September Totals

It's time for the end of the month summary.

Swim: 18250 yards
Bike: 243.6 miles
Run: 48.55 miles

Going back through my training log, I've completed 83.3% of all workouts. Not bad given that I traveled to a wedding this month, missing several workouts along the way. My focus now shifts to finishing these last few days of build, then staying active but low intensity during my 2.5 week taper. The other key will be to carefully plan my diet to continue my steady but slow weight loss. Without all these massive workouts, I'll have to track calories and food choices carefully.

Through Another's Eyes

This morning the girl in the lane next to me turned to me and said "You're my inspiration".
Dumbfounded I replied "What?"

I just started. I'm a serious runner. I do 10Ks all time so I thought 'I can swim'. I couldn't even swim across the pool. I still can only swim to the end, then stop.

Now I really don't know what to say. This girl weighs maybe 120lbs wet, can run a 10K in well under an hour, and is looking to me for inspiration and advice. Yikes. She doesn't see that I'm the slow girl who tediously battles through each lap. Always the slowest freestyle swimmer in the pool. I'm not inspiration.

Don't worry about it. When I started, I could barely swim the length of the pool using breast stroke. Lap after lap of freestyle seemed totally impossible. You can do. It just takes time. It took me about a year before I could continuously swim freestyle.

She headed off for another length, happy to know she wasn't the only one who was not an instant dolphin. We chatted for a bit in the locker room while we changed. She's a fast runner, likes to ride her bike, and has already taken a few swimming lessons. Of course, I recommended a triathlon. :-)

Oh yeah, 2244 yds, 54:30.

Plugging away on all fronts

Yesterday's lab work ran long but I completed both the digestions and swim. No weight workout but that doesn't bother me too much. There are no swim stats because I left my watch at home. I use the lap function on my watch to count laps for me which made yesterday's swim a big challenge. But I made it.

My steady weight loss continues. With any luck I'll make my race day goal.

Today started early with a gym workout followed by an hour run. Both passed without incident. However, I'm very hungry this morning after all that high intensity work. My brain could use a little coffee before processing yesterday's samples for analysis. We'll see.

Off to lab work!

Fujisawa in the shop

Yesterday I used Fujisawa's mechanical woes to push my dissertation productivity to the max. If you get all your prep work done, you can leave early to get her to the bike shop. It worked.

This was our first trip to a new local bike shop. The store location is blocks from my house and owner seems super cool. He always chats with you, wants to know what you need, and will be the first to recommend a cheaper solution if possible. This is my experience and others have share similar stories with me.

So, he has earned the right to work on my bike. The problem: there are several repairs, Finances demand that repairs be scheduled in 2 shifts of $100 or less, one set now, the second set in the next few weeks, and I need the bike back by Saturday for the Clermont ride. He is not phased by my complicated requests. He looks over the bike while talking with me. He said "you must spin your gears pretty fast, the chain isn't stretched". Yeah! I'm improving. We prioritized repairs, talked about swapping wheels before the race. He wants to know if he returns Fujisawa to me by Wednesday will I ride her Thursday and bring her back Friday for any adjustments? He doesn't want me riding in Clermont without a test ride. A man after my own heart. Heck yeah! I'll rework the training schedule for that.

We'll see how it goes. I'm hopeful.

Shifting paradigms

As I ran around in my early morning haze, trying to prep for my workouts I started to worry about whether I could really start my experiments today because both the swim and the weight workout would push my start time to mid morning.

Then a little voice reminded me that if my dissertation is my priority, my worries should flip flop. Will I fit in both workouts because the experiments may run long today? Too right. There is a 90 minute break near the end of the experiment where I can squeeze in the swim. The weight workout...maybe not. But these are the thought processes of a dedicated doctoral candidate. That triathlete will have to be patient.

So, I rushed the door to buy coffee in an effort to start in the experiment prep no later than 9. Starbucks did their best to delay me 20 minutes. Note to self: buy a new coffee maker tonight. It's cheaper, tastier, and much more convenient.

Every keep their fingers crossed that I make both workouts today.

Off to fillet fish.

Rest Day

Today is rest day. Time for some easy yoga and recovery. Maybe I'll make photocopies of the old GFT course for training purposes this weekend. Filet some fish for experiments later this week. It's full day of humdrum life stuff.

Hope all of you who are training have great workouts.

Good luck to Ellie who is sitting through her last week before her first IM.

All you Kona bound athletes, hope your taper is going well!

Course Change

Oh yeah, on Friday night I found out the GFT had to change their published 2005 race course. Seems that the GFT race committee did not bother to have the course approved before they published it. When they recently took it to the local government and law inforcement, the cops said no way. I'm kinda mad. All those trips to Clermont to train on the course are nothing but long training rides. I could have done hill repeats on a local bridge and save the significant $$ it took to train over there. Gas ain't cheap these days.

SIGH. There are only 2 weeks of build left before my taper. I don't think I want to do a killer Clermont ride 2 weeks out from the race, so, now I must figure out if I can make it over to Clermont this weekend to train. Not a lot of time to schedule an all day event.

Another run

The Sunday long runs kinda blend together. The same course over and over again. Granted the course is beautiful, winding along the St. Petersburg waterfront through exclusive neighborhoods. However, its the same slow plod, keeping my HR low, hoping to get in the miles without injury.

I made it once again. This time I pushed the pace for the second half of the course. My HR soared but that's OK. By the end of the half IM, it's gonna take some pushing to finish. I wanted my body to experience that feeling now. That way we know we can do it on race day.

Oh yeah, and I think it might be time for new shoes. Great, just one more expense before race day.

Saturday Ride

After Friday's swim break through, Saturday's ride seemed like a great confidence booster. My average speed will tell you that the Wednesday's winds were still hanging around. Those bridges got a little hairy. Another day of developing my bike handling, right? My training partner met me just past the half-way point at Ft. De Soto. Funny how race day never seems as lonely as solo training rides. It was nice to have the company for the ride home. We talked about the low number of cyclists out on Saturday, however, there was a big olympic distance race at Disney. Maybe everyone was racing. We'll probably make that oly tri our goal race for next year. I want to get faster. Between school and work demands, an olympic distance seems like a good place to start.

I've come to realize that many people have trained for and finished ironman races by training the same number of hours per week as myself. The difference is that they are faster so a 2 hour run is 12 miles instead of 8.5. Now that I know my body can withstand a "13 hours to a 13 hour Ironman" type of training, I just need to find some speed.

The Strength of TriBlog Alliance

A huge thank you to Nancy for this post and to the TRIDRS gentlemen who wrote the articles in her post.

As I headed to the pool on Friday, 2 things stuck in my head:

"I found that lengthening my stroke and pushing water well past the bottom of my suit was particularly effective in increasing speed. I have come to emphasize the push so much, I believe my arm stroke should be renamed 'push' rather than 'pull.'"
--Bob Williams

"Front Quadrant Swimming. This means one arm or hand is always in front of your body. Extend your arm as it enters the water – as if you are reaching for the end of the pool. Keep your arm extended just below the surface of the water until your other arm begins to enter the water. The natural tendency is to swim with your arms in opposition – one arm forward and the other arm backward. This is a very unbalanced position and makes it difficult to be efficient and reduce drag.

" --Neil Cook

And so...I tried it. Focus on the push of the stroke. Keep my arms in front of me as if I were doing the "catch up" drill the entire time.

My previous 2250 pr: 57:30
On Friday: 52:40

Damn, this stuff works! Y'all helped me gain almost 5 minutes in 1 day! I saw lap splits during this swim that I've never seen during any swim workouts, EVER. Usually a wicked fast 66yds takes me 1:30 during my 'speed drills'. Friday my splits were 1:24, 1:23...the slowest speed lap was 1:27. My perceived effort was the same.

It's funny because I've read dozens of articles on swimming. For some reason, these articles put a picture in my head of what I needed to do.

I hope I can remember the picture for next time.

So Very Gray

For the third day in a row, the sky is that most peculiar gray associated with hurricanes. It's hard to believe that Rita is so big she impacts the weather of Texas and Florida simultaneously.

As you can see, yesterday's weight workout did not happen. Work ran late. My hubby had a gig so there would not be dinner waiting for me. We went out to eat. Eating out is always a challenge, especially at 9PM when I'm starving. My new skills worked well. I has chips and salsa along with a salad. No weight gain on the scale today. Yeah!

Today's swim has been postponed until the afternoon. Afternoons workouts are such a dangerous game that is for me. Hopefully the weather holds and nothing happens with my schedule. Then it's off for another late night at work, another temptation of restaurant food.

Tomorrow's bike should be another windfest. We'll see how it goes. All this wind training makes me wonder if fate is prepering me for race day. I hope not. :-)

Worth Noting

Today is a little milestone in my "healthy living" plan. Thanks to weight lost as part of the TRI-DRS Dead Losers Challenge, my BMI has changed from obese to simply overweight. My husband asked me how long it had been since I weighed this little. Probably 8 years. Even after I returned to running in 1999 and completed my first marathon in 2000 the scale read 7 pounds more than it does today.

I guess I'm writing this for posterity but also to challenge myself to keep it up. This had been hard. There have been no fancy diet plans. It's very K.I.S.S.: Eat less, eat lots of veggies, watch the pasta/rice portions, choose low fat proteins, exercise. The eat less part is difficult but my body clearly wants this. As long as I'm consistent, it sheds the weight.

My short term goal is 5 more pounds by race day. Gotta keep it going.

Making the Best of It

To everyone one around Galveston, Texas, keep leaving. Rita looks to be very strong. The NHC says it might "weaken" to a Cat 3 or 4. That's bad. Put your lives first.

What a great run. It's great because 1) I finished it and 2) the intervals helped me learn something about pacing. My HR wasn't dropping in between intervals as fast as it did last week, most likely because I pushed my HR 5 beats faster this time. Given that I want some recovery between these intervals, I'll hold back a little next week. It would be nice to have a happy medium.

Today's strength workout will only happen if I follow my yoga/weights program at home, thus the yellow color on the side bar. It probably won't happen but I'm an optimist. :-) We're still down to one car and the scheduling issues make it hard to fit in every swim and weight workout unless I give up substantial time in the lab. With any luck, the Jeep will be fixed today.

ODissertationN: Finished the calibration line yesterday! I'm at a loss of what to do. I'm drifting around thinking "what was I supposed to do before I started the calibration line?" Not to worry, it will come. :-) Today will include scheduling the next few weeks, maybe even as far as race day. Oh, and there are the lab chores. It's time to maximize the lab.

Sleep: 8.5 hours
Quality of Sleep: good, little restlessness
Mood: Decent, even-keeled, but not excited. Could every day start like this?

Windy windy windy

Thanks to Hurricane Rita, I enjoyed 90 minutes of pure wind today. There was a tailwind for, oh, 10 minutes. The rest of the ride had either a total head wind or a cross wind that acted like a headwind. When the crosswind wasn't masquerading as a headwind, it was trying to blow me off the bike. So, my average was 14.8 for today instead of my usual 15.3. Still, I rode each interval. 30 minutes of 4hard/2easy.

Today PODissertationN:

Finish the darned calibration line! At this moment, the stock standards are warming up to room temp. After that, I'm off to the clean room to dress like the Pillsbury dough boy. After that...I don't know. This must get done, no matter what!


Mood: bad but improving

ODN

Though the day is not over, the "trick myself" method worked well. Another day of tedious calculations completed. My brain is mush so I'm throwing in the productivity towel. The bottles have been weighed. All that waits is the creation of the line. That will happen tomorrow after I create 4 other solutions needed to create the calibration line. I want this done even though my motivation for it is low.

The daily summary
Mood: average-bad
Motivation: low
Effort: medium
Work accomplished: medium-high

So, not bad given my mood and motivation. Off to plan tomorrow!

Proposed Obligatory Dissertation Note

Thanks to my ABD buddy, Jan, for posting this wonderful article Technology is not your friend. Sorry if you don't want an ABD buddy, Jan, but it makes me feel better to see that others struggle like I do. Anyway, that article would tell me that I'm wasting my time online right now, which I am. For a reason.

A dissertation is filled with so many aspects, all of which seem overwhelming. Every day. I'm attempting to use my "trick yourself" skills from triathlon today. I'm doing to break things down into "gee this doesn't seem so bad" parts, then do them. With any luck, I'll have my calibration line created by the end of the day.

Anyway, thanks again to Jan. Keep it up girl. I'll be checking in on your blog to see those updates!

Not so early swim

At least I made it to the pool by 7AM. 2500 yds passed without too much trouble. I really hate the "hamstser on the wheel" feeling of swimming in the pool. Splitting the workout into a warmup,drills, speedwork, and cooldown helps but it just takes SO long. Today I changed the speedwork a little bit. Rather than swimming down as fast as possible and swimming back gasping for air, I swam down at a fast but steady pace. My recovery section was faster giving a faster split for each up/back than normal. Plus, this level of effort was sustainable for 10 rounds instead of 7-8.

Total time: 1:06:48 A little slower than last week, however, I added a kicking set to the drills which slowed me down. The lifeguards always ask how far I swam. Apparently, not many swimmers swim as long as I do. My guess is that other swimmers are just faster than me for the same distance. Either way, the guards are impressed. I'm getting a good reputation. They are excited about my race.

It was a good day at the gym. The student employee at the gym desk is another life guard at the pool. When he noticed my wet hair, he asked lots of questions about my upcoming race. Sounds like there may be a budding triathlete there.

My weight workouts serve as check on my weight loss. My reasoning here (flawed though it may be) is that if I started loosing muscle instead of fat, it would get harder to maintain the weights and reps at the gym. Quite the opposite. Everything is steady, even improving in some areas. At this rate (1.5 pounds/week), I may even drop another 6 pounds before the race. The less weight to haul up those hills, the better.

Can you say tedious?

These calibration line calculations could take all day. More serial dilutions. Make a secondary standard. That's it, I'm making an Excel spreadsheet for this.

Lowers Temps Are Not Enough

Yeah, it was about 2F cooler this morning BUT it was still very muggy, hazy, and breezeless. Blech. The siren pillow called to me but I took advice from Wil. Her blog from a few weeks ago said something like "just get out of bed and don't stop moving". It worked. My attitude did not improve until mile 3 or so but that's life. I bet mile 3 of the half ironman run is gonna be a barrel of monkey's too. :-)

Even with the higher temps I ran a little further, a little faster today. 8.5 miles in 2 hours. Keeping the faith. 3 more build weeks before the taper. I can do it.

5 weeks and counting

Friday.

Weights went fine. Swimming after heavy weights leaves something to be desired but I made it. It reminded me why swimming first is the way to go, especially if there are speed drills involved.

Saturday
52.75 more miles. Today passed at a leisurely 14.2 mph. 3 more 50+ mile rides to go before race day. My training partner, Michelle, dared to ride with me. Her back held out fairly well, however, her bike is set up for aero, not sitting up. The rest of her suffered as a result. I thank her for her time. She's even volunteering at the race even though she can't race. Thanks again.

Comrades

The Florida Challenge is the biggest race of my 32 years. Bigger races may come but for now, this is it. I'd love to see my friends along the race course but the night before THE race? No thanks. My training partner can come but she's my training partner. We've done the "THE race" thing before. Even my husband doesn't want to come. To be honest, I think I'd rather be alone before a really big race or with a small quorum of fellow athletes. Even then I need quiet time to get inside my head, relax, listen to Jimmy Buffett, drink a glass of wine, pretend to sleep.

So, how about the rest of you? The night before a big "first time at this distance race", did you want to be totally alone, around a few select friends, or did you welcome the distraction?

First Things First

Loved the run. Those 4 degrees make all the difference. I remembered to hold back on the speed workouts. I've got 3 more weeks of this. Don't kill you're knee/hamstring/etc. now.

No weights because we STILL don't have the other vehicle back. I might have to "take over" the repair process if we have any hope of getting it back. We have a good, reliable, inexpensive, trustworthy mechanic. He's just not superfast.

I really don't want to have 7/9 workouts this week. Maybe I'll extend tomorrow's lunch workout. That's hard to do because work starts at 5pm.

For the record

The side bar was getting too busy. Here are the past few weeks of training. Green indicates a completed workout. Yellow means a shortened but completed workout. Red shows missed workouts. Blue means additional workouts. Overall I've been making 82-85% of all workouts. This is good for me.

Training Sep 5-11 Recovery!

• Monday: Rest, Yoga


• Tuesday: Swim 1500yds - straight swim, Strength Training


• Wednesday: Ride 1 hour


• Thursday: Run 40 minutes , Strength Training


• Friday: Swim 1500yds - drills


• Saturday: Ride 2.5 hours Run 45 minutes


• Sunday: Run 90 minutes Run 45 minutes

Training Aug 29-Sept 4

• Monday: Rest, Yoga


• Tuesday: Swim 2500yds - straight swim, Strength Training


• Wednesday: Ride 1.5 hours - short big ring intervals


• Thursday: Run 60 minutes - add speed pickups, Strength Training


• Friday: Swim 2500yds - drills


• Saturday: Ride Florida Challenge Course at Clermont, 20 minute run


• Sunday: Run 120 minutes

Training Aug 22-28

• Monday: Rest, Yoga


• Tuesday: Swim 1500yds - drills, Strength Training


• Wednesday: Ride 1.5 hours - short big ring intervals


• Thursday: Run 60 minutes - add speed pickups, Strength Training


• Friday: Swim 2250yds - simple swim


• Saturday: Trainer 8 minutes, Ride 3.5 hours, no run


• Sunday: Run 110 minutes

Training Aug 15-21

• Monday: Rest Walked 45 minutes


• Tuesday: Swim 2000yds, Strength Training


• Wednesday: Ride 1.5 hours


• Thursday: Swim 2000yds, Strength Training


• Friday: Run 60 minutes


• Saturday: BRICK Ride 3.5 hours/Run 15 minutes


• Sunday: Run 95 minutes

Looking Forward

This morning's ride went very well. Took it easy on the speed intervals. The morning temps have finally dropped into the 79-81 range each morning. What a difference 3-4 degrees makes.

For some reason it feels like my season is over. This makes no sense because THE RACE lies 6 weeks ahead. I guess I feel confident. Athletic confidence is new to me, especially for a new distance but I feel that if I had to race tomorrow, I could. This confidence saps motivation for those early morning workouts. The next 4 weeks should infuse some speed into my race. These workouts are important. I must stay focused.

But still, my mind wanders forward. What will I do next? An ironman is out of the question. My dissertation will come to a close, one way or the other, in the next 12 months. All things should focus the dissertation. But, I'm losing weight with all this training. Losing weight is good. So, what to do?

My next idea is to work on speed. That is my big limiter. Endurance is not a problem. Given time to train, my body will go. But speed, that's another matter. Running is my worst event. The problem is that speed alone has never been enough to motivate me. I've tried. Obviously, getting faster will require training. My "perfect world" scenario involves me working out for an hour every day with one rest day and 2, 2-hour long workouts on the weekends. Which sports will fill that schedule depends on the time of year.

And so the plan is:

Finish the half IM healthy and happy.
Train for a PR half marathon using a Runner's World beginner program.
Run the Disney Half Marathon for Fun with friends.
Choose a February half marathon as a "PR" race. Probably the Gasparilla Half Marathon.
Finish a century ride, The Clean Air ride, in March using the Bicycling magazine program.
Go to "Coach Joe" for triathlete swim sessions in the spring.
Somehow "Go for speed" at an olympic distance triathlon in September, more than likely the Walt Disney World Triathlon.

Will it work? I don't know. None of these events "scare" me. A coach would be nice but that won't happen any time soon.

However, the slow and fat triathlete thing gets old. We walk into a bike store and the employees flock to my naturally skinny husband. This has motivated me to lose some weight. Thank you Nancy and the TRI-DRS challenge! Maybe it will be enough for me to pick up some speed. We will see.

Back to the Grind

Three travel packed days in Saugatuck, MI left me feeling worn out. Beautiful place, Saugatuck. Lovely wedding. Just no time to rest or reflect. Fly in, drive, weddingweddingwedding, drive, fly home.

Yesterdays mini-committee meeting passed without incident. It wasn't that it was a good meeting, it just didn't suck. I'll take it.

Lots of work to do this week in the lab. It's really hard to make all these workouts and keep my integrated life plan in order when we're down to one car. The husband is a night owl. I'm not. I want to be in the lab by 8:30. He's rarely ready to leave the house before 9. As long as the old Jeep runs, we're fine. The Jeep has been out of commission for 2 weeks. It is in the shop but they have to order the parts, blah, blah. Makes it hard to balance the dissertation and workouts. I've come so far to fail my training now but the dissertation only progresses with consistent work. AH!

On the bright side, my swim was really strong today. 2500 yards in 1:04. The swim cutoff is mine. BWAHAHAHAHA! Actually, the next 4 weeks are designed to kick my butt. It's been 12 weeks of base/distance building. The next 4 weeks are filled with intervals and speed work. Then there's a 2 week taper until race day. 6 weeks. Is it really only 6 weeks? Guess I need to focus on easing into speed work this week.

Blah

This week's workouts have been spectacularly uninspired. Not that I've missed a workout yet but they have a "just show up" mentality. Good thing it's a recovery week. Between my weekend travel plans and stuff at school, I'll be happy to make 75% of my schedule. If I don't get back to the blog before I return, everyone have a good weekend.

The Day After

My legs are trashed. Even after sleeping in until 7am this morning, I almost didn't make the run. Truly. The only reason I got out of bed was that I knew the worst thing I could do after a hard ride was nothing. The muscles would freeze. But run for 2 hours? OOOHHHHH, I don't know.

I started with a walk. The quadriceps questioned the logic of this but after 5 minutes or so they acquiessed to my request. At the end of my walking warmup, I tried a few jogging steps. The hamstrings did not approve. Still, I tried running 2 miles. It felt OK but my perceived effort was much greater than my HR showed. It was about 15 beats per minute lower than what I expected for that effort. Not bad, lets see how it goes. Nothing says I can't walk home if things get bad. Slowly but surely I shuffled around the course. About 8 miles. About 2 hours. No speed but I'm proud of myself.
Of course, today had to be a heavy moving day at the wine store. My legs are truly trashed. Good thing tomorrow's rest day kicks off a recovery week. Recovery. Ahhhhh.

Mission Accomplished

Summary:
Ride
66.5 miles on the Florida Challenge half ironman course.
Yes, I know a half ironman ride is 56 miles.
14.1 mph average.

Run
20 minutes along the lake. Don't know how far.

Astute readers will say, Half IM? 66.5 miles? Shouldn't that be 56 miles? Read on.

Saturdays ride had 3 goals:

Finish upright and without injury - Check!
Climb every hill, even Sugarloaf. Do not walk any climbs. - Check!
Don't get lost - hmmmm....yeah....see there was this jumbled course map....

Saturday was a great day. I'm so proud of my body. It's weird to be proud of my body as if it's not part of me but my mind is more than willing to sign my body up for craziness. Saturday my body lived up to the challenge. It's performance helped gave me confidence when my mind started to freak out. No cramps. Just go go go.

So much of my training was motivated by fear. Fear of the hills in Clermont. It's hard to explain my fear of hills. I live in a very flat place. It's as if told someone who can't swim "Why are you afraid of the water? You're a wimp. Water is everywhere." For most people, hills are a part of life. They can't leave their house without seeing a small hill. Hills push my heart rate to new limits and sucks endurance from my legs. And so I trained everything I could to make up for the fact that I can't train on hills.

The day started at 5:00 AM. It's a 90 minute drive to Clermont. Stumble around. Make coffee. Assemble all the items I couldn't find after closing the wine store Friday night. Fill mugs with coffee. Drive off in a borrowed Honda Element. Don't ask. My training partner rocks. Enough said.

Drive drive drive.

Arrive in Clermont where it seems that everyone else has a riding partner. Triathlon training teams are getting together. Hard core rodies cling to each other, staring at the triathletes, wearing the jersey of their favorite Le Tour team.

And me.

Fortunately, it was cool for the first time in months. Unload. Realize something fell on top of your transition bag during the drive. The sunglasses are toast. Piece sunglasses together for one last ride. Off I ride. The first 3 hours went really well. My strategy was simple:

1)Keep your HR under 80% effort unless you're on a hill. No pride. No matter what your speedometers says, keep your HR low. On race day you have to run a half marathon after the bike.
2)Maximize gravity assist. As you crest the hill, push a slightly harder gear to gain some speed. Descend as quickly as your novice cycling skill allows. Use this to counteract the tractor beam sensation on the uphills.
3)Pay close attention to false flats and tailwinds. Use the tailwind when you have it. Don't blow the legs on a false flat.

It worked really well. The little pistons kept spinning away. Some of the hills slowed me to 4mph but I used my triple. No pride. Just make it over the hills. It's a little tricky to plan nutrition with all the ascents and descents but that's why I wanted to ride the course. Fewer surprises on race day. Fortunately, the middle of the course is fairly flat even by my standards. This made it easy to keep my nutrition on track. Water was a big issue on the bike but I stopped at the world's scariest convenience store to refill along the way. The plan was to consume 4 bottles of sports drink in about 4.5 hours plus Gu and Lava Salts. More sports drink at the car for the run. Easy enough.

I saw plenty of riders. Only 2 other women. I was the only woman riding alone. It gets kinda lonely out there so I talked to myself to encourage me. Out loud. Good job legs. Keep it going. Don't be macho, slow down here. Positive self talk worked well. Along the way I discovered why I love Just Plain Gu. Because everything else tastes so strong. So nasty. Strawberry E-gels? Starts like a sour berry, ends like cough syrup. Bleah. Strawberry Gatorade? Ick. Too strong. Almost hurled. Every now and then I'd consult my map to make certain all was well. And it was until I missed a turn due to a poorly marked section of the course map. It seemed a little long before that left turn but maybe the map wasn't to scale. Gee, it seems kinda long until the next turn. Well the last turn took a while. Just keep going. Hey, isn't that the Turnpike? What the hell?

At this point I thanked God for my investment in a local map. Only $7. Sure enough. I missed a turn. My analytical brain started to freak out. My legs weren't ready for this. Why couldn't I get lost on a flat section. Now the legs will cramp. We'll have to walk the climbs. It will take a long time. It's miles back to the course. We're running out of water. What does the map say? How far is it back?

At this point my inner triathlete took over.

Don't look.
What?
At the map. Don't look. Does it matter how far we have to ride? Are you going to call Dave to come get you?
No.
Just ride. Come on. Just ride.

So, I rode. Back over 2 big climbs, back to the missed turn. It wasn't scary but my mind really thought my legs would give out at any moment, you see, the turn I missed begins the path to the infamous Sugarloaf climb.

I had plenty of energy gels and salts. They are easy to carry. Water was the issue. It was approaching noon in September in Florida. And then I saw the climb. Another brain freakout. And it should have freaked out because it's the hardest climb to this point in my life. It's not just 4mph. It goes on and on. I couldn't look up because my mind would start the whole gloom and doom scenario. So I started picking mini goals. Ride to the driveway. Too far? Ride to those little yellow flowers. Now the shade of the lightpost. DON'T LOOK AT YOUR HEART RATE. RIDE. Now the driveway. So on and so forth until I did. Fujisawa crested the climb in good form. She is much more qualified for this course than I.

At the top of the ride was a turn. My heaving dry mouth screamed for water but I knew there were 45 more minutes to ride. That's when God sent me a sign. Literally. A yellow sign, professionally printed that said something like:Water. Free. Help yourself. There was a large Igloo cooler filled with cool water and cups if you need them. I later learned that this guy does it every weekend. He checks the water several times to keep it filled. Amazing. My brain laughed, believing it a mirage until it sunk in. What a luxury. What a life saver.

After that, my mind and body started working together. The mind would take whatever the body offered without question or ridicule. My legs were trashed from the Sugarloaf climb. Many of the subsequent lesser climbs reduced me to a crawl. But we rode them all. No walking. No cramping. Just a big dose of "I think I can." I did.

I even ran 20 of the slowest minutes in my life. But I finished the entire planned workout and then some. Go me.

Sugarloaf Saviors

To the person (or people) who maintain the Igloo cooler full of cold water at the top of the Sugarloaf Mountain climb,

You saved me. When my ride had taken a wrong turn and the water was running out, your volunteer water station save the day. The sign is so professional and eye catching. It's my understanding that you make sure there is cool water there throughout the day at your own expense. What a great act of kindness toward's strangers.

Thank you very very much,

A greatful triathlete

Sunrise and Stars

The third early morning workout is in the books. Nothing too deep this time. Swam 2500yds. Threw in some drills and fast/low laps. Now I'm working out all the things to do before Saturday's big ride. Gotta buy gas, gels, organize salt tablets, buy another tube in case of flats. There's no way I'll remember everything at 5:30AM tomorrow. The "things to do" must be accomplished before work because I'll be at work until after 10 tonight. Today is an early work day because we're moving the shop. Then it's up by 5:30 am for the drive. Tomorrow serves as a big, key workout on the road to my half IM. I want it to go well. Don't want to get lost or hit by a car or flatted out 5 times.

Wine I'm Drinking Now

The wine of the evening is Geyser Peak Cabernet Sauvignon 2001. I like this wine because of it's full body and affordable price ($10-15 retail depending on the store and market). A lot of California wines are big fruit bombs. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I love fruit bombs. Thus my love for Petite Syrah, red Zinfandel, and California reds. However, it's nice to taste a full body California cab that goes for a little green pepper. You might dare to serve it to friend who loves the European earth-based style of blended reds. No, the finish doesn't last forever. Remember the $10 bucks, OK? But I'd happily serve it at social gatherings or splurge for a family meal. Nice nose. Substatial color and taste. The tannins don't make your tongue feel as if it ate a green banana. Like it. Gonna buy more.

Plugging along

Yesterday's bike was strong. No better word for it. Good pace (15.4), lots of strength for all of my big ring intervals. 6 intervals of 30 seconds hard/1:30 easy.

A long day in the lab followed the strong bike. By the rime 7PM rolled around I was starving and just on my way out of the parking lot. Note to self: buy emergency snacks for your desk. Cup of Soup. Something.

Today was the second day of "wake up early because the gym and pool open early". The key is to prepare most of my stuff the night before. This allows maximum sleep while ensuring a 6:30 arrival time at the gym. Next comes 40 minutes of weights followed by a 60 minute run. It's nice to be able to workout while it's dark and save running for daylight hours. Such a hot run, though. You should have seen the look on the gym attendants face when I came in for a post-run drink. Note to self: you must drink during your weight workout if you plan on running 60 minute afterwards. Good thing my run followed the old marathon training route. If I hadn't known where to find water fountains, it would have been tough.

Plus, I was cleaned up and in the lab by 9AM. Thank you pool locker room! Not the 8:30 I wanted but I'm not taking any time off at lunch to workout because those workouts are done!!! As long as I stay until 5, I'll meet my time goals for the day.

Off to be a lab monkey.