understanding the tri-dude

Here is a follow-up post to my blog from a few weeks ago.

Understanding the tri-dude.

?

Oh wait.

Beer, sex, and food.

Haha! Am I right?

hello Wisconsin!

So what exactly is in Wisconsin (other than cows, cheese, and the Green Bay Packers)? Oh yes, there is an IRONMAN in Wisconsin! And in one year, I will be doing that Ironman!

I registered for IM Wisconsin 2011 today, online! Registration was originally open at 1 pm on Monday, however due to website malfunctions, it was temporarily closed until today at 1 pm. Imagine my frustration as I tried to register for an hour on Monday and kept timing out on active.com, and then eventually got the message that registration was no longer available. I thought that it had sold out! Turns out they had shut it down completely to try to fix the problems they were having. So I logged back on today at 1 and managed to secure my spot for next year! I guess the entire race sold out within the hour so I'm glad I was able to get in.

So that makes my race schedule for next year slightly more daunting.

June 26 - Ironman Coeur D'Alene

September 11 - Ironman Wisconsin

So far, that's it. Because let's face it - that's a lot. Right there is at least 24 hours of racing. Maybe 23 hours if I am lucky. It's $1200 worth of entry fees. And it's god knows how much in travel costs.

What have I gotten myself into?!

If you don't see me next year it's because I'm either training my ass off or working one of the 5 jobs I will have to have in order to afford doing the double Ironman year. Or curled into the fetal position in a corner somewhere crying because I have tackled too much. :)

Just kidding! I am excited to see what I can push myself to do - to test myself mentally and physically. I am excited for my chance to PR (two chances to PR actually!) in an Ironman. I can't wait to go into an Ironman actually knowing what it's like ahead of time! However I am still prepared to learn. :)

I am honored to be able to race on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. To be an American is a great thing. To have the choice - the freedom - to do an Ironman is a privilege. Not everyone in the world has that option. Many people in this world are sick, starving, and worse. I love my country because I have the freedom and the opportunity to pursue my dreams, no matter what they are.

Maybe it's weird to be ok with racing on 9/11? I don't know. I think it's better to acknowledge that it happened and remember it throughout the race rather than completely forget about it. I know that sometimes I forget, not because I forget about what happened but because sometimes I just don't know what day it is.

Anyways, weird patriotic ramble over.

Cheers to my off-season starting in 5 days!

tires of all kinds hate me

So, big news of the day:

My front Zipp wheel will not take any air! Wow, I am just so surprised because I have NEVER had ANY problems with these wheels before now!

Is that enough sarcasm for you?

Seriously, I feel like me owning these wheels is equivalent to a man having a trophy wife. They were expensive, they are high maintenance, they require constant attention and checking up on, they are impossible for me to fix, but they are shiny, and they make my bike look super fast and awesome.

Is that what it's like to date a high maintenance chick? I constantly have issues with these wheels but I can't bring myself to sell them because they were so expensive. They were an INVESTMENT! And they are so pretty! And fast!

At least I am learning. At least this time I didn't wait until the MORNING OF THE RACE to try to inflate the tire. Now I know: check tire pressure, try to inflate tire, put wheel on bike to make sure it spins ok. Do all of this DAYS before the race - NOT the night before. Also, bring extra set of wheels to the race in case I have race day problems! I should also probably buy like 100 beers for my mechanic friend Alex who has changed out my flat Zipp like 100 times. My wheels are probably the reason he has abnormally strong forearms for a dude.

And if that isn't enough, this is the 2nd "tire problem" I have had in the last 24 hours. I was leaving work last night at 11:15 pm, psyched to get home and sleep in my own bed for the first time since Thursday night and to hang out with my cat who is currently VERY annoyed with me for leaving her alone for 3 days, when the low tire indicator light on my dashboard came on (you know, the one that looks like a butt). So I pulled over and I could hear the air gushing out of a very obvious hole in my front left tire. I then pulled into an empty parking lot of a bowling alley and decided to call Triple A rather than attempt to change the tire myself.

I can change a tire. I know how (although I have never done it all by myself). But it scares me to change a tire at 11:30 at night, alone, in a sketchy parking lot. So I opted to sit in my car with the doors locked and hang out til AAA arrived. I will have to practice my tire-changing skills some other time.

Then today I took my car to the garage to have the tire patched and of course, it's unfixable. So.. guess who bought a new tire!

I love spending money on things like tires. It's my favorite!

Oh and apparently, I drive a mom car. My car had been sitting in Adam's driveway and his neighbor saw it and asked him if he was dating a soccer mom. I guess I didn't think my car was that bad? I know it's a wagon and it's decorated with nerdy triathlon stickers but I thought moms drove vans, or SUVs. I thought that the station wagon was an "uncool" option for a soccer mom! Just for a visual, here is my car:


Regardless, I am not ashamed of my mom car and I will continue to cover it in triathlon stickers as I see fit, and I will drive it around on its 1 new tire and 3 older tires. And on Saturday I will load it up with my Cervelo, 2 sets of wheels and my race gear and drive it over to Syracuse for the Train-This invasion of Syracuse! I can't wait! :)

blame Canada

So first things first, a big congrats to Coach Mary for a 4:59 and a great race at Pumpkinman half-ironman in Maine. Also, to Mark O. for a 12:57 at the full Rev3 Cedar Point in his first iron distance race! And there was a big sigh of relief because although Mary's husband Curt crashed into a guardrail during the Pumpkinman sprint and broke his fork, he walked away from the crash totally fine (after a nice trip to the hospital)!

Syracuse 70.3 is in 6 days. I finally had a good run yesterday! It only took 7 weeks for me to work up the motivation to do some tempo work. The athlete guide is posted, waves are posted! My bib # is 1021 and I am going off in wave 13 at 7:48 am in a light pink swim cap. Last week I didn't care about the race. I didn't care how I did. I didn't care about a Clearwater spot. I didn't even want to do it. Of course that didn't last. I still want to do well. I guess I should have made that decision 7 weeks ago and then maybe I wouldn't have half-assed my training since Placid. Oh well!

So I have been absent from blog-land for a whole bunch of days. I was invited to go camping this weekend in the 1000 Islands by Adam to meet up with 2 of his friends from Ottawa that he met while in Italy (the kid gets around apparently). Now, I like to camp. I don't love it. I have a tent and a sleeping bag, but no other camp accessories. I forgot a flashlight. I don't have an air mattress. We had to sleep on the hard dirt ground - there wasn't even grass! His friends from Ottawa were much better equipped. They had a propane stove thing, and silverware, and a whole bunch of other useful stuff.

I don't do so well with camping because it mostly involves drinking, and I am not a good drinker. If I drink fast enough to get drunk, I pass out super early. If I drink slowly, I get a headache and then I want to go to bed early because I'm tired. I just cannot stay up late. But this was fun. I learned lots of trivia about Canada! I exemplified the Canadian stereotype of Americans as idiots who know nothing about the rest of the world.

After assembling our campsite and cooking/eating dinner, we were drinking some beers/wine/Johnny Bootlegger and chatting around the campfire. And this is where I realized that I am just not interesting if you take away the whole triathlon/Ironman thing (which had to be done in this case because I was there with Adam who does much crazier races than Ironman). I am just the girl with the job that is so hard to explain that people fall asleep while I try. I am the girl who watches her favorite TV shows over and over. I am the girl who talks about her cat too much. I am the girl who does the same race that thousands of people do, and the wimpier version of other races. And yes I am loud and excitable and sort of quirky and yes I hate SUVs (which I get called out on), but have I done anything crazy? No. Have I been arrested? No. I haven't even gone anywhere interesting since 2003 when I went to Ireland.

I'm not saying that I want to get arrested..

But most of my stories are lame. I try to stay out of trouble. I like to go to bed early. I'm pretty introverted. I like structure in my life.

My most recent "story" was:

I went to Kim's house last weekend to hang out and watch a movie and we were so busy chatting that we forgot to eat dinner.

WOW I FORGOT TO EAT! OMG.. so crazy. Oh wait, no. Forgetting dinner was probably the best thing I could have done for my pre-race taper. Haha!

Anyways - I am on a mission. Look for me in the back of a police car.

my friend Flicka

Some of you may know, probably most do not know - I have a horse. Her name is Cherry. My mom bought Cherry for me when she was 4, and I was 10 or 11. She is now 20, and I am 26.



Cherry is one of the most important things in my life (so is my cat, Fiona). I have always liked animals more than people. And I LOVE my 2 animals.

For the majority of my life, I have been a horseback rider. I have ridden Western and English. I have personally hauled Cherry in a truck/horse trailer. I have fallen off, I have been stepped on. I have trail ridden, barrel raced, team penned, cross country jumped, done dressage - you name it and I've probably tried it, and I've probably tried it with Cherry. She is truly the best horse in the world. She is small and furry. She is not registered (in fact she is a grade - a mutt of the horse world - part Quarter Horse and part Morgan). She is a huge pain in the ass at times. She is also slightly crazy to ride. She has the best ground manners you could ask for - but sometimes questionable riding manners. I love her in spite of her difficulties!

Cherry's idea of a horse show is to race around the arena as fast as possible. When I first got her I was a barrel racer and that is what I did with her. This is where you run around objects (either barrels or poles) that are set up in a pattern and it's timed, so obviously we were running as fast as possible. We were pretty good! She's a fast horse. We won a lot of awards. I eventually lost interest (AKA she was getting too nutso and I didn't want to die) and I switched to 3 day eventing - the "triathlon" of the horse world because it's made up of dressage, cross country jumping, and stadium jumping. (It's the cool stuff you see people doing with horses in the summer Olympics).

As eventers, we stuck out. I was eventing when I was 17. I'm short and my horse is small. I used to wear purple and dress Cherry in purple (saddle pad, boots, etc. all purple). One time I was warming up before my cross country jumping run and some lady made a comment about the cute little girl and her pony in purple. Sorry ma'am.. I was 17. Cherry also liked to run at the fences as fast as possible and leap over them at breakneck speed. There was nothing I could do to stop her. I rode with a gag bit in her mouth and this thing called a running martingale to hold her head down - didn't matter. She ran the show. I'm surprised I survived.

My riding slowed down when I went to college, then graduate school, and then entered the real world, and finally picked up triathlon. I have ridden twice this summer. It is something I feel incredibly guilty about. But my horse is old, she is arthritic, and she deserves her retirement. If you had arthitis and a bad ankle, would you want a person getting on your back and riding you around, forcing you to exercise? She has no way to tell me if it hurts her when I ride her! I don't think she minds her retirement. She gets to play with other horses, hang out in the pasture, and the kids at the barn give her treats and brush her.

I think I mostly feel guilty because I have slowly been letting go of a major part of my life in order to make room for something new. I feel guilty because Cherry has always been there. As Sir Winston Churchill said,

"There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man."



When I was younger, having a horse, being able to ride every day, that is what kept my head on straight. Now, that is what triathlon does for me. It is very difficult to balance them both. My horse is so special and I love her so, so much. She deserves her retirement for sure. However she also deserves consistent attention from her owner, so I am going to make a better attempt at getting to the barn to see her on a regular basis. Seeing my horse makes me SO happy but sometimes I get caught up in my daily routine and it gets pushed to the back of my mind. That shall happen no more. :)

throwback

Labor Day is over. It is officially FALL in my book. As I was riding the Syracuse course on Sunday with Ken, I noticed that the leaves are starting to change! The weather is cooling down, the wind is picking up, the air is crisper - fall is here!

Fall is my most favorite season ever! I can bust out my jeans and hoodies. I have to start wearing long-sleeved shirts on my runs. I no longer break into a sweat by merely moving! I can cozy up in my SNUGGIE and watch new episodes of my 2 favorite TV shows - NCIS and The Office! One downside to fall is I have to start wearing pants around my apartment again because it is just too chilly for a no-pants situation.

Fall always reminds me of cross country season. For me, this time of year is DEFINED by running. I ran cross country for 7 years - 2 in jr. high, 4 in high school, and 1 in college. I still miss it to this day and it has been 8 years since I've run on an organized XC team. I still am in contact with my high school cross country coach (him and his wife are both elite runners and they still live in the area).

As much as I still love to run - there is NOTHING like running as part of a team. Running together, racing together, traveling to races, team practices, and team dinners are what make it so amazing. You can't beat a day at a cross country invitational. Hundreds of teams gather, lots of colorful uniforms, it's just incredible. I can't even describe how much I loved it and miss it! I still try to make it (as a spectator) to the McQuaid Invitational which is one of the largest XC invitationals on the East coast and is held right here in Rochester, ~3 miles from my front door!


I am in all 3 of those photos above - can you spot my high school-aged counterpart? If you do, you win a hug!

I think that being on a tri team that is so close is very reminiscent of being on a high school XC team. We don't compete together for a team score but the dynamic is very very similar (with WAY less drama I might add).

Fall also reminds me of marching band. Yes, I was in band. I played the flute. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Just a few things about the Syracuse course which I rode again on Sunday morning with my teammate Ken. I really don't hate the beginning of the course. Yes it's a lot of uphill and it's slow-going, but I actually LIKE climbing up Sweet Rd. It's not THAT steep so I can just spin up it. It takes a while but really, not horrible. I like riding past Deryuter Lake. I think it's pretty and there's the cool elephant to gaze upon! What I don't like is the wind! Both times I have ridden the course the wind was brutal. The middle section has a ridiculous headwind and it's very frustrating. Ken dropped me because he had tempo sections to do and I just kept falling farther behind because the wind was killing my motivation.

I stopped along the way to take a picture of the M-Dot which was mowed into the side of a ski mountain! Ken was diligently doing his tempo - I was riding along at 15 mph sightseeing.. oh well. My drive to train well, do any tempo blocks, work hard - it's just GONE.

Also, I had a bit of an "incident" while riding. I had to pee the entire ride. I drove from Rochester to Syracuse at 6 am in order to ride at 8 am. We parked outside the park so there was no bathroom break before starting the ride! I was doing ok with holding it until I hit the oil/chipped section in the last 10 miles of the course; this just rattled my bladder too much! I decided I had to stop and pee before I peed my pants (totally legit during a race, not cool during training). I saw a good spot where I could crawl into the woods for privacy so I hit the brakes, went to unclip, failed to unclip, and tipped over... oh my. That hasn't happened since I learned to ride with clipless pedals. I was alone and no one saw it, but then I told Ken, and Kim, and Adam.. and now everyone knows that I'm an idiot. I bent my brake lever but the bike shop fixed it for me!

I have driven to Syracuse so many times in the past 6 weeks that I think my car could drive there on auto-pilot! My gas tank certainly likes the attention (although my wallet does not), and I like watching the green light say "EZ PASS GO" when I go through the EZ Pass lane because that's how easily amused I am.

There may or may not be a reason that I have been driving to Syracuse so much. :)

I am hoping this week goes by quickly!

random annoyances

Now I know that it's not the nicest thing in the world to blog about, but I'm going to talk about some things that I find incredibly irritating. If you are an offender of anything on my list do not worry, I won't hold it against you. :)

Is it apparent that my triathlon training is basically at a standstill and is going so horribly that I don't even want to talk about it at all?

Anyways.....

In no particular order, some things that annoy the shit out of me:

enormous SUVs. I am a snob. I hate SUVs and I will readily admit that. I hate all of them, big ones, small ones, "hybrid" ones. I understand why someone might want a smaller SUV - be it for winter driving, cargo room for travel, towing things, etc. I get that they are practical. I even considered one (in a short moment accompanied by a dose of self-loathing) but I don't like the way they drive. However, what is the point of driving a Hummer? Or an Escalade? or a Yukon? I'm sorry, but no one in Rochester, NY needs to drive a tank to get to work. No Pittsford soccer mom needs a freakin' Expedition to cart her 1.7 children to Wegmans. Every time I see a gigantic SUV I get angry. Who wants to drive a car that gets 12 miles/gallon? Who goes to a dealership and goes "Yes, I would like the car that will destroy the environment THE FASTEST"?? But yes, I am a snob. I am a hippie and I drive a station wagon. Whatever.


Guys asking permission before kissing a girl. This gets me every time. If you need to ask permission before you kiss someone, then you either a) are terrible at reading signals or b) that girl does not want you to kiss her! If someone asks me if they can kiss me, I almost immediately lose interest in kissing them! Yes I know it is petty but I can't help it. I'm not saying that random guys off the street are approaching me and asking to make out with me.. but seriously, if you go on a date with me and then you have to ask me that.. I get annoyed, which is not good! Just go for it man!


how texting and facebook are the downfall of society. Now I am not just cutting down other people! I love both texting and facebook. And when I say love, I mean I REALLY REALLY LOVE them both. But I have to say that they are both ridiculous. There is no mystery left in the world. If you want to know what someone is doing, you can text them. If they don't respond in 0.23423 seconds, you just check their status on facebook. Now facebook even lets you tell everyone where you are ALL THE TIME! Sadly, I am a slave to technology. I will never unplug. When someone tells me that they are not on facebook, or even worse, don't have a cell phone, I silently think "FREAK." Although that is probably better for them because they don't have to endure the terrible, terrible grammatical errors and spelling mistakes that come with both facebook and text messages.

When is the last time you picked up the phone and called someone? I don't do this. I never have phone conversations.. and I freaking LOVE to talk! But if I don't see someone in person, I will barely talk to them. Take my friendship with my high school friend Denise. She is still a good friend of mine. The last time I saw her was over Thanksgiving in 2008? Maybe 2007. That was the last time I heard her voice, however we text back and forth weekly. Sad? Yes. Will I ever pick up my phone to call and see how she's doing? Doubtful.


Anyone on "Team Edward." I have read Twilight. I actually own all of the Twilight books. I am ashamed of this fact. But it happened so get over it.

Edward is creepy.

Do I need to say more? No, he is not romantic. He's a freaking psycho.


Dogs in purses. Any dog that can be carried around by a malnourished, 100 lb celebrity is not a real dog. Dogs walk using their own 4 legs. They run through the mud, they chase other animals, they drool, and they don't have to wear a tiny pink jacket. I really, really, really want to get a dog but I wouldn't take a Yorkie if someone gave the thing to me. Man's best friend does not weigh 3 lbs.




I could go on, but that's probably enough ranting for the day.