T-day wknd

Thanksgiving started with a 3:30 wake up, followed by a 4 a.m. bike ride on my trainer, a husband who somehow managed to fall back to sleep over the squeaking noise of the trainer so I let him sleep, which put us on the road to my parents' in CT a little later than planned and we got down there around 10 - in time to still catch some of the Macy's Parade on the tube and plow into the fresh made pecan rolls. When we walked in the door (with apple pie, sweet potato casserole and apple/cabbage salad in hand) my uncle and his dog were there from Ohio, and so was my brother. Double take....MY BROTHER!? Crazy kid snuck out here from Denver to surprise everyone. Was so good to see him. :) I didn't even think anything of it when I first saw him sitting there. The only time I see him is at my parents' and I'm rarely there, so it just seemed normal. Was pretty funny.

Well, those who know Matt knows the guy can talk. And talk, and talk... Throw my uncle into the mix and things get a little out of hand. Throw my bro into the mix and it's dizzying verbal chaos. Grandpa was the same way. My sister's a talker too, but thank goodness she's rarely interested in their conversations. So yes...you guessed it. The air got way too thick for me so I laced up the shoes and took off for my T-day run!

I wanted to run the Manchester Road Race which is the town right next to mine, but I didn't run any road races before the seeding cut-off and I wasn't interested in starting way back in the masses. So I ran solo, later. It was Amy Rudolph's last competitive race. She came in 2nd, 1 second back. She's won the thing 5 times.

My parents live at what seems to be the town peak elevation as my return miles are uphill torture. Miller Rd. is no fun...especially when you forget how hilly it is and you go out for a hard run and plan to just throw in 2 easy miles back to the house. Ain't nothing easy about Miller. Ouch. It's always raining on Thanksgiving which makes for such a peaceful run. No one's out, it's just me and the road and the drizzle. I ran by farms and around the town golf course that I've never seen (it used to be tobacco fields!). I haven't run those roads since cross-country in high school. I usually go a different route to other farms, but I was avoiding the attack schnauzers. They probably chase me in return for the times that a friend of mine in 6th grade and I made another of their kind pull us on the skateboard. Sorry doggies. He liked to do it...I swear.

Then it was dinner time. My sister (and her baby in belly!) and her husband showed up and a few of my parents' friends always come over for dinner and they are all big talkers too. 12 people...chaos. They're all really funny though. Then I took a nap. :)

Friday I went for another peaceful run, past the farm with the vicious schnauzers that were not on guard. It was so peaceful that I put on my headphones when I left and didn't realize the entire time that I never turned the music on!! HA! My uncle and I were going to ride, but the winds were seriously crazy...scary, so we didn't get to ride together. Major bummer. Then we all went to the movies to see the the new Christmas Carol in 3D. I'm a sucker for Christmas things. Got A LOT of reading and lounging in. It was nice. I started and have already almost finished "Paula: My Life so Far" - Paula Radcliffe's book. Absolutely love it. I identify with her as a person quite a bit and it's just great to hear her humble, honest perspective. She tells matter-of-factly, yet opens herself up to reveal her strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. It's refreshing, comforting and inspiring. Next up is "More Fire: How to Run the Kenyan Way".

Saturday we all spent the day visiting Artist's Open Studios, followed by a lot of reading, farting dog, puking uncle and sniffling brother. It was time to go...

I spent the week building back into my running after the super easy week to refresh. This week starts my next and final block. 11 weeks.

Oh yeah. If you remember the news not too long ago about the psycho that locked his wife in the basement and burned his house down...that was in my parents' neighborhood right up the street. Wacko.

It's Thanksgiving!

It's 4 a.m. Thanksgiving. I love this holiday. It's not all about gifts. It's about time with family and old traditions and new traditions, and taking time out to breath and realize all the things you have to be thankful for in your life that you may otherwise often take for granted.

I am..

Thankful for my husband. I don't know how I got so lucky, but he is the best and after 12.5 years together we only grow closer, stronger and more in love. That's a pretty special thing to have.

Thankful for my family and the values that were instilled in me in my childhood.

Thankful for the genuine people in my life.

Thankful that I have so many interests and talents that my problem has always been trying to focus on just one.

Thankful for all the bad things I’ve been through in my life – they’ve made me who I am today and confident about who I want to be.

Thankful for my legs and my health. Running and cycling is how I experience and relate to life.

Thankful for the 10 years I got to find and devote my passion for architecture to studying and practicing it.

Thankful that my other passion (endurance sports) affords me the opportunity to help others become healthier, more confident and reach meaningful athletic goals they’ve set for themselves, as my job.

Thankful for about a million other things, including the luxury of getting up and riding my bike at 4 a.m. It is a luxury. And I am thankful.

And I hope to be thankful for some restraint with the eating today!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving means December and this is where I'm at

I got in the water this morning and same thing! Power, form, and speed. It was all there and I felt super! So I decided that while I'm fresh it would be a good time to do a 1k TT. Not for max speed, but for max speed that I can hold form.

150 yds to settle then holding the pace of that 3rd 50 throughout: 13:27. I felt strong throughout and was not struggling to maintain the pace at the end. I wasn't breaking down. I'm happy. I've hit times near that before, but it was at absolute max effort and finishing anaerobic to hit it. This felt so comfortable and smooth and strong.

I don't do a lot of kicking. Well, no kicking except when Craig would have us do 100 or so yards in practice. I started throwing kicking into my solo workouts a couple months ago. I could hardly handle 25 yds without my hips breaking and feeling like I'll never move my legs again when I first started. Worked up to getting in 200 yds, broken up by 25, 50 or 100. I could feel my lower legs and ankles and hips getting stronger and stronger. Since my break from the pool, it's even easier and I'm even stronger. Did 300 yds of kicking today and it didn't wear me as much as up to 200 yds was.

It's benefitted my swimming, in that my kicking seems to just happen more naturally now and my legs are more controlled. It's also benefitted my running by really strengthening my lower legs and ankles. I think it's a big reason why I'm not rolling my ankles anymore. My feet and lower legs don't get tired when running anymore. It's awesome!

I also did a lot of pull over the last couple months. My legs were taking a beating from the intensive running I was doing (and I wanted to save them for my running efforts) so I took advantage and did mostly pulling and worked on my upper body in the water...force and strengthening those lats and stroke technique. I threw the kicking I did into my warm up and for the most part that was all the kicking I was doing except for 400-800 yards warming up with the exception of about 1-1.5k of some sprint and pace sets just once a week. Other high end work was done pulling.

Time to add in the paddles and get back to resistance training for a bit.

Just can't believe how strong and smooth I feel in the water now.

Cycling: I pick up my bike today, shiny with new parts. I think my body likes a break on the bike in Dec. and Jan. Most of my riding for a bit will be easy to mod. aerobic efforts jsut to keep things awake and I'll get back to some single leg pedaling and throw in some 55 rpm/big gear work for a little bit. I had the big debate in my head again about weight room training over the winter, but with the decision to do the run training, that pretty much nixes that regardless. So I'll grind away instead and increase my core strength training a bit.

Running: I hit up those 12 weeks with some lower volume, high intensity stuff on my run trying to get a good boost in my threshold and sub-threshold paces and got it, like I said. 30s/mile. Took about 6 weeks to see the first sign of results and then they came fast and furious after each recovery. I was operating on 9-10 day weeks with some block training. I was risking overtraining but that was the fun of it. I'm a curious creature and I wanted to test my limits and see just where they are and find the optimal method of doing so for me. I know my body pretty darn well. I did good. Got results, progressed it right, balanced the load and rest great and called it at just the right time. 10 weeks was optimal. The other two weeks - I rested a bit before Florida. Now - everything seems to have adapted just fine. Time to start adding some miles and time at race pace then sharpen things up a bit.

Today I'm baking and tomorrow I'm eating! Here's one of the pies I made this year. This one's headed to the boys at the bike shop - the first people I knew in this sport. Thanks Fitwerx. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

All Together Now - On a New Level!!!

Swimming.

You know how they say "it will all come together" and you're thinking "yeah?...when!?"

You keep plugging away doing slow and boring drill after drill in the pool followed by working yourself so hard that all that form and technique goes out the window and you're exerting every last bit of energy to get yourself from end to end way slower than you did at the start of practice and you think your head is going to pop from breathing so hard and your arms are going to fall off and you just always feel like you're flopping around like a fish out of water wondering why the hell you spend all that time on technique if it's not gonna show itself when you need it to? "All come together my ass", you say.

You also know how everyone says that if you stay out of the water for more than a couple days you'll lose your feel for it? Well, that's usually true.

Well today, it "all came together", and I was out of the water for 8 days!!!

I jumped into the pool and started swimming and felt all that technique take over and my body just naturally did it, from the first stroke. Everything was working in unison and it took no brain power!! My stroke tempo was steady and even which it rarely is and I felt like a swimmer for the first time ever. My arms were doing what they are supposed to and I didn't have to even think about it! It was absolutely amazing. Amazing. I couldn't stop. I swam 1000 yds straight because I didn't want the feeling to go away. And I was swimming 1:23's/1:24's and not even pushing myself with lazy slow open turns. I haven't even been able to hit 1:24 at even max effort in months!

That was absolutely amazing. I hope it sticks.

So it's true...it WILL all come together. Might take 8 days of rest to get there and a year of discombobulation, but it'll happen. And as far as losing your feel for the water....I don't know what happened there. I didn't this time. Perhaps just a sign of how psyched I am to get back to training with a fresh start.

Keep drilling. :)

NH Food - who knew!?!?

Matt and I are food snobs and every time we go anywhere that isn't a city, there's NOTHING to eat! It's all Cape Cod quality crap food. We expected the same when we went to NH, but we were completely blown away instead so I have to share where to get good grub that is wholesome and clean and absolutely delicious in taste and presentation!!

BLACKCAP GRILLE in North Conway in the shopping area/Outlets. Expensive ($20 a plate for dinner) but more worth it than anything I've eaten in a long time! The atmosphere is super and cozy too. Chicken skewers with peanut sauce and an Apple & Cabbage sauerkraut in cinnamon and sugar, Chopped Salad with a vinegar dressing..amazing, Pan Seared Scallops - perfect. With brown wild rice with pecans and roasted parsnips and sweet potato to perfection with a little thyme and smidge of brown sugar. Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for desert. And beer. Absolutely amazing food, service and presentation.

STAIRWAY CAFE for lunch. Little hole in the wall, mom's kitchen kinda place but the food was incredible. Spinach salad with potatos, bacon, sunny side up egg, and roasted sweet potato soup. Cheap. Fun little place in North Conway Village.

The RIVERSIDE INN where we stayed in Intervale. The hosts were super nice, the place was beautiful and right on the river. I could hear the river while I was lying in bed. Fireplace, king bed and spotless room/bath. Very cozy and homy feeling. Only $109 for the night and they served us the most amazing breakfast in the morning! Coffee, smoothie and baked apple, waffles and fresh fruit and choice of bacon or sausage. Incredible. Clean and healthy and home cooked.

I'm simply stunned by the quality of the food we found up there. Wholesome, delicious and prepared with love....it had to have been! If you go...check out those places.

7 day offseason

ants

in

my

pants

Off season. Which for me means only a week to do whatever I want while I let my body recover from the "race" and the hard run training I did leading up to it. Then it's right back at it to keep prepping for my first marathon. Not your typical "off season" and prep period in Dec-Feb. But it's what I want and what's making me hot and horny! Ha! :) A new challenge.

My week included 4 days of running, nothing special. Just running. On different routes and sucking in the fall air. I got the most incredible massage Friday (it's been a long time since I've had to sweat through a massage..ouch) but it did me good. Real good. I stayed away from the pool (for my head) and didn't unpack my bike until Thursday to get on for an hour. Then the weekend. My first non-training weekend in nearly a year.

Our original plans for the weekend got bumped a few weeks so we decided to take off in a different direction and head north to the mountains in NH. It's about time Matt gets some time with me without triathlon being involved. But I have this disease. Some sort of outdoor, active adventure of sorts has to be involved if I'm not training. I need to be moving, strenuously. I need there to be some sort of challenge that gets my adrenaline rushing even just slightly, that puts even just a little fear into me, that makes me think at some point "no way can I do that" and take one step at a time and get through it. You inevitably encounter this at some point along every hike up a mountain. So Matt says "quiet getaway to the mountains" and I'm instantly planning to hike Mt. Washington, hoping for tough weather conditions. It turned out conditions were gentle on the giant and my unbearable itch succumbed to my guilt. The poor guy's been through enough...let him relax. So we had a quiet getaway to the mountains.

It couldn't have been better or more perfect! Time with Matt is always precious...and funny. And the weekend was so refreshing it's left me so anxious to get back into training I can hardly stand it. Fire ants in these pants. I've never been so excited to get into the pool on a Monday morning. My bike gets a bath on Tuesday for a fresh start! I took him to Clearwater dirty and stinky and challenged Matt to find another drive train as dirty as mine. There wasn't even another dirty one, forget dirtier!! Poor thing. He'll be my shining black stallion again soon enough.

Here's some shots from NH to make you go ahhhhhh. :) There's something even more peaceful and beautiful about it late fall when the leaves have all fallen and the snow hasn't yet blanketed everything. It's nature, naked. Raw. Which brought me to thinking about the images people and companies project of themselves. Real or facades. Naked and raw, or masked with a stunning blanket of blinding white snow. Dirty laundry and ghosts that actually make your services better and stronger, or facades of impeccable happy horse shit to falsify the realities. I may perhaps get into it later, as it relates to my own coaching and whether or not to share the personal athletic experiences that aren't all roses that inform and strengthen it, when I'm less relaxed and a little more feisty, but right now it's time for a beer! And football with Matt.

skate skiing!!

They make snow, they're 10 minutes away and it's something new to do that I've been wanting to try for several years. Woohoo! My bro-in-law and I are gonna hit it (and Matty if I can get him away from ProTools and into the cold.) Word is it's a killer full body workout too.

Weston Ski Track

2010

2007 -

I started racing triathlon. I was obsessed. Passionate. I had a drive. I wanted wins. I knew no one. I knew little about the sport, but I believed in myself completely - quietly cocky almost. I had a shitty road bike. I felt like I was the skinny, scrawny weakling every time I showed up to a race and was embarrassed about how others perceived me. So much so that I wouldn't even do warm ups thinking that everyone would be looking at me thinking "what is she warming up for...she probably spends the whole race warming up". But as soon as that gun went off I tore through the course on fire and numb to any pain, distraction, or doubt. I finished every race torn to shreds and having given every bit of effort plus more. And I did this with incredible chronic pain in my hip and leg, insane nerve pain, numbness from knee to toes, and a myriad of other injuries and pains all year. And I loved it. And I placed. And I was never satisfied and always wanted more and better from myself. I had goals that I never spoke because people didn't think I could do them. But I accomplished them all (I'm still feeling the pain from only finishing 4th in my AG at Ashland though). These included finishing Timberman (my first 1/2 IM) in the top 5 in my AG and setting a time goal for myself which was 30 minutes sooner than my coach at the time thought I could do. I studied the numbers, who might be there (at the time is was Forsyth, Robeson, Webster, Davenport, etc.) and what I needed to do, I knew what I could do and I wanted it bad. I trained on the course several times and had a mission. I never spoke a word to anyone including Matt. The first he knew of what I wanted was as we drove onto the race site the morning of the race and I handed him a checkbook and said, "I'm going to have to write a check for $300 today (for Clearwater). Do we have the money?". And Matt, being as supportive as he is, said "Yes". Even though we really didn't.

I placed and got that Clearwater slot and wrote my check, and I finished just minutes from my goal time which was set back by my first encounter with my ITB in the last couple miles of the race. But otherwise, I did what I set out to do. I don't even know why I wanted it. It was just there. A part of me.

2008/2009 -

It was lost. A new variable and misguided pressures moved into my training and racing under false pretenses and it all changed. The intensity I brought to things disappeared. I was told it would ruin me, so I slowly let it go. And with it went my passion. All I came out with was a little more strength on the bike, more experience, and some gear. And confirmation that there was not a damn thing wrong with my mentality back in 2007.

2010 -

It began yesterday. Actually it began in September. I kept up some bike training to get me through Clearwater, hardly, with no long workouts, but I started focusing on my run and training for my first marathon. Clearwater was nothing but a formal finality to the year that I felt I needed. It's over, I left the coach I had in August, and 2010 is mine.

I got to get in a super 12 weeks of running that set me up with a solid run base to go on and has boosted my fitness by more than I had hoped for that had me consistently running 25-30 seconds/mile faster for all sub-threshold efforts by Clearwater and really increased my leg strength. It was fun to watch that progress happen. The intensity focus brought me great gains. I'll start building up the volume/duration now.

I committed to next year's races and goals yesterday and am excited to start working toward them.

Clearwater Post Race Entertainment!