La La La Las Vegas!!!!

I made it to World Championships. So so excited. Okay, I am still excited. One of the hardest races I've ever done, but truly a dang good time!

Thursday afternoon we packed up, and drove all the way out to Vegas....not such a bad road trip actually, hit a bit of traffic...but I think we scared everyone off the road with the crazy set up we had going on!

We drove Kevin's boss' car, with 3 ElliptiGos and my teeny B2 on the racks...with Interbike the week after the race, apparently it made sense to haul everything out at once? Totally wish I had a picture of this SUV packed to the max, with a hitch rack, and a couple trays on the roof rack on top. Seriously, I am quite sure we looked homeless. :) 5 hours later we hit Henderson, NV...unpacked and passed out!

Woke up Friday morning, with big agenda for the day! Put the feetsies up, absorb the heat and acclimatize, and go to check-in at the expo!

Check-in was so fun! Like always its incredibly organized so they shuffle you through each station fairly quickly while you sign your life away on any and every kind of waiver possible, then give you the tshirt to prove it. :)

The expo was steamy hot, and full of fun peeps to visit with! Love that Kev knows all the super awesome reps from like every brand, and its like one big reunion-so friendly!

Zoomed back to our home-stay (kev has a super awesome buddy who let us invade his home!), and rested up! Grabbed some dinner later, and enjoyed the heat and sun!

mmmm..... food...

Saturday morning we woke at the crack of dawn to take advantage of the lake being FINALLY open to swimming! Brought the bike, and run gear as well to spin out the legs, and see how they were doing.

Picked up our sweet friend Trish Diem (a adorable fast lady) and headed down to the resort. When we jumped in the water, I guess I was expecting it to be somewhat refreshing? Apparently, it is recycled water, that smells like eggs--kinda oddly warm...if that makes sense...

So we swam the loop they had all set up, trying to keep that water out of my mouth as much as possible. blech! I was feeling cheeky in my torque though, so had to keep that energy under wraps! Zoomed out of the resort on our bikes, and spun up the hills with a cool group of peeps we were lucky enough to hook up with! It was a nice overcast morning, and set us up for a great 40 minute spin with a quick

15 minute run. I couldn't believe how fast the morning went! (Isn't that always the way?)

saturday afternoon bike check-in

Race morning....dum dum dum da da da da da da dum....its here.

Up at the 4am to eat, put on my usual race day game face, grab my waffle, and we peace out. Had to put all my nutrition on my bike (omg Honey Stinger gels and Powerbar Endurance is the best!), hit the potties, and hurry up to wait wave start line. Our gun went off at 7am so waiting in line with Bridget Jones kept me completely entertained! Love finding sweet friends to keep the nerves at bay!

Overall the swim was challenging, it seemed as though we were swimming upstream the whole way, and no matter what fast feet I was on and how hard I pushed my efforts felt average, even though I was trying to pace myself to save energy for the day ahead. So when I saw my time, it was actually pretty unsurprising....35:00

Took about 1:30 to run around the lake from swim exit to transition, and like other athletes, it does run off the 'swim fog' and clears your head to get ready for the next leg. Ran my bike up the switchbacks out of the other end of transition, and thought 'dang, its going to be a hilly day, pace yourself lady!' And so it was....very hilly...up...down...through some of the most gorgeous scenery I've seen yet. I was constantly amazed at how gorgeous it was out there! (yes, I talk to myself alot...you know you do too!) The last 9 of the bike course was this long false flat with a bit of a headwind, that I was having trouble pushing myself through. yeesh. 'Is it over yet? I just wanna run. Wait. What? Me, wanna run?' Zoomed into transition right at the 3 hour mark, way faster than Kev and I both thought considering the course. I am happy, next year is redemption year. :)

Jumped off my bike, and shoot I love those bike catchers. Soooooo handy! Need those everywhere! I could hand off my keys and purse to a catcher at home and zoom back out the door for a fast transition to a run! Yeah!

Anyway, got shoes on, lubed with obsene amounts of sunscreen, and was on my way to hook up three of the worst laps ever! I was so surprised to see so many people from TNM out there!!! 

Holy cow, they cheered so loud--makes the run so much easier! Thank you so much to the bestest cheerleaders ever! Gotta say, Teresa has created a team so close knit with cameraderie, that is impossible to recreate down here.

 Run starts out on a downgrade for a mile, then jumps to climbing uphill for 2 miles...then back down for 2 miles...and repeat 2 more times. Kills the quads, hams, and tips of my toes! Each lap of the day felt better, since I knew I was challenged, hurting, but no quad issues (Ha! pacing the power!) and I was getting that much closer to the end. Best part of the day? Run ends on downhill portion....i.e. fast finish! Woo Hoo!

Time to celebrate! ooooh fun views from Flamingo (great renovation) and margs at Margaritaville were on the menu. Great weekend!

Lake Stevens...Round 2.

August rolls around fast, and it is my last chance to qualify for IMLL Worlds 70.3. I was a wreck the whole month, not only was our wedding coming up, but I wanted to race in Las Vegas so bad!

So we gather our gear together, and the weekend before the wedding, head up to good ol' washington for a  quick reminder of why we moved to SoCal.

It was freezing!!! Like 59*! All I could think about this is.....AGAIN???!!! NO WAY!! Vineman was freeing and wet....Darn!  I still had much much higher hopes for the race, as I had been running better...but it had only been several short fast weeks since Vineman. Big Dreams, and big-big goals always keep me going!

Since I had raced and trained on this very same course last year, I knew where I needed to play it safe and where I could get away with powering through. I had a phenominal pep talk, with a new amazing mentor, that led me to actually believe that pacing properly and smart was the big key factor I had been missing. So, practicing my pacing, and working with the little running base I acquired would be my wildcard for the day!

Race day up at 3:30 am, zoomed up to Lake Stevens. Water was 69* and flat. This is so great. Set up my transition, and zoomed over to wait for my wave to go off.

 

Swim....well it was fast...until my improper sighting, and my drafting off the fast feet in front of me led us about a minute off course. DARN! Should have followed that line like always! So about a minute to get back on course and ended up with a 34:00. Live and learn, and definitely work more on my sighting! ACK!

Cant. Get. Clipped. In!

Jumped on my bike ready for the bike course. I had forgotten my toe warmers, and since it was super cold out, knew I was going to need the desperately. I ran through transition, hit the mount line, and sure enough...another learning experience....Don't borrow gear. EVER. It was a super nice of my buddy to loan them to me (THANKYOU Gerry!!!), but they were too big-covered my cleat, and couldn't clip into my pedals! Tried to keep forcing them in, as I rolled down the street..eventually pulled over to the side of the road and ripped them off and they hung on my aerobars for 56 miles. Zoomed angrily out of town, tried to control myself as I kept thinking about all the better things I could have done with the 4 minutes i had already wasted away in this race. Positive calm thoughts took back over, and I rode the plan I was supposed to execute. Played it smart on the uphills, descending with passion, and hit a few good headwinds. All in all a slower ride from last year (too cold i think?), but happy that the scenery was gorgeous out there and the community seemed much friendlier!  Ended with super numb limbs on a not as speedy bike course this year, with a 2:53.

Heading out to the run course, I have Kev yelling that I was in 5th position. oooooh yeah. Love that...Ok, well goal was not to lose any places. Ran my first loop feeling pretty snappy, it seems that everyone we know came up to cheer all the athletes on. Such a awesome feeling, thanks to all who went out of their way that day for all of us. So nice of you! The hills are steepish on the run, but fairly easy to zoom through...just need to pace it properly. The second loop has a pretty crappy false flat in it, that when you are feeling your quads aching...well it finishes them off. Neat. Yeah, I said it. Neat. So that was where my right quad started cramping, yet again. No, not salt issues....I wish! Just need more strength training in my regime that I left by the wayside this year (last year, I trained legs heavy once a week). I was able to shake it off, cry about the 30 year olds I saw pass me, have my melt down and bust through the rest of the course.

I love these challenging times, they really test what you're made of. I have so much clarity come to me, when I hurt this bad. Its like I am making a list of everything I will be doing

differently for the next race. Run time 1:53. Boo. 2 minutes faster than Vineman, and that one felt terrible!

Overall result was 5:24, and 9th place. So it was a huge learning day for me. We all have amazing days and learning days. This has been a learning year. I am just taking it all in! Love it!

70.3 numero uno

My first half ironman this summer was Vineman 70.3, held in beautiful wine country in July. It was my first race back, since I have been recovering from a pretty angry hammy at the beginning of the year. My running truly suffered due to the lack of training...so all I was hoping for was a awesome swim, stellar bike, and then hobble for 13.1 miles. This race is normally sunny and known to be very hot, so with that I planned and trained accordingly.

We flew into oakland and promptly drove out to the event, and checked it all out. San Francisco was actually partly sunny and gorgeous, wine country was definitely not. Lets say it was about 59*. Brr. This was setting the stage for race day.

Friday we swam a little, got my feel for the water (amazing) and then drove the bike course. Its a good honest fast course. Filled with hills, but lots of flat fast pavement much like what I have been training on in SoCal! So exciting! I unfortunately chose to stay ignorant on what the run looked like in person, and checked out the elevations, etc online...that would hurt me later.

Race day! Kev drove me out to the start, I was in my own head like normal, planning out my strategy. Swim was great, found some fast feet and (like we predicted) had a super fast swim, the river had a great downstream current going that day, didn't lose my sighting (like normal) and ended up super speedy. 31:47

Grabbed my bike, grumbled to Kev about whether or not timing was correct (couldn't believe it!), and was on my was. This was of course the day that my aerodrink threatens to fall off. Dang. Seriously? Had to stop, still in transition, and re-velcro it. *Mental note* double check everything. Always. GRRR. Mount line is at the bottom of a nice little hill, of course there are wrecks on it, as there are peeps who think that riding up the hill while trying to get their shoes on is a smart idea. I am happy I chose not to do that this time. *phew* Zoomed through bike course, saw some super speedy friends out there cheering me on, loved that! Got rained on 3 times out there, and my toes were painfully numb. Not good. Also most likely put too much power into bike, as I was feeling so rested, so this hurt a bit later. Was 5th off the bike. Well that felt awesome. 2:41 was a snappy day on a honest course.

The run is pretty much a nice little grade uphill, with some rollers, and a nasty climb on the way out....the last 6.5 is flat, and back down and over those random rollers. Well, when you put in way too darn much on the bike, your quads freak out (tired) and if you suck at running still...should definitely been talked to about pacing. Oh well, I got thru the run. Went from 5th place to 16th, totally heart breaking. So i didn't qualify for worlds at this race, broke my heart a ton, but knew that the field here is completely stacked and I should be proud of myself for blending in with this level of talent. Run time ended up at 1:55:09 :(