Six Days Away!

My Half-Ironman is only six days away!!  To say that I'm freaking out is putting it mildly.  It's actually equal parts of excitement and terror.  Looks like I'll be finding out if all of those hours of training actually did anything!!  Here's hoping!!

Inspiration

Just wanted to mention a couple of cool exercise-related things that inspired me over the past weeks:

1. While racing the Franklin Classic 5k, I noticed a man with two prosthetic legs participating.  While this is inspiring in and of itself, there is more to the story.  You see, the day of the race was cold and rainy - which was perfect running weather for me, but this also made the road very slick in parts, especially where the road was painted with road markings.  I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this.  After a race a slipping almost the entire way, the gentleman fell about two blocks from the finish line causing one of his prosthetic legs to come off.  Rather than quitting the race right there, the man crossed the finish line while being pushed in a wheelchair by one of his friends.  Everyone standing in the finish line area clapped and cheered for this man as he crossed the line.  I'm sure I was probably crying too.  It was pretty emotional and inspiring.
2. Several of my friends who I coached in the East Nasty Potato-to-Tomato training program have all signed up to run their first Half-Marathon together!  I'm so happy and proud of them.  They're a group of awesome ladies who, if you had told them at this time last year they were going to be all running a Half-Marathon together, would have laughed in your face.  I'm so excited they're taking this journey together.
3. I got to run with my friend Roy last Wednesday.  To put it mildly - Roy's year has sucked.  He's had to deal with the death of his beloved father, as well as coming back from a heart attack.  I'd still be hiding under the covers if I were him, but Roy's out there running again.  He's much tougher than I am.
4. My Dad told me this past week that he's planning ahead to when he's 80, which is in four years, because USA Cycling has an 80+ division for their road races.  He's already thinking about what kind of bike he's going to get.  Here I am just trying to get through the next week, and my Dad is planning four years out.  He's awesome.

What inspires you?

TAPER!

   I can't believe it, but I'm at the point in my training where I'm tapering.  For those who have never trained for an endurance event previously, "taper" is the part of the workout schedule when you recover for 1-2 weeks prior to the race.  In my case, two weeks.  I still have to train, but the hours won't be as long.
   And I have to say, it wasn't a day too soon because I am SPENT.  This past week was very high mileage, ending with a 66-mile bike ride on Saturday and an 11-mile run on Sunday.  For the first time in a very long time - I'm sore.  I'm not sure if that means I haven't been training hard enough or if I just overdid it this weekend.  I'll be fine tomorrow, but I'm SO GLAD I'm tapering and don't have a scheduled workout today.
   Of course, this means that my race is only a mere two weeks away so that has me freaked out.  But that's a post for another day!

Ode to a Honey Stinger Waffle

Oh Honey Stinger Waffle
You are so not awful.
But this poem is so I'll stop.

   OK, so I suck as a poet, but as anyone TRIED these things? They're awesome! Granted, it could be that I'm so burnt out of every other kind of energy / protein bar that cardboard would taste good, but I'm pretty sure it's more than that. Seriously - Honey Stinger Waffles are G.O.O.D!!
   What makes them different? Mainly texture and density. They're more like a wafer than a bar. Sometimes, when eating another brand of bar while racing/working out, I take one bite and almost can't swallow it because it's just so dense. Not good when you're in the middle of a race and HAVE to eat. The Honey Stinger Waffles? Light and thin! You can eat the entire thing without feeling sick for the next half-hour. Plus, because they're thin, it's easy to carry several of them in your jersey pocket, bento box, whatever. Very portable and, another benefit, because they're a waffle they don't melt!!
   And the taste?  I've only seen two flavors at local stores - Vanilla and Honey, but I've had both and they were both pretty dang tasty. There is also a Strawberry flavor, which is available on their website.  Here's something else that is cool - the Waffles are certified organic so no crazy chemicals were used to create the product! Considering I'm addicted to Diet Dr. Pepper, it's obvious I don't pay that much attention to things like that, but it's still pretty cool.
   After discovering I loved the Waffles so much, I ventured out and tried Honey Stingers' Organic Energy Chews (cherry flavor). And guess what? They're JUST AS GOOD! Seriously - like candy.
   I know what you're thinking. Sure, they taste good, but do they do the job when you're in the middle of a run / ride / race?  As far as I can tell, they do. Though I haven't eaten them in a race yet, I've used them on several 40 + mile rides and was surprised how far that little wafer and a few chews could take me. These will definitely be my go-to energy food from now on.

Race Report- The Race That Wasn't - Fall Creek Falls

   So I was supposed to race Tri Fall Creek Falls last Sunday.  It's an Olympic distance race in one of Tennessee's beautiful state parks - Fall Creek Falls.  This was supposed to be my last warm-up race prior to the Augusta Half-Ironman.  But unfortunately, it got rained out.  And when I mean rained out, I mean crazy lightening, no visibility, scared to even drive kind of weather.   So the race directors made the right call by canceling.
  Of course, we didn't know the race was going to be rained out when we woke up that day.  It was actually a perfect day for racing about a 1/2 hour prior to the start time.  A little cool and overcast.  In fact, it wasn't even raining when the race was supposed to start.  I had JUST gotten in the water to warm up when they called us all out because of lightening.  When lightening is sighted, the race directors have to postpone the race for at least a half-hour.  It was obvious that the storm was getting closer and closer so Dudley and I went back up the hill to the car to wait it out.  Since the lightening was going to postpone the race for a while, the race director thought about changing the race from a triathlon to a duathlon; substituting the swim with a two-mile run.  Though I would have raced it, I wasn't really interested in that because the main reason I wanted to do the race was for the swim.
   But then all hell broke loose.  Seriously.  CRAZY CRAZY rain.  I had already gotten my bike and gear out of the transition area because I didn't want to be hanging around a bunch of metal racks in the middle of a field during a lightening storm.  Once the storm really hit, I decided to turn in my timing chip because even if they did decide to hold a duathlon, I thought the course would be too dangerous / slick to race.  Call me wimpy but I don't want to get hurt doing something stupid a month out from Augusta.  Turns out, I wasn't the only one who thought it was too dangerous to race.  The Park Service did too and they cancelled the race.
   So - this is the race report of the race that wasn't.  It would have been nice to race, but there wasn't any way we could have with that weather.  Of course, it was perfect about an hour or so later.  Oh well.  What can you do?  Next up - Augusta!!

A Good Week

  I have to do a little bragging this week as it's been a good one.  First off - I have to give some love to the East Nasty Potato to Tomato 5k participants who raced the Tomato 5k this past weekend.  We had a HUGE group of participants in the program this time and they did GREAT.  It was a hard, hilly course but they did it.  I'm so proud I was a part of helping them achieve their goal!

East Nasty For Life!!  

   I actually didn't run the race.  I was planning on it, but two things kind of took precedence.  One - I sang the National Anthem immediately prior to the race and I was still a little too shaky from nerves to run and Two - I wanted to take photos of all of the East Nasties as they crossed the line.  (Check out the East Nasty Facebook page if you want to see them.)

Singing the National Anthem

   But another reason why its been a good week is that I'm seeing progress with my training.  For the first time ever, I ran three consecutive sub 9-minute miles during mile repeats last Tuesday.  YAY ME!  I'm not a crazy fast runner so these times are excellent for me.   I also, for the first time, swam 3,000 meters.  Let me repeat that.  3,000 METERS!  Do you know how far that is?  Yes, I know - 3,000 meters, but it's 200 meters short of two miles!  That just blows my mind.  I doubt I'll ever swim that far in a race (as I have no plans on doing a full Ironman), but swimming that distance was a great mental boost.  Granted, I have no idea how this will translate to my tris.  Probably not too much for the races this season, but if I keep it up, I bet I'll see a huge difference in times next season.

   Next up - the Fall Creek Falls Olympic tri this Sunday.  Not expecting too much as I'm still continuing my HIM training rather than tapering for the week so I'll be tired on race day.  But if I do better than I did in Chattanooga - I'll be happy.

I Must Be Crazy

   So I've had a couple of interesting workouts recently.  Some of the questioning my sanity, "what the hell am I doing out here" type of workouts.  Now that the race is a mere 50 days away, the workouts are getting longer and harder.  And they're kicking my butt.
   Over the past few weeks I've been getting up before 5:00am on Saturdays so I can be riding by 6:00am.  I've gotten stuck in a horrible rainstorm 20 miles away from my car.  I've run in 98 degree weather with 110 degree heat index.  I've gotten on my indoor trainer at 10:00pm because that was the only time I could ride that day.  And today I started my 8-mile run KNOWING I was running into a rainstorm, possibly a really bad one.
   But I've done them all.  Some of the workouts haven't been pretty.  Some of them have been slow (OK - most have been slow).  But at the end of the day, I can look at my workout log and check off the workouts as "Done" and there's something to be said for that.  Of course, I'm not sure what that is yet...  Hopefully, I'll figure it out by the time I hit the finish line in Augusta.