2011

Ok.  It is December 8, 2011, and I realize I did not write a single blog this year for 2011.  I have many excuses, probably not any really good ones, but nothing I can change about it.   I still have an almost finished Boston marathon race report; maybe I will finish it before the year end, and call it good. I just don’t think my words adequately portray my feelings and thoughts of my experience there.

 

My thoughts are now thinking on whether I want to continue my blog for 2012 with good intentions to actually write, or just give it up?  My writing is less than sub- par, but really who am I writing for?   What do I want to write about?   Shall I keep it geared towards my athletic endeavors, or expand into family, friends, random thoughts, and my dating experiences (this could be an entire blog by itself)? Really what do I have time for?   Yes, we make time for what we love, so do I love blogging?  Not particularly.   I do however love to look back, see my successes and failures, and where they have taken me in life.   A blog being a modern day journal is a good tool.   Perhaps I should get back to using it.   

Underwood 2010

Training, Training, Training!

Goodness! It has been forever! I have been busy. I have lots I can talk about, several times in the past months I have had a workout or experience that I wanted to share, but never took the time. So if this blog comes out a jumbled mess I apologize, there is just too much going on in my brain, and I am not good at filtering.

I am so sick of training. I think I am experiencing a bit of a burnout, and I don’t like it one bit. I am trying to improve my biking, but it just feels like I am failing miserably. I could be completely wrong, and just a little discouraged, but it is just how I feel. My workouts seem slow and sluggish; I do them but don’t look forward to them. I have taken an extra day or two for rest, and lightened up a couple of workouts, and I feel a little better, but I dread the long runs and rides every weekend. It could be because I am alone doing them, having some friends to ride with I think would help tremendously. They are around, but schedules or training plans are not syncing. I understand what is happening, I know why, and I am trying to deal with it. I believe I started training hard too earl y for Ogden marathon, then basically when straight into hard training for my Tri’s in August. So I am trying to get by, get my workouts done, and trying to not over analyze or get discouraged. BAM is just four weeks away, and will be here before I know it. I am excited to do a race finally!

Meanwhile, I feel like I am walking on a thin line. My workouts seem hard, more mentally than anything! I don’t feel like I am enjoying them like I should. I dread my long bike rides most of all. Yesterday I just seemed to hit rock bottom. I was supposed to do 65-70 miles and struggled to 58, it was slow and lonely. I got off my bike and just cried, because I was mad I didn’t get the 65 or even 60, but I had no will to keep going. I was trying to fathom how on earth I am going to do my first Half if I can’t even do the bike ride. I know I made some mistakes before and during this ride, and I am hoping that those are the reasons it was so hard, and not that I just suck. I ran 14.25 miles the day before, and didn’t refuel properly after, then went rock climbing in the hot sun for a good 4 hours, tried to hydrate and refuel, but I am sure it wasn’t enough. Ate some pancakes and banana for breakfast, should have had more healthy carbs. On the ride I stopped at mile 23 only refueled with more water and a Hammer gel. Before I could get to next stop I was feeling slow, dizzy, had a headache, remembered I had a Luna bar in my jersey, and ate what I could, it wasn’t sitting well in my stomach. At mile 44 finally found another gas station, and got some Gatorade and salty cashews, I wanted to call someone to come get me, I wanted to be done. I didn’t want to give up, hoped finally getting some nutrition in me would give me some energy to get back. The dizziness eventually faded, but the headache stayed. I made my way back, should have gone a little more west for some miles I needed but it was uphill, and I just had nothing in me so I headed east back home, hoping I would at least get 60 miles in. I slowly made my way back, it seemed I had a head wind no matter what direction I went, and construction was everywhere and made getting back even slower. I was close to my house and realized I would be a little short of even sixty. I tried to think of an easy way to add more miles, but just getting up the last hill was all I could do. 57.75 miles, hit the grass lawn, layed down and cried. I was angry, felt like I failed! I hated my bike! Wondered if I was ever going to get better at riding, get faster, and how I was going to do a Half in just over a month!

I still don’t have the answers. My confidence is knocked down, especially about my ability to complete a Half distance Triathlon. I am completely resting today. NOTHING! No climbing, hiking, and doing my best to eat and refuel properly. I need to really work on my nutrition. I hope this week’s training will go more smoothly, and I will be able to see my improvements. I need a little boost, some encouragement, something to make me feel like all this training is going to show some good results.

Women of Steel Race Report

Women of Steel Tri May 22, 2010


Nice and short sums it up. The weather not so nice, but it could have been worse.

Swim was cancelled. It was cold and raining. I was prepared to swim, and prepared with gear for colder weather, but I guess the race directors were concerned, and decided to cancel the swim. I think most of the people were happy with this decision, I didn’t hear many complaints. The swim was replaced with a one mile run. The race directors did a good job announcing the change, and explaining the new course, and race start was not delayed. Thumbs up to the race directors for being prepared and organized.

One mile run

They started us in waves of 100 starting with 0-100. I was very cold before starting the race, so it took a little bit to warm up. I also completely forgot my Garmin, so I had to pace myself based on feeling. I ran pretty quickly. I moved through the crowds of ladies that started ahead of me, and before I even knew it I was at transition. I think I could have pushed the run a little faster. 7:36

T1

Again, I need to get quicker here. I took off my running shoes as quickly as I could, and then put on the bike shoes. I really need the faster Tri shoes. It was nice not having to put socks on wet feet. I put on an additional jacket for the bike and was out. 1:30

Bike

The bike was a two loop course. I think I kept a pretty good pace rate the first loop, only had a couple gals pass, and caught a few back up. The second loop, I lost some speed, I think I tend to get comfortable and forget to keep pushing. I know getting my bike computer on will help with this; I unfortunately did not have time before the race. I am getting better, and I am definitely more comfortable in the aero position. My average speed 18mph, my best so far in a race. It still needs to be faster, but I am glad to see some improvement. 42:29

T2

I body was warm enough on my bike, but my feet were cold. I realized they were numb when I dismounted. I wobbled my way to transition. I sat down to put on my running shoes that were already tied. I should try the Yankz again. Put on my visor, and removed both jackets. 1:25

5K Run

Running with cold numb feet is a little awkward. So it took me a little while to shake it out, and get a good smooth pace on the run. I was able to catch up to a few ladies that had passed me on the bike. A few even commented when I passed, with “nice run”.  I love running and having targets to catch. 21:24

Finish

1:14:26, 7th in Age group, 23rd overall

Again this just confirms where I need to improve. I must get more speed on the bike. All six ladies in front of me had faster bike times. Only two had faster run times. Quicker transitions, quicker bike….and I will be right there. Bike intervals here I come.

Ogden Marathon May 15, 2010

One Minute Seven seconds.....so close!  I keep thinking, replaying in my mind what I could have done differently.  Five seconds there, another five somewhere else, I ran the best I could that day, I trained hard, I still got a PR, I enjoyed myself, so besides just missing my goal it was a great race.

Friday Night

My sister and I drove up to Ogden, we got stuck in horrible rush hour traffic.  How do people commute everyday in that?  Finally at about 5:30 we arrived in Ogden, and found the Union Station to pick up my race packet.  The expo wasn't too exciting, mostly local vendors, I did listen to Bart Yasso speak for about 15 minutes.  He was talking about the Badwater race, that is just plain insanity.   It was starting to get late, and I wanted to get some dinner.   We drove to the Hotel Ben Lomond, checked into our room.  I splurged a little bit on the hotel, but it was worth it  just for location.   The buses for the race loaded right in front of the hotel, and the finish line was just a block west.   This made pre and post race much easier.  After checking out our room, and going through my swag bag, we decided to walk down 25th street to search for dinner.   We decided on Bistro 354 (not sure if the number part is correct).  Dinner took a really long time to arrive but it was really good.  I had a salad, and then pasta primavera with shrimp.   It was almost 8:30 or so by the time dinner was done, so we just walked back to the hotel, and chilled out for the evening.  I went through my stuff layed out my clothes, my food, and my drop bag, check at least 2 more times, and then just relaxed in bed.   Turned out the lights, and tried to sleep. 

Pre-race morning

The alarm went off at 4:15.   I woke a few times in the night, but I think I slept pretty good for the night before a race.   Crawled out of bed, and made my way to the bathroom.   Dressed, ate my oatmeal I brought, and a left over apple filo roll from dinner.  Went through all my things one more time, and took the elevator down to the lobby.   They had some coffee downstairs, so I had half a cup, and grabbed an orange as well.  Went outside, and started to look around to meet Jonathan.  It was a little crowded, but managed to spot Jonathan,   The bus loading was fairly organized.  On the bus I ate my orange and a banana....realized this was a lot of fruit, worried a little, Jonathan had Imodium, so I took that just in case.  

Off the bus, grabbed some GU's, they had tons of them, so that was very convenient.   Then I headed for the port-o's for the first bathroom visit.   Jonathan and I then just relaxed and sat on the U-Haul for the drop bags.   Jonathan was more than pleased when a girl said she would be coming back to take off her clothes.  LOL!   20 minutes before start, back in line for the bathroom, them removed my layers, thew my bag in the truck, and lined up at our pace marker.   The last announcement I heard was 4 minutes to start, then the gun suddenly went off.   A countdown or something would have been nice.  

The first 13 miles were smooth.   Kept a really good pace and built in a few spare minutes for the second half.  I thought I was going to need to make a bathroom stop, but I think that was just nerves and the feeling faded.  The course was beautiful, and it was a little warmer than I thought, I could have worn shorts.   At one hour I took, my first endurolyte, and a GU at mile 9.   I downed another GU at 14 I think, but not sure.   Here I saw Trish from the Salt Lake Running club, she was looking out for me, and ran with me for the next two miles.  She knew the course well, and prepped me for the hills to come.  Thanks Trish!  Right after she left me, I started to have a painful side stitch.   It hurt with every step and breath.   I tried to keep it controlled, but had to slow down a bit.  At the next water station, I stopped to catch my breath, drink some water, and attempted to find my two endurolytes I needed to take.  I had them in the same pocket as my Ipod, and apparently they were crushed, just powder in my pocket.   Crap!  Started to run again, the side stitch faded.    Downed another GU just before 19 followed with water. At the next water stop I grabbed some Powerade.   At mile 20 I felt pretty good still, starting to get tired.  Jim was running towards me, and he turned around to run with me for a mile.  I couldn't really talk, so he just encouraged me.  Thanks Jim, it really helped!   Somewhere I had accidentally stopped my watch.   My time and mileage was off by about 5 minutes.   I knew I was close to my needed pace, I think I was still a little ahead at 21 miles.   This is when I started to feel the muscles twitch. I just kept pushing forward, step by step.  The last three miles on the paved path sucked.   It seemed to wind around forever.   I got to mile 23 downed  half of my last GU, and shuffled my feet along.   This mile seemed the longest.  I kept waiting to see mile 24 and it seemed forever.   I wanted to be finished, wanted to see the road and finish line.  Mile 24 1/2 the GU seemed to kick in a little or I just knew I was close and tried to pick up my pace.  I thought Jonathan might catch up again, and then we could pick up the last mile together.   Two girls ran past me, I so wanted to keep up with them but couldn't.  The last mile my legs were cramping and  my form was sloppy.  I did my best to keep the legs going, and when I could finally see the finish I picked it up to run in.  Passed a person or two the last quarter mile. 

My official time:   3:31:07

I was a little disappointed I didn't get my sub 3:30, but I loved the run. I could probably think of a million things I could have done differently, but I will just be happy with the result I got.   I highly recommend Ogden marathon to anyone.   Its a very well organized and supportive race, with great scenery.