Ironman Here I Come

Ironman training started!!! I am back. I love the crazy workouts, the time in the gym (and there is a lot of it), I missed my bike (I can get back into my love/hate relationship with my bike. I don't have kids, I have a bike!!), and the pool is always welcoming! Aside from the Southwest, Lake Placid, Keene Valley and Burlington, the gym is one of my favorite places to be. If I could workout for 8 hours a day, I would be the happiest person ever. Along with the great feeling of accomplishment I get when I complete my planned workouts for the day, I am also sleeping well and have regained my appetite which I have to keep in check. I missed the lovely perfume of a triathlete - chlorine from the pool (that smell never seems to go away).

I love triathlon training!

San Antonio Pictures

I posted a few San Antonio pictures today. Thought everyone would enjoy them! San Antonio was a beautiful place and a fantastic trip.

Troy Turkey Trot 2008

What does Thanksgiving Day mean to me? It is very traditional. First, we drive to Troy - no matter what the weather is - then someone does the Turkey Trot, then we would eat and watch football later with the family. It is a wonderful bonding experience. Isn't this what all families do on Thanksgiving? If it isn't, then it should be. My family has done this since I was a little girl. My family would be bundled up and brought to Troy to see my grandmother and grandfather. My dad would go to the starting line. We would make our way down to the course and watch the race. When I was in third grade I did my first Turkey Trot grade school mile - I was slow then too. I did my next Turkey Trot when I was either in high school or college (I can't remember). My family missed this tradition two or three times as my mom and dad packed us up to go down to Disney World in Florida when we were in grade school and my dad had trouble reconciling missing the Turkey Trot with going to Florida but in the end, he and my sister and I were thrilled with our trips. At this point in my life, I understand why you would question missing the turkey trot- I mean, what is Thanksgiving without running a race??? Last year we went down to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving and did a Turkey Trot there so isn't it obvious that all people do this on Thanksgiving? We actually scheduled our trip to go to Pittsburgh only after we found out that there was a race on Thanksgiving day otherwise we were planning on leaving after the Troy Turkey Trot to go down to Pittsburgh. Turkey Trot is not just for runners either. My cousins and their families come out each year and watch the race at the Ale House. Maybe, just a thought, since they are at the Ale House, it really isn't about watching the race but being able to drink beer at 9 am??? NO, OF COURSE IT IS ABOUT WATCHING THE RACE!!! I came out for years and watched Joey and my father do this race. We come to this race each year with the intention of seeing friends we haven't seen in years, seeing friends we saw yesterday, seeing co-workers with their families, seeing family members that we won't see again until Christmas, seeing former and current athletes, seeing former coaches, seeing people that you only see on Thanksgiving day, and just enjoying a nice workout before the big meal. And if you don't think that Turkey Trots are important to Thanksgiving day, let the more than 5,000 people who ran yesterday as well as those people who ran in the Cardiac Classic and the Cohoes Turkey Trot tell you that it is. Turkey Trots are so important to Thanksgiving traditions that there are more people all over the US participating in Turkey Trots on Thanksgiving day than ever before. Thanksgiving and Turkey Trot - the perfect combination if you ask me.

This years Troy Turkey Trot was a little different than in previous years. Joe and I decided to run the 10K while my parents were running the 5K. We wanted to get there in time to see them run so we decided to leave the house at 8:30 to get to Troy by 9am and the 5K was to start at 9:30 am. They changed the course this year but we were still planning on parking in the same place as we have in years past. The first problem came with a traffic jam. We turned around and rerouted ourselves but then hit a closed street - we couldn't get to our originally planned parking place. We drove around Troy trying to find parking - so were a lot of other trotters. We ended up high on the hill in Troy next to a big glass building (don't know what it is but it is cool looking with what looks like a giant wooden half pipe inside the building). We walked down a lot of stairs then found our way to the course. We were later than we had planned so we just walked out to a spot to cheer for my parents. We got to talk to a couple of parents of our former athletes and a couple of Joe's former athletes along the way. Joe and I don't do the 5K because it is far too crowded so we went far enough away so that the crowd would have thinned a little so we could more easily find my parents. We waited and waited for the race to start and nothing. They started the race 15 minutes late!!! That kills anyones warm-up. The racers started coming and then they started to go around the island that we were standing on and we felt like we were being attacked. We found my dad!! We found my mom!!! We went back down the block once all 4500 participants went by - WOW that was a lot of people!!! Because they had started 15 minutes late, we were on a time crunch now - we wanted to see my parents finish but needed to hit the bathrooms, get off our warm clothes, and get out to the starting line. We watched the first 1000 people go by before we had to run to the bathrooms and get ready. We went back to the Troy Atrium and got ready and out to the starting line at 10:27 - 3 minutes before the start. I was planning on just going on a nice training run today since I am still recovering from the marathon so there was no warm-up for me today. Our race started 5 minutes late but that was okay, it gave me time to stretch my hip flexors, quads, and IT bands since they are all still a little tight from San Antonio. The airhorn went off and we were off. I settled into a nice run. I was breathing through my nose. I was happy. I saw my mom and waved. I saw my cousins and waved. Then these two women decided I was their pacer. I decided to have a little fun with them since I was running pretty easily. I know that that may sound mean but I am very competitive when it comes down to it - you didn't know this fact about me?? I started to increase the pace a little and the two women stuck with me. They were breathing hard though, I wasn't. I increased a little bit more - they were really struggling to keep up. One decided to play back and surge ahead. I laughed a little in my head because I knew I still had more left, I mean I ran 20 more miles than this a week and a half ago. I let her have her minute and she fell back to me - haha!!! I knew she would come back. Now, I could really see what they had in them. By the way, I was secretly hoping that they would challenge me back and make this a little more fun and competitive. They didn't. I picked it up again and then all of a sudden I was alone. The breathing had gone away, it was suddenly quiet. I dropped them. Then I decided that I could catch the people a little ways ahead of me. And now I was in my competitive mindset - I wasn't planning on doing that during this race but I felt good, oh well, this is my last race for a little while, why not make this one a little competitive. I caught the group ahead of me and passed them. Alone again. Another group was in my sightline, I passed them. I was in race pace and slightly uncomfortable - what a fantastic feeling!!! More people, I passed them. This is why we race!!! More people. I passed them too. Mile 5 - only one left and I had more in me. I just kept passing people. My legs were burning. I was breathing hard. The thought of "If I had only started race pace a little earlier I could have had a PR" was going through my thoughts. Mile 6 - only .2 left. Kept passing people. One person decided to race with me and I was psyched. She dropped off, oh well. Then we hit a slight hill and I thought "Where did the slight hill come from?? We have to finish on a slight uphill??? I hate that." I kicked! I finished hard. I felt accomplished. I was happy with my race. I wished I had started race pace earlier. Oh well. 1:04:34 - not my best but better than I had planned. The finishing area was pretty much cleared out because I had finished in the back of the pack which made it nice to just walk around and get water and a fantastic orange. My parents and Joe found me and we talked for a little while then went towards our cars. We had to walk up all those stairs to get to the car - Ouch!!! My knees were sore. And then we were off to our day of visiting family.

Today, I am sore. My calves are tight. My legs are not recovering from the marathon very well because of this and turkey raffle run but oh well I will take some easy running days this weekend and next week and all will be better. It was a good race. It was a good day. Meeting with Joe's family. Giving Cooper food and seeing his toys - the elephant and the monkey were some favorites. Eating with my family. Reading books to Sierra, watching Kaelah write words by herself, seeing Lila with her new glasses and reading jokes with Joey. I love the time we get with our families. It was a fun day.

Twilight and Turkey Raffle Run

What a great weekend for me! After a summer of reading the Twilight series, it is finally out in the movies. Joe, Alynn, Heather, her sister, and I had made plans to see it on Saturday months ago. We were joined by two others that we work with and went to get our seats. Good movie!!! There were several things that didn't work for me and it is quite the stalker/obsessive relationship but it was still worth watching and as my friend Amy said to me, it is about a vampire and a human so it is a strange relationship! I was disappointed by the people they picked for most of the characters as they just weren't what I had envisioned in my head but they portrayed the book well enough and left it so that they can release another movie - hopefully sooner than later!

The weekend before Thanksgiving is always centered around Turkey Raffle Run. Turkey Raffle Run is a laid back run for 1 hour around the Crossings. It is so much fun just to run and pick up raffle tickets for every loop you do. The loop is about 1 mile long and I did 5 today. This was the best post marathon run I have ever had. I think it is probably because I took more time off than usual after the marathon. I just wanted to be this week so I took it easy. My hip flexor is sore and my heel is getting better from my massive blister so I had a lot of questions about what would happen today but I started slow and then found my pace. I didn't win anything but Joe won a 20 lb turkey. That is a lot of turkey for Joe to eat since I am a vegetarian!!! My mom won an apple pie which is funny because she made and brought 2 apple pies for the raffle. She basically just traded her apple pies for this apple pie.

Next up: Troy Turkey Trot 10K. After that, just Ironman training for a little while.

Rock N Roll San Antonio

I just got back from San Antonio today (Monday). What a beautiful city!!! The weather was nice, even though a cold front went through and it got "cold" while we were there. The Riverwalk was fantastic and the entire city was very nice. The food was great! Some of the best Mexican food that I have ever had and the salsa fabulous.

My third marathon is in the books! Three years ago I didn't think I could do a marathon but I have done 3 in 2 years. 2 this year. And I am signed up for Ironman. How amazing that life is so exciting and changes so quickly. I can't believe how my life has changed over the past three years.

Lets talk about the marathon and the week before the marathon.

Last weekend we did the Schenectady Stockadeathon. I figured this would be a good run during my taper. I had a plan of running under 1 hour 34 minutes by maintaining just over 10 minutes a mile. I wanted to make sure that I got in 10 miles. I got to the starting line and ran with a friend whose goal was 1 hour 29 minutes. I didn't stick to my race plan - STUPID ME!!!! I got in a great warmup. I just didn't stick to my plan and I was dying at mile 4. By the way it was a 9.3 mile race. I know better. So, I ran a 1 hour 33 min race. It is a PR for me but I was pissed off at myself for not following through on my plan. This also made sure that I was recovering a little longer than I wanted to this week.

I have taken the past week pretty easy to make sure I am tapered well and recovered even better. I went for a 30 min run on Tuesday, 25 min run on Wednesday, 20 jog on Friday and then took off Saturday. We traveled to San Antonio on Thursday to make sure that we were there with plenty of time to acclimate to the temperature, humidity, time change, etc.

You may be wondering why I am telling you all of this. It is because I am trying to figure out what went wrong during the race. This is the first marathon that I was not going into it sick and did the most long runs. Marathon #1 - I had mono and ran a 4 hour 50 min marathon, Marathon #2 - I was sick for 5 weeks prior to the race and ran a 4 hour 55 min marathon, and Marathon #3 - I felt prepared, had PRed in distances up to the half marathon all over the place and had quality training in. My goal was a sub 4 hour 50 min marathon. I ran a 5 hour 2 min marathon. I finished. That was the number 1 thing that I achieved. I have finished 3 marathons. That is impressive. But...WHAT WENT WRONG???? I don't have this figured out yet obviously.

The day started out really well. It was in the 40's at the start. It seemed like a good day. We had done a lot of walking over the past three days sightseeing in San Antonio but I felt ok on the morning of race day. I didn't have my normal breakfast as the hotel didn't have poptarts or toaster strudel so I had Cheerios and half a bagel with peanut butter. Unlike some of the participants, we got to the starting line without a problem. I went to the porta potties and did my thing. I got to the starting line and after the race started for wave 1 I had to wait for 30 minutes for my wave to start. I hit another porta potty again while waiting and got hungry while waiting as well so I ate some fruit snacks. The race started well. I went out slower than I normally would but I didn't want to start too fast. I had a fantastic 1/2 marathon. So much fun too!!! We kept going and felt great up until after mile 17. I had some intestinal issues initially but I didn't want to stop because I was on pace for a 4hour 46 min marathon. Then I just kept getting slower. My muscles got soooo tight. I didn't want to eat anything. After mile 19 I decided to walk the aide stations. I kept getting slower. It got warmer out - around mid to high 60's. My entire upper body hurt. I was in a death crawl. I started going to the run 4 walk 1 minute running method. I just wanted to get to the end. I picked it up a little after mile 25. The end though was interesting - we finished on an uphill. Yuck!!! Of course, the entire course was much more hilly than I had expected. For a course that was said to be flat and fast, I didn't expect the couple of rolly hills that were in it. This was the hardest course that I have done in marathoning. But that still doesn't explain why I self destructed.

Maybe I didn't do enough weekday runs. Maybe I didn't do enough long runs even though this is the best i have done with my long runs. Maybe I didn't fuel appropriately this weekend - there was a lot of vegetables but not a lot of carbs the two days before. Maybe I just don't run well in the heat/sun. I did a lot of yoga but no weight lifting this time around - maybe I should do more weights. Maybe I didn't sleep enough the week before. Maybe I didn't recover from the Stockadeathon well enough - I didn't keep to my plan which should have been better for recovery. Maybe I didn't taper enough. Maybe I tapered too much - shorter runs the during the weekdays two weeks before the race. Maybe I did my last long run too close to the race - 2 weeks ago. Maybe I went out too fast and ran the first half too fast even though I was right on target for my goal time. Maybe I wasn't hydrated well enough - even though I drank a lot of water this weekend. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself up to the marathon and needed this one to be the best one. I could maybe all day long but what would that accomplish now.

I am happy with the race though. It was lots of fun and I finished. I just can't believe I self destructed. I will do another even though this past weekend was very difficult and I am really excited about the half marathon distance. I am doing Ironman in July and am disappointed that I don't have a fall marathon planned - maybe I will get into the NYC marathon this year. Although I don't think that one is going to be the PR course but could be a positive marathon experience without much expectations as it is a very hilly course.

So, instead of doubt myself. I want to end with a positive. I finished. How many people can say that they did 3 marathons. San Antonio was great and the course was fantastic and fun. Ironman training here I come!

A quote to end my blog for today:

"No matter how old I get, the race remains one of life's most rewarding experiences."
George Sheehan
GEORGE SHEEHAN