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.... :)        

Swimming for a cause

Back in October 2012 my friend, Monica Caban, was out for a typical day of training. She was riding her bike on a road that she had ridden on countless times, riding with friends she was comfortable riding with, and just enjoying an afternoon of riding her bike. 

In the blink of an eye her life has changed.  She was struck from behind by an elderly woman driving a truck, who claims she did not see her.  Luckily her friend was not struck and had her phone with her and was able to call for help immediately.  Other vehicles stop to assist her.  Responders came and rushed her to the hospital. 

This being the day and age that it is, I found out about her accident through Facebook.  At first, we didn't know how serious her injuries were but only knew that they were pretty severe.  One thing I always think of when I think of car/bike collisions is head injuries and broken bones.  As the day wore on more and more information became available, and with every bit of information we learned, my heart just sank and sank.  Monica's spinal cord was severely injured and she couldn't feel her legs.  I went to visit her in the hospital and it was so overwhelming seeing her lying in that hospital bed but she was so happy to see me and everyone else who came.  Our support, she said, was making her stronger.

She has had an amazing attitude throughout this whole ordeal and she amazes me with it.  I don't know if I could be as strong as she is being.  She has undergone surgeries and therapy and now rehab.  She is having improvements daily, and if there is one thing I know about Monica, she is one determined lady and when she sets her mind on something, she is going to do it.  Her goal is to walk again, and I know she will be able to do it!

This Sunday I participated in an event called Monica's Mile.  It consisted of either a mile swim or an hour-long swim.  My coach, along with Master's of South Texas helped coordinate this event, and my coach said we were doing the hour swim.  We were given pledge sheets to help raise money for Monica and they had shirts made that we could purchase there at the event.  I must say that I swam longer than I thought I was going to be able to in that hour.  Monica arrived toward the end of our swim wave and it was so great to see her there supporting the people who came out to help support her.  The turn out was amazing and the event raised $6500 to use towards making modifications to her home to help her get around easier.  It's amazing how the triathlon community was come together to support Monica.  There really is no greater group of people than these triathletes.  I'm so happy that I was able to contribute a little bit to that generous amount.  Go Monica!!   

 

Who's on that stage?

Back in November, I accompanied my friends down to the Rock n Roll Expo so they could pick up their race packet.  While we were hanging around at the expo we passed a stage where a woman was speaking and we just happened to be passing by when she was telling people to "move their booties".  So my friend Kris and I started goofing off and she saw us and told us to come on stage.  We figured, what the heck.  So we joined her on stage, joined by Linda and later by Herb and Lorena and we jumped around on stage for a song.  All fun, right?  After we got off the stage I looked at the board to see who the speaker was and what the whole point of that was.  It said the speaker was..........Suzy Favor-Hamilton, a three-time olympic runner. 

A few months later a story broke that for the past year Ms. Favor-Hamilton has worked as a high-priced call girl in Las Vegas, as well as doing motivational speaking at various Rock n Roll marathoon events!  We can now check dancing on stage with call girl off the bucket list!   

Just keep running, just keep running...

To make sure that I kept up with training after completing Ironman Arizona, I made sure to sign up for a race in January.  I decided to go with the Endurothon half-marathon in Bulverde because it was close to home and only $25.00!  The bad side is that it's a fairly hilly course (one friend would call it mountainous).  So I am officially on a "running" training plan from my coach.  It still includes some swimming  (which I have not done!) and biking, but the majority of the plan, of course, is running.  I have never done a running plan before and, yup, there's a lot of running!  Running and I have had a love/hate relationship these past few years in triathlon.  There have been days that it just feels like the most wonderful thing in the world and days where I just wanted to throw my running shoes in the trash and say, "screw it".  But man, when you do have a great run, you just feel like the best runner in the world.  These are the things I have to remember when I'm looking at my plan and see all the run days scheduled.      

So far the plan hasn't been too bad, but it's picking up now that I'm three weeks into it.  And, now that I'm mostly recovered from Arizona and picking up my training more, my HR is staying in the zones I want it to and my legs and body feel great (minus the few neck and back aches and pains I've been having off and on).  I'm really excited to see how I can do at this half-marathon considering the only stand-alone half-marathon I've ever done is the San Antonio Rock 'n Roll race.  I know this race is going to be challenging but I'm ready to see what my running legs have got to give!