CrazyTriMom

Welcome Home Obi

2012-01-08T14:54:00.001-08:00

he has peed and pooped outside, he is absolutely adorable. He really is like a baby, he runs and plays outside for 15 minutes with my kids and then immediately takes a nap. Tonight is the first night in his new home, lets hope he likes it and mommy gets some sleep.

Resolution Run 5k race report

2012-01-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

So over the last few days I twisted my lower back putting christmas boxes away, staying up and getting up multiple times a night to give my daughter her medications and I was feeling a bit tired, that being said the prediction that the temps were going to be in the 50's for a January running race was very compelling and my need to just go and run was super high. I also love going to running races because I usually know nobody and I get to be alone in my thoughts and just go do my thing and leave.

After my kids basketball games in the morning I headed down to Lexington for the Resolution 5k road race, I have to say even though it started 15 minutes late, it was well run, tons of parking, great support on the course and lots of vendors at the end, it was great. The weather was getting warmer by the minute, most people had the tights on, long sleeves, hats and gloves, I was wearing shorts and a tank top and boy was I glad that is what I wore, it got up to 60 degrees out there and I was wearing the perfect outfit for that.

The course was good, they said it was all flat on the course description, it wasn't but it wasn't hilly either, it had some inclines, maybe 2-3% for 1/4 of a mile or so and then it would descend a bit, they had people giving out mile times at mile 1 and 2 which was nice and it was chipped timed. All I was told by coachie was to give it all I had, well, feeling like I was going to puke I guess I gave it all I had. Mile 1 was 7.01 on my watch but the girl called out 7.08 to me, I hit mile 2 at 14:08 I believe and then all I know is that the last quarter mile running into the finish I averaged a 5:54 pace. There was an incline of about 3-4% with 1/2 mile to go and I saw my time start to drop so when I crested the top and knew I had only a quarter to go I just gave it all I had. 22:06:08, 7:06 pace. Cool runnings has me at 22:07 with a 7:07 pace, so pretty close. I ran the Frosty 5k on December 11th in 22:36 with avg pace on my watch 7:12, via coolrunnings it was a 7:16. I PRd on the 11th of December and I PR'd by 30 seconds yesterday. It was the first time I placed in my age group in a running race, 3rd and I was either 13th or 14th overall female, I'll take it for a 43 year old lady.

I still don't like running 5ks, they are very hard, feeling that way puts me in a very uncomfortable place but I'm getting used to it and if I can keep improving I'm hoping to go sub 7's sometime this year. 5k's are not my goal I'm a distance runner but it would be nice to PR all distances while I'm training for ironman.

Anyhoo, a little recovery bike and run later and we pick up Obi today, hope you guys have a great one.

Christmas 2011 in pictures....

2012-01-02T17:14:00.001-08:00

We had a great Christmas in our new house, it was a beautiful day, the kids were happy, parents were happy and the weather was beautiful. I was able to go for my long run, the kids played with all their toys for many hours, what could be better. Some of my favorite pictures of the day were of the view from our house and the amazing steam coming off the water and of course of my family. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

This makes my daughter happy when she's so sick...

2012-01-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

This is Obi ( our new name for our pup, short for, Obi One Kanobi from Star Wars). He is not a little man anymore, by the looks of it he's going to be quite big. I already love him and so does my daughter. AFter almost a month of her not feeling well and then over the last 5 days being in and out of the doctors office and ER these pictures put a smile on her face. Love you Shea, hope you feel better.

The other picture is of Obi and his two sisters, it was a very small litter unfortunately and the dad died right after he did the job with the mom, he was 10. At least Terminator went out happy.

He's getting bigger. Still no name

2011-12-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

Look at his cute face, if you guys have any suggestions for names we would love your input. What we have so far are:

1. Brady
2. Zeus
3. Vader
4. Percy
5. Obi ( for Obi One Kanobi)

Vacation craziness

2011-12-23T07:04:00.000-08:00

ok, so my kids have been out of school since last friday ( they had a half day) and its been and has always been a challenge to try to keep them entertained and unbloodied for the entire day. What makes it even harder is that most of their friends are still in school until today so playdates are hard. We usually make 1 trip to the ER during this time but so far so good. Its also a challenge to get all my workouts in while the kids are home as well ( daddy leaves early and is home late) thus I need to split workouts or get real creative on how to get them in, it actually makes me a little stressed if I was to be completely honest, I hate not following the plan to a "T".

( a few examples of craziness: the throwing of glass ornaments which smashed on the ground, clogged toilet with god knows what clogged it up inside, every room of the house filled with games on the floor, footballs, basketballs and soccer balls even though I've stated a million times there is no ball playing in the house- how does it still happen- Why don't they listen- UGG)

Anyhoo, I've been successful having some playdates on different days, there has been a small little winter camp for a few hours in the morning that my younger two have gone to a few times but my older boys want nothing to do with it. Vacation wouldn't be so hard if my kids could actually get along for prolonged periods of time, usually it lasts about 1-2hrs but thats about it then the mayhem starts and the chasing and tackling and name calling begins and usually lasts for the remaining part of the day. There is only so much monopoly, risk, clue, harry potter trivia, chess, art projects I can do all day, it can be a real challenge. My kids love to go outside and they will play for long periods of time they just don't want to play with each other for long periods of time, I'm hoping that with time this will change, having 4 kids so close in age is a blessing but it is also hard for them.

I am also trying to sneak wrapping presents and still trying to buy some with them around, its a bit difficult but I'm running out of time and it has to be done.

I wouldn't change being a stay at home mom, its the best thing in the world but it has its challenges. I will keep you posted on any ER visits or strange happenings while the kids are home, I'm sure I'll have a bunch.

On the workout front things are good, steadily going along, working a lot of zone 1 stuff getting my speeds up and watts up and keeping the HR where it needs to be, its hard and monotonous at times but I have to say I am starting to like the zone 1 stuff, it never feels like I'm working that hard so I know I'm doing the right thing. I am struggling with signing up for my first official bike race ( the Tour de Battenkill) in April, I really want to focus on my bike fitness this off season and this race will really be a test of my fitness at the time, however I will be coming off of a 1/2 ironman so it might be tough and its another weekend I would be away from the kids. Anyway, still thinking and will make my decision this weekend. At least coach is supportive which is great.

My new baby coming on January 7th

2011-12-09T20:37:00.000-08:00

My little man is the one to the far right, the only male in the litter. We don't have a name yet for him but Zeus and Vader are in the top two. I can't wait, its been way too long since Kota passed and I need my puppy.

Mommy Lion in full attack mode

2011-11-20T16:11:00.000-08:00

Today was a very long day. Today was flag football " super bowl" sunday for the Furse family. My son Cade was playing in the superbowl for the 5-6yr old division, my daughter Shea and son Alex were playing in the semi-playoffs first and if they won would be playing in the superbowl for the 7-8 yr olds and my son Kellen was playing in the superbowl for the 9-11yr olds.

Ok, game #1 the 7-8yr olds won to make it into the superbowl. My son Cades team won the 5-6yr old superbowl by 3 touchdowns, it was super fun they haven't lost a game for over a year, they are just amazing. Then it was off to the superbowl for my son and daughter. Well, lets just say, two seasons in a row this team has gone undefeated to only lose in the superbowl, its so heartbreaking but the kids seemed to love the trophies they got so they looked happy and it didn't seem to bother them.

Ok, the game of the day, our 9-11yr old Bucs playing the Vikings. Over the last 2 years fall and spring we go back and forth between who wins and who loses the super bowl, we were fortunate the last two times to win but this year the Vikings were stronger, faster and a mighty opponent. Anyhoo, my son Kellen plays quarterback and also defense, he had an incredible first half, a few long touchdowns some great runs it was awesome. The only problem that I was noticing is that the Viking's had a blitzer who came hard at Kellen almost every down and twice in the first half almost knocked him down, he hit him hard and Kellen lost his balance and had to really get his body together to get the ball off, I commended Kellen for his ability to shake this kid off but I was "pissed"that this kid was doing this and there was no call for a penalty and the kids coach didn't do anything about it. I understand the adrenalin of the situation, it very well could of been completely unintentional and just him being full of energy during the plays, that being said I was getting a bit frustrated. This is FLAG FOOTBALL no TACKLE.

Ok, we are up 18 to 12 with just about 8 minutes to go to play and kellen drops back to pass and this kid comes rushing in and completely takes him out, Kellen is down and grabbing his knee, he is crying and just really upset. Phil runs over to him to check on him and now I run out to check on him. Phil said it didn't look good, the way his leg bent back, etc... I looked at the ref and just said, " Are you kidding me, this is the 3rd time this kid has done this to my son and now he is really hurt, how can this keep happening, this isn't tackle football, this is why we play flag". The ref gave the kid a roughing of the passer penalty which gave us a first down but I still had to carry my child off the field and make sure he was ok.

To make a long story short after assessing him and getting him to calm down he ended up being ok, shooken up and I'm sure he'll have a nasty bruise on the inside of his knee tomorrow but he was ok to go back into the game and play. Our Buc's ended up winning 18 to 12 and are the SuperBowl 9-11 champs.

What I was mad about was that the coaches on the other team didn't take the child out for a few downs to make sure the child understood that his actions weren't right, to reinforce and to have the child check in with himself regarding his adrenalin and to make sure he knew what he was doing was a bit " too" aggressive for FLAG FOOTBALL, but that didn't happen, And, it took 3 hits to my son for the referee to give a roughing of the passer penalty to their team, which maybe if each time this happened to my son they were penalized he might not of been hurt late in the game. I also wish that the child who did this to Kellen apologized to him after the game, which he didn't. As a parent my son would of been dragged by his ears to apologize to the coach and the child if he or she ever did that, intentional or not, and to also make sure the kid was fine, its just what you do, its the right thing to do.

I'm not an alarmist parent, I'm one whose daughter was bleeding during the middle of her game today, I wiped off her mouth told her to put her mouthguard in and get back in to play, it takes a lot for me to get pissed and I was pissed today. Don't mess with mommy lion because you don't want to meet her on any field.

6 hrs today at the flag football field, two super bowl champions and 1 runner-up, it was a great day. I am a big supporter of good sportsmanship and that should come first in any situation, its not only the child's responsibility but the coaches, parents, and refs to make sure this occurs on and off the field, thats just my two cents.

" The Race", by D.H. Groberg

2011-11-19T05:26:00.000-08:00

I know this might be a bit long but the message is so very clear and pure, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Race

" Quit, give up, you're beaten"
They shout at you and plead
"There's just too much against you
This time you can't succeed".

And as I start to hang my head
In front of failures face
My downward fall is broken by
The memory of a race

And hope refills my weakened will
As I recall that scene
Or just the thought of that short race
Rejuvenates my being

Children's race, young boys
Young men, how I remember well
Excitement sure, but also fear
It wasn't hard to tell

They all lined up so full of hope
Each thought to win that race
Or tie for first, or if not that
At least take second place

The fathers watched from off the side
Each cheering for his son
And each boy hoped to show his dad
That he could be the one

The whistle blew and off they went
Young hearts and hopes afire
To win and be the hero there
Was each young boys desire

And one boy in particular

Whose dad was in the crowd
Was running near the lead and thought
" My dad will be so proud"

But as they speeded down the field
Across a shallow dip
The little boy who thought to win
Lost is step and slipped

Trying hard to catch himself
With hands flew out to brace
And amid the laughter of the crowd
He fell flat on his face

But as he fell his dad stood up
And showed his anxious face
Which to the boy so clearly said
" Get up and win the race"

He quickly rose, no damage done
Behind a bit that's all
And ran with a all his might and mind
To make up for the fall

So anxious to restore himself
To catch up and to win
His mind went faster than his legs
He slipped and fell again

He wished then that he had quit before
With only one disgrace
"I'm hopeless as a runner now
I shouldn't try to race"

But in the laughing crowd he searched
And found his fathers face
That steady look which said again
" Get up and win the race"

So up he jumped to try again
Ten yards behind the last
If I'mg going to gain those yards he thought
I've got to move areal fast

Exerting everything he had
He regained eight or ten
But trying hard to catch the lead
He slipped and fell again

Defeat, he lay there silently
A tear dropped from his eye
There's no sense running anymore
Three strikes, I'm out, why try"

The will to rise had disappeared
All hope had fled away
So far behind so error prone
A loser all the way

"I've lost, so what", he thought
I'll live with my disgrace
But then he thought about his dad
Whom soon he'd have to face

" Get up" the echo sounded low
"Get up" and take your place
You were not meant for failure here'
" Get up", and win the race

With borrowed will " Get up" it said
You haven't lost at all"
For winning is no more than this
To rise each time you fall

So up he rose to run once more
And with a new commit
He resolved, that win or lose
At least he shouldn't quit

So far behind the others now
The most he'd ever been
Still he'd give it all he had
And run as though to win

Three times he'd fallen, stumbling
Three times he'd rose again
Too far behind to hope to win
He still ran to the end

They cheered the winning runner
As he crossed the line first place
Head high and proud and happy
No falling, no disgrace

But when the fallen youngster
Crossed the line, last place
The crowd gave him the greater cheer
For finishing the race

And even though he came in last
With head bent low, unproud
You would have thought he'd won the race
To listen to the crowd

And to his dad he sadly said
" I didn't do too well"
"To me you won", his father said
" You rose each time you fell"

Race photo's

2011-11-15T07:31:00.001-08:00

I have never liked any picture of me from a race, not even ironman, but this one isn't too bad and I was also really proud of the way I performed on this day, it has been a long time since I've been able to say that, maybe 2 years, so posting a picture of the event was a necessity.

Anyhoo, testing is on friday, LT on the bike, getting nervous, wanting to perform well, etc.... I have high hopes for this season if I can continue to stay healthy and follow the core and stay true to the zones I am given. I know I can have more races that I'm proud of and most importantly continue to enjoy what I'm doing, I'll keep you posted.

Back at it......

2011-11-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, since I didn't/ couldn't do IM Arizona due to many family reasons my last official race of the season was the Newburyport 1/2 marathon 3 weeks ago. The 1/2 marathon was a really good race for me and an overall PR of over 3+ minutes. After the race coachie put me on an " absolutely no workout week" which I have never done in over 5 years since embarking on this crazy journey and then 2 full weeks of doing literally 1/4 of the work I normally do and all at recovery paces. To say I'm looking forward to a bit more exercise and a little bit more intensity is an understatement. That being said I have testing coming up this week, a threshold test on the bike on Friday and then my 800 swim test the following week. I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing for the run, either timed mile repeats at the track or a local 5k, we'll have to see what he has in store for me.
I'm a bit nervous about the testing since it feels like I've done nothing for the past 3 weeks and I haven't been fully on the core either so I'm feeling a bit unprepared, we'll see how it goes.

So what's in store for me this season. WEll, for sure I'm scheduled to go to QT2 camp the first weekend in FEbruary in Clearwater, Florida and then following that up with the Hyannis 1/2 marathon at the end of the month. I may possibly be doing Texas 70.3 in early April and then after that I'm not too sure, except for Ironman Mont Tremblant in August of 2012. I need to really figure this out since races are already selling out.

Some goals for me this season are to rebuild my bike fitness and to start performing at where I was two seasons ago but at a better heart rate and where I can run successfully off the bike. I am going to train on a computrainer in the winter and spend some real quality time in volume, f/b a ton of bricks. I also want to do a bit more open water swimming which I wasn't able to do this year which I feel really impacted my races a bit ( not that two races really counts for a season). Anyhoo, psyched to be back at it and can't wait for a full and healthy race season to come.

Happy Training.

I think I have may gone even lower.... Justin Bieber, really?

2011-11-02T10:56:00.001-07:00

Ok, I don't have a ton to say on this topic but here is what I know.

1 year ago after one of his concerts at LA Staples Arena a bodyguard of his supposedly picked this lady out of the audience ( age- 19 at the time) and after his show they supposedly had sex that lasted 30 seconds. He was 16 at the time. Statuatory guidelines for the state of California is under the age of 18. She has given birth to a little boy, she has filed and placed a swoon affidavit in the court of law asking for a paternity test and child support.

My issues with this is a few:

1. She legally has stated that she was 19 and he was 16 and her lawyer did not advise her ( so it seems) that she could be charged with statutory rape, we've seen this locally with elementary teachers sleeping with their students, its gone both ways, female teachers going to prison and male teachers going to prison. Her defense was that " Bieber was the aggressor". So the fuck what, your 19, its against the law, your friggin screwed.

2. Why didn't you address it earlier ( if this were true). Why not go to the family in private, discuss with them the issues, I believe there is a way to test paternity while baby is in utero. Then possibly ( again if this is true) she wouldn't be convicted of statutory rape and things could be handled privately.

This is all just bizarre to me, everybody is up in arms in the media about this, can't believe that this could be true, why would this girl lie, " he's promoting youth and a proper up bringing", etc..... He's a friggin kid, he's a boy and if he had a chance to get laid and was ready what normal teenage boy ( typical) wouldn't do it. That being said, friggin stupid that he didn't wear a condom, stupid on his part and stupid on his bodyguards part ( again, if this is true)

Ok, enough of my stupid, crazy entertainment crap, back to doing 4 th load of laundry.

A whole new low, Kim Kardashian

2011-11-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, Ok, this isn't my typical blog but I was so pissed off about this freaking information I needed to say my two cents, even though my two cents aren't worth anything.

First of all, I do like some reality TV but I don't like it as much as I did when the REal World started back about 20 years ago. Today, I think reality TV has just gone too far, the actors/actresses or contestants go to extremes to get TV coverage to get paid, etc... and we the American people continue to watch with then puts money in their pockets. I mention this with regards to a few shows out there, ( Jersey Shore, All of the Housewive shows-sorry people but this stuff is just bad, Tila Tequila, the Bachelor/bachelorette, Rock of Love , 19 and counting, Kate + 8, etc... Need I go on). One of the worst ones is 16 and pregnant.

Television producers wouldn't be putting out more reality shows if there wasn't money in it, and with the economy tanking and jobs at a minimum ( unless you go to North Dakota I hear where the oil is just flowing and 18,000 jobs are just waiting), people want to make fast money. I mean seriously, Pauly D from the Jersey Shore makes over $30,000 dollars to DJ at a club, Snooki gets more money to speak at a college graduation then Elizabeth Dole or Condeleza Rice, seriously, this is just sickening me.

Anyhoo, I will admit to watching some of these shows over the years, besides survivor I am not and have not ever been an avid watcher or any other real reality show since year 2 of the REal World. That being said, I had a soft spot for Kim Kardashian and I actually thought that after watching a few shows over the last 1 1/2 years she was nice, worked hard but otherwise nice. She isn't my favorite sister ( I like Khloe personally) but even Kim's spoiled like behavior and Diva ask needs she certainly didn't piss me off.

Now, what I will tell you is that I also too thought this romance was a bit awkward between her and Kris Humphries, it was so fast, so quick and where the hell did he really come from? Do you think that E Entertainment went searching for a mate for her? Do you think the guy from the Knicks was asked and he refused so they went to the Nets? Wouldn't this be absolutely crazy if this is actually true. Did Kris Kardashian put this into action, did everyone know including friends and family about the false wedding? Do you think people signed a confidentiality agreement before the wedding as to not disclose the true nature of the wedding? All the news coming out is saying that they never loved each other, they did this to promote their new reality series, Kim and Kourtney take NY. The other funky thing that has been flying on the internet is that Kris Humphreys wasn't liked by the public and TV didn't like him so Kris Kardashian fired him and so they just got rid of him, wrote him out of the reality series. Is this true? I'm not sure but with the NBA lockout I am sure the amount of money this bench warmer made during the 8+ months he has been with her and from the wedding he is set for quite sometime.

Now let me tell you one more thing about why I am so disgusted and why I chose to write about this stupid topic, I watched the first part of the wedding on E while riding my bike on my trainer ( see I did write about my workouts) and there was one scene that Kim Kardashian was with Bruce and she was crying while holding one of her dads shirts and she said that she was going to cut a piece from his shirt and put it in her dress and then she cried and was all emotional and then she brought Kris Humphreys to his grave, etc..... This was really touching and if this is all false which I believe it is I think it was an all time low, it just never should of gone that way.

I hope that reality TV takes a big hit from this and that people take notice that they are tired of being duped and don't want to see this shit anymore. No more Kardashians since we know what we see is mostly not true, no more bachelor or bachelorette-because they never get married anyway ( well 99% don't) and who wants to really see one girl kiss all those guys or a guy kiss all those girls unless its in an adult film) I mean its disgusting and stupid. I won't even walk down the Jersey Shore track, I mean watching the domestic abuse that occurred last year was so upsetting and that they continued to video it and nothing happened and no-one did anything about it,the alcoholism, the possible unprotected sex- this is crazy shit and kids are watching this and and saying, " I can make money doing this too".

Just one more reality show that is absolutely disgusting is " 16 and pregnant" Do you see all the girls in People magazine making money off of this, boob jobs, plastic surgery, more babies,drugs, etc... You think teenage girls around the country see easy money by just getting pregnant- NOT THE RIGHT MESSAGE TO BE SENDING THSE DAYS.

Anyhoo, I can tell you this, I will not watch E entertainment anymore, I'm bitter at Ryan Seacrest for producing the show and besides Survivor I will not watch any reality TV. I am mad and I hope something happens to the Kardashians, there has to be some consequence, some apology to the TV viewers for duping them to just make money, I don't know. Hopefully canceling of the show will send the right message.

Just my two cents... Whats yours.

Newburyport 1/2 marathon

2011-10-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

Untitled by donnafurse at Garmin Connect - Details

( click the above link to view my Garmin file)

Today was a good day, it was great to hear coach say, " Race Executed perfectly" pace and heart rate, still waiting on my grade but I think I may have gotten at least a B+ or A-, I'll keep you posted.

The Green Stride 1/2 marathon today had a beautiful course, some good hills with some good downhills, the weather was perfect, nice and cold with a slight wind and some sun, great day. If there was anything negative about the course it was that they only had water for 10+ miles and the water stops were about every 2 1/2 miles. I train with sports drink only and I make sure to drink pretty consistently, on a hot day this would not of been good for me, I was very lucky. Pre-race was uneventful, nutrition during race was spot on, I kept my pace were I felt most comfortable, I definitely felt a little struggle at mile 11 ( where on my garmin you'll see my slowest mile, 8:21, but there was a very long hill at that point as well), my HR was consistent in the low 160's but I was happy I could engage my heart at the end and get the last two miles up to 173. My last solo 1/2 marathon was in 2009 were I averaged 8:19 per mile and I felt like death over the last 3 miles, my pacing was completely off and my times were not consistent. ( Hyannis 1/2 2009), that course if very flat but it can be windy and cold. My final time was 1:48:59.

Today I did 1:46:03, Avg: 8:03 ( by my garmin, 8:06 on their timer), so 3 minute PR and if you look at my garmin file very consistent miles, I didn't cave at the end, I stayed strong and actually had some good miles for 12 and 13. I know I worked as hard as I could, I couldn't of done more than I did today so in the end I am happy.

PW was happy too, he noted to me that I executed a very good race. I'll take that from coach. Now on to making more improvements and moving on to a very successful 2012.

Whats in your purse today?

2011-10-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, in my purse I have:

1. my 2011 calendar book that contains all my mail, important papers, kids immunization shit, stickies, you name I have it in my book.

2. car keys

3. tape ( don't ask)

4. mouth wash ( free sample at last hotel I stayed at, just didn't take it out)

5.my sons football glove and mouth guard ( it now has sand in it, again don't ask)

6.stretchy band for resistance training

7. powerbar gel chocholate and caffe late

8. motrin bottle

9. Synthroid medication

10. 4 pens

11. Hammer nutrition small bottle with 2 salt tabs in it from IM syracuse ( seriously)

12.chicken bone from my sons dinner tonight ( so gross, he threw it in my purse, really)

13.daughters broken glasses

14. wallet with change and credit cards

15. hair bands

16. garmin watch and heart rate strap

17. receipt from Shaws supermarket

18. The Son of Neptune ( my son's book that I'm currently reading)

ok, really, I knew my purse was heavy but there was no reason for me to have all this shit in my purse.

What do you have in your purse?

Happy 43rd Birthday to me and other random thoughts

2011-10-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

So another year has passed, it seems like they just fly by now. I can't believe this will be my last year in the 40-44AG, so weird. I wish this gave me some hope that it would get easier as I got older but the women keep getting faster, no kidding. That being said, I will enjoy this year one day at a time.

Anyhoo, birthday was good, had a great run and tempo bike, my paces are going well, its hard to be at the end of your season and feel like your peaking. Im in my last build that was supposed to be for IM Arizona just to give me some miles on the bike and run, I don't feel burned out since I really didn't start my season till late August but after next weeks 1/2 marathon it will be break time, recover and re-test.

I'm excited/nervous about next weeks 1/2 marathon, I haven't done a straight out road race since the Black Cat 10 miler last February. I'm not expecting miracles but I am hoping to put in a good performance. Baby steps, right?

I am also in the process of trying to figure out my race season for next year with the end race being IM Mont tremblant in Canada. I may try to race a bit early this year ( i.e., April) and then another 1/2 in June, throw in a sprint and an Olympic on the alternating months then follow it up with the IM in August should all work. I'm also going to try to convince my hubby to let me go to QT2's camp again this year which has been changed to February, we'll see.

Anyhoo, the big part of my birthday yesterday was my 8yr old was secretly practicing Happy Birthday on his Violin all week and he played it for me last night, what a great present for me. I may not of gotten a cupcake or cake or had a traditional birthday celebration but that was pretty awesome and he was sooooooooooo proud of himself for keeping it such a secret.

Well back to finishing up the dishes and laundry and getting the kids at school. We are going to a corn maze this afternoon, lets hope we don't have to call the police to help find us if we get lost like that poor person in Danvers. Me and 5 kids, good gracious, wish me luck.

Kona showdown for the F 40-44 AG

2011-09-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

So, I first want to say how proud I am to be part of this amazing age group and that what it shows you is that with hard work you can continue to go fast and even go faster by training smart and listening to your body. And having the right coaches around you. I know some of these women but not all but from the Northeast region of the US we have some incredible talent going to Kona this year, Becky Paige, Angela Bancroft, Mary Holt Wilson and Marybeth Romagnolia ( ? spelling). That's who I know right now, I may be missing someone but these are the names I know.

Becky I met at Providence 70.3 she not only won our AG but I believe she placed top 10 OA including Pro's. She went on to do a 9:57 I believe at Ironman Germany, won her AG and qualified for KONA. I'm thinking she's gonna be competitive, don't you think?

Angela Bancroft from Maine, had an amazing race in Lake Placid and won her AG by over 30 minutes. Heading out to the run in LP she was first overall amateur on the course but I believe she passed around mile 16 or so, not sure, that being said, she had a race of her life, absolutely incredible day and earned her KONA slot there. I believe she was also in the top 10 for women including Pro's, crazy, crazy fast. Absolutely a force to be reckoned with.

Mary Holt-Wilson- local hero of mine, tremendous talent, only getting faster, had an amazing Boston Marathon this year, Top 3 at Mooseman 70.3, had a PR at Pumpkinman half this year and if she wasn't ill starting IMLP she probably would of had her sub 11 on that day but the GI bug and puking on yourself during the swim doesn't make for a pleasant day in LP. That being said she has the mental fortitude of nobody I know and based on her race report from IMLP it sounds like she doesn't remember much of the last part of the race and spent a ton of time in medical. She still finished in the low 11's and got her KONA slot, VERY MUCH DESERVED and i believe she is going to have an amazing day in KONA and I can't wait to follow her.

Marybeth Romanolia, QT2 athlete is going to KONA after qualifying I believe at IMLP, she also had a great time and is getting faster everyday. I believe she is from the NY region.

These 4 ladies are going to represent the NorthEast in amazing fashion and I predict all of them are going to be in the top 25 if not top 10 of our AG.

I am so very proud to be in this age group. Kick some major ass next week ladies, make us all proud, bring home some hardware.

syracuse 70.3 race report and random other stuff

2011-09-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

My race report will be quick regarding Syracuse 70.3, as I've mentioned in previous race reports and over the last 3 months I am a work in progress. Over the past 8 months, I've worked countless hours with my non-profit, bought and sold a house and lived in my mother in laws house, had to deal with moving mostly on my own while our new home wasn't quite ready, etc....

Training has changed as I switched coaches, so all of that being said this season has been slim pickings, ( 3 tri's in total since IMLP 2010) huge learning curve and whatever I could do with training at whatever god forsaken time I could get it in. Life is starting to slow down a bit, the kids are getting settled into school so as my final race is coming near ( newburyport 1/2 marathon) in late October I am starting to focus on next year.

A brief note, I am not participating in IM Arizona this November as previously hoped, with all my responsibilities over the last 8 months and with the new house being a bit overwhelming, my husband and I decided that he would prefer for me to focus on IM Mont Tremblant next August and just forgo this ironman as he would like to stabilize our homelife a bit since its been so crazy lately. I had a lot of trepidation with this decision initially but at the end of the day Family has to come first and if he feels this would stress him out and wouldn't be good for the family it was the right call to just back off and refocus on next season and looking at how I can improve on my fitness/body composition by race time next year. Oh well, it will have to be IM Arizona for 2013 I guess.

Anyhoo, PW and I have decided that we should end the season with a 1/2 marathon and then we would re-test and figure out some training numbers going into the winter. I'm looking forward to this and hopefully we can figure out a good race schedule that I can actually compete in next year to be successful at IMMT.

So in short, Syracuse 70.3 was a really fun race for me, for one, I got to race with my dear friend Maris who ( God Love her) drove all the way up and back to Syracuse, Thank You, Thank You, Thank YOu. It started out with us getting stuck in traffic on Friday and ending up in a not such good part of Albany, lets' just say, we decided to find a hotel and sleep the night instead of trudging ahead to Syracuse that night.

We ended up getting to the Holiday Inn in Syracuse by noon and checking in. Talk about a low key affair, my kind of race, not a ton of people and minimal vendors, it was great. We then checked into our room and drove the bike/run course. Well, lets just say we were in for a dandy of a day, both the bike and run were very challenging and with lots of hills, that being said the course looked absolutely beautiful and even though the forecast was for chilly weather it looked also to be sunny so pretty much ideal conditions.

We finally found a decent place to eat a late lunch and then we headed to the mall to try to find some disposal clothes we could wear to the swim start since the temps were going to be in the high 30's. It was so weird being at the Carousel Mall, I haven't been there since I went to school in Syracuse in the 90's, just crazy. Anyhoo, we got back to the hotel and we were in bed by 9:30p.

Having Maris to chat too and have fun with was amazing, never did I feel nervous or concerned, she made the time fly and I had such a good time I really didn't think of the race that much.

Race morning was uneventful, I let Maris sleep in, it was great that the race start was fairly close so we knew it was going to be cold so we held off going to the venue till we really needed to. Temp was 38 at the time.

Got to T1, got everything settled, got dressed, realized it was so cold my feet were so numb walking on the ground it was painful, we ended up standing in the water because it was warmer than standing on the sand. Funny how 62 degree water can feel warm when its 38 degrees out. My swim wave was going off before Maris was, I gave her a big hug and was off.

Swim-water was warm for me, had no feet to swim with, fog was going away but my sighting wasn't great, lots of people to swim through which was a bugger, I either really sucked at my sighting, my swim isn't back where it should be, too many people to swim through or the course was about 200yds too long, whichever, my swim was slow 33:15, 1st AG, that being said it just sucked seeing that time.

Long run to T1- I couldn't feel my feet, I couldn't get dressed I was so cold. 5min + in T1 crazy slow

Bike- well what can I say, I was supposed to Average 170 watts, I averaged 159 or 160 normalized, 17.8mph, stupidly slow, again, not being able to go over 220 watts and keeping my HR in complete check no higher than 136 is certainly a work in progress for me. The course was very challenging to say the least but oh well. I'll get back to my 20mph days next spring, I just need to work on my shifting and get more time back in the saddle. The key is to be able to run off the bike to your best ability so for right now, this is where I'm at.

T2- 2+ minutes, again too long, my left foot was still numb, it took a while to get it going. My HR monitor wasn't working so it just was giving me my paces.

Run- interesting, hard, decent hills and some good downhills. I definitely went out too fast, I was supposed to keep HR in check but because of the temps and most likely keeping my HR a bit lower because of it we were really looking at pacing, well, I felt so good coming out of T2 I ran my first loop with an 8:35 average, it definitely came back to bit me in the ass the second loop but really only on the two significant climbs, otherwise my flats and downhills were still in the 8:20-8:40 range. I ended up seeing and playing tag with #5 and 6 girl so it was a bummer that I couldn't catch them on the run, oh well. 8:53 average on a tough run course, I'll take it.

5:47 overall time, better than Providence, not my PR, that being said my PR was on a very flat course with a very short swim.

My fitness will only get better, my zones will only get faster, I'm believing in my self and liking to run. I miss being the killer on the bike I was for the last two seasons but that will come back and my run will only get better. I will need to do some more open water swimming next season as my sighting was terrible in both races and I believe it was because I didn't do any this season, just no time.

Life is good, my hubby and I just went away on a quick weekend trip to Bermuda which we haven't done in almost 7yrs ( just the two of us, no kids), it was amazing and we just had an amazing time. I was able to run there which was great but most of all we got to spend quality time together.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to the up and coming races for my friends, Maris is doing IM Florida in November and a few of my friends are doing Kona in October. I am so psyched for PW doing Kona he is a true talen and I look forward to see how coachie will do.

Off for now. I promise to blog more often with whats going on with my training and all my other crazy try mom stuff.

Where were you 10 years ago on 9/11/2001?

2011-09-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

10 years ago, Phil and I flew out of Logan Airport in Boston at 8am on Monday, September 10th on United Airlines on route to San Francisco, Phil had a conference to go to and one of his home town high school friends was getting married the following weekend so it all made sense. flying on Monday was no problem, San Francisco was beautiful that day, we had an amazing dinner that night on the ocean, life seemed so simple. I was also 6 months pregnant with our first child at the time.

Speed forward, 6am, Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Phil kissed me goodbye to go to a breakfast meeting, I slept in and then casually woke up a bit later and put the T.V on, I can't recall the exact time but watching everything happen live on T. V. as it was happening and seeing all the News casters live was crazy. I ran downstairs to check in with phil to see what was happening downstairs, it was mayhem, this was a financial conference, a lot of people were flying in from NY and Boston this morning to attend the conference, ( who could of been of some of the planes that crashed), a lot of people worked in NY that were already at the conference and worrying about their coworkers and friends/families back at home, it was the most unbelievable, surreal experience. All people wanted to do was go home, they rented cars, got on buses, anything, there were no flights leaving SF anytime soon.

With the cell phone lines down and being unable to contact family some of our families thought we flew on Tuesday morning to San Francisco instead of Monday, which unbeknownst to us was the exact United Flight that took off from Boston on Tuesday and crashed, again, a very surreal experience. We eventually got in touch with our families and friends later in the day to make sure they knew we were ok, it took several days to find out that our friends and family in NY were ok, but as you know the fallout from 9/11 went a lot deeper to everyone.

Our friend did get married that weekend but unfortunately a lot of people didn't make it that day, non the less we all tried to make it a special day for them.

I hope everyone takes time out on Sunday to remember all the people who lost their lives that day and to also give praise and thanks to all the people/fireman, policeman, doctors, nurses, lay people, anyone who helped on that day and the days and months and years after the fallout. I was proud to be an American on that day and ever since even more, we bonded as a nation that day even with the awful circumstances.

My thoughts and Prayers go out to all the families out their that lost their loved ones on that day. God Bless.

Salmon River Rafting Trip

2011-08-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

Again I have been gone for awhile here on blog land. This time my family and I went on a river kyaking and rafting trip down the lower fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, the trip was absolutely amazing from Start to finish. With a ton of research we decided to go through a company called, ROW based out of Couer d'Alene, Idaho which caters to families all across the world. They actually have what they call a river Jester that comes on the trip to help with entertaining the kids. We kyaked or rafted pretty much most of the day, swam in rapids and in the cold river a ton of the time and they cooked 3 square meals for us on the beaches that lined the Salmon River. We camped under the stars every night and the kids slept longer than they ever did in the past, at least 10hrs a night. I guess the fresh air and the continuous sun and exercise was really good for them.

Unfortunately, I had to come back early with my little 5 yr old because we are moving really soon and tons of things needed to get done to both houses over the next week before we close on our current house and move out officially so another week in Idaho was not in the cards for me. Life has been very different for me this year, little racing, some decent training and lots of other things going on. That being said, I can't wait to move to our new home and finally get settled.

More pictures of our family and the kids rafting when I get my camera.

Wow, I actually like to run now......

2011-07-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

So, its been about 10 weeks since I started to train with heart rate and to listen to my body and follow a good nutritional plan both on and off training. Swimming seems to be fine, biking I still need to work at but I'm getting there but the running is what I'm seeing the most change in over the last 2 months.

Back in May when I needed to do a recovery run based on my heart rate you could say I was basicaly walking, if I was on a treadmill I would be at a level of less than 5.0mph, it was so hard to see that but my HR was high even though I was chatting and talking and didn't feel out of breath it was high so if I had to walk to keep my HR down I did, man that sucked. My zone 1 HR was a little bit better but not much.

In the past I would go out and run my runs always in the 8's somewhere and if I did tempo's they were in the 7's, I was working hard, and very rarely did I record my HR but I was always pushing and out of breath and working really hard, all the time. Well, 2 months ago my zone 1 ( or endurance run pace) was just about 11 min a mile- seriously, it was no joke, crazy slow, I was like you've got to be kidding me this is awful. But I listened to my body and I kept my HR were it needed to be, it sucked, but I knew if I wanted to make changes I had to do something drastic.

After 4 weeks of no speed work and nothing more than zone 1 runs, I went out and did several runs at 9:40 pace and kept my HR were it needed to be, 136 and no higher than 138. Wow, in just 4 weeks I was able to drop well over a minute per mile and keep my HR low, this was good news for me, I was very happy. Now, there were still several runs that were in the tens with the heat or with very hilly runs but overall I was getting to be pretty consistent with that pace and HR. What was also noticeable was that I was never really tired after a run, my body didn't feel like I just beat it up, I felt good. So onward I went and continued this process. Still, no speed work except for one track workout ( which had me do 4 1 mile repeats at 7:08 and faster) when I have only been running in the high 9's and 10's, it was crazy.

Then it was Providence 70.3, now as I noted before swim and bike completely unenventful ( so slow on bike but again just training and getting my HR to where it needs to be) but my run really came around and I felt great, and I negative splitted the run. I was really happy.

So, to today, (I biked long yesterday in the heat and did a 35 minute T-run ( zone 1- avg 9:49s off the bike), felt great), today was a zone 1 run of 1hr 14 minutes with 19 minutes of a zone 2 effort at the end. F/b some TRX and a recovery bike ride. I ran early today, 5:30am so it was cooler and much more comfortable to run in than what we've been running in over the last few weeks, that being said, I felt great and in the end I averaged an 8:55 pace with a HR of 137 ( spot on).

So, in 10 weeks I've taken off over 2 minutes per mile and kept my HR at 136-137. My long slow runs when I looked back in my files from last year where I was running 13-20 miles averaging 9:35-9:45 pace my HR was up to 152-156, that's a 20 beat difference and my pace now is faster on my slow long runs, this shit is crazy. No wonder I couldn't run off the bike in ironman or in 1/2 ironmans, I had completely wasted myself on the bike probably keeping the same high HR and then tried to run fast off and my HR was off the charts, I couldn't sustain that and that was why I falted and couldn't run. Retraining my body is helping me get faster and everytime I know I need to run I am so excited to do so. I am so excited to run off my bike. I'm really liking running now and am starting to believe that it might be possible I can turn myself into a decent runner. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do.

Someday.........

2011-07-25T16:47:00.001-07:00

I love watching and following Ironman, watching Lake Placid yesterday and following several of my friends was so inspiring it gets me emotional just thinking about it. Now don't get me wrong, I have a love/hate relationship with that course and hopefully someday I will return and do some major damage on that course or at least feel successful out there but yesterday i was glad to be just a spectator.

I was so excited that my good friend Maris was racing, we train together sometimes and she has really kicked it into high gear this year turning out some major performances in her recent races, however she came down with a pretty significant chest cold requiring antibiotics and she certainly wasn't 100% going into yesterday, that being said she kicked "ASS" and still came in top 25 in her age group and ran a super fast marathon. Watch our Ironman Florida this girl is going to crush you like a bug.

I was also excited to follow local 40-44 year old ladies Mary Holt-Wilson and Ange Bancroft who both got Kona Slots yesterday with their exceptional performances, great job ladies so very proud of both of you. Also, Kat Donatello, holly crap, what a bike and run after your issues on the swim, what mental tenacity and strength to come back that strong after what happened to you, Holly Shit is all I can say, Way to Go, and 12th place AG you ROCK.

Some of the other locals Chaz, Jay, Janet, Tim, Kelly, congrats to all of you so happy for your performances.

Anyhoo, everytime I watch or read about an ironman event I get so excited about it, I dream about it, I think about all the hard work I do to train and my dreams of making it to Kona someday, ( I really don't want to wait till i;m 65, really), but I know I have it in me, I know once I get this run thing sorted out things could go in my favor, I just have to train the right way, work hard, continue to get a bit leaner and have a positive attitude, my time will come, maybe not this year or next but I know it will come, I have faith.

Right PW? Work hard, follow your plan, things will fall as they may. This is my motto.

Tri-active: Local nonprofit spurs at-risk families to get in shape

2011-07-18T04:23:00.000-07:00

Tri-active: Local nonprofit spurs at-risk families to get in shape

A 5:51 is OK to me, really.......

2011-07-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did the Providence 70.3 ironman event for the second time. The first time I did this event was 4 yrs ago right after my bike flew off our car and smashed into a million pieces. The course is a logistical nightmare and still is but it has significantly changed since I did it 4 yrs ago.

As you guys know my life has been crazy for the past 6-8 months and training has gotten in and not gotten in and I've changed my training focus a bit. I've been a decent swimmer and over the past 2 years and gotten stronger on the bike but the one thing I have never been able to do is run or even have a run off the bike that felt good and not a shuffle that makes me suffer. So I've decided to really concentrate on those reasons why that happens and work on them.

1. Too much power on the bike, push too high of watts and burn out my legs before the run.
2. My HR is too high from the swim and bike that I've already tapped my body by the time I'm on the run
3. Nutrition has always sucked in the past and I've suffered for that. I need to follow a more rigid nutrition plan on the bike and run to be successful.

So with the above I decided to swim my normal swim, try to grab some feet if I can to get some drafting, taper back my bike power and try to keep my Hr at 136, no higher and keep my watts between 160-165 and then run off the bike keeping my HR around 150 ( which took into account the heat stressors on my body) and not take out the first mile too fast. And if possible, negative split my run ( which I have never, ever, done.)

The course is still a point to point and a 2 transition area race ( SUCKS). This year the swim was at Lincoln Woods Park in a beautiful lake, which was 84 degrees and a non-wetsuit swim. I don't mind that so much but I just tend to use my legs a bit more when I don;t have a suit in open water. Anyway, the transition area was fine and it wasn't a too long run from the beach to get to TI.
the swim was uneventful, it was really sunny, the water was soooo warm, I worked with 2 girls during the swim both of whom didn't know how to sight well so they kept running into me which was pissing me off, I didn't want to exert myself to go around them so I just tried to keep to their right and use the draft that way. I knew that 2 girls were far ahead ( 2 college swimmers) so we were in the second pack. We all came out 4-7th, I was in 6th coming out of the water-36 minutes, youch, I normally would do around 30-31 min, but I was fine with the swim

The Bike: Well lets just say, I could of knitted a blanket, picked my nose and made a whole thanksgiving day turkery meal while riding, it was that easy, that being said, riding 17.4mph should feel that way. However, the goal for me today was to not go over 210 on any hills, to keep a good cadence and to ride and average 160-165 watts and my HR needed to be 136 and no higher. I will say it was very hard to see lots of my ladies pass me when I knew I could ride with them, I knew I could go sub 3 on this course, however, it was a significantly more difficult course than before, all rolling hills and some good climbs thrown in with some short fast descents. There was never a period of time that you could really go aero and rebuild back some speed that you lost on the climbs, plus the road conditions were so bad I didn't want to go aero most of the time because you were afraid you would kill yourself. Oh yeah, and the dead animals on the road, are you kidding me, crazy how many.

Anyhoo, the bike was uneventful, thanks to Nancy thompson she was able to set my watch to go off every 40 minutes to remind me to eat, I ate 1/2 power bar, 2 gels, 6 cliff blocks and 3 1/2 bottles of endurance, plus one succeed. I peed at least 4 times, so I knew I was well hydrated. My legs felt great because I didn't kill the power on the bike so I was really hoping for a descent run, but it was hot.

Well, a 3:13 bike really sucked, I hated seeing that but I knew my goal today was to just try to run. The course again changed this year and we didn't have to run up steeple street, we had to run a much harder one in my humble opinion. Olen street is a much long and the climb starts around 3-4% grade and goes up to maybe 7-8% but it keeps going for at least 3/4 of a mile maybe longer, tons of switch backs and crazy quad descents and then more climbs, it was just bizarre, this whole course just doesn't make sense, so stupid.

Well, I felt great, I ran, ran, ran, I kept my HR at 150 for the first few miles, my legs were turning over I was passing people, it was awesome, going into the second loop I felt even better, this was when most people were walking, especially up the hill, I was cruising, keeping my HR in check up the hills but just pounding the flats and descents. I hit my mark, 8:59 avg first loop and then 8:49 average second loop for an 8:55 overall. Now if the course profile was just a little flatter, still with some hills, I so would of averaged 8:30s or better, that one hill really crushes your time, I was definitely running in the high 7's for alot of the good parts of the course.

It was just awesome to run and feel like a runner. I past 6 women in my age group, I was smiling I was so happy, I never felt out of control, my HR was in check, it just felt good.

So yes, my mission was completed, I came in 16th, so what, my time was 5:51 so what, I need to sacrifice a little up front so that I can rework my body to beable to bike to my ability and run to my ability and I will get there. Yesterday was a good day in the office for me, I told myself I was a runner yesterday and I believed it, it was fun.

Slowly but surely its coming together....

2011-07-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

Over the last 6-7 weeks I've trained a bit differently than I have over the past 4 years, a lot due to my time constraints and limited free time and a lot to do with finding the enjoyment again and letting my body recover from what I think may have been a bit of overtraining. When you think of overtraining it wasn't necessarily just the workouts it was the time I was doing them ( 4am or 9p at night) or trying to fit them in while working crazy hours or in between a million other projects, never giving my body a chance to truly recover. Unfortunately, that caused my body to not perform well in races and to feel like I was pushing the envelope in every practice, it wasn't fun anymore, I needed to find my mojo again and I needed to find my way back. Well, its a slow process but I look forward to every workout I can get in, I listen to my body, I try not to do things at absurd hours, and in the end if everything gets in it gets in, well so far I've been able to get in what needs to get in and my body is doing well, no rebellion. I'm swimming very consistent times in the pool without killing myself, the track and road work is coming along ( I still have a ways to go) but I'm running some good times on some rested legs and my biking is pretty stable. Hopefully, life will continue to work in this direction and I will continue to see progress.

So lets hope for some final good workouts and then RI 70.3 here I come.

Yo Adrian...........

2011-06-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

This is how I felt today, I felt like Rocky Balboa climbing up the stairs in downtown Philadelphia, successful because I've worked hard, successful because I finally didn't let my head play me, successful because I did it myself. Now, lets get this straight, I'm no speed demon ( not yet anyway) but I'm not getting slower, I'm getting a bit faster and more consistent. Maybe this year has taught me a lot about me and my body, maybe taking some time for so many other things, not making training such a big focus and actually liking what I'm doing again has made a big difference, I don't know, but whatever it is I'm happy and that's all that matters. It also might be because I'm not in full ironman training like I have been for 2 years for IMLP, those 10 extra hours a week available to my job and family makes a difference, however, I might feel differently come the fall when full IM Arizona training comes into play.

That being said, going out today and nailing a TT ride and mile repeats at the track all by myself in the rain made me smile, nobody around me and I did it, so proud today. Time to go to bed with a happy face. Night all. Happy training.

Life just passes you by sometimes

2011-06-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry for my delay in posting, life just passes by and things get so busy. I have so many things to talk about and trying to figure out what to write sometimes slows me down, so I'll break it down into parts.

1. Family: LIfe is crazy, end of school craziness for 4 kids, two schools, being the class parent in 3 classrooms ( and you know what that means, gifts, party planning, etc...) Its nuts. I thought having 4 kids under 4 was hard but as they get older it gets harder, so many things going on, so little time.

Also, we are in sports hell right now. Actually, I love the fact my kids are sporty and that they love to compete and play in everything, however, trying to cooridinate 4 soccer games, 3 flag football games,throw in a swim meet to Dover, NH for two kids and music lessons its crazy. This past weekend we had 4-5 hrs of flag football on saturday ( All Stars) and then on to Harvard Stadium for the finally on Sunday for 6hrs. My 9yr old's team won the whole thing and my 8yr olds team came short by one game. It was a very long and rainy day and trying to entertain my 5 and 6yr old was trying for 7+ hours.

Anyhoo, if life wasn't busy I don't know what I would do with myself.

2. The house.We have our house under agreement, so great and after only 2 days. It was hard to keep it clean and keeping the kids from destroying the place, I can't imagine what it would of been like to do this for a long time, I would of went insane.

3. New house- Fire trucks at new house today, alarms went off, security system activated, my GC called and asked if I knew the code, I had no clue, the previous owner didn't give me anything. Anyway, firefighters were able to fix it. I went to the house, introduced myself and said, " IM SURE THIS WONT BE THE LAST TIME YOUR AT MY HOUSE,YOU HAVEN'T MET MY KIDS BUT IM SURE YOU WILL DEVELOP A GREAT RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM OVER THE YEARS-HE DIDN'T LAUGH". Anyhoo, I dislike people who don't have a sense of humor.

4. Training: Things are getting done, here and there, when I can, doing the best I can. Satisfied is all I can say. I miss some of my training partners and working out with people but hopefully come fall when we move into the new house and the kids are back at school life will slow down a bit and I can get back on schedule.

OK Conundrum: 5yr old still wetting bed at night. Holding fluids at 5pm, making sure he goes potty before bed and sometimes waking him up when we go to bed to just make sure-still wetting bed. So, he's back in diapers at night and looking for any other solutions, would love anyones input.

Hope all is well with everyone, getting a bit distracted with the Bruins playing in the background.Gotta go, they are up 3 nothing, lets GO BRUINS

F'in Mooseman, F'in Bronchitis.......

2011-06-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

This is what I would like to do to the Mooseman race. I swear this course will be my demise. As I wrote a few times before it was the first 1/2 ironman that I signed up for 4 years ago of which I registered, sat on the beach and then freaked out and walked away. I have since had a wedding, 2 ironman training camps that have prevented me from doing it since and now I have bronchitis and will not beable to race at my potential on Sunday so I decided not to do it. I feel like this is so unfair, friggin race. Anyway, after not being able to sleep, having difficulty walking up stairs to try to breathe I think I'm making the right decision.

I wish all my friends luck who are racing this weekend, Keri, Mary, Ange, Pete, Thomas. Enjoy the course, kill it, have a great time.

My wishes for this race: keri to either win her age group, 35-39 or place top two to go to las Vegas, and have Mary and Ange have Stellar performances and compete with the elites, make our 40-44 year old girls proud ladies.

I wish my friend Pete a great first olympic triathlon experience, he has trained so hard and has made such great strides this season, I only think great things are ahead of him in his future in triathlon. Good luck my friend.

Thomas enjoy your first 1/2 ironman, take it easy up that climb and enjoy the downhill. The water really isn't that cold, just believe.

Have fun guys, I will be racing with you in my hearts and looking forward to my first 1/2 of the season at Providence 70.3 in July.

The Heart of the Matter

2011-05-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

Its been over 20 years that I've been diagnosed with Familial hypercholesterolemia. I got this wonderful disease from my mothers side of the family. One uncle died at 39, one at 49 and mom has had 2 heart attacks and an angioplasty before the age of 55. The highest my cholesterol has gone has been 256. What's also wonderful about my family history is that we have elevated levels of lipoprotein A which increases our risk for plaque build up in our vessels as well as blood clots. Unfortunately, their is no treatment for elevated lipoprotein A levels so you are either put on strict dietary control with exercise or put on medication.

Over the past 5 years I have done everything in my power to not be put on medication. The Statin medication for high cholesterol can cause severe muscle pain especially in endurance athletes and unless my cardiologist tells me I have no other choice I will do my best to not go on the pills.

3 yrs ago I underwent a stress test to see whether or not I was in immediate danger or heart issues. i also underwent a calcium ion CT scan to check for plaque build up in my vessels. Both tests came back great and along with my blood work my cardiologist gave me a 3 year bye on pills.

Last week I went to see my Cardiologist, Dr. Sydney Alexander at the Lahey in Burlington, he again told me that he expected to put me on pills by the end of my visit. My blood work showed:

TC-228
HDL-80
LDL-138
Triglycerides-48

All other blood work including CBC and electrolytes, thyroid, etc.. were within normal limits.

My examination was normal, my weight was lower this visit than last and my body fat percentage dropped to 14.3%. Again, Dr. Alexander told me that since I am an endurance athlete and the risks associated with taking the Statins outweighed the literature to support me going on it right now isn't good, I got yet another bye for 3 years. He even told me that there was no literature to support me taking a baby aspirin a day. Good for me.

However, even with this good news with my family history and my still borderline blood results I get a bit nervous that I may still be building plaque and could have an early heart attack based on my family history.

Whats even more sad is that all 4 children of mine carry an elevated lipoprotein A level as well as being diagnosed with high cholesterol at the age of 3. They are also followed by a cardiologist in Boston who has been monitoring them since that age and with dietary changes ( except for one child) they are doing great and only need to be seen every 3-5 years.

Its so hard to know that as a parent I passed on this potential deadly disease that if you don't watch what you eat, if you don't exerise and even if you do all the right things in life, you may still be subjected to having a heart attack. Its very scary. That being said, I don't live by this disease and I do everything in my power to fight it everyday and to educate my kids, family and friends. Life is too short to not do something that you may have control over. I want to be around for many years and I want my kids to be around much longer than myself.

To my friends and family, do what you can to be healthy, enjoy your treats but get good exercise, eat well, get your yearly physicals and blood work so you know both your inner body and outer body are doing well and most importantly educate your children about health. We all want to live a long time.

ROK-a-5K Road Race | Hamilton, Massachusetts 01982 | Saturday, July 16, 2011 @ 7:00 AM

2011-05-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

ROK-a-5K Road Race | Hamilton, Massachusetts 01982 | Saturday, July 16, 2011 @ 7:00 AM

Kids-ROK Off-Road Triathlon | Hamilton, Massachusetts 01982 | Saturday, July 16, 2011 @ 9:00 AM

2011-05-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

Kids-ROK Off-Road Triathlon | Hamilton, Massachusetts 01982 | Saturday, July 16, 2011 @ 9:00 AM

JCC sprint Tri, as a spectator

2011-05-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

It was soooooo much fun to be on the sidelines this past weekend watching my dear friends race, I also loved being able to give pointers, help change flats, blow up tires that were low, etc... I get so excited watching that it always reminds me why I love this sport and the people in it. I want to congratulate Kevin Reen, the 1st male overall, Vinny and Marty Misrendino, 2nd and 3rd overall and my good friend Marnie who got 2nd overall female, just a tremendous effort out there by these amazing athletes.

I also want to congratulate my friends, Erica, Jason, Nicole, Keri, Jill, Christine, Dean, Josh, Stacey and many more I'm sure I'm forgetting for putting in major efforts, some PRs and just showing me again why I love this sport and that each and every one of them showed the true spirit of competition and good sportsmanship and even with the terrible elements that were handed to them on Sunday they raced their hearts out.

Thanks guys for continuing to inspire me and making me want to be a better athlete and person. Here are just a few pics.

Alex's 8th Birthday and the Crazy Cake Lady...

2011-05-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

I love to make my kids birthday cakes, it is so much fun and I get great joy out of my kids smiling and feeling like mom is the "queen". Alex wanted me to make him Hogwarts Castle from Harry Potter, it was a daunting task but fun. Here are a few pictures of some of the cakes I've made for my boys.

chaos

2011-05-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

This is my life right now, I think the picture says it all, enjoy.

Getting my shit together, literally.....

2011-05-03T05:36:00.001-07:00

As you guys know, life has been crazy for me lately, training has been ok but certainly not where I would like it to be. I need to prioritize other things in my life right now (kids, hubby, TriROK, house) and if workouts get in they get in. That being said, there are some things that I can do to try to make the training that I do easier and that is, yet again, BIG SURPRISE, looking at my diet.

I recently had my body fat tested, 14.3%, weight 144lbs. Based on these numbers I am a bit too muscular and need to lean out a bit. I've known this for awhile but have chosen not too really make substantial efforts in controlling things that go into my mouth. Now, I eat very healthy but I do like a few glasses of wine, some cheese and crackers here and there, you get my drift. Well, if I am going to maximize my training I really need to focus here, the time I get in to train can be better if I'm lighter and leaner.

So, this is day #2 of really watching what i'm eating, drinking plenty of water, no caffeinated beverages ( no coffee or diet coke) and making sure I'm getting in all of my fruits and vegetables. It's a lot of work to make sure to eat many times a day and carrying a cooler around of food isn't the coolest thing but at least when I got hungry I wasn't trying to snack on the closet thing, i had my healthy options.

So, in 5 weeks I will get my body fat retested and go from there. The least I can do is make any training that I get in more efficient by getting my body as lean and strong as possible. I'll keep you posted.

Poor little guy......

2011-04-30T12:40:00.001-07:00

Life has been super busy lately, crazy is more like it. We are in the process of trying to buy a new house, all the kids in ten thousand different sports, end of year parties, projects, plays, field trips, etc, you get the drift. I'm also very involved with my non-profit organization and we are 3/4 of the way through our families tri program which I am one of the coaches for. I am also involved in putting together our first Families Fitness Festival at Patton Park in Hamilton on Saturday, July 16th, 2011 which will include a festival, a 5k road race and an off road kids triathlon . This has been an amazing experience trying to put this together but also very humbling. I was so excited about doing all these wonderful things but nieve to think that it wasn't going to be as involved as each one of these things are. I'm so excited about seeing the end results but in the meantime I need to put my nose to the ground and get things done. All these different adventures has put my training at a bit of a disadvantage, that being said I do my best to get everything done to the best of my abilities. Training is good but I do miss my training partner Maris, hopefully we can get together real soon to bike or run, it still remains hard to do 80% of what I do alone.

Back to the title of my blog, my poor little guy. so with life being so busy I can't be everywhere that my kids need me to be everyday. I try to go to everything that they do, I try to make home meals every day and night, be at every performance, etc.... but sometimes it just can't happen. Today was my son Alexs swim meet ( not his first) but a big one, there were some expectations of his performances because he has been swimming so well lately. It was also my daughter Shea's first swim meet which included her diving off the blocks for the first time. Well, unfortunately mommy wasn't able to go today because she had to work, I was at the track with my tri families and Phil was at the pool with the kids. My mom was kind enough to come up and bring my little guy to his soccer game and hold fort at the house until I got home. Well, I guess Alex had a tough morning, he was really nervous and scared to swim, he didn't want to go. I got about 10 phone calls throughout the morning and in the end he didn't swim. It was hard to talk to him because he was crying. I told him I would speak to him when he got home.

The reasons why he probably didn't swim:
1. Late practice yesterday to practice starts and turns, it was over at 8pm, he didn't go to bed until after 9p
2. He had to wake up early to go and he was exhausted
3. I wasn't going to be there
4. His friend and co-swimmer Stephan wasn't able to swim

I think all of these factors played into him not being mentally prepared for the race and my heart broke for him that I wasn't there to help him through this.

What I did:

I gave him lots of hugs and told him I wasn't upset. I told him that I took some responsibility for what happened today and that in the end swimming and sports are supposed to be fun and not be upsetting. That not only do you have to prepare yourself physically but you also have to prepare yourself mentally and I failed at helping him with this. He gave me lots of hugs, apologized to me and said he will try real hard the next time. I said as long as he " tries" and that he is having fun that its all that matters. The main thing he needed to know was that mommy and daddy love him and are not mad at him but very proud that he stayed to watch his sister swim and support his team and in the end he still wants to swim and he wants to try harder. This was a very proud moment for mommy and hopefully a good lesson for both of us. In the end he is still only 7 ( soon to be 8) but very young to take sports so seriously. Life right now is supposed to fun for them, I was so sad I couldn't help him today.

Anyway, its better now and hopefully it wont happen again.

A nice run tomorrow followed by many hours of flag football, back to the grind.

When Mommy is away, what happens?

2011-04-19T05:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I left on Wednesday to go to a triathlon camp, I am one lucky girl to be able to do that ( not denying it), I made sure before I left I did:
1. clean the entire house, change everyones sheets
2. Finished a total of 20 loads of laundry for the week by Wednesday and put all the clothes away for them
3. Went food shopping to make sure they would be completely stocked
4. fed and cleaned all the animals and their cages
5. wrote out all the kids itineraries, cooridinated rides/playdates, cooridinated my mother in law and babysitter to make sure everyone was on board.

This is what I need to do before i go away. Do you know what my hubby needs to do to go away, Zippo, NADA, Nothing, a big fat 0.

When I came home this is what I found. ( I got home at 1am in the morning)

1. No food in the refrigerator, maybe a little milk, but no real food. You think someone could of done a bit of food shopping so that with April vacation I didn't have to take the entire brood in the morning to get food at the food store.

2. Laundry that was attempted to be done but found all of my clothes in my kids drawers, so it took me tons of time to go through all the rooms to reorganize the clothes, get them to where they needed to be, plus there was still a ton of laundry in the laundry room. Now I'm sure your saying that at least someone did it, well it wasn't my husband doing it it was his mother and all I ever ask is to just put the laundry in the baskets and I;ll put them away, it took over 2hrs to figure everything out, it isn't worth it.

3. My husband says to me last night, " Do you know where Alex's toothbrush is", I say, " In the bathroom", he says, no it hasnt been. He says, " Can you go out and buy him one?" I said, " you mean Alex has been using someones elses toothbrush for 5 days and you didn't go out and get him one, I mean really, its a fucking toothbrush. Why do I need to buy a toothbrush, why couldn't you just go out and get him one.

4. The cats were basically shitting on top of their shit and their was no food in their bin. Couldn't someone smell it, didn't anyone care.

5. The guinea pig cage was overflowing with crap and my boys room smelled so bad that I was surprised they could sleep in it, do you think someone would of done something, NOPE.

Anyway, you get the jist, its so great to beable to go away, I'm so fortunate but sometimes the crap I usually have to deal with when I get home puts a bit of a damper on the fun I just had. It also sucked that I couldn't get in a small recovery swim yesterday and I'm going to try to get on my trainer today but with the kids home from vacation and no-one really able to sit it really sucks. Life goes on.

Triathlon Camp, Clermont,Florida

2011-04-18T09:44:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I last posted but I've been away training in Florida with some amazingggggggggggggg people. Did I say amazinggggggggggggg, people. First of all I got to travel with Maris who is fast becomming one of the funniest people I know and a really great friend thank goodness she could put up with all my many ( issues, GI, etc.....) as a roommate in Florida, God love her.

We got to Florida on Wednesday and settled in quite nicely, it was sunny and hot which was so different than the weather we have been having in Beverly, we had dinner, relaxed, put our bikes together, it was great. We definitely were a bit nervous going into this training camp given the amount of talented people coming to the camp, we were just hoping to hang on and learn something and make some friends.

Thursday morning was day 1, 3800 yd swim, 2 1/2 bike, f/b a 30-40min T-run. Everything but the run went well for me, it was so hot, I definitely wasn't used to weather and I got crushed on the run, I couldn't get my HR down and I felt miserable. I was able to recover with some good food, water and a glass of wine and a great nice sleep. Maris and I would set the great expectations to go to bed early but always stayed up chatting and laughing and then realizing that we just screwed ourselves of about 1-2hrs of sleep. Oh well, it was great to just laugh and be funny. I also got her hooked on American Idol, we both new that Paul Macdonald would be voted off, so funny.

Thursday was the first day that we met some really great people, Tim and Cait Snow, Pat Wheeler, ( Jesse wasn't there yet), Jaqui Gordon, MIchelle Sinclair, Molly, Charlie, Duffy ( who by the way is probably the most hysterical person I have ever met), Kevin, Rick, Ray, Kelly, Shaun, Sindy, Bryan, the people who didn't come until later were, Courtney, Jessie, Mary and Barbara.

All these people were amazing, so unassuming, very approachable, very easy to talk to and ask questions, it was great.

Friday was the long ride f/b a 30-40 minute run, this ride was soooooooo much fun, first of all it was pretty much all of the New Englanders 2nd ride outside, the weather was perfect 75-80 to start to 90+ to finish, good wind, some rollers at the beginning and end of the ride but otherwise fairly flat. The group got split up at the beginning separating the elites/pros with the age groupers, however, that being said, our little group of 7 women and men held a great average of 18.5mph for > 100 miles that day and for 45 mintues of pace riding where we each took a 5 minute pull we averaged > 22.5mph, it was awesome. Everyone was great, there was no heros, nobody being the superman out there, we all laughed, peed in the bushes ( I swear Shaun I didn't see the bathroom house) shared our beverages when someone ran out, it was really great teamwork. This was also a time when we all got to know each other better, long rides tend to do this to you but up in New England when you ride single file because of the road rules you don't get a chance to really talk but here in Clermont they found us a great bike path to ride on and we could double up and play around with positioning so everyone got a chance to chat with each other, that's when I realized that I wished that all these girls could come back to Beverly with me and ride and train, that all of us were very similar in personality and temperment and that with so many people everyone got along, how cool is that.

Anyway, the ride ended up with us getting a little lost but we made it home in time to do our T-run and then go out to dinner with the group. Again we all had a blast laughing it up and eating a ton ( sorry not completely in the Core) but just a great time. Both Maris and I were a bit " Saddle Sore" if you know what I mean and were a bit concerned about the next two days of riding but in the end another great day.

Saturday was our " long" swim, in the National Training Center;s 50 meter pool. It was awesome, the sun was out, it was warm, the water was great, it was awesome. We swam about 4600 meters in just over 1:15, so a great workout, myself, Duffy and Kevin, along with Michelle, Maris and some others were really picking it up at the end, I also taunted poor Duffy into sprinting the last 50meter to almost the brink of Puking- so much fun.

After the swim was the bike f/b a run, all of which was great. Today's bike was a recovery bike so their was a " HUGE" bet on the table on who could average the lowest watts, I beat out the King of recovery, Mr. Pat Wheeler and averaged a whopping 67 watts. So Pat, I'm waiting for my Power bar.

Saturday also took us to looking at our run video analysis, all of which wasn't too shocking on my side, my left hip is weak, I need to rotate more in lumbar/thoracic spine, my arms need to come in more, I need to look forward more and not down and my right trap is higher than my left ( which is because I primarily breathe to my right when I swim an we just got back from the pool when we shot the video). Anyway, lots to learn and take away from that video analysis.

Sunday was a 2hr bike in the early morning with Charlie, Maris and Duffy, nice and easy f/b a 1 1/2 hr run in the heat, all of which was successful and fun. We went back showered,c hanged and broke down our bikes for the first time in our lives, so proud of myself. Traveling home was really sad leaving our new friends and wanting to continue to train with some of the nicest people and coolest people in the sport. I also have to say that I had so much fun laughing and joking while training that it just reminded me again why I love doing this everyday, just great.

Maris and I got home late last night around 1am, so tired but feel completely satisfied, excited and motivated to have a great season. My life is really busy right now and I need to figure out how I will fit it all in but I will try to manage something. I need to make every workout count for something and I also learned that I need to remind myself that I can become a " bad ass" runner. This is the area I learned at camp that I need to work on the most, its r/t a lot of factors but I know now what I need to do.

So in closing I want to thank QT2 for hosting a great camp in Clermont, Florida, thanks so much for putting together the greatest group of people this weekend that was intense when it needed to be and easy when it needed to be and "FUN" all the time. I'll miss everybody. Keep training everyone and lets hope for a kick ass season.

Some Crazy things I saw today

2011-04-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, this will be a short blog because I'm tired and I have to get up at 4:30am to get my bike and run workout in before work. Anyway, today was an interesting day, I saw a few things today that I have never seen before. They were:

1. While swimming at the pool today I heard a phone ring and saw a man two lanes down in the pool talking on the phone. Really, seriously, can't you get hurt talking on the phone near water. it's almost as irritating as hiking up a beautiful mountain or skiing downhill and seeing someone talk on the phone while doing it, it just doesn't fit.

2. While getting back to my car waiting for my boys flag football practice to end today a car sped past my car and chucked a turkey sub sandwich out their window and it smashed into the car in front of me. No joke, I'm not lying, there was pickles, turkey, mustard, mayo, cheese everywhere on the persons rear window and all over the roof. I've never seen anything like it before, so bizarre. Since it was my friends car I went out with my box of tissues and try to clean it but man it was a mess. Who does this, who chucks a sub sandwich out the window, really?

3. ok, so this isn't so surprising but at my kids flag football practice today ( 7-11 yr olds all together) in total there was about 7 boys wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts. The temps were about 39 with wind gusts around 15-20mphs, their hands were freezing, most of them looked so uncomfortable I couldn't believe they made it an hour. First of all I get it, I have a child who has sensory issues who most of the time if he could walk around naked he would, but at least he had on a sweatshirt over his short sleeve and long socks on his legs from his shorts, but these boys were ridiculous, I had to go to my car to warm up it was so cold, at least it provided me the opportunity to see the flying sandwich from earlier though.

Anyway, enough jibber jabber, just an interesting day.

SPAM and other things

2011-04-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days my hotmail account has sent out probably hundreds of spam emails to my contacts and some have even received more than two. I have changed my password, called microsoft and depending on the rest of the day I may have to shut down my hotmail account for another email. I have had this email for years and have hundreds of saved emails and this really pisses me off. I am not nieve to think that this can't happen but this type of nonsense is a waste of my friggin time.

In my life every minute is accounted for, I have something scheduled for myself or for my kids with not a ton of downtime ( I count going to the park playing with my kids scheduled time) but really spending endless hours trying to respond to my friends who are getting pissed and trying to figure out this problem sucks, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

ANYWAY, I AM REALLY SORRY TO ALL MY DEAR FRIENDS WHO ARE GETTING MY EMAILS THAT HAVE NO SUBJECT, PLEASE DO NOT OPEN UNLESS I HAVE PUT SOMETHING IN THE SUBJECT TEXT, JUST DELETE AND PLEASE DON'T BEGRUDGE ME DURING THIS TRYING TIME OF EMAIL HELL.

On the other hand my workouts are going well, I was a bit under the weather this weekend and only got in my long ride ( just under 3hrs) but couldn't get my run in on sunday, just too tired and hung over with Nyquil. Today I felt better but acid indigestion right now is clawing is way up my throat. I haven't had this issue for a long time and most likely this is telling me, too much acidity in my diet ( i.e, diet coke, tea, etc...) I guess its time to make a change.

Today was a hard strength day f/b a 6 mile run. Tomorrow, swim/bike/run. I am getting nervous for the up and coming QT2 camp, these athletes are incredible and just being there is so exciting, my soul goal is to hang on and to learn as much as I can and come home a better athlete. I do need to check with my friend Maris to see what airlines we are flying, I'm a bit nervous if its Southwest, eeeks. Anyway, I have to figure out how to break down my bike and rent a bike box over the next week, we leave on the 13th to Florida. yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

This is a real build week to get me going for next weeks camp so god knows I'm going to need the best rest, healthy food as possible ( hee, hee, like that is going to happen)

polar bear treadmill fall

2011-03-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

I have frequently posted this on my facebook and find it extremely funny. Today I was breaking down the polar bears form on the treadmill, initially very straight up, then he got into an aggressive forward lean, then emotions took over and all form was lost. I bet more than one of you out there has experienced form breakage like this on some of your runs.

crazy kids

2011-03-22T17:17:00.001-07:00

today was a day that unfortunately only got 1 out of the 3 workouts in and had to deal with a few meetings and some crazy kids. the above cartoons continue to show how much my children love each other and me. Enjoy.

Frustration, venting, etc....

2011-03-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

I think every few months I write a similar blog and bitch about being unsupported and trying to do everything I possibly can to meet everyone's standards and everyones expectations of me and also trying to pursue my goals of being a good mom, wife, friend, coach and athlete. I often fail to meet anyones expectations, I usually meet about 1/2 of them and I get constantly criticized for wanting to workout and needing to workout almost on a daily basis. People have often stated to me, " stop bitching about being behind on your chores or food shopping, etc, if you just didn't work out so much you would have plenty of time to yourself and be done with everything you need"

Well, in response to those several people, I say, " SCREW YOU". I'm tired of people telling me that, its not that I don't have time, for goodness sake I get up at 4:30am to do most of workouts so I have time during the day for my family and to do everything I need to do, however, that being said, if my family would cooperate and put laundry in the basket and not on the floor, dishes in the dishwasher instead of the sink all the time, if they could actually hang a coat, put shoes away, actually help make dinner or maybe offer to grocery shop or fix a lightbulb or doing anything around the house that didn't involve personal gratification for themselves I think I wouldn't complain so much. Its hard to feel like you cleaned the same shit over and over again, it gets real old.

Now, after saying that a friend of mine said, " WEll, have you put your foot down, no TV if they don't do this, no dinner if they don't do that, etc..." Well, actually been there and done that. I've left dishes in a sink for a week and no-one did anything about it, laundry not done except my own and the kids and instead of offering to help someone just says, " how come I don't have any more laundry", " Why isn't there dinner cooked tonight", etc.....

I'm not saying I"m perfect, actually I'm far from it, I have lots to learn but I do try to make life easy for everyone surrounding me, probably to my detriment and its biting me in the ass and its hard to change people I have spoiled over the years. That being said, isn't it just common sense to just ask someone if they need help? Isn't it just common decency when your even a child when you see someone still working at 10p at night that maybe you might ask if they need anything?

These are just a few things I complain about they certainly aren't life threatening, I probably shouldn't bitch about them when there is so much other stuff going on around the world so far worse than I could ever dream of, however, its hard when you feel unsupported, its hard when you feel like you are all alone when you have these thoughts.

Its also hard to want to be the best athlete you can be and have no real support in that area, not caring about me getting in what I need to get in to do that, not appreciating that I try to not sacrifice family time for my workouts but there are times I need to and it comes with a load a complaints from everyone. I know I want to be the best mom and wife and all that stuff but I also want to do something that makes me happy, why is it so hard to do it, why do I have to work so hard to fit it all in? It gets really frustrating sometimes.

Ok, end of venting, life is just real busy right now and I want to do so many things that I can't and I'm sad sometimes. I know life does not revolve around me and I'm ok with that but sometimes I just need to vent about it.

Testing and the ABCs

2011-03-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

This past week was a tough one, I did a 10 mile road race, my swim time trial and my bike power test, along with everything else and all my other training thrown into the mix. As noted in my previous blog I did fairly well on the Black Cat 10 miler, 8:19 pace, so its a start and I'm happy with that.

On thursday I had to do a 1000 pull TT in the pool after a good warm up. Of course I screwed it up and instead of using a buoy I used my paddles. I finished the 1000 in 14:19, coach told me to add 3 sec per 100 using the paddles, so if I do that it comes out to 14:49, well, it doesn't completely suck, still lots of work to do in the pool and based on only 1-2 sessions a week I'll take that time.

On saturday I had my bike power test, after a good warm up of 40 minutes it was 4 x 5 minutes with only 1 1/2 minutes of recovery in between. The goal was to start each interval at my low end of V02 max and then build by 10-15 watts for each minute, that was for set 1+2, then to take my average wattage from the first two sets and start there for my 3rd and build and then go all out for #4. Well, my total average was 246.5watts for the whole 20 minutes. The breakdown was, 245, 247, 245, 250. Not bad, I'll take it.

Anyway, I'm still pretty tired coming off the bike, I'm trying to keep my cadence up around 88-93 so I'm still working on this area. I have a terrific new training partner who I've started working with that has similar training times as me and we know how to push each other so I'm really greatful, thanks Maris.

Anyway, things are working itself along and the season is just around the corner, its crazy. I'm getting excited.

Here are my ABCs:
Age: 42

Bed size:-King

Chore you dislike: unloading the dishwasher and putting away laundry- when you do as much as I do you would understand

Dog: Just put him to sleep, hopefully getting a new one in the spring

Essential start of the day: tea or coffee, water and brushing my teeth

Favorite color: royal blue

Gold or silver: neither but if I had to choose silver

Height: 5'5:

Instruments you play: I played the flute for years

Job title: Mom, wife, coach, Nurse Practitioner

Kids: 4- 3 boys and 1 girl

Live: Beverly Mass

Mom's name: Linda

Nickname: Donna D

Overnight hospital stay: birth of 4 babies and an ACL repair

Pet peeves: not flushing the toilet, not replacing the toilet paper roll when done, not sending thank you notes

Quote from a movie: " Its in the hole"- Caddyshack, " You can't handle the truth"- A few Good men, " Baby Fish mouth, exercist baby"- When Harry Met Sally. " It's not over, was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Germans? Quiet, he's on a roll"- Animal House

Righty or lefty: righty

Siblings: 1 brother older by 15 months

Time you wake up: 6am during the week, 4a-5:30am on the weekends

Underwear: I'm very picky about what kind I wear, I hate wedgies

Vegetables I don't like: beets

What makes you run late: I try to fit everything in every minute of the day, I over estimate or I should say, underestimate how long it will take to get somewhere- it makes me late.

Xrays: knees, mouth, breasts

Yummy food you make: chicken pot pie, vegetable chili, carrot ginger soup, grilled swordfish

Zoo animal favorites: I love all the cats, Lions, Cheetahs, pumas, tigers, etc.. I think they are absolutely beautiful. Its amazing how an animal can be so beautiful and deadly at the same time.

Black Cat 10 miler

2011-03-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

So today was a good day, not a PR but a good day. I haven't run an open road race in over 2 years so I thought since I'm trying to rebuild my run and get stronger on this front I needed to add some road races into the mix. Unfortunately, in the fall I was suffering from severe plantar fascitis and I couldn't do the trail marathon I wanted to do and my running really didn't start building until late november, early December. I have only done a handful of speed sessions and a few tempos, otherwise most of my runs have been at a extensive/intensive pace ( 8:45-9:05 pace). AFter my plantar fascitis resolved my right hamstring started aching again and acting weird ( tight) so with all the bad weather we were having and the black ice and large snow banks I have spent a significant amount of time running on a treadmill and not outside. As you runners know that is not ideal and ones legs need the wear and tear of the road to really get your groove on. However, that being said its what I could do and I made the best of it and worked as hard as I could without tweaking my hamstring and getting hurt further.

So with that being said I went into today with not a ton of expectations except that I wanted to run, I wanted to feel strong and I wanted to pace myself in a way that I could go faster if I wanted in the last few miles. Well, since my Garmin bit the big one last night and my friend got sick so I didn't bring my Ipod I went solo into the race accept my ironman watch to check my splits ( which I only did 3x). The weather was perfect, a bit chilly to begin with, slight drizzle a bit windy and then a brief glimpse of the sun. The course was great, some flats, some gradual inclines and some good hills thrown into the mix to make you honest ( not too big though). I was thinking if I hit an Average of 8:20-8:30 and felt good I was doing something, well, I did an 8:19 average with the last two miles being around 8:05's, so their must of been a few miles that I must of dropped a bit below 8:20, oh well. I knew at mile 8 I was still feeling good and I had some speed left so I just picked up my cadence and started to run without completely going out of my zone. i watched my form, tried to get good extension out of my legs, took in my gel and my water and finished strong in 1:23. Now, this isn't a PR for me but it isn't too far off from it and given my running at this point and in March I am very encouraged that I am getting back and that a sub 8 min 1/2 marathon is coming my way this year. My goal is also to make my open running time very close to my triathlon run time, so I'm going to work with coach a lot this season on this.

Anyway, 7/85 in my age division, not bad. Congrats to all my friends who ran today, Brooke, Erica, Kim, Betsy, Pete, Sharon and thanks to B&S fitness, Brandi, Steve, Ashley, Jeremee,Greg, Emily for doing a great job with the first Annual Black Cat. Way to go.

Utah 2011.mov

2011-03-03T19:16:00.001-08:00

Click here to view this video

Ski Utah and other little things...

2011-03-03T06:35:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun in Utah skiing this february vacation, the kids are really motoring down the hills with good form, they are able to ski both powder and groomed trails, its just fun. But I will say it was hard to find lifts that would accomodate all 6 of us so we always had to split up, that was fine but it was always fun to find the big ones.

The boys are fearless creatures, flying down the mountain, Shea is conservative but she can go down anything, and CAde, well, not much turning going on just a speed demon bombing down the mountain, we still have to keep a good eye on him, the problem is I can't catch him, he goes too fast on the groomers so Phil has to do that. Anyway, it was great to get away and enjoy the outdoors and be outside even in the cold for 7+ hours a day. I was able to keep my workout schedule on track except they had no pool to really swim in, they had an outdoor pool with a temperature of 95 degrees, so I'm a bit behind on the swim front, we'll get it back. Anyway, still trying to catch up on mail, laundry and house cleaning on top of the kids sports and my workouts, it can be crazy but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy 5th Birthday little man

2011-02-21T09:39:00.001-08:00

I can't believe its been 5 years since I had my last baby, it seemed like I was pregnant for so long ( which I was, 4 kids in 4 years) but to not be pregnant for 5 years and have no other little ones running around seems so weird for me. I do look at my son and think, " Wow, when you were 4 last year I couldn't imagine having 3 little babies under him, which is what I had done", so surreal.

He had his first real " friends" birthday this past weekend, so much fun to have him playing with his friends and really establishing his own identity away from his brothers and sister, he's growing up. He's so beautiful inside and out, at times he's a little devil but all in all for, " Number 4" isn't there a movie now about #4, he's just fine.

What's also surreal about my little man turning 5 is that about 4 months after he was born I started my life back into fitness and losing weight and trying to get back into shape. I remember my mom coming to my first triathlon after having Cade ( the JCC in Marblehead) and I had to nurse him before going into the pool to swim and then by the time I was almost finished with the run my boobs were so big and he was getting so fussy, all he wanted was to eat. Boy was I happy to feed him after the race. I won't give you the gory details of what happened after unzipping the tri suit, does, " Niagara Falls ring a bell". Anyway, it seems so far away but still so fresh in my mind. I look back at pictures and I also remember racing that day at a nice weight of, " 177lbs". My max pregnancy weight was 210 and I'm now consistently around 139-140. I'm very proud of maintaining this weight and I'm very proud that after having 4 babies I was able to get the weight off and enjoy becoming an adult onset athlete.

I want to thank my 5 year old for lighting the fire in my gut and up my butt to get my ass in gear and get in shape. There are so many reasons why I love this little man and this is just one of many.

Happy 5th Birthday Cade. Mommy loves you.

Saying goodbye to Kota

2011-02-15T19:49:00.001-08:00

I was taking Kota out for his nightly walk tonight when I noticed something red on his lame leg, I brought him into the house and noticed that there was a big bloody mass protruding from his knee and that most likely it is his tumor. I immediately started to cry knowing that this really was it, that no matter how else he might be feeling the cancer has taken over and its time to say goodbye. I can clean it up with all my nursing prowess and keep nice saline wet to dry dressings on his mass but in the end it is cancer and its only going to get worse. Right now he isn't suffering, he is eating and playing and still smiling, its time. I will let his day be his normal day with his friends tomorrow morning but I will spend quality time with him until we bring him in tomorrow night. I don't know how I am going to be but right now I feel such an emptiness in my heart and only wish I could have more time with him.

To my amazing dog Kota, you have given us 10+ years of love and joy, chewed up decks, dug up holes, missing underwear and socks all to come out in your poop the next day, you have suffered through the bloat, a splenectomy, ACL repair and urinary incontinence but you have given us all of your love and I will never, ever forget you. You were my first child that I had to take care of, my first real responsibility, you taught me how to love and to care, thank you.

We love you Kota.

It's been crazy around this place......

2011-02-07T11:19:00.000-08:00

Life has just been crazy since Christmas around this house.
With all the snow storms and school snow days, the pneumonias, the flus, the stomach bugs, the stitches, the ER visits, the part-time non-profit job, the husband going away for ~ 12 days in January, lets just say mommy is a little bit stretched out. Did I also mention my dog getting diagnosed with terminal cancer, the wetting of multiple beds, the leaky windows, the burst water pipe that leaked into my kitchen and my washer and dryer smoking and not working ( did I say I do at least 10-15 loads of laundry a week). I've almost reached the end of my rope, I haven't even slept through the night in I don't know how long. I'm tired....

I feel bad my kids have had a tough winter with sicknesses, I love them to pieces but this has been really hard on everyone. Trying to keep 4 kids happy when they are sick at home, unable to go out is hard. We don't have computer games, DS's or anything like that, we try not to watch too much TV in this house so board games, playing outside, listening to music, reading and art projects are what we do. I am at my last rope with all of these and really don't want to see Clue, Yahtzee, air hockey, ping pong and indoor soccer/basketball for along time. If my 4 cherubs would actually get along things would be different but they really don't, at least not for prolong periods of time.

So what does this mean to me, well, my workouts are mostly getting done, I can't say they are great, I miss a few here and there because I'm just so dam tired, I know I can get out to the gym when my husband gets home at 7-7:30-p but usually I just want to go to bed at that time. I usually can get up in the wee hours of the morning to bike or run but when you don't get to sleep through the night waking up at 4am just isnt appealing and my treadmill broke so I don't have one right now to run on.

I know I'm bitching and with everything going around the world these days this is so trivial, I feel almost guilty writing it. However, I get so depressed and upset with myself when I cant get in what I need from the workout front and subsequently I get frustrated with my performances, even in training. I'm almost glad that my race was rescheduled yesterday because when I ran yesterday I felt like a piece of shit and I know I would of had a subpar day on the race course.

I try not to bitch, I try to be positive but its February for goodness sake and Tri season is right around the corner. I need a break, I need some healthy karma to come my way for my family. I need my kids to beable to go to school 5 days a week both for my sanity and for theirs, I need my training to become more consistent. I'm just saying.....

Anyway, heres to all the multitasking moms out there who actually "make" it work, can you shoot me a response and tell me how you do it?

Race confusion....

2011-01-30T07:52:00.000-08:00

I am so confused right now about my races for this year. Most people by November/December have their whole race plan filled out, they know their plan, I have a skeleton plan with a few races I think I want to do but then I think about other things I want to do, other races, its so confusing for me. Without ironman in July this year its a bit up in the air, however I do know I want to do 2 1/2 ironmans this year and some swim races and some sprints. Here are my thoughts and I would love anyones opinion.

April- ? wrentham duathlon- just a tune up
May 15- ? American Zofingen 5 mile trail run/89 hillacious hilly miles on the road/15 mile trail run
or End of May- /Black Bear Duathlon- 10k/39 miles/4 1/2 miles run

Heres the confusing one: Mooseman June 5th 1/2 ironman or Rev 3 Quassy 1/2 June 5th? Based on what I'm hearing the Rev 3 Quassy is brutal as is Mooseman but the Moose is a bit easier on the run. However, if I do Zofingen I won't be properly recovered for Moose and for Rev3. So do I go into something like Zofingen and forget trying to do a successful 1/2 this early summer? I'm not sure. Am I scared of going back to the Mooseman course where I sat on the beach at my very first 1/2 ironman 4 years ago and cried and walked away? Am I afraid of the tough competition that will be there that day and want to escape to some other place where the unknown is the only thing on my brain? I don't know.

July is kind of open, probably just a few bike TT's and a sprint triathlon. August I'm hoping I'll be home for the Gloucester triathlon and then we are off to Idaho for some white water rafting and hiking with the family. Unfortunately I can only swim and trail run when I'm out there, hubby won't let me bring the road bike? I guess I can't travel down the river on the boat with my bike, huh?

September at this point is the PUmpkinman 1/2 ironman and maybe a sprint in there.
October is to recover and build again
November- ? ironman depending on my mental status and how I performed at the 1/2 ironman distances this year. It also depends on how my running is coming along. If ironman is a no go then I may just try to do a run focus and train for a marathon.

so I guess I'm just confused about the beginning part of my plan and I need to really bare down and figure it out soon. Help!!!!!

Life in Perspective

2011-01-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

Life is just really interesting lately, I'm hearing lots of things that make me think that I need to stop bitching about the little stuff and make the most of everyday that I have. I know I have blogged about this in the past but every once in awhile things just make you shake your head and say, " life can be so unfair sometimes" and you just need to put your life into perspective and focus on whats important.

What I've heard:

1. A good friends significant others cancer is back and has metastisized throughout her body, she has a 2 1/2 yr old and we don't know what the prognosis is, but based on what I know its not good. However, she maintains an amazing outlook on life and she never mentions this to anyone, she is inspiring to say the least but I can't help thinking about her all the time and her little daughter and her hubby, this must be so hard for them.

2. I know I don't know these people personally and its probably really stupid for me to even mention this but last night on American Idol the last contestant ( Chris Medina) had an amazing story to tell about his longtime girlfriend and fiance who was in a car crash 2 yrs ago and sustained a serious brain injury, she is able to communicate a little but their lives are forever changed and the fact this young mans love for his future bride still shines so bright in his eyes and that he is still so very much apart of her life and her families is just a testomony to the fact that amazing, compassionate people still live on this planet. The even better thing was that he could really sing too and he made it to the Hollywood round. Just a great story, but man it makes you think, right?

I don't know, life is hard all the way around, its never easy but when you see these things or read about stories like this it makes you think about your life, doesn't it?

My training has been going well, not great, I'm still having a hard time getting to the pool more than 1-2x a week which needs to change really soon. I've encorporated a big strength component 3 x a week in my normal swim slot so adding another hour onto that day has been hard and I lose my mojo later on in the day. I know what I want out of my life, I know what I want out of my body and I really need to stop making lamo excuses and move on. However, I look at these people and it makes me feel so selfish, I don't know, I need to do more in so many aspects of my life, I need to give back more. Anyway, I'm rambling, lots of things to think about.

KARLYN PIPES- NEILSEN FASTER FREESTYLE

2011-01-22T14:34:00.000-08:00

Beauty in the water, I need to get my butt to the pool more often and drill my ass off more.

Power test results are in.......

2011-01-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

So this year so far the way I am being tested on the bike is a bit different, last season we did an all out 6min VO2 max set to give us our numbers, however, what coachie and I are finding out is that I can hit really high numbers for short periods of time ( great anaerobic engine) but have a harder time sustaining longer sustainable power numbers ( i.e, 70.3 or ironman watts) so this years testing is a bit different, we did:

A warm up that was about 40 minutes long ( single leg drills, builds and some spin ups) and after a recovery we did:

4 x 5 min of building from low end Vo2 max to hopefully all out by the end of the set ( remember that there is 4 sets to do)

1 1/2 minutes of recovery in between each set only

My average watts for the 4 x 5min ( with a calibrated power tap) was 232 watts. Not bad. What I am excited about is that finally my numbers a more accurate, we are going to work on really building on steady state watts to my threshold watts and holding these numbers for longer periods of time. Our goal is to average 190 watts to 200 watts in a 1/2 ironman effort. I believe this is definitely doable for me and a goal that "I" will achieve. Below are my watt ranges if anyone is interested. You guys will keep me honest.

regenerative- <115
Extensive-115-155
Intensive-155-190
Steady State-190-210 ( 35-65 mile effort-75-80% of Max HR)
Tempo-210-220 (20K fast end to 50K slow end TT effort. uncomfortable, 85-90% of max HR)
Threshold-220-225

Low end vo2 max-225
high end vo2 max-260

These are a bit different then the numbers I worked with last year but I believe that they are more honest numbers and by working within the right zones and heart rates and doing the proper workouts to reach my FTP potential I am going to kick some major ass this season.

August, a tough month.....

2011-01-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

Lots of things going on in my mind today but most specifically a conversation I had tonight with someone. Every summer we go away on a fabulous vacation for the first two weeks of August, the kids, my hubby, its great, no complaints really, I'm very blessed in so many areas of my life that even considering being a bit confused about vacation should never reach my mind, but, unfortunately it does. Heres my problem:

The last two years I've trained for ironman Lake Placid in late July, so going away the first two weeks of August was a no brainer, I was in total complete recovery mode, having a gym to workout in, a beach to swim, a road to run on is all I ever needed. The only complaints the past two years was that I couldn't race a local race that everyone does and I've wanted to do for awhile, but really, no biggy.

This year is a bit different, I technically have two "A" races, a half ironman in June and a half ironman in September, ( with a possible long distance event in November if all goes well). Going away this August to places like Italy, Greece, Idaho, California are amazing, the opportunity to travel is just crazy and I"m so blessed, however, is it wrong for me to think that I may not beable to swim for two weeks or even bike depending on where we go? Is it wrong for me to just have a little twinge of sadness that my training will be a little off working up to a big race in September? It's not going to change that we are going, I'm still going to have an amazing time and enjoy myself completely, but I still have those thoughts in my head, I can't help it.

The bigger deal is when you discuss your feelings and emotions to someone and they say, " I really don't care" that you won't beable to bike or swim, its vacation, you can run. I don't care if there is a gym or anything else, you've done ironman for two years. It's hard when people just don't understand, its really hard. I do everything in my power to make sure what I love to do doesn't effect my family too much or my relationship with friends and my obligations, but of course it does a little, how can it not, I'm not stupid or nieve. However, the people who love you most should beable to understand what makes someone happy, what makes someone tick, what gives that person a purpose and a goal in life along with being a mother, wife and friend.

Triathlon, working out, being fit has become a part of my life, I'm not obessed about it but its become a part of my life, its part of who I am, yet it doesn't define completely who I am. It's hard when people don't understand that or try to accept that.

Well, anyway, enough bitching for now, life is always good and if this is the only thing I can bitch about than I truly am blessed.

Nor'Easter in Beverly, please have school tomorrow.

2011-01-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of my kids and my dog from today's festivities, lets just say, the dog had fun, the kids are exhausted and mommy is chilling her bottle of wine.

Suck it up and stop moping!!!!!

2011-01-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

So, over the last week or so I have finally figured out how to calibrate my power tap and zero out the torque and to make sure my readings are as close to what they should be everytime I ride. What I found out last week was that I was probably riding about 15 watts higher than I actually was on all my rides/intervals. It was a bit of a downer for me, I'm not going to lie, but I'm also pretty honest about it because the numbers I was producing were pretty sick. I'm glad I found out now so that I can just continue to perform and hopefully continue to improve on my overall fitness.

This week ( probably Saturday) I will be testing to find my zones on the bike. The test properly warms me up for about 40 minutes and then I go into a 4 x 5min test with only 1 1/2 minutes in between for recovery. I am supposed to start the first two intervals at low to mid range of my Vo2 max and with the last 2 minutes to increase my wattage if able by 10-15 watts per minutes. Interval number 3, I am to start at the average wattage I put out from the first two for the first 3 mintues and then increase by 10-15 each minute after until 5minutes and then the last interval I am taking the average of interval 3 and trying to MAX my performance for the full 5 minutes if I am able.

Saturday and today I have been riding either with the computrainer or just my trainer with my power tap to see how my watts have been producing. It clearly shows that I am riding lower than I have been and I'm not going to lie I have been pretty bummed out about it. Today I rode for 42 minutes for a warm up and then my main set was:

4 x 8 minutes: 1 1/2 min at 60-65 cadence mid range to high range SS then 30 secs at mid range tempo cadence of 80-85.

recovery inbetween each interval was 2 minutes.

My numbers for each set:

Set 1- 205
Set 2-213
set 3- 218
set 4-218

My peak HR was only 161bpm by my final interval and < 160 bpm on all the rest. My coach noted that even with the 15 watt difference I am still operating well above where I was performing last summer. He noted that, the bottom line is that power meters, like any tech gadget can and will fail you. It could happen in a race or key training session. You should expect that it will happen. He continued to tell me, that if I let a few numbers rain on my parade now, how will I handle it when the pressure is really on?

Coachies advice- suck it up and stop moping!!! and thats an order.

Ok, enough moping, I'm done, know its time to still kick some ass and get these numbers to be better.

Should we be cynics?

2011-01-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

So my kids had two weeks off from school for the holiday vacation and were due to go back this monday, well low and behold, mysteriously my son and my daughter developed some rare form of a Brazilian Snake sickness or weird Russian snow bug, who the hell knows but one stayed home and the other I got called at 10am. My son stayed home and he played basketball, ran around the house, read, ate like King Kong, what a weird form of the Brazilian Snake sickness he was experiencing, huh?

My daughter said she was experiencing and itchy throat, belly pain and felt like she might throw up and school. Like a good mom I proceeded to school to pick her up, some rare Russian Snow bug I'm sure you contracted from her brother this morning. Well, during the day she perked up like the little miss sunshine that she is, no issues, no problems. I did bring her in to the Doctors just to check out he throat because Strep has been running around and she was negative.

Weird huh, these strange illnesses and bugs going around. Now today, my second son was complaining of some stomach discomfort this morning, no fever, ate two bowls of cereal but he didn't want to go to school. I told him to go to the bathroom and he did, no problems, no diarrhea, no vomiting, he was going to school. Well, 9:48am I get a call from the school nurse saying he was complaining of stomach cramps and was very uncomfortable so off mommy needed to go to pick him up from school. He's home now and after a nice warm bath and a popsickle he's looking mighty chipper, I'm sure this rare bug will be from the middle east or something, something that lasts a mere 2 or 3 hours, we'll have to see, I'll keep you posted.

Here's my issue, are they sick, are they trying to trick me? Am I too cynical? If they were actively throwing up, having diarrhea, had a fever, were lethargic showing me any outwardly signs that they were sick I would have no problems, but they are too young to be faking illnesses to get out of school and all I can say is thank goodness I'm a stay at home mom because I don't know how they do it, who leaves work to pick up the kids when they are sick, I mean this is 3 days after a major vacation, this is crazy. My whole schedule is turned upside down and I wouldn't mind it if I knew they were really sick, I'm just not buying it. We'll see.

power Bike #4- I like it like this, now lets bring this to the road

2011-01-04T14:28:00.001-08:00

Ok, 6am today was power cycle class #4, still working on threshold wattage with some spikes of low end V02 max efforts. We are still keeping everything in check and not working anaerobically, all aerobically. I'm feeling really good on the bike and the watts are coming, I think I will need to test soon since I am completely out of last years wattages and need to really target in on my proper zones. Todays class was a good warm up about 30 minutes long with some single leg drills, building up to tempo wattages and 2 good high cadence spin ups, then the main set was:

6min low end tempo with varying 15-20 sec vo2 max spikes thrown in

1 1/2 min recover

5 min low end tempo with varying spikes of vo2 max wattages

1 1/2 min recover

4 min interval ( same as above)

1 min recover

3 min interval ( same as above)

1 min recover

2 min interval ( same as above)

Finish and recover

Average watts:

6min inter-250 watts
5min-260 watts
4min-260 watts
3min-270 watts
2min-285 watts

My HR was staying low, peak HR was only 161 on the 2 min. Most of my base line efforts were around 245-260 watts and nearly all of my spikes were executed @ 280-300 watts.

Now lets see how we test and really see where my true watts lie, I would love to see my true 1hr power in the mid 200's. Can I do it and run off the bike?

Sport Beans to the Rescue and Power Cycle #3

2010-12-31T15:06:00.000-08:00

Today was such a crazy day, I had lots of plans to finish writing and making a lot of calls for my clients and trying to figure out how to do this with kids crawling all over. I got up around 5am to finish my work and I had scheduled my kids to go to a 4hr winter camp at 9am, low and behold it was cancelled after driving to Manchester, man I needed to go into full overdrive to figure out how I could get coverage for my kids so I could finish my work, get in a 1hr extreme strength session and make it to a meeting at 12:15p. Well, thanks to my sitter Lindsey for coming early and my mother in law for helping out and some good friends who took the boys I was able to do all the above and make my meeting ( about 15 minutes late).

However, the one thing I did forget to do is eat but in my trusty purse I always carry a chocholate goo, cliff bar and sport beans. Gotta love the sport beans it helped me through, and I was able to get home and eat properly without passing out. Going well over 18hrs without eating is not a good thing especially after a strong bike class last night and my intense strength this morning- I don;t advocate for missing meals ( which I never do, just ask anyone) you need to eat.

Anyway, I was so glad the day was finally over with regards to my responsibilities so I was able to just chill and play Yahtzee with my kids and listen to their day.

My cycling class last night went really well again, the watts are coming really nice right now, its either my strength is significantly better or that my bike volume is down and I can really work these classes. WE are maintaining good aerobic outputs here, no high end V02max stuff right now, lots of sustained efforts and tempo efforts for good stints of time, heres what we did:

AFter a good proper warm up of about 25 minutes, the main set was to equal 2011= 33:30 total main set

10 min at 238 watt avg/92 RPM avg/peak HR of 156

8 min @ 244 watt avg/92 RPM avg/peak HR of 157

6 min @ 260 watt avg/92 avg/peak HR of 161

4 min @ 263 watt avg/95 rpm avg/peak HR of 162

2 min @ 269 watt avg/ 95 RPM avg/peak HR of 160

2 x 1.75 min @ 276 and 278 watt avg 98/99 RPM peak HR of 165

I gotta love the 6 min effort, I was feeling in tempo mode and I avg 260, my LT wattage for my 6 min test last year was 275, I'm hoping for much better numbers this year. WE'll see.

Power Bike #2- friggin great watts

2010-12-23T14:06:00.000-08:00

This is all I have to say about my main set today on my bike:

10min at SS pace: 242 avg watts

2 min recovery spin

8 min- 248 watts

2 min rec

6 min- 247 watt avg

2 min rec

4 min- 250 watt avg

2 min rec

2 min- 255 avg watts

Kicking ass my friends my a max HR of 150, keeping my cadence at 86-88 like coachie wants

Average watts for 30 minute interval 248

Average watts for 1hr bike- 197

Lets hope the running comes along like the bike is coming, I swear it has everything to do with my strength training and working on all my weaknesses. Thanks Jeremee, Janda and Sara, please continue to kick my ass on a weekly basis.

On the Twelth Day of Christmas ( Version #2)

2010-12-21T07:33:00.001-08:00

On the Twelth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

12 loads of laundry to do and when the kids go back to school-not that I'm counting

11 broken christmas bulbs

10 batches of gingerbread cookies I made last night

9 changes of clothes my daughter did yesterday

8 times my boys tried to kill each other this morning ( starting at 5:30am)

7 times I had to flush my toilets in the house because my kids refuse to flush ( don't ask me what's in them)

6 loads of dishes I've done in two days- because my husband and kids refuse to use the same cups/plates so........

5 glorious days until christmas is over ( do I sound grumpy)

4 kids that are up at 5:30am trying to talk to me and outside playing in the snow before 7am

3 Topsfield Fair Fish that have died in a matter of weeks- what a waste

2 Guineaa pigs that I desperately want to get rid off

And 1 very incontinent older male dog - who wakes up in pee and mommy has to clean him up. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Cycling with Power, class 1

2010-12-17T16:40:00.000-08:00

So last night was my first cycling/trainer class with power this season with Coachie. This past fall I've been concentrating on cyclocross and doing some other outdoor riding but mostly about 3-4hrs a week max. Mostly high quality work not a lot of fluff. I really look forward to December when this class starts ( I did a similar class with Karen Smyers at Fast Splits using their computrainers and it was so much fun). There is something to be said working hard next to fellow athletes and actually having your coach with you, watching your form, looking at your numbers right there (there is no getting away with anything when he is there).

Anyway, I swam 3400yds in the morning, had a pretty eventful day with the kids and then it was off to class at 5p. The workout was:
W/u 10 minutes building from regenerative watts < 115 to intensive zone 155-189 watts

F/b single leg drills for 5-6 minutes

Build session starting at extensive zone ( 115-154) building to low range tempo 215 watts for ~ 5 minutes.

Main Set: Descending ladders, repeat ladder twice. 2 minutes in between each interval and in between the sets. Maintain Steady State Watts and build to low end tempo watts by last 1/4 of the interval. This was not supposed to be a hard effort.

6 minutes ( hold a cadence of 60-65 for 2 min, then increase cadence to 70-75 for second two minutes then increase cadence to 85-90 for last 2 minutes, bringing watts from Steady State to Tempo)

recover 2 minutes

4 minute interval ( hold cadence of 60-65 for 1 min, increase to 70-75 for 1 minute, then increase to 80-85 then 90 for last minute- again Steady State to Tempo)

recover 2 minutes

2 minute interval ( repeat above increase cadence and watt effort every 30 seconds)

recover 2 minutes

Repeat above interval

Warm down 5-10 minutes

<span style="font-weight:bold;">My Watts from last year were:

Regenerative pace ( <65% of effort) < 115
Extensive pace ( 65-70% effort) 115-154 watts
Intensive pace ( 70-75% effort) 155-189
Steady State pace ( 75-80% effort) 190-214 watts
Tempo pace ( 85-90% effort) 215-253 watts

V02 max- 86%- 254 watts
up to 100% of V02 max ( which someone can maintain up to 6 min) 280 watts

Ok, last night I felt great, I didn't work really hard and I had to really focus on keeping my watts where I was supposed to be, however, my effort was minimal at the watts I was supposed to put up so I told coach that I felt great and that I could go up a notch on my watts to reach my perceived level of exertion. Here are my numbers for my intervals.

First Interval:
6 min @ 240 AVG with final 1/4 at 280 watts
4 min @243 AVG with final 1/4 at 279 watts
2 min @257 AVG with final 1/4 at 290 watts

Second Interval
6 min @ 246 AVG with final 1/4 at 280 watts
4 min @ 250 AVG with final 1/4 at 290 watts
2 min @ 277 AVG with final 1/4 at 348 watts

My HR never went above 150, I was able to talk and hold good conversation it was so crazy. Both Coach and myself were surprised that my level of fitness was doing this well in December with not a cycling focus. What we are attributing my new found strength on the bike is my recent strength training program I've been doing 3 x a week and if my numbers are looking like this now I can't wait to see what they are when we are in the height of training.

Now cycling on the trainer and pushing good watts has never been a huge problem for me its translating those numbers to the road and performing to my abilities on the bike that I know I can do and my coach knows I can do. I am so psyched that I felt so good and hopefully with more strength work with Jeremee at BNS Fitness and coach J I'll be cycling like a machine come spring.

Heres to kicking some major ass to all you men out there this spring, watch out.

" Uncle, Uncle!!!!!"

2010-12-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

So I have been very fortunate to find a great physical therapist who has fixed a lot of my ailments over the last year and to keep me healthy and able to workout the way I want to workout. My plantar fascitis is gone after only 3 months and my initial hamstring issue that I went to her 1 year ago hasnt surfaced in over 10 months. I am very fortunate to see Sara, however, some appointments I just have to cry, " Uncle".

Over the past few weeks as my running has been able to increase and I'm starting to inject some speed in my workouts my IT band on my left leg has tightened a bit. Now, its not terrible, no worse than it has been over the years, I just have to roll it a ton and work on it before and after I workout. However, the tightening has caused a bit of stiffening around the left knee cap and even though my knee doesn't hurt when I run after workouts its been sore, especially when I touch it.

Back in 1995 I tore my left ACL skiing the lovely bumps of Sunday River and back then they did Patella tendon repairs, not the cadaver ones they do today or using some of your own hamstring muscle, so I asked Sara if something could be wrong with my old ACL issue, she felt strongly that it was my IT band tightening and causing some shifting and stiffening of my left knee cap. Well, on wednesday my lovely friend worked on my knee and I've never cried uncle more than once in any session we had and I think I cried over 10 times. She manipulated my knee, moved it, hell, I don't know what she did, all I know is that session killed, I didn't know laughing and crying crossed a very similar line. In the end, what was so surprising to me ( and it shouldn't be at this point) is today no pain in the knee, nothing, nada, nothing, just crazy. I had to email her and tell her, I felt so bad I was such a baby in the office but she was happy I wasn't in any pain. She did say that she still needs to do some work on it next week so my smile turned to sadness and I thought I was going to cry again, she laughed.

What is so crazy with this sport that we do is that every week I have something new to complain about, some new tweak, some new ache, some new pain, however I firmly believe if you catch things early, address it, find the right people to help you these injuries won't mount to much. I am a firm believer of that and I have a great PT to help me.

THANKS SARA!!!!!!!!!!

PISSED OFF!!!!

2010-12-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

So, I honestly believe that everyone has the choice to do what they want for themselves in their lives, I don't choose what people want to do nor do I typically criticize peoples choices with what they do with their lives, hey, if you want to do drugs, not go to school, eat McDonalds' for the rest of your life that's your poor decision I'm not going to give you my opinion unless you ask me ( but don't ask me unless your ready for it). The reason I bring this up is that someone recently said to me that, they don't understand why I exercise so much, don't you think it takes time away from your kids, husband, don't you have a job, don't you need to do household chores, etc... the person continues to say, " you must be so rich that you have people take care of everything for you so you can just exercise 8 hrs a day?" You must be a very selfish person?.

Ok, of course I could go in a lot of different directions here and I could certainly rake her over the coals but I needed to tell why I do what I do ( not to justify because I don't need to do that for anyone but myself) but I needed to explain, so here is what I said.

Listen, I exercise because I love to exercise and if I have the time to exercise more than 1hr a day then I will. I love the way exercise makes me feel both inside and out and it also improves my mood and it makes me a better wife and mother. I also set a great example for my children with regards to fitness and explaining to them that fitness can be part of your life and should be because it has so many benefits for you. My husband, myself and my 4 kids all play sports and we play together as much as we can outside because sitting in front of a TV or a DS is not what we deem as exciting or constructive. Now, TV and computers are still fun but we choose to use them selectively so that it means more to them when they do use them.

Now, if your comments are being directed to me because you lack that motivation to exercise to make that change in your life, what I say to you is, " you don't need to exercise 2-3hrs a day to make a difference in your life, you can walk for 20 minutes, use the stairs instead of the elevator, walk around your neighborhood". Just because I workout this much doesn't mean that everyone has to workout this much to make a difference in their lives. When it comes to affecting my family it primarily doesn't because I make sure that I exercise while they are at school/work or on the weekends my husband and I will rotate and make sure that someone is always with the kids. Grocery shopping, cleaning, 20 loads of laundry, animal care, sweeping, mopping, ironing is all done with minimal left and I get the workouts in, so to your question, " NO, I DON"T HAVE A MILLION PEOPLE HELPING ME SO I CAN WORKOUT!!!!! Don't use me as your scape goat to not being able to workout or eat well or make changes in your life, if I can get up at 4am to workout because that's the only time I can then I do, what's your excuse?

Random thoughts......

2010-11-29T12:16:00.000-08:00

So the base period is going well with regards to triathlon training, I can't say I've been doing a lot of swimming, once a week if I'm lucky, I am spending 3 days a week of significant strength training which I am loving, running 4-5x a week and biking 2-3x a week. I am feeling stronger but have a huge amount of guilt not being in the pool, I really need to make the effort but a little more time away hopefully will get me more motivated to swim hard starting next week.

The first two races of my season will most likely be the Great Stew Race in Peabody in early February, a 15k very hilly running race and then followed by either the Hyannis 1/2 marathon or the Black Cat 10 or 20 miler the first week in March ( which is located in Salem, Mass, thus very local and easy to get too so most likely this will be my choice.)

With some obligations to our Foundation and things I need to do on the weekends from January to June most of the races ( plus or minus 1 or 2) will need to be local and not require much travel, thus a lot of my early season races will be running races and a few duathlons. I will update you regarding my triathlon schedule very soon as I'm trying to work out my "A" races for the season.

Anyway, Thanksgiving went by without a hitch, I didn't need to cook an entire meal this year which was nice but we had to travel to the south shore which with traffic took us 2hrs down and 2hrs back, with 4 kids in the car asking, " are we there yet" a million times I think I would rather cook dinner. I decided not to run a Thanksgiving race this year because honestly, even though my foot is better and I'm laying down some nice miles during the week ( 25-28 a week) they are all zone 1-2 pace with no speed work just yet. The heel is so good right now and this week is the first week we are going to tap into some speed, so selfish me didn't want to run a 5 mile race and average 8:30 a mile, I decided to do 10 that day and just be alone for awhile, much better in my opinion.

I have one my cyclocross race scheduled for this season, the Ice Weasel in Wrentham. This race could be really cold, icey, snowy, all the above, who knows, so you ask, " Why would you sign up", well, the beer that they serve and all the costumes people wear and just the plain fun. Racing this off season in something I've never done before and just laughing and having no expectations has really just allowed me to have fun, to work really hard at something but to not have any regrets about the process or the finish. Just wait till I try my first winter duathlon or triathlon this season, " did I say that I've never done cross country skiing before- hee hee_. A girl has got to do what a girl has got to do.

Lastly, I'm just really greatful for my family, my friends and all the wonderful people who help me out with my life on a daily basis. Phil and I are celebrating 13 years together today and my 4 kids as hard as they can be somedays are just the best, my friends are just priceless, always calling me, checking in on me, always there for me when they know I need them, and of course my support team when it comes to keeping my body together and my mind, Sara my physical therapist, what can I say about her, she's become a really good friend and confident and she has fixed my plantar fascititis and my sciatic issue and I'm finally coming together. Can I say Janda, my coach who changes my workouts whenever I have an issue ( which is often) and is always supportive, I couldn't ask for more and lastly Jeremee who leads our extreme fit class on Mondays and Wednesdays, who pushes my limits with regards to my strength, my core, my everything until I'm the only one ready to puke after 1hr of strength training. He also takes into consideration what Janda is asking of me and what sarah knows my body can handle and he works on all my limiters, what can I say, I'm a lucky girl.

With all this said, I am going into this season with a fitter body and mind ( I'll talk about how I'm working on the mental side of things on my next post) with expectations but not expectations that if I don't achieve them will define who I am. I will go into every race this season with a goal but in the end make sure I've enjoyed the journey and the effort I put out that day. Its about being happy with who you are and what your body is capable of doing. Anyway, enough jibberish, we'll chat soon.

So many little things going on

2010-11-21T16:29:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a big weekend, not for me but for my kids and my good friend Keri Boyle. I'll start with my kids.

My son Alex had his first USA swim meet yesterday and at age 7 he placed 6th in the 25 back, 7th in the 25 free and with all the 10,9,8 ,7, 6yr olds he placed 19th I think for the 50 free, 47 seconds, not bad, and with a really good flip turn and no breath off the turn, so impressed.

The few things that stood out for me with his swim meet were, 1) he had so much fun he wanted to do more, 2) he said to me he loves swimming, 3) he said, " some day I'd like to beat Michael Phelps mommy". He had a smile on all day ( yes, swim meets take forever but he was a trooper). So his next swim meet is in Andover in January. Yeah!!!!!!!

Then today was a big day for the two oldest boys, they were competing in the North Shore Flag Footballs NFC championship game for 7-8 year olds, they were competing against the Arizona Cardinals, a team based out of Hamilton/Wenham who were undefeated, and basically killed everyone 50 to 10 all season. We did come close to beating them 24 to 6 ( they were our only loss) so to make it to the superbowl today we had to beat them. Let's just say the odds were stacked against us and I think no-one in the league, the parents gave us a chance. My husband Phil and our good friend Tim coach the boys and they worked really hard trying to figure out ways to beat the cardinals, they worked their defense and offense and today was the day ( the battle of the birds) that the Falcons came out on top, 18 to 12. It was great, the kids played so well, they showed great sportsmanship, it was awesome. We went on to play the Browns in the superbowl and won 26 to 0. We will go on to play at Endicott College on Dec 5th to go against the best of the North Shore, so much fun. We went out for pizza with the whole team and parents and then home to watch the patriots beat the Colts, the day couldn't of been more perfect.

Its so much fun to see them sleep in their football clothes and their trophies on their bed, they deserved this win so much. I would also like to note that the other team ( the cardinals) played so well and all of their kids showed great sportsmanship and even wished our kids good luck on the superbowl game. I know some of the kids on the other team and their parents so to watch these kids play with such competitiveness and grace at the same time shows what good coaching and parenting is all about. So Kudo's to the Cardinals.

On to my friend Keri who is still at this time competing at IMAZ right now and in 10th place in her AG on the marathon. She has a great chance of breaking the top ten and probably besting her ironman time by well over an hour and a half, so go keri.

On my front, I finally got to see the doctor today and was diagnosed with a sinus infection and put on antibiotics, thank God. 10 days of dayquil and Nyquil was enough. So hopefully I will start feeling better in the next day or two. I had to take off the whole weekend from working out because I knew I would dig myself into a deep hole if I worked out and felt like shit, so hopefully I will get in some good stuff tomorrow.

My next post will be my race schedule for this next season, lots of new stuff and some races that I need to go back to, to get that monkey off my back.

It's coming along, slowly but surely....

2010-11-14T17:43:00.001-08:00

So this weekend I had a cyclocross race on saturday and my long run on sunday. Cyclocross was fun but the course was hard, very muddy, sand, gravel, barriers and run ups that probably weren't run ups for most but the mud and sharp turns even in my lowest gear I couldn't get up, I was faster just to run. I was a bit discouraged on saturday because I got a good start finally and was in the front pack but a woman crashed on my left on one of the first turns which threw me off my game and then after a real muddy section I changed my gears too quickly to get up a hill and I dropped my chain, which took only about 10 seconds to fix but 6 or 7 women passed me which got me pissed. I eventually passed about 3 of them but couldn't catch the others. Cyclocross requires a ton of skill, tactics, agression and being on the frontline when the gun goes off, if your not there then your chances of making it to the front aren't realistic, unless your lynn Bessette or some other uber cyclist. Anyway, I still had fun and worked hard so another learning day for me.

Today was my long run, zone 1-2, not to raise my HR about tempo range on the hills, watch my mechanics, work on form and nutrition, it was a beautiful day to be outside and running or doing anything physical. I did one of my normal run routes that have a lot of rollers and some longish climbs, I was pleasantly surprised that my run fitness is starting to come back and that even though I still struggle a bit at the beginning, around mile 5 or 6 I start to feel strong, I feel my stride coming on and my HR drops, its just funny to me.

With all my strength training I've been focusing on these past 7 weeks I'm finally recruiting muscles on my runs that I didn't before. Whenever I finished a run in the past all the muscles that typically hurt no matter what the terrain were my quads, sometimes my hammies would be tight but my quads would be barking. Now, that isn't the case at all, my quads haven't hurt on my past few long runs and I'm starting to feel my glutes, and hammies more but not pain just that I'm actually using them.

I haven't done speed work for many months so all my runs with my injury since July have been zone 1 to zone 2 effort. Since my heel has been getting better we have been working on rebuilding my endurance, focusing on form and making sure that my heel doesn't flare up again. so far so good. Today I ran 10 miles, I haven't run 10 miles since July. I averaged an 8:44 pace and my HR was dead on low zone 2. I felt good, I watched my form, took in my nutrition and what I was most happy about was that my last few miles were my fastest and my HR didn't go up ( granted it was the flattest section of my run, but I'll take it).

I am rebuilding, working on form, getting my mojo back, relearning how to run, playing around and doing different things. I am excited everyday to workout and try new things. I am planning on doing a winter triathlon this January in WEston and the duathalon. Now, I've never cross country skied before but I'm going to rent some at our local ski shop and try it out this year, why not, cross fitness is fun and what the hell. What's next, Everest?

What's next and how are things going.....

2010-11-08T07:34:00.000-08:00

WEll first, before I go on about what is happening on my front, I want to congratulate to of my bestest friends for completing the NYC marathon yesterday in cold/windy conditions and doing it in great times. They have trained hard and for a long time and both finished strong. I can't wait to start running with them again after their recovery, my friends continue to inspire me everyday. Thanks Vicki and Jess for making me a better person for just knowing you guys.

Also, I follow a fellow triathlete and her blog, Mary Eggers and she competed at Ironman Florida this weekend, despite having some serious GI issues on her bike and run she completed the ironman in 11hrs and 40 minutes. This certainly wasn't the time Mary was hoping to achieve but she was so proud of herself to just finish given what she was experiencing out on the course that she's leaving Florida with no regrets and a lot to learn from. I am very proud of her and I look forward to hearing more about her experience there.

On another note I have one more cyclocross race this weekend in Plymouth, Mass, I'm still greatly enjoying the experience and hoping that over time I can become competitve in this event. I went out on my TT bike yesterday for the first time since september and riding it felt so easy compared to the cross bike, my bike handling skills were better and I wasn't so afraid to go over sticks and rocks. You do have to be more careful because the tires are more susceptible to flatting and things like that but overall it was super fun to be out there. My biking right now feels really good, for almost 2hrs my avg watts was 180 and my norm watts was 190. So excited to see those numbers in November. What I have to do now is believe in those numbers and believe in myself that I can produce those numbers and numbers higher than that on race day. I am working on that as we speak.

My running is coming along as well, my heel pain is almost completely gone and I can feel the difference in how I'm running. I'm able to fully run now and push off the front of my foot, I have no lingering pain after I run but I still ice after for precautionary measures. I've cut down on the Motrin and only take a couple pills a few times a week, so all in all I think things are starting to turn around.

I am procrastinating on returning full throttle to the pool though, I don't know why, I love swimming but with my strength training ( which is sort of hard core right now) biking and running I feel sort of tapped for time, I'm hoping to start back with the Masters soon so I can rebuild back my swim fitness that I worked so hard on last season.

Anyway, things are better both mentally and physically, I'm still trying to follow a clean diet ( I'm eating a bit more complex carbs because of the amount of cardio I do) but overall the diet is good, I' m down about 6lbs. I fell off the wagon a few times with the Halloween candy, boy scout popcorn and a few glasses of wine but I think since I'm eating pretty well the majority of the time so my body is adjusting.

Anyway, thats it for right now, will post my race schedule soon now that my foot is so much better I can think about registering for some events. I can tell you, there will be a lot of running events this year to build back some speed and confidence.

needing to vent.......

2010-11-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

3 years ago my father in law passed away and we knew after 43 years of marriage she would be very lonely, so we gave her one of our two cats, (shadow- the black cat) to keep her company, she loved the cat. Shadow was the typical street cat, who knew what her family tree was and she was healthy as a horse. She was given to Phil and I as a wedding present 13 years ago and she was 1 at the time.

My mother in law travels twice a year for a few weeks and some long weekends away, during those trips she has had her neighbors and their kids feed/water and change her kitty liter and things have been fine. Cats are pretty resilent and they might be pissed that you've been gone but as long as they food/water and a place to do their business their fine. We weren't so lucky this time.

My mother in law lives in Salem and she flew in from England last night and took a cab directly to our house, there was no way she was going to spend hours in a cab trying to get to her house on Halloween. I drove her home this morning along with my sick daughter and Shadow was just lying there on the couch, she typically hops up and runs away or comes over for a quick pat and toodles off but this time she didn't really move. She was breathing but her paws were cold and she looked awful. We noticed that her food bowl was full but their was no water and the toilet lid was down, we didn't know how long she had been without water. Unfortunately, the family who said they would take care of her wasn't home so we couldn't get the full story so we just called the vet to make an appointment today to have her get looked at. She was either severely dehydrated or for some strange reason got sick and was dying. I left to bring my daughter to the hospital to get a chest x-ray and made sure to have my mother in law call me when she was at the Vets, 1hr later she called and said that the cat was so dehydrated that she was in full blown kidney failure and she was truly suffering, giving IV fluids most likely at this point would only prolong her suffering, so my mother in law decided to just put her to sleep . She called me to tell me and I was just so crushed and knew I had to tell Phil ( it was really his cat) and knew he would just be so torn. ( he was).

About 3:30p my mother in law encountered the neighbor who was supposed to feed and water the cat and his response to it all was, " the kids were so busy I just forgot", I may have gone in once somewhere in the middle of the two weeks, I can't remember" My mother in law said, " she's dead because you didn't give her water, I need to leave now".

He showed no remorse, he didn't care, nothing. Who does this? No compassion or anything for the animal? Did he not care because she was a cat? She suffered badly the vet said, it wasn't a peaceful death, she suffered until we gave her the shot to put her to sleep, who does this? I am so sad right now and angry, I so badly wan't to yell at him and force him to pay the $115 dollars it took to put her to sleep, but I won't. No matter what my mother in law is suffereing in silence, another death, my husband is really sad, his cat of 13 years is dead for no other reason then somebodies selfish reasons and forgetfullness. It's not acceptable to do this to people why should it be ok to do this to animals.

On another note my daughter got diagnosed with a right middle lobe pneumonia today, her fever that was trending downward since her initial spike on Thursday came back with a vengence last night after she trick or treated with her cowgirl outfit on and only a long sleeve and scarf, anyway, I knew something must of erupted so I brought her in and low an behold a pneumonia.

An animal death, my daughters pneumonia, mother in laws flat tire today, what next. Going to bed.

Is this off season?

2010-10-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

So today is great, the kids are off to school and I get to clean the house and do 10 loads of laundry, clean all the animal cages/litter boxes, etc.... you get the picture. Then in between washes I get to hop on my trainer and do an insane mash up on my bike:

30 minute progressive warm up ( 115 watts to 230 watts) with 2 x 15 seconds at 400+ watts to get the legs going for the main set at the end, recover for a few minutes then main set:

Main set:

12 x ( 1 minute at 210-220 watts 85-90rpms then 30 seconds at mid range VO2 max- 250-265 watts)

recover 1 minute in between sets

20 minute cool down at recovery watts

I hit that baby right on the nose, it was hard but the amount of sweat I generate is impressive.

After changing into my running gear I went downstairs to finish another wash, fold clothes and put stuff away. Empty the dishwasher and clean my kids rooms. I will then try to get a bit of lunch in and then off for my 5 or 6 mile run.

After my run I will change and pick up the kids from school and start with homework then snack then sports, hooray.

House is clean, chores done, workouts almost complete. This is my off season.

What's up with me now?

2010-10-20T17:12:00.000-07:00

So as the off season begins and my training focus is back to Base training, I needed to look at a lot of things and figure out what I needed to do to make some positive changes in my triathlon and racing front. I recently read a post from Mary Ironmatron and she is spot on regarding some of things she needs to do to make advances in her performance, so I thought I would share some of mine.

1. Diet, huge, very big hurdle for me. I normally eat very well but have always struggled with the up and downs of my blood sugar and cravings that happen during the day and night because I've worked out a ton and not eaten enough or not eaten enough of the right foods to prevent my ravenous episodes and thus my binging on the wrong foods. WE've all been there but its kept my weight at a steady 140-143lbs for 3 years with the occasionally dip into the high 130's if I weigh myself after a really hard workout and I've lost a ton of water. That still counts right? Anyway, I tried following the Core diet last year, it was good, its pretty similar to the clean eating lifestyle that I'm doing now, I don't know really why I didn't continue it after a few months but I seemed to always make excuses as to why I could have more peanut butter or have my wine or whatever, it didn't seem to me that I was 100% committed to making the change and that has to happen for it to be successful. I'm not saying the core diet cant be successful for me I'm sure it would but I decided to try eating clean to see if it would lean me out, the core doesn't really do that per se.

I am a very muscular woman who could lose a few pounds but once I get down 5-10lbs its really hard for me to stay there because I workout a lot and I need food and I need to have a diet that works for my lifestyle and for me. Eating clean for the past week and a half has been great but its boring right now because I'm shocking the system, it will get better in a week when I can add more flavor and more spices and fruit,etc.. to the mix but its not helping the workouts because I don't have a ton of energy left especially if I have to do two workouts in one day. This will change but right now I'm certainly unable to maximize my efforts because of the lack of sugar. Today I had to gulp down some OJ right quick before I passed out from a run, I need to do things a bit differently to prevent this in the future, however, I've lost 5lbs and I'm seeing some definite changes in my muscle definition so hopefully this will be good.

2. Strength training- I've been doing this power class on Mon and WEd for an hour which is very intense, it involves circuits that use everything from free weights, kettle balls, bosu's, physio balls, ladder running, doing sprints, inch worms, tons of core work, working with partners throwing medicine balls, etc.. Its crazy hard and at times your HR is at threshold. I usually bike for 30 minutes before class to warm up and then by the end I'm usually completely spent. Its some of the toughest stuff I've done. However, I am realizing that I am not recruiting various muscles when I need them like my glutes and hamstrings, my left side is significantly weaker than my right, my core definitely needs more work, etc.. The trainer really knows how to push everyone and makes sure everyones form is spot on.

Now this class right now impacts some of the other things I need to do for tri training because my strength is lacking, but overtime this will change and hopefully with leaning my body out and losing body fat, getting stronger and recruiting muscles that I've never used before or not used correctly while swimming, biking or running, I will become faster. This is my hope.

3. Form- I will continue to work on my form in the pool, the bike and on my run. I will continue to try to improve on all my mechanics so I can become faster and perform more efficiently and prevent injury.

4. I am going to continue to work on my mental game and working on improving my thoughts and whats going on in my head before/during and after a race. Racing is supposed to be fun in the end and if it isn't I shouldn't be doing it.

I am psyched to go forward with my new plan, I want my left heal to get better faster, I want it 100% but in time it will, I need patience.

Here we go..........

Eating Clean-

2010-10-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

So I have been thinking about changing my ways of eating for a long time, however, I used to just justify what I ate because I worked out so much. Now, I'm not saying I'm fat but I can say, I should be smaller, leaner, whatever you want to call it with how much I work out. So, over the past year I've tried a few things to tweak in my diet to see if I could change my body composition a bit and most of the time it just doesn't last, I'm hungry, I want a glass of wine, the food is boring, I work out so much I should be able to eat what I want, well that has kept me at a 140lbs to 143lbs for the past 3 years and not budging, and I'm 5'5. If I could just lean my body out and not lose my strength to power ratio I would be so excited. I know I would run faster, swim faster, bike faster if I could get my mind and body over this hurdle of eating clean and healthy all the time.

As you know, the body is not predominantly shaped by exercise, rather, a lean physique is shaped primarily by nutrition, the right kind of nutrition.

Eating clean is not a diet it is a lifestyle change and choice

The Eat Clean Principles:
1. EAt more- eat six small meals each day
2. eat breakfast everyday, within an hour of rising
3. eat a combination of lean protein and complex carbohydrates at each meal
4. eat sufficient ( 2 or 3 servings) healthy fats everyday
5. carry a cooler packed with your clean foods each day
6. depend on fresh fruits and vegetables for fiber, vitamins, nutrients and enzymes
7. adhere to portion sizes
8. Drink plenty of water.

What to Avoid:

1. avoid all over-processed foods, white flour and sugar
2. avoid chemically charged foods
3. avoid foods containing preservatives
4. avoid artificial sugars
5. avoid foods such as processed cheese slices
6. avoid saturated and trans fats
7. avoid sugar loaded beverages, including colas and juices
8. avoid or do your best to limit alcohol intake
9. avoid all calorie dense foods containing little or no nutritional value
10. avoid super sizing our meals.

Eating more frequently with smaller portions and eating the right kinds of foods will help control hunger pains and keep your blood sugar and insulin levels even. Eating must become something that is done with a sense of responsibility to one's health and wellness.

Eating breakfast every morning keeps the body nourished and satisfied while giving you energy.

Eating protein with your complex carbohydrates, you'll slow down the carb to fat conversion process even more. This is why complex carbohydrates should always be eaten with protein. Complex carbohydrates are high in fiber and improve digestion. They provide you with energy, keep you satisfied after meals and stabilize blood sugar levels. Vegetables, fruits and whole grains are all complex carbs.

Some fat ingestion is good for your overall health. Many doctors believe that taking Omega 3's is very important for brain health. The best fats are those obtained from cold water fatty fish, such as char, salmon, halibut and trout, also wahoo, snapper, tilapia and grouper. Other than fish, healthy fats can be found in nuts, seeds and oils of many plants such as sunflowers, avocados, olives, peanuts, canola and some vegetables. These healthy fats aid digestion. Their absence would cause digestion to cease. Your body cannot run properly without fat.

Drinking water is huge, it regulates body temperature, keeps the joints mobile and maintains tissue health. Weight loss cannot occur effectively without sufficient water. When you drink cold water your metabolic rate is increased by as much as 30 percent.

Anyway, I have been eating clean for the past few days and I feel pretty good. I'm not too hungry and besides going the bathroom every hour or two ( adjusting to the increased water intake and decrease diet coke intake) I think I can make this work. The recipes are great and delicious and I think if I can really work hard on this part of my body like I do my workouts then I might have a chance to go into next season the healthiest I've ever been.

What's important is being healthy, eating the right foods, not having midnight cravings of ice cream or the simple carbohydrate because I haven't fueled my body correctly during the day. If I eat healthy and fuel my body correctly my shape and weight will follow. I will keep you posted on how its going and if I get daring I may post a picture of before and after if I can make it that long.

Gloucester Cyclocross race and other things....

2010-10-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

So I completed my first cyclocross race this past weekend, actually 2 races since I raced on both Saturday and Sunday. I have to say it was a great experience for me and I know that by continuing to practice not only will I get better but my bike handling skills will improve and I think my road racing will improve. What was really interesting to witness while racing is that a lot of these athletes don't have the endurance, they last 2 or 3 laps but if you have to do a 4th they are crumbling and you can hear them a mile a way. This worked in my advantage because since this was my first race ever and I hadn't accumulated any points for other races I was in the very last row to start. Out of 97 women on day 1 and 90 on day 2 it really sucked. However, passing 25-30 women and not getting passed by anyone was exciting. I always kept saying to myself, " If only they could let us ride another 2 or 3 laps, I'd pass everyone". Anyway, the experience was great, I definitely need to get some " Proper" cycling tops and gear, showing up in Tri Gear is not " Cool", so said my friend who works at Craft- he threw me a cycling jersey to wear because my tri top was unacceptable. It was so funny.

What I will say is that on sunday my race mojo sort of came back. Now, I wasn't racing this race to win it, you really can't when you starting in 97 th position, however, as the race was going on I had one woman who was behind me and she had fans on the sidelines who kept screaming her name, on our last lap I heard them say, " Rebecca you can get her, you got her, pass her", I can honestly say ( as we were vying for an amazing 62nd place overall-hee hee) I said, " %$#@ no your not, to hell you are- I said this sort of loudly, then I put on the gas and since she was one of the heavy breathers out there I knew she didn't have anything left so I just took off and left her in the dust and with the final turn to the finish was a nice hill climb she didn't even come close. Bye, Rebecca. OOOOOH that was so much fun. It was great to get the fire and to work hard and love something again for purely the sport of it. Now don't get me wrong, I love triathlons but I need to find that love again, to race with a purpose, to race with that sort of fire I had this past sunday. I have a feeling this year is going to be different for me, I think this year I'm going to be different.

Anyway, I hope to do another Cyclocross race at the end of this month, hopefully it will be first come, first serve at the line so I can see what I can do up against those amazing ladies. This is fun, I hope some of you get a chance to try it.

The TriROK Foundation: Our Mission Is Your Mission

2010-10-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

endorphins.......

2010-09-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

So since my injury in August and after Lake Placid I really haven't done anything over 2hrs, A. because I was sort of burnt out, B. I was and still am bummed out about my foot ( which is getting better) C. I really didn't need to. However, for some reason 1hr or even 1 1/2hrs just isn't enough sometimes to get my endorphins going, to give me that exercise high. For example, I worked out really hard for about 1hr 20 minutes yesterday and all I could think of was, " how can I get my run in today?", " should I put my bike on my trainer?", its terrible, totally out of whack thinking but I just feel better when I get in a longer/quality type workout, it just plainly makes me feel good.

Today, I did a Vo2max bike session that was in total, 1hr 45 minutes and because I couldn't fit in my run yesterday I followed that with a 30 minute run. Man after pushin up to 330 watts on the bike and being able to run pretty good after made me feel amazing, I just have been on a high all day, 2 hrs and 15 minutes of pure joy. I know this is crazy but it was awesome.

Heres my bike workout:

Basically from minutes 1-30 it was building to low end of my vo2 max ( 240 watts)
then do 4 x 10 seconds of 95% effort building cadence from 90-110 and then recovering for 1 1/2 minutes
Recovery spin till I hit 40 minutes then:

4 x 3.25 minutes at 240 watts with the last 45 seconds building to 300+ watts, maintaining normal cadence and effort

recover 4 minutes in between each set

AFter main set recovery spin until you hit 1hr 45 minutes

I followed that with a 30 minute run on the treadmill at a 1%- 1.5% incline 7.0mph.

AFter my workout went to see my physical therapist who is encouraging me to increase my mileage and some speed so I will be discussing this with coachie.

Also, I have been asked by my good friend Keri to do a century on October 10th ( good lord, I haven't sat on my bike for more than 2hrs) but what the hell, as long as my hubby and kids are ok with that why not. Not bad to spend the day before my birthday doing something I love.

Mac Kids Triathlon, so much fun

2010-09-27T10:07:00.001-07:00

My training has been on the back burner for the last week or two, I mean I get in most of my workouts but without a race to really train for and with my foot still hurting a bit its nice to do different things and its nice to cheer on my kids. This past weekend was a whirlwind, on Saturday we had 4 soccer games of which all 4 of my kids played and 4 different times and at 4 different fields in Beverly, Without the help of my mother in law trying to get kids to different fields would be almost impossible. Saturday went by fast and with a birthday party and a flag football game with the neighbors kids it was time to call it a night. Both Phil and I were exhausted and I knew I had to get up early in the morning to help with the Manchester Athletic Clubs kids triathlon in Manchester Mass. The weather was predicted to be great so I was really excited to help out and to watch two of my 4 kids race.

The logistics for Sunday were going to be tough, I was going to the MAC at 6am to help set up, I packed my kids things including a bike to bring with me so my husband wouldn't have to deal with it in the morning, he dropped off all the kids at 9:15 and took my oldest Kellen to the Patriots game. Again, I wouldn't have been able to volunteer and help/watch my kids at the triathlon if it werent' for my mother in law who watched my 4 year old while the others were busy racing. Man, I have to say, I know my kids are young but I was so excited for them, watching them race is so much fun, I know I can't make them love what mommy does but boy it would be great to see one of my kids do triathlon as a sport because they were great on sunday. My daughter Shea was in the 5-6 yr old group and she had the fastest swim out of all the kids and she had a really good run as well, she placed first in her division. But most of all she said, " mommy, that was so much fun I can't wait to do it again next year and do the bike this time", yeah, success, she's happy, safe and she had fun.

My son Alex was laser focused for this triathlon, he placed first in the 5-6 yr old group last year and desperately wanted to win his age group again this year, however the bike was new for him this year and I was a little concerned on how he would do ( not Alex he knew he could kick butt). He looked around for his competition, especially his friend Nina who kicked his butt last year ( she is the cutest thing- I think he likes her but we won't tell anyone) anyway, for some reason he just was so confident and wanted to rock and roll.

Anyway, he had the fastest swim out of all the 7-8 year olds, when I saw him running to T1 ( where I was working) I couldn't believe how fast he was going, I was blown away. Then he was off on the bike riding like the wind. Within minutes he was back to T2 ready to run, when I saw him get out of T2 he ran so fast I was scared he was going to poop out. My friends on the course said he was smiling but had a very determined look on his face. Anyway, he finished in second place in the boys 7-8 year old group and he was very proud of himself and can't wait to come back next year and try to regain first place.

Man I was so proud of my kids and all the kids who were out there, no one complaining, everyone having fun, the weather was perfect, the hula hoop contest, the magician, the music/dance contests for the kids, it couldn't of been better. I wonder if the adult tri's could have all that stuff too, it would be so much fun.

Anyway, getting ready for the Gloucester Cross Race this saturday, hoping to just survive and have some fun. I am still pretty bummed out that my fascitits hasn't gone away but I'm able to run 3 days a week giving my foot a day of rest in between but the constant aching on a daily basis is pissing me off. Well, I guess since I can do everything else I shouldn't complain, things could definitely be worse.

The Walk of Shame........

2010-09-19T05:58:00.001-07:00

So I've owned my Cross Bike for about 10 days and I have flatted 5 times, I'm starting to get really pissed off. I have had my TT bike for 2 1/2 years and I've flatted three years ( twice in one race), so really only twice. Today was supposed to be a great day, I was meeting a bunch of ECV guys to practice cross with this morning. I have the Gloucester Cross race on October 2nd and I need all the practice I can get with bike handling skills and riding the terrain. The other day my friend Bob and I were riding and I flatted on a single track at Bradley Palmer, he helped me change my tube and something just wasn't right with the wheel when we were finished, it was wobbling a bit , didn't feel right, so I went to the bike store where I bought the bike and they told me that the rim tape the manufacturer put on the wheel was bad and they needed to change it. The rim tape helps keep the tire in and secure and that wasn't happening right now. So after they helped me with that I rode home and everything was great. Today I got up early, pumped the tires to 45psi like they said and off I went. 2 1/2 miles into my ride I flatted, I was on the road not trail, why would I flat, I didn't hit anything, no glass, WTF.......

I pulled over and started changing my tube. Man new tires are tough and this tire was really tough to get off. I felt my fingers and hands burning. After getting the tire off finally I realized that I probably wasn't going to make the rendezvous with the guys so I just took my time. I felt inside the tire, no glass, no holes.... These cross tires are thick, not like my road tires, so I was a bit confused why I might of popped my tube. It took a ton of time to put my new tube in and then put the tire on, it was so hard to get the tire in. Finally after ( well I'm not going to tell you how long it took but it certainly wasn't the fastest I ever changed a tire) within 2 minutes I saw my tire deflated. WTF.... I looked to see any pinches, no tube was sticking out, what the hell.

I had only a little Co2 left and decided to walk home. A few bikers stopped but the people who stopped to see if I needed help didn't have any Co2 or bike pumps, didn't know how to change flats, it was amazing. I mean, thanks for stopping people but really, if you can't change a flat or care for your bike why are you out there? Thanks though.

Anyway, I got home after 25 minutes of walking my bike home and decided to go at it again. I grabbed another tube and started the process all over again. Again, it took forever to get the tire off and then I inspected the tube, I really couldn't find the hold, it wasn't pinched by the valve, so weird. I checked the tire, it seemed fine, what was I doing wrong? Am I an idiot. I was so determined at this point. I put in another tube, it took another 15 minutes to get the tire back on and then I pumped up the tire, everything looked good, I was so psyched. Then, 4 minutes passed and I noticed my bike was flat again, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. No more, no more, no more. I'm done, no bike stores are open on sunday, my husband couldn't change a tire if you paid him or even know how to get the wheel off, I will just need to deal with it tomorrow, but I'm pissed.

Let me tell you why I'm pissed:

1. I should know how to change my tire quicker.
2. I should have more skills and abilities to figure out whats wrong with my wheel/tire/brakes/etc... when something goes wrong. I felt very confident changing my tire but fell very short today and have wasted a lot of tubes and my time.
3. You should always know how to use every piece of equipment you own before heading out onto the road, no questions asked. I felt like a fool walking my bike home and an idiot. I did my best but I wasn't able to troubleshoot the problem.

I vow to get so proficient in caring for my bike in the future that I will rarely need to use the bike mechanics in the future.

Multisport Mom: Why You Need to Do This...

2010-09-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

Multisport Mom: Why You Need to Do This...: "I hate bugging my friends for stuff. I am not a salesman. I also hate spending my time making flyers like this: My friend Greg bought t..."

My first Cross ride, if you can call it that.....

2010-09-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I decided to go out for my first ride on my new cross bike today, my friends told me to go to Bradley State Palmer park and find some trails, well lets just say I thought I needed a mountain bike, good gracious, my hands hurt just from holding on to the brakes. However, I do have to say I loved every minute of it, the hoping off the bike, running ( if you can call it that-stupid heel) up hills carrying my bike, etc... I was actually faster riding up the hills then running. The scenery is breath taking, I came across some women riding their horses it was just really cool. I spent a lot of time focusing on the ground though, I don't know if this is normal or not, looking out for boulders, horse crap, holes in the ground, the gravel at times was hard to ride on but I managed. Anyway, it was super fun, my bike is dirty, I'm sweaty so it must of been successful.

Of to physical therapy where I hope Sara can work some magic.

Pumpkinman Race Report

2010-09-12T05:06:00.001-07:00

I was feeling pretty good about saturday, no stress, no expectations, just going up and having fun with my friends. I knew I had some decent swim and bike fitness but I hadn't run in over a month and my heel ( which is getting better slowly, still was hurting a bit). I went on friday night and spent the night with my good friend Keri Boyle, she is also coached by JRM and she was racing Elite for the first time. After having her 3rd baby 18 months ago her progress in triathlon has been great and her racing has just turned around remarkably. I am really proud of my friend and look forward to her kicking some major ass in the near future.

Anyway, we chatted and ate twizzlers and then went to bed after watching a bit of the Jesery Shore. Woke up at 5:15 and ate our normal breakfast and headed out to the course. I have to say on route to the pumpkinman course it was just beautiful, the sun was rising, the fog was lifting off the farmland, the cows, I wish I stopped to take more picutes it was just beautiful. Anyway, we got there with plenty of time to spare and got our stuff ready. The volunteers were amazing, the venue was beautiful, registration went like clockwork. I had a lot of fun taking picutes of Keri in the first row of the Elites, so much fun to see her with the big girls, then of course Deano was there so I had to take a few pictures of him ( one of the nicest people ever and fast, did I mention fast).

Anyway, I had a lot of fun going around chatting with people, taking pictures, relaxing, meeting one of my blog friends Mary Eggers ( she was race announcing the sprint and racing the 1/2 today) just fun. I finally went out with Keri to get our warm up in on the bike, check out the course a bit. Came back in and it was ready to roll.

It was swim time and after 5 waves it was my turn, nothing too much to say about the swim but being in a back wave really sucks because you have to swim around a lot of people, I had a good line, I swam well, I was 8 minutes flat and first out of my wave. Then it was the run up the notorious ski hill to T1, I took it really easy with my foot and just kept a good pace, 1:33, not the fastest but not the slowest either.

I was the first in my age group on the bike course however Amanda Cox passed me around mile 6 or 7 and I didn't see her until the run, she biked 21.7mph, so great job to her. I averaged on my computer 20.5 but the results have me at 19.9. Not bad, not great, the roads were a little rough and that got congested a lot so to make sure not to get a penalty trying to concentrate on passing and doing the right thing made me slow down a bunch and not take advantage when I wanted to. There was also a lot of turns on the course which slows down your overall speed. There is also a bridge that is tricky to cross over so you have to go slow and then there is a hill right after it so that crushes your speed. Anyway, my bike was fine, only one person passed me and that was Amanda, no other guy or girl passed me. 2nd in AG at this point going out to the run.

Of note, Mary's husband had crashed on the bike at the bridge, when I saw him I was so scared for him, he wasn't moving and he looked really hurt. WE found out late last night that he had a few bumps and bruises but he was fine. I was praying the whole race and yesterday that he was fine. Its so hard to see anyone get hurt.

So into T2 I went feeling pretty good, foot not bad, for some reason my transition time is really slow, I think I decided to bake a cake or something but I put my Kirvana's on and took off. the run course was nice, not too difficult, I knew I could finish the distance but it was how fast and when would my foot start to hurt. I could tell my Threshold fitness wasn't there but I felt pretty good and in the end I averaged 7:38 per mile and finished with minimal pain to my foot. However, today my foot hurts a bit so I'm glad the season is over and I can really focus on healing.

I finished 9th overall female, 1st Age group for 40-44 ( however a side note, the top 3 overall amateur ladies were 40-44 and they don't count them in the Ag categories so in theory I was 4th AG) way to go to the ladies in our division it was great to have the level of talent only get better as we age.

I would definitely go back to this race and probably do both the sprint and 1/2 next year. The food, the venue the race director the fun, the volunteers, what left is there to say, oh yeah, only 45 minutes from home. Ironman better watch out because races like this may soon take over, its all about quality and this race has it.

Results: Dean Philips Fitwerx overall male winner
Peter Mallet 3rd overall male winner
Keri Boyle 4th overall female and 3rd elite
Vin Miserendino 1st overall amateur male, Franco 2nd AG 35-40, Marty Miserendino 3rd AG 35-40

Way to go Fitwerx for putting more people on the podium then most, they guys deserve it.

I'm a heel striker....

2010-09-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

So my injury ( left heel plantar fascitis) started pretty much right after Lake Placid. As I discussed in a previous blog, after riding 112 miles on the bike I felt severe burning in the bottom of both of my feet in the front ( right where the cleats are located on my bike shoes). This pain I experienced was very severe and it actually hurt the entire marathon. My feet felt awful and during the marathon I think I changed my running mechanics a bit to be more of a heel striker to lesson the amount of pressure off of my front foot. Anyway, soon after LP when i started gearing up again with the running I noticed I was running a bit off but just shrugged it off. Within 2 1/2 weeks of ironman I had developed plantar fascitis of the left heel. I was away on vacation and new ( since I had a small bout of it 2 years ago) to lay off the running, ice/motrin and stretching with the hopes that it would resolve in a short period of time. Well, we are at almost 1 month and its just now just starting to feel a bit better. I have seen a physical therapist twice a week, icing/motrin/stretching, going to bed with a sneaker on to keep my foot flexed, its driving me crazy. However, today, I ran 3.6miles on the treadmill at 0% incline and felt minimal discomfort. I was so happy, however, I know I am not out of the woods and I need to continue to run conservatively and to continue my therapy to make this heal.

One of things Sara my PT wanted to do during our session last week was to evaluate my running gait, to see if she could tweek anything to help my foot recover, here is what she saw:
1. I am a big hell striker
2. most of my stride lands in the front of my body
3. I land with my foot locked in full supination- which she noted is not ideal as you will not absorb shock as you land.
4. I have very limited movement at the pelvis- she wants my pelvis to open up so my hips can follow through behind my body
5. I am stiff in my lower thoracic spine 9 which is contributing to my inability to get my pelvis to open up)
6. I am lacking in hip extension- I have a tight Psoas- which is also limiting my hip extension/stride behind me

She is having me do:
try quiet running-avoid hell striking- let my foot fall directly below the hip ( at the mid-foot or apex of the arch)
2. avoid landing with the foot in supination) run quietly
3. let the pelvis and trunk rotate back as my stride opens-I should rotate just above my lumbar spine ( around T12) as my leg swings back, I need to let my hip go and feel the rotation all the way up to T12
4. Lean forward from the ankles-do not bend at the waist- keep my core tight.

I tried this again today and it seems to be working. I would be a fool to think my foot pain is going to go away right away but at least I can correct all my running issues while I'm running conservatively and hopefully we can prevent this from happening again in the future.

My issue is: I have a sprint triathlon this saturday and I really want to do it. My problem is that I have run 4 times this past month and obviously no speed work. A. I am afraid to injur myself more, B. I don't know if I can handle everyone passing me on the run, which was already the slowest part of my Triathlon. I will give it another few days and make my decision at the end of the week. We'll see. But keep your fingers crossed that things are getting better, I know I am.

A new kind of brick: Aquajogging

2010-09-01T12:24:00.001-07:00

As you guys know, I have been nursing a small bout of plantar fascitis in my left heel, its getting better but it still hurts to run over a specific mileage so coachie and I have added some aquajogging into my schedule to replace the running for right now and its hard, really hard. Aquajogging provides a great balance of training stimulus and reduced impact on your joints, and for many athletes ( like myself) it can be a time saver too.

To make the most of your time and effort, you can combine a swimming session with aquajogging to create a new kind of brick workout.

To make the deep water running effective you should be mindful not to just read water ( that's cheating). Instead, mimic your run gait and flex your ankles, knees and hips as you would while running on land. Your deep-water run gait should look like your running stride on land, complete with arm swing.

I tried to go without the belt the first time and I found that my form sucked and that I was spending more time with my arms out in front of me helping me run/tread water. When i put on the belt it helped me maintain good flotation and then I was able to really properly execute my form in the water. A properly executed deep-water run is a true aerobic workout, so you should be breathing hard ( even sweating). Deep water jogging is not an easy way out of a workout; instead, the session should be a tempo-intensity workout in a warmer, less-jarring environment.

Based on an article from Triathlete magazine, if you know your tempo-run heart rate zone, use it where indicated. Your tempo intensity should be 96% of your average heart rate for a 5k race. Since your not supporting your weight when you run in the pool, it's harder to get your heart rate up that high. As a result, your tempo intensity for deep-water running will be about five to seven beats lower than it is on land.

An example of a swim/aqua-jogging workout from Triathlete magazine, authored by: Abby Ruby, CTs Expert Coach:

Warm-up 300meter swim, 200 meter pull, 100 meter kick
Swim set: 800 meters at race pace
Aqua Jog: 20 minute water run with 2 minute warm-up; 3 x 5:00 @ tempo intensity on 1 minute easy jogging recovery
Swim set #2: 500 meter race pace
Aqua Jog: 15 minute water run with 5 x 2 minutes hard ( max intensity and turnover) on 1 minute easy-jogging recovery
Swim set: #3: 3 x 250 race pace on 15 seconds rest
Aqua jog: 10 minutes tempo intensity
Cool Down: 50 meters

Total: 2700 meters swimming
45 minutes jogging with 35 minutes at tempo intensity and above.

Wearing a heart rate monitor during the aqua jogging would be very helpful so as not to slack off.

The workouts have been going well for me, I miss running a ton and hope that I can still do the pumpkinman sprint next week. I
I also have the Stone Cat marathon in November so things have got to turn around soon. If all else fails I am starting a new sport this fall called cyclocross and will be dipping my hands into the mix. I recently purchased a new cross bike which I can also use as a road bike so I'm pretty psyched. We'll see.

North Carolina pics

2010-08-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

We go to Nags Head, North Carolina for two weeks almost every year in August, its cheap, its on the beach and the weather is usually great. However, it can get oppressively hot off the beach and tremendously humid, so as long as your not running after 7am you are usually fine. This year brought some different elements, we traveled alone as a family instead of with multiple families, we experienced more than our share of rip currents, stinging jellyfish and sea lice. Out of the 13 days we were there we were not allowed to swim 5 days, not even touch the water the rips were so bad. Except for the final 3 days the undertow was still really strong and there was always jellyfish. some of the cool stuff was that at times and most days we got anywhere from 4ft to 8ft swells, so surfing and boogey boarding were amazing, the kids and the parents did great. So here are our some of my pics.

Post Recovery workout meal-vegetarian-SOOOOO Good

2010-08-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here's all you need:
1. Quoinoa ( we used red, but either kind will do)
2. Bell pepper- red/yellow, whatever
3. 1 can refried beans ( Amy's Organics is our favorite brand for all things canned or frozen) If you can't find this brand, make sure you choose fat free/vegetarian beans.)
4. Red Onion
5. Avocado
6. romaine Lettuce

The amounts of all of these are up to you. I can tell you that we used 1 full can of beans, 1 cup of quinoa, 2 whole peppers, 1 full avocado, and 1/2 red onion. You can use as much romaine lettuce as you want.

Instructions:
Cook the quinoa. While this is happening, you can chop the veggies and the romaine. Then heat the beans on the stove over low heat. Stir in the beans, onions, and peppers. When the quinoa is cooked, stir this into the bean and veggie mix as well. Then serve this up onto your bowls of romaine and top it with avocado slices.

This is a quick and healthy post-workout refuel.

This was given to me via Hillary Biscays blogsite, my husband Phil and I had it for dinner last night and it was surprisingly very tasty and filling. I hope you guys like it. It's also cheap and very easy and fast to make.

Enjoy

Fat Free Vegan/gluten free Banana Blueberry Bread, and its delicious

2010-08-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

3 large over-ripe bananas
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup vanilla soymile ( or apple sauce)
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 cups whole wheat flour or organic rice flour to be gluten free
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray or wipe a 9x5 inch loaf pan with oil

Mix the soymilk with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and let stand until it curdles. If using apple sauce, skip this step and add the lemon juice to the bananas.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas and add the remaining lemon juice, soymilk, and agave nectar. Stir well to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture, and stir just until the mixture is well-combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool.

Enjoy.

p.s You can do strawberries or any other berries with the bananas, but its really nice not to have sugar, eggs or oil in my banana bread. No guild here.

Rip Currents, be careful

2010-08-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

So today my 8 year old son got caught up in a rip current, thank goodness daddy and another man were right there to help him but it was very scary for him and for us and my son finally realized that the ocean isn't something to trifle with. He got very tired very quick and if it weren't for Phil and the other man who know's what would of happened. for anyone who doesn't know what a rip current is, this is it:

Rip currents are powerful, channeled currents of water flowing away from shore. They are the most common surf hazard leading to swimmer distress and potential rescue.

A rip current looks like:
1. a noticeable difference in water color
2. Gaps or flat sections in the waves breaking out in the water.
3. Foam, or objects, moving steadily seaward
4. A specific area of water that appears more turbulent than the surrounding water.

How to escape a rip current

1. The most important thing to remember if you are caught in a rip current is DO NOT PANIC.
2. You should attempt to swim parallel to the shore for about 25-50 yds or until out of the rip current, then swim at an angle toward the shore. Many people try to swim against a rip current, but this is DANGEROUS. If in danger, wave for help, relax and tread water.

Don't become a victim while trying to help someone else? Many people have died in efforts to rescue rip current victims.
1. Get help from a lifeguard
2. If a lifeguard is not present, yell instructions on how to escape.

My kids are very good swimmers and they have become too confident in the water, this truly scared my child and hopefully he will try not to do something he isn't capable of in the future. Thank goodness my husband was there as we always swim 1:1 in ocean conditions like this, but it was still eye openning.

Be safe in the water, no matter the ocean, lake, pond, pool, whatever, things can happen. The water is something you need to respect. Teach your children how to swim and be safe, educate them about water safety and everything that comes with it. it may save their lives in the future or the life of someone else.
3. If possible, throw the rip current victim something that floats.

8 year old concerns have mommy concerned......

2010-08-17T17:36:00.001-07:00

so let me set the stage/history..

I have a significant family history of familial hypercholesterolemia, my mom, uncles, my brother, myself. I had an uncle die at 39 of a heart attack, 49 of a massive heart attack and my mom has had 2 heart attacks before the age of 60. Now, all of them smoked, were overweight and never exercised and were very stressed, however, there cholesterol levels were really high and as a family we all carry a protein level called, Lipoprotein ( a) that increases your risk of heart disease.

I have known for a long time that I had higher than normal cholesterol levels but my ratio has always been normal. Recently, after having all my children and not nursing for over a year my cardiologist wanted to put me on a Statin ( a cholesterol lowering drug), with my medical background I wanted to make sure I wasn't at immediate risk of a heart attack and wanted to know where I stood with regards to the disease, so, I underwent a treadmill stress test, calcium ion CT scan, various blood work, etc... and low and behold my cardiologist tole me that I didn't need anything and to f/u with him in 3 years for repeat scans and stress test. He was almost certain ( 99%) that I was going to need medication but I surprised him and so far so good, with proper diet and exercise I have decreased my cholesterol to about 205 and my HDL is 80 and my ldl is 110, so not bad. My triglycerides are fine too. So the reason for my blog....

Based on my significant family history my good girlfriend who is a pediatric cardiologist who specializes in lipids told me I should have my kids tested for elevated cholesterol and also for the lipoprotein (a) level. All my children were tested before the age of 3 and all of them had cholesterol levels of over 200, ldl levels over a 100 and elevated lipoprotein (a) levels. This was very concerning to both my husband and I and after speaking to our friend/cardiologist we needed to make some significant changes in our diet at home and we needed to begin educating our children about how to eat healthy and to make this a routine part of our lives. I didn't want any of my kids having a heart attack and dieing at the age of 29 because we didn't educate them about their disease.

So about 2 years ago Phil and I made a concerted effort to eat primarily organic, decrease our dairy intake, make exercise an important and everyday occurence in our house and educate our children with regards to the hazards of fast food. Actually, we haven;t had fast food ( minus pizza) in over 5 years. My daughter Shea and my son Cade have never tasted a Mcdonalds burger or fry in their lives, nor have they had soda. ( none of my kids have had soda which is great). Anyway, we talk a lot about reading food labels, looking for transfats,etc... but we still allow snacks and they get to have their cake and ice cream, etcc.. we just encourage them to eat there fruits and vegetables first and then they can have their main meal and if they are not full they can have a snack or dessert but not everyday. We didn't want to create an environment were you don't expose specific foods to a child and then they go and splurge on that food when they visit a friends house or when they are out of our care. We want them to make healthy choices and know their limits, to be smart about what they put in their bodies.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that my oldest who is 8 has recently ( over the past month or two) has been telling me he is fat, and patting his belly. He says it enough lately that I am getting concerned. He usually tells me after he eats a meal so I have been attributing it to him eating a bit too much during dinner and just feeling a bit bloated after his meal, but recently it has become a little bit more so. Now, my son is tremendously active, he eats very healthy, tons of fruit and vegetables, doesn't eat a ton of crap and so I thought he was all good. This has got me really upset. Have we gone overboard, do we talk about this too much that now he is afraid to eat things. My child is tall, lean and has a very athletic build, he doesn't have one once of fat on his body and even if he did I wouldn't be too concerned because I know he eats really well and exercises. Tonight we went for dinner and some of the meal was fried and he got really upset and came over to me at the table and lifted up his shirt and sad he was fat, then he said he was joking but then said he wasn't feeling well. I spoke to him at length and it basically came down to the fact that he didn't want to eat a ton of fried food and we was upset. He didn't feel like he had a ton of options. I told him he could have broiled fish like mommy but he didn't remember that.

Anyway, this is really upsetting to me to have an 8 year old worried about how his body image is, I dealt with that my whole life and I don't want any of my children to deal with that. My husband and I felt like we have been educating our children because we have to, they have familial hypercholesterolemia and its going to be with them the rest of their lives. I am struggling with how to go forward and what to do differently at home. I want to nip this in the bud.

Plantar Fascititis, its getting better.....

2010-08-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

When we go on vacation its tough because usually were we travel to is very flat with no change in terrain and you wear flipflops all the time. I always get a tiny little flair of plantar fascitis to my left heel when we go away and I always flip out over it. Whenever I get a small injury or concern I take it to the extreme, I say to myself ( " my season is over, I will not beable to run ever again, etc.....) its crazy, I'm such a dramatist and I get so overly concerned. I usually get right on top of any injury I have, I rest, I ice, I take Motrin, I do whatever I can to be smart about an injury so that I can make sure to get back to what I love to do as quick as I can. What has been really hard is that I am in marathon mode and running five days a week isn't really conducive to plantar fascitis, so I've cut back on the running, added more biking and swimming in the pool as much as I can, seeing as swimming in the ocean hasn't been allowed given the riptides, poisonous jellyfish and sea lice. I feel good.

Today I feel better, only two doses of Motrin, some ice, and I'm feeling pretty good. Biking 1 1/2 hrs and some rowing was good for me, hopefully tomorrows swim and run will be good, we'll keep you posted.

p.s. I emailed my PT just to keep her posted and what does this awesome lady do, call me on her vacation to tell me what I need to do to manage the situation. Who does that, I didn't expect anything but an email in a few days but I get a personalized phone call, now that is what I call an amazing person/friend/Physical Therapist. I'm already better because of her. Thanks Sara.

Feeling a bit blue...........

2010-08-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

So as you know I'm almost two weeks post ironman and I'm a bit blue right now, a bit confused at what to do and need a bit of refocusing. Coachie and I have been discussing a lot of things lately especially about rebuilding my confidence on the run front. The only thing I have scheduled right now is a sprint triathlon ( The Pumpkinman) which I am really looking forward to, however, I do have to say I really want to do, Syracuse 70.3. The only glitch in this plan is that we usually vacation for two weeks in August and I wouldn't have access to my bike and would need to use a spin bike and don't know whether or not that would be suitable to rebuild some threshold work to carry me into a mid september 1/2. I'm working on coachie on this one so we'll see. Its hard to end my season with IMLP given that prior to that race my season was pretty good.

What we are really working on is a potential marathon this fall and working on some 5ks and 10ks to help get some turnover going and building up some speed and confidence. The two marathons I was looking at are the GMAA/vermont marathon on october 17th, it costs only $23 dollars but its run like the Boston Marathon, top notch, lots of support but its a mom and pop shop event and a Boston qualifier to boot. Coachie thinks this may be a bit soon 9 1/2 weeks to really perform, so I'm not sure about this one. Or, I could do the StoneCat marathon in Ipswich on November 7th , however its a trail marathon and I don't know if this is a good marathon for me to do, it certainly won't be super fast given the single track and the fact I;ve never run trails and would need to start, so its a bit up in the air. These two marathons are the only ones this fall that fit into our very busy family schedule of sporting events and holidays/school, etc....

Anyway, my swim is doing really well right now ( just what I need right) all I need to do is swim 1/2 mile in the sprint so does it really matter that my swim is getting faster? Anyhoo, I just like being in the water, as I have said before I may not be the fastest woman out there but I'm very comfortable in the water and I feel happy when I"m out there, it makes me smile.

Tomorrow I have a bike and a t run ( I'm going to swim with some friends in the morning too, yeah), then maybe go to the beach with the kids. Sunday I have a 9 mile run ( yeah) a slight build in the pace but nothing too hard yet.

I'll keep you guys posted on how the running is going and if I can convince coachie to let me do one more triathlon before the end of the season...

Last few pictures and some more reflection

2010-08-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

So if you have been reading my posts you know that I ended up dehydrated and lost 7lbs during the race. I spent about 2hrs in the medical tent getting fluids and anti nausea medication and after that I felt great. Phil and I went out and had a great steak dinner and a few beers after leaving the medical tent. Nothing like keeping the salt going in until going to bed. It took about a week and I'm finally back to my normal weight ( much to my shagrin, I would of loved to stay in the mid/ to low 130's), however not right now.

Today was my first week back to a normal workout routine, last week I swam a little and biked a little but did no running. I did a lot of stretching and core work but kept it fairly light. I do have to say mentally I needed the break but physically it was killing me, I miss getting the body going and sweating and all that good stuff, so today was a simple 2000yd swim and a 40 minute run, it was so much fun, I felt really good and needed to stop myself from going further. I think last year I pushed so fast after ironman that I was incapable of having any good races in september and october because I never allowed myself to fully recover. I will continue to slowly increase my volume and intensity so as not to get injured or risk not being able to perform at my best. Anyway, Phil thought it would be funny to document yet again another visit to the medical tent after ironman.

A letter from a friend....

2010-08-01T18:08:00.001-07:00

With permission from my friend who will remain anonymous, I wanted to print her letter that she gave me right before leaving for IMLP. This letter meant so much to me, I carried it down to T1 on race day to try to keep her words on my mind. I only wish that I could of believed in myself as much as she did and my friends. I hope you love this letter as much as I do.

To my friend Donna,

What a long journey it has been for you to get here. I know you are focused on Sunday and what that day will bring. I know you have goals that you want to accomplish and benchmarks that you want to attain. I know in your dreams- because all of our dreams are this way-you even see yourself crossing that finish line in first place.

That's why I'm writing this-to tell you something I'm not sure that you know, but that I know you've dreamed.

You've already won.

I know you talk about health, and looks, and how becoming this athlete has helped you transform. But the biggest transformation I have seen through your journey is even more important, and it started long before you began finding yourself on podiums or outperforming the boys.

You have found this strength, this depth of passion, this well of motivation that is wrapped around triathlon but that really has little to do with it. Your sport is your expression, but that core of power is organic to who you are now. You are a woman of integrity, an unparalleled friend, and one of the most resilient, powerful people I know. Your performances are impressive, but they have nothing to do with the love that so many people have for you.

You've already won.

You are an inspiration to so many people, particularly women, who are trying to find their way in this world. They look at you and see nothing short of a hero. They have no idea whether an Ironman is completed in 12 or 24 hours. They only see a mother of four who takes on her dreams, and still makes time for the causes she is passionate about. They see a woman who is there for her friends, devoted to her family, and yet embraces sport as well. You say you want redemption from last year, but you are already redeemed by all that you've achieved in the past year.

You've already won.

I can predict what will happen on Sunday. You will be scared. There will be highs and lows. At some point you will wish the day was over. At some point you'll wish it could go on forever. You will come to a moment where you think you are a terrible athlete and another moment where you know you are a superstar. Your body will make you feel like a warrior and a prisoner, in the course of one day. Not everything will go as planned, but it will go as it needs to and you'll go with it.

When you cross that finish line, we will as be as proud of you as when you started-because we can't GET any prouder. Just like in your dreams, you will win Ironman Lake Placid on Sunday.

Because you've already won.

I love you and will be with you in spirit the entire race. You will be amazing... as you always are.

I will carry this letter until I begin to believe in myself as much as my coach, my friends and my family believe in me. This process begins with me and I'm starting now.

IMLP, "The Run"

2010-08-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well, after spending 6 minutes in T2 ( god knows, I was chatting, feeling good, I don't know I could of taken a nap I guess, what the hell was I doing?" got some water and headed out. I actually felt pretty good heading out of T2, its a bit of a downhill so you have to be careful not to go out too fast and blow your quads for the rest of the race, the sun was out a bit but not too bad and I was saying to myself, " If I can stay feeling this way, this marathon might not be so bad". Well, after passing coachie who gave me good words of encouragement my cadence was doing great but it was holding its own. The one thing I remember very clearly that happened from the start of the run to the finish is that my feel hurt a ton, right on the bottom of my feel where the cleat placement is on my bike shoes, and it hurt on both feet. It hurt everytime I put my feet to the ground. I actually stopped several times to readjust my shoelaces, I even contemplated once to run without socks, well, after the Patriot 1/2 ironman I quickly decided I'd rather run in pain then have blisters the size of quarters on them.

I saw a lot of people out there, I tried to hydrate at every aid station, however, I think I took in more water and coke then powerade which could of been my downfall, I didn't have a ton of negative thoughts and I continued to shuffle along. The first loop was ok, not great, I was still running so that was something, I just didn't have power, but at this point all I cared was that I was running and not walking. I got by the mile 16 mark and realized that was the place I started walking last year and I vowed I would keep going. It was a long 26.2 miles, lots of wonderful people out there, lots of encouragement, I was happy I was shuffling but full knowing I wasn't really running. It was again another disappointment in my eyes and at least last year it was my first ironman, the experience was so amazing just to be there and to just finish, this year was supposed to be different for me, I was starting to feel sad and not enjoying the scenary, the people, it wasn't the experience it was supposed to be ( this made me sad). Not only was I disappointing myself I felt like I was disappointing my friends, my coach. My friend Sara who was watching me that day sad she was going to kill me if I didn't put a smile on my face, which I did at the end because I was almost finished.

I finished in 13:11, well past the time again that I was hoping for but still finishing in a decent enough time to be in the middle of the pack on not such a great day. I was greated at the finish line by my husband Phil, Sara, Greg, and my amazing coach Janda. After about 2 minutes of chatting however I felt the urge to vomit so I immediately excused myself and made way to the medical tent. They brought me in and found my blood pressure to be extremely low and that I needed to get hydrated pretty quickly. I felt ok but I really did want to puke. After several attempts at trying to get an IV in ( of course since I'm dehydrated my veins had decided to go on vacation) on the 4th try they got in. 3 Bags of warmed Normal Saline later, some Zofran for the nausea, 3 cups of hot chicken broth and I could actually feel human again. It was amazing to see how many people are in the medical tent after an ironman ( since I have been a frequent visitor both last year and this year) I'm getting to know the ropes. One man next to me on my right was and is a pediatric anesthesiologist who was getting pissed that they couldn't get my IV in, he actually offered to put mine in but they said they couldn't do it for legal purposes. He was in the bed next to me because he decided to run in a new pair of sneakers, guess what the bottom of his feet and toes looked like, about 25 huge blood blisters everywhere, not so smart for a doc. The guy to my left fell coming out of the the swim and hurt his ankle so bad he had a tough time getting to T1, however he finished the race but low and behold he actually fractured his ankle. Can you imagine running on a fractured ankle. Athletes continue to amaze me.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS IRONMAN EXPERIENCE:

1. MY MENTAL GAME WAS NOT THERE, I MADE MAJOR MISTAKES BECAUSE OF IT AND VOW TO MAKE SURE THIS PART OF MY ATHELTIC TRAINING BECOMES A STRENGTH

2. MY FITNESS WAS SPOT ON AND I TRAINED VERY HARD FOR THIS EVENT I SHOULD BE VERY PROUD OF WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED NO MATTER WHAT THE TIME SHOWED THAT DAY. I NEED TO LEARN TO BE HAPPY WITH MY RESULTS AND LEARN TO LOVE TO RACE AGAIN WITHOUT BEING SO CRITICAL OF EVERY LAST THING.

3. EXPECTATIONS OF MYSELF ARE OK AS LONG AS THEY ARE RESONABLE. I THINK MY GOALS FOR THIS IRONMAN WERE RESONABLE, HOWEVER MY EXECUTION ON THE DAY WAS NOT, THOSE MISTAKES WERE DONE BY ME AND NO OTHER, I WILL LEARN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE AND COME BACK TO MY NEXT IRONMAN BOTH MORE MENTALLY STRONG AS WELL AS PHYSICALLY STRONG

4. I HAVE THE MOST WONDERFUL AND SUPPORTIVE HUSBAND AND FAMILY, WITHOUT THEM MY 4AM RIDES WOULDN'T OF GOTTEN DONE OR SOME OF MY WEEKENDS WOULD NOT OF HAPPENED. I KNOW ITS BEEN HARD FOR THEM SOMETIMES WHEN IM TRAINING AND SPENDING SOME TIME APART BUT THROUGH IT ALL THEY SUPPORTED ME.

MY FRIENDS, SO MANY I CAN'T NAME THEM ALL BUT APRIL, SARA, DARCY, BOB, KERI, VICKI, JESS, CINDY,MARNIE, NAN, MY TRIROK FRIENDS, THANK YOU FOR BEING THERE AND LISTENING AND SUPPORTING ME AND CONTINUING TO SUPPORT ME WHILE I EMBARK ON ALL THESE CRAZY ENDEAVORS.

AND LAST AND CERTAINLY NOT LEAST MY COACH J, COACHIE AS I LIKE TO CALL HIM, WHAT CAN I SAY, HE IS AMAZING, HE HAS WORKED REALLY HARD THIS YEAR TO GET ME TO WHERE I WAS THIS PAST SUNDAY, ALL THE WORKOUTS, CHATS ON THE PHONE, THE POWERFILES, GARMIN FILES, ETC... THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MORE THIS MAN COULD OF DONE FOR ME EXCEPT THE RACE MIND YOU ( NEXT TIME, HUH?) HE IS AN AMAZING COACH AND I HOPE THAT EVEN THOUGH MY PERFORMANCE WASN'T WHAT WE BOTH EXPECTED THIS PAST SUNDAY WE KNOW MISS DONNA HAS A LOT IN THE TANK THAT THE WORLD HASN'T SEEN AND WITH SOME MENTAL PREPARATION AND SOME PHYSICAL WORK AS WELL THIS CHICKITA BANANA WILL BE A SOURCE TO BE RECKONED WITH FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS YEAR AND ALL OF NEXT YEAR.

HERES TO THE REMAINDER OF THIS RACE SEASON AND TO KICKING SOME ASS NEXT YEAR AS WELL. CAN ANYONE SAY IM WISCONSIN, HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

IMLP, " The Bike, Part 2" Also known as, be patient or you'll get your ass kicked on the second loop

2010-07-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so after getting out of T2 a bit longer than expected but feeling better and a bit less disoriented, I realized a few things:
1. No sunglasses
2. My aero bottle was on backwards which means the straw was way out front instead of close to me- ok, didn't think it was going to be a problem but it proved to be a bit challenging to drink during the day.

The weather started out a bit drizzly, overcast and windy, did I say windy, oh yes I did. Usually this course provides wind on the second loop especially on the 11 mile climb back into town but today it started from the get go, oh well, just had to get used to it and watch my cadence and my watts. The fist 11 miles or so out of town you really need to be careful, you have to be patient, there's a bit of a downhill at the beginning and then there is some climbing to be had before getting to the ever well known 10k decent. If you choose to hammer the first part of the course you will never survive, your legs will crash and burn, so I knew to just back off, catch my breath, get some fluid in, reorganize my thoughts from the swim and get focused. I actually felt really good until we got to the decent and realized that it was raining and the road was really wet and I got a bit scared. I like speed and I like going downhill but not when its raining or when the road is wet, so I road my brakes a lot, which I don't like to do and several women passed me which just pissed me off. After the decent there is a nice long section that you can really motor on but again you have to be patient you can't hammer its the first loop and even if you think you feel good you should back off a bit and save yourself for the next loop ( which I did).

I have to say the first loop was really uneventful, nothing too different than I did in training on a weekly basis, the only things that stand out for me are that made a bit of a difference of my race day where:

1. The new race course powerade bottles I didn't like. The flavor was fine but trying to squeeze the fluid out to put in my aero bottle was almost impossible. I either had to keep the bottle and put it in my rear water holders or stop my bike, unscrew the cap to beable to get all the fluid out. The new bottles are made of a harder plastic and the caps are just terrible if you want to empty the fluid out quickly, I believe an email to Ironman is in order to make changes for the future, I don't think I was the only one with this concern. So obviously I didnt drink as much as I should have, which has never been an issue for me in training.

2. The aero bottle position on my bike was starting to become an issue with regards to getting my fluid in, I should of just stopped and turned it around, but hell no, why would I take 30 seconds to do that, ( what an idiot I was- stupid, stupid me)

3. I only peed 3 times the whole time and it wasn't much, so big red flag going into the run.

I enjoy the climbs on this course, its a challenging course and it keeps people honest, I felt good the whole first loop, my legs felt fresh going into the second, the weather was changing every 5 minutes, wind, rain, sun, clouds, humid, etc.. By all in all not bad. I passed a lot of men and women but a lot of women in my age group passed me which sort of bummed me out. I think once on the second loop another 40-44 AG female passed me and under my breath I said something like, " of course she has to be in my age group" and she turned her head and stuck her tongue out at me. At least I didn't see her for the rest of the day. I wasn't trying to be mean I just was gettting angry that I had so many good cyclists in my AG.

The 2nd loop was uneventful again, I felt good both physically and mentally, I didn't let myself get too negative, the crowds were great, the support from the volunteers is always amazing, I actually look forward to seeing the 3 bears ( the 3 last climbs into town) because I know the bike is almost over.

Anyway, I finished the bike in 6:25 about 25 minutes slower than I wanted but at least I kept my two loops within a 15 to 20 minute difference from each other which I did which probably meant that my overall average was ok and I didn't blow myself up on the first loop. Total avg speed, 17.44mph for 112 miles

Things I learned on the bike:

Take the few seconds you need to fix the simple things that can make or break your ride ( i.e, my aero bottle would of taken less than 20 seconds to fix and I probably would of drank more if it was not such a strain to get out of my saddle everytime and reach over to drink.

I should of stopped once or twice to pour the whole bottle of powerade in my aero bottle, it would of again only taken 20 or 30 seconds. This lack of fluid intake probably started me down the path of becomming significantly dehydrated on the run and all could of been prevented if I just took the time to manage these things on the course.

Being positive and having fun on the bike lets the ride go by faster, I really enjoyed the ride and had fun with it.

Next post will be about the Run, Part 3.

Ironman Lake Placid, Part 1, " The Swim, also known as the Battle"

2010-07-27T19:39:00.000-07:00

So the two days prior to the ironman start I was in my hotel ( The Mirror Lake Inn, which was beautiful) and had a lot of thinking to do. The mental game is never good for me and I had to really work hard to stay in the moment and know that I was fully prepared and then some to have a good race. It was hard to be alone but friends were coming up and joining me for dinner to relax me and then Phil was arriving on saturday, so I knew I wasn't going to be alone for long.

I had a few shake out workouts to do, the weather was hot and humid ( not unusual) but race day was looking to be good. A little cloudy, some sun, maybe a little rain but no higher than the high 70's.

On friday I checked in at the high school, got weighed ( boy I was pissed I gained 2lbs during my taper) and then walked through the ironman village at the oval, took in the scenes, listened to some of the pro's talk about their tactics for the race. One racer ( Tara Norton from Canada said, " I swim like I don't have to bike, I bike like I don't have to run and I run with whatever I have left- notice she didn't place in the top five", anyway, I digress, I was getting a bit tired and went back to the hotel to rest. It was a bit out of the way but only a 15 minute walk to get back to the Inn. I took a nap, and waited for my friends, Michelle, Nancy, Gary and Maureen to meet me for dinner. They did a great job calming me down, telling me I was well prepared, chatting with me and making me laugh, its so nice to have very supportive friends and friends who do the same thing I do so they understand everything that your feeling and thinking inside. After dinner I went back to the room, got all my gear bags together and went to bed.

Saturday was a routine day, did my swim in mirror lake, beautiful and 73 degrees, a little bike to check out my wheels and gearing and little run. I finished, showered and went to the oval to drop off my bike and my transition bags. After that it was picking Phil up at the Saranac airport at 2:30p, and having fun for the rest of the day with my hubby.

I chatted with coach around 3p for some last minute race strategies and thoughts, its amazing how thorough he is and amazing he can walk me through my whole race step by step and not miss a bit. We talked about pacing, nutrition, the thoughts I might have during the day, etc... I felt like everything was in order after I chatted with him but unfortunately my brain started to think and I had a really hard time wrapping my brain around racing on sunday and going through the pain cave again and the " What if's" I have a bad bike or bad run, I didn't want to fail again, I didn't want to feel that pain again, both emotionally and physically. I started to cry a bit, feeling defeated afraid that the run was going to do me in again, I was glad Phil was coming because I needed a hug and I needed him to tell me I was going to do ok.

I picked him up we chatted, had dinner, rested on the beach across the street from Mirror lake Inn and fell asleep. He is so confident and mentally strong, sometimes Phil has a hard time listening to my mental weaknesses, the, " not believing in oneself even though you did all the training and hit all your numbers type of weakness". We went to bed around 9:30 ( or I should say tried), slept about 3-4hrs and woke up. Not too nervous, not too worried about the swim, however I was told the day before that 3000 people were in the race and that it was going to be a" BATTTLE" out their in the lake.

Oh well, its just never pretty on that swim and I new I probably would get the shit kicked out of me" , anyway, I showered and made my way down to the oval with Phil and my special needs bags, did all the necessary things I needed to do after eating my breakfast, taking a poo and pee and putting on my piggy tails. We walked down to the oval together and he helped me get things situated, I checked my bike, pumped my tires and put all my food in my bento box. It was time to leave the oval and head to porta potties one more time and then get my wetsuit on. the weather was holding out, not too bad, I couldn't get into a porta potty the lines were too long, I was kinda bummed because I probably had one more little poo to do ( I don't mind peeing in my wetsuit) so I knew I needed to hold it until after the swim because the pro's just went off at 6:50 and I had just a few minutes to head into the water after kissing Phil and getting on the front of the line.

Ok, In short because this post is getting too long, the swim was brutal, from start to finish, I never had any room, I got hit so many times in the head and face by the men that I just plainly got pissed off and started hitting them back. I stayed away from the line because its just too crowded, I made my way out of the first loop at 30 flat which was okay given how much congestion was on the swim and with 700 more swimmers in that lake I was ok with the split, I ran around the deck and hopped back in for the next 1.2 mile loop which ended up being 3 minutes slower because I ended up on the line and got the shit kicked out of me again, this time I got clocked right in the middle of my eyes and then in my mouth which gave me a fat and bloody lip, I started seeing stars a bit and my siting was a bit off and I started drifting away from the line and more to the right, I needed to stay on course, I only had about 400 meters to go and it was hard because my lip was feeling huge and I was really pissed off. Anway, got out of the water at 1:03 something, a minute + faster than last year but definitely feeling a bit beat up and a bit dazed when I got out. The wetsuit strippers got my wesuit off within seconds and I was off down the long ass run to T1. I saw all my friends as I ran out, Phil, my coach Janda, Sara, Greg, Maureen, Nancy, it was awesome, however, I was definitely a bit loopey in the head so after getting my bike transition bag I saw a MD and she kept me in the tent a bit longer to make sure I was ok to get on my bike. After she cleared me I realized I didn't have my sunglasses with me ( oh shit) but, off I went, 8 minutes in T1.

Tomorrow, Part 2-The Bike, also known as, " slow down you ass its the first loop, I guess I'll see you on the second loop and pass your ass".

Ironman is like pregnancy and Childbirth

2010-07-22T06:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it begins with the planning, 10 months to a year in advance you make the plunge ( or you and your spouse take the literal plunge to make a baby).

Ironman: Then it happens, the base building phase, the first few months. The foundation of your training is being laid, your excited but overwhelmed, you can be tired because the volume is increasing and your body is changing.

Pregnancy:
or with regards to the unborn fetus, the growth begins, the foundation is made. You might feel a little overwhelmed with the choice you made to have a baby but your excited. You might experience a bit of nauseau and you might be uncomfortable at times but it will get better as the trimester goes on.

Ironman: So you finally made it to the build phase, your intensity is starting to increase, your volume is increasing, your starting to notice your body change, your building muscle in the gym, your appetite is increasing, your getting more and more excited and your starting to plan your big day.

Pregnancy: Your starting to show, your excited, your starting to feel better, your beginning to think that this is really real and its going to happen, your not sick anymore, your energy is returning. Not too long now, 4-5 months to go.

Ironman: Okay, we are in the final stretches now, your kind of getting sick of the training but you do it, the volume is heavy, your body is tired, at times your grumpy and you snap at your loved ones. You've been planning for 9 months and its almost here, when is taper you say, lets get this over with. However, your still excited and think about the event often.

Pregnancy: Okay seriously, how can I get any bigger, when is it going to be time now to have this friggin thing. " I want this baby out you say". Not much longer, your getting pissed with your hubby, your grumpy because your huge and things are sweating in places that didn't sweat before, your tired, clothes don't fit but your excited and you can't wait for the big day. your still planning, still eating, still staying in the moment.

Week of Ironman: Okay, the nerves are kicking in, all the training is done, your tapering, your questioning everything that you've done, " am I prepared?", " can I go the distance?", your body is tired from the tapering, your mind is racing, the planning is still continuing your wondering why the hell you ever signed up for the friggin thing, " can't it be over right now"

Week of due date: Okay, seriously, take the friggin thing out already, I'm huge, I'm tired, I cant roll over in bed without holding on the the backboard of my bed, why the hell did I do this again really, geez.

Ironman day: Its hard, you work hard, you get your heart rate up, you sweat, you have all the dark moments and all the good moments on the day, you hurt, you might get sick, you curse yourself and others, you say to yourself that you will never do this again, but in the end when you cross that finish line you cry, you hug everybody, " You are an ironman" is one of the best things you can hear and no matter how long the process took, 8 hrs- 17hrs, its a hard work and you did it.

Delivery day: Your hurting, your sick, your in pain, you want it over, the labor may last 1hr or it may last 24hours but your working hard, you curse your husband and everyone around you, you want the easy way out. You say to yourself, I'll never do this again, " Give me an epidural you say", help me. You vomit, you poop, you pee, but in the end this beautiful baby comes out and your cry, you hug your husband, and tell everyone around you that you love them. When you hear, " its a boy or its a girl" its one of the best things you can hear in your life.

Post Ironman and Post baby delivery: The pain is gone, you feel better, you are so excited that you did something that you never thought possible, you became an ironman and you became a mom. The funny thing is that you don't remember the pain and suffering of ironman so much after the event as with childbirth, you eventually only remember all the good stuff and what the end result was. I think that is why as a mom, I signed up for another ironman 7 months ago, I forgot the pain and suffering for a little while and had a mommy brain and signed up. Now just 3 days away I'm remembering and getting nervous, just like childbirth, I had 4 kids and each time we got pregnant it was amazing but right before childbirth you remember the last experience you had and you get nervous, its amazing what the mind can do to you.

Its truly amazing how much ironman and pregnancy/childbirth has in common. Ironman is a birth of some sort if you think about it on a cerebral level, so lets hope for a short labor this weekend, minimal pain, no vomiting or poo'ing if possible and an easy delivery. See you in the recovery room with ironman baby #2.

p.s. so if I had 4 children does that mean I need to do 4 ironmans?

Emotions, up and down

2010-07-16T16:47:00.001-07:00

So, I haven't been sleeping all that great, I mean, not bad but not great lately. I've been having those race dreams, playing it through my mind, every different scenario that is possible, the great PR, the Kona qualifying finish, the concussion on the swim, the crash on the bike, the walk on the run, every scenario. Its kind of scary to have these dreams and I think its harder this year than last because I have experienced an ironman before and I have seen and felt a lot of what I have been dreaming lately and really dont' want to experience them again.

I have trained hard, I have put in the hours and done my races, why doubt still races through my mind, why completion sometimes sits in the forefront and I say to myself, " I would be ok with that". But you know what, yes, I would be ecstatic to finish IMLP and finish safely and uninjured but I would by lying to myself if I didn't think I could do a bit better than that. 13:42 was my finish last year and that was with a crash on the bike and walking at least 10 miles of the run, incapable of even bringing myself to a light jog those last 10 miles last year. It haunts me in my dreams that crash, me walking, I wake up in cold sweats sometimes thinking of that and remembering ( like childbirth) how painful of an experience that was. How healing from the road rash was so painful it took 4 weeks to really start healing. My scars are still there on my right side to prove it. I guess no runway modeling for me in the future, huh? ( hee, hee)

I'm going back to LP for some redemption, to hopefully get past that turn on the bike without crashing, to hold a steady even pace on the run and not walk and hopefully finish in a time that is better than last year. To make myself proud, to know that all this training paid off both mentally and physically, to prove to myself that I can do this, that I can be good at something. Its 8 days till IMLP, hopefully I will get a good 6 days of sleep, continue to hydrate and eat well and finish my last few workouts and off to NY I go next Thursday.

Lets pray to the weather gods that its less than 80 degrees, cloudy with a chance of showers ( not meatballs) and no humidity. Lets pray that I stay upright on my bike, no flats and a good steady pace.
Lets pray that my legs feel good right from the get go and if I manage my hydration, nutrition and pacing that I will be able to run a solid marathon for me off the bike and finish feeling like I just conquered the world.

Am I ready, I think so, I just need my mind to catch up with my body. I'll keep you guys posted. I have a nice run tomorrow, 1hr, a bike and swim on sunday and then off on monday. Heres to tapering.

Don't Quit.....

2010-07-13T13:28:00.001-07:00

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow-
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man:
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late
when the night came down
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the light when you're hardest hit-
Its' when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

Unknown author

The DAM race report and the 3rd annual Furse Luau

2010-07-12T19:07:00.001-07:00

So this past Saturday was a quick sprint triathlon in Amesbury, Mass, it started at 8am so it was getting super warm at the time. I was excited about racing because a bunch of my friends were going, however, I knew I was throwing a party for 75 people that night at my house so I had a lot of stuff on my mind and knew I just needed to get the race over and head home to finalize everything.

My friend Erica picked me up at 5:30am to go to the race, so much fun to chat with someone pre race and not discuss race stuff at all, makes me less nervous and seriously I don't think I thought of the race more than 5 minutes in the car ( good or bad, it was just fun). We got there with plenty of time to set up our transitions and scope out the scene. We found out that the water temperature was 82 degrees so it was a non-wetsuit swim, I didn't care much but besides swimming at the pool I haven't done any open water without a wetsuit and I didn't try out my new tri shorts in the water yet ( came to bite me in the ass but oh well), I certainly don't mind any crazy stuff when it comes to the swim ( waves, cold or hot temps, wet suit/ no wetsuit, long, short, whatever) I won't be the fastest swimmer but I'm not the slowest and I feel any adversity gives me an edge so I'm cool with that.

My girlfriend Erica was a bit nervous about the swim and she felt it looked a bit long, I saw panic setting in her face and I really did try to talk to her and comfort her before our wave started. Little did I know it was her first triathlon in open water, her last two were pool swims so she was exceptionally nervous about this . Two years ago I experienced that same look and sense of fear when it came to the swim and I sat my ass right down on the beach and then drove myself home, I didn't even compete in the race, I completely talked myself out of it. Not Erica, she didn't quite finish the swim, she got a bit panicky and turned around and was helped to the beach but she hopped on her bike and finished the bike and run of the triathlon. I was so proud of her and just inspired by her to put the swim behind her and finish what she started, probably 9 out of 10 people would of cashed it in, but not her. Way to go my friend. I only wish I had the magic words to have helped her more before the race start. Anyway, I promised her we would work on open water swimming together and have fun and build up her confidence. I can't wait.

Anyway, my swim was ok, slow ( no wetsuit) and my tri shorts gatherered water in the front, I had a natural drag suit on, pissed me off but there was nothing I could do. I think it was a bit long but not much over 1/2 mile. Ran out to T1 and felt fine. Didn't see many women in my age group but then again I only start looking when I'm on the bike. On the bike it took a while for my legs to really start feeling ok, I don't know if it was the fact that I"m not training for sprints or that I kicked too much on the swim ( normally with a wetsuit my legs just drag behind me, I don't use them much, but I used them a lot more without the suit), so they were tired. The course had some good hills and some rollers but also some downhills so it was fine. I think I averaged 20.7mph, sucked, but oh well, and don't ask me my overall wattage because I so underperformed on the bike it sucked, however no women passed me and I passed a gazillion people so in the end it was still ok.

The run was hot, nothing really more to say about my performance on the run, I didn;t feel great until mile 2 when the legs finally said oh, ok, we are running now, then I was able to pick up the pace but overall again, an area I desperately need to work on when tri season is over.

I finished 4th overall female and 2nd in my age group. 2nd-4th place were within 30 seconds of each other which pissed me off because I had to stop twice on my bike because of cars for some significant periods of time, however, my run could always be faster and then the 30 seconds wouldn't be such an issue, so Im not going to bitch because I should be faster and those other girls where, next year I'll get them.

Anyway, stuck around with my friends got my award and then went home. I ran another 5 miles when I got home to finish the workouts for the day and started in on finishing up all the stuff for the Luau.

The Luau of course was a blast and it wouldn't be the Furse Luau if it didn't rain/lightening and thunder, but by the time the party started it was perfect. The food, the music, my friends, it was awesome. The party ended around 2am, I finished cleaning by close to 3am, my hubby was a bit under the weather so he slept in until past 12p, I of course was up at 5:30am with the kids and struggled to keep them entertained until daddy could help. I didn't drink at my party but I was exhausted being up for over 24hrs, racing, planning, the works. However, in the end I wouldn't do anything different, the party has become a staple in our neighborhood and Phil and I look forward to it every year. Thanks to everyone who came.

Vermont weekend and last few week of hard training

2010-07-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

We went away over the fourth of July to Burlington, Vermont, a place that my husband and I have been going since before we were married ( that would be agessssssssssss, ago), lets say about 16 years or so. We have friends who used to have a tiny little cabin on Lake Champlain but they recently tore it down and build a 4BR house and its amazing. Now all of their kids have kids and we have kids so its just a huge freak show when we go up there, swimming, fishing, hiking, biking, eating, drinking, playing cards, sleeping in the hammocks, etc..... Anyway, so much fun with the kids and other families.

The only issues over the last 4years since I started this crazy triathlon stuff is fitting in my training during this weekend and Phil getting in his golf. Well this weekend went by really well since I didn't h ave to bike, I did all of my 16hrs of biking during the week so all I had to do is swim and run. What I had to do is:

Friday-4hr bike with a 15 minute run transition
Saturday- 40 minute Lake Champlain swim with a 1 mile fast run right after
Sunday- 14 mile progressive run with a 40 minute lake swim later that evening
Monday- 1 hr run ( didn't swim since I did my swim on sunday)

We drove home late last night and I felt really good that we were able to do everything we wanted and the kids had tons of fun and both Phil and I got in everything we wanted to do and needed to do.

Even though it was really hot I was able to finish all my workouts and felt fairly well. It is getting very close to LP, 19 days from today and I'm getting excited.