final pre race days

On Wed (Nov 5th) we got up a little early (at least for Kyle) to swim with James. The weather was still kind of icky - windy, kind of cold, and lots of waves. The swim actually went really good. The water is a great temp - not to cold but also not to warm. I swam all over the place and never in straight line. I blame the waves that kept pushing me around...
Afterward swimming my Mom & Jerry cooked us all a super yummy breakfast of eggs, toast and oatmeal.
Then we tried to go see the Big Cat Rescue but misunderstood that you had to be there at 9am or 3pm only. Oh well we met up with my Aunt Bernice who lives in Tampa and headed back to Clearwater.
Once back in town we stopped off at the race expo and did athlete check-in and walked though the expo. I was excited to see that all the gear was blue - my favorite color :) So I just had to get a pair of arm warmers, bike jersey and tri shorts. We also picked up some cool visors.
After spending way to much money Kyle got changed and went for bike ride with James while I walked along the beach with my Mom and my Aunt. Then I put my feet up and relaxed till dinner. I'm glad I decided not to ride with the guys since they came back saying that they feared for their lives a couple of times - I guess the drivers around here are not very considerate to cyclists.

The sun finally came back on Thursday :) We started the day off with a visit to the Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Fl. We had wanted to go on Wed but did not make the tour times. The tour was amazing. You get to see all sorts of cats and support a great cause.
Afterwards we met up Col, Bryan and Liz at the Tampa airport to help get them and all there gear to the condo. They played bike for a while. Kyle's dad met us in Clearwater. They went of and got checked in and all that sort of stuff, Kyle went for a run and I went to the hot tub to stretched my legs out.
In the evening we went to the Athlete Welcome dinner which was out on a beach and had a good buffet style dinner. The weird thing was is that they had alcohol but no gatorade or even pop.. The presentation was kind of dry and boring but oh well.

Friday morning I got up a little earlier than Kyle and went for a short easy run - at 7am it was already warm enough to run in a tank and shorts.. Once I got back Kyle was up and we headed out to go for a swim. The water was calm!!! no waves, no swells. it was wonderful and the best thing is that the swim course buoys are set up.

We only swam for about 15 - 20 minutes but I focused on sighting and swimming straight. The water felt great and so much easier than the waves of the days before.
Next up was a super short bike ride just to make sure everything worked as expected then final run through of gear bags to make sure I had everything I wanted in them.
We met James over at the expo and checked our bikes and both gear bags. I had a good spot on the end of a rack but it was a ways away from the rest of my age group which was kind of weird.
Of course we had to walk through the expo again and Kyle talked to the Newton guy about the gortex winter shoes and grabbed a pair to run in for the Seattle Half Marathon. After talking with Kainoa about final race/nutrition/mental plans I spent the rest of the day/night was spent with my feet up in compression tights.

were did the sun go

Yesterday was 81°F today it was 68 °F so much for getting used to some heat. We started out the day with a swim even though the water looked less than ideal mostly grey and windy = rough water..
It took a bit to get brave the chill but once in the water it felt great. I was able to get in a good rhythm even though the water was so wavy. The best part was that usually Kyle pulls away from me and continues to but today I was able to stay closure to him than normal :)
We swam for about 25 min with a few hard efforts for a minute and then just tried not to get water up my nose.
There are more and more skinny tri people showing up, I think I counted 20 or so swimming at the same time as us and then more on their bikes and a few more running.. skinny tri people are taking over this town..

After swimming Kyle and I joined my Mom and Jerry for some to breakfast to a place called Kellys in Dunedin who had super yummy eggs. Once adequately fueled we continued up to the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs. We walked through the never ending tourist stores which answered where all the clutter in people houses comes from.. I limited my purchases to some hand made soap and some fudge for my after race treat. We also tested one of the greek restaurant s rice pudding and some greek coffee.

The sun had still not come out so when we got back to the condo we headed out on a bike ride. Before really getting started we met up with James a friend we met at the Hawaii 70.3 - of course before we could get rolling kyle and him had to talk bike tech a bit - boys are so funny lol.
We rode out over the cause way and then out on some bike trail. The cause way was actually kind of fun to ride over - a good climb up and a fun descend with a great run out. On the way back it was bit windy but nothing to bad at all. On the way down I did wish I could have added some weight because the guys completely smoked me but oh well not worth it. The rest of the ride was insanely flat. We wounded up spending most of the ride chatting and catching up to them with a few little sprints. We were out riding for an hour and got back just before sunset. It felt great to be on my bike :)

Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit warmer - maybe not 81°F but I am on vacation and would like some sun and need to soak up some Vitamin D.

keep moving

Last night Marissa and I went down to green lake for a swim. For the first time in a long time I was actually glad to get in my wetsuit because I was cold just getting ready. The water was calm and there were bits of blue sky but the temperature is getting cooler everyday. I was a bit jealous of Marissa's full sleeve wetsuit. I stuck my toe in the water and it was cool to the touch - which made it a mental challenge to get in the water but of course I did.
Once I got swimming I had to keep moving or I would get cold. It was really pretty on the way out - or maybe it was my blue tinted googles or the evening lighting - either way I wished I had a camera. As we turned to go back the clouds came in with some wind to rough up the water a little bit. It was not to bad but I got a lot more water up my nose on the way back. The coldest part was taking the wetsuit off on the dock - I was standing there shivering till I got a jacket on at the car.

Needless to say I miss the summer weather... but it is time to get over it. I figure I have 2 more weeks till Black Diamond Olympic then I can at least move my swims indoor.

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 :)

back at it

After two full weeks of recovery, naps, easy work outs and even some travel on Monday I got back to training with a 2600 yrd swim. I felt surprisingly good - not that all of of a sudden I was fast but I felt good. I got a little tired by the last 400 yrds or so but was still able to pull off some negative sets before cooling down. It felt good to be back in the pool even though I had intended to go to early morning masters and just could not get myself out of bed early enough to - so there is always next week.

Tuesday morning I did pilates with Monique as usual - my back and hips are still really tight. I'm just happy my shoulder and upper back strength is getting a lot strong and I don't have to deal with much pain from my left shoulder anymore. Now the main goal has been increasing my flexibility/rotation and upper body strength to help my swim. After Monique smoked my upper body she was nice enough to inflict some ART on my hip flexors...
To change things up a bit yesterday instead of going to greenlake to open water swim Marissa and I went to Madison beach. The beach was pretty crowded with little kids and families trying to escape the heat. I was surprised to see so many people in wetsuits swimming laps inside the roped off area. We swam north from the beach to the tennis club which others have estimated about 1.4 miles - which took about 50 min. On the way out I stopped about every 5 min or so so that we stayed together but on the way back a group of triathletes found us so I swam with out stopping all the way back which felt really good. Though I felt like I was pushed around by the waves from the boats and stuff more than on the way out. The only negative thing was that I had forgotten my ear plugs and as soon as I got out of the water I felt a little dizzy for about 15 min or so.

Now this morning was lots of fun - I dragged Kyle out of bed at 5:15 am to go do a tempo bike ride. I don't think he woke up till almost 30 min into the ride. It was a gorgeous morning - saw the sun come up and the mist rise off the fields at Marymoore park. I started with a nice warm up then really focused on picking up the intensity to put me in my heart rate zone 3 and keeping my cadence up in the 80-90 rpms. By the half way point I was so warm I pulled off my arm warmers, gloves and could not keep my glasses from fogging up. We kept the intensity up all the way back - especially up the last hill then turned it off and cooled down. I stretched out and rushed to get to work in time. It was the best way to start the day - I felt great and loved the challenge to focus and keep the intensity up for at least 45 min. Now Kyle was not really awake but I was proud of myself for never letting him get away from me and half the ride he let me lead :)
My evening run was a totally different story - it felt like it was in the 80s and crazy humid. Marissa and I met to do a moderate 60 min run around green lake. It was hard to keep my heart rate in zone 2 in the heat - and there was no way I could on the hills but I did keep it reasonably low. We stopped at every water fountain we saw to help survive the heat. My legs felt a little heavy from the ride in the morning but in a good way and I just focused on quick turn over.

Luckily tomorrow is my rest day - well I am doing pilates in the morning but nothing else so that I can get some rest before some craziness this weekend... but I'm not spilling the beans on that just yet ;)

Ok time to try and get some sleep in this heat...

something clicked

I'm not sure why but last night I had one of my best swims in a long time or at least it feels that way. I swam at green lake after work with Marissa. Right from the start I felt relaxed and smooth in the water.. and the best part is I had fun. It completely reminded me why I do this stuff in the first place - because it is FUN. I have no clue how far I swam or how fast - we swam on time - 35 min total and I could have kept going if it was just me. It only added to it that the weather was really nice yesterday, the water was actually kind of choppy but no big deal and the water was a good temp (though I actually got sort of warm in my wet suit by the end). It was a great swim and exactly what I needed.

in the lake again

After taking yesterday completely off for some much needed rest and recovery from the weekend I started my day off with Pilates with Monique. As usual she completely kicked my ass (well actually today it was a lot of upper body stuff to).. So a good full body work out which is always good.

Then after work Marissa and I went for a maiden swim in Greenlake for the year. It was drizzly in the morning so I questioned myself a few time in the morning when I was grabbing my wetsuit but by the afternoon it was sunny and pretty warm. I only wanted to swim about 20 min - nothing to long or intense just something to get back into open water swimming really. Also I was worried about it being to cold and did not want to be out in cld water to long - esp since I don't have full sleeves on my wetsuit. It was a bit chilly for the first 5 min but once I warmed up then it was perfect. We just swam 10 min out then back staying pretty close to shore. There were a few people out fishing which is sort of sketchy - really did not want to get caught on aline or something messed up like that. The people out on boats just looked at us like we were crazy. But it was really good. I worked a lot of keeping the form I have been working on in the pool so much and on sighting.
Monique had suggested I work on doing a forward sight with out fulling bring my head completely out of the water - essentially just so my eyes come above the surface of the water. It took a while but on the way back I was able to do it pretty well - or at least well enough for the first time trying it. What I really liked about it is that I could keep my rhythm better and not mess up my form as much when I needed to sight. My legs/hips did not sink as much. I also felt like I was able to swim a little straighter - always a good thing.

another day in paradise

This morning I woke up around 4 am to a huge cramp in my left calf... I screamed and completly freaked Kyle out but it hurt sooo much I almost fell off the bed. It took about a minute to subside a bit but it never really went away. I tossed and turned till about 6:30a and just got up and had some breakfast. I talked Kyle into getting up eventually and we headed to the beach for a morning swim. It was really windy... Though I was glad we were not riding in it swimming was also pretty difficult - the water was super choppy.
Kyle tested out his speed suit for the swim.


We swam out to the boat and back 6 times - based on the time I think it is about 400 yds out and back so I'm estimating about 2400 yds give or take a few. I felt really good and mostly focus on swimming straight and not getting water up my nose.

Afterwards Kyle made his favorite Banana Macadamia Nut Pancakes for breakfast. Then we were off to pick up some more CO2, a tube, and some other random things in town. Kyle wound up getting some new snorkel fins that are split and easier on his knee...e got back to the condo to eat some lunch. We spent a couple hours tinkering with bikes and relaxing. Kyle put fresh bar tape on my bike - it looks awesome with baby blue :) (you can't really tell in the pic but trust me it looks awesome and makes me very happy)

I wanted to go swimming again and Kyle wanted to try out his new snorkel gear. We fallowed fish for about a half an hour - Kyle spent most of it video taping them lol.

My calf was still bothering me so I wanted to warm the muscles up a bit and hope it would loosen up some. We rode down to the long out and back of the run.. It was amazing as we started down it the temp went up a few degrees. It was great to ride down there - it is a gradual downhill on the way out and then you climb out. It was not as bad as I remember it from last year which is awesome. I know to take advantage of the down hill and then just stay strong on the way back and get out of it as fast as I can lol. I don't have to be afraid of it - it is only a mile or so and I can get through it :) I'll run in one of the days this week to prove it to myself again. and best of all my calf did loosen up enough to not hurt when I walk...

Ok that covers another day in Hawaii.. and a whole week to go :) hehe

I thought things would slow down

After Ironman but no not at all I seem to still pack the weekends full - probably even more so.

Saturday Kyle and I swam with Steph in the morning in Lake Sammamish. My plan was to go anywhere from 30 o 45 min total and wound up going 46min. Even though I had my garmin on I'm not totally sure about the distance - it said about 1.5 miles and I know I was not swimming that fast so who knows - I would guess closure to 1.2 miles or so.. I mostly felt ok - as usual I got tired on the way back and felt a bit fatigued - like I was still recovering from Ironman. All the same I kept at it and just enjoyed the swim.

Now on Sunday Kyle was doing the Kirkland Triathlon and rather than doing it myself I choose to be support crew instead. I had to do a 6 mile run though - now since I knew our families and friends would be there and would most likely want to get some food/breakfast of some sort afterwards (and if I ran home it would be all uphill) I decided to run to the race. I left the house at 5:05a and headed out with reflective stuff, a headlamp, long sleeve, and vest. It was very dark and extremely quiet. I run was very uneventful - took a good 3+ miles to warm up. Legs felt good and only saw 6 cars until I got to the race area. I felt good so I kept running and got about 6.5 miles in 57:03 min and had enough time to change into warmer clothes long before the race started.
Kyle, Col and Futa all did the race - well Futa did the bike as part of a relay team. They all did great and Bryan and I had fun being cheerleaders. (pics are in my photo album)

I was exhausted on Monday - not really because of workouts but more due to early morning and lots of stuff going on so no work outs. I did however go to rei and exchanged my garmin that had gotten water in it and was doing weird things for a dry new one.

Tonight after work I met with Col and did a nice 5 mile run around greenlake. I got out of work a bit later than I expected, then traffic was bad so we got a later start but it was still plenty light out. It was a great night for running and even though the clouds were dark we did not get rained on. The hills were tuff - as usual but I think they have felt worse. It was kind of weird because it really reminded me of last year at this time when I was just starting to get into running and training. I can fully say that even though the conditions and the route are the same I am defiantly a stronger runner now then a year ago - which feels great. Anyway Col and I chatted most of the way about next steps and so forth. My largest goal for the fall/winter is to do a sub 2 hour half marathon (probably Seattle though I would love for a flatter course) - which we both think is do able. Somehow I did not get my new garmin to the synce with the heart rate strap right and it got confused so it said I had a 074 bpm which was so wrong. Oh well it still got the distance and time - 5.01 miles in 43:37 min.

recovering in Maui

Just a few quick things - Kyle and I have been enjoying a wonderful vacation to celebrate some friends getting married in Maui this week (sadly we go home tomorrow night). So I have gradually started getting back to some sort of exercise. Before leaving on Wed afternoon I ran 4 miles around greenlake with Col. As usual I started out a little fast and came to regret it later. I was sort of surprised I did not feel worse - I mean my legs were sort of heavy and my energy was dragging but I kind of just ran the speed I felt like going and it turned out to be about an 8:23 pace. The the other surprise is later in the day I never hit the wall - I did not require a 2 hour nap like after yoga the other day.
We got to Maui late Wed night so we went straight to dinner and then to sleep.
Thursday morning we got up early and headed straight to the beach for a swim and found out that the beach at our hotel sucks for swimming so it was a short one. Though later in the day we found a better beach and went for about a 30 min swim. Kyle saw a sea turtle and there were tons of fish so it was an entertaining swim. I have to say I love swimming in warm salt water - it is like have a wetsuit on but way better. In the evening we went to the rehearsal dinner on a catamaran - sadly there was no wind at all so never really got to sail but otherwise it was a lot of fun.
Friday morning we ran - we both put on our garmins and just started running down the street in front of our hotel. Even at 7am it was already warm and sunny so we both took a salt and I should have probably ate something before because I was sort of dragging a bit. We took it easy and I was just a bit behind Kyle the whole way. We just did a simple out and back and on the way back I stopped for a second at park and washed my face off which did help me feel a bit better. In all we only ran 3 miles in 26:35 min but my legs felt good - still not back to normal but manageable.
Friday afternoon/evening was the wedding which was a lot of fun. Dinner was amazing and the entire event fit the couple perfectly. By the end of the evening everyone was in the pool. lol Needless to say we got to bed late.
This morning I was still awake early and we went out to another beach near by to swim and check out the fish/turtles. We saw two turtles and ton of fish but it was really crowded and kind of windy so we only swam for about 30 min or so. Then later on we went to a bbq at the bride and grooms house and afterwards a group all went to a great little bay for snorkeling so Kyle and swam. We swam in the bay for about an hour or so. We swam to the opening of the bay and back so the current and wind was kind of strong on the way back in so it was a tough swim. The cool was we saw 2 turtles and swam around with them for quite a while and whole bunch of different fish we had not really seen before. I was thoroughly tired afterwards.
Tonight we pack our bag so we can check out super early so we can go do 2.5 hours of kayaking tomorrow morning before we fly out in the evening. So we may or may not run tomorrow but I can guarantee we will swim again... I would post of pics but I can't seem to find either my camera corn or my card reader so when I find those things I will post pics. I highly recommend Maui as the perfect place to recover from an Ironman race.. The combination of relaxed island time and nice weather are perfect. :)

Other news is that both Kyle and I are registered for the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii on May 30th, 2008 with the goal of doing better than this year (should be easy since I walked the whole half marathon) and hopefully we can talk some more of the crew into jdoing it again.

the taper is messing with me

It was planned that Kyle and I would go over to Stephs' place on Lake Samm and swim Sunday Morning but at 8:30a she txt me saying it was nasty on the water. So we stayed in bed and postponed our swim a bit longer. At 9a not much had changed - it was rainy and wavy on the lake - in all not a ideal long swim situation so we bailed on swimming in Lake Samm. The weather was really unmotivating. We talked with Col and Bryan and they felt similar so we all decided to postpone the swim till later in the day and hope for the best. Kyle and I chilled around the house watching soccer and ate some breakfast. I checked in with Bryan a few times and finally they decided they would swim at 1:30p at green lake so we choice to join them. By this time I was tired (not sleepy tired but just tired). I'm not totally sure why since I had done nothing all day thus far - but all the same I was. We got stuck in some traffic of course going across the bridge and finally got top the park and I realized I had forgot my garmin at home :( so I would not know how far I actually swam.
Anyway we got in the water as the rain stopped falling - the water was warm, rather calm and the lake was empty. Col adjusted my training plan from a 90 min swim to a 70 min swim which I was all for. Once in the water they were off at blazing speeds - I still felt tired and just went my own pace. I sighted off them them and just fallowed behind. Around 15 min they hung out and waited for me - probably about 5 min or more I would guess and they were off again. No big deal the nice thing is I know I can swim forever even when I'm tired - I'm just not as fast as the rest of the crew. But otherwise I felt just fine. We reached the docs on the other side and I was at 34 min so I could just turn back but they were not so them swam out to a buoy and added some more distance. I just cruised back to where we started - they passed me about half way. It was better on the way back - the lake was completely glass and the shore is on the right so I swim straighter since I can sight on almost every breath rather than sighting forward. Which would explain why the way back was 1 min faster then the way out. In the end I swam for 68 min which was close enough to the 70 goal. Though kind of a bummer no fun maps or graphs because I forgot my garmin :(

As far as the tiredness Col reassured me that I should be feeling this way and it just the taper - my body is recovering from all the work I have dome over the last 6 months(year) and it is a good thing. I will go with that and continue to trust that I will be set for Sunday - yes this Sunday... It still does not feel real that I will be actually doing an Ironman - who would have ever thought. I feel prepared and look forward to the week to come.

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.

make it a short

I'm going to do this quickly so I can go to bed and then wake up early to do a brick...

First thing I did after work was stop by the Seattle REI and got me a Garmin forerunner 305 and a cadence thing to go with it - sadly it requires 3 hours of battery charging before using so I did not get to use it tonight.

Next I did about a 4 mile run around green lake - including 3 tempo intervals (at 15 min, 20 min and 25 min) then picked up the pace for about the last half mile (though I don't know for sure how far it was). My right foot only hurt a bit at the start but once I was warmed up it was fine. No lower leg pain in either leg - not even any real tightness to speak of :) In all it took me 31:56.

I finished my run about 5 min before Col arrived for an open water swim. I quickly grabbed my swim stuff out of my car and headed down to the water and got in my wetsuit. Col had planned a 45 min swim - so we swam out paused for a moment at around 10ish min and she told me to do two 1 min hard intervals before we turned around at 23 min. So I did the 1st one at 14 min and the second at 19 min - both times I was surprised at how quickly a min went by. I then turned around to head back at 23 min and took a second to see where Col was in relationship to me. Col caught up with me about half way back and told me to be back at the dock at 45 min - which would require me to swim the next 10 min hard to make it... So that is what I did. I kind of went between full all out hard to a more moderate hard but really that 10 min was hard work.. When I got back to the dock it took me a good min to really catch my breath but hey I did it - I was back by 45:07 :)

Kyle is attaching my cadence thing and then off to bed for me.

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.

catch up

Lets see it has been a few days - so just a short recap of what I have been doing for training. I'll try and get back in the groove of posting daily but things have just been busy at work and of course with training so it is hard to find the time with out loosing sleep time.

Monday evening I met up with Col for an open water swim at green lake after work. The lake was surprisingly calm and kind of a bit chilly to start. We swam out for 25 min and then back for a total of 50min. I felt really good, just focused on my form and had a good time.
Afterwards we went and got jamba juice and talked about my nutrition and overall plan for IMC.

Tuesday I ran 5 miles. My left leg felt a bit tight but surprisingly not to bad. My right foot has been acting up and it hurt to start - I probably should have run on a softer surface but it was easier just to run on the road. It seems to hurt more when I'm just walking around than when I'm actually running esp after the first couple miles. In all it took me about 42:34 with hills and all.

Wednesday I had a great massage - she went to town on my legs - and otherwise it was a nice rest day.

Tonight/Thursday Kyle met up with me and we ran around the Bellevue park loop. He brought his gps thing so we finally found out the actual distance - .42 of a mile for a loop - which is retarded since all the signs says half a mile.. Anyway so I ran 8.5 loops or about 3.5 miles. Col told me go hard and do some tempo work so I did. I managed to forget sunglasses or a hat and I wore all black which sucked because it was sunny and rather hot. My first couple of miles were difficult - my legs felt heavy, my foot ached, I was squinting in the sun and I was burning up. I finally loosened up around almost mile 3. I still went hard every other loop and moderate hard on the others. I was pleasantly surprised that my left leg did not hurt at all - always good :) In all it took me 27:28 to finish up the run and I walked a bit more to loosen up and kind of stretch.

last couple days

Tuesday morning my leg still hurt some so rather than running I did the same mileage/time on an efx/elliptical at the gym. It was boring but it was easier on my leg - in all I did 34min but it felt like much longer. Afterwards I stretched out and massaged my leg as much as I could.

After work I met Col for an open water swim at green lake. I made sure to remind myself many times before and during the swim that "I'm a strong swimmer". It sounds dumb but I felt a lot better the entire swim, it did not matter when I was behind Col or when I got a bit tired I just reminded myself that I could do this and "I'm a strong swimmer" and I kept going. The water as usual was choppy but luckily i think I only got some up my nose once - always a plus.
Col pointed out that I was not rotating as much as I did in the pool so the rest of the time I focused on that. I always feel like I'm going to roll over the other side in the wetsuit but I swam a tad faster -or at least it seemed. I swam for about and hour and afterwards I felt a lot more confident for Canada.

Wednesday was rest day so that I would have plenty of energy for the weekend so all I did was sleep in and take it easy - oh and iced my leg and foot for good measure a couple times while at work.

Thursday morning I got up early and did a 4 mile run - I was rather reluctant to get out going because my leg still feels tight and all that. Luckily once I got going it was alright. I ran 2 miles down hill then had to do the same back up hill. It was a tad chilly so I was glad I wore a long sleeve shirt. In all the run went well, my leg got sort of tight around mile 3 but nothing to bad.

This (Friday) morning I did a long (3100yrds) swim in the pool. I sort of rolled out of bed but made it to the pool around 5:45a. I did not want to mess with much math so I planned long sets.. 400 warm up, 500, 100 hard, 400, 100 hard x 2, 800, 100 hard, 100 cool down. I focused a lot on form, and on the 100 yrds hard I was able to pick up the pace to 1:46 which felt great. I was surprised at how easy it was to swim long sets - I remember when 500 seemed like forever. I finished up in 1:03 which also made me feel more confident about Ironman Canada. I know I could swim another 1100yrds in under 30 min which would put my swim time at around 90 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.

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...

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 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.