My date with Leon

Everyone lives for the weekend and where do I jet off to for a Sat night/ Sunday adventure? Non other than lovely Hammond IN. Surely that is at the top of your bucket list of travel destinations! I had a date with Leon. Even though Hammond might not be paradise or at the top of the list for places to travel, it does host an amazing local race drawing some of the fastest age groupers around the Midwest. It is fast, fiercely competitive, close to home and this year the team competition made for an even more exciting race.

My date began with an amazing dinner at the lovely Horseshoe Casino. We were highly out of place and ended up eating sub sandwiches and pizza in the food court because some of our team members are practically children. For the record, in a pinch Uno Pizza works wonders.

My good friend Joe Lotus (he is basically Jerry Mcguire) put his heart into forming male and female “ TBC/ Bike Shop GE” teams. The team aspect of this race made for another dimension of competition. Racing with other team members as fast as you can to score points for an overall team placing was a blast. Even though everyone was out for blood, we kept it fun by wearing crazy goofy glasses on the run. We scored these shades at the Hammond Walmart!. Nothing like spending part of Sat. night at Walmart in Hammond! My selection was pink Barbie rockstar with a splash of glitter on the side.

Anyone who paid any attention has already heard the men’s team took first, with the super fast amazing TBC guys, but whats new! HOWEVER I don’t think many heard that our ladeez team finished a close 2nd in the female division. We only had 5 members (the minimum) which included our alternate , because we lost one with an ankle fracture the week of the race. I think this is frickin awesome! Everyone raced so fast and so well, it was so fun to see everyone step up and do their best. Top performances on our women’s team go to Sara Szeffi and Jenn Howland. They finished 3rd and 5th OA and are so young, barely past puberty I think, but the pieces are all coming together for them which is so exciting to see.

My race went as I expected. I thought I might die at the beginning of the swim as the start was so fast. I considered my start good as my goggles didn’t get kicked off like last year. I finally started feeling smooth after the last turn into the last leg of the swim,…...when everyone was well on the way with their bikes. Once, I was finally rolling with Scotty P, I tried to kick into high gear to chase down as many girls as I could.


Usually this is my weapon, but my legs werent all there. I didn’t feel great on the bike until the 2nd lap. I’m not sure if this was a function of not tapering, being old, or not racing OLY in so long. Maybe all of the above! On the run I just went as hard as I could. It did not feel good either until mile 3, but I was running good splits. I did much of the race in no man’s land with no one to see to chase down. I finished 12th elite which is pretty gross, but I am mostly happy with splits and the effort I could do coming off some good IM Kansas training. I still like putting myself up against the top competition and would rather finish lower in the elite, than top of the AG. Congrats to All the women who raced! So much great competition!

The post race party makes Sunday afternoon in Hammond worthwhile. Leon knows how to throw a good party and this was an awesome way to finish the date. It was so fun seeing fun friends I hadn’t seen for awhile and meeting up with fellow Wattie friend Karin Langer. I still rocked my Wattie kit while racing for team TBC! It’s a killer combo I think.


Up next, a road trip to the land of Oz, Kansas 70.3.

Evidence

I’ve been putting in lots of hard work the past few weeks gearing up for Kansas 70.3I did some big solo training efforts while AZ was off racing TTT, then this weekend finished up with hosting our TBC training camp. Saturday was a huge triple brick day with 30 athletes of all levels venturing out to the far western edge of Chicagoland to experience an epic 4hr workout. So many great athletes were there which made for good work and good fun.

fun friends from the city, post workout

This year will be my 3rd time racing in KS and it is one of my favorite half IMs. Hills, heat, wind double transition, choppy lake swim, Vegas spots on the line…. shake and stir and your have an awesome race with a finish on the yellow brick road all of which have been motivating me to get after it.

Consistent hard work is what it takes to make the gains in fitness that will help you accomplish your goals, and leave you confident and ready to race. However, I sometimes find myself doubting if I’ve done enough, am pushing hard enough, or wonder if should I do more because I live with someone who can handle a load SO much larger than most. I catch myself feeling like a slacker, or sometimes questioning myself when I look at my own training. The facts are: 1. I respond better to quality, vs. massive quantity, and 2. I am not training for Ironman, nor do I want to! Besides the wko PMC chart that Scott shares with me periodically showing me the facts...gains in fitness, peak power, etc… I have my own evidence proving to myself I've been doing good work!

Those are:
1. large blister, and 1 dead toe nail about to fall off
2. the desire and actually following through with several ice baths

(lazy man's ice bath...another reason my neighbors think i'm strange)

3. craving for Coke…the real kind

(i don't even like soda that much)

4. some days I actually do crawl up the stairs

5. I resorted to the TM for my long run which included hard intervals because it was 97 deg out with 97 mph wind and I needed to be able to push the pace

6. no clean workout clothes in the drawers

7. my Garmin strap broke the day before my long run, so I taped it

(couldn't handle the sweat load)

In addition to all the training, and the camp, our kids participated in the local kid’s triathlon early Sun morning:


and we celebrated both Adam and Jack’s birthdays.

The outdoor pools are open now and after all of the above, we crashed here Mon afternoon!


soaking up some fastness!

FLOATING.........

My kids’ have these frogs that sit on the table beside my desk. I look up every now and then and have to tap the little tank to see if they still alive because they just floating still in the water..... hanging out..... just existing. Floating through existence can be either good or bad. At the end of a crazy work day, coordinating schedules and fitting in big workouts I feel like floating like this……

Usually I end up like this.....

floating up to my bed and crashing


I am a commuter to work now 3 days a week and on RARE occasions I actually float through traffic nailing the timing of each green light, avoiding the construction, or slow moving vehicles and everything just clicks and I arrive to work with enough time for more coffee!

Most of the time though, it is an effort and I wind up behind a semi with a wide load, or hit every red light and of course stopped by a train.

I love it when I am running (or biking or swimming) and it is one of those days where it all clicks. The form, the body’s state of fitness, is all in sync with the moon LOL and it just feels like you are floating with each stride and you look down at that last mile split and do a double take at the numbers staring back at you on the Garmin.

Or on the bike when you are effortlessly pushing big watts with no wasted energy and are just one with your bike. Even in the pool there are moments of efficiency when I grab the water and glide and rotate and hit the interval and it feels effortless.

Its not there every time and it often feels like work and it’s not effortless. Then there are the other times it is like I’m pulling lead through the water or hauling steel on the back of my bike or my feet are cemented to the pavement. To get those times where it feels like you are floating, you have to go through the times it feels like work….and you have to do the work. I was listening to Adam and Scott’s TBC podcast the other day….during my commute. (btw its way better than the radio) Adam was talking about the details..... ALL OF THEM to get to the next level. To get there, you have to address all the details…....consistently. Not just the week of a race or during recovery weeks, or when its convenient and not just when you feel good. Nutrition, stretching, getting good sleep, and doing the workouts will give you more of those workouts where it is like floating….effortless.
Can I address ALL the details…consitently? Nope. But I go through good phases and I do have some of those effortless workouts or races every now and then which keeps me coming back for more.

To get the results you want, you can’t float through existence and expect good things to come your way in the form of kick ass workouts, PR races.... or anything in life really. Address all the details and float through the good workouts and races!

St. Croix

Most people travel to a Caribbean Island for a vacay, some fun in the sun, and a little R and R. I just returned from racing IM 70.3 island style on USVI, St. Croix. Traveling to a big race can be challenging enough, but schlepping a bike and gear to a remote island takes some determination ( and patience)

whew!bike made it!

Add a few Kona slots to the mix and you have some tough competitors all descending on a small island fired up and ready to race. It’s a unique race with some fun twists that definitely made the trip worth it.

We scoped out parts of the run and bike course in the days before the race, sweating like mad and finishing drenched. It rained a little bit most every day making it extra humid and creating big washouts in the roads. We drove the bike course, and saw major floods, the one and only… Beast itself,and all the turns curves and other big climbs.

the start of the Beast/this is the easy part


I knew this was a course for the records, but wow. I thought for sure since it had rained off and on so much race day would be clear and dry and the roads would clear. Not so! It started raining as we left to ride the 2 miles to town race morning and never really stopped until I was finishing the bike which added to the adventure.

Sunset, night before the race!(surely the rain is done!)

salt water leg soak!

I don’t love writing true race reports but love sharing what I learn from races and the fun ups and downs of the day!

Some Highlights:
~not having to check in the bike the day before the race
~because it was raining they decided not to body mark us
~I saw Lance near my transition, he has sexy legs
~to get to the swim start you have to swim across to another island, kind of fun and like a warm up
~the water for the swim was awesome temp very little chop, even though it didn’t help my swim time any LOL
~the bike was AWESOME. Not only did I feel great, I LOVED the course. It was harder than any race I’ve done and very technical with tons of climbing, tons of shifting gears, cornering etc. I ended up with the fastest bike split in my AG and felt awesome the whole way!!! Thanks Rich and Drew at the The Bike Shop Scotty P rode like a dream!
~ riding through the downtown streets on the way out of town was very cool and hearing the locals cheer “ya mon , ya goo fast!”, and “ya SISTA !”
~the 2 loop run was tough but fun, much of it was off road through grass, dirt road, and in this case mud!
~Meeting fellow Wattie JJ Brandstatter and his Erika from Colorado, we had fun hanging out pre race and at the awards coming up with plenty of new “don’t be that guys!”
~Hearing Go Wattie!, and Rock theW out on the course from people I don’t even know!....the word about the W is out there even on a remote island!

Some lowlights:
~my poor ass swim split. I’m not complaining because I know I deserve what I get for the amount of time I put towards swimming
~it rained a ton and we road through very deep wash outs, and roads were slick making you slow down more through sharp descents
~fading the last 2 miles of the run. I wouldn’t call it a bonk, but definite muscle fatigue from unrelenting hills
~losing 2 places in the AG in those 2 miles
~no Vegas spot for me. There was only 1 Vegas and 1 Kona spot and 1st place took both …grrrrrrrr! Hard core

I loved the race and the experience! and am happy with how I did for a first race of the season especially one that is so tough and so competitive. Hats off to my client Russell Lane who was with us on his quest back from his femur fx, and managing diabetes. Thanks to my TBC coach Scott Iott for awesome workouts that got me as ready as I could be for a race like that, and Wattieink,Kswiss,BettyDesigns, I was super comfy all day in my 1 piece suit racing over the horrid chip and seal pot hole covered roads on the bike as well as the muddy, hilly all terrain run course.

Race Ready

It’s finally almost time to race! This year I have been extra antsy to get out there, step up to the line and race already! (ask me that next Sunday when I’m crawling up The Beast in St. Croix) Cyclocross Nationals seem like forever ago, lots of training days have come and gone, and it’s finally time to put it all the work to the test. Usually I can find even a 5k or 10k to jump into, a little duathlon or something to work out the kinks, but it never worked out with my schedule. In fact, I SO wanted to race that on the Thursday afternoon before NOLA 70.3 Adam and I were seriously discussing signing up, flying or driving down last minute! Neither of us was in a physical state to do well (can we say a bit cooked), but the idea of racing and heading south to some warmer weather was soooooo tempting. That would have been big bucks for a fancy duathlon brick workout. As it turns out it sounds like we made the right choice to stay home and not spend the $$. I did end up getting a little racing in at Leland Kermesse….

a local road race through flat windy farm roads, with several gravel sections. This was my first road race. I have 2 crits, tons of cyclocross races, and even more TT’s as part of a triathlon under my bike racing experience belt. I know there must be some strategy to racing on the road, but I don’t know it! I was looking for a hard bike effort at the end of some hard training weeks to top off my fitness for St. Croix. I thought the race was fairly uneventful…..cyclocross is way more fun. I went to the front right away and didn’t mind taking some long pulls. I was feeling decent but not full of awesomeness. There weren’t many girls willing to move to the front and if they did it was short lived. Hmm that must be how to race the road! But there were a few of us who took turns pulling. After the first gravel section, I tried to move up in a break away when my cleat came unclipped. I must not have been all the way clipped in that whole time thanks to my toe booties (yea I wimped and wore them). So I lost contact with the lead group of about 4, but re grouped with a group off the back. At the start of the 2nd lap this group became 3. I decided I was just going to ride hard for the 2nd lap, if someone wanted to join in then great. I didn’t go all the way to Leland IL to ride in wind and gravel just to ride like I could at home. I pulled the majority of the second lap. My motivation was I could see a few riders that had fallen off …. getting closer. The joy of the wide open prairie. We were gaining and I wanted to catch them. I gritted my teeth put my head down and just rode. When we hit gravel I rode harder. I liked riding the gravel and my smooth Challenge Tires were awesome. I liked the gravel sections and here we picked up a straggler. By the final stretch before the turn to the finish we caught a pack of about 4 which made for a lovely sprint finish. I had nothing to SPRINT with after all that work and finished 10th. I felt stronger on the 2nd lap than the first, and could have done more. I got my race in and …..a big boost in power. Thank you Leland. Besides some solid efforts going into the the taper week, … being Race Ready to me also means: ~Making sure the race wheels are spiffy and fast ~Trying out race day shoes in some race specific efforts KSWISS QT2 are making the trip to St. Croix

~A massage, a big one, to work out the many tight knots that have found their way into my muscles ~Packing tri gear and beach party clothes ~Trying to find a Hot Yoga class with a class time that actually is convenient for someone who works…..I need to feel the sweat ~Resting…. Some.

Finally…. I have had the fun experience of being part of a couple photo shoots. One with my Tri Mom friends for a VERY fun project/book we’ve been working on. I have kept quiet about it, but it has actually just finished being professionally edited and will HOPEFULLY be published.(fingers crossed) It was a fun to see my tri mom friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. We all have kids of varying ages now, but we all used to train with each other in training …kid free. The second photo shoot was with friend and fellow BH rider who is a photographer and trying to expand his portfolio. He took some really cool shots at fun angles and has done some sweet editing. Thanks Matt Dula!

Maximum Overdrive

I usually do a better job at keeping up with writing something of relevance on this blog. Even this has been mostly written for a few days, but never finished. This spring has kept me moving at full speed ahead. I actually used to sit and read many more blogs than I do now, but I can’t even keep up with that. I have so many new Wattie friends to stalk (I mean read up on) but I can’t even get through reading all my emails on most days.

Coming home from vacation I was staring at about 5 weeks left of training until St. Croix, finishing up my last few weeks at Cosport and getting ready to start my new adventure in physical therapy, wrapping up other fun projects (which I can’t wait to share!!) along with many fun presents showing up reminding me race season is near.


Presents!

Oh yea, to top it off, I had several trips to THE BIKE SHOP to get my new bike…Scotty P the II.

my new boyfriend Scotty PII


the perfect fit


I’ve already spent a good number of quality bonding hours with him. While getting ready for our first date, I was feeling so pro playing bike mechanic putting on the new Challenge Tires, and hooking up my power tap, all by my big girl self so I could roll out the next morning for a big brick. Ride time came the next morning and I realized I put the cradle for the power tap on backwards but didn’t want to, or have time to fix it, so I did my brick staring at the numbers upside down! Good news is that the tires held, the power worked and my first smashfest with Scotty P was a success.

My coach, Scott Iott, has really poured on the training. Sometimes I look at whats there and wonder....How? Not only just completing it, but usually how am I going to fit this in amongst …..my life. I feel myself getting fit because I am recovering better between workouts and able to get through the next hard session. My pull ups are coming back,

full body weight pull up PR bar

and I am hitting the times I want on tired legs. I don’t have tons of time, so luckily for me I respond better to quality vs. quantity. Lots of hard work has left me sore, crawling up stair and I recently found my way to my first ice bath of the year!

Next week I start my new job at Advanced Physical Medicine. With that comes, a new schedule, new people, a little more independence, a commute, and new challenges. Leaving a place you’ve worked for umpteen years is bittersweet but a new chance to move forward with my career is too hard to pass up.

Resort Savvy...

Paradise Island! Bahamas

It is very unusual for us to take a vacation that isn’t centered around a training trip or a race, especially so close to the race season during spring break. I love training trips and trips to races and for me, they are a type of vacation, but there is usually an agenda and a schedule and constant movement from one workout to the next, with little down time. This year we took our kids to Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. It is unprecedented for us to escape like this especially at the end of March. A vacation like this isn’t typical, and at times I wondered what the 4 of us would do for 5 days on an island without going crazy. I was, however, looking forward to some down time to relax without a real agenda.

My Brain, just before vacation started...from lots of work

I tried to fit in a lot of training prior to the trip so the pressure would be low, my plan was to run and swim. Luckily the resort had a nice outdoor lap pool specifically for lap swimming. I swam most every day and loved seeing this out my goggles when I did some recovery back stroke:


We arrived to the resort around 3 in the afternoon. After traveling since 3:30 in the morning Chicago time and after a little exploring at the beach and pools it was time to hit our first dinner on our meal plan which included breakfast and dinner buffets. The food was fabulous and rows of it went on and on. From the looks of the people and their plates, the buffet tables were as much as a part of the vacation as the water slides casino and beach. They had no problem going back for seconds, thirds of main entrees, sides, and deserts and then not being afraid to squeeze into swimsuits, or bikinis the next day. I was amazed at what people could put on their plates, and as well as what they could drink poolside in the way of island beverages.

It was also apparent that I was clueless in the art of finding the right poolside spot and chair. Finding a spot strategically located near the bathrooms, concessions stand, and spot where you could keep an eye on the kids is an art form. It is evident you have to get out there early and scope your spot and put your towel down to save it. My lack of experience left us way back in the corner 1 chair on the first day.


I also lacked gym savvy on this trip. I am not much of a gym rat, and don’t even own a gym membership anymore. We have a TM, trainers in the basement and I workout with a personal trainer in his own gym. I buy a swim pass, but try to workout outside as much as possible. The fitness center at the resort was very nice, new and clean. The island is small and congested with not a lot of open road to run, so I ran every day on the TM, trying to do some hard tready sets to get quality work done in a short amount of time. Sharing the equipment running so close to someone on a TM next to me when they smelled, or breathe to heavy is a distraction I had to get used to again. Trying to share weights and gym equipment with the muscle heads to fit in a strength session was a challenge. I did get some great runs in however along with some heat training for St. Croix. The gym didn’t have fans and didn’t seem to be air conditioned well so every run I was completely soaked and drenched. One day in particular I must have looked in sorry shape doing some hard intervals because the fitness center attendant handed me a cold wet towel roll that had been soaked in some kind of mineral salt. It was amazing. It was cold and smelled so good. I need that guy to pass those out on the St. Croix run course! I was like a new person!

We managed to survive the buffet lines, pool lines and beach. No major catastrophe, child meltdown or lost child for that matter. We went through ¾ a bottle of SPF 50 and most of an SPF 30 while we were there swimming, parasailing, body surfing, hair braiding, and jet skiing.


We came home tan, relaxed and full!I managed to get in some solid running and swimming and came home in time to squeeze in super hard brick to work off some of the buffet trips.



So now it’s back to work, literally. I have 2 more weeks at my long time position as a physical therapist at Cosport, and then I am on to a new adventure in physical therapy. More on that to come. And…back to big training, it was fun and motivating to see so many friends and athletes starting their season off with a bang!
Rock On!