May 2007 Archives

Recently, my husband and I have started a "fund" for donating to small businesses in poor areas of the world, through this web site called KIVA. It is a good feeling to be able to share some of our wealth. No matter how we might feel about our situations, in terms of not making enough money or having a big enough house, or a new enough car ... it is WAY more than what the majority of the people living in this world have ... Sites like this one often make me reflect on what is truly necessary in life ... I don't think it is the money, job title, big house, new bike ... triathlon or marathon medals (although a PR is something special) ... it is how we relate to the rest of humanity and what we do to try and make, not only ourselves better people, but the planet a better place to live for everyone.

A great way to cap off a difficult week of training was to have some friends, including Julie and her boys, and my friend Cathy (aka "Skip"), over for a Memorial Day BBQ on this past holiday Monday. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun!!

A picture is worth a thousand words ... so ... here ya' go ...

What a week this has been ... it started with a Masters swim workout on Monday (2700 yds), followed by a bike ride to and from work on Tuesday (50 miles round trip), another Masters swim workout on Wednesday (2400 yds), an hour run on Thursday (oh yeah, and a sports massage at noon!), a welcomed day of rest on Friday (thanks to my sports massage therapist's recommendation) ... in anticipation of a mega training weekend.

The Auburn 1/2 Ironman is billed as the World's Toughest Half. But "Tough" doesn't begin to describe this course. It was grueling. It was brutal. It was a cross between Wildflower and the Santa Cruz Mountain Challenge. It reminded me a lot of the Death Ride, actually, and how I felt during it ... only I didn't puke for 12 hours afterwards. So in that regard I suppose it was less painful.

In fact, I made a point not to "race" the event, but to treat it as a pre IMCDA training day, just like any other ... despite this, my nerves acted up like always the day/night before. I got hardly any sleep, and worried endlessly about all the things that could go wrong during the race. Most of the things I thought would go wrong didn't - no flats, no dehydration or horrible gastric distress on the run. But other things caught me off guard and I had to adapt and overcome in order to have a successful race.

At first I had no desire to run a 10 k in the middle of my Ironman training, but since this weekend was a low volume week I decided what the heck ... my company is a sponsor of this small local race, and many of my colleagues were walking or running the 5 K. I think there were almost as many dogs as people at this event ... it is one of the only "pet friendly" races I know about in the area.

The Silicon Valley Human Race 10 K turned out to be a good "test" for me ... to see how my body would respond to a hard effort ... all of my training for the past 2 months or so has been at a low heart rate ... slow and steady. Now I was asking my legs to turn over at a higher cadence, my heart to beat faster, and my lungs to gasp more air over a considerable distance ... and it all worked out just fine. In fact, I felt better than I ever remember during a 10 K. The icing on the cake is that I improved my time by two minutes from last year. That is good news for a woman who one day still hopes to qualify for Boston by running a 4:00:59 marathon.

So I just finished another build week of training (Week 6) for IMCDA and am starting to feel more confident about my ability to actually complete the event in a descent time and without injury. Total volume this week: Strength = 2 hrs; Swim = 4 hrs; Bike = 11.75 hrs; Run = 3:45 hrs. (Total volume = 21.5; Prescribed volume was 16.25) Yes I'm type A.

The good news is I stuck (for the most part) to the prescribed training zones (lower intensities), and felt a ton better for it than in weeks past. The other good news is that my plantar fasciitis is still at bay. Crossing my fingers on that one. And lastly, this week is another step back week - yippee! I get to do fun stuff. For eg. pushing it a bit on the bike while riding into work, like I did today, because the overall volume this week is less. And I am planning to ride with my husband on Sunday afternoon, instead of racing out the door at the crack of dawn list most days ... what's his name again ...