Earn Your Bat Cap... And Other Musings...

Funny story from the other day... somehow a couple of us got to chatting on Twitter and ended up creating a little challenge because it appears there are some folks who would like to get their hot little hands on one of these Bat Caps.

I don't just give these away so we had to come up with an appropriate challenge to earn them...

So here's what I've come up with... I have 10 caps to give away and I'll give them away this month. IF you want one, here's what you do. During the month of July, swim this set at your local pool:

10x (8x100's @10" rest, 2x100's bands only @10" rest).
Simple, not easy. (I had to make it fit in 140 characters so twitter would accept it. Hence, the simplicity. :)
It must be done in one session, 4 hour cut off time, which works out to 2'/100, or less if you like to take breaks between sets.

Have someone take a picture of you swimming with your feet tied together and send it to me on Twitter or FB, #EarnYourBSCcap. Then, email me your address and I'll mail you your cap! First 10 people to send me the pic get their caps. I think Susan Lacke is planning to be the first as she's swimming the 10K set tomorrow. :)

In other news, I feel fat. BLAH. It's a simple problem of just not paying attention and eating too much food. The fix is less simple. I'm just one of those people who genuinely enjoys eating, so cutting back is tough. Especially when I'm training a lot. You'd think that you could out-train a bad diet, but you can't. So. 10 weeks to Vegas I'm putting it out here publicly that I'm going to be more reasonable about the amount of food I consume with the intent of showing up on that start line in Vegas not feeling like I do right now. Hold me accountable.

Interestingly, I feel like I came out of my Maui weekend with a nice little fitness boost. I haven't ever really felt such an immediate little boost as what I felt today, so I'm just sort of guessing it might be because of the 4 hour "big gear" session I did on Saturday? That climb didn't hurt me, per say, because I was never really digging... It was just a long strength workout. Anyway, my power today on the bike was good! And that was surprising to me because I would have assumed I'd be carrying some fatigue but power meters don't lie. I'll take it. The other thing I've been doing a lot of is mountain running... up (and down!) Tantalus, up (and down!) Haleakala... and I think that strength is translating over to my normal every day running as well. Either that, or the supplemental jump rope I've been doing lately... or maybe both? I don't know exactly but today was the third run in a row where I noted afterward that I felt good and that is just a HUGE relief after ~a month of just CRAP run sessions. I feel like I'm on a little roll here and it's been a long time coming.

The other thing that's been on my mind that I've been meaning to write about is my continuing experience with Crossfit. Before I started CF I must have just been ignoring the whole Crossfit vs Triathlon debate (where apparently athletes just cannot get along) because I really didn't know there was such animosity coming from both sides?!? Now that I've spent some time doing both I have some thoughts on the subject... I wonder if those who have such strong opinions about one camp or the other have actually experienced both types of training?? Those thoughts really deserve their own post so I'll wait til I have more time to type those out. Suffice to say, I did 124 push-ups today (total, not in a row) and I prob won't be able to swim worth crap for the rest of the week. Somehow I always manage to make it to CF on the day they do a ton of push ups. Gah! That said, I keep going back...

Ok let me know if you plan to earn your bat cap this month. :)

Haleakala... Cycle To The Sun

So they call it the longest steepest paved road on the planet. I didn't believe it. I mean, that must be an exaggeration, no? I mean, ok 36 miles is a long way to climb and 10,000ft is pretty high up there (especially when you start near the ocean) but it wasn't that steep, was it?? Just some mellow climbing for ~4 hours is what I anticipated.

Lol.

Anyway. I entered this event about 3 weeks ago. It had been in the back of my mind as something I wanted to do but I wasn't sure at what point I'd do it. Everything just sort of lined up this year though... I've been riding enough all year to feel confident that I could jump into an event like this without a ton of specific training and still get myself to the summit. Add to that the fact that I had been coaching a Maui athlete for the last several months specifically for this event, and that she had an extra couple of bedrooms at her house which happened to be part way up the slope of the mountain... And then when I ran the idea by Scott and his first response was I love Maui let's make a family weekend out of it, well, the deal was sealed. I bought plane tickets for 3 and told my coach I wanted to add some extra climbing to my schedule for the next few weeks.

We flew over Friday morning where I got to meet Dianna and her awesome family... staying with them was a big part of what made the weekend what it was. :)

Heading into Saturday morning I was undecided how I was going to approach the actual 'racing' part of the climb. Was I going to race or was I going to climb the mountain? I wasn't sure!? I was going to make decisions as I went along and just see...  Like, if I found myself in a position to contend, maybe I would contend. If not, my day would be 100x easier. :) You can see how amped up I was right before the gun went off.

It was a pretty mellow roll out- no safety issues. Everyone seemed to line up in a pretty appropriate spot on the fairly narrow road. There was a small group that stepped on the gas right away and they were gone. I watched one gal go with that early group and didn't even think about going with her. I settled in behind a guy I know from Oahu who seemed to be cruising a pretty steady effort and let the race begin. It's uphill the whole way, right from the first pedal stroke, so we were warming up while climbing.

Maybe 15' in, a gal with bike shorts that said IM Louisville rode by. I considered going with her but was comfortable enough on the wheel I was on... plus, I hesitated too long and by the time I thought maybe I should go, it would have taken a decent surge to get on her wheel, so I stayed put. But then a few minutes later another gal rode by and I made the instant decision to go with her. I still wasn't sure that I wanted to race, per say, but it occurred to me that I might miss the opportunity if I didn't jump on the train and ride with the gals who were gunning to place higher up in this event. So I thought I'd give it a go and see what happened.

The gal I was with was riding what felt like a pretty strong effort- she was on a mission and we passed by a bunch of guys who had gone out harder than us. One by one she was picking them off with me on her wheel, and eventually, maybe 20' later, we had IML gal in our sights as next on the road to catch. We were only maybe 1500-2000ft into the climb at this point, and I was thinking that the smartest thing this gal could go would be to catch the IML, ease up a bit, and have us all work/climb together for the next 5-6,000ft and then we could sort out the placing after the 8,000ft mark. But that is not what she did! Instead, she surged and attacked. So ok I'm not the most experienced bike racer in the world, but seems to me when you still have like 8000 feet of climbing left, starting the attacks that early is not the brightest thing to do. (post note, turned out it was indeed not a good decision for that gal to be drilling it so early- she ended up only finishing ~3' minutes ahead of me, while IML gal rode strong all the way up and finished ~30 minutes ahead of us. #pacing #tactics)

I was watching all this take place and made another decision- one that involved not playing these games. I don't know. It was just such an amazingly gorgeous day- blue sky and the scenery was unlike anything I ever get to ride- and it just occurred to me that I didn't want to spend my whole morning suffering and staring at this gals wheel... I wanted to enjoy the ride b/c it was just such a stunning morning. So I let them go. And instantly I was happy. :)

So that was it. From that point on I tried pretty hard to not get caught up in groups. I was thoroughly enjoying climbing this mountain by myself at my own pace. I alternated sitting and standing as I felt, looked around at the amazing views as we got higher and higher, and thought about how incredibly awesome this mountain is. I think these switchbacks pictured below were the ones that come ~1/2 way up. So, um, ya. ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET?

I stopped at the aid station at 6200ft because Scott and Moana were there... I drank a bottle of coconut water and told them this was harder than I anticipated. :) BUT, still pretty darn awesome. A few hundred feet later I entered the clouds and it started to feel cold, but it was epic and felt right to be among this mist. It only lasted maybe 1000ft and by 7500 ft I climbed right out of it and just like that was above the cloud line and back in the sun. The wind started to blow, and I admit it was a little scary... I am afraid of heights so being on a skinny road at 9,000ft in a strong crosswind blowing in the direction of the fairly steep slope was not my favorite. I tried hard to not look down during that section.

I'd been warned by just about everyone that the last 1/4 mile or so was the worst- super steep like maybe you fall off your bike kind of steep... so I was *sort of* prepared for what I encountered right there at the end. I swore a lot anyway and wished I had like 3 more gears because my 39/25 was just about as inappropriate as I could imagine on that section. I'll guess I was ticking over at ~40rpm (maybe 30, seriously) and even though there was like no oxygen up there I managed to drop a bunch of F-bombs out loud (if no one is around to hear them did they really get said?) Just trying to stay upright.

Eventually I came around a little turn and saw the most beautiful sight ever- it was a yellow sign that said FINISH.

It was freezing and windy up at the top. I had to wait a while for Scott to get there with my bag of warm/dry clothes so that was the only part of the day where I was actually near tears. Finally Scott got there though and once I had a coat on I was a lot happier. Then Nalani pedaled up and we started drinking beer. That made me even happier. This one seemed appropriate given that essentially I spent pretty much the entire ride in my 25 tooth cassette, wishing I had a 28. Or a 32. (No kidding some people had 32's. Brilliant.)

Then Dianna and Kurt got up to the summit and we were all happy! Success all around, and we checked that off the bucket list!

In the end, they gave me 1st in my age group, but only b/c they took the actual first place gal out and gave her an OA award. It was  10 year age group 30-39 which was actually pretty cool b/c for the first time ever, Nalani and I actually got to share the podium!

So, a few days removed of course I'm looking back and thinking things over and what would I have done differently, etc. And to that question, I'd answer an enthusiastic Nothing! I'm super happy with how the whole weekend went... It really was a ton of fun, all of it. I'm not sure I'll go back and try again, though if I did, the first thing I'd change is my mindset- I'd go in more prepared to grit my teeth and suffer. Next, I'd have to lose 10lbs. At least. Those mountain goat girls who can climb are smaller than me. Lastly, I'd change up my gearing on my bike. 28 on the back for sure. That said, I'm not envisioning myself going back to ride up that mountain again. I feel pretty content letting that be my one and only crack at Cycle To The Sun.

That said, Sunday morning I woke up early and went for a longish run... ~65' up, 50' down, all relaxed effort. It was without a doubt the most peaceful run I've done in years. I absolutely loved it. I've never felt a pull toward Ultra marathons, but I heard a rumor that they might bring back the Run To The Sun, and if they do that, I could see it being my first ultra.

The June Birthday Beer Swim/Run Bash!

As we were driving to the beach yesterday, I taught Moana a new word... Referee. I explained that she had been voted to act as the official Referee of this special June Birthday Beer Swim/Run event, which meant that she was in charge of the rules, and that she could award points to anyone for pretty much anything she liked. Not surprisingly, she took to this role like a champ. As soon as she saw Kurt's rainbow goggles, she immediately awarded him 10 points!

I should go back... a few weeks ago we started planning for this June Birthday Beach and Beer Bash via private messaging on Facebook. Nalani, Kim, and Lectie all have June birthdays so we thought an ocean swim and run involving beer would be a fun way to celebrate...  It evolved over time until at some point Nalani created this official event flyer describing the "rules" we had come up with. I'll note, we weren't even drunk when we came up with these rules!

So the afternoon went something like this: Scott and Moana paddled out to Flat Island with a cooler full of beer. (We are good parents, I swear) It's only like maybe 400M from shore and water shallow enough we could stand at any point.

Lectie had suggested bonus points for drinking your beer through your snorkel. I guess if you swam in college this is a requirement? Lectie and Nikki and Aaron all chose this option. The rest of us just chugged ours in <60" for the same 10 points. (Yes, I timed it!)

Aaron was the champ though he seriously snorked his beer in less than 10". It was impressive.

None of us managed to spot a turtle, and no man-o-war stings either, so several of us chose to swim 30 strokes of butterfly on the way back. Fwiw, that was a tough way to earn 10 points!

On shore we chugged beer #2 then headed off on the 'run' portion of the event. Nikki pulled on her pink tutu and Moana was simply beside herself, immediately awarding Nikki 100 points!

Yikes! Lectie and I had to do a lot of cartwheels around the Lanikai loop to make up for that point deficit. (Finally those 10 years I spent in the gym as a kid paid off.) Though I will say, after the 3rd chugged beer, 10 cartwheels in a row left me dizzy enough to nearly fall over. :)

Anyway, this was a super way to celebrate birthdays. What a fun Saturday afternoon activity with some incredibly awesome athletes. Work Hard Play Hard, right?!?

Bottom Of The Totem Pole

So I attended my first "real" Crossfit class night last. After 6 essentially private sessions with just Nalani and the (female) instructor, I was confident I'd be fine.

But then I showed up to the class and now instead of just being with my really good friend, I was with 8 strangers, mostly tattooed (& ripped) men, who all seemed to know exactly what they were doing. The instructor, also a man I'd never seen before, looked like a bad ass. Holy crap. What did I get myself into?

I briefly introduced myself to the instructor and mentioned it was my first class, but apparently at Crossfit they don't baby you just because you're new. He might as well have said, Put your big girl pants on Michelle.

After a short jog we warmed up with jumprope... singles first then he instructed double unders, which I wasn't even going to attempt until he said "Even if you don't have double unders, try." So, um, Ok. I tried. And guess what?? I did one! OK only one but still. I did one! Then I kept whacking myself in the shins with that jumprope. But still. I did a double under. And I would not have even made the attempt had the instructor babied me like I thought I wanted him to. So that made me feel accomplished.

Then we moved on to box jumps and the goal of the day was "max height". Hmmm. Ok while I like box jumps at ~16", and did tons of those last week, I've never attempted anything higher than that. But we got out all the taller boxes and the other two girls in the class started hopping up onto them so I did too. It was like, just shut up and do what they do, even if you're a little scared.

Then the instructor started stacking weight plates on top of the tallest box. And we jumped onto them. Then another plate, and another plate. I was trying to not freak out and it was so interesting to me to watch these gals just go jump up that high. Inside I was having a little meltdown though every time he added another plate like OMG can I do that?? But every time the other girls did... and the peer pressure worked for me so I jumped too. Landing on top of that box with 5 plates stacked on top was one of the most empowering things I've done in a long time. Mostly b/c it's been a while since I've attempted to do something that scared me like that. I wanted to take a picture of it but felt silly b/c the other girls didn't seem to think it was quite the accomplishment I did... I didn't want to be a complete dork.

Obviously this is not me (were you confused!? lol) but I stole this pic off our gym's FB- gives an idea of the set-up at our gym and what we were jumping onto... There was a guy in our class who must have stacked 25 plates up (no exaggeration) and I watched him hop right up onto the top of the pile. I was like, Is he a cat??

I feel like I kinda wimped out on the WOD... I stuck with my game plan of trying to leave class without being completely disabled for the next few days, which meant I didn't lift super heavy weights for the Power Cleans, and I used bands for the push-ups... but give me a break we did 90 of them. Whatever I did at that class yesterday was clearly enough b/c I had noodle arms this morning and couldn't swim worth shit.

Anyway, I'm pretty stoked about this new challenge. I left that class knowing that I'd accomplished some things I never would have even attempted had I not been pushed to do so. It's been a while since I've been in a situation where I felt so... how do I put this?? Bottom of the totem pole might be a good description. It was humbling. In a really great way. I'm looking forward to going again tomorrow.

On Blending Crossfit With Triathlon...

Nalani and I finally graduated our Crossfit Elements class this morning. The picture is proof! And no, we did not coordinate our outfits beforehand...

And yes, Moana came and hung out at the gym while we were working out. Mostly b/c when your session is scheduled for 7AM and your husband tells you (at 8PM the night before) that he has an early meeting tomorrow morning, well, you drag your kid along with you to the gym. She was such a trooper and so proud of herself because she was 'exercising' right along with us. Exercising every day is such a normal thing in her mind as she's seen it for 4 1/2 years now and I think that is super cool. Anyway. Back to Crossfit.... ;)

The WOD this morning was the most brutal one we've done... most of the Elements classes were pretty skill based just learning terminology and how to perform specific moves with good form, etc. And then we'd do a WOD that lasted like 4-8' maybe total, and while it's hard, well, it's only 4-8' so it's manageable. This morning the workout was quite possibly the hardest thing I've done in a long time... (Harder than Honu? Hard to say totally different kind of hard.) When I'm swimming biking or running I pretty much never push to the point where I think I might actually puke (maybe I don't push hard enough??) but this morning I was completely nauseous and seriously wondering if I might throw up? The WOD was called "Fight Gone Bad" which sounded pretty ominous before we even got started, and when we were done, I understood the name completely. It was a total of 15' of work with 5 different exercises we rotated through like a circuit counting reps and trying to get as many in as we could with 1' at each station (3 rounds). Wheezing breathing I was starting to fail on the wall balls (which really is one of my favorite new exercises!) and when it was over I was flat on my back for a couple minutes before I could speak or function at all.

I love the different type of training stress I get from CF. I think that while I can see how it can/will compromise some of my SBR training, if you do it right, it can really be quite complimentary in the end. Mostly b/c these full body WOD sessions will just make you STRONG, and I think part of the reason we start to fail/fade at the end of long races is a lack of strength- so form starts to fail and then we're just moving inefficiently and the energy costs get to be so much greater. So my gut says that if I keep up this CF 2x/week for the next few months, I'll get stronger and that will pay off in the form of better efficiency in the long run (literally, in the long run). So that is my plan and I'll let you know how that works out on September 8th. :)

The other thing though that I really like about CF is that it is such a new and different and very personal challenge. I think that if you keep your ego in check and stay within yourself during your CF sessions, it's possible to complete them without hurting yourself (I can see how you could very well hurt yourself if you didn't keep yourself in check or let your ego get in the way)... It seems to me the culture of the gym by my house is such that everyone can be in there just simply challenging themselves vs trying to compete with everyone else in their class. And I love it that my CF results are not published online anywhere for someone to go and check/see/compare... So now I have my 'score' for that benchmark session "Fight Gone Bad" but nobody else knows it- only me- so next time we do that one I know what I'm shooting for but it's still completely my own private goal to beat. Something about the public nature of our triathlon race results can result in some stress, but I simply feel none of that with CF. But yet I can still push myself to the point of wanting to puke! That is quite attractive to me.

Anyway, as far as combining SBR training with CF sessions... here's what I'm thinking... Prob best to do CF as last session of the day if I can swing that. Given that Moana thinks its super cool to go to the gym and watch mommy wheeze, I'm thinking I can go 2x/week to a 4:00 class and bring her along with me... that way SBR training is already done for the day and won't be compromised by that session. Then I just try to work as hard as I can without completely ripping myself apart so I'm not trashed for 2-3 days after each CF WOD.

Honestly, if I didn't have Vegas on my schedule for the fall I'd prob be doing CF 3-4x/week. I like it that much! Maybe I'll go that route later in the year... For now I'll stick with 2x/week and see how it goes...

Honu 2013... There Is No Try. Just Do.

So Honu 2013 is in the books! Unbelievably, the conditions were even more challenging than last year!  I felt kinda bad because I promised several of my athletes that last year was the most ridiculously challenging year ever and that no way we'd get a day as hard as that again this year... but I was wrong. ;) It was a different kind of hard though... Anyway. More on that in a bit.

I won't go into much about pre-race day logistics and all that. It was all good and I felt as ready as I could be to attack the day. My motto for the day (I pick a new one each race) was There Is No Try. Just Do. That sort of came about on Tuesday of race week... Nalani and I met for a key swim set that is a ridiculously hard benchmark max effort kind of set and before we started I told her that I didn't feel like I'd mentally prepped myself for the suffering that was about to happen. But then I talked myself into it by somehow convincing myself that my prior experience with suffering through this set would be enough to help me through, and sure enough I posted all-time bests for every piece and just kept telling myself, There is no try. Just do. And I did. So that worked. It became my race day mantra.

Race morning I said to Nalani, I'd ask you how you feel, but it doesn't matter. We're just going to DO THIS. Don't think about it. Just do it. We know how to do this.

We hopped in the water early to get in a decent warm up. Neither of us swim well until we're very well warmed up, so we swam most of the length of the bay as warm-up. A few minutes in, Nalani pointed out a giant Honu swimming right under us. Perfect. It was simply a perfect start to the day. Good sign, we were sure! We jogged back along the length of the beach as the National Anthem was being sung. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Started on the front line, went HARD at the sound of the canon and didn't even get touched. A minute or so in, I see Nalani come up on my right so I eased up for a second and hopped right on her feet. This is pretty standard routine and typically I last on her feet for another few minutes then I blow up and she's gone. But on this day, I was hanging. Holy crap! All the way across the bay to the first turn buoy I was right on Nalani's feet! And it was just the two of us... I didn't look around for anyone else- it felt like just a super hard ocean swim that the two of us were doing together with no one else. My happy place! We got to the first buoy and it was crowded with lots of men (who started 7' ahead of us) and I assumed I'd lose Nalani there, but I did not. OMG. I was still right on her feet. Holy crap! This was the longest I'd ever been able to stay on her feet. Around the second buoy again I assumed I'd lose her in the confusion of all the people, but again, I did not! On the way back across the bay, she took a hard inside line and we swam pretty far to the inside of the marker buoys in an attempt to get clear water and it totally worked. I did not sight at all because I just trusted that Nalani would not guide us wrong and I kept mentally pinching myself thinking is this really happening? Race Day Magic Lucky 7 all of that was going through my head... The effort was hard for sure but I reminded myself There is no try. Just do. So I stayed right there on her feet. This was going down as the best swim I've ever had!

Then we hit the last turn buoy and all hell broke loose. Turn at the buoy, swim straight into pretty good wind chop (which really, was fine), straight into glaring blinding sun, which would have been fine except for the WALL of men that somehow seemed to spread as far as I could see (which admittedly was not very far- read previous comment about blinding sun). So there you go. Lost Nalani in the mayhem. Damn! I stopped a few times trying to figure out where I was... swam left trying to avoid men but could not... so cut across and swam right trying to avoid men but could not... so cut back across left again and finally got some clear water. I lost 40" to Nalani in the last (short) leg so that was a bit frustrating but it is what it is. The fact that I had the physical and mental capacity to swim with her for so long was a huge confidence boost and I was (still am!) stoked. :)

Somehow I found Michelle Ford as I was running up the ramp.... Mahalo to my friend Mike for the pic!

We look super serious in this pic but in my memory we were chatting the whole run up to our bikes. Someone told us we were 6-7th women out? Or maybe 5-6th? I can't remember. Something like that. I never saw a clock so didn't know the split. It didn't matter.

Quick T1 and I was on my bike and OMG the WALL of men continued. This was a new dynamic for me and honestly it was the biggest (negative) issue for me with starting 7' behind the 1000+ men. The first 30' or so of the bike was so incredibly crowded... men everywhere riding 4 across on the shoulder, etc. You know how many men swim ~35-37' for a 70.3 swim?? LIKE ALL OF THEM. So this was a pain. I was diligent about making sure I was staying legal but found myself pretty much just riding down the middle of the road passing passing passing then the random strong guy would go flying by on my left so I wanted to scoot over but the whole shoulder was full of men I'd have to just go left again to pass... I don't want a call for blocking but it was just so crowded... Anyway. I did the very best I could here and eventually it thinned out. By the time we started climbing toward Hawi there were fewer men around and for the most part it was fine. I only encountered one asshole- an older guy I passed while climbing. I made the pass but rather than dropping back he surged to match me... As you know I'm quite outspoken when someone pisses me off while I'm on the bike so I told the guy I passed you- You have to drop back! Those are the rules, no?? But he did not- He proceeded to surge and re-pass me on the right. I called him a shithead (loud enough so he could hear) and he rode off, putting a huge gap on me. Whatever. I passed him back later on the descent and never saw him again. Good job blowing your race trying to not get chicked. Shithead. Lol. Sorry. #notreally

Overall though I'd say the ride seemed pretty clean and fair to me. I felt like I was riding well- and felt better and better as the race went on. Really, the hardest part of the bike for me was the first 10 miles and much of that was probably just the frantic nature of having so many people around. Once it thinned out and I could just ride, I felt like myself. Strong and steady and solid and in my own little bubble. I encountered a few women along the way... didn't know exactly where I was but knew I was toward the pointy end of the race. At one point toward the end, I came up on a woman (just before climbing out of Kawaihae n the way back) and, um, she was a pro. Yikes. Clearly having a hard day given that they started 10' up on us. Found another pro woman before the end of the bike so this was confirmation to me that I was riding well... No watch needed but I was trying to guess my bike split just for fun... given how awesome I felt I thought *maybe* I was cracking 2:30 this year?? (Looking back at everyone's splits afterward this is hysterical but at the time it's what was going through my mind!) It was windy and all but it was a headwind vs a crosswind so while it was hard/slow at times, it wasn't scary like last year. Plus, after my experience being a complete pussy in those crosswinds last year, I was determined to be brave and stay aero no matter what this year.

How cool is this? My athlete Monika sent me this custom head cap last week so this is what I looked at while I was riding. Perfect.

Honestly, I wasn't paying much attention to wind, but I never had a low spot during the ride so I kinda thought I was killin' it. I had no idea how slow it actually was! Good thing too b/c I prob would have been quite frustrated! Instead I just stayed super positive in my head, telling myself all sorts of positive stuff about how I was nailing this, Lucky 7 and Race Day Magic and I'm totally going BSC on this course today and all that. It was all sunshine and roses folks. Puppies were like shitting rainbows and stuff.

So funny b/c after the race I look back at my split and see I avg 15.2 mph for the last 8 miles?!? HA! I seriously had no idea it was that slow! None. The thing is, it was faster than most of the other gals so in reality it was fine, but that's how strong the headwind was. I have to say though, toward the end I got passed by a woman who was 45-49. Yes. 45-49 and she was hauling ass. It was beautiful to watch! I actually tried to stay with her, and I felt strong, but I could not! Funny thing though- I was not the least bit frustrated by this. Instead, I was just completely inspired. She was amazing! (Found out later she was 2nd in her age group in Kona last October). Just sort of made me believe my best days are still ahead of me. So that was cool.

Happy at end of bike...

T2 was probably the lowest part of my day. I arrive to rack my bike and, um, where is my T2 bag?? (T2 is different from T1 at Honu so you turn your run bag in the day prior at registration and trust that the volunteers will place it in your numbered spot for you). Um, WHERE IS MY RUN BAG???? It was not in my bike rack spot. I stood there, dumbfounded, like what am I supposed to do? I think I was like like 4th woman at this point and I'm standing there without run shoes. You know what's good about that? NOTHING. Some of the spectators were rather horrified as well. One woman who was watching asked me if I wanted her shoes. My reply- what size are they? 7.5 Too small- no can- but mahalo for the offer. The their credit, several volunteers mobilized and scrambled and eventually someone came running to me with my bag. I was feeling pretty frantic at this point. Got my shoes and socks on as fast as I could but prob lost ~1' there. At the end of the day this 60" was a non-factor but I will say, had it been, I would have been pretty pissed.

Moving on.

I should set the stage here by noting that this was my 10th time racing on the Big Island (3x Kona and 7x Honu) and the 9 times prior I have been stopped dead in my tracks with debilitating cramps on the run. Yes. I was 9 for 9 in cramping here. So, race week I tried a new strategy- loading with quinine- in a last ditch desperate effort to try to avoid repeating this scenario. I'd read that quinine can prevent muscle cramps, and quinine is in tonic water... So I drank ~1/2 liter of tonic water each day for 5 days in a row, including the night before the race. Didn't have any on race day. Figured it would be my own little experiment of one and I'd just see if it might work? Guess what? I was running. And not cramping. It was surreal.

You know what's funny? I thought I was killing this run. Seriously. No watch so I didn't actually know but for whatever reason, I just felt like I was running really strong. Maybe since I wasn't doubled over on the side of the path watching my quads seize up? I don't know. I wasn't taking any splits but I was playing out this scenario in my head where I would have sworn I was on my way to a PR run split! Ha!  Maybe that quinine I drank made me completely delusional? (No- I didn't add gin.) Lol. Anyway, this is like at mile 1-2 or somewhere around there and Moana and Ashleigh (Patrick and Leigh's daughter who is now Moana's BFF) were screaming for me and I was so so so happy to see them. :)

Up at the top of another little biter of a hill... Funny it doesn't look nearly as hard as it felt...

So I don't know. Not a lot more to say about the run. It was hot as hell but I was telling myself all sorts of positive stuff, even when I was being passed by girls who were absolutely flying. I still thought I was doing really well. I'd been caught by 3 girls in my age group but I didn't spend a bunch of time dwelling on that. I didn't take any splits on the out/back sections or really look to see who was behind me and I definitely didn't play the How much longer til they catch me game. (This was a HUGE win for me normally I play that game and it is baaaad mentally to do that.) I pretty much just stayed in my own little focused bubble all day long and in that way I think I got the absolute most out of myself. The last 3 miles I was pushing absolutely as hard as I've pushed in any 70.3 in recent memory- for the first time maybe ever I absolutely did not fold and give up on myself... I was trying to hold on for 4th in my age group and I just envisioned that scene at Boulder 70.3 last summer where I got caught/passed in the last 100M so I was crushing myself to make sure I did everything in my power to not let that happen again (in hindsight I didn't need to do this but I refused to look back so I just envisioned that the next gal was right on my ass because she very well could have been!) I have to say, I impressed myself with that effort mostly because my longest run in the last couple months has been 10 miles so 13 off a hard ride was pushing my current fitness envelope for sure.

I looked at the clock as I crossed the line and was very confused. I was pretty sure that I'd put in more like a 4:50 effort... trying to do math when you're that tired and calculate 5:25 minus 10' for the pro start was an impossible task... because no way I went 5:15... no way. Checked my watch for the first time all day it said 12:15... wait... what time did we start? 7? Shouldn't it be, like, not even noon yet?? But there you go. It was a slow day!

Looking at results afterward and hearing everyone's war stories helped me put the disappointing finish time in perspective. Most everyone had a story about being slower than last year and many said 20-25' off their PR. Only 6 women broke 5 hours on that course on Saturday. Ok then! So it was my slowest swim, slowest bike, and slowest run in several years. BUT, it was a super strong effort all around and for the first time ever, I didn't cramp. And I never told myself stuff like You suck at this why do you even bother?? Progress! I think avoiding wearing a watch was the best decision I made on Saturday because that is what allowed me to race without being distracted by splits. I just raced.

I landed as high on on the podium (4th) as I've ever landed in this crazy competitive race field. And I finally got to wear the awesome podium dress Mary sent me for my birthday. :) And I ended up with a spot to Vegas! (Kona spot ended up rolling to third so I missed that by one! Argh! But Mahalo to Nell for passing the Vegas spot off to me!)

Anyway. It's been a while since I've felt this satisfied with a race. I can look back with no regrets and say I did the best I could with what I had that day. And then we all got drunk. :)

Race Week!

Well here we are... Honu race week once again. I lost count of how many times I've done Honu but went back and counted... figured it out this will be my seventh time racing this one. Crossing my fingers for some RDM and maybe some Lucky7 or something like that to help me get through that run... Anyway.

It's been a little tradition to swim Mokes on the Monday before Honu... mostly b/c pools are always closed on holidays around here and the Monday before Honu is always Memorial Day... and when you're a swimmer and you live in Hawaii and pools are closed, well, it's easy. You go ocean! Anyway, apparently if you put an invitation out on Facebook, they will come. Biggest group ever out to Mokes yesterday morning! How awesome is this!?! Decent conditions, several first timers, lots of fast-fishie talent in this group too. That's Oahu (Lanikai) in the background.

We head over on Thursday... Moana is super stoked to go to Kona again. This will be her FIFTH time at Honu! How cool is that? As she gets older she gets more and more into my racing. I didn't tell this story after HNL tri but it's kinda cute... The night before the race I told her that I was going to get up early and go to the race, but that she and daddy would come watch the finish so she needed to be quick in the morning (if you have or have had a 4 year old you understand the challenge being presented in doing anything quickly in the morning). Scott told me that on race morning, Moana came in to wake him up before 6:00.... she was all dressed and ready to go! Daddy wake up wake up we need to go watch Mommy race! How cute is that?? Melts my heart. Anyway, the point is that she'll be excited on Saturday and it should be a ton easier for Scott too. In years past he'd had to schlep her (and all her stuff!) around while she's passed out in her stroller...

I've been checking the weather forecast too of course to see if I can get a feel for what we're in for this weekend. Weatherman says winds are supposed to pick up and be strong this weekend... but weird looks like that's only for Oahu? I don't quite understand how Oahu can have strong NE winds while forecast for Waikoloa calls for moderate (12mph) winds from the south? We are not THAT far away... Anyway, I'm mentally prepping for strong winds then if it's only moderate winds I'll just be pleasantly surprised.

So as I pack I find myself feeling cautiously optimistic about the race on Saturday. I don't feel like I have quite the form I've had in years past (or the form I would prefer to have going into this race) but I'm in better shape than I anticipated being in given that 4-6 weeks ago I wasn't able to run a step without pain. So there's that. And I haven't had any peanut butter or almond butter in over a week. That has taken Discipline. So I've got that going for me too! Here's my prediction: my swim and bike will be fine. Then if you're checking splits online, send me some positive energy in the form of something like HANG ON BABY JUST HANG ON... That'll be best case scenario for me I'll do the best job I can putting one foot in front of the other on that golf course grass... 13 miles will be my longest run since Cabo- or before Cabo really b/c in Cabo I only made it to 12 miles before I seized up... So ya. Send positive thoughts I'm going to need them. :)