no flats

Last night i started to get my bike stuff together so I could do a ride in the morning and low and behold I had a flat front tire... That bring the count up to 5 flats in the last 2 weeks. Kyle used our last good tube to fix it so I had no back up. This morning I did not feel like pushing my luck so instead of going for the ride I went into work early - so that I could leave early and grab a couple of tubes as backup on my way home then ride. the plan worked perfect except that to avoid the nasty new surface on part of east lake samm I decided to ride on the sammamaish trail which was rather crowed at 5pm - rather than working on my aero position it was more about bike handling and avoiding collisions with people.
My left leg was still a bit tight before I started and it felt more tighter for about 10 miles and finally felt like it loosened up or at least I did not notice it anymore. I got off the trail almost as soon as I got on it because it was so crowded and just kind of made up a route as I went. I'm not sure what i was thinking but I decided to climb the steepest of hills to choose from to get back home - 24th - which has a very steep section which took me fully anaerobic but I made it to the top with out stopping or anything like that. Once to the top I just spun and caught my breath which seemed to take forever and headed home.
Once I got off my bike my left calf started hurting more even when just walking around.. I stretched, massaged, iced and repeated - none the less it still hurts which will put me on the elliptical/efx tomorrow morning vs running. I will continue massaging/icing and hopefully will get it loosened up before the weekend. I'm optimistic - if nothing else I just need to make it through this last big push and then I have 2 weeks to get it sorted out with lots of massages already on the books.

yawn

Friday night I did a nice easy ride around lake sammamish sort of with Kyle and Bri but I did my own thing. I knew I had a long run the next morning and I did not want my legs to be tired so I just cruised along at my own pace. There is some new "pavement" stuff on the east side of the lake that stuck to my tires and it sounded like a flat tire.. then once I got past there I actually got a flat tire - a wire thing punctured my rear tire. I really hope that I'm just getting them out of the way right now. The rest of the ride was very uneventful. Total mileage was 27.5 in 1:31.

On Saturday morning Kyle and I met up with Col and Bryan to do a long run from the McClellan Butte trail to Hyak via the Iron Horse trail plus 2 miles in the Snoqualmie tunnel - it was a point to point run so we left a car at each end. I was planning on running 14 miles and everyone else was going for 16 so Col and I ran up the trail part 5 min or so ahead of the guys since it was fairly technical single track then Col waited for them and they ran out a bit to add mile on to the start while I just started heading up on my way. From where we started on the Iron Horse trail it is ALL uphill to Hyak on sort of gravelly rough old railroad grade. It was gradual so it just felt slow and hard. I noticed mile markers on the side of the trail which helped keep me motivated even though my pace was over 10 min a mile.
My stomach was a bit upset for the first 5 miles or so but I kept eating, drinking and taking salt and otherwise felt good. It was around mile 7ish that my left leg started to get kind of tight so I would stop for a moment and massage it to loosen it up a bit then keep going and so on - it slowed me down a little bit but I was able to keep running and keep the pain manageable. Kyle and Col passed me about 2 miles before the tunnel - I ran with Kyle to try and point out the mile markers for him but finally gave up and went back to my 10 min pace.
It was around mile 10 that I reached the Snoqualmie tunnel - by now my leg was starting to hurt more but I did not want to walk in the tunnel. Luckily Bryan caught me right before going into the tunnel. I turned on my headlamp and Bryan had a flashlight so he just fallowed my feet. It was really dark and cool inside the tunnel. Luckily the trail was pretty smooth so it went really well. The weirdest part was the fog I created as I breathed.. it was like running with foggy goggles on in the dark. The best part was that having to deal with the darkness helped take all my focus off of my leg and I was able to run the entire 2 mile through the tunnel.
Once out of the tunnel I decided I was done - my leg was hurting and I did not want to make it worse. I only ran 12 miles and it took me 2:08. While everyone else kept running I stretched and massaged my legs to try and get them to loosen up.
We all got to shower up at the really nice showers up at Hyak then Kyle and I spent the rest of Saturday taking it easy, mostly eating and relaxing - even managed to watch a movie.

Today we got up to watch the final stage of the tour de france while it poured rain outside. Went and got a bagel with some friends before going to mom's garden party. I'm supposed to do a swim and bike ride today but I don't have any energy today, my legs/hips are very sore and now at 8pm I have not done either the swim or bike ride...

i did it

I was asleep by 10 and I got up at 5:15a and went for a 5 mile run. It was cooler temps than I have run in for a while and a bit cooler than I expected - luckily at the last minute I grabbed a long sleeve just in case. I ran from home - a 2.5 mile out and back - the 1st 2 miles being all down hill and the rest back up hill. It is nice because i can warm up the first have and be ready for the hills. Overall the run was good - my lower legs are still a bit tight and I have a tiny bit of tenderness on my right foot (but that seems to be never ending). Otherwise it was good - I managed to keep my pace going on the 2 miles uphill. In all it took me about 40 min.

run and swim

I have been having a hard time getting up in the morning at my usual early hour so yesterday I slept till 7am and did both my run and swim in the evening after work. First I ran a 4 mile loop around green lake - I stated with teh up hill and the rest of the run was either down hill or mostly flat around the lake. I felt pretty good - my lower legs were still kind of tight from the weekend and my right foot felt a little but tender but nothing was to bad. As usual I did not know the mile markers so I just ran a pace I felt I could maintain though out and picked up the pace only for the last couple of minutes. All in all it took me about 33 min to finish the 4 mile loop.

I had plenty of time to stretch out and even relax before meeting Col & Bryan to swim in the lake. It was good thing I was meeting them because I probably would have fallen asleep otherwise. Anyway we got going and of course the water was fairly choppy but also the perfect temp - not to col or to warm. We started at the boat house are and swam parallel to the shore almost all the way to the swimming area on the other side of the lake. Bryan and Col were way in front of me - near the end I had a hard time sighting them. Around 29 min they finally turned around so I did as well. On the way back they took off again - I tried to stay close but by the time I got back to the dock they already had their wetsuits off and everything. I did manage to swim back in about 27 min which is a bit better. It is really hard to gauge how my swim is doing since I never know how far we are going and I'm always the slowest person in the group... It makes me a bit worried about the swim cutoff and if I will make it or not.

This morning I was supposed to get up and ride 25 miles - I had my bike ready and everything - but as my alarm went off at 5a I hit snooze about 20 times till it was 7a and I had to get up to go to work. I'm not sure what the deal is but lately I have been having a harder time getting up when I need to. It probably did not help getting home late last night from the swim and staying up way to late lately trying to watch some of the tour de france. Since I had a much needed massage tonight I'm going to do my ride on Friday and I'm going to bed by 9:30p so that I can hopefully get up and run 5 miles in the morning... wish me luck.

running from mosquitos

Sunday morning we all rolled out of bed and somehow managed to get moving to do a 10 mile run (well kyle wanted to go longer). The road that the cabin was on had mile markers so it was prefect. The cabin was at about 19.5 miles so we ran down hill to 18 then back - grab some water/gel/whatever - then out/up to 23 and back for a total of 10 miles. The road seemed like a general uphill climb one way and down the other but really it was rolling hills the whole way. When we got started it was already getting warm and the bugs were out in force.
Once I got going I felt ok - kind of tired and my legs were pretty heavy but not as bad as I though they would. I was mostly glad it was pretty much downhill to the 18 mile marker but then I realized I would have to go back up. Some how I managed to run a sub 9 min mile. The road kind of angled off to the side so I had to run on the right side because my left leg was tightening up from the road falling away off to the left. On the uphill back I had a very hard time keeping my heart rate in control and I had to walk. I figured I would practice what I would do in Canada lol - so I limited my walk time and then run some more. Col asked me how I was doing a couple times and asked if I was in pain or anything and I was not. She ran right behind me for a while which helped motivate me to keep running.
Then there was another up hill and I walked a bit up the hill. Even though I was not running very fast I was always surprised at how quickly the mile markers came and went. At the 22 mile marker Col turned around but since I was not in pain I figured I should run the full 10 miles as planned so I continued on to mile marker 23. On the way back I had to make it through a pack of 5 dogs. Luckily they sort of did there own thing and I was very glad to have my pepper spray just in case. I had to walk a bit up the hills but I finished running and in all it took me 1:39:48 which I'm happy with for a hilly 10 mile route on very tired legs :)

flats and heat

It was a perfect weekend to go to eastern Washington (the dry side of the state) to get some long training in. Friday night the crew (Col, Bryan, Futa, Kyle and I) drove over and we got to stay in Col's family cabin near the Entiat river (I think).
We were up around 7ish to get an earlier start on a long day of riding - the plan was to do about 90 to 95 miles.
We started at nice little park on the river and headed towards Wenatchee - of course the nice breeze soon became an annoying headwind. It was hard to get over 17mph - of course the guys were riding strong so I tried to draft off of them as much as possible.
About 5-10 miles out of Wenatchee I got a flat on my front wheel. I was really lucky because Kyle and Futa were only a couple 100 yards in front of me and I yelled as loud as I could and for some reason they turned around... Now I know how to change my tire and have done so but I'm very slow.. so Kyle came back and changed it very quickly for me. Then he pulled me the rest of the way into Wenatchee at 21+ mph to get back to the group.
At this point we crossed over the river and headed the other direction which turned the head wind into a wonder tailwind. I felt really good and cruised along. I would catch Kyle and Bryan on the flats and then they would drop me on the hills and so on for while. They pulled off and we refilled/topped off water bottles and waited for Futa and Col. After a little bit Bryan told me just to go and they would catch me so I took off down the highway.
I just cruised along enjoying the tailwind pushing me along. I waited a couple of time because I was surprised that they had not caught me yet. I knew I had to turn at some bridge but I did not know anything for sure so I stopped and waited for about 5-10 min until Col caught me - I guess both Col and Futa had gotten flats. Futa had issues with his CO2 cartridge or something so it took them longer to change his. Anyway once Col got to me we kept going and had almost reached the bridge when Col got a second flat on her rear tire... The guys finally caught us by the time she had the tire off and was looking for her second spare tube - which she could not find but we knew both Kyle and Bryan had spare tubes.
We crossed the bridge and continued heading towards Chelan. By this time we were all starting to run low on water - then the road turned from nice smooth asphalt to chip seal yucky crap. Within 5 miles I got another flat - this time my rear wheel. Again Kyle changed it really quickly for me but another 5 miles up the road it was low on air again. We filled it with some more air in hopes to get up to Chelan and if needed get another tube. But just the thought of it going flat as I climb up a rather long steep hill made me hesitant esp since the roads were still nasty chip seal stuff. I finally made it to the top and I was out of water - actually Col was the only one with any. By this time I was starting to feel a bit light headed and could defiantly feel the heat.
We finally made it into town, managed to find the bike shop and got some tubes and CO2 cartridges, then to safeway to get loads of water and I was pleasantly surprised to find premixed accelerade as well. I still had half a bottle of highly concentrated lemonade accelerade for my aero bottle but I liked having extra. While in Chelan we also stopped at Subway and grabbed a sandwich - I was only mildly hungry so I only got a 4 inch sub - everyone gave a me hard time but i think it was perfect because it did not fill me up to much so that I could stay on my normal nutrition routine.
After getting fluids I felt way better - I forced myself to drink every 15 min or so and even had a gel on our way out of town. We went around the lake a bit and then we took a left up this crazy switch back hill. Kyle and Bryan had gone past the turn and added some extra miles to the ride (esp Kyle who added a hill to) - it was a good thing Futa managed to get some cell coverage because none of us really had the energy to go chasing after either of them - esp knowing we had to climb the crazy hill. I did not push it to hard just went at what ever pace I could muster - I stayed about 100yrds behind Futa the entire way up. At one point I was only going 4 mph - I had to stand every once and while just to keep my momentum going up hill. Somehow I made it up the hill where we waited for Kyle to catch up.
I'm not sure what happened after the hill - maybe it woke my legs up or something but as we got going again I felt great, my legs felt strong and I had energy to spare. It was so weird - I started to push the pace some. I would ride behind Kyle and Bryan and then pass them going up the hills. Of course they passed me on the down hills but I caught back up and then passed them. It was so much fun - I never get to even ride up with them much less push them. It reminds me of when I used to push Kyle to ski nonstop down International - I have not felt like that in a long time.
There was a very long downhill which I just tried my best to keep Kyle and Bryan in sight. Then we were back on the main highway heading back into the headwind and towards the park we started at. I still felt great and I continued to push the pace. Bryan of course gave me some crap and made me pull which is unheard of. We made it back to the park and I felt great about my ride. Yeah there were some challenges but everything worked out, I never let them effect me to much and I finished really strong :)
Once we got the bikes in the truck we all soaked our legs in the nice cold river - it was the perfect way to end a hard ride in the heat. I drank the premixed accelerade while chilling my legs to try and help recovery so I had something left for Sunday.

beaver lake run

On Thursday on my way out to visit with my mom I stopped and ran the Beaver Lake loop - it is 4.3 miles and Col had specifically told me not to run long or even longer than 4 miles so it worked out perfectly. It was nice and warm but not to hot - the loop starts on trail which I really like. It was pretty uneventful, I felt good and my legs never really even tightened up to bad. I did not push the pace to hard just ran how I felt which was fun. In all it took me 35:44 to finish (which is way faster than I did the course last year at the Beaver Lake Tri).

wetsuit approved

Last night was the maiden swim in my new wetsuit - the Blue Seventy Helix Long John. I was a bit worried since of course the first time I have ever swam in a long john suit it is colder and even raining. It takes me longer to get into the new suit - I guess because it is a bit more fitted and snug than my last one. Once I got it on and put some body glide around my neck I was off and swimming. The water felt perfect and I love the suit. It took a few more adjustments in the water - my necklace was being pressed into my neck by the collar which was easily fixed. Next time I will need to put some body glide around the arm holes just to be safe. The thing I like the most is that I can actually feel the water when I pull - it really helped me be able to focus almost the entire time I was swimming. Col & I got sort of a late start so on each breath I got to see the sun set - my goggles made it look really bright and blue. I still was slower than Col but I did not feel as far behind as I have been on other days. We swam for about 40 min - the sun was pretty much gone when we were done.. So all and all it was a good swim.

This morning I got up early and road around Lake Sammamish and added a couple of miles of hills to do 25 miles. It was a really nice morning, the sun was coming up, no rain and best of all no traffic. The ride was really uneventful - my legs felt strong especially on the hills. I didn't try to push it to hard or anything just kepted my pace up even on the rolling hills of the lake road. It took me about 1:25 to get back home then I was back to the real world and had to get ready to go to work...

new shoe run

I picked up a pair of Asics GEL-DS Trainer® 12 to start breaking in so I can wear them in Canada... Of course I had to wear them for my run tonight. I planned on running 5 miles on the cushy trail/sidewalk on 140th but I only sort of knew the mileage so I estimated by using time (a 10 min mile for easy math). So my goal was just to run for less than 50 min. I felt great from the start - the new shoes rocked it felt like I was running on pillows or clouds with just enough feeling of the road to know I was not rolling out. The route gradually went down hill, then back up, then down again and back up to finish. The weather was perfect for running, not to hot, not to cold. I warmed up pretty quick and did not have any problems breathing like I did the last couple of runs. I kicked the pace up for the last 5 min - mostly because my watch said 40 min and I wanted to be under 50 min... I finished feeling really strong with no pain anywhere. I stretched out and headed home.
Once home I mapped the route and I actually ran 6.4 miles! and even more shocking I did it in 45:36:27. No wonder I felt so good - I was cruising :)

recovery swim

Bright and early this morning I jumped into the pool for a nice "easy" swim. The plan was 2500 yrds so I did 5 sets of 400 then 100 - I went easy on the 400 and then hard on the 100s. I was tired esp my legs so I probably used the pull buoy more than I should have. Also I some how messed up my watch again so I'm not really sure what my exact pace was but I survived and just went on perceived exertion and total time which was 52 min. My favorite part was that when I finished I sat in the hot tub for about 10 min and stretched my legs out.

more agreeable temps + lots of training

It was still in the high to mid 80s Thursday afternoon when Col and I met to do some trail running in the Bridal Trails area. We headed out from the golf course and got on to some trails pretty quick - though there were crazy up and downs just to get to the park area. Once we got to the part the trails are great - nice and wide for the horses, soft compact dirt and almost completely in the shade - don't get me wrong it was still very warm but at least no sun pounding down on us. We fallowed the coyote trail for about a 3.5 mile loop and then back to the cars. I felt fairly good - though I had a hard time keeping my breathing underhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif control - esp when going up hills. I'm not sure exactly how far we ran we thought somewhere around 5 miles total - though it took us 54 minutes so it may have been longer. In any case I had no pain and found that I really like to run trails more than roads.
During the run and I also talked about a run plan for Canada - start out running off the bike as far as I feel good then transition to a run walk pattern - run 5 - walk 2 and the aid stations. Mostly that it is ok and I should fully expect to walk parts of the marathon and I should be ready and ok with that.

Lets see what did I do on Friday - oh yeah I swam in the pool. Total distance was 3000 yrds - 400 warm up + drills, 200 x 3, 250 x 4, 300 x 2, 100 x 3, 100 cool down + kick. It was sort of a random assortment of long and short sets. I felt really good and I was able to keep my pace up all the way though - my last set of 100s were all 1:47 :) The biggest thing was was that I realized that I really like being able to feel the resistance on my arms when I pull - I seem to use it as a gauge as how hard I'm working. So when I swim open water in a full wet suit I don't get that and so I don't think I pull as hard and swim slower. So now I'm pretty sure I want a sleeveless wetsuit. Anyway it took me about 63 minutes - including all rests.

Saturday the crew got together for a 70-75 mile bike ride - the Lake Washington loop and 20 miles on the cedar river trail in Renton. It was kind of weird ride - we had some confusion when we got started and it made everyone a little cranky. Luckily we all just focused on riding and moved on. I took it easy the first 20 or so miles and just stayed at the back of the pack. We started in Lake Forest Park which put us on the climb up Juanita almost right away which is hard warm up but I actually felt pretty good - my legs felt strong and ready. The day got warmed as we went and my usual nutrition plan worked well for me - I did make sure to drink a bit more as it got warmer and took a few extra salts. I tried to eat some of a cliff bar about half way but the flavor did not go well at all with the accelerade. I shocked everyone (or maybe just Kyle) by spending more time actually down in my aero bars, I gave hand signal and swerved. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful - though the last 10-15 miles on the burke gilman trail dragged on forever. I finished at almost exactly 70 miles in 4:23 and felt like I could ride again :).

Ok finally today Kyle and I procrastinated most of the day and waited until almost 7:45pm to start a 8 mile run. I really wanted to stay off sidewalks or roads so I talked him into going with me to the Bridle Trails park and doing the 3.5 mile loop twice then do another loop that is 1 mile. We got going and again I had a hard time keeping/getting my breathing under control for most of the 1st loop esp on the uphills. Before starting the second loop I stopped had a gel and some water that I had staged so I did not have to carry it. Luckily my 2nd loop felt much better - I was warmed up and my breathing was well under control. I'm glad I brought my little headlamp because it started getting darker and made me feel more visible. By the time My left knee got a bit tight on the last bit of the 2nd loop - but nothing bad enough to stop and it kind of faded as I went. I finished my second loop it was getting pretty dark and Kyle was done with his 8 miles - he said the 1 mile loop was even darker and the trail was not as nice so I ran back out on the loop I had been on for 5 minutes and back which was probably about a mile or so (close enough). In all it took me 1:12:34 to run about 8 miles on trail - not record breaking but I felt good and enjoyed myself which is what matters (right?).

heat training has started

Yesterday I decided rather than running in the morning while it was still cool I slept in till 7a and put my run off till after work. When I left my office it was already in the 90s so I stalled a bit and went to Speedy Reedy to look at wet suits - I had seen something about a sale coming up and I wanted to see if it was true. I tried on the Blue Seventy full sleeve Helix again and again liked it. Though I do not recommend trying on wet suits when it is so hot just does not makes sense looking back - the last thing I needed was insulation. Any I found out the wet suits will go on sale on the 15th so I will wait till then to purchase. Though after I left I wondered why I needed a full wet suit rather than a farmer john with no sleeves.. So now I'm not sure what I want... I think I would like having sleeves early/late season and in colder races but I like the idea of having more movement in the shoulder by not having sleeves. so we will see.
That finished I headed to green lake to do a 4 mile run with specific instructions not to cut it short. Because of the heat I made sure to take a couple of salt tabs, a gel and some Gatorade before I started. I was rather sluggish and had a hard time keeping my pace up so I just focused on getting it done. A couple parts of the route were in full sun and were extra miserably hot but I was surprised how quickly I was finished - not that I was fast at all. It took me 35:40 to finish with no pain in my lower legs and feet.
Afterwards I quickly changed out of my running shoes into my crocs and dipped my legs into the lake to cool down - it felt wonderful. I was early for meeting Col and Bryan for an open water swim so I just hung out by the lake till they got there.
Everyone got there around 7:30ish and we got going. It was really windy which of course made the water very choppy (enough that the rowing class stayed on shore). With in only a couple strokes I had water way up my nose... It pretty much sucked - I would breath and a wave would brake over the back of my head and get in my mouth. It may have been the choppy water or just me but I was not feeling it - my left shoulder got tired, my neck was tight, I had a horrible time staying focused, and I could not swim straight. At the half way point I even considered swimming to shore and walking back - but of course I didn't. I was quite a way behind the group - I think I added a good 5 to 10 minutes on to my swim compared to them. When I got back to the dock I was exhausted and glad to be done. In all I swam for 49:22 - I have no idea how far.
Luckily today is a day off for recovery because it was 101 degrees - which is just plane wrong in Seattle. I spent the evening washing my car and watering plants just so I could play outside with cold water :) Hopefully I don't melt overnight.

Lake Stevens 70.3 - Team Tri-Style

Rather than doing the entire race ourselves Col and I did it as Team Tri-Style - Col did the swim and run and I did the bike. From the start of the day there was way less pressure since I did not have to worry about doing the swim or run thought at the same time it was very strange not to be getting in the water at at the start or doing the run after the bike.
Of course they put the relay teams in the very last wave so we sat on the grass and watched the rest of the crew start. The pros were already coming in as well. Once Col started I headed back over to the transition area and cheered the crew on when they came in. Col had a great swim - she had told me to expect a sub 45min and she came out of the water at 39:58. Luckily I was ready to go - we transfered the chip and I was off - It took me a good minute just to run through the trans area with my bike - since were were right by the water.
Once on the bike I realized I had not taken a gel or any salt before starting.. So I quickly had 2 salts and some accelerade and a little bit of gel just to be safe. With in the first 5-10 miles a group of male pros passed me on there second loop - they even sounded different then everyone else because of their disc wheels - I heard a whirr and then they were past me and were gone. I felt really good - I was passing a lot of people esp going uphill. I made sure to drink accelerade every 5 miles or less - 2 mouthfuls of gel every 10 miles fallowed by either nuun or accelerade to rinse my mouth out - a salt every 15 miles. It worked out really well - the only thing was my salt stick got sort of loose and I wound up just pulling it off my bike and putting it in my bento box - I had to hold the end in my mouth and turn it to get the alt out. It worked fine just took a bit longer than when it is on the bike.
I did really well going up all the hills - I played cat and mouse with a couple of other riders - I would pass them going up then they would pass me on the "flats". One gal even hollered a compliment at how well I climbed - it felt great to have my legs back like that again. I held my own on the downhills - I barely braked - which I think is huge - I even passed a few people going down which has NEVER happened before. I did get a warning by the refs about moving left and not passing - the ref guy gave what felt like a 5 min lecture about staying all the way right no matter what the road conditions ect.. It sort of messed up my pace till they were gone and I finally passed the gal that could not maintain an even pace.
I finished the 1st lap in 1:33 and felt good and strong. On the second lap I had to remind my self to eat - I could hear Kyle yelling at me to eat/drink and Futa yelling swerve. lol I had half a bottle of accelerade left when I went through the aid station - I was really looking forward to a bottle of Gatorade for some more calories but they only had water - what a joke I was soo annoyed. I grabbed a bottle anyway and used it to dilute my highly concentrated accelerade. Even still I felt good esp when I was going up hill - yes I know that is messed up. There was a lot more car traffic which mostly got in the way during the climbs
I did get the same pain in my lower back - only on the right side - just like in Kona but it went away when i went into my aeros or sat all the way up to climb. Luckily after a while it just faded away or I just forgot about it. I made sure to continue to push myself all the way into the finish - since I knew I did not have to save anything for the long run.
I came in at 3:12 - Col grabbed the chip and was off on the run. I racked my bike had a quick work or two with a nice gal from another relay team and went for a 2 mile run to take advantage of the transition training. On gal yelled at me for not having a run bib but I just kept going. I ran 2 miles (1 mile out and 1 back) along the bike course. It actually felt really good - I was able to maintain a 9 min mile pace so i finished in 18 min. Afterwards I went straight out on the run course to see how the crew was doing - since I never saw any of them on the bike. Everyone was doing really well - Kyle and Bryan were already on their second lap, Steph was well into her 1st but looked really strong and of course Col was flying. Sadly i forgot to grab my camera or anything to eat before heading out of the tranistion area so I just cheered. Futa was nice enough to share some chex mix and water with me because I did not want to miss a minute :)
Everyone finished really well - everyone improved from Hawaii and had a good time. It was very good day. We hung out for the roll down just in case Kyle could get a spot for Clearwater but no love. Then once home we crashed and took it easy the rest of the day/night.

Col and I (Team Tri-Style) came in 4th in the female relay team division :)

Final times
Swim 39:58
T1 1:09
Bike 3:12:40
T2 0:53
Run 01:50:00
Overall Time 5:44:37

Lake Stevens registration and pre-race swim

Now just to start off I'm not doing the entire 70.3 tomorrow - I'm just doing the bike leg as part of Tri-style relay team with Col - mostly so that neither of us overtrain by doing the full race right now. So today the crew (Kyle, Bryan, Steph, Kyle and I) all carpooled up for registration, "mandatory" meeting, bike check in and an open water swim to test the waters. The meeting took forever and they did not have many answers so it was kind of boring and not very helpful. Then we registered and no one seemed to know anything about relay teams and how things were going to work and then they had already ran out of small womans shirts so I have to wait for them to mail it.. We did check out some really cool shorts at the Jaggad booth.
Once we finished we went and checked bikes in - I'm right by the finish under a tree - it did not look like there were very many relay teams but who knows.
Next up was the swim - everyone else was just going to do a short little swim (for good reason) but since I'm not swimming tomorrow in the race I went a bit longer and swam 30 min. I felt really good and was surprised at the visibility in the water (though I was not impressed by the garbage I could see at the bottom). I did two laps out to a bouy since there was a lot of boat traffic.
It is kind of strange I don't feel any of the stress I felt before doing Hawaii 70.3 - I think mostly because I'm only doing the bike but at the same time it is rather nice. Fingers cross that they day will go smoothly for everyone :) OK off to bed I go it will be a very early morning.

Last night I tagged along with Col and Bryan for a nice little 4.5 mile run. It was perfect because they were running "easy" which is closure to moderate for me so even though I was planned to run 6 I think it worked out well. To mix it up just a bit Col decided we would run the route in reverse. I really like running around green lake because it always means there is at least some soft surfaces not just sidewalks or asphalt. The uphill was a bit challenging but in all I felt good the entire run with no leg or foot pain. The closest I came was a bit of tightening on the last mile I think mostly because the trail sort of fell away to teh left but even so I felt like I could have kept running which is always a reassuring feeling. In all it took us about 38:34 to run somewhere around 4.5 miles.

5k PR at Firecracker 5000

Very late on Tuesday night Col, Bryan, Kyle and I went and ran the Firecracker 5000 run - it starts at 11:55pm (actual start was closure to 12:05am) which made for a weird prep. Both Kyle and I were starving when we got home but we did not want to eat a large dinner and that sort of thing. Even though it was a warm day it was kind of cold waiting around for the start of the race - a couple minutes before lining up we jogged around a bit to warm up so we did not start out cold. The day of race turn out was higher than the event expected so the start was delayed a bit - there was talk that they ran out of bib #s. We all lined up - Kyle went a little bit further up front then the rest of us but not much. Once the race started I tried to stay with Col and Bryan as long as I could - which was about a mile at a 7:20 pace or so. then I slowed down a bit but I was able to keep Bryan in sight most of the rest of the way. The course was kind of weird part of it was being repaved so it was all uneven - which was interesting in the dark.. There was also some long hills to climb up. After I was passing the 2 mile mark I could hear that people were finishing. When I started coming back into the stadium I heard Kyle cheering for me and I tried to pick up the pace through the last little bit. I felt great and even a cramp that I had earlier in the day in my calf faded away and I never felt it on the run so I was mostly just happy I pushed myself the entire way and had no issues. The whole point of doing this event was to help build my confidence in a race situation and it definitely did that.
My gun time was 24:26, chip time was 24:16 (a 7:50 pace). The best part was that I came in 9th in my age group out of 101!
On the next morning (the 4th of July) we got up and headed over to Bobby's house on Lake Samm to do a training brick/tri for some. We met rather early hour of 9:30a considering that we got to bed at 2am... We got started on the swim - the water was already a bit choppy with lots of extra waves from boats. It was some really good/hard training for ruff water. I was way slower than the rest of the group but I'm used to that. I just did not have much energy and never really found my groove. It was worse on the way back - I felt like I was swimming in place. I got out of the water at somewhere around the 50 min mark - everyone else was already on the dock. Next we switched over to the bike and headed out around the lake. At first the guys were just taking easy (I assume just enjoying the weather or something) but Col made a comment which light a fire under them because immediately the took off and I for one never saw them again. I stayed far enough behind Col not to be drafting and held that most of the way around the lake. I was happy because I finally stayed down in my aero bars the entire way on the east side of the lake. Though I started getting tired again on a few small hills on the west side and fell a bit further behind Col. I came in to switch to the run and I was just not feeling it but I gave it a try - I put my running shoes on and ran out for oh about 2 min and my calf started to feel a bit tight so I stopped, turned round and ran back and was done. Oh well I ran hard at the race and don't need to push it. I was kind of bummed about it for a little bit but at the same time I did really well the night before at the race and I made it around the lake in 1:16 (possibly my fastest so far).
The rest of the holiday was spent hanging out and relaxing and today is a recover/rest day - most of all I am looking forward to going to bed early and getting some good earned sleep.

hehe now that was fun

I'm going to start with my swim work out tonight - Col wanted me to go long in the pool but focus on pushing my pace the entire time. As she suggested I did 400 warm up including a few drills, 100 x 9 (supposed to 8 but lost count and did an extra), 200 x 4, 100 x 8, 200 cool down. My first 100 yrd was 1:47 after that I kept the rest of the 1st set at 1:52 with 10-12 sec rest between. I felt really good and strong it was great. Next I did the 200s - I started out swimming a little easier then I should so I picked it up a notch and kept my pace up. I decided I could pick it up a bit more on the final set of 100s - so I kept all my 100s at 1:50 - it was hard but I just visualized/remembered the end of the Hawaii race and how hard I had to push to get through the waves. My arms started to get tired but I kept it up and even did my final 100 at 1:48 :) Then I used my cool down to stretch/loosen my legs up a bit. All in all it took me 59:12:95 to swim 3100yrds and I enjoyed every minute. I felt strong with good form so my shoulder did not hurt. It made my day :)

Now as a little recap for Sunday I only road my bike for about 7 miles - 25 min and most of it was downhill. Kyle and I started to do a 60ish mile ride but 5 miles in he got a bloody nose and then got a bit dizzy so we headed home and took him to urgent care to see a doctor since this keeps happening along with his muscle cramps and fatigue. He got blood tests back and everything was well with in normal/healthy range - so the mystery continues...