Almost race day

Wow, race day is right around the corner.....2 days away to be exact. I'm going into this race undertrained....darn rib fractures! I have also been in NYC this week and flying home tomorrow, and racing the following day. Not exactly the perfect way to go into 140.6, but nothing is perfect, right?

Come Saturday morning I will toe the line and let the chips fall where they may. I'm going to give it my best....my typical "suck it" fashion, lol! Each race comes with its own set of challenges and its the ability to dig deep and to remember why I'm racing that will propel me to the finish line. Can't wait to see what my finisher's medal will look like......."4x Ironman"....kinda sound pretty bad-ass huh? :)

Already a 3x Ironman

Spoke to coach Tim last night. I explained to him that I feel better about going into Vineman since I had a pretty successful 106 mile ride on Saturday. He said, "look around your neck, you are an Ironman already. Of course you can do it." I have to keep in mind how much my body is capable of....last year I came back strong after my stress fracture.

I've finished 3 Ironman races, I know to expect the unexpected. I know that there are going to be dark moments on the course. I know it's going to be a long day. But I also know how to finish and to not let those moments of despair crush my dreams.

Slacker....but good excuse!

I have really been slacking on updating my training here...not that too many people are really following, lol :)

In June I wound up in a stupid bike crash. I was on a beach cruiser, without a helmet on (yep that's the stupid part) and crashed. Road rash on my shoulder and legs, goose-egg on my head and fractured ribs. OUCH! There is nothing that can be done with ribs, just time for healing. Everything was painful! Getting in and out of bed would take 10 minutes, lots of cursing and plenty of tears. It was over 2 weeks until I could even reach my arm above my head!

Swimming and running were out of the question. I was still doing my CompuTrainer classes as the thought of hitting a bump on the open road while on my bike made me cringe.

Training is back in full swing with Vineman less than 2 weeks away. I am worried about finishing this race due to the loss of training time. I'm hopeful in what I lack in training, I can compensate with my determination to cross the finish line.

This idea of racing 3 Ironmans this season stemmed from the love of my family, my triathlon addiction and wanting to make a difference. It would be easy to opt out of Vineman, I have an excuse......but seeing my idea through and not quitting is so much more important to me. I'm not fighting anything as brutal as cancer, I'm just fighting to get to the finish line.

I fartleked and swam!

Today was Masters swim, yikes.......the focus was butterfly. Soooooo not my stroke, hell I'm lucky I can survive with my crap-tastic free-style. Coach says 1,000 yards of fly and fly drills.....I though he was kidding, um NOT!

After that it was lots of kicking drills, wonderful (please note sarcasm here)! Thankfully we were able to use fins. I was so grateful to use fins that I even Googled the Swim fin inventor....Ben Franklin!

Later in the day I did a fartlek run...yes, saying "fartlek" still makes me laugh. It was hot over a China Camp, but I stayed on the roads. t felt like an over, but it was only 80 degrees.....I think it felt warmer than that because there was no breeze and was very dry. Oh well, great training for Vineman!

June!

Wow, June already! Next month is my first Ironman of the season....time flies!

This weekend I raced a Half-Marathon in Southern California....the Laguna Hills Memorial Day Half Marathon. I decided to run this race at the last minute, well technicaly a day before the race. Kinda bizarre to just decide on a whim to run a half-marathon, one of the benefits of training for Ironman!

I had run the day before so was not expecting much. Wound up only 2 minutes behind on my PR, not too shabby. I got to see Sheri, my sister-in-law, finish and see my niece and nephew do the kids run. I love that they are already racing! :)

Suck It Up

Today was a brutal ride....so much climbing into headwind! Uggggg!!! Today I thought about what I write on my arm before each Ironman race, "suck it" because so many times in racing you need to suck it up and push forward.

Went for a ride with the tri-club, thankfully i was not alone or I might have turned around. We climbed up Big Rock, a huge thank you to the man on the massive Trek, he must have been 6'5" that let me tuck in behind him and suck his wheel for a while. I dropped him on the limb and then he re-passed me on the down-hill. I kept pushing trying to see how long I could go without him passing me......I kept him away for a while and when he passed he said "nice pace"

We re-grouped a few times along the way. I realized that my body cols down and heart-rate sinks like a stone pretty quickly. Makes it harder to get started again, especially in the cold.

At one point in the ride I really just wanted to cry out of frustration with the headwind. NO matter if we turned or not, it was always there, like my worst nightmare. The climbing is not as bad since you can see when the pain will be over, but the wind....sneaky bitch, you just can't see! And then just when you think it will be at your back, the wind changes direction!

I cursed so may times during this ride, but survived and am stronger mentally and physically because of it. I was so hungry during this ride, not having dinner last night was probably not the best idea. Within the last 45minutes when I was mentally losing it, I grabbed my Mint Chocolate Gu......ahhhhh, a little squeeze of heaven and I felt much better. Toward the end of the ride Eric said to me "you really need to be bigger, you are too small to block the wind for me!" Too funny!

Pay attention to the feet!

Got up and made it to Masters swim today, yay me! We had to do a bunch of pull sets....uggg I need a better pull! My swimming would be so much faster if I could just use fins all the time :) Bizarre thing today was that every time I pushed of the wall today, the ball of my foot hurt. I didn't think much of it and just kept swimming.

All day I was bit uncomfortable when I walked on it, but for some reason never thought to look at what might be causing the pain. Maybe it's because I've become used to a few random pains while training for Ironman and just push it from my mind.

Later on this evening I'm sitting on the floor and for some reason I remember the pain, so I take a look at my foot.....turns out I have a huge slice in the ball of my foot! From all of the sweat and multiple daily showers my feet have gotten so dry that they are cracked!! Guess it's time to double-up on moisturizer for my feet. They are a total mess. This pic was taken post-moisturizing! Note the pretty callus on the pinky-toe, lovely.