Chasing boys....

Not what you think!!! Today was an easy day...right! Up at 5:30 for a 45 min run and then off to Masters Swim. Reasonable workout and am feeling good. Jen and I head out for 2 hour coastal ride and we are chattering non stop. Had a boy on our wheel most of the way out as we had a lengthy discourse about flattering and not so flattering race kits, which led to too much padding in shorts, peeing on the bike and we digressed. Quite comical and he was right there yet never made a peep.

Lost him at the turn around only to have 2 roadies on our wheels and they were close and so of course we are casually pushing the pace a bit. They draft for a while and then take their turn pulling us. Our Zone 2 ride is more like a 3 at this point, but nothing crazy. They turn at Fletcher Cove for a pit stop, thank goodness, only to reappear a tad worked on our wheels at 15th street. And of course we all know we are headed up Torrey. Jen restates this is a zone 2 ride and we all pretend we are riding easy. And the climb begins...this is clearly not a idropboys kind of group. So the pace quickens and Beaker Concepts takes the lead and I jump on his wheel. About 1/2 way I up I pull alongside and we mange to keep the effort and start chatting. He is checking out my bike and notes I need an orange Hydrotail to match my new rig. Well turns out he is Beaker Concepts and owns the company. As we near UCSD and Jen and I have to go he shouts that when I get my Kona slot, email him and he will send me an orange Hytrotail. Now the funny thing is we never discussed my Kona quest.....

All in all it was fun! Nice to meet people our riding and have it all be good.

One more week....

Till race day? No, until I start to back off.

Another big weekend. Saturday ride was nearly 6 hours and 100 miles. All over the freakin county, from our house to Del Dios, Harmony Grove, Elfin Forest, North to Camp Pendleton and all the way back south to Torrey and then a tour of Carmel Valley and home. John, KP and I headed out at a reasonable time, 8am.... which was nice to sleep in but by the time I got home, ate and cleaned up it was time to go to E's for dinner. John hung with us for 4 hours, KP bailed at 5 and I finished the last hour alone. Ride was good, felt strong and my legs had recovered well throughout the week. Very promising.

Awesome birthday dinner at E's for Jen! Nice to have someone slave over the most delightful halibut and all the fixins for fish tacos. Good company, a bit of wine and delicious food. Tim brought homemade bread, still warm and a homemade cake. Stuffed, stuffed and we dragged ourselves home to bed.

Up at 5:30 and off to meet Marion and friend at Peet's for my long run. Did some adventure running through the trails of Santa Luz and Carmel Valley but I kept my patience most of the way. Not knowing where I am going is a major peeve of mine and one that generally drives me nuts. John loves to adventure and explore when we are running or riding and I am so uptight I want to know the course, where are we going, how long, what is the terrain etc.... can you say control freak? Okay I said it for everyone reading that was thinking that.

Done and home by 9am - nice thing about starting early. As I ran up the drive, Riley was headed out on a run. By the time I washed the smelliest dogs in the hood, she was back, and we had a monster pancake breakfast. Well maybe I did, she had one big one and I had, well lets just say a lot of them.

Kids we off and gone by 11 and I was wiped out. Read and chilled and was sooo happy we had another day off to look forward to, because, that was when I would get all my weekend chores done and the big project of my accounting.

Got up to swim at the cove on Monday, walked the dogs and promptly went back to bed until after 9. Gee a bit tired maybe. Monday was not very productive, but was an enjoyable day. Hung out, swam with the kids and dogs, awesome Memorial Day dinner and in bed by 9. YES

This is a 20 hour training week and I took Monday off. Well, one day at a time - today was aerobic maintenance. Run 30 min, bike 1 hour and swim 1:15. But had a great, great swim- best time in 100M all season! And I did not feel like I was going that fast, even better. It was so good I did another one, instead of IM as coach wanted, and I went 1 second faster.

And I even manged to work today and made 2o prospecting calls!

Family....feeling better...Life is good

High School lacrosse is over...after a game Friday, Monday and Tuesday the season is done. As much as JD loves it, I think he is a bit relieved to have some of his time back. With practices 6 days a week for 2.5 hours, it is busy, busy. And with games 2-3 times a week, 6-7:30 it wrecks havoc on our family life. Riley's season just ended as well and although JD still has soccer 2x a week, we have less chaos in our life. Last night was the first time, in well could not tell you, that the 4 of us sat down for a family dinner. How nice for us all to eat together, I miss that time together.

After my wave of fatigue I am feeling better, thanks to a few 10 hour nights, a 90 minute massage and a bit of easy training. Went for a 90 minute run today that turned into a 1:40 run and it was great. I have been wanting to run up Black Mtn again but have just not done it, so today, since I woke up feeling great decided to head out that way, well after the 20 minute run with the pups. As I approached the trail up I was 50 min in and was feeling good so headed up towards the summit. Ahead I saw a small group 4-5 runners and immediately pondered chasing them down. On a bike, would have done in a heartbeat, but 1- my running is not as good as my cycling and 2- this was not a speed workout up Black Mtn. So I kept my pace but of course had my eye on the group and realized soon enough I was gaining on them. With about .5 miles to the top I pick up the pace and pass them and as I am catching up I realize they are the local Firefighters from the station near my house. Now that was an ego boost, running by the firemen, "hey guys." Then, much like when you pass a group cycling you have to keep up the pace so as not to appear that you pushed the pace to catch them, even if you did. So there I was running faster than intended to the top. Gasping for air, well after looking back to make sure they were not on my heels, I downed the rest of my drink and began the descent down. Oh such fun! Although I am paying the price now, have had to roll around ont the floor with the quad torture roller a few times. Mind you I have a long weekend of training coming up.

Work is busy! Hooray!!!! What recession? My clients are booking meetings and I am busy, busy. Have to actually work hard when I am not training. Such a beautiful thing after the past 6 months of inactivity. Looks like I have to squeeze in a quick trip to Denver before IM, but will just be one day and I am not taking the usual crazy early fight, so it should not be too draining. May have another trip for some site inspections but its all good.

Summer is coming I can feel it! Weather is warming up, pool is 88 degrees and the dogs are panting all day long. Lovin wearing flips all day and shorts. I know, soon I'll be complaining about the heat, but for now it is moderate and it feels good. The sun is tough on these long rides though, even with 50+ sunblock I get tan lines. It is impossible to get in over 5 hours of riding before the sun comes up. And no matter which sunscreen I use, still have lines to show.

Sooooo Tired

So since my long run Saturday.....I have been tired and hungry. That is over 48 hours now. KP says, yes, you are tired, that is the goal, but don't push it from here. I took Sunday off and expected to leap out of bed this AM fully recovered and bounding with energy. Not so much, large iced coffee and headed to Masters. It was tough, barely made my interval on the 20x100's. In fact, I was leading and the 2nd one I took an extra 5 seconds before realizing I was actually that slow. Slogged through the w/o and the found myself starving again. Craving Avocado and Sprouts- so nourished that craving and committed to some good work today.

Begged my massage therapist for an appointment, she was full, but squeezed me in tomorrow- thank you Hannah! I am fact too tired to keep writing....

Roadkill...

So I had a BDT (big day training) on Friday and that entails....2.4 mile swim, 5:30 bike and then a 45 minute run. Not quite an IM but pretty darn close, well less 21 miles of running. The goal is to simulate the race for fueling, pacing etc. So I was up at 4:00am to eat of course....big day eating as well. Got to the pool by 5:30 and was home by 7 and ready to ride. I rode with John to his office and bid him goodbye and headed to Romona, RB, Encinitas, Del Mar, Carmel Vally and eventually back home. So back to the title of this blog...I was astounded at the number of dead animals I was riding by. For the first few hours I was had them categorized, 4 rabbits, 2 squirrels etc but the numbers were so high I had to just count. All in all 37! Over 100 miles and 37 dead animals...squirrels were by far the most, rabbits, skunks, 2 snakes, raccoon, possum... See this is just one of the games one can play when out riding alone for hours.

The other game, not remotely related, is what can I eat when I am finished. I cycled through Pizza, Mexican food, Sugar Cookies but kept resonating on Pop Tarts. Mind you, I don't buy Pop Tarts and cannot think of the last time I had one, well actually I can, on my last long ride before IM Wisconsin I was bonking badly and all the electrolytes, gus etc were not working so I stopped and wolfed down 2 Chocolate Pop Tarts and that did the trick. So as I am finishing my ride, I realize I have to run and I don't have any Pop Tarts. I decided that if I really want to sink to the depths of eating Pop Tarts as recovery food, I will have to run to the store and buy them and carry them home and then when I am all done, I can gorge myself with all the delightful chemicals.

So I finish my ride. feeling great actually- ride was 5;45 and I was strong and ready to run. By this time it was blistering hot and the though of a Pop Tart was nauseating, so all that worrying for not. Off on the run I went dreaming of a smoothie. Great run, 5+ miles and feeling strong, not sure I was ready for another 21, but was good.

So I finished and filled the blender with berries, bananas, ice, soy milk and banana yogurt. Monster smoothie and jumped into an ice bath. Need to recover well as I have my long run on Saturday AM.

I finished as Riley was coming home from school....she says how was your day, what did you do? Shameful to say I was training all day. Managed to get 1:30 of work done, caught up and then off to JD's Lax game.

Saturday run was great- 15 miles and it was all good and well until the last 15 minutes...fatigue, tired and ready to be done. Contemplated coming home early but forced myself to finish and was happy I did so. Hooray now the weekend begins,

Off to Riley's LAX game for recovery... munching on my new favorite granola. Erin Bakers Ultra Protein Granola! love it, love it.

Saturday night was quite the party over here.....JD and his 4 buddies swam for hours, hootin and hollerin. Amazing how 5 HS Boys can make the pool seem so small. Meanwhile Braman is finishing up building his electric bike. He has retrofitted his Mtn Bike and finally has is rigged up. The gears work like motorcycle and he is riding and yelling and I am thinking, what 10-15 mpg, try again. This bike can go 37 mph! Holy Cow, it is totally fun. Soon the boys are ready for a go and in no time at all JD is riding and has rigged a dog leash and bungee cords and Tim is being towed and they are screaming up the hill and down around the cul-de-sac. Around 10pm it was time to call it a night- we all had fun and no one was hurt, time to turn it in.

Amazing I was still awake and having such a good time- Wonders of caffeine.

Sunday, a day of rest. KP said day off. I contemplated a swim but slept in, had a great breakfast of pancakes with the kids and decided to take the day and put my life back in order.

Oh and some of the best news.....My sis got a job in Golden, CO. CO School of the Mines. So, so happy for her and so excied they are moving to Boulder. Sweet!!! Altitude training here I come. Will be a great move for the family, coming from San Antonio and a great job for her. Well deserved and I am so elated for them.

Is my dog doping....

So Rocky has been on Rimadyl since his recent eye surgery. Rimadyl^® (pronounced "Rim-a-dill") for Osteoarthritis and Post-Surgical Pain. He started it for Post-Surgical pain but the vet had also recommended for his osteoarthritis. Within 4 days the spring in his step had returned, lost over a year ago and he was able to first trot and then run along side when we went on our walks. He was able to run twice last week for 30 minutes. The dog has a new lease on life. John keeps asking what is the human equivalent....not sure maybe EPO?

As for long term side effects, that is the beauty of a dog, they don't live for 70-100 years. Rocky is 9 so getting up there in dog years so I am not worried. He is so eager to go running again and after our first run, his tail wagging the entire way, many love licks along the run, he was so happy.

While I am skeptical about the use of so many pharmaceuticals...I am convinced this is the right one for Rocky.

6 weeks....

6 weeks to race date!! 3 weeks of long training and then it is taper time.

Weekend was great....After my long ride Saturday we had dinner at Dad and K's and they are fabulous cooks so the food was wonderful and perfect recovery food. We had such a great time, we stayed almost until 8! Only those who are up at 5am understand what an epiphany that is.

Sunday, cranked out my Mothers Day 15 mile run with a new group of runners and we had plenty of titillating conversation to make the miles click by. Running with others really does pass the time. But running and riding alone build the mental toughness needed for IM. It is a long day out there. I miss all my buddies and chattering as we log the miles....but I am going to stick to my plan and that is hard to do with company, unless they agree to follow my ride, run etc.

After running and Starbucks, of course, I had massage. It was the most masochistic, painful and unrelaxing massage ever, but it was great. I woke up Monday feeling really good. Muscles a bit tired but not sore. I am trying to determine if I can muster the strength for another suffer fest this weekend. He really knew where to work and I literally had the sheet in my teeth so as not to create a scene.

Had a great afternoon with the kids and a terrific Mothers Day dinner with Mom and Billy. We ate and drank and had so much fun. I was so full I gladly walked the dogs when we got home, simply to seek some relief from the food.

Beginning of this week is pretty tame.... hour run on Monday and Masters swim today and a short ride. Goal is recovery early in the week and prepare for a huge day Friday and Saturday.

Was hoping to do Hot Yoga with E but JD broke bracket so instead I was at the Ortho office. I tell you, they need a desk there for me. Somehow the kids are not on the same schedule any more for wire changes etc. so it seems I am there every other week. But they have free wireless, bless them, so I work away or surf the net, pretending to be working.

what a week and it is not over...

Big run week for me! 5 hours so far and a long run tomorrow. Plus 2 great swims and a few short rides as well as a long ride today 5.5 hours. Going to be a 17 hour week. Gotta love IM.

I have to say I am feeling pretty good despite my house being a mess, loads of laundry on the couch (nice place for that), dog hair all over and list goes on.

I purchased a new "therapeutic" tool....Trigger Point Quadballer. I personally would name it Torture Roller with wheels. Holy cow. This thing looks like a cushioned spherical pillow with scooter wheel on the end. http://store.tptherapy.com/Trigger_Point_Quadballer_p/tpt-tpq.htm if you are remotely curious. Seems simple enough....but when your IT Bands are sore it is like some kind of torture instrument they use in Guantanamo Bay. As I roll on this and am practically screaming the dogs come and lick my face, wildly confused and concerned and my kids stare at me and say "why are you doing that?" And then I have to answer, well so I can go out and train more.....crazy isn't it.

Was hoping to do an huge ride with E on Wed, GW Loop x2. KP put the kabosh on that.....no long mid week ride when we are doing run volume. Ok, right. So I come up with a great plan for my Saturay ride...he HIGHLY recommends no. First, hilly ride and reminds me of what happens with run volume and intense riding and Second: it is a group ride. Group ride, whats the problem right- well he reminds me I have no control in a group and end up hammering to be near the front. How many training rides have I blew away my power goals chasing someone, some group etc. So, I raise my hand and say "Hi my name is Julie and I cannot control my efforts when riding in group so I must ride alone" Although I was not alone today, KP offered to ride with me to be my "governor" We had a great ride 5.5 hours up to Camp Pendleton with controlled efforts. And oh am I glad we did that, my legs have lingering fatigue and I still have a long run tomorrow. Gee, wonder why he is the coach!

Never have been so hungry on a ride..... Sushi for dinner, not enought pre long ride. Woke up starving, starving by could not get in a lot of calories before the ride. So my mile 40 I was bonking pretty badly....realized it and ate a power bar and a bag of cliff shots. You know you are bonking when you cannot get the package open. Not fun, not fun. But the good thing is I was not too far gone and was able to recover. Had a Red Bull and within 10 miles was feeling good.

We are on the final strech home along the 56 bike path and come upon a roadie with a a beer cut crusing along. We pass him and he decides to attack, he comes hammering past us, passes (totally out of breath) and promptly slows down. We pass him and leave him, but come on, what it is about some guys. It is funny...next guy we pass has long hair flowing down his back, no shirt and is cruising along in his aero bars, give me the peace sign and says "rock on sister." As much as I dislike the bike path on weekends because of so much traffic, it can be quite fun. That is until we came up the couple in the dead centner of the path with their dog on a mile long zip leash. The dog darts in front of me and I slam on the breaks and swerve and then nearly takes out KP. The people yell at us, you could give us some notice you are coming. Hello, there are a 1000 bikes out on a Saturday.. AND there is a nice dirt path where most people walk. Ok, done ranting and I think done post ride fueling. Between the large iced coffee with choc syrup, 2 x oranges, monster bowl of brown rice and the last of the molasses cookies I think I am satiated.

IM Training...

You know you are in the peak of Ironman training when you have to seriously focus on your priorities...things are left undone and you suddenly don't care. Having 2 kids and a husband I really try not to neglect them, or I may lose my support in this crazy sport.

But the things I use to be so anal about and worried about have taken a back seat. Lets take the house for 1... I use to vacuum the dog hair daily, in not every other day. Now, well when it starts building up in corners and looks like a small rodent I decide to pull out the vacuum. 2- Laundry, daily was on top of it. Now. well you need clothes, you do the wash. 3- Plants. I actually told my husband on our first date that I was great with plants. While I cannot imagine I would say such a thing, I am sure he has no reason to lie. And to be honest, I do pretty well with plants. Well until now. I had to toss 2 plants in the last 2 weeks because they were beyond saving from sheer neglect. They literally shriveled up and died. The others are pleading for food and water and the dregs of my cycling bottles are just not doing it for them. 4- cooking. I use to plan dinner for the next few nights.... well now around 5:30 I survey the much empty fridge and start trying to figure out what I can created. We are using up some dried and canned goods that have been around for a while and no one is really complaining.

But face it, when I am training 16-20 hours a week- all I can really think about is my next meal and when I can go to sleep. The fact that I can consume a Venti latte (that has 4 shots of espresso) at 4pm and still sleep at night is telling.....