What Worked?

Blah blah blah... 2011 is almost over and now it's going to be 2012... I guess I'm supposed to get all excited about it being a whole new year and all but really, we're all going to wake up tomorrow morning and see that the sun will come up just like it did this morning (which was just *stunningly* beautiful btw I was out riding my bike with some friends and this bright orange ball of light started peeking over the mountain and I don't know how we managed to stay upright on our bikes while we were staring at it). I guess some of us will wake up feeling better than others tomorrow morning... I plan to be one who feels good. I don't understand why people would start off a new year being all hung over?? Hello? Drink in moderation and take 2 e21 tabs with a big glass of water before you go to sleep tonight. Duh. ;)

Anyway, I suppose this is a good time to do a bit of reflection... what worked this past year and what didn't work... what we want to continue doing in 2012 and what we might wish to adjust. Given that this is (mostly) a triathlon training blog I'll just write a bit about my thoughts in regards to triathlon for me...

What worked? Hiring Lucho as my coach. That was quite possibly the best triathlon related decision I have ever made. I really learned so much about training this past year. So not only did I have a good year racing, but I finished it up still as in love with the sport as ever... I trained a ton this year (close to 900 hours!?!) with very few injury/illness issues and I am entering 2012 with a rather high level of baseline fitness (as compared to last year anyway). I feel like I have a decent understanding of how to proceed from here to make the most of it. So thank you, Lucho.

What didn't work? Hmmm. I'm kind of stuck here. It all pretty much worked. :) Ok, here's one: riding without a tire liner this past month didn't work. I put one of those tire liners in my back tire yesterday and so far so good- no flat today anyway. So that is fixed already and it's not even 2012 yet.

What do I want to continue doing in 2012? Everything! Lol. Can't I have it all? OK let's be real here... I want to continue coaching to the best of my ability. That is going incredibly well btw and I may write another post with more details in the coming weeks. I plan to continue my own routine of stringing together consistent training weeks. I plan to continue to search for my limits and then push them out further than I thought they could go. So ok all this is really vague for you here but I swear I have a plan with details in my head. ;)

What do I plan to adjust in 2012? Now that I have built a strong aerobic base I am adding in some faster running... intervals and shorter running races in the coming months before getting back to longer Ironman training in the spring/summer. On the bike my plan is to add power (ie Powertap!) partly because I think having personal experience with it will make me a better coach for my athletes who have power and partly because I think I will like biking even more when I can track my progress in a more concrete way. And as far as swimming goes, (Lucho will be stoked to hear this though he already knows it) my plan is to pull back my emphasis on it. I'll still swim some but my focus is going to be bike/run and if I lose a minute on my ironman swim, well, I lose a minute on my ironman swim.

So there you go. 2011 was awesome. I expect 2012 to be awesome too. Happy New Year!!

Win-Win Training!

What a fun training day today! Today was the first day in a long time that felt like triathlon training to me... I've been focusing on running for the last few months and have let my swim/bike go to some degree so it felt good to really get back at it and feel like a triGEEK again. :)

I am a creature of habit and my typical Wednesday workout is swim/bike brick... I have not done that since like September though. And Nalani has been gone for the holidays so my once/week swims have been alone and uninspired lately. In good news, a couple of my athletes are on a break from work this week so I invited them over to come swim and ride with me this morning. I tied my feet together for the whole swim workout which was fun. I don't swim that much slower with bands vs without bands which probably doesn't say much for my regular swimming! But whatever. I got a solid strength swim in and didn't have to actually see how much slower my 100's are now that my swim volume has been reduced to like 3K/week. Win-win!

So it was 8:30 by the time time we started riding and I was like "Ok boys you have 3 hours to drag me through 62 miles..." (Scott had a meeting to get to today so I did not have unlimited time to play on my bike). Patrick and Gene took my instructions seriously and got after it right from the start. We stopped for ~3' at the turn-around to pee and fill bottles and then we were right back at it... Turn and burn, baby! Of course on the way back we also had to stop briefly for my weekly flat (big piece of glass this week). It's like not even news anymore when I flat b/c it happens so often (my 4th one this month- ridiculous!). That nearly new Continental tire is going straight in the trash b/c clearly it sucks. Anyway, Patrick did his best to make up for lost time there in the last ~20 miles... and wouldn't you know it... ta-dah... ride time 2:54 and I was pulling into home and didn't even make Scott late. Win-win! Drafting on the bike is the bomb. I do that so rarely b/c I do so much of my training alone but what a relief to not have to deal with the wind as much today.

In exciting news, I found out today that I was named Hawaii Sport Magazine's Female Cyclist of the Year. Holy crap! So of course I am super excited to back that up in 2012. After the ride today it appears I'm starting from a decent point fitness-wise (light years ahead of last year anyway).

Christmas Week Images

It's Christmas Eve which somehow feels weird to me... pretty much always has since I've been an adult... given that my strongest memories of Christmas are being a kid with my family in Ohio with snow on the ground. Now *I* am the mom (after 3 years this still feels weird to me!) which I guess puts me in charge of making the memories for Moana... Right now I am consoling myself with the fact that she is only three so she won't really remember this one, right? Lol. One of these years I won't get to use that excuse and I suppose I'll have to put more effort into Christmas.

Anyway, I am ahead of the game at the moment, primarily b/c I stayed up until ~11PM (late for me!) wrapping presents last night and I am hoping that Moana somehow ignores the fact that Santa is bringing presents wrapped in the same wrapping paper she saw in our closet last week. Coincidence, right?!? In the coming years I'm going to have to be way more sneaky and sly about all this b/c Moana is one freakin' smart cookie. She will be stoked tomorrow though... she definitely understands more about Christmas this year and anticipation for Santa's arrival is high. I'm sure it will be super fun for us all.

Part of the reason I finished the wrapping task last night was so I could go out on a bike ride guilt-free this morning... turns out it is yet another wet windy day here on the island (Wind advisory! Yikes!) so it was pretty much a mess out there today but I made the best of it. I managed to stay upright and kept air in my tires which is about all it takes these days to make me declare 'decent ride' in my post-workout notes.







Isn't this a cool banyan tree?

So here are some other images from the week around here. I didn't take this one but found it on FB (taken today)... this is a beach ~9 miles from my house (I run here on my longer runs) and you can see the rain storm off shore. Most of the time when I say I'm riding through rain it's just short little squalls like this that pass fairly quickly (ie as fast as the wind is blowing, which today would have been ~30mph).

All this weird weather has left lots of crap on our roads which is wreaking havoc on my ability to keep air in my tires while riding my bike. Exhibit A from last weekend...

Exhibit B from Wednesday... Check out that big ass nail. It jammed itself right into my rim and I'm actually going to have to replace the rim tape after that one. In good news, with all this recent practice (3 in 3 weeks), I am *awesome* at changing flats now. I'm hoping Santa brings me some new tubes and CO2 cartridges, but even if he doesn't, I stopped by the bike shop yesterday to stock up so at the going rate I'm good for at least another 5 weeks.

Don't feel too sorry for me though... on the ride my goal was just to get here...

You'd think that since I live in Hawaii I would make a point to do this more often... but I was sitting there on the beach on Wednesday trying to remember the last time I just hung out on the beach and listened to the ocean?? It's been a while. Too long, really. I think in 2012 Training Peaks should figure out how to let us work in their software program off-line... in which case I would get a laptop and make this my office. Now THAT is a New Years Resolution worth making!

Anyway, it was really nice to just hang out and relax for once... every once in a while I caught a glimpse of my hot husband riding a wave... nice for him to have some time off work this week too and play in the surf where he grew up.

So all in all it's a cruisy relaxing week of holiday fun over here on Oahu. We won tickets to Sea Life Park and I think Moana may be as excited to go see the dolphin show next week as she is for Santa's visit tomorrow...

Merry Christmas to you all!! 

I Did Not Feel Like Running Today

So this afternoon I was planning to go running but instead I found myself on my couch... sinking in... not really feeling so interested in moving. I fell asleep briefly and decided to bag the run b/c I just felt too tired.

But then I was trying to figure out if I was really that tired or if maybe I just imagining it? I did not have an especially big week of training or anything so I didn't feel like I had a real reason to be tired. Was I just being lazy? There had to be a better excuse not to run. But as I tried to come up with an excuse I could live with, I realized that I did not really have one. I was not feeling sick... I am not injured. I was just letting myself be a prisoner to gravity. So I started perusing twitter and facebook and blogs on my phone (still from the couch) and found myself reading all those 'motivation' quotes... you know the ones about how right now somewhere someone is out training and when you meet head to head in competition, she'll beat you kind of quotes. So I dragged my ass off the couch and put on my shorts and shoes and ingested my magic potion* and got out the door.

And you know what? I had a stellar run! It was shocking, really, the difference in how I felt once I got out there. I'd call it one of my best runs of the year. As I was floating home, feet barely touching the ground, I was thinking about how incredibly glad I was that I did not bag that run. I proved it to myself once again- you don't have to feel good prior to starting. You just have to get out there and do it.

*My magic potion... you wanna know, don't you? Ok I'll tell you... Two e21 tabs and a shot of espresso. Magic, I tell ya. Works every time.

I Saw A Ray Of Light

So this morning I woke up feeling old and creaky and stiff. I am not that old I know, but 37 is different than 27 for sure! It was raining (again) and I just couldn't make myself go out and run (again) so I rationalized it by telling myself that I really needed to get some work done... and then I really needed to clean the house (it is a complete pit)... and then I needed to get some more work done... and then lo and behold a ray of light came through my living room window.

Light?!? Was that sunlight?? 

Here on the dark Windward side on Oahu we go days without seeing the sun in the winter... maybe a bit like the Pacific Northwest, but warmer.  I can't remember the last day we had here that it did not rain (I have not had a bike ride since Kona that didn't involve water falling from the sky) and since I am solar powered, seeing bright light coming in from my window today instantly changed my mood. I jumped up and looked outside and <GASP> blue sky OMG! Within 5' I was wearing bike shorts and pumping up my tires. No way I was going to waste this opportunity to ride when the sky was BLUE!

It was all super for about an hour and then it went back to being winter and the front rolled in and the sky opened up and I got wet. Not a huge deal I know but it does get a bit sketchy b/c those white painted lines are as slippery as ice and in places they are thickly painted and like a foot wide... I am careful b/c I prefer staying upright when I am riding my bike.

I'll keep trying because one of these days I'm going to get to ride when it's not wet. I just know it.

I'm perfecting the art of changing flat tires too. I didn't succeed in keeping such a positive attitude about my flat today- primarily b/c it was the second one in 2 rides on that bike and the tires I'm running are fairly new (less than 300 miles on them) and I replaced them specifically b/c the old ones I was using were totally worn down with too many miles to count. I figured I'd prob start flatting more often on them soon so I bought new Gatorskin Hardshells (which supposedly are more flat resistant but after my last 2 rides I beg to differ). I was only ~7 miles from home and I hated to spend a co2 cartridge to spin myself home... thought about trying to hitch a ride but then I knew if I did that I would lose my mojo to run so I gritted my teeth and fixed my flat. And now I need to make a trip to the bike shop for some tire sealant because flatting every week is a pain in the ass.

In good news, Moana learned how to patch a tire tonight. She got a kick out of that! :)

Time To Start Buying Leotards

So today I picked Moana up from pre-school and took her over to a local gym that has a reputation for churning out some of the best gymnasts in the state. I heard they had a program for kids 3-5 years old and since Moana has shown some agility I thought maybe she'd enjoy checking it out. I really just wanted to get an idea of their schedule and fees, etc but of course as soon as we showed up a friendly coach told us there was a class going on right then and asked Moana if she wanted to join in... Duh. Don't need to ask her twice on that one!! She ran right over to the trampoline and forgot I was even there.

Of course Moana has a BLAST and swung around on the bars like a monkey and jumped into the foam pit and walked across the low/wide balance beam and did forward and backward rolls like a champ. She was totally into it and when the coach said jump she jumped and when the coach said arms in the air she put her arms straight up in the air... full on monkey-see monkey-do syndrome there which was perfect. So cute and I was just smiling ear to ear watching it all from the balcony of the gym.

Which brought back memories... sitting there watching the older girls just drill themselves... they would pick a skill and just practice it relentlessly over and over... there was some real talent in that gym and I had goosebumps watching. I remembered being that age and spending like 20 hours/week in the gym doing everything my coach told me to do (and more... if we were supposed to do 30 pull ups over the course of the workout I would do 60... shocking, right?). I absolutely LOVED being a gymnast... and still today I appreciate the discipline and hard work I learned to do when I was so young.

At one point Moana was standing on a taller mat and (assisted) she took (another) flying leap toward a bar and caught it with both hands! The look on her face when she realized she did it was absolutely priceless. So I signed her up and we're going back tomorrow. I've heard that when she puts a leotard on it'll be like magic, so that will be super fun for her too! Don't worry, mom. I'll take pictures. ;)

The only thing Moana didn't like about the gym today was that after an hour it was time to go home. She threw herself on the floor and yelled out NOOOOO!!! I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME!!!! So much for the good impression I thought we made... Ha! But like I've said before, apples don't fall far from trees so it shouldn't surprise anyone that my offspring apparently subscribes to the 'more is more' philosophy as well.

On Watching A Marathon

What an interesting morning! I don't know that I've ever actually watched a marathon? I've been a spectator at ironman before but not a straight up 26.2 on the road. It was pretty cool!

I woke up before my alarm went off b/c I was excited (and a little bit nervous) for the morning... I told a couple of my athletes that I would be out in Hawaii Kai (mile 17ish) and would try to run with them til mile 22 or so... I arrived ~90' after the start of the race, just in time to see the lead pack of men flying around the corner... it was a tight knit group of 6 African men... Um, ok I have seen pictures of elite runners running and maybe a video here or there but I'm fairly certain this was the first time I've ever seen them running in person like that and I will tell you- they were beautiful. They were running so fluidly with these huge strides and their heels were coming up to their asses after every step... feet barely touching the ground as they were just gliding together all in sync. Unfortunately it was still dark out and they flew by in a flash so I only got to see it for maybe 10 dark seconds... but wow. It was cool.

About 10' later another lead vehicle came driving by and it was the pack of lead women (and a few men hanging on to them) looking similar to the men. They make running look so easy.

I wish I could run like that for 1/4 mile. Seriously.

I hung out on that same corner for another 20' and watched as the sun started coming up and more runners started streaming by and it was starting to look a little harder. The strides got shorter and the heels weren't coming up as high and the faces looked a little less stoic as the runners became more human. It was really windy here today and they had all been running straight into a wall of 20-30mph wind for like 8-10 miles... luckily they were turning into a tailwind for the last ~8 miles but you could see that the effort of holding pace into that headwind had taken its toll on many. Blah! Like marathons aren't hard enough?!? Gotta add a 20mph headwind into the mix? Fwiw, don't come to Honolulu if you're looking for a marathon PR. But I did see a bunch of friends and local athletes I knew running by and looking great so I did my cheering part (and I was wearing my Be Relentlessly Positive tank top which seemed appropriate for the event).

I actually jogged a couple miles as warm up b/c I figured running 8' pace is not always the easiest thing for me to do and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be huffing and puffing and holding my athletes back or anything in case they were running that fast when I started pacing with them... And as soon as I saw my first one I jumped in and started running with her and went into my you're doing awesome super duper positive happy talk... 3 of my athletes were all running within about a minute of each other at that point so I sort of traded off running with each of them for the next ~5-6 miles... I was actually only planning on going to mile 22 but ended up getting close to mile 24 b/c I was sensing they were hurting (duh, marathons hurt!) and just didn't want to let them go! Interesting too b/c as the miles ticked by I started getting more and more militaristic in barking orders at them... My message morphed from the happy/smiling You're doing awesome at mile 18 into more of just SHUT YOUR BRAIN UP and GUT IT OUT by mile 23. Classic.

One other thing I should point out is how different marathon pace feels at mile 6 vs mile 22. I almost felt a little guilty about how good and fresh I was feeling running alongside my athletes... but I was at mile 6-8 and they were 20+ miles in and the effort required to hold pace at that point is significant... I KNOW how hard it is that late in the game... but early in the game, well, not so hard. Just an interesting observation that seemed really black and white today. I guess that's the lure of the marathon!

Anyway, eventually I did let them all finish on their own (they did well- all 3:40-3:46) and then began a very interesting jog back to my car (which was ~7 miles away). Honolulu is one of the only marathons that doesn't close the course at like 8 hours or whenever courses typically close... and for whatever reason it just attracts a bazillion (ok 22,000+) people, mostly from Japan, who walk the entire course. Some rather leisurely. I'm not sure I understand the draw to fly to another country and go for a 26.2 mile stroll, but to each his own I suppose. I do know that I ended up surrounded by many of them as I was running back to my car- the whole 3 lane road was completely crowded and jammed with people going in both directions so I just weaved my way through and watched as they all went about their business of finishing their marathons in their own way. It was very eye opening to see that.many.people out there chugging along... relentlessly through 30mph winds (and sideways rain by that point)... If Honolulu is any indication, way more people finish marathons in 5-7 hours than in 3-4 hours. And good for them for getting off the couch.

So there you go! It was a super fun day and I'm stoked for my friends and athletes who gutted it out today. I got a decent 15+ mile run in (was happy with that and how I felt) and then got to my car and found the texts from Krista and Shane that they totally surpassed our expectations at Tucson 1/2 Marathon this morning... Honestly I thought Krista was ready to run 1:40-1:41 but she bombed through that course in 1:39 flat with Shane right by her side and got a HOLY SHITBALLS text response from me. Totally made my morning. ;)