18 weeks and counting!

18 weeks and counting! This is more real than unreal! Most marathon training plans are 16-18 weeks long. So now the countdown has truly started.  Last week was a monumental milestone week for me. Where do I even start?

Monday: Swim 4 x 500. Done.

Tuesday: 6 miles Heart Rate Slow Run. Getting inpatient with these heart rate runs since they are so slow.  Strength Training in the evening with Kristi. Done. I am loving Strength Training and Kristi is BA.

Wednesday: 1000 yards steady, then 3x400 [150 easy, 150 moderate, 100 hard], then 300 w/d: Done. OK The 50 fast almost made me throw up and gag. I really pushed myself, but I am realizing that my 150 moderate are not as slow as I thought.

Thursday: Happy Birthday to me!!!! 6 miles slow heart rate run after work with the FW gang.

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: REST DAY: A second rest day b/c guess what? I got engaged last night!!!

So I figured I'd walk around Key West with my new fiance and enjoy being a newly engaged fiance!

Sunday: 100 mile bike ride! Monumental milestone! New PR distance. Amazingly, I felt great until mile 80. Then everything was numb, sore and in pain. Chris moved my seat and his small adjustment made my ride so much better. Buy by mile 80 everything was hurting. Kristi told me that the IM race starts at around mile 80-85. I was very sore and couldn't imagine being out there for another 6-7 hours riding and running if it were race day. Thank Goodness for 17 more training weekends! My peanut butter sandwich was delicious and the ride, pace, and group was fantastic!

All in all, a great week! First 100 miler on the bike. I turned 35, but most of all, I got engaged to the most amazing man out there and whom I met via running in the first place!!!!!

Countdown for Cozumel: Weeks 19 and 20: 2 in 1 yes I'm an idiot

So my countdown subtraction was off. Yes I majored in Finance. Math has been my favorite subject since I was about 6. I don't know why I counted wrong but I had to use the RW training plan cheat sheet to realize that once I put race day as November 25th, I was 19 weeks before race day. (18 weeks if you consider this weeks of training)

So last week's training was sort of a bust and a huge disappointment:

Monday: Rest Day.
Tuesday: 6 mile Heat Run and Heart Rate Run AM plus 60 min Strength Training with Kristi in the PM. Run went ok. Slow Slow. I can't wait to start incorporating a little bit more or some tempo runs into the mix! Strength Training in the evening was ummmmazing! I was so sore. Worked out muscled that I didn't even know existed. Did squats, lunges, core, leg work, upper body work, great session!
Wednesday: 2187 meters. Main set was 4 x 50 fast then recover 200 then rest 1 minute. The 50 fast made me extremely nauseous. Was 200 m short on my swim b/c my time was up.
Thursday: SICK OFF. Stuck at the ER previous night for a false appendicitis scare (ruptured ovarian cyst) so I was sick, took off and my whole weekend suffered b/c I still had abdominal pain leftover.
Friday: Spinning and 20 min ST.  Tried to make up some of the workouts that I had missed while I was sick. Managed to swim after work and do 20 minute on my own of ST.
Saturday: 2 mile LR. Sick. Supposed to run 10. Had to turn around after 1 mile b/c my stomach was hurting again. Skipped my swim so I could rest and recover for Sunday's monumental long bike ride.
Sunday: 2 hour Long Bike Ride. Instead of 5. Only cycled for 2 hours b/c I was still in pain. Tropical monsoon out there so I was sort of glad that I turned around earlier and went home.

Disappointing week b/c I had to cut my workouts short and b/c I missed some workouts due to me being sick. Oh well time to get back on the bandwagon.....

Officially 18 weeks left for IM Cozumel!

Strength Training

So before I forget everything that I did, I should write a little bit about my wonderful session that I had with one of my coaches, Kristi, this past Tuesday.

Note how last week I skipped it and completely forgot about it so I asked Kristi about some tips and ideas and we met at her gym for an hour workout. An hour? I thought strength training was 20 minutes or so but we did an hour!

We started off doing planks (hold for one minute) and did about three of those. We did squats on bar above my shoulders with smaller weights. Ouch on my neck! Need to roll a towel next time. Sit ups on bosu ball, triceps on bench, full length up/down on bench, lunges with full body twist with weight ball, butt something with weights, something something with weights as well, more weights on bosu ball, hamstring stretches with weights. Ok I think I forgot some but all in all we did about 60-70 minutes. Now if I could remember or record her moves for next time!!

The next day, soreness all over my body!! Squatting to go potty was a major PITA!! Good thing I think my plan has me doing this 2x a week so I better get Bette at this!!

21 weeks for IM Cozumel: Last Week's Recap

Last week was a crazy week! I forgot all about it. Sunday night I flew to Virginia Beach for the night for a work meeting that I had on Monday. I totally forgot I had travelled last week. I came back Monday night.

Monday: Rest (In Virginia Beach) Alternated Rest Days with Friday. It was nice to sleep in and wake up later since my meeting wasn't until 1pm.

Tuesday: 6 mile Heat and Heart Rate Run. + Strength Training which I totally forgot to do. I ran around KB having to make sure my heart rate stayed at 145 or under. So I did a lot of walking. I realized that my heart rate monitor was off and I think I got it to work. The first few minutes my heart rate gets really high, then it drops, but then it's a walk, run a little, walk, run a little, then jog very slowly to hit 145. Very annoying. My sister and her 3 year old came that evening so I was fully entertained for the rest of the week.

Wednesday: 2400 Meter Swim Lightning and thunder in the morning so I tried a new pool after spending a couple hours at Chucky Cheese with my goddaughter. Went to JCC pool, and I have to admit that I love swimming in the 25 m pools.

Thursday: 6 Mile Heat and Heart Rate Run Annoyingly slow. Need I say more?

Friday: 1000 yard swim. Cut it short b/c I was tired and sleepy. I was praying that the weather gods would interfere so that I didn't have to swim b/c I was tired from the week. Unfortunately. it was very overcast but weather was fine. Decided to cut the swim short and I only swam 1000 yards instead of my 2500 yards. My baaaaad.

Saturday: 1 mile OWS+8 mile LR. Felt fantastic!!!

Sunday: 82.5 mile Bike Ride. (New Personal Distance for me) Felt amazing, minus the pain on the girlie's. The 1/2 peanut butter sandwich during the midway point was so much better than the Honey Stinger. I had energy left in me, but my girlie's were numb and in pain. I did use a ton of Hoo HaaI either need a new seat or need to get my seat readjusted. Back to Mack Cycle to figure out what's wrong with my Adamo Saddle

Great week.

Busy between playing hostess to hanging out with my sister and my godchild, to traveling and putting on my executive suit and playing grown up, to being on the saddle for almost 5 hours nonstop, to sleeping on the couch for one week, to one hour nap only on both Saturday and Sunday... I need a day off this week!

The long bike ride gave me a great confidence booster. If I didn't have any pain, I probably could have made it to 90 miles. Well, I did what was prescribed on my schedule, so I'm not planning on overdoing it. This week's long bike ride is 5 hours so I'm pretty sure that's about 90 miles. I must get my saddle readjusted before Sunday.

Week 22 in Review

So the countdown has started. 22 weeks for IM Cozumel.

Last week was my first week with my new coach. Very happy with my decision.

I have gotten a different approach towards my running by focusing more on staying within my heart rate of 145 or less and training more in the heat. He's having me do this more consistently so I can get more accustomed to the this and build more of an aerobic base.

I've also got great feedback on my swim. I thought I was a wreck on my form and style and it turns out I'm not all that bad! He told me to buy the little tempo thingy seen below:

I have tried this once in the past but the constant beeping was enough to make me want to stomp on the tempo trainer and crash it. Maybe I'll give it another chance. He also told me to extend my hands more in the water. And Lourdes, another training buddy, commented that I have great form and where did I learn how to swim. I was quite blushed with her comment!

My first week with my new coach looked like this:
22 weeks before Cozumel full:

Monday: off

Tuesday: 1 mile OWS Luis was not there so I did have a few moments of panic and anxiety as I am always more calm when I swim with Luis. Luckily, Ed another HH was there and he was behind me so I would feel more calm when I would see him.
3 mile heat run after work. Got mulled by mosquitos.

Wednesday: 47 mile bike ride + 2 mile run. First Ride with new group. Chris rode with us too. Steve gave out instructions and new group was very welcoming to Chris since he's not training with them. Pace was a bit too slow, but it was nice and easy and on the way back we took turns leading pace line since it was windy. Run was extremely hot and my legs felt like they weighed 1000 lbs.

Thursday: 4 mile run Heat Run with Amy and Chris. We did the Fun Run with FW. Great seeing old friends. I kept slow pace and slowed or walked when my heart rate got too high. These heart rate runs are quite annoying. Thanks for running with my Amy!

Friday: 2200 m pool swim Swam in the big 50 meter pool. It's always much harder for me to swim in this pool and it takes me longer. I did my warm up, 150 slow, 150 moderate, and 150 fast. I was supposed to recover on the next 150 but I stopped to recover and catch my breath. Repeat.

Saturday: 6 mile run/ 1000 m OWS. Heat run and heart rate run in the morning with Chris. Slow and steady. It was quite hot b/c we started at 8. Then I did my first open water swim with Steve at his lake that aftenoon. Got feedback on my stroke. The lake is warm. I was swimming alone since I got there late and everyone had already started. I felt that Jason from Friday the 13th was going to come pull me into the water so I took off and became faster on the way back.

Sunday: 67 mile bike ride. I don't know why I got stuck behind all the IM tattoos and I couldn't keep up with all the fast people! I struggled as they were hauling ass and I was trying to maintain 21-22. I turned around at 10 mile loop after Roberts and cut my ride a little shorter so I could stick to another group that was riding at a more comfortable pace. It was quite a challenging ride. I wish I could keep their pace but my heart rate was going all crazy on me. Thank goodness I didn't have to run afterwards. I also was very happy to have enjoyed a 3 hour nap that afternoon.


21 more weeks to go!

Heat Runs

Last night I did my first heat run. The instructions on my Training peaks were to run 4 miles, make sure my heart rate stayed at 145 and if it went up, walk until it dropped, and continue doing so for 4 miles. Make sure to hydrate before and after. 

 I have to do these kinds of runs for the next 2 weeks to train my body to run in the heat at a comfortable pace and at a comfortable heart rate. I forgot my Garmin so I used Chris’s Garmin with my HR monitor. The first few minutes were really hard as my heart rate was 158 by the first minute. I was able to get into a flow and it felt much better the longer that I was running. I ran with Amy and Chris, then Chris was ahead of us, then Amy and I would walk whenever my heart rate was over 145.

I ended up doing 4 miles at an average pace of 12:39. My Average HR was 131 bpm and y maximum was 172.

Tomorrow I’ll do 6 miles in the morning so I’ll compare my chart and see how I feel afterwards.

The point of doing this is to get more acclimated to the heat. We spend minimum 23 hours in a/c whether it’s in our cars, work, home, etc so my 4 hours or so of running outdoor has not been enough for me to get used to the heat.

Lets see how it goes tomorrow and I’ll be more interested to see how I feel by mid July and how my numbers look like!

So I am adding some more information on to this because I think I have figured out the why's of heat runs and the why's of heart rate run's. So training in your zone means you're building your aerobic capacity and you want to be able to build so you can go long, long, and longer without bonking. If you're anaerobic, you cannot go long, longer, and loooonger without bonking. So the whole concept is being able to complete 5 hour bike rides Heart Rate 1 or in your Zone 1 so you can build endurance and stamina. Come race day, it'll probably be a different situtation since it's a race and we won't be racing on heart rate or zone 1. And Steve wants me to build my heart rate to be able to endure heat runs because we all know that during triathlons the running portion is going to be in the heat. So little by little he wants me to build endurance and to build stamina by being out there whether it's running or cycling at 145 or less so I can eventually build endurance, strength, and last longer. Now I think my heart rate monitor was out of whack. The band was too loose. I did tighten it more and I think that it worked b/c today I ran 6 miles and I did more walking than running..

New beginnings

I started this month (as of yesterday) with a new and different coach for Cozumel. I had used a separate coach for the last five months but needed a change of direction.

With every ending there is a new beginning. I will miss my old training partners and I hope I don't feel like a fish out of water with new group.

So tomorrow morning I ride with a new group, same route, different starting place, different people. I will see some of my old training buddies on the road which will still feel bittersweet.

I feel confident in my decision and I always have to remember to trust my inner gut and my intuition....

Post Race Blues

Mycoach has given me five days off. 1.2.3.4.5. I have been bored off my mind. Ihave also had an extremely emotional week. And I have had the post race blues.I need to sign up for Augusta 70.3 for the end of September so I feel betterabout myself. If you are a racer, you know what the post race blues are. If youare a woman that has a very thin layer of thin skin, you are probably a bitemotional. Combine being emotional with having post race blues and it’s not ahappy picture.

Thismorning was my first workout post race. I had to swim 3500 something yards. Mygoggles kept on getting wet inside. Every other lap they would leak and get fullof water. Do I need to put black tape over my face or something? What do I do?I get more frustrated, angry, and start crying. Amy tells me, Meli they arejust goggles. Yes, they are only goggles. You’re right. I refuse to let a pairof leaky goggles ruin my day. I’m done for the day.

Sonow I have three pairs of TYR Nest Pros Leaky Goggles. And I was giving them a chance b/c Ihave tried so many goggles and they all leak or leak after three weeks. Maybe itwas the fact that I was having a bad day, but I might as well give the Leaky Gogglesanother shot.

My first 70.3 Motivation Man Race Report

So, last Saturday, June 2nd I competed competed  completed my first 70.3, Motivation Man or the HEATFEST that it was. The whole week before we had horrendous weather. We had a tropical storm, tropical depression, I don't know what we had but we had 100% rain and precipitation every day. I was so scared that  the event was going to get cancelled, or that the swim was going to get cancelled, and I really wanted to participate in all three distances as it was my very first 1/2 iron man distance!

We got to bike drop off the day before and had to leave our bikes covered in plastic bags to prevent them from getting wet. So this was a first for me as I had never done this before. Thankfully Diane took tape so I could tape plastic lawn bags to my seat and my aerobars.

That evening, Chris and I went to Bellagio for dinner, carbloaded, I was a ball of nerves so I tried to eat as much as I could, had about 2 sips of wine to calm my nerves, and tried to relax:

Do I look a little nervous?

The next morning we were up and going at 5am. Got to transition to set everything up. Luckily there was no rain and no signs of rain. We walked to the intracoastal as our swim wave was off at 6:50. I couldn't really see the buoys. That was my main complain. I had to ask the race director where to swim as I knew I was swimming in a triangle, but I didn't really know where the midpoint of the triangle was. Clearly they did not do such a great job marking the area of where we were swimming (more of that to come later)

Here we go getting ready to swim:

So, from the first buoy to the second buoy I was fine. No problem. I did it in about 7 minutes. Amy even asked me if I was fine, I said sure, no problem, I thought this is great, I'm doing well, no current, not a problem at all, I could see, everything was fine. Then I get to the second buoy or the 45 degree angle in my imaginary triangle. I don't see the other 45 degree triangle. Where do we go? The course description had a little map that apparently marked more buoys. 3 buoys for a 1.2 mile swim is clearly not enough, especially with a cloudy day. Not only that, there were a few boats that were patrolling the area so it reeked of oil and gasoline, I lost my swim cap and I had to fight to put it back on b/c I was not going to swim 1/2 mile with all of my hair all over the place. It was honestly a disaster. Then I hear lifeguards telling us to swim more to this side to avoid the current. I honestly felt that I swam 2 miles. And I never saw my second buoy or my 45 degree angle as my second turning point. A lifeguard just told me to follow the crane by the bridge. Seriously?
So before I realize I am swimming with pink caps, yellow caps, purple caps, green caps, and I realize that I'm way behind as the Olympic swimmers started 15 minutes after we did.

Total time in the water: 1:15.
Total time that I had guesstimated: 1:00
Total time lost: 15 minutes that I had to somewhat make up.
And I still feel that I swam for 2 miles, not for 1.2 miles.

I got to Transition, changed into my cycling shoes, socks, put on my helmet, saw Chris as he was just finishing his swim, and took off on the bike. I was so happy to be on the bike and off the nasty intracoastal, salty, and oily water.




I realized that I was about the only one left for the 1/2 distance and most everyone else was already on the course riding. First 10 minutes in the bike were trying to adjust to the bike, the wind, the ride, etc. I started drinking my Calories on the bike, saw Chris for about 2 minutes then he passed me, and tried to maintain 16-17 mph on the bike but the wind was a little tough. The Olympic turnaround was rather quick, and then I was out for another 10-15 miles all by myself. Very lonely bike ride, saw my teammates on the other side so I knew the turnaround was coming soon. I stopped at the water exchange station, grabbed a kid so he could help me, grabbed a water bottle and poured it on my aerodrink, grabbed another bottle, mixed it in with my Calories and also opened and snacked chews every few miles to make the ride be less boring. I sang American Pie and Bohemian Rhapsody about 7 times each. I was so happy to see the mile marker going to 30 miles, 40 miles, and slowly approaching the 50 mile zone. I actually passed about 5 people since I was one of the last ones on the swim, but I did take a tiny small advantage in that I'm not too slow on the bike and I had no mechanical issues. I ended up finishing my bike in 3:05 which is an average pace of 17.9 or close to that.

T2 was long and slow since I had to change socks again (my socks were wet) and I was a little bit out of it. I grabbed everything that I needed except sunscreen. Big mistake. I looked at my garmin and thought that if I could actually run the 1/2 in 2:35 I could come in under 7 hours. One can dream right? What I didn't realize was that I was actually starting the run portion at about 11am and the sun was at its strongest. It was a heat fest. I ran for the first 15 minutes and my legs, thighs, and trishorts were completely covered in salt. And it took me about 15 minutes to cover one mile. I knew it was going to be be a long day and my goal of finishing under 7 hours was shot out the window. I slogged, run/walked,walked/run/walked but my stomach was so full from the 3 bottles of calories earlier that I couldn't really handle anything. I saw my teammates Diane and Amy and they both looked strong. I looked weak and tired. Diane gave me a salt pill that was worth gold. Amy had dirt or mud all over her face which was a funny moment. Then Lourdes (she had already finished as she was doing the relay race) decided she'd keep me company and ran about 4 miles with me. Those were the best 4 miles ever. She talked to me about everything and nothing and it made the 4 miles go by a lot quicker.
Here we are running together approaching the 6th mile:

Then I saw Aunt Pattie and Chris's mom and Chris with signs for me as they were all cheering for me so I had to pretend to run hard in that moment and not walk:

Chris yelled at me and reminded me not to quit, that we do not quit, that we keep on going until they pull me off the finish line, and to keep at it, so he gave me some comforting words.
And he left an orange slice, a water bottle, and a banana for me.

Worst thing is I still had another lap to go to all over again. I continued my run, walk, walk, walk, slog, jog, walk, run, and by mile 7 I wanted to cry. Then I remembered my long term goal: Cozumel.

By mile 10 there were very little volunteers left, they had opened the lane to allow traffic back in, and I saw Kike in a bike that was not his. He came to check on me. He poured water on me, gave me tons of water, and biked along with me while I ran my 13 minute pace. I know this is totally not allowed but he at least kept me company and reminded me to use my arms as my arms totally dead right next to me while I was running. By mile 12 I ran a little harder since I knew the end was almost here. I look very bad ass in this picture:

And finally I finished. I was the second to last finisher. I finished the run in 3:17 and my total time for my first 70.3 was 7:47. I finished and that's what counts. And I felt great as I crossed the finish line:

I saw a couple of members from my triathlon group with IVs because they were so dehydrated. Not fun. But all in all, I had a great time, great experience, and I'm ready to get out there and race again, in my new bike of course!

Tri Miami Race Report 05-20-12

Race Report:

So, on Sunday, May 20^th I completed my first Olympic Triathlon and I felt defeated. I finished it alright, but I felt defeated, and I’m really not happy with my performance. Overall, it was a PR because it’s a new distance for me, but I had thought it was going to take me approximately 3:20 and it took me 3:32 to finish.

Saturday Morning I did a mini shake out brick just to make sure everything was functioning just fine. I swam for about 20-25 minutes in the ocean with Amy (best training partner EVER!) and she took some crazy photos of me while swimming, did a mini 20 minute bike workout, and 15 minute run. Took a much needed nap that afternoon and picked up my dad in the afternoon. I was excited since this was the very first race he was ever going to see. And he was going to see us in a triathlon which are super exciting!

The night before I did some nice carb loading at Anthony’s Pizza with my dad and Chris. I had some yummy Ricotta and Mushroom Pizza, a glass of white wine to calm the nerves, and tons of water. I had been extremely nervous about this distance because it was a new distance for me. I knew I had to do it if my ultimate goal is IM Cozumel. My nerves affect my stomach so the two days prior to the race my stomach was a ball of nerves. My new bike did distract me tons. Friday night I had taper madness (Why I don’t know since I only get taper madness when I run a full marathon) and my left knee sorry right knee was hurting me a lot. I guess it was all in my mind because Saturday morning my knee pain had completely disappeared.

Coach Frank had sent me an email of what do with nutrition since this is another area that I struggle with: He had told me to do three gels (one before swim, one 15 minutes after bike, one before run) and 2 bottles of Caloric Drink  (one on the bike course) and one on the run. I accidentally forgot to put two scoops on each bottle and only put one so I was 250 calories deficient or one bottle infinit nutrition. I didn't realize this until I was 1/2 way done with my bike.

Sunday Morning:

Woke up at 415 had my oatmeal, banana, a was light on the coffee (thanks Amy), made myCaloric Drink woke up dad, changed, and Chris came at 450 to pick us up. Got to transition, got body marked, set up our transition area for the race (Chris and I were right next to each other) which gave me extra comfort!

I took a group picture with the Hammies then took off for my swim. I was 3rd and last wave of the Olympic Distance and had to be in the water swimming by 7:11. Luckily, I had my dad the best photographer taking all the pics and cheering us on! Chris was also able to give wish me good luck before he took off for his Sprint Swim Start.

This was actually before the swim. I had just finished my Honey Stinger a few minutes before my swim. It did feel a little weird to have a gel prior to exercise. I went into the water to make sure the temps were okay. Water was murky and really gross. Ewww. Luckily I had my lotion against jelly fish/ocean critters all over me! And it has SPF so that's an extra bonus!

My swim distance was 0.9mile or 1.5km. It was and out and back swim. I told myself to not panic and just go with the flow. I had done an OWS that previous morning with Amy and she helped calm a lot of my nerves. I had a lot of space because this was a small race and 75% of the athletes were doing the Sprint Distance. I swam and my anxiety remained pretty calm since I knew it was going to be a long swim.

My dad was able to capture another picture of getting out of the water:

Swim was done in 44:43 not sure how that time is but I wanted to do it under 45 minutes so I'll take it. T1 was quick, had another Honey Stinger on the bike and my Caloric Drink on the bike. I still thought I had done my mix with two scoops. I start riding and  my speed is S-L-O-W. Turtle Slow. There was wind by Bear Cut Bridge and I knew it was going to be a tough bike ride doing the Key Biscayne Bridge 4 times with that amount of wind. Okay so it's really the only hill that we have, but when you're used to training in pancake flat Miami, doing the bridge 4 times sort of threw me off guard. I thought I could maintain a speed of at least 17.5 with the bridges (I was considering at least 18-19) without the bridges and was very disapointed when my bike time came in for the 40 km. (24.9 miles) of 16.9. That had me crushed and had me very upset. I've missed a couple of Long Bike Ride Sunday's and it was proof in my time. T2 was easy. Swapped shoes, put on sneakers. Grabbed another gel and another Caloric Drink and Honey Stinger.

I knew that the run was going to be brutal. It was blazing hot. No shade. Next to the ocean. And I had to run a 10k. I did the first lap (saw my dad and Chris and a couple of hammies that were cheering me on!) one more lap to go. I did the visualization technique and pretended that I was running in 50 degree weather with dry socks, and with a great breeze. Yeah.

I had a volunteer pour cold water all over me and it got on my socks and feet. My blisters this morning are not happy. I knew the run would be a struggle and my goal was just to finish it. I manage to finish it in 1:14 which is a 12 mm which is slow but running at 930am after having biked is going to be hard regardless. Thankfully a volunteer was able to give me a pouch of Energy Gels b/c I was totally lacking in the nutrition department thanks to making my Caloric Drink with 1/2 the calories.

This is me at the finish line:

My total time was 3:32
First Oly Tri so automatic PR even though sad about time.
I need to bike more, work more on nutrition, and be more consistent with training. I missed crucial bike workouts on the weekend (3 in a row) which is why my bike time was probably really weak.
I want to do one swap one pool swim during the week for OWS as well.
I also have reason to get faster... My Quintana Roo better get me faster as I will be embarassed to be riding a 16.9 speed on that fancy Rolls Royce of a bike....

Next race: 70.3 Motivation Heat Man June 2nd..

NEW WHEELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!! Going over to the bike store in a few minutes to go pick up my brand new bike! I got a Quintana Roo CD 01 with Carbon Raching Wheels and all the good stuff that comes with it! Red and black! Love love love it ! First tri bike. So a little scared. Here is a picture of my new bike:

Never ridden a tri bike so we'll see how it goes this weekend as I start testing the waters in it! I have to get rid of my felt since this bike was a teeny winny beety meeny way over my budget. I'm sure the Felt will find a nice new home. I've been so attached to my Felt, and so fond of it. I hope the new owner loves it as much as I have.

Good bye Felt! This weekend is my last race with you. You've been there for me for 2 years. It's time to move on!

Milestones!

Today, May 10th, I swam a mile in the ocean and I did not drown. The sea did not drown me. I did not get attacked by any fishy monsters. I did not get bitten by sea lice. I did not get stung by jelly fish or baby jelly fish. I did have a few anxiety issues, but I made it! It did take me forever, but I made it! Thanks to Amy for being the best spotter ever! Your white legs make spotting so easy Amy! And Luis was right there teaching me to spot w/out having to stop. Something new that I also learned today! A few more mile swims, and I should be ready for my two tris that I have in the next few weeks!

NEW TRI BIKE

No, I have not gotten a new tri bike yet, but I'm in the market for a new one.

Chris and I are going window shopping, and trying them out this weekend.

I love Felts, and I saw the B12 which I love. We'll go see a few of them this weekend and try them on and see which one feels/fits better. I do not want to sell my road felt. I wish I had an unlimited biking fund so I could buy the newest Felt Tri bike out there!

Happy Riding!

In good news, I learned how to put my bike in my car w/out having to remove the front wheel....
I also learned how to remove back wheel and put it back on.
I also learned how to put chain back on after it's loose.

Traveling and Training

So how do you mix traveling and training?

In the month of April, I travelled for 8 days missing one very important weekend of my training. That weekend was when my training group decided to go to Clermont and go ride the hills. Miami has no hills so I missed out on my opportunity to do hills. I was busy in North Carolina working for 8 days straight, 10 hours a day, very little sleep, too much junk food, a lot of wine, no exercise,  almost gorgeous weather, tons of hills, and no bikes. Oh, and no gym, no car, no hotel room. If you have been to trade shows you know how hard it is to exercise when you're on very little sleep, on very high levels of stress, and working 24/7.

So, how many days did I exercise that week while I was gone? None. Yeah. None. Not one single day. Since I have been back, I have tried to get back on track, but it is very hard to exercise when you travel.

This past week I went to Omaha, NE. I managed to get my Long Run in on Saturday. On Sunday, I only managed to get 30 minutes elliptical at hotel gym. Again, I traveled Thursday to Sunday and missed a long bike ride that my training group had on Sunday. They biked 75 miles. I biked zero. Well, I did elliptical 30 minutes. I came back Sunday after having worked 7 days non stop, on very little sleep, and managed to go out and bike ride on Monday (solo!) for two hours on a week day in the middle of the day. Ok, I was not smart b/c I started riding at noon in Miami summer mega heat, but hey I at least I got two hours on my bike. I didn't do the 4 hours that my group had done on Sunday, but at least I did 1/2 of what I did, right???

So, next time I travel, I need to need to need to need to tell Coach ahead of time so he can modify my plan and I can do whatever the gym has without feeling guilty.

So my ride on Monday was going really well. Minus the hot drink that I had to throw out. Luckily there was a really nice water man (I knew he was from Nicaragua) b/c all Nicaraguans are the best ever!!! and I bought 2 gatorades and 2 waters from him and they were really really nice and cold! He was in a bike, so I didn't even have to go inside a gas station. I did ride down the bus lane on US1 towards Homestead. On way back to car (parked at Kmart) I was distracted, fell on sidewalk, scraped my knee, and now have an ugly green bruise with another greenier bruise next to it. At least I'm ok and so is my bike. Pics to follow later on today!

The trainer

Baby Steps

So with my crazy travel schedules from work, I have had very little time to sleep, train, read, spend time with those that I love, and blog.

　
I just realized that I have not written anything in almost a month. Wowsers. I've been too busy with work. And I got a little behind on my training. Oh well, such is life.

So I finally got a second hand trainer.  For those of you that do not know what a trainer is. This is what it looks like:

Yeah that's not me. And I'll be very excited when I can actually find a book stand that can hold a book so I can spin and read at the same time. Okay, so my biking setup skills looked a little bit more like this:


So it took me about an hour to set up my bike on the trainer. I got so stressed out. I decided to call it quit. The next day Amy and I did it via picture text message and almost got it right. I wasted too much time setting it up. I still did not feel that I had done a good job so I convinced Chris to come over and check it out during lunch.


That evening, I did my first 15 minute warm up, then did my first 2 minutes on aero position and I fell, Ouch. Nice purple/green bruise on my hip. I was so angry b/c I wasted another 20 minutes trying to get it figured out. Luckily, my neighbor Angela is another triathlete. She fixed it back and I was able to do my bike workout. A little frustrated but baby steps it's how you have to start, right?

New Swimming Challenge

So last Monday I swam in a 50 meter pool for the very first time. Gulliver Pool Wow. What-a-difference! ! !

 

 

My 25 yard pool at the park seems like a breeze compared to this G-I-G-A-N-T-I-C supersize me, state of the art olympic size pool with a huge clock so now I know how much S-L-O-W-E-R I am when I have to swim a lap.

 

 

In reality, 1 lap in a 25 yard pool is equal to 50 yards. One lap in this pool is equal to 100 meters. My cheat sheets for my workouts now vary. My 400 yard warmup or 8 laps in the tiny pool now is equivalent to 4 laps in the big pool. One of the perks of the big pool is that it's only about 7 minutes away from my house. They actually have lanes placed on the pool. I get my very own lane. I get a better workout because I don't depend so much on the wall since it's a 50 meter pool instead of a 25 yard pool. The down side: It's a lot more expensive then my $2.50 per session at the public pool. BUT I can guarantee you, that once you swim at this pool, you never want to swim anywhere else! 

 

Thanks to Amy for introducing me to this pool and joining me for these workouts at 550am! 

 

 

Nautica RR

Nautica Race Report:

Well, this was my first triathlon of the season. I decided last minute to sign up since the Auto Trader group needed a swimmer and a cyclist to do the relay.

I ended doing the 1/2 mile swim and the 19 mile bike ride.

 

The Swim:

I was on the relay wave so I was actually about the second wave group to go. I swam with all the rest of the relay swimmers, and a bunch of other divisions. I decided to start off on the right hand side and to sort of go on the side avoiding the massive swimmers jumping on top of me. I also learned to bypass them and to not really fear them kicking me. I swam to the first buoy, so far so good, did my turn and took off. Another Hammerhead was panicking in the water and talked to one of the lifeguards (I do not remember her name) but I gave her a pep talk and said come on hammie you can do it you can do it! I also swam for a while with Chiara and it was so comforting to swim next to another HH. Then I sort of got lost and started venturing towards the left. I am not a good spotter but my method of spotting is by following the legs and the water splashing. All of a sudden I got sort of lose and was venturing way out to the left. One of the lifeguards whistled at me to swim more towards the shore (I was swimming to deeper water) so I lost about 2 minutes doing that. I never panicked. Told myself to breathe in and out and do my every other stroke and bilateral breathing (which I know slows me down) but that's another post! Next thing I know I see the last buoy make a right and swim straight to the shore. Frank taught us this crazy bunny jumps to do right when you are closer to the sand instead of running on the shallow part (which is hard and exerts more energy) do these bunny dolphin jumps where you are jumping over the water. I did that and got some major sand burn (instead of carpet burn it was just like sand burn on my knees) Ouch! I saw Chris and Gabe, I smiled for a pic and then I ran up to transition. I was so tired. This is a picture of me coming out of the water.

Next thing I was at transition, put on my socks and cycling shoes, snapped my helmet, grabbed a honey stinger and took off. I have not learned how to run barefoot with shoes already clipped onto the bike. I am running with my cycling shoes on (ouch!) and went took off. The bike was 19 miles, a couple (or maybe more like a lot) of bridges along the way. I was actually cold as I didn't even dry myself and it was a little windy. I wanted to do the bike in 60 minutes. I took off and had my one and only honey stinger and water. I was so tired and my heart rate was so high from sprinting from the water to the bike. I saw Chris on the way back, smiled a dorky smile with my hand sticking out, went to Transiton, gave my chip to the runner and off he took.

I ended up doing the swim in 24:16 for 1/2 mile. Last year I did it in 24:44 so I was 28 seconds faster AND I did not panick.

I ended up doing the bike in 1:02:31 which was an average pace of 18.2. Last year I did this same course in 1:09:50 at an average pace of 16.3. I improved my bike time by over 7 minutes. I'll take that!

I also got no chafing and no sea lice so I was very happy about that.

I did use a new hoohah cream. Mistake #1. Do not do anything new on race day. I used the new hoohah cream that morning. It worked wonders. Hoo hah

 

I also used this awesome lotion that has SPF that protects you against sealice and jelly fish. Either the water was clear or the lotion really worked but I had no new bumps!

All in all, this is a fantastic race. I would totally do it again next year and do the longer distance. It's a bit of a challenge because it is the first triathlon of the season.

Last Long Bike Ride.

So I never posted about my cut back week last week as well as how my nutrition went.

Last week was supposed to be a cutback week with 6 hours total. Somehow, I managed to workout for over 9 hours.

I did do much better nutrition wise during the bike. We rode 50 miles and I had a gel thank you honey stingers. I love your products! honey stingers chocolate gel. At mid way point, I had a honey stinger wafer cookie and 1/2 a diet coke. Again, love their products! I tried drinking tons of water. At the half way point, I had some of the Accelerade that I had mixed on one of my bottles. On ride back, I ate a bag of the honey stinger chew bites and drank some more water. I had about 2 chews before we finished the bike ride. And I had enough energy left in me to run twenty minutes.

What I did differently:
1. Nutrition. Ate and drank a lot more. And by drinking, I mean caloric drinks, not just water.
2. Rode on the small chain for the first 30 minutes to get my legs warmed up and more in a spinning gear. Then switched to the big chain. On the last 30 minutes, I switched to the small chain. What a difference! My legs had so much energy left in them. And they didn't feel so heavy by the time I had to start the run.

Much better ride then the week before. We averaged about 18 I think. But I felt so much better. So now I have to figure out what's the best nutrition for me to do and when/how soon I should do it!

Nutrition woes

>So, on Sunday I rode for 62 miles (3 1/2 hours) at an average speed of about 17.5 followed by a 30 minute transition run. I thought I was going to die. Considering that the riders that I rode with are all pretty fast, Christina and I were the last ones. The wind on the way back was brutal so Frank made Christina and I ride in mid front of the group. There were only about 7 of us so it was very easy to be left behind. Onto nutrition and the main point of this post: I consumed 620 calories and 72 ounces of water during my whole 4 hour workout. And I bonked at about mile 45.I ate oatmeal and a banana before the ride.Within 75 minutes, I had a honey stinger gel. At the midway point, I downed a bottle of cytomax and a cliff bar.On way back, I had Gatorade. The last calories that I had were at about mile 45.Frank told me I should be having approximately 200-250 calories per hour times 4 hours=800-1000 cals.So I was deficient and struggled so much the last 90 minutes of my workout.And, I felt it. The last 15 miles were brutal and my run was more like a fast walk joggling type of thing. I had taken 3 bottles with me, one with cytomax and the other two with water. Most of my group had calories in each bottle. I need to do a better job and figure out what mix works best for me. Cytomax, accelerade, Gatorade, infinit, carbopro, gels, bars, chews, food, so many options and choices that it gets overwhelming. In an effort to make sure this does not happen again, and considering the fact that I've been so hungry every day, I decided to schedule a visit with my old dietician Ivonne yesterday and we came up with a plan:1. Approximately 45-60 carbs per hour of intense exercise. 2. Add a fat to my lunch to give me more energy. (avocado, hummus, etc)3. Try to do a gel and a caloric drink every hour. That's what I'll try and see which option fri the one billion options works best for me.4. Eat something (cliff bar or honey stinger waffle cookie at midway point or when we stop to turn around)5. Low fat choco milk or smoothie as my recovery drink. (choco milk is much easier)Let's try this again for my next long bike ride and compare how I felt....

Last week review

So I did most of my workouts last week. I ended up doing 8:25 hours  of workouts and I was scheduled to do 7:20 hours. I am still not sure why I went over.







I ended up doing:



3 bikes sessions broken down as 1 spin session, 1 indoor cycling at hotel gym,  two hour bike ride outdoors.



80 min swim session



3:30 min run. From this,



So my OCD is kicking in with my charts that Trainingpeaks gives me.



My first chart for last week looked like this: Separating my total run time, total swim time, and total bike time.

My second chart (after I revised the brick workouts) to be only brick workouts looks like this: (swim times, run times, and brick times)

I had emailed Frank just to double check that anytime I do a bike and a run do I record it as a brick or as bike and a run workout? II just want my scheduled breakdown of my charts to match what I'm actually doing. OCD seriously. Now let's see if I can figure out how to attach pictures!

New wheels and nine months

I got new racing wheels and rode them for the first time this past Sunday. Chris got me the Cosmic Mavic Carbones which match perfectly well with my black and yellow frame!

On other news I mentioned to my cousin that I signed up for a full ironman on November 2012. He mentioned 9 months of training is the equivalent of a woman being pregnant.

Good analogy Sherman!!!

On other news I'm happy to say I registered for another race: MCM marathon October 28th!!

Off the bandwagon

Races for this year.

So I was looking at my race schedule for last year. I did 17 races total. I have three scheduled for this year only. 2 70.3s and Cozumel. Still my race schedule looks sad and empty. I need to remember to just focus on my long term goal: Cozumel Cozumel and Cozumel!

First post!

I am not sure I know how to do to this. I want to create a blog or a place where I can write down my thoughts and my progress towards my training.

You see, 2 months ago I had this crazy idea of signing up for a full Ironman. So I took the plunge and signed up for Ironman Cozumel which will take place on November 25th, 2012. www.ironmancozumel.com

I am also going to do my first 70.3 race this year. I have two in mind: 70.3 Haines City in May http://www.ironmanhainescity.com/ on May 20th where I plan to work on nutrition, the distance, the heat, etc. I also want to do http://ironmanaugusta.com/ on September 30th, 2012 as my last race before Im Cozumel.

So this blog will have a lot of my thoughts, training questions, nutrition issues, and just random ideas that come to my mind.

I have officially started my training as of February 6th with my awesome coach Frank.
So this should be week 3 of training, right?

Week of February 6th:  I went to Panama for the long weekend, saw the 70.3 race there and was very close to all the pros including Chris Lieto, Lance Armstrong, Angela Neal, etc. Seeing all the pros is giving me my mojo back to start training and to sign up for a race this Spring/early summer!

Double workout

So this morning I did a 50 min spin class with ironman veteran Steve. The new gym looks awesome!! Tough class today. The floor was soaked with my sweat. Swimming 2100 m tonight after work...