Swim Coach: Shadow Play and Ninja Hand Entry

Hand Entry: It seems like such a fiddly little detail of your swimming stroke. Why worry about what your hand looks like going into the water? After all, it's the stroke part that counts, right? Some swimmers will even point out pros and Olympians who have seemingly terrible hand entry (like Janet Evans with her infamous windmill stroke) as rationale for not improving their own hand entry.

But the truth is, it matters where your hand ends up in the water, because that's where your stroke begins. Even if the hand entry of a top-knotch swimmer looks terrible, chances are that it is instantly corrected upon entry into the water. Indeed if you play a video of Janet Evans and hit pause just milliseconds after her hand entry, you'll see that her hand instantly assumes the correct position to begin her stroke.

Just in case you're not Olympics material and can't miraculously position your hand perfectly after a terrible hand entry, it makes sense to get it right the first time.

So what is right? You want your hand to be smooth and relaxed during the recovery (out of the water) part of the stroke, but once it begins to enter the water, it needs to engage and become first a gliding, then a stroking machine. You want your fingers spread slightly, but not too far. If you cup them too tightly together, you'll miss out on a bit of extra surface area, and you'll run the risk of your hands getting fatigued from too much muscle strain holding the fingers close. If you spread the fingers too much, water will slip through them. A light spread will create a web-like effect, thus increasing the area of your stroking surface.

Additionally, it's a good idea to enter your hand in a neutral position. Some swimmers enter thumb-down, or pinky-down, but this just means they have to fiddle around under the water to get into a good stroking position, or worse: they start stroking with their hand in the wrong position. If your elbow remains higher than the hand as the hand enters the water, it should glide in like a ninja, smooth and silent. If you drop the elbow at the end, or carry a flat-armed entry, you will hear a big splashing or popping sound, and then the first action your hand and arm are taking is to press water down, or sideways. Neither of these is good, you only want to press water in one direction: behind you.

I like to use a nice sunny day with my outdoor pool to get a good idea of what my hand is doing when it enters the water. I can see the shadow of my hand and arm on the bottom of the pool. I can tell if it is making a huge splash, or if its carrying lots of bubbles and turbulence into the water with it. I can also watch the way the ripples move away from my hand and arm - if they're moving in front of me, I'm pushing the water forwards instead of backwards, which is never a good thing. Using tools like mirrors, shadows, and video to see what our own bodies are doing in the water gives us good feedback about how to change for the better.

And to visualize exactly what it should look like, I watch this video at least once a week (yes, you heard me), and you should too!

Countdown to Ironman, Week 3: Race Rehearsal #2

It's almost Go-time here, and so far all is well. My knee seems to be better, though still sore. This week was a big one for training, with yesterday's 7-hour race rehearsal. Just like with RR #1, the idea was to try to nail things like pacing and nutrition so that on race day there's no surprises.

So how did it go? It sucked. It utterly and totally sucked. There were no major suckages - no bad falls, no flat tires, no snow storm. But there were so many minor suckages (see photo of pavement I was riding on, for instance!) that it added up to one big bad long day of Suck. Luckily, the motto of the day is "Embrace the Suck", so as I grumbled my way along, making deals with myself like "If you don't call Wayne to come pick you up right this instant, you can grab some ice cream on the way home" (I did neither, thankfully), I tried to believe that getting through this day would make me stronger in the Ironman to come.

So what went right? All the important stuff went right. Pacing was good. I rode 112 miles with 4800 feet of climbing. My intention was to nail the pacing on the climbs, keeping my heart rate in the Z1 to low-Z2 zone for most of it (for those of you not conversant with heart rate zones, for me that means keeping it under 143 beats per minute. That means going easier on the hills than I normally do, and it felt weird. Since I was wearing everything I'll wear in the race, that means I was all kitted out with my dorky Pointy Helmet of Speed on. So crawling along up the hills, I was really hoping I didn't get passed by the Granny Brigade on mountainbikes or something, it would just be too humiliating. Luck was with me (sort of), the day was too crappy and cold for anyone who is not totally Stoopid or Bat Shit Insane to be out on a bike. Obviously, I fall into one or both of those categories.

Nutrition was good for the most part. I worked my new drink bottle systems (Torhans and Speedfil) and took along a 6-hour mixture of Infinit, which is basically like sugary salty sludge, washing it down with water. I also used some Bonk Breaker bars, which they'll have on the course. The one thing I didn't have with me was anything with CAFFEINE, which as it turns out, I desperately needed. So I stopped at this little roadside store. I wish I'd thought to take a photo of the interior because the shelves were so empty that I thought they were going out of business. As it turns out, they're just on such tough times that they're having trouble ordering inventory. They literally did not have Coke. No Pepsi. Can you imagine a convenience store without these things? I felt so bad for them. They had one Dr. Pepper on the shelf and that was it! So I became a Pepper and glugged 10 oz. just for the caffeine.

Now, what went wrong? Did I mention the weather? How can this be June?? I am having the worst luck training for a June 24 Ironman in the crappiest spring that Oregon has ever brought forth. Actually, an 83 year old lady told me the other day that she had seen one worse spring, probably 50 years ago or so. But this is pretty bad. Rainy. Cold. Bleh. I got chilled down and couldn't seem to warm up much, even on the climbs, which were considerable.

Then there was the pavement. I haven't done this particular ride in several years, and boy howdy the pavement has gone downhill since then. Part of it, which used to be nice pavement, has now been chip-sealed with what looked to be 3/4- gravel. It's basically like riding down a gravel road with a thin layer of baked tar on top. And I remember a good bit of the road being through this lovely forest, but there's a lot of logging going on there right now, and most of it is now clearcuts and stumps. The same trucks that kindly took away the forest also took chunks out of the roads, leaving them looking like the photo above. Later in the ride, I was looking forward to a good chunk of miles on a rails-to-trails bike path, but again the pavement there was far worse than it has been in years past, with tree roots pushing up ridges of asphalt, some of which were big enough to launch me, BMX style, into the air. Kindly, someone had spray painted most of these so at least you could see them coming.

The bottom line was that for much of the ride, I couldn't get above 14 - 16 mph due to road surfaces, which made this ride SO MUCH LONGER than I thought it would be. Combined with the craptastic weather, and three days of poor sleep beforehand, it felt like one giant 7-hour bonkfest with constant vigilance for potholes and tree roots, and chatter from the bad pavement thrown in. By the time I got home, I was utterly and totally depleted. But... I did it. And I am stronger for it. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Countdown to Ironman, Week 4: Paranoia

Ah yes, I remember this phase well. I have officially entered the Ironman Paranoia Zone. That's where you worry about every little thing that could possibly go disastrously wrong, thus wrecking your chances of appearing on the starting line of the Ironman. Witness my continuing battle with the Poison Oak From Hell - it's been three weeks since I contracted this current case. Some people get poison oak like an irritatingly itchy rash. On me, it's more like a deep chemical burn. This is all that's left, but it's still mighty painful, and has landed me in the hospital before. If I got another bad dose, especially someplace like a foot or on my torso, that could literally take me out of the running.

This weekend, moving rocks for our landscaping project (correction: moving boulders), I had repeating visions of a boulder getting loose and coming to land on my foot. There are so many things in this world that could stop you from being able to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112, and run 26.2. You really have to be fairly intact to even attempt such a thing. Here's hoping I stay that way for 3.7 more weeks!

Countdown to Ironman, Week 5: Why I've Been Avoiding My Doctor

I have been running for 30 years, and I have never had knee problems, even during these years when I've trained for marathon or Ironman distance races. So frankly, I'm a little pissed off that my knee has turned traitor on me. I shouldn't blame it though, it's not my knee's fault. Nor is it really my fault. Chalk it up to an accident.

It all started a few weeks ago when I went for a bike ride just after getting my new bike. An hour or so out, my back started hurting. Then really hurting. Well, I thought, of course it's hurting. It's a new bike. Although I set it up very similar to my old position, it's going to be slightly different. Then my back hurt worse, and worse, and worse. So I did the sensible thing (for once), I turned around and cut my ride short, heading home. When I got home, I discovered that my seat (which I had adjusted and, I thought, tightened down) had slid backwards on its rails until it was all the way back. Not good. But I still didn't think much of it.

The next day, I went for a two hour run.

An hour later, I was in knee hell, and I haven't gotten out of it since. My best guess is that for an hour or so on that bike ride, while my seat was slid all the way back, I was hyper-extending my knee ninety times a minute. That's usually not a good thing. Now my knee is pissed off at me, and every time I push it, it gets mad.

This is not good when you're five weeks out from an Ironman.

The best thing would be to go to a doctor. But then the doctor might tell you something you don't want to hear. Something like "Don't keep training for an Ironman, stupid. Spend the next five weeks resting your knee instead." Surely, ignorance is better than that. Except that the knee didn't stop hurting.

So today I went to the doctor. He took some X-rays.

And thankfully told me that nothing is seriously wrong with my knee. I haven't torn any meniscus, haven't blown any bursa, haven't decimated any cartilage. In fact, my knees, and the nice thick bones and cartilage surrounding them look quite robust and healthy, especially considering the 30 years of running I've put on them. I have just irritated some tendon/ligament attachment points. Of course, the doctor did say that training really really hard for an Ironman right now is probably not the best thing I could be doing.

But he didn't tell me I had to stop.

I'll count that as permission. Basically, he said "let your pain and discomfort be your guide". If I had gotten in to see my regular doctor, he'd probably know better than to say that. Because what's a little pain when you've got an Ironman to finish? But seriously, I am going to take it easier, going to throw a light training week in this week and do my best to rest, ice, stretch, massage, and baby my knee so it stops being mad at me and cooperates, at least through 140.6. Then it can have a nice vacation!

Countdown to Ironman, Week 6: Race Rehearsal

This post is a bit late in coming (it's a miracle I get on my computer at all, between training, eating, sleeping, and oh yeah taking care of the kids, house, and animals...). Last weekend I did my first "race rehearsal" where I practiced my pacing and nutrition strategies, as well as tried out clothing and gear that I'll be using on race day. If you're doing a longer race, this is absolutely essential, since that drink mix that you like so well on one-hour rides might make you gag at five hours in, and those shorts that seem just perfect have this seam that makes your life miserable after a hundred miles have gone by.

In this race rehearsal, I biked 104 miles in 6 hours, and then ran for an hour. I used the Infinit and Bonk Breaker Bars that I'm planning on using on the course, and wore my favorite pair of thin-chamois tri shorts to see how I'd hold out in them. It was a gorgeous day to be out in the Willamette Valley on a bike, as you can see from tbjs photo from my phone!

I started off the night before with a 4200 yard swim. For Ironman Coeur d'Alene, my swim strategy is going to be (for the first time ever) to put myself up front with the big dogs and go for it. So in my rehearsal swims, I'm trying to go out hard, then back down and find my distance pace and settle in after the first 500 yards or so. That strategy played out in this swim with 1000 yard splits as 13:51, 14:05, 14:17, 14:14. Last 200 was a 2:42. Total: 59:09. My goal for IMCdA is sub-1:00, so this was perfect.

The next morning I was out on the road for the 104 mile ride. Though I didn't have quite as much climbing in this course as there will be in Coeur d'Alene (2700 feet as opposed to 4600), otherwise the terrain was similar, with rolling hills and a couple of big climbs. I made sure to put in a thousand foot climb in the last few miles, just like the real race will have. That was definitely a booger to do at the end of the ride! Overall average was 17 mph, including the starts and stops through town. Probably closer to 17.5 outside of town. Since I'm shooting for somewhere between 6:20 - 7:00 on race day, 17 mph would put me at 6:35 or right in my ballpark. Granted, there are more hills at CdA. However, I'll also have race wheels and aero helmet and my legs will (hopefully!) be fresh. And no stoplights. So hopefully that will all balance out.

For nutrition on the ride, I mixed up two 3-hour bottles of Infinit, plus I ate two Bonk Breaker bars. My calories averaged out to 265 an hour, probably a little high. I'm going to aim for slightly lower to make sure I don't get sidelined by gastric distress.

After the ride, it was time for some work on my run pacing, so I ran six miles at the pace I'm shooting for in the race. My predicted IM pace is 10:22 (if all the stars align and it isn't smoking hot outside), which means I'm aiming to add 30 seconds per mile for the first six miles, making a 10:52 pace. I have to say, it's hard to run that slow, so I'm adding some walking breaks to make sure I don't overamp those early miles. This is all part of the Endurance Nation pacing strategy that I'm following.

My first mile was 10:07 - Eeep! Way too fast. After that I brought them back down to 10:35, 10:50, 10:44, 10:49, 10:48. You can see that even though I thought I was running WAY slow, I was still faster than my pace should've been. And one look at a heat calculator for running paces shows that if it's at all warm on race day, I'll be running wayyyyy slower than that!

Still, all things considered, I'd say the day was a success. If everything goes absolutely perfectly, I could be looking at a 1:00 swim, 6:30 bike and 4:30 run, or right around 12:10 - 12:15 with transitions. If there's wind, heat, mechanical, or other problems, I'll probably be closer to 13:00 or over. In any case, I'm starting to have a good estimate of where my ballpark is at. Maybe not as fast as I hoped I'd be this year, but still feeling strong and ready to go.

It's a Mother of a Day

I will spare you photos of the gory head wound that I started off Mother's Day weekend with (courtesy of the new bike rack on my trunk) - did you know that the best way to clear a path through a grocery store parking lot is to walk around with a gushing head wound? It looked like something from the black knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail. And the whole time, the song It's Going Down in the Whole Foods Parking Lot is running through my head...

The head wound combined with a nasty case of poison oak (which on me tends to look more like a bad chemical burn than a mere itchy rash) conspired to keep me from my usual Mother's Day swim, which kicks off my open water season. But Asa and I did a Mother-Daughter 5k Run together. It was her first 5k, so a big PR for her on the course! And the run was set up as a way to empower girls and women in sports, and was also a memorial to Jane Higdon, a local amazing triathlete and friend who was killed 6 years ago on her bike at the age of 47. So many people there were friends of Jane, or were touched by her drive, enthusiasm, and energy. Her memory is as powerful as the woman herself was when she was with us.

When I look at this photo of Asa running, it looks so much like me it's scary. When I look at her face, I see my hubby, but everything about her body and the way she moves and carries herself is like mini-me. On the course, she discovered that 5k is a long way to run for a 12 year old, and she had to dig deep to finish it. We had a good conversation about what it means to hang in there when the going gets tough. One of the best gifts we can give our kids is the ability to persevere, and running teaches that skill and allows us to learn that when we feel like giving up we can always go further. Or as I told her "You're much stronger than you think you are" and she was! She out-sprinted me at the finish with a big burst of energy and a smile. Next up on her docket is a kid's triathlon this summer!

For me, Mother's Day is not tied to flowers, gifts, chocolate, or brunch. It's a day to be grateful for the amazing lives that I brought into this world, for my body which held and nourished them, and for the gifts that we give each other on a daily basis. I can think of no one else I would rather spend a day with than my kids. Even my son, as crazy as he can be (who else would model a Greek helmet and a Roman sword, while wearing a Hawaiin shirt??)

The Incredible Power of Belief: Most Inspirational Video Ever

Watch this one from start to finish. It's amazing, it's mind-blowing, it's inspirational. There is no reason that, wherever we are in our journey today, we can't keep getting up and getting stronger.

Countdown to Ironman, Week 7: Riding the new IMCdA Bike Course!

As Ironman Coeur d'Alene creeps ever closer, I was hoping I would get a chance to take a look at the new bike course before seeing it on race day. Fortunately, my step-sons both live in Spokane, a hop-skip-jump from Coeur d'Alene, and so we combined a family weekend of BBQs and fun with family with some time for me to take Pinkalicious out on the course and see first-hand what was in store for us.

The day I chose to ride the course, Saturday, was not especially promising, weather-wise. It dropped to 35 degrees that night, and was still a chilly 42 when I set off in the morning. On top of that, the big wind storm that wreaked havoc on the poor Ironman St. George participants seemed to be blowing up through Idaho as well. The winds were howling, the lake had 1 - 2 foot whitecaps, and I was very glad that I wasn't actually racing, but just checking out the course.

First I rode down the Lake Drive that constitutes the first part of the course. I had already seen this on the Computrainer Ironman course, but it was far prettier first-hand. I tried to picture my ride through town on this quiet Saturday morning the way it will look on race day, streets lined with cheering mobs. A thrill of excitement and goosebumps, not to mention a little lurch of the stomach shot through me as a small echo of the race day nerves to come. Then, after moseying along the small roller hills of the lakeshore drive, I headed back through town and out onto the newly added course on Hwy 95. I had no idea of what to expect here, and to be honest I was not thrilled about riding on a highway with all of those cars whizzing past.

As it turned out, the ride is quite scenic, and I think on race day when we'll get a couple of lanes of traffic all to ourselves, it will be very beautiful. To ride the course right now, you have to stay on the shoulder, which means contending with a serious rumble strip. These are very hazardous to cyclists, especially those of us on thin tires with squirrely aerobars to contend with. Throw in some wickedly gusting winds, and you have a bit of a nerve-wracking ride on your hands. Still, in most places the shoulder was very wide, leaving me lots of room to avoid the dangerous strip. And the good news was that motorists were not likely to casually venture onto the shoulder and strike me, since the rumble strip would quickly alert them to any detours from their lane into mine.

So, on to the question that's probably on everyone's mind who will be riding the new course: What about the hills? To be honest, the first one is pretty intimidating when you look at it, especially if you look UP and see the road winding way above where you are now (later on, you'll get to look DOWN into this amazing valley below you and wonder that you managed to pedal your way so high). The good news is that because you're on a highway, the grade is very gentle. It probably tops out at about 6%. On race day, this could make these hills seem deceptively easy. I rarely got into my lowest gear, and I don't currently have a compact crank on my bike. So it would be easy to overbake these hills on race day by a few watts here and there, and enter T2 with considerably less gas in your tank than you counted on. I filed this away in my mental notebook for race day: stay within my zones on the hills and you'll be fine. For me, riding the hills put my mind at ease. There's nothing here that I don't ride a thousand times in the hills behind my house. I can tell myself  "It's just another hilly ride, take it easy and enjoy the scenery."

And on this particular ride, the hills took a big backseat to the wind. I literally would be winding my way up a hill, reach the flat part at the crest and get hit by a wall of wind so stiff that it made me gear DOWN from the gear I was climbing the hill in. I had to pedal harder on the flats and even the downhills than I did on the uphills. This had the effect of making the whole first half of the Hwy 95 portion into an effective 20 mile uphill grind. Somehow I think on race day it might feel a whole lot easier (if we don't get an IMSG-style windstorm, that is).

All in all, my take on the new course is:

Hills: not too terrible.

Technical: None. All of the sharp turns of the old course are gone. You'll want to be comfortable with screaming down a couple miles of 6% grade at 45 mph+ though.

Highway: Rideable for people who want to check it out before race day

Scenery: Top Notch. Green valleys, horse pastures, rolling hills, big clouds scudding across an impossibly blue sky. Glimpses of the lake in the distance. What's not to love?

Old Part of the course: Fun, with cheering sections in the city, and beautiful lakeshore views outside of town. A couple of rollers will warm you up in the first 15 miles.

Countdown to Ironman, Week 8: Goin' Long

It's get-down-to-business time here in Ironman training world and the open road beckons. Which explains why, despite the fact that I have a million great blog posts running around in my mind (including one on kicking in the swim and some other stuff), I haven't written a thing since last week. That, my friends, is what an 18 hour training week will do to you. Coupled with eight or more hours of sleep a night (mandatory) and more time with eating and food prep (can't avoid that!), means that I hardly see my good friend the computer anymore. Facebook, what's that? Tweeting, is that what the birds are doing outside my bedroom window when I'm trying to sleep in? Posts, aren't those what holds your bike seat up?

But for anyone who is keeping score at home, the training is going well. I got a nice four hour ride on Pinkalicious on a sunny day this weekend, and today I knocked off a two-hour long run where I worked solely on pacing for the Ironman run. You know what? It feels REALLY stupid to go jogging along at my s-l-o-w Ironman pace here on Eugene's running trails, meanwhile world class athletes getting ready for the Olympic trials are blowing past me right and left. Where's a good "I'M TRAINING FOR AN IRONMAN" shirt when you need it? At least they'd know I was purposefully shuffling along for a good reason.

This weekend we will be heading off to Spokane and Coeur d'Alene to visit my step-sons and on Sunday I will get a chance to ride at least some of the Ironman course. Then I'll really know what I've signed up for. 

Countdown to Ironman, Week 9: Albany Sprint Triathlon

How do I do this again?? The first race of the season is always a rust-blower, but this year it definitely felt more awkward than usual, owing to last summer's broken arm and lack of a triathlon season. I had to scramble to assemble all of my triathlon gear from wherever it had gotten to in the last two years.

Thankfully, like riding a bike, it all comes back the second you start setting up your transition area. It didn't hurt that we had one of the first truly glorious days of the year with sunshine and warm temperatures beaming down on us. Several of my Aquaducks teammates did the race, and it was nice to ride up to Albany with friends and encourage each other.

I decided to ride my new bike (of course!) even though I'm still messing around with the fit. That turned out to be a great decision as I got to see how really fast she is! This was my fastest bike split in years, turning a 34:08 for the 12.5 miles, or a bit over 21 mph. I didn't get my swim split until the end of transition, but it totaled 13:20, so I'm guessing somewhere in the 11:30 range. And my run was a disappointing 27:30, but then given my lack of running over the last six weeks, I guess that's to be expected.

All in all, a 1:16:22 was my 2nd fastest Sprint Tri finish in the last 10 years, and good enough for 2nd in age group and 4th overall. Even better, all of the Aquaducks did amazing, turning in strong times and in almost every case an Age Group placing! Most inspiring to me was one of our swimmers, who not only beat everyone in her own age group (60 - 65, which I could not believe as she looks so much younger) but also beat everyone in the 50 - 54 and 55 - 59 groups as well.

One thing I absolutely loved about this race was just how pretty the course was. The bike went out through the countryside around Albany, and it was like a series of postcards: Red barn with brown calves blinking in the morning sunshine. An old windmill turning beside an oak tree in a pasture. White sheep and lambs in an impossibly green field. A tree bloomed out all in pink. Although I was working hard on the bike, I could still take in these beautiful sights along the way and my heart just sang through the course. The run course went through a park and on a bike path, with only one section on a road with traffic. Thankfully, the day did not feel as hot as I feared it might (after all of our cool weather) and the sun felt good as I ran.

Next week: building up the bike and run mileage as we hit the homestretch toward IMCdA!

My Pinkalicious, Pinkatastic, Pinkarrific Bike and Birthday

Yes, I know it's PINK. Really pink! And I'm not usually a pink kinda gal, but all will be explained....You might've guessed from my last post that I was leaning towards buying the Quintana Roo CD01. I'm not kidding when I say this decision cost me several sleepless nights (as my husband can attest). I know a lot of people just pick a bike and are done with it, but I don't get to upgrade my bikes all that often (and with one kid starting college classes right now, I can foresee no new bikes in my immediate future), so I wanted to make sure it was absolutely the right decision.

In the end, it came down to fit (as it should in all bike-buying decisions). The CD01 is an extremely adjustable bike. The seatpost has a very clever adjustment system that lets me monkey with my seat angle to my heart's content, and a series of carbon spacers makes adjusting the handlebars just as smooth. So as we speak, I'm dialing in the fit on this fast flying machine. But why all the pink? Apparently, there's more than a few of last year's bikes left over in this paint scheme (this year's is a much more sedate black with purple striping) and I got a smokin' deal on it.

But as it turns out, pink is an auspicious color right now. My daughter Asa had just gotten the lead role in the musical "Pinkalicious" being produced locally. So she is constantly practicing lines and songs with lyrics such as "Pinkatastic, pinkarrific...life is a pinkatastic dream come true". When my mom visited last week, she showed up in a pinkarrific outfit of her own and they went off for a pinkatastic afternoon of lunch, shopping, and movies (aren't grandmas the greatest??) Thus, the bike has been dubbed "Pinkalicious" (though my hubby keeps referring to it as "Pepto Bismol", and my son commented on the pink camouflage color scheme: "the only place that thing would be camouflaged would be in a cupcake factory".

Still, I think it's the best thing that's happened to me on a birthday in many a long year. How can turning forty-six be bad when you have an awesome bike like that to ride? And ride it I have. Though I had the first triathlon of the season looming this weekend, and was supposed to be tapering, I couldn't resist taking it out for over an hour a day. It rides like a dream, and I have to tell you ladies, that Adamo saddle is just a wonderful thing. No more squishing of the girl bits.


 Luckily, the good weather also arrived just in time for my birthday weekend, and the pinkalicious fun continued with a run through paths of pink flowering trees in the glorious, wonderful sunshine! Hubby and the kids met me for a walk with the dogs and Asa picked a pink blossom for me to sport behind my ear. I am still trying to wrap my head around being forty-six. How come I still feel like I'm twenty-one? Oh yeah, because I TRI!!!

 And all that Tri-ing deserves some chocolate pudding, don't you think? My son Mackenzie, knowing that I am not really a cake person made up some of my grandma Minshall's famous 1-2-3 chocolate pudding recipe for celebrating with. He even wrote "46" in red frosting on it (being a 15 year old boy, he is automatically allergic to touching anything pink), but the frosting kind of bled into the pudding, making it look more like a zombie apocalypse kind of birthday (probably more to his liking anyways). But it tasted great, with an appropriate mountain of whipped cream on top. All in all, it was just a wonderful way to celebrate being on this planet for forty-six years. I know how lucky I am to have my family, my health, good friends, a beautiful place to live, and now a gorgeous pink speed rocket to ride around on.

So on this pink-a-tastic day, I'll leave you with my grandma's pudding recipe. You can make this up with coconut and almond milk, or regular old milk. Any way you make it, it's very tasty stuff. And my grandma lived a long and healthy life into her 90's, so there's got to be something said for chocolate pudding every now and then!

1 Tbsp Corn Starch
2 Tbsp Baking Cocoa
3 Tbsp Sugar (Mackenzie used a mixture of coconut sugar and xylitol from birth tree bark

Stir into:

1 Cup Milk

Microwave 2 minutes, then stir. Microwave 2 more minutes until pudding forms. Double the recipe for a hungry family of four!

Which Bike Did I Pick? The Final Three

In my bike-choosing decision, the final choice was a very tough one. It came down to the BMC TimeMachine, the Specialized Shiv, and the Quintana Roo CD01. These are all great bikes with terrific frame designs, and they each had a lot to recommend them.

Overall, I'd say that the BMC Timemachine was the nicest riding bike. It handled well, climbed well, was smooth enough on the bumpy roads but still stiff enough to feel responsive. It was a very nice bike, and it's unique Euro look and feel make it a standout in the current triathlon/time trial offerings. The biggest detriment to choosing it was that it's just a more expensive bike. It's not as mass-produced as some of the others, and that meant I would have to accept a lower component set if I bought it. Since I was already taking a step down from Dura-Ace on my last bike to the Ultegra price range for this one, I felt I didn't want to go all the way down to 105 components. Maybe if I lived in Texas or Florida, I would consider it. But every ride I do here starts with hills, ends with hills (I live on a hill) and most likely has hills in between. I knew if I was shifting constantly and having to endure chatter from my component group, I'd be irritated, no matter how nice the frame was.

So that brought me down to the final two. The Specialized Shiv Comp Rival had a lot to recommend it: a very innovative fast frame, with that cool integrated in-frame drink holder (thus eliminating at least one extra bottle or fluid-holding device attached to the frame), a great set of aerobars, and a comfortable fast ride. I took it out for another hour of road testing and let's just say I didn't want to turn around! One of the plusses is that my local bike store carries it, which means that I would have help getting the bike set up and fit right to me. The downsides that I saw were that Specialized intentionally designed the frameset with a very flat riding profile, meaning it's hard to achieve a really deep aero position. Word is that Chris McCormack had to ride a size Small just to get it steep enough for his riding position. While the Small fit me fine, it was clear from starting to adjust it to my fit that I would be in a more flat position on this bike, and I didn't relish the idea of going to an Extra Small, especially with 700 wheels.

On the other hand, the Quintana Roo CD01 is meant to be ridden steep and aggressively. With my extreme flexibility and strong core, I can handle a more aggressive riding position than most triathletes. So this was probably more important to me than it might be to other people with stiffer backs and tighter hip flexors. The CD01 is an incredibly adjustable bike, with a seat tube that's readily marked with the different angles right on it, and a one-bolt adjustment to quickly change your angle. To get the same kind of flexibility on the Shiv, I would have to buy a different seat post and flip it around, change the seat around, etc. Also, in the same price range, the CD01 comes with full Ultegra, while the Shiv comes with a SRAM Rival/Apex mix that puts it in a slightly lower component group. The downside is that I would have to order it, which meant no hand-holding from my local bike shop and more of the work of fitting it myself.

Tomorrow: the shocking selection!

Tri Bike Face-Off: Argon, Scott, BMC, Felt, Specialized, Quintana Roo, Cervelo

So, my new triathlon bike arrived today and it's on my trainer right now, being tweaked for fit. It's beautiful, sleek, and fast... but what is it?

As promised, I'll give a brief review of all of the cool bikes I got to ride and test on the way to picking out The One. When you are in the market for a new bike, I highly recommend doing this - riding as many bikes as possible, as close together as possible. You get a real feel for the differences in the way they ride, handle, fit, climb, and feel. When you see them all on a website or glossy catalog, or in the bike racks at a triathlon, they all seem like they would be fairly similar. Most of the bikes in the same price range have comparable features, they all claim to have the most aerodynamic frame ever tested in a wind tunnel, and in the same price range you'll get roughly the same component group. But when you ride them, you can feel some pretty significant differences, and picking the one that's best for you can often mean that you're surprised by what you like the most.

For the record, I was looking in around the $3,000 - $3,500 price range. That puts me pretty squarely in the Ultegra component grouping, although the BMC that I rode came with Shimano 105 in that price range, and the Specialized Shiv had SRAM Rival/Apex.

The bikes I looked at were:

• Argon 18 E-112
•  
• BMC Timemachine TM02 2012 
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• Cervelo P3
•  
• Felt DA4
•  
• Cannondale Slice3
• 
  
• Quintana Roo CD01 
•  
• Scott Plasma 10
•  
• Specialized Shiv Comp Rival
•  
• Specialized Transition

Of those, I did not ride the Cannondale, the Specialized Transition, or the Felt, just looked them over. The rest of them, I took out for about a half an hour each. I rode each on the flats and on a winding hill, trying to get a feel for speed, climbing, comfort, and handling.

Here's the standouts:

COMFORT: The Argon 18 E-112 wins in the Comfort category. This bike felt s-m-o-o-t-h, like you could just keep riding it forever. It wasn't the best handler or climber, but it really absorbed the road chatter and would be great for long rides on back-country roads.

HANDLING: The BMC Timemachine TM02was above all the nicest feeling frame that I rode. It turned on a dime, and climbed so easily it really surprised me. This frame was one that I hadn't heard much about, it's not all that common, but the Athlete's Lounge in Portland carries them. I have to say I was very very impressed with this bike. Probably the biggest strike against it was that in my price range, it only came with Shimano 105, whereas the other bikes I rode were Ultegra. I'm a pretty big believer in getting the best components you can afford, so this really made me waver on buying the BMC. I'll have to say that this is one bike I'd keep my eye on in the future.

SPEED: The Specialized Shiv and the Quintana Roo CD01 tied in the outright "OMG this bike is FAST" category. Both of them just felt slippery as heck in the wind. At one point while riding the Shiv, I was sure I had a strong tailwind, only to turn around and head back and still have the same feeling. The Quintana Roo CD01 I test rode had a pair of Reynolds aero wheels on it, and I thought that might be why it felt so fast. So I had the store put some similar wheels (actually better wheels) on the Argon and rode it again right afterwards. Nope, it wasn't the wheels (although of course they help), it was the bike.

The rest of the bikes were nice, but none of them felt outstanding in any way to me. So it really came down to these four in my mind. The Argon, while comfortable, did not feel like it had anything outstanding in the speed, power, or manueverability categories, and I decided that comfort was not enough. So that left the BMC, the Shiv, and the CD01.

Tomorrow I'll go into detail on those three, and let you know what I ended up with.

Countdown to Ironman, Week 10: My Bike Gets Revenge

Ever since I started test-riding other tri-bikes, my bike has been mad at me. Then it started getting revenge on me. The chain keeps jumping off. The brake started rubbing. The handlebars got loose. It's like it's trying to kill me. Honestly, this bike has been so completely reliable for 8 years that I've never had to worry about it, and now I fear for my life every time I ride the thing! I can't wait for my new bike to get here.

Besides fearing for my life, I'm starting to fear for my Ironman. I did something scary yesterday: I  looked at my training logs from my last Ironman. You know, the one where I got to train in the summertime when the weather was good and I had motivation to be outside. Yeah, so by this time in my training cycle, I was regularly doing six hour bike rides (I've topped out at three so far this year) and three hour runs (I'm currently at 1.5 for my max). I am starting to worry about how bad this will all hurt if it hurt THAT MUCH last time and I was twice as well trained and six years younger to boot.

So here's hoping that the new bike is perfect, that I'll instantly leap on it and not only be able to ride for hours and hours but that its new perfect aerodynamic shape will make up for all that training I haven't been doing (hey, I can dream).

Countdown to Ironman, Week 11: Bike Shopping

I have now been a triathlete since 1986, and in that 26 (gulp!!) year span of time I have had just three bikes. I loved each of them in their own way.

My first, a steel Peugeot that was solid and steady, probably only had about 12 gears but it got the job done. I toured on that bike, raced on it, rode up my very first big hill, my first sprint and Oly distance races, and my first 50 mile day. When I finally upgraded to my first real "tri" bike, I kept it and loaned it to friends for their first triathlons, and to a teenager who did his first bike tour on it. It was a trusty steed that saw decades of service.

By 1990, I was a serious young triathlete. So when the Giant Cadex came out with that there new-fangled carbon frame stuff, and those gigantic Scott DH aerobars, well I just had to have me some of that brand new technology. Yes, I've been riding on aerobars for over 20 years now. No wonder my neck has a permanent crick in it! Wow, just look at the size of those enormous bars! And the round back in my rather upright aero position. Ah well, it took me to some of my first victories and gave me a decade of triathlon memories.

Then, in an extremely Blonde Moment, I inadvertantly drove into my garage with my bike still on the roof of the van. Whoops. That was the end of one carbon Giant frame. For a season, I was reduced to riding hubby's steel Bianchi touring bike with clip-one aero bars. Not the most comfortable or fastest ride, and it's my least-favorite shade of yellow. But it let me carry on. Luckily, my homeowner's insurance chipped in on a new ride, so I went bike shopping and ended up with my next beauty.

This was my current bike, my Quintana Roo Picanti, a titanium-framed tri bike that came out when they merged with Litespeed. When I started shopping, I thought I would be getting the Cervelo P2, which was the talk of the town at that point. But when I rode it, I hated it. And after test-riding seven or eight different bikes, I got on the QR and loved it. It's not the most aero frame, doesn't have a flashy paint job, and isn't the sexiest bike in town. But it fit my odd frame (long legs, short torso) just right, was comfortable, and made short work of the 112 miles of my first Ironman.

Being a mom of two kids who are happily into all sorts of money-sucking endeavors (a million dance classes, camps, sports, and activities), I don't get the chance to upgrade my hardware all that often. And I haven't wanted to spend the money until I saw that bikes had made another large qualitative leap forward in technology. But I think that day has finally arrived. The new generations of frames are considerably different than what I'm riding, and it was time to start thinking about what I wanted to ride next. I resolved to start selling off some of my old toys that I no longer use (two motorcycles gathering dust in the garage, three parachute rigs in the closet) and use the money for a two-wheeled speed demon.

So I did my research, and headed to my local bike store to ride what's available around here, then took a road trip to Portland to hit up the triathlon stores and get a wider variety of brands to ride. All in all, I looked at seven different bikes by Specialized, Felt, BMC, Argon, Quintana Roo, Scott, and Cervelo, all in the Ultegra price range ($3000 - $3500).  What did I think of each of these bikes? What two made the final cut? And which one will I be riding next week? Stay tuned!

Ironman Race Day Nutrition: Gluten and Dairy Free

I'm probably not the only athlete who responded with a resounding "Huh?" to Ironman's news that they were going with "Bonk Breaker" bars for their race day nutrition at Ironman races this year. I mean, everyone's heard of Powerbars, but Bonk Breakers, what are those? Imagine my little Paleo-ized heart a-flutter when I visit their site and find out that they are gluten and dairy free! Since I haven't eaten gluten in so long and since the last time I did, it did not play nice with my intestinal tract, I was worried about either having problems with the on-course nutrition, or having to pack all of my own along, looking like some overstuffed dromedary with nutrition hanging out of every available pocket.

Even better, unlike many popular bars, they are also free of hydrolized soy protein, or soy protein isolates. As someone with half a thyroid gland, I avoid soy like the plague and thus there's a lot of bars I won't touch including the aforementioned Powerbars.

Now, I am going to hustle my self down to REI tomorrow, apparently the only place in town that carries these things, and buy a few to try, maybe the Fig, Almond Butter and Honey, and Espresso Chip varieties. For those who are strict Paleo, they won't cut the mustard. They contain oats and other ingredients like rice syrup. But as I've noted before, I'm having to be a bit less strict with my in-training nutrition and there's no way I'm doing a totally Paleo thing in the Ironman. I think that would spell Gastric Distress for sure. When going the distance, there's something to be said for highly refined sugars and easily digestible ingredients.

Proof That I Am Not Just A Weather Whiner

So I live in Oregon. You all know it rains a lot here, right? So much that there are a whole host of Oregon rain jokes like:
"How do you tell an Oregonian? By the moss growing on the north side of his nose."
or
"Last year in Oregon, 120 people fell off of their bicycles.... and drowned."

That last one's not quite so unrealistic these days.

So I'm used to the rain. I don't have to like it, not when I'm trying to train for an Ironman and I'm in serious danger of drowning while riding my bike... (see above photo from this week here in town)  but I live with it. This last month however has had me at my wit's end. Even the cats can't believe how much it's raining. They ask to go out, then when you open the door for them they just stand there looking out, and they hiss or howl mournfully. I just say sadly "I know how you feel buddy. But it's Oregon."

But lest you think I'm just a weather whiner like my cats, the local news came out with the fact today that it rained TWICE AS MUCH in March as it normally does here. When "normally" is a bucketload of rain, that's one unhappy fact. So yesterday when I was out test-riding bicycles (more on that exciting bit of news later), I had to come in and prop each foot up in the sink of the bathroom at the bike store and run hot water over it until it stopped looking all white and freaky and frostbitten. It's a cold rain that's dumping on us around here, and I'm ready for it to be over with.

Here's to April Showers that are in the "normal" range, bicyclists that don't need scuba gear to ride, and a much happier household of kitties.

Countdown to Ironman, Week 12: Fit Enough To Train

A happy but unexciting post for the day: Today marks the start of my official training plan in the final build to the Ironman in June. Luckily, with the help of my chiropractor, and taking some time off of everything, I do feel well enough to begin training harder and longer. Last week I decided to run very little - just a few 30 minute sessions, nothing to set my back off again. That strategy seems to have been a good one, as everything feels fine for now. Instead, I put in six hours on my bike (unfortunately still on the trainer as it is pouring rain outside) and tried to bank up some bike time. This weekend has a scheduled 3.5 and 3 hour rides. Eep! I've done one 2:45 ride and that's my longest so far, so I think I can survive it. Onwards and upwards!

If This Video Doesn't Melt Your Heart, I Don't Know What Will

I have to share this video with you for two reasons. One, it's the sweetest thing you've ever heard, and two because it's about an incredible family who are trying to adopt a baby from Africa.

   

If little Madeleine's narration about adopting a baby sister doesn't melt your heart, I don't know what will. And if you feel like helping them out, check out their story (with a link to donate) on Give1Save1.com. I know these folks from my Masters swim team, and they are just the most amazing family. I know they would be incredible parents for an adopted child to have.

Countdown to Ironman, Week 13: Who Would I Save From The Towering Inferno?

I joke about this: If there was a burning building with all the people in the world in it, I'd save my family first, and then I would save my chiropractor. He's that good. Okay, I'd run in for my friends too, you know I would. But seriously, my chiropractor's like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, putting the stuffing back into the Scarecrow (me).

After seeing him twice this week, I'm feeling pretty nearly human. After the first time, I was able to stand and walk without pain for the first time in two weeks. After the second time, I could get on my bike again - 2 hours today. Running is still iffy, so I'm hoping that the third time's a charm and I'm seeing him next Monday.

Other than that, there's not much to report. I'm swimming a lot, because I can. The weather still sucks so I don't miss running as much as I would if it was sunny. And I'm still indoors on the bike trainer although I would love to start getting outside! Maybe it will all magically come together next week when I hit that 12-Weeks-To-Ironman moment and start "training for real". Keep your fingers crossed for me.