Sunday, January 30, 2011

Mission 10

The San Juan Bautista Mission 10 mile race was yesterday. Lets back up just a bit and say that the last time I did this race was 4 years ago. It is a rolling course with a kicker of a hill from about mile 3.5 to 5.5. Now one would think that if you have to go up for two miles you are going to come down? Wrong. It is like rollers with steep short sections of up and down. It is a knockthewindoutofyourpipes kind of course. The last time I did this race I was merely trying to run 10 miles after a two hour ride. I had no goal time and was just "running." This year things were a little different. First I had a time goal that was not out of my league but certainly out of my comfort zone. Second we have had a focused build on my "limiters" of running and it was time to do a short test.
I went out yesterday way too fast the first mile, calmed down a bit, and then was able to relax my form, control my breathing and stay strong the ENTIRE 10 miles. I finished one minute under my time goal. Enough said. The plan is working. Endurance wise things are looking up. Time to get more zippy speed. Oh, and I beat my old time by 8 minutes.

This is going to be a good year :)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Real Deal!

If you know me or have known me as a triathlete, you know I am not a swimmer. I didn't grow up swimming nor was I on a team. This was unfortunate as we had a pool in our backyard which was perfect for swimming. Problem with that is I really much rather float on a raft in the pool or be under the water playing games.




Then I grew up and started really swimming. Now granted, I never had instructions, just conned my buds into doing a triathlon with me. This was in 1996. We were signed up for the Danskin's womens tri in San Jose and we were doing it! We would meet and swim three times a week for that 1/2 mile swim we were doing. That was the beginning.



Fast forward 12 years and now I am in masters when a new coach walks on deck. A big gruff looking guy but obviuosly very well versed walks over to my lane and says "I don't think I have ever met anyone so lazy in the water?" WTF? I'm not lazy?


I got pissed and left immediately. But I never stopped thinking about what he said. I went back to the next practice though and actually started listening to his advice. I paid attention to things he told people and took him up on every offer he gave for instruction/lessons/extra practices. He let me swim at times when nobody else was around and would meet me at 5am on the weekends to give me lessons before I trained for the day.

This morning came my shining moment. After practice, coach said "You are a swimmer now!"" Music to my ears. Tons of hard work to follow of course, the only place to go from here is up. Yep, the real deal!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Weekend

This weekend is probably the start of the crazy making time of training/work/life/family and trying to juggle it all. I have a VERY BAD habit of overscheduling myself on the weekends in order to accomodate training vs. nontraining life stuff that waits for the weekends and or the only time to do it. One of my recent convserations with Coachie Coach ended with me saying that this year " I was going to train like a pro." Meaning I was going to not wake up at 4am on Sat/Sun and give myself all day to get EVERYTHING done, I was going to eat before all my key sessions (not RIGHT before fueled for:) you know what I mean!) and go into them rested, hydrated and READY. I was going to do all my grocery shopping (yes for $5@ Whole Foods-she brings them to my office!)and have quality weekends. That way there was more of me to go around- see family, relax, heck even have some fun! But I was not going to schedule everything that happened in the day as sometimes I am not coming home on Saturdays until after 5pm. I am trashed and starving and CRABBY.

Well this weekend didn't really work out so well "pro wise" but everything was accomplished training wise albeit Saturday far better than Sunday. Plus, what is there to complain about when it is 75 degrees on your ride? Well, maybe the 30 mph headwind but we won't go there. You just go with it. I actually have time to be on my computer and catch up. Cheers for a great weekend and awesome week ahead.
Next up- Mission 10 miler Saturday. Can't wait to see how much recoverye21.com helps me meet my goal!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Right Direction

After total lack of drive last weekend to race (I know even a 10K you have to build up for!) I got up casually Sunday morning to get ready. Take the girl to the beach, eat some brekkie and drive out there. Running races are so much easier than triathlons, especially when they are less than 5 minutes from your house. Parked about a mile away from the start so I could warm up, got my chip and toed the line. Nothing fancy here just show up, RUN, and leave. (because the skies were blue, the sun was shining and I wanted to ride my bike!) I have no idea of the course other than because being in Fort Ord thought it might be a little hilly. Just gonna hang on and see where it takes me. I am really not in shape to run short/fast. More like long and SLOW. But bear with me. Started off downhill, looked down at watch WHOA way too fast. That's okay because as fast as we went down we went up, up, up. Here is where the interesting part came in. I actually felt better pushing myself to go up faster than I thought I could and just went for it. Long Story short- 3rd overall female. Not a bad way to start the year- Actually have lowered my race times a tad for the next few races!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Weekend

This is the first "race" of my 2011 season. I should be excited. But I'm not. I mean this is supposed to be my year? Unfortunately, life got in the way this past week.(or two) Not a workout was missed but the zest I was feeling to GO on Sunday has vanished. This will not define my year though. Many a good things to come. Sometimes it helps to write it out and *know it is okay.*
I'm not gonna lie. It is very hard juggling all aspects of life when it comes to training/work/rest/family/responsibilites/etc./etc. I also think I do a pretty darn good job of managing them all. This week-weekend has just been a test. Okay, I'm going with that. The Test. Time for it to start-

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Limiters

The other day I was talking to Coachie Poo and he was talking about my limiters. I was like what? limiters. In my mind, my limiters in triathlon are my swim and my ride but when I get to the run I CAN RUN. Mind you I can't run *fast* but we are working on that So I was half expecting him to say you are going to start riding MORE. I was already half picturing more trainer rides at 3am then one can imagine and was just going to suck it up. Then he said, "right now your run is your limiter."
Excuse me. No it's not. If you ever talk to him though you know he will back it up with some validity. And that he did. He gave me 87 examples of how my swim strength has improved, my bike has come full circle twice and my run limits my potential.
WOW. Good stuff. I guess that is why I am *racing* these running events coming up and if you drive around town in the early morning that is me doing drills in the NPS parking lot and charging up the hill by the dunes and WALKING DOWN.
Another trick up his sleeve is glute activation. The right side of my body still 5 years later is still stuck in protect mode. So activation BOOT GLUTE CAMP started Saturday. I told Jenn I still had to ride home but she never listens. This is the real deal. Awesome stuff.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

2010- check

It seems that everyone has posted their totals for 2010 so it seems fitting to me that I would jump on the bandwagon. Phew. Thank goodness TP keeps track of stuff like that!
Numbers:

Swim: 260 miles
Bike: 7,888.28 miles
Run: 1,323.4 miles

39 hours of TRX
30 hours of massage

I might get all geeked out and change it to numbers too but I'll save that for a rainy day. I will say that 2010 was a year of growth for me in training and racing and am excited to do so in 2011 with a fresh new focus and TEAM!!

This has been my first *real* week back at training and on Friday felt like everything was starting to click. I don't really count last weeks 10K of swimming as training. I am going to really practice one of my goals this year *PATIENCE* This is going to be a long year/season! Monday is officially 24 weeks til CDA, 33 weeks til Canada and 47 weeks til Arizona. WOW. It will be here before we know it.

Next up- 10K race next weekend. It is going to hurt!

Cheers to a new year, a good first week back and a healthy perspective!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

NEW TEAM!!!

Yes it is official!!! I am on the http://www.recoverye21.com/ triathlon team for 2011. I absolutely love the idea of team camaraderie, meeting people, triathlon and recovery all meshed together. If you have not checked out this product, do so today. Your body will thank you!