Weighing in

So last time I talked about my weight was the weekend before Thanksgiving and I had hit my goal of 30 lbs. Since hitting that goal I started running more and also didn't stay as focused on losing weight.  Like many others, I find this time of year hard to manage.  There is a holiday party at least once a week.  There is always a luncheon to attend with amazing food and of course I crave Christmas cookies like it's my job (although I have not had one yet).  For a couple of weeks I took "off" from dieting.  I'm still making healthy decisions, keeping a food journal (on most days) and trying to avoid carbohydrate heavy food choices.  Some days I am still able to stick to 1200 calories a day, other's I'm lucky to stay under 2000.  Those days tend to be the days where there is a party.   Obviously I'm still learning how to not over eat.  It's hard.  I hadn't weighed myself since right before Thanksgiving.  The first time back on the scale was this morning.  To  be honest, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  The result was that I had gained 2 lbs.   I'm not super surprised about this.  I'm not excited or happy about it, but I'm not at the point where I'm super frustrated with myself.  I'm using these two pounds as a happy reality check that I need to stay focused and continue to log my calories and make smart decisions in social situations. 

One thing that I'm still learning and trying to balance is how I fuel myself before hard runs.  Yesterday was a 3 mile recovery run.  I ran after work and at that time I had only consumed approximately 600 calories.  I was only running 10 minute miles and I felt like it was hard to just have the energy to do it.  This was so different from my long run over the weekend where I had consumed a burger and fries the night before and 2 eggs in devilled egg style for breakfast before hitting the state park for some fun running in the woods.  My long run, which included lots of hills and a faster pace, felt easier than a 30 minute easy run yesterday.  I think some of this will be the timing of when I eat.  I don't know the best way to handle this situation.  I'm going to try eating 100 calories right before I go for a run.  Maybe that will help.

2012 Goal #1

I can't remember if I officially announced this but I am running the Birmingham Half Marathon.

I've also decided not to use a coach for this race.  For the last two years I have trained with Elizabeth Waterstraat.  When I was finished with Ironman and decided to focus on weight loss so I took a break from her.  Liz is a phenomenal coach, athlete and role model.  I can't say enough good things about her.  I was one of her less successful athletes (although she never made me feel that way).  Most of the people she coaches are winning their age group, qualifying for Kona or making their appearances at the ITU World Championship.  She taught me a lot about what it means to really go out there and give it everything you have, redefining what it means to be committed to something.   Doing your best means being committed to the goal everyday and working everyday toward that goal.  When I decided to run a half I thought about my goals and decided that it wasn't time to go back to her.  At this time I'm not ready to go back to the triathlon world.  I know that she can coach single sport athletes but I really want her to coach me as a triathlete.  I'm still not ready to sign up for a triathlon.  maryK and I are still on a break from each other (my bike).  I also know that when I go back to her, I want to be committed to the race goal.  Right now weight loss is still more important to me and I will put that above training. 

Since I'm not using a coach I decided to use a hal higdon intermediate training program.  So far it's good.  I still have to use a lot of my knowledge for the workouts as the free version just provides a skeleton schedule. 


My goal for this race is to run a sub 2 hour half.  I haven't done that since I was 22 years old.  I'm really focusing on running at a fast pace during my training runs.  In order to reach my goal I must run at a 9:05 minute mile.  I think I can do that.  I just have to stay focused and continue to lose weight. 

How much do I weigh?

There have been a couple of anonymous blog posts asking me how much I weighed before I started loosing weight and how much I currently weigh.

Readers, don't take this personally, but I'm just ready to post my weight on the internet.  It's just slightly more personal than I want to get on this blog. If you want to know what I weigh, feel free to email me and I will tell you.  c.tory.harper at gmail.com

Best,
Tory

The Tattoo

To tat or not to tat, that is the question. 

After completing an ironman it is popular to get an ironman tattoo.  Many athletes use their creative juices to come up with cool places and artistic interpretations that can incorporate the Ironman Mdot.  Here are some examples that I've seen out there:

I've never been much of a tattoo person.  I don't have anything against tattoos, I just have never had anything that I felt like I identified with something enough to have it put on my body for all to see for a really long time.   

Lately I've been thinking a lot about getting an mdot tatoo.  These thoughts come about usually when i'm at the gym.  It's almost as if I feel like the Mdot would tell people "Yup, I'm a badass" or "don't give me that look just 'cause I'm on the elliptical, I've done two ironman races".    I don't know where I would get it.  Maybe the back of my calf, but then when I wear skirts to work everyone would see it, or maybe my shoulder.  I don't know why I really care what people at the gym think of me but I do.  Obviously it shows that I'm a competetive person if it's important to me that the random people at the gym think i'm a badass. 

Part of me also struggles with the fact that right now, the Mdot is a symbol of the Ironman company.  There are other companies out there that host the ironman distance race but cannot actually call themselves an ironman because one specific company owns that term.  I am actually rather annoyed with the Ironman coorporation (which is owned by the World Triathlon Coorpoation) because of some of the regulations and policies that they have in place for their races.  I also still think it's rediculous that a friend got lost on a course and as a result ended up missing a race cut off time and didn't get to finish, but I'm starting to get off track from my original point.  My point is, I'm not sure I want to do free advertising for that company.  Perhaps there is another way to express the 140.6 miles that is cool without putting the Mdot on my skin.  

I probably won't get one, but it's really weighing on my mind right now.

So the question is still, to tat or not to tat? 

 

One of those runs

I finally had one of those runs that makes you feel like you are on the edge of greatness, the run that makes you feel like you are invincible and nothing can touch you and you are on top of the world. 

It happened on Thanksgiving day.  Surprsingly enough, I had been a litle hungover from the night before.  Wendesday we flew to Albany, NY to Monkey's parents.  His entire mother's side of the family gets together for "Stoutenberg Family Thanksgiving".  The events started with the "Travelers Buffet" on Wednesday night which was a wonderful lasagna dinner and drinks and then Thursday the family went on a hike in the morning and then the Thanksgiving celebration started in the afternoon which includes the thanksgiving play, a singing of Over the River and Through the Woods, Charades and the face game.  Last year was my first year coming to Thanksgiving with Monkey. I was beyond impressed with his family's traditions.   In fact last year I was almost in shell shock at how awesome they were.  But I was also cought a little off guard, I didn't arrive ready to go. 

Well, this year I knew what I was in for, so I came with my game face.  I'm sure you are wondering what this has to do with my run.  Well, after waking up on Thursday with a hang over from the night before (Yes, I drank over thanksgiving, In fact I took a slight deviation from my nutrition plan but that's a different blog) I spent much of the morning hanging around.  My 1:00 my hangover was just about gone.  The headache was gone at least which had been making me go crazy.   I decided a run was necessary given my caloric consumption the night before and the fact that I would be enjoying my share of stuffing.  I also thought a run would give my time to get ready for the family games where I needed to be ready with my game face on.  I started out with my garmin just thinking I would do 3 miles.   After a couple minutes I noticed how good the cool crisp air felt, especially running in it.   After that, it's all a blur.  I remember running past a few people and giving a nod.  I was just in a zone.  I didn't say hello.  I just remember feeling like I was flying, feeling like I had tons of energy and my legs were just pushing me forward without any effort.  For a while I didn't even listen to my music, I just listened to my breathing.  And I did tell myself I was so thankful to be able to run and do physical activities (something I am thankful for all the time).  I wasn't out of breath at any point, I just felt like I was running effortlessly.  It was easy. 

I looked down at my garmin and I had gone 2 miles out, so I turned around and headed back home the difrection I had come.  The neighborhood I as in is windy with lots of side streets that lead you know where and it's easy to get lost.  I didn't want to do to many turns and get myself lots.  I got back home and looked at my watch and I had averaged a 8:57 min/mile.  Not bad for someone who hasn't been running in a while.  I know it's not my best time every, but considering I just started running a week and a half ago, I was pretty happy with it.  I know that some of my faster more elite running friends are probably reading this thinking that I'm slow, and they are right.  I am slow.  But I'm getting faster.  Two months ago when I was 30 lbs heavier I wasn't able to run that pace without my heart going out of control.  I wasn't able to run that and have fun.  

This run, is the reason why I love running.  No one can take that feeling away from you.

30 lbs

In my last post I shared that I had less than a week to hit a goal of losing 30 lbs in 2 months. Well I just got on the scale and I have done it (as you probably guessed by the title of the blog).

I am so happy to be here, I can't share it enough.  I still have to manage through 3 more Thanksgiving dinners but I just had to share that I had hit the goal.

I still have another 10 to lose until I will feel like I can go into maintenance mode but I still feels good to have gotten to this point.

I've been running a lot.  In the last 8 days, I've run 5 of them.  I'm rather proud of myself.  I've already noticed that I'm in better running shape than I was a week ago when I got back on the treadmill.

I know I keep mentioning this but I'm very close to signing up for the Merceded Benz Birmingham Half Marathon.  I just need one more week to solidify that I am enjoying myself.  

Ironically I only lost 0.5 lbs this week.  I don't think that my weight loss and running have a positive coorelation.  I didn't lose as much because I ate a large amount on Friday night at a dinner party and then also went out on a date night with Monkey for sushi and we split a bottle of wine.  Since I haven't been drinking now for almost two months (with the exception of a wedding) Paul volunteered to be the DD that night so I had slightly more of the bottle than he did. 

I'm 1.5 lbs away from hitting 30 lbs.  My goal is to be there by Thanksgiving.  I will do this. 

Speaking of Thanksgiving.  Today marks the first of 4 thanksgiving dinners I will be attending.  Today is the UAB School of Health Professionals Dean's Office Thanksgiving, Saturday is my brother's 6th Annual Thanksgiving/Birthday Party, Monday night Paul's grad school class is having one and then Thursday is the official Thanksgiving holiday and I will be attneding the famous Stoutenburg Family Thanksgiving in Albany, NY.  I've been thinking about how I'm going ot manage these events, the food and my goal of hitting 30 lbs before next Thursday.  Then I realized, I don't actually LOVE a lot of the food at Thanksgiving.  If I was going to have a meal that cost me 1000 calories (actually, probably more) I would rather have pizza, or french fries, crab rangoon, pad thai, or chorizo dip.  The point is, it's just not the food I want to waste my calories on.  Now, I will admit, the one thing I love is pumpkin muffins and stuffing.  In fact, I could eat stuffing (or dressing as they call it in the south) and I would be happy.  So i think the goal will be to NOT show up to any event hungry, or without a a bottle of water in my hand.  I really started to love sparkling water.  It's satisfying. 

Anyway, that's the plan, I will let you know if I hit my goal. 

Here we go :)

3 days

Last week I ran for 3 days!  yes ladies and Gents, I did 9 miles total, 3 miles each time I ran.

I know that is not a ton of miles, but it's something considering I haven't wanted to run in a long time. 

My hamstring is not completly healed.  I've been icing it.  i'll give you updates on if it continues to nag me. 

I'm still not making any committments but I'm thinking about running a half marathon in February. 

A run . . .

So, I decided this week I would start to run again.  It has been 28.5 lbs since I last ran.  Yes ladies and gentleman, the last time I ran was at Ironman. 

I decided I would run for 30 minutes on the treadmill.  It's nice enough down here (We are still having 70 degree days followed by 50 degree nights) but my ipod is broken and I haven't found a replacement yet so I needed the distraction of the TV.  Plus, the road my parents live on is not flat.  You are either running up hill or downhill (my coach can vouch for this).   Since I haven't run a real hill since the Triple-T I figured it wasn't a good idea to start with that. 

The run was hard.  I was running 10 minute miles and it wasn't like my heart was pounding out of my chest or anything, it was just hard to do the movement.  It takes more muscle than the oliptical does (duh).  In fact I was actually sore the next day. 

I am not sure what this means.  I'm considering doing a half marathon in February but I haven't committed yet.  One step at a time with this running thing. 

btw, I weighed in on Wednesday, down 1.5 lbs this past week. 

Just an update

Even with a Halloween Party and a visit from Monkey's parents (think big long dinners with wine, steak and dessert) I still managed to be down for the week,

Weight loss this week:  2 lbs!

Hells bells.

On a side note, I went dress shopping with my mom, Monkey's mom and my sister in law and there were some dresses I couldn't even get around my a$#.  Yup, that's enough motivation to keep me on track.  Looks like I will be sticking to the <1000 calories a day until Mid December at least.

The Tanita Body Composition Analyzer

Since I admiteed to the world yesterday that I'm trying to lose weight, I went ahead and stepped on the fancy schmancy scale that the UAB EatRight clinic uses to track weight loss.  The Tanita Bosy Composition Analyzer provides a detailed body composition analysis which includes weight, impedance, body fat %, body mass index, fat mass, fat-free mass  and a few other fun data points. 

For those who don't know, I work for the School of Health Professions (SHP) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).  Part of the SHP is a healthy lifestyle and weight loss clinic called UAB EatRight .  I work closely with some of their clinicians as part of my job, so in return they let me hop on their fancy schmancy scale.  My plan is to weight in on that scale every two weeks.  I still weigh in at home on Sunday's and record my weight, but this will give me more indicators.

Here are my results.

Body Type:  Standard
Gender: Female
Age: 28
Height: 5ft. 7.0 inches
Weight:  XXX
BMI:    27.6
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) 1605 Calories
Impedance: 449
Fat% 34.3%
Fat MAss 60.5lbs
FFM: 115 lbs
TBW:  84.5

Desirable ranges: 
Fat % 22-33%
Fat Mass 30.5-57.01 lbs

something different then triing

ok,
I know,

I've been on a break from writing.  Well, the truth is I'm on a break from Triing right now so I'm struggling to really write in a blog that's supposed to be about me and my training for traithlons.

It's nothing personal, I'm just focusing on a different goal, it's not completely seperate from training.  It's something I focus on if I am ever to get faster. 

I'm focusing on weight loss.  Since signing up for my first Ironman I had gained 25 lbs.  It's imperative for me to lose that weight and also learn healthy eating habits.  I have the mentality that if I've gone and worked out, I can eat whatever I want.  Well, that's simply not true becuase I was working out a ton and still managed to pack on the pounds.  So after Ironman, I waited a week to give my immune system time to get back to normal and then I started in on my diet.  I know people don't like to call things diet, but this first period is just that, a diet, i'm doing it for a limited amount of time in order to lose weight.  I've cut back my calories to 800-1000 calories a day and am working out for 30 minutes a day.  I'm not working out for anything more than 40 minutes because I don't want to get to hungry from working out.  I want to get moving enough to burn some additional calories and keep some fitness, but not enough to feel like I want/can/should replenish calories.  I've also completely cut out Alcohol.  I had alcohol once at a wedding and other than that I haven't had a drop.  I will admit, I miss wine at night, but it also feels good to not wake up with any hangover. 

Anyway, my goal is to lose 40 lbs total.  So far I've lost 24.  I've been going for about 5 1/2 weeks.  Week 1 I lost a TON, 10 lbs to be exact and week 2 I lost 5 lbs.  Now I've leveled off at 2-3 lbs a week which feels comfortable.   I'm going to continue to stay at the calorie range and excercise program that I'm on until I lose my goal weight.   I believe that means I need to stay on it through Christmas based on the numbers I've been seeing but I will keep everyone informed. 

Once I've lost the weight I will feel more comfortable running, swimming and biking.  At that point I will decide what the 2012 season holds for me. 

Race report, Ironman Wisconsin

Sorry I haven't written.  I wanted my first post after IM to be my race report.  Here it is.  Sorry for the delay.

I've been avoiding writing this race report for a while. I've been avoiding it because it was a long, hard, hot day and I just kept one foot in front of the other.  I get emotional when I think about the day.   Things didn’t go as planned, and I had to deal with it out there. All that mattered was that I had made it to the start line and I knew I was going to get to the finish line.




I believe that every person, at least once in their life, has to take on a challenge that seems impossible. By taking on the challenge we learn that we are capable of accomplishing things then we never thought we could, we also learn that we can overcome obstacles more easily than we think we can. It’s a day to test ourselves and by doing that we turn into hero’s. We don’t always know what these “tests” will be which is the hard and fun part. Some people may thing that’s cheesy, but I think it’s true. For me, that day is the Ironman.



I think that Ironman is an incredible journey. The training, the planning, the commitment, the people you meet, the stories of courage, everything. To call my journey “hectic” would be an understatement but I can’t think of the right word. My followers have noticed that this season has been full of lots of fun, life events. I broke a toe (ok, not a fun event), completed my first Triple T, got engaged, planned a Chicago wedding, rode my bike across Iowa, moved to Alabama and started a new job all while training for Ironman Wisconsin. Each of those events is incredible and amazing in themselves. Unfortunately when you put them all within a 4 month time period life starts to feel crazy. In the midst of all this stuff I came close to walking away from Ironman. I was struggling to enjoy my workouts and races felt like a job. I decided to continue and told myself I needed to change my mental attitude and that training needed to be about having fun.

During the race I really thought about that decision. I spent all day looking around saying “This is FUN!”. It was important for me to keep that attitude as you will learn as I walk you through my race day.

The week of Ironman was also hectic. My bike and some of my gear were in Chicago and the other half were in Birmingham. I picked up race wheels from a shop in Birmingham thinking I could fit them in a suitcase I had. I got home the night before my flight to realize that they didn’t fit. The next morning before my flight I had to run to the bike shop where they packaged them (Cahaba Cycles is the BEST). When I got to Chicago, I realized that my bike shoes weren’t in anywhere to be found (I thought I had left them in Chicago but that wasn’t true). At that time I had NO clue where they were, shut I was lucky if I knew where my wallet was at that point. Nothing in Birmingham was unpacked or organized. Monkey and I had a room that looked like a tornado had gone through it. After attempting to give him some guidance on the 20 places they could be he told me he couldn’t find them and sent me my mom on a plane with my very old, cheap pair of shoes that I hadn’t worn in two years.

I arrived in Madison with my friend and training buddy Cindy. Cindy and I managed to keep each other from freaking out by talking about wedding stuff and counting red barns. She told me that my shoes didn’t matter which was kind of her and I kept telling her that she was going to rock the race and beat her boyfriend and my 2010 training buddy, Brian (which she did).

We got there, registered, checked into our hotels, and went to the team meeting. I was actually pretty calm at that point. My mom also showed up which was fun.



The next day I woke up, did one last short brick workout, dropped my transition bags off, browsed the Ironman store, hung out with My mom and Dirty D (a friend who came up from Chicago) and enjoyed my last supper at a favorite, Francesca’s al Lago. I went to bed feeling fine, in fact I even managed to fall asleep at 9:45.



Waking up was awesome. I said “FINALLY, I get to be done with this!”. It’s true. I was mentally exhausted form the four months of life events that I needed Ironman off my plate. I needed to start focusing on different things and I knew that I had one day between me and that.

The swim start is really beautiful. There are 3000 people all sitting treading water and the sun has just come up over Lake Menona.  As I waslked to the swim start I stopped and I kissed my mom and gave Dirty D a hug. I got in the water and made my way into the inside. That’s where I was last year and it worked then so I figured why change it. As I treaded water I got teary eyed. The announcer made a speech before we did a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11. I remember him saying “10 years ago our country went through a lot of pain”. I don’t remember what else he said but it was pretty emotional. Then next thing I knew the gun was going off.

The swim started out great. I was moving and I felt good. I wasn’t trying to gun it, just go nice and easy and get warmed up. I was sitting there repeating the U2 lyrics in my head “It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away”. Next thing I knew my goggles were gone and someone was swimming on top of me. It hurt actually, Luckily I had another set of goggles so I stopped and put em on and got on my way. This time I was singing the Finding Nemo song “just keep swimming, just keep swimming”. While I was coming around the last cone for the first lap I got knocked hard. I was fine but I noticed my goggles were leaking. After a few hundred yards I stopped at a kayak and asked if they had an extra pair. They told me they didn’t but I could ask the next one. So I swam to the next kayak and they didn’t have a pair either. At that point I just figured I would go at it without goggles so I did. Swimming with no goggles stinks, but I just wanted to be done and the sooner I could get moving the better.

I came out of the swim in 1:22. 5 minutes slower than last year. Oh well, time to move on (that’s literally what I said when I looked at my watch). I ran up the helix and it is just such an awesome feeling. Everyone is cheering and I knew I was smiling.

T1 went really fast, in fact I was 8 minutes faster than last year. I hopped on my bike and just told myself to go slow. I knew I couldn’t afford to blow myself out. I hit the first few rest stops and finally stopped in Mt Horeb so I could use the bathroom. At that point I was about 30 miles in (2 hours) so it made sense. I also got to see a friend that I trained with last year. She hugged me and wished me luck as I started the fun “roller coaster” part of the course. The next 30 miles just flew by. I really don’t remember them. I remember just looking around at the course saying “wow, you have spent the last two summers on this course training”. In fact, my first lap that day marked the 25th time I had ridden that loop. (Note: For those who don’t know the bike course has a stick, then two loops them you go back down the stick to Madison). I remember just thinking back to all the fun training times, the friends I have made, the bad days that I got through, just everything. I also remember saying to myself “wow, you won’t be back in this course for a VERY VERY long time”.

About half way though the bike my feet started really hurting. It was just this pain in the balls of my feat from the shows I was using. I stopped a few times just to take my shoes off and rub the pain out. It was almost unbearable. Somehow I just kept saying GO FORWARD. Then I got a flat. Yes ladies and gents, the wheels that I shipped and brought with me from Birmingham gave me a flat. I actually laughed when it happened. I flatted about 10 times this season so it didn’t surprise me that it happened on the course.

I came into t2 and the woman helping me asked if I wanted Vaseline for my blisters. WHAT BLISTERS?!?!? Well low and behold I had blisters on the bottoms of my feat. I put ointment on them and then got out to start the run.

I started off feeling slow, but good. I was seeing lots of friends and 2010 training buddies. People were coming up and giving me hugs, telling me I could do it. I knew I could. I started running and walking through the aid stations (every mile). My feet were hurting but I could manage it. Somewhere around mile 11 my hamstring started hurting. Next thing I know I’m almost to the half-way point and my hamstring is just throbbing. I decided to start walking. I just focused on swinging my arms and keeping a 15 minute pace. I also linked up with another racer and we just spent the next 10 miles talking and getting each other going.

At mile 23 I stopped for a second cause I thought I had a huge rock in my shoe. I took my shoe off to realize the rock was just my blister. Oh well. As im walking I see my friend Deb who had been behind me. The thing is, she’s now ahead of me. I say “hey, look at you, you’re going to do this tonight”, she responds with “tory I think I made a wrong turn”. Oh crap, she did.

Deb is a friend who trained with me last year and ended up missing the cut off at mile 19 of the run by 2 minutes. We were all cheering for her this year and looking forward to the moment when she would finish the race. Well, come to find out she had taken a wrong turn. . She started crying and told me to leave her. I couldn’t leave her, I had to make sure she got back on the route. I walked with her till we could find a race official. The race official told her she had to go back and do the whole thing over again which meant she would miss the cut off at mile 19 again. As we walked away from each other (her towards the right route and me towards the finish line and the last 3 miles) I started crying. I wanted her to make it so badly. It just sucked. There wasn’t a volunteer on the course and after exercising for a whole day, we just aren’t thinking clearly and she got lost. Plus it’s pitch dark. I have a bone to pick with how the ironman race official called this but I will talk about that another time.

About a half a mile from the finish line I saw a friend coming out of a porty potty. The course was pretty bare a that point and he ran with me for a while. He was drunk and he just went on and on about the day and everyone else that day. It made me laugh so hard. Right before I got to the finish line shut he gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheap and said “congratulations tory, I’m so proud of you. You are an ironman”. I will never forget it. It was just so fun to be with him on the course. I can’t explain it.

I came through the finish line shoot and got tear eyed. It was just a long day. Everything hurt. But I had made it. I had gotten myself there. Even with all these excuses to stop, I didn’t. As a crossed the finish line I tripped (yes, it’s rather funny when you watch it, I will post that later also) and then I smiled.



The finish line is amazing. I am writing about my feelings then and I am crying. It’s just this feeling of disbelief and being proud and wanting to collapse but feeling like you are invisible. It’s the best feeling in the world.



I can’t thank enough people, my mom (for coming 2X in a row), Monkey, Dirty D, Heather, Lindsey, Brian, Cindy, Dave, Kathleen, Jeff T, my dad, Dave, Melissa, my coaches, team Chiowa are just a small list of the people I need to thank.

IM wisconsin race tracker

I am on my way to the start and I just wanted  to make sure I thanked everyone for the support this season.  Today I am going to have fun and remeber that all that matters is getting to the finish line! 

Track me on www.ironmanlive.com 
#272

See you when I am a finisher!

Race Week, Oh Sh&%

It is time, its here. I keep having these “Oh SH%$” moments where I realize I’ve forgotten something. This morning on the way to work I realized I had forgotten my cycling shoes and sunglasses. Smooth move Tory. It’s hard having half my stuff in Chicago and half of it here in Birmingham. I thought I had left my shoes there and then I realized they were here. My mom will bring them up tomorrow when she comes to Madison.


Getting to race day is half the battle of racing. Seriously, right now race day seems easy compared to the amount of crap I have to think about and remember over the next 48 hours.

Readers, I apologize. The truth of the matter is I’m flipping out right now. I’m nervous about forgetting something, not finishing, not getting wheels to the race site, etc. It’s just a lot to think about. I keep telling myself “The hay is in the barn, the hay is in the barn” This just means that I’ve done the work and now it’s just time to execute on it. There’s nothing left that I can do to get myself prepared. At a certain time, you are just ready to go. I’m apologizing because it is really hard to put into words the way I’m feeling and what I’m experiencing. It’s been a whirlwind summer. I’m lucky to have gotten as far as I have. I spent my last summer in Chicago training for this. I also have been managing a move (to the deep south, new job, Monkey starting grad school, all while training for an ironman. There were some workouts that I couldn’t’ get done, at times I didn’t have the mental capacity, at other times I didn’t have the physical capacity. Now I am sitting here with race right in front of me and I’m reflecting on the strength it has taken me to get to where I am. I’m trying to figure out how to use that on race day to keep me moving forward to the finish line. I also find myself getting teary eyed when I reflect on the last year. There’s just been so much and I’m so thankful for everything. Again, this is very hard to put into words.

I also want to apologize for not writing since I moved to Birmingham. Things are different down here. Some of the differences are fun and I’m embracing them, others are not so fun and I make me miss Chicago. The new job is going well and I’m finding myself excited every day for work and to get to the office and start attacking the day. I promise I will write more about this move after Ironman.



I want to thank everyone for their support over the last year of training. I don’t think people realize how important it is to have friends and family that support the ironman goal. Over the last week I have had friends email me telling me they will be on the course cheering me on, I’ve had friends wish me luck and tell me that they will be thinking about me that day, the Facebook messages have been amazing. THANK YOU for this. It really does mean the world to me. I think about those messages while I’m riding a lot. I will remember them on race day and will find strength in them.



Ok, time to go catch a plane.

The Last

Wednesday, August 24th I move to Birmingham, Alabama.  Right now I'm doing things for the last time.  In reality though, I've been doing my "last" of things for a while.

I realized while I was riding in Madison this past weekend that this would be my last time training in Madison for a long time.  For the past two years I've spent my summers training for Ironman.  Much of that was done in Madison or the surrounding Madison areas.  I realized that after the race I will not be returning to Mad TOWN for a really long time since it will be 14 hours away from my house instead of 2.5 hours.

Wow, that's actually somewhat scary for me. I have done a significant amount of personal growth on that course.  I've thought about tough decisions in my work life, and also sang out loud because I was engaged to the man I love.  I also have been so frustrated with myself that I have thrown my bike in a ditch, and then had to pick it back up because it hit me that I won't give up.  The madison bike course had been a place where i realized that I am not the kind of person that gives up, that no challenge is to hard and that life is about having good times and bad.

Tonight was my last Smelts workout.  The smelts are my masters swim team. The smelts have made me faster.  They have also brought back my love for swimming.  I've had a ton of accomplishments in those workouts.  There workouts are relentless.  No one bats an eye when the coach throws a 4500 yard workout on the board and tell everyone to get off the wall.  It's rather phenomenal.  I will miss the monday night workouts the most.  If you are a chicago triathlete and you are reading it, I encourage you to go.  Don't think about it, just go to these workouts.


Tomorrow will be my last compu trainer class with my coach Liz.  This will be weird.  I have seen her every two years (i worked with her in the off season) during this class.  One time I threw up in front of her another time I did a five hour training ride in front of her, many times she told me to put my phone away and focus on the workout.  Beyond this, through her coaching I have learned what it means to be an athlete.  How to challenge myself physically and mentally.  It will be weird to say goodbye to her tomorrow.  I know she coaches athletes via phone/internet all the time, but I will miss her tuesday night bike/run classes.


Wednesday morning I will run on the lake front path one more time.  This is my favorite part of the City of Chicago.  I think no matter where I was moving it would be hard to find a training ground that compares to the Chicago lakefront path.  It is 20 miles of a flat, fast, beautiful running path that is fun no matter what time of year. Every time I train out there I see someone I know.  In fact last week I ran into three friends while doing my long run at 6 in the morning.  It's just a cool place.

After I run I will do one more open water swim at Ohio Street Beach.  This past season I have swam pretty regularly with my friend Diana after work.  I will miss screaming at her when I saw a a fish, or accidentally flashing her in the parking lot when i was changing into my regular clothes.  Mostly though, I will miss the swimming.  It's pretty beautiful to swim and look up and see sky scrapers.  Just saying, Birmingham won't have ohio street beach.

It's going to be hard leaving on Wednesday.  I'm sad to have my "last" of a lot of my triathlon training places.  I know know I will find a bunch of new favorite places to train in Birmingham.  It will just take time to find them.  I'm excited about running on trails and having hills to bike up.  I will certainly miss the places in this area that have been so instrumental in my success in endurance sports.

A Week of Workouts of Epic Iron Proportions

This is the last BIG HARD workout week before Ironman.  Our coach organizes a day called Epic Saturday.  We do a long open water swim (OWS), followed by a century ride and then a 45 minute run.  In total, I will workout for 9 hours this Saturday   I think that this workout day is more about the mental part of ironman training than anything else.  Getting yourself mentally prepared to do the transitions, to focus on swimming and then move onto the bike, and then the run. At this point we have done the work, it's time to do a dress rehearsal.  It's important for me to look at this like a race, I need to bring my own race nutrition, I can't rely on stopping at a gas station if I get hungry or am sick of GUs, practicing not pushing to hard on the first loop, I think I might even run up the helix (is that taking it to far?).  This year Epic Saturday is in Madison.  We're pretty lucky because the Madison Open Water Swim race is on Saturday and we can use that for the swim portion.  In fact, the course for this weekends race is the exact same as the Ironman swim course.

As I started planning for Epic Saturday I looked at my trainingpeaks schedule (an wesite where my coach loads my workout plans for me) and I realized that this isn't just Epic Saturday, it's Epic WEEK!  Every workout it really long.

Monday started out with a planned 2.4 mile OWS.  Since I've done a TON of OWS this season and a cut is just healing up I did my swimming in the pool and just went to Smelts practice (my Masters swim team).  I haven't been to a Monday night in forever because it is usually a rest day and the Monday night coach is notoriously hard and well planned out to kick you A$# into shape.  I figured it would be a good time to go so I did.  In hindsight I think I regret not just doing a 4000 in the pool by myself.  The workout is below:

Warm up: (1000 total)
400 swim
200 pull
200 IM
200 kick

Set 1: (600 total)
3 X:
4 X 50s: easy, medium, fast, easy
set 1: Free on the 100
set 2: Kick on the 1:05
Set 3: Free on the :55

Set 2: (1000 total)

Pulling: (allowing 1:05 per 50)
50, 100, 150, 200, 150, 100, 50
200 Free (medium)

Set 3: (I completed 1350 total)
20 minute continuous clock swim

Set 4: (300 total)
6 X 50's, IM order w/ no free

200 cool down


In total I did a 4450.  I was spent after this.  It was a hard workout.  One thing I am proud of.  My average, per 100 time for my 20 minute continuous swim was 1:27.  Why is this a big deal you might be asking.  It's a big deal because I was swimming at Ironman pace.  Ironman pace is supposed to be your swim test time + 20 seconds.  My last swim test time (done in May) was a 1:18/per 100.  So theoretically I should have been around a 1:38.  I was a whole 11 seconds faster than this.  The other thing that's cool is that my first swim test per 100 time was a 1:28.  That test was done in March, 2010 while I was training for my first Ironman.  When I did that I almost threw up and my arms were ready to fall off.  Now, a whole 17 months later, I'm able to hold that pace for a 20 minute swim.  To me, that's flippin AWESOME.  I think a lot of that gain is from just from simply swimming continuously.  I didn't stop swimming in the off season.  I also think that swimming with a masters team has helped make my workouts more intense.

ok, back to the topic of this blog: Epic WEEK!!!

Last night I had a 2:30 bike/run workout with the team.  It was good to see everyone. It was also good to hear that i'm not the only one who's had some training "funk" days where they just wanted it to be over. In fact i'm pretty sure I herad some profanity when Liz (coach) yelled at us to get our running shoes on because we had to go for a 25 minute run.  The words weren't directed at our coach, more at the fact that we're all just tired.  I have said this many times before in this blog.  A lot of this training is about getting our bodies to perform even when we are physically and mentally exhausted.  We always run after we ride.  Every long workout has either a hard workout the day before or one the day after.  We have been teaching our bodies how to use fuel (food and sports drink) in the most effective way possible so we can keep ourselves moving forward.  I haven't ran on fresh legs in months. Why, because there is nothing 'fresh' about doing a marathon after already having swam 2.4 miles and biked 112.

Which brings me to Day 3 of Epic week:  A long run.  Today I woke up at 5:30 and got a 1:45 run in.  At lunch time I will run another hour which will conclude my long run for the week.  I have broken up the last two long runs and I think I like it.  It's still really hard.  It's hard to keep yourself focused during the day to make yourself go back to the gym and finish the run.  Running 1:45 is still a nice long run.  I got in 19.8 miles.  It was really slow.  It was just hard though.  I was pacing 10 minute miles and then I would walk for 30 seconds after every mile to imitate walking through an aid station.  I hate practicing as if I'm walking through aid stations but I think it's important to teach yourself how to do it.  One might say: how hard can it be?  Realistically though, it takes discipline to ONLY let yourself walk for 30 seconds.  If you don't practice it, you won't know how fast 30 seconds goes by and next think you know you look down and 2 minutes has gone by and you are still sitting at the aid station.  So yeh, I do it.  It means I get less miles in on my long runs (Coach is adamant about NOT going over a certain amount of time on these runs due to the impact it has on your immune system)

Day 4 of Epic will be a rest day:  WOHOOOOO

Day 5 is a 1:30 bike ride,

Day 6 is Epic Saturday (2.4 mile OWS, 100 mile ride and 4.5 mile run)

Day 7: 50 minute run.

This is one of those training weeks where you can't think about it and you just have to do it.  In fact I asked my friend Cindy how her epic week was going and she said this exactly "I have to just keep doing everything without thinking about it and at the time that I have it scheduled without skipping or substituting anything because if I don't do it my whole week will literally fall apart".  I couldn't have explained epic week any better.  It's one of those workout weeks where you have to plan EVERY workout for the entire week and then just do it when you say you will and DON'T stop to think about it.  If you think, or change the plan everything else will just fall apart.

I will leave with a final quote that I saw last week on tridad's blog:

Iron Motivation

Earlier today I posted about how I was exhausted.  In hind sight the blog was pretty negative and whiny.

This afternoon I took a break from working (does anyone honestly actually work a full 8 hours without taking a SINGLE break to browse the world wide web).  I went back to a prologue of an ironman documentary that is what actually got me to sign up for the race in the first place.  A friend had sent it to me in preparation to chear for someone else who was racing in 2009.  I watched it and immediately knew I had to do an ironman.  Three days later I was signed up.

The full documentary is not available and it has been broken up into sections.  In fact he used to have it on his blog but it looks like the copyright police came after him because of his background music.  I am only posting the prologue because it's just so freaking motivating but I recommend the whole thing is you can get 45 minutes to watch it.

 

Exhausted.

This has been the last week:

Thursday: 18 mile run (on the treadmill) due to work commitments
Friday:  90 minute bike
Saturday: 1:45 swim, 1 hour run
Sunday:  114 mile course ride in Madison, 15 min run
Monday:  Pack apartment and load truck, get official job offer letter.
Tuesday:  Continue to load truck, say good bye to Monkey, go to work and clean apartment of all the stuff that didn't get moved to Birmingham

I was late to meet a friend on Saturday and he asked me if he was getting in the way of my life.  I responded with "No, my life is getting in the way of my life".  Then my coach asked me how my ride was going on Sunday and my response was "I wish the race was tomorrow"  My life just has to many things going on at once.  It's great when just one life event is going on.  Right now there are four: Ironman training, new job, long distance move, and engagement.

I'm just ready to be done at this point.  I am exhausted from the move, new job etc, but also exhausted because that's the point of Ironman training right now.  You're supposed to be tired and training your body to move forward even when you are tired.

Sigh.

I'm sorry to complain to you all but I'm just exhausted.  Monkey has already moved and I can't complain to him so you're getting the brunt of it.  My apologies.

This just in:

On August 24th I will move to Birmingham, Alabama.  Monkey (Fiance) moved there today to go to grad school (Masters in Heatlhcare Management at UAB).  Yesterday I got a job offer so I am officially moving.  It's pretty exciting. Since this is a blog about my training, you should understand how this is going to impact Ironman plans. The tough thing it that I move there and two weeks later I'm back up here for Ironman.  The question that I've gone back and forth with is do I move my

Here is the schedule for the next few weeks

Current week August 8-14:  Rest week

August 15-21: Still in Chicago,  last hard week, Including Epic Saturday (1 mile swim, 6 hour ride and 1 hour run)

August 22-28: 1st week of taper including: Move to Birmingham on August 24th.  I must have done all Open Water Swims at that point 

August 29- Sept 3:  3nd week of taper:  In the pool and on a training/spinning bike since my bike will stay in Chicago.  

Sept 4th:  Race week: 

           Fly to Chicago on Thursday, Sept 8, spend the night in Chicago, pick up bike
           Drive to Madison on Friday, Sept 9th, Race weekend BEGINS

Sept 12: Drive back to Chicago, Fly to Birmingham.

I still need to figure out how i'm going to get my bike back to my new home, Birmingham.  I don't have a bike transport system which makes it hard.  I also don't want to buy one.

This move is requiring me to have the rest of training planned and ready to execute.  I know I need to be flexible with training and moving workouts around, while still getting them done.

Personally, I'm exhausted right now in general from training so it'shard to add this to the mix.

Ragbraid

Last week I was Ragbraid!

I'm sorry (again) for not having posted in a while.  I've been exhausted.  I'm in the toughest part of IM training right now.  Every workout just hurts, even the easy ones aren't easy anymore.  Everything is just tired.  I'm sleepy at work, I can never get enough sleep. I'm icing all the time.  Then I throw in RAGBRAI in the middle of all that and lets just say from a workout perspective, it's just tough right now.  I was joining RAGBRAI (the 450 mile ride across Iowa over 7 days) mid week so I knew I would be racking in at least 250 miles within 4 days.  Well, I thought coach would give me an easier beginning of the week, but boy was I wrong.

Here's my schedule from last week:

Saturday: IM Wisconsin course ride: 100 miles
Sunday: 60 minute recover bike and swim (1 mile)
Monday: 17 Mile run
Tuesday: off (I was supposed to swim but I was traveling out to ragbrai and I couldn't fit it in)
Wednesday: 56 mile ride (RAGBRAI)
Thursday: 58 mile (RAGBRAI), 2.5 mile run
Friday: 75 mile ride (RAGBRAI), 1.5 mile run
Saturday: 71 mile ride (RAGBRAI)
Sunday: Rest day

So overall, in one week I did 360 miles of riding, 20.5 miles of running and a mile swimming.  Did I mention I did this while I was camping.  Yes, ladies and gentleman.  Ragbrai involves camping.  I explained a little bit about this ride in my last blog post but I will now go into the great detail that made this my favorite endurance event I have ever been a part of.

I met up with Gina on Tuesday morning around 11.  We loaded her car up and went to Jen's where we met up with the whole group that was going mid week (5 riders). It took us a while to get out of the city so by the time we got on the road it was 1 PM.  We got to Davenport where Gina's parents where.  They were super awesome and were acting as our shuttle out to Boone where we would meet up with the rest of the crew.  We loaded her dad's truck with our bikes and then we the riders rode in her mom's Minnie van.  Then we drove the 3 hours out to Boone and met up with the crew.  It was a long day, and when we got to the camp site we were tired hungry and hot.  Not that we could be complaining about the heat.  The rest of our team had already ensured days of 90+ temperatures with humidity in the 75%+ range. We set up our tents, ordered Pizza, had a beer and hit the hay.

The next four days are a blur.  I remember lots of riding.  I remember stopping at lots of towns.  I remember lots of rolling hills (Iowa is not flat btw).  I remember it being really hot.  The days melted together as I rode from one middle america town to the next.  My teammates were awesome.  I was always riding with someone.  Everyone was just lots and lots of fun, and of course super chill.

Here's a schedule that we pretty much followed every day:

6:15: Wake up (everyone else around you is awake and packing tents so I couldn't have slept in even if you had paid me a million dollars too!).
7:30:  Wheels down
8:00:  First stop for breakfast (Breakfast burrito, doughnuts, Hyvee)
10:30: First town, stop and eat something on a stick, fill water bottles
12:00:  Lunch Stop
2:30:  Ice cream stop
3:30:  Beer stop in last town before the camp town
5:00:  Pull into camp site, set up tents, shower, go to the local water park
8:00:  Dinner (wherever you can find it)
10:00:  In Bed

That schedule doesn't begin to express how awesome it was.  Imagine, 10,000 people riding there bikes and camping every night.  Every five  minutes you pass someone with a boom box on the back of there bike (every once in a while they pass you too).  Then every town you stop in is having a carnival because ragbrai hasn't been there in decades.  Then when you feel up to it, there's a live band and a beer tent that you can stop off at and get hydrated before hitting the rest of the ride.

There were lots of inside jokes, bad nicknames, good nicknames, good beers, smelly clothes and laughs had throughout the entire time.  I loved it.  I do think it's one of those things you have to be pumped for.  You either like it our you don't.  There were tons of people that had done it for years and years.  The hardest part of the week is that you are camping every night.  It gets in the way of recovery.  If you can get over that, you will love it.

I know I will certainly be back for more (hopefully next year)!

Forgive me readers for it has been 10 days since I last blogged

I'm sorry, I've ben a little distracted.  I am excited to announce that Monkey and I are engaged!  Yes, Ms. TryToryTri is now promised to Mr. Monkey.

It happened a week ago.  Sunday evening I came home from walking the dog to find the living room to covered in rose petals.  Monkey was in a suite and tie and down on one knee.  It was so fun.  I started crying and after he asked he hugged me and then said "does that mean yes" to which I responded "Of course".  It has been a very fun filled week full of celebrating and fun phone calls with friends back east.  

In the middle of celebrating and trying to start wedding reception site in downtown Chicago I have had a little trouble staying focused on Ironman and getting workouts in.  In fact every day last week I had champagne or wine.  How can I knot enjoy and celebrate this time right now.  I think I got 3 days of working out in last week of the required 6.  I did manage to get my long ride in which was good.  The engagement was also coupled with record high temperatures and humidity in Chicago so that didn't help the cause.

Well, Saturday, after being in engaged la la land all week I got my behind out of bed and drove to Madison for a course ride.  I actually managed to over sleep so I didn't get to Madison till 8:45.  I was on the bike by 9:00.  I was riding by myself and was just lost in my own thoughts.  I think that's when it hit me.  "It" being the moment when I realized that I'm actually engaged.  I started getting emotional on my bike.  Yes, I cried tears of joy on my bike.  It was a very special moment for me.

So training is busy, now I'm wedding planning and them tomorrow I leave town to go to Iowa for Ragbrai.  Ragbrai is a week long ride across the state of Iowa.  I'm joining mid week because I couldn't take the entire week off.  We will ride from West to east and end in Daventport.  Each night we camp (Yippeeee) and there are lots of fun stops along the way every day.  I'm super duper excited.  I promise I will post when I get back from Ragbrai and I might even give a mid week ride update from the middle of no where Iowa if I can get reception!

A future swimmer, I hope

First off, sorry I haven't posted in over a week.  Training and life has been crazy.  I won't get into to much on how life has been crazy except to tell you that my 2 1/2 year old Nephew visited me last weekend all the way from the Bay Area!  It was so much fun.  Last week I made sure to get all my big workouts (bike and runs) in during the week because I knew I wouldn't want or have time to get out and do them when he was here.  He was a pistoll, let me tell you that.  We hit up the Lincoln Park Zoo, Montrose Beach, Kuma's Corner, a block party, a regatta, Burger Fest.  Hanging out with him might have been harder than an Ironman.  His curiosity combined with lots of energy leads him to be ON all the time.  At one point he was just running in circles in a bedroom as I chased him.  He did this for 45 minutes straight.  He just found it hilarious.  The other thing is he LOVES water.  He wanted to be in the water at Montrose beach all the time.  He wined when we had to get out.  He loved when I dunked him under and always wanted to go deeper and deeper.  I'm hoping his parents put him on the swim team in a few years.  His daddy is 6'5 and his mom is 5'7.  I'm guessing that there is a good chance he will be tall.  Tall people make great swimmers.

Just saying. I can't tell you how much this kid had me wrapped around his little finger.  He is at that age where he just says the funniest things.  During the weekend Aunt T (that's me) managed to get a flat tire.  (By the way, I found myself speaking in the third person ALL THE time while he was here.  I'm not sure why we do that to little kids, doesn't make a whole lot of sense).  As we sat on Belmont ave and waited for my brother in law to change the flat he just kept saying "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh".  I am curious where he learned that phrase, and how to use it at the perfect time.

Below are some photos of the weekend:

Get Up

After getting all pumped up for training and mentally ready to start building toward being Iron, I had a rough week.  I should have expected this.  Training is full of ups and downs and who am I to expect that I could have actually go for a while without a bad training week or day.  Of course I was on an up, so a down must be coming soon.  And it did.  

Tuesday I went to my bike class, and I was ready to rumble.  I was just finishing up my warm I felt something funny with my tire,  I thought I just wasn’t calibrated right on the machine but no, I actually had a flat.   Yipee.  So I changed it and got back on the bike.  Then I had to go to the bathroom really badly.  So during the 4 minutes “easy” where we were recovering from the ride I got off to go the bathroom.  Well, in between the bathroom and my bike I slipped (yes, I love my cleats) and fell, bruising my tailbone and my ego.  I had fallen in front of 15 other athletes, yippee, I was so embarrassed that I could barely answer coach when she asked me if I was ok.  I crawled off to the bathroom where I pulled myself together.   Of course the next day happen to be one of the 10 times a year that I have to drive out to the burbs for a work meeting and the bruised tailbone didn’t do to well that day. 

Then on Saturday I was riding in Madison and I was about 5 miles into my 2^nd loop when All of  sudden I found myself in the middle of the road with my bike on top of me.  I’m still not sure exactly what happened but some how my rear wheel actually popped out of my bike leaving me to literally just fall over (while going about 15 mph).  I was thankfully with Paula, a training buddy from my Ironman group who was the best thing a girl could ask for.  For a few minutes I just sat in the middle of the road.  I was really cought off guard.  One moment I was riding, the next I was lying on the road with a bruised elbow, knee and hand.  I think she recognized that physically I was probably ok, but that I was more just freaked out.  It’s pretty scary to have your bike just fall from underneath you.  Paula told me she would do what I wanted to do.  I could turn back and go to my car, or I could keep going.  At that point a car had stopped for me and they were asking to drive me back to my car (did I mention that people in Wisconsin are the nicest people in the world, I’ve always thought this of them, and this incident only further enforced that belief

After about 10 minutes of me trying to figure out if anything was broken, if my bike was ok and if I could keep going I decided I would keep going.  I figured I was just a sore and that with time, the soreness would go away.  I had 8.5 miles to Mt. Horeb, one of the towns on the IM Wisconsin course and I would make a decision there.  I knew I could call my friend who lives near Madison to come pick me up if it got really bad out there. I told a fib to Paula, I told her that my friend lived in Mt. Horeb and if I needed I could call her to pick me up (that’s a fib ‘cause my friend lives in Fitchburg, the complete opposite direction of Mt. Horeb).  The 8 miles out to Mt. Horeb were long and slow.  My left leg was sore and really badly bruised.  Paula would slow down and make sure I was still back there.  I told her she could ditch me after Mt. Horeb.  When we got to mt horeb we stopped to use the bathroom and then I decided I was going to just ride the 13 miles back to my car instead of completing the full loop.  I was slow at that point.  Plus, my shin was so sore that it hurt to peddle on my left side.  My left elbow was scrapped up and swollen from falling on it so I couldn’t go into aero.  Then my left hand also in bad shape fromtring to ease my fall so I was up on my handle bars, everytime I went over a small crack in the road or bump it would send pain shooting up my arm.  I was miserable. 

I tried to think of happy thoughts but it was hard.  I told myself “What about Erika, she flipped over her handle bars with 56 miles left on the bike. Then she proceeded to run a marathon and it wasn’t until she had walked across the finish line till she got her stiches.  If she can do it, so can you”.  I also thought about other athletes who have bad crashes and still get through races.  The fact of the matter was though, this wasn’t race day.  I didn’t give up, I pushedf hard for a while.  In fact, that 8 mile ride took me almost on hour.  On the way back the 13 miles total took me 1:13 to complete.  I got back to my car and I just couldn’t wait to sit down.  My right leg was really super sore for the two days afterward, meaning I must have really favored that leg.  Ironically my abs were also extremely sore also.   

Time to Start Eating Like I'm training for an Ironman

So, A couple of weeks ago I decided to pack all my lunches and no longer order take out.  The goal is to save money and calories.  I was given good advice when it comes to making nutritional changes.  Focus on one thing at a time:  don't try to eat in more, reduce processed foods, cut out all sugars, and eat all veggies all in one day.  Take one thing, focus on changing that for a month.  Then take another thing and focus on changing that habit.  So right now I'm focusing on eating out (as stated in my first sentence).

I've started packing lunches.  I realized that this shouldn't be difficult because most of the time when I buy my lunch in the loop I buy a simple sandwich which is either ham or turkey with cheese.  So for that reason I've tried to imitate that lunch at work.  I bring to work bread, cold cuts, Cheese and then small bag of chips and carrots.  As I chose this combo because the fact of the matter is I love Jimmy Johns.  I'm trying to imitate Jimmy John's by making my sandwich on a nice roll that i've bought from the bakery section of the grocery store.  I've been doing this for 3 weeks now and I must say, I've been saving TONS of money.  Most of you are probably saying "Wow, I thought she was a smart girl. How did it take her this long to figure out that she can save money by packing her lunch".  I always knew it, but I just have never actually done it before.

As for dinner this is a challenge that is a little harder.  We tend to eat take out a lot and also eat out a lot.  I've told myself that take out is not an option anymore.  As for actually going and sitting at a restaurant, I'm not really changing that at all.  I generally eat out because it's an organized event for work, I'm traveling or it's an occasion for a friend.  When I eat out, because i'm trying to save money I tend to make sure I have enough to bring home for lunch the next day. It doesn't always work out but i'm trying.  I will keep you updated on how it goes.

Important Announcement, I have decided I will race Ironman Wisconsin. Oh and my High Cliff Half race report.

Before I get into the race report from this weekends half ironman I need to explain something: 

Two weeks ago I had to make some changes.  When I signed up for Ironman again I was a little lost about my goals and eventually said "I must be faster than last year".  I was 4 months into IM training and I was just irritated and annoyed and frustrated and at times I hated training. There was a week when I seriously considered walking away from Ironman Wisconsin and just becoming a normal person and enjoying my summer in Chicago.  I just wasn't having any fun and I was sick of feeling bad about myself after workouts because it wasn't going a certain way.  Everything voice in my head was a criticism of every action I took, either I wasn't running fast enough, or I couldn't climb a hill fast enough, or I didn't go to sleep early enough or I was eating the wrong foods or I should have done one more set in the pool, etc. Every criticism you can imagine I was saying to myself at one point or another before, during and after workouts.  

3 weeks ago I randomly I decided to read Lance Amstrong's book "It’s Not About the Bike, My Journey Back to Life”.  I picked it up at the local Lincoln Square book store because there was yet another pro cyclist claiming they had witnessed Lance doping.  I figured I should actually learn something about the guy so I could figure out how I felt about him and the doping accusations.  Well, I had no idea that I would read a book that would bring me to tears (of both joy and sadness).  Lance left no detail out of the memoir that explains his fight against cancer, the in vitro fertilization process he went through with his wife afterward, the sponsors that never gave up on him and his fight to get back on the bike, find joy in the riding, and actually want to get back on the bike and be a pro again.  He eventually took on the goal of the tour de France. We all know that he went on to win 7 Tour de Frances.  Reading about the fight that Lance went through, the period when he quit riding, then the decision to get back on the bike and try and get picked up by a team again was beyond motivating. I’ve been thinking a lot about that book.  I can’t put my finger on exactly why it struck a chord with me.  I guess it’s just pretty motivating to read about a guy trying to ride a bike while recovering from his 2^nd round a chemo.  Or it’s motivating to read that Lance had doubts about himself, that he wasn’t just some pro athlete with the world at his finger tips.  Who knew he would even faster after he came back from cancer.  He actually had a lot of internal struggles before he was able to get back on the bike.  We all know that he went on to win 7 Tour de Frances.  I just find peace knowing that an athlete such as Lance wasn’t always a winner and that at times even he wanted to walk away. He had to fight.  He didn’t always love the bike, he even quit riding for a time and said he didn’t want to be a professional racer.  Understanding someone else’s struggles helps me face my own.  It’s empowering. 

So I was in the middle of reading this book and also was realizing that I wasn’t having fun training.  Like I explained earlier, I was just frusterated.  So I made a decision, my new goal was to HAVE FUN.  Now, part of me feels like I'm giving up on a goal.  I did consider that, but I also say that I don’t want to spend a summer not enjoying racing.  I have enough frustrations in my job and then normal life stresses that I don’t want racing to turn into another stress area.  I don’t want to make drama over something that I should be doing to enjoy myself.  I’m spending every weekend, all my free time training for this thing and by golly if it’s not fun then I don’t want to do it.   There is also a reality of this situation:  I'm never going to be an elite or professional athlete.  That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try to be better or improve myself.  It also does mean though that I should have fun.  Shut, I spend EVERY weekend out riding my bike or running and swimming.  If I’m spending time away from other goals and friends and people I love then I need to be enjoying this. 

So I decided I would change my mindset and if I couldn’t change my mind set then I would walk away.  I went out and rode Madison a week and a half before my race and tried to see if the new mindset was in effect.   Long story short, it was the most fun I’ve had riding in a long time.  I was also flying, but that is not the point.  The point is I was smiling and laughing and having fun.  On the way home I decided that High Cliff Half Ironman would be the deciding factor about weather I would keep going or walk away.  I told myself that the finish line was when I would decide. The moment I crossed the finish line I would say if I was doing Ironman Wisconsin or if I would walk away and abandon the race.   If you are an endurance athlete you will understand why that moment had to be the moment of decision. As an endurance athlete we have a tendency to feel one thing during a race and then all of a sudden, two hours afterward we have a completely different feeling and interpretation of what happened. We're not trying to lie to ourselves, it just happens.  We tend to gloss over a lot of things.   I didn’t want to give myself room to negotiate with myself or to think about all the side effects of my decision.  It had to me the finish line.  

Tuesday before the race my coach proactively sent me an email asking me if I was “ready” for my half.  Was I ready to race what could be possibly my last race of the season?  Was I ready to make a decision about the rest of my summer?  She didn’t have any feedback for my plan other than to read it over and over between then and the race.  I hadn’t told my coach that I was thinking about pulling out of IM Wisconsin.  I actually hadn’t told anyone about my plan to decide at the finish line.  I wrote her back and told her I was struggling but that I would write her a race plan soon.  Wednesday rolled around and I decided to finaly write out a plan.  I wrote out EVERY little detail.  I even wrote out what songs I would listen to on the ride up, what time I would call Monkey, How much water I would drink with dinner, adding salt to food, EVERYTHING.  If this was going to be my last race I was going to make the plan iron clad strong.   She didn’t have any feedback for my plan other than to read it over and over between then and the race.  

I left Chicago on Friday at 12:45.  The drive up was lots of fun.  I enjoyed my awesome playlist (lots of Jay-Z, Foo Fighters, Perl Jam, Eminem, Rage, that type of stuff).  I talked to my brother for a little while and then also ate my awesome lunch that I had packed (2 turkey sandwiches on wheat sliced bread (Turkey and Havarti cheese w/ light mayo) and pretzels, 1/2 banana and 24 oz water

at 4 pm: ate luna bar).  For this race I had actually made all my meals ahead of time, even my dinner.  I didn’t want to mess with going out to eat, this was all about me and racing.  When I got close to town I actually drove the course.  I found that there were a few hills, some definite LONG falst flats and then most enjoyably a wind farm.  It’s always nice to find a windfarm in the middle of a bike course.  Below is a picture I took (yes Mom, while driving).  

  

Then I went over to a friend of a friends to get a quick swim in.  High Cliff State Park charges $7 a car to get into the park and thie friend lived really close to the park on the lake.  I swam for 15 minutes, the water was the perfect water temp.  Not to cold but not warm enough where I would be sweating in my suit.  Then I left, checked in and got number and then went to hotel.  At this time it was 6:00.  I dropped bike off in car and then went and grabbed two water jugs from gas station store.  Then I came back to hotel room and had dinner (I made it and brought it with me in case I didn't have time to go out to dinner, I'm glad I did) Wheat spaghetti (Butter, salt and pepper and garlic seasoning) with Grilled Chicken on it with a homemade brownie for dessert. Then I finished packing my bags and got in bed, lights were out by 9 and I was asleep by 10.  

4 AM came quickly.  I got to the race site at 5:45, PERFECT timing.  I got everything set up, and then headed down to the start to get a warm up swim in.  I was hanging out with another woman.  She had raced this course many times and she gave me some pointers.  She warned me about the wind, she said it’s relentless and even though it’s 10 miles off the lake out on the course it will be more like 20.  She expecially warned me not to get frusterated on the way back on the bike course when I looked down and I was only going 15 mph and that it was simply the 3 mile false flat that has you going up hill and into the wind.  To quote her “It comes at a shi$#y time on the course when you want to be off the bike anyway, but just suck it up and forget about it ‘cause once you get off the bike you still have to climb that high cliff”.  Talking to her was fun.  She actually went on to win her age group so I was happy I was taking advice from her.   

My wave started and I felt good. The swim course was a triangle.  I did what I had planned to do, just counted strokes.  I ended up doing 10 on each side and then switching to breath on the other side.  I felt good I was out of the water in 34 minutes, a nice solid 1.2 mile swim.  I ran up the hill and hit t1 and then got on my bike.  The bike starts with an immediate climb up to the top of the cliff (big hill, hence why it's called High Cliff Half), then it's one loop that takes you down Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin.  My HR was high for the first 10 minutes of the bike, it started going down, I just focused on getting in a zone.  The majority of the course we were in a cross wind.  The woman at the race start had been right.  There were times when I was flying, but other times when I was working really hard and simply going really really slow.  That’s the fun thing about wind.  It will do that to you.  Instead of focusing on the time or my speed I focused on my cadence (above 85 rpms) and my nutrition plan.  I was keeping on my nutrition to the minute.   Each bottle had 2 scoops gatorade and 4 scoops carbo pro so 600 calories and 400 mg sodium.  I drank 1/2 water bottle per hour and 3 salt tabs an hour.  Then I had to drink my speedfill within  2 1/2 hours.  I stopped to pee in the woods around mile 40.  I just couldn't get pee on the bike (i'm trying but there weren't any of the downhills that I had on madison to get it out).  I hit t2 and said, ok, this is when you will keep it together, this is when you start to have some fun. 

I came into t2 and it just seemed slow.  The run course started with a huge hill and then you did two loops of a train run.  The train run had some false flats and a couple of small hills but for the most part it was flat.  I came out of t2 and jogged and started running up the hill.  My heart rate was really high (zone 4) so I walked for 2/3rd of the hill up the cliff.  .  I timed it, 6:30 to get myself up the huge hill.   Yeh, that’s why the race is called High Cliff Half ironman.   While I was walking up the hill I told myself it was worth it and that the goal was to run the entire two loops.  I got up to the top and started jogging.  My legs didnt feel great but I just repeated, "you will loosen up, Liz loosened up in her race,  you will too, you know this".  Low and behold, I hit mile 3 and I felt great.  I started running with a guy.  We ran together and kept each other going till the end of the first loop where he told me to go ahead.  As for  nutrition, I took a gu around mile 1 and also took a water cup with it at the aid station.  At mile 4 I took two salt tabs.  I also had with me a 8 oz fuel belt water with the carbo pro/gatorade mix.  I refilled it at loop 2 with water so I had something for when I wanted it.  I also took another gu at mile 7.  Around mile 8 I got a side stitch.  I ran and messaged it for a little while, then I walked and took 2 salt tabs.  As soon as I swallowed them I made myself start running.  I was slow but it eventually went away.  At mile 9 I asked a guy if he wanted to run together.  We started talking, it made the next miles go by, I was cruising till mile 10 hit and then it got hard.  I had been taking water at every aid station, walking through em.  At the last one I put some of there gatorade in it to give me some salt.  My legs were sore but I wouldn't stop.  I was repeating all sorts of random stuff, lyrics to songs, quotes from movies, things from Lance’s book.  I thought about Lance and his chemo. I also told myself  that the fight is beautiful and I was going to show the world that I was beautiful.  I also said that I will decide how I walk away from this race and only me.  That’s what we do, we have to talk to ourselves out there to get us through.  I'm coaching myself to keep going.  I told myself that I do NOT negotiate with pain.  As much as it hurt, I couldn’t help but smile.  I had been running the entire time, I had met two new people and cheered on other people on the course.  Random people had cheered me on, telling me I looked great.  A little girl even yelled “go runner” as I passed.  How awesome is that.  It hurt, but I wasn’t letting that manage me, I was in control of MY race, the pain did not control me.  Plus, I was in a really beautiful part of Wisconsin.  

Mile 11 came and all of a sudden I just picked it up.  I looked down and I was running 9:30's (fast for me).  I told myself I would be out of the the woods before I knew it and that I just needed to keep myself going till I got out of the woods.  We came up to the mile 12 sign and I said, ok, you will be out of the woods and running down the hill to the finish line before you know it.  I was also attempting to pull away from the guy.  He was right behind me, I could hear him.    I told myself that I would go across the finish line before him and that he couldn't beat me.  I came out of the woods and started running down the long hill.  It hurt at first, I resisted the downhill.  Then I just said, lean forward and embrace it and I did.  On the downhill I looked at my garmin and my pace was 8:30's.  I hit the bottom of the hill and realized I had another 250 yards to run to the finish line (well that's what the volunteer told me).  At that point I had pulled away from the guy and was at least 25 yards ahead of him. I told myself to keep up a fast pace through the finish line and I think I was pacing 9:30.  I crossed the finish line and just yells “YAHHHHHHHH”  In my head I said “there is no way in hell I’m not racing Ironman Wisconsing”.  I just continued to smile at the finish line.  It was awesome.  I can’t describe it.   There is something about knowing that I went out on the course and just did it, I pushed myself.  I had given everything and left nothing in my reserve and it felt great.  I stayed in control.  Even at times when I would have collapsed before ( ie, when I got the side stitch) I firced myself to work through it and overcome it.  That’s why racing is so fun.  Yeh, it’s fun to have PRs and it’s awesome to be really really fast, but it’s also awesome to do a race and just know that you did your best.  

In terms of my time, I had a 6:17.  I managed to get 3^rd in the Athena division.  My PR for a half is 5:54.  I got that at the Sprit of Racine in 2009.  Comparing it to my racine course time it's slow, but this course is very different than racine.  I'm very very very happy the results. Other than the side stitch I had no nutritional issues.  My bike was not super fast, but we were either into the wind or with a cross wind for pretty much the entire course.   Plus it's hillier than the racine course. I’m not going to dissect every part of the course to figure out if I’m in better shape or not.  I don’t really care. I had an awesome day. 

So yes, I will be racing Ironman Wisconsin and I can’t wait.  I get that training for an ironman brings a roller coaster of emotions and there will be hard days to come.  I’m ready for them.  I also get that life is about perspective and my perspective has changed!