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What Time Off Means To Me....

Since I was not training I had to take full advantage of heading out to the barn and riding almost everyday. Plus I need all the practice for the horse show which took place at the beginning of December. Thanks to Massage Dave for coming to cheer and Nancy and GR from Sportsquest as well. Our best ribbon was Reserve Champion which basically means we were second and you get a bigger ribbon and a chance to parade by yourself before you leave the arena.

Thanksgiving was also during my time off from training so that was a great excuse to sign out for the local Turkey Trot. I happen to be in Connecticut visiting with Pablo's Family so it was a lot of fun racing against all the locals. I even won some money for my 2nd place finish. Of course I tried to catch the first place female but my legs were having none of that after 2 weeks off. I can not believe how out of shape I feel after only two weeks.

While we were back east we could not skip a visit to New York especially when out room mate Neels has never been. She also won her division at the Turkey trot so she came home with a nice trophy. Did I mention I beat Pablo....Heheeee.

The day after Thanksgiving I stopped by Target Training for a little chat and get together. Thanks to everyone who came you guys were a lot of fun and I loved all the questions.
 
So tomorrow after a 4 week break from training by the way time fly's when you are having fun its time to begin training for the 2010 season... Bring it ON!

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Photo Credit Steve Toll ISM Seat
Ironman 70.3 World Championships
The DNF Monkey is off my back!

In a perfect  world my plan was to have a great race in Hawaii and finish the season. Knowing that a null racing can throw many obstacles in your path I had a back up plan to race 4 weeks later the null 70.3 world Championships if things did not unfold they way I had planned. So after a null at Mile 8 on the run and after a few days of R&R I decided to see how the body was recovering.

I decided to race the week after null at the local edition of the Women's Triathlon in San Diego. Along with 1200 other women I sprinted away all of my disappointment demons my null the week before. Plus it was also lots of fun going from racing null to a flat out sprint.

I knew I would need a lot more speed going in to the 70.3 Worlds as I had done plenty of distance so that was training focus. 

Race day could not have been more than perfect a little wind and the temperature ideal. Especially considering the area was hit with the aftermath of a down graded hurricane.

At 6.45am all my nerves disappeared as the cannon was fired. I exited the swim in the second pack and quickly got into my rhythm on the bike. Usually the Pro Men lead the way but the organizers decided to change it up and have us go first which did play a little havoc on us during the bike when the eventually caught us. Once the train of male Pro's passed me it was back to grinding out the gears.

My legs were feeling pretty good as I exited the transition in the top 10 along two other athlete's Magali and Laura. I was not quite as speedie as these two girls over the first Mile but with some patience I caught and passed Magali. At Mile 5 I was back up to Laura but so was Magali. Once again they kicked in a little more speed and bridged me once again on the run. Within a few miles I was up to 6th position and saw Laura being to fade. But she did not fade quite enough for me to make up a top 5 position. 

No complaints here for a 6th place at a World Championships. A really nice way to end the season especially after  Hawaii. The Monkey is gone!

Photo Credit Steve Toll ISM Seat

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Ironman Hawaii

 Update after Kona

Well Ironman Hawaii has been and gone and I hope everyone has recovered as much as me. Reflection is always good. I was really happy with my lead up to Hawaii could not have asked for anything more. I pretty much was where I needed to be and was pleased with my training and excited to see where it would lead. That's the problem with Ironman you never know what day you are going to face and you always hope you will not be the in the statistics of what went wrong and definitely in what went right.

My day started not quite according to plan but I knew it was going to be a long day and to be patient. I quickly got into a nice tempo on the bike catching a few competitors early until I was caught by a group that I envisioned most of the top ten places would evolve from.  I was thinking great this is exactly where I needed to be. Then as we were climbing up to Hawi I was red carded with a drafting penalty. The first thing that entered my mind was you have to be kidding but apparently not. It was clarified to me that I was sitting at 9 meters and not the required 10 meters. My 2nd Penalty in 21 years! So I had to sit out for 4 minutes once I climbed the 18 miles up to Hawi where the nearest Penalty tent was.

So all the back from Hawi to the run transition I kept telling myself it's still a long day just be patient. It did not help that the last 56 miles was into a steady head wind to morale anyway. Once onto the run I actually started to catch a few competitors that were in the group that I was in before my penalty so that was motivation. At the 5 mile turn on the run I had my first opportunity to see where everyone was. I was sitting in about 12th position so my goal of finishing in the top 10 was looking pretty good. I was having a few stomach issues but my energy was good. I just kept focusing on my nutrition plan.

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70.3 Lake Stevens

Wow! What a great course and the spectators on the run were awesome. The course was a lot tougher that a lot of athletes expected. Two loops of a hilly bike followed by a rolling run added to the difficulty.

Race morning we were greeted with chilly conditions and the Lake temperature being in the 70's created a pretty specular fog. Any other race it would not have been possible to swim but this course was unique in the fact there was an underwater cable that made navigation a breeze. Although it took a little while for me to find it on the way back. Luckily I swim straight...well I think I do anyway. I did have a few thoughts going through my head that this could be the longest 1.2mile swim ever if I did not find the cable or land at some point.

I exited the swim in 3rd place and while I was enduring the morning crispness and my feet were pretty much number at least there were plenty of hills on the bike to warm me up a little. It took we a little while to get up to speed maybe from the cold or the slight fatigue I had in my legs from training pretty hard leading into this event. I caught one competitor and got passed by one so as I transition from the bike to the run I was still in 3rd.

I found my legs pretty quickly on the run but my feet remained numb for a few miles before they actually thawed out. My main concern apart from catching the leaders was to see how much time Pablo had pput on me during the bike as his wave started 10mins after mine. At around 8km I got to see the two leaders running side by side. Which actually spurred me on to try to pick up my pace. Then I was motivated even more when I saw Pablo at around the same point I had seen the leaders. Darn he had a great bike and made up a chunk of change on me. So now I was really motivated to push even harder.

The next chance I saw the leader was with about 3km to go and we where around the same time gap but I had definitely closed the gap on 2nd. But I did not quite get the opportunity to catch 2nd as the finish line loomed a little too quickly.

So all in all I was happy how I felt and very excited to be back on the Podium. Even though Pablo crushed me on the bike I did out swim and run him.:)