Thinking Gluten-Freely

Miglet's raspberry donut

2012-01-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

Miglet's bakery makes gluten free donuts. I've tried both raspberry and maple. The icing on both was reeeeeeeeally sweet. The raspberry was better than the maple as the jam filling helps disguise the otherwise dry donut. Not sure these are worth the calories.

I miss hot fresh Krispy Kreme original glazed donuts.

Tastes like beer

2012-01-29T08:52:00.001-08:00

Persimmon bread

2012-01-19T14:05:00.001-08:00

I love persimmons! My mom made gluten free persimmon bread from a recipe we found on foodista.com. It wasn't very good.

Baked goods

2011-12-21T10:32:00.001-08:00

My mom loooooves to bake. (that's an understatement). During previous visits to my parents house I've gotten sick from the wheat flour in the air when my mom bakes with gluten. So this holiday season, she's only baking gluten free. Yay!

Lucky for my two more family members have recently switched to a gluten free diet (and seen significant improvements in their health). that means I'm no longer expected to eat all the baked goods that my mom makes, like the pictured cinnamon rolls.

I think the easiest thing to do if you're new to being gluten free and you want to make holiday sweets is to stick to recipes that don't have flour. Using naturally gluten free recipes is much easier than trying to convert a review to be gluten free. (I'm not speaking from personal experience but I did hear my sister day she made three recipes of gluten free cookies last weekend and they all tasted like sawdust.)

My favorite naturally gluten free sweets? I've definitely had more than my fair share of meringues lately (oops no picture because they all got eaten). Make sure any flavoring you add is gluten free. My mom also makes these date-coconut-walnut balls.

Sorry about the formatting. I'm posting this via email because my android's swyping technology makes it pretty easy to type one handed.

Apple cranberry walnut rum cake

2011-12-18T21:00:00.001-08:00

Surprise! A new post. My mom makes a delicious cake the other day, apple cranberry walnut rum cake. She used the Betty Crocker gluten free yellow cake mix and doctored it up. It was perfect with some whipped cream.

In other news, during my bicycle commute one day in July, while stopped at a red light, I got hit by a truck. So blogging hasn't really been high on my priorities. Anyone still reading this other than the baker of this cake? I'm not exactly doing much better yet but I thought maybe I'd do some short posts here and there.

New Cascadia Traditional (gluten free) Bakery!

2011-07-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

My sole reader (hi mom!) is harassing me for a new post, so here you go.

While in Portland back in May with my family, I went to the New Cascadia Traditional Bakery twice. Everything is gluten free and lots of things are vegan. My mom (pictured left) is a cinnamon roll connoisseur, so it's what she gets just about everywhere, although I am pretty sure she likes her own homemade cinnamon rolls the best. I can't remember, but I imagine she gave me a bite of this cinnamon roll, and I imagine I liked it and she thought it was "meh."

Meanwhile...... I ate a toasted cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese. I thought it was pretty groovy.

I picked up a morning muffin to go, which seemed like a blueberry muffin with a delicious crumble topping to me. I ate it in the afternoon.

My dad ate a scone. His review was: "it's dry and bland with no flavor." He went back with me to the bakery the next day and ordered it again. He liked it the second time around. Or pretended better.

We got a strawberry rhubarb galette and lemon cupcake to go:

The galette was absolutely incredible. It was hard to resist getting another one when I returned the next day.

Lemon cupcake close-up:

Lemon cupcake has lemon filling too! Delicious and very rich. I kind of wish I'd saved a few bites for the next day.

Overall, I would definitely go back to the New Cascadia Traditional Bakery every single time I'm in Portland. I had a piece of their teff bread with a lunch at a different place (I'll post about it later, I promise) and it was delicious too. Two thumbs up. Five stars.

Deschute's Brewery in Portland

2011-05-21T12:20:00.001-07:00

Eating gluten free can be tough while traveling! Eating in Portland though isn't too hard. Lots of the breweries have gluten free beer. I had a really yummy grilled veggie sandwich off the gluten free menu at Deschute's Brewery. They even fry their delicious sweet potato fries in gluten free oil. (I was impressed with the server's knowledge if cross contamination issues and what the restaurant does to avoid problems.) If you are vegetarian the menu is limited, but otherwise there were plenty of things to eat. Just one gf beer, a northwest pale ale, which was described as a mix between pale ale and IPA. I liked it.

My Coworkers are Awesome

2011-04-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

A recent post on another blog pointed out some examples of anti-gluten free sentiment with which celiacs are presented. Some people think our gluten free diets aren't serious. It's really frustrating for those of us who know we'll get sick if we have even the tiniest bit of gluten. When I first had to go gluten free, I was a little shy about it; I didn't tell many people and would just avoid eating in social situations. But then I decided to raise money for the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness in connection with my Ironman Florida race, so I kind of had to start talking about having celiac disease and eating gluten free. My coworkers have been insanely supportive, a lot of them made donations to the NFCA and helped me with my Ironman training by switching days on call. Here are just a few more examples of why I am so thankful to work with these amazing people.

Every month at work, we have a gathering to celebrate birthdays with food. One or two people sign up to bring treats for the month. Every single month this year, the person in charge has brought a gluten free option and I'm the only one out of about 20 people who has to eat gluten free! I generally try to sign up for my own birthday month so that I will have something to eat, but both last year and this year I wasn't able to choose March. Last March my floor supervisor made a very yummy (mostly) flourless chocolate tart (I gave him a few tablespoons of Bob's Red Mill's gluten free flour mix to use). This January my new floor supervisor made a delicious gluten-free dessert bread (I can't remember the flavor now but it was very yummy! and she gave me the leftover gf flour mix, although I still haven't ventured into baking). In February, I brought a gluten free chocolate cake that I bought at Gluten Free Specialty. My coworkers brought my favorite cinnamon rolls for my birthday in March. Today for birthdays there was a Trader Joe's flourless chocolate cake, and the guy in charge of birthdays even popped his head into my office to say "Just so you know, I remembered to cut the gluten free cake first!" (Visit this link for another GF blogger's review of the TJ's cake with pictures.)

Another reason my coworkers rock is that there are really only three restaurants nearby where I can eat, yet people are still willing to go out to eat with me sometimes! One of the restaurants is a brewery and I can only order one item off the menu (a salad, without a lot of the toppings) so that gets kind of old. The other two are a yummy sushi place and PF Changs - both have gluten free menus. A few of us went out today to celebrate the impending arrival of a coworker's baby. Since she's pregnant, the sushi place was not an option. PF Changs it was! It is a bit bizarre having someone else's lunch event planned around where I can eat. It doesn't seem fair to them and I feel incredibly high maintenance, but they are always willing to accommodate me and my gluten free diet! Plus they are always willing to tell me how cute Sierra is. (Don't worry, I don't actually let her drink my wine.)

Vacation is good!

2011-03-08T13:23:00.001-08:00

Vacation is so much healthier than two months straight of sitting on my butt at a desk! I'm on day four of a week vacation and so far I have gotten more exercise than probably the entire last two months put together. That may be a slight exaggeration, but only slight. My hip got worse and worse as the long hours at work got longer, but it is feeling good now. The dog and I have been taking longer and longer walks. While she does like to stop and smell the roses, or in today's case, the daisies, she is happy to maintain a good pace while we're actually moving.

Now try not to laugh at me, but we did 2.87 miles today and I'm happy about that! I definitely could've walked more, and I was very tempted to, but since we just started at about 2.3 miles a few days ago, I think I need to increase my mileage slowly. I'd rather be itching to go farther than wishing I hadn't. We are aiming for 3.0 painfree miles in the next few days - I think it's going to happen! Lots of stretching happening too. I actually got sore from yoga the other day!

Yesterday's walk was shorter, probably only a little more than a mile, but I rode a combined 8.4 miles on my bike during the day. My car is not quite as drivable as I would like - or more accurately, it's not quite as parkable as I would like - there is no more reverse! So I've been biking more. (I must admit I find a little bit of irony in riding my bike to my asthma doc's office.) My local gluten free shop definitely gets more of my business because they don't mind if I bring my bike in the shop. It's a lot more convenient to just stop in for a few things if I don't have to worry about locking up my bike. Although I have an ultimate goal of achieving complete relaxation during this vacation, I do need to find myself a new car. (I seriously considered just going car free, but I don't feel safe enough biking anywhere on dark rainy days.) I'm trying to find a triathlete-friendly, dog-friendly, environmentally-friendly car. It is a lot of work for someone on vacation.

cinnamon cookie

2011-02-17T20:12:00.001-08:00

Sun Flour Baking Company makes a very yummy cinnamon cookie. Reminds me vaguely of my favorite snickerdoodle from my pre-gluten free days. It was from a chinese-mexican restaurant. I miss those cookies. Anyways, Sun Flour does a great job with all of their cookies. Things I like about this cookie: it is vegan and gluten free and yummy and the label says "complete protein, good fiber, and calcium." Things I don't like: the label says it is 440 calories per 3 oz cookie. I broke it in half and put half in the freezer. I ate the other half. Then I waited a moment and went to the freezer.... Definitely not something you want to eat every day. Unless you are training for an ironman and have a tapeworm or something. But it is a good treat every so often.

A frozen pizza kind of day

2011-02-13T18:28:00.001-08:00

Amy's Kitchen cheeze pizza, cooked spinach on the side, and a Wyder's hard pear cider.

My new BFF: frozen veggies

2011-02-10T22:10:00.001-08:00

I am not quite sure I would be eating veggies these days if it weren't for frozen bags of them. I am so busy at work that I feel lucky if I find time to cut a carrot into slices for a snack (I did today and it was so yummy). Today's lunch: black beans and rice (I cooked a bunch of both over the weekend) and half a bag of frozen veggies with a splash of hot sauce. Fairly inexpensive, easy, vegan, gluten free.

I am hoping to get to the farmer's market later this month, but for now I am thankful for the abundance of frozen veggies in my freezer.

Another quickie: polenta, veggies, and beans

2011-02-08T11:57:00.001-08:00

Today's lunch: polenta, frozen veggies, black beans, and hot sauce. I've been eating something like this a few times a week all year. It is super super easy. Take 1/2 cup of corn grits (polenta), add 2 cups of water, microwave it for 6 minutes in a large bowl. Add veggies (in the interest of time, I've been using about half a bag of frozen veggies. Today's is the California blend, but I'm fond of the fiesta blend, too). Then add your choice of beans. Either cook it until it's hot, or put it in the fridge for later and then heat when you're ready to eat. Today is the first day I used plain black beans plus some hot sauce for a change, but I have typically been using a can of Amy's Kitchen's chili in this simple meal. This makes about 2-3 servings.

Food! It's what's for dinner.

2011-02-05T15:51:00.000-08:00

Since being sidelined for my hip Injury, I've been paying more attention than usual to what I eat. Over the last few years my diet had changed a lot. I went from being mostly omnivorous to now being gluten free, mostly vegan, and on a good day, sugar free. Maybe I'll write about the evolution some time. For now, here are some pictures of typical meals I've been eating lately! Beans, rice, and frozen veggies (a staple right now as work keeps me very busy), and a potato with earth balance (soy free) and spinach. Oh, and I think I might start blogging more about food and less about triathlons. At least until my hip gets better. So if food bores you, now might be the time to give up on this blog.

Breakfast!

2011-01-28T07:38:00.001-08:00

I love breakfast! I like to mix hearty Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot cereal with creamy smooth Poconos Cream of Buckwheat cereal. I cook it with a banana and add Blue Diamond unsweetened vanilla almond milk plus a dash of cinnamon. Smells like banana bread! Yum. During ironman training I would add protein powder too.

Although I had to switch to these brand when I went gluten free, my breakfast is still just hot cereal with a banana! What's your favorite breakfast?

Seaweed snack!

2011-01-25T20:58:00.001-08:00

My new favorite snack, wasabi seaweed! Gluten free of course.

Getting Organized!

2011-01-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I've been such a blogging slacker lately! Most of the gluten free stuff is just habit to me so often doesn't seem worth writing about, and due to my hip injury I haven't been doing much training, so I haven't felt like I've had anything to say! But I know my mom likes to read my blog so I figure I should update it every so often. (If anyone else is still reading, I would like to refer you to RBR's blog, because even though she hasn't been writing much lately either, she is much more entertaining than I am.)

A month or two ago I emailed my fellow members of the local triathlon club and asked for advice on how to organize my triathlon gear. I have it everywhere! People have a lot of different ways of organizing! I found something that works for me, although it is really just step one of a bigger project. I bought a build-it-yourself cubby storage unit. Right now this unit holds ALL of my triathlon clothes, plus a little bit of equipment. The fabric drawer inserts are sold separately (I like the Martha Stewart Fabric Drawers because they have a place for a label) and they hold a lot of stuff. Just one of those fabric drawers holds 5 bike shorts and 5 short-sleeve bike jerseys! All my workout clothes are made with wrinkle-free fabric, so I just toss them in there. I have a drawer for cold weather gear that has my gloves, ear warmers, rain pants, etc. Another drawer has all my running tops - I figure as the weather warms up the long sleeve tops will make their way to the bottom of the pile. A couple of swim suits, goggles, and caps fit in another drawer with my tri tops and tri bottoms. (I would not put my wetsuit into one of these, but I bet it would fit.) I even have a drawer just for socks. Usually my helmet rests on my aero bars, but it could easily fit in a cubby with a pair of bike gloves and sunglasses. Even though I'm not in training right now, I think I really love this setup. It is easy to grab my clothes depending on what sport(s) I'm doing, and it frees up my dresser for my regular clothes! Next I plan to use a separate cubby unit to organize my bike tools and all that other equipment that is piled up in a big rubbermaid container in a disorganized mess.

Cleared to run, but...

2011-01-12T08:34:00.001-08:00

I can't remember the last time I updated. Oops. I got cleared to run, but only after I can consistently walk 3 miles without pain. I am not having much luck with that. The second shot that I got in my hip seemed to really help for a few weeks, and I even took the dog on a few brisk 3 mile walks one week - pain free! Then I went for a 3.3 mile walk to look at holiday lights one night and it hasn't quite been happy since. So I am starting with shorter distances and stretching a lot. (I love the Crunch Candlelight Yoga dvd!) This morning sierra and I did 1.5 miles. Wow walking is so boring when we both want to run!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

My family is awesome so almost everything we have at Thanksgiving is gluten free. The only things I can't eat are the stuffing (which I don't like anyway, or I'm sure we'd make that gluten free too) and the rolls (but there's half a loaf of fresh gf bread that my mom baked for me as if I need the extra carbs!). Of course, I had to field a lot of questions and I had to google a lot of products to figure out if they were gluten free or not. I mostly just eat whole foods so I'm not familiar with a lot of products. What a headache to find out what the natural and artificial flavors in something really are, or whether the vinegar is distilled, and malt is out of the question. And don't grease that pan with Pam that has added flour in it please! It's enough to drive anyone crazy. I wish everyone out there a happy Thanksgiving, and hopefully a gluten free one if that's what you need! These pictures are from last year because we haven't eaten dinner yet, but last year we had six pies and if I remember correctly four of them were gluten free. Blueberry, pecan, apple-cranberry, and a crustless sweet potato pie. This year's menu has just apple-cranberry and pecan but that should be plenty to choose from! My mom is a bake-aholic. I've been snacking all week on brownies, snickerdoodles, mini-pumpkin pies, bread, etc. It's really too bad I couldn't do a Turkey Trot this morning! I haven't quite figured out how to justify this week's food fest, but at least I took the dog for a long walk this morning!

Ironman Ironman Ironman!

2010-11-19T17:29:00.000-08:00

YAY, my friend Rose crossed the finish line 2 weeks ago at Ironman Florida shortly before midnight. She is an Ironman! I love tracking people at ironmanlive.com and IMFL was a perfect day for me as a spectator - all the people I was tracking finished! I was so excited to be watching the finish line webcam and see Rose cross that line. I took a screen shot of her after she got her medal. I even took a video of her finish with my camera. So yes, I filmed Rose's finish through my computer monitor. Thank goodness for technology. Too bad the speakers at the finish line didn't transmit my screaming cheers for her!!

Right after Ironman Florida, I received super nice emails from both Rose and Glen thanking me for the inspiration and support. I think Ironman is kind of a pass-it-on sport. It's something I think every triathlete thinks about, even if it's just for a split second before dismissing the idea. But there are a lot of us who think "someday" and then they just meet the right person who has crossed that finish line who says what everyone else has said: "you can do it!" There's no time like the presence. Carpe diem people! You never know what life is going to hand out, so you might as well just do it while you can.

Ironman Arizona is this Sunday. I am super excited about it!!! Any readers doing it, or know someone doing it? A woman I know named Jamie will be doing it as her first Ironman. I am super excited for her. It is a very spectator friendly course and she is bringing some serious spectators with her. That's the way to do it!

In other news, I am finding more and more yummy gluten free packaged snacks! Thinking about working on a gluten free food review blog, but not sure it is a great idea since I am so slow about updating this one!

Oh and my hip still hurts. I got new shoes and went running twice last week. I was reeeally careful with it. I mean 5 minute walk to warm up, 1 min jog, 1 min walk (repeat 10 or 12 times), 5 minute walk to cool down. And then 3 days later I did 1 min jog and 2 min walk, with the same warmup/cooldown. And my hip hurts!!!!!! I'm so mad about it. I decided not to run again until the follow-up with my orthopedist where we get to discuss how well the shot worked at fixing the problem (i.e. not well enough!). In case anyone is keeping track, I asked about the injection and it was a steroid/anti-inflammatory. So even with steroids my hip hurts. I should just get a big L on my forehead.

One of these days I'm going to post about all my winter riding gear again. I am trying to stick with the commute through the cold, rain, and fog this year. I have so much reflective gear that I think if someone took a photo of me on my bike, the picture would just look like a bright light due to the flash reflecting. I am definitely making sure that I am seen!

Ironman Florida!

2010-11-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

I know three people racing Ironman Florida today. I just saw one of them cross the finish line, watching the live feed of the finish line on Ironmanlive.com. Wonder how many other people are out there on their computers at home tracking their friends online, adding up hours and minutes and seconds and trying to predict when their triathlete buddies are going to cross the finish. I've done it many times and only managed to see friends finish twice. So glad Glen, #1300, crossed the finish line before my oven beeped to let me know my Amy's gluten free roasted veggie pizza was ready! Hmmm drinking Redbridge beer and eating pizza today, while a year ago I was racing an Ironman. My how times change! I'm planning to get new running shoes in the next few days and then start running again and see how my hip holds up! Still waiting for Bob, #1994, to cross the finish. And still cheering as loudly as possible for my friend Rose who is about to finish the first half of the run. I'm hoping she can hear me cheer all the way across the country. GO ROSE!

MRI results and BJs Brewery

2010-10-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

MRI results are in! Short story: no tears in any muscles or ligaments, etc. (yay - no surgery!) I've actually got bursitis/tendinitis on both sides, it's just worse on the right side so that's what I notice. The fluid hits my IT band too. I received an anti-inflammatory injection directly into the bursa of my right hip and my doctor said I can start running again, 2-3x per week, but not on consecutive days, and obviously to ease back into it. I'm going back in a few weeks to see if the shot helped and if it did, he'll give me a shot in the other side. I asked him what the chances are that I could do an Ironman next fall (since Ironman Arizona and Florida registrations are just in a few weeks) and he said "a good chance." (I verified he knew the distances for Ironman; this doc knows his triathletes!) I am also going to see his nutritionist to get me on a good regime of glucosamine, vitamin D, etc, which he thinks should help solve this thing. I was so tempted to go for a run the moment I got the news, but I really need to buy new running shoes first. But hopefully in another week I can post about my first run!

In other news, I almost had a gluten free dining disaster tonight at BJ's Brewhouse. I hadn't been there in eons but my mom's in town and I'd heard they had a gluten free menu. We had to wait awhile so I asked for a copy of the gluten free menu while we waited. The gf menu is printed on the restaurant's allergy information sheet. Picture a long list of every item on the regular menu next to checkboxes for which of the most common allergens are in those items. (Or how about if you really want to, just go look at the menu by clicking here.) So I happened to notice that the flame-broiled New York strip steak is on the gluten free menu, but the allergen list indicates it has wheat in it! In typical gluten free inquiry fashion, the first person I asked to explain this discrepancy had to go find a manager (but he did so super promptly!). She immediately caught on to the problem I was pointing out and asked the kitchen manager. Low and behold, despite the steak being on the gluten free menu, it is not gluten free. This type of thing is exactly why I don't eat at restaurants very much. However, the staff at BJ's reassured me on many levels. The first manager I spoke to (who asked the kitchen manager to clarify the gluten freeness of the steak) went straight to her boss who immediately emailed the regional manager to figure out what the deal is with the menus. All in all, I would recommend BJ's for their attention to detail with gluten free items. The managers answered all of my questions about the different items and how they ensured that orders really were gluten free. It sounds like they follow very good practices on keeping things separate. The people who prepare gf orders are certified gluten free cooks! Things like that. So, assuming I don't wake up with any symptoms, I'd totally go back to BJ's, and I'd love to see other restaurants educate themselves as much about gluten as the managerial staff I spoke to tonight at my local BJ's. In case anyone cares, I had a baked potato with chicken and broccoli, and a Redbridge gluten free beer!

Survived the MRI!

2010-10-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon I popped a sedative and bravely faced the tight quarters of an MRI machine so that my doctor could get a good look at what is going on inside my hip. I am really claustrophobic so have had open MRIs in the past, but this time I was told the open MRI wouldn't give a good enough image. (It doesn't matter now, but about 10 years ago I had an open MRI on my shoulder after multiple dislocations, and it didn't show any tears, but I had surgery to shrink the capsule to stop the dislocations and once they cut me open they found cartilage tears. So maybe the open MRI thing doesn't really do what it should.) I pretty much freaked out when I found out I had to have the traditional MRI. And googling "claustrophobia MRI" is not a good idea. I wasn't convinced the valium would do the trick, but I also really, really, really want to figure out what is wrong so I can start running again! So I thought I would at least give it the old college try. Obviously you have to get someone to drive you to these things if you're taking a sedative. I am really thankful to all my friends who offered to be my chauffeur, and especially to JenHen who took great care of me before and after while I was a little loopy.

In case anyone finds this while searching for information on how to survive a hip MRI despite being claustrophobic, I thought I'd share these details about my experience. First, my MRI place apparently has valium available if your doctor okays it, but only certain days of the week. Since I was going on Saturday I had to get a prescription and bring it myself. Normally they have you take it 30 minutes before the procedure starts. I asked the pharmacist how long the drug would last and he said maybe 4-6 hours, so suggested I take it an hour ahead of time to be sure it kicked in. So that was my plan. Unfortunately I arrived early, and they took me in early! I didn't feel like it had kicked in. You have to remove all the metal from your person. I had even taken off my nail polish since I decided to worry about the sparkles in it being metallic and causing a problem in the MRI machine and I hoped that the surgeon who performed my appendectomy a few years ago remembered to remove all the metal tools.

I'd tried to find out if my head would be out of the machine, but nobody could tell me definitively. I googled that too of course and found out that "it depends." Some machines are longer than others. Some people are taller than others. etc etc. I laid down on the machine bit that rolls in and out of the big MRI tube. That's about when the tears started. I wondered if I would be tough enough to last through the whole procedure. Lucky me, I got to be on the Discovery MR750 which has a 3T magnet, which is pretty awesome, so instead of it being 45-60 minutes, like my doctor told me, and everyone else who I asked, it was less than 30 minutes. I asked "how long" just before getting pushed in, and when I heard less than 30, I felt such relief and said "okay, I can do that!" I kept my eyes tightly shut the whole time so that I wouldn't know how far into the machine I really was. The machine had an awesome ventilation system which I think they turned up to the max for me, so I felt air blowing on my face the whole time and I could pretend I was outside riding my bike. The guy operating the machine was super nice and had a calming influence. I could hear him and he could hear me. At one point early on he asked me how I was doing but I was focusing so much on staying calm I couldn't say anything or I thought I would lose it! The machine itself is pretty loud but they gave me ear plugs, and the noise didn't bother me. I found the noise reassuring actually; it was letting me know the test was actually happening and yay that meant progressing towards a diagnosis for me. I wondered about the technology and kind of wished I had researched more about how the MRI machine works, but since I didn't know, I just entertained myself by making up ideas of what the machine was doing to correspond with each bizarre mechanical sound I heard.

Mostly during the MRI I chanted the yoga mantra which had gotten me through the marathon at Ironman Florida. I thought about how hard some of those miles were but I survived that, and I thought about how much I really want to do another Ironman but clearly my hip problem needs to be resolved first! And I thought about how brave my dog Sierra had been going to the vet to get her vaccinations and that I should be able to tough this out too. Before long the guy was telling me I only had two more tests. At one point I was trying to keep track of the minutes by adding up however long each test was going to take - he would tell me things like okay "this next test is 1 minute" or "this one is 3.5 minutes." But after awhile I was relaxed enough that I just kept thinking happy thoughts and how awesome it was that I was going to survive this dreadful MRI. Can't wait to get the results!

My reward for surviving the MRI - a gluten free cinnamon roll from Azna's Gluten Free Bakery. YUM. We drove right past Gluten Free Specialty on the way to the MRI so I just popped in and grabbed the Azna roll for later. I meant to take a photo of the inner layers of yumminess since I saved half for today, but I was a little too excited about the cinnamon roll and just ate it. So here is a picture from the Azna website instead.

Kona!

2010-10-09T15:23:00.001-07:00

I am so jealous of all the awesome athletes racing in Kona today! I am tracking a few people online at ironman.com for the Ironman World Championships today. Craig Alexander and Chris McCormack are always on my A list because I met them in St Croix after my first half ironman and they were both so nice! Also number 244, Lenore, is a 67 year old woman who qualified for Kona by winning her age group at Ironman Florida 2009. We chatted a little bit during the first few miles of the run. The crowd was going crazy for her. I hope she is having a fabulous time today! Also racing (I think) is a guy I saw finish at Ironman Arizona last year just before midnight. He was first in his age group and qualified for Kona by suffering his way to that finish line before midnight. It's always heartbreaking when people don't get to the finish in time. Here's to hoping that everyone out there today in Kona squeaks past all the cutoff times!

Hip update!

2010-09-29T18:56:00.001-07:00

After months and months of my right hip bothering me, I finally saw an orthopedist today. My xray had come back normal, so next on the list is an MRI. In the meantime, I'm still not allowed to run but the doctor said I could try the elliptical machine and to bike in a low gear when I ride to hopefully reduce/eliminate any cycling pain. I am looking forward to getting some real exercise. Sorry swimming, you know I love you, but mostly only when the ocean is involved.

Physical Therapy Visit

2010-08-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

I started physical therapy for my hip last week. Are the exercises supposed to be making it more sore? I feel like I should be allowed to run if I have to deal with hip soreness anyway. The physical therapist wasn't very helpful in giving me a specific diagnosis. (Hip tendonitis bores me. I want a more specific diagnosis. Which part of the hip exactly? I've found two types of hip tendonitis on google.) She checked my range of motion, checked my resistence ability (pushing against my leg in different directions, not my ability to resist donuts or anything like that), and essentially said "you're weird." Twice she told me I was saying it hurt in a place that shouldn't have hurt. She also seemed surprised my doctor hadn't asked for an xray or MRI or anything. So I'll give PT another week or two before I start harassing my doctor again. I need to go buy a bottle of ibuprofen, which seems imperative to my recovery. That plus my PT exercises 2-3 times a day, followed by stretching, and ice. The PT exercise essentially entails wrapping a looped theraband around my knees and doing the opposite of the thigh-master movement. The stretch (pictured here) is one of the same IT band stretches I did all last year; the PT even gave me a printout from the same website I originally used to learn the stretch. I'm not really convinced PT is going to help because it doesn't seem like anything new, other than the hip abductor exercise which makes my hip more sore. Well that plus the ultrasound which seemed to make it feel a little better too.

It's hard not to run

2010-08-19T07:06:00.001-07:00

As Sun Safe Barbie mentioned in her comment on my last post, it is hard to rest! I'm busy at work so it's not like I have oodles of time to exercise right now anyways, but even when I am just walking the dog, it's really hard not to break into a run with her every so often. I took Sierra on an hour long walk last weekend, and my hip started hurting near the end, and now it's been hurting more all week. Just from walking! I don't want to end up like my coach Jamima and need hip surgery though so I am trying to follow doctor's orders as best I can. I start physical therapy next week. Hopefully once this month is over I'll be able to start swimming before work a few times a week. I'm feeling really out of shape these days!

Updates and superheroes

2010-08-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

My doc says I've got tendonitis in my hip and that I need to give it a break! She advised rest, ice, ibuprofen, etc. The usual stuff. I explained I'd been doing that for a few months, but apparently our definitions of "rest" are different. So now I am really resting and am avoiding running for a few months. (Starting, you know, the day after she told me this. I just had to go for a short run that afternoon to get my last run in. A lot like "the diet starts tomorrow" I guess.) I haven't even been on my bike in weeks. I haven't even gone swimming - although that's because I've got a kink in my neck. About that the doc says "reduce stress." That's why I had to go for that run.

I just read RBR's Yosemite half dome hike report, and it confirmed what I'd already suspected. There is no way I am ever doing that hike. First, it is really difficult and there is no medal when you finish. Second, I am terrified of heights. (If you're not already reading RBR's blog, well, you're seriously missing out.)

Even though I am not in training, I've decided what I really want is a tri top and tri shorts that somewhat resembles Wonder Woman's outfit. I think that would rock. Maybe Supergirl's would be better suited though. Can you imagine wearing a cape on the bike and the run? If I could find an outfit like either of these, I'd post a picture, but as far as I can tell DC Comics, PI and Sugoi haven't figured out that there is a market for this.

Pain in the Hip

2010-07-20T20:07:00.001-07:00

I ran Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning. And one or both of those was a bad decision. Yesterday my hip hurt when I sneezed (!) and every other moment of the day too. Looking forward to seeing my doctor next week. In an attempt to get some exercise without hurting myself anymore, I woke up early to swim this morning but my apartment complex pool didn't open early enough. It's summer, it's sunny, it's warm. Why wait til 7am?

/rant

Unhappy triathletes!

2010-07-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

As I sit hear drinking my coffee and catching up on a lot of the blogs I follow, I keep finding a recurring theme. My fellow triathlete bloggers are all unhappy because they're not running these days! Injuries and what not. According to Kelly, aquajogging isn't good enough to satisfy the craving to run, which is a bummer because that is what I was going to try. Poor Al isn't getting any swimming or biking or running in. Michael is slowly getting back into it. What about Kendra? She hasn't been doing much of anything. Gonna try to get some good swimming in over the next few days. The weather is perfect for it. Maybe even head to a lake for an open water swim to avoid the tedium of those lane lines!

This all kind of reminds me of when I had to quit playing soccer. (This is a whole other story but my doctor banned me from contact sports due to a neck injury in high school - open water swimming doesn't count!) People ask me if I watch the World Cup. No, not really. I like to play and I can't. So I don't like to watch people do something I can't do. (There's a whole gluten free analogy that Kati is dealing with right now. The torture of a celiac watching people enjoy non-gf treats!) What do you do when you can't participate in your favorite sport or eat your favorite food? Any coping tips?

Tri tomorrow

2010-07-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

My friend Cameron is doing her first triathlon tomorrow at the Tri for Fun #2! Good luck Cameron! Tomorrow's race was going to be Dave's first too, and my second of the year, but Dave and I have been a little under the weather after a long drive earlier this week from Montana, via Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. So instead we'll be signing up for an August sprint tri. I'd planned to actually train after the last sprint and see how much time I could knock off, but I haven't been training much. A little running here and there. A little biking. I swam a few times. I'm probably in worse shape now than I was 5 weeks ago when I did the Tri for Fun #1! I've self diagnosed bursitis in my right hip so that's my excuse. Trying to not feel like my grandma with a sore hip all the time. Using the foam roller, stretching, icing, etc. Woe is me. I may have convinced another friend to do a tri though, and I always love helping out a newbie.

Tri for Fun #1 - race report

2010-06-07T12:43:00.001-07:00

Saturday was the first sprint tri in a local summer series. (1/2 mile swim, 16 mile bike, 3 mile run.) Friday afternoon I started thinking about doing the race and by Friday night I was packing my gear bags, although I wasn't totally sure of the idea I wanted to have them ready just in case. I emailed Lauren I was considering it and she said "that is a nice short little tri..." which inspired me some more. It took me awhile to find my goggles since my last swim was Ironman Florida - almost exactly six months earlier - so at some point I decided I was going to give up on the tri if I couldn't find my goggles by 10pm. At 9:55 they magically appeared, so I finished packing the gear bags and went to bed. I was still on the fence, setting my alarm for 5am but thinking if I was too tired when the alarm went off I would just go back to bed and do a ride later in the morning on my own. I kept thinking about how fun it would be, even though I fully expected to be hating myself a minute into the swim. No swim training, and very few miles on the running shoes (i.e. less than three miles over the last five weeks), but at least I had bike month in my pocket. I knew I could do the swim and the bike, and I figured I could always walk the run. I was kind of proud of myself just for being able to pack up my gear bags so quickly and without my checklist. I've got this routine down!

Fast forward a few hours and somehow I'd managed to show up at the race site. After I got everything out of the car and started walking to the registration tent, I was filled with apprehension. What was I doing? Every step I took made me less certain about the race. I toyed with going back to the car and just driving home, but my ego was too big for that. I wasn't sure how I could explain myself to anyone I might see. Then I saw a guy from my tri club. My tri club rocks. People are so friendly and supportive. I told him I was still on the fence about registering for the race but he convinced me to just keep moving towards the registration tent.

This race series is really great for first time triathletes. It's short and the swim is in a lake that is fairly warm (umm it is right near the former nuclear power plant, so we don't try to think about why it is so warm) so wetsuits are optional. The bike course is open to traffic but it's an out and back on a fairly country road with gentle rolling hills (or if you're my friend Nikka, it's totally flat. It's okay Nikka I've forgiven you for last weekend's hilly ride. It helped me get in shape for this tri!). The run course is my least favorite because it is a dirt road with some gravel that you have to watch for, and again with the rolling hills. I did a tri on roughly the same course two years ago with a slightly longer bike and run, and the race started an hour later, the run was totally brutal because there is no shade!

When I was standing in line for the portapotty, there were a lot of people who seemed really nervous. Eventually a woman behind me says "I just have to ask - you look like you've done this type of thing before - how does the swim to bike transition work?" It was really funny to see someone so nervous about the race. While I'm sure she decided I'd done this before based on my tri club jersey, I decided I must look fairly confident too which was good because I was still not totally convinced of the idea of the race. The questions just kept coming from other people in line too. It was nice to be able to help some newbies figure out what to expect in their first tri.

The tri club gets a reserved rack for our bikes, which also means all the STC members are grouped together, so pre-race and transitions it can be pretty social. The other club members are part of why I showed up at the race - I figured I could use the social outing. I saw a guy who'd done Ironman Florida and he also hadn't swam since then, so I was in good company. I ended up wearing my wetsuit, although I was a little unsure if it would fit, being about 12 pounds up from my ironman weight. But since I wiggled into it, I decided to wear it. The water was warm enough that I really didn't need it though and wished I hadn't bothered with it.

The swim was great as always. The water is a little green but I could see my fingers so it was clear enough for me. I love being confident enough with my swimming that I can just go out and do it! I held my own on the swim and managed to pass people who started two waves (10 minutes) ahead of me so that was pretty sweet. I got elbowed in the face and I tried to elbow the person back to get her off me but I didn't quite have the strength. It didn't really matter that my goggles started leaking then because by then I could stand up and run up the ramp. My swim time was around 16:30-17:00 (race results don't have splits and I know I hit my watch's lap button when I was already in T1) which was fine with me.

T1 took over four minutes, squeezing out of the wetsuit. Also I almost went to someone else's bike (a rack before the tri club rack) because I saw a pink helmet and pink bike details, but someone in the tri club got me in the right direction. It's so awesome having cool teammates!

Once I got on the bike I had a hard time pacing myself. Last time I'd done part of this course I blew up on the run, so I didn't want to do that this time. Also I kept trying to tell myself this was a workout, not a race, because I was in no shape to race. But I couldn't help pushing it on the bike a bit. It's just too fun to pass people. At one point I started passing guys who started at least 15 minutes ahead of me. Sweet. One woman ahead of me did a visible but silent cheer as she started to pass a guy on a hill. Yeah we were kicking some butts. Who cares if he was on a mountain bike. I realized I wasn't hating myself for signing up for the race. I was most definitely enjoying myself. I saw a few people with mechanical problems and decided I'm not going to stop for people in a sprint tri. I've never stopped for to help anyone with bike problems during a race, but when I did Vineman last year I saw some people stop for others and I can see the merit in helping someone in an iron-distance race. But really for a sprint tri there is no time to help someone unless they are injured. Also I figure maybe since nobody stops they will learn that they need to be self-sufficient on the bike, which is always a good lesson to learn. Am I too harsh? My first 8 miles were 28:14 and the second 8 were 30:34 but that was close enough to being even for me. I even remembered to stretch my legs a bit coming back on the bike.

T2 was fine. I don't know how people are so fast in T2. I am pretty much always 2 minutes (unless we are talking 70.3 or 140.6 then add about an hour).

The run.. I was a little nervous about the run. When was the last time I ran 3 miles? I had run exactly 6.5 miles in the last two months. Yikes. So I aimed to job at a nice even pace. I walked pretty early on just to get my heart rate down a bit and then I got into the groove. I'd forgotten the run course had hills. Pretty short hills. Probably if you've been running at all they are no big deal. They weren't that big of a deal except that I was afraid that running up them would make me blow up faster, so I walked up the steepest parts and then just got back into my run pace. My first mile was 10:30 which seemed pretty good to me! I only slowed down a little on the last two miles, finishing the run in 32:14. It was great seeing tri club members as I got near the finish. Having someone cheer you in by name is always a great feeling.

My goal time was to beat 2:00 and I came in under 1:55 so I felt good about that. I also had a miniscule amount of hope that I could place since they do awards five deep since I'd signed up for the Athena division. (My 30-34 age group just has no mercy.) But I came in sixth by almost three minutes. The hardest part about the Athena division is that you have no idea who you are racing against. Our ages are on the back of our legs but it's impossible to judge who weighs over 150 and who would sign up for Athena instead of age group! When the race results were posted online I was happy to see that there were more than six people in my division (when I left the race they didn't have complete race results posted yet). Actually I came in 6/30! My plan is to actually train for next month's race and see how much time I can peel off. It'll be the first time I've ever done the exact same race course twice!

Bike month is over!

2010-06-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	64.5%	645
Kendra	302	100.9934%	305


	David	301	56.8106%	171

Obviously Rose won! But I am so excited to have met my goal for the month. My last 35 miles were tough and I really earned them. I am still too tired to even think about that ride but one day soon I will post about it. Maybe by then I will have forgiven my friend Nikka who told me the ride had just two hills. Right, and Ironman St George is pancake flat.

Bike month tally #8 - Last chance weekend!

2010-05-29T06:32:00.000-07:00

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	54.5%	545
Kendra	302	78.4768%	237
David	301	56.8106%	171

Time is seriously running out for bike month. It's 6:30 on Saturday morning as I write this, and I know Rose is already out there riding! She's not planning on a 400 mile ride this weekend though (that's next week). I've got a ride planned for tomorrow, but I will still have some miles to make up. Actually my friend Nikka is arranging our ride so I have no clue how far it'll be, but I specified under 50. So I'm pondering heading out now to get some more miles done. It looks like a beautiful day out there!

I just realized I never wrote about last weekend's ride with Lauren! The weather was cooperative enough that we didn't have to set an alarm to avoid getting too hot, but we did want to avoid the impending wind. Dave came along too, so we rode from home instead of the park (definitely didn't want to take 2 cars) adding 8 miles to an already ambitious 45 mile ride. Ambitious because Lauren hadn't even ridden more than a 30 mile ride this year and I'd only done one. The wind was behind us for awhile and we just flew to the park, where Dave ditched us until we caught up with him taking a snack break around mile 10.

The ride to the hatchery (our turn around spot) was pretty uneventful, other than the one snake on the trail that we maneuvered around. While we were there, snacking on our carb boom gels and refilling our water, this little kid powered up the hill we were on. It was so funny and impressive to see the little mini-Lance pedaling super hard on a mini-bike. It was kind of like the one pictured here but he definitely didn't have training wheels. I think he rode up that hill about the same pace that I usually do, and my wheels are gigantic compared to his.

On our ride home we saw a guy with his bike blocking the middle of the bike path. He was protecting the gopher snake that was chillin in the middle of the path. Less than a mile later another guy is on the wrong side of the path and almost cut me off as he's getting back to the right. He explains himself as he later passes us, he was getting a rattle snake off the path! Snakes were everywhere. The best one though was when we get back home, pulling into the parking lot and an 8 year old boy is walking up the stairs with a gigantic snake wrapped around his shoulders. His dad yells at him from the parking lot where he's chatting with a friend "don't let it wrap too tight around your neck!" Good fatherly advice.We also had a brief stop on the way home when we helped someone with a flat tire. It reminded me how awful it can be to stop and rest. Sometimes it's better to just keep going. Our legs felt a little heavier as we rode those last 12 miles as our bodies wondered why we weren't done yet and by then the wind was in our faces. It was a fun ride though and we rewarded ourselves with a trip to Chipotle!

Bike month tally #7 - Rose's fundraising

2010-05-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	51.4%	514
Kendra	302	70.5298%	213
David	301	39.5349%	119

Uhh I think the chances of me catching her just went out the door. Rose rode 200 miles this weekend. She is in training for the AIDS/LifeCycle ride. It's a 7-day, 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to make a world of difference in the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS. She is going to kick butt and the training alone for this ride probably already has her ready for Ironman Florida! You can read all about it, and make a donation on this website.

Dave rode 50+ yesterday too but hasn't updated his log yet... maybe he will forget about the miles. :)

Bike month tally #6 plus a contest!

2010-05-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	41.4%	414
Kendra	302	52.9801%	160
David	301	39.5349%	119

If you're a regular follower of my blog, or have at least been around since just before my Ironman, you might want to check out the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness's website. The NFCA is having a contest where if you can answer 5 questions about their athletes for awareness (including one question about me!) then you will be entered to win an artisanal gluten-free cookbook! You can learn more about it by clicking here. If you need a hint for question #5, just leave a comment!

Almost halfway there!

2010-05-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is bike to work day: Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming northwest between 12 and 15 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Yikes.

Since it's bike to work day, that means freebies for cyclists all over the city. Freebies for bike day seem to always involve delicious gluten-filled foods, like bagels, granola bars, muffins, donuts. I know it's dumb to be jealous of free food, but being gluten free kinda sucks in that I can't enjoy those freebies. You know those mornings where things aren't going so great and someone brings donuts or bagels to work and everything seems a little brighter? I don't! Well, maybe tomorrow I'll win some bike month socks at one of the "energizer stations" around town. I'll ride past two of the stations on my way to work.

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	31.4%	314
Kendra	302	48.3444%	146
David	301	39.5349%	119

I'm almost halfway to my goal. Don't remind me that we're two-thirds done with the month! Thank goodness the last weekend in May is a three day weekend. I will be cycling a lot that weekend. Also Lauren is coming for a visit so we're going to ride long on Sunday. If the weather cooperates for the rest of the month, I think I can still hit 302.

Bike month blues and Amazon.

2010-05-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

This morning I had a dilemma. I had to get to work early. I pondered just driving to work so that I only had to get up a few minutes early instead of a fully hour. But it is bike month after all, so I rolled out of bed at 6am and rolled onto the street on my pretty bike just after 6:45. My ride was pretty nice given that there was less traffic than usual. I hit mostly green lights and almost had a record time to work. The rest of my day was not so great, so I treated myself to happy hour and caught a ride home. I almost feel bad about it, since it is bike month and all. But I did get some miles in and some are better than none. Bike month is great because it promotes cycling which is obviously awesome, but it's also frustrating because I can't believe how many people DON'T try riding a bike even one little mile! I'm responsible for encouraging and rewarding cyclists at work and this year's turnout is low, so it's a bit of a downer. I don't know what more I can do.

I wish I was riding as many miles this year as I did last year, but every year is different! Rose is kicking my butt again. We already made plans for her victory dinner. But we're going to ride to the restaurant, so that'll be cool (or hot, since it'll be in June). I'm still hoping I can reach my goal of 300 miles!

I added an amazon associates box on my blog. So now if you want to buy one of the wonderful bicycle accessories that I mention, or anything else from amazon for that matter, if you link to amazon from my site before placing your order, amazon will give me a little kickback. This is good for everyone because I can use those kickbacks for race entry fees and then I will have more fun things to blog about! So next time you want to buy something from amazon, consider clicking through my blog first please!

Bike month tally #4 plus the Tour

2010-05-16T21:15:00.001-07:00

The Tour of California was here today. The peloton raced past me a few times near the finish. Always fun! I'm so glad people actually come out and watch the event even though we are not really a cycling culture. Before the tour we went for a 30+ mile ride on the bike path. The weather today was pretty nice for cycling. Rose did a century+ yesterday though. It's unlikely I will catch up to her! And it's supposed to rain tomorrow so I'm not sure how excited I'll be to ride to work.

Personal Challenges

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	31.4%	314
Kendra	302	42.7152%	129

David

301

27.907%

Bike to Work Day

2010-05-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today was bike to work day in most northern cal cities, so even though our bike to work day is next Thursday, Mikes Bikes was offering free tubes to people who rode to work today. After work I swung by and picked up my freebie. Nearly perfect timing because I needed to buy a new one anyways after my flat a few weeks ago.

I'm sure Rose hasn't logged her commute yet, but .... I'm gaining on them!

Personal Challenges

Click here to challenge a friend!

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	20.3%	203
Kendra	302	25.1656%	76

David

301

16.6113%

Bike Month challenge update 3

2010-05-13T07:54:00.001-07:00

My husband accepted my challenge for bike month too. Notice his pledge amount. Although I don't think it's really fair since I have a full time job and he doesn't. The formatting looks weird but here it is.

Personal Challenges

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	20.3%	203
Kendra	300	20%	60

David

301

16.6113%

Bike month tally #2

2010-05-11T10:09:00.001-07:00

Totals as of May 11 (AM)

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	20.3%	203
Kendra	250	18%	45

But when it comes to percentage-of-pledge-met, we're pretty close!

26 miles today

2010-05-09T11:38:00.001-07:00

In a feeble attempt to not get my butt totally kicked by Rose this year, Dave and I went out for a ride this morning. Yesterday was such a beautiful day, high of 75, not too breezy, clear skies. It looked sunny this morning so we just assumed it would be the same - perfect cycling weather. I almost checked the weather to see if it would be hot enough that I should wear a sleeveless jersey, but I figured I'd be fine with short sleeves. Off we went, short sleeves and shorts, lathered up with sunscreen. About 30 seconds after we started our ride, we realized we were stupid. The clouds were moving in, the sun was in hiding, it was cold when the wind hit. I figured I'd warm up as we rode, and I didn't want to get Sierra's hopes up by going back inside to grab my arm warmers or a long sleeve top. So off we went. A minute later I was complaining about how cold it was. Five minutes later Dave asked if I was going to be warm enough or if we should go back for more layers. People think I'm kidding when I say I'm lazy, I guess they figure a lazy person won't do an Ironman? But did I want to turn around and ride 10 extra minutes to get back to where I already was just so that I could be warm enough? No. So I froze.

By the time we got to the park to start riding on the bike path, our toes were numb and my ears hurt from the cold. It's not like it was really that cold out, but it was sub-60 and windy. Obviously the wind was in our faces both directions. The riding was a lot easier than our 25 mile ride two weeks ago. That ride kicked my butt. I don't know how I was so tired, maybe the flat tire is what did it. Or maybe riding on the roads actually causes enough mental strain, worrying about cars, etc, that it's just that much easier to ride on a bike path where the biggest concern is a suicidal squirrel. Whatever the reason, I felt way better after today's 26 mile ride than after our 25 mile airport loop. I was hoping to ride tomorrow too but the dark clouds are really ominous and apparently are spending the night here.

Today's lesson: always check the forecast! We got lucky and evaded the scattered thunderstorms and showers, and eventually we were mostly warmed up. My toes have almost thawed.

Name	Pledge	% Met	Miles
Rose	1000	16.7%	167
Kendra	250	14.8%	37

But Rose is probably still out riding and hasn't updated her miles for the day yet.

Bike Month challenge update 1

2010-05-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

Rose: 167
Kendra: 11

Yikes!

Ironman St George

2010-05-01T08:29:00.001-07:00

Ironman St George (Utah) is today. First time there's been an Ironman event there. One of the bloggers who I met in Florida is racing today. Bob is #2287. It's so weird to wake up and have the swim results posted before I'm done with breakfast. Then I'll go out and have my Saturday, come home and most people will still be racing. Sometime around dinner, Bob will probably be finishing. Before I go to bed I can watch some people finish live online. I'll be asleep before the last finisher finishes! I'm a little jealous I'm not out there, but right now I am in no shape to be even thinking about it.

I haven't posted much lately because I have nothing to report. A few bike miles here and there. A few run miles here and there, usually followed by a few days of hip pain. Yesterday I woke up with a very literal pain in the neck. So I won't be riding my bike this weekend even though May is bike month has begun. Rose is going to kick my butt this year in our competition to see who can ride the most miles. Last year I pledged 500 miles and rode over 600, trying to beat her but I fell really short. I only pledged 300 this year given how I felt after riding 25 miles last Saturday. Rose probably pledged 600 and will actually ride a million, helping the whole city reach its goal of 1,000,000 miles in May. She's an animal. I can't wait to track her at Ironman Florida this November!

Lottery

2010-03-30T18:54:00.001-07:00

So February 28 came and went. For those of you non-triathletes, it means nothing to you. But for the rest of it, February 28 was the deadline to enter the Kona Lottery. I had planned on paying my $35 or $85 (there are two ways to enter, costs more for better chances obviously) to have a small chance at getting a lottery slot so that I could participate in Ironman Hawaii this October. But, reality set in and I decided I should really save my money and buy a REAL lottery ticket. You know, to win the big bucks. Then I could buy one of those $10,000ish slots to Hawaii AND my dream house in the Caribbean, etc, etc, etc. Unfortunately that didn't pan out in our favor so we are now out one dollar, we are not millionaires, and my name will not be on the Kona Lottery winner list that comes out in a few weeks. I think I'll go comfort myself with Betty Crocker's Gluten Free Brownies.

Foam roller, how do I love thee?

2010-03-27T09:06:00.001-07:00

With all my aches and pains, you'd think I was training for an Ironman or something. Maybe I just managed to ignore them all last year. I mean I did after all manage to twist my ankle at the start of a long run and then run 14 more miles. But this year I am not as motivated. My IT Band hurts. Sometimes in my quad, sometimes in my hip. I guess it only hurts in the knee after long runs, and I'm sure not doing those anymore. I've probably taken more Aleve in the last month than I took all of last year.I'm feeling pretty ridiculous and out of shape these days.

My main source of relief for the IT band pain is using my foam roller. I love it so much that I have three of them. Well, one of them I leave at my parents house because although my mom is brilliant and suggested I use a rolling pin as a substitute during one visit last year, I learned that the foam roller is more comfortable.

How do you use it? Umm, hard to explain. Do a google image search, or just click here, or ask someone at Fleet Feet.

My quest to a 5k PR is on hold while I wait until these aches and pains figure themselves out. I don't care enough about a PR to cause further injury to myself! And while I had toyed with the idea of doing Vineman this year - they have a buy 2 get 1 free entry to the full iron distance tri! - I think that is pretty unrealistic at this point. Maybe next year. :)

Every day I have the urge to go running or on a long ride, but then I remember the pain in my hip and quad and then I just sit on the couch. This morning I did some yoga before breakfast because stretching is always good. I'd like to do this more regularly as my flexibility has definitely diminished.

How do you keep fit and feeling good when you're injured? I'd love some good ideas. I do have a bit of the urge to go swimming, but I don't have access to a pool and I'm a little wimpy about swimming in a lake in March. My husband is a swimmer but he's a hard core swimmer so would probably never dream of buying a wetsuit and I'm not sure who else is crazy enough to go swim in the lake with me. But even if I could swim in the lake, that's just good for weekends (it's too far to drive on a weekday). What can I do to keep from becoming a couch potato?? Help!

Nothing exciting going on

2010-03-23T20:10:00.001-07:00

I haven't been blogging because I haven't been training. My IT band has been bothering me. Last year it hurt in my knee; this year it's in my hip. I should probably go see a doctor but I've been too busy at work to call to make an appointment. It's on my to-do list for this long weekend.

I've been riding my bike to work, but only halfway. For some reason I feel incredibly lame about this. My commute is 7.5 miles and I'm driving 4.5 and riding 3. It's not quite cutting my driving in half, but it's close. And I'm getting some exercise, although I'm riding in my work clothes so I'm not really working up a sweat or getting my heart rate going much. Last Thursday it was so windy that I practically flew to work, easily cruising at 19-20mph without breaking a sweat. The ride home into the wind was significantly UNfun. At first I was glad that I still had my aerobars on my commuter (my old Trek road bike). Then I tried getting into the aero position. The winds were so gusty that I was way too unstable in aero. At one point the wind was coming from the north so strongly that when I was riding east I almost couldn't turn left into the wind! Crazy wind.

I put some nifty double sided pedals on my commuter bike. They've got SPD on one side and flat pedals on the other side. So if I'm in the mood for a longer ride and detour in the morning, I can wear my SPD bike shoes. Otherwise I can just wear my work shoes. Commuting by bike is really fun, but I'm starting to especially enjoy riding in my work clothes and work shoes. All I do when I get to work is take off my helmet; lock my bike in my bike locker and walk into my office. No changing of shoes or showering. So easy! And you can't beat fresh brisk air in the morning. If you haven't tried bike commuting, do it!

Swimming has sounded appealing lately (in my head). But I'm too cheap to pay for a gym membership right now and I'm too wimpy to go swim in a lake! I miss the Caribbean!

Birthday weekend

2010-03-09T15:45:00.000-08:00

I celebrated my birthday this weekend by taking a last minute trip to see my parents. My mom, being the amazing mom that she is, baked me two gluten free birthday cakes. Almost every birthday that I can remember, I've always wanted angel food cake with marshmallow frosting. Last March my mom made one as her first gluten free cake in honor of my birthday. It was awesome. This year the angel food cake didn't turn out quite right - it collapsed. But she saved it by turning it into a trifle, complete with my gooey sweet marshmallow frosting. She also made a gluten free carrot cake for me though. She didn't ever admit it, but I think the reason she made two was because it's just impossible to decorate on marshmallow frosting and she's really known for her decorations (as well as her delicious carrot cake)!

So here is the inspiration for the cake - the abstract art on an old triathlon tshirt belonging to my dad (he's done countless tris and 50 marathons!) and my Ironman finish line photo!

Ironman Florida pretty much sums up my 30th year. Last year I started my 30th year with a celebratory half marathon. My husband ran that same half marathon this morning as his first half. I PRed last year by almost an hour and it set the tone for the entire year of training hard and having a great time too. Finishing Ironman Florida was really the icing on the cake for the year. And on my birthday it became the literal icing on the cake....Yup, that's a likeness of my finish photo on the top of that carrot cake!

Up close details. Notice how my mom made the bicyclists pink to match my bike?

The cake even had M-Dots!

All three gluten free birthday cakes - angel food cake, carrot cake, and a pop-up birthday card cake!

This year I started my 31st year with a 31 minute run while my dad rode his bike with me. I hadn't planned to run 31 minutes, it's just how long my 2 loop run took! Next year I'll either run 32 minutes, or do the half marathon again. I had a great time with that last year. My friend Jennifer got us matching green shirts and mine said "Birthday Girl" on the back - some of the other runners actually sang happy birthday to me around mile 2! Today was the perfect day for my husband's first half marathon. It's so nice to see the sun. It's starting to really feel like spring.

Happy Pi(e) Day everyone!

Blue Diamond Nut Thins review (gluten free!)

2010-03-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

Recently Blue Diamond sent me some Nut Thins. Blue Diamond is a partner with the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, and Blue Diamond is a sponsor of the NFCA's Athletes for Awareness blogs. Blue Diamond is also a local business for me - I rode my bike past their headquarters countless times last year. It's right between doggie day care and the bike path!

I had seen Nut Thins for sale when we were in Florida for my Ironman back in November. But before the Ironman, I was really paranoid about trying new foods - I wasn't trying anything new during race week. I also then saw them on the shelf at my parents house when I visited for Thanksgiving. My parents have a gluten free shelf in the pantry just for my occasional visits! The shelf is always packed full, and if I tried everything on each visit, well, I would probably gain 2 pounds per day instead of just 1 per day! My mom also loves to bake, so I had a variety of pie crusts and donuts to sample as well, so I sampled those instead of the Nut Thins that visit.

Fast forward to December and I found myself browsing the gluten free selections at my grocery store wanting to try something new. I bought a box of the Almond Nut Thins. These are basically plain crackers made with almonds and rice flour! You get to eat 16 regular sized crackers per 130 calorie serving (and 3 grams of protein)! The Almond Nut Thins were great and on our next shopping trip we bought a box of the Pecan Nut Thins in addition to a second box of the Almond Nut Thins. We love the pecan ones just as much as the almond ones!

Blue Diamond sent me Country Ranch Nut Thins. Normally I'm not much of a fan of flavored crackers or chips. I like basic flavors because I don't eat them very often so I want them to work for a variety of things - eating plain, with soup, with cheese, etc. But I had a box of Country Ranch crackers sitting there just asking me to give them a chance, so I did. Oh so yummy! The Country Ranch flavor is even more addicting than the plain Almond or Pecan crackers! And surprise surprise, they go well with everything. I've crumbled them onto a potato, eaten them with beans and salsa, crunched on them with soup, snacked on them plain, with salmon, etc, etc. These are so good. I'm so happy I got the chance to try these! They are delicious.

Nut Thins are made in a shared facility, BUT as they clearly say on the box "Each production run is sampled and tested to confirm gluten levels do not exceed 20 PPM." That's basically as good as you can get! I would not hesitate to recommend Nut Thins to a celiac. They are absolutely delicious and I've not had any reactions. And my non-celiac husband enjoys them all too. His two cents - the pecan are a little sweet and the ranch are very flavorful. When I came home from work he was eating the ranch ones with cream cheese! The crackers come in an airtight aluminum bag inside the box. (The aluminum bag is covered with food-grade plastic film.) The bag is easy to tear open without any scissors. We haven't worried about putting the bag into an airtight container after opening and we haven't had any problems with them going stale. I think I'll buy the Hint of Sea Salt flavor next or maybe Hazelnut... One thing is for sure, Nut Thins are a new staple in our house!

FTC disclaimer: These products were provided to me free of charge. I was not paid to do this review.

Safety bike gear reviews

2010-03-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

To continue from last week's "cold" weather reviews, I wanted to add a few more items that I incorporate into my bicycle commute in the non-summer months. I got a Sugoi helmet cover last year so I could ride in the rain and keep my head as dry as possible. I chose the ugly neon yellow color because it's super reflective. It practically glows in the dark. I feel radioactive when I've got this over my helmet. I bought mine at REI, and it doesn't look like they have the neon yellow one online anymore. I kept this on my helmet until mid-summer when I preferred the ventilation of my helmet over visibility. I haven't actually ridden in real rain with this, so I can't vouch for the waterproofness. But it helps keep my head warmer and it provides 360 degree visibility. You can find this for less than $30 and the neon yellow one is inevitably always cheaper than the cool black cover.

Another purchase I made in fall '08 with the idea that I'd be bike commuting all winter was a pair of bike booties. These are the Sugoi Resistor Bike Booties. List price at REI is $50 though I think I got them for half off somehow. They fit on over your bike shoes. The bottom of the boot is mostly open so that your cleat is exposed and able to clipin to your pedals. There is a small velcro strap that goes across the bottom of the shoe to hold on the booties. Then you zip up the back. In theory they are water resistent but I decided I was too wimpy to test them in the rain. They do keep your feet warmer though because they keep the wind from rushing through your well-ventilated bike shoes. They are fleece lined, but the fleece just matters for warmth since the booties don't really touch your skin at all. The outside is rubbery. I haven't bothered wearing these this year, but last year I used them a lot. (Let's face it, I could be acclimating to the cold, or more realistically it's just that I'm not riding as much as last winter.) As an added bonus, the bright yellow is fairly reflective. Since your road bike probably doesn't have reflectors on the pedals, this is a decent substitute in the winter months when it's more likely to be dark on your bike commute. My main problem with these is that you have to adjust your shoes exactly how you want them before putting on the booties. There's no way around this, it's just how booties are. But forget playing with the Velcro straps to loosen your shoes after 2 or 3 hours on the bike. You have to get off the bike and remove the booties first.

My most dorky bit of safety gear is my reflective vest. Mine isn't exactly like the ones pictured here. Although mine is designed basically like the orange one, mine is actually more reflective. The piping around the edges is neon yellow instead of black, and the yellow stripes have an additional silver reflective stripe down the middle. I can't remember where I bought mine and there is no label. I don't think I got mine at a bike store, but maybe I did... It was the cheapest one I've ever seen, something like $10. The best thing about it is that it is one size fits all, and it's mesh. See those black things on the side that look like tabs? Well, that's what connects the front to the back. It's a long elastic thing (mine is neon yellow, of course). The front is connected with some velcro. Because it's one size fits all, I can wear this OVER my backpack! It actually stretches enough to have the back part of the vest around my gigantic backpack. My backpack usually has about 4 big tupperware containers for snacks and my lunch, plus that day's work clothes, and in the afternoon it'll have my leg warmers and a long sleeve top usually too. It's the kind of backpack that you hit people with when you turn around in the elevator. This type of vest is a lot more useful for me than a reflective jersey would be. Since it's mesh I can wear it in the summer and it doesn't make me overheated (although in the summer it's almost always bright outside when I'm riding). I can wear it over any amount of layers. And it's way less expensive than a reflective jersey.

I also have lights, of course! I've got a great red light for the back which is on a clip, so I can easily place it on whichever bike I feel like riding. It hooks onto my saddle bag. For the front, I have a permanently attached light on my hybrid, but I don't have any front flights on my road bikes. I'm too lazy to take them on and off for races, etc. Also I've had a hard time with those lights because they can be difficult to adjust to aim exactly where you want. Lately I've been using my headlamp though. It works pretty well and I can adjust it to either fit over my helmet - sitting basically where the visor on a helmet usually is - or I have the light be on my forehead. The best part about having a light attached to the helmet instead of the bike is that the light shines on what you're looking at. I feel better about having a light on my head because I can look at a car and I like to think that if a driver is more likely to notice a light that is suddenly aimed directly at the driver.

For the first week of March, I think I did pretty well on my bike commuting. I rode my bike to work each day that it wasn't raining - Monday, Thursday, and Friday. (I also ran Wednesday morning on the treadmill!) Monday's ride home was pretty grey and getting dark - I'd forgotten my headlamp and was getting a little worried about not having one but I survived; Thursday's ride home was great as there were no clouds to cover the sun. Friday I wasn't really excited about riding home. Actually I almost never am. I like to ride in the morning but by the afternoon I'm dreading it. There are definitely a few unpleasant parts to my commute and at times I get nervous about it. Since it wasn't super bright out and I was really not feeling it my husband picked me up from work. Perhaps it was an indication that I needed the rest, because yesterday I wasn't feeling very well at all. We skipped our planned ride and just rested all day. But I got 7 workouts in for the week, so I'm feeling good about that.

Some "cold" weather reviews

2010-02-28T21:02:00.001-08:00

As promised, here are a few of my go-to items for cold weather bike commuting. Cold is relative, so make of it what you will.

SmartWool PhD Cycling Mini-Crew socks I used to be very anti-wool - dude, it itches! But then I discovered some incredibly soft and cushy wool socks at REI one winter - cute with flowers on them. They kept my feet warm! (My toes are always cold. They're cold right now actually, though cozy in UGGS boots, indoors...) So I picked up a pair of wool cycling socks once and loved them. They keep my toes mostly warm, but they're still thin like my other athletic socks, so they fit in my bike shoes and running shoes just fit. Now I have about 5 pairs and they are my go-to socks all winter. I brought them to Ironman Florida in case it was cold at all, but I didn't need them. In theory wool is good at regulating temperature, so my feet shouldn't get too hot in these. But I have on rare occasion felt like my feet were overheated when wearing these socks. Those occasions have been either while running more than 40 minutes or so (this morning I wore them and didn't have hot toes after 40 minutes, so that's why I picked that number. Very unscientific of me..) OR while riding home from work when it's over 90 degrees or so or on a reeeally long ride when it's just relatively warm out. These have been a great purchase for me and I love using them when it's cold. I've worn thick socks (wool and not) to cycle in, but cycling shoes just don't work with a wide variety of sock thicknesses. I used these today - it was in the mid to high 40s - my toes were cold, but not achingly numb. But I also only had a 30 minute ride.

Next up are my Pearl Izumi Therma Fleece Leg Warmers. I bought these at REI two years ago in the spring when I first started bike commuting. The sizes seem to vary only by length (as opposed to diameter). I went with large and they stretch from the very top of my leg to my ankle. (Usually I have a slight gap between the leg warmers and the mini-crew wool socks.) I pull them up as far as they go and I put the legs of my bike shorts over the leg warmers. (This is not a flattering look, but it works for me.) The top of the leg warmers have a rubber-like band to help prevent them from slipping down. I've never had a problem with slippage while riding. However, after walking around in them, or crouching down, I have to readjust them. (i.e. these do not let you turn running shorts into running pants) These leg warmers are super soft - they are fleece lined after all. They keep my legs warm in the early morning. There is a 6" (or so) zipper near the ankle. On warmer mornings I find myself unzipping it about a mile away from work, just to help cool off so I'm not quite so sweaty when I arrive. I did try PI's full fleece-lined bike tights but they made my butt too hot! On the other hand, on extremely cold mornings when I'm wearing regular shorts with fleece lined leg warmers, I have on occasion briefly wondered if I forgot to put my shorts on because my butt is freezing and it feels like it's fully exposed to the cold air. These leg warmers have been a great investment because I'm a layering person. I hate committing to pants when it might get hot, just like I can't stand layering long sleeve tops unless the bottom layer is sleeveless or short sleeved. It must come from growing up in Phoenix. I just know it's going to get hot eventually. I can honestly say if I hadn't purchased these, I would've skipped a lot more morning rides. I've been known to shove these into my saddle bag on daylong rides that end in the hot afternoon. They're a bit bulky for a jersey pocket, but they fit there too. In a pinch they might even fit on aerobars? For bike commuting, these are a dream because most afternoons bike shorts are just fine for the ride home and these leg warmers just go in my backpack. Price is about $45 - often on sale in the spring.

The Halo Anti-Freeze headband! My ears are pretty much always cold because they stick out like I'm Charlie Brown. The yellow stripe supposedly prevents sweat from dripping down your forehead into your face. I've never worn the headband when it was warm enough to make me sweat, so I can't vouch for that. The headband is pretty thin, but it keeps my ears pretty warm. Last year I realized it's also great at blocking the wind noise (when the wind is really loud I think it creates a bit of a psychological barrier to speed....) Because the headband is pretty thin, it's light weight which means it's easy to shove into your jersey pocket if the day heats up. It also means you can mostly get by without having to adjust your helmet. Very helpful for commuting since I don't usually need the headband in the afternoon. This headband is great for running too, and it's small enough that if you get hot and take it off, you can carry it and it's not annoying. For wearing this under a running cap, I do usually adjust the running cap to be more snug when I take the ear warmer off, but it's not necessary. I just have a fear of my hat blowing off and then having to backtrack! This is a one size fits all thing. It's got some elastic stretch. I've had this headband for four years - it was a spur of the moment purchase at a race expo. $15. Worth every penny and has held up well.

Bike Commuting and Coach Jamima

2010-02-28T19:51:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I canceled my downtown parking pass. I like to indulge in driving to work when it is dark and cold and wet outside. In previous years that's meant roughly December-March. March has usually been an add-on just out of habit. It's easy to just keep driving to work when it might rain and it's kind of still cold... Inertia is really the issue. This year I got my parking pass in January and I abandoned it in February. It looks like tomorrow shouldn't be too awful to commute by bike. No rain at least! I may be driving the rest of the week though!

This is probably a good place to admit that I take advantage of a discount the city offers to people who normally use alternative transportation and I get to buy 12 one-day discounted parking passes each quarter. It's pretty awesome because it's more than half off the normal parking rate, and for the most part, I can bike to work (or run!) and avoid the hefty monthly downtown parking fees (close to $200!). It's a great deal and I encourage you to see if there's a similar program where you live!

Since tomorrow begins bike commute season for me, I thought I'd post a little bit about a few of my cold weather commute necessities this week. But first, I want to write about my all time favorite Ironman training necessity - my coach!

Jamima Wolk (formerly Iley) coached me to my amazing Ironman Florida finish last year. Lucky me - she married a friend of mine from law school! When Dave and I moved to town almost 2.5 years ago, Dan organized a happy hour so we could get together, and that's when we met Jamima for the first time. Dan had told me before that she was a former professional Ironman triathlete, so I was already in awe of her. She is the sweetest person in the world too though. We met just a few months after my first half ironman - St Croix, in which it took me 9.5 hours to get to the finish line. Jamima is such a nice person that she managed to make me feel like I was awesome anyways! Really she is the most supportive friendly person you could imagine. Fast forward a year and I'm sitting at their dinner table telling them how I'm going to sign up for Ironman Arizona. They let me drink out of the pint glass prize Jamima won at some triathlon in Arizona. Closer to greatness. :) We talked a little bit about how a coach might be helpful in my journey. She offered to give me any advice and help along the way. Shortly after that I ended up signing up for Ironman Florida instead. I'd looked into hiring a coach but decided it would be too expensive, after all I'd gotten through all of my other events without coaches, and Jamima had a new baby so I didn't really want to bother her. I figured once I had my training schedule worked out, I'd visit her and see what she thought of it. I got some more books on triathlon training to add to my library and I thought I had a big master plan for training in my head. I just needed to write it down. My weekend to-do lists constantly included "write training plan; bike; run; laundry; etc." I had some vaguely specific plans for the training, but it was hard to follow because it wasn't written down, which also meant if something came up, I'd just tell myself that I could accommodate it and change the next workouts since I hadn't really written anything down yet. Whenever I had time to write down a plan, I was basically paralyzed by indecision. I had too many ideas. There are lots and lots of different approaches to take, and I just couldn't decide what would work best, so I never did come up with my annual training plan, despite many attempts.

After quite a few months of irregular training, Jamima asked me if I had a coach yet. By then I thought maybe she could save me and I hired her before she could change her mind. I never had time to figure out my training plan because I was too busy training. I had just gotten myself through a half ironman (Vineman) and PRed it by over 2.5 hours, but what I really needed was for someone to just tell me what to do and when to do it. Jamima asked me tons of questions to figure out what my preferences were. I like to ride long on Sunday and do long runs on Saturday. I wanted to be able to incorporate my workouts into my commute whenever possible by biking or running to work. There were certain days or weeks that I knew I'd be super busy at work. Or I'd point out a weekend that would be my only chance to see my husband for two weeks. I only wanted to swim twice a week because the swim was the least of my concern, etc.

Jamima came up with this amazing month long calendar for my workouts that fit my life. It was Kendra's Workout Schedule. Not some generic thing that might work for an average person. It fit into my life perfectly and was exactly what I needed. Within a day or two of receiving the first workout calendar, I got dreadfully sick and she had to redo it all!!! I'm still a little amazed she didn't give up on me and send me back my money. I loved getting those emails at the end of a month, letting me know what I'd be doing all of the next month. Jamima basically planned my life for me. She made me into such a stronger athlete and helped me get ready for Ironman Florida like no book could have. I emailed her all the time during those last few months before Florida asking so many questions, and she always had an answer for me. I called her the night before so she could ease my nerves, and as soon as we got back to the condo after the race I called her to let her know how I did. Like a good coach, she'd been tracking me all day, so she already knew, but I wanted to give her details. I'd thought about her a lot during the race, whenever I used a mantra, since that'd been her suggestion. And one of her specific mantra suggestions had really been great. "I'm strong, I've trained for this, I'm ready!" And I was all of those things because of her. I really can't write enough about what a wonderful coach Jamima was for me. She was really invaluable.

I'm not sure if Jamima is taking any new clients right now (if you're interested, let me know and I can find out!), but Jamima has also developed an iPhone app (available for Android too!) for first time triathletes! You can read more about it on her website here. Jamima was the best investment I made for Ironman Florida. I'm a convert now. Having a coach - one who gets you for the athlete that you are - is really the way to go.

UPDATE: Jamima is currently accepting new clients.

Yeah, I hope not sporadically

2010-02-22T21:34:00.001-08:00

Sorry about the sporadic blogging. So many things going on, and I haven't been feeling super well so have been opting for sleep rather than blogging most evenings. Even though it would be so easy to transfer our Party Pardee 100k registration to other people, it looks like we're going to try to tough out the ride on our own. We still have til April 3 to get ready. But last year I was doing 40+ mile rides in February on the weekends and riding on the trainer before work twice a week too. This year, well... not so much. The trainer is folded up and hidden behind an end table. I'm basically just riding on Saturdays. Last year hills weren't something I worried about because St Croix 70.3 hadn't been that long ago and any time I rode outside when we lived on St Thomas I was riding on hills. This year, well... until a week ago the last time I rode on a hill was probably at the Vineman Aquabike. Who needs hills when training for Ironman Florida?

This past Saturday Dave and I rode hills again. By hills I mean hills for someone who lives in Sacramento. We rode from the hatchery up to Beals Point and back, then did a few extra miles to get closer to 25 miles. When we first moved here from St Thomas, we rented bikes and rode up to Beals and we figured we must have misunderstood the directions since we'd heard it was a hilly ride. I can't really remember right now but I am not sure if there is more than a 7% grade on that part of the bike path. So, for someone who'd ridden the Beast a few months earlier, well, this was a flat ride. Now that we've lived in Sac for 2.5 years, that's the part of the bike path we ride when we need to do hills and don't want to have to plot out a ride in the foothills on roads with which we aren't familiar.

The ride was fine, not great, not awful. It stopped being fun for me after about 10 miles though. Worked up a sweat riding up and then cooled off really quickly and then rode downhill. I was not comfortable and not smiling. I felt like such a wimp. Last year during my tough weekend workouts, I'd tell myself "This is what I'm doing today." to remind myself I had nothing else to do and this was just part of the plan to get to Florida. It doesn't work quite as well now because I was remembering fondly the weekends we had in January when it just kept raining and raining and we just stayed inside in pajamas all day watching movies and drinking hot tea. Saturday around 11am when we were on our ride, I tried telling myself that I just needed to ride 25 and then I could sit on my butt all day. But wow that was so hard. Ended up getting up to 24.something. Put me in 2009 and I would've ridden back and forth until my bike computer hit 25.0. Not in 2010.

I'm not really looking forward to the physical challenge of Party Pardee yet. I'm not backing out because it's a pretty ride and my husband and I haven't done any organized rides together and it's a great excuse to do the route and not have to worry about cars as much. Being gluten free means I don't get to enjoy the wonderful buffets of delectables at these events, but I still get to appreciate the value of having hundreds (sometimes thousands) of other riders on the roads with me. My main hesitation in riding on the roads is safety. Automobile drivers just don't seem to see bicyclists. Some bike safety instructors teach cyclists to act like their invisible. I hate feeling that way, but the closest calls I've had with vehicles I was about as lit up and reflective as possible. So clearly I must have just been invisible. Point being, if I can't convince everyone to ditch their cars and ride a bike whenever possible, I can at least take advantage of having lots of other cyclists on the road to hopefully serve as a visible reminder to Share the Road. Critical mass baby.

So, April 3 is my big event. It's going to kick my butt and I may be miserable and wondering why I'm doing it. I just need to remember it's not a race, it's just for fun, and we can take all day because I can't eat the food at the finish either. But hopefully I won't be too slow for my husband to enjoy himself. He may need to bring the camera...

(Blog title quote is from Clueless, in case you were wondering...)

Back to normal!

2010-02-18T13:12:00.001-08:00

After weeks and weeks of being lazy and lethargic after my Ironman, I'm back to exercising regularly. And it feels good! Last week I ran before work twice - just 30-35 minutes each time, but way better than just sleeping in. Saturday Dave and I joined the tri club for a group ride. In theory I was the leader of the shorter ride. In reality, I was lucky to see two people waiting for me at the top of the last hill. Three months off the bike and a 16 mile hilly ride was enough for me. The ride was partially rural (cows and horses!) and partially on busy streets. Actually I definitely could've ridden longer, even though my legs sure burned on some of those hills. But we planned to keep us this regular exercise routine for awhile so we saw no point in going out and riding the course a second time when it might poop us out.

Sunday morning we went to the Fleet Feet group run again. Dave ran 10 (longest run ever for him)!!! Sierra and I kept it to 5.5 miles with a stop at the doggie park near the end. (We didn't even try to keep up with Cameron, Jennifer, or Jennifer's husband this time.) Monday was a beautiful day and even though I just wanted to sit at home and finish reading the last book in the Twilight saga, I knew I'd be kicking myself come Tuesday when I would be sitting in my office wishing I could go for a ride. So Dave and I went on a ride to explore the Sacramento Northern railway bike trail. We did a short loop, riding about an hour. The bike trail reminded me of one Lauren and I rode last March in the east bay. It's a paved bike path but every so often you have to cross roads - most of the crossings have crosswalks with lights. It's not nearly as cool as the American River trail, and I don't think I would ride it by myself. We saw some horses. We rode back along an empty levee road that was more enjoyable than the railway trail because it was so empty.

Yesterday I rode my bike to work because the weather was so gorgeous and it made it convenient to go to Cameron's birthday happy hour since Dave drove downtown for happy hour and we just threw my bike in the trunk for the drive home. The ride to work was wonderful! After happy hour, ended up going to PF Changs for dinner spur of the moment. Their gluten free menu once had me enamored but now every time I go in there one more item seems to be removed from the gluten free menu. Not sure what the deal is, but it's annoying to place an order and then have to change your mind because it's no longer gluten free.

This morning Sierra and I went for another short 30 minute run. Since time was short we did some intervals. Aside from my lungs burning from the cold air, I'm enjoying the habit of exercising before work again!

Collagephotos, Athlinks, and nostalgia

2010-02-09T20:48:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to point out two really awesome websites.

Collagevideo.com - Helps you find workout videos/dvds. It shows clips of the dvd plus lets you sort by difficulty, length, type of workout, etc. Really if you are in the market for any kind of workout video, this is the website to visit!

athlinks.com - Amazing collection of race results. Once you register, you can merge all your results (or they might already all be attributed to the same person if 1) you have a unique name and 2) all your races were in the same state) to view all on the same page. Now most of the races I did in the VI aren't on athlinks, but so far I've submitted a few races to them (Carnival Mile, 8 Tuff Miles, Beach to Beach Power Swim) and they've added those results quickly. I plan to submit all the other races that still have race results online, too. With all your race results on the same website, you can quickly see how each 5k compares, which one was your PR, what place you got, etc, and remember where you got all that bling! Here are my race results.

And here's some of my bling!

St. Croix 70.3 2007

Beach to Beach Power Swim (3.5 mile - 1st overall for Dave and 3rd? place AG for me;
and Dad placed in his AG in the 1 miler) 2007

Against the Tide swim (3/4 mile - 2nd place) 2006
(yes we came home and took photos from our deck and
you can see where we swam in the background. *sigh*)

hmm why yes, yes, I am missing the VI right now. It sure was nice to feel like a winner so often! And you can't complain about the weather. Except what it does to the hair...

Nielsam sweep for some 2 mile run

Mother's Against Gun run 2006

And in 2007 my mom did the 2 mile run and won her age group in her first race ever.

Bling for everyone! Oh, yes, I really do miss the VI.

Goals for 2010

2010-02-01T12:31:00.001-08:00

A light bulb went on in my head this morning. I don't need to go long this year. That goal is a little daunting after training my butt off last year. Maybe I'll do some longer events or races, but I think I finally found a goal that will encourage me to exercise on a regular basis and it will be a fun one too.

My #1 goal is going to be to earn a new 5k PR. Specifically, I want to break 30 minutes. My current 5k PR is 31:51, earned on August 9, 2008, at the Susan B. Anthony 5k. Mostly thanks to my friend Jennifer running the first mile with me before she sped off into the distance.

According to athlinks.com (more on that site later), my 5k PR is actually 30:12, earned October 26, 2008, with my friend Bree pulling me along the whole way. But we decided that race was short. My Polar HRM gave it 3.0 miles, and the people around us with Garmins agreed.

Last year I didn't do any real 5ks or 10ks. Mostly because I didn't have time to fit them into my training. Kind of hard to go race a 5k when you have a 15 mile run on the calendar instead. The one "5k" I did last year was a little fund raiser race and it was clearly short too (my time was 25 minutes but my watch said it was just 2.95 miles). That was the event that made me start paying attention to whether or not events are USATF certified.

I haven't yet identified any 5k races that I definitely want to do. But I'm keeping my eyes open. There are two 5k races nearby this Sunday that I could do just to get a baseline for the year. I haven't been running much so I wouldn't have any expectations of a PR this early, but it'd be nice just to see where I'm at.

I have a few more goals in mind, but I'm not sure I'm ready to commit to them yet. Must discuss with the husband as it'd be nice to do the same events this year. Maybe the ride around Lake Tahoe? I have friends who want to ride their first century this year, so it'd be fun to join them too. I'm sure I'll do a sprint tri or two, or three. And the tri club is encouraging people to participate in an upcoming fun adults swim meet. I may have volunteered to swim fly in the 200 medley relay. What was I thinking?

Fleet Feet group run

2010-01-31T10:26:00.001-08:00

Dave and I just got back from the Fleet Feet Sunday group run. Every Sunday people show up at 8am and do an out-and-back course along the river. Today's group had people running between 5 and 18 miles. I decided to do 6, since that's what my half marathon training program said I should have done last weekend. I couldn't keep up with my 5 months pregnant friend Jennifer but she and our friend Cameron slowed down every so often so I could pretend I was a part of the conversation every so often. It's nice to run with other people every so often, instead of my usual solo-run, or running with Dave, which is great when he wants an easy jog but he's so much faster than me that he needs to run without me too. Dave ended up doing 9 miles - perhaps his longest run ever! Yay Dave!

My knees bothered me on the run though, so unfortunately I think I need to stop increasing my mileage and just stick to more frequent, lower mileage runs. I think this means I won't be doing the Shamrock'n half marathon in March for my birthday this year. But Dave's run went so well that he signed up for it as soon as we got home! It'll be my turn to be the cheerleader this year! :) We're both signed up for a 100k bike ride in early April though, so instead of long runs on Sundays maybe I'll just start biking again. After the run I used some store credit to buy a 140.6 triathlon license plate frame for my car and I enjoyed the delicious free coffee that was available for the group runners. I think we'll go back again sometime!

Thank You for Supporting Kendra Nielsam’s 2009 Ironman Florida Campaign!

2010-01-31T07:29:00.001-08:00

A thank you from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness!

Way to go Kendra! 

Forward this message to a friend

On November 7^th 2009, NFCA Athlete for Awareness Kendra Nielsam completed the Iroman Florida, dedicating her race to helping raise awareness of celiac disease and supporting efforts to increase the rate of diagnosis among the 2.5 million Americans still suffering.

Kendra finished the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run in 15 hours 15 minutes and 49 seconds, and through the Janus Charity Challenge program, raise almost $4,000 to support NFCA and celiac awareness- Amazing!

Despite the many obstacles Kendra encountered since receiving her own celiac diagnosis earlier this year, Kendra was able restore her health, reclaim her life, and achieve her fitness goals. By overcoming her own personal challenges managing her disease and diet while trying to achieve her athletic goals, Kendra's story has inspired others to believe, achieve, and champion the cause as well. Kendra's journey has motivated those in the celiac community to pursue a healthy, gluten-free lifestyle.

But she couldn't have done it without YOU!

The NFCA would like to congratulate and thank you for your encouragement, support, and contribution towards Kendra's incredible fundraising and athletic effort.

Currently, 1 in 133 Americans have Celiac Disease while only 1 in 4700 is diagnosed. In this respect, we are still far from reaching the finish line.

Your donations will go directly towards raising awareness of Celiac Disease and its complications among physicians and the general public, improving the lives of millions of Americans and relieving the burden on our healthcare system correspondingly.

NFCA's goal is to gain a diagnosis for 1 million Americans in the next five years. Your contribution is a critically important part in helping us meet this mission.

We encourage you to continue to follow the progress of Kendra and our organization by subscribing to our monthly newsletter and following the Athletes for Awareness Blog through our website, www.CeliacCentral.org

Join our mailing list!

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Ironman Florida Race Report: Post-finish

2010-01-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

Ironman Florida 2009 finish time: 15:15:48

What I'd do differently on the Run:

Body Glide the bottoms of my feet!!!!!!! It would've been so much less painful without those blisters. Maybe try having a different flavor sports drink for the run and the bike. Drinking the same thing all day was just impossible. Have a toothbrush in my special needs bag (no need for toothpaste, just a quick dry brushing of all that ickiness would've been great. Also maybe look into whether I could get an American's with Disabilities Act special accommodation to somehow have HOT gluten free chicken broth. It would've been so nice! On a related note, when I volunteered at IM Arizona I noticed they had Lay's potato chips, which were gluten free. I missed out on those entirely but they might have sounded good to eat on the run, had I known they were there. For the first few weeks after Ironman I kept wishing I'd run more, wishing I'd tried to make myself to run during the times I thought I had to walk. But I think I'm ready to accept that I did everything I could to finish and that was ultimately my goal. Next time I can think about goal times, etc.

After the race:

After I crossed the finish line, a volunteer immediately approached me and told me her name and that she'd be helping me now. She asked me if I was okay and I thought I was. I stopped my watch as the volunteer put an emergency/space blanket around my shoulders and walked me a few steps where another volunteer took off my timing chip. I asked him to turn off my shoepod while he was down there because I wasn't sure when I'd be able to bend over that far. Another volunteer place my finisher's medal around my neck. Then I took off the space blanket off and tried to give it back to her (I was HOT) but she wisely refused and told me I might want it later. She asked me what size tshirt I wanted and another volunteer went to find it and then said they were out of that size so I got the next one up, which fit better anyways! (Annoyingly the finish tshirts are all standard unflattering to women uni-sex tshirts, so I haven't even worn mine!) Yet another volunteer gave me my finisher's hat. Then my volunteer walked me over to the finisher's photo area. I put on my new finisher's hat and placed everything else on the ground and smiled big for the camera.

My volunteer then walked me a few more steps and asked if I needed to go to the medical tent. Nope! She asked me if I wanted her to help me find my people, but I told her nah that my husband was usually pretty good about finding me after a race. So she just walked me to the massage tent! Ahh massage. A bunch of athletes were sitting in chairs in front of the tent, so I was bummed, expecting a long wait. But it seems that this was not actually a line, or maybe it was a line for people who had made reservations for an additional massage. I got to go straight back for a complimentary (included in the price) 15 minute massage. I almost laid down with my amphipod still on. It took me awhile to unload everything. I didn't take my shoes off because I knew I'd never get them back on.

"Anywhere in particular you want me to focus?" hmmm "ow actually my tendon on the front of my right ankle really hurts. My knees hurt. My legs are sore. My back is sore. I feel pretty stiff all over. So I guess everywhere." After what seemed like a few seconds, he told me to roll over. I think he had to ask twice as I was drifting off to sleep. After I rolled over he asked me what happened to my hamstring - he said I had a huge bruise. I couldn't see it and I couldn't remember falling during the day, but it was a long day, and my bruise didn't hurt, so I didn't care and told him to rub my hamstrings anyways.

The massage tent looked a little like a tent from MASH with exhausted bodies on tables. It felt so nice to get a massage, but it was also a little cruel to only get a 15 minute massage. While I was in there, Pete came over to congratulate me. He's the awesome massage therapist who gave me a massage the day before and who I had an hour long massage scheduled with for the next day. Anyone who is doing IMFL must use this guy. He's awesome! Send me a note and I'll hook you up.

When I left the massage tent wrapped in my space blanket, I was on my own. I walked past the food tent just glancing at it - clearly nothing was gluten free. I figured Dave wouldn't be too far from the place where athletes exit the secured finish area, and I was right. There he was with Lauren. I tried to smile.

They asked how I was doing and I mentioned the feeling kinda weird about food and having not eating much of anything on the run. After consulting with them, I decided to go back to the medical tent to ask if I should be worried at all. The triage nurse asked me when I last peed (on the first run loop) and she said I looked pretty good and that most people are nauseated by food at the end and get their appetite back in a few hours. So they sent me away. I picked up a slice of pizza for Dave on the way past the food tent which he was happy to eat. The only vegan option for Lauren was a bagel but I correctly decided she wouldn't want it. I was disappointed that the merchandise store was closed, although not surprised since the schedule had them closing at 6 on race day.

At this point I was walking pretty slowly. Taking baby steps actually. Each step was stiff and now I actually felt like I just traveled 140.6 miles by swimming, biking, and running. It was probably 11pm by now. Dave and Lauren carried my stuff for me and Dave basically propped me up and helped me walk. I mentioned I thought I might be able to walk back to the condo but they both were of sound mind and said no. The three of us made our way to where the road closure ended - basically on the far west side of the hotel's convention center. Somewhere on the walk my parents called my cell phone, which Dave had been using to Tweet updates about my progress all day. They'd been tracking me online so wanted to congratulate me for finishing. I spoke a few perhaps coherent sentences to them, told them about the flat and not eating, and then I decided it was too complicated to walk and chat at the same time. Dave left me and Lauren and walked back the next 1/2 or so mile to get the car.

When we got back to the condo parking lot, it was really funny trying to decide how to get to the condo unit which was on the second story. Two choices 1) walk maybe 100 feet farther, but take the elevator up, or 2) take the shorter distance but go up the stairs. I went with option 2 and had Dave essentially push me up each step. When we got inside, I called my coach to tell her the 5 minute summary and to thank her for being so awesome. She advised me to have some food ready in case I got hungry in the middle of the night, since the fridge would be a far walk. Smart woman!

I took a 15 minute ice bath and then got into warm pajamas and put my feet up, with a pack of ice on my extremely sore ankle tendon. During the ice bath, I had a few bites of plain potato and after the bath I was starting to get hungry. By the time I was on the couch, I asked Dave to cook me one of my gluten free pizzas - Glutino Duo Cheese. Yum Yum. It was great. I really had to rely on Dave and Lauren to get me the basics of food and water. It was so awesome to have them there to help me. It was amazing to crawl into bed at almost 2am. I'd been up for 23 hours which I hadn't done since college, and during that time I became an Ironman!

Ironman Florida Race Report: Run (the finish!)

2010-01-23T20:05:00.000-08:00

I could see mile marker 24 up ahead. My knees had been hurting for who knows how many miles. They only hurt when I ran though, and that hadn't been much in this second loop. They hurt on the inside near the kneecaps. I'd never felt pain there before, but in all my research to figure out what caused my outer knee pain (IT band) I'd read about runner's knee, and it sure seemed to be the same pain that I'd imagined came with runner's knee. It struck me as a tad bid funny that I developed this in my first marathon, but not funny enough to laugh. I think laughter on the course at this point would probably only be related to hysteria.

An older woman had passed us after she'd started jogging at some point in the last mile or so. I think she was probably the trigger that made me want to start jogging at mile 24. A guy passed us who was running fairly fast and had his arm bandaged up. Our guess was he was only behind us because of the time he'd spent with medical. He was clearly going to book it to the finish line.

The thought of the finish line had made me remove the reflective stickers that were visible from my front. I could totally picture my face in my finish photo just being a big blur of light caused by the flash reflecting off my hat! I'm glad I did this because my first loop run photo actually does show a minor reflection on the hot pink reflective sticker that was on my IT band wrap.

Mile 23 had me feeling a little stiff. I dropped one of my fuel belt drink flasks and bending over to pick it up was a bit of a chore! In addition to the stiffness, knee pain, and those awful blisters on the balls of my feet, I was also feeling a lot of pain in the joint where my right pinky toe meets the rest of my foot. It felt like a really bad blister there too. Almost immediately after the race, I felt a lot of pain in the tendons in front of my right ankle too, but I don't remember that hurting during the actual race.

Emotionally I was feeling kind of blah. I was happy that I was about to finish, but I didn't feel as excited and thrilled as I had during every time that I had visualized finishing the Ironman. I didn't have goosebumps or feel overwhelmed. It was more like waking up on day three of the bar exam. Sure, it's the last day of three intense days, but your so spent that it almost doesn't matter. I felt like all the walking I'd had to do was a big letdown. It was frustrating. I'd been able to run 20+ miles in my last long run three weeks earlier, and now I was tapered and it was race day. If I wanted it to be, this could be the last day I had to run for the rest of my life! But there I was, walking.

I was still using the yoga chant to help me avoid focusing on the pain and to just focus on breathing and moving forward and staying as positive as possible. Ohm namo guru dev namo. It was on repeat in my head and it had a calming but also empowering effect. I wasn't sure if my friend Artemis was still at her yoga class, but I was sure she was still sending me good vibes. I was so thankful for all my friends who had supported me through my training and through race week. My friend Jennifer had taken my frantic call the previous night when I had my pre-race freakout while Dave and Lauren were at the the volunteer meeting. (The freakout only lasted about 30 minutes, so they missed it!) Having just done her first marathon, she was the expert here and reminded me that no matter how overwhelming the race seemed at that very moment, once the race started, it was just like any other training day. My body would be on autopilot. It really was! Mentally I'd imagined Jennifer running mile 10 with me. Yay for having invisible friends on that course! Even while chatting with Mac and Ricardo, the yoga chant had been going through my head and it felt like that was what kept me moving forward.

When I told Ricardo my plan to start jogging at mile 24 with me, he said he'd give it a shot too. I was glad to have the company, but at the same time I was so determined to jog at that point, that I knew I would've done it anyways. As soon as my foot was even with the mile marker, I started jogging.

I really focused on my mantra as I jogged. Ohm namo guru dev namo. Ohm namo guru dev namo. I managed to tune out the pain and thought about how great I'd feel having really given it my all by jogging the last 2+ miles. There were a few volunteers out on the course still. As they packed things up, they said congratulations and asked if we needed anything. I no longer had the energy to thank the volunteers for their efforts. I smiled when I could, though given the darkness I'm not sure they could tell that I wasn't really ignoring them.

After maybe two or three minutes of jogging, Ricardo slowed to a walk and shouted "You go girl!" to me. I've always had mixed feelings about that phrase, but this time it made me smile. I passed someone walking, and he said something encouraging to me too. I passed another walker who told me "good pace!" I gave them a thumbs up; it was all I could really manage. Honestly I felt like a little bit of a jerk for passing people, as though I was rubbing it in that somehow I suddenly had the energy to jog. But the other athletes were incredibly supportive and cheered me on as I passed them, even if it was just a whispered "good job" as they struggled to keep walking towards the finish.

As I jogged, I was breathing faster. The chant no longer fit rhythmically. Not knowing if this was going to ruin my oneness with the universe, I dropped the last word of the chant. Ohm namo guru dev. I could handle that with my faster breathing. Breathe in - ohm namo; breathe out - guru dev.

As I got closer to the turn onto Surf Drive, I saw a handful of spectators here and there. They cheered for me too. I waved with my thumb-up, hoping they would know how much I appreciated them. The volunteers were great, because they helped us with whatever we needed all day long. The volunteers really wanted us to succeed. I can't quite explain it, but somehow it seemed that the spectators were almost more invested in helping us finish than the volunteers were. Maybe it's because the volunteers had jobs to do, whereas the only job the spectators had was to cheer and motivate us. Even though it was dark out there and there was maybe only one spectator every 100 meters or so, the spectators were so excited - so thrilled to see us near the finish - that it helped me remember what I had accomplished today. I no longer felt lame for walking so much. After all, I was doing an Ironman! I felt awesome and amazing, and random strangers were telling me that I was awesome and amazing.

A woman sitting on her balcony saw me coming, and as I passed another walker, she shouted out to her friend across the street "Look at her go - she's still got energy!" My smile kept getting bigger and bigger with every comment I heard. I passed the woman whose jogging had inspired me to start jogging again. I was amazed that I was passing people. It made me feel pretty awesome, though it also seemed like sheer luck. Somehow I'd gotten a second wind. People shouted out things like "You're an Ironman!" or "You are made of Iron!" or "You're awesome!" to me as I jogged past.

As I came across the quasi-aid station that had been blaring music painfully loud earlier in the night, the music suddenly seemed the perfect volume. And they were playing my song! The two times that I did a long run with my ipod, there were three or four songs that really got me moving, and when they came on, I'd hit repeat a few times. One of them was ABBA's Dancing Queen.

(Go ahead, hit play. It'll help recreate the moment better as you read.)

Hearing Dancing Queen must have helped my body kick into overdrive. I sped up and my smile got even more gigantic. I was about to burst with excitement and happiness. As I sped up, more people cheered for me. A guy wearing a dress was dancing in the street to Dancing Queen. I managed to squeeze on "awesome song" on an exhale and high-fived him. I picked up the pace and with each step I felt stronger.

You can dance. You can jive. Having the time of your life. .....

Even with Dancing Queen motivating me to run faster, my brain was still using the ohm namo guru dev chant to keep me moving at all. The mantra was giving me the life I needed to be moving; the song was the icing on the (gluten free) cake. I was still moving faster and faster and I was thinking about how I really was having the time of my life right in that moment. This was the most fun I'd ever had on a run.

I was nearing another turn, as there was a very short block right after the ABBA dancer. Another guy pointed me in the right direction and shouted "You can pass 6 more people who just walked past; you can catch them!!!" I managed to thank him though I had the feeling he was one of those people who says "the top is right around that corner" when you're hiking uphill, even though the pinnacle of the mountain is really another mile or two up. I couldn't see the group he was talking about yet, but I picked up the pace even more.

By now there were spectators all over the place. It was so strange to suddenly see so many people! Suddenly I saw the group of walkers ahead of me. Oh how sweet that would be to finisher six people closer to the top than to the bottom. I knew it didn't really matter what place I finished, but at the same time, this was technically a race and I was on a roll. I ran harder, hoping to pass them soon. I wouldn't be that jerk who passed people in the finish chute, ruining everyone else's finish photos. I wondered how fast I could run. My breathing was so fast. Ohmnamogurudev. Ohmnamogurudev. I reached them. I ran in between a couple of them and then realized I should really run around them, so I took to the outside of the group and felt even more awesome as I realized I was adding more distance to my run and passing people. I was so elated I wasn't even wondering "how much farther?"

It wasn't long before I realized it was silly to have even wondered if I could pass those people. I smoked past them as my pace kept increasing. I knew it was silly but I had to know how fast I was running. I wanted to know if it was just my imagination or if I really was kicking butt. I glanced at my watch and saw the pace: 10:00. SWEET.

Even though I didn't think it was possible, my smile got even bigger with each stride. I felt like I was bouncing at this point. Running/bouncing toward the finish of my incredibly long day, each step in tune with Dancing Queen which was on repeat in my head. That 2.4 mile swim felt like it was yesterday, I could barely remember the frustration of the flat tire, and my knees and the blisters no longer hurt.

I could see the big tall structure that was lit up near our hotel. I still couldn't figure out what it was, but I knew I was near the finish. Plus there were tons of spectators and I could hear Mike Reilly rallying the crowd. Ohmygosh. I was about to finish a freaking IRONMAN. I was having the time of my life. This was the best feeling ever. I almost didn't want it to end! I'd imagined this moment so many times and here it was, exactly as I'd pictured it.

As I made that incredible last turn to go towards the finish chute, I could see two people ahead of me. I slowed down a smidgen not wanting to catch up to them in their moment of glory but I was so energized it was hard to slow down much. I crossed a timing mat about 75 meters from the finish as I heard Mike Reilly dub the people ahead of me with the word Ironman. I figured the timing mat must have been to let Mike Reilly know who the next person coming was.

I heard something about Sacramento and knew Mike Reilly was now talking about me. ME! I started high-fiving everyone on my left, hoping that's the side Dave was on. I didn't stop to look for familiar faces though. I was smiling so much and Dancing Queen's "having the time of her life" line fit so perfectly. I put my arms in the air like a good champion, and just before I crossed the finish line, I heard Mike Reilly say, "KENDRA, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!"

FIRST RUN SEGMENT 6 mi. (1:12:25) 12:04/mile
SECOND RUN SEGMENT 7.4 mi. (1:31:10) 12:19/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT 5.6 mi. (1:25:22) 15:14/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT 7.2 mi. (1:42:55) 14:17/mile
TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (5:51:52) 13:25/mile

SWIM 1:20:58
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 19:01
BIKE 7:24:45
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 19:12
RUN 5:51:52
OVERALL 15:15:48

Ironman Florida Race Report: Run (part 5)

2010-01-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

Crossing that last timing mat in the park was great. I thought about the people who might be tracking me online. I wondered if my parents really brought a laptop to my cousin's wedding in California so they could track me during the reception (they did!). I thought they'd probably be relieved to see that I finally made it another few miles, even though I was going so slowly. I wasn't sure if Dave had tweeted about my slow patheticness. I thought that I should've told Dave to call someone who could track me online and tell them when I got to the park, to give them some idea of when I'd finish. Later I found out that there was a computer by the Information Booth where spectators could check on their athletes, so he knew when I was on my way back to the finish.

Mac and I had the same general idea: we wanted to finish and we thought if we walked we could finish; we weren't sure what would happen if we tried to run. I really wanted to finish, but I had no idea what my body was capable of and I was definitely running (walking) on empty. We'd both seen those videos of Sian Welch and Wendy Ingraham crawling to the finish - their bodies totally spent. [If you haven't seen it - stop now, go watch it and come back here later.] So we basically just accepted that chances were good if we took it easy, we'd get to that finish line. That didn't stop us from trying to run every so often. It seemed like less often than every 10 minutes, but I'd pretty much stopped looking at my watch - I could tell my HR wasn't too high, I knew my pace was slow, and it didn't really matter what time it was since I felt confident I was traveling fast enough to meet the cutoff, assuming I could keep moving.

The loop in the park was really, really dark now. I mean pitch black except for the occasional street lamp. I stumbled once on some uneven pavement, but I managed to not fall. Ever so often one of those nauseated headlamps would ruin the darkness for me. At some point in the second loop, I'd realized that I'd been saying my 'ohm namo guru dev namo' mantra so much that it could play in the back of my head while I talked to Mac. But when we weren't talking, it was forefront in my mind and gave me something to concentrate on other than the headlamp/food induced nausea. One thing I didn't think about, but wish I had, was the fact that when I started my watch some 13 hours earlier, my total mileage on the watch since I'd last reset it was 140.6 miles. What a positive sign! But I'd just smiled at it in the morning and promptly forgot about it until after the race.

We came upon the area with the Ford electronic billboard messages. This time I didn't get any messages, which kind of annoyed me since there were so few people out there you'd think the computer could bother to display the messages again. I just decided to imagine my message from Dave was up there again, and I smiled thinking about how much I loved this.

We saw a volunteer truck with a few volunteers helping some guy who really looked like he couldn't finish the race. This guy made it about 133 miles and it looked like it was going to be a DNF for him. Not fun! Seeing him made me feel a mix of fear - that could still happen to me! - but also relief - I certainly wasn't that bad off!

Mac made a pit stop but told me he'd catch up. I had no doubt he would! I'd visited one of the portapotties in the first loop - pretty much as gross as you can imagine. My recommendation is to visit one of the ones close to an aid station since there's a better chance you'll have some light, and just assume there won't be any TP left unless you are fast and go in your first loop.

Mac caught up with me pretty quickly and then another guy our age joined our group, Ricardo. He said he remembered seeing me on the bike, and then I remembered seeing him too. His girlfriend's name was Kendra. Ricardo was walking with a backpack - not a camelbak - a school bag backpack! - and cell phone (to call his girlfriend when he got near the finish; she was asleep at the hotel already). It was nice to have another person to talk to and I think we all started to feel like we were accomplishing something.

I saw Dave's sign at the Inspiration Station finally. Yay! Go Kendra! Then we had to run across the street - it is really uncool to walk when traffic is waiting for you. We saw a woman ahead of us pull down her running shorts and pee on a lawn (or maybe it was an empty lot - kinda hard to tell in the dark). It's against the rules but really I thought she had a good idea - much nicer than those portapotties.

The first time I noticed a mile marker great than 20 I realized I was now in my longest run ever! It didn't really feel like a long run though given all the walking. At some point we realized we'd traveled 135 miles so far. Just over 5 to go! I remembered noticing when I'd hit 125 miles on the first loop and had told Dave that when he met me near the end of the first loop. It made me feel pretty awesome.

The guys and I discussed our training for the event and whether we'd do another. I was all for it, if I could find another year with the time to train. The others thought they'd stick to shorter distances. This was Mac's second marathon. I was totally floored when he said he'd done his first one in sub-3 hours. This guy was fast - goes to show how the ironman distances can level the playing field a bit. We complained about our blisters a bit more and Ricardo mentioned he had blisters when we started the race. He and his girlfriend had walked the run loop the previous day so he could see how long it'd take him to walk 13 miles! Let's put that on the "what not to do" list for race week.

The volunteers who were cleaning up the aid stations started congratulating us around mile 21 or 22. It was kind of strange since we clearly hadn't finished yet, but I think we all kind of felt like it was okay. We were going to finish. Slow and steady. Watching people who were still in the race who were walking towards the park was tough. A few times we checked our watches and looked at each other thinking hey that person isn't going to make it. It's so heartbreaking to see someone not finish when you're at an Ironman event. I think it's somewhat less heartbreaking when you're a fellow competitor, but only because your body is too busy worrying about yourself.

Mac, Ricardo, and I kept trying to run every so often. I felt like I couldn't even manage running (jogging) a full minute. I'd just get that feeling again of my brain fogging over and my body feeling like I'd suddenly jumped out of bed too quickly and was about to topple over from the dizziness. I had another bite of pretzels and immediately had to spit them out. That's when I decided it was time to dump the pretzel bag. I dumped my gel flasks pretty quickly too. I had less than 5 miles to go. No need to carry this stuff with me anymore as it clearly wasn't going to sound good at all.

Mac made another pit stop and told us to keep going and that if he didn't catch up, he'd see us at the finish. I fully expected him to catch up, but he didn't. Ricardo and I made one more attempt at jogging for a little while but I couldn't and then walked again. Jogging was so hard!

I decided I was going to try to jog again at mile marker 24. I thought maybe I could jog the last 2.2 miles if I went really slowly and just focused on my yoga mantra. It was only 2 miles and I thought I was going to feel really, really wussy if I didn't run at least the last mile. I was thinking about how I should cross that finish line having given it everything I had. Maybe I'd already given it my all, but I might as well keep trying. After all, this is what I was doing today. And if I passed out or fell down, I still had time to pick myself back up and walk or crawl to the finish.

Ironman Florida race report: Run (part 4)

2010-01-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

Once I'd said "see you in a few hours" to Dave, I felt like I was really starting my second loop. I kept missing the mile markers so I never really felt sure how much farther there was. In some races I'm counting down the miles, but strangely I wasn't going that here. I just knew I had to get to the park, do a loop in the dark, and then get back to the finish.

The thing about Ironman Florida's run course is that it really looks like an out and back course, but it's not. If you look at the race course carefully, or if you drive it, you realize there are plenty of turns and there's one section where you are running east, turn south, then go west before turning back east again. I knew the course was like this, and I hadn't bothered to memorize where all the turns were. This meant that I really just kept making my way along the course until I saw cones or a person indicating I needed to turn in some manner. I think it was probably better this way.

At the time it seemed incredibly appropriate that once we left Surf Street there weren't many spectators out there. The Ironman is a solo endurance event. Of course you're going to be alone at times. Why wouldn't the last loop be incredibly dark and empty? But I was thankful I'd made it through the super incredibly loud group of spectators along Joan Ave again - their music was so loud it hurt. I felt like a spoil sport just thinking about how I wished the music was quieter.

One of the aid stations had a MASH theme and the theme song was playing over and over again, and the volunteers all had army scrubs on. Since I liked the song, I thought it was cool. Another aid station them was That 70s Show, but my feeble attempt at a joke about Fez (a character on the show) fell flat because the volunteers clearly had never seen the show. So sad. The volunteers were all helpful and I finally decided to accept their offering of Gatorade Endurance, since Heed sounded too icky to drink. I knew it was gluten free, but I hadn't ever trained with it. Now, everyone knows that you never try anything new during a race. But in years past, I'd trained with regular old Gatorade and never had any problems with it. The reason I hadn't trained with it for this race was because I was trying to stick to maltodextrin as my sugar source, whereas the readily available (premixed) Gatorade uses HFCS. The powdered Gatorade doesn't use HFCS, and at races they mix from the powder and they always have the lemon-lime flavor. That's what they had here too. Kinda icky and sweet, but slightly more interesting than Heed. Really I just wanted to brush my teeth and quit consuming sugar!

I kept trying to take turns with jogging and walking. Mostly I was walking though. I saw a guy who seemed about my age and realized he was doing the jog-walk combo too. I decided he was going to be my person for this second loop. I managed to catch up to him and said hi. We had the standard "is this your first? how're you holding up?" conversation followed by "where are you from?" Mac was from Ohio and when I said I was from Sacramento, he told me that one of the guys he was doing this race with was from Sac too. I knew a few names of people from Sac who were doing the race. When he told me the name, it took me a moment, but I realized I knew the name. It wasn't someone I knew from Sac, but it was my coworker's brother. She'd told me her brother, who lived in OH, was going to do IMFL too. What a small world! So Mac and I had plenty to talk about since he's in law school and I'm a lawyer, etc, etc, etc. All the standard blah blah blah chit chat.

The chatting us from noticing those awful blisters we both had on our feet. Mac said he was planning to walk 10 minutes and then try running again. I groaned a little inwardly - this guy was going to make me keep pushing myself? But I decided this could be a good thing and I said I was game but that he shouldn't worry about it if he lost me because I was sure he was a faster runner. He let me know when our 10 minutes was up, and so we jogged. Thankfully, he stayed at my pace. I was a little worried I'd have to find someone else to talk to! We didn't talk much while we ran. My blisters hurt so much when I ran. I'm not sure that we ran very long. Maybe a minute or two. Then my blisters hurt too much and I was feeling close to passing out again. Luckily he was ready to stop at the same time. After a silent pause, he asked me where I was from, without remembering that we'd had this conversation. Then I asked him his name again. At one point someone going the other direction yelled something, clearly directed at us, but it took another minute or two before we deciphered it into "Go Mac!" and realized it was my coworker's brother on his way to the finish. This is your brain on Ironman. Any questions? (I would not be surprised at all if we have very different recollections about this loop!)

The headlamps out there were making me nauseous. Whenever I saw someone ahead of me with a headlamp on, I had to be careful not to look at the ground near them. The light moving back and forth while we were moving was just sickening. Mac and I were moving pretty well out there compared to some other people. We certainly weren't the fastest, but for the most part, we could get ahead of those swaying lights and get them out of sight. The people with headlamps who came up behind us usually moved away from us quickly enough that there was only a minute or two where I tried to keep my eyes closed.

I tried a pretzel every so often but it was just so blah. I drank my broth here and there, wishing it was hot broth. I couldn't help but be jealous of Mac as he took the warm broth from the volunteers. It was nice to have someone to talk to even though I'd had so many of those "oh you're a lawyer too" conversations that I didn't care if I never met another lawyer in my life. But now I had someone who I could say stuff like "sure would suck to be in those cars. we're moving faster than they are." Really thrilling stuff here. When we came across the Janus Motivation Station, I told him about Dave and my sign making, and I looked for the signs again. It was a little less nauseating since we were walking, but I still couldn't find Dave's sign.

Mac wanted to run again once we entered the park. No, he wanted to run the entire park loop. Crap. I don't even remember if I pretended I would try to run it all too. But I certainly started jogging with him. Every time I switched to jogging my feet screamed at me and my I wondered how I could be okay to walk but about to pass out whenever I ran. We made it to the timing mat before starting to walk again.

THIRD RUN SEGMENT 5.6 mi. (1:25:22) 15:14/mile

2010?

2010-01-08T21:43:00.000-08:00

I was too busy and tired to finish my run report today, but I'll do it soon, I promise. :) In the meantime I thought I should get back in the habit of regular blog posts. I can only draw out the Ironman race report for so many months.

It's January 8, and I don't have a race plan for the year. I'm toying with doing Shamrock'n half marathon on March 14. The reason I haven't signed up? I can't get myself to exercise on a regular basis, let alone run three or four times a week to train for a half marathon. I feel like the laziest person ever right now. I've managed to go for a walk almost every day this week, but I actually haven't run all year! I ran on New Year's Eve first thing in the morning - about 3 miles or so - then I went to get some fasting blood work done. (I'm normal! It's amazing how the gluten free diet fixes everything.) Boy was I hungry by the time I got home! I went back to work this week and a few times this week I tried (quite unsuccessfully) to get up early enough to run before work. I've become quite fond of the snooze button. Even when Dave went running at 6am, I just rolled back over to sleep more. It's not like I'm sleep deprived, I'm getting 9 hours of sleep most nights. But I just can't motivate myself to get out of bed and move my butt in the mornings and I've never been able to convince myself to run after work. I just feel like this:

Dave and I decided to give up refined sugar for the new year, so we went out with a bang. After a dinner at a Thai place we've been to a few times, we made Betty Crocker's gluten free brownies, and topped them with marshmallows near the end of their baking time. We couldn't even eat half the 8x8 pan and we were ready to not see any more sugar until 2011. But it's been hard the last few days. Diet changes are always hard but this seems tougher than going gluten free. Perhaps because it's a choice, whereas with gluten I don't have a choice. Maybe I can blame my laziness on the lack of sugar. Or maybe I'm still on a sugar crash from that New Years sugar fest. I wanted to quit eating refined sugar because I can sometimes get a little obsessed with sweets, and I've read a lot that points to refined sugar being the culprit. It might just be sweeteners in general for me, but I decided I wasn't ready to give up honey and agave, etc, for an entire year. Too much deprivation to deal with all at once. So I'm avoiding refined sugar and in a few months I'll decide if I want to eliminate all added sugar and go back to my pre-IM no dessert rule.

Last year I had a big list of races and events that I used as training goals. Half marathon in mid-March, my first century in May, swim race in June, half iron in July, full aquabike in August,... all to get ready for November 7. But this year I lack an ultimate goal. I'm not desperate to find one though. It's kind of nice, in a very weird and unfamiliar way, to just be coasting along with no real plans. I mean, it's Friday night and I drank a hard cider and I don't have to get up for a long run or a long ride tomorrow; I can take a day trip and go play in the snow with Dave and Sierra! I have free time to read books that don't involve swimming, biking, or running (except for vampire runners)! But it's all a bit weird and I'm not sure I like the lack of structure. But I'm also definitely not ready to commit to anything yet, unless it's a really fun race in a fun place to visit. I feel like I'm in post-Ironman limbo. But I'm sure I'll feel like this again soon enough:

(Yes, Sierra really is the cutest dog in the world! I can't wait to see what she thinks of snow!)

Ironman Florida Race Report: Run (part 3)

2010-01-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

After I crossed the halfway point timing mat, special needs was just ahead. Maybe whatever I had in there would save me. Surely I must have some calories in there that I can stomach. At least I could finally have some broth. Watching everyone else take hot broth (not gluten free!) at the aid stations had made me envious, and more than a little frustrated with celiac disease!

I knew I had clean socks in my special needs bag, and I had blister pads with me, but I didn't want to have to stop and put on clean socks because I didn't think I had baby powder (it seemed likely that my feet would be so wet and icky that I'd need some talc to help dry them off.) Also I felt like my feet were just going to be a big bloody mess and I didn't want to deal with them. It seemed easier to just keep my feet as they were and not have to worry about it. It's kind of like how in a long swim workout, if you take your goggles off for a moment, you suddenly realize how much your eye sockets hurt. I didn't want my feet to get worse by taking off my shoes for a moment.

There were lots of bags at special needs, but I got my bag quickly. It was a little weird to stop and go through a big plastic bag when people all around me were running to the finish. This was a little break for me though.

In my special needs bag, I had: Ensure vanilla shake, Swanson chicken broth, an empty flask (in case I'd dropped one), a flask of apple CarbBoom, larabar, 12 individual CarbBoom gels of various flavors, an orange Gu Chomp packet, 2 pkgs of strawberry Gu Chomps emptied into a ziplock baggie, one unopened strawberry Chomp pkg, a flask of Heed powder, baggie of gluten free pretzels with extra potassium salt, almond butter packet, more blister pads, clean socks rolled down in a baggie, baby powder, individual body glides, a long sleeve running top (in case I needed another layer), light weight gloves, ear warmers, an inhaler and more Endurolytes (in case I'd dropped mine).

I rummaged through my bag and got out the broth and started drinking. It didn't taste as good as it had in T2, but it was still good. I opened the Ensure and took a sip to see if it was edible - yuck. I wanted to try to lighten my load so I tasted my watermelon CarbBoom flask that I'd been carrying for 13 miles to see if I thought I'd enjoy it at all over the remaining 13 miles - nope. So I exchanged my full watermelon flask for the apple one.

I swapped my pretzel bags too. I'd only eaten 2 or 3 pretzels - they tasted way too dry to me. My mouth was dry and it was hard to drink enough to get the pretzels down. But I thought there was a chance I could get myself to eat the pretzels over the next few hours. I really had no idea what would happen in the last half marathon, but I wanted to be ready for it, so the more pretzels the better.

I probably just stared into my bag for awhile willing it to create a panacea for me. I grabbed the Gu Chomp baggie because they were the one thing that I'd managed to eat a little of in the first half of the run, and when I did Vineman Aquabike, they were the only thing that sounded good at the end. Chomps are my friend. I didn't see the baby powder or I might have decided to sit down and check out those blisters. I remembered I hadn't body glided a few places, so rubbed some on - wow those individual containers are really useless.

For most of the previous 6 miles, I'd switched to drinking water. I thought maybe my gut had been overloaded with gus and gels and sports drinks and maybe water would fix me. But I had managed to drink almost two of my Heed flasks on the run, so I added some Heed powder to those, figuring I could add water to them if I felt up to drinking the sports mix again. I placed one of my full Heed flasks into my special needs bag and picked up the empty one. I filled the empty one with the chicken broth. I drank some more broth but there was still some broth left in the box. I decided it was worth carrying in case I needed more, since I sure wasn't going to find any gluten free chicken broth on the course.

I felt very sullen. When I'd seen Dave a mile or so earlier (probably 30 minutes ago by now) I'd teared up and the mild crying made it harder to catch my breath. Silly kendra! I just kept telling myself there's no crying in Ironman. I'm not sure why but I don't think I used any of my mantras during this point. They probably would've been helpful. There was a lot of mental stimulation though with bright lights, loud music, spectators, and everyone around me was becoming an Ironman.

Running while carrying a box of chicken broth didn't seem like fun but I thought once I finished drinking it surely I'd be able to run. My back pocket had 2 flasks in it, a baggie smooshed full of pretzels and a baggie packed with my Chomps. I was carrying a flask of gel in one hand and a box of broth in my other hand. I felt weighed down in many ways.

I thought about how I was going to get through this second loop. I finally concluded I was just going to have to walk it, and that pissed me off. I felt so trained for this. My muscles were fine. It was something else that wasn't working the way it should. It was really frustrating. I wanted to run, but my body didn't seem capable of handling it. I thought about asking Dave to walk it with me, to keep me company. I figured I probably seemed depressed enough that he'd agree, even though he'd never had any interest in a half marathon race (in face he seemed repelled by the idea of registering for a half). This is what spouses are supposed to do though, right? This was why he was here - to make sure I finished my race, right? I was sure if he came with me, I'd finish. He could see the whole run course, see how dark it was in that park. It'd be good old fashioned forced family fun.

Dave, being the awesome husband that he is, beat me to it. He offered to do the second loop with me. Wow, I must look really pathetic right now if I didn't even have to ask. I already knew my answer though. It was tempting, obviously, but I told him no. It seemed like cheating, not just because it was against the rules, but it seemed like taking a shortcut. I wanted to finish more than anything, except that a large part of the Ironman is the mental aspect, and I wanted to see if I really had what it took. I'd read race reports and seen enough races to know that I could find another athlete out there to walk with. I'd pull through this with by making a new friend out there on the course. It'd be well within the rules (athletes who haven't yet finished the race can help each other) and maybe it would help someone else too. Dave asked me if I was sure, probably more than once. I was sure I wanted to try to finish without him with me, and I just hoped that was the right decision. I got a hug and a kiss from him and off I went into the darkness alone!

Ironman Florida Race Report: Run (part 2)

2010-01-05T11:46:00.001-08:00

After crossing the timing mat in the park signalling the end of the first 6 miles, I saw my watch and was glad I was running a good pace. My pace was just over 12 minute miles - it was basically right on course with my usual long run pace. I was having a hard time eating though. I had a little gel but my teeth felt totally gross after just eating sugars all day. I just wanted to brush my teeth! I had some banana - the aid station volunteers gave me a whole, unpeeled banana after I explained the predicament of cross-contamination with the cutting board (powerbars aren't gluten free). I knew I wasn't eating enough to reach my 300 calories per hour goal, but I tried to keep taking the Endurolytes to keep my electrolyte levels up. Unfortunately I kept forgetting so I probably only took about 3 during the entire run.

The run in the park was very dark. I mean pitch black dark with the very rare street light every so often. I wondered if I would fall. I also wondered what the park looked like during the day! I was still feeling okay for the most part and was smiling whenever I reminded myself I was doing an Ironman. I was doing the race I'd thought about for so long!

Almost at the end of the loop in the park, I could see an electric billboard of sorts. Aha. This was the Ford message board! I wondered if I'd see the message to myself (something silly about Sierra) or the message Dave had written for me. I crossed the mat and about 30 seconds later, when I was right in front of the message board, it flashed: "63. Nielsam, K. Smile, you know you love this!" haha. I was still smiling a few minutes later.

Just outside the park was a stretch of sidewalk that we had to run on. This was where the Janus Inspiration Station was. Dave and I had made signs earlier in the week at the Ironman Expo. Janus provides the blank signs and markers and puts the signs up at Mile 20 on the run course.

Since our run course ran the same stretch four times, runners got to enjoy the signs four times. I knew what the sign Dave made looked like, so I kept my eyes open for it. Unfortunately the signs are on both sides of the sidewalk and placed super close together. Picture yourself jogging along 10 hours into a race, darting your eyes back and forth to read signs looking for your name. It's a little nauseating. I noticed the one I made for my STC teammates, but I didn't see the one Dave made.

We'd written on both sides of our posters because I think we assumed they would be lined up in a way you could see side 1 when running one direction and side 2 when running the other direction. But instead they were placed at angles so that the signs made a big zigzag and you saw different signs depending on which way you were running. Even though it was dizzying, I looked for Dave's signs every time I ran past them.

Most of the course was on asphalt roads, a lot of residential roads, and there was very little traffic on most of the course. There was one major street we had to cross, and the traffic looked so snarled. During my first loop the people were so close together it seemed like those cars were going to be there for hours!

As I wound my way back towards the finish line to finish my first loop, I was no longer forgetting to take my walk breaks. I felt a little weird. I couldn't tell what the problem was. Was I low on salt? Just low on calories? How bad was it? I felt so out of it that I started worrying about passing out. My head felt cloudy and my sports drink was the grossest thing ever. My feet were starting to hurt - not the way I'd expected though - my feet hurt because I had a huge blister growing on each foot in the same place - right on the balls of my feet. It felt like someone had taken a knife and scraped off the skin there. Other than those problems, I felt fine. My legs weren't sore; my IT Band was fine. I was a bit surprised. But the overall feeling of weirdness was not good.

With a mile or so to get to the halfway mark and special needs bags, I came upon Dave, waiting just after the road that I'd expected him on. (I thought I'd see my friend Wendy on that road cheering too, but I later found out her husband missed the bike cutoff.) It was so nice to see him. He cheered so loudly for me. His voice was so scratched and hoarse I had to smile. Dave is the absolute best cheerleader at races. He screams and yells for everyone and after a daylong race, he could barely talk! I started walking as soon as I saw him. It was time for a walk break anyway. He said something supportive and it made me start to cry so he tried the tough love approach instead.

I told him how I couldn't eat and I thought I was going to pass out so I was going to walk for awhile, etc, etc, it was just a list of complaints. I'd been so annoyed earlier on the run when I saw other athletes who had a friend or someone else not in the race running next to them to keep them company - it's against the rules to have a pacer! I mentioned that to Dave as I felt like a bit of a hypocrite, but he was probably only with me for about 5 minutes (during which I decided I didn't care at all because I needed his support then more than I needed to not get disqualified), and he was definitely not pacing me. I told Dave about my blisters and how I must have forgotten to bodyglide the bottoms of my feet. Woe is me. He mostly just told me to keep moving and get the broth from my special needs bag and that he'd see me back there in a little bit when I was on my way back.

The last mile or so before the finish was where the biggest crowds were. There was one faux aid station where the spectators were offering beer to the athletes. Just before Dave and I parted ways, we saw a guy take the beer and chug it - one mile to go before he finished his Ironman. The crowd cheered for him and chanted his name like it was a kegger party (well, I guess it was). The thought of beer nearly made me gag. I was a little bit jealous of the athletes around me who were going into their last mile, but I knew they were faster, better athletes than me and that's just how it is! I was a little afraid I'd have people telling me I was almost done (I hate it when people think you're on your last loop and you're not!), but it seemed like people were just cheering in general. It was so nice to cross another timing mat and know I was halfway done with the marathon!!

SECOND RUN SEGMENT 7.4 mi. (1:31:10) 12:19/mile

Ironman Florida Race Report: Run (part 1)

2010-01-04T12:12:00.000-08:00

I was just kidding about keeping my run description so short. Sorry to disappoint! Like I said at the beginning, this race report is long and detailed! My friend is doing IMFL '10 and I'm hoping all the details will help her out a bit, and they should help me next time I want to do an Ironman, since the logistics can be difficult to plan.

RUN: 5:51:52

It was so awesome to finally be on the run course!!! It was still daylight even! When you start the run, you have a very short jaunt to the west before turning around and running east for about 6 miles. Shortly after that turnaround, you run past the finish chute. I stared down it watching someone run to the finish. It was exciting! I knew I had lots of work to do still to get to the finish though. We'd only driven the run course at night since I figured it'd be dark for most of my run.

The run course is very flat, but the road quality isn't that great. I was a bit worried about stumbling and falling, but I decided not to wear my headlamp because it seemed like just one more extra thing to carry. I also figured most other people wouldn't have them and since most people seem to survive without one, I probably could too. It was a little weird in the section of road near the finish because there were lots of spectators not paying attention who kept crossing the course when they shouldn't have.

My run plan was to run easy for the first 2 or 3 miles to loosen up. Then it was basically going to be a comfortable but steady pace, trying not to let my HR drift too high in the first half of the run. My dad has run 50 marathons and kept warning me that the last 6 miles are the hardest, and my coach advised me just to push through whatever I could do in those last 6. After the experience on the bike, I was a little worried about what more could go wrong. I'd read so many race reports where the triathlete gets violently ill on the marathon, whether it was vomiting or diarrhea every mile. It didn't sound pleasant, but since I started the run at 4:24pm, I had a little over 7.5 hours to get to the finish by running, walking, or crawling (per Ironman rules).

I saw Dave and Lauren separately early on in the run. I'd seen them both at the end of the bike and knew I'd taken long enough in T2 that they'd be able to see me. It was nice to chat with them both after being out on the bike for so long. When I saw Lauren she said "see you in 26 miles" and for a brief moment I was horrified - were they going to ditch me and leave me to fend for myself for the whole run? Then I realized she'd just forgotten it was a 2 loop course.

When I saw Dave I was switching my watch to pace view and I was surprised that it showed me running a sub-11 minute mile. I figured the watch must be broken! I felt good though. My lower back was a little bit sore and it wasn't much fun having to carry all my food! I knew my back would feel better after a mile or so though, and it did.

The aid stations were in theory one mile apart, but not in practice. Even though the run course is out and back, there would be an aid station on one side of the road and then maybe 50 feet later there'd be one on the other side of the road, then the next aid stations would be 1.5 or so miles later. It was weird. (Perhaps my brain was fried and it just seemed this way....) I'd planned on the aid stations being one mile apart, and I'd expected to see mile markers at each aid station, and that would be my reminder to walk for a minute. The mile markers seemed hidden at times, and other times I would only notice the markers for the second loop runners. I kind of wondered if I was so slow that they'd taken away the first loop markers!

In the first few miles, I kept leapfrogging an older woman - at age 66 she was the oldest woman on the course! Wow, the spectators LOVED her! It was definitely humbling to be jogging along next to her and have everyone so thrilled to see her, when I was less than half her age and she'd pass me whenever I stopped for my walk breaks. I chatted with her a little bit and found out the older woman I'd seen on the bike was her friend and they'd come to Florida to do the race together. I hoped I could beat the old lady (as she called herself), I could just see my brothers teasing me about it for years otherwise. I checked on the race results later and saw that she qualified for Kona!

I'm not sure why, but I was really surprised how many people were out on the run course on my first loop. I guess I just figured more people would be done already. It was nice to see so many people out there. Most people were running which also surprised me, given how many people I'd seen walking at Ironman Arizona, but I figured it was still early. Two guys about my age kept leapfrogging me too, they were taking walk breaks every so often as well. I finally asked them which loop they were on, figuring maybe we'd be together for the whole run, but they said loop 2. They wished me luck and told me to have fun on loop 1, because loop 2 sucked.

I don't remember when it got dark, but it was definitely dark by the time I finally reached the state park, where we'd run a little loop and then turn around. The timing mat was shortly after entering the park, and I could hear it beep whenever a runner ran over it. I was so excited to get to the timing mat! I couldn't help but smile as I ran over it.

FIRST RUN SEGMENT 6 mi. (1:12:25) 12:04/mile

Ironman Florida Race Report: T2 + Run

2010-01-02T15:03:00.001-08:00

What I would do differently on the bike: Not get a flat!!! I would stop using my floor pump when I change tires in practice. I plan to practice with CO2 a few more times and then use my hand pump more often until I can pump the tires to 140psi. I'd also like to work at accurately guessing the psi by feel. For all I know, I'd pumped the flat tire back to 140psi and just wasted time looking for a floor pump. I'd also make sure that I kept eating on schedule, even if I am stuck with a mechanical problem.

T2: BIKE-TO-RUN 19:12 (!)

It's a little annoying when the dismount line is before the timing mat. You hop off your bike and have to run a bit before your bike time is officially done. It just makes your bike leg seem a smidgeon slower. (Vineman 70.3 was the worst offender of this I encountered this year. I think it was almost 1/2 mile between the dismount line and the bike racks!) Here I was careful not to fall getting off my bike. I figured I might be a little wobbly after riding 112 miles. All that time on my feet must have helped as I slipped off the bike easily and jogged the few steps to the timing mat, so I could finish ahead of the guy next to me. A volunteer took my bike from me almost immediately. Actually it's possible the volunteer held my bike while I got off of it. I can't really remember now. Either way, I felt so pampered by the volunteers!

I made a quick right and since I had such a low race number, my gear bag was very nearby. The gear bag volunteer handed me my bag and said "Wow, this is heavy!" and then I wondered what excessive things I had put in there. The change tents were in the same place, but the exit for T1 was now the entrance, which made for a shorter trip to get in the tent. The tent was practically empty. In contrast to the morning, it was totally empty! In the morning there were probably 1.5 women per chair, now I had enough chairs to myself that I could've taken a nap.

I took a seat as another volunteer opened my bag for me and dumped everything out. She saw my "to do" list and started reading it off to me. To Do list: Body glide (toes, feet, inner ankles, inner thighs, HRM straps, waist); change watch settings: 1) run, 2) autolap on, 3) shoe pod on; face wipe (wipe of leg so IT band wrap sticks?); from jersey: eye drops, inhaler. You only need to take 2 flasks!

A little explanation of the To Do list: I've noticed after about 15 miles on the run, when my legs get tired, I sometimes keep my legs and feet too close, I end up kicking the insides of my ankles, etc, so body glide is useful! I hadn't ever gotten chafed from my amphipod belt but I thought body glide couldn't hurt. Since my watch doubles as a bike computer/run computer, one downside is I have to change the settings between sports. This only takes a few seconds, but the risk was that I might forget to do it. And then I lose the total workout duration time. But since I knew my race started at 7am, I could always look at the time on my watch and figure out how long I'd been on the race course. During the run my watch would tell me how long I'd been running too. As for the face wipe, I'd gotten some of those travel sized face cleansing wipes so I could feel somewhat clean on the run. I figured it might be bad enough without feeling like I hadn't showered in weeks. I'm not sure why I told myself to put my eye drops and inhaler from my bike jersey into my run jersey since I was wearing the same top all day.

So what I did do is take off my helmet, fix my ponytail, put on my hat. Took off my sunglasses - had planned to wear them until I saw Dave and then hand them over to him as the only sunglasses case that I had was still in my T1 bag - but the volunteer said she'd just put it in my bike shoe. She had a very calm demeanor which I'm sure was great for anyone who might've been frantic in T2 and when I asked she said she'd done her first IM earlier this year (Canada), so since she was the expert, I let her deal with my sunglasses. Since the run course goes west to east, I knew I wouldn't need my sunglasses at all because it'd be dark before I had to head west. I changed into my running shorts and then I think I got really slow.

I'd forgotten that I needed to take my evening asthma medication until I happened to see the sandwich baggie with my inhaler and a pill on the floor. Normally I take a ton of vitamins too, but I'd already decided to just take my allergy pill so that my stomach would have less to deal with. When I took my inhaler, I think I just saw there between each puff. If I'm out on a long run and need my rescue inhaler, I just slow to a walk when I need to hold my breath. I'm usually very efficient with multi-tasking. But I was definitely not multi-tasking in T2. Eventually I finished with the multiple inhalers and tried to figure out what else needed to be done.

I wiped my face clean and then went to work on my feet. My feet felt pretty good with the bike socks and shoes off, but I put baby powder on them to make sure they were uber dry. Then I body glided all around my toes, the back of my heel, the inside of my ankles and the outside edge of my foot. I put on my clean socks and then my shoes. I tied my long sleeve shirt around my waist - I knew I didn't need it yet but I wasn't sure how fast it would get cold after dark, and I knew dark would happen soon.

My T2 bag had this in it: PM medicine, non-RX stuff to bring in a baggie (immodium, gas-ex, blister pads), hand sanitizer, baby wipes, face wipe, baby powder for feet, body glide, long sleeve running top (marked with reflective tape), IT band wrap, extra hair ties, running shorts, running capris, clean socks in a baggie, running shoes with shoepod, hat, chapstick. It also had a note that reminded me of my mantras.

My food in my T2 bag included: amphipod fuel belt filled with Heed drink premade and loaded with one Gu vanilla-orange gel (2x caffeine) chapstick and 12 Endurolyte capsules, gluten free pretzels in a baggie with extra potassium salt poured over it, gluten free chicken broth in a box (swanson), flask with 60g powdered Heed, Cashew Cookie Larabar, Gu Chomps Strawberry with caffeine - 2 pkgs opened and dumped in a ziplock , 1 unopened Gu Chomps orange flavored, 3 flasks filled with CarbBoom gels: apple, vanilla-orange, and watermelon. I wasn't sure which flavors would sound good, so I made one of each gel flavor so I could pick 2 that sounded best.

With all that food, here's what I did: I drank some of the broth in T2 - it was so yummy - but I didn't bother carrying it with me because I had so much other stuff, and I felt like I drank enough that I'd be okay on salt until special needs where I had another box of broth. I placed the strawberry Gu Chomp baggie and the flask of extra Heed powder in my jersey back pocket. I strapped on my amphipod belt and pulled the back pocket down below the belt - I've found it secures the pocket better so that things don't jostle around as as much while I run. It looks weird but it feels better! Then I grabbed the apple and watermelon gel flasks which I'd carry in my hands. The volunteer said she'd put all my stuff in my bag for me, so I could get started. I turned on my shoe pod and switched my watch to run mode and headed out the door.

I hit the portapotty before leaving T2. They had a volunteer standing by the portapotties and she offered to hold my flasks for me! So nice! I started jogging right afterwards and very quickly crossed a timing mat, which I assumed was the end of T2 and the start of the run.

What I'd do differently: Take less time and body glide the bottoms of my feet! Honestly I have no idea why it took me 20 minutes in T2. In the half I did this summer, my T2 was 7 minutes, but I did do a bit more than usual for this transition since it was a longer race. I could get by without cleaning my face but it was really nice to get clean! I think maybe I was so slow because I hadn't eaten enough so my brain was a little on the slow side. I definitely had a casual attitude about the transition, somewhat like my first half Ironman (I think that T2 was about 12 or 15 minutes). It's a little weird to have spent 40 minutes of my Ironman not swimming, biking, or running!

RUN: 5:51:52

I ran and/or walked 26.2 miles and then I crossed the finish line. The end.

What I'd do differently: Run faster.

My Ironmate

2009-12-16T18:16:00.000-08:00

Interrupting the Ironman Florida race report saga for a moment to write about some trials and tribulations of training for Ironman. Last Saturday was the first day in 2009 that my husband and I were both home and got to sleep in! Training for Ironman can really consume your life. I thought it would be the best year for Ironman because my husband was living about 100 miles away during most of it. It didn't matter to him if I had a 2 hour workout before heading to work for 9 hours. Silly me. I forgot about the weekend workouts being all day events sometimes!

The following situation happened on multiple occasions this year: He'd drive down on Friday night to visit. Saturday morning I'd go ride 100 miles on my bike. I'd get home in time for dinner, which he'd made while I was out training. (Good thing he's smart enough to figure out the gluten free menu planning without me.) We'd eat, and I'd try to watch a movie but mostly we could only get an hour or so into it before I had to go to sleep. Then Sunday we wake up, have breakfast, and he'd have to leave again and I'd have to go running. After awhile we realized it made way more sense for me to do my long rides on Sundays after he left, and do my long runs on Saturdays. (Worked better for my legs too!) Well, that gave us more time together, but I still wasn't up for much. We sat around watching a lot of dvds and shows on hulu this year.

All year, he heard a lot of this (in a whiny voice): No, I don't feel like going on a hike. Do you mind going to the store without me? Can you buy me more bananas? Can you buy me some ice for my ice bath? I need to go to the bike shop, I'll be back in 5 or 6 hours. Hey, do you want to ride your bike for 3 hours at 5 or 6mph while I run? No, I can't drive up to visit you, I have to train. Can you please take the dog again this week, I have too many workouts to deal with her. No, I don't really feel like going out. I'm tired. I'm hungry.

He cheered at my 30th birthday half marathon even though it meant driving to his 'home' much later than usual, and he spent his 30th birthday watching me do a 2.4 mile swim race which made me so cold that I didn't feel like doing anything other than sit around in warm blankets all day. He put up with me. Sometimes I'd guilt trip him for not coming to some of my races, even though they'd be 5 or 6 hour drives for him and he'd only see me for about a minute during the race. (I'm really a terrible person!) When I decided I'd rather sleep in and hang out with him and just skip my workout, he'd convince me to go do my workout.

He sent me flowers after my Vineman 70.3 PR. He offered to walk the last 13 miles with me at Florida (stay tuned for that story!). He made me gluten free brownies while I was on the bike portion of the Ironman. The next day he stood in line for me to buy my Ironman Florida merchandise so that I could get to my massage appointment. He puts up with me saying "I swear this is the last Ironman thing I'm going to buy" even when he knows better. When I couldn't decide between two m-dot necklaces, he told me I should get the bigger one.

Like all Ironman spouses (or Ironmates as the t-shirts call them), he put up with a lot this year. Waking up on Saturday and having nothing planned for the entire morning, no strenuous exercise to rest up for, it was really nice. I'd been looking forward to that day for months. I woke up at 6:30, of course.

Spousal support is incredibly important, and my awesome husband deserves a big thank you for this year. Hopefully he's cool with me doing another Ironman sometime. :)

Ironman Florida Race Report: Bike (part 5)

2009-12-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

Immediately after crossing the timing mat on the short turnaround stretch I made a quick stop at the portapotties which were right there. No line, but also no volunteers to hold the bikes so I had to make sure not to let the end of my Speedfil tube (the part I suck on to get my drink) touch the ground or the outside of the portapotty when I left my bike. I refilled the bottles and was on my way.

I had no idea what the time cutoffs were, other than the 5:15 bike finish cutoff. I knew there were other cutoffs and was pretty sure the earliest one was at 4pm but I couldn't remember where it was. Since my Vineman Aquabike took 9 hours, I figured I could finish the swim + bike at Florida in 9 hours too which would have me finishing the bike at 4. I hadn't planned on a flat that seemed to take forever to get resolved though! My brain was no longer capable of doing math though. I kept trying to calculate how many miles I had left and what pace I'd need to go in order to finish, but my brain kept getting distracted and thinking about all the other things that could go wrong.

Anything can happen in Ironman. I'd heard that many, many, many times. Sure I'd had a flat, but that could be the least of my worries today. I had no idea what more could go wrong, but I knew everything could still go wrong. Before my flat, I was feeling good, a little slow with all the potty stops, but good. I had no doubt I'd finish. Now I had no idea if I would even get to finish the bike.

I started thinking about my secret backup plan. If something went wrong in Florida so that I couldn't finish, I wanted to sign up for Ironman Arizona with a community fund spot. Community fund spots are the only way to register for an Ironman once the regular spots fill up (a year ahead of the race). You pay about twice as much, but half of it goes to a local charity. After a year of training, I didn't want it to go to waste, and I didn't want to wait another year to do an Ironman. Last I'd checked, there were still community fund spots available for Arizona, which was just in 2 more weeks. Yes, the swim would be cold and gross, but at least my family would probably show up. That could work. I convinced myself I would still be an Ironman this month, even if it wasn't today.

Once I realized how negative I was getting, I started thinking about all the people supporting me through the Janus Charity Challenge. I thought about my friends, family, and coworkers who had made a donation to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness on my behalf. I started at A and went through the alphabet and thought of each person and how they were supporting me today. When I got to B and pictured one of my nieces coming to cheer at Ironman Arizona, running along with high heels next to me, it made me laugh. I think my brain was starting to fry a little at this point, because I got a few letters past D before I remembered my husband Dave. I also really couldn't calculate how much time I had to make the final cutoff.

I started focusing on the mantras again. My friend's yoga chant was the one that really helped the most. I just kept repeating it over and over and over again. It got my mind off of everything else: the possibility that my tire might blow, that I might not meet the bike cutoff, or that something I couldn't even imagine could still happen to ruin my day. The yoga mantra calmed me down and helped me get into the zone. My friend was in her first day of yoga college and was sending all her good vibes to me. I really felt like she was right there with me on the bike helping push me along. Each time I said the chant, I felt like I was getting stronger and the ride was getting easier. I was going faster without much effort.

For the entire rest of the bike after I'd crossed the timing mat at mile 73, I just kept passing people, mostly women. That was a real confidence booster. I recognized a few of them, since we'd played leap frog a bit. One said she was glad to see I'd gotten my tire fixed. I saw a woman, Mona, whose age on her calf indicated she was in her 60s. I'd seen her a few times and I was really impressed with her. I told myself that there were way too many people that I was passing for me to have to worry about the time cutoffs.

I tried to get back on my nutrition plan, but it was harder to eat. The Gu Chomps still tasted good though so I kept eating those. I ate most of the gels that I had planned, but I had to force myself. I kept trying to switch flavors. I was good about taking my Endurolytes as planned, and I kept drinking my Heed. I'd missed almost a full hour of nutrition though when I was coping with the flat. I know I didn't eat as much as I should have during the last 35 miles.

It was really exciting to make the turn at mile 100 and see the bridge waiting for me to climb it. Finally I had some easy math - 12 miles left and I had plenty of time. (It probably wasn't even 3:30.) Yay I was going to finish! I passed a few more people on that highway. Everyone was pretty spread out by now.

Once I turned left onto Front Beach Rd I could feel the wind again. This stretch had been super windy during my test rides earlier in the week. It's pretty much the only place in the whole race that I noticed the wind (other than that brief moment of nearly getting blown off the bike). It wasn't anywhere near as bad as it'd been during my workouts though. Either that or I was on an adrenaline high. A volunteer told me I only had 3 miles to go, but I knew she was lying and had 5 left. Seriously why do people do that?? I saw my friend sitting on the grass by our condo and waved.

I just kept passing people. I kind of thought I should slow down and rest my legs a little to prep for the run, but I realized I was keeping a high RPM and I wasn't exerting myself more than I should've been, so I just kept passing people. I was really surprised when I got to the last half mile stretch. People were riding slowly and there was a big group of them. I wanted to pass as many people as possible so that my overall rank on the bike wouldn't be so awful, and I didn't see any safety reason that people should be riding slowly, so I just checked them off as I passed them, riding right up to the dismount line. Woohoo. I made it to T2.

FIRST BIKE SEGMENT 73 mi. (5:14:51) 13.91 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT 39 mi. (2:09:54) 18.01 mph
TOTAL BIKE 112 mi. (7:24:45) 15.11 mph
Overall: 2206/2424
Division: 78/95

Ironman Florida Race Report: Bike (part 4 - the flat)

2009-12-10T20:09:00.001-08:00

I'm not really sure what I was expecting when I got off my bike to check my back tire, but I was definitely hoping for a fully inflated tired. *Squeeze* uh oh, I was able to smoosh the tire entirely flat. Let's double check that. *Squeeze* *sigh* yup, definitely flat. I just kind of stared at my bike for a moment and then though "Well, this will make for a more interesting race report!" One thing I learned by living in the VI is that when things get crazy, it's best to just think about what a funny story it will make, instead of dwelling on the fact that you have no water for a shower because it hasn't rained in months, and so forth.

This was my first flat tire ever! Luckily I'd practiced changing tires in the weeks before the race. The rear tire is a bit more challenging to change because of the chain and the gears. I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to get it back on correctly, but one step at a time. I forgot to shift the chain into the lowest gear, as usual, and just opened the quick release and pulled on the derailleur to remove the wheel. It took some careful coordination, as I didn't have a kitchen counter to lean my bike against while I did this. I didn't feel like turning my bike upside down either because then everything would spill out of my bottle and bento box. Once the wheel was out, I had to lay my bike down on the ground. I only realized later that I ended up placing my chain in sandy dirt. Oops. Then I decided to check my watch so I'd know how long my tire changing took. It'd been less than 10 minutes when I changed them at home. Just before the flat I'd seen the 100k mark and checked my watch and saw I'd been on the bike just over 4 hours, and that seemed acceptable though I couldn't recall how long my prior 100k training rides had taken me.

I'd practiced changing tires without using any tire levers, so that's how I changed my flat. Thankfully the tire was easy to remove, just a little bit of wiggling involved. I pulled out the flat tube and got my new tube out, being especially thankful that my husband had been willing to buy me the spare tubes that seemed excessive the day he dropped off my bike for transport. I used the CO2 air gun to squirt a bit of air into the new tube so that it'd have enough shape that it'd be easy to put on the wheel. I'd only practiced with the CO2 air gun once and just like last time I got a little too much air in the tube at first so I had to let a bit of it out. But I knew from my practice that I'd still have plenty of CO2 left to fully inflate the tube once the wheel was back on my bike. A few people who passed me asked if I needed help. One guy looked like he was about to stop but I told him I had it under control, feeling proud of myself for having the skills to change my tire.

It took some craftiness to squeeze the tube onto the wheel since I'd left the tire halfway on. I think when I practiced changing tires I had actually changed the tires so had only once or twice before done the halfway thing, but I knew it was supposed to be better and faster than fully removing the tire. The tube was about halfway in when I realized I'd forgotten the most important step - the one I always forgot in practice too! - taking the time to carefully rub my fingers over the inside of the tire to see if whatever caused the flat was still in the tire. If you don't get the thorn or glass, etc, out, then you're just going to get another flat in a moment. I pulled the tube back out and checked the tire but I couldn't find anything. I got the tube and tire all the way back on (without levers, yay!) and picked up the CO2 to inflate the tire again. This is when I ran into trouble.

When I put the CO2 air gun on my valve and turned on the air, the CO2 just sprayed all over. In case you haven't had the pleasure of using one of these things, the CO2 cartridge gets really, really cold (ice can form on it). So my fingers were cold and the tire didn't have any more air in it. I got out another CO2 cartridge and tried to pay close attention to what I was doing so I could make sure I was doing it properly. Turned the knob and a blast of CO2 sprayed outside of my tube again. I turned it off quickly and tried to place it on the valve again, but I had the same problem. After wasting two CO2 cartridges, I decided this was just a user error and I gave up. At this point when people asked me if I needed anything as they rode past, I started saying yes that my CO2 wouldn't work, and I was trying not to cry. One woman said she'd notify the next aid station so they could send a mechanic to help me. I decided it was time to use my backup manual pump since if I kept trying CO2s I'd just be wasting them (they're recyclable but not reusable :() and the CO2s clearly weren't the faster option anymore. Luckily that worked pretty well, but I could tell the PSI wasn't as high as the front tire. It was just a quick fix though.

All the aid stations, roughly 10 miles apart, were supposed to have floor pumps. I knew I had to be close to an aid station so I could just ride a few more miles and use the floor pump. I got the tire back on with the same balancing problems I'd had taking it off. I checked my watch to see how much time I'd lost. I couldn't remember what time it'd been when I stopped though. It seemed roughly that it'd been just over 10 minutes. (I can tell from my HRM data it was actually 14 minutes.) I put my old tube in jersey so I wouldn't be a litter bug. (I'd seen plenty of tubes scattered on this road!) Then I rode off to the next aid station hoping this awful road didn't give me another flat. I had one more spare tube and a patch kit, but I was really ready to be done.

The next aid station was only a mile or so away. I slowed down at the first tent to ask where the floor pump was as I dump my old tube. They told me it was at the last tent. I get there and yell out that I need the floor pump and some guy starts looking for it while I get off my bike to inspect the tire and wheel to make sure it looks okay. The guy radios someone else asking where the pump is. They call someone. Eventually they decide it's not here. "Some guy in a truck took it." I knew that other triathlete might have told these people that I needed help, so I'd kept an eye out for any vehicles that might have had a race volunteer or mechanic and I hadn't seen any. The aid station people tell me they can call a mechanic but they have no idea how long it will take. I decide to just pump up my tire some more with the manual pump. Pumped it until my arms hurt and then I kept riding. More wasted time here!

I was really frustrated with the lack of a floor pump at that aid station. I had no idea how much aid I'd been able to get into my rear tire. The flat itself left me wondering what had caused it. I'm sure it was the bumpy road, but I kept expecting it to flat again. The tube didn't seem settled exactly right, the valve didn't look the same as on my front tire, so that had my spooked. I wasn't sure if the lower PSI I was now likely riding on would lead to another flat either.

About six or seven miles later, while riding on the only stretch of road where cyclists are going both ways, I saw a volunteer truck on the side of the road. The volunteer was on the other side of the road assisting a cyclist. I asked if he had a floor pump and he said yes. I stopped and looked in the pickup bed but didn't see one. The volunteer ran over and opened the truck and handed me the pump. I glanced at the cyclist he'd been helping and the guy was bent over clutching his chest. Yikes. The volunteer ran back over to hang out with him. It seemed they were calling an ambulance. I was so happy to have a floor pump but I felt bad the volunteer had come over to help when this other guy might be having a heart attack. I put the pump on my valve and swoooosh all the air went out. Crap. I hate it when that happens. Now I have to pump it all the way up again. Pump, pump, pump. Uhhh no air is going in. I try again. I play around with it, check the valve, etc. I can't get the pump to work at all and now my tire is 100% flat all over again. Great. I can't very well ask the volunteer for help because then this other guy is going to die. So I just continue the futile pumping until the volunteer asks if I need a mechanic. YES! "there's one coming right now, just flag her down."

I look around and see one of the motorcycle mechanics coming my way. I'd seen her earlier - kind of hard to miss since they have two or three bike wheels on the back of their motorcycles. I flag her down and explain I just need my tire pumped up. She asks how high and I tell her 140. She asks me if I'm sure because that's really high. Then she asks if my tire had a split it in. No, I say, wondering if she thinks I'd be riding on a split tire or if she just assumed I'd carried a spare tire. She explains that a split would indicate that I'd overinflated my tire. Now I'm second guessing everything, worried about overinflation. I've always pumped them to 140, the max says 175 and the bike shop guys said 140 is good. But I wonder if maybe her pump is way better than the one I have at home (I've heard the gauges vary a lot) and maybe I really am only usually pumping it to 120. I have her pump it to 140 mostly because I am too paralyzed by indecision to come to any other conclusion and she'd already started on it.

Finally the tire is pumped up to 140, like it or not, and after thanking her I'm back on the road. Only a moment later do I realize that when she asked if I had a split tire that she meant was the tube split. UGH! I have no idea! I dumped the tube without inspecting it! So now I'm just filled with worry wondering what caused my flat and was it going to happen again. I'm just a few miles away from the turnaround on this little stretch. About 15 minutes later I get to the turnaround, there's a timing mat. Great. Everyone is going to wonder what the heck happened to me.

My total stopped time from the flat tire was just 22 minutes (14 min to change, 4 minutes looking for a floor pump that wasn't where it should've been, and 4 minutes when it actually got pumped up). In retrospect looking at the HRM/bike computer data, it doesn't seem like I was going any slower than average during that 7 mile stretch on the hand-pumped tire. But the mental anguish was awful! By the time I crossed that timing mat, it'd been almost an hour since my flat and I'd just traveled 10 miles. And I hadn't eaten anything!!!

FIRST BIKE SEGMENT 73 mi. (5:14:51) 13.91 mph

Ironman Florida Race Report: Bike (part 3)

2009-12-04T21:21:00.000-08:00

So there I am, still riding riding riding away from the third aid station. Feeling cool. Hey I'm doing an Ironman! Woohoo. Go me. This is great. I have no idea how fast I'm going, but I'm following my nutrition plan and my legs feel good. Often in training or in races I have that "omg my legs are sore" just five minutes into a workout or a race and then the feeling goes away. Maybe I realize that my legs aren't actually sore that's just how they feel when they're not propped up on a coffee table in front of the couch, or maybe my legs just start accepting that yes, it's another workout and they start behaving. I don't know. And it's one of those things I always forget about after the feeling goes away so I never think to mention it to my coach. But I'm remembering it now and I'm remembering I did not have that feeling. Maybe that's what tapering does for me? Point is - I felt great and I was still having fun. I expected that to end at some point on the bike though. I don't think I've ever ridden 100 miles having pure fun, let alone 112.

I recently installed Polar Pro Trainer 5 on my desktop computer, even though it came with the new HRM that I got months ago.. Ironman training sure takes over life sometimes! Anyways, it has some great features including the ability to zoom in on the speed/time/heart rate curves. So, at the risk of an overdetailed blog.. it looks like my first stop at rest area 3 was at mile 32 and the stop was actually only 6 minutes, not 10 like I posted earlier. Later in the race I realized the distance on my bike computer was slightly off from the mile markers on the road. My watch was a little behind. Overall it said I rode 110 miles, not 112. Anyone else have this?

I neglected to say in my initial bike post that I'd mentally broken up the bike portion into 4 segments. Mile 0-23; Mile 23-50; Mile 50-75; Mile 75-112. The first segment had ended around the second rest stop when we turned off the first main highway and went east. The second segment was a 25+ mile stretch all on the same road going east. I knew I'd hit special needs near the end of this stretch. I didn't count it as halfway until I made the turn to go west again around mile 60.

Here's the bike course directions and in parenthesis I wrote the total miles you'll have traveled before you make that turn, based on our rental car odometer. I'm posting this because I wanted to know the info before I did the race and I think it's ridiculous that Ironman doesn't just include it in the race course information, so hopefully it'll be helpful to someone else:

* Start at the Boardwalk Beach Resort and go west on S. Thomas Drive to Front Beach Rd.
* (0.6 miles) Left on Front Beach Rd.
* (6.6) Right on Hwy 79.
* (22.8) Right on Hwy 20. (Segment 1 ended when I turned right on Hwy 20)
* (50.3) Right on Hwy 231. (Segment 2 ended when I turned right onto Hwy 231)
* (59.7) Right on South Camp Flowers Rd.
* (64.9) Right on County Rd 2301.
* (70.3) Right on Hwy 388 and go east approx. 3.5 miles to turnaround. (turn around at 75.8 = End of Segment 3)
* (86.4) Left on Hwy 77 and go approx. 1 mile south to Hwy 388.
* (86.4) (4pm cutoff) Right on Hwy 388.
* (87.4) Left on Hwy 79.
* (99.8) Left on Front Beach Rd.
* (105.6) Right on S. Thomas Dr.
* (111.2) Finish at the Boardwalk Beach Resort. (112 - the end!)

So there I am, riding east on highway 20. This stretch of road was the longest stretch without any turns. It also included a few very mild gentle "hills". Hills as in you didn't really have to shift gears to get up them, but it made sense if you wanted to keep a consistent cadence. (For those who live in Sac, they're almost all about the gradient of climbing the bridge from Discovery Park to Old Sac on the bike path, but maybe three times as long. They might be a little steeper than that though because I don't shift on that "hill"... Needless to say, these are not scary hills.) It's fun. I always like variety in terrain. People are being nice and following the rules for the most part. The people that aren't, well, I saw them get carded. hehe.

(You can almost see one of the "hills" in this pic near the horizon.)

At mile 42 I had to stop again to pee. This was the 4th rest stop and my 2nd visit. I had a 4 minute stop, waiting in line again. I was hydrated! One of my big worries had been that I'd end up hyponatremic. I feel like I've read so many race reports where someone ends up with a DNF for lack of sodium and too much water. Peeing was a good sign that I wasn't hyponatremic, so even though it was annoying to stop again, I decided it meant things were going well.

At the special needs stop around mile 48, I stopped again. Believe it or not - I had to pee! No line this time so a quick minute in there, then some time with my special needs bag. Lucky for me (and the smoker) the nice young man who wasn't smoking handed me my bag. (Really why do people think it's okay to smoke on an Ironman course?) Having a low number was so great - so easy to find my bag everywhere!

In my special needs bag I had: Larabar cashew cookie; flask of 5 Carbboom apple cinnamon gels; flask of 5 Carbboom watermelon gels; packet of honey almond butter (in case mine flew out of my bento box); one carbboom double espresso gel (in case I needed more caffeine than the Chomps and vanilla-orange gel were giving me); extra endurolytes; extra Heed powder in a ziplock; 16 Gu Chomps in a ziplock; plus 2 spare tubes and 2 CO2s (in case I'd gotten a flat in the first 50 miles and wanted more backups). I'd mostly been eating my apple cinnamon gels so even though I had some left in my apple flask, I dumped it and got the full one. I can't remember if I picked up the watermelon one or not. I think I did and ended up with 3 flasks in my jersey just in case I got tired of the other flavors. I also poured the spare Heed into my Heed flask, and made some mixed drink for my Speedfil while I was there. I emptied the Chomps and Endurolytes into my bento box. I spent 6 minutes with my special needs bag, and I'm really not sure why. What was I doing? This might be a good reason to go the minimalist route with the special needs bag, but I wasn't sure what I'd want, so I put some extra things in it. I left everything else.

Here's a photo of my wonderful iron team captain helping me fill the flasks Thursday night.

I had a lot of gels!!! I'd labeled the piles for organizational purposes and so I'd know which bag to put the flasks in.

Shortly after I finally leave the special needs bags, we got to turn off that long stretch and have a change of scenery. This time we were on a more major road. I was still following my nutrition plan to a tee. I started to worry a little about how many times I'd stopped and how much time I was losing. Not really worry so much as starting to feel excruciatingly slow. I started using my mental training more. I'd written down all my mantras on the note in the T1 bag just in case my brain fried. But I remembered them. My friend Lil once told me she counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and I've found that really helpful on tough hills. My friend Jennifer does 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, etc. But the counting wasn't working for me, I think because the terrain was so flat and boring that I needed something more than counting. I wasn't feeling like I was really in a groove. I wasn't getting negative either but I wanted to see if the mental training could give me a boost. A few times earlier in the race I'd tried my coach's suggestion: I'm strong, I've trained for this, I'm ready. That was a good one. I'd also been using I am awesome; I am amazing because so many people used those terms on my Janus Charity Challenge fundraising website! Of the few signs I saw on the bike course, most of them said things like You are awesome so I felt like those were good adjectives to focus on since they were right in front of my face. The volunteers said great positive stuff like that too.

On this southbound stretch between mile 50 and 60, there were more cars so I definitely rode more in the shoulder (although the drivers were awesome about staying a full lane away). The wind was coming from the east. At one point there was a gap in the trees and a sudden gust blew me what felt like a full foot. One moment I was riding on the white line, the next moment I was almost off the road. It was scary and I'm amazed that I didn't fall off my bike. I got out of the aero position then for a little bit and once my heart jumped back into my skin I went for the drop bars instead, since I feel more stable there in wind than on the aero bars.

(I'm 85% sure this is the right photo... If any of you think this isn't Hwy 231 let me know.)

Around this point I pulled out my friend Artemis' yoga chant: ohm namo guru dev namo. I couldn't remember what it meant exactly but had the idea it was related to the spirit of the universe within me. I just kept saying it over and over again in my head and it relaxed me, even though I was at risk for getting blown off my bike. (I was really glad I'd gone with the Speedfil since it made me more stable than if I'd had an aerobottle or one of the hydration systems that hooks up to the saddle.) The chant actually started making me feel stronger and eventually I felt like I was flying. Artemis was taking her first kundalini instructor course that day so she'd promised to send all her good yoga vibes my direction. We'd talked about November 7 so much - the beginning of her yoga journey and the end of my ironman journey - so I knew she wasn't going to forget her promise.

I got into a great rhythm and was feeling super strong as I turned onto Camp Flowers Road. Although I hadn't noticed when we drove the course, Melissa had mentioned at our blogger party that this stretch of road has bumps all across the road every few seconds. She explained why but I can't remember. Something about the way the road was built though. Sure enough, bump, bump, bump. Wow that's not fun. This went on and on and on for awhile. I was still doing the yoga chant in my head though and I felt like I was on a roll even with all the annoying bumps. Finally I'd gotten into the zone and I was going to bring it home! One woman just barely in front of me mentioned she was going to stop to see if she had a flat - she couldn't tell if it felt that way because it was flat or because the road quality was so poor. I wished her luck as I kept riding. It was maybe a mile or two later when I started having the same thought nagging at me. Did I have a flat, or was it just the crappy road?

Ironman Florida Race Report: Bike (part 2)

2009-12-04T12:20:00.000-08:00

One of my nutrition rules on the bike is not to eat or drink anything other than water for the first 20-30 minutes. This mostly just applies to half iron+. It gives my stomach time to settle in. I usually swish and spit some water first too, to get rid of the salt water. I did all this on that first 6.5 mile stretch before turning onto the highway. Shortly after getting on the highway I started sipping my sports drink, Heed. My nutrition plan on the bike was built around 15 minute increments, all related to time on the bike. After the first 30 minutes, sip Heed, at 0:45, eat some Chomps with water plus an Endurolyte, at 1:00, more Heed, at 1:15 my first gel with water. After that I had specific plans: gels at :15, Chomps at :45, endurolytes at :00 and :30. Even though I expected to be on the bike at close to 1:30 which would make the numbers easy, I knew from previous swim-bike bricks that I found it annoying to have to do the math to figure out when I was at 0:15, 0:30, 0:45. Inevitably I'd forget what minutes my watch said when I got on the bike. So to fix this, I placed my old HRM watch on my bike computer mount with the plan to hit Start as soon as I got on the bike. Luckily I remembered to hit Start after just about 5 minutes, so I decided to move up the first few calories by 5 minutes but after that follow my :15 min plan.

So I had my regular HRM on my wrist, which doubles as a bike computer, and I had my old HRM on the bike. To see my speed and distance, I would have to look at my wrist, which wasn't handy (haha) to do while in aero, but I'd already decided I didn't care about my pace or distance so I didn't even change the view settings to display them. I was just going to focus on the here and now, and my heart rate. This worked well for me. Mostly I figured I had no idea what pace to aim for since this was my first IM. Even though I'd done the aquabike distances of IM, it was under such different circumstances (hilly course, hot, hadn't tapered) that I felt it wouldn't work to use that as reference. So my coach came up with heart rate zones I should aim for based on each portion of the bike. I set my watch to use those zones and I just followed it.

The aid stations were supposed to be every 10 miles. There were mile markers for every 10 miles, and various distances in km. I couldn't remember the conversion for km to miles, so I just paid attention to the miles. (I asked another rider and he told me you just subtract 15 from km and then you've got miles!) Well mile 10 came and went and there was no aid station. I had been thinking about a potty break already. I got a little worried that this event would be one of those where they say they have aid stations every 10 and really they have them every 15+ miles (Vineman seemed like this).

The bike course is very flat. The only real hill is at mile 12 and 100 - it's crossing a river. I was happy to have a hill to climb and to have a good excuse to stand up and use some different muscles. My plan was to stand up as much as possible and to bend over to stretch my back and hamstrings whenever I thought of it.

As soon as I got to the other side of the hill, I could see the aid station. I decided to stop but then I saw the lines. Ugh. I suddenly remembered reading race reports where people mention having to wait in long lines for the portapotties. I decided to skip this stop and wait for the next one. I think I dumped my water bottle at this point and got a new one from a volunteer. I figured it couldn't hurt to have more water. Better safe than sorry.

(Picture was taken Tuesday of race week.)

Riding on the highway wasn't as bad as you might expect. Dave and I had driven the course and there were more cars out there than I'd have liked, but on race day it seemed there were a lot fewer cars. I did see one woman on a bike fall right in front of a minivan though, but luckily the minivan was moving really slowly. The woman jumped right back up and a volunteer was nearby so I didn't feel compelled to see if she was okay. (She passed me a few hours later all bandaged up.) On this stretch along the highway various times I'd get passed by a guy and then he'd invariably slow to a coast to get a drink. Really annoying. I was pleased when I saw another woman yell at a guy when he did this to her, since he'd just done it to me too. Lots of leap frog going on.

Most of the bike course had the landscape shown in the above picture. Flat road with trees on the sides. I'd expected this because I'd used Google Map Streetview to check out the course almost as soon as I registered for the race. I thought it would be boring, but it wasn't really. Mostly because there was plenty of other things to think about.

At the second aid station there were still lines, so I decided to wait til the third one. Time was flying anyways. I got a banana chunk and ate the part that hadn't been touched by the knife and tossed the rest. I got more water to be safe. But what I didn't do was top off my Speedfil with water. Lesson learned: before tossing a water bottle, dump any remaining water into Speedfil and make some more Heed drink! By the time I got to the third aid station I'd been out of water for about 10 minutes. Somewhere between mile 20 and 30 I took off my arm warmers. I probably could've lived without them and not been cold.

The third aid station still had lines but I didn't think I could wait til mile 40. Plus with special needs being at mile 49, I thought it'd be better to stop now and then not stop again until special needs. There were volunteers holding bikes for us while we used the portapotties! So nice! I even got some volunteers to bring me water while I was in line so I could top off my bottles and make my drink. I was slightly jealous of the woman in front of me eating a PB&J sandwich. Mmm real food. But I haven't found any gluten free bread that works well for a PB&J sandwich *the next day* or even hours later. I used the time in line to put my arm warmers in my saddle bag to make my jersey pockets less bulky. At least I didn't feel like I was totally wasting my time by standing in line. I think this stop took about 10 minutes, but maybe it was less.

Ironman Florida Race Report: Bike (part 1)

2009-12-03T21:08:00.000-08:00

So apparently life after Ironman means catching up on everything I neglected all year. I feel like I'm busier than I was during my training! I wanted to post each part of the race report together but I think I need to just do a few paragraphs at a time. It'll be easier to read that way too! Without further ado...

BIKE: 7:24:45

I'm not one of those people who can jump onto their bike and just go, I need to stand there, lift one leg over, etc. So once I crossed the "mount bike here" line, I made sure I was far to the side and out of the way, got on my bike, and then realized someone else had done the same thing right in front of me and was blocking me. There were so many people in that 6' wide chute that I just had to wait for her to start riding.

Once on the road, there were lots of people riding, and the first stretch of road is pretty low quality. A few pot holes here and there (nothing like the VI, but not as smooth as you expect in the states). I'd worn my arm warmers since the previous morning it had been super windy and the wind made it chilly, but I felt like the only one with arm coverings. As expected I got a couple of comments about my hot pink arm warmers. People love them. Dave especially likes them because they make me easy to spot! Dave cheered really loudly when I rode past him. He is an awesome cheerleader.

The first 6 mile stretch is parallel to the shore and it can be super windy there, but it's where the most amount of spectators were too. Plus it was the beginning of the ride, so it wasn't too bad. I knew I needed to not be one of those people who pushes it hard early on the bike and ruins the rest of the day, but I also knew it might be tempting to go faster than I should because so many people were going to pass me. But before the race I just accepted that given my typical swim time and my not so amazing bike speed averages, I'd probably have about 1000 people pass me on the bike. I decided that made me cool. Once people started passing me, I honestly thought about counting them. It was especially fun when super awesome fit guys with amazing bikes and aero helmets started passing me. Hah. I decided I really need a jersey that says "yeah well I swam faster."

Once turned onto the highway to go north, things started to spread out a little bit more so I paid more attention to making sure I wasn't drafting. The rules on drafting are strict - you have to be 3 or 4 bike lengths behind the next cyclist (I knew the number at the time but have since forgotten!). (This is one reason I did most of my training alone this year.) If you enter into that zone, you MUST pass the person within 20 seconds or you can get a penalty. When someone passes you, you're required to drop back the correct distance. Well I wanted to play by the rules, but there were a lot of cyclists out there. I felt like I was dropping back a lot. I passed a few people too though, sometimes only because I suddenly realized I was in the zone.

Ironman Arizona

2009-11-24T13:54:00.001-08:00

Sorry I haven't finished my race report yet! I've been super busy. Saturday I drove to Phoenix with Sierra - looong drive. Sunday my dad and I volunteered at Ironman Arizona and I didn't get to sleep until 2:30am which is about 5 hours after my bedtime! It was really interesting to volunteer 2 weeks after my own Ironman race. I volunteered at IMAZ last year too, but this year I recognized the looks on the runners faces. I could tell when they peered into the cups of pretzels and chips that we were offering that they were trying to decide if it sounded like something they could stomach. Anyone who is considering registering for an Ironman should definitely volunteer at one first. It's so helpful to see how things work. Last year I watched part of the swim, volunteered in the womens change tent for T1, setup the run aid station and volunteered there for the first few hours of runners (the pros have it tough - even when they look like hell, nobody wants to ask insult them by asking if they're okay), and then cheered for the last few hours of the race, hanging out at the finish for the last 20 or 30 minutes. I felt like after that experience I had such a better understanding of what to expect in Florida. My dad and I helped with the gear bags yesterday. Wow it was insane. We needed way more volunteers. All in all, volunteering is a great experience. It's fun to help the athletes, and after doing a race I felt like I wanted to give back and play my role again as a volunteer. (Plus Ironman treats their volunteers really well, although I was unable to partake in all the free volunteer food so I also skipped the volunteer party last night.) If you still need a reason to volunteer, it's incredibly beneficial to your friends and family who come to your race because after a day of volunteering you will be really tired, so the next year when you're doing the race and your support team is volunteering or even just cheering all day, you won't hate them when they complain about how tired they are the day after the race. Yes, you just traveled 140.6 miles, but you trained for it. People don't train to run back and forth collecting gear bags or stand at a run aid station for 5 hours yelling "pretzels, chips, powerbars, gels." I had such a great time. I got to see a few people from my tri club, and I met an online training buddy when she ran past on her last loop, and I got to say hi to another athlete for a friend. I also got to see Rudy Garcia-Tolson go past our aid station twice, and I gave him pretzels once. I felt like I was touching a celebrity. If you don't know who he is, google him. I was sorry to miss watching him finish but so excited that he did. I made it over to the finish line about 20 minutes later, and I saw a 76 year old guy cross the line with about 10 minutes to spare. He won his age group and is going to Kona!

Ironman Florida Race Report: Swim + T1

2009-11-19T12:31:00.000-08:00

I know I promised to bold the important parts for those who don't want the nitty gritty (my dad) but I don't have time right now, so if you're in a hurry, just look at the photos.

SWIM: 1:20:58

The swim was awesome. One of the reasons I chose IM Florida is because of the swim. I came to triathlon from a swimming background. I love swimming (even though I mostly hate training in a pool). For me, roads for the bike and the run are pretty much the same everywhere. Paved asphalt or concrete. Big deal. What makes a race interesting to me is the swim (okay and the hills on the bike). Last October I was in Arizona when the SOMA half iron distance race took place, so I went to the practice swim for the chance to swim in Tempe Town Lake to scope it out since I was considering doing IM Arizona. Well, Tempe Town Lake is just as icky as I’d imagined, and it’s cold. The whole time I was swimming there, I thought “I should do Florida instead. Florida has nice water.”

The water for Ironman Florida was perfect. The temperature was just right – I wish I knew what it was. It felt like it was warmer than 75 to me. My toes didn’t mind getting wet; my ears were warm enough; I didn’t have to warm up in the water for 15 minutes just so I could put my face in the water without hyperventilating. If I'd been wary of the cold I would've spent more time warming up in the water instead of hanging out with Dave and Lauren. Instead while I chatted with them I just kept pulling my wetsuit up as far as it would go. I'm glad I did this because for the first time my arms didn't get tired during a wetsuit swim. Seems like I finally got the wetsuit on properly!

Even though I have a swimming background and lots of experience with open water swimming, I was still a little nervous about the mass swim start. I’d never run into the water with 2500 people before, all heading for the same buoy. I was mostly worried about getting kicked really hard in the face (like in the nose, where it's make my eyes water and be hard to breathe), or getting kicked or shoved. The swim course was counterclockwise, so my coach advised me to start on the right side of the beach to avoid some of the beatings. I took her advice. I'd watched race starts for IMFL before and it surprised me how many people walked into the water instead of running. Well, it's kind of tough to run in when there are so many people in front of you taking their time. There was a group of swimmers who had ventured out a little farther to the right than it seemed we were supposed to be - they had a huge advantage because the water was so shallow there that they ran probably 50 meters in mid-calf deep water before starting to swim. Very crafty!

Race start video that Lauren took (click on image to play)

Since I hadn't gotten any warning that the race was about to start, I had to start my watch when the cannon went off. I usually try to start my watch at the 10 second countdown, so that I don't have to think about my watch and can just start swimming when the race starts. I was ready to swim, but it took awhile to actually get into water that was deep enough to swim. The people in front of me were still walking but I just started swimming. I bet we looked kind of like dominos falling down as we entered the water. Normally I have problems keeping my pulse down at the beginning of a swim race. I expected to have to breathe every second stroke for awhile, but that just didn't happen this time. Maybe I didn't go out as hard since I had all these people in front of me to deal with.

I was sure that Ironman was the one race I'd be able to draft off people, at least the first loop. Wrong! I must be doing something wrong because I had a hard time sticking to peoples feet. I drafted off a few people at the beginning, but I kept finding people were either too fast or too slow - or they stopped to sight rather than incorporating it into their strokes. Or worse - they switch to breaststroke to sight and I'd have to dodge out of the way quickly to not get kicked. I only got kicked once during the whole swim, and it was due to a breaststroke sighter. At least it was just a kick in the arm and even though it hurt I reassured myself because you don't really need arms after the swim, and I was almost done at that point.

The water was clear and I could see schools of fish swim past probably wondering what the heck was going on at the surface. I could see jellyfish but mostly they were well below the surface and they were pretty to watch, especially the farther away from shore that we got. The water was darker since it was deeper, but the jellies were so vibrant and white. I think they were mostly sea nettles. Since I'd swam with a lot more jellies before, this didn't bother me, but I could imagine how it might freak out some people. I only swam super close to one - I basically swam over it, so I stopped kicking in hopes that my feet wouldn't touch it. (My husband is probably laughing if he reads this because I asked him recently to count my kicks per stroke and he couldn't tell if I was kicking once per stroke or if my legs just moved a little as I rotated during the swim.) But I tried to keep my feet up higher than usual. I don't think it worked because I had a rash on my right foot the next day that can't really be explained by anything else. I didn't notice the sting though, but I also wasn't paying attention to my foot at that point.

Sighting was exceptionally easy. The buoys were enormous and it was a rectangular course. Before we started the swim the course looked short to me, I think because the buoys were so big. The buoys were yellow until the orange turn buoy. For the first lap I mostly aimed for just to the right of the farthest buoy. As I got closer I decided there weren't as many people as I'd expected, so I took the turn wide, but not super wide. Maybe 75-100 feet away from the buoy. But once I was past the buoy I turned pretty quickly since there seemed to be space.

Well, space in the water is relative. My brother asked me if there'd be enough people at the turn to just get up and run across everyone. There were definitely not enough people to do that! But I saw holes so I decided to take some of the open space rather than continue to swim super wide. This was probably the most physical part of the swim. I got pushed once, but it just propelled me forward. I think I may have elbowed some guy in the chest (but it just propelled me forward....). At no time did I feel like I needed to do catch-up swim style to keep an arm/hand in front of my face for protection. Mostly it was just having to slow down a bit to keep from swimming into someones kicking feet, or just bumping into people next to me. At times it was a little frustrating because the masses did seem to slow me down on the stretch that was parallel to shore, but overall it was fun and I was enjoying my first Ironman swim.

(Love this next sequence of photos of the first swim loop. Remind anyone of Monty Python?)

Coming back to shore was really easy to sight too because of the tall hotels (with nothing behind them). Also there were lots of wetsuits to follow. This was the first time I did an open water swim where the vast majority of the people weren't getting off course. I got the feeling that the people who seemed to be swimming off course were actually just trying to swim wider than I thought was necessary. On the way back the buoys were all the same color. I saw some people swimming on the left of the buoys and it made me wonder if they were shortcutting or if those buoys didn't matter. Since I wasn't sure I swam the long course - keeping all buoys to my left. I wanted to know I swam my 2.4 miles!

Just before getting to the beach, there was a very shallow area. My coach said to swim til my chest hit the sand. I've always swam at least until my hand hits the bottom. (Learned that after one or two swim races where I thought I could stand up but it was still too deep!) At some point though I stood up because I realized the water was getting so shallow it was going to be hard to get up if I swam any farther. Then we had about 4 or 5 big steps before the water got swimmable again. At that point the water was waist or chest deep, and I think I swam a few strokes before getting to the final shallow area that led us to the beach. I'd already decided to walk the beach segment because I was hoping to be able to pee during that little break since I can't pee and swim at the same time. Oh I wish I could perfect that skill.

Video that shows people running across shallow area then doing the short swim before getting to the real beach:

FIRST SWIM HALF 1.2 mi. (38:08) 2:00/100m

I was pretty much right on target after the first half. Aside from the 2.4 mile Folsom Lake Open Water swim in June where I swam a 1:06, my open water swim times this year have all been exactly the same. 1.2 miles in 40 minutes or 2.4 miles in 1:20. I'm consistent. When I saw my time after the first half, I wondered if I'd actually beat 1:20 for a change. But I didn't really worry about it. 1:30 was my goal considering the huge mass of people, but of course I changed my goal to 1:20 mid-swim, once I saw the 38 minute split.

When I walked over the timing mat, I thought of everyone I knew a few time zones west who would see my swim split when they woke up. It's always nice to think of my long distance cheerleaders during a race. I looked for Dave and Lauren but didn't see them. I got a swig of water to rinse out my mouth. There were so many people walking through the sand with me. I tried to keep to the right so people could run past on the left, but I didn't notice anyone running. Since I hadn't managed to pee and walk, I stopped when I got back in the water to do the job there. I stood with my hands on my hips looking at the swim course and wondering if spectators thought I was thinking about quitting. If they only knew.... I heard another swimmer ask a lifeguard if we had to swim around all the buoys or just the end ones. The answer was all the buoys. I'm still not sure if that was correct, but I just kept my plan of keeping all the buoys on my left. As I finally got to swimmable depth, I felt like I'd sure been walking a lot for a SWIM race!

(Picture below - me getting water between loops - I'm the one in the white swim cap facing the volunteer with the blue shirt)

I saw a big school of fish as I started the second loop. Poor fishies probably wondering what the heck was going on. I saw a kayaker and wondered if the sharks would go for the kayaker or the swimmers first. Hehe. I'm surprised I didn't freak myself out about sharks. I think I thought about the dolphins we'd seen the previous day and decided they would ward off the sharks for us.

Heading out for the second loop:

The swells got bigger on the second loop. I'd heard this always seems to happen so I expected it. My coach had told me if it was choppy that I should do less sighting. I used to sight way too often, especially given I'm a pretty straight swimmer. But this year I'd gotten used to sighting less. Maybe it's mistakenly a function of more pool swimming? So sighting even less often made it seem like I was barely sighting. But it worked fine. As I said, the course was just a rectangle. I thought the big swells were fun. Kind of like coasting downhill on a bike, and the uphills were easy too. I only inhaled water once but I just kept swimming and coughed it out as I swam, like I've done before.

As I was coming around the last turn in the second loop, I got sad. The swim was almost over! Just half a mile to go! I wanted to savor each moment of my Ironman day, and now this awesome fun swim was about to be done! I honestly briefly pondered doing a third loop just for fun! I knew I had the time, but I also knew I'd want that time on the bike!

Suddenly I started worrying that I’d completely mixed up my transition bags. What if I finished the swim and had my running shoes waiting for me instead of my helmet and bike shoes? Ugh. I just told myself that certainly there must be people dumber than me and I’m sure someone had done that at some point and I bet the awesome volunteers would be able to figure it out for me and get me the right stuff. Instead of worrying about the gear bags, I thought about my friend Laurie who was doing Beach 2 Battleship iron distance race that same day. I knew she was already on the bike since the race was an hour earlier than IMFL and I wondered how she was doing.

I just kept swimming and I was feeling good. Before I knew it I hit the first shallow bit, then the deep bit (this time I walked because it was really only 3 or 4 steps and it seemed more complicated to swim it than to walk it), then the last shallow bit again. Woohoo. I had to smile when I crossed and saw my time was 1:20. At least I'm consistent! I was glad I hadn't bothered to do more training swims than I did. Swimming once or twice a week works for me.

SECOND SWIM HALF 1.2 mi. (42:50) 2:15/100m
TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:20:58) 2:07/100m
Overall: 1391/2424
Division: 51/95 (for reference, #47 (halfway mark in my age group) was less than 50 seconds ahead of me)

What I would do differently: Find out the course rules regarding which buoys need to be swam around. Maybe this was discussed at the pre-race meeting, but that meeting started over 30 minutes early (during the welcome dinner) so we missed part of it. I potentially could've swam a much shorter race, but I had fun and hit my target time, so not that big of a deal. Also I could probably skip the water at the halfway point. I don't know that it cost me much time, but I've swam 3.5 mile races in the ocean without water, so I'm sure I'd be okay skipping it next time.

T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE 19:01
Almost 20 minutes for a transition! (I wonder if my coach worried about this!) I am pretty sure I was the slowest in my age group, by a few minutes. As soon as I was on the beach I started to unzip my wetsuit and pull it down over my arms. Hah! My arms totally got stuck. With my Inspector Gadget sized watch on my left wrist and my bracelets (medic ID and race ID) on the right wrist, I had a hard time getting the wetsuit any farther down. I was trapped like in a straight jacket, thinking about how ridiculous I'd look in any photos.

After crossing the swim finish timing mat, I looked for the the strippers (aka wetsuit peelers). I'd used the peelers at Vineman Aquabike and it was so quick (10 seconds?) that it was worth sitting down on the towel covered sand to have them pull the wetsuit off my feet. Otherwise it would've taken me a few more minutes to remove it myself. Luckily my tri bottoms didn't get peeled away with the wetsuit! My ankle timing chip stayed on too. I can't even remember if I ever got the wetsuit off my wrists or if they did that for me.

Next we ran under the fresh water showers. I was surprised when the guy in front of me stopped and moved his hands all over like he was bathing. But since the showers were a few people deep I used that time to rinse off too. (For people who use the RX glasses table, Ironman is smart enough to have the glasses table pickup after the showers, so they stay dry.)

I didn’t rush the transition, obviously. Once I noticed my heart rate was super high I walked most of the transition so my HR would calm down before the bike. Also I didn’t want to hurt my feet running barefoot on asphalt. I'm sensitive! I looked around for my people right after the swim but didn’t see them. I realized quickly that my husband probably was waiting near the gear bags - he was and it was great to see him and have him cheer for me. Dave is an awesome cheerleader and he cheered and screamed when he saw me near my gear bag and then he ran ahead (dodging lots of other spectators) to where I'd enter the change tent so he could cheer again and take photos. A volunteer handed me my gear bag and I walked/jogged to the change tent trying to dodge some guy's bike shoes that he'd dropped while going the other way. I also made an effort to stay out of the way so people who wanted to run the transition could get past me. I was surprised how many people were just lightly jogging too. It seemed the people exiting the change tent were the runners.

(The following awesome transition images are courtesy of DCRainMaker! Our bikes were actually very close to each other so his depiction of where his bike was (the little red deviation near the exit) works for mine too!)

When I entered the building with the change rooms (yes, it was indoors! poor janitors), we ran straight - there was about a 6 foot gap between the wall on the left and the change tent on the right. The entrance to the change tent was at the far end of the room though. Women's change tent was first - lots of volunteers yelled this to let me know. There were people in the make-shift hallway changing though. (Well, I didn't see any nakedness, maybe they were just doing the socks and shoes thing.) Once in the women's change tent - WOW what a MESS! It was really different than the change tent at IM Arizona when I volunteered there last year. AZ's tent was square which left chairs around the perimeter of the tent, but also chairs in the middle. There was plenty of space there. Our change tent was rectangular and fairly narrow given how many people were in there.

I finally found a chair by asking another athlete if I could sit where her helmet was. I untied my bag (glad I'd learned when I volunteered at AZ to make it easy to untie!) and a volunteer immediately dumped everything on the floor for me. I quickly grabbed my bike shorts so they wouldn't get wet or sandy. The volunteer immediately started filling my T1 bag with my wet stuff. Even though I wear tri shorts in the swim, I change to bike shorts for the bike and run shorts for the run. I could wear a bikini bottom in the swim, or wear a swimsuit and change all my clothes but I just prefer the tri shorts, and I like to swim with my tri top because it's hard to put dry clothes on a wet body, so the fewer changes required the better!

I used a combination of baby wipes, two small washclothes, and some water to get sand and dirt off of all vital areas. Smeared some chamois cream on me and the bike shorts as I pulled them on. Baby powdered my feet to dry them. Put on the socks and shoes. Put my flasks in my jersey pocket. Blew my nose to get all that salt water out. The volunteer had gotten my helmet ready and opened my sunglasses case, carefully got my sunglasses out and placed them in the helmet, and put the case back in the T1 bag. She asked me "Do you need this?" a few times and put it in the T1 bag for me when I said no. Volunteers rock! She started to unroll my arm warmers before realizing that I'd rolled them for a reason. I rolled on my arm warmers, put some sunblock on my face, used hand sanitizer to get the chamois cream and sunblock off my hands and left the changing room.

I ran out the changing room exit and was facing the people just coming in from the swim. I skipped the sunscreen volunteers (since I'm picky about sunblock) and hit the portapotty instead. I was surprised there was no line. Apparently I'm the only one who has to pee after a swim. I'd planned to just wait til the first aid station like I usually do on a longer tri, but I guess I either wanted to just get it out of the way or I really had to go. After the pit stop and a stop for hand sanitizer I continued carefully walking towards my bike, trying not to slip on the bike cleats. As I got closer, someone yelled out my number, and magically when I was about 20 feet away I saw a volunteer holding my bike. Wow, having someone fetch your bike and hold it for you sure makes you feel special! Anyone who wants to feel like a pro should just do an ironman! The support was great. I hit my watch as I reached the dismount line and I was a bit surprised to see my transition time was almost 20 minutes. I was under 10 minutes for both Vineman events this year, but the transition distance was shorter and I wasn't concerned about running a marathon at the end.

My T1 to do list said: bring eye drops on bike and run (put in jersey!); chamois cream THEN sunblock. Food plan: H20 30 min, Chomps/Heed after 30. Gel 1-1:15. Relax and HAVE FUN! I'd also written the following abbreviated mantras on my list to remind me of the plan for my mind: 123456, amazing, awesome, strong trained & ready, ohm namo guru dev namo (a yoga chant that proved incredibly helpful!).

My T1 gear bag had this in it: bib # on race belt, washcloths for feet, babywipes, chamoi cream, bike shorts, hand sanitizer, baby powder to dry feet, clean rolled socks in ziplock, body glide, gloves, arm warmers (rolled so I could roll them on), hankerchief, sunglasses w/ spare lenses, bike shoes, ventolin (to use and leave; had separate one in my saddle bag) swim ear, face cleanser, bottle of water to wash feet, helmet, RX sunglasses (backup), spare contacts + solution (backup), to-do list. In a grocery bag inside my T1 bag, I also included some cold weather gear just in case it was super cold. In that I had: bike jersey, ear warmers, full finger gloves. My food in my T1 bag included two flasks for my jersey - one with Heed powder and one with vanilla orange Carb Boom. On my bike was my bento box and saddle bag. My bento box had the contents of 2 packages of Gu Chomps, plus 1 packet of honey almond butter. My bike also had a flask of apple Carb Boom attached to it on the top tube.

What I would do differently: Next time I’ve got strippers available I won’t bother trying to get the wetsuit down to my waist on my own. I’ll just run to the peelers and let them do it all, so I don't have to feel like I'm trapped in a straight jacket! I would probably just run to the change tent instead of walking at all, as long as I didn’t think it would hurt my feet. Mostly because I had plenty of time in the change tent to let my heart rate settle down. I might spend a few extra seconds rinsing my face off in the fresh water showers. I'm not sure what else I would cut out of the transition though. I really wanted to have my feet in good condition for the run, so that's why I made sure they were clean and dry. I guess maybe I could've been more aggressive when I first entered the tent and just forced myself into a seat. I think being overwhelmed by the crowd slowed me down a little. But I am glad I wasn't one of those frantic women rushing through everything. I wanted to make sure I had everything I needed. I suppose I'd be willing to run to my bike if I left my shoes off until I got to my bike and then brushed off the socks and put my shoes on, but I bet that wouldn't actually save me any time. I haven't had problems with blisters on the bike, so maybe I could be less careful about having perfectly clean feet in T1 and just do it in T2 instead.

Ironman Florida Race Report: Race Morning

2009-11-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

To any of my friends and family members who are non-athletes, I apologize for the incredibly long race report posts that are going to follow. I’m writing the type of race report that I found helpful while I was training for my first Ironman. Read the bold parts if you just want the overview!

Pre-race - Race Morning

I went to bed around 8:30 the night before the race. I slept a lot better than I expected. I thought I’d be up all night in anticipation. If that had happened my plan was to just focus on breathing and relax. On race day I woke up at 3:15, the alarm was set for 3:30 so I didn’t go back to sleep, but I stayed in bed mentally going through the race. (So glad my husband noticed the alarm clock battery warning light was on a few days earlier, so we got that taken care of before race day!) The day my watch had been counting down to for over a year was finally here!

As soon as I got up I put on my tri top and tri shorts, my heart rate monitor (HRM) strap and watch, my timing chip ankle strap, my Xtreme Sports ID, and my sweats to stay warm. I’d taken off my wedding rings the night before – hate worrying about them while swimming! I’d made a list of what to do in the morning and what I needed to bring with me to race site.

To do: wake up, put in contacts, bathroom, get dressed (see above), breakfast, put on Body Glide (neck, ankles, wrists, shoulders, armpits, hairline on back of neck (prevents chafing from swim caps) then put on some more Body Glide, put on Arnica (arnica flora is my magic gel that rids aches and pains. how do I always have random aches and pains on race days?), take medicine + 2 Endurolytes with plenty of water

Bring to race site: banana and Gu chomps for pre-race, wetsuit, goggles, swim caps, morning clothes bag, RX sunglasses in case, for backup in T1 in case my contacts fell out after getting kicked in the face during the swim, Special Needs bags, Floor pump, To Do lists and copy of Race Plan from Coach to review.

Around 4am I ate my usual big workout day breakfast (60g cream of rice cereal, 20g Aria protein powder, dash of cinnamon, banana and splash of milk) – I’m a little particular (insane?) about my food but I didn’t want to bring my kitchen scale to FL so I’d measured the dry ingredients and put them in a ziplock baggie before we left CA. I had my usual cup of coffee too. I didn’t want to try having more coffee than usual to get the caffeine boost because I was afraid it’d mess up my stomach. Did some stretching and tried to go to the bathroom a few times. We left for the 15 minute walk to race start/transition area around 4:45am.

The race site was really happening at 5am! Lots of people and excitement and music. We dropped off my special needs bags first then went to the transition area. A volunteer wrote my race number, 63, on each arm, and my age, 30, on the back of my left calf. Only athletes are allowed in the transition area.

It really is a small world. I knew 3 other bloggers who were doing the race; we'd met in person a few nights earlier at Bob's blogger party. Even though there were 2500 athletes, we all happened to be in the same spot that morning for race numbering. Bob, on the left, actually volunteered to do body marking before the race, so he was working and couldn't show off his awesome magic marker tattoo with me and Melissa.

Walking through into the transition area after getting body marked, I really felt like “wow I’m doing an Ironman today!” It felt more real than it had all week. I pumped up my tires and handed the pump over the fence to Dave who carried it around in his backpack until after I was on my bike a few hours later! I mistakenly then put my RX sunglasses in my T2 bag which I didn’t realize until I got to the other side of the transition area to my T1 bag. Ugh. I went back to the T2 bag, retrieved my RX sunglasses and put my T2 To Do list in my T2 bag. In the T1 bag I placed my RX sunglasses and my T1 to do list along with my sunblock (which I’d put on after getting body marked, but thought I might want to reapply after the swim). (Photo below is me fixing the T1 bag)

I was really glad we got to the race start early. I’m not sure what all I did, but I didn’t feel like I was ever just standing around with nothing to do. I went through the port-a-potty line twice (finally success, yay!). It was cold with the wind, even after the sun came up, though it wasn’t miserably cold – just cold by Kendra standards. I was dreading putting my sweats in my morning clothes bag, but then I realized I had a wetsuit to keep me warm. This was only my second race with my wetsuit! I saw a sorry soul trying to use a one-time use Body Glide on his neck to prevent wetsuit chafing. I used my real stick some more (you can never use too much Body Glide!) and handed it to him. Those one-time uses are pretty useless, though I did put one in my Run Special Needs bag just in case.

Once I had my wetsuit mostly on, I threw everything else in my morning clothes bag and then tried to figure out how I was going to fit that bag into the bin of bags for racers 1-100 that was already overflowing. A pro came over and suggested we just put them on the ground. Somehow the 1-100 bin was far more full than all the others. Maybe because the pros started earlier so were already on the beach? Anyways, it made me feel special to share a trash bin with the pros for our morning clothes.

I walked to the beach while eating my banana and a few Chomps and I almost forgot that we had to go through the swim chute so that our timing chips would be registered and everyone would know we were in the water. I thought the chute would be really obvious, but it seemed like you could miss it if you're looking for a place to toss a banana peel... (maybe it would’ve been obvious if I’d tried to walk all the way down to the water before realizing my mistake.) I saw Dave and Lauren as I walked through the swim start chute, and I went over to where they were, standing behind the fence that separated the swimmers from the crowd. I got a few hugs, posed for photos, and tried to enjoy the last few moments with my people before I headed to the water with my caps and goggles on. I wore a pink cap as my base cap, then the goggles, then the race cap. I like wearing two caps because my goggles seem to stay put better over my swim cap, but adding another cap over the goggles ensures that if I get kicked in the face the goggles won’t fall off entirely. I didn’t bother wearing my ear plugs because I’d done a practice swim earlier in the week without them and realized the water was warm enough that I didn’t need them to keep my sensitive ears from freezing. I think it’s really best to go as minimalist as possible so you have fewer things to worry about and keep track of before and during the race.

By the time I wandered to the far right side of the beach it was probably 6:40 or 6:45 and Mike Reilly was already yelling at everyone to get out of the water for the pro start. Oops I hadn’t done any swimming to warm up. I wasn’t too worried about this since I realized the same thing happened for my Vineman 70.3 race. I wandered into the water to pee again before the race – seems like everyone else was doing the same thing. Meanwhile Mike Reilly is getting ticked, but I'm sure he's used to this. I tried to find my starting position. I just kept walking to the right until I could see the spectator barrier on that side. I had no idea if we were all supposed to be on the beach, or if the ankle deep water was okay. I stood just behind the water line, but it was behind a bunch of people. I looked behind me and saw lots of guys who looked like strong swimmers. I didn't particularly feel like starting at the very back, and these guys seemed pretty laid back and I heard some saying they planned to just let everyone else get in the water first, so I figured it was unlikely they would swim over me too hard. I positioned myself what seemed like 10-20 people from the right and about the same number of people deep in front and behind me.

I heard the National Anthem played before the pros went off with their cannon start, and I heard Mike Reilly ask how many of us were about to do their first Ironman. Lots of cheers for that! I think they said over 1300 of us were first timers! But other than that I didn’t hear anything else. There was no announcement that I heard, just the cannon and all of the sudden the race had begun!

Home with the Iron Team!

2009-11-10T10:54:00.001-08:00

We are home again, and picked up the puppy today, so the unit is
complete. Except the internet connection broke during our trip, so, it
doesn't quite feel like home having to go elsewhere to check the
email. I'll definitely post a full race report (after I catch up on
sleep!), but for now I wanted to post this picture taken last night
after we got home. I'm wearing one of my many Ironman finisher shirts,
and Dave's got his Ironman volunteer shirt on. It seems appropriate
for him to have a shirt that says Iron Team on it. I had a lot of
people on my team this year that helped me cross that finish line.
Before the race started the announcer had the athletes give a cheer
for their friends and families who supported them throughout all this
training. I don't think it would have been possible for us to cheer
loudly enough. Thanks to my Iron Team! You all know who you are! :)

finisher!

2009-11-08T08:32:00.001-08:00

Sorry about the yelling. I was pretty excited :-) Right before I start screaming my head off, though, you can hear the announcer say, "Kendra, you are an Ironman!!!" Yay!

[Posted by Lauren]

Less than 26 miles to go!!

2009-11-07T14:38:00.001-08:00

Kendra's running now!

I sat outside the condo complex to watch for her as she returned from the bike leg (the condo is about a half-mile from the transition area), figuring I could see her, snap a picture, then walk to the transition area to catch her again as she started the run.

I was *mostly* right. I got so swept up in cheering on the passing riders that I neglected to keep my camera at the ready (it was in my hand, but not turned on). Kendra actually saw me before I saw her, and she called out to me with a big smile on her face. I cheered and whooped, and she told me she'd had a flat tire out on the course. That would explain the delay - she passed me right about 4 o'clock, approximately 7h 20m after she left T1. She seemed to be in great spirits despite the setback. And she was way, way, way ahead of the 5:30 p.m. deadline for finishing the bike.

I walked on over to the run course, and talked to Dave on the way, so I found out where he was standing, closer to the transition area. He'd seen Kendra finish the bike too, and he got a couple of pictures, so Kendra will be able to post those later (they don't have the connector wire to hook up their camera to the laptop, sadly).

The first segment of the run is a tiny little out-and-back, so by standing at the roadside, we spectators got to see our athletes pass by twice in a very short space of time. Felt like a lot of welcome Kendra-time after such a long period sending general thoughts of support and cheer out into the ether, not knowing exactly where she was at any given time! It was oddly frustrating, sitting around for so many hours and waiting - I felt like I wasn't doing my job as a supporter! (I also came to an epiphany as I sat by the roadside, anticipating her return, when I noticed it was 3:30 and I'd been up for 12 hours and was feeling somewhat drowsy, and then I thought about how all these people zooming by me had also been up for 12 hours, but *they* had been swimming in freezing cold water and then biking in the hot sun and fairly constant wind, and that they all had a full marathon up ahead of them before they could sit down and relax. My epiphany: I will never be an Ironman. And I'm okay with that!! I'm happy to sit in awe of what my friend, and thousands of other strangers, are achieving today, and respect it while in no way understanding it!)

Ok, enough about me, and back to the race! I got a couple of pictures as Kendra set out for the run:

Like I said, Kendra seemed to be in great spirits, and she was also lucid enough to correct me -- I shouted out "See you in 26 miles!" But remembering that it's a double-loop run course, Kendra chuckled and said, "How about 13?" Oops - good point!

It's getting dark already, and cooling off quickly. Good thing she's got her long-sleeved jersey (complete with smiley face) with her. Now that it's dark, the camera's flash should capture the effect quite nicely... (The runners are also being given glow sticks to ensure their visibility on the road).

Hope to post more after 13 miles! Stay tuned!

on to the bike!

2009-11-07T06:51:00.001-08:00

Missed Kendra's exit from the water, but I saw her start the bike!

before we get to that, a few pictures from this morning:

Kendra wondered if there was much point to stretching at 4 o'clock in the morning, since she wouldn't be running for probably 12 more hours...

Caught the sunrise today at the Transition Area - the PA system played the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun," which I found appropriate.

Lots of T1 bags!

About 15 minutes before the big start!

This is what it looks like when 2,500 swimmers all storm the Gulf at the same time! (I took a video of that, too, and when I have the opportunity I'll upload it to YouTube and link to it here... it was pretty spectacular to watch.)

Thanks to Kendra's pinked-out bike, and her matching arm warmers, I saw her go by. My watch said it was 1h 38 minutes after the start. (I was standing about 40 yards past the "mount" area).

Ok, that's it for a little while. I'm off to get some grub and then to show up for my volunteer gig at 10 o'clock at the information booth. That's located about a half-mile down the way, where the finish line is, at another resort, so my wi-fi access will not be accessible while I'm there. I'll pick the blog back up in about 5 hours or so, once my volunteering is done and the cyclists start returning for T2!

quick update!

2009-11-07T06:01:00.000-08:00

Kendra's swimming! Her first loop was about 38 minutes - really great time! The course is odd - they swim a loop, exit the water to cross the timing mat, then dive back into the water for the 2nd loop.

I'll post more pics soon but I want to make sure I get the water exit and T1 to bike start. Meantime, here's Kendra in between loops. Dave spotted her, which is the only way I was able to snap the picture. She's in the center, white cap, tipping her head back for some water.

More later!!

counting down!

2009-11-06T11:42:00.000-08:00

Lauren here.

Panama City Beach is beautiful this time of year! I took this photo from the condo's balcony at 7 o'clock this morning. Yes, a beach-front condo. Wonderful!

Kendra had to drop off her bike, gear, and transition bags today at the race start and transition location, so this morning she finalized the packing and organization. My task was to make sure her running shirt was reflective, since the run course is pretty dark. I brought some pink reflective sticky dots with me, to go with Kendra's pink theme, and decided that the runners behind her would appreciate a nice happy pattern:

By 10:30, we were off to the transition area. We took this picture of Kendra right before she dropped off her bike:

And here it is, bike #63, waiting for athlete #63 to show up sometime around 9 o'clock tomorrow morning!

So that's about it for now. I drove inland a little ways for some wi-fi access to post this little update. Should be able to log on from the start/transition area tomorrow (will be testing it tonight to be sure) so I can upload race-day pictures! Don't forget to track athlete #63 to follow Kendra all day tomorrow!!

TWO days to go!!!

2009-11-05T06:36:00.001-08:00

Yesterday my countdown said 3 days. I remember when it was 300 days! I
think the major freakout is going to happen soon. I think so far it's
just been a few small minor ones. Like pre-quakes. We're down to 1 day
and 23 hours. Wow I could just say 47 hours. That's freakier.

This post is long. Yesterday was a busy day. But I aimed for topic
sentences this time, so it's easy to read bits and pieces...

I'm all checked-in for Ironman. My massage yesterday was great, now I
just need to keep stretching to stay loose. Dave met me at the massage
tent and waited in line with me to check-in. I had to show my ID and
USAT membership card to get into the check-in tent (Dave waited
outside but he took a few photos as he peered in). The first table I
was sent to gave me two sheets of paper that I had to fill out -
verifying medical info, emergency contact, etc, and liability waiver.
Then I got in the weigh-in line. (They don't state it anywhere but it
seems like if you end up needing medical attention and you've lost too
much weight, they probably make you withdraw.) My weight was marked
down and then I was sent to the next table where they put my race ID
bracelet on (a little snugly), they numbered my swim cap, gave me bags
for my transition gear, and I got stickers with "63" on them to place
on my bike, helmet, and race bags. I know I did a few other things in
the check-in tent but I can't even remember it all now.

Next I checked-in for the Janus Charity Challenge. I gave them my
total for fundraising so far, though I have until Friday at noon to
update that with more current information. I have to go back there
anyways, so it's not too late to contribute to the National Foundation
for Celiac Awareness - http://januscharitychallenge.kintera.org/fl09/kendra

Janus gave me a tri top and a hat for my efforts! My fundraising is
mentioned in the Sacramento Examiner today.

Janus also had big blank signs that were available (free) for families
and friends to decorate for their athletes. The big signs are placed
along the run course to motivate us triathletes. I made one for my
fellow Sac Tri Club members, and Dave made one for me. It was fun.
Lots of people were doing this. It's probably a great way to entertain
kids while a parent does the whole check-in thing too. Ford is another
sponsor, and they have an electronic sign on the run course that
people can use 25 characters for to inspire their athletes. The sign
scrolls during the race, so I'm not sure of the chances of actually
seeing a mesage for me. But it's a neat idea.

After leaving Ironman village, we walked back to the condo for lunch.
Then Dave drove me the 1/4 mile back to pick up my bike. I felt a bit
silly about that but I also felt like I'd been out in the sun too much
and this is a taper week afterall! I did my bike workout straight
from there. Bike pickup from Tri Bike Transport was easy. Just had to
have them put my pedals on, I pumped up the tires and away I went.

I rode the first and last stretch of the race course. It was a bit
windy. I was most surprised how much variability there was both in
wind and incline/decline. The road is flat, but with the wind factored
in, I felt like I was switching back and forth between two gears a lot
more than I expected to. I had a hard time taking it easy - there were
so many other people out there riding and the whole day was pretty
exciting. I just kept telling myself to ride as slowly as possible.

Finally last night we went to a blogger party! Bob hosted the party.
I met Bob and his octogenarian cheerleader parents; Melissa
and her training partner (both are also doing the Janus Charity
Challenge); Anne and her family. It was really fun to meet these people whose training blogs I've been following this year! And it's great to have some more faces to recognize on the course. In addition to the bloggers, I know two
others from Sac Tri, and my friend Bob who I met at the VI swims.

Melissa mentioned a recent post on her blog, which I'd forgotten that
I had saved to read later. Someone sent her a letter that describes
the day of Ironman. I just read it and it is awesome. I can definitely relate to

this portion:

"While this taper is something your body desperately needs, your mind
cast off to the background for so very long, will start to speak to
you.
"It won't be pretty.
"It will bring up thoughts of doubt, pain, hunger, thirst, failure,
and loss. It will give you reasons why you aren't ready. It will try
and make one last stand to stop you, because your brain doesn't know
what the body already does. Your body knows the truth:
"You are ready.
"Your brain won't believe it. It will use the taper to convince you
that this is foolish - that there is too much that can go wrong.
"You are ready."

My mind is my own worst enemy right now. It keeps thinking about
everything that could go wrong. I just keep reminding myself this is
just one long training day, with 2500 other people. I've done the
swim+bike together (Vineman Aquabike); I did a 20 mile run a few weeks
ago; this is okay. This is doable. It's nothing worse than what I've
done before, and as Dave pointed out, this time I'll have
cheerleaders. I'll have bananas and bathrooms and water. I'll have
people to talk to (or just listen to). Yes, it's going to be hard,
physically and mentally. But if it wasn't hard, then what would be the
big deal? If it was easy, it wouldn't be called Ironman, and everyone
would do it. Part of the triumph in finishing an Ironman is
persevering through a long tough day. I'm going to try to enjoy each
moment on Saturday. Hopefully I can even smile as I get beat up in the
water.

Check-in day!

2009-11-04T06:09:00.001-08:00

Today the Ironman village officially opens. We've seen the tents get
put up - it's just a little bit down the road from us (maybe a mile?).
I'm walking over there soon to get a massage to help loosen up my
muscles before race day. (I'm getting the massage today so if it ends
up making me more sore at all, I'll be recovered by race day.) Got to
get all the travel kinks out. I'm a little nervous as in just a few
hours I'll have my athlete ID bracelet on and this will all be even
more real than it is right now!

Tuesday morning was another wake up and go join the other triathletes
in the water. It was great. Later in the day Dave wanted to swim too,
so I went out with him again. I complained about how cold it was going
to be (without my wetsuit) the whole walk down to the water, mostly
because I was in a damp bathing suit. But once we got in the water it
was wonderful. Refreshing. Just swam about 10 or 15 minutes. Swimming
after Dave and watching him dive down to look at fish or whatever was
on the bottom of the water reminded me of our weekend swims on St
Thomas.

Yesterday we also drove the bike course, all 112 miles. It's pretty
flat except for a bridge at mile 12 and 100. A few rolling hills, but
I think they'll be a welcome change from the flatness. The roads seem
to be pretty nicely paved too. Tree lined highways for the most part.
The bike course cutoff is 5:15 and I'm really surprised it's that late
given that I bet legally after 4:45 you probably need lights on a
bicycle here.

Last night we drove the run course after realizing there was no point
to waiting til daylight today, since the vast majority of the run will
be in the dark for me. I'm a little concerned about the run course.
It's out-and-back twice, and the roads are not very good. It's mostly
through a residential area, no sidewalks, beat up roads, and some
speed bumps. I'm worried about tripping or turning an ankle given how
un-smooth the roads are. But I guess I turned my ankle and still ran
14 miles a few months ago so I'm prepared for that too right. It's
pretty dark out there too. I can see why they suggest putting
reflective gear on your running outfit. Lauren's going to bring me
some pink reflective dots.

Today at check-in I'll get my transition and special needs bags. I've
spread out my gear into piles in the condo and it'll be nice to put
everything in the proper bags. Although I may leave it all out for
another day so I don't have to reopen the bags to quadruple check that
I put everything in properly. Time to boogie on down the beach and
start the day!

Panama City Beach

2009-11-02T12:55:00.001-08:00

As I write this, I am sitting in on a couch gazing out the gigantic
window looking at the beach and the wonderful Gulf of Mexico water.
Our travel was a little bit problematic (mechanical problems, etc) but
we made to Panama City Beach. Thanks to my friend Artemis who took us
to the airport. She was thrilled to help me on my journey to Ironman
Florida by taking us to the airport - seriously. She's awesome, and
she even brought her camera to take this photo for my blog before Dave
and I left. (Sorry we won't have any more photos until guest blogger
Lauren arrives in a few days!)

During our layover, that gluten free salmon meal was the perfect lunch
with some Udi's white sandwich bread that I'd brought along and an
apple. I think it would've been difficult to buy anything at the
airport that seemed like a real meal. Once we got our rental car and
started driving to PCB, we saw lots of Publix grocery stores. Last
week I finally realized that a good way to find a grocery store that
carries gluten free items is to go to a GF products website and use
the store locator option! That helped me figure out that Bob's Red
Mill stuff was sold at Publix, and when I checked the Publix website,
I found they had a page about gluten free items. So we stopped at
Publix and found goodies like Pamela's mixes, Blue Diamond nut thins,
etc. I found a gluten free chickpea salad and bought a container of
baby spinach and mixed the two together for a big salad which I ate in
the car for dinner. I can only deal with so many Larabars or Boomi
bars per day. We also had a stash of crackers that we got at the
Gluten Free Cooking Spree, so they were a nice snack on the plane. I'm
glad I brought what I did though because I haven't seen my GF creamy
rice cereal or GF pretzels anywhere. We need to spread the word on
celiac disease to help increase awareness of the purchasers at grocery
stores nationwide! You can help by making a donation to the National
Foundation for Celiac Awareness by visiting
http://januscharitychallenge.kintera.org/fl09/kendra. I've raised
almost $3000 through my Ironman for the NFCA so far!

I packed a LOT of stuff, but once I unpacked I realized my
non-triathlon, non-gluten free foods took up two full suitcases, so
really I'd be a light traveler were it not for the celiac Ironman in
me! TSA inspected both of my checked bags. Probably thought I was a
psycho. I'm guessing it was the bike pump and the gallon ziplock bag
of CarbBoom gels that looked weird to them. Tomorrow I'm going to go
through all my triathlon gear and food and sort it into the different
transition bags. I spent most of my time on the planes making lists of
what to do, what food goes where for the race, what food I'll eat
when, etc.

The last few days (all week?) I've been either excited or nervous, not
much in between. This morning was a mix of calm and excited though!
Something about waking up to a peach colored sunrise over the beach I
guess! I'm going to have to wake up pretty early on Saturday for the
Ironman, so I decided not to worry about waking up before 5am today. I
did stay in bed to rest until 6 though. I had a swim and a run on
today's workout schedule and I was feeling a little apprehensive about
swimming in the ocean (the gulf is pretty much like ocean) by myself
and I was thinking about how it was just going to be cold and dark and
scary!

Around 6:30am though I saw two people in wetsuits walking into the
water, then I saw someone else already swimming. When I saw two more
wetsuit donning people, I decided I should hurry up and go swim while
other swimmers were out there. I raced down there and apparently
everyone else who was watching from their condos had had the same
idea. By the time I was in the water, I saw lots of other triathletes
in wetsuits wondering to the water. I ended up swimming for awhile
with two people from England but also did some solo swimming too.

The water was amazingly perfect for my swim!!! Pretty calm, pretty
warm. I didn't even wince or squeal when I put my delicate toes into
the water. The water is pretty clear too, but because there's
basically just sand (no coral, seaweed, etc) after you get far enough
out from shore it's hard to tell if you can still see the bottom. I
saw two rays and a school of fish. I was really thankful that we spent
two years in the Caribbean doing open water swims. The water here is
pretty comparable (except less scenic), so I feel right at home. I was
actually a little disappointed that I don't have more swim workouts
this week! The weather is great today too. Sunny but white fluffy
clouds. Not too hot, not too cold. I had a short run after my swim and
though I felt chilly for the first minute or two, I warmed up quickly.
It's such a trip to see so many other people out in wetsuits or on
bikes or running and you can just tell they're here for Ironman too!

I'm having an AWESOME time so far. I hope the weather stays this great
all week, or at least on Saturday. Today has been great. Relaxing,
enjoying the view, just taking it all in. I'm going to make sure I
enjoy every moment this week. The race is just 5 days away and I know
the time is going to fly. I'm going to take the time to stop and smell
the ocean.