This was put together by Steve Levitt of Freakonomics fame who also couldn't work it out so he called on some friends to do it for him.

This article is a MUST read for all of you - and I MEAN it! The Mom has spoken.

Shout outs to my former colleague and current friend and occasional (as in once, so far) triathlon training buddy, Tim Lang.

2). J Lo! Who am I not to say something about J Lo and her initiation into triathlon? First of all I'm proud of her just the way I'm proud of anyone who trains up and toes the line - way to go! Second of all 6+ minutes in T1? I guess that insane tunic she wore took some time to get on. And third of all - what was up with that thing? I know she just had twins and is probably sporting a gut but that was just the most absurd cover up job I've ever seen. For the love of God, girl - you did a triathlon just after having twins - it's okay if you have a belly. Of course the press would give her no peace so I should just shut my pie hole about it. I'll just stick with You Go, J Lo!! Well done!

3). Learning the Hard Way - There are some lessons some of us need to learn repeatedly. Such was the case with me and a flat tire. I was scheduled for a Sunday ride with my friend, the Good Doctor so Friday night I checked the bike and the rear tire was flat. I went to get it off and it was too hard so I put air in the tube, pretending that that might work. Oh sure - it went flat in moments. I gave it 2 more tries and finally was able, with the help of 2 levers, to get the damned tire off the rim - on one side. I pulled out the tube, made a rough assessment of where the leak was, reached up under the tire and felt around and didn't feel anything so I stuffed a tube in there, blew it up, got the tire back on (easier than getting it off, oddly enough) and put it back on the bike. I checked it in the morning and it was flat again so I decided it was a bad tube and repeated the same process. When the Dr. arrived I had to invite him to have a seat while I changed the tire, yet again, only this time I took the tire all the way off the rim (like you are supposed to do) and really felt around. It had a pin in it. A very sharp, nasty pin that stuck out about a centimeter. Lesson learned. Being lazy when changing a tire puts you on the road to HELL!

4). No Wonder My Arms are Tired - I looked at my swimming mileage for the year and as of today I have recorded 98.78 miles in the water. That doesn't include races, though so with races I'm over 100 miles - whee! That makes me happy.

5). And speaking of swimming - I was looking at the times for the Nations Triathlon (a race I SO want to do next year) and the swim times are long. The first person out of the water took 19:41 which is a really long time for a 1500 meter swim. I suspect the swim course was long so if you did that race and weren't happy with your swim time feggedaboutdit - it was the course.

For those new to my life, in 2000 I was a first time marathoner (did the San Diego RnR marathon with Team in Training in 1999), a rookie swimmer (my son's coach started a masters program) and I had a bike in the garage that I had paid $10 for at a yard sale years and years ago. I got the bike tuned up and put new tires and tubes on it and rode it about 3 times. I got some friends from work to sign up with me and they showed up with rented cruisers complete with wicker baskets on the handle bars.

I raced in a regular bathing suit for the swim, then I pulled on some bike shorts and a t-shirt (I guess) and did the ride and run. This sprint distance race (700 yd swim, 18 mi bike and 4 mile run) took me 2:31 to complete and I was very nearly DFL, but not quite. When I was done I swore I would rather run a marathon every day of my life than ever do THAT again! Sadly, I have no pictures.

Fast forward to 2006 when I had been swimming for 6 years, 3 with a US masters program, had spent a summer cycling and was still a runner. I had started blogging and then bumped in to running blogs and then triathlon blogs and I got the itch to give it another go. By then I had a hybrid bike and a little more spandex in dresser and possible a little bit better idea of what I was getting in to. I did the swim in a regular bathing suit and then pulled on bike shorts and bike jersey and then changed shirts for the run - so I guess didn't really know what I was doing but I felt like I did. I even had spd pedals by then. I cut my time to an official time of 2:08 but I think it was 2:11 (not chip timed and they didn't have my time for days and had to kind of make it up).

I looked like this:

The biggest difference between race 1 and race 2 wasn't how long it took - it was how much fun I had. I LOVED it the second time, contrary to what you might think from looking at those pictures. Also, the course volunteers were mostly from Forward Motion Race Club and I thought, "wouldn't it be fun to train and race with real people instead of getting all my support on-line" so I joined the club.

Last year I did this race on my sex-ay carbon bike in a tri suit and had great plans to smash my time from 2006. No such luck. I came in at 2:06 which was better but not better enough. I did have a great time, though, racing withy new friends from FMRC in my FMRC team kit. This race is special for everyone because we get our own rack and our own wave start and we dominate!

I looked like this -

This year I have a new goal and I have reason to think I'll make it. The goal is to finish in under 2 hours and I am just so much stronger than I was last year it seems very attainable. Having goals like that puts some pressure on the race but I'm feeling confident and I have most definitely trained way more. Let's look at the rough numbers:

	2007	2008
swim	80 miles (total)	95 (to date)
bike	610 miles (total)	1665 (to date)
run	300 miles (total)	335 (to date)

Think those extra 1000 miles on the bike will help? Me too. Just look at the profile pic up above compared to my finish picture from last year.

So that's the state of affairs as I spend the week training a bit at the beginning and then resting at bit at the end and then racing. In next weeks edition of Monday Monday I'll tell you how it went and what's up next.

I said I would review their new training site but that I needed a HRM to do it justice and so they sent me one - what a lucky girl!

The training site has a few things to offer. First of all, if you like house/techno music they have some for free download for your training pleasure. I prefer rock so I'm not using theirs but it has the right BPM so please, help yourselves.

They also have some training plans designed by Gale Bernhardt and Dave Scott. Specifically they have 2 beginner sprint distance plans and 1 beginner Olympic distance plan by Gale Bernhardt, 1 novice and 2 intermediate Olympic distance swim plans by Dave Scott, and a strength building plan by Dave Scott. Since I swim with masters and since I'm not a beginner any more I will be using the Dave Scott strength building plan. Developing greater strength to help me better my triathlon times is next season's goal.

I will be also be mounting an "Abs Watch" series of posts in which I reveal my bare midriff as it evolves for what I hope will be your viewing pleasure. I took the first picture and let me just say it will not be revealed until I can compare it to the first picture showing some progress. I know I've done it before but apparently that was just a lucky shot. I'm not ready for you to see what I've going on just yet.

Getting back to my new BFF - I have tried it out a few times now. I did a very hilly ride yesterday on Mines Rd, coming up out of Lake Del Valle that looked like this:

1) I got an email Monday from a reader named Suzanne who did the race and whose family caught a picture of me in the water dealing with my leg as her Sister In Law ran out. She also reminded me that while we were waiting for the horn (it was a deep water start) some woman yelled "let's all give ourselves a cheer!" So we did. That was fun. Here's the start:

And here's me sitting at the Swim out dealing with my leg:

3). When I looked at my official results I discovered that another woman in my age group came in 10 seconds behind me - 10 SECONDS! Man that was close. I thought she was a woman I had passed at about mile 5 but I looked up her picture and it was not her - it was a different woman who I beat in the swim, both transitions and the bike but she's got some run mojo. She must have been chasing me down for quite some time. I need to get some more run mojo. On the other hand, I beat the woman I passed by 6 minutes.

4). There is a woman in my race club who is 10 years younger than me and who finished only 5 minutes faster than me. That made me feel good.

5). This bike course is not without challenge. I think it was harder than Wildflower although there was no initial Lynch Hill suffer climb. I did Wildflower in 2:06 and this race last year in 1:38 and I did it this year in 1:23 so I declare victory and HUGE bike improvement. Here are elevation charts for you to compare. I'm feeling good about this ride (almost... see below)

6). Apparently I'm a sandbagger. Monday and Tuesday my calf was really, really sore. I was limping. Nothing else was sore, though. Nothing. Not my glutes, not my hamstrings, not my abs, not my arms - nothing. Clearly I didn't work hard enough and yet I got a 31 minute PR. I WILL do this race next year and I will go sub 3. Mark my words.

And with that I need to let FIT go with a Yay Me! I had a 31 minute PR!!!! and move on to Tri for Real where I NEED to come in in under 2 hours. Oh yes I do.

As usual this will not be your standard "work up at 4, had a cup of coffee, pooped, loaded the car...." race report. I leave those to Steve Stenzel (if you haven't watched his latest video you must) and Amanda Lovato. When it comes to poop posts they are the pros!

So here's my race report:

Night before Prep: 2 Sammies from Quiznos (Sonoma Turkey and Bistro Steak Melt) and a cup of broccoli/Cheese soup) Perfect.

Pre-Race:

1).Did the packet pickup, put numbers on bike and race belt and forgot to put my number on my helmet - oops. I guess I'll have to find my pictures in the lost and found section when they come out. I think we all know that for me, the race is all about the pictures. I WILL find them.

2). Why is is so damned hard to get a wetsuit on? And why is it that no matter how much BodyGlide I use on my neck I always, always, always get a wetsuit hickey? So annoying.

Swim:
1). I used anti-fog spray in my goggles for the first time and could see the WHOLE TIME! I didn't have to stop once to clear my goggles and I didn't bump into a single kayak. So awesome!

2). At this race last year I had a major cramping problem when I came out of the water. You have to run over river rock to get out and once I stood up my right leg cramped up so painfully that I fell down and sat there screaming for help. I got none and it took 2 attempts and 2 or 3 minutes to be able to use my leg and get out of there. I was SO hoping that didn't happen this year so I took extra Potassium the day before, drank a double dose of Nuun on the ride up and ate a banana in the morning and was very careful to keep my feet relaxed during the swim. I felt fine as I got to the finish but alas....

3). My swim went well. I let the pack go at the beginning so I didn't freak out or hyperventilate going too fast but I caught up to the middle of the pack by the turn around and passed a few people on the way back. My legs were relaxed and I felt good and as I came out the water I just stood up and started to go for it and then... next thing I knew -KABLAM! I had a giant cramp and fell down. ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! I sat there pulling back on my toes with people running around me asking - "are you okay" and saying "whoa - look at that!" because my foot was so contorted. Fortunately a course marshall stepped in and gave me a hand up so that I could stand without putting pressure on it until my leg was straight. I thanked him and off I went.

Time 29:00 compared to 33 last year. I hit T1 happy as could be under the circumstances.

T1: good enough and I'm out of there, minus my Garmin. I did have a stop watch with laps so I could capture my time (sort of). I only show 35 seconds. So Swim + T1 = 30:07. Not bad.

Bike:

1). I had forgotten to re-set my bike computer so I attempted to do that while on the ride. The problem is that because of my clip on aero bars it's hard to get both buttons at once and it's kind of a 2 hand operation. I almost biffed it big time and started to run off the bike path into the weeds. It was a perilous, wobbly moment in which I could have crashed and had a very bad start to my race. I left well enough alone and just focused on riding.

2). Last year I got passed often and constantly. This year, not so much. My goal was not to get passed by anyone in my age group.

3). No such luck. It took them about 10 and 12 miles to do it but I got passed by 2 women in my division. One of them had the audacity to pass me going downhill and say "Whheeeee!" as she did it. I wanted to kill her. I tried to stay on her and even passed her at one point but alas, she got away from me.

4). You know that old rule about always have your own water? It's a good one. Last year they handed out water bottles at the 1/2 way point so I counted on that. I had my aero bottle full of Infinit but that was all. This year - no water. So that was a drag but since I had the Infinite I was okay and I did take in the entire 300 calories on the ride. Lesson learned - always take a water bottle.

5). Aero bottles with those mesh things suck. I wore at least 50 calories of Infinite on my glasses and handlebars so make that 250 calories downed on the ride. I need a cap for my aero bottle.

6). I saw a woman fixing a flat and I called out "do you have everything you need" and she called "my pump is broken" and I started to stop and then, for some reason, I decided that she said she was fine (I swear I heard her say "I'm fine- thanks") and I kept going. I know that wasn't true because after the race the announcer said "to the guy who gave up his bike pump -you can pick it up at the stage". I feel like such a heel and I'm so sorry. I should have just stopped and handed her my pump. SORRY! I hope that next guy, the nice one, wasn't too far behind me.

Ride time: 1:23 which works out to 18 mph. GO ME! Last year I DREAMED of hitting 17 and didn't come close. Much better. 15 minute improvement over last year.

T2: less that 2:29 which is what the watch says but I forgot to hit the lap button for a while. Nothing of note except that not every single person from my race club was done already as was the case last year. I was very happy about that.

Run:

1). It was hot but it was okay. I just kept chugging along and was pulling sub 10 min miles for a while. My Garmin which I picked up in T2 and spent way too long getting on, kept telling me I was running 12:35 or 11:55 or some such nonsense and I'm starting to hate it. I had to hold it up to the sky to get it to register half the time. So annoying.

2). I did slow down toward the end as it starts to go uphill but I did okay and I passed a woman in my age group. I passed a lot of people and I was happy about that. I was also just cooked by the end as in 'stick a fork in me - I'm done and I don't think I'll EVER race again". However - last year I got passed just before the finish by a woman in my division and I let her go. She beat me by 18 seconds and I was NOT going to let that happen again so I really pushed it.

3). 3 women from my club where at the finish cheering me. I can't tell you how much that warmed my heart. I'm going to send them an email and thank Julie and Caroline and Kimberly - you're the best!

Total time: ~1:05 which is not what I wanted but not too bad.

Update - Official results 10 out of 18 in the 50 - 59 division (6 out of 13 in the 50 - 54)

Swim 0:29:29.5
T1 2:20.2
Bike 1:23:29.1
T2 1:29.5
Run 1:05:35.1
Finish 3:02:23.3

I don't know what I did to my watch but obviously something is off.

Conclusion:

I ran under the finish clock when it said 3:32 and my wave went off 30 minutes after the start. My watch said 3:00:43 and I didn't really put 2 and 2 together in that moment. I knew I had 30+ minute PR and I was happy but in a second I went from wanting a big PR to wanting a sub 3 hour finish. When I saw my official time of 3:02 I was disappointed because my watch said 3:00 and I liked that better. And then I was disappointed that I spent time messing with gadgets because that alone cost me a minute, I'm sure. And if only I had picked it up here and there I could have had my sub 3:00 finish. The big problem is that I will not do this race next year because that cramping business is just too unpleasant so now I have no chance to redeem myself.

Please - feel free to slap me into reality I had a 31 minute PR on an Olympic distance race and that is cause for celebration not remorse. I guess I'll just have to make up on the New York Triathlon or the Nations Triathlon next year. Yeah - that's it. There's always next year. And there's Sept 21 when I will do my "A" race which is a sprint and I WILL go all out.

Thanks for all the well wishes. I really needed them!

How to Prepare for a race:
1). Go for a 45 minute bike ride on Thursday and find yourself going 15 - 16 mph holding back. Not that it was easy letting those people pass you but you're tough. Hold back
2). Go for a short brick run and find that even though you held back you were doing 10 minute miles
3). Swap out old 'bug eyes' Body Glove sunglasses for new, hot, sexy Rudy Project Rydon II's

So far I have a link to woman who thinks Sarah Palin's family values are conflicted and that she should stay home because she isn't qualified to be VP (not because she is a mother) and a quote frome a conservative Republican (Dr. Laura) saying she should stay home, and a link to an article that quotes people as saying "does she really know what she's getting in to" and Comm sent me a clip of some MSNBC reporting asking "what do you think of people making these statements fair or unfair" but where the reporter does not, in fact, make those statements.

Bottom line - NO ONE, least of all the Democratic party, has said that Sarah Palin should stay home because she is a mother so all that bloviating about sexism and about how no man would be questioned as to his committment to his family is just a BIG FAT RED HERRING!

As for qualifications I'm very amused at the turn around on what constitutes qualifications but I'm sick of that argument already because frankly, any party that can assert that a collective 58 years on the senate is trumped by a couple of years of being mayor of a small town and then governor of a frontier state and a small business owner isn't worth arguing with. We're not talking about making payroll - we're talking about running the most powerful country in the world.

DONE!

Tomorrow I'm going to resume writing about training and my life. The election will consume us all from every other angle - at least we have our blogs to give us something else to think about.

This blog will return to triathlon related issues tomorrow.

Right now I need a link, please. Could someone point me to an article in which Sarah Palin is criticized for being a working mother? Where has someone questioned her readiness or suitability for office specifically because she has children?

I'm not suggesting that people are not saying that there may be a connection between her not being at home and her kid being pregnant. Working mothers get that one all the time (usually from conservatives) and I think it's as much bunc as the next person.
What I'm looking for is someone specifically stating that she doesn't belong in the White House because she has children.

Thank you.

And here's one for you - this site vets claims made by both parties for truth. It's very handy.

Last but not least - I think Palin did a credible job with her speech last night. The fact that people got all excited and started yelling 'Drill, Baby, Drill' doesn't, in my mind, mean it was a great speech but clearly people were moved. Be that as it may, I am simultaneously appalled and disgusted by the level of condescension and snark that infused Guliani and Palin speeches. And to claim that Palin has more experience than Biden and Obama together is absurd. These people have played in different playgrounds but with respect to experience dealing with national and international issues there's no question who has more and it isn't Sarah Palin.

Sorry - just had to get that off my chest.

Classy.... very classy.

I'm especially charmed by the way they keep flashing the camera on the woman he was cheating on his wife with for quite some time while he was mayor of NYC.

And he's talking about how inexperienced Obama is when Palin has ZERO experience at the national level and if McCain died she would be president. WHAT'S UP WITH THE DOUBLE STANDARDS, PEOPLE!!!?????

I'm ready to barf. I really am.

1). Word to Amanda Beard - EW! - Apparently there were rumors that she and Michael Phelps were dating. He simply and graciously denied them. She went on some cheesy radio show and offered the following:

"Ew, no!" Held hands? "Ew, no! Not even that." Even the mere suggestion that Michael might be attracted to her inspired an "ew-that's-so-nasty" response....."C'mon, I have really good taste," she told the radio hosts. "He's not really my type, personally." Laughing, she added, "I go for a little bit different-looking guys."

Oh sure honey - you have great taste. You're the one who has posed in her b-day suit in Playboy so that really ugly, fat, dirty men can gaze at your gorgeous bod while they polish the bishop. Classy! I guess really nice guys with more money than God and a zillion times your level of sophistication are just so not right for you. You just go right ahead pimping yourself out to girlie mags and low brow radio shows. I'm pretty sure Michael will be too busy with his millions of dollars worth of commercial endorsements to take you out on a date, anyhow.

2). Every week when I go to roll the garbage can out to the curb I open it to see if there's any room (a habit of years) only to notice there is 1 bag of garbage in there. 1 bag. I'd like to feel really good about that but frankly it seems sort of pathetic and lonely.
Am I green or blue? Hard to say.

3). Some people have issues with cookies and will eat the entire pack. For some it is candy - if there's a bag of any size in the house it becomes 1 serving = 1 bag. For me it is cereal. I have to stay away from the stuff because once I have a bowl of cereal I am so mesmerized by its sweet, crunchy goodness that I want another.. and another... and then more. Even when my stomach hurts from eating it I have to actively refrain from filling up the bowl again. The solution is to just not buy any at all but Pookie is home so there it is and there I was - chomp, chomp, chomp. *oink*

4). I had a weird triathlon dream last night. The swim was finishing up in a dough boy pool where you swam 'round and 'round and 'round and when you got out you had to run into the woods to start the bike. I was confused about which way to go and I couldn't remember where my stuff was. I finally decided that I left it by my bike instead of in the car and when I found my bike (in the woods) I got in trouble for changing to my bike things there. Pre-race anxiety dreams are so amusing, aren't they?

5). Tell me this. If you had a neighbor who went back to work 3 days after she had a special needs baby and then you learned 4 months later that her teen aged daughter was knocked up would think about what a great mother she is? Really. Just pretend you heard about someone in town who fit that description. What thoughts would pop into your head? Okay - forget I asked but give it a whirl internally. Be honest with yourself.