Warm Dogs

How I ended up stealing warmth from my dogs on the couch and watching Kourtney and Kim Take New York...

The heater in our house broke last week. No heat. Our house has been a cozy 40-50 degrees. Brrr!!!! I was pretty tough at first and acted like it didn't affect me, but now I am just constantly feeling sick and cold.

Yesterday my car died while I was at work in the pouring, cold rain. I kind of need the car to work since I travel about 400 miles a week for work.

Everything happens in 3s, right? This morning I was wondering what the 3rd thing would be as I drove our other car to swim practice. Well, the answer came shortly after. When I returned to my car, the cold snap had put a nice long crack across the windshield.

New Christmas List:
1. A heater
2. A car battery (hopefully that is all)
3. A new windshield

Anyways, add a late night of work + busted vessel in an eye with a screaming headache to my otherwise cold and unhappy body, and you can see how I ended up on the couch...stealing heat from my dogs and watching bad, yet good TV.

And what is up with little Mason's hair? I just don't like the mullet look.

Turkey Run :)

I am a lucky girl in so many ways. I often say that I have a good life, and it is very true. I have many thanks to share with friends and family, so thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I ran in the 104th running of the Turkey Day Race 5 miler in New Orleans. This race always rocks, and there is an Abita beer truck waiting at the end :) I have run this race 2 x prior to today. I don't remember my first result...probably 9 minute miles?

I do remember my second result in 2004- 40:00 flat. I was ecstatic because my goal was to run 8 minute miles, and I met my goal. I wasn't much of a runner back then. I didn't run any 5ks or other races, I just played soccer and thought the Turkey Race was a fun "event." I also remember the 2004 race because Dave ran it with me...and somewhere around mile 3 he asked me if he could run ahead (because I was going so slow!!!! :))))

Post-race with my friend Keith :)

Today I ran the race not only because I wanted to see my friends and drink some beer at 9am, but I also really need to work on my running speed. I unfortunately fall into that category of runners that does not maintain high speed/lactate threshold/VO2max well. You know those people that don't do sh#t and still manage to be fast? That is not me. I have to fight for every little second...every little fast twitch fiber. And after a year of Ironman training, I just have to face the fact that I am slower than I like to be.

My last track workout and my last 5k were both in 2010. Yikes! At this point, I have been out of soccer for so long that I can't even cheat and use my soccer games as speedwork. Time to get to work.

The 5 miler was predictably hard for me...uncomfortable and hard. I managed to make each mile faster than the previous mile, but faster is relative as I was far off of a PR. It was definitely a struggle, and at times I thought..."WHY? why does it have to be so hard and why do I have to be so slow! Why can't I ever break through as an athlete? Why is this such a struggle...is it too much to ask to be fast?"

I have no doubt in my mind that hard work is the only answer. Plus, I am sure the 2004 runner that I was would be thrilled to be the 2011 runner that I am now, so I am thankful that I have come so far. With running, I find that it always helps to look at the big picture, not just a single race or moment.

Okay-so more speed is the plan. I want some faster running in my triathlons, so I am going to have to do some open running racing. I get nervous just thinking about the hard work ahead of me, but I am going to embrace it.
Dave did the Turkey Day Race with me, and he was limping from the start from some soccer injuries. But, wouldn't you know at mile 1.5, he pulled away from me. His injuries had mysteriously disappeared. But, at mile 3.5, I was right back with him and just kept running past him. (I don't think he has run 5 miles straight in 7+ years, and I could tell he had zero endurance). I never underestimate Dave, though, as he has a sub 5 min mile to his name, and that was before he gained all of his college speed. When I got to the stadium, I pulled up with 200 meters to go....I had won. For the first time in my whole life, I beat Dave. (beat him by default, the default being that he is injured and out of shape). I waited on him to enter the stadium, and we finished together just laughing around the whole track. He is such a good sport, and it was so much fun to run and finish a race with him.

The post-race beer line! It pays to finish your race quickly...less wait for beer!

My precious friend Cindy and her father...83 (?) years old- and KILLING IT! He was a machine out there...finished sub 50 minutes and then hit the beer line. Rockstar.

Ballou Skies

This year I saw several athletes race for the Ballou Skies Triathlon Team. I am familiar with teams such as Zoot, Timex, Rev3, etc... but who is Ballou Skies? and who are these fast girls on this team? :)

I had to do a little research because I was intrigued. Ballou Skies is an organization that was started by Ryan Ballou and his family in support of research for Muscular Dystrophy. The triathlon team races to raise awareness for Muscular Dystrophy, as well as help Ryan promote Ballou Skies and it's fundraising for research.

Guess what...it worked! Here I am in Memphis, wondering what is Ballou Skies? Would I have ever heard of this organization or Ryan if it were not for the triathlon team? Nope! The team has done its job!!!!!

And luckily for me, as a pediatric physical therapist, I was put in touch with an amazing family as a good resource. Right now, I am working with two boys that have Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy, and I was so excited to talk to Ryan and get some ideas from him.
Ryan and his family were very quick to respond to my emails. One of my students, Joe, was so intrigued by Ryan and his story, that he submitted a list of questions to Ryan- and Ryan answered right back! Joe was so excited, he saved the print out of the answers to re-read.

Ryan and his family also sent my two students care packages from Ballou Skies. These boys were so happy and excited- Joe didn't want to take his shirt off all week! Both boys live in a very, very rural area. Receiving gifts through the mail is a big deal, and the care package was very, very special.

My students will not ever be able to walk again. One of them understands that. The other one continues to have difficulty accepting this part of his disease. The other day, we were playing with a magic 8-ball, and he asked it if he would ever walk again. I appreciate that Ryan and his family understand how difficult some of the disease process can be, and they are striving to find more research to help these children. The Ballou family is making a positive impact. Thank you!!!!!

Please go to their website and support Ballou Skies through a purchase of some natural peanut butter (all proceeds go to research), or even a kind word.

Thank you to Beth Shutt and Kim Schwabenbauer for helping me get in touch with Ryan and his family. You have been true ambassadors for Ballou Skies and have represented them well in my estimation. Best of luck to you both on 2012 as professionals!!!!!

Cyclical

This is definitely a women's specific topic- fair warning.

Today I felt completely off. I woke up extremely tired and had to drag myself to the pool in order to maintain my 30 minute Oly swim- I wish that were a joke. I wasn't enjoying my day at work and my energy was non-existent. In the afternoon I started looking for candy, and those peppermint/chocolate oreos did taste really good. (I know, all of you bloggers are super healthy and never eat bad food. I would hate all of you that have never had a touch of cellulite with girl envy if most of you weren't my friends :)

And then I tried to lift tonight and my joints really hurt, as in couldn't do a squat without weight type of hurt.

I knew what was going on. Week 3. I was not sure what that really means, I just know that week 3 always stinks. My weeks usually look something like this:

Week 1: The best week to race. I actually discovered that this was also the best week for me to play soccer back in the day. I almost always had my best practices and games this week.

Week 2: All good- train/race away.

Week 3: At some point I will feel awful. Training will be affected. Pre-PMS.

Week 4: Usually early in the week, I will feel awful again. I will have horrible training/practices. PMS. End of the week will rock.

Tonight I decided to figure out why I really do seem to have a cyclical relationship with training/food/energy/and joint pain. Actually, the joint pain really spurred my research. I promise you I will run in 3 days and feel fine, but tonight my knees really, really hurt.

It seems that week 3, pre-PMS time, my estrogen and testosterone drop. There goes my energy. Estrogen is thought to be protective against pain, so that might be why my joints hurt more during this time. The hormone levels do rise up after a few days, which is probably why I don't feel bad all week.

Then week 4 rolls around and I seem to go through this all over again. Estrogen and testosterone plummet. I usually have my worst soccer practice on the Tuesday of this week (seriously- it took me years to figure out that I better be prepared to just suck at practice and spend the rest of the night crying. There was no way around it).

So, that is my excuse. Week 3- plummeting estrogen/testosterone. Tomorrow is a new day, and I ate all of the oreos so they can't sabotage me tomorrow. I am in bed and plan on getting 8 hours of sleep for real this time.

Sunday Ramblings

So the wind at Ironman Wales was 30mph steady for the entire day with gusts up to 40mph, and I raced 12 hours in it with no complaint. This morning in Memphis, the wind is 25 mph, and I do not want to go ride outside. Does anyone else become a huge baby this time of year, or is it just me? What happened to my HTFU? I am still trying to decide if I should go outdoors or this the trainer.

I have received the question, "What are you training for?" quite a lot recently. (And apparently times have changed and it is now okay to end sentences with prepositions according to the internet. I must be getting old, because I did not know this.)

I don't have anything on my calendar, besides a half marathon in Baton Rouge with Kari in 3 weeks where I will be begging her to leave me to die.

But, in my mind I want to hit the early season with some longer races. It seems to me that I almost always have good racing in the spring. I find, though, that I place my "A" races at the end of every year in the fall. So while I continue to gain fitness through the year, I think I start to show a little mental fatigue, and my fall racing is never spot on. My best racing last year happened early, even though I was not in the best physical shape. I think I was excited and motivated by my results, but I couldn't hold that for the entire year. It is just an idea, and we will see how it goes.

I am probably going to choose to race longer simply because I like it. I am not sure that I am any better at it. Actually, I think I get my butt kicked a lot. I would probably be well served to race short and build some speed this year. But, I think the longer races are fun, and I want to keep working on getting better at them. I went from 2008 to 2011 without doing a single half iron distance or iron distance race. I think trying to race them a little more frequently than 1 x every 3 years might be a good strategy for improvement.

So, now you have an answer when you wonder why I am doing a brick workout today. I plan on racing early spring.

Plus, I have to stay in good shape because I now have a new nephew, Nathaniel James. I plan on being his physical therapist and coach, so I have to be on top of my game.

Nathaniel...just a couple of hours old!

Uncle Dave holding his first nephew :)

Raid the Rock Race Report

**I wrote this report right after the race to try and capture most of the details. I was waiting for results to be posted as well as some pics, but they are not yet available. So, here is the first draft, and I will add more pictures later as they are available. I apologize in advance for the length. Consider this a make-up for all of my prior short and stinky race reports***

I used to write long race reports, then I didn't want to bore everyone. I realized that I had shorted my reports so much that my previous Wales Ironman Report read like a 5k, and I am now back to just writing it how it goes. Read as much or a little as you want!

My first adventure race...

started with a 3:00 am wake up call. Whoo hoo!!!!

Much like an ironman, you have to pack and double check all of your gear the night before. I had no clue what to bring. What is a daisy chain again? The boys showed me how to do it all.

3:30am......oh yea baby! The BEST two teammates ever for an adventure race. I never could have done this without Olaf and Charlie.

I am in the pink jacket attempting to "help" the guys get ready.

The race started at 5:00am, and I had nothing to do initially but watch my teammates plot the course and then keep up with them as we hurried to check points.

I didn't know what to expect in my first race. I really had no clue! I thought we would be doing a ton of trail running, and I was worried I would not be able to keep up with their pace. I am a decent runner, but my teammates are BAMF. After 400 meters of running, we turned into the woods. Not trails. Woods. And proceeded to navigate our way to check points leading to the top of Pinnacle Mountain. And that was about all of the actual running I remember from the day.

The boys had asked me to get some trail shoes before the race, but I insisted on wearing my running shoes. I did not want to drop $100 bucks on shoes. I am trying to live a life of needing less. I just want to use what I have and stop accumulating and needing more. I will say there is probably a good advantage to wearing trail shoes when hiking up a mountain, but I made my old running shoes work and just kept moving forward.

A view of Pinnacle Mountain as we left Little Rock later in the day.

I was surprised to see that we did not climb up a single trail. We made our own trails. I was also in disbelief when we climbed up boulder type rocks to get up and down Pinnacle Mountain. At night? It was crazy dangerous! Who does this? It was really cool.

Seriously. I wasn't kidding about climbing up and down the mountain. Thank you to Outside Arkansas Blog for the picture.

When we arrived at our first transition to the canoes, we found out we were 2nd place overall and 1st place premier co-ed! My teammates were orienteering the cleanest race possible. We were rocking it.

Race picture from Outside Arkansas Blog

Unfortunately the canoe was a bit of a problem for us. Charlie recently dislocated (and it is still dislocated) his shoulder and was in a lot of pain throughout the paddle and mountain bike. He is not able to lift his shoulder to 90 degrees. He never complained and just kept an HTFU attitude. An injured Charlie + 0%body fat Olaf + bird-wings Damie probably did not make for the best canoe team. We moved forward and enjoyed the amazing sunrise over the still, foggy river. It was beautiful.

We accidentally grabbed the wrong paddles, though, and that made for an adventure. (Not to mention we were super frustrated we grabbed the wrong gear). What normally would have been an advantage with having the wrong paddles was actually a disadvantage in some ways for us. It required Charlie to constantly have to use both shoulders- no good for a dislocated shoulder. It also brought a lot of water into the canoe on a freezing morning, and we were soon completely soaked and having some real temperature issues. We made it to the end of the canoe section tied for 1st place, but Olaf was having major body shut down.

We pulled into the bank tied with another team. We were struggling so much with our plummeting body temperature, we just couldn't keep up. The other team jumped out of their canoe dry and happy. I thought Olaf might be visiting the hospital, and I felt really guilty for all of the water I splashed on him.

Our next transition was extremely poor. We were all way too cold- shivering uncontrollably with our teeth chattering. I think the race crew was actually a little worried about us. We knew if we could move forward we would warm up. We were back in a trekking section, and we trudged away. I felt good overall, just cold. The other team made a HUGE 20 minute gap on us in a very short distance. They got out of their canoes nice and dry and just ran away from us. We moved forward and finally warmed up, but not after losing ground to one team and letting another team catch up.

But then it was time for rappelling!

So, uh...I have never done this before, so let's practice in the hotel room! Oh, and the harness is not supposed to be able to slide off of your hips? Oops! wrong size!

I have never climbed or rappelled. Ever! I was hooked up, and off of the bridge I went. Fearless. It was so much fun!

Then we transitioned to our bikes. The first big section was on dirt road, and I was fine. We biked over to a...mud run?

Charlie gets our check point punch while I recover on the right side of the picture from falling face first in the mud. :)

Yes, a 30 foot mud pit with a local 5k running through. We had to run straight through the mud pit in the middle of the race in our bike gear to get our check point. Fun!

From here on out, the story is the mountain bike. Charlie, Olaf and I formed a pace line to ride the roads and make our way to the trails. I am completely at home in this situation, and we rotated through to stay steady. There was a team riding with us, and we had a bit of a decision to make. We are good cyclists, especially on the road, with lots of time trialing experience. We were debating whether to just crush it and make up some time, but, we didn't want to waste energy trying to drop a team when we potentially still had 6 hours of racing left. We decided to ride easy through the roads, kept the other team near, hit the first trail, and all was good. (In hindsight, we should have crushed the road instead of sitting up. I now know that when I feel good, I need to just go. You never know in an adventure race when you will have a chance to use speed.) First trail was easy and cool, and we used it to take some bathroom breaks.

Then we had to make our way up the mountain. It was no longer cool. Much like the only other trail I have ridden in Arkansas, this 15 (or however long- felt like forever) mile trail was very technical and rocky. The boys road well with a few sections of moving slowly, and even they had a crash or two as well as some periods of walking their bikes.

Picture from Outside Arkansas Blog

However, nothing could describe to you the ugliness of my mountain biking. I think I crashed about 15 times. I don't have the exact number, but I am not sure if that is an exaggeration. (I have a lot of excuses I am going to provide to you in the next few paragraphs....but you can always just read between the lines...I am a stinky mountain biker!!!)

This was my very first time to ride clipped in on a mountain bike...with my borrowed shoes, and only my 6th mountain bike ride ever in my whole life. (2nd ride on a mountain bike in 20 months. go me!) To ride a technical course, at my level, is just stupid.

Let me repeat. Riding a mountain bike on a tough course when you don't have the skill because you don't ride mountain bikes is stupid!!!!

I kept a positive attitude, or at least tried to keep one. I was only sad that I was holding up my teammates, and I am sure they were embarrassed for me. I have no problems sucking at new things- I don't expect to be good when I start, but I don't like to suck when it affects teammates. I worked hard, tried to stay smart by stopping and eating when needed, and just gutted it out.

The borrowed bike is too big for me and I can't clear the top tube. At one point, I hit my pubic bone so hard in a crash (not the bottom, but the very middle of the bone), and I was pretty sure I fractured it. As I type, it is purple and swollen. (I told my teammates I now look like a "worn out hooker!") The bike is heavy for a girl my size, so I just got worked over by the trail, the bike, the mountain, and my lack of experience. I took a lot of crashes (and tried not to complain) and just got back up and on. My mantra on the bike was "take the fall." So, I took a lot of falls for the team :)

To say that I was happy to see the top of the climb was an understatement. I would have gladly taken everyone on- men and women- in a 200 mile road race than to ride up that mountain again on a mountain bike.

We lost some time on the bike, but when everything was calculated, it didn't seem to be a significant amount. We were now in 3rd place with 4th place right behind us.

We transitioned to our final section on foot, and this is where I really felt my endurance fitness kick into gear. I was ready to RACE! Let's go!!!!! I was happy, energetic, and could have run or hiked for hours. My teammates were fading a little, but not from lack of fitness. I think it was from nutrition- the forgotten discipline. (not to mention, all I had to do was keep up- they had to navigate and use their brains!!!!) I reminded them to eat and to pick up the pace. My focus in long events is usually good through the end, and I think my ability to maintain focus is a racing strength for me. I was staying right up there with my teammates, feeling chatty, and ready to work.

This section went by too quickly. Before we knew it, it was over. We made one critical mistake when working near another team and missed a checkpoint...just as 2nd place found it. We had them beat, but wasted several minutes going out of the way. They beat us by just a couple of minutes....the time it takes you to walk a hundred feet out of the way, have a pointless conversation, or take a poor line.

But, we did finish with 3rd OA (shared with our friends, the Lab Rats, who took 1stOA masters)- a fantastic result due to the amazing orienteering from my teammates. With the last checkpoint as an exception, they had created such a clean race, we couldn't help but place near the top. And to do so well having a little extra baggage called ME...newbie partner that doesn't mountain bike as a teammate. They rock. I was also excited to see that they competed head to head with the Lab Rats, an extremely good local team. My teammates are getting good...oh yes!!!!

Because we basically found the last 2 check points with the Lab Rats right on us, we decided to finish the race together as a nice group of friends. They were entered as a master's team, so we knew we weren't competing against each other. It was so funny to see how much bigger their 3rdOA trophy was compared to our 3rdOA trophy. Now that is a funny tie!

We finished in 7:49ish...not the 12 hours I had expected. Hey, wasn't this race advertised as a 12 hour race? I want my other 4 hours!!!!!! I was feeling really good and ready to go run all of those tons of miles I thought we would be running. I was extremely pleased to see that my endurance is still very high.

We were about 2-5 minutes from 2nd and and 25 minutes or so from 1st....which happened when we were gapped after the canoe trouble. I am no adventure race expert, but this sounded like a good race by my team.

Afterwards...beer, pizza, awards, and then home. I am no worse for the wear today, except that I am pretty sure I am not supposed to have a smashed pubic bone, and my body hurts where I took all of the mountain bike falls.

Charlie takes a nap after the race in the parking lot :)

Olaf eats Chef Boyardee for recovery or a treat? Ick!!!!!!

Raid The Rock was my first time to:
1. use a headlamp
2. hike at night
3. climb a mountain at night
4. rappel
5. run through a mud race
6. mountain bike a long distance
7. race with a team
8. see a checkpoint
9. ride a mountain bike clipped in
10. and complete an adventure race!

My Kind Of Weekend

We are in the midst of a huge weekend.

Friday night was Sip Around The World, a big wine tasting event at the Botanical Gardens. The wine tastes especially good when Dave scores some free tickets. I told Tim to go ahead and expect me to NOT make any planned group workouts on Saturday morning.

My sweet husband :) Oh, and this picture was taken with his new i-phone, which I think is ridiculous. We held out for so long, and he finally broke down and got a smart phone. Next year it will be out of date and he will just want to "upgrade." He says I am old fashioned and scared of progress, and I say he is a prey to consumerism and marketing. (honestly, I just don't one more dern bill to pay). I will keep my old flip phone, thank you. (But his phone did take some cute pics for use last night, so while I reserve the right to make fun of him, I also reserve the right to use his phone :)

Damie and Kathy after just a few sips....

Damie and Kathy after several hours...

Today I had a bike on tap with a swim still to come. I decided to keep this workout on the trainer since it had some 25, 20, and 15 minute intervals. It was one of the better workouts I have had on the bike in a while, and it left me feeling like my old, motivated self.

My view from the trainer- Ironman Florida virtual spectating. Go Alisha and Brandon-go fast, fast and get that KQ!!! Go Alex- get that first time finish! Have a great day!!!

Tonight, of course, is LSU and Alabama in Tuscaloserville (as one of my friends put it...ha ha!!!) More partying to come!!!!