I shake my fist in the air in your general direction. You’ll get what is coming to you.

It shut down my training completely, and I lost a TON of sleep due to a constant flow of snot from my face and relentless coughing that didn’t care what combination of drugs I tried to attack it with. Coach Hirsch put me on the bench until further notice.

Only two days ago did I actually start to feel normal again and gently eased back into training. I’ve still had to use my sweat towel on the bike trainer to catch some last remnants of bloody snot dripping from my face, but I can safely say that I’m 95% over it.

Now that the doctor and Hirshey gave me the green light to jump back into training, you’d think I’d be jumping for joy and itching to put my training plan in a strangle hold, but I’m not. Not even a little bit. Apparently two weeks is enough time to completely lose your training motivation. I had a nice routine going, but now it is completely gone. Blurg.

Making it (slightly) worse is that I recovered from the cold JUST IN TIME for my Master’s swim meet on Saturday – meaning I can’t even try to force myself back into a rhythm. Gottta stay fresh for the meet! The silver lining is that aside from some possible muscle atrophy (kidding…hopefully) I’m as fresh as a daisy! The highest my heart rate has gotten in the last two weeks has been when I had to run into another room to grab a tissue and prevent a river of goobers from covering my face. (Note to self – make sure I warm up extra and remind myself how to swim before the race.)

Needless to say, any expectations of stellar performances at the meet tomorrow have been thrown aside. Thankfully, other than my two week hiatus, the last 2.5 months have seen some pretty solid and frequent swim sessions. It’ll be interesting to see how much of that stuck with me.

I can hope, but at the very least, this weekend will be a complete shit show – and absurdly entertaining if I forget how to swim all together.

Sunday was the annual early season fitness test/suffer fest. 10k computrainer TT. Coach was iffy about me doing it as my first “race” of 2012 since my real focus for the last two months has been in the pool, but I jumped in anyway because it is a fun fitness test. I just figured I’d roll with it and not put too much emphasis on the results.

Somehow my poor directions, timing or plain stupidity got me to the bike shop 10 minutes before my heat started. Not ideal for warming up. I did manage to snag a spot next to Trakkers alum, Elaine, who was TOTALLY hoarding the only fan. What a jerk.

Working hard. Going nowhere. Sweating my face off.

I could geek out and tell you the story of my power numbers, but let’s try this version instead:

I pedaled hard. Then it hurt. Then I drifted. Then I tried to pedal hard, but I was weak. Repeat that for about 17 minutes and that was pretty much it.

Faster than I was two years ago with a LOT more bike training and working as a spin instructor. Sweet.

But the best part? As soon as you finish, a guy walks up out of nowhere and cracks open a beer for me. Cheers!

At my usual swimming spot, I’m almost always the fastest person in the water, and I’m not even a speedy swimmer. Lots of aquasizers and aquajoggers. It is hard to push yourself when you are doing solo workouts and you don’t have a carrot (or bubbles) in front of you to chase. Because of that (and not giving an honest effort effort and addressing the swim as my biggest weakness) my swim times for the last few years have hit a major plateau. No more.

I officially joined Cambridge Masters for the winter and I’m FAR from the fastest person in the new pool. Outside of one year on HS swim team, I’ve never really been a swimmer. Going back to something after almost 10 years out is definitely a little scary, but going outside of your comfort zone is how you grow, right? And this time I’m not using it as an excuse to hang out with cute athletic high school girls in bathing suits all winter.  It is all business.

Now I’m not even the fastest person in my slowpoke lane. I love it. Plenty of bubbles to chase to and keep me swimming till my arms fall off!

I’ve even convinced a new local Team Rev3 recruit, Julia, to join with me this winter. She is wicked fast and I have no business being in the same lane as her, but knowing she’ll be waiting for me to pick her up when my alarm goes off at 4:45 am is good motivation to get up and moving. We’ve even got some sweet custom Rev3 suits on order! Can’t wait to rock them this winter.

Today was an annual NYE 100×100 fundraiser. I was relegated to the “slow kids pool” way on the other end, but had a great session. With only a few weeks of serious swimming under my belt after a long break from Sept-December, I had no business doing all 100. I gracefully bowed out after 25, but was really happy that I kept to 1:45 intervals and managed a solid :10 rest between. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. And I do.

Onward and upward! There are more bubbles out there to chase!

Question- Anyone have any good swimming/shoulder stretches? With all the time pushing myself in the pool (more than I have in a really long time), I want to make sure to keep my shoulders happy. They are definitely feeling it the most.

Giving back? I think I did pretty well. I loaned out my old trainer to a friend training for Rev3 Cedar Point, volunteered at Quassy and another local sprint. Gotta think of some more creative ways to give back for next season.

Nationals? Done. I went, had a blast and improved my olympic-distance PR by about 15 minutes! It was a lot of fun, and I hope to make it back. The one thing that I didn’t like was the whole qualifying process. The qualifying criteria was fair, but it was just a big psychology change for me to be competing against the top guys in my age group instead of just myself and the clock.

I’m very competitive, but I’ve never cared about what anyone else in my age group was doing while I raced. I rarely ever looked down at people’s calves to see if they were in my AG. I just stuck to my own race and tried to meet or beat the standards that I set or myself. My competition used to be all internal. This year, it was all about competing with other M25-29ers. I wasn’t used to it at all. I ended up turning into “that guy” walking around transition before a tiny local sprint, nervously stalking the competition. Even at a tiny local sprint triathlon. Not awesome.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just different. And I wasn’t used to it at all. If I continue down the route of being more competitive within my age group, I’ve gotta get my head straight so I don’t let that get away from me and ruin my chances before the gun even goes off.

Other accomplishments this year?  I trained hard enough to be FAST on the bike and had a ton of fun.

I got a sweet new wetsuit that I lovelovelove. Plus it makes my ass look hot.

I went swimming outside a lot, made stupid faces underwater in front of my camera, and found a secret outdoor pool.

I did post-race cool downs in the ocean.

Oh, and I got to interview Natalie Coughlin.

I think I’ll chalk up the 2011 season as a win. Now I need to sit down and do some serious goal setting for 2012.

What are your big goals for next year?

This is the race that I built my whole season around and picked my rache schedule just so I could qualify and earn my entry. All that work paid off and my work with Coach Hirsch has me feeling strong. Needless to say I’m VERY excited to race and VERY ready to taper.

I just got a new aero helmet that I can’t wait to rock this weekend too! I love it.

Last weekend I had two more days of hard workouts before starting my taper. It was raining so I took my 2 hour bike onto the trainer. Once I warmed up, no matter how hard I pushed I couldn’t get my HR above 135 or the life of me. It was just stalled. That is completely not normal for me. I don’t think that has EVER happened to me before. Or at least I’ve never noticed it before.  I cut the workout short and focused on stretching, massage, some time in my Recovery Pump boots and some good nutrition. I immediately booked a massage with Soar Body to get my muscles rubbed down and refreshed.

I talked to Coach and he said that my decision to back off was a smart one. My body was cooked and that is why my HR wouldn’t rise. Looks like my taper is starting early this time around!

Now I’ve got some easy swimbikerun sessions to keep the muscles fresh and loose, but I also need to make sure I don’t go stir crazy.

I felt a little scratch in my throat and started freaking out that I was getting a cold. I’m also relentlessly checking the Burlington weather forecast for this weekend. What looked like it could have been a really wet race, looks like it might be pretty sunny. Still, it is one more thing that I can stress out about forever, but don’t have any control over. I’ve gotta focus on preparing and not waste any mental energy on all that other crap.

So time to go have some under water fun! I can ALWAYS have fun taking stupid pictures of myself in the pool.

The rest of my To-Dos this week include cleaning my bike, degrease and lube my chain, eat healthy and get LOTS of sleep.

See you in Burlington!

I rolled into Cape Elizabeth around 6:30, and hopped on a bus from one of the remote parking lots to take me to the race start. The bus driver had the heat BLASTING which only made the bus full of nasty nervous pre-race farts even worse! The bus was like I was in a giant fart oven. Not an awesome way to start the morning.

The only reason I’m smiling in this picture is because it is BEFORE everyone’s pre-race farts started. 

A 2 hour drive, a bus ride, and a half mile walk to the start line and I was finally there. I grabbed my number, ran into some old friends that were racing and moved out of Boston, warmed up, peed in the woods and waited for the gun to go off.

Waiting at the starting line

The race itself was fun pretty uneventful. I lined up somewhere just behind the 7:00 minute pace marker and waited for the gun to go off. I didn’t taper for this and the plan was just to train through it and test out my pacing strategy for nationals.

In the end, I was REALLY happy with how consistent my pacing was. Except for a hilly second mile, I held pretty steady 7:30 miles. I would have liked to be a little faster, but since my legs weren’t 100% fresh, I was fine with it. One thing I did notice is that compared to the average runner that was holding a 7:30 pace, I’m WAY better at running hills. At the start of even the slightest hill, every pack that I was running with seemed to slowly fade back as I kept a steady effort. I don’t think this is unique to me, but probably a triathlete thing. Looks like my cycling quads aren’t just dead weight on the run after all!

Does anyone else notice this when doing stand alone running races?

My final time was 47:03. Since I can’t remember the last time I did a stand alone 10k (at least 10 years ago?) I’m calling this a PR. Here are my mile splits:

Splits:
1 – 7:27
2 – 8:03
3 – 7:38
4 – 7:33
5 – 7:30
6 -7:23

After the race, I headed through through the food tent to suck down some chocolate milk, watermelon, and a fist full of mini snickers bars. They were hiding all the good stuff (chocolate and candy) at the END of the food line! Very sneaky.Then I hit up the massage tent, something I’ve never done post-race. Usually I’m busy regrouping with Sam after she spent the morning cheering me on. Since I was flying solo this time around, I took advantage of it and made some friends in the massage line before getting my butt rubbed.

Then, it was on to the beach for a soak! There was a little rocky beach just passed the finish line and only a few other runners took advantage of it for a cold soak. I was surprised more people didn’t dive in for a little cool down, but was happy to have it (almost) to myself.

I tried doing a video race report, and almost got got knocked over by a ninja wave that came out of nowhere….

Click here to view the embedded video.

As for the race itself, I was a little hesitant because I usually hate gigantic races. This one had more than 5,000 runners and sold out in seven minutes. In MARCH. For a TEN K! Fortunately, it was super casual and really well run. There were a TON of spectators lining the course and you can tell how proud the locals were of the race. Super well run, GREAT volunteers, aid stations and finisher’s area. If you can get in, I’d definitely recommend this race. Plus, Portland is a pretty cool little city to hang out in if you’ve got some time to kill after the race.

One more week of hard training then it is time to taper for what I’ve been building my whole season around – Age Group Nationals!

A kamikaze bee tries to take me out through a gap in my armor (my helmet vent) and lands a direct hit right on the front of my head.

I haven’t been stung in at least 10 years and it hurts just as much as i remembered. I slammed on the breaks, tore off my helmet and try to find the ninja attacker so I can have my revenge but he was gone as fast as he arrived.

Normally, I am a big fan bees. They pollinate flowers so I can have fruits and veggies and they make delicious honey that I love to put on everything. The also make Sam freak out when they come near her and keep me highly entertained.

But this undeclared bee war on my scalp has not gone unnoticed. You hear that bees? I have OFFICIALLY put you on notice. You join the list with bike drafters, elementary back stroke lane swimmers, the French TV car driver that tried to take out Hoogerland and Jennifer Lopez (she knows full well what she did).

As for the rest of you, you better be on your beat behavior. The On Notice list always has room for one more.

It was hot and humid and even with a fan on me, I was sweating buckets. I grabbed a whatever was within reach to keep the sweat out of my eyes. A visor and a towel.

It just so happened that the Trakkers visor was an adorable shade of pink and the towel was so big that draping it across my back like a superhero cape was the only way to have it soak up the sweat but keep it just out of my way.

It almost looks like I’m trying to fly away on my bike. ET-style.

Have a great weekend everyone! Especially everyone out in Portland racing Rev3. I wish I was there with you.

But unlike baseball, which usually puts me to sleep, I LOVE triathlon AND sports psychology.

Psych was my minor in college and if I could ever find a way to get someone to pay me to get my PhD in psychology, I’d jump on it in a heart beat. Plus, at it’s core, my job of helping companies understand and make use of social media is all about psychology and sociology.

Anyway, my point is that I’m fascinated by the whole psych element of triathlon and love experiencing first hand how important the mental side of this sport is sometimes. I dragged myself out in some nasty mid-day heat and humidity for a 12 mile run on Sunday. I didn’t want to have any part of it. I wanted to sit on my arse and drink beer and play video games. It took me a solid 30 minutes to put my shoes on and another 30 get out the door and actually start running.

From there on out, the next 12 miles were was a complete roller coaster. I couldn’t focus and kept letting my pace slip REALLY really slow. As soon as I stopped paying attention to my pace, I was doing slow 10 min miles and dragging my feet. (I wanted to do high 8′s.)

It wasn’t that my legs were dead from my 3 hour ride the day before, they had plenty of energy. I’ve actually been giving them plenty of love with Ultragen and my Recovery Pump boots, so they were feeling strong. I just had trouble getting the energy OUT of them and laying it out on the road.

I found myself thinking back to REALLY hard run sessions and races. Specifically, the last run leg at Ragnar New England and the marathon at Rev3 Cedar Point. I started thinking about how dead my legs were, but how I forced myself to keep on moving forward. Instantly, I felt my turnover picking up and even got goosebumps on my arms. Crazy how the mind can impact the body, eh? Over the rest of the run, I kept thinking back to some of my hardest and most memorable runs in my head to keep my motivation and my turnover up high.

What memories do you pull up when you have to dig deep and keep moving forward? 

I headed out to the middle of Walden for a while to escape the crowds. I brought along my camera (tucked away Bree Wee-style) and had some fun splashing around all by myself and chasing fish for a while.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hopefully you have some nice weather wherever you are, you get out for some nice swimbikerun and enjoy some post-workout burgers, beers and fireworks with friends and family.

To celebrate, here is my latest mankini design.

Now I’m off to watch the Tour de France, jump into Walden for a swim and head out to spend the day with the (soon to be) in-laws.

I went out last night to enjoy some beverages with some good friends I haven’t seen in a while. I enjoyed an appropriate amount of beers and had to leave my car and take a taxi home.

I woke up at 5:45 am to realize that:

1) I had a training brick with Kim at 7am

2) My car was 2 miles away

3) My bike still had its trainer tire on it

Ugh. I threw on some running shoes and hauled my hungover body over towards the bar, just to jump in my car and turn back around. Within a half hour, I rushed to swap out my back tire, threw together all my bike and run gear, bolted on my SpeedFil and jumped in the car to go meet Kim.

Showing up late to the parking lot, I throw on my gear, fill up my bottles and pump up my tires.

With two seconds to go before I’m ready to roll and BAM! My front tire blows while still on my bike rack, hanging off my trunk.

Not. Awesome.

Kim and I just laughed and used it as an opportunity for me to teach her how to change a tire. I pulled out the old tube, threw in a new one and pumped it back up.

Kim slyly pointed out “Aren’t you supposed to check if there is anything sharp stuck in the tire?”

First of all, who is teaching who here?

Second of all, she was right. There was a big gash in my tire and as soon as I pumped it back up, it busted again. BAM! Two ruined tubes in 5 minutes. Not. Awesome.

I was out of tubes used her only spare to attempt one last repair. In reality, I just wanted to pack up, head home, and spin away on the trainer. This time Kim had the idea to put a piece of food wrapper inside the tire to cover the gash. That girl is wicked smaht.

45 minutes after I initially wanted to start, we finally roll out of the parking lot. Between the two of us, we had four wheels and no spare tubes. And none of the local bike shops are open yet. Annoying. We decide to ditch the original route and and do repeats of the 10 mile time trial loop in case one of us flats and needs to hitchhike it back to our cars. A great loop, but doing it 5 times back-to-back? Snooze.

The good news is that all my flubs REALLY fueled my bike. I came out of the gates and dropped Kim like a bad habit. She is a strong cyclist, but I had plenty of pent up frustration that she didn’t.

Three hours later, I finished up one of my fastest long rides ever. Not a bad way to end a morning, eh? And it was all held together by a piece of trash inside my wheel…

With all the mess that went on, I decided that my bike must be upset with me for not taking her outside enough lately. To try and make it up to her, I outfitted her with a brand new front tire and gave her a full on wash, degrease and lube job. Hopefully we are back on solid ground…