The "moose"

Okay, so my triathlon friends know about the famous, " mooseman" triathlon/festival that is happening next weekend in Bristol, NH. 3 years ago next weekend I sat on the beach at Newfound lake and cried like a baby, afraid to go into the water, afraid that I wouldn't be able to complete the swim, on my very first attempt at a 1/2 ironman. I went up with a good friend of mine ( new friend) April and I cried like a baby, let the nerves get the best of me and didn't do the race. She rocked it by the way, I just drove her car all the way home feeling sorry for myself. Anyway, I digress, its been 3 years now and I am back on the beach looking out onto the water and realized that I've grown up a lot over the last 3 years and have a " few" races under my belt now. However, I'm not racing this course this year, I'm just here to check out the new 1/2 ironman bike course with my friend Keri who is going to race it next weekend.

The original 1/2 ironman course was a two loop course as well with some decent hills and challenges, it certainly wouldn't be considered easy and usually one doesn't come to the " Moose" to PR unless its your very first race. Well this year, Ironman took over Mooseman and now for some reason they changed the course for the 1/2 ironman and kept the Olympic course the same which is what I trained on 3 years ago. Today Keri and I were going to bike the two loops of the new course, run ~ 10-15 minutes and then swim in the lake. It all happened and it went very well, however, the course is no joke and " the climb" which I will call it was worse then anything I climbed at IMLP.

In just a few short words, the course starts out the same hugging the lake, which has its fake flat and your watts are already climbing even though you think your on flat ground, as you bear to the right after about 6 miles you enter the 3 1/2 mile climb. It goes up the you get a 50 meter reprieve, you climb, and climb and climb and climb, until the very end where you hit a 16% incline for about 200 meters and then you crest the top of the hills. After that you have a few smaller climbs, nothing major and then a huge decent for about 4+ miles on very narrow roads that aren't in good condition, so be aware. The rest of the course has you on rte 3a which you can get good speed but then you enter some of the similar aspects of the previous course and you get another big climb ( just shorter) and then you make it back to Wellington State Park to do it all over again. I was very glad I had my compact and my 11/28, I do wish I had one more gear left though. The second loop was a bit easier because I knew what to expect and how to attack the climb. I definitely had a lot of Lactic Acid build up but eventually it worked it self out. After the ride we ended in the parking for just a quick T-run and then headed to the lake for a swim.

For the swim, newfoundlake is beautiful and chrystal clear, its a bit cold so I debated on which wetsuit to wear, I started with the shorty, ended up with my long sleeve on and then wished I had my short sleeve on when I was swimming. Its a beautiful swim course and fast, however it will be cold.

All in all ( I won't divulge my overall speed for the course today- sort of dispicable) however after a my race on sunday I haven't really had a down day and over the last two days not including today Ive done 3 hrs of biking and 16 miles of running, so I'm guessing my legs were a bit tired today. I'm not making excuses coachie, I'm just saying.

Anyway, it was a great day and I got back in time for my kids. Keri is a blast and again we had tons of fun.She is totally going to rock the Moose next week, I just wish I was there to watch it. Maybe next year I'll get my chance to race and make ammends to that fateful day 3 years ago. Good luck to all the athletes competing next weekend, strategy and being conservative on the bike is all I can say.

Being on the other side even for 1hr is really scary.....

So as I was out riding my bike my phone was ringing, I knew it was going to be my hubby Phil so I decided not to answer it. I always say, " unless its really important please don't call me when I tell you I'm riding in the morning". so I continue to ride, the phone rings again, I pull over and answer it, its the Mammography center at North Shore Medical Center saying I needed to come in to get right breast looked at again, they think there might be something suspicious and they needed further imaging. They said for me to come in today. I took a deep breath and said, " sure, I'll see you at 2:15p". I continued my 2 1/2 hr ride and t-run, went to physical therapy and drove to the medical center. Being a nurse practitioner and practicing primarily in the field of hematology and Oncology I am the one usually on the other side telling people these things and giving them either good news or bad news. All I could think of during the last few hours were my kids and my husband. My gut instinct was that things were going to be okay but I have never needed to go in for a recheck ever and I've been getting mammos since I've been 35.

Anyway, I go in, get undressed and after about 30 minutes I still hadn't been seen. I went to the tech and she said they need to use a special machine for me because of it being a recheck. I started to get a little nervous. The woman finally called me in and she took several pictures, I still don't know how she could find enough tissue to press but she did. She told me after the pictures to sit in the front room and she would be out after the radiologist read the pictures. 5 minutes later she comes out and tells me she needs more pictures, we do this several times. Now being a betting person ( in my experience) the more images someone gets isn't usually a good thing. I started to think she was seeing something and so was the tech, she wouldn't give me a clue and I started to tear up a bit. She told me it was something high up in the armpit and it was difficult for the radiologist to read. Anyway, after a full hour of rechecking and rechecking more pictures the radiologist gave me a clean bill, most likely just a calcification.

So, when the tech came out to give me the news I started to cry, I had started to really think something was wrong and that I really didn't know how I was going to tell Phil and the kids. I still haven't quite gotten over it, but I can only imagine what it must feel or must of felt for my patients when we gave them bad news, it was really scary for awhile. Of course during this hour I was telling myself, " I'm healthy, I eat right, exercise, I have minimal risk factors for breast cancer, I've nursed 4 children,how could I have breast cancer". So the one thing I could think of was, DIET COKE. I said maybe I should just give it up, maybe this is a sign not to drink it anymore. I may just give this shit up, who knows what it is doing to my body.

Anyway, I'm so happy everything is fine, it certainly puts life into perspective even if it was only 1 hr that I sat there wondering , " WHAT IF?".

Life is good people, and believe me it could of been a hell of a lot worse and I know that. I've been very blessed to be healthy and I hope to continue that.

Black Bear Long Course Duathlon, Waterville, New Hampshire

So the black bear long course duathlon was today, 10k/60k/7.5k, lets just say, the run and bike were hard, the bike mirrored Lake Placid in a very scary way ( but good since I'm doing IMLP in 8 weeks) the climbs were insane and the run had a good mixture of flats and some off road trails with some punch little hills in the right places. The course was beautiful and the race was very well done, it was unfortunate that not many people came out for this well run event ( of which they put on the Black Fly in July, the Trifecta), this is an event that people should travel too and train on, hard but really fun. So the down and dirty is:

Drove up yesterday early evening, met up with my friend keri from WEllesley, also coached by my favorite Coachie, JRM, and we met at the race site, got our numbers and went out to dinner. LIttle did we know that most restaurants in Waterville weren't open unitl July, but fortunately we found the Mad River Glen ( ski it if you can) Tavern and got our meals. We were both starving, she opted for the buffalo style chicken sandwich and I for the cheesburger. I told her she better not stink me out later that night. After chatting a bit and laughing a ton we headed to bed, ( I watched the Celtics a bit but by 10p I was done). We got up at 5:30a for our routine poopie doop and eating frenzy pre race and got our shit together and biked to the start. WE met up with Bob, also another JRM athlete and started our prep, What we found interesting was that only 34 people registered for the long course and 70 or so for the short course, just crazy given how well run this event was, clean, beautiful, tons of volunteers, it was crazy. Whats more crazy was that there was only 7 or 8 women in the long course ( I had a decent shot of doing well in my age group, huh, hee hee).

Anyway, the weather was amazing, we knew it was going to get hot on the 2nd run and there was only 1 water stop on each loop, I debated on wearing my fuel belt but I didn't. We got to the start of the first run ( 10k) and I knew I needed to be conservative, I always get nervous and think I"mgoing to blow up if I run my 10k place, I still had 40 miles of biking to do and another 4.75 miles of running. We got to the line and Keri, Bob and all the other ladies were off in a shot. I immediately went into my ( man my run sucks mode) but I just remembered to stay the course and run my race and be comfortable and knew I would rane them in on the bike. The course was challenging and hot already but I felt very fair and super fun with the trails and off road running, I got into transition and I don't really know why my transitions were slow today but I lost a ton of time in both, both were 1:49, I'm usually out in under a minute so I really lost time there. I averaged 8:13 for the first run, I was hoping for 8 flat so already behind.

Got on the bike for the 60k and lets say, the climb is really a climb, it was hard I was definitely in my 28 and working hard, it wasn't an easy climb, but we had a nice downhill after and some nice road to ride for about 6 miles were I was averaging at least 25mph, then just like placid it was a 10k gentle climb back to the second loop to do it again, crazy, but the roads were nice and not too much traffic. I was able to pass all the ladies and a few men on the bike except for my lovely friend keri who I knew probably had me by 4-5 minutes on the run, I did manage to have the fastest ladies bike split and gained 2+ minutes on my friend and went into T2 with the second place lady. Unfortunately my bike average was only 18.6 mph but given that only 8 men had a better split I was happy given the hills on this course.

We both went out of T2 together, she looked strong and she was ahead of me until we went into the second loop were I started to get my legs to turn over and I passed her and finished second female. I waited for her to cross the finish line to congratulate her and to thank her for pushing me, I definitely had some negative thoughts out there on the course and having a rabbit for awhile really kept me going, I didn't give up. She told me that she saw me coming on the bike and she knew she was screwed, I took that as a compliment.

At the finish I saw Keri who took first by almost 7 minutes over me ( my dam run) and Bob who took 3rd place overall male, amazing given some of the talent that showed up on the guys side. So proud of both of my friends.

Anyway, we took off right away to go home and made it back by 2:15p to play with the kids, make a homemade swordfish, corn on the cob dinner and now to watch lost.

On reflection I'm okay with todays race, not great, I knew I was on some tired legs but I really have to work on that run. However, based on my average run of over 10 1/2 miles I averaged 8:23 pace, okay. I hope to be back to this race next year and I will highly recommend it to all my friends for an early season race and prep

First outdoor bike time trial and so much more fun....

So tonight in all of its rainy and cold glory I set out to do my first Hamilton ECV time trial, approximately 12 miles of some flats and hills and wind and rain. There was only about 24 of us that decided to show up tonight and I think there were only two women, me and someone else. Everyone showed up in the TT bikes, disc wheels, aero helmets and all the gadgets, these guys were the real deal. They talked about sub 25 minutes, 26 mph, yada yada yada, all I wanted to make sure was that I wasn't the last person out there on the course. So here is how it went.

I got there pretty early 5:30p, checked in, got my stuff together and hoped on my trainer to get in a decent warm up. The rain came down here and there, at times it was pretty heavy, the temperature wasn't too bad but I still went with a long sleeve, gloves and booties. Coachie showed up, so amazing, I don't know if he had any other athletes there tonight but to come and support me, are you kidding me, I don't pay the man enough.

Well with a time trial you line up in oder and then you clip in when its your turn and they hold your bike and I was a bit nervous because I said to the guy, " your not going to let me fall right? YOu will give me a little push so I don't fall?" I thought he was going to laugh at me right there but he gave me a little push and I was off. I felt good, the legs felt good, I was very cautious like I usually am in the rain and made sure I took all the corners pretty wide and slowed down a bit ( which is a bummer for the overall speed) but on tired legs this wasn't going to be an all out vomit fest for me. Only 3 guys passed me, #14-16, so not so bad, I think we were separated by 30 seconds. The only problem was I lost complete site of #14 and #15 but I had 16 in my view for most of the rest of the ride so I knew I wasn't doing too bad. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, I was lucky #13, dont figure.

Anyway, coach was out on the course, I could see his car at strategic places, he knew I was doing well so he continued to follow me. I was feeling really well, I know I could of pushed harder especially at the beginning of the course, I had a lot at the end but I finished via my bike computer at 29:59 with an overall average speed of 22.6 and the official ECV time was 30:06.

Coach was happy, my overall avg watts was 205, with norm watts at 215, could of and should of been a bit higher but at least its getting better. I'm shooting for high 23's and possible an average speed of 24mph by the end of the season, we'll see. But at least I felt good when I finished, I wasn't completely spent. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the training front I have a 4hr ride tomorrow f/b a 15 minute transition run, a swim on friday with some resistance training and then race day prep on saturday and then the long course duathlon this sunday in Waterville VAlley, NH. We'll see how that goes, don't really know how the running is coming along so this weekend will be interesting.

On the family front we had my son alex's 7th birthday this past weekend, my daughter Shea's dance recital, numerous soccer games, lacrosse games and birthday parties. Life is crazy but its good, really good. I have a great family, amazing friends and coach who is so supportive and really goes above and beyond what his role is, I couldn't be happier in that department. And I'm glad tonight that I'm showing some improvement and making myself and my coach proud. SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!! YEAH, SPORT IS FUN!!!!!! Now I don't know if I'll be saying that on Sunday but I'll keep you posted.

Make way for Ducklings and much more.....

So its been crazy so far this week and its only Tuesday. Yesterday I was a chaperone for my son's class to Boston, to walk the, " Make way for Duckling's" walk ( from the book) go on the swan boats and have a picnic in the Common. It was so nice outside and it was great to be with all the kids, especially my guy. However, trying to fit in ironman training and all my kids activities in one day makes for some major adjustments. So my Monday went like this:

1. get up at 5:30 am with kids to get dressed, fed and get lunches,etc.. ready for the day
2. Drive kids to their respective schools by 8am
3. Drop off paperwork for meeting at another school before heading back to Kid #2 school for field trip
4. Field trip to Boston from 8:30am-2:30pm
5. Get back just in time to pick other 3 kids up from school to take daughter to dance by 3:30, other son to swimming by 3:30p, grocery shop with 2 boys trying to kill each other in the grocery cart, pick other 2 kids up by 4:45pm, feed them a quick dinner and then head to the soccer field with all 4 and help coach my boys soccer team.
6. Get home at 6:45pm, wash, pajamas and to bed
7. Hop on treadmill for track workout which I was unable to do in the morning because of said field trip, finish by 9:30p, do some core exercises and shower. Can;t fall asleep until 11p.

Tuesday:
1. Same deal as yesterday, 5:30am wake up by kids, get dressed, etc... get them all to school by 8:15am
2. Swim workout in and completed by 9:45am-since I couldn't get my swim in yesterday
3. Meeting at elementary school for TriROK foundation at 10am
4. Meeting at NE Running Company for sponsorship of foundation at 10:45am
5. Get home to ride for 2hrs and run for 30 minutes- done. Mother F'in hard, Main set of workout was 6 x 2 miles at 230 watts with 2 minutes of recovery, ouch.. But done, legs felt good on the run.
6. Finish and get to the kids school just on time to dress my daughter for pictures for her dance recital by 3:30pm, get my other 3 kids, drive to violin for a 3:10p class, other son's soccer drop off at 3:30pm, then pick up Alex from violin to go to swimming by 4pm and my daughter to swimming by 4:15. After getting everyone home my mother in law was kind enough to come over so I could feed my kids and take my oldest to piano at 5:30pm and be home by 6:30p to make myself and my hubby dinner.

Okay, seriously, I'm kind of done tonight, and really pissed off I can't figure out my I touch. Why can't I access the wi-fi anywhere else but my house. Why would I buy an Itouch for just the ipod if I can't use the applications anywhere but my house. Pisses me off. Anyway, I digress, I have a swim tomorrow and a 9 mile run, hopefully I will be fully recharged and ready to go.

Can you be happy and not happy at the same time?

So today was the Sudbury sprint triathlon, I've done it the last two years and its great fun. Its a 400 yard time trial swim, 7 + mile bike and a 2.3 mile run. The last two years the weather has been really great but today it was 39 degrees at the start and 20-30 mph gusts of wind during the race. It was a lot of contemplation about what to wear on the bike and run. Since it is such a short bike I decided not to wear anything but my swim suit and shorts and man was it cold. I at least left my toe covers on my bike shoes so my bare feet wouldn't get too numbe ( oh well, I tried).

So before I go into my race report I was so excited about meeting a fellow triathlete and blogger, Kim at the race, can we say Greek Goddess, my goodness, and so nice. Its so great to finally be meeting these people that i have been following for a long time on their blogs and all their athletic endeavors. I am so excited I get to race with her again at, " The Patriot" in June, so much fun. I also got to catch up with my friend Keelin, who is also a mom of 4 and is trying to get herself back into kick ass shape and with all her hard work over the last few months she wanted to complete this triathlon today, and boy did she ever, can we say, 17.5mph on the bike with these conditions, and I think thats with just getting in 1 or 2 outdoor rides this year, so sick.

So my race report:
Good pre-race nutrition ( right Kim and Mary) applesauce, whey protein, banana and sport drink. 30 minutes before race a chocholate GU.
Dynamic warm-up done and 15 minutes of running and some laps in the pool. I was #84 to go off I think out of over 500 people, so I had to wait about 15 minutes to go.
I felt pretty good in the water, definitely tried to keep it at tempo pace, no getting my HR out of control, I finished the 400 on my watch at 5:44 and ran to the timing mat at 5:51. God knows how long my transition time was because it was cold out there and trying to get my bike shoes on and helmet in the wind too was a bit difficult, but once I got on my bike it was okay. A few times I felt I was getting blown all around the place but no woman passed me and I passed a ton of men and women on my way to a 20:26 bike split, 2nd overall female bike split. Again it took a bit of time to get my shoes off and my running sneakers so I think my transition time was a bit long, over a minute and a half I'm guessing based on my firm time.
The run was good but again I didn't go balls to the wall, I don't know why, I had a ton in the tank and my legs felt pretty good after 300 yards or so, I don't know why I have a hard time putting myself in the hurt zone, I could of definitely made up more time if I just pushed it a bit more. Oh well.

Overall 44:40, 4th female overall and 2nd in my age group 40-44. First place went to a woman in my age group, no fair.

My unhappy moment came when I figured I was a teeny bit slower this year than last and I knew both my bike and swim were faster and my run was about the same. I'm thinking I spent a bit more time in transitions than I did last year based on the weather and the conditions, I don't know. So I'm happy I did well but not happy I didn't see a PR. Anyway, a good day regardless in the bank and a lot of work ahead to do. I will continue to work on my bricks and get some kickass bike and running in over the next week and a half. I have a long course Duathlon scheduled for May 23rd so I better be in shape for that one.

Anyway, great to finally meet Kim K, and to see my good friend Keelin finish her first triathlon after having 4 kids, happy mothers day to you my friend.

Being sick sucks

Okay, I'm not dying and I'm not in the hospital, but I hate being sick. I've been very lucky this winter not to be really sick and have been relatively healthy for awhile so being taken back by this cold pissed me off. I eat well, take my vitamins, exercise, etc.. but I think with the weird weather, sleet/sun/heat, rain, etc.. especially what we had last week didn't help my immune system. Anyway, I took today off from exercise completely, drinking plenty of fluids, taking time for myself and will get back on the train tomorrow. This week is a recovery week thank goodness because we are starting the final push towards IMLP, 80 days and countining.

Some other quick training notes, I did a 17 mile run this weekend, again averaging a piss more showing of 8:40 pace, did a small brick, bike and run on sunday and then we flew home from Chicago. The kids were excited to see us but all I wanted to do was go to bed, I felt so bad.

Monday I did a 3000 straight swim, it was fine, the laryngitis was in full swing so I didn't push a thing, couldn't really talk for the day so tried to keep using sign language and writing things down for my kids so they wouldn't keep asking me questions.

Today was teacher appreciation day and mothers day tea at my daughters school. so much fun to surprise the teachers with their flowers and their homemade cards from my kids ( whats funny is they attached flowers from my garden yesterday to the cards and they were practically dead and wilting today, however the teachers loved them anyway). Tea with my daughter is so special, she made me a beautiful pin and a picture frame with flowers on it, so beautiful. Anyway, I have a mothers day tea with my 4 year old son on thursday, I can't wait, its our first together.

Tomorrow I have a swim and a run scheduled, hopefully with a good nights rest and some good food I'll be ready to go.