You can't spell mental hospital without ENCOPRETIC. Thurs-er-Tuesday 13.

Dear Diary,


13.  I think I'm going to switch back to Thursday Thirteen.  I start my final semester of school tomorrow, and I have classes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.  I'm going to be busy those days.  I figure to do an hour-long run between work and classes. Otherwise, I might stop at the Y, which is next to my school, and do dreadmill work. 

12.  The day after Ghost Town, my deltoids were screamin'. I've gotten into the habit of holding my arms up and in front of me, and at Ghost Town, I carried two ultimate direction hand-helds instead of wearing a pack. As a result: today I can barely lift my arms.  Owwww.

11. But.  It was otherwise successful.  I wore my spibelt, which held my gels, e-caps, and chapstick and my bib number was pinned to it.  At each bag drop I reloaded the gels.

My spibelt.

Each handheld has a pocket with a zipper. One held my asthma rescue inhaler, and the other held empty gel packs (trash).  It worked splendidly.  I traveled light.

10.  I also got a pair of these: 

Yaktrax Pro.  There was a bout 4-6 inches of snow on part of the course.   These little beauties saved me from a thousand little microslips that might have resulted in a tweaked muscle.  I used them on a mostly snow-covered 2.5 mile spur.

9.  I watched the premier of "Heavy"  on A&E.  It's kind of interesting.  Not what I thought,  but I love that Jodi kicked her negative mother out of the house.   You go, girl. 

8.  I read recently in Marathon and Beyond that icing for longer than 10 minutes after a long run causes blood vessels to dilate, and that increases blood flow to the area, speeding recovery.  I'd heard that icing was good but never knew why. So one of my plans for my back-to-back marathon doubles in May is to hit the pool after each marathon with flippers and kick up and down the pool for a while, ice bath if I can.  Active recovery.  We'll see how that works.

7.  When I came home from work on Monday, I stepped on the scale.  According to Tanita, I'm bloated. It shows I'm very well hydrated, more so than usual, and up about a pound and a half.  I usually am after a big run, no surprise there.  Tomorrow I'll make like a racehorse and come back down.  

6.  But what else did I notice?  Well, my weight is steady, between 150 and 152, and the sun set later today.  The days are getting longer.  My weight has stayed steady, and the days are getting longer.  STOKED!!!!

5.  Oh, and Pee Ess: Baboo's weight has held steady too. As I may have mentioned before, we gain and lose together.  This is the first winter that we didn't turn into the pudge twins. He's at about 205ish.  I predict this to be the year that he earns the nickname "slim".  

4.  There is a person where I work that parks like s/he has no depth perception.  I'm going to leave a note on the windshield soon, I swear.  Or maybe I'll just take a picture with my camera phone, and have it posted here.  I can also print this off and leave it on their windshield.  Parking gets very scarce at work, and I think that if you're going to park like an asshole, maybe someone should call you on it. 



Finishing Ghost Town 1/16/11
(picture stolen from Kelly)
Baboo is directly to my right. 

 3.  I'll be spending the next three weeks doing easy, gentle, flat runs on dirt to help the Achilles continue healing.  It barely whispered to me at Ghost Town.  Ice, walk.  Ice, walk.  

2.  Words I added to my work computer dictionary this week: Vyvance, encopretic, cheeking, tricotillomania, deescalating, schizoaffective. 

1.  Favorite things that teenagers say (and I hear this often):  I don't believe in medications, like for depression and stuff, because they're artificial and you never know how they might affect you.  But you know pot, it's safe, and it's natural.  It doesn't cause permanant brain damage the way alchol and other drugs do. 

...

Future thought.

I've lost an inch off my thighs, and about 12 pounds.  I think last week I was stressed and dehydrated, because I gained a couple pounds this week but didn't change sizes.

This year as I turned 45 I had the time pause and think and I came to a couple of realizations:

1) Forty-freaking-five.  Holy crap.  That's older than, well, than I imagine many of my high school teachers would have been when I was in high school, and I thought they were old.

In other words, I'm older than what I used to think was old. 

2) I have been in college almost continuously for 20 years.  I started working on my Bachelor's degree in 1991, and then wondered from one graduate school degree to the next, including a couple of PhDs I never finished.  Don't get me started on why.  I rarely take a straight path to any destination, either literally or figuratively.  I meander. 

Meandering to my eventual destination is my third special gift.*  It makes a nice counter-part to Baboo's way of doing things, which is very tight, organized, and efficient.  He got his Bachelor's degree in 3 years, taking exactly the amount of credits he needed to get it. For my bachelor's degree I accrued 183 credits.  He's made me think more about efficiency.  I've made him learn to relax, because if you're all about efficiency and deadlines, but have to live with me, you'd go mad, otherwise.

All of this, of course, ending up where I am now.  Could I have done this with far less schooling? maybe.  But it's unhelpful for me to dwell on that.  One thing that is certain is that it's not like the journey is more enjoyable, I wind up overloaded and stressed because I've taken so long to get things done that they are piled up on top of other things I'm trying to get done, like this spring, when I've been trying to get ready for an Ironman, work full time, go to school full time, and deal with two new dogs.

Meanwhile, pretty soon, I will get to see my house in daylight.  My dogs will know who I am.

This third master's degree is kind of an analogy to Ironman.  After I've done my third, or fourth, one--I've made my point.  I'm ready to move on.  Or not.  I don't think it could ever be argued that I've gotten some shit done in my life. 

After May of this year, I want to take a step backwards, at least for a few months, and enjoy working out for a change, instead of feeling locked into a training schedule.  I'll do my last Iron distance this fall and then be done. 

I want to focus on what I like, running and swimming.  The swimming I'll do for fun, and the cycling will be cross training, but after this year, the most triathlon I'll consider doing is a half iron.  Maybe I'll train for a 100K.  Or not.  I'm stil thinking about these things right now.  I have one last iron distance race I signed up for over a year ago, and I'm committed to it, in OKC, in September.

There's nothing terribly entertaining in all this.  It's just me thinking out loud today. 

I guess I should get up off this couch and go ride my bike.


*the other two having already been mentioned yesterday.

Early planning for IM-UTE

So far, nine members of my triathlon team (the New Mexico Outlaws) have signed up for Ironman St. George, aka IM-UTE, on May 1, 2010.  Ones you may know include myself, Sweet Baboo, DreadPirate, Flamin' Mo, MG and his beloved Michi, Stitch, and Paul the Pilot.  Not all these folks have blogs.  

I went out yesterday with Courtney on my new favorite ride down to the Casino and back.  Why is it my new favorite ride?  Well, because it has a bit every everything in 26 miles: a long grind - about 6-7 miles up from the valley into the foothills, short intense climbs, some decent time-trialing stretches, and if you want, you can make it longer and extend the long grindy climb part.  It goes along a wide boulevard with wide, clean shoulders so my paranoia doesn't spike.  But, in case I do, I can always jump over onto a paved bike path.  Lastly, it starts and ends at my favorite place in the world: my house.  

My goals for IM-UTE simple: finish, maybe a little faster than I did before.  According to this calendar, sunrise on that day is 6:40 and sunset is at 8:22.  I'll be finishing in the dark.  I'm not sure what "none" means with respect to moonrise.  Maybe it rises while it's still light out, or something.  

I plan to work at getting better and faster  at this ride, then start doing it twice per ride.  I can also head out from this ride and do another good ride out 313 north to the San Felipe Pueblo.  I finally got my Garmin installed into the laptop that Baboo bought me for my birthday, so here's the profile for the training ride:

All of this is a no-excuses chance to work on my weakness over the next 12 months: cycling.   My goal at IM UTE would be to maybe average 15 mph over the course.  To do this, I'll have to work on climbing, particularly extended climbs.    

For running, I'm going to work on doing one flat pavement run, about a 

10K, once a week, for now.  Here's the profile.  It's the first and last 3 miles of the ride that I do, except that instead of being on the boulevard I'm on a paved running path.  I'll be slowly working my way up to a marathon-length run on pavement.  This route gives me refueling opportunities along the way.  I can get in a marathon distance easily by going out and back.  So, that's my long run.  All my shorter runs will be on dirt paths.  

My midpoint goal is Ironman 70.3 Buffalo Springs Lake, near Lubbuck, Texas.  It's hot and there's some climbs, so I'll be doing one training run after work and one ride after work each week, acclimating myself to riding and running in the heat.  

Tuesday, I go to see the endocrinologist.  I wonder what kind of doctor he'll be - will he say something like, "you need to scale back on your goals, they're too much for you."  Or, will he be the kind to say, "Let's see how we can make sure you get to your goals."?  Although I'm trying to be conservative in my hopes and dreams, I'm just hoping to have enough energy again to tackle the training I'll need to lose some of this weight.  I can lose my own weight; I just need the energy to do it.   

I'm also considering consulting a professional, degreed and certified nutritionist, as well.  I'm now a hypothyroid-vegetarian-perimenopausal-triathlete-endurance runner.  It's getting complicated.  

...

Planning and thinking out loud.

work: Still waiting for my federal background clearance to go through. So, meanwhile, I'll be doing intake interviews at the counseling center, and working on a parenting skills class that I'll teach one evening a week. I still have a couple clients that I'll see in the evenings.

I'm getting pretty excited about working at the same place as Baboo. We did a practice run of commuting by bike to work from our gym, and it was a little over an ahour for me at a very leisurely pace. Lots of uphills. Baboo can pull it off in about 50 minutes.

home: still working on the surprise for Baboo. More on this later. We continue to hemmorhage money as flyers for senior photos, dance tickets, and senior announcements come home.

training: Following some orthapedic advice commonly given to athletes recovering from an injury: If it hurts, don't do it. I'll kill two birds with one stone by getting up early (I've been sleeping as late as 6:30 am on some days) and attending spin classes at 5:30 am 3 days a week, followed by lifting and swimming. Ride in to the counseling center 2 days. May do some stair-stepping, too. (Uphills don't hurt, just downhills) All this is designed to keep up my cardio fitness while I recover.

Next planned run: Wednesday, October 15th. TRAILS ONLY from now on.

...

Hard Choices.

Reasons to do a sprint tri this weekend:

1. I'm already signed up for it and paid the entry fees.
2. We'd have to drive for nearly 6 hours Friday night because the sprint is on Saturday.
3. It's the first sprint I ever did, and it would be cool to compare my times then to now.
4. If I do it, I could be Champion Athena again this year.
   

Reasons not to do the sprint this weekend:

1. I think I'm developing an overuse injury, and I should rest this leg.
2. If I don't do it, I can probably still be at least 2nd Athena in the SWCS.
3. Mini-baboo has an XC meet this weekend, and I could go watch him run.
4. I've got an Olympic Tri on the 28th, and I should rest and get ready for that.

Hmmmm. I guess...to be honest, it makes more sense to stay home this weekend.

...

Mostly thinking out loud.

OUCH. Man, my Adductors? the muscles on the inner thighs? and my feet are just screaming. Clearly, I need to do some more downhill stuff.

At one point when I was running downhill yesterday, you know, the day that DP tried to kill me, my left ankle also felt week and threatened to give out. It wasn't a pain, exactly, just a reminder that ANY SECOND now, it could just fail, probably because the big muscles that are supposed to take care of it couldn't, so I need to work on that, too.

I figure that the quads and adductors and such are pretty much all that keeps us from rolling downhill, and mine got a lot of use yesterday. Now I'm worried about the New Mexico marathon on the 31st because a large portion of the run is downhill. It's about a 1000 foot drop over 4 or 5 miles.
That didn't used to be a problem, but I've spent most of the triathlon season focusing on long, flat runs so now, well, I guess we'll see, won't we? Yeah, we'll see. In about 12 days.

Now that I'm not a teacher, I'm not on my feet all day. Being a teacher was a tremendous advantage; my body was used to being upright, and I wore flat shoes that kept my archilles nice and stretched.

Most people underestimate the adjustment your body has to make to be upright for long periods of time--marathons are about running, sure, but they are also about being used to being upright for long periods of time - that's why they take so much out of you. Your legs, spine, pelvis--everything has to adjust to bearing your entire body's weight vertically on a smaller area (your feet) than when you sit. Even as active as I have been, every August I would head back to work and the first few days would be spent with a sore lower back and achy feet.

So now that I'm not teaching, if I want to continue toward ultra-running. I'll have to increase my weekly running volume and maybe even walk on days that I'm not running. I'll need to do different types of running: hills, flats, trails. I have one more sprint triathlon and then an Olympic, both in September, and then I'm pretty much done for the season and I'll be focusing on running and swimming, with some cycling for cross-training, mostly in spin class when it gets cold and some commuting.

So here's another thing about not teaching. Teenagers? In my town? Don't know me. I'm just some old lady in a skort. And, I kind of get that eye-rolling thing reminding me that I'm a patently uncool grownup and I feel like yelling, "Hey, turdager! I am SO cool! Wanna race? I may not win in the short race but I'll keep running long after you quit..."

I have got to get over this need to appear cool. It's not my job anymore.

I was 58 degrees this morning. Finally. Oooo, I love fall!

...

Assassination attempt #1

Today I went over to Cindy's house and she tried to kill me.
TRIED. To. KILL. Me.

Oh, sure, she called it "hill repeats," but I'm telling you, even her little friendly dogs were sizing me up for a meal. The third time up this nasty 12% hill in the hot desert sun I came to a stop and then fell over when I tried to get my foot back in the pedal.

But I'll have my revenge. Friday, she's coming over to my house. We'll do hill repeats.

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh.
That's it, hill repeats.

In other news, I've introduced some upper body weight stuff into my workout routine, to give me more power in the swim. I'm also swimming with paddles now. It's kind of pathetic that I've not done this before - I mean, the weight routine. As I'm writing this, about 6' behind me, is a weight bench and several dumbbells. Now that my "main" triathlon season is over, I'm going to focus more on power stuff for the next couple months, and then focus on power, strength, swimming, and running for the off-season. I have this fantasy that I'll show up for my first triathlon next season and people will gasp at how fast I am.

Yeah. Well. I have that fantasy every year. It never pans out. Nice to fantasize, though.

So here's my plans, such as they are, for the rest of the year:

August: Barb's race on the 2^nd, my first girl race. Then the New Mexico marathon on the 31^st.

September: A bit o' craziness called the “Colorado Relay.” DreadPirate's brain child is a bunch of New Mexico Outlaws all sweaty and stinky in 2 vans traversing 170 miles of Colorado in 24 hours. We'll each do 3 run legs, for varying totals.
It's a road trip. It's an ultra-relay. It's a party! It's all three!

October – I'm doing a 50K trail run in Palo Duro canyon.

November – I'll be volunteering at IM Arizona and probably sign up for IMAZ 2009.

December – I really, really, really want to do the Borax Death Valley Marathon. Ooo, “Borax Death Valley Marathon.” Doesn't it just sound all cool and tough? C'mon, say it with me:

Death. Valley. Marathon.

January – I've tentatively planned to do my longest run yet, the Ghost Town 38.5. My 12^th marathon or longer distance, and my third ultra marathon. Kinda hoping Baboo will sherpa this one. Then I can get lots of sympathy and "there, there."

After that, well, who knows. It'll be cold, and I'll be feeling lazy, so we'll see. I am determined not to chicken out on the swims this winter, Pirate. No matter how insane it seems to be in a, admittedly heated, pool in January when there's snow on the mountain. I'll be there.

...

How do you plan for an ironman?

Today I'm mostly thinking in print. So how do you plan for an Ironman? Well, if you're not incredibly lazy, you train more than me. But I, of course, am lazy. So here's my totals:

May's totals ....................2008 totals (so far)
Bike: - 282.5 Mi..................... 1042.1 Mi
Run: - 84.29 Mi.......................368.48 Mi
Swim: - 7430 M (4.4 mi)......20730 M (12.5 mi)

These days, I waver between feeling excitement and dread, and worry and confidence. It's a hell of a rollercoaster. And like all rollercoasters, it nauseates me. Erp.
And even though my training has been far less than it should be, it's far more than my training last year. Yyyesssss, that's right. This year I was sorta lazy, but last year I was lazy SQUARED and i paid the price. I finished, but if they hadn't extended the cutoff I would not have. So I'm counting on this training thing coming through for me.

So here's how the planning breaks down, after the cannon goes of at 7am on June 22nd.

SWIM: At IM-LooAvul I swam in 1:31, and I'm fine with this. I will probably be a bit slower this year because the water will about 20 degrees colder. I'll be wearing whatever neoprene is allowed, and I'm confident about beating the cutoff at 9:20 am.

T1: At IM-LooAvul this took about 11 minutes. I should be able to knock about 5 minutes off this. I'll be pulling on cycling shorts, into which has been smooshed a LOT of Baby Aveeno and Sports Slick, a sleeveless jersey, arm warmers, thick cycling socks. Sunscreen applied to my shoulders and arms and nose. Sunglasses.

The Bike: My nemesis. This is what will make or break me. At At IM-LooAvul my bike time was 8:55. 8:55, and the bike cutoff is 5 pm. I've got to take about 45 minutes off my time. yikes. The weather at IM-LooAvul was mid-nineties with about 70%+ humidity. IM-CDA is supposed to be cooler - by as much as 15 degrees - and drier.
Nutrition: My nutrition at IM Loo worked, so I'm not going to change that. De-fizzed coke and three SportLegs capsules at mile 0 and mile 56. Gatorade the rest of the time. 2 Fig Newtons at mile 0, 30, 60, 90 with plain water.

T2: At IM-LooAvul, this was 20 minutes, because I sat down and cried. Think I'll avoid that this time. I'll change to a long-sleeved meshy long-distance running shirt, RaceReady Long Distance Fitness Shorts, of course the insanely sexy Injinji socks, my NB768s, and my Garmin.

The Run: The part I'm worried about least. The bike cutoff is 5 pm, after which I'll have 7 hours to finish the marathon. At IM-LooAvul, I did the marathon in 6:20, when it was hotter and much more humid. I'll be carrying my inhaler, SportLegs, and blister bandaids. I'll also be carrying a hand-held water bottle. My Garmin will chime every minute.
Nutrition: Same as IM-LooAvul, coke with ice and SportLegs capsules at mile 0 and 13. Powergels every 2 miles. Gatorade throughout.

So that's the plan, i guess. I'll be fine-tuning it over the next couple weeks.
Goal: Finish before midnight.

...

More progress.

I went to Cochiti yesterday with Cindy. I cut a couple slits in the neck of my wetsuit, and took some advice: I stood in the 58 degree water and let the water fill my wetsuit, and then waited for the water to warm up inside the wetsuit, and then stuck my face in the water and blew, to get over the shock of the cold. And then, I was fine. Holy cow, that wetsuit is snug, but I can move in it. Baboo asked if I needed a larger-sized wetsuit, but I told him what I really need is a smaller-sized me.

I'm planning to try to go out there twice next week and do the full swim each. I feel what I can only describe as about 1000% better about the swim at CDA.

I did my long run today using the Galloway method, which I've been practicing on my intervals. I had read an article a while back that suggested that based on my current ability, I should run 1 minute/walk 1 minute. I never did this because I figured, I already walk 5/run 5, so what's the difference? Well, the difference is that I can run much faster for 1 minutes intervals that I can for 5, with means that the proportion of time that I spend running will have a lower overall pace. Also, I'm finding that my pace on my running intervals is coming down.

My average pace for 15.3 miles was --tada-- 12:46 per mile.

BOOya!! I have NEVER gone under 13 at that distance before!

This is what the Galloway method looks like on a Garmin readout:

I figure at least part of it is the interval training, and the other part is the ten pounds of jiggle I've lost.

With regard to my feelings about Ironman CDA in THREE WEEKS there is a continuum from "feelings of impending failure" and "very optimistic." I have now moved past "freaked out" and and more toward the "Cautiously optimistic" about finishing comfortably before midnight.

...

Better now.

I'm over my hissy fit. I guess, deep down inside, we all fantasize that we'd be terribly missed and that people will chase after us: "No, wait! Give us another chance, PLEASE????" By the way, thanks for all the nice hugs, blogger peeps. You guys are awesome.

I spent most of last night staring at the bike profile for Couer D'Alene looking for some clue, any clue, that it was going to be easy. I didn't find one. Then I compared it to Ironman LooAvul:

The blue jagged line is the Kentucky Ironman profile. The grey one is is CDA. What I see is that neither is necessarily easier, and the distance between the lowest and highest points is similar. However, it looks like CDA gives more recovery time, whereas LooAvul was just unrelenting hills. Anyway, that's my take on it. Don't burst my bubble.

Then I got all panicky and decided I needed to climb Tramway again this morning, but then when I woke up I realized: My legs are tired and I need a day of rest. I haven't taken onc since last week. I'm going to hit a Yoga or Pilates class, and I also have to get my books for my classes next week - I'm taking classes this summer on PTSD and substance abuse.

I was at 156 lbs this morning (that's about 11 stone and 71 kg for our international friends). Dood, I feel ALL small. The good kind of small. But, I'm noticing all this loose skin. I guess if you blow up a balloon enough times it's just not gonna go back to i's original size, is it?

Pee ess: Mike's hard lemonade is 5 WeightWatchers points. In case you wanted to know.

...

Open Water Freak-Outs PSA

Today I went with SW Tri Gal, Bones, Sweet Baboo, and others to Cochiti Lake to get in my first long open water swim of the season.

The lake was around 57 degrees, and I wore my long-sleeved wetsuit for the first time.

I turned back and only finished a mile of the swim. It was my first cold open water swim of the season, and every year the first one of the season is always shorter than I planned. That first time your face goes into the icy water and takes your breath away. Oh-h-h-h-h-h-h!

Cold water, when your face hits it, causes your breathing and heart rate to increase, which your brain reads as panic. When that happens, you're supposed to relax and just concentrate on swimming smoothly and slowly and breathing slowly and deeply. Usually within the first 400 meters you body starts to adjust to the temperature but oh, how long that first 400 meters seems!

Your brain's first line of defense in protecting you from dehydration, low blood sugar, or hypothermia is to start send you a message: STOP THIS! STOP NOW! TURN BACK. QUIT! TURN BACK NOW! Each of us hears this differently. For some of us, it's a tiny voice of despair that whispers, "Oh, I can't do this! I'll never be able to do this!" I at remember my first open water swim, I actually forgot how to swim at the start.

You can practice to overcome it and become mentally strong. Every now and then, it gets the better of me, like today, the first cold open water swim of the season. But Friday is a different day, and then there's the Friday after that...with practice, you learn to overcome the despair and the freakouts.

I'm going to be doing it every Friday until we leave for Coeur D'Alene, and at least one time there, too. The more you do it, the easier it gets. I'm saying this directly to anyone who has freaked out about swimming in open water: I promise you it gets better. The best part is that the side effects from being mentally tough are that you start getting mentally tough in other situations, too. You start thinking things to yourself like, "I swam a mile in an ice-cold lake! I think I can start that training course! I can tell that jerk that I don't like the way she talks to me!"

Or change jobs.

or Whatever.

But anway. Another reason for practicing long swims are that there are some unpleasant aspects to doing a forward crawl in a lake for 4000 meters. You have to practice long, open water swims so that you can experience and deal with them. Friday I'll be administering body glide in strategic places, and cutting two slits in the front of the neck of my suit. I did this in my old sleeveless wetsuit and it made a huge difference in my comfort.

Added later: I should have asked if anyone has any open-water swim advice to offer, go ahead and put it here.

...

Tour d'Albuquerque

If you live in Albuquerque, as with many cities, in order to do a century training ride you have to go outside of town or ride loops around the city, or live in a city whose distance across is 100 divided by pi. You're welcome for that math moment.

Sweet Baboo works these routes out for me. Our training rides nearly always begin with a trip to San Felipe Pueblo and back for the first 60 miles. Today, we followed that by a loop around Albuquerque. It was a GORGEOUS day, and now that I've been doing these century rides my plans for a the bike at Couer D'Alene are crystallizing.

First, clothing: I've found through several experiences that two layers of pants works best for me on the bike. When I wear a snug-fitting layer covered by a slightly less snug outer layer, any friction occurs between the layers instead of against my skin. At IM-CDA I'll wear my tri-shorts on the swim and then pull on my cycling shorts over them. (I first read about this idea because ultrarunners will employ the same idea and wear two pairs of socks) Rounding out the lower-body comfort plan is my Specialized Dulce saddle, with which I can spend oodles of time in just about any sitting position because the cutout allows me to learn forward without a lot of pressure on my, em, frontal lady area.

I'll be testing a final upper-body combination next week, but so far it looks like I'll be wearing a sleeveless bike jersey over a bra top. Depending on the temperature, I'll probably start out wearing my Terry bolero, which I can take off an wrap around my waist if it gets hot. Boleros are awesome for big girls that heat up. They keep arms and shoulders warm while letting your core vent. Finally, I have some nice Pearl Izumi gel gloves.

Second, nutrition: I will be drinking sports drink throughout the bike, and be supplementing it with 2-3 fig newtons about every 30 miles or so carried in my bento box. At the halfway point, in my special needs bag, will be a Red Bull. Red Bull rocks. I won't be carrying a hydration pack this time, because I didn't use the one I carried at LooAvul. I'll rely on the bottles passed out on the course and carry them in my flatwing, which I've practiced using and is now my preferred way of carrying bottles.

Tomorrow: the Baboo, myself, and friends will be taking our long sleeved wetsuits up to Lake Cochiti, which is still pretty chilly, and I'll be doing this every Friday from now on until we leave for CDA. I need to practice using my long-sleeved wetsuit, and this is the only place to do it.

On an unrelated note: Riding my bike 100 miles around Albuquerque earned me 50 WeightWatchers points. If you'lle excuse me, I'm going to go eat a pizza.

...

Rumors of my impending silliness are true.

Well, Sweet Baboo has announced our intention to do the Las Vegas Marathon in about a week, and after much consideration, I've decided that everything I've done this year has been way too serious. Thus, I will also be joining the Running Elvi.


However, since I am a girly girl (ironic, given my insistence on dressing like a boy when I was younger. Now I'm all, like, girly girl. A girly girl who does triathlon. ) I will be going as Priscilla.

Think of the Viva Las Vegas Elvis, but instead of pants, I'll be wearing a red mini skirt, white running tights and a white rhinestone leather belt.


There is this woman named Misty (fanTASTIC name) who makes running Elvi costumes, and she's already provided the dress.

The Elvis glasses and white leather rhinestone belt are on order.

Then, there is the wig.

Yes, yes, yes. The. Wig.

I found and ordered an auburn bouffant wig, but haven't received it yet in the mail yet, so you'll have to rely on Mr. Photoshop to do the imagining for you:

Wait for it.

That's it. No more pictures until the day of the race. (Yeah, I'm a tease)

...

More prep for the off season goals.

So, they don't call me GeekGirl for nothin'. When I was working on my first master's degree, I loved my statistics class. I loved my research class. Wanted to marry my research class.
I especially love 'elegant' social science research studies, those very simple experiments that have powerful and compelling results.

E.g., this study, which was reported on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/09/21/kd.mindless.eating/index.html?iref=newssearch where they painted chips red and watched how it affected people with the munchies.

I totally dig this! I found that whenever I pull a handfull of stuff out and put it into a bowl, I'll eat it until it's gone...and then that's it. But if I eat out of a bag, I'll eat the bag until it's gone. I just become this mindless automaton, digging handfuls out of whatever and then munching it...digging and munching...digging and munching....

So I headed for WalMart tonight and got another refill of snacks for keeping at work, my last 2-month supply having run out. If I don't have something there, I will lose my willpower and head for the school cafeteria. And you know where that leads. Nachos, cheese pizza, little debbie nutty buddies (otherwise known as, "food of the gods")...

I also picked up some Southwestern egg beaters, on advice from J-Wim, and will be trying it tomorrow. I'd already tried the Vegetable (it has bells peppers and onions in it, yum) and been eating 2-serving little "omelets" which are actually more like flavored scrambled eggs in a cup that I zap, for about 100 calories.


2 minutes in the microwave, 2 minutes to cool down, and I've got breakfasty goodness I can nosh on while I put on my makeup. I finish off with a nutrigrain cereal bar and finish with either coffee or sugar free.

(And, nooooooo, I'm not interested in hearing your opinion on the evils of caffein, no matter how well intended. I love caffein. I may start a caffein cult. It would be called "M-M-M-M-M-MORNING~!" or something like that.)
But anyway.

So the thing is, the little 100-calorie packs? Work. They totally work, at least for me, anyway. Everyone's different.

Pirate has agreed to be my Accountability Czar and I'm probably going to be following the "Body for Life" thing for the winter (My goal: strength training, lower bodyfat ratio, so that even if I weigh the same, at least what I've got is working tissue instead of jiggly, floating in the bathtub tissue) Baboo used to have this job, but I think it's unduly burdensome for him to be in that role. It's a dual role thing...ethical conflict...those of you who are involved in behavioral health understand...

I use a program called LifeForm, which I love. It's cheap and easy, as all good software should be. It doesn't nag. It just lets you record things and best of ALL, it gives you a way to make all kinds of graphs.

What GeekGirl wouldn't love that?

So, here's today's graph:

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PLANNING and OBSESSING.

Today was my last "long" workout, about 40 miles of cycling during which, I'm happy to report, my crank did NOT fall off. During the 40 miles, I did a lot of thinking, mostly planning for the race. I've done a lot of training and have had a chance to try out lots of different things: what to eat, drink, and wear. So here's my plan:

First, I'm leaving the race wheels at home. They're tubeless, and I'm not as confident about changing those as I am a tube. My road wheels will be fine for my purposes, and I have my trusty Kevlar Hard-Case tires on them, and I can carry several tubes in less space than I can carry several tubeless tires.

Nutrition: I'll be wearing my Diablo hydration pack, which holds 64 ounces of fluid (Nuun) Not only does the fluid stay colder in this pack, but when it rests against my back it feels cool. I've tested it on every long bike I've done and many of my long runs. Every fifteen minutes, I'll drink some of my Nuun. On the hour, a drink of my Carbo-pro, which will be in a squirt bottle on my bike. On the half hour, solid food, alternating between two fig Newtons and 4-6 pringles. The goal for drinking is 20 ounces every 10 miles, and at least 400 calories per hour. I'll be carrying the Fig Newtons and Pringles in my bento box, with spares in my hydration pack, along with a tube of Noon.

To wear:

After the swim, I'll change into my Terry Clincher tank. I heart this tank - it's got a high neck and a single strap between my shoulder blades in the back, and a nice, loose waist with three large pockets across the back. I'm wearing it with my She-beest sprint shorts, which have a kind of lower waist in front and shorter inseem. They're pretty comfortable. I'm going to wear them with my favorite socks.

The Run:
For the run, I'm going to take along gels, an inhaler, and ecaps. I'll drink water from the aid stations, a gel every 2-3 miles, and ecaps on the hour. I'm considering carrying a bottle that I'll fill up from time to time so that I don't have to stop at every aid station. I'm still thinking about this. I'm thinking about getting one of these "Nathan" belts. I've run with waist packs before and liked them. Given the choice, I prefer not to carry things in my hands when I run.

For the run, I'm going to change into my Patagonia Active Top and Moving Comfort Peak Fitness Shorts, both being very soft, wicking, and comfortable thing I've ever worn for running. The shorts are great for gals like me who lack Inner Thigh Clearance. The entire inseam is cotton lined.

Of course, it goes without saying that I'll be wearing the pink uber-sexy Injinji toe socks...which are just so insanely sexy it's a shame they have to hide inside my New Balance 767's, which are the best long-run shoes for me, stability with cushioning.

Round out the ensemble with Msr GarMEAN and his heart strap, so I can keep an eye on my heartrate throughout the day and well as my pace. I just hope GarMEAN can last that long on a charge. We'll see. I have a bike computer but it doesn't seem to be properly calibrated.

OKAY. So much the stuff I have control over...NOW for the weather forecast, according to Intellicast, here's the current forecast for Louisville 7 days from today:

I also used "MAP MY RUN" to do a profile of the run course. There's a bit of a climb at the out-and-back turnaround. You do that part of the course twice. Otherwise, it's mostly flat.

that's enough obsessing for today, I think. Time to start cleaning. Sweet Baboo comes home tonight!

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Calling in the big guns.

First off, Sweet Baboo is in Phoenix, where he'll be doing Ironman Arizona tomorrow (You can track his bib number, 1184, here). Several people have asked me if I'm going. I am not. Teachers are only given 2 personal days off (well, not counting summer) and also, I was going schedule to be chaperoning a group of science students to the state fair in Socorro.

But in any case, usually Sweet Baboo is the one who, at a reasonable hour, flips off the light and turns the fan on high, leaving me in darkness with the realization that it must be bedtime. As a result, I get enough sleep. I know it's time to go to sleep and the white noise from the fan keeps me there.

Since he's not here, I don't go to bed on time and I don't stay asleep and I'm BOORED that is why, at 4 am on a Saturday morning, I am wide awake, and haven't made it to sleep before 11 pm for three nights running.

Secondly, I've decided to get a coach.



No, not that kind of coach.



Yes, that kind of coach.


Now that I've satisfied my answer to the question, "Can I finish a triathlon?" and have successfully finished over 20 sprints, 2 Olympics, and 2 half-irons, the question becomes,

"Can I finish it before everyone packs up and leaves?"

I would like to hastily add that I still. know. everything. but I realize by now that despite the fact that 1) Sweet Baboo reads voraciously and 2) Barnes and Nobel should honor us with a catered meal each and every fiscal quarter, that just there comes a time when you say, maybe someone outside my head knows what's good for me, too. So I'm getting a coach. I chose the Jimster because about half dozen people in my area have gone on and on and on about him, including Pirate, who told me that he listens for, like, EVAR.

This Thursday will be my full initial fitness assessment. Since I can have him watch my run at the track workouts, and was just assessed and fitted for my bike at Colorado Multisport, I'm going to have him assess my swim form for the initial assessment.

I've done two trackworkouts with the Jimster that he does on Wednesdays with the people he coaches, including Pirate, at the 400m track on Academy. The first one, he had me do two laps "easy," to warm up, then a couple of 800 repeats. He did this timing me. The funny part was when he said things like,
"Okay, do this at about a 10K pace"
or,
"Okay, do this about your half marathon pace"

Ha. I have three speeds: fast shuffle, slow shuffle, and walk.

And unlike some people out there, when I say "I'm slow" (Most triathletes I know,) I mean it. I'm not lamenting about how "Oh, gee, golly, I wish I could do a 6 minute mile." I'm lamenting on how I'm nearly always at or near the back of every triathlon run I've ever done. I make some of it back on the bike, but let's face it, that only works on reverse tri's.

Then, we all lined up and did some stretches and sideways running drills, which kicked my ass. I mean, everyone else floated sideways while I awkwardly stumbled sideways, and then when I arrived where everyone else had been for quite a while, their heart rates having alreedy dropped 20 points, I was gasping for air and practically prostrate and then the Jimster would immediately say, "GO!" and everyone would take off again.
We finished off with some ab work.

Muscles that I don't usually use have announced they would like to have a word with me. NOW.

After a brief assessment, the Jimster concluded that my first goal will be a 10:00 mile. I must confess that, secretly, I was disappointed at first; I had this fantasy that he would slap his hand to his forehead and say something like, "HOLY COW! You're the most natural runner I've ever seen! With work, I think we can get you down to a 6-minute mile in no time!"

But, um, when I asked if maybe he thought I could get down toward nine, he put a hand on my shoulder and said, as gently as I might have, to a struggling student who wants to raise their grade from a D to an A in 3 weeks, "Well, now, let's be realistic."

In any case, I feel that's doable, since I've done a 10:30 mile in a 5K before. Right now, though, my heart rate shoots up to around 170 at that pace.
Little steps.

At the second track workout, he had me do some intervals. This track is open to the public, and there were a group of young kids there learning to be race-walkers. So, yup, you guessed it - while RUNNING, I had my ass kicked by a neophyte RACEWALKER, who I judged to be about 14. Really. I know I say that everyone younger than me is 14, but I really think he was. Maybe even 12. Not that it was a race. Were just working out. But he beat me. Dammit.

I'll write more when I do my fitness assessment.

I think I'll go buy a Garmin forerunner today. I'm tired of Nancy having cooler stuff than me, and I need a reason for Nytro to shoot off some envious sarcasm in my direction. Plus, they're cool and do graphs and lots of stuff. I got a new triathlon bag, too, which I'll write about when I have a chance to try it out.

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This is what I've come to.

I found out last night my daughter is scheduled to graduate May 20th.

MAY freaking 20TH, the same day I'm registered to do Buffman and Squeaky. I really, really wanted to do this race because last year I did this race and it took me four hours, and they were taking down all the equipment when I finished but Mike and Marti Greer, who are the best race directors EVAR left up the finish line for me and announced me as the winner of the Athena group (I was the only Athena in this race) even though I was still out on the course and DEAD FREAKING LAST with the support vehicle deiseling slowly behind me as I shuffled through the 10K. You can read about that here. And, I really wanted to see if I could beat my time this year.

So anyway, I was freaking out. This is what I've come to, the mother who's trying to figure out how to hop a flight from Lubbock to Dallas to see her only daughter's graduation from high school so she doesn't miss a triathlon. To add even more guilt, I should mention that my daughter receives special education services and has really struggled to graduate from high school at the age of 19. I'm immensely proud of her. She never gave up.

But between me and Travelocity, we couldn't make it work. You have to imagine my whiniest voice here as I said, over and over again, "I really, really don't want to miss this race!" Finally, I threw down my schedule in disgust and said, "that's it, I can't do the Squeaky Buttman. I can't miss her graduation from high school," all the while feeling resentful toward her, teenagers, high school graduates, whomever planned the graduation and triathlon dates, all race directors and the Dallas schools in general. And massive amounts of guilt for feeling that way.

Finally Sweet Baboo, whom I call the idea man, said calmly, "why don't you do the triathlon, and tell her you can't make it, and instead for her graduation present tell her you're going to fly her out here for a week. She's never been on a plane before, I'll be she'd be very excited".

And you know what, he was right. I called and asked her if she'd want to do this, and she's wildly excited and screamed a lot (the happy, hysterical teenage girl kind of scream) and doesn't care if I'm there for the ceremony, because flying out the week after school/work ends for me to spend the week with me is way cooler than just spending one day together. We'll do mom/daughter photos, lunches, the whole nine yards. (Sigh) Disaster, and worst-mother-of-the-year-award, narrowly diverted.

This is, of course, why I married him, and not some other, lesser, baboo.

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on Planning.

So there's this girl, Krissy, who was talking about me on her blog not too long ago, and she said, "She trains, for cryin' out loud!" and, well, I thought that maybe it was time that I did. Train, that is.

Every week I put my plans on the side bar, but I rarely say much about my training. Mostly because I don't do it.

Oh, I can plan. Baby, can I ever PLAN! I can make FABULOUS plans! Wonderful, training plans! I can plan out the wazoo!

Follow through, however, it something else entirely.

I usually run once or twice during the week (lately, I've been good about getting in at least 2 runs during the week) and I almost never miss my long runs on Sundays, but the rest of the stuff, BAH.

I'm too tired (you have to imagine me saying this in an insufferably whiny voice) The kids were too hard on me today, a parent yelled at me, it's too nice out, it's too cold out, whine, weedle, whine...

But, no more. Krissy has called me out, so now I have to train. I also have my secret nemesis in my sights. She reads this, and doesn't know who she is...but some day, I will beat her...and it will be completely unmarked and unheralded and unmentioned since we're not even in the same division...but I'll know. Oh, yesssssss, I'll know.

Anyhoo, so I've decided I really, really really need to get serious about the whole, you know, training thing, especially before, um, triathlon season begins. So I sat down and took an honest appraisal of what days I'm usually the most tired, and what days I usually have errands, and the days I have to pick up Mini-baboo from track and field practice, and here's what I've worked out for the rest of February and March:

• Mondays - spin class, upper body work (gym).


• Tuesdays - Lower body weights (home) I sponsor my club at work and get home late on Tuesdays.


• Wednesdays - I have afternoon obligations, but then I can hit the gym and run 3-4 miles easy and do spin class. Mini-baboo has to find his way home by himself on Wednesdays (it's 2 miles - no big deal. Sadly, Sweet Baboo and Mini-baboo have to fend for themselves dinner-wise on Wednesdays.)


• Thursdays - 4 miles race pace/speedwork (home, on the treadmill) and upper body weights. Occasionally to be interrupted by a scrapbooking club meeting.


• Fridays - Lower body work (home)


• Saturdays - for now, it's too cold to do long rides, so this will be my day to clean, work on my--shudder--paper, (working title: Using exercise in Individual Therapy) and REST. Watch chick movies, whatever, while Sweet Baboo does his weekly 800 mile ride, or whatever insanity he has planned for the day.

So there it is. Let's see if I stick with it.

On a positive note, according to the way cool route tracker that's in Beginner Triathlete, I ran 12.16 miles today with no walk breaks and maintained a pretty consistent pace - the furthest I've ever done such a thing. I need to bring it--my pace--down a bit, though. However, I think I'm on track to do my first half-marathon in April without walk breaks, which is one of my goals.

Today's run on the Bosque trail was marked by me trying to lose as much of my equipment as I could. I dropped my gloves, my fluid bottle, etc., and didn't realize it until I was quite some distance away. Ya gotta love other fitness nuts, though. I hollared out to one guy as he sped by on his bike, "hey, if you see another glove, it's mine!" On his way back, about 45 minutes later, he yelled back, "it's at mile marker 4.75!" and it was. Thanks, cycle guy, whoever you are! I'd hate to lose these gloves. They are my favorite running gloves. I never did find my missing fluid bottle, though.

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