3 nap weekend

I knew this weekend would be tuff when on Thursday and Friday I still felt tired. Saturday started off with an early team run on East Lake Sammamish. The weather was actually a bit cooler than I expected - though with in 2 miles I was down to my shorts and tank top. I ran the 1st hour on my own just staying at the the top of my 3A zones. I felt really good and clipped along but I was bored since I did not bring music so the second hour I ran with Laurie K. who is about the same pace as me in our low zones. The company made the second hour go by in no time and we decided we would ride together on Sunday as well :) It turned out to be a good run but I did not pay a lot of attention to eating - only ate one gel and about 12 oz of gatorade endurance.. Way under what I should have for a 2 hour run.
The best part of team runs is the time afterwards - we had lattes and treats afterwards and hung out and talked triathlon. I tried to eat as much as I could to start recovery but with in an hour or so I was well on my way to bonking. I spent the rest of the day trying to recovery but the worst part of getting to that point is my stomach always feels horrible and makes me not want to eat anything. While Kyle played with bikes I took an hour or two nap with Toko which helped. Then we headed of to a great Sounders FC game where they won 2 to 0 :)

Sunday morning my Mom and I ran the Bellevue 5k - her 1st 5k ever. I ran with her as support/pacer. She did so well and I am so proud of her. Though I think she wanted to punch me a few times. I know she surpassed her expectations of finishing in 30:55 (2nd in her age group) - a whole min per mile faster than she expected/assumed :) Kyle was also riding around on his bike cheering for her which she loved. For once we were cheering her on after all the races she has cheered for us.
After the race I went home and got my bike stuff together, ate a little bit and had a little time before I was meeting Laurie so I took a short nap :)
Once we got riding i quickly found out the hard way that Laurie is a huge sandbagger and/or very humble. We rode from her place on East lake Samm and warmed up by riding up and over the plateau then out to carnation and onto the West Snoqualmie Valley Road and took Union hill back. This route has become one of my favorites lately. Hills in the beginning and end and rollers and wind in the middle, a great view and not a ton of traffic or lights. And lots of barns - only a few super smelly spots.
The day before when Laurie and I were talking she was saying she had not been out on the roads much - spent all winter on the computrainer. I was just happy to keep up with Laurie and stay close to my zone 3A. I ran out of salt around 2 hours and defiantly did not feel as good the last 30 min of the ride. Laurie is faster than me on the down hills so i kept having to try and catch back up on the uphills. I was so ready to be done.We rode for 3 hours and change and had a great time.
We both ran off the bike - I had :30 and she had a full hour to run. At first I was not really looking forward to it - I was tired and my stomach did not feel that great. But of we went and guess what with in a couple minutes I felt great. We clipped right along actually running around 8 min pace and I was only in my zone 3B :) It felt great.
the best part of teh day was by far being able to put my legs in the lake sammamish when I was done running - it is still very cold and really helped my legs feel better. After :20 min in the lake, some recovery snacking, and hanging out Kyle and I headed home. I immediately crashed and took at least a 2 hour nap while Kyle helped his Dad get his bike set up. The only reason I woke up was because my legs ached.

All in all a very good weekend of training and I think I found someone to get some of those long training sessions in with :) I could defiantly tell that my body needs some sort of rest/recovery this week before Vancouver half marathon this coming weekend. ok time to get on the foam roller.

one workout at at time

With Clearwater only a couple weeks away this past week was kind of the last big week. I had 3 days of masters swim, a tempo bike ride, and a speed run during the week. Then came the weekend with the direct instructions to just focus on the workout at hand and not anything else.

Saturday I went for a 3 hour bike ride with the Herd and they put up with me having to do two 30 min intervals at half ironman race pace. Actually I think Duane (who is almost 70) got a kick out of it. He cheered me on the whole time from my back wheel and defiantly kept me honest so it was a lot of fun. We did a great route from Bellevue down to the Cedar River trail then up and over Tiger mountain and back to Bellevue. It was the first time I have been on the route and I really liked it - not a lot of cars and just enough hills. We started early so it was kind of chilly to start but with in 30 min or so I was warm enough to shed the wind breaker and ride in vest and arm warmers. Since it was so cold I did not drink or eat as much as I should have and when I got of my bike and had to go for an hour run I felt it. I did a quick transition of shedding almost all the layers I was wearing to go for a race pace run for 60 min. The first mile was ok then slowly I started to over heat and felt really tired. By mile 3 I was completely over heating and on the verge of bonking. So I ran back to my car changes into a tank top and grabbed a salt and sport legs and another gel. By mile 4 I felt much better and the rest of my run felt pretty good. Even with a mile or two of feeling bad I was able to average my goal pace of just over 8 min miles. It was not the perfect run but I feel really good about how it all ended up.
Once I got home I took a ice bath with 2 bags of ice which was really good - my toes got cold but it really helped my legs. After a hot shower and a recovery drink I laid down with my feet up the rest of the day only to get up to eat something. I still am surprised I got up around 7:30p and went out to celebrate my friend Kim's birthday - but I was wearing compression tights at least.

Sunday morning Kyle and I joined the Pauole Sport team for a group run from one of the team members house on the East lake Sammamish trail. It was great because there was a variety of lengths and paces people were running. I needed to do a easy 2 hour run while Kyle only wanted to go 8 miles or so. Everyone started together so the first mile or two were a little faster than I needed to go but it helped me warm up since it was almost 35 °F. Once I was warm and shed my long sleeve shirt I settled into my own pace. I stayed a little behind the main group of people running longer on the way out. I turned around at 60 min and very slowly started to pick up the pace just a little bit. Then the last 30 min I started to pick up the pace more and I felt great. I stuck with it and and kept pushing the pace all the way until I was finished. Afterwards i stretched and cooled down and then headed in for a latte and hanging out with the team for a bit. Kyle had been done for a while but was completely content with his latte and fruit. I should have taken another ice bath but it had been a chilly run and by the time we got home I just could not do it. Instead a hot shower and a short nap.

I knew I should have taken that ice bath when I woke up this morning and was so sore and stiff. I took Kyle to the airport and then dragged myself to masters swim and hoped for an easy swim. At least 2 of my lane mates have a similar schedule of doing long hard workouts on the weekend so it is not to bad. There were a lot of fast people so for some reason some of the fast people who came late used our lane to warm up and thus push the pace of the lane then moved into their normal lane. Kainoa gave me a couple pointers to work on so I was trying to focus on my form while not getting swum over. After 45 min I was tired and just plain done so I moved to the hot tub and talked with Kainoa a bit before heading off to get ready for work. Now it is still mid-morning and I'm ready for nap.

weekend..

I started the weekend by riding my bike to work and back on friday. Nothing intense tried to keep my heart rate in zone 2. Kyle rode with me both ways and on the way in got a flat tire that blew up with a load bang. The tube literally explored.. He had it changed pretty quickly but it defiantly added some excitement to the ride.

Saturday while Kyle did the Cougar Mountain bike climb I went and did a double brick. The plan was 1:30 bike in zone 2, then :30 min run in zone 3, another 1:30 bike this time in zone 3, and finally a :30 min run in zone 3. When I got started it was raining and looked horrible - I'm still shocked I actually got on my bike and on to the road. For the 1st bike set I decided to ride the Sammamish Valley trail because it was empty for once and I thought it would be easier to stay in zone 2. Once I got down to the trail the rain had stopped :) Then with in a few more miles I was so warm I had to stop and put my rain jacket and gloves away. As always the way back I was fighting a headwind but I just geared down and spun until I got to Microsoft hill and broke out of zone 2 but just took it easy going up the hill. I went a bit over my planned time but only by 5 min or so.
I did a quick transition and was off running but I forgot to grab a gel.. so my run felt harder than it was. It was easy to be in zone 3 though. Managed to get 3.5 miles in and immediately ate a gel when I got done.
Another fast transition and I was back on my bike - minus arm warmers, capris, toe warmers, gloves - pretty much most of what i wore the first ride. This time I headed around Lake Sammamish. I was uneventful till I got a little over half way around when I heard teh tell tail hiss sound of a flat. I immediately fount the hole because there was a large gash in my tire. I tried to get my tire off, then tired some fix a flat stuff which just oozed out the whole in my tire and did not fix anything. I would up calling Kyle and had him drive me home since I had to be done by 1pm so I could get to my mom's belly dance performance..
We got back to the house and both Kyle and I switched to run stuff and he rabbited for my last :30 min run. At least I had been eating/drinking a lot more on the the 2nd bike so i was well fueled for this final run. We went out strong and I just chased Kyle the entire way which picked up the pace from my first run to sub 8 min/mi pace for 3.77 miles. After I immediately had a recovery drink and got in a ice bath before heading up to Alpine days to see my mom dance (she did wonderful and looked amazing - I thought she was the best in her groups).

Today Kyle and I got up way to early to go for a group swim and run with the Pauole Sport Team at Madison beach. Luckily we had enough time to get some starbucks on our way or I would have been asleep getting in the water. It was a little windy and cold so the water looked less than appealing but we all got in. I swam for 50 min - made it to the tennis club feeling pretty good. The swim back seemed to be more rough but I just tried to imagine the waves pushing me back to the beach and not away..
Next up we went for a run. I planned on running 1:30 and just see what I had left in my legs from the day before. Kyle found that there were a couple of guys close to his pace so he wound up running 12 miles or so. It was nice that Kainoa was about the same pace as me so we ran the whole way together. Which was good because it distracted me from how tired my legs were. We ran out towards Seward Park but we turned around at the boat house. On the way back i started to feel fatigue in my legs more but we kept our pace up close to 8:30 min/mi only slowing for a hill or two. The last half mile Kainoa seemed to pick up the pace and I just did not have it to stay with her but i never got to far back. In the end we ran about 10.2 miles in just under 1:30 :)
After everyone got back we hung out and talked tri at Starbucks - always fun to meet more people who are equally into triathlon. Once we got home I took an ice bath then put my feet up and took an hour nap only to wake up to watch some olympics. All in all a very good weekend of training. I'm tired now but I feel like I'm only getting stronger :)

12 mph winds

This morning after a lovely breakfast and taking our time to get ready we did a 45 min bike ride to run brick... No big deal right.. The palm trees were being blown around a little bit but nothing to bad. Once we got out on our bikes I got pushed around like crazy, first a head wind, then the dreaded side wind, maybe a tail wind for a little bit in there but only in combination with a side wind. I knew there is always a chance for it to be windy on the the Queen K - you hear lots of horror stories. It freaked me out. I have ridden across I90 bridge in the wind a few times and this was more scary. Maybe because I let the thought of being blown into the lava creep into my head.. At first I tuffed it out in my aero bars as much as I could but it started to hurt my left shoulder a bit and then a gush came and I had to go out on the flight deck. It would at will grab my front wheel and pull me around. Instead of going with it (like I would in skiing) I let it freak me out.
As he should be Kyle was pretty far out in front of me - I could see him but with no hope of catching him.. I stopped at 24 minutes and waited to see him coming back. Once I saw a little red speck in the distance I turned around heading back. He was nice enough to ride on windy side to offer some block on the way back but still it would catch my front wheel from time to time and I was riding way to stiff. We talked a little bit about ways to deal with or go with the wind a bit to keep my wheels from making me in to a kite. I played with different things on the way back. Nothing totally perfect or anything but at least helped me focus a bit more.
After 48 min of riding in the wind I was soo ready to transition to a run.. I did a fast transition - practicing what I will do for the race. Even a full race belt with gels just to test comfort.. I did forget my sunglasses but after running with out I have decided I will not wear them anyways - they make my face way to hot. I completely let my legs determine the pace - not pushing to hard or forcing them to slow down. I ran 1.5 miles in 12 min out on the road surrounded by the lava - it was soo hot and of course on the way back there was a head wind.. But I felt good. I was able to let go completely of the frustrating/windy ride and just run. Which is exactly my plan for the race - live in the moment and do my best in that moment.
After an ice bath to cool off - Kyle and I talked a lot about riding in the wind. He did not really have any issues with it and actually sees it as a strength. I have a ton of experience skiing in the wind and know how to deal with it - I really just need to apply that knowledge to when I'm on the bike. Don't tense up and stay loose enough to be able to adapt. I have really good balance - I just need to use it and most of all stay calm don't let the wind beat me. Everyone will have to deal with the same conditions - wind, heat, all of it so I just ned to do what I can and keep going. I ride again tomorrow so I maybe able to get some more practice in wonderful wind.. At the same time I'm really hoping it is calm on Saturday till I'm done then it can do what ever it wants.

We spent the rest of the day doing random things - my bike saddle bag broke, and Kyle accidentally cut my aero bottle straw (thinking it was his) so we had to go back to the bike shop again.. Traffic sucked and there was a lot of "vog" - we could even smell sulfur a couple times from the volcano which did not really makes up want to do much activity...
We did go for a walk in evening and saw a bunch of sea turtles (Kyle's favorite animal).



I'm just glad it is still early in the week. Though they are setting up the race headquarters in the hotel which mean s it is coming .. but there is still plenty of time to enjoy Hawaii and more important be ready to race on Saturday :) Ok time to get some good recovery sleep... the more the better right.

we have arrived

Last night after 2 flights at abut 9pm Hawaii time (or midnight in Seattle) we finally landed then had to wait about an hour for our bags since they had 3 planes land at about the same time. Though even though the flight was long it was not to bad - we met a group of other triathletes from Bellevue who are staying near by us. As soon as we got our rental car (Kyle upgraded to an F150 truck of course lol) we headed to the condo and passed out.
This morning we were up at 5 am local time and before anything unpacked the bikes. By 9ish we rode our bikes to Starbucks to grab some breakfast and much needed coffee. It was so warm out I wore shorts and tank top - it was wonderful :) My aero bars were a bit uneven and both our de-railers needed some tweaking.. It felt nice just to loosen the legs up a bit after sitting for so long yesterday. We went in to Kona to get CO2, some tubes and random other things. I got a new pair of spuik sunglasses that are soo comfortable that I can wear with both my aero helmet and a running hat. Kyle got a pair of tri bike shoes and drooled over a Liger TT bike for a while...

Eventually we got back and got ready to do a little triathlon to work on transitions. We swam down at the beach down the street for about 15 min, then transitioned to the bike.
Which of the being the first time this year to do this it went pretty quickly.
We rode out to the Queen K and rode the course out to the turn up to Hawi. Since we started later in the day it was pretty hot and windy so I really had to face my fear of going down hill in the wind.. I completely rocked it.. No brakes and actually stayed most of the time down in my aero bars. I had a blast - I did not push to hard or anything but just rode how I felt. Kyle got a flat just after we started on the way back but he is super fast so no big deal. The rest of the way back felt good. I practiced my nutrition plan and mental race plan as well. The last couple of miles I alternated a few pick ups with spinning my legs out. It felt really good when I got back and transitioned to the run.
I did make the mistake of drinking a bit to much liquids so my first mile my stomach was a little sloshy but the heat burned that up fast. We ran about 2.5 miles in 18 min all out in the middle of the lava fields. It was sooooo hot. I was shocked at how good my legs felt - they just seemed to keep the same cadence as when I was on the bike.
Once done I quickly soaked myself in a cold bath to get my body temperature down which felt wonderful. Then had a recovery drink and put my feet/legs up till we went to dinner.

Ok that covers it for now I and going to crash.. Kyle is already asleep on the coach. It is going to be a good week ;) Tomorrow we are going to getup early and go swim then do some vacation sort of stuff the rest of the day.

4 days

and counting till we leave for Hawaii :)

But first I had a great weekend of training. Friday was bike to work day and since the weather was amazingly nice I had to ride in. I took it easy on the way in since there were sooo many people on the trail. It was great to see so many people on their bikes but a lot of them need to learn trail manners. It was so nice out I talked Kyle into leaving work early and we rode home together. It was good - I went a little harder up all the hills on the way home and then when we got home I put my running shoe son and ran 2 miles on tired legs for a little brick. It was really good heat training and I felt pretty good. Afterwards I put my legs up and took a little nap.

We figured out the Tour de Cure ride that we do every year was on Saturday. So we did day of registration and did the 45 mile route with the Lemond Fitness team. It was amazing we got to ride with Greg Lemond. It was a good training route for me - lots of rolling hills that forced me to shift. My garmin died at 11 miles or something - so the rest of the way I had no clue other than I wanted to stay up with Greg, Kyle and Bernie. It was perfect - I just focused on staying with them and not getting blocked by other people - every once and while I would get trapped in a pack of guys who would block me till I got so annoyed and broke free and passed them to catch back up. Greg was super friendly and knows sooo much. It was inspiring just to be riding his wheel - though I did pass him going up hill a few times. He went down a crazy turny downhill at about 50 mph. It was insane. The weather was hot again - it was about 90°F after we climbed to the top of Redmond Ridge - another perfect day of heat training. After the ride we hung out had a few tacos from one of the sponsors - Chipotle and a lot of Vitamin water. Kyle got his single speed signed by Greg.
We headed home I took an extra cold ice bath, fallowed by a nap with my legs up. Later we headed to the gym to do a swim. I was tired but it felt good to be in the water.

That night it was still crazy hot in our house and I slept horrible. I woke up early to go skiing with my brother but he was not feeling good and I could not justify the gas money to go ski by myself. So instead i focused on a 9 mile run. I planned it out and headed out. The route went past Bridal Trails park and after 3 miles on the road I just could not resist heading into the park to do some trail running. It was exactly what I needed - I let all the stress of the past week go and just ran. It was so much fun. In the end I ran about 5 mile of trail and 4 miles on the road. I fallowed it up with another extra icy ice bath, recovery drink and a nap.

I got a strong swim in tonight even though my legs are tired in a very good way. It was totally worth it I'm really happy with my cycling this weekend - I wanted to get on my bike a bit more and that is what I did. I feel strong and ready. I have my race plan and goals and just keep going through them in my head.

This week is mostly about juggling my schedule and getting ready to travel. Then we have a full week in Hawaii to get used to the heat, get a little training in and generally have a fun vacation :)
ok back to making my packing list...

feeling strong

I had another good weekend of training. Started it off on Friday with a swim test 10x100 with 10 second rests - I managed to go sub 20 min which brought my average pace around 1:50 for 100 yrds. A 10 second improvement from a couple months ago which makes me feel good about all the time I have been spending in chlorine.
Saturday I got another swim in before picking up my bike from Speedy Reedy - I had the handle bars cut a bit shorter, had the derailed adjusted (I sort of messed it up when I crashed the other week), and new brake pads. As always they did a wonderful job with it - esp the derailed was so much smoother and did not slip when I climbed. Monique met met at the shop and we headed out for a nice easy ride to Seward park. It was crazy warm - for the first time this year I did not have to wear booties, legs or any of my cold weather gear. it was wonderful. We chatted the entire way and the ride flew by. Since the weather was so nice I was really bummed when I was done and wished i could keep riding. Anything to stay outside and continue playing in the sun.
Sunday morning I went with Kyle to watch a bike crit race at Recycle cycles - which really made me realize yes I may like my bike but I am a triathlete and bike racing would not really be my thing especially crits. lol During the cat 5 guys there was crash and a guy pretty much landed on the ground in front of me, then on the next lap a guy went down and got scraped up really bad enough to have to take a ride. The rest of the races were not as bad but still. Had fun watching but not my cup of tea to participate.
I had to get in a 6 mile run - I went rather flat since as coach Col put it I had done hills already this week so I did not need any more. Which I was perfectly ok with. Kyle was not sure how far he wanted to run somewhere between 6 and 8 or something. My goal was not not let him get to far out in front of me - I have been working on not giving up and having the confidence to keep my pace up. We ran and an out and back route - I hit almost every single stop light and Kyle got through them of course so he got away from me but I was ok with it. I just kept my pace up and ran on how I was feeling. I felt great. At a little over 3 miles I turned around and Kyle had kept going - I had no idea how far so my new goal was that I would keep my pace up and try and stay ahead of him. He caught me with in a mile of course but never got as far out in front of me so my new goal became to beat him back to the house. He took the long way back for more milage and I went the shorter way because I had gone out a bit further. I picked up the pace and I did it I beat him back! He ran 7 miles and I ran 6 but still I beat him back lol - I stuck with it and never went negative and gave up - it was awesome I was so proud of myself. I ran 6 miles in 46 min - that is a 7:43 pace and I felt great. I never had to dig to deep - it was just awesome.
Monday was a much needed rest day and I loved every minute of it - slept in a bit, payed taxes (not so fun but had to be done), ate dinner at a normal time, took care of some loose ends. Then tonight I had a brick work out with Col - ride 90 minutes and then run 2 miles. We wound up riding on trainers in her garage because the roads were wet and it was on and off rain. I was not really full of energy during the day but once I got on my bike and warmed up I felt pretty good and enjoyed the hour of intervals + 30 min of spinning. The best part was the run we did a fast transition and my legs felt really really good. I just let my legs go and went out pretty hard for the 1st mile and then eased up for the 2nd mile. I was shocked at how good my legs felt running off the bike - we did the first mile in 7:25! Haha that is awesome.
And with that I'm going to crash so I can be rested for tomorrows work out :)

a warm brick

While Kyle went to the Beaver Lake Tri at 5amish I got to sleep in till after 9am - it was wonderful. I took my time - had some breakfast and folded some laundry till he got back. It was really nice to not be rushed.
Once he got back and got ready we headed out for a bike ride around Lake Samm. It seemed cool out so I started with arm warmers on - which was very nice on initial downhill to the lake road. By the time we got to the round about I was pulling them off. The ride was rather uneventful - the only annoyance was that since I don't have the bike mount for my garmin yet - I wore it on my wrist and it kind of slipped around and I had to keep adjusting it. My right hamstring/hip felt a little tight from time to time but not to big a deal. I tried to eat even though it was such a short ride - so had a full bottle of accelerade, 2 salts, and 2 gels. I had the 2nd gel about 5 miles from the end of the ride with the idea to sort of prep for the run portion. The ride was just under 22 miles and took about 1:24 (which included waiting for a few stop lights and stuff - I need to figure out how to set up the auto pause when I wait at lights).
Next up was a relatively quick transition to a run. I took a salt and rinsed my face, as well as the usual switches(change shoes ect).
We headed out and quickly stopped for a min to chat with Col and Bryan who were driving by. Once we got going again - Kyle pulled away from me rather quickly(as usual) - I just did not feel much like forcing my pace so I just sort of cruised along. My legs felt pretty good and teh 1st mile went by quickly. I'm not really sure why I decided to walk a min every mile but I did. I guess as well as getting used to running off the bike I wanted to be sure that I would be good with a run a mile and walk a min (sort of like walking an aid station or something) and the get back running again. So that is exactly what I did. It was way hotter now and I started to get really thirsty - I had a very small bottle of water - mostly for having something to wash a gel down with - so I took a sip or two of it to try and help. Somewhere in the 2nd mile there were some sprinklers going - so I of course ran through them - it felt sooo good and was a huge savior. I felt better after that - still very hot but better. I went out 3 miles turned around and started to head back - I took a gel at mile 3.16 and finished off the water I had with me which gave me some much needed energy to keep going. The route I ran is a very gradual incline and heading back it is mostly uphill and to add to it there was some headwind. It was hard and my left knee started to tighten up a bit - not a ton but just enough to be annoying. The 1 min walks helped a lot since it always hurt less afterwards and helped keep me motivated to keep going. By the time I got to mile 5 and change I was really thirsty - I even grabbed a few blackberries on the side of the road to try and help. I did a few pick ups mostly just to get back sooner to get some water.. I was so glad to see Kyle walking out to meet me with a water bottle. I even kept going past the 6 mile mark so I could to the bottle sooner lol and once I did I drank most of it before we walked back to the driveway. Total mileage was 6.05 in 1:01:03 which is fine considering I walked every mile for a minute.
After I got my fill of liquids (including ice cold Endurox) I immediately took an ice bath, showered, and put my feet up until I just had to see the graphs from my garmin (yes I know I'm a nerd). I'm glad we did the brick when we did because about an hour afterwards it started raining and sort of continued into th evening.

got it done

I'm not sure what the deal is but this week felt kind of crazy. I really did try and almost did get my brick work out in on Wed but I ran out of time before my massage apt and who in the right mind exercises after a massage - it would just undo all the good.

Yesterday (Thursday) I got home from work by 5pm and headed out on the bike for 15ish miles with my new toy (garmin forerunner 305) all set up. I headed down to the lake road and was surprised by how much traffic there was so I took it easy on downhills. It was also very windy - seemingly from all directions esp a head wind and some side winds to make things challenging. I did a few intervals - mostly to make it through lights before they changed to red - but what ever works I guess. The entire ride I felt good and strong but mostly just enjoyed being out on my bike. It was short ride so I only drank half a bottle of accelerade and that was about it - not even a gel. In all I rode 15.45 miles in 59:18 (which includes some time waiting for traffic).
I got back and did a quick transition to run - I also had to figure out how to change the mode on the garmin - so while I changed my shoes I quickly looked through the manual and found out how. Super easy - hold down the mode button till a menu shows up then scroll to run and hit enter - very nice. I hit the start button and was off - it took a second - as usual for my legs to realize I was not on a bike any more but that was short lived. I just cruised along and did a 1 mile loop - with no pain in my foot or legs - it was great - I think it is the first brick that I can remember that I have had no issues at all. I LOVED it. I would have kept running but I needed to head out to meet my mom for dinner and to help her make some fun skirts for the crew in Canada. Anyways I ran 1.05 miles in 8:35. Another quick transition and I was off to my moms for pasta and sewing.
Oh yeah and the best part I got to see all the data mapped and graphed out - such fun. I'm sure eventually I will get used to it but right now I think it is just the coolest thing so bear with me I will stop raving about it someday.

After work I met Col down at green lake to get a open water swim in before the sun went down. I wanted to see what my heart rate was like and the distance for the swim so I put the garmin watch part in my swim cap while I swam - looked silly but oh well. We sort of estimated about 45 min or so till the sun went down so I pressed the start button and we got started. As usual I fallowed Col and she slowly pulled away from me but I felt good just kind of did my thing. The water was a bit choppy but not to bad on the way out though I had a harder time on the way back - I felt like I was being pushed into shore more. Otherwise I felt good the entire time - only got one big wave of water up my nose and just cruised along as the sun creped down. Around 40 min we decided we could be done and swam to shore. now the fun part was I pulled my garmin out from my swim cap and found out how far we went (well Col went a bit further). She estimated based on pace and time we probably swam a mile or so and low and behold the garmin said exactly 1 mile :)
Now the funniest part is when I uploaded it and looked on the map and it is all zigzags lol - I did not swim straight at all. Oh well I'm just happy there will be big buoys all on the right side of the swim - which is perfect since I breath right - so no worries.

As far as Ironman I feel rather calm - I know I have prepared as best I can both physically and mentally. I'm also excited to see how I do and be a part of something so huge. I remember last year the energy was so inspirational and positive. Don't get me wrong I think it will be a hard day but I'm looking forward to the challenge and the experience. You only get to do it for the first time once and I don't want to waste any energy or time stressing or freaking out when I could be happy and positive. I think it will be a wonderful experience in so many ways.
Ok enough about that. Off to sleep so I can have energy to train/play tomorrow.

swim + hills

I'll start with Friday night I did a short 22 mile bike ride - kind of an out and back around part of lake sammmamish and back home. My right foot was still rather tender but otherwise the ride was good and uneventful.
Later in the evening I changed my rear tire - Kyle supported me but I did it. I think I bruised my right hand trying to get the tire off - I was slow but eventually I got it done and know that if I have to I can do it at IMC.

This morning Kyle and I met Col and Bryan at Staph's house to do a swim to bike brick. We started out by swimming from Steph's dock on Lake Sammamamish. The plan was to swim for 60 min total so I swam out for 30 min and turned around. the rest of the crew is faster so they swam further than me but I was bale to keep them in sight so it was no big deal. Te water was not to rough but the ski boats did make some big rolling waves every so often that really tossed me around. Then I had a hard time not swimming into shore the last 10 min - it felt like I was having to swim against a current or something. My right hand hurt a little bit - otherwise it was a good swim. I focus on my little mantra reassuring myself that "I'm a strong swimmer" and it kept me going. In all I swam for 62 min - I was tad slower coming back. Kyle had his garmin gps thing and it said he swam 2 miles (I probably swam maybe 400 yrds less than him) which is very cool. I have to say I'm a bit envious of his garmin and am considering if it would be useful for me to get one... I'll come back to that though.

Next up we did a non-rushed transition to our bikes to do a very hilly 45ish mile ride out to Snoqualmie ridge and back. We headed out via the short way around the lake into Issaquah and made the call to go straight up via SE 56th St which was probably not the best call - it was crazy - about 1 mile climbing and almost 400 ft elevation gain... It was hard and I was mostly out of the saddle. The good thing was that there was little to no traffic so I was able to do some switch backing to help but even so it was plane hard - esp to breath haha - but I made it just fine.
We got on to Issaquah Fall City Rd and headed towards the stair step climb to go down. But first Kyle got a flat in his rear tire so he quickly changed the tube and we were back at it.
I was able to go down the stair step hill with out to much braking - there were a ton of people out riding up the hill (I assume prepping for the Beaver Lake Tri next weekend). We dumped out on to 202 and headed to climb up to the top of Snoqualmie falls. We paused at the top to grab some water and regroup a bit before climbing up to the top of Snoqualmie Ridge - the climb always reminds me of the Hawaii 70.3 ride - I think because of the wide shoulders and how gradual it is.
At the top we refilled the rest of our water bottles at Starbucks and started back down. On the down hills I really tried to let them roll and not brake as much as I could handle. At the bottom of the falls we hit a nasty headwind which was kind of surprising. We headed back to another long climb back up the 2 mile long stair step climb. My right hamstring and IT band felt really tight and made the climb even more difficult so I just spun and did not attack it to much. I was starting to get kind of tired as well - I don't think I ate enough. From there it was just some rolling hills and down back around the lake.
I got separated from the group with all the traffic on East lake Samm road I could not see any of the crew and I did not know which way they went around the lake.. So eventually(after calling Kyle) I just headed the short way back to Steph's. Kyle called me back and they waited for me at Bobby's House and we all got the rest of the way back. It wound up only being about 42 miles but I think that is just fine considering all the hills.

Ok so that was my work out today.. Now on to my thoughts about the Garmin Forerunner® 305. The pros are all the things it can track since it has gps, heart rate, optional bike cadence and it can all be uploaded to my mac (polar does not work with macs) and put into my training peaks stuff so Col can really see what I'm up to. The cons are how big it is - it is huge - much bigger than my wrist. I would have to wear sweat band underneath it so that it would not leave my wrist bone all bruised. I'll probably keep contemplating it and see if the pros out way the annoyingly large size.

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.

easter brick

Since the weather was really nice this morning I joined Steph and Kyle for a bike ride. We started from the park and road out on the trail to warm up (and that way if we were to warm or cold we could stop by the cars to change clothes) for 7 miles then headed back - paused at the cars so that Steph could shed her jacket and leg warmers. Then we road out on east lake samm for a while and then back for a total of 27.7 miles in 1:34. It was super cold to start and the word rain was even mentioned but luckily it warmed up and the sun came out to make the ride very enjoyable.
Then right after the ride Kyle and I ran 6.7 miles (only planned 6) out on the gravel trail on east lake samm. Steph told us the general mile mark for half way as the Inglemore hill road intersection.. From the start I was not really feeling the run - by now it was full sun and pretty warm out I had not brought my fuel belt with me and I missed it greatly the entire run. I also forgot to wear my watch - which really messed me up mentally - I'm so used to just checking how long I have been running and/or pace. I had a gel and a bit of water before we got started and it felt like it just sat in my stomach.. It was even worse at half way when I took another gel and did not have any water to help dilute/digest it. That and I did not take any salt before or during either work outs - with the heat I was sweating a lot of salt (well when I say a lot it is nothing compared to kyle ;) hehe) - my stomach felt horrible but I figured I needed to finish what I started so I just kept going. It felt like the longest 6 miles ever - which was right on since it was really 6.7 miles.. A nice thing was that since it was a gravel path my shins and calves never really got to tight or anything. I had started with arm warmers and those were tucked into the back of my shorts at about a quarter of a mile. lol what was I thinking wearing them..
Kyle started to worry about me and started walk back out on the trail after I had been out there for almost an hour and he knew I have been averaging under 9 min miles lately and I was overdue. Luckily he brought some water with him and was sweet enough to share which made the last quarter mile a bit better.
Though I have to say I may not have felt that great but I did enjoy myself and was happy I was out running the whole way. I could not think of anywhere or anything else I would rather do on such a lovely day. That said I was also glad to finish even thought at the time I though I had just finished my slowest 6 miles since last October.. Afterward I drank a bottle of water and we got some sandwiches at subway - I could only really eat half of mine. When we got home I iced up my shins and calves and figured out the actual distance we ran on gmaps - both good things :)