Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Archives for September 2011

Oktoberfest Race Report

On Sunday Cory and I raced our only sprint triathlon of the year. I really like this distance as I don’t have time to get bored. The one issue is that I try to go “fast”and end up having an asthma attack. I really do need to work with my doctor on that. But on to the race.

We woke up at 4am drank some coffee, ate oatmeal and hit the road for Longmont Colorado where the race was being held. It was a beautiful morning, I wasn’t really in the mood to race after being up late working the night before but as soon as we got to Union reservoir, and saw the sun rise I was more into it.


I have to admit it was a bit annoying that it takes almost as much preparation for a sprint triathlon as it does for longer races.

After setting up and squeezing into my wetsuit we headed down to the water to warm up a bit. The water was cold but not too bad and soon I felt comfortable. We were called up to the beach for the pre race meeting, at first I thought they were saying that the start would be a beach (run in) start and I got really nervous. I have never done or practiced a beach start and they terrify me for some reason. Lucky for me it was an in water start. I was in wave 4 so I had some time to say hi to my parents who came to cheer us on before wishing Cory lucky and seeing him off in wave 2.

The swim: 17:36

This was the best swim of the season, we didn’t swim into the sun and my goggles didn’t fog so I spotted well and didn’t swim off course (yay for progress). I could feel that my asthma was acting up during the swim so I pushed as hard as I could without having a full on attack. Overall I am happy with my swim.

T1: 2:21

I exited the water waived at my parents and kept moving into transition. T1 was normal for me, I still have cycling shoes not tri shoes so that takes me longer than I would like.

Bike: 36:13 (20.5 mph)

I am very happy with my bike. As soon as I got on my bike I couldn’t catch my breath but I can push pretty hard on my bike without having an attack so knowing this was a print I tried to keep my heart rate high. The course was three loops, I didn’t like how many corners we had but it was rolly and flat and I knew what to expect so overall I really like loops (good thing since CDA has loops). I had a great time on the bike, thanked volunteers, and ran into transition feeling good.

T2: 1:29

T2 nothing special..

Run: 31:03 ugh…..

As soon as I ran out of T2 I knew I was in trouble, I couldn’t breath and had to slow way down, but I refused to walk. I saw cory heading into the finish (it was an out and back course). I told him I needed my inhaler at the finish line and kept going. It was hard to watch so many people pass me on the run after feeling so good on the bike, at least 4 girls in my age group passed me on the run, I knew my legs could go faster but my lungs just wouldn’t let them. It is such a frusterating way to end a race. Cory was super nice adn ran my inhaler out to me and caught me at about mile 2 I took my inhaler but it didn’t help much. I headed into the finish not super excited about my time. But I was happy with my overall results.

Overall: 1:28:40 for a PR! 16/46 in my age group.

If I had ran at a pace closer to what I know I can run I would have placed more liek 6th or 7th in my AG. Frusterating but it’s something I will work on and try to improve. Overall this was a nice way to end the season (can’t be too mad with a PR) and officialy move into off season.

Now it’s time to start planning next years races, heal, build strength and enjoy free time while I have it!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad


Things that are making me happy this week…

Work had been demanding BUT it has still been a pretty fun week. On Sunday Cory and I raced our last triathlon of the year, it was a small local sprint call Oktoberfest, it was a (mostly) fun race and my only sprint of the year. Full race report coming soon.

On Sunday evening we headed to a Coeur d’Alene 2012 BBQ. A bunch of RMTC members are signed up so we wanted to get together to meet each other, celebrate, and make plans for winter training and spring races. It was SO nice to meet other crazy triathletes and even get to meet Sonja who is such an inspirational athlete, and her daughter Annie is even cuter in person. Randi, the host made this sign:

It was SO exciting to see the sign and think about the upcoming year. I think I am as excited about the training as I am about the race, we’ll see if I still feel that way when we get to peak training. She also made us these super cute cookies.

It was a great night, I can’t wait to get started!!!

Monday was my 31st birthday, and while I had to work it was a great day because when Cory got home we headed off to the apple store where I picked out an iPad 2 as my birthday gift, I LOVE it! I will be able to keep up on everyones blogs on the go now 🙂 oh and read work email.

I need to spend some time really figuring out how it works, I really like it so far BUT am frustrated about downloading pictures so it may be more difficult than I wold like to write my own blog on it.

Tonight I have my second PT appointment, I am happy to be working on strengthening my weaknesses and getting my body ready for ironman training.

What has made you happy this week?


PT and Fall Fun

Yesterday I had my first PT appointment with Rebound Physical Therapy, it was a great experience, Djimmer explained everything to me and reassured me that with some time I would be as good as new and thought that I would be able to complete an Ironman and an ultra marathon (not at the same time). I need to focus on strengthening my gluteus, so that is my task for this week. I am not surprised since many triathletes have weak gluteus. I have a set of exercises and stretches that I am supposed to do everyday this week. I can’t wait to go back on Thursday so I can keep moving forward.

Yesterday Cory and I headed up to Georgetown in the Rocky Mountains. The Aspens have started changing so we wanted to go see them before it was too late

We took the historic train loop, it was a beautiful fall day, I was in heaven. Fall is my favorite time of year and always goes by too fast

Prepare yourself for photo overload….

We are very proud of our elevations in Colorado.

We also took an historic mine tour, it was really fun and I learned a lot about how hard the lives were of the miners. Makes me grateful for my cush job!

Cory and I looking stylish in our hardhats.

What’s your fall activity? I have many but I LOVE picking pumpkins


Off Season

It’s a weird transition to off season for me. With my injury sidelining me for the last two months I feel like I am really ready for some “on” time not “off” time. Lucky or unlucky for me there is a lot to work on so I have a lot of off season goals to work on. I need to focus on rebuilding strength and flexibility, improve form, and build speed not just endurance at a snail’s pace. Others goals include getting my sports induced asthma under control and losing a few lbs before starting Ironman training. I am still working on figuring out my weekly plan on how I will meet all these goals. I soon won’t have to write my own training plan because Cory and I hired a coach to help us get through all of this training uninjured and arrive on race day confident that I can go the distance.

We hired Charley Perez as our coach, he is our official club coach (RMTC) so we already, know, like and trust him.
He has a PhD in psychology and is a fantastic athlete, I can’t wait to learn all I can from him. We start officially working with him on November 1st. I can’t wait but I also feel pressure to get in better shape before starting with him. Nothing like putting extra pressure on myself, maybe he can help me with that 😉

The thing I am most excited about in the immediate future is that I am going to my first Physical Therapy Appointment tomorrow morning. Another RMTC sponsor is Rebound Physical Therapy here in Denver.
Last night they hosted a free questions and answer about what they do and how they can help athletes stay injury free. They were very generous with their information and I really liked their philosophy. Their mission statement is:

We strive to create meaningful changes in people’s lives through education, integrity and positive outcomes. We focus on treating the body as a whole, and treating the functional impairment, not just symptoms. We strive to heal the individual, not just the injury.

I was so excited that I signed up for an appointment for tomorrow morning so they can help me get over my current injury and help me prevent future ones. Full report on how everything goes tomorrow. So I am excited to start the off season officially next Monday after Sunday’s last sprint of the year.

Happy training!

Harvest Moon Long Course Race Report

This race was over a week ago but between traveling and just not feeling that inspired to talk about the race I have been putting off writing my race report. When people ask me how the race went my automatic reaction is “good” and when I think about it on the whole it was but when I start breaking down the pieces it actually didn’t go so well. I learned a lot of things that I need to work on before taking on a full ironman early next season.

On race morning Cory and got up early to head out to Aurora reservoir where transition opened at 6am. There was a long line of cars with nice bikes lined up waiting to get in when we arrived at 5:45 am, by the time we got to transition we didn’t get the best rack position but this was not an A race for me so it wasn’t a huge deal. I went into this race not very nervous but also not with high expectations because I had not been training at all. I have been trying to rest and recover from my knee injury so with no running and little swimming and biking I was just looking to finish. After racking our bikes we suited up in our wetsuits, after not putting it on for a month I was happy when it zipped up. We then headed down to the swim start for a quick warm up. We then all gathered for last minute instructions and the national anthem. We also had a moment of silence for the anniversary of 9/11, it was weird and moving to be surrounded by silent athletes, it’s a rare occasion, I was happy that everyone took it seriously.

Swim:
The swim was laid out in a triangular single loop course, at first it looked like a perfect triangle but by the time my wave went off (last) the winds had moved everything around. I had the worst time sighting and swam way off course. At one point a kayaker even had to hunt my down to ask me to get back on course, I was embarrassed and frustrated that I was wasting so much time and effort swimming so erratically. I did a little better after turning around and heading back towards shore since I was not looking into the sun, but still not great. I was so happy to get out of the water and be done with that part. I have a lot of work to do to improve my swim!

Swim Time: 44:53

T1:
When I got out of the water I felt drunk and dizzy, the water was shockingly choppy so it was hard to run up the slope to T1 (this probably added to my crappy swim time) I saw my parents who were cheering for me and said hi to the doodles before heading off into transition. I had a fairly normal transition except for the dizziness slowing me down. I decided to skip putting sun block on since it was over cast and I really wanted to get going, this was a BIG mistake! I burned and am still peeling (gross).

T1 Time: 2:40

Bike: The first few miles of the bike were touchy since I was still dizzy from the swim but after a few minutes my head cleared up and I started taking in fuel and liquids. This was my first time racing with my aero sip and I love it, it really helps me stay hydrated while riding. While heading out there was a little headwind but not too bad and nothing was hurting so I was happy, I saw and cheered for Cory on a little out and back portion and that gave me a lift too. I then turned around and had the wind to my back I was having a great time except the road was really bumpy and my sits were starting to get sore. At about mile 30 we turned into the wind and it really started to pick up. I then started to not have a great time, the winds were strong, I was riding up hill and was working hard to ride with a speed in the single digits. The road on the way back is chip seal and I thought my teeth were going to rattle out of my head and my lady parts were screaming, more reason to buy a carbon frame! I was disappointed that I biked so slow and was so tired, I know this winter I am going to have to put in some real work on getting faster on the bike. I was happy that the never had the sever burning pain in my knee that I had during the bike for Pacific Crest so that was a bright spot.

Bike Time: 3:33:31

I was so so so happy riding into T2 knowing I didn’t have to run a half marathon. I did have to run about 400 yards to the finish and didn’t want to run barefoot so I threw on my shoes and then took off for the finish. After crossing the line there was a blow-up slip and slide that was the highlight of my day. It was really fun way to cool off and celebrate being done.

T2 Time: 1:19

I was happy to be done but was soaked so I met my parents and then grabbed some clothes to change into. I then waited around for Cory to finish his race, he came in under 6 hours, he had a difficult run but I am so proud of him! I was sad that I didn’t finish the full tri but was happy that I sucked it up and at least finished the aqua bike since I had already paid for the race and hate have DNS or DNFs.

Overall it was a well run race with some difficult conditions, I learned I have a lot to work on and hope to heal completely soon so I can get to work.

AZA Atlanta

I will be in Atlanta for the rest of the week at the annual Association of Zoos and Aquariums conference. I love this conference but it is exhausting, we will see how many trading sessions I get in….i am not hopeful.

Bike frame update- I did not buy the frame, there was a crack in the carbon, so I am still in the market.


Prepping for Harvest Moon Half Ironman

Today is full of prepping for the Harvest Moon Half Ironman. Cory is still going to race the full triathlon, I switched to the aqua-bike given my knee injury. I have to admit that I am tempted to try to race the full 70.3 but know that the run would not go well for me.

This race has pretty good swag

I particularly like the tech shirt and pint glass.

Note the sperm helmet….

I then set to laying out my gear, packing for an aqua-bike is almost as bad as a triathlon.

Lastly I wanted to make some Peanut Butter Balls to eat while on the bike. I found this recipe a few months ago on Frayed Laces and have been making them ever since. They are way cheaper than buying pre-made nutrition and I like that I know what is in them.

After melting the peanut butter and honey I added the dry ingredients. I didn’t realize that we were low on oats until I had already started so my peanut butter balls will be oat light this time.

I keep the formed balls in the refrigerator so they don’t dry out. They are so good it’s hard not to just eat them.

I packed up enough balls, honey stinger chews and shot blocks to equal 800 calories.

I think I am ready to go other than eating and heading to bed.

Good luck to all racing the Vegas 70.3 tomorrow!


Carbon Bike Frame

My super awesome husband found a full carbon tt bike frame that would fit me on Craig’s List. It’s still fairly expensive but a good deal. What do you think, is a carbon frame a necessity for a not so stellar biker? I do ride long distances but fairly slowly. Here she is:



Would you go for it?