Archive for 2008

Trying Some New Things!

With my training and racing, I tend to be a creature of habit. I love having a routine and love the monotonous lifestyle of a triathlete; sleep, eat train, repeat….. I tend to do the same races every year. I have my favorites. I usually start the year with an April Half Ironman, Wildflower, FL 70.3, Eageleman, Ironman Lake Placid, and Kona. Thses are a few of my favorite races. I like this schedule. The traveling is easy and knowing the course is both comforting and advantageous. However, in the past few years, I have had a very hard time remaining healthy and peaking for Hawaii. So, I have decided to mix things up a little in 09! I am planning on doing an earlier Ironman, then spending the rest of the summer working on my swimming and racing a ton of 70.3’s with the ultimate goal of finally improving on my 8th place finish from 3 years ago. I can’t believe it has been 3 years since I had a good race there!

In attempt to further mix things up, I will also be working with a new coach next year; Cliff English. Leaving my coach who I have been with for 3 years was a very very difficult decision for me. I felt like I needed a change and I wanted to have a coach who was based in the U.S. Cliff now resides in Tucson Arizona, which works out very well for me as Kelly and I were planning on setting up camp their this winter. It will be great to have a coach on hand and a group of amazing athletes to train with. I’ve heard so many positive things about Cliff and I am excited to work with him in the years to come.

Season Wrap Up

Once again, it’s been a while since I updated my site. I was so upset after my DNF in Kona, I just wanted to put the race behind me and move on. Kona was the typical Ironman Horror story. I had to take 3 weeks off from swimming before Kona becuase I had another flair up with my shoulder. I had a few decent swims race week but unfortunatley my layoff caused me to lose quite a bit of fitness and I came out of the water with another PW (personal worst!) seems to be the year for swim PWs, but I have some ideas for next year and I am believe it or not, very excited to start my swim focus. Anyway, back to the race. I felt great on the bike, and started moving up through the field. Unfortunately, at about the 2 hour mark, I went to take a salt tablet and they were gone! The wind blew them off my bike and I had to complete the bike without any salt tablets. I felt so good on the bike, so I wasn’t really that worried. I moved up through the field and entered T2 in 17th place and the 5th fastest bike split. This was the highest I have ever entered T2, so I was confident I could run about a 3:05-3:07 and finish in the top 10 . My legs felt great off the bike and I started running 6:50s. Unfortunately at mile 2, my stomach started to cramp badly and by mile 5, the porta potty stops started. I was so upset, because I was holding 7 min pace, but every time I stopped I would put in an 8:30 mile pace. I was having a hard time eating and drinking because of my stomach cramps and by mile 13, I was so dehydrated my right hamstring cramped badly. I chugged gatorade, stretched, tried to walk it off, but it just wouldn’t release. I hobbled to mile 15 where I eventually called it a day. It was a hard decision to make. I am a firm believer in, you finish what you start and you learn a great deal about yourself when you suffer badly in races. There are times to tough it out and there are times to throw in the towel. Last year I raced Kona with a stress fracture in my femur. I toughed it out, suffered a great deal and finished just to finish. I couldn’t do it this year. I didn’t want to risk tearing my hamstring and being out for an extended amount of time. I had to take 4 months off from training after Kona last year and I chose to put my health first.

After Kona, I decided I would do Ironman Arizona. I trained so hard for Kona. I felt so fit and I didn’t want to waist all that fitness. I didn’t want to end my season with a DNF. Unfortunately as soon as I got home from Hawaii, I came down with bronchitis and was forced to rest for 2 weeks. That left me with 2.5 weeks of training and a 10 day taper going into IMAZ. All I could do was have faith that the training I did all year, would still be in me. I ended up finishing 4th and top American in a very competitive international field. Considering the obstacles that I had to overcome with my shoulder and illness, I am happy with my race. I will post a race report this week. Below are a few photos of the day.

Ford Ironman Arizona

Ironman World Championships

She’s all dressed up and ready to go!!

Finally it’s here; the day before the race! Not exactly my favorite day of the week, but I am getting through it ok. The bags are all packed and the bike is ready for drop off. Then its just sit around, eat and wait! I was one of 3 lucky athletes to get my hands on the new Zipp VumaChrono crankset. It is one hell of a crankset; 9 sec over 40K faster than the other aero cranksets out there and lighter too! I can’t wait to test it out on the Queen K.

Week 1 in Kona

I can’t believe I’ve been in Kona for a week already. Where does the time go! The week totally flew by. I flew out last Wednesday with my mom and early this week Brian and his family, Kelly and Tanja all arrived. I have a great support crew this year!

I got in some good training sessions on the course. Last weekend, I drove up to Waikaloa and ride up to Hawi and back. I was surprised how windy it was out there! Being so light, the winds can really push me around, so ideal for me would be light winds on the bike and hot and sunny for the run. However this is Hawaii, so I’m sure we will get all that and more! The following day, I drove out to the energy lab with my water girl (mom!) for my weekly long run (1 hour ha!) I threw in some tempo efforts and felt great. Check out my new race shoes in the photo below. I call them my ABA’s (American Bad Ass shoes). They’re seriously the perfect race shoe. Anyone who saw my feet after Kona last year and then after LP this year would attest to that! What a difference!

It feels so good to be here healthy and relaxed and just ready to go out race and give it my all. I’m so relaxed this year. My theme is just to race for the love of the sport and be grateful that I am healthy and able to live this wonderful lifestyle. This was my attitude in 2005, when I finished 8th. Sure, I had the goal of breaking into the top 10 like everyone else, but I felt so fit and I was just so excited to race and test myself against the best athletes in the world. I came to Kona last year so angry and frustrated. I was angry that in 06, I had a stomach bug and had a horrible race, I was angry that I separated my shoulder and missed Lake Placid and 2 months of racing and I was angry that I arrived in Kona with a leg injury (later to find out it was a femoral stress fracture). This year, I am just trying to focus on all the positive experiences that I’ve had, not just this year but over the course of the past 7 years. Always remembering why I am here in Kona, what drew me here back in 2000 and why I come back every year. I’ll give it my all on Saturday and as long as I do that, I will be happy when I cross the finish line. I’m living my dream.

A Win in Cancun

Well after 6 weeks in Boulder, I wasn’t quite ready to go home, so I made a last minute decision to race the Cancun 70.3.

The race went well and it was good to see that my fitness and heat tolerance is on track for Kona (see my homepage for a race report). I am now home in Vermont. The weather has been great and I got to do my last long ride under sunny skies and upper 70 temps. I felt great and could definitely feel the difference biking at sea level. It was nice to be able to drink out of my water bottle without gasping for air! Late September is my favorite season in Vermont. The leaves are starting to change, but it is still sunny and relatively warm. I am home for just a few more days, then I am off to Hawaii for 2 weeks!

Boulder Training Camp Wrap Up

I’m looking forward to going home and seeing my husband and my 3 boys (T, Kona and Thunder), but part of me is sad to leave. I love the training here in Boulder. I love the cycling routes, the running trails and having my choice of 4-5 groups to swim with everyday. But mostly, I love being with my sister. We are so close and it is so hard for us to live apart. We have so much fun together. The past 6 weeks have been great. Lots of lattes, kick ass runs, laughs and even a little trash talking. Kelly’s running has taken off over the past month and I can’t wait to see how she does in the National 10 mile Championships in 2 weeks. Then she will fly out to Kona right after the race. Every year, she says she can’t do it and every year she out there on the Queen K screaming at me to run faster!

Top 3 things I’ve learned in Boulder:

1. 6 am swim workouts are not that bad if you have a good group to swim with and Wolfgang coaching you.

2. Never tell a CAT 2 Cyclist you want to do a hard 6 hour ride! ouch!

3. Kelly is definitely the evil twin. again ouch, she is tough!

Ironman Cancun 70.3

Kelly Wins Skirt Chaser 5K

Kelly is back at it. Hitting the pavement and tearing it up. Last weekend she went to Denver to race the Skirt Chaser 5K. The race was started by Skirts Sports owner Nichole DeBoom (www.skirtsports.com) . The women go off 3 minutes before the men, all wearing Skirts of course. There were a few very fast men there and Kelly really had to hoof it to get this win. I can’t tell you how good it feels to see here racing and training hard again.

Yesterday we headed out for our easy recovery run. We decided to venture over to the Switzerland Trail. It is a jeep trail starting about 8500 ft. Good thing it was a recovery day. Unfortunately, it was an unusually rainy day and I could barely see Kelly in front of me, never mind the beautiful Rockies.

Today was day 1 of my final 2 week hard block before I start my 2 week taper for Kona. The alarm went off at 6am. My friends back home would be so proud of me! Except it was pouring and cold out, so I turned off the alarm and went back to bed. Recovery first right:) . We started our day off with a 90 min tempo run around the Boulder Res. Kelly is getting fitter and fitter every day and today it was really hard to stay with her. I did the best I could, then came home and took a nap. Those who know me, know that I have to be very tired to nap! Today I needed it and I actually fell asleep. I woke up and hopped on my bike for my threshold workout. My legs were pretty trashed form the run, but I did the best I could. After the bike workout, I was soooo wishing that I didn’t turn off the alarm so that I could be done with the day. Fortunately, there was a masters swim group tonight. So, all I had to do was make it the pool deck and I would have a good workout. I can’t tell you how much swimming with a group has helped my swimming and mentally it is sooo much easier to swim with a group. I swam by myself for years and I was starting the dread my swim workouts. Banging out 5000Y workouts solo takes so much mental energy. Especially when you are not a strong swimmer and even easy recovery swims are not that easy!! Run and bike training for me, is so enjoyable. I love the feeling of sweating, muscles burning, heart popping out of your chest. I never get that rush, that high from swimming. For me swimming is all work. I ran into Greg Bennett at the pool the other day. He has a saying “The bike is his strength, running is his passion and the swim is his work.” I can totally relate to this!