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April 30, 2008

Back in Action

Today I was back in action - both work and training wise. I could have skipped the work part. Oh wait, they stop paying you if you don't go and actually...well...work? Oh...never mind... :)

Anyway, this morning it was a track workout bright and early! It was actually very dark and not too bright at all but by the time I was done the sun was rising. Possibly one of my favorite things about summer is the fact that the sun rises earlier and sets later! I love light!

Regardless, mile repeats was the prescription this morning. Only 3 of them so not too bad! Given my recent racing antics I was worried my legs were going to be very tired but they actually didn't feel too bad at all! Don't get me wrong, I wasn't feeling "fresh as a daisy" (as my high school coach used to say), but I was able to accomplish the workout in the times I wanted and that's always a victory. What was hurting badly though was a blister from Sunday. OUCH! My feet usually blister pretty badly from races - it's not the racing flats and it's not the lack of socks but what it is is WET feet in WET shoes. And there is no way around it. I'm going to pour water on my head and that's eventually going to work it's way down to my feet.

Anyway, aforementioned blister was causing all kind of havoc on my right heel but once I started the actual workout it sort of went numb. Either that, or the workout was more painful than the blister and therefore the workout pain won out in terms of who was getting more attention from me. The cooldown was a different story. Luckily it looks to be healing nicely - it just needs more time.

Work was fine and we actually had a little going away party for one of the gals in our department who is getting deployed to Iraq within the next few days (she is in the reserves). We all wore red, white and blue and had an "All-American" theme for the party foods. It was fun and I think she appreciated it. Let it be know that I VERY much appreciate people like her who willingly serve our country. Not in a million years do I think I could handle what she is about to experience. And she is very much looking forward to it. She is from a miliary family and that's just what her family does. Thank God for people like them!

After work I hit up the pool where I practiced my new favorite sport - SWIMMING! YIPPPEEEEE!!! :) In all seriousness, I do like to swim. I would just like to start to swim fast in races. And then I would like swimming even more. :) My workout was good though and I finally got home around 6:30. Where does the day go?

Alas, it is wayyyyy past my bed time. Good night all!

Posted by beth at 9:35 PM | Comments (2)

April 29, 2008

I Found The Pictures

Family shot on the morning of the race. My father looks soooo happy to be up at 4 am. :)

Another beautiful triathlon sunrise. Aren't they so amazing?

Jen and I as we walked towards the start. Can you tell how nervous I am?

Sprinting towards the finish.

Oh so happy to sitting. Cold water never tasted so good.

Posted by beth at 2:55 PM | Comments (8)

I'm Alive!

Well I have quickly become THE biggest blog slacker in the world! But that's what happens when you take me out of my routine. And of course we were traveling. And of course the battery on O's computer died very quickly while waiting in the Charlotte airport for our conneting flight. And of course the Charlotte airport apparently only has about 1 outlet in it's B wing to plug a computer into. Oh well.

So without further ado - my race report from this weekend! (I know, I know, you were all just waiting on the edge of your seats... :)

First of all, we had a great weekend. I got into Tampa early on Friday and enjoyed a nice relaxing day picking up my packet, taking in the sun, relaxing in my hotel and putting my bike back together. And I only got lost once or twice (or maybe 3 times). O and my parents got in late Friday night and so on Saturday morning we were all ready to go.

St. Petersburg is simply beautiful and I could literally just sit in the shade and stare out at the Bay all day. O and I drove down to the race site early Saturday to so a little running, biking and swimming and then met up with my parents later for lunch, bike check in, driving the course and enjoying the day. We had a great dinner together back near our hotel and finally, after some chatting by the pool hotel, we went to sleep.

Sunday was an early morning as most triathlons are but I'm not complaining. I'm so thankful I was in the 4th wave and not the 24th or 34th (I swear some people weren't even started by the time we were finished!).

And so it goes. I was pretty nervous for this race as I usually am, but perhaps moreso given the level of competition and the fact that the first race of the season always seems more nerve-racking than most. I must have checked my bike in transition 10 times before I was finally assured enough with it to warm up some with O. We jogged a bit and then down to the beach it was. Get the wetsuit on and lets go!

My goal for Sunday was simply to finish in the top 10 of the elite amateur race. I didn't care about time so much but I wanted to be competitive and I knew it was going to take a big effort to meet my goal.

I saw Jen and Jerome Harrison down at the start and Jen calmed my fears some. Nothing she said in particular really, other than the fact that she herself was a picture of composure and very excited to race. Briefly met Bri Gaal on the starting line and then off we went!

So do I have to talk about the swim? I would really just like to gloss over the fact that I SUCKED out there! Holy cow. I don't even have any excuses. But I'm refusing to let it get the best of me. It's a weakness for sure. I need to become a better open water swimmer. I need to actually COMPETE in the water instead of just hoping it will eventually be over the whole time. I need to be more aggressive. What I need is a little Jen Harrison in me.

So needless to say, when I got on the bike I had my work cut out for me. Fortunately the story gets a little better from here. In a triathlon the bike is probably my favorite leg. So I was happy to finally get on my bike and go. I saw O early on who told me I was in about 20th place. Luckily I felt good and strong and although I caught myself daydreaming at times (no time to day dream in a 40K bike you know!), overall I was pleased. Despite the turns that course is FAST and flatter than any course I’ve ever seen.

I had passed quite a few gals on the bike but at one of the turnarounds saw another big pack ahead. (when I say pack, I don't mean that they were drafting or anything, I just mean there was a group of 4 or 5 gals within range) Try as I might I couldn’t reel them in on the bike so I figured I was going to have to run like crazy to try and catch some there. I hadn’t given up on my top 10 goal just yet.

Off the bike and onto the run. Again I felt good running and although I was quite concerned about the heat (remember it was just a week or so ago I was still running in tights) I have to say I didn't feel all that awful hot out there. There was more shade on the course than I thought there would be and many aid stations (of which I partook in all of them).

I was also quite concerned about nausea which played a big role in my races last year. I was plagued by nausea in most all of my tris last season, especially the HOT races. The nausea was the worst on the run and slowed me considerably. I tried just about everything my coach and I could think of to try to alleviate the issue but it never truly resolved. Luckily I met a very nice MD who is also a triathlete at the Spencer Smith/Jen Harrison clinic I went to in January. She suggested that my problem might have to do with over production of gastric acid (it was almost more of a gagging/heartburn kind of nausea, not lower GI issues) or GI motility and that something like Reglan or Pepcid might help. Several weeks ago I went to my family doc to see if he would prescribe me some sort of motility or acid reducing agent and I walked away with enough Prevacid for the next 10 years. :)

I tried the Prevacid in training of course, using it before long Saturday bricks or Sunday long runs but I wasn't sure it if was working. It's only the stress of racing that causes my nausea because even the most intense track workouts or bike intervals in training don't elicit the same kind of issues. So at the very least I knew the Prevacid wouldn't hurt me. I could only hope that it would help.

And apparently it did. Because it was hot and although I felt a tad bit sick to the stomach it was NO WHERE even close to the kind of problems I had last year where I was having to stop to throw up in just about all my races!

Anyway, back to the run! I was super thrilled to get off the bike and not only feel good running but also not be sick to my stomach. I immediately set sight on a group of 4 girls that came into transition with me and by mile 1.5 had passed them. I was looking forward to seeing O somewhere around mile 2 to give me an idea of my placing.

When I did finally see him he was a bit sketchy on exactly what place I was in but told me there was another group of 4 girls about a minute ahead of me. I knew I had to put my head down and run hard.

And I was running hard but I wasn't seeing anyone ahead of me! UGH! Finally at the turnaround (the run course is essentially out and back) I saw the girls O was speaking of and so I set about trying to give chase.

And it was a battle. I caught one. And then another. But it was starting to feel hot all of a sudden and I was starting to hurt. I knew at this point that I was probably in the top 10 but I wanted to make sure I gave it every last bit I had and I could still see Bri and Jen up ahead of me. So I put my head down and tried to seize the opportunity that I had been given.

Oh my did I go through the mental battles that we all face. I would feel like I was gaining some ground and then look up and think "just back down, finish it up and you'll still be on the podium". But then I would gain some strength and go a little harder but again be faced with the negative energy of "just settling". It went back and forth and back and forth until I finally tried to push ALL thoughts out of my mind and JUST RUN! I caught Jen around the 6 mile marker and ran as fast as I possibly could because I knew she wasn't going to go without a fight. And indeed she didn't.

I was so happy to finish! And beat dead tired too. :) When O found me after the race the first thing he said is "man, that Jen Harrison is tough!!" And I felt like saying, "yeah, no kidding - you haven't been chasing her for the last 32 miles!!" :)

But it was a great experience and a great race and a great way to start the season! It was one of those races where I didn't even think to check what my final time was until well after it was over, which is very unlike me because I'm all about splits and times and PRs and running this pace or biking that pace. It truly was about competing well which I think is what we have to do to get the most out of ourselves. But my final time was faster than all my Olympic distance races last year.

Looking at the results I couldn't help but think "man - if only I could actually swim!" but I know it will come and patience and dedication to improvement are the only thing that will get me there. And that's what triathlon is all about right? Throw the really good swimmers in with the good runners who can't swim. Toss in an excellent cyclist who is an okay swimmer but maybe can't run well. Add in an amazing runner who doesn't have good bike handling skills. And start them all at the same time and see who comes out on top? That's the fun of the sport and the challenge of it and I'm sure that's what will keep me going in the sport for a long time.

Of course I would be remiss to not mention all the wonderful people I met at this race which was certainly a highlight of the weekend for O and I. We both were really looking forward to meeting some bloggers face to face and wouldn't you know I ended up staring at two of their backs (Jen and Bri!) for the majority of the run! We also enjoyed meeting Bree who was so impressive during the race (I watched her fly by on the run and bike!) and fun and amazing to talk to! I was bummed to miss Kellye but given the 1000s of people milling around after the race I thought it was a bit of a long shot to catch everyone. :) Regardless, it's such a nice little community we have and I'm very thankful for it! YEAH bloggers for representing!

AND it was great as always to have my own family there! O was a superstar as always, running around on the course and helping me every step of the way. And my parents as well - flying down to watch and cheer and take pictures and support and just be the best parents there are. I enjoyed every last second of the whole entire weekend (except maybe for the last 0.2 miles of the race when I was running scared... :)

And so it goes. After a long day of travel yesterday (who knew it could literally take ALL day to get from FL to PA?) we are back in cold and rainy Pittsburgh. :) Today is about getting life back in order and some easy recovery workouts and then tomorrow it's back to the grindstone! I just noticed I have mile repeats on the track tomorrow. OUCH! :)

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and good luck! I appreciate it all! Once O gets home I will post some pictures. I somehow can't find the pictures on his computer that we already downloaded. I never said I was a computer whiz... :)

Have a great day everyone!

Posted by beth at 11:15 AM | Comments (16)

April 24, 2008

Here We Go Again

So my packing procrastination has reached unsurmountable proportions. It's embarassing. It's shameful. It's down right ridiculous. But I really, really, really don't want to pack. I hate packing. Whine, whine, whine. Here we go again with a whole new season of I-hate-to-pack-for-races-will-someone-please-do-it-for-me?!

Unfortunately I must. Because if I don't, well, there will be no race in Florida this weekend! So slowly but surely I've been collecting items for the trip and depositing them in the "packing room". This is the extra room that we have in our house (with close to no furniture in it) that serves as the packing stage. O's bag is in there already packed and ready to go. I made sure to give it a square kick in the side when I walked through there just an hour ago. The room is slowly filling though. First a towel and my transition bag. Then a pair of cycling shoes. Next a helmet. I dug out my racing flats. And I just put my sunglasses in there. But oh so much more to go. And I didn't even think about my bike yet. UGH.

I was once successful in getting someone to help me pack. Last year when I went to Germany my mom came with me and the night before we were to leave (and I still hadn't packed) she offered to help. YIPPPPEEEE!! She sat herself down in the packing room and I just kept coming in with more crap to pack and she folded it all nicely and placed it just perfectly in my suitcase. O will do no such thing. I WANT MY MOMMY!!!!

But alas, my mother is in South Carolina and my suitcase and I are in Pennsylvania right now. So pack I must. Okay...so here I go...I'm going to pack now...right now I'm leaving to pack...this blog entry is over so I can go pack...wait, what's that, I should check my email first? (for the millionth time today?)...oh wait, that's right...I wanted to start a load of laundry too. Oh and Roxy wants to play ball. Oh and I think I should start making dinner soon...and...

Posted by beth at 4:33 PM | Comments (9)

April 23, 2008

The Taper

Ahh...the taper. Always an interesting time isn't it? People handle it differently. Some love it. Some hate it. People like me sometimes love it and sometimes hate it! But it is an interesting feeling.

I think the thing I don't like about the taper is the fact that I usually expect my body and legs to magically feel amazing and ready to go and FRESH like never before. And this usually doesn't happen. In fact, sometime I think I feel more tired and this starts to hurt and that starts to ache and... Oh my. But that's just a result of thinking too much. Because what my body is really doing is using this time to rebuild and rest and that takes a lot of energy. And how I feel today is not at all how I will feel on Sunday. Or what ever day race day may be.

I was recently reading Ryan Hall's blog entry where he talks about his taper prior to his amazing race in the London Marathon. Yeah, what he says? DITTO for me! :)

What I do like about the taper is the extra time you have to rest up and relax and just get things done. This is especially nice when you are traveling for a race and have some extra things that need to be taken care of. Like figuring out exactly how one takes apart one's bike to fit it in it's case. By the end of last year I was a champ at this but I feel like I forget already! :)

In any case, it's time to put the race wheels (borrowed as always from my amazing friend Jeremy) on the bike to make sure all is well and take them for a little spin tomorrow. So if you happen to be in the Pittsburgh area tomorrow and see a tool riding around on a disc wheel, you'll know why... :)

Posted by beth at 5:02 PM | Comments (7)

April 22, 2008

Delightful Day

Today's been a pretty darn good day. Most days are but today seemed even better than usual. Several reasons why:

1) Work - lately work has been really busy. We are short several people which always leads to more work for those that do show up. I don't even like doing my own work let alone other people's! But two maternity leaves, 1 medical leave and someone away in Egypt for several weeks has left us depleted and trying to keep up with their patients as well as our own. And furthermore I like MY patient population - trauma and general surgery ICU patients - not other people's patients. Lately I've been seeing some liver transplants that I just do not enjoy. Nothing against the patients of course but man are they SICK. If I can offer up a piece of advice it's this - TAKE CARE OF YOUR LIVER! It does a lot of stuff and when it doesn't work right you have big problems. But anyway, the good news is that today I saw some light at the end of the tunnel. I had a nice easy day today and tomorrow should be the same and then it's off to Florida and by the time I get back two of the above employees should have returned! YIPPPEEEE!!

2) Our weather - seriously - IT IS THE BOMB! I complained so much over the winter about the cold, snow, ice and general yuckiness that it's now only fair that I give some credit to the awesome weather we've been having lately! It's seriously been in the 60s and 70s and SUNNY for about 5 or 6 days in a row. I absolutely love it. It's just SO nice to walk outside and be warm and ride outside in shorts and run and be so happy! I love it. I love it. I LOVE IT!

3) The traffic - the past two days somehow I managed to get home in 50 minutes. That is huge. May not seem that great but compare it to last Friday when it took me 2 hours to get home from work. I have no idea why it's been better recently but it seriously makes me so happy because I have that much more time in my evening to get stuff done, relax, or do whatever I need to do! (I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much that it's going to stay this way but one thing that does help is when school lets out for the summer - which is only about 6 weeks away!)

4) Racing - I can't believe my first race is only 4 days away! I am excited beyond belief. And very nervous. But racing is just about my favorite thing of all to do and it is finally here. And I'm really excited for this trip - to race against some of the very best, to meet some bloggers face to face, to go to Florida... AND both O AND my parents are coming to watch! I don't see my parents much so for them to come down (they live in SC) is just really appreciated and really exciting. They also came to Clearwater last year - so I'm thinking I need to race in Florida more because apparently they like to spectate in the Sunshine State?

So yeah, lots to be happy about. Today I had two light workouts - a swim this morning and a workout on the bike this afternoon with some harder intervals. The only bad thing about the bike workout was the fact that it was relatively short and I didn't want to turn around for home when it was 70 and sunny and absolutely gorgeous!

Here's hoping everyone had just as delightful of a day as I did...

Posted by beth at 7:40 PM | Comments (3)

April 21, 2008

What Now?

So it's only 7 pm and I have all my workouts in, work day done, home, dinner made and eaten and even cleaned up. Did I mention it's only 7 pm? So I ask - now what?

Ahhh...the taper. Such a lovely time where you might only have one workout/day and it's probably shorter than usual. This morning I did some (very) light work on the track and that was it for training. As I was driving home from work I wondered what I might do after dinner? Relax and rest I guess. Oh...that's what the taper is all about! :)

Luckily I have 2 workouts tomorrow to keep me busy so I won't have so much time on my hands.

In other news, some comments from my blog on Saturday regarding suntan lotion got me to thinking. Do we really own any suntan lotion? Of course the answer is no. I'm a little ashamed to admit this because I know the sun's rays can be harmful even when it's cloudy. But truthfully I never think to put suntan lotion on because, well...it's really not sunny around here. SO - any of you people from sunny places attending the St. Anthony's triathlon - I will need you to bring some for me. Or I guess I could buy some for $2 at the pharmacy. :)

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 6:47 PM | Comments (7)

April 20, 2008

The Packet

So last night "we" set about making The Packet for the upcoming St. Anthony's triathlon. I use the term "we" loosely as I mostly just sit around while O does all the work. Actually, I made good use of the time by trying on my wetsuits just to make sure they are still in one piece and still fit (they always look so much smaller than I think my body looks...). Anyway, it's safe to say the wetsuits are just fine but I did lose about 3 pounds in sweat wrestling to get them on.

ANYWAY - you may be wondering what The Packet entails. (or maybe not, but I'm going to tell you anyway). The Packet is a very extensive set of maps and instructions, schedules, race details and list of places to eat, grocery stores, etc... all completed for each race I do.

I'm not sure how this all started. I guess mostly because I'm a bit OCD and I hate getting lost or not knowing where to go for this or that and O is addicted to maps. Add that together and you come up with The Packet.

So there are the obvious maps - how to get from the airport to the hotel, the hotel to the race site. And then the instructions on where and when packet pick-up are, where and when to check in the bike. Phone numbers and addresses for just about ANYONE and EVERYTHING you can think of. Where we can eat. Where we can go to get some groceries. Everything. This is made especially important because I am actually flying out early Friday morning but O isn't flying until late Friday (because he didn't have the vacation day to take Friday off). This means I'll be left to my own devices for all of Friday which COULD be disasterous if not for The Packet. The Packet has saved me on more than one occasion (I am very proud to admit that I survived one whole day in Clearwater by myself last November and didn't get lost once!).

Now O doesn't really need The Packet himself. He looks at a map once and somehow an imagine of an entire city is burned into his head. Then, weeks later we will be driving around in this unfamiliar city and I'll say "man, I would like to eat at Subway for lunch" and somehow the man just knows that if we turn left here and then turn right at the stoplight, there is a Subway on the corner. I once asked him what he thought of those Garmin devices that people have in cars to give them directions and he instructed me never to buy one for him. "I would be offended if you thought I needed something like that." Well okay then!

But what O does include in The Packet for himself is a very detailed system of maps that has been highlighted and marked many times over. These are the COURSE MAPS.

Now every race I go to we drive the course so I can see what I'm in for. Even for the longer races (this is why I can't do a full Ironman - not enough time to drive the full course! :) but O takes the course maps to an even higher level because, you see, he is developing his "race day strategy". You think the racers are the only ones that need a strategy? Think again.

O's strategy includes where and when he will be at different spots on the course. And this is very important. You would not BELIEVE how often I will see him out there on the course - including the races that have very spectator UN-friendly courses making it difficult for family/friends to see you at more than just the finish line.

Nope, O is everywhere. I think it all goes back to our days in college where I ran cross country for Penn State. We met in college (I was just a sophomore) so he watched a lot of cross country meets. And he was that crazy kid running ALL over the place, to about 10 different locations on the 5K course to cheer. You saw him at the mile marker, at the 1.5 mile marker, at the 3K marker AND the 2 mile marker. You saw him running up the hill and somehow you still saw him when you were running down the other side. You could hear him everywhere. And of course you saw him at the finish.

Not much has changed. So again, last night, I saw him staring at the computer, measuring how far it was between the swim start and transition and then calculating how fast he'd have to run to get from transition to point X out on the bike and then if he jogged over a street to see me again and then on the run he would see me here, there, here and there x 10.

It's incredible. And much appreciated. I can always pick him out. Even when I'm riding by on my bike at 25 mph. And he always has the most encouraging words to say. He's seen me looking very bad and he's seen me looking very good. I remember last year at my first half IM I was very nauseated on the run and saw him right before I entered a section of woods. I'm sure I looked bad. In the woods I actually threw up and felt MUCH better. All of a sudden I could finally RUN! So when I saw him again as I exited the woods I told him through my heavy breathing "I just threw up and I feel much better." To which he responded (at the top of his lungs so EVERYONE could hear :) "I LOVE IT WHEN YOU THROW UP!". But besides that, he is good at telling me what place I'm in (no easy task in triathlon where it's really hard to tell who is in what age group) and how far ahead the next gal is.

It's definitely a team effort. And I don't know what I would do without him. We train together (at least on the run we do :) and in may ways we "race" together too. Just this morning he ran 10+ miles with me in pouring down rain. Not too many would do that.

So with The Packet in hand, you can find me wondering around St. Petersburg in just a few short days, counting down the time until O arrives and we can finally find that Subway that I've been wanting to eat at... :)

Now excuse me while I go start that bike ride I was supposed to start about 2 hours ago... :)

Posted by beth at 4:35 PM | Comments (11)

April 19, 2008

SUN!

Hmm...where to begin? Maybe I should start with this - CLOSE TO 80 DEGREES AND SUNNY TODAY!!!!!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAH!

Now that is just craziness. It was so warm. And so sunny. And just so dang nice. And I was over-joyed. I don't think one can truly appreciate such weather until one has suffered most of the winter on the trainer. And then all of a sudden you are riding outside in a short sleeved jersey and smiling so large your cheeks are starting to hurt.

Ahhh...life is good.

But first, the pool. I was actually pretty excited to go to the pool this morning. Not sure why. I usually like swimming but I was really QUITE happy about it when I woke up. And I had another great swim. 100s and 600 pulls. Interesting mix.

When I walked out of the YMCA it was super warm and my excitement about my pending ride/run was growing exponentially. I rushed home and checked the weather - 65 degrees. SWEET! So I got changed, got my gear together and set off on a great ride. I had 3 hours today which was superb. I would have felt cheated if I only had 1.5 or 2 hours. And the weather was just perfect. Not a cloud in the sky and warm and I even started to get a little hot. And then with about 30 minutes left I ran out of water. Bugger about that. It's been a LONG time since that's happened. But I made it home just fine with ~56 miles in the bag. I rode for about half of the ride up in the hills and then I eventually worked my way down to the flats for the last half of the ride.

Home and onto my transition run where I was feeling quite toasty (by this point it was almost 80!). My legs felt good but I had a hard time keeping my HR under it's cap. I was likely dehydrated and I haven't run in this kind of heat for a LONGGGGG time. GREAT timing though as next weekend I'll be running in much hotter temps in Florida! :)

So I got home after my transition run and drank about 3 bottles of water. And then...ICE BATH! Yes, my friends, I was actually looking forward to the ice bath. Um yeah...ice bath MUCH easier to tolerate when it's not 25 degrees and snowing outside. Don't get me wrong, it's still cold but mentally much easier to take. And I didn't even need hot chocolate to get me through it. :)

That was my morning and most of my afternoon. Around the time that I was finished stretched and using my roller O appeared. I haven't seen him for a while. He was at a track meet all last night and then left for another meet just as I was getting up this morning. Trust me when I say, track coaches don't get paid nearly enough for all their time. (although I know $$ certainly isn't the reason they coach!) Regardless, as he walked in the door I promptly sent him outside to cut the grass. Because our grass is starting to look like hay. Just the other day I nearly lost Roxy in there!

As he cut I followed shortly after to pull weeds. Now that's a stinky job. But we got the yard looking nice and we even wheeled our grill back outside. GRILL! YIPPPEEEEE!!

And to top it all off we have some great races this weekend to follow - first the Olympic triathlon trials today (which I followed on slowtwitch.com) and tomorrow the Olympic marathon trials for the women. I might dare say that there are two VERY happy triathletes right about now and tomorrow there will be three VERY happy female marathoners!

I leave you with a picture of what happens when a certain someone's skin doesn't see sun for about 5 months and then is subjected to it for 3 hours straight. Yep, I have quite a farmer's tan. It might be a little hard to see in the picture, but trust me, it's there. Now at St. Anthony's it will be even worse when I take off my warmups - instead of just ALL white skin I'll be striped!

Posted by beth at 7:24 PM | Comments (6)

April 18, 2008

Swimming

So you might have noticed a theme of sorts on my blog for the past several months - that being swimming and my HUGE desire to get better at it.

I'm confident enough to say that I'm not an awful swimmer. I'm okay. But of the three, swimming is definitely my weak link. I need improvement in ALL THREE sports for certain but I need the most improvement in swimming.

Now if I was totally focused on long course races I wouldn't be as concerned. Afterall, when you have 9 or 10 hours to make up for the 5 or 10 minutes you lost on the swim, it's not such a big deal. But unfortunately, I really, really like the Olympic distance, of which swimming is probably the most important compared to all other distances. Go figure.

So needless to say, becoming a better swimmer has been a big goal for me this year. I've gained a HUGE amount of motivation and just general knowledge from the blogging community this year in regards to swimming. We do, afterall, have quite a few swimming gurus and all-stars! And I'm so thankful for that.

I've really been focusing on each swim workout to make sure I get the very most out of it. That's been a big difference for me. I expect more out of myself each time I get in the pool. I work harder, swim harder, focus more on my form. I go to masters once a week to chase faster swimmers than myself. I even did a swim meet. I know all this will help, but probably the biggest factor of all is patience. I can remember talking with my coach last year utterly frustrated with my poor swim performances (I had several!). And you know what he told me? "Patience. You didn't run your very first 5K in 18 minutes. It took time to develop that speed and strength. Same way with swimming. Keep doing the work and you will get there." To which I thought - BA HUMBUG! Of course I knew he was right but I am the most impatient patient person there is. :) Yes, I will be patient. And trust me, I won't give up. I will keep at it until my arms fall off. Perserverence is one of my strengths. But in the meantime I will be VERY impatient for the result to come.

So a while back I decided I needed to swim MORE. I usually swim 4 days/week which adds up to anywhere from 10,000-20,000 yds. I asked my coach if I could add a 5th day. To which he agreed (but of course cautioned that added workouts are only beneficial if our bodies are about to absorb the work - so I had to make sure I wasn't getting overly tired). But the 5th swim had to be a day of drills and form work. So he gave me some ideas and then I asked our superstar blogger swimmers and Jen, Danielle, Eric (the guy who basically taught me how to swim) and some others gave me even more great ideas. Thanks guys!

So I finally got to add my 5th swim of the week in today (and will be doing so on weeks that I'm not racing for the rest of the season). I started off small - only 1500 total this morning but all drills and then at the end no breath 25s. I had to laugh when I read Elizabeth's post regarding breath control swimming. I feel about the same as she does regarding breath control (ie: not my favorite), but I am convinced I can master it. Today I did 8x25 of it and had to take 1 breath on all of them except the very last one where I FINALLY made it the whole way across the pool. Geez! That stuff is hard. And it seems so unnatural to me. Like Elizabeth said, as a runner I didn't practice breathing only every 9th breath on my half mile repeats on the track! :) But I can understand it's purpose and to tell you the truth, if you told me that clucking like a chicken while standing on one foot in the shallow end of the pool would make me faster, I would do it!

I know I still have a ways to go. Lots more form work. And lots more good old hard work. I know running and swimming are different in many respects but I suspect that what helped me to succeed in running will eventually help me reach my goals in swimming. Just keep on keeping on. I need A LOT of practice in open water. I need to master flip turns. I need to swim aggressively in my races. I need to believe in my own swimming.

After my little swim workout this morning I went on my easy recovery run of the week and I thought of how much I love running and how comfortable I am with it. I certainly got a HUGE head start with running but I really feel like I can learn to love swimming just as much and be just as at home in the water as I am on the roads running.

So patience. But don't mind me if I'm really impatient in the mean time... :)

Posted by beth at 7:44 PM | Comments (4)

April 17, 2008

Simply Marvelous

Masters swim this morning. Fun times LCM style. Our fearless lane leader was not present this morning so that meant I had to lead the lane. Dear Lord - MATH! When do I leave? What number are we on? Is it now that we swim the easy 50 or one more hard 100 first? But I survived and I'm about 99.9% sure we did the workout correctly. :)

Then work. I feverishly looked out the window all day - so sunny, so warm looking and the sky was so blue!

And I wasn't disappointed. When I left work it was SO WARM outside. Like a big treat for having to wear tights the past 2 days!! I got home, got my bike in working order and took off. 35 glorious miles of 75 degrees and sunny, hills, sleeveless jersey, the smell of just about everyone in Pittsburgh grilling out! Heaven on earth. Not many places I would have rather been, that's for sure.

Posted by beth at 9:04 PM | Comments (4)

April 16, 2008

Tights Again!

I slept in until 6:30 this morning (day off work) and was VERY excited to get up to chirping birds and a big, blue, sunny sky! YIPPPEEE!! I raced to my computer, fired it up and got onto weather.com to see just how nice and warm it was going to be for my track workout. After a few clicks...

30 degrees.

Seriously. WHAT IS THAT?! Man. It just looked so warm! So it was tights again. And a hat. And gloves. And two long sleeves. When I got home from my workout I promptly threw my tights away. Really, I did! Right in the trash can. But actually that had more to do with the fact that they now have 2 large holes (instead of one) than the fact that I was fed up with having to wear them in April. :) These particular tights have lived a long and fruitful life. After some thought I came to the conclusion that yes, I really have been wearing them since high school (10+ years ago). They have seen many miles. Their holes have been sewn up by my mom already on more than one occasion. It was time to finally say goodbye. And I'm not buying new ones until next December. Hear that Mother Nature?! (oh no, I did not just tempt Mother Nature!)

Anyway, back to the actual workout. It was 3 miles of running hard on the straights and easy on the curves, followed up by a handful of hard 400s.

Now, if you come from a running background (such as yours truly) you may be thinking "what kind of fru-fru workout is this?" Running hard on the straights and jogging the curves? That's like a SPRINTERS workout!

In case you don't get the joke, distance runners often make fun of sprinters' workouts. The conversation might go something like this:

1st distance runner (to another distance runner, while everyone is warming up on the track): "Hmm...wonder what the sprinters are going to do today? Maybe 2x200? (snicker, snicker) Maybe run hard for 50 meters and jog the rest of the lap?"

2nd distance runner: "Nope, I heard they are doing 400s with 10 minutes rest in between!" (HAHAHAHAHA)

1st distance runner: "Oh Lord - 400s? They will be complaining and moaning all night how tired they are!"

2nd distance runner: "Remember the time they had to run the straights hard and jog the curves easy for like 3 laps and they all collapsed in exhaustion when they were done?"

1st distance runner: "Yeah, totally - and here we are running 6x1 mile with 1 minute rest...they really need to get tougher like us!"

Now, in the unlikely chance that there is a sprinter (or former sprinter) reading this, please don't take it personally. The real reason distance runners talk like this is because we are jealous. Very jealous. Jealous of the fact that you are fast and we are not and we have to run races that last 35+ minutes and you get much more glory for running races that last 10 seconds. Plus, what we often don't realize is that while your workout might really be 4x400 with 5 minutes rest, you are running those 400s in :55. This is something the we have a hard time understanding because, well, we couldn't run a :55 if our life depended on it.

Regardless, I've gotten so far off track I have forgotten what I was even talking about.

Oh yes, my 3 miles of hard on the straights and easy on the curves with some 400s afterwards. My point is, when I first encountered this workout last year I was skeptical. Come on, this can't even be that hard. But it is a hard workout. It's very hard and those 400s at the end? Killer.

The thing is, if you really do run HARD on the straights and don't totally dog it on the curves, you end up running some pretty fast miles. And the workout is continous, including the 400s, so you just keep going and going and going. Today my miles were 6:36, 6:27 and 6:25 which isn't too awful shabby given the fact that you are jogging easy for half of that time. Now obviously the goal isn't to run a certain time, but my point is, you end up moving pretty good. And the 400s at the end just hurt because now you are running much faster.

So that's the last time I pooh-pooh a workout BEFORE I do it. :)

But this morning I felt good and strong and was happy with the result. Even if I did have to wear tights.

Next up was breakfast and some odds and ends before I headed to the pool.

Once at the pool I was a little dismayed to learn that my legs had already decided that they did not want to participate in today's swim. Hmm... They apparently had had enough on the track this morning. So that left the work up to my arms. Now 1 year ago, that would have been disastrous. But slowly (VERY slowly) my arms are getting stronger and I'm able to swim better without kicking like a mad woman. So my swim was still A-okay this morning. Repeat 250s and 300s and I only lost count once.

The best news of the day is that it's currently in the 60s and sunny and absolutely beautiful. I was just running some errands and wore shorts and sandels and I was HOT! I can't remember the last time I was actually hot! (oh wait, just last night I sweat about 10 gallons of sweat all over my bike while I was partaking in my trainer workout... :) It's SOOO nice outside. And a quick check on weather.com shows that tomorrow it's supposed to get into the 70s. 70s I tell you!

Who needs tights anyway?

Posted by beth at 3:42 PM | Comments (5)

April 15, 2008

Plenty 'O Pain

Well I hate to admit it but I had to break the no tights in April rule on my run this morning. It was 31 degrees and I just couldn't bring myself to wear shorts. MAYBE if it was 31 and sunny but at 5 in the morning there is no sun to be found. And so begrudgingly I pulled the tights, long sleeves and hat and gloves on this morning. Sorry Ness, I feel as if I failed you. We seemed to have a bit of an unwritten, unspoken pact regarding tights in April.

Regardless, had a great run.

Then went to work and among other things ate a Rice Krispy Treat the size of my head. It was huge. It garnered many comments when I showed up with it (towering on a small plate) at journal club. The people I work with have a hard time understanding why I eat so much. They complain how unfair it is that I can eat like I do and not gain weight. They always say "I could NEVER eat that much - you are so lucky". I tell them to try training 20 hours a week basically year round. They still don't get it.

Anyway, I came home and felt soooooo sleepy. So very sleepy. So I decided to lay down and take a quick nap before my bike workout. But I couldn't really fall asleep. I think mostly because I had visions of hard bike intervals dancing in my head. This is where the title of this blog comes in. I swear hard workouts on the trainer are just about the most painful workouts ever. They are mentally devastating because unlike track workouts or hard swim intervals, you are working at maximal capacity and just not getting anywhere. I'm convinced that they make you extremely tough though. Extremely tough.

Once the suffer-fest that was my bike workout was through I was beat. But felt good for the effort and the strength gained.

So now I'm fed and iced and stretched and it's time to do some core exercises. And start over again tomorrow. I'm sure it sounds like a dull life to most non-athletes. But it sure does suit me. Suits me very well.

Good night!

Posted by beth at 7:45 PM | Comments (8)

April 14, 2008

Skinny Dog

Occasionally we put Roxy on the scale, mostly just because I'm curious how much she weighs. When we first got her about 2.5 years ago she was a mutt from the pound that hadn't been fed much. She weighed in at 23 pounds. After some time with us she got up to 25 and eventually settled in around 28 pounds. She's tall and skinny with long legs. Must be why she's a good runner.

So yesterday after we did our long run (where she joined us of course) we weighed her again. We have a very scientific and precise way to weigh her wherein O gets on the scale with Roxy and then he gets on the scale without her and then we do the math. Brilliant! Regardless, on Sunday she was only 26.5 pounds! UH OH! 1.5 pounds might not seem like much but when you are only 28 pounds to begin with, it begins to mean a little more. As a dietitian I quickly did the math that I do on most days to figure her loss to be >5% of her body weight and therefore deemed "significant" weight loss. Our puppy is at high nutritional risk!

So of course this meant lots of snacks yesterday, none of which she protested. Remember, this is the dog that ate a whole fruitcake in one sitting. She's also eaten a whole loaf of bread. She is a bottomless pit.

Which makes me wonder if what they say about dogs is true - how they become very much like their owners over the years. We like to run. Roxy likes to run. We like to eat. Roxy likes to eat (understatement of the year). We like to sleep. Roxy lives to sleep. We like sunny spots. Roxy likes sunny spots (or should that be the other way around?). I'm pretty sure Roxy would be a good swimmer too. We just have to take her to some open water to find out. Either way, she sure is a good pup and we get tons of enjoyment out of her each day.

As for workouts today, I did a few. Some swimming (I'm starting to get really excited about my swimming - it's been feeling good and strong!) before work and some lifting after work. And tomorrow is a new day. It was a bit chilly around here today but the whole rest of the week is looking warm and sunny! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:26 PM | Comments (9)

April 13, 2008

Another Busy Day

Another busy day here in Pittsburgh. At least for me. At least by my definition of "busy". :)

Started off with a long run on the trail with Roxy and O. The advertised temperature was 38 degrees so I wore way too much and then preceeded to take half of it off about 2 miles into the run. Otherwise a great run. It was a nice April morning and we got the whole run in before the rain started (which then lasted the whole rest of the day).

Next up was church and then home for a quick lunch before heading to the bike shop to pick up my bike! Lunch included thumbprint cookies which you all may or may not remember as my absolute favorite cookie of all time. When Jen and Chad came over yesterday to watch the Clearwater coverage they brought these thumbprints with them. VERY smart people if you ask me. They had come with 2 dozen cookies which of course we did not finish off last night so I was planning (I swear!) on sending them home with some of the leftovers. Of course I forgot. So O and I ended up with a lot of cookies. Now I know this sounds very suspect but I really was going to share. Regardless, the extras won't go to waste and indeed the 2nd box has already been broken into today. Thank you Jen and Chad!

To the bike shop we went after lunch and boy was I happy to see my TT! He (his name is Scotty) got a tune up and a few new parts, namely a new back tire, a new chain (apparently I had my old one all stretched out) and a new stem. The new stem was so that I could be lower on the front end. With my old set-up I was as low as I could possibly go (all spacers gone a long time ago) so this new stem allowed me to go even lower and right away I noticed a difference. Glenn, the bestest bike shop man ever, measured me again on the new set-up just to make sure things were kosher and indeed I was good to go!

I came home for an hour easy ride and since it was still raining decided to do it on the trainer. That gave me a chance to get down in my aerobars and give my new position a try. Feels good now I just hope it makes me fast!

And so that about does it. Add in dinner, some house cleaning, some blog writing, some IMAZ following (congrats to all finishers!) and that makes a day. Tomorrow is a new one. Have a great week everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:38 PM | Comments (2)

April 12, 2008

PS

Amongst all my complaining about the wind I forget to mention that my shoe surgery went VERY well last night. Strap amputation was complete and the shoe recovered in time to be used this morning for my ride. And the strap did not hit the crank once. THANK GOD! If you are ever looking for a good shoe surgeon I think you know who to come too... :)

Posted by beth at 9:32 PM | Comments (0)

Training, Clearwater and Pizza

First the workouts -

I started off the morning in the pool which is not exactly where I wanted to be. I wanted to be out riding my bike in the nice sunny warmth! It looked sooooo beautiful outside. But I knew the swim was supposed to be the first workout of the day so I was a good soldier and went swimming first.

I'm not sure what got under my skin but boy did I have a great swim this morning! I was doing sets of 300 pull, 3x150 swim and my stroke just felt strong and smooth and for the last set of 150s I averaged 1:16 pace (SCY of course) which I know is nothing spectacular but for me is rather fast. I know these things come and go but I would like to take this as a good sign. Yep, that's what we are calling it - a good sign!

I raced home after my swim to gear up and get ready for my ride. Unfortunately the sun had disappeared and I noted that it was getting rather windy as well. Little did I know.

About 5 seconds into my ride I knew it was going to be a windy one. So I made sure to ride into the wind first because it's just no fun riding home in it. OH MAN. It was so windy. I literally rode into the wind for 90 minutes straight. It was never ending. Unrelenting. Unforgiving. I wanted to cry. I went through the full gamut of emotions - first angry about the wind, then accepting, then sad, then thankful as I knew it would make me stronger. At one point I decided to try crossing over the river (I was riding parallel to the Allegheny) to see if it was any calmer on the other side. You know, the grasser is always greener on the other side type of deal? So I picked a bridge (there are plenty to choose from in Pittsburgh) and rode over. WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING?! On a windy day, the best decision is NOT to ride up onto a high bridge above water. I was pretty sure I was going to be blown into the river. Then there was the point where I felt like dismounting my bike and throwing it INTO the river. ENOUGH! By the end of the 90 minutes into the wind I was talking to myself. Make it stop PLEASE! And then the unthinkable - it occured to me that what if all along this was really a cross wind and when I turn around it's going to be just as bad? The only thing that had kept me going up until that point was the promise of a huge tailwind on the way home.

But luckily that wasn't the case. It was indeed a headwind so when I finally got moving in the direction towards home (which involved going over another bridge of course!) I was pleased as punch. HR down in the basement and pedaling uphills at over 20 mph. On the flats? 25 mph easy. This still never really made up for the fact that I averaged about 15 mph the whole way out but...what can you do? :) What took me 90 minutes to ride out into took me 70 minutes to ride back in. Geez!

But I would certainly take it over a trainer ride any day and as cranky as it made me, I know it's good for me. Wind, hills, heat, cold, no breathe 25s in the pool - all the things we hate but secretly love right? ;)

So finally home and ready for my ice bath, shower, stretch, roll, etc, etc, etc... and then to get ready for our Clearwater get together! As you might have seen the 70.3 World Championships were on tv today so we had a few people over to watch with us, Chad and his wife Jen and O's friend Ben (who will be doing several tris this summer) and his fiance Laura. TIME TO TALK TRIATHLON! Oh boy! We had so much fun (or at least I did, perhaps I should only speak for myself) watching the show and just talking and of course eating pizza. If I was a real hostess I probably should have made something for dinner but let's face it, I'm no cook. Or baker. And since I've come to accept these limitations I have become a very good pizza orderer!

I thought the show was pretty good and it was neat to see some of the shots of Clearwater from the helicopter that you couldn't possibly see unless you were in the air. It was also neat to see Mirinda Carfrae totally destroy the women's field on the run. WOW was she running. She looked so effortless and fast and she was just eating all her competitors up. If memory serves me correctly she did run a 1:18 or something rather sick like that. (I just looked it up and she ran 1:18:41!!). Impressive to say the least. And in case you are wondering that's 6 minute pace exactly.

Regardless it was a fun evening and I'm always thankful for great friends who share the same interests and passions that I do. And Roxy even behaved herself (sort of).

So now it's time for bed because tomorrow is another day of training and life in general! Hope everyone had a day as great as mine!

Posted by beth at 8:53 PM | Comments (3)

April 11, 2008

Events of the Day

1) easy swim ("easy" being relative because although I wasn't swimming "hard" I did have 400s that entailed only taking 1 breathe on every 4th 25 - AHHHHH that is NOT my favorite!)

2) directly followed by easy run

3) directly followed by the work day (I did take a shower, you will be happy to know)

4) directly followed by a 1 hr and 30 min commute home (I hate route 28)

5) then chiro appointment (that I was 40 minutes late to due to #4)

6) then lifting at the YMCA

7) then home for dinner

That brings us to now. Blogging. Getting bike and gear ready for tomorrow. And doing shoe surgery. Shoe surgery you ask? Well - my old cycling shoes drive me crazy because the velcro strap closes to the inside and because my foot is narrow and the strap too long, it hits (and subsequently opens the shoe) on my crank EVERY STINKIN' PEDAL STROKE. And I can't take it any more. I don't wear these shoes often now that I have new ones but I'm wearing them tomorrow and therefore they will be operated on tonight! Strap amputation! AHHHH!! (I asked O if he brought home his scalple to which he only raised an eyebrow... :)

Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:35 PM | Comments (1)

April 10, 2008

I Heart My Road Bike

So as previously mentioned I dropped my TT off at the bike shop yesterday to get tuned up and race ready. The shop was going to call if they got it done today but otherwise I could just ride my road bike for my ride today. I checked my cell phone after work and no call from the bike shop so the road bike it was! Yippppeeee!!

I have a little confession to make. (but quiet - don't tell my TT!) I like riding my road bike MUCH more than my triathlon bike.

Now why I'm not really sure. My TT is a great bike. I have a great fit on it. It's a much better bike (frame and component wise) than my road bike. It's newer. And we've been through a lot together. It's a RACING bike! But if I got to choose I would probably pick my road bike 9 times out of 10. Too bad the TT is about 10x faster or else I might choose the road bike to race on! :)

Part of the reason for the road bike love has got to be the terrain around here. Let's face it - it's easier to climb on a road bike (or at least it is for me!) just due to set up and...well...there's a lot of climbing to do around here!

And then there's the fact that a road bike is a little easier to handle (again, at least for me!) and I'm a little more fearless on it.

But I think the real reason I like the road bike more is the fact that I FEEL like a cyclist on it. My very first year of triathlon I almost exclusively rode a road bike (I did have a TT that I really only rode in races!) and I was always hanging out with cyclists (give me a break...I didn't know any better! ;). I did a lot of group rides (road bikes only!) and crits (road bikes only!) and LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT. And so when I get on my road bike...I get that same feeling - loving every second.

So today I was treated to another great day and another great ride on my road bike. I hit some serious hills - so far back in the country (the farther you get back, the hillier it gets around here) that I was only seeing 1 car every 10 minutes or so! I did see a lot of junk-yard dogs. And one pickup with a huge "REDNECK" sticker on the back (I'm not even smart enough to make this stuff up) came honking past me with about 5 dogs sitting in the bed of the truck. They (the people, not the dogs!) were yelling stuff too but I'm not really sure what. Luckily they turned into "Mike's Blue Moon Saloon" and I didn't see them again. :)

And lest you become concerned, I did also swim at masters this morning where we were treated to a set of 24x100 with half of those 100s as best average. Ohh...those best averages are rough! Swam strong though and I'm getting more used to long course meters.

Add to that a usual work day and that makes a FULL day! Now it's time to clean myself up!

Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:33 PM | Comments (1)

April 9, 2008

Higher Expectations

So before we get started on the events of the day let it be known that in about 1 hour I am going to leave my house to drive to the bike store to take my bike for it's check up and to get a little love (that I don't often give it). WHEN I leave the house this will be my attire. SHORTS. SANDELS. (and some assortment of long sleeve/sweatshirts up top). Did anyone hear that? SANDELS? SANDELS? Hello people! (and guaranteed my feet will be cold but I'm willing to take the risk :)

This weather is the BEST weather EV-A!

Anyway, today I have off work. This is a good thing. But still, last night I committed to going to bed early enough so that I could still get up at my usual 4:45 am so that I could do my track workout with O. Unfortunately O has to work (sorry sap - but I guess someone around here needs to!) and so we needed to leave for the warmup by 5:15.

I like to sleep in a little on my days off but I also like to have O as a partner on the track because, well, he's a stronger, faster runner than me. I'm not willing to conceed that he's better at longer distance races (10 miles and up - my marathon PR is still faster :) but over shorter distances and ESPECIALLY anything involving the track, he can put a hurting on me.

So up and off to the track we were. The other thing I dislike about doing track work so early is that you can't see your watch to look at your splits (doesn't get light until 6:15 or so right now). But luckily O (ever the equipment manager) takes care of that by reading off the splits with the light on his watch. This in addition to the fact that he does the actual workout with me and pulls me along to faster times makes him the ideal training partner. And no, you can't have him. He is mine!

This morning's workout was 800s, a 1600 and some random 200s tacked on at the end just to make sure you really did throw up. My goals were 2:50s for the 800s and 5:50 for the 1600 which we pretty much hit spot on. 5:50 exactly and 2:47-2:49 for the 8s. I was pleased as punch. Two or three weeks ago I had trouble handling that pace. I'm getting there. O got a little frisky on the 200s and tried to bust me on the last one. I tried my darndest to run him down but no dice. He's got some "quicks" as the saying goes. :)

So home it was where I put some breakfast in the belly. Next up was the pool where I had scheduled my long swim that I didn't do on Monday (on account of the bug that attacked my system). It was 4000 yds total which isn't too bad BUT - 600 repeats of all things. I was getting a little cranky on the drive over thinking of all the excuses of why I shouldn't be able to swim as fast as I wanted today. I had just done the track workout a few hours before, I was just coming off being sick, I'm a big, big baby...oh wait, that wasn't one!

At which point I had to scold myself. Because seriously - GET OVER IT! Triathon is a sport of 3 sports which means lots of workouts where you are tired and not fresh and that's just the way it is. I had to remind myself to get out of my own way. To stop limiting what I think I can and cannot do. This is my weakness for sure. I have found myself questioning my "limits" over and over again this year and it has done wonders for me. Why can't I run 5:40 pace? Why can't I swim 1:20 pace? Why can't I keep my cadence above 90 in this gear? Why can't I break 19 minutes in this 5K? Why? Why? Why? Because when I started asking "why" I realized that I didn't really have many good answers. You have to be realistic for sure, but I also had to stop thinking that 6 min pace on the track was my limit, or that I couldn't swim any faster than 1:25 pace in the pool. Time to aim a little higher you know?

So this was my thought process on the 3.5 minute drive over to the YMCA. :) I told myself to expect more of myself. And chances are, more is what I would get.

And I had a great swim. Really, really great swim. Sure I was tired but I swam hard and produced great results.

I know it doesn't always happen like that. You expect more and give it your all and you end up with less instead. I've been in sport long enough to undestand that. But that's where the mental strength and internal motivation to keep at it comes in. I'm not saying it's easy. And in fact I fail often. But that's what makes it fun right? You gotta just keep coming back for more!

Here's to higher expectations!

Posted by beth at 11:35 AM | Comments (5)

April 8, 2008

My Lucky Day

You know how sometimes you feel like everyone is just mean to you all day long? It doesn't happen often but I have those days where one after another it seems as if people are out for you! Well I had the OPPOSITE happen today where everyone seemed like they were going out of their way to be nice to me! Now that's my kind of day!

All things good and lucky started this morning when I woke up for my run and was praying my resting HR was back to normal. I felt MUCH better but as of last night the HR was still elevated. Please, please, please with a cherry on top let it be back to normal! And sure enough, while maybe 5 beats high, I finally saw the 50s again. YIPPPPEEEE!!! This was my green light to go for my run which felt great. O and Roxy joined me and it was in the 40s and I wore shorts! I wasn't quite sure what my plan was going to be if my HR wasn't back to normal but I'm glad to say I didn't need a plan B for that one.

Next up was work where I was greeted with a whole mother-load of patients to see AND my journal club presentation AND a whole other bunch of odds and ends that needed done ASAP. I was feeling overwhelmed as soon as I walked in so I walked over to the cafeteria to get some pretzels and something to drink (sign #2 that I'm feeling better - my appetite is back!). When in doubt, get something to eat, sit down and take a deep breathe. :) While picking out my drink of choice I ran into an older gentleman who joked with me about some things and then got into line to pay right behind me. He absolutely insisted on paying for my items. I protested but it was clear he meant business and I'll tell you what - that just brightened my whole day. He was just so nice (and at the hospital to see an oncologist so he couldn't have been having that great of a day himself). I told him he really made my day which I think in turn made his day and we both went on our merry way. Now my work load didn't seem so bad.

Got down to work and before I knew it my presentation was up and I was nervous. But I held it together well and when I started to stumble a little (with the statistics as predicted) the most stern of all the docs on our service helped me out. It surprised me but she started talking and helped me along and filled in all the knowledge gaps that I clearly had. THANK YOU! And now my name won't come up for journal club for a longggggg time.

After work I drove home WITH BOTH WINDOWS DOWN! I kid you not - 67 degrees and sunny baby! Now if that doesn't put one in a good mood I don't know what will! I had an interval workout on the bike planned but first, back on with the HR monitor to make sure I wasn't pushing it too much. Sure enough, HR still in the normal ranges and off I was to get my cycling gear on! I mostly do my interval sessions on the trainer just so I can really focus and not worry about traffic, stop lights, stop signs, etc... BUT I try to get at least 25% of these hard workouts done outside so I can ride HARD up and down hills, around turns, in the wind, with the wind, etc... Just like a race. So I was super excited and thankful that I was getting at least one chance to ride hard outside before my first race.

Only one little problem. I go downstairs to collect my bike and as I begin to pump my tires I note that my back tire is PANCAKE flat! UGH!! That would make both of my back tires on both of my bikes flat! What is up with that?! (both sets of wheels and the TT is going in for it's tune-up tomorrow - thank God - I need a mechanic to give my bikes some love STAT!). I panic. OH no! No wheels to ride on and I was afraid if I started the process of changing the back tube I wouldn't be finished until tomorrow. Plus, my tires are just bad and I need new ones. So I took a huge risk and just pumped up the tire as much as I could and I took off. I knew it was a slow leak and it would probably hold me for the 70 minutes I needed it to. Not too smart but I figured my luck hadn't run out yet so why not? Of course I took my tools to change a flat should it come but as luck would have it - I made it the whole workout and home in one piece!

And the workout was awesome! It felt really good to ride hard outside - to practice staying tucked down in aero position while pumping hard up hills and screaming down hills and around corners, etc...

So after feeling like pooh and having a rough couple days, I feel so much better now. Lucky me! And now it's time to get into bed so I continue to have good days! Good night all!

Posted by beth at 8:32 PM | Comments (3)

April 7, 2008

Sleep = Magic

Well it's quite a wonder what a little sleep will do! Actually, I should alter that last statement to say "what A LOT of sleep will do", because sleeping is pretty much ALL I've been doing since Saturday night. But thankfully I'm starting to feel much better already.

I went to bed last night still feeling like pooh and woke up this morning feeling much the same. Achey and just not good. But almost as if a switch was turned on, around noon today I started to feel better. All of a sudden I felt like doing something other than laying in bed or on the couch. I got up and moved around a bit, ate some lunch and even pondered the possibility of going to the YMCA for my swim.

I strapped on the HR monitor to find a still elevated HR (still about 15-20 beats higher than my usual resting) and decided swimming would be pushing my luck. I really, really, really wanted to swim, but just as the run yesterday wasn't too smart, I don't think the swim today would be any smarter.

I did placate myself by allowing myself to go to the YMCA for my lifting session. I figured lifting isn't too stressful and would actually allow me to move around a little which would probably help me to feel even better. After some thought I decided that the reason my back was hurting so badly was because I had been laying on it for the past 36 hours and I needed to MOVE! :)

So lifting I went and I don't seem to be too worse for the wear. With some more sleep this afternoon and tonight I'm hoping to get back on schedule tomorrow with workouts and life in general. That's my plan anyway - now lets see how it goes! :)

Posted by beth at 3:19 PM | Comments (5)

April 6, 2008

Operation Low Key

Well, things have changed rapidly around here in the life of Beth Shutt. No sooner did I finish writing my blog entry yesterday telling you all how great I felt during my training, than I started to feel a little sick. My throat was a little sore and my head hurt a little. Nothing too big. But I figured I'd better rest up the rest of the night so that's exactly what I did.

When O called me around 6:45 pm that he was on his way home from the track meet I requested a stop at Dairy Queen for a blizzard to soothe my sore throat (which seemed to be getting sorer by the minute). And I took some Advil. And I went to bed really early.

I woke up this morning not really feeling too awful and because I just thought it was a cold I decided to do my long run anyway. I've run through about a million colds and been okay. So we got dressed and I strapped on my HR monitor and instead of the usual resting reading in the 40s or low 50s it was reading in the 70s and 80s. Hmmm...maybe this run isn't such a great idea?

Of course I don't always make the best decisions so we started the run anyway and truthfully I didn't feel too badly...until about 2 or 2.5 miles in. Then I just felt bad. Sort of dizzy and queasy and achey all over. At 3 miles I stopped. This just wasn't a smart idea. So we turned around and walked one mile, ran one mile and walked the final mile to the car. UGH.

I ate some breakfast, took a shower, stretched and felt absolutely exhausted. So I crawled back into bed and didn't wake up again until after 2 pm! I got up just long enough to get something to eat and then go back to sleep until 4:30 or so. Oh my!

I really don't feel that badly now, just achey and my back is really hurting. Not sure what kind of bug I have but I hope it goes away as quickly as it came! In the mean time, I'll just take it one day at a time. See how I feel tomorrow morning and go from there. Operation low key is now in effect!

Hope everyone is feeling a lot better than me and has a great start to their week! :)

Posted by beth at 5:49 PM | Comments (11)

April 5, 2008

The Usual

So here we are again with another day of great training under our belt. Started off a little rough this morning in that I didn't feel like swimming. Humpf. I wanted someone to go with but O was off to a track meet instead. Double humpf. Who else would go swimming with me? After about 30 seconds I decided the answer was "nobody" and that I just needed to get my suit on and go. So that's what I did.

Somewhere along the way I started to have a great swim though so my attitude changed quickly. Some 100s and 50s today and I felt great! I think that day off yesterday might have been just what the doctor ordered. Anyway, the repeats were on a pretty tight interval today and it was only 3000 yds total so the workout was done before I knew it!

Back home and to the computer to check the weather. Currently 40 degrees and no rain in sight. YIPPPPPEEEEE!! I still haven't figured out how to dress properly for outdoor cycling when it's below 60 degrees. All I knew though was that I was NOT going to wear tights. I just can't do tights in April. I think Ness would agree. Of course this is going to come back to bite me at some point when I wake up for a morning run and somehow it's 15 degrees... :)

Anyway, I went for the leg warmers, shorts, long sleeve top, cycling coat, head thing (I don't know what they are called but they are kind of like skull caps) and GLOVES. Now here's the thing - I hate wearing gloves. I especially hate wearing gloves when I'm riding because I feel like I can't shift correctly. So I brought the gloves but just shoved them in the back pocket of my coat instead of actually wearing them.

About 3 seconds into my ride I realized I should probably be wearing the gloves instead of carrying them around on my back. I decided to wait until the next red light to get them though. There are about 342 traffic lights that I have to go through to get out of town and just about every time I ride I get 341 of those red and have to stop. But wouldn't you know I didn't get ONE red light today until about 15 minutes into my ride?!?! My hands were raw. Of course if I had any sort of head on my shoulders I would have just pulled over and got the gloves or put them on while I was riding. This thought didn't occur to me at the time though. :)

Anyway, besides the raw hands I have a GREAT ride today. Felt strong and fluid on the bike. Again, likely a by-product of yesterday's day off. I did have one little run in with a motorist. It was the typical scenario where I was riding along, minding my own business when I hear the honking that starts behind me. You just know some JERK is going to scream something out his window when this starts. Sure enough, as the honking gets closer I see the SUV right next to me with window down and I hear "get the f*ck off the roads!!!" Nice. This SUV then proceeded to cut me off and...I kid you not...pull into McDonalds. Extra nice. I would bet a large sum of money that the driver was an overweight man in his mid to late 50s who smokes. This is almost always the case. It's either that or a middle aged woman driving a car that costs >$50,000. The women usually don't yell but they honk and gesture instead. Either way, I didn't even look as this guy drove past. That's my rule. Don't even look, just keep riding and get up on your brakes so you can be ready if they try to run you off the road.

Regardless, I got home and transitioned quickly into my running shoes, begged Roxy not to eat my bike while I was gone, and started off on my run. Again, legs felt GREAT off the bike. I usually feel pretty good off the bike but not this good. I did have frozen feet that didn't feel normal until about 12 minutes into the run but that's to be expected until you are riding in temps >45 or 50.

And so was my morning. Does anyone feel like they could write my Saturday blog for me now? Pretty standard - swim, ride/run followed by lunch, ice bath, shower, stretch, relax, wait for O to return from track meet. Insert an occasional funny story or perhaps some complaining and you've got it! :)

Hope everyone is enjoying some somewhat warmer temps and some sun!

Posted by beth at 4:22 PM | Comments (2)

April 4, 2008

Day Off

Well I'm very excited to report that today I had a day off training! I get one of these every 4-5 weeks as needed and so since they don't come around too often I try to take advantage of them when they do. Not that I did anything exciting today other than my usual routine of going to work and then coming home but I did sleep in a little and enjoy knowing throughout the work day that when I left I was just going home to relax.

I did stop at Sams Club on the way home though because we are out of Kashi Go Lean Crunch - THE best cereal known to man. And our Sams has it for cheap in a very big box. Can't beat that! Along the way I also managed to spend another $81.23. But that always seems to happen at Sams. Rest assured though, if you come visit our house you will not lack for toilet paper!

And so even though I really don't have anything earth shattering to say (never really do) I'm writing a blog entry anyway because I don't want to

A) put away all the Sams Club purchases OR
B) change the back wheel on my bike AGAIN so that I can ride my TT tomorrow

Yes, I am very lazy.

I am excited though for some more outside riding tomorrow. I figure by the time I finish my swim it should be up in the 40s and the rain is supposed to be over by tonight. Good deal! I want to ride in the hills again but I think I may stick to some flatter areas so I can just get down in my aerobars and ride. My first race is flat and I need some practice in that sense. My next race then (Columbia) is relatively hilly and so I will feel free to ride all the hills I want leading up to it!

Hope everyone has a great weekend of training (and racing if that be the case!). Triathlon season here we come!

Posted by beth at 7:52 PM | Comments (2)

April 3, 2008

Out-Riding the Rain

Before I even moved an inch this morning I knew I was sore. As in whole-body sore. And while there are many suspects (hard bike Tuesday, track workout Wednesday, massage Wednesday) I believe the true culprit for said soreness is the weight room activity yesterday. Dang weight room! :)

So off to masters practice I went! The workout today was 40x50 in sets of 5. Four of those sets of 5 where supposed to be on the tightest interval we thought we could handle. The pool is still long course meters (yippee!) so lane partner Matt and I look at each other and know we have a decision to make. Shall we make those 50s on :45 or :50?

Now before I tell you our decision I'll have to say that I have some sort of speed warped brain when it comes to LCM. Everything *seems* like it should be so easy. 100s on 1:30? Sure - no problem! 300s on a 1:30 base? Sure - no problem! 50s on :45? Sure - no problem! And then I actually attempt these things and...uh oh...PROBLEM! :)

So Matt and I decide to do the first set of hard 50s on :50 and then try the last 3 sets on the :45 interval. It was during that first set that I realized that if I'm cutting it close on the :50, the next couple sets on the :45 are going to be pretty rough. And they were. Touch and go if you will - as in, touch the wall and go! I'd be good through 2 or 3 but the last 2 I was swimming hard, touching the wall and going again. But I'm really happy we went for the tougher interval because next time it might be that little bit more doable. And we'll be deciding between going on the :40 and the :45. :)

Next up was a big stress filled day at work where there were sick people EVERYWHERE! Ah! So many sick people! And they all seem to have nutritional issues. So we are busy to say the least. And of course I was obsessively checking the weather throughout the day knowing that I could ride outside in the afternoon if ONLY I got home quickly enough to ride before the rain started.

It's days like this that you have to stay late at work. :)

But I hurried home as quickly as possible and got all my gear on, checked the weather a few more times and then decided rain or shine I was going.

And it was a great ride. I rode out all my work stress and frustrations and just really, really enjoyed being on my bike. I decided somewhere along the way that if I had to choose one of the triathlon sports to soley do it would be cycling. I've already done the running thing and it's too hard on my body and I'm not a good enough swimmer (nor do I like cold water). But cycling? That's just good stuff. Of course I'd have to move to Tucson for the winter months but otherwise I'd be good to go. :)

I headed to the hills and rode and rode and was so sad to turn around. Mostly because that meant I was on my way home but also because I was going to be facing a beastly headwind on the way back. :) And beastly it was! It was more of a cross-head-wind (does such a thing exist?). A couple times I was gripping pretty tightly on the handlebars hoping not to get blown over. I was thinking though that my definition of wind is probably very different than someone that lives in...say Chicago...or Florida...or somewhere where there is a lot of wind. With our hills and mountains we probably don't get near the wind that those folks get!

And that was my day. Now it's time to do core exercises and sweet talk O into fetching the laundry. We really need to teach Roxy how to work the dryer...if only I could trust her not to eat all our socks on the way up from the basement... :)

Good night all!

Posted by beth at 9:04 PM | Comments (2)

April 2, 2008

Warp Speed

This day has seriously passed by at near warp speed. Where does the time go? I shouldn't be surprised though as my days off ALWAYS fly by quickly. As the over-used saying goes, times sure does fly by when you're having fun!

The fun began this morning on the track. 400s. Ouch, ouch and more ouch. Just like really hard 100s in the pool that leave you clutching the wall, these 400s left me clutching the fence, my knees, the grass. You name it, I was clutching. Of course the problem is that all my track workouts seem to have about ZERO rest in between intervals. What's up with that? I really think that's a triathlon thing. No rest in the pool hardly EVER and then on the track and during farleks and even on the bike, rest intervals are always so short. And I don't think it's just my coach who does that because I've read about others doing the same. When I do this particular workout of 400s on the track the rest is 40 seconds. 40 seconds?!?! When you are running really hard that's not even enough time to think about getting back to the line.

Now back in the day when I was a runner I remember rest intervals being MUCH longer. Occasionally we would do 400s with 1 minute rest but that was like some crazy thing. Mile repeats? Heck, we'd have 3 or 4 minutes rest! A triathlete would have their whole workout done in the time we used to have as our rest interval! :)

But I'm not complaining because I think short rest intervals make you SUPER tough. And I mean SUPER, SUPER tough! Didn't even catch your breathe yet? Oh, too bad, so sad...now get your butt back to the line and GO AGAIN! :) Triathlon is definitely not for the weak of heart. ;)

After the track (which went very well by the way, despite the fact that I wore shorts when the windchill was in the high 20s - I just DON'T do tights in April!), I headed home, snarfed (is that a word?) some cereal and then headed to the pool. The pool and I were getting along very well today and I had a nice strong pull workout. And my shoulder didn't hurt (hurray!).

As I was leaving the pool a man walked in who looked very familiar but whom I couldn't quite place. Where had I seen him before?! It was really bugging me until it finally dawned on me. It was the "since when did your beak get so sharp" guy. AHHHHH!!! Vacate, vacate! I quickly grabbed my pool toys and got the heck out of there! :)

Next up was the weight room. Nothing too exciting there other than the fact that I saw my favorite tattoo guy. He has about a million tattoos and they all seem to be related to Bible verses. He has one long scroll of words that starts around his knee and wraps all the way down his (very large) calf to his ankle and I really want to know what it says. Of course it's pretty hard to get a good look without looking like a creepy stalker so I just try to steal quick glances here and there, none of which have been successful in figuring it out. If I was just a normal person I could just ask him and I'm sure he'd tell me but he scares me a little and always has headphones on. Oh well. I suppose it will remain a mystery to me. :)

Finally I left the YMCA, home for icing, a quick lunch, shower, stretch and then off to the chiropractor/massage therapist for some work on my hips/back and all my other trouble areas. In general I'm thrilled with how healthy I've been feeling (especially the fact that the shoulder pain left as quickly as it came) but staying healthy doesn't come without a lot of work for me. Lots of core exercises, stretching, rolling, icing, PT exercises, massage, etc... But it's worth it 100% and more!

So now somehow it's 5. I should have some time for some laundry, ironing, bills and packing for tomorrow before O gets home for dinner. And at some point I'm going to make sure my road bike is all ready to go for tomorrow because I think it should be nice enough to ride OUTSIDE after work! To the hills I go!

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 4:26 PM | Comments (6)

April 1, 2008

Double Ouch?

So last Tuesday I wrote a blog entry entitled "Ouch" and told of my somewhat, no make that VERY, painful bike workout. Today more of the same. Although I swear it felt 10,000 times harder today. That's just it though. I'm sure it wasn't harder or if it was maybe just a bit, but our brains have a way of forgetting how acute the pain was. Thank God for that!

Either way, today's workout entailed a trainer session with a 20 minute TT where the 2nd half was faster than the first. Holy smokes. Any prolonged interval on the trainer is somewhat akin to torture for me. Hard physically yes, but more so mentally fatiguing as you look at your watch *thinking* it's been at least 8 minutes and it's really only been 1:30. OH man.

So I start the TT after a nice warmup and I'm feeling GOOD. I'm holding myself back a little because I know 20 minutes is going to feel more like 40 and the second 10 is supposed to be faster/harder than the first 10. Life is sweet. And then around 8 minutes in I'm starting to wear a little thin at which point I KNEW I was in for a long one.

Let's just say this. At one point during the last half I felt like my eyes were bleeding.

Enough said.

I wanted desperately to change to an easier gear and spin at a higher cadence but I was just not going to let myself do it. NO. NO. NO!! You WILL keep the gearing right where it's at and you WILL keep your cadence over 90 in this gear and you WILL finish this workout. You WILL.

When the 20 minutes had finally passed I slumped over my aerobars and felt like dying. But of course the intervals weren't over yet as I had some shorter pieces to accomplish.

Regardless, it was a great workout and although I struggled greatly that's what it's all about. Right now I am just not strong enough to push the type of gears that I want to push. I feel like what I need is to get outside, go find some 10-15 minute climbs and sit my butt down in the saddle and just CLIMB! I need strength people! But I know, patience young cyclist, patience. It will come as the season progresses. I can't expect to be riding as well as I was last fall when I was in GREAT cycling shape right before Clearwater. This was due to the fact that I couldn't run (hamstring injury if you recall) and so I just rode my bike like a crazy woman. :)

Anyway, that was my fun for the evening. All of that was preceeded by a day at work during which I made the realization that I present at journal club next week and I have yet to even pick an article. Surge of panic! By the end of the day I had settled upon "The risk for bloodstream infections is associated with increased parenteral caloric intake of patients receiving parenteral nutrition." Riveting I know. In case you all want to stop by for my presentation it's next Tuesday at 1 pm. :) Please come prepared with some questions that I actually know how to answer because Lord knows I won't be able to answer the statistics questions I'm sure to get.

And before work? A wonderful 8 mile run in the peaceful, dark morning. O decided to sleep in since he's been staying up late working on a project so I was solo this morning (Roxy does what her Dad does, so she too was in bed snoozing). I had a great run though, alone with my thoughts and prayers. And the sounds of my foot steps. I have always enjoyed early morning running for just that reason and I'm sure I always will!

Posted by beth at 8:19 PM | Comments (4)