LONG Overdue>>Vegas Prep

My lack of posting updates to my blog means one thing, I'm in survival mode. The final push to Vegas, plus back to school and 10U football,  amongst Hawaii build up for fast husbands and me working full time has put me in full spin cycle.  After Sept 8, put me out to pasture, with an adult beverage, sun,  lawn chair and bikini.  Since Mid July, I have been focusing all my workouts and training for  Vegas.  After last year's saga, my main focus for this year was to be ready to race in Vegas. Qualify early, then set the rest of the season up to do well there this year.  For many of the above reasons in the first sentence, I am not sure how much longer I can keep this  crazy routine going.  So I skipped some races, flopped out of others to have a solid block of training to be as ready as I can Sept 8.  Tough choices, but when you've raced around the world, in so many different events you can do that.  I'll admit I have had some mental and physical ups and downs along the way to a point to accept where I am and I am doing the best I can fitting everything in. 

Ingredients of my Vegas Prep:

Racine 70.3:  stepped in a pothole and jammed my SI joint that  already wasn't very happy to begin with  thanks to an incident running fast on trails in May.  Thankfully Dr. Turner at Turner Pain and Wellness helped put me back together, pointed out my weaknesses (gasp, yes they are there).  

USAT Nationals: Milwaukee  Originally had planned to do the best I could here on "Vegas" training knowing very well I would not have Olympic distance speed. Nationals is always competitive, and you better show up with all you've got, or it will be handed to you on a silver platter.  And yep, I was served  a plateful.   The combination of Vegas training plus a pothole incident left me with no speed. I  came very close to not to racing,  but in the effort of it being close to home, more fun than a regular training day, Watties on loose, it was hard to pass up. Plus it was an excuse to get out of work early to make a Friday afternoon bike check in.

Mad to the Bone 1/2 Marathon: This local 1/2 marathon is put on by our triathlon club, my  coach, Scott and close friend Danny.  I raced on very tired legs following a great training block ( finally, ) Going into the race I had done some big workouts and Saturday did one of my favorite killer versions of a triple brick. I nailed it. The race the next day would half to be with whatever was left. I typically don't like to train through races or toe the line not ready to race, but knew this would be more fun and tougher course than the same long run route I usually do.  This race has some solid hills in the back half…( um Vegas like 0 flat sections), so doing it on tired legs I though was ….strategic.  I felt good for about 1/2 the race, stopped to tie my shoe and visit a porta potty along the way and finished with an average effort. 

Dreyer/Advocate: This is my daily routine, I am here on my feet 40 hrs a week treating injured, and building a fee for service training program to evaluate and train athletes coming back from injury. I spend more time here than with my family I think. 1 year later, I think I am still adjusting to working full time again.

10U football: my dad coached high school football for 35 years. My 3 brothers played and now Jack is playing on 10U team. While it buys me some time because practices are about 2 hours now, with it comes more commitments.  And, yes I get fired up to see 10 year olds get excited about a sport, being part of a team and committing to the effort.

These fashion boots are the bomb! and come in handy after lots of hard training. There is one issue  for me though, you actually have to sit down with your feet up to get the benefits. So therefore I don't use them nearly as much as I should.  I managed to sit in them once in the past 4 weeks.

Oh yea then there is this: a new Trek Speed Concept has moved in.  A complete in total surprise, I had no idea it was coming, especially for Vegas! (I love surprises!)   I feel lucky and totally spoiled my some really great people.  It fits like a glove, is light and fast! He is my new boyfriend names SPEED.

1 Week from today I'll be racing in Vegas at the World Championships! Good Luck to all my friends and teammates racing there and IM Wisconsin!