travel day

We made it to Kona with our bikes and luggage...
As soon as we got to the great townhouse we are all staying at Kyle and i changed into swimsuits and headed to the little private beach. It was amazing. We got in the water - which was warm and as soon as I put my head under the crystal clear water I could see all sorts of fishes. The beach is right on a some coral so there is tons to watch and see as you swim. It was great - Kyle ran back and gr abed his snorkel and he found a see turtle that he fallowed around and played with. My swim felt great - the salt water makes me feel very buoyant - I don't have to kick much at all. The taste of salt definitely get in your mouth - but after a while I just got used to it.
Once the sun went down we met up with a friend of Kyle's and his family and had a great dinner - which was exactly what I needed. On the drive back I had the hardest time keeping my eyes open - and as soon as my head his the pillow I was out cold.
This morning we were both up around/before 6a so we put the bikes back together and went for a ride. The road surface is like butter it is so fast and smooth. It was great fun and it felt great to get out and loosen my legs up from sitting so much yesterday on the plane.
Next we are going to hangout with Matthew and his family at their hotel - which they described as Disneyland in Hawaii. lol should be interesting.
The rest of the crew gets in today so we will help get their bikes back and then hopefully we will go get some groceries and snacks.
I do feel a little out of it - I did not eat much yesterday while traveling and I know I did not drink enough because I did not want to have to deal with getting up and waiting for the bathroom on the plane. So today is all about eating enough healthy food and getting plenty of water and electrolytes.

mixed day

It was great to have yesterday off from work and the weather was mostly good so Kyle and I did a bike ride out over the plateau then out to Ames Lake then back via Union Hill Road. Kyle let me choose the route and it had an assortment of hills - from super steep, rolling, long climbs and some familiar downhills so I could work on my fear of descending (as always). It started out a bit chilly - Kyle had a hat, leg and arm warmers on. I was just really glad my left knee did not hurt at all when I was riding - although I could feel some fatigue in my legs from the 8 mile run so I took it sort of easy. Kyle was super nice and mostly stayed with me and we just enjoyed an nice easy ride.
The plan was to do a bike to run brick just to get the legs used to the transition - so we got back home changed shoes and headed out for a short mile or two run. I was only able to make it a block or two before the outside of my left knee started to hurt really bad. Kyle had watched me run and told me it looked like I was pronating on my left foot but once it started to hurt it hurt no matter what I did. So Kyle continued to run a bit further and I started to walk back home. When I got home I put my other pair of running shoes on to see if that made a difference - sadly it did not. I iced my entire left leg as I tried to think positive thoughts that if I stay off it the rest of the week it will be just fine for Saturday... So that is my plan - let it rest and recoup and if nothing else it only hurts in the run and after doing the swim and bike I can run as much as I can and if I have to walk to finish I will. The world is not ending and hopefully everything will be just fine - I will do the best I can.

less than a week to go

Friday night Kyle and I jumped in the lake for our first open water swim of the year. I had planned on swimming 3000yrds in the pool but since it was so nice out it just made sense to get out in the lake. The first little bit was cold - esp on my face but it got better as I warmed up. We swam 2 laps of the 4 buoys - less than 30 min (not really sure because my watch was still messed up). It was good training to have to work on sighting and dealing with the waves from the ski boats. I felt really strong and was able to keep good form, kept my breathing under control and the best part I that with the wetsuit on I did not have to kick at all - though I definitely want to get a new wetsuit in the next month or so. My current one is ok but it chokes me and just fatigues my shoulder.
Saturday I did my last longer run before Hawaii - 8 miles with a bunch of hills - I also waited till the hottest part of the day to help with acclimation. I made sure to take salt before I got started and half way though - which seemed to help some. I can't say I enjoyed the run it was more about just getting it over with - I tried but I just am not feeling solid on the run still. As Kyle keeps telling me - I know it is all in my head and I am doing just fine. I knew my mile marks and the first couple of miles were well under 8 min miles even with some rolling hills but then around mile 3 I got a weird pain on the outside of my left knee. I don't really know what was going on I figure either my calf/skin or my IT band was pulling on it but either way it slowed me down. So my overall time was 1:12:21 - one of the slowest 8 miles I have done in a while. As soon as I got home I iced my entire left leg and did again later in the evening. On a good note I wore the tri shorts and top that I plan to race in and I love both :) and my right foot did not hurt and no other shin issues.
Today I woke up to the sound of rain - so I decided to postpone my planned bike-run brick - instead I switched my Monday swim work out to today. I swam in the pool since I won't get to swim in a wetsuit in Hawaii. I did warm up 400 drills 200 1x300 2x150 3x100 6x25 cool down 200 - in about 40ish minutes. My shoulder did not really hurt - but since I did drills I was really watching my form the entire time.
My left leg is still a bit achy/tender so I have continued to ice and then heat and then gently stretch/massage it though out the day. Other than is this hick up I feel good . I am starting to get all my stuff together and pack. We had our bikes tuned up today and after a ride tomorrow we will probably pack them up. Then it is just a matter of getting everything packed and ready to go. I'm a little nervous about the race just because of the unknown factors - like heat, salt water, traveling, hoping I have trained enough and I can put it all together for a good event. I'm trying not to focus on any real time goal and mostly on finishing with a smile. It is coming up fast so I won't have to wait long to see how it goes. lol

lesson learned

Yesterday Col met me at work and we ran down the waterfront to Myrtle Edwards Park and back for somewhere about 6 miles total. When we got started around 4:15pm it was sunny and hot well 72F which is the hottest it has been when I have ran so far this year. I had one gel before we got started (which is what I always do before a run) and we made our way to the waterfront through the industrial area of town - it was not to bad - I felt genreally tired and my cadance was definatly slower than it has been lately. As we kept going I felt hot and was super thirsty not to mention just out of it - did not help I had messed up my watch settings somehow (didn't matter much but was frustrating all the same). We got to the park and I got some water and rinsed my face quickly then we kept going a bit into the park to get the full 3 miles out - I figured we had gone this far might as well go the full distance. I had my second gel and another gulp of water on our way back out of the park and we were back weiving through people on the waterfront. My legs felt heavy and my pace slowed a bit more. Then a mile or mile and half from the end I started feeling dizzy and some tunnel vision stuff. It pretty much sucked and I shamefully asked to walk the last 100-200 yrds from the end :( When we finished I was very salty and tired.
It may not have helped my ego but it did remind me that I do need to take salt esp when it is warm out - which will be very important in Hawaii next week since it has been in the 80s everyday. I'm also looking forward to getting back in the habit of eating more than twice a day and catching up on my sleep this weekend. Luckily even though it is still busy at work today I don't have an all day meeting so I can have my usual mid morning/afternoon snacks and I slept in this morning (pushed my swim off till tonight).

crazy day

I got up early (well 5 am which is normal really for me) and I was at work by 7ish which is unheard of me. Though it was nice being there so early since there were no distractions I got a ton of work done before everyone else got in. the rest of my day consisted of a all day design meeting. The downfall was that I did not eat when I usually eat esp all my daily snacks - I just had lunch - no mid morning snack or late afternoon snack. By the end of the day I was starving and could totally tell I had not eaten enough today. To make thing worse I guess Since I did not do one of my two work outs this morning I planned on doing them both this evening... Somehow I got enough energy (maybe it was the cofee before I left work) that when I got home I headed out on my bike for a ride - I was completely indecisive (I get like that when I don't eat enough) of where I wanted to ride or what I wanted to do so I just did the least complicated I did the lake loop. It was a really nice evening for riding and I was was late enough getting home from work that most of the traffic had cleared out. Col and I had talked about really pushing myself on the downhills around the lake because I know the route so well so I could practice not braking and deal with my fear so I did that I actually pedaled down all the hills and pushed a big gear as much as I could and as long as I could up the rolling hills just for a challenge. Around the lake I was bale to average around 19-22 mph which was great then of course I have to climb a big hill to get back home which was easy but much slower. All in all it was a great ride and I love being on my bike - and I finished the 23 mile ride in 1:15 :)
After the ride I changed, ate a nectar bar, finished my accelerade and went and helped my dad move a mattress.. Then went to the pool for a swim. Since Hawaii is only a little over a week away I decided I wanted to see how well i did swimming with no rests between sets so I did 100 x 25 with no rests - I just used my watch to track my 100s to help me keep everything straight. lol I was not super fast all my 100s were around 2 min - some under some over - but I never used a pull buoy (my favorite crutch) and I did not rest at the walls or take any breaks between laps. I felt pretty good - my legs were a bit tired and my shoulder acted up a bit about half way though but I know know that I can swim over the 1.2 mile swim with out resting and way under the cutoff time :) I need all the confidence I can get find now so every little bit helps make me feel better about Hawaii. My final time was 44:42 for 2500yrds.
Ok I think that coveres it for tonight - tomorrow is another crazy day jamm packed with all sorts of fun so off to sleep I go (it is way past my bed time already).