Ironman Lake Placid 2010, "Redemption"

So I am officially in. I signed up through Multisport by doing their training camp/race entry. The training camp takes place on June 4-6 ( so Mooseman is out) and then its on to Lake Placid at the end of July.

I am so relieved that I have finally made the decision, its been lingering in my mind on whether or not to do it again this year or not. Its not just a big commitment for me but for my family, so during this past weekend we had a family sit down and discussion and everyone was on board. Mommy has lots of reasons to do ironman again they are:

1. not to crash on my bike but to crush the bike

2. to train harder and to perform to the best of my abilities given any circumstances thrown my way on the day

3. To prove to myself again that I am an ironman and to make myself and my family proud

I guess this is my redemption and hopefully things will play out for me on the day. I'm not going to say that I'm not nervous but I at least know that I've completed one and that even injured I was able to finish, but this year it means a bit more to me. Something to prove to me, not to anyone else but just to me. I am not going to set any goals or times now, maybe much closer to race time but I know what I want to do in my head but it all depends on my training and my body ( keeping it injury free).

My team of amazing people who will keep me in check over the next 7 months are:

1. Janda Ricci-Munn-my amazing coach

2. Sara Thatcher- Physical Therapist

3. Darcy- my amazing massage therapist

4. Currently up in the air on who I will be swimming with this winter and spring but either the YMCA sharks with John Ogden or with Craig Lewin from the North Shore Swim Club, all depends on the pool and the times available, but both are great.

5. Fitwerx 2 in Peabody- I won't beable to do it without you guys, see you soon.

6. Bill Steele- from Breakwater sports, open water swim clinics in the spring and summer.

7. Melissa Harrington- the most amazing pilates instructor who keeps me humble and makes my core stronger every time I see her.

And of course the most important things are my husband Phil and my 4 amazing children, kellen, alexander, Shea and Cade.

I also want to mention my friends who have always been there for me and once they find out I'm doing ironman again I am sure they will be as supportive this year as they were last year:

April, Vicki, Cindy, Jess, Bob, Ali, Heather, Nan and Marnie. Thank you for always being there when I need you.

Anyway, here we go, 7 months and counting, a bunch of races will happen before ironman again this year but hopefully I will be fitter, faster and crazier than ever and make everyone proud of me at ironmanUSA this July 25th, I will keep you posted.

On the Twelth day of christmas .......

On the twelth day of christmas my true love gave to me:

12 loads of laundry

11 broken christmas bulbs

10 meals I made that day

9 triple A batteries I needed

8 cookies my 3 year old snuck and ate

7 times we played " dinasaur extinct today"

6 times I tried to fix my sons umbrella ( its broke)

5 times my son went to the bathroom after eating 8 cookies

4 crazy children ( up at 5:10am this morning)

3 loads of dishes I did today

2 new guinea pigs ( " I know I'll have to take care of in about one day")

And one mommy ready to take Nyquil and go to bed......

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.........

Im still liking the bike?

Last night we had class #2 of my interval bike class and so far it continues to go well. Our class consisted of:

10 minute warm up

some intensive bike watts building to steady state watts for a few minutes

single leg drills for a few minutes

a few minutes building up to a bit of your V02 max to flush the legs out before the main set

Main Set:

5 x 5 minutes at Tempo watts cadence 80-85, with occasional builds of 30+seconds or more of increasing your watts 40-50 above your tempo ( low end -mid range of V02 max)

2 minutes of recovery in between.

So after last weeks class Coachie decided to revamp my numbers, so my tempo watts increased from 190-215 to 200-225, thus all my other numbers changed as well.

My first set we were going to be conservative and he wanted me to hold anywhere from 205-210 watts, second set 215-220, 3rd, 4th and 5th set, 225-235 watts. After reviewing my power file it looks like I hit all 5 nicely and actually hitting them on the higher side of what he asked me to do. ( off the top of my head I think my last 3 sets were 233, 234, 235)

Now I did hit a good heart rate on the 5th set with 30 seconds to go because he had us pushing 280-300 watts ( HR 172) but otherwise my heart rate average for the class was 152, average watts with the warm up and cool down was 162.

Over the last two years I have grown very comfortable with riding long and slow with occasional efforts of pushing especially when I did Karen Smyers class at Fast splits but otherwise I didn't really push myself too hard on the bike. Karens class had us only really working for 30-40 minutes, I never pushed myself past this point.

I know this season and seasons to come I need to really work hard at pushing up my V02max numbers and working close to holding some of these numbers for prolonged periods of time, thus being able to race more effectively and hopefully run more to my ability off the bike. I certainly not mind working hard but I know this is going to hurt at times but with just a few weeks under my belt I'm already seeing a difference in my bike. Now, hopefully I can lose some more weight to get my power/weight ratio better and really kick some ass on the road. I want to beat the women but I really want to ride with the men, it really pisses them off.

Love the Snow.....And another thing

So we got a great snow storm this past weekend and my kids ( if you can see them) and my dog just loved it, playing all day. The only thing I don't like about winter is just the, "stuff", all the wet clothes that go on and off all day long. When the kids are this little you are still helping them get their gear on most of the time so it can be an all day affair, along with drying the stuff out, etc.... However, they get tired and hungry and there is nothing better then having my kids running around outside smiling and having fun, letting their imaginations take over and finally not trying to kill each other.

My dog, "kota", just loves the snow. He loves, fall, winter and a bit of spring but never the summer. Bring on the snow and temps that are less than 30 and he wants to stay outside. My soon to be 9 year old 4 legged friend still loves it.

On another note I've had a few people mention to me ( my husbands guy friends) that I divulge too much information on my blog, ( i.e, the blog about my GI issues and my foot issues). Well, I believe as an endurance athlete there are things that happen to our bodies that only we can understand but for some reason we need to share. It's also pretty great when you get advice from other athletes who have experienced similar issues and can help you out. I don't believe I have crossed the line with anything and have certainly used discretion in my usage of language and don't believe that if my children read my blog years from now they would be embarrassed. So, I will continue to write my blog with integrity and will also continue to write what I feel is important to me and my training. I will make sure my language is no worse than PG-13 ( because you know what you can say today in a PG-13 movie) and I will make sure to not be too graphic.

My blog is a very cathartic thing for me and it helps me process my thoughts and my training and putting it out there for everyone to see helps make it even more real. It holds me accountable for what I do at times. Anyway, its also fun. So, I hope my two wonderful guy friends of my husband, I don't know if you'll read this but if you do I'm sorry if I have offended you in the past but I hope you'll continue to read my posts in the future. Lots of love.

Ironman, it still brings tears to my eyes...

Watching the Ford Ironman World Championships today on Television brought back a lot of emotions for me since I finished my first ironman in Lake Placid this past July. The tears came when I watched how so many people just pushed through whatever hell they were going through, pain, dehydration, cramps, disabilities, whatever, and all they wanted to do was cross the finish line. It really is the most amazing experience and I get even more emotional because after crashing my bike at mile 60 it really was all about just finishing at that point and hopefully not killing myself by the end. Looking at the scars on my right shoulder and back are a constant reminder of how much I really did hurt myself and the fact that it took me over a month to heal from the burn wounds and the hip and knee injuries from the crash, it really does amaze me what we do to just finish.

When you look back at all the training time, sometimes over 20hrs a week, time away from your family, the brutal workouts the physical therapy the injuries the diet and nutrition, everything you put into just one day and it can just disappear in one second, a crash, dehydration, weather conditions, whatever, it amazes me that we go back for more. I wasn't going to let the crash stop me from trying to finish, I wasn't going to do that to my family, especially my husband and not too my ever so supportive coaches and friends who were so awesome during my journey..

I'm hoping for some redemption this year on that course, but you never know what is going to happen on the day, the weather could be awful, your bike could malfunction, anything, you have to do this because you love it and nothing more and know that all these things can happen to you and you have to be okay with it.

Ironman truly deserves the name, I can't wait for another go at it.........

My old steed and my relatively new one. I love him.....

This is my new bike.

This is my old bike:

About a year and half ago my husband and I were going to the Providence 70.3 half ironman and my Thule bike rack broke and my brand new GURU Crono blew off the back of my car with my new race wheels and smashed into a million pieces. It didn't help that a car hit it as well. There was nothing to save but a water cage. I was very fortunate to have my coach lend me her Cervelo and I can honestly say after riding the two the Cervelo was amazing and far superior than the Crono, at least for me anyway. I had a great bike split that day and I had a very hard time giving that bike back to my coach. I was fortunate enough that my insurance covered my bike and I was able to get a Cervelo P3C. I LOVE HIM!!!!!!!! Thank you Fitwerx 2.

I love my bike but I have yet to name him, I have struggled with this but I continue to search. Tonight I loved him but I am sure as the hours in the saddle increase I will have many of a post that state I hate him...But tonight I love him.

First Indoor Trainer Class by Coachie

Today was class one of an indoor bike trainer class with power meter today with my coach, Janda Ricci-Munn. He does class on tuesday mornings and thursday nights. For the last two seasons I traveled all the way from Beverly to Newton, Ma to take the Fastsplits class with Karen Smyers, it was really fun but with 4 kids, the commute and class it could add up to 3+ hours, but at the time we didn't have any other options for doing this type of class on your bike so i sucked it up and traveled to Boston. But now, not only do I get to do a great indoor, hard trainer ride but I get to do it with my new coach, and I'm really psyched.

I got my power meter about a year ago but I have to say I really didn't use it effectively this past year and I basically have based all my workouts on HR and mph and at times tried to hit my goal watts but it wasn't really stressed. Since working with Janda the power meter is slowly and I mean slowly becomming my friend, most of the times its been my enemy but at least for tonight it was my friend.

Tonight was an easy introduction to the class and over the next few weeks and months we will be building to some sick ( as he put it) no talking ( again as he put it) classes, so we were to just enjoy this class. Not to say we didn't work tonight but certainly not where I know he is going to go ..

The workout:

warmup

single leg drills

ramp up to close to V02 max so we can get are legs used to the workload that lies ahead

5min/4min/3min/2min/1min with 2 min recovery in between of working on your tempo watts and low cadence and building each minute up in watts and in cadence.

By the 2 minute and 1 minute intervals you were working close to your V02 max watts.

Total time in saddle tonight including a cool down was 1hr 4 minutes.

My tempo watts are usually 190-215, but tonight I was close to 220-230, my heart rate was good, not bumping up and my legs felt frisky. When I needed to hit close to V02 max I was up around 255, 260, and actually 329 for a bit but I knew when he said could I hold that for 20 minutes I knew I wouldn't be able to but I felt really good tonight, better than I have in a long time on the bike. The true test will come in few weeks when we get tested and hopefully I will improve over the next few weeks and put up some good numbers. I'll keep you guys posted.

Anyway, we will see where the bike will go, I am so excited to have Janda giving this class, not only do I not have to travel to boston but the personal attention and his expertise is just amazing and I left there so happy and psyched about my numbers. Maybe, just maybe with his guidance I can turn into a decent biker down the road. Now if I could just lose another 6-10lbs so it would be easier to climb those damn hills.

If anyone is interested in taking his trainer classes you can contact: Scott Bumpus at Seaside Cycle in Manchester, Mass: 23 Elm Street. 1-978-526-1200

Brrrrrrrrrrr it was cold outside today at the Track...

This is the cold Hamilton/Wenham track and my friend April who was there coaching two of her clients. Notice the stay puff jacket she is wearing and all the cold gear, ugggggg.

So today my workout was to do an extensive and build to Steady State by mile 2 and hold until completing 3 miles in my warm up. Then the hard work. I was to do 30 minutes at a 7:30-7:40 pace with 1/2 mile thrown in anywhere (broken up into 1/4, 1/8th) whatever I wanted to equal a 6:30-6:45 pace. I also had to do a few stride outs and a few minutes of stretching before my 30 minute ( a little bit faster than tempo run).

So I get these workouts a week in advance and I always look for the "one" that is the hardest, whether it be 20 x 100's in the pool or a workout like this. They can be mentally or physically challenging. So I guess I have been thinking about this workout all week and knowing it was going to be cold and windy I was nervous I wasn't going to hit my times. I looked for encouragement from my coach and some of my friends and they were all supportive which was nice.

Anyway, I got to the track around 9:30am to see my friend April ( or Coach April) working out two of her clients. They had to do a timed mile and then a 20 minute run to test their LT I believe. I was still doing my warmup as they were starting and finishing their 20 minute test. It was cold, the track had a huge head wind on one side and a barely noticeable tail wind on the other, I knew it was going to be a challenge today. Anyway, after my 3 mile warmup, stretches and stride outs it was time to do it.

total time: 30:10

mile one- 7:35-hr 250

mile two 7:43- oops, stupid head wind ( heart rate 160)

mile three 7:34 ( heart rate 161)

mile four 7:23 ( heart rate 160)

I felt really good, I unfortunately had too much in the tank at the end and I think I didn't push myself as hard as I could have. I really need to run with more people to push me, running alone is mentally challenging and physically challenging at times but I know I could get faster if I ran with other people.

Anyway, so psyched to have my day start like that, hitting my workout, feeling good, finishing the workout with some resistance training at the gym and now some vegetable chili I made last night. So psyched, I just want to keep getting faster.

Now this is my idea of a Car ride!!!!!!

So after our very eventful evening last night we had to go and pick up our car today since it was never ready last night. It was found that my rear rotors were completely gone and they couldn't get the parts last night so we had to rent a car. However, I didn't find this out until we got driven home at 6:15p and I needed to find someone to drive me and watch my kids so I could get back to Danvers by 7p. I adore my friend Vicki who saved my life last night and I was able to do what I needed to do. GOTTA LOVE YOUR FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, after finishing my brick workout and some resistance training this morning I picked up my little guy from preschool and we went home and ate lunch. I was very fortunate to get into the USAT clinic in North Carolina on the computer finally and then we left the house to drop off the rental car and pick up my car. My little one looks so angelic doesn't he? Anyway, all is well, violin, swimming, soccer practice and soon we leave for Piano. Hopefully we will get to trimming the tree tonight and watching, "The Year Without A Santa Clause". We try to watch a christmas movie each night before going to bed the last two weeks before christmas.

Have a great night everyone.

4 kids at IRA Toyota, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

So I'll set the story:

Phil is volunteering tomorrow to drive Alex and some of his classmates to the museum of Science in Boston. As I was driving to Shea's dance class today with all 4 kids in the car the maintenance light comes on. I know I'm due for an oil change but I get nervous because of the impending field trip tomorrow and feeling very motherly and wanting to make sure all the kids are safe. I call IRA Toyota in Danvers and see if they can do a quick oil change for me and they can, they say, ~ 1hr. I say, "Great, I'll be right there". We skip Shea's dance and Alex's swim team and head right over. We immediately get there and the kids are going crazy, the poor service guy doesn't know what to do but he says, " Mam, we'll get it done as soon as we can, I'm so sorry you have to deal with these guys", I know, "please hurry, I say".

So 1hr later Nate the service man comes back with bad news, you need new front and back break pads, the front is at 2mm and the back is at 1mm, for safety you should change them. I say okay but it will take another 3hrs, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I tell Nate I can't stay could they drive me home, I could come back and pick up the car later, he says, "fine".

So about 1hr later ( 2hrs total) the driver finally arrives to take me home with the 4kids. They were killing each other, wrestling, yelling, scratching, pulling hair, I just needed to go home. The poor driver couldn't stop laughing at me in the car, then of course I started laughing.

Anyway, my poor mother in law is coming over at 6:30 so I can drive my son to piano lessons then I am going to take a cab to IRA Toyota to pick up the car. Good lord, what a day, I hope you enjoy the pictures......

Do You or Don't You

So I went to the gym today to do my workout and everytime I go I always see someone doing something crazy or wrong, whether it comes to situps, pull ups, stretches, planks, whatever... The question is, " Do you go up to them and help them?", " Do you correct their position so they don't hurt themselves?".

Most gyms have floor trainers that walk around and supposedly are there to help these people but I rarely ever see that, it is very frustrating because most of these people are getting no benefit from the exercise and are surely going to get hurt in the long run.

The few examples from today are:

1. Watching a man do crunches at a million miles an hour, back arching, butt flying off the floor. He was working, he was huffing and puffing, but what was he trying to accomplish? So do I go over there and help him, do I correct his body position and explain to him the proper way to go about doing a crunch?

2. Cable Pulls: Watching a man doing a cable pull and when he pulled back on the cable his elbows were almost touching in the back, I thought he was going to dislocate his shoulders, it was so hard to watch and the injury waiting to happen is scary.

3. push ups: Being a pilates person now it is so hard to watch people do a ton of wasted push ups incorrectly. I love it when they say, " Hey, I just did 50 push ups", and I say, " Let me see you do 5 right ones". When I show them or when I correct their bodies in the correct position, normally they are only able to do 10, maybe 15, depending on how off their body alignment was with their previous push up position. My pilates instructor always says, "5-10 right push ups equals 50 bad ones, Why work so much harder and get less benefit, just do it right the first time." I think she is so right.

Anyway, I digress, I didn't speak to any of these people today I was too focused and limited on time to go over and do my speal, half the time when I do I don't think they want to hear from me or rarely care. I especially feel compelled to help the elderly or the young teenagers with proper body alignment and making sure they won't hurt themselves. However, I am not a personal trainer nor am I certified as one, I do have a masters in Nursing and have worked out for a long time but not having these credentials may cause a liability for me. Its such a fine line but I really get frustrated, sometimes its better for me not to go to the gym and work out at home.

Anyway, I would love peoples opinions on this, I'm not perfect and I certainly don't know everything about exercise but there are things I do know and by working with some of the amazing trainers during my 41 years you learn a few things or two.

WORKOUT FRONT:

Hard week ahead, 3 swims, 3 RT sessions, 31 or 35 miles of running and 3 bikes. The hard track workout is on saturday, I'm already mentally preparing for it. Maybe I can recruit a few people to do it with me. Still trying to figure out my races for 2010, I better get my butt in gear soon or these races will sell out.

Trying a New Sneaker, wish me luck.....

Okay, so here are my glorious feet, bunions and all. If you look at my right foot you will see a great big calus and blisters on the side of the bunion and calus, it sucks. I usually have to put 3 bandaids with tape on my bunion before I run or I get a blood blister, every time I run. Well, I was just getting plain sick of it.

I have been running in Asic Nimbus's for years then two years ago they made their Nimbus too narrow, and because I have bunions, I needed a wider front and a more traditional narrow back on my sneaker, and some flexibility around the bunion site. So I thin went on to wear the Nike Pegasus, another cushion shoe which worked for a while but I can truly say, I've never been happy with any sneaker that I've worn.

Recently I've been seeing a Physical Therapist who is working on my left hip/sciatic problem which is getting better but she also evaluates other things like my foot strike when I run and my blisters and my shoes, and she wasn't happy. Sneakers can and probably have played a big part in my issues with my ineffeciencies when I run and possibly some of my injuries. She prescribed exercises to help with the bunions, different taping options and getting new sneakers, ASAP. I went to my favorite running store and decided to take my friend, Bob's opinion and try the Saucony, "Triumph", its still a cushion shoe but has a little more stability in the heel which my PT thought would be helpful. Well, after two runs, and no bandaids or taping I have gotten no new blisters, no c/o pain and I'm thinking I really like these sneakers. Of course they are new so I'm going to give them time but a new relationship may be brewing for me with the Saucony sneaker, I may be in LOVE.......

On the workout front, I've had a lot of good runs this week, a hard functional threshold run with mile repeats at a 7:30 pace, which I held, I was so psyched. However, today was a measley 8 1/2 mile run and my legs felt like lead. In the past I usually never ran two days in a row, this week I ran 4 days in a row and I felt it. The only good news is that each run was faster then almost any run I did last year even when I felt crappy today. I have so much work to do on this front and I have to build the confidence up that I can be a good runner, its just going to take some time. I also need to run with people who can push me because running alone really stinks. Anyway, I have an easy day tomorrow, only a 3200yd swim and a resistance training workout with my TRX bands. I will keep you guys posted on my sneaker tryouts.