Ironman Arizona Training Blog

NEW WEBSITE!! :)

2009-08-31T18:14:00.000-07:00

VISIT MY NEW WEBSITE!!!

www.ironkatymoe.com

thanks!

I'm an ADDICT...

2009-03-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

::from addiction.com or something like that::

Addiction Definition:
Addiction can be simply described as a compulsive or obsessive relationship to a substance or behavior. If you feel a "need" for something all the time or at specific times, you may be an addict. This could be a chemical (like drugs, alcohol, or tobacco), another substance (like food or even water), or a behavior (like viewing pictures).

Addiction Symptoms:
It's pretty easy to spot the symptoms of addiction by asking yourself some specific questions: Do I think a lot about the subject (substance or behavior)? Do I frequently use the subject? Do I hide my use of the subject from people I care about? Do I lie to myself or others about my use of the subject? Do I suspect the subject is becoming a problem for me? Are there specific times or circumstances that seem to trigger my use of the subject? Am I doing subject more often than before? Am I doing more of the subject than before? Am I sacrificing people or things I value to do subject? If you said yes to any of these questions, you may have an addiction.

uuuhhhh.....oooooh.

there could be worse things to be addicted to i'm sure......

my addiction is ironman.

since ironman coeur d'alene in 2007 i've wanted to race that beautiful race again.......but, i couldn't wait for june 2009 to roll around, so i signed up for ironman arizona, just so i could race in '08.

a few hours after that finish.....i was revving myself up for coeur d'alene 2010.

and then what did ironman do.....??

they decided to create a NEW RACE! Ironman St. George in St. George, Utah.

a measly 8 hours away.......
in a beautiful place......

now, my heart did start a'pumping as soon as i heard about this lovely addition to the ironman family. my thoughts were racing with possibilities, checking dates to see when peak training would be. checking my calendar to see if i had anything else going on. checking my finances to see if it was feasible. wondering if my friends and family would find it deep inside to support me through more ironman training.

and then.

my fellow addicts (maybe not to ironman, yet) but the addicts who on any given day would run 20 miles with me (for fun), or who scoff at me for being tired during my evening lake swim because i "only" rode my bike 70 miles that day. these are the people that for some reason........(addiction to the pain of endurance training and racing, maybe?) have signed up for this FANTASTIC NEW IRONMAN basically in our backyard! GAH!

I WANT TO DO IT!! i'm trying VERY hard not to make any rash decisions here. i know that probably some people are feeling very uneasy about this as i have had some struggles with injuries......but i wouldn't have to get "serious" about training until OCTOBER! so i still can relax and recover for a few months.

well, i will keep everyone posted........

i'm so excited.

race walking....??

2009-01-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

i've been feeling a little bit "un-me" lately, and i can't exactly put my finger on it. the let down of not ironman training always gets me a little bit flustered. i didn't think it was that because it kinda just started....and it's been a over a month now since IMAZ. then again, maybe it took me this long to catch back up to regular-self mode, and now i'm ready for more action??

i went on one bike ride since IMAZ, and it really really hurt my hamstring so i decided i probably need to wait a bit longer. not to mention, i hate riding when it's cold. i also attempted a small run, which actually made me more depressed than anything because, to be honest, it hurt. not the fitness aspect. i was actually surprised at how fit i felt. i felt like i could have easily run 6 miles and i've taken a whole month off. my hamstring, hip, pubic bone, and ankle definitely hurt though. not necessarily during.....but after. i was so sad. this is what wikipedia says about my pubic bone:

"This inflammation leads to sclerosis and bony changes of the pubis symphysis, causing both acute and chronic groin pain. The condition can render sufferers incapable of sustained physical activity. There is no specific treatment for the condition and it can seriously affect the careers of footballers affected by it." **red=not good**

for my ironman training i just wore a belt that held all my bones together. it felt good. well, aside from the chaffing that ensued where the belt would rub during my 3+ hour runs. that's all superficial. if my bones stay in place i'm a happy girl.

running is what i love!!! love, love, love. my focus though is being healthy because i want to run forever!!! if i want to ever run boston i'm going to have to run until i'm at least 50 to qualify. i see people run through injuries all the time, so i want to too. but i won't.

people keep asking me what races i'm signed up for this year. nothing. i know if i sign up for a race i will run no matter what. that will be my little excuse, just like last year. me: "yeah, i'm injured, but after this race i'll take some time off". i said that for the last 20 months. i probably deserve to be sidelined for 6 months or so. agh! i feel like a toddler, i just want to lay on the floor and pound my fists and cry. i won't though. i have a plan.

well. i've had it for a while now.....but now i'm going to implement this plan. i'm definitely getting squishy and soft. i don't like that. white, squishy, and soft. NOT a good combo. where are my tan, firm, muscley, ironman legs?!?!?!?! i hate this. some people take lots of time off and get faster. maybe that will be me? i love fast. fast is good. oh yeah. so my plan that i WILL implement. ooooh. i'm putting it in writing. i think that means i have to do it.

1. start the 100 push-up challenge (again).

2. start the fun circuit training thingy i printed.

3. do core work (this is on every to-do list i've ever written, fyi)

i also think i need to make a new blog. when i started this whole blogging thing. i didn't think i'd really do it all the time and keep doing it. but i have things to write about that aren't ironman and the title ironkatyinaz.....just doesn't apply anymore. so...i think i will. keep your eyes peeled for the new blog url. maybe i'll even make it ALL pink, ALL the time. :)

4. maybe i'll start race walking........

2009-01-09T10:34:00.000-08:00

drum roll please. yes, this is it. the moment you all have been waiting for......the ironman arizona run blog! :) i really really really should have written this much closer to the race. i feel a little silly, but i think all the gory details will surface when i start talking about it.

in my last ironman post, i left you guys as i was heading into the changing tent excited about wearing my running dress, but a little bit anxious about the idea of running a marathon. :)

i headed into the tent (actually i think i grabbed my bag, ran to the porto, put my bag outside and peed while hopping that nobody would steal my transition bag or think it was misplaced and put it back or something). i exited the porto with a volunteer holding my T-bag ready to run it into the tent with me. talk about service. she dumped my bag on the floor as i start stripping down. as i'm stripping down (slowly and i wearing lots of stuff course) she already has everything out and organized before i even have my cycling gloves off! i see her staring down at everything like, "what is this person WEARING?!" ha ha. she helps me pull my tighter than tight no movement at all marathon bra over my sticky sweaty body (something that would be completely impossible alone i might add). i throw on my pink dress, pink booty -shorts, glide my entire inner thigh, inner arms, inner everything, and run out the door to get sunscreened. the sunscreeners are again trying to just slap it on me (as if i'm in a hurry). "just rub it in......." wow.....that feels amazing! i'm tempted to stick around and get a sunscreen massage! ok. i should go. i thank everyone profusely for all there help. ok, here goes.

ok....ok....my legs feel pretty normal.......i'm waving and smiling (not really thinking about my legs or my pace or anything) just how much i LOVE what i'm doing. that i'm finally here, that all the work has paid off and NOW i GET to run. my favorite part. it takes about a mile to get away from the crowds, and at this point, i swear i had already run three miles! that was the longest mile ever. i told myself i just needed to get warmed up and that the next lap would be much smoother. around mile two (which also seemed unreasonably long) i noticed myself hanging with a group of guys. we were all chit-chatting here and there about the day. about our legs. i told them i usually didn't really decide on how i felt until mile 3 because you never feel GOOD before mile three. after mile three at the aid station one of the guys asked me if i had decided whether or not it was going to be a good day. i told him yes!! i still was feeling really good. we talked about other ironmans. he commented about how i was getting so much attention on the race course. ha ha. i told him, if you smile the whole time people will cheer for you. he said he thought the hot-pink dress probably helped. i agreed with him, i think he was jealous. around mile 4 we were finally heading back towards the fans. it felt like the LONGEST 4 miles of my life, and i was running right around 8:40 min/mile pace (note: this is too fast for me to run a marathon in an ironman, fyi). i saw my brother, erica, mom , and brett i was waving and telling them how FAST i was going. i was so excited to be feeling as good as i did. it was pretty warm out, but i was drinking and eating like normal, water and gatorade at each station, gel every 3-5 miles, and icy-cold sponges every chance i got. this was fantastic.

just for a visual. the run course is basically a figure-8 course with transition right at the crossing of the loops, and you do this three times. so there is LOTs of time to see all your FANS which is fantastic, but each 4.5ish mile loop feels RIDICULOUSLY LONG. i kept telling myself , its only 4 or 5 miles katy, quit freaking out. but after the first figure 8 and how long IT felt.....i REALLY didn't want to go out and do all that AGAIN, and AGAIN!! each time i felt all negativy and stuff, i tried to tell myself, maybe it will feel better this time, it's getting cooler, ooooh! only 3 miles and you get to see your family, you love running, you GET to do this, blah, blah, blah. it helped a little that i had those tricks up my sleeve but i was pulling out everything i had to keep a positive spin on things and at this point i was only starting the 2nd loop.

out onto loop two i was right around 9 miles or so, my legs and body still felt pretty great i was just having trouble with my mind a little bit. i had just run through all the crowds which give you such a HUGE boost. this experience was SO different than my IMCDA run in that at CDA i was amazed at how the miles FLEW by and i just kept on truckin'. here, i couldn't believe how slow the miles were going. i was confident though that this loop would seem quicker since i now knew the course and knew where i was going. nope. didn't happen. i remember seeing mile 11, i knew mile 13 was at transition, and i could SEE transition. HOW ON EARTH COULD THAT DISTANCE THAT I HAVE TO COVER BE 2 FREAKING MILES!!! just after mile 11 i saw the mile 18 sign (for the third loop). that'll be a nice sign to see on the next loop, i said to some guy maybe if i spread some of my fake cheer THAT will help?? not really. after what felt like an hour i was crossing the bridge back to transition, i passed my friend abby. we talked about how fast we were going that day and how the run course was retarded. we decided some day we will have to come down here and run the 9 mile course and prove to ourselves how easy it CAN be. at this point i still think (key word) i'm feeling really good. i'm excited to see all my friends and family, i'm still just plugging away determined not to walk at all. looking back.....i remember opening my special needs bag and just staring into it blankly. obviously at this point mile 13ish i was NOT feeling as good as i thought i was. i opened my bag and closed it. my friend shawna was right there cheering me on as she had been all day, how nice to have so many supporters out there.

the last 4.5 miles of the 2nd loop.....hmmm...the ol' body wasn't really responding as i wanted it to. there are a few hills, little hills, but none-the-less hills. i started paying close attention to my intake making sure this wasn't a lack of calorie or hydration problem. it was really taking everything i had to move forward at this point. and....i still had to do the WHOLE figure-8 AGAIN!! i was getting excited to get back to the transition area so i could get a boost from the crowds and my fans AND to let my fam. know i was obviously slowing down. i didn't want them to worry. the crowds were still amazing at the point, although they were starting to thin as people were moving up to watch the pros finish. the sun started setting, and it starting to cool down (which was nice). my family was NO WHERE in site. i figured they had gone to the finish to watch scott and ben finish (which turned out to be true). i was disappointed and worried that they would worry about me. the last time they saw me i was still prancing around smiling. like this:

oh well, i thought, i will see them in another 4 miles. at the first aid station after the transition zone. i walked. i was so mad at myself. but i walked. i felt horrible and had been feeling horrible for a few miles at least. i started feeling sorry for myself. i even told myself that people at home were watching my splits online and they were probably disappointed in me. i tried to tell myself that was silly but EVERYTHING about me was done, even my mental game. i decided i would walk through the aid stations. before i knew it i was also taking walk breaks between aid stations. the miles felt as long as ever, it was dark, i was bummed out. i was looking forward to seeing my family, because they would tell me it was okay and that they were proud of me. back to the transition area they were no where to be found again! what the heck!! the total course time was just over 11 hours at this point maybe they were still waiting for ben and scott?? i started hoping that ben and scott were having a better day than i was. i hoped they met their goals for the day. i hadn't seen them since the bike course. when i got to mile 22 i thought i'd be ecstatic. that's a GREAT mile marker to see. i couldn't get myself pumped though. i only had 4.2 miles to go. if i ran 10 minute miles i could break 12 hours. something i NEVER thought possible. even when i first decided to race an ironman my original goal was to race a 13:30:00. i blew myself away at CDA with a 12:47:00 and wasn't sure i'd ever repeat that. now, seeing that sub-12 was feasible!!! wow!! c'mon katy!

i tried hard, i really really did. my head hurt, i was dizzy, i was sure i had meningitis, or a brain tumor. my legs were cramping, my stomach was cramping, i was hungry and nauseated, had to pee, thirsty, but too full. this was going to be a LONG four miles!! people were trying to talk to me, i couldn't even talk. i couldn't even smile. i was NO help to anybody at this point. i got back to the "hills" on the back side of the 2nd loop. finally the last time i had to run these.....i started walking. i wanted to cry. i hate walking. i don't walk. it's okay though because i was still moving and moving was the only way to get to the finish line. some big guy walked up next to me and said. "i sure am glad you guys are walking too! trust me it doesn't get easier on your last lap...ha ha ha...". WHAT?! is he assuming he's ahead of me? i wanted to scream at him! what makes YOU think i'm NOT on my last lap?!? what makes you think i ever WALKED this hill until NOW?! i didn't yell. i ran by him instead. that man! he made me angry. after the hill we ran down towards the water, across the bridge, and to transition, and from here it was only about 0.2 miles to the finish-line. i never saw mile 25 though, i kept looking and looking, feeling desperate on the verge of tears and a massive melt-down. i didn't know where to turn to the finish. did i really have only a mile?? was i closer or further? did i even see mile 24?? i'm so confused i just want to be done. people started yelling at me that i was almost there.........what do they know? i ran by like 10 people who each (at different places) said 3oo yards. am i on a treadmill then?? there it was though, up a little hill and just around the corner. i could see it i SPRINTED!!! (later my people were saying how impressed they were with the people who sprinted, i said "like me?" they just laughed. i guess it didn't look much like a sprint).

being done was the best feeling on earth. the finish line helpers foiled me and then asked me several times if i need to go to the medical tent. i kept saying no, but they kept asking. i must have looked worse than i felt!! then i saw scott and lea! scott was yelling, "12:15!!!! 12:15!!!!". i just wanted to cry and tell everyone how bad i did. how i walked. how i hated ironman. scott wouldn't let me be bummed though. then there was my mom. asking if i was ok. hugs all around. i was bawling of course.

everyone was so tired. i was so thankful for them. apparently they'd been waiting for me at the finishing while i was looking for them the last 6 miles. if i hadn't slowed down they estimated i'd be finishing around 11:45 wha!? crazy. brett had some footage on his camera i watched later where they were waiting at the finish line for me taking bets on my finish time my brother said, "dude, i thought she'd be here 30 minutes ago?!". jerk. this is them waiting.

my mom asked if i want to meet for breakfast in the morning. i almost barfed right then, and i did start crying at the thought of having to think. i just wanted to sit down. i headed for some grass and realized i couldn't get all the way to the ground. brett got me a chair and went to get my bike and T-bags. brett came back and i had changed my clothes i was FREEZING. i didn't remember changing them so i'm still hoping that i didn't completely strip down in public. oh well. i was trying to drink water, stay awake, and not barf. that was all i could think of. a HOT shower was my motivation to try and get to the car. i only made it about 25 yards before almost passing out and throwing-up. brett and i continued this slow dance all the way to the car. once out of the shower i felt a million times better and was already wanting food and already talking about next time. :)

just sayin'

2008-12-25T22:52:00.000-08:00

i do realize that i still need to write about my ironman run.......it's officially one month past race day now. i just got really caught up in being sick, working, and now the holidays. i hope that once i put the story in writing you all can feel the drama/agony that was race day. :) right now i'm enjoying the holidays, and feeling thankful for having a wonderful life (that may be the wine talking, fyi/tmi?). :) i'm still not running, and by that, i mean not working out at all. agh! even saying that makes me feel like i need a xanax (my anti-anxiety while flying medication). i had all of these exciting post-ironman workout plans........but for some reason nobody made me do them...and they didn't make it on the color-coordinated giant calendar. oh well. there's always 2009 right? i'm totally jealous of my friends who are training for, or signed up for another ironman. i think i JUST LOVE IT!! there is something about taking yourself to the limit. i did get a kettlebell for christmas, and after using one of those in physical therapy i could barely walk my booty was so sore. i'm kinda looking forward to that. he he. i think in january i'm going to let myself run again. just nice and slow. my ankle still hurts, and my right hip/sciatic nerve/hamstring/pubic bone still don't feel right, i'm going to be smart about it though and make sure that this year i only train when i'm 100%. i started feeling tempted by the wildflower long course demons the other day. i need to hang out with abby so she can remind me how much i despised that race. i just feel like, if i don't get to do an ironman in 2009, can't i just do the hardest half in town?? we'll see. after i run my first mile in months, i may change my mind!! :) well one of these days i will write about my run......i promise! :)

vegan

2008-12-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

so, ya ya. i will write about the ironman run. that just takes a little more time and focus than just an everyday update.....and i feel like my new vegan stint deserves an update. :) so, because i always have to try to do hard things (ie: ironman), and like to learn new things and challenge myself. last year (after making a serious bet) i tried the whole vegan thing for a week which bled casually into the next couple months. it was TOUGH (the first week especially), and at the same time fun. it made me really look outside the box at things to eat, and forced me to eat lots of veggies and fruits. veganism also DIDN'T allow me to eat some of my favorite things that are not so good for me, read: cheese, ice cream, cookies at work, breakfast burritos at work, cookie dough, almost anything processed, etc....:( so sad.

generally with my ironman training, i just LIVE IT UP in regards to eating because, basically i love eating and i can eat what ever i want. my body actually requires large amounts of foods/midnight snacks!. lucky for me i LIKE to eat healthy things and typically EAT healthy-ish things (hey, i said healthy-ish....the above list is not frequent, okay except the breakfast burritos and the cookies at work, those are completely necessary!). leading up to the end of this year's ironman training, i was thinking of new challenges to keep my brain and body occupied while recovering. things like weight training, yoga, pilates, hmmm....maybe i'll go vegan again? after discussing it with brett, he was also up for the challenge. nice. it's way more fun to challenge yourself when you have a challenge-buddy.

so we decided december 9th would be the official start-day, because i had to eat all the cheese, milk, ice-cream, and cookie dough (yes, i savored each bite) in my refrigerator before we could start. everyone was telling us we should start in january because december would be the toughest month to start with all the christmas shenanigans etc. that just made us want to do it more in december. (we are kinda competitive) why wouldn't we do the TOUGHEST VEGAN MONTH EVA?! :) so here we are day two......there is almost nothing in my frige. i put all the non-vegan pantry supplies on the top shelf so there wouldn't be any accidental buttery-delicious-popcorn eating...or my favorite middle of the night cereal bar....eating....so sad.

on a positive note, i'm excited to bust out my vegan cookbook again and discover some fabulous new recipes. i've also been learning a lot about food production (thanks to brett's friends/supporters who keep sending him fun facts/vegan links). all i have to say is yuck! did you know sugar isn't vegan? (i'm not THAT vegan, nor will i ever be. what i'm saying is i will eat sugar), and skittles! gah! gelatin is disgusting, and vegan or not, i want no part of that! :)

ok, well here i am an excited day two vegan. yay for not getting fat post-ironman!

the beautiful bike

2008-12-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

out of transition there was a narrow shoot-like section from transition to the road for about 1/4 mile or so. this section was a "no passing zone". when i entered the shoot it was chaos, there were people passing, people almost falling, people swerving. the girl in front of me, was trying to clip into her pedals and almost crashed about 4 times. i was just trying to keep my distance from her, and stay out of the way of the men who were rushing by me unsafely (on there way to 500th place, dummies). i was only clipped into one pedal and was just pushing myself along with the other foot, just trying to stay upright, when the guy behind me started yelling, GO KATY! GO KATY! (my number had my name on it) DON'T SLOW DOWN KATY! i felt like stopping to get off my bike to let him know how i felt about him screaming at me. i just yelled back that there was no where else for me to go. like those 30 seconds really mattered. what is with these people?

finally out in the open with no one to yell at me i settled in to my bike ride. i have watched this race a couple of times and always said i wouldn't do it, because i always thought it was such an ugly and boring course. once i was out of town i was REALLY enjoying the beautiful scenery, the cacti and the red rocks, the weather was perfect, the aid stations were fun and boisterous. what a wonderful day to do what i love!? the bike course was an out and back course that we completed three times, each segment was 18.5ish miles. the first "out", i was just having fun enjoying everything finding my rhythm the turn-around felt like it came too fast even! nice. the way back into town was even MORE fun as it's a gradual down-hill with a little tailwind to blow you home. i felt like i didn't do any work at all. back in town the crowds were going WILD! it was about 3 miles of fan-lined streets clapping, cheering, celebrating the athletes! i pretended they were all there just for me and was living it up! just before the turn-around i saw my friend nicole, who's husband was racing. she was literally jumping up and down cheering GO KATY, KATY!! GOOO!! it was so fun and exciting. :) after the turn-around i saw my family. they looked so excited and probably were. ironman spectating can be challenging and they were probably happy to finally see me for that instant. although it is an instant, it means the WORLD to an athlete i can tell you that. smile on my face, i headed out for round two of this course i was suddenly excited about.

hmmm... round two presented with some challenges, mainly the fact that i had to pee urgently and that darn 5 miles (which typically seems like nothing) to the next porto felt like an eternity! when i got to the aid station i spotted lea and michael helping the aid station volunteers pick-up water bottles. they gave me and exuberant cheer. i wanted to tell them i was stopping at the other side of the aid station to pee, if they wanted to chat, but didn't really feel like yelling that out. it would have been nice to chat it up with lea a bit while getting prepped to pee though. as it turns out the prepping to pee takes much longer than the peeing itself. it's one of those funny things, that i started getting better at with each pit stop. it goes: take the right glove off, keep the left glove on. place the right glove in any "safe" spot (i used my sports bra) so as not to drop it in the porto. move race number and fanny pack to the front of the body and up over the chest (so as not to sit on/urinate on race number). sun glasses, placed along side glove in sports bra. remember to blow your nose while you are in the porto. pull shorts back up, step out of porto to rearrange rest of stuff, so as not to drop ANYTHING in and or around dirty porto. yuck.

the next problem that presented itself was the head-wind/uphill. the uphill is gradual so it just felt like i sucked more than anything. 11-13mph! gah! i tried to tell myself to relax as that meant i'd go REALLY fast on the way back right? NOPE. somehow the wind changed and there was NO tailwind what-so-eva! oh well. i grabbed my "special needs bag" on the way back which had a delicious pb&j bagel, homemade lea cookies, and a red-bull. wow! those were incredible. again i waved and smiled at all MY fans while riding through the turn around and onto the last LOOP!! how could i already be almost (2.5 hours away) done with my bike!?! this is so exciting, and even more exciting, was the fact that the wind was GONE! nothin'!

i flew out up the hill, no more 13 mph....how weird are the winds here? the last loop i was of course getting tired of being aero, i was having weird pain in my ankle, i was kinda getting grouchy. who me? i decided some singing was in order. i sang songs about anything that popped into my head. about the guy with the funny, bike, about the girl in ALL hot pink. about how i love triathlons. about gatorade, ya know, like everyone does. it definitely kept me entertained. i peed a bunch. finally i was on my way back to transition, the streets were already not lined with my fans anymore. everyone was moving on to the run course for some excellent spectating. oh! getting off that bike was going to feel SO good. hmmm. i wonder how i'm going to feel this time?

i felt like it had been so long since i'd run a marathon! i couldn't really fathom the distance. i tried to remind myself that all my long runs were excellent and i felt so great and strong on all of them. didn't i? did i? i don't remember? it was so long ago? was it too long ago? panic. it didn't really help my confidence. back to transition, i handed my bike to a volunteer. tried to stay upright while running on my wobbly bike-legs, in my cycling shoes, down a grassy knoll while waving at MY fans. phew! that was tough! i did end up finding my bag. i was SOOO excited to wear my dress! this was going to be FUN! i love running.

to be continued....

and i will be posting pictures, one of these days.

race report part 1 of 3. :)

2008-12-02T21:32:00.000-08:00

Ironman morning started out nice and early. The alarm sounded at 4:00 am. I had slept for about 4 hours, after going to bed at 9 p.m. I think the tossing, turning, and bathroom-going ended around midnight. I woke up feeling good though, as good as anyone ever feels at 4 am I suppose. I headed downstairs to eat my oatmeal and banana, and start drinking my Gatorade for the morning. Does everyone know they make lemon-strawberry Gatorade!?!? It’s AMAZING! J One great thing about Ironman is race morning, you really don’t have a lot of gear to worry about. You have already prepped your bike and all of your transition gear, and it is all at the race site waiting for you. That means race morning only involves wetsuit/swim gear, special needs bags (which really have extra, just in-case stuff in them), and dropping any last minute stuff in your transition bags. It really makes leaving the house in the morning WAY less stressful.
We headed out the door around 4:55am, and arrived at the race site at 5:10am. I went first to drop off my special needs bags, which I would have access to the bike bag at mile 68 and my run bad at mile 13 of the run. In my bike bag, I had extra tubes and CO2, home made cookies from Lea, a peanut butter and jelly bagel, and a redbull. My run bag had, a long sleeve shirt, arm warmers, extra shoes, socks, gels, and a redbull. In training I had been drinking redbulls on my long rides and really enjoying the effects of the sugar, sodium, and caffeine. I never used it while running, but thought it couldn't hurt to throw it in there just in case it sounded good.
Back in transition I double checked everything on my bike, and chatted with Lea and Brett for a while. Got my body marked and got my wetsuit on, and swim stuff ready. Of course I then had to pee. Looking at my watch and the porto lines, I decided it was probably better to just wait until I got in the water. I heard Mike Riley announce that the pros were to get in the water and started heading towards the water entrance. This race is a mass water start. Unlike Ironman Coeur d’Alene (CDA) which was a shore start. At Coeur d’Alene I was so stressed and disoriented at the race start, I positioned myself poorly in the middle of the pack and NEVER found clear water the whole hour and fifteen minutes. I was determined to not let this happen this year even if it meant swimming hard off the front for the first few hundred yards. I jumped in the water which was a little warmer than the air at that point, so it felt good to be able to move (and pee! I REALLY had to go by that time). The start line was about 200 yards from the water entrance, so it was a nice little warm-up. I had to swim past and around a lot of bodies to get up to the start. I was about 5 people deep from the start line, which seemed appropriate. I only had to tread for about 3 minutes before the start, but I started to get really COLD. The guy next to me saw me shivering, and kept telling me to relax. I just smiled, but wanted to tell him to shut-up, and that I was just cold. I kept trying to tell myself again, to enjoy the moment, that this was what all the early morning and after works swims were for. Before I knew it the cannon fired and we were off. The start was rough, but not any more terrible than any other race start. I just swam hard, and tried to protect my face from flailing elbows and hands. After about 500 yards the water was surprisingly clear, and I was able to swim and didn’t even feel the need to do a lot of spotting. I do remember feeling frustrated with peoples inability to swim straight. I typically had about 3 feet of open water surrounding me , and still out of nowhere someone would come directly at me at full speed!? Where did they think they were going?? At least it gave me something to think about. The turn-around seemed to come way too quickly. I checked my watch and I was at about 30 minutes, about what I had expected. The swim was going so well compared to CDA, I couldn’t believe it. On the way back, I remember suddenly feeling in the moment and being SO EXCITED that I was actually racing in the Ironman I had been training for all year. I was smiling so much I got tons of water in my mouth and choked a little, making me laugh, and swallow more disgusting water. It’s a tough thing throughout the day to stay in the moment and remember to enjoy the time out there. I mean, you work soooo hard and make so many sacrifices for THIS day. It is so important to take that in on race day and appreciate that all your hard work has brought you to this level of fitness that is allowing you to be out doing what you love. Before I knew it, I was swimming under the bridges that we had started under and I was heading for T1. It was so exciting to have the first section of a long day done, and to have it go so well, I knew right then it was going to be a good day.
I climbed the stairs out of the water with the assistance of the lovely volunteers, and headed for the wetsuit strippers. My favorite part of the Ironman experience! J I had my top pulled down and just ran up to two guys to yelled frantically to lay down, they pulled my wetsuit off with so much force that the legs flew back and hit another volunteer in the face. Luckily she thought it was humorous I grabbed my wetsuit and headed into the changing tent with my transition bag. I had a transition helper once again, yay! She dumped everything out of my bag and sorted through it all helping me put all my gear on! It was wonderful. I ran out of the tent and got sunscreened by the sun screeners! Can you believe this?!? They have personal sun screeners!! I grabbed my bike and headed out of transition.

to be contintued..... :)

dream a little dream.

2008-11-30T13:44:00.000-08:00

so. i've promised my pelvis and the one's who love me and hate to see me suffer, that i would take some time off of running. initially i said 3 months (why not?!). then that has slowly decreased to two months, a month and a half, a month.....ummmm...... i'm ITCHING to run. i've been dreaming about running! i love running. i am trying to remind myself though, that running pain free (in a month or so....[hopefully]) will be much better (and i honestly can't imagine running pain free...???) than running now, and continuing on my painful running journey. my ankle is also sore and swollen and purpley from the ironman so i guess i need to at least wait until THAT resolves, and maybe until i finish my antibiotics and stop coughing up my lungs....ok, ok, you're right. i can wait. :) speaking of dreaming though, last night i dreamt i was going to do another ironman this weekend. it was scary and exciting. in my dream i really thought after a weeks rest i was going to be good to go........too bad i'm sick, i thought. mind you i haven't done more than walk a few miles since the big dance. :) in the dream i also thought why did i think hillary biscay (www.hillarybiscay.com) was so crazy for doing this, what's the big deal? ha ha. :) i'm funny in my sleep.

i promise a race report will be next........(i'm at work...ssshhh!)

race day.....not race report

2008-11-29T15:55:00.000-08:00

i already have the "morning of" and swim portion of my race report ready to go, but it is saved on my laptop, and i don't have my laptop with me. i do, however, have time to give you a taste of my race day...hopefully this update will be just enough to satisfy you and keep you interested to read the more detailed stories in ironkatymoe-land.

being that it is almost a week since race day happened. my perspective may actually be a bit skewed towards the positive, but what i do remember of the day is the FUN i had for 10 hours and then the un-fun, hellish, near-death-pain that ensued for the next 2 hours and 15 minutes. from the ten hour mark on, as Steve Prefontaine would say, "it was a pure guts race". what i mean by that is i was soooooooo "done" at that point, the only thought i had energy for was..."go". that little word is all that kept me, go-ing. :) so, one could imagine that the immediate post race feelings towards ironman in general were NOT pleasant ones, and i couldn't remember for the life of me why i ever considered participating in things like this.

luckily for me i had wonderful supporters who took care of me after the race. brett got my bike and bags (something i would not have been capable of this year). i almost passed out/threw-up a couple of times on the way to the car. i couldn't even bear the thought of Gatorade after the race, let alone food, all i could think about was closing my eyes. the hotel room brought it's own challenges. such as shower or bath? the idea of standing was AWEFUL, but i wasn't able to physically get down into the tub and i knew i wouldn't then be able to get OUT of the tub. instead, i just stood there staring at the bathroom, hoping i would just become clean by standing there. sadly, i had to use my last ounce of energy and bathe myself. on a positive note, the hot shower loosened me up a bit and i at least found enough energy to walk to the bed.

i was still really sad about not feeling GREAT for the whole race, as my first and foremost goal is to finish feeling good. i felt like i really let myself down and didn't race "smart". i analyzed, worried, and thought about it, pouting for a long time. then brett looked up my splits for the day.......i started to get interested. after hearing that ALL my times improved (except the marathon, i wouldn't let him tell me my marathon splits) i started feeling better about the day and remembering that i DID have a lot of fun for most of the day. finally, i let him tell me my over-all marathon time. 4:30-something......oh? that's not bad!? then, i let him break it down for me. obviously i ran a little TOOOO fast the first half. i would have NEVER run that fast on purpose.......i was just trying to run how i felt, and i did feel GREAT off the bike. overall, i have nothing to be sad about. it was a great day, and i had great times, i only wish i hadn't run myself into the ground by mile 16. :)

my wonderful family bought me a my own pizza after my shower since, i was too nauseated after the race to consider eating the provided post-race grub. by 11pm, food sounded ok. i fell asleep soon after two pieces were down, but woke up about every two hours (each time my body made me move, and the sharp pain of movement woke me up) and ate a couple more pieces, by 8 am there was only one piece left (gross). :) my attitude was already WAY better and i was thinking about my marathon and how, "next time if i run smart maybe i can break 12 hours". yep, i said it. the challenge is out there...........

brief update.

2008-11-24T21:13:00.000-08:00

so.....

1. i finished. 12 hours and 15 minutes.
2. did better than last time by about 32 min.
3. the last 2 hours were the worst of my life thus far.
4. i ate almost an entire pizza between the hours of 11pm and 6am this morning.
5. i can barely walk.
6. i can't wait to do it again!!

more updates to come......yes, even my fingers are tired.

Day 3: Anxiety Strikes

2008-11-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

day three is here. there are a lot of good things about day three, for example, day three means race day is tomorrow, it means my bike and transition gear is all sitting at the race site ready for me. it means my family and brett are in town and pumped. it means i got lots of phone calls and emails with well wishes today (thanks Llanos family!!) it means i have an excuse to sit still and "relax". it means i get to eat a lot for dinner tonight.

day three has some negative attributes though, unfortunately. day three also brings with it the fact that i had to spend hours today getting my bike and transition bags ready, i narrowly escaped a few anxiety attacks during this process. luckily scott decided to play "baby got back" and my dancing/rapping really helped calmed me down. day three means i probably won't sleep well tonight. it means i have to drink a ton (i can't even count how many time's i've peed today). it means i have to wake up around 4am tomorrow. it also means i have to race for approximately 12.5-13 (hopefully) hours tomorrow.

i'm going to be tired, plain and simple. i did, however, remember to buy top-ramen this year....as i cried last year because i didn't have any after the race and that is (of course) ALL that sounded good. i have my zoot compression tights on and my feet are up as we speak.

the race should be great!! it looks like there will be a high of 80ish degrees....warm but not anything i can't handle. on the bike 80's not too bad actually, and i will probably start my run around 3:30pm so i will only run in the heat (as the sun goes down at 5:22pm and it gets coooool then) for a couple of hours. no big. the bike course is 3 loops so about 37 miles each, so i get to see all my fans a bunch through out the day. my mom said, "so you go about 20 mph?". if you round up, yes. :) no mom, about 16-18 mph so each lap should take me just over 2 hours.

i'm honestly so excited for them to watch the swim start. it is sooooo beautiful right at sunrise waching the 2,000 swimmers in the glass-like water (i'm hoping glass-like, ok?) all start swimming at the same time. there is a picture perfect view from the bridge we start under, i told them to get there early to watch me start from up there!

i have my pink running dress ready!! agh. we are required to wear reflective gear on our run clothes in case we are finishing in the dark (which will be me). i cut little hearts out of my reflective tape and put them on the back of my dress. hey, if i have to be reflective i want to be cute too! ;)

i guess that is it. i'm just going to chill out tonight, maybe watch some inspirational movies. :) eat some great pasta..............and then before i know it it will be game time and i'll be choking down my oatmeal. :) can't wait to tell you guys about it!! thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!!!

Arizona Day 2

2008-11-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

well, here we are, day two of our interesting ironman arizona "vacation". day one, as previously stated, was filled with cleaning, organizing, unpacking, registering, grocery shopping, dinner making, more cleaning, and then the motivational GI Jane to put us to sleep.

this morning we all got up, had some breakfast and coffee and headed down to the water at Tempe Town Lake. (this isn't really a lake btw). the water was colder than i expected and choppier than i expected due to the fast winds blowing through this morning. hopefully lea is right, and these winds are just blowing in the cool air for me on sunday. she has also reassured me that there won't be any more wind sunday as the cool air will already be blown in. :) thanks lea.

as i entered the water this morning i had second thoughts about wearing my sleeveless wetsuit, as it felt REALLY cold, but once i got warmed up a bit, i think it is going to be perfect. i'm not looking forward to the madness of the swim sunday, but am looking forward to the one loop swim. hopefully i will be able to find clear water and i won't have to battle people the entire time as i did in coeur d'alene.

today i got my bike out and put my new hydration system on the back. it took me about an hour with the lovely assistance of mr. scott, who always has the perfect tools for me. i typically just try and do all bike maintenance with my multi-tool i carry on my bike (that doesn't work for most things fyi). my bike rode nicely on my little "trial ride" and my hydration system definately looks fast! :)

mentally i've been pretty relaxed. my body is getting antsy. the swim and a short jog helped me feel better and relax a little bit. the pre-race anxiety is like nothing else and i'm mostly worried about that TERRIBLE feeling of anxiety on race morning more than anything else. :) well, i have to go shower to get ready for the athelete pasta dinner tonight!! thanks for checking in, i will try to post again tomorrow!! :)

ARIZONA!!!

2008-11-20T17:24:00.001-08:00

so we made it to Tempe, AZ today for the IRONMAN. YAY! we left fresno last night or this morning at 2am. my friend scott likes to drive at night apparently. :) they picked me up and we were off. i slept for about 4-5 hours in the car (not too shabby) and it has set me up for planning an extra early bedtime tonight!! getting set for early mornings this week ie: 4am wake-up call race day. our rental house is not so nice.....so lea and i have been cleaning like crazy......while getting stuff ready for dinner. we decided on burgers tonight. tomorrow AM we are planning to swim, then hang out at the expo, bike some of the run course, grab lunch, get some downtime, work on the bikes, and then head back to tempe town beach for spagetti welcome dinner. we bumped into some other fresnans here today. it was nice. every one is SO SUPER FIT! well, i have to get back to my chores, i bought a candle and febreeze for my bedroom and have already washed the sheets!! (yes it's that bad). i will try to update tomorrow. :) i hope everyone is getting excited for SUNDAY!!!!

quick. i'm supposed to be studying.

2008-11-17T16:06:00.001-08:00

i just wanted everyone to know i didn't die while tapering for the big race NEXT (gasp!) sunday! i am, however, as-close-as-i-have-ever-been/probably-going-to-be an expert in pediatric oncology. have my "certified pediatric oncology nurse" exam tomorrow morning at 8am (double gasp!). i'm really good at procrastinating AND my study skills are a little rusty, so please send me some good luck thoughts (starting now please). as far as my body goes.....i probably ran a little too far last weekend at the "1/2" marathon (i actually ran about 18 miles, oops!). my foot is a little sore.......but my other "injuries" ie: pelvis, SI joint etc. are feeling ok......so i'm rearing to go-ish. i have my packing and transition/special needs bags-lists typed, saved, and emailed to myself (yup, i'm that lame). my new hydration system, a.k.a water bottle holders that should actually attach to my new saddle without zip-ties, should be arriving today. i have my outfits for racing all picked out. look out arizona! ok. back to studying. i will update throughout the week though! agh! i can't believe it's here. i leave wednesday evening. whooo hoooo.

muni shmuni - my nike women's race report kinda

2008-10-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

i'm a little frustrated with myself because i know i'm skipping around with my story telling here. i KNOW over the last couple weeks/couple long rides & runs i've come up with some gooooood stories to tell, i just haven't had the time to sit and write them. so i'm skipping forward, so as not to get more behind, we all know i don't like doing this and it's making my palms sweat as we speak. moving forward.

this past weekend i decided to not only participate in the nike women's half marathon, i guess i should say, "i was selected to participate" as it is a lottery system to get in. even more pressure to have fun right?? in true katy fashion, i couldn't just go to a race, run, & come home like everyone else, so i decided to make this a true adventure and go car-less to this race. being that the race is in san fran. and lots of people there don't own cars anyways, AND i hate driving there, this sounded like a great plan. i was also staying with a friend (this detail is important so listen carefully) who lived BETWEEN the RACE START and the RACE FINISH. the race was to start at union square, and finish on the other side of the bay near golden gate park. if you flew straight overhead start to finish, erica's apt. would land right in the middle (you will need this picture later to enjoy the full humor of this story).

i was so excited as this (choose your adjective here) [silly,dumb,crazy,funny,eco-friendly,cheap,etc.] plan was developing. i was envisioning myself studying on the train, making friends, arriving in san francisco, and being some cute traveling girlie, registering and hanging out drinking coffee with friends, then just taking the muni all around town where ever i wanted to go (remember this statement later, it's important), taking muni to my friend's apartment, and then taking muni to the race, etc. i was pumped and i was ready.

two days before the departure date, i (also in true katy fashion) started studying my san francisco maps, and the muni transit system to maximize the fun and decrease my transportation anxiety. i printed out which muni's i would need to take where and had my little travel packet ready to go. i was READY!

**please note i will talk about the race, but the transportation portion of this trip is WAY more interesting**

i jumped on the train saturday morning before the sun came up. i was instantly totally into train riding. i got my studying stuff out and turned my music up. this was FUN! before i knew it i was hoping on a smelly, cramped, uncomfortable, and crowded bus to take me into the city. this is where things started to go downhill. i got off the bus and was INSTANTLY completely overstimulated and overwhelmed. there were loud noises, people yelling, terrible smells (i got off on market street). i had no idea where i was. naive-katy-from-big-creek assumed the union square bus stop was literally in union square (it's not). finally i found my way to union square to register for the race. still thinking things were going to just fall-into-place as i typically imagine the worst case scenario for such situations and then typically things go WAY smoother than i expect. i thought, it's all down hill from here, i'm going to have a fun day. (insert evil laugh here).

race registration was more overwhelming than the rest of the entire city. imagine loud music, people bumping into you constantly, a crowded room so packed you can barely make forward progress (those who know me well, know i can't handle any of these options). i basically walked straight through the expo from one end to the other without stopping to look at anything. i felt the world was spinning around me. i decided to try and calm down and call my friend i was staying with and see what her day looked like. a few phone calls and texts later and i had no information (i didn't know at this point i had the wrong number). called another friend and we met for lunch. always nice to catch up with old roommates! after lunch i decided to try and "take in the experience" and check out the expo one more time. again, walked in the tent, freaked out, and walked as fast as i could go to the other end! agh! ok, now what? obviously done here, still haven't heard from my friend i'm staying with. can't even hear my phone, or my thoughts, i'm not sure where to go from here, i'm freaking out, i'm getting cold, BORDERS! i saw borders on the corner near union square. i bet it's quiet in there i thought! felt like i ran to borders to relish in the quiet and get my head around things. (note: i'm almost in tears at this point, this story is much more funny in retrospect, fyi).

after studying my muni maps in my quiet little borders corner, i decided to head to my friend's apartment. ok. here i go jumping on my first muni. found the bus stop, found the "right" muni, hoped on. whoo hoo, this is easy. before i knew it, the driver said, "last stop". i was about 10 blocks from union square, and definitely NOT closer to my friends apartment. hmmmm? this could be tough (and the muni drivers aren't friendly so don't ask them questions fyi). i asked directions to the "right" muni at starbucks (after aimlessly walking 3 blocks in the wrong direction) and got multiple answers. the best advice was, "head north to the muni-1". north? i have no idea which way is north in san francisco?!? ended up walking east. ended up back at union square. headed in the "right"direction towards the street i was looking for (to the north). found the street......started looking for the muni.....walked about 10 blocks (up hill mostly) finally realized there weren't even any muni's ON said street. ok.......finally busted out my muni-map (yes, i had a muni map that whole time!) apparently i was walking the same direction as the muni just one block over. finally made it to that street, got on the right muni. PHEW! missed my stop, had to walk 3 blocks up-hill (i think it was all flat while i was actually on the muni). finally made it to the apartment about 2.5 hours after i started there (i think it's like 2.5 miles from union square, i suck).

race morning given my recent failed attempts at muni-ing. i was a little bit nervous about getting to the race site on time. i headed out to the bus stop at 5:30 am. luckily my friend's neighbor was also racing and told me i was standing on the wrong corner to catch the bus, and she also accompanied me through the part of san francicsco where, "she doesn't walk" when the muni didn't take us all the way to union square and instead dropped us, "in not the best part of town". we weaved our way through hookers and bums, and finally just before sunrise we arrived in union square. just so everyone is clear on this. #1 i would have missed the muni had it not been for my new friend and #2 i would have FREAKED out when the muni dropped me off, alone in the dark, having no idea where i was with all the hookers and bums of san fran.

at this point i was just thankful:
#1 i wasn't wearing my new hot pink running dress
#2 i wasn't running the marathon
#3 i didn't have to worry about getting to the race on time anymore

the race went really well. i thought my legs would be more tired from walking up hill around town all day the day before. the day was beautiful, warm (for SF morning standards), and clear. it took me my usual three miles to warm-up and enjoy myself, and just as i got in my grove we started going up-hill and didn't start going down until mile 9.5. DUDE. that was rough. the rest of the run was fun. i started running with a couple of girls who were #1 hilarious and #2 wanted to push hard from mile 10-13.1. OK. i was ready and excited. we set mini-funny-goals, like catching blue-shirt-guy etc. it was a lot of fun!! i wore my ironman hat and unfortunately these ladies felt it necessary to pull the ironman card. "c'mon you're an ironman!?" agh! the race was over, i felt great, got my new finishers necklace, water, food, massage, and headed out on my next muni adventure.

honestly, i really thought my muni-mishaps from the day before were flukes. how hard can it be right?? i found the corner i was supposed to be on found the "right" muni and hopped on. i was supposed to take this muni to Geary & 33rd. i'm watching the streets go by, 34....33....(aren't we turning here?), 30....29...(maybe it's going to make a u-turn up here).......17.....16....(not getting off here!! this is NOT a good place to get off).....7....6.....(this is looking worse and worse! again, glad i didn't wear my running dress, in case i need to get off here, can it get worse than this?) market st!......i know market street! i get off the bus, JUST because i knew the name of this street, thus feeling like i knew where i was. luckily after a few blocks i realized i was just south of union square (yep, got my NESW down now! kinda.). i make it to union square and luckily know how to get back to my friends apt. from here (after the prior day's adventure). i make it back to her apt., take a shower, and we went out to a nice brunch. luckily she drove me to the bus, i had had enough of SF public transportation.

the funny thing is, i really want to go back and do better at muni-ing. do they just go where ever they want?!?

2008-10-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

oh and i forgot to mention earlier. i just bought new running dress...that's right people you heard correctly. a dress. i am known for lovin' my running skirts and for being a big fan/supporter of www.skirtsports.com and today i bought a HOT PINK running dress!! i'm definitely wearing this number for the fresno marathon (can't miss the "four hour fairy" in the HOT PINK DRESS right!?!)and, if things go well during the marathon (or half of the marathon, i should say). this could be the get-up for the ironman run! who's not excited?!?!? (and no that's not my booty nor will my booty ever look that good! but that pic. certainly makes you want to buythe dress right?? :)

purses and such

2008-10-08T12:20:00.001-07:00

i'm on this new kick of cleaning out stuff, because i'm going to be moving soon. well for me (before it's crunch-time, at least) i like to slowly organize and clean out and perfect things. (when it boils down to the day of moving i'll be all about throwing stuff in any vehicle and getting it the heck out of here!) so yesterday i started going through my craft drawer. #1 going through the craft drawer is rarely a good idea unless you plan on crafting all day, because you find all the unfinished (uh, oh) projects that you've been meaning to complete when you get time! #2 the craft drawer has A LOT of stuff in it. so, i came across a few things that weren't worth moving, a few things that i needed to return to people, a few halloween costumes i can't get rid of, and some fabric.......hmmmm...some fabric that would be PERFECT to line my corduroy PURSE WITH!!!!

uh, oh. many of my old friends probably remember the ol' corduroy purse. it actually used to be my pants in high school and one day i decided those pants would be a purse, and cut them up accordingly. the purse turned out pretty cute and i've used it a ton, but it has always needed to be lined with another fabric, just to make it look more "finished". (i made it almost 10 years ago!) so last night around 10 pm i got on this sewing kick. (i also have other sewing projects i want to finish so i can put my sewing machine away!!). so i threw this liner together (see pics!) and i love the purse even more now!!

maybe every ten years or so i'll change this little purse up and i'll keep re-loving it more and more!? :) so, this morning (while on my sewing note here) i decided to finish the other purse i'd been working on for the last month. (it was supposed to be a birthday gift for a friend in july, oh well. so, while my internet was frustratingly down this morning i finished this adorable clutch up. go me! i'm so excited. now, all i need to do is finish one more apron and i can put the sewing machine away, at least until after the ironman!!! and then it will be time to start the christmas presents that i will give to people in july! nice! :)

so this isn't really ironman related........but at least you all know now what i do when i'm not swimming! :)

Dr. Tiki and Amtrekker: How To Make Moonshine! (kinda)

2008-10-07T22:52:00.001-07:00

“Amtrekker travels to international waters to meet with the famed Dr. Tiki for some moonshining hijinks!Uncertainty ensues.”

read more | digg story

Shaver Lake Triathon

2008-10-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

this post is a couple weeks late but i got distracted 1. by doing my workouts as i should (hmmm...?), and 2. by during each workout thinking of new stories to tell on here. now, the problem with that is, i'm the kind of person who HAS to do things in order, so i can't tell a new story before an old story. sadly that equals no stories. how lame is that?

so, shaver triathlon was an interesting and successful event this year. the race itself holds a soft-spot in my heart (does that make sense?). so, i like the race. it was the first triathlon that i ever did, and it's kinda in my old backyard, growing up just 15 minutes from the race site. i haven't always raced at shaver #1 because it's always FREEZING! and #2 it's a REALLY tough race!! this year, i decided i would brave the cold and at least get this race in as my only real race heading into Ironman Arizona.

the week leading into the race was a recovery week according to my training schedule. i was happy to oblige! i was really feeling tired! friday before the race i headed up to shaver in the morning to go on a longer bike ride and check out the course a bit. it was a beautiful day, and i felt strong on the hilly ride. afterwards i headed up to my mom's house in big creek for a relaxing saturday before the race sunday. all night friday my legs were still feeling achy and tired from my ride out dinkey creek road, and i was a little worried about how i would feel come race day.

sunday morning i woke up, ate some oatmeal, and headed out the door with coffee in hand. i stepped out of the car at the race site and instantly started wondering why on earth i would do this race! didn't i learn the last few times i had done it!?! it's NOT fun! it's COLD and it's HARD! i instantly found myself in a crabby mood. i set up my bike and gear said hello to all my friends as we complained together about why we should never do this race again!

i was pretty excited to use my new sleeveless wetsuit (yay!) and feel like a dolphin in the water. well, the wetsuit felt great, but i didn't feel like a dolphin at all! i instantly felt really tired and slow. i tried honing in on my mental toughness skills, but just found myself feeling slow and frustrated....and thinking how much farther i was going to have to swim in Arizona. i exited the water the fourth female, my toughest competition was going to be my friend shelly, as we've raced together a lot. she was already on her bike when i got to the transition area. i striped out of my wetsuit and threw on a jacket...and i was off. the hunt for shelly was on. typically i catch her within a few miles on the bike course so my focus was on finding shelly.

shelly was no where to be seen. i tried to focus on getting my rhythm, and warming up my legs as they still felt stiff and achy. i thought by the time i got to the first couple hills on the bike course i would catch shelly for sure. not seeing shelly out there made me feel like i must be moving SUPER slow, and feeling terrible. it's one thing to feel terrible when your hammering away, it's another to feel terrible when you are creeping along. luckily for me (shelly and i discussed this later) shelly was just HAMMERING to get away from me and she's just gotten that much stronger! :) not knowing these things, really put a damper on my morning. i even caught myself thinking, "i don't HAVE to do the run, i don't want to! i'm just going to go back and be done, who cares!". who would do that!?!? but i thought it. finally i'm about to the turn around point and THERE is shelly! cheering me on as usual. i was finally able to relax. i hit the turn around and caught shelly within a few minutes and then my race started looking up!

shelly and i later discussed how at that point in her mind she said, "agh! finally katy caught me i can relax now!". as she was just trying to hold me off the whole time. in my mind i thought, "finally! now i have to make up time cuz' shelly can run!". it's so fun being able to share racing with my friends and watch them improve!

heading back into the transition area, i knew this would be a painful run. #1 my feet were numb from being frozen, #2 my legs were DEAD from the climbs, #3 it's a REALLY hard run. off my bike and on the trails i was instantly elated and reminded of why i love this race. it is BEAUTIFUL and the trails are SO fun. i just love being outside doing what i love. at this point i was the first place woman. doing the math in my head i thought if i made up two minutes on shelly on the bike, then she would only have to run 20 seconds per mile faster than me to catch me. hoping that shelly's running hadn't improved as much as her cycling, i went for it. the run is a two loop run, so you run through transition which is nice to get a boost from all your cheer leaders, it's also nice because during your loops you get a chance to see where your competitors are. during loop one i was able to see that shelly was about 1/2 mile behind me. which in our world equates to about four minutes. knowing she was four minutes behind with three miles left i knew she wasn't running a minute per mile faster and i was able to relax a bit.

out on the trail i was trying to have a good time and chat it up a bit with the dudes i was passing. #1 i always feel a little bit bad passing super fit looking guys on the course, and #2 i'm always going for the miss congeniality award at races. to one guy i said, "hey, the second lap should feel easier since we can feel our feet this time huh?" i mostly just got a blank stare, and a tiny smile in response. i think he was still mad that the crowd told me to "demolish that guy" and "make him work for it katy!!" as we ran by together. hey, i didn't say it?? :) (i did enjoy it though). i ended up finishing first place female, yay....and i took about 10 minutes off my time from the last time i raced up there. no complaints here.....well, aside from those ones about it being cold and hard. but....i mean.....other than....that...??

comments???

"i left it all on the course"

2008-09-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

that's one of my favorite things to hear when i hear a pro (or anyone actually) talk about their racing or their training. it's just such a good visual for me, i guess. to leave everything you had that day on the course. or out on your run, to have nothing left when you are done! wow. to race like that and train like that must be so amazing/painful.

obviously if i'm so amazed by it i must not do it. right? well, ya not really. i'm kinda more known for smiling during racing and training. i actually get made fun of for this. what i usually tell people is number 1: i'm so tough that i can smile through the pain (he he he, and i don't get away with that). number 2: i'm not out there to be miserable so why push to that place? my excuses go on and on. my point is, no matter what, i leave A LOT out there even when it's not everything i have. i actually visualize just my daily baggage falling off each mile or each step. whatever has been bugging me, just trickling off, and a lot of the time i can start a run feeling sad, or bummed, or stressed, or ANY feeling. and finish my run feeling SUPER HAPPY.
i have to give some of the credit to my body's chemistry and those lovely endorphins, but my training is my time for reflection and most of the time seems to make me a better person. it helps me make good decisions and wipes my slate clean.

today, for example, was just a bad day. a gloomy day. those days come around for me. just like everyone else. i felt exhausted, had a headache, started feeling sorry for myself, and then just couldn't get out of it. luckily i hit my bottom, and almost instantly got a phone call that urged me out the door to the track. even driving to the track i was so sad i thought i will probably just walk. luckily becky got me going and we did about 5 miles of INTENSE track work. i was LEAVING it on the track. now again, not everything.....but all my FEELINGS are out there (so don't go to the clovis north track, it's not safe....those were some SAD feelings. fyi). our friends kept commenting how i must, "feel so good tonight" b/c i was running well. i was thinking, if they only knew what was driving this train wreck tonight? :)

although i have yet to leave it ALL (and probably never will) on the course/track/field/arena (?). i'm so glad i have somewhere to leave some of it. :) i will keep practicing the "leave it all out there" concept when i'm racing. sometimes i like to act tough when i race. i will think to myself, "just leave it on the course katy" by the end i'm like "you do this cuz' you love it not to win, it's ok to slow down" :).

k. that's all. oh, and i'm better so don't worry. :)

planning for ironman

2008-09-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

there are so many different parts of my ironman experience that i feel like writing about but, as soon as i get to writing, i find myself writing these detailed descriptions that are important to me but probably seem lame to EVERYONE else. then i feel dumb for writing about something that nobody else really cares about especially if you don't understand my obsession with ironman. in the end though, maybe this will help you understand?? or, maybe you'll get bored and stop reading. let's just say you've been warned. this post is about my ironman training planning which really a lot of my energy goes into, it's kind of like a behind the scenes look at the crazy behind the crazy. :)

one of my favorite parts of ironman training is the planning. sitting down and reading through my ironman training books and mapping out a plan that is going to make me train hard and do my BEST come ironman day. i'm not sure if it's the fact that i like to plan things in general, if i like calendars, or if it's actually just a really really good way to procrastinate while feeling productive. regardless, i love it.

i have my little stash of books that last year for my first ironman i read them ALL cover to cover and then sat down with pen in hand and laid out a plan that i felt was do-able. after going to all of that work last year, this time around i was able to do a little less leg work and just use my ironman library for quick references. my ulitmate companion that i wouldn't make it without which i would recommend to anyone training for ironman is:

"Start to Finish: Ironman Training". This book has it ALL. A detailed day to day training program, tells you when to rest, when to go hard, how many reps to do. It's also written by Roch Frey and Paul Huddle who are known for coaching world class triathletes AND are well known successful triathletes themselves. This is definately the closest thing you get to professional ironman training coach for only $11.00. :)

other books from my library i couldn't live/train without are here:

"Going Long: Training for Ironman-Distance Triathons"
This book was less detailed and specific as far as a "plan" goes. It was more designed for someone to read and then make their own plan. What I loved about this book was it's detailed race week preparation sections, and mental preparation sections which can be helpful for any athlete!

"The Triathlete's Training Bible"

This is definately the best book for triathletes in general. It has great information for newbies starting out, but also enough important information for the ironman triathlete to learn something new.

"The Ultimate Guide to Weight Training for Triathlon"

I didn't even know I should be lifting weights for my ironman until I got my paws on "Start to Finish: Ironman Training". After reading through their breif but perfectly detailed weight training chapter, I wanted to know more. I found this little book that has been super helpful in my quest to be buff. So, really I barely lift, but regardless this is a nice little book for the triathlete looking to get a bit stronger.

"Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletetes"

most of the above mentioned books have nutrition information in them specific to training and racing. but again, i wanted to know more. i found this book recommended on a professional triathlete's blog. it is SO informative. it talks about eating for recovery, eating for races, sport specific eating. WOW. this lady is good.

"Becoming an Ironman"

This is one of my all time FAVORITE ironman books, i read it over and over. it really doesn't belong in the training category, unless you are training your mind to love every second of what you do. this book could make ANYONE at least look into signing up for an ironman. i think that every triathlete needs to own this book, and most athletes should also. :) it is a compilation of stories written by athletes who competed in ironman and ranges from the first time ironman competor who "just happened to place in the top three", to the veteran who couldn't finish his race on a given day. it is inspirational, heartbreaking, hilarious, and fun! did i say i loved it?!?

ironman morning....i can't wait.

2008-09-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

i'm picturing that morning. the nervous excitement that kept me up at night during the previous week. that same excitement that made me pop out of bed at 4:00 am, knowing it would be a wonderful day. hoping for the least disasters possible. my friends were surrounding me, speaking quietly focusing on their own dreams for the day. we bustled quietly around like silent bees preparing for the journey ahead. forcing food down, but really only thinking of it as calories and energy, since "just food" surely wouldn't make it past the lumps of fear in our throats. we headed out the door, our minds racing through the massive list of things to not forget. reminding ourselves to think positively. today is the day. the day that all the sacrifice was for. that all the sweat and tears were for. the day that all the pain and early mornings were for. today is the day. no one is talking. you just hear the occasional deep breath to calm the nerves. we arrive at the race site. now, you can REALLY feel the bustling of bodies and the nervous tension floating around the air like a thick fog. you remind yourself that today is the day. you suddenly need to separate from your pack of friends to finish preparations. you know will see them again before the race. regardless, this sudden separation leaves you feeling alone and vulnerable. trying to pull yourself together tears are welling in your eyes. fear, excitment, anxiety! you want someone to hold your hand for the whole day. it feels like your brain and your heart are alone burning 500 calories a minute as you anxiously run around finishing last minute preparations. bike set-up here, check tires, water, numbers placed correctly....transition bags are over here, hopefully everything is in there! double check you have your glasses, your helmet, shoes, nutrition, pain killers, salt tabs........ deep breath. today is the day. scrambling around to find friends and family, panic sets in. the tears are back. swallow (gulp!). remembering leaving them last time. this time, good-bye will be for the whole day. you're on your own, to power through the ironman. today is your day. i can't wait!!!

thanks link!

2008-08-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

i was just on someone else's blog who has a link to mine...and right there below the link it said that i hadn't updated in three weeks!! oh great! like i need some link keeping track of me?! now i feel guilty so i had to type something. just so everyone knows, i've been busy training. yep, you guessed it! i've even been out at millerton swimming!! nice. well, stay tuned because i'm sure i'll do something blog-worthyish one of these days. i officially signed up for shaver lake triathlon today, uh-huh! i finished my training plan today too. motivating/scary! well, i should sleep now since i actually decided tonight i would start following my plan and swim before work tomorrow. i can't wait to check all the little boxes i drew in on the plan. i love that! check.

oh! and p.s. i just found out desiree ficker got her kona slot. look out kona!
www.desireeficker.com

oh! oh! if your looking for a good motivating book, check out Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox. soooo good.
http://www.lynnecox.org/

get out there!!

i'm not complaining

2008-08-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

so, after much thought, i decided to just tell everyone about all the fun that i've been having. when i open this site, i typically feel a little disappointed in myself that one, i don't have all my miles compiled (it kinda feels pointless at this point right?). i feel disappointed in myself that i'm not telling you that i HAD the perfect week training and i'm GOING to be SO ready, yay! those are the things i want to say. unfortunately i never get to say these things. so this blog is aching for complaining because, although for the circumstances, looking back i tried semi-hard to get workouts in. ie: working out before work two days in a row, swimming at lake shasta early in the morning after a late late night. i'm just going to talk about my lake shasta experience instead of complaining, and let everyone see how i do such a good job at balancing fun with ironman training. right?? balancing?? it's ok right?? hmmm.

so, after having such a wonderful time in the grand canyon, i was invited to spend more time with this gang out on a houseboat for a few days. friday evening through monday morning. after a long day in a cramped car, and some interesting delays, we arrived at the lake ready for some fun. the trip included 17 people, one houseboat, two bathrooms, A LOT of food, and A LOT of drinks. the weekend had been highly organized by the "houseboat planning '08" group, we had activities planned such as game night, '80s night, and pirate night. how could it not be fun?? friday night was originally supposed to be game night, but we were all too excited about '80's night and ended up busting out the 80's garb asap! saturday involved swimming, hiking, obstacle coursing (for which my role included swimming a large rock about 40 yds....tough!). sunday was a bit more relaxed and i found time to read my book, catch up with old friends, and get a little wake boarding in. monday we were up early cleaning the boat and trying to get out on the road early. i hope you enjoy the pictures. look see, i do have fun outside of ironman training. :)

i love my bike

2008-07-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

after last week's wonderful and committed training, i decided to back off a bit (not really, it just kinda happened that way!). i had a busy week this week with a lot of work (who does that?), and a lot of time consuming extra stuff around the house. doesn't the world understand that i'm trying to train for an ironman and i need all other aspects of my life to be perfect?? right?? is that too much to ask for? and while complaining, what is it with these people i read about that work full time, have 4 kids under the age of four, and do ironman....really? cuz, i think my simple life = complicated when paired with ironman training. ok. back to me. so the highlight of this week definitely revolves around the fact that i went on an AMAZING bike ride and then had a successful long run on sunday without any PAIN! yeah!! my bike ride is the best story by far. actually it made for a fantastic day. i rode with the fresno cycling club up at shaver lake (hard to go wrong there, i know).

we started at the community center and then rode out dinkey creek road. i have ridden my bike on dinkey creek rode many times while training, and during the shaver triathlon, but never this far. i found out about this ride from my spin instructor nancy who RAVED about it, thus making me think i must do it. the ride was out and back, turning around at courtright reservoir, 70ish miles round-trip. when describing the ride to me i remember nancy saying something like beautiful with nice climbs. i'm thinking, perfect! so, first of all....i'm hanging out at the community center with everyone....not knowing anyone by-the-way, looking for nancy, and wondering the plan. i knew this was an organized ride with food stops and everything (nice)....but wasn't sure the plan of attack, or who to ride with. suddenly this huge group of riders just starts heading out... thinking i will eventually find nancy (as we typically ride at a similar pace) i head out alone. i started out super duper slow (also not knowing the extent of what nancy meant by saying "nice climbs"...?). finally, by the second large hill, i realized that the group i was with wasn't just starting out slow in an attempt to not die later in the day, they were just too slow for me. i ended up passing them and trying to find another group to ride with to no avail. a few minutes later some of the "tri guys" from faron's group go flying by me with their disk wheels-a-roaring. i knew i couldn't hang on to them, but it definitely gave me a little burst of energy to imagine myself hanging onto their wheels. by the end of the dinkey creek road, at the turn off to wishon, i was ALL ALONE. luckily there are actually signs out there or i would've felt totally lost.

the climb up to wishon is a slow steady climb, very similar to climbing the 4-lanes for those of you who are familiar with that. my legs felt great, and at this point i'm loving nancy for inviting me. i have a huge smile on my face, i'm singing along to my amazing music, and just enjoying the wonderful day. in the back of my head though i am well aware that there is still a lot of riding to be done. finally i see the turn off to courtright, and with nobody else in sight assumed that this was the correct way to go. immediately in my easiest gear, i started on my journey of understanding what nancy meant by "nice climbs" i was averaging about 6mph, and knew i had about 10 miles of road left to cover..........and started to feel like they were all going to be similarly straight up. hmm? thanks nancy, i'm now thinking sarcastically! sometime naivety is wonderful.....because i really didn't know how hard this was going to be, i actually DID it. at the same time, with no other riders on the road i started to question if i was even going to the right place or not...i started to wonder if i was really headed in the direction of food, and water........i started to panic....because i was now in desperate need of food and water. as i had only one gu and not even a full water bottle left to get me back the 35 miles to the car if there was nothing ahead. lucky for me as i reach the top (EXHAUSTED!) i see a little old man waiving me in. the food on the back of his truck LOOKED AMAZING! it was costco cookies, bananas, water, soda.....i instantly started shoving things in my mouth as he's asking me tons of questions....little did he know i totally wasn't listening....i was so focused on getting some calories in my very depleted body! as many of you know i quit soda a couple months ago. cold turkey. it's no big deal now, but this was the moment of truth and i caved. i drank a mtn. dew and i don't feel bad about it either. this was a life or death mtn. dew. really, my body needed the sugar, the salt, and liquid. moving on......a few more massively strong looking riders approach as i'm recuperating, and they are talking about the sandwichs down at wishon dam. my ears perk up like a puppy, as my calories hadn't kicked in yet and i was still totally bonking! SANDWICHES!? i think most of these riders were comforted by the fact that i actually had NOT stopped at the sandwich stop, because that meant this girl in pink on the tri-bike didn't actually beat them!! :) heading back out to the car, i was continually amazed at how much i had climbed, and thoroughly enjoying myself just cruising home.
in summation i'm glad i didn't quit and ask the old guy with the truck for a ride back, because it was actually super duper fun to ride home DOWN hill. the total bike ride took about 5 1/2 hours with food stops. making me actually ahead of the game for ironman. now just imagine running 26.2ish miles after that. hmmm? we'll save that for later i think. the rest of my day also continued to be amazing after being able to visit with brynn-e and keyanna after my ride. sadly for keyanna, aunty katymoe was too tired for kangaroo jumps, but it made for a wonderful day to combine my training with hanging with wonderful friends!!! thanks for reading.

coming up next:

i'm not complaining (lake shasta trip)
planning for ironman

i'm baaaaack

2008-07-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

not to toot my own horn or anything, but this last week (two weeks ago, i posted this late) was the GREATEST in terms of actually feeling like i'm training for an ironman again! phew! the few weeks before i had been struggling to get my workouts IN and when i did them, i was struggling to get through them. so maybe the grand canyon trip, and the subsequent week off afterwards did do me some good afterall? :) hhmm. how woulda thought?

ok. so the week started off with an unexpectedly nice early morning swim before work on monday. i met my co-worker and new swimming partner (she doesn't know what she's in for) kelly. she hasn't swam since high school and totally KILLED me! now, high school isn't as long ago for her as it is for me, but regardless...this is why she's my new official swim partner. :) luckily for my ego, she was really really sore. i'm just excited to have a new friend who likes to swim and is approximately the same pace as i am.

so after kicking monday off with a bang. tuesday morning i went to a spin class (not my typical spin class with nancy, b/c i was leaving town that afternoon). it's always weird going to a new spin class, people are very territorial and they like "their bike". it seems that the same people always go to the same classes too, so it seemed everyone in this class knew everyone else leaving me to feel a little like an oddball. after we started the class, the instructor commented that she liked my hat. it was that awkward moment, when you're not sure if the person is looking at you....so you look behind you and around...and smile. eventually she pointed....then EVERYONE looked at me! agh! the class was pretty ok, not the best better than not at all. i swam wednesday evening...yes, i swam twice in one week!! whoo hoo!! i actually felt GREAT. it was truely the first time in a long time that i've felt good and enjoyed the pool. motivating? yes.

i ran 9 miles thursday just my regular route by home. north on fruit, west on barstow to van ness by all the HUGE beautiful homes (there is actually a nice little trail over there) then i ran north on van ness until i felt like turning around. :) i was a little unnerved by the pain in my pelvis as it hasn't been this bad in months. friday (stupidly) i went for another run (to get my miles in!) i KNOW i can't run two days in a row without having terrible pain/inflammation in my pelvis. i did it anyways and ran 5.5 miles with quite a bit of pain. after my long run, i headed to physical therapy where i was then scolded for running two days in a row and encouraged to not race my ironman at all. boo. "you wouldn't be able to do it if you had an acl tear, why would you do it with a chronic painful injury?" good question. we'll see. i love ironman, and i love ironman training. but, because i love them now is even more reason to not race this year (if it comes to that) and BE able to run the rest of my life. hopefully LONG LONG LONG runs. moving on. saturday lead me to a wonderful bike ride up to prather first of all this is one of my favorite rides. especially because it was not that long ago really that i rode to prather for the first time, only because someone had doubted my ability to do it. it's nice to remember those days of barely making it, add ten miles and be able to power up there now without a care. :) so, in summation, this was a great week, i'm feeling strong and confident now, hopefully my pain subsides again and i can train with comfort and confidence. :) thanks for checking in. leave me comments, beg me to post, and maybe i will. ;)

my favorite grand canyon

2008-07-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

as i mentioned before, i had the pleasure of accompanying the amtrekker and his pals on his journey to the bottom of the grand canyon (#50 on his list by-the-way). now, most people reading this know the whole story front to back, back to front, and sideways, because it's the only thing i've talked about since i got home. but, i'm starting at the beginning and not skipping a detail until the end for those people who i don't talk to incessantly (yes, they're out there). i was nonchalantly invited on this trip, and kinda assumed i wasn't really going to go until the very last minute. i was secretly trying not to get excited, knowing that it may not happen. at the same time, i was jumping out of my skin with excitement because.....#1 it's hard for me to turn down any fun adventure, #2 i've never even seen the grand canyon, let alone hiked to the bottom, #3 i've been aching for a great backpacking trip, and #4 it sounded like an adventure with some fun folks. i was a bit concerned that i was going to be gone for a whole weekend and unable to get my "training" in.......and a little concerned with the fact that i only knew 2 people out of the whole group, and hadn't seen them in 8+ years. most of my friends said, "don't go, you're crazy". luckily there was the select few who said, "live a little!".......then came the news i was a shoe-in! yay! bags were packed on tuesday! i got up friday morning at 4 am for a quick run before the arduous journey in the car! 9 hours sitting still....? not my style at all. we finally arrived at the hotel brett's parents were staying in.....in the pouring rain by-the-way. i was so worried about the heat that i didn't think twice about thunderstorms! great! in true brett fashion this would be the only day they close the grand canyon! right?! brett and his friends arrive a while later......(still pouring rain by-the-way). we discuss the possibility of all 11 of us piling into the hotel room for the night rather than braving the wet weather at the campground. we got brave though, ran to the cars, and on the way to the canyon itself the weather started looking a bit better. we set up camp at the campground and discussed our plans for watching the sunset (as we still hadn't actually seen the canyon yet!). we quickly gathered our snacks for the show and headed towards the "trail to the canyon". there's a "trail to the canyon" right?.....? we can ask some people right? "hey, is this the way to the canyon...?" uh, huh? well....let's just say we walked and walked and walked...and split up....and walked....and hurried.....and hurried a bit more.......and....then i was running.....we're going to miss it!!! we are going to come all this way and miss it!! running running running...dodging branches....i can't see a thing, and then suddenly i was there...on the edge..........."woooooo hooo! i see it, hurry, it's amazing!!"

and as you can see it was. the group finally reconnected and we spent a while taking pictures and chatting. breathtaking. i couldn't believe i was actually there! that's when it hit me, i was there! back at camp we all settled in as it had been dramatically decided we would leave camp at 4:00...ish to make it to the sunrise at the top of the canyon....for the first group picture of the trip. well, needless to say, a few missing keys later and we all happily got to the trail head in one piece. separated, but in one piece, so there was actually no....first day group picture....but who's keeping track anyways. right. and the downhill began. yuck. i hate downhill. mostly downhill anything. it just hurts! i twisted my ankles a million times...and if i didn't have cat-like reflexes i'm sure i would've been "down" more than once! phew! my pack was no joke either! what can i say, i eat a lot. by the first rest-stop, i was over it!

on and on....down...and....down....ouch my ankles....this can't be good for my training.......down, and down.....story after story........finally! i hiked with erica most of the day. so much fun. we reached the "bottom"....i mean it was flat......we were crossing creeks. we started to get frustrated....really?! i mean we're at the bottom. it's got to be around the next corner! we had been talking all day about enjoying the day...blah blah blah, and the moment...it's so beautiful blah blah blah. our attitude was suddenly. get us there! fo' get this beauty-photo-taking stuff. we want to be done! well, we finally made it. believe it or not. nothing like hiking down-hill for 6ish hours. i was BEAT and really to get in the creek! as it was getting HOT.

we played in the creek for the rest of the day/night. the boys making dams in the river.....sorry fish. it was entertaining to watch and somewhat fun to join in on. we finally called it quits and headed back to camp for some serious sleep sweating. i think i became more dehydrated that night sleeping than i did all day hiking! the air was perfectly still not a hint of movement just the screech of these large disgusting bugs. talk about rest! and it was AT LEAST 98 degrees in my tent. agh! talk about horrible. we all hit the trails the next morning between 3:30am and 5:00 am to beat the heat, and surprisingly climbed up to indian springs (the approximate half-way) rather quickly. i think we are all napping by around 9:00 am. hmmmm. what are we going to do the rest of the whole day!?! luckily this fun group came up with some interesting ideas, ie: hiking...(who woulda thought) out to plateau point (a beautiful lookout point!), group stretching sessions, squirrel chasing, spoons (yep, the card game) which was abruptly stopped by the ranger at 7pm saying we were too loud for her camp. okay...?.

the last day of hiking started nice and early. my legs felt like they were one big knot from my calves to my waist! ouch! it took about 2 miles of hiking to get warmed up! thank goodness for jolt gum to get me started every morning as there was no starbucks in the grand canyon. sucky. the last day was of course bitter sweet. i had soo much fun getting to know everyone on the trip, but getting to the top and taking my pack off was going to feel soooo great. at the last rest area. most of the group was able to re-group. in my mind giving everyone a fair chance at the shot at "being the first to the top" which was a priority in my book. i was planning it all day. trying to run brett ragged early in the morning. just as we are reaching the final switch back to the top of the grand canyon. brett and nate begin to throw down. i see an opening just past them and go for it! i had a solid 25 yard lead and was using my race-walking skills to keep my lead. up ahead about 3 yards from my win, there is a family of about 6 old to young taking up the WHOLE trail and slowly i might add. i thought i could nicely weave my way through the family, and just as i'm planning my attack to take the gold, i hear nate yelling, "katy!!! go!!!". just as i turn to look i see brett coming fast from behind. just as i'm reaching the slow family, he pushes past me (rudely i might add) almost pushes an old lady, and trips a small child...just to get to the top first. selfish. not to mention cody was definitely first, and hiked back down to get us, and rebecca also beat us to the top, but really that stuff doesn't matter. fair and square, i probably would've won. that's all i'm saying....the rest is history. i had a GREAT ride home with my new pals. lots of napping, lots of reading, and a bit of girlie music to top off the drive. gotta love it!

you know you can leave me comments right....? don't be shy!! stay tuned for the "back on track" week, blog. i'm doing SO well!!! can't wait to tell you about it.

discombobulated

2008-07-15T03:59:00.000-07:00

those people who know me well, know that the first thing you see upon walking through my front door is numerous calendars. one, that has all twelve months so i can plan ahead. a large dry erase where i can plan my details each month, and my large color coordinated training calendar where i can obsess over each detail of my training month. yes. this sound really lame, and actually i'm thinking about taking the 12 monther down, and hiding it, just so i don't look quite so lame. regardless, those who also know me well know, i hate to put laundry away, i hate dirty dishes in my sink, i like things to be "in order", i and i always have a few to-do lists on my back burner, ok actually hanging on my fridge (yes multiple lists, i know!) . another very important aspect in my life is having at least one precious day per week (maybe once every two weeks, let's not get crazy) of just relaxing and getting my brain organized. just a quiet mellow, humdrum day. all that being said, yeah, the calendars aren't going anywhere (that was just an example of my "crazy"), i have about 4 loads of laundry that need to be put away, my house is quite cluttery, and i can't think of the last time i got my humdrum day?!? again, there hasn't been much humdrum #1 because i've been having so many exciting adventures (who's complaining?) and #2 i have so much laundry because i've been having so many exciting adventures. now, the definitions of "exciting adventures". many people may think, wow! what has katymoe been doing?!? well, basically there has been ONE big adventure. but for a girl who typically works and swim, bikes, runs, eats, sleeps. anything out of that box may seem exciting to me. give a girl a break, i'm no amtrekker. this leads me into another topic which seems to be.... training, ah hem! (oh yeah, isn't that what this blog is about??) well, it's hard to train/adventure. so there may have been a bit of "downtime", "cross training", "slacking" (for lack of a better word). in the last couple of weeks. in summation, the first of july brought some exciting news that i was going to have the opportunity to hike to the bottom of the grand canyon, yay! i worked the few days before while quickly trying to pack/laundry/organize for the trip. i spent friday the 4th in the car, hiked down saturday (ouch!), out sunday, and monday...then drove home monday. barely made it two work tuesday, wednesday, and thursday attempted to recover friday (yes, i was still sore), and let's not get into saturday. by sunday i was feeling like quite the slacker and decided it was the day to get "back on track" (that blog to come). in double summation, i'm thinking i will blog separately about the grand canyon journey (because it was incredible!) but i just wanted to send a quick update for today since i think i may have another hectic week ahead. goals for this week obviously "get back on track" with training, and organize my life :) (no big deal).

p.s. the picture is just to get you excited about what is to come in the grand canyon blog. yay/wow!

p.p.s. just because "spell check" doesn't recognize them as words doesn't mean they aren't. just sayin'.

the recovery week

2008-06-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

monday again already huh? last week was supposed to be a "recovery" week in my training.......not that i havn't been doing good, but i definately didn't feel like a deserved a recovery yet. :) i had four days off in a row making for some good training time, yes! tuesday i went for a nice 7 mile run with becky and capi (one of my favorite puppies). i felt great and barely made it to my physical therapy appointment! when i walked in he was working with a high school volleyball player (brought back some memories). i was doing on legged squats and he commented how my left leg was shakey (tired) and i mentioned that running 7 miles prior to his therapy (code for workout!) wasn't the best idea. the volleyball player's jaw dropped! "7 miles!". my physical therapist laughed and told her, "katy does ironman triathlons and runs marathons, don't ever do that!". we all laughed...(still doing my one legged squats). i remember vividly thinking that 7 miles was basically comparable to a marathon. i do have to say i'm living how i always wanted to live. i always knew endurance racing was what i LOVED i just never knew i would actually do it and LOVE it. i was watching "without limits" the steve prefontaine movie the other day (i always stop it before he dies)......and my favorite part is when they are recruiting him to run at oregon, and he says to the guys....."how 'bout an easy ten guys". i remember thinking the first time i saw it, EASY ten!?! those words don't go together!! (at the time my long run was 5 miles!). now, i'm not happy unless i can bust out a hard 10...and enjoy every step. that's where i like my fitness to be. 10 miles? no big deal. so back on track with my week! wednesfday i did the typical spin/swim out at clovis north's new amazing pool. thursday i had PT and a nice easy run. friday i took the ol' machine out for a ride....it was so nice. i just did a quick 40 miles out to the store and back. there are soooo many dead snakes on the road though, by the way! man. i can't help but squeal as i go by either! i know they are pretty well, flattened, but i can't help myself! luckily no one else was out friday, cuz i was squealing up a storm. i saw at least 5 large dead snakes, yuck! blah! eeeaeea! moving on. by friday night i was TIRED and decided to take the weekend completely off. i worked saturday and sunday.....and here i am....ready to start all over. this week has a nice twist to it, as i just found out i'm 100% for sure going to the grand canyon for the 4th of july, yay! today i got a nice swim in, tuesday will be swim/spin, wed&thurs i'll just spend time on the bike to and from work, and friday a.m. hopefully i'll get a couple miles of running in before i sit in the car for 9 hours! agh! wish me luck as this should be a wondeful, fun, hot, horrible, hysterical, atypical, memorable weekend! don't forget to take the poll if you havn't already!! agh, who cares i'm going! done and done.

back on the wagon

2008-06-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

here i am again, late on my post.....this won't be habitual i promise (to all my devoted fans :). last week went pretty well considering i worked three days (yuck, who does that??). i got up nice and early monday morning (4:15am) for a nice swim before work. luckily, i had my very own lane at the yucky gym pool and was able to get a solid 1,500 yds of technique work in. it actually felt pretty great to get wet again. i took tuesday off of training, as i worked again, and was really tired after getting up so early the previous morning. i had my typical wednesday including a wonderful spin class and killer physical therapy session. thursday was a nice run day...i've been really focusing on my form while running (per my physical therapists orders) and found myself feeling a bit silly attempting to lengthen my stride! hopefully, i didn't look as funny as i felt (no one pointed and laughed...??). i felt really good after my nice run, way less pain than i've had the last year or so....hopefully things are getting back into alignment and all my strenuous physical therapy is paying off?? friday was my last work day of the week and i rode my bike to get my nice easy 20 mile spin in for the week....except i almost always hammer on the way home because it's SOOO fun. saturday i knew it was going to be hot, so my plan was to leave the house around 6am for my long bike ride. i found myself FINALLY ready at 6:45 (still REALLY early for me!).....and yuck! it was alreay hot and stuffy out! **grumble** i headed out auberry rd. to humphrey's station, feeling really tired and HOT by the time i got to humphrey's i thought i'd change up my planned route and head out sample rd. to pittman hill, and make a big loop back down ashlan ave. all the way to fruit. this was a nice and fun idea until i realized how boring riding on ashlan ave. for 15 miles was....especially when it was already pushing 100 degrees. my last few miles i was trying to force my HOT TEA temperatured water down as i was getting chills from being overheated (not my favorite feeling ever!). i tried to tell myself to get used to the long boring flat riding as that will be familiar terrain come november in arizona. hopefully it will be around 30 degrees cooler...but with my luck they'll have some record high that day. i got home finished a fresh water and headed out for my transition run. i only made myself run 1.5 miles rather than the usual 20 minutes since it was SOOOOO hot. my legs felt pretty darn great, and i didn't have any of my usual pains while running. nice! sunday i headed out for my "long" run....only 8 miles at this point. :) yes. NO pain....ok so maybe about a 1 on the 1-10 scale and that was 6 miles in. typically miles 3-8 there would be pain like an icepick stabbing me. so i finished this week with only one swim under my belt........and no weight lifting (outside of physical therapy)....but other than that i stayed pretty close to on-track and felt great doing it. i'm not too sore or run down, and my running pain is HOPEFULLY sub-siding! phew! onto next week, i'm optimistic as i only work two days NICE! that's more like it. how can you go wrong with four days off in a ROW! until then...you know you can leave comments right??......and p.s. take my poll. help a girl out, i've got decisions to make here.

Mermaid Sprint Triathlon

2008-06-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

mermaid sprint triathlon in fremont was yesterday, and quite a day it was!! it's always quite a shock to the system to go fast when my main training objective is to go slooooooow and just get to the finish. it is also fun and exciting to push myself in a different way. i was lucky enough this weekend to be able to visit an old college buddy who lived near the race. i was treated like a queen, and got to re-hash my freshman year of college with my friend cherise. her family was so welcoming, they let me eat MOST of their dinner, let me take over their bedrooms with all my tri-gear, plus provided me with endless entertainment. cherise and her husband alex have a 1, 3, and 8 year old so providing entertainment was EASY!

i got up at 5:30am and headed out the door for 40 minute drive to fremont. first stop starbucks! luckily cherise and alex strategically bought their house so the starbucks is perfectly placed between her home and the freeway. NICE! i rocked out to my new michael jackson cd on the way to the race site. OOH! **high pitched m.j. style**.

i arrived at the race with PLENTY of time.....got registered, got myself set-up, and headed to the water to watch some of the other girls head out in the first wave. there were quite a few of the Just Us Girls triathlon club represented, we were all so cute in our pink and black dragonfly outfits! The first wave went off at 7:15ish.....i didn't start until 9! ho hum. i walked around checked, double checked, triple checked my gear, went for a jog, stretched...........cheered on racers. by 8:30 i was completely bored and decided to head down to the water. i'd been debating all morning wetsuit or no wetsuit. by the time 8:30 rolled around i felt so TIRED i was too lazy to put it on :). down to the water i was checking out the competition. there were some fit looking ladies in my age group. i got in the perfect water (glad i went w/o the wetsuit!) for a warm-up. i swam for about 5 minutes feeling great, but wishing i were napping instead. i had lost all motivation to race! finally, the gun fired and i tried to jump out into the lead. these girls were fast! usually i'm VERY close to the front swimmer, especially in a small group like this. by the time we reached the first bouy i was definately in the middle of the pack instead of near the front. dang! i hopped onto my bike and put the hammer down! the bike was only 11 miles and it was 3 loops. i felt like i was in a criterium race. i just put my head down and started powering away. by about mile 2 i realized this wasn't going to work. there were SO many beginners out on the course, i was almost constantly saying "on your left" wishing they would stay over. i started to get frustrated!!! by lap two i had almost crashed twice, narrowly missed a car once. by the third lap i decided i needed to chill out and just try to enjoy the day rather than be an asshole. i chilled out still pushing hard, but being more considerate of other racers. just as i approached mile 1 of my third loop. another girl on a tri-specific bike comes from behind....just HAMMERING! who does she think she is?! so i go with her. wow. we were pushing 23-24 mph at this time. just as she sneaks arount a sharp right corner, i see a group of 4 newbies in front of me panicking at cars just as they are hitting the corner......they start slamming their brakes on......i start yelling....."don't stop, don't stop, don't stop, don't stop!!" already slamming my breaks on (with no where to go around them!) if they stopped we'd all go down (as i'm headed at them at 23 mph! ). finally we all made it around the corner safely. but "tri girl was gone" i pushed hard to catch back up with her, (without getting in peoples way and being a poor sport) and just got close enough to keep her in my view. i entered T2 just as she was taking her helmet off. ok, i thought depending how she runs i can catch her. coming out of T2 i was about 100 yds behind her, but definately making up ground. then i had to squeeze my way between people in a crowded area. and i suddenly felt like i WAS not being respectful of these tri newbies, and i realized that's not how i wanted to race! this was obviously not a competitive race for MOST people out there that day. most were just trying to get thru it, and i am being a jerk! so i flipped the switch right there. i kept my competitor in sight, but started shouting "good jobs" to all the other girls out there and saying encouraging things to everyone (even my competitor at the turn around) i got no response! :) people were smiling, i was smiling....i suddenly really started to enjoy my day a whole LOT more! i didn't end up catching this girl. but i was proud of the way that i raced, it felt really good to go hard and to be encouraging at the same time. that's definately more "me" than the competitive jerk who was out there earlier! we waited around for the awards, and i hadn't seen anyone else in my age group moving like myself or the other girl, so i thought i could have placed. sure enough i was 5th place overall, and got 3rd place in my age group! nice. i won a cute pair of socks, some luna bars, and some ALCiS cream, yeah! thanks for checking in.

i had a great week this last week. i really did better with my training consisentency, even got into the water once! yeah! i have high hopes for this week even though i work three days, yuck! i'll try and post again this week to let you know how it's going and if not next week FOR SURE! thanks again, stay tuned! ;)

Just a Thought

2008-06-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

i decided tonight after reading some of my blogs, maybe they would be better if i were to read/edit them before i actually post them?? who woulda thought? it's probably killing my mom the 8th grade teacher to read my run-ons and poor grammer to boot. i won't capitalize regularly, but that's because i feel like it's a wasted key-stroke. :) such a rebel. brooke told me that she feels like i'm telling her the story in person...and i really do just write as i'm thinking the story in my head (obviously). but, to make it better....you never know who's reading???? i'll try to start editing. at least a bit.

i've had good week so far. yes, it's only tuesday! baby steps. i rode long monday to make up for a missed ride this weekend. i miss going to prather! it was a blast! i've been doing my p.t. exercises (kinda), i rode to work today and put the HAMMER down, as i was late on the way there and in a hurry to get home! so much fun. only not in my cycling-commuter skirt, which as flattering as it is to wear around work (rather than straight-up spandex, talk about embarrassing!) not so great when you are putting the hammer down on the road. i had skirt flying everywhere. not cute at all, rather ridiculous actually. so i'm on track for a good week, i can feel it!

ok, this was supposed to just be a mini post! betcha can't wait for the race report!!!

More to Life Than Ironman

2008-06-08T21:44:00.000-07:00

First of all let me say that of course there is more to life than ironman and i of course know that, but if i want to train well and race well and feel good on ironman day i need to pretend it's not true. (did that make sense?). I thought going into this post that I was really behind on my posting, but now that I'm looking at the calendar i'm NOT really too behind. The last two weeks have not been the best in terms of focused training. The last month has been quite the emotional, physical, roller-coaster.......which when training for an ironman is not allowed. I have to say though at this point in my minor crisis I'm able to put a positive spin on things as the challenge of this month has really taught me a lot about myself. Most importantly that it's ok for people to take care of me (which i'm not very good at). I feel like a mirror was placed in front of me allowing to look at myself and evaluate myself (not always a good thing!) BUT it allowed me to see what i need to and WANT to change so I can get better!! I approach my whole life I think with one philosophy and that is "to get better". My training has really had a huge impact on my life. You can use a lot of tough race day strategies on tough life day issues. I'm so thankful for my "support crew" in training and my "support crew" in life (mostly the same people). If not for them i couldn't race the way I want to, and if not for them I wouldn't live the way I want to. Although this month has been tough, it's also been amazing to realize how much I am loved when my tough-guy-i'm-always-fine-walls are down. I just can't say enough about that...I'm comforted knowing now that ANY time i have a problem I can depend on my friends to rally and be there! :) So, I also really realized (and this is along the same lines) through talking with my friend Mary (who I'm constantly sending postive healthy thoughts too!!) that it is OK to just be SAD! she reminded me that although my job keeps me grounded with constant reality checks. it's still ok to be sad and feel sad when sucky things happen! oh, how i appreciate her. i had no idea how much being sad would effect my training, but it really really did. I think i'm finally on the othe side of the line.....recovering and mentally preparing to be tough Katymoe again and really train hard b/c truely it's what i LOVE and that is when my eyes are wide open to EVERYTHING. i'm finally in a place where i'm looking forward to new adventures in my life, looking forward to kicking my ass training, to being 100%. I'm making changes and I like them. I'm sure i'm not out of the sad woods yet, but i'm definately getting there. again my amazing friends i can't thank you enough. i might still be sleeping on the floor if it weren't for erica, i might be alphabetizing my fridge if it weren't for "the girls" from work. i might be laying on the couch all day if it weren't for becky/lea/rachel and all my running buddies. i might be crying alone if it weren't for my wonderful mom. and i might not remember to let people take care of me if it weren't for miss mary. really this wasn't supposed to be a bummer post, it was supposed to say I'M READY! for what's next. I'M READY to start training! thanks again for listening.....and one of these days i'll actually let you know how my training is GOING! PS i'm racing next weekend in FREMONT, just a sprint. but i'll be up there with the Just us Girls team trying to remind myself how to go FAST!!! Stay tuned for a fun race report and hopefully some serious miles/yards (yes, in the pool, i may actually get in a pool this week!).

http://www.mermaidtriathlon.com/mermaidTRI08/merTRIhome.html

YEAH!

The 50 Hour Work Week

2008-05-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading my last blog....and I decided I'm going to not be quite so negative and hard on myself this time! I just finished a 50ish hour work week....just b/c I work part-time doesn't mean I don't work hard, and yes it means that next week I only have 22 hours scheduled (amen!). When I think about last week in terms of workouts it seems pretty lousy, but when I think of what I squeezed in to a busy work week, I think I did pretty darn good.

Monday: I rode my bike to work. My new commuter bike is sooooo sweet. I'll try to post a picture of it this week. I have it all decked out with a sweet light, a rack on the back and bags to go with, pink handlebar tape. (YES!). Riding to work is definately my new favorite thing, and it's like sneaking in my workout and saving money and our dear planet all at the same time. It is about 9.5 (so I always round up to 10 miles) to and from, and takes me about 35 minutes. I try and leave my home at 6am so I have time to do a quick sponge bath/change/coffee intake before I head out to my peeps.

Tuesday: I met up with the ol' running club and ran a solid 5ish miles. Coach Ray always makes me run hard.

Wednesday: I got to go to my favorite spin class with Ms. Nancy. I always finish this class completely DRAINED. She knows how to work us HARD.

Thursday and Friday: I worked and a I drove there (agh, in disgust!) at this point in the week I just felt SOO tired. Both days I had my swim stuff in the car, just in case I felt like swimming afterwards (duh!). I'm not the type of girl who will just feel like doing something when I'm tired. I have to have it in the plan and not as an option!! I have let the whole month of May go by with options to get out of jail free. I'm still letting myself believe that I'm recovering from Wildflower (which judging by my workouts lately I may still be!) and I'm letting things slide a bit, because TRUELY Ironman training starts with 24 weeks and I'm still 26 weeks out...

Saturday: I met up with the running club again yesterday. Saturday I had planned a long bike ride. My friends leured me out of that journy with a promise of a girls-only breakfast date after the run workout. Luckily for me I chose the run/breakfast b/c it was a very cold/windy/wet morning and I wouldn't have been having very much fun on the bike! I decided of course to push the bike ride back to today (Sunday)......and woke up to pouring rain.....hmmm. Maybe I'll get the trainer out. That has yet to happen, and I do have a running offer so I may skip the ride this week.....and just get a solid run in.

Next week will be the NEW Katy. My goals are to do ALL my workouts so I can check my boxes on my workout calendar! I do have a wedding on Saturday out of town so I may have to squeeze my long ride in earlier in the week? Once I am back on track and I don't let myself slip-up in my workouts it's easier to fight the feeling of getting out of them! As you can see from last week too, is there is no swims posted...hmmmm...I'm having some water phobia! :) I just don't like to get WET! I will probably join a master's swim club (at least for the summer). It would be really good for me to swim with a coach pushing me and with people pushing me. Cuz' I'm just not getting it done on my own.

Triathlete, Environmentalist, Aspiring-Vegan,Gardener, Pediatric Oncology Nurse

2008-05-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

So, I've been eating animal products, my flowers all died (with the help of my cat's poo), I ate off of styrofoam plates at work the other day, and I haven't swam in at least a week. Lately I've been feeling like I have a few too many hats on. No, I'm not really vegan...and I obviously don't really aspire very hard...:) or I would be vegan. These things (the things in the title) are all things that I'm VERY passionate about, I just have trouble squeezing them all in. So, because the flowers are all dead (thank you Rocky and Ringo who are probably rolling around on the dead buds as we speak!) I have kind of let go of the gardener in me....although I do feel a strong pull towards taking very good care of my roses...(although I may have pruned them to death as well??). Needless to say the gardening is on the back burner for now. Onto the veganism. If someone were to ask me about health and nutrition I would say without a doubt I believe that veganism is the healthiest way to eat hands-down. When that same person offers me cookies and milk.....I'm gonna eat it.....??? Does that make any sense. My excuses are my busy life...........those who know me may question my use of the term busy in that sentence...seeing as how I may work a certain number of hours per week known as part-time. But...I believe my environmentalism and triathletism create a busier week than it may otherwise seem. Picture, that I ride my bike to work (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE doing)....so I leave my house at 6 am at the latest after packing my lunch and feeling a bit guilty that there are animal products in it. I work from 7am-7:30pm....get on my bike thinking of the styrofoam I used to drink the cow milk. Get home at 8ish....jump in the shower and do it all over again the next morning....so yeah, yeah I only work 2-3 days a week and the other days I should be able to squeeze in yoga, running, biking, swimming, gardening, vegan-recipe shopping, laundry, house keeping with enviro-friendly supplies of course, ?and a little nursing research on the side........maybe my plate's too full....or maybe it's that I'm a semi-perfectionist so I feel like dabbling in things isn't enough....

what I do know is that I HAVE to train. I HAVE to go to work (do you like how that's second?) I really really really want to save the planet because I like it here and I think it's really really ridiculous how long it takes for Styrofoam to decompose not to mention how horrible it is for the environment just to make it, agh! I really want to be vegan and I really want to be a gardener.....but maybe I should do those things in a year that I'm not doing an Ironman.....?? Cuz' I can't fit it all in and it's making me stressed out. I do have to say though on the environmentalist subject. I just bought a book at costco called Gorgeously Green, and it's basically amazing. I just found out that almost all of my lotions, shampoos, conditioners etc....were carcinogenic.....hello! I'm an oncology nurse and I'm putting cancer causers on my skin!!!!! Call me crazy but those went in the recycle bin! Check out more info. at www.gorgeouslygreen.com it's a really fun site, with great links. So if everyone helped me out by eating less tortured animals, and recycling, and riding your bikes to work too, I'd feel better about me slipping up and maybe I'd make more time to train! THANKS.

ps i'll start posting my milage-to-date when I start doing some milage...just kidding I'm just in bed and would have to look at the calendar to put it on here and I don't want to get up! :)

pps i love all my friends thanks for all your love and support!!!!!!!!

Wildflower Long Course

2008-05-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

First of all, if I would have typed this the day of the race the heading would probably be something like “the history of the race I will never do again” or something like that. But, because I’m human and we tend to forget the severity of the pain we endure my attitude seems to be a bit different these days. Let me also say for the record that this is one tough race! One that in my book compares to about ¾ of an Ironman rather than ½ an Ironman. I think that this is why it is called wildflower long course rather than ½ iron man (not to mention legalities). If it were to adopt such a name, they should call it., “Wildflower 70.3 Ironman- that tends to feel more like 140.6”.

That being said , on with the race report. The week before the race I had come down with a little stomach bug that didn’t let me eat like I normally would eat. Not that I have a specific way of eating other than A LOT. J I had skipped my swim classes, and called in sick to work….Friday night I was FINALLY hungry and decided that that was my “sign” to race and that my stomach was getting better!

Saturday morning I ate a small breakfast, waiting to see how the ’ol stomach felt….as it’s hard to discern against race morning stomach and upset stomach. My race didn’t start until 9:10 which gave me plenty of time to over-analyze how I was feeling. I had promised my mom over the phone the night before that I would stop the race at any point if I truly felt terrible. (she thinks I’m tougher than I am, of course I‘d stop!) I got down to transition area with plenty of time to wish Ben well (he started at 8:10.….they don’t want the 25 year old men complaining about the heat I guess) and watch all the pros come in from the swim! Wow, they were amazing. I ate some more food…..trying to get as many calories in as I could knowing I was in a bit of a deficit.

The swim was nice and smooth….after the initial 400 yds of elbows and feet I had nice open water the whole time. My body felt pretty good too….but I was intentionally cruising knowing I had a LONG day ahead of me!

Out of the water onto the bike I was hoping my stomach hurt from the usual drinking of lake water and not my bug. I immediately felt terrible on the bike and was thinking I just needed to get my legs warmed up….the first 6 miles of hills were enough to warm me up and almost enough to send me back to camp! I really really felt terrible, but decided I just needed some calories and some flat ground to spin my achy legs out. Luckily for me miles 20-40 were nice and flat…my legs never came back though. Mentally I felt ok, and seeing mile 40 was pretty refreshing only 16 miles to go ….not to shabby. Little did I know the hill everyone complains about starts about mile 41 my legs were no match for this baby. On this mother-of-a-hill I decided I was DEFINALTY too weak to be doing something stupid like this. All the old guys I usually FLY by on the hills were passing me or zig-zagging across the road AHEAD of me! So sad. This hill handed it to me that’s for sure….. Luckily there were a few nice long descents and I then decided I had better at least attempt the run.

Into transition I had my fuel belt ready to go as Coach Amy had suggested…..but putting anything extra on my body seemed agonizing. I sun-screened and headed out without my hydration hoping I didn’t ruin my race. The first mile I felt pretty good actually. I surprisingly didn’t feel more horrible than usual coming off the bike and decided it might turn out to be a good day. I had been running a lot and felt confident about my run. I was flying by all these walkers, sucking there energy as I went by. I then made a pact with myself (as I usually do, mental games keep me going). OK, I won’t walk until mile five and you‘re only allowed to walk because you‘re sick. My legs won’t feel good until mile 3 anyways, so mile 5 I’ll have earned it. At mile 1.5 I decided that walking up hills was ok. At mile 3 I wondered if the whole course was truly all uphill and if it was, was I allowed to walk it all? By mile 5 (ha ha, the “walking mile”) I decided that walking in the shade as well as the hills was acceptable. Miles 6-8 there were people lining the course so I had to put on my “running show”. (people commented after, “you looked great”….good then my plan worked!). Finally! I was back onto the trails at mile 8 ish and I could walk again! PHEW. At this point I was walking in the sun, in the shade, on the uphill….it didn’t matter….the tank was EMPTY. Mile 9-10 was downhill so I couldn’t really think of an excuse to walk…mile 10-11 was right back up that same hill and I gladly walked. At mile 11 I tried the ‘ol “anyone can run two miles” trick to get me going, it only lasted until I go to a dirt mound that I counted as a hill and decided I could walk again! J Unfortunatly for me mile 12-13 was downhill again and I had to run. It was so agonizing…my quads were in knots each step I wondered if laying down and rolling would be faster?easier? I made it through the shoot passing some 80 year old guy (not really). Ben and my friends Scott and Lea were worried because I (and I quote), “didn’t have my Katy smile in the shoot, and was out there for a LONG time!! we mean…..you did great!”. Thanks guys. J So, it wasn’t a pretty race I was cursing and crying about the whole thing for a while, insisting that I would boycott the whole event forever because of the pain it caused me. That only lasted a day when the real Katy came back life and decided I really needed to come back and kick it’s ass when I’m 100%. In retrospect (I’m almost recovered) It’s a tough race that I can’t wait to do again…..and have my NO WALKING rule in place. Hopefully more friends will join us next year, there are plenty of events for everybody even if there’s not enough toilet paper or warm water it’s still pretty fun. If you ever want to do this race I have the packing list saved on my computer that I update each year! J Don’t forget hand sanitizer and your toilet paper and you’ll be fine.

P.S. although I didn’t use my fuel belt, I used coach Amy’s advice by taking extra water from each station and folding the top over to have sips between stations. (I wasn’t moving fast enough to spill it, so it worked!)

Quote of the day:
“mommy why are all the girls running and all the boys are walking?”
-some little girl between mile 6-8

The New Blog and the New Training Season

2008-05-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

My goal for this blog will be to update it weekly, have new pictures for it monthly, and I guess that is all. :) My goals for this training season are:

#1 To have a wonderful time training and racing.
#2 To feel great and FIT at Ironman Arizona.
#3 To weigh 125 lbs. before Ironman Arizona (who wants to carry a 10 lb backpack for 140.6 miles)
#4 To have better times at Arizona than I did at CDA. ie: swim 1:13, bike 6:50, and run 4:10
#5 To actually do my weight training sessions and to get in 1 yoga and 1 pilates session per week.

phew! I'm already exhausted just talking about this stuff!

Stay tuned for some fun ironman training adventures!