california training

Cyclist or Triathlete?

2012-02-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

This weekend in Arizona has been awesome. Well, except for the fact that I feel like I'm 3rd wheel on the Pete and James man-date. And let me tell you, it's not going well! They bicker like two little old ladies and someone even almost got left at the truck stop. I've been enjoying it however, because I get to smooth things over, sit back and laugh, and also get to have both coach & husband along for the ride. It's been a rough road, but through it all, they still love each other. Especially when they found the truck with Pitbull on it. They've got some heavy International Love going on!

We love Pitbull! Especially after a drink or few!

One of many moments of love...Pinning on race number

The weekend was about James & Pete and I was along for the ride (And to ride...and run). They train for this stuff (this stuff being Valley of the Sun stage race) and it's important to them. James is really eager to move up a category (In bicycle racing there is cat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for men and 1, 2, 3, 4 for women and everyone starts as a 4. Once you have a certain amount of race starts (or wins/points), you can apply to move up a category. They also make it confusing and add in a bunch of Juniors and masters categories and of course, the pro race. )Anyway, point being, James is working on moving up from a Category 5 so that he can race with his friends. I, on the other hand, am a Women's cat 4, but moving up is "whatever", and am really just racing for fun, but most importantly, trying to be a professional in triathlon.

Moving on....Day 1 is the time trial. Day 2 is the road race (46 miles for both James & I). Day 3 is the Criterium. The team agreed that I would do days 1 & 2 with the boys and then be a good triathlete and do my long run on Day 3 while they race so we could hit the road back to Cali in a timely manner. I loved this plan because I have visions of a crash you hear about in these crits and is it really worth it for me to risk my triathlon season on a bike race? I'm not diminishing the importance of a bike race for those that train for them (the fitness I witnessed this weekend was amazing!), but for me, my goal is triathlon. And anything that is in the way of that goal should be reconsidered. For my training, getting in my 90 minute run (instead of a 25 minute crit) before a 7 hour car drive is the best thing for my training. The boys gave me one caveat: If I was in the lead for the Cat 4 women going into the crit, I would have to toe the line in the leaders jersey. I said we'd cross that bridge if it came up.....And dismissed it.

More tonigh (or tomorrow) on the races and the outcome... I know, I'm not a foreshadowing genius...Any guesses on what went down? I will tell you I ended up 2nd in the Time Trial, 4th in the Road Race, and that placed me 1st in the General Classification (GC) "going into" the crit. I had an 8-second lead on the field...

You think I did the crit? Or did I stick with my 90 minute run like a good triathlete?

being 32

2012-02-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

My birthday was last week but I'm really not into birthdays (especially when they fall on a Monday!) Being the exciting chick that I am, I requested my favorite egg/veggie scrambles for dinner and an 8pm bedtime. I know, super cool interesting & fun, right?

The most exciting part of the b-day were my new birthday suits from betty designs. All new 2012 inventory at Betty Designs, I'll let you know when it's all up on her website.

Daily decision: White tattoo or Blue Starfish?

My first week of my 32nd year was filled with the usual "ho-hum" of this lucky life.....Early morning masters swims, super busy days at work, rides with the "team", sunset runs, and good eats by my epic chef...

Roasting brussels sprouts, onions, broccoli, yam, parsnips in his new roasting pan

Another James special - Pumping Iron- we like to have red meat once every week or two

Found a new favorite training shoe- LOVING the Zoot Kapilani 2.0. How did I not try these before?

After work jog through Del Mar

Recognize this bridge?

My birthday week made me realize that there is nothing more special to me than living my regular old typical daily grind.

Pimp my ride

2012-01-29T20:16:00.000-08:00

Hunker down, boys, this one's for you! No, actually its for the ladies too (except for maybe my 2 girlfriends who aren't into bikes or triathlon that read this). Sometimes ladies like to geek out on their carbon & componentry too.

Ready for some miles!

I've never been so geeked out on a bike before, but I've also never had the opportunity to work with someone like Mandy at Cannondale who has helped me build the bike of my dreams. Each part is perfection for me.

Here is the rundown of what we've got on there....
Frame: Women's Cannondale Slice
Chainrings/Crankset: 53/39 SRAM Red Black
Brakes/Derailleurs/Brake Levers: SRAM Red Black
Shifters: SRAM R2C Aero shifters (return to center- these are so cool!)
Saddle: ISM Adamo Racing 2 saddle with Betty Designs signature graphics (true love in a saddle!)
Aero Bars: 3T Mistral (so cool, the extensions are mounted under the bars to get my best position)
Stem: FSA SL-K 110cm +/-6
Training wheels: SRAM S60
Cassette: 11/28 SRAM Red
Tires: Continental 4000

My undying love to all those who have helped me make this bike happen, ensuring that I have no excuses in the bike department in 2012.

Thanks to Chris, Russ, and the guys at Nytro for building it up (in a rush, I might add!) and helping me make little (but important!) fixes.
Thanks to SRAM & 3T for helping the new girl ride in style.

Nestor & Darla at Studeo DNA have given me the perfect Retul fit and spent hours making sure I'm fast and comfortable.

Nes dialing it in

And last, but most certainly not least, thank you to Cannondale :
Took it out for a spin on the coast yesterday...and yes....it IS my perfect ride.

Goodness

2012-01-25T17:51:00.000-08:00

Not much time to post because we're headed out for my husband James' birthday. He's a ripe ole 34. One of the only guys I know who actually can't wait to get older...He's dying to be 35 to race in the Master's 35+ division with his ancient cycling buddies....

Getting ready for his birthday ride. The sun came out and we enjoyed 70+ degree sunny skies with the Wednesday team .

Getting reacquainted with my friend ROB (run off bike). Not a bad day to do so.

Backing up a bit......Our dear friend Heather (future 70.3 World Champion, mark my words) ran a 1:16 half marathon in Carlsbad on Sunday. Off very little (if any) speedwork. Be afriad, ladies! We popped some bubbly to celebrate with coach Pete

My SLICE has finally arrived. Just in time, 10 weeks until Oceanside 70.3! It's at Nytro being built up right now- Can't wait to share the bike geekiness of it in my next post.

From bike geekiness to swim geekery. I clearly bribed the swim coach by telling him how awesome he was on my blog, so he would give me the "most improved swimmer" award at our Masters swim team party. No, really. This means more than you can imagine since I swim Masters an average of 5 times per week. Swim progress don't come cheap 'round here. Cost me lots of hours, yards, poorly executed flip turns, saggy worn out swimsuits, extra trips to the hairdresser, pounds of lotion, and at least 3 wet hair days per week when I stay in for that last "fast 200" or whatever when I should be already showered on my way to work.

My goodness, that's a lot of goodness going on around here. It's not all sunshine and roses, I promise. Luckily, only James, Donna & Pete witnessed my "I-want-to-throw-my-bike-over-the-guard-rail-and -I-am SO-not-recovered-from-the-coast-ride" episode on Sunday.

The Coast Ride take 2

2012-01-21T06:44:00.000-08:00

Best trip in America on two wheels

I know its been nearly a week since the two wheeled trek from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, but I've been BUSY & sick (much more on the "busy" later, but good things happening!)

After a solid night's sleep Chez Blanco in San Francisco, we rode to the Golden Gate Bridge Saturday morning to meet the Coast Ride crew. This involved the weekend's only truly terrifying experience as Katya and I attempted to navigate San Francisco (hilly!) streets with backpacks larger than ourselves. No photographic evidence unfortunately, as a camera attempt would have definitely resulted in disaster.

Shockingly, we made it to the bridge without incident, said hello to friends we hadn't seen in a year, and got ready to ride. Scotty & co. have the trip wired (thank you a million times over for the best adventure in the USA!) and we were able to drop our bags with the SAG vehicle and set off for Day 1.

2012 crew

Last year, I remember being terrified as we descended from San Francisco through Pacifica. I was riding tri bike and was NOT a fan on descending in a group. Right away, I realized that this year was going to be different. I cruised down the hills easily and with confidence on my new SuperSix....Soon we hit a big climb near Half Moon Bay. Last year, I recall being popped off the back and then riding many miles alone until lunch. This year, I was riding that hill instead of the other way around, quickly starting to realize that my fall miles with Pete, James, HJ, wattie, Nestor & Katya are paying off. BIG TIME. Thanks guys :)

I'm not going to go into the details of the ride each day and all that because it is just overload! It can easily be abbreviated like this: We rode 125-130 miles down California Hwy 1 overlooking the ocean and climbing through the redwoods for 3 days. The weather was epic for January- super chilly (LOW 40s) in the a.m., but warming up to 60s by the afternoon. Sunshine all over the place and tailwinds for the final day into Santa Barbara. Throughout the entire trip, I was whispering sweet nothings to my bike as I'm totally in love. The ride is SO comfortable, so smooth, so "responsive" (yeah, cliche, but there is no other word!). I am now officially pissed at all y'all that told me that the bike doesn't make that much of the difference when I was riding around my old clunker road bike I got when I learned to clip-in in 2007. LIARS! All that "it's the rider blah blah blah" is CRAP.

Anyway, back to the ride. We'd finish on our bikes by around 2pm (ride time was 6 to 6 and a half hours each day....yeah- not such a leisurely pace when you figure in 19k of climbing over 3 days) and then hit the food and a beer or 2 while telling bad jokes and wearing the same outfit every night with our Coast Ride buddies. Each night finishes with ice cream, my favorite Coast ride "tradition".

Can't say "No" to tradition!

The friends I've made on this trip over the past two years are pretty awesome and we may be an unlikely match. As Bethany said to the guys on Day 2, "Well, the odds are good, but the goods are odd!" (that's the quote of the trip!) No, in all truth, There is a nice group of more mature ;) (happily married) gentlemen from Santa Barbara & san Francisco that keep their eyes out for my girlfriends & I and help us along. When the going gets tough, they remind me to hang in there, give me a push up the hill, and I even had an escort or two bring me back to the group....

The odds are good, but the goods are odd!

Friends and fun aside, this trip is also about training and I have to admit I really surprised myself. I know that my cycling has improved in the last year, but this trip gave me some really tangible things to look at to see how far I've come. I climbed with people I couldn't even suck wheel with last year, I stayed within myself while riding strong, and couldn't wipe the realization from my mind that every (traumatizing) memory from 2011 was being rewritten in 2012. I had a lot of check-ins with myself realizing that I was not a sham on the ride this year: I was no longer pretending to fit in with the roadies (the SuperSix vs. tri bike helped ;), getting shot off the back, resigning myself to riding solo, and experiencing more pain than is probably healthy.

Instead, this year i was RIGHT THERE. No, not always in the front group, but never far. And NEVER in the "box" the way I was last year.I feel like I am not putting the right words to this, but it was a huge mental jump for me. I'm not writing this to tell you how awesome I am, I really hope that someone who feels hopeless on the bike (as I did for several years) reads this and sees that the hard work WILL eventually pay off. One day, like me, you will no longer suck! Sure, it took thousands of miles and thousands of hours, but it did pay off. Never give up!

I think the final day captures the moment I'll really remember....Last year,I hitched a ride for about 20 miles to avoid the last huge climb of the ride. I knew in 2011 that I would lose time on the climb, lose more time on the descent, and end up riding the last 40ish miles to Santa Barbara alone in a pity party. Not to mention, I was DESTROYED. I couldn't fathom another hill.

This year, we arrived at the lunch stop before the monster climb and I was feeling great. Quitting never crossed my mind. As we approach the hill after lunch, I knew I was ready for a little redemption. The boys started climbing "easy" and I kept pace, thinking "that's it?" After a while, the pace picked up but I hung in there, knowing this was the LAST big climb. Pretty soon, I looked around, seeing mostly Cat1 & 2 roadie dudes...What was I doing here? Oh yes, I was CLIMBING! When we reached the top, I'm not sure I've ever been so satisfied on a bike. Not that I had hung on and QOM'd the thing, but that I was in SUCH a different place physically and mentally than last year.

Ok, so the Rudy soundtrack stops there, because I totally got dropped on the descent and was alone for about 10 miles until I scooped up/was scooped up by some other stragglers. We hammered to SB with a rippin' tailwind and called it ay.....Until next year!

DAY 1 San Francisco --> Seaside, CA

getting ready to roll

Hot Tub with Bethany!

DAY 2 Seaside --> Morro Bay

Me, Bethany, Jonathan

Big Sur= Big Day 8k of climbing

Hard to focus on the wheel not the view

met a new friend, Daniel, who grew up in my hometown

Aaron,, Bill, Duane, & Randy - some of my "helpers" all in here...

$1 Tecates! Who could say no!

DAY 3 Morro Bay --> Santa Barbara

Rollin' DEEP (I'm there 2nd wheel white jacket)

Heavy D, Randy, Katya

En Route!

2012-01-14T06:21:00.000-08:00

The deal with a long point-to-point ride is that, in our case, you may need to travel to get to the start....Katya & I left on Thursday for Santa Barbara. We awoke Friday morning to a beautiful sunrise from our friend's house up in the hills.

After a quick jog, we hit the road (packed 5 people & 5 bikes into a Ford Expedition, I kid you not!!!)
Randy's car packing skills are unparalled.

Not the sunrise, but shortly thereafter

jogging around

Stopped for coffee at a cyclist's coffee shop

After several stops, including lunch in San Luis Obispo, we made it to San Francisco in time for dinner. Now all that's left to do is to ride 400 miles back down to where we came from. The Coast Ride is underway.

Hoping for sunny skies and tail winds...I'll check in with updates as long as I can see straight!

life is good....

2012-01-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

Southern California January...Spent the weekend.....

Playing in the sunshine with friends

Enjoying a new toy
(or two... Cannondale Teramo girly helmet to accessorize the roadie...)

Eating bananas

Appreciating quality time with the ones I love

This weekend I covered 122 human (& solar!) powered miles with friends & family. Enjoyed ~~almost~~ every breath, stroke, stride, and sigh. What did you enjoy this weekend?

Souplesse

2012-01-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

2012 will be the year of Souplesse on the bike. Did you know I was a French major in college and studied in Aix-en-Provence? True story. If you read the piece on Souplesse I linked above, you'll see that cycling "souplesse" is a sort of one-ness with the bike that most roadies probably think us triathletes sorely lack. In some cases (mine!), they may be correct. I'm the climber with the wiggly hips, the audible sigh, the death grip on the bars choosing the squiggly line.

In 2012 that's going to change. I will channel style, grace, and stillness on the bike. My riding partners might be laughing right now because there is quite a long way to go. But, the project is underway, and it's starting with the bikes...

If you had three cups of coffee and nothing to do, you may have made it to the section of my blog post on going pro where I mentioned that I'm going to be riding one of these in 2012:

Cannondale WOMEN's Slice

Remember when I rode a borrowed Slice at Oceanside 70.3 in 2010 and got my first Kona spot?

My borrowed rig with "fake" Zipp 808s (we got ripped off on craigslist but thats a whole different blog post :)

Even though I know I was a better cyclist in 2011, my PR on the Oceanside course was set on the Cannondale Slice in 2010...hmmmmm.....On that day in 2010, on that borrowed bike, I felt more "at home"on a bike than I ever have. Clearly, the Slice must be my bike soul mate and I'm excited to be reunited and get some one-ness with my bicycle. I'm quite sure that feeling in touch with my Slice will most certainly help in the Souplesse department.

If you can't tell, I'm beyond excited to be supported by Cannondale Women's bicycles and can't wait to ride the s$%t out of some bikes the next couple of years (WHOA, that was not very souplesse-like). My Cannondales will also be SRAM equipped with better components than I've ever had the pleasure of riding. The soft clikety click of SRAM Red will most certainly help me to shift with grace and ease, right?

My Slice hasn't arrived yet, but I did just receive a super pretty road bike that will be all set to go for the Coast Ride next weekend. Heading to Studeo DNA to get all dialed in and then we'll be ready to ~~party~~ pedal gracefully- can't wait to get some pics of the newest addition to the Walsh family! I don't really name my bikes, but if I were going to name this roadie, I think she'd be called Souplesse.

moments in time: 2011

2012-01-01T10:31:00.000-08:00

2011 memories in pictures...thanks to the iphone, they won't be forgotten!

Janurary 2011

The Coast ride. 375 miles San Francisco to Santa Barbara...

February 2011

Putting in the base miles with James & Dirk

A Superbowl party with a view

Winter in Encinitas

Running hill repeats up Torrey Pines

March 2011

Strawberry season

First open water swim of the year

April 2011

Qualifying for Kona with James at California 70.3

James wins his age group & decides he likes long course triathlon again...

Leading out the pack at the Gran Fondo with Nytro Women

Tucscon training camp chez Hillary Biscay

Last long run before Ironman Texas...19 miles after work. ouch!

Staple dinners by Chef James

May 2011

Ironman Texas- sharing the podium with great friends & going sub 10

James' first Ironman...

June 2011

Family sailing trip to the British Virgin Islands

Beach day with the girls...Southern California SUMMER!

East County adventures with Julie & Liz

July 2011

2nd honeymoon with James...5 days in California wine country riding bikes, drinking wine (&beer & coffee) and eating good food.

When in Sonoma County...

Bear Republic Brewing Company, chamois and all....

Discovering new roads with my husband

August 2011

Enjoying a nap during the last few days of summer break

Colorful salads

A girls training trip to Las Vegas

Hundred degree happiness

My mom's first 70.3 in New Hampshire

Race morning at Timberman 70.3

Post-race Timberman lobster buffet

September 2011

Las Vegas 70.3 World Championships with James

3rd place at 70.3 WC

October 2011

Trip to Kona...

The Underpants Run

The swim that made James decide he was over long course triathlon

Finishing Ironman World Championships in 10:04

November 2011

Back on the bike

Spectating at Ironman Arizona

Hitting the trails

Cyclocross

December 2011

Coffee Rides with rest stops at the beach

And A niece and nephew as christmas gifts

Happy New Year to all! Wishing you peace, love, and good coffee in 2012!

Christmas

2011-12-29T20:43:00.000-08:00

Chicago

Christmas was a little different this year with my sister's newborn twins in the family. We usually congregate in Philadelphia, but relocated to Chicago where the twins live.

James on the blue line train. We ain't in California anymore!

It was amazing to see my parents as "grandparents" and to see my sister as a mommy.

Other than daily visits to the gym, we did pretty close to nothing. Infant twins, if you were wondering, are not particularly mobile. Packing them up for a simple outing practically requires a U-Haul. So, we did much more sitting around than my fam is accustomed to, but it was a good excuse to NOT have to stand outside in the chill of the windy city all day, so I was pleased.

Luke has a christmas yawn!

DOUBLE FISTING! (good birth control?)

James + Me at some famous reflective bean scultpure downtown Chicago.

We arrived back in San Diego last night. I'm looking forward to putting in a few miles on the bike in the next 5 days before I return to work.My second attempt at The Coast Ride (375 miles from San Francisco to Santa Barbara) is in just 3 weeks and that should be motivation to get me out the door. Well, that or the 75 degree sunshine. Tomorrow I'm off to tackle Mt. Palomar with Katya. The last time I climbed Palomar with Katya, well, let's just say I hope I make it to the top this time...

Back in Cali, Business as usual

James! Get my bottles ready!

2011-12-22T08:39:00.000-08:00

More often than not, James prepares my water bottles when we go riding. Before you go hating on me for being a princess, make sure to watch the video below, where clearly I get creamed for such diva behavior.
Lately, I have been requesting , "one bottle with Hydration Factor & one bottle with fruit punch Nuun". Neither contain calories (I like to eat granola bars on long winter rides), but both contain all the electrolytes you need.

Hydration Factor is new to me and a totally new concept in hydration products from MRM.
I like it because:
* It's all natural
* It's in that convenient little sleeve you can take anywhere
* It's very tasty. Tastes kind of like a weak lemonade.
I SHOULD like it because:
*There are some herbs in there that promote hydration at the "intracellular level". Apparently, you are supposed to get extra hydrated when you drink this stuff. I think it would be excellent not only in training & racing, but also in the weeks prior to a hot event where you want to go into it being as hydrated as possible. I'm not the scientist here, but I do know that Hydration Factor was developed by scientists & MRM has some serious standards for all of their products. So, I believe.

Okay, now you can watch this video James made if you want to see how he views life around here. (He already put it on Facebook & twitter last week so you may have seen it). Unfortunately, I can't dispute his arguments too much. Except when he says, "this is not an egg and spoon race.." Hey now.

Champion Factory: Episode 2
by: jdubcx

And because he made fun of me...Here's James getting all intense on the Hunger Games..."Hurry, Haymitch! Katniss needs a gift NOW!"

Merry & Bright

2011-12-20T08:22:00.000-08:00

Christmas came early for me this year in so many ways. One of James' gifts to me was my very own website for my triathlon "career". Lovely Sarah at Great 8 Creative worked her magic with site design and well, Merry Christmas to me!

Please visit www.bethwalshracing.com and check it out!

This here blog is going nowhere, but it is also now linked up from my bethwalshracing.com home page. I don't think you need to reset your feed or do anything. I'm also working on updating my sidebars and put a few new gadgets over there. Who knew blogger had some of these features? Blogger will show a list of your most popular posts, or take your blog labels and make them clickable for easy referencing. Over the next week, I'm going to go back and tag all my old posts...

I also realized my blogroll was oh, about 3 years old (sadly not an exaggeration) so I need to start from scratch. I have a few favorite sites, but am always looking for another way to waste an extra 5 minutes per week. If you'd like to be included, please leave me your website in the comments. I'll probably get around to doing this sometime over Spring Break :), but at least I'll know where to look.

Another reason I'm feeling merry& bright is that you may notice that my 2012 sponsors include my longtime favorite, Zoot. I'll be joining the Zoot elite pro team and hope to make them proud. This is a huge sigh of relief because I know I'll be training & racing in the best wetsuits, compression, training gear, and shoes around.

Truth be told, I have NEVER done a triathlon in another brand of shoes and I'm so happy to say that I'm not going to start. As I've mentioned before, Zoot is like family to me and our loyalty is mutual.

Thanks to everyone for making this a holiday to remember...And may your days be Merry and Bright!

swimming spirit: Holiday swim workout!

2011-12-17T19:26:00.000-08:00

My friend Toby posted a link to this article on the top 10 things successful people do to reach their dreams. I loved the article and wanted to remember it here, and bookmark it to check on these next few years as I work to achieve my dream of competing at an elite level in triathlon. This post touches on "thing" #3: Early mornings & late nights. Because nearly every early morning at 6am, I hit the pool to work on something that has not come easily to me. But I love it. I love that I have to work reeeeaaallly hard to see tangible results in the pool. I also love that I have a great Master's swimming program to wake up to and make the work a ~~little~~ lot more fun. Let's face it: Swimming alone sucks! (to me).

You know what gets me in the Christmas spirit more than anything else? Master's swimming. Yes. Hear me out.
It all starts on December 1st when the "countdown to Christmas" 50s begin. On December 1st there are 25 x 50s (a "50" means you swim 50yards which is 2 lengths). The Christmas 50s preceed the main set ( main set=the bulk of the swim workout, the part where you usually are close to puking). Every day until the 25th, you swim one less 50 in the countdown. So today (Saturday the 17th, 8 days till Christmas, we swam 8 x50s).

Now, I know this whole "Christmas 50" thing is a little denominational and all, but heck, it IS the YMCA pool, so I guess they're allowed. Maybe at the JCC they swim Hannukah Hundreds? I think I'd love those too.

We've got a great indoor/outdoor situation going on. AND this is less than 3 minutes WALK from my front door. don't hate!

Swimming doesn't get much airtime on this here blog. I think maybe because it's hard to take a camera in the pool, you know? But it should, because I'm LOVING swimming lately. I still have SO much work to do in the pool, but the coaches and my lane mates make it fun every day. AND, I just got a new teal Betty Designs signature one-piece that brightened up the pool this week.

Anyway, back to the Christmas 50s. Well, I love them. I also love how every day, Coach Hux shows up with some evil Santa workout. You never know what to expect. In fact, I've been swimming masters at the Y for 3 years now and NEVER have seen a workout repeated. Seriously. AND, each session he pays attention to all 50 of us, running around, knowing all our intervals, and juggling 3 stopwatches to get everyones times. It's awesome motivation.

The Elf himself: Coach Hux sporting the So Cal winter look- board shorts, uggs, &gloves

About my lanemates. I'd like to also take this swimming air time to thank them for letting me be the caboose whenever I ask, for grabbing my ankles and pulling me under water to keep me on my toes, for not making too much fun of me for still not really knowing how to flip turn, for being patient as I played "fake it 'till you make it" the past 3months in "their" lane. I think I can finally say I "made it" in the 1:25 lane (lane 3).You should all know that I started in the 1:55 lane 3 years ago. And you bet I've got my eyes on lane 2 for 2012...Not just yet though, one stroke at a time... (for those of you who don't swim- the 1:25, say, is your "base interval", a pace you should be able to swim comfortably for 50 yards. All the workouts are based off of this time. As you get faster, your base interval should decrease.)

Now, back to coach Hux & his workouts. Yesterday's holiday pain was the following. Give it a shot!
500 warm up
The Christmas 50s: 9 x 50 - 3kick, 3 drill, 3 swim on 5 seconds rest
The "Polar Express": 1000 continuous "train" with your lanemates, switching leaders every 100yards.
The "Egg Nog":
4 x 150 on base + 5
3 x 150 on base + 5 , 100 FAST (on base MINUS 10)
2 x 150 on base + 5, 2 x 100 FAST (on base -10)
1 x 150 on base + 5, 3 x 100 FAST (on base -10)
4 x 100 FAST (on base -5)

100 warm down

total: 4550 yards (if you did the whole thing. I had to get out at 3800 yards and go to work. Darn job! truth: I was a bit relieved since the 4x100 was a little gnarly for my taste on that morning. But I DID do all my FAST 100s between 1:08 and 1:10- not bad for a girl from the 1:55 lane! )

Going Pro

2011-12-10T07:53:00.000-08:00

I often forget that I have some friends and family that follow my blog who may not know what "going pro" in triathlon means. Wait, actually, "going pro" means so many different things to people within triathlon that I think you need to come up with your own definition of what it means for you.

For me, it literally means that I have a USAT (USA Triathlon) Elite license (which you can obtain by meeting certain criteria. For explanation see here). It means that I will start with the elite field in any race and be eligible to earn money. Unfortunately, it does not mean that I will earn money, but that's a whole different story. For me, it means that I will become a bit more serious and detail-oriented in my training, because I am officially balancing two jobs. So, nope, I am not quitting my job as a school psychologist". I am, however, working 4 days per week, so I have one extra day to train, travel, or work with my sponsors....

I recently contributed to an article for 3/GO Magazine that will be published in the next couple of months. 5 rookie pros from my age group also contributed, so my verbose answers will be snipped to just one or two sentence contributions, so I posted the complete interview below. Above, I talked about what being "pro" IS for me, and below is a bit about what it means....And I also let some cats out of the bag (wait? who puts a cat in a bag anyhow?) as to some big changes for me next year...much more on those soon!

Chatting with my fellow rookies...Photo by Larry Rosa

How did you get your start in triathlon? I feel like adult “late bloomer” triathletes start as either ex-college swimmers or rowers with big engines, or injured runners. I was the latter. I began running (without a plan or any knowledge of endurance training) in 2007 and promptly ran myself into a femoral fracture and was on crutches for 5 months. Before the doctor allowed me to run, I was permitted to “spin on a recumbent bike” and run in the pool. Sounds like triathlon to me! Of course, being oblivious to proper healing and recovery, I took this to mean that I should go buy a “real bike”, learn how to clip in , and start “training” for triathlon before I was even allowed to walk. I distinctly remember crutching it down to the beach and hopping on one leg through the whitewater during my first (terrifying) ocean swim with the San Diego tri club. Needless to add, I eventually healed up and did my first Sprint Tri in May 2008. I placed 3rd amateur overall and was officially hooked.

What’s your athletic background? In high school, I was quite sporty. I played varsity field hockey and lacrosse. I did swim on the swim team for a couple of years. I use the term “swim team” loosely. We never won a single meet. I was actually quite good for our team standards since half the team was actually learning to swim. College was a different story. I was on a strict training regimen of beer, Wendy’s, and (gasp!) half a pack of cigarettes a day. I used to heckle the girls in my dorm for working out and didn’t comprehend why anyone would do that. I slept past noon at least 3 days per week. I may or may not have gained the “Freshman 15”. You’ll never know because I destroyed all the pictures. I never in a million years imagined I would become a pro triathlete at age 31.

What’s your strongest discipline? Well, running is what got me into this whole “mess”. Straight away, when I began running in 2007, I was not bad. After one month of “training”, I ran my first ever 10k in 40 minutes and 30 seconds. So, I literally took that and ran with it. Running myself into the ground. But it all sparked a belief inside me that I could be “good”. Since then I’ve worked on my run and in 2010 I ran a 2:59 standalone marathon and a 3:10 marathon off the bike in Kona.

Which discipline do you think needs most improvement now that you’re joining the pro field? How do you plan to tackle this? It’s a good thing I can run ‘em down because I have a lot of improvement to make on the bike and the swim. Although I’m no fish, I still see that I need to make the most improvement on the bike because that is where I’ll see more “bang for my buck”. In the past 3 years, I’ve improved about 3 minutes on my Half Ironman swim times, and about 30 minutes on my bike times, so clearly, the return on investment is highest for the bike. I know that if I keep working on my bike fitness, I can be better and I finally believe in my ability to improve. For a long time, I felt like I put in the work, but wasn’t seeing the results. Now, I know that it just took a couple of years of building up some mileage in my legs and I’m starting to reap the benefits of hard work and dedication.

In order to maximize my output on the bike, we are also going to work on my TT position with a bike that fits me. I know that to compete with the pros, you need attention to detail. In the past, I’ve ridden whatever bike I was available, regardless of fit, and never spent much time on my position. 2012 will be different. When looking for a bike sponsor, I was clear that I would rather have no sponsor at all than to “settle” for a bike that wasn’t perfect for me. I am one of the tricky “in between sizes” women and I knew there were only a couple of 700cc bikes that would fit me perfectly. I lucked out and I’m going to be working with Cannondale Women’s bikes. The Cannondale Slice is my “goldilocks” bike. I rode a borrowed Slice briefly (for one race) in 2010 and haven’t felt a connection like I did with that bike since then. I’m also going to be working with Retul fitters at Studeo DNA to tweak and dial in a position that is fast and aero. My previous TT position was the butt of many jokes on our Saturday rides… Apparently I looked like a “monkey [doing something unmentionable to a] football”. In 2012, I will have no excuses about my bike or position…Now, just to prepare the rider.

What made you decide to “go pro”?

For me, “going pro” was a really tough decision. I felt like I had reached the top of age group racing but I still felt as though there was a gap from that spot to the pro field. But, I’ve never been one to live life with any “woulda-shoulda-coulda’s”. I’m 31, so for me it was now or never and I’m ready for the challenge.

Will racing as a pro change how you plan your season? If so, how?

For me, racing as a pro is going to allow me to plan my season much more organically. With races selling out for age groupers a year in advance, you sometimes get “stuck” in a schedule. Now, I’ll have the flexibility to race when and where I want to. If training is going well and I feel prepared, I can race a lot. If my base needs more work, we can back it off.

What do you expect to be the challenges of competing in the pro field?

First, of course, I’m nervous about the swim. Aren’t we all (Except Jess Smith :) ) ? As an average age group swimmer, I’ll have my work cut out for me even more in the pro field. I’ll be honest- I’m scared of swimming and biking alone in no man’s land for an entire Ironman. I tend to daze off on the bike if I’m not around others who are pushing and motivating me. I may be doing lots of talking to myself and finding that “inner” strength (or crazy depending which way you look at it).

What will you not miss about being an amateur?

I won’t miss the trepidation that comes before and Ironman mass swim start where you know you are about to get clocked by 2000 of your closest friends. I also won’t miss the drafting packs in age group racing.

What concerns you most about your decision to race as a pro?

I’m aware that just because my mind and my USAT card say that I’m a “pro”, my body will have to make the jump as well! I’m not delusional and certainly don’t expect to be the next Chrissie Wellington in 6 months, but I hope that I can make myself and my supporters proud by sufficiently stepping my game up.

At first, I was worried that by keeping my day job, I would be at a disadvantage to those true professionals who are able to make triathlon a full-time career. However, I’m starting to believe that the balance may in fact be good for me and I’m looking forward to the challenge of balancing two day jobs.

How will your training change in the coming year as you prepare for your first season as a pro?

Contrary to many rookie pros, I actually may end up doing less volume than in the past. My former coach, Dirk Aschmoneit, helped me reach the point where I’m at now, and we did lots of volume (and I loved every minute of it!). I have him to thank for getting me ready to take this next step to “pro”dom . In 2012, I need to focus on getting FAST, so we are going to take those base miles and long days and translate them into a platform for speed. I need to mentally prepare myself for the fact that my workouts might not be as long, but they are going to HURT.

I’m doing more group riding out of my comfort zone and I’m lucky to have a group of cyclists that put me in the hurt box on a daily basis. As luck would have it, my next door neighbor is Pete Coulson, who has coached and mentored several Ironman World Champion athletes and is currently working with the phenomenal 70.3 pro Heather Jackson. Pete has taken me under his wing and Heather is a great model to look up to and chase in training. My husband, James, is also a huge support and gets me through our training rides. I feel very lucky that I get to go out and ride my bike with this crew and I know that I’ve got the best “team” out there. They even send someone to pull me back to the group when I chicken out on the descents .

What has been your favorite/most memorable triathlon experience to date?

My first time competing in Kona at the Ironman World Championships in 2010 will always be very special. I wasn’t close to winning my age group (I went 10:13) but I enjoyed every second of that race and all of the experiences surrounding the race itself. The Kona “vibe” is one-of-a-kind and the whole week is a true celebration of the best things about long distance triathlon. Swimming in Kailua Bay out to the Coffees of Hawaii boat for an espresso the day before the race with friends & family might be my favorite triathlon “experience”. That’s what I love about triathlon….It’s not always the race itself or the finish line that is the most memorable.

For me, I want to remember the entire journey. I happened to start a blog right when I was learning to clip into pedals in 2007 and have documented the good, bad, and embarrassing since that time. I love being able to look back (and I just did so to find out the date/times from my first triathlon for this article) and laugh and reminisce. I also love sharing my experiences with other aspiring triathletes because I’d say that I’ve learned 50% of what I do in triathlon from reading blogs and testing things out and I hope to be able to help others in the same way.

What question(s) do you wish I had asked you? And what is your response?

Mmmmmm….I’m pretty sure my responses are already WAY longer than you hoped for. So I’ll stop now...

And just like that...

2011-12-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

And just like that....It's December. The last week has been one of those blurs where I was moving too fast to take care of some of life's essentials like: Stop, breathe, blog. You know, the important stuff.

First, and most importantly, "MoVember" is over! So, creepy creeperson is gone and clean shaven James is back.

End of the Mo

Since Thanksgiving, it's been all "Go" with a high volume week at work :) and some fun winter racing.
A quick recap in Photos:

Thanksgiving day we headed up to "Tom's Farm" for a 9 mile time trial. Seriously. 9 miles? Isn't that like the warm up? Anyhow. It was fun and hard and I placed well, but I need to work on my "hard". I averaged just over .5 mph faster than my Ironman bike split. Yes, I know, "one gear Greta" over here.

Boys warming up for time trial...VERY SERIOUS! Nobody would talk to me as they all tried to get "in the zone". Boys are weird

The weekend brought sunny skies and more riding and more racing.I took a go at the District Champs for Cyclocross (my first 'cross race this year) and was proud of the effort. The win went to Allison Mann (as usual!) and I used my "fly over the handlebars", "roll on the ground" and "drop my chain all over the place" moves to secure 10th in the women's A race. [Yes, there were only like 14 girls]. Might help to ride a cross bike more than twice to improve my skillllz.

Pete & me....pre race. (Post race, there was more spit, more hacking "red-line" cough, etc)

James and his best 'cross face

Back in the swing at work, I made time to head to Studeo DNA for a retul fit on my current road bike. Now that triathlon is officially going to be my "second job", I need to really work on the DETAILS. The little things that will add up to make a difference.

We wanted to work on my current position (I was WAY too far forward) and also look at my dimensions to pick the perfect sized road bike for next year using this cool Retul bike finder thing (more on next year's ride soon!) . Nestor (Mr. DNA) fixed some big things as well as all the little things I usually ignore...

Before this little adjustment- my cleats were a few CENTIMETERS off (not symmetrical) , so I had been pedaling totally different with each leg...oops.

Yesterday we went on a coffee ride down to Pacific Beach. Yes, December around here is not so bad!

Other than that, just cruising along. Today we're going to set up the Christmas tree and get in the spirit! I'm also finalizing some things for my new website so I have lots of exciting things to share in the next couple of weeks!
I hope you all take time to stop, breathe, enjoy these next few weeks amidst the holiday mayhem. I know I need to take this advice myself. How do you relax around the holidays? Any good tips?

Bringin' out the big guns

2011-11-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

FIRST.. I am an auntie x2! My sister had 2 little muffins on Wednesday the 16th and everyone is happy and healthy. I can't wait to squeeze them! Thanks sis, for having 2 and appeasing the grandparents- I'm off the hook for a while!

Ellie & Luke on the way home from the hospital.

On Friday, James and I hit the road to go spectate at Ironman Arizona. We had lots of friends racing and can always use a good excuse to head to the dez to ride our bikes in some new places..
Friday afternoon James, me , and his Mo hit the road..
I call him "Jimmy Mo-Lester"

We made it to our friend Tom's house by sunset & were up bright and early for some bike riding. I met up with Jordan and we cruised a loop through Beeline hwy & bush hwy. We had so much fun catching up that I almost stopped complaining that we had a headwind in every direction
Pit stop with Jordan at Saguaro lake:

Jordan all smiles before we realize the wind has changed direction...

After the ride, we headed to the ironman expo to see friends and help out. James chilled with the Skinfit crew

While I headed to a photo shoot for 3GO magazine with the awesome Larry Rosa for an article on "Going Pro".. Lucky for me, I got to pose-down with one of my favorite competitors, Jess Smith, who just turned pro (and crushed it- 9:33 at IMAZ- holy crap).

While hanging out for photos, i also got to spend some time with the lovely Sue Hutter- she brings happy with her everywhere & I love it!
After some quality expo time with the Zoot crew & our neighbor Justin, we cruised to an early dinner/bedtime

Sunday we got up dark and early for a couple hours on our road bikes before hitting Ironman Arizona

We got to IMAZ in time to watch the second half of the bike. Having our bikes at the race was a huge bonus and we were able to get ALL over the course to cheer on the racers.

What can I say about the racing other than.. WOW. My friends at SOAS said it best with this cute tee they designed for IMAZ..

There was some insane talent out there and I had such a fun time watching the women's pro race. Seeing my friends (and heroes!) Linsey & Meredith go 9hrs and BELOW was inspiring, motivating, and showed me what is possible in this sport (and how far I have to go!)...

Fast and full of class :)

Beyond that it was great to see Jess smash her first pro race & Charisa made it into a new zip code pulling out a 9:22. And that was just the beginning..it was so awesome tiring my voice out and getting to witness the fitness of all of the racers.
Serious spectating:

Today we're headed back to San Diego but we squeezed in some singletrack before leaving. It's been probably 8 months since I've been on my mountain bike and
It was super fun (and scary in a good way)..

Now I'm in the car and napping intermittently while my chauffeur (hey, I can call him whatever I want until he shaves that thing!) finishes this weekend adventure off..
And I can't stop thinking how lucky I am..
To be an auntie,

To have three sports & many more friends who inspire me

To have a husband who supports me, waits at the top of the hills, and is a best friend who likes to do all this crap with me...and let's blog on my iPhone while he drives across the desert back to the coast

Toast to 2011

2011-11-16T07:21:00.000-08:00

It was a fantastic year to be a part of the Nytro Women's racing team. I will be forever grateful for the opportunities I've been given as an amateur in this sport. To compete and smile with this group of ladies has been more than what I could have hoped for when I started triathlon. Special thanks to Kristin , Skip at Nytro, and Zoot for making the team come to life.

I'm not going to do a whole 2011 "Season review" this year because.....hmmm.....well, you are probably sick of hearing about how awesome I am.

Okay, well maybe a three-bullet mini season review for me, myself, and my mom. After all, this is my blog and I started it to remember this all... Thanks to love and support from all around, 2011 brought me:
* 3 overall amateur champion titles at Ironman Texas, California 70.3, and Timberman 70.3
* My first sub-10 Ironman finish (9:53 in Texas)
* PR times At the Ironman World Championships and Ironman 70.3 World Championships (the inaugural one is always a PR, eh?)
A HUGE thank you to Dirk, my amazing coach who made my dreams a reality.

I like to think I'm special, but actually, I just wasn't at that race where they took that running photo :)

And now, it's on to the next chapter for me. Yep, I'm going pro in 2012. It's now or never and I'm not one to allow space in my life for woulda-coulda-shoulda's. I can't wait to document the next chapter on my blog. Thank you all for sharing with me and motivating me (often more than myself) on a daily basis.

twitter me this

2011-11-06T15:03:00.000-08:00

I may be slacking on the blog front, but I'm always tweeting from @IMBethwalsh about....something, nothing, and whatever gets in my way in fewer than 140 characters.

some of this week's twittery:

#hangingonbyathread
ok, time to strap on my big girl boots for the wednesday ride with the sweet pea posse.

#inspirationroundeverycorner
So proud! @jmwalsh2 convinced one of my co-workers to do 30 runs in 30 days.. Today- she finished!

#dumbblonde

Oops.Just looked at photo of the running certificate I made.& promptly went to M's mailbox 2 fix my spelling mistake!

#comfortISM

Never could get "comfortable" on my road bike.Now that's going to change- blingin' new @ISMsaddles .Diggin' the white.

#notkidding
my co-worker has an interesting snack...can you guess what it is?

#datenight

rainy night, steamy ciopinno, bottle of red

#conversationoptional #toosmashedtotalk

Pit stop at Circle R....mandatary phone check of course@hjacksonracing @PeteCoulson @WattieInk @jmwalsh2@StudeoDNA

#thirdwheel

Heading to Costco with my husband & my husband's husband.

Are you a twitter fan? If not, YOU ARE MISSING OUT! Facebook is so 2010.

Follow me here and let me know your twitter name in the comments so we can follow you too!

#overandout

Work your body

2011-11-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

Halloween was no excuse for us to skip our Monday lift sesh at RU Sports performance center.
But it WAS an excuse to lift in costume (or as much costume as allows lifting 60+lb barbells.)

I went with Hawaiian style

Katya made the 80s proud

Lesley dressed up as Xterra World Champion...oh wait....

So now it's NO-vember. Not that I believe in being negasaurus rex or anything, but I did A LOT of "just say YES" in October (to donuts, cake, martinis, etc) so I'm pulling in the reigns just a little bit so I don't have a disaster on my hands on January 1st. Nothing big, no counting calories, no "diet" per se, just saying NO to gluten & NO to sugar. The exception (always an exception!) is one ~~piece~~ hunk of dark chocolate after dinner.Maybe a piece of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving too :)

How's your November going? Did you know 11.02.2011 is a palindrome? Or, as I saw on twitter...a calendrome.. I like it!

p.s. my hip is not better! It may be NO-running-vember as well...c'est la vie!

Ackronyms of the injured: ART & PT

2011-10-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Since we all know the blog is like The Secret (if you say it, throw it out there, make it real on the blog....it will happen!) I didn't talk about what was going on with my hip before Kona. First, I didn't want any excuses. Second, you know if you write about an injury then it really comes true. Well, turns out you can not write about it and it will come true too!

I'm going to insert gratuitous non-relevant photos here to keep you reading. This is James at our hotel in Kona with a coconut. Nature's Gatorade!

Getting serious for my pre-race meal in Kona: Grilled Ahi, Brown rice, green beans...and a "side"salad.with lots of hot sauce on everything yes please.

Back up a month or so with me now....About 3 weeks before Kona I was in a semi-serious bike crash. I didn't want to dramatize it, so I never wrote about it. Basically, I got very lucky. We were coming down a busy highway at 20+ miles per hour and the girl in front of me went down hitting one of those road reflectors. James and I were behind and I had nowhere to go but over her. Luckily, I landed on my right side on my bike, which broke the fall enough so that I only had some bloody gashes, bruises, and what turned out to be a super stiff neck. The other girl had some more serious stuff (concussion and a long hospital visit) so I felt pretty lucky and just moved on. I couldn't flip turn in the pool for about a week because my neck was so stiff. When I tried to do a plank, I realized I couldn't support any weight on my shoulder. Basically my right side was messed up, but I just moved along. Well, let's never forget the chain reaction masterpiece that our bodies are. The week before Kona, all of a sudden, my left hip flexor was screaming when I ran. It was bad enough that I didn't run for the whole week until a short test the day before (test did not go well!). I knew I could run the race with it, and thought it may not impact me too much. But I was pretty sure things would be not-so-great post race.

Lava Java Rendezvous with the one and only Rachel Ross. I know this blog entry isn't witty or funny, but nice pictures, eh?

I was right! So, guess what? I haven't run since Kona and won't be running for the next couple of weeks. Let's be honest, this is great timing for an injury! Who needs to run now? Not me! Well, I admit, I DID want to jump into Ironman Arizona, but I guess that is most certainly not going to happen. I'm pretty sure this is the same illiopsoas tendinitis that I had in 2009 following the La Jolla Half Marathon.

So, the GREAT news? The team is on it. I always talk about Dan (ART mantothestars ) and Bryan (rehab united sports performance master) because they help James & I prevent injuries on a daily and weekly basis. And yes, I've been injury free for two years!! BUT, this is one they couldn't have avoided because of that darn crash. Boooo!

Beginning of the Ironman Hawaii run= Happy on Ali'i drive..

Late in the run: Not so happy heel-strikin mo' fo' on the Queen K.

Anyhow, Dan has been squeezing me in for extra/targeted ART sessions. Usually we just do full-body "tune-ups" which keep the wheels greased and all the parts in working order. But now, I'm going in JUST for hip work.

With Bryan, in "non-injured times", we hit the gym for functional strength 2 times per week all year long. Bryan knows my body and how it works when it's healthy. Which makes it super seamless and easy for me to head in there for targeted physical therapy (the other side of the sports performance center is all PT & rehab) and quickly get on the fast track to returning to the other side of the gym. I can't explain how great it is to go to physical therapy without having to reinvent the wheel and explain your life story to the PT. We don't miss a beat and its awesome to know that at RU, my healthy body care can flow into triage when needed.

Don't stop reading now! The moral of the story is coming!

So why am I writing this? Sure, to say "thank you" to Dan & Bryan, but mostly to encourage any endurance athlete to find a team that supports their body. Having a professional that *knows* how your body works and what you've been through can be priceless. Trusting them is also important. Don't be diagnosis hopper- going from expert to expert waiting to hear what you want to hear. Build a relationship with a couple of good people. I remember having major anxiety the last time I was injured because you don't know what to do or where to start. Now, there is no anxiety because I know I'm on the right track.
I still need to be patient (which I'm not), but I'm confident I'll get there.

Ironman World Championship 2011- race report

2011-10-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

Today (Wednesday after Ironman Hawaii) was a long day. There’s nothing like leaving Kona at 6pm, traveling for 11 hours and winding up straight in a meeting at work by 7:45am. But, I’m determined to get this race report written before I start writing cutesy “I love Kona” stuff and forget how much that freaking hurt and how many dying animal noises I must have made in the last half of the run.

If you want the short version- my facebook status from Sunday sums it :
“Thanks to all for the cheers all day long! I had a great start to the day, and a very rough finish..No fun to puke for 13 miles, but tried to grin and bear it. Not the result I was hoping for, but proud of myself for sticking it out. 15th amateur woman overall, 7th in my division- 10 hours and 4 minutes. Glad it’s over. Mai Tai, Please!”

For the long (ish) version...here we go!

Pre Race-
James and I woke up at 3:30 and got our breakfast and coffee on. I had some oatmeal with half a banana and some yogurt- about 400 calories. I slept pretty well and was ready for the day! We walked the half mile down to transition and somehow got all mixed up in our directions and went the wrong way through body marking & dropping off our “special needs” food bags. We eventually got it done, but I could tell James was getting a little stressed we were running behind. We were all good, though and made it into transition with plenty of time to load up our bikes with water & food, pump the tires and wait way too long in line for the bathroom. Since my breakfast hadn't been so big, I also ate a Rice Krispie Treat drank some coconut water in transition (so 200 more calories...I'm thinking, in glorious hindsight of course, that this wasn't enough).

Ducks in a row in transition- Photo by YndeCam

Swim- 2.4 miles (1:04)
We hopped in the water at 6:40 which seemed a little early, but we wanted to try to get in good position for the swim start. The problem at the Ironman Hawaii swim is that there IS no good place to start. No matter where you go, it will be the most violent washing machine experience you can imagine. I didn’t have any swim goals other than “survive” and “don’t go slower than last year” (last year was a 1:06). I know I’m a better swimmer in the pool this year, but it doesn’t always translate to the ocean & triathlon swims. I KNOW I need to swim in the ocean more in san diego, but the truth is that i hate it. I really hate it. Our San Diego part of the pacific is cold, wavy, kelp-y, and shark-y. Not so fun if you ask me! I think I’ve only done two non-triathlon open water swims this year. Oh well, pick your battles.

Swim start- photo ripped from sonja's blog, Thanks, sonja :)

Back to the swim. The cannon fired and we were off. It was total mayhem and pretty violent. We started left-center (near the Ford car float) and I’d say it was “worse” than starting on the pier last year, but who knows.

Swim start- photo-YndeCam

Anyhow, I didn’t freak out, I just put my head down and tried to get out fast. I think I did a pretty good job and soon enough I looked up and I was ON the buoy line. Whoa, either there was some current going on or we swam diagonal instead of straight. Either way, I just tried to keep my arm turnover going and swim comfortably hard. The turn around is at a boat 1.2 miles out and its probably the most hectic piece of the swim other than the starting line because everyone gets compressed. Once past the turnaround, I just tried to stay strong and enjoy. I actually LOVE ocean swimming in Hawaii and as I looked up at the clear blue sky, I tried to enjoy the last few moments of the day when I was actually cool instead of blazing hot.

T1: This year I tried to clean up my transitions. Last year they were about 4 minutes each and I’m stoked to say that i streamlined things a bit more. I hopped on my bike (shoes already clipped in and I did much better than in Vegas because I actually pedaled on top of the shoes until I was more up to speed) and we were off!

Bike: 112 miles- 5:21:45- 20.9mph

My bike goal was to go a lot faster than last year (went 5:48). I have been putting in the work and seeing consistent and solid improvement in my bike all year- this training thing is finally working! I don’t really break down miles per hour or splits on the bike, I just go with heartrate. I took my powermeter off before Timberman 70.3 and haven’t really missed it. My goal was to ride with a heart rate below 160, but hopefully hovering around 155...The pace and effort this gave me felt perfect and I was cruising. I saw some faster swimmer friends in the first 30 miles and realized that a) my swim hadn’t been so bad, and b) my bike was going pretty well! I felt totally in control and my legs felt fresh, but I was passing a lot of people and worried maybe I was going out too hard? Oh well, didn’t feel too hard.
At one point, Michelle S. and I were leap-frogging a bit. I went in front for about 5 minutes and then she came around and she was ripping into some big tall dude that had apparently been sitting on my wheel the entire time. She really made him feel like a winner saying, “you really have to draft off a GIRL?!?” It was AWESOME! Yeah Michelle!!!

Cruisin' the Queen K

Anyway, at one point, Sarah caught up to me and to my surprise, I went with her. Soon enough, Hailey was in the mix too and she got ahead of us both. I was having fun “racing” and stoked that I was actually in the game enough to have people to race. At mile 30-ish, a pack of about thirty people came screaming by. SERIOUSLY?!? It was insane. Also insane was that one of the eventual age group winners was plastered right on the back of the group...I know this because her name was written in HUGE letters on her bum. Must be nice to have a sub 5 hour bike split as an amateur woman! Despite a few flagrant drafters, it was nice to see everyone racing, but playing fairly too. The girls I race with frequently or know from blogland (like Hailey, Sarah, Jess, Beth, Sonja, Tati, Julie, Michelle etc) have way too much self respect to play that game. I've never seen any of these girls in a pack. Go USA (and Mex for Tati :)

Anyway, the climb up to Hawi (the turnaround) is long, but nothing steep...Just a big grinder and this year, a solid headwind with some crosswinds. However, I wasn’t nearly as close to tears as last year, so either it wasn’t as windy, or I’m just toughening up a little bit.

Coming down from Hawi, I lost Sarah somewhere and just tried to be a big girl and stay in my aero bars. Lisbeth Kenyon (the eventual W45-49 winner) descended right ahead of me and I made it my goal to just stay safe and do what she did. I knew she had competed here many times before so would be a good judge of how to take the descent and the wind. Overall it was NOT SO BAD! Yay! I said a little prayer when we turned back onto the Queen K at Kawaihai and tried to keep my power steady. I was passing a lot of people and feeling pretty good. I never questioned that I was going too hard because I really felt as though I was just right on that edge of being comfortable and racing. AND, I knew Hailey was ahead of my and I trust that she wouldn’t totally blow herself up and we often have similar bike splits, so I was content.

At some point, Sarah got her second wind and came blazing by....bye Sarah! This time, I couldn’t stick and she rode away. Around mile 85 the road got lonely. Cyclists were strung out everywhere. A man passed me and I dropped back behind him. When a cyclist passes you in a triathlon, you have 20 seconds to drop back 4 bike lengths. I dropped back and I heard a motorcycle roll up. I looked over and saw the draft marshall. I think I even waved. They sat there for a minute and I thought they were just making sure everything was cool. Well, after a bit, they came up to me and said I had gotten a red card for drafting which is a 4 mintue penalty. HUH?!? She clearly explained “for the past minute, you have been sitting 3 bike lengths back and you need to be 4 bike lengths back”. Ok, I know the rule is 4 bike lengths. Thing is, I thought I was 4 bike lengths. Maybe it was 85 miles of cycling in 95 degree heat, but I was confused. However, I didn’t argue-there is really no point and I would just waste more time. And, I’m not even saying the penalty was not my fault. I guess by her description, I was in the wrong. I just find it almost comical that i KNEW they were there watching and I totally thought I was legal distance. Whatever. It is what it is. I was told to go spend 4 minutes in the penatly tent in T2. My first ever penatly...grrr...After they left, I stepped on the gas and pedaled hard-ish back to T2. I hope I didn’t try too hard to make up time!
I cruised into T2 SO happy about my bike split (5:21!!!!!) and so bummed about the penatly, but what can you do?

T2: 6:42 (includes the penalty)

First stop- the sin bin! I did my 4 minutes and made friends with the volunteers in there. There is no eating, drinking, sunscreening, or peeing- you are on time out! So, I just waited it out and then got on my merry way. I tried not to let it get to me and kept trying to think that 4 minutes shouldn't make or break my race.

Run: 26.2miles - 3:29 - 7:59/min mile pace

Just gettin' going- YndeCam photo

I got going down Ali’i drive. The first mile was good. The second mile was ok. The third mile, well, my legs felt a bit more tired than they did at this point last year. Maybe that’s what happens when you actually ride your bike! My goal for the run was to run within 10 minutes of my time last year (last year I ran an amazing (for me) 3:10 and I knew that if I biked a little harder, I may sacrifice some minutes on the run. BUT, since I had swum 2 minutes faster, biked 27 minutes faster (and then spent 4 mintues in the penalty tent), I already had a 25 minute cushion over last years time. MEANING, that if I ran a 3:20, I would break 10 hours. YES. THAT was the goal. The section down Ali’i drive was fun, but also very hot. I passed Sarah, Jen, and Hailey at some point and saw a bunch of friends at the Zoot and TYR houses along the way. Jordan was awesome and gave me some great intel on where the other girls were, but all I could muster was “I don’t think these are 3:10 legs today”. I stayed positive though, knowing that I could still squeeze out a good run. My mile splits were still mostly below 7:30 and I was headed out to the Queen K. Up Palani hill, I felt terrible and even walked a few steps. My stomach was cramping up and my legs were not feeling fit 'n fresh. By mile 13, I knew I was digesting nothing and my stomach was bloating and I was cramping in my stomach and legs. My pace slowed dramatically and i was running 8:30 to 9 minute miles. grrr...This is not what I had planned!

Somewhere on the lonely Queen K- photo by finishline-multisport.com

At some point, Sarah (she is the comeback girl!) passed me at a very good clip. Like a good friend, she willed me to go with her, but within seconds she was out of sight. I trudged into the Energy lab (the hot, desolate, final point before the turnaround back to town). In the energy lab, things went from bad to worse. I felt like I was barely moving (which is funny in hindsight as apparently this "barely moving" and walking still amounts to 8 to 9 minute miles). At the turnaround, I saw my friend Jen Sloan who is in my age group and she overtook me for what I knew was the final podium spot in our age group. I was happy that Jen looked so good, but just switched into survival mode, knowing I just had to make it home and I was puking everywhere. Out of the energy lab, I calculated I had around an hour for the last 10k and I could still break10 hours. Unfortunately, having puked up (on multiple occasions) the contents of my stomach and attempting to run on empty for 13 miles....it just wasn't in the cards. My body was totally drained and I hobbled along to the finish. I finished in 10:04, still a 9 minute PR from last year, but not the race I knew I could pull off on a great day. I've got to get this nutrition stuff re-figured out!!! I used to have no issues, but the reality is that I wasn't really "racing" until the run. Now that I'm racing, I've got to get it together!

Of course a fist pump at the finish.My friend went for the double pump...Awesome photo by YndeCam

Anyhow, I was happy to reach the finish and happy to find James who had an awesome race and went 9:30 in his first (and last so he says) Ironman Hawaii. I left my sorrows on the race course and enjoyed the finish and the amazing energy of Ali'i drive. I gave it my best on that day, and that was all I could do. No regrets....well, except that penalty- which was likely the difference between 9:59:XX and my 10:04 finish time. Live and learn and go on to fight another day!

Although it wasn't the race I had dreamed of, it has fueled the fire and given me the confidence that I CAN go faster and I already have the pieces there...now I'm just determined to put it all together. Thank you to everyone who helped me get here and who makes it possible for me to follow my dreams each day. James, coach Dirk, Bryan &the Rehab United crew, Dan the A.R.T. man to the stars, Pete, Simone- masseuse extraordinaire, Nytro Women,The Zoot ohana, MRM USA, Betty Designs, Nuttzo, and PowerBar.

That's a wrap!

2011-10-07T23:32:00.000-07:00

At bike Check-In (Photo by Nils Nilsen, Triathlete Mag)

My little Spike Lee has been hard at work with his 3rd video....The day before the race. If you're not into triathlon, this one's not quite as exciting...but its cool as it takes you through Kona bike check in and some other fun Ironman Hawaii stuff.. Grrr....just tried to link it up and blogger won't let me...But go to his blog and watch it from there...

On our way to bike check in

Things around here have been pretty chill. I'm not so nervous, as tomorrow's Ironman Hawaii is just the finale of a long and fabulous (meaning fabulously fun) racing season with my husband. Even if things go terribly wrong, I'll still find a way to enjoy the day. Dude, we're in HAWAII!

Lava Java post-brunch. We bought a shake to take to pete, but i "taste tested" about halfof it.

Kona pool- took a dip as the torrential rains sketched us out from swimming in the ocean (run off??) better safe than sorry

If you'd like to track our progress or watch some online coverage tomorrow, head over to ironman.com - I'm athlete #1706 - Beth Walsh and James (also Walsh, d'uh) is #1533.

Thank you to everyone who has brought me to the starting line. James, coach Dirk, Bryan &the Rehab United crew, Dan the A.R.T. man to the stars, Pete, Simone- masseuse extraordinaire, Nytro Women,The Zoot ohana, MRM USA, Betty Designs, Nuttzo, PowerBar.

Kona - Days 1&2

2011-10-06T18:25:00.001-07:00

Well, we're here. It's awesome. Is there really anything more to say? As I told James on the plane, "I've waited 51 weeks for this!"
In 24 hours, we have registered for the race, swum at the pier, underpants-runned, had a fabulous dinner with our Zoot family, lunched at Lava Java with Rachel , run down Ali'i drive, & biked
a (tiny) bit of the queen k highway. Who says you need to come a week ahead to enjoy it all? Now, it's rest time!
Of course... The photos!

Walking down Ali'i.. Check the wave crashing on the seawall- serious swell out here!

Underpants run barbies Laura, Katya, Donna, kristin, Rachel, and mini skipper .. Thanks to Wattie Ink & Betty designs for the kinis & accessories..

Off to compress & elevate! James is downloading some good stuff from our new GoPro camera that I'll post up tomorrow..

And for now, here's his first try...The Day Before Kona...My little budding Stephen Speilberg husband.

Aloha!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Nothing Fancy

2011-09-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

warning: there is a little rant-y type situation sandwiched in here...read with caution :) well, i guess its not a rant.. tirade maybe? type-happy-post-workout-head-to-finger-spew?

You know, I thought about not writing this post. This "oh wow, I had such a great workout, I am so ready for Kona blah blah blah". Not because I didn't want to, but because I don't want people (my "competition" maybe) to think that I'm trying to psych them out and pull some Macca mind moves on them.

I reminded myself that when I started this blog (before I had ever done a triathlon and just 2 months after I learned to clip in to bicycle pedals), "my competition" wasn't even on my radar. I was more concerned about not-drowning (still am I guess) and learning what an IT Band was and wondering why someone would ever eat food while they workout. I just started chronicling the ins and outs of my training. The good days and the bad, I put it all out there. I used to put up my entire training for the week (oh how lazy I have become!). The point is, it was never about making other people happy, putting up a front, or changing what I would say based on who read it. I've gotten many offers to monetize my blog (can't believe how many people read this stuff- thank you thank you thank you!), and companies wanting me to write reviews in exchange for money or product, but that's not up my alley. I write what I want to write. period.

Now, sometimes when I go to write a blog post, I find myself saying, "Will this girl or this girl think that I think that I'm hot doo doo or overconfident?" So today, I said, ENOUGH! Why am I overthinking this? The thing I love about my blog is that it has always been real (or as real as I can make it with my job as a school psychologist) and has never been about anyone else or getting sponsors (I don't think I even knew triathlon sponsors existed when I started this blog..) or just race reporting. It's about life and how my life has evolved as someone who is now, most definitely in the "triathlete" category. It's fun to look at the blog header "Triathlon-ish in San Diego" because I had never done a triathlon and didn't want to claim I was some triathlete or something. I just had a dream to do a triathlon. Looks like that one came true :). Thanks, Santa.

So, back to me, the real me. What I want to write is that I had one of those great days today. A day that I don't think I've ever had in training so effortlessly. Ok, well there was a lot of effort (or work done by my wattage cottage), but my perceived exertion is just in a totally different zipcode than it used to be.

There were no paces to hit, or intervals that required "nailing", it was nothing fancy. Just a good solid swim-bike-run day.
Today went like this:
Swim-2 miles- one hour masters pool swim. Nothing fancy, just a solid swim on a base interval (leaving on the 1:30 for all the sets if you're curious) that used to be WORK, but just felt smooth and steady. I was gliding! I was not writhing! This was how swimmers swim, I swear!

We basically swam a couple broken 1500s on this 1:30 interval, but came in on the 200 and 300s with 10 to 20 seconds rest. Nothing fancy, just a standard saturday "warm up" for the bike & run. I got out of the pool feeling fresh and awake.

Ride- 75 miles- 4 hours 20 minutes with 4700 feet of climbing. Again, nothing fancy. Just me and my husband riding towards the sunshine up a bunch of hills.

first glimpse of sunshine all day, only had to ride 40 miles east!

I wasn't that I was "killing it" or riding hard, but that I just felt solid. About halfway through the ride I realized that just 8 or 9 months ago, there were about 5 places (all the big climbs) where James would have had to stop and wait for me for at least 2 minutes. But today, we rode together all day (and by together I mean me on his wheel except for the 3 minutes when I pulled on Woods Valley and he thought it was "cute"). Nothing fancy, just progress. The ride never felt hard, but I can feel how much more power I can summon without falling over in an asthma attack. I now have the *choice* of whether or not I want to stay with him on a climb (unless he is trying to rip legs off), where as it used to be a non-issue: Beth will fall off the back and James will play on his phone and wait for her at the top.

Run- 13.1 miles- 1hr 38 minutes (7:29 pace)- average heart rate- 141. This is where it gets good (to me)! I got home and had a lovely message from Katya that she would meet me for my last long run-off-the-bike. My text response was some type of high school gush involving, "OMG I love you! BFF!" I got my butt out the door and brought my Garmin to make sure I kept my heart rate in check (because it was to be nothing fancy, just a jog). I started jogging easy and clicking off the miles running down to meet K. When Garmin beeped, I would peek at the mile splits, surpised to see 7:20s & 7:30s because it felt like I was running 8 minute pace. I checked my heart rate-high 130s....perfect! I figured I'd bank these miles while I could, and probably "feel it" and slow down later. Well, later never happened. I met up with Katya for the middle 7-ish miles and we chatted and chatted, just a couple crazy girls out for a "jog". I didn't tell her we were running 7:15s until I felt bad because she just did IM Wisconsin 2 weeks ago (and was 5th lady!!) so I offered to slow down, but she was killing it and just jogging with me and chatting so we didn't change a thing. My last 4 miles were uphill (and I even added a bonus hill) and my pace never slowed down. I did speed it up a bit (and my heart rate zoomed up a bit too- oops!) at the end (a combination of wanting to see what I had left in the tank and also turning on my ipod and just generally being in the zone).Turns out there was plenty left in the tank.

Yeah, today was a page in my book, and it takes a book of workouts to add up to Race Day Magic. (it also takes a smart smart taper). I don't like to "read" too much into any one day. It doesn't tell me anything about what pace I may run in Kona or how many minutes I can shave off my bike time, but it does tell me that I'm at a place where I can finally say that I'm pretty fit for me. And for me, fit=fun. And for now, that's what its all about. Today I had FUN riding my bike with my husband and sticking like glue to his wheel up Old 395. I had fun jogging a tempo-ish t-run and am pretty lucky that I had a super fit friend to do it with. I had fun realizing that this year's steady swim-all-day pace is last years "gasping for air" pace.

Triathlon is fun. Blogging about it is also fun. Because you can see where you've come from, where you are, and dream about where you may go.

Vegas 70.3 Worlds Race & Nutrition Report

2011-09-19T17:56:00.000-07:00

I am so lame this took me over a week.
Where was I...Oh yes, race morning at T1 waiting to GO!
By the time we lined up in the corrals, I still had about 45 minutes to chill. I hadn't eaten much breakfast (packet of oatmeal & a bit of banana & my MRM Reload), so I had some snacks- a big coconut water & a rice krispie treat. yes, the kind in the blue foil package. they are my go to ride snack as of late. Seriously, they've got to have a glycemic index of like 1,000 seeing as how they are basically puffed rice & sugar. mmm...I also had a little bottle with some First Endurance Pre-Race mixed in.

Anyhow, after getting herded into line way too early, I hung out with Brandy in the corral. She is always mellow and fun and she is basically all-around awesome. No nerves!

SWIM- 1.2 miles - 32:something
My wave was allowed to hop in Lake Las Vegas about 10 minutes prior to the start. I jumped on the front line (no, I'm not a fast swimmer, but I try to get out fast and hop on to some feet that swim over me). Off we went!

Unlike Timberman where I was part of the front pack, I quickly saw the front pack swim away....Oh yes, that's right, this is the World Championships. I swam with a small pack of 3-4 girls most of the way and thought I was swimming well. It felt hard-ish and I caught many glimpses of Hailey's goggles, and since she's been swimming 1 or 2 minutes faster than me all year, I thought I was going good. Came out of the water in 32 minutes...eh...not so good.. but hey, non wetsuit, fresh water, blah blah.. yeah, I just need to get better at swimming.

T1: 3:15
The run to T1 was a race in itself, with about a quarter mile run around the lake before you even entered the changing tent. I tried to move quickly and went to grab my bike and run it up a long hill to the mount line. Because of the long hill, I left my shoes clipped in to my pedals and ran barefoot (first time!)...Looks like I need a little practice here..Sarah P. came out of transition at the same time as me and I couldn't even see the back of her by the time I finally got my feet in my shoes. Note to self: practice!

Sarah P. & I running out of T1 before she gave me a "lesson" on getting your bike shoes on

The Bike: 56 miles- 2:43
I knew what to expect for the bike course and my plan was to ride pretty hard, but a little tiny bit easier than Timberman where I smashed myself. With 3600 feet of climbing, I knew the course would do a number on my legs no matter what and I wanted to not totally embarrass myself on the run (the run is 3 loops within a 2 mile radius- spectators galore!) .
I rode what I felt was pretty strong and steady. I passed a few girls in my age group and traded spots with Sarah J. throughout most of the second half. Sarah P. had put a bit of time into me by the turnaround, but not much (turns out she was having an off day, but kept on truckin'...) I kept pushing and tried to let the race come to me. The bike was not hot at all (I wished it was hotter) and it was SUPER fun.. Lots of climbs and fast but not scary descents. The course is also constantly changing so there is not much time to get bored. I came into T2 still feeling good and was excited to test my legs on the run and scope out the girls running at the front of my age group.

The Run:13.1 miles: 1:30:06 (darn 6 seconds!!)
The run is basically a 3-loop figure 8 out and back from T2. 2 miles of the course are uphill and 2 miles are downhill, so you are either grinding away or flying downhill trying to body dodge the other 1500 people out there. On the first out and back, I saw Jess in her cute SOAS number and she was well ahead of me- maybe 6 minutes or so. I knew I could run strong and wouldn't be able to gauge if I stood a chance to catch her until the final lap, so I decided to just do my thing. I also knew Beth S. was probably ahead, but I didn't see her. I passed a couple of girls early on and after Kurt told me I was 5th off the bike, I thought I might be in 3rd place. Not that I'm complacent or anything, but I really thought that a podium spot was a longshot here i nVegas, so this got me really excited! I wanted to catch the girls, but I also thought that if I held onto 3rd I'd be happy. I ran and ran and ran and felt pretty great the whole time. I could have run another 13 like that I think (good thing because I've got to do that in a month!) but couldn't have gone much faster either. Being out on the course was awesome. Our families were on the sideline in addition to lots of friends all over the place.

Awesome mom cheer squad!!!

Just as good was the "on course" cheering: I got to hi-five james, got many cheers from friends and had fun hooting & getting hooted at by my age group girls Hailey, Jess, Sarah and lots of others. I pushed the last mile VERY hard because I convinced myself I was going to be caught and lose 3rd, even though I had no clue where 4th was (turned out to be 5 minutes back).

finishers!

I finished the race in 4:50:22- 3rd AG, 6th Amateur, 25th overall...Jess won our age group and the amateur champion!!!!, Beth S. was 3 minutes behind Jess, and I was 2 minutes back of Beth...Although this is my first 3rd place of the season, I am very happy and proud of the race. I raced my best and can see easily where I need to improve (swim & bike, d'uh!) It was also my first 70.3 world championships and to be 3rd in that group is cool with me (for now at least). I also know that I finished the race ready for more...like KONA more! I CANNOT WAIT!

My nutrition was spot on for this race so I need to write it down as I have a tendency to totally blank when the next race pops up. Here's how it went down:

On the bike:
250 calories of Powerbar Endurance drink same as Perform but in powdered form)
150 calories of Powerbar Smoothie bars (meant to be 220 but the rest melted in my bento box)
150 calories of Rice Krispie Treat (yes, really)
150 calories of EFS Liquid shot- vanilla (approx)

Bike total= approx 700 calories (I realized after my last race that I shouldn't try to force all liquid calories since I never take liquid calories in training. I love to eat! I finally stopped fighting it, and my stomach thanked me. Happy Happy all day long!)

On the run:
1/2 packet of Powerbar Cola gel blasts
lots of coke (second half of run)

A huge thank you to all of my sponsors and supporters...James, Dirk, Dan (ART God), Bryan (Rehab United forever!), Gordon - you keep my mind, body, & bike in working order.
Thank you to MRM, an amazing local supplement company who is helping us grow. Powerbar is an amazing nutrition sponsor and I finally found what works for me. Nytro for everything AND for having bike mechanics that have to deal with me far too often and never roll their eyes (in front of me). Zoot, you've been there for me in the past and I have a feeling you'll never get rid of me. Thanks for the best compression, wetsuits, SHOES and gear a girl could ask for. As always, Betty Designs keeps me coordinated in tough/pretty style. Also, thank you Sonja for the sweet wheel hook ups...Zipp 404-808 Firecrest setup woo hoo! And not forgotten, Nuttzo is a wonderful snack and recovery fuel and super supporter. THANK YOU ALL!

Thank you also to my friends and family who make me love this life!

Post race we hit the pool for some food &drinks with the Blancos.]=

Jordan, Rich,James,Me ...Next rendezvous= Kona!

a few "snacks":)

I decied to overdress for awards...heck, we were in VEGAS and had plans to party! (ok,so I ended up crashing out but I definitely had intentions)

Hey Beth, act natural!!! Or not...

I am soooo "THAT girl"

I like this one because my arm looks skinny

One last thing...The SOAS girls got Jess a crown since she was the age group champ...and the champ has graciously put it up for grabs if any of us gets to the top step in Kona...oooh....now this is a challenge I like...It would look awfully nice with my little pink dress. Watch out Jess, we're comin' for ya! Thank you to all the 30-34 girls for inspiring me on a daily basis, motivating me to go the extra mile (literally), for being super cool in general, and for making me want to simultaneously hug you and kick yer arse all at the same time...

Oooh, Princess Jess looks evil! (But she's really the sweetest thing ever. Remember her from Oceanside? She got me back good this time!)

Vegas 70.3 World Championships- Morning Mantra

2011-09-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

Race Morning- 9/11/11

I woke up and checked twitter (d'uh!). I saw a quote retweeted from Lindsay Cotter that said...uuhhhh...grrrr...I can't find the quote! Well, pretty much it was about sunshine. And the gist was. "Don't make it your goal to outshine another. Be the ray." BE THE RAY. I loved that. Immediately I realized that the day, for me, was not about outshining. I wanted to be the ray. When all you think about is win, win, win, sometimes you forget that the shine within is what will really carry you the furthest.

I thought about that and then I also thought about the 10th anniversary of September 11th and the deep meaning it has for me and my fellow Americans. I also thought about my friendly, but fierce, competitors in the Women's 30-34 age group. A few of us have become a bit of a band (all are welcome to join the band!) after racing together all year long. We laugh, heckle a bit, smack talk some, and just enjoy meeting up and seeing our "kindred spirits" at races. I mean, we are an odd bunch! We hold down full time jobs, have a full time hobby and kind of are intense about life in general, so its nice to find people that "get your kind of crazy".

I've told each of these girls that of course, I want to be the winner on race day (d'uh!), but that it also means a lot to me to have our USA girls on the podium, however it comes about. This came about after last year's Kona when only one USA girl snuck into 5th place on the podium at the World Championships. Come on! We can do better! Now, with my band of USA girls, I hope and really believe that this year can be different. I know AT LEAST 5 of us who can motivate each other to get those wooden bowls (the coveted award for a podium finish) on October 8th.

So, there's this AND the fact that I was the recipient of some pretty poor sportsmanship earlier this year, and that kind of ish has no place in a race of women who are over thirty years old. Come on, this is not high school. Although we should wish to kick each other's respective behinds, we should also wish each other well, hope everyone brings their A game, and in the end, represent for USA at our World Championships...

And so was born my mantra, "Be the ray. Go USA!" I must have repeated this to myself 1,000 times during Sunday's race. It looks kind of stupid writing it, but I was so into it! Each time, I would picture a light shining from within myself and propelling me forward. Somehow, this race mantra also forces one to smile and drink in the incredible day unfolding around them. I felt much more aware all day long and I think some of it was my mantra.

When I snapped out of cheesy mantra mode, I realized I was still sitting in bed at 4:15 am and it was time to breakfast up and trek to T1. Breakfast was: Coffee, one packet of instant oatmeal, half a banana (b/c it was gross). I knew that wasn't enough, so I packed some snacks for transition. My wave was set to go at 7am so I knew I'd have some time once I got there...

We arrived in the darkness

T1 before dawn

Did all the stuff you need to do (pump tires, fill bottles, get nutrition together, short run, dress for the show!)

James & I got to wear the almost-releast spankin' hot Zoot SpeedZoot.

Then, it was time for business...Time to line up in the corral (forever!) and time to get serious...

Or not...But that other chick...she's serious!

Hang on for the race report. I'm lazy. Or busy. Or just a combination. This week pretty much started by waking up at 4am monday to catch the first flight to San Diego to be at my desk by 8am...i think that catching up on everything will take until the weekend at least!

Take a chance - Vegas 70.3 Pre race!

2011-09-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas, NV is a city that revolves around taking chances, beating odds, knowing when to chest your cards and knowing when to go "all-in".

We took our first chance to double-down on Thursday night back in San Diego. We were scheduled to leave San Diego Friday morning and drive out to Las Vegas with our 8 billion pounds of gear. Then, a ginormous power outage stopped EVERYTHING in the entire San Diego county and reached all the way to Mexico and Arizona. Word on the street was that it could be a long time before things were back on. My school was even cancelled for Friday! So, with a little cajoling, I convinced James to hit the road a night early. Now, James is a PLANNER. He is a "makes his list and checks it twice" kind of guy. I am a more "shove it in and see if it will zip" then "buy whatever you forgot at the expo" kind of girl. So, to throw this Type B plan into his Type A mind was a little wrench, but by 6pm we were in the car! After passing myriads of drivers stranded with no gas on the side of the highway (no fuel pumps in power outage!), we made it out of the dark Zone and headed to the bright lights of Vegas. Turns out our first gamble was a good one. We arrived by midnight and were able to sleep in a bit (okay, 7am). Extra great bonus of arriving a day early? Time to ride a bit of the bike course! James hadn't been out here yet, so I showed him the key spots. The course is pretty awesome. And James confirms that it is hard. We had a bit of tricky wind that tried to wobble me, but I am working on staying strong in the aero bars...

one of the (few) flattish sections of the course...

My pretty bike handler

After the bike ride, we showered and hit registration. Ok, I admit, I LOVE an Ironman expo and I ain't ashamed. For me, it's not about the gear they sell in the tents. I hardly walk into the tents...Instead, we just hop from friend to friend, catching up with all of the great people we have met through this sport. Ironman expos are kind of like a good kind of college reunion (without the booze & cigarettes)- and we get to do them a few times a year! This time, we were lucky to bump into the Corbin's and the Rouse's (the rouse's are ultra man studs and awesome all around people).

me, linsey corbin, & kimmie rouse

James & Jake- Zoot's finest!

Our San Diego neighbor and one of my pick for podium pro performance, Heather Jackson (Haych Jay!!)

Post expo, we hung at a family dinner. We're super stoked both James' family and my mom came out to spectate in Vegas...lucky kids!
Today was the usual pre-race running around. We went to the pre-race swim down at Lake Las Vegas- the water is 80 degrees- no wetsuits required! James & I are stoked to wear the HOT off the presses Zoot SpeedZoot. Wow. The suit is incredible.
We walked down to the swim...

Sure James, this is totally normal.

Swim venue- I love a dirty lake swim!

I spent some time scoping out the competetion...

30-40 babes. Sarah P., me, Hailey, & Jess...Hailey is sporting her sexy Kona abs already!

Speaking of competition, Ironman.com did an article handicapping the age groupers at this race and I got a little shout...Sarah P. is the favorite to win the W 30-34, but the rest of us will just have to try to beat the odds!

Next, we prepped all our gear bags and had a big brunch with Brandy and MJ. Huge fluffy omelettes all around. I hope some of MJs world champion speediness and/or wisdom rubbed off on me. I tried to play it cool, but ended up picking her brain about training and racing- couldn't resist the opportunity. I'm such a chamois sniffer :).

After that it was back to Lake Las Vegas to drop off the bicycles and gear bags...The bike paparazzi were out in full effect and all the brands were there taking bike and gear counts- totally makes you feel like you're at a World Championship event...wait, we are!

T2 from the changing tent

Team small! overlooking T1

Heading back to the hotel, we hung in the shade at the pool/bar with the family. We are LOVING out hotel- Green Valley Ranch Resort. This is definitely the place to stay if you do this race.

This place does not suck!

They even have beds by the pool for lazy and/or hobbled triathletes.

and now there is nothing left to do but chill. In the 70.3 booklet, it says that the course "will separate the very good from the very best" and I agree. No matter where the chips fall, I'm just lucky to be here!
p.s. betting on betty designs ends at midnight Vegas time tonight!

Place your bets!

2011-09-08T16:02:00.001-07:00

We're headed to VEGAS
Tomorrow for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships... And what's a race in Vegas without a little bet? Even better, a bet on some Betty! Well, I guess this is technically a giveaway- you don't have to bet anything- just guess!

Heres's the deal: guess the time differential (in mm:ss) between my swim time in Vegas and James' swim time in Vegas.
The answer must include the person you think will swim faster (Beth or James) and by how much (in mm:ss). No duplicate answers will be accepted. Closest one wins! If two guesses are equidistant (one high one low), the person who posted first wins

The giveaway is courtesy of Betty designs- all the essential accessories- signature tank, water bottle, and wrist band. And boys, don't be 'fraid to guess- I'm sure you know a lovely lady who would be a gracious recipient. Happy betting on Betty! We'll ship it free anywhere in the continental US Or Hawaii if maggs, Rachel or another friend wins :). you can pick your tank size & maybe color if Betty has it in stock.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Future is Bright

2011-09-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

Isn't it crazy how triathletes start planning next year before this one is even close to over? I feel like James and I have spent more time over the past few weeks talking about possibilities for next year than we have focusing on the races at hand. I have tried to resist this early/over planning for a while (i am an "in the moment" type of person), but have realized this is totally not feasible in a world where races sell out 364 days in advance and training for an "A" race could take 6 months. Oh the woes of being type B in a type A sport!

The very cool thing about this forward thinking, though, is that I'm already getting excited for 2012. The future is BRIGHT and so is my new cycling kit.

Kristin & I out for an afternoon spin

Thanks to betty designs, I get to "product test" some of the latest/not quite available gear to make sure the fit and color are spot on. The hot pink numbah is my favorite one yet. Yes, it's VERY pink, but also, its VERY safe, right? HELLO cars & trucks! Look at me! I'm a "safety girl" just like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I'll definitely let y'all know when this one is on the shelf! Betty has a lot of fun new designs in the works coming out pretty soon.

But, enough with forward thinking, let's get back to NOW! This coming weekend is the 70.3 World Championships (that's a half ironman in case you were wondering) in Henderson, NV and I can't wait! I feel very ready for the race, but am really keeping my eye on Ironman Hawaii on October 9th. My goal is to podium in my age group at Kona (there, I said it!) and I'm not losing sight of that. Faring well at 70.3 champs would be an excellent bonus, but I'm not going to get all in a bunch about it. I am possibly equally as excited to see friends from far & wide and have a fabulous after-part as I am to race in Vegas and I know it will be a perfect tune-up for Kona as I get BIG fitness bonuses from half ironman racing.

The training leading up to Vegas has been so good and consistent. I'm now juggling work, training, & life, so volume is down a bit. But, I'm confident that the huge base I worked up over the summer will carry me through Kona and now all there is to do is to sharpen things up a bit.

After a disappointing Vineman 70.3, I also decided it was time to "get serious". I took extra care not to "get serious" too early on in the year as I believe you can be too fit too early and I see lots of examples of this. So, "getting serious" started in the beginning of August. For me, this just means cutting out SOME of the crap in my diet and paying attention to what I eat. I don't really talk about diet so much on the blog because everyone is different and "dieting" is annoying. But for me, I know that my best racing weight is lighter than where I was in July. Somehow, by eating like a normal person (rather than a 250lb man), I lost 8 pounds in August....and just like that I was spinning up all these hills a little faster than before.

I'm lucky that I have a chef/husband that feeds me well.... Here's a sampling of what I've been eating.. (Not pictured: endless amounts of fruit, oats, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, dark chocolate & sweet potatoes- the only things I can make myself :) )

Egg + Veggie Scramble

Tonight's dinner- Grilled Ono + Wok'd veggies

Monster RKT...oh wait, that's not healthy? My motto is "what happens on the ride stays on the ride" ...kind of like Vegas

To all my friends near and far racing this weekend at 70.3 World Champs, Rev 3 Cedar Point, and Ironman Wisconsin, :

Stolen and re-worked quotable from the lovely champion MBK

Timberman 70.3 Race(the bike) Report

2011-08-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Timberman 70.3 has been on my race calendar ever since my mom signed up for it (her first half ironman!) early in the year. It's not perfect timing with Vegas and Kona coming up, but how could I say no to a mother-daughter race?

PRE RACE
I flew into New Hampshire LATE thursday night and went to my mom's lake cabin. The trip was uneventful except for the fact that they lost my bike! Grrrrr.... I tried not to freak out and was honestly so tired that I just rolled with it and trusted it would arrive before Sunday. Friday I woke up, ate some tasty breakfast and went for a short swim from mom's porch.

nice spot to wake up with a cup of coffee!

Local wild (tiny!) blueberries with greek yogurt (mom stocked all my faves!)

Sunrise

After breakfast (and of course a mani/pedi) we headed to Gilford, NH on Lake Winnepesauke...I love this part of the country and it reminds me of summers at overnight camp in New Hampshire growing up. The smell of pine needles, cool mornings, clear crisp lake water. LOVE

The swim venue. Look how clear (& calm!) the water is. No sharky pacific ocean, Yay!

We did all the usual pre-race stuff and I feel like I spent the most time doing 2 things 1) Assembling my bike once it finally arrived a day later..first time ever! Thankfully, Gordon from Velo Hangar in Cali had given me a comprehensive bike building and unbuilding lesson before I left. I owe you bigtime Gordon!

Gordon admires his work (bike's in the box!)

I built it! Except hmmm...where does this go?

Race ready bike thanks to NYTRO, the Blaze hydrotrail & Champion Factory

and 2) Trying to calm Mom's pre-race nerves. Wow. She was nervous. Like really nervous. It started making me nervous (for her not me). She kept talking about not making the cutoffs and all kinds of stuff. I knew she'd be fine, but I know she was really worried, especially about the bike.

We went to bike check in...then later found out we could take our bikes out and ride 'em down race morning. So we went back to bike check in and checked out!

Mom & her ride

checking in...or out...

OK, now...the RACE!
Race morning, we cruised our bikes the 3 miles from our Inn to transition.

Lookin' nervous, Mom!

We had plenty of time...to snap photos of course

Matching Nytro kits thanks to Betty Designs!

And saddles of course. Like mother like daughter...

SWIM: 1.2 miles- 29:37
the gun for my wave of 120+ women 30-34 went off and all of a sudden after 20 head-down hard strokes, I was on the front with one other girl. I was swimmying HARD, but felt like I could stay on this girl's feet. About halfway to the first buoy (maybe 300 meters), i looked back and saw one girl on my feet and then...crickets... HUH? OH NO!!! I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE! HOW DID I GET IN THE LEAD PACK? (I think my super speedy Zoot Prophet was working its magic) I started freaking out a bit. Was I swimming too hard? No. So I kept the free ride around buoy #1. Eventually the girl got away about 1/3 of the way through as we started swimming through lots of slower swimmers from earlier waves, but my othe rfriend was still there (the one who had been on my feet for a minute) and she moved up and towed me along until the final turn buoy. With 500 to go, I took the lead and swam 'er in. I thought I must have laid down an epic swim time to be in the first pack, but, no. 29:37. Still, a PR for me, and a bit faster than half of the pro women. So, I was pleased.

BIKE- 56 miles- 2:33- 21.8 avg mph
The night before the race I tweeted, "I'm so excited for my bike race! I will race the bike, I will race the bike"
You know that tweeting (and blogging) is like The Secret (oft referenced by Rachel Ross).. If you say it will happen. Well, it will!

RACING the bike

So I went all in on the bike. What does "all in" mean? It means that when others are spinning up a hill, I'm out of the saddle pushing a huge gear and so cross eyed that I can only keep one eye open. Kind of like a cycling pirate. ARRRGH! Matey, I was out for a sub 2:40 bike split! I am sick of sucking on the bike. I didn't care what kind of run showed up afterwards and honestly never once even thought about the run. I was in a bike race! I actually was 2nd in the bike race as Sarah P. in my age group came flying by and although I tried to go with her, wasn't gonna happen (note: she biked 30 seconds slower than Chrissie Wellington! ). She is an awesome cyclist and makes it look easy..Timberman was quite hilly with 2600 or so feet of climbing.. Nothing intense hilly, just constant. And lucky for me, not too technical! I loved the bike course.

RUN- 13.1 miles- 1:34

Empty run course the day before the race

I had faith that I could still run well no matter how much I trashed my legs on the bike. Well, I guess faith only gets you so far, eh? I think I was bonking from mile one. I just felt find of wonky and weak. At mile 2 or so, I tried to take a caffeinated gel and I thought I had opened just a tiny sliver in the packaging. So, I squeezed the gel really hard and the entire thing exploded down my throat. Next, the entire thing (plus some other junk) came right back up! Beautiful! Timberman is an out and back 2-loop run course. My state of affairs can be summed up by telling you that remember VERY little from miles 3 to 6. So little that when I ran the loop the 2nd time, it was like running it the first time! One thing I do remember is seeing Sarah P., and time checking...she was 2 minutes ahead of me. I was kind of in damage control and realized the girl behind me probably wouldn't catch up unless I slowed down A LOT. I kept trekking and the entire run course seemed very hilly to me (its not that hilly, there are just sneaky hills that add up and getcha in the heat) and I was pretty stoked to see the finish line (and throw up the entire contents of my stomach..nearly identical to Oceanside 70.3. side note: I'm thinking my stomach may not process calories well above a certain heart rate. At Ironman pace, I can eat all day, but going shorter and harder is proving a tough challenge for me!)

I saw Sarah P. after the finish and went to congratulate her as she simultaneously told me that she had to drop out at mile 8 due to a niggle that she doesn't want to become anything bigger. I think it was a smart move with Vegas & Kona ahead, but I know it's hard to drop when you're in the lead- and let me tell you, I wasn't pulling any rabbits out of my arse in that run and she likely would have kept her lead until the finish. Anywho, it was great to meet Sarah P. as we have "seen" eachother race all year in results, but had never competed together....and damn, she is one tough competitor and of course she is nice too, so you can't hate her :)
Results
Total : 4:40:35, 1st Amateur, 1st 30-34, 7th overall

Looking back over the race, YES, I blew up on the run (for me), but I couldn't be more pleased and excited about my race (well, would have been nice to break 4:40, but another day). My number one and only goal was to RACE THE BIKE and I freaking did it! My bike split was similar to the professional women overall and just six minutes slower that Chrissie W. I also swam under 30 minutes in what seemed to be a slow swim overall. Ok, the run sucked! But, hey, live and learn. Now I have the confidence that at some point, some point soon, it will all come together.

Ok, back to the finish. I ate a bit and then rinsed off in the lake and took a wet wipe shower in a secret bathroom.

Shower

I hung out with Laura

Laura & Me

and then cruised to the finish to wait for MY MOM!!! I had my phone so I was checking her splits and I could see she was on track to finish well! Mom crossed the line in 7.5 hours looking good and I was very proud of her! It's not easy to take on half ironmans as a new hobby when you are 60 years old! She set a goal and accomplished it. GO MOM!

Mom finishes with a fist pump!

The only stinky part was that a huge storm was rolling in, so as soon as mom crossed, the race organizers made everyone evacuate. Awards were cancelled (and mom was 4th in her age group!) and she didn't even get to go into the athlete tent and enjoy the post race buffet. Total bummer.

We made up for it later with a delicious lobster & corn on the cob extravaganza.

Perfect Ending!

Thanks to all of the people who help me race fast. My support crew is too good to be true and James, Dirk, Bryan, Dan and many others make it impossible for me to fail. Thanks also to the Champion Factory for speedy accessories, advice, and for telling me to suck it up on the bike. I've got a pretty great crew of wise men (and some women who start with K :).

Thank you to Nytro Women , Zoot Sports (fastest westsuit and NO blisters in my Ultra RACE shoes!) , Betty Designs and Beaker Concepts (love the Blaze)!
Dan the A.R.T. man works out the creaks and niggles before they every become creaks and niggles. Thank you to Bryan and the Rehab United Sports Performance crew for the strength and the core to keep good form to the finish. Lastly to Nuttzo and Powerbar for keepin' me fueled.
And thanks to MOM for sponsoring me in New Hampsha!

Back to bags

2011-08-23T08:32:00.001-07:00

Summer as I know it is over and I headed back to work this morning. (i'm a school psychologist in case you're new 'round here). I didn't miss the 5am alarm, and I really didn't miss being the bag lady.
Clothes & gear for swim, work, run. Computer, lunch, snacks...

I did, however, miss my coworkers and our "kids" and the feeling that I'm doing "something" besides putting myself into a workout coma.

I know you were stopping here for a race report from Timberman 70.3... I'll have it up once I can find some non-hideous race photos.
For now, back to the magic that is the first day of school!

Earning Beauty Sleep

2011-08-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

We've been smashing it over here. Since Vineman 70.3, I have put in the most solid block of training I can remember. I don't want to speak too soon, but its almost as if last years cycling miles are FINALLY catching up with me. I had a series of rides where I surprised even myself in my ability to not get dropped. Topping the cycling miles off with some speedy running and consistent swimming has nearly resulted in....

My first (of three) treadmills last Thursday

Like that? I broke the treadmill! I know they shut down at a certain pace (its the YMCA, people) if you go "too fast" for more than 30 seconds, but I had forgotten which pace. Turns out its about 5:40/mi .

After all that system overload, James and I were ready for a recovery week. Lucky for me, it's also a taper week. The big news around here is not that I'm racing Timberman 70.3 in New Hampshire this weekend (but I am). The big news is that my sixty year old mother is racing her very first half ironman at Timberman 70.3 . Can you believe it? My mom, Robin, lives across the country, but turns out this blog has been good for at least one thing..About a year ago she decided to train for her first triathlon (after reading all about how fun it is on this here internet space) and now she's totally hooked. Can't wait to report on Mom's big race!

So, we've been going big on recovery here this week. James is very serious about sleeping. And he very seriously has no idea I took this picture.

Beauty Sleep.

We've also been eating well...I love BEETS!

another Whole Paycheck salad

And taking time to remember the importance of a life. Our friend JT was part of Navy Seal Team 6 and his journey ended two weeks ago in Afghanistan. 300 local athletes and friends gathered for a beautiful evening run in remembrance. Read more about it here. We miss you, JT! Thank you for giving your life for us.

Beginning the run/walk

I have one last tougher workout this morning involving a ride with people I usually can't keep up with. But guess what? I will not get dropped. That is all. I will not get dropped. (repeat as necessary)

In and around town...IM 70.3 World Championships

2011-08-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for a run-down of my opinions on the Las Vegas 70.3 World Championships course, it's here. A couple of things I forgot to mention (or didn't stress enough): 1) The winds will decide how hard the course is. Our first day riding, it was cake. The second day riding, kind of CRAZY! We had a headwind heading all the way out to the turn around at mile 18, a tailwind for the first 15 miles back towards town, and then around 11am, the winds shifted direction so we got another headwind. It seemed very unpredictable. 2) I said it's not crazy hilly, but am thinking that if you are from Florida and you come to the race, you may want to punch me in the face. So, just a reminder, that its not as hilly or steep as southern California, but folks from other regions may be plenty "impressed" by the hills.

Anyway, back to the important stuff. As we know, what happens around the race is just as important as the race itself..Here's my take on where to stay, eat, and play.

STAY
First off, you need to decide where to stay which is kind of tricky as T1/start and T2/finish are 15 miles apart. After some deliberation, for the race, we chose the T2/finish area. (However, for training camp, T1/start by Lake Las Vegas was the way to go for us because of really nice dirt cheap condos). For the race, we will be staying at Green Valley Ranch Resort and Casino. For me, this was perfect because we got a room before they jacked up the prices. AND, since you need to check in your bike the day before the race, grabbing a shuttle or ride or taxi to the start on race morning shouldn't be that bad. Besides, the GVRR is right around the corner from Whole Foods. No further explanation required

EAT
For most of our pre-race meals, we will be eating at Whole Foods in Henderson, NV. This is a BIG whole foods, with lots of samples. We did our share of sampling when we ran in there all hangry after some mean workouts.

The traveling athlete's kitchen :)

We also stumbled upon (okay, yelped) the best frozen yogurt place of all time. Josie's frozen yogurt uses only pure crystalline fructose (which they say is way better than HFCS but I have no idea why) but they also have sugar free versions sweetened with Stevia and even one with added L-Carnitine...MOST importantly, all of the flavors, even sugar free, were delicious. Totally hit the spot after a 19-mile run and float swim.

YUM

Brandy approves!

Cappucino & berries...it's practically health food. ha.

BIKE
If you need anything bike-related, go to The Bike Shop at 2578 Wigwam Pkwy. We walked in there and the owner (Terry) helped us out with a quickness and was super friendly and helpful. We will definitely return to get any last minute things we need. They also have a great selection of nutrition, magazines and all the other tri junk you may need.

SWIM

We did not swim in Lake Las Vegas and I'm not sure if you're allowed to before the race. If you want to get in a swim while you're there- the Henderson Multigenerational center (basically at T2) has a 50-meter pool (divided into lots of 25yd lanes) and it is only $2 to lap swim! Total deal. Even if the water is like 85 degrees. Whoa. It was steamy in there, but still, outdoors, clean, and only $2!

That's all I've got for now. If you know the area, please feel free to post your recommendations in the comments! It's always nice to have some tried and tested choices and options.

Ironman Vegas 70.3 World Championships RECON report

2011-08-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

Hello from Encinitas, CA! We got back from Vegas last night and it's sure nice to be in the "cool" weather here. Totally makes me appreciate what we got going on in so cal. I spent the past few days on a Super Secret No Boys Allowed Vegas Training Camp (SSNBATC). ALSO known as the TT vacation (talk & train!). It's kind of like a messed up version of my grandma's Stitch & Bitch sewing club. I'll save the girly details for Las Vegas post #2 and just lay out some good old scouting information for you. Ok, so I may be giving the competition a sneak peak into the race, but you know, I DO have this blog to share information and hope that someone somewhere will actually in some way be helped or inspired by something here...so I'm telling it all :). Even though I still want to kick your ass.

View from our condo of Lake Las Vegas

Anyhow, the main mission in the traincation was to ~~get away from our husbands~~ properly scout the Las Vegas 70.3 World Championships bike and run course. I am still not sure how they call it "Las Vegas" when the course takes place entirely in and just outside of Henderson, NV.

THE BIKE- 56 miles

Bike course map

After swimming in Lake Las Vegas (which is about 12 miles from the T2/finish in downtown Henderson, NV), you hop on your bike and ride out of Lake Las Vegas to the left towards "nowhere". Nowhere is actually Lake Mead National Recreation Area and it is very very beautiful. If you've never been, you will be pleasantly stoked!

Check out the pretty view! me, nooka, brandy, julie, jen

Inside the lake mead park (note: if you come to train- bring $5. you need to pay for a one-week pass to enter the park), hang a left on Northshore Drive, which takes you around the North Shore of Lake Mead. Let's talk road conditions.They are VERY good! They are not perfect freshly paved good, but they still rank far and away above San Diego, Tucson, Vineman, etc. Not quite Queen K smooth, but pretty close! Next, the terrain. Ok, was anyone else picturing steep climbs and a "gnarly" course? I must say, we had a little bit of the "that's it?" talk after day 1. ALL of the climbs are under 3 minutes and none of them are steep at all. You could potentially ride the whole course in the aero bars, but will most like come out on the second half of most climbs. If you've ridden in Kona from Waikoloa ( on Honu 70.3 & IM course) to Kawaihae, they are kind of like that. Lots of longer rollers. Nothing super short & punchy or steep.

Somewhere in the first half of the course, heading out Northshore road

Same area, one of the climbs...you see they have those annoying rumble strips near the white line

Julie and I climbing...or are we?

Ok, so you do pretty much and out and back in the park, turning at mile 18. When you get back near Lake Las Vegas around mile 38, you start winding through suburban city streets until T2. This looks like the "hilliest" part of the course on an elevation profile, but in actuality is just a heck of a lot of false uphill/ low low low grade climbing to the finish. Nothing hard, but most certainly nothing fast. Don't let your spirits fall if you are creeping along in this section. Everyone is i n the same boat. The good news is, there is nothing to make you do anything stupid and totally trash your legs. Overall, I loved the bike course. It is a great one for me because there is a lot of climbing and descending, but it is nothing very technical or steep. Strength, not skills, seem to prevail and I love this compared to something like vineman where I was a chicken and an idiot when it comes to shifting, cornering, and descending. Drafting should be very minimal because of the constant up/down nature of the course in the park.

THE RUN- 13.1 miles

Ready to Run! Me, Julie, Jen (all Zoot fans!) . I ran 19 miles on that darn course. I am ready!

The run is hard to describe, because I'm not 100% sure we even got it right, but I think we got pretty close. You start at T2 which is either on the grass or in a parking lot, we couldn't tell. from there, you do a two-mile out and back along Paseo Verde parkway. There is a nice asphalt pedestrian path that I think will serve as the "back" portion of the out and back (thinking you run "out" on the actual street).

Up Paseo Verde Parkway. 9am. You can barely tell they're running up

When we ran, there were short trees that provided shade, but most of the shade was gone by 11am. The gist of mile one is you start flat and then run downhill (low grade, mellow). Then you turn around and run uphill back towards T2. Near T2, you hang a left and run UP Green Valley Parkway towards Horizon Ridge Parkway.

Green Valley Parkway. Jen's unning up, you can't even tell it's UP from the picture! Hoping they use the street not the sidewalk

This section is a grinding, low grade climb all the way to the turn around (about a mile up), and then you run back down towards T2 on the same road. So it's Like an "L" and T2 is in the corner of the L. Then repeat this 4+ mile course 2 more times to total 3 laps. after the first lap, you basically are running 2 miles uphill and then two miles downhill. There are NO steep hills (that we could find). Just grinds. If you've don't IM St. George, the Green Hills Parkway section is just like diagonal street running out of st. george. I experienced about a 1 minute per mile difference running "up" and running down. Meaning, if you race at say 8-minute pace, you may run 9 minutes on the uphill mile and 7 minutes on the downhill mile. Although the course is repetitive and may get crowded, I actually loved it. Steep is not my specialty, but I can grind away. AND, I was happy to find that unless they use the sidewalks (hope not! they are very narrow!), we are likely running most of the way on asphalt, which is much more forgiving than concrete...

So, that's the recon...I've got the FUN post in the works about the trip, places for triathletes to go in Henderson, NV when you are there for the race, so let me know if you have any more course or other Vegas 70.3 questions I might be able to answer!

LOVEly August

2011-08-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

August has started out pretty darn perfectly. Last week I put together another very solid week of swim bike run including a nice Fri-Sunday block of 240 miles of riding (with some runs and swims)...I had the lovely Miss Katya Meyers as a partner-in-pain for the entire weekend, which was extra special as it was her birthday!

It was really a four-sport weekend as we did a lot of SWIM-BIKE-RUN-PARTY! Friday night was Katya's b-day party and Saturday night we attended Sonja and Blaize's unreal and so freaking beautiful hilltop wedding. It was great to see their love shine through all night long- they were glowing and so were all the people they brought together.

Despite spending 30 or so hours with Katya, there is no photo evidence...but we do have a couple from the wedding...

Of course had my compression shorts on under my dress. After all, the bride is our local Zoot sales rep. Represeting! (Well, and had a 7 hour training day pre-wedding)

Kristin & I. Check the view!

husband & me with an odd shower on my face.

Coolest party favors ever- Pint glasses with a tandem bike and inscription "better together"... Also had keg of IPA on tap.

The insert/placecard (name on other side) inside the pint glass... Why didn't we think of this. So cool!

That's all for now. Big updates this week! I am currently in ~~the sauna~~ Las Vegas for a 3-day training/scouting trip for the upcoming 70.3 World Championships on September 11. We have been scouting the course, swimming in bathwater, eating at Whole Foods and drinking wine and talking talking talking. Not your typical vegas vaycay, but we're loving it! More tomorrow!

Wheels and Heels.

2011-08-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I noticed a trend from Dirk's athletes...Many were tweeting and blogging "biggest. week. ever". Mine wasn't my biggest ever (since I've done some gnarly 35 hour crash weeks during school vacations) but it was definitely top 5. The good news is that this week I am feeling pretty great. I am not smashed as I used to be had I put in a 30 hour week and actually am feeling fitness coming along. My run paces are not necessarily faster, but they're feeling easier, and I'm throwing in some solid (but not mind blowing) rides on the bike. I swam 10 days in a row and am taking a break today to write this blog, attend a work meeting, and remind myself its okay to rest. BUT, I must say, that the more I swim, the better I swim. The 1:30 lane feels easy to me now, where even a couple months ago I was struggling to hang on. I've been leading some and may even try to lead an entire (4000yd) session. GASP! So, progress. Good! Woo hoo!

Training progress is easier when you can promise yourself a one-hour nap in return for nailing the last 3000 meter running interval. Proof I cashed in! (Yes, I watch tv in bed. tsk tsk!)

Last weekend was an intricate balance between training and social life...two very important things! Over the weekend we managed to have a dinner party with friends, attend an engagement party, and attend a baby shower while riding almost 200 miles, running 26, and swimming 5 miles in the Friday to Sunday time span.

baby onesie for the baby shower! (I found these at cafepress.com) Going green at an early age.

My other contributions to the baby wardrobe. Yes, the parents-to-be are cyclists , i am not that crazy to think they care about my hobby

San Diego boys at the engagement party. plaid shirt, check. flip flops, check. spikey hair, check!

8 hours of swim bike run straight into my favorite (vintage!) marc jacobs 3 inch heels for the party. I say vintage because I actually bought them (new) over 10 years ago and still wear them. One of my best cost-per-use purcahses of all time.

Sonoma Sip 'N Cycle: Days 5-8

2011-08-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

Ack! I'm falling behind! My first week of Kona training has left me brain (and leg) dead.

Where was I? Oh yes. Big ~~Wines~~ Rides & Big Reds. After easing back into things the first part of the week, we kicked it up a notch in the cycling department. James wanted to ride the hills out to Bodega Bay (part of Levi's favorite loop apparently) and I wanted to explore The Geysers, a remote road, so we did both!

Wednesday
RIDE
The Geysers Loop- 54 slow miles from Healsdburg, about 4000 ft of climbing.
This ride was incredible. After an easy ride to Cloverdale, you head onto Geysers road, a 20 mile tiny tiny road that is even gravel in some sections (not too long). The going is not fast, but it's beautiful. Climb climb climb, then take a right and practically fall off your bike in the steepness up to Geyser peak. I think I hit my all time max HR on that section. The descent is totally worth it though. Bring water there are NO stores! Once you are down from Geysers, you can stop at Jimtown store to refuel...LOVED this ride, but bring a buddy- not super safe all alone.

Geysers loop

That snake-y road was the final little climb...nothing compared to what we climbed to get to the spot I took the picture.

James at the Jimtown store on the way home from Geysers..

Post -ride, we did a quick t-run and then headed to the Russian River for a mile swim. The water was cool and relaxing, but the beach was dirt, not sand. James wasn't a fan of dirt beach.

SIP

We did an amazing tasting at Williamson Winery on Healdsburg Square... Wine & little bites pairings! So good we even bought the $30 truffle salt they put on some piece of cheese

EAT
Possibly our best meal of the week was dinner at Ravenous Cafe...Outdoor seating, good local food, and of course a great wine list...

Glass of white at Ravenous. Light out until almost 9 pm!

Handwritten menu

Salmon at Ravenous

Thursday

CYCLE- 77 miles/5 hours- more hills!

Thursday was the ride James had been waiting for.. cycling out to Bodega Bay via Coleman Valley Road (part of the Tour of California) and then back up the 1 to Joy Road (where there is no Joy because it is a steep steep steep ass climb). From there, we cruised back through the Redwoods and Guernville. The ride was pretty incredible. Sunny 80's and 90's when we started and then crazy foggy and 50's along the coast- it was pretty surreal. Coleman Valley Road is incredible- I felt like I was in the moors in England or something - hard to describe- just go and ride it!

"Levi's loop" from Healdsburg

On Coleman Valley, looking down towards the fog we were going to descend into

James.

Post ride, James wanted to hit Bear Republic Brewing one last time and I obliged. He loves beer. And well, he did chauffeur me around by bike all week...

James & his Cafe Racer XV

A Big Racer 5. Recovery?

Our wine country vacation was over, but we ended up with a special detour on the way home! Dr. G (my dad) was at a conference in Santa Barbara, so we did a drive by for, you guessed it, more riding & eating.

View from the Santa Barbara digs....

Bad iphone picture of Dad & James

The visit with Dad was the perfect topper for our trip. We had a fantastic meal at Jane , and then a nice 60 mile ride before the final (miserable!) ride home through LA.
Now, I'm back to "reality" in San Diego...which is...more riding, sunshine, and eating... (okay swimming & running too)...3 weeks left of summer vacation and then it's back to school!

Sip 'N Cycle- Sonoma County: Days 1-4

2011-07-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

ROAD TRIP!

Don't forget to elevate in the Zoot compression knickers!

Sip 'N Cycle Days 1 to 4

Our trip to Northern California was one part race, six parts super cycle vacation! Seriously, outside of maybe Italy or France, this is a dream vacation for a cycling duo. James and I made this trip a Christmas/Birthday gift to each other. We're all about the "experience" gifts rather than "things" (unless those "things" are carbon fiber, right?)

Home base was a quaint 1 bedroom cottage 5 blocks from Healdsburg town square. Our location was money! Not the best for the race, but for everything else, it could not have possibly been better... Amazing riding, eating and exploring right out the front door. Only, no Versus, so we had to watch the Tour de France on the laptop.

The Wattage Cottage (I found it here on VRBO)

Tour watching (squinting). Andy's arms looked like pieces of yarn on our "big scree"

The first couple of days we did things to get ready for and race Vineman 70.3. But afterwards our days were basically this: Coffee, Tour de France, 3 to 5 hour bike ride, explore the town, hit a Winery or 2 for a tasting, eat an amazing dinner. Sleep. Repeat! We ended up riding our bikes every day we were in Healdsburg, so I'm doing a little day-by-day to a) remember it and b) give you some ideas in case you ever make Vineman your own stay-n-traincation post race. We also did a little (very little) running & swimming, but I'm not including those...Basically, if you ever want to do a trip like this, I am planning it out for you!

Day 1: Warm It Up!

Cycle

(20 miles) : Just a little out and back from Healdsburg town center to Chalk Hill road. Descend into the Alexander Valley and turn around.

The quickie

This is just your warm up for the week to come. Spin out the legs, open 'em up a bit. For us, we also made sure our race bikes were ready to go for Vineman 70.3. Nothin' crazy- don't want to leave your race in the vineyard the day before!

Rolling through the first of thousands of Vineyards we'd see over the week

Passing by Soda Rock Winery

Eat! (There was no "Sip" the night before the race)

We opted to keep it simple and picked up big salads with bbq chicken (with all kinds of deliciousness inside like roasted brussels sprouts & potatoes) from Big John's Gourmet Market. Big John's is a great spot to stock your fridge or stop in for a meal.

Plentiful & Colorful salad from Big John's Gourmet Market

Day 2
Ride
(56 miles): Race Day! So the bike ride was the Vineman 70.3 bike course. Guerneville to Windsor.
This course is fabulous, but I can't imaging actually doing this exact ride for training as it is point to point. but you could make it a nice 65-70 ish miler by starting/ending in Windsor and making River Road an out 'n back

Tearin' it up (or not) on the Vineman course

Vineman 70.3 race map

Sip and Eat
Post race we met up with a big fun crew at Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, CA. It was awesome to spend some quality time with Laura/Steve, Jordan/Rich, Brandy, Heather/Mike, Hailey/Mark, JP, Sarah, Christine, and other fun folks. Beer and pizza all around. They have James' favorite IPAs in the country so this was a must-stop. The only difficult situation was that Sunday happens to be all-day happy hour and live music (which is awesome if you have a small group!) but made it tough to get tables and hear each other.

Day 3
Ride
(30 miles): Recovery Ride- "Fitch the Bitch" (8 miles) and Dry Creek Loop (22 miles).

Ftich the bitch, Flying Goat, Dry Creek Loop

We wanted to explore the town hill- Fitch Mountain- for a nice view and possible running route. We got neither the view or the running. Fitch mountain is windy (as in turn-y not gusty), technical, poorly paved, and offers no view, just a gate, barring your entry to the top. There was quite a bit of traffic on the tiny road and also several stray animals. Proceed with caution! Still, a nice adventure. After the Fitch Mountain (just 4 miles up & 4 miles back= 8 miles) escapade, we regrouped with an americano & high protein mini ginger muffin at Flying Goat Coffee in Healdsburg.

American & twitter check at Flying Goat Coffee

From Flying goat, we headed east on Dry Creek Road. Dry Creek Road is peppered with wineries and has some traffic, but offers a nice shoulder for most of the way. The terrain is gently rolling and perfect for a recovery ride or wine tour adventure. On your right, you will pass the Dry Creek General Store, a perfect stop for a picnic lunch (we didn't. it was only a recovery ride after all). Turn left on Yoakim Brigde road after 9 miles. Yoakim has, you guessed it, a bridge! and leads you straight through the grapes to West Dry Creek Road where you hang a left. West Dry Creek is a "must ride" for anyone. It is not technical or hilly, but it is a beautiful, low-traffic, tiny, vineyard road. We had grapes to our right and left and a perfectly fake looking blue sky to our left. Ride West Dry Creek until you hit Westside road. Hang a left, and head back to reality. The Dry Creek loop is one I recommend for ANYONE. Cyclists and non cyclists alike, you'll feel like you went somewhere, but you won't be smashed. Its do-able for all. AND, you could probably stop at more than 20 wineries on the way if you were so inclined.

Sip and Eat!

Team Small

Me & Miss Fancy Pants! at Ferrari Carano

We opted to go home, shower, and then hit Ferrari Carano and Truett Hurst to meet up with Heather and Mike. Truett Hurst gets a huge double thumbs up from us. Great Zins and great winemakers, and adirondack chairs on the banks of Dry Creek.

Rose by the River at Truett-Hurst

Followed by appetizers & a cocktail at Spoonbar a hip little local hotel restaurant/bar with one of the longest and most intricate cocktail menus I've ever seen.

Spoonbar's indoor/outdoor thing they got going on

Morrocan Salad Plate at Spoonbar

And an interesting, but very tasty vegan meal at Cafe Gratitude in Healdsburg, CA

Day 4
Ride
(49.5 miles) Healdsburg- Alexander Valley Road - Route 128-Calistoga - Petrified Forest Road- Mark West Springs Rd- Old Redwood Highway

We decided on another mellow ride with a climb or two to wake us back up. The first 25 miles of this ride are nice 'n easy as you wind out of the Alexander Valley and then head up to Calistoga. There is a short warm-up climb to get the legs pumping. But watch out! As soon as you turn onto Petrified Forest Road, you are greeted with a 2-mile climb that gets a bit steep in some sections.After the climb, descend Petrified Forest road. Be careful! There was a lot more traffic on this road than I ancticipated, little or no shoulder, and when there was a shoulder, there was often gravel coating the shoulder. Also, seemed to be a lot of big trucks taking this route. It's not unrideable, but definitely use caution. Once you get back to Mark West Springs, it mellows out a bit and then the Old Redwood Highway is a straight shot back to Healdsburg.

Sip and Eat!
Bear Republic Brewery for "lunch"

James' lunch of Racer 5 IPA at Bear Republic Brew Co.

Healdsburg Farmers Market

Local blackberries at Healdsburg Farmers Market

Hop Kiln Winery for a tasting

Walking into Hop Kiln

Hawley Tasting Room (on Healdsburg Square)

Tasting at Hawley. We bought the Viognier which I loved

Dinner at Willie's Seafood

Oysters!

That was the first few days and we were just warming up. Stay tuned for part 2 of Sonoma Sip 'N Cycle: Big Rides & Big Reds :)

Vineman 70.3 Race report

2011-07-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

(WARNING! I am posting this without pictures! I am going to come back on Tuesday or Wednesay and repost once I get some fun photos. But, it's written, so why not throw it out there. Feel free to return later this week if this is far too boring without a little visual excitement.)

So many things I've been thinking about this race!

First, if you haven't done Vineman 70.3, you need to add it to the list. The swim is calm and straighforward in the Russian River. The rolling/hilly bike takes you through the backroads of wine country and the run is a challenging hilly trot through yes, another winery. The race is simply beautiful and well run.

On to my race.
The swim: 1.2 miles- 29:51 (12th AG/ 1:34/100M)
Athough I was 12th in my age group after the swim, I am very happy to report that I am now part of the sub :30 half ironman swim club! This is a big milestone for me and perhaps the biggest milestone of the day. The fastest swim in my AG (Christine!) was 26 minutes, so 3 minutes back out of the swim. Not bad for me, but I knew that some of the fast girls I know in my age group (Christine, Hailey, Beth S. & Brandy) were ahead of me and I'd need to push it on the bike.
Back to how it played out. I swam hard off the gun, but a group of girls got off ahead of me at a pace I couldn't hold. Everyone else was behind. I swam in no man's land the ENTIRE swim. I couldn't even see a purple cap after the first 500 yards and never saw one again. Looking at my age group's times, there was one other girl in the 29:00s but that's it (for 181 girls in my age group, that's nuts!) ...So no man's land for me it was. But I swam pretty hard and was super comfortable in my Zoot Prophet. I never took a break since I was alone and not drafting, I just kept going until the finish. I was smiling huge across that timing mat, thinking I just scraped by low side of :30.

T1: 2:50
I sucked a bit in T1 taking off my wetsuit, trying to brush rocks off my Zoot compression socks (I wore them in the swim, bike, & run thanks to tips from Tawnee and I actually loved it! ), and then pack my gear in the swim gear bag that they transport to T2 for you (T1 and T2 are about 15 miles apart- I love a logistical nightmare!). Anyhow, felt like some dilly dallying and a long run out of T1, but I got on the bike with no problems. (My age group also had a little detour/extra running due to non-preferred transition rack location). There is a short steep hill out of T1 that many people eat it on, and I managed to avoid anything embarrassing, so I was stoked.

The Bike: 56 miles- 2:41:21- (20.8 miles per hour, 6th or 7th AG)
The bike started off well out as we wound down River Road. I quickly noticed that starting in one of the very first waves at Vineman 70.3 rather than one of the very last waves makes it a very different race. Of course each one has its pro and cons, but I prefer the latter. I am a people person, people! I had little or no company and at times no one to even see in the distance. The bike felt lonely and I realized how the pro girls who are not stellar swimmers must feel in many of their races. It takes a tough girl to race like this! Anyhow, as the bike progressed, I felt fine, nothing went wrong, no excuses. I just didn't have that OOMPH, that push, that leg turnover pounding on the pedals. I totally felt like I was in Ironman and could have biked that pace easily for another 56 miles (looking at my power data looks like I was right. I biked over 20 watts lower than Oceanside 70.3 and similar watts to IM Texas. I also had an avg HR about 6-7 beats lower than Oceanside). I knew I wasn't blazing any new trails through Northern California. At times, I would try to pick up the effort, but it usually only lasted a minute or two and then I'd be unfocused again, staring at the vineyards and forgetting I was "racing". The bike ended uneventfully. I guess the good news from the bike is that it was in fact uneventful and I said silent "thank yous" for no mechanicals AND that my nutrition seemed to be spot on (I drank 1.5 bottles of Powerbar Perform (aaaprrox. 250 cal) and almost 1 flask of EFS Vanilla liquid shot (350 cal). I kept it simple and took in about 600 calories on the bike.

T2 2:18
nothing special or notable

The Run: 13.1 miles - 1:29:12 (6:48/mile, 1st AG)
The run starts out with a mile flat and then you climb and descend up to La Crema winery. At the winery, there is a 1.5 mile loop on dirt roads and gravel through the vines and then you go back the way you came. I headed out and felt pretty good. I saw Steph on the side of the road and she told me I was in 7th. I knew a few girls were "right there" and I made a few passes in the first mile bringing me to 4th. I knew exactly who was still ahead of me - Hailey, Christine, and Beth S.. I saw Hailey and Christine when I was finishing the bike and they were starting the run, so I knew they were a few minutes ahead, but maybe not out of reach. I didn't see Beth S. at all, so I knew she was further up the road. I settled into a nice pace (high 6:30s) and found a pacer (JOE! My hero!). Joe was clipping off miles at a tough pace for me, but one I could hold. I apologized to him in person, but I'll do it here again.

Joe, I am sorry I sound like I have asthma when I run and was breathing heavy. I am sure you thought I was going to blow up at any minute (and wished I would get off your shoulder), but that is just my regular M.O. Anyway, you were awesome.

Back to miles 2-6. Joe and I were running. Me mostly right behind him and keeping 6:30s/6:40s with the hills. I was feeling pretty good and kept reminding myself to run my race, not rush it, and hope I'd see the girls in due time. Heading into La Crema, about my mile 5.75, I saw Beth S. exiting the winery. That meant she was about 8 minutes ahead. YOWZER!!! I knew then that she was un-catchable. I was excited she was having a great race, and set my sights on the other girls in front of me and beating Tatiana who was running in a different wave. In the winery, I caught up to Christine who was having a tough time and around mile 8 or so, I think I caught up to Hailey. Both had encouraging words as always and I kept moving. I felt like we (Joe & I) were going faster, but in fact we were slowing down. (My average for the 2nd half of the run was 6:56 compared to the first half 6:40). I should have been paying attention to my Garmin, but I swear we were running faster. Guess not! I felt like I was running pretty well and hoped to break 1:30 on the hilly course. I just barely broke 1:30 with a 1:29. I never caught Beth S. (not even close, she beat me by over 6 minutes!) but ran straight to her for a hug at the finish line. I was feeling okay with my race until Tatiana crossed and I realized she had also beaten me by about 5 minutes. Damn, girls! Turnin' it up a notch! As much as I wanted to win my bet (for dinner!) with Tatiana, I was truly very stoked for her race. This was a huge breakthrough race for her, promises great things in the future, and that little one even out ran me by thirty seconds!
After catching up with friends at the finish, we waited for James, who went 4:14 and won his age group! He was the champ of the day!

My Results:
4:45, 2nd AG (of 181), 6th amateur

Thoughts...
Okay, going to try not to get too deep over here, but I am going to try to be honest. That means that although I recognize that I had a good time and a great placing and very stiff competition, I am left with many thoughts. I want to take absolutely nothing away from Tatiana and Beth S. and everyone else because they performed beautifully and were true examples of how to smash it out there in the amateur race. But, personally, I am a bit disappointed in myself. Listen, I know you can't have an "A" race all the time. I know I raced and Ironman in May, took a midseason break, a vacation 3 weeks out, and added a mega ride during race week and all that. I know. BUT, I expect myself to step up to the occasion a little better. I really was very blah on the bike and didn't bike near the top AGers who were in the mid 2:30s. I know that I CAN bike closer to that, but just didn't. Or, rather, I didn't have what it took on that day.

I know that I need to realize that you can't win them all and that everyone has an off day. I am not complaining here and I really hope it doesn't come off that way because my goal is to be honest and to NOT just brush everything off with a smile and to let whoever reads this see that I am real and real people have thoughts and self-doubts too :). For me this race was not about winning, actually.
For me, Vineman 70.3 was just about how far off I was. I am actually very very happy with my placement. I will take 2nd to a stronger athlete any day! I just wished I had been a closer second.

And, very honestly, after California 70.3 and IM Texas (1st amateur overall at both), the pro word had been floating around for next year. I felt like I might be ready to take a step and possibly race the best next year. But, this race put lots of doubts in my mind! Not only was I "off" the winners of the amateur race by 5+ minutes, but I was much further from the pros I had been nipping at in other races. I know I am pretty hard on myself, but If I want to compete with the best, I at least need to be a little better. The good thing is, I think I have it in me to push to be better. Especially for the Ironman distance. I may not ever be truly competitive at the 70.3 distance, but Ironman is my thing. I am not that fast. I just don't slow down as much as others.

Anyhow, as always, regardless of the race, the POST-RACE is always where its at! We have already spent some quality time with lots of the amazing people I have met through this sport and had an absolute blast last night. Can't wait for more adventures with my champ husband this week!

Thank you to all of my sponsors and supporters including James, our families, Coach Dirk, Nytro Women, Zoot Sports, Powerbar, MRM, Dan Selstad ART man to the stars, Rehab United, Lululemon, Nuttzo, and everyone else who makes my dreams come true, even on an off day!

Make like a grape and CRUSH it!

2011-07-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

You know, life really is TOUGH around here, so I need to get away.
exhibit A:

Moonlight Beach afternoon

You know, it's really hard to apply sunscreen absolutely perfectly AND when there are only 4 trashy magazines and 9 ladies lounging on the beach, there are bound to be some cat fights. When, oh when, will life cut me some slack? :)

Taper time is in full effect (even if it's only 3 or 4 days). In regular pre-race ritual fashion, I headed to Best Nails to get my best nails, d'uh! Tatiana is still delusional, thinking she will beat me and trying to steal my Race Day Magic secrets, so she joined me for her first EVER mani/pedi. Too bad for her wallet, she loved it. Between her new mani/pedi habit and the Encinitas Whole Foods, she's in trouble!

Pretty in Pink!

Other than that, I'm off to pack for the big week ahead. It starts with Vineman 70.3 and ends with a few extra days at a Healdsburg, CA cottage so James and I can relax, float in the Russian River, enjoy wine (& beer) country and ride bicycles.

Our little cottage- 3 blocks to Bear Republic Brew Co for James

See you next from Sonoma, CA! Vineman 70.3 is on Sunday and I'm stoked to ride and run through the Vineyards and look for a PR on that course. Also, James & I organized a post-race get-together at Russian River Brewing Company on Sunday eve post-race 'round 6pm. Come one come all! Let me know if you need details.

Carlsbad "Duathlon"- better known as hometown DNF

2011-07-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I started a race on Sunday- the Carlsbad Sprint Triathlon. The waves in the ocean were about 5-7 feet. Which is about 3 feet higher than my comfort zone..

Let me back up a bit. 2 years ago, at Solana Beach triathlon, the waves were so big (to me) that the event crossed the line from being "fun" to being "not fun". After that one, I said to myself, "no big wave/ocean starts for a while". In 2010 I signed up for and completed probably 10 triathlons. ZERO of which had ocean wave starts. I picked my battles and decided waves weren't one of them.

This year, James suggested we do Carlsbad sprint tri. It's one I've never done and it's one of the longer sprints in San Diego county (1k ocean swim, 18 mile ride, 5k run). It was one week before Vineman 70.3 and sounded like a perfect tune-up (and a way to avoid the 20kTT/5krun brick situation that Dirk always gives during taper week) . AND, it's 8 miles from home so we could ride our bikes there (very early)

Pre- 6am ready to roll!

It WAS an ocean swim, but I thought I had toughened up. Ok, let's cut to the chase. The waves were big, not huge. I started in the elite wave with like 5 girls and 100 big burly dudes.

Swim start- Me, James, Tatiana, Heather Jackson. Photo by Michellie Jones, yes the Michellie Jones

I ran out with all my might. Got pummeled by a wave and sucked back to shore 1, 2, 3 times. Then the kicker, some dude flew over "the falls' (that big breaking part of the wave) straight on top of me and I was pushed to the bottom for way too long in my opinion. I couldn't breathe and had a panic-attack esque situation going on. When I got up, fight or flight took full effect (I chose flight) and I flew straight outta that water and onto shore.

Yes, people with less swimming "skill" made it through, but I just didn't have what it took. No excuses. I got scccrrrd. I can be hard on myself, you can be hard on me, and I had one friend tell me to "eat a spoonfull of cement and harden the F up" (TRUE!!) Haha. But, well. I got over it pretty quickly. My eye is on next weekend.

So I went back to transition, cheered in all of the (tougher than me) elite women from the swim, turned in my timing chip, and then went out and did a workout. Hello! I paid for that race and needed to get a little money's worth. Kristin (who also happens to be wave-shy like me) did the same and we went out and did the bike and run course, cheering along our teammates and friends. It was actually pretty fun. Congratulations to Heather Jackson for the win and to my tough teammates and friends.

Me & Kristin making our rounds :)

When I hit the run, I ran as if I was "racing" and hit some nice paces. I'm stoked for next weekend!

After the race, we biked home

Biking home, d'uh!

and then I ran an hour on my favorite coastal trail to chill out and get over it. My first (and hopefully not recurring anytime soon) DNF. Done. Glad it was here. Moving on. And then I went to Whole Foods and got myself a nice big salad and a coconut water, then sat by the pool and had a margarita. A fine day by me even if it did include a bit of failure. James had a rough go at Carlsbad too and flatted out. Boo for the Walshes!

Today (Monday) I was supposed to recover with a swim and an easy run to start my Vineman 70.3 taper (it's this Sunday!). Somehow I ended up on a six hour ride with a bajillion feet of climbing up Mt. Laguna with Julie and Liz. Whoops. Don't do as I do. I will occasionally post smart training tips and workouts. This is not one of them. Good thing my coach, Dirk, is in Germany (he crushed Challenge Roth!) and busy doing German things so likely not reading this. So, taper starts tomorrow. Instead, I christened today, July 11, as KONA training, DAY 1.

Monday riding buddies!

Me & Liz in Descanso, halfway UP.

And it was a blast. No regrets! I will buckle down and stick to the plan for the next 3 months starting TOMORROW!

Vive July!

2011-07-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Without a doubt, my favorite time of year is the first 3 weeks of July. My father has great taste in sporting events, and I was raised on the Tour de France (and the America's cup). Now that I actually ride a bike, and have time to enjoy le Tour, I am an avid tour follower. I really like the cycling, I love the announcing, and I especially love the less-guilty feeling I have from sitting on my couch between workouts each morning to catch up on the latest stage. Somehow, watching the Tour feels less sloth-like than watching The View or Rachel Ray.

This years route....save the best for last!

For me, these few weeks are the golden time of year. Three weeks of sunshine, loads of training, Tour watching, cold watermelon, a dip in the pool after a hot run, and that overwhelming feeling of SUMMER in general. I'm becoming a Thor fan (it's the Tour de Thor!), as he's held onto Yellow all week and finished the top 10 in every stage! I'm also hoping Andy Schleck comes through big time in the mountains, and that at some point Team Radio Shack gets a break. I'd love to see Levi or Chris Horner (who writes an awesome blog after each stage) come through...

In other news, my dwindling paychecks with dwindle even faster now that Whole Foods has opened less than one mile from my front door. James and I are already happy customers...

mmm...i love a fresh white Hanes v-neck

And soon we'll be even happier (and greener) customers when we get these new townie bikes to ride there on summer nights...Flat pedals- woo! We need cruising bikes to properly enjoy our town of Encinitas. I think I can throw a basket on the back.

This Felt (maybe different colors) is a frontrunner right now...

Hope you're enjoying July as much as I am. I started today with a 4500yd masters swim, oat bran & blueberries, Tour Stage 7 (crashfest!), and now off for a coffee ride with James and our neighbors. I'll cap off the afternoon with a beach meetup with my favorite girls and a practice ocean swim for Sunday's sprint tri. The waves are big and I'm nervous. Enjoy the day- 'Tis the season!

...and we're back

2011-07-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

It was a typical Gerdes family vacation...too many similarities to the Griswolds, several last-minute decision paralysis incidents that involved driving the boat in circles, plenty of good times around the dinner table, and happy hour started every day at 3pm.

We set sail from Road Town, Tortola and hit 7 or 8 of the British Virgin Islands in one week...basically a perfect vacation (unless you are 4 months pregnant with twins a la my sister, Erica). Sailboats and pregnant people really don't mix. The boats are a bit precarious in strong wind and have multiple surfaces from which to slip, and fall. Not to mention, the constant rocking and claustrophobia must be really awesome for a nautious pregnant lady. Big props to my sister, Erica, for putting up with it all and acting like she was having fun.

3 weeks out from Vineman 70.3 is not the ideal time to take a week off my bike and go with the flow (rather than a plan) for running & swimming, but I enjoyed the recovery and even with very minimal training, my family still thinks I'm psycho for even venturing out on the islands during vacation. Truth-be-told, those hours running (slash hiking) the hillier-than-thou islands were my mini vacation from them :) . Just kidding, family, i love you!

And now.....two weeks until Vineman 70.3. Can't wait! I'm going to try to sneak in some solid training over the next week and then have a quick/short & sweet taper for the race. It may not be my best race ever since I've been cooling it off a good deal since IM Texas, but as long as I beat Tatiana, I'll be happy. Because if I do, she has to take James & I to dinner. I'm thinking French Laundry.

Proof I took a vacation:

airplane snacks...the carribean is not close to california!

Me & my acrylic big toenails. By Thursday, I hit one on a rock and it fell off.

Dad at the helm.

Ahhhh.......

Jennifer

The "kids" at The Baths on Virgin Gorda

The Baths

The Cap'n and his crew

Me and Katie

Bitter End Yacht Club

Dan & pregnant Erica

Jen & Marsha

Katie :)

on Island Time...

2011-06-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

This week has been all about doing the stuff I rarely get to do for nine months...

Sleeping in until 7.
Eating salads or shakes or something other than a microwaved sweet potato w/ cottage cheese for lunch.
Bikini (noon) masters swim.
A real solid NAP.
Magazine by the pool.
Running 16 miles at noon instead of after work.
Mani/Pedi afternoon. (Where, by the way, I got 2 acrylic big toe nails to replace my missing ones! They look so real. Seriously!)
And generally being on Island time. Stuff happens when it happens, if not...no worries, mon!

The list. goes. on. I'll stop here before you start hating me too much. One of the highlight's of the week was Tuesday's 8am date for an east county (HILLS) ride and run with Julie.

Whose ridden this road? Awesome, eh?

8am? No stoplights for 3 hours straight? Don't mind if I do. This is the life!

Although I was carefree, SOME of us had to work...Julie did a little bizness on her phone while I knocked out my first interval. This pic would be a good cell phone commercial. Great reception out there:)

Then she showed me how to apply stage makeup while riding a bicycle.

Her cycling kit is awesome, eh? Of course it's another Betty Designs number. Don't you think you deserve one? You are working all summer, slaving away, while jerks like me are flaunting their summer-o-fun right before your eyes! The nerve!
Well, if you want to browse...go to www.bettydesigns.com and if you can't resist - use the discount code bettygirlwalsh for 10% off any order.... But, since this blog post is just plain MEAN, I'm cooking up a giveaway with Kristin (better known as Betty) to redeem myself.. A tanktop, wristband, and water bottle - 3 of my fave betty items... But first I need to think of a darn contest (that is not too difficult). Next week, I am going sailing in the British Virgin Islands..Maybe whoever can guess how many Painkillers I drink on vaca? Hmmmm...nope, trying to keep it triathlon related...And you know, I'm trying to relax here. No need to strain my brain. I'll keep thinking slowly.
Off for a bike ride!

Rest, Recover, RELOAD!

2011-06-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

I've been making my way back into fit-land after the much needed post-ironman "act like a normal person" bit for 3 weeks. I'm not going to lie, it's been kind of tough. Especially on the bike. This may be partly due to the fact that in my "time off", the bike is the first to go. Now, I love a good saturday long ride, but during the week, there is not much that excites me about getting together bike gear, bottles, pumping tires, etc. for a 90 minute ride where one way will undoubtedly be straight into a headwind.

So, I'm back on the bike. And swim. And run. Dirk has us on a proper plan for Vineman 70.3, with some hard, but not too long, workouts. My first few "real" workouts back, I was SMASHED! Like, how did I do this all the time smashed?

Which brings me to my next topic. Supplements! I've never talked much about supplements on this here blog, because that would involve some planning and forethought, both of which are NOT forte's of this drivel. However, my goal is always to share what works for me in hopes that someone else will read it and see something that might help them along the way. When I got started blogging, I read triathlete blogs incessantly (still do!) to figure out just how the heck I was supposed to be doing this swim, bike, run thing. I personally think you can learn far more usable and timely information from athlete blogs than from any training text book out there. Anyhow, this post is about something that helps me be less-smashed and recover quickly after hard workouts.

So, for the past year or so, I have been supplementing with L-Glutamine and Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs) post workout. I usually only remember after hard, "that's gonna leave a mark" type workouts, but turns out I've got one of those nearly every day :). WHY? well, there is a lot of research out there (that I am not going to look up for you right now, but your google search is as good as mine, so have at it.) But, the honest "WHY" is....Because James does it and he told me to. Yup, James is the supplement man. If you have a question, ask him- he knows A LOT. I'm just a follower, and unless it tastes like crap (uh, apple cider vinegar "shots"?!?!) , I do what he recommends. I'm not sure if it works, but I can tell you one truth. In the 4 years we've been together, I have NEVER seen him sick. Once he had a stuffed up nose for one day, but that's it. And boy recovers quicker than anyone I've ever met. It gets obnoxious to hear him say, "my legs feel like a million bucks" at the beginning of every workout..Hmmmm.....maybe he's on to something.

Anyhow, last summer, we started using Reload from MRM. It's this BCAA/Glutamine/Beta-Alanine powder that you mix with water and drink right away after a workout. I love the watermelon flavor and my "reload shooter" has been a part of my post-workout routine since last July (the shooter is 2 scoops Reload, 1Tbsp L-Carnitine, 8 oz water) . A month ago, our lovely masseuse asked us what supplements we take, and I mentioned Reload. Well, lo and behold, her husband works with MRM and is a mad sports nutrition scientist (or so I picture him)! Starting this summer, we will have the MRM hook-ups and get to test out even more products ( I already use their Melatonin, Bone Maximizer, COQ10 and the things I mentioned above)...They have so much cool stuff. Can't wait!

Speaking of re-loading...We've also been reloading in our strength program at Rehab United. Bryan has us back in a strength/power phase to build some big mus-kulls for those big races (Vegas & Kona) at the end of the summer...Here's what our last workout looked like on paper... I still have trouble "reading" these!

Anyhow, it was hard....So...now that I've touched on supplements...any other topics of interest out there you'd like some anecdotal (i.e. NOT research based :) ) opinions and information on?
Did I mention that SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER and I have plently of time to get my blog on? Yahoooo!

it's all relative

2011-06-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I got to spend some quality time (27 hours of it!) with my family on the east coast. I have blogged here before about how my family is the coolest, but they really are. We're a motley crew with vastly different strengths and interests, but we get along great and LOVE our time together. Dinner conversations with the fam are NEVER dull.

The occasion was Jennifer's college graduation from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

My pretty sister! Yes, I know I will be over-wearing this dress this spring. Yes, I also know my sister and I look nothing alike...okay,technically she's my step-sister, but all sister to me.

Now that Jenny is out, my parents are finally without-child-in-college for the first time in FIFTEEN years! All four of us kids graduated from great schools and were encouraged to follow our "calling" or lack there-of. My eldest sister Erica, was the enginerd brain at Cornell. She later remembered she is the most compassionate human on the planet and went back to nursing school. Brother is the music genius who went to NYU's music recording program. I was the one who wasted several years partying too much while getting good grades & not being sure what I wanted to do at Vanderbilt (before figuring it out and spending 4 more years in grad school). Now, Jenny joins the team as our resident family artist. I'd like to give credit to us kids for making it through higher education without too much trouble, but I'm quite certain at least 50 percent credit goes to Dad & Marsha for supporting us every step of the way.

My visit to Providence, RI was short and sweet- A red eye from San Diego on Friday night, graduation and partying on Saturday, and a return flight Sunday afternoon. (After waking up early for the sketchiest run of my life. Note to self: STOP running outside unfamiliar cities by yourself! This run was such a bad decision that I actually called my sister midway so she knew my whereabouts.)

This morning (Monday), I even rallied myself awake at 5am for masters (Where I swam in the 1:25 lane the whole time!!!), a productive day at work, and a hardcore session at Rehab United post-work. This got me thinking....hmmm...two transcontinental flights and some partying are not asnearly as tough for me as a hard weekend of Ironman training. It's all relative...or maybe I'm becoming tougher. Which got me further thinking about ranking some tough things you can do on the weekend. If you were ever wondering about where Ironman training ranks on the "how much it wrecks you scale", I have an answer (or MY answers...we may agree to disagree) ...

"MENTALLY & PHYSICALLY DRAINING WEEKENDS" or "HOW MUCH THIS WEEKEND WILL WRECK YOU" (Scale of 1 to 10, ten being TOTALLY smashed)

1. Getting a manicure, walking the dog, and going on a chatty run with girlfriends
2. Saturday trip to Costco & throwing a SuperBowl Sunday party
3. Doing your taxes & running a 10-k
4. 8-hour Half Ironman training weekend
5. Bridesmaiding for a weekend at a destination 3-4 hours drive away
6. 2 transcontinental flights, minimal sleep, some beers
7. 10-hour Ironman training weekend
8. Sherpa-ing (not racing) a full Ironman
9. 15-hour Ironman training weekend
10. Moving your apartment with a friend and a U-Haul

What kinds of things do you think are tougher than Ironman training? For me, I'd also put "cleaning my house" at 8.5, but I know my allergies to house cleaning are worse than most so I left it off.