The countdown to 10-10-10 is on! Yesterday was my last long run and I felt pretty great. I did 14 miles, 10 at my long run pace then sped up the last 4. My very last mile was the fastest and I loved ending on that! It also helped that my friend and I forced ourselves to “beat” a random guy runner before we hit our finish. I love, love, love “competing" against other runners... especially when they don’t know about it! (come on, you’ve done it too!)
So while my swimming and biking has been lacking I’m enjoying focusing on the run. In a previous post I wrote about focusing on the now and living in the moment. Well, I can’t help but think ahead to July 24th, 2011.... What’s my off season plan gonna be like? How is the next year of my life gonna go? Am I gonna feel burnt out? Am I gonna lose my social life entirely? Am I gonna get faster?? Will I want to lose weight in the off season? Focus on swimming? or biking? Or keep running?? ah - too many questions are going on in my head!
So for right NOW.... Chicago should be the ONLY thing on my brain for the next 13 days!! CHI CHI CHI CHI
FOCUS.... on my goal of beating 4 hours
FOCUS... on running strong, head up, shoulders back, quick steps
FOCUS... on enjoying every mile
FOCUS... on being humbled that I can run at all
FOCUS... on sharing my best friends first marathon experience with her
FOCUS... on the crowds and feeling like a rock star
FOCUS!!
“The first rule of focus is this: "Wherever you are, be there.”
Unknown Author
ME - “Live in the now!!”
“The greatest thing in the world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes
ME - “Get your @ss to the finish line!!!”
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Mighty Hamptons Race Report
What a great race! I felt great, the race course was fun, and I enjoyed the less than three hours of racing!
Day Before Race
We drove out to the Hamptons mid-day on Saturday. I had to pick up my race packet in Southampton and I was looking forward to going there as this Jersey girl has never been to the Hamptons! yeah, I think I’ll be vacationing back in Jersey from now on ‘cause everyone, and I mean everyone, was dressed to the nines on Main Street in Southampton. We rolled up in our Mazda Zipcar and parked next to this beautiful (and really, really expensive) Bentley convertible! hah - seriously, every car was a Bentley, Porsche, Ferrari or Lamborghini... it was ridiculous!
Anyway, after our lunch break in the fancy pants part of town we continued on to Montauk where we’d be staying for the night. The hotel was nice and we had an oceanfront room with a little grill and full kitchen. We grilled up chicken, corn on the cob, asparagus and made some pasta for dinner. It was delish!
Day Before Race
We drove out to the Hamptons mid-day on Saturday. I had to pick up my race packet in Southampton and I was looking forward to going there as this Jersey girl has never been to the Hamptons! yeah, I think I’ll be vacationing back in Jersey from now on ‘cause everyone, and I mean everyone, was dressed to the nines on Main Street in Southampton. We rolled up in our Mazda Zipcar and parked next to this beautiful (and really, really expensive) Bentley convertible! hah - seriously, every car was a Bentley, Porsche, Ferrari or Lamborghini... it was ridiculous!
Anyway, after our lunch break in the fancy pants part of town we continued on to Montauk where we’d be staying for the night. The hotel was nice and we had an oceanfront room with a little grill and full kitchen. We grilled up chicken, corn on the cob, asparagus and made some pasta for dinner. It was delish!
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| our superfans and BLT |
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| It was really chilly out in Montauk! |
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| Top Grillers |
Pre-Race
The alarm went off at 430 am on Sunday morning - ouch! But I slept well, I was super tired so I was out like a light around 10pm the night before. BLT and I packed up our stuff and drove over to the Sag Harbor race site while the boys slept in a little more and would meet us there later. We got to the race at 530am as planned and sat in traffic for a half hour!! I was freaking out! You guys all know I’m pretty anal about being on time and never want to be late etc... well this was just plain nuts and it was driving me crazy! Finally we parked, pumped our tires, then booked it to transition. yeah, we had about 10 minutes to set up our gear. The saving grace was that we were the last wave to go, so after we quickly set up our gear, we went to the mandatory porta potty line and took our time there as the earlier waves went off.
Swim - 37:09
This swim was a bit interesting. You had to swim about 100 yards out, then it was a deep water start. As we were getting in the water I overheard the race organizers say tha the bouys were moving!! So that meant i would most likely have a longer swim. I didn’t think much of it at the time and when the gun went off I started swimming.
I am happy to say that I didn’t panic or have to stop or get hammered by other people. Finally, after 5 years of doing triathlons, I think I’m finally getting used to open water swimming! So I swam, sighted, and swam some more. I think I held a pretty straight line but it was hard to site as there were only 2 buoys to sight off of. I finally reached the swim exit and looked down at my watch.... 37 minutes?!?! wtf?? there’s no way that was only a .9 mile swim! I really do think the buoys moved further out. I stalked the swim times in my age group, compared them to the beginning wave swim times and there’s a significant difference between the two. Anyway, I felt great the entire swim and felt like I could have gone on longer.
T1 - 3:13
Nothing major to talk about here. Ran barefoot on a really grainy asphalt surface and took an extra few seconds to wipe the sand from my feet and legs
The alarm went off at 430 am on Sunday morning - ouch! But I slept well, I was super tired so I was out like a light around 10pm the night before. BLT and I packed up our stuff and drove over to the Sag Harbor race site while the boys slept in a little more and would meet us there later. We got to the race at 530am as planned and sat in traffic for a half hour!! I was freaking out! You guys all know I’m pretty anal about being on time and never want to be late etc... well this was just plain nuts and it was driving me crazy! Finally we parked, pumped our tires, then booked it to transition. yeah, we had about 10 minutes to set up our gear. The saving grace was that we were the last wave to go, so after we quickly set up our gear, we went to the mandatory porta potty line and took our time there as the earlier waves went off.
Swim - 37:09
This swim was a bit interesting. You had to swim about 100 yards out, then it was a deep water start. As we were getting in the water I overheard the race organizers say tha the bouys were moving!! So that meant i would most likely have a longer swim. I didn’t think much of it at the time and when the gun went off I started swimming.
I am happy to say that I didn’t panic or have to stop or get hammered by other people. Finally, after 5 years of doing triathlons, I think I’m finally getting used to open water swimming! So I swam, sighted, and swam some more. I think I held a pretty straight line but it was hard to site as there were only 2 buoys to sight off of. I finally reached the swim exit and looked down at my watch.... 37 minutes?!?! wtf?? there’s no way that was only a .9 mile swim! I really do think the buoys moved further out. I stalked the swim times in my age group, compared them to the beginning wave swim times and there’s a significant difference between the two. Anyway, I felt great the entire swim and felt like I could have gone on longer.
T1 - 3:13
Nothing major to talk about here. Ran barefoot on a really grainy asphalt surface and took an extra few seconds to wipe the sand from my feet and legs
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| Me, in the pink, in the far left leaving transition with my bike |
Bike - 1:19:11
This was the fun part of the race! The course was rolling hills, nothing too steep, and had some really fun descents. I wanted to see how fast I could go so I started to hammer right from the get go. My feet were cold with the wind so they eventually went numb through the ride. This little fact would come back to haunt me on the run. For most of the ride I was passing lots of people and doing a little leap frogging with some dudes on tri bikes. I felt really great until my stomach started to bother me. I think it was from swallowing too much salt water during the swim and mixing that with a gu and my powerade drink. There was one low point on the bike where there was a bad head wind and my stomach was revolting and all I could think about was how I was gonna throw up as soon as I got off the bike! Luckily, that didn’t happen. When I headed back into transition I saw our supporters and they were surprised to see me so soon! As I got to my rack I saw there was only one bike back on the rack - sweet! I’m really proud of how far my biking has come. I used to hate biking and only did it to get through a tri and now I’m completely in love with my Jamis! I just know there’s so much more room for improvement and I’m excited to see that in the coming year.
T2 - 2:20
This took a little bit longer than normal because my hands were really cold so it was hard to get my shoes off and on.
Run - 54:55
As I set out on my run I realized how cold my feet really were. They went numb on the bike so when I started running and putting all my body weight on them they started to tingle... and then hurt because they were getting the feeling back in them. Yuck. My plan was to run the first 2 miles conservatively at a 9 min/mile pace. I did that almost to a T. First 2 miles were 858 & 859. From the third mile on I was gonna pick up the pace to an 845 or faster, Well, mile 3 was slower because I decided to walk through a water station to ease my aching feet. It worked and the rest of the run felt really good! I finished strong and was trying to count how many girls in my age group I was passing or if they were passing me. My last mile was 8:33 and I ran in strong!
This was the fun part of the race! The course was rolling hills, nothing too steep, and had some really fun descents. I wanted to see how fast I could go so I started to hammer right from the get go. My feet were cold with the wind so they eventually went numb through the ride. This little fact would come back to haunt me on the run. For most of the ride I was passing lots of people and doing a little leap frogging with some dudes on tri bikes. I felt really great until my stomach started to bother me. I think it was from swallowing too much salt water during the swim and mixing that with a gu and my powerade drink. There was one low point on the bike where there was a bad head wind and my stomach was revolting and all I could think about was how I was gonna throw up as soon as I got off the bike! Luckily, that didn’t happen. When I headed back into transition I saw our supporters and they were surprised to see me so soon! As I got to my rack I saw there was only one bike back on the rack - sweet! I’m really proud of how far my biking has come. I used to hate biking and only did it to get through a tri and now I’m completely in love with my Jamis! I just know there’s so much more room for improvement and I’m excited to see that in the coming year.
T2 - 2:20
This took a little bit longer than normal because my hands were really cold so it was hard to get my shoes off and on.
Run - 54:55
As I set out on my run I realized how cold my feet really were. They went numb on the bike so when I started running and putting all my body weight on them they started to tingle... and then hurt because they were getting the feeling back in them. Yuck. My plan was to run the first 2 miles conservatively at a 9 min/mile pace. I did that almost to a T. First 2 miles were 858 & 859. From the third mile on I was gonna pick up the pace to an 845 or faster, Well, mile 3 was slower because I decided to walk through a water station to ease my aching feet. It worked and the rest of the run felt really good! I finished strong and was trying to count how many girls in my age group I was passing or if they were passing me. My last mile was 8:33 and I ran in strong!
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| Home stretch |
Total - 2:56:47 ** 9th place in my age group!!!
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| Happt Finishers |
Say what?!?! When we got back to the city I practically ran to my laptop to check out the results. I got my official overall time and was happy but thought it was kinda slow compared to how I raced. Then when I looked at the times in my age group and saw I got 9th place - holy cow!! I’ve never even gotten close to finishing in the top ten of my age group, like ever! This was a smaller sized race but I am still proud of it. My tri buddy also placed very well, coming in 12th place in our age group! So overall it was a great late season race and I am very happy with how I raced. All this training is working and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the in the next year!
So what’s next? Well, this is an “easy” week for me so my body can recover from racing then I’m back on my Chicago marathon plan starting with a nice 20 mile run on Saturday. I’ll be heading down to the Jersey Shore to see my parents and there’s a sprint tri out on LBI. A 1/4 miles swim, 10 mile bike and 5k run... hmmmmmmm.... I had so much fun racing on Sunday that I might just be entering this race very last minute!
So what’s next? Well, this is an “easy” week for me so my body can recover from racing then I’m back on my Chicago marathon plan starting with a nice 20 mile run on Saturday. I’ll be heading down to the Jersey Shore to see my parents and there’s a sprint tri out on LBI. A 1/4 miles swim, 10 mile bike and 5k run... hmmmmmmm.... I had so much fun racing on Sunday that I might just be entering this race very last minute!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Epic Long Weekend
So it’s been way too long since I’ve written down what’s been happening in my tri training. Work has been super busy, and I’ve been doing much more writing there so it’s been hard to get motivated to write more when I get home. Anyway, here’s a recap of my Labor Day weekend and the days leading up to this weekend’s race, Mighty Hamptons Olympic Tri.
Labor Day weekend means one thing, and one thing only... Annual Lake George Camping Trip!! This year we had a group of 12 heading upstate and we were all psyched for all the activities we had planned. Friday night we got up there late after work, set up camp then told past camping stories with some beers. It was pretty chilly out and the sky was clear so we had plenty of stars to do some “space class”. heh - long story about space class so I’ll spare you here, but trust me, it’s funny!
Labor Day weekend means one thing, and one thing only... Annual Lake George Camping Trip!! This year we had a group of 12 heading upstate and we were all psyched for all the activities we had planned. Friday night we got up there late after work, set up camp then told past camping stories with some beers. It was pretty chilly out and the sky was clear so we had plenty of stars to do some “space class”. heh - long story about space class so I’ll spare you here, but trust me, it’s funny!
Saturday BQ and I woke up early to do our long run of the week. We originally had to do 18-20 miles but with Saturday’s activities planned out it didn’t leave us much running time. SO we opted to do 10 miles at a slighter faster pace than our training pace. The run was great, despite the first mile feeling extremely tough and slow. We ended on a high fast note and when we got back to camp, the rest of the troops were up and had coffee waiting!
Our adventure didn’t end with a run. Half of us went to Garnett Hill Lodge, which is where we go mountain biking. Unfortunately, most of the bikes were out already so we had to wait. Our bad luck turned into some really good fortune because we decided to go on a hike. We hiked up to an old quarry and wound up climbing up these really steep rocks to get an amazing view of the Hudson River and surrounding mountains. We felt like kings of the world up there! It was a little scary climbing up and down but it was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend.
Our adventure didn’t end with a run. Half of us went to Garnett Hill Lodge, which is where we go mountain biking. Unfortunately, most of the bikes were out already so we had to wait. Our bad luck turned into some really good fortune because we decided to go on a hike. We hiked up to an old quarry and wound up climbing up these really steep rocks to get an amazing view of the Hudson River and surrounding mountains. We felt like kings of the world up there! It was a little scary climbing up and down but it was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend.
After we hiked back to the lodge our bikes were ready! So we geared up and went racing down one of the easy tracks called Old Faithful. After that 20 minute warmup we decided to tackle a trickier trail. Yeah, tricky it was when the hard trail turned into a full blown swampy mess! SO we had to carry our bikes through the mud until it was safe to ride again. After that trail, we were happy to spot one of our favorite lakes, the 13th Lake. It was way too cold to go swimming so we just took a break then headed back up the mountain to the lodge.
After a protein filled cookout Saturday night we were all fueled up and ready to tackle white water rafting on Sunday! Our guide was a really funny guy named Heath. He was our guide 2 years ago and he was a blast so we all were super excited we got to hang with him again.
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| Heath our guide |
Miraculously we fit 12 people into a raft (plus Heath) and we were paddling down the rapids of the Indian and Hudson Rivers. It was so much fun!! So when you go rafting there’s some special calls Heath will yell out, like back left, paddle right! or hit the deck! (that happens when we’re about to hit a big rapid and we just have to hold on and make sure we don’t fall out). One of our favorite calls of his, is Moon Left and Moon Right. I’m sure you can guess what those mean! Every single raft out on the river on Sunday saw our scarily white butts!! It was hilarious! We definitely were the most entertaining bunch and I am sure we had the most fun out there on that river!
Once we got back to the store, changed and got warm, we needed a team picture. Instead of a normal group picture, we climbed on top of the bus that chartered us back and forth, then climbed even higher on top of the rafts on the roof!! It was kinda scary but it was hilarious!
After the 10 mile run I considered every other weekend activity “active recovery”. I was sore from paddling that was for sure!
On Tuesday, I had a 10 mile tempo run on the schedule. I was pretty nervous about it. I woke up at 5am to get it done but I realized that it’s pitch black dark out and the sun’s not rising til 625.... yeah my run in Central Park is NOT happening by myself. (Aren’t you proud mom??) So I did the workout after work on the east river.
The first 2 miles were “easy” then I was to do 4 miles at a hard pace. Those 4 miles weren’t so bad, it actually felt good to stretch the legs and make them work a bit harder. But the last 4 miles?? yeah, those were tough! But I did the workout and I ran my fastest 10 miles ever!
So now It’s the day before the Mighty Hamptons tri and I’m gearing up to race! Hopefully I stay calm during the swim, pedal fast and run faster!! Have a great weekend!
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