I am thinking a 60's kind of weekend

On Saturday my mom turns 60 and we have a surprise party planned for her, I am thinking she is going to be super thrilled. We have about 35 friends and family coming out to celebrate with her on her 60 years of excellence and sometime not so excellence. My step dad is surprising her with a plane ticket to California to see my brother.

On Sunday I am signed up to do the Continental ride with several teammates and I am signed up for the 67 miler. The furthest I have ridden so far was 62 prior to Iron Star back in November. Thankfully it is a supported ride and I can take lots of breaks. I was surprised that Coach G did not frown and say hell no you are not riding 67 miles. Well see what happens as I will have to be a good girl at my moms party if i am going to ride the hills for 67 miles.

Also on Sunday we will have a high of 68 degrees so we will have great weather for my 67 mile bike ride!

Hope to see you on the roads!

Count down to another 70.3

In just over 5 weeks I will be participating in another 70.3 only this time it will be an Mdot race. Not to say anything bad about a 70.3 race that is not sponsored by Mdot it is still the same distance. The big difference is the support provided on and off the coarse and all the swag you get to buy. And yes I like to brag so I will be showing off all kinds of Mdot 70.3 stuff. this time around the training seems different, yes there is allot of of it but I seem to be less worried about getting it all in. A few weeks went by where I missed several long bike rides out on the roads and opted to do them on a spin bike. I am now back out on the road and getting in the much needed long rides again and I am loving it. Long runs are going great, but that is the easiest thing for me is the run part- not that it is fast or anything. And swims- I still hate to swim, I still suck at swimming. I just do not click when it comes for feel of the water, so I will just fake it on race day and get myself through the swim and enjoy the rest.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Chalked up another Half Marathon and a PR

On Sunday I ran in my 7th half marathon, it was also the third time I have run a half marathon in Houston. As I watched in horror the week following up to the race with the predictions of rain and storms increasing with each day, all I could think to myself was thank god I am not doing the full. By Saturday night I had decided that it was defiantly all about fun and feel. I had talked to my coach about predicted times and paces but was reminded just go on how I felt. Sunday morning I woke up at 3:45am and was surprised that it was not raining yet, could it be would we stay dry? I met up with Russell, Kathleen and Robin for the ride into downtown, shortly after we got on the road the drizzle started. We pretty much decided we would probably get a bit wet, we parked and headed inside the GRB to do last minute potty breaks and check our baggage. About 6:40 we made our way to the start line and a few mins after 7 am we were crossing the start line. I was able to stay with Kathleen and Russell for about the first 5 miles when we got separated at an aid station, we had been keeping a nice steady pace and I was feeling great and had a great feeling about finishing at a nice pace. In the car earlier in that morning I had decided I would be happy with a 2:30 finish considering the weather, at mile six I realized I could do it faster. As the miles ticked away and rain came and went and came back again I concentrated on my breathing and my form, I thought about my coach kicking my ass for running harder than she probably really wanted me too. I asked myself, how long can you maintain this pace. When I arrived at the 10 mile mark I looked at my watch and it said 1:41:something... I thought what the hell I can keep up the pace for 10 more mins, and then 10 mins later I thought the same thing and as I got closer to the GRB I decided to turn it up. I crossed the finish line at 2:10:33 my previous PR was 2:12:16. Despite the weather conditions I was able to push through and set a new PR without having to work to hard for it. Yesterday I was a little tired and sore but nothing like normal. Today I am ready for a recovery run in the freezing cold.

I hope to see you on the roads soon!

Time Flies

Time is a funny thing, you wake up go to work, train, eat, sleep, wake up go to work, train. You get the idea. Yesterday as I was uploading a few workouts into traingpeaks I realized that I have a half Ironman in 10 weeks holy hell. Although I have been getting in most of my training I have lacked a few swims and long bike rides. In fact since Iron Star in November I think I have been on my tri bike 6 times. Once again I know I can do the distance but I would like to do the distance better than the last time.

Since Iron Star my grandmother passed away, my hubby and I went to Florida for our anniversary, then there was Christmas and New Years and all of these things have given me excuses to miss a workout. Oh and my best training partner is not doing Ironman Texas 70.3 so that has also thrown me a wrench. This weekend I will run in the Houston Aramco half marathon and then there will be no more excuses (yeah right) for missed workouts. This year for the half marathon I have no expectations, I simply signed up for this race just to see if they would pick me for the lottery. Well they did, so I will run for fun and see where it takes me.

Post Race Update

Since my last blog I have not done a whole hell-ova-lot. Coach G gave me the rest of the month on November off and although I ran a hand full of times swam twice and took one spin class, i really enjoyed the time off. I planned to start training again over the weekend of Thanksgiving and it started with an easy bike ride that ended up in a crash-not my fault. One of a stupid lady driving while talking on her cell phone, who did not notice six of us riding in a straight line when she decided to turn in to us. I am ok other than a swollen and scarped up knee and nobody else was hurt thank god. I am sure after a friend and teammate told her off bad enough to bring her to tears she will learn to pay attention while driving. Last night I did a three mile run that was a hrt rate test, in the test I had to stay within 2 beats of 151. If I went over i had to walk and if I was under I had to speed up. Work out went well it was an easy run for me, but today my knee is throbbing and I am thinking more rest may be good for it. Tomorrow the hubs and I are celebrating our anniversary. Cant wait!
I am looking forward to getting back to the training, I have a half marathon coming up in January and a half IM in April.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Iron Star 70.3 Race Report

All I can say is wow what an experience. I woke up Sunday morning and it was colder than a witches tit, when I headed out to transition. I found a few of my teammates and we discussed what we would do to stay warm on the bike. I decided to swim in my tri shorts and tri bra under the wetsuit and after I got out of the water I would add the tri top and long sleeve tech shirt. When transition closed several of us headed to swim start and waited for pre race instructions and the national anthem. Our swim was delayed by about 10 mins to allow the fog to lift off of the water. Finally at 7:18 I was on my way into the water, it was difficult to see since the fog was still low but I got in a good groove and started swimming, I bumped into a few girls a couple of times but it really did not bother me. Each time I sighted I looked for the colorful swim caps and stayed on coarse since we could not see a buoy until you were right on top of it. Before I knew I was at swim out and making my way to transition. 1.2 mile Swim 45:30.

I skipped the wetsuit strippers and took on that task myself. I dried off and put my warmer clothing strapped on the shoes and helmet and made my way out of T1 5:34.

I headed out of the bike with high hopes of no wind, but hope was not good enough because it was windy. I had ridden this coarse or part of this coarse more than once and I must say this time was the most difficult. It was nice to know where I was at all times, but I got to the point that I was wishing the miles away. At least I saw all of my teammates at some point on the coarse so a familiar voice from time to time was excellent. Around mile 29ish Jenny's family was on the side of the road and as I went by the cheered for me too. Thanks to Hanna and Keith and all the rest of Jenny's family for being out on the coarse. As I headed back through the resort to transition, I saw Scott, Tarrah and Logan. Logan followed me to transition and told me how great I was doing and that he was proud of me. Bike time 3:35:05 avg pace 15.6 mpg not what I wanted but I am not terribly disappointed.

I changed shoes and out of the long sleeve top because it was now a nice 70 degrees and I hit the pavement for my 13.1 mile run. The run was 3 loops part of each loop was on dirt trails and grass but most of it was through the resort neighborhood that lots of shade. I had so much support out there during the run that the miles just ticked away. I tried to run as much as possible but took a brief walk break at each mile and sometime at each half mile. 1/2 marathon 2:31:55.

Coming into the shoot and all I could do was smile, When I crossed the finish line my mom gave me a high five and then the tears came but I kept them brief and enjoyed the moment. I stayed at the finish line until all my friends were finished. The hugs and smiles will last forever. I am so blessed to have completed my first half IM distance with such a great group of friends.

A huge thank you to my friends Russell, Robin and Kathleen for coming out and supporting me it was great to hear your voice and your cheers. Also thanks to my teammates that made it out to volunteer and cheer us on. Thanks you to my teammates families that were there cheering for us and taking pictures. Thank you to all the volunteers. And to my family that came out to cheer me on. If I forgot somebody I am sorry but please know you are appreciated as well. I have the best husband in the world who has been so patient with me through all of my training. We have missed many dinners together and have not been on a lot of dates lately. Coach G your are the best thank you for believing in me and making me believe in myself. And to all my teammate, who have been there blood sweat and tears and many hours of training. I could not have done this without any of you.

Total half IM 7:01:59. Now to enjoy recovery!

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

2 days

In 2 days I will embark on my journey to 70.3. 1.2 mile swim, 56 miles on the bike and 13.1 on foot. 4 months ago if you had said to me "Misty you will be doing 70.3 by the end of the year" I would have laughed in your face. But here I am 2 days away from something I swore I would never do. NEVER say NEVER! Through the past few months of training I have had some highs and some lows, I have missed some training and I have trained hard. Sunday will be here soon and I am excited to finally be here. Tomorrow I am guessing the Oh shit will kick in, but I know I have trained for this and I know I am ready. On Sunday my expectations are to finish, no time, just to finish. I am sure there will be tears when I am finished, but I cannot wait to complete my first 70.3.

Good luck to Team sTRIve in IM Florida and in Conore this weekend.