Last year I think I raced at about 4 or 5 of the same races that the Wassners did - St. Anthony's, Columbia, Philly, NYC... And again this year I've seen them a few times. They race with such intensity but Laurel still always has a smile on her face! Anyway, I'm a big fan.

At Philly this year when Bec was given the mic for her victory speech, she mentioned the new Nike/LiveStrong ad campaign that was going to debut that night. So of course I had to go to the Nike website to check things out. I saw the Lance Armstrong ad on tv for the first time tonight. I swear those commercials always almost make me tear up.

But what you REALLY have to check out is this video. While you are on the site check out all the videos. I LOVE them. And I would be way too embarrassed to tell you how many times I've watched the video about the Wassners and Lance Mackey. :) (by the way, the video footage from the Wassner video is from Columbia!)

Cancer is such a devastating disease. And we are all touched by it in some way. Or we will be. I'm so inspired by the strength that cancer victims display day in and day out for a battle that I'm sure they didn't want to fight. Pretty darn amazing if you ask me.

Happy 4th everyone!

Anyway, my foot is on the mend. I know you were all wondering. Actually, you could probably all care less. :) But, I have to admit that I was getting worried. Foot (which I smashed on a rock coming out of the water in Philly in case you didn't read the race report) definitely hurt on Sunday but come Monday I thought I was going to have to saw it off. On Monday it REALLY hurt. Like can't put any weight on it type of hurt.

So what did I do? I took lots of Ibuprofen, iced it like crazy and sat at my computer for 10 hours catching up on work. And tried to convince myself that it really wasn't broken. And hoped like heck it would feel better on Tuesday.

Tuesday rolled around and it still hurt really badly. I did get on my trainer to ride my bike and was very, very relieved to not feel any pain pushing the pedals. Or only very, very slight pain. Well, I might not be able to walk, run or swim again but at least I can ride my bike!

Also on Tuesday, I was scheduled to work at the hospital. This was a little worrisome because that involves a lot of walking. My foot definitely felt better with my running shoes on but still, ouch. I got through the day though. Still, on my drive home I was convinced that I really did break my foot. I mean really, can a bruise hurt this badly?

Luckily Julia (PT extraordinnaire) came to my rescue. She commented on FB about how inflammation (which I had a LOT of - couldn't even move my toes there was so much swollen-ness/inflammation in the area) peaked at ~72 hours and then things would calm down from there. Hmm...now THAT'S a little tidbit that I could work with! I emailed Julia with all kind of questions and she calmed my fears. She should of just said, "no pycho, your foot isn't broken, now JUST CALM DOWN!" but she was much nicer than that. :)

THANKFULLY, when I woke up this morning (indeed ~72 hours after the initial trauma), my foot felt somewhat better. Yes, still very sore to walk on but now I didn't wince with every step and I could move my toes around! And with shoes on, walking was definitely much more bearable! (barefoot walking is still out of the question)

So I went to the YMCA for a morning of fun. First up was my swim workout which I was kind of worried about because pushing off the wall seemed like it was going to be painful. But I told myself I could still do the swim and just not use the walls if worse came to worse. Luckily, pushing off the wall was only slightly painful so I was able to swim normally! Then I did my running workout in the deep end of the pool. Then I got out of the pool and had very wrinkly fingers from being in the water for wayyyy too long. :)

I also lifted while I was at the YMCA and noticed that I wasn't even limping anymore! Yes, things with the foot are definitely improving. Thank goodness! Don't think I will be running any time soon but I'm just happy to see some progress. My coach told me the rest would do me good. Bottom line though, and moral of the story is, avoid the rocks at the swim exit my friends!

In other news, I felt really good swimming this morning which was extremely nice because the last time I felt good swimming seemed like about 5 months ago. Ok, that's a huge exaggeration. But it did make me very happy. Also, our dog is a bread thief. If you've been reading this blog long enough you might remember the time Roxy stole and ate an entire fruit cake around Christmas time about 3-4 years ago. Then, she figured out how to open our bread drawer and ate about 2-3 loaves of bread before we finally wised up and moved our bread to higher ground. Well over the weekend when we were in Philly Roxy spent her days at Oscar's parent's house. Being the rude little house guest that she is, she decided to help herself to about 1/2 of a loaf of freshly baked bread that was cooling on the counter. Of course the other half of the loaf was rendered useless with dog slobber all over it. I have no doubt she would have devoured the whole thing had she not been caught in act. BAD DOG! (but really cute and, in the end, that is how she saves herself every time)

Okay, back to work! Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to July!

Of course I did all of this at about 10 pm at night.

Needless to say, I didn't get too much sleep that night but come Friday morning O and I formulated a plan to get everything in working order and still get to Philadephia (about a 5 hour drive) on time. It was a little stressful but lucky for me, I have the best husband on earth. He took care of the computer (some sort of battery hiccup but it's working just fine now!) and then the wheel (THANK you to Big Bang Bikes for taking care of us always) while I took care of packing things up and taking Roxy to Greensburg where O's parents were watching her for the weekend.

WHEW!

After that mayhem the trip went much more smoothly and we got to Philly in a timely fashion. We stayed in a much nicer (and somehow cheaper and more convienent) hotel this year and had the benefit of knowing where things were from doing the race last year. I do like doing new events but it's very nice to do the same ones too so you know what's going on!

Race morning!

I was really excited to race. I knew Bri and my teammate Lindsay were racing in addition to Alice, who I barely just beat out at Columbia in May. Those 3 would certainly make it a very exciting and competitive race not to mention many others! Unfortunately Philly doesn't have an "elite amateur" wave so we couldn't all race head to head but Lindsay and Bri are both old like me so we at least all started together. :)

I got over to the swim start (you have to ride a bus to get there) with O early and got in for a practice swim. But then I had a longggg wait until I started as I was in one of the last waves to go. Luckily Bri and Marty found us and we had someone to talk to! I was especially happy to have Bri there at the start once O left to go back over to transition. I am always so nervous before the start of a race, it's just nice to have someone to talk to and take your mind off of what's to come!

The big talk of the morning was that the current was stronger than usual in the river. So I'm picturing NYC where the current is so strong you have to hold onto something or else you get pulled downstream! Well it was nothing like NYC but there definitely was a current and it definitely helped!

My plan for the swim was to try to stay on Bri's feet for as long as possible. Hmmm...not so sure if that was a good plan because she pretty much just swam right away from me. :) But still, I found other feet to swim on and as I got out of the water I glanced at my watch and saw 19:xx. I nearly had a heart attack! 19? I've never broken 22 minutes before! :) Okay, maybe that current was a little stronger than I thought. :) But still, I'm calling it a good swim because in relation to everyone else's time, I was much closer to the fast fishies than usual. Trust me, I'm usually the one getting out of the water 4 minutes behind!

Unfortunately as I exited the water I managed to find the one big rock in the grass that was sticking out and cracked my right foot on it pretty hard. Pain shot up through my foot and I stumbled a little but at the time didn't think much of it because I WAS RACING! (more to come on this however)

Onto the bike and happy as ever. I think I will always be one of those triathletes that is just SO happy to get on their bike and be out of the water. :)

I had forgotten how squirrelly this bike course is. The Olympic distance race has something like 2500-3000 people entered in it and the bike course is 2 loops. EGADS! There were just people all over the place. I think it was better last year because my wave went off much earlier and at least for the 1st loop I had a clear path. Not so this year. You could probably stay aero for about 98% of this course if you had people racing properly and things weren't so crowded but yesterday I was probably aero about 50% of the time! Regardless, I knew it was the same for everyone in my age group so if I was slowed down because of course congestion, so were they.

It wasn't very long into the bike that I saw Lindsay! This is how I knew I swam better than usual as it usually takes me 15-20 miles to catch glimpse of her on the bike! Around the same time I found Linsday I also passed another gal in our AG that looked to be riding strong. And so for the next 15 miles of the bike the 3 of us went back and forth and back and forth. I'd get ahead on the uphills, they would pass me back on the downhills. It was good because it kept me focused. And I also knew Bri was still out there ahead of us too.

With about 5 miles to go we found Bri. Now there were 4 of us. I had wanted to try to get as much distance as I could on Bri on the bike because I knew she would run very fast...

...but that didn't really happen. :) I believe Linsday, Bri, the unidentified person and I all came into T2 very close together although I wasn't spending time looking around - I was just trying to get out of there ASAP!

As I started to run my foot hurt. OUCH! Why does my foot hurt? Oh right, I cracked it on a rock! But that was neither here nor there because I had more important things on my mind. Like getting away from the 3 very fast runners behind me!

I was leading for about 2 miles when the unidentified person (and eventual winner) caught me. We ran together for a bit but then I just couldn't keep her pace. Sigh. Darn running - it used to be my strength! Of course I could make all sorts of excuses but the fact of the matter is, my running is turning into my liability instead! I just need to stay focused on staying healthy and I know I can turn that around. And also know that my perspective has to change some. As my coach told me, it was easier to feel like a great runner when I wasn't as good of a swimmer/cyclist before as I would come off the bike back in xth place and it was FUN to catch 7 or 8 people on the run! But as my swimming and cycling improves I'm finding myself coming off the bike in much higher positions where instead of being the passer I'm the passee! As I found out yesterday, it's much different to be the hunted coming out of T2 first! Good point coach!

Anyway, Bri was the next one to pass me. Darn it again! Stop the bleeding! Bri was smart and didn't even give me an option of running with her - she just kept trucking right on by. I knew Lindsay was looming back there too so I focused as hard as I could on Bri's back and not letting her get away.

She gapped me by about 100 yds. But then she didn't get farther ahead. Of course I was really hurting and wanting this race to end NOW. One thing's for sure, racing isn't easy.

So I kept running and although my mile splits were more like 6:30-6:40 instead of the 6:20s that I wanted, I just kept pushing. Around mile 5 I thought "hmm...is Bri getting closer...even by just a little?" That thought kept me entertained for the next few minutes until I decided that she was indeed coming back to me a little but likely still too far away to catch. Yet still I had in the back of my head that "anything is possible and because of that not to give up." As I think I've said before I'm ever the optimist while racing. :)

At mile 6 I decided I should go for it. I knew I had about 75 seconds left of running so I had to plan this right. If I passed Bri too early she would certainly respond and just pass me right back. So go when there isn't much time left and go as hard as you can! Which is what I did. I don't think I've ever sprinted so hard at the end of a race!

Afterwards I felt kind of bad about it. I know racing is racing but it felt a bit like a cheap pass right at the end of a race. I totally had the advantage in being behind Bri the whole time but of course she was a very good sport about it! And at the time, in the race, you can only think of one thing - passing all the people that you can!

Regardless, our AG ended up being the fastest of the bunch which left the unidentified person (later to be identified as Rebecca from MD!), myself, Bri and then Linsday as going 1-2-3-4 in the overall amateur female race. Yeah for 30-34 year old ladies! :)

So I was happy. I was 2nd overall with a 2:10:54 and I was praying that the first place person was from another state as Philly was the Best of the US qualifier for PA.

Luckily she was. Rebecca is from Maryland! Yeah! One of my major goals for this year was to qualify for BOUS again and so I was very pleased to do so.

All in all a great day. Although back to that foot, after the race it REALLY started to hurt. As in limping, can't put weight on it, how in the heck did I just run a very hard 10K on it type of pain. It was also turning black and blue and getting swollen. ARGHHHHHH! My hamstring issues are enough to deal with!

I iced it (stole ice from the Chipotle :) and took Ibuprofen on the way home but when we did finally manage to get back to Pittsburgh I went to the local ER to get xrays JUST to make sure I didn't break anything. What can I say, my mom convinced me. :) Nothing was broken (although the doctor told me there could be a hairline fracture that an xray wouldn't pick up) but that it was likely just a bad contusion. Whoo-ee, bad contusion is right! This morning it feels like I'm walking on a giant goose egg! It's still quite painful and I'm limping but I'm continuing with my ice/Ibuprofen regimen and just keeping off it as much as I can. Hopefully I won't miss too much training time because of it but either way, I asked my hamstring very nicely if it wouldn't mind getting better too while I'm resting my foot. :)

Bri, Rebecca and I getting our awards. They are shaped like that big cracked bell that Philly is so proud of. :)

My teammate Linsday and I. I would be remiss if I didn't brag about Linsday at least a little! She just crushed her PR at Eagleman, winning her AG, getting another Kona slot and getting 2nd OA amateur! And she has a lot more racing to do this year at IMLP, Kona and I'm trying to talk her into AG Nationals. :) Plus, she's really humble and nice and a great teammate to have. All my MAO teammates are great. And fast. We must have good coaches or something. :)

So congrats to everyone who raced this weekend! And thanks to everyone's good luck wishes and support. This sport is amazing simply for all the wonderful people it's made up of!

But I am excited as ever to race again! And the Philadelphia Triathlon is a great race! I did it last year and am looking forward to going back to tackle the same course again and see how I match up. Should be fun and interesting all at the same time!

In the mean time I'm enjoying my taper. :) I either really like to taper or really hate it depending on where I am in a training cycle and how tired I am. The past couple weeks of hard training (really since Columbia) have left me knackered! And so this time around I was looking forward to the taper and loving it once it arrived! I'm already feeling the life come back into me and my legs and arms. Actually, my arms may need a few more days. :)

Word is the Schuykill River (a prize goes to the person who can correctly pronounce the river's name!) is looking better after some worry that all the recent rain might force a duathlon. YIKES! Just so you know, the runners get disappointed when the swim is cancelled too!

And so it goes! Best of luck to all those racing this weekend! Enjoy and race hard. And of course, BE GREAT! :)

Seven years ago today O and I were married! Best decision I ever made. :)

Then we went on the best honeymoon ever. Neither of us had jobs at the time and nowhere to be so we took 2 weeks and explored New England. Here we are at a Red Sox game.

This morning we celebrated by doing a track workout together. :) I thanked O for putting up with me for seven years but informed him that he has a long way to go...

I sure am one lucky gal!

Have a great day everyone! And congrats to all those IMCdA finishers. You inspire me beyond belief!

On the drive up - rain, rain and more rain. Thunder. Lightening. RAIN. Pouring down rain. And all I could think of was "if we drive 2.5 hours up to Erie and this swim gets cancelled...oh am I going to feel really, really bad for dragging O out of bed at 4:30 this morning." YIKES!

We arrived at the race site and it was still pouring and thundering and lightening. We sat around in the car for a while and although it never stopped raining, the thunder stopped and we got to swim! Yeah - we got to swim! Amazingly there was only a 15 minute delay.

The swim was supposed to be a mile and was from Presque Isle across the Presque Isle Bay (part of Lake Erie) to Erie. It was pretty much a straight shot!

I think it went well! I lined up with the front group (even though I may or may not have belonged there) and swam as hard as I could. I was determined to draft off someone the whole race because this is one skill I have yet to come even close to being good at in triathlon. It seemed to go by so fast which is certainly not something I usually experience in swim races! Turns out it was fast though - I glanced at my watch just as I arrived at the ladders to climb out of the water and saw...19:25. Well okay! Either it was a HUGE PR, drafting REALLY works or, it was about 300 yds short. :) Yep, it was short all right.

But still, great practice and I'm always, always thankful for any open water experience I can get. There aren't many open water chances in Pittsburgh so we have to take them when we can!

After the swim, O met me at the finish and...it was still raining. :)

We got changed and ready and enjoyed a nice run along the isle - Lake Erie is HUGE and beautiful. The whole lake was covered in fog. And as we ran out towards the bigger part of the lake I was really thankful that we got to swim in the more protected bay because it was CHOPPY out there! :) We ran a little over 10 miles and while it was still raining, it had slowed greatly to more of just a sprinkle.

After finishing we changed out of wet clothes and got on our way towards home. But OF COURSE we had to stop at Hoss's for lunch on the way home. I have to have some method of enticing O to get up so early and drive all over the state with me!

And while my swim was a pretty good performance, the Performance of the Day goes to O with his showing at Hoss's. Picture this - salad, 3 pieces of bread, pizza, a taco, a mini burger, mac and cheese, a steak sandwich (and they are big), fries, and then two plates of dessert! I was in awe! Usually O's eyes are bigger than his stomach at Hoss's but he was strong throughout. I was sure that he had gone out too hard! At one point the waitress swung by and asked O if he'd be needing a box. He was offended. :)

After that we really headed home at which point I fell asleep in the car. :) About half way through the drive O decided to stop for gas and also a walk around the big outlet mall in Grove City. You might be able to guess what happened next. What started as a "let's just walk over to the Nike outlet to see what we can find and stretch out our legs" turned into a "oh, maybe we should check in Reebok...and Old Navy...and Gap...and Adidas...and American Eagle...and..." We NEVER go shopping though and in fact I realized as we were walking around that I was wearing shorts that I have had since high school...12 years ago. :) So I got a new pair of shorts. :)

I also realized as we were walking around that not only had I swam in Lake Erie and run 10 miles but I had not taken a shower and I was still kind of wet from all the rain and...well, I really didn't smell that great. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time. :)

So the day was definitely a success! Good training and much fun had. And I'm really glad I wasn't at home trying to get my long ride in during the pouring down rain. I'm doing my ride tomorrow when it's supposed to be nice and sunny!

Hope everyone has a great night and good luck to all those racing INCLUDING those doing IMCdA tomorrow! I can't wait to follow along and cheer everyone along on my computer!

It's all been good though! Training has been hard, really hard. Like very tiring hard! But I know I'm getting stronger for it and when I get a little taper for my next race (which is June 28th) I will be feeling full of energy again! (kind of :) I've been swimming a lot and therefore my arms kind of feel like they may fall off. But, but - I get to do a swim race this weekend! It's an open water mile race in Lake Erie and I'm pretty darn excited. I like swim races - and any open water experience I can get is an extra bonus.

I've also been biking a lot which I've totally been loving. I don't know why but I so love riding my bike much more this year than in any year past. I guess I might actually be getting used to longer rides now. Or perhaps it's the new riding partners I've picked up. Either way, Scotty and I have had some good quality time together. Although on Tuesday I had a hard workout on the bike and for the life of me my stupid HR would not get high enough! I was riding AS HARD AS I COULD and up really big hills while doing so. And what do I see? 154. WHAT. THE. HECK? Now I know 154 is high for many of you but I'm someone who can get my HR up to the 180s on my bike! Well, actually, as the years go by with MarkAllenOnline my HR is harder and harder to get up, especially while riding. Of course I'm getting older and that plays a role but I'm also getting much more aerobically fit, which is the goal!

And of course running - oh running! I've not been running as much because of my hamstring BUT the runs I do do are quality and Wednesday was no exception. Holy cats was that workout hard. This year coach has given me some of these workouts where you run hard for a longer interval and then you only let your HR drop 15-20 beats from the max you reached during that interval before you start the next hard piece. Well the first time I did a workout like this I thought it would take a good 1:30-2 minutes for my HR to drop that far. UM...NO! Try like 30 seconds...if that! Holy cow. So run really hard for 9 minutes and then get about 30 seconds rest and go really hard again... Even O was crying mercy on that one! :) And during one of the hard intervals (that was 7 minutes long) we ran up this HUGE hill from the river up towards our house and I thought I was going to die. Or cry. Or both. But again, I know it will make me stronger, it's just really painful in the short term. ;)

And so it goes. Life is busy but I don't think I'd have it any other way! Plus, O and I still take time to slow down and enjoy a little. Like tonight, after O's birthday dinner we went on a nice long walk with Roxy. We mostly just wanted to see how the different ducks were dressed in our neighborhood. Doesn't everyone dress up ducks and put them on their doorsteps?

This guy can also been seen wearing a bunny costume around Easter and a pilgrim get-up around Thanksgiving. He's very festive.

It is the wedding season you know! :)

You see I had a 5000 yd swim on my schedule today. 5000 yds is the farthest I ever swam. But today, I went to masters where the pool is set up long course - meters that is. And so I did 1000 meters of warmup, a 3000 meter main set and then...then I got kicked out of the pool. Time for the club team to take over all 8 lanes. Did I ever mention that the club team is comprised of very small children that swim about 10 times faster than me? It's humbling to say the least.

Anyway, luckily Pitt also has a 25 yd warmup pool (I think that's what it's used for) so I did another 1000 YARDS of cooldown in there.

It occured to me about 500 yds into that 1000 yd cooldown that due to the first 4000 being meters - I was about to set a new swim distance PR!! Woo-hoo!! (I have no shame, I'll take a PR in any way, shape or form that it may come)

So after finishing up, showering and stretching I scurried on down the hill to work where I quickly got on the computer to find some sort of conversion chart from meters to yards. And to my delight I discovered that my new "farthest ever swam in one workout" PR is...

...5374.453 yards.

WOO-HOO! :)

It's the little victories isn't it?

A picture of Pitt's pool where I swim masters. Of course in this picture it's set up SCY. And you can't see about half of it. But still, you get the idea. It's a beautiful pool and I'm very glad to be able to swim there!

Have a great night everyone!

I pushed off on my bike ride around 5:45 am. I rode for 32 miles of absolute perfect solidarity until I returned back home to pick up O and Ben for the last 2:45 of my ride. In total I saw 82 miles of this:

I was kind of under the impression that every state is green in the summer, although after my trip to Boulder where the Boulderites kept repeating things like "I can't believe how green it is here with all the rain we've had" and I was thinking "hmm...doesn't even seem that green to me", I've realized that PA must just be a really green state. :)

Ben stopped for a second to adjust his seat so I took a picture of O and I:

O did a great job today. As he gets more comfortable on his bike he is able to keep up. He did 50 miles today! And Ben is always a good training partner staying right on my wheel the whole ride.

After the bike we ran. My legs felt awesome on the bike and the run. And even in the pool (which came after the brick). I swam 3500 yds.

Then O and I were really hungry and O talked me into a $5 footlong. Although I never get footlongs - just 6 inchers but still, it was really good.

And thus concludes a great day of training.

PS The Pens rock. The Steelers rock. Super Bowl AND Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh truly is the City of Champions. :)

They obliged. They got me through a tough, fast swim (in which yet ANOTHER speedster joined our lane at masters - GEEZ!) and then a 40+ mile bike ride. And although I was pretty tired during my swim, I actually felt very strong on the bike. Yes, that biking is certainly coming around.

And so it goes. I'm entering that period where my body is just tired. Tired from training hard week in and week out. Tired from hard bike workouts where I nearly puke at the end (I came very close on Tuesday) and hard run workouts where my wheels just about fall off (or in the case of yesterday, DID fall off) and long runs and long bikes and super long swims (the other day just a PART of my main set was repeat 800s - ouch).

BUT, but - this is my favorite time. The time when you can feel your body getting stronger and although you may be pretty tired and it takes a while to warm up (okay, it takes a very long time to warm up) you know just a little rest and you will be rearing to go. Yep, hard training is my favorite!

And in other news, Route 28 is up to it's evil ways again. Construction. As in Route 28 North is CLOSED (yep, closed) between Etna and Highland Park Bridge. Something about the bridge falling apart or something. HUH! I only saw it crumbling like once! ;) So far the traffic hasn't been disasterous but I'm suspicious. I have a nice little "shortcut" going on because the official detour they provided is dumb and requires going over multiple bridges. I'm worried though that my shortcut is going to soon become another construction zone. Bugger. I might have to quit my job and never go into Pittsburgh again if this is the case. :)

I can't believe tomorrow is already Friday! Time sure does travel fast. My next race will be here before I know it. YAHOO! Time for all that hard work to pay off.

Have a great night everyone!

Okay, let's start at Whole Foods. Here was the scenario - Chad, Barb and I had just finished our long runs on Sunday morning at the Boulder Resevoir. Barb and I had run close to 15 and Chad 16+ miles. We were hungry. Time to stop for lunch on our way back to camp base so we could fill our hungry bellies! And where to stop but a Whole Foods? I have actually never been to a Whole Foods before. There is one in Pittsburgh but it's essentially in East Liberty and trust me when I say, I have absolutely no reason to go to East Liberty. Nor do I want to go to East Liberty. So yeah, I've never been to a Whole Foods. That's part of the reason we stopped there.

It was love at first site. The fruit. OH THE FRUIT! My eyes grew big and my belly grew hungrier. We walked throughout the store picking up items for lunch...it was awesome. UNTIL - until we were on our way out and at the last minute I remembered I wanted, no - I NEEDED, some Diet Pepsi. Nothing would taste better with my lunch. Nothing! (yes, I have a DP problem) And so I ask Barb, "hey, I'm going to grab a Diet Pepsi real quick - where might I find it?" To which she responded "um, they don't sell diet pop here." "Ha, ha, real funny Barb, now tell me where the Diet Pepsi is before I hurt someone." "Um...no seriously...they really don't sell diet soda here." "Seriously?! Like really?! Like WHAT THE HECK?!" What grocery store doesn't sell Diet Pepsi? Apparently Whole Foods. Stupid healthy people. I think Chad just laughed, or rolled his eyes. :)

But Diet Pepsi emergencies aside, the MarkAllenOnline Boulder Camp was AMAZING! I loved it, loved it so much. Boulder is everything I thought it would be and more. The people that live there are very, very smart people.

I arrived in Denver early on Friday morning where I was treated to first class service by Barb who picked me up, ferried me around everywhere and gave me a place to sleep each night. For this, I am very thankful! On Friday we did many things including, but not limited to, taking a nap (I had gotten up at 3 am EST), putting my bike back together, eating lunch at Toyko Joes, driving up to Boulder at which point the beauty astonished me, eating dinner at Noodles with Chad (oh life doesn't get better) and learning how to do flying mounts and dismounts from Barb's cyclocross friend. Yes, that's right, flying mounts and dismounts! And this wasn't even part of camp! It was pretty awesome actually and while the flying dismount isn't so bad and I can definitely handle that in my next race, the flying mount might never be attempted by me again. Those, I was not so good at. Let's just say I'm glad we were practicing in a park, on grass. :)

Also on Friday, the actual camp started. I was excited to see who all was coming and VERY excited to see that besides Barb and Chad (who are also my MAO teammates), Ally and Heidi, a few of my other teammates, were also attending camp. Very cool! Everyone met and talked and we all got fit on our bikes and then I was so tired I thought I was going to pass out. Time for bed.

Saturday was probably my favorite day - after breakfast and some lectures we did a swim workout. I tried to ease into the middle lane mostly because I wasn't thinking I could swim with Ally (who is a collegiate swimmer CURRENTLY) but Coach told me to move into Ally's lane. This could get ugly. Especially because I really wasn't sure how the altitude was going to feel. But it was fine. Ally was probably doing backstroke the whole time (or maybe even breaststroke) but I survived that lane and really didn't feel too out of breathe (or moreso than usual!). And we swam outside! And I got all kinds of crazy tan lines. I think the sun actually shines in CO - who knew?! :)

Next up after the swim was the bike ride which I was majorly jazzed about. I just COULD NOT wait to ride and let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

We rode to the base of some big hill/mountain and then it was time to climb! I was so excited. Even riding up to the hills/mountains was just so amazing. The roads are so smooth! The shoulders are so wide! And I've never seen so many cyclists in my life (other than in a race maybe!)! The beauty of Boulder was breathtaking - only to be out-done by the actual climb itself where I seriously felt like I was in a post card or something. There was this creek rushing down the side of the mountain all along the road we were riding up. Yes - just like a post card! :)

We rode up to Jamestown which they said was about a 10 mile climb? I know they were taking it easy on us because the climb itself was very moderate, as in not at all steep, and while a bit of a grind, not at all what I was expecting. I was thinking of the steep hills we climb in Pittsburgh but for miles and miles and miles! So yes, I was glad they picked a moderate climb because I'm sure there are some much harder ones out there. Again, the altitude didn't seem to affect me other than the fact that my HR was probably just a bit higher than it would have been at home for the same effort.

The climb was beautiful. I can't say it enough. The weather was perfect and I was in cycling heaven.

We got to the top and everyone waited for everyone to regroup and then we rode down. Oh - descents = SCARY! Geez - when that wind gets going a little and you and your bike get going pretty fast...no long descents like that at home so I was definitely NOT looking at my cycling computer to see how fast we were going.

About halfway down the hill from the Jamestown climb we turned onto something call Lee Hill and climbed that too. Now that WAS much steeper, but also a lot shorter and when we reached the top of that, the view - OH THE VIEW! Of course I didn't take any pictures because I'm a bozo but I really don't think I'll ever have trouble remembering the beauty of that view.

The descent down Lee Hill was even scarier and when I did peek a glance at my computer and saw that I was going 48 mph, I REALLY quit looking at it. :)

Yes, the riding was definitely my favorite part.

After the training on Saturday we visited the Newton store and among other things, I actually got my orthotics worked on there! And we went to dinner which was awesome because I got to meet one of my other teammates Diana and her boyfriend. Meeting all my awesome teammates also really made the camp for me. I am just so inspired by everyone's dedication to the sport and to excellence on the team. And we have some pretty darn fast teammates - Diana being a good example as she was 2nd in Kona last year in her AG.

Anyway, after dinner we walked around the Pearl Street Mall and I saw many interesting things and people - not necessarily the types of things and people you might see in Pittsburgh. That's for darn sure. Boulder might be just a tad more...liberal than Pittsburgh. :)

Sunday was equally as fun - with the long run at "The Rez" and the Whole Foods (minus Diet Pepsi episode). I did start to finally feel the altitude on the run, mostly in the form of having to slow down and run slower than usual to keep my HR in check. Still though, I had a great run with Barb and, AND my hamstring didn't hurt! I assume it's because Boulder healed me. Good vibes in Boulder = pain free hamstring.

We also were video taped by Coach on Sunday while swimming and were then treated to our own stroke analysis session. Coach tapes people in the water. Nothing like seeing yourself up close and personal to see why you do or don't swim fast! Seems as if my stroke is doing okay though, I just happen to have a stupid left arm. I breathe to the right so I drop my left elbow a lot. I actually thought of that during my whole long swim this morning back home and I'll have to say that I swam very well today - that left arm must slow me down!

One final dinner on Sunday and then camp was over. SO SAD! It went so fast and I definitely didn't want it to end. I wanted more rides and more time with my teammates and more running in beautiful places! Alas, that will all have to wait until next time I get to Boulder (and oh, there will be a next time).

On Monday morning I flew home bright and early, although I didn't actually get home until about 8 pm. The time change and a longggg lay over in Dallas will do that to you.

So camp truly was a success on all accounts. I absolutely loved Boulder. I loved spending time with my teammates and coach. I loved seeing another great place. It's times like these that I am so thankful for the sport because it takes me to new places and helps me to meet so many great new people.

I have an admission to make - I took no pictures. And I have no excuses. I guess I was just so caught up in it all I didn't think to snap pictures! But like I said, the beauty of Boulder is seered into my head and I won't soon forget.

And now it's back to life. Lots to do to catch up including like 10,000 million workouts today. Okay, only 3 workouts. :) But it's all good. How can I not be inspired after this past weekend?

Thank you Barb! Thank you Coach! Thank you Boulder!

Wahoo!

Of course as an endurance athlete for many a year I've read and thought a lot about Boulder. Seems to be where all the cool kids hang out. If they aren't in San Diego or Austin or some other cool place that is. So to Boulder I go! And I can't wait!

I'm going for an MAO camp, where my coach will lead us in pool workouts, cycling up some big mountains and running in some place really beautiful. It's going to be great! I've been looking forward to it for so long, and now it's finally here. AND, and - I get to meet Barb, who is a long time blog friend. I'm talking blog friends before blogs were even cool to have (we both started blogs 5+ years ago!) AND before we both became triathletes! We were runners and then both turned to triathlon and then we both got the same (awesome) coach and now we are on the same team too! AND Barb lives in Denver AND she is nice enough to pick me up at the airport and house me. I think I owe her a dinner or two at Noodles. :)

I do have one question though - is the altitude going to kill me? Like am I going to feel like I'm suffocating while swimming? (mind you, I've never been somewhere before where there is significant altitude) Please tell me the truth, I'd rather know what I'm in for. :)

I'M GOING TO BOULDER!

I'm leaving EARLY on Friday morning and will be in Boulder by 9 am! And then the fun begins. But first, I have a whole lot of training to do tomorrow. And then there is the packing. Which includes packing of the bike. And if you've been reading this blog for a bit, you might likely know that packing isn't my strength. :)

I likely won't be able to blog from Boulder (too many other cool things to do) but of course I will have a full report when I return. So have a great rest of your week/weekend everyone!

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that during our track workout this morning O handicapped himself much like I handicap myself when we are swimming together. I may be a faster swimmer and biker than him (for now) but let it be known, he is a way faster runner. So when I'm huffing and puffing away in lane one, he's pacing me...out in lane 4... :) Okay, maybe not lane 4, but close! :) Thanks O!

*swam in college*

Ouch.

If you swim masters, you know how it is. Everyone is very established in their lanes. You get comfortable swimming with this person or that and if you move around and mess things up, it causes a bit of a ruckus.

I love swimming with my masters group. They are a wonderful bunch of swimmers, all hard workers and positive and I know for sure they have helped to elevate my swim and have made me a lot more confident in what I can do on race day.

But back to these fast new kids - both of them female and both of them recently out of college. Both extremely nice and positive. Hard working. Both swam for Notre Dame. Both VERY fast.

And some how I keep ending up in their lane.

Why is this happening?

It's making masters hurt more than usual. Why? Well, they don't hesitate to always choose the faster interval to swim on. They do the workout hard and well and I...well I just hang on for dear life.

Today was a good example. The workout was moderate 600, 2x300 negative split, 3x200 descending and then either hard 600 or 6x100 on the fastest interval you could make. Either of the last two options wasn't going to be pretty. But I choose the hard 600 because, well, that's what I should choose and that's what everyone else in my lane was doing. Including fast college swimmers.

As we were starting out the moderate 600 Meredith (my favorite swimming partner of all time) says to Megan and Katie (fast college swimmers) - "I hope you don't lap us."

Oh crap. I hadn't even thought of that!

It was possible though, especially in a 600.

All I can say is, thank God for LONG COURSE METERS! :)

First moderate 600 isn't too bad and although Megan and Katie get very far ahead Meredith and I keep the damage to a minimum. I notice though, that I'm swimming awfully fast. Hmm...was that really "moderate" pace? Not so sure but we'll go with it. Besides, I really don't have much time to think because it's time to do the 300s.

The 300s and 200s go by in a blur. I'm having trouble doing the math in my head to even figure out what I'm swimming but when I do figure it out, it's fast. Mostly because I want to get back to the wall before Megan and Katie are starting again. No such luck. Boy was this workout going fast!

Now, it was time for the hard 600. Oh boy.

It was almost funny. I mean if I thought I was having trouble keeping those two fishies in sight on the moderate 600, I never knew what hit me on the "fast" 600. Again, I say, "thank God for long course meters" because had we been swimming short course I surely would have been lapped.

I swam and swam and swam as hard as I could and darn it if the fast fish weren't getting farther and farther ahead! Let it be known, there is a big difference between their "moderate" and "fast" but not so much of a difference between mine. :)

Anyway, I didn't get lapped but the fear of it pushed me to my fastest 600 ever. See what a little fear can do? Fear can be quite a good thing!

In a few weeks Meredith won't be able to come to masters as she is starting her residency and has to be at the hospital at like 2 am. (okay, not really but I'm pretty sure I would never survive residency) I will be so sad when she is gone. Especially because that now leaves me all by my lonesome with the fast fishes that swam in college. I'm scared! :)

But also excited. It will be a new challenge. Instead of trying to lead the lane or push to a new "best" on my own, I will be holding on for dear life. I will probably get lapped (I can only hope the pool stays LCM forever) but I'll do my darndest not to let it happen. And become stronger for it. Or my arms may just fall off. I guess we'll see which happens first. ;)

1) I'm an early riser, always have been. I get up at 4:45 am most week days and usually before 6 am on most weekends. I like doing my training early, even on Saturday and Sunday - Saturday out of necessity because it's usually a long day of training and I want to be done before dinner (!) and Sunday because I like to do my long runs before church. But today, today O and I needed a break from the EARLY alarm so we slept in until 7:30 am! We didn't even get to the pool until 9! And we didn't start our ride until 11:30! Pure crazy! It was really nice though - to sleep in and take our good old time with everything. Of course we didn't finish training until almost 4 but hey, I sure did like all that extra sleep! :)

2) At the pool this morning I devised a plan wherein O did the same workout as me but just less. So for example part of my main set was 100,200,300,400 swim/400,300,200,100 pull. O and I left at the same time but he did more like 50,100,200,250, etc... it was really nice because we both got a good workout (me trying to chase him and beat him back and him trying to hold me off) and it felt like we were doing the workout together! Yay! And I had a good swim and felt strong and not sore for the first time all week. :)

3) Today was quite possibly the nicest day we've had yet this year. Sunny. Warm. BIG blue sky. And not a drop of humidity. It was glorious for a nice bike ride!

4) A 3 hour ride used to seem like eternity to me! But I realize that it's really not a long ride at all. I felt like I was just getting started when I was just about done today! (really nice weather didn't hurt)

5) Running when the humidity is low makes my HR a lot happier. :)

6) Tangerine gels = YUCK! I'll stick with my double espresso and raspberry creams!

7) I really want ironmanlive.com to start working and start showing me how fast all my friends and teammates went at Honu!

8) Roxy is the cutest dog ever.

9) My compression socks smell a little funny - I think it's time to actually wash them.

10) I really hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and good luck to those racing tomorrow and congrats to those who have already raced today!

Also, it should be noted that Facebook is one of the best inventions EVA! Mostly because you get to keep in contact with lots of really cool people but also because on your birthday you are overwhelmed with love! So many birthday wishes! In between my swim/run/work/nap/bike/ice cream yesterday I continually got FB messages wishing me a happy birthday. That’s like the best ever!

Then, as I was riding (inside because it was storming outside), I got a call from O. I don’t usually pick up the phone when I’m on my bike (duh) but when it’s O I do just in case it’s something I need to know NOW. So I answer. He asks if I got a package. Huh? A package? Nope – no package. To which he says, “yes, there is a package at the door.” Really? Because I never saw a package delivered! But sure enough there WAS a package and it contained flowers for me! Flowers for me on my birthday! O wasn’t able to be home for my birthday until 9 or 10 at night (track banquet) so I guess he didn’t want me to have to wait for my flowers. :)

AND – AND, as if that wasn’t enough, more packages today. I’m telling you, this 3rd decade of life is starting off in STYLE! I got home this evening from a long day of masters practice, work, ART appointment, and weight room to find…2 more packages. One from my sister and brother in law containing a cool clock that is made from a bicycle gear! My sister finds the coolest gifts I tell you. Where she finds them, I’m not sure, but she always comes up with something good! And then the other package – wow, words cannot describe. A package from The Crispery.

Oh yay baby.

OH YAY!!!

Immediately I recognized the name. A while back a discussion about The Crispery erupted on FB and I was immediately smitten. Because, you see The Crispery happens to make Crispy Cakes (otherwise known as Rice Krispie Treats) WHICH WITHOUT A DOUBT ARE MY FAVORITE TREAT!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Someone. SOMEONE had sent me a delectable assortment of Crispy Cakes (including ones oozing with chocolate and peanut butter) from The Crispery.

It was Cat.

I wanted to catch a flight to California ASAP and give her a hug. And share a Crispy Cake with her in celebration. But alas, since that isn’t possible, I guess I will have to eat all the Crispy Cakes myself. Including the one oozing in peanut butter. THANK YOU CAT!

I’m telling you, if this is what being 30 is all about, I really wish I would have gotten here sooner. ;)

And so I do believe this is going to be a great year. It’s obviously started off quite nicely. :) My 20s were awesome – lots of ups and downs just as life should be. I graduated from college, I got married, got my first “real” job, we bought our first house, got our first pet, I started my own business, I picked up the sport of triathlon and in the process surprisingly found something I love even more than running. I made a lot of mistakes but learned a lot from them. Which will make my 30s even better. I don’t know what this decade will hold but I sure am excited to find out. Hopefully there will be many Crispy Cakes in the future…

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! You’ve made this quite possibly my best birthday ever!

PS I forgot about the other birthday gift I got today. A letter in the mail saying I had passed that exam I took about 3 weeks ago. YEEE-HAW!