Whats in Your purse?

I am not much of a purse person. I don't really like purses. I like backpacks and some bags, but do end up carrying a purse, because somehow I manage to have a lot of STUFF. This one is cute and kind of surfer girlish. But on the inside, beware. Through the course of a crazy summer of triathlon and work (our busiest season), things get out of control. I won't mention what my closets, garage, drawers and cupboards are like. I have learned to let it go (its hard!!!!) and know it will all be waiting for me when the season ends when I can re-organize. But my purse, yikes. It also has accumulated a lot of strange things with all the coming and going. I noticed it was getting kind of heavy, so I dug in deep to see what was in there!

Here are just some of what has ended up in my bag this summer.

1. Part of a rear bottle cage that needed to go back to The Bike shop to get fixed or replaced. It broke off Adam's bike.

2. A wireless bike computer.

3. 2 of few of those small rubber bouncy balls that come out of the gum ball machines. (taken away from kids bouncing them at the table while eating pizza)

4. A Kane county cougars baseball schedule, (always trying to find a home game to take the kids to when we are actually home)

5. Numerous receipts...shoved in the purse while trying to get out of the store quickly.

6. Several packages of GU. You never know when you might bonk! Ha! just kidding, but they are there. In my attempt to be "green" I opted for no bag when I purchased them when I had run out of my box.

7. A bottle of Aleve.

8. Of course the usual, receipts, lip gloss, pens, change and wallet and cell phone.

And what is with these receipts? You practically get a tree's worth of paper with one purchase. And when you eat out, you get like 3 separate receipts. I don't like throwing them out, thinking someone will steal my identity, so they accumulate.

How do guys manage with just a wallet?
Or am I just better prepared for anything?
And how about cars? What if I said whats in your car?
I won't even go there.

Wet and Wild

That pretty much sums up this past weekend for me, it really was crazy and left me tired, but it was fun.

Friday afternoon, I finally got on the road to Bloomington for the Evergreen Tri. This is an Olympic distance race in the middle of cornfields. However, I was surprised at what a cool lake there is out in the middle of nowhere. It is in a , nice state park. I took a little warm up swim the water was warm! They had mentioned likely no wetsuits, the water was 80 deg......well as I was packing I thought I need to bring it anyway, just in case. I always do, always have. However...1/2 way to Blooming ton I remembered that I had forgotten it. (bad mistake) Always bring it no matter what!!!! You never know! Because, Saturday morning we woke up to pouring rain, which must have cooled the water .5 deg. enough make it wetsuit legal. Thankfully the water was still very warm and yuck I would have suffocated in it had it been on, but it is definitely a disadvantage when much of the field is wearing one. I just said to myself just forget about it and go race.

The rain continued through the entire race, pouring at times. It think that the rain must have had cement in it because I felt like I was going nowhere, especially the first 1/2 of the bike, and the run. I didn't feel bad, but I didn't like I could go fast the way I wanted and needed to.It took 1/2 the bike to feel like I was going at a 40k effort. I was cautious in the turns because of wet roads, but tried not to slow down too much while keeping the wheels on the road. There are a lot of out and backs on both the bike and run in this race which is good especially when you're trying to catch up. On the run I was making up some ground on a few of the girls,and passed 2 in the last 1/2 mile but the 2 others I was gaining on I couldn't get. Had I had my wetsuit I might have been more in striking distance to catch a few more. I finished 6th in the elite division, but really should have been like 3rd or 4th on a good day. I packed up all my wet soggy stuff, headed home dried out everything, re-packed, gathered up forgotten belongings for Racine, and headed north.

Danny D. was allowing like 20 of us to stay in his lakehouse which is basically across the street from the transition area at the RAcine 1/2, and hosting a pasta party for Multisportmadness. Racine has always been a big race for our club. This was very fun! Thanks DANNY! I was doing the relay the next day, and felt like I should be nervous like I was doing the race, because everyone else was. I had to put a number on my bike, rack it the night before etc. But hey I was just doing the bike portion! Thank goodness because I was sore from sitting in the car for 4 hrs. I did go soak my sore legs in Lake Michigan. wow. The water was like 56 deg. I could hardly stand it, but it did help as I felt pretty good Sun. morning.

We woke up to a ton of fog and we couldn't see the buoy's. They delayed the start like an hour. The relay is the last wave so I had a lot of waiting around, but by the time I was handed the chip and on my way...the sun came out and it was really perfect. Now, racing from the back of 2000 people is quite an experience. My goal was to ride hard, which became challenging with so many people on the road. Lots of people are clueless about riding on the left. Don't hang out there. At one point I even yelled at someone, "are you going to pass or draft? out of my way" It did improve further up the road. I have to say I felt way better on Sun racing the bike than Sat. Hmm. Was it, the Lake Michigan soak?, Danny's pasta?, the fact that I had done a strong effort the day before?, sleeping in a house with 20 other people?. Not sure, but my bike split for 56 miles was 2:32. I hobbled out a few easy run miles off the bike....blisters, then cheered on all the racers. Even though Debbie and I had raced Sat., I still think Carla had the toughest part swimming in the foggy cold water, and our "Dream Team" as Debbie named us broke 5 hrs.

It was an great weekend of fun and racing, but I did realize some things in it all. I race as a true product of how I have trained. I was never great at crossing over and racing the varying distances and do well in the same season. But at 40, I am thinking that is even more true. A lot of my training has been targeted at Steelhead 1/2 IM. And that is basically how I raced Evergreen. I didn't have the speed and snap needed for an Olympic.( I thinking this needs to change after Steelhead, better talk to the coach!) This weekend was also Lake Placid, and I had no sad feelings or regret about not being there.

Congrats to all who raced! Madness did great in Racine way to go Joe, Kristi, Wellman and all. Also congrats to Jeff the cardiologist who did his first Ironman in 14:00 flat in the rain.

Date Night

I requested a date night with my husband. !! I am easy to please, just a dinner out. One where I don't have to show up with my hair wet, in a pony tail and goggle marks on my face, one where there isn't mac n cheese, and stories can be told with interruptions of "mom or daddy", and where the credit card doesn't have to be handed to the waiter before we ever see the bill because we are in a hurry. I even blew dry my hair and wore a sun dress! What a concept!

This is such a busy time of year for us. We are both coaching a lot of really great athletes and put a lot of work into helping them, Adam is coaching a lot of practices with the Multisportmadness kids team, and Cosport seems to have exploded. Did everyone decide to get hurt or have surgery this summer? My schedule has been packed at work. This on top of taking care of the kids and house, oh yea and TRAIN! There is one in the house doing Kona, and one aiming high at Steelhead and Nationals. Needless to say there is a lot of coming and going and this weekend is no exception. It will be a wild weekend of racing and coaching and supporting sooo.....I needed my date night to feel sort of like a normal adult and to hang with my hubby before the wild weekend.

There is so much good racing going on I have athletes doing their first IM in Lake Placid, ohhh so nervous but so exciting to cross that line the first time! several athletes doing Racine, and 1 doing Evergreen. I myself am doing Evergreen and am excited to see where some solid weeks of training has left me with my new focus. So, Fri after helping with a client with a bike fit at the Bike Shop, I will head down to Bloomington to race in the hot windy cornfields. I have not done this race but here good things about it and am VERY excited to race after doing some good hard weeks of training. Then after the race I will bolt home, re-pack and head up to Racine. Racine has become like a Multisportmadness-fest! I think Danny is letting like 20 people shack up at his lake house. To top it off I'll be doing a relay! Yea, the 3 40 yr olds are doing a relay (not sure of our team name ha! but/ Carla swimming, I'll be biking and Debbie running. I hesitated at first, a relay? come on Linds., but this will make a nice hard 56 mile TT workout the day after racing and good prep for Steelhead. Plus, it will be fun to see everyone racing!!!!

So hooray for date night and acting like a normal adult for 1 evening.

Recover Gear

When I was at the Blackwater expo, I came across this cool new product. Being a physical therapist, of course I was intrigued by this Recover Gear, and immediately bought 2 for our household. With this system the ice packs are slid into a really tight compression sleeve. (Different sizes and pieces for various body parts are available) So, you can get the ice and compression, and still be mobile! The compression sleeves are really tight and snug. It was so hot at Blackwater this year we all joked that we should race with these on to stay cool! Steve Pettit is the owner and designed this and was such a nice guy. He is a triathlete himself and came up with this idea and started this company. Check out the website recovergear.com You don't have to be "injured" to use this. I suspect I am not the only one who gets sore after a tough workout or 2. Icing down a sore quad or calf only helps you recover more quickly. !!

We are coming into the home stretch for a lot of big races for athletes. Next weekend is Racine, Lake Placid and Evergreen. I have a lot of athletes getting ready to race. I have been hearing whispers here and there of sore knees, sore Achilles, sore legs etc. I know it is really difficult to walk over to the freezer, get out an ice pack and put it on whatever is aching. I am sure that is much tougher than heading out to ride for 4 -5 hours or running 10 miles at whatever pace. The thought of icing or stretching is completely overwhelming. We are about 1/2 way through the season and the training does start to accumulate. Miles and miles on the road can tighten that lateral quad and IT band to the point it can become almost glued to your femur, or turn calves into softballs.

Go get a massage. That is a rough one too. How awful to have to go get a massage to loosen up all the tightness and restrictions that have built up. Gee a massage, or an overuse injury. Becky Sanford is a great massage therapist and gives Multisportmadness members a discount.

Don't train through pain. Yes there is some pain you have to train through to push the limits and get fast. But the pain that causes you to limp, or perform the basics like ...walking or standing up or even breath. Or, pain that sticks with you day after day and appears in workouts each day probably shouldn't be ignored. Ice, stretch, or go see someone because most likely it won't magically disappear. Continually pushing it just to get the workout done isn't going to help in the long run if you wind up sidelined with an injury.

If I sound a bit harsh it is only because it is quite simple. If you have the capacity to get in the hours of training at all the prescribed wattages and HR zones, then you have the ability to take care of your body afterwards. Be nice to it so you can keep on going.

Lake Stevens 70.3

I am so proud of Adam. He was racing Lake Stevens 70.3 today. He is out in my old
stomping ground. My parents lived very near there while I was going to college in Oregon, so I would truck it home to the Seattle burbs on breaks. It is hilly beautiful and scenic. He said the course was amazing!! and won his age group and was 3rd OA age grouper. He has worked so hard and stuck with it and is now rocking it this year like we knew he could!!!!

Happy 4th and a win!

After a week of Tri-Disney where workouts were on the sparse side, I am in a big training week with lots of quality workouts. Just how I like it. It included a Freedom 4th, 10k run race today.

Early in the week my awesome husband (and coach, decided to motorpace me on the bike. He was excited to ride the scooter and make me suffer a little. This was our first go at this and it consisted of me on by bike at threshold for 90 min., just hanging on behind the scooter after doing some hill repeats. It took few tries to get the pace right and getting dropped (a scooter can accelerate a lot faster than a bike!)Adam had fun accelerating and watching my eyes bulge and tongue hang to try and hang on. Then off the bike to a fast tempo run. I have to say this was tougher than I expected. You end up pushing a bigger gear at a higher cadence because you are going fast which quickly cooks your legs. Now I keep getting asked when I am going to get my motorcycle license. Can you see me now? at the DMV with the Harley chicks trying to drive this thing around the cones!!!

Thurs I did group ride again and managed to avoid a crash right in front of me. A few guys were really trying to go off the front and 1 caught an edge and went down..thankfully he was ok and jumped back on and kept riding. It was a tougher ride because of some wind, but I made the whole ride and finished up with an easy transition run. There is an argument in our house that wind on the group ride should make it easier for the back of the field, because it slows down the fastest. My argument is no, if you get caught outside the draft in the wind..it is way harder to bridge or stay on, and same goes if you take some pulls. Plus smaller people get blown around more in the wind. If I knew how to do the "poll" thing on here I would take a poll on this one.

So today was the 10k. I haven't run an open 10k .......in a very long time. I wasn't sure how I would feel after some tough workouts, but I am a pure triathlete and we run on tired legs, right? It was a really nicely organized race and a perfect morning. The course was, very hilly with lots of rollers and big climb at mile 4. It also had tons of turns which let me practice running tangents, something I am not the best at. I ran hard, ignored the burning legs and finished with a 43:30, and 1st female which scored me a little $$$. Sometimes these local run races have great prizes !!!! Overall a good effort and it feels good to be getting some spark going in the legs again.

I've been glued to the Olympic Trials, swimming. Very all American! and how about Dara Torres making the Olympic team at 40!

Happy 4th of July