Tri-ing Life and More

I realize this is one of the last nights before the race that I am resting, so I want to take the time to thank so many people for helping me through the last 3.5 months and to keep me positive enough to keep training. My Family.  My poor mom and dad have gotten so many calls from me and not many of them are happy.  Thank you for supporting me and not calling me crazy every day.  I am so excited to have you at the race and see my crazy lifestyle.  I am racing Wisconsin strictly so my whole family can come cheer and watch and see what triathlons are about.  My family is the whole reason I have gotten through training and continued even when I didn't want to (yes that is really referring to my walks which I really do hate).  I am so excited to celebrate with you when the race is over no matter what the result.  Love you guys so much! Great looking group Team Z .  I couldn't have gotten through the training without the support of my teamma...

So I think the title of this post says it all.  I am stubborn and the first question I asked my doctor when he said I needed surgery was can I do my Ironman on September 9th.  He looked at me, pondered for a minute (I don't know if he knows what an Ironman actually entails), and responds that yes, I should be able to do one.  As soon as he said that, my mind was set. Hindsight is always easier and I know that.  The last 3ish months have been crazy and stressful.  Recovering from knee surgery is hard enough (I pretty much lost my mind for a month).  Recovering from knee surgery while training for an Ironman is chaos.  I would fully recommend NOT to do this.  Maybe if the Ironman is 6 months out it might be feasible, but 3.5 months out of surgery just isn't enough time to prepare. I went into surgery in great shape (at least biking, I had already stopped running because of the pain).  I was biking 80 miles with an average speed of 19. ...

I am counting down the days to the race now (two weeks from today!!!).  It is such a different experience this year.  Last year for Cozumel, I was excited and ready for race day, this year is totally opposite.  I am ready to get it done with because the emotional and physical stress it is causing me is a bit too much for me. This weekend consisted of a 14.2 mile walk and 80 mile bike ride.  I learned several lessons this weekend. Lesson 1:  I HATE walking! My dad pointed out that some people love walking, my response is don't do it for over an hour.  My walk took me from my apartment in Arlington, through Georgetown, around Lincoln Memorial, back home, and added some extra miles.  It lasted over three hours and I did it completely alone.  It is boring, tedious, and somewhat painful.  I was able to try mixing in some jogging (I think I totaled 6-7 minutes) but realized that if I wanted to go for distance, I couldn't run much. Lesson 2:...

I had my three month post surgery checkup on Wednesday and everything looks great.  He said the bone is fusing back together and that I am doing great.  He also gave me permission to start running and see how it feels.  He seemed to think I would finish my Ironman and is looking forward to seeing a finisher picture when I get back. I tried running that night at PT and I can do it.  It is awkward and uncomfortable but I can do it.  Tomorrow is my longest run before the race.  My goal is to go between 13 and 15 miles to show that my legs can do it.  I will mix in a bit of jogging in there but figure it is too late in the game to hurt it running now.  I haven't run since April so I guess I will continue my walking.  Hopefully I can walk to DC (through the same hills I struggled with two weeks ago) and enjoy some monuments (and water fountains).  At least the area can hopefully keep me entertained and limit walking boredom. New goal...r...

It was Luray weekend!  Luray is a local race with an olympic distance race on Saturday and a sprint distance on Sunday.  It is also a huge Team Z race and so much fun.  We had over 100 people competing and many doing both races. I had decided back in March to use this "recovery" weekend and not race the full olympic distance but to form an amazing female relay team.  Kate was the swimmer, I was the biker, and Whitney was the runner.  Amazingly in March, we planned to kill this race, but our training didn't quite work out that way.  Kate hasn't been in the pool for at least a month, I had knee surgery, and Whit is training for a marathon (distance, not speed).  We really had no idea how this would turn out, but we WON!  Kate had a great swim and Whit killed the 10k.  I had a goal of averaging 19 mph on a hilly 25.6 miles and ended up with 18.8 mph.  I was happy and even had to pull back occasionally because of some slight knee pain. ...

So I apologize in advance.  I am not a negative person, but I have been for the last two months.  I have worked my butt off to prove I can finish this race, but my mind has yet to believe it.  This weekend didn't help my mental stability. I decided to skip the team run on Saturday (since watching all your teammates run off isn't a lot of fun) and opted to walk my half marathon from my front door.  I wasn't sure what to expect since the weekend before caused my body to be so sore.  I started very fast and feeling well again, but around mile 8, my legs were once again gone.  I had walked 2.5 miles in one direction on the path, turned around and then walked 3.5 miles in the other direction from my house.  I walked in the direction of my old apartment.  The last 7-8 miles were hilly and my body started to rebel.  Both knees were feeling off, my legs were refusing to move.  I went from 12:15 min miles to 15 and that was a struggle.  I...

I needed to tell everyone about my dear friend Kara who competed in the Olympics on Tuesday!  She is an amazing friend and an incredible athlete.  Of course she is a great javelin thrower since she is the American record holder and two time Olympian. Kara throwing in London I have heard from so many people I can't believe you are doing an Ironman after knee surgery.  Well Kara tops my story.  She has trained for the London Olympics since Beijing Olympics ended.  Her job is to train everyday to be the best javelin thrower so she had a chance to medal at the Olympics.  She was doing great recently and had overcome back injuries.  At the Olympic Trials in June, she qualified for finals.  During her throws that day, she hurt her knee.  She skipped the last two throws but still took her victory lap around the track despite some knee pain.  Well turns out, Kara tore her ACL during her throw.  After working four years for London, K...

"Epic 20/120 Weekend" So this was the Team Z Ironman epic training weekend.  You run 20 miles (or three hours) on Saturday and turn around and bike 120 on Sunday.  I remember this weekend last year for Cozumel prep and it is exhausting but it does truly make you feel ready. This year of course isn't the same story.  I haven't run a step in over two months, so obviously I didn't run for three hours.  My run training has been a mix of twice on the elliptical (both times for 20 minutes and one of those times was today), twice aqua jogging, and three speed walks.  While in Denver, I walked the city for 3.5 miles and I walked 2 miles with my dad at home.  None of this adds up to 26.2 miles running. So for my "epic" walk, I met some teammates and watched them run ahead.  I started my speed walk.  It was three miles out to Mt Vernon and back to my car and go from there to hopefully add more miles.  My goal was to hit at least 10 miles.  ...