Meghan's Wanderings

Tri Tuesdays

2012-03-06T19:18:00.002-08:00

Lance Armstrong and his return to triathlon... GO! Talk amongst yourselves.

Okay, so that's about as half-assed as I can get for a Tri Tuesday post but let's be honest folks, I haven't done one of those for weeks so you might as well be impressed that I even got on a computer, thought of a topic to post, and then spent time writing up this long winded description for why I'm lame. Oh, and on top of that, wrote a ridiculously long run-on sentence.

No seriously though. Are you excited that Lance is back? Do you think it helps out the sport of triathlon? If you're a pro - what do you think (who am I kidding! No pros actually read this!)? If you're an amateur are you simply star struck or do you have an opinion on the matter?

There are several articles (like this one, and this one, or this one) that kind of make him out to be an a**-hole but in my honest opinion here's the situation:

1) A competitive athlete just got second place - why are we so surprised that he kinda doesn't want to talk? Second place is the first loser and so that sucks (no, I don't actually believe this because I would kill to be second place... just sayin). I wouldn't want to talk to anyone either.

2) Lance is kind of a big deal. Like 'big' BIG. He's bigger than the top pros in triathlon because he has competed and been the best in a sport that more people actually watch and care about. Don't get me wrong - I obsess over Macca, Crowie, Chrissie and the like but if I talked to any normal person they don't know who those people are (let alone their nicknames). So to be so popular and in-the-spotlight like Lance, would get a bit old. I would ignore the press too if I was so famous.

So my opinion - Lance... Welcome Back. We (triathletes) love having you and are excited about the exposure you'll bring to our sport. Now, if you could only show up in Kona this year I would appreciate it since I'll be present as a spectator.

Source1 and Source2

MIA

2012-03-01T17:59:00.001-08:00

Blogger fail. I've been totally MIA since about... February 11th. What have I been doing? Well a whole lot of nothing actually but somehow that doesn't mean I wasn't busy. Let's give a short recap shall we.

- Got back from Phoenix. Bye bye tropical flowers/vibrant colors and magazine reading by the pool.

- P&C (yeah, you don't know who they are but I do) visited that next weekend before heading up to Whistler for a ski trip. Yay for friends coming back into town!!!

- Discovered Nuun cocktails.

- Ran 4.5 miles one week out from my race and hurt 2 miles in.
- Work
- Became obsessed (okay, that's a little dramatic but I have been enjoying taking pictures) with Instagram and the #febphotoaday challenge. If you have the app follow me at enduroTwerd!
- P&C came back to stay with us after their ski trip.
- Conned C into running the Greater Bellingham Running Club's 'Two for the Road 5k' with me in memory of Sherry Arnold - hurt on the later part of the run.
- Took a handful of classes at the local Bikram studio with Gina. Left classes feeling 'swampy' but liked it all the same.
- Traveled back and forth to Seattle for work related things.

- Got to visit with Collin, Demetra and Zoey while in Seattle.

- Ran for a 3rd time and hurt a mile in.

- Took a handful of Power Flow yoga at Beyond Limits studio. Realized that 90 minutes is a bit too long for me although I like the sequences and the variety.
- Steffanie came to visit and we tried out pool running - HARD!

- Ran a 4th time and hurt 2 miles in.

- Made desperate appointments for massage/chiropractic/physical therapy.
- Yoga at home.

So yeah, that's it in a nutshell. A lot of yoga, a lot of running frustration, and a lot of days just slipping by. I'm currently working on a post for my road trip to Phoenix. Maybe I'll get that done before the end of this year. Hold your breath!

Nookachamps 10k Race Report

2012-02-11T16:40:00.000-08:00

Seriously? I haven't written this up yet? Epic fail on my part.

Two weeks before my marathon I had a 10k on the schedule. Luckily the Nookachamps race down in Skagit Valley was the same weekend - committed. Unfortunately, I didn't have any takers on running buddies so I was flying solo for this race.

The morning of the race I awoke to rain and fairly cold temps. It had been threatening to snow all week and it definitely felt 'on the verge' when I got up. I laid in bed contemplating bailing. I didn't feel like running a 10k and I especially didn't feel like running it hard, in the cold, wind, and rain. Gabe was supposed to do a cyclo-cross race that morning and he wasn't enthusiastic either so we both laid around until the last possible moment trying to convince ourselves to bail on our activities.

But of course, I sucked it up. I knew I would feel guilty that I didn't go, knew that it would be 'beneficial' for my overall marathon goal, and knew I just had to HTFU. I dressed, I ate, I piled extra clothes into a bag to shower afterwards (the race had access to a gym and I needed to go directly from the race to a birthday party) and then hopped in the Prius and headed South.

I hit the hills and instantly hit snow and ice. The roads were slick and kept my speed way down - like annoying grandma speed. I prayed that my stubbornness to do this race wouldn't result in a car crash and kept driving - saying that if it got any worse I would turn around (of course that might have been more difficult).

But alas I made it to the race. I sprinted from my car into the gym, trying to avoid the pelting sideways freezing rain (no, I'm not being overly dramatic). Once checked in I found a comfy spot to rest on my laurels and wait - there was no way I was going outside earlier than I needed to. Luckily I spotted a familiar face, Tjalling was there to do the half marathon, and we quickly passed the time talking about the misery that was the weather outside.

About 10 minutes prior to race start we both sucked it up and decided to warm up. We found a nice covered walkway right outside of the gym and proceeded to run back and forth under it. It was damn cold and I had already stripped my extra layers so the high knees, the butt kicks and the easy jog were the only things keeping me warm-ish.

As the crowds began to migrate to the start line, Tjalling and I made our way from our sheltered walkway to a sheltered doorway where we stood for a minute or two - just long enough to get cold and tighten up anything that we had just 'warmed up'. We saw folks braving the downpour (because that's what it was at this point) and piling in at the start line. We waited just a few minutes more and then sighed deeply and joined them. At this point we parted ways, said good luck, and I made my way towards the front of the pack. Everyone was complaining about the cold and wet and mumbling that the race should just start early.

The race eventually started, after what seemed like forever, and I was weaving past folks left and right. The plan was to shoot for a 7:11 pace (random I know but it's what the McMillan Pace Calculator spit out for me as my 10k pace for a 3:30 marathon). I had no idea what to expect to be completely honest. I had never run this course (heard it was hilly), the weather was crap, and I had never run a 10k. So shoot for the goal and see what happens was my strategy.

The first mile starts out flat as you run away from the community college. About a half mile in you come to a fairly decent climb as you make your way through a few neighborhoods before dropping what feels like straight down into the valley and farmland. After a mile or so of flat lands you have a nice BIG climb up out of the valley. From there you weave through farming neighborhoods, up a few shorter climbs before looping back on the original route and heading back into town. A nice 90 degree left turn into a hill just before mile 5, then downhill through what seems like a park with a barked trail back to the college, looping around some of the college facilities and into the finishing chute.

First mile, feeling great. It didn't take me long to warm up but it was definitely a bit of work to weave past the slower runners. I probably didn't find my groove until right before the first mile marker (1st mile 7:31). The sharp descent into the valley had me a bit sketched out only because of the rain and the temperatures. I wasn't totally sure footed and so eased up a bit. Once in the valley I picked up the pace and caught a group of guys and snuggled right in behind them - letting them break the headwind. Luckily, they also broke the huge splash brought on by a passing truck. Boys drenched, Meghan dry - FTW (2nd mile 7:12)

Hitting the hill just before mile 3 was a bit daunting. It was long, it was steep. I put my head down, focused on little steps and trudged up it, passing a few people on the way. Of course as I neared the top I spotted two women - one I was definitely gaining on and the other was too far off for me to really tell. So, I used the closer as my bunny and chased her down within a half mile. Too bad she was all of 14 or 15 - young kids are FAST! I grunted a 'good job' at her and continued on my way - setting my sights on the second gal (3rd mile 7:46).

Meandering through the farmland neighborhoods COULD have been pretty. I wouldn't know. The rain had subsided a bit but everything was drenched, I was breathing hard, and there just is no time to look around when you're focused on the race. I'm betting if it were sunny I might have noticed. Mile 4 just happened. I'm sure something stood out during that time but since I've waited so long to type this up I can't remember (4th mile 7:23).

I caught the next gal as we were heading back into town before the mile 5 marker. Actually I passed three people around this time and only saw one other person up ahead. Running strong, breathing hard and just excited that I was nearing the finish. As I neared the 90 degree left hand turn I started to pick it up a bit more since we were coming in for the last 1.2 miles (5th mile 7:19). But... then I hit the hill. Man that took a lot out of me! I dialed it back to get up and over and hit the top with a bit of energy and dove into the park and the trail.

This section of the course was just plain irritating. The trail had been freshly covered with bark but the surface was completely squishy. Every step my feet would sink a bit. It was almost like running on a semi firm mattress. Although great for my joints it was not so great for my speed. But, I was pouring it on thinking that I was almost to the finish (for some reason I didn't look down at my watch to know 'for sure' that I was almost to the finish).

I was flying around corners, dashing down the trail. I had seen two guys up ahead that I was trying to chase down. And then... then I hit the outlying facilities of the college (6th mile 7:10). My breathing was rapid, my chest hurt and I still had probably a half mile to go. I could SEE the finish but knew that I would have to weave around the outskirts before heading into the chute. When I reached probably a quarter mile left I hit a point where I was completely anaerobic. My breathing was out of control and I could literally feel my muscles locking up - they weren't getting any oxygen. They felt like lead weights. I glanced down at my watch and was struggling to keep it in the 8 minute range. In fact... I walked! I was literally 200 meters from the finish and I was walking!! Fortunately the walking allowed me to catch my breath enough to not pass out and to finish the race (last .2 of a mile 7:28).

Overall it was a great experience. The course was tough not simply because of the hills but also the conditions. I came, I saw and I conquered. Although I didn't meet my pace expectations I was pretty proud of the results. Besides, first 10k = PR!

30th/245 Overall - 46:18 (7:25 pace)
7th Female; 1st in Age Group

Virtual Run

2012-02-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I'll be running the GBRC (Greater Bellingham Running Club) Two-for-the-Road 5k as a virtual run for Sherry Arnold. Here is her story in case you haven't seen it. If you can, please join me at Whatcom Falls park on Saturday morning!

Arizona Desert Classic Marathon Race Report

2012-02-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

It was a great day. Not simply because I PR'd, or that I qualified for Boston, or even that I ran the race I intended to run. Mostly because the race was just a great race and thanks to my paparazzi I have many pictures.

The alarm went off at 5:20 and I woke up fairly rested. I never expect the night before a race to be 'restful' exactly but it seems like the more races I do the more relaxed I become and thus the better sleep I get. Doesn't hurt that I brought ear plugs and an eye pillow - dark and muted equals a good night.

I wasn't nervous, I was simply ready. I had laid out my clothes the night before (selecting 'the' outfit that I was going to wear for the race) and had prepped my gel flask with chocolate GU (5 packets... 1 too many I was to find out) so any 'thinking' this early in the morning was at a minimum. All I needed to do was roll out of bed, dress, eat peanut butter toast and hit the road.

The outfit (because this may be important to someone):
- Nike Dry Fit sports bra
- Orca Tri Singlet Tank Top
- Sugoi Running Shorts (they don't make these anymore)
- CEP compression sleeves
- Pearl Izumi Cycling Socks
- Saucony ProGrid Kinvara 2

The extras:
- Garmin 305
- Pace band
- Road ID
- Endorphin Warrior 140.6 bracelet for inspiration
- 5 oz gel flask with homemade elastic holder

We left the hotel around 5:45 with wind blasting from the Northwest. It wasn't just a light wind - it was flag flapping wind. My comment on the matter - it is what it is. I've run most of my hard/good runs in downpour and wind so I was as prepared as I was going to be. Luckily, as we drove further North and further West the wind seemed to subside and amazingly right on the outskirts of town where the race was being held there was practically no wind. Micro climates - gotta love em.

The race start was literally on the edge of town - essentially at the entrance to the last subdivision of houses. We parked the car and I headed over to the registration area to pick up my race bib, timing chip and t-shirt. Since the race is tine-tine it took me all of two minutes to pick up all the essentials but then, because it was quite chilly (as it was still dark out) it took me several minutes to fasten the timing chip to my shoe and clip my bib into my race belt.

Once I was set, it was time to warm up. I popped my headphones into my ears, started up the Ironman playlist (yes, I haven't changed it simply because I never listen to music so I don't update it all that often), and headed down the block. I probably ran around for about 10 minutes before I decided I had to pee. The porta potty line was a bit backed up (there were only two) so I headed out on some dirt path bordering a washout canal and found a tree. Sorry residents of outlying Surprise... I did just pee in your backyard. Then it was back to running around in circles and making my way to the start line.

I ditched my awesome old school sweatpants and the $3 dollar warmup jacket I got at Goodwill and meandered into the crowd as they made their way into the chute and toward the start line. There were no corrals and the half marathoners were mixed in with the marathoners. Again, tine-tine race. The guy next to me commented on my excessive 'preparedness' - checking out the pace band I had printed out, Gabe had taped nicely, and the hotel manager and I had successfully taped to my wrist, positioned nicely next to my Garmin. I responded, 'I have a plan! There is a definite goal for this race.' He just chuckled and looked at me like I was crazy.

After a few more minutes of chit chat I heard the countdown and then we were off. It took me a few seconds to get up to the mat and once across I was headed out into the pre-dawn desert. The race starts on a steady uphill for the first 3 miles before it levels off to a more moderate uphill. It's an out-and-back course that basically climbs 300 ft (so for all intents and purposes it's flat... but it's not) until mile 9 1/2 - 10, then it's downhill to the turnaround, uphill for the next 3 1/2 and then a slight downhill to the finish more or less. I had run the first 2 miles the day before and had driven the whole course so I knew what to expect and I was sort of banking on the perceived downhill for the second half of the race. One last thing to note about the course... you're in the middle of nowhere. As far as scenery goes - if you like open desert it's gorgeous but if you like twists and turns and buildings then this race is a fail.

I had programed my watch with the 'Advanced' workout option using two different 'steps'. the first step was set to an open distance and a pace range from 7:55 - 8:05. The second was also set to an open distance but with a pace range from 7:30 - 8:00 (hoping for a negative split). I used 'open distance' because I wanted to base the mileage off of the course mile markers instead of the satellite and essentially I'd press the lap button to switch over at the turn around point (mile 13). I had the tighter range in the beginning to keep me in check so I didn't go out too hard, then with the second half being mostly downhill I figured I could kick it into gear and I really didn't care what the 'gear' was as long as it was under an 8 minute pace.

So, off I ran. My watch beeped (it's really more like a high trill that can be really annoying) at me initially - letting me know I was going too fast - but I dialed it in within that first mile. The temperatures were perfect. The sun was starting to rise, lighting the road ahead of me, and I was cruising along comfortably. For a good mile or two I ran next to a lady stride for stride. She finally turned to me and asked 'half or full?' I replied the full and then we both realized we wanted to run the same pace. Perfect! I had someone to run with. But soon after that little conversation she picked it up and ran away from me. I glanced down at my watch and saw a 7:46 pace... too fast... what was she thinking? I settled back in and fell in behind an elderly gentleman in a ripped up t-shirt and a younger gal doing a steady 7:55ish pace.

The miles simply vanished. I had a smile on my face, my pace was right on, my legs felt strong and it was a gorgeous day! After about 5 miles I took my first nip at the gel flask. It was soooo thick! Apparently I usually put 4 chocolate GUs in the flask and then dilute it. 5 was just too many. I extracted a glob of it, swallowed hard and then grabbed a cup of water at the aid station that immediately followed. I just hoped it wouldn't get stuck somewhere and cause issues - side ache, stomach cramps, potty stops - all of it would be bad news. Luckily it wouldn't come back to bite me BUT the thickness of the gel did put me off a bit and I only took maybe 2 or 3 more 'nips' at it during the whole race (consuming only about 1 oz of the entire flask... oops!).

At the half way to the half way point (aka 6.5 miles) my two buddies (ripped up t-shirt man and younger gal) turned and headed back in the direction from whence we came. Damn! They were only doing the half. The 'crowd' took a nose dive after this point. I was left with maybe one other runner near me and a handful (if that) ahead that I could see. I felt an initial hint at abandonment and loneliness but it quickly faded as I distracted myself with my breathing, my form, how my legs felt and all the other 'sh*t runners say' streaming through my head. I even busted out 'You're an Ironman, damn it! HTFU' but then I quickly realized that I wasn't struggling, I wasn't slowing, and those harsh words (even in my own head) weren't needed... yet. I had to save those. Yes, I AM that crazy.

Around mile 9 I heard a familiar vehicle noise and out of the corner of my eye I saw the nose of the Prius creep into view. I smiled and waved at Gabe and gave him the thumbs up that I was feeling great and then watched as the car sped down the highway. Beforehand my only instruction for Gabe was to be somewhere around the mile 18 mark with a small water bottle of flat Pepsi (Diet... crap! Why hadn't I bought regular?). Other than that he could have slept in the car, gone back to the hotel, played Angry Birds... it didn't really matter. I didn't want him to feel obligated to chase me all over the highway. But I was thankful at mile 9 to have a distraction and it made me keep an eye out for his car heading in the other direction or for his next stop to check in with me. Besides, he was the only cheering squad any of us had out there so maybe other runners appreciated it. Again, if you're looking for a spectator heavy marathon, this race is NOT for you.

Miles 10 through 13 were fine. I was anxious to get to the turnaround point and call this race 'half over'. I remember overhearing a guy at the start line say that the turnaround was just over a mile past the random house farm in the middle of nowhere and as I approached that, passed it, and continued downhill I knew I was getting close. The faster runners - there weren't that many - were starting to stream past and I cheered for them as much as I could without expending too much energy. At the same time I was counting the women. At this point I had only seen one who looked strong. As I passed the aid station around mile 11 the volunteer there said 'I think you're in third, the gal in a tutu is in second'. Now I had seen one gal already at this point (first place) and hadn't seen the tutu girl (second) but I also knew there was the lady from the start that was in front of me (third) so that must mean I'm in forth! AWESOME!!

I rode that high until the turnaround and then to keep my energy level up Gabe was there cheering and asking if I was on track. I nodded after glancing down at my watch and noticing I was a minute ahead of pace and more on track for a 7:55 pace and a 3:28 finish. WOOT! And then... there was the 3 mile hill out of the turnaround with the sun in my eyes and the pavement warming up. Instant zappage. The next three miles were hard. That's the best way to describe it. At mile 14, as I was still climbing, I remembered to switch my watch over to the next step of my workout - oops, forgot to do it at the turnaround because of aforementioned high.

Let the trilling beep commence. I glanced down and read the message 'speed up'. I'd like to say that I cranked it into the next gear and did what my Garmin was telling me but instead I ignored it and cranked out about an 8:15 pace. I had 'banked' time (yeah... that's not an actual strategy of mine until I'm halfway through a race) and I was going uphill. Couldn't the Garmin figure that out and give me some slack? Once I was over this hump it was downhill to the finish, couldn't my Garmin figure THAT out? Shut up already!

I was running about 5 strides behind a guy (had been with the same middle aged gentleman for about 4 miles now) and the trilling just continued every 30 seconds or so. I knew it was annoying. More importantly it had to be annoying him. I tried to go faster. I tried to ignore it but the longer I let it go the more distracted I got by it. So I said 'f-you' to my second step and hit the lap button. Unfortunately hitting the lap button at the end of a designed workout stops the workout completely. It thinks you're done. I watched in horror as the overall time on my watch came to a dead stop. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!! I finally just hit the start button again and voila - the overall timer began ticking away. Crisis averted, now I just had to remember that I was about 30 seconds off from my 'actual' time and every time the mile lap beeped it was somewhere in the middle of an 'actual' mile - whatevs.

Around mile 16 the hill out of the turnaround flattened out and I began to pick up the pace. I was still running with the same guy and we just kept leap frogging each other as it appeared he was taking walk breaks every mile but holding a faster running pace than I was. Now, supposedly I was going downhill at this point but with the heat and the tired legs it didn't really feel like it. I felt a bit worn out but my pace was saying I was right on track so I just kept plugging away.

As I neared mile 18 I spotted Gabe up ahead. Pepsi! It was such a welcome sight. He happened to be right before an aid station so I took a sip of the Pepsi and then grabbed a cup of water to wash it down. At this point I think I was fairly dehydrated - I only say this because I was feeling chills periodically which I've 'heard' is a sign, I don't know if that's true. He asked again if I was on track and I nodded - the extent of my energy. It's funny hearing his side of the story - seeing my decline in energy and finding the only words of encouragement to be 'Good job' and 'Are you on pace?'.

Another mile down and I was starting to real people in although I was wavering between on and off pace (again, I had banked a bit of time so I was still okay). Then Gabe was back, more Pepsi down the hatch, another question if I was still on target, another nod and moving on. Finally, the guy I had been running with asked what my goal was to which I responded 3:30. He glanced down at his watch and then said, 'Ok, let's do this', and proceeded to pull ahead. 'Um, excuse me kind running stranger but my watch says I'm already doing a 7:56 pace, I don't think I need to go any faster.' But I did appreciate the bunny that he provided and kept him nicely 10 or 15 strides ahead of me.

More people reeled in, another mile or two ticked off and maybe a few more Gabe/Pepsi sightings later and I was closing in mile 22. 'Friendly running stranger' had been dropped - apparently he had surged too soon - and I had found another lone runner to go stride for stride with. At this point my feet hurt and I was tired (I don't think I broke in the Kinvaras as much as I should have). I was focusing a bit too much on the rough pavement and feeling every little rock. It didn't slow me down as much as it was just a nuisance. But every time I looked down at the Garmin I was hitting the pace, and every time I passed a mile marker I checked my pace band and I was still ahead of the game so I was feeling good albeit tired. Oh yeah, and my form was quickly fading as you'll notice in the pictures. Earlier I had felt the beginnings of chaffing in my right armpit and moving the tank top around didn't make it subside so instead I apparently just squeezed my arm in and tried not to move it at all (wise decision I think... doesn't throw the rest of your gait off at all. I'm being facetious if you can't tell.).

Gabe's last stop was somewhere in the range of mile 22 or 23. I had drained the bottle of Pepsi and welcomed the Wired drink he held out as an option. One long swig of the chemically and caffeinated syrup and the longest walk break yet and I was back on the road, saying 'see ya at the finish' to Gabe as I left. It was go time, although that didn't really amount to much other than simply focusing and saying in my head 'only a 5k left, only a 5k left'. It's quite the motivator to be down in those low numbers where you know you can pour it all out there and get through it. I ditched new lone running friend - turned cramping guy and was gaining on others up ahead.

Then, it was somewhere in these next few miles that my foot threatened to cramp. Actually, it did more than threaten - my toes went in opposite directions. Luckily it didn't shoot up my leg and into my calf, bringing me to a walk. Instead I was able to make the cramping subside simply by changing up my stride a bit and pray that it would stay away for the remaining miles.

And then there she was - lady in third place (these names are creative aren't they?)! I saw her about a half mile up ahead slow and come to a walk. Then, about a half mile later she pulled over, grabbed a sign post and stretched. She was caught! I felt for her because I knew she was in pain but this was my moment now. I passed her, gave her words of encouragement and then kept chugging along. I was in the final stretch, the last mile. All I had to do was head up a short hill and down the other side. I held back a bit because I wasn't sure how much was actually left in the tank but once I crested that rise I poured it all out there. I saw the clock ticking off the seconds and watched as it flipped over to 3:30 (a slight dissapointment at not coming UNDER 3:30) but I knew I was going to meet my goal. I basically fell down the last part of the hill and into the shoot. DONE! What a race! And of course, there was Gabe to greet me.

The stats:
- 18th out of 120 overall
- 3rd out of 44 women
- 2nd out of 6 in my age group
- Gun Time - 3:30:11
- Chip Time - 3:30:02

Post race we didn't stick around for the awards (if there were any). Instead, we got in the car, went back to the hotel to shower (rinse off all the salt that had accumulated)/pack/check out, grabbed a bite to eat from Jack in the Box (chocolate milkshake FTW!) and then hopped in the car to head home. The 9 hour car ride is another story yet to be written.

Salt lick... anyone? Anyone? No wonder I chaffed!

All smiles after the run but in definite need of compression gear (yes, that's under a dress... driving in style).

Tri Tuesdays

2012-01-31T12:03:00.000-08:00

It's back! After a two week hiatus of the 'tri' related theme I'm bringing Tri Tuesdays back. I know you've missed it and have been desperately searching my blog for the theme. Okay... that might be exaggerating just a tiny bit.

So, on the agenda - triathlon gear. I realized last week as I was packing for my marathon race that MOST of my athletic apparel can be considered 'tri' specific. As a comparison I have about 8 pairs of triathlon shorts (really just spandex with a little chamois on the inside) and a grand total of 3 pairs of running shorts. Granted, of those 8 pairs of tri shorts I only have 1 or 2 'racing' pairs. The same is true for running shorts - I only have 1 pair that I race in. BUT... my POINT and what I was thinking as I was packing was - why can't my tri shorts be running shorts - they are during my tri training?

Naturally I immediately jumped on the idea and proceeded to pack about 4 pairs of tri shorts to either run in during my week down in Phoenix OR race in on Saturday. You never know what outfit will suit the day. Of course the packing included the Newton kit I got back in August - it worked for me through 140.6 miles... why not 26.2? By the way, I'm still waiting for a Newton endorsement and the chance to represent them in Kona... .... ...

Obviously (given the picture I just posted the other day) I didn't end up wearing tri shorts but my point is that I COULD! And here's why I 'would' (and almost did) in bullet form:

Elastic leg grips keep the shorts in place - leading to less chaffing as you run.
Spandex material keep the shorts in place - leading to less chaffing as you run (I'm sensing a theme). Yes, there are several 'running' short options that are spandex material but I have to say that most of those are bootie shorts which I'm not totally comfortable sporting in a race.
Spandex material CAN be flattering (this is sort of irrelevant but thought I'd point it out).
More coverage - tri shorts are usually longer than your typical running short in case you're worried about that. See the second bullet point.
Really nice tri shorts (like the Newtons/Louis Garneau pair that I'm wearing above) have a high waist and don't have a drawstring. Drawstrings, after 26.2 miles tend to bruise me so I like shorts without drawstrings.
Side pockets that fit snug to the body for storing gel packets.
Compression. Many tri shorts tout compression capabilities - better blood flow which can prevent the onset of cramping and delay muscle fatigue. I don't know how 'good' these shorts are because I haven't tested any of them BUT they can't hurt.
No inner liner! I really dislike running short liners and the pair that I wear during races don't have a liner.

Now onto tops. Athletic tops are pretty universal. I've noticed that tri specific tops, however, usually have back pockets similar to cycling jerseys whereas any pockets found in running tops are usually zippered and located on the side - more something to store ID, keys, or an iPod instead of multiple gels, Cliff bars, or an entire gel flask. Another important difference between tri and running tops would be the material. Tri tops tend to wick water much better since they are typically worn IN the water first. Some tend to be almost swimsuit like.

Take, for example, the Orca top I wore for the race this past weekend - it has two pockets in the back where I could easily have stored my gel flask and the swimsuit like material kept me cool as the temperatures increased throughout the race, drying almost immediately when sweaty. The conclusion - tri tops are pretty superior.

Higher coverage in front (to keep everything in while bent over during the bike portion of a tri) - in case this is important to you.
Different material that wicks water faster.
Rear pockets to stash all of your possessions.
Usually a built in bra-top since it's a top that you'd wear for swimming, biking and running without changing in between. Please note that these tend to suck which is why I still wear a sports bra BUT it has potential to be a good thing.

Focus on the rear pockets folks!

So my point, if there actually was one - triathlon tops and bottoms can be worn for running... running tops and bottoms can't be worn for triathlon (or at least not 'well' and not for the entire race). Logic would suggest that triathlon apparel is more universal. Looks like my next shopping spree will be here or here or... here (since we no longer have a local tri shop) instead of here and potentially here. But in reality I like all athletic apparel so whatever strikes my fancy is probably going to end up in my dresser - regardless of it's designated sport.

Qualified!

2012-01-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

I know you're all expecting a full race report and I will get to that in the coming days but I wanted to send this quick update:

I qualified for the Boston Marathon!

My unofficial time (results haven't been posted) was 3:30:11! I had a great race with even better support from Gabe. And the kicker... If the official time is 3:30 and some change that would be a 22 (almost 23) minute PR. My previous best was Portland two years ago at 3:52:54.

One More Sleep

2012-01-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

Am I nervous? Kind of. Am I excited? Most definitely!

Tomorrow is the big day. At 7 AM I will be running my little tail off chasing down an 'epic' (shout out to this girl and this girl for permanently ingraining 'epic' into my vocabulary) personal best and a BQ spot. Strangely, it doesn't really feel like it's all going to go down tomorrow. I think largely because the race is so tiny. I looked the other night (not sure why I never checked this sooner) and last year only saw 100 participants in the marathon race. SUPER TINY!

A bonus for minuscule races - no expo. Although I love looking at all the gear that I don't really need, I'm thankful that I don't have to wander around a gigantic room of vendors inevitably standing/walking for too long and tiring out my legs. Instead I'll be lounging in my hotel room, feet up, typing away at this computer (since I'm working today too), getting the rest that my body will need. Packet pick up? It's tomorrow right before the race. I keep checking the website to make sure I have that information correct. I still feel like I'm missing something. Obviously I'm not, it's just nerves. Nothing more to do than sit, hydrate, eat, sleep, and crush it.

Taper Tuesday - Belated

2012-01-25T15:34:00.000-08:00

Source

So I missed the actual day but I blame being on the road... although currently I'm stationary so I'm not technically 'on the road' but... okay, whatever, moving on.

Round two of 'Taper Tuesday'. The past week has been crazy. Monday (last Monday) we got snow... which was okay because I took Monday as a rest day (Nookachamps 10k followed by 15ish miles equals one tired girl). The rest day, however, lead to Sicky McSickerson. I went to bed that evening with a sore throat and congested sinuses. I loaded up on apple cider (I swear by it) and popped Alka Seltzer Cold and Sinus tabs (my Mom swears by it) and then went to bed.

Tuesday I was still sick - boo - and there was still snow on the ground - double boo. Now normally I'm not a 'I hate snow' kind of gal and I would suck it up and run in it. But being so close to my 'A' race I didn't think that was wise. Not to mention I ditched my pair of YakTrax last year thinking that if it ever snowed enough I would either just take a rest day or hit the gym. Well... now I had to hit the gym. Rats!

As many of you know I loathe the treadmill. It's boring. There's nothing you can say to make me change my mind. I can't watch TV to distract me because either 1) it's on a channel that no one wants to watch anyway or 2) I can't stand commercials and there are way too many of them. Similarly, I don't do well with music because again I get bored (hence the reason I don't train WITH music). But I had to get it done. So I sloshed my way over to my tiny gym and got on the treadmill - knowing that I had to at least get 3 miles in and was just going to go by feel. HARD! I made it 4 miles (supposed to do 5) and called it quits. My lungs felt congested, I was bored, and way too hot.

Wednesday - still snow, still lingering cold - and on top of that I had my last key workout - 8 miles with 3 x 1 mile repeats at 5k pace. Crap! Back to the treadmill I go. This time I grabbed my iPod with my Ironman mix on it and just focused. This was a MUST workout and there was no skimping. I warmed up for 2 miles and then hit it. Cranked that baby up to my 5k pace and held on for dear life for the entire mile. Then it was two minutes of much needed rest (grab some water, walk for a few seconds, and ease back into a faster pace). By the third time I had my music cranked to maximum - blowing my eardrums out. I was dripping sweat, starring at the floor in front of the treadmill and angrily pounding out the mile. I'm pretty sure I had a determined angry look on my face and I got more than a few odd glances from my elderly gym mates.

After that last mile it took all of my remaining energy to finish out the 8 miles. Cool down? Can't I just do that in the shower? But I sucked it up and in the end I was proud of myself for my determination.

Thursday was another day on the treadmill since the snow had now turned to a solid sheet of ice. Luckily my cold had abated for the most part and I ran a steady 4 miles (I wasn't going any farther). Sure... I was 'supposed' to do 5 on Tuesday and 7 on Thursday but that just wasn't happening so why stress over it? I'm in taper.

Then the weekend was upon me. Normally that doesn't mean much but this last weekend it meant hours of driving and trying to squeeze in my last 'long run' (12 miles). Friday - up at 5, on the road by 6 AM, in Sacramento by 9 PM. LONG A** DAY! Saturday, change of plans. I was 'supposed' to head to Lake Tahoe to visit Lindsay but the night before they got a foot of snow which meant that the pass in between Sacramento and her was set for mandatory chains. So instead, hit the coast, weaved along highway 1 and added all sorts of time to my direct trip and landed late that night in Barstow, CA. Sunday, Barstow to Lake Havasu, pit stop at the lake for a 12 mile run that ended up being only 10.5 (didn't want to start doing laps around the parking lot just to get the extra mile and a half), back in the car and headed to Phoenix.

Voila. Now it's race week which means, hydrate, hydrate hydrate, then dehydrate in the sun, take in a few sites, work, and run around the maze-like neighborhoods of the Phoenix suburbs. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I'll get my act together soon(ish).

Taper Tuesday

2012-01-17T09:56:00.000-08:00

I realize that normally (all two weeks of it) Tuesdays are dedicated to all things triathlon BUT since I'm now in the final weeks of my marathon training I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk taper-y instead. I was so ready for taper last week after my last 20 mile run! Other than the irritating side-stitch I had from the Hammer gel (I ran out of GU... poor decision) it was all I could focus on. Just to be DONE!

Let's recap shall we? I started this training way back in September. September 19th to be exact. That was only 3 short weeks after my Ironman race. So basically I haven't stopped training. And I'm ready. I'm ready to stop training and race this thing. Arizona Desert Classic - BRING IT!

My plan (Pfitzinger 18 weeks with 55 mile peak) was awesome! The execution of the plan... pretty close to flawless. It's been a tough go but I have to say I've seen the results. All of the 'important' days I've pretty much nailed. And by 'important' I'm referring to the following:

8 Miles with 4 @ 15k pace
9 Miles with 4 @ Marathon pace
10 Miles with 5 @ 15k pace
11 Miles with 6 @ Marathon pace
15 Miles with 12 @ Marathon pace - did during the Seattle Half Marathon
12 Miles with 7 @ 15k pace
9 Miles with 5 x 1000m @ 5k pace
17 Miles with 14 @ Marathon pace
10 Miles with 4 x 1200m @ 5k pace
10k race - Nookachamps Winter Runs 10k race report to come

Yes, that is a lot of key workouts and yes I nailed them all! I think I'm most proud of the 17 miles with 14 @ marathon pace. I went into the evening before nervous, like I was 'racing the next day' kind of nervous. When morning came the weather was nasty. It was downright pouring. For those that live outside of the Northwest I'm sure you're assuming this is a common occurrence but in all reality a 'downpour' with fat droplets of rain is not really all that common. I've been quite lucky in the past to have skipped long runs on days where it's nasty. There was no skipping this run though.

Gabe and I hopped in the car and distributed two water bottles on my route. Once back home I loaded up my handheld gel flask (jerry-rigged with an elastic strap for easy 'hand holding') with a few GUs and then headed out into the rain for my 3 mile warm-up lap around the house. I felt heavy, and running even at an easy pace felt hard. My only thought was 'just see what you can do'. If I gave it my best shot then that's all anyone could ask.

So proud - just finished making my elastic strap for my gel flask.

This thing was a life saver - no 'opening' of gel packets while running AND the space to dilute the gels.

Back at the house I dropped off my ear warmers and my gloves since I knew the next 14 I would be working hard and those things would only irritate me. I jumped off the front steps, made my way to the main street and then hit it. I chose an out-and-back course, mimicking what I would be doing in the race, and ran from my house to Fairhaven along the waterfront and back. It's not the flattest course as you have to come up from the waterfront to State Street to get you into Fairhaven but it was close enough.

I can't tell you what I thought about during this run because I don't remember all the details. I remember wanting desperately to reach the turnaround point and sucking back all the water that was stashed there as I walked for a brief period. I remember struggling coming back on State Street when faced with an incline and repeating to myself to just make it to the top, put your chin down and grind it out and then it's a slight downhill. I remember hitting the second water spot and again taking a brief walk to get all the water down. And I definitely remember those last miles as I ran up Squalicum Parkway and how that road seemed so much longer than before.

Soaking wet post run (you can't really tell but I'm drenched). I also hate wearing hats... because they make me look like a boy.

It was a tough day, mentally and physically and it was only a training day! In the end I was all smiles because I had run the 14 miles at a 7:56 pace. I had nailed it and I felt ready for this marathon.

Now, as I sit here typing this, I know I'm ready for this marathon. I've done the time and the mileage. Taper is a time to rest and mentally prepare for the big day. Snow and cold be damned (yes, I'm starting to get a cold but am fighting it with all the apple cider and zinc cough drops that I can). Boston via Phoenix is calling!

Champagne Cupcakes

2012-01-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

That's it - I'm out! Just kidding! There's no way I'd stop making cupcakes just because I've finished my list of 30 (for those just joining I was determined to bake 30 different kinds of cupcakes over this past year). I will be taking a much needed hiatus though. My waistline will thank me later.

First off, excuse the lame picture. I hurried through what I 'thought' would be artistic and holiday-y but basically failed and then the cupcakes were devoured before I got another photo opportunity. Back to the cupcake - for the final shebang I decided to go with Champagne Cupcakes. Original for an early New Years/Holiday party - I know. But really, what else says New Years like champagne, sugar, and a little bit of sparkle? I'm pretty sure this girl and/or this girl would have my back on that comment.

So, let us proceed. I modified this recipe substituting 1/2 cup of plain yogurt for sour cream (simply because I didn't have sour cream in my refrigerator and I'm too lazy to walk the half block to the grocery store). I also did not make a champagne filling. No, I wasn't lazy on this one just didn't have the time. I was baking these bad boys within an hour of having to be present at said party where these were to be eaten. And lastly, I did not put pretty little 'Pastel Dragées' as decoration on the top. Sadly, the Haggen near my house only carries red/brown/green/multicolored sprinkles - the hillbilly version of 'dragées'. So instead I sprinkled my cupcakes with a bit of cane sugar and called it 'sparkle'. I think it worked although you can't tell in the above picture - another reminder of my failboat.

And that's a wrap. 30 cupcakes all while being 30 years old. At some point I'll summarize it all on a page for you with nice little printed recipes. Some of them are definite keepers. The ones that weren't I may toss out and come up with new recipes to test. There has to be an oreo/brownie/cookie dough cupcake in my future. Suggestions?

Tri Tuesdays

2012-01-09T14:55:00.001-08:00

My marathon training is coming to an end (TAPER!) and so the logical next question I ask myself is 'What triathlons am I going to do this summer?' The answer - I have no idea. On the radar:

May
Mt. Rainier Long Course Duathlon (not a tri...but close) - May 6, 2012

June
Oliver Half Iron - June 3, 2012
Subaru Victoria Half Iron or Olympic - June 17, 2012
Padden Triathlon (sprint) - June 23, 2012
Pacific Crest Long Course - June 23, 2012

July
Clear Lake Triathlon (sprint) - July 7, 2012
Desert Half Iron - July 8, 2012
Rev3 Half Iron or Olympic - July 8, 2012
Subaru Vancouver Half Iron or Olympic - July 8, 2012
Ocean Shores Half Iron - July 14, 2012
Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens - July 15, 2012
Chelanman Long Course or Olympic - July 21, 2012
Whisky Dick Triathlon - July 29, 2012

August
Troika Half Iron - August 5, 2012
Subaru Sooke Half Iron or Olympic - August 12, 2012

September
Lake Stevens Olympic - September 8, 2012
Grand Columbian Half or Olympic - September 15, 2012

October
Ironman World Championships (SPECTATING!!!!!) - October 13, 2012

Lake Samish Triathlon - date unknown

Obviously I'm not doing all of these, nor do I really know if I'm doing ANY of these but this list is basically what I have to choose from. I know folks doing Oliver again but am kind of leaning away from that since it's so early in the season. I 'may' want a break from training and I 'may not' be totally ready to get in the pool just yet. Others are doing the Pacific Crest race at the end of June but that conflicts with the local short course race up here that Gabe is set on doing.

And then there is the cluster in early July. Don't race organizers know there are several weekends to hold races? Do they ALL have to be on the weekend of July 7th/8th? Let's coordinate folks!

So yeah. I need to figure this all out and I'm a bit overwhelmed by the options. Here's what I'm leaning towards:

Mt. Rainier Long Course - May 6, 2012
Padden Triathlon - June 23, 2012
Clear Lake Triathlon - July 7, 2012
Ocean Shores Half Iron - July 14, 2012
Whisky Dick Triathlon - July 29, 2012 (only for the name)
Lake Samish Triathlon - if it's in August
Lake Stevens Olympic - September 8, 2012

But this could all change. Suggestions? Other ideas? What races are you doing?

Republic of Tea

2012-01-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

I LOVE tea. I could drink tea all day - oh wait, I already do that. But I don't love ALL teas. Like fruity flavored teas - no thank you. But I <3 me a good herbal tea. And I've found recently that there is no better herbal tea than all flavors of Republic of Tea's Wellness Teas. Or more specifically all of the 'GET' teas that I've tried. AND... thanks to the gift giving over Christmas I received these lovely variations. SOOO EXCITED!!! I haven't tried 'Get Gorgeous' or 'Get Charged' yet but I do know the other flavors seen below are excellent. My favorite being 'Get Relaxed'. The Vanilla Almond... eh. Not my favorite but it's kind of soothing so it'll do.

Thanks C & D for indulging the habit.

Do you drink tea? What's your favorite? I'm also partial to the Numi and Yogi brand teas but I'm still counting the 'Get' teas as my favorite.

Loot

2012-01-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

To be more decked out and a total gear head in the new year is my goal. Okay, not really but I have definitely scored big over the past couple months - thanks to my own spending habits and the gift giving that is Christmas. First, let us all remember the awesome deal that I scored on these outfits. Woot!

Those bad boys were soon followed up with these.

There is an explanation - I swear. I formed a blister on one of my long runs from a sock that was a bit too big (the ONE time that I stray and wear different socks!). Then I proceeded to pay for that decision over... and over... and over again because there aren't enough rest days built into my plan to heal. So I purchased these on a whim while at REI buying another ear warmer (Gabe kept stealing mine...or I kept stealing his...either way). I don't know if they did the trick or if it was the massive surgery I inflicted on my toe but blister be gone. One thing I did notice about these socks was that I felt the cold air more. Makes sense - gloves vs. mittens... creepy toe socks vs. real socks.

Then we get to Christmas. CEP compression socks, Amphipod Xinglet, and a Road ID. Triple Woot!

Last but not least, these Curly Laces just showed up in my mail box today. I've only ever tried bungee laces but I couldn't resist the neon colors (well... and the standard black). I'll let you know how they hold up.

What new gear have you recently got? Is it sad that I'm excited about shoe laces? Is there such thing as too much compression? I think not!

Holy Tweet

2012-01-04T17:50:00.000-08:00

Alright, I pulled the trigger... I joined Twitter! That rhymes by the way. Now I've opened myself up to hashtags and @ signs and another arena where I can be rejected by the masses. For some reason I'm totally nervous!

Here's an insight into my neuroses - I spent a large amount of time deciding on a name. Friend Gina and fellow Tweeter - @sheTRIsALL3 (yes that name sounds a bit sketch Gina) - threw out several options via text. Things like triCakes... crap, I can't remember the rest. But basically they all related to triathlons, running, or cupcakes. None and all of which define me - if that makes sense. Which is why I didn't go with any of them (sorry Gina).

I wanted to capture the endurance athlete in me. This includes triathlons AND running at the moment but may include other things or neither in the future so I didn't want to limit the name to anything tri or running related. Nor did I want to limit myself to a name that highlighted my addiction to cupcakes. Lastly, I wanted to get hip with the Twitter terminology which lead me to this awesome page - the Twictionary. A perusal of this list lead me to 'Twerd'. Sounding much like 'turd' but better, it simply means a 'Twitter Nerd'. YES! That will be me! Slap 'enduro' on the front and you've got an endurance nerd who uses Twitter...and hence @enduroTwerd. It's a start folks.

Lastly, I spent another large amount of time trying to upload a picture to my profile. It really shouldn't be so hard. Of course it's not, but that was AFTER I realized there was a size limit and my camera takes ridiculously large photos. I was tempted to use one of Gina's pictures she kept sending me on my phone - that will show her to get me to join this thing!

So, if you're reading this and you too are on Twitter then please follow me so I don't feel so lonely.

Tri Tuesdays

2012-01-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

New thing - talk about triathlons (or tri related things) every Tuesday. I wonder if I can pull that off and how long it'll last? No harm in tri - ing..ha ha...get it?!

Well, first things first. My old coach brought to my attention that Central Oregon is trying to make a bid to bring in an Ironman event. Here's the blurb:

We are seeking the support & enthusiasm of triathletes to help us win the bid to bring a full Ironman to Oregon!

The Oregon Sports Authority and Central Oregon Visitors Association will be submitting the bid to bring the Ironman Triathlon to Central Oregon.

The bid is due at the end of January 2012. Our chances for a successful bid will be significantly enhanced if we can demonstrate strong interest and support. Please sign our petition to document your enthusiasm & support to bring a full Ironman to Central Oregon beginning in the fall of 2013.

Background & Impact

One of the most recognized endurance events in the world, the Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. Ironman's qualifying series includes 28 events throughout the world, leading up to the Ironman World Championship held every October in Kona, Hawaii.

An Ironman event could bring more than 10,000 people to Oregon over a period of several days, generating significant tourism impact for our state.

Please sign this petition today and pass it on!

Now I don't know exactly what town they're trying to get it to (I'm hoping for Bend, Oregon) but I do know that anywhere in Oregon would pretty much make for a killer Ironman event. It would be incredible to have one in the Pacific Northwest and I would definitely consider it a 'must do' race. If you all agree then go sign the petition here. Or you can click the widget that I'll add to my right navigation. Either way - support the Pacific Northwest!

For those that are somewhat opposed to large corporate events here are my two cents - Ironman events are well organized, have an immense amount of support, bring revenue to the communities they reside in, and in my experience have been great events (I've done Ironman 70.3 Lake Stevens x2 and Ironman Canada). Sure, there are others out there that have 'iron distance' events (140.6 miles is hard and an accomplishment any way you slice it) but the amount of support that those organizations need to pull one of these events off flawlessly seems a bit of a stretch - I don't know from experience so don't quote me on this. I'm sure it can be done and done well but why not support something that is a known entity?

What Does the Future Hold in 2012?

2012-01-02T10:15:00.000-08:00

2012 came up and surprised me. I don't think I'm prepared for a new year. Everyone is posting their resolutions/goals and I'm coming up short. Given that, this list is more of a 'work in progress'.

Run a sub 20 minute 5k
My current PR I believe is 22:06 and that was last year while training for Ironman (aka not speed training). I think this is pretty attainable. Fun with the Fuzz here I come!

Race
I typically focus on a handful of big races each year (Half Irons, Ironman are prime examples) and the training consumes me. I just want to race this year. Shorter and faster - those will be the focus for both road running and tris.

Ultra?
Baker Lake 50k??? Maybe. I'm not holding my breath for this one. We all know how my ankles handle trails. But I've heard this course is gorgeous, it's right in my own backyard, and everyone else is doing it. :) Yes, I'm a sheep when it comes to certain things...what can I say?

Finish out my 30
I still have until February 14th to knock a few things off my '30 While 30' list (first half, second half). I'm not confident I'll get them all since items #1 and #18 have consumed me - see above goal of 'race'.

Make a name for myself in the blogosphere
I'm enjoying blogging and I'd like to get better at it. By 'better' I simply mean - post about things that are interesting to people, post more frequently, and figure out the little hidden secrets to blogging (like titles, writing styles, naming pictures, etc...)

Go all 'Young House Love' on my kitchen
It's going to be a mess but I think we're ready to finally tackle the challenge of a kitchen remodel. I don't care if it's done in fits and starts (that's the way we roll over here) but I'd at least like to get it reorganized and rip out our awful sink that is chipping.

Well, I think that's a good start. If I come up with something amazing I'll let y'all know.

Lost Weekend NYC Does Christmas with the Starbucks

2011-12-31T07:42:00.000-08:00

Okay, so many of you don't have a clue what I'm even talking about. Here's the run down. My good friend owns a coffee shop in the Lower East Side of Manhattan called Lost Weekend NYC. If you're reading this and are in New York go check it out after you visit one of this gals many yoga classes - shameless plug, I know. It gets worse.

Anywho... said friends are visiting for the holidays and happened to drop off a few stickers. Which I then took and introduced them to our whirlwind Christmas festivities - Mom and Dad's house, Grandparent's house and finally in-law's house. Well... I at least got the first part of our festivities, the glare from the sun as we were driving through downtown Seattle ruined the shot of the sticker with the Space Needle and then I ran out of steam (a.k.a. I fell asleep) so it doesn't capture ALL of the festivities but you get the point.

Holiday Memories

2011-12-30T17:11:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm behind let me catch up. The Christmas holidays to me mean - family, food, lights, presents, merriment with friends which normally includes merriment while imbibing, and kiddos pretending to open gifts and really just fascinated with Tupperware and/or the wrapping paper.

It appears I'm drinking alone in this picture... so much for merriment with friends.

Merry Martini Party - I <3 you.

Zoey 'stacking'

Cedar 'stacking' - Auntie Meghan is so creative with her gifts.

Sad to see them go but excited for the new year!

Homemade Apple Juice and Apple Pie Cookies

2011-12-30T09:08:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe I haven't posted this yet!!! Total fail on my part.

To finish out the year of 'harvesting' we (royal we which really equals Gabe) harvested apples this past fall. Now, I'm not talking about just a few apples. I'm talking barrels and barrels of apples. This is all because of our recently acquired/borrowed apple press. MUST .... MAKE ... CIDER.

Do we have apple trees? No. Do we have a recently purchased apple picker? Why yes, yes we do. MUST ... FIND ... APPLES. Gabe, after purchasing said apple picker promptly set about canvasing the neighborhood for overloaded trees. Stealing other people's apples - don't worry, he asked in most cases. He even convinced our 80 year old neighbor to join in the efforts.

The outcome - about 12 gallons (that's right, I said GALLONS) of freshly pressed apple juice. Some of which will become awesome hard cider. Don't believe me - here's the proof.

Step 1: Place apples in crank area

Step 2: Crank

Step 3: Once the wooden bucket is full (obviously it's not in the above picture), place the wooden plate over the scraps and spin the press down to squeeze out juice into awaiting rubber container.

Step 4: Filter through funnel into awaiting jugs.

Step 5: Sit proudly next to jugs of juice.

Of course apple juice (soon to be cider) wasn't the only thing produced from the apples Gabe picked. We had to BAKE something with them! I came across this recipe for Apple Pie Cookies on Smitten Kitchen's blog and Gabe was sold. My only request was that he help me make the dough. The result - DELICIOUS.

It Tastes A Little Like Christmas

2011-12-29T16:40:00.000-08:00

Well it DID until I forgot to post this before the actually holidays came and went.

What do you think of when the words 'Christmas' (or Holidays if your politically correct) and 'treats' are in the same sentence? For me I really only think of my Mom's seven layer bars. Sure, there are other things that she makes - ginger snaps, cherry bars, jam thumbprints, sugar cookies - but I'm ALL ABOUT the seven layer bars. It's the one thing I OD on every year. That said, when it came time to think up what cupcake flavor(s) I would whip up for the celebrations I went straight to Gingerbread, Eggnog, Peppermint (no, not all together in one cupcake - GROSS). But then it dawned on me - why not make a seven layer cupcake (yeah, I'm a bit slow)?

So the weekend before last I set out to make the first of the four flavors - Gingerbread Cupcakes with Spiced and Spiked Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting. I followed this recipe but spiked the frosting with a bit of rum...actually a lot of rum - I didn't measure.

Then, last Wednesday I took advantage of my 'rest' day from training and decided to go crazy making the remaining three flavors as a test run for all of our Christmas festivities. The 'easy' part was the fact that all three flavors were based on a vanilla cupcake. In theory I could make one batch and then divide it three ways and modify as needed.

I started with this recipe for 'moist' vanilla cupcakes. I tweaked it just a bit - adding more milk towards the end because the batter seemed a little thick and my non-chocolate cupcakes always come out a bit denser than I'd like (I think this did the trick). I separated the batter into three separate bowls. For the Eggnog cupcakes I simply added Eggnog until it reached the consistency that I was happy with. I didn't measure sorry. And for the Peppermint I believe I added 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract to the batter. For those two flavors that was all I had to do. Pour into cupcake liners and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. One trick that I picked up from the vanilla recipe was wrapping the cooked cupcakes in plastic wrap to keep them moist as they cooled. I think this made a huge difference.

The Seven Layer Cupcakes were a bit more 'involved' obviously. Layer 1: First I mixed crushed graham crackers with about a tablespoon of butter (I was only making 4 of this flavor for this test run so it was about 1/4 cup crushed graham cracker and a tablespoon of butter although I think I could have used a bit more melted butter). I also added a splash of sugar. Then I covered the bottom of the cupcake liners and patted it down - I used a narrow bottle from the refrigerator to pack it in. Baked those for about 5 minutes at 350.

Layer 2: I sprinkled butterscotch morsels on top of the graham cracker layer.
Layer 3: Vanilla cupcake batter - cook for about 25 minutes at 350. I think these could have used a bit more time in the oven in comparison to the other flavors.
Layer 4: I made a quickie ganache - melting chocolate chips with warmed milk and then dipped the tops of the slightly cooled cupcakes.
Layer 5: Sweetened Condensed Milk Buttercream Frosting adapted from this recipe (I didn't follow the measurements really and just winged it).
Layer 6: Crushed walnuts to sprinkle on top of frosting
Layer 7: Coconut flakes to sprinkle on top of frosting

These cupcakes are so decadent. They taste EXACTLY like my Mom's bars but fluffy. Ridiculous!

Okay, back to the other frosting. Eggnog frosting - butter, eggnog, powdered sugar. I randomly added eggnog until I liked the flavor. And a few pinches of nutmeg. I topped the whole thing in a dusting of nutmeg. Peppermint frosting - pretty much the same as above just substitute peppermint extract and definitely in a small dose as opposed to the eggnog. Again, I added to taste. On top of those bad boys I crushed up candy canes (for the final version I actually blended in the crushed candy canes with the buttercream instead of coating it on top). As you can tell by the picture below I didn't get all fancy decorating these with piped frosting because they were my 'trial' run cupcakes... but no one should be surprised that I didn't do any piping for the real batch either. I mean a 17 mile run and then a day of baking the day before Christmas...there was no fanciness just mass production!

One last note - in case you've lost track these are numbers 26, 27, 28 and 29. Only ONE more cupcake to go before I reach my 30 while 30. I think the next one is going to involve a bit of champagne to ring in the new year.

Holiday Cards

2011-12-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

I don't typically send out holiday cards, mostly because I'm lazy OR I don't think about it until it's the day before the holidays and I haven't done anything about it. You pick the reason. This year, however, I was inspired by Pinterest (of course). There were some seriously cute ideas but mostly focusing on kids - of which I have none. Instead, I honed in on my hound. I spent one solid evening draping her in little white lights and trying to get cute shots. I then created a fantastic card...of just my dog. Yeah, that's when it was kindly pointed out to me that my collage of Charlie was a bit 'creepy' to say the least. So I compromised and came up with a new collage highlighting our year.

So, from my family to yours Happy Holidays! Oh yeah, and it's coming to you on the blog because I either don't know you, don't have your address or I'm lazy - again you pick the reason.

Heat Training: How to Acclimate to Warmer Climate Races

2011-12-18T11:00:00.001-08:00

Or a better title, more suitable to my current form of heat training, would be 'Heat Training - How to be Lazy While Still Going to the Gym'. This morning I went to the gym for the sole purpose to do a bit of heat training. Otherwise known as, bring a book and sit myself in the sauna for at least 15 minutes, shower, and leave. It's the best training ever!

Okay, so technically I'm not doing it right (here's an example of 'real' heat training) but at this point I'm just trying to get my body acclimated to warmer temperatures. It's going to be a bit of a change when I head down South for this marathon and temperatures are closer to 70 than what I'm used to - hovering around the low to mid 30s the past few weeks of training. Wearing layered clothing while running isn't going to cut it - I'm already as layered as I can get and I'm still freezing! Training during the 'heat of the day' is also not going to work when the high is maybe 45. So, I'm hitting the sauna.

I'm definitely seeing a difference. When I first started (going in on rest days) I couldn't stand being in there. I would get so uncomfortable just sitting in sweat and I couldn't breath all that well. But, over the last couple of times I think my body has adjusted slightly. I find myself getting caught up in a book and realizing it's time to get out before I pass out (maybe not a good thing). I think the next step for me is taking a few pointers from folks that have done this kind of thing before - incorporating little exercises while I'm in the sauna (an example would be minimal core work), or doing an easy run on the dreadmill after the sauna. Both sound exhausting but most likely useful.

Let's be honest - I'm not doing the Badwater Ultramarathon so I don't have to get too crazy but I'd like to be as prepared as possible. Another caveat, I'm not really going about this in any researched and scientific way. I honestly thought it was just a good idea to incorporate some heat into my training since we're lacking the proper weather conditions in the great Pacific Northwest. I'll let you know at the end of January if this helped at all - although that too will all be subjective so make of it what you will.

Race Photos

2011-12-10T12:20:00.001-08:00

Note: This post idea was totally stolen from SR.

Sometimes...okay, let's be honest, MOST OF THE TIME race photos aren't very pretty. Here are two of my recent 'worst' photos. I'm pretty sure there are others out there but currently these take the cake. No chin and condom head with double chin (you're lucky I didn't zoom in on that one). Awesome!

But even if we have awful pictures we always look. Or at least I always look so I assume I'm not alone. I love sifting through the pictures to find the good, the bad and the downright fugly. Which brings me to my point - Brightroom Inc. did a TERRIBLE job at the Seattle Marathon this year. Let's take the finishing shot for example:

I had to blow it up extra large to highlight just how stellar the photo was. I'm pretty sure they just used clips from the video recording the finish and didn't spring for an ACTUAL photographer to take shots at the end. If this were my first half or full marathon I'd be totally disappointed that I didn't get a finishing shot - up close and personal. Those moments CAN be important and if you're paying upwards of $100 dollars you should at least have a commemorative photo of it. Just sayin'.

Instead Brightroom this year opted to give us gorgeous shots of the city sites such as these below...which sadly aren't even ON the marathon course and were obviously not taken on the day of the race because we had wind and rain, not blue skies. So yeah, they blew it.

And the most random of all - a shot of Boeing Field...WTF?! Is this a 'what's Seattle known for' photo shoot?

Do you obsess about your race photos? Do you spend hours sifting through the lost and found photo items to see, if on the off chance that one of your photos didn't get labeled appropriately? What was your worst photo?

Chocolate Chili and Yam Pecan Cucpakes

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Cupcakes #24 and #25 are out the door. Only 5 more!!!

#24 - Chocolate Chili Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

One Saturday after a long run I was feeling 'spicy' and I was craving chocolate so I decided to make cupcakes. The result was a Serrano pepper chocolate cupcake. I simply took the usual chocolate cupcake recipe that I've been using all year and blended in two whole Serrano peppers. I could taste it in the batter but when they baked a bit of the kick went out of them. That said, I still noticed a slight kick after consumption so you knew SOMETHING was there. I think next time I'd spice it up even more. The frosting was a simple chocolate buttercream that was a bit on the mousse-y side.

#25 - Yam and Pecan Cupcakes with Option A) Gorgonzola Cream Cheese Frosting or Option B) Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting

Okay, I know Option A doesn't sound appealing to most people but I'm not like most people. This recipe was for Thanksgiving and for some reason I associated Thanksgiving with crackers and cheese (stinky cheese) and then all the other stuff (turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, etc...). The yam and pecan part was a no-brainer but I wanted to mix it up a bit with the frosting. Surprisingly blue cheese or Gorgonzola frosting is no where to be found on the interwebs. So I improvised. I basically made cream cheese frosting with Gorgonzola bits blended in. The result - fantastic! You could taste it but it wasn't overpowering AND I think it complemented the yams and pecans very nicely.

For those that weren't so daring I made a few with bourbon cream cheese frosting. I of course added more bourbon than was necessary just so you could get the boozy feel of the cupcake. I have a feeling that those were the preferred flavor for the big day but I liked them both equally. And, for your reference here is the recipe I used for the cupcakes.

Last thing to make note of - I found out THE BEST way to pipe frosting without dirtying your pastry bag. So easy! Basically you dump the frosting on a sheet of plastic wrap, roll it up, twist the ends, thread into piping bag, cut one end and done-zo. Here's the video. No more mess to deal with - especially after I blew a hole in one of my pastry bags. Problem solved.

How To FAIL At Refueling After a Long Run

2011-12-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

Enough Said. Usually I'm not so terrible, I promise! For the record...I only took a few sips of the energy drink so I'd have enough 'energy' to not nap the whole day away and I split the cupcakes 50/50 AND I ate a real meal before I consumed this.

Happy Holidays to Me

2011-12-07T17:11:00.001-08:00

Look Ma, I bought new gear! Seven dollar jerseys with seven dollar matching cycling shorts?! You've got to be crazy. AND there is one with an M-dot on it? That sure beats buying the swag at IM Canada and spending more like 80 dollars for a jersey and 80 dollars for cycling shorts. Thrifty shopping for the win!

Not entirely sure why I bought the Germany jersey but I liked the colors...and I kinda like Germany so whatevs.

Seattle Half Marathon Race Report

2011-11-29T10:45:00.001-08:00

I had a GREAT day! For those that just want the quick and dirty here are the stats:

Chip time - 1:42:45
Overall Place (Women) - 98/3585 (which is based on Official Time because of USAT rules which doesn't make a ton of sense but whatever)
Division Place - 11/630

Day Before
I drove down to Seattle around 11 stopping and hanging out with Demetra, Collin and baby Z before meeting up with my Mom to hit up the Expo and a little shopping at the Nordstrom Rack. The afternoon flew by and before I knew it I was tired, hungry, and ready to call it a day. My feet were not happy with me and that was reflected in my attitude (although I did wear my compression tights all day so that may have been one saving grace).

A note on the Expo - I LOVE running expos. In comparison to traithlon expos (which are completely lack luster btw) they rock. There are so many booths to visit. I especially like the discounted shoes from Road Runner Sports - although I didn't buy anything, there is always the potential. You can't beat $50 for one pair when they are typically over $100. Also...I was tempted to purchase a fancy headband like these but they were 15 bucks and seemed not so worth it (and they weren't this brand so...). Since my Mom was with me I took the opportunity to point out potential Christmas present ideas - namely this Amphipod reflective strap and these compression socks.

Once home, I dumped out the goodie bag and got rid of all the race paperwork - a note to all you race organizers...save some paper and don't give me that stuff, it goes instantly in the recycle bin without even a glance. There wasn't much else in the bag. A packet of peanut butter, a pencil and chap stick. RANDOM! Oh well. I was able to snag a few LaraBar samples to round out my 'goodies'. Oh yeah, and the shirt this year was an odd blue/greyish color. Works for me because I don't really care - it's just another shirt to throw into the mix.

Before dinner I took a moment to lay out my gear so I wouldn't have to rummage through my bag in the morning. The forecast was 100% chance of rain and in the low 50s so my plan was shorts, tank top, arm warmers, gloves, and CEP compression sleeves. Hat and/or ear warmers were optional. Additional gear included the Garmin (charging up just in case), 3 Chocolate Gus to be dumped into a gel flask and watered down for easy consumption, race belt, timing chip, and a ratty long sleeve shirt to toss once the race started.

Staying at my parents' house is always a win before a race. I don't have to worry about eating out and instead I get an awesome home cooked meal to whatever specification I want (that makes me sound like a spoiled brat...but it's not like I was asking for something ridiculous). So my request was french dip. This is my newish 'go to' pre race meal. This summer when I raced in Chelan it was the only thing appealing on the menu at the restaurant we landed on. And, since I had a great race in Chelan...well, don't mess with a good thing. The same meal was consumed prior to Ironman. My Mom whipped up easy french dip and we had leftover mashed yams with pecans and cranberries. Delicious!

Post meal it was movie time and trying to keep track of baby Z bouncing on the bed - that girl has a lot of energy! Then it was early-ish to bed only to lay there wide awake visualizing the race - for some reason I was pretty nervous about my training plan. 12 miles at race pace was a big leap. In previous runs the longest 'race pace' portion was 6 miles.

Race Day
My alarm was set for 5:50 - plenty of time to slowly wake up, eat breakfast, get things moving and then get dropped off for my warmup. Breakfast consisted of a piece of toast with peanut butter and a few sips of an energy drink. I diluted 3 gels with water into a gel flask. I wasn't sure how many gels I would need but figured 3 was more than enough. My plan was to sip the flask throughout the race at around 20 minute intervals.

We left the house around 6:40 and drove south. It wasn't raining at the time and the temperature was pretty mild so I skipped both the hat and the ear warmers (a good choice in the end as I think I would have been hot although a hat may have been handy given the rain). I stuffed one last gel into my glove just in case. I remembered as we drove to my drop off point that I would be running a total of 15 miles and 3 gels may not cut it.

My parents dropped me off on the east side of Lake Union about a mile and a half from the start line. It was still dark but Eastlake is all lit so I didn't need a headlamp. I started off nice and relaxed. I kept repeating to myself 'today is going to be a good day to run'. The weather was perfect and my legs felt good. It was actually quite pleasent to warm up this way. There was no nervous energy of other racers around me. In fact I passed the slow moving line of cars all headed to drop runners off at the start. They were probably looking at me thinking I was crazy for running to the start. I think from now on this is the way to go. I completely enjoyed that time to myself. Unfortuantely, I timed it poorly. I allotted a bit too much time between my drop off and the start time. I got to the start at 7:05 and then stood around waiting until the 7:30 start. Oops.

Steffanie met up with me around 7:20 and we hopped the fence to get into the starting chute. I, of course, forgot that I had a spare gel stuffed in my glove and as I pressed down to launch myself over the fence I popped it. Disgusting! Chocolate gel oozed between my fingers and covered the palm of my hand. I tossed the glove and the popped gel packet and proceeded to ungracefully lick the rest of the gel off my hand - classy. We made our way up near the 8 min/mile pacer and settled in. I figured I wouldn't see the pacer again since the first mile was supposed to be a warm up for me (I was shooting for around an 8:30 pace) but it is always better to start a little ahead of where you 'think' you'll end up - that way you don't have to weave around people.

The race started right on time and Steffanie and I took off around an 8:30 pace. We chatted and weaved in and out of other runners. The first mile starts off fairly flat and then turns into a steady climb as you work your way further downtown. At the mile marker we said our goodbyes (Steffanie's plan was to just run - she had been sick for a few weeks and unable to train so today was a training day rather than a race), I hit my lap button to switch over to the race pace portion of my run, and took off. I used the Advanced Workout option on my Garmin leaving both the warmup and the race pace part open ended so I could go by the mile markers on the course as opposed to the satelitte miles. I set the race pace part to have a range between 7:40 to 8:05 pace. I figured that would give me plenty of wiggle room for my pacing and keep it on the faster side.

As I sped up I crested the top of the hill and made my way easily down into the International District. The Garmin beeping annoyingly telling me I was going to fast - DUH, I was going downhill and wasn't about to put on the breaks this early in the run. Downhills equal free speed. I knew it would even out once I hit the I-90 express entrance so I ignored it and prayed that everyone around me wasn't wanting to kill me.

We funneled onto the on ramp and I scooted to the middle of the lane. One year at this very same spot I was crowded on the edge and it was SCARY! Nothing like a nice shove from a competitor to knock you right off the ramp and down 50+ feet to concrete. No thank you. Running up the hill felt easy. Baby steps.

From the ramp you make your way towards the tunnel before being dropped next to Lake Washington to head towards the Arboretum. The tunnel smelled terrifying from the thousands of bodies that were going through there in their technical gear. I'm sure I didn't help the situation but at the same time I was thinking how lucky I was at the front of the pack before things got really 'steamy'.

Once I hit the lake I knew I had at least 3 miles of relatively flat pavement to run so I picked it up a notch and enjoyed the scenery. At this point it had started to rain but to tell you the truth I didn't really notice that. I was focusing on staying relaxed, sipping my GU at intervals and clicking off the miles. It felt easy.

At mile 7ish you make a left hand turn and start your way up Madison. It's a long slog of a hill. I didn't push it but kept it steady and passed a lot of people. Towards the top I ran right into Pat. I said hello but didn't start up a conversation. I was working hard and I wanted to get up and over so I could pound down the other side.

Pat and I ran together as we dove into the Arboretum, winding our way towards Interlaken. It 'could' be gorgeous along this stretch of the race but the weather sucked and I was focused so who knows what it looked like around me. We hit the turn onto Interlaken and started snaking our way up - literally. This section is a lot of switch backs and it seems to go on forever. The first part is relatively steep and then it flattens out after a mile or two but you're still weaving in and out. I kept thinking 'maybe this is the last bend in the road...' but usually it wasn't (obviously since there would only be one of those). At this point I was focusing on cutting the corners, running as straight a line as I possibly could - free distance right?

On one of these winding sections Pat dropped back a bit. I didn't know how far and didn't risk looking back. I was just ticking off the miles at that point AND I had seen the 8 min/mile pacer and was hunting him down (nothing like a rabbit in front of you to chase after). I was excited that he was in my sights since I had assumed I wouldn't see him again. If I could catch him and stay with him then I would for sure average 8's for the entire 13 (not planned) AND I would PR. The best part - We were narrowing in on the 10 mile mark which would mean only 5k left.

When I popped out of the woods and made my way down Boylston I could feel my right hip flexor aching a bit. Luckily it wasn't too bad and I continued at the pace I was going but it definitely wasn't happy with me - must have been all the hills!

Shortly before the freeway overpass on Boylston I made my pass of the 8 min/mile pacer. Ha! Now let's see what I can do. Apparently (as I learned later on) Pat saw this move and was surprised since my plan was to run an 8 pace but she was pacing me so she went for it too. Around mile 11 I was starting to feel pretty fatigued. My hip was annoying and I was ready to be done with this wet race. Pat ran up next to me and said basically just that - 'let's get this thing over with'. The mantra in my head at this point was '2.1 miles left, 2.1 miles left'. Typically I start to count down the miles and parts of miles when I have this distance left. Then, I look down at my watch periodically and am disappointed by how little it has moved. So instead I took this route and pretended like I still had 2.1 miles to go all the way until mile 12, then it became 1.1 miles to go.

The last mile and change are brutal in this race. It's a steep downhill bottoming out about 3/4s of a mile away from the finish and then a steep uphill before you get to turn into the stadium and run to the finish line. Not a fan. But, like all the other downhills in this race I let gravity take me and then prepared myself mentally for the uphill. Baby steps up the other side and then turn on the gas to the finish. I didn't have a whole lot left and so saved most of it for that final sprint into the stadium. I'm pretty sure I passed at least 5 people in that final 100 yards - AWESOME! I crossed the finish line pooped but at the same time exhilarated by my PR and by the fact that I successfully ran my 12 pace miles (albeit faster than 'pace'). Pat and I celebrated by downing fresh smoothies, chocolate milk, chicken noodle soup, and hot cocoa.

A great race! I had a smile (at least internally - even if they didn't show in the pictures) the entire race...well, maybe except the last mile and a half. I felt strong and confident. Both of which I need to take with me to Phoenix in January. Lastly, more pictures to come once I steal them from my Dad's camera. Oh yeah...and thanks everyone for the support - I felt like a rock star with all the comments on FB.

Half Marathon PR

2011-11-27T10:48:00.001-08:00

It was a success! Official time (at least as I was leaving the recovery area) was 1:42:46 (previous PR was from the Honeywagon this year - 1:50:41). And the best part, Pat and I finished with the EXACT same time!! So great to have her pushing me for the last several miles. Thanks Pat!

The quick and dirty goes like this - 1.5 mile warmup to the race start nice and relaxed; stand around and wait...oops; first mile warmup with Steffanie around an 8:39 pace; last 12.1 miles nailed it around a 7:40 pace. WOOT! As you can tell I'm pretty stoked about this. Full marathon here I come. I'll give a full race report when I get home.

Brooks Launch

2011-11-26T18:09:00.001-08:00

So the result of my 'small business' shopping - Brooks Launch (sorry for the crappy phone picture)! I tried the usual Defyance and of course they felt fine but these felt awesome. Other shoes I tried were Brooks Ghost and Glycerin. The Glycerin was way too roomy in the toe box and the Ghost was only okay. If it came down to the Ghost and the Defyance I would go with the ol' standby. I also tried the Asics Cumulus which were by far the worst. Although the ride felt super cushiony it also felt like I had a heal lift. Guess that makes me more of a minimalist runner after all.

Back to tired feet - I of course spent the rest of the day walking around the Seattle Marathon Expo and then proceeding to shop for way too long (although I did get a pair of awesome Paige Premium jeans as recommended by SR and super cute Born flats). Oops! Oh well. Now it's time to put my feet up, eat my pre race (although this is only a training run) meal and go to bed. The clothes are all laid out for tomorrow morning. The plan - 2 mile warmup to the start of the half marathon; the first mile as an additional warmup and then the last 12.1 done at race pace (total of 15 miles with 12 at race pace for those that don't want to do the math). It's going to be a challenge but a good one. Wish me luck!

New Running Shoes

2011-11-26T08:13:00.001-08:00

Today I must get new running shoes and since it's 'Small Business Saturday' (or something like that) I'll be off to Fairhaven Runners to purchase said shoes. I've realized over the past few weeks that my feet have been getting progressively more sore after my runs (and even during sometimes). My calves too have been feeling the burn. I stretch, I roll everything out on the foam roller, but they still get sore and feel really tight the next day. Being the smart person that I am I checked my Garmin log the other day and figured out that I've put about 500 miles on my training shoes (the Brooks Defyance shoes on the far right above)...and the kicker, that's all since July! Ooops, no wonder!

How many miles do you put on your shoes? I don't usually keep track and I tend to rotate shoes from time to time so it makes it even harder to put a finger on the exact mileage (hence the 'about 500' above). Above are the three shoes I've been rotating through lately. In training I switch back and forth between the Brooks Defyance and the Newton Guidance Trainer and for racing I just sport the old school Asics Speedstars (I'm pretty sure this pair is at least 2 years old).

As you can see I'm all over the map when it comes to brands. I used to be an Asics girl until they screwed things up with their new designs last year - Landreth changes were a total FAIL. Then I got on the minimalist band wagon (although not as extreme as the Five Fingers - which until they make those cute I don't see myself wearing) and bought the Newtons seen above. I like those shoes but what's stopping me from buying another pair are the following two reasons 1) we don't have a store that sells them and Road Runner Sports in Seattle isn't a knowledge base that I really trust (the guy I talked to about the Newtons had NO CLUE!) and 2) they are so much more expensive! So that's what has landed me with the Brooks Defyance. I have to say I'm not super attached so we'll see what I come home with today. Oh...and in case you were worried I'm NOT wearing the new shoes in the race tomorrow.

Hope you all are keeping your feet happy - I'm pretty sure they're the most important part of your body when it comes to running and multisport.

All 'Twitter'ed Out

2011-11-25T17:17:00.000-08:00

What's the deal with Twitter? I don't get it and yet oddly I'm drawn to it. I don't have an account nor do I know what I'd even write on there (other than more droning on and on about myself) but it seems like EVERYONE is doing it. So what's the scoop? Someone enlighten me...PLEASE!

Should I get a Twitter account?
Is that going to make me one of the cool kids?
Will I then have more than 6 (now 8 because I guilted two more friends into 'following'...whatever that means) people following my blog?

Overeating

2011-11-25T10:34:00.001-08:00

It's not the actual Thanksgiving meal that I indulge in (although I do love stuffing...and mashed potatoes...and salad...and turkey...and...)...it's the cured meats, stinky cheese, and copious amounts of circular and crunchy carbs that come BEFORE the meal that do me in. Oh right, and the bourbon infused cupcakes following the meal. There's no room? I'll make room. Besides, it's my dessert stomach that hasn't been used yet.

So a Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone! I surprisingly had a computer free day yesterday and an exercise free day (unless you count expanding my stomach muscles as exercise).

Recovery Week

2011-11-20T16:35:00.001-08:00

Source

This week is a 'recovery week' which means I get to cut back in mileage - winning! Cutting back in mileage DOES NOT mean slacking on the workouts. But before I get into what this week has in store for me let me give you a quick recap on the past two 'build' weeks.

As you may recall week 7 went a little something like this:
Monday - 10 miles with 5 @ 15k pace (i.e. 7:30 min/mile)
Tuesday - 4 mile recovery run
Wednesday - 11 steady miles
Thursday - REST
Friday - 7 miles with 8x100m strides
Saturday - 18 miles
Sunday - REST

Week 8 as follows:
Monday - 6 recover miles with 6x100m strides
Tuesday - 12 steady miles
Wednesday - REST
Thursday - 11 miles with 6 @ 8:00 min/mile pace
Friday - 5 recovery miles
Saturday - 20 miles

The verdict? All miles complete and all scary miles (any day that included a medium long run with pace miles in it) were done successfully. Even my 11 this past Thursday that started out feeling slow and clunky resulted in a solid 6 miles at 7:37 pace. The long runs felt amazing. Both weekends I was fortunate enough to have friends join me for part of the run (thank you, thank you, thank you) and the weather held. In fact yesterday was downright gorgeous (although freezing cold at 34). And the kicker - both long runs I finished strong. In fact yesterday I pulled out an 8:12 mile 19 and a 7:48 mile 20. Woot!

So back to the current week - week 9. I trim 7 miles from last weeks' 54 mile summary.

Monday - 6 mile recovery run
Tuesday - 14 steady miles
Wednesday - 6 mile recovery run
Thursday - REST (Good thing to because I'll be eating this day!)
Friday - 6 recovery miles with 6 x 100m strides
Saturday - REST (I'm switching my Saturday run to Sunday
Sunday - Seattle Half Marathon plus 2 warmup miles. 15 miles with 12 @ 8:00 min/mile pace.

A word of advice - if you've never trained for a marathon or any endurance event it is important to include recovery weeks into your plan. True, you want to build the mileage gradually but recovery weeks are important to give your body a rest. But take note - your body probably won't 'feel' good during recovery weeks. I often feel the most lethargic during these weeks and my legs tend to feel heavy. This I attribute to the delayed effect of the high mileage weeks right before. Even though you feel heavy and slow you are doing your body a favor.

Source

Mind Games

2011-11-14T17:39:00.000-08:00

Since I don't tend to run with music and most of my week is spent on runs by myself I've come to categorize my runs depending on my thoughts.

Food obsession: My long runs are frequently done with friends (or at least parts of them) and often in the early morning. This means that I've consumed a piece of toast with peanut butter and Gus. Therefore, the conversation and my thoughts always land on food. What I'm going to eat when I'm done. The smells wafting from the local diners. They pretty much all lead me to one of two things - bacon or smoothies. Occasionally a cupcake is thrown in their for good measure but without a doubt I'm going to want bacon.

Pace, breathing, labored breathing, pace: Interval runs are ALWAYS focused on the Garmin, and what the Garmin is telling me (wouldn't it be great if it could talk) followed closely by my body hating me. I often play tricks on myself by trying to focus on my breathing. It starts out meditative and easy but after a few intervals it's labored and out of control and then I bring it back to the Garmin.

ADD: Recovery runs are the most variable. I waffle between questions of 'Do I have to?' to aimless thoughts about what my next blog post should be - you all are blessed that I put so much thought into these posts. They often start out with a crappy attitude but always end positive - feeling good that I got out there, did the easy miles, and can now eat cupcakes the rest of the day.

So what do you think about on your runs?

Craft-O-Matic

2011-11-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

I have a new obsession. Surprised? Doubt it. Recently my friend Steffanie turned me on to pinterest.com. I can't stop checking it! And I've already started creating lists of everything I want to do that has been inspired by this site. I mean look at this! Potentially the next cupcake recipe. Anyway. Back to the craftiness at hand (because I could seriously get carried away with EVERYTHING that I want to do stemming from this site).

Steffanie was planning on making a Christmas wreath...what?...me too! Except I wanted to make a 'Fall' wreath or make a wreath that could be holiday neutral. I'm not a huge fan of storing holiday related crap around the house so if I could make something that lasted throughout the seasons then all the better. I set my sights on this. Looked easy enough. I mean there really isn't a lot to it - yarn, felt, wire. After a trip to Michaels I had what I needed.

One weekend I sat down to make said wreath. Who knew that wrapping yarn around a straw wreath was such a pain in the butt!! Seriously. It's ridiculous. I started with a small 4 inch (or 6...don't really know) wreath which could have been the crux of the problem. Getting an entire bundle of yarn through that over...and over....and over again is kind of a pain. I ended up cutting strands of yarn and dealing with it in chunks. But, turns out that when you have a pile of loose yarn it ends up in knots. Yeah, poor planning. Needless to say I got it done (the yarn part that is) and then it sat for another week before I busted out Gabe's glue gun to tackle the leaf part. Since the wreath was small I decided a huge tree up the middle was going to look a bit cluttered so I opted for a few side leafs. The result is at the top of this post.

I also made a normal (12 inch) sized wreath. This too was going to have the wire and leaf theme but after making the small one I got bored with the leaves so I dug up my old origami cranes that I made ages ago as Christmas ornaments (yeah, I did keep those even though I said I hate keeping holiday related stuff around...hypocrite). I wasn't entirely sure how to decorate the wreath until I set it on my desk with the cranes dumped inside (decoration idea light bulb...ding..ding...ding!). I decided to string a few cranes together and then zigzag across the wreath in the center.

With the design idea in mind I dug out my little travel sewing kit and stabbed all of the cranes. Only...I stabbed them at the bottom and so when I hung them up, strung across the center of the wreath, they all hung upside down. Gabe's question - are those bats? Oops!

String removed, cranes restrung, and voila - two nice little rows of cranes. Pinned to the wreath, extra yarn around the pins to hide them and second wreath done! Craftiness over.

Well...not 'over' just done for the day. Next up... one of the wreaths on pinterest had awesome t-shirt flowers (similar to this). I promptly looked up how to make a t-shirt flower, destroyed one of my rattier t-shirts, whipped out the glue gun and made a t-shirt pin. Here's a crappy cell phone picture of it. Glue guns are AWESOME!

And...last but probably not least I decided to use the rest of the fall (fake) leaves and make my Mom a few napkin rings for Thanksgiving. I took the wire, wrapped it around the top of a wine bottle, glued scraps of t-shirt to part of it (making a larger base to glue the leaves to), and then glued the leaves to the t-shirt material. Done in 5 minutes. I love craft projects that are this easy!

I'm not sure what's up next in Meghan's craft world but I do know there are cupcakes a brewing. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I'm thinking yams...pecans...blue cheese...

FroYo

2011-11-10T17:00:00.001-08:00

My list of 'blogs I follow' is growing by the minute and most of them contain runners/triathletes who not only love the sport, maintain a healthy and active lifestyle, and are obsessed with either FroYo or Cupcakes. Now we all know I love a good cupcake and I think if given a 'Door 1 or 2' choice between a FroYo store and Cupcake store I'd opt for the latter. BUT, on recent visits to Seattle I've been known to make back-to-back visits to Menchie's. As a noob to the frozen yogurt craze I had no idea how addicting this stuff can be!

Let me paint you a picture:
- Self Serve
- At least a dozen options of frozen yogurt
- The ability to mix and match
- The ability to SAMPLE (pretty much outweighs the rest)
- A plethora of dry toppings (ranging from mini junior mints, mini cookie dough balls to fruit loops - what the what?!)
- Several sauce options - marshmallow cream (haven't tried), hot fudge, caramel...need I say more?

So yeah. I get it and I'm a fan. One word of warning - don't overkill on the toppings. Keeping it simple makes the mix taste good. I've had one run in with overkill but that was post wine so no fault of mine. In case you wanted to know the nasty combo - pumpkin and chocolate yogurt with Kit-Kat bits, Twix bits, cookie dough bits, and hot fudge. The pumpkin killed it.

And lastly - I'm so glad we don't have a place like Menchie's in Bellingham. I'd have to run twice as far!

30 Seconds Makes a Huge Difference

2011-11-08T18:20:00.000-08:00

I'm starting out on week 7 of 18 for marathon training and things just got a whole lot harder. Yesterday's workout was 10 miles with 5 at a 15k pace - which for a 3:30 marathon is somewhere around a 7:30. I've been dreading this workout for weeks because I remembered how hard my '8 miles with 4 at 15k pace' workout was back in week 3. But I was bound and determined to nail this workout because I knew this one was an important one.

I left the house before sunset (not that you could actually SEE the sun yesterday) wearing a bright vest but sans headlamp (I figured it wouldn't get too dark by the time I was done...mistake!). The first 3.5 miles were warm up - a small loop around the neighborhood and then out towards Squalicum Parkway for my 5 miles. The parkway is my new 'go-to' road for interval running and pace miles. From Meridian down to the waterfront it's probably a mile and a half. Extending that a bit along the waterfront and back tracking I have a nice, uninterrupted stretch of pavement to grind out the miles. With my Garmin all set on the custom workout (3.5 mile w/u; 5 miles between 7:25 and 7:40; 1.5 mile c/d) I was good to go.

The warm up felt great. My ankle (which had bothered me the day before) was a non-issue and the miles passed easily. The pace - 8:16. I hit Squalicum and the Garmin began to beep instantly. Next up, 5 miles of hell. When I started to pick it up my Garmin beeped to let me know I was going too fast. 7 min/mile pace...yes, too fast. I dialed it back and settled comfortably into my range. Heading towards the waterfront is fairly flat if not a slight downhill so I felt good. I was checking my watch incesently and was right where I needed to be. I hit the waterfront right at dusk and knew right away that I was in for a dark few miles back along the parkway but didn't want to come up with a different route on the fly. I paid attention to my watch and my pace and just made sure of my footing - I definitely didn't want a twisted ankle because of the lack of light.

Right at F street I did a 180 and headed back in the direction that I came. There was a slight headwind and I started to feel like I was working hard. I picked off random land marks to check my watch and encouraged myself to push through the 'hard'. I only had 2.5 miles to go at this pace and then I could relax. I just kept repeating that to myself. When I hit Squalicum I was surrounded by darkness. I always seem to forget that the entire 1.5 mile stretch of road is completely devoid of a streetlamp and better yet I was running on the road in the shoulder - there's no sidewalk. Safe...I know. No turning back now. I just needed to get it over in a hurry.

At the park I started to struggle. I only had a mile or so left for the interval and it was all I could do to keep myself going. I couldn't see my footing, I prayed cars could see me, and semis were splashing water on me as they roared pass. My breathing was labored and I was working hard. I just kept repeating 'fast turnover', 'don't look at your watch yet', 'only a mile left', 'give it everything you've got'. It seemed to work. I made it through that last mile without much left in the tank and was so thankful when I saw the street lights on Meridian and heard my watch beep, signaling the cool down portion of my run.

I took a few seconds as a mini walk break and then eased myself into my cool down jog. It's amazing how after running hard an 'easy jog' afterwards is always much faster than you intend. There were several times where I looked down and my watch was reading 8:05 min/mile. I was still clipping right along and it felt soooo much better! That said, by the time I hit my doorstep I was spent. Hardest workout to-date...DONE and DONE!

The reaminder of the week looks like this:
Tuesday - 4 recover mile ('Recovery'...Oops! Ran with Gabe and much faster than intended)
Wednesday - 11 steady miles
Thursday - REST
Friday - 7 miles with 8x100m strides
Saturday - 18 miles
Sunday - REST

Next week should be just as challenging and then it's prep for Thanksgiving and the Seattle Half.
Monday - 6 recover miles with 6x100m strides
Tuesday - 12 steady miles
Wednesday - REST
Thursday - 11 miles with 6 @ 8:00 min/mile pace
Friday - 5 recovery miles
Saturday - 20 miles

Phew! I'll let you know if I survive.

Busy Bee

2011-11-06T10:40:00.000-08:00

The past week (plus) has been buuuussssyyy! I wanted to get this post out LAST weekend since that's when it all started but the weekend disappeared and then I've been consumed by other things this week. So...here's my belated post on my 'social butterfly' weekend.

It all started Thursday. I recently joined a book club and Thursday night was my turn to host. This entailed potentially having 9 ladies join me for dinner. How much food do you make for that many people? How do I squeeze my 10 mile (yes, I said squeeze and 10 mile in the same sentence) run into my day? The solutions - run 10 miles at lunch and eat at my desk and make a TON of food and hope that it'll be enough. The 10 miler went well - an up and back to Whatcom Falls park along the railroad trail (one of my favorites, especially in the Fall). And the food - I'm pretty sure it was great. I liked it and we had leftovers for days (in fact I think I ate the last of it Sunday night...yes, we let leftovers go for days and haven't died yet).

The Menu:

- Chips and Homemade Salsa

- Yam Enchiladas with Mole Sauce (the recipe; I added cheese so mine weren't vegan)

- Spanish Rice (packaged...sorry)

- Corn and Avocado Salad with a Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing

(Ingredients: frozen corn, diced red peppers, romaine lettuce, avocado; Dressing: olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper)

- Chocolate Chip Cookies (random I know and I SHOULD have made some southern themed cupcakes but I didn't have the time and this recipe is UH-MAZING)

Friday was a relatively normal day - work, after work short run with Gabe and the dog - but then we had Gabe's Going Away party at Janet's house. There's really not much that I had to do (actually I didn't DO anything other than show up) but just having another thing in the evening adds to my 'busy' schedule. The party was excellent. A great mix of food and people and we stayed well past my bed time. It's quite the change for Gabe and for the folks he's worked with over the years so definitely an event.

Saturday I met Polly, Robin, and Susan at the Village Green for an out-and-back run on the Interurban. It was a wonderful morning for it and it was great to catch up with ladies that I haven't seen in awhile. They ran 10 with me and then I was on my own for the last 7 of my run. I opted to stick to the waterfront and make my way back home. I felt great and clicked off the miles to my house. I probably ran 'faster' than I should have but I really just wanted to be home. I am so thankful to have had folks to run with for at least the first half - it would have been a long time with myself otherwise. The 7 alone was enough that day.

After the run I inhaled a left over enchilada then headed to the grocery store to make cupcakes for Laura and Jason's 'Halloween Part Deux' party that evening. The cupcake of choice - Pumpkin Cupcakes with Rum and Maple and a Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. All thanks to The Cupcake Project. After making the cupcakes I still had about a can's worth of pumpkin puree leftover so I threw in a batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Of course now I can't find the recipe that I used so your loss there. Here's my rule of thumb for recipe finding on the internet - use recipes documented in blogs, they're soooo much better! I think it's because 1) no one posts NASTY recipes in their blogs 2) they are obviously tested because there are pictures documenting the process and 3) you don't have to sift through reviews to determine if the recipe is worth it or not.

Baked goods finished I realized there was no time to rest and relax (I was hoping for a nap). Instead, it was time to shower and prep for the party. Like all of my 'good ideas' I came up with our costumes on one of my many solo long runs. I was Michelle Kwan (originally I picked Kristi Yamaguchi because it sounded cooler but then I realized I 'looked' more like Michelle Kwan so hence the switch) and Gabe was Brian Boitano (basically the only male figure skater I know). I'll let the costumes speak for themselves but I think we pulled it off. And yes those are cycling booties as our 'skates'. Side note - Gabe's costume was actually a one-piece, skin tight number but upon putting it on that evening we realized it was not anything anyone wanted to look at all night so the second layer of tights was deemed necessary. Below are a few pictures of our practiced pose (we had to nail the triple axle...obviously!) and a few other great costumes (some of the pictures were stolen from Gina - thanks!).

Training Playlist

2011-10-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

Last week I went for a late evening run and used the iPod for the first time in years. I needed a little bit of extra motivation to get me out the door and although I usually shy away from music of any kind during a workout (I simply get annoyed with songs about two seconds into them and then end up skipping through an entire playlist in minutes - thus defeating the purpose of having an iPod during any exercise) I brought the little device along on this run and it totally payed off. Apparently I had the right mix of music to get me through my short 4 mile recovery run - deaf to the world (woops).

But, back to the run. I realized two things that evening 1) sometimes music can help if you have the right music and 2) I haven't shared my Ironman playlist (the one I was listening to) with anyone yet. So here you go. This is what motivates me 'today'. Who knows what it'll be tomorrow.

Remember that this is my 'Ironman' playlist therefore it's kind of broken up into three mini lists (swim/bike/run - duh!). The first 5 are waking up and swimming songs. The next 4 are T1 and biking songs and the last 6 (you need more to motivate you through an Ironman marathon and for some reason rap does that for me) are T2 and run songs. You'll notice that some of the songs I've pilfered from Ironman YouTube videos (namely this one and this one). Love it, hate it or simply ignore it but there it is.

Vacouver Aquarium

2011-10-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

26.2 Or Bust

2011-10-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

I know I've made no mention of my marathon training yet but I'm heading into week 4 of my 18 week training plan so I thought I'd catch you up.

First things first, remember one of my 30 while 30 was to run a qualifying time for Boston? Well, it's there on the list. For me this means (under the new qualifying rules) running a 3:35. And, since that's not enough of a stretch I somehow got it in my head that I actually want to shoot for a 3:30. I'm partial to even numbers.

To get me there I've enlisted the help of excellent friends. One in particular - I conned Gina into training for a 3:30 and then promptly bailed on her 12 week goal race because I thought that was too soon for me to ramp up to the speed I needed (Sorry Gina!). I also picked the Pfitzinger 18 week (55 mile peak) training plan to get me there. I know folks that have had excellent results using this - or more importantly the key workouts within this plan - so there we have it.

So back to week 4 of 18. I'm feeling great! Technically I'm onto week 6 of my training but the first 2 weeks were more 'ramp up to REAL training' weeks. My pacing is improving - when I first started the training I couldn't hold a pace (any pace) even if my life depended on it. I was all over the map. I was used to Ironman training which consisted of run 9 minutes/walk a minute, all at a fairly easy pace. Now I had it in my head that I had to go fast, all the time! My long runs started out with everything from an 8 minute pace to a 9:30. Luckily, I'm dialing it in and I'm back to running mostly by feel and nailing it.

Last week I had my first serious tempo run (I've been doing interval work but tempo runs are a different beast) and it was HARD! I think I might have made it harder by 1) running on trail and 2) picking an out-and-back with a slow steady incline. But the things that are hard make us stronger and faster so I guess it was a good choice. One thing I will have to change in the future, however, is either bring a headlamp and a buddy or hit the streets because it got super dark back there in the woods - oops. Good thing I didn't roll an ankle or get abducted as I was redlining it back to the car.

I have to say, I've had a pretty good stretch of solid runs these last 3 weeks. Hopefully the remaining 15 (man that sounds far away) continue that way. I'm sure there will be those 'off' days but I'll try not to mention them as no one wants to read a Debbie Downer story.

On the docket for this week:
Monday - 8 miles with 10x100m strides
Tuesday - 5 mile recovery; yoga
Wednesday - 10 miles easy
Thursday - Rest and yoga
Friday - 4 mile recovery
Saturday - 15 mile long run; 5k walk to support a friend (read more here).

Oh yeah - and the potential (I say 'potential' because I haven't actually registered yet) goal race is the Desert Classic Marathon in Surprise, AZ (a suburb of Phoenix).

Random pre training-run picture. Charlie has been a great running companion.

'Thanks'giving Doesn't Have To Be In November

2011-10-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

I am surrounded by an amazing network of people. They are people who will say 'yes' when you ask them to train with you for an Ironman. They are people who will run 10 miles with you even if they're not training for anything. They are people who will lend a hand when you say you're building a deck. They are people who will share a bottle of wine with you during happy hour. And lastly, they are people who will rally around a friend when they most need it. These are the people that I call my friends, my community, my extended family. These are the people that I choose to spend my days with. I have been reminded this last week of how thankful I am to be a part of such an amazing group.

Ironman Cupcakes

2011-10-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

Because I can't celebrate my Ironman accomplishment enough we (not so) recently had an Ironman Finisher party at Carol's house. It was quite the email feat to get all eleven of us together and sadly a few weren't able to attend. But, those who DID attend were graced with lucky #23 for cupcake production. Red Velvet Ironman cupcakes!

As far as cupcakes go I have to say that these were a bit underwhelming. The 'red' was simply food coloring (unless you trust the supposed chemical process that happens between the buttermilk and the cocoa powder in the recipe...which I did not) and the flavor was like a plain vanilla cupcake. The cocoa powder was just a hint...and not even enough of a hint. And, because I'm lazy and I don't care to really type at the moment here is the recipe I used. Please note that the frosting recipe found in this link makes way too much frosting for 24 cupcakes. We had cream cheese frosting coming out our ears after this. Don't worry, we didn't throw it away. It went to good use on graham crackers. Mmmmmm.

Holy Red #5!!!!

My attempts at creative decorating. The far left maple leaf turned out nice. The writing...could use some improvement. Note to future self - gel tends to settle after writing (aka - it bleeds).

Vivid Colors

2011-10-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Gabe and I took a walk around the 'hood the other night as the sun was setting. Trying to up my blogging quota for the month I thought I'd bring my little camera along and take a few pictures of the beautiful Fall colors. We timed it perfectly and I was able to capture the last of the sun's rays shining through the changing leaves.

This is my favorite time of year. The colors, the smells, the crisp and fresh air. Despite the periodic rain and the stormy clouds it is this time of year when I'm reminded of why I choose Bellingham as my home. Don't get me wrong, I love the summer, warm weather, late sunsets, but there is something very vibrant about Fall that I would take any day. This season reminds me of hot tea, warm fires, marshmallows (I have no idea why), pumpkin carving, chunky sweaters, and running.

Does that last one seem out of place to you? Did you think I was going to leave exercising out of this post? Probably on both accounts, but really this IS the running season. And, like all other Fall marathon hopefuls I'm out their pounding the pavement myself. Enjoying the falling leaves and the chance to wear gloves on my runs. Right now it's the perfect temperature outside. I can start out cold and warm up just enough to be comfortable. When I finish my run I don't have heat stroke like during some warmer summer days and my legs don't swell up from being frost bitten like our cold winter days.

Even if you don't run get outside, go for a walk when the rain lets up, or simply go for a long drive. Enjoy the colors before they disappear.

Houston, We Have a Deck

2011-10-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

Before

After

Well at long last we have a deck. I know, it took all summer (no thanks to Ironman training) and we're just in time to 'not' use it but that's okay. It's awesome! Gabe did an incredible job as per usual and I helped...not so much (the picture below is a fat lie). We had our neighbor Jeff help out with the foundation piece so that it was structurally sound but after that Gabe took off. Charlie offered a comical distraction throughout most of the construction. Other than that, there isn't much to say so I'll let you all peruse the construction pictures.

What Am I... A Cupcakery?

2011-10-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

Yeah, Yeah, I'm playing catch up - can you tell? On a roll with cupcakes (or at least blogging about them). Here's number 21 and 22. Gina, a great friend, fellow triathlete, and newbie blogger recently celebrated her birthday. And...since it came on the heels of another birthday celebration (Zoey's first birthday) I decided once again that my contribution would be cupcakes. Gina had mentioned to me that anything coconut would suffice so I set out to make chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate coconut ganache filling and reuse the recipe for the Rum Buttercream Frosting.

The recipes are all ones you've seen before. For the chocolate coconut ganache I simply mixed coconut flakes into the melted chocolate. And I used the remaining ganache to glaze the tops of some of the cupcakes to add a bit of variety.

Unfortunately, when I arrived at the surprise birthday party with my cupcake carrier filled with homemade (and not overly pretty) cupcakes I was greeted with store bought cupcakes from one of my favorite cupcakeries - Icing on the Cake. And to boot, there before me on the well organized dessert table was a chocolate cupcake with coconut topping! What a putz! Here I thought I was being clever. Oh well. ALL cupcakes were consumed that night and I do believe that my rum frosting was a hit.

Rusty popped it in his mouth before I could even snap the picture! He doesn't mess around

I shamelessly only took pictures of people eating MY cupcakes.

But I DID steal one of the leftover Icing on the Cake cupcakes as I left the party (they said I could!). And of course I promptly ate it for breakfast before heading out on my first post-Ironman bike ride. I have no shame. Red Velvet cupcakes are good sources of nutrition right?

Celebrating a First Birthday with Tropical Cupcakes

2011-10-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

No, that's not one of my cupcakes - just in case you were wondering.

We are knocking out numbers 18, 19, and 20 folks all for one birthday bash. My niece turned 1 year old on September 9th, 2011. Here birthday theme was a Hawaiian Luau. It was only appropriate that my contribution to the whole affair be cupcakes. Originally I started out with one flavor - Coconut Cupcake with Pineapple Buttercream Frosting (think Pina Colada). But since I had to make a plethora of cupcakes for the party I decided to stick with the coconut base and mix up the frostings. Thus creating three variations - Rum Buttercream Frosting (not entirely appropriate for a 1 year old birthday party but rum goes with coconut so let it be), Blueberry Buttercream Frosting (remember, I had copious amounts of blueberries on hand), and the aforementioned Pineapple Buttercream Frosting.

Coconut Cupcake Recipe:

3/4 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cup of sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

1 can of coconut milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup of coconut shavings

Prep:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and cream until fluffy again.

3. Add eggs one at a time.

4. In a separate bowl combine remaining dry ingredients.

5. In another bowl combine coconut milk and vanilla and mix together.

6. Alternate adding dry ingredients and coconut milk mixture.

7. Fold in the coconut.

8. Bake for 22-25 minutes.

The cupcakes turned out perfect and they tasted great! The frosting - the favorite was the rum buttercream. Delicious! Here are the recipes:

Rum Buttercream

1/2 stick butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons rum (it called for 1...and I think I probably put more like 3)

Pineapple Buttercream

1 stick butter

4 cups powdered sugar

6 tablespoons crushed pineapple

1 to 2 tablespoons pineapple juice

(note: I rarely use the amount of sugar they call for, I like less. I used canned pineapple...next time I'd go with fresh)

Blueberry Buttercream

1 stick butter

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon heavy cream

3 tablespoons pureed blueberries (1/2 cup whole)

(note: I would add more sugar to this recipe - the pureed blueberries made it a bit runny)

One last shot just to be festive.

Busted Links

2011-10-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

Apparently my slideshows from previous posts weren't working so I've gone ahead and remedied that. Check out these posts again if you're really interested in the pics.

- Around the World in Pictures
- Fall Sunsets

Berry Pickin Fools

2011-10-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

We live in the Northwest. I RIDE past endless miles of raspberry fields almost on a weekly basis. How could we NOT go out to one of the farms and pick our own? Well, we never have in the past but this year we started. True, we planted our own raspberry canes this year and the harvest was bountiful. But once that dwindled it was time to hit the road and see what our own two hands could do.

I've never picked raspberries from a farm before. Or anything for that matter, so we didn't quite know what to expect when we showed up at Boxx Berry Farms. We showed up expecting to be lazy - purchasing a few pounds of frozen, pre-picked, raspberries. But being the thrifty couple that we are we quickly realized the benefit of picking our own.

We drove back behind the main building to the raspberry stand and were escorted by tweens to our very own row. Let the picking begin! Buckets around our necks and hands working double time we got down to business. About 3 buckets (each) and 2 hours later we were calling it a day. We figured we had an entire stand-up freezer in our basement to fill with raspberries so why not pick a ton. Note to future self - you need containers to put berries in prior to freezing. Needless to say our on-hand tupperware supply has been diminished.

In addition to freezing all of the raspberries I decided to get a bit creative. I had the following in mind - freezer jam, infused alcohol, and cupcakes. One quick trip to Haggen and I had the pectin that I needed to make the jam. Of course, all said creations require sugar (in some form or another) and due to my cupcake baking as of late we were low on sugar. Another trip to the store and viola...ready to make freezer jam. I started pouring the sugar into measuring cups and what do I stumble upon? A slit...dumping sugar all over my counter. And you thought jam and berries sounded messy. Not to worry, dump the sugar into Ziploc baggies and I'm back on track.

108 ounces of freezer jam to be exact. Yeah...that's a lot.

Muddled raspberries in Vodka - Anyone? Anyone?

Um...that doesn't look quite appropriate.

Place raspberries in jar, fill jar with whiskey, call it 'infused alcohol'.

One stop to the berry farm wasn't enough for the Starbuck household. Oh no...we need BLUEBERRIES! So back out to Boxx Berry we went accompanied by our ever present third wheel, Kyle (just kidding, we love you). And we got our pick on. Unfortunately (or fortunately...depends on who's point of view your taking this from) we went late in the day and thus only had a good 40 minutes of picking. But as we all know, these hands can fly and we left with blueberries a plenty. On the docket for these - why cupcakes of course. Blueberry Pancake cupcakes with maple frosting to be exact.

And for the cupcake count this makes #16 and 17. Oh yeah, and I'm getting lazy about this whole cupcake thing so no recipes on this one. BUT...the maple frosting on the blueberry pancake cupcake could have used a bit more powdered sugar as it separated a bit with the heat.

Role Reversal

2011-09-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had the honor of being my parent's support crew as they walked the Bellingham Bay half marathon. It made me smile to watch them prepare for their race the night before, to hear them strategize the morning of, and to see their smiles as they passed by me at mile 9 - in full 'jog' mode mind you. After watching them finish I was reminded of my Mom's first half marathon experience only a year and a half ago and I recalled the story she wrote about it. With her permission I am sharing that story with all of you in this blog's very first guest post.

Athlete-In-Training

I can honestly say that those who know me would never have linked those three words to my name! My children and husband were the athletes in our family. I was the spectator and side-line enthusiast. When challenged, I would say that I run: I run the support car, I run the household, I run to the store, I run a department, at times I run in circles, I get run down.... That said, I have always been physically active, preferring brisk walking and hiking with my husband, or close acquaintances. Over the years, we have added ballroom dancing to the list. This is the closest I have come to a gym in years. Exercise with a social aspect has always been key to my participation; fair weather dictated my involvement.

Although diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2009, I considered myself to be in excellent health. I was in decent shape, had endurance, and had always recovered easily from physical stress. I knew that this baseline would assist me in the ensuing months. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation followed. I struggled to accept the outpouring of support from family and friends; this was a private struggle. Dancing once a week, daily walks with our bulldog, and a full time job helped launch me into 2010 – my psychological reserves however, were on low.

In January I sought an outlet that would give ME a chance to re-emerge, and discovered the Team Survivor NW website. I cautiously attended a TSNW Run/Walk group meeting and was struck by the low-key, inviting discussion that was led by Monica. Simple, commonsense pointers hit a receptive cord. An appealing extra: TSNW did not know me. This was my opportunity to try something different, to do it with anonymity, and on my own terms.

Mid week emails and a calendar set the plan in place! Ultimately, this same encouragement led me to take the plunge and sign up for the Rock-N-Roll Half Marathon. At first only my husband and children knew. Shopping for a novice athlete-in-training provided fun mother/daughter bonding moments. I received supplemental advice from my daughter, the tri-athlete, and a concerned question from my son, “Aren’t you doing it with Dad?” In a role reversal, my husband became my side-line enthusiast.

Training, I discovered, was/is by far the best part of this experience. I began to look forward to the weekend gathering spots, the new ground to cover, the challenge of longer distances and ultimately decreasing time, the tips for hills and sore muscles, the opportunity to be inspired by the women around me. I laughed at myself stretching before a walk, getting my gear ready the night before an early morning session, switching from a cold-weather stocking cap to a baseball cap over a “proceeding” hairline, and seriously shopping at REI for portable fuel!

I grew stronger listening to the amazing women who shared the cancer survivor journey. The walking conversations ranged from where to shop for mastectomy apparel and medi-spa locations, first attempts at “running” long distances, to stretching tips – not just for walking, but also for post radiation effects. We talked, we laughed, we commiserated, and the miles receded behind us. I heard their stories and continue to be inspired by the strength that is collectively represented at Team Survivor NW.

I completed the half-marathon with a time much better than anticipated and muscles that screamed back at me, laughing as I crossed the 5k, 10k markers, and finally 13.1 miles (really?)! Monica was there at the T-gathering spot with warm congratulations, sage stretching, and icing advice as I drank down my chocolate milk – per recommendation. I crossed the finish line alone, but realize that I am not.

Thank you, TSNW.

What's next for these two athletes (I think it's about time to drop the 'in-training' bit)? Well, if I had it my way they'd be running more than walking in their next half...or they'd be finishing halves all over the states. I think BOTH could be done. We'll see. I'm very persuasive.

Around the World in Pictures

2011-09-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

Number 28 on the 30 while 30 list was - Scan all of my Semester at Sea pictures...and then make a scrap book. Well, I've gotten so far as to scan them all into the computer so I'm considering this one pretty complete. There are a few missing that I've given away at some point in the last 9 years and getting copies of those is going to be a real pain in the butt. Anywho. Here's a slideshow of my 100 days at sea. If you haven't heard the story then the summary goes like this:

- I wanted to do a study abroad but I didn't want to pick just one location.
- I stumbled on Semester at Sea which is a voyage around the world in 100 days and visiting 9 countries. My kind of study abroad.
- I went during the Fall of 2002.
- We left Vancouver, B.C. and traveled across the Pacific to the following locales:

Kobe, Japan (side trip to Kyoto)
Shanghai, China
Hong Kong, China
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (side trip to Buon Me Thuot and Nah Trang)
Penang, Malaysia (side trip to Langkawi Island)
Chenai, India (side trip to New Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur)
Mombassa, Kenya (side trip to Nairobi and the Maasai Mara)
Cape Town, South Africa (side trip to Kagga Kama Nature Reserve)
Salvador, Brazil (side trip to Lencois)
Havana, Cuba

It was an experience I'll never forget and has largely shaped the person I am today. I apologize for the grainy-ness of the pictures. They're scanned, what can I do?

Fall Sunset

2011-09-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

Last night I was able to catch the gorgeous Bellingham sunset. I only had time to capture it from my back door so please try to ignore the ugly wires cutting through the pictures.

Ironman Canada Race Report (aka Autobiography)

2011-09-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This is going to be long. The grammar will be incorrect, my tenses will be off, but the entire story is in front of you. If you're looking for the short version then you might as well give me a call instead because I won't talk your ear off but I will take weeks to write up my experience.

~~Compete in Ironman Canada~~

It's surreal to cross that off my list as it's been the main focus all year and now it's over. At times it feels like it didn't happen, like I should still be out on my bike, on a run, or at the lake training for this epic race. But...it happened. I AM AN IRONMAN! Or 'Ironwoman' if you want to be politically correct but I don't, so there.

I thought I'd be all emotional on race day. I've heard the stories about people crying during the anthem (granted it wasn't the national anthem that I'm used to so maybe that's what did it) or just crying throughout the day as they contemplated what still lay ahead, how far they've come, what they're about to accomplish. I guess I'm just dead inside.

No seriously though. About a month before the race I was a basket case. I was crying while watching Ironman compilation videos on YouTube - I needed motivation. Getting chills at the images of people racing their hearts out. I EXPECTED to cry. But my day, August 28th, 2011, there were no tears of any kind. I was just simply ready to compete.

Four A.M. came pretty early on Sunday but I felt rested and actually had an amazing night's rest - I didn't dream once about the race! I rolled out of the hotel bed and fired up the hot plate for a breakfast of rice cereal, raw almonds, dried cranberries, and a spoonful of honey. While the water was heating up I zoned out to my homemade Ironman soundtrack, dressed, and mentally prepared myself for the day - visualizing all aspects of the race and how I wanted it to go. By the time Kyle knocked on the door around 5:15 Gabe and I were all set to go.

We parked easily and made our way in the dark towards the fluorescent lights that marked the transition area - meandering around the gated off section of Main St. and finally stumbling on the special needs drop area and body marking. Once marked the sky was starting to brighten and we moved with the crowd into the transition area. I dropped Gabe off at his bike and went in search of a friendly face with a bike pump. Due to the high temps the day before Gabe and I had played it safe and deflated our tires a bit before racking them. I've heard too many horror stories of tires popping the evening before the race.

Luckily a gentleman with a pump was near my bike and he graciously held it as I pumped the front and back. Next, load water bottles and my bento box. Nutrition deets: aero bottle with 3 scoops of Blueberry Pomegranate GU Brew, water bottle with flat Coke and water, 3 opened Cliff Bars (2 Oatmeal and 1 Apricot), 1 gel flask with 5 Chocolate GUs diluted with water (stashed in my swim to bike transition bag to be stuffed in my tri jersey).

Once the bikes were all prepped and ready to go and last minute stashing of items in the transition bags was complete (I also put a cold Vanilla Slim Fast in the swim to bike transition bag) it was pretty much time to hang out. Gabe and I stood around for a bit taking really AWESOME pictures and watching the slow moving porta pottie line. Fortunately (or unfortunately as it may have come back to bite me later in the race) neither of us had to 'go' if you know what I mean so we could skip the line and the panic of waiting in line while we SHOULD be making our way to the swim area. That said, people watching and goofing around lasted all of about 2 minutes before we got bored and decided there was no time like the present to done the wetsuit and make our way to the beach.

I may 'feel' awake but my eyes say otherwise.

The week leading up to the race Gabe and I had watched several IM Canada swim start videos on YouTube (man, I'm starting to sound like an ad agent for them) to determine the 'best' starting spot. The summary from our research - about a quarter of the athletes start on the right hand side of the buoys. Everyone else is either on the buoy line or to the left of the buoys. I presume this is either because they don't really know that you can swim inside the buoys or because you have to be on the left side of the turn buoys so why make yourself swim extra? But my theory is clean water and swimming a bit extra is better in the long run. AND I'm pretty sure inside the buoy line is not swimming extra.

I digress. You'll see my nice diagram below (including me in my pink swim cap) that depicts the mass of people on the beach and to the left of the buoy line, and the slightly smaller mass of people to the right of the buoy line. So there we go.

Gabe and I were pretty much the first people on the beach so we had ample room and time to warm up. The water felt great! I think the quoted temp for the morning was 71 degrees. The warm up was short and probably worthless since we then proceeded to stand around and watch as people migrated to the beach - looking for friends. Oh well, I was pretty sure the 2.4 mile swim would warm me up for the rest of the day.

As the rest of the athletes joined us I quickly spotted Lora and Jeanette (don't ask me how). Conveniently, both the official cameraman and John were nearby and captured the animated conversation between our little group.

Explaining my 'right side of the buoy line' strategy.

Pointing out John in the crowd.

What?! We have to swim all the way across the lake?

Minutes later the horn sounded for the pros to start and then the countdown began. 2890 athletes converged into the shallows of the water and onto the beach and waited in anticipation for our own horn to signal the beginning of this day. I stood about 3 rows of people back from the very front and as far right as possible without being in the crowd of spectators. Shivering not from cold but nerves. I wouldn't say I was 'nervous' but more curious to see how this portion of the race would pan out.

I've come to the realization that I'm not a fast open water swimmer. I've gained a ton of speed in the water over the last year but I've only witnessed this speed in the pool. It's like the minute my body hits open water the only thing I focus on is being relaxed which does not lend itself to speed. But with 2889 other people in the water with me I wanted the 'relaxed' me regardless of what that meant for my time. Don't get me wrong, I had time goals. Anything under 1:30 I was happy with but if I rocked it and swam like I actually can then I should come in around 1:15. But, time wasn't in my mind as the horn went off and I watched as the first two rows strided out into the water and began to swim.

Swim: 2.4 miles, 1:23:24, 2:12/100M Pace, 94/143 Division Place, 1869/2890 Overall Place

I walked slowly forward, waiting to find an open spot to finally put my face in the water and start swimming. It didn't take long for the first two rows to clear out enough and being only knee deep in water I decided there was no better time like the present to start this day. The water was murky and shallow so for the first 25 meters or so I sited frequently and pushed myself along using the ground. I was more 'scooting' than swimming at this point. I soon reached deep enough water and found my stroke and a bit of a rhythm. At this point the water was fairly calm where I was which was surprising. I kept wondering if Gabe was right on my feet and how he was doing - hoping he was in this clearing and not having to deal with stray elbows, aggressive swimmers, and over zealous kickers.

I sighted infrequently as the chaos in front of me just confused me more than it helped. There was the glare of the sun on the water, heads everywhere and since I was swimming between the buoy lines I felt there were buoys everywhere - to the right and left of me. I knew I was headed in the right direction and I was confident that I was swimming a fairly straight line but still, to look forward was not overly helpful. After several buoys had passed (still in clean water mind you) I started to worry that I was too far to the right and potentially in the way of the returning pros (by the way, this was definitely not possible but you think crazy things when you can't really tell what the heck is going on around you). So I started to angle towards the buoy line. I figured I had to be there eventually to navigate clockwise around the turn buoys so I might as well migrate.

Well, migration and the buoy line equals more people. Around buoy 10 (I don't know how many buoys were out there and I can't tell you exactly where buoy 10 was in relation to the distance on the course but I did see the number 10 on the side) is where chaos began. I now found myself in the mix with everyone else. I was passing people left and right, swerving around those that were getting freaked out by the sheer volume of athletes around them. At the same time I felt like people were encroaching on me. My legs were pushed down throwing off my stroke. I was bumped from both sides. At one point I went to breathe out of my right side and I saw a hand come down right on top of me and smack me square in the goggle. A little water got in but luckily the suction held (later I would smack my own eye just to make sure there was accurate suction on that side). There were times where I was swimming with my head completely out of the water, searching for an open area, anywhere that I could get to that wasn't where I was at that particular moment.

At some length I found that open area and got back into whatever semblance of a rhythm I could find. Shortly thereafter, however, I reached the first turn buoy. I was on the inside and expected pure chaos and potentially being squished against the large white buoy but the actual turn was relatively uneventful. I basically bobbed around it like a human buoy - head completely out of the water and doing mini breast strokes just like everyone else. This was not 'swimming'. It took awhile before I was fully around the buoy and able to put my head back in the water and find my stroke again. Heading into the middle of the lake and towards the next turn buoy you could feel the shift in the waves. They were hitting from the side and made you feel more like a boat as you crested waves. I actually enjoy that feeling and was probably the most comfortable during this short section of the course.

Soon we were upon the next turn buoy and it was time to head back into the beach. The sun was straight ahead and you couldn't see much of anything so I focused on the image of the two hotel towers that I knew were in the same general area as the finish and simply counted off the buoys. Every time I passed a buoy I would sight to see if there was another one or if there was the beach. The rhythm was there, the water fairly clean, and it seemed like buoys were just passing by at such a rapid pace. I think I was finally SWIMMING.

At one point I was joined by another female competitor to my right and we were swimming stroke for stroke. This always entertains me. It makes me wonder what she is thinking. I wonder if she feels the same twinge of claustrophobia that I do, knowing that someone is so close to her. I'm very conscious of keeping the space between me and other swimmers. I don't mind them being close but I want to make sure they have the room (and I have the room) to swim normally. Unfortunately another competitor (I can't remember if they were male or female) ruined our synchronization. Basically they came from the left and they weren't swimming straight. I was getting squished in the middle as this new person pushed me out the back. I swerved around both of them, sprinting a bit just to get ahead, and then proceeded in my own little world.

Buoys ticked by and then I spotted the black swim exit sign. I was close. I swam in until my hands could touch the bottom which was still quite a ways out from the actual beach. So I kept swimming. People were popping up all around me since it was so shallow but I didn't want to trudge through the water. At some point I felt like an idiot as I was breathing and seeing knees to my left and right so I stood and trudged with all the other athletes up the beach. Everyone around me was walking. My thought - Come on people this is a race! Cap and goggles off, wetsuit already down to my waist and I ran the remainder of the way up the beach and across the timing mat into transition.

T1: 4:55

Ironman Volunteers are AWESOME! I headed straight for the wetsuit strippers, laid on the ground, and was on my feet in seconds. Next up, grab my transition bag (a little challenging as I kind of forgot where it was but they had the rows marked with the numbers) and then head into the change tent. I found a seat right inside and plopped down to sort through my stuff. Immediately I was greeted by a friendly volunteer asking if I wanted help. Umm...sure.

I handed her my Garmin and asked that she turn it on. She didn't know how so I grabbed it back from her and proceeded to do that while she dumped out the contents of my bag. Then she just started handing me stuff one at a time. She opened the Slim Fast and told me to drink some - thanks Mom. Then, after I dried off my feet, she held out my socks for me to slip my feet into just like a shoe salesman. It was perfect. Another sip of Slim Fast maybe? Sure. She helped me get my tri top on (I hate how those things roll up and get stuck about half way down) handed me by GU flask, spare tube, sun glasses, helmet...anything else? Oh yes, Vaseline! This is key because chaffing is bad...very very bad...and new tri shorts could be a potential issue. I unceremoniously grabbed a bit and lubed the essential areas while apologizing to my little volunteer. In her Australian accent she said, "Don't worry honey, we've seen it all today." Out of the tent my bike was straight in front of me and I was out of T1.

Bike: 112 miles, 6:48:01, 16.5 mph, 67/143 Division Place, 1817/2890 Overall Place

Heading through town I tried to sit upright and keep my eye out for my parents as I knew they'd be lining Main Street somewhere. Unfortunately they were nowhere to be found and I'm sure while I was passing them (they'd been right in town) I was focusing too hard on staying clear of all the other cyclists that were zooming down Main. Oh well, time to ride.

I felt great! My heart rate was right where it was supposed to be, the wind was at our backs, and I was flying. I hit Skaha Lake and heard a cheer from Anna as I passed her (what an amazing swimmer!!) and settled into my second rhythm for the day - turning over the pedals and reciting the mantra that I learned from this recently anointed Ironman finisher, 'stupid easy'. Granted, I didn't want to just 'hang out' on the bike and pretend like I was out for another training ride but I focused on heart rate and followed my plan.

Skaha Lake flew by and then I hit the first hill of the day heading up McLean Creek Road. Stupid easy. There was quite the backup in this little section as people blew up going up the hill. It's not long but it's definitely steep and if you're not in the right gear I could see how it would be difficult. Oddly enough, this was also a spot they picked to have the first aid station - right smack dab in the middle of the hill. Convenient eh? And to top that off, the Ironman Perform drink (the new drink for these races) was being served in a regular screw top bottle. Now how in the heck are people on a bike supposed to use that? Luckily I wasn't taking in any of that from the course but it made me worried for Gabe as his whole electrolyte plan was for the Perform they were providing (they figured it out in later aid stations). I heard a lot of bitching in this section specifically for this reason and I have to say it was kind of warranted.

I'm pretty sure it was in this same area that Kyle caught me. I remember hearing 'of all the athletes out here I have to come up on this one?!' Ha! We chatted briefly and then he was off. Apparently some of us don't take our sweet time getting out of transition. I'm just saying.

After the hill there is a steep descent into Okanagan Falls and then onto highway 97 headed towards Oliver. This section is fairly flat and fast and there was quite a bit of passing and being passed. It was also in this section that I saw a pretty gnarly crash. Here's how it went down. I was making a move to pass a girl at the same time as another girl was making the move to pass me. We ended up three abreast right as we neared a cement construction barrier sitting right in the middle of the shoulder. We all crept out ever so slightly (the road wasn't closed so there were cars) and the girl on the inside had plenty of room between me and the barrier but apparently not the bike handling skills to maneuver the situation. I heard an 'uh oh' followed by a large crash. I looked back briefly in time to see her aero water bottle flying through the air (ironic...sort of) and her bike basically on top of her. I'm not sure if she hit the barrier full on or just slightly skimmed it. By the sound of the crash it seemed more like she nailed it. I considered stopping but with no shoulder to stop on I probably would have created another pile up so instead I prayed she was alright and pedaled on.

By the time I hit Oliver I was about 30 miles into the ride and I needed to make a pee stop. Unfortunately I happened upon the porta pottie that EVERYONE was using. I debated continuing on to the next one but I decided I would just wait it out and get the relief I was looking for. Unlike my male counterparts who just found any orchard to pee in I had to stop at designated spots (actually, I think they were supposed to too but they could get away with it easier). Again - volunteer to the rescue. There was a lady there holding everyone's bike as they made their pit stop.

Minutes later I was back on the bike and pedaling towards Osoyoos. This section of the course is beautiful if you stop (not literally) for a moment and take it all in. You're zooming past orchard after orchard and vineyards abound. It's gorgeous really and at some point in the nearish future I'd love to come up here and vacation in this spot.

Okay, back to racing. Making the turn in Osoyoos, through the Husky station, and onto Highway 3 is really where the 'stupid easy' mantra rang out. This is where you begin the long climb up Richter's Pass. It's about a 6 mile stretch of climbing broken up into 4 major climbs (except in the elevation map below the first three seem to be considered 1 climb starting at mile 40.86).

I consider myself to be a good hill climber. I have the right build for it and I'm comfortable just sitting upright (to get more oxygen), hands on the shoulder pads, and turning it over at a high cadence - not to mention I've built up quite a confidence about it. In training rides I've been referred to as the 'billy goat'. In our trial run on the same course a guy riding up Richter's at the same time turned to me and said, 'Man you make that look easy' as I blew by him. That said, I tend to 'power' up hills because I like them and I like to attack them. Six miles is a long time to be 'attacking' and not to mention I'm not even halfway through the course. Hence 'stupid easy'. I was still flying by people but I wasn't working hard. Looking back at my heart rate I was keeping it about 6 beats lower than my previous ride up this hill. Winning! Cresting the final climb there are loads of spectators cheering. I felt like I was in a real cycling tour - can you say Contador (or cocky, either one fits)? At the top I even got a shout out from the announcer, "Meghan, you've got the best smile all day". This lead to me hooting and hollering and high-fiving spectators until I almost crashed (and quickly blamed the spectator for causing me to swerve).

Yeah, that's a good smile if I do say so myself.

Still smiling, still spinning easily. Nice kit! By the way, I got that a few times throughout the day. Mostly from people wearing the identical outfit but also from other folks.

After the crest of Richter's it's a 4 mile screaming descent into the valley and onto the next section of rollers...or as we've referred to them in previous posts, 'the bitches'. Again, I was ready for these and the mantra was still going strong in my head. Change gearing, switch position, and spin up them. I counted them off in my head one by one. I believe I even said, "That was number 3" out loud. Around bitch 7 I dropped my chain. Bummer. I tried the quick clicking through the gears to try and get it back on but it was a no go. So, I un-clipped in the middle of this hill and put the chain back on. Then I had to wait a few seconds to let folks pass before trying to do the slow mount and get back in the game.

Bitches complete without much effort and now we're on to the out-and-back section. This is the only part of the course that I didn't pre-ride and the only part of the course that was kind of lame. The temperatures at this point were pretty high (don't know exactly but I heard talk of 95), there isn't any breeze as you're nestled up against the hill, and you don't feel like you're making progress towards the finish as you have to head BACK in the direction you just came from. The only redeeming factors were the special needs grab bags (I had an instant ice pack stashed there that I popped and shoved down the front of my tri suit) and it was the only opportunity (other than being passed) that you could see many of your fellow competitors. I was able to spot Kyle, Gina, Lora and Gabe.

Next up, Yellow Pass. Riding the flats from the out-and-back to Yellow I swear I had a mild case of PTSD. I kept thinking my rear tire was flat or that I heard a hissing noise. Instead of looking I chose to ignore it (which is good because it was all in my head anyway). I simply rode harder to get this bit over with. As I neared the base of Yellow I could feel my legs starting to fatigue. I was ready to be done with the ride and onto the next section. "One last climb" I kept telling myself. This go around up the hill was definitely harder than the two previous times. My legs were barely turning over and I could feel the heat zapping my energy. But, I turned the pedals over as best I could and sooner rather than later I was at the top and dousing myself in ice cold water.

Another breathtaking section of the course if you have the frame of mind to take it in as you weave alongside a gorgeous lake. Then it's another screaming descent, one last climb, and you're headed towards the other side of Skaha Lake and back into town. It was on the last little climb at mile 103 that Gabe finally passed me. We cheered each other on, he gave me the awesome update that he swam the course in 1:34, and then we parted ways. I assumed I wouldn't see him again until the turn around point of the marathon and was already getting psyched to chase him down on the run.

As I neared the turn from Skaha Lake Road onto Main Street was when I felt my first cramps. My right hip flexor was tightening up so I stood to stretch it out and my quads cramped, then my hamstrings cramped. Crap!! I sort of panicked and grabbed for the 'just in case' salt tabs in my bento box. Tossed three of those back, chugged some liquid, and prayed they would go away. Surprisingly they subsided. It probably wasn't the salt but who knows. I sat up for the majority of the ride through town to stretch out my back, neck and shoulders as well as to scope out my parents (who I found in front of the Super 8 - Woot!).

T2: 5:05

Much the same as T1. Volunteers take your bike immediately so I didn't have to worry about racking it in the appropriate spot - win. I ran to my transition bag, grabbed it, and then headed into the change tent. I'm pretty sure I had a volunteer to help me but for the life of me I couldn't really tell you about the exchange between us. It probably went something like this, Me: "Mutter, mutter, mutter.", Volunteer: "Here you go, blah, blah, blah.", Me: "Mutter, mutter, thank you (head nod), mutter, mutter.". I do recall asking where the nearest porta pottie was as I was feeling pretty bloated and luckily it was just outside the change tent as you're on the way out of transition (btw, no benefit). After the blue bucket stop I was shuffling past the water station when a volunteer held out a cup and asked, "Would you like some water?" Me, being in an odd, alternate-world, state of mind I replied, "Oh yeah, that sounds good, thank you." Gulp, okay moving on. Wait...is that my name I hear? I turn around and there is Gabe about 4 feet behind me. I was ecstatic! (Me = speedy transition + Gabe = slow transition) = starting the run together. Yes, I added the parentheses to make it more mathematically correct.

Run: 26.2 miles, 5:20:37, 12:15 min/mile, 83/143 Division Place, 1555/2890 Overall Place

Upon leaving transition you head out Main Street for a few blocks then head West for a short out-and-back section along the water (to be repeated later when you are finishing). Gabe and I were chatting and feeling tired but otherwise pretty good (if we ignore the fact that I was still bloated). I figured said issue would settle down after I A) made another bathroom stop or B) whatever was stuck absorbed into my system. Wait and see...

We ran past strangers cheering, we ran past Judy cheering (thanks Judy for being there!), and we headed out of the main downtown area. The 'plan' was to walk at every mile/aid station and consume fluids and nutrition during those times. In between was a steady jog. That remained the plan for all of 2 miles at which point both Gabe and I realized it was SMOKING HOT and we could feel the energy quickly leaving us. So walking became more frequent. We would run a half mile or so, then walk for about 30 seconds, then run to the aid station, chew ice cubes, sip Coke, steal as many ice water soaked sponges as possible, and then move on.

As we made our way on Main Street we could feel the heat coming off the pavement. At this point it was probably around 3:30 PM and the hottest part of the day - whatever those temperatures might have been. We passed the Super 8 and waved at our family and continued South, praying for cooler weather once we hit Skaha Lake. There was absolutely no shade. The goal at this point was simply make it to 6 miles - this would be half way to the half way point. A very tangible goal.

We hit the edge of Skaha Lake and were greeted by cheers from John and Polly. Sidenote - it is such a welcome change of pace to see people you know cheering for you. Sure, the rest of the spectators do an amazing job, but to have those dedicated friends goes a long way to making your day spectacular. The lake gave off a bit of a breeze but not nearly enough to cool down. What it DID offer, however, were tiny bits of shaded sections. Trees that lined the lake became my destination points and my walking points. At a few aid stations I tried to relieve the bloating but to no avail. I'm pretty sure if the porta potties weren't 200 degrees inside and I wasn't rushing so Gabe wouldn't get too far ahead then maybe, just maybe. But alas, such was not the current reality. So, I'd try to go then I'd shuffle to catch up with Gabe, we'd run for a bit and I'd get increasingly bloated, I'd think I could have success, stop, bloating would go away. It was a fun little game I played for the entirety of the run.

Somewhere on our way 'out' we came across Rusty looking fantastically strong. Shortly thereafter we saw Kyle running confidently. The cheers for each other were meager at best given our energy levels but they were heartfelt nonetheless. Other than seeing them there wasn't too much excitement. I made friends at porta potties (others were as bloated as I was), I drank sips of Coke (none of my gels made it to my mouth during this run - solids of any kind weren't going down the hatch because I just couldn't fathom getting MORE bloated), sips of pickle juice to relieve even a hint at cramps, and I listened to Gabe reason about how we were almost to the turnaround and if we could just get to mile 20 he could comprehend only running a 10k. He obviously did most of the talking as I was too focused on my gut and moving steadily forward. Shaded spot to shaded spot, aid station to aid station, one mile at a time.

At the turnaround I grabbed the instant ice pack out of my special needs bag and once again shoved it down the front of my tri top. I was so overheated that I don't think I even really noticed the cooling but what else was I going to do with it? We were, at last, at the turnaround point! Like horses to the barn we trudged back although I don't think any faster than on our way out. It was in the next few miles that we saw familiar faces - Carol, Gina, Lora, Anna, Andrea, Jeanette and Roxie. Everyone was smiling, everyone had made it this far and I was confident they were going to make it the rest of the way. It is indescribable how it felt to see everyone out on the course. Even now I get chills of excitement for everyone.

The miles, at this point, become a blur. I remember the sun FINALLY dipping behind a distant mountain and the welcome relief of the shade. Awesomeness #1. At mile.... I don't know where...they brought out cups of warm chicken broth seasoned with heaven (note to future self: do not combine swigs of Coke with swigs of chicken broth - they do not go together). Awesomeness #2. Gabe continued to pick walking points for us. His knee was starting to bother him so he'd stride it out and I'd shuffle after him. I didn't have to think. I didn't even have to talk. Awesomeness #3. During this run/walk phase we kept leap frogging a woman wearing the Newton tri kit. Gabe would get ahead of her, I'd stay behind her, and when he'd turn around he was always confused to see her instead of me. At one point, when we finally progressed enough to pass her for good she said, "Oh good, now your husband won't look back and get confused anymore".

As we neared town the new mantra became 'Finish before the glow sticks'. Every time Gabe would say it I would say 'what?'. Either he was mumbling or I just couldn't understand anything. He repeated it over and over again. With about 4 miles to go we started to pick up the pace. We were still picking points to stop and walk but in between we were actually running and the points became further and further apart. Entering the heart of town my breathing became labored. I'm not sure if it was ACTUALLY labored or if I was just emitting a groan. Either way, it was helping me get through the last few miles. With a little over a mile to go you see the finish line but then you veer away from it to do that short out-and-back along the water. At this point it was not 'short'. It felt like forever. When we hit the turn around point I forced Gabe to walk a few paces. My feet were starting to stiffen up and hint at cramping and I wanted to make sure I could actually run across the finish line.

All that was left was the run from the turnaround to the finishing chute. I had the presence of mind to stay a good distance behind a few folks in front of us - allowing them to have their time to shine as they crossed the line AND giving us an awesome finishing photo. Gabe had the presence of mind to get on my left so we could hold hands as we crossed (I was holding the pickle juice bottle in my right and I didn't have the presence of mind, obviously, to just change hands). We crossed with our hands held high, smiles on our faces, and the cheering from the crowds in our ears. I failed to hear "Meghan Manaois (butchered as expected) you are an Ironman" over the loudspeaker but oh well, my day wasn't about that.

Oh wait...there's more. Well, not really. Just that the volunteers grabbed us, escorted us to the pictures and then the food line and ensured that we were okay before leaving. I stood in the food line on the verge of passing out and grabbed an unappetizing slice of pizza before finding a seat in the family area. For some reason I was sort of freaked out to relax. I felt so incredibly spacey and out of it. I wandered around pretty aimless for about a half hour, slowly chewing my pizza the whole time. My mom and I tried to get into the medical tent (just in case) but the volunteer outside told me they were full - that could have been a problem if I really needed the medical tent. After some time Gabe and I went to pick up our gear, handed off the bags to my parents, and then rode our bikes back to the car - so much faster! Surprisingly that felt good.

Back at the hotel we showered, donned compression tights, and watched the live feed on TV - seeing Roxie cross the finish line! Then it was time to eat. This is the last little bit of the story, I promise. All I wanted was a Blizzard from Dairy Queen. It was just down the street so Gabe, Kyle and I headed that way. Right as we got in front of the restaurant the lights went out - closed! Okay, Burger King, it's just a little further. Same frigging thing! We got within 10 feet of the door and the lights went out - closed. I think we did that one more time and then finally settled on the Safeway. As we pondered what to eat I slowly started to feel like crap. I needed food, and I needed it ASAP. So I sat down at the coffee shop inside and chugged orange juice before venturing back to the Super 8.

One LONG ASS DAY!

Pre-Race Wanderings

2011-09-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

One more post to go before the race report - bare with me. Oh the things you have to do to prepare for an Ironman. The lists go on, and on, and on. Thankfully I AM a list person or else this would have been a disaster! And by 'list person' I mean I created an Excel spreadsheet that laid out the dates and times that I needed to do something, be somewhere, or eat something. That's right...I went THAT far.

It's not my fault really. The idea came from my friend Mike who happens to be doing Ironman Wisconsin tomorrow - GO MIKE! He had his whole race day plan laid out in a spreadsheet. I just took it one step further and planned all the way out to Thursday. It went a little something like this:

Thursday
9 AM - Take dog to kennel
10 AM - Hit the road for Canada
2:30 PM - Check into hotel and relax (yes, I schedule 'relaxing' time)
5 PM - Short ride/run - check gearing and breaks.

Friday
6 AM - Small breakfast
7 AM - Short swim in Okanagan Lake
8 AM - Second breakfast
10 AM - Registration
6 PM - Athlete Dinner
7:30 PM - Mandatory Meeting

You get my point (trust me, Sunday's schedule was even worse as it had the times I was expecting to be at certain mileage points and when I should be consuming calories). So, back to list making, packing, and race prep. I had this other great idea to put all of my racing clothes in separate bags so when I actually had to pack my transition bags up in Canada it would simply be moving items from one bag to the other. I wouldn't have to think and freak out in the hotel room and I could organize it all in the comfort of my own house. BRILLIANT! So I laid out 2 bags each for both Gabe and I and proceeded to pack up essential Swim-to-Bike and Bike-to-Run gear. Oh yeah, and the bags were labeled as such. Then there was a 'special needs' bag which basically had anything we'd want to put in either special needs bags on the course. A water bottle bag (regular water bottles, hand held running water bottles, gel flasks, etc...) and a nutrition bag (GU Brew, Cliff Bars, a Ziploc bag filled with gels, caffeinated drinks, electrolyte pills, GU Brew and NUUN tabs) rounded out the race bag count. The only things remaining were two small suitcases with 'regular clothes', our bikes, our wetsuit bags (packed with everything needed for the swim start), the bike pump and snacks. Oh yeah the fan (in case the room air conditioner was broken or noisy), the microwave, and the hot plate (more on those later).

Now before I get to the expo and other such pre-race activities let me just share with you Gabe's train of thought as we packed our bags. Gabe: 'What are we planning on eating/drinking during the bike?' Me: 'Whatever we trained with so I'll have gels and Cliff bars, GU Brew and Coke.' Gabe: 'That's not enough. What are they serving on the course?' Me: 'Ironman Perform which is like Gatorade and PowerBar Gels.' Gabe: 'Okay, I'll do that.' Me: 'But you haven't trained with it.' Gabe: 'Let's go to REI and get some and we'll test it out over the next few days (said on Monday)'. Me: 'But just drinking the Perform while standing around isn't the same as racing and drinking it.' Gabe: 'I never have stomach issues so I'm sure it won't be a big deal, plus, how else were you planning on getting enough to drink and eat?' Me: '......!!!!!!!.......!!!!!!'

So, what did we do? We headed down to REI and bought Gabe a ton of random gels (mostly with caffeine in them) and the Ironman Perform drink. For me, I bought NUUN and GU Brew tabs. I figured I would rehydrate on the bike with the water they were handing out and drop tabs into my aero bottle as I went (for the electrolytes) and I would stick with the gels and Cliff Bars like I had done in training. I assumed I was safe going with the GU Brew tabs as they had the same ingredients as the powder counterpart that I had trained with all year. Oh yeah, and we also bought Gabe a brand new outfit which I balked at. Nothing new on race day!!!! He was violating every rule I knew and not listening to a word I was saying. Well...actually he listened slightly and backed off the extreme gel switch up once we sat down and discussed how things (GI wise) could go very, very wrong.

Packing - done, last minute changes - done, time to drive up to Penticton. The drive is boring. Let's just leave it at that. We took the more direct northern route. I slept quite a bit which is pretty typical and we listened to the Ironman soundtrack I made (more on that later). We arrived in Penticton around 3ish (we left a little later than 'the plan'), did a quick check-in at the Super 8 on Main St. and then headed straight for the registration tent down on the water. This was a wonderful idea! There was no line (on Friday the line was ridiculous) and we were in an out in minutes with all of our gear bags tucked nicely into the Ironman Canada backpack we were given. Done and done. Back to the hotel for a bit of air conditioned relaxing (the temperature was 91, a bit hot for this gal) and then a short ride/run later in the evening.

The ride later felt great. My back wasn't bothering me, my legs felt rested, and it just felt easy. All good signs. Dinner that night was a bit later than expected which left us with fewer options. We settled on a Japanese restaurant that was just okay. Then off to bed.

Friday morning we headed to the lake with Kyle for our short swim. Everyone else had the same idea but since the lake and beach are huge we had plenty of open water to swim in. The lake temperature was great and I enjoyed the rocking motion of the waves as they headed into the beach. The rest of the day was free to do as we pleased. After breakfast we headed back to the expo where I promptly bought my first full tri kit (which I later wore for the race...'yes', I'm a hypocrite) which I LOVE! We also relaxed in the shade while waiting for our first session of ART (Active Release Technique) consultation/massage/chiropractic work. I had no idea what I was getting into but put my name in for the free treatment based on a suggestion from Mark. I figured they would be able to do something for my back and my inner thigh. Assumption correct! After about 30 minutes of excruciating pain I stood up and felt wonderful. My back felt loose and my inner thigh felt sore to the touch but loose nonetheless. Sign me up for the next day (yes, we did it both Friday and Saturday).

That evening we had the athlete dinner and mandatory meeting. Food...eh, meeting...uninformative but at least it gave me the opportunity to catch up with my fellow Bellingham training partners and scope out the competition (ha! Yeah right like I was actually 'competing' in this race). I was simply impressed with the amount of athletes at this event. 2890 is a huge number and looking out over the crowds it was even more impressive. Not to mention the 3 competitors that had done this particular race 27 times - that's every time except 1! Amazing, crazy, stupid - all those words come to mind.

Saturday brought more relaxing, more expo shopping resulting in the purchase of a white cap (my head gets so incredibly hot because of my dark hair) and CEP compression sleeves, and stressing out about packing the gear bags. That's right, the pre-packing didn't assuage my panic. I didn't freak out completely but when you have a time limit (both swim-to-bike and bike-to-run gear bags along with the bike needed to be in by 4 PM) AND you feel like you should be relaxing that inevitably leads to stress for me. But, it all got done. For those that appreciate checklists here's what went into each bag.

Swim to Bike
- Helmet
- Sunglasses
- Tri top (I didn't want to swim with it since the water temp was already warm and I knew that I would have volunteers to help me put it on)
- Bike shoes open and ready to put my feet into
- Socks nicely rolled down to ease in putting them on
- Vaseline for anti chaffing purposes
- Hand towel to wipe off my feet
- Extra tube in two latex gloves (this would be spare #2 as the first spare was on my bike)
- Gel flask with 5 chocolate flavored GUs diluted a bit with water
- A can of Slimfast was adding the morning of the race to consume after the swim.

Bike to Run
- Hat
- Running shoes with speedlaces
- Vaseline
- Another pair of socks
- An 8 oz Fuel Belt hand-held water bottle filled with pickle juice
- 5 chocolate flavored GUs

Test run of the tri kit before stuffing it in the Swim to Bike bag - it made the cut.

Gabe's race number fit nicely on his seat post, mine I stuck to the top tube right next to the seat.

Bags dropped off, bikes racked, transition scoped out it was time to eat and relax for the rest of the evening. Let me first mention that I took a special trip to Goodwill prior to this race to purchase a hot plate. Our room didn't have a kitchen so we just brought our kitchen to it. We brought both our microwave (you're welcome Kyle) and the new hot plate. And, we used them! Our lunch Saturday afternoon was spaghetti made right in our very own room. My parents even brought over a nice loaf of French bread. Klassy!

Chef Gabe mixing up a pot of delicious spaghetti.

Dinner came shortly after lunch since we wanted to get in and out before the throng of athletes made the wait unbearable. We headed to Boston's just down the street from the hotel. Since I just had spaghetti I opted for the fairly bland French Dip with a side of yam fries. Not sure if I mentioned this in my race report from Chelanman but this was the same meal I had the night before that race - seemed like a safe bet.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to call it a night. Showered, sunscreened, special needs bag, dry clothes bag, and wetsuit bag prepped and ready, another batch of pasta prepared for any late night hunger, and lights out at 8 PM. Next thing on the plan - race day! Go team Starbuck!!

Our pasta cake!

Dear Newton Running

2011-09-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

I recently finished my first Ironman at the Subaru Ironman Canada race in Penticton, British Columbia AND I did so sporting the special Ironman Canada edition of the Newton tri kit. Here's how you know I'm a true fan - I broke every rule in the book and purchased this kit two days before the race and proceeded to wear it for the first time on the longest race of my life. Now we all know that's a triathlon faux pas - you NEVER try new things on race day - but I have to say that this worked out spectacularly. The tri shorts are the most comfortable things I've ever owned, the top fit like a glove, and the colors...how can you beat the colors? Kudos to you all for putting together a complete package.

Now you may be asking yourselves, why is this crazy woman professing her unwavering devotion to our company and broadcasting it to the world (or at least the small world that follows her blog)? Well, funny you should ask. My motives -

To provide the necessary shout out to a great company that gave me an awesome outfit to rock during my first Ironman.
To compel your company to put Bellingham, Washington on your map - we have an excellent running and multisport community up here in the corner of the US and yet we lack the resources. Show us some love!
To somehow weasel my way onto a plane bound for Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, in the name of all things Newton, to watch the Ironman World Championship and spend some time in the Newton tent supporting the brand. I'll wear it, I'll sell it, I'll live and breathe Newton in Hawaii! Bold... I know.

So, what do you think?

Cheers,
Meghan

P.S. I'm slowly breaking my feet and legs into the Newton Guidance Trainers - LOVE THEM! I got them late in the Ironman training so unfortunately they didn't make the cut for race day but I have my eyes on the Distancia and the MV2 for potential upcoming marathon races.

Taper

2011-09-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, you're all anxiously awaiting the novel I'll call 'My Race Report' but first things first - I must talk about taper and THEN I must talk about Meghan's pre-race wanderings AND THEN I'll talk about my race.

So taper. Here's what I have to say about it - DISLIKE. If I could give a permanent 'thumbs down' to taper I would in a heartbeat. Some people love it. I reckon it's because you get your weekends back. You get to do shorter/easier workouts and sit around and eat or have a pseudo life for a week or two. Maybe you even feel good - extra energy and all. Me, I go for my last long run a week and a half out from the big race day and throw out my back. Let me paint you a picture.

It was a nice Thursday evening. An hour and fifteen on the schedule. The typical waterfront loop from the house beckoning. Let's do this! The first four miles felt great. Feet turning over easily and the run/walk in full effect (have I mentioned that I found my new love for endurance triathlons - the 'run/walk'?). We breeze past the waterfront and head into town. I step up onto a curb and...oooo, what's that? For a brief second there was a sharp pain in the right side of my lower back. Right at the knobby joint where your hips meet (see picture below - I love Google).

I quickly adjusted my stride and the pain went away. I thought nothing more of it as it didn't bother me for the rest of the run. The next day was a different story. The joint throbbed all day as I sat in my office and worked at my computer. The muscles up the right side of my back started to stiffen and everything was just sore. When I walked/sat/moved at all it hurt and everything felt out of place. In fact it almost seemed like that joint was clicking as I walked around. Needless to say I skipped a bike ride that evening and decided to just hang out, hoping that the pain would be gone in the morning.

No such luck. I woke up Saturday morning with the same pain. I took it pretty easy throughout the day and then decided to head to the lake with Gabe for an easy swim - hoping that the water would loosen things up. But of course the pain just laughed at me. With every stroke I felt little jolts of pain at the base of my spine. Rotating from left-to-right in order to breath seemed like a chore. Next remedy for the evening - Salonpas (a pain relief patch with menthol). It soothed the ache while I slept.

Sunday - my last long ride. Crap! I picked a figure eight loop from the house just in case I needed to turn back early but, given my recent luck, some of the roads on the route were being repaved so we had to take alternate roads...thus negating my close proximity to the house and an easy turn-around point. I rode the full 2 1/2 hours with the group at a VERY easy speed and avoided the aero position as much as possible. Post ride, I opted to walk the brick with Roxie - she'd have company, I'd keep it easy, it was a win-win. That evening, as I was lying around somewhat miserably I stretched every so slightly (twisting from the hips as I lay on my back) and 'pop' something went back into place and the pain at the join subsided by a scosche. SAWEET!

Monday...not as much pain just more of an irritation, noticeable periodically. Tuesday...massage that hammered the area. Wednesday...better. And the rest you'll get in the pre-race wanderings but to give you a little hint - I only noticed an irritation during the swim portion of the race. I call that luck.

Ironman Thank You's

2011-08-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

The details will be coming but the important things first:

Gabe, for pulling me from one light post to the next (no we didn't plan it but I'm so glad we finished together) - I love you and I am so proud of you.
Mom, Dad, Jeanette, and Bob Nelson for the undenying parental support.
Daryl for your amazing support, planning, guidance, and wisdom this last year (and the year prior that prepared me for this training) I started the day because of you and carried your words with me throughout the day.
Polly, Judy, Robin, Jen, John, Nancy, and Nina for your cheers out on the course. It was great to see the smiling faces
All of my friends near and far that encouraged me along the way and watched the live feed/athlete tracker.
And last, but definitely not least, Kyle, Gina, Lora, Jeanette, Carol, Roxie, Rusty, Andrea and Anna. We trained hard and we all finished! You are all my inspiration.

Ironman Athlete Tracker

2011-08-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

In case anyone has the deep desire to track my every movement (minus porta pottie pit stops) during the race this Sunday I'm pretty sure you can do so here. My bib # will be 2414 and Gabe's will be 636.

Thanks Susan and Hunter for decorating the car!