Expect the Unexpected

Many of you blog-followers know that every year for the past 4 years, I've done a local race called the Rattlesnake Tri. This race is in my backyard--as in I can walk to the race. It's one of the best races and most organized in the state. I love it. It consists of an Oly tri on Sat and a Sprint on Sunday. The bling is really cool, but if you do the Crazy back to back (both races), you leave feeling like you were just on Christmas week on Oprah. (I have the rattlesnake belt buckle to prove it).



Why do I bring this up?



Because my favorite RD's have announced TWO longer races. One would be a 100 mile tri (roughly 3/4 the distance of Ironman) and the 2nd would be 150mile tri (just over IM).



For endurance junkies, this is off the charts "cool" because we now have more options. Since 5430 was taken over by Ironman (Check it out), the local community has been split about losing a favored 70.3 to IM and watching registration fees jump from $100 to +$200. Harvest Moon is still around (and another local fave); it's also a 70.3.

However, if you're one of those psycho basterds where 70.3 just isn't long enough, you were out of luck....unless you want to spend your vacation racing instead of relaxing.



TA-DA! Now we have one....er two. Who doesn't love a local race put on by really great people? Best of all, no more spending the money travelling to a 140.6 (branded or not).



Afterall, I would much rather spend my vacation on vacation.

(If you're interested in visiting the website, it's www.150tri.com. It's not up and running yet, but they expect to have it up in Jan 2010.)

Maintenance, Distance, Speed

Doing tri's is bulk work--not in volume (unless you're training for IM or a half)--but in how I have always thought about training.

Training for a tri is swimbikerun.

It's not swim.

bike.

run.

Mentally, I've always grouped the 3 things together. That makes sense, right? Afterall, the key aspect of triathlon is the TRI piece.

My problem has been that I have allowed it to dictate my training. When I was training for Ironman, everything was about going long. When I train for a sprint, everything is about speed.

In 2010, I am taking a completely different approach.

Swimming (my greatest strength), my goal is maintenance. I am not going to try to get faster. Hopefully, I won't get slower. I just want to stay where I am.

For my new love (cycling), I want to build my endurance. I have one century planned this coming year. I'm also considering doing Elephant Rock again. After my great 70.3 bike performance in 2009, I really want to continue to improve in longer distances and in more hilly/mountain areas.

Because the last couple of years have been about going long, in 2010 my running will be short and hard this year. My goal is to improve my running speed. I have many races planned from 5k up to the half marathon in which I'm really going to push my comfort levels. Last year, I pr'd in the 5k. But I haven't PR'd in the half marathon since 2003. I don't think a PR is possible in 2010 (given my most recent half times), but I will get faster this year.

oops....this post will have to be continued later....

The Return

At the end of every season, I like to take off a couple of months. It's downtime from "training" and more like exercising for the sheer fun.

This year, in particular, doing any type of exercise was difficult. After one of those "out of the mouths of babes" type of moments I realized what happened.

My son informed me that I'm a "giver". He says, "you give and give and give. You never take. Today you need to take. We want you to."

Well, looking back over the past 2 months, I realized that I gave too much. After giving too much, all that was left was this empty shell. Finding time to exercise felt impossible; finding the ENERGY to exercise felt impossible.

That's when it hit me. We all have times in our lives where we need to take care of other people or we have emergencies that need our attention. But, we can't live like that and doing so for an extended period of time turns us into self-sacrificing empty shells.

The past is the past. It's time to move forward.

Or in my case, it's time to make me the priority again.

This morning, instead of working and doing things around the house, I dropped the boys at school and did what I used to do: head to the gym. I ran on the treadmill. I lifted weights. Tomorrow, I'm swimming for the first time in almost 2 months. Swim--that is if I don't sink.

I can handle losing a little fitness, but I won't lose myself again.

It's over

Several days after being taken off the ventilator and dialysis, Uncle Joe passed away this morning.

Thanks for all your kind comments and notes. I really appreciate them.

Here's an idea.

Last night, my uncle almost died.

We still don't know if he will make it. He is in critical condition in the Cardiac ICU.

In the ambulance, he was shocked 6 times. In a house filled with over 25 people, NOT ONE PERSON knew how to do CPR. NOT ONE!

It only takes a couple of hours to learn. Your certification lasts two years, and you can re-certify online. It doesn't get any easier than that.

For your family, neighbors, and friends, make it your New Year's Resolution to learn.

what goes up, must come down

Over the last two months, I've been living in a fog. I think life will be settling down soon. Maybe I can go back to feeling normal.


I know this is the time of year where many other bloggers are doing their "year in review" and making plans for next year. I'm kinda-sorta doing that. I'm just going to skip the review.


As the months have passed, I have decided to quit long-course tri's for awhile. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do next year. I don't even know if I'm going to race at all.


I do know, however, that I really want to become a "cyclist". There's so much for me to learn. I've improved alot over the past few years, but I know that my technical skills still have a long way to go. Next year, I'm going to sign up for the Sunrise Century. (If you go to the bottom of the webpage, you can watch a short video of the course). It seems like the next step up for me.


The best part, though, is that the race offers weekly training rides in which coaches go through skills training, endurance, climbing, riding in packs, nutrition, all aspects cycling. AND I'd get to meet other cyclists of all different levels and abilities.


I'm also going to do Elephant Rock again (which is easier than Sunrise).


Hopefully in 2011, I will be ready for The Triple Bypass. I also really want to do Ride the Rockies, which is a 6 day ride through the mountains. The distance ranges from about 380-450 miles. The route changes every year. The challenge with RTR is that it's a lottery. It's tougher to plan.


That's long-range planning though. For now, I'm just going to ride. Next year, I'll do Elephant Rock and Sunrise, and see what happens from there.

**
I just remembered. A friend of mine asked me to run an ultra with him. Right now, my heart really isn't in it. But who knows? The weather will be a huge factor. We've already gotten a lot of snow, and we're not even in our snowiest months yet. I have plenty of time to think about it. I want to make sure that I have plenty of time to train on the course. Training would not be fun if the course is covered in snow and/or mud.....because my WUSS factor is off the charts nowadays.

As Forrest Gump says, "That's all I have to say about that."

Means to an end

I was reading Titanium's blog today, and I realized that I had withdrawn from blogging. Not that any of you have any expectations of me....

This past month has been really hard. We've had to deal with the passing of two friends, a suicide attempt, the heart attack of a special grandparent...then the surgery, then the return home, then a collapse in the middle of the floor, seizure, internal bleeding, another surgery and several more days in the hospital, another loss of a friend, business issues, home life issues, sleepless nights and finally and almost inconsequentially at this point, our 1992 car breaksdown and is irreparable.

I'm not a drama queen at all. In fact, the reason I did not post about all of this is because at a certain point, I know, readers will say "It's just not possible. She must be making this up".

sigh

What I have realized is that after awhile, you just become numb to everything. For awhile, I was thinking "What next", but that's over now.

Now, I'm just very tired.

A little over a week ago, I ran a half marathon...at Mike's recommendation. I was planning on skipping it.

During this "race", I had not one, not two, but three emotional breakdowns. (I will bet you money that they happened right in front of the race photogs). At the end of the third, I was so emotionally and physically exhausted that I didn't think I would be able to finish.

I did, but not for glory or getting a medal. It was just because I had no way of getting back to the train station except to following the marathon route.

I was reading T's blog today, and I realized that the worst thing that I could have done is gone into hiding. I didn't allow myself enough downtime to fully process everything that has taken place. It might have saved me a few emotional outbursts, but at least it came out.

There's more to this story, but I will have to save it for another time.

Today is my birthday. We're making homemade pizza and eating alot of cake tonight.