Lap swimming only

Let me introduce you to a couple of my friends from last night. Last night was a long swim at the Nat, our tri specific swim coaches offered 3 long swims this season and last night was number two. I was unable to attend the first one so when I arrived I was quit nervous about what was going to take place. I took my wetsuit with me since I have not worn/swam in it since Ironstar in November. I jumped in the lane with Scott and started my warm up. After doing 300 yds Tom stopped us and gave us a pep talk about warming up before a swim. He told us that he will warm up with 1200 sometimes (uh no thank you), but that he will slowly build to his race pace and maintain that pace for the distance of his event. So we swam 5 x 50 with 15 secs rest. After completing the warm up intervals it was time to start our 1 hour straight swim. Prior to this I have done a couple of 1000 TT's but never have swam with out a break for more than about 22 mins. About half way through I got a horrible cramp and had to stop for about 30 secs to massage it out, I got it to where it was manageable and started swimming again, but it took about 200 yds before I could push off the wall. I finally got back in my groove and all of a sudden I could hear Tom yelling I stopped and looked up at him and he said GO GO GO and I realized we had 5 more mins. All in all I swam good and hard and the hour went by pretty quickly. When we finished he let Scott and I know we had swam 2850 in the hour. Not fast for most but supa fast for this chick. Total yards 3400 another milestone for me in the books. I finally left the pool feeling happy for a change!

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

A 60's weekend quick wrap up!

Mom's Surprise 60th Birthday was a success; we were not only able to surprise her but made her smile. She was surrounded by friends and family both in person and in spirit for those that were unable to attend. She even had a few hunky band members serenade her!

67 miles on bike feels like 67 miles on a bike, but on the hills it feels like 100. I had a great ride with many teammates with a run and food to follow. I was wiped out when I got home and an still recovering from fatigue. Thank you to my teammates that always help get through my training.

I never thought the temperature was going to hit 60 on Sunday but with about an hour and a half left into the ride the arm warms came off and the sun came out to warm us up a bit.

A wonderful weekend for 60's!

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!