Work in Progress

MSM Tri girls/wedding style
All dressed up

Recently we went to my client, our friend and MSM club member Megan's wedding. It was fun to get dressed up like a girl, dry my hair and not be that sweaty chick with a pony tail and workout clothes. My husband wore a tie, and I wore spiky heels and a dress (not great for the calves and the run the next day), but still fun.

It was fun to have a night not thinking about swimming biking and running for just a night and dance to Thriller, Dancing Queen and even the Chicken Dance.

There's nothing like a good wedding to make you think about where you are, where you've been and where you're going (not to mention a few drinks, some crazy dancing, and good looking tri guys in suits). Marriage is a work in progress, just like triathlon. There are a lot of similarities if you look closely.


*You have to do the work and training to get the desired results.

*Skipping workouts and skipping out on something your spouse planned will have a negative outcome

*Devoting oneself to a training plan is similar to devotion to your one and only

*Both can bring happiness and fulfilment

*There is a give and take needed for balance in each relationship. Taking only will leave you injured/ burnt out or .....lonely.

*You can't expect immediate perfection, it takes time and work. For some several years to achieve their triathlon dreams, and a lifetime of work on a marriage.

*Both require dedication for better or worse

Achieving what you want doesn't come easy. It is a work in progress. I started triathlon when it was unheard of to have a coach, and no Internet. I used to wait (this is embarrassing) for Triathlete mag. to come out to figure out how to workout! I worked was very hard and dedicated each season and got a little faster each year. I wasn't a swimmer growing up and had to really work at it to get faster, and I did. It took several years to turn my volleyball self/ team sportster into a triathlete. Even then it took a few more years to get to Worlds, finish Ironman, and finish at the top at races.

For some athletes progress may come a little easier than others, those are the ones with some natural talent. Others are given tremendous work ethic, and dedication. But for both it still requires work to get to the end result and reach full potential. Part of the fun should be the work getting to there. (except maybe for my ride yesterday/ 3 hrs in the cold rain :( It gets challenging in the PT clinic or with athletes when they want to see immediate results. It takes time and work. Post op patients want to be all better and back to normal....1 week later without doing any of the "work". Athletes want to be fast without doing the hard intervals or challenging workouts, or strength workouts.

I am still a work in progress. Even though I have achieved a lot of what I have wanted in triathlon, I still challenge myself to see how fast I can go and do the best I can in the events that I've decided to do this year. Its been a work in progress molding my triathlete self, into a Mom, PT, wife of Ironman, physcial therapist etc. (can you tell I've been working with my Life Coach, Thomo? ha ha.) BTW he got second at Vineman recently.

This year the work has been challenging and fun. The work of getting faster and more fit has been fun along the way.

It was MADNESS

It was another fabulous weekend of racing in Racine with Madness. This is a huge MSM club event with tons of members racing and it seems to get bigger every year. The last time I actually raced the 1/2 was in 2005. The year it was 107 deg. or whatever the actual temp was it was an inferno. I remember crossing the line on fire, and crawling across the beach to the lake and to submerge myself and cool off. I think there was steam coming off the lake from all the hot bodies floating around to cool off. This year was much different. We felt like we needed to go apple picking, rake leaves then go inside to watch football. But..it made for great racing conditions. I didn't see anyone crawling through sand to get to the lake after crossing the line this year.

Last year I did the bike portion of a relay with my 40 yr old girl buds the day after doing Evergreen Tri. This year.....I chose to race the Blue Wave Racine sprint. I am truly seeing the SORT weekend from all angles! I had been trying to train fairly hard since returning from vacation, so decided to hop into the sprint as a workout (ouch hard!) For some reason they had an all women's race, and a sprint race the same morning. This was nice, because my race started at 9:00 a.m. I'll take a little more sleep and a little more sun and warmer temps. It was a perfect morning which made the 59 deg water a little easier to take!

Its been a couple years since I've done a sprint tri, they don't favor my strengths, but...I do like the pain they can inflict in just about 1 hr of racing.
The lake was cold but calm (thankfully since it took me a week to stop feeling dizzy after Bigfoot). I had a bit of a slow start, and just when I was getting a good rhythm going, I hit sand and sprinted (sort of ) accross the beach to T1. Adam yelled I was 1:50 down on 1st place. Yikes thats a lot in a sprint! But I knew #1 and she is an incredible swimmer. I made a quick transition and then decided to bike as hard as I could. I felt the good burn in the legs. It never went away. I am not sure if thats because I wasn't rested or I was trying to go so hard, but was having a good ride. I couldn't see 1st place, there were a lot of turns on this course making it difficult to see ahead. By the way this race wins the award for bumpiest road cracks. Once back in T2 I found it was weird running through a gigantic transition area, that seemed fairly empty compared to when it is full with all the 1/2 IM racers. I flew threw transition, and was on may way. This is a fun run course along the lake and over a couple hills around the zoo and then back over the hills to the finish. The hills were a bit of a suprise to me because I only remember the first hill. I was trying to run as hard as possible, even with a good quad burn going. There weren't mile markers, so I just ran as hard as possible. There were quite a few Madness members out cheering before doing their pre-race bricks and bike checks which was fun!

I finished 2nd OA female in 1:06, but they gave me 1st place master elite. I laughed at the guy and thought 2nd OA sounded better. When I saw the splits I was glad to see that even a bit tired, I went about as fast as I ever have in a sprint, even as a "master" :) What I know about sprint distance at age 41 is that you just get the rhythm down and all systems a go, then its time to switch gears. Congrats to Colin my client who won the male OA, in his 2nd tri ever!


Then I got to sit back and relax, play with the kids and enjoy the annual pasta dinner and Le Casa de Delgado. Thanks to D and D for letting us invade the beach house. They might need a bigger vacation home if the club pasta dinner gets any bigger. There was a great turn out with lots of club members carbo loading and looking nervous.

Sunday I was the spectator and tried to watch and cheer as much as possible with a couple rug rats in tow. They had sand from head to toe by the end of the day. Go figure its July, so I didn't think to bring fleece, and sweats for cheering clothes. I wanted to build a fire pit. Congratulations to all of Madness. Everyone looked so great and fast this year!

All my athletes have been rockin it; hooray to Lisa for a PR at Trek last weekend, and this weekend, John for finishing his first 1/2, Tonya for an age group win at Evergreen, and Wellman for his PR at Racine.

Tour de Fabulous

It Tour time again and it been on in our house daily. With several showings a day, and our DVR recording non-stop, its hard to not miss whats going on over in France. I have gotten into watching it more that usual this year. I am not sure if its the hype between Lance and Alberto for team leader, or....the HD picture with such great scenery, or the fact that Lance is back out of retirement to "Ride for the Cure". All makes for FABULOUS viewing and good excuses, to have it on while stretching, cleaning, putting mounds of laundry away, writing schedules, or paying bills.

Speaking of scenery, there is a lot of good eye candy to look at. The mountains, and European cities almost make me want to go do one of those Tour/spectator trips. There are also very cool bikes which are fun to check out. Some I've never heard of, some newer versions of already familiar brands. Also.. cool uniforms (whats with the argyle theme though?, 2 teams with argyle uniforms at least they aren't wearing argyle compression socks) Last, but not least, very fit men in spandex. I'll say no more.

I did a long ride today. A ride long enough to remind me why I am not doing Ironman. I had a lot of time to think about my most FABULOUS favs. from this year's tour.

MY FAVS:

Road Bike: Scott/Team Columbia High Road or the Specialized team SaxoBank

TT set up (the whole package/uniform/ helmet etc): Team Astana

Euro. finishing town: Andora

Uniform: Caisse/ D'Epargne black and red of Luis Sanchez

Fit man in spandex: 170+ to pick from can't decide

Favorite commentator: Phil Ligget of course

If you've been watching, what are your favorites?

Vacation Fireworks

the inside of my legs


We returned home from our family vacation on Mon afternoon, about 24 hrs late. Thanks to DELTA, our flight was canceled and they were so kind to put us on a 6:20 a.m. flight the next morning complete with a 3 1/2 hr layover in Cincinnati. Super efficient especially since the direct flights from Atlanta take only 1 hr 50 min.

The vacation itself was fabulous. Lots of fun outdoor swimming,canoeing, jumping off the docks into the lake, rock/ water slides,kangaroo farm and more. My goal for this vacation was to enjoy a real vacation like normal people do, some relaxing, some play and little stress with cramming in workouts around family functions, no guilt on missing out on what everyone is doing because I'm out training, or work on the computer.

I succeeded !

I busted A#$ prior to vacation to get schedules done for clients, and told Simon, my coach, I just wanted to run some, swim very little. I did do some running because I love it and it is easy to fit in. Gosh how easy life might be if I just ran, (but maybe a little dull) North Georgia is very hilly, very steep hills and absolutely no flats. These are the types of hills you can reach out with your hand and touch the road in some places. Several days of running in a row out there, and my legs felt like the fireworks on the 4th. Nothing like climbing a hill of stairs, and sliding down a rock slide into cold lake water for recovery! And, how about smor'es for a re-fueling and recovery (j/k!) The kids devoured them.

I came home with a little more suntan, a bunch of mosquito bites, a new appreciation for a flat run, and a ton of great memories.

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 :)