Snow Biking

This is a picture of me trying to improve on my wicked bad (not in the good way) mountain biking skills. My hubby and friends talked me into mountain biking in the snow. It was my first time...and I totally tore it up.

I started running again, The other night I grabbed my camelback and started off for my run...but before I hit a half mile my camelback was already frozen...needless to say it was cold and I was thirsty. When I started my run it was 13 degrees and by the time I finished it was 6 degrees. It’s soo cold, but oddly it feels good to run in weather like this. I don’ feel like I am wasting a beautiful day by running.

I need help from you: I am looking for a half Ironman to compete in this summer. I have a few requirements:

1. Has to be on a Friday or Saturday;
2. It needs to be between May and August;
3. Now this is just a wish...I would love the run to be a trail run.

Okay team let me know what you have. Thanks.

Training Time

It’s training time! I know I am starting a month earlier than expected…but I’ve been so lazy lately that I needed to get a jump on my training…I took 8 weeks off. Now it is time to announce to the world that I am running a MARATHON on April 28, 2007. Please tell everyone you know…as this is the third step of my training. As you remember in my first post ever I gave away all of my training secrets. Here they are if you need a refresher:

First Step:
Decide which event you are going to run/bike/swim in.
(Kentucky Derby Marathon – Louisville, Kentucky)

Second Step:
Register, you have to put the money down to confirm your commitment, this money will hold you to your training plan for the first month maybe into your second month.
(I still need to put the $$$ down…I will do that this week - I kind of promise!)

Third Step: (Most Important)
Tell EVERYONE you know that you are going to compete in this event. Give them as much information as they can handle. Tell them about your training plans, the routes you run/ride. The more people you tell the better your chances will be of completing your event. By month three and four you are going to be burned out and chances are you will want to quit. You paid the registration fee months ago you don't care about the money anymore; this is why step three is the most important. Every time you see one of your friends or co-workers they are going to ask you how your training is going. You don't want to tell them you quit, so either you lie or you train...chance are you will train.... this is the only reason why I ran during the month of March. It is surprising how personal pride is such a motivator.
(This is where you come in. I want you to make me accountable, please help and if I respect you…it may work!)

Forth Step:
You do need to train, somewhat. Just print out a calendar with distance you need to accomplish that day and try to complete 70% of what you've planned.
(Umm…. I am still working on that…I started my training off with a 4 mile race yesterday. It wasn’t that bad… nor was it great)
Fifth Step:
Week before the race - Carb load, I don't care if it is a 5k your running. Carb loading will make you feel like a champion and it's tasty.
(I’m already starting)

Sixth Step:
Day of the race...visualize your race before hand, have your ipod load with good tunes...I suggest Jimmy Eat World esp. their 'No Pain' song. Make sure you look good and intimidating, you may catch your reflection in a window somewhere along the route and you will need to look good for yourself, it will also make you feel stronger. Before the race and in the middle of the race take some IBuprofen with your energy gel. That should ease a little bit of the pain...somewhere in the middle of the race you are going to wish you stuck to your training plan a little better. I can't help you with that. You are already so close to the finish line, power through and look good for the cameras.
(I’m already exhausted from just trying to visualize visualizing the race)

That's where I am at on my training schedule so far. If you have any suggestions please let me know. Comments are always welcomed.

my new (used) toy

I am wicked fast and out of control.....

check it out

check out my sexy husband

Fall Shmall

It's getting cooler and cooler...if I could stop the temperature decline and hold the current temperature for the next 5 months and skip winter I would be so happy. However that only happens in California, most of California voted winter off the calendar in the 40's. Man, you have to love that state! Now I don't really hate fall, it's just the intro to something awful. I get like this every fall, and by the time winter actually hits I am so numb to the pain that I enjoy winter. Winter is the only time where I am able to trail with Kiowa and not worry about chiggers or ticks. I am training for a marathon this winter and it's great to run while it's freezing...well I prefer a little warmer than freezing, but there are few things better than an 'all out' trail run for hours in the cold weather. Don't worry about me I am just going through my process, it happens every year and every year I survive. I will try to make this winter in the Midwest my best and last winter in the Midwest. That's right kids I'm outta here next summer. Heading to the Rockies, where the women are strong, the men are good looking and the kids are above average.

I left my Heart in the Rockies

Kirksville to Columbia

Here is a picture of a few of us who rode our bikes to Columbia it is a city about 110 miles away from Kirksville.

The Summer is Over

Many of my loyal fans have been asking me - nay demanding more blog entries. They are saying something to the effects that they can barely make it a day if they do not have my blog to read. This goes out to them...you know who you are. The reason I have not updated my blog is because it was summer - too busy playing. Now that summer is over it is back to the drawing board for me. I now get to map out my next summer and train for all of my events that I wish to accomplish. I'm still working out my blue print but this is what I have so far;

April - Marathon
May - Half Marathon
June - Sprint Triathlon
July - Olympic Triathlon
August - Tour of California Pirate Style
September - Lotoja (Solo all 206 miles), Half IronMan, and
October - Nothing at all - Walking optional but will not be encouraged.

I'm not exactly sure if I want to do the Half IronMan in August or September, I will have to talk to my coach for that one. Now I have all of these events to train for and you my loyal fans get to read about me whining and complaining about all of them. Stay tune for a year of jam packed fun!

Tri This (Old Post I never Published written in July)

I know I have been absent for most of the summer. I suppose I realized that I'm not news worthy. That was until Saturday. My winter training partner talked me into doing a triathlon this past weekend. She didn't just talk me into it, she threatened me with a DNF (did not finish) on my permanent record. Dang she's good. The triathlon was in Iowa, I would tell you the town but it would mean nothing to you. People in Iowa don't even know this town exists. The race was called Whaletown, because it is a Whale of a Town that no one has ever heard of. A triathlon really consisted of 3 events; swim, bike, and run. This race started in a mass 1k swim. This swim was NUTS!!! People were crawling all over each other, it was a lifeguards worse nightmare (not to mention there was lighting in the sky). I'm not going to lie - I was slow. It took me 28 mins to do the blasted swim. Then as soon as I pulled myself to the beach I ran up this steep muddy hill to the bike. Wet and wet I throw my shoes on, grabbed the helmet and I was off. I knew I had a very hilly course ahead of me and I should try to pace myself...but I was so slow on the swim that I knew pacing myself would not even be considered at the moment, so I went as hard as my wet legs would let me. I passed two people riding mountain bikes...oy, this is going to be a long 40k. The first 20k I was in a head wind...I was doing pretty well, going pretty strong. Then the turn around and the now with the wind to my back I was flying, but so was everyone else, luckily I rock and I made up a lot of time on the bike. Now the run a 10k, sounds easy, since I just ran a marathon in April. But after the marathon I went on running strike. Down with running Up with cycling, needless to say that choice made my 10k a little difficult. However I stayed on a 10 min mile pace, I wish I was faster, but that’s what happens when you don’t train well. I Finished 3rd in my division, and that was that.

The Wall

The Lost Coast

The Endless Hill
The Wall

No, this is not a tribute to Pink Floyd. The Wall is the most intense road you’ll ever be on. Let me tell you how I got there. My little sis and I are in the North Coast of California and we started our bike ride in the Avenue of the Giants (Old Redwood Forest), then we started up this climb that was suppose to be a little shorter than 2 miles. See I got this ride from AE Falcon book and I am suing them this week, because this climb was not 2 miles…. I reached the summit 8 miles later. Yeah, it was crazy!!! It was a very long steep climb covering about 3,000 vertical feet. Now the decent, STEEP! My hands were cramping up because I could not hold on to my brakes any tighter. Now I love to go fast, I Heart Descents, but not when there are gravel and potholes all over the road. Finally I reached the bottom and we were on a flat for about 2.5 minutes when we started to climb again, and again it did not stop! Now the decent, quick and easy. When I descended I came out to the Lost Coast, beautiful black sand beaches, blue crisp water and a head wind that would kill you. Luckily for me the wind was carrying sand…yeah real lucky. This ride had been so beautiful that I feel bad complaining. All and all the ride was great, sure some climbing okay a lot of climbing. The majority of it was climbing, but it was so beautiful that I hardly noticed. That is until I saw The Wall, now the head wind matters and I wanted to throw up. It was 1 mile at 18% grade with a head wind that would tip a cow over. Now on these long rides I get 3 swear words if I need them, but you can’t exceed the 3 word limit per day. I usually never need to use them, but on this fine day I used all three when I realized I was looking at The Wall. After some moaning and groaning I got up The Wall only to see that immediately after The Wall I begin the Endless Hill (I’m not joking that’s the name on the climb) and let me tell you the name says it all…this climb was endless!!! Once again I climbed for an hour straight. It was getting later in the day and the fog started to roll in I was still climbing, at that point I have been riding for 5 hours and now the fog was getting thicker and it was becoming a little dangerous to ride so I get off me bike and put my bike on the back of the support car and went home. Truly this ride was epic. Scenery you’ll never see anywhere else. I Heart Nor Cal.

The Thought Make My Legs Hurt

Odometer: 300
Rides: I didn’t ride this entire week!

Besides not riding this week I have made other choices that will deter me from having a happy body. A friend of mine asked me to do a marathon with her in October; it will be in driving distance so I told her I was 'a go'. My sis asked to do a marathon in October, but I am too broke to go to California for the race. So in October I am running a marathon. It makes me think that I am insane, why? Well, I have not run or trotted a mile since the marathon a MONTH AGO! Yup, nothing. I've been riding my bike (obviously not enough). The real reason I have not gone running is because the mere thought of running, makes me want to dry heave, and I already feel the burn in my legs. Why oh why do I do this?

Tuesday

Mileage: 16.08
Odometer:148.5

This morning I am writing out my agenda for the 1st Annual Velo Belle' Tour. Here's a quick break down. Petaluma, CA - Mendocino-Avenue of the Giants-Lost Coast-Arcata-Sunset Bay, OR - Gold Hill - Shasta, CA- Milpitas and then home. I'm pretty excited for this trip. My lil sister and I are going to bike as much as we can each day...I told her about 50 miles a day but I am secretly going to sabotage her bike computer so we can ride more each day. Besides the riding part the trip is going to be pretty posh. My sis and I are going to be well taken care of. We have a sweet support crew, my mother and grandparents. My grandparents have this awesome RV so we are going to travel in style everywhere we go. My mom will be in a car following us on our rides and she is our support crew, she will make sure we have food, adequate clothing, she'll cart around our mechanical stuff which I hope we figure out how to use. I am going to have to get her awesome books on tape...a lot of them. She will be doing this for 10 days. This is why I have to ride a lot in the next few weeks. Since my sister isn't riding at all I figure I better get as strong as possible so I can pull her along the coast of California and Oregon. I would like to clarify that this is a public attack on my sister’s commitment to her bike.

Monday

Today's Ride:

Mileage: 43.4 (this includes my commute to work)
Odometer: 132.4 (does not include commute to work. I ride a different bike)

Okay, late to work. I'll write more later.

It's time to talk Numbers

First off I need to give my report.

Saturday's ride;
Mileage 33
Odometer 95

Okay this week is when I really get serious. I have to start putting in the time on my bike. My goal is to at least put 100 miles in per week. Here are my numbers for the week:

Monday - 30
Tuesday - 10
Thursday - 60
Friday - 30
Saturday - 40

Okay you did the math that was 140 miles...but you and I both know that I will skip a day. Lets just hope it's not on Thursday. I am feeling bike guilt. I neglected my bike for so long so I can do that marathon. I will report to you everyday this week...or at least on the days I remember.

Here's another problem. It's supose to rain everyday this week.

I was joking about the math.

The Bike

It's time for me to get on the bike. We just got new kits for Seth's school here's a pic of them. Anyways, I went for a ride this morning only to realize my knee is broken. I can't pedal all that well right now. It looks like I am going to have to ice it today. Lucky me. Well here's my count so far.
Mileage: 10
Odometer: 62.4

My goal: To get 400 miles on my bike before I leave for California on June 2nd. You know I will keep you posted.

The End Tally

This is me stuffing my face after the race and right before I passed out. It was kind of funny when I did fall asleep I was still running in my dreams. So here's the damage:
5 Bruised toes;
6 Blisters;
1 Flesh wound(on the heel);
1 Jacked up right knee;
Sunburn on my arms;
Cankles;
Dehydration;
Endless amounts of pain in my legs;
Sore abs, shoulders, and back.

However out of all of that I did get the following:
1 Medal;
1 T-shirt;
Jelly Belly energy beans;
Sandals;
Those muffins you see me eating;
and a whole lot of bragging rights. In the end I was still short changed. If this were a MasterCard commercial I would have said that those Bragging Rights were: Priceless.

Done, Done and Done

Sweet mother of all that is holy it is over! That was the longest morning of my life! I don’t think I have ever been that nervous in all my life. So the night before I went to the expo to get my registration packet inside it had my bib number, the timing chip(you put it on your shoe and it gives you your race time) and all the other information I needed to know where I was going the next morning. I tried to sleep that night but I woke up ever hour on the hour. Yikes I was getting nervous.

Morning Time: Get up, put my clothes on, grab some energy gel for the run, skipped breakfast (I start my runs on an empty stomach) , and headed out the door. I showed up at the race 50 mins before, only to remember I forgot my timing chip. Seth and I raced back to the Hotel only to realize that the timing chip was in the car the whole time, so we raced back to the start line I had 20 mins to get in the ‘zone’. There were so many people there, 22,000 people to be exact. You could not really appreciate the amount of people there were until you started the race. When the race started it took me 15 mins to cross the start line and the start of the race was really hilly. So when I was on top of a hill I was able to look ahead of me and behind me and it was just a sea of people. It was really cool. The race started and let me give you a brake down of what happened.

Miles 1-3 Super easy there were a ton of people everywhere. The streets were packed with fans. We were in beautiful downtown, there were a lot of fun Blues and Rock bands there.

4-6 Still feeling good, I was running a good pace until I realize I had to go to the bathroom, waited in line for 5 minutes that was not fun. We were going down Belmont Street, which had some of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen. There were kids lining the street to give the runners high fives as they passed. So cute!

7-9 A lot of hills, my calf stated to cramp up and my knee started to hurt. Stretched them out and all is dandy.

10 – It was getting hot and boring we were out of the nice neighborhood and we were now we were in the industrial zone or something…it was pretty non eventful.

11-12 I spit in front of the crowd and get applauded for my spitting form. I didn’t think anyone would notice my spitting form; I have been practicing for so long. Then I found and older guy from Massachusetts to run with he kept me an a pretty good pace then I realized that the heel of my foot was stinging, I look down and the back of my shoe is covered in blood. Somehow I cut my heel open, it could have been a blister.

13.1 – Half way there, crap I still have 13.1 more miles to go. I felt very far from the finish.

14-17 Pretty uneventful…I just kept running. Oh so they have bands along the course and my whole theory was when I come to a country band I would run faster. Well they saved all the really country music till the end and it totally worked I would pick up my pace to get the heck out of there.

18 – 2 miles until twenty.

19 – Didn’t even see the sign, but by then I realize I could finish it before 5 hours, that was a secret time goal I had.

20 – Just one more hour left.

21 – Suck that was only a mile. Yikes.

22 – We entered a beautiful park full of trees and shade, so I just tricked my self into thinking I just started this run for fun and it’s going to be easy. It would have been more convincing if my legs did not feel like lead.

23 – By now everyone is walking. I didn’t want to get sucked into that, so I kept my head down and picked up my pace I had to get the finish line soon.

24 – 2 more miles left. While I passed the medical tent I looked inside and it looked like a scene from M*A*S*H.

25 - Oh Heavens I made it.

26 – Felt like a champion. I sprinted to the end.

I finished in 4:43:48.

I was so happy. It was a long race. But I felt good the entire time I had energy to run the whole thing. Luckily I did not need to walk.

It’s over It’s over and It’s over!!! Met Seth at the finish line and then I hobbled to the car. My legs are still broken I can barley walk, but I am really happy that I accomplished something I started to do out of spite. That’s it for me. Now it is all about the bike. Truth be told you know I am going to run another one. It’s kind of addicting. My sister is talking me into one in October. I might not be ready for that one, but we’ll see.

I'll post pictures when I figure out how. Check back later.

Panic...just a little bit

Before athletic games and races I would get butterflies in my stomach, that was usually the night before and the day of the event. Well this time I have had them all week. My friend Jan always tells me 'It's all about me' and this week it has been like that for me. I have been constantly thinking about this race. I try not to show it to anyone...because that would just make me annoying. This is why I have a blog.

To Puke or Not To Puke

I leave tomorrow for Nashville. I am getting really excited/so nervous I want to puke. I’m going to save the puking for the middle of the race though. I ran 6 really hard miles on Monday, I slacked off on Tuesday and watched a movie, and then yesterday I ran 3 hard miles and ended with a 3 minute sprint. I probably would have gone faster on that last sprint if I was not pulling my fat dog behind me. She is getting so slow! She is totally cramping my style. So I have been eating a lot and I love it, except that I feel really fat right now, that is not helping my self—esteem. Hopefully I can realize that I have a sweet spirit and weight does not matter. I think I have gained 5 pound since I have been training. My thought was when I started this that I would lose some weight. Okay back to me leaving for Nashville here is what I am going to pack, please tell me if I am forgetting anything for the race;

Blue tank top,
Blue shorts,
Blue socks,
Running shoes,
Hat,
Sunglasses,
Sunscreen,
IPod,
Rain Jacket (70% chance of rain, SUCK!)
Running pants,
GU,
Motrin, and
a whole case of confidence ( I hope I can find it, I don't remember where I put it last).

Over all I feel pretty good about things, I am trying to visualize the race but I am having a hard time visualizing anything after mile 17. I hope I am not jinxing myself.

My Mantra

I have 5 days until I compete in my first marathon. I’m excited and relieved that it will finally be over! Honestly training throughout the winter just about killed me. I mean it, my lungs would freeze in the air, I would slip on the snow and fall hard on some of my favorite trails, my snot would freeze making it difficult to breathe, and that’s just half of the problems with winter. The biggest problem was that it was ALWAYS dark! I hate winter. Now the weather is beautiful and I want to play, not train. Training is for sucks. I say that now but for all of you that know me you should know that I have a bad memory. Because when Monday hits I will leave my running shoes behind and hop on my bike and train all spring, for my summer rides. My younger sister and I have a biking trip to go on this summer. It is going to be epic. We will be biking in Nor Cal and Southern Oregon. First I need to get this marathon done and over with. 5 more days….I just keep saying that to myself. It’s my mantra for the day. Today and tomorrow I am suppose to use my muscle until they are exhausted, so this evening I am going to hammer out the most grueling 10 miles of my life. Needless to say I have been hiding under my bed all morning trying not to think about it. But now that I have put it on my blog I will have to complete it (Step 3 of my training plan). Dang that training plan is fail safe!!! I can’t wait to start riding my bike more. I have to beat my father-in-law up L’Alpe-Traverse this summer. I have a lot of training to do to even make it up that mountain not to mention trying to beat someone. I’ll post detail of the race later in the summer. It will be thee biking event of the year!