The Dog Days of Summer Have Arrived!

    I knew I wouldn't be too consistent about writing in my blog!  I haven't written in a few weeks.  That's purely because i have been working and training and carting kids around to work, swim practice, lacrosse practice, etc, etc. 
  This past weekend was an absolutely gorgeous weekend! I can not remember a Memorial Day weekend in Maine where it was nice for all three days of the weekend.  Boy did we luck out!  Saturday was super hot and that brought my third 100 mile bike ride of my training for ironman Coeur D'Alene.  I was curious as to how it would shake out because I just had done 75 miles in the damp drizzle two days before on Thursday with a T-run immediately following it.  I was already kind of pre-fatigued for this century.  Waking up in the morning it was already muggy and warm.  This is the first time this year that at 6AM I could be warm enough in a sleeveless bike shirt.  NO SLEEVES AT ALL!  I had tons of fluids with me for this ride.  i knew from the weekend before - my second century -- on a 70ish day I ran out of fluids twice, so i wanted to avoid that.  And I did.  But the other issue with riding in Maine on Memorial Day weekend is the official start of summer and tourism.  Between the construction going on everywhere and the tourist traffic, it is nothing short of a nightmare getting around.  Hence, the early start before the traffic picks up, is the key.  But it takes me 6 hrs to ride 100 miles on a bike so the traffic picks up dramatically halfway through your bike time.   Places that would take you 5 mins to drive, turns into 30 mins.  It's tough.  It's a nightmare and the roads in Maine just weren't  built for the volume.  And, I hate to sound a little prejudiced, but drivers from a certain nearby state, are just completely rude with bicyclists on the road.   I try to be as considerate as possible and ride as close to the edge as possible as reasonably safe, but most drivers out there expect me to ride in the dirt.  I am sorry folks out there, but I am not on a dirt bike, a hybrid or even a trail bike, i am on either a road bike or a time trial bike with skinny tires and I can't ride on the dirt and sand.  And for all those out- out- of staters --- (that won't be reading my blog so I am wasting my precious finger energy) there is a 3 feet rule for passing cyclists.  There!  At least I feel better!!!  So Saturday was hot. Sunday, I did two runs that equaled close to 18 miles combined.  For those of you that haven't tried to run the day after biking 100 miles... it's pretty hard.  it's almost easier to run on the day where you do bike 100 miles.  i can say this with certainty because after my 100 mile bikes I run for a couple miles... and the couple miles off the century are much less tortuous than the first two miles of the long run the next day for sure!  But I made it through the heat and the week of almost 20 hrs of training.  I have one more huge week of training and then it's taper time.  My body is ready!!
    This weekend also brought the prom for James.  he looked pretty handsome in his tuxedo.  this was his second Prom of the Spring.   I am feeling a little bit melancholic about this summer.  Letting go is so hard.  to see your kids grown and going off and out on their own, but yet so vulnerable.  He has a list of Colleges he wants to visit this summer... ALL OVER the country, I might add.  I can't believe at one moment I am asking him to pick up the 11 towels off his bedroom floor and the next moment we are talking about going away to College.  And the squabbles between he and his little sister are less and less and the conversations get more and more grown up.  It's just a really weird and big change coming up.  I was so nervous and scared about the beginning of the teen years.  But I am totally freaked that next year he will be registering for the draft, registering to vote and leaving home to go to college.  Wasn't I just praying for his survival in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit just.... yesterday? And now i pray for his safety, that he makes the right choices and  that i have given him the right advice and tools for him to survive and be successful in the real world.  Wow... what a digression here... So really what I meant to say was... Poor James!  He was so hot in that tuxedo this past weekend.  Wish I knew how to upload a picture of him and his date.  They looked great!!  It was great weather for the prom.  It had poured buckets my junior prom!!  I was crushed because the shoes I had dyed to match my dress for the prom, the colors ran in the rain and the shoes looked horrid.  Not one person even SAW my shoes that night.... they were either off my feet or hidden underneath the dress...but I was pretty worked up about it. 
    I was appreciative this weekend as Emily didn't have any lacrosse games either.  She would have been hot running up and down the field.  It gives me great pleasure to watch her play.  She loves it.  It reminds me a little bit of my field hockey days way back.   When i was a kid, I think I was politely aggressive with my field hockey stick.  That's something I am sure she will develop.There wasn't lacrosse for girls when i was a kid, but I think I would have enjoyed it.  although, on the same token,  I am not sure I would have played though.  i was pretty stuck on running on the track team.  I was surprised that the skirt to her uniform is actually a skirt and not a skort.  i don't know why I am bothered by it.  We wore kilts with field hockey, but we wore shorts or bloomers underneath....i just figured with sport skorts so popular now that they would do that instead of a skirt, you know?  But there were no games, no uniform to wash at the last second, no practice to rush off to.  It was nice!
    Monday was a nice day, too.  A surprise because rain was predicted and it didn't happen until these huge loud thunderstorms in the middle of the night.  my parents came down and we grilled and ate outside.  It was pretty nice!  We had walked the beach before they came and got Callie all worn out.  plus we had special company.  We had a swarm of honey bees come visit, too.  That was totally weird.  A bee keeper came and collected them up late in the evening, once the queen returned from her outing, and while the bees were resting.  But all and all it was a gorgeous Monday and i finished that off with an open water swim in Kennebunk pond with James. 
     My last comment about the dog days of summer is about dogs.  I love dogs, but every now and again I come across a loose dog out on the road and even though I am a lover and don't fear them... I do on the bike.  There is one that chases me down on Harriseckett Rd in Wells and then there's this "cujo" of a dog that lives off of Rt 11 in Lebanon.... (i know i sure do get around on the bike).  However, they both love these treats i carry for dogs.    The treats are  the Newman's heart shaped, chicken flavored treats.  My dog loves them too.  I LOVE carrying them.  It's a great trick... the dog approaches the bike to  bite you, you pull out the treat and when you throw it, it goes far enough away so that the dog goes after the treat.  I can make a break away out of the dogs territory.  those treats have saved me a couple of times on long bike rides.  A few years ago, Cujo almost took me down on the bike as well as another loose big dog.  And ever since then, i have carried dog treats on my bikes and my long runs.  Dogs don't bother me anymore...when they get close, i toss the treat.  It sure as heck beats hitting them or giving up one of my water bottles to throw at them.  or worse yet, getting bit or crashing because of them.
   This was a crazy blog that was all over the place.... but that describes me about now, busy as a bee, running and biking all over the place, getting the kids to where they need to go and a few moments to sit and relax.... on the dog days of summer!!

May Flowers

I have to take my mind off the prom tonight and decided to write my race report from last Sunday. 

So my hardships of April, kind of rained on my ironman training parade and I left the month feeling overwhelmed and wondering if I would even make the bike cutoff for the ironman.  My riding has been sooo slow!!  The wind had just been killing me!  And the fatigue didn't help.  But, the first week of May I stopped taking 12 hr shifts at work and switched to 8 hr shifts.  This, i sense, will be helpful as I am not doing workouts at 10 PM anymore... I can sneak a shorter workout in before getting dinner ready or do it soon afterwards.  If I could only get rid of all my call hours too!!!  Anyway, Friday after work I headed to cyclemania to get my powertap software upgrade on my race wheel before heading to New Jersey.  Nothing like waiting to the last absolute second Huh?  Well I put the race wheels on Wednesday and noticed the joule wasn't picking up the data from the power tap: like watts, cadence, HR, you know those small numbers we look at while riding... ALL THE TIME?  Anyhow it required an update for the joule to be able to "pair" with the race wheel.  I hadn't realized this prior to now because this race is the first of the season and the joule was a Christmas present so it was a last second surprise.  Anyhow, David Brink got me squared away in less than 5 mins.  Off I went to NJ at 3PM.  The race was at Lake Absegami in Tuckerton, NJ at a campground.  We arrived at the cabin we were staying at, at  another very nearby campground at 10PM.  We all crawled directly into bed.  Saturday I did a 15-20 min bike check, powertap was all set and seemed to be working and all was fine, seemingly.  The bike was set to go.  I did a little jog too.  My legs seemed okay... They weren't super light feeling, but better than they had felt in quite some time.  Off to the race venue to check in at 3PM.  There were lots of people milling around.  And the line wasn't long to get all the race numbers and such.  They were putting out the buoy's at the time and so i snuck a peek at that.  It was a nice day, but they were predicting some wind and rain for race day.... do I know anything different??  I had Kevin drive the race course because I just wanted to see it before heading back to the cabin.  At the pre-race meeting online Thursday night  (a webinar -- which I highly recommend for all race director's out there which was well done) they had made a big deal about one of the bridges that we were going to have to go over.  It was a grated bridge not unlike say the Portland Bridge and/or the bridge into Kennebunkport.  They were going to have an ambulance stationed there because they claimed people may slide sideways into the guardrail on the side, because of crosswinds and the grates and such.  They said it would take about 3 seconds to cross the bridge going about 20 mph.  I was kind of thinking that if the bridge was that dangerous, why would people ride that fast over it.    Anyhow, i realized seeing it that it was not going to be an issue.  The bike profile on paper looked more threatening then in the car, and of course biking it is altogether different than riding in the car.  Anyhow, I was feeling pretty okay with everything.  Back to the Cabin and in to bed early.  Race start for Sunday was 8AM....despite all this, I was still having some trepidation about the race, as my last month, not to re hash the last month, but... it was not good heading into a race. 
   
445 AM came really fast.  I slept pretty well.  I had my prerace breakfast and was feeling okay, not nervous at all.  Which is highly unusual for me.  Usually I am a wreck and can't eat anything.  I was starting to feel like I may be too under stimulated and have wondered if I was not nervous because my adrenals were fatigued too from all the training and stress... nah... that's not it... it's just a fluke.  I rested a bit and foam rolled and we packed up the car so we could head back to Maine as soon as I was done with the race.  I arrived at transition at 6AM.  It seemed like everything was pretty much set.  It was chilly air wise, but the water temp was reported as 67 degrees.... Wow!!  I don't think I have ever swam in water that warm!!  Nice!  Do I even need a wetsuit??  Ha ha, well yes, but that really is pretty warm.  @7 i put the wetsuit on to stay warm in the air and then did a little stroking for a few minutes.  at 745 they had the pre-race meeting.  At 800 they ordered the people that were in the first wave to enter the water behind the starting buoy.  I was in the first of the 3 waves.  I am not a stellar swimmer and usually am maybe in the top third of swimmers.  Since I wasn't feeling particularly confident of the previous months training, I decided to put myself in the middle of the pack but on the outside.  It was a 2 loop course and they admitted that the buoy's drifted during the night and it wasn't much more than 1.2 miles for the total difference.... Funny.... didn't drift much... one buoy was located in the trees on the opposite shore!!!  So we  tread water for a few minutes and the gun went off.  Today was my third day in open water, I dipped myself in kennebunk pond when the ice bergs were still present on an unusually warm day in March and I swam at Kennebunk Beach for a few minutes one other day... the rest was all pool swimming.  Suffice to say... I haven't really done much open water at all.  But off I went with the herd. There were about 100 swimmers in the wave.   We had to swim clockwise in a rectangular shape keeping the buoy's to our right.  My first big mistake of the day was I didn't sight nearly often enough.  Well for the first 200 yds or so, I was swimming on someones feet but as time went on I noticed there were fewer and fewer people around me... you would have thought that this would be a clue to look up and see where i was... but noooo I could feel people sort of beside me  and didn't look.  Maybe 60 strokes later, which for me is a little over 100 yards I realized that i was kind of lonely.... OH yeah!!  I am supposed to sight like every 5 strokes since there isn't you know,,, lane lines and a big black line to follow at the bottom of the lake.  So I sighted.  Yikes!!!  I had gone about 100 yds diagonally to the left --- totally away from the buoy's... way off course!!  and sure enough by myself.  DAMN!!!  That hurt.... okay so now I am at a full sprint back to the course and yes I did sight much more often... but still kept zoning out and not thinking about it.   I finished the first loop in 18 minutes.  UGH!!  that was bad...gotta  sight like every 5th stroke come on, now!!   I was not far away from people and i snuck a peek back and there were lots of people behind me and the other waves had not caught up to me yet... so that was at least good news.  So, this second loop I stayed on course much better, but what was disturbing was that on the far side of the rectangle there were people cutting about the third of the distance off the rectangle.  Cheaters!  And there was one women that was directly behind me that cut the buoy's by at least 25 yds.  Oh I was furious!!  Well i went out on a full out sprint and caught her just after the next buoy and glared at her.  And then there were a few others that had done the same.  I was appalled!  As I was cornering the last buoy to head in the final 300 yds to finish the swim the faster swimmers of the next wave were coming up on me.  I drafted off of them to carry me to the end of the swim.  As I exited the water my watch said 37mins and a few seconds...okay...but not great... i am capable of being closer to 35 but not bad for a first season race.  (as it turns out, every ones swim time was on the slow side -- except for a few of course -- but the race director at awards reiterated the the race course would post officially as a distance of 1.2 miles).... a few poeple with GPS swim watches said the course was 1.35 miles... maybe they swam off course, too!!  HA!  I started to peel my wetsuit down and ran up the hill jogged up the hill, slowly, to the timing mat which read 41 mins and some odd seconds...okay... i walked up the hill!!!!   Half way up Kevin and Emily shouted that there were only 10 women in front of me...nahh, that' can't be right.  I got into transition still fuming at all the little cheaters out there and another women came in right behind me... did you see all those cheaters?? She said she counted 10 people cutting the course.   As I looked around...wow,, transition is still FULL of bikes.... FULL...where is everyone??  a good majority were still on the swim course and only a few bikes in my area were gone... we were racked by age group and not many around me were gone... hmmmm maybe Kevin is right I thought.  As i was getting ready to leave transition I hit my joule to turn it on and there were no readings obtained and it wouldn't accept a zero for watts.  All I had was --- in all the numerical fields... I tried again and again...never seen that before... Well shoot,  I have no data to go off of.  So I take off on the longs ass run to the mount line.  You think I am kidding??  It was like 1/8th of a  mile to the mount zone on this zig-zag carpeted run over sand and grass.  I tried one more time to get the joule to pick-up data... it was a no go.  I was going to be riding 58 miles without anything... just my wrist watch to tell me the time.  Hmmmm...Guess I will have to bike by perceived effort.   I remember asking Doug Welling once, when he worked at peak performance, and long before i started training with a power meter, how hard can you ride and not kill your running legs?  He explained to me then that you could go pretty hard and still have an intact run...Well, I thought about that conversation so long ago, but was reluctant to really go hard.  So all i kept in my mind and all I kept thinking about was 1. Does this effort I am doing seem sustainable, 2) is my breathing in control and 3) do my legs feel like I can run a half marathon after 58 miles.  That's all I thought about on the bike course.  It was bad enough that the bike course was 58 miles instead of the regular 56 miles... I was starting to fret over 2 miles.  As I pedaled i soon came upon a woman rider... She had this really long red pony tail and the pony tail was completely dry.... she must be a duathlete because she is not wet enough to have swum.... but i passed her any way.  I came soon upon 2 or 3 other women... are they wet??  Couldn't tell.... I passed them and kept going.  At about the 15 mile mark,  past another women or two... at this point I was dry so there was no way to tell the difference.... The wind was picking up and the clouds were getting dark.... I re asked myself my 3 questions.... I was getting nervous... Did I go out too fast?  Am I blowing up my legs?  I felt okay.. i wasn't breathing heavy...it didn't feel like lactic acid was building.   just keep going.  I was on the back part of the first loop.  I passed one more women.. oh i was passing guys, too I just didn't pay attention to those numbers and of course some of them were duathletes and some of them were just doing the aquabike and weren't going to run... so they could go all out on the bike....Heading back to complete the first loop I started to second guess my self... I hadn't seen any women any longer, and I was sort of by myself.  I would pass an occasional guy, and lots of guys were passing me, passing me like I was standing still.  I really wanted my powertap working I wanted to know what and how I was doing,  I tapped it and I was still looking at ---.  It would auto shut-off after 5 mins on it's own if it didn't capture anything and sure enough it did.  It went black.  I didn't bother with it again.  No more ladies... where are they???  I was getting near to the race start and the turnaround point for the second 29 mile loop.  Bikes were starting to come back at me... was that a girl, nope guy,,, guy?? yes I think that's a guy.  Then there was this bike all decked out in pink and purple... that's got to be a girl... as it approached it was a guy!!   And then a girl.... one.... i kept heading towards the turn around...... oh there's another woman.... two...............and then just as I was about to turn into the campground a woman was just coming out Three?   oh I must have missed a woman or two... must have.... And how do i know if those women were doing the HIM, and who was a duathlete and who was doing the triathlon... oh it's mysterious... and the big question of all... Were any of them in my age group???  i can't see their calves!!!  I get to the turnaround point and there was Kevin and Emily.  I was really excited to see them.  Emily looked completely bored at this point but it was still good to see her.  Kevin shouted out... there's 4 women in front of you and one of them is really close!!!  Well i saw the close one, but I missed one other woman.... maybe the pink and purple was a girl.... well if it was she was about 5 miles ahead of me!!  I noticed that I did the first loop in just under 90 mins.  Eeks... well, i may be over doing it... I can't gamble and chase those other women.  i just have to stay doing what I am doing.  At the 35 mile mark I did end up passing the one women that was near.... I re-asked my questions.....i felt okay, i am sure I can run, my breathing is in control.  I just hung at my intensity... no chasing... I was lonely again... And then at the far end of the second loop where the hills grew from the first time around, a pack of guys passed me 11 guys traveling together drafting.... wonder if a race official will see that?   And then a woman passed me!!  UGH was I slowing down??  /no this is one that I haven't seen... it's someone different.... look at her calf... darn she's not wearing her age!!    Well, i am not chasing her down... I am staying put.... She was the absolutely last women I saw on the bike....and i continued back  a lonely, wet as it was now raining and windy ride and only being passed my men, back to transition.  Just before entering the park a guy passed me... how you doing??   ready to run???  oh... don't remind me he said... I'm dreading the run...   I got back to the dismount line and realized that  it was exactly 3 hrs and did the 1/8 mile zig zag  to transition... I avg a 19.1 mile pace i read afterwards... not bad...  I rack the bike.  Since it's raining, I decide to put socks on for the run.  Socks, shoes, gels, hat... off I go.  I activate the garmin watch.  Thank God something works!!  out of transition the run starts in deep loose beach sand... ugh... slow start...going no where fast... but surprisingly, my legs felt pretty good.  I guess i didn't kill my legs.  I saw kevin immediately and Iwas carrying a hand held bottle of EFS I chugged that and threw it to him... and off into the woods I went... loose sand and foot paths was the name of the game.  It was flat, but no traction.  Very soon I passed the guy that was dreading the run,  He was walking... poor guy.... i sort of know how he feels.  He must feel how i felt on the great bay half marathon a month ago... in trouble at the first mile... again I thought.. poor guy... I looked at the garmin i was avg a 9 min pace... okay let's see what we can do.... I passed the woman that passed me on the bike... cool... I felt great.... taking fluids at the stations and a gel at mile 3... all was well.... it was a serpentine course with lots of switchbacks and doubling back you hit each water station like 4 times.  The foot paths were narrow; to pass you had to go off the path and into the woods and you would rub elbows and shoulders if someone was coming back at you in the opposite direction... a little close for comfort.  I wasn't feeling too lonely here.  It is amazing to me how spread out it seemed on the bike and now on the run, we were on top of each other practically.   I continued to run pretty well maintaining my 9 min pace...At mile 6 was starting to lose a little focus... time to grab a gel with some caffeine and maybe a salt tab too.  at the next water stop is just what I did grabbed water took the gel and then reached in my pocket for a salt tab... they disintegrated in the rain.  Shoot!  i should have put them in a ziplock baggie... UGH... I went back to the water station and grabbed some heed too.   The rain stopped and the sun was coming out.  It was getting hot!  I poured water over my head... off i went... mile 7 a woman passed me.  As she passed she said," oh the power of a woman in her 40''s congratulations.  Wow!" well thanks!!  See I was sporting my big 43 (age by December 31) on my calf... so of course, I had to know; was she in my age group passing me???  As she passed i looked at her calf... nope 39 phew!!  At this point I fully suspected a lot more women to pass me because i have not been running strong and well a 9 min pace even in a triathlon half marathon is not a super great pace....   i had already done a couple of the switchbacks but couldn't really tell.  so we were zigzagging through the woods couldn't see anything except other runners and people telling us where to go.  good thing they had a lot of officials and pads all over the run course...It was.  I maintained my position... as I was double back and going through loops I noticed there was a woman coming at me fairly close to a turnaround maybe a half a mile for her to be at the turnaround that i just completed.  yup, i stalked her and looked back at her calf... oh no!  She's in my age group... I can't let her catch... no more ladies are going to pass me!!  Approaching 9 i saw Kevin again.  He said there was one women at least  20 mins ahead of me... well... can't worry about her... she's probably going at the finish if not now, soon and then there were 3 other women ahead of me and only one was in my age group and she wasn't that far ahead!!  Great!!  I looked at my garmin and saw that I had slowed to a 915 pace... oh that's okay, i thought, I had do go through another section of loose beach sand (there were 4 sections of loose beach sand).  I knew the beach sand was slowing everyone down... but i noticed my ankles were getting sore.  They weren't used to all this trail running and loose sand.  I took another gel and was planning on picking up the pace at mile 10.  At mile 10 I was set to try and pick up and get this thing over with.  I looked at my watch.  I saw that I was on target to get a race time sub 6 hrs.  That was exciting me because this just wasn't a 70.3 race... it was a 72.4 and that's worth at least 6 or 7 minutes right there!!!  I started to lift my pace and then my hamstring felt immediately tight....eeeks... it didn't like that, I slowed to the pace i was at... ohhhhh I need salt!!!  At the aid stations all they had was heed and water.  So I took heed and poured water over my head again.  Do you have salt??  no...i have potato chips?  what seriously on a race course... no thanks.... maybe i should have eaten some.... Mile 11... I do the same, i pick up the pace and this time the hamsting really let me know it was mad... ooohhhh shoot!  I stop, stretch it out... where is that woman that was behind me....gaining?.... oh my god she is in like 200 yds away from me...Don't let her see me walk she will gain power from knowing that... I pick up to a jog.... okay just keep it here... no heroic last two miles we are just going to finish this thing ahead of that lady and intact.  I keep running.. my pace has slowed even more with those walks and slow downs....I am just moving forward to the end.  Mile 12 water stop... i look back, she's not there???  Where did she go??  I walk for a few paces get a full glass of heed in and pour water over my head... okay final push....i need salt so badly... i can feel it in both hamstrings and my calves... just keep  moving forward... I pass a guy he is just casually walking... I had been behind this guy for miles.... but now I caught him... just keep moving forward... Mile 13... why can't I see or hear the finish line, yet???   oh yeah 13.2 miles... The finish line is 1/4 mile away when I exit the woods... okay... just keep going.... and then finally the entry to the finish coral... that was the longest corral I ever experienced!!  and there was the finish... I am done... and i didn't even look at the clock... They took my chip and I walked around the corner to Kevin.... oh the clock just as I turn back to look at it it turned to 6hrs flat.  My official finish time 5:58:59.  Well that's not stellar, but a PR for me and not bad for an early season half ironman, really.    I said to Kevin, Gosh I felt like I was in last place the whole time,  there just wasn't any women around,,, that woman that was following me then just came over the finish line... She said, "I was trying to catch you ! Were you number 1 for our age group?".  No, I don't think so... I don't know,,, really...i thought i was in last place and then some guy said... "look around do you see many women finished?  There's not... you ladies better check the results because you are probably going to be on the podium."  No... not with that time!  That can't be possible....So I got some salt and recovery shake and food into me and a few minutes after that they posted the top fastest overall for the swim, the bike and the run.  I looked at the list... I knew I wasn't top 5 in the swim, but there I was on the bike... 4th fastest split of the day overall.  Great!!!... and then the run... I look, nope I wasn't in the top 5 women for runner's.  I knew that.... i knew i got passed by a couple ladies and then i just couldn't keep track anymore... I only kept track of the one behind me that was my age group.  I went back to the list again.  The five fastest bike splits, 3 of them were in the 40-44 age group,  2nd fastest, 4th fastest (me), and the 5th fastest.  Nice... okay the lady faster than me is she on any other top five list?  yes... she was 5th in the swim.... what about the run.... nope... not listed in the run... No 40-44's were in the top 5 run splits... wow, how odd....well... i guess I will just have to see when they post the overall finishers.  At this point they only had the finisher's through5:45 hrs up....And there were a few women in those, but only1 40-44 women... hmmmm could it be..? They posted finisher's through 6 hrs.  And there was my name at 5:58:59, with a second age group and 6th overall finish!!  Okay now look at penalties... nope no penalties... only two people on the bike course had drafting penalties...no swim penalties and as of that particular posting,  no DQ's.   Well. we were going to leave but decided to wait for the awards ceremony.  Sometimes I get lucky.  you know, you just never know what the abilities and talents are of people that show up to these races and so sometimes, someone who is usually a MOP'er makes it to the podium.  What a nice surprise!  My last race last  year was a lucky day on the podium and my first race this year was a lucky day on the podium...HOORAY! 
   

April showers, bring May Flowers

A few people have asked me to write a blog.  Well... HERE IT IS!!.   Seriously, I don't think I will be able to be regular at writing about my sojourns, but I'm willing to try it,  for the sake of some you.  This very first post is really about the month of April.  And really April was a tough month for me, with work, with training with home life...simply crazy.  I started the month on a reduce/recovery week of training.  I was grateful for that because, well... I was tired.  And then the first Saturday I had a half-marathon race with my cousin, Sunday was Easter and Monday was my daughter's 10th birthday.... you may be picking up on a trend here... a "trinity" so to speak.... it seems everything comes in three's! 
     Now a lot of triathlon bloggers have these really awesome race reports, that I absolutely LOVE to read... they are full of details, excitement, heart stopping moments, triumphs, tribulations...just great stuff to read that you can totally relate to.   And, ordinarily, I probably could and will write a good race report on a recent race i had, but this particular race, just.  plain.  sucked.  for me.  The only thing that was great about it was that I got to run for at least a few minutes with my cousin Tom, and catch up with him for awhile pre-race. And saw a few other triathlete friends at the site, Steve and Kim ... all three had really good races, So that was fun. I also spent some time looking for my friend Jeff, that was also running,  (a race in his back yard practically -- but never found him).  It wasn't a bad race, really, my body was tired.  My legs were heavy.   I had done a lot of biking mileage recently and hadn't really recovered.  And the morning of the race, I had a feeling that it wasn't going to be all that I hoped to be.  I really hoped that even though I was out of breath climbing a flight of stairs, as if I hadn't exercised in years, I hoped that my body would some how jolt out the fatigue and just be fine.  I am the type of person that never misses a workout.  I fit them all in, it may be 4AM or 10PM when it gets done, but it happens.  I should be able to do well, as the training did get done.   I was tired, though.    Even a few people said a few days before the race, "sometimes when you feel the worst, you come up with a great performance"...meaning a PR or just one of your best races.  Nope... not for me, but given how I was feeling that day... I'm truly surprised I even finished the race.  Some people say they knew they were in trouble at the halfway point, or the last couple miles....I knew I was in trouble at mile 1 when the course was relatively flat.... and that's bad on a very hilly half marathon course.    Yes, their poster is "these legs conquered the hills of the great bay half marathon."  So, what was great for me... I stuck it out.  I told Tom to just run his race, I'd be fine, but was going to  change my plan.  My initial plan was to run a sub 2 hr pace.  Now, it was:  i just gotta get through this thing and get it done.  And that was it....
    The rest of April got worse.  I took a day or two off after the race, and rallied with my swimming and biking and running.  My paces: off, my stamina was off, I stopped sleeping well... I wasn't eating well.  I got sick of food actually and work didn't help either.  A couple days there we were so short staffed that there wasn't relief for lunches or breaks and I was in some looonnngggg cases and went one day having a snack at 10:30 in the morning and then not getting another chance to eat, pee or drink until 7:30PM.  Who works a whole 8 hrs without a break???  Well nurse anesthetists do for sure.... in fact a lot of people in health care go long hours without nourishment... and NO ONE  seems to care...the hard, hidden truth.     The people that work 12 hr shifts in health care are just nailed with tough hours, limited breaks and usually take the wrath of all the bad things that can and will go wrong on any given day. Being an anesthetist, if there's no one to relieve you, you can't exactly say... be right back.... you're responsible for keeping the person asleep and alive.... you can't just leave unless a physical body with your training takes your place at the head of the OR table.... April Showers.  So, I digress a little, but that's part of the trinity, I work and so those long hours, sometimes I am on my feet and don't eat, and then when I enter my home at 8 PM, i might have a bike, or a run or a swim to do.  And... I do it.... and sometimes, like April, I start digging... digging a little hole, that gets bigger and bigger and then, eventually it rains, and you slip and .... YOU--- FALL--- IN.... without even realizing it.  Oh the picture is quite clear now in retrospect, but at the time I couldn't really see it.  I was tired, I was doing workouts, I was eating poorly, just living day to day, moment to moment -- on autopilot... I even cried one day.  I didn't want to do a bike ride.  I didn't want to do the ride... not because it was raining.... not because it was bloody windy and cold out....not because i was just plain tired....I didn't want to do it, because I was going to have to EAT in order to do it.  I didn't want to eat... I was sick of eating, I wasn't hungry, I didn't want food..... but I DID want to go on the bike ride because well, that's part of my hobby and I love it.  So I did force something down, ate on the bike and felt terrible the whole time.  But afterwards, I was proud... I won.... I didn't want to go, I felt terrible, i didn't want to eat, but I did it!!!  Success!! I felt and so proud of myself for getting my butt out there and doing it..  April Showers... more bad training runs, poor swims and more bad bike rides.... and a really bad group ride that I attended and just plain felt lousy on.  More days scheduled off or recovery from training... April showers...   There was School vacation week, entertaining the kids on days off, hubby was traveling a little and away, single parenting... lacrosse for one, swimming practice and work for the other... birthday parties.... etc etc etc... the family life... I do love it and enjoy it.  And Minute Man park, if you've never been... it really is a little gem worth seeing.   I don't know how many times i have passed the signs on the highway and always wondered about it, but just never went.  I could spend a lot of time there.  I would love to mountain bike all the trails there too...So, as I was digging this hole, Angela (trimoxiecoaching.com),  knew I had dug one and a few other friends could see that perhaps, I was digging and about to fall in.  They gave me advice...I was starting to get a little scared actually.  Wondering would I ever be the same again!  I continued to do my workouts... between  recovery days and days off.  Then... it hit me.... I went for this run and I was "rested" and I was supposed to get into zone 2 and so I warmed up zone 1... gradually built into my pace ... zone 1....15 mins into my run, I am still in zone 1....now I am approaching about an 8 :30 pace which was what I ran in the Cape Mid winter classic 10 miler in February.... ran at that pace for 5 or so minutes, I was still in zone 1....HR not budging.... I picked up to 5K pace... still zone 1.... I knew I had a problem.... I shut the watch off... took a short cut and jogged easily back home....several more  recovery days  after that one... April Showers.  Angela  was really on top of me at this point.  I kept dancing around this hole...  Her worry was worrying me... oh my God, I thought... I am making a huge mess of my ironman training...But we got it all worked out and I will tell you about it next blog and heading in the right direction.  and onto ..May flowers...the Bassman Half Distance Triathlon race report next blog...