Trakkers Info

On the Trakkers front, here are some exciting developments that may benefit you!  

All3Sports.com is back as an official team sponsor!  Not only are they supporting us, but they are extending discounts for our friends, family and YOU!  So next time you find yourself in need of Tri equipment go to www.all3sports.com and enter this code: GOTRAKKERS for 15% off your entire purchase.   Follow them on Twitter@All3Sportscom.

Rev3 is also in on the friends and family discount action. You can get $10 off your Rev3 registration using this code: TRAKKERS14.  You'll be prompted to enter as you register on Active.com. To keep up on all things Rev3 please follow on Twitter @Rev3Tri.

SBR Sports is also back on as a sponsor and tody only you get 40% OFF all TRISWIM, TRISLIDE & FOGGLE Products for the next 24 hours! Go to www.sbrsportsinc.com or www.triswimbeauty.com and enter this code at checkout: FEB0140 Free Shipping every day if you spend $50 & up!  Lord knows I need to stock up on this stuff with my pasty dry winter skin!

Also just announced, REV3 Coaching!  Did you know that @rev3tri offers free training plans? They also offer advanced plans as well created by Joanna Zeiger and Carole Sharpless!  More info can be found here!  http://www.rev3tri.com/!/coaching/plans.htm

Let's get pruny!

It has been a hectic week.  Got a few things in the wind outside of training which have me stressed and excited at the same time.  Fingers crossed!

The past week was an awesome one.  I did a pretty good job at executing key workouts and the leg seems to be holding up fine.  I really don't get it but have been taking extra care to stretch, ice and take my vitamins (for Hulk).

I am slightly messed up lately with the way my program is laid out as I am used to Monday - Sunday but my new stuff has all been Sunday-Saturday.  Yet, I am getting used to it.

So I have commenced Operation Ramp Up.  I am trying to get in 3 swims, 3 bikes and 5 runs per week.  Also trying to get in some core and strength too.  I am ramping up my running in the hopes that perhaps I can run Nashville Marathon on April 30th (my anniversary) but if I have any concern with the leg I will just do the half like last year (not worth long term injury).

The nice thing about the running program I am following based on Arthur Lydiard philosophies is that while I am running more, it seems pretty easy.  The pacing is so much easier than the fast speedwork I was putting myself through and typically my HR sits in Zone 2 for the most part.  I think right now this is good for a couple reasons.

1.  It does not seem to bother my leg.
2.  It does not wreck my legs so I can still hit my quality bikes (which are grueling toughies).

Last week went as such-

Sunday - 9mile ran at 8:33 pace, 1100m swam, 45 min core circuit at LFT
Monday-19 mile bike, 2000 m swam
Tuesday- 14 miles ran at 8:35
Wednesday- Gorris Bike W/O #1 (21 M Biked), 2000 m swam
Thursday- 7 miles ran (short)
Friday - 22 miles bikes (gorris #2)
Saturday - 31 miles biked, 2000 yards swam
and Sunday 10,000 yards swam at CTC Swim Challenge!!!

(Short 2 runs, but wanted to make sure I eased in a bit)

So the swim challenge:  I had not really said much about it.  Mostly I think because I think so little of my swimming.  I always feel slow and it is my limiter.  Last year with a broken elbow, I did not get to work on my swimming like I should have.  This winter I have seen some improvements, yet no where near where I would like to be.

So back to the challenge, we had 3.5 hours to get it done.  2:15 intervals would put me over 3.5 hours so I decided I would shoot for 2 min repeats.  This was good for a couple reasons.  This really helped me to pace myself.  My lane mates were both faster than me but I decided to stick with the plan.  I am sure I could have tried to stick with them for a little bit and would have totally crashed and burned.  Also, staying on 2 min made counting so easy.  Every 20 minutes was 1000 down.  I started into the day just set on following my plan and everything was going well.  I also decided I would follow the set plan put out by our challenge coordinator which broke everything up into sets of 10.


100x100 - 1 minutes rest between sets (optional)
1-10 warm up of your choice - free
11-20 50 pull/50 swim
21-30 50 kick with fins / 50 swim with fins   
31-40 50 swim / 50 pull
41-50 swim
51-60 choice (fins and pull optional)
61-70 pull
71-80 swim (fins optional)
81-90 swim or pull of your choice
91-100 survival swim- do whatever you need to finish!!!!


I enjoyed doing the sets like this.  The zoomers and pull buoy on some sets definitely made it WAAAY easier.  (Definitely felt like cheating compared to people who did the whole 10,000 free).  So I was chugging along, not taking any additional rests beyond a couple quick sips of my First Endurance EFS drink to stay right on my 2 min interval.  It had become a mission to be right around there every 100.  Sometimes a little ahead or behind depending on where my lane mates were.  As I really had no breaks more than 20 seconds or so, I made a deal with myself that I would take a short break at 7000 and hopped out, hit the rr, grabbed a fig newton and some more EFS and was back at it in 4 minutes.  The break felt good for and the last 3000 went by pretty painlessly.  I picked it up the last 400 or so and finished in 3:18:33 or 3:22:33 with my 4 min break. YEAH!!!  I did it!  That is really far by the way- 10,000 yards is also 400 lengths, 200 laps, 5.68 miles!

Overall, my upper body muscles are less fatigued than after a upper body workout (maybe I am not working those muscles hard enough in the swim).  The only real source of discomfort is my neck from turning it left a million times.  Seriously I wonder how many times I breathed!  The other glaring takeaway is I NEED TO LEARN FLIP TURNS.  I lose soooo much there comparatively!

Overall the swim challenge was a huge success for CTC and it was really fun to participate!  Next year I will try to do it faster!

Did I mention how pruny I felt when I was done?  Thank goodness I had my TriSwim lotion to help my poor dry skin when I was done!

This morning it was back to it and I hopped on the treadmill for 15 miles which was the long run I would usually do over the weekend!  That felt good but I was crazy bored and happy to get off that dumb thing after 2:05.  Not only was I happy to get off the thing out of boredom, but my stupid arm and legs both are really chaffed!

Happy Monday!

Type, delete, start again, over and over

That is pretty much this post.

I have tried to post a few times over the last several days.  I start typing and decide I am not sure where I want to go with it and delete.

I guess I feel pulled in too many directions at the moment to put down a cohesive focused post so these are just some of the random Monday thoughts in my head-

-  I hate that my leg concerns me so much.  I did not run at all last Money - Saturday hoping my leg issue would clear up, but no change.  Finally could not take it and ran 9 on treadmill easy Sunday.  No change.  Not sure what to make of it.

- I hate cold and dark.  Normally I tolerate and get out and run in it anyways but right now what I really want is a nice soft easy towpath run.  I don't want the pounding of the pavement or some crazy uneven footing to try to contend with as I sort this leg thing out.  Spring can not come soon enough.

- With the lightened running load, I have returned to a bike focus.  Coach G kicks my butt in our required bike workouts.  East side cycling got a taste of part of one this weekend...it was a doozy!  I biked the most I have in a long time this past week and feel even more motivated to keep it up!

- This weekend is CTC's 2nd annual swim challenge / swim clinic.  Leah from Liquid Lifestyles is running the swim clinic which will be awesome I'm sure.  I am opting for the challenge.  Challenge is choice of 25x100, 50x100, 75x 100 or 100x100's.  I am not sure I can do the 100 but curious to see how far I will go! Gonna be fun!

-  REV3's blogtalk radio  is back this week.  Tune in 1/26 at 8PM to hear about 2011 season, highlighting REV3 Costa Rica and the chance to hear Pro Triathlete, Bree Wee. I am excited to tune in as listening to these last year always got me pumped up.

- On the Trakkers front, I am super excited that First Endurance and TriSwim are back on board as official team sponsors.

- Congrats to running friends, ESpeed and NC for tearing it up this weekend at the Case Spartan relays.  If only my leg was not such a concern....it sounds like great fun to go see what kind of time I could try to throw down at some short distances!

-  I take almost as much pleasure in my sister's newfound running as my own.  She is well on her way executing her marathon training plan as we prepare for Nashville in April.  I already see that she has the heart, discipline and potential to go far!  Speaking of sis, I had a awesome time with her twins 4 yr old girls yday at my cousins 1 yr old bday party.  They now can say they played Angry Birds on the Iphone and I can't help but laugh as they celebrate when taking down the pigs....which leads me to my final note

-  In spite of feeling like you are juggling too many things, quality time with family just seems to make everything better!

Run for Regis Race Report

First off, I love this race!  This was the first time I have "raced" this course.  I was used to the old course on the Buckeye Trail.  I ran it in 2008 which was my first 50K, which I ran the majority with two of my close friends, Amie and Elizabeth!!!  Then in 2009, I killed myself in very snowy conditions to come up a little short as 2nd overall female.  2010, I signed up, only to sit out with a tibia stress fracture.  This yr, 2011 , I feared I was borderline tibia stress fracture re-occurence and opted to just do 13.1 (or 13.34 according to my garmin) and play it safe!

I think this was a good idea and I REALLY enjoyed my day!  My plan was to go out easy and just enjoy myself.  Yet, as usual we started off and the atmosphere caught up with me and I was running faster than planned!  We started off slipping and sliding through the snowy field.  My first thought was pretty much, holy sh!t, this is going to be some rough footing.  I was pretty much running at race pace, which for mile 1 was only 9:08 in that snow.  One of my training partners, CK, was just in front of me, and for some reason I just felt compelled to stick in that pack with 3 guys.  As we got into the trail the footing was slightly better, but my body was getting one heck of a workout with all the sliding.

In my head, I was just happy to be running this year but I kept thinking, "what are you doing, plan is easy run...no injuries".  Splits for 2, 3, and 4 were 9:21, 9:50, 9:53 and my respective avg HR, those miles 172, 170, 166, which for me is clearly not in my easy run range.  Around this point, the guy in front of CK let him pass and CK started to pick it up more and I opted to let them go.  My high school friend, GT closed the gap and then we started to run together and chat for awhile.  It was sooo nice to just slow down a bit and enjoy the day a little more rather than feel like I was pushing so hard.  It was actually aggravating my leg a bit when I was running hard and during the first 8 mile loop, I was considering not doing the 5 mile loop.  However, as the pace relaxed, my leg felt fine.  GT had me in good spirits and I was enjoying seeing the many friends out on the course, volunteering and running.

The course is just amazing and throws a little bit of everything at you-rocks, bridges, stairs, hills and that day, LOTS OF SNOW!

At the start, the 50k and marathoners headed right at the split to do the 5 mile loop first and halfers like me went left.  So it was fun to cross them a couple times and get to see a lot of the field.  The only issue was there was getting to be a couple packed down areas to run in and when we were passing, one of us was off in the snow trekking through deep footing which was a lot more work!  I usually popped off to the side, figuring they had a lot further to go!

GT and I rolled into the start point together and I grabbed a delicious glass of coke slushy and was off for the second loop.  The scenery is fabulous and I just settled in to a nice conservative stride watching GT take off after about a 1.5 miles, content to just enjoy the last bit.  As I headed back and hit the last big climb into the rocks, I hit an overlook.  I paused at the overlook as I had ran the course a couple times previously and knew this was not on the course.  So I backtracked and found where I missed my turn.  It was not the first time I had missed the hard left after all the rocks on the return from Happy Days.  I was glad I was pretty familiar with the course and realized my mistake early on.

As I headed into the finish I saw GT coming from the opposite direction.  He must have messed up somewhere, which is par for the course for him!  ;-)  Anyways, I was glad to be done.  For a half marathon, it was a lot of work!  That and the temps were dropping.  I think the start was 17 and it was probably 13 at the finish....my guess but somewhere around that!

So at the end of the day, I was the first female back for the half, 12th person overall with a time of 2:24....perhaps my slowest half ever!  Not too shabby, all things considered tho in those conditions!  Snow, cold and garmin says ~2800 ft of climbing (about the same descending).   Lots of other great female performances at other distances!!!

There were many people that did not even start due to the cold and snow and many people who had dropped down distances from the 50k/ mary to the half....so it was definitely an accomplishment for all racers out there to get in those miles!

I went into the shelter to stand by the fire for a minute before collecting my super sweet BRIGHT NEON green and black shirt/jacket.  LOVE IT!  I collected this from Tanya Cady, the race director who really puts her heart into the race.  She deserves mad credit for all of her efforts.  Lots of others deserve props too like Nick with all his tech help, Vince for all the support and all the volunteers that must have froze their little tails off helping us out!  THANKS TO ALL!


Glad I made the call to play it safe and just really enjoy a fun morning run with friends!

Think Big Picture!

This week has been trying.  The weather has been snowy which stinks in that my long 40 mile commute takes FORVER!  Living in the snowbelt and wasting so much time in the car just wears on me sometimes and often it cuts in to my workout time significantly.  So annoying!  Yet, on the plus side, it means the husband is out making money plowing.  Win some, lose some!  Continuing on my rant, I was also bummed to discover we had already burned through a tank of oil in our house and are completely out which means $$$$.  Hopefully they deliver soon as the house is cold.  Thank goodness for our wood stove and Eden Pure heater to get us by.  And I have been grumpy that my leg still seemed very off on my treadmill run Tuesday.  Lastly, I hate cold and dark weather….I am a warm sunshine princess after all!

So this week, I am just trying to get by the best I can with a smile and what better way to do that, than to look forward to upcoming events which coming up include-

This weekend’s Run for Regis 50K ----Scratch that,  I have decided I will just run the ½ marathon.

February – Probably will run the Chili Bowl 5K and Dirty Dob 10k

March 6th-  Youngstown ½ Marathon

March 12th-  St Malachi 5 Miler which is always a party!

April 30 – Nashville Country Music Marathon

May 6-8^th-  Cleveland Tri Club Training Camp at Mohican

May 6-8^th-  American Triple T Ohio

June 4^th – Mohican 100 K Mountain Bike Race

So back to this weekend and the 50k, I have decided the leg is not 100%, not bad by all means but not good either.  Actually I had a very nice easy 7 mile run on the treadmill today which felt great.  However, common sense tells me this is not the time to go run a 50k in a lot of snow and risk the early season.  So I have resolved that I will just go out and run the 13 miles easy and just enjoy being out there with my friends.  After all, last year I could not even do that!  Thinking big picture and spring!

So with that, there will be no taper and Sunday will just be another normal day.  After Sunday, I think I will either take a couple weeks off running or just run slow for 2 weeks or so to make sure everything settles in the leg and hopefully commence training with no more issues!  This may be a blessing in disguise as I could use some more bike focus.

This week I have made the return to weight training after a 2 or 3 week hiatus.  Dang, time off just makes the return a little painful, but its good to be sore...at least a little!  Always good to know I am doing something!  To everyone struggling this winter, do your best to do what ya can and find other positives to focus on!

Crackers, slackers, Trakkers and awesome backers!

Last week, I felt like one of the slackers, laid up on my couch with chicken noodle soup and crackers (thank you super awesome husband for making this killer homemade concoction)!

After a lot of rest and taking it easy, I feel sooo much better this week after a super fantastic weekend!  Friday night we hit Rays Indoor Mountain Bike Park with our friends.  The highlight of that night was one of the groups of people who were in there filming a video.  The one guy rolls up with a mullet wig on into the one jump line.  Clearly he could ride, but they were filming crashes.  This was commitment at its finest, as he said not to worry, he just had to go crash a couple more times; the last time, even over the handlebars.  This was all quite entertaining! 

Saturday morning, as usual, I hit Cleveland Triathlon Club’s east side indoor cycling.  This is typically a 2 hour sweat-fest filled with lots of drills and intervals, sure to make us stronger riders come spring.  I think sweating out the last of my germs, made me even grosser than usual.  But have no fear, after we rode, I hit the pool to get clean and the gang swam a nice 1750 yard workout together!  What a quality way to spend a winter Saturday morning!  I spent the better part of the afternoon relaxing and watched Ultra Marathon Man, featuring Dean Karnazes, which highlighted his journey of 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states.  The banter in my running club is quite colorful when the topic of Karnazes comes up, but I can’t help but give credit where credit is due and that just seems like one heck of a feat.

Sunday morning I awoke for a final “long” taper run before next weekend’s Run for Regis 50K.   We ran a very gorgeous 11 mile trail run in some snowy footing in the sun and I felt great!  This was much to my liking as I am not sure if I am being paranoid or if I do need to back the running down a bit but it just seems like my leg has been tender randomly lately (similar to the way it felt last year when I had the tibia stress fracture).  It is strange, not really hurting when I run but somewhat dull and aching or feeling numb in the bone here and there.  Maybe it is me just being worrisome or maybe something more that I need to monitor carefully.  I donno.  Either way, I am trying to exercise the utmost caution to make sure everything stays on the up and up.  So that leaves me with a huge question mark for this weekend’s 50k race.  I do this one for fun, but I would be lying to say I am not competitive and want more.  It is not one of my 2 spring A races.  So if I feel good Sunday I will go for it.  If not, I will just have a nice easy half marathon trail run.  I am resolved to be ok with it either way as the only goal is to not be injured!

On the home front, I am excited again to be a part of Team Trakkers!  The 2011 roster has been set and the team is buzzing with lots of excitement!    Trakkers  is known for their real-time GPS device, designed by and for endurance athletes. Whether you’re training or racing, all of your essential information – location, performance, heart rate, and more – is transmitted to trakkersgps.com for instant viewing.  Other team backers include-

• REV 3 OF COURSE!  Last year I had the pleasure of doing the entire REV3 Series!  This year again REV 3 is back with more races including Costa Rica, Portland, South Carolina and even some adventure races!  Additionally, they just rolled out their AG Series which even includes nice prize money for us amateurs!  Needless to say, REV3 Cedar Point and maybe a couple other races will be on my calendar this year!  And as a PS, look for Cleveland Triathlon Club to again help put on some on the course training days in OH!

• Kestrel Bikes- Popular and much loved by lots of my teammates!

• First Endurance – I must say I brag about their products on a regular basis.  They made a world of difference to me in my training and I carried and used solely the FE products to get me through my first ever IM last year with no issues.  I am so thankful to have finally feel like I have got a decent nutrition plan nailed down and much of the credit here all goes to FE!  Plus I am soooo excited they now have a Berry Liquid Shot (not that I did not love my Vanilla…I am just a bit fruity!)

• TriSwim / SBR Sports – LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this stuff!  Another one of my favorite things to brag about so much so that I had to see that the Cleveland Tri Club got familiar with the product!  Lots of our members will get samples to try at our upcoming big CTC Swim Challenge and Clinic!

• All 3 Sports – Another go-to for me over 2010 for that bike seat I could just not find at the store and anything else I was searching for!

• Avia- New for 2011!  Now for some time, I have been a fan of the AVIA SKULL look.  I checked out its origin to find that the AVIA Skull stands for "Victory or Death" and has roots that run deep in Endurance Sports, just like AVIA.  I thought it was interesting to read in one of the press releases online that-

“World Champion, 4th place RAAM finisher, and eight-times National Duathlon Champion, AVIA athlete, Kenny Souza, arguably one of the best endurance racers of all time inspired us with passion for performance, endurance sports, and racing to win.

His inspiration stemmed from a "Victory or Death" mantra he focused on while racing, also tattooed on his left arm. "Victory or Death" is a mentality when racing, when training, it provides that extra push that is sometimes needed to dig a little deeper.” 

I LIKE IT...bring on some AVIA SKULL FOR ME IN 2011!   So heres to the new year, Trakkers and our awesome backers!!!

Happy New Year!!!

New Year, continued madness!  And as most of you, I have been looking forward to kicking off the new year right, but then I ended up sick as a dog.  So the story goes as such....

Holiday madness- Ran around like chicken with head cut off trying to see everyone with very little time off work and still trying to get in the training.

Wednesday, scooted out of the office for my FTP test on the bike with the help of DM.  I was not sure what to expect as I have been slacking on the bike in the offseason to focus more on running.  The FTP test deserves a post of its own but in a nutshell it was a 20 min warmup, some 1 min on, 1 min recovery pickups and then 5 minutes all out, 10 min recovery, 20 minutes hard to grueling finale and then 10 minutes of catching my breath.  I was happy to have a significantly better showing than last year, albeit not anywhere close to the boys in terms of wattage but a very respectable watts / kg ratio compared to them.  Improvement makes me happy!

After the test I continued to cough into the night, chalking it up to a hard effort, but felt slightly cruddy on Thursday through my run intervals and subsequent swim.  Ran around hitting the stores the rest of the day on Thursday enjoying the day off with the husband.  Friday, I hit the door early for another holiday run with Southeast Running Club.  The temps were in the upper 40's (HEATWAVE) and we had a large showing, most everyone in shorts!  Wooot!  It was another one of those super fabulous runs when I ran with longtime running gals, CV and LP and while I planned to run 8 min miles, we pretty easily clipped along shooting the breeze to finish the very rolling 13.2 with a 7:32 pace.  Then it was off to another super yummy breakfast at Club President's FD's pad.  THANK YOU SUE & FRANK!

The day seemed to fly by.  Lots of stuff to prepare for Cleveland Tri Club (CTC) Polar Bear Plunge, made some meatballs for the PJ Party NYE and the whole time I kept thinking, I know it is only a matter of time at this point.  We headed to a PJ party NYE with some other CTC friends....good times, good games, good food and fun!  I crashed out a little early around 12:30AM, probably due in part to the beers and feeling just plain exhausted!

Saturday, I awoke without much of a voice and a hardcore sore throat but tried to suck it up for a few more hours.  After a kick but breakfast thanks to the Joliffs we were off the the polar plunge.  Huge props to fellow board members MD and KB who spent the prior day breaking ice.

"Remember, we're triathletes, damn it!  We improvise, adapt, overcome! - Durno (pictured)

You see this was the 8th year for the polar bear plunge.  It was the first year CTC bought Tshirts to commemorate the event AND it was the first year it has been so COLD that Lake Erie beaches were all ICED OVER.  Yes, the polar plunge would be on if they had to make the hole themselves!

It was a HUGE turnout!

Probably 300 people and over 200 plungers!

All in all, it seemed to go off well and people enjoyed the balmy temps that we actually enjoyed on New Years Day.  My day was a bit hectic as we were running a bit behind schedule and I was hustling to get everyone signed in, tshirts sold and just try to hold down the fort.  

Afterwards the gang warmed up at Panini's in Westlake.  It was hard to believe just how many people were at the bar by 1 on New Years Day.  After feeling worse and worse we opted out on the after party we meant to hit and I crashed on the couch.  I did manage to watch the fabulous footage New Channel 5 and Fox 8 airred on the event.  SUPER AWESOME and I even heard it made national news!  Yeah for Cleveland Polar Bears!

But ever since I have been just kicked and knocked down and have not been able to get moving.  I have not worked out since Friday.  I left work early Monday.  Today is the first day I think I will try to do something tonight.  The sinus pressure that seriously made it hard to keep my eyes open has finally left and I cannot wait to get back to it!  It will probably take a few more days to get rid of the annoying funk so I will take it easy and then I can spend the rest of the New Year Making up for this false start!

Happy New Year to all of you and looking forward to sharing 2011 with you!

Holiday Running!

There are several things I love about  the holidays and among my favorite are the special holiday runs!

Southeast Running Club, which I am very proud to be a member of, does two holiday runs on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve.  Each hilly run of approximately 13 miles out of Bedford Reservation is followed by breakfast with the gang!

In keeping with tradition, I chose to wear shorts and my festive tall holiday socks!  The weather this year was pretty good in the low 20s with very light wind!  I ran most of the run with my girls AS and CV which was very fun and we just held a steady pace around 8 min miles.  Then it was off to one of the best breakfasts ever at RH's house!  Now I am already looking forward to the NYE run!

The other special run is the Waterfalls Run with the trail running gang.  This is a run of up to 17 miles on the Buckeye Trail and visiting Blue Hen Falls, Buttermilk Falls and Brandwine Falls!  There are plenty of photo ops and hills to keep us warm!

The start at Lock 29

Getting us organized! 

Blue Hen Falls Money Shot!

Running faster but never fast enough!

This time of year just makes me thankful and this year I have been feeling even more thankful after the rough go last year!

This winter, after last years stress fracture, running has been sheer bliss!  For the first time, the last couple months have included very structured runs.  The past few weeks unfortunately due to our passing blizzards and bitter cold wind, I have done a lot of runs on the treadmill next to my faithful training partner CV.  For some reason, next to her and in the middle of the gym, it does not bother me (like so many of my treadmill hater pals) for us to bang away loudly on our treadmill workouts.

The bonus is that while we banter during the warm-up and cooldown, I throw on the headphones for the meat of my workout.  Now I have always fancied myself as being an extreme music connoisseur...only the hippest and coolest music for this girl and if it is not already, it will be!  I never have been a girl into country, always more of a alt rocker with a small rap / pop edge (years ago it was all Korn, Disturbed, Zombie, Rage love before most even knew who they were, hitting every concert like it was my job).  I do love my Pandora and Sirius.  On that note, while I am not a daily girl, I am a pretty regular Howard listener and was SO happy he resigned...seriously, best interviewer EVER in my book!  Have I mentioned that my daily commute is 94 miles round trip which leads to lots of radio time!  So anyways back to the treadmill and music...there is nothing that makes the workout easier than awesome tunes!  I am almost embarrassed to mentioned that lately, I have started to embrace my sister's favorite----the gay pop music.  And I soooo love dance music....on Sirius the Beat is my station and while on the treadmill listening to Pandora, David Guetta radio might be my first choice!  It must have a fast good beat or it must just be awesome!

Lately I just can't get enough Enrique Iglesias (is it wrong that I like the new song titled Tonight I'm F-ing you?).  I love Pitbull.  P!nk is my girl.  I do have a soft spot for the Indie Rock.  I love the song, Dignity by New Politics and Internet Killed the Video Star by The Limousines.  Anyways, new fun tunes send me to a happy place on the treadmill even when dying through some killer fast workout!  That coupled with the fact that I am happy to be running this winter has me moving!

On an even happier note, the weather broke this week and we got above 20 degrees without a major snow storm(GASP!)  HEATWAVE!  The past two mornings I have been delighted to run with the girls!  3 or 4 of us, downtown Cleveland running by 6am (yes, that equates to a very painful 4:45 am wake up call for me with the drive).  I take satisfaction in the fact that I am running very high quality workouts but unfortunately I am still the slowest in the group....among these other girls, most men would be happy to run like a girl!  At the end of the day, it is hard to be a triathlete running with the elite female real runners....I never ever feel fast enough or in the same league...but these ladies rock!!!  Yet I love the challenge of trying to keep up and pushing myself to get better.  Hopefully a bit of their speed will rub off on me....someday!

Ho Ho Ho!!!!!!

Yes folks I am here to spoil the surprise for some of you who have been waiting like children on Christmas Eve for Santa....just waiting for a glimpse of the Edward's happy holiday letter! It is done, last minute as usual and hopefully going out in the mail tomorrow to bestow Christmas Cheer on everyone!!!  So for those of you who might have been naughty ;-) and are not the privileged few to make my merry mailing list, fear not, it is here for you now...hot off the press.....!!!!!
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Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho-ly Moly, has it really been another year???

As 2010 comes to a close, here are some interesting

factoids and thoughts as I reflect on the year-

·          -Apple — on the verge of bankruptcy in 1997, reached a market value of $222Bil in May, surpassing Microsoft as the highest-valued tech firm in the world. (not a surprise with the husband’s love of all things apple like the “I want an Iphone” video.)

·         - If Facebook were a country, it would be the third biggest in the world behind India and China.  There are currently over 500 million users on Facebook….including Joey, Mr. “I stay in touch with my friends in real life..”

·          -On May 22, Google turned its home page into Pac-Man.  Around the world, five million man-hours were wasted...

·          -“Those Chilean miners have gone so commercial. I preferred it when they were still underground..”

·        - “King Who?  More like Wade’s Le B!atch!”

So in our little world, my complaints have started to fly:  “Stupid idiots can’t drive…been in my car for 4 hours today!  My dry itchy scales er skin is just going to fall off.  It must be time for bed.  It’s been dark for hours (usually said about 7PM) .  I hate cold and gray”.  Guess that means it is time again to bestow upon the fortunate few, the festive follies of our past year!

So where to start?  This year kicked off with a bang for me.  I was down and out with a tibia stress fracture, which meant no running.  Bummer, but at least I thought this would give me time to work on my weaker disciplines, swimming and biking.  Yet after a sweet run on the jump line at Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park, a pole reached out and grabbed my handlebars and sent me flying through the air and I broke my cute little beaded bracelet and my elbow.  Ouchies!  So much for swimming!  Guess that meant it was left to work and housecleaning…oh joy!  Thankfully, I could still ride my bicycle on the trainer which I did….A LOT!

I am not sure who was more bummed about my elbow, me or the husband, as our trips to the Indoor Mountain Bike Park went on a hiatus while I healed.  That meant he got to spend more time with the ole boys and their toys, and as usual he spent a good bit of time working on his shooting over the course of the year!  Between that and his love for all things zombie (books, TV shows, movies) I feel very lucky that he will be able to protect me if ever there is a zombie apocalypse. 

This year was another hectic year of travelling and weekends away.  We made it down to Joey’s family’s place in AL. 3 times so he could attend classes and visit.  We also hit Raystown Lake to mountain bike the Allegrippis trails 3 weekends.  Beyond that I did race weekends in Nashville, TN; Knoxville, CT; Middlebury, CT; Toledo and Sandusky, OH.  The big one was in Sandusky which was the REV3 Full Triathlon held up at Cedar Point where I did my first ironman distance triathlon.  After a slight panic attack in the elbow fest of Lake Erie, I went on to finish the 2.4 mi swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run in 11 hours and 38 minutes.  It was actually not so bad, and I was quite excited to pick up a 2^nd place age group award in my first showing.  Needless to say, I am so very thankful to my very supportive husband, who came to cheer me on and chauffer all of my crazy triathlon friends around throughout the race!  

On the subject of all the travel, our cute lil Matches has been doing a lot of vacationing himself over to Joey’s parents place.  Hopefully the girl doggies are not too tired of him yet because he sure is tired when he gets home.  And also on the subject of Matches, in keeping with our Halloween costume festivities, he was Mr. T this year, complete with Mohawk, eyebrows, goatee and gold chain!  Whatta Sport!

I am happy to report; much of everything else is the same.  No crazy drama.  No breaking news.  Wish I had something good to report like we had won the lottery, but at least we still have jobs, our old house, our same vehicles (the truck that totals anything in its way and the clown car which can haul more crap than you can imagine while getting 40 mpg), our health, and the best family and friends that we are forever grateful for! 

So have yourself a very merry Christmas & Plunge (w/the Polar Bears) into the New Year (we will)!

Wishing all of you some Peace, Love and Silliness!

Zippo Kitty, Mr. T. Matches, Joe and Janet!

Groundhog Day?

So I live in the snowbelt of OH and it's snowing.  Big surprise!  And while I actually sort of appreciate the snow since my husband plows, my 47 mile one way commute to work, has become increasingly unbearable as most people can't drive and I end up in the car 3 hours plus.

The last two weeks it seems I wake up to more snow and I am like, "Again?  Goundhog Day".  Unfortunately this seems to be making the most impact to my workouts....specifically my pool time as many days I have drove straight downtown instead of hitting the pool.  Booooo!

And while I am on my rant.  I hate being pasty, dry, itchy and even burning.  Being a freeze baby, I crank that heat which just dries my reptile skin out.  And the chlorine does not help!

My boy, Matches, loves playing in all this white stuff and biting snowballs and such!

Oh and then there is the super monstrous mountain of laundry as now I am wearing 3 heavy shirts and pants and more instead of a simple tank and shorts.

Last Wednesday was an interesting day in Cleveland.  White out snow all day.  At 3 PM my husband who was out plowing said he would come pick me up as he was concerned about me driving, or rather other drivers driving.  At 4 PM, he still had only been able to get about 15 miles as the freeways turned to parking lots.  At 5 PM, he made it another 6 or 7 miles and was starting to come unhinged.  By 5:30 he got ended up stuck on E55th at 490.   He was not moving.  I stared out the window as I had since about 3PM to see the insane Cleveland gridlock.  It did not look like the husband would ever get in to get me and if he did, we were never getting out.  So I did what any practical person would do.....   Changed into my running clothes and bounded through the snowy 4 miles to go to him.  I think I was the only one making progress out there.  Sure did get some funny comments along the way.  Too bad I was not up to running the entire 47 miles home!

In other news, just building the run up for the 50 K around the corner on MLK weekend.  This Sunday's long trail run was a slushy wet mess but with half way decent albeit very cold footing.  Really enjoying the trails!

Things sure seem to be heating up for the Cleveland Triathlon Club (USAT NCC challenge, banquets, indoor tris, kona party, polar plunge and more) which has me pretty busy outside of work.

Separately, I am happy to say I am staying on the super awesome Trakkers team again and with the addition of many new team members, there sure seems to be a ton of excitement surrounding 2011!

Itza wrap!

OK, so forgive weird formatting but this post seems to be a PIB and I don't have all day, so deal with it!!!!
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So with the Reindeer Run behind me, I think we can officially close the book on the 2010 racing season.


2010 sure started rough.  I was dealing with a tibia stress fracture that started back in November 2009.  I took time off and tried to come back too soon and end up not really running until mid-February and even then, I felt the need to be cautious with the running volume.  Too much volume, speed or pounding and the tenderness on the inside of my bone started to groan loudly and I was careful to listen.


So I focused on biking and swimming at least until mid January when I broke my elbow (radius) at Rays Indoor Mountain bike park when I did a double 360 10 feet in the air over this bad arse jump and ......


OK not really so cool.  I had done a sweet run through the one jump line only to clip a pole with my handlebar which sent me sailing into the concrete.  So much for swimming at least beyond kick drills!


A few of my highlights for the year included-
1.  Training for my first full  distance race....REV 3 Cedar Point
2.  Being a part of Trakkers and doing the REV3 Series
3.  Working with Mark Gorris, an area coach who I valued tremendously
4.  To the many wonderful things that happened in my role as President for Cleveland Triathlon Club
5.  All my other friends and groups, the girls, BAFF, TLE, Clev Touring Club , SERC...


Reflecting on the year, there are just so many things I am thankful for!  I am glad I was able to come back and race relatively injury-free.


1.  To point one, what a journey and I enjoyed every minute of it.  I am sure much of this was due to my super awesome training partners, friends, BAFF teammates and many more people kept me company on the long days and often pushed me beyond what I would probably have done on my own.  Training for an IM with good training partners is SOOO much easier than alone.  With the race itself, I finished and while it was not easy, one of my first thoughts was, "That was easier than I thought it would be".  My goal was to break 12 and luckily I was able to.  My CTC friends who came out as official cheering squad should also be applauded as keeping me super upbeat all day!


2.   It was amazingly motivating to be part of the Trakkers green and competing in the REV3 series.  The entire REV3 Series could not have been better in my book and I always got the feeling that priority to thinking of the athletes and their families was always first in their book which I give them major props for. I was also thankful to the many Trakkers sponsors, much love for First Endurance (switching to their products and actually working on nutrition this year was huge), TriSwim, Kestrel, Saucony and All3 Sports for everything throughout the year.


3.  Super Coach Gorris was fab.  He made me work so hard on the bike over the winter which set up the season perfectly.  The workouts made me work and the structure was just what I needed.  I really learned to focus more on heart rate and knowing my zones and so many other things. I was fortunate to get some training days with Coach G, much confidence and strategy and then he even let me borrow his race wheels for Cedar Point.  I can't thank him enough and have nothing but respect for him.


4.  CTC has been a huge presence in my world over the course of 2010 and it has been a busy year.  There were so many notable events but the hugely successful REV3 training days (held in conjunction with the REV3 Race Director and outfit) were definitely so very beneficial to me in setting me up for my big day at Cedar Point!  The hard working board and awesome members has made for a ton of fun events throughout the year and the training opportunities such as the spring training camp at Mohican are incredibly motivating!
Just being a part of it all has been truly awesome and even I think even my non-triathlete husband (who also deserves super kudos) loves the group!


5.  Much love for the inner circle, my local training partners and teammates, the people who I spend hours talking to and who always push me to keep going!


So here is how it went-


2010 Race Results

12/1/10, Reindeer Run 5K, Lakewood OH, 19.18, 3rd OAF

11/25/10, Aurora Turkey Trot 4 mi, 26.21 3^rd OAF

11/13/10, Twinsburg Turkey Trot 5 mi, 33:17, 1^st OAF

10/17/10, Columbus Half Marathon, 1:33:18, 9^th AG

9/25/10, Akron Marathon Women’s Relay,  2:51:56, 2^nd place overall women’s team

9/12/10, REV3 Cedar Point Full, 11:39:09, 2^nd AG

8/12/10, Twilight Train Run 8K, 2^nd place overall women’s team

8/8/10, Greater Cleveland Olympic Tri, 2:28:36, 2nd OAF

6/27/10, Summi Sprint Tri, 1:06:02, 1^st OAF

6/20/10, Maumee Bay Oly Tri, 2:26:56, 3rd OAF

6/6/10, REV3 Quassy ½ IM, 5:38:13, 9th AG

5/9/10, REV 3 Oly Knoxville, 2:36:20, 6th AG

4/24/10, Nashville ½ Marathon, 1:37:41, 15^th AG

3/13/10, St Malachi 5 mi Run, 34:18, 4^th AG


Bring on 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mad Monday

Ughh, still so busy with too much to do.

So just a brief update before I get too far behind...

Friday, was a nice easy day of swimming at 2000 meters so I could be fresh for Saturday's Reindeer Run.

The Reindeer Run would be the first 5K I have done in at least a year and a half or so.  Prior to that I had done soooo many 5K and while I would get darn close with lots of 20:10s, 20:15s, 20:20s, I had never broke the magic sub 20 number that I so badly wanted.  This was to be the race!  It is a nice flat course and I thought I was ready.

Now normally I would have skipped it but my regular running speed session partner, CV, had a birthday on Friday and so the plan was to celebrate it by running the 5K and having breakfast afterwards, so I was in!  The morning was brisk in the mid 20s and a slight breeze out of the south....thankfully the course was mainly east /west so it would be pretty much a non-issue!

I showed up bright and early and after some joking around with GP and her super awesome coat, CV and I headed out for a warm up and some strides.  A bathroom trip and 2.5 miles later, we were lined up at the start and we were off.

Now my thought was CV was a little faster than me.  I was thinking I would just try to stick close to her and hope I did not blow up!  I started to the right and after the first turn CV came into site and I moved in closer to her.  I was feeling pretty good and was just trying to focus on running tall and thinking about my breathing.  As we came up to the first mile I heard the guy yell 6:10 a second or 2 before I approached.  Perfect.  I knew 6:25 was the magic number so I was nicely in range and still felt ok.

About a quarter mile down from there, I felt my first sign of slight discomfort and toyed with the idea of letting CV go, afraid if I kept this pace up, I might blow-up.  However I forced myself to stay dialed into her pace thinking we have done most of the same workouts and trying to convince myself I could do it....just another run trying to keep up with her!  Mile 2 had several turns which forced the pace to slow a bit but corners seemed to help me keep close.  Finally we hit mile 2 and all I could think was hold on.  It was a long straight away back.  I heard the voice of an old friend (NR) cheer me on and I just plugged on now loudly sucking air.  The lights near the finish line looked oh so far away.  My lungs were gasping but my legs were not building the lactic acid that they have in many of the past races so that was good.  I got a nice rise from the loud cheers of EH and NC out on the course, screaming their heads off!

As we made the final turn into the chute, I hung on to finish in 19:18 (~6:12 pace) , 2 seconds behind birthday girl and training partner CV!  CV ended as 2nd overall female and I was 3rd overall female!!!  Woot!   I think we even managed to run a pretty even race! Could not have been much happier....well maybe a little had I broke 19.  Haha....it really is never enough!

CV and I then went for round 2 of the course, albeit a little slower for our cool down and then we all headed to breakfast and had a lot of coffee and laughs...great day!

Sunday was super awesome too.  Hit the Run for Regis Familiarization Run.  I took sis out there for her first real trail run.  What a trooper!  She handled those 13 miles hanging super tough at a very respectable pace and I even think she enjoyed it!

This morning I finally got my butt on the bike for a bunch of 90 sec intervals.  Bike fitness feels low which is not all that surprising, given how much I have been biking or rather not biking!  I totally missed my swim today as the snow led to a 1.5 hour commute even at the wee hour of a 5:30AM departure.  Ugghh!  Wonder how long the commute home and back in tomorrow will take as it is supposed to keep coming.  Had a good 10 inches of snow when I left the house this morning!


Over

OMG, SUPER BUSY!

Hmmm, last week.....I hate when I have not wrote everything down and I must be getting old and forgetting things!

Monday, gosh I am not sure now.  Swam I think or maybe off???
Tuesday, ran with CV and slow your roll Steve....7.5 miles at 7:50
Wednesday, swam 2600 meters
Thursday, 6 miles (4 mi soaking wet cold Aurora Turkey trot, 26:21, 6:35 pace, 3rd OAF)  Disappointed with pace
Friday, off-black friday shopping extravaganza
Saturday, 12 miles with SERC on trails--SO FUN, checked out caves, rocks, icebox!
Sunday, 17.25 miles on BT  (somebody is getting ready for a big trail run !!!!!!)
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Monday, 1000meters (thatz it...woke up late as I was SOOO tired)
Tuesday, 8.5 miles (2.5 w.u, 4x400 @6min/mile pace, 1 mile @ 6:30, 4x400 @5:40pace, 2+ mi c.d)
Wednesday, 4500m swam, 7.25 m ran (8:15 pace)
Thursday, 8 m ran, 45 min core/ubwo

Just keeping super busy.  Moved offices this week which had me working overtime.  Also getting ctc setup for USAT NCC which was the motivation behind the long wednesday swim to kick things off right!

Anyways, no time for long post.  All in all, have not been eating as healthy as I should and need to shed some turkey pounds.  Ready to hit it hard this month and start the new year off right.  Last race of 2010 coming up Saturday, Reindeer Run 5K.  Hoping to PR this 5K....woot!