Running

The running and swimming are still getting better, I dont want to talk about the bike. Although as I type Chris is trying to put together the powertap on my bike. Maybe that will perform miracles. My past few long runs have been getting faster and faster and I had a run on sunday that used to be my pace at sea level. That's the good news. The bad news is that I was starting to have some hip problems, but I am hoping that I have solved them. At first I was worried it was a stress fracture, but the internet told me it wasnt. I laid off running for a week and it felt a ton better, and I was able to have a good run on sunday. Rolling and icing has been the trick. I trust wikipedia more than I trust the doctors in Mexico so until I can get into a doc in the US, the internet will continue to guide me. On sunday I sat on the trigger point ball for an hour in the exact spot that it hurt and I had no after running pain at all. Then running today I realized that my left foot was turning out, which doesnt happen normally. So I think it is a strength issue with my hip (or a flexibility issue. Im not sure since I havent researched it yet). There has been no IT pain so far (knock on wood) and it is really just the upper hip socket area. The marathon is in a month, but unless I am 100% I am not going to push it. I was a little bummed when my coach said she wasnt sure if I should run it, but then I reminded myself the goal is in may and everything leading up to it is training.

Pesky Resolutions

We are still withing the first two weeks of January, so I think I am still in time for my resolutions. I had some last year and one was to pack lighter. Then we showed up in the airport with 8 bags (including carry ons) coming back from Christmas and I realized I should have a do over on that one. So here goes - the 2011 resolutions.
1) Finish and Ironman - I have been training for this one for a while, so I figure I should make it an actual resolution. The only challenge will be the bike. Which brings me to #2
2) Get better on the bike. I got a power tap that Chris is going to attempt to set up this weekend so hopefully that will help. It is my mission to improve
3) PR a marathon - this shouldnt be too hard since my last one was a disaster. I think I can even PR in the ironman - it was that slow.
4) With the engagement I figure I need to start being more wifey (as Beth says). Even if it is for my own health. If Chris leaves town for even a weekend I am stuck eating cereal and tuna fish. I can cook, Im just lazy, and I need to become unlazy in 2011.
5) And finally pack light*. If at first you dont succeed right?

I may add one or two more in there before the 15th, but so far this is the list. Hopefully I can check them all off at the end of the year!

*I will pack light going to the US, coming home is a different story since we always import all of the basic necessities (like velveeta for queso -DUH).

Christmas and New Years

I am really trying to be a better blogger, but it is hard! I am going to have to combine my Christmas and New Years trip into one quick post. We went home for about 2 weeks which meant lots of quality time with my bike. It is much needed because I SUCK at biking. I am starting to get nervous that I wont even make the bike cut off time in IMTX, so these trips home will start to become more frequent. The swimming is fine and the running is getting much better with the altitude training, but the trainer rides here just arent cutting it. I really have no idea what the issue is becuase my legs are way stronger than my arms so I should be good right? Wrong. Maybe I need to lose weight. Or gain weight. Who knows, but when dudes on mountain bikes are passing me it isnt a good sign.

For Christmas Eve and Day we traveled west to Charleston to spend the holiday with my brother's inlaws and a really close friend. Here is the happy fam plus Chris plus our special friend at cooking class.

Did you know Santa lives in Charleston? It took about 5 takes to get this shot because the dude taking it had had one too many vodka redbulls.


After that we came back to Houston where my body decided to get sick so I spent a few nights at home watching hoarders (my mom is obsessed and DVRs every one) and do puzzles. We had to teach Chris our technique to getting them done quickly. Luckily by New Year's eve I had recovered enough to go out because what a night it was. After midnight Chris decided to propose! After many beers and glasses of champagne it probably was much less nerve wracking for him. It was perfect to be able to celebrate this special moment with our close friends right after as well. It was also nice to already have champagne at the house to toast with.
Just after the happy moment. Doesnt everyone ask their girlfriend to marry them in a tuxedo tshirt. This was his favorite Christmas present.


And telling the story to our friends who didnt notice what was happening right outside just minutes before.


I hate the word fiance so Chris will continue to be my boyfriend until we get married, but we are both so excited and can't wait for our future together. What a great start to 2011!

My support team has left!

Since we are heading to Houston for Christmas this year, Chris wanted to go see his family in Canada before the holidays. He asked me to go, but I looked at the weather there and decided that minus anything is too cold for me. Hell, when I wake up here to 40 degrees I cry and whine and dont want to get out of bed. So off he went and he left me to fend for myself. I have been stressed out about this ever since he booked his flight, because in reality Chris is what holds the house together. He does EVERYTHING. I come home from work/trainig and the dinner is made, coffee is ready for the next morning, dogs are fed, etc.
Sensing my fear, he did what any amazing support crew would do, and made sure that I would be well taken care of and not have to do anything. He cooked me enough homemade chili that will last a month (I froze most of it), he disinfected all of the fruits and veggies so i could have salad and smoothies, he cooked me Beth's gluten free muffins so I would have breakfast and made sure I was stocked with enough fresh water to last me the week. He thought I would be fine with that, but he totally overestimated me. I am not in good hands. I dont know how single mothers do it, especially single triathlete mothers. Seriously, hats off to you. I just have dogs and I am hoping they survive until the end of the week. Chris is actually so worried about me forgetting to feed them that he has the driver feeding them every morning. He even tried to feed them last night when he dropped me off, saying Don Chris asked me to feed them, but I finally convinced him that I would not forget to feed them by the time I walked down the stairs. Guess what, I forgot! And I only remembered when I heard Fatty's (what I call my little dog - do you think he will get a complex?) stomach growling. The dogs were so sad when Chris left, but I assumed it was because he was leaving and they would miss him. I now know that it is because they are left with their incapable mother.
I know how hard Chris works to keep me going and make sure I get through this Ironman a sane person and in one piece, and I appreciate him everyday for it. I am also really happy he got to go see his family for the holidays. But I am going to think twice next time I let him leave without me!

LA-Z-GIRL

The lack of blogs does not mean I have slowed down at all in the training. In fact, between work and training and sleep I have no more time. The past few weeks have been a blur and I am finally able to sit on the couch and relax for a bit. I thought I had posted the blog of my Half ironman race report, but I think I dreamt that. So here goes -it was a while ago, so I probably forgot some things and with the way I raced that isnt a bad thing.
My dad, grandmother, Chris and I all headed to Conroe on saturday so that we could spend the night close to the race site. It was freezing. I have only raced one race with a wetsuit and I loved it, but I quickly realized I would need a long sleeve one. The air was 33 degrees in the morning and all i had was a short sleeved wetsuit. Oh well, too late to stress about it.
The best part of the race was that it started about 50 feet from our hotel room so I was able to warm up until right before my wave started
Pre race - dont let the smile deceive you, I was effing cold.

We finally left the room to go outside and get ready to start. I think the look on my face says it all. This is probably the first time I didnt want to actually get in the water.

The swim was one of the worst I have ever experienced. The fog coming off the water made the visibility so bad that I couldnt see more than a foot in front of me. I had to stop and breastroke every couple of minutes just so I would stay on course. Twice during the race I saw people walking. I was so confused because we were in the middle of the lake, but apparently we swam over two sand bars (or mud bars) and people actually got up and walked. I tried to swim as long as I could over both and only stopped when my arms hit the ground. My arms were also freezing since the air was so cold, so I didnt even really warm up. By far worst tri swim ever. I came out in 2nd or 3rd (cant remember), but still was not happy with my performance. Hopefully I have gotten the bad swim out of my system.
The bike - this is where it went from bad to worse. In T1 I put on as many layers as I could which wasnt much, as you can see in the photo. Luckily I was able to score some toe warmers at the expo and found some gloves stashed at my mom's house in Houston. On a side note, this bike was in the same area as the Ironman Texas course and being in Houston I figured it would be flat. Boy was I wrong. Those of you coming down south in May be prepared for some hills.

It took me about 20 miles to warm up and literally everyone around me was saying the same thing. But finally I did and was feeling tons better. Before this race I knew that my biggest issue in the longer races is nutrition. As hard as I try, I cant get anything down. This race was no different. I waited 15 minutes after the swim and then started to try the plan that coach and I had talked about. 230 cal an hour. I know in Ironman I need more, but coming from my last half ironman where I took in 100 cals total on the bike, this was a good first step. Well I tried to take in as much as I could without puking and actually felt full the whole time. I didnt realize it at the time, but I only took in 1.5 bottles of gatorade and 120 calories of shot blocks so about 300 calories overall for the bike. This would prove to be disasterous. I got off the bike and saw my family and waved. I thought I was feeling good but as you can tell by my poor attempt at a shaka, I was not doing as well as I had thought.

The Run -
The goal was to take in 1 shot block every mile and a half starting right out of the transition. I took the first one with a glass of water from T2 and right back up it came. I tried again with the same result. I started to run but realized by the amount of people passing me that it was more of a shuffle. All of a sudden I had a horrible pain in my stomach and could barely stay upright. I continued this way for 5 miles. I tried to take in water, gatorade and anything else at the aid stations with no luck. FInally I saw Chris at mile 5 and stopped to talk to him. It just so happened that right by him was one of the medical team drs. She came over and took my blood pressure a few times and told me that it was too low and the machine wasnt able to read it. We started talking about what had been going on and she finally suggested that I pull out. It was the hardest thing I have had to do in a race to date but knowing that it was not an A race and my season is just starting, I thought continuing would do more harm than good. I spoke to my coach after and she thought that I had made the right decision, and from now until May the focus is on training my body to take in more calories.

Here is where things started to get better - the post race drink always helps!


Over Thanksgiving and for 2.5 weeks over Christmas I will be in Houston training mostly on the bike practicing to get in nutrition. I have realized that on the bike I am really only able to take in liquids, so I am trying to add carbo pro to my gatorade and with that, I am getting in about 250 cals an hour. Over thanksgiving I was able to get in everything but was peeing every hour, which is a huge pain in my ass. I am back home friday and will continue testing this out. But if anyone has any suggestions, I am open to try anything!
Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend in HNL!

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween. If i were living in the US right now I would be busy getting my last minute slutty outfit(s) ready for one of several Halloween parties going on this weekend. I had a costume closet when I lived in Hawaii that was downsized to a costume box here during the move, but I still dont have any excuse to open it since we dont have Halloween here. I thought about getting dressed up anyway, but then I saw someone at the grocery store dressed up in purple carrying a witch's hat, and noone (except me) knew whether or not this was her normal attire. People were sort of staring and asking each other what she was doing. I dont want to be the crazy lady who wears costumes to Costco. I did make a run to CVS when I was in Houston last weekend to stock up on Halloween candy. No, we wont have trick-or-treaters which means all the snickers and twix will get eaten by Chris and me, and I will probably go into next week's race 10lbs fatter than I am now.
So since we are only celebrating by eating candy and getting fat and not by dressing up, I decided to post some photos of past halloweens in memory of what is my second favorite holiday. Oh Halloween how I miss you.

Bono and The Edge. We went to see the concert the night before so these were last minute costumes.


There was the year Nola was Yoda. I think this was her first Halloween and she probably is not happy that her new mommy likes to dress her up and make fun of her.


There was the slutty angels costumes. You cant really tell how slutty they were in this photo.


There was the year Nola was Yoda for the second time. Yes she has obviously outgrown the costume and was not happy that I dressed her up, laughed at her and took her photo for the world to see.


And who can forget the pumpkins. This was one my friend and I did at work - cannibal pumpkin. we didnt win the contest.


Lance and Sheryl (pre break-up)


I couldnt find photos of my absolute favorite costumes when I went as Anthony Kiedis, tattoos and all, or Britney Spears in her KFed days (I had a KFed too). If they ever turn up I will post. Because I like post drunk halloween humiliation to haunt me - even years later. And even when I am humiliating myself.

Katy Triathlon Race Report

This past weekend I made the trek up to Houston again to do my first sprint triathlon in longer than I can remember. I went to packet pickup on saturday and I heard some of the volunteers talking to someone about whether or not it would be wetsuit legal. I was shocked. I was standing there sweating my ass off in a summer dress and thought there was no way the water would be cold enough. After living in Hawaii and before that racing all of my races in Houston in the summer, I had never worn a wetsuit for a swim. I had just the week before received my first wetsuit - a zoot fuzion - and I wasnt expecting to try it on until I got back to Mexico. I quickly fired off an email to my coach to tell her that I was going to try it in the race instead if the water was cold enough. After that it was off to stuff myself with some Texas BBQ - ahh the pre-race meal of champions. We were laughing that I would be burping/barfing BBQ the whole race the next day.
I got to the race and set up my transition area (we had a great spot for the bike in and out which made it that we had about 4 steps before the mount/dismount line). This is always helpful for those of us who are not coordinated enough to put on or take off the bike shoes while riding. We got the word that the water was 72, so I put on my wetsuit for the first time ever. Yes, this dummy forgot to try it on the day before. Thankfully it fit! I will post pictures in a few days of the race.

The swim - it was a water start and I have to say, I LOVE WETSUITS! I was just floating around with no treading until the gun went off. I was at the front in a realy good position, and by the time I got to the first buoy I couldnt see anyone else around. I came out of the water in 1st and ended up having the 3rd fastest swim time of the day - thanks coach! After the race when I washed out my suit and wetsuit I realized how nasty the water was. I am now convinced I am going to get some sort of nasty disease.

T1 - going into T1 there were strippers and when they were pulling off my wetsuit my bottoms started coming off as they pulled me across the grass. The guys got a lovely view Im sure.

The Bike - I was fully expecting to hear on your left right away into the bike because I didnt think I had that much of a lead. Shockingly it never came. I was fairly conservative on the bike because we were on the shoulder of the highway and there were no lanes blocked off. This meant that if you wanted to pass you had to head into a lane of highway traffic. I have never seen this before, but I didnt want to risk getting hit by a car. Plus the shoulder had tons of gravel in it, and I kept feeling my bike slip. As we got to about mile 7 I saw to ambulances for two different people. Both were awake and on stretchers with lots of blood, but they appeared to be ok. This was another reminder to stay safe. Bike was 18.4 MPH and was third AG. I wasnt as fast as last race, but given the conditions, I am happy with it and happy I came out of it without an injury.

T2 - I didnt remember getting passed on the bike, but I figured it was becuase I was in lala land the whole time. I was sure it was a mistake. I have NEVER come into T2 first. But when I got there, mine was the only bike racked. Sweet! Time to run

The Run - all I can say is holy hotness. There was no shade or even a hint of that wind I felt on the bike. It was hot as hell and all I could think was that it better cool off by the half ironman in november or I will have some major issues. I tried to keep a quick turnover and just keep going. At the turnaround I could see the second place girl and she was moving. I picked up the pace a little bit, but she was faster. At the last mile she caught me and blew by. I tried to keep up with her but just didnt have it in me.

I crossed the line in 2nd, and with a lot more confidence going into the Half IM in a couple of weeks. Chris will make the trip to Houston this time and be my support sherpa since my mom is going to be in NYC watching my little brother run the marathon. I cant wait to have him there - he is
not as excited because he has been asking what kinds of restaurants and stores there are in the Woodlands. I guess he is preparing for while I am out on the bike. I will send him on an excursion to scout out the local area and report back for those of you that are coming out for the Ironman in May.