Questions

Why hello my lovely ladies!

First...I apologize for being M.I.A. School ended with kids TODAY and I expect to have a life again (albeit with IM training) so Catherine - I'll call you back! :) And can we get a nice blog shout-out to Beth on her ENGAGEMENT!!!! So...spill all the juicy details!
I've been working out and all was well until this weekend when I attended the Denison 5 year reunion. I did my workout (with Amanda!) and it was alright, but then I came home (after puking outside of Shorney?) and my motivation has been on the down slope. I'm muscling through it, but it's harder. So here comes my questions:
1) Long run this weekend and I'm wondering if you guys are training your long runs with "walks' built in? You know dang well we'll have some walk breaks in the marathon so I'm wondering if I should train with them, too. I did the Flying Pig marathon a couple of years ago and our plan was run 10, walk 1 (minute) and that's how we trained the whole time. So I haven't done any walking yet on my runs, but I'm thinking maybe anything over 2 hours I should build some in?
2) Crap. I swear I had more questions. (I also puked in a subway bag in Greg Haar's car on my 14 hour drive home on Sunday). So, I'll let you know when I remember my tri questions.

Hope you guys are doing well and have a great weekend!!!
Jill :)

3) I remembered a question: HILLS. This week's bike said 5 X 5 min. hills. Where the heck do you find a hill that takes 5 minutes to get up?? I live in MN. We don't have mountains over here. What to do?

4) Love you guys.

Hello!!!!

Hi guys! Thanks so much Jill for adding me in, I'm excited to be able to post now! So- my name is Ashley and I am training with Shefali here in North Carolina. I have been keeping up with all of the posts and share everyone's fear, sometimes lack of motivation and frustration.

It seems like I am exhausted all the time, and can't eat enough to keep my body moving. None the less, though, we have to remember what we are doing, and how amazing crossing the finish line is going to feel, whether its on 2 feet or on hands and knees :-)

One thing that I did last week was watch a race recap from Ironman Louisville 2009. It scared me to death, but trust me - I didn't miss any workouts last week! haha. Try finding a motivational video, they are pretty awesome. I will try and find the one I watched last week again and post a link to it.

I can't wait to meet all of you, I've heard so much about you guys from Shef!

Have a great day and happy training!

Scared Shitless

So Shef I almost started crying because of that and I think because I'm so god damn scared of this thing that we are doing. As you guys know I have a coach but of course he isn't there for everything that I am 'supposed' to be doing......I have been doing an OK that is only and ok job on keeping up on my week day workouts but you all know me I like to have my fun on my weekends and I have been traveling a lot so that doesn't leave too much time for a 3 hour bike ride :( I need some push from somewhere to get my ass to stay on a bike for 3 hours at the moment. Anyway the other weekend I did do a mini tri with my tri team and we went out to a place called Hagg Lake.....water was 53 (f'ing cold) but I managed to borrow my coaches wetsuit (man's wetsuit=big) and another guys sleeve top (very big) needless to say I could barely move my arms and got some mad rashes but a good experience. Glad I don't have to wear one in the race come August. Anyway after that we did a bike in gorgeous weather but i got my ass kicked so really my biking needs to be picked up but the run felt pretty good aftewards....only 3 miles but up and down a hill.

Alright that's all I got but still I'm super scared and need some push from any of you! miss you all and very excited to see you soonish!

betty

Gu's and Water and Weather...OH MY

Shef - you are amazing. Remember how much we trained for that half-IM last spring?! That was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life and you just cruised in there thinking, "no biggie." You're a rockstar. And a dummy. (I say that with a lot of love, of course.) But seriously - who just goes out and DOES a half-IM on a Saturday morning?! We didn't even have to do that in the training program yet! Like I said...dummy rockstar. But you survived and probably won't make the same mistake twice, right? And I want to hug that lady for you! What a sweetheart! There are some dang good people in this world.
And Beth - amen to healthy eating. I've been doing SO well for the last 2 weeks. (not counting my 2x/week dairy queen, but I've been snacking on healthy foods instead of jelly beans and snicker bars)...oh until yesterday. Teacher Appreciation Week. I had 8 cookies. Yep. 8. And then Jake wanted DQ for dessert that night...you can't really expect me to say no to that? So yesterday was a bad day...I'll try to do better. BUT - May is whacked! We were out of town last weekend (more to come on that), and this weekend I'll be in Wisconsin for a bachelorette party, next weekend up at Jake's family's deer shack for turkey hunting (yep!), one weekend off for landscaping around our house, and then my cousin's wedding over memeorial weekend and then the denison 5 year reunion road trip to Ohio. Needless to say, I've had to be creative with scheduling my workouts. I skipped my "Monday off" to move to that to Saturdays for the next couple of weeks when I'll be without a bike, and am doing some early mornings to try and fit it all in. Not ideal, but that's life, right? And I'm not going to NOT do all the fun things because I have to train. Then I'd reaaallllyy hate this ironman business. Anyway, it'll be an interesting month.
While Shef was dying of heat stroke last weekend, I brought my bike up to Grand Rapids, MN for a weekend with Jake's grandparents. I had the 3 hour bike ride and I was hoping to get in at LEAST 50...I think I was close. Anyway, it was the worst ride ever. 40 degrees outside, freezing rain, and winds 30 mph. I unclipped at one point because the wind seriously almost knocked me over. It was absolutely awful...and by far the best mental training I've had in a long time. The last 40 minutes was straight head-wind and I wasn't moving anywhere. So mother nature and I had some serious talks. Basically, I was egging her on to give me her best shot. (I'm not kidding, I was somewhat delirious and freaking freezing...I was off my rocker) so I'd be like, "That's IT?! That's all you have?! Come on, there's a hill coming up...you're not just going to let me ride up that hill are you?" She said, "Hell no...take THIS, Jill Boo!" and then she got me good. This went on for 40 minutes. We were quite cross with each other when I finally pulled back into Grandma's house. A hot bath and the fireplace helped. But I, also, could have eaten a little more.
Last bit - I got aerobars!!! An old teacher of mine (and colleague of my mom's) had an extra pair! So I haven't put them on my bike yet, but I can't wait to try them! Any tips?
Miss you guys!!!
love,
me :)

Shefali- I loved that story!

Shefali- you should be a creative writer. I was so engrossed in your story that Robbie yelled, "what are you doing that is so important...I have called your name 3 times!" Woops. I'm so glad you finished and are okay! I definitely need to work on the nutrition part. I always forget...but I know it is so very very important.

Sorry I have not written in a while. I'm getting ready to start PA school in June, so things have been quite hectic getting ready for that.

Training has been going really well- and by training, I mean, biking and swimming. I still have my stupid stress fracture but I am babying it...so I am hoping it will heal up soon. I loathe the elliptical at this point. No fun!

I definitely need to start working on the nutrition outside of exercising as well! It's so nice that working as much as we all have...we can have a little extra food here and there (and beer- that was for you Jill) with no poundage addition... but yeah, need to work on that.

Sorry again for being MIA! Wish we could be training together instead via the internet :) I'll try to be better about blogging!

Beth

The ' what not to do' race report

So this past week I did the white lake 1/2 Ironman. With 2 halves under my belt this was going to be cake right, so with no taper or real decrease in training intensity i headed out Friday to do just another half- no biggie right? .... Uhm no, wrong.
We started the day with the temp being ~75 degrees at 7am, hot and muggy. Even I had to eventually take off my sweats because I was hot. The water temp was 65 degrees so I had to fight the sticky sweat and try and get that damn wetsuit on. I thought of Jill and Catherine the whole time because they would have ditched that thing and still done awesome. Anyways at the cost of being too cold I tried not to get too exhausted as I yanked the neoprene over my body. After it was finally somewhat on (hanging crotch) I got in the water to catch up with the other 6 Duke people doing the race. After an eternity we finally started...of course I chose the goggles without the tint and the sun blazed in my eyes the whole way. The buoys (yellow) were hard to site as the men under 40 in the wave before us had yellow caps and boy were they ALL over the place. Anyways i got through my 'strongest leg' after swimming probably double the distance by zig zagging all over the bloody lake. I got to the transition and HAD to pee...
Lucky for me i had the spot closest to the end so as I yanked the wet suit off and put on my biking shoes I just sat in the grass and ..peed (my tri suit was ON). Yes, of course it was the longest pee of my life and all I could think of was crappy transition time as the clocked ticked on.
The bike was great...after I finally got clipped in and going.. it wasn't anything too epic however I was very nervous of biting it in front of all the spectators. I was enjoying how lovely and easy the bike felt as well as trying to get away from the mob so I could try and reach for my water and gu's. Now I have ridden this bike once before and not practiced reaching here and there so I decided to wait till i got settled and away from the others... bad move i would pay for it later. I did get eating and drinking an hour into it. Anyways after fighting a pretty significant head wind for most of the ride i was done. I think its the first half I finished and didn't hate myself. My legs felt good and ready for the run.
Transition was quick, smooth and I got a nice big bite of my banana. I decided to run with a water bottle pack which for the first mile was annoying as heck. Apparently at mile 1 I lost my water bottle so I gave the pack to the next closest volunteer hoping to get that $50 thing back on my way back. Everything went as planned but by mile 4 the temp was now at 95 degrees and I could feel it. I picked up ice towels at every stop trying to stay above the heat. At mile 6.5 I started pushing the pace as I was half way done and figured I felt great and I could finish the race easy right? nope wrong again. At mile 10 I stopped at the aide station for my ice towels and some water and they were OUT. What ??? out ??? yes so apparently it was so damn hot that people had taken more than their share (how can you limit it ? lawsuit comes to mind!) so us stragglers in the back half of the pack had to just deal with it. At probably mile 10.5 I started to notice the ground getting a little blurry. I tried to run a little further and bam started feeling lightheaded and woozy. The panic button hit because (this is why being a PT is a curse) I knew these were signs and symptoms of heat illness (homeostasis gets messed up body starts overheating). All i could think of is how much damage I was doing to my body practicing for my Ironman race.
But then the coolest thing happened. This lady running by stopped to ask if I was okay. I said No. She proceeded to walk with me for the next few minutes. I felt a little better after she shared her pretzels with me and I encouraged her to start running. I promised her I was okay. As soon as she started running I felt my breathing get shallow and the panic spread through me again. If i was alone it would take a while before EMS came by and I was scared of the consequences... so I yelled out to her that I was not still ok, she came back. The rest is kind of blurry but we got to the aide station at mile 12 where I got water, 2-3 orange slices and some ice (which I put in my sports bra - it made my boobs like huge ;) ) I finally felt better at close to mile 13 and of course my guardian angel lady was right there with me!!! We ran the last .3 -.5 miles to cross the finish line and I cried like a child because I was so grateful to this wonderful lady who had just thrown away her own race to help me through mine. Made me think about why I do triathlons...
The last race i did some lady spectator fell off her bike and hit her helmet on the street... i ran past because i was at pace to finish the race sub 6 hours ... i did tell the police officer down the road to go help...but i didn't stop.
Anyways the point of this really long narrative is to talk about HEAT and NUTRITION. On the bike i was eating every 30mins and that was NOT enough. The heat made me crave stuff every 20mins. I also needed something solid other than Gu's - a bite of a cliff bar would have been great...too bad i didnt have any
So despite the fact that we are all in different climates I encourage everyone to do a couple of trainer/ treadmill workouts with the heat turned on because Louisville will be 95 degrees on the bike and most of the run, and of course your body responds very differently than the weather we are currently working out it. I was not prepared for it and that's why we practice right?
On that note, I'm just glad that I am alive, and that lady who ran with me is going to get a free race entry to her next race on me.

Be safe and train smart. Love y'all.

Life as an inspiring Ironwoman...

Dear lovely friends,

It's Monday. First of all, thanks for getting the blog juices running, Shef. As a girl who needs to find some people to train with, I appreciate the "oh I'm in a different time zone, but doing it too!" commraderie. I enjoyed the "easy" week of training last week, especially with allergies and a bit of a cold. Yuck. But it looks like this coming weekend might be a kicker...oh yeah! I've been doing well staying on track with the training program, although I often have to switch days around or take my rest day later in the week because life just gets busy...and now with wedding season fast approaching, I'll really have to be on top of planning it all out far in advance to make sure I can get it all in!

Now Miss Catherine just did a marathon at the beginning of March and a half marathon yesterday?? Haha, beast! Good for you, Eastman! The weather is getting nice out here in MN so it's getting more enjoyable to do the longer runs and rides these days. Now if only it would get hot and I could swim outside...ahh, not much better than that!!!

So my life as an inspiring Ironwoman. Pretty uneventful. Jake came for a ride with me last weekend and it was WINDY as heck, but he said since he is the Man in the relationship, he's going to... draft behind me the entire time. He said, "I'm not above that...you're the ironwoman after all."

Nutrition: Yikes, I better get that article. TODAY I'm starting a healthier diet. People at work brought in all these jelly beans. I eat them by the handfull...and then there was a "buy one gallon, get one free" of ice cream...well we know where that went. Anyway, I need to be better about overall nutrition AND get the scoop on what to eat/how much for the race. Any tips you remember, Shef, yell them on out!

Hope you all have a great week and would love to see you soon!
jill :)