I've had trouble sleeping the past few nights. I'm not sure where that's coming from - possibly the fact that I've actually gotten more than 8 hours a night for the past few days and my body forgot how to function outside of a state of exhaustion. Unfortunately, I'm going to pay for tonight tomorrow morning when I have to ride at 7:00 AM before I go into work! And then I'll be working until at least 8:00 tomorrow night... Oh well, I ought to sleep well tomorrow.
Training is going well - since King Tut, I've had some really solid workouts, despite some pain in my foot since the 5K PR (it's almost gone now, we think I bruised the foot earlier in the week, and the race aggravated it). My running is truly back to what it was in 2008 when I was competitive in the mid-distances, and possibly even better than it was then. It snuck up on me, but I can't say I'm surprised, because Aaron always seems to know what is best for me. That's why I pay him the big bucks. So anyways, my training pace runs now average about 8:00 minutes a mile, which is about 2:00 minutes a mile faster than they were averaging in January after Ken and I got back from Europe. It's silly, but I love going out to run around White Rock, and passing all the boys without even breaking a sweat. What can I say - I'm a competitive person. I like being the fastest. Which brings me to my swim, which has always been a source of problems in the past, but which has finally started to come together in the last year or so. Last Friday at DAM, I actually had someone ask me if I swam competitively in college - of course, I laughed out loud, but I was still really flattered. They also had me move up a lane FINALLY! Even I was amazed at the intervals I was maintaining at that workout. It felt amazing, and left me more excited than I've been about swimming since last fall.
Of course, with summer rapidly approaching, race season is in full-swing at Playtri and we are all racing around (no pun intended) trying to stay on top of the many events we are producing this season. I am constantly amazed at Staci's ability to stay organized with everything going on - and also inspired to be more organized myself, something that I have always struggled with. But even with the best organization, there is a lot to do right now, and some days seem never-ending, which makes training less appealing than usual - days like yesterday, Easter Sunday, when I actually don't have to go into work or drive to a practice or clinic are so exciting for me now. To have all day to sit around, write schedules, get in all of my workouts, eat well, and rest is like the ultimate luxury. Granted I had to get right back in the swing of things today, but I did manage to fit a nap in post-work/pre-training. Always a major accomplishment these days!
The McKinney Kiwanis Sprint Triathlon and Kids Tri are this weekend, which will mean being in McKinney by 5:00 AM Saturday AND Sunday - worth it because it's all part of having the best job in the world, but still a struggle to be up that early on the weekend!! Additionally, my mom and Ken are coming up this weekend for my BIRTHDAY (yep, I'm getting older in a week), so I want to make lots of time to spend with them as well. Ken's birthday is coming up, too, but not as soon as mine. So it will be busy times, but good times. You can sleep when you're dead, right? That's what I hear anyways. Sometimes I think that would be a better title for this blog...
But all is well in my world and in the Playtri world and I am looking forward to another crazy-but-awesome week of training, working, and racing with the best group of triathletes I know.
Happy training everybody!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Hello Heat Acclimation...
For of you who didn't notice, the temps got into the mid-90's in Dallas yesterday. It's April. And it was 95 degrees. That's hot.
I totally prefer the heat to the cold - if it's a choice between 40 degrees and 100 degrees, I will take 100 degrees any time. Don't get me wrong, I love a happy medium, but when push comes to shove, I'm a summer-time person. Tank tops, shorts, flip-flops, sunshine, these are definitely my preferences. However, I've been training in cold weather for the last 6 months or so (minus my brief but amazing week at the Hawaii camp in Kona), and my body is not operating at 100% in the heat just yet.
Conveniently enough, I presented a lecture on heat acclimation at the Iron Texas Camp two weeks ago, so I have a pretty thorough understanding now of what it entails. Which is basically - train in the heat until your body acclimates. Ok, I joke, it is more specific than that, but at its most basic, that pretty much sums it up. So heat acclimation training started with yesterday's post-work run by the lake with Ken. I was already not at 100% because of doing King Tut the day before, and when the 90 degree air hit my face, I suddenly was slightly less excited about running than before we left the apartment. I quickly noticed that even though I was incredibly hot, I was barely sweating at all - not necessarily a good thing, since sweat is our body's cooling mechanism, and a lot of the time if our body isn't sweating in hot weather, it's because its use of that mechanism has become slightly rusty from disuse (to put it in the least scientific way possible).
Even though we were only running for 30 minutes, I felt completely dehydrated by the time we got home. I chugged a Powerade and took a cool bath as soon as I got inside. It's amazing the things that heat can do to your body... I've definitely got some work to do in that area before Beijing. Hopefully, though, the warm temps will stick around now and I'll be a hot weather racing machine by mid-summer.
I hope everyone is enjoying the warmth, despite the negative effects on performance! Stay cool and train safe!
I totally prefer the heat to the cold - if it's a choice between 40 degrees and 100 degrees, I will take 100 degrees any time. Don't get me wrong, I love a happy medium, but when push comes to shove, I'm a summer-time person. Tank tops, shorts, flip-flops, sunshine, these are definitely my preferences. However, I've been training in cold weather for the last 6 months or so (minus my brief but amazing week at the Hawaii camp in Kona), and my body is not operating at 100% in the heat just yet.
Conveniently enough, I presented a lecture on heat acclimation at the Iron Texas Camp two weeks ago, so I have a pretty thorough understanding now of what it entails. Which is basically - train in the heat until your body acclimates. Ok, I joke, it is more specific than that, but at its most basic, that pretty much sums it up. So heat acclimation training started with yesterday's post-work run by the lake with Ken. I was already not at 100% because of doing King Tut the day before, and when the 90 degree air hit my face, I suddenly was slightly less excited about running than before we left the apartment. I quickly noticed that even though I was incredibly hot, I was barely sweating at all - not necessarily a good thing, since sweat is our body's cooling mechanism, and a lot of the time if our body isn't sweating in hot weather, it's because its use of that mechanism has become slightly rusty from disuse (to put it in the least scientific way possible).
Even though we were only running for 30 minutes, I felt completely dehydrated by the time we got home. I chugged a Powerade and took a cool bath as soon as I got inside. It's amazing the things that heat can do to your body... I've definitely got some work to do in that area before Beijing. Hopefully, though, the warm temps will stick around now and I'll be a hot weather racing machine by mid-summer.
I hope everyone is enjoying the warmth, despite the negative effects on performance! Stay cool and train safe!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
I Raced Like an Egyptian
This morning... King Tut Sprint Triathlon. My second tri of the season, after a disastrous first one at the Tri Cowtown Sprint.
The past week has been manic - race week at Playtri always is - and I've been averaging about 6 hours of sleep a night, and logging nutrition had, unfortunately, taken a back seat to work as well. Then last night we went out with a group of friends for a huge Italian dinner complete with wine and tiramisu, and had my favorite triathlete, Mandy, to stay over. To top off the ideal racing situation, I had to be on site by 5:00 AM this morning to run race day packet pickup before the race. Tired, dehydrated, and oh, by the way, it was cold AGAIN and it took us about 20 minutes to get my wetsuit zipper to work.
My head wasn't exactly in it this morning.
But none the less, I was at the swim start in plenty of time - cold, cranky, and distracted, but at least I was there. And in my wetsuit. Thank god. My wave was the first after the Open wave left, and as Mandy and I hit the water at the start, I thought maybe, just maybe this could be a decent race. No time to dwell on it, though, because the next thing I knew Staci was blowing the megaphone siren and we were off. I immediately swam off in the wrong direction, but got back on track with a decent draft soon enough. I didn't feel strong, but I didn't feel nearly as bad as I did at Tri Cowtown. I warmed up once I was moving, too. I caught a few drafts throughout the swim, none of them great, but it was still good practice. Finally, with about 100m left, I just sighted for the finish - I felt like I had been really slow, and just wanted to get the heck out of there. (Of course, turns out I was averaging 1:59 100's, which for me, in an open water swim, is actually pretty good - you can never tell for sure!).
When I got into T1 I soon realized that my wetsuit wasn't coming off without a fight. I ended up sitting on the ground, yanking on the legs and muttering profanities under my breath (not one of my prouder moments). After a solid three minutes in transition, I finally managed to somehow rip the wetsuit off and get cycling socks on my cold, still-wet feet, and hit the bike course. Even though I bought super awesome new Trivent Women's cycling shoes yesterday, I didn't have them fit to my bike yet, so I was still using my pretty cruddy old road cycling shoes this morning (one of my tri shoes was lost in the move two months ago, and has yet to be recovered... very mysterious), and this came back to haunt me at the end of the bike. The bike itself was fine - I averaged 18.5, not great, but still better than Tri Cowtown. I caught a couple of legal drafts, but only two or three women passed me, and they were a good deal faster than me, so they didn't make the best leads. By the end of the bike, I hadn't seen but two girls from my age group, and since I was convinced they had all beat me in the swim, I wasn't in the best mood.
Then I had my Cinderella moment.
While getting my foot out of my shoe about 1/2 mile from T2, my cycling shoe pops off the pedal. Instead of stopping, I keep trying to pedal with my sock-clad foot, but after 100 meters or so that just isn't working so I hop off and run my bike the last 1/4 mile to transition in one cycling shoe - again, muttering less-than-appropriate phrases beneath my breath and hoping no one can hear me!
By the time my bike was racked in T2, I was downright cranky, and I needed to go to the bathroom. I also couldn't feel my feet. BAD combination. But I high tailed it out of there (I had the fastest T2 for my AG) with my bib bumber and hit the running path. I immediately felt like turning around and heading for the port-o-potty, and walk/running the run - NOT part of my race strategy, but I was so frustrated at that point that I didn't even care. I heard a girl breathing behind me as she gained on me, and I sped up a little at the thought of getting passed AGAIN (or so I thought). Then I thought about World Championships coming up, and what would I do if I had a crappy swim/bike there? You can't exactly walk/run the 5K at a World Championship. So somehow, I sucked it up, and started out the find the rest of my age group. And then, it happened... about 1/2 mile in, I hit my stride. I don't think I've hit my 5K stride since before I had mono in 2009. But all of a sudden it just felt like I was flying, and wasn't even working for it. I started passing people left and right. I caught Mandy at the turnaround, and caught three girls from AG shortly after. I was breathing hard and working at that point, but my determination was completely outweighing any discomfort at that point, and I just kept flying. As I made my way up the last hill, I was tired, but I still felt amazing - I couldn't believe I had overcome my frustration so completely, and I shot the photographer a huge smile right before the finish line.
Turns out, I PR'ed my 5K time this morning with a 6:56 pace. I can barely describe how totally elated I was when I saw the unofficial results and realized that I had run my fastest 5K EVER - including before I was sick two years ago. I also realized that I could have gone even faster, since I messed around a good chunk of the time, thinking that even though I was booking it, there was no way I was going to place. What an incredible feeling. It made me feel like, finally, maybe I deserved my spot on Team USA. It also made me realize that I really am back to full health. I couldn't have run that race otherwise.
Mandy and I stuck around for awards, and she won her age group while I placed 2nd in mine. Lots of Playtri folks were on the podium this morning, and it was exciting to hear all those familiar names being called for awards. I can't wait for the Kiwanis Sprint in two weeks.
Happy training everybody : )
The past week has been manic - race week at Playtri always is - and I've been averaging about 6 hours of sleep a night, and logging nutrition had, unfortunately, taken a back seat to work as well. Then last night we went out with a group of friends for a huge Italian dinner complete with wine and tiramisu, and had my favorite triathlete, Mandy, to stay over. To top off the ideal racing situation, I had to be on site by 5:00 AM this morning to run race day packet pickup before the race. Tired, dehydrated, and oh, by the way, it was cold AGAIN and it took us about 20 minutes to get my wetsuit zipper to work.
My head wasn't exactly in it this morning.
But none the less, I was at the swim start in plenty of time - cold, cranky, and distracted, but at least I was there. And in my wetsuit. Thank god. My wave was the first after the Open wave left, and as Mandy and I hit the water at the start, I thought maybe, just maybe this could be a decent race. No time to dwell on it, though, because the next thing I knew Staci was blowing the megaphone siren and we were off. I immediately swam off in the wrong direction, but got back on track with a decent draft soon enough. I didn't feel strong, but I didn't feel nearly as bad as I did at Tri Cowtown. I warmed up once I was moving, too. I caught a few drafts throughout the swim, none of them great, but it was still good practice. Finally, with about 100m left, I just sighted for the finish - I felt like I had been really slow, and just wanted to get the heck out of there. (Of course, turns out I was averaging 1:59 100's, which for me, in an open water swim, is actually pretty good - you can never tell for sure!).
When I got into T1 I soon realized that my wetsuit wasn't coming off without a fight. I ended up sitting on the ground, yanking on the legs and muttering profanities under my breath (not one of my prouder moments). After a solid three minutes in transition, I finally managed to somehow rip the wetsuit off and get cycling socks on my cold, still-wet feet, and hit the bike course. Even though I bought super awesome new Trivent Women's cycling shoes yesterday, I didn't have them fit to my bike yet, so I was still using my pretty cruddy old road cycling shoes this morning (one of my tri shoes was lost in the move two months ago, and has yet to be recovered... very mysterious), and this came back to haunt me at the end of the bike. The bike itself was fine - I averaged 18.5, not great, but still better than Tri Cowtown. I caught a couple of legal drafts, but only two or three women passed me, and they were a good deal faster than me, so they didn't make the best leads. By the end of the bike, I hadn't seen but two girls from my age group, and since I was convinced they had all beat me in the swim, I wasn't in the best mood.
Then I had my Cinderella moment.
While getting my foot out of my shoe about 1/2 mile from T2, my cycling shoe pops off the pedal. Instead of stopping, I keep trying to pedal with my sock-clad foot, but after 100 meters or so that just isn't working so I hop off and run my bike the last 1/4 mile to transition in one cycling shoe - again, muttering less-than-appropriate phrases beneath my breath and hoping no one can hear me!
By the time my bike was racked in T2, I was downright cranky, and I needed to go to the bathroom. I also couldn't feel my feet. BAD combination. But I high tailed it out of there (I had the fastest T2 for my AG) with my bib bumber and hit the running path. I immediately felt like turning around and heading for the port-o-potty, and walk/running the run - NOT part of my race strategy, but I was so frustrated at that point that I didn't even care. I heard a girl breathing behind me as she gained on me, and I sped up a little at the thought of getting passed AGAIN (or so I thought). Then I thought about World Championships coming up, and what would I do if I had a crappy swim/bike there? You can't exactly walk/run the 5K at a World Championship. So somehow, I sucked it up, and started out the find the rest of my age group. And then, it happened... about 1/2 mile in, I hit my stride. I don't think I've hit my 5K stride since before I had mono in 2009. But all of a sudden it just felt like I was flying, and wasn't even working for it. I started passing people left and right. I caught Mandy at the turnaround, and caught three girls from AG shortly after. I was breathing hard and working at that point, but my determination was completely outweighing any discomfort at that point, and I just kept flying. As I made my way up the last hill, I was tired, but I still felt amazing - I couldn't believe I had overcome my frustration so completely, and I shot the photographer a huge smile right before the finish line.
Turns out, I PR'ed my 5K time this morning with a 6:56 pace. I can barely describe how totally elated I was when I saw the unofficial results and realized that I had run my fastest 5K EVER - including before I was sick two years ago. I also realized that I could have gone even faster, since I messed around a good chunk of the time, thinking that even though I was booking it, there was no way I was going to place. What an incredible feeling. It made me feel like, finally, maybe I deserved my spot on Team USA. It also made me realize that I really am back to full health. I couldn't have run that race otherwise.
Mandy and I stuck around for awards, and she won her age group while I placed 2nd in mine. Lots of Playtri folks were on the podium this morning, and it was exciting to hear all those familiar names being called for awards. I can't wait for the Kiwanis Sprint in two weeks.
Happy training everybody : )
Saturday, April 9, 2011
My Work Shoes are Adidas
I just wrapped up my 4th Playtri camp as assistant camp director - the Iron Texas Camp in The Woodlands, TX, on the Ironman Texas course. It was my first time to officially work a brand new camp, and it was definitely an experience. The thing about a new camp is that, no matter how much recon is done ahead of time, you never know how the course is going to treat your group of athletes until you get there. It was a fresh challenge every day, addressing the aspects of the event that weren't under our control. It was exciting, and great working experience. And, most importantly, it was a great training experience for the athletes. I think everyone left feeling good about the event, and excited for the next one (though also ready for a good rest).
As usual, I was in charge of all SAG/support for the event, so I got to know all parts of the course extremely well. It was a true taste of Texas - we passed through Montgomery (Birthplace of the Texas flag) and stopped at Jorge's Roadhouse out on 149 for 1/2 pound cheeseburgers. We also went by the Sunshine Store, advertising soaps, lotions, and goats. We still need to look into that one. I had a barbeque sandwich in Richards, and spent time photographing bluebonnets at one of our last rest stops. The course was absolutely beautiful. I didn't expect that from somewhere so close to Houston, TX that it's practically considered part of the city, but it definitely surprised me. It winds through the Sam Houston National Forest and up towards Conroe and Huntsville, the roads are almost all completely smooth, tree-lined, and of course all the wildflowers are blooming right now.
Uh... can you say "perfect one-on-one camp location?" I can, and did. I'm getting a one-on-one camp for myself out there ASAP.
At one point, I looked down at my Adidas-clad feet, and realized that my work shoes are in fact racing flats. It might sound crazy, but I never, never thought I would be so lucky. I remember daydreaming about being a full-time triathlon coach, working for Playtri and getting to work with athletes from all over the country. There was a time when it seemed like an impossible reality - and now here I am, doing exactly what I want to do. Wearing running shorts, tech shirts, and Adidas to work. It's literally my dream job. And I'm doing it. Not to brag or anything.
Of course, the only bad thing about coming to camp to head up support is that you don't train at all during the camp - just sit a lot and still end up completely exhausted. Fortunately, I did the kayak support as well, so I got a decent workout the two days that we swam, but other than that I lost a couple of days training-wise. The coaching knowledge I gain is invaluable, though. Which of course all feeds into my own training knowledge.
I'm ready to get back on my training horse tomorrow for sure. We'll be spectating at the Ironman Texas 70.3 tomorrow after a quick run, and then I'm headed back to Dallas in the evening. Monday is a HUGE day at work, of course, with King Tut coming up next weekend. It will be a 12+ hour day, so I'll just be lucky to get a 30 minute run in somewhere. Hopefully I'll get more in the rest of the week, however. And then of course I'll be racing the King Tut on Sunday with Mandy Mandy, so that will be a great workout!
I hope everyone has a great weekend, and enjoys this wonderful, warm weather.
Happy training!
As usual, I was in charge of all SAG/support for the event, so I got to know all parts of the course extremely well. It was a true taste of Texas - we passed through Montgomery (Birthplace of the Texas flag) and stopped at Jorge's Roadhouse out on 149 for 1/2 pound cheeseburgers. We also went by the Sunshine Store, advertising soaps, lotions, and goats. We still need to look into that one. I had a barbeque sandwich in Richards, and spent time photographing bluebonnets at one of our last rest stops. The course was absolutely beautiful. I didn't expect that from somewhere so close to Houston, TX that it's practically considered part of the city, but it definitely surprised me. It winds through the Sam Houston National Forest and up towards Conroe and Huntsville, the roads are almost all completely smooth, tree-lined, and of course all the wildflowers are blooming right now.
Uh... can you say "perfect one-on-one camp location?" I can, and did. I'm getting a one-on-one camp for myself out there ASAP.
At one point, I looked down at my Adidas-clad feet, and realized that my work shoes are in fact racing flats. It might sound crazy, but I never, never thought I would be so lucky. I remember daydreaming about being a full-time triathlon coach, working for Playtri and getting to work with athletes from all over the country. There was a time when it seemed like an impossible reality - and now here I am, doing exactly what I want to do. Wearing running shorts, tech shirts, and Adidas to work. It's literally my dream job. And I'm doing it. Not to brag or anything.
Of course, the only bad thing about coming to camp to head up support is that you don't train at all during the camp - just sit a lot and still end up completely exhausted. Fortunately, I did the kayak support as well, so I got a decent workout the two days that we swam, but other than that I lost a couple of days training-wise. The coaching knowledge I gain is invaluable, though. Which of course all feeds into my own training knowledge.
I'm ready to get back on my training horse tomorrow for sure. We'll be spectating at the Ironman Texas 70.3 tomorrow after a quick run, and then I'm headed back to Dallas in the evening. Monday is a HUGE day at work, of course, with King Tut coming up next weekend. It will be a 12+ hour day, so I'll just be lucky to get a 30 minute run in somewhere. Hopefully I'll get more in the rest of the week, however. And then of course I'll be racing the King Tut on Sunday with Mandy Mandy, so that will be a great workout!
I hope everyone has a great weekend, and enjoys this wonderful, warm weather.
Happy training!
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