Retirement-----from a Triathlete into a Duathlete ;)

Ok, so not really. But the Lord knows that I could compete a lot better at duathlons than triathlons. I have lost my age group before ever getting out of the water. It really does not settle well to realize you have missed your goal time for the day once you look at your watch upon exiting the water:( Oh well!!

New Orlean Ironman 70.3 Race Report:

We arrived to NOLA late Friday evening after meeting Matt's family in Hattiesburg for dinner. We checked everything in, and actually got a good night's sleep. Saturday morning, we met a couple friends at Mother's for a wonderfully healthy breakast of buttery pancakes, fully sugar maple syrup, and huge buttermilk biscuits with jelly ;) YUMMY!!!!!!!


After the carb-loading that took place at Mother's, we headed over to pick up our race packets and numbers. We had to sit through a 20 minute briefing, which I never really understand the point of, and we checked out the expo for a bit. After this, we headed back to the room, packed up the bikes and rested for a bit, grabbed a light lunch from the hotel restaurant, and then drove our bikes to check-in at UNO.
We tested them out around the parking lot, since they had most of the roads blocked off in the surrounding area. It's always fun to check out the nice bikes in transition around you!!! Lots of money spent on this sport is an understatement ;)




After checking in the bikes, we headed back to the hotel for just a bit. We met a few more friends for dinner at Gordon Bierch(sp?) and then turned in for an early night's sleep. I never sleep the night before races, but I was excited that I actually had no trouble sleeping that night!! Maybe I am getting used to the excitement of races ;) It was interesting to hear a prom going on in the hotel and lots of people going in and out of rooms, but they didn't bother us like we were scared they would.

Morning wake-up at 4am. Breakfast of bagels and peanut butter and a banana for me. I think Matt had a bagel/peanut butter, 2 Clif Bars, and a banana? Hydrated well and got our things ready to go!

SWIM:



There were lots of interesting things that happened on this crazy swim!!!
Our friend Melanie, was getting ready to zip her wetsuit before our wave started, and the zipper broke!!! Can you imagine? I felt so bad for her, but we all encouraged her to keep it on, rather than toss an expensive wetsuit to the side. Surely the company will reimburse the wetsuit? I think she has only worn it once!!!!
I found out later that Matt was in the water getting ready for his wave to start when he realized his goggles were missing. He put them on top of the water for a split second while he was putting on his swimcap, reached down to grab them, and GONE!!!!! Oh my gosh---another panic!! Luckily, for some reason, he threw an extra pair of goggles in his transition bag. He said he took off to get them. If you didn't know any better, you would have thought he was a pro finishing the swim, because he said he was running to get his goggles as the pro's were exiting the water. Ha!! Thank God he had that extra pair.

So, back to the swim----------Upon looking at the water, it didn't look THAT choppy. I didn't do a practice swim, and I am honestly thankful for that. If I had known how bad the conditions were beforehand, I would have been even more frightened by the fact. As I started, the swim, I realized from the beginning how challenging this was going to be for me. I wondered if it was just me that was feeling this way?? I have never had a panic attack in water or felt seasick, but suddenly I was feeling both. If you have ever felt this way in the water, you know how mentally frightening it is. I saw kayakers everywhere, and saw lots of triathletes hanging on to the kayaks from the beginning. Every time I would turn to breathe (I breathe on my right), a wave would hit me in the face and I would swallow water. When I DID actually get air, it smelled like gasoline because of the boats out there. I told myself if I could just get to the turnaround buoy, maybe the waves would not be coming straight at my face. I finally got to the turnaround, started back, and realized not only were the waves still hitting my face when I turned to breathe, but they were now coming from the opposite direction due to the seawall on my right. Wow. Talk about the worst conditions I have ever been in. I told myself that if I ever got out of this water, I didn't know if I could handle Ironman Canada. When I would try to sight on the way back, the sun was glaring at me, even with tinted goggles. No one could see the buoys due to the waves coming at your face when you would try to sight. I thought to myself, poor beginners. If this is someone's first race, it would definitely scare them out of the sport for good. I ended up swimming way off course, because a kayaker yelled at me "move to your left" when I came up for a breath. I had swum towards the seawall. I was so freakin' frustrated, because I felt much stronger this season with my swim, and my times in the pool reflected this. To know I was way off course and panicking just ruined my day. I finally got back to shore and got my wetsuit stripped. I looked down at my watch---I really didn't want to know---I knew I had potential to do around a 37 minute swim, which isn't great by many standards, but for me and swimming being my weakest sport, I would take it. My watch showed 43 minutes. Talk about a letdown. I continued on, nonetheless. (I found out later just how rough the swim was for everyone else----it seems to affect weak swimmers much more than strong swimmers. Matt told me he got a calf cramp and actually had to lay on his back and massage out the cramp in the middle of the swim!)

Overall Swim Time:------ 43 minutes

BIKE:


The bike was the same typical headwind on the way out--the same experience from last year. My bike was averaging around 17.8 until the 25 mile turnaround. It honestly took me about an hour to get over that mental madness in my head over that horrendous swim. I was so mad and frustrated, but there was nothing to take it back. I did realize that if I can make it through that swim, hopefully every other swim this season would seem like a breeze :)
After the turnaround, I started picking up speed. It was fun to see team members on the out-and-back. There was a nice little tailwind and man was that FUN!!!!!!! To see my bike mph go from 17.8 and finish out at 20.2mph was VERY rewarding to me. I had been hoping for around 19.5mph that day, so that was a bonus for sure!!! I took in 3 water bottles of Gatorade, as well as 3 gels and felt very hydrated and good coming off the bike. My legs were surprisingly not as tired as I was scared they might be. The winter trainer rides were paying off ;)
Overall mph for bike---- 20.2mph

RUN:

The run was the same typical non-shaded very hot course. I started off with my first mile being a 7:36 pace. My goal overall was to hit 7:58 as long as possible, but with the heat, I knew I would most likely fade. I decided after the first water stop that I would walk every water stop for a mental break. I took advantage of all the ice water, cold sponges, and gatorade. I even put ice down my tri top when possible and poured water over my head. I passed lots of people on the run, and that felt good to stay so strong. I did fade towards the end, but seeing though Matt and I have only been in base phase of training with no speed work yet, I was very content with an 8:09 pace for the 13.1 miles, especially at the beginning of the season.
Overall run for 13.1 miles-------1:46 (8:09 pace per mile)

The last 3 miles of the run are always tough; that's where you have to dig reallyyyyyy deep. I never scrolled my Garmin over to see what my predicted finish time would be. I knew that I would either be motivated or frutrated. If I was frustrated when I looked at the watch, with 3 more miles to go, I knew that I would mentally want to throw in the towel. That's why I made the decision to wait until I crossed the finish line.

My overall goal going into the race, with perfect conditions and race expectations, was a 5:15. Overall, I was 5:22. If you look back at my estimated swim time I had hoped for (37 minutes), that would have put me right around a 5:15. Bummer. BUT, you can't change weather conditions. I still beat my New Orleans time last year by 17 minutes, so I am very happy about that!!!!!

Matt finished in 5:12. His goal was a 5:10, so he was very close as well. At least we can understand each other's frustrations, seeing that neither one of us are strong swimmers. I am very proud of him!!!

Sister Madonna!!! 80 years old---oldest female to finish Kona ---36 Ironman Triathlons!!!



Afterwards, some of the members of the MS Heat team met for dinner at Crescent City Brewhouse for dinner. We enjoyed sharing race stories together.


The morning after, we slept in and got to enjoy a lil bit more of New Orleans before heading back to Jtown!!!





We are all very concerned over a team member that crashed on the bike course. He looked down after making a pass and upon looking up, hit an orange cone blocking a hole in the road. He was taken to Tulane Medical and had hip surgery Monday from a broken hip. Please pray that he makes a speedy recovery from this. This was his first 1/2 Ironman, and it just breaks my heart that this happened to him. He was so well-trained and excited about this race. He will be in good hands though; A friend of ours is taking over his care after he returns to Jackson. It turns out, the surgeon on-call at Tulane at the time was a good friend of George's, our friend who is the surgeon here. I think God definitely is playing a hand in all of this, and we are just thankful that Robin was not injured any worse than this.

NOLA 70.3 race week!!

Well, all the bags are packed and we are ready to head to New Orleans after work today!! Let's hope we haven't forgotten anything:)

Why does it always seem that the week you want/need to be relaxing never seems to work out that way? (at least not for us, anyway ;)
This has been a crazy week for both of us due to work.

Just a few of the drama bits for the week------
* Got home 5 minutes after it began pouring rain Wednesday---the dogs decided to
have a mud party. Matt took Ollie in the backyard for a bath, Sadie went with me
for a bath in the front yard.
* My blackberry keyboard decided to stop working Wednesday night---I could see when
I would get a call, but couldn't answer or use the phone, because none of the
buttons worked!!!!!!! Spent a great deal of the day yesterday trying to get it
fixed without paying major bucks!! My cell phone is a MUST for work---I mainly
work out of my car and can't go a minute without it. I had 2 patient referrals
that day and was panicking that I missed the hospital's calls.
* Work tells me that I need a yearly TB test. Got this done at the MEA clinic
Wednesday. The lady tells me I need to come back after 3:30pm on Thursday. I
even asked her twice, double-checking her, telling her I needed to go out of
town early Friday. She re-confirmed. I showed up yesterday, after 3:30pm, and
they told me I was going to have to come back Friday. Wow!! Are you serious?? I
went all the way across town to get this and planned my afternoon around it:( If
it isn't read when they need it, you have to repeat both tests again, and I will
be off work Monday and can't get it read. Matt is going to try to see if he can read the test and report it on a script for my work. So frustrating.

Hmmm.......so when you look at it, the week didn't really start getting crazy until
Wednesday night. Unfortunately, that's when I would have preferred the week to get calm. Oh well, can't have it like you want it in life, right?!

I did successfully pull off a lingerie shower cake for Staci's sister. She is going to come pick it up today!
I really love making fun cakes!!! I would like to take some cake decortating classes one day and learn more about fondant, etc.

Back to racing this weekend. We have put in the time and training hours (LOTS of bike trainer hours this cold winter!!!) It is going to be a very hot and windy day, just like last year. All we can do is our very best though.

There is actually about 38 MS Heat Members racing in NOLA this weekend, so it will be fun to see all the team representin' at the race ;) We are going to have a post-race party at Crescent City Brewhouse Sunday night-----looking forward to it. We will be staying until Monday this year. Coming back directly after the race last year was not the wisest idea ;)

I'll leave you with a pic of our bikes ready to roll :)

Race report to follow !!!!

Natchez Trace Century Ride weekend :)

Long bike rides are always more fun with friends!!! The more friends to pull or help pull the pack, the better ;)

We could not have asked for more BEAUTIFUL weather this past weekend for the Natchez Trace Century Ride. We rode 65 miles of the ride, with a 4 mile brick run afterwards. The legs are coming along nicely for both of us. Yesterday, we had another brick, this time with a shortened bike and a long run tacked on at the end. I am hoping for nice things in NOLA next weekend for both of us ;)






Last Thursday night, we had a MS Heat tri team meeting to discuss sponsors for the year, as well as speakers we are requesting for the season. We kicked it off at Pie Work, pizza by design. Good stuff!!! We got the whole back patio, by the water, to ourselves, so it was a nice night for discussion!!!!




I am SO thankful for good, faithful friends and an even more faithful,loving husband who always stands beside me. I could not ask for more blessings than I already have!!!!

There are 2 types of runners.............

The type of runner that sees a steep hill and says, 'no way', and avoids the hill....and the type of runner that embraces that hill, saying, 'this makes me a stronger runner.' My husband made this little quote up. I admit, I used to be, and still may be at times, the first described runner ;) BUT, I am learning to be the second runner more and more every day.

Last week was our second week of prescribed hill repeats from our coach. We have a hill a few miles from our house that Matt likes to call "The Beast." Yeah, does that explain it well enough? ;) It takes about 1 minute or maybe longer to reach the top of the hill. This may not really seem like a long amount of time to most. Why don't you just try it, OVER and OVER again. Sprint up it as fast as you possibly can, only think you are through the pain, for it to steepen up even more to the point you feel like you are hyperventilating. THEN, sprint down the hill, using fast strides, and when you get to the bottom, then break out the wind sprints for 1 minute x 2. Then, as if that wasn't joyous enough, do it all again multiple times ;) Did I mention it was 5 am and still dark while we are doing this? This is after warming up for around 5 miles beforehand. It totals up to be almost 10 miles when we are finished. (uh, "finished" can be taken many ways :)

I'm sure we are known as "The Crazies" around these parts ;) We only get up that early to avoid traffic on that route. Otherwise, running the hill wouldn't be possible.

We are getting stronger, nonetheless, and hope to conquer these hills with a little more ease by the end of August, when Ironman Canada nears ;)

Pollen here, pollen there..............

Pollen, pollen EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!





These pictures really don't do it justice :)
They were taking the Easter Sunday afternoon. We spent the weekend with my family, and had very good intentions of getting this ride in Saturday morning/afternoon in Meridian. Factor in the rainstorm first which postponed the ride, then the drive all the way to Meridian to find that the route we had mapped out was closed due to road construction, and we ran out of options. We decided to turn the planned Saturday long bike into a long run. Luckily, we had brought our running shoes/shorts because we had planned on doing a brick run after the bike that day.

On to Bonita Lakes=====I haven't run these trails since I first moved to Meridian. When I ran the trails, I would run the single-path trail. I believe it was a 6.2 mile route, maybe? Our friend, Stacy, told us the new gravel trail was around 4.6 miles, so we decided at first, that we would run it 3 times, and we should be good to go for our weekend long run. Notice I said, "at first". Holy crap!!!! Some of those inclines were so steep it felt like we were walking up the hill instead of running. Maybe trail shoes would have been a good investment?! Now, maybe I am dramatizing just a little, or maybe our legs were trashed due to the 10 mile hilly route with multiple sprint/hill repeats we had just done 2 days earlier. Either way, this run wasn't very, errr, refreshing for the two of us ;) We ended up getting in 2 laps of the trails, and added on mileage around the lower lake. It was, however, BEAUTIFUL!!! You could not ask for a more beautiful time of year----spring had definitely sprung..........dogwoods in full bloom, tulips and daffodils around the lake, bradford pears in full bloom. We got in our car and both decided that we needed to plan to come back to the trails, and bring our Ironman Canada trainees, before Canada to work on our marathon training.

We got lots of family time on Easter, and enjoyed spending time with everyone.



Sunday after church and breakfast at church, we packed and headed back. We are a sight for sore eyes, all packed in with 2 Doodles, a crate, and all of our luggage and bikes ;)

Easter Candy and Ironman training doesn't mix

This week kicked off our first week of brick workouts and intervals on the bike. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are bricks. Wednesday will probably be our toughest, most tiring day of the week----a brick that morning, then a swim that afternoon/evening. Tomorrow will kick off longer mid-week runs with hills............ask Matt about my love for hills. No comment. But, I keep telling myself: Power/hill intervals + hill work = stronger legs!!!!

Last week was a recovery training week for us, which means that our workouts were cut in half----so nice and needed!!! We have become Lost addicts, so every night last week consisted of eating dinner, then laying in bed to watch Netflix back-to-back episodes of Lost............yeah, we're old......and spoiled. "Wait till kids come along. There won't be any more of that laying around." Yep, we know. That's why we are enjoying it now and getting it all out of our systems, because I plan on being a baby-makin' machine in the next few years ;).........with some training thrown in there between babies, of course ;)

Work is crazy this week!!! I got 6 patients today---I think the hospitals are discharging everyone home before the Easter holiday, so they are all coming today and I'm sure tomorrow.

Tomorrow night kicks off the first team group ride of the season----I hope we have a good crowd. I am still enjoying being president, although this last month has been extremely busy trying to get all our 2010 season apparel, sponsors, etc. complete.It feels nice to see it all come together every year though.

I am excited for the weekend!! We are going to my mom's and taking the puppies!! Contemplating a 5K in Meridian, and a long bike ride after with a few Meridian friends for training. I love Easter sunrise service. It's so special to me.

Matt and I are trying to lean up a little this month, since New Orleans Ironman 70.3 is in 2 weeks. Restricting our carbs at night has been a little tough, to put it lightly :) We both love our carbs, not to mention it makes nightly meals a little difficult. "What would you like tonight dear, grilled chicken or baked chicken? Brocolli or green beans?" That about sums it up every night. We dream of Easter candy and carbs on a daily basis. Right now, until racing season is over, we are trying to restrict it to weekend nights. You should have seen me in Fresh Market, raiding the candy bin aisle last weekend. BADNESS!!!!!!!!! LOL :) What is it about candy I love so much I will never know.................see ya later. I'm headed to bed to dream of Cadbury mini eggs and Peeps ;)

Manic depressive cyclist?

Matt and I were about 30 minutes into our 70 mile ride Saturday when he turned around on the bike and stated, "I feel like I'm manic depressive!!!---one second, I'm feeling good, the next second I'm about to die to get off this BIKE!!!!" It was chilly, windy, and boring. We were alone the whole ride along the Natchez Trace, and neither one of us was quite, uh, feelin' it this morning.

Ohhhh, the joys of long bike rides----------the one reason we said we might never do another Ironman again ;) And, yep, here we are in the middle of another Ironman. Will we ever learn ? :) They say you have to forget the hurt of the race before you are ready to race again. Hmmmmmmmmm. This was our longest training week so far for Ironman Canada. We had two 2hour,5 minute trainer rides on Tuesday and Thursday, two 8 milers on Wednesday and Friday, and I lifted leg weights Thursday. How do ya think the legs felt? I'll give you a hint------------not like a "spring chicken" ;)

So, let's fast forward to Sunday. Hail and snow? Seriously?!! 70+ degrees the day before and then snow? Wow!!! We decided to make Sunday morning our recovery ride on the trainer and swap around our long run until that afternoon. We headed to church, and afterwards while we were eating at Newks, we noticed the 20+mph gusts as we were leaving, all while the snow flurries were picking up in intensity. Seriously? Mid-march and snow?? Did I mention that already?

We debated back and forth for a little while on our long run vs. being lazy bums the rest of the afternoon. The decision?

Long run completion-0
Lazy bums- 1

I have never quite enjoyed laying on the couch so much....mix that with eating brownies (hey--they were "healthy" brownies at least ;) and cinnamon pita chips, while we watched back-to-back episodes of Lost from Netflix, and you have a perfect day. Man, was that a much needed mental and physical relaxation day!! We knew we wouldn't appreciate getting our long run in before work, but that didn't stop us. We only got off the couch to grill dinner, and then get in the bed for more episodes of Lost. Ahhhhhhhhh laziness, how I've missed you ;)

The run this morning was brutally tough with ice/mist and heavy winds, but we perservered through it and the lunch time swim, so now it's all recovery for the week!!!!! YES ;) The little things that make me happy :)

Today's forecast? 32 degrees. Tomorrow? 78 degrees. As they say, if you don't like Mississippi weather, wait a day. It will change ;)