit the 14 and 16 mile runs, I made a HUGE deal of it. They were hard!

Today I ran the same trail that I did those long training runs on two years ago, and it was no where near the pain I remembered. AND I did it after an 80 mile bike ride yesterday. Yeah me!!!!

I don't think I've fully seen the gains I've made over the last six months because I worry too much about my speed and 'Will I be last', 'Will I make the cutoff times???' and every other possible thing I can think of to worry about. But today, I don't care about the time issues. Today I realized that I really am getting stronger. Huh. Pretty cool stuff.

It's a good week

It's a good week when...

- You're on track to hit every single workout this week (when that hasn't happened once in the last four weeks). Hurrah!!!!

- One of your quietest, most shy students that has yet to say a peep to you yet this year, finally speaks and asks you "Were you in the Princess Diaries?"

- The middle school volleyball team that you're coaching currently has a 6-2 record, and the season ends NEXT WEEK!!!! (Not that I want volleyball to end, I love it, but that extra two and sometimes three hours afterschool every day will be heavenly during the last few weeks before Ironman.)

- And lastly, I was running on some trails by the school after our game tonight. When I was done, a mountain biker commented "You had a pretty good pace going there. Every time I turned around you were right there behind us." I thanked him for the compliment, but laughed and laughed inside to myself. I just kept thinking, 'Wow, those must have been some slow mountain bikers!!!' hee hee. Sure did make me feel good though.