You know you're a triathlete when...

This list is hilarious and it's also scary how many on this list are true for me NOW.  I can't say that I'd have experienced many 3 months ago!!

Triathlon humor

Happy birthday, Dad!!

Today my dad really hits old age as he turns 65!

Unfortunately we can celebrate with him as he's in Jolly Ol' England for work. 

Knowing him, he's probably just eating dinner and going to bed early!!! :)

Kate and I love you!  Happy birthday!!

5/13 1 hour bike: Spinning!!!

I decided to do my one-hour bike workout today via a spin class. I haven't been to one in ages and it was awesome!!!  

I kept my eye on my heart rate to try to meet the heart rate goals  set by my coach for this hour. I think I hit most of them although I may have gone couple minutes in zone four- I can doublecheck when I upload my Garmin data later. 

The spin class was a nice change from my normal bike routine.  I got a bike in the front of the class which has windows and overlooks the Chicago skyline. It was great to look out over the city while listening to some loud and fun tunes!

One of my post Ironman goals is to be spin certified and start teaching spin classes after work.  Since I finished my yoga training I've been saying I wanted to do extensions at Core Power and have the ability to teach their spinning classes. Depending on when their fall extension program starts, I may be a spin instructor by Christmas. I guess first I need to get through this goal!!!

Monday sleeping in!

I have an appointment today at a vendor's Facilty at 9:30 and normally is get up to get my workout in before work with the "extra time" but today I decided to sleep in until 7:30am and do my hour ride after work. Yeah!!!  Great choice. :)

Sunday, 5/12/13 REST DAY and well deserved! :)

Today, I was up around 8am and organized my stuff after getting home very late last nigh around 11:30pm.

After doing a few things, I curled up on the couch with my kitty lover and slept again until noon.  I cannot even tell you the last time I did that!  I was glorious!!!!!

Then, I cleaned up, picked up the house and did 3 loads of laundry.  Next, I ran some errands:  groceries at Whole Foods, shopping at the Gap and Express and wanted to look for a new AC unit but instead of totally tiring myself out, I came back home.  I unpacked the groceries, finished up the laundry and made a bunch of food for this week.  

I ate and laid around, read stuff online and slept a little bit more.  Michael was at his mother's house, so it was nice to have the apartment all to myself.  I loved it!

The "Mother load" workout.... Madison course ride 5/10/11

I had a great dinner on Friday night with some very close girlfriends and slept at my friends' Polly and John's house.  They have a great extra room that they let me use when I'm there and Polly has tons of healthy food for breakfast in the morning too!

Despite all of this, I slept like crap on Friday night.  I think it was probably nerves which also caused me massive stomach cramping and reflux so I tossed and turned most of the night.  At 4am, I got out of bed and went to the bathroom.  Afterwards, I rummaged through the medicine cabinets to try and find Pepcid but found Ibuprofen which seemed to help.

I was awake again a couple hours later (tried to let myself sleep a little longer) to get ready.  The night before, I set out all my gear to get ready.  I dressed and went downstairs and all the Westmont family was already awake.  Polly made me a recovery shake for afterwards (which was AMAZING!  Spinach, almond milk, blueberries, protein powder, and bananas) and I got my PB&Js ready for my breakfast and ride and boiled 4 eggs.  

After I got my food ready, I made my way to Middleton for the VisionQuest supported ride.  

I got a call on the way from my coach which was not wanted... I was nervous and just wanted my quiet space and just told her I'd see her there.  The 6am pep-talk was not what I was looking for...   I arrived and signed and weighed in.  You weigh in at the beginning and end of the ride to see if you finished dehydrated (I was about 3lbs less- more on that later).

After everyone signed in, the explained the rules of the road in Wisconsin (you can ride two wide on the roads), how to signal for turns and how the course was marked (red arrows the entire way).  We went out in groups so that we all didn't start at the same time.  I think I started in group two.  I didn't see my coach when I got there but I did see one other gal I knew and said hello, but we both kept walking.  I think she is someone that tries to psych other people out, so I really didn't want to spend much time with her anyway.

In sum, the course was brutal.  It was 48 miles of INSANE winds (+/-20mph head and cross winds) in 50ishF.  I really kept trying to understand how the entire course could have head and crosswinds and never a tail wind!!!!?@#!$@  

Also, there were many, many, many hills.  It is a beautiful and active course.  There is really no time to mentally rest since you are shifting constantly.  The hills went from 2-3% to 13-15-17% grade.  It's hard for me to explain riding a bike up 17% grade hill.  For me, I was riding 3mph up.  If you saw me from far away, I'd probably look like I wasn't moving!!  Going down a 17% hill without even peddling I hit 41mph.  Super exhilarating and scary if you know a turn is coming.  Speaking of turns, it felt like after every downhill, there was a turn with an uphill.  It was unrelenting.

As for the course, since there was so much wind (so much so that it pushed me several times horizontally in the road), I really didn't want to take my hands off my handlebars.  I was rarely, if ever, in aero position and I found it hard to reach down to take my left hand off the bike to get my water bottles.  All of my nutrition was in my water bottles...  I added CarboPro to both bottles and then brought two ziplock bags measured out for two more bottles.  I also used Nuun for electrolyte replacement.  Since it was brisk outside, you already start to worry about hydrating enough, but since I use one bottle per hour, it's not a lot of math to do!  I also brought a couple Honey Stinger goos.  They are basically the only goo that doesn't make me want to gag or puke.  I knew that I wasn't drinking enough calories, but literally I couldn't take my hands of my bike with the wind and hills.  I stopped at the first aid station, but only because I thought based on the street markings it was part of the course. When I realized it was only a pit stop, I just turned around and left.  I didn't need to stop there- I think it was around the 20s.

After a couple hours, I was having super negative thoughts and believe it or not, this is directly associated with nutrition.  I actually decided to pull over on the road to drink some more and eat some of the PB&J I put in my kit pocket.  I felt immediately better afterwards.

I can only recall one street name because the hill was INSANE.  It was two MASSIVE hills in sequence and I think they were both 17% grade.  Witte Road was something that will continue to haunt me until the race is over.

After another hour or so, I came upon the SAG wagon.  There were a few guys there that I kept passing and being passed on the course stopped eating their treats and taking a quick break.  I filled up bottle #1 and ate a goo.  Again, I felt way better afterwards.  My odometer said I had ridden 36 miles already and I was sad when the SAG driver told me we were only at about 34.  He guessed that with the wind, there was probably a lot of extra movement on the bike.  Yikes. 

The last 10-16 miles weren't bad.  I met a nice gal named Deanna that rode with me for about 5 miles. She'd done the race twice and had some tips.  She also wasn't a psycho about it which is rare.  She said that she wasn't in shape and wasn't training for anything and didn't want to "hold me back".  This made me laugh since I was going at a very comfortable pace.  As per usual, after some rolling hills she caught back up to me since I'm terrible at hills.  

I made it back to Endurance House after 4 hours and 10-20 minutes and 50 miles of Ironman under my belt.  I only had to ride 4 hours on Saturday, so my workout was done!  Yippee!  I weighed in and had lost about 3lbs... I had only taken one goo, 1/2 a PB&J and 1-1/2 bottles of nutrition.  Highly under what I should have taken.  I'll have to see how the next time goes and pray that the winds aren't like that on race day!

After I was done, I went to Cost Plus World Market for a couple gifts for the friends who let me stay over, grabbed lunch at the Free House (yum!) including a delish $5 Bloody Mary, and then headed to my other friends' house to take a shower and chill a bit before driving back to Chicago.

Yesterday, could have been the longest day ever, because I went directly to my parent's town to take my mom to "The Great Gatsby" for Mother's Day.  Thankfully she understood how much rest I wanted to get on Sunday.   :)

IMWI 1.  Shannon 0.  I'll be backkkkkkk!!!!!