HURAY for new gadgets!!!

I love gadgets. I really, really love gadgets. My latest is both for the big trip (4 days away!) to Costa Rica and to use in my triathlon coaching. Paul got me a new compact digital camera for Christmas. O-k, I admit I might have told him to get it for me, then returned the one he got and ordered a different one online, but that's beside the point. I ended up with the Canon PowerShot SD1200IS. Just look at the pretty blue!

I won't go into a detailed review of the camera, I haven't really used it enough for that. What I will, instead tell you about is the nifty little side item I found for it: the DiCAPAC - an underwater case for the camera! Put that together with the video function on the camera and VOILA - underwater stroke video! Paul and I tried it out yesterday during our swim. As you will see from the video I am still getting the hang of handling and videoing, but that is something I can improve with a few more tried. I am sure I can find people that will be guinea pigs for my new project!


Here is the big thing I realized looking at my video. (I had to edit mine down because darn it my hips looked flabby when I swam by the camera. No, not in a 'my muscles are flapping in the water sort of way, in a "EWWWWWW!" sort of way. So I'm not putting it up for the world to see!) Right now I am fairly de-conditioned in the pool. I am swimming 5-7 sec. off my normal t-pace per 300. With that de-conditioning I am getting a lot of up and down movement with my stroke. So, now watch the video again (paying close attention to the bounce, not my hips) and see how my body moves up and down, which is completely counter productive. Now that I have seen it I know to work on it, and that my friends is the beauty of having your stroke video taped!

As for Paul's video at the end, I just thought it was a cool angle, it's hard to see much about his stroke from there, but I did get some other good footage of him.

It's gonna be a GREAT day!

To Frazz
Ten Reasons why TODAY is going to be a great day:
1. I feel MUCH better. My sinuses don't feel like they are going to explode any more - hurray!
2. I got up feeling ready for my am workout today!
3. I was able to meet all my wattage goals for my a.m. cycle. That's the hardest I've worked in a while on the bike and it felt great.
4. Day 2 of new haircut is always a dicey day. Yesterday my husband came home and said "Wow, so that's the new haircut huh?" (I thought about punching him, but used restraint), today he got home from his cycle study and said "Now today your hair looks great, I do like the new cut!" The stylist always straightens my hair, he hates my hair straightened. Anyway, regardless - I was actually able to style a new cut and that's a GOOD thing.
5. Lunch time swim scheduled. I love swimming.
6. Paul is off work all day - I love Paul. ; )
7. I leave for Costa Rica in 5 days - my bags are almost all the way packed and I am ready to go!!!!
8. I get to go for my yearly physical today. (yeah, that's not really a great hurray, but I'm trying to think positively so I included it.)
9. The kids got ready for school on time with no whining and no yelling. Miracles do happen.
10. Last night one of fabulous and wonderful JMU kids offered to hang out with the kids while Paul and I have a date night. WHAT - FREE childcare? How can you beat that!
Hope you all have a great day too!!!!

Renew

Well, I'm a little late on the whole "New Years" thing, but we have had a house full of cousins so I have been off enjoying them instead of blogging! Cousins are all returned home to their rightful parents and my children are plugged into some XBOX game so I have a moment of peace . . . ahhhhh!

Onto 2010 . . . A few years ago I had a delightful personal training client that did some work with life coaching. She was big on writing out statements of intention. That was the year of my first Ironman and she wrote a wonderful statement of intention for the IM for Paul and I. It went like this . . .
I see myself & Paul easily & effortlessly completing the Ironman in our perfect time. I see us relaxed, having fun & remembering every second of the experience. This or something better now manifest in our life & so it is!! I didn't set time goals, I didn't set expectations, I simply wrote out my intentions for the race and don't you know - it worked out just like the statement. The next IM I did was full of expectations, time goals and ultimately . . . disappointment. So, lesson learned. Not that I think that time goals are unreasonable, I just think that I work best with a broader intention. BTW, I came in the EXACT same time (down to the minute) for both Ironmans, but the first one was MUCH more enjoyable!

Which brings me to 2010. I have decided rather than goals, resolutions and lists I will give myself a statement of intention for the year and live it. Here goes:
I see myself living purposefully and simply in 2010. I see myself racing with purpose and heart, and training regularly with joy. This or something better now manifest in my life & so it is!

So there it is. The year will be about joy, simplicity and purpose. Now, off to enjoy a trainer ride since it's 18 degrees outside and windy! Brrrr!!

Reflect . . . .

As the year draws to a close I would be remiss not to post a 'year in review'. Luckily I am a big believer in race reports so my aging brain doesn't have to work too hard! I think the one word that sums up my triathlon year is . . . whiney. Yep, it's an ugly word and one of my biggest pet peeves, but I was whiney, and not in a small way.

I should have known it was not my year when the year began with a 3 week stint of the flu. What can I say, when I fall, I fall hard. On minimal training I ran the Shamrock Half Marathon with my best friend Renee, which was her first half marathon. The whole weekend was an experience, we gathered in VA Beach with our two other best friends from high school, we were known as the "fearsome foursome". It was a well earned name : ) It was nice to run with Renee and focus on friendship and fun rather than the clock. I highly recommend the Shamrock race weekend, it is very well done and a super flat course. I loved nurturing the inner run goddess in Renee and would like to make sure I do something like that every year - this year Vicky and I will do the Shamrock and we will run together. Now I just need to talk her into the pre-race massages that we did last year . . .

The next big race of the year was the FLA 70.3 race - a race I SWORE I would not return to EVER, but again, Renee and Scott were going and it would be their first half iron - so off to the house of mouse we went. All I will say about that race is that, once again - I will NEVER return to that run course again. The swim course was long, my nutrition didn't sit well on the bike and the run, well - that is a small glimpse into what hell must look like. See, what did I say - whiney! Bottom line is that it was not a great day and again I repeat that I will NEVER do that one again!

Once the season got into full swing I started working timing for SetUp Events. It is a super fun job and I loved going to all the races. I hope to do more timing this season, but maybe a few less races, the every weekend travel got to be a bit much and I got no trainig done.

So, foolish me decided that what I needed to motivate myself was a big race. Not able to do anything in moderation I signed up for Beach2Battleship Irondistance race. Assuming that would get me off my butt and training again I took the plunge and registered. Whoops. Turns out all it would do is make me whine about my lack of training. And still not train!

I did the race on about as little training as one can do and still finish. I ended up sick race week, which probably should have been taken as a signal to maybe cut my losses and bag the race. Nah, not me. I did that darn race with a fever and whined about it afterwords! Ack, I hate going back and reading the whining in my posts, I can't even imagine what my husband had to endure!

So, that brings me to Nov. and Dec. I spent most of my time whining about not working out when the real reason I didn't get my workouts done was simple . . . I didn't do them. You know that hind sight 20/20 thing - yeah, I'm sitting here looking back on the year and realizing that I really needed a year off. Instead I tried to push through and make excuses for my lack of enthusiasm. Instead I will say with all certainty, what I did was really take a year of much needed r&r. Hopefully it was enough to re-charge my batteries and I am ready to jump into 2010 with lots of gusto.

Tomorrow's post . . Rejoice

My traitor family . . .

We are a summer sport family. We bike, we frolic in the waves (yes, I said frolic), we swim, some of us even attempt to surf. In the winter we move said outdoor activities indoors. We bike on the trainer, we swim in the cool bubble pool and we don lots and lots of cold weather gear and run outside.

Now my family has gone all snowy on me. One little snow here in the valley and moving closer to the ski slopes (however small and fake snow blown they are) and everyone is all gaga over skiing. Last year for Christmas the kids got swim bags, new goggles, cool shammie towels . . . you know, mini me gifts. This year it's all about ski and snowboard lessons, ski goggles, snow pants.

I don't ski. It seems perfectly rational to me to NOT get on two slippery little sticks wearing stiff boots and go out on even slippier snow straight down a hill. Where are my little breaks to grasp onto to appease my inner control freak? Plus four little words . . . SNOW DOWN YOUR PANTS!!

Now I have to figure out how to still hang out with the family without actually skiing. AND how to deal with this cold and snowier climate (yes, it's only 2 hours north of where we were, but darn it, it is colder and snowier!!) while still actually getting outside to run.

I have decided I will not give into the peer pressure of the family to ski. Instead I will indulge my coffee goddess and take wonderful ski and snowboard pictures while sipping warm coffee in the lodge. SO, added to my Christmas list will be a really nice and really large TO GO coffee mug and a good pair of trail running shoes. I tried to run in the snow without trail running shoes the other day - not such a good thing) I am going with the Saucony Pro Grid Exodus or Grid Canyon. I'll give a full review after Santa drops them down the chimney!!

2010 Race Planning

The 2010 race season is right around the corner so it's time to start planning things! There are those people that can plan things out on a whim but I am not one of those people, nor do I usually coach those people. Even if you don't know your detailed 2010 race schedule, at least choosing your "A" races for the year is a great way to start things out right.

So, what is an "A" race? These are your priority races - the ones you really want to focus your training on. For these races you will taper, and the rest of your seasons' races will be tailored to prepare you for this race. For example:
For 2010 I have 2 "a" races, The American Triple T in May and Cedar Point in September. My 20 week training plan for the Triple T will begin Jan. 1st. Until then I am in the off season. To prepare for this I will do the Rev3 Olympic race in Knoxville. Funny thing, I have done 3 Ironmans, 3 half Ironmans and countless (really, I mean countless!) sprints - but NEVER an olympic! Crazy! However, the Triple T has back to back Olympic (separated by a few hours) distance races. Eeek, better get a few of those under my belt!

After Triple T I will switch over to training for Cedar Point. I haven't yet decided if I will do the full or half distance there. If I choose the half I will choose a few other Olympic distance races in June/July/Aug, if I go for the full I will probably train through the summer months and won't do much racing, maybe a half marathon and a century ride to support the training schedule.

So, for now I will run, bike and swim when I want, do some good old fashioned weight training. For me the off season is about resting my body and spirit. I need a little bit of time where I am not putting the pressure on myself. Now, if I could just get my food under control so that I can avoid getting too squishy!!

HOLIDAYS!

As I sit here in my nice quiet-kids-in-school-living room I am beginning to think about the holidays. Is that Thanksgiving is just days away? No, it's the Santa-threw-up-in-here Christmas decorations everywhere!! We were that family this year that begins Christmas before Thanksgiving has even come and gone, but hey, we will be gone for Thanksgiving this year so we went ahead and took advantage of a quiet Sunday and put up all the non-tree, indoor decorations. Didn't realize there were many of those? Ha, come and see our 26 (only a slight exaggeration) nativity scenes, many Dept. 56 houses, and various Chrsitmas nick nacks and the 3 (count them 3!) dancing, singing, jiggling stuffed snowmen (although one is a turkey). This is what we will add this year, oh yeah - we are those people, you know the ones that buy that crap that makes you ask yourself - who buys this crap?

So, all of this Christmas cheer is forcing me to wonder - how am I going to get my eating back under control (5 days on the road, 2 of which were spent at the hospital with my AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL NEW NEPHEW!!!), begin my off season training after 2 full weeks of sluggishness AND handle Thanksgiving travel, 2.5 weeks of kids at home and prepping for a Jan. trip to Costa Rica? AAAAAAAHHH!!!!!

So, the plan is simple, 3 x a week of running, 2 x a week on my Computrainer doing the 20 week performance improvement program, 2 x a week of weights and swimming whenever possible. As for eating, I have decided to reduce my expectations of myself and just do the best I can. Rather than aiming to be totally dairy and sugar free (hell, it's my Birthday on Friday and I want CAKE, it will be a gluten free cake, but it will have SUGAR and BUTTER!!!!), I will be dairy and sugar free when I am at home and can control my meals. Otherwise my tendency is to slip up, followed by going totally over board (as proven by the empty bag (not sleeve, a whole bag) of Rolos in my car, sitting beside the 3 empty Diet Mt. Dew bottles. I don't really do anything in moderation : ) So, moderation is my key word this season, well, that and birthday cake : )

Gear Junkie

There's nothing like going on a bike ride with college students to realize how much gear I have! Today was the 'trial run' of my bike clothes for Beach2Battleship this weekend. A little late I know but it's so hard to know what the weather will be like this time of year. SO, the key word for my bike outfit is LAYERS!
I can peel 'em off like a bananna! I will wear a (old and disposable) set of ear warmers under my helmet, my VERY favorite TEAM G bike jersey, my fab-U-lous Cannondale arm warmers, a throw away dri fit shirt on top of the jersey/arm warmer combo, maybe my light cannondale vest, my oomph! tri shorts, Paul's super comfy sugoi R&R compression socks & warm and fuzzy toe covers. Sheesh, that's a lot of gear to put on, I'm guessing my t1 time will be a little long!
Truth be told Paul and I have a little bit of gear obsession. We really do have one of everything, hmm, well two of everything : )
I feel at ease with the race this weekend, I'm not physically prepared but I am mentally ready. I'm ready to rise above and conquor the pain!!

Back on Track

Whew - that was a rough weekend, but now it's time to move into happy race place. My aunt is in the hospital and working with a new Dr. and I am working on having faith that she is being taken care of and will be better. My negative worry will do nothing to help her so I am choosing to have positive hope. *exhale*
Onto happier blog things! Today I will write about those nasty little bike limiters. I know all about these. I am that chick on the bike that gets a great lead on the swim, only to hit the bike and first the fast people that are crappy swimmers pass me, then the people that I look at and go WTF? HE/SHE is passing ME? (usually followed by murmuring curse words under my breath), then my the 70+ old men pass me, followed by the blind athlete on a tandem bike, and pretty much everyone else in the race. I am getting better on the bike - I am up to only half of the WTF athletes passing me. Maybe this year it will only be the fast/crappy swim folks! (see positive thinking!!)
I do absolutely believe that biking is a cumulative sport. Over the years you build strength and experience on the bike that one season of heaving training or all the right coaching can't make up for. The tricky thing about biking in the off season - at least in VA is the weather. To a certain extent my advice to you (and myself) is to buy some good winter cycling gear and suck it up. On the days when you can not get outside here are my thoughts on off season bike training:
*focus on speed over distance. There is plenty of beautiful spring outside time to build the miles back up, for the winter think less miles - more pain.
*speaking of pain - the trainer is a great controlled environment to work lactate threshold sets (or if you train with power max power sets!) You can really focus on pushing that l.t. up by doing those great repeat sets at or just above threshold.
*there is still skill to be had in the winter! The trainer is also a great place to work on your bike skills. Unclipping one leg and doing one leg drills - great for strength, but even better for seeing where you might have weak spots in your pedal stroke.
*cadence work - I don't believe that one cadence fits all so I won't say that everyone needs to be working on having a cadence of 100+, but on the trainer is a great time to experiment with some high cadence spinning and see how your legs respond.
*strength - look for a good off season cycle weight workout and DO IT! Your pedaling will thank you come race season!

Off Season

As the leaves have started to fall here in SW VA the tri season draws to a close which means it's time to start thinking about the off season. The WHAT you ask? I know plenty of folks that train the same year round and do just fine - but I also know plenty of folks that train exactly the same over the winter only to hit June with major burn out OR injury. I do firmly believe that everyone needs to have an ACTUAL off season.
So, what DO you do in the off season? I encourage my athletes to do two major things in the off season: first, do something different and second, focus on your limiters. Never run a half marathon but always wanted to? Off season. Had your eye on the local master swim group but haven't taken the leap? Off season. How about a trail run? Think outside the box and find something fun a different that you will look forward to!

Limiters are a whole different issue. Take a really honest look at your last season race results. It is usually pretty easy to identify where you could stand to improve. For A LOT of triathletes that means hitting the pool. I highly encourage all triathletes to have a coach (swim or tri) look at your swim stroke. If you swimming in a swim meet and doing a 50 - 100 y. sprint it's all about power and speed in the water. HOWEVER, if you are a triathlete the swim becomes about not only speed and power, but also efficiency. You want to get out of the water with energy left for a bike and run. So, find a masters swim group, hire a coach, get yourself filmed in the water and fix that swim stroke!!
Tommorow's blog: working on those bike limiters!!!