Doubt Kills.

“The moment you choose to listen to your doubt it wins. Believe in yourself and what you’re capable of and you’ll find you’re capable of so much more than you ever dreamed of.”

This is going to be part of my mantra for the next 10 weeks. Eeek, yes, we’re down to less than 75 days and under the 10 week mark to Ironman Lake Placid. Training is ramping up like a boss and the big day will be here before I know it! Craziness.

Now I just need to trust the process. Trust the training. Trust my coach.

Day by Day, Stroke by Stroke, Step by Step until I toe the start line on the edge of Mirror Lake…

As the workouts are getting longer, my mental toughness and enthusiasm for swimming, biking and running needs to grow – in whatever way I can make that happen! I know these next weeks are going to be mentally and physically demanding (what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger… right?) and I’m getting prepared however I can. This includes, but is not limited to, talking to my coach about the training plans in more detail, commiserating with my friend KA who is also training for IMLP for her first full IM experience, talking with my friends and family, and grabbing as much rest and recovery that I can between working, workouts and whatever other social activities I am trying to fit in!

Nose to the grindstone. Here’s to the 5 am wake ups, the hours and hours of biking and running, and the laps upon laps in the pool!

Weekly Workouts// (a.k.a. where the rubber meets the road… or the lycra hits the water…)

• Monday – 1 Hour 45 Minute Run. On a treadmill… at a hotel… got to love work travel!
• Tuesday – 40 minute recovery ride
• Wednesday –  3100 yd swim planned… got to the Y and they had to close the pool for some reason… pretty sure a kid threw up in the pool (the joys of community pools) so I scooted home and jumped on the bike instead…1 Hour 45 minutes, Z2 Ride, 21 miles.
• Thursday – 1 Hour 45 Minute Bike, 2×15 Z4 workout – 27.5 miles
• Friday – 3000 yard Swim
• Saturday – 5 Hour 30 Minute Brick – 4 Hours, 45 Minute Bike & 45 Minute Run – 75 Miles on the bike and 5 Miles of running!
• Sunday – 2 Hour SLOW Run. My coach is telling me to back way off my pacing… I had to psych myself up all week for this. Ran a 10:15 pace… 11.75 miles. Training to go slower is mentally painful.

Total Time: 13 hours, 45 minutes

• Swim: 3000 yards/50 minutes
• Bike: 123.5 miles/8 hours 25 minutes
• Run: 27.5 miles/4 hours 30 minutes

Weekly Photos//

The fact that this was the first text message I ever received from my Dad is just perfect. 🙂

Packing up for my 5 Hour 30 minute brick in the hot temps – perfect training for IM Raleigh in a couple weeks!

Bronco was cracking me up this weekend. With the heat, he just kept flopping down everywhere and anywhere.

Yea, so… apparently I lost one of these beauties during the big move last Fall. Ironic since I was trying to be SUPER careful about NOT losing any of the pieces to my soft top since it was already off the Jeep…

So, top down on the Jeep all the time until I obtain a replacement. Hope the weather stays good.

Cross training this week came in the form of landscaping. My house has zero landscaping from the prior owners so I’m starting with a clean slate! And holy cow, is this going to be some WORK to do. I may have to put the rest of the landscaping initiatives on hold until AFTER July 26th…

 So, I have a little problemo with the sand washing out from under my deck… turns out the prior owners never cleaned out the gutters. This is what approximately 7 years of leaf debris looks like as it comes out of the gutters. (As you can see, Roxie was just about as impressed as I was…)

Finally, I put my flower planters together last weekend. Love doing this every year & so happy that spring is here!

  What did you do last weekend, anything fun? If you are in the Northeast, did you enjoy the weather – so crazy that it was 85+ degrees out! 

Austin, TX

Better late than never! This post has been hanging in my drafts for two weeks just waiting to be posted… whoops! (Just pretend you’re reading this a week ago…)

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to meet up with some of the most amazing women I know – my girls from Purdue! We had a mini reunion last year at OBX and decided that we needed to do it every year! Love these girls so much, it’s so nice to take a break from the chaos of life and catch up!! This year we decided to head to Austin, TX for our reunion weekend to enjoy a new city that we had not experienced before, to relax, shop, and catch up on life! I’m going to let the pictures tell the story of our weekend adventures below, but first… what would a post be without an update on my workouts?!

Weekly Workouts//

• Monday – 3000 yd swim
• Tuesday – 90 minute Z2 Ride… met up with KA to ride, turned into almost 2 hours – and was pretty hilly, definitely a bit more than a Z2 effort – whoops! – 30 miles
• Wednesday –  100 minute Z 3/4/5 Ride – cut short by 10 minutes since I rode long yesterday – 26 miles.
• Thursday – 3000 yd Endurance Swim
• Friday – Rest/Travel Day
• Saturday – Was supposed to run 60 minutes… ended up bumping all my workouts by 1 day since I had a rest day for travel coming next Tuesday as well… walked around Austin with the girls & enjoyed the day off!!
• Sunday – Ran 60 minutes with KC in Austin –  after some failed attempts, finally found a beautiful trail – Shoal Creek – to run along!

Total Time: 6 hours, 10 minutes

• Swim: 6000 yards/1 hour 40 minutes
• Bike: 54 miles/3 hours 30 minutes
• Run: 6 miles/1 hour

Photo Recap//

Before I get to the Austin part of the program… some photos from the week before the trip!

Finally celebrating Christmas with my sister! Paint N Sip Experience in Saratoga!

Well, I guess they’re comfortable?

This has been circulating around the internet this week… got to say, I love it!

Always on the lookout. Always.

Had lots of fun with a flat tire Tuesday night… also discovered my CO2 canister nozzle was broken. Thank god I was biking with KA and she had a backup!Day 1 of Austin, we headed to 6th street for the Pecan Street festival!

Our house for the weekend… was definitely memorable! Love the fact that we end up in these quirky places! So much better than a nondescript hotel or polished non-memorable cookie cutter home. 🙂 I should of taken more pictures because what I have really does not capture the true essence of the place!

A visit to Austin is not complete without a visit to a food trailer… there were lots to choose from!  Drinks on Rainey Street – such a cool environment. They’ve converted all the houses on the street to bars!

Shoal Creek. Awesome place to run (once we managed to find it)!

My book for the weekend. Loved it. it was a quick read and I thought she had some good points on life.

Boots, boots, boots!! Couldn’t possibly go to TX without checking out new boots…

SO many to choose from…

Some boots are easier to take off than others… 🙂

Eclectic…

Another item on the list, see the Bat colony. We waited for over an hour to see the 750,000 bats take flight at dusk… unfortunately the Bats decided to wait until after dark on this particular evening. Kind of a bust, but we saw an awesome sunset & had fun just talking and hanging out on the bridge!

(P.S. – none of us are very good with the whole selfie thing… I think this was take #45 of 100.. ha.)

On the to-do list, visit Gourdough’s to experience the donuts. And what an experience it was… from the guy calling out orders to the selection of toppings to the heart-attack in a little paper bowl, it was quite the experience. Fantastically delicious too… overindulgence for sure.

I present, the Carney… yes, that’s a donut.

And the flying pig… maple frosting and bacon (!) on a donut.

 

      Such a great week and an even better weekend with the girls!!

Seneca 7 Recap – Team Beer and Oreos!

Whoop Whoop. I’m so happy to be posting this only 1 week after the fact – especially since I’ve been on a 3-4 week delay on my posts lately.

So last Sunday I participated in the Seneca 7 Relay for the 3rd year in a row. After my running team finished last year, we decided we had conquered all that Seneca 7 had to offer for our team and we were not going to sign up for a third year – and honestly, I was completely fine with that since I have a pretty lofty race schedule set up for this year with that ever-almightly-timeconsuming Ironman on my schedule in July. However, a few weeks ago, I attended an event at Syracuse Bike and bumped into a couple of my T2 teammates that had assembled a biking and running team for the relay this year. Unfortunately, the captain of the team tore his MCL while skiing a few weeks prior and had to drop out of the event. So as I walked up to join my friends, I was immediately talked into joining the team – and so without much thought, I jumped onto team “Beer and Oreos” for Seneca 7 and I’m so glad that I did! (Seriously, it doesn’t take much to convince me, especially when I don’t have to organize!)

Turns out that biking and running the 77.7 miles around Seneca Lake was so much fun – and honestly I think almost easier in the sense that you never had time to get tight or cold between legs. It did however demand a bit of mental toughness as you neared the end and had to run your last leg… I think it helped that everyone on the team was either currently training for a full or half IM… If you were not running, you were biking and helping to drag the extra bike around the lake. While it made for an almost non-stop day, it was a ton of fun and great training prep for Ironman. All in all, it took our team 10 hours and 23 minutes to make our way around the lake – we hit an 8 minute per mile pace on average for the 77 miles. Pretty awesome!

This year I was runner 5, and while I was definitely not one of the faster team members, but I did have the distinct pleasure of having my second leg extended during the final week so that I became the longest distance runner for the day. My legs/times were as follows:

Leg 1: 3.9 miles/32:19/8:23 pace

Leg 2: 6.14 miles/53:25/8:42 pace

Leg 3: 2.6 miles/23:02/8:52 pace

Clearly I started out my day a bit too fast, and I would say my legs were pretty dead by the last portion of my running but overall I was super happy with my times since I have not done much running in the sub-9 minute territory since my injury last fall. Also, I had the pleasure of taking on some gnarly hills throughout the day on both the bike and my running which was great practice for my upcoming events.

Elevation Chart for the day (Biking and Running):

Now, for the fun part – photos from the day!!

Got to love these guys.

Um, I want one for my house.

At the start line with Heather and Tayna.

Checking in at the start…

Tanya showing off our sweet bike trailer.

Group Shot at the Start!

And we’re off! (Note cop car behind us… probably not the best time to take a selfie.)

 

Exchange #1 – figuring out this whole bike on the trailer bit.

Helping move bikes around while we wait for the runner exchange.

Early in the day and T already had a blister on her toe… thank god for a random person helping with her first aid kit!

Halfway point – Watkins Glen. Yard Sale. Prepping for the hill climbs to come.

Coming out of Watkins Glen – beautiful scenery!!

Another shot of the bike trailer and changing the bikes around!

Nearing the end of the day – nearing my last run…

Final 2.6 miles.

At the finish. Finally racked the bikes for the day!

Whoop woop – enjoying the finish with a little Beer and Oreo action!

P.S. Wear your sunscreen my friends. Always wear your sunscreen…

I did manage to have enough time before my second run to get my upper arms and shoulders. Neglected my hand/wrist (clearly) and my legs. Let’s just say the rest of last week was a bit painful as this started to heal… oh and I have some pretty envious tan lines right now.

All in all, I’m so glad I ended up on this relay team with my T2 friends. It was a great day, and I got to practice being on the go for 10.5 hours. I also had a chance to really try out some of my race-day nutrition plan and everything went really really well!

Really the only complaint on the day was the fact that the water that was set out for the bikers was either nonexistent or was empty when we got there. I only have to guess that runners were using it which made for an interesting second half of the day for us as we were searching for water (the course really does not go by any c-stores and is in the country for most of the ride, especially on the second half of the course headed North). Luckily a tasting room at a winery took pity on us and filled up our water bottles, otherwise we would have been in big trouble! In my opinion this race has always had logistical issues with bathroom facilities and exchange points – and while there have been improvements in the past 3 years, there is still a lot more that could be done to alleviate some of the issues.

But regardless of the logistical challenges that come with this race, it was a great day with a great group of friends!

Life lately…

Life lately has consisted of a lot of swimming, biking, and running.

Life lately has consisted of hours and hours in my car, on planes, and in meetings.

Life lately has been a bit of a hectic race to finish one task to move on to the next thing on my life.

Life lately has me a bit worn down…

And yet, amid all the craziness of work, and friends, and classes, and graduations, and training. I am SO glad that I am working toward my Ironman goal since somehow, in some strange way, the crazy training schedule is helping me keep everything all together. Just like glue.

So, what have I been doing on the training front? (Since my last post was a month ago – like I said, life’s been crazy busy.)

Week of March 23rd (week after the Syracuse Half Marathon):

• Monday – 60 minute recovery bike
• Tuesday –
  • AM – 3100 yd swim
  • PM – 1 Hour sports massage – because I’ve learned that I cannot stretch/roll/ice enough on my own… (and for those that have not had a deep tissue/sports massage – let me tell you, this is not a relaxing event. This is more of a mini torture session that helps you feel better after the fact since it loosens and aligns everything back to how it should be… PS for any Syracuse Area peeps, Armory Massage Therapy is awesome – especially Samantha.) 
• Wednesday – 50 minute run
• Thursday – 90 minute bike – zones 3/4/5
• Friday – 3300 yd Endurance swim
• Saturday – 3 hour 30 minute bike
• Sunday –
  • AM – 3300 yd swim
  • PM – 1 hr 45 min Run (11.5 miles)

Week of March 30th:

• Monday – 60 minute recovery bike
• Tuesday – day off/travel to Pennsylvania for work meeting
• Wednesday – sick… missed a 2100 yd swim
• Thursday – sick… scheduled for a 60 minute run (w/ speed work)
• Friday –
  • AM – still not 100%, slept in, skipped my 3300 yd swim
  • PM – feeling better, got my 60 minute run in from Thursday
• Saturday – Brick Session: 3 hour 50 minute Bike/30 minute Run
  • First OUTSIDE bike of the year… it was freezing and I even saw snow… not the best experience.
• Sunday –
  • AM – tried to get my 3300 yd swim in that I missed on Friday… pool was closed for Easter – time to let this workout lie on the cutting room floor.
  • PM – 1 hr 50 min Run (11.5 miles of cold, wind, and an unsettled stomach.

Week of April 6th:

• Monday – 90 minute bike 2×10 zone 4
• Tuesday – day off/travel to Pennsylvania to visit a customer…
• Wednesday – 3200 yd swim
• Thursday – 60 minute Run (w/ speed work)
• Friday – 1 hr 45 minute Bike
  • was able to get 60 minutes done with travel that I had…
• Saturday –
  • AM – Rode my CX bike as race support – 1 hour 15 minutes
  • PM – Brick Session: 2 hour 30 minute bike/30 minute run
• Sunday – 2 hour Run (13 miles w/ some speed work)
  • Outside & it was glorious! What a change a week can make! 🙂

Week of April 14th (aka the week the wheels fell off…):

• Monday – Travel to Washington DC for the day – left at 5:30 am/return at 1:30 am… yea…
• Tuesday – 90 minute bike 2×10 zone 4
• Wednesday – Travel to Syracuse/3800 swim planned
  • Break in at the apartment, decide that staying in Syracuse was not the best option… drive home and skipped the swim
• Thursday – 70 min recovery ride planned
  • Ended up completing the 3800 yd swim from Wednesday
• Friday – 2500 yd swim
  • Due to travel to Syracuse & Ithaca and my graduation from LEAD NY, missed the workout
• Saturday – 30 minute run planned
  • Called my coach and regrouped due to the craziness of the week… ended up swimming 3×1000 yd at TT pace
• Sunday – Seneca 7 with Team Beer and Oreos! Biked and Ran 77.1 miles around Seneca Lake
  • Biked 65.1 miles
  • Ran 12.6 miles at an average pace of 8:40/mile (fastest times since injury!)

And that’s where I’ll stop, since it has me mostly caught up. It’s been a month of ups and downs on the training front as I’ve navigated a quick cold and a couple crazy travel weeks – but overall I feel like its been a good month of training. While every workout has not been good – because you have to have some bad ones to appreciate the good ones – I’ve made progress in the pool (increased distance, maintained speed), progress on the bike (increased distance, strength in zones), and progress on the run (increased distance, some speed building in)!

I promised myself that I would not blog until I finished my LEAD NY video for graduation… I thought it would help motivate me to finish one project before moving to the next, however I just procrastinated anyway! Since LEAD NY graduation was last Friday I’m finally back to keeping up with my little journey to Lake Placid – however I will be writing a little post later this week (hopefully) about LEAD NY. It was such an amazing experience that I just want to share it, I’ve just been having a difficult time putting it into words since it was very emotional, life changing, and just overall awesome. However, I think the awesomeness comes in from the classmates that I shared the experience with. I seriously would not have wanted to go through that class with a different group of people. Everyone was so great, and I’m going to miss meeting up with everyone once a month!

Anyhow, more on LEAD NY later, now I’m just going to close out with a few of my favorite photos from the past few four weeks:

Photo Recap…

 I know, I know… late to the party, but SO good!

Um, my coworker makes works of delicious art.

Happy National Puppy day from these two…

May just be the best gift I’ve ever been given. Stretches my calves SO GOOD!

Dog in Socks.

Plaid Lab Studio, sprocket & bike chain earrings. (With bonus Betty bracelet!)

Big winner @ the casino.

Hanging with my main man J.

Long brick. Lots of food options to keep me going…

I mean, who doesn’t love a pizza party followed by a dance party to the Disney Christmas Favorites Record… in March…?

Bracelets, bracelets, bracelets.

Guess where I am…?

Yes!!! My OWN Sheetz card!

Always on the lookout.

…

He cracks me up. Little mini old man.

Another reason I’ve been MIA from my blog…

Giant Salad anyone?

Near the end of a long crappy run… at least I can still enjoy the scenery.

Dessert with the girls. Holy yum.

And every once in a while… fancy coffee is SO good.

Bacon Hill Bonanza 5K/10K 2015… fun, fun, fun!

Chicken BBQ anyone?

The cutest runner ever…

Determination.

Riding as race support, love that the photographer snagged this pic of me. 🙂

Gorgeous weather, and a long run to enjoy it in.

Bronco waiting patiently for the vet. He’s so good… until they enter the room.

Ha, loved being on this team for Seneca 7.

A few quick pics from Seneca 7… more to come on this!

 

Whew. That was a lot to shove into one post. Hopefully I’ll be posting more often again going forward.

Hope you’ve all been enjoying what little bits of spring we have seen so far…

Cheers!

Swimming is my Jam!

Seriously. It is. It never was before. If you’re a long time reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’ve previously complained about swimming, but slowly over the past year, it has become my thing. I’ve gone from 2 years ago where I dreaded each and every swim workout, to a place where I actually look forward to each and every swim workout – despite the fact that they typically involve me getting up between 4:30 and 5 am to be able to drive to the gym and fit them in before work!

Anyhow, slowly, throughout last season, swimming went from my weakness to my strength. With the work of my coach, and with the added help of lap tracking from my garmin, my swimming developed last season and my paces just got faster and faster. Last January I started around a 1:50/100 yd pace and within a month that dropped to 1:40-1:45/100 yds, and finally by the time I was peaking for my racing season my pace dropped around to a 1:35/100 yd pace.

The results showed during the 70.3 last June when I swam the 1.2 mile distance in 35:10, a gigantic improvement over 2013 when I swam that distance during the Syracuse 70.3 in 42:51. I was so pumped and excited when I was exiting the water last summer. And I was even more excited when my swimming continued to give me an edge during my shorter distance races as well last year.

With the off season and injury this Fall, I did not do much swimming… I was expecting that my paces would have dropped off and I was going to have a lot of work to do this year. However, a stroke (no pun intended) of good fortune found me this Fall. One of the times that I actually did go to the pool, I swam later in the evening – which is a rare thing for me – and ended up getting a swimming pointer for my stroke that is paying off big time as I start up swimming again this season! I had only been swimming a few minutes last Fall when the swimmer in the lane next to me stopped me and asked if I would be offended if he gave me a tip. I welcomed the input and he pointed out that I was leaving my swim stroke a bit short and not obtaining the full benefit of the work I was putting into the water. He claimed I would easily shave off 5 seconds from my splits if I could successfully change me stroke. So, for the few sessions that I did put in at the pool this Fall, I focused on changing my stroke and building up my muscle strength in my shoulders as this change in my swim stroke did utilize a slightly different bit of strength to pull me through the water.

So, what are the results of this? By the time I started hitting the pool in mid-December, I found that the change in my stroke now feels natural, and I am also noticing that my swim times are generally faster without additional effort or exertion. It’s amazing. And now, I can’t believe what happened today – I set a 3 minute PR on my 2000 yd swim distance by finishing in 32:08!! AND that PR included a warm up and cool down pace within the 2000 yds! My swim workout was just to swim straight for 30 minutes today… I have to admit when I saw that in my schedule, I was a little disappointed. I’ve come to love the workouts that my coach KRoe lays out for swimming. They typically include a warm up, some drills, and then various segments that focus either on building endurance or speed. A 30 minute swim without any direction seemed like it would be boring, however it was great! I was able to just relax and settle into a pace. It also gave me some time to really focus on my swim stroke and also just think a bit about things while knocking out my laps.

What a great way to end a great couple of weeks. I’m very excited to see where things are going to go this year. I know I have a lot of endurance and distance to build up before the end of July, but I’m really encouraged by the results that I’m seeing on the bike and in the water so far! (The running is a different story, but I’m being patient with that…)

So with that, onto the recaps:

Weekly Workouts//

Week 1: (11 Hours)

• Monday – 2000 yd Swim
• Tuesday AM – 75 minute Trainer Ride
• Tuesday PM – hiking in Lake George
• Wednesday – 45 minutes of weights, 35 minute Run
• Thursday – 75 minute Trainer Ride
• Friday – 35 minute Run
• Saturday – 120 minute Trainer Ride, 45 minutes of weights, 50 pushups
• Sunday AM – 2200 yd Swim
• Sunday PM – 50 minute Base Run

Week 2: (7 Hours)

• Monday – 75 minute Trainer Ride
• Tuesday – 30 minute Run
• Wednesday – 60 minute Trainer Ride with Tabata Sprints!
• Thursday – 2000 yd Swim/LEAD NY Class
• Friday – Rest Day/LEAD NY Class
• Saturday – 125 minute Trainer Ride/LEAD NY Class
• Sunday Workout 1 – 2000 yd Swim – Straight 30 minute swim – a new PR!
• Sunday Workout 2 – 60 minute Base Run

Phone Photo Dump//

Vacation week = the perfect Monday morning… post swim, blogging, smoothie and coffee – win, win, win!

My little (itty bitty) nephew! Had a chance to go hang with him for a while in the NICU!

Post workout stretching. 2 hours on the bike, 1 hour of weights. It’s just the beginning for IMLP!

Someone snuck onto the couch… and is doing his best to “hide”.

Hiking Prospect Mountain in Lake George!

I think the cold makes it more beautiful.

Vacation week = workouts whenever I desire. I wish I could live like this all the time! 

An update on the big box from my last post… I finally got my very own treadmill!!! And it’s found a home in the Pain Cave. (i.e. where I’ll be spending a lot of time this winter and early spring!)

This past week, I had my LEAD NY Class in Syracuse Thursday-Saturday. On Friday afternoon we visited a few farms, including this one with a 100 cow rotary parlor! It was fun to watch how excited the cows were to jump onto the “carousel” and how relaxed they were as they took their ride around!

Our selfie was photobombed by a cow…

Thinking warm thoughts – A smidgen of spring during these long cold days!

Exactly:

I choose to chase them. Every. Day.

Cheers! I hope you all had a fabulous new year and a good start to January!!