Monday, July 28, 2008

Back in action

First off, thanks for the mad love everybody in celebrating my Racine race, and in encouraging my mom. What was it Megan said about being part of this bloggitosphere? An honest-to-god honor. True dat.

How I spent my week (well, 5 days anyway) off:

• My exercise consisted of evening walks with Dakota and the dogs. Period.

• I limped around some. Amy said, "why are you limping?" I said, "Because I'm getting old, and nothing heals fast anymore!"

• I indulged in way more Culver's than is appropriate. This included several custardy confections, but also 9/10ths of an entire family order of cheese curds by myself. Steve would be proud. Then again, I didn't eat all of that the night before a race, so he wouldn't be that proud.

• I watched 3 movies. Only one of which is really any good. In case you care, 21 is just meh, Shutter is awful, and In Bruges is much better than the marketing materials suggest.

• Oh, very quickly while I mention movies, if you haven't seen The Dark Knight, do. It's a pretty amazing piece of movie. No superhero geekery required. Just a really excellent film.

• And while we're on the topic, see Wall-E too. Fantastic. Okay, moving on.

• Pizza Pit delivered 2 boxes of french fries, a pound of boneless drummies, and an order or 4 breadsticks to my house. For us to share. Right. Share.

• Ironman woke up. Like, really loudly and suddenly - having this season's A race no longer on my radar, I suddenly became very excited for Ironman '09. Which starts by getting really excited for Ironman '08, even if it means I'm just volunteering. It's like Christmastime or something - a whole season that I just thoroughly love being around. Can't wait for Ironman Village to go up again at the Terrace, to see all the athletes nervously readying, to just feel the energy again. Awesome.

• I took 2 spacers off my headset, to get my cockpit on the bike lower in attempts to develop as aero a position as I can. I'm not sure how much that lowered the cockpit - an inch? Less, I think? - but it required stopping every few minutes on my ride yesterday to adjust the seat position, adjust the aerobars, etc, so it's really a whole new experience on the bike - and I'm not done tweaking yet. I'll ride like this for awhile, see how it goes, then remove a few more spacers to see how low I can go.

• I went for a 5 mile run on Saturday, officially ending my hiatus. It went okay. A little slow. The bike went a little slow too. I chalk it up to a bit of lasting fatigue from the Half Iron.

• I started to get a plan for the rest of my season, and even into next season (because that's how I roll.) The game shifts now for a 10 week intensive focus on marathon training, where, like everything else this season, I hope to race the distance for the first time, and not just survive it. I'd like to go sub 4-hours. I don't know if this is possible, we'll see. We'll see where my training gets me in the next 2 months, and I'll get a clearer picture from that. In the days just after Racine, I thought I'd mostly just focus on running the rest of the summer, but I just love triathlon too much to do that. So I'll be looking for some small local sprint distance races throughout the rest of the summer and early fall, to keep cross training healthy, to have a reason to stay on the bike that I love, and to continue to try and develop that aero position and see where it gets me in races. I'm also signing up for a local 5k or two, and maybe a 10k here and there. As my running fitness improves with marathon training, these shorter running races should be a lot of fun.

• Could somebody clue me in on Chisago Lakes Half Iron? Pharmie or Steve? Anybody? I'm looking for a Half Iron next season, no later than first week of August, with a bike course that's a bit challenging and a run that's not on grass or trails. Anybody have any ideas?

• I ordered some new Newtons. Not the dog. The shoes. They're kind of my secret weapon.

• I got restless, and fired up for the rest of the season. I generally have a sense of fatigue after my A race - not physical, but mental, like I'm ready for a break now. I don't know if it's because I had, like, no season last year for the injury, or if my "train smart, not hard" has kept any kind of burnout at bay, but I'm still very fresh. Ready to attack marathon training, and loving it if I can plug a race here or there into the schedule as desired.

That's all from me - shouting out and sending positive goodness to all my peeps rocking Steelhead this weekend!

10 comments:

TriSupporter said...

Commenting on several things: great job at Racine!! Nice rest week although the Dark Knight seems a bit too, well, dark, for me. And I just read your IMWi race recap from ages ago. Well you again were able to bring tears to my eyes. You know...I'm gonna have to stop reading you while at work. (Luckily I work from home though ;-)

Robert said...

As far as the 1/2 iron goes, I'm in the same boat as you, wanting to do a tough 1/2 prior to IMoo next year. Was thinking about Kansas 70.3, it fits all your criteria, but it's a bit early (end of June if I remember right), and, well, it's in Kansas.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on Racine!

Door County Half Ironman in 09?

http://www.chicagotriclub.com/msgbds/ShowThread.asp?Topic=General&WhichBoard=TblGeneral&Id=42807

Alili said...

I watched every video from your 2006 IM to get me fired up for Steelhead. It's sinking in and I'm starting to smile about it.

TriSupporter said...

Kansas...it's not as flat as you think :-)

A lot of the talk at the race (hubby did it) is that its bike course is well matched as a prep to IMoo. We'd be happy to host a travelling triathlete.

richvans said...

Are you tweaking your aero for some sprints or are you thinking of getting super aero for IM09?

I wondered how you'd do after focusing on Racine for so long. I know I struggled coming back from my A race even though it was in early June. Now I wish I could race every other day! Next thing you know it will be nothing but du's and then runs and then frozen runs up here.

xt4 said...

Robert - Maybe Steelhead? Or anon - hadn't thought of Door County, that might be a really good one. Thanks for the invite Trisupporter - if Kansas gets on the radar, I know who to call. :)

Alili - sweet, glad you dug the video and hope they help in any way as you CRUSH Steelhead...

Rich - I'm not sure if I'll go super aero for Ironman, but I'd like to be more aero. I'd like to start developing that now, and finding the sweet spot where I can stay for the next year or so. Kind of a work in progress though, so we'll see...

RunBubbaRun said...

I'm too getting excited about IMWI around the corner. Not racing it, but might just go out there to feel the energy again..

There are alot of good half IM's out there.. But I still do like Racine..

So IM for you in '09.. Sounds good.

Anonymous said...

Quick question unrelated to this particular blog post - downloaded your becoming mp3 mix -really enjoy running to it - thanks for making available - had already downloaded the song from Itunes after watching your video - but the Ironman stuff makes it awesome - but one question - at approx. the 1:30 mark - a member of Team Bintliff shouts " . . .two more to go . ." and then it sounds like she says "fried chicken!" 1- what did she really say? 2- If it is "fried chicken" - please explain why - what was that supposed to mean? - otherwise I am going to be somewhere around 24.2 in the Chicago Marathon this October thinking "its fried chicken time! " after training all summer to this . . .not that that is necessarily bad. just curious.

xt4 said...

Scott, that's hilarious -

You do indeed hear "fried chicken." I am famous among family ranks for a love of fried chicken - particularly cold fried chicken - and we'd been talking all that week how after this race we'd feast on some fried chicken. The race footage you hear was from one with a 3 loop run course - after the first loop my aunt, who's awesome and fantastic and just a tiny bit crazy, cheered me on with "2 more to go...fried chicken!" So hey...hopefully it'll induce some incentive for you too?

Thanks for asking, glad you're digging the music/videos -