16 Days...

Nuff said... Wow.

Update via Bullet Points

• Motivation still at an all time low. I think I've already begun the taper process.
• No need to worry on doing extra workouts, I can barely get a few in as it is.
• 21 days till the Ironman, holy shit. I haven't been happier that it's around the corner.
• The last month seems by far the hardest month of all of them.
• Woke up this morning at 6am and realized I left my cycling shoes at home. (I stay at Adrian's on the weekends)
• Rushed home to get shoes.
• As I was leaving, in a rush, with car in full reverse, I failed to see a motorcycle parked and knocked it over.
• Motorcycles are very heavy. I couldn't pick it back up.
• Left note, with cell phone and insurance info, but as of 1:30pm, no call yet, I hope someone put it back upright.
• I thought about the poor guy's reaction when he goes outside to see his motorcycle on its side for the entire Dam loop part of my ride today.
• Saw half of a deer on the side of the road, yes, just half.
• Tons of riders on Parmer.
• "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder was the song of the day, I hummed it and sang the only part I knew for about an hour on the bike.
• Although, I'm sure it's not safe, I'm able to talk on my iPhone and ride my bike at the same time.
• As comfortable as I am on the bike, I still managed to forget to unclip at the intersection of Parmer/1431 and tipped right over with all cars staring at me. I got 3 people who rolled their window down and gave a ton of thumbs up, even got a "You rock" as a car drove by that was standing still at the red light when I tipped.
• Rode 80 miles by accident, and the last 20 were long and slow.
• I tried to coast as much as possible once I got to Duval.
• I wish I had a sign on my back that said how many miles I had ridden so when people on Jollyville that are on their 3rd mile whiz pass me, they know I'm on mile 70, and I'm really not that big of a slow ass.
• Still completely 100% undecided on what I want to do after this IM. Marathons or triahlons, argh, I have a place in my heart for both now.
• Top Priority for 2010 - Adrian and I are going on a REAL vacation. REAL means, no sporting event to haul bikes to, no stress of a race, just pure fun, relaxation. Maybe a cruise, maybe just going somewhere tropical where we can go on hikes, see waterfalls, go swimming, see colorful fish, and just enjoy each other. Oh, don't forget, eat good food!

I look like I know what I'm doing...

Thanks Gordon!! This was during the Practiceman this past weekend.

Cap Tex 2009 - Race Report (short version)

Training up to Monday has been dull. Motivation has gone to a new low, and my ego is playing wierd little games. I finally have the confidence that I'm going to be ok for IMCDA, but with this confidence has come laziness. It's not that I'm tired, although I am, but it's more that I've lost the drive to make it to all the workouts. I was hoping that Cap Tex would rejuvenate me :)

Saturday: 42 miles of S. Mopac loops followed by 13 miles of hot, long, slow miles.

Sunday: Cap Tex prep, packet pickup, bike check in, errand running.

Monday:

Swim: 26:47, swim pace of 1:47/m

Rank: 320/1327

Woke up at 4:30am, made it to the race with plenty of time. Arranged transition area. Ate Power Bar. Made it to the swim start. Kissed Adrian and got him on his way. My wave was 35 minutes later, so thankfully I had enough time to let Adrian know he was the 3rd out of the water from his wave. Swim went fine for me. I had to calm myself in the beginning because I was just excited and probably swimming too fast. I placed myself up front, because I'd rather get run over than have to swim harder to get around people. I stayed to the far right of the buoy and it worked out perfectly. For some reason, everyone swam too far out, except for one red cap. I felt like I was swimming with this red cap forever, constantly bumping into her, seeing her every 6th stroke, and it was irritating because she kept swimming into me. Finally after the half way point, I kicked it up and got in front of her. My sighting was perfect, I've gotten sooo much better with this. Only mistake that I made was I didn't see the last buoy so I started swimming to shore too early and had to turn late to round the last buoy. Other than that, I had a great swim.

T1: 3:21

Greeted and heard several T3'ers yell for me, which was awesome. I didn't have any trouble getting out of Adrian's wetsuit. We switched for this event. Running with my bike seemed like forever. I wish I knew how to run while holding my bike with just the seat, and I wish I could run faster in cycling shoes.

Bike: 1:18:42, 18.9 mph

Rank: 699/1327

I only had a goal of having a faster mph than my previous PR, which was 16.5. I had planned to get out of my saddle more, and push harder gears on the downhills. The loops went fast, and nothing too interesting other than I found myself for the first time, looking and watching for people in my age group. I noticed who was passing me, which for me I've never done, cause EVERYONE used to pass me. Not today. Mostly men and women that were younger or in my the age group above me were passing. There were 2 girls that started behind me that passed me in my age group. The last one, fought to not let go. For the 2nd & 3rd lap we'd play cat and mouse, I'd pass, then a few minutes later, she'd pass, and this went on. The last lap, she finally passed long enough that I forgot about her and lost track. I remember telling myself to remember her number so I could look at the results later to see just how bad she beat me. 421. I later found out she gained 25 seconds on the bike.

T2: 2:10

I felt pretty fluid for this stop, and decided not to do socks. I just slipped on my running shoes, grabbed my hat and race belt and was off. Saw Chris G in transition and got a shout out.

Run: 54:02, 8:42/m

Rank: 452/1342

Run felt good, 1st mile was a 9:16. I was stoked about that. It didn't feel hard, and I would for sure break 3 hours if I kept that pace. I was a little worried that I had forgotten my salt tablets in my transistion bag, so I didn't have any electrolytes other than what was in my Gu's and nutrition bottle. 2nd mile was an 8:23, holy moly. 3rd mile was freakishly slow, but it didn't feel like it, 10:19ish. After I got back on Riverside a guy passed me, but he didn't blow by me. I latched onto him and was able to run with him. I stayed with him to Congress. On my way, I asked him, "Do you have any idea what pace you're running?" He said, "No." so I dropped it and just tried to run with him as long as I could. The effort felt increased, but not something I couldn't do, until... he said, "Oh, I did just run the first loop in 22 minutes, so I bet we're doing 7:45's." and I immediately thought, "OH, hell no, I can't run that fast!" I wish he wouldn't have said anything and I probably could have stayed on his heel. I have some mental work to do, cause about 20 seconds later, I let him drop me. Finished the run strong though, the rest of the miles were under 8:30's and finished it out with a nice good stride.

Oh, and I passed 421 within the first two miles of the run :)

Extremely happy with my entire race, stoked about my new course PR.

Final Stats

2:45:06

19th in my age group out of 105 - (insane!)

445 out of 1327 total participants

Cap Tex Results

Race report to follow.

1st Splash n Dash Report

All I can say first is... Wow.

I signed up with this being naive thinking, "Oh, this will be a piece of cake!" 750 meters, and a 3k run. Walk in the park.

Boy oh boy, I got my ass handed to me on a silver platter! A big ole piece of humble pie!

Left work at 4:30, got to Adrian's a little after 5 to change. Put on my T3 top, then took it off, after looking in the mirror and seeing the Pillsbury dough boy, except he was blue. Decided to wear a different less form fitting top. Adrian got home with the boys, and we proceeded to Pure Austin. Checked in, and went to the swim start.

There would be two separate swim starts, men and women. There looked to be alot more women than men, and the final results showed this. Women had the option of swimming with the men since they started first. I thought about it, but then realized the few women that were, were pretty fast.

Swim
I put myself towards the front, most of the women weren't even in the water when the countdown began, and I figured that I'd rather get run over than have to swim through slower swimmers. I also assumed since this was a short swim that I would be able to swim pretty fast, it was mostly my ego too. Not gonna lie. I did get to see Amy and Laura before the swim start, and I was planning on trying to start with her, but by the time we were treading water, I had lost her. The beginning of the swim was pretty brutal, but I feel pretty comfortable in the water, and for every punch, claw or kick, I just tried to swim past it. I got caught up with one girl in a blue cap for quite a long time. She was on my right, and kept swimming into me. I had to deal with her until the first turn buoy. I could have let her by, but I was pretty adamant about seeing how fast I could swim this entire swim and wasn't about to slow down, so I kept putting up my fight. As I rounded the first bouy, I started drafting off someone, all I could see where bubbles and feet. I followed these from the first buoy to the back of the swim course. I think it was Amy because I saw Texas Iron in the water, but wasn't sure. Looking at our swim times, I'm almost positive it was her. I remember touching her feet a few times, and confirmed on the run that this was probably 99% her. Thanks Amy :) I felt pretty comfortable, although out of breath, but on the home stretch, I felt ubber fast. I felt like I was passing people like crazy. My sighting abilities have improved. I never felt like I was off course by too much :) On the last portion, the waters seemed to clear and I looked around and noticed I had skipped the very last buoy. For a split second I thought about swimming back to go around it, but I was already about 50 meters away and said screw it. Finished up the swim.

Transition
After getting out of the water, Adrian was there immediately. It felt like forever, but I had no balance to put my shoes on. Even leaning on him, I was a huge wobble butt. I stumbled a good 4 times before I finally got my shoes on. Made it to the top and started my run.

Run
I started out and was immediately breathing like crazy. People were passing me left and right and that was just pissing me off. Every time someone would pass, I'd try and latch on, but my breathing was beyond labored. They had a water station set up, which I know sounds ridiculous for a 3k run, but as soon as I got there, I stopped to walk. As I was walking, Amy came up and passed me! I thought to myself, PERFECT!!! I latched on. I screamed up ahead that I was pacing off her and we ended up running the rest together. We chatted when we could, but I was really struggling to keep my breathing steady. It was awesome having Adrian there to cheer me on. Brandon Marsh was there too, and a few other friends. Pretty cool to have a little cheering section. 2nd loop seemed a bit easier, but felt super long. I could not get my breathing to slow down, and I really felt like I was running at least 8:00's. I felt like my effort was insanely high. 3rd loop was just about hanging on to Amy. The chit chat was none, and towards the end it was taking everything I had to hang on. She slowly started drifting away, until a girl tried to pass me, and I just couldn't let it happen, especially not in front of Adrian. I kicked it in and didn't let her get by. I almost caught up to Amy, but missed it by 1 second. It would have been nice to keep up with her the whole time, but I was thankful to have her to run with :) A big huge thanks to her for being there whether she wanted to or not :)

Final Statistics, and quite shocking...
Time: 31:51
Swim Rank: 46
Swim pace: 1:51 (Wow, swimming PR!)
Run lap 1: 6:15 (10:25/m pace)
Run lap 2: 6:05 (10:08/m pace)
Run lap 3: 5:40 (9:27/m pace)
Overall finish: 58th out of 185
Gender finish: 15th out of 113 - HOLY SHIT! (Correction, 20th woman, 15th not including the women that placed Top 5)

I can't wait to get my running speed back. When I originally saw my running pace, I was upset. How in the world can I run marathons at a faster pace, but given 1.8 miles, I can't run for shit. Doesn't make sense, but in the few words I had with Amy, there's something different with going from swimming to running. Also talking to Adrian, he said the entire event is made to go all out, and I felt it. I'm extremely disappointed with my 10:00 min average, but it was a great and humbling experience. Looking forward to going back and doing better.

Bulletpoint Updates :)

• Adrian finished 2nd overall, 1st in his age group at Xterra Canyon Lake race. He now has 140 of the 150 points he needs to qualify for Nationals. He was behind the leader by only 1:09.
• Adrian and I were rearended on Saturday and it's tweaked my back!! Mostly sore, but I did have sharp pain down my leg on Sunday afternoon. Argh... just what I need before the Ironman.
• Ironman training is going, not very motivated, and I'm not going to lie. My workouts have been sub par lately.
• I'm excited about the next adventure with Rogue after IM is over.
• Trying to build up to doing as many REAL pushups as I can before July.
• Ironman is 32 days away, and I'm excited!
• A little bummed that I only have 2 more paychecks coming until Ironman, wow, the time flew fast.
• I'm looking forward to the lower budget "running only" budget after IM.
• I cleaned my entire condo this morning before work.
• I'm really looking forward to my first Splash and Dash tonight!!
• Super excited about this weekends workouts... T3's Practiceman and Cap Tex :)