Don't Quit.....

So this past week has been tough, the volume in training has gone up, some of the intensities have been tough and mentally with everything going on at the house I really have had to channel my energy and just focus on just getting the workouts in.

Over the last two years if the weather was bad or if it was real windy or if I was just tired I would spin inside, not bother to go out, run on the treadmill instead of enduring the elements outside, making all the excuses in the book about not wanting to get sick, etcc, I got 4 kids, etc... It actually was just plain laziness. This year I have said, no more, your going to ride in the rain, run in the rain, ride in the wind, whatever, no need to make excuses, I need to develop better mental toughness as well as strengthening my body to endure all these elements that could be present on race day. Let me explain why I am writing this:

Monday was a swim 4100 yards, not too tough but the main set was 2 x 1000 yards swims. I was in a short pool that is very hot and has every old man/lady doing water aerobics around me, I just wanted to stop but I didn't, I swam around them, under them, I just kept going. Then it was off to pilates for 1hr of the most humbling of all workouts. Then the day went by and I still had to do my drills/track workout but with all the kids stuff I didn't get to do it until 8:30pm on my treadmill which as you all know is stuck at 3% incline. 6 miles done by 9:20p, tired off to bed.

Tuesday, bike intervals- hard ass workout with a T-run right after. I did the best I could, my watts were off by about 3-5% but coach said that was okay based on the volume- main segment of that workout was ( 4 min at mid range tempo with 1 min recover, 2 min mid range v02 max, 1 min recovery, 4 min of mid range tempo) 3 min between each interval repeat x 4.

Well got the bike finished but my sons school called and he just puked on himself so the T-run suffered and it was off to pick up son #2.

Wednesday- swim, 3500yds, huge kick set, no fins ( total # of yds kicking was 1200) then doing an 8 mile run which when I started I was like, " um, nope, not today, the legs are just too tired", but then I kept going, saying, " suck it up, you can do it, stop your bitching" so I just slowed down the pace a bit and as the sleet/rain, wind and cold bore down on me I kept chugging along, not giving up, not quiting. I hated my time but I did it and with the slower pace I actually recovered quite well from the day.

Today- 4 1/2 ride scheduled, cold to start but sunny but it was mother f-in windy out, headwinds, crosswinds, everything but a tailwind. I was supposed to hit a 12 mile loop and lock into my Steady State pace watts of 190 and hold it for 12 miles and repeat that x 5, with 10 minutes of recovery in between with a warm up and cool down, lets just say I didn't come close to averaging these watts but I did manage to do 83 miles in 4 1/2 hrs at a 18.4mph pace. However, watts sucked and if I had to say, " that mother f'in wind one more time today I was going to shoot myself", but I didn't quit, I didn't call some of my friends whose houses I past on my ride route to drive me home, I just kept on going, I didn't quit.

So even though Coachie told me that I kind of sucked WAD today, I didn't quit, the conditions weren't ideal all week for me but I didn't quit, I kept going, I've finished my workouts to the best of my ability each day and I'm proud of that. I wish that I could PR everyday in practice and every race day but that is not reality. Life is tough, expectations of ourselves is even harder but this week I knew I was in for it and I did it. Its not over yet but I will finish each workout, I wont quit. So with that I close with this poem written by an unknown writer:

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow-
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man:
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup:
And he learned too late
when the night came down
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out-
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the light when you're hardest hit-
It's when things seem worst that yo mustn't quit.

So in closing, don't quit, keep going. I'm not going to give up and I'm going to work harder. Thanks to everyone who has provided me with their unconditional love and support and thanks to a great coach who listens to me bitch and complain and still coaches me. Thanks.

Metabolic Efficiency Testing......

Okay so I am going to quote directly from my Coach, Janda Ricci-Munns previous email to me regarding why it was important for me to do metabolic efficiency testing for IMLP:

Janda said, and I quote, " one of the most tried and true approaches to long course training is to train the body to rely upon little to no ingested glucose/carbohydrate in order to increase its ability to conserve muscle glycogen and to metabolize free fatty acids ( FFAs) more efficiently for aerobic energy production. Keep in mind that your body only stores somewhere between 2000-2500 calories worth of muscle glycogen. This high octane fuel source is utilized by the body, along with FFAs and O2 to produce the energy that your body requires to keep moving forward during training and competition. At very low intensities a well trained endurance athlete will not require as much glycogen due to the relatively low rate at which energy must be produced in order for movement to occur. Ideally, the body will metabolize more of its FFAx to produce aerobic energy when training/competing atlow intensity efforts ( i.e., IM race pace and below).

As the intensity of aerobic exercise increases, so does the rate at which your body must produce energy. As intensity of exercise approaches FTP/LT, your body begins to metabolize more of its glycogen stores in order to keep up with the energy demand.

Typically, once an athlete reaches/crosses over FTP/LT, 100% of the energy being produced comes from your muscle glycogen stores. This is problematic in that, once again, ou only store about 2000-2500 calories worth of glycogen in your body-enough energy to get you through about 18-23 miles of hard running or 2.5-4hrs of hard cycling.

We often hear of athlete's " bonking" or " hitting the wall" during endurance events. The bottom line: Once our body's glycogen stores are depleted you have to rely upon FFA metabolism to produce energy aerobically. Due to the slow rate at which energy is produced by this metabolic system, your pace drops ( as do your blood glucose levels) and you end up walking, or jogging very slowly all the way to the finish line."

So, I wish I could say that i wrote that but my amazing coach Janda Ricci-Munn provided me with this information which made a ton of sense when it came to my endurance training and learning how to fuel efficiently and making sure that I was providing my body with everything it needed to perform at its best. So, today, myself and my friend and fellow IMLP triathlete Bob went to Grafton, Mass to see Dr. Jeff Godin from Blackstone Valley Human Performance who took an indepth look at the rate at which our bodies metabolized FFAs and glycogen/carbohydrates when training on the bike, with regards to power output, heart rate, ventilatory rate, 02 consumption, C02 expresssion, etc.... Preliminary results for me look like so far I was able to adequately burn fat at high level at around 175-180 watts without too much glycogen depletion. Dr. Godin said he will send me a more indepth chart and analysis after her reviews my power file and his computer output and then we will conduct a treadmill test the same way and then put all the information together to adjust how I'm fueling and how I should continue to train these last critical 3 months to ironman.

Okay, so after all this scientific hubbub your saying to me, this is crazy, why are you doing all this, your a mom of 4, your not going to win anything, I say, " Well, I am putting in the training, I want to succeed both physically and mentally and I want to do the best that I can do, so not only do you have to put in the time in all 3 disciplines, diet plays a huge portion of the equation to be successful. I don't want to do 2 1/2 miles of swimming and 112 miles of biking just to bonk on the run and walk 26 miles, I did a bit of that last year and I hated it and I don't want to do that again. Its a game and i get that but every bit of information helps to put the final pieces of the puzzle together. Wish me luck and enjoy the pics.

p.s. Also, I took my first official ice bath the other day and it truly sucked, OMG it hurt.

Just DU it.......

Stats that I know right now: 8th overall female, 3rd age group, 1:12 time- its a start, not bad for cold and rain and being the first race of the season.

So I would first like to say that it was so much fun to have my coach and his wife at our race today cheering us on, giving us splits and telling us what place we were in, given the bad conditions ( cold and rain) for them to be standing outside for 4 hours plus for us was awesome.

So the race: So Coach Janda had about 10 athletes representing him today, me, keri, bob, greg, dawn, spencer, franco, and a few others I think that I'm forgetting, but anyway, we all got to meet up and get ready this morning in the 39 degree weather and rain and do our dyanmic warm ups and stride outs, it was fairly relaxing. I didn't get into my nervous mojo since I had my friend Keri there with me and we have never raced together and she is just coming along amazing in her training and I knew I would be trying to catch her all day in the race ( came a <>

1st run 3 miles- fairly flat- averaged about 7:23 per mile ( Coachie wanted me to go out at 10k pace and hold it for the run to get warmed up for the bike) I felt pretty good, I didn't like having so many people pass me, but I was hoping that if I held back a bit I would have more on the bike and the final run.

Bike- 11 miles- a rolling course with a couple of punchy hills. Its a bit different to ride after running then riding after swimming, my legs didn't get into a groove until about mile 8 and then it was going to be over in 3 miles. People were crowding on the roads being very tentative on their bikes given the wet conditions and rain, there was lots of traffic that slowed us down and lots of turns, which on a rainy day make you slow down a ton and have to regroup, so it was a bummer not to get into a groove and really be able to see what I can do. I actually felt like I was riding a 3hr ride today, my HR was not getting spiked because I just wasn't able to get the effort out. What was good was that I passed a lot of people and no woman passed me on the bike. I believe I averaged 20mph so based on this performance I certainly was in 1/2 ironman mode.

run #2- probably averaged in the mid 7's would be my guess, we didn't get our splits of our bike and second run at the race so I'm not sure what I did but I at least felt pretty good coming off the bike, I didn't feel too tight and my gait was okay. Unfortunately one woman past me with 30 yards to go to the finish line so I came in 8th overall female, oh well.

Anyway, it was fun to get 3rd in my age group ( the 2nd and 3rd overall female winners were in my age group so I did pretty well), my other teammates Dawn got 5th overall female, Keri got 6th overall female and I got 8th overall female, so I feel we represented Team Janda very wel today. Our other teammates Bob Carrol finished 14th overall with an amazing time of 1hr, how one can run sub 6's and then crush the bike and the second run I'll never know, also a young gun by the name of spencer placed either 3rd or 4th overall male with a scorchin I believe 55 or 57 minutes ( oh to be young again) so really impressive work there, Greg did amazing as well, finishing in the tops of his age group and Franco was awesome passing me at the finish as well. " I'll get you later Franco, I just need a longer race" ( hee hee)

Anyway, it was a good day, definitely a training day for me, I feel to good to feel like I really raced it, I think if the conditions were better I might of gone for it a bit more but it is what it is and its only April, lots of training ahead for me and probably more duathlons in my future. I can see how different muscles get engaged gettting on the bike after the run and how I had to work harder on the second run to do well. Its a learning curve for sure but I'm getting there. Anyway, I'm sending out some pictures of all my good friends and of my amazing coach Janda and wife Michelle who came out today to route for us. Thanks again Coachie, your the best.

A full load.....

So hubby is away playing and mommy is super managing the house and trying to keep everything together, thank goodness its a recovery week with a small duathlon on sunday. Now, I promised coachie I wouldn't bitch or whine but, duathlon's scare me, it takes me out of my comfort zone. With triathlons I know that after the bike I only have to run once and then its over, with a duathlon I have to run twice, are you f-in kidding me, twice, yuck.....I'm not a weak runner, I'm a psychologically weak runner which hinders me in my racing ability. I have to work really hard at telling myself I am a strong runner and that I can do these things since I do them in training. The mental game is hard for me, I will admit that.

So today coachie emails me about a long course duathlon in May and that it will make me strong for IMLP, of course my heart sank in my chest and I started to sweat, but I knew instantly that he is really starting to get, "me", and that he knows that this would be hard for me but he also knows that this would be really good for me both psychologically and physically, he's right. Dammit, he's right, can I say that again, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. So I guess I'm going to sign up for the friggin thing, its in NH of all places and its a hilly mother you know what so hopefully I can lose a few pounds before then so the hills aren't so bad for me. Good lord, I think I'm a bit numb about it.

Anyway, I digress, the kids are busy, we have tons of activities at school and on the sporting fields this weekend, a birthday party for my nephew and my race, hopefully we will all be in one piece when daddy gets home sunday night.

long weekend over, phewwww

Okay, so Saturday morning started real early, as you can see my clock read 4:52am and it was time for me to do my hard bike ride and my brick run. As you can see, my bike is ready to go along with my very old treadmill that is stuck on 3% incline. Anyway, my goal was to do my normal warm up, + another 15 minutes of some extra stuff coachie threw in there and then 3 x 20 minutes at high end of steady state watts, keeping a cadence around 90, 5 minutes of recovery in between each interval and then complete ride around 2 1/2 hrs, then a T run of only 15 minutes just to get the legs turning over. Well, I averaged, 196, 197 and 192 watts respectively for each 20 minute segment, ( which is in my SS zone but on the lower end, my high end is 215), my legs have been tired this week but I still felt okay on the bike it just wasn't going to get much higher. Then I ran at a 7.4-7.5 on the treadmill to finish off the work. Unfortunately the kids got up during the end of my ride and were staring at me and lifting my fan and doing all sorts of crazy stuff to distract me, it was kind of funny but I didn't get up this early to be interrupted on my workout, that was sort of the reason to do it.

Then on the treadmill my 4 year old started hitting me with my foam roller and touching my treadmill, I almost fell off and broke my legs and I was pretty scared for him that he might get his hands stuck, needless to say I was a bit perturbed with hubby who didn't keep the kids out like he was suppossed to but it was over and it was time to go to the track.

Today was day 1 of coach Aprils track session for her athletes ( TriLife Coaching) and I want to follow her and learn some of her coaching styles at the track and help out when I can so if she ever needs someone to cover. It will be helpful for me to know her athletes so they will feel comfortable with me. I am so proud of how far along April has come with her coaching and how happy all of her athletes are with her. She is very professional, everything she does has a purpose, she documents everything, gives her clients homework and tons of feedback, its amazing, its what coaches are supposed to do. I am very blessed that my coach currently emails me back within seconds of me writing him and I get all the feedback I need and he is tremendously professional. I can only hope that when I become a coach I can do as good a job as my coach and April, they really have it down and you can see it with all their athletes.

After track it was sports for the kids and then off to Coachies first group drill/track session with transitions. This was super fun and he had at least 20 of his athletes there at the Gloucester track. His wife Michelle and Janda went through a ton of running drills which were great and then unfortunately I had to leave to go home, so I missed the transition stuff. Oh well, next time.

Today I had a 15 mile run scheduled which I did later in the afternoon, too much stuff in the morning and sports for the kids. I was able to average 8:42 with a max heart rate of 153 for the 15 miles, on tired legs and 17 hours of effort this week I was pleased. Anyway, my GI track is a bit shaken after the run so hopefully things will settle down before going to bed. Recovery week this week and race on sunday, 1st of the season ( I'm just hoping not to get my ass handed to me). Anyway, time to have dinner. Chat later.

Long course training legs, uggggg

some days and weeks you have it and some days/weeks you don't. This is my last week before a recovery week and race and I've worked out 7hrs in 3 days and I have a 4 hr day tomorrow and its only thursday. My FTP bike on tuesday fell short a bit, my T run sucked, my swim was ok today, felt fine after 3500 but my 8 mile run felt like my legs were lead, I averaged an ok 8:40 per mile pace, my HR was high zone 1, low zone 2 but my legs felt like tree stumps, not much turnover going on. So of course my mind is doing games on me, " oh, you suck, your running is pitiful, why do you keep doing this to yourself, just become an aquabiker", " will I beable to run off the bike?", " what can I actually do with rested legs?"

It sucks doubting yourself, I trained for ironman last year but differently. I am logging more time on the bike and run front which makes for more tired legs. Its just when your workouts don't go as planned you get pretty bummed out and psychologically that sucks for me. I'm not saying that I'm doing badly, I guess in my mind I want my body to do more and maybe I"m asking it to do more than it can do, I'm not sure.

Anyway, I'm a bit nervous for my duathlon next weekend, with the swim not a part of the race its run/bike/run, so this is just as much of a psychological race for me as a physical one, struggling to be in the front on the run when its not my strength may zap my legs a bit on the bike and then to run at the end, its all new to me, I've never completed one so race strategy I don't have. I hope coachie doesn't mind me asking him tons of questions and I certainly hope I do myself proud and my coach who has worked really hard with me this year. My first real race with him and hopefully a good start to the season. Anyway, hubby is at the Sox, kids are in bed, time for mommy to read and retire, long bike with T run tomorrow.

Solid training weekend

So with a sick kid on thursday I had to do my 3+ hr long bike ride with 15 minute transition on friday, which ended up being great, however with a track workout and bike on saturday and a 2hr bike f/b a 30 min transition run on sunday it was going to be 3 long days in a row. So this is how it all went.

1. Friday- long 3hr bike, 58 miles, 161 watts average, 180 watts norm watts. 18.5 mph averaged. 48 ounces of water and 1 GU. Felt great, T run was shakey but okay. I was happy with this performance, I wish my speed was a bit faster but considering it was my first outdoor ride since October I was okay with that.

2. Saturday- warm up at the track, 2 miles, neuromuscular activation exercises after f/b 8 x 800's at 5k pace with 2 minutes in between each set, f/b 10 minutes of a cool down. I was able to hold 6:40's-6:50's for all intervals, felt good, could of gone faster, still need to work on my pacing. I'm still trying to understand, 5k pacing but keep it aerobic ( could you explain that to me coachie?-hee, hee). Road my hr ride, just relaxed and enjoyed being outside, didn't use my power tap becasue I didn't care about my numbers.

3. Sunday was Easter so after the Easter bunny arrived and the baskets were open and breakfast was done, kids were dressed I headed out for my 2hr ride. My legs were a bit tired, it was a bit windy but not too bad, I averaged 152 watts for the ride 172 was the norm wattage, avg speed was 18.3 mph. Oh well, it was ok, I was tired. My t-run didn't go well, I felt like my hip flexors were tight, it was hard to get my legs to turnover and I was already breathing hard after 10 minutes. I certainly hope I can run better off my bike in the near future, it was pretty pathetic if you happened to see me on the road. Yikes........

After the workout it was time to cook for 14 people, clean up the house and get ready for Easter dinner. It was a long, fun weekend. This week is a lot of bike volume and a really long run this weekend, we'll see how this 41 year old body holds up, its then a bit of recovery and possible the wrentham duathlon. I'm a bit nervous about duathlon's since swimming isn't involved my little security blanket is removed from the trifecta of sports, I'll be starting from a deficit heading into the bike and will need to crush the bike in order to get some movability on the second run, we'll see, lots to learn, lots to do. I'll keep you posted.

more pictures from Utah

These are just some more random pictures from our trip to Utah, I still can't believe all my kids are skiing and 3 are with poles and going through trees and skiing off jumps, its amazing. Anyway, hope you like the pictures.

Life never slows down and pictures from Utah...

so today was supposed to be my long ride outside, I was so psyched to finally get outside, however, my oldest son was sick this morning and unable to go to school, right ear pain, sore throat, general aches and pains, you get the deal. So, he was up at 5:16am and feeling yucky so mommy and daddy needed to be with him of course because he was lonely, then daddy leaves for work and everyone else gets up, breakfast, get dressed and off to school.

So my day went like this.

1. off to go to rental car place to check transfer vehicle for my lost wedding band. Yesterday was such a bad day and a long day with everything I had to do I lost my wedding bad.

2. Off to Ira Toyota where I dropped the car off yesterday to check their service area and hopefully my car but unfortunately my car was up on the lift so I have to wait till tomorrow.

3. Go to the YMCA in beverly, the MAC in manchester and check all these places for my ring. My poor son was just reading in the car being so patient.

4. Go food shopping at Shaws

5. Come home clean kitchen from top to bottom, dishes, laundry, and straighten out the bookshelf, put away groceries, make kellen lunch, wait for mother in law to come to sit Kellen so I can pick up Alex at school to go to his doctors appointment in Boston at 1pm.

6. Pick Alex up at school drive to 128 south and guess what, f-in traffic, are you kidding me, I've never seen it so bad. It took 1 1/2 hrs to go from exit 18 to exit 25, I had to call his doctors office twice to make sure they could still take us when we got there.

7. Got to Commonwealth Avenue at 2:30pm for Alex's developmental optometrist appointment and it was 2 hrs long. Very thorough exam, learned a lot, clarified to us that Alex really needed his glasses and that he should start noticing a significant improvement in his focus and strength in his eyes when it comes to school work.

8. Its now 4:45pm have to get Alex dinner, get on the road at 5p and get home at 6:10pm.

9. Get in the house and my husband says, " didn't you know Kellen's ear was getting worse today". Are you kidding, I just got in from being away the past 6 hrs, no-one told me anything and if they did, what the hell am I going to do about it in Boston.

10. So off we go at 6:30pm tonight to the minute clinic at CVS in Beverly, kellen with a low grade temp, right ear pain and a red throat with a ton of white crap in the back. Rapid strep came back negative, little fluid in the ear, will await culture. Its going to be positive I know it, is throat is so gross.

11. I'm finally home and have decided that my 3hr ride isn't going to happen tonight on my trainer at 8pm, so I am going to savor it for tomorrow and enjoy being outside, hubby is home so he can man the ship while I'm out. Then if I'm lucky and my hubby lets me really play I am going to do my swim in the afternoon, yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

All in all the last few weeks have been so busy and life just takes crazy turns, kids, work, house, weather, trips, whatever. I was so overwhelmed yesterday and today that all I wanted to do was just crawl away. I'm hoping for things to settle down and not be so crazy. I'm also hoping to find my wedding band, I love that ring my hubby chose for me and it would be devastating to have lost it. I'm sure its all my fault and in all my craziness and being so overextended I wasn't being careful, shame on me. Anyway, I'm going to go to bed right now and hopefully I'll see some of you on the road in the morning.

I hope you like some of the pictures from utah, I'm attaching some of them: My sister in law and my brother in law with the kids in the above picture, I think they were very scared of us by the end of the trip.