Sorry that I didn't get on here to log a race report from my half ironman... I'm really bad about this blogging thing...

Not sure where to even start, but I will say that the swim was every inch as bad as mark described it. 4 foot waves - insane frequency. The first one would pick you up and drop you only for the second one to smash you in the face while the next one worked on going over your head. It was like the sinking of the Titanic. Needless to say, not good for the open water swim confidence level. I did manage to perfect my dog paddle, along with a little work on my side stroke and pulled myself to shore a second or two under 17 minutes. Rough.

The bike wasn't too bad. I felt strong considering the strong head and cross wind that was hitting us from every angle except a helpful one. I passed a lot of people and got a lot of practice in on the aero bars. I did however have some severe issues with the lack of restroom facilities that were placed on the course... like none! I had to go to the bathroom by mile 20 and there was nowhere to stop! Not even for a girl to hide behind tress... it finally became so painful that I could not go into my aero position at all so as much as it was hindering my riding, it might have been pushing me to go faster to get to the finish. I had to stop taking in gu also because I was afraid to drink anything else to wash it down. It was ridiculous. I was quite mad by the time I got off the bike.

So back into transition I go... hurrying as fast as I could, not to have a good transition, but to get to a bathroom but guess what... THERE WEREN'T ANY!! Yeah, I finally lost my patience and sharply asked somone where there was a bathroom to which she answered... up there on the hill pointing in the opposite direction of the run course. Lovely... I ran up the hill, went in the bathroom, exited, ran back to transition and onto the course... good thing I added another half mile to my run! I was mad, but relieved so I put aside the thoughts for the time being. The run actually didn't go too bad. I had gone out there with no expectations as I was doubting I'd be able to run that far after a 56 mile bike but I actually felt pretty good. I walked the aid stations trying to get liquids into me and just kept going. I was noticing a pattern that there was no food at any of the rest stations which started to worry me. Around mile 4 I got a killer cramp in my abdomin/stomach which I tried walking off a bit but didn't go away. I held that through mile 10 when I finally saw Mark near the transition and he snuck me some food. I had brought one gu with me, but after one of the aid stations ran out and shut down making it a 3.5 mile stretch without any liquids, I came across this guy that was dying and I was seriously doubting he had much left. Knowing the pain I was in I split the gu with him and continued on. I knew I'd survive. Anyway, after getting the bananas in me, the pain went away and off I went to face the last 3 miles... probably the longest 3 miles ever... and definitely the most boring. My hipflexor area also started to cause me some serious issues but I was close so I kept going. Finished in 5:55 something so I was happy... I really wasn't tired afterward either. Was walking funny cause I couldn't get my leg to loosen up, but overall felt good. A big milestone for me. Mark did awesome... actually everyone that went did great. A good day after the swim.

I'll have to tell you about the 5th and final weekend of the "massive training month" we went after, but I'd rather leave work now so that will be for next time. Hope everyone is doing well. Happy training!

Well I suppose I can't boycott blogger anymore since my last blog did manage to show up. It had told me that it was lost so I declared a fight with my blog account. Since it pulled through, I suppose I should as well.

Thanks everyone for the comments! That's always fun!

So I'll keep this short since I'd really like to get out of work in the next...hmmm... 2 minutes. Looks like rain. In fact, there's a flood warning out for our county from 7pm tonight until noon tomorrow. Good times. Planning on swimming tomorrow. I'm starting my modified taper for the Half Ironman this weekend as I am still feeling the effects of the Horribly Hilly Hundreds.

The HHH... wow, what a ride. Just couldn't settle with logic and be satisfied with finishing the 100k like I had signed up to do. Mark was sick so when he said he'd ride with me after I declared that I thought I could finish the full 200k, I was motivated to finish it out. That and the fact that a bunch of guys from work (including my boss and the trek product manager that I train with)... had to earn some respect from them. Anyway, it was pretty fun. Worked on the hills and took it easy on the downhills and flats to try to save some energy. It must have worked cause I made it! I felt good the next day and managed to lift on Monday am. I've done some workouts since then but my legs are feeling pretty dead so after tomorrow's swim I'm going to take it off until Sunday. I think we might get in the lake for a quick open water trial on Saturday but that shouldn't be bad. I'm just going for a long training day on Sunday. I'm quite nervous but mostly for the run. We'll see how it goes.

Well now that it is far past my departure time, I'm going to head out and I'll fill in the rest in the near future. Hope all is well out there! Cheers.

Have I mentioned before how much I love the sun? My whole mood gets better with good weather... we actually had 3 beautiful days in a row of sun, 70s and NO WIND! It was truly amazing! Even more ideal, one of those days fell on Saturday for the Trek 100 ride benefiting the MACC fund (Madison Against Childhood Cancer). My boss sponsered me since he was going to be out of town so that was awesome... I rode my first century!! Long story short, it went pretty well... the first 65 miles I felt awesome - the best I have all season so that was great. I finally felt like I could ride again. Then, when I was starting to get tired, I saw a group of 8 infront of me and knew that I either had to go for it and try to catch them to sit in back for a while and meet some people, or ease off to save the legs. Naturally, I decided to go for it and pushed even harder to catch the group. I think I chased them hard for the next 7 or 8 miles, always coming so close to the tail end before coming to a stop sign or having a car cut me off. They were always just out of reach. Pretty much that was the beginning of the end. I completely wore myself out chasing them, never caught them and by then was pretty much starving and had to stop at a rest stop for food. I managed to keep most of my stops very short (just to fill up bottles) and tried to skip at least every other one. After the 65 miles, and wearing myself out, I hit the bad roads and hilly area which pretty much finished off my legs. I had been keeping a pace I was extremely happy with and had managed to pull my average up to 19.2 but then watched it decrease gradually as I tried to keep up my pace. I ended with a average of 18 which was still good, but a little frustrating. The good news: I finished my first century, while riding pretty much the entire way by myself (not drafting) which I was proud of. I had some serious pain in my shoulders and lower back, but otherwise felt good. Even when I couldn't hold the faster pace, my legs still felt reasonably strong and solid. I was happy.

Met up with Mark afterwards and we ran a slow, easy 2 miles just so I could see what I was in for. I didn't feel great, but it wasn't horrible. By that point it was pretty hot out and I was extremely dehydrated so all in all, that too went pretty well. Nice relaxing night followed in preparation of another early morning.

Sunday there was a sprint tri in Lake Mills that we a lot of people we knew were participating in. For the season it is pretty much the first event and this year held a participating number of 712. A huge triathlon for a small town. It looked fun though and I felt the itch come back...

Aero bars made it onto the bianchi yesterday and Mark gave me a little instructional ride on how to use them without dying... greatly appreciated. Today the wind is back, but there were 4 of us that went out and I tried them out. I LOVE AEROBARS!! I was moving with hardly any effort - into the wind!! It was amazing! Super comfortable too so that was cool.

Supposed to get hot and humid with thunderstorms for the next few days so I'll work on the swim :) Huge hilly ride up for this weekend. Luckily I only signed up for the short course of 100k. It's supposed to be 87 degrees out. Yuck. Following weekend is the High CLiff half ironman. I am more than nervous for that event, but hoping for the best.

Need to head home now. Have been typing for much too long now. Hope everyone had a great weekend and training went well. :)

Thought I'd try again today to see if my comments area shows up... I'm not holding my breath. While I'm here I might as well add some value to this blog. Hmmm... didn't do anything last night- I justified that with the hope that relaxing will battle off a cold if it is contemplating becoming a hassle. Today I did manage to get in and do body pump (weight lifting) which really didn't feel bad at all. I can tell I've lost a lot of muscle though. I am supposed to be lifting for my knees anyway so I figure that I will try to add in 2 days of bodypump back into the schedule and then just do the squats and lunges without weights on the 3 (and 4th if I'm really feeling it that week) just to give that extra little push. I think I will feel better about my body and my muscle by adding this back in. I'm not going to attempt to bulk, but I have been feeling weak in comparison to last year and I'm wondering if that has something to do with the lack of lifting. I'm sure a lot of it is also due to the extreme distance and frequency that I have been going after, but you never know...

I plan to get a bike ride in during work (fingers crossed that the rain will not come again today) and then either a quick pilates session after work, or maybe a swim. I'm going to try to get to the freezing cold lake tomorrow to help a co worker prepare in open water for his first sprint this weekend. He is actually training for the Ironman as well, but he is worried about his swim so I said I would help him out. He is a good ali to have in the company as well... a product manager of sorts. Hilarious guy outside of work. I think I will like him more once I can get him in an out of office environment. It was nice because he gained some respect for me once he saw I could swim. It's a start!

I'm babbling again... show me a comment section!!

Alright, I don't get it... let me know if you ever see a "comment" link show up... :) I'm giving up for now!

I am just playing around and wanted to see if this thing added my comments section... I am realizing that I am really not computer literate! How pathetic.

If the weather continues on the way has been, I'm going to be one hurting unit come September 12th. Rain, rain and more rain... with a little wind on the side. Lovely- this weekend was no different. To keep the complaining to a minimum... I took the most beautiful day we've had so far off to get ready for the weekend... woke up to rain on Saturday but was able to deal with that because I knew I'd have a long run on Sunday that I could afford to be fresh for, but did manage to get in for a swim. Did 2500 yds (focusing on longer distances than drills) before I was suddenly starving! It was so bad that I couldn't even continue swimming... that hasn't happened in a long time but the swim was decent...

Saturday some work was done on getting our Janus Charity Challenge promotional material ready which I'm happy about... I think it will help a lot. We made a poster and some cards that can be handed out as reminders to how to reach us and our website to either contribute or learn more about what we are doing. Some final touches need to be done, but overall I think they look very cool. Otherwise, waited for all our runners to show up from out of town before heading down to registration. Managed to walk away from there with $36 worth of socks. I think I'm obsessed... they're just so fun!! They were considerably cheaper than other vendors so I didn't feel toooo bad about buying them. They make me look cool right? :)

Anyway, the run went well... very wet, but fun. There were so many people around that I truly didn't even realize that I ran for almost 2 hours and my longest distance so far. My knees, mainly my IT bands were a little tight, but stuck it out to the end so I was happy. I made sure to drink at least a gulp of water at pretty much each water table too hoping that my stomach wouldn't blow up on me like usual. Luckily, that managed to hold off as well, but I paid for it later, and unfortunately, it is still unhappy with me. I don't know how to fix it and it's incredibly frustrating! Back to the run though... I have a tendency to start off too fast so I was pleased to see that my first mile split was 9 minutes on the dot. Went through the next 2 miles right on time so at least i was being consistant, albeit slow. The weather was nice... cloudy, cooler and not too humid. around mile 4 it started to rain pretty hard, but that felt great. I love to run in the rain. I even wore my hat to keep the forcasted hail out of my eyes... I realized I love my hat. The rain cooled me down and cut any humidity that was there... I think my pace actually sped up a bit. The rain eventually stopped and I could tell it started to get a little more humid as I dried off. Those miles were a little tougher, but not too bad. I was still at a decent pace, although I think around mile 8 my knees were hurting a little bit more and my pace struggled. I think it was around mile 10 that it started raining again and it completely opened up at 11. The wind picked up too and I managed to lose one of my contacts. That was fun since I had just put in a new pair that morning but oh well. Anyway, I sped up at mile 11, pushed even harder at 12 and actually managed a sprint finish to the end. That felt good as I ran down the shoot in the torential downpour, but I was slightly upset that I had that much energy at the end meaning I could obviously have pushed harder throughout the entire course. I guess it wasn't bad though considering I had gone out there with the point of a long training run and not really knowing what to expect. I was happy breaking 2 hours and ending with a chip time of 1:56:44. I could have definitely run further, which in the long run, is what I'm aiming for I guess.

Wow, what a long paragraph... are you bored yet? Otherwise, not much is new. Still don't have a bike, but everyone keeps saying how sweet this custom one is going to be when I get it... I wish there was more action and less talking... I'm getting nervous.

100 mile up this weekend... Hopefully the rainn can hold off for one day. I'm taking a couple easier days (Monday and today) because I think I got sick from waiting around in the pouring rain on Sunday while waiting for the Marathon relay team to come in. Everyone was very cold after the race and I think I used up all the hot water in the state of WI in my shower. Needless to say, I start a coughing fit everytime I take a breath anything deeper than "shallow". Good times. I tried swimming yesterday and made it about 100 yards. It was nice. I'm too impatient for this to pass. We'll see what happens.

Happy training to all... sorry for all the babbling!