Ugly Shoes

So this season I’ve been running in some pretty blue and silver Nimbus VI, but sadly their days have come to an end.

Last fall I had the ohhhh so ugly green and silver Nimbus VII, the early season release. --->


The ASICS people wised up throughout the year and realized their color design was...well ugly and did release a normal looking purple and white pair later in the season, but at the time last fall when I had to buy some shoes, the early season moon-boot style looking green and silver ones or the blue and silver ones were my only choices. I decided not to get the blue ones.

At first I thought that they wouldn’t be that ugly, but when I tried them on I felt that they were too <---moon-boot-psychedelic in their craziness for me. I know of a running store in my area that wouldn’t carry the shoes, solely (hahaha) because they thought they were ugly and wouldn’t be able to move the shoes out the door.

So it’s time that I replace the pretty blue and silver Nimbus VI for a new pair of the ugly green Nimbus VII I had last fall. They were on sale... what can I say? Even though I could have purchased the relatively normal looking purple and white ones, they would have been 30 dollars more than the ugly silver and green ones and well…I’m cheap and I’ll deal with ugly shoes. Apparently, according to Joe, ugly shoes are justifiable if you run fast enough. So I’d better run fast otherwise I’ll just have unjustifiably ugly shoes. So, I’ve come to the conclusion that ugly shoes are cool. Knowing me, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future given the choice of ‘normal’ looking shoe and ugly shoe, I’ll pick the ugly shoe. (mainly because I’ll think it’s funny)

I also found some shoes that I have no purpose for whatsoever, but I like their names, and they fit the ugly shoe category. Cool name and ugly shoe…that’s even better. If I ever needed some shoes like these, I’d want to be in these ones. Their name: Hyper Rocketgirl XCS. That name…it’s awesome…and the shoe…it’s…well...not pretty, that’s for sure.

Or if I need some court shoes I’d want these ones below named: Rocket III . Again cool name, but and yet again...more on the ugly than on the non-ugly side of shoes.

You see, my shoes are named Nimbus, and well that’s just the name of a cloud...yawn.

OoooOOOOhhh I’m running on a cloud. OK so some Nimbus clouds are ‘menacing’ thunder clouds…I’m still unimpressed. It doesn't inspire me to run fast like Rocket does.

Personally, I’d rather run like a rocket. And that is what I shall do…

Rocketpants

Fast Twitch Muscles

I have them, I do! This season I’ve proved to myself that I really have fast twitch muscles…and they are faster than I thought. It’s been a fun discovery. So this morning the training goal was to find out how fast I can run a single mile in. Since I was told on Saturday this is what today’s work out would be, I’ve been thinking about it a bit over the past few days. Interesting memories have floated to the surface as I’ve tried to think about ‘how’ to run fast.

One particular one came to mind was when I was 8 years old and in 2^nd grade how I ran the 200m in ‘Track and Field’ day and I won. Oh yea, I could run as a little kid. (I also was one of the tallest kids in elementary school, at least when I was little I had long legs.) I’m just not that tall a person anymore. I’m not that short, just under 5’ 4’’but I’m usually reminded that I’m not tall either when I can’t reach things on the top shelf and I need a taller housemate of mine to help me out. Sigh.

But this morning I discovered that I’m faster than I thought. Rocketpants may just surface if I’m not looking too hard for her (I think she’s shy). As I started running on the track another track memory came to mind. When I was in 6^th grade I ran the 4 x 200 relay and made the City track meet. I think we came in second. But I do remember I wasn’t the slowest leg on the relay…I began to think ‘maybe those fast twitch muscles are really there.’

And so I started my mile and a half warm up. Warmed up a mile, stretched, ran another half and then it was time to figure out the fastness in my legs (even if they were still sore from my long run on Sunday…that was no excuse).

The goal: run fast, no negative self talk, run fast, relax, and run fast.

Final time for 1 mile: 7:24!! Avg HR 182

I thought I might be able to pull of something sub 8 mins, but my time was an awesome surprise. I accomplished all my goals. It was great.

A good night’s sleep has helped my disposition today…and finding out that my legs can go…go…go has been fun.

Disoriented

Yoga is crazy. I think I learn more about the weirdness about my body in a yoga class than any other time in life. When I first started doing head stands and hand stands (quite recently), I didn’t like them. I’m still not sure if I do like them yet. I don’t really like being upside down, I use all sorts of weird muscles, and I’m easily disoriented.

It happened again yesterday, I was in a head stand and the goal of coming down is to come down ‘lightly’. This requires that you know where your body is in relation to the floor. Seems like an easy thing to remember: blood flowing to the head, legs upside down in the air, floor is down. Need to put feet on floor…lightly. Problem is, for me at least, is that with time, being upside down I sorta get confused. I know I’m in a head stand (duh), but this whole up and down thing sorta gets thrown out the window in a weird way. It then makes coming down lightly more difficult. I didn’t thud myself to the ground last night, it’s just weird that I could suddenly not figure out where my body was in relation to where gravity is pulling it down. Why?

Yet another Why? Question.

Why?

That is a question I love. Why? It’s simple, is purposeful, it can be investigated…sometimes. It’s due to the simplicity of this question I think I ventured into science. I’ve also found that this question doesn’t work that well outside of science. Asking why people behave the way they do, doesn’t usually turn up an answer. And this question is sometimes a big hurdle for me with training, racing, yoga.

Yoga in particular gets me too many times. I feel like if I just understood WHY my body wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do, then I would be able to move towards being able to do it. Make sense? I donno. Questions that plague me: Why am I so inflexible? I never did *that* much athletics, and I have always believed in stretching, yet I remember being a kid and even being inflexible. Why is that? Sometimes I feel there is more than an answer of ‘just keep doing it, and it will come’Is there a muscle imbalance? Is there something else going on? But my body doesn’t have these answers for me, or it’s not going to let me in on its quiet secrets. It’s puzzling and frustrating because I-just-want-the-answer! Sigh, it will come…when I’m not expecting it, it will just sneak up on me and show me. It doesn’t like the demands of the question Why?, so I must just let it do what it does and try not to question it too much….but…why?

too much of a good thing

Why is it that sometimes having such a GREAT weekend can actually set you up to have a really, really crappy Monday? Yea, grad school is never fun, but when the weekend is THAT good, it makes monday just that much worse. I did all sorts of things and had all sorts of fun which set me up for BLA monday, and I dare-say was more cranky than need be. One of those days where I just wanted to go to bed because that meant tomorrow would be better. But, that is how it goes sometimes.

Things that were great about the weekend:
Since I love sports movies...i got to see "invincible" (only OK...but still a decent flick) with a friend.

Friend came in from out of town and got to hang out with her and other good friends.

Went to a new awesome cafe, that made me miss...miss...miss living in New Zealand (they had my favorite type of espresso drink that I've only ever found over there...a 'flat white'. It's beautiful)

Joe B. has been kind enough to help me through this next 1/2 marathon to help me get under 2 hours. ( Some thing I really appreciate and can't say thanks enough) And I went for the first long run in awhile where I was excited to run 8 miles. It was beautiful. The time run was beautiful. It was a good thing.

Watched more sports movies (ok i admit i'm a sports movie junkie),but I've gotta find out how fast I can run a mile tomorrow, so I thought a little inspiration from Prefontaine would be appropriate :-) The movie made me nostalgic for my undergrad (even though the movie takes place at the University of Oregon, it's not filmed there. It was actually filmed at my undergrad institute, still Pacific Northwest, but not U of O). Watched a really bad sports movie...Breaking Away.

And church was great.

It was a great weekend.

I'm just not going to go into the myrid of things that made today ick...because i'll dwell. But it was a lame Monday. I'm looking forward to tomorrow...both because I get to see how fast I can run a single mile in and also it won't be today with me being cranky (because i'm tired of it...and i have to walk around with myself in my own head) and it will be better. I know it.

Yea for tomorrow...until then...

I have a need for speed

So the tri season has come to a close for me. I'm not done with my racing season as I have a 1/2 marathon in 7 weeks. I've spent this week being a bum and calling it a 'recovery' week. How about not-doing-much-of-anything-week. But mentally I've been trying to regroup and sort through my thoughts about this up coming 1/2. Last year I ran this race and I did steady 10:10 min/miles. This season my running has shown me that I can run faster. Last year my only goal was to finish. This year...um...i think i'm scared to make a goal :-) Saying something scary like "I can do this under 2 hours" sorta freaks me out. But I think I can. My excuse is that for so much of my life I've never considered myself much of an athlete much less a 'runner'. I goofed off at athletics, played soccer for fun in high school, and dabbled in some Ultimate in college. I wasn't ever 'fast' though. (my friends do humor me and call me 'rocketpants') By my definition running a 1/2 under two hours requires 'fast-ness'. But the truth is that mental leap to athlete and 'fast' are words I've not had in my vocabulary. Recently I realize that I'm starting to discover that inner athlete. I surprised myself with 8:30 min/miles this last weekend at my sprint tri for 3 miles. And in July surprised myself with just sub 9 min miles for 5 miles. I know part of me not viewing myself as very fast is a head game, so I better get in the game. So maybe just maybe I can run the 1/2 in...errr

Now I just need to figure out the HOW. Throw in a tempo run? Err...now I'm speaking foreign weird language. I don't speak "runner". So I'll spend the weekend reading those runner like books and come up with something. Me doing this on the fly just won't cut it.

It's all just a weird thought to me....running fast.

Trimberfest: Chapter 3...spectating not an easy sport

Spectating is not an easy sport. Sure as an athlete we all think "hey could we get some cheering going on here?", but MAN for a race like a half ironman where you are looking and looking and looking for those FEW people you know and you have been standing there for a couple of hours after a brief glance as they came out of a transition you can only say "Good job, looking great, doing great..." so many times before you want to quit on the sidelines. I've been spending hours on my bike or run or swim this season, but I haven't been training my spectating stamina and that is also an endurance sport! So help those spectators out a little bit, even if it hurts, flash them some pearly whites a little smile will help encourage those cheering too. Or you can encourage those spectators to cheer. That's always a way to get the spectators to rally.

Sunday was the 1/2 ironman that I got to watch, and watch, and watch while it rained, and stopped and rained and rained and rained. We got there about an hour late, but they started almost 45 mins late so we still were there early enough to see the first Pro get out of the water. Which he did, a full few minutes ahead of the rest of the crew. It was fascinating to watch the different waves of colored caps sorta start to mix all up into a jumbled mess of color. We cheered one of our key athletes through the beach run and started to head out to see the bike transition with the hopes of seeing the athlete we were focused on cheering for. And then I saw in transition the sign "Team Hoyt". I had heard the Hoyt's were doing the 1/2 but I didn't know if we would see them. And as 'Zilla and I were heading to the bike exit when we saw Team Hoyt exiting the swim. I had heard of them briefly before more in connection to running Boston, but somehow the week before Timberman I looked them up and read their amazing story. I knew about them racing Boston but was unaware they were triathletes too. In the back of my head I hoped that I might be able to cheer them on at a race I was at, and suddenly my wish was coming true. I was in awe of the team. In awe of the love Dick Hoyt has for his son and for Rick's smile that was an encouragement all on his own. It brought tears to my eyes. We cheered loudly as they got out of the swim and into T1. They must have gone a different way out of T1 as we didn't see them come out of the bike start. I looked forward to seeing them as the day went on.

Our athlete we saw get out of the water, was speedy in T1 so we didn't see him come out since we had stopped to cheer on Team Hoyt. We looked for some other athletes we knew would be there and screamed our heads off as they came out of T1. Then it was waiting time. We knew we had 3-3.5 hours to wait til the next transition. We cheered a little, moved the car around, ate some lunch, wandered, tried to bribe people to let us park in a better parking spot (no avail) and returned to a wet picnic bench and proceeded to stay fairly soggy the rest of the day. Our spot was great...we could see people coming in on the bike and the run course was two loops...so we could see them three times! Lots of cheering, hiding from rain, and more cheering.

Overall it was a good day of spectating, despite the nasty icky rain. I was glad to finally get in some dry clothes and stay warm on the drive home.

All in all a GREAT weekend! Trimberfest was awesome. And now my tri-season has come to a close. How fast it all goes by!

Now back to my reality shock called...err..grad school. oye...lots to do and not enough hours in the day!

Timberfest: Chapter 2...the kiddies

I do like to blather, so i'm trying to break my ramblings up. At least I'll be able to follow them. Not sure about anyone else.

After the race on Sat it was back to the campsite for yummy sandwiches, a shower and a nap before we got to see the Timber Kidd-o's Tri. They were having the kid's triathlon at the campsite we were at so it wasn't too far to venture. The kids swam 100 yards, biked 1.5 miles (including a decent hill) and ran 0.5 miles. They started the kids almost one at a time, spacing them a few seconds apart from eachother. Which was good, then they didn't have to attempt not to drown in the chaos of a swim start. It was great to watch the little colored caps swim across the pond. Grab their bikes and off they went. The kids had racing chips, and body markings. What was great was that all their race numbers were "1"...even though they had other numbers on their bikes and body marking. I saw some kids with better bikes than I have. A few aero bars...I did see a full on tri-bike too. I think some of these kids should have been doing the sprint. The age range was from 6-13. The six year old did the bike in tandem with her dad which was super cute...and there was a tiny little guy who was 7 years old. It was the sweetest race and so fun to watch the kids running styles and the gusto they gave the race. So many different running styles, it was awesome.

Start'em young, and get them hooked EARLY.

Timberfest: Chapter 1...my race

This weekend was the Timberman Tri up in NH and it was a weekend of tri chaos and super fun with tri-zilla and spence to race and camp with. 'Zilla and I were racing and spence came to cheer us on and teach us how to make "proper smores".

'Zilla and I drove up early to go to the "champions dinner" and meet up with some of her family. Kate Major, Karen Smyers, Micheal Lovato and Chris Lieto spoke. Mainly difficult to hear...Karen Smyers and Chris Lieto had some great word to say about putting things into perspective when it comes to racing. It was Meeeh...but we got carbo loaded for our sat race so that was great.

Saturday was the sprint distance tri. 1/3 mile swim, 15 mile bike and a 3 mile run. It was a big field with about 1000 people (i think). The alarm went off at the crack of dawn...ok truly, it was prior to the crack of dawn as it was dark when I stumbled my way to the bathroom at 5am. As I wandered back, post teeth brushing I saw people with their bikes attached to their car leaving at 515! WHAT ARE THEY DOING? We had plans to leave around 545 so we could get a parking spot. All I could think was "HOW is getting up at 5AM to get a parking spot a related to a FUN sport? It's not" (OK i'm not a morning person)The other thought that went through my head was "Why in the WORLD am I up this early??" (again, i'm not a morning person)We trundled our way out of our tent and to the race site. Those people were super silly to get there that early, and basically I didn't appreciate the heart attack.

To the race site we went. I racked my bike, ate as much pre-race food I could muster and headed to the swim start. This was ages away from where the transition was because the swim was half a rectangle where we started at one end. Anyway we get to the swim start and have to wait a half an hour because a truck had overturned on the bike course. Lalalalalalala. What do you do with yourself as you just wait, and wait and wait, try not to be nervous(although, not so much this time...am I becoming a veteran?) and wait. Time went by and we finally started at 8am.

My swim wasn't that great. In all good fashion I got kicked and hit and pretty much everything you expect in an open water battle. I could tell I kept dropping my hips and I'm not sure if I was really sighting as I was just trying to maneuver around wack-o swimming people. I didn't realize that some people actually do the back stroke in the swim. I've seen the froggy back stroke, but never the all out back stroke. Finish: 11:01

T1: run the beach, see Spence cheering her head off, try to remember what my number is, socks, shoes, helmet, glasses, bike...out to the bike. T1: 2:30

Bike: The course was fairly hilly, but not too bad. We had driven parts of it the day before, but I was basically going in blind. Not my favorite thing to do, but it didn't turn out too bad. The hills weren't sooooo bad that a granny gear was necessary, but enough to be hilly. Not too hilly where I felt the urge to use my breaks on the descents so that was super fun. It did make me consider aero bars though when I was passing people in aero. Overall it went pretty well. Finish 54:37 avg speed 16.5mph. I was hoping for a little more speed, but it was pretty decent over all.

T2: Hat, running shoes, race belt, gel 1:32

Run: The run was hilly at first. I didn't realize it either for a bit. I kept thinking "what is wrong with me? Going slow and high HR" ahhhh, i'm on a hill. What was tough on the run was that my chest seemed to be cramping up. This happened when I did the Fairlee Tri in July. My legs felt fine, but I felt like I couldn't get enough air. I did have a crazy high HR at this point...somewhere in the 170s. I was just trying to relax so I could push hard through the run, make my legs hate me and go as fast as I could. Now I look at my run time: 25:33, 8:31min/miles, and I accomplished the "go as fast as I could" part. I've never seen 8:31 min/miles before. The last time I "raced" a 5K, and truly ran as fast as I thought I could was 2+ years ago and that was 8:45 min/miles. There was some discussion of whether or not the 2nd mile was short...but for the time being, I'm just going to belive I can run that fast. :-) That makes me happy.

Overall 1:35:13
30/59 for my age
180/476 for females...this was AWESOME to see. I don't think I've been in the top 50% of a race before! Props for big race fields.

An interesting thing I discovered was the average HR I maintained (according to my HRM). It said 170 was my average HR. I don't know why I find that so amazing, but I did, probably because I wasn't crazy sore the next day too.

Overall it was a good race to finish the season on.

Martha's Vineyard

Can we say SWEEEEEET weather last week? OK I live in the North East and the last few weeks have been 'wicked' hot (as they like to say 'round here...I'm not originally from these parts...but I pretend). And then...the weather snapped and it turned BEAUTIFUL, just in time for me to go on Vacation. A much needed respite and some nice RR with a good friend on the Cape, which also included a fun trip up to Maine too. But anyway, I got there last week in time to catch the ferry and go on over to Martha's Vineyard for an awesome bike ride. It was perfect weather basically. Sunny, with a cool breeze. Me and my friend and 3 others joined the fray of fun. It started off adventurous as I haven't ridden with more than 3 people total, so the group of five was an interesting mix for me. We trekked about 17 miles in the ride and the three others went on ahead and did a bigger loop at the end (so their total was 50 miles) and me and my friend took the easy pace and scenic route.

OK really scenic. We got to a little town and there was this cute little fish shop where you could order fish, including lobster, and sit on lobster crates outside the shop. I made a comment to my friend that I've never had lobster in the LOBSTER form...as in "hey...I want that guy there who's crawling around"...I think I've only had lobster bisque or something like that. Anyway, my friend tells me that if I'm going to have lobster that this is this the place to do it. So halfway into our bike ride...we sit down to have a nice 'snack' of a small lobster. You know, a nice 'light' snack, just pure protein dipped in butter. UG, it proved not to be as detrimental as it initially sat in my tummy, but slightly humorous at the same time. Who has half a lobster halfway through a 35 mile bike ride? Sounds extravagant, but that is definitely NOT my life. (just a poor grad student here). But I think the event made me laugh the rest of the bike ride. Our detour with the lobster allowed the group of three to join up to us with perfect timing as we re-grouped.

Then onward and forward to the "hill of death". I decided to take the HOD challenge because I thought it might be interesting. The turn was quick and suddenly I find that I'm on this HILL and I've just down shifted too late and snap, crackle and pop...I've dropped my chain. Lame. Anyway I sort myself out the other 3 are already ages ahead of me, while my friend has decided to skip the HOD and go on ahead. The ride up was interesting, but what got me was all I could think was "this is a really crappy hill pavement job and I'm going to somehow have to get my sorry self DOWN the hill". I did manage the downhill with a lot of breaking and some praying that I didn't die. I made it down. With two out of the other three who had gone up waiting for me to cross traffic and then PPPPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTT Bye, bye back tire. I have to say it was a spectacular sound. I've never flatted in that way, it was truly amazing. We quickly changed out the culprit tire and me and the two who were waiting for me were on our way.

Now I'm not a speedy person as in I don't usually see about 15-17mph on any given ride. But here I am with two much stronger riders, we need to catch up to my friend and her husband lest they think someone died. So we were OFF like mad. Since I don't typically train with other people, I'm not that used to drafting. But I knew I'd be dropped like a bad habit if I didn't hang on their wheels for dear life. I managed the crazy drafting and had SO much fun. I was in so much concentration mode, I didn't check out my speed much but it was over 20mph. To me that's so cool, because there is no way I could do that on my own for very long. We found the others and headed out from there.

It was a GREAT day, that's for sure. The rest of my trip was pretty awesome too. Maybe later on that fun.

It's official

It is official, I'm a blogger...or something like that. It may take me some time to figure out this whole blogging thing out. So hang in there with me. My curiosity about blogging about my tri-life comes from spence and trizilla who I'm friends with off-line and well...spence basically set me up to start out in the land of blogs. So I'll give it a go and we will see where we end up. I've been racing for the past three seasons consistently. And for me, finishing is the sweetest part of the chaos. I'm not that speedy, but that's not what it's about. Anyway, my RR from my last tri this last weekend: Greenfield. Me and tri-zilla knocked this one out of the water.

This tri was my longest to date: 0.6 mile swim, 30.4 mile bike, and 7.2 mile run. The alarm went off freakishly early at 515...out of bed I jumped. Got myself ready, tried to eat what I could, and got everything loaded and hopped in the car. The race was up in Greenfield about 25 mins away. I met tri-zilla at a gas station on the way up to the race and we caravaned up. We got there at 645 or so...checked in, got body marked and found our spots for our bikes and set up our transition areas. OK...nervousness totally takes over. Slightly freaked out...ok more than slightly. I'm just hanging around in the transitions area and realize that the start of my heat is going to go off soon...guess I should scoot to the start line.

OK the swim start is a LOT further than I thought it was to the start line...I have to RUN to the start...jump into the water, forget to de-fog my goggles and off we go. We are swimming up stream in a river...not a very swift one, but still it's upstream. And then FINALLY I see the buoy to turn. By this point, i've been past by the super fast fishies from the wave behind me. OK passed, isn't the right term...how about swam over...legs grabbed...whatever you want to say. The down river jaunt seems much more like a washing machine as there are people on my right going up stream and I'm trying not to get swum over by other people. I don't have tinted goggles and now I'm looking INTO the sun. OHHH that's nice. (note to self, next time I need new goggles tinted isn't such a bad idea). I cannot see the end buoy where I have to turn and swim up stream again (only half the distance before...think 1.5 times around) finally there is the BIG orange buoy ahead. Round the bend...now fishies from the wave 4 mins behind me are passing me. Really the only thing I'm thinking is "don't drown". OK I'm out. Whew, I made it.

Into T1: Put the shoes on, helmet, grab bike, run out of the transition area and I'm on my way to 4 laps of 7.1 miles. My friend of mine from church called me earlier in the week and she wanted to know whether or not I was doing the sprint tri or the international tri and where she should be on the course as she was asked to volunteer. I told her that if she positioned herself correctly she would actually see me 5X...as the run was another loop of the bike (mostly). Anyway, about halfway point I see her and she's JUMPING up and down yelling "Go!!" And her friend started yelling for me too. After I saw her, I went through the part of the course that I'd consider so "quintessential New England"...we had to go through a covered bridge for this part of the course. Not exactly the greatest thing as it was narrow and dark(thankfully they put up lights)...and then we hit THE HILL. Fortunately this hill was short, but it was rough. They had spray painted "What would Lance Do?....GO!!" on the pavement. Entertaining, even for the fiveloops. At the top of the hill was my FAVORITE cheerleader. This older gentleman coached everyone up the hill and was just so encouraging. He was my favorite...although there was a guy on the back of the loop who waved a flag and rang bells as we went by.

So while I was on my 3rd loop...I was getting passed like I was picking my nose...yes...those people MUST be lapping me. Fortunately you don't get kicked out if you get lapped...so whatever. On my last lap, I'm on the hill for the last time in my bike loop there is a guy RUNNING who is either the race leader...or pretty darn close to the front and he is climbing the hill. I say "good job" he says "thanks...keep it up" I round the bend to the hard part of the hill. I'm going something like 6.8 miles and hour...the guy is GOING MY PACE!! UP that stupid hill...I don't think I can run that on flats, much less UP a stupidly steep hill. Crazy fast man! I finally finish my last bike loop and I'm into T2

I rack my bike and grab my running shoes and hat. Let me say the day was SOOOOOOOOOO nice, opposed to nasty hot humid weather we'd had all week, it was back to New England summer...it was low 80s not too humid...which was good. I passed a couple of people on the run and got passed a few times, but mostly it was pretty deserted by this point. There were some lonely miles where you just want to see a water station because there are people there. My stomach was sorta bothering me most of the run which was difficult...but I got through it. And finished right where I wanted to between 3.5 hours and 4 hours. I finished in 3 hours and 35 mintes. I got back to my stuff and packed it up and waited for tri-zilla. The reality of the race was it was small (only 169 people in the international race) and FAST. You really had to take the motto of the race to heart when things were tough: "to finish is to win"...because that was the truth. I think I reminded myself of that a few times on the run. I came home, showered and pretty much fell into my bed for the next 3 hours or so.

I thought it went pretty well considering that last monday I clued into the fact I was over-trained, and it was pretty ugly. Now that may sound like a good thing, but it's not. Many triathletes say it is better to be 10% under-trained for a race than 1% over-trained. When I googled "over-trianed and triathlete" I realized I had like 5 or 6 of the symptoms...didn't want to train, began to dislike triathlons, exhausted, low motivation (although that could be grad school related...isn't that fun), but the real kicker when you are over trained is that your ability to run or bike or whatever at "normal" speeds...suddenly starts to disappear. You start going slower with equal effort as before. Realizing I wasn't *that* over trained, as in I wasn't in a chronically over-trained state, I realized a few days completely off would hopefully right the situation before the weekend, or at least make it better. So...much to my mental chagrin, all I did monday-wed was some yoga. On thursday I did a light bike ride short and sweet and THAT was it before my race. I think it paid off in the end. I think I need to take better notes in my training diary is what I learned. But that comes with practice and time I guess. Now that I'm done with this first post we shall see how the land of blogging goes. Hmmmm, it shall be interesting.

happy tri-fun