Oceanside

Great job to those who raced in California. Lauren and Danny,Andrew and Kevin. All the hard training paying off...great job!

Arizona here I come!!!!

Well I have decided after 17 weeks of training that I need to do Arizona. I spent a big portion of my last year feeling like I was playing catch up due to missing Lake Placid with an injury. Things just don't always go as planned, and even though my training has been up and down, I am not injured and feel like I should give it a try. The field is thick with talent so I shall just make this a learning race. Paulo did not like my idea of racing Brazil and he had suggested if I don't do Arizona that I wait until Lake Placid for my next Ironman. I do not want to wait until July and I know I would be really upset to watch the race online knowing that I was close to being ready...so I have to go for it. Besides I have friends,Mariana, Jonny, Sergio,Miranda, Linsey,Judy, Chris and Mike who shall be racing and it shall be good to be out there supporting them too and enjoying the Ironman experience.

Have I mentioned before that I'd like to relocate!

When will spring be here? Tomorrow I have my last long ride scheduled and it is still winter in New Jersey. It shall be a chilly 30 degrees feeling like 25 degrees and should stay cold all day. I may have to bring a hot choclate in my back pocket...although I am meant to be practicing my race day nutrition. This year I am sponsored by INFINIT Nutrition and they have been awesome in setting me up with the best nutrition formula. I have felt good on the long rides with no bloating and have run well off the bike. I do hope this to be the case when I race. Mike and Dave are awesome guys and I hope to represent their company well.

I have been feelingmuch better this week and have been getting solid workouts in. I had my best swim of the year this week and my runs have been steady. Will it be enough? We'll see!

No wind and outside...wow!

Well, I finally had a day on Monday where I got to ride outside with the sun shining and very light wind. What a difference...I could actually hold the watts without too much trouble...always a good sign! It was a very enjoyable 3hr 10 min ride. I did find I now ride leaning over to one side though?
This morning I did a really solid swim and I look forward too running 2 hours later. I shall run 1.10 by myself and then finish up with my running group. Tonights run is at the resevoir...actually all my long runs have been there lately. Its a 5 mile loop that has one or two little hills...the best part is its all packed sand. Great for the legs! It also is a great place to hide from the wind! Tmorrow is meant to feel a little more spring like with temps in the 50's....YaY!

Undecided!

I have not made a decision yet about Ironman Arizona...I have very mixed feelings about racing. After missing, the camp, two key long runs and 2 key tempo runs and alot lower than normal hours per week... I am still not feeling the strength I should be feeling going into an Ironman.I however am not injured so I also feel like I should just go for it! I shall make my mind up by Friday.
Last weekend I spent the weekend in NYC for Easter. I managed to swim at Asphalt Green. They have a really nice 50 meter pool which was such a pleasure to swim in. It was so exciting to see people lining up at the door just anxious to get in and swim. They had the AGUA swim team training going on which were awesome to watch. There head coach Brian Browns motto "work works" was my mantra for the swim workouts.
They are one of the most competitive swim teams on the East Coast and have already qualified 8 swimmers for the Olympic Trials. I was disappointed as they had no master swims due to the holiday weekend..but I did two 4500 meter swims and was happy with them.

The Twilight Zone!

Well yesterday I took my training to a scary place...for me anyway! They were calling for snow on Sat when I was supposed to have a scheduled 5 hour ride. So I planned on doing my ride on Friday...except when Fri rolled around they called for heavy winds and freezing temps again. So I rented some movies thurs night as I was prepared to get to get on my trainer again,4th time this week. Friday morning , no change in weather so I jumped on my trainer and watched Emmanuals Gift for 90 minutes...a documentary on a disabled man from Ghana who chose to do something great. He rode his bike with one leg across Ghana to change his country's negative perception of the disabled. He came over to the states where he continued spreading his word and organizing help for his people. He too got the triathlon bug while here...it was very touching and kept me going for the first 90 minutes. When I am doing my intervals I really need to focus so for the next 2 hours I listened to music. At 3hr30 I wasn't feeling too bad and decided to go for the 5 hrs.I think I then decided to email Paulo to let him know what I was up too. He although probably not loving the idea, gave me the thumbs up to finish the ride on the trainer. It went suprisingly fast but the last hour really did not feel so good. I happily finished the ride and headed off for a transition run. Well first I got changed into very warm running clothes and headed off for 40 minute run. My legs and low back were very stiff legs and I headed out into a 25mph headwind. It was slow and it took about 15 minutes for them too loosen up!
I was very happy to be done. Another tough day....one I'll be thinking of race day!
Note: Not all my workouts are this tortureous...it just seems to be lately and some of the key workouts.

When the going gets tough!

I have not been blogging as the last 10 days have been very hectic for me.Well it seems like I keep taking two steps forward and then one back. Its been a struggle this winter especially the last 6 weeks with thankfully no injuries but poor weather,colds and stomach viruses. All things that eventually pass but definitely obstacles that have kept my training inconsistent. I was really looking forward once again to a great camp in Las Cruces. This particular stretch was very important for me to get the final block of good solid training in.
After 3 days off with a stomach virus I headed out to New Mexico to meet up with Paulo, Jonnyo, Danny, Jodi, Judy and some new members of the HTFU crew. I got a call on my second training day out there, while in the middle of an interval on a 5.30hr transmountain ride that I had to leave as my husband had landed up in hospital. He had had knee surgery 10 days prior and had developed a blood clot in his calf. I am very thankful he is ok.
So sadly I left the training camp.
This week back has been solid so far, but the weather is definitely not on my side. I have not managed to ride outside since I got back, due to cold weather and rain.Therefore I was back to the trainer. I got a solid 20 mile run in but I am feeling very unsure about my upcoming race and where my training is right now. I feel very close to being ready but not quite there. When you are racing at the pro level it is very important that your confidence is good and that your training is right on. I shall keep my spirits up and my training on schedule and we'll see how things go.

4 weeks to Arizona!

It is Sunday night and my lack of blogging is due to another very big week of training. It has been a tough weather week again with non stop wind! Todays challenge blew the rest of the week away. I had a 5.30 hour ride scheduled for Sat, yet it was raining all day Sat which made it impossible to ride the distance. I got my 2 hours on the trainer, unsure of what I was going to do Sun as NJ had severe weather advisory due to high winds and below freezing temps. Everyone I talked to was bagging the road riding. I got an offer to do a long run, an indoor bike class or friends invited me to go join them on their trainers for a 3 hour indoor session....all great offers but it was not a 5.30 bike. I had just read Jonathon's report on how he got his long ride in with tough windy conditions...and how he felt it would help him on race day. I knew I had to get it in...so I waited until around 12.30 when it was feeling a little warmer(around 22 degrees) and I said my goodbyes to my family. My son said he felt bad for me and he hoped I was putting on an extra strong helmut encase I got blown off my bike. I told him that was a possibility and if it happened I would be back soon. The wind was blowing 27-30 mph with gusts up to 40mph.
The sun was out though so I used that as my justification for the insanity of the ride. I headed out from my house up along the ocean to the Hook which is a strip of land inbetween a bay and the ocean. Here the wind was very mean....I then eventually gave up on that and turned and headed to the Highlands to climb some hills. This always makes the time go by fast....I did a couple loops hitting all my favorite hills 3 times and making sure I had spent enough time in there to get me past the 5 hour mark. I stopped to refuel and grabbed a quick cup of hot chocolate. I called home to let everyone know I wouldn't be home for 2 more hours. My husband insisted I was insane...I agreed! Relieved to get the ride in I ran in my house changed and asked my son to come ride his bike while I ran. His 2 friends came with. We headed straight out into the wind and they were all feeling it. So I had to do a little bribery....a stop for icecream after if they rode the whole 40 minutes with me. At one point my son stopped and said but i just can't do it...its too hard! I assured him that soon the wind would be at our back and he'd be just fine! Then yelled now LETS GO I have to run fast now!
It always feels good to get those kind of tough workouts in....in some strange way!
My running was solid this week and swimming is definitely coming around. I leave for the HTFU camp in New mexico on Thursday. Just heard Paulo will make it from Portugal...what a commited coach! It should be a fun time with lots of good quality training!

A solid week!

Well its Sunday and I got the work in this week. I got a solid 18000 yards of swimming in I'm thankful to Maggie who pushed me on three of the long workouts. I swam in the indoor pool, with the smells of strong perfumed water aerobics women,the outdoor bubble pool which was a pleasure,and master swim where I pushed hard.
I got 260 miles of biking in the snow, rain,wind,wind, and more wind and on my trainer in the heat of a house with a roaring fire.
I got around 55 miles of running in the woods, on the boardwalk, the treadmill, the streets of Point Pleasant, the hills of Pennsylvania and the ski slopes.
It has been a typical crazy week just trying to get the volume in and guess what it all starts again tomorrow.
Paulo has told me to settle down(the nice way of saying stop freaking out...due to being sick) and stay consistent...I'm trying!!!
So I shall see what this week brings...hopefully lots of warmer dry weather, motivated people to train with,good healthy eating and I want my cough to finally stop. Lets keep it going STRONG!