Hey, I'm a Tavern-ese, the Tavern should be easy!

Here it is, the day before my first race back since my body started revolting against me. Usually I have a case of the jitters wondering how I am going to do. I guess there are some butterflies there today, or maybe it's the caffeine from the tankard of coffee I just greedily gulped down (Danielle never drinks that much coffee at home...ok a little Airplane dialogue there lol!)

I am thinking I really am excited to just get out there tomorrow and tri. Get it?? Tri?? I am too funny, but see, the joking around like that usually has to do with nerves. So maybe I am a little nervous. I can't imagine why, I'm not like Brad with these solid First place finishes. No on takes me nearly as seriously as Brad when it comes to racing. He's made quite the name for himself. I feel like his comedic side kick for the most part in comparison, the Curly to his Moe, the Costello to his Abbott. So it's not like people are watching me to see how I come back. Quite frankly, I am sure no one gives a hoot!

So I shall try, I shall do the best my recovering body can do. I think I really am looking forward to this. I have heard people say they are glad to just get out there, and you know what, I understand that now. So for all my nerves, all my butterflies, I want to be there hurting. Turning myself inside out to try and do my best. I will be competing against me tomorrow, no one else. And hopefully I find the vindication and validation I am looking for. Otherwise as they say, tomorrow is another day.

I love the taste of dirt in the evening, tastes like....injury

Hahahaha, yes it's me, your fearless triathlete in training. I never like open water swimming. Besides freaking myself out thinking about all of the creepy crawlies that might wind up inhabiting my nether regions once they get past my bathing suit, I hate the taste of the water. Tastes murky and dirty to me and ever since one of my girls asked why I didn't just put my face in the turtle tank water since it was probably just as clean as the James River, I never could get that imagery out of my head. I had no idea how much I didn't like the taste of dirt until I had a mouthful and was gargling with it lol!

Let's rewind, insert dream sequence wavy lines here, every Tuesday I meet up with a neat group of people to do the Tavern Triathlon course. Since having parts of me removed, and subsequently not training for 6 weeks, it has really taken it's toll on my aerobic capacity amongst other aspects of my fitness, I try to workout as often as I can. I have next to no core strength, but I keep telling myself it's because they cut into my stomach muscles in four different places, my cycling is way slower, it hurts to reach when I swim, it hurts to run and bounce my stomach around. Anyway, it's a great group, we all have fun, we're all different abilities and levels. Some people do all three, some do two of the disciplines and that is what Heather and I decided to do. We were just going to swim and run this week. I had some major things I needed to attend to at home so I couldn't spend forever working out. 1/2 hour swim followed by a 5k run. Heather has been struggling with her run she said, and my run isn't nearly as fast as it was for 10k training team so those two were the ones we settled on. After a good swim, we got into our sneakers and off we went through Robious Landing Park. I used to train there once upon a time with my running coach Brenda. I know the one of the trails pretty well and we were doing a 1+ mile loop. As we're clipping along my running buddy asks how fast we're running. I looked down at my Garmin as we were crossing a foot bridge on a slight downhill and I say we're running 9:00 minute---------------- whhhooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaa! All Superman like I go over a root. My knees are skinned, my shin is skinned and worst of all I felt a snap when I went down in my left ankle. Oh Shit! I hurt myself. I couldn't feel my left foot as I lay there on my back...spitting out dirt. I realized in that moment I liked lake water wayyyyy better then the actual dirt. So after checking on all of my parts, and making sure I wasn't too madly damaged, I brushed the dirt and my ego off and off we went to finish our run. There was nothing worse then laying there, trying to figure out if I was still all working parts and having the Cross Country runners running past, looking down and trying not to laugh. Hey, at least this old lady didn't break her hip right?

Sitting there afterwards, with Heather making me clean my wounds, and me hissing like a vampire seeing the dawn, I am wondering what's going to happen with my training. I just got back to where I felt like I was making progress. I felt like that swim was good, I was keeping the lead pack in sight and even hung on to the tail end of it for the first 15 minutes and I certainly wasn't last by any means, so there was that. Our run felt great, we were moving along nicely, no, not as fast as I used to be, but the 9's felt ok, and I wasn't totally out of breath. I was actually able to talk and was pleased with how I felt aerobically. I haven't been able to say that at all lately.

So here I am now, ankle elevated, bruised black, my legs looking like I shaved with a cheese grater, and hoping I can ride 62 miles this Saturday. Hoping I can swim tomorrow night and keep up again. Hoping I can run the 8 on Sunday with my Yellow Snow group.

Is the Cosmos trying to tell me something here?? Is it divine Karma coming around to me? Or Can I keep cultivating my training? Clueless, but I continue..

I'm A Week Early, but I know you missed me

Yes, a week earlier then the June 19th official start date. I started my Ironman training yesterday. It's a good thing my plan coincides so nicely with the Marathon Training team's long runs. I think Brad set it up for me that way, but yesterday, on the plan that is really set to start next week, I did my 5.5 mile run in 55 minutes. Actually my Garmin said 57, but someone stopped me and asked me for directions. Poor guy was 8 or so miles away from where he needed to be, so I got him going back in the right direction. I kept up that slow pace, and it was good.

It was hot and humid out, thankfully it was cloudy and kept sprinkling on me. But I did it. There were times out there where I said to myself, no one would know if I walked just a little. But I pushed myself to just run and quit being lazy. It was longer then I've run since this stupid surgery, and my side hurt for a while when I got back and tried to sit and rest. I needed to lay flat. I kept telling myself I need a corset when I run. I need to ask my friend Dawn for one lol! A black latex one would be perfect hahaha!! Yeah if I were running a race with Dita Von Tease lol! I could only imagine the kind of pain that triathlon would entail, but I digress hahaha!!

Just trying to plan out my next week of training. This school stuff is really hampering any training plan I am trying to come up with! But it's just two more weeks. Actually it's 7 full days and 2 half days and done. I keep asking myself what I got myself into with this Ironman. I keep wondering if I can do this distance. I had a talking to with my body yesterday. I made a bunch of bargains with it if it promises to not betray me. To give me this one more thing off of my bucket list. Just one more time, and then I'll take it easy on it. I'll train for sprints and olympics and enjoy those distances. I will keep any thought of anything more aggressive out of my mind, at least for a little while. So here's hoping it grants me this one favor and holds out for 140.6 miles, I am sure it's the .6 that's going to be the roughest...

Please Sir, I want some more....

I trained today, if that's what you want to call it. I had my first post-op double work out. I ran two measly miles, at ten minutes a piece. I thought I was doing pretty well until the turtles flew past me laughing, pointing and flipping me off. Hahahaha, not really, but I seriously felt like I was wading chest high through mud. I started kicking up the treadmill speed, you know I was desperate to run if I was happy to be on a dreadmill, but I had to reel myself in. I needed to remind myself that it isn't quite 4 weeks since they took a piece of me out, and the doctor made me promise I would ease into my training. But I got a taste of training today, and greedy me wants more. I want the sweat pouring in my eyes, teeth gritting, swearing in my head kind of training again. I miss it, I am grouchy without it, I am tired of races passing me by!

So it started some today. Not much, but a taste. The fine line that blurs between the pleasure and pain of a work out will be mine again. I will question my sanity again, ask myself why I am doing this to my body, wonder if I am going to make it through when I am only on mile 30 of a 100 mile ride. I will be dizzily happy with endorphins swirling in my body, their sweetness dripping in my veins,......Please sir, I want some more....

I never thought I'd say it, but I miss training

Yeah, yeah, I know, I said I was going to blog more frequently and I haven't. Shame on me, I could tell you why, but then I'd have to kill you. Seriously though, my life has thrown some pretty wicked curve balls at me. I don't want to depress you, and certainly don't feel like rehashing everything, but things are starting to get on a more even keel.

That was until I did myself in dropping weight quickly while I get ready to train for this Ironman. I developed a real problem with my gall bladder. I had stones, attacks it was awful. A trip to the doctor, and one ultrasound later and here I am recovering from my surgery. It's not all that bad, I am just really sore.

So anyway, that's where I stand. Official IMFL training commences on 6/19. I was doing pretty well with my swimming, starting to log some miles on my bike and my run was my run. Nothing spectacular but good enough for now.

I will start blogging my way through this. It is something from my bucket list and deserves a blog all of it's own really, but I will keep this one. All two of my followers wouldn't want to have to find me somewhere else!!

I sign off until I get the green light to train again :)

I'd ask myself why, but Y is a crooked letter.

Hello Blogo-sphere friends, I am back. You know, I stopped blogging because I felt like I had nothing of interest to say. Yes, I did do a variety of bike Fondos which sucked like hell because I am not a good cyclist, and I just completed my second marathon. But I felt like I had already blogged about my marathon before, what more could I say? I guess I could have mentioned how awesome my running buddy Heather was. She was actually the reason I did the second marathon, she asked if I wanted to do the training team with her and I agreed for some heaven forsaken reason lol.

Train we did, we became part of the Green team with Marathon Training Team and subdivided even further into Snot Rockets. Our coach Q has some maddening obsession with mucus, and so we were named. It was a great group, and I actually trained during the summer at the wee-est hours of the morning with Heather and her Midlo running group. What a fun group of people, we suffered through hills, miles and fartleks together. It was a great experience and I felt great. I got in awesome shape too, although the top of my thighs just won't let go of that pocket of fat they love so much.

Well I am outsmarting them, the stupid fat holders that they are. I am doing an, drum roll and dramatic music here, is the suspense killing you???? Do you wanna know what I am doing for really???? I signed up to do an IRONMAN!!! A full blown, 140.6 mile odyssey to see just how far I can push this body of mine. I decided it is time to thrill you with my blogs again. Official training doesn't start until June, but there is so much base training I need to get in between now and then. Too much fun to be had by all, aren't you glad I included you? So thus starts the journey, stay tuned my friends, buckle up and put your seat trays in their upright position. It's going to be a wild ride!!

Fondo, I'll take the Piccolo please...

Sometimes my husband has these really incredible ideas, like, "Hey, let's get you a diamond wedding band on this cruise to celebrate our anniversary". And sometimes my husband has these ideas that make me wonder if he just upped my life insurance without my knowledge and has this grand plan *insert mustache twirling and an evil style laugh here*, to do away with me and make it look like I was just trying to stay healthy or something lol.

So anyway, this weekend(much like Sharkfest Swim from Alcatraz)was one of those ideas, I did my first Fondo at Brad's behest. At least this wasn't the "Run from Wild Mama Bears After She Caught You were Playing with her Cubs Fondo (or something equally as ominous sounding)".

I had never heard of a Fondo in my life before a few months ago. How bad could this kind of bike ride be? You got to choose sizes for Pete's sake! When Brad asked if I'd like to ride a fondo I was all like "Yeah sure, I've got this..." Then he asked what distance I'd like to do, this is where all of those years of Italian came in handy, did I want to do the Gran, Medio or Piccolo? Well I was so sure of my big, bad self I said Medio. I'm thinking a medium bike ride, well duh, yeah, I can so handle riding 62 miles. Hmmmm, what I failed to take into account was the Appalachian Mountains. Because wouldn't you know it, they managed to send those routes through the mountains. Okay, I take a look at the elevation maps for all of these rides. The Gran had three climbs, the Medio had two of the Gran climbs and the Piccolo had the one climb in the middle of the Gran and Medio routes that was a category 3 climb. So much like Goldilocks, I decided the the baby bear ride, the piccolo one was just right. The miles were fine, the climb and subsequent descent had me freaking out BIGTIME, but it was really fine! I thought I would be panicked on the downhill, but wwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeee! I actually let myself go over 40 mph. It was rather exhilarating. Anyway, back to my story....

We go to Covington, VA where the ride is happening. We have to go into Clifton Forge to get our packets and I switch my distance. I want to do the Piccolo I tell the nice volunteer. She really was just as nice as could be. I get a nifty cycling jersey for being one of the first to sign up, a nice sticker for my car and huge case of the jitters. We meet up with our friend Mike who will be riding with Brad and hit up Cucci's for dinner for some of the "best" Italian food in the area, which was made just like Chef Boyardee used to make. There was also a sandwich on the menu called a Sloppy Cucci, which hard as I might, I couldn't bring myself to order. It made me laugh out loud when Mike asked stoically, What if there was a hair in it??

BRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG, 5am comes way too early in the morning I have decided. Brad and I make coffee, eat our oatmeal and get to the shuttle. There were some really uber friendly volunteers here as well. One super nice lady offered to pick me up off of the side of the road while she picked up the arrow markers if I was still out there and bring me directly to my hotel room. Then we made some friends on the shuttle on the way to the start and we grabbed some coffee and a scone waiting for the race to start. I have to stop here and offer a big fat thank you to John Davis, one of my husband's friends who kindly rode with me the whole way and at one point even came back to find me when I was having a bit of trouble with shifting into my middle and big rings. We started the ride, I bid Brad a fond adieu and settled into a comfortable 19 or so mile pace with John.

Life was good until mile 14, that's when Pitzgers Ridge hit. I remember thinking when I hit the first plateau on the mountain that phew, thank goodness that was done. I did a slow, steady 6-9 mph here, but was barely cranking out 4-5 mph by the time that uphill spike hit. I was certain that we had done the whole Ridge, but lucky us, we had another 3 miles left woot woot!! I thought for sure, I would have to get off, but I didn't. I made the whole 5 or so very uphill miles without getting off of my bike. I did have to stand a few times, but I was strong and felt good.

I finished my ride in 2 hours and 43 minutes. I was sort of pleased, I had never ridden a category anything mountain in my life before, and toss in 32 more miles of very steep, hilly terrain, and ta-da there was my race.

I felt pretty proud of myself for going so far outside of my comfort zone, I am after all a reluctant athlete of any kind, but I have to admit I kind of liked being Goldilocks, the piccolo Fondo was just right!