Let Me Crawl Out from Under This Rock

Hi. I'm Courtney, and I have a Blog. I need to stare in the mirror and tell myself this every morning, and maybe someday I'll set aside 10 minutes to update it.

Ok, so let's see here, what have I been doing?

Let's start somewhere back around Kansas 70.3. I had a great race, and decided to take a few weeks off to chill out. I eventually picked up on running again, trying to gear up for the Kansas City Marathon. Then I cut my achillies at the dog park, which made wearing shoes, even bandaged up and double socked, impossible. The deep cut took about two weeks to heal up enough to stand running.

Well now I'm over that. But, I seemed to keep missing (ie: Being lazy, work, having too many excuses) my long Sunday runs. About a week ago I realized I was supposed to be running 14. I did 9. 9 was impressive. Wanna know why? Because prior to my 9miler, my longest run since KS 70.3 was a 6.5 miler. Yes, I know. Roll your eyes.

So, this week I of course missed my Wednesday run. Which I actually did make up, on Thursday. Then I ran my scheduled Friday. Two days back to back. Not fun. Then a long run for Saturday. To get myself back on track, I actually did the 14 (14.85 to be exact). I felt decent, considering I didn't start until 9am, at which point it was already 80* outside. When I finished almost three hours later, it was 94*. Gah. Well, at least I can survive in the heat. Which is good, since next weekend is 16-18.

Also next weekend is a bachlorette party. At this point, the prudent thing to do is to go and not drink, and have my ass in bed before 1am. It will be an early wake up call to get my feet on the pavement. Then, we're heading to the in-laws for lunch. An hour away. This means that if we have to be there by, oh, 1:30pm, we need to leave by 12:15pm. So I need to finish my run by 11:00am in time for me to stretch, ice bath, and shower. Completing my run which will take approximately 3hr and 40 min for 18 miles (not counting a gas station pit stop to refill hydration systems) means starting by 7am. At the latest. That's getting up at 6:15am. With 5 hrs of sleep.

On second thought, I'll be home before midnight. Sigh.

Other things on the agenda:

Swimming in Moonshine 2mi Open Water Race. It's the tail end of August and will make a great camping trip. Now, if I could only get my ass in the water to do a little swimming before hand.

I Got Older:
I had a birthday last Monday. Thus, I realized that unless I decided to do another race other than the marathon, I am approaching the end of my 20-24 age group career. Wow, so strange to think that when I started at 20. I'm actually ageing up! Welcome to the fast girls, huh?

For my birthday I got a fancy new phone, and a Garmin 305. I heart them both. Oh, and I can't forget. Neon blue Asics. Yes, back to the (b)Asics. I like the Zoot Ultras, but they're really just flats, and can't support a second season, let alone a marathon. I may pull them out of retirement for sprint triathlons if I ever enter another one.

Can't shake that (ironman) feeling:
I'm still sad that I decided to back out of the Redman full. It broke my heart and as race day nears, I'm feeling like I should be getting ready. It's definitely less time consuming training for marathon only races, and it worked out better for my schedule. Now, I'm looking ahead to 2010. Will it be Cozumel or Arizona? Both are held at the end of November. This would place a 20 week countdown at the begining of July. May thru the start of August were crazy work months for me, but I've seen things taper off as I gradually got a hold of it. I'm looking forward to next summer, as I feel like I now have the tools I need to get thru both training, and work.

Congrats:
To Julie. She finished her fourth marathon over the weekend at the ET marathon outside of Vegas. Crazy thing- they start at effing midnight! She's also got Chicago coming up this year.

There Will Be No Ironman in 2009

They couldn't pick a better time as that in life.

It ain't too early and it ain't too late.

Startin' as a farmer with a brand new wife.

Count me out. Cross me off. Take me off the roster. After much deliberating over the last few weeks, I've decided to removed Redman from my schedule this year. I started a new job in November as an aquatics director for two pools run by one of the largests associations in the country, and my work load has increased exponentially. From what I hear, it only gets worse. I have had some great training from January until the middle of March, when spring swim lessons picked up. In eight days I logged 68 hours on the clock, not including my commute. That's a lot of time taken away from my home, husband, and animals, let alone my training responsibilities. I've not been one to half ass things, and I have a true respect for the distance. I've done an iron distance event to finish one, and now I want to compete in one. If I'm not fully into the training, the recovery, and the nutrition both mentally and physically, I will not have a likely chance at meeting my goals.

This would be an expensive trip to set myself up for failure.

As we have all seen in the economy recently, our expendable income has become tucked neatly under our pillowcases. It makes it all the more harder to justify an expense at which I may not even make the starting line.

Instead, I am going to focus on a local olympic distance race, Kansas 70.3, and Steelhead 70.3. I will add in some August/September local sprints to keep myself occupied, and I am still planning to persue the Kansas City marathon in October.

As coach lady told me, "Going half the distance doesn't make it half as challenging."

I'm still determined to make this my best season yet.

The Weekend Report with Courtney S.

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but Zeus Goose the Cane Corso pup has cherry eye. Joy. Friday after work I took the little guy in to get checked out. After we returned from the vet, I got myself dressed and made my way out the door for a non-iPod, listen to the footsteps and falling snow/sleet only run of four miles. I know, I know, four miles ain't shiznit. But, to me, it really was. At a frigid 25 degrees and wind gusts of 25 mh, I was a bit, um, chilly. I made it back to the house not long after sundown, but was I was nearing my street on that particular patch of street lampless darkness, I remembered a run in which it hit me: I was going to finish Ironman Florida in the dark. I was thinking that maybe I would finish Redman in the daylight, but with a sunset of 7:30pm, I would have to finish at exactly 12hrs, about 30min faster than my goal time. So, maybe there will still be some trails of light on the horizon.

Saturday morning I went to work and taught some swim lessons. Aahh, swim lessons. Nothing like my bright and shinny self at 9am on a Saturday teaching nine 3-5year olds how to put their faces in the water. Actually, the kids aren't that bad (it's the parents.. err. wait..). Once I made it home I threw my leg over the bike and got to pedaling. In my kitchen. I set the trainer up in the kitchen so I could keep and eye on the dogs (and the dog's eyes). Also, some friends of the Husband were at the house laying the slate tile in the fancy-schmancy master bathroom. Be jealous. It's been since August of 2006 that the shower was last functional. My ride was set for two hours, however, after an hour and twenty minutes, I found myself at the vet yet again, to pick up more medication before they closed. I planned to get back on the saddle when I made it home, yet housework was piling up, and I made the executive decision that sometimes house priorities need to come before training. Gasp!

I hung out with Alygator in the afternoon, doing a whole lot of nothing. We tried the new sushi bar in town, which, to our surprise also has 4 hibachi grills as well. The sushi was excellent and after a mere two glasses of white, we called it a night. I feel asleep with the dogs on the couch watching Pineapple Express.

Sunday morning we planned to run early and be done with it. However, Alygator FINALLY set up a Facebook account so we took the majority of the morning for her to explore her new found world of Social Networking Websites. About 3:00 I said enough and got dressed. The temps were hovering around the 19 degree mark, but with less wind, the five miles were not only warmer than Friday's but, dare I say it, FUN. I ran with the iPod this time- after I dug through three purses and two workout bags to find it. These runs were far from fast, but the snowflakes on both trips were fun. Also, it's nice to have the path only to yourself. I never saw another runner Friday, and Sunday my only company was Alyson. Alyson, by the way, made Sunday her farthest run EVER. I remember how exciting those are. Long runs. Well, long enough.

This morning I found myself in the middle of a main set consisting of 10 x 200's build. Yes, 10 x TWO HUNDRED YARDS. My arms are tired but the gradual increase in yardage is good for me, and, well, makes me happy if nothing else.

There's KMA spin class tonight, however, Coach Lady has me to ride only an hr with a lower HR than what the Class workout is, so I'll be doing this in the kitchen too. Then I'll finally get to snuggle up to the husband- he spent the weekend working in Houston at supercross- and drink a glass of wine, which, will ultimately be my night cap. Rest day tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to it.

Sweet Dreams are Made of These

I'm not prepared. I haven't done the training. It's race day. 2.4 mile swim. 112 mile bike. 26.2 mile run.

The race starts and I'm still messing with my stuff in transistion. Putting my bike together. I'm freaking out, man. My longest run is under 12 miles. I haven't rode my bike more than 20. I keep seeing this basket full of eggs, wait, golf balls, next to my transition bag. I wanted to be first out of the water, but the girls are exiting and I'm not even in yet.

Omigod.

Ooomigod.

Omigod omigod omigod, I AM NOT READY.

I awoke in dripping sweat, kicking the sheets off my body. I had this feeling before. The feeling of unpreparedness. The worry, the fright. The panic. It's all a dream. It's all a dream. But, it's kinda not. I'm just starting to begin my training for Redman. My dream was my fears about the race, and where I'm at now with my fitness and training. Had I tried to set out for 140.6 miles in my sleep last night, I surely would have failed. Your dreams prove how much control your mind can have over your race, and I do not want to have that feeling.

I emailed the hopefully-soon-to-be-coach lady: Do you still have room for me? When can we start?

Becase, well, things may be closer than they appear.

So It Begins

Well, Here We Are.

Tonight's first of the year "Spin" class will mark the third consecutive workout for me. Yes, I said third. Tonight I shall embark on a 16 week journey of twice weekly bike sessions with the goal of building miles and kicking my anaerobic threshold. No really, the name of the class is KMA. Although, all the participants are fully aware that KMA is really for Kick My Ass and has little to do with anaerobic thresholds.

Yesterday, I swam around 3500 yards. Hardly anything when you think about one race totaling 4400. However, I worked hard. Especially on the negative split 400's. After looking at previous year's RedMan results, I'm having a hard time understanding why the swim splits are so... slow. Only one woman last year swam under 1:05. In 2007, the first woman out of the water was a 1:24. ONE HOUR, TWENTY FOUR MINUTES. 2006 was two minutes slower than that! I'm guessing its the lack of draft that causes the slower times, and there's fewer competitors to compare by. I was the 70th woman out of the water at IMFL 07 with a 1:06. The fastest fish that day was Theresa Mackel in 50min.

After looking over results, I feel like if I can swim to the same ability as in 2007 (not the same speed, as the draft really does play a huge part), then I should exit the water near the front of the overall race. I'll worry about the bike and run later. Let me savor this moment.

I'm still figuring out the coaching situation. I originally thought I'd have more moola to spend than I really do. I found someone that I feel would be an excellent fit, however, I'm trying to figure ways to make coaching a necessity versus a want and therefore giving paying thousands a year a bigger allowance out of our budget. I do want to say that Nancy Strickland coached me last year and is F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S. However, I was needing to make some changes and when doing an Ironman, it's easier on the phsyche to be coached BY and Ironman. Not to say Nancy isn't a badass in her own right.

I'm off to dig thru a box of mismatch heart rate monitor straps here in the office. During my "arms will fall off" swim set yesterday, my faithful HRM of two years but the dust. I've tried changing batteries, replacing pieces, anything, to save it. But, I think it's done. However, the watch/ receiver portion still is ticking (pun intended), so hopefully there's a Nike strap in this gross sweaty box.

Redman Iron Distance 2009

Ok, so CornDog (my iron partner in crime for 2009) and I have decided on an ironman. It's not an Ironman event, per se, but it's an iron distance. There's a bunch of pros and cons for the event, especially for Corey, as this will be his first trist in the the land of all things Iron. Actually, this will be his first venture into the land of triathlon. No, RedMan won't be his first tri, believe me, Coach Corky will get him some experience. And it's not like he's a total newbie- he's one of *those* people. Those 100 mile rides for the helluvit and 12 mile runs in 100 minutes just because he can. Yeah, *one of those.*
Anyway, here's some of the cons:

-Not the big fancy schmancy hoorah of the Ironman Trademark events
-Not 2200 other athletes to keep you motivated
-Not somewhere exotic like Florida, or Cananada, or Cancun

Ok, I know there's more, but since I'm stoked about RedMan, I'm seeing all the pros:

-It's in Oklahoma City, which is driving distance, and not the drive all freaking day driving distance, but get up and leave in the morning, be there by the time check in opens driving distance
- After reviewing a few year's worth of results, I see that I could very possibly place top 3 in my age group, instead of 12 like at Florida last year
-The Cheapest entry fee for any Iron distance in North America, and you can enter up until like July, or something like that
-The race date. Late September is decent weather, and weather similar to what I will train in. This also means that my season won't last from April to November, unless I decide to do the ChiTown marathon or something else to that effect

So, there you have it.

RedMan, it is.