Reminder: Drawing for Free Iron Girl Race Entry is TOMORROW!

Tomorrow I'll be drawing the name of a lucky woman who gets a free race entry to Iron Girl's Lake Tahoe Sprint distance triathlon on September 18. All you have to do is comment on this blog post, telling me why you want to do the race. I will draw one winner at the end of the day tomorrow.

Win an Iron Girl Race Entry!

How would competing in your first triathlon empower and transform your life? Tell us and win an entry to Iron Girl's Portland women's triathlon (sorry guys, even if you look totally cute in a running skort, this is a women's-only offer). Plus, you'll get six weeks of coaching from me, either in person (if you live in the Eugene area) or via email if you live elsewhere. You'll get to join Julie from ChubbyMommyRunningClub.com as she embarks on her journey to her first triathlon.

I've always been a huge believer in the transformative power of triathlon in women's lives. Time and time again, I've stood at the finishing line and watched as women cross the line a different person than when they started the race. This is why Iron Girl's mission of empowering women to a healthy lifestyle through women's-only races is something that I feel very positive about partnering with. This contest will run here, and on Chubby Mommy Running Club's blog.


Details:

1. Write an entry describing yourself, your journey, and why competing in this triathlon would empower and transform your life.

2. Email your entry to:

everymom2ironmom   at   gmail   dot   com 

   (replace at with @ and dot with . )
   Entries are due by May 15

 3. A neutral source (most likely my husband) will print out all of the entries and remove any identifying information.  Julie from Chubby Mommy Running Club, Mandy from Just Breathe Movement Studio and I will read through them all and pick the lucky gal who will win the free race entry.

4. Even if you don't win, you can get $10 off your race entry by using this coupon code: IGBLOG . You can register for the race here.

Back from the Black Diamond Triathlon

I'll post a full race report later, but I'm back at home from the Black Diamond half-Iron distance tri, and had a terrific time. It rained the day before and the day after, but it was beautiful weather for the race day. How lucky is that? I posted my fastest half-Iron time in the last fifteen years at 5:36:50, so I'm very happy with that!

Tri-ing It Old School

I had the opportunity to do a little bit of time travel this last weekend, back into the days when triathlons were not so much about who had the best carbon fiber frame or multi-thousand-dollar wheels or 24-hour coach or whatever, but just about swimming, biking, running, hanging out with other athletes and having a great time. It was not serious, but it was tough and it was fun!

A local triathlete puts on a small race every year at a nearby lake nestled in a valley in the foothills of the coast range. The transition area is on a church lawn. There's a hand-painted finish sign, and some signs along the course to tell you where to go. The bike course is on local roads, the run course winds along a logging road that turns into a rutted dirt track and climbs a crazy grade. For a sprint tri, the course was quite challenging, with a big downhill out of T1 that portended a good climb at the end of the bike, and that up-and-over hill on the run course. You can see the logging road winding over the hill in the clearcut in this photo, that's where the run course goes!

The swim went by all too fast. Supposed to be 600 meters, but I think it can't have been more than about 450 as my swim time was 5:47. That would've been a truly smokin' 600 time, probably out of my league. Still, the lake was gorgeous and I felt like I was flying along. It was warm enough to wear my sleeveless wetsuit and it always feels like I swim WAY faster in that than in my full-sleeve. Out of the water in 1st place overall (from a very small field, LOL!) Onto the bike which followed the road away from the lake, mostly rolling hills and forests on either side, very pretty. Hitting 30 mph out of T1, I realized I'd have about a two mile hill coming back at the end of the bike course. It's weird, this race was so casual, I almost always drive the course if I'm racing, but I was flying blind, so that was actually kind of fun! The turnaround came up quickly, but not before Chad (the race director) flew past me on his bike.

I only got semi-lost once on the run course, when a fork in the logging road had a sign that was slightly ambiguous. I second-guessed myself as the road turned into more of a rutted track, and so I backtracked to check the sign. Yep, I was going in the right direction. After awhile, racer #2 Greg passed me, so at that point I figured I was probably on the right road. The run was a 3.6 mile, a little bit longer than the average sprint (great, a short swim and a long run, that is not to my advantage!). I calculated that I had a 4 minute head start going into the run on the next fastest female triathlete. I had no idea if it was going to be enough. A lot of triathletes can run a minute per mile faster than I can. But being a trail run helps as I'm strong on hills. As it turned out, she caught me a couple hundred yards from the finish and flew past. yep, she's a really fast runner (she confided after the race that she'd recently run a sub-20:00 5k - with her dog!!! at one of those dog-and-owner fun runs, yikes!) But all in good fun, it was nice to be out on a course with a bunch of other dedicated athletes having a great time at a beautiful location.

After the race it was time for a big post-race feast put on by Chad's family. Wow, talk about the royal treatment! Elk burgers and gorgeous fruit salad and oatmeal cookies. You KNOW no food on earth tastes as good as post-race food, but this was truly delicious.

Bottom line: Swim: 5:47, T1: 2:01, Bike: 38:18, T2: 1:05, Run: 33:09 Total: 1:20:18, plus one pair of VERY dusty shoes and a lot of fun! 

Race Report: Black Diamond Half-Iron

Okay, I'm finally ready to write this up. Since doing the race, life has been just crazy. Unfortunately the day after we got back, I had to put my 17 year old cat Noggin to sleep, the last of our two "first babies" to go (our 14 year old dog died 2 years ago). Then it was a whirlwind getting ready to have my two step-sons and their wives here for the weekend, a very exciting visit for everyone in the family - the first time we've all been together under one roof. Wow! We all went to the Ducks-Cougars game together, which was great fun. Then just after they all headed back for Washington it was time for the robotics team practice and then boom! it was right into Asa's 10th birthday yesterday. On top of that, we unexpectedly fell in love with and adopted a 9 week old Australian Cattle Dog - Australian Shepherd puppy that we've named Sophie. Of course, life never settles down around here like I think it's going to. Just when one thing smooths out, we seem to add something else to add to the craziness.

So anyways, on to the race report.

If you've been reading the saga of my summer's experimental triathlon training, you'll know that I went into this race with a big question mark hanging over my head about how it would turn out. Half-Iron is just not a distance you can bluff your way through. Undertrain and it hurts. Bad. Overtrain and it hurts. Bad. Nail it just right and you can have a great day.

Very short recap: Did my normal base training through winter and early spring. In late spring, decided to take a detour and try and experimental triathlon training protocol called Crossfit Endurance that focuses solely on intensity with no slower-paced long endurance efforts in the swim, bike, or run. After several months of this training, I raced an Olympic distance event at the Portland Triathlon. It did not go so well from an endurance standpoint. At that point I decided to jettison the Crossfit Endurance protocol as I was sincerely worried about using it to train for the half-Ironman and having enough endurance to compete at that distance. Then embarked on a totally experimental and crazy self-devised and self-inflicted program to bring myself back up to HIM endurance levels in 5 weeks or less. At the beginning of this time period, just a simple 45 mile bike ride felt overwhelming. But toward the end of the training, I could start to feel my old endurance flowing back, giving me some hope that the race would be doable.

So it was that with 4 weeks of training and a way-too-short 6-day taper, I stood on the lakeshore at Black Diamond and contemplated the day ahead of me. Complicating matters was a nagging left hamstring injury I picked up when I tripped while trail running with my sister. What would the day hold??

Swim: 30:06

For starters, the swim in this lake is always beautiful. The race directors kindly start us off at 9:00 am, a lovely time of day to be standing on a lake shore in the autumn sunlight (as opposed to the cold and almost dark of a 7:00 am start). The weather would be as near perfect a day as God hands out in the Fall in Washington: 70 and sunny. The race is extremely well-organized and the volunteers are plentiful. All is well. The men go first, women and relay swimmers 5 minutes later. I take off at a comfortable pace, the HIM swim is always so nice. You don't have to kill yourself with speed like in a sprint, yet you don't have to swim for an hour like in an Ironman. I felt like I hit my groove like I had done in Portland and swam strong and smooth. Out of the water in 30.06, about a 1:25 pace per 100y, which is reasonable.

T1: 2:55

T1 went well, although I don't care for the long u-turn chute you have to run through with your bike (on grass and mud). A couple of years ago my cleats jammed up with mud in this transition area, but this year's dry weather made for much easier going. Out onto the course in 2:55, which sounds slow for T1 but was one of the faster T1 times (it's a long T1 area to traverse). All is smooth. Practice has made good work when it comes to transitions today. Still, I see in the race results that a couple of folks manage to have sub-2:00 transitions, so there's room still for improvement there.

Bike 2:53:14

I love this bike course. They've changed it up from a couple of years ago, but it's still a very nice course. Course description says its 57 miles instead of the standard 56, don't know what's up with that. Lots of long rolling hills (which I like!), very smooth pavement, very good course marshalling (no drafting going on that I could see due to plentiful marshalls doing their job), wide shoulders for a lot of the course. There are a couple of strange out-n-backs with turnarounds that you hit twice, and this slows you down when you're in the groove. Early on in the bike, I go by the campground where we were staying and Wayne and the kids (and dog) are all out cheering. That was a big boost to start the bike with.

For the most part, the bike is uneventful but not optimal. I can tell starting out that I haven't tapered for anywhere near long enough and my muscles are still feeling flat and a little tired. Nothing to be done about that as it was a limitation of my shortened training timeframe. Still, I manage to hold a 19.7 pace, which is reasonable for the day. My one regret is that as I pulled a gel out of my Bento box on my bike, another one went flying out. Being the nice little competitor that I am, I slowed to a stop, waited for cars to go past, circled back to get it, and carried on. Cost me about 2 minutes on the bike course though. I spend a ridiculous amount of time beating myself up mentally for taking the time out of my game plan to get it, alternating with being aghast that I would even consider leaving litter on the course in order to gain a minute or two. What can I say, you have lots of time to argue with yourself about such trivialities out on the HIM bike course. Eventually, I come around a bend and see the sun hitting the hills and turning the fields to gold and all is forgotten as I enjoy the sheer beauty around me and the fact that I'm still out here able to do this awesome thing. My head is back straightened on again for loop two of the bike.

In loop 2, the old hip starts giving me hell with the hamstring injury. I make a big promise to my hamstring that if it will hold together for the next couple of hours, I will give it a couple months off from all biking and running and let it truly heal up. All of the looping and out-n-back on the course lets me see where the other women are at. There's a bunch in front of me, but many of them are relay riders that I start reeling in. I can see a few really smokin' fast ladies out in front and I imagine there are a few behind me that either will or won't catch me until the run. It all makes for fun headgames on the course. I pass two women in the last mile of the bike course that passed me earlier, just for fun.

T2: 1:50

My cheering section was there again, giving me some great energy. I could've been faster in T2. I changed socks. Then forgot my hat and went back for it. Oh well.


Run: 2:12:19

Well, what can you say with a sucky run time like that? I just didn't have the endurance to run at the kind of pace I would've liked to. Only one run over 10 miles in the last 5 months is probably what I'd lay that at the feet of. But on the bright side, the weather was gorgeous, the course is very very pretty, and I had the extremely pleasant company of a relay runner (and Ironman) from Canby, Washington who kept my mind off it all with some nice chatter about various HIM and IM races.

Unlike my HIM of a couple of years ago, I executed my nutrition plan flawlessly and had no bonk to contend with. In the last mile or so, I left whatever I had left in my legs on the course, and broke into a sprint when I saw Wayne and the kiddos at the finish line.

Finish: 5:40:37. Very very close to my last HIM time - 55 seconds off. 3rd in my AG, 3rd overall Master's Female, 15th woman overall.

With what I had going into the race and all of those question marks, it felt like a respectable time to turn in. Doing this time now with so little preparation jammed into a few weeks makes me feel like I need to come hit this course again in full form and see what I can do with it. I continue to feel like my Crossfit training has been a real asset to my triathlon training this season, and I can't wait to see what I can do with another year of that under my belt as well. As always, I'm grateful to be out here, to feel strong and have this body that can do such an amazing thing, that's the real gift of the day.

The Hubby Tri's!!

This was Wayne's first Olympic distance triathlon, and serendipitously the Black Diamond race weekend fell on his birthday as well, so it was a fun way to celebrate turning a year older for him. A few months ago he had me write up a training plan, but the real training started when we began working with his swimming stroke last winter. He had not previously been a fan of swimming, for the same reason many athletes aren't - too boring going up and down the lanes, too frustrating when it feels like you're battling the water. Fortunately, it didn't take too long for him to turn the technique around and start moving up to faster lanes in the Master's swim group and then with the addition of a wetsuit this summer and some lake swims, he really took off. That all paid off this Sunday with a rocking 24:27 swim time, putting him as the 32nd fastest swimmer of the day. Yeah!
We had camped out at a campground along the race course, so the kids and I walked out to watch him come by on the bike, and he was right up there with all of the super-aero'd out tri-studs. He looked great on the bike, keeping up a good pace of 18.5 mph despite being on his heavy steel frame touring Bianchi with no aero bars. He finished up the bike strong with a 1:20.


Onto the run, he got to experience that lovely lead-legs feeling that triathletes love to hate, but shook it off eventually. Unfortunately, an injury left him not able to really train for the run this summer and so he missed enjoying some of his usual distance running speed, but he still clocked a respectable 53:59 on the run for an 8:41 average pace (not bad with almost no run training in the last 2 months!) and brought it all home in 2:46:17. Asa asked the race officials if she could run down the chute with him, and so he finished in style with a smile on his face. I'm just so happy to see how excited he was by this race and looking forward to doing some more race weekends together in the future. I think with the addition of a more aero bike position and an ability to utilize his running ability he will be able to kick this time down in the future.

Go Wayne!

They're Baaacckkkkkk

Just a quick update before I hit the hay... we got back from our weekend of tri-ing. Hubby did great in his 1st Oly distance triathlon (with a time of 2:46, awesome!), and also celebrated his 46th birthday over the weekend. I had much more fun than expected in my half-Iron distance race, placing 2nd in my age group and 15th overall female. Race Reports to follow....

And We're Off...

I've trained as much as I could, given the circumstances. I've tapered for the last week (not enough I know, but it will have to do). I'm packed and ready to go. So cross those fingers for me that the half-Iron feels doable on this amount of training and that all goes as smoothly as possible on race day.

Also keep 'em crossed for hubby on Sunday who is doing his first Olympic distance triathlon. I think I'm more excited for him than I am for myself!

Seven Days Away

It all comes to a head this week at the

Almost six months of Crossfit training, four months of Crossfit Endurance programming and a lot of unanswered questions about how it will all turn out.

Here's my pre-race update:

I'm feeling like my strength and power are greatly increased. I've done some hills on the bike recently that used to seem tough that look like tamed lions now. My leg strength is definitely dramatically increased, and it's really starting to show up in my swim stroke as well. I did an interval workout last week with a friend and easily held alternating 1:15 and 1:20 pace per 100 without too much effort. People have asked me what my secret weapon is, and there's no doubt in my mind that I owe all newfound power to Crossfit. It's definitely a program I would recommend to triathletes looking for all-around total body strength and core conditioning, not to mention to anyone at all looking to get more fit over a broad range of conditions.

Endurance, I'm not so sure about. I am still not feeling like I have a handle on how well I'll be able to last through a 2.5 hour race. I ran a 10k this week at about 85% effort and to be honest it kind of sucked. On the other hand, I usually run better off the bike (emphasis on usually) and usually the longer the race, the better I feel. We'll see if that still holds true.

Taper: I only did two Crossfit workouts last week and none this week, and I'm tapering the Crossfit Endurance workouts this week. I'll do some transition work this week too.

The course:

Hilly.
That's one of three loops on the bike, each of which gains close to 700 feet. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was just a teensy eensy bit worried. Normally, I'm good on flat courses, great on flat windy courses or rolling hills where power works for me and weight doesn't work against me. But the bigger and steeper the hills, the less advantage I have. I don't really know how to predict my times on this course, what with the current on the swim in the river and the hills on the bike.

Looking at times from people I know who have done the course (and who I've done other courses with, so I can get a relative triangulation on what times I might do), I'm going to say I would normally (with my normal training and speed that is) be able to do:

Swim: 23:00 - 25:00 (giving myself a little extra due to current from the river)
T1: 00:2 (Swim and T1 times seem to be long from previous results)
Bike: 1:20 - 1:25 (I'm giving myself 10 - 15 minutes over my usual Oly distance time)
T2: 00:1
Run: :52

Total: 2:38 - 2:45

I have no idea if I'll be on this time, faster than it, or slower than it. It will probably come down to whether my extra power on hills will give me a faster bike time, and whether or not my endurance is compromised and my run time will be slower than usual, or not. My last Oly run time was :50, but I haven't come anywhere near that in workouts in the last few weeks. So it's all up in the air. I'll probably be very nervous this week, so keep your fingers crossed for me that all goes well on race day!

Race Report: Lebanon Sprint Triathlon

Remembering last year's heat-fest, with similar projected temps for this year, I decided to take proactive action and bring along a little neck cooler. By the way, many of the links with directions to make these also mention that soldiers serving in desert regions need them, so if you're a person who likes to sew, make a few extra and help keep some soldiers cool! They really work, and I had a much, much more enjoyable run this year than last.

But I'm getting ahead of myself in the race report. This is a small local race that nevertheless draws a really fast crowd, including a lot of the local university's triathlon team, so it's fun and competitive at the same time. I felt pretty good about my training going into the race, I've been averaging about 8 hours a week of tri-specific training, and 5 - 7 hours a week of extra stuff like Crossfit and Karate. I thought I had a good taper this week (more on that later, hah!), although the weather was so beautiful (after so much rain!) that I inadvertantly rode a little bit further on Thursday's supposedly "easy, short" ride than I should've (the beautiful road beckoned and I answered).

The race started at 8:00, but since it had a pool swim, my wave wasn't until 10:00, I had plenty of time to ramble around. After racking my bike, I got settled in to warming up, and satisfied Section 1.0 of Robin's Race Code, which goes something like this:

1.0 Always find at least one first-timer and encourage them
2.0 Give verbal encouragement to everyone on the course that you have breath for
3.0 Thank every volunteer and police officer on the course
4.0 Congratulate fellow athletes (especially first-timers) after the race

I got to chat with Tri-newbie Will, a first-timer who had a great time in his inaugural triathlon. Also, my daughter's piano teacher Becky was doing her first race with her husband and son also in their first triathlon, and they all finished with smiles to go around. Since there were so many heats, I had plenty of time to cheer the folks in the earlier waves. My own cheering section was absent since Asa had another dance performance back at home and Wayne was on costuming and transport duty.


Here's my goals, from an email to my Crossfit coach:

Last year I did the same race in 1:14:23. Splits were:

7:30 Swim
36:30 Bike
27:45 Run
2:40 Transitions (total T1 & T2)


Ideally this year I'd like to be:

<7:10 Swim
36:30 Bike
<27:00 Run
2:30 Transitions (total T1 & T2)
For somewhere around 1:13

Onto the race: My wave of the pool swim was the fastest swimmers. I was 2nd in my lane, the guy who was in front of me had estimated 6:40 for his swim, I estimated 6:55 for mine. He was a big guy so I was hoping for a great draft! No such luck, he petered out quick and kindly let me pass in the first couple of laps. I had to lap the girl who was swimming behind me as well, and felt strong and smooth in my swimming. As I climbed out of the water and glanced at my watch, I was really really happy to see 6:44. Then I remembered that I started my watch when the first wave went, which gave me a time of 6:39. Niiiiiiice..... As far as I could tell, there were only a couple of guys who got out of the pool before me.

T1 was about 1:20, so far so good. Out onto the bike course. This course is so pretty, I really love it. All intersections well monitored by local police (thanked them as I zoomed past, taking care of RRC 2.0) Out into rolling countryside with beautiful pastoral views. Normally the bike is kind of a no-brainer for me, I just pedal away like mad and enjoy. It wasn't going so smooth this time. Big-time quadriceps cramping going on. Has never happend to me before, very confusing. So I had to back my gear off a notch and take a bit faster cadence, dropping my speed slightly. A little bit of worry about what this means for my run, but other than that I just tried to enjoy the course. Out and back course means I get to see everybody else. Confirm no women from my wave in front of me, two guys from my wave smoke past me but that's it! A couple of women about 3 - 4 minutes behind me, must try to put some more room behind me. Although quad cramps a mystery, I cruise into T2 in 37:30, a bit slower than I wanted to be but at least legs feel okay.

T2 is just under 1:00, I remember to take my neck cooler with me and I'm off on the run. Quads feel wooden, but miraculously start to feel better. Still don't know what's up there. Had a nice run, but my left foot starts to hurt, look down and see I'm running kind of funny I think still due to the quad cramping, I'm turning my left foot slightly out. It will probably hurt tomorrow but it's only 3 miles so I just carry on. Only one woman passes me, but she's on a relay team, so no women from the my wave have passed me, yay! Forget to get my run split on the watch, but cruise in with a total time of 1:12:39. Doing the math gives me a run time of 26:09, which is an 8:25 run split. Not too bad for this early in the season.

After I got home, I took a look at my training log to see if I could pin down the mystery quad cramps, and I think I have the culprit. Although I tapered off well on all of my workouts (no Crossfit last week, reduced volume in tri workouts, etc.), because the weather got nice I was doing all of my running around town on my commuter bike instead of the car, and I used the tandem to take Asa to her dance and theatre rehearsals. So though my tri training tapered off, my bike volume actually DOUBLED last week. Commuter miles and especially tandem miles are very quad-heavy because there's a lot of stopping and starting with heavier loads (plus I live on a hill, so doing the hill every time I come home). That's not a good way to taper! I'm making a mental note to taper not only my tri training but to make sure I don't overdo the bike commuting before a race. I rolled out the quads last night and they feel just fine this morning, no knots just a little tired.

All in all I'm happy because I beat my time from last year AND my goal time for this race. Not a PR, but a good time for an early season sprint!

Happy Anniversary Baby, Let's Tri!

It's now official, Wayne and I signed up to do the Black Diamond race weekend. He's doing his first Olympic Tri (he's done a sprint before) and I'm doing my 4th Half-Iron (2nd on this course). I'm so excited to be signed up for this race and training with my guy. We just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this week with a quiet dinner at home with our kids. Yesterday went out for a five-miler run together. Life doesn't get much better than that.

When we met, he had just gotten out of the army, still had a military haircut and wore his camo pants everywhere. He was a pilot, just started flying jump planes at the drop zone I was skydiving at and I had sworn not to date another pilot or skydiver, ever. But you know, those magnificent men in their flying machines and all that. He won me over with his charm and his earnest plans for his future. I knew this was a guy who would always be moving forwards, never be dull or boring. Well, it hasn't been boring, I can say that much! From the depths of the ocean in Belize to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro to raising our kids together, it's been an adventure.

So here's to love, and many more miles together!

The Swing of Things Keeps Hitting Me on the Head

Oof. Nothing worse than being out of training for a few weeks. And it's not exactly like we were sitting still in Italy or anything. I think we walked about 10 miles a day in Rome (we never ever took a bus anywhere), and after 165 miles of biking through Tuscan hills, at least my biking legs still feel fresh. But the lack of running and swimming.... well it's telling, let's just leave it at that. I wonder how long it will take to get back in the swing of things.

On the plus side, I've got some tantalizing goals dangling out there in the new year. My good friend K. is thinking she might want to do a first half-marathon, so I might be signing up for my perennial favorite, the Hippy Chick (with a name like that, can you really go wrong?) which is usually right around Mother's Day, and is all I need in the way of a Mother's Day present (hold the Hallmark, just give me a race registration please). With an eye to a fall half-Ironman, I might also tackle some cycling time trials again as well. At the very least, it gets me out on the open road in the spring, a season when I typically shun the rain and hide on my trainer. Throw a sprint and an Oly distance tri in there somewhere, and that's probably about what next season will look like.

Now if I can just start feeling like my body hasn't forgotten how to do all of this stuff, all will be well.

Have You Ever Run Through a Dark Forest at 3:00 am??

I have, and I'll tell you all about it when I get to download all of my photos from the Cascade Lakes Relay Race and actually get a real night's sleep.

I'll tell you this much: it was a lot of fun! Running three shifts of around 6 miles each, 12 people on a team, 217 miles total, elevations ranging from 4,000' to almost 7,000' (gasp gasp), big mountains, forest, and desert to run through, about 4 hours of sleep in two days and we finished in somewhere around 29 hours and 43 minutes. Our team came in 9th out of 54 teams. This was the first running of this race ever and we had a blast!

This Looks Familiar

The gear is out and sorted - three bags, a set of stuff carefully packed and re-checked in each one. I've got towels and sunscreen and glide and even a sleeping bag and pillow. My mom is arriving today and hubby and I are leaving first thing in the morning with his running club to go do the inaugural running of the Cascade Lakes Relay. Covering 217 miles from Diamond Lake to Mt. Bachelor to Bend, Oregon, our twelve-person team will run three legs each, of around six miles each. Hubby and I have done the Hood to Coast before, but that was back before we had kids. This will be the first relay we've done together in the twelve years since our son was born. Very exciting!

So, although I have no more triathlons coming up this summer, I'm really looking forward to this event (although I'll be sleepless and blasted and I know when I'm running somewhere in the desert at 3 am I'll be wondering what the heck I'm doing!). After we get back from this, Mackenzie's cast comes off his arm and we have about fiver weeks to get ready to go bike around Italy. Ciao!

And Speaking of Karate and goals...

I already have 2011 pegged as the year for my next Ironman, since I promised the fam I would only do one every 5 years, at least until the kiddos are grown at which point I can Ironman to my heart's content. But I just worked it all out in my head and figured that if all goes well with no injuries and no setbacks and I work my tush off, 2010 may be the year I get my black belt in karate. So it sounds like I'll have my work cut out for me and an exciting two years there back-to-back. That makes 2009 the year of the half-Ironman again, something I'm missing this year but will be excited to get back to.

And so it goes...

2008: Team in Training and Bicycling in Italy with kids
2009: Half-Ironman (and maybe qualify for Half-Max Nationals again like I did this year? That would be fun!) + Brown belt year (tough!) in karate.
2010: Black belt year
2011: Ironman

After that, I just won't know what to do with myself... Maybe the Navy Seal Fitness Challenge??? That would give me four years to figure out how to do a pullup or two, LOL. I think I can manage the rest of it:

500-yard swim (using sidestroke or breaststroke) under 12 ½ minutes
42 Push-Ups in 2 minutes
50 Sit-Ups in 2 minutes
6 Pull-Ups no time limit
1.5 Mile Run under 11 minutes

But the pullups have always been my weak point...

Pac Crest Day Two: Start Wearing Purple

Day Two of our Team in Training event weekend dawned bright and early as we started loading the bikes to take up to T1. In this event, the first transition area is at the lake, while the second area is in town, so most people rack their bikes the day before and take a bus up to the swim start on race day.
Our mentors, Mike & Jeannette found these gorgeous purple jackets and had them screen printed with the TNT logo. We didn't get to wear them very long this morning as the day was heating up fast! As we got into the cars to head to the race site, I popped in a CD that the Portland TNT team had made of their favorite songs. The song "Start Wearing Purple" by Gogol Bordello had us all cracking up, and it became the de facto theme song of the weekend.

Once at the race site, we cheered all of the TNT Half-Ironman competitors in Saturday's race out of T1 and onto the bike course. Although our Eugene TNT team was small compared to this year's huge Portland team, we made up for it in energy and enthusiasm, cheering right up until the last competitor came out of the water. The transition area and cheering sections were all but emptied out, but we kept the enthusiasm up for each and every racer.





Now comes race numbering, and Steve demonstrates his best yoga stretches after getting his numbers on his legs.

Then it was time to enter T1 and rack our team's bikes. It's still pretty empty with just the TNT racks filling up.


After heading to the race finish for a couple of hours of cheering the Half-Iron participants in, we headed back to our condo for a pizza bake. I think we made enough pizzas to feed a small army!


After dinner, the team members got all of their gear ready. Our mentors had brought fabric paint, and team members wrote the names of cancer survivors on the backs of their race singlets, a reminder that this race was about more than miles and time, but about reaching for a greater goal.













Asa volunteered to paint everyone's fingernails and toenails purple for the occasion.

















We wrapped up the night with strawberry shortcake, last minute gear checks, sitting around the table and talking, trying to calm those pre-race nerves. Tomorrow: the big day.












If you haven't heard this song yet, give it a listen. Our weekend theme song: Start Wearing Purple by Gogol Bordello:

The Color Purple

I thought I'd match all of those purple TNT jerseys out there on the race course... us coaches only have white jerseys, so we might be kind of hard to spot. I guess my team will be able to find me near the finish line though! I can't wait to cheer them on.

And We're Off To Pacific Crest

My tri team has done our last brick, our last swim, our pre-race briefings and all of that jazz. We head out tomorrow morning for Sunriver, Oregon and the Pacific Crest Tri. We'll have a whole weekend of prepping, watching the kid's race (my daughter Asa is going to do that), attending the Pasta Party for Team in Training, cheering on our Tri team doing the Half-Ironman on Saturday, and then setting up T1 and getting ready for the Olympic day on Sunday. Everyone on my team is ready, they're well-trained and I have every confidence that they'll not only finish the race, but have an amazing experience along the way.

GO TEAM!!

I Run in the Heat and Hubby Does a Bun

Last weekend we had frost and snow levels down to 2800'. Today in my first tri of the season, it was 95 degrees (probably more on the nearly-shadeless run course). No time to train in the heat since it has been unseasonably chilly, but I ventured forth anyways with one of my Team in Training members, Steve who was doing his first tri ever! To give credit where credit is due, I could only do this race today because my ever-fearless hubby took our daughter to her Dance Team photos. This meant he had to do her hair and makeup. I can see all you men out there cringing now!! Plus, we don't call her the Diva Girl for nothing, she actually called a friend over to do her makeup (not trusting The Dad) but he managed to get her ready for her four costume changes and two hairdos. Now that's a man!

As for the race, it was a sprint, and since I've got an Oly next weekend the plan was to just train through this one. Nevermind that this plan has never ever worked out for me (the last time I did this, I gave myself a major quadricep injury just a couple of weeks before a marathon), reigning it in has never been my strong suit. But I'm older and wiser now, right? Well, I'm older at least. So I was shooting for a 1:15 as a reasonable time that should leave me fresh enough for next weekend's race. Surprisingly, I hit very close to this time with a 1:14:23.

This was a nice little race, the kind that just takes me right back to my first triathlon ever in 1986. Some sawhorses and metal bars set up in a parking lot, a few volunteers taking down your race numbers on corners (no timing chips) and a home-made banner for a finish line. Beautiful! I was excited to see Steve able to take advantage of such a nice homegrown race for his first, I think it's much more relaxing than facing a large and aggressive crowd of racers. Though there were some very fast folks here, it had a very friendly feeling.

Most of the race felt great for me. My swim was right on target, my 12.5 mile bike was on some of the most beautiful rolling green-hilled country roads I've ever seen (and with a gentle breeze, the temperature felt mercifully decent on the bike). My bike was 36:30, which is a great early season sprint time for me! The run was flat and should've been fast but my body just shuts right down in the heat. The muscles are willing but the brain-body connection is not. My first mile was about an 8:15, the 2nd was a 9:00, and I think the last was around 9:30. Not pretty, but I finished. I didn't stick around to see them sort all the results out as they were having troubles. I think I was 5th woman overall and probably 1st or 2nd in my age group.

Next week the temperature is mercifully going to go down to around 75, which should feel great!

Leaping Into the Unknown

This is looking like it might just be a Lite Tri year. Yes, Lite as in Lite beer, as in Not Too Much Of. I'm spectacularly unmotivated right now to do any kind of wintertime tri training. I have worked back up to running four miles, so that's feeling a bit more okay. Swimming is, well, there. It's always there, though, so that doesn't count for much. Bicycling - there have been some days lately where I'd love to be outside on my bicycle, even in the cold. But it seems like the amount of stuff I have to get done in those same daylight hours (the hours when, unfortunately, businesses are open and such) has been overwhelming me and I haven't made it outside. So it's grudging trainer miles on the bike. Not Much Fun. In the last few years, I've had some pretty big goals to keep me moving through the winter - marathons, Half-Irons, Iron, trying for a personal best in the Half-Iron.

I've kind of run out. Of goals, of time to accomplish them, of impetus to make new goals. I think this year will be the Year of Fun. I might do some sprints, I might do some Oly's. I might not. I might play lots more volleyball and concentrate on Karate - I played two hours of volleyball this morning after a hard karate workout yesterday (40 jumping squats - aiiiiyah) and I'm sure it's keeping me in good shape still. I know we'll be doing lots of cycling with the kids, getting ready for our big touring vacation in September.

I'll be busy with Team in Training, helping others accomplish their triathlon goals in the new year, and I'll be training with them along the way. It feels weird to read everyone's blogs with their races already penciled in for next year. Normally, I'd be doing that. But I guess I'll just have to wait and see what shakes out for me in '08.