Success!

I'm so psyched! Nalani and I had a great track workout this morning... 5 x 1200's @ 5K pace with 2 min recoveries. I wasn't actually sure that I could do this workout, but I knew it would be good for Nalani, so I figured I would go and just do the best I could even if I was running a bit behind her the whole time. While I have been hitting the track recently, I haven't done 5K pace anything since my calf injury. Instead, I've been doing longer cruise intervals with shorter rest (in hopes that I wouldn't re-injure my calf that way).

Anyway, last night I made the decision that my calf was ready and I was going to run 5K pace this morning even if it killed me. Even just for one of the 1200's. "Just hit the pace for one of them and the workout will be a success..." I told myself.

So #1. Hit the pace. Faster, actually, than we intended. Isn't that how the first one always goes? Though seriously, I was psyched. It was the fastest 1200 I've run in a loooong time. Wasn't sure I'd be able to do it again though.

#2. Did it again! Ok, not quite as fast as the first one, but still under 5K goal pace so I was thrilled. And I think I might be able to do it again...

#3. Did it again. It's hurting, but I'm nailing this workout and couldn't be happier! Over the hump. Only two more. Maybe I can actually run ALL of these faster than 5K pace? Really?

#4. Ok, I really had to push to get this one in under goal pace. But I did it! Phew! During our 2 minute recovery after this one I actually told Nalani that there was a possibility I was going to shit myself on this last one, so if she heard a loud noise or smelled something funny- just keep running. Sounds funny to write it now but at the time I was completely serious.

#5. Checked my split at the first 400. Right on. Panting panting panting... Second 400... I hope I don't shit myself... still on pace at the 800... go go go... at the 1000 I start wondering if Big Daddy gives an award for shitting yourself at a track workout? I can't believe I'm thinking about this as I round the last corner... GO GO GO!!! We sprinted it in, and blew that goal pace to pieces! Ok, not really, but I did get several seconds under my 'best case scenario' pace on all 5 of them which was a major breakthrough for me! And I also managed to get behind a bush before the shit came rushing out. So, success on all fronts.

Sleepy Head

All morning today Moana was just Little Miss Cranky Pants. Whiny whiny whiny about everything. Man, that drives me NUTS. She ate a decent breakfast so I knew she wasn't hungry. We spent some time outside and that helped, but then it started raining again so we had to come inside. It was only 10:00 and all I could think was that this was going to be a loooong morning. She usually doesn't go down for her nap until at least 11:30. Sometimes 12:30 depending on the day. I wasn't sure how I was going to keep her occupied (and myself from going crazy) for the next few hours? These are the days when a stay at home mom kinda wishes that she had to go to work.

So we were upstairs and reading books when she grabbed her doggie pillow (remember the video of her unwrapping it at Christmas? It's still her very favorite thing ever) and her blanket and started trying to climb into her crib. Um, what?? What toddler have you ever seen trying to climb into her crib? An hour before the earliest possible nap time?

But who am I to try to stop my little girl from sleeping when she wants to? So I put her in her crib, gave her the sleepy sign, and then walked out. I heard her in there chatting with her doggie for a few minutes and then... silence.

I got busy reading my book with my feet up. These are the times when stay at home moms are like, "Man, I'm so glad I don't have to go to work..."

FOUR HOURS LATER, my book was finished, your blogs were all read, emails responded to, there was homemade (from scratch!) chicken soup on the stove, and still silence from upstairs. Really?

I finally went in and woke her up, thinking that surely 4 hours of napping in the middle of the day was enough. Besides, I was getting bored and wanted a cute little blonde friend to play with.

Well she was just the happiest little thing all afternoon! She ate a great lunch, we ran some errands, watched Sesame Street video clips online (boy do those make her giggle!)... It was fun!

I guessed that she wasn't going to go to bed at her normal 7:00 tonight after that long nap... but I am not kidding... 6:45 came and Little Miss Whiny Pants emerged in full force. That only means one thing, so even though my intuition said that she wasn't going to go to sleep easily tonight, she totally did. Lights out at 7:15 with no complaints at all. Just the normal little chatter with her doggie pillow as I walked out of her room. Wow. It's so nice to have a kid who enjoys sleeping as much as I do.

Sunday Entertainment

So sad I didn't get to go over to the Big Island this weekend for Lavaman... that's a really fun race and I would love to get to do it again, but it's just not feasible for me right now. Can't swing the $$$ for the travel and time away from the family just doesn't make it worth it. Such is life.

BUT, I made the most of my weekend and put in some great solid solo training (since most of my teammates and training partners were racing and partying on the Big Island). It was crazy windy yesterday and while I definitely missed having a body on a bike in front of me to block the wind, the opportunity to push through it on my own was quite valuable. And today I had my longest run in, um, can't even remember? I ran 13 miles! It's possible that was my longest run since Ironman so I was psyched to finish it with both feet still able to come off the ground. Yay for small favors. :)

I walked in the door this morning from my run and found Moana dancing around the kitchen, which is not new... but the fact that she was doing it while wearing nothing but a diaper and her boots... well, that was new. It's always fun to see what she gets up to when her daddy is in charge. Wanna see?


In other news, we finally got all set up on Skype! Can you believe it took us so long? I think I've always just had a real fear of webcams so I did not want one in the house. But it turns out that the video calls are a great way for Grammy and Moana to communicate since we live so far away! My mom is awesome- she went to the local library and checked out a bunch of big puppets to keep Moana entertained while we Skype. Moana was very intrigued! So it turned out to be quite an entertaining Sunday.

Moana Videos!

Ahhhh. Moana is in bed, Scott just went out to buy some chocolate, so I have the whole house quietly to myself for a few minutes. So what's been going on?

Well, I've just been hangin' with my pal, Moana. Lol. Seriously though, I was thinking today about just how much fun it is to have her as my little sidekick all the time. Our weather has been better the last few days (yay for warmer days and less rain!) so I took her to the beach this morning. Took Hoku (our dog) too because I'm ambitious like that. Let's just say that I don't enjoy the beach quite as much when I take Hoku too... I mean, it's fun to take your dog to the beach and all, but the beach with the dog AND the toddler can be a bit of a challenge. More so when you have a dog who is absolutely obsessed with balls combined with a father/son who are on vacation and just trying to enjoy a game of catch on the beautiful beach... They clearly were not interested in allowing a big black dog to play but the only way for me to keep Hoku from chasing their ball was to keep her on her leash, which also isn't so cool to do to a dog obsessed with swimming in the ocean. Eventually I just moved us all down the beach so Hoku couldn't see the ball flying through the air anymore.

Anyway, Moana just had a blast playing in the waves today. Full on belly laughing fun. And then I spent a good while trying to wash the sand out of her hair before nap time. Which was actually the second time I had to wash her hair today.. the first being right after I got home from my bike ride this morning... you gotta love it when your husband is in charge of breakfast and gives your toddler a piece of peanut butter toast to play with. I got home and was like, "What happened to her hair??" I'm surprised Hoku didn't go nuts trying to lick her to death.

So there's been lots of outside time this week. We live in a condo complex which is fine, but we don't really have a yard for Moana to play in. That can be a bummer, but we compensate by walking to the botanical gardens across the street most afternoons. It's a great park because there's a pond with fish and ducks to feed, a big grassy area to run around in, and a little trail that goes all the way around the pond (like a whole tenth of a mile). Moana used to be afraid of the trail and I had to carry her the whole way... but now she's all about walking the whole thing herself! I brought the video camera yesterday because I was just thinking that I didn't want to forget these days and how fun they are... So push play if you wanna share the fun!

It's cute at the end of this video she says 'hiking'. She's got too many new words now to even list. She says everything I say.
Check out my little monkey in this video. Every time we go to the park she hangs on the railings on the way out, so of course I wanted it on film. I wonder how long until she starts pulling herself up? Ha!
Other than that, I'm busily earning myself my next rest week... that's how I'm thinking of each block of training now... as earning my rest week. Ha! I had so much fun at that last little race on Sunday that I went ahead and sent my entry in for the next sprint race which is in 3 1/2 weeks... I wasn't sure I wanted to do two sprint races this spring... I thought one was enough because my only real purpose was just to get a little race tune-up in... but it turns out I really like racing short stuff (who would have guessed?), and my Pac Velo team is super cool to be a part of! So what the heck. I entered the next one too. In other good news, Albert at Coffees of Hawaii is actually updating their company website now with news and results from our cycling/triathlon team and he put up a pic of our team. AND, he's offering 25% off Coffees of Hawaii products when you enter 'PV' into the promotional code box when you order online. I drink the Kona Island blend every morning now (after my workout- still espresso first!) and it is yummy.

Waterfront Triathlon

First triathlon of 2010 is in the books and we'll call it a big success! It was just a short season opener, but it brought out most of the fastest athletes on the island... everyone wanting to test themselves out after a long time off from racing.

Moana and Scott came out to watch and cheer. Turns out, Moana is a great cheerleader and insisted that I eat my blueberries pre-race. She's no dummy- she knows about SuperFoods... Oh, thank you, Moana!

The water was a little more rough than usual, which was fine by me (and all of my athletes who are good swimmers). They changed the swim course a little to accommodate us in the waves and it actually turned out to be a bit longer than last year. Yes, we cheered! Here's a video of the swim... it's like you were there! :)

I love swimming in rough water (this is new for me since moving here but since we do it so much it's grown on me). I navigated my way through most of the men who started ahead of the girls and came out of the water as the second woman, behind my super swimmer athlete, Karen. My other two local athletes were right were behind me!

I was biking scared the whole time, knowing that there were a bunch of fast women (who would not be far behind me) hunting me down...GO GO GO I told myself. I was right on my redline the whole time and it occurred to me more than once that I might want to back off the effort just a little... but my instructions to my athletes in this short race included something like, "There is no pacing in a short race like this- it's flat out from start to finish so don't hold anything back..." So I followed my own advice and did not back off until the very end as I was coming into transition.

Scott taught Moana to say "Go Mommy!" and "race" today. She had fun watching the craziness!

Prior to the race I had resigned myself to getting passed by just about everyone on the run. I hoped I'd be first off the bike but told myself inevitably that I would be passed by at least 5 women, maybe more. But as the run went on and I wasn't even being passed by too many men, it occurred to me that I might have enough of a lead to hold off more women than I had envisioned. Hmmmm. Maybe I needed to change my mindset? By mile 3 when I was still in the lead I was scared to death to look behind me because the last thing I wanted to see was a whole pack of women breathing down my neck... turns out it was only Rachel, and shoot, I'd expected her to go flying by me way earlier than she did! The finish line was in sight by then and I kept my little legs going until I crossed it in second place. Phew!

Checking my splits, I saw that I biked and ran and transitioned faster than I did last year. Sa-weet! The swim was longer this year so cannot compare.

In more great news, two of the athletes that I'm coaching finished 3rd and 4th OA! How cool was that?!? Great job to those girls!! This may be the last time I beat Rae in a triathlon so I'm glad we got a picture of it. ;)


In bad news though, my other superstar had a mechanical problem on her bike (her cadence sensor came loose on a bump and found its way into her spokes and caused her to do an endo over her bike... poor thing went straight to the hospital and may end up having surgery on her separated shoulder tomorrow morning. :(

So we're wishing Karen the best speedy recovery ever...

Coffee, Anyone?

A few weeks ago I sent an email to Albert at Coffees Of Hawaii... I told him that I didn't know if his company had a local rep on Oahu or if they were even looking for one? BUT if they were looking for one, I was their gal! I went on to explain why, gave him a brief history of my experience as a sales rep (my old life pre-baby!), and then threw out a couple of ideas about how I might help their company locally here on the island. And wouldn't you know it? We set up a meeting this morning with their plantation manager who flew over from Moloka'i. :)

But first things first... like a good little triathlete, I figured out a way to still get my morning swim in... gathered a few girlfriends as headed to the ocean at sunrise. It was barely light when we got in, and very cold. These girls braved it without a wetsuit. (That's Heather from Stay At The Beach Mom on the left!)

We swam out to this island... can you guess why it's called 'Flat Island'?

Then we did intervals along the buoy line and then practiced running into and out of the water for beach start races. Super fun! (Except for the man who got in as we were getting out.... wearing a banana hammock style G-string speedo... not kidding... unfortunately the image is burned on my brain and I am forever scarred. What is wrong with people???)

Anyway, I had to rush off to my interview so my only option was beach park shower... with 20 mph sustained winds this morning, that water was blowing sideways in my face. Perfect start to the day.

And yes, I kept my wetsuit on through the whole shower. That wind was coooooold!

Um, minor problem when I went to get dressed...

What?? This beach park bathroom has never been locked before? Ugh. Laughing at myself and this crazy situation, I went and hid in my car to get dressed and finished getting ready. Seriously, who gets ready for their first interview in years in their car at a beach park? Apparently, I do.

Anyway, SuperWoman style change complete, I headed off to meet Maria to talk about the possibility of me becoming their local rep. And where else would we meet? Lol.

Keep in mind, Coffees of Hawaii is the company that sponsors the Floating Espresso Bar in Kona at Ironman, so I figured that Albert (a long time and very fast Ironman) would get a kick out of my interview prep if I eventually become a part of their company...

The meeting went superbly well, and I've been invited to go to Moloka'i to tour their plantation facility and get a better feel for their operation. Turns out, my timing in contacting them was perfect and they are in need of someone to service and grow the local accounts here on Oahu! It's just perfect, really. And Maria promised me that I would be on their Floating Espresso Boat in October! This will be me in a few months. Love it!

Anyway, it's not quite a done-deal yet, but it's looking good and I'm excited. I'm envisioning a part-time gig with them so I can still be a mom to Moana much of the time, and coach, and train myself... I'm going to be one busy mama... but I think it's possible to do it all.

Recovery

I used to hate recovery weeks. Cutting back on training made me nervous... like I was going to become totally detrained or something if every workout wasn't as long or as fast as I could make it.

Last year was really the first year where I could honestly say that I actually took some good recovery time between hard weeks (thanks, Jen, for making me do that! :) and I saw firsthand what a huge difference it made. Not just in race performance, but across my world. I felt better, my mood was better, I was able to put together 3-4 solid weeks in a row of very good training, and I didn't feel the least bit burnt out at the end of the year. Oh, and I raced pretty well too.

So I'm carrying those lessons with me this year and planning regular easier weeks with reduced volume. I am in the middle of one of those weeks right now and you know what? I'm not even resisting it! I'm so proud of myself. It's like I've 'grown' as a triathlete or something because I can accept these weeks without stressing out about losing all of my hard earned fitness. Ha! :)

But the proof is in the puddling, you know? It's not like the whole week is all easy. No, there are some short fast very hard efforts thrown in. Yesterday we had a good swim set planned... 2 x (2 x 200's VERY FAST with only 10 sec rest, then 100 very easy). I really had no idea how fast those 200's would be so that's why 10 sec rest instead of actually on an interval... but we finished the first one and I had to do a double take at my watch because I've never seen a time like that on a fast 200 in that pool. I had enough time to smile and blurt out "WOW!" and then take off again on #2. I felt awesome. Did it again on the second set, felt super, then got out before I had done too much work that would require a nap later in the day.

And so it goes this week. I'm still taking care of myself as if I'm training hard even though I am not. I figure the idea is to be completely refreshed at the end of this week so I can put a good race effort in on Sunday and then hit the next 3 week block with good energy. So I'm wearing my compression socks around during the day...

And of course then Moana wants to wear her socks so she digs them out and brings them to me saying, "Socks! Socks!" So I help her put them on.

I guess I should teach her that we don't actually wear these socks while training... we are too cool for that*... the socks are just for recovery (and they stay inside this house).

*But we are not too cool to wear a diaper while riding a bike.