Preliminary Race Schedule 2015

Black Cat 20 miler March 2015
Boston Marathon April 2015
JCC sprint tri May 2015
B2B bike race/ride June 2015

? Musselman July or Lowell Olympic
? challenge Maine olympic in august
sprint or half September

Sunday, January 31, 2010

My allergy report is in and it sucks

So, a few months ago I decided to take the step to get personalized vitamins made especially for me through blood work and urinalysis. In the past I have taken Hammer products and the generic vitamins that you find at your local whole foods or GNC. Well, I was getting tired of taking all these vitamins and not knowing whether or not I really needed all that stuff and if I was getting the vitamins I really needed in the right amounts. So I decided to go through a company called Ideal Health and get my home blood work checked and some other testing done ( which you do yourself and then fed ex it to there laboratories). I take their daily vitamins now and was waiting for a few more test results to come back. My gastrointestinal testing came back fine( much to my surprise) and then my allergy testing came back, here is what it said......

The increase in food allergies and sensitivities has been linked to a lot of things but mostly to repeated exposure to a number of the same foods ( often hidden in processed and packaged commercial products), and the increased adulteration of our food and water supply. Under the impact of these influences, the lining of the intestinal wall can become permeable, allowing larger food particles to enter the system. These particles are mistaken for foreign invaders, initiating an immune response. Repeated exposure to the " antigen" ( daily eating of the food) can give rise to a host of issues ( i.e., asthma, ear infections coughing, chronic diarrhea, constipation celiac disease, malabsorption, infections, rashes, exczema, depression, fatigue, headaches, etc.....)

So the test I took ( the AllerTest) detects reactions to the top 10 most commonly reactive foods that are eaten by virtually everyone everyday.

The results looked at beef, corn, egg, milk, mustard, peanut, bakers yeast, soy, tuna and wheat. They scored the results from negative to +3 ( severe).

What the test indicated for me was: negative beef, negative corn, +3 severe egg, +3 severe milk, +1 mild mustard, borderline peanut, negative bakers yeast, +2 moderate soy, negative tuna and negative wheat.

Are you serious, that is basically everything I eat and everything I train with, whey protein shakes, egg white omeletes, most of my nutrition bars have soy in them and some dairy except for my lara bars and I'm not riding 6hrs on them. I am totally screwed, and in a quandry. My gastrointestinal system has never been great since I;ve been little and I'm wondering whether or not this has something to do with it, I don't have blatant IgE reactions where once I eat something I have hives or I immediately need to go to the bathroom but the IgG reactions can occur that day or several days later, so I'm wondering if this is the case. The only thing you can do is eliminate the products for 4-8 weeks ( any foods that are 1+ or above) and after four weeks, you may reintroduce one at a time, obviously keeping a food journal and noting any reactions or symptoms that occur during the 72 hours following ingestion of the food. If no reactions occur after 72 hrs you can add the food back into your diet, but eat it only every 4 days. If reactions do occur, continue to eliminate the food from your diet and try to re-introduce it again in 2-4 weeks.

My question is, is it worth it? Should I go ahead and eliminate all these foods they suggest? That doesn't leave me with a ton of options. It wouldn't be a big deal if it was one thing but I have 5 major groups to eliminate. I am pondering this and also wondering if these allergies might be playing into my performance and training as an athlete. I guess I need to go see a nutritionist who understands these allergies and also understands endurance training and the nutrition and needs of what I do. I guess I will keep you posted. Ugggggg.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Witness to a Drunk Driving Accident......

Around 8pm tonight I was driving home from Shaw's ( because my daughter wanted cheese sticks and carrots for her class snack tomorrow) and as I was driving down Brimble Ave in Beverly the car right in front of me was swerving a bit, a few times the car hit the snow on the right and then corrected itself and then it almost crossed over the midline. I slowed down a bit because I figured whoever was driving was probably a bit intoxicated, ~ 3 seconds later the car started to speed up and it took out a large blinking speed sign on the right hand side of the road, did a 360 in the middle of the road and skidded into someones driveway. I immediately pulled over and started running to the car to make sure the person was okay, as I was approaching the car I noticed it was a woman with blondish/brown hair, shoulder length in a dark blue jeep cherokee and she started to back up. I was trying to wave to her but she put her foot on the gas and started to take off. I started running after the car to get the license plate, which I did ( that son of a $#%&*) and she continued to drive away. I ran back to my car to get my phone and proceeded to call the cops. At this time my legs are shaking and I can't believe this very drunk person is still driving and she took off from the scene of this pretty big accident. I gave the police the license plate number and the description of the driver and where she was heading and they told me to wait there until someone got there so I could give them my statement.

Thank goodness a neighbor came out who is a beverly fireman who helped keep me calm and was able to help when the cops came. No-one else stopped ( and there were plenty of cars that could of and that witnessed what happened) I was so pissed. I just want this woman caught and her drivers license taken away. Not only could she kill herself but someone else tonight and maybe another time in the future if she doesn't get caught. At least the cops know who the car is registered to and knows her address so if she doesn't end up dead before heading home they will get her there.

I'm at home now and looking at my kids and so blessed they didn't witness it and I'm so blessed I wasn't involved in that accident.

PLEASE DONT DRINK AND DRIVE

The cookie

Okay, I broke down last night, I don't know why, but I just did. I had some oreo cookies, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I've been doing so well, I really don't know why I broke down but I did. I looked at what I ate all day and I think I didn't have enough fruit so my body was craving some sugar and instead of making a whey protein shake because I was lazy I grabbed some cookies. Now most people would say, who cares, get back on the wagon tomorrow, and I know its not really a big thing in the grand scheme of things but it always just shows me that I lack that 100% discipline with my diet and it sucks. I really haven't thought I have deprived myself over the last 2 1/2 weeks so eating the cookies kind of came out of the blue. Oh well, lets hope for more success over the coming weeks. Today is a swim and a run and hopefully lunch with my friends. Wish me luck.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Turks and Caicos, bad start, great finish......






Okay, so the trip didn't start off great. We headed out on Monday at 2:30am to get to Logan for a 5:30am flight to Miami with a connection to Turks and Caicos. Well, with the impending snow storm we were scared that we wouldn't get out but our flight was on time and things were looking up. We got on the plane around 5am and about 5:40am they said there was a mechanical problem and we couldn't leave the gate. Well, after about 3hrs and no food or water or even a flight attendant chatting with us they finally told us that they were still fixing the problem. Well, without going into much more detail we were on the plane for 9 1/2 hours with no food and only one beverage given to us. I was pissed, the flight attendants were miserable people and lets just say, a nasty letter is going out to them tomorrow morning. Needless to say, I found out today that the flight attendants at Logan airport for American Airlines are going through a nasty litigation with the airlines themselves and on Tuesday, the 19th they were doing some form of protest at the airport, HMMMMMMMMMMM, I wonder if that had anything to do with how awful they were to us.

Well, the story continues and we landed in Miami at almost 4pm and within 10 minutes of landing my 3yr goes missing. How do you go missing within ten minutes, I have never been so freaked out in my life, I was so scared and I cried, cried. Phil and I running all around the place. Finally a women said they found him and I fell to the ground in the airport weeping, it took me about 10 minutes to compose myself and literally take off running to see him. I hate airports they scare me for so many reasons, all he was doing was standing 20feet away looking at the airplanes and I couldn't find him. I hope that never happens again.

The third part of our lousy first day of vacation was our connecting flight which was rescheduled several times was delayed for about 1 1/2hrs so we eventually got to our Hotel at 10pm or so, time for bed and a quick drink. Good lord.

Anyway, the rest of the trip was awesome, the weather, the swimming, the kids played great, the beach, the pools, the fresh fruit and vegetables, the sun, it was awesome, we would definitely go back to Beaches in Turks and Caicos again, hopefully next year.

With regards to working out, except for monday ( due to travel) I was able to stay right on schedule, unfortunately not a ton of structured swimming unless you count snorkeling and playing in the ocean and pool all day with the kids but the running and biking went well and I actually stayed on my diet without too much trouble. Except for some vino at night I still didn't eat any break or starches or bad carbs, just tons of fresh fruit, veggies and water. I don't feel like I deprived myself I'm actually pretty proud of myself.

Anyway, back to the grind tomorrow and the normal routine.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

My legs are back



So as I posted the other day, I completely trashed my legs by thursday and with thursdays run outside in 12 degrees and then a V02 max bike set that night, lets say, my legs were not frisky. Friday was a very light day for me because coachie really wanted me to run well for my pace session on saturday. So at 5:55am ( see the clock in the back) I had my treadmill ready to go.

My workout was:
build from extensive pace/intensive pace to tempo by 20 minutes and stay there until you complete 3 miles.
3 sets of ( 4 x 1/4 mile repeats) 1 min recovery jog in between repeats- a decent pace of 7:08
3 minutes in between sets of recovery jogging
finish with 15 minutes of jogging.
All at 1.5% incline.


Well the warm up went well and I felt great, this was supposed to be a pace session, not all out, not crazy, doable. I felt great, I wanted to bump my speed, I was recovering by 25 seconds, but I knew I just came off some real bad legs the other day so I just followed the plan. 2 bottles of gatorade, powergel and 9 miles of running I was done.

It was then off to do a hard resistance training session and home before 8am for basketball, soccer, birthday parties and visitors.

Just a side note, even though I continue to follow my sodium intake while training and take in what I think I'll need, notice my blue shorts in the picture, lots of white, didn't take in enough. Time to re-evaluate my intake again. I used gatorade not my normal powerbar endurance that has significantly more sodium in it. Next time I will prepare better.




Thursday, January 14, 2010

It can suck sometimes......

so yesterdays workout was a hard swim, my arms still hurt from the 1600yds of pulling intervals and some significant resistance training which had me bringing up my sets to 3 of each exercise including lunges, etc...( see where I'm going with this......). I was also supposed to get in a 1hr extensive/intensive run yesterday but unfortunately that did not happen so I decided to do it this morning because I only have a bike to do tonight so I thought no problem, 1hr of running, ehhh.

Well, waking up I knew my quads were sore and my glutes, and with 12degrees registering outside I was like, " well this run will be a bit challenging". So after some dynamic stretching off I went, my legs felt heavy to begin with and they continued the whole hilly way ( 1-2 stops for about 15 seconds to rub my quads) later, I was home. I actually turned off my garmin 1/2 way through because I didn't want to see what I was doing, it was making it through today and getting home. It sucked, I'm mad, I hate when a workout isn't successful. And I know, my coach and everyone else will say, " you'll have days like this, its okay", " you can't be on 7 days a week", well I know that, I'm not nieve, but I can still think it sucks when a workout doesn't go my way and when I'm sore, it just sucks sometimes......ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The diet begins.......

Well, its not really a diet but it forces me to make better choices and fueling my body properly before and after each workout.

I am currently about 4lbs less than what I was at this time last year, however, I still feel that I have about 10lbs to lose to get to my race weight. Now I had someone today tell me I was crazy and that I certainly didn't need to lose 10lbs, and I told her that there is a big difference between what I would weigh out of race season and what I should weigh during race season. I would be very comfortable staying where I am right now but I know if I want to perform to the best of my abilities and get the most bang for my buck on the bike ( especially with hitting the hills of lake placid again) being lighter is important.

I am a muscular woman, long and lean wouldn't describe me, so losing weight is tricky for me because I don't want to lose too much muscle and lose the power I have on both the bike and the run, however being lighter will help me climb better because there is less weight to pull and my body would certainly appreciate me more if I lightened the load.

So what am I doing. Well, its not rocket science, I am just making sure that I eat frequently throughout the day, combing a 4:1 ratio of protein to carbohydrates and making sure that the carbs I am ingesting are those of the fruit and veggie kind. While I am in the ( losing weight stage) eating pasta, breads, potatos, etc... is not really in my plan, when I am maintaining my weight I can introduce them slowly. I will be eating a lot of lean meats with salads, fish, steamed vegetables, tons of fruit smoothies with my favorite whey protein powder, and of course tons of fruit. I try never to be hungry if possible. I am going to decrease my caffeine intake which is only in the way of diet coke ( boo hoo) and increase my water intake significantly. I always fuel while I workout and immediately post workout, that is a necessity. I will still utilize my powerbar endurance electrolyte drink for hydration and my numerous supplies of goos/gels and cliff blocks for my nutrition. Also, minimal alcohol consumption at this point, not that I drank a lot but white wine adds up and at 150-200 calories a glass I sure don't need that, even after a 3hr workout.

Anyway, day #2 is over, feeling pretty good after my veggie chili dinner, ( poor phil, I wouldn't want to sleep in my room tonight), and if I'm hungry before going to bed I'll make myself a small whey protein shake to keep my glucose levels stable throughout the night. I have a decent swim tomorrow and a run, and if able I will try to get in a resistance training session too.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

It's over, not too bad.....

This is my friend Keri and we are setting up our bikes for our first Vo2 max bike test. My little man is to the left of her bike. Still don't have a name for him.

Isn't Keri cute.

Anyway, our day started out at about 6:40am when we both arrived and got to chatten and catching up with tri stuff and kids and laughing about what our husbands don't know about what we do with training and spending when it comes to races and gear, if they only knew. Its so funny that we have so much in common, but its great.

Anyway, after setting up the bikes Janda had us all go through a good thorough warm up, approximately 35-40 minutes with a nice effort at the end to get the lactic acid going. We had 5 minutes to get our minds around the test and then it was off. Janda wanted me to start around 260 watts and try to increase 10 watts every minute if I was able. I thought we were shooting a bit high so I started around 250. When the gun went off I had one ear phone in to help me motivate and push me for the 6 minutes of hell. I didn't want to suck, I wanted to kick ass, I wanted to prove to myself that I am becomming a decent biker. Minute one down and I was feeling okay, minute two I'm still hovering around 255-260 so it was time to ramp up so I bumped to 270-275, my power tap was kind of wavering around a bit ( janda corrected it at the end) and I was trying to hit 280-286, 290 for minutes 2-5, the last minute I shot and killed myself, I went right to 305-315watts and tried to hold it for the full minute, with about 30 seconds to go my watts were dropping and I think I dropped to 269 maybe 260 at that point. Well, that last 30 seconds dropped my overall average by 10 watts and I'm really pissed, I wasn't smart, I rode stupid. But I gave it my all and I couldn't give anymore.

All in all ( I don't have my complete analysis yet, and I don't know if I kicked anyone's ass but my own) but my average watts based on the 6 minute test is 270 watts, which is about where Janda thought, maybe 275 for the test, so I guess, " not so bad". However, in my mind I was hoping for 280 or 285. It didn't help that my weight on the scale was wrong by about 6 lbs
( which most of the people said it was, so I didn't feel too bad) but that definitely changed my power/weight ratio.

What did I learn, well, I need to train and train harder. If I want to make biking a bigger strength/threat I need to work on bumping up my Vo2 max watts and then improving my functional threshold power over long periods of time. Both of these will help me become a threat on the bike, and hopefully help me have a stronger run.

Well, that's it. Long tempo run tomorrow, will be good to clear my head and refocus and to stop being bummed out about today's performance, I am sure there will be plenty more suffer fests ahead for me.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Vo2 max bike test tomorrow, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

So its finally here, my first Vo2 max power test on the bike, tomorrow morning at 7am. I am bit nervous, more because I want to do well for me but also for my new coach. I've been feeling a bit frisky in class over the last 3 weeks and I'm hoping I didn't set myself up for some unrealistic numbers. The basis of the test is a good 30-35 minute warm up and then an all out 6 minute
( 100% vo2 max effort) with the hopes you don't vomit test. I am not going to predict my outcome on this blog but will let you know tomorrow about what happens. It would be nice to hit what I think I can do but I think what I really want is ( based on weight/power ratio) is to kick most of the mens asses and have all the women be on the top. We will see how it goes, took today really easy to rest up for tomorrow and with a good night sleep hopefully things will go my way.

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Some Days........

Today on the docket, 3950yd swim ( sorry coach, had to do 4000, can't stop at 3950, it just wouldn't be right) and a 1hr extensive run. Well, lets say, the swim is over but the whole time in my head I kept saying, " is it over yet", " do I really have to run next". Swimming for me isn't necessarily my weakness but I have been swimming alone for over a year because the masters schedule just doesn't fit into my schedule right now and trying to do 12,000yds a week, and hitting all the intervals gets pretty lonely and sometimes I'm not motivated to be there by myself. The only benefit/ not really a benefit is, that with no-one there I can't talk to anyone and I get my workout done faster, and sometimes without swimming with anyone I feel like at least I'm not drafting off of someone in my lane the whole workout. I digress, I want and need to swim with people, I want to get faster and I need companionship and someone else to go through the pain with me. I need to figure out how to do this, hopefully hubby won't mind me going out one more night a week for a swim.......

Anyway, will get my run in later, had to go home and finish my ( I think I stopped counting) 20th load of laundry since New years. The only downside of having active parents and active children, the dirty, smelly laundry.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

What to do? And School is back on, YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, it has been a big weight off my shoulders to decide on doing IMLP this year. Now, its figuring out all my other races for the season. As a mom of 4, trying to organize my kids school and activities and trying to fit in all the training is an ordeal, and it takes up time, however, I like to race and you need to race to keep sharp, so the questions are:

1. Do you just do local races so you don't have to travel and be away from the family too long?
2. How frequently should you race given that it takes away the whole day typically and that doesn't bode well with the hubby.
3. Signing up for races is a big deal now because you can't just wait these races close out fast so you need to really figure out your schedule now, it can be financially expensive, especially if you have to back out and usually you don't get back your money. If you do, you don't get back the full amount.

So I am sitting here scrolling through all the races, where they are located, how long it would take to travel, cost, time away from family, etc.... I really try to be considerate to my husband and my kids and I want to spend time with them so the logistics are really important. It's also important that I'm doing the right races for me and for my prep for IMLP. I don't want to waste my time and spend time away from my kids/hubby for a "junk" race. So picking races for me isn't so easy, its actually pretty brutal.

The tentative races I have down on paper right now are( revamped from a few months ago) but nothing is set in stone except for IMLP:

a1. Harpoon Indoor time trial Jan 30th, 2010
a. Wrentham duathlon 4/18
b. Sudbury sprint 5/9
c. Harriman 1/2 ironman in NY 5/16
d. IMLP camp June 5-7th
e. B2B 148 mile bike race on 6/19 or The Patriot 1/2 ironman on 6/20/10
f. The Black fly trifecta July9-10-11 ( TT, Olympic and sprint combined) or The original Pow Wow sprint tri which is now the "Dam" sprint triathlon on July 10th, or the Old colony Olympic triathlon same weekend.
g. IMLP july 25th -gone for 5 days
h. August- ? races, recovery
i. September- ? Syracuse 70.3 on 9/19/10 or Pumpkinman 1/2 ironman 9/12/10
j. Duxbury sprint tri at the end of september

Now this doesn't include any of my training on the weekends and any road races that I may have to do to tune up for my "A" races. so you can see how this is hard when it comes to being a mom and trying to figure it all out. This is very stressful to me but hopefully I'll get it all worked out in a few days. coach will have to help.

With regards to my kids, they go back to school tomorrow, woo hoo. I love them but its time. since my kids get up at such an insane time in the morning ( 5;10am) by 9 or 10am they are bored, they want to kill each other and mommy has run out of ideas. It's crazy, they love each other and at the same time they want to kill each other. I look forward to structure again in my life. No more working out at 8pm or 4am for now, back to my routine. Lets just hope for health, no sickness.