Double-Double Pt. 2: Oilman 70.3

So right after racing Austin 70.3 I ran into my coach as she was walking back into the arena to get her Worlds spot (can I say Bad Ass!) and she told me that my plan was up but to go by feel.  I'm so happy she told me that because I could barely move my legs for two days after the race.  I did manage an easy spin midweek but I was spending a lot of time with my feet up and sleeping in before work.  

Finally Saturday morning comes and Brian and I load up the car and head out to East Texas.  This was going to be his last triathlon of the season too so we were both excited.  We finally got to Conroe and found the resort and picked up our packets and checked into the hotel.  I would totally recommend staying at the resort.  The rooms were super nice and we were on the 15th floor so we had a great view.  After we settled into the room we headed out to drive the bike course since neither of us was familiar with the area.  The landscape is totally different than San Antonio so I was excited to see some new things.  What I was not excited for was the wind and the cool temps.  I tried to stay optimistic and told myself that the wind would be gone by tomorrow and it would be warmer in the morning.  Race morning came and we had a nice, short walk to transition in the resort's parking lot.  It was definitely still cool in the morning and still windy.  After we racked our bikes and got our timing chip we walked down to the water. They said the water was about 70*, so just warm enough for my sleeveless wetsuit.      

Swim:  41:17

The swim was a beach start so when they told you to go, you had to run into the water and start swimming. The water was pretty shallow so you could probably walk a pretty long way out into the water but once the water seemed high enough I started swimming.  Everything went great around the first turn and I noticed some waves on the way to the second turn marker.  Okay, so far so good.  I'm passing people and I'm almost to the second turn.  BAM!!  a foot right between the eyes.  "M*therf*&&er!!" were the words that came out of my mouth as I raised up and reached up to push my goggles back on my face.  I shot the kicker a dirty look and continued swimming.  I'll be damned if I was going to stop and clear the water out of my goggles.  Luckily they weren't filling up with anymore water so it was tolerable.  Now I started to notice how choppy the water was.  There were swells raising me up and slapping me down.  I remember thinking to myself that I was glad that I don't get seasick because the rolling motion could make someone feel queasy.  I could have sworn that someone was driving their boat back and forth on purpose stirring up the water to cause waves.  Okay, now this is choppy water!  But I was very happy that my sighting was on course and I wasn't being pulled all over the place in the water.  The rest of the swim was, thankfully, uneventful.  I noticed that my arms were feeling kind of tired, which was not a big surprise.  I kind of was just taking stock of how I was feeling and was happy that I wasn't feeling too tired.    

I ran into T1 and took the time to dry off a little bit and put on my bike jacket.  I had made the decision to wear the jacket on the run to the bike when instead of feeling comfortable I was still cold.  A lot of the bike course was through the shaded national forest and I didn't want to be cold.  

Bike:  3:18:51

My friend, Aixa, had lent me her "magic" wheels.  Cute pink Zipp wheels that are autographed by Hilary Biscay and Maik Twelseik.  I was really hoping to not let them down.  Alas, the bike course is a tale of two journeys.  The way out was awesome.  The wind was at my bike and I was averaging exactly where I wanted to.  I hit the halfway mark about 1 minute under my goal time and I was super stoked about that.  But once I turned onto the road headed back, it was straight into a headwind.  I tried my best to just tuck in tight and pedal strong, but I could feel my legs just didn't have the power in them that they did last weekend.  With about 2 or 3 miles left on the bike I was shifting my front ring and the chain dropped.  So I had to stop and fix that, which probably took a couple of minutes.  Overall, I'm not too dissatisfied with my bike split, because even though it's not my fastest (or even second fastest) it's way better than it used to be when I first started racing.  And just for the record, there were a few F-bombs on the bike course as well.  Mostly aimed at the wind and the dropped chain.  :)  

I was so happy to drop my bike off into T2 and I had a pretty smooth transition from my bike shoes to running shoes.  No falling over this time!

Run:  2:05:43

The run.  What can I say about this run....it was painful.  Luckily this course is flat so I didn't have to worry about hills.  I really wanted to go sub 2 hrs on this run but I'm so happy with my time.  This course was a 3-loop course, again, and I just remember thinking to myself, "Just get to the third loop".  I was not looking at my watch until it beeped to tell me what my mile splits were.  I was actually pleasantly surprised to see the low 9-min pace I was running.  Okay, maybe this run won't be so bad after all!  I again came to the conclusion that a 3-loop run course is just torture.  My second lap hurt and I was so happy to start my third loop.  There was one F-bomb on the run when my watch lost satellite reception and it pissed me off. I remember approaching the 10 mile mark and the guy I was passing (ha!) said he just wanted a beer.  I told him that I just wanted to stop running!  I finally saw Brian on the side of the road finished with the race and he looked great!  I was so happy to see him.  I told him I had a little over 2 miles to go.  Once I hit the 12 mile mark I decided to "drop the hammer".  I figured I could hang on for a mile to finish strong.  This ended up being my fastest split and it felt great to see the legs respond.

Total:  6:12:31

I have never been so happy to be done with a race.  Brian was there at the finish line and he came over and gave me the best congratulatory hug ever.  That's when I lost it.  The tears just came and wouldn't stop.  Brian just tucked me under his arm and lead me away to a quiet place and I told him that I was so happy to be done!  I was bummed about my bike split but overall I was extremely happy with everything else. A feeling of great accomplishment came over me.  I remember looking at him and saying, "I did it".  I think I had had doubts in my mind, even after starting the race, of whether I could actually do this or not.  

So here completes my Double-Double 70.3 weekends.  Thanks to everyone who wished me luck and supported me!!  Next year's challenge:  IMCdA!!!!   

Double-Double Pt. 1: Austin 70.3

     Well, this was a pretty fun season of racing and I had tons of gains and learned a lot about my abilities by going back and doing some short-course races.  I found new breakthroughs on the run, which thrills me endlessly!  I also think the 5 lbs or so I lost by changing the way I was eating played a big part in that.  Less junk in the trunk to haul up those hills!!  But by mid-season I was looking for a challenge.  What could I do to make this season memorable?  So when a friend posted on Facebook the idea of racing Oilman 70.3 the weekend after Austin 70.3 my interest was sparked!  My friends and I had already decided to do Austin 70.3 again as a "measuring stick" so to speak.  It was our first 70.3 race 2 or 3 years ago and I was really curious to go back and see how my times would compare.  So I texted Coachie my idea and she was all in on the double-double challenge because she said that I had already proved I could do it with my double-double 1/2 marathons earlier in the year.  Perfect!  I had found my challenge!

Austin 70.3 turned out to be the best race ever.  The weather started out iffy when we woke up in the morning.  It had rained overnight and was still kind of drizzling that morning.  The temps were cool but not cold but there was still lightening sticking around so that delayed the start of the race by a few minutes.  We all hung around chit chatting and trying to relax.  The group of supporters from San Antonio made it up and we had fun hanging with them before we had to drop of our morning bags and get in line to head down to the water.  By then, the rain had stopped and I was hoping that it would stay away so the roads would dry up on the bike course.  

Swim:  39:53

I was wearing my new sleeveless wetsuit for the first time and I was hoping that it would bring me good luck.  As we were waiting in the water for our wave to start, the girls and I wished each other luck and got ourselves into position and then "Bang" we were off.  I immediately was in a crowd of girls and was just trying to not get kicked in the face or have the skin of my arms scratched off.  I knew it was going to be a "fight for your position" swim.  For the most part the swim went good.  I managed to get some clear water every now and then and  I was feeling pretty happy with my ability to get around people.  I don't know if it was all the people in the water around me or what but I thought to myself that the water felt pretty choppy.  Which was good, because I've been very lucky in all of my open water swims in races to have very calm water.  I felt I needed to know what choppy water felt like during a race to see if I could handle it.  Little did I know that this was nothing compared to what was coming up next weekend!  I exited the water with a new swim PR!  Very stoked about that!!

The run to T1 went smooth.  Luckily I didn't step on any stickers and made it to my bike on the first shot.  I was very fortunate in T1 to have a spot pretty close to the bike out.  With all the rain and wet athletes, the ground was pretty muddy and having to run through all that mud was causing problems for people who had to run a long distance with their bike shoes on.  As I was running out of T1 with my bike up in the air because I didn't want to risk getting a flat by running over any stickers, I told the girl running next to me, "I didn't know we had signed up for a cyclocross race!!"  She laughed and I finally got to the mount line.

Bike:  2:55

I honestly don't have any words for my bike split.  It's the fastest I've ever ridden my bike (race or training) and the whole bike just felt so awesome.  The course was crowded when I started and the roads were still damp so I just worked on being aware of everyone around me.  The weather turned out to be great; there was no wind and overcast skies.  I had rented some Zipp 404 wheels for my bike and they just felt so responsive.  Every time I pedaled they responded quickly and they felt weightless.  I had gone over my numbers the night before on where I would like to be time wise at the halfway point of the bike and, when that time came, I saw I was 9 minutes ahead of my goal!  Of course, this made start thinking to myself, "Am I pushing it too hard?  Am I going to have enough in my legs for the run?"  But I was feeling good and decided to ride it out.  It was on this bike ride that I thought to myself that I felt like a cyclist.    

Riding into T2, I looked at my watch and saw I was 8 minutes ahead of where I wanted to be when I started the run.  I was super excited about that and ran to rack my bike and put on my running shoes.  I had some trouble staying upright when I tried to lean over to switch shoes so I had to sit down to swap out my shoes.  Oh well, better that than tumbling face first into the asphalt parking lot!

Run:  2:04:02

I headed out of T2 and just wanted to run to the best of my ability.  Doing more short-course races, I really hadn't been doing a whole bunch of long runs during the summer, so I was actually kind of leery of how I was going to do.  The Austin course is not flat by any means and it's three loops, so I knew I would be going up and down a lot of hills.  On the road out of T2 I heard a whole bunch of screams and I saw all the San Antonio peeps cheering!!  It was so awesome to see them.  I ran by and high fived as many as I could.  I saw Dawn and Aixa on the run and they were both looking strong.  I had seen Kris in T2 so I knew she was close behind me.  The first loop of the run went good.  My splits were good.  Probably a little too fast, but I couldn't seem to make my legs slow down.  The second loop turned into a "I am never doing a race with a loop run again".  My quads were cramped and so was my right ankle and foot.  I drank as much Gatorade that I could and took my salt pills but the taste of the Gatorade and gu's was making me sick.  Heading out on the third loop, I knew it was going to be tough.  I had slowed down enough that I knew finishing the run in 2 hrs was out of the question but I knew I was going to hit my goal of going sub 6 hours for the total race if I could just keep running.  I had seen Aixa as she was heading out on her third loop and she yelled at me to "make it hurt".  I managed to yell back at her "it already hurts!"  On the turnaround at the end of the third loop I saw Kris and she yelled that we were 5:25 in and to "GO!"  I did some mental calculations in my head and knew I could run a little over 2 miles in 20 or so minutes.  I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and was finally turning down the finisher shoot.

Total:  5:46:19

I was in complete shock that I had just had, to me, the perfect race.  I kept looking at my watch in disbelief and was feeling completely dumbstruck.  I would have been happy with any time that was under 6 hours, but to break that mark by 14 minutes was amazing!  Seeing Brian and all my friends at the finish line was awesome too.  I'm so happy and grateful for all their support and encouragement.   But, the brain being what it is, had already started having doubts of how I was going to do this all again next weekend.  So I was able to enjoy the moment, but in a way I was already thinking ahead to the next race...

                     

A break from the norm: Austin City Limits Music Festival 2013

All I can say about this past weeked was that it was a BLAST!!! 

There was Depeche Mode, The Cure, Arctic Monkeys, Passion Pit, Kascade, Wilco, Portugal the Man, Joy Formidable, Queens of the Stone Age, Muse, Kings of Leon...so many groups!!!

After 36 years I have finally seen The Cure in person.  I am a complete person now :)  Robert Smith sang all their best songs and he sounded phenominal.  Dave and Martin from Depeche Mode were awesome and Dave shook his hips for the crowd countless times!  My new fav band Arctic Monkeys rocked it and I'm totally in love with them....literally cannot stop listening to them!  Alex Turner gave Dave a run for his money with all that hip swinging!

The food choices this weekend were great.  All of Austin's best lined up to choose from, and boy did we!  This was a free for all weekend of indulgence and relaxation.  I loved every minute of it!  I was bummed that the third day got cancelled because of the weather, but the first two days were great enough that it took some of the sting out of it.  Here's to next year!

Hanging out with great friends and listening to great music....great times, great times.

But now it's back to training. I've got three big races coming up....these are a different sort of great times. :)

Kerrville Tri (Quarter distance) race report



Post-race goofiness :)



I've been looking forward to this weekend since the beginning of the month.  It was going to be my last "short" race before my two late-season 70.3 races and marathon.  I was super anxious to get out there and see how my training had progressed since May, and since I knew the course I wasn't too worried about anything going wrong.  I will never make that mistake again!!  The biggest lesson I learned on this race is, no matter how much you think you know the course, you still have to stay sharp and in the game because anything can happen.  And that's what happened to me.....

Swim:  21:39 (1000m)

I had a decent swim and am okay with my swim time.  There's still room for a lot of improvement though.  I think there is an extra minute added on to it because you don't cross over the timing mats until you run up to the wetsuit strippers and then have them strip you off.  I think that probably totaled up to an additional minute so I'll take it.  I had clear water for about 95% of the swim and was pretty spot on with my sighting.  I ended up being 4th in my AG with my swim.  Yeah!!

Bike:  1:37:00 (29 miles or if you're Orissa Loftin - 30.14 miles)

I felt great getting on the bike after the swim and settled into a rhythm pretty quickly.  I downed a GU a few minutes in to get some energy and soon I was on my way out of town.  There was a slight tailwind, so I decided to use that to my advantage because that would mean that there would be a slight headwind coming back into town but I wasn't too worried about that.  I still haven't replaced the battery on my bike computer so the only way I knew how fast I was going was by looking at my garmin, which just gave my current speed and not my average.  I was pleasantly surprised when I hit the 20 mile mark and noted my time was at 59 minutes.  Yes - I was averaging over 20 mph!!  I really wanted to be there because I knew I would probably slow down a little bit on the way back.  Making the turns back into town I caught up to this girl and I was debating passing her before the turn into T2 or just staying behind her.  While I was contemplating, we have to do a few sharp turns so my passing opportunity never really presented itself, but I was still kind of stuck out to the left of her and so when I did decide to pass her I saw a sign that said "No passing zone".  Which should have alerted me right then that this meant my turn was coming up, but since I was so distracted I dropped back so I didn't get a penalty or in trouble for trying to pass.  Anyway, it was a few seconds after this when I realized that I had just passed up my turn.  I kept looking to my right and I knew that I had gone too far.  I finally pulled off into a side street, where there were some volunteers and screamed "Help!" at them.  I have to give kudos to them and the officer working that corner.  They came over immediately and I told them what I had done and what would be the best way for me to get back to T2.  I contemplated riding on the run course, but I didn't want to be that person too.  They told me the best way to get back would be to go back to the main road and just ride back to it.  I thanked them and quickly took off.  Luckily traffic wasn't that bad and I was able to get across and back to the street pretty quickly.  Back at the turn, the officer waved my through pretty quickly and I explained to the volunteers who were looking at me weirdly what I had done.  There were quick to say nice and encouraging things to me and I was off my bike and into T2.  Dr. Allen was johnny on the spot in T2 in helping me move bikes out of my way so I could rack my bike and get on to the run.  I was so upset!  I couldn't believe that I had done that, but I knew that I would just have to shake it off and just go out there and run. 

Run:  55:16 (6.4 miles)

While I was on the bike I had told myself that I would be happy if I could maintain a pace of high 9's for the first three miles and then see if I could hold high 8's for the last three miles.  Now I just wanted to run as fast as I could to try to make up that 6 minutes I lost on the bike.  I'm sure I had tons of adrenaline running through my system as I took off on the that first mile.  I quickly came up on people who I knew were behind me on the bike and every time I saw one of them my stomach just turned in disgust.  I had worked so hard on the bike to get a lead over them and I had blown it!  I came up to a friend of mine and she wished my luck on the run as I quickly recapped my error to her.  She told me to run and I did.  I hit the first mile with an 8.12 pace.  Whoa - yup adrenaline!  I was able to forget about the bike and focus on the run and I felt really good on the run.  I knew if I had a good run I would still probably be able to meet my goal of going sub 3 hours even with my detour.  I pushed myself and ran as fast as I think I was capable of that day.  I am amazed by my progress on the run.  I remember last season when I would struggle to get out of the 10 min/mi pace.  It feels so awesome to be able to run strong after swimming and biking.  

Total:  2:57:52 

Overall, I am very happy with this race.  I know that anything can happen on race day and I just have to take everything in stride.  That's the great thing about this sport.  You learn something every time you go out there and toe the line.  Whether you have a great day or a bad day, there is always something to take away from it.  And having so many friends out there, either racing or showing their support, is so great.  It makes the day so much more fun to get to share it with them.  

The race is still fresh enough that I can't think about my "learning experience" (I'm not calling it a mistake anymore) without experiencing a gut wrenching feeling, because I really think my time would have been closer to 2:51 or 2:52 and that would have put me 4th in my AG instead of 7th.  Not that I'm not ecstatic to be in the top 10 of my AG, but just knowing what could have been is still too fresh in my mind.                      

Augusto 10k race report

This race happened they way it usually happens for me - spur of the moment!  As my friends and I were texting each other back and forth about our weekend training plans, Kris said that she was doing an 18k race for work - which worked for her because she had an 11 mile run on her plan anyway.  Quickly, Aixa signed up for the race as well since she too had to run 11 miles.  I told them that I would head out in that direction, but I only had an hour run so I would see them on the course and hang with them afterwards.  I was quickly informed that there was a 10k option to sign up for as well.  So, no wanting to be left out, I signed up for it.  I immediately starting having thoughts about how well I could do at this race.  It's a smaller race so I wasn't sure who exactly would show up.  After my run at Small Texan, I've been feeling a bit more confident on my runs and I was thinking that I might be able to place in my age group.

Never ones to miss out on a matchy-matchy opportunity!

So Sunday morning comes and I get to the race and I'm looking around at all the other races.  Most seem to be wearing the 18k bibs but I see quite a few 10k bibs and I immediately think to myself that they all look like faster runners than me but maybe they are not in my age group (but of course I assumed they all were).  And then I see HER....a girl who will remain nameless but one that I know has aged up into my age group and who is fast.  I decide to line myself up behind her and see how long I can hang or keep her in my sights. 

The countdown begins and we take off.  This is only my second 10k run that I've raced so I'm still unsure of how fast I should go out.  I know I can't go out as hot as I can in a 5k because I'm not sure I can maintain that pace.  So I keep my "mark" in my sights and I'm running at a pretty good clip.  The first mile is all downhill so you're able to go pretty fast.  My "mark" begins to play with her watch and slows down.  I begin to freak out. Do I slow down and stay behind her?  Do I pass her and try to hold her off?  I really didn't want to be the one being chased; I wanted to be the chaser.  I decide I don't want to loose too much time so I pass her.  I hear her jump onto my heels.  Ugh!  Then she passes me up again and I breath a sigh of relief.  Okay - back to plan A:  Keep her in your sights. 

I'm passing lots of runners and feeling comfortable as the miles start ticking off my Garmin.  I'm finding it easy to keep my "mark" in my sights and I'm beginning to think about my strategy for the way back.  I come up to another girl who's running a good pace.  I pass her for a few minutes and then she passes me back up with a speed that I can't hang with so I let her go.  But she's another girl that I decide to keep in my sights.  Right before the turn around I get passed by one female who I had not seen before.  She's running fast and quickly starts picking off my two "marks".  Hmmmm, okay then.  As I approach the turn around I get to count how many females are ahead of me; two girls are super far ahead me, the girl who came from behind and passed me is in third, and then my two "marks" are fourth and fifth.  That makes me sixth female!  I hit the turn around and I'm feeling good.  The legs are turning over quickly and my breathing is labored by I'm not out of breath by any means.  My pace has been in the 8's and I'm thinking to myself that I can hold this pace.  As I get to mile 4 I realize that I'm catching up to my "marks".  I'm right one their heels.  Now is the time for me to make my decision.  Do I pass now with 2 miles left or stay behind them and wait until I'm closer to the finish?

I know that last mile is one hell of an uphill and I decide to risk it.  I pick up my pace and pass one of the girls and then I pass the other one.  I hear them breathing behind me and not letting up; they are staying on my heels.  Mile 5 beeps on my watch.  I know there's only 1.2 miles left.  I take a quick swig of my hydration from my handheld (best decision ever by the way to take it with me!) and dig in for the uphill.  I know if I can just maintain my pace maybe I can hold them off.  I'm too scared to look behind me so I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and run.  I finally get to the top and the terrain evens out.  There's a sharp 90-degree turn and I finally risk a glance behind me - No one's there!!  I can't believe it!  I let a little "whoop!" out and pick up the pace.  Of course, this is the place where my foot finds the one hole in asphalt and my ankle turns a little.  I quickly recover and shake my head.  Focus Orissa!!  As my watch beeps for mile 6, I decide to take another peek over my shoulder.  Crap - green shirt girl is there!  I put the pedal to the metal and sprint to the finish that I now can see.  I cross over the line and I stop my watch - 52 min and change!  A 10k PR!!!  I am ecstatic with my run.  The girl in the green shirt comes over to me and we congratulate each other for a good race.  She ended up getting 1st place in her age group and I ended up getting 2nd in my age group!   

This turned out to be a very fun race and I'm extremely happy with my result.  Next up for me is the Kerrville Intermediate Distance triathlon.  I'm hoping my running improvements carry over into triathlons!!  Stay tuned..... :)

Small Texan Tri Relay - San Antonio Smash



Me, Shelly & baby, and Kris.  Thanks Roland
for taking our pic!



This past weekend I competed in my first ever triathlon relay.  My friend Shelly is a soon-to-be mommy and has been doing very good at taking care of herself once she found out she was preggers.  Her go to activity to stay fit has been swimming and it was her idea to do a relay.  When she and Kris were talking about it, I told them that if they wanted a 3rd person I would be willing to do the run if they were looking for a 3rd person since I wasn't sure if Kris was all geared up to do the bike/run part of the relay.  Luckily they were down with the idea and that's how San Antonio Smash was born!

I set a pretty lofty goal for myself for this race and decided to see if I could run a sub 9-minute/mile 10k.  I'm not quite sure what I was thinking since I've never been able to do that in any of my training, or any races for that matter, but I wanted to see how well I could do.  And truthfully, my run training leading up to this race was pretty pathetic.  I just couldn't seem to hit any of my targets during training and I was getting worried about letting my teammates down.  Luckily, I did have one great run before the race that gave me a boost of confidence that I did, indeed, have speed in my legs.  I just wasn't sure if that speed would last me for 6.2 miles.

Come race morning we talked about our goals so we could be sure to be in the transition area ready and raring to go.  Shelly had an amazing swim of 31 minutes for the 1500m swim.  Even 20+ weeks pregnant she swam what is my fastest ever Oly swim time!  Way to crush that swim Shelly and baby!!!!  Kris took off on the bike looking to crush those hills and chip seal out in Boerne.  We had estimated her bike to be around 1:30 so I had some time to wait around and get more and more nervous for my run.  As we were waiting for Kris to come back, I was able to scope out my competition for the run.  I was able to see the runners for the teams I was guessing were in 2nd and 4th.  I'm not sure where the 1st place team runner was, but it was all male team of Marines, so I wasn't worried about them because - come on - they're Marines!  There was no way I was going to catch them, lol.  The next two teams had two females who looked like they would be some fairly tough competition.  I was trying not to let their physical appearance get to me too much because I know runners can come in all shapes and sizes and that maybe I had more experience that would help me out.  I never saw the first place team runner take off, but I did see the 2nd place biker come in and the girl take off.  Her husband crushed the bike course with a 1:18, so I knew it would probably be coming down to between me and the girl from the other team.  Kris came into the transition area next and we had a swift exchange of timing chip and race belt and I was out the gates flying!  She had an amazing bike split of 1:32!!!  Only two minutes off her goal time and averaging 18 mph.  Amazing!!!

It was all up to me now.  I wasn't sure how much time I had until the girl on the other team would take off, so I decided to try to crush that first mile because it was flat. I flew up the dirt hill to the top of the dam and ran. I glanced at my watch and saw 6:41 pace!  Okay, slow it down Orissa. There's no way you can maintain that. Brought it down to 8:30's and stayed there until I hit the hills on Ranger Creek Rd.  Let me tell you, that course does not have one spot of shade on it at all. The sun had broken through the clouds and was out in full force.

Every time I heard footsteps coming up behind me I tensed fearing it was going to be "that" girl. But luckily I was only passed by a couple male athletes. I finally saw the other girl from the 2nd place team, and she was walking (!) up a hill. I calculated she was maybe 1/2 mile to 3/4 mile ahead of me. I hit the turn around and told myself to catch her. Unfortunately, my worst suspicions were confirmed when maybe only 1/4 mile behind me was the 4th place girl. Crap!!  Don't let her catch me!!  I'm not loosing 3rd place for my girls!

I've always wondered if I could run like me life depended on it. Like, if I was being chased by a serial killer, if I could run away from him. The answer is: YES!  Those last 3 miles were a terrified run for the finish line. I finally made it back to the dam (and saw the 5th place relay girl heading out) and ran up the last hill of the run. Once it flattened out again I was sure she was going to catch me. In my head I knew she was right there just waiting to pass me at the finish line. I was to scared to look behind me because I didn't want to see how close she was. If I would have seen her, I think it would have mentally done me in. So I ran. I came up to Brian, Kris, and Linda and they all shouted at me to dig deep, push harder, the finish line was almost there. I wanted to tell them that the next place girl was right there but I had no extra breath to talk.  They were so confident that I had this, but in my head she was still right there.

Finally the finish line was there and I crossed it!  I didn't get passed!  I managed to hang on to 3rd place for our team!!  Best feeling ever!!!  I walked around for a bit and Kris came over and doused me with water and that felt so good. What seemed like seconds later but what was probably a couple minutes, the 4th place girl crossed the finish line.  I went over and high-fived her and told her good job.  She probably had no idea why I was doing that but, to me, she's the reason why I was able to run an 8:56 average.  Not that I wouldn't have tried my best to do that regardless, but with the added pressure of knowing that I was being chased it made me do something I didn't think was possible.  After looking at the final results, if the course had been longer she eventually probably would have caught me because she ran the 10k 3 minutes faster than I did.  It was good to see that my fear was legitimate and I wasn't making it all up in my head. 

I took a quick dip in the lake to cool off even more and then grabbed some yummy sausage and potato salad to eat and waited for the awards.  At the awards we found out that we had held on to 3rd place by 40 seconds!!  Holy cow that was a close race.  Thanks to Shelly's 5-minute swim lead on their swimmer and our super quick transitions, we were able to hold them off!

 

With our medals.  Even baby got one :)

This relay was so much fun to do and I'm glad I got to do it with Kris and Shelly.  I would highly recommend doing a relay to anyone who hasn't done one before.  It's a totally different way to experience a triathlon but such a great way to still compete and cheer each other on.      

 

Marble Falls Tri 2013



In our matchy-matchy green Smash tanks



This past weekend was my second short-course race of the season up at the Marble Falls Tri.  It turned out to be a great race, with a great course, and awesome volunteers.  My friend Aixa talked me and Brian to sign up for the race and I'm glad she  did.  And since her husband or children weren't going up to Marble Falls with her we decided to carpool up there together.

This course is longer than your typical sprint but not quite an Olympic distance tri.  It was a 1000m swim, 23 mile bike, and 4.4 mile run.  The water up at Lake LBJ was very warm so the swim was not wetsuit legal.  We drove the bike course on Saturday just to check out the terrain and the road conditions and overall it didn't look too bad; one hill as you leave the lake heading south on 281 and then maybe two "big" hills out on 71 before you hit the turnaround and have to climb them again.  The run course looked fairly flat but with trees to offer shade.



Pre-race prep w/Brian, Denise, Aixa, and me

 Swim:  22:48
I had set a pretty high goal for my swim since I've been making some breakthroughs on my swim workouts in the pool.  I wasn't too worried that I haven't really done any open-water swim training but maybe I should have been.  Our wave of girls (39 and under) was fairly small (maybe between 20 and 30 girls at most) so when we took off in the water, I was able to find some clear water and go.  I wasn't able to accomplish my goal of starting right behind Aixa and trying to hang onto her feet like I wanted to because they started the countdown to leave before I made it out to her.  Anyway, I was swimming and I felt great.  I was sighting good and I didn't have to maneuver around too many people.  I caught up to my first previous wave swim cap before the first buoy and I got a little boost out of that.  As I got to the ramp to climb out I heard someone yell "Go Sharon".  Sure enough, a woman from an age group that started 6 minutes!! after me finished at the same time I did.  As I ran to T1, I looked at my watch and saw that horrible number of 22 minutes on there.  My spirits dropped tremendously.  I had this inner monologue the whole way to run asking myself how I could have missed my goal by 4 minutes.  Trying to shake that off, I geared up for the bike portion of the race.

Bike:  1:18 (17.6 mph)
Heading out onto 281 S I tried to get my thoughts under control and just concentrate on the bike and try to do my best on the bike.  I put my bike in my small ring and just spun up the hills as best as I could without wasting too much energy.  It was fun passing guys who looked like they should be able to ride faster than me.  On the downhills I just let myself fly down them to try to make up any time I lost on my slow ascents.  The roads for the most part were pretty good.  There was just about a 4 mile section of chip seal that actually wasn't too bumpy but it was loose and made passing kinda tricky because everyone was riding to left of the shoulder to stay out of the loose stuff, so you had to be careful when you passed them.  But overall I made it to the turnaround having calculated that Aixa was only about 1 mile ahead of me on the bike and Brian was about 2 or 2 1/2 miles ahead of me.  A local San Antonio triathlete and friend, Orlando, was at the turnaround on the bike and it was fun seeing a friendly face out there.  He snapped a pic and gave me some words of encouragement.  As I started making my way back up the hill I had just come down I realized that I hadn't taken any Gu's yet.  I had been on the bike about 45 minutes and I started to feel a drop in energy.  I decided to use the fact that I was moving slowly up the hill as my chance to down a Gu.  I had recently lowered my aerobars a notch or two and I noticed a big difference on this race.  I'm able to stay in aero much longer and more comfortably than before and actually have more speed in aero position than I had before.  At the top of the second climb my Gu must have kicked in (and the course becomes mostly downhill) because I got a burst of energy and I was flying back to T2.  I overtook a couple people who had passed on the uphills and I never saw them again.  Overall, I can say I'm very happy with my bike split on this course.  I'm not a very strong hill climber, so the fact that I averaged in the high 17's is so awesome to me!

Run:  41:04 (9.20/mi)
I racked my bike and threw on my run shoes and headed out on the run course.  I decided for the run that I was not going to look at my watch and just run to the point of it hurting and staying there.  I was only going to look at my mile splits and determine what to do from there.  I caught up to Aixa's brother-in-law, Anthony, within the first 1/2 mile of the run and passed him.  I wasn't sure it was him at first until he caught back up to me a little past the 1 mile mark and fist-pumped me and picked up his pace a bit.  I think my passing him caused him to kick it up a notch but it was good because he gave me a good rabbit to chase.  When my watch beeped for the first mile it said 9:02!!  Yippee!!  I was running low 9's right off the bike.  I knew I was pushing the correct pace and tried to maintain that.  It was heating up quickly and I was dousing myself with water at every aid station.  My splits gradually slowed up but I was still running in the 9's at the 4 mile mark and I knew I only had .4 to go.

As I approached the turn into the finish, Brian was there yelling at me that the finish was just around the corner and to pick up the pace.  I picked it up and then I hear Aixa cheering me on.  She was yelling, "Catch your breath here, you have a run up a hill to cross the finish."  I looked up and sure enough the finish was on the top of the biggest hill I think I have ever seen in my life.  I backed off a couple of steps and took some deep breaths and Aixa was running next to me.  All of a sudden I started thinking of something I read on Slowtwitch about a guy getting penalized for having a guy in a cow costume run beside him in a race and I told Aixa to stop, I didn't want to get a penalty because they thought she was pacing me!!!  She kept yelling encouragement out to me as I kicked it into another gear and ran up that hill towards the finish.  I don't know what my face looked like or the sounds that I was making but it HURT. 

I crossed the finish line and was having trouble catching my breath.  I felt like I was just taking in these huge gulps of air but no air was going into my lungs.  I stopped and bent over and kept trying to drag air into my lungs.  I looked around and I see Orlando and he starts to walk towards me.  He asked if I was okay and I told him I couldn't breath.  He asks why and I tell him because I pushed it up that hill as hard as I could.  He helped me into some shade, told me to put my head down and my hands on my knees, and to relax.  He went to get me something to drink and I was finally able to get some air in.  Ahhhh, such a relief that feeling was.  Running up that hill caused me to almost hyperventilate!!  This has to be my strongest finish ever!!

Total:  2:25:27


We had a nice contingent of SMASH representing out in Marble Falls!
(Aixa, me, Karen, Kevin, and Michelle)



Post race with Aixa and her 1st place AG medal!  She killed that course!


So I had some highs and lows in the race but I had a great time and I'm happy with my overall performance.  I know what I need to work on and I can't wait to come back out here to race it again!
 



Cap Tex 2013

The CapTex Tri held in Austin on Memorial day is always a fun race.  It was one of the first races I ever did when I first starting racing triathlons and I was excited to get back to it this year, since I didn't get to do it last year since I was training for Ironman.  I had a game plan this year too.  I have had sub par results at this race the two years I have raced the Olympic distance and I really wanted to finally break 3 hours.  I knew it was was going to be tough and when I told Dawn, my coach, what I wanted to do she wrote out a plan for me to get there.  The whole mantra of the training was "Make it Hurt".  I told myself I could do this.  It's not Ironman.  I'm not going to be out there 13+ hours.  I can "hurt" for just under 3 hours.

The weather leading up to the race began kinda sketchy.  In San Antonio we started getting downpours of rain (with as much as 9-11 inches in some places).  I was hoping that by Sunday/Monday the rain would subside.  We started our drive up to Austin late Sunday morning and we were getting rained on as far as San Marcos.  Then, miraculously, the closer we got to Austin, the rain stayed away.  It was partly cloudy with a slight breeze; humid but not too terribly hot.  I was super relieved to see dry roads and just hoped that the rain would stay away!  We did the usual packet pick up, checked in our bikes, and then ate some food before we decided to head on over to the hotel to check in.  We had tried to check in earlier but they said they didn't have any rooms ready yet.  That's fine.  To make a long story short, we eventually got placed in a room about 2 hours after the normal check-in time of 3 pm and after having to get quite angry with the hotel staff.  (Apparently the hotel overbooked and only had one housekeeper cleaning rooms or something like that)  Not the best way I wanted to start off my evening before the race, but we tried to shake it off and continued with our evening.  We had a fun dinner an Mendola's Italian Grill with Herb, Suzy, Lexa, Jaime, Ed, and Michelle from Alamo180 and another couple who were very nice.  Brian and I got back to the room a little after 8 pm and got ready for bed.  I think Brian fell asleep fairly quickly but I wasn't quite ready for bed so I stayed up a little longer.  I was probably asleep by 9.  Got a great nights rest and was ready to go when the alarm went off the next morning.

The reason we picked the hotel that we did was that it was walking distance to the race.  Brian and I have been notorious for miscalculating the time it would take to get to the race and have barely squeaked into transition just minutes before it was closing in previous years.  We vowed not to do that this year!  We met up with the gang in the hotel lobby and walked over to transition.  Got set up and had some pictures taken.  Suzy and I were wearing our new Fast N Loud tri kits by Smashfest Queen so we wanted to have some photos of us in them.  Finally finished setting up, grabbed my swim cap, goggles, and wet suit and walked down for our almost 2 hour wait before our wave started.  Suzy, Lexa, and I are all in the same age group so it was really nice to have people to wait around with.  My plan during the swim was to try to keep up with Lexa and then try to catch up to Suzy on the first loop of the bike course and then try to hold Lexa off for as long as I could.  That girl can run!!!  I had borrowed a sleeveless wetsuit from fellow Ironwhiner Kris because the old one of hers that I had been using was just too big for me to use and when I went to order one online they were on back order.  She was gracious enough to lend me her new one, which I was worried about being too tight in the neck area but she swore to me that if it feels too tight on land it would be perfect in the water.  I probably stood with the wet suit on for about 20 minutes trying to get used to the feel and thinking that it was probably going to choke me in the water.  Pretty soon our wave was up and we were in the water.

Now, apparently there was some sort of glitch with my timing chip that I am trying to get sorted out.  None of the times are correct when I look them up on the results page and it's so frustrating!!  Hopefully I can get that fixed.  The times I'm using here are the ones from my Garmin.

Swim:  31:56

Once I was in the water I didn't even feel the wet suit.  It was like butter.  We treaded water for a few minutes and then we were off.  I have to say that with the clouds hanging around and my new goggles I had no trouble sighting.  This was one of my best swims in an Olympic race ever.  I had to jostle with a few girls to keep my line but I was very happy by how quickly I started passing up girls in swim caps that had started in the wave before me.  I PR'd my swim by 3 minutes!

As I got out of the water and ran to the strippers I realized a mistake I made with my Garmin.  I haven't ever used it in multisport mode before and I forgot to check the box to include transitions.  So when I hit the button as I was running up from the strippers it said "Begin Bike".  At first I thought maybe somehow it got hit and I was in T2 in the water but that was not the case.

Bike:  1:21:36 (18.3mph)

I was super excited to begin this part of the race.  I really wanted to have a decent bike split.  My goal coming into the race was to ride under 1:25 and I met that goal.  The weather was great.  Some slight wind gusts here and there but overall perfect conditions.  The Ironwhiners were in full effect out on the bike course cheering us on and looking fantastic in their matchy, matchy green shirts!!  It was so awesome to see them there.  It gave me the boost I needed when I saw them.  The course was crowed by the time I hit it and I just tried to be aware of the riders around me and avoid the big holes that were in the ground.  This was the only thing I didn't like about this course.  There were some major holes that if you hit them you could really mess up your bike.  Luckily I avoided most of them and I caught up to Suzy at about the halfway point of the first loop.  Okay, one goal down one more to go.  Try to keep Lexa away!!  I managed to hold her off until the 3rd loop when she caught me.  We bunny hopped each other for a little ways but then she managed to hold on to her position.  I was able to see her on the turnarounds and she was never too far ahead of me which made me happy.  I knew Brian must be having a great race because I never saw him once on the bike course (or at all during the race for that matter).  He ended up finishing with a time of 2:34 and a 19 min PR!!  Yay Brian!!

I finished my last loop and rode down to the dismount line.  I'm very happy to report I got my first compliment on my kit by the girl at the dismount line :)  I ran into T2 happy to be heading out to the run but also bummed that I had messed up my watch because when I hit it after I got off the bike it said "Begin Run".  This is when I knew I had forgot to hit the include transitions button.  Boo!

Run:  59:54 (9.25 min/mi)

Off to the run!  My goal on the run was to complete the 10k in under 1 hour and I met that goal too!  It wasn't as fast as I would have liked but my running is coming along slowly.  I had some trouble here deciding how fast to head out at the beginning.  I decided to stay where I was at (low to mid 9's) and to see where that took me.  Again, the weather was not too terrible.  It was warming up but not nearly as bad as it has been in previous years.  Once I hit the downtown area, the breeze felt wonderful.  I ran past the Ironwhiners, where they had picked out a prime piece of cheering real estate in the shade and their signs and cheers made me laugh and give them a wiggle as I tried to get jiggie with it while running :)  The run seemed to go quickly.  Before I knew it, I was on the second loop and headed out and back in no time.

Total time:  2:57 and some change. 

I'm really hoping this is correct.  This was the total run time that was on my watch when I stopped it.  Since I had my transitions off, I'm worried I may have wasted too much on them but even totaling up the above times that only gives me 2:52:46.  So that leaves me with 5 minutes and some change to to play with between the two transitions.  From going back on the player and reviewing the times, I'm thinking my T1 was about 3:14 and my T2 around 2:02.  Kris told me it was "mathematically impossible" for me not to have cracked 3 hours because she saw me on the bridge on the way back and checked her watch and she says there is no way that it took me 9 minutes to run to the finish line from there.  I'm going to agree with her and stick with what she and my Garmin says.



Jamie, Lexa, Michelle, Ed, Suzy, me, and Brian.  All finishers of the 2013 Cap Tex Olympic Tri!

I will admit that even though I loved training for Iroman and I plan to do another one, I forgot how much I enjoyed racing.  Yes, the shorter distances are tougher because you're trying to go all out, but it feels good to "Make it hurt" every now and then.  Just seeing the improvements that I've made too, is very satisfying. 

Linda, Kris, Aixa, and Herb cheering us on!

And I'm so grateful for all my friends who came up to cheer us on.  You guys are awesome!!!  And thank you Robert Cordova for all the fabulous race photos you got of everyone!              

    
    

 

Sooner or Later...

Sooner or later...that's going to become my answer to people when they ask me when I am going to be finished with school.  As with anything that doesn't require you to just open up a book and memorize something, going to school for court reporting doesn't have an exact time frame for you to finish.  A lot depends on how much time you can spend outside of the classroom practicing on your machine.  When you work full time that just gives me the weekends to get in that extra practice time, which I'm getting better at doing.  Now when I'm sitting on the couch, I make sure my machine is in my lap and I'm typing away, whether it's to whatever is on TV or if Brian's just talking to me.  And this little bit of extra, has proven to be helpful believe it or not.  

I've made some progress this semester with my speed and accuracy.  Unfortunately not enough to have me ready for the state test that's coming up in June.  But that's okay.  I've come to terms with the fact that I just need to keep plugging away at it, and that it will eventually get me to where I want to be.  It's basically like training for a marathon or a triathlon.  The more time you're able to spend training and getting your body used to moving faster and for longer distances, the less hard it becomes.

So we are a few weeks out from the summer break where I will, again, be attending summer school.  But I am giving myself some wiggle room for playtime.  I have signed up for the CapTex triathlon on Memorial Day up in Austin.  I really want to smash my Olympic distance PR and leave it all out there.  Doing an Olympic race will not require all the training time an Ironman does but it will still give me some really great workouts.  And then I will probably be on another race hiatus until Austin 70.3 in October.  At which point I'm hoping that I will have just taken the state test in September. 

Here's to keeping my chin up, an open mind, and a positive attitude!!! 

Here comes the hard part...

Another semester of school is well underway and I have made a pledge to myself that this will be my LAST one.  I am working towards my court reporting certification and now I'm in the nitty gritty of it.  The speeds are fast and my accuracy has to be almost 100%.  I managed to complete an Ironman (and by that I mean all the training that goes into an Ironman), work full time, and go to school 3 to 4 evenings a week.  I really short changed myself by thinking I could do all of it and not suffer.  My schooling suffered because I was so tired from training I couldn't make it to class.  My training suffered because I couldn't do all my workouts because I was going to class.  

So I have made a pact.  No racing at all this semester, cut down on the long distance training on the weekends, and spend more time practicing on my machine on the weekends. 

The first two weekends of February have been tough.  As much as I know I need to stay home and practice I don't want to feel left out.  It's so hard to watch all my friends have these killer weekend workouts and meet new goals and hit new PR's.  I'm having a really hard time finding the discipline to stay home!  But I know in the end it's for the greater good.  I'll have a career finally, I'll be able to train on a normal schedule, and I'll be making more money to afford all the races I want to do.  

So I'm hoping by putting this down in writing and putting it out for everyone to see, I can find that discipline to attack my classes the way I attack a training plan!  Wish me luck!!! 

Double 1/2 Marathon weekend

I originally was only going to race in the Endurathon 1/2 Marathon on Saturday out in Bulverde this past weekend, but after a training run with my friends, they decided they were going to race the Hero-thon 1/2 Marathon on Sunday because we could dress up in some really cute costumes.  After giving it some thought and debating if I could really run two back-to-back 1/2 marathons, I decided to do it.  I ran the idea past my coach who gave me the go ahead.Saturday morning brought weather that was warmer than expected and some misty murkies, which was great because the drizzle kept us cool and the sun stayed behind the cloud cover.  Coming into this race I was still unsure if I just wanted to "cruise" this race and save my legs for the next day or push it on Saturday and see what my legs had left for Sunday.  I decided to just see how I felt after I started running and decide then.  Well, I ended up feeling great and, with Brian's perfect pacing for me, I was able to PR on the hilliest course I've ever run.  My final time was 2:07:40.  My proudest moment of the race was the last 1/2 mile of the race.  It was uphill and I was pushing as hard as I could and Brian was telling me to "Kick it" in to the finish line.  I managed to overtake three people on that uphill and I felt so bad for one girl that I passed who, when she saw us, said, "Agh, I thought I had this!"  I know that feeling!!  I ended up taking 5th place in my age group out of 12 girls.  Super stoked about that!

After the race I immediately went into repair mode.  Recovery shake, dipping my legs in ice water (AGHHHH!), and rolling and stretching.  Believe it or not my legs were feeling pretty good, which gave me some hope for the race the next day.  I really wanted to beat the 2 hour mark.  The Hero-thon was going to be a much flatter course and I was hopefully that I could be close.

Hero-thon Sunday morning came and we all were excited to run in our fun costumes.  With the abnormally warm weather in January our suits were comfortable to run in.  The Iron-Whiners were all stoked to see if we could smash this course and make it to the finish line in under 2 hours. 

Aixa took off at the start line and I didn't see her until the turn around around mile 10/11.  She was looking awesome and she ended up with a tie of her previous PR....not bad after biking almost 80 miles the day before and being on call for work!  It was also her birthday weekend, so this was an awesome birthday gift for her!

I caught up to Shelly and Linda around mile 2/3 and I hung with them until mile 5 when my legs caught up to me.  They pulled a little ahead of me and I was able to keep them in my sights until about mile 6/7 when I saw them pull ahead of the 2:00 hour pace group and I got super excited for them.  They were going to go under 2 hours!!  Both Shelly and Linda got PR's with a 1:54 or 1:55 (official results have not been posted yet, boo!). 

I was hanging on with all I had.  As I passed each mile and saw my time, I knew I wouldn't crack 2 hours but I was going to be pretty darn close!  At the turnaround I saw Kris closing in.  I was so happy about this because she had fallen back pretty quickly but I knew she was going to make up that ground.  I saw Brian and our friends Lexa and Jaime cheering us on at around mile 11 but I had no energy left but to give them a thumbs up.  At mile 12 Kris came up along side me and told me to come with her.  I held on to her heels for half a mile but she was in the zone!!  She crushed her previous time and finished at exactly 2 hours!  I managed to pass up one girl running up the Durango bridge (that was just evil) and hold her off as I crossed the finish line at 2:01:ish!!

Afterwards we had so many people stopping us and getting our picture in our outfits.  We even had the news interview us.  Luckily, Aixa is a great public speaker so she was nominated to talk!

I never thought that I would be able to PR two back-to-back races but it's amazing what you can make your body do.  Thanks to the support of everyone I had this weekend.  My amazing friends who always encourage me and were just as tired as I was because they had biked 80 miles the day before, my coach for believing in me, and my wonderful husband who helped me gain one PR and who made sure I was ready for the next one!

             

What A Rush!

There's nothing better than the feeling you get from smashing your weekend workouts.  On Saturday I went out and did a 55 mile bike ride (longest since Arizona) and had a great time.  I almost chickened out because of the wet road conditions (wet roads from rain overnight, but no actual rain coming down).  But when Brian and I showed up everyone was already there unloading their bikes and looking like they were ready to get to business.  So the bikes came out of the car and we geared up.  We took off and I managed to stay with the group all the way to the Exxon on 471, which thrilled me because last weekend I got dropped on Galm road.  When we turned on the road towards Castroville I knew they were going to put the hammer down but I told myself to be smart and stay where I needed to be so I didn't tire myself out.  Brian, Kris, Alphanso, and Shelly all took off.  So that left me and Aixa.  We took turns pulling each other all the way to Castroville and by the time we got to Haby's we were averaging in the 18's!  I was feeling great and my knee was behaving.  Aixa had to hurry because she had to drive to Houston to cheer on her husband, Allen, who was doing his first marathon that weekend.  So we decided to head back to the cars instead of waiting for the other guys at the bakery.  We had a nice tailwind on the way back to Helotes and we just sailed right along.  We got the message that Shelly was having knee pain and needed to be picked up at the Exxon so when we finished the ride, I loaded up my bike and headed out to pick her up.  I know how it feels when your knee is killing you on the bike.  You just want to STOP!  I finished the ride in just under 3 hours and average 18.2 mph.  I do believe this was my fastest time doing this route.  I was extremely muddy.  My legs were covered and Chloe was filthy and I even had mud in my hair, but I had such a great time!

On Sunday I only had an 1:20 run.  Little did I realize until I looked at my plan that morning that I had to throw in some fast and hard intervals in my run.  I put on my mental britches and headed out for the run.  I met up with the Whiners to run along the 1604 access road.  It was cold, which was nice, but the wind was something else.  We headed out and I was able to cruise for the first 30 minutes and enjoyed running with Brian and Shelly.  I could see Linda and Kris up ahead and I made them my rabbits for when my intervals started.  I actually caught up to them when it was time for me to turn around.  A couple pit stops and then we hit the road again.  I told Brian and Shelly that I had a few more intervals to do and I would either see them on the road because I blew up or at the car.  Now this particular stretch of 1604 has always been brutal for me.  For whatever reason, I always seem to loose my steam at the turnaround.  I'm not sure if it's the hills or I just get discouraged because my heart rate gets too high, but for whatever reason I have trouble running strong on this stretch.  So I took off and held on strong until I got back to the car.  I felt great!  It wasn't until after I finished the run that I realized that I had no pain in my knee on the downhills.

It feels great getting back into the swing of things after experiencing so many hurdles after Arizona.  I'm thankful for Jill, who worked on my legs last week.  She got a lot of the tightness out of my calves, and I have learned that you NEED to take care of your legs or they will let you know.  Stretching and rolling after every workout!!  In two weeks I attempt back-to-back 1/2 Marathons.  Stay tuned.... :)