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August 30, 2007

I do not love marathon training.

At first I thought maybe it was just the timing, when I ran my first marathon and didn't like marathon training. But now, I think I just don't like marathon training! Now that I am doing tri's and the like, I think I have found enough challenges without needing the excitement and challenge of running marathons. However, I am still running Chicago. I am actually pretty fired up about Chicago and the possibility of a BQ. But running 21 miles on a Sunday just isn't that fun! I am glad I have discovered this about myself. I think it's good to know. Now next year, after hopefully running Boston (because really, if you qualify and don't think you want to run a bunch of marathons, you have to run Boston!), I think I will focus on shorter distances and tri's. How fun will that be! I am so excited. I love running. I love tris. I just don't love marathon training!

However, that being said, I did have a good 21 miler on Sunday. If you can have a good time running for over three hours! We ran up and over a big hill so I was really, really sore. But I did not feel that bad when we were finishing up. Just a little tenderness in my feet and hips. I ran with my friend Cathy and we actually talked for almost the entire time. Sometimes I wonder how I do not lose my voice more often with the amount of chatting I do!

This has been a good training week overall. I ran a very, very easy 6 miles after work on Monday. Once I got moving I felt fine but I tell you what, those first few steps were just wretched! Things have been improving since then, though. Tuesday morning I ran 7 miles easy, and then lifted after work. Wednesday, an easy 7 in the morning, 1:20 biking at lunch (23 miles), and then today I ran an easy 8.

I do have a funny but sad story about my bike ride, though. I was riding with my friend C. from work. He is a great guy and a much better cyclist than I am, so I was drafting for a while when I got tired. Anyway, while he was out front making my life easier, a bee flew into his mouth and stung him on the bottom of the tongue! I felt terrible but really it is kind of funny. It was especially amusing when his tongue started to swell up and he could barely talk! Of course I feel that I am qualified to laugh at him as a few of you, who have been reading my blog for a really long time, might remember the time when I was running and a bee flew up my nose and stung me in the nostril.

Anyway that is the week in running. We are heading to the mountains for the weekend, so Sunday will be a nice 14 mile day at 9,000 feet or so. After this past Sunday hopefully it will feel like a walk in the park!

Posted by barb at 4:53 PM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2007

getting back into training

Well, this week has been all about getting back into the training groove after a very easy week of recovery last week. So far I am feeling good about my week, and my recovered legs. Of course we will see how this weekend's 20-21 mile run goes, but that would be hard no matter what I did two weeks ago. It has been blissfully cool the last few days, although it should be heating up this weekend so I will have to be careful to stay hydrated and fueled on the big run. I have not run farther than 16 miles since my marathon in 2003 (I think it was in 2003)... so it will be a fun challenge! Luckily I will be meeting with my friend C. and we do not seem to run out of conversation even over pretty long runs.

Here is the week in training for me:
- Monday - easy 7 miles in the morning, 1:10 biking (22 miles) after work
- Tuesday - easy 7 miles
- Wednesday - easy 5 miles, lifting at lunchtime
- Thursday - easy 8 miles, 20 minutes swimming
- Friday (today) - easy 4 miles, planned bike ride after work (very easy spinning)

And the plan for tomorrow is what we call an Indian Fartlek up in Boulder with the team. These are fun but pretty challenging. Hopefully the heat will stay contained until we're finished. I will see how I feel with the higher intensity running, last week I was really nervous about it but I actually felt good. My legs still feel pretty rested so hopefully that will continue.

This weekend promises to be ridiculously busy although we have a lot of fun activities planned, including a night of pizza and bowling tonight - and both those things totally rock! I love pizza, and bowling is really fun even though I am really bad at it :) Somehow it seems that when I started running all the time I lost my skill for sports requiring hand-eye coordination.

Things are slowing down a bit at work so hopefully I will not be too sick of my computer at night to write in my blog more soon, so that is great too!!

Posted by barb at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2007

i have so much energy!!!!!!

I swear sometimes I feel that I am a freak of nature. I have so much energy now that I have been recovering for almost five full days!!! If they would allow me to I would boing and run all over the office. Now how is that for a mental picture?

Anyway my half Ironman was about five days ago and I am feeling fabulous. I got a massage yesterday which was excellent. I had a huge knot in my adductor (which is my inner thigh I believe) and that really hurt. But I love a massage that hurts a little, it just seems so much more productive than a frou-frou massage.

This week I really have impressed myself with my restraint. Here is what I have done since Sunday:
Monday - rest day. Easy 2 miles or so walking with M. and her dog.
Tuesday - easy 4 miles running.
Wednesday - 50 minutes swimming. Long-ish walk after work.
Thursday - easy 5 miles running.
Friday - TBD, but I am planning on about an hour easy spinning on the spin bike at the gym (my bike is in the shop getting a new chain, a good cleaning, etc.).

And now I am bouncing off the walls!! I cannot wait to get started on marathon training again. And I really, really cannot wait until next year when I can try to improve my times in my triathlons!

Posted by barb at 7:56 AM | Comments (1)

August 14, 2007

the long report - 5430 long course triathlon

So now that I am two days out from my triathlon, I feel that I have achieved the proper emotional distance in order to talk about my tri objectively and not just curse the heavens for my late start time and the ridiculously hot summer that continues to torture me here in Colorado. Okay, that may have been a bit over-dramatic. But seriously people, it has been in the high 90's every day for a week!

Here goes the report... enjoy!

The swim - 1.2 miles, 40:59
Well, I kind of freaked out at the beginning of this swim which annoyed me. However, I back stroked for a few minutes and was able to calm myself down and start swimming like a normal person. I am happy that I was able to do this as I think it proved to myself that even if I do freak in every tri (which I really hope I stop doing!!), I can recover. My goal time for the swim was 40:00 so considering my freaking out and back stroking episode I was really, really pleasantly surprised. The water was a bit more rough than in the last tri for some reason, but it was not too bad once I was able to get into a rhythm, and I think overall I felt less winded after this swim than the last. This remains a huge opportunity for improvement for me, so next year I hope to be swimming this distance about 5 minutes faster.

T1 - 1:21
Well, it always helps to get to the transition area ridiculously early as I had a great spot for the swim-bike transition. Thus my transition was pretty fast! I was kind of worried about putting my cycling shoes on as when I was walking to my car to put my bag in an hour or so before, I whacked my big toe pretty hard on the edge of a metal post. Yeah, I am not too observant sometimes as I totally should have seen it. So my big toe was kind of bloody and gross. But it seemed to go just fine.

Bike - 56 miles, 2:56.54, 18.9 MPH
This was just a great course. I really enjoyed it although of course I enjoyed the first loop more than the second :) Each 28-mile loop started uphill for about the first 5 miles, followed by a long downhill and then a few small rolling hills. The first lap I averaged a solid 20 MPH, which I would hope to be able to maintain for the entire 56 miles in the future as that would really help my position in my age group. In the second lap I started feeling a bit uncomfortable in the saddle but I just tried to do a few little repeats of getting out of the saddle for four pedal strokes and back in for four, just to change my position and loosen up. I think it really helped. I still would like to improve this quite a bit and I think I do have a lot of room for improvement but I think this was a great time for me and met my goal.

T2 - 1:36
I kind of messed up this transition as I took my shoes off the minute I got through the dismount area, which took way longer than waiting until I could sit down. I think that is more reflected in my bike time than in my transition time as I took them off before I crossed the chip mat. But it was still a fine transition.

Run - 13.1 miles, 1:57.35, 8:58/mile
This was when the going got kind of rough and I was really hot. There had been some decent cloud cover early on but it started to break up in my last few miles on the bike, so this is a good reason to try to get faster - I would finish earlier when it's cool! I really did not feel bad except that about a half mile after each aid station I would get very thirsty and hot and start to wish for the next aid station. However, I think my last mile was just barely over 8:00 so I am happy with my strong finish. I really think that if I improve my strength and endurance on the bike, my runs will also improve because I know I am totally capable of running a 1:45 or faster.

So this was the last race of my tri season this year, and I cannot wait to race next year and see how much I can improve!

Posted by barb at 8:20 AM | Comments (1)

August 12, 2007

The short version - 5430 Long Course

Well, it is 9:00 pm and I have been awake since 4:05 am, but I know you are all waiting in suspense to hear how my tri went today (unless you are very clever and now how to check for yourselves)...

So overall it was fun. I felt better than I did at the Olympic distance, probably because it was slightly cooler (although it was still in the 90's when I finished), and I did not have to climb Old Stage Road on the bike. However, I do not think I will be doing any more half Ironmans at altitude in August.

I really was not sure about what my time would be and so to make myself freak out less I decided that my goal would be to finish. And I did even though at times I almost convinced myself not to. My overall time was 5:38.27, which I am really happy with, for 18th in my age group. I am pretty happy with all three legs and I really feel that I had a good hydration/nutrition strategy. It was only the heat at the end that slowed my run down... that and probably a lack of endurance from the bike as I had actually never biked 56 miles before. Which really wasn't that bad, surprisingly! I did have another freakout in the swim but luckily I was able to pull myself together and meet my swim goal.

Anyway I will post a longer and more drawn out entry tomorrow, but that is the news! I will probably be taking a few days off completely from training now to rest up my sore muscles. I hope everyone had a nice weekend and didn't melt from the heat!

Posted by barb at 9:01 PM | Comments (2)

August 10, 2007

nerves!!

I am so nervous for Sunday. I think in fact I have had an unsettled feeling in my stomach for about the last five days. It will be really nice when my first half Ironman is behind me, and I can focus on a known and shorter race, the marathon. After doing three sports for over five hours in fact, maybe the marathon won't seem that bad!

I am feeling pretty good about the swim for Sunday, as I had a good night of practice on Wednesday. I have been reading a memoir of this woman who has done all kinds of insane long distance swims in horrible conditions and cold water, and I think it is motivating me to get into a rhythm when I swim. The bike is stressing me out a bit just because I still haven't ridden 56 miles ever. I am sure I can do it, but I am not sure how fast this will happen. And of course it normally isn't a big deal to run a half marathon, but the forecast for Sunday is still looking ridiculously hot. Right now they are forecasting the high temperature to be 98 degrees. And of course with my start time being the latest one at 7:05 am, I will be finishing after noon. Thus, although I had some preliminary time goals, I think my goal now is just to finish. Which considering it's my first year doing triathlons, and my first try at this distance, seems to be a pretty reasonable goal!

I am not going to rehash my entire week, but probably the highlight of my week in training was biking 33 miles on Monday and getting my first flat. Luckily I met a new friend named Frank (thanks, Frank!!!) who helped me get everything fixed. I have been feeling really good on all my runs so I hope that bodes well for Sunday. This morning I ran a very easy 4 miles, just enjoying being outside when it is nice and cool at 6:00 am. After work today I am going to spin on the bike very easy for about 30 minutes, just to remember how biking feels. And tomorrow I will do a nice mellow trail run (on a pancake flat trail) on my way to pick up my packet. The run I am planning on is my favorite trail in Boulder that runs along the Boulder Creek, so I will also be doing a nice soak in the creek after I finish running.

Anyway wish me luck this weekend, and let's hope for a little cool down in the temperatures across the country! I whine and complain about the heat here but I know at least we do not have humidity to deal with.

Posted by barb at 9:00 AM | Comments (3)

August 6, 2007

the world looks better when you get 10 hours of sleep!

I slept from 8:30 pm last night to 6:20 am today. It rocked!! I feel like a new person. After this weekend I was completely wiped out yesterday, I think I really needed a good, long night of sleep.

And let me tell you why. I woke up at 5:05 am on Saturday to go to Boulder and run with some ladies from my group. It was so much fun, but I think I really paid for it later on that day and on Sunday. We ended up running about 15 miles (15.2 to be exact), on a course that is not unlike what I imagine the Boston Marathon course to be like - downhill for the first half or so, and then rolling for the last half. It was tough! There was one steep little hill at the end that really had me breathing hard and feeling my legs. But we made it and had a great time, I loved running with such a fun group that was so easy to chat with.

The rest of the day included a bit of shopping, picking up my wheel (which is fixed, hooray!), going to my mom's to celebrate her birthday, and then going to a concert (the Fray) in the evening. It was all fun but very tiring and a late night (we probably got home around 11:30). Sunday I woke up at 6:45 to head down to Tri for the Cure, where my friend M. was competing. I biked down there, as it's about 8 miles away and I knew parking would be a nightmare - the tri is about 3,000 competitors. I saw a friend and we chatted and watched M. compete. She totally rocked the tri, especially considering that her training was really limited due to a nagging injury. It was so fun to watch her, and the whole experience made me very glad that all my tris are so much smaller.

After I biked home, I said goodbye to Matt as he was flying to Vegas and drove to the Highline Canal for a 7 mile recovery run. It was nice but a bit warm. And after that, I swam for 20 minutes or so at the gym, just because it sounded like fun. And it really was.

Of course after all that I was totally wiped out. I proceeded to my house where I did laundry and laid on the couch until around 8:30 when I went to sleep.

This morning I ran a very easy 5 mile recovery run. My schedule from my coach called for 6-7 miles but I decided that this week discretion, or shorter runs, are the better part of valor. I am heading out for a long ride in a few minutes, wherein I will ride for 2 hours or so.

I am moderately stressed out about this weekend's tri as I really did not enjoy competing in 100 degree temperatures a few weeks ago, and right now the forecast calls for 98 degree highs on Saturday (the forecast for Sunday, which is race day, is not up yet). So please send some nice cooling thoughts my way!

Posted by barb at 4:44 PM | Comments (1)

August 3, 2007

busy week, busted bike

This week has just been absolutely crazy, what with training, work (more busy than usual), social activities, and of course my obsession with a certain dancing show on a certain network. Yes, I am obsessed. Anyway things are going well. After the ridiculously hot tri, the weather has cooled down a lot which is always nice. It has actually rained several times, which is great. And this week I have busted my bike so I have been out running quite a bit, which I always enjoy! Now my bike is not in bad shape, I just scratched up my front wheel getting stuck in a rut in the road. Miraculously I did not fall, and they are buffing out the scratches so my wheel should be as good as new when I pick it up tomorrow morning. And this week I even survived about 1600 meters in open water without my wet suit! However, I have found that no matter how awkward I feel in the wet suit, it really does make me more efficient and thus faster in the water.

Today I ran an easy (and for some reason exceedingly lethargic) 7 miles at 6:15 in the morning, and I am leaving in a few minutes for a swim and lifting session before I head down to my dad's house to visit. I will be getting up at 5:00 am tomorrow to run 15 miles with friends in Boulder, which should be fun and good for my fitness as my marathon is approaching at an alarming rate.

And now I am off! I hope all are doing well.

Posted by barb at 2:20 PM | Comments (1)