Woohoo

You can skip the couple of rants below. Kind of boring but it sure felt good to write them. Blog is kind of out of order. Good week though. Lots of hard everything going on. I survived!

Bought plane tickets to Madison. Leave Saturday August 31. Fly home the Tuesday after the race.

Weekend
Saturday-long ride. Erik came with me for 20 miles. Pieced together 78 miles of valley roads. Actually found a newly painted jem of a road. Got tired of myself at mile 60. Did the run. I think I covered more ground in the last 15 than in the first 30 minutes. Even though the goal was maybe different. It took 15 minutes to get the legs functioning properly. Went to a BBQ on a new deck that Erik designed. Went to bed early.

Sunday- masters swim- got I'm 3000.
Run- Went up Stone Creek. The start to the Bangtail 38k. It switchbacks for a long time. I have ridden it but not run so wanted to see how steep it really was. Took me 1:20 to reach the top. Got caught in a thunderstorm and downpour. It was awesome!

Monday- Rode with Lawrence. Hyalite, Kelly Canyon, Jackson Creek, and back over Kelly Canyon. My legs were screaming French fries over that last climb. My back was definitely was tired today. At mile 40 or so it was uncomfortable. Started out cloudy and rainy. Ended up sunny and beautiful. Rode 76 miles. Having a hard time getting 80 out of the Gallatin valley. I think I have my eating down okay. Have a timer and take in calculated calories every 15 minutes plus supplement with a bar and gel. Have been eating those Pro bars. They are calorie packed. Even for the cost.  Water though on the bike has been more of an issue. I need to restock more often. I can really start to loose it running out of water.  On Monday  Lawrence had extra that saved me. Note to self: in race always get more water at aid stations. It is worse to run out.

Tuesday- Actually rode around for a while after work.  Have a trailer on my commuter. Makes it nice to run errands.

Julie's weekly rage-First, I registered for the Bozeman Sprint Race. It cost 80+ dollars. Registration, $6 in fees for using their registration website, and $12 for a one day USAT license. I have to win that race and get a Rudy Project prize (that is all they ever have for prizes), just so that I can sell it to make up for the price to race.  Second, right after I registered for the Bozeman sprint race, I read an update on their website. The sprint run course has been changed to 2 laps on trails at the E. Gallatin. The only thing I am going to say is that those trails aren't very wide. I'm sure it won't take you long to figure out what a cluster that is going to be. So much for a super fast run. Note: Don't get me wrong, I still want to do the race, and I can't do anything about it now anyway. I also like to complain about the bad race directors

2nd- Erik's friend came back through town.(The one who stays up all night). In some dumb move I suggested that he and his girlfriend stay a few days. On Wednesday, I was sitting at work, thinking what a dumb move that was on my part. I felt so bad. Lawrence and I took over the living room (we had to listen to those speakers to ride) and he and the girlfriend sat at the table on their computers and reading books. I think they were mad. Then after the ride, they wanted to go out for sushi. A) I am cheap and sushi is expensive and B) because of that I never eat enough. We ordered four rolls, for four of us. After that ride, I could have eaten all four. It is Friday and I think I am still in a calorie hole. By the time we were done it was 10pm. Gabe kept pushing to stop at a bar and get a round. Erik, bless his heart, convinced him that no, we had to go home, we could watch a movie. Anyway, the whole point is that I can't commit to a few days with people who aren't willing to exercise, eat a lot, and go to bed early.

Wednesday- The wind was scary, scary, scary. Sorry about that email. I was feeling super weird that day. Having a really hard time focusing. I actually wrote it at one point when the clouds outside were going crazy and decided not to send it. Somehow it got sent though. Anyway, Lawrence came over and we did the 35 minutes hard together. We warmed up for an hour and cooled down for 30 minutes. Glad he was there. That hurt pretty bad. Even though we were watching it dump outside and had the windows open we were sweating. It felt good to sweat it out. It was funny, we were trying to envision the Bozeman tri race course but got to the turn around a good  8 minutes before we should have. Ha Ha. I did skip the run that day though. Bad weather, cold and windy. After getting really hot and still not feeling 100%, I neglected it.

Thursday- Feeling super tired, very tired, but I can't sleep. Michelle was MIA so I went on a run by myself. Thought about going shorter since I wasn't feeling great, but felt okay running once I was running. Swam after work. It was fine. Nothing special. Felt better going fast than slow.

Friday swim TT- I started going kind of hard. Not 1000m TT pace, but maybe 1/2 IM pace. At 1000 I looked at my watch. It said 16:14. No f***ing way. In the Grizzly last year I killed myself to get 16:03. The total time for the 1500 was 25:15. Either I slowed on the last 500, which, I don't really think I slowed that much, or I did an extra lap. Either way, I am pretty excited about that time. Maybe I have actually been doing something right this year.

Lovin' Spring

Question: Going out to Madison. What would be a good timeline for me to ride the bike course? I want to figure out how early I should get there.

Schedule: Monday is Memorial Day and Tuesday is a huge experiment day. I don't envision getting out of work before 6pm. Probably more like 7pm. Don't want to have any pressure this day. Maybe a commute to work and a little longer commute home. Monday is Memorial Day though, and depending on the weekend, I was thinking of working for at least some of it. Maybe do something on the morning and go to work for 4 hours in the afternoon? 

Want to write down the Tuesday night masters workout. It was a good workout and I wouldn't mind doing it again someday. I missed a  little of the warm up and only did 1x through on the last set, so my yardage was about 3600.  Doing the whole thing and swimming 5k would be cool. I would like to swim 5k in one session this year. This workout seemed good for triathletes. Lots of free, if you want, and gets your heart rate going too. Good workout for me, made me get my arms moving a little faster.

500- 75 build, 25 kick
300- 75 kick, 25 build
300- 75 build, 25 kick

2x150, 400 pull
2x200, 400 swim
2x250, 400 pull
the first 100 easy the following build. So on the first one the first 100 was easy and build on the 50. The second- 100 easy and build the 100.
100 easy
4x
2x100pull, 4x50 descend

300 cd

I think this is 5000 total.

I have been enjoying the wildlife on campus. Nice to have lunch with the ducks. 

This is my new friend. The crow with a broken wing. I try to give him small bits of healthy food when I see him.

Erik's new project. 

Feeling good

Schedule: No experiments until, not next week, but the week after. On another note: kind of excited. I asked my boss for some more technical writing and he actually gave me my paper to work on. Have been enjoying getting into the writing again. Reading lots of papers to actually understand what I have been doing. 

Some ideas. There is a Tuesday night track group workout. Good, maybe? 

Races: As of right now I am leaning towards Calgary 70.3. Only 7.5 hours from Bozeman. Lawrence sounds like he wants to go, and if not, another guy from Bozeman is going and already offered me a ride. Reasonsto do Calgary over Sylvan Lake: The drive is two extra hours one way. The city of Calgary might be fun.

June 2- I think I would like to do Cow Country. Also, the state championship might be a good ride. Thinking that it would be nice to get out of this valley for a few rides, mostly to keep from being bored.  

June 29th- The Jim Bridger Trail Run- 10 miles. Might be good? I have done the race a few times and always enjoyed it.

I had a bunch of thoughts/questions riding yesterday, and now I can't remember any of them. 

Wednesday

Ran at lunch. 30 minutes. Tried to keep it easy. 

Rode after work on the cross bike with Erik. Rode around town on trails. 

Thursday
Run- felt good
Masters swim - 3400-3600. Finished the workout. Was the last one in the pool. This workout was a lot of fast 50's and 100's. I have no speed right now. Hopefully, do you think, that will come back with time? I would have thought I would lose my endurance, but it seems I have lost my speed. 

Friday- rode at lunch. The evenings have a tendency to get rainy. Rode with Erik and had to work a little to keep up with him.

Saturday
Mothers day weekend kind of messed up my weekend. Two mothers that I had to make the effort to please. Didn't get the ride in on Saturday. The run was good though. Ran up a trail for an hour and it took about 10-15 minutes less to run down. Had a dehydrated headache that evening. Sat in a friends hot tub on Friday night. I think hot tubs are bad for me. They suck the water out of me. 

Sunday
Erik's friend showed up on Saturday night. He is a total night owl and kept Erik up until 4am. I went swimming in the am and was again strapped for time because of Mothers Day. Was going to ride to Willow Creek  to  meet my parents at 4 for dinner. Anyway, had a hard time getting out the door. Since the friend had just rolled out of bed.  I can only be so rude. Only got in 3 hours of riding time. Willow Creek is south of Three Forks about  miles. Did an extra loop around Bozeman, then to Belgrade, the backroads to Manhattan and the frontage road to Three Forks. There was a wind coming from the West so I fought that all day. Also, an accident on I-90 was diverting a lot of cars to the frontage road. The last hour of the ride or so was kind of hard. Don't particularly like riding that route. Note: Take a buddy next time. 

Monday

Tired this am. Didn't feel super satisfied with my shortened ride yesterday, but I am tired today so it must have meant something. . 

St. George 70.3

I have to say that Ironman 70.3 St George was a success. The finish line of this race meant a lot more to me that I realized before I crossed it. It turned a new corner for me. Knocked me out of a negative place.  The last couple of months have been hard on me. Physically and emotionally. Interesting that St. George for Spring Break was the catalyst for all of this. Anyway, not to dwell on the past. I am looking forward to the future and was just looking at a blank calendar this morning. It seems like something should get put in there, a race or two in the next couple of months?

So, briefly the race. Felt pretty positive going into it. Nervous as usual, but excited to race. I felt confident with the bike course and wasn't feeling overwhelmed with the length.

The new wetsuit was pretty much awesome! I liked the open water start too. Got a chance to get my head wet and let the cold consume me before starting the swim. Lined up on the right edge, out of the way of the crowd. Swim was fine. Stayed away from the buoys and turns and watched a lot of pink caps go by (me passing them). Need to work on bilateral breathing in open water though. That did not happen. It makes me really dizzy. Felt good for the whole swim. Never fatigued.

I took off the bike computer and didn't start my watch, so the bike was all done by feel. I was really diligent to eat and drink a lot of water. I was also trying to hold back. I was afraid of blowing up and not being able to recover for the run. Passed a lot of people on the hills. Glad to have ridden the course and glad to have a good bike mechanic so that I could have a wide cassette on the rear. Felt really good for the entire ride. Was  still feeling great at T2. Going into T2 I was even smiling because I was excited to go and run.

I started slow on the run. The uphill for the first few miles was pretty relentless and I didn't want to blow up. Run was hot, but I felt okay protected under my hat and sunglasses. Got sponges and ice when I could to stay cool. Picked up the pace on the way home, but I am also not very good at running fast downhill. Legs on run are not where i have felt them before. Never really felt I was having great form. I think that is expected though. Haven't done hardly any speed work this year. Felt good the whole time on the run though, other than the mental overcoming of the first 6 miles or so my mind was pretty positive.  A little stomach yuck, but that always seems to happen so I wasn't alarmed. I don't eat a lot on the run. I think I barely consumed two gels?

Anyway, and to sum it up. I feel like I matured as a racer for this race, or in this race. I was looking at results from a few years ago before I had you (Elliot) as a coach. My time at St. George wasn't great and was the same as those couple of races, but how I felt physically and mentally was so different. At St. George I was in control of that race. At those other ones,. I had no idea how to gauge how I was going to feel, or if I was pushing too hard etc.

I didn't leave my guts out on the course, and maybe I would have if this race was the goal for the season. Instead, I did everything within my limits to ensure I had a solid race. Just thinking about this makes me smile. It makes me happy to race.