Race confusion....

I am so confused right now about my races for this year. Most people by November/December have their whole race plan filled out, they know their plan, I have a skeleton plan with a few races I think I want to do but then I think about other things I want to do, other races, its so confusing for me. Without ironman in July this year its a bit up in the air, however I do know I want to do 2 1/2 ironmans this year and some swim races and some sprints. Here are my thoughts and I would love anyones opinion.

April- ? wrentham duathlon- just a tune up
May 15- ? American Zofingen 5 mile trail run/89 hillacious hilly miles on the road/15 mile trail run
or End of May- /Black Bear Duathlon- 10k/39 miles/4 1/2 miles run

Heres the confusing one: Mooseman June 5th 1/2 ironman or Rev 3 Quassy 1/2 June 5th? Based on what I'm hearing the Rev 3 Quassy is brutal as is Mooseman but the Moose is a bit easier on the run. However, if I do Zofingen I won't be properly recovered for Moose and for Rev3. So do I go into something like Zofingen and forget trying to do a successful 1/2 this early summer? I'm not sure. Am I scared of going back to the Mooseman course where I sat on the beach at my very first 1/2 ironman 4 years ago and cried and walked away? Am I afraid of the tough competition that will be there that day and want to escape to some other place where the unknown is the only thing on my brain? I don't know.

July is kind of open, probably just a few bike TT's and a sprint triathlon. August I'm hoping I'll be home for the Gloucester triathlon and then we are off to Idaho for some white water rafting and hiking with the family. Unfortunately I can only swim and trail run when I'm out there, hubby won't let me bring the road bike? I guess I can't travel down the river on the boat with my bike, huh?

September at this point is the PUmpkinman 1/2 ironman and maybe a sprint in there.
October is to recover and build again
November- ? ironman depending on my mental status and how I performed at the 1/2 ironman distances this year. It also depends on how my running is coming along. If ironman is a no go then I may just try to do a run focus and train for a marathon.

so I guess I'm just confused about the beginning part of my plan and I need to really bare down and figure it out soon. Help!!!!!

Life in Perspective

Life is just really interesting lately, I'm hearing lots of things that make me think that I need to stop bitching about the little stuff and make the most of everyday that I have. I know I have blogged about this in the past but every once in awhile things just make you shake your head and say, " life can be so unfair sometimes" and you just need to put your life into perspective and focus on whats important.

What I've heard:

1. A good friends significant others cancer is back and has metastisized throughout her body, she has a 2 1/2 yr old and we don't know what the prognosis is, but based on what I know its not good. However, she maintains an amazing outlook on life and she never mentions this to anyone, she is inspiring to say the least but I can't help thinking about her all the time and her little daughter and her hubby, this must be so hard for them.

2. I know I don't know these people personally and its probably really stupid for me to even mention this but last night on American Idol the last contestant ( Chris Medina) had an amazing story to tell about his longtime girlfriend and fiance who was in a car crash 2 yrs ago and sustained a serious brain injury, she is able to communicate a little but their lives are forever changed and the fact this young mans love for his future bride still shines so bright in his eyes and that he is still so very much apart of her life and her families is just a testomony to the fact that amazing, compassionate people still live on this planet. The even better thing was that he could really sing too and he made it to the Hollywood round. Just a great story, but man it makes you think, right?

I don't know, life is hard all the way around, its never easy but when you see these things or read about stories like this it makes you think about your life, doesn't it?

My training has been going well, not great, I'm still having a hard time getting to the pool more than 1-2x a week which needs to change really soon. I've encorporated a big strength component 3 x a week in my normal swim slot so adding another hour onto that day has been hard and I lose my mojo later on in the day. I know what I want out of my life, I know what I want out of my body and I really need to stop making lamo excuses and move on. However, I look at these people and it makes me feel so selfish, I don't know, I need to do more in so many aspects of my life, I need to give back more. Anyway, I'm rambling, lots of things to think about.

KARLYN PIPES- NEILSEN FASTER FREESTYLE

Beauty in the water, I need to get my butt to the pool more often and drill my ass off more.

Power test results are in.......

So this year so far the way I am being tested on the bike is a bit different, last season we did an all out 6min VO2 max set to give us our numbers, however, what coachie and I are finding out is that I can hit really high numbers for short periods of time ( great anaerobic engine) but have a harder time sustaining longer sustainable power numbers ( i.e, 70.3 or ironman watts) so this years testing is a bit different, we did:

A warm up that was about 40 minutes long ( single leg drills, builds and some spin ups) and after a recovery we did:

4 x 5 min of building from low end Vo2 max to hopefully all out by the end of the set ( remember that there is 4 sets to do)

1 1/2 minutes of recovery in between each set only

My average watts for the 4 x 5min ( with a calibrated power tap) was 232 watts. Not bad. What I am excited about is that finally my numbers a more accurate, we are going to work on really building on steady state watts to my threshold watts and holding these numbers for longer periods of time. Our goal is to average 190 watts to 200 watts in a 1/2 ironman effort. I believe this is definitely doable for me and a goal that "I" will achieve. Below are my watt ranges if anyone is interested. You guys will keep me honest.

regenerative- <115
Extensive-115-155
Intensive-155-190
Steady State-190-210 ( 35-65 mile effort-75-80% of Max HR)
Tempo-210-220 (20K fast end to 50K slow end TT effort. uncomfortable, 85-90% of max HR)
Threshold-220-225

Low end vo2 max-225
high end vo2 max-260

These are a bit different then the numbers I worked with last year but I believe that they are more honest numbers and by working within the right zones and heart rates and doing the proper workouts to reach my FTP potential I am going to kick some major ass this season.

August, a tough month.....

Lots of things going on in my mind today but most specifically a conversation I had tonight with someone. Every summer we go away on a fabulous vacation for the first two weeks of August, the kids, my hubby, its great, no complaints really, I'm very blessed in so many areas of my life that even considering being a bit confused about vacation should never reach my mind, but, unfortunately it does. Heres my problem:

The last two years I've trained for ironman Lake Placid in late July, so going away the first two weeks of August was a no brainer, I was in total complete recovery mode, having a gym to workout in, a beach to swim, a road to run on is all I ever needed. The only complaints the past two years was that I couldn't race a local race that everyone does and I've wanted to do for awhile, but really, no biggy.

This year is a bit different, I technically have two "A" races, a half ironman in June and a half ironman in September, ( with a possible long distance event in November if all goes well). Going away this August to places like Italy, Greece, Idaho, California are amazing, the opportunity to travel is just crazy and I"m so blessed, however, is it wrong for me to think that I may not beable to swim for two weeks or even bike depending on where we go? Is it wrong for me to just have a little twinge of sadness that my training will be a little off working up to a big race in September? It's not going to change that we are going, I'm still going to have an amazing time and enjoy myself completely, but I still have those thoughts in my head, I can't help it.

The bigger deal is when you discuss your feelings and emotions to someone and they say, " I really don't care" that you won't beable to bike or swim, its vacation, you can run. I don't care if there is a gym or anything else, you've done ironman for two years. It's hard when people just don't understand, its really hard. I do everything in my power to make sure what I love to do doesn't effect my family too much or my relationship with friends and my obligations, but of course it does a little, how can it not, I'm not stupid or nieve. However, the people who love you most should beable to understand what makes someone happy, what makes someone tick, what gives that person a purpose and a goal in life along with being a mother, wife and friend.

Triathlon, working out, being fit has become a part of my life, I'm not obessed about it but its become a part of my life, its part of who I am, yet it doesn't define completely who I am. It's hard when people don't understand that or try to accept that.

Well, anyway, enough bitching for now, life is always good and if this is the only thing I can bitch about than I truly am blessed.

Nor'Easter in Beverly, please have school tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures of my kids and my dog from today's festivities, lets just say, the dog had fun, the kids are exhausted and mommy is chilling her bottle of wine.

Suck it up and stop moping!!!!!

So, over the last week or so I have finally figured out how to calibrate my power tap and zero out the torque and to make sure my readings are as close to what they should be everytime I ride. What I found out last week was that I was probably riding about 15 watts higher than I actually was on all my rides/intervals. It was a bit of a downer for me, I'm not going to lie, but I'm also pretty honest about it because the numbers I was producing were pretty sick. I'm glad I found out now so that I can just continue to perform and hopefully continue to improve on my overall fitness.

This week ( probably Saturday) I will be testing to find my zones on the bike. The test properly warms me up for about 40 minutes and then I go into a 4 x 5min test with only 1 1/2 minutes in between for recovery. I am supposed to start the first two intervals at low to mid range of my Vo2 max and with the last 2 minutes to increase my wattage if able by 10-15 watts per minutes. Interval number 3, I am to start at the average wattage I put out from the first two for the first 3 mintues and then increase by 10-15 each minute after until 5minutes and then the last interval I am taking the average of interval 3 and trying to MAX my performance for the full 5 minutes if I am able.


Saturday and today I have been riding either with the computrainer or just my trainer with my power tap to see how my watts have been producing. It clearly shows that I am riding lower than I have been and I'm not going to lie I have been pretty bummed out about it. Today I rode for 42 minutes for a warm up and then my main set was:

4 x 8 minutes: 1 1/2 min at 60-65 cadence mid range to high range SS then 30 secs at mid range tempo cadence of 80-85.

recovery inbetween each interval was 2 minutes.

My numbers for each set:

Set 1- 205
Set 2-213
set 3- 218
set 4-218

My peak HR was only 161bpm by my final interval and < 160 bpm on all the rest. My coach noted that even with the 15 watt difference I am still operating well above where I was performing last summer. He noted that, the bottom line is that power meters, like any tech gadget can and will fail you. It could happen in a race or key training session. You should expect that it will happen. He continued to tell me, that if I let a few numbers rain on my parade now, how will I handle it when the pressure is really on?

Coachies advice- suck it up and stop moping!!! and thats an order.

Ok, enough moping, I'm done, know its time to still kick some ass and get these numbers to be better.

Should we be cynics?

So my kids had two weeks off from school for the holiday vacation and were due to go back this monday, well low and behold, mysteriously my son and my daughter developed some rare form of a Brazilian Snake sickness or weird Russian snow bug, who the hell knows but one stayed home and the other I got called at 10am. My son stayed home and he played basketball, ran around the house, read, ate like King Kong, what a weird form of the Brazilian Snake sickness he was experiencing, huh?

My daughter said she was experiencing and itchy throat, belly pain and felt like she might throw up and school. Like a good mom I proceeded to school to pick her up, some rare Russian Snow bug I'm sure you contracted from her brother this morning. Well, during the day she perked up like the little miss sunshine that she is, no issues, no problems. I did bring her in to the Doctors just to check out he throat because Strep has been running around and she was negative.


Weird huh, these strange illnesses and bugs going around. Now today, my second son was complaining of some stomach discomfort this morning, no fever, ate two bowls of cereal but he didn't want to go to school. I told him to go to the bathroom and he did, no problems, no diarrhea, no vomiting, he was going to school. Well, 9:48am I get a call from the school nurse saying he was complaining of stomach cramps and was very uncomfortable so off mommy needed to go to pick him up from school. He's home now and after a nice warm bath and a popsickle he's looking mighty chipper, I'm sure this rare bug will be from the middle east or something, something that lasts a mere 2 or 3 hours, we'll have to see, I'll keep you posted.

Here's my issue, are they sick, are they trying to trick me? Am I too cynical? If they were actively throwing up, having diarrhea, had a fever, were lethargic showing me any outwardly signs that they were sick I would have no problems, but they are too young to be faking illnesses to get out of school and all I can say is thank goodness I'm a stay at home mom because I don't know how they do it, who leaves work to pick up the kids when they are sick, I mean this is 3 days after a major vacation, this is crazy. My whole schedule is turned upside down and I wouldn't mind it if I knew they were really sick, I'm just not buying it. We'll see.

power Bike #4- I like it like this, now lets bring this to the road

Ok, 6am today was power cycle class #4, still working on threshold wattage with some spikes of low end V02 max efforts. We are still keeping everything in check and not working anaerobically, all aerobically. I'm feeling really good on the bike and the watts are coming, I think I will need to test soon since I am completely out of last years wattages and need to really target in on my proper zones. Todays class was a good warm up about 30 minutes long with some single leg drills, building up to tempo wattages and 2 good high cadence spin ups, then the main set was:

6min low end tempo with varying 15-20 sec vo2 max spikes thrown in

1 1/2 min recover

5 min low end tempo with varying spikes of vo2 max wattages

1 1/2 min recover

4 min interval ( same as above)

1 min recover

3 min interval ( same as above)

1 min recover

2 min interval ( same as above)

Finish and recover

Average watts:

6min inter-250 watts
5min-260 watts
4min-260 watts
3min-270 watts
2min-285 watts

My HR was staying low, peak HR was only 161 on the 2 min. Most of my base line efforts were around 245-260 watts and nearly all of my spikes were executed @ 280-300 watts.

Now lets see how we test and really see where my true watts lie, I would love to see my true 1hr power in the mid 200's. Can I do it and run off the bike?