Sunday, June 29, 2008

Weekend Update - New FIT FLOPS

I hope everyone had a great weekend. My weekend was well, the usual for me with busy with oops I should have known better. Long bike ride on Saturday and then a Sprint Tri at Baldwin Park on Sunday morning.

Most everyone knows I was sick last week after returning from Key West so my training last week was a bit compromised. I had a scheduled rest day for Friday before a busy weekend so I decided I would not try and make up and workouts I would take the day off to be well prepared. However being the "SMART" girl that I am, I decided to wear my new FIT FLOPS.

Not sure if you guys have heard of those. However these are new flip flops on the market that are supposed to give you an awesome butt and leg workout while you wear them. So ignoring the disclaimer to work your way up to a full day in these shoes, I decided to put them on at 7:30am and not bring another pair of shoes with me to change in to, I took them off at midnight. At the time, I felt tired but thought it was just late and so I packed my gear for the Saturday morning ride and set my alarm for 5:30 am. Off to sleepy night night I went.

Well you guys know me, I could have punched myself in the forehead when I got on my bike on Saturday morning. OMG! Tired quads, Tired glutes....WOW! I was suprised. So needless to say, I had to really suck it up and push myself on the bike. However I finished 30 miles in 2:05. So tired or not I was proud of my time!

Note to self: DO NOT WEAR FIT FLOPS ON REST DAYS!

Having said that, I do think you get a workout in them and I will continue to wear mine. Probably not for 17 hours straight and probably not the day before a long run or bike! Everyone should get a pair and YES they make them for men!

After the ride, I went to Baldwin Park to pick up my packet for the race on Sunday and then to Orange Cycle to pay on my lay-a-way. More on this in the next blog.

Sunday morning, off to Baldwin Park for a sprint tri. I had registered for this before Coach Bill started helping me with my schedule so he and I agreed I could still do the event. Even if the distance was short for my current training.

I was a bit tired this morning so I think I was more nervous. However I got to the race and Sandi was there to cheer Missey and myself on. We spoke to her coach, Hector who gave us some great tips and off to the swim start we went.

I had a great swim! It was supposed to be 750 yards. However since I cannot swim in a straight line to save my life, I think I ended up swimming about 1000 yards based on my current swim times and what time I came out of the water.

Swim: 23:51
Transition 1: 1:38 - MUCH BETTER THAN IRONMAN

I got on my bike and started riding. My legs were definitely tired but I was willing to suck it up. This was a 5 loop bike course with some very sharp corners. I have to admit I was a bit scared but I have to get over my fear of corners. So off we went. It was very crowded and the faster people where whizzing by me. Wow they are awesome. Lap 1 was good. Lap 2 was good. Lap three all of a sudden I here pssssssssssst! Flat tire about half way around lap3. Crap. That sucks! I had to quick get my bike out of the road so I would not cause a crash. I had spare tubes and tire tools with me but it takes me so long to change the tire that the race would have been over before I could have changed the tire. So I decided to walk it in. As I walked the half a mile or so to the transition area in my bike shoes, I passed a biker walking holding his pedal in his had, another couple of bikers with flat tires and one guy with a flat tire and bent rim. Obviously I was not the only one!

I called Coach Bill and left him a message. He sent me an email that said Yup! It happens to all of us. Chalk it up to a great swim and good bike until I had the flat and move on.

Workouts this week:
Monday: 100 minutes on the trainer at a consistent pace.
Tuesday: Swim long 3000 meters, middle 1000 using pool bouy.
Wednesday: Track workout followed by core workout
Thursday: REST (NO FIT FLOPS)
Friday: Bike 60 miles keeping heartrate around the 135 level. Add some hills if possible.
Saturday: Run 12 miles
Sunday: 60-75 minute recovery ride spinning legs in the small chain ring in the front the entire time.

Happy Training!

XOXOX,
Elizabeth

WAY TO GO K!

I just wanted to give a shoutout to one of my best friends Kelly. She completed her first sprint triathlon last weekend with almost no training. Yes she is pulling a "Beth." She did absolutely amazing! She finished in 1:47:06 which is an AWESOME time!

I have to say that Kelly is so funny. We talk all the time and I knew she was registered but had not had much time to train. Can you say:
1. Just got back from six weeks in California because her brother had emergency brain surgery.
2. Her job is in Charlotte, NC. Her husband is in Chicago, Il. Her school is in Minnesota!
3. She has had a calf injury and has been trying to recover from that.

Let me just say that I have to give Kelly props for even thinking about completing the event. You know my I just go for it. Yes I am a nut. But Kelly is smarter than me and actually tries to train well for her events. So after a couple of conversations with me, we decided she should try to do the tri, LOL, as a training and if she needed to stop after any of the events, she would and not feel guilty about it.

Well so much for that needing to stop. She had a great race. Have I mentioned that before?
Swim: 15:10
Transition 1: 6:22
Bike: 51:03
Transition 2: 3:16
Run: 31:18

Awesome Job K!

XOXOX,
Elizabeth

ps. When are you going to sign up for an Ironman?

Monday, June 23, 2008

Congrats to the Ironman Coeur d'Alene Finishers!

Congrats to my friends Hector Torres and Colleen Wilson for their amazing finishes at the Ironman Coeur d"Alene yesterday 6/22/08. You guys ROCK!

Congrats to all of this years finishers!

Can you say I am terrified again of what I have gotten myself into!

XOXOX,
Elizabeth

I am a posting SLACKER and Congrats to Rick!

Well I have to apologize yet again for not posting in a while. I seem to do a good job for a couple of days and then off into the twilight zone I go. This time I think I have a bit of an excuse. LOL

On Wednesday night, after track practice, I headed home to pack. I had to fly to Key West after work on Thursday as Rick was going to compete in the 12.5 mile Swim Around Key West on Friday morning and I had been asked to be part of his support crew in the kayak after one of the crew had to back out.

After a few delays, a pretty harrowing flight out of Orlando to Miami, a $26 Mojito in the Miami airport, Joy and I arrived in Key West. Missey picked us up at the airport and we went to the hotel to prepare for the swim on Friday. Rick was nervous but I think he held it together pretty well. We had to be at the beach by 7:15 am the next morning for final instructions and then the race started at 8:30.

After tossing and turning all night, we awoke to a gorgeous day. We loaded up the car and headed to the beach. They kayak arrived about 7:45 so we packed everything we would need to keep Rick hydrated and fed as well as food and water for ourselves. We then covered Rick head to toe in zinc oxide to prevent him from burning during the long swim and boarded the kayak. The first wave of swimmers were off at 8:30.

Paddling the kayak was not as hard as I thought. It was definitely not easy but not the worst thing in the world. Rick is a great swimmer, so Missey and I had our hands full keeping up with him. We made it to mile 8, Rick was in first place. However we got there so fast that the race organizers had not placed the buoy. This sucked for us as we could not see the next channel and ended up about a half mile off course. As we were trying to get our bearings, we noticed a jet ski pulling the buoy out to the 8 mile mark. We repositioned ourselves and made it back to the course. However Rick was passed by the first relay team swimmer. This sucked as he wanted to be the first done but he was still the first single swimmer.

We kept going. I was in charge of monitoring the timing between Rick's nutrition breaks. Missey was in charge of directions and keeping Rick from burning. Rick was passed by one more person, the first female single swimmer at about Mile 10.5. This was not her first rodeo so she had not gotten off track like we had and I am sure probably felt better at that point than Rick.

For those of you that have run Virginia Beach, the finish to the swim was very much like the RNR 1/2 at Va Beach. There are 10 telephone poles in a line in the water with a yellow buoy at the end. Very similar to the run where you have to make your way down the boardwalk block by block to the finish line. Sometimes it felt like we were never going to get there.

After 5 hours 41 minutes, Rick finished his swim! He was the first male single swimmer to finish but because he wears a snorkel for medical reasons, he was not allowed to win a trophy. He did however get a finisher's medal which by the way is totally awesome. I have to say I was glad to be on dry land. I was covered in sunscreen, salt water and starving when we finished.

Joy was at the finish in the water cheering Rick in and had thankfully brought the car to pick us up! After some awesome watermelon we all went to the hotel to shower and celebrate Rick's awesome finish!

I have to say that although it was fun albeit hard to paddle the kayak, I don't think I ever would like to be support crew for this event again. BUT..... I think maybe one year I would like to swim it. Yes I know I am crazy!

Congratulations again Rick! You were awesome. Thanks Missey for making the kayak trip bearable. Thanks Joy for being there just when we needed you both at the hotel and the finish line. And finally thank you Debbie for coming down and making us laugh when we all were so exhausted!

I cannot wait until our next adventure!

XOXOX,
Elizabeth

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Food

Well I have to admit I don't know everything. :-) Can you believe that? Saturday morning was my weekly long ride. This week I was scheduled to ride 40 miles. I got up early, I had packed all of my stuff the night before and headed over to West Orange Trail to meet up with the "crew" for the bike ride.

Normally I eat instant oatmeal and a banana before I ride or run. That is about 300 calories. This morning I decided to eat one of those new Power Bar Smoothie Bars - the Citrus flavor. Well you guys know me and my taste buds. I made it through half of the bar and I was DONE with a capital D. Not a good start to my nutrition day.

I have found that I can drink the new G2 without getting an upset stomach. However there are not enough calories in the G2. I am terrified about the nutrition part of the Ironman. Everyone says this is the 4th discipline in tri's. I know I don't eat enough when I am biking which causes issues when I start to run.

To make a long story short. This was the first time I had worn my heart rate monitor. At the end of the ride, the display showed I had burned 2600 calories. I had only taken in 450. Obviously no where near enough.

I am taking to Coach Bill about this and reading everything I can get my hands on. Hopefully I will be able to find a solution.

XOXOX,
Elizabeth

Friday, June 13, 2008

Changing a Tire

Ok so I have to admit another first......

On Sunday while out on our ride Missey had a flat. This was at about mile 17 of our ride. Can you say oh crap.? Nothing like the blind leading the blind. Well to make matters worse it was her rear tire which of course has the cassette attached. She had been talking for a few miles about the fact it had been five years since her last flat. God was smiling down on us that day and obviously in a bit of a feisty mood so next thing we hear is WSSSSSHHHHHH! Nothing like Karma right Missey?

So here we stop. It is 90 degrees outside. We of course have on a lot of black. And where we stopped was at a road crossing with no shade. We got off the bikes, took out the tire tools and the spare tube and CO2 cartridge. Started working on the flat. Got the tire off. Now covered in grease we tried to use the tire tools that Missey had with her. They were too small. So I pulled out my really super CUTE pink ones which match my bike and tried again. HA HA to those of you who laughed at my pink tire tools. They do work!

After about 15mins we were able to separate the tire from the rim and pull out the tube. A mere 10 minutes later we had the new tube in place and tried to inflate it with the CO2. Yeah well that did not work. We about froze off Missey's ring finger. LOL! There went one cartridge. Thankfully I had a couple more. We hooked up the second one and inflated the tire. Now we could see the hole where the glass had punctured the rubber. YUCK.

We spent the next 10 minutes putting the tire back on. After 30 minutes in the sun we were ready to go. So we packed everything back up, got on our bikes and started to pedal. As we got moving we suddenly realized that we were in the shade. WOW!! how amazing is that? If we had just walked our bikes across the road 30 minutes before, we could have changed the tire in the shade. Lord help! Like I said, nothing like the blind leading the blind.

So yes I guess when I have to be, I can be a bit of a grease monkey. But please don't tell all of the nice people that pump my gas for me. ;-) And yes I know I still rode off my bike trainer on Monday night. I plead the 5th!

Happy Training!

XOXOX,
Elizabeth

Week of Firsts

Well it has been one of those weeks. There have been many firsts this week for me. Enjoy!

On Monday, I was doing my bike workout which consisted of hard intervals with matching slower recovery intervals. On my 3 minute hard interval, my bike shot off of the trainer and I crashed into my entertainment center. I did not get hurt and more importantly I did not hurt my bike. I was laughing so hard I really could not cry. So I guess it is a good thing I did not hurt myself as I would have never known. Arabella, my dog, must have thought it was pretty funny as well, as she started barking and running around in circles. Needless to say, this ended my workout for the night. I was not about to try getting back into the trainer. Not because I was scared of the trainer but because I did not want to crash into the entertainment center again. Obviously I had not connected the bike to the trainer correctly. I am not mechanically inclined, I don't even pump gas!

On Wednesday, I went to my first Team Hendryx Miamiman practice. This was supposed to be a speed workout at the Maitland Middle School track. I arrived on time, barely, we all warmed up and started our speed intervals on the track. On our third interval, sound familiar, lightning started coming right on top of us. Coach Sean blew his whistle and had us go under the shelter at the side of the school. At this point since our running was cut short, Coach Bill and Coach Sean decided we should do some lunges, and then some more lunges and some more lunges. WOW my ABS are weak! Gotta work on that. But practice was fun! Even if it was a bit short. While we were waiting for the storm to let up so we could go to our cars, I told Coach Bill and some other teammates about the crash. Everyone laughed, Coach Bill said maybe I should not tell that story often.

On Thursday morning, I went to Lucky's Lake for my first open water swim there. I had wanted to come out before but Lucky only opens his house at 6:30 am during the week and I had the kids. So today was my "lucky" day. I got up at 5:00 am. No I do not like mornings, got dressed, loaded up the car and headed to Lucky's Lake. When I arrived there were about 6 other people there including my friends Joy, Missey and Rick. Rick was planning on doing 10 crossings which would equal just over 6 miles. He is preparing for the swim around Key West. Missey paddled a kayak beside him to prepare as she is going to be his crew in the water when he does the swim next week.

At any rate, I walked out into the water and started my swim across the lake. The swim over and back is a total of 1000meters if you swim in a straight line. Well you guys know me, straight lines have never really been my forte no matter what the sport. I run crooked, bike all over the road and apparently I swim around in circles. I tell you guys, either I am extremely strong on my right side (NOT) or I cannot sight worth a crap (possibly) or swim like I am drunk (probably). Actually I could see fine, I just cannot swim where I was looking. Every time I looked up to sight I was going in some other direction that was not headed towards the correct dock on either side. At one point I actually crashed into Rick. Of course we are blaming him cause he never sights at all since he wears a snorkel. Love ya Rick!

When I talked to Coach Bill last night, I told him that I had to have swum an extra 500 meters, I saw everyone else's dock and pretty much the entire center of the lake. Good think the Lake Cane Monster was not hungry cause I was surely swimming alone. :-) Once I finished my swim, I was able to sign the Wall of Fame and get my patch for my first crossing. It is a great patch. It has an alligator head on it with bloody teeth and says "AQUATICA Enter The Food Chain 1K Swim." Nothing like positive motivation I say.

Well I guess that is it for today! I will blog again soon!

XOXOX,
Elizabeth

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Crazy Font Issues

My apologies. I have no idea what happened in my post below. But the font changes all over the place. I set the entire entry to one font. But obviously I have some hidden control characters in there causing a ruckkus!

I think it is time to head out for a run. What do you guys think?

XOXOX,
Elizabeth

P.S. use the potty before you head out......

Back At It

Well last night I put the girls on a plane to go see their dad and his family for a few weeks. I have to say in the days leading up to their departure I was not sure I could survive another day as a single mom. But I made it! Thanks for all of the support! They boarded the plane alive and in one piece. Kelsie was super excited. Hannah said she was excited but seemed very subdued. I know there is a part of her that wants to stay here but she would never tell Kelsie that.

Time for me to hit the training schedule hard. For those of you that have been around me for the two and half weeks since the Ironman 70.3, you know that between the girls' schedule and my exhaustion from the race, my training has been a little lacking. I took the first week off after the race except for a 30 minute spin on my bike. The second week I ran twice and road my bike once for a grand total of 18 miles between the three workouts. Can you say SLACKER? I met with Coach Bill and Team Hendryx on Saturday. That was fun but I have to tell you there were times during the meeting that I wondered if I should just do the Miamiman 1/2 Iron distance race. HA HA

Coach Bill sent out my workout for this week on Sunday afternoon. Here it is:

**add your lunch run of 3-5 miles to any day you want
Monday 6/2 – bike – indoor trainer – 10 minutes warm up (60-70% effort), 2 minute hard, 2 easy, 4 min hard, 2 easy, 6 min hard, 3 easy, 6 hard, 6 easy, 4 hard, 2 easy, 2 hard, 2 easy, 10 min cool down – should be about 70 minutes

Tues – swim – 200 warm up, 5x300 with 1 minute rest after each 300, 200 cool down (1900 total) try to work on form and technique

Weds – bike – indoor trainer – 10 minute warm up, one leg pedaling – alternate legs every minute until you have done 5 reps – 30 minutes steady pedaling, repeat one legged again – 10 minute cool down – should be about 70 minutes

Thurs – swim – 100 warm up, 50 kick, 100 pull, 50 kick, 100 pull, 50 kick, 100 pull – rest 2 minutes – 800 straight swim – try to keep every 800 at the same pace, 100 cool down (1450 total)

Friday – rest day

Saturday – group run – 7:30a at Fleet Feet – 6 miles – steady

Sunday – 35 miles steady

So I should warn you guys he did preface the email letting me know that since this was going to be a crazy week for me with the girls, if I missed a workout or two not to stress. Well today is Thursday, Bill don't kill me but all I have done this week so far are the two bike workouts....And I think I am going to do and Ironman on Nov. 1st.

Tonight I am going to get in the pool for the first time since the open water swim at the 70.3. I actually am excited but at the same time I am nervous. I know I have not lost all of my ability to swim but I do feel a bit out of it. I will let you guys know how it goes.

Oh and one more thing! I want to thank everyone that has been emailing and posting comments on my blog about my 70.3 finish. I appreciate all of the support. However,

I AM NOT GOING TO PEE ON MY BIKE!

If I was in contention for an age group spot or a podium spot (ROFLMAO). I would definitely consider it. But since I am a MOP'er usually and at the 70.3 at least on the run leg, I was a BOP'er, I will stop and use the porta-potty.

To any of my fellow running/triathlon friends, if you are peeing on yourself during any portion of your events, PLEASE PLEASE don't tell me I don't want to know.

Happy Training!
Elizabeth

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

My Athletic Daughters




Here are Kelsie and Hannah finishing their events the Kids' Splash and Dash at the Florida Ironman 70.3. My super kids! I am so proud of them!