Own Nutrition Experience Recap

Why hello there! It's been awhile. I will likely have another post regarding the latest 2016 obsession (DIY!) that led to me making my own dining room table and took me away from crazy training through this June. First though, I want to talk about the interesting journey I have been on the last 12 weeks working with Katie Rhodes from Own Nutrition.

As I mentioned, as of June, I hadn't been doing any crazy training as I was giving myself a mental break after back to back years of Ironman Tremblant and the Tussey Mountainback 50 miler. My initial goal was to work on speed and then do a half marathon in the spring, with the long term goal a sub-4 marathon at Richmond in November. However, those speed/half marathon plans just didn't work out since I was just struggling with being super exhausted all the time. I started going to the Techshop a one or two nights a week, and I just couldn't get myself to set an alarm the next day, no matter how mentally motivated I was. I also couldn't get motivated to run more than 90 minutes on the weekend, and even that was rare.

All of this came to a head for me in April when my clothes weren't fitting well anymore and I saw some photos of myself at a friend's wedding that didn't make me happy. I had worked so hard to get weight off I was annoyed I had let some of it come back over the course of 50 miler training & the off season. More importantly, if my goal is to PR the Richmond Marathon, the easiest way to do it would be to get back to my PR race weight and maybe a few pounds less.

Fast forward to Memorial Day and I was sitting in the airport getting ready to go on a marvelous two week journey to Italy for Pasta, Pizza, and Gelato, LOTS of Gelato. I checked Facebook and noticed my friend Anne Marie had a post about her nutritionist offering 15% off to her friends, and raving about how much energy she has, how good she feels, how she is never hungry, and how delicious the food was. I set myself a reminder to look it up when I came home and then went off and let myself ENJOY Italy. (At least as much as I could while feeling just completely exhausted/taking more naps than probably my whole childhood combined. If there was ever any test that proved a 100% processed carb/sugar diet is not good for my energy levels, that was it.)

I spoke with Katie right when I got back and signed up to start the following week. It has been a really great experience. Each week, she gives you a detailed meal plan for each day and you have a weekly consult. The meal plan is great because even though I know generic targets, life has been too busy for me to sit there and plan how I am going to meet them. The recipes are delicious and usually pretty simple. I have shared a lot of them with my parents (especially to make for me at Sunday dinner) and they love them as well. In between the consults, she is always available for a question, a last minute adjustment, advice, etc. The level of availability has completely wowed me and I am still getting used to it. When recently my memory issues were getting out of control (there was a week at work I forgot to bring something each day) I was able to talk to her real time and we agreed to really simplify the plan for the following week so I had less to remember/think about. (It helped, although I am still forgetting things often enough my coworker's have put a sign up "days since Hilary's last incident" and no one expects me to get to double digits.)  

One of my favorite meals. Blackened chicken salmon w/ mango avocado salsa.

The progress weight-wise has been slower than I would like (but still there and given how chaotic my schedule has been is pretty realistic) and I am still feeling tired, which given the oppressive heat/increased workouts I think is inevitable. However, the tiredness is nothing compared to what I had been experiencing, and since June I have kicked off my marathon training and have only missed one or two workouts. I have also learned a lot about how my body reacts to food, usually negatively. After the last mishap (my stomach swelled 2.5 inches in a day after going off plan by eating pizza the night before and a burger that day after a miserable run - gluten is not my friend), it made me laugh when I told Katie I felt miserable/awful and she goes, "this is actually a good thing! It says your body has adjusted and knows what it needs." 

Other ways my life/eating has changed:

• I drink my coffee black now (Italy's expresso culture really helped the transition) and have cut out artificial sweeteners. When I mentioned to Katie I used Splenda, she told me all about why she doesn't like them (sweetly) and the new piece of info for me was that it tricks your body into producing insulin because it thinks it had real sugar. As my family has a large history with diabetes, that was enough for me to make the switch. I haven't missed it and find I actually am craving bad stuff less. 
• I have cut down on my pre-workout meal and now have another full breakfast when I get to work (granola bowl, eggs & avocado, breakfast burrito) to help recover from my morning workouts. Always makes my coworkers jealous.

• I snack. A LOT. My coworkers constantly comment on how much I snack. The snacks include almonds (lots of almonds), avocado, hard boiled eggs, kind/lara bars, homemade energy balls made with peanut butter/honey/lots of good stuff (MY FAVORITE - picture below), almond butter & fruit. They keep me feeling good throughout the day and I am not missing the chips I used to default to on a daily basis at all.

• I eat a LOT of salad (and actually really enjoy it - I turn some non-salad meals into salads anyways). I binge bought a ton of different fruity balsamic vinegars, and "non-starchy vegetables" are always allowed in any quantity. Katie does a good job of mixing up the proteins (e.g., chicken, turkey, salmon, shrimp) and the add-ins (black beans, avocado, quinoa, salsa, fruit) to keep them interesting. 

• I can now tell when I have eaten too much fat and too few carbs - I start to lose concentration/get REALLY tired. That's when I know to eat some more fruit. Unfortunately, I didn't have any when this occurred while taking an organic sheet metal class and working with dangerous equipment (oops!). (This was another good thing according to Katie - it was an early "test" day while we were dialing in my macronutrient needs. Test failed!)
• I find I am preferring what's on the meal plan to other things typically available at parties. After a couple of more binge-like experiences (I LOVE dessert), I realized how achy/uncomfortable my body gets when I eat too much of the processed stuff, which just makes them less appealing. 

All in all, it's been a much different experience than I anticipated. I think the changes I've made to my eating habits the last three months will stick (80% of the time), although I still have a lot to learn. I would highly recommend reaching out to her if you are an athlete looking to improve your diet to do any of feel better/lose weight/get a PR/understand what your body needs.  

Picture from June shortly after I first started working with her

Picture from last week. Progress!

I came in 2nd in my age group at a local trail 10k today! Never thought that would happen. Unfortunately, I will have to break my low gluten stance to have a beer in the pint glass.

Tussey Mountainback 50 mile Race Report!

I am happy to report that on Sunday I completed my first 50 mile run!! Why you ask? Well, simply because I wanted to. (I could go into the fact that I am drawn to the laid back nature of ultra after years in the type A tri community, I have always found my strength lies in running & I wanted to see what I could do, etc. but at the end of the day it all boils down to “I wanted to.”) And long story short, I am really happy I did as I ended up having a great race experience and just loving (most of) the day.

 

Woohoo Done! I almost beat my mom to the finish line.

I feel like I EARNED this race. This year, I felt at times I downplayed its importance to me (until the last week or two) since I know people probably get sick of hearing about all my training and there are other aspects to my being. However, I have put in the specific work for about a year now leading up to this race, rarely skipping a workout despite it being really lonely/challenging at times, and I am so grateful that I got to see that work pay off.  Even more than the physical accomplishment, I am most proud that I stayed mentally positive even as I hit challenges and never really hit a “low” point that threatened to ruin my race.

Ultrarunning Camp Recap

As I type this, I am sitting in the St. Louis airport during my three hour layover which has been delayed to a (hopefully) 6 ½ hour layer. What better time to write up my recap of the grand adventure I was just on? (Note: this was over 3 months ago but figured might as well not edit to keep the spirit of the excitement.) Pictures are at the end so you can just skip straight to them if nothing else.

Cooking: Chili Con Carne (my all time favorite chili recipe)

So I haven't done a cooking recipe in awhile, and I didn't think about doing one for this recipe so didn't take in process photos. However, now that it is officially chili season, I absolutely have to share my FAVORITE chili recipe in the whole wide world since I realized I couldn't find it on the internet when a friend asked me for one. This recipe (adapted) is one of the first things I ever cooked. I joined Weight Watchers in high school and to limit my eating out/unhealthy foods, I decided to start cooking after buying their cookbook Take Out Tonight. After all these years, that is still one of my favorite cookbooks - I bought a second copy when the first one finally fell apart!

This recipe is really quick, simple, & delicious! As a first time cook, I didn't have any issues with it. I think I spent ~20 minutes throwing it together post Sunday dinner when I was absolutely exhausted and it was worth every minute.

My apologies for the poor quality of the one photo I did manage to take

Chili Con Carne (adapted from weight watchers take out tonight)

Ultrarunning training recap

Once again it's been ages! I would lie and say I would try to fix that but I just hate turning my computer on when I come home from work and I hate dealing with uploading pictures. However, since I am now a week away from my 50 mile run, I wanted to make sure to recap this training/my experience before my thoughts get skewed by the race itself. Overall, this training has been a roller coaster, with real lows and real highs. However, I have followed my training plan, have prioritized taking care of myself, and will toe the line next weekend with no regrets/shoulda/woulda/couldas. Hopefully I will finish the race (ahead of Abe so I get free beer), but if something goes wrong I can be happy with the journey.

Here are the random thoughts that have run through my mind (I might add more as the week goes on but 10 seems like the right number):

Hello! It's been awhile. Here's a recap of the last 10 months (through May).

Hello! It has been awhile. When I last wrote, I had just had a stellar Ironman experience at Mont Tremblant and was planning to sign up for Ironman Maryland to build on that great training. Boy have things changed. Instead, when it came time to sign up for Maryland, I realized my heart wasn’t in it. As I volunteered at the finish line, I fully expected for that fire to be reignited and that I would sign up for it. In reality, all I felt was happiness I was helping them achieve the same feeling (confidence, pride, etc.) I already had. Simply put, my main goal would be to get a faster time, and that motivation wasn’t enough for me to commit to the training schedule and the money.

Instead, I changed gears. In the back of my mind I have been planning to tackle a 50 mile running race (a form of ultramarathon) in the next few years, and I decided this would be the year. As part of the training for that, I signed up for a 50k in April. One thing I didn’t realize is that it was all on the trails, and that I needed to quickly get familiar with running on the trails. Luckily, Team Z has decided to support the ultra distance, so I had a few training partners to help me with that (thanks Abe, Michelle, Johnny, and Jimmy!) and a great set of people to get advice from (thanks Sally, Nicolas, and Iwan!). Of course, I acquired the knowledge that to run a trail race you need to run on trails right before our big winter onslaught occurred so I wasn’t able to get the time on the trails I wanted but the race went well. I gained enough confidence to sign up for the Tussey Mountainback 50 miler October 25^th. As I write this I am on my way back from an ultrarunning camp in Flagstaff, where I got to play in the variety of trails they have for four days (and run with the elites of the sport!). (Airport delays are the best! Said no one ever.) (I am laughing because it has taken me over a month to post what I wrote - hence the 10 month delay)

However, post Ironman my life seems to have become busier than ever in a really good way. Overall, I have experienced an overall attitude enhancement after experiencing the loss of a former coworker/mentor way too young and attending a Leadership event at work that has led me to be much happier in general. While there were several lessons learned, the big gist of it was realizing that you can only control what you can control, and the one thing you can always control is how you choose to look at life. Everyone vacillates between “self-focused” (drained, dragging, negative) and “mission-focused” (energized, positive) and you have the power to switch out of the “self-focused” mode and to find the opportunities in the challenges. Also, it's our idiosyncrasies that make us stand out/excel, and boy, do I have a lot of them! I have a fantastic life, the majority of my problems are small in the grand scheme of things, and this attitude enhancement has allowed me to feel grateful every day and to just enjoy the moment as I am in it. I highly recommend it!

Given my poor memory, this post will serve to remind myself what I have been up to the last 10 months (!!) since the race. As a warning, this will be long, but since it is for me I don’t really care.

Northface Endurance Challenge 50k DC race report

Well, I can officially say I am an ultrarunner! April 18^th I completed my first 50k. I didn’t realize it when I signed up for it, but it was completely on the trails, which adds a whole new level of challenge. I signed up for the race (or thought I did…more on that in a second) in January once Team Z added it to their race calendar. My end goal was to do a 50 miler in the fall, and I thought this would be a good first step.

However, my training started off rocky when I went to an ultrarunning clinic where they stressed specificity and the only way to get good at running on the trails was to run on trails and we should go to the run the following weekend that was on the race trail.  And then the team proceeded to cancel that run. I freaked out and e-mailed Sally to see if there was any way we could still do it, and she and Nicolas took pity on me and agreed to do a short trail run on Sunday. That Saturday I discovered an amazing trail is 15 minutes from my house (Fountainhead) that follows the Occoquan river for 18 miles, which has quickly become a go-to training spot for me. The run with Nicolas and Sally took place after a huge rain storm so the trails were ice covered. This was scary/beautiful, and I picked up so many great tips from them in the hour we ran that really increased my confidence on the trails. Nicolas also told me about a ultra trail running  camp in Flagstaff (one of my favorite places in the US) put on by some elite athletes I have heard on my podcasts. I went home and immediately signed up for it and as I write this I am sitting in the airport coming back from it (and you know, posting it a month after that). What a crazy turn of events!

One of my fearless leaders

Anyhoos, the winter weather really limited my ability to get out on the trails and messed with my confidence leading into the race. I was more nervous about this race than for Mont Tremblant!  I don’t know what I would have done without Abe, who was my partner in crime at getting out on the trails and just made the few trail training runs I could do possible. My favorite was the 22ish miler with Abe and Jimmy, where Abe put together a run entirely in DC mostly on the trail. Due to the cold, the last 7 miles were really trying, and it really helped having Jimmy and Abe tell me “It’s okay if you want to walk, we do too!” as we made it through together.

Who wore it best?

Finally, the weekend of the race approached and I went to figure out where I had said I would pick up my packet. After a few minutes of desperately searching my e-mail (and e-mailing Abe to find out where his confirmation e-mail came from), I realized either I didn’t sign up for it or my registration didn’t process and online registration had closed that morning. Talk about a major panic attack!! Thought that went through my mind included: “I have been training for this race all winter, I can’t not run it…I am taking tomorrow off of work to run errands, I am NOT going to work…should I just run the course Sunday on my own?” Luckily, the packet pickup was by my office and I was able to register in person as the race hadn’t sold out so the crisis was averted, with just me paying a $40 stupidity tax due to the increased registration fee.

The night before the race I got a Facebook message from Sally saying she and Nicolas would be there at 3am to be all set up for the 50 milers that were starting at 5am. Yikes! I set my alarm for a 3:50am and planned to get there around 5:30ish for my 7am start.

Sally and Nicholas being awesome team captains

The race started in Sterling at Algonquian Regional Park, went along the Potomac heritage trail to Great Falls, and did a 5ish mile loop through Great Falls. I got to the parking lot and Debbie was there with her Team Z bunny ears, preparing to spend the day Sherpa-ing for Abe (and ultimately me as well). It was so great to see her and I was grateful when she said she could bring me stuff to pick up at Great Falls so I could lessen my overwhelming nutrition load (be prepared?!).

We met up with Abe and headed over to the start where we were joined by Sally/Nicolas/Michelle and I ran into Danny. Sally and Nicolas were ROCK STARS as team captains for the day. I did my usual “why did I sign up for this, I am so nervous, OMG” routine while the rest of the crew worked to psych me up. Finally it was time to start! In true ultra fashion, the start was very low key.

Newbies!

Despite the winter of training in freezing temperatures, the day was scheduled to be in the 80s and humid. Yowzas! This would play a key role in my and everyone else’s races. I started off at a comfortable pace and fell into a rhythm. I was nervous about the single track nature of the race and the etiquette of passing and being passed. However, except for the one time when I was joking about being a road runner and believing in a good elbow to the gut that made some woman think I was dying to pass her, it never was much of an issue.

I had run the trail a few times in the winter and the trail conditions were awful each time (either super icy, muddy, or just frozen over with hoofprints). However, the trail was PERFECT on race day, smooth and only muddy in few places. We really lucked out. I was able to keep a steady pace over the first 13 miles, except for on the giant hills, which I had already mentally prepared to walk and was joined in that endeavor by the rest of the racers. A highlight of the first half was when we reached a trail crossing I had previewed with Nicolas/Sally on our run. While everyone was getting stopped waiting to cross at a difficult point, I simply walked through the water and went on my way to applause from the other races.

When I got to Great Falls, I ran into Melody, Iwan, and Ryan who told me I was doing great and to keep going. I didn’t have a chance to connect with Debbie, but I figured I had enough nutrition to get me through the Great Falls loop. This is when the heat started to really set in, as well as the blisters the unexpected sweat caused on my feet. The loop was a lot hillier than I expected, but I kept my “walk the uphills and run the downhills” routine and enjoyed running into Eric and Jimmy as they were deep into their 50 miler. The highlight of this loop was the aid station at mile 17 that had cold sponges. I kept looking for these at the remaining aid stations but was sadly disappointed. (As a note, the aid station volunteers were unsurprisingly ROCK STARs, taking my pack and refilling my water as I was in my heat induced haze.) I connected with Debbie after I completed the loop to re-sunscreen/nutrition, and began the way back.

I assume this was at some point in the race

Like everyone else, I struggled on the way back. My legs actually felt great (I think my focus on strength training this winter really paid off), but the blisters made every step (particularly the downhills) painful. (As TMI, let’s just say I can no longer say I have never lost a toenail from running, which is super exciting for sandal season!) My stomach was also not behaving and I was feeling nauseous. However, I just kept moving. Highlights of this section included running into Joel as he ran the marathon and bonding over the last 2 miles with a marathon runner and a fellow female 50ker from Baltimore that caused me to keep running.  Finally, about a quarter mile from the finish line the girl from Baltimore felt me picking it up and said “I feel a surge coming, get going” and I ran through the finish line in 6:50! Given my goal for the race (without considering the overall heat) was 7 hours, I was SO HAPPY and pleased with the race.

Once I crossed the finish line, I was greeted by Nicolas/Sally as well as Keri/Janet/Rich/Lisa. I really can’t express how grateful I have been for their support over this and all my endeavors and it was fantastic to hang out with them at the finish line while we waited for the rest of the racers. Everyone had a rougher day than expected due to the heat, but I think we were all ridiculously proud of ourselves.

Abe finishing!

Once it was over, I headed straight to John’s to celebrate his birthday (and to use his shower for the sake of the other guests) and managed to stay up pretty late considering the long day. I definitely felt the dehydration though when I woke up at 2am for 3ish hours before falling asleep on my couch until 10ish and I felt the soreness of a job well done the next few days.

I am pretty sure I had committed to Sally I was going to do Tussey right as I crossed the finish line, with no need to really think about it. The 50k was a test for me, and my legs and spirit passed it. This next race will be daunting, but I know I will get through it, one step at a time. If I have learned one lesson from all this training/racing about myself, that is it.

Also, I have really grown to love trail running. What better way to combine my loves of hiking/being in nature and running?! Here are some other trail running pics from this winter:

Non-Cooking: Ironman Mont Tremblant Race Report!

Well, whaddya know, I finished another Ironman!! Long story short, it was a wonderful experience to chase a PR versus a time cutoff, I took an hour and 25 minutes off my Ironman Wisconsin time (gaining a small amount of time off the swim and the bike, and a whopping 55 minutes off the run!), stayed mentally strong through some tough moments, danced at the aid stations, skipped through the finish line, and really freaking enjoyed my race!

Now for the longer story. (Thanks in advance to Miro who is a fantastic photographer and who took the majority of the best photos below!)

Non-Cooking: Looking back at the Mont Tremblant training, and looking ahead to race day - 7 days!

We are now 7 days from race day. This time next Sunday, I hope to be out on the run, feeling strong and bringing home my second ironman. Before that, I wanted to do a pre-race training wrap up, and talk about how I am feeling about getting ready to toe the line to my second Ironman.

Physically, my body has held up remarkably well. I have felt strong during most of the long rides and runs (minus the 50 milers in the 200% humidity), and KILLED the 127 last long run. Minus some weird early season shenanigans with repeated flu-like dehydration symptoms (?) that I have seemingly resolved by taking NUUN all day hydration tabs throughout the week, I never felt like physically I couldn’t do this training or missed a long ride/run. Last taper, I couldn’t physically stay up past 8 and had no energy, and this taper I am staying up (too) late and feel pretty good energy wise.

Mentally, this training has been HARD. Having the fear of Mountains of Misery during this ridiculous winter weighed on me. With that plus other general life stress, I have been battling mental burnout much more than the last go round, where I didn’t hit my mental burnout until the 20/120 weekend. I am considering signing up for IM Maryland next year with a bunch of my favorite training buddies, but I am really going to have to think long and hard about if I want to put that stress on me again and how I will manage the mental burnout.

All that being said, this training experience has been all I had hoped for and much more. I signed up for this race partly because I feel like I didn’t have my best race day in Wisconsin, but more so because of training partners I would have and the bonding experience IM training creates. In Wisconsin, I felt like that bonding came the June/July before the September race. For this one, especially with MOM thrown in the middle, I have felt like it has come every day since January. I have really strengthened my existing friendships, and have created so many great new ones. I have felt well-loved and taken care of this entire experience, and I am so grateful for the strong support network that I have. In addition to learning how to push my mental/physical barriers during the Ironman training, I have learned it is okay to ask for help, and that it will be there for me without even have to ask.

Now, on to the race day itself. People keep asking me if I am ready, and to be perfectly honest, I feel 100% like I am. I don’t feel nervous, or worried, or stressed. I feel excited! I would be lying if I said I didn’t have any time goals. I have worked so hard in this last 2 years since IM Wisconsin, and I would love to take at least an hour + off my 16:11 finishing time. My dream is to finish with a time in the 14 hour range. However, I refuse to put pressure on myself and will take the day as it comes. I truly feel the race is a celebration/culmination of a year long journey. If it doesn’t go according to plan or if I don’t finish, I know without a doubt it will be due to something outside of my control (i.e. a mechanical issue) because I have PUT IN THE WORK. The beauty of the second Ironman is I am an Ironman whether I finish this race or not.

Really, I believe you become an Ironman during the long/hard training leading up to the race day, not on the race day itself. I reinforced my status as an Ironman this year when I:

Non-Cooking: Ironman Mont Tremblant 70.3 Race Report

Just shy of a month ago, I headed up to Mont Tremblant to do the 70.3 or Half Ironman (which follows the same course as the Ironman). I did this for two reasons. First, Ironman gave you an option to register early for the race if you registered for both the 70.3 and full Ironman and I was super paranoid it would sell out. Second, I learned from Wisconsin that it is really great to preview the race course and the venue in order to figure out the logistics of the trip/race day and to give you some perspective on what to expect on race day. However, as the trip came up, I got more and more stressed out and I was not looking forward to it. That week was super stressful at work and between that and the stress of the trip/Ironman training, I ended up breaking down in tears in front of my boss. Woops! (As a 32 year old ex frat boy, this REALLY freaked him out but he handled it well. Don't worry - it's just that time in Ironman training!) Time for a vacation.

I have to give a major shout out to my mom and dad. I had already roped them into coming for the full Ironman, and had planned on doing the half ironman trip solo (including the 13+ hour drive home the Monday after the race). About a month ago, however, I was at our Sunday dinner solo (the brother/sister-in-law/baby nephew had other plans) and they volunteered to come up with me. Hallelujah! It was fantastic to have them there during the weekend to help take care of all of the logistics. It really made the short break feel like much more of a vacation. 

Papa Bear and Lead (only) Driver

Momma Bear and Lead Navigator

Non-Cooking: Mountains of Misery Ride Report

So a little more than a month ago (Memorial Day Weekend), I biked 102 miles around Blacksburg, VA. This ride wasn't just any ride, it was the Mountains of Misery ride. What made those 102 miles miserable? What made it stand out from other century rides I have done? Oh you know, just a major 2ish mile climb around mile 58 as a warmup, then a 4 mile mountain climb to the finish. What was I thinking?! Why do I sign up for these things?! These are just a few of the questions I asked myself before, during, and after the race. I am actually happy I haven't had time to write up my ride report because I am pretty sure it will be much different/more accurate now with the perspective of time. 

Asking myself why at the start of the ride

While this ride may have just been one day, it guided all of my training decisions through the winter. When I had first heard of this race when I joined the Team, I thought "HELL NO" I could never do that. Well, becoming an Ironman has changed my perspective. The real game changer though was surviving the Garrett County Gran Fondo, which Mary informed me was more feet per climbing than Mountains of Misery, and where I proved I was a BADASS. She convinced me if I could do that, I could do Mountains. I figured with the Ironman training, if I was going to do this ride, this was the year. Luckily a ton of my friends felt the same way. Little did we know we had the winter of hell in front of us, with winter storms ruining chances of outdoor riding through March. We spent most of April/May scrambling to ride hilly courses that would prepare us for this ride. Luckily there was a solid group of us committed to getting it done.

The ride was on Sunday, but I headed down Friday in order to make it as much of a true 4 day weekend/holiday as I could. Friday night, I had dinner with Coach Ed (later joined by Jordan), and then Saturday I had the morning to myself before my friends arrived. I went on the easy 4 mile Cascade Falls hike and really enjoyed the time to myself. With all the training and work I find myself constantly surrounded by (wonderful) people and I really needed a break. I brought a book and enjoyed reading it next to the waterfall.

After the hike, I enjoyed some delicious BBQ then waited for the others to arrive. John mentioned he enjoyed rereading my old blog posts from training for Wisconsin, so I spent the afternoon going through those. Memories! Once John and Aileen got to the hotel, we headed to packet pickup and then on to Team dinner. I will say, before the dinner I was feeling calm about the ride. Mary sent out some great tips, and I was treating it as just another ride. We have survived tough rides before, and I knew no matter what we would get through it. I got my heart rate zones tested during the week and planned on staying within Zone 2 (easy pace you can ride all day) as long as possible. However, my friends were FREAKING out about it and started really stressing me out. We planned on just taking it real slow and getting each other through it (patience!). Poor John's wife got to listen to us saying the same thing over and over for 4 hours. She is a saint!  Despite the stress, I can't overstate how great it felt to have a pact with John and Aileen that no matter what, we would stick together. I always have a fear I am holding people back (hills and I are not the best of friends when it comes to speed), but this ride (and many others) have proven I don't need to worry about asking us to slow down. My friends will be there for me no matter what. 

Race morning arrived and we headed to the start of the race. Everyone had that nervous energy as we waited for the start.

John and Aileen dropping their gear bag

John

Kathy! She is FAST

We started off and soon John, Aileen, and I found ourselves at the back of the race as we stuck to our plan to keep it slow. I am so proud we were able to hold back! The first 58 miles of the ride went smoothly, and we enjoyed the well stocked rest stops (PB&J and Pickles!) along the way. The one particular highlight was when John informed Aileen and I that if we tell him we are in "Zone 1" he might have to tell us to "Shut the F*** Up." Given John's usually chipper/encouraging attitude, I found that hilarious. And I have made sure to inform him when I am in "Zone 1" (mostly jokingly) on other rides, particularly while climbing long hills!

Joel and Aileen are all smiles early

Linda!

<3

Well stocked!

Gorgeous

Then we hit our first major challenge of the day, a 2ish mile STEEP climb that winds its way up the mountain. I managed to get through it, but there were definitely points I thought about putting a foot down. I just channeled my gran fondo experience and just kept pedaling. This actually led to one of the highlights of the day - my teammate Joel reached the summit of the climb and burst into HYSTERICAL laughter, as if he couldn't believe what it was and that it was over. Aileen attempted to comfort him but it was like attempting to calm an animal in the wild. The pictures below don't do it justice.

After that climb, s*** got real. While the next 40ish miles were not crazy difficult before the final climb, that climb had set a fear of the last climb into my mind. How was I going to survive 4 miles of it?! I also ended up getting super dehydrated because I allowed the aid stations to throw off my nutrition plan. This stress/the dehydration led me to a breakdown at mile 95. Instead of Joel's hysterical laughter, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably. It was the type of crying where if anyone said ANYTHING to me, I would have burst into tears. "Is the sky blue?" "I....sob sob sob...don't...hiccup sob sob....know!" John asked me how I was doing and I just sobbed/said "I just need it to be done." So I ate a gel and we kept going. (I still don't know how I feel about the fact that I expect to have moments such as these during my leisure activities. My boss also got treated to a similar breakdown at work the other day. Ironman training strikes again!) The first 2 miles of the climb were actually not bad at all. And then I got nauseous and started to really struggle, fearing getting sick with every pedal stroke. I made it one more mile before I called it quits on the bike and started walking. I informed people riding by I was just starting my recovery early (which got some laughs), and walked about the same pace they were riding. Right before the finish I passed Mark who insisted on me riding through the finish (essentially "Wouldn't it be a great finish photo if you were vomiting?!"). When I got to Linda who was also getting back on her bike, I sucked it up and rode until the end. 

Preparing ourselves at the last aid station

Finished!! She KILLED the final climb, despite the mental suffering. 

Alright Joel, you can celebrate with us too :)

Not me but looks cool!

Even the strongest riders were worn out

Sadly, while the ride finished at at the Dirty Dancing resort, I didn't get to explore it (too tired!). After hanging out at the finish for awhile, I raced to Outback to enjoy some bloomin onion with my teammates and to swap race stories. The one downside was the lack of good beer. When I got back to the hotel, I had a Snickers Ice Cream bar, the thought of which kept me going. Then it was bed. Monday morning I met up with some teammates for Breakfast, and John, Aileen, and I swore we would NEVER do that ride again. I think the last four miles had all of us wondering why we do this to ourselves. All it proved to me was that after Gran Fondo/Ironman Wisconsin I have NOTHING to prove. I am a badass, and finishing this ride just adds another exclamation point to that statement. The drive home also provided a lot of time for soul searching/crying as I hadn't quite recovered from the dehydration.

John's wife Jen got the three of us flip flops as a gift after the ride! (A lot of our conversation was about whether to bring flip flops.)

If nothing else, this ride proved Baby Nephew and I are related. This is especially awesome because he is in the separation anxiety phase where he only wants mom and dad. Guess what kid, you can't escape me!! 

Now, as I noted up top, if I had written my race recap that day, it would have ended on that note. However, with time comes perspective/revisionist thinking. John, Aileen, and I have changed our tone from never to maybe (still not yes!). Ultimately, it was a very difficult ride. However, I truly think the difficulty really came with the mental unknown of the final climb. The entire ride we lived in fear of it, and that fear drained us. When I finally got to it, I was already done emotionally. Even with that feeling, I realized the first 2 miles of the final climb were not awful, and I have no problem with walking the remainder if it comes to it (see above about nothing to prove). For the most part the ride was absolutely beautiful, the company was wonderful, and the bonding was great. I truly enjoyed the first 70 miles. I also love my teammates, and this ride has further solidified our sense of togetherness. Will I do it again next year? Probably not but never say never - you do have to really commit to the training and I haven't figured out my plans for next year yet. I might just cheer my teammates up the final climb. Will I do it again ever? Probably, unless I find another equally badass/beautiful ride to do instead. 

Kinetic Race Report

Post Race dryout

About a month ago, I realized I hadn’t done a triathlon (any distance) since the Ironman in September 2012, and the only two races I had signed up for were the Ironman branded races in Mt. Tremblant (the 70.3 in June and the 140.6 in August). The team was heading to Lake Anna for the Kinetic Half Ironman and the Kinetic Sprint, and as my training had gotten up to the mileage required, I decided to sign up for the Half Ironman in order to “dip my toes” back into the triathlon world in a more low key environment. Also, I wanted to make a weekend out of it – these races are at beautiful lakeside locations and the team grills/hangs out all weekend.

Non-Cooking: March/April Training/Life update - Hail, Hills, and other Happenings!

It's finally Spring!! A lot has happened since my last post, both training wise and life wise. Consider this a catch up post.

Training/Team Z

I have been incredibly pleased with the progress I have shown on the bike in the last month, and won serious badass points a few weeks ago during a ride up in Frederick, MD. 

The two crazies

Non-Cooking: Rock N' Roll DC Marathon Race Report (and other winter training updates)

Short version: I ran another marathon this Saturday, and I got another personal record! I officially ran it in 4 hours, 3 minutes, and 15 seconds (an 8 minute improvement from November's  New York Marathon), which is a pace of 9:18. Between the NY marathon and this race, I have taken ~26 minutes off my previous personal best, set in March 2011 on a pancake flat course in perfect conditions. 

Now for the (much) longer version. 

Fall/Winter 

I signed up for this race last fall in the months leading up to the New York Marathon. I had been running really well, and I thought I wouldn't have a chance to get a personal best in New York given all the crowds. My plan was to use this race to go for it. 

Except I did get a personal best at New York, by 17 minutes! I exceeded my wildest expectations (a stretch goal of 4:15), and was content with that. Since I was already signed up for Rock N' Roll and with an Ironman in August, I kept with the plan to go through with it. However, given my focus was/is firmly on the Ironman, I didn't give much thought to this race as far as "goals" and "plan" went. 

Leading up to New York, I followed the F.I.R.S.T marathon training program. It calls for three runs a week - a speed workout (short/fast intervals), a tempo (longer 3-10 mile runs at a faster than marathon pace), and a long run. This plan really gave me the mental strength I needed to push in NY. Given the cold/windy/crowded/hilly conditions of the New York Marathon, I thought there was a good chance that I could improve my time at this race. Since I had so much success with that plan, I decided to stick with it through the marathon, and then switch to the Team Z program for the Ironman. I was still pretty conservative with my pace of my longer runs leading into New York, so the only real change in my plan was to try to do each run at a faster (but manageable) effort. 

Boy, if I knew what this winter had in store for us I may have rethought signing up for this race. It has been a soul sucking winter. I have trained for marathons 3 of the last 4 winters, each in relatively unfavorable conditions. This was by far the worst of them. (I am still annoyed that last winter, the only one I haven't chosen to train for a race, was the most mild winter we have had by far.) Unlike a few years past where we had a few monster snow storms that made running very difficult for a few weeks but left the rest of winter alone, this winter has been full of several storms, each dropping 4-8 inches & making the roads each weekend dangerous for biking, and trails/roads not much safer for running. Every time we think "this has to be the last one," another storm pops up on the radar. (I am writing this after telecommuting all day due to another storm.)

Since January, I have stepped up all of my training efforts. After three years, I finally made my return to Team Z swim practices and have been very good about actually going. I have also started doing indoor computrainer sessions (meant to be one weeknight a week), which provides the best bike workout you can do indoors. Unfortunately, except for 2 or 3 times this winter, I have been forced to do my weekend bike sessions indoors as well. I have found that 2 hours of hard effort on the computrainer can ruin my spirit, whereas 2-3 hours of outdoor bike rides can lift it up. All in all, I think this winter has provided more mental training than physical, and I have found my spirits really starting to diminish. Despite all of this, I have managed to get in all my training runs, only resorting once to the treadmill. 

The last few weeks of training were particularly rough, and left me feeling a little shaky leading to the actual race itself. While I still thought I could improve on my NY time, I didn't really verbalize these thoughts. In fact, the day before the race I was just feeling downright weak/out of it, so I really just wanted to go out and enjoy the day, whatever the time ended up being. Until the night before the race, I didn't really develop a plan, other than to just go out and run. 

Race Week - Friday

Since the race was on Saturday, I took Friday off of work to pick up my packet & do other life things. (I worked through MLK and President's day so I haven't had a weekday off since December). The expo was great! I managed to meet Dan from the Biggest Loser (repping their 5k/10k run/walk series). Even better, I worked up the courage to chat with him and managed to have a (pretty) non-awkward conversation!! This is huge for me since I typically can't bring myself to start a conversation with people I admire for fear of not having anything to say to them (i.e. my company's CEO, Bart Yasso, Chris Wren). He was running the half, and it was cool to learn how he has kept up the healthy/fit lifestyle. 

While I fully intended to be productive with the rest of my day (i.e. get groceries), I spent the afternoon taking care of the more important things in life by seeing the new Veronica Mars movie with my brother. It was so good! They really did the fans justice. (I may or may not have purchased it on demand as well and watched it twice since then.)

After stopping by Wawa for some coffee, I got home just in time to finish my pie for Pi Day, the most important day of the year and perfectly timed to help take my mind off the big race. I had made a french silk pie before heading to the expo, and made sure to do a taste test to make sure it was okay for my friends. 

French Silk Pie (Chocolate!)

I tried to contain myself at the event (by only having 3-4 slices of pie and 3-4 scoops of ice cream), and relished the chance to hang out with my friends for a nice relaxing evening. 

As is always the case it seems, I headed out early around 8:30 to try to catch some sleep. They all wished me luck as I headed off (and then I am sure proceeded to discuss how crazy I am while eating more delicious pie).

Race Day 

On race day I woke up around 4:15 (ahead of my alarm), got dressed, and headed to the metro. I greeted my teammates, and killed time with several of them while we waited for the race to start. At the race expo, I had requested a corral change to move up to the same corral as the 4:00 pace group (a group w/ 2 leaders that are supposed to guide you to the time goal running an even pace). 

Despite not feeling great the previous day, I decided my race strategy would be to go out with the 4:00 pace group and hold on as long as I could (with only about a 5% chance I actually held onto it the entire race, but then a 75% chance I could hold on for another personal best). No risk, no reward right? My training paces made me believe that I had a good shot of a PR and I figured that was the best way to get it. About five minutes beforehand, I went to find my pace group.

The real story is in the prep leading up to the race. The actual race itself was pretty good but not much to right home about. The first half of the course was insanely crowded as the half marathoners and the marathoners ran together. My pacer kept darting into the crowds, and I had to expend a lot of energy to keep up/dart in and out of traffic. Because I was focused on keeping up, I didn't really notice the race course/spectators. We crossed the half point at 1:59:55 (a 3 minute PR! from my standalone half 2 years ago). The crowds really dropped off after mile 13, both on and off the course. The pace group provided good company on an otherwise lonely/unscenic course. I held steady with the pace group until around mile 18 feeling relatively good, when I made my "mistake." I stopped to use the bathroom and fell about 45 seconds behind the pace group (no line!). Rather than taking my time to steadily reel them in, I expended a lot of energy to catch up to them. Of course after catching them, I had trouble keeping up and fell off the pace around mile 21 (still keeping them within eyesight through mile 24) . The two super low points were around mile 21 and mile 26 where I felt super close to throwing up, and due to lack of space at 21 (bridge w/ no railing) and crowds at 26, that would have been super embarrassing. Luckily both feelings only lasted about 30 seconds at a time. While the last 5 miles were rough, I focused on putting one foot in front of the other (and thanking the police officers, volunteers, and few spectators on that part of the course) and managed to complete all the miles in under 10 minutes. In the last mile, I passed one of our two pace group leaders (the one who had been darting all race). My guess is he wasted a lot of energy as well. I thanked him as I passed for leading me to a PR, then picked it up (as much as I could) for the home stretch. My joy returned as I crossed the finish line, another personal record under my belt.

I finished this race in much better shape than New York mentally/emotionally. With dehydration and the brutality of the winds, from mile 15 on was in the pain cave hardcore and lost my joy. I couldn't even summon the energy to thank the volunteers (something I always make sure to do), and was in tears trying (in vain) to get to my parents after the finish. It took me a good week to come out of my emotional funk from the end of that race. After this race, despite the physically side effects (ouch blisters! and quads!...stairs...and...shoes...are...so...difficult), I still managed to rally (with the help of french silk pie) for an evening out Saturday night (jazz!), and even managed to find energy to go to the grocery store yesterday. Success! As my present to you, I will spare you the pictures of blisters I didn't even know were possible.

Overall, I am pretty dang happy with how things went,. While this race hasn't been my main focus this winter, I put in the work for it and was rewarded. I really think a sub-4 hour marathon is definitely within reach, something I wouldn't have even dreamed about 2 years ago when I got my previous personal best of 4:29ish. After the Ironman, I will go for it. At some point. Hopefully not during winter.

Other thoughts from this winter training season/race: 

• Because I hadn't been given myself any real recovery weeks and was running 3x a week including a long run, swimming 2x a week, lifting 2x a week, and doing 2-3 bike sessions a week, my pinky and ring fingers went numb on my left hand because my muscles were super tight (scary!). I booked myself an emergency massage & gave myself a recovery week. I am looking forward to resuming Team Z's schedule of 2 weeks build, one week recover. 
• Nutrition is going to be a serious issue going forward as my training volume increases. I did a test with my nutritionist to figure out how many calories I actually need to maintain my current weight and it was 500 higher than we had thought. Between that and not wanting to be in a calorie deficit, I have to figure out how to add about 800 calories into my day (before even considering longer workouts on the weekend), without resorting to sweets. This is an entirely different mindset I have to get used to - I am finding it difficult to figure out how to balance everything from both a practical and a mental perspective. I actually have a lot more thoughts in this realm but I will save it for another post. 
• I learned this winter that misery really loves company. The Team Z swim practices have been worth it mainly for seeing other people/knowing I am not alone. I typically end them happier than I start, regardless of how the workout goes (thanks Linda!). I have also found the computrainer sessions are much more bearable when other people are with me, even if we don't talk during the hard intervals. Finally, the Team Z red nose runs (mini informal races) have been great for the camaraderie and made me force myself out for a lot of runs I may not have had the willpower to do otherwise.  
• I am really wondering if signing up for Mountains of Misery (104 mile mountainous bike ride at the end of May) was a good idea. I have not been able to get large volumes of biking in on the weekends, and I will really need mother nature to take it easy on us the next few months to make sure I can get into somewhat reasonable shape. Talk about pain cave!
• Typically in a race I do a mental thing where I say to myself "If I blow up now, I can still get XX time." This race was different. When I started to do that, I stopped and told myself that I had put in the work/had the knowledge that there was a greater chance I would NOT blow up than that I would. I really was just doing it out of habit, and didn't actually believe I was going to "blow up." I cannot understate how important that is. 
• I have now raced 5 standalone marathons, with great races in 3 out of 5 of them. I like the tipping of the odds! Although the suffering in the other 2 taught me about my inner strength.
• I have continued to cook up a storm. My parents are now renovating their kitchen, so I am in charge of Sunday dinners for the family and am trying to provide them with meals for the week. Thank goodness for the taper/recovery low volume! Recent favorites include an aparagus, mushroom, and goat cheese fritatta, pho (vietnamese noodle soup), and shredded beef tacos. 
• As far as races/crowd support and high-fives go, this race really paled in comparison to both New York and Marine Corps. I won't do the full again. Thank goodness for Team Z appearing along the course and cheering for me by name. 
• It is impossible to not be happy listening to "Happy" by Pharrell. The highlight of the music on the course was a giant circle around a band singing it.