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Monday, May 21, 2007




FLORIDA 70.3 RACE REPORT

I had a good taper and really expected to have a good race. I didn't have the race I wanted but had some positives to take away with me. We got to the race site around 12:30 on Saturday so we could register, rack the bikes then check in to the hotel and relax. We stayed at the Contemporary Resort right across the lake which was nice. No issues with registration, went quickly. Glad we arrived early in the day because the bike racks were first come, first serve and a lot of bikes were already racked. I got an ok spot but the transition area seemed huge. We ate dinner at the hotel and I woke up in the middle of the night with horrible heartburn and didn't sleep well the remainder of the night. We walked to the race from our hotel which took about 30 minutes so that was a nice time to get the legs moving and get the motivational juices flowing. I was in wave #11 out of about 15 so way in the back of the pack. I put on my new Blueseventy Pointzero3 skin suit and toed the line with the other girls; we had the women 40-44 and 18-24 in our wave. I had an awesome start. Got out really quickly and felt good about that. I saw the girls on my left coming by and tried to stick to their feet but went too anaerobic doing this so I had to let them go - that was the demise of my race!! They got away from me and were too fast to catch up to later. I kept thinking how long the swim seemed but it went ok overall (everyone swam slower this year, ?long course). Since our wave was later, we had a ton of slower people to navigate through but I stayed pretty aggressive. I hit the beach and was shocked how slow my time was and immediately went into damage control. Got through transition pretty well and got on the bike and started hammering. It was quite windy, blowing about 10-20mph all morning. I have been doing plenty of speed work bike sessions in the wind at Fort Desoto and was glad for that. I rode really aggressively because I was so ticked about my horrible swim. The bike was pretty uneventful overall. A lot of slower riders to pass and some serious drafting trains coming around me from the men 30-39 AG's! I didn't see a race marshall all day but tried not to get concerned with other poeple not racing legally. I probably didn't drink enough on the bike but didn't have any real problems. I got into T2 and completely lost my rack! Eeeeek. I did find it right behind me eventually and got going on the run. I made sure to hit my watch out of T2 just to see how I was running the first few miles. I ran 6:47 for the first mile and felt pretty good, didn't feel too fast but I knew I would slow down. I quit looking at mile splits around mile 4 when I was averaging 7:05-7:10 pace. I had some good periods and some bad periods in the run but it went by relatively quickly. I knew the girl who ended up winning my AG was way out in front but I wasn't really aware of anyone else, just concentrated on my personal race. I ended up 4th which I wasn't happy about but I lost the race in the swim. The positive I took from the race was my bike, which was a little faster than last year under much tougher conditions (wind) and my run was a bit faster off the faster bike. I'm not going to lose sleep over a slow swim but will do underwater video session the end of June and try and improve my technique. I am really sore today and am glad I have only a four day work week before Memorial Day weekend! I'm going to take the next four weeks and get back into the gym a lot and try and ride a lot before we get into ironman training for IM Florida. I talked quite a few people about the race and most did around what they thought, not all. The Dane did pretty well, 10th in the AG and got a slot to Clearwater 70.3 World Championships (I declined my slot since IM Florida is a week prior). We had fun hanging out afterwards and trading war stories. Now, time for a little R&R!!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

TAPER

We are well into tapering for Florida 70.3 this Sunday (be sure to tune in to ironman.com to follow along). I have a love-hate relationship with the taper. On the one hand, I'm happy to cut back on the training and not be tired constantly and worry about fitting workouts into my busy day. But, on the other hand I LOVE to train and I love to push myself in workouts. I will take the compromise of pushing myself in the race and be rested enough to do that. I will have my work cut out for me on Sunday but I plan to just focus on my race and not worry about those around me. I've had some really solid training with MarkAllenOnline and am confident in my fitness. In fact, I emailed Mark with some taper questions and he gave good answers to help me feel confident in what I'm doing. Imagine, the Grip himself answering all my neurotic questions! This program rocks! Hopefully, it will be hot but we're supposed to get a "cold" front today/tomorrow so who knows. Can't control the weather so I won't worry about it. Good luck to everyone who will be battling out there on Sunday. I got some nice Belgian beer from my surprise party to celebrate with afterwards (thanks May-Li)! Race strong everyone.....

Sunday, May 13, 2007

FRIENDS...

It's late but I just wanted to say how completely grateful I am to have such wonderful friends. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world right now because the people I hold close to my heart were kind enough to show up and surprise me with a birthday party. I don't know what I did in life to deserve such wonderful people in my life but I do appreciate the fact they were there. Thanks to everyone and I was truly surprised!! Forty, here I come....................

Monday, May 07, 2007

HURRICANE MAN SWIM REPORT

Well, we hoped for better water conditions for this 2.4 mile open water swim, and we got them, sort of. The water was much less rough than last year, a little chop for the first mile then smooth. Unfortunately, the current was decent and going against us, especially the second half. I got out pretty good and got to the Don Cesar in about 26 minutes and thought I was going to PR here for sure. Well, I'm glad I never looked at my watch again because it would have killed my attitude as I ended up coming out of the water a little over a minute slower than last year. The good news is, so did everyone else I spoke with but most by more than a minute, more like 4-5 minutes. The good things I can take out of this swim are I kept pretty focused on my technique pretty much the whole way, didn't space out to much and stand up wondering how much further like last year. I got the household trophy back as I passed the Dane (who started 2 minutes ahead of me in men's wave) shortly after the halfway point. He jumped on my feet for a bit and I had visions of us coming out of the water together sprinting to the line in attempt to beat the other! Didn't happen, I put a little surge in after I passed him and he couldn't hang on to my feet. I navigated very well, swam pretty straight, to the point where I almost forgot I had to pop my head up every now and then to check where I was! I finished fourth again in my AG but don't really care about that. The Dane and I then embarked on our long ride which wasn't as long as it was scheduled because I got truly sick of doing loops inside Fort Desoto with a million vehicles whizzing by too close for comfort. We rode about 48 miles though, all aerobic, in the heat - good prep for Florida 70.3! After the ride we trotted out for 30 minute brick which was not much fun. It was a little after 1pm by this time, the sun high in the sky and baking us already. We ran pretty fast because I chose to ignore my "heart machine" (as Linda M. calls it!) and get it over with. Can I just say, it was pretty hot. Again, good prep for Florida 70.3 in two weeks. The good part comes next, celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a few Coronas looking at the beautiful Gulf with my favorite person. I love weekends here! Taper time is here......finally!