Newburyport 1/2 marathon

Untitled by donnafurse at Garmin Connect - Details

( click the above link to view my Garmin file)


Today was a good day, it was great to hear coach say, " Race Executed perfectly" pace and heart rate, still waiting on my grade but I think I may have gotten at least a B+ or A-, I'll keep you posted.

The Green Stride 1/2 marathon today had a beautiful course, some good hills with some good downhills, the weather was perfect, nice and cold with a slight wind and some sun, great day. If there was anything negative about the course it was that they only had water for 10+ miles and the water stops were about every 2 1/2 miles. I train with sports drink only and I make sure to drink pretty consistently, on a hot day this would not of been good for me, I was very lucky. Pre-race was uneventful, nutrition during race was spot on, I kept my pace were I felt most comfortable, I definitely felt a little struggle at mile 11 ( where on my garmin you'll see my slowest mile, 8:21, but there was a very long hill at that point as well), my HR was consistent in the low 160's but I was happy I could engage my heart at the end and get the last two miles up to 173. My last solo 1/2 marathon was in 2009 were I averaged 8:19 per mile and I felt like death over the last 3 miles, my pacing was completely off and my times were not consistent. ( Hyannis 1/2 2009), that course if very flat but it can be windy and cold. My final time was 1:48:59.

Today I did 1:46:03, Avg: 8:03 ( by my garmin, 8:06 on their timer), so 3 minute PR and if you look at my garmin file very consistent miles, I didn't cave at the end, I stayed strong and actually had some good miles for 12 and 13. I know I worked as hard as I could, I couldn't of done more than I did today so in the end I am happy.

PW was happy too, he noted to me that I executed a very good race. I'll take that from coach. Now on to making more improvements and moving on to a very successful 2012.

Whats in your purse today?

Ok, in my purse I have:

1. my 2011 calendar book that contains all my mail, important papers, kids immunization shit, stickies, you name I have it in my book.

2. car keys

3. tape ( don't ask)

4. mouth wash ( free sample at last hotel I stayed at, just didn't take it out)

5.my sons football glove and mouth guard ( it now has sand in it, again don't ask)

6.stretchy band for resistance training

7. powerbar gel chocholate and caffe late

8. motrin bottle

9. Synthroid medication

10. 4 pens

11. Hammer nutrition small bottle with 2 salt tabs in it from IM syracuse ( seriously)

12.chicken bone from my sons dinner tonight ( so gross, he threw it in my purse, really)

13.daughters broken glasses

14. wallet with change and credit cards

15. hair bands

16. garmin watch and heart rate strap

17. receipt from Shaws supermarket

18. The Son of Neptune ( my son's book that I'm currently reading)

ok, really, I knew my purse was heavy but there was no reason for me to have all this shit in my purse.

What do you have in your purse?

Happy 43rd Birthday to me and other random thoughts

So another year has passed, it seems like they just fly by now. I can't believe this will be my last year in the 40-44AG, so weird. I wish this gave me some hope that it would get easier as I got older but the women keep getting faster, no kidding. That being said, I will enjoy this year one day at a time.

Anyhoo, birthday was good, had a great run and tempo bike, my paces are going well, its hard to be at the end of your season and feel like your peaking. Im in my last build that was supposed to be for IM Arizona just to give me some miles on the bike and run, I don't feel burned out since I really didn't start my season till late August but after next weeks 1/2 marathon it will be break time, recover and re-test.

I'm excited/nervous about next weeks 1/2 marathon, I haven't done a straight out road race since the Black Cat 10 miler last February. I'm not expecting miracles but I am hoping to put in a good performance. Baby steps, right?

I am also in the process of trying to figure out my race season for next year with the end race being IM Mont tremblant in Canada. I may try to race a bit early this year ( i.e., April) and then another 1/2 in June, throw in a sprint and an Olympic on the alternating months then follow it up with the IM in August should all work. I'm also going to try to convince my hubby to let me go to QT2's camp again this year which has been changed to February, we'll see.

Anyhoo, the big part of my birthday yesterday was my 8yr old was secretly practicing Happy Birthday on his Violin all week and he played it for me last night, what a great present for me. I may not of gotten a cupcake or cake or had a traditional birthday celebration but that was pretty awesome and he was sooooooooooo proud of himself for keeping it such a secret.

Well back to finishing up the dishes and laundry and getting the kids at school. We are going to a corn maze this afternoon, lets hope we don't have to call the police to help find us if we get lost like that poor person in Danvers. Me and 5 kids, good gracious, wish me luck.

Kona showdown for the F 40-44 AG

So, I first want to say how proud I am to be part of this amazing age group and that what it shows you is that with hard work you can continue to go fast and even go faster by training smart and listening to your body. And having the right coaches around you. I know some of these women but not all but from the Northeast region of the US we have some incredible talent going to Kona this year, Becky Paige, Angela Bancroft, Mary Holt Wilson and Marybeth Romagnolia ( ? spelling). That's who I know right now, I may be missing someone but these are the names I know.

Becky I met at Providence 70.3 she not only won our AG but I believe she placed top 10 OA including Pro's. She went on to do a 9:57 I believe at Ironman Germany, won her AG and qualified for KONA. I'm thinking she's gonna be competitive, don't you think?

Angela Bancroft from Maine, had an amazing race in Lake Placid and won her AG by over 30 minutes. Heading out to the run in LP she was first overall amateur on the course but I believe she passed around mile 16 or so, not sure, that being said, she had a race of her life, absolutely incredible day and earned her KONA slot there. I believe she was also in the top 10 for women including Pro's, crazy, crazy fast. Absolutely a force to be reckoned with.

Mary Holt-Wilson- local hero of mine, tremendous talent, only getting faster, had an amazing Boston Marathon this year, Top 3 at Mooseman 70.3, had a PR at Pumpkinman half this year and if she wasn't ill starting IMLP she probably would of had her sub 11 on that day but the GI bug and puking on yourself during the swim doesn't make for a pleasant day in LP. That being said she has the mental fortitude of nobody I know and based on her race report from IMLP it sounds like she doesn't remember much of the last part of the race and spent a ton of time in medical. She still finished in the low 11's and got her KONA slot, VERY MUCH DESERVED and i believe she is going to have an amazing day in KONA and I can't wait to follow her.

Marybeth Romanolia, QT2 athlete is going to KONA after qualifying I believe at IMLP, she also had a great time and is getting faster everyday. I believe she is from the NY region.

These 4 ladies are going to represent the NorthEast in amazing fashion and I predict all of them are going to be in the top 25 if not top 10 of our AG.

I am so very proud to be in this age group. Kick some major ass next week ladies, make us all proud, bring home some hardware.

syracuse 70.3 race report and random other stuff

My race report will be quick regarding Syracuse 70.3, as I've mentioned in previous race reports and over the last 3 months I am a work in progress. Over the past 8 months, I've worked countless hours with my non-profit, bought and sold a house and lived in my mother in laws house, had to deal with moving mostly on my own while our new home wasn't quite ready, etc....

Training has changed as I switched coaches, so all of that being said this season has been slim pickings, ( 3 tri's in total since IMLP 2010) huge learning curve and whatever I could do with training at whatever god forsaken time I could get it in. Life is starting to slow down a bit, the kids are getting settled into school so as my final race is coming near ( newburyport 1/2 marathon) in late October I am starting to focus on next year.

A brief note, I am not participating in IM Arizona this November as previously hoped, with all my responsibilities over the last 8 months and with the new house being a bit overwhelming, my husband and I decided that he would prefer for me to focus on IM Mont Tremblant next August and just forgo this ironman as he would like to stabilize our homelife a bit since its been so crazy lately. I had a lot of trepidation with this decision initially but at the end of the day Family has to come first and if he feels this would stress him out and wouldn't be good for the family it was the right call to just back off and refocus on next season and looking at how I can improve on my fitness/body composition by race time next year. Oh well, it will have to be IM Arizona for 2013 I guess.

Anyhoo, PW and I have decided that we should end the season with a 1/2 marathon and then we would re-test and figure out some training numbers going into the winter. I'm looking forward to this and hopefully we can figure out a good race schedule that I can actually compete in next year to be successful at IMMT.

So in short, Syracuse 70.3 was a really fun race for me, for one, I got to race with my dear friend Maris who ( God Love her) drove all the way up and back to Syracuse, Thank You, Thank You, Thank YOu. It started out with us getting stuck in traffic on Friday and ending up in a not such good part of Albany, lets' just say, we decided to find a hotel and sleep the night instead of trudging ahead to Syracuse that night.

We ended up getting to the Holiday Inn in Syracuse by noon and checking in. Talk about a low key affair, my kind of race, not a ton of people and minimal vendors, it was great. We then checked into our room and drove the bike/run course. Well, lets just say we were in for a dandy of a day, both the bike and run were very challenging and with lots of hills, that being said the course looked absolutely beautiful and even though the forecast was for chilly weather it looked also to be sunny so pretty much ideal conditions.

We finally found a decent place to eat a late lunch and then we headed to the mall to try to find some disposal clothes we could wear to the swim start since the temps were going to be in the high 30's. It was so weird being at the Carousel Mall, I haven't been there since I went to school in Syracuse in the 90's, just crazy. Anyhoo, we got back to the hotel and we were in bed by 9:30p.

Having Maris to chat too and have fun with was amazing, never did I feel nervous or concerned, she made the time fly and I had such a good time I really didn't think of the race that much.

Race morning was uneventful, I let Maris sleep in, it was great that the race start was fairly close so we knew it was going to be cold so we held off going to the venue till we really needed to. Temp was 38 at the time.

Got to T1, got everything settled, got dressed, realized it was so cold my feet were so numb walking on the ground it was painful, we ended up standing in the water because it was warmer than standing on the sand. Funny how 62 degree water can feel warm when its 38 degrees out. My swim wave was going off before Maris was, I gave her a big hug and was off.

Swim-water was warm for me, had no feet to swim with, fog was going away but my sighting wasn't great, lots of people to swim through which was a bugger, I either really sucked at my sighting, my swim isn't back where it should be, too many people to swim through or the course was about 200yds too long, whichever, my swim was slow 33:15, 1st AG, that being said it just sucked seeing that time.

Long run to T1- I couldn't feel my feet, I couldn't get dressed I was so cold. 5min + in T1 crazy slow

Bike- well what can I say, I was supposed to Average 170 watts, I averaged 159 or 160 normalized, 17.8mph, stupidly slow, again, not being able to go over 220 watts and keeping my HR in complete check no higher than 136 is certainly a work in progress for me. The course was very challenging to say the least but oh well. I'll get back to my 20mph days next spring, I just need to work on my shifting and get more time back in the saddle. The key is to be able to run off the bike to your best ability so for right now, this is where I'm at.

T2- 2+ minutes, again too long, my left foot was still numb, it took a while to get it going. My HR monitor wasn't working so it just was giving me my paces.

Run- interesting, hard, decent hills and some good downhills. I definitely went out too fast, I was supposed to keep HR in check but because of the temps and most likely keeping my HR a bit lower because of it we were really looking at pacing, well, I felt so good coming out of T2 I ran my first loop with an 8:35 average, it definitely came back to bit me in the ass the second loop but really only on the two significant climbs, otherwise my flats and downhills were still in the 8:20-8:40 range. I ended up seeing and playing tag with #5 and 6 girl so it was a bummer that I couldn't catch them on the run, oh well. 8:53 average on a tough run course, I'll take it.

5:47 overall time, better than Providence, not my PR, that being said my PR was on a very flat course with a very short swim.

My fitness will only get better, my zones will only get faster, I'm believing in my self and liking to run. I miss being the killer on the bike I was for the last two seasons but that will come back and my run will only get better. I will need to do some more open water swimming next season as my sighting was terrible in both races and I believe it was because I didn't do any this season, just no time.

Life is good, my hubby and I just went away on a quick weekend trip to Bermuda which we haven't done in almost 7yrs ( just the two of us, no kids), it was amazing and we just had an amazing time. I was able to run there which was great but most of all we got to spend quality time together.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to the up and coming races for my friends, Maris is doing IM Florida in November and a few of my friends are doing Kona in October. I am so psyched for PW doing Kona he is a true talen and I look forward to see how coachie will do.

Off for now. I promise to blog more often with whats going on with my training and all my other crazy try mom stuff.

Where were you 10 years ago on 9/11/2001?

10 years ago, Phil and I flew out of Logan Airport in Boston at 8am on Monday, September 10th on United Airlines on route to San Francisco, Phil had a conference to go to and one of his home town high school friends was getting married the following weekend so it all made sense. flying on Monday was no problem, San Francisco was beautiful that day, we had an amazing dinner that night on the ocean, life seemed so simple. I was also 6 months pregnant with our first child at the time.

Speed forward, 6am, Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Phil kissed me goodbye to go to a breakfast meeting, I slept in and then casually woke up a bit later and put the T.V on, I can't recall the exact time but watching everything happen live on T. V. as it was happening and seeing all the News casters live was crazy. I ran downstairs to check in with phil to see what was happening downstairs, it was mayhem, this was a financial conference, a lot of people were flying in from NY and Boston this morning to attend the conference, ( who could of been of some of the planes that crashed), a lot of people worked in NY that were already at the conference and worrying about their coworkers and friends/families back at home, it was the most unbelievable, surreal experience. All people wanted to do was go home, they rented cars, got on buses, anything, there were no flights leaving SF anytime soon.

With the cell phone lines down and being unable to contact family some of our families thought we flew on Tuesday morning to San Francisco instead of Monday, which unbeknownst to us was the exact United Flight that took off from Boston on Tuesday and crashed, again, a very surreal experience. We eventually got in touch with our families and friends later in the day to make sure they knew we were ok, it took several days to find out that our friends and family in NY were ok, but as you know the fallout from 9/11 went a lot deeper to everyone.

Our friend did get married that weekend but unfortunately a lot of people didn't make it that day, non the less we all tried to make it a special day for them.

I hope everyone takes time out on Sunday to remember all the people who lost their lives that day and to also give praise and thanks to all the people/fireman, policeman, doctors, nurses, lay people, anyone who helped on that day and the days and months and years after the fallout. I was proud to be an American on that day and ever since even more, we bonded as a nation that day even with the awful circumstances.

My thoughts and Prayers go out to all the families out their that lost their loved ones on that day. God Bless.

Salmon River Rafting Trip

Again I have been gone for awhile here on blog land. This time my family and I went on a river kyaking and rafting trip down the lower fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, the trip was absolutely amazing from Start to finish. With a ton of research we decided to go through a company called, ROW based out of Couer d'Alene, Idaho which caters to families all across the world. They actually have what they call a river Jester that comes on the trip to help with entertaining the kids. We kyaked or rafted pretty much most of the day, swam in rapids and in the cold river a ton of the time and they cooked 3 square meals for us on the beaches that lined the Salmon River. We camped under the stars every night and the kids slept longer than they ever did in the past, at least 10hrs a night. I guess the fresh air and the continuous sun and exercise was really good for them.

Unfortunately, I had to come back early with my little 5 yr old because we are moving really soon and tons of things needed to get done to both houses over the next week before we close on our current house and move out officially so another week in Idaho was not in the cards for me. Life has been very different for me this year, little racing, some decent training and lots of other things going on. That being said, I can't wait to move to our new home and finally get settled.

More pictures of our family and the kids rafting when I get my camera.