Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Ko'Olina-ish and PF Changs 30k

I’ve been slacking; I know I haven’t posted in a while, but nothing cool has happened since Kona until last weekend. And after my huge failure at the Ko’Olina tri, I haven’t been in the mood to post.

So, I guess I’ll quickly post about that race. I was super excited for it, a nice little sprint tri (Dave was doing it to!!!) on my side of the island, which meant no wicked early wake up call and a short drive home afterwards, not to mention it was a sprint so I’d be done in just a little over an hour! We got there, got all set up and body marked (they gave us tattoos so we could apply them ourselves to save from being written on with permanent marker, which you would think is a good idea, but the genius that I am, I tried to apply the tattoo without removing the plastic covering beforehand so that was ruined and permanent marker it was, great start to the morning, Lectie). I should have just quit right then and there. But no we continued on with the morning.  It was about a 10-15 minute walk from transition to the start of the swim and believe it or not, it was a bit chilly that morning and I just wanted the race to start because I was getting a little cold. So the swim started in waves and Dave was in the first wave and I was in the second.  I didn’t think I’d have any chance to catch up to him (and I didn’t he ended up beating me in the swim portion by 2 seconds!), I just wanted to be out in the front of my wave away from everyone else. The swim of this race is a little different from other tris being that it is swum in 4 different lagoons and you have to run between each lagoon (swim, run, swim, run, swim, run, swim). Anyways, I had a GREAT swim! I was super pumped, out of the water way in front of my group just as I had planned. Into transition (a little slow for my liking, but finally off on the bike).  Well I made it 2.5 miles and then…FLAT! Great, just what I wanted a flat on a sprint tri. #1 I’m terrible at changing them and #2 really a flat on a sprint tri?! So, I hopped off the bike and began the S    L    O    W process of changing the tire, I was so proud of myself, I got the tire changed and went to inflate it with the CO2 and what do I hear, POP! Great, I busted the new tube. Let’s just try another CO2 to be sure……POP again. Well now I have a spare tube, but I’m all out of CO2, time to walk back to transition.  That was a very long 2.5 miles back, mostly because I was super embarrassed and disappointed in myself, I’ve never DNF before in a race and I don’t like that feeling.  When I got back to transition people were finishing and I just made it in time to see Dave finish! He did a great job! Ended up 4th in his age group!  Even though Ko’Olina wasn’t what I expected it to be, live and learn I guess.  Note to self: time to start practicing changing tires.

Now onto the fun part, last weekend was PF Chang's 30k. My FAVORITE race of the Marathon Readiness Series. Some of you might think I'm crazy, but I really think that 30k or 18.xx miles is the perfect distance to run.  It's not a full marathon so you don't necessarily hit the wall, it's too long so that you can't sprint for 18 miles (thank goodness), but it's just long enough so you can get into a good rhythm, hold that pace and feel strong throughout! Well, that's what I did.

For all of the 4 races in the series so far, Craig has comanded, given orders to, suggested paces that he knew I would be able to maintain throughout. At each and every one of these races I said that there was no way that I could hold that pace for that long, I was skeptical to say the least. At all but the 25k, I was able to meet his/my demands goals. Somehow, somewhere I have started to enjoy running and have turned into a pretty decent runner.

The one bad thing about this race is that it starts at 5am which means waking up and seeing a 3 on the clock, ugh. Anyways, Dave and I were up and out the door and he proceeded to fall asleep as soon as we got into the car, typical! :-) Got down to the start, got in a little warm up run in with Kim and Bill and we were off. Dave and I got seperated before the start which I was a little upset about, but when the gun went off I was in full on race mode, game on!

The plan was to take the first couple of miles and build into race pace, then hold for the remainder and if I had anything left at the end, just go for it and it worked pretty well. I ran with Aaron for the first 10 miles or so, we were holding a pretty consistent pace, right on target and I didn't even have to look at my watch a whole lot, excellent! 10 miles in, Aaron was hurting a little so I pushed on. I got a little overzealous at the turnaround and sped up quite a bit, whoops, I hoped that wasn't going to come back to bite me in the ass. I recovered and got right back on pace. I finally saw Dave and that gave me another boost of energy that kept me moving forward. The miles were ticking away, not too fast, but not unbearably slow either. 

When I got to DiamondHead hill it started to get a little rough, I needed to break it down from there, make it to Traingle Park, then the top of DiamondHead, then the bottom of the hill, and then the dreaded LONGEST ROAD EVER!  I was fine until that last stretch of road, I swear every race that road gets longer and longer and longer and longer. When you get down off of DiamondHead and you make the final turn into the finish, you think you're almost there, but it's still 3/4 mi (I don't know if it's really that long, but it seems like it's 3 miles!). It takes all the mental strength I have to get me down that road every single race I complete and you'd think it would get easier because I know what to expect, but it doens't. I just need to mentally prepare myself for that road come December 11.

All-in-all it was a great race! I'm super happy with the results. 9 minute PR from last year and I felt much better after the race this year than I felt last year.  Dave did awesome as well, a personal best! It was his longest run to date! Go us!!

I can't believe we never take pictures together after races, we need to get better at that, but here's a couple from the race.   

Could be one of my favorite race pictures...both feel off the ground!

It was dark out for most of the race

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Inspiring

Ironman has to be the most inspiring athletic event that there is. Where else can people from 18-81+ be competing for 17 straight hours?! That's impressive, I don't care who you are. This past week definitely made me thankful, happy and excited that I signed up for my own little piece of Ironman. CdA, June 2012. Can't wait!

It's a little daunting to think about it, but after watching the World Championships, I'm inspired. It was awesome to be at the event and know a few people that were racing and every time each and every one of them, ran past us on the side of the road they all had a huge smile on their faces. I know it couldn't have been all smiles for them all day long, Ironman is a loooooooooong day, but I never once saw any of them looking like they were struggling...kudos to Leslie, Claire, Rachel, Michelle, Nalani, Emily, Lindsay congrats on your finishes!

Here's a few pictures to recap the week.

view from our lanai

Les, Craig and Claire pre race

we swam to the Coffees of Hawaii boat almost everyday

it was delicious

playing in the water with our cool new blueseventy suits from Mike

Me, Claire and Les

the crazy swim start

Rachel!!

Leslie D!!

Chrissie!!!

Nalani!!

Claire!!

Michelle (I think I caught you mid-sip, but I swear you were smiling right after)



Sorry about the sideways pictures, I can't seem to figure it out tonight...I'll try not to let it happen again
Check out all those smiles!!!
Great job ladies!!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Tuesday from Kona...

I forgot my camera--->computer connection cord so I can't upload pictures, major bummer because I took some pretty awesome ones today...I'll post pictures when I get back to Oahu next Monday..


Tuesday morning Les, Claire and I headed down to the pier for a nice little swim. I came armed with my camera, total tourist move, but I was determined to get some good pictures while we were swimming. There was a pretty decent south swell so that water was a bit more murky than it's been in the past, but Les spotted a Honu and I dove down after it to snag a picture...Pictures to come when I get back to Oahu

Les and I continued swimming on out toward the Coffees of Hawaii boat (best idea ever), we'd lost Claire at this point. She met us at the boat, we had some coffee, took some pictures and headed back in. This was the most fun I think I've had swimming in the ocean. I'd totally swim in the ocean more often if I could have company like I did today. Also, I'm not a huge fan of coffee, but I loved it! If you want some excellent coffee, check out Coffees of Hawaii.

After that, they registered and I waited outside like the good little support crew that I am, then we went to drive the bike course for Claire to see.

Back to the condo and Les and Claire headed out on a short bike and I got to go run. At least it was pretty overcast and not too terribly hot out. But let me tell you, there are definitely some crazies here. Who goes out and rides for 2+ hours 4 days out or how about the crazies running sprints up and down Ali'i for hours, I guess Ironmen do.

Anyways, it was a great Tuesday here in Kona. More to come as the week progresses.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Claire is here, Les is here, 25k done, let's go to Kona




Claire got here on Friday night and I picked her up from the airport, recognized her right away even though we'd never met before and we hit it off. She's a super chill girl and I think we had a great time while she was here. Plus, she brought cheese curds from Wisconsin, major bonus points!! We didn't do much Friday night, just came home and had some dinner. Got up Saturday morning and went for a short run, then we drove into town to go for an ocean swim. I gave her my secret weapon for next weekend in Kona....wait for it.....chewing gum in the ocean keeps the salt water out and keeps the spit balls from sticking in the back of your throat...genius! Anyways, beautiful day for a run and swim. After that it was off to the airport to drop her off and pick up Les.

Les and Mrs. D arrived and our Saturday night was pretty uneventful, out to dinner and back to the hotel to check in and get situated.

Dave and I ran the Marathon Readiness 25k Sunday morning, so it was a 3am wake-up call to get to Kailua for the 5:30 start. I went into this race with a super positive mindset (because it was a different course than last year and I am in much better running shape this year, it was going to be a much better race than last year). Haha. Spoke too soon. It wasn't a terrible race by any means, the first ten miles were perfect, right exactly where I wanted to be and I felt great. well then I reached the hill (to me it felt like a mountain, it really wasn't that big) and mentally I think I checked out. It wasn't on purpose, I tried to stay with it, but for some reason I couldn't pull it together after the hill and the last five miles were worse than the end of the marathon! At least I know some more mental toughness is what I need to work on. The race ended up being fine. I wasn't happy with the result, but I'll take it cause I learned that I need to be mentally though when the going gets rough. On another note, it was Dave's first road race, I'm super proud of him. He did a great job!!

After the race Dave and I headed home and it was time to clean up and relax a bit before heading into town to meet up with Les and Mrs D for an ocean catamaran ride!!! Ive never been on one before and thought it would be something fun and not taxing on Les that we could all do together before heading over to the Big Island. Well we get there and little do we know everyone is wearing beach attire, bathing suits, etc. Great, I guess we're gonna get wet. Oh did we get wet! Drenched. Mrs D got the worst of it for sure. Check out the pictures. I would totally recommend going on this catamaran sail. It was 90 minutes and way more fun than any of us anticipated, Dave missed out for sure. We had a blast!! Then it was off to the hotel to change before Dave met us for dinner. It was a late night for the east coast girls (3am their time).....

Now it's off to Kona!!