21 days to go!!
So yesterday was the Ironman Miami 70.3. Many of us have been looking forward to this race, because it is the first Ironman sanctioned event ever hosted in Miami and about 80% of the local triathlete community was signed up for it. Only one word can describe the entire experience: disastrous. We've all bitched about all the last minute changes on the course, the longer swim distance, the lack of water in the bike as well as in the run, the VERY inexperienced volunteers, and yes, the 8 God-awful bridges we had to run up and down when the sun was hitting the hardest, among MANY other details our race director perhaps overlooked. For me, this is not my A race, I was supposed to take it easy and to finish fresh, since it should’ve been a regular training day. But it didn’t feel that way. By far this was my worst race ever. I did horribly on the swim, got kicked more times than I can remember, but got kicked really badly in my mouth (thought he loosened my front tooth, the tooth still feels weird), plus it ended up being about 600 meters longer. It didn’t help the fact that I am not really a good swimmer. Oh well. But when I finished the race, I couldn’t help feeling really disappointed in myself. My ego was truly hurt, and I was angry for how tired I felt, and how lousy I did. I knew I was gonna do the ride portion in a longer time, because I kept it easy, plus I’ve been riding hundreds of miles back to back in the past weeks, yet, I still hoped I did better. But the run, that was bad. I had to walk parts of the run because I was exhausted. I know, I didn’t train for those race conditions, that’s why I was so dizzy after the swim that couldn’t climb up the stairs. I was exhausted in the run, because I never did a long run at mid-morning, also the bridges didn’t help! Still, yesterday I felt like a failure. I did think that if I was feeling like that after racing 70.3 miles, what made think I could complete 140.6 miles. I know its different circumstances, I should not compare. I was just hoping for a happy note in my life, which lately feels like I’m stuck on stupid with all the shit that’s been happening. Yes, we all have off days and we can’t help feeling crappy about it. Today I feel more focused, ready for this week and whatever is gonna bring me as far as personal and training is concerned. I’m only three weeks away from my big day, no time to waste, this is it!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Pain, the sweet, rewarding feeling on sooring pain!
27 days to go!!
Wow! I can’t believe Ironman Arizona is almost here! Time sure has flown, and all that has happened in such short time. I am a little tired, but I feel strong. Like my coach told me, what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger! I still wonder how we are putting all this together in one day!
So this weekend was my longest training so far, or as I called it, my weekend of excruciating hell!! I had to run 20 miles on Saturday. Its awesome to run in Miami in this time. The weather is not too hot, not cold, and seeing good friends on the road is always a plus. It went flawlessly, perhaps a bit slower than I would’ve like to. But that’s ok, in training, that’s why we have bike drills and track days, that’s where we get the heart rate pumping. My legs were really tired (yeah, moving your legs for almost four hours non-stop kind of does that to you!!) When I woke up on Sunday, I realized I was very sore from the day before…not a good sign, since I was about to have a long training day ahead of me. So I started my ride with the group, then they stopped for something technical, so I went on, since I was sure they were going to catch up with me, plus half of them were only doing a short distance and I had a long way to go. I normally don’t care, because there are so many cyclists on the road on Sunday morning. But this day the roads were empty, and the wind was hitting really hard! So my bottles were well stocked (the liquid was perhaps too salty, next time I should take the salts pills instead of throwing them in with the liquids. So I did a couple of loops past Robert’s. I was very concerned about the dogs, since the farmers open the gates and then the mean dogs run wild, and they LOVE to follow the bikes, and they are not cute!! Thank God no dogs were in sight, I was however, starting to lose it, repeating the loops with barely any tail wind. I had recently done a new fitting, a much more aggressive one (for the non cyclists, aggressive means being more aerodynamic) I had also bought a new saddle. So my ass and cooch were hurting, my upper back hurt even more! But the biggest issue was the wind. At some point I was doing 10 mph, horrible! I know!! I had no one to draft from, but I guess that’s works to my advantage as far as training goes. I stopped at this little Cuban shack on the road, which smelled like a Puertorican “chinchorro” I don’t really eat fried stuff these days, but the fried pork smelled really good! They were very nice and inviting, but I still had a long way to go. With fresh liquids I was on my way, which meant about 2 hours of head wind, so it was feeling very unpleasant to say the least. In that area past the Homestead Speedway you feel the wind coming in every direction. So I made another stop on the way, got fresh water and tried a Coke for the first time in my training. I didn’t feel much different as many people claim when they drink it. I was ready to lift the bike and throw it against the curb. My liquids were as hot as lukewarm soup. Have you ever had a mix of warm CarboPro, Accelerade and salt pills? Veeeeery nasty!!!! I had to continue to drink some anyway, because I could risk being dehydrated. So I completed 113 miles in over 8 hours….EIGHT HOURS PLUS??? Are you kidding me??? I was so pissed!! I have a piece of paper on my fridge that says “Swim: 1:45, Bike: 6:00, Run: 5:00) Its just inspirational, but knowing I was so far from my mark made me somewhat disappointed. I choose to believe that is not that I in fact suck, there were several factors involving my “oh my God, I SUCK!” day: 20 mile run on Saturday (plus a very busy day after) a new fitting, mad head wind.
I really didn’t want to run the 40 minutes. My upper back was really sore, and even my eye lashes hurt. Not to mention it was like 2pm already. But this is a crucial part of the training and needs to be done. You guys know how much I critize the Gallo-walkers, when they annoyingly run all together hovering the sidewalk then suddenly stop with no advice whatsoever (and Gosh, they don’t shut up!!). Well, I had to Gallo-walk the run (4 min run/1 mile walk) so even though I was extremely tired, my run felt fresh, except that I added way too much CarboPro on my water, so it was kind of nasty. I am glad my nutrition was right on the money, that’s one of the important parts in this training. If your hydration and nutrition are off, so is your race.
Now I’m looking forward to this upcoming weekend’s race: Miami 70.3, everyone I know is racing it! I am doing it as a training, so its even more fun!!
Let’s have fun you guys!!! See you on the road!
Wow! I can’t believe Ironman Arizona is almost here! Time sure has flown, and all that has happened in such short time. I am a little tired, but I feel strong. Like my coach told me, what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger! I still wonder how we are putting all this together in one day!
So this weekend was my longest training so far, or as I called it, my weekend of excruciating hell!! I had to run 20 miles on Saturday. Its awesome to run in Miami in this time. The weather is not too hot, not cold, and seeing good friends on the road is always a plus. It went flawlessly, perhaps a bit slower than I would’ve like to. But that’s ok, in training, that’s why we have bike drills and track days, that’s where we get the heart rate pumping. My legs were really tired (yeah, moving your legs for almost four hours non-stop kind of does that to you!!) When I woke up on Sunday, I realized I was very sore from the day before…not a good sign, since I was about to have a long training day ahead of me. So I started my ride with the group, then they stopped for something technical, so I went on, since I was sure they were going to catch up with me, plus half of them were only doing a short distance and I had a long way to go. I normally don’t care, because there are so many cyclists on the road on Sunday morning. But this day the roads were empty, and the wind was hitting really hard! So my bottles were well stocked (the liquid was perhaps too salty, next time I should take the salts pills instead of throwing them in with the liquids. So I did a couple of loops past Robert’s. I was very concerned about the dogs, since the farmers open the gates and then the mean dogs run wild, and they LOVE to follow the bikes, and they are not cute!! Thank God no dogs were in sight, I was however, starting to lose it, repeating the loops with barely any tail wind. I had recently done a new fitting, a much more aggressive one (for the non cyclists, aggressive means being more aerodynamic) I had also bought a new saddle. So my ass and cooch were hurting, my upper back hurt even more! But the biggest issue was the wind. At some point I was doing 10 mph, horrible! I know!! I had no one to draft from, but I guess that’s works to my advantage as far as training goes. I stopped at this little Cuban shack on the road, which smelled like a Puertorican “chinchorro” I don’t really eat fried stuff these days, but the fried pork smelled really good! They were very nice and inviting, but I still had a long way to go. With fresh liquids I was on my way, which meant about 2 hours of head wind, so it was feeling very unpleasant to say the least. In that area past the Homestead Speedway you feel the wind coming in every direction. So I made another stop on the way, got fresh water and tried a Coke for the first time in my training. I didn’t feel much different as many people claim when they drink it. I was ready to lift the bike and throw it against the curb. My liquids were as hot as lukewarm soup. Have you ever had a mix of warm CarboPro, Accelerade and salt pills? Veeeeery nasty!!!! I had to continue to drink some anyway, because I could risk being dehydrated. So I completed 113 miles in over 8 hours….EIGHT HOURS PLUS??? Are you kidding me??? I was so pissed!! I have a piece of paper on my fridge that says “Swim: 1:45, Bike: 6:00, Run: 5:00) Its just inspirational, but knowing I was so far from my mark made me somewhat disappointed. I choose to believe that is not that I in fact suck, there were several factors involving my “oh my God, I SUCK!” day: 20 mile run on Saturday (plus a very busy day after) a new fitting, mad head wind.
I really didn’t want to run the 40 minutes. My upper back was really sore, and even my eye lashes hurt. Not to mention it was like 2pm already. But this is a crucial part of the training and needs to be done. You guys know how much I critize the Gallo-walkers, when they annoyingly run all together hovering the sidewalk then suddenly stop with no advice whatsoever (and Gosh, they don’t shut up!!). Well, I had to Gallo-walk the run (4 min run/1 mile walk) so even though I was extremely tired, my run felt fresh, except that I added way too much CarboPro on my water, so it was kind of nasty. I am glad my nutrition was right on the money, that’s one of the important parts in this training. If your hydration and nutrition are off, so is your race.
Now I’m looking forward to this upcoming weekend’s race: Miami 70.3, everyone I know is racing it! I am doing it as a training, so its even more fun!!
Let’s have fun you guys!!! See you on the road!
Monday, October 18, 2010
the Hundreds, the Horrible Hundreds!!!
34 Days to go!!
So now is when my training gets good!! This past too weeks have been very strange. Adjusting to my new life is weird. I have not missed working, instead, I am really getting on my workout, while I try to figure out what's my next step, which I feel I'm so far from figuring out. My life was so organized, doing my workouts in the AM, go to work, snack, work, eat lunch, work, snack, work, get home, cook my next day's lunch and fix my next day's supper, then go to bed, and repeat. Now I feel like I am all over the place, and I still don't know where to go from here. I wish there was some career bottle genie who can blink and tell me, "this is your new career, enjoy!"
Oh well, while the rest of my life happens, I'm training my ass off!!
So I ran 18 miles, slower than I would actually like, but it was about the mileage and not about PR'ing in a long run (PR means Personal Record) I got new-old sneakers, meaning I bought the same Asics I got before, they're comfy! So running on Friday gave me a rest day in between, before the 100 miles I was about to do on Sunday.
I would've never thought in a million years I would be sitting on a bike's saddle for longer than 6 hours, for a second time! So the one hour run right after was rough by the end, because my cool drink became one hot bottle of Accelerade! yuck!!
The bike course was very windy, but I pulled through on my own! Many cyclists offered to pull me but I politely declined, replying that I was training for an Ironman, so I needed to ride solo. Many shouted, "you're brave!" or "you crazy girl, kick ass!" Some even thumped up. Hearing things like that totally put me back in the game, which often plays with my mind and takes me out a little. My cooch hurt, then my upper back hurt, then the tip of the big toes hurt, but the hurt flows, so its bearable. I thought, ok, the first 25 are done, then the next 50, then the 75, until finish line! I did two quick stops, one for water, the next for all fluids in and out of my body, if you know what I mean! I cant bring myself to pee in the saddle, must practice that, no matter how disgusting peeing on top of my water bottles might be!
I have felt very sad these days. Between my job loss and my lack of options, three family members being chronically ill (2 with terminal cancer, and the wife of one of them had a massive stroke leaving her unresponsive), and me worrying about my parents having to put all this struggle on their shoulders, my mind is busy. I've been feeling a bit lonely in this city, missing my "let's shoot the shit and bitch about stuff" friends who are far away, and my family too. I'm grateful for my training peers I'd like to call friends, those who have offered their help in my time of need and their laughs when I'm down. So I train, I keep busy, and look for the positive in all that's been going on. I know I will be ok, I'm healthy and surrounded by good people, that should be enough.
So now is when my training gets good!! This past too weeks have been very strange. Adjusting to my new life is weird. I have not missed working, instead, I am really getting on my workout, while I try to figure out what's my next step, which I feel I'm so far from figuring out. My life was so organized, doing my workouts in the AM, go to work, snack, work, eat lunch, work, snack, work, get home, cook my next day's lunch and fix my next day's supper, then go to bed, and repeat. Now I feel like I am all over the place, and I still don't know where to go from here. I wish there was some career bottle genie who can blink and tell me, "this is your new career, enjoy!"
Oh well, while the rest of my life happens, I'm training my ass off!!
So I ran 18 miles, slower than I would actually like, but it was about the mileage and not about PR'ing in a long run (PR means Personal Record) I got new-old sneakers, meaning I bought the same Asics I got before, they're comfy! So running on Friday gave me a rest day in between, before the 100 miles I was about to do on Sunday.
I would've never thought in a million years I would be sitting on a bike's saddle for longer than 6 hours, for a second time! So the one hour run right after was rough by the end, because my cool drink became one hot bottle of Accelerade! yuck!!
The bike course was very windy, but I pulled through on my own! Many cyclists offered to pull me but I politely declined, replying that I was training for an Ironman, so I needed to ride solo. Many shouted, "you're brave!" or "you crazy girl, kick ass!" Some even thumped up. Hearing things like that totally put me back in the game, which often plays with my mind and takes me out a little. My cooch hurt, then my upper back hurt, then the tip of the big toes hurt, but the hurt flows, so its bearable. I thought, ok, the first 25 are done, then the next 50, then the 75, until finish line! I did two quick stops, one for water, the next for all fluids in and out of my body, if you know what I mean! I cant bring myself to pee in the saddle, must practice that, no matter how disgusting peeing on top of my water bottles might be!
I have felt very sad these days. Between my job loss and my lack of options, three family members being chronically ill (2 with terminal cancer, and the wife of one of them had a massive stroke leaving her unresponsive), and me worrying about my parents having to put all this struggle on their shoulders, my mind is busy. I've been feeling a bit lonely in this city, missing my "let's shoot the shit and bitch about stuff" friends who are far away, and my family too. I'm grateful for my training peers I'd like to call friends, those who have offered their help in my time of need and their laughs when I'm down. So I train, I keep busy, and look for the positive in all that's been going on. I know I will be ok, I'm healthy and surrounded by good people, that should be enough.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Nine Years and Eleven Months Later...
48 days to go!!!!
Yesterday, as I was getting ready ready to document my new adventures on my 15 minutes of fame in the making and the way the cameraman felt like my own personal stalker as I ran 15 miles, or my amazing 90 mile ride/5 mile run, I received the news no employee in a bad economy wants to hear. Around 11:30a, my boss informed me I had been laid off, and my position had been eliminated. It was a kick in the balls, if I had any. After one month shy of my ten year anniversary, I had become unemployed. I feel weird, but I feel good, I perhaps had one of the best bike drills ever!! I'll be ok, maybe this is a moment to revisit my goals in life. I can't wait to see what awaits me from now on. So guys, looking for someone? I'm available!! While I do that, I'll be training like a crazy woman!! I feel really focused on my training, I even feel like painting! I don't know if the segment they were filming me will be completed now that I'm not there, but if so, I will definitely keep you all posted! Thanks to all of you who have called me to check up on me. Love you guys!!!
Yesterday, as I was getting ready ready to document my new adventures on my 15 minutes of fame in the making and the way the cameraman felt like my own personal stalker as I ran 15 miles, or my amazing 90 mile ride/5 mile run, I received the news no employee in a bad economy wants to hear. Around 11:30a, my boss informed me I had been laid off, and my position had been eliminated. It was a kick in the balls, if I had any. After one month shy of my ten year anniversary, I had become unemployed. I feel weird, but I feel good, I perhaps had one of the best bike drills ever!! I'll be ok, maybe this is a moment to revisit my goals in life. I can't wait to see what awaits me from now on. So guys, looking for someone? I'm available!! While I do that, I'll be training like a crazy woman!! I feel really focused on my training, I even feel like painting! I don't know if the segment they were filming me will be completed now that I'm not there, but if so, I will definitely keep you all posted! Thanks to all of you who have called me to check up on me. Love you guys!!!
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