Mules, Unicorns, Friends and Fun

While running the other day I was thinking about next year in triathlon and the previous years. I am very humbled and happy with the journey. From Ironman to....  I feel like I have grown a lot a have figured out I want to do what I enjoy. Thanks for your help with that. I really, really like paying you to be my friend ;)

 Sidenote: That one person I keep complaining about (tri club coach). I think another thing that bugs me is that he doesn't put any stock (to his athletes) in winning or being successful. He says stuff like, this is supposed to be fun. It seems to me like if one is to enter a race they should race and be as successful as possible. Otherwise, what is the point? Why not just go on a ride? How many successful athletes does he have? Not many, I have looked up a few race results. Okay, I will stop. I just hate the way someone like that is so dominant in the community. A lot of Bozeman people go to him for coaching, he does bike fits, testing, puts on clinics. A big business and he can't even fit a bike.

Bozeman Superprestige weekend was a huge success. Did you know that unicorns poop rainbows? I love racing with fun people and Megan L is one of them. Saturday I had a great race. Lisa and I dressed up as each other for costumes and we had a lot of people very confused. Her helmet (which isn't crooked) or her GAS kit helped me go fast. I was even in front of her on the first lap for about 5 seconds. Megan, Lisa, and I rode a lot of the first lap together. Then they dropped me, but I hung in there not hugely far behind. Felt like I had a good race. Sunday I wasn't feeling so hot. Feeling cold, sore, and tired. There was a lot of sand both days and it involved a lot of running. Lifting the bike and running in the sand was hard and hard on my body. Lots of bruises. On Sunday I got tired of getting off my bike and tried to ride the sand a lot more. Slower but a different challenge. I kept my brain in it on Sunday though. Kept checking in with myself and asking if I was going as hard as possible. Since this was likely my last race I wanted to finish it off as well as possible. I am happy with it and too tired to race on Wednesday.

What is the difference between a strain and a pull? What am I supposed to do to heal a strain? It has kind of been bugging me for a while. It gets better and then I race hard and it comes back. I guess I have another issue for the PT.

I have had a few good PT sessions. My plantar and achilles are feeling much, much better. My hamstring/sciatica is still bugging, but I am going to keep working with the PT to get that better.

Have been looking into off road triathlons. Haven't really seen much, other than a Canadian Xterra tour. How cool is that? Except that most of the races are flying distance or not the right timing. Will keep looking. I did see the long Xterra events. They look like fun. That kind of perks my interest, but the locations. Louisiana and Arkansas? Not sure I want to fly there.

Schedule- Not going to Missoula this weekend. Too much to get done, either on the house or working so that I can have some time to work on the house. I don't think the weather is supposed to be great so may try to schedule some work around the crap weather. I want to go to Masters Sunday. There is a BOD meeting after, which I am now part of the board. Next week I don't have much going on, yet. Probably won't, except normal work day stuff. No more cyclocross racing. With the time change it is going to be hard to do much in the evenings. Don't tell any of my biking friends, but I sort of look forward to the trainer. It is easy, I am home, I am not cold, don't need a bunch of gear etc. I can't wait until the house is done and we have a dedicated room for things like the trainer. I think we may have to put a line down the middle. Erik gets half and Julie half. I am pretty sure we envision different things in the bike shop.
Tuesday- Election Day. I get the day off. Yeah!!! Hopefully I can get to tiling the house. Have a PT appointment on that day.

Other:
I came across your raincoat the other day. Should I send it to Missoula this weekend? Are you going to Rolling Thunder? Tis the season for a raincoat.

Amazing fall weather

The weather has been amazing. I have been very distracted the past few weeks trying to get the outside of the house painted. As I was over there yesterday, I realized I should be more grateful that the weather is holding out for us. We are slowing chipping away at the painting but getting it done.

St George- 99% sure. Another pro for going is that weekend is MSU graduation weekend. Last year I vowed to leave town for it. I have missed all the early bird deadlines for registration though, so not super motivated to get that done.
           Question: When would be the optimal time to go on spring break training camp that would directly  benefit this race?  Early April? Second week of April?

I like the idea of transitioning to some off road triathlons later in the summer. It looks like most of them are later anyway. I think the Bozeman is bringing back the Xterra at Hyalite. Maybe I will stay in Montana and do Lake Como instead of going to Calgary. It would be a great way to stay in triathlon but get out in the mountains more. I think this is a good plan and right now I am sticking with it.

Cyclocross racing- Last Wednesday I had a great race. Finally feel like I got my groove on. May be because I got antibiotics to kick that cold. Anyway, it was fun. I dropped my chain and watched a bunch of people go by. I slowly picked them off. One by one and left them in the dust.  Played with some tactics and did some drafting up a windy climb. Was able to recover and then pass those people at the top. Awesome!!! Also felt like I went harder than usual. Just had it in me to push on that day. You know those days where you say, I don't feel like racing? This was one day where I felt like racing.

This Wednesday- not so awesome. Work kind of sucks right now and I was looking forward to racing with like minded people. That didn't happen. It was a fun course though. Am glad that Rockford puts the series on.

Masters has been fun. It has been fun to work on other strokes. I think that swimming with the band has improved my backstroke. I used to just feel like I was an anchor and now can actually do a 100 pretty effectively. I try and think about positioning my body by leading with my head. Also, I had a breakthrough on breast stroke. My kick has been poorly timed all these years. And finally, fly is good for building strength and setting small goals to make the whole day feel good.

Running- Missed the Sunday run because of painting. The sun keeps disappearing earlier and earlier making  it hard to paint. So I did an 1:15 run on Monday. I explored some new trails in town and had a great run. Felt like I had a hand on my back going up some of the hills. Maybe there was a little tail wind.

Question- I think easy run should stay just that. But, is it okay to push the pace a little on those runs like Monday? I feel like if I can be comfortable going faster than I can be uncomfortable going even faster. Does that make sense?

Schedule- Bozeman cyclocross weekend. Muleterro is putting on Saturdays race. I should race and want to race both days. Fit in some house painting on the side. Hopefully.

Inspiration

Saturday
I had a date with my rollers and yoga mat for the last 2.5 hours of Kona when the pros finished. I busted out 1:45 on the rollers like it was :15.  So, so, so inspired by Ben Hoffman's race. I can't even express it. So happy for him and so happy for you. Something tells me you knew he was going to have a great race. Ben getting 2nd was definitely the highlight of the race but watching everybody was so inspiring. Mirindae Carafrae- damn that girl can run! 

Sunday
Masters. Lots of stroke work. In December they are having the 500 fly challenge. I know I won't be able to do a 500 but it has motivated me to work on it. I did a 100 the other day (in the 50m pool). Almost all full on fly. Only a few strokes of one arm as people went the other way.

Had a good run on Sunday too. Went up Sypes and ran all the way to where the trail splits. It is steep and I don't think I have ever run all the way up.

General- Trying to stick to the plan and do the highlighted items. Moved them around a couple of times but I think I got in all the important stuff.

Health
Went to Urgent Care last week after talking to you. Got antibiotics. Glad I went. Finally feeling normal. Have more energy and more importantly- motivation. So, basically health is good.

Had a great PT appointment with Jason. He thinks my left hamstring is a sciatica issue. Gave me some stretches and strength work. Lots of core too. Did the full PT routine on Friday and it took me about 45 minutes to get most of it done. I want to try and stick to it, or at least some of it every day, so that I can get better balanced and stronger. My run on Sunday was pretty nuisance free. 

Schedule-

Raining today (Sunday) so going to work for a little bit to start an experiment. Will take down on Friday which will be a big/long day. I have a 4 hour incubation. Then work a little on Saturday. Gives me time to paint tomorrow.

No Helena racing next weekend- we have to get a bunch of outside painting done. That is, unless, it rains again and then I might try and go on Sunday. Definitely not Saturday, because of work.  That leaves a lot of analyzing for the following week. 

Monday October 20th. We have another post doc interview. Haven't gotten any details yet, but probably includes a talk in the morning and dinner in the evening. This is usually at 530 or 6 so not much time in the evening. 

Racing
I signed up for Victoria 70.3. If you signed up before the 9th you got in a drawing for a new bike. I wouldn't mind a new bike or the money from selling it. Lawrence signed up too, so I am excited. Erik and I honeymooned on Vancouver Island by doing a bike tour. We got really lucky with traffic and had some amazing riding and other fun experiences. Looking at the maps of the course I think I can envision the bike ride, a little bit. We stayed at a campground out by the far corner of the loop. Also, from riding there, I know the terrain. Hilly. Anyway, our anniversary is June 19th. So I hope Erik goes and maybe we can spend a few more days there. My Grandpa was born in Ladysmith. I have even gone as far as asking a cousin who has done a lot of family research about it, and my chances of getting Canadian citizenship. Anyway. The point is that I signed up for Victoria. What do you think the dynamic of the race will be since there is no pro purse prize? Will it change anything for the age groupers. It sort of makes we want to have high expectations for myself. 

My current thoughts on triathlon and schedule etc for next year are and I want to qualify this by saying I was having these thought while I was trying to practice cornering on my cyclocross bike. I would like to race triathlon up until late July or mid August. I could do some local races later (Bobcat, Garden City), but would like to get out on the mountain bike a little more in late summer. Get in some long rides in the mountains. Mostly for the adventure, but also the bike handling. I can tell my cross racing is suffering because I have lost my bike handling skills. Then I would like to focus more on cross, not just use my fitness from triathlon to get me by. 

A few of my other thoughts are that I would like to race St. George again. I liked that race. The swim and ride were so nice. Which makes me think that I would like to go on spring break and train. Either in St. George or in San Diego. I was really wanting to swim in the ocean again, while watching Kona yesterday. 

Also, of course, there is the Grizzly. My swim time is going to go down again this year. 

A beautiful fall weekend

Well, I think the biggest thing of the week is that we got a huge, huge bulk of the house painted. It is Monday morning and I am so sore.

Raced Saturday- It was fun to get out but I don't think the course suited me very well, or I just wasn't 100% into it. Had to bargain with myself a lot to get it done. Ended up 4th. My friend Megan kicked my butt on her single speed. Very happy for her to be out racing. She had a kid a year ago. Amanda Carrey won and Lisa 2nd.

Raced Wednesday and felt much better. Course was better for me. Punchy with hard hills and recovery hills. Felt good on Wednesday and enjoyed the race.

Been doing the little runs and swimming with Masters. Everything  seems solid. My cold is still in me a little. Feel a little better every day though. My lungs seem to react badly when I get a cold. Just rode to work and it still feels a little difficult to breathe. 

Schedule- Home next weekend. It is Moosecross weekend but will have to miss it. We have a lot of small places to paint on the house and other projects like going through the house and packing and sorting etc. All of this will ultimately take a long time.  Work- Will probably start a new experiment this week. I am not expecting anything huge. So, probably not any big days.  Need to talk to the boss today or tomorrow.

Am working on sorting out racing for next year. I think Lawrence is on board for Victoria. It is really cheap right now and is for a couple more days. Don't be surprised if I sign up. Feeling like I need to focus on our house and getting moved right now. Not that we are moving for a few months, but it is going to be some work. 

That's all for now. Don't have a lot. 

Why is running when you are not "training"so much more fun?

This has been a pretty good week. I am slowly getting back to feeling normal. I think the slow part is partially attributed to still feeling a little sick. This is slowly getting better. Also, not super good at sticking to the plan. Weather was really a deterrent over the weekend.

I swam with Masters on Thursday and realized that is the 2nd time I have been in the water since September 7th. First, where did almost 20 days go? Second, I felt terrible. Please tell me that is going to go away. Swam again on Sunday and it felt like it was coming back. Had a pretty good swim actually. Only about 2300 or so, but the workout was conducive to getting a feel for the water again, and near the end I was feeling much better about my swim.

The weather was yuck all weekend. On Saturday I opted to NOT get my bike all muddy and spend the day freezing. Instead I got Lawrence to go out on a hike. We hiked up Garnet Mt. It was really windy in town but up Gallatin Canyon it was not and we were in the clouds the whole time. It was really nice. Froze coming down. My hands are still sore. Sunday it was again cold out and really windy. I opted to swim in the morning and then meant to ride by bike but stuff kept getting in the way. Ended up shoveling gravel in place of the ride. Not sure how long I would have stayed out there though. Brrrr.

PT- That is still coming around. Slowly working my way back in. I recognize it's importance, just haven't been able to succeed in the execution. Want to focus a lot more on the strength stuff now that racing is done. Before, I would kind of taper off before races so I wouldn't be sore. Core, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. That's the goal. It is Monday and my plan is to go on the run and then end at the gym and do all my PT.

Sidenote- Lawrence bought a little camper to pull behind is 4-runner.. We are going to be driving all over Canada next year to race! Maybe even Wildflower. I am very excited to this new accommodation and I think he is too.

It's funny how things work. I have been so distracted from work all summer because of training, travel and race planning. Now, this coming Friday, my boss wants to have an intensive  "idear" session. He wants a new big paper/grant. I don't feel very ready to contribute, but I have the week to do some thinking and reading (along with a little more time). Kind of excited to think about the science and be part of the thought process to move us forward as a lab. It also makes me remember how I really like having a job.

Not a lot in this blog. Not a lot going on this week. Just trying to get back in the groove of life which is including work. So, maybe not thinking about triathlon as much.

Congrats to Sue. Kick ass 2nd place finish to Haley Chura!! Also, Andy Drobeck seemed to have a good good race!

pre and post Bobcat training and everything in between...

So, race planning, especially after being in another country a week and a half before, is all consuming. I started to get sick on Monday and was definitely sick on Tuesday which didn't help any. I called in sick a lot to work so I could sleep to keep my cold at bay and hopefully recover before Sunday. This also helped because I could do Bobcat stuff from home, not work, and then not feel so bad about being at work but not actually working. So, after all that, I have not done one ounce of swimming, biking, or running (except a couple of commutes) since last Sunday. I feel like I raced though. I think it is from all the cone lugging, gate moving, box moving etc. It is Monday, and I think I might take one more day off before planning on anything. I am very tired today and still a little sick.

With that said, I have to say wow, September has been quite a month. One pretty damn good month. I think the most intense triathlon month for me ever. I hope to remember September 2014. (hah, I am even a poet)

Sidenote- This is in reference to my  Worlds race update and comments on my travel partners. I heard someone say that one of them thrives on negative energy. I believe that is true. I think that was part of the problem. I do not thrive on negative energy. I definitely thrive on positive energy.

BTW- do you remember our conversation about how I don't see people swimming and you told me many people swim in the am. Well, I see Mike Lavery swimming all the time. I bet at least 1-3x a week. He is always in the pool at lunch or the 3:30-6:30 slot. He told me that yesterday. Funny.

Sidenote and question #2- Remember you told me you might be planning a training camp. What is up with that?

Race kudos- Nice work. I can't believe that Erika won and I was so out of it by Sunday afternoon I couldn't even remember meeting her or emailing her. You and Dan both did great. I know what you think about yourself but I still think you did good. And more importantly to me, thank you so much for coming out and supporting me. It really means a lot. Send me a race suggestion/critique list. I know there are lots of things to change and ways to make it better. Feedback is very important and great. A couple major last minute hiccups that still have me steaming.

Okay, now that I can be selfish and think about myself and my training again, I am very excited. :)

Racing- Bozeman weekend October 4 and 5 cyclocross. I am racing both of those. State Champ and MSU race. Got to support both. Do you think I lost all my fitness in the last week? Hope I can get something back in the next two weeks. Other races. I am not so sure about. Maybe Helena? Maybe Rolling Thunder (that one has so much pressure, I almost don't find it fun, which is what I want) The reason I am not so sure about travel is because of our house. There are definitely things going on now that require a lot more of my work than just cleaning. We need to paint and tile, which I know are not fast or easy jobs, so they will require full days and longer evenings.

Schedule- Experiment on Tuesday the 30th. Not huge but can't leave in the middle of the day. Difficult for a lunch swim.Also, busy on Wed. the 1st in the morning. Maybe even until 2 or so.

I think the MSU pool is closed the September 23 and 24. Saw that sign somewhere. Am going to Masters tonight, Tuesday  the 23rd. Need to get in the water again. Can't let my swim fitness lose any more. Plus, I like Masters.

Also, these are my current thoughts and I think there is an entire blog dedicated to this but I have already been thinking about next year. At this point I want to put St. George on the calendar. LeAnne is going and that would be an awesome trip. Remember that thing we talked about last year that hasn't seemed to happen and I think you sensed how Erik feels about it at dinner the other night. I really want that to happen now. St George offers a refund if you pay an extra $40.  I guess I could also defer. I guess I should probably get my husband on board before I start planning races around it though. Uggh.

Ironman 70.3 World Championship race report

First, I think this is why doing the Bobcat is even better than going to Worlds. I now understand your pep talk to me a few weeks before going when I was expressing my concerns about my travel partners. What a learning experience/life experience 2014 has been.

Hi Julie!!!! I am sooooo excited!! I’m nervous, anxious, all of it!!  Really looking forward to it!  I have been swimming at MSU’s pool to get use to that pool so I haven’t been to masters for about a month, but will be back at the swim center after this week. 

Maybe I’ll see you on Sunday, but if not – enjoy the day and thank you for ALL your hard work in putting this together! It has been the best thing I’ve done (worked towards and will do) all summer and truly one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself!

Thank you!

Hilary

Race Report

Swam great. 33 minutes. Followed the plan. My swim is getting faster. I  may not be the fastest but finally starting to get in the mix with the fast girls. I was very worried about this swim. Very worried I would be the last one out of the water. However, in the first couple of minutes when I saw blue caps fade away behind me I relaxed. 

Bike- Hmm. Still not so sure what to think. My ass cramped. I got demoralized. I was tired from the travel and socializing. I rode very alone. My travelling companions had my all psyched out about the hills. Not the best ride ever. My training rides going into this race were sooo much better. It sucks to work so hard and then not deliver on race day.

Run- Good. I did my thing. I felt good. I felt tired. I pushed the second lap and got some pretty even splits. I ran up those steep hills and bombed down the last one passing 4 girls to the finish. 

Final- I wasn't gutted. In a race where I should have left it all out there and then some, I didn't. I don't think I realized that should have been the goal until afterwards though. I would like to have the chance someday to do it again. I would have a plan for how to race. For what I want my goal to be. This year I didn't. Also, I  had myself convinced that I am not cutthroat competitive. I am though, I just need to be in the right mental place. I don't think being with my travel partners put me in the right place. Honestly, I don't think I like being around girls who are faster than me and know it. I feel inferior. And if I feel inferior, of course I am going to perform that way. I really like to travel with Lawrence, Art, and LeAnn. We get each other and that is a great place to be on race day. 

I really appreciate that I had the experience. An amazing opportunity. I am very grateful for that. I got to see a new part of North America and do some travelling with my mom. That never would have happened if I did not qualify at Calgary.