A week in the life....

I was amused to see that one person found my blog by typing in the following search phrase "person holding a book and jogging at the same time." HA! I wonder if they were trying to figure out if that is possible or find a logical explanation for something that they saw.

Not a very popular image. "Person holding a book and jogging at the same time."

Anyways, I am sitting here getting caffeinated and ready to hit Cadence for a four-hour Computrainer ride. It is cool and windy outside, and the thought of riding indoors, with friends, to boot, is much more appealing than braving the elements. 

I thought I would entertain the three readers of this blog with ‘The deep thoughts that go through my head in a week of Ironman training.’ I’ll use this past week, since I can’t remember much before that!

Monday- DAY OFF.

Happy. I need this. Legs actually don’t feel that bad. I’m kind of bummed that I can’t go to swim practice. I actually miss swimming. Huh. What to do after work? I’ve got a million things that I Could/Should do.. how about some laundry for starters. Think I will just take the girls for an extra long play time.

Tuesday-SWIM, WORK, TRAINER RIDE/BRICK

Just a little swim. Keep in mind you were missing swimming yesterday. Why is it so hard to swim after a few days of not swimming? I don’t know how people do it that only swim like twice a month.

 For some reason sorer today than yesterday. Will be glad to get back on the bike tonight.  On the bike…. ..OUCH! Guidelines say not deep, but they all feel hard to me.  Why does this never get easier? I’m going to train myself to watch ‘Dance Moms’  while maintaining a heart rate in the 170s if it kills me! The extra psychological pain of crushing yourself in your basement for 90 minutes – 3 hours regularly has to count for more time on the race course! Okay, just a little T run here, only 15 minutes. Wow, this 15 minutes feels hard. I can’t believe I did it, again!!

Wednesday- SWIM, WORK/TREADMILL HILLS

5:30 AM. Something is wrong! My alarm is broken. Oh yeah, masters swim. How long does it take to get to Mercer again? Surely not Really thirty minutes.  I need to pack an extra swim suit because I’m afraid this strap might break mid-practice. Whatever, here’s a safety pin.. I guess that will work with a swim suit. I need to stop at Starbucks for an grande black coffee.

Workout looks not so bad.  Lots of mixed faster stuff then 15 x 100 on the 2:00. Laughably easy.  OH, I forgot. Auugh… there’s enough lanes for us to each have our own.  Why is a set like the the hardest ever when there’s people there to ‘race’ but you also can’t draft. I’m drowning, drowing, but still falling behind. Dang, Jamal is getting faster at swimming. Ted is way faster than me now.  I’ll drown before I take a breath- through though.  DONE! This pool is a lot faster than the LA Fitness pool. Practice done, only 1000ish additional to make my yards.

Treadmill hill intervals. These are the worst pain of any session I do, I think. 3-4% grade sounds sooo innocuous on paper, but it’s truly evil. No watching Dance Mom’s… I’m too nauseous to even listen to my IPOD. I’m going to fall off the back at this speed and this grade.  I always get whupped running up hills… someone somewhere is doing the same thing though and not giving up.  I’m going to do this even if I literally fall of the back of the TM.

Thursday- 5300 SWIM, WORK/ TRAINER

Can I do this swim? Even though I do 4500-5000 on AT least one swim a week I still always wonder if it’s possible for me to complete it. Secret is to not take any breaks or think too much. Thinking is the enemy. 24 ounce coke is my secret weapon. 6 x 800 YIKES!! Okay, using the snorkel here. How do people actually swim more than 25-50 without having to stop and get the water out.  Man, I look cool with my simultaneous band, buoy, and snorkel use.

Don’t think, just do. Lalalalla. Had my stroke videod Wed and my latest stroke fix causes my to cross over so much I am flopping back and forth like a fish. Don’t flop. Don’t flop.  How are my arms supposed to go anyways?  I need to watch some youtube videos on swimming.

Guy making eye contact when I am at the wall. Try to look focused and out of breath so he won’t strike up a conversation. No, dude, I’m not rude but can we please talk, like, later or never? I swear that looks like Peter from the Real HouseWives of Atlanta. I can’t picture him coming to LA Fitness and kicking aimlessly for an hour with giant fins like this guy, though.  Can’t believe I did it..one of my longest solo swims yet.. maybe!

Trainer ride- Nothing on tv. Have a migraine so can’t listen to my IPOD. There are no thoughts left in my brain, just do. It’s strange how much longer two hours is than 90 minutes.  FTP went down slightly after the break…. Everything is  5 watts easier and it feels like I’m cheating. I Hate it. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I did it… I hit everything on my plan! It never fails to amaze me.

I got a lot of flack for showing this pic as my trainer nutrition. It's usually a lot better than this, but this particular day I must have been running on empty in several ways

Friday- WORK, EASY JOG

Easy jog on the trails with Sadie after work.  Why does this jog feel impossible after all the other stuff I’ve done this week? I have the never ending migraine and I can’t take meds again. Okay, I need to hike some of these steeper grades my quads are shot.  Okay, I need to hike some of the steep downhills my brain is shaking around too much. No worries hopefully will feel better for tomorrow.

Bailey's tired after all this training! 10 psi, the perfect amount of inflation for napping.

Saturday- GROUP RUN

Group run. Nothing too hard. Just 90 minutes of running. Thank goodness for company, finally. John and Jared are fun to run with because I can just listen without having to talk myself. Leg’s feeling surprisingly good, let’s pick it up!  I see Rich running back towards me. Huh, that’s not on plan. Yea, he must be feeling okay, because I can tell by looking at him that he’s running under seven minute miles. Oh there’s a cute dog.  I must be getting back in good run shape, because my brain feels very happy. Wow, almost there already. Great run! 

P.S. Please check out the chipin link and consider donating to Sadie's rescue drive to build an doggie adoption center in Atlanta. We need every bit of help we can get!!

Hogpen Weekend, Polar Bear 5k, and Resting

Right now I am taking a break from training. A mandated two day break. After a few weeks of continued decline in workouts and training, it’s needed.

I am fixated on one question. How could I forget what I am like without training to take the edge off my personality? I am absolutely impossible to live with. Impossible. And I’m just talking about me living with me. Who knows what’s running through the heads of my nearest and dearest.
So January has been fun, busy ,and very stressful.

I will focus on the training end since this is a triathlon blog. Soon, I hope to have exciting bike news, too that is deserving of its own post! All I will say is that I may or may not have appeared to be a beached whale with scoliosis on my bike (entirely due to my own fitting tweaks.. I get all the credit for that one) and that Soon I may NOT look like that! I may look like a poseur cyclist on a shiny bike, instead.

So here’s the recap on all the other training stuff….

Hogpen weekend


This weekend is soo much fun. It comes with goals attached. The Hogpen Trifecta is threefold and quite difficult to achieve. It includes maximum pain and maximum fun, then more pain. Therein lies the paradox of the hogpen trifecta. Specifically, it includes the following

1. Race up hogpen 11.5 miles and 4352.3 million feet of climbing
2. Sing karaoke that night in Helen
3. Ride your bike up hogpen the next day.

Last year was the inaugural year of the trifecta and I am proud to say that only three of us achieved this formidable goal. This year I wanted to try and recruit others, and was successful at the getting people rallied part. Unfortunately I messed up the actual planning and execution. I was tired and grumpy pre-Hogpen and it was slated to rain nonstop so we made the last minute decision to leave our bikes behind.

After a lackluster run up the hill, (eight minutes slower than last year. Yes, there was a course change that made it longer, but most people’s times were similar or faster because the added part was pretty much downhill at the beginning)it was time for the extreme fun portion.

We had a LOT of fun and karaoked until Helen closed down. The next day’s ride was not to be for anyone, as one, you generally feel sleep deprived and sore after the first two phases, plus the part about not having our bikes.

So I was bummed but I was even more sore and exhausted than last year, and am not sure that I could have pedaled the minimum watts to keep the bike from rolling down the hill backwards.

Onward to the Polar Bear 5k this past weekend. Fun because the club was sponsoring it and I believe we succeeded in getting a lot of people fired up about wanting to do a triathlon. Also, yes the actual running of it. After the way I was feeling and my Hogpen run I was the opposite of excited about this race. I wasn’t even sure if I would break 20 minutes much less the goal that I set awhile ago of wanting to break 19 sometime this year. In the end, pure ego allowed me to run the essentially the same time as last year.


Though there was like 1500 people in the race John, rich, rosemary, and I finished in succession, despite john and rich being almost 20 seconds ahead. They were going for 19 and rosemary was going for 19:30. After getting passed like I was standing still by them and many, many others the previous weekend I couldn’t go down without a fight. I started running and my legs immediately felt like someone had taken all the blood vessels, mitochondria etc, out of the middle and filled them with iron instead. Very strange, usually at least the first mile should feel easy, but I was in end of 5k pain from the gun.

John finishing (behind Rich) in a Hair over 19.


Anyways, I lost rich and john but managed to stay behind rosemary .. barely. Every uphill she pulled away and every downhill I managed to reel her in..the last 100 yards I put in a kick with the look, sound, and agony, I imagine, of a dying elephant and crossed the line 1 second before.

Last 100 yards...

Right after we finished.. photo credits to John's dad!




The next day was the Mountain Madness preview ride which I was Very excited about ..nothing was going to stop me. Not the 20 degree weather, not the fact that my legs were filled with molten iron as I mentioned previously. I managed to convince Rich and Ted to attend and it turned out that Lauren Fogarty and Paul were also there. (not that I saw Paul ..or Ted..after the first five minutes..showoffs)


So we started out riding casually or what I call “lazy riding.’ Lazy riding is where you don’t get in aero, pretty much keep in the small ring, and coast everything that is coastable. I was trying to stay super positive and was helped on that path by the beautiful scenery, Lots of Coke, and Rich’s company, who is perpetually chatty and positive. I kept reassuring him we weren’t slow because xy and z.

Lauren, Rich, and I at the first 'aid station' I look like I'm trying not to be grim and Rich appears to be contemplating some hand warmers.



So it turns out I was pretty tired because at first, I kept wondering why everyone was so fast. Second, I kept thinking well everyone out here is just really hardcore, and then I thought well they are just trying to see how fast they can ride the course. And THEN I noticed, when we were climbing the mountain part that I was climbing in low zone 2 and when I tried to pick it up, I really couldn’t and THEN I noticed at the halfway point that we were already 2:40 in .. yikes! I was thinking total ride time would be about 3:15 and instead it was 4:22!!!!!!!!!! After looking at my data later and my mouse-like average watts, it’s clear that this rest Is due.


*By the way, I have to mention that if you are considering Mountain Madness half distance you should totally do it! The scenery and the course is awesome, and though I will be occupied during the actual race, I plan to be at the preview rides as much as possible. Zone 5 proved they are awesome at organizing this weekend, too. I really had my own personal SAG.. even though I hope this is the first and last time I will be with the SAG 

** I had several friends tell me at Hogpen that they are thinking about donating to Sadie’s cause. I really really need more people to donate. In fact, I need YOU to donate.. just ten or 20 will do the trick. YOU will make a difference helping shelter dogs and I really really need your help. And I will stop bugging you and not send you a personal letter if you go ahead and donate now 

2012 Begins...

Lots of exciting changes in 2012!

Look like John and I are going to be more involved in our tri club next year. Actually a LOT more involved. More on that to come, but suffice it to say I have been working very hard over the holidays! So far just a few of the main things I have been helping with are the 2012 training schedules, lining up club sponsorships, and putting together a more formalized race team. All very exciting stuff! I’ve been trying to do as much as possible before ‘real’ work starts and I only have nights and weekends to work on things.

Other exciting projects- John and I have done a lot of scheming, and meeting, and dreaming about other exciting projects. These aren’t quite ready for the blog yet, but it’s always important to have big dreams and goals that may or may not pan out.

Individual coaching- I am going to start doing individual coaching more next year. Although I have done a lot of personal training, general fitness training, wellness coaching, and even individual run coaching, this will be the first time I am making the shift to individual triathlon coaching. I am ready. I have actually been a certified coach with USAT for almost two years now. When I first took my certification class, I was really just beginning to learn what I needed to know. Since then I have learned so much more, and as the saying goes, the more you learn the more you realize you have to learn. I am excited to continue this process of learning, and applying what I have learned so far in 2012.

Giving back- for a while now I have been informally involved with helping out animals as I come across them. I have a true heart for animals and 100 percent believe that his eye is on the sparrow I always believed that when I found the ‘right’ place to help in a more formal position, I would just know, and that’s how I feel about this cause. I felt like I couldn’t NOT help and I guess that’s how you know.

People have a heart for for all different things, that’s what makes the world go round. Helping animals is my true passion. All that said, my dog, Sadie is taking the lead on this one. She will be raising money for the barking village foundation rescue. You can read more about it here.

All I will say is that she is a dog with a BIG dream.. to raise 5000 dollars by may 5 to help them build a new adoption center. In fact, if anyone reading this (mom) has ideas to help me figure out how to raise money, I am all ears. So far I have been talking ot all my friends and family but I don’t want to be the person who constantly badgers others for money! (That being said, won’t you donate, please? Just 10-20 dollars makes a difference!)

Why is my sister getting all the attention? Look how cute I am!

Training and racing- This is a triathlon training blog after all, so 4 out of (the) 5 people reading this are likely mega-bored! Next year I will still be training under Meredith at Purplepatch. I really enjoyed working with this group last year and had big improvements to show. Coach believes I will make some big gains in swimming and cycling and I am holding her to that!

My big races are New Orleans 70.3, Ironman St. George, possibly Augusta 70.3, and Kona. I have BIG goals for these races that will get more specific as they get closer and I get a better idea of what is possible.

I actually have a bunch of ‘fun’ races coming up and the first one is this weekend at the Disney half in Florida. I am ‘really’ out of shape after my nice long rest, so this is not a PR race. I am all about ‘races are for racing’ nearly without exception. BUT if you are in no shape to race, have no shot at a PR, and have a big training week after your ‘d’ priority race, that is The exception to my rule! Therefore my main goal is to have fun with our family and friends that are also participating, not hurt myself, and be ready to hit it hard again for Monday!

I also have some big goals and additional responsibilities for my ‘real’ job next year, so we’ll have to see how that unfolds.

My goals as far as day to day are

- Not getting so stressed about time and efficiency. This is the way I’ve been my entire life and so it’s not going to be easy to change. I’ll have to settle for more of a management of this. I get stressed out about getting everything in and set myself lots of deadlines, real and artificial to make sure I’m on track. For sure it’s a good strategy if you tend to be a big procrastinator, but if you are constantly doing that for everything in life.. ie I have to start my bike workout by 6 pm.. even if you technically have till six am the next morning to get it done, it can start to suck the fun out of life (and other’s lives) really really quickly.

- Being more patient in general- this is closely related to the time thing. It is sometimes a shock to me to realize that not everyone is on the same time schedule as I am. Example- the light turns green and someone takes ten friggin’ seconds to get going! Or, say if John and I plan to leave at ten till eight and actually leave at 8:05. I need to get over it and be more gracious and considerate and patient. Note to self: get a xanax prescription ;)

- Pay attention to the little things as far as recovery and training. I’m not one to get all militant about eating perfectly or going to bed at 9 0’clock. However, there are definitely a Few things I could work on that would probably help me recovery better, and consequently be able to train more consistently, which will lead to being faster! 

- Getting more involved in our church- we have started checking out a new church in Atlanta that I am really excited about. I loved our old church but it was so huge and crowded that it was easy to get lost in the shuffle, not really get involved, or develop any real relationships. This other church that we have attended a few times is smaller, MUCH smaller so I am hoping we can be involved in numerous ways as a result.

- Make more of a difference in my friends’ lives. If someone tells me they need help, I am all ears and will do what I can (or at least I like think of myself that way!) BUT, in day to day, when I come across people that do need help, I doubt I even notice it or them half the time. That’s just honesty right there. I am always thinking about 10 million different things and I know I overlook a lot in the process. Lord help me with That one!!

Looking at this list is rather daunting, so I’d better get on it!