First Day?

Its those 40 yr old women again!


Ok, I have been racing for like (OMG< 20 yrs now. is it possible?) But yesterday at Big foot Tri, I had so many weird things happened at times it felt like my first day ever! I was a spaz. Was the moon full, just for me yesterday Ha! Seemed like it

I had been looking forward to racing in Lake Geneva again this year, this race is fun with another off road run. (thats 3 for me this year, I've been loving them, but still no xterra in my future) We woke up to cooler temps, but a vicious and sick wind! Nice. I was happy for this for the bike.. bring it on, but the swim........no thanks. The water had white caps, and big waves. It was a toilet bowl. In the past 2years I seem to get from vertigo, and get it fairly easily. Even some days at Delnor when the sun comes in through the windows and shines on the water moving around, I'll get so dizzy I just have to get out. Once after getting extremely sick in the back of Mark D's private plane, I was dizzy for 2 weeks. Even taking a corner too fast in the car would send my head spinning. So yesterday's swim was horrible. I got pretty dizzy and wanted out so bad. Several times, I was looking for the side of the road and wanted to crawl out and lay still, just to make the world stop. But I really wanted to race yesterday. So I kept going. The water was so shallow, you could stand up which helped, but made for a pathetically slow swim. A had a swim time like in the beginning of my triathlon career. yikes.

I walked out of the water to transition, stood there took a deep breath, tried to uncross my eyes, and got on my bike, and took off. I felt great right away and wanted to just hammer. I usually don't start the bike, so far back and wanted to catch as many people as I could. So I am hammering away, feeling very strong. After a turn, the wind must have been behind us and I shift down and my chain drops....and gets stuck. Damn. So I have to stop, get off my bike, fix it and get rolling again. I was mad, because the bike was shifting perfectly on the pre-race brick and riding to the race from the hotel. Hmm. wonder what happened there. I start to hammer away again to catch as many more people as I could. Much of the ride was into a nice head wind, making it tough, but I just road hard knowing this would help me. Then the turn for home and the wind is behind us. Wow that was fun and I am really riding hard, shift down again....and the SAME thing happens with the chain. I am thinking no WAY, why!!!! I just caught all those girls! So I get off, fix it again and ride AS HARD AS I COULD to transition, because I am mad now. I make a fast T2, and take off run. Thankfully I felt great from the start on the run, and try to run down whoever I can. I catch a couple girls who and am having so much fun running on the hilly trails, and so happy my running is feeling good. Then... at the top on a flat grassy section, I step in a grassy hole I couldn't see, twist my foot and take a face plant. I am now laughing ....because I just want to finish this race!!!! I must have looked like a spaz! Thanks to the 2 guys who stopped and help me up whoever they are.! I walk it off a little, start to run, ankle feel ok, and I gradually get it going to reasonable pace again. Inside I am mad, because so many weird hurdles were being thrown at me, but it is driving me to just do the best a I can and not quit. With about 1/2 mile left of the run, this woman in my age group passed me. As she gets in front of me I am mad. I have worked to hard to overcome a these little set backs to have her beat me. I see that she isn't pulling away, so I start to sprint (at least what sprint is for me! ), and I am gaining on her, and I end up beating her at the line, by 1 sec.

In the end after all the mishaps, I ended up 2nd in my age group, with a horrible swim time probably 7 min. slower than it should be normally. I don't like to write big detailed race reports, but I did this time to show that when things go wrong in a race.....if you just keep it together in the head, stay focused and determined, you will be fine. The good thing is that physically (vertigo aside), I felt great. The training is working!!! Thank you Simon!

Remember to stay tenacious. Never give up.

Feel the heat

Man is it HOT, and I love it. No complaints here!

I have been so busy. (whats new) I am barely keeping my head above water right now but, the end is near with vacation next week! I need it. I have been feeling pulled at like gumby in a 100 directions. When it gets busy it seems like it does so in all parts of my life at the same time. Cosport is crazy right now. It seems every athlete decided to come get fixed and there must have been a sale on Total Knee replacements. Coaching is going great too.....I have a couple new athletes (young!! the 20 somethings!) and fast! Then you add in a little training, and taking care of the Iron house hold and whew.....its HOT around here :)

In other news I have a new coach....Simon Thompson. I have been working with him for about a month and it has been so great. He incorporates "Life Coaching" with the triathlon coaching. It has been very helpful with balancing all of the above :) That is a blog post in itself. In the meantime here is an article about 1 of his recent races.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jun/22/triathlon-australian-olympian-wins-5430/

Fun and Games

BFF Deb finishing with her sons
Still smiling at the end
Haven't had one of these in awhile





I have to say Madison is one of the coolest towns ever. I spent this past weekend there visiting my close friend Deb who moved there in Dec. She has been begging us to come up and see her and has been almost taunting Adam, "the IM bikers are out on the course training!" She lives 1 block off the IM Wisconsin bike course, on "the arm" out to Verona. So we decided to head up north, and Adam was going to do some long rides and then we'd do the race up there called Capital View Tri on Sunday.

I had done a lot of training in the week leading up to the race and knew I'd be tired going into the race. Normally I don't like to race like this, but was up for doing something totally new and fun. Deb had told us the course was pretty tough. I knew it would be hilly and hard, but would be a great workout and adventure. Plus, it was great seeing my old friend. Deb knew me when I was first really getting into triathlons. We used to swim together at Norris Center in St. Charles with workouts her husband gave us to do. He was a former US National Team swimmer and almost made the 96 Olympic team! So they were great workouts. When I swim solo, sometimes I still pull some of them out of my head.

Race morning we headed up to Lake Mendota and Gov. Nelson state park. What a cool place and it looked like it was going to be a very organized race. After a good warm up which I really needed to try and wake up a tired body we waited for the gun.
I raced in the elite wave which wasn't very big and had some fast men in it.
Once we were off, I immediately found myself in no man's land on the swim. Alone. This is sometimes why I don't like doing elite waves if they aren't big but whatever I focused on trying to do my own thing. I didn't have a good swim had trouble siting for some strange reason and kept catching seeweed on my goggles, but the water was beautiful and a perfect temp. The swim seemed long, and I didn't get a good rhythm until it was almost over. The water was shallow for a long way before you actually exited the water, so I dolphin dived a whole bunch, to finish because it was too shallow to swim, but too far to run (too muddy too). Dolphin dive finish....a blast!

I had a good transtion and jumped on my bike and got rolling. We had driven the bike course the day before, and I knew it was going to be hard. THere were a lot of hard rights that turned into steep hills giving you no momentum into the hill. I could feel my quads on every hill and hard acceleration reminding me of all I had done that week, but I was riding pretty strong. I caught the 2 girls ahead of me pretty quick on the up hill climbs and then just tried to ride hard. The course was so well marked. Even out in the middle of the dairyland there were volunteers and people directing you. It was a nice ride back, after a really long climb, there was some down hill and I finally started to feel like I had all my legs with me. I entered T2 and took off running. The run course was 98% on trails, mostly grass, some wood chip and VERY hilly. Ouch it was hard! It hurt on those uphills with no footing. But........it was very fun and I loved the challenge! It was so fun and crazy. The trails zig zagged back and forth all over the park over the hills and through the woods. It was crazy because you were all over the park. My quads were talking to me again, and I didn't feel great running until about mile 3, but I was having a blast. Again great volunteers, and a well marked course. It made me think I'd probably have fun doing an Xterra, but I'd probably kill myself trying to hammer on a mtn. bike. I finished strong and was happy for putting out a good effort on such a tough course. I ended up first elite wave female, but was 4th OA Female. I would definitely do this race again!

After the race we headed back to Deb's. I was supposed to do a 1 hr cool down ride. So out I went with tired and sore legs a beautiful blister to ride easy. Ha. I make a right and another right and I am on Whalen Rd. Anyone who knows the IM course should be familiar with these hills, esp. on the way back in to town at the end of 100 miles. Ouch! Tons of people were out training on the course. I must of looked like a dork with my aero helmet race wheels and body marking still on!

Thanks to Deb for letting us hang out her house. I'm sure we'll be back :)