sticking to the plan- honu 57.2

the real 2/3 race report to follow when we're back on the mainland...but i'm proud to say i executed the plan...swim, bike and drink in hand 10 minutes after racking the bike:

even though it wasn't a "for real" race for me, i still made sure to do all the fun pre-race things.

like lots of eating...brekkie of banana, mango, cottage cheese and granola...
our condo-mate Caue made sure to elevate for me...i didn't need to go that far :)

i went for a test swim in the new SpeedZoot....james even came in with me after 4 months of not swimming (i dropped him BIG TIME :) )...the water here is incredible. it totally doesn't even seem like the same ocean as california waters.

we finished off the pre-race day with an awesome meal cooked on the grill with Caue, Julia, Jaako and Tom....kind of looks like home :)..the fish here is incredible (I had ahi tuna every day and twice the first day.)

after that, bedtime and awake early for race morning!

james and i have been waking up really early here w/ the time change, so i'm spending early mornings on the lanai with the sunrise, coffee and blogging time. we head back to cali in a couple hours, but are going to stop by Kailua-Kona to check it out and grab some food at Lava Java.

ugh. i SOOOO don't want to leave. only 2 full days here is NOT enough. can someone go back to work for me tomorrow please?

swim, bike, skinny mai tai!

hello Kona!

life here is pretty tough as you can see from our morning coffee on the lanai

ok. i reeeeeeeeeeeeeeallly want to be racing (the run!) but there is a bright side to this all.

i am really looking forward to watching the finish on the race- with a bikini and a cocktail while i watch the rest of the racers wither in the heat.

we arrived in kona yesterday and took a swim at Hapuna beach- UNREAL! I tested out my new Zoot Speedzoot (amazing! I am so thankful for all the awesome people at Zoot that got that suit to me. They had send one in the mail and it didn't arrive, so they found one for me at race headquarters in a flash and I was off! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Zoot!)

pre-race has been VERY serious around here. i am focus my energy completely. on importatnt stuff, like inventing the skinny mai tai (malibu, diet coke, wedge of lime)..you know, i'm in training, can't be drinking too many real mai tais :)...and who doesn't want a taste of the islands without 75 grams of sugar?

oh wait, james decided that first one didn't properly show off my orange nail polish (go breakaway training!), bling, cocktail, and athlete bracelet combo

last night we grabbed some yummy sushi and then headed to Dairy Queen- gotta carbo load even if i'm not really racing- i earned it, right??? here's Mr. Queen- he loved us!!! check out his moves!

will check back in later. aloha!

what is it?

drumroll, please....MRI results are in...

i have gots me a case of Illiopsoas Tendonitis (huh?) and okay people, is it tendInitis or tendOnitis? Since the (hip flexor) tendon is pulling on the bone and caused some trauma, I also have a "stress reaction" (double huh?). sometimes also called a "bone strain".
the doctor tells me that had i kept running, this would have 100% been a stress fracture within a couple runs. (this makes me feel good and smart! i actually stopped way earlier than most people do becuase i knew the "signs". usually, ortho doctors yell at me and she practically gave me a smiley face sticker and a lolly. go me!) .

the tendonitis is interesting to me becuase i have no pain/sense of inflammation around the area (unless i run), but i'm not complaining. tendon-antyhing is better than fracture anything. and NO CRUTCHES!!! (sorry, mary..i kind of sickly wanted to be crutchy friends just for one minute)

the prognosis is sooooooooooo vague at this point (always, right?) right now i am supposed to rest for 3 weeks. NO running. After honu (where i am biking and swimming gosh darnit becuase it doesn't hurt and i'm going and i worked hard for this), no cycling for a bit as well. swimming with a pull buoy. but yoga seems in the clear. i tried to pry to see if the doctor thinks i can race this season but there were no answers to that one. hopefully soon.

anyone out there have anything similar ever? any bit o' advice would make me quite happy!

anyway, happy memorial day! and you know what made my weekend? my fastest friend under 20 told her momma a funny story involving me.....i always wish i was as cool, honest, mature, and FAST as chloe when i was twelve.

it's almost hawaii time!

the highlight of last weekend- was seeing mary. mary has had some bum luck as well (much moreso than me) and got herself a femoral stress fracture. not kidding. SUCKS! i've been trying to show her the ropes (e.g. how to carry starbucks on crutches and things like that), and on Sunday we had a little aqua therapy (in more ways than one!). we practiced water jogging and i acted like i was a total been there-done-that pro. i even made her do "intervals" and "strides" . it was funny. shhhhhh! don't tell her i had no idea what i was doing. well, it was a blast and we even took the therapy poolside for some rays and magazines. of course she's got the "Runner's" w/ the crutches right next to her...classic! anyway, i'm so proud of Mary. she is working through this like a champ and will only come back stronger.
the rest of the weekend was pretty nice too. i had a blast spectating at the Encinitas triathlon (which i was supposed to race) but i was just as fulfilled cruising around on my bike and cheering on lots of friends, especially kirsten, who completed her first triathlon. i also made it out the the Borrego Springs desert for some heat and wind training with the Breakaway Training crew. I was super lucky to have Kathy and Joe to ride with (i.e. tow me along through the wind) and was quite happy to look down at my bike computer 56 miles in to see that I had been riding less than 3 hours. this was a big little moment for me becuase last year, in my first/only half ironman, i biked 3:00:13 just missing that three hour barrier. so, even though i was drafting in Borrego, i wasn't racing and wasn't all geared out and i just really feel like i've come a long way. i know there are MILES to go, but for me, that was a really big smile.
james' good friend from growing up was in town and it was really great to meet some of james' east coast people. ryan and sarah came in town too and we had a full house! good times.

on the injury front-

so work is quite nuts and i am knocking out my VERY LAST WEEK of 4 long years of grad school..this sunday (pending a couple last assignments :)) (Funny, at my Master's graduation exactly 2 years ago, i was on crutches! i need to dig out those pictures). with all this going on, i've been fitting in doctors appointments and ART and trying to figure this hipper out. my lovely insurance decided that i needed to see a couple dotors and get x-rays and all kinds of stuff before approving an MRI, but i'm finally getting in there tomorrow. muscular things (strains, pulls, etc) have been pretty much ruled out.. could be a pelvis or femur stress fracture, but also maybe just a stress "reaction" that could heal much quicker. i already feel much better- my leg isn't screaming when i walk at all, but i definitely haven't run (its been almost a month!)

so, the "best shape of my life" is out the window for the honu 70.3.. total bummer becuase i was going to crush it :). really, i was feeling great. i am sad and not totally processing it, but at this point am just praying that Honu will be the last race i'll miss this season and the season is not totally over. it might be, but i'm not even thinking about that yet until i know for sure.

i finally found an awesome orthopaedic doctor (i had some terrible experiences on the last go around w/ my hip and then arm) and that makes me happy. she didn't even make me feel stupid when i cried becuase i am going to miss running my race.

as for honu 70.3....we're still going!!! i am going to do the swim and the bike (as far as i know) and james and i are going to have fun just being together on the island. i can't wait. i'm just glad my planned race is not in kansas or somewhere thats not a destination in-and-of-itself. life is good and it will all be just fine. ok, off to finish my last piece of work for grad school!

tapped out. THANKS TREVOR!

the update on the hip is pretty much no update. more ART. no running. ortho appointment next week. its only a dull pain that i can feel only when i run. it doesn't feel like a pull, tear, or strain. there are no tender spots. ick. just inner messed up ness. sounds like a you know what if you ask me.

so, sunday afternoon, instead of a pity party, i did what any girl would do....focus on the 3Ms: Manicure, Magazine, Margarita :)


well, before the 3Ms, i did lots of fun riding, swimming, yoga and all kinds of other stuff. the weekend rides were super fun and i had great company. saturday was with the-fast-tri-girls-of-north-county-with the-pretty-bike-kits and the sunday was a double date with james, bethany, and chris along the coast and through rancho santa fe. great times! i am really okay with taking time off of running, i am just sad this means i may not be racing. i really want to race- i'm ready! all dressed up and no place to go!
but its really too early to say that i'm not racing since i have no clue what is wrong (or i hope the clue i have is wrong). and its not painful except when running. something just ain't right...

see, still happy even though it's gray!

on sunday as james and i rode to meet bethany in solana beach, we saw this guy with 3 pounds of coffee in his jersey. he had just come from the pannikin in leucadia, an awesome coffee shop. he was heading back to north park, which is about 25 or so miles from the pannikin. now that' some coffee dedication. i said to him, "you know, there is a pannikin downtown near your house!" he said, "but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun. true. good dude. i made james go double-oh-seven it behind him and snap this picture.

MR COFFEE!

other than that, i have some BIG FUN NEWS (to me). I am the lucky inheriter/long-term borrower of a POWERTAP! cool huh? for anyone not a cyclist, it is this little computer that tracks your actual power and wattage output on the bike to see how much work you are actually doing (or how much you are lollygagging). other measures like heart rate or pace are so variable dependent on conditions (like wind!) and power is much less impacted by these kinds of variables. i'm just in the phase now of spedning time collecting data with the thing, but pretty soon will be tracking my progress. good thing my little data lover, james, is helping me out. i owe him big time, but not as big as super generous Trevor who was kind enough to let me inherit it! this is huge and he has no idea how much its going to help me out- now i have nowhere to hide- no sandbagging!!!
other than that, i was bummed to miss james' trail race in malibu this weekend, but grad school called. i'm in the final stretch, so no complaints...i can't wait until summer!

M.I.I.

Missing in Injury?
Missing in Ignorance?
Missing in Ibuprofen?
Missing in Invincibility?

if things aren't going so well, instead of focusing on them i tend to ignore, ignore, ignore. why focus on something negative and make a deal out of it if it just might go away? so sometimes the blog gets a little ignored too because although i love to write about embarrasing things or personal pitfalls that i can DO something about (like get off my lazy butt and do real bike workouts), i don't see the point on dwelling on things i can't do anything about.

see that hill i'm starting up in that picture up top? (oh, and loved the lululemon running dress.... when i told james i was planning on wearing the dress, he said, "really?" in a not so convinced way. BUT, i must say after the race he was converted and said he was into it and it was hot..yes!) ok, so that hill? you had to go down the other side. and garmin told me i went down at 5:40 pace. not so much "playing it safe" pace.

on wednesday after the half marathon, i tried to run and my left hip told me it wasn't happy. i got some ART. and flip flopped endlessing in my head about skipping my race on sunday. i sooo wanted to race Spring Sprint- it was my VERY first triathlon just last year! and its a fun "season opener"- Michellie Jones even came out to play! i delusionally went to the race expo and picked up my timing chip (which i need to send back now before i am charged a bazillion dollars). then i came home. cried a little inside. i think i shed a tear on my hot new bettydesigns race top. and was proud of myself for making a good decision not to race.

my plan as of now is to do a test run tomorrow, but considering i can pretty much feel this hipper when i sit/walk/move, i'm not sure what the test will tell me. if its okay, i think i will do the tri club race on saturday since i couldn't race last weekend. but, i'm not sure sure about the hip. its scary b/c its not "sore" or "tender"...its more inner pain. and it hurts when i hop on my leg. and i'm trying to convince myself its not a stress fracture. its not, right? i'm just paranoid, right? it certainly doesn't hurt badly. its just an odd pain. odd pains freak me out.

ok, now you see why i haven't been blogging? this sucks and is positively boring. i'll be back when i have something nice to say :)

actually, i do...big congratulations to all the racers this past weekend at Spring Sprint and Wildflower. breakaway training had a kick arse showing at the Sprint, with at least 10 of the top finishers representing the orange! and my friends kristin and colleen both won their age groups.
and, i saw that Charisa was 3rd amateur at WF! Insane. and Denner pretty much dominated as well smashing his previous PRs...

other than that, i'm M.I.I. until I can prance (you do that in a dress i guess) across another finish line!