Working to find my badass self

Well races last year were a bit of a bust.  I signed up to do Drake Half Marathon in April and has a slew of health issues all winter and spring in 2019.  Then did the Hope Run with the boy and got second in my age group (getting old so that helps). Missed the MS bike ride in Minneapolis because it was 40 degrees and raining so no thanks. I signed up for the Ames Triathlon a couple days in advance and it was a great race.  Then didn't race Midnight Madness due to lack of children and a leg injury that cropped up on the group run that morning.  I had to dial way back on running after that and was worried going in to the Boulder Half Ironman but my leg didn't malfunction until the last mile of the run and by then I was in a grove to finish.  After that I missed Bluff Creek because I hadn't had any down time with my kids most of the summer weekends and we just hung out and watched movies and spent time together instead.  And that pretty much wrapped up my lack luster season of missing half the races I signed up for which was a bummer as money is tight.

So this season here is my super tentative plan.  I am tentatively shaping up my season to look like this: 

• Drake half marathon (April 19th)
• MS Bike Ride?? (May 16th)
• Clear Lake sprint triathlon (May 30), 
• Hope run (early June)
• Grandmas marathon - eek first one (June 20),
• Ames tri (June 28 but may do the aquabike depends on my legs), 
• Midnight Madness
• Maybe bluff creek oly (aug 16), 
• Hiking trip (Early August)
• Square Lake half (sept 12) going back to a course I did five years ago to keep the long distance training going as I have my sights set on doing an Ironman once my health is stable.
• Hillbilly half marathon (Nov)

A lot of this depends on the stability of my health as I had a lot of health setback throughout 2019 (I'll have a blog on that soon). I need to see how far behind I am in run training already but keeping up on swimming and strength work with some shorter runs.  I hope to bike a lot more this year (so call if you are looking for a buddy). And need some long run buddies in April and May!  I start bike training tomorrow so here goes another season!

Race Reports x3 2018 - Drake Half, Clear Lake Tri, and Bluff Creek Tri

Well, I've been a giant blog slacker... plenty to say just zero time to synthesize any of it so starting with something easy.  Three quick race reports for my fitness adventures so far in 2018.

I decided last year after being a giant slacker and doing one whole triathlon and a couple of 5k runs to get myself organized and fit again.  My gym has this Inbody measurement device that looks at hydration, muscle and fat mass for all parts of your body and such.  I did the first measurement at the end of August in 2017 when I decided to get my tush moving again.  And then did a fifth measurement in May of 2018 and found I was down 8 lbs and 4.4 % body fat (I'm sure in July I put some of the squish back on but such is life... I like sweets too much).

First the Drake Half Marathon

I set some goals as part of the getting back in shape process and that was to do another half marathon and three/four triathlons this year.  Not going to let my body or the weather hold me back so I got myself signed up.



I hadn't done this race before but it sounded like a nice small race to do.  I started doing group runs with the Vardo running group in Ames.  I ran in all kinds of weather and did a least two long grueling treadmill runs thanks to mother nature's whimsy but built a good base and was ready when race day came.  The weather for Drake was about as nice as it could be for a blustery April morning.  We saw lots of vardos and Triracers at the start and I was in good spirits.  I picked a pacer close to where I hoped to end up and then We were off.  

My carpool buddy Ashish

One of the things I was trying leading up to the race was different nutrition options.  My body doesn’t tolerate Gatorade or GU so I generally avoid all free non water offerings at aid stations.  I had been testing a couple Young Living options for hydration and energy so I had a small water bottle with Aminowise, a banana, and two Nitros with me.  I started with the prerace banana, took a nitro between mile 5 and 6.  My pace was right where I wanted to be in the mid nines and felt pretty good through the never ending rolling hills (didn’t expect quite so many), and missed the right time to take my last nitro so miles 11 and 12 I didn’t have much in the tank but pulled it together for a strong finish. My final time was 2:08 which was in my top three for fastest half marathons.  I had fun and would definitely do that course again.

Clear Lake Triathlon

Second new tom me race of the year was Clear Lake triathlon.  My folks have a condo just up the hill from this race so I spend a lot of time training on this course when I’m in town.  I was busy with kid stuff in the days leading up to the race, and I hadn’t really done any racing in 2017 (yeah it sucked and I was stuck last year so this was the year of getting it done).  I threw all my gear together at 10 pm two nights before, then had this and that for the kids after work and rushed up to the lake with Joshua.  I realized as I was getting my gear set out I forgot two things... my wetsuit (not a deal breaker as we’d swam in the lake a couple of weeks earlier) and my goggles!  

Running out of the lake took forever

Yes the former competitive swimmer forgot the goggles.  It was ten pm and there were no options for getting a replacement pair.  I found some kiddie goggles in the condo as a last ditch but thankfully once I set up, I was in transition talking to one of the race volunteers and told them my goggle issue and they said follow me, led me to another local woman who had three pairs of goggles and she set me up with an older pair. They were perfect.

The swim was brisk at the start with water temps in the mid 70s. I hit the start and hyper ventilated a bit the first 100+ yards and I had to do couple quick breast strokes to settle down and give myself a pep talk, and once I calmed down it was smooth swimming.  One thing to note is the lake is pretty

smiling because running is fun

shallow so many ran in a ways, but I opted to swim as soon as it was deep enough. I didn’t follow the same rules getting to shore and ran quite a ways in the lake and legs were burning so probably should have kept swimming.  Didn’t matter because my son and folks were on the shore cheering me out of the water.

The bike was full of small rolling hills and large wind turbines and while I had decent bike training going into this there was a consistent but not super strong wind and I didn’t feel as strong as I’d hoped... seriously everyone passed me.  

The run course was pretty flat and after a quick transition I was off for downtown and the Surf.  I felt like I’d have a strong run and the clouds were hanging on with the cooler air.  I was having fun and we ran through downtown and saw the family again before heading out to the Surf and back to the finish at downtown.  While I didn’t see any racers I knew It was awesome to have part of my family there.  It was a very well supported race and I’d definitely do it again.

Sprint triathlon 750 m swim 13:54, 12.5 mile bike 46:53, Run 5k 28:39 overall time 1 hour 33 minutes

Bluff Creek Triathlon

Leading up to this one I always seem to waiver between doing the sprint and the Olympic distances because the run is always a hot steamy suck fest.  I told myself this year that I was going to stay with the challenge of the Olympic and just adjust the best I can.  I brought several icy water bottles, and a cooler with my cooling shrug which keeps my skin cool when wet as well as a cooling towel on ice.


I did forget my racing sunglasses (case but no glasses) so had to run back up to the truck to get my everyday ones that are also sport ones.  I also forgot breakfast so I ate one of the granola bars I had with me.  Did I say I was nervous about doing the Olympic distance... uh yeah just a bit distracted.  Oh and this race totally snuck up on me as I didn't do any riding after RAGBRAI until the Wednesday before the race and I hadn't done any distance swim workouts until the Monday before.  Eek!

I had fun in transition despite getting arriving later than expected.  I visited with as many of the triracers and Ames folks as I could before the race started as we were well represented.  I took a few calming breaths before the swim start and I was off.  

Again I made bad decisions on goggles as I grabbed an old mirrored pair with impossible to see out of lenses instead of just my tinted pair (time to invest in some new pairs).  Needless to say that made sighting nearly impossible during the swim.  I was forced to sight off my nearest neighbors as the red bouys are really hard to see (race directors... orange or green please) and you can't see the turnaround point for the swim course until you are 1/3 of the way through the swim as you skirt the shore on your left for quite a while before things open up so you don't really sight off the bouys until you are almost to the turn around.  I ran into traffic of the two waves in front of me about half way in and spent the rest of the time weaving through people to the turn.  After that sighting was a little easier with one red and one green bouy before the slippery run out of the lake.

Two awesome ladies (three I guess :)

Once on the bike I was cruising around 18-20 mph until the turn at Pilot mound and the roll to Twister Hill.  I think my max speed on the return trip was just short of 40mph as that hill seemed steeper then the hill on the way out.  After the first big hill I was a bit wiped and it took me a few miles of grinding things out (yes with people passing me) before I pulled it together and had a more focused return trip.  The second hill was a slow grind up (4 mph) but I had taken on some steady nutrition before getting there and felt a lot better after that one.  

My Ames teammates

I made it back to transition and did the dance of the gear swap including my cooling shrug and I was off on a shuffle to the finish.  The course goes through a lovely prairie for 1/4 mile (this is actually the suckiest part of the run despite being lovely because the humidity doubled).  Then it spits out onto a short gravel road and onto the main paved road.  This is an out and back with a repeat and there are two decent hills so you get to run up both of them twice. Thankfully the water stops are at the bottom and you hit those each twice as well.  I was pleased with the camaraderie on the course with people encouraging each other and found I started doing it as well and kept a smile going through the slog which helped keep me moving.  I made sure to double up my water at each stop to drink and to wear, and I took a nitro at the right before the turnaround to repeat the run course.  I had a few sketchy moments where I walked part of the same hill and felt a bit icky but managed to breathe through it.  Highlights of the run... two fuzzy wuzzy caterpillars near the damn at the bottom of the hills.  Never was I so happy to plod across a finish line.  Below is my last take at Olympic distance on this course (2014).  http://blaesing-thompson.blogspot.com/2014/08/race-report-shawn-bluff-creek-olympic .html

The numbers for this go are: .9 miles swim 29:15, 25 mile bike 1 hour 36 minutes, 6.2 mile run 1 hour 11 minutes.  Total for my slowest time ever 3 hours and 32 minutes for the finish.  4th in my age group out of four but I had a great day.  As always thanks for reading.

Race Report - Milkman 1/2 Ironman Triathlon

Teammates Galen and Andy before the
race - Joe Thompson

Sometimes life presents you with choices.  As my earlier blog post noted I had a rough couple of weeks going into this race.  That meant drastically reduced training, physical therapy, and on and on... Add weather in the 80s and a pile of hills into the mix and I made the decision to take the pressure off myself.  As I did my race prep the night before I was talking through the plan with my husband and cousins and warned them It was going to take me a while to finish.  I said it was likely I'd be walking the half marathon and worse case might not even finish (I never really know when heat will make my MS flare).  I was not going to strain my body to collapse with the heat and challenging bike course so with that I went into the next day with my mind and heart open to whatever experience was put in front of me.

Race day I was up before 5 and the guys and I headed over to the course lot.  My cousin Jay introduced me to Captain America Aaron who does ToughMudder races with him.  Jay and Joe walked over to the transition zone and Aaron and I took the bus with our gear.  With nearly 1000 people racing it was a good sized transition area.  I had dropped off my bike the day before but we didn't have time to check out the course which is pretty unusual for me. I got things reinstalled on my bike and set up my transition area.  I found a bunch of my triracer teammates and Ames racing buddies and shot the breeze before heading over to the lake to check out the buoys.  While chatting and waiting I met another Pearl Izumi Women's Tri team member GiGi and love my extended tri family this year.  The water was in the low 70s as was the air and I opted for a wetsuit.  

Coming out of the swim

This race ran the waves starting in reverse age order with the elite heats and the older folks going first.  I think I was heat nine which put me in a middle heat.  I got a strong start and the sun was high enough it wasn't completely in my face but sighting buoys for the first leg was challenging.  I started to hit traffic about 200 yards from the first turn and found myself in people as I swam through the three heats of athletes ahead of me.  It was a solid swim but I wasn't pushing super hard.  I came out of the lake with 1.2 miles in right at 35 minutes.  YAY wetsuit strippers got my out of my suit in seconds.  It was quite a distance up over the hill back to transition and I jogged most of it.   

I took a few minutes to dry off, get my gear on, drink water and snarf down a Lara bar.  I was convinced that I wasn't going to bonk like I did last year.  Joe, Jay and Jodi  my training buddy Galen's wife all gave me a shout out as I headed out for my ride.  I had three water bottles (one insulated and cold, one with air temp water and one with skratch) and with the heat rising through the ride I made sure to work the warm one twice for every hit of skratch and saved the cooler one for later on the course.  The roads was rough the first ten miles and then the hills came, and came, and came.  I started working on my PBJ bonk bar around mile 20 and finished it off by mile 45.  I also worked through all three water bottles pushing the last of my water as I rolled the last mile into transition, and felt like my nutrition plan thus far was just right for my 56 mile ride.  This was my longest ride of the season by 20 miles since my training derailed with the car crash recovery.  So at this point I am 56 miles and 3 hours and 53 minutes in the saddle which had me at four and half hours so far.

My ROCKSTAR family at the halfway point
of the half marathon - LOVE THEM!!

My new triathlete friend Leslie
and I at the halfway point

Coming into transition I was cheered on by seven people I love (biggest cheering section ever for me) and I prepared myself for a hot shuffle around the lake.  I put on my Pearl Izumi cooling bolero which is wet and fun to wriggle into but worth the five degree cooler temps on my arms.  I had been chatting with a young man towards the end of the bike who'd been cramping and we came out of transition together with my soon to be new friend Leslie from the Madison area.  As we shuffled the first few steps we agreed neither of us was going to push too hard for the 13.1 mile "run" portion of this half ironman so we agreed to make the journey together.

Around mile 9 1/2

By this point the weather was heating up into the 80s and full sun.  Thank goodness for ice at every water stop.  The neighborhood course support was fantastic the first seven miles with lots of sprinklers along the way for us to keep cool. They also had bananas so when my tummy started to rumble around mile five that took the edge off.  I was carrying my skratch in a 16 oz hand bottle and took this one between water stops as needed.

At each stop we would put ice in our bras and in my hat, pour water on my cooling sleeves and drink some as well.  It was a beautiful shuffle the first 6 1/2 miles through older neighborhoods and lakeside houses.  After the water stop at mile 6 1/2  where I took on a banana as well it was a long stretch of sun and busy roads and left us simmering coming into the next water stop which was father down the road then the rest had been thus far.  This stop was at the edge of a large park and also where I found my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Kenny (did I mention my race support from my family was AWESOME!!) so gave soggy hugs and made plans to catch up before we left town.

The last four miles were very urban and sunny and tough and even though we were only walking by that point I was desperate to get to the end of the race.  It takes a VERY long time to mostly walk a half marathon and keep in mind by the time I started I'd already been racing almost four and half hours.  It took me three hours and 20 minutes to get around the lake for 13.1 miles.  The last 1 tenth of a mile was uphill... yes uphill but we finally got there.  I am grateful for the new friend I made on the journey and look forward to racing in the Madison area again in the future.  Final time... don't really care.

I have decided that running a half marathon is much preferred but was glad I made the choice to walk most of it.  A lot of people struggled with the heat and many needed medical attention.  Racing isn't work that for me.  In the end I had the most fun I've had racing in years, with beautiful scenery, fantastic volunteers, a challenging course and my AMAZING family cheering me on.  I promised Joe I would take a year off on the long course races, and promised my cousin Jay I would be back soon to race with him for his first sprint triathlon (something he has talked about for years).

I am truly grateful to still be able to race.  I have two more triathlons and some runs scheduled yet this season but this season is just about having a positive attitude, lots of smiles and making new friends along the way. 

Thank you to the Race Day Events crew for an amazing course and fantastic volunteers and free race photos!  Thank you to my awesome coach John Mongar who encourages me and keeps me in the right frame of mind when I invent struggles.  Thank you to Pearl Izumi for the great extended ladies tri team.  #endureandenjoy.  And last of all thank you to my family for giving me time to do what I love and always cheering me on when I know you are stressing after me.  I love you guys!!  Until next time... get off the couch and experience life.  Thanks for reading.

Kansas City Olympic Distance Triathlon 2016

Joe and I before I put on my rubber suit

My first official outside triathlon of the year was a new one for me.  Since my favorite early season triathlon moved from May to July and I had the brilliant idea to sign up for a June 1/2 Ironman and I needed a new early season race to work the kinks out so I decided to try out the Kansas City Tri.  As I noted in my prerace blog the day of was cold! I had my hubby with me and he decided to race with me.  He did a duathlon (run, bike, run).  My race started at 7:30 am and with an air temp around 45 degrees and water temp around 62 degrees it was a bit brisk.

I am number 375 with my game face on.

I did all the things I knew to do... wet suit - check, quick plunge before my turn to start - check, high fives at the lake's edge before the horn.  And yet diving into the lake for my best leg of the triathlon, I still had a complete melt down.  The cold knocked the wind out of me and left me gasping for air the first 100 yards.  I even had a couple of seconds where I considered calling it quits, but then my big girl voice chewed my butt and told me to pull it together and stroke and breathe and stroke and breathe.

The course was a big rectangle where you swim into the sun to the first two buoys.  I really wish race officials got that the orange buoys are IMPOSSIBLE to see going into the sun.  We had two long legs into the sun on our two lap course and between laps we actually ran up on the beach and over a mat then back into the water. Needless to say I struggled to find my rhythm but got through the swim in 5th place in my heat at around 29 minutes.  I scooted up the hill to transition, toweled off, put on some sleeves, and then was on my way to the bike leg.

The bike was mostly on a controlled course along the lake.  It was two laps with three out and backs, a few rolling hills and one long hill.  I found my bike legs a couple of miles into the ride at the first out and back and then rolled into the second out and back which had two nice hills down and then at the bottom (yes the bottom, braking) we turned around and rode back up the two rolling hills.  I remember looking at my odometer and cursing because I was only at mile 5.5 and the "big" hill wasn't until mile nine, so I kept pedaling.

I had opted for sleeves while I was riding because it was chilly when I started out but found I was actually getting warm after the first leg since the sun was shinning down on us (and the hills likely helped.)  The big hill was about a half mile long but not super steep (no twister hill) but fortunately the turn around was at the top of this one and then back to the second loop.  I'm am pretty sure I lost some ground in my age group on the bike.  Even so I felt like the bike went well enough with a final time of 1:36 and an average of 15.4 mph.

While all this was going on Joe's heat started.  He did his short run, one lap of the bike course, and then a 5k run while was out on the bike.  Here is a picture of him finishing the duathlon.  I think it is really great that he decided to race with me. Joe has done a couple of duathlons but this is the first time we have competed at the same time.  I watched for him on the course but with all the out and backs and the run being a loop I did not see him.

Meanwhile I started the run course.  The first mile was on the road in the park and then the next two miles were on crushed gravel trails (Ames folks think Ames middle school track).  Not my favorite surface type, but it went through a lovely prairie with birds singing, flowers and people kayaking lakeside faster than I was running.  Even so I felt like my pace through the first two miles was solid.  I took on water at the water stops and finished the first loop at the finish line and then kept on going into the next loop. By then temperatures were climbing with the sun shinning and I was really working the positive thoughts, enjoying the signs (favorite on the bike was ride like you stole it) focusing on my smile (hard to mentally crash when you are smiling) and kept putting one foot in front of the other along the trail.  Also, towards the end of the first loop another Pearl Izumi ladies tri champion blew by me.  She was doing the sprint and we gave each other a shout out as she left me in her dust.

Unfortunately by the time I got to the second loop of the run the first water stop was out of Gatorade and apparently they had started putting fizzy tablets into the water.  I generally don't take on anything except water in races now after having issues last year on my longer races so once I realized I had fizzy water in my cup I started to worry a bit, and sure enough my GI track started to rumble.  When I got to the last water stop they only had Gatorade so I took on nothing.  By then I was getting warm and with my MS that is never a good thing.  Fortunately there were spots of shade and the occasional cloud (plus I has taken off my sleeves before the run) so managed not to overheat, but I certainly would have appreciated some water to wear and water to drink by mile five.  I kept going with the knowledge of cool bottled water awaiting me.  I finished strong and met Joe at the finish line.  It wasn't my fastest or slowest Olympic race time (final time 3:16) and on a new course 19th out of 30 in my age group is just fine with me. 

All in all the race course was challenging enough, the volunteers were great and there was a lot of fan support until the last two miles.  The KC Triathlon is definitely one I would do again.  I let them know in the post race survey that water and food are more important than two race shirts, a pint glass and a medal.  The banana at the end didn't quite hit the spot so we heading back for showers and a burger before driving back to Ames.

A huge thank you to my hubby who made the trip a lot of fun with museums, baseball, BBQ and triathlon YAY! And thank you to my folks who watched the kids and ran soccer shuttle while we were gone.  Also a shout out to my sponsor this year, Pearl Izumi and these great kits we get to wear as they are super comfortable.  To the right I am sporting my PI tri champ shirt... taking the ass out of ambassador.  I had a lot of fun and as always am grateful for any day that I can be out enjoying some exercise and nature at the same time.

Endure and Enjoy!

Thank you to Kansas City Triathlon - Ultramax Sports and their photographer for most of these photos!

Last comment.. .I am still looking for support for the MS Society and my bike MS team.  We ride June 25th the weekend after my next race.

Race Report - 2nd 1/2 Ironman Triathlon - Finished but not done

Place - overall place 65/88 overall women 13/26 age group place 2/4 Times - swim 30:48 T1 3:31 bike overall 64 - time 3:16:40 bike ave speed 16.5 T2 1:46 run overall 69 - total time 2:34:57 average speed per mile 11:56 final time 6:27:42

Well, It's done. 1/2 Ironman number two is in the books. To recap a 1/2 Ironman is 70.3 miles - 1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking and 13.1 miles running (1/2 marathon). This is my ninth season doing triathlons and I love training for a goal, but race day is even better. I expected the race to take me somewhere between 6 hours and 6 and a half hours depending on how my day went. I worked up my fast (A), average (B) and slow (C) estimated times for Shawn sightings/goals for the day. After a couple months of several days a week with multiple workouts it felt a bit weird to cut down the mileage, frequency and duration of my training the two weeks leading into race day. I wanted to make sure my body had a chance to recover before the stress of race day.

Horsing around the day before... Go State!

With Joe out of state all week we were still formulating travel plans clear up to Friday before the race. We ended up driving up to White Bear Lake, MN Saturday morning after Joshua's soccer game.  Abby and I dropped the guys off at my cousin's house where we were staying and then headed out towards Stillwater to check out Square Lake Park and see the course. First assessment, the lake was probably the clearest lake I have ever raced in and the water was warmer than expected. Second assessment, this was going to be a much hillier course than anticipated since the course is next to the St. Croix river valley. Transition from the swim to the bike was up a very steep slope with wooden stairs so it was good to get a feel for the course area. From there we drove down to Stillwater to meet up with the team. There were to be six of us from the Ames area racing together, four who were new to this distance and myself and my primary biking buddy Galen who have done one or more. The day before race day we were still five strong plus some cheerleaders and we met to watch part of the ISU Iowa football game and talk race day.

Team shot prerace - Galen, Shawn, Lara, Jill Steve

Prerace on the beach

Abby and I headed back to WBL and had pizza with the family for dinner (easy but not the best meal choice before a race). I checked my email and saw an awesome message from my coach loaded with encouragement. Then, I headed to bed early as I was worn out from traveling and nervousness. Unfortunately miss Adney the dog woke me up at 3 am looking for her mom (who was out of town) and I couldn't get back to sleep. We were all up and ready to roll out by 6 am to get to the course by 6:30. They had changed the run and bike out locations from the sprint race the day before so I ended up racking my bike at the run out side of transition but decided to just go with it as transition was pretty small compared to many races I had done. I set up my gear (realized my sunglasses were in the car somewhere and Joe graciously offered to go find them for me) and headed down to the lake for body marking. I never did hear what the water temp was but they recommended a wetsuit so wetsuit it was... it is a pretty long swim after all so a little extra buoyancy never hurts.

My team gathered on the beach and as we were all in the last two waves we had fun listening to the music rocking, chatting with family and watched the first few waves get started. Then we were up. It was a standing water group start, which I prefer over a time trial run in start. I was able to get in and get out ahead of everyone right away and had my own lane for the first leg (rectangular course with .25 miles sides and .05 mile top and bottom with two laps). I caught up with the wave in front of us at the first right turn and was in traffic off and on the rest of the swim. The section going back towards the beach was rough with bodies and sun right in our face making sighting the buoys tough so I lost some of my rhythm the first go around. I had a strong second lap and by the closing leg the sun had shifted enough I could sight a bit better. I swam through two of the waves that left before me (3 minutes between each) and came out of the water and hit the mat at the bottom of the stairs at 30:48 which was an A pace time for me. Off to a good start.  

Towards the end of my first lap - MinneFoto

Heading for T1 - MinneFoto

T1 was around 3:31 for me which is ok. I had to run up the three flights of stairs, shimmy out of my wet suit, dry off enough to get my bandaid to stick to my heal (had a massive blister on my heal from a long walk in my bike shoes) that was partially healed. Then off on the bike and into two miles of up. Once I rolled through the first few miles I got into a good rhythm and was maintaining around 18 mph ave which was right where I wanted to be. The bike course is two laps of the same course. it had rolling hills, beautiful countryside and amazing wide shoulders for safe riding. I had done some long tough rides so I was optimistic it was going to be a good day. The back side of the first lap takes you down into the river valley flats and then up a couple of miles of gear grinding hills back out of the valley and to the start of the second lap. Part way up the second half of hills towards the end of the first lap I blew a chain but was able to get it back on quickly and keep motoring up the hill. The other thing I noticed about the same time is that the wind was starting to pick up. As far as my nutrition plan goes I was eating my peanut butter pretzels, taking on EFS and water (one bottle each by the end of two loops), and towards the end of the second lap some stinger gummies as well. The wind was pretty consistent the second
lap but with all the turns we make to cover the course the direction was constantly shifting with the hardest part down in the river valley towards the end with the big climbs and a headwind.

Coming into T2

Walking out of T2

I finished the bike in 3 hours and 15 minutes which was a B time prerace but I give it an A time considering the wind and hill factors with a final average of 16:40 miles per hour. T2 was a 1:46 for me which was a bit quick as I should have eaten my banana because my tummy was rumbling. At this point I was 3 hours and 50 minutes into the race but I'm afraid the hills took more out of me than I thought and heading into the run the first two miles were mostly uphill and I found it impossible to get into a good comfortable running rhythm. A good run for me would have been around 10 - 10:30 minute miles. I saw three miles of that in the first five but it all pretty much imploded after mile five and my splits kept creeping higher close to 12 minute miles. It was in the mid seventies by mid run, windy and the hills just kept coming. The first, middle and last three miles were all in bike lane on the side the road. The rest of the run was on a short segment of bike trail from 3-5.5 and again in the other direction on this out and back course. It was pretty gruelling and I never felt like I did much more than shuffle along.  

Joshua Photo bombing my finish

Nothing left

I saw all my teammates at one point or another on the run course and we were all feeling the hurt from the course, hills, wind and rising heat. Nutrition on the run for me was water at almost every stop and gatorade which I had not trained with but had used in the past. Turns out the gatorade didn't  

agree with me this time and by halfway through the run I wasn't feeling real great with building GI distress. To finish the race we had to run all the way past the length of the park to get to the road in and I saw my family on the other side cheering and I choked up. I was walking up the last hill (otherwise only walking through aid stations) and they got me going again along with a gentleman from Bloomington who was going the same pace as me most of the run. I was elated to finally finish the race still shuffling but almost immediately got light headed and needed to sit and catch my breath (then race to the facilities.)

Waiting for our last teammate to finish

Galen and I with our age
group Medals

All in all it was mostly the race I hoped for although for the first few days after the race I was pretty disappointed by the run. I had several people tell me about their run implosions in race situations and I realized it happens to everyone. It was a tough course and I did the best I could that day. Will I do another... during the run I was cursing my decision to do a second one but as of today I say absolutely... I have upped my No Limits threshold and am looking towards next season which may hold my first marathon.... maybe some day will find me doing that one Ironman Triathlon I always dreamed about (but not for a few years anyway). 

 A huge thanks go out to my training buddies Galen, Jill, Steve (Lara), my coach John, and as always my amazingly patient husband and enthusiastic children. I couldn't have done it without you all. Next up the Des Moines Half Marathon in October and the Living History Farms cross country run in November.

Almost there - Half Ironman 2015

A training ride on a heavier bike with the tag a long
Yes we had one "training ride" for donuts too.  :)

Those who know me know I need to have a fitness goal in the hopper or I get really lazy which is really bad for my MS maintenance. Well, it is just ten days until race day.  My second half ironman triathlon (that’s 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run).  My first one was in 2011 where I learned a lot and you can read the race report here..  I had hopes for an Ironman the next year but then struggled with health issues for a couple of years. Last year I had a great season with five shorter triathlon races so I decided to give a longer race a go.  I did an indoor sprint triathlon in January but this is my only big triathlon of the season.  I found I have volunteered at more races than I am racing in this year.  It will likely take me just over six hours to finish this one.

My trainer/coach (the "Stronger with Mongar" program) assures me that I am ready.  When he said get in more run miles I did.  When he said add bike miles I did managing all the details in a Google Doc.  We’ve been working on my strength since the beginning of the year.  My distance totals from 2011 at about the same point in my training.. swim miles 20, bike miles 687, and my run miles 322 (I over trained on the run a bit that year.)

A training ride with Joe on the trails

As of today I am at 51 miles in the pool on the year which is what I use to shake things loose when I am having a tough day physically, mentally, etc.  I am at 752 miles on the bike which I was a bit under trained for in 2011.  I am at 252 miles on the year running which feels about right.

I’ve had several conversations about what I might have done to better prepare myself.  Things like more speed work on the run, more high intensity cycling, etc but really I feel like I got done what my body would let me do. I recently red the blog linked below and will note this is generally how I race, in the moment, dealing with what the day delivers.

https://triathlonresearch.org/blog/my-epic-triathlon-race-day-failure/

I have to say since my MS diagnosis, I went into some of my races last year with worry, but I am hoping to go into this race, the biggest physical challenge since my diagnosis, with an open mind and a body that is willing.  I have “practiced” resetting my chain on a hill and changing bike tires as I trained this season.  The weather could be anything in Minnesota in early September but I have trained in the heat and the cold, humidity, rain, and wind to build some mental and physical toughness so I feel like I am ready for anything at this point.

A family 5k training run because you have
 to have a little fun working out

My coach says I have done what I needed to do and has been wonderfully optimistic even when I am hard on myself.  My husband has been great about making my training schedule work for everyone in the household.  My kids are getting excited with me.  
So as I wind down my training intensity and duration the next ten days (with the exception of another really windy bike ride this afternoon) I will continue to check in with my body, try to get restful sleep, have a little labor day fun with family, and finalize my race plan, gear, etc.  I have some goals that range from “happy to finish” all the way to “wow I crushed it” but I will share those in the post race recap.  I am racing with five awesome teammates and that has been a great part of training for this race.  So for now I am grateful to be ready and able to race.  If you are in the upper twin cities and looking for something to do September 13th I’d love a cheering section up at Square Lake north of Stillwater.  Wish me luck!

MS Update - Training, Lemonade, and Volunteering

I started this blog two weeks ago… trying to get caught up with my thoughts.  The summer is blowing by me with hardly any time to catch my breath.  I have been working hard to get ready for my big race, a half Ironman Triathlon, this coming September.  I was supposed to do a prep race last weekend however things didn’t play out quite as I had planned.  In the last couple of weeks my training had pretty much been on track.  3.6 miles of swimming on the month (38.7 miles on the year), 75 miles biking (422 on the year), 12.2 miles running (178 miles on the year) but a couple of Monday’s ago our super busy summer caught up with me and I ended up down for the count for the better part of three days with fatigue and mental muddle.  To add the misery it was a super hot muggy week.  Then I found out I was double booked and the race I thought was Sunday was actually Saturday.  I was also supposed to be coaching a youth triathlon clinic which Abby had planned to attend with me.  

After the week I had it was time to make the best of a challenge (lemonade from lemons) and I opted to not race for fear of another setback.  I got to move my race fees back to next year and Abby and I got to spend a whole morning together.  We volunteered at the triathlon with race set up, water station set up and body marking.  It was fun to chat with my teammates and support a great race which made up for not racing.  Then Abby and I raced down to Ankeny in time to coach the kids I had been working with off and on all summer.  Plus Abby got a chance to do a dry run for the triathlon she would do the following weekend.  I also volunteered at the youth triathlon the next weekend and got to see my baby and all the kids I coached find some success in finishing the triathlon they had trained all summer for, and I have to say I teared up a bit.  They are a pretty amazing group of kids and I really love working with them.  

Hugging my baby girl at the finish of her second triathlon

Since then my training has really ramped up with final miles for July at 8 swim miles, 142 bike miles, 37 run miles for July with a current total milage on the year at 43 miles swimming (it makes me happy) 490 miles biking, 215 miles running (31 in the last ten days).  I’m starting to build my run speed and distance again but still need a lot more seat time on the bike but have added bike to work once or twice a week for extra miles on my heavier bike as well as some shorter family rides.  Starting to get excited and hoping to have some solid training in August.  I also want to give a shout out to my amazing coach who has been helping me build strength and confidence.

Inspirational MS racing story to share (no not me): Runners world MS Survivor racing Endurance Race Badwater http://www.runnersworld.com/ultrarunning/ultrarunner-battling-ms-competes-at-badwater-with-help-from-famous-friends